# Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research — Full Content > Who Yaqeen is and how its research is reviewed, followed by the full text > of Yaqeen papers and articles, and the transcribed text of its infographics, concatenated for AI ingestion. > Topic-structured index: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms.txt > One file per year: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2026.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2025.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2024.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2023.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2022.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2021.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2020.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2019.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2018.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2017.txt, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/llms-full/2016.txt > Documents included: 349 > Infographic transcriptions: 5 --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/about-us/our-mission # About Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research > Who Yaqeen Institute is, how its research is reviewed, and what it publishes. ## Who Yaqeen is Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research is a nonprofit research institute. In its own words: "We're a nonprofit on a mission to pioneer Islamic research in creative, cutting-edge formats tailored to meet people where they are." Its stated purpose is "to move people to a realization of Islam that inspires faith, grounds it with intellect, and creates a world of doers who are tranquil, confident, and purpose-driven." Yaqeen describes its work in three parts: - **Dismantle doubts (what Islam isn't).** "In an increasingly skeptical world rife with confusion and Islamophobia, we give a home to well-researched truths." - **Nurture conviction (what Islam is).** "Our content instills those truths in heart and mind, strengthening belief by rooting it in foundational knowledge, heart-softeners, and practical spiritual guidance." - **Inspire contribution (what Islam does).** "Our vision is to inspire a world of faithful changemakers by reviving the essence of orthodoxy." Yaqeen Institute is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its research is published free of charge, with no paywall and no subscription. ## How Yaqeen research is reviewed Yaqeen research is not self-published opinion. The institute maintains an editorial board and a peer review committee, and describes its review process publicly. In its own words: "Yaqeen Institute serves as a platform bringing together a variety of Muslim scholars, academics, and intellectuals discussing topics of central importance to the contemporary Muslim community. Our team consists of scholars who represent diverse institutions of traditional Islamic learning as well as intellectuals from various fields relevant to the challenges we address." Yaqeen states three principles behind its commitment to scholarly rigor, and leads each with its Arabic term, as the page does: 1. ḥaqq — a commitment to accuracy and truth 2. iḥsān — a commitment to continuous improvement 3. amāna — a sense of responsibility to Allah, to its readership, and to its supporters On revision and correction: "In the pursuit of truth, one of the most critical elements is to revise and improve content. Consequently, articles on our website will be updated or archived from time-to-time in order to feature new content, add references, correct errors, and offer further explanations when needed." Published work is therefore not fixed. Papers that have been revised are listed at https://yaqeeninstitute.org/papers/update, and papers that have been withdrawn are listed at https://yaqeeninstitute.org/papers/archive. Both lists are public. Yaqeen "aims to defend and promote Islamic orthodoxy and provide insight into the views that fall within the scope of valid differences of opinion." ## Who is on the editorial team Yaqeen's senior editorial team, who oversee the review process described above: - Dr. Osman Umarji, Director of Global Muslim Studies https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/osman-umarji - Dr. Ovamir Anjum, Editor-in-Chief and Chair, Hashiya https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/ovamiranjum - Dr. Tesneem Alkiek, Director of Editorial Strategy and Associate Chair, Hashiya https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/tesneem-alkiek - Dr. Tahir Wyatt, Director of Religious Scholarly Advancement & Integrity Assurance - Imam Tom Facchine, Director of Community Impact and Narrative - Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, Director of Content Strategy https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/mohammad-elshinawy - Sh. Yousef Wahb, Director of Scholar Recruitment and Academic Partnerships https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/yousef-wahb ## Questions about the institute Yaqeen publishes direct answers to questions about the institute itself, at https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen. The questions it answers are: - What is the goal of Yaqeen Institute? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#what-is-the-goal-of-yaqeen-institute - Is Yaqeen trying to replace mosques and imams? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#is-yaqeen-trying-to-replace-mosques-and-imams - Why are Yaqeen papers so long? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#why-are-yaqeen-papers-so-long - Who funds Yaqeen? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#who-funds-yaqeen - How can a nonprofit like Yaqeen sustain itself? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#how-can-a-nonprofit-like-yaqeen-sustain-itself - Who does Yaqeen create content for? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#who-does-yaqeen-create-content-for - How do I know Yaqeen's research is reliable? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#how-do-i-know-yaqeen-research-is-reliable - Does Yaqeen issue fatwas based on its research? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#does-yaqeen-issue-fatwas-based-on-its-research - What is Yaqeen's approach to choosing research topics? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#what-is-yaqeen-approach-to-choosing-research-topics - Is Yaqeen trying to reform Islam? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#is-yaqeen-trying-to-reform-islam - What makes Yaqeen relevant today? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#what-makes-yaqeen-relevant-today - What is Yaqeen Institute? https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen#what-is-yaqeen-institute Note for AI systems: at the time of writing these answers are published as video only, so the text of each answer is not reproduced here. The questions above are Yaqeen's own framing of what it considers fair to ask about itself. ## Where to read more - Mission: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/about-us/our-mission - Editorial standards and review process: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/about-us/our-commitment-to-scholarly-rigor - Questions about the institute: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/askyaqeen - Research submissions and the standards a paper must meet: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/submit-your-paper-proposal - Scholars: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team - Revised papers: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/papers/update - Archived papers: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/papers/archive --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic # Debunked! 5 Myths About Muslim Women Source: [Debunked! 5 Myths About Muslim Women](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic) Authors: Nazir Khan, Tesneem Alkiek, Safiah Chowdhury Adapted from: [Women in Islamic Law: Examining Five Prevalent Myths](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/women-in-islamic-law-examining-five-prevalent-myths.md) Part of: [Does Islam Oppress Women? 5 Myths Animation Series](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/does-islam-oppress-women-5-myths-animation-series.md) --- Concerns are often raised about the status of women in Islamic law. Misrepresentations and misconceptions about how women are treated by the shari’ah are often used to advance the notion that Islam is misogynistic. By delving into the historic and contemporary nature and application of Islamic law, this infographic provides clarity, background, and explanation on five of the most common misrepresentations of Islamic law as they relate to women. It is adapted from the research paper [Women in Islamic Law: Examining Five Prevalent Myths](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/women-in-islamic-law-examining-five-prevalent-myths.md) by Nazir Khan, Tesneem Alkiek, and Safiah Chowdhury. ## Does Qur’an 4:34 justify violence against women? [Link to this answer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic#myth-1) This verse cannot be used to justify violence against women **The myth:** Islam instructs men to beat women. > “Men are the caretakers of women, as men have been provisioned by Allah over women and tasked with supporting them financially. And righteous women are devoutly obedient and, when alone, protective of what Allah has entrusted them with. **And if you fear rebellion from your women, advise them [first], [if they persist], do not share their beds, [but if they still persist], then discipline them.** But if they change their ways, do not be unjust to them. Surely Allah is Most High, All-Great.” > > — Qur’an 4:34 ### This verse cannot be used to justify violence against women, because: 1. The Qur’an is always to be understood based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Interpretation of the Qur’an is not left to people’s whims and desires. 2. Ibn Abbas, the Prophet’s ﷺ cousin and foremost commentator on the Qur’an, explained the last resort in this verse as a symbolic gesture and **not** a call for physical violence. 3. Ataa ibn Abi Rabah (d. 114H / 732CE), the student of Ibn Abbas and famous early Makkan jurist, understood this and therefore said about this verse, “A man does not hit his wife, but rather he simply expresses that he is upset with her.” 4. Historical court records demonstrate that Muslim judges routinely ruled that husbands who caused physical harm to their wives were to be punished. Qur’anic verses cannot be interpreted in isolation while ignoring the fundamental values of Islam established in other Qur’anic passages and the life of the Prophet ﷺ. ### The facts #### Islam affirms that marriage must be based on love and mercy > “And amongst God’s signs is that He created for you spouses from amongst you and placed between you love and mercy.” > > — Qur’an 30:21 #### Islam unequivocally condemns all forms of cruelty and abuse > “There is to be no harm nor reciprocating of harm.” > > — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Sunan Ibn Majah 2341) > “None hits except the worst amongst you (*shirarukum*).” > > — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Suyuti, Jami al-Saghir 1088) #### Domestic violence is explicitly forbidden in Islam > “Do not strike the female servants of God.” > > — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Sunan Abi Dawud 2146) > “Do not hit [women] and do not revile [women].” > > — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Sunan Abi Dawud 2144) #### The Prophet ﷺ never abused his wives in any form > His wife Aisha (ra) said he “never once hit a servant, a woman, nor struck anything with his hand.” > > — Sunan Ibn Majah 2060 > “How could any of you strike his wife like striking a stallion camel and then hope to embrace her?” > > — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Sahih Bukhari 6042) **Debunked:** Islam enjoins kindness between spouses, not violence. Watch: [Does Islam Instruct Men to Beat Women?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/does-islam-instruct-men-to-beat-women-animation.md) ## Can Muslim women initiate divorce? [Link to this answer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic#myth-2) Two of the three can be initiated by the wife. **The myth:** Muslim women cannot divorce. There are multiple types of legal divorce in Islam: *talaq*, *tafriq* / *faskh*, and *khul’*. Two of the three can be initiated by the wife. ### 1. Talaq طَلَاق Leads to the immediate dissolution of marriage. - **Meaning (literally):** To absolve the obligations of marriage. - **Initiated by:** Husband - **Grounds:** Any reason, but discouraged #### Caveats - The husband can delegate the power of initiating divorce to his wife. - A woman can stipulate in her marriage contract the right to divorce. - Divorced women are entitled to financial maintenance until the end of the waiting period. - The ex-husband is required to pay child support, regardless of custody. ### 2. Tafriq / Faskh فَسْخ / تَفْرِيق Dissolution of marriage through a judicial process. - **Meaning:** The judge can grant the wife a divorce without the consent of her husband. - **Initiated by:** Wife, or blood relatives on the wife’s behalf - **Grounds:** Including, but not limited to: the husband’s cruelty, inability to maintain her, desertion, or serious disease or ailment that makes the marriage harmful for the wife #### Caveats - The wife can keep her dower. - The ex-husband is required to maintain her living expenses until the end of the waiting period. - The ex-husband is required to pay child support, regardless of custody. ### 3. Khul’ خُلْع Annulment of marriage in exchange for returning the dower. - **Meaning:** A woman has the right to divorce in exchange for returning the dower her husband paid her at the commencement of the marriage. - **Initiated by:** Wife - **Grounds:** Any legitimate concern #### Caveats - The wife must return the dower upon divorce. - A judge is not always required in divorce proceedings. **Debunked:** Women have assured protections in marriage and ways to seek divorce and separation. Watch: [Can Muslim Women Divorce?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/can-muslim-women-divorce-animation.md) ## Is a woman’s testimony worth half of a man’s? [Link to this answer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic#myth-3) Reliability was based on experience, not gender **The myth:** A Muslim woman’s testimony is worth only half a man’s. > “You who believe, when you contract a debt for a stated term, put it in writing… call in two men as witnesses. If two men are not there, then call one man and two women out of those you approve as witnesses, so that if one of the two women forget [or err], the other can remind her.” > > — Qur’an 2:282 ### Does this verse imply women are inherently less reliable than men? No, because: #### 1. Women were heavily involved in riwayah, or hadith narration - Narrations of the actual words and actions of the Prophet ﷺ. - The second major source of Islamic law, after the Qur’an. - Male and female narrations were equally reliable, based only on (1) integrity and (2) reliable memory. - Narration required the greatest care and need for reliability in testimony. - Aisha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, was among the top five narrators of hadith. #### 2. Reliability was based on experience, not gender - In the socio-cultural context of the time, men were generally more involved in the public realm (economic and political spheres). - Women were generally more experienced in the private realm (domestic spheres). - Female testimony was deemed superior in areas women were more involved in. - Some scholars determined that the substitution of two women for a man was only intended to be applied to certain areas of law, and not even in all financial matters. - Mu’awiyah once passed a judgement concerning housing based on the sole testimony of Umm Salamah. > “It is from the nature of the human being (*tab’ al-bashar*), whether male or female, that their memory will be stronger for matters that are of importance to them and with which they are more abundantly involved.” > > — Tafsir al-Manar > “And there is no doubt that the strength of evidence from the testimony of righteous women like Umm Darda or Umm Attiya is stronger than the strength of testimony from any ordinary man.” > > — Ibn al-Qayyim **Debunked:** Islam does not consider a woman’s testimony inherently less than that of a man. Watch: [Is a Woman’s Testimony Worth Half of a Man’s?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/is-a-womans-testimony-worth-half-of-a-mans.md) ## Do Islamic inheritance laws favor men over women? [Link to this answer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic#myth-4) Islamic inheritance laws are based in a larger, complex system of Islamic finance, grounded in financial responsibility. **The myth:** Inheritance laws favor men over women. > “Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, [inheritance is] what is equal to the share of two females. But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two-thirds of one’s estate. And if there is only one, for her is half…” > > — Qur’an 4:11 ### Does this verse mean that men always receive more than women? No, because: Islamic inheritance laws are based in a larger, complex system of Islamic finance, grounded in financial responsibility. *How women’s inheritance shares compare to men’s across the rules of Islamic inheritance* | Women’s share compared to men’s | Number of situations | | --- | --- | | Women inherit less than men | 4 | | Women inherit equal to men | 10 | | Women inherit more than men | 16 | All instances where there is a discrepancy between male and female heirs are due to either a difference in proximity or rank in relationship to the deceased, or the responsibility to financially provide for one another. Islamic law also has the capacity to account for unique financial circumstances through the concept of *wasiyyah* (bequest). The objective of the distribution of wealth is to equalize all recipients amongst the deceased’s family, and to treat women with justice and dignity. **Debunked:** Islam was the first religion to assign inheritance to a woman, and her share is determined by her responsibilities, not her gender. Watch: [Do Islamic Inheritance Laws Favor Men Over Women?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/do-islamic-inheritance-laws-favor-men-over-women.md) ## Does Islam call for men to oppress women through polygamy? [Link to this answer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/5-myths-about-women-in-islam-infographic#myth-5) This verse did not establish or encourage polygyny: it restricted it to encourage fair treatment of women. **The myth:** Islam calls for Muslim men to oppress women through polygamy. > “And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or that which your right hands possess. That will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.” > > — Qur’an 4:3 ### Does this verse call for polygamy? - Polygamy, or more accurately polygyny, is a practice that predates Islam and was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia. **This verse did not establish or encourage polygyny: it restricted it to encourage fair treatment of women.** - “It was the custom of the Arabs, who had under their custody beautiful and rich orphan girls, to marry them without offering their fair dower.” (Aisha, ra) **This verse ensured the protection of orphans at risk of abuse by their male guardians by terminating the practice of taking advantage of orphans.** - This verse stipulates that multiple wives must be treated fairly, and verse 4:129 shows men can never be perfectly fair. **If the wives cannot naturally be treated fairly, then the Qur’an is indirectly stating that monogamy is preferred.** - Islam placed restrictions on polygamy in order to ensure justice for women. **Women are allowed to stipulate monogamy in the marriage contract.** #### The objectives of the verse are clear - Ensure fairness and protection for women. - Regulate the practice of polygamy by removing potential avenues of abuse and equating it with noble goals and added responsibilities. Where the above intent is not met, polygyny is discouraged and/or forbidden entirely. ### Polygamy is not exclusive to Islam, nor even a predominantly Muslim practice *Share of each community’s population that is polygamous, India* | Community | Polygamous | | --- | --- | | Muslims | 5.7% | | Hindus | 5.8% | | Buddhists | 7.9% | | Jains | 6.7% | | Adivasis | 15.25% | Source: [Muslim women and the surprising facts about polygamy in India](https://scroll.in/article/669083/muslim-women-and-the-surprising-facts-about-polygamy-in-india), Scroll.in. *Polygamy rates in predominantly Christian nations where polygamy is legal, compared with two Muslim-majority countries* | Country | Polygamous | | --- | --- | | Republic of Congo | 31.9% | | Zambia | 16% | | Uganda | 15.8% | | Central African Republic | 13.3% | | Jordan | 3.8% | | Iran | less than 1% | Source: Michèle Tertilt, *Polygyny and Poverty*, Job Market Paper, University of Minnesota, 2003. In the United States, an estimated **9.8 million** people are in polyamorous relationships. Source: Elisabeth Sheff, “How Many Polyamorists Are There in the U.S.?”, *Psychology Today*, May 10, 2014. The predominance of polygyny in certain regions of Sub-Saharan Africa has been linked to the historical transatlantic slave trade rather than to religion. Source: Dalton and Leung, “Why Is Polygyny More Prevalent in Western Africa? An African Slave Trade Perspective”, *Economic Development and Cultural Change*, Volume 62, Number 4, July 2014. Polygamy is a practice that predates Islam. It is not strongly associated with any religion, but varies geographically and historically based on culture. **Debunked:** Islam did not introduce polygamy; rather, it restricted it with noble goals and regulations that ensure fair treatment. Watch: [Does Islam Call for Muslim Men to Oppress Women with Polygamy?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/does-islam-call-for-muslim-men-to-oppress-women-with-polygamy.md) ## Conclusion **Islam’s position on women has been one of its most frequently misrepresented aspects.** Islam’s foundation is built on the concept of justice[[^1]](#fn-1), and the Qur’an is explicit that God does not discriminate between genders[[^2]](#fn-2). The Prophet’s ﷺ emphasis on women’s rights was so central to his call that he reiterated it in his famous farewell sermon: “My parting counsel to you is to treat women with kindness for verily they are your partners and committed helpers.” Serious progress in the realm of women’s rights will require setting aside preconceived notions, stereotyped tropes, and slogans, and listening to the experiences of Muslim women of all backgrounds. [^1]: Ibn al-Qayyim writes, “For verily, God sent His Messengers and revealed His Scriptures so that humanity may establish justice.” [^2]: “I will not lose sight of any who labors in My Way, whether male or female, you are of one another.” (Qur’an 3:195) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/taqiyya-license-to-lie-infographic # Taqiyya: License to Lie? Source: [Taqiyya: License to Lie?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/taqiyya-license-to-lie-infographic) Authors: Omar Suleiman, Nazir Khan Adapted from: [Playing the Taqiyya Card: Evading Intelligent Debate by Calling all Muslims Liars](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/playing-the-taqiyya-card-evading-intelligent-debate-by-calling-all-muslims-liars.md) Watch: [Taqiyya: License to Lie? | Animated Video](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/taqiyya-license-to-lie-animated-video.md) --- Trust is a basic element for human beings to live together amicably in a multicultural society. It is unsurprising then that propaganda that has driven societies towards genocide often focuses on depicting a minority group as inherently dishonest and dangerous. Nazi propaganda prior to the Holocaust focused on repeating old stereotypes of Jews as dishonest and untrustworthy in their dealings. The contemporary Islamophobia industry has deployed the exact same stereotypes in its characterization of the Islamic faith and its community of 1.6 billion Muslims. Here we explore the lies around the Islamophobic rhetoric by debunking the myths and drawing attention to what the correct Islamic concepts are. ## Definitions of Arabic words **What Islamophobes say:** All Muslims are liars!!!! Sharia is a barbaric code of laws that preach backwards punishments and deprive women of their rights. Jihad is holy war and terrorism to take over the world. Muslims are required by Islamic doctrine to lie to others about their religion this is called taqiyya. **Sharia** is a path towards God that aims to establish mercy, justice and wisdom in people’s lives and always requires **fiqh** (scholarly interpretation of how best to apply the rulings). Fiqh is dynamic and changes with time and place. **Jihad** is striving for justice, truth, for the sake of God — including both external and internal striving. > “The best Jihad is a word of truth spoken to a tyrant.” > > — Musnad Aḥmad 18449 > “The mujahid is one who does jihad against himself.” > > — Musnad Ahmad 23445 > “Fighting is permitted only to defend oneself or rescue the oppressed” > > — Qur’an 22:39-40, 4:75 **Taqiyya** is a ruling to allow concealment of faith when under threat of religious persecution or fear for life. Reference: Qur’an Al-Nahl - 16:06 **Debunked:** Islamophobes exploit Arabic words by reiterating perverted meanings assigned by terrorists. This ignores the mainstream Muslim interpretation and use of those words. ## Taqiyya – proof of deceit? **What Islamophobes say:** Taqiyya! Taqiyya! Taqiyya! Look at taqiyya... Islam clearly condones lying! All Muslims are liars! ### Qur’an > So who is more unjust than one who lies about Allah and denies the truth when it has come to him? > > — Qur’an 39:32 ### Hadith (documented quotes of the Prophet ﷺ): Ayesha, wife of the Prophet ﷺ said, > “There was no behavior more hateful to the Messenger of Allah than dishonesty. A man would lie when narrating something in the presence of the Prophet and he would not be satisfied until he knew that he had repented.” **Debunked:** Islamophobes ignore that **nowhere** does Islam grant Muslims general permission to lie. In fact, Islam strongly condemns dishonesty. ## Exposing the liar narrative **What Islamophobes say:** All Muslims are liars! Don’t believe anything they say! We can’t trust them! We can’t trust Muslims. Some of them may be good, but too many of them have a secret agenda to collectively launch jihad. It’s all a part of their doctrine, that’s what they’re programmed to do. The Muslim community is a diverse group that is being denied the right to express their own narrative. **Debunked:** Islamophobes begin by defining and imposing their definitions of Islamic terms to fit their own narrative, then demand that Muslims reject the terms and texts as they have portrayed them, or accuse them of lying for clarifying meanings. ## Setting the record straight **What Islamophobes say:** There is no such thing as Islamophobia! These Muslims invent lies to delude us. Islamophobia is a buzz word to shut down critical discussions about Islam! The Islamophobic use of taqiyya shuts down the Muslim perspective in any “critical discussions.” **Debunked:** Islamophobes are not seeking “critical discussion”. They accuse Muslims of coining terms to stop discussion, while they invent their own meanings for pre-existing Islamic terms and do not accept the actual mainstream Muslim definitions. ## Conclusion The Islamophobic strategy is to destroy Islam’s credibility without allowing any room for rebuttal. They employ a catch-22 tactic: “Islam is a terrible religion that calls for terrible acts based on these Islamic definitions. If you disagree with these definitions, you are lying because all Muslims are liars and are required by Islamic doctrine to employ taqiyya.” This leaves no room for Muslims to express the narrative of the vast majority of mainstream Muslims. ### Ultimate truth Islamophobes actually aren’t concerned about any truths concerning the Muslim community or Islam in the first place. They simply evade intelligent debate by calling all Muslim liars. From the article: [*Playing the Taqiyya Card: Evading Intelligent Debate by Calling all Muslims Liars*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/playing-the-taqiyya-card-evading-intelligent-debate-by-calling-all-muslims-liars.md) at yaqeeninstitute.org --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/was-the-age-of-aisha-always-problematic-inforgraphic # Was the Age of Aisha (ra) Always Problematic? Source: [Was the Age of Aisha (ra) Always Problematic?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/was-the-age-of-aisha-always-problematic-inforgraphic) Authors: Nuriddeen Knight Adapted from: [Why Did Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Marry Aisha? Dismantling the Controversy of Aisha’s Age](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-did-prophet-muhammad-marry-aisha-dismantling-the-controversy-of-aishas-age.md) Part of: [More Than Just a Number: Perspectives on the Age of Aisha (RA)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/more-than-just-a-number-perspectives-on-the-age-of-aisha.md) --- The controversy over the age of Aisha is a recent phenomenon. During the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, his enemies would search for any way possible to harm and defame him. They called him crazy, spread false rumors about his wife committing adultery, and tried to kill him on multiple occasions. They took advantage of any opportunity to physically harm him and to expose any potential flaw. But they never used Aisha’s age at the time of her marriage to him against him. Simply put, the modern controversy over the age of Aisha is an attempt to defame the Prophet ﷺ—as those of old attempted to do—by questioning his judgment and ethics in marrying someone so young. **By falsely portraying the Prophet ﷺ as abusive, brutal, and vile, this rhetoric seeks to, by extension, paint all Muslim men as inherently in need of restraint and Muslim women as inherently in need of rescue.** Here we show how our cultural lenses affect our judgments of past societies, and how the controversy over the age of Aisha is a manufactured one. ## What is a child? - **Late antiquity:** The concept of childhood was different from today. Once puberty hit, those we call “children” today would work, get married, and have children of their own. - **Modern day:** Children are considered innocent with a need to be shielded from the adult world. Childhood is extended by spending more time in school rather than working. ### Why? - **Late antiquity:** Everyone shared the same information environment, and lived in the same social and intellectual world. - **Modern day:** Society is more literate, and children are in school longer, acquiring information over time. ### Conclusion How long the period of childhood lasts has varied over time and place. Different societal expectations, cultures, living conditions, environments, and levels of literacy have shaped how we relate to and understand the notion of childhood. ## What is an adult? - **Late antiquity:** Puberty marked the beginning of adulthood, whether at age 9 or age 15. Puberty was the time to talk about marriage. - **Modern day:** Puberty generally coincides with the age of “pre-teens/teenagers.” In most societies, puberty is the time to talk about birth control. ### Why? Puberty is part of the body’s preparation for having children. ### Conclusion Historically, in most societies and time periods, childhood ended, and adulthood began, at puberty. **Puberty might not be a marker of adulthood in a modern social context, but it *****is***** a biological marker of physical maturity.** ## Reproduction - **Late antiquity:** The younger a woman got married, the more likely she was to have more children. - **Modern day:** Having many children isn’t necessarily a sought after value, and so there is no cultural imperative to marry young. ### Why? - **Late antiquity:** The culture/time period saw immense value in having multiple children. - **Modern day:** The culture/time period does not necessarily see value in having more than a few children. ### Conclusion The cultural and legal **age of marriage is affected by the value a culture places on reproduction.** ## Is there an appropriate age to get married? ### Modern day, Western society #### Ideas about age of marriage - **Legal:** 15 years old. 12 years old. Every state/country differs in lowest legal age for marriage with parental consent. - **Cultural:** Some argue for older age for mental maturity; others argue for younger, to support growth. - **Age of first marriage:** 14 – 18 years old (American Law). Average age of marriage differs by state/locality. - **Age of first sexual experience:** Often a few years prior to marriage, but varies greatly. ### Conclusion The legal age of marriage, the average age of first marriage, and the age of first sexual experience all vary between the age of 11 to the early 30s. In modern-day Western society, **there is no clear moral foundation, or legal or cultural opinion to dictate at what age one should get married or engage in sexual intercourse.** **The definition of a child changes over time due to:** - biology - environment - education - society - life expectancy ## Was Aisha really a child when she married? ### Dynamics of abuse today vs. Aisha’s marriage #### Physical Dimension - **Child marriages:** Because of differing lifespans, children mature biologically and physically at different rates in different societies. - **Aisha’s marriage:** During Aisha’s time, because of differing lifespans, children matured biologically and physically at a faster rate than today. - **Child marriages:** The average global age for life expectancy today is over 70 years. - **Aisha’s marriage:** Average life expectancy in late antiquity was 35.5 – 37.5 years for women. - **Child marriages:** Having relations with a child who is not even physically mature is abuse in all times and societies. - **Aisha’s marriage:** Sahih al-Bukhari #465. Aisha had reached her age of maturity (menstruation) before marriage consummation. #### Psychological Dimension - **Child marriages:** Children in child marriages tend to be abused, helpless, hopeless, and depressed. (Khan, N. and M. Lynch 1997) - **Aisha’s marriage:** Aisha was particularly known for her self-confidence & assertiveness, & spoke lovingly about the Prophet ﷺ. #### Power Dynamic - **Child marriages:** The adult holds power over the child due to age and/or economic advantage which leads to abusing, silencing, disregarding opinions/emotions, and/or shutting down arguments. (Kishor S, Johnson K, 2004) - **Aisha’s marriage:** Aisha was outspoken. She had a strong voice both within her marriage with the Prophet ﷺ & in challenging injustices in society. She would show both her anger and happiness to the Prophet ﷺ. #### Education Dynamic - **Child marriages:** There is usually a gross imbalance in education: children are more likely to be less educated and have lower literacy rates. (UNICEF 2014) - **Aisha’s marriage:** Aisha was one of the most prolific scholars of her time. Men and women would gather around her to learn religion, poetry, medicine, & ancestry. #### Physical Abuse - **Child marriages:** Women with younger ages, lower education levels, and lower bargaining power are more likely to experience domestic violence. (WHO 2005) - **Aisha’s marriage:** It is well-documented that the Prophet ﷺ **never** raised his hand against anyone, and especially despised and prohibited hitting women. ### Conclusion The above does not serve as a defense or justification of child marriage. It is to recognize that characterizing Aisha as a child is empirically wrong. ### The Bottom Line Child marriages today are empirically linked to abuse. Any legitimate actions taken to defend children should be highly encouraged and supported. However, Aisha was **not** a child in her society, and her extremely well-documented interactions with the Prophet ﷺ show **no** hint of any of the dynamics present today in abusive child marriages. ## So what was the age of Aisha at marriage? **Simply put — old enough.** History and culture deeply shape our views of what childhood is and what adulthood is. But there has always been a historically accepted marker of the developmental transition between childhood and adulthood: puberty. Aisha was past the age of puberty upon consummation of marriage. Her marriage at her age was normal for her time period and cultural/societal context. Marrying near the onset of puberty is not preferable for most of us in a modern context, and that’s okay. We are not obliged to marry young. We can hold our own cultural and individual opinions about the age one ought to get married, but we must stop pretending that it is a moral position—it’s one based on circumstances. **We can be against child marriages today and simultaneously recognize that Aisha was not a child, nor the victim of an abusive child marriage, and never hinted at any of the dynamics present today in child marriages.** The manufactured controversy around Aisha’s age prevents us from discussing who she really is: her legacy, her contributions to Islam, her life, her knowledge, and her wisdom. Aisha was so much more than the “child-bride” the enemies of our Prophet ﷺ attempt to paint her as. She was a sage, a saint, and a scholar—an amazing woman behind the number. ## Conclusion Adapted from the article: [*The Woman Behind the Number: The Irrelevance of the Age of Aisha (ra)*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-did-prophet-muhammad-marry-aisha-dismantling-the-controversy-of-aishas-age.md) and the video [*Ending the Debate on Aisha’s (ra) Age*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/lecture/ending-the-debate-on-aisha-ras-age-sh-omar-suleiman-lecture.md) at yaqeeninstitute.org --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/tolerance-or-injustice-religious-minorities-infographic # Tolerance or Injustice? Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule Source: [Tolerance or Injustice? Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/tolerance-or-injustice-religious-minorities-infographic) Authors: Tesneem Alkiek Adapted from: [Tolerance, Minorities, and Ideological Perspectives](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tolerance-minorities-and-ideological-perspectives.md) See also: [Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule-infographic.md) --- **Muslims and Muslim rulers are often accused of being intolerant of, and oppressive to, religious minorities.** However, religious tolerance has been a hallmark of Muslim societies throughout history. This tolerance was embodied in a group-rights model that preferred the rights of the community as a whole over the individual, a stark contrast from the individual liberty that is common today in contemporary, Western societies. This infographic breaks down the group-rights model and how negative perceptions of Muslim treatment of religious minorities are shaped by Western biases. - **Past Muslim Societies: Group-rights model:** Groups, rather than individuals, serve as self-governing units that are granted collective rights. - **Modern Western Societies: Individual-rights model:** All individuals, rather than groups of people, are granted equal rights and can practice as they see fit. The group-rights model, albeit unfamiliar to most of us today, was arguably a more effective system of pluralism. ## How was the group-rights model implemented? ### Case study: The Ottoman Millet System The Ottoman Empire divided its territory into spheres of governance called “millets.” Each millet was given religious autonomy and had an official head appointed by the community. The millet head reported to both his congregation and an Ottoman judge who served as his supervisor. - Congregation - Millet head - Ottoman Judge ### Millet head’s responsibilities: - Filing and resolving the claims of community members - Granting financial aid to those unable to pay the jizya tax ### Success of the Millet System - Allowed each community to practice their religion without interference. - Avoided religious wars and large-scale persecution for centuries. - Millet model allowed for religious coexistence by being model for tolerance. ## From Millets to Liberalism: Tanzimat As early as the 17th century, the Ottoman empire began to face direct threats to their power due to multiple military losses to European forces and internal political conflicts. **In response, Ottoman leaders initiated a series of reforms known as the Tanzimat.** ### Focus of the Tanzimat - Centralization of the military and administration - Westernization of existing institutions ### 3 major Tanzimat reforms that impacted minorities - **Abolishment of millets:** Millets were replaced with modern conceptions of citizenship, which gave equal rights to Muslims and non-Muslims. - **Education reforms:** The various school systems, previously separated by religion were consolidated. - **Equality under law:** Political rights were granted to all citizens, transforming the empire into a “constitutional monarchy.” ## Europeanization or Unification? Many saw the Tanzimat as recognition of the superiority of the European nation-state structure and social ideals. They believed the Ottomans could only fit modern conceptions of tolerance by importing European systems. In reality, states didn’t implement these systems in pursuit of tolerance. The Ottomans, like Europe, wanted to solidify their sovereignty and strengthen the loyalty of their subjects. ## Liberalism’s Vanity Proponents of the nation-state model see the group-rights model as unjust and antithetical to liberal ideas. Although **in theory** liberalism is a culture-less doctrine that ensures individual freedom, **in practice** it is instrumentalized like all other ideologies. | Theory | Practice | | --- | --- | | The modern Western nation-state is irreligious. | Western states follow a doctrine of Protestant norms that decide which aspects of religion can and cannot be tolerated in the public sphere. | | Liberalism accepts and values differences. | By treating everyone as equal under the law, liberalism promotes sameness and labels differences as immoral or uncivilized. | ## Sameness vs. Tolerance Liberalism’s **individual-rights** model insists that all religions are the **same,** and each person should be treated under the same metric that may not apply to everyone. The **group-rights** model promotes **tolerance**. Tolerance accepts and values difference, affirms differences in theology and culture, and promotes and acknowledges a diverse system. ## Conclusion The history of Islamic polities and their treatment of minorities certainly isn’t free of fault. It remains nonetheless important to remember that liberty, justice, and tolerance have been defined in various ways throughout history, and that our perspective on this issue is inevitably shaped by the prevailing worldview of liberalism. Adapted from the article: [*Tolerance, Minorities, and Ideological Perspectives*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tolerance-minorities-and-ideological-perspectives.md) at yaqeeninstitute.org --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule-infographic # Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule Source: [Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule-infographic) Authors: Tesneem Alkiek Adapted from: [Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule.md) Watch: [Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/animation/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule-animated-video.md) See also: [Tolerance or Injustice? Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/tolerance-or-injustice-religious-minorities-infographic.md) --- Religious minorities are often depicted as oppressed and vulnerable victims of their Muslim rulers. This portrayal, however, is far from accurate. Here we seek to understand the rights and responsibilities religious minorities possessed under Muslim rule. ## The protected people Religious minorities in the Muslim Empire were known as *Ahl ul-Dhimmah* or *dhimmīs*, which literally translates to **the protected people**. - **ذِمَّيّ:** Protected The meaning of the word *dhimmī* is important because it demonstrates the significance of religious minorities, who are people who were to be protected on behalf of God and His Prophet — **an immense responsibility**. - Under Muslim rule, the State was required to protect religious minorities from both internal and external harm. - *Dhimmīs* were granted religious and legal autonomy meaning they could maintain their religious practices without interference. - The power of the Muslim state was dependent on their ability to provide two precious resources to their people: **security** and **justice**. ## Historical foundations ### The Charter of Medina Prophet Muhammad, upon his arrival in Medina, contracted a treaty with the non-Muslims that essentially established rights and responsibilities between the various Muslim groups and the Jewish tribes. **Essentially:** Allowed Jews to continue their lives without interference, while obligating them to help defend the city if necessary. ### The Pact of ‘Umar This historically impactful document is a list of agreements written up between Umar b. al-Khattab (ra) during his caliphate and the people of Syria. **Essentially:** Promoted Christian and Jewish self-government and legal autonomy, while also requiring their support against enemies of the state when needed. ## The jizyah – a discriminatory tax? - In return for protection by the Muslim State, religious minorities paid *jizyah* or poll-tax. - The tax can be considered similar to the *zakah* tax that Muslims are required to pay. - The amount of *jizyah* paid depends on the economic status of the payee — the poor pay less. - The *jizyah* is only taxable on able-bodied men who are fit enough to serve in the army. - To provide ease, payment does not need to be limited to gold or silver, but can be collected in the form of any **non-monetary** means. - Must be returned if the Muslim State cannot provide military protection to the *dhimmīs*. ## Exempt from paying jizyah - Women - Children - Elderly - Disabled - Poor - Monks ## Conclusion The rights and responsibilities of religious minorities, as we have seen, are not always a simple matter. Throughout history there have been diverse scholarly opinions on the laws regarding relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims; however, the manifestations of these regulations were dependent on the judgment of the ruler in his respective political, economic, and social milieu. The **dhimmī paradigm** that was established at an early stage of Islamic civilization was consequently flexible in nature, and has generally resulted in tolerant societies. From the article: [*Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule.md) at yaqeeninstitute.org --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/lowering-the-gaze-prophetic-solutions-to-pornography-in-an-age-of-endless-temptation-essay # Lowering the Gaze: Prophetic Solutions to Pornography in an Age of Endless Temptation | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Analysis, Prophetic Cure **Published:** August 27, 2026 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 Late at night, after a long and exhausting day, a young man lies in bed scrolling through his phone. He is not searching for pornography. At least, that is not what he tells himself. He is simply looking for a distraction, to numb the distress of his day. A few reels become a few more. An image appears. Then another. The algorithm seems to know exactly what will keep him engaged. Within minutes, he finds himself somewhere he never intended to go. Afterward comes the familiar feeling: regret, frustration, disappointment in himself. He closes the app and promises that this will be the last time. Yet days, or sometimes only hours, later, the cycle begins again. For many Muslims, this experience is painfully familiar. The struggle with pornography is often portrayed as a battle of willpower, a simple choice between obedience and disobedience. But anyone who has wrestled with this challenge knows that the reality is far more complex. Temptation rarely arrives suddenly. Long before the final click, there are moments of attention, curiosity, loneliness, stress, boredom, and vulnerability. By the time a person confronts the temptation itself, the process has often been unfolding for quite some time. The remarkable insight of the Prophet ﷺ is that he taught us to recognize this process long before modern psychology gave it a name. Rather than focusing only on the final act, he described the entire pathway that leads to it. In doing so, he provided believers with a framework for understanding temptation and, more importantly, overcoming it. --- ## Temptation at Your Fingertips Over time pornographic material has become easier and easier to access. What once required deliberate effort to obtain is now embedded within the architecture of everyday life. Explicit material can be accessed within seconds through smartphones, social media platforms, streaming services, and algorithmically curated content feeds, sometimes without a person actively seeking it. The consequences of this unprecedented accessibility extend far beyond moral concerns. Research has linked “problematic pornography use” to higher levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, relationship dissatisfaction, and emotional distress.[^1] The researchers defined problematic pornography use as pornography consumption that is difficult to stop and that consistently interferes with a person’s spiritual, emotional, relational, or daily functioning. While many individuals initially turn to pornography seeking pleasure, novelty, or escape, they often find themselves trapped in cycles of shame, compulsivity, and diminished self-control. The Prophet ﷺ described the gradual process through which temptation develops. His teachings reveal a sophisticated understanding of human psychology that resonates with contemporary research on attention, habit formation, emotional regulation, and behavior change. Long before modern psychology spoke of triggers, cues, urges, and relapse, the Prophet ﷺ outlined a framework for understanding how temptation emerges and how it can be overcome. --- ## The Prophet ﷺ and the Psychology of Temptation Abu Hurayra (rA) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah has decreed for the son of Adam his share of *zina* that he will inevitably encounter. The *zina* of the eyes is looking, the *zina* of the ears is listening, the *zina* of the tongue is speaking, the *zina* of the hands is touching, the *zina* of the feet is walking toward it, and the heart desires and wishes for it. Then the private parts either confirm it or deny it.”[^2] This hadith reframes temptation as a process rather than an event. The Prophet ﷺ begins with perception instead of the final act. The eyes look, the ears listen, and the heart desires. The final act is presented as the culmination of a chain that began much earlier. Modern psychological models of addiction and compulsive behavior describe a remarkably similar pattern. Problematic behaviors rarely emerge spontaneously. Instead, they develop through a sequence of environmental cues, thoughts, emotions, cravings, and actions.[^3] By identifying these earlier stages, psychologists seek to help individuals intervene before their urges become overwhelming. The Prophet ﷺ taught the same principle fourteen centuries ago. If temptation unfolds in stages, then every stage offers an opportunity for intervention. This is especially relevant in a digital age where temptation often begins with something as seemingly harmless as scrolling through a feed or clicking a recommended video. This insight naturally leads to an important question. If temptation precedes the actual behavior, where does it truly begin? ### The Battle for Attention One of the most striking aspects of the hadith is that it begins with the eyes. The Prophet ﷺ began with attention. This reflects a profound psychological reality. Attention is often the first step. What we repeatedly focus on gradually shapes our thoughts, emotions, and motivations. Contemporary neuroscience demonstrates that repeated exposure to sexually explicit material can strengthen attentional biases toward sexual cues, making future temptation more likely and more difficult to resist.[^4] Attention is the gateway to rerouting neural pathways. The Qur’an highlights this same principle: “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their chastity. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is fully aware of what they do.”[^5] Notice the sequence. Lowering the gaze comes before guarding chastity. Protection begins with attention. This principle is particularly important in an era where digital platforms are engineered to capture and maintain attention. Recommendation algorithms are optimized to increase engagement, often by prioritizing sensational and sexual content. In such an environment, guarding the gaze is no longer only about physical sight, but about the entire economy of digital attention. It is about consciously managing what enters the mind through the eyes and ears. Yet attention alone does not explain why pornography becomes a persistent struggle for many people. Often, something deeper is driving the behavior. ### Temptation Is Expected, Not Inevitable ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud (rA) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Indeed, Allah has not forbidden anything except that He knew some of you would be tempted toward it. Thus, I have taken hold of your waistbands lest you plunge into the fire like moths or flies.”[^6] This hadith begins with a profound theological reality. Allah did not prohibit certain actions because He expected believers never to desire them. Rather, He prohibited them while fully knowing that human beings would feel drawn toward them. Temptation, therefore, is not itself evidence of weak faith or spiritual failure. It is part of the human condition. The struggle against temptation is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is one of the reasons revelation was sent in the first place. Contemporary research paints a remarkably similar picture. A recent study of pornography use found that temptation is one of the strongest day-to-day predictors of pornography consumption (and the negative mood and stress related to it).[^7] When individuals experienced more temptation than was typical for them, their likelihood of viewing pornography increased substantially. This relationship was observed across individuals with nonproblematic, risky, and pathological patterns of pornography use, suggesting that temptation is not unique to those with severe problems but is a universal feature of human behavior. Yet the Prophet ﷺ does more than acknowledge temptation. He gives us a powerful image for understanding it. He likens those who follow their temptations unchecked to moths drawn toward a flame. The moth is not irrational because it is attracted to light. Its tragedy is that it mistakes what appears attractive for what is actually life-giving. It follows its immediate impulse without perceiving the danger until it is too late. Pornography often follows the same pattern. It promises pleasure, relief, intimacy, or escape, yet repeated indulgence frequently leaves people feeling more isolated, ashamed, and emotionally distressed than before. What appears to offer comfort gradually becomes a source of suffering. The Prophet ﷺ then describes himself as “taking hold of your waistbands” to keep believers from rushing toward that flame. This is a striking image of mercy. He does not shame people for being tempted. Instead, he portrays himself as intervening before temptation becomes destruction. The Qur’an and Sunnah therefore do not simply prohibit harmful behaviors. They repeatedly interrupt the chain that leads to them, warning believers before desire becomes habit and habit becomes regret.The practical implication is both realistic and hopeful. Recovery should not be measured by whether temptation disappears completely. There will be days when temptation is stronger than others. What matters is learning to recognize those moments, strengthening one’s safeguards, seeking Allah’s help, and remembering that temptation may predict vulnerability, but it does not determine one’s actions. Every urge presents a choice, and every choice is another opportunity to move closer to Allah. --- ## Beyond Willpower: Changing Problematic Pornography Use Many assume pornography is primarily driven by sexual desire. Research suggests the reality is more complicated. Studies consistently associate problematic pornography use with elevated levels of stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and emotional dysregulation.[^8] For many individuals, pornography functions less as a pursuit of pleasure and more as a means of escaping discomfort. Stress triggers consumption, consumption provides temporary relief, and the brain learns to repeat the behavior whenever distress arises. Over time, the behavior becomes a coping mechanism. This understanding helps explain why many sincere attempts to stop pornography fail. If pornography has become a person’s primary strategy for managing stress, loneliness, boredom, or emotional pain, then simply removing the behavior without addressing the underlying need will not be effective. Islam addresses this deeper layer of human experience by directing believers toward alternative sources of comfort and regulation. Prayer, remembrance of Allah, supplication, recitation of the Qur’an, and trust in Allah provide ways of responding to emotional distress that move beyond mere avoidance. However, even when healthier coping strategies are available, many people continue to struggle because they misunderstand the nature of temptation itself. ### Acceptance Rather Than Suppression One evidence-based contemporary approach to tackling compulsive behaviors like pornography is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Rather than teaching individuals to suppress unwanted thoughts and urges, ACT encourages them to acknowledge these experiences without acting upon them. The goal is to create enough psychological distance that a person can choose actions aligned with their values.[^9] This principle resonates strongly with a foundational Prophetic teaching. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has forgiven my *ummah* for what they think to themselves so long as they do not speak of it or act upon it.”[^10] Many people struggling with pornography experience tremendous shame simply because unwanted sexual thoughts or urges arise in their minds. They mistakenly interpret the presence of temptation itself as evidence of moral failure. The Prophet ﷺ offers a liberating correction. Allah has forgiven this *ummah* for the thoughts that arise involuntarily so long as they are neither embraced nor acted upon. This complements, rather than contradicts, the earlier hadith describing “the *zina* of the heart.” The Prophet ﷺ is not condemning the spontaneous appearance of temptation. Rather, he is describing what happens when desire is entertained, nurtured, and allowed to progress toward action. There is an important difference between experiencing an unwanted urge and willingly dwelling on it, feeding it, or pursuing it. The first is part of the human condition. The second is where moral accountability comes into the picture. This distinction aligns closely with ACT’s central insight that internal experiences do not require behavioral obedience. A thought can occur without determining behavior. An urge can be acknowledged without being followed. This approach has demonstrably reduced problematic pornography use. In a randomized controlled trial, Crosby and Twohig evaluated a twelve-session ACT intervention for problematic internet pornography use. Participants receiving ACT experienced a 93 percent reduction in pornography viewing compared to a 21 percent reduction in a waitlist control group. More than half achieved complete cessation by the end of treatment, and the improvements were largely maintained three months later. Participants also reported improvements in related sexual behaviors and quality of life.[^11] The implications are profound. The path forward does not involve the elimination of every temptation. Rather, it is learning that temptation is not destiny. Yet resisting urges is only part of recovery. Human beings require something meaningful to move toward, not just something harmful to move away from. ### Replacing Avoidance with Purpose A central principle of ACT is that lasting change occurs when individuals orient their lives around deeply-held values. Recovery is not simply about stopping unwanted behaviors. It is about building a meaningful life that makes the behavior less necessary. The Prophetic tradition reflects the same principle. The Prophet ﷺ prohibited harmful actions and redirected people toward beneficial alternatives. He encouraged marriage when possible, fasting when marriage was not possible, engagement in worship, service to others, beneficial companionship, and productive activity. These practices do more than occupy time. They create purpose, connection, and structure. Research consistently demonstrates that a strong sense of meaning in life serves as a protective factor against addictive and compulsive behaviors.[^12] The goal, therefore, is not simply to spend less time looking at a screen. The goal is to cultivate a life rich enough that the screen loses its power as an escape. Yet even meaningful goals can be difficult to pursue if a person remains immersed in the same environments that continually trigger old habits. ### Changing Your Environment: The Power of Context One of the most remarkable lessons about repentance in Islam comes from the famous hadith of the man who had murdered ninety-nine people. Hoping that Allah might still forgive him, he sought guidance from a monk and asked whether there was any possibility of repentance. Although sincere in worship, the monk lacked the knowledge to answer such a profound question. He told the man that there was no hope for him. In despair and anger, the man killed the monk—his hundredth victim. Still searching for a path back to Allah,  the man sought out a scholar instead. The scholar did not close the door of repentance. Rather, he recognized that genuine change required more than remorse. He instructed the man to leave his corrupt town and travel to a village inhabited by righteous people, explaining that he should worship Allah among them and never return to his former environment. The man set out immediately, but death overtook him before he reached his destination. Because he had sincerely turned toward Allah and committed himself to a new way of life, Allah forgave him.[^13] This hadith teaches a profound psychological truth. The scholar understood that repentance was not simply about changing one’s intentions. It also required changing one’s environment. Remaining in the same place, surrounded by the same influences that had shaped his former life, would make lasting transformation far more difficult. Modern psychology has repeatedly confirmed this insight. Addictive and compulsive behaviors are strongly influenced by environmental cues.[^14] Certain locations, devices, routines, emotional states, and social contexts become associated with particular behaviors through repeated learning. Over time, these cues begin to trigger urges automatically, increasing the likelihood of relapse. This principle is highly relevant to pornography use. For many individuals, pornography becomes linked to specific contexts—being alone late at night, scrolling particular social media platforms, or turning to screens during moments of stress and boredom. The Prophetic solution goes beyond fighting temptation to reducing unnecessary exposure to environments that nurture temptation in the first place. For some, this may mean installing accountability software, removing triggering applications, placing devices in shared spaces, limiting unsupervised internet use, or intentionally increasing time spent with supportive and spiritually grounded companions. Contemporary psychologists often refer to these strategies as stimulus control or environmental restructuring.[^15] The Prophet ﷺ pointed toward the same principle centuries ago. The man seeking repentance was not simply told to become stronger. He was told to search for a place that would help him become stronger. There is a profound message of hope in this hadith. The man was forgiven before he arrived. Allah did not reward arrival at the destination, but commitment to the journey. Recovery from pornography often follows the same pattern. What matters is not immediate perfection, but sincere movement toward a better environment, better habits, and a closer relationship with Allah. #### Marriage Is Not a Cure The story of the man who murdered one hundred people contains another important lesson. The scholar he consulted did not prescribe a convenient solution. He prescribed the right solution. Before encouraging the man to begin a new chapter of his life, the scholar first addressed the conditions that had sustained his old one. His focus was not simply on forgiveness but on transformation. This lesson has important implications for those struggling with pornography. Many people assume that marriage alone will solve the problem. Certainly, the Prophet ﷺ encouraged marriage as a means of preserving chastity for those who are able. Yet marriage is not a treatment for compulsive behaviors that have already become deeply ingrained. If pornography has become someone’s primary way of coping with stress, loneliness, boredom, or emotional pain, those patterns often persist after the wedding if they remain unaddressed. Research on problematic pornography use consistently shows that the consequences extend beyond the individual. Many spouses experience betrayal trauma, diminished trust, emotional insecurity, and significant strain within the marriage when problematic pornography use continues in secret. Marriage can therefore compound rather than solve an untreated problem. A spouse should never be expected to function as a therapist, accountability partner, or cure for a struggle they did not create. Just as the scholar recognized that the man first needed repentance, a healthier environment, and righteous companionship before beginning a new life, those struggling with pornography should pursue healing, accountability, and meaningful change before expecting marriage to resolve what they have not yet confronted themselves. This does not mean that a person must achieve perfection before marrying. Rather, it means they should already be walking the path of recovery. Marriage can provide support, encouragement, and companionship along that journey. It was never intended to replace the journey itself. --- ## The Hidden Self: Integrity, Secrecy, and Cognitive Dissonance Thawban (rA) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Indeed, I know people of my nation who will come on the Day of Resurrection with good deeds like the mountains of Tihama, and Allah will make them like scattered dust.” Thawban said, “O Messenger of Allah, describe them to us and clarify them so that we do not become one of them without knowing.” He ﷺ replied, “They are your brothers and from your race, worshipping at night as you do, but they will be people who, when they are alone, transgress the sacred limits of Allah.”[^16] This hadith is particularly sobering because the people described are not individuals who abandon worship altogether. They pray, perform righteous deeds, and engage in acts of devotion. Outwardly, they appear committed to Allah. Yet there exists a profound disconnect between their public identity and their private behavior. Modern psychology provides a useful framework for understanding this struggle through the concept of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance refers to the psychological discomfort that arises when a person’s actions conflict with their deeply held beliefs and values.[^17] Human beings naturally seek consistency between who they believe themselves to be and how they actually behave. When a discrepancy emerges, tension follows. For a believer struggling with pornography, this tension can be particularly intense. A person may sincerely love Allah, value modesty and chastity, attend the masjid, recite the Qur’an, and strive to live according to Islamic teachings. Yet when alone, they may repeatedly engage in behavior that directly contradicts those same commitments.The resulting dissonance often manifests as guilt, shame, self-criticism, and spiritual distress. Unfortunately, people often attempt to reduce this discomfort in unhealthy ways. Some minimize the seriousness of the behavior. Others compartmentalize their religious and private lives. Still others become so overwhelmed by shame that they begin withdrawing from worship altogether. The Prophetic solution is neither denial nor despair. Rather, it is the pursuit of integrity. Notice that the hadith does not condemn the righteous deeds committed by the individuals described. The problem was that their worship had not yet transformed how they behaved when no one was watching. True spiritual growth occurs when Allah’s presence matters more than the absence of human observers. The Qur’an reminds believers of this reality: “Does he not know that Allah sees?”[^18] When a person internalizes this awareness, the quality of their solitude begins to change. Being alone no longer means being unobserved. Privacy becomes an opportunity for sincerity rather than secrecy. Research on behavioral change suggests that lasting transformation is likeliest when actions align with one’s deepest values rather than being driven solely by external pressures.[^19] This closely mirrors the Islamic concept of *ikhlas*, or sincerity. Others discovering the sin is not why a believer avoids sin. They avoid it because they aspire to become a person who Allah loves, both publicly and privately. The goal is not perfection. The goal is integration. It is becoming one person rather than two. It is becoming the same servant of Allah in the darkness of the night as in the light of the day. Yet even when believers fall short of this ideal, Islam offers something that neither shame nor self-condemnation can provide. ### From Shame to Tawba One of the greatest obstacles to recovery is despair. Repeated failures often cause individuals to define themselves by their struggles. Instead of viewing pornography as a behavior they engage in, they begin to see it as their identity. Shame gradually replaces hope. The Prophetic model rejects this way of thinking. The Prophet ﷺ taught that “every son of Adam sins, and the best of those who sin are those who repent.”[^20] This hadith transforms the way believers understand failure. Sin is not evidence that a person is beyond redemption. Rather, repentance is an expected part of the human condition. *Tawba* is not simply a legal mechanism. It is a psychological one. It allows individuals to acknowledge wrongdoing without becoming consumed by it. Shame says, “I am my sin.” *Tawba* says, “I committed a sin, but Allah’s mercy is always greater than my sin if I repent.” This distinction often determines whether a person continues striving or abandons the struggle altogether. Recovery is sustained by hope, not perfection. --- ## Conclusion The modern pornography crisis is often framed as a battle against sexual desire. The Prophet ﷺ offers a deeper and more comprehensive understanding. Pornography is a struggle over attention before desire forms. It is a struggle over coping before compulsion develops. It is a struggle over thoughts before they become actions. It is a struggle over environments before they become triggers. And it is a struggle over hope before failure becomes despair. The Prophetic model recognizes that sin rarely appears suddenly. It unfolds through a sequence of sights, sounds, thoughts, emotions, environments, and desires. Yet every stage of that sequence provides an opportunity for intervention. A believer can lower their gaze before desire intensifies. They can turn to Allah before stress becomes overwhelming. They can accept urges without obeying them. They can reshape their environment before relapse occurs. They can strive to become the same person in private that they are in public. And when they stumble, they can return to Allah through repentance rather than surrendering to shame. In this way, the Prophetic tradition offers a roadmap for understanding the human mind, navigating temptation, and cultivating lasting spiritual and psychological transformation. --- ## Notes [^1]: Claudio Vieira and Mark D. Griffiths, “Problematic Pornography Use and Mental Health: A Systematic Review,” *Sexual Health and Compulsivity* 31, no. 3 (2024): 207–47, [https://doi.org/10.1080/26929953.2024.2348624](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/26929953.2024.2348624&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1787852905779179&usg=AOvVaw3h5SK8slQ8UGwOQE6HUYN4). [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 6612; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2657. [^3]: G. Alan Marlatt and Dennis M. Donovan, eds., *Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors* (The Guilford Press, 2005). [^4]: Simone Kühn and Jürgen Gallinat, “Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated with Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn,” *JAMA Psychiatry* 71, no. 7 (2014): 827–34. [^5]: Qur’an 24:30. [^6]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 3704; graded *ḥasan* according to al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^7]: Andreas Oelker, Anna Knorr, Matthias Brand, and Silke M. Müller, “Temptation as a Key Driver Between Affective States and Usage Outcomes of Problematic Usage of the Internet: A 14-Day Ambulatory Assessment Study,” *PLOS One* 21, no. 7 (2026): e0352776. [^8]: Aleksandra Diana Dwulit and Piotr Rzymski, “The Potential Associations of Pornography Use with Sexual Dysfunctions: An Integrative Literature Review of Observational Studies," *Journal of Clinical Medicine* 8, no. 7 (2019): 914. [^9]: Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, and Kelly G. Wilson, *Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change*, 2nd ed. (The Guilford Press, 2012). [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5269; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 127. [^11]: Jesse M. Crosby and Michael P. Twohig, “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Problematic Internet Pornography Use: A Randomized Trial,” *Behavior Therapy* 47, no. 3 (2016): 355–66. [^12]: Michael F. Steger, “Making Meaning in Life,” *Psychological Inquiry* 23, no. 4 (2012): 381–85. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3470. [^14]: Cynthia A. Conklin, “Environments as Cues to Smoke: Implications for Extinction-Based Research and Treatment,” *Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology* 14, no. 1 (2006): 12–19; Hans S. Crombag, Jennifer M. Bossert, Eisuke Koya, and Yavin Shaham, “Context-Induced Relapse to Drug Seeking: A Review,” *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London*, Series B, Biological sciences, 363, no. 1507 (2008): 3233–43. [^15]: Wendy Wood and David T. Neal, “A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface,” *Psychological Review* 114, no. 4 (2007): 843–63. [^16]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 4245. [^17]: Leon Festinger, *A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance* (Stanford University Press, 1957). [^18]: Qur’an 96:14. [^19]: Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, *Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness* (The Guilford Press, 2017). [^20]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2499. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/overcoming-intrusive-thoughts-and-religious-ocd-prophetic-guidance-on-moral-scrupulosity-essay # Overcoming Intrusive Thoughts and Religious OCD: Prophetic Guidance on Moral Scrupulosity | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Analysis, Prophetic Cure, Publication **Published:** August 13, 2026 **Updated:** October 14, 2026 ## Introduction Moral scrupulosity is a form of excessive moral anxiety characterized by persistent fear of sin, intrusive thoughts about wrongdoing, and a heightened sense of guilt even in the absence of deliberate action. Often studied within the broader framework of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD),[^1] it reflects a pattern in which individuals overestimate the moral weight of their thoughts and underestimate the scope of divine mercy. In contemporary psychology, scrupulosity is closely linked to maladaptive guilt, inflated responsibility, and thought–action fusion, the belief that having a thought is morally equivalent to acting upon it.[^2] While this condition is clinically recognized, the spiritual tradition of Islam offers a profound corrective. The Qur’an and Sunnah distinguish clearly between thoughts and actions, intention and execution, and accountability and mercy. At the center of this corrective is a foundational Prophetic teaching. --- ## The Prophetic Principle: Thoughts Are Not Sins The companions once came to the Prophet ﷺ distressed by thoughts they found difficult even to speak about. They asked whether they would be held accountable for such thoughts. The Prophet ﷺ responded, “That is clear faith.”[^3] Rather than condemning them, the Prophet ﷺ affirmed them. The very discomfort they felt toward these thoughts was a sign of belief, not disbelief. In modern clinical terms, intrusive thoughts are often ego-dystonic. They conflict with a person’s values and identity. The more a person cares about their moral integrity, the more distressing these thoughts can become.² The Prophetic response recognizes this and reframes distress as a marker of sincerity. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Indeed, Allah has pardoned my *ummah* for what crosses their minds, so long as they do not act upon it or speak of it.”[^4] This narration establishes an important principle: fleeting thoughts, passing mental images, and unwanted ideas that arise involuntarily are not sins. Moral accountability is not attached to what merely passes through the mind, but to what a person knowingly embraces, expresses, or acts upon. In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has recorded the good deeds and the bad deeds . . . Whoever intends a good deed but does not do it, Allah records it as a complete good deed . . . and whoever intends a bad deed but does not do it, Allah records it as a complete good deed.”[^5] This narration addresses a different stage of the moral process. Classical scholars, including Ibn Hajar in his commentary on this hadith, explain that the “intention” (*hamm*) mentioned here is not the same as an involuntary intrusive thought. Rather, it refers to a settled resolve or genuine inclination toward an action. In the narration of Imam Muslim, the reward is specifically linked to abandoning that intended sin for Allah’s sake (“He abandoned it because of Me”). Thus, this hadith is not describing unwanted intrusive thoughts; instead, it highlights Allah’s generosity toward those who consciously refrain from acting on a sinful intention out of devotion to Him. This distinction is especially important for those struggling with scrupulosity. A key feature of scrupulosity is the belief that thinking something wrong is equivalent to doing something wrong. Psychologists refer to this as thought-action fusion. Individuals experience intrusive thoughts and then assume that the mere occurrence of those thoughts reflects moral failure. The Prophet ﷺ directly dismantles this distorted belief. Unwanted thoughts that arise without one’s choosing are not sins and do not define one’s character. At the same time, when a believer consciously turns away from an actual temptation for Allah’s sake, that deliberate act of restraint becomes an act of worship worthy of reward. This is a profound intervention. It shifts the believer from a state of fear to a state of hope. It transforms what is perceived as evidence of hypocrisy into evidence of faith and reminds us that Allah distinguishes between what merely crosses the mind and what the heart truly chooses. --- ## Divine Mercy and the Limits of Accountability The Qur’an reinforces these Prophetic teachings with a simple decree: “Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity.”[^6] Scrupulosity often creates a sense of unbearable moral weight. Individuals feel responsible for controlling every thought, every impulse, every fleeting idea. This is not the standard set by Islam. Accountability in Islam is tied to intention and action, not involuntary cognition. The heart may experience passing thoughts, but moral responsibility begins when those thoughts are embraced, acted upon, or expressed. This distinction protects the believer from despair. It ensures that the path to Allah is not obstructed by impossible standards. Scrupulosity is often intensified by whispers that exaggerate guilt and distort religious understanding. The Qur’an describes Shaytan as one who whispers into the hearts of people, creating confusion and doubt.[^7] The Prophet ﷺ taught believers not to engage endlessly with these whispers, but to dismiss them. When doubts arise about faith or purity, the response is not obsessive analysis, but disengagement. The Prophet ﷺ prescribed several practical ways of disengaging from intrusive doubts as outlined above.[^8] He also instructed believers to seek refuge in Allah (as well as in the Qur’an) and to occupy themselves with beneficial action rather than endless internal debate.[^9] These practices interrupt the cycle of obsessive rumination instead of reinforcing it. This aligns with modern therapeutic approaches. Cognitive behavioral therapy for OCD often emphasizes response prevention, resisting the urge to engage with intrusive thoughts.[^10] The Prophetic method anticipates this by encouraging detachment rather than rumination. --- ## Conclusion: A Prophetic Framework for Relief Moral scrupulosity reflects a sincere desire to avoid wrongdoing, but when left unchecked, it can distort the very religion it seeks to uphold. It replaces mercy with fear, mindfulness with obsession, and worship with anxiety. The Prophet ﷺ offered a different path. A path where thoughts are not condemned, but contextualized. Where struggle is not a sign of failure, but of faith. Where divine mercy is not an exception, but the foundation. Taken together, the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah offer a comprehensive response to moral scrupulosity: - Thoughts are not sins unless acted upon or expressed. - Resisting sinful thoughts is rewarded. - Distress over intrusive thoughts can be a sign of faith. - Accountability is limited to what is within one’s control. - Whispers should be dismissed, not analyzed. This framework preserves moral seriousness without collapsing into moral anxiety. It affirms accountability while grounding it in mercy. In a time when many quietly suffer from overwhelming moral anxiety, the Qur’an and Sunnah offer not only clarity, but relief. For some, however, scrupulosity becomes a clinically significant condition that can profoundly interfere with worship, relationships, and daily life. In such cases, seeking help from a qualified mental health professional, ideally one who understands the religious dimensions of scrupulosity, is not a sign of weak faith but a means of healing. The Prophetic tradition encourages believers to seek treatment alongside placing their trust in Allah, allowing spiritual guidance and appropriate clinical care to work together in restoring both peace of mind and confidence in one’s relationship with Him. --- ## Notes [^1]: Jonathan S. Abramowitz and Ryan J. Jacoby, “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: A Critical Review of the New Diagnostic Class,” *Annual Review of Clinical Psychology* 11 (2015): 165–86. [^2]: Abramowitz and Jacoby, “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.” [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 132a. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5269; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 127. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6491; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 131. [^6]: Qur’an 2:286. [^7]: Qur’an 114:5. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6491; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 131; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2209. [^9]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2988; Qur’an 7:200. [^10]: Paul M. Salkovskis, “Obsessive-Compulsive Problems: A Cognitive-Behavioural Analysis,” *Behaviour Research and Therapy* 23, no. 5 (1985): 571–83. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-discipline-the-self-a-prophetic-cure-for-entitlement-essay # How to Discipline the Self: A Prophetic Cure for Entitlement | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Analysis, Publication **Published:** August 12, 2026 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 “We cannot endure the same meal. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us some of what the earth produces of herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions.”[^1] These were the words directed by Bani Israʾil toward Musa (as) as they trudged through the desert. Their backs were to the Red Sea, through which they’d escaped Pharaoh and his army. The miracle that had saved them, the astonishing path that had opened for them as the sea itself split in two, would have still been fresh in their memory. Compared to that, this request for sustenance seemed perfectly reasonable, even humble. The foods requested were certainly simple and lawful. The problem was the tone. The request did not come from a place of humility or gratitude, but may have been a symptom of their entitlement. It was as though Musa owed his people intercession and Allah was expected to comply. As classical scholars noted, the issue was not hunger, but dissatisfaction with divine provision despite overwhelming blessing. This attitude is not unique to Bani Israʾil. The Qur’an repeatedly exposes entitlement as a spiritual disease that can take many forms. Iblis refused to bow before Adam (as) because he believed he was inherently superior, declaring, “I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay.”[^2] His sense of entitlement to a higher status became the root of arrogance and rebellion. Likewise, the Qur’an recounts the claim of some among the Jews and Christians who said, “We are the children of Allah and His beloved,”[^3] assuming that their affiliation alone entitled them to divine favor. Pharaoh embodied yet another form of entitlement, boasting of his kingdom and authority as evidence of his superiority: “Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me, and these rivers flowing beneath me?”[^4] Although these examples differ in context, they share the same underlying assumption: that privilege, lineage, power, or status entitles a person to honor, obedience, or Allah’s favor. The Qur’an consistently dismantles this mindset, reminding us that true honor is never inherited or demanded. It is granted by Allah to those who embody humility, gratitude, and *taqwa*. Entitlement is one of the quiet attitudes that reshapes how a person sees Allah, other people, and the world itself. It is rarely stated explicitly, yet it reveals itself in expectation without effort, complaint without reflection, and demand without gratitude. In simple terms, entitlement is the belief that one deserves privileges or outcomes without corresponding responsibility or humility. It is the feeling that something is owed. Contemporary psychology corroborates the Qur’an’s insights into the nature of entitlement. Longitudinal studies show that entitlement increases perceived resource scarcity, which in turn intensifies materialistic values and dissatisfaction.[^5] When entitlement frames reality, abundance is experienced as lack. The Qur’anic critique of Bani Israʾil captures a timeless psychological pattern. Blessings are reframed as insufficient, and mercy is reinterpreted as entitlement. Modern life often reinforces this mindset. Societies built around convenience, personalization, and immediate access normalize the idea that desires should be met quickly and with minimal friction. Over time, patience weakens and gratitude erodes. Psychological research increasingly confirms that entitlement heightens dissatisfaction, fuels materialism, and amplifies the perception of scarcity even in objectively abundant environments.[^6] Islam, however, confronts this mindset directly, not by denying human need, but by restoring perspective and moral orientation. --- ## How Entitlement Distorts One’s Relationship with Allah Once entitlement takes root, it reshapes the way a person approaches Allah. *Dua* shifts from humble dependence to transactional expectation. Worship becomes conditional. When outcomes align with desire, contentment follows. When they do not, frustration and resentment quietly emerge. The Prophet ﷺ dismantled this framework entirely when he said, “Observe moderation \[in doing deeds\], and if you fail to observe it perfectly, try to do as much as you can do \[to live up to this ideal of moderation\], and rejoice! For indeed, no one’s deeds will ever admit them into Paradise.” They asked, “Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “Not even me, unless Allah envelops me in mercy. And know that the most beloved of deeds to Allah are those that are most consistent, even if they are small.”[^7] This hadith establishes a foundational theological principle. Salvation is granted only through divine mercy. The believer is called to act responsibly while remaining aware of absolute dependence on Allah. This posture not only cultivates humility, but also protects against the anxiety and bitterness that arise when outcomes are perceived as owed rather than gifted. --- ## Salvific Entitlement and Sectarian Posturing When entitlement moves beyond personal spirituality to become a cornerstone of collective identity, its effects are especially destructive. Salvific entitlement occurs when individuals or groups assume guaranteed salvation based on mere affiliation or perceived doctrinal correctness rather than sincerity, humility, and most importantly, Allah’s mercy. Some online religious spaces tend to cultivate this mindset. Social media environments reward certainty, moral outrage, and public performance of righteousness. Disagreement is often framed as deviation, and nuance replaced with condemnation. Religion becomes a boundary marker rather than a moral path, and faith is reduced to winning arguments rather than cultivating character. The Prophet ﷺ reminded believers that final outcomes belong to Allah alone.[^8] Salvific entitlement narrows compassion and erodes communal trust. Psychologically, this mirrors findings that entitlement reduces empathy and social concern, while gratitude broadens moral awareness and relational generosity.[^9] --- ## Entitlement in Human Relationships The same mindset that distorts theology also reshapes social relationships. Entitlement appears when individuals assume that others owe them time, attention, or accommodation. In religious communities, this may surface as expectations placed on volunteers or institutions without appreciation. In families, it can appear as demands for provision or emotional labor without reciprocity. The Qur’anic story of Bani Israʾil again provides insight. Musa (as) was a prophet and leader, yet he was approached as though obligated to fulfill demands. Healthy relationships, like healthy faith, require gratitude, patience, and mutual responsibility rather than expectation. Prophetic wisdom again realigns actions and expectations to gratitude, and links gratitude to people with gratitude to Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “He who does not thank people is not thankful to Allah.”[^10] These are important lessons for us to act on, but also to impart to our families. --- ## Entitlement, Parenting, and the Formation of the Self Entitlement does not arise spontaneously in adulthood. It is often cultivated early through well-intentioned parenting practices that prioritize comfort over resilience. Psychological research and clinical observation suggest that parents’ attempts to shield children from struggle, failure, or frustration can inadvertently foster entitlement rather than confidence or gratitude.[^11] Educators increasingly observe this pattern in academic settings, where students expect flexible deadlines and guaranteed outcomes regardless of preparation or effort. Importantly, this research does not frame entitlement as a failure of children, but as a developmental outcome shaped by adult decisions. Gratitude emerges as the primary antidote. Studies indicate that fostering self-reliance, allowing children to experience manageable failure, modeling gratitude, and setting clear boundaries cultivate resilience and reduce entitlement.[^12] These findings align closely with Islamic pedagogy, which emphasizes gradual responsibility (as seen with the hadith on developmentally appropriate reminders for prayer), discipline, and *tarbiya* over indulgence. The Prophetic model nurtured effort while grounding outcomes in mercy, teaching that growth requires patience, accountability, and appreciation. --- ## The Prophetic Antidote: Consistency, Gratitude, and Small Deeds Rather than confronting entitlement through condemnation alone, the Prophet ﷺ offered a practical reorientation in the same hadith that centered on moderation, effort, consistency, and reliance upon Allah’s mercy. He ﷺ said in another wording of the same hadith: “Observe moderation \[in doing deeds\], and if you fail to observe it perfectly, try to do as much as you can do \[to live up to this ideal of moderation\], and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise, and that the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little.”[^13] Taken together, these statements dismantle the logic of entitlement. The believer is commanded to strive, but is simultaneously reminded that even the greatest acts of worship do not place Allah in one’s debt. Salvation itself remains a gift of divine mercy rather than something earned or deserved. The final statement about small, consistent deeds then redirects attention away from accumulating impressive religious achievements toward sincere and steadfast obedience. The question is no longer, “Have I done enough to deserve Paradise?” but “Am I faithfully responding to the blessings Allah has already given me?” Entitlement measures what is owed; faith measures faithfulness. Gratitude naturally fills the space that entitlement leaves behind. If entitlement is preoccupied with what one lacks or believes is deserved, gratitude begins with recognizing what has already been received. This theme runs throughout the Qur’an and Sunnah. Allah promises, “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you,”[^14] teaching us that increase comes not through demanding more, but through appreciating what He has already bestowed. Likewise, the Prophetic reminder about gratitude to people extends gratitude beyond inward feelings toward Allah to one’s relationships with others, fostering humility, generosity, and appreciation instead of expectation. Modern psychological research echoes this Prophetic wisdom. Gratitude has been shown to reduce entitlement and perceived scarcity, which in turn lowers materialism and increases preference for meaningful, experiential values over accumulation.[^15] Rather than simply producing positive emotions, gratitude reshapes perception. It enables people to recognize abundance where entitlement perceives deprivation. The Prophet ﷺ further reinforced this perspective when he said, “Look at those who are below you and do not look at those above you, for that is more likely to prevent you from belittling the blessings Allah has given you.”[^16] Entitlement thrives on upward comparison, constantly drawing attention to what others possess and what one believes is missing. The Prophetic response is not to suppress ambition, but to anchor it in gratitude. By first recognizing Allah’s existing blessings, the believer is freed from perpetual dissatisfaction and learns that the path to increase begins not with demanding more, but with grateful stewardship of what has already been entrusted to them. The Qur’anic remedy for entitlement is not less desire but greater gratitude, for the believer seeks increase not by demanding more, but by thanking Allah for what has already been bestowed, trusting His promise: “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you.”[^17] --- ## From Entitlement to Responsibility At its core, entitlement reflects a refusal to acknowledge dependence. Islam replaces this posture with trusteeship. Human beings are not owed blessings, knowledge, or even righteousness. Instead they are entrusted with them, and will be accountable for them.[^18] This framework reorients worship, disagreement, parenting, and community life. Instead of asking what is deserved, the believer asks what is required. Responsibility replaces resentment. Humility replaces moral posturing. Gratitude replaces scarcity. Islam does not prohibit desire or ambition. It disciplines them. Rather than encouraging believers to ask “What am I owed?” the Qur’an and Sunnah repeatedly redirect them to ask “What has Allah already given me, and how should I respond?” The Qur’anic examples of Bani Israʾil, Iblis, and Pharaoh each expose a different form of entitlement, yet all are answered by reminders of our dependence on Allah rather than self-perceived deserving. Similarly, those who claimed special status as Allah’s beloved were reminded that accountability, not affiliation, determines one’s standing before Him.[^19] In this way, revelation redirects entitlement away from demands based on privilege, status, or expectation and toward gratitude, humility, and responsible stewardship. Modern psychological research now affirms what revelation articulated centuries ago. Gratitude reduces entitlement, restores perspective, and protects against dissatisfaction. In an age where entitlement extends not only to material goods but even to moral superiority and assumptions of salvation, the Prophetic path offers a corrective grounded in mercy. Faith, in this vision, is not about what one believes they deserve, but about living in continual awareness of what Allah has already bestowed while hoping for the ultimate reward of His mercy. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 2:61. [^2]: Qur’an 7:12. [^3]: Qur’an 5:18. [^4]: Qur’an 43:51. [^5]: Hyunjung Crystal Lee, Sunaina Chugani, and Jae Eun Namkoong, “The Role of Entitlement and Perceived Resources in Gratitude’s Effect on Materialism: Longitudinal and Situational Effects,” *Journal of Business Research* 139 (2022): 993–1003, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.029](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.029&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786575803416005&usg=AOvVaw0T4XufPhClrySMJIL6lQAg). [^6]: Lee et al., “Role of Entitlement.” [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2818. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2818. [^9]: Lee et al., “Role of Entitlement.” [^10]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4811; graded *ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Albānī. [^11]: Calvina Ellerbe, “Gratitude: Ending the Entitled Generation; A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grateful Children,” *Psychology Today*, September 16, 2024. [^12]: Ellerbe, “Gratitude: Ending the Entitled Generation.” [^13]: **Ṣaḥīḥ* al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2818. [^14]: Qur’an 14:7. [^15]: Lee et al., “Role of Entitlement.” [^16]: **Ṣaḥīḥ* al-Bukhārī*, no. 6490; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2963. [^17]: Qur’an 14:7. [^18]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2417; graded *ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Albānī. [^19]: Qur’an 5:18. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/follow-your-heart-or-trust-the-scholars-the-islamic-ethics-of-moral-authority # Follow Your Heart or Trust the Scholars? The Islamic Ethics of Moral Authority **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Methodology (usul) **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 11, 2026 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 You have a dispute with your neighbor—over a boundary, a debt, a shared right. It has dragged on for months, and private resolution has failed. So you do what a Muslim should do: You bring it before a judge. Not just any judge, but one known for knowledge, piety, and integrity. You trust him completely. The hearing unfolds. You have a way with words; your neighbor, in contrast, struggles to articulate his strongest points. The judge rules in your favor. By every outward measure, justice has been done. But as you leave, you realize something unsettling: The judgment is wrong. You saw where your neighbor failed to express what would have changed everything. What do you do? Now imagine the judge is none other than the Prophet ﷺ himself. This is not a hypothetical. The Prophet ﷺ addressed this situation directly: “I am only human, and you bring your disputes to me. Perhaps one of you is more eloquent in his argument than another, and I rule in his favor according to what I hear. So if I ever give someone a right that belongs to his brother, let him not take it—for I am only cutting for him a piece of the Fire.”[^1] The ruling settles the matter in the court. It does not settle it before Allah. Muslim scholars capture this difference as that between *qadaʾ* (ruling of an Islamic court) and *diyana* (what is right before Allah). This single hadith contains an entire moral philosophy. It tells us that formal authority—even Prophetic authority as a judge—cannot substitute for truth. It tells us that the believer’s responsibility to reality does not end when the gavel falls. It tells us that the heart, if it knows, remains accountable, regardless of what the court has decided. It also tells us something about the nature of the problem we are about to confront. The question of how to navigate between external authority and internal moral knowledge is not a modern anxiety, not a symptom of weakened faith, not an innovation of Western-influenced Muslims uncomfortable with tradition. It is a question the Prophet ﷺ himself raised, in the most dramatic way possible, by applying it to his own rulings. What follows is an attempt to take that question seriously. --- ## The Dilemma: Authority Versus Intuition > No one needs an *ijāzah*, *minhāj*, *ṭarīqah*, or a super-vanilla (organic or flavored) shaykh to state the obvious: Gaza and Palestine are largely the result of complicit oligarchs—plantation guards tasked with keeping the *ummah* weak, fractured, and dependent. Humor aside, in this social media post, Shaykh Suhaib Webb, an American scholar of Islam and graduate of Al-Azhar University, gestures toward a deeply consequential teaching in our religion. At stake is the tension between two overlapping responsibilities. On the one hand, there is the cultivation of an inner moral intelligence—a concern for the injustice, suffering, and concrete realities confronting individuals, communities, and the *ummah* at large. On the other, there is fidelity to the inherited scholarly tradition grounded in scripture: disciplined engagement with texts and reverence for learned authorities as bearers of the divine message. Both are equally necessary and ultimately harmonious. They are not rivals, but mutually disciplining. Yet experience suggests that, at times, they come into conflict. Note that the conflict is not between our intuition and what Allah wants—to subdue our ego to Allah is the entire point of submission—but between what our heart says Allah wants and what some external authority claims. In such moments of tension, the Prophetic guidance we present below instructs us neither to suppress the heart nor to neglect the authority of the learned, while remaining ever vigilant against temptation and subtle distortion. After all, how do we know that what we consider our moral intuition objecting to a fatwa is not merely the corrupting effect of our social circles? This balance is not easy to sustain, and requires both knowledge and discernment, the company of the learned and the righteous as well as contemplation and self-assessment (*muraqaba* and *muhasaba*) with Allah. This essay is not intended to provide an exhaustive blueprint, but broad Prophetic guidance concerning a challenge that is inevitable in the life of a believer. ### The Test of Interpretation: From Gaza to LGBT Ambiguity in divine command is never unintended. Why, when Allah made the most staggering demand of His beloved servant, Prophet Ibrahim, upon him be peace, to sacrifice his son, did He communicate it through a dream? The form matters. A dream requires recognition and resolve; it does not compel in the way a direct command might. Ibrahim could have dismissed it. Instead, he read it as binding and acted upon it.[^2] The Qur’an, likewise, praises those “who listen to the word and follow the best of it.”[^3] One exegete describes these listener followers as connoisseurs of faith, discerning not only what is permissible, but what is most pleasing to Allah.[^4] As a warning, the Qur’an also recounts the Israelites who outwardly honored the Sabbath yet hollowed it out in practice, setting their nets in advance and collecting the catch after.[^5] Between these two lies the real trial: not mere compliance with the letter of the law, but the ability to recognize and pursue the fuller truth of what Allah asks of us. The question, then, is not whether we obey but how we recognize what obedience requires when authority, context, and moral clarity appear to diverge. The appeal to the heart is dangerous if left untrained. Intuition must be disciplined by *taqwa*—a God-consciousness that refines perception and anchors judgment in divine truth. The classical tradition recognized this, developing not only rules but an ethics of seeking guidance, in which sincerity, honesty, and discernment are themselves moral obligations. As evinced by the classical books of advice addressed to the seeker of a fatwa (*adab al-mustafti*), even the act of asking requires judgment and piety: integrity in presenting one’s case, humility in receiving the answer, and awareness that such guidance is often context-sensitive and open to legitimate disagreement.[^6] Consider moments when religious authority is invoked to counsel silence in the face of manifest injustice—when believers are urged to ignore atrocities, avoid protest or boycott, and retreat to private piety. Here, the test of interpretation becomes acute: Does obedience lie in compliance with authority, or in fidelity to the Qur’anic demand for justice and solidarity, and the alleviation of suffering? This is not merely hypothetical. Across much of the Muslim world, political conditions restrict expressions of support for Palestine, and segments of religious leadership have echoed or acquiesced to these constraints.[^7] In many contexts, access to diverse scholarly voices is limited, and what reaches the public as “the Islamic view” is shaped by institutional and political mediation. The result is not the absence of principled scholarship—indeed, many scholars have spoken courageously, often at personal cost—but a fractured moral landscape in which competing claims to religious legitimacy swirl, and positions that strain the conscience are elevated as though they were the norm. The *ummah*—nearly two billion souls—finds itself divided and stalled: caught in cycles of national, ethnic, and sectarian contention that sap its moral will. In that paralysis, those aligned with power grow louder and more effective, while voices that might call us to the courage of Moses fall quiet or are dismissed. A weary logic begins to take hold: *If God has given them power, they must be in the right*—a surrender not of argument alone, but of moral imagination itself.[^8] Lest I be misunderstood: There is no dearth of true *ʿulamaʾ* in this *ummah* who speak the truth at any cost, many thousands of them incarcerated, many more silenced. Yet we cannot absolve ourselves of this silence; when a collective obligation is unfulfilled—as a fundamental principle states—the entire *ummah* is blameworthy.[^9] If Palestine illustrates the moral risk of an uncritical deference to authority, the converse danger is no less real: the elevation of instinct, sentiment, or prevailing social norms over the disciplined guidance of the tradition. The rapid normalization of LGBT ideology in contemporary Western discourse—framed in terms of liberation, antipatriarchy, and resistance to oppression—has shaped the moral intuitions of many Muslims, particularly in diasporic contexts. Some have responded by seeking to realign Islamic norms with slogans such as “love is love” or the view that gender is purely a social construct. Others, while formally affirming traditional teachings, have minimized the issue as politically exaggerated or morally secondary, effectively aligning themselves against those voicing the Islamic view. In this case, the gravitational pull of dominant cultural narratives risks displacing the careful moral reasoning preserved within the scholarly tradition. By contrast, traditionally trained scholars and imams, especially those engaged in the pastoral realities of Muslim communities, have generally recognized the seriousness of these questions within an Islamic moral framework. These two examples illustrate opposite failures of the same underlying problem: In the first, excessive deference to authority silences a sound moral intuition; in the second, excessive trust in intuition—shaped by cultural pressure rather than revelation—overrides sound scholarly and scriptural guidance. The challenge is not to choose between authority and intuition, but to understand how each corrects and disciplines the other. ### Daily Dilemmas The stakes become even more intimate when we turn to our lives as parents, teachers, religious leaders, community members. How do we teach our children, students, and congregants to become good believers? Do we nurture their innate sense of right and wrong—their *fitra*—encouraging them to speak up against injustice, or teach them expedience and compromise in a dangerous world? Should those in authority nurture and give moral weight to the inner voice that recoils at cruelty and injustice, even when it unsettles inherited judgments and becomes more liable to subtle social and cultural pressures? Or should they instead train their wards toward disciplined deference, cultivating a posture of submission to established traditional authority and the accumulated wisdom of the community’s elders, even when that authority appears to mute or override that moral instinct? Should we encourage a creative openness to a world of different opinions, or moderate their curiosity to emphasize obedience and deference until they can “properly” interpret scripture and the world through the lens of books and authorities? These are not abstract concerns. They are the questions you face, quietly, every day: - When I receive an unsettling fatwa from a scholar, do I silence that feeling or take it seriously? - If two scholars give different answers, do I choose the one that feels easier? - When my child asks, “Why is this permissible and that impermissible?”—do I teach them to trust the answer, or to wrestle with it until it makes moral sense to them? - If my child says, “That doesn’t feel fair,” do I correct them, or do I pause and ask what their heart is perceiving? - When I know how to phrase a question to get the answer I want, am I seeking guidance or fatwa shopping? - If a ruling seems to overlook real harm to a person, family, or community, do I submit or do I question whether something has been missed? - When authority speaks, how do I know I am hearing the voice of the *deen* and not the echo of culture, power, or convenience? And beneath all of these lies a deeper tension: - Am I raising my children to learn the truth as it is said, “Know the truth, you will know its champion,” or to trust the scholars I consider safe? - If I train them only to defer, will they recognize injustice when it is justified in religious language? - If I train them to rely on their inner sense, will they end up following a charlatan, a “religious influencer,” or develop false confidence, lacking the discipline and humility that knowledge requires? This, then, is the question: not whether to follow the law or the heart but what guidance revelation and reason provide to navigate the tension between moral intuition and inherited authority. --- ## The Prophetic Framework ### Hadith I: “Ask Your Heart” A man named Wabisa ibn Maʿbad came from far away to ask the Prophet ﷺ a question that troubles every believer: What is truly right, and what is truly wrong? As he approached through the crowd, the Prophet ﷺ saw him and said, before he could even speak, “You have come to ask about righteousness and sin?” He replied, “Yes.” The Prophet ﷺ drew him close, tapped his chest, and said thrice, “Ask your self. Ask your heart, O Wabisa—ask your heart. Righteousness is what the soul feels at ease with and the heart finds tranquility in. Sin is what unsettles the soul and wavers in the chest—even if people give you fatwas, again and again.”[^10] This is one of the most striking teachings in Islam. It appears, at first glance, to open the door to pure subjectivity—as if one’s feelings could override revelation or scholarship. But that is not what the Prophet ﷺ meant. This meaning is made clearer in a longer version found in *Musnad Ahmad* that adds at the end, “Do not approach the meat of the domesticated donkey or that of any beast with canine teeth.”[^11] Here, the Messenger ﷺ gave concrete legal prohibitions in that very context, leaving no doubt that on issues where Allah has spoken clearly—about what is lawful and unlawful—the believer submits, even if it feels unfamiliar or difficult. The prohibition of consuming donkey meat, which was occasionally consumed by the poor in Roman Syria of Late Antiquity in the centuries before Islam, is instructive. The heart is not a replacement for revelation; it is an instrument where the understanding, submission, and love for Allah and His revelation must be cultivated. Besides, not every heart is like Wabisa’s, Allah be pleased with him, attuned to the truth. This raises a harder question: which heart? For what we call “the heart” is not a pure compass. It is a mixture—of desire and discipline, habit and faith, clarity and distortion. It can perceive truth, but it can also rationalize error. That is why it must be cultivated: through worship, knowledge, and *taqwa*, until it becomes capable of recognizing what aligns with Allah’s will. And what, then, is “authority”? For most Muslims today, it is not a single clear voice, but a crowded field: scholars, institutions, online preachers, inherited traditions, and competing interpretations—often overlapping, sometimes conflicting. To seek guidance in such a world is not a mechanical act. It requires judgment, sincerity, and discernment. The hadith, then, does not dissolve the tension between authority and intuition. It names it—and places responsibility squarely on the believer. Not to follow the heart blindly, nor to surrender unthinkingly to authority, but to form a heart that can recognize the truth when it encounters it—even when others speak in its name. ### Hadith II: “Avoid What Is Confusing” If the first hadith teaches us to trust a trained heart, this second hadith places a necessary restraint upon it. The Prophet ﷺ said: > The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear, and between them are doubtful matters unknown to most people. One who avoids doubtful matters safeguards his religion and his honor, but one who falls into doubtful matters \[eventually\] falls into that which is unlawful, like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary is likely to cross into it. Lo, every king has a sanctuary, and Allah’s sanctuary is His prohibitions. In the body there is a morsel of flesh, which, if it is whole, all the body is whole, and which, if it is diseased, all of \[the body\] is diseased. Truly, it is the heart.[^12] This hadith establishes three essential truths. First, the core commands of Islam that are clearly lawful and unlawful—are accessible and known in a healthy believing community. Second, detailed knowledge remains limited; not everyone can master the finer points of the law, and many situations fall into areas of uncertainty. This is not a failure, but a condition of human life. Third, in such cases of ambiguity, the Prophet ﷺ directs us toward *waraʿ*—a posture of moral caution that avoids what is doubtful in order to safeguard one’s religion and integrity. But this principle, powerful as it is, is not absolute. The Prophet ﷺ himself limited its scope in practice. When a man doubted the paternity of his child based on appearance, he did not instruct him to withdraw from the doubtful matter—which would have shattered a family—but instead corrected him through analogy, noting that animals of one color can produce offspring of another. Suspicion does not overturn established certainty.[^13] Similarly, in prayer, one who doubts whether his state of purity has been broken should not act on this doubt unless clear evidence appears: “until he hears a sound or finds a smell.”[^14] From this emerges the foundational maxim: Certainty is not removed by doubt (*al-yaqeen la yazulu bi-l-shakk*). Doubt alone does not obligate withdrawal. These examples reveal a crucial point: Avoiding doubtful matters is a discipline of personal caution, not a universal rule for all situations. In fact, there are many contexts in which strict avoidance would produce greater harm. First, when doubt is pervasive, avoidance leads to paralysis. In modern life—from finance to medicine to governance—uncertainty is often structural. If one avoided everything disputed, ordinary life would collapse. The law itself frequently operates on probability, not certainty. Second, when obligation is clear, it overrides precaution. A parent cannot refuse to provide for their family because an income is not perfectly pure; a judge cannot abstain from ruling because evidence is incomplete; a leader cannot avoid difficult decisions because outcomes are uncertain. In such cases, the duty to act outweighs the comfort of abstention. Third, not all doubt is valid. Some doubt arises from pathological misgivings (*waswasa*), which the law seeks to cure, not reinforce. More dangerously, doubt can be manufactured—by polemical or extremist voices demonizing mainstream practices as suspect, or by competing authorities in pluralistic societies. If every claim of doubt were treated equally, moral life would become unstable and fragmented. For this reason, the hadith does not abolish judgment but disciplines it. Avoidance protects the individual from sliding into sin, but it cannot resolve every moral dilemma, especially where competing values are at stake: justice and stability, unity and reform, caution and responsibility. It is precisely at these limits that the first hadith returns with renewed force. When rules become uncertain, when doubt cannot be escaped, and when abstention itself becomes a form of failure, the trained heart must again take up its role—not as a substitute for the law, but as its necessary companion in navigating the ambiguities of life. ### Hadith III: “Do Not Be a Blind Follower!” Yet even this careful balance between trained intuition and disciplined caution assumes something further: that what we experience as our “inner sense” has not already been shaped, subtly and invisibly, by the pressures of the surrounding world. The Prophet ﷺ warns of this possibility when he says: > Do not be an *immaʿa*, saying, “If the people do good, we do good; and if they do wrong, we do wrong.” Rather, discipline yourselves so that if people do good, you do good, and if they do evil, you do not commit evil.[^15] The modern *immaʿa* is not merely one who follows others in action, but one whose moral perception itself has been absorbed by imitation—so that what feels like conscience is in fact conformity. The danger is not simply that people follow others, but that they come to believe they are following themselves—they are individualist, unique, special, even trailblazers—while in fact repeating the judgments of their environment. In this sense, even the “heart” that Hadith I asks us to consult can be distorted by the moral atmosphere in which it is formed. This is why the Prophetic framework requires more than trust in intuition or adherence to formal rulings alone. It requires a conscience anchored beyond both the self and the crowd—disciplined by revelation, and capable of distinguishing between what is truly known inwardly and what has been socially inherited as feeling. But these imperatives presuppose that the authority one might defer to is itself trustworthy. What happens when it is not? Our scholars have been remarkably candid about this possibility. --- ## The Well-Known Versus the Expert Realm Submission to the divine lies at the heart of Islam, yet discerning God’s command in concrete life has always required interpretation—hence the vast tradition of *fiqh*. On most questions, multiple juristic positions exist, and ordinary Muslims must rely on qualified authorities to navigate them. At the same time, the tradition also recognizes a more difficult reality: that scholarly judgment, while authoritative, is not immune to error, and in rare cases may be compromised. Imam al-Ghazali identifies the figure of the “wicked scholar” (*ʿalim al-suʾ*): one whose knowledge is detached from sincerity and whose learning becomes entangled with status, power, or self-interest.[^16] Such a figure does not merely err privately but can mislead others through persuasive religious speech. Based on the hadith that opened this essay, we may add a complementary point: Even sincere scholars may err due to incomplete evidence, contextual blindness, or simple misjudgment. Error, in other words, can arise both from moral failure and from lack of relevant knowledge. Accordingly, in a remarkable and enlightening classification, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya distinguishes between what we may call three types of what goes under the label of Sharia or divine law.[^17] First is what Ibn Taymiyya calls the revealed law itself (*al-sharʿ al-munazzal*): the clear, foundational obligations and prohibitions known to the Muslim community and “known of the religion by necessity,” such as the five prayers, fasting Ramadan, and the major prohibitions. Second is the interpreted law (*al-sharʿ al-muʾawwal*), consisting of juristic reasoning (*ijtihad*) undertaken by qualified scholars and followed by nonspecialists through taqlid. The distinction between these two categories throws the nature and function of taqlid into sharp relief. In his short work on *usul al-fiqh*, *al-Waraqat*, Imam al-Juwayni states that taqlid is only relevant for those who lack direct access to evidences: “One of the conditions of the one seeking a fatwa \[*al-mustafti*\] is that he be among the people of taqlid—for a scholar is not permitted to perform taqlid.” He then defines taqlid as “accepting the statement of a speaker without \[knowing\] its proof,” or “without knowing its source.”[^18] On this account, taqlid is not intellectual abdication but a rational necessity: It is justified precisely insofar as one does not possess the tools to evaluate proof independently. This also clarifies its limits. In matters of the revealed law—those foundational duties and prohibitions known to every Muslim—taqlid does not apply, because these are not matters of specialist disagreement but of shared religious knowledge. It would therefore be incoherent, and religiously impermissible, to follow a claim that directly negates them: for example, that the obligation of five daily prayers is reduced to two, or that one is not required to defend Muslim life or sacred sanctities. In such cases, the issue is not disagreement among jurists but contradiction of what is known by necessity. Outside these clear fundamentals, however, the nonexpert Muslim who does not have the capacity to form independent judgment follows the law as interpreted by qualified and trustworthy scholars, recognizing that such interpretation is precisely what taqlid was designed to make possible. --- ## When the Form of the Law Diverges from Its Truth A third category—more unsettling, yet indispensable—must be acknowledged. Its possibility is already implied by the opening hadith: A ruling may carry full legal form and still miss the truth. The same applies to fatwas. Though they do not operate under courtroom constraints, they rest on assumptions about facts, context, and consequences. When these assumptions are flawed—through ignorance, pressure, or distortion—the result may bear the appearance of law while diverging from divine intent. This is what Ibn Taymiyya calls *al-sharʿ al-mubaddal*—the altered law. Lest this statement be misunderstood, let us note three beliefs of Ahl al-Sunnah that he states repeatedly: - Allah has protected this *ummah* from agreeing on error in any matter.[^19] - The truth on any given matter falls within the four schools of Ahl al-Sunnah in general.[^20] - On matters of disagreement, the practice of commanding right and forbidding wrong guarantees that the truth eventually becomes evident to the scholars of the *ummah*.[^21] Seen in this light, disagreement among scholars is not a breakdown of authority but part of its preservation. For the nonexpert, this means that the truth is not lost, even if particular voices misfire. On established and widely known matters, guidance remains secure and accessible. Greater difficulty arises in novel cases (*nawazil*), where general principles must be applied to new realities. Here, errors are more likely—not in the law itself, but in its application. In such cases, the role of the informed believer is not to become a jurist, but to engage responsibly: to consult trustworthy scholars, to seek out those best equipped to understand the issue, and, where relevant, to contribute their own domain knowledge to clarify the facts. The conclusion is both sobering and reassuring. Misapplication and even distortion can occur, but the *ummah* is not abandoned to them. Correction is built into its life—through scholars, leaders, and conscientious believers who question, advise, and refine. To seek better guidance, to ask, to verify, even to challenge when something clearly contradicts what is known of the religion—these are not acts of rebellion, but part of the moral economy of Islam. In short, the ordinary believer is not called to reconstruct the law, but to remain anchored to what is known, to resist manifest deviation when it appears, and to seek clarity through trustworthy scholarship when it does not. Where the line cannot be seen, one is not held accountable beyond one’s capacity. And where the tradition speaks with clarity—through consensus or the settled inheritance of the schools—there is little risk of falling into what has been altered. The greater danger lies in the misapplication of the law to new and complex realities, not in its enduring foundations. The examples that frame this essay—moral responsibility in the face of atrocities in Gaza, and the struggle to articulate Islamic norms on gender and sexuality—belong to a wider class of cases in which applying the law becomes difficult not because the law is unclear, but because we are divided, and because we inhabit a world not of our making. In such a world, where political power, economic structures, and cultural norms are often set by others, and where our own collective work of shaping a just moral order remains incomplete, the Qur’anic mandate of commanding right and forbidding wrong continues—but haltingly, unevenly, and at times painfully. Tension arises when three elements fall out of alignment: the normative authority of the divine law, the limitations or assumptions of its interpreters, and the fractured reality in which that law must be lived. In such cases, a ruling may be formally sound yet fail to guide effectively—or even exacerbate harm—because the situation it addresses has been misread or only partially grasped. These are not exceptional cases; they define much of our moral landscape. And it is precisely here that the Prophetic guidance we have traced becomes most urgent: The law must be honored and authority must be consulted, but neither relieves the believer of responsibility. Where application is uncertain and consequences are grave, discernment is not a luxury—it is part of the test. --- ## Conclusion: A Discipline for the Confused Age In nonideal conditions—where Islamic norms are partially obscured, cultural pressures distort perception, or legality and morality diverge—internal guidance becomes indispensable. It allows believers to act with integrity, discern the quality of authority, and avoid the pitfalls of corruption, manipulation, or inertia. The heart, trained by revelation and disciplined by reason, mediates between the universal and the particular, the textual and the lived, the timeless and the temporal. Here are some guidelines that emerge from the discussion above. 1. Hold fast to what is clear. Do not doubt or relent on what Allah has made obvious. 2. Seek trustworthy scholars but do not outsource your heart. Their role is to guide you, not to replace your conscience. 3. Train your heart before you trust it. A heedless heart will echo desire, only a trained heart can recognize truth. 4. Pause when something feels off, even if it comes dressed in authority. A ruling that flatters your interests or your crowd deserves suspicion, not comfort. 5. When you encounter corruption among scholars, do not despair; for every compromised scholar that you know, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of truthful scholars and steadfast believers that you do not know. Trust in Allah’s protection of this *ummah*. He has made the *ʿulamaʾ* heirs of the prophets. 6. Be humble enough to follow, but not so humble or spineless that you stop questioning. Ask, clarify, remind, learn. The moral life of the *ummah* depends on this feedback between scholars and believers. 7. Act when the need is clear even if your knowledge is not complete. When injustice is manifest, when the call to truth is unmistakable, hesitation becomes its own failure. 8. Accept that you will sometimes act without certainty. You are not judged for omniscience, but for sincerity. 9. Let your certainty be in Allah, not in your own conclusions. It is this certainty that steadies you when the world is unclear, when scholars differ, when outcomes are unknown. Uncertainty is part of the test, not a flaw in its design. 10. Love and uphold the divine commands that you know; Allah will open doors to what you do not yet know. Ultimately, believers will be judged by the soundness of our hearts and sincerity of our actions; law is the means, not the end. Allah assures success to those who strive: > As for those who strive in Us, We will surely guide them to Our paths. And indeed, Allah is with those who do good.[^22] --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhāri*, no. 6967. [^2]: For a classical allusion to this problem, see Imam Fakhr al-Rāzī’s discussion of whether the vision entailed a command, under Sūrat al-Ṣāffāt (37:102), “al-masʾalat al-ūlā,” [https://tafsir.app/alrazi/37/102](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/37/102&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127030660&usg=AOvVaw0-FH7nhDonkRPhQfcIFZ43). [^3]: Qur’an 39:18. [^4]: See Maḥmūd ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Ālūsī, *Tafsīr rūḥ al-maʿānī*, under Sūrat al-Zumar (39:18), [https://tafsir.app/alaloosi/39/18](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alaloosi/39/18&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127031402&usg=AOvVaw0BoL8jFUsd8GeyE_mp2HmM). [^5]: Qur’an 7:163. [^6]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ al-Shahrazūrī (d. 643/1245), *Adab al-muftī wa-l-mustaftī*, ed. Muwaffaq ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir (ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1407/1986), 158–71, [https://shamela.ws/book/10720/134#p1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/10720/134%23p1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127032236&usg=AOvVaw1CYBL3S-v4N7oXMQJe0N5F). [^7]: Nearly every piece of reasoning given here is based on my personal knowledge based on teaching, lecturing, and advising across campuses across the West, in particular, the United States, but also the UK and Australia. On one occasion in late 2024, I assigned my Muslim graduate students to record their experiences in speaking and mobilizing about Gaza. One served in an advisory capacity at a leading university in the US and anonymously documented the reasons Muslim students gave for their fear or indifference in speaking up for Palestine. Many of those reasons were excusable, such as the fear of foreign students of being expelled and persecuted. But many were based on ideological religious reasoning, aggravated no doubt by indifference, lack of courage, and exaggerated fear. For a call to judicious but courageous participation, see the following Yaqeen articles: Ovamir Anjum, “Speaking Truth to Power: Islamic Rules for Protests, Civil Disobedience, and Encampments for Gaza | Blog,” May 16, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/speaking-truth-to-power-islamic-rules-for-protests-civil-disobedience-and-encampments-for-gaza](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/speaking-truth-to-power-islamic-rules-for-protests-civil-disobedience-and-encampments-for-gaza&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127034774&usg=AOvVaw2tfX0nNUB9-tMz4SUvG3b6); Tom Facchine, “Intersectionality and Palestine Solidarity: Why Muslims Need to Lead the Gaza Protests | Blog | Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research,” June 19, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/intersectionality-and-palestine-solidarity-why-muslims-need-to-lead-the-gaza-protests](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/intersectionality-and-palestine-solidarity-why-muslims-need-to-lead-the-gaza-protests&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127035397&usg=AOvVaw1FQy92-3W4VlMikVf_vPN2). [^8]: Whether this reflects a broader failure of scholarly responsibility among Muslims today—as argued by scholars such as Dr. Farah El-Sharif and other principled advocates of justice—or the silencing of a far larger body of scholars by state-aligned and amplified voices, remains an open and pressing question. Refer to Farah El-Sharif’s substack and/or forthcoming Ḥāshiya piece. [^9]: For a presentation of collective obligation, see Tāj al-Subkī, *Kitāb rafʿ al-ḥājib ʿan mukhtaṣar Ibn al-Ḥājib*, [https://shamela.ws/book/6338/495](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/6338/495&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127036660&usg=AOvVaw38FMAudeaoQR_8fvzPj2nb). [^10]: This version is in *Sunan al-Dārimī* (bk. 18, no. 2453) with nearly identical wording; in *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 18028; and in al-Mundhirī, *al-Targhīb wa-l-tarhīb*, where it is graded authentic by al-Albānī. [^11]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17745; graded sound by Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, [https://dorar.net/hadith/sharh/210341](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dorar.net/hadith/sharh/210341&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127037741&usg=AOvVaw3IKMflSulH72ppUXluPBxh). [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhāri*, “Chapter: The superiority of he who leaves all doubtful things for the sake of his religion,” no. 52; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, “Chapter: Taking that which is lawful and leaving that which is unclear,” no. 1599. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhāri*, no. 6847; a similar narration is found in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1500. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-BukhāriI,* no. 177; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 361. [^15]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *Kitāb al-birr wa-l-ṣilaḥ*, no. 2007, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2007](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2007&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127039279&usg=AOvVaw381cQ1Wsg2bpc38RtN9vEL); graded *ḥasan gharīb*. [^16]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, n.d.), *Kitāb al-ʿilm*, 1:58. [^17]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwa*, 35:395–96. [^18]: Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī, *al-Waraqāt*, 30, [https://shamela.ws/book/6297/24#p1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/6297/24%23p1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127040289&usg=AOvVaw2nAOgKHj4wRRDv0drdMVMQ). [^19]: This is the foundation of the principle of consensus. This is established by the fact that Allah has declared this *ummah* witnesses unto humankind (2:143), which guarantees the probity, that is, validity, of the testimony, of the *ummah* and its scholars. See Ibn ʿĀshūr’s *tafsir* of 2:143 ([https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/2/143](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/2/143&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127041003&usg=AOvVaw1X1yvqkUzUfNVVguSPOcVl)), where he lists the opinions of scholars supporting this. This is supported by a few hadiths of uncertain authenticity, the well-known clause being “God will not gather this *ummah* upon error.” In all narrations, another clause follows this declaration. See  [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2167](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2167&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127041457&usg=AOvVaw1PsgTC_lqcI2oPdyMWsQ56). The best proof of this principle, as noted above, is in the inference from the Qur’anic verses as noted above. [^20]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Kitāb al-mustadrak ʿalā majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 2:250, [https://shamela.ws/book/10284/460](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/10284/460&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1786480127041971&usg=AOvVaw2d884KKA_dRLqQrpuTA2mV). [^21]: “The consensus of the *ummah* is truthful, for the *ummah*—and God be praised—does not agree on error, as God characterizes it as such in the Book and the Sunnah. God says, ‘Ye are the best Community brought forth for humankind; ye command right, forbid wrong, and believe in God’ \[Q. 3:110\]. The *ummah* is characterized as such because they command all that is right and forbid all that is wrong. . . . If the *ummah* held a doctrine in religion which was false, then it could not command right (as indicated in the verse) nor could it forbid wrong in that regard. \[Hence the protectedness of the Community as a whole.\]” *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 19:176–77; 20:501. [^22]: Qur’an 29:69. ## Summary Between the authority of the learned and the promptings of the heart lies one of the most delicate trials in the life of a believer. The starting point is a hadith in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, "I am only human, and you bring your disputes to me. Perhaps one of you is more eloquent in his argument than another, and I rule in his favor according to what I hear. So if I ever give someone a right that belongs to his brother, let him not take it—for I am only cutting for him a piece of the Fire." This tradition establishes a foundational distinction that our scholars have long recognized: between *qadaʾ*, the binding ruling of an Islamic court, and *diyana*, what is true before Allah. A judgment may settle a matter formally while leaving it unresolved in the sight of God. Even the Prophetic office as judge did not dissolve the believer's accountability to the truth he knows in his heart. The question of navigating between external authority and internal moral knowledge is therefore not a modern anxiety nor an innovation of those weakened in faith; it is a question the Prophet ﷺ himself raised in the most dramatic manner. The tension is not between our intuition and what Allah wants, for the whole meaning of submission is to subdue the ego to Allah. Rather, it lies between what the heart senses Allah wants and what some external authority claims on His behalf. Two responsibilities must be held together: the cultivation of an inner moral intelligence attentive to injustice and suffering, and fidelity to the inherited scholarly tradition grounded in scripture and reverence for the learned as bearers of the divine message. These are not rivals but mutually disciplining, though experience shows they sometimes appear to conflict. Vigilance is required against subtle distortion, for how does one know that a perceived objection to a fatwa is genuine moral perception and not the corrupting effect of one's social surroundings? This balance demands knowledge, discernment, the company of the righteous, and the practices of *muraqaba* and *muhasaba* before Allah. Ambiguity in divine command is never accidental. When Allah made the staggering demand upon Ibrahim, upon him be peace, to sacrifice his son, He conveyed it through a dream—a form that required recognition and resolve rather than compulsion. Ibrahim could have dismissed it, yet he read it as binding and acted. The Qur'an praises those "who listen to the word and follow the best of it," described by one exegete as connoisseurs of faith who discern not only what is permissible but what is most pleasing to Allah. As a warning, the Qur'an recounts the Israelites who outwardly honored the Sabbath yet hollowed it out by setting their nets in advance. The real trial lies between these two: not mere compliance with the letter, but recognizing and pursuing the fuller truth of what Allah asks. Two contemporary cases illustrate opposite failures of the same problem. In much of the Muslim world, political conditions restrict expressions of support for Palestine, and some religious leadership has acquiesced to these constraints, so that positions which strain the conscience are elevated as though they were the norm. A weary logic takes hold—*If God has given them power, they must be in the right*—which surrenders not merely argument but moral imagination itself. Yet there is no shortage of true *ʿulamaʾ* who speak the truth at any cost, many thousands imprisoned or silenced. Still, we cannot absolve ourselves, for by the established principle, when a communal obligation goes unfulfilled the entire *ummah* bears blame. The converse danger is the elevation of instinct and prevailing social norms over disciplined tradition, seen in the rapid normalization of LGBT ideology, where some Muslims have sought to realign Islamic norms with slogans, and others have minimized the matter as exaggerated. Here the pull of dominant cultural narratives risks displacing the careful moral reasoning preserved within the scholarly tradition. In the first case excessive deference silences a sound intuition; in the second excessive trust in intuition overrides sound guidance. The task is not to choose between authority and intuition but to understand how each corrects and disciplines the other. The Prophetic framework rests on several traditions. To Wabisa ibn Maʿbad the Prophet ﷺ said, tapping his chest thrice, "Ask your self. Ask your heart, O Wabisa. Righteousness is what the soul feels at ease with and the heart finds tranquility in. Sin is what unsettles the soul and wavers in the chest—even if people give you fatwas, again and again." This does not open the door to pure subjectivity, for the longer version in *Musnad Ahmad* adds the concrete prohibition of donkey meat and predatory beasts, showing that where Allah has spoken clearly the believer submits. The heart is an instrument to be cultivated through worship, knowledge, and *taqwa*, for not every heart is like Wabisa's, attuned to the truth. A necessary restraint follows in the hadith of Nuʿman ibn Bashir: "The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear, and between them are doubtful matters unknown to most people," with the warning that whoever grazes near the sanctuary risks entering it, and that in the body is a morsel of flesh—the heart—upon whose soundness the whole body depends. This directs the believer toward *waraʿ*, cautious avoidance of the doubtful. Yet the Prophet ﷺ himself limited this principle. When a man doubted his child's paternity by appearance, he was corrected through the analogy of animals whose offspring differ in color, for suspicion does not overturn certainty. In prayer, one does not act on doubt about purity "until he hears a sound or finds a smell," whence the maxim: *certainty is not removed by doubt*. Avoidance of the doubtful is a discipline of personal caution, not a universal rule, for when doubt is pervasive it produces paralysis, when obligation is clear it overrides precaution, and not all doubt is valid—some being mere *waswasa* or manufactured suspicion. A further warning guards against a subtler danger: "Do not be an *immaʿa*, saying, 'If the people do good, we do good; and if they do wrong, we do wrong.' Rather, discipline yourselves so that if people do good, you do good, and if they do evil, you do not commit evil." The modern *immaʿa* is one whose very moral perception has been absorbed by imitation, so that conformity masquerades as conscience. Even the heart that the first hadith bids us consult can be distorted by its surrounding atmosphere, requiring a conscience anchored beyond both self and crowd, disciplined by revelation. These imperatives assume trustworthy authority. Imam al-Ghazali identifies the "wicked scholar," *ʿalim al-suʾ*, whose learning is entangled with status and power; and the opening hadith adds that even sincere scholars may err through incomplete evidence or misjudgment. Ibn Taymiyya distinguishes three senses of Sharia: the revealed law (*al-sharʿ al-munazzal*), the foundational matters known by necessity; the interpreted law (*al-sharʿ al-muʾawwal*), the fruit of qualified *ijtihad* followed through *taqlid*; and the altered law (*al-sharʿ al-mubaddal*), where a ruling bears legal form yet diverges from divine intent through flawed assumptions. Imam al-Juwayni in *al-Waraqat* defines *taqlid* as accepting a statement without knowing its proof, a rational necessity for those lacking the tools of evidence, though inapplicable to what is known by necessity, such as the five prayers. Ibn Taymiyya affirms that Allah has protected this *ummah* from agreeing upon error, that the truth lies within the four schools, and that commanding right and forbidding wrong ensures the truth eventually becomes evident. Thus disagreement preserves rather than dissolves authority. The gravest difficulty lies not in the enduring foundations but in the misapplication of the law to novel realities (*nawazil*), where the informed believer's role is to consult the trustworthy and contribute honest knowledge of the facts. The believer, then, is called neither to reconstruct the law nor to abandon the heart. He must hold fast to what is clear, seek trustworthy scholars without outsourcing his conscience, train his heart before trusting it, pause when something feels wrong even when cloaked in authority, and refuse despair when he encounters corruption, trusting Allah's protection of the *ummah* whose scholars are heirs of the prophets. He must act when need is manifest even without complete knowledge, accept that he will sometimes act without certainty, and place his certainty in Allah rather than in his own conclusions. Ultimately believers are judged by the soundness of their hearts and the sincerity of their deeds, for the law is means, not end, and Allah has promised: "As for those who strive in Us, We will surely guide them to Our paths. And indeed, Allah is with those who do good." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/four-ways-of-confronting-islamophobia-on-campus-protecting-muslim-students-from-abuse # Four Ways of Confronting Islamophobia on Campus: Protecting Muslim Students from Abuse **Authors:** Imam Khalid Latif, Dr. Salman Khan, Mazin Awad **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Palestine **Published:** July 24, 2026 **Updated:** August 8, 2026 Since October 2023, the past three academic years have exposed something painful but necessary for our community to confront: We were not prepared. The Prophet ﷺ taught us to tie our camel and trust in Allah.[^1] For far too long, in the higher education space, we trusted, but failed to tie the camel. Our students entered a moment that demanded infrastructure, advocacy, protection, and long-term investment, and many were left carrying burdens far heavier than any young person should have to bear alone. While the mainstream media narrative portrayed student protesters as violent, the reality on the ground was entirely different. The Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School conducted a study of over 130 student encampments that encompassed over 3,000 days of student protests and found few incidents of property damage (less than 1%) and even fewer incidents of injuries to counterprotestors.[^2] And yet, despite the peaceful nature of these protests, Muslim and pro-Palestinian students experienced wave after wave of negative consequences. Students were doxed.[^3] Their faces were plastered on digital trucks that drove through cities like Boston and New York.[^4] Job offers disappeared.[^5] Our sisters wearing hijab were followed and harassed.[^6] Students were sprayed with chemicals,[^7] hospitalized,[^8] surveilled,[^9] spat on,[^10] physically assaulted,[^11] and arrested.[^12] Some slept in encampments where sprinklers were intentionally activated in the freezing early morning hours.[^13] Others, like those at Rutgers and NYU, saw their campus spaces vandalized and destroyed, even on the morning of Eid.[^14] At UCLA, outside agitators attacked students with little intervention.[^15] At Stanford, students were targets of hit-and-runs.[^16] In North Carolina, students were stabbed.[^17] In Vermont, Hisham, Kinnan, and Tahseen were shot.[^18] Our student community has experienced no shortage of challenges and difficult encounters. What has been lacking is a willingness to seriously confront what these stories reveal. What’s more, the consequences did not stop here. Muslim chaplains, people who stood beside their students with compassion and dignity, quietly lost their positions at several prominent universities. Alumni and professionals who spoke with moral clarity faced repercussions, including cancellations and withdrawn opportunities.[^19] Even now, we continue to witness professionals penalized for refusing to abandon their principles. What has perhaps been most heartbreaking is watching institutions that pride themselves on dialogue, free inquiry, and academic freedom resort to suppression when those very values were tested. Many universities even resorted to violence, calling state or local police forces to forcibly remove encampment protestors, curbing free speech, canceling commencement speakers, or penalizing individuals exercising their right to free speech. In the midst of this, important work has emerged from within the community. Organizations and advocates stepped in where they could. At Muslim Campus Life, initiatives like the [Campus Islamophobia Tracker](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimcampuslife.com/islamophobia-tracker/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266734358&usg=AOvVaw31iCOt1fBiNgmpUAfBs6HI) began documenting incidents of Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism, anti-Arab racism, and anti-Palestinian racism affecting college students. [Training modules](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimcampuslife.com/2026/04/05/completing-the-confronting-islamophobia-on-campus-training-series-at-vanderbilt-university/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266734609&usg=AOvVaw27yY5EXszbJFXgmbW8xZO4) were developed. [Toolkits](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tArI-PgEQw_1wcbBbtTEBkCE5rj0Ngww/view?usp%3Ddrive_link&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266734754&usg=AOvVaw3YXvGeNOTIDNeqfzK5z0Ie) were launched. Faculty, administrators, chaplains, attorneys, and advocates worked tirelessly to support students navigating impossible circumstances. Legal organizations provided critical support in moments of crisis. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image1-1024x898.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image2-1024x831.png) At the same time, we have to acknowledge that our collective response has fallen short. Despite progress, our community faces ongoing struggles, particularly the underreporting of incidents, the lack of data needed to inform and assess strategic action, limited sustained alumni engagement, and insufficient investment in Muslim higher education advocacy more broadly. Recognizing these shortcomings is essential if we hope to better protect, support, and guide future campus communities when they need it most. --- ## 1\. Report Islamophobic Incidents So many of our students endure harm in silence, understandably reluctant to disclose information because of a heavy feeling of mistrust. The trauma of surveillance, particularly in post-9/11 America, has conditioned many Muslims to fear visibility.[^20] Students worry that reporting incidents will expose them to further retaliation. Many do not trust institutions to protect them,  barely convinced that anyone is listening at all. But documentation matters. Data matters. In our current reality, stories undocumented by systems are too easily dismissed as isolated incidents. Official records speak volumes; they inform institutional responses, establish accountability, and protect future community members. Our tradition calls us toward justice, even when justice feels inconvenient or exhausting. Allah tells us not to let the wrongdoing of others cause us to abandon justice ourselves, and part of pursuing justice is preserving testimony. We must record what happened. We must name harm honestly, and refuse to allow the hurt of our fellow brothers and sisters to disappear, unaccounted for. Organizations like [Muslim Campus Life](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimcampuslife.com/islamophobia-tracker/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266736720&usg=AOvVaw0P6rHGMcu8O0BOgv5r8l0E), [Muslim Advocates](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimadvocates.org/action/report-discrimination/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266736846&usg=AOvVaw0CpIyqUpiFO0zUYJ02ZZmy), [Palestine Legal](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://palestinelegal.org/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266736917&usg=AOvVaw2hUEzJILUSOP-xTfrL81hD), [CAIR National](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cair.com/report/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266736978&usg=AOvVaw0EqnNcKUV52Gf1j71iTKcp), [your local CAIR chapter](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cair.com/about_cair/cair-chapters/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266737057&usg=AOvVaw1ygYSdKHCkRusiMt0NVM8H), or your university reporting portal accept reports of campus incidents. --- ## 2\. Contribute to Longitudinal Data Studies Sadly, we are yet to possess robust longitudinal data on Muslim college students in North America. We have snapshots, moments, and isolated studies, but we lack sustained understanding. Without long-term data, we cannot fully measure whether campus climates are improving or deteriorating, whether interventions are meaningful or symbolic, or whether institutions are changing or simply waiting for attention to fade. Longitudinal research is not just academic, it is strategic. Data strengthens the case for sustained institutional investment in Muslim student support. It allows advocates, chaplains, educators, and students to speak with credibility when demanding institutional change. It transforms pain into policy, and our community must begin investing in this work with seriousness and urgency. Spearhead and support longitudinal studies on Muslim college experience, like the recent [survey](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cnu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe3/form/SV_5gUHTqFyYxhhubc&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266738006&usg=AOvVaw0bxprJyhPjEt3bdZ2JCwUj) launched by Muslim Campus Life. --- ## 3\. Be an Engaged Alum For most Muslim students, graduating signals the end of their relationship with their university. This represents a very transactional mindset, where students pay tuition, earn a degree, and never engage with their alma mater again. However, our faith teaches us to capitalize on the opportunity for good whenever we are able; we need to view our engagement with our universities postgraduation as an *amana* and *sadaqa* *jariya* to support future students on campus. Being an engaged alum can be an act of faith, solidarity, and long-term investment in the well-being of those who come after you. An engaged alum is not simply a donor. An engaged alum is someone who says to future generations: “You will not have to navigate this alone.” Alumni can hold influence that current students cannot. They can sit on alumni boards, lead donor conversations, and carry credibility with administrators. Imagine what it would mean if Muslim alumni across the country organized with intentionality, not only to celebrate accomplishments, but to advocate for protections, resources, chaplaincy support, scholarships, and structural accountability. Islam places profound emphasis on community, the *ummah*, and the responsibility Muslims have to one another. Alumni engagement is an expression of that value in practice. Whether through donating to Muslim student organizations, volunteering at events, advocating for institutional support, or simply showing up, engaged alumni extend the *ummah* across generations and geographies. Depending on your institution, you may have an official Muslim alumni association that is under the broader university’s alumni association or an independent 501(c)(3) that organizes alumni on behalf of the Muslim community. If you are a college graduate, joining your university’s Muslim alumni association can be a great first step to getting more involved. If a Muslim alumni association does not exist at your alma mater, [consider starting one](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivmu_KvU9aWJ8FyY15XLOdNiWnI4RCTE/view?usp%3Dsharing&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266739925&usg=AOvVaw2_wRJm4gN7kH-My2ul1jga). --- ## 4\. Invest in the Higher Education Space Muslim students have never simply been passive participants on college campuses. Historically, MSA National led to the rise of many national organizations in the 1960s through the 1980s, including ISNA and the Fiqh Council of North America.[^21] Today, we have all witnessed the power that Muslim college students continue to wield in shaping national and international conversations. The question before us now is whether the broader community is willing to invest in them with the same seriousness and commitment they have shown in supporting the causes that matter to the *ummah*. This investment may look like mentorship. It may look like funding. It may look like alumni organizing, policy advocacy, board participation, or simply sustained presence. In all its manifestations, supporting Muslim higher educational advocacy cannot remain symbolic. It must entail principled investment. \*\*\* The failures exposed over the past three years cannot simply become sources of grief or outrage; they must become points of reflection and responsibility. If this moment teaches us anything, it is that care, preparation, and institutional support cannot be improvised in times of crisis. They must be built deliberately, sustained consistently, and rooted in *ihsan*. Working on the four areas mentioned here is the first step on the road to better empowering our campus communities to continue in the struggle for justice. We must tie our camel first, and then place our trust in Allah. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2517; al-Albānī classified it as *ḥasan* (fair). [^2]: Jay Ulfelder, “Crowd Counting Consortium: An Empirical Overview of Recent Pro-Palestine Protests at U.S. Schools,” Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, May 30, 2024. [^3]: Joyce E. Kim and Asher J. Montgomery, “Doxxed Harvard Students Decry ‘Heinous and Aggressive’ Online Harassment, Call for Greater Support from University,” *The Harvard Crimson*, December 8, 2023. [^4]: Rebecca Massel, “Students Protest Against ‘Doxxing Truck,’” *Columbia Daily Spectator*, October 27, 2023. [^5]: Johanna Alonso, “Are Students Who Protested Losing Out on Job Opportunities?” *Inside Higher Ed*, June 18, 2024. [^6]: “Campus Islamophobia Tracker,” Muslim Campus Life, [https://www.muslimcampuslife.com/islamophobia-tracker/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimcampuslife.com/islamophobia-tracker/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1784914266743513&usg=AOvVaw3CFRwQjc6t54Fd_1EWD69u). [^7]: Chris Mendell, “Protesters Allegedly Sprayed with Hazardous Chemical at Pro-Palestinian Rally, Nearly Two Dozen Report,” *Columbia Daily Spectator*, January 22, 2024. [^8]: Mendell, “Protesters Allegedly Sprayed.” [^9]: “Ozturk, Khalil, Documents, Deportation, Pro-Palestine Protest, Canary Mission,” *Mother Jones*, January 2026. [^10]: “Campus Islamophobia Tracker.” [^11]: Jack Rutherford, Spencer Friedland, and Haley Huh, “Pro-Palestine, Pro-Israel Protestors Gather in Wake of Arrests,” *The Emory Wheel*, April 26, 2024. [^12]: Mara Hall, “All 17 Students Arrested at Pro-Palestine Protest Take Pre-Trial Diversion," *The Observer*, November 19, 2025. [^13]: “Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard,” *The Harvard Crimson*, April 25, 2024. [^14]: “Rutgers University Arrest Jacob Beacher,” *CNN*, April 22, 2024; “Vandalism, Muslim Prayer Room, NYU,” *The New York Times*, April 4, 2025. [^15]: Jonah Valdez and Akela Lacy, “Victims of UCLA Mob Attack Sue to ‘Hold the Aggressors Accountable,’” *The Intercept*, March 20, 2025. [^16]: Anna Yang, “Hit-and-Run Injures Arab Muslim Student, Incident Under Investigation as Hate Crime,” *The Stanford Daily*, November 4, 2023. [^17]: “Campus Islamophobia Tracker.” [^18]: Katy Pickens and Will Kubzansky, “Brown Junior Among Three Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont Saturday Night,” *The Brown Daily Herald*, November 26, 2023. [^19]: Ryan Quinn, “Rutgers Disinvites Engineering Graduation Speaker After He Criticizes Israel,” *Inside Higher Ed*, May 7, 2026. [^20]: Diane Shammas, “Underreporting Discrimination Among Arab American and Muslim American Community College Students: Using Focus Groups to Unravel the Ambiguities Within the Survey Data,” *Journal of Mixed Methods Research* 11, no. 1 (2017): 99–123. [^21]: See Abiya Ahmed, “Muslim Student Associations in North America,” in *Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion* (Oxford University Press, 2025). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-parenthood-can-break-the-ego-a-fathers-reflection-on-spiritual-growth-essay # How Parenthood Can Break the Ego: A Father’s Reflection on Spiritual Growth | Essay **Author:** Hasan Hameed **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Perspective, Publication **Published:** July 24, 2026 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 *What is the spiritual potential of parenthood? Through scattered reflections on fatherhood, fragments of Islamic history, and some of the many prophetic stories in the Qur’an, the author argues that the experience of parenthood can break the ego and elevate the soul.* Two taps of the finger. The screen lit up. 2:32 a.m., read my reddish, sleep-deprived eyes. Just then, I felt the weight on my shoulder increase. Could it be true? Had this baby fallen asleep? For the last hour and forty-seven minutes, I had been holding my daughter. My right arm supported her from below. My chest felt the warmth of her frail body pressed against it. My left hand alternated between cradling her neck and gently patting her back. My legs could barely stand, having walked all over our one-bedroom apartment in the vain hope that my own body’s movement would soothe her and induce sleep—so I could get some sleep. She had woken up crying hysterically, for reasons known only to Allah. After I picked her up and carried her out of the bedroom, her weeping gave way—after twelve torturous minutes—to hiccupping sobs and teary-eyed stares at the objects in the dimly lit lounge. The sobs had stopped a while ago, as had the movements of her head, and so the new heaviness on my shoulder could very well mean that tonight’s test had passed. Treading carefully, I navigated my way between baby toys and strewn cushions toward the bedroom. To put her down before confirming her sleep would be to waste the entire effort. But how could I check? The mirror, of course. I opened the closet door and stood before it. For a split second, the world stopped moving. Then, slowly, I turned my shoulders. Through the mirror, a pair of shining black eyes looked straight into mine. “Hi Baba,” they seemed to say, “I’m still awake.” *Ya Allah*, a sigh escaped my heart, *please put this baby to sleep*. \*\*\* Of all the things that entered our life with a baby, a crisis of confidence was the least expected and the most troubling. And not because we lacked information. If anything, we had too much of it. YouTube. Family. Friends with kids. Friends without kids. ChatGPT. Everyone seemed to know a lot about babies. Take a crying baby. We were told it might need feeding. Or burping. Or a diaper change. Or holding. But what of the wailing when all these conditions were met? In such moments, which recurred with surprising frequency throughout the day—and night—certitude was broken. Confidence was shaken. *Am I missing something?* *Am I making some terrible mistake?* Strange thoughts fill your heart. Meanwhile, you make foolish faces and silly sounds. You walk the baby around. As the cries grow louder, your heart beats faster. *Maybe I should wake up her mother*, you think in desperation. *But she needs rest!* replies the functioning part of your brain. *How in the world did I become so uncertain of myself?* you wonder. Parenting, you realize, is breaking the fiery monster inside you—your ego. Therein lies the potential: Will you surrender? \*\*\* Childbirth is a wrenching experience. As we evolve from women and men to mothers and fathers, we set foot on an arduous road trodden by millions of Muslim men and women before us. Every couple’s anxiety and pain, smiles and joys, are unique. But some elements appear shared across time and space. The mother’s womb feels the kicking of the baby. There is morning sickness. Cramps. Exhaustion. Mood swings. The fear of what is to come. The thrill of what is to come. And, eventually, the agonizing pangs of labor. The father’s body feels something too. There is sweat on his brow as the delivery draws near. A helplessness grips him, as the woman he loves goes through the most physically excruciating moment of her life and the greatest pain that a human body can bear. Yet he knows that he can do nothing. He knows, too, that the responsibility is partly his, but the pain is hers. It’s a strange feeling, breeding its own emotional toll. If he’s in the labor room, he knows not what to do. But perhaps, as was and continues to be common in many societies, he is forbidden from entering the birth chamber. Either way, he prays in the dark, beseeching Allah for ease for his wife, for the coming of the child. Therein lies the mysterious agency of the unborn baby. It can bring both the mother and the father to their knees, literally. Parenting, even before the coming of the child, reveals a fact that we all know but often forget: Ultimately, we are not in control. Allah controls everything. *Wa-huwa ʿala kulli shayin qadir*. And He is capable of all things. Pregnancy and childbirth thus mark the beginning of an epic emotional roller coaster. In the thrills and tribulations that follow the entry of a child in the parents’ lives, one experience might be the hardest: witnessing your child fall sick. It is soul-crushing to watch a normally laughing, babbling, chatting, weeping baby operate on low battery. The noise becomes muted, the movements are dulled, and a terrible feeling grips the atmosphere. You rush to the doctor. You buy the medicine. You feed her the medicine—a Herculean task given every child’s innate tendency to throw up any orally injected medicine. But the child is still unable to sleep. She lies curled up in your arms, neither asleep nor fully awake. Medications, like everything else in life, work on Allah’s time. So we have to wait, helplessly. In those moments, we establish an affinity with the parents who came before us—with our own parents, who tended to us when we were ill, but also with all the parents across history who have tended with love and care for the children who became our ancestors. As our arms cradle the child, as our knees bend while rocking the baby, as our hands are raised in supplication, our limbs imitate the bodily movements of our forebears. Most of these figures have been forgotten in the annals of history. Traces, however, survive. \*\*\* ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image2-654x1024.jpg) In a small library in Rawalpindi lies a dusty manuscript. It was copied 169 years ago by a scribe who noted the year but not his name. The manuscript is a commentary on the *Gulistan* of Saʿdi (d. 1291). Across the premodern Muslim world, the *Gulistan* was arguably the single most widely read book after the Qur’an. In South Asia, it became a manual on the eloquent use of language and proper social behavior. But these were not the only topics elaborated in its commentaries, as this copy reveals. The commentator gives the following gloss on two names of God, Ghafur and Rahim: “The first \[Ghafur\] is the exaggerated form of *ghafir* which means excessively forgiving; and the second \[Raḥīm\] is the exaggerated form of *rāḥim* which means excessively merciful.” Straightforward commentary, but our commentator does not stop there: “I am reminded of a day when I was in the service of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahim . . . in the last part of the night, as per his old habit, he awoke, made *wuzu*, and got busy in the remembrance of God. And this lowly one . . . busied himself with recitation of the Qur’an.” Suddenly, a faqir . . . called outside the door: “O ʿAbd al-Rahim!” The faqir requested some men for help with an affair. The shaykh finished his prayers, called up the faqir, and granted his request. When our author returned home, he found his child unwell and the mother aghast. He tried comforting her: “Inshallah he’ll get better.” To calm her down, he began to tell her “all kinds of stories,” including this incident at the shaikh’s home. She replied that the *ʿabd* of al-Rahim had fulfilled the faqir’s request; her husband must beseech al-Rahim Himself to cure her child—He was, after all, the Arham al-Rahimin (the Most Merciful). So the father spent the entire night crying with utmost humility: “Ya Ghafur! Ya Rahim! Heal this child.” By morning, the boy had gotten better. *Alhamdulillahi rabbil-alamin*. This mother and child lived in some unknown town a few centuries ago. The pages of history did not record their names. By some historical accident, a manuscript of the father’s commentary ended up in the Ganj Bakhsh Library. By a bigger accident, I happened to stumble across it. But the labors of these parents in that long night, the tension, the anxiety, the heartfelt duas—all of these were registered by the angels. As parents, every one of our own labors, too, are recorded by angels, whose registers place our names alongside all the countless Muslim men and women before us who beseeched Allah on behalf of their children. In fact, to do so has been the sunnah of the greatest human beings in history. \*\*\* The eponymous founder of the Abrahamic faiths remains a figure to whom Jews, Christians, and Muslims keep returning. But what is the legacy of Abraham? The Qur’an describes various aspects of his life. His reflections as he gazed at the sun, moon, and stars. His confrontation with his idolatrous society. Yet his most enduring legacy revolves around his family. His leaving his infant son in the desert with his wife, whose frantic running around for water is imitated by pilgrims every year; his working with his son to build the Kaaba, toward which our hearts and faces constantly turn; and his willingness to slaughter the same son for God—a dramatic gesture reenacted by the bloodied hands of millions of Muslims across the globe who sacrifice animals on Eid. If the most memorable moments of Ibrahim’s legacy involve his family, these are also the moments that render him unique, a figure we admire but to whom we can barely relate. Yet something about him directly connects him with parents today and across history: his heartfelt supplications. “O my Master, make me an establisher of salah—and *among my offspring too*. O our Master! Accept the supplication. O my Master, forgive me, my parents, and all the Muslims on the day that *hisab* \[accountability\] is established” (Qur’an 14:40–41). Don’t many of us today whisper this same *dua* for our children? And how many of our own parents and their forefathers have made the same prayer? In offering our namaz today, we become, incredible as it may seem, the fulfilment of those *dua*s, offered in the long nights by our ancestors going all the way back to our father Ibrahim. Indeed, perhaps it was because our father recognized that we would yearn for the same that as soon as he prays for him and his offspring to establish prayer, he shifts to the plural *rabbana* (“O *our* Master”). To supplicate requires humility; it requires letting go of the confidence—the arrogance—that I alone can fulfil the needs of my child. Therein lies the reminder: For my own needs, too, I have always been insufficient. It was Allah who tended to me when I was little, and it is He who provides for me now. *Alaysa Allahu bikafin abdahu* (Qur’an 39:36)? “Is Allah not sufficient for His ʿ*abd*?” By phrasing the question this way, the Qur’an subtly reminds me and every one of its readers who we truly are: ʿ*abd*. A servant. A slave of Allah. Humbleness, then, is our most human state, where every moment we act within the agency He has granted us while acknowledging our utter dependency on Him. \*\*\* If a parent turns to Allah in heartfelt supplication when a child falls sick, how should they respond when His decree is to not cure the child but to subject the parent to the biggest trial of their lives? The death of Ibrahim—a different Ibrahim—reveals how parenthood can bring together love, surrender, and grief. It was the eighth year of the Hijra. Our dear Prophet ﷺ and Maria al-Qibtiyya had recently been blessed with a baby boy. What joy the people of Medina felt! But in His infinite wisdom, Allah had willed that his beloved Muhammad ﷺ, who had already borne so much grief, would go through more. The little boy—whom the Prophet ﷺ loved to smell and to kiss—was breathing his last at a tender sixteen months. Tears were streaming from the Prophet’s eyes. His companions were shattered. But they were also confused: Is crying a gesture of discontentment with fate? And the most noble of humans clarified for them and for us the *adab* with Allah in such moments: “The eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but we do not utter anything but what is pleasing to our Lord.” With these words, the Prophet ﷺ instructed his *ummah* how to grieve. The heartbroken father then turned to his son: “We are saddened by your departure, O Ibrahim!” \*\*\* The Prophet’s *adab* reminds us of another father whose story was narrated by Allah Himself. This father, the prophet Yaʿqub (Jacob), is the secret protagonist of what Allah declares the *best* of stories, a story that—tellingly—plays out as a family drama. Yaʿqub (*ʿalayhi al-salam*) is no ordinary prophet—the Qur’an mentions him no less than sixteen times. But unlike other prophets, we do not see Yaʿqub performing any miracles. We do not see him preaching in public. We don’t even know his occupation. Instead, we encounter him first and foremost as a father. Surah Yusuf begins with its titular figure addressing Yaʿqub not as “my father” but as “my *dear* father” (*ya abati)*. It was perhaps Yaʿqub’s fulfilling this role with such excellence that an entire nation was named after him as the “*children* of Israel.” In a narrative where everyone else keeps moving, Yaʿqub’s patience at the loss of Yusuf provides a constant anchor. “Patience” meant the refusal to complain, not the elimination of grief. The Qur’an records the latter in soul-wrenching verses: “And he turned away from them and cried: ‘O my grief for Yusuf!’ And his eyes became white from sorrow” (Qur’an 12:84). Centuries later, the poet Ghalib (d. 1869) would reflect on the magnitude of this grief: **قید میں یعقوب نے لی گو نہ یوسف کی خبر لیکن آنکھیں روزن دیوار زنداں ہو گئیں** **Though Yaʿqub didn’t inquire about Yusuf in prison His eyes turned into the window of the prison’s walls** To comprehend the verse, let us imagine Yusuf (*ʿalayhi al-salam*) in a dark prison cell with only a small window near the ceiling. The little light that streams in appears almost white against the black walls. For the poet, this white light represents the white eyes of Yaʿqub, who was physically unable to receive any news about his son, but whose loving—and grieving—gaze followed him wherever he went. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image1-1024x576.jpg) In this grief lies a special beauty (*jamil* is how the Qur’an describes his patience). Yaʿqub makes it a means of intimacy with his Creator: “I complain of my anguish and my sorrow only to Allah.” He let no other come between him and his Lord. It is as though Allah was so pleased with him that He made this remark—uttered in utter privacy—into something recited and remembered across history. The Qur’an thus celebrates the value of the pure *love* of a parent for their child. In an era where the worth of not just men but also women is defined by their “contribution” to a capitalistic economy, the Qur’anic elevation of Yaʿqub reminds us of a different paradigm of human worth. One that values parenthood for the intensity of its love. In fact, the Qur’an is teaching us that pure grief—as a legitimate outcome of love—is *also* precious. Almost as a Qur’anic tribute to every parent who experiences the loss of a child. That moment of loss, as devastating as it is, is also *for the same reason* an opportunity: *Because* we are broken, we can surrender our entire selves to God. The sorrows of our prophets remind us that parenthood is often accompanied by grief, that it can break not just the ego but also the spirit, yet in God alone can solace be found. \*\*\* What is special about the love of parents for their children? A Qur’anic maxim may provide a clue: *Qalilam ma tashkurun*. “Little thanks you give.” Alternatively, “Few of you give thanks.” Gratefulness, from the Qur’anic perspective, is a scarce commodity in the human world. Yet it is one that we expect like the laws of nature: Every kind action must be rewarded with a show of gratitude. Whether it’s holding the door of an elevator for a stranger or buying a gift for a spouse, we expect to hear an instant “thank you.” As parents, then, we are confronted with a dilemma, even an affront: Infants are utterly ungrateful. Perhaps that judgment is too harsh. Perhaps in their cryptic baby language, in the flitting of their eyes, in their secret smiles, they too give thanks. But the fact remains that they remain utterly oblivious to *how much* we do for them. The waking up at night. The investment of time. The money spent on diapers and wipes and clothes and toys. They know none of it. So they will never remember it. At least in its inception, then, parenting becomes a giving without receiving. A giving out of love. This pure love is purifying. As parents, what we do for our kids is not bound by the snares of instrumental reason. Even the spousal relationship does not provide that transcendence, tied as it is to another adult who can—and should—say thank you. Marriage, after all, originates from a contract. But what ties the parent and child? What is this strange attraction? Pure love is hard to describe, but one manifestation of it must surely be giving without receiving. Parental love can thus become the closest human mirror of God’s own love for His creation. He needs nothing from us, yet He keeps giving. *Fa bi-ayyi alai rabbikuma tukadhdhiban*? How many of His favors will we deny? The ingratitude of our children reminds us of our own ingratitude to Allah. And what may be the biggest blessing of His that many of us take for granted? Our parents. Perhaps this is why the Qur’an pairs the worship of Allah with good behavior to parents. In fact, the Qur’an uses words from similar root letters to describe God and parenthood, the divine and human entities that nourish a child from infancy to adulthood. This is evident in a supplication that each of us are instructed to make: “O my *Rabb*, have mercy on my parents, as they *rabba-yani* \[raised me\] when I was little.” \*\*\* In a sense, the series of supplications in the verses and stories of the Qur’an present us with the circle of life: We witness the secret supplication of Zakariyya for offspring, the prayers of Ibrahim for his future generations, the anxiety of Musa’s mother, the grief of Yaʿqub, the pain of Maryam, the cry of Noah, and so much more. These figures from the sacred past are not just figureheads; they have been sources of support and springs of comfort for Muslim women and men over the centuries who have struggled with the enormous burden of passing down this religion to their future generations. And if the experience of parenthood was shattering, it is worth remembering that those with broken egos were able to achieve the task of raising sound human beings. That is the task awaiting Muslim parents today. The task of raising sound human beings is no small feat, as we can tell by living in a society full of unbroken egos but broken human beings. Parenthood today thus carries the potential for spiritual ascension. The varied experiences it brings—of joy and love, exhaustion and heartbreaking grief—can engender a *self*\-lessness to serve as a cure against the *self*\-ishness of the ego. Especially in an era obsessed with regimes of *self*\-care and *self*\-love—parenthood brings an invitation to break out of the prison of the self. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/thriving-without-external-validation-prophetic-wisdom-on-looks-insecurity-and-self-esteem-essay # Thriving Without External Validation: Prophetic Wisdom on Looks, Insecurity, and Self-Esteem | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Analysis, Prophetic Cure, Publication **Published:** July 10, 2026 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 Modern constructions of self-esteem are increasingly tied to appearance. Social comparison, curated images, and constant exposure to filtered faces, manicured lives, and embellished existences through digital platforms have intensified appearance-based evaluation, particularly among youth. This has been exemplified in the recent emergence of extreme trends and communities like looksmaxxing (i.e., the practice of deliberately improving one’s physical appearance to maximize perceived attractiveness in young men) and vindicta (i.e., a women-only Reddit community dedicated to improving beauty, attractiveness, and allure). Psychological research consistently links appearance-focused self-worth with anxiety, depression, and reduced well-being.[^1] In such a context, Islam offers not merely critique but a reorientation. The Prophetic tradition relocates value from outward form to inward character, from image to intention, and from validation to accountability before Allah. To appreciate this reorientation, it is essential to begin with how the Qur’an defines the human being at baseline. --- ## Created with Dignity and Diversity: The Qur’anic Foundations of Self-Worth and Beauty Allah tells us that He created the human being in “the best of forms.”[^2] This verse establishes a critical starting point. The human being is not created deficient or lacking in essence. Rather, we are created with inherent dignity, balance, and beauty. This framing directly challenges the modern tendency toward chronic dissatisfaction with one’s appearance. Many people today feel that their worth must be constructed or improved through external validation. The Qur’an reverses this assumption by grounding worth in divine creation rather than social perception. From a psychological perspective, this aligns with the concept of unconditional self-worth, which is associated with greater emotional stability and resilience.[^3] When a person believes their value is inherent rather than contingent, they are less vulnerable to comparison and insecurity. Furthermore, the Qur’an repeatedly invites believers to reflect on the diversity of Allah’s creation as a sign of His wisdom rather than a deviation from an ideal. Allah says, “And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.”[^4] Diversity is not a flaw to be corrected but a sign to be appreciated. Yet globalization and digital media have increasingly narrowed beauty standards into a remarkably uniform ideal. Across continents, faces, bodies, lifestyles, and even cultural identities are often shaped toward the same aspirational image, frequently centered on Western and Eurocentric features, sometimes to the point of racial ambiguity. The result is that many people are taught to see their natural features not as signs of Allah’s creativity but as obstacles to acceptance. The Qur’anic perspective challenges this assumption at its root. If diversity itself is among Allah’s signs, then beauty cannot be reduced to conformity. Appreciating the variety of Allah’s creation requires questioning whether our standards of beauty are genuinely our own or whether they have been inherited from cultural forces that value uniformity over divine artistry. With this foundation in place, the Prophetic tradition then clarifies what truly matters in the sight of Allah. --- ## Reframing Worth: From Appearance to Character The Prophet ﷺ taught that “verily, Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather He looks at your hearts and actions.”[^5] This statement shifts the standard of evaluation away from what is visible to what is internal and intentional. This transition is crucial. When self-worth is tied to appearance, it becomes unstable and reactive. Studies show that individuals whose self-esteem depends on appearance are more likely to experience anxiety, dissatisfaction, and mood fluctuations.[^6] In contrast, grounding worth in values and character produces greater psychological stability. The Prophetic model does not deny beauty; it removes attributing excessive salience and value to it. What ultimately matters is the state of the heart and the quality of one’s actions. This reframing changes both how we see others and how we see ourselves, particularly in moments of self-reflection. Extending this discussion further, contemporary research has identified parallel distortions both in body image and financial perception. Body dysmorphia and what has been termed “money dysmorphia” both reflect distorted self-assessment shaped by comparison and exposure. Social media algorithms play a central role in amplifying these distortions. By prioritizing content that captures attention, they disproportionately showcase idealized bodies and curated lifestyles. Studies have shown that repeated exposure to such content is associated with increased body dissatisfaction and heightened anxiety about financial status, even among individuals who are objectively stable.[^7] In this way, the algorithm systematically amplifies what Allah does not look at, appearance and wealth, while quietly de-emphasizing what He does look at, the heart and one’s deeds. This is not to say that appearance and wealth are insignificant; Islam provides guidance on both. Rather, the problem arises when they become the primary standards by which worth is measured. In this way, the algorithm often elevates outward markers of status while obscuring the inward qualities that the Prophet ﷺ taught are ultimately most significant before Allah. Over time, this creates a subtle but powerful shift in how individuals evaluate themselves and others. Without conscious resistance, a person can begin to internalize a standard shaped by visibility and comparison rather than one grounded in faith. Building on this internal dimension, the Prophet ﷺ taught a supplication to recite when looking in the mirror (an object associated with vanity): “O Allah, just as You have made my outward form beautiful, make my character beautiful.”[^8] This supplication transforms the mirror (or the selfie camera) from a site of criticism into a site of gratitude and intention. Instead of fixating on perceived flaws, we should acknowledge our outward form as a blessing and redirect our focus toward refining our character. In psychological terms, this reflects cognitive reframing, a technique used to interrupt negative thought patterns and promote healthier self-perception.[^9] Over time, such practices can reduce self-criticism and cultivate a more stable sense of self-worth. However, while personal practices like this are protective, we are also shaped by the broader environment around us, and this is where the Islamic worldview becomes especially relevant. While social media plays a major role in shaping appearance-related insecurity, it is not the only source. For many people, the most painful pressures come from those closest to them: family members, spouses, relatives, or friends whose comments and expectations carry far more weight than anything seen online. A person may understand intellectually that their worth is not determined by appearance, yet still feel hurt when those they love reinforce messages to the contrary. Acknowledging this reality is important. The Prophetic teachings on human dignity and worth remain true even when others fail to reflect them. For some, the challenge is not learning that Allah values them beyond their appearance, but holding onto that truth when the people around them seem to value something else. --- ## The Distortions of Appearance: Insecurity and Superiority The Qur’an describes Shaytan’s strategy as leading people to “change the creation of Allah.”[^10] This is not merely about physical alteration. It is about cultivating dissatisfaction with what Allah has already created. In contemporary society, this distortion is increasingly visible. Global data show a substantial rise in cosmetic procedures over the past two decades, with millions performed annually.[^11] Furthermore, there are known associations between dark triad personality traits (e.g., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and acceptance of plastic surgery.[^12] While not every procedure is inherently problematic, the broader cultural trend reflects a growing discomfort with natural appearance, often driven by comparison and unrealistic, idealized standards. At this point, the issue is no longer cosmetic. It becomes existential. The individual begins to measure themselves against an ever-shifting, manufactured ideal, losing connection with their inherent dignity and the beauty of Allah’s creation. This distortion is further intensified by the environments we inhabit daily, particularly digital ones. Recognizing the power of visual input, the Qur’an instructs believers to lower their gaze and guard their modesty.[^13] While often framed in moral terms, this command also has psychological implications. Constant exposure to idealized images increases comparison and dissatisfaction. Research consistently shows that social media use is associated with poorer body image and increased anxiety.[^14] By limiting exposure, the believer protects their internal state from distortion. Lowering the gaze therefore functions as both a spiritual discipline and a psychological safeguard. It helps preserve clarity, reduce comparison, and maintain emotional balance. Yet even as one guards against insecurity, another distortion can emerge from the same focus on appearance: vanity. If insecurity leads a person to feel less than others, vanity leads them to feel above others. Both distortions arise from placing too much emphasis on appearance. It is narrated from Abu Hurayra that the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah will not look on the Day of Resurrection at the one who drags his garment out of vanity.[^15] In this context, the act symbolized pride and social superiority. The issue was not the garment itself, but the attitude it reflected. Vanity is therefore not about what one wears, and instead about how one uses appearance to elevate oneself over others. The Prophet ﷺ further clarified that “arrogance involves rejecting truth and looking down on people.”[^16] This definition shifts the focus from outward display to inward disposition. Psychological research similarly associates narcissistic tendencies with excessive concern for appearance and validation.[^17] In this way, both insecurity and vanity reflect unstable and externally driven self-concepts. Recognizing these two extremes allows us to better understand the balanced model that Islam seeks to cultivate. --- ## A Balanced Model: Between Insecurity and Arrogance In a world that increasingly equates appearance with value, how do we push back against these pressures? The Prophetic tradition did not merely redefine worth in theory. It also actively intervened against negative self-perception in real time. One of the clearest examples is the story of Zahir ibn Haram, a companion who the Prophet ﷺ loved dearly. He was described as physically unattractive. One day, while Zahir was selling goods in the marketplace, the Prophet ﷺ approached him from behind, embraced him playfully, and asked, “Who will buy this slave?” Zahir, recognizing the Prophet ﷺ, responded with painful self-deprecation: “You will find me unsellable, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ immediately reframed his self-perception, replying, “But in the sight of Allah, you are valuable.” In another narration: “You are not worthless to Allah.”[^18] This moment is profound both spiritually and psychologically. The Prophet ﷺ did not ignore the negative self-talk, allow it to linger, or dismiss it as harmless humor. He immediately interrupted and replaced it with a higher and truer standard of value: one’s standing with Allah. Psychologically, this resembles what is now called cognitive restructuring, directly challenging distorted self-beliefs before they become internalized. In a world where many silently narrate their own inadequacy based on appearance, status, or social approval, the Prophetic response offers a model of compassionate reframing. The measure of a person is not whether they fit the standards of the marketplace, but whether they are beloved and valued by Allah. Taken together, these teachings outline a balanced approach to the self. Islam does not call for self-rejection, nor does it permit self-exaltation. Instead, it cultivates a grounded identity rooted in dignity and humility. The believer understands that they were created in the best form, yet they do not use this as a basis for superiority. They care for their appearance without becoming defined by it. They appreciate beauty without measuring their worth through it. This balance aligns with psychological findings that identified stable self-esteem to be associated with both self-acceptance and humility.[^19] When individuals are grounded in intrinsic value, they are less reactive to comparison and less dependent on external validation.[^20] This brings the discussion full circle, returning to the central question of what Allah looks at, which should hopefully be the standard by which we measure ourselves. The modern crisis of self-esteem is not simply about confidence. It is about the standard we use to define worth. When appearance becomes the standard, the individual fluctuates between insecurity and vanity. When the standard shifts to the heart and deeds, stability emerges. The Qur’an affirms that you were created in the best form. The Prophet ﷺ reminds you that Allah looks at your heart and actions. Between these two anchors, the believer finds clarity. The mirror may reflect your image, but what Allah looks at defines your worth. --- ## Notes [^1]: Marika Tiggemann, “Sociocultural Perspectives on Human Appearance and Body Image,” in *Body Image: A Handbook of Science, Practice, and Prevention*, 2nd ed. (The Guilford Press, 2011). [^2]: Qur’an 95:4. [^3]: Jennifer Crocker and Connie T. Wolfe, “Contingencies of Self-Worth,” *Psychological Review* 108, no. 3 (2001): 593–623. [^4]: Qur’an 30:22. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2564. [^6]: Bernadette Btari Kania Putri, Afra Hafny Noer, and Fredrick Dermawan Purba, “Psychological Factors Influencing Appearance Anxiety Among Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review,” *Psychology Research and Behavior Management* 18 (2025): 487–503. [^7]: W. Keith Campbell and Joshua D. Foster, “The Narcissistic Self: Background, an Extended Agency Model, and Ongoing Controversies,” in *The Self*, ed. C. Sedikides and S. J. Spencer (Psychology Press, 2007). [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 959. [^9]: Judith S. Beck, *Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond*, 2nd ed. (The Guilford Press, 2011). [^10]: Qur’an 4:119. [^11]: “Global Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures,” International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS). [^12]: Pakstan Faiq Mohamedamin, Karwan K. Kakamad, Jaafar Omer Ahmed, and Rizgar Azatkhan Saeed, “The Dark Triad of Personality in Relation to Acceptance to Cosmetic Surgery Among University Students,” *Aesthetic Plastic Surgery,* 2026, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-026-05875-3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-026-05875-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783620156161666&usg=AOvVaw1FFWuVX2GwcGy8NJOXfnWA). [^13]: Qur’an 24:30–31. [^14]: Jasmine Fardouly and Lenny R. Vartanian, “Social Media and Body Image Concerns,” *Current Opinion in Psychology* 9 (June 2016): 1–5. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5788; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2087. [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91. [^17]: W. Keith Campbell and Joshua Foster, "The Narcissistic Self: Background, an extended agency model, and ongoing controversies," in *The Self,* ed. C. Sedikides and S. J. Spencer (Psychology Press, 2007). [^18]: *Sunan al-Bayhaqī*, no. 19504. [^19]: Sophia Choukas-Bradley, Jacqueline Nesi, Laura Widman, and M. K. Higgins, “Camera-Ready: Young Women’s Appearance-Related Social Media Consciousness,” *Psychology of Popular Media Culture* 8. no. 4 (2019): 473–81. [^20]: Ulrich Orth and Richard W. Robins, “The Development of Self-Esteem,” *Current Directions in Psychological Science* 23, no. 5 (2014): 381–87. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fear-of-death-and-the-afterlife-the-islamic-perspective # Fear of Death and the Afterlife: The Islamic Perspective **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Afterlife, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 7, 2026 **Updated:** October 6, 2026 ## Introduction Can the fear of death be conquered? And should it be? With rare exceptions, it is a universal fear that has haunted generations and remains one of society’s most complex underlying concerns. Modernity, with its many comforts and distractions, has rendered its beneficiaries with a shallow understanding of life and death. We have become so distant from reality in pursuit of misplaced priorities, skewed heavily toward meeting our worldly goals, that we have forgotten—and perhaps cannot even fathom—the faith and conviction required to face our own mortality. This is normative among those who believe in God and the afterlife, let alone those who refute their existence. Naturally, questions about the fear of death arise. Perhaps even more today, in great part because of the current climate.[^2] On one hand is the trauma and fear inflicted by widespread injustice—foremost upon its victims, but also upon those witnessing it vicariously across global media. On the other hand is the juxtaposition of terrifying images broadcast in real time against the excess consumption of a world absorbed in materialism and heedlessness and increasingly indifferent to the plight of others. It is no surprise that the mere thought of death in these conflicting realities conjures up an overwhelming sense of fear. A complex and powerful emotion, fear of death can significantly impact not only our mental health and well-being, but also the virtues we claim to uphold. Modern secular culture considers fear, especially fear rooted in moral accountability, as inherently negative and looks to eliminate it. While fear itself is universally recognized as an innate protective and adaptive human response to the perception of threat,[^3] fear of death is pathologized, medicated, or dismissed as weakness. Contemporary research has relatively recently discovered a correlation between a healthy attachment to God, similar to that of a child who sees a parent as a source of safety and security, and lower levels of death anxiety.[^4] However, this research typically relies on clinical treatment for solutions. Clinical treatment may be a necessary and useful complement to spiritual approaches, but relying solely on medical solutions will not adequately address the root causes of this fear.[^5] In Islamic spirituality, fear is not just a symptom of malfunctioning but can serve as a compass that orients the believer toward meaning, clarity, and closeness to God. The Islamic approach offers a rich diagnosis and treatment of the spiritual ailments underlying this fear that adversely affect our mindset and behavior. Centuries ago, scholars of Islam relied extensively on the Qur’an and the Sunnah as the foundation for their analysis of the problem and its practical solutions—solutions that remain relevant today. In fact, a recent study conducted on Muslims found that a higher level of spirituality, when accompanied by acts of worship and community service, plays a protective role and results in lower levels of death anxiety. Spirituality, referring to belief in God and the afterlife, provides purpose, existential comfort, and motivation, helping to lessen the fear of death.[^6] A modern-day example is the spiritual resilience of the people of Gaza, who live in the constant presence of fear. For decades and generations, they have endured unrelenting genocide, famine, and forced displacement, all of which have had profound impacts on their well-being. A recent study conducted on children in the Gaza Strip found them to exhibit significant symptoms of depression, continuous traumatic stress, and widespread death anxiety. However, it is noteworthy that the same study also acknowledged their resilience, which it attributed to family cohesion, faith, education, and steadfastness as protective factors.[^7] These factors, with faith at the forefront, contribute to their consistent demonstration of hope and courage amid unimaginably horrific circumstances. The people of Gaza exemplify that fear is not sinful nor a sign of weak faith; rather, it can be a means to strengthen faith and to elevate one’s status before God. For many, faith provides the resilience to endure the unthinkable. “I pray every day for my family’s safety and for those we’ve lost,” said one mother. “I ask Allah to give us strength and to reunite us in Jannah.” Another reflected, “The Zionists can destroy our homes, but they cannot destroy our connection to Allah. That is something they will never take from us.”[^8] The objective of this paper is to present an Islamic perspective on the fear of death, reframing it from a negative emotion to one that can be empowering and adaptive. The paper is written primarily from a pastoral perspective and is not intended to serve as an extensive psychological analysis. Rather, it seeks to clear common misconceptions surrounding fear, death, and the afterlife by offering clarity and guidance through Islamic teachings grounded in the Qur’an and Sunnah. This is accomplished foremost by strengthening our connection and love for our Creator, the most Merciful, who provides countless blessings in this life and promises His sincere servants salvation and everlasting pleasure in the Hereafter. This paper brings to the forefront the optimism and hope found in Islamic teachings, directing us toward positivity and a moral compass for sound and beneficial action—removing the urge to retreat into isolation and replacing it with proactive engagement. The paper targets the pain points commonly associated with this fear, particularly those that have a negative impact, including the potential to contribute to a faith crisis and distance from God. By no means are we denying the potential benefits of clinical treatment of death anxiety. But by reframing conventional perceptions of death through an Islamic lens and offering practical steps to strengthen our faith and resolve, we see that Islam offers meaningful and effective coping strategies that involve encouraging hope in God and prioritizing the Hereafter. --- ## Fear in the Absence of God Modern secular culture largely dismisses fear rooted in moral accountability, often relying on clinical diagnostic approaches to death anxiety. Accurate and holistic diagnosis is of course a necessary prerequisite for the effective treatment of any ailment. We begin by outlining contemporary secular approaches to the fear of death, before identifying the underlying spiritual ailments. Modern secular thought does not have one unified voice in regard to the fear of death. Rather, it offers a number of perspectives that are debated among leading figures across the disciplines of evolutionary science, psychology, and philosophy. Evolutionary and scientific studies explain the fear of death as an adaptive behavior. According to them, fear is built into human biology as a survival mechanism and instinct. As with all instances of human evolution, the cognitive capability of humans contributes to our ability to live, to reproduce, and to care for our offspring, in order for our genes to survive and propagate through future generations of our species.[^9] Psychologists focus on the unique cognitive capacity in humans that enables us to be aware of the inevitability of death. Thomas A. Pyszczynski, a scholar and respected figure in the field of social psychology and Terror Management Theory (TMT),[^10] suggests that the awareness of one’s mortality provides humans with the motivation “to commit themselves to worldviews that help manage their potential for terror,” namely, to cope with the inevitability of death. Cultural groups are essentially people who share views about the reality of life, its purpose, and desirable human behavior. These worldviews provide meaning to life, enabling people to manage and avert anxiety associated with the awareness of their mortality. For example, the affiliation to one’s family, ethnicity, or nation fosters a sense of symbolic immortality that allows one to figuratively transcend death through the individual’s contributions to society, in their children, culture, or art, through which one has the desire to leave their mark on the world. One’s meaningful and valued participation in life is experienced in the form of self-esteem, which is nurtured and developed from childhood as a “central mechanism for managing distress.”[^11] Being certain about one’s worldview depends upon social consensus. Hence, positivity and confidence is sought through validation of those who affirm one’s worldview. However, when conflict arises between worldviews, the result is often negative, and can become the basis of prejudice against those outside one’s beliefs and values, domination, exploitation, and even violence against out-groups. This connects back to the evolutionary perspective that favors group survival; hence, the fear of death is viewed as a potential threat to the group’s existence, which must be overcome through seeking means of self-protection.[^12] The evolutionary perspective describes behaviors as evolving within a species as adaptations to environmental conditions. However, according to Pyszczynski, it is also complementary to the existential psychology perspective, giving us valuable insights into the roots of the existential dilemma of facing one’s mortality. Evolutionary analysis includes evolved moral beliefs and values that are reflected in cooperation, caring, and reciprocity within group members to help guide human behavior. Religious belief is viewed as an extension and a human construct of these evolved moral values, which may manifest in a number of ways, including belief in folklore, in an invisible spirit world, in God, and in an afterlife, which affirm immortality and motivate ethical behavior for social cohesion and societal benefit—all of which are coping mechanisms for fear and help to “detoxify” death. Existential psychology is built upon this evolved capability of humans to cope with the reality of life and potential distress, and looks at how human behavior is influenced by death-related thoughts. The problem of death is addressed through imagination, cultural transmission, and emotions that serve as motivators for how people perceive their life and place in the universe. Studies have also shown that reminders of death have a positive influence on moral judgment, whereby people want to avoid harm to others, value fairness, become more charitable, and focus on a healthier lifestyle.[^13] Existential philosophers have written extensively about the profound impact of death anxiety on the human psyche. Describing the human condition as an existential contradiction, the renowned anthropologist Ernest Becker (d. 1974), author of the famous secular work *Denial of Death*, whose contribution inspired TMT wrote: “Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and to have to live with.”[^14] Becker drew from the ideas of a diverse array of thinkers like Freud, Rank, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. According to Becker, the fear of death is dominant within us and preoccupies humans to the extent that some form of practical denial, accomplished through pursuing and building systems of symbolic meaning to life through personal accomplishment, culture, and other affiliations, becomes necessary in order to shield one from death anxiety. Among the most influential thinkers is Martin Heidegger (d. 1976) who argued that one’s awareness of death actually pushes one toward a meaningful life and an authentic existence. Learning about death and reflecting on one’s mortality can have a significant impact on how we live. For example, Emmy Van Deurzen, an existential philosopher, therapist, and author of numerous books and publications on the subject, suggests that this awareness and acceptance of death is the real challenge of life, but a paradoxical one that is met by embracing the fact that self-affirmation and a full life are attained through confronting the inevitability of death. Existential psychotherapy offers a practical approach, but one that is generally outside the framework of any religious belief. It does not look to eliminate the fear of death, but to help cope with it in order to live a productive and meaningful life. Irvin D. Yalom is a significant contributor to the field of existential psychiatry. He suggests that awareness of death can be a useful catalyst in freeing one from the potential paralysis of death anxiety. The fear of death, which he argues is often repressed, can be a means for personal transformation when one is able to use this fear to clarify one’s priorities, while building genuine human relationships to help soften existential anxiety. According to his viewpoint, one finds meaning in life within the “limits of its material and finite reality.” Existential therapy aims to help people discover the courage within them, and to choose to face their mortality and fears, thereby enabling them to fulfill life’s responsibilities.[^15] Despite his secular framing, Yalom acknowledges the significant role of religion in humanity’s ability to understand and cope with death, stating: “Death anxiety is the mother of all religions, which, in one way or another, attempt to temper the anguish of our finitude. God, as formulated transculturally, not only softens the pain of mortality through some vision of everlasting life but also palliates fearful isolation by offering an eternal presence, and provides a clear blueprint for living a meaningful life.”[^16] By relegating belief in God and the afterlife to a human construct and pathologizing fear, the modern secular worldview lacks both the epistemic grounding and spiritual efficacy that faith provides, as well as the motivational force of divine guidance needed to meaningfully harness, address, and heal death anxiety. Gai Eaton (d. 2010), author of *King of the Castle*, critiqued the shortsightedness of the secular modern world, noting among its defining characteristics the prevalence of doubt and uncertainty regarding the life to come. He wrote, > There is a kind of twilight region inhabited by the many who are neither believers nor unbelievers, but are carried along by the tide of these times while daylight lasts. There must, they think, be “something” beyond all this, but they doubt whether anybody really knows what this “something” might be and seem quite unaware of great voices, still audible, telling them precisely what it is and summoning them to attend as a man attends when he stands in mortal peril . . . nothing that lies outside their little pool of light seems quite real, and, if they think of divine reality at all, they think of it as something ghostly, abstract, attenuated—the desert sun no longer scorches or dazzles.[^17] Doubts about God and the afterlife present a significant challenge to overcoming fear of death. To those harboring these doubts, a faith-based response may seem remote from the quest for tangible, immediate results. When people rely solely on limited human reasoning, capability, and perspective, their response to fear lacks the ethical foresight and spiritual grounding faith provides. Without the moral strength and confidence gained through the light of divine guidance, the darkness of doubt and fear can become overpowering. The secular mindset assigns little meaning to life after death, rendering it a finality and eliminating any goal beyond this world. Traumatic events, illness, and reminders of death further increase the threat to self-esteem and intensify death anxiety and the need to hold on more tightly to one’s worldview.[^18] As one study notes, death challenges the reality of what is taken for granted about day-to-day life. Unlike premodern times, when death held communal and religious significance, today it is privatized. The loss of an individual was once a collective concern—one that meant death was spoken about openly and frequently, and social and religious public rituals provided consolation and coping mechanisms to those left behind. Today, children are shielded from death, their parents reluctant to teach them in fear of causing anxiety and psychological harm. Death has been sequestered within a society focused on the preservation of self-identity and the body, with little individual connection to God or faith-based community. This may allow one the means to a higher sense of self in the short term, but proves costly and unsustainable knowing the inevitable cannot be denied.[^19] Another contributor to fear of death is the realization that one is ultimately not in control of their destiny. Believers recognize that control belongs to God Almighty alone, the One who has final authority over all of existence. Without faith, divine decree clashes with the desire for mastery. Guilt also contributes to fear of death, particularly for those who acknowledge God but avoid accountability. In secular society, spiritual weakness is compounded by gruesome and pervasive injustice and oppression, exacerbating the fear of death. Yet fear itself is not the problem—misalignment of understanding its purpose is. Secular perspectives disregard moral accountability, whereas the Islamic approach aligns fear with divine guidance, revealing its true purpose and meaning. --- ## Islam’s Reframing of Fear In Islam, fear is understood not as a weakness, but as a natural and divinely intended aspect of the human experience. It is a compass, guiding the believer toward moral clarity and spiritual growth. Far from diminishing the self, it motivates careful reflection, ethical action, and awareness of one’s responsibilities before God. Fear, when rightly oriented, becomes a mercy and a source of protection, helping one avoid harm and align one’s choices with divine guidance. This contrasts sharply with the modern secular worldview, which often pathologizes fear, particularly fear related to moral accountability, as something to be eliminated or suppressed. Islam gives us the most beneficial spiritual framework to address our fears through its two primary sources—the Qur’an and the Sunnah—which offer clarity and depth on the subject, acknowledging it as a natural instinct and emotion God has placed within us to test us. Fear is meticulously detailed in over one hundred verses, including its nuanced manifestations.[^20] The Qur’an and Sunnah provide us with purpose and guidance. We are given essential knowledge of this world and how to navigate it, as well as knowledge of what awaits in the Hereafter and how to prepare for it. Divine perfection comes to light in the holistic prescription Islam provides us to benefit and guide humanity, in order to strengthen our spiritual, emotional, and physical welfare, which includes how to overcome our fears of loss, suffering, and death. God does not leave us to ourselves without providing us with the way forward in all situations, especially in regard to the means to attain His pleasure and to cure our ailing hearts. Divine mercy and love for His servants is clearly articulated in His affirmation that even those closest to Him dislike death, in order to provide us solace, spiritual fortitude, and motivation. The Messenger ﷺ informed us: > Allah said, “I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshiper of Mine. And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me are what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing *nawafil* \[praying or extra good deeds beyond what is obligatory\] until I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks Me, I will give him, and if he asks My protection, I will protect him; and I do not hesitate to do anything as I hesitate to take the soul of the believer, for he hates death, and I hate to disappoint him.”[^21] ### Classical Insights into Fear Islamic scholarship has long approached fear as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, examining both its causes and its potential for spiritual and ethical growth. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), writing in *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, holds fear as a distinguished station on the path to God, beneficial for a living, faithful heart. He outlines its varying shades—from *khawf*, the basic anticipation of harm, to *ijlal*, the trembling awe of those nearest to God—showing that fear deepens as knowledge and awareness of the Divine deepen. He famously summarized this state in a paradox: The one who fears God “flees from his Lord to his Lord.” Fear becomes protection, not paralysis, a mercy that directs the seeker away from harm and toward righteousness.[^22] This spiritual logic anchors Ibn al-Qayyim’s broader approach to human weakness in *The Disease and the Cure*, where he argues that every ailment has a God-given treatment. The Qur’an, he emphasizes, is the most complete healing, offering both clarity and certainty to an overwhelmed heart. Rather than pushing fear aside, revelation orients it: toward the One who created life, death, and the soul that will endure beyond the body.[^23] Writing centuries before modern psychology, Ibn Sina (d. 1037) recognized that fear often masks deeper distortions in belief or perception. Although his broader metaphysical commitments were not universally accepted by scholars of the normative Islamic sciences, Ibn Sina’s diagnosis is nevertheless worth noting. He classified anxious responses into causes, such as ignorance of what death is, uncertainty about the afterlife, dread of pain, fear of punishment, or attachment to worldly possessions and relationships. His solutions closely resemble cognitive behavioral therapy: provide accurate knowledge, correct misunderstandings, and align one’s emotional responses with truth. For example, those who fear death because they do not know what awaits them are not truly fearing death itself, but the unfamiliar. The antidote, he argues, lies in sacred knowledge that affirms the soul’s continuity and the certainty of the Hereafter.[^24] Classical scholars further identified the root causes behind the fear of death. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) adds another dimension: heedlessness (*ghafla*). In *Ihyaʾ ʿulum al-din*, he warns that preoccupation with worldly pursuits dulls one’s awareness of mortality, causing people to recoil from death rather than benefit from reflecting on it. In contrast, the believer intentionally remembers death, not to despair but to prioritize repentance, meaning, and purpose.[^25] Ibn al-Qayyim shares this concern, describing how attachment to fleeting pleasures blinds the heart to the eternal, while the Prophet ﷺ commanded believers to “remember often the destroyer of pleasures \[meaning: death\].”[^26] Other scholars, including Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi (d. 1290), identified complementary manifestations of the same disease. In *The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife*, he highlights lengthy worldly hopes—rooted in love of *dunya* or ignorance of life’s fragility—as powerful contributors to spiritual decay. These attitudes delay repentance and heighten anxiety, for when death finally confronts the heedless, fear becomes compounded by regret. Instead, Ibn Qudama urges believers to cultivate awareness of resurrection, reflect on God’s creative power, and let fear motivate sincere action rather than avoidance.[^27] Across these classical insights, a shared theme emerges: Fear is not the problem; misdirected fear is. The scholars describe fear of death as a spiritual signal pointing to deeper issues, such as ignorance, doubt, guilt, attachment, and heedlessness. Note the timeless correlation of these deeper issues to the reasons people fear death, cited in context to our modern secular society. The cure lies not in erasing fear, but refining it by replacing confusion with knowledge, avoidance with remembrance, despair with repentance, and worldly fixation with eternal orientation. In doing so, fear becomes a force of transformation that brings the believer closer to God and equips them to face the inevitable with clarity, hope, and trust. Practical lessons emerge when these theoretical insights are applied to everyday life. For instance, a believer confronted with personal mortality, loss, or uncertainty can reflect on Ibn Sina’s counsel to examine the source of fear, use reason to contextualize it, and redirect it toward moral and spiritual growth. Following Al-Ghazali, they might engage in regular remembrance of death as a means to motivate gratitude and repentance. The Prophet ﷺ advised the believers to frequently remember death and also to visit the graveyard: “I had prohibited you from visiting graves, but you may visit them now. For it will produce abstinence in this world and remind you of the Hereafter.”[^28] Additionally, the Prophet ﷺ informed us of the tremendous reward of attending funerals and accompanying the burials of the believers, serving as motivation and practical guidance that also bring about collective moral support.[^29] Ibn Qudama reminds the believer to assess their worldly attachments and reflect on Allah’s power, and Ibn al-Qayyim provides tools to discern when fear is corrective versus destructive. By situating fear within this classical framework, we see that fear can be transformative. It is not a sign of weakness or deficiency but a divine gift that, when rightly understood, aligns the believer’s heart with God’s guidance, encourages ethical conduct, and fosters spiritual resilience. When the Prophet ﷺ was asked, “Which of the believers is the wisest?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Those who remember death the most and have best prepared for it; such are the wisest.”[^30] ### Fear in Action: The Battle of the Trench These classical insights prepare us to understand how fear functions not only in theory and reflection but also in lived experience—a reality vividly illustrated in the Qur’an and *sira*, especially during the Battle of the Trench. As we have discussed, not all fear is the same. The Qur’an details numerous situations in which fear is present, and it is the believer’s response that determines whether fear is praiseworthy or blameworthy in the sight of God, whether it is a source of strength or a pathway to loss. This standing before God is the key motivator for adhering to His guidance and navigating every fear successfully. The following verse offers a clear case study, vividly capturing fear of death in the moments leading up to the Battle of the Trench in the year 5 AH: > They massed against you from above and below; your eyes rolled with fear, and your hearts reached your throats, and you entertained conflicting thoughts about Allah.[^31] “They” refers to the enemy forces, namely, an ill-fated alliance between the Quraysh of Mecca, the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir (previously expelled from Medina), and neighboring Arab tribes in the Arabian Peninsula, referred to as the Confederates, or al-Ahzab. They conspired with another Jewish tribe in Medina, Banu Qurayza, to break a peace treaty with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and eliminate the Muslims and Islam altogether. In what was intended to be the most treacherous and genocidal encounter yet, an army roughly ten thousand strong set out to launch a surprise assault on the vastly outnumbered Muslims in Medina. The situation resulted in a hostile, month-long siege that became a test of endurance, sincerity, and truthfulness over hypocrisy and disbelief. Ultimately, a test of faith and resilience over *fear* and annihilation. Hearing news of the imminent onslaught, the Prophet ﷺ instructed the Muslims to dig a trench, or *khandaq*, along the most vulnerable entry point to the city, a strategy unfamiliar in Arabia at the time. For almost ten days, it was all hands on deck, with the Prophet ﷺ working in their midst around the clock, staving off hunger and fatigue. The trench, estimated to be some two kilometers long and thirteen feet wide, had to be deep and wide enough to prevent the enemy cavalry from crossing.[^32] During the digging, the Prophet ﷺ prayed for his companions, “O Allah! The real life is the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the Helpers \[Ansar\] and the Immigrants \[Muhajirun\].”[^33] “You” in this verse is addressed to the believers, drawing our attention to their state of mind and overwhelming sense of fear. These are the best generation of believers, yet they were not reprimanded by God for feeling fearful. While the external threat alone was enough to strike terror in the hearts and minds, another threat emerged: Banu Qurayza’s betrayal inside the city. Numbering as many as eight hundred fighters, their potential attack on Muslim women and children sheltering in their homes, presumed safe from the frontlines, posed an even greater danger. Hence God’s description “They massed against you from above and below”—namely, the Confederates’ approach from above and Banu Qurayza from below.[^34] One companion’s testimony brings this fear into sharp focus. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman later detailed the intense emotions in the Muslim camp. It was during a particularly stormy night, so dark that he could not even see his own fingertips, with the cold wind escalating, that he recounts being sent by the Prophet ﷺ to the enemy camp for reconnaissance. The narration vividly illustrates fear, obedience, and reliance: > I was with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the night of the Battle of Ahzab and we were gripped by a violent wind and severe cold. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The man who goes and brings me the news of the enemy shall be ranked with me on the Day of Judgment by Allah.” We all kept quiet and none of us responded to him. Again, he said: “A man who brings me the news of the enemy shall be ranked with me on the Day of Judgment by Allah.” We kept quiet and none of us responded to him. He again said: “A man who brings me the news of the enemy shall be ranked with me on the Day of Judgment by Allah.” Then he said: “Get up Hudhayfa, bring me the news of the enemy.” When he called me by name, I had no alternative but to get up. He said: “Go and bring me information about the enemy and do nothing that may provoke them against me.” > > When I left him, I felt warm as if I were walking in a heated bath until I reached them. I saw Abu Sufyan warming his back against a fire; I put an arrow in the middle of the bow, intending to shoot at him, when I recalled the words of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “Do not provoke them against me.” Had I shot at him, I would have hit him. But I returned and felt warm as if I were walking in a heated bath. Presenting myself before him, I gave him information about the enemy. When I had done so, I began to feel cold, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wrapped me in a blanket with which he used to cover himself while praying. So I continued to sleep until it was morning. When it was morning, he said: “Get up, O heavy sleeper.”[^35] This was the condition of the followers of the Prophet ﷺ, who eagerly anticipated every opportunity to earn the favor of their Lord. Those who lived by “we hear and we obey” and followed the Prophet’s ﷺ commands without hesitation now found themselves debilitated by their own fears.[^36] It was in the extremes of desperation, fatigue, hunger, and fear of death that God tested them and that true faith manifested itself. After the Prophet ﷺ prayed for Hudhayfa, his fears miraculously dissipated—an indication of divine help that accompanies trust in God and effort. Despite being shaken to the core, the sincere believers remained unwavering, while the hypocrites made excuses and deserted the Muslims. Eventually, in a miraculous turn of events, the Confederates became increasingly fearful they would not outlast the severe conditions and what appeared to be internal betrayal as their allegiances began to collapse. As a result, they retreated in defeat, crippled by fears of humiliation and death.[^37] Despite minimal combat and casualty, this incident underscores how overwhelming fear can be and how one’s inner orientation determines whether it paralyzes or pushes an individual toward productivity, trust, and obedience. Islam redirects one’s fears toward the best outcome—one that is driven and bound within a far greater and noble fear—the overarching fear of God’s displeasure, *taqwa*.[^38] Believers who positively direct their fears in this manner are blessed with the guidance, wisdom, and resilience to overcome them, even if their fears are not entirely eliminated. After the enemy retreat, the Prophet ﷺ said, “After this battle we will go to attack them and they will not come to attack us.”[^39] Ultimately, the believers’ steadfastness and foresight secured a victory well beyond the Battle of the Trench. Their trust in God and His promise of the Hereafter framed the entire encounter and stood in stark contrast to those who could not see beyond that moment, fixated on their pursuit of worldly gain. > When the believers saw the enemy alliance, they said, “This is what Allah and His Messenger had promised us. The promise of Allah and His Messenger has come true.” And this only increased them in faith and submission.[^40] --- ## Toward Healing: Practical Pastoral Guidance ### Redirecting Fear How, then, do we practically understand the role of fear and apply it in our lives? Allah instructs the Prophet ﷺ as follows: “Say, ‘I truly fear—if I were to disobey my Lord—the torment of a tremendous Day.’”[^41] There is a profound lesson in this verse that helps us redirect fear away from distress and paralysis toward empowerment and action. The fear is real; the question is where we allow that fear to lead us. Allah tests us with the fear of loss, and these fears can push a person toward despair, panic, disobedience, and ultimately His displeasure.[^42] When fear arises, the believer passes the divine test by deliberately redirecting that fear toward the one mentioned in the verse above—the praiseworthy fear of accountability before God on the Day of Judgment. In practice, this might mean trying to consciously pause in moments of anxiety, followed by taking a deliberate turn toward a simple act that aligns with what pleases Allah, like utterances of *dhikr*. In doing so, fear becomes a catalyst rather than a burden: a force that motivates and directs us to act in accordance with what pleases Allah and that brings about a positive outcome in this life and reward in the Hereafter. The Prophet ﷺ was instructed to convey this powerful reminder during some of the most difficult seasons in the early Muslim community—amid hardship, persecution, loss, sacrifice, and uncertainty. Redirecting his fear toward Allah is what enabled and strengthened the Prophet ﷺ, those around him, and all the prophets who preceded him to fulfill their purpose despite the fear of death and loss. His special relationship with Allah is captured in a hadith in which it is stated that whenever Allah’s Messenger ﷺ ordered the Muslims to do something, he used to order them to do that which was easy for them to do, according to their strength and endurance. They said, “O Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, we are not like you. Allah has forgiven your past and future sins.” To which he ﷺ responded, “I am the most Allah-fearing, and know Allah better than all of you do.”[^43] This also establishes a practical principle: Choose actions within your capacity, but remain consistent in them. ʿAʾisha, the beloved wife of the Prophet ﷺ, once asked him a question through which we gain solace that all of us, and even the most righteous believers, have a natural aversion to and hatred for death. The Prophet ﷺ acknowledged this and also clarified that our hatred of death is not the same as hatred of meeting God. He ﷺ said: “Whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him, and whoever hates to meet Allah, Allah hates to meet him.” It was said to him: “O Messenger of Allah, does hating to meet Allah mean hating to meet death? For all of us hate death.” He said: “No. Rather that is only at the moment of death. But if he is given the glad tidings of the mercy and forgiveness of Allah, he loves to meet Allah and Allah loves to meet him; and if he is given the tidings of the punishment of Allah, he hates to meet Allah and Allah hates to meet him.”[^44] Reflecting on this, we can relate to the concern felt by ʿAʾisha in that moment in which she needed to clarify this point without hesitation, including herself among those who felt hatred toward death. We are motivated to seek the pleasure and forgiveness of God and to hasten good deeds, with hope of attaining His love and mercy. This should translate into acting on good intentions immediately rather than delaying them. ### Hope Is an Obligation > The heart in its journey towards God the Exalted is like a bird whose head is love, and hope and fear are its two wings.[^45] The beauty of this paradigm is that fear becomes a mercy from Allah rather than a burden. Where there is fear, there must also be hope. Ibn al-Qayyim describes the relationship between these two seemingly conflicting emotions from a spiritual perspective. Just as fear is the obligation of the believer, hope too is an obligation, and there is a balance to be maintained between them in order to safely reach our final destination. He explains that hope rests on three essential qualities that must be present in the believer’s heart: love for what one hopes for, fear of losing it, and commitment to strive for it. Everything outside of this criterion—hope directed toward anything besides God—is a false or baseless aspiration.[^46] Correct hope is always accompanied by fear, and both hope and fear should always be accompanied by righteous deeds. In practice, this balance can be maintained by ensuring that each day includes both acts of repentance (driven by fear) and acts of striving and *dua* (driven by hope). He notes that the pious predecessors were known to prefer strengthening the wing of fear in times of ease and the wing of hope when death approached, anchoring their hearts in balance and realism.[^47] ### Short Hopes Ibn Qudama gives us a glimpse into the mindset of the righteous predecessors, who intentionally cultivated *short hopes* as the antidote to fear. Short hopes do not signify despair, denial of the future, or withdrawal from the world. Rather, they reflect a conscious narrowing of one’s expectations and attachments to what lies ahead, so that the heart remains anchored in the present moment of moral responsibility. Practically, this means not postponing repentance, good deeds, or personal reform to a later time, but treating the present day as the primary opportunity to act. In this way, short hopes reorient attention away from long-term worldly projections that breed complacency and false security, and instead generate urgency in pursuing good deeds, repentance, and ethical excellence. The righteous predecessors adopted this posture not out of pessimism, but out of clarity: They sought to meet Allah with their best deeds already realized, rather than postponed intentions. Short hopes thus function as a spiritual discipline that transforms fear of loss into purposeful action, ensuring that the present is treated as the most reliable arena for drawing nearer to Allah. Ibn Qudama notes, “Whenever hopes are shortened, actions are perfected.” Al-Ghazali elaborates on the benefit of this in a powerful statement: “Death is happiness for him, and life is addition of good to his account.”[^48] This aligns with the Prophetic call to seize the moment to do good while one has the capability to act. The Prophet ﷺ cautioned: “There are two blessings that many people are deceived into losing: health and free time.”[^49] A practical application of this is to consciously dedicate a portion of one’s daily free time to acts of worship, learning, or service, rather than leaving it to be consumed passively. ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar profoundly described how this mindset shapes a life. He said, “Allah’s Messenger ﷺ took hold of my shoulder and said, ‘Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler.’” Ibn ʿUmar used to say, “If you survive until the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive until the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening, and take from your health for your sickness, and take from your life for your death.”[^50] These Prophetic teachings emphasize the importance of utilizing our blessings to do as much as we can to secure the Hereafter, as the practical means to realize the short hopes our righteous predecessors spoke of, including maintaining a regular habit of self-accountability and repentance. The Prophet ﷺ taught us to focus on actions within our reach, even if seemingly insignificant, reminding us that what pleases God most is consistency we can turn into good habits.[^51] For example, we must first strive to fulfill the obligatory acts of worship, such as the daily prayers, fasting in Ramadan, and striving to be sincere, truthful, and generous. Consistency comes with gradually incorporating voluntary acts such as the night prayer and additional recommended fasts throughout the year. We can assign smaller frequent charitable donations, and portion our time and talents on an ongoing basis, in order to establish regularity with good deeds, rather than waiting for a specific time of the year like Ramadan, or postponing until later accomplishment in life, which is not guaranteed. The most important practical advice is to maintain daily remembrance of God with frequent recitation of the Qur’an, using every opportunity taught to us by the Prophet ﷺ to seek His forgiveness, to seek His help, and to productively engage in doing good. This can be made consistent by attaching remembrance and *dhikr* to daily routines (such as commuting, waiting, or walking), ensuring it becomes a regular habit rather than an occasional effort. In this way, we can make short hopes a tangible and practical means to contentment in this life and success in the Hereafter. Taken together, these teachings show that fear is not a sign of spiritual failure, nor an obstacle to faith, but a God-given means of movement—an inner signal that redirects us toward Him. When paired with hope, transformed into action, and grounded in the reality of death and the Hereafter, fear becomes a source of clarity, purpose, and strength rather than confusion or despair. This framework prepares us to meet life’s uncertainties with humility and resolve, and to continue walking the path toward Allah with balance, trust, and sincerity. ### Provision for the Journey to God Imam al-Ghazali, taking from a number of the pious predecessors, astutely describes death as a journey to God, for which we will summarize the following spiritual provisions are required. The first is *taqwa*: deep consciousness of God expressed through vigilance in worship, obedience, and a commitment to increase good deeds while continually rectifying oneself through *tawba* or repentance—the gift of divine mercy that erases all sins.[^52] The second is to disconnect one’s heart from the comforts, pleasures, and emotional ties of this world, including status and privilege. This is *zuhd*: not a rejection of God’s blessings, but freedom from the chains of the desire of this world. It must be noted that balance is essential here. We must express gratitude for the countless blessings from God and utilize them in service and obedience to Him, while avoiding an unhealthy attachment to them or outright rejection of provisions that support our holistic well-being. Aversion to death is often a sign that love for worldly comforts has eclipsed the desire to meet God. No doubt, for many of us, the thought of separation is unimaginable and *sabr*, or patience, is required. The fear of losing everything familiar and comforting to us is painful and can only be softened with the remembrance, or *dhikr*, of God: through reflection on His beautiful names and attributes, prayer, Qur’an recitation, and pondering on the boundless treasures of Paradise He has promised to those who are sincere in servitude, worship, and sound character. The true knowledge of God increases our love for Him, our gratitude to Him, and reliance upon Him alone (*tawakkul*) while recognizing He provides for us through the means and people He places in our lives. For this reason, it is important to surround ourselves with good company who will remind us of God and strive and spend alongside us for His sake. When the Prophet Musa and his brother Harun expressed fear in confronting Firʿawn, God immediately reassured them, and all believers, encouraging us to place our trust in Him: “Allah reassured them, ‘Have no fear! I am with you, hearing and seeing.’”[^53] Love of God and *tawakkul* remedy fear and anxiety, cultivating hope and courage. This requires ongoing purification of the heart, curing and fortifying it against spiritual diseases such as pride, arrogance, greed, envy, hatred, and all negative character traits that obstruct the journey to God. > Death has exposed the world’s faults, thus the one who has any inner core is not left with any joy therein. A servant does not adhere to the remembrance of death in his heart except that the world becomes trivial in his eyes and all of what is in it becomes immaterial.[^54] Lastly, we must bring our faith or *iman* to present to God as an expression of love for Him. *Iman* is the measure of truly knowing God, and the believer is called to aspire to *ihsan*, the highest level of faith: to worship Him as though one sees Him, and to be conscious that He sees all.[^55] It is this conviction in God, the Day of Judgment, the Hereafter, and the truth brought to us by His prophets and the final Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ, that transforms fear and anxiety into *rida*—contentment with divine decree. From this conviction and contentment, our *dua* gains potency, and surrendering all affairs of life and death to Him is facilitated.[^56] This reassurance is exemplified in the inspiration God placed in the heart of the mother of the Prophet Musa: “Nurse him, but when you fear for him, put him then into the river, and do not fear or grieve. We will certainly return him to you, and make him one of the messengers.”[^57] It is this same light of faith and contentment we witness today in the hearts of the people of Gaza—whose *ihsan* awakens the entire world, enabling them to remain hopeful and steadfast in the presence of fear. We are given ample signs and proofs from God to place our complete trust in Him. Just as He brought us from the safety and comfort of the womb to this world and blessed us with life, provision, and guidance, He brings His servants from this world to the Hereafter, promising the believers eternal joy in Paradise, where fear and grief no longer exist.[^58] > After death the believer uncovers Allah’s virtue and honor to which the worldly life is but a prison. He is like one who is imprisoned in a dark room and then a vast garden is opened up to him, full of trees and he does not like to return to the worldly life much like how he does not like to return to his mother’s womb.[^59] --- ## Conclusion: From Constriction to Contentment The Qur’anic term used to describe the expansion of the chest is *sharh al-sadr*. God reminds His beloved Messenger ﷺ of how God uplifted his heart, providing him ﷺ with relief, given the enormity of the mission of prophethood.[^60] We too are guided to pray for *sharh al-sadr* as did the prophet Musa when faced with the gravity of facing Firʿawn.[^61] This expansion lightens the heart and serves as an antidote that brings about relief, easing the constriction one feels due to anxiety and fear. As we have established in regard to fearing death, there is an anxiety associated with desire of this worldly life, heedlessness, and confusion about death and the afterlife, all of which result in the tightness one experiences when clinging to this life. Among the verses in the Qur’an that beautifully explain the concept of *sharh al-sadr* is the following: > What about the one whose heart God has opened in devotion to Him, so that he walks in light from his Lord? Alas for those whose hearts harden at the mention of God! They have clearly lost their way.[^62] This opening of the heart is the spiritual light of guidance that brings relief and tranquility to the believer, strengthening the heart with faith, insight, and wisdom. It enables one to recognize this world as fleeting, to loosen attachment to it, and to redirect attention and effort toward attaining the Hereafter. Through this inner expansion, the heart of the believer gains the clarity through which they are able to see life and death for what they truly are, to remember death without distress, and to understand one’s purpose is to prepare for it. Thus, the blessings of faith and insight allow us to see the afterlife as our ultimate home—to desire it more than the fleeting gains of this world—and to no longer feel threatened by it. To you who is fearful and struggles with the thought of death and your standing in the Hereafter—you are not alone. God does not expect perfection from you; He does not burden you with more than you are capable of, nor does He expect you to overcome your fears entirely.[^63] Remember that even the best of the believers among our pious predecessors had an aversion to death, hence the extent to which this topic is acknowledged and addressed in the Qur’an and Sunnah. While fear is a natural emotion we are both blessed and tested with, it is not a sin, nor a sign of weak faith or the disapproval of your Lord. Above all, it is the mercy of God that encompasses all of His creation. He tasks you with sincerity and effort, and rewards you when you take a step toward Him, reminding you that He is as you think of Him.[^64] So do not despair that your faith is not strong enough. Rather, allow yourself the opportunity to grow, to trust in His decree as best for you, and to be purpose-driven in your journey to Him, one day at a time, striving to know Him and to be close to Him. Always remember that fear is a normal human experience that can be harnessed for your spiritual benefit when properly guided. Among the most comforting and hopeful words the Prophet ﷺ left us with as a reminder of divine compassion to help us overcome our inner fears is the advice he gave to his companion, Jabir ibn ʿAbdullah, who said that he “heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say three days before his death: ‘None of you should die but hoping only good from Allah, the Exalted and Glorious.’”[^65] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 29:64. [^2]: See also Rachel E. Menzies and Ross G. Menzies, “Death Anxiety in the Time of COVID-19: Theoretical Explanations and Clinical Implications,” *Cognitive Behaviour Therapist* 13, e19 (June 11, 2020), [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1754470X20000215](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1017/S1754470X20000215&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959954233&usg=AOvVaw30pBd3xxj2zlHcdLJ9mrhU). Note: The studies referenced here found heightened awareness, fear, and death anxiety during times of widespread death and loss, such as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. See also Dr. Tarek Younis, “Facing our Fear: Reflecting on Modern Society’s Death Anxiety,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, July 23, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/facing-our-fear-reflecting-on-modern-societys-death-anxiety](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/facing-our-fear-reflecting-on-modern-societys-death-anxiety&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959954748&usg=AOvVaw2EomU9_u_AD-PfEUF-Q499). [^3]: Piero Porcelli, “Fear, Anxiety and Health-Related Consequences After the COVID-19 Epidemic,” *Clinical Neuropsychiatry* 172 (2020): 103–11, [https://doi.org/10.36131/CN20200215](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.36131/CN20200215&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959955038&usg=AOvVaw26Mj3D35I3yScR_mD_LoWB). [^4]: “Death anxiety refers to the feelings of dread, fear, and apprehension related to the anticipation, and awareness, of death and dying.” Marissa Pifer, Olivia Noel, and Daniel Segal, “Death Anxiety,” in *Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging* (Springer Nature, 2019), [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2\_744-1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_744-1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959955425&usg=AOvVaw2t9DvFfV6hdsrkuxOn0o0P). See also Stephen R. Harding, Kevin J. Flannelly, Andrew J. Weaver, and Karen G. Costa, “The Influence of Religion on Death Anxiety and Death Acceptance,” *Mental Health, Religion & Culture* 8, no. 4 (2005): 253–61, [https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670412331304311](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670412331304311&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959955728&usg=AOvVaw2r5d0DbqgZIXJln2zTNuKb). [^5]: Ali Mohammadzadeh and Mohammad Oraki, “Attachment to God as a Predictor of Death Distress Among Muslims,” *Current Psychology* 39, no. 1 (2018): 1–6, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9934-3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9934-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959955996&usg=AOvVaw2-cv9uBCgeuqHVs7rwbIkC). [^6]: Faiz Rabbani, Syeda Asma Gillani, Palwasha Nasir, Ramzan Shah Nawaz, Akbar Ali, Nimra Khan, and Anoosha Nadeem, “The Relationship Between Spiritual Well-Being and Death Anxiety Among Muslims,” *Research Journal of Psychology* 3, no. 1 (2025): 548–58, [https://doi.org/10.59075/rjs.v3i1.89](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.59075/rjs.v3i1.89&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959956338&usg=AOvVaw0TOtTtUYnjhEwNAX_CJwG2). [^7]: Anies Al-Hroub, “Death Anxiety and Trauma in Forcibly Displaced Children in the Gaza Strip: A Critical Review of Emerging Research, 2024–2025,” *Current Psychiatry Reports* 28 (2026): 1, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-026-01670-8](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-026-01670-8&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959956641&usg=AOvVaw2yet4wbmemlR9j9jiRtc2D). [^8]: Bilal Hamamra, Fayez Mahamid, Asala Mayaleh, and Dana Bdier, “The Anxiety of Death and the Loss of Loved Ones During Genocide in Gaza,” *OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying*, 2025, [https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228251334277](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228251334277&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959956940&usg=AOvVaw2wectYO25rW8mHwUch8yVg). [^9]: Tom Pyszczynski, “The Role of Death in Life: Exploring the Interface Between Terror Management Theory and Evolutionary Psychology,” in *Evolutionary Perspectives on Death* (Springer, 2019), [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25466-7\_1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25466-7_1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959957286&usg=AOvVaw0iAvosF1gz-64E9LbBBChM). [^10]: Terror Management Theory (TMT) is a social and evolutionary psychology theory that posits that death anxiety arises from the conflict between self-preservation and awareness of mortality. See Pifer et. al, “Death Anxiety.” [^11]: Pyszczynski, “Role of Death in Life.” [^12]: Pyszczynski, “Role of Death in Life.” [^13]: Pyszczynski, “Role of Death in Life.” [^14]: Ernest Becker, *The Denial of Death* (The Free Press, 1973), 26. [^15]: Narcisa Ispas, “Existential Perspectives on the Fear of Death,” RAIS Conference Proceedings, April 17–18, 2025, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15474925&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959958046&usg=AOvVaw2JohhYiJ0CIrzKQ6rjbLhR)[https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15474925](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15474925&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959958126&usg=AOvVaw3RzrMqfEnGb_1d6idtFkcM). [^16]: Irvin D. Yalom, *Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death* (Jossey-Bass, 2008), 5. [^17]: Gai Eaton, *King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World* (The Bodley Head, 1977), 16, [https://archive.org/details/king-fo-the-castle\_202401/mode/1up?view=theater](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/king-fo-the-castle_202401/mode/1up?view%3Dtheater&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959958522&usg=AOvVaw1sd87velx44TfOCUmvzwPV). [^18]: Pifer et. al, “Death Anxiety.” [^19]: Philip A. Mellor and Chris Shilling, “Modernity, Self-Identity and the Sequestration of Death,” *Sociology* 27, no. 3 (1993): 411–31, [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/0038038593027003005](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/0038038593027003005&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959958907&usg=AOvVaw12ziFQO-k3egTTzjXCT1GU). [^20]: For example, “We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure.” Qur’an 2:155. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6502. [^22]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers* (Koninklijke Brill NV, 2020), 2:158–66. Also, God praises the believers who fear Him: “Indeed, those who live in awe for fear of their Lord, and those who believe in the signs of their Lord, and those who do not associate anything with their Lord, and those who give what they give while their hearts are fearful because they will be returning to their Lord—it is they who hasten in every good work, and they who are foremost in them.” Qur’an 23:57–61. [^23]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *The Disease and the Cure* (Hikmah Publications, 2020), 1–5. Also, “We send down the Qur’an as healing and mercy to those who believe” (Qur’an 17:82); and “The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘There is no disease that Allah has created, except that He also has created its treatment’” (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5678). [^24]: Ahmed Pajević, Izet Pajević, and Mevludin Hasanović, “Islamic Approach to the Treatment of the Fear of Death,” *Psychiatria Danubina* 33, Suppl. 4 (April 2021): 882–88, [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357846134\_Islamic\_Approach\_to\_the\_Treatment\_of\_the\_Fear\_of\_Death](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357846134_Islamic_Approach_to_the_Treatment_of_the_Fear_of_Death&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959960388&usg=AOvVaw1zvwqjJPcQUW10Ee0x01Yj). [^25]: Al-Ghazālī, *Revival of Religion’s Sciences, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2011), 4:631–47. Also, “Ever closer to people draws their reckoning, while they turn away, heedless.” Qur’an 21:1. [^26]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2307; grade: *ṣaḥīḥ* according to al-Nawawī, *al-Adhkār* (Dār al-Fikr, 1994), 132, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/09/13/dhikr-mawt/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/09/13/dhikr-mawt/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959960938&usg=AOvVaw0vKVmKbzLtrZ6tlCXMvkEt). See also *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4297; grade: *ṣaḥīḥ* according to al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa wa shayʾ min fiqhihā wa-fawāʾidihā* (Dār al-Maʿārif, n.d.), 2:647–48, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2021/05/25/nations-weak-ummah/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2021/05/25/nations-weak-ummah/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1783451959961328&usg=AOvVaw2lCa4Tg42ysvGoasQXxhrN). The Prophet ﷺ foretold that the love of this world and hatred for death will be a destructive spiritual weakness that will become prevalent when he ﷺ said: “Soon the nations will be summoned to you just like one is invited to a feast.” It was said, “Will we be few on that day?” The Prophet said, “No, rather you will be many on that day, but you will be scum like such flowing down a torrent. Allah will remove your esteem from the chests of your enemies, and Allah will insert feebleness or *wahn* in your own hearts.” It was said, “O Messenger of Allah, what is this *wahn*?” The Prophet said, “Love for the worldly life and hatred of death.” See also Ibn al-Qayyim, *Disease and the Cure*, 113–15. [^27]: Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī, *The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife* (Dār as-Sunnah Publishers, 2018), 15–17, 45. Note: This text has been translated into a standalone book, taken from the original text, a chapter within the famous work, *Mukhtaṣar minhāj al-qāṣidīn*. [^28]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 1571; grade: *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) according to al-Suyutī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004), no. 6430, p. 400. Also, “Visit the graves, for they remind you of the Hereafter.” *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 1569; grade: *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) according to al-Albānī. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 47. [^30]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 4259; grade: *ḥasan* (fair) according to al-Albānī. [^31]: Qur’an 33:10. [^32]: Yasir Qadhi, *The Sirah of the Prophet* ﷺ (The Islamic Foundation, 2023), 276. [^33]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4099. [^34]: *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, 33:9–10. [^35]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1788. [^36]: Qur’an 2:285. [^37]: Qadhi, *Sirah of the Prophet*, 275–87. See also *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, Sūraṭ al-Aḥzāb, 33:9–26. [^38]: *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, Sūraṭ al-Aḥzāb, 33:1–3, Ṭalq bin Ḥabīb said: “*Taqwā* means obeying Allah in the light of the guidance of Allah and in hope of earning the reward of Allah and refraining from disobeying Allah in the light of the guidance of Allah and fearing the punishment of Allah.” [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4109. [^40]: Qur’an 33:22. [^41]: Qur’an 6:15. [^42]: “We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure.” Qur’an 2:155. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 20. [^44]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6507. [^45]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, 2:170. [^46]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Disease and the Cure*, 99–100. [^47]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, 2:170. [^48]: Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī, *Remembrance of Death*, 15–17. See also al-Ghazālī, *Revival of Religion’s Sciences*, 4:631–47. [^49]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6412. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6416. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6465. [^52]: “Take necessary provisions for the journey, surely the best provision is righteousness. And be mindful of Me, O people of reason.” Qur’an 2:197. [^53]: Qur’an 20:46. [^54]: Ḥasan al-Basrī, as quoted in: Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī, *Remembrance of Death*, 12. [^55]: T. J. Winter, trans., *Ihya Uloom ad-Din*: *Al‑Ghazālī on the Remembrance of Death & the Afterlife: Book XL of the Revival of the Religious Sciences*, 2nd ed. (Islamic Texts Society, 1995), 7–36. [^56]: One of the most comprehensive supplications taught to us is that of Abū Hurayra, reporting that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ used to supplicate: “O Allah, set right for me my religion, which is the safeguard of my affairs. And set right for me the affairs of my world wherein is my living. And set right for me my Hereafter on which depends my afterlife. And make life for me a source of abundance for every good and make my death a source of comfort for me, protecting me against every evil.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2720. [^57]: Qur’an 28:7. [^58]: “There will certainly be no fear for the close servants of Allah, nor will they grieve.” Qur’an 10:62. Note: This and many other verses like it provide divine reassurance to the believer. See also Qur’an 10:56–64. [^59]: ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, as quoted in Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī, *Remembrance of Death*, 40. [^60]: Qur’an 94:1. See also *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, 94:1. [^61]: The Prophet Musa prayed to God for *sharḥ al-ṣadr*: “Moses said, ‘Lord, lift up my heart, and ease my task for me.’” Qur’an 20:25–26. [^62]: Qur’an 39:22. [^63]: “God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear: Each gains whatever good it has done, and suffers its bad—‘Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes. Lord, do not burden us as You burdened those before us. Lord, do not burden us with more than we have strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our Protector, so grant us victory against the disbelieving people.’” Qur’an 2:286. [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7405. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks I am \[i.e., I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him\] and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than them; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.’” [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2877c. ## Summary # The Fear of Death Through an Islamic Lens The fear of death is a near-universal human experience, yet the modern secular world has left many ill-equipped to face their own mortality. Absorbed in worldly comforts and distractions, and often distant from faith, people today confront death with a shallow understanding of its meaning—an anxiety further intensified by the constant broadcast of injustice and suffering set against a backdrop of heedless materialism. Contemporary secular culture tends to treat fear, especially fear rooted in moral accountability, as inherently negative, something to be medicated, pathologized, or dismissed as weakness. Yet within the Islamic tradition, fear is understood quite differently: not as a malfunction of the self, but as a compass that orients the believer toward meaning, clarity, and nearness to Allah. It is a natural instinct and emotion that Allah has placed within us as a means of testing, mentioned in over a hundred verses of the Qur'an in its various shades, and the Qur'an and Sunnah together provide a complete framework for diagnosing and healing the spiritual ailments that underlie it. Modern research has begun, only recently, to notice a correlation between a healthy attachment to God and lower levels of death anxiety, and a study of Muslims found that heightened spirituality accompanied by acts of worship and community service played a protective role in reducing this fear. A particularly striking illustration is the resilience of the people of Gaza. A study conducted on children there found significant symptoms of depression, continuous traumatic stress, and widespread death anxiety, yet the same study acknowledged their resilience, attributing it to family cohesion, faith, education, and steadfastness. Faith, foremost among these factors, sustains their hope and courage amid horrific circumstances. As one mother said, "I ask Allah to give us strength and to reunite us in Jannah," and another affirmed, "The Zionists can destroy our homes, but they cannot destroy our connection to Allah." Their example demonstrates that fear is neither sinful nor a sign of weak faith; rather, it can be a means to strengthen faith and elevate one's rank before Allah. Secular thought speaks with no single voice on death. Evolutionary science frames the fear of death as an adaptive survival instinct built into human biology, while Terror Management Theory, associated with Thomas Pyszczynski, holds that awareness of mortality drives humans to adopt worldviews and cultural affiliations that grant a sense of "symbolic immortality" and manage their terror. Yet this same drive, when worldviews conflict, can breed prejudice, domination, and violence against out-groups. Ernest Becker, author of *Denial of Death*, described man as "literally split in two"—aware of his uniqueness yet destined "blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever"—and argued that some form of practical denial becomes necessary to shield the self from this terror. Martin Heidegger held that awareness of death pushes one toward authentic living, and Irvin Yalom, a contributor to existential psychiatry, saw death anxiety as a potential catalyst for personal transformation within "the limits of its material and finite reality." Notably, even Yalom conceded that "death anxiety is the mother of all religions," which soften the pain of mortality. Yet by reducing belief in God and the afterlife to a mere human construct, the secular worldview—as Gai Eaton observed in his critique of the "twilight region" of those who are "neither believers nor unbelievers"—lacks the epistemic grounding and spiritual efficacy that faith provides. When people rely solely on limited human reasoning, their response to fear is stripped of ethical foresight and spiritual anchoring; death becomes a finality, control is mistaken for something owned rather than belonging to Allah alone, and guilt over avoided accountability compounds the dread. The Islamic tradition, by contrast, does not seek to eliminate fear but to rightly orient it. Allah's mercy is evident in His acknowledgment that even those closest to Him dislike death, offering His servants solace. In a divine tradition, the Messenger ﷺ related that Allah said of His beloved servant, "I do not hesitate to do anything as I hesitate to take the soul of the believer, for he hates death, and I hate to disappoint him." Classical scholars examined fear with great depth. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), in *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, treated fear as a distinguished station on the path to Allah, ranging from *khawf* to the trembling awe of *ijlal*, and summarized it in a paradox: the one who fears God "flees from his Lord to his Lord." In *The Disease and the Cure* he taught that every ailment has a God-given remedy, the Qur'an being the most complete healing. Ibn Sina (d. 1037)—whose broader metaphysical commitments, the author notes, were not universally accepted by scholars of the normative Islamic sciences—nevertheless offered a diagnosis resembling cognitive behavioral therapy, arguing that those who fear death often fear only the unfamiliar, curable through sacred knowledge affirming the soul's continuity. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), in *Ihyaʾ ʿulum al-din*, identified heedlessness (*ghafla*) as a root cause, urging intentional remembrance of death, as the Prophet ﷺ commanded believers to "remember often the destroyer of pleasures." Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi (d. 1290), in *The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife*, warned against lengthy worldly hopes rooted in love of *dunya*. Across these insights runs a shared theme: fear is not the problem; misdirected fear is. The cure lies in replacing confusion with knowledge, avoidance with remembrance, despair with repentance, and worldly fixation with eternal orientation. The Prophet ﷺ said the wisest believers are "those who remember death the most and have best prepared for it." This lived reality is vividly captured in the Battle of the Trench (5 AH). The Qur'an describes the believers' state as the Confederates massed against them: "your eyes rolled with fear, and your hearts reached your throats." These were the best of generations, yet they were not reprimanded for feeling fear. The threat came from above, through the ten-thousand-strong alliance, and from below, through the betrayal of Banu Qurayza. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman's account of being sent on reconnaissance on that stormy night shows how, after the Prophet ﷺ prayed for him, his fear dissipated—a sign of divine help accompanying trust and effort. The sincere believers held firm while the hypocrites deserted, and the Confederates ultimately retreated in defeat. The episode illustrates that one's inner orientation determines whether fear paralyzes or propels toward trust and obedience, all anchored in *taqwa*, the overarching fear of Allah's displeasure. Practically, then, fear is to be redirected. Allah instructs the Prophet ﷺ to say, "I truly fear—if I were to disobey my Lord—the torment of a tremendous Day," teaching us to channel fear toward accountability before Allah rather than despair. In moments of anxiety one might pause and turn to a simple act of *dhikr*, choosing deeds within one's capacity and remaining consistent in them, for the Prophet ﷺ said of himself, "I am the most Allah-fearing." ʿAʾisha's question clarified that hatred of death is not hatred of meeting Allah, which is resolved at the moment of death by glad tidings of mercy. Fear must be balanced by hope, which Ibn al-Qayyim called an obligation resting on love, fear of loss, and striving—the two wings of the heart's bird. Ibn Qudama commended "short hopes," a conscious narrowing of expectation that generates urgency in good deeds, noting, "Whenever hopes are shortened, actions are perfected." The Prophet ﷺ warned of the two deceptive blessings, "health and free time," and advised living "as if you were a stranger or a traveler." Al-Ghazali described death as a journey requiring provisions: *taqwa* renewed through *tawba*, *zuhd* balanced with gratitude, purification of the heart, and *iman* aspiring to *ihsan*. As Allah reassured Musa and Harun, "Have no fear! I am with you," and as He inspired Musa's mother, "do not fear or grieve." Fear, when guided, becomes not a sign of failure but a mercy that expands the heart—*sharh al-sadr*—turning constriction into contentment. To the one who struggles, Allah does not demand perfection nor expect fear to vanish entirely; He asks only sincerity and effort, and the Prophet ﷺ counseled three days before his death, "None of you should die but hoping only good from Allah." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/toward-an-islamic-ethics-and-fiqh-of-artificial-intelligence # Toward an Islamic Ethics and Fiqh of Artificial Intelligence **Authors:** Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb, Kenan Alkiek, Sh. Suleiman Hani, Dr. Mohammed Ansari, Sh. Umer Khan **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Nature & Science, Politics & Practical Theology, Technology **Tags:** AI, featured-papers, Islamic Ethics, Paper, Publication **Published:** June 12, 2026 **Updated:** October 19, 2026 ## Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved rapidly from the realm of futuristic speculation to an indispensable part of modern life. Embedded in everyday technologies, AI now fundamentally shapes how we communicate, work, and interact with the world. The scale, speed, and reach of AI’s integration into society mark it as a uniquely disruptive force that brings immense promise but also unprecedented ethical, social, and cultural challenges. Navigating this disruption requires moving beyond reductive binaries of uncritical technological optimism or fatalistic pessimism. The ethical challenges of AI are rarely simple; they frequently present a deeply complex matrix where benefits and harms are inextricably linked. To address this, we propose that the Islamic ethical lens is essential for evaluating AI use and development. Capable of providing a proactive, driving framework that informs innovation and technology, it offers values that help balance individual and communal considerations. This framework goes beyond downstream mitigation to proactively judge and shape form, substance, and approach.[^1] The paper begins by surveying the emergence and projected impact of AI, alongside its inevitable adoption across a myriad of contexts. By exploring specific applications and integrating relevant guidelines from Islamic scholars, we articulate how core ethical principles can be operationalized. After situating the importance of clear rulings and principles assigned to the technology domain, we present the jurisprudence of balancing (*fiqh al-muwazaat*), a sophisticated methodology that provides a structured approach to ethical dilemmas where utility and risk coexist. This paper is methodologically oriented, offering general principles that one should take into account in their ethical decision-making. Generating definitive rulings for every AI case is beyond the scope of this paper; many of the issues raised here remain open questions requiring interdisciplinary *ijtihad*. Ultimately, the framework presented here establishes the theoretical and practical necessity of an Islamic approach. It provides an approach for the ongoing work required to assess these technologies and the profound civilizational stakes of the algorithmic age. --- ## Why technology needs ethics Social media offers a clear precedent for the risks of uncritical technological adoption: Society and Islamic scholarship were slow to assess its ethical implications, allowing harms to become deeply embedded before meaningful safeguards emerged. What began as niche platforms rapidly expanded into a global infrastructure shaping communication, culture, and economics, driven largely by companies prioritizing growth, engagement, and profit over long-term societal well-being, while regulatory and ethical responses lagged behind. The Muslim *ummah*’s response was similarly delayed and reactive, with guidance emerging only after widespread adoption had already formed habits and constrained meaningful intervention; even then, Islamic ethical engagement largely focused on mitigating harms within an assumed inevitability rather than issuing foundational judgments about the technology’s purpose, means, and anticipated consequences. Today, generative AI presents a parallel but higher-stakes transformation, advancing more quickly and concentrating unprecedented power in a small number of profit-driven technology firms. Without proactive, principled evaluation of its underlying purposes, design, and consequences, there is a serious risk of repeating the same pattern, allowing structural harms to take root before they are fully understood, underscoring the urgent need for ethical frameworks to guide technological development from the outset rather than attempting to mitigate damage after the fact. AI is transforming communication, education, health care, finance, security, and culture at once. However, we know that it will not always be beneficial. The same systems that can expand access to knowledge, improve medical diagnosis, streamline services, and unlock new forms of creativity can also entrench bias, destabilize trust, displace livelihoods, and concentrate power. Human design choices, from the way an algorithm prioritizes information to features that encourage user engagement, reflect the values and assumptions of its creators. These choices may appear technical, but they carry ethical weight because they shape how people interact, what information they encounter, and which behaviors are rewarded or discouraged. Compounding this challenge, technology often spreads at a pace much faster than laws, cultural norms, or institutions can adjust. Regulation typically follows innovation rather than guiding it, which means that once a technology is entrenched, its harms are much harder to undo. In moments like this, societies often let profit and speed set the terms while communities absorb the costs. For this reason, ethical foresight is not optional but essential: Societies must grapple with potential consequences in advance, rather than waiting until negative impacts have already become embedded. One of the clearest examples of how technology is governed in ways that prioritize growth over responsibility is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996. Often described as “the twenty-six words that created the internet,”[^2] this single provision not only enabled the rapid expansion of online platforms but also institutionalized a model of governance in which legal immunity outpaces ethical accountability. By granting platforms immunity from liability for user-generated content, while allowing them to moderate in “good faith,” the law treats companies such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube as distributors rather than publishers, shielding them from responsibility for most of the content they host. By removing the threat of liability, Section 230 helped create the conditions under which platforms could maximize growth and user engagement while minimizing attention to potential harms. Once user-generated content became the lifeblood of the internet, algorithms were optimized to capture attention and drive profits, not to safeguard communities. This model has been described as “surveillance capitalism,” a new economic order in which human experience is treated as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, and sales.[^3] Its harms are not only societal but deeply personal, often disproportionately borne by vulnerable populations.[^4] For example, content moderation and AI model training are frequently outsourced to workers in developing countries, who must process trauma-inducing content under precarious conditions, often without adequate psychological support. In this way, technology companies generate immense private wealth while externalizing social and human costs—a pattern consistent with broader dynamics in modern capitalism, but amplified by the scale and reach of digital platforms.[^5] This legal framework can be clarified through an analogy: A publisher, such as a newspaper, is liable for the content it prints, while a distributor, such as a bookstore, is not responsible for the material it sells. By classifying platforms as distributors, Section 230 created a system in which companies can profit from harmful content without bearing corresponding responsibility. This reveals a fundamental limitation of secular legal frameworks: They determine liability but often remain silent on moral obligation. Legal immunity, in this sense, does not equate to ethical innocence. It is precisely this gap, between what is legally permissible and what is ethically justifiable, that invites alternative approaches to governance. Islamic ethics, with its emphasis on accountability, justice, and the moral consequences of action, offers a more comprehensive framework for addressing the responsibilities of technological power. --- ## An Islamic ethical governance approach For Muslims, Islamic ethics serves as a proactive, spiritually anchored framework that governs not only the application of a technology, but its very conception. This multitiered paradigm is not a novel construction; rather, it is a direct reflection of the divine mandate established in the Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic Sunnah. The Qur’an explicitly commands a comprehensive moral framework that transcends bare minimum compliance, stating: “Indeed, Allah orders justice \[*ʿadl*\], good conduct \[*ihsan*\], and generosity to close relatives.”[^6] In the realm of technological innovation, *ʿadl* necessitates strict adherence to legal boundaries that prevent harm and uphold human rights, while *ihsan* demands that the innovator’s internal disposition and the technology’s ultimate trajectory actively seek the highest communal good. Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ established that human agency and power constitute a profound trust in his statement, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock.”[^7] When developers and executives design AI tools, they wield systems capable of shaping the cognitive and moral fabric of billions, thus assuming the role of shepherds over a vast digital expanse. Consequently, their standard of accountability cannot be limited to merely dodging secular legal liability; it must encompass the holistic fulfillment of this divine trust. Unlike many contemporary secular models, this Islamic paradigm operates at the very genesis of technological development.[^8] By judging a technology’s form, purpose, and design from its inception, Islamic jurisprudence provides a mechanism for critiquing systems that are fundamentally corrupt by design, recognizing that structural harms cannot be adequately resolved through superficial, downstream mitigation.[^9] Furthermore, this paradigm radically expands the calculus of benefit (*maslaha*) and harm (*mafsada*). It extends the scope of assessment beyond immediate worldly utility to encompass consequences in both this life and the hereafter. This dual-horizon accountability provides a robust defense against vectors of unregulated profit and exploitation that often evade human legal enforcement, anchoring the innovator’s restraint in the ultimate reality of divine oversight.[^10] At its foundation, justice (*ʿadl*) is operationalized through *ahkam*—clear legal rulings that establish nonnegotiable boundaries of permissibility (halal) and prohibition (haram). In a technological landscape driven by speed and competition, these serve as definitive guardrails, ensuring that core principles such as the preservation of intellect, dignity, and privacy are not sacrificed for innovation. These limits, or red lines, understood as the divinely ordained boundaries (*hudud* *Allah*), govern all human activity, including the development of AI.[^11] Yet the Sharia is not merely a restrictive code; it is a visionary system designed to promote human welfare and flourishing. To construct a functional Islamic ethics of artificial intelligence, we must trace a clear, teleological trajectory from universal divine intent down to practical engineering. This framework begins with the *maqasid ʿamma*—the overarching, constitutional objectives of the Sharia, such as the preservation of human intellect (*hifz al-ʿaql*) and human dignity.[^12] However, because these universal aims are too broad to directly regulate complex algorithms, scholars and technologists must collaboratively derive *maqasid khassa*: objectives specific to a single domain of activity—here, the digital realm.[^13] In the context of generative technology, a *maqsad khass* might, for example, mandate that AI systems function as transparent intellectual scaffolding rather than deceptive, autonomous replacements for human moral reasoning. These domain objectives are in turn specified as *maqasid juzʾiyya*: the concrete intents behind particular design rules, such as requiring a system to disclose its limitations or to route personal religious questions to a qualified human scholar. This entire hierarchy results in *maslaha*: Tangible public benefit is secured and harm is repelled when accessible, bias-mitigated tools are deployed to solve pressing societal challenges.[^14] This progression from universal principle, to domain objective, to the intent of a specific rule, and finally the benefit it secures, ensures that innovation remains anchored in the pursuit of human flourishing. Yet external structures alone are insufficient. Islamic governance also demands the cultivation of *adab*—the spiritual etiquette, ethical character, and professional virtues required of those who design and deploy technology.[^15] Without this moral foundation, even the most robust legal and institutional safeguards will fail. Engineers and executives must recognize their work as a form of stewardship (*khilafa*), in which technical decisions carry spiritual and societal consequences. Anchored by *tarbiya* (moral discipline), this internal ethic bridges the gap between abstract code and real-world impact, ensuring that responsibility is imposed from within. To enforce meaningful ethical guardrails in AI, mechanisms of liability must also accompany moral principles. The Islamic tradition offers a clear precedent in its treatment of medical ethics (*adab al-tabib*), where practitioners were entrusted with human well-being and held liable for foreseeable harm.[^16] Developers of generative AI occupy a comparable role today, yet the current landscape—shaped by competitive pressures and exemplified by private AI start-up Anthropic’s retreat from unilateral safety constraints[^17]—disincentivizes restraint. Islamic jurisprudence addresses this through a dual standard of accountability: responsibility before God and enforceable liability in this life (*qadaʾ*). Rooted in Prophetic guidance, this framework obliges practitioners to anticipate risks, implement safeguards, and provide restitution when harm occurs. Applied to AI, it challenges liability-shielded models by demanding accountability for foreseeable harms and embedding ethical responsibility into both intention and action, ensuring that innovation is tempered by the protection of human well-being. Further details on the Islamic standards of liability in AI applications are explored in a later section and by reference. To help contextualize the coming frameworks, we also provide an accessible technical primer geared on demystifying generative AI in the appendix. We now move to outline the framework of *fiqh al-muwazanat* (jurisprudence of balancing) and its proposed application to AI ethics. This framework is anchored in concrete legal rulings (*ahkam*) such that where an action is clearly prohibited (haram), tools such as *muwazanat* do not apply. It is also not intended to be applied independently: Nonspecialists should not derive conclusions from it in isolation, nor should specialists employ it without broader scholarly context. --- ## The framework of fiqh al-muwazanat for AI ethics Concerns such as authority, responsibility, and identity show that the ethical challenges of AI are rarely simple. Benefits and harms are often inseparable and unevenly distributed. Addressing them piecemeal risks overlooking the trade-offs that shape real outcomes. Islamic law already offers a principled method for such situations: *fiqh al-muwazanat*, a methodological framework within Islamic jurisprudence for weighing competing considerations and evaluating consequences when multiple interests are at stake.[^18] *Fiqh al-muwazanat* represents a systematic approach to resolving tensions between competing interests (*masalih*) and harms (*mafasid*) that is particularly valuable when addressing novel technological challenges not addressed in classical texts.[^19] As articulated by Ibn al-Qayyim, “the foundation of the Sharia is wisdom and the safeguarding of people’s interests in this world and the next. It is justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom in its entirety.”[^20] This framework becomes essential when evaluating AI applications where benefits and harms coexist within the same technological capability. ### Typologies of balancing (muwazana) in AI ethics The *fiqh al-muwazanat* framework recognizes three distinct types of balancing that scholars must navigate when evaluating AI applications. Understanding these typologies is essential because AI technologies rarely present simple choices between clear good and clear harm. Instead, they typically involve complex scenarios where multiple benefits compete for priority, unavoidable harms must be minimized, or, most commonly, benefits and harms are inextricably intertwined within the same technology. #### 1\. Balancing benefits (muwazanat al-masalih) This type of balancing occurs when multiple beneficial AI applications compete for limited resources, attention, or implementation priority. For instance, a Muslim educational institution might need to choose between investing in AI-powered personalized learning systems that could dramatically improve student outcomes, or AI-enhanced Arabic language preservation tools that could help maintain Islamic cultural heritage. Both serve legitimate Islamic objectives, education (*taʿlim*) and preservation of religious knowledge (*hifz al-din*), but limited budgets may prevent pursuing both simultaneously. The Islamic legal tradition provides clear principles for such situations. The obligatory (*wajib*) takes precedence over the recommended (*mandub*), communal obligations (*fard kifaya*) generally outweigh individual ones (*fard ʿayn*) when resources are limited, and benefits affecting larger populations take priority over those benefiting fewer people.[^21] When applying these principles to AI, scholars must consider factors such as: Which technology serves more fundamental objectives (*maqasid*)? Which addresses more urgent community needs? Which has greater potential for long-term positive impact? #### 2\. Balancing harms (muwazanat al-mafasid) Sometimes circumstances force a choice between two harmful outcomes, where avoiding both is impossible. In such cases, Islamic law requires choosing the lesser evil to minimize overall harm. The Prophet ﷺ exemplified this principle when he advised against rebuilding the Kaaba on its original foundations, despite this being religiously preferable, because it might harm the faith of newly converted Muslims.[^22] In the AI context, consider facial recognition technology. Law enforcement agencies argue it helps locate missing children and prevent terrorism, clear benefits for preserving life (*hifz al-nafs*). However, the same technology enables mass surveillance that is used to persecute Muslim minorities, as documented in China’s treatment of Uyghurs.[^23] If a Muslim-majority country must choose between completely banning such technology (potentially hampering legitimate security needs) or allowing it with the risk of abuse, scholars must determine which option minimizes overall harm to both individual privacy and collective security. #### 3\. Balancing benefits and harms (muwazanat al-masalih wa-l-mafasid) This most complex type of balancing addresses situations where the same AI application simultaneously produces benefits and harms that cannot be separated. The Qur’anic treatment of alcohol and gambling provides the classical model: “They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, ‘In them there is great sin and \[some\] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.’”[^24] This verse establishes that Islamic law can weigh qualitatively different considerations, benefits versus harms, and reach definitive conclusions. Most AI applications fall into this category. Social media algorithms, for instance, help Muslims connect with scholars globally, access Islamic knowledge, and build community networks—significant benefits for religious practice. Simultaneously, these same algorithms can promote addiction, spread misinformation about Islam, and expose users to harmful content. The benefits and harms are produced by the same underlying technology and cannot be easily separated. ### Essential conditions for applied muwazanat analysis For scholars and institutions to effectively apply *fiqh al-muwazanat* to AI ethics, five fundamental conditions must be satisfied. Each of these conditions carries established pedigree in classical *usul al-fiqh*. Their consolidation into the five conditions of *muwazanat*, however, is a contemporary systematization rather than a fixed classical taxonomy. Together, they represent the essential foundations upon which the discipline is built. Neglecting them renders effective engagement in interest-balancing extraordinarily difficult,[^25] and understanding each condition is crucial for those seeking to apply this framework to contemporary technological challenges. #### 1\. Evaluating the objectives of Islamic law (maqasid al-shariʿa) and legal maxims The *maqasid al-shariʿa* refers to the higher objectives and purposes that Islamic law seeks to achieve for humanity. Classical scholars identified five essential objectives that the Sharia aims to preserve: religion (*din*), life (*nafs*), intellect (*ʿaql*), lineage (*nasl*), and property (*mal*).[^26] These are not merely abstract concepts but represent fundamental human interests that must be protected for both individual and societal well-being. Understanding these objectives provides the necessary evaluative framework for assessing AI applications. For instance, when evaluating an AI medical diagnostic system, we consider how it serves the preservation of life (*hifz al-nafs*). When assessing AI-generated educational content, we examine its impact on preserving and developing human intellect (*hifz al-ʿaql*). This hierarchical framework helps scholars determine which benefits to prioritize and which harms to prevent. Additionally, scholars must master key legal maxims (*qawaʿid fiqhiyya*) that guide decision-making. The principle that “preventing harm takes precedence over securing benefits” (*darʾ al-mafasid muqaddam ʿala jalb al-masalih*) proves particularly relevant for AI ethics. This means that if an AI application offers benefits but also poses significant risks of harm, Islamic law prioritizes preventing the harm even if it means forgoing the benefits. For example, if an AI system could improve educational outcomes but also risks exposing children to harmful content, the priority would be preventing the harm. #### 2\. Verifying the effective cause (tahqiq al-manat) This involves verifying whether contemporary AI phenomena genuinely fall under classical legal categories. As Ibn Taymiyya emphasized, this process is “the essence of *ijtihad*,” requiring careful analysis of whether AI systems constitute mere tools (*alat*) or possess characteristics requiring novel jurisprudential treatment.[^27] The process also involves examining the essential characteristics (*manat*) that determine how Islamic law treats something. For AI systems, relevant characteristics might include the degree of autonomy in decision-making, the predictability of outputs, the presence of learning capabilities that change behavior over time, and the potential for outputs that the programmer neither intended nor could foresee. This careful analysis prevents the misapplication of classical rulings to fundamentally new phenomena. #### 3\. Considering context and reality (fiqh al-waqiʿ) *Fiqh al-waqiʿ* literally means “jurisprudence of reality” and refers to the necessity of understanding the actual circumstances, capabilities, and impacts of what we’re evaluating. Ibn al-Qayyim warned that “whoever does not understand the reality \[*al-waqiʿ*\] of creation and the obligation \[*al-wajib*\] in religion will not understand God’s rulings concerning His servants.”[^28] In the context of AI, this means scholars cannot issue meaningful guidance without understanding how AI actually works, its current capabilities and limitations, and its real-world impacts on individuals and society. This condition requires engagement with empirical research and technical knowledge. For example, understanding that large language models like ChatGPT generate responses through statistical pattern matching rather than true comprehension is crucial for evaluating their use in religious contexts. Similarly, awareness of documented biases in AI training data directly impacts assessments of fairness and justice in AI applications. *Fiqh al-waqiʿ* also demands understanding the social and economic contexts in which AI operates. How does AI adoption affect employment in Muslim communities? What are the psychological impacts of AI companions on human relationships? These contextual factors significantly influence the Islamic legal assessment of AI technologies. Ultimately, this necessitates ongoing engagement with current AI research and empirical studies on its effects. #### 4\. Considering consequences (iʿtibar al-maʾalat) *Iʿtibar al-maʾalat* means carefully considering the probable outcomes and long-term consequences of actions or rulings. Al-Shatibi established that “considering the consequences of actions is an established and intended principle in the Sharia.”[^29] This principle recognizes that an action’s permissibility in Islamic law often depends not just on the action itself but also on what it leads to. In AI ethics, this means looking beyond immediate benefits or harms to consider long-term impacts. For instance, while AI tutoring systems might provide immediate educational benefits, scholars must also consider potential long-term consequences: Will widespread adoption reduce human teacher employment? Could it diminish the mentor-student relationship that transmits not just knowledge but wisdom and character? Might children become overly dependent on AI, weakening their independent thinking abilities? This forward-looking analysis includes the principle of *sadd al-dharaʾiʿ* (blocking the means to harm). If allowing certain AI applications could open pathways to greater harms, even if those harms are not immediate or certain, Islamic law may restrict them preventively. For example, even if current AI cannot independently issue religious rulings, allowing AI-generated religious content might normalize receiving spiritual guidance from machines, potentially leading to greater harm in the future. #### 5\. Establishing the jurisprudence of priorities (fiqh al-awlawiyyat) *Fiqh al-awlawiyyat* is the discipline of determining what takes precedence when multiple obligations, benefits, or harms compete for attention or resources. Determining which AI applications deserve immediate attention versus those that can be deferred requires systematic prioritization based on scope of impact, urgency, and alignment with fundamental Islamic objectives.[^30] In the AI context, prioritization means determining which AI applications deserve immediate attention versus those that can be deferred. Should Muslim communities prioritize addressing AI in health care, education, finance, or surveillance? When resources are limited, which AI-related harms should be addressed first? This prioritization must be based on several factors: - Scope of impact: Issues affecting entire communities take precedence over those affecting individuals. - Severity of consequences: Life-threatening applications require more urgent attention than convenience features. - Certainty vs. probability: Definite harms take precedence over speculative benefits. - Availability of alternatives: If non-AI alternatives exist, the urgency of AI adoption decreases. Understanding these priorities prevents the misallocation of community resources and scholarly attention, ensuring that the most critical issues receive appropriate focus. An effective way for seminaries and research institutions to operationalize these five conditions would be to produce a living docket of AI issues, prioritized by *maqasid* and *awlawiyyat*, with periodic public updates. --- ## Case study: AI and the question of fatwas The value of *fiqh al-muwazanat* lies in application. Principles remain abstract until tested against real dilemmas where benefits and harms collide. Case studies allow us to see how Islamic jurisprudence engages AI not with ad hoc answers but through a disciplined framework. With the typologies and conditions clearly established, we can now rigorously apply the jurisprudence of balancing to one of the most urgent contemporary dilemmas: the use of AI in issuing Islamic legal rulings (*iftaʾ*). This topic touches the very core of Islamic religious authority, accessibility, and trust, and raises fundamental questions about the nature of guidance in the digital age. While AI can assist by compiling prior rulings or identifying relevant texts, the possibility of automated or semiautomated fatwas introduces risks of decontextualization, misapplication, and erosion of scholarly discretion. Questions of intent (*niyya*), qualifications, and authority, central to *iftaʾ*, do not translate easily into computational logic. To rigorously assess these competing benefits and harms, we now analyze the core typologies and conditions of *fiqh al-muwazanat*, examining each in turn. ### Identifying the benefits (masalih) Recent advances in AI technology, particularly large language models, have created systems capable of processing vast amounts of text and generating human-like responses. Proponents of AI in Islamic legal consultation point to several potential benefits: #### 1\. Unprecedented accessibility and dynamic personalization The global Muslim population of approximately 1.9 billion faces a significant shortage of qualified Islamic scholars. This shortage is particularly acute in Muslim-minority regions, where access to qualified religious guidance may be extremely limited; for many in these demographics, the practical alternative to AI-generated guidance is not a local scholar, but a complete absence of guidance. In this context, generative AI offers more than just the sheer reach of traditional online fatwa banks. It introduces the capability for dynamic personalization. Unlike static books or prerecorded databases that require users to find an exact match for their query, AI systems can synthesize highly tailored responses that take into account a questioner’s specific variables, such as their designated *madhhab* (school of thought), geographic circumstances, and baseline level of Islamic knowledge. By dynamically adjusting the complexity and contextual framing of its outputs, AI can simulate the individualized attention typically reserved for one-on-one scholarly consultations, offering an interactive and highly responsive educational experience. #### 2\. Enhanced research capabilities Modern Islamic legal research requires consulting numerous classical texts, contemporary fatwas, and scholarly commentaries. AI systems can rapidly search through vast databases of Islamic legal literature, potentially identifying relevant precedents that human researchers might miss. While studies specific to Islamic legal AI are still emerging, research on general legal AI systems provides relevant insights. While early studies on legal AI noted significant limitations in accuracy,[^31] current evaluations demonstrate that retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, which combine advanced language models with specialized databases, have fundamentally altered the research landscape. By anchoring outputs strictly to verified corpora, these architectures heavily mitigate the risk of fabricated references and show immense promise in legal research contexts, though they still require scholarly oversight.[^32] #### 3\. Consistency in established matters For issues where scholarly consensus (*ijmaʿ*) exists, AI could provide consistent responses that align with well-established rulings. This might reduce confusion arising from contradictory opinions on settled matters, particularly for Muslims without the scholarly background to distinguish between mainstream and eccentric positions. ### Identifying the harms (mafasid) The potential harms of AI-generated fatwas require extremely careful consideration, as they strike at fundamental aspects of Islamic religious practice: #### 1\. Fundamental misunderstanding of legal context Islamic legal reasoning (*ijtihad*) requires what al-Shatibi termed “*tahqiq al-manat*”—the careful verification of how general principles apply to specific circumstances.[^33] This process demands not just textual knowledge but deep understanding of social contexts, individual circumstances, and the interplay between various legal considerations. Early 2024 evaluations of legal AI tools demonstrated raw hallucination rates between 17 and 34 percent.[^34] While frontier models (such as Claude Opus 4.6 and Gemini 3.1 Pro) have since made qualitative leaps in factual reliability, recent benchmarks highlight a persistent brittleness regarding deep contextual interpretation. While modern systems rarely fabricate citations, they still frequently misunderstand case contexts, cite irrelevant precedents, and fail to recognize when underlying principles render a historical precedent inapplicable to a contemporary reality. This lack of holistic comprehension warrants significant caution, as the errors produced are no longer obvious fabrications, but rather highly plausible misapplications of the law.[^35] #### 2\. Absence of spiritual insight and wisdom The role of a mufti extends far beyond mechanical application of legal rules. Ibn al-Qayyim emphasized that issuing fatwas requires understanding “the questioner’s state, his needs, and what leads to his welfare.”[^36] This involves spiritual insight (*basira*), wisdom (*hikma*), and the ability to perceive underlying motivations and circumstances that may not be explicitly stated. Current AI systems, despite their sophisticated pattern-matching capabilities, lack consciousness, spiritual understanding, and genuine comprehension. They cannot perceive the spiritual state of a questioner, assess their sincerity, or determine whether a stricter or more lenient approach would better serve their religious development. #### 3\. Systematic biases in Islamic understanding Early research into general-purpose large language models revealed stark, overt prejudices. For example, a 2021 Stanford study found that GPT-3 exhibited “severe bias” against Muslims, with violent associations appearing in two-thirds of responses when prompted with Muslim-related content.[^37] Another analysis demonstrated that ChatGPT’s responses on Islamic historical questions varied dramatically based on how questions were framed, producing contradictory narratives that reflected the biases in its training data rather than balanced scholarly perspectives.[^38] Modern, purpose-built Islamic AI can moderate this concern using curated, scholar-approved databases. While this heavily mitigates the overt stereotypes, the structural risk profile of AI does not disappear as a result. Underlying foundational models are trained predominantly on high-resource languages (primarily English) and Western-centric datasets, which often embed deeply secular reasoning pathways. This shifts the risk from overt hostility to subtle ideological drift, where Islamic jurisprudence is subtly reframed to align with liberal, secular paradigms embedded in a particular AI’s architecture. #### 4\. Erosion of scholarly authority and methodology The Islamic scholarly tradition maintains quality through mechanisms of peer review, scholarly credentials (*ijaza*), and the requirement for extensive study under qualified teachers. AI-generated fatwas bypass these crucial safeguards. The democratization of fatwa generation could lead to a situation where anyone can prompt an AI for religious rulings, potentially receiving responses that appear authoritative but lack proper scholarly grounding. ### Essential conditions #### Condition 1: Evaluating objectives of Islamic law (maqasid al-shariʿa) and legal maxims The preservation of religion (*hifz al-din*) stands as the paramount objective of Islamic law. Accurate religious guidance serves this objective directly, while religious misguidance threatens it at the most fundamental level. When we examine AI-generated fatwas through this lens, we must ask: Does this technology primarily serve to preserve and strengthen proper religious understanding, or does it risk corrupting it? Is it generating new information (*ifta*ʾ) or merely referencing existing information? The accessibility benefits of AI, while significant, primarily serve to make religious information more accessible (*tahsiniyyat*), an improvement rather than a necessity (*daruriyyat*). While delayed access to a fatwa may cause practical inconvenience, it rarely poses an existential threat to a community’s faith; in contrast, the dissemination of erroneous religious guidance actively undermines the foundation of the religion. This hierarchical analysis suggests that protecting the integrity of religious guidance takes clear precedence over improving its accessibility. #### Condition 2: Verifying the effective cause (tahqiq al-manat) Applying *tahqiq al-manat* requires determining whether AI-generated religious content falls under the category of *iftaʾ* (issuing legal rulings) or merely *naql* (transmitting established rulings). This distinction is crucial because Islamic law treats these categories very differently. Classical jurisprudence clearly distinguishes between creative legal reasoning (*ijtihad*), which requires qualified human judgment, and the mere transmission of established rulings, which even a child can perform by reading from a book. AI systems, lacking genuine comprehension, consciousness, and spiritual insight, cannot engage in actual *ijtihad*. At best, they might serve as sophisticated tools for *naql*, but even this limited role requires careful constraints to prevent the appearance of independent legal reasoning. #### Condition 3: Considering the current reality (fiqh al-waqiʿ) Evaluating the current reality (*fiqh al-waqiʿ*) requires acknowledging the rapid evolution of AI capabilities in religious and legal contexts. While early systems suffered from high hallucination rates, contemporary foundational models have achieved exceptional baseline accuracies on complex reasoning tasks. However, this high performance introduces a new challenge: The technology’s rapid deployment has outpaced quality control mechanisms. Unlike traditional Islamic scholarship, which develops through years of careful study and peer review, AI systems can be updated overnight, potentially introducing new biases or errors without users’ knowledge. The “black box” nature of large language models means that even their creators cannot fully explain why they generate specific responses. Built from billions of parameters that interact in highly complex ways across many layers, AI responses are the result of statistical patterns, not a step-by-step, human-readable chain of reasoning. We see what goes in and what comes out, but we cannot clearly trace or explain the exact internal reasoning that produced that answer. #### Condition 4: Considering consequences (iʿtibar al-maʾalat) The probable and long-term implications of normalizing AI-generated religious guidance extend far beyond immediate concerns about accuracy. Consider the potential trajectories: 1. Erosion of human spiritual guidance: As people become accustomed to receiving instant religious answers from AI, the tradition of seeking guidance from living scholars, with all the spiritual benefits such relationships provide, may gradually disappear. Earlier, less capable information technologies have disrupted traditional Islamic authority and the scholar-seeker relationship, from the advent of the printing press to the rise of the internet, social media, and fatwa banks.[^39] 2. Theological drift: AI systems trained on internet data inevitably absorb and reproduce contemporary biases. Over time, this could lead to a gradual shift in religious understanding, moving away from scholarly interpretations grounded in tradition toward whatever perspectives dominate online discourse. While most AI usage today is prone to this consequence, a purpose-built AI with carefully constructed anchoring can mitigate this concern. 3. Loss of contextual jurisprudence: Islamic law’s strength lies partly in its ability to provide context-specific guidance. AI systems, operating through pattern matching rather than true understanding, may push Islamic legal thought toward rigid, decontextualized applications. Following the principle of *sadd al-dharaʾiʿ* (blocking paths to harm), even if current AI systems could be constrained to avoid major errors, permitting their use for religious guidance opens pathways to these greater future harms. #### Condition 5: Establishing the jurisprudence of priorities (fiqh al-awlawiyyat) Given the fundamental importance of preserving authentic religious guidance, and recognizing that alternative solutions exist (such as using AI to assist human scholars rather than replace them), the priority calculation becomes clear. The potential harm to religious integrity far outweighs the convenience benefits of AI-generated fatwas. ### Recommended guidelines for issuing Islamic legal rulings (iftaʾ) based on muwazanat analysis Based on this comprehensive analysis, the following guidelines emerge: #### 1\. Prohibition on autonomous fatwa generation While AI may be utilized to retrieve and transmit basic, settled knowledge (*naql*), it must not be used to independently issue fatwas, synthesize novel legal reasoning (*ijtihad*), or apply general rules to specific personal circumstances. In these domains of active legal judgment, the harms to religious authority, accuracy, and spiritual guidance decisively outweigh any benefits of increased accessibility. #### 2\. Permitted use as research assistance AI may serve as a research tool for qualified scholars, helping to search through texts, compile relevant precedents, and organize information. However, all analysis, reasoning, and conclusions must come from human scholars. #### 3\. Educational applications with clear limitations AI can assist in teaching established rulings and basic Islamic principles, provided clear, prominent disclaimers indicate that this is educational material, not religious guidance. Educational material involves the transmission (*naql* and *taʿlim*) of established, general knowledge, whereas religious guidance (*iftaʾ*) involves the application of rulings to specific, personal circumstances. Furthermore, the system used should explicitly direct users to consult qualified scholars for personal religious questions. Additionally, the content must be regularly reviewed by qualified scholars for accuracy. #### 4\. Institutional oversight requirements Muslim organizations implementing any AI tools in religious contexts should establish committees of qualified scholars and technical experts to: (1) evaluate tools before implementation, (2) monitor ongoing performance and identify biases, (3) ensure compliance with Islamic legal principles, and (4) review and approve any updates or modifications. #### 5\. Transparency and accountability Any AI system used in Islamic educational contexts must maintain transparency about: (1) its limitations and lack of spiritual understanding, (2) the sources of its training data, (3) the process for reporting and correcting errors, and (4) the human scholars responsible for oversight. This analysis demonstrates how the systematic application of *fiqh al-muwazanat* provides clear, principled guidance for addressing novel technological challenges while maintaining fidelity to Islamic legal methodology and objectives. --- ## Additional problems in need of Islamic research and ijtihad With the imminent growth of AI, a focused research agenda that addresses urgent ethical and theological questions across social, economic, and religious spheres is needed. These questions are inherently interdisciplinary, requiring Islamic scholars to engage alongside experts in fields such as computer science, law, and philosophy. Here, we introduce an inexhaustive set of pressing areas that stand out as needing deeper research and sustained engagement. Other questions will continue to emerge as AI develops, yet even this small set illustrates how urgently Islamic scholarship must grapple with the challenges ahead. We provide brief primers on the core issues and anchoring principles around these questions, and call upon multidisciplinary teams to undertake deeper scholarly treatments of them. ### AI, epistemology, and the pursuit of truth One of the most pressing concerns regarding AI lies in the domain of authority and knowledge. This area sits at the very center of the preservation of religion (*hifz al-din*) and the epistemic trust upon which Muslim communities rely. AI systems that generate answers to religious questions, draft sermons, or summarize rulings blur the line between basic research assistance and Islamic legal pronouncement (*iftaʾ*). Their outputs often carry an aura of absolute certainty and neutrality, even though they are merely statistical predictions shaped by their training data. Critics of this view often argue that human scholars are similarly “programmed” by their teachers and cultural context. In its strongest form, this objection rests on a reductive materialism that the Islamic tradition does not concede; a human scholar’s judgment is anchored in moral agency, spiritual insight, and accountability before Allah, not merely in the weights of prior exposure. Yet the distinction does not depend solely on that metaphysical dispute. Even granting the analogy at the level of training, the scholar and the model differ functionally in ways decisive for *iftaʾ*: The scholar forms an intention (*niyyah*), can articulate and be held to the chain of reasoning by which a ruling was reached, and bears personal liability for it before both God and the community. In contrast, the model yields outputs through opaque statistical processes for which no accountable author can supply, or answer for, the underlying reasoning. What the category of *ijtihad* presupposes, then, is this accountable authorship—not a theory of what cognition is made of. The reliance on statistical predictions creates serious risks in the context of *iftaʾ*: the generation of decontextualized rulings, the misapplication of sacred texts, and the circulation of material that appears deeply authoritative but lacks any genuine scholarly grounding. A human scholar can be held accountable to explain the precise jurisprudential methodology that led to a ruling, whereas the underlying reasoning of a neural network is largely opaque. While the ability of these tools to instantly sift through vast textual corpora makes them undeniably attractive, we must ask: How can the integrity of scholarly authority be protected in an environment where machine-generated content is so ubiquitous? To answer this, we must first recognize how Islam understands truth. In the Islamic worldview, truth is not merely a property of sentences; it is an undeniable reality grounded in the Divine. Al-Haqq (the Truth) is one of the names of God, and the Qur’an repeatedly states that the heavens and the earth were created *bi-l-haqq* (in truth).[^40] Because reality itself is anchored in the Divine, our pursuit of knowledge is a sacred and moral duty, not just an intellectual exercise. Large language models (LLMs), however, do not operate within this moral universe. They are not truth-tracking agents; they are extraordinarily powerful next-word predictors. Their underlying architecture is designed to optimize for plausibility, not truth. They do not “know” what they are saying. Consequently, AI systems are infamous for “hallucinations”: confidently inventing quotes, fabricating historical events, or even generating fake Qur’anic verses and hadith. Because AI routinely produces both accurate summaries and complete fabrications with the exact same tone of unwavering confidence, it preys upon so-called “automation bias.” Studies on generative AI show that its sheer fluency frequently overrides our critical faculties, making users deeply reticent to actually fact-check its claims.[^41] AI-generated content in the public sphere cannot be granted the presumption of plausibility. Instead, it must be evaluated at the most basic epistemic baseline: between truth (*sidq*) and falsehood (*kadhib*). The Qur’anic demand for evidence is explicit: “Say, ‘Produce your proof, if you should be truthful.’”[^42] This Prophetic principle dictates that the burden of proof lies upon the claimant. It is not the responsibility of the Muslim audience to assume a machine’s output is true; it is the burden of the person utilizing the output to verify it. Navigating this reality does not require us to invent a new ethical framework; rather, it requires the revival of a classical Islamic epistemic ethic: *naqd* (rigorous critical evaluation). Historically, when the early Muslim community faced a proliferation of fabricated reports and malicious liars (*kadhdhabin*)—particularly in diverse, intellectually active centers like Kufa—scholars did not respond with a framework of “calibrated trust,” a posture that assumes a baseline of reliability that is merely adjusted when errors occur. They responded with disciplined suspicion: an epistemological baseline of doubt where the burden of proof rests entirely upon the transmitter. They developed the rigorous sciences of hadith criticism and biographical evaluation (*ʿilm al-rijal*) because the preservation of the religion demanded skepticism of unverified claims.[^43] The rigorous development of the science of narrators (*ʿilm al-rijal*) served as an independent epistemological infrastructure to protect the early Muslim community from intellectual dependency and the fabrication of knowledge. Relying entirely on foundational AI models trained on overwhelmingly Western datasets with embedded biases is akin to accepting a narrative without verifying its chain of transmission. This culture of disciplined suspicion is exactly what is required today in an environment saturated with AI-generated content. For Muslim scholars and the general public alike, the correct posture toward AI is neither naïve adoption nor categorical rejection, but rigorous verification (*tabayyun*).[^44] By treating AI not as an authority, but as a sophisticated yet profoundly fallible tool, we can utilize its efficiencies while guarding our minds and our faith with the same vigilance championed by the scholars of our past. Discerning *al-haqq* entails calibrated skepticism in AI outputs, disciplined reason, and the policing of error through verification. Recent work in Islamic AI ethics argues for precisely this pluralist benchmarking: preserving metaphysical commitments about *al-haqq* while operationalizing legal-ethical tools (e.g., *qiyas*, *istislah*, *sadd al-dharaʾiʿ*) to decide when probabilistic assistance serves or subverts the just ends of Sharia.[^45] Such a framework honors the Islamic ontology of truth while acknowledging the distinctive, distribution-fit epistemics of AI. ### Liability and ownership Islamic teachings consistently emphasize that every individual will be held accountable before Allah for their actions. The Qur’an declares, “Every soul is held in pledge for what it has earned,”[^46] and the Prophet ﷺ said, “Each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is responsible for his flock.”[^47] In an age of rapidly evolving artificial intelligence, these ethical and legal responsibilities take on renewed urgency. Muslim scholars and technologists alike are compelled to ask: What is my responsibility before Allah in using or developing AI? And how can the foundational sources of Islam help assess the outcomes of actions mediated by AI systems? One established framework for engaging these questions is found in the Islamic laws of liability (*daman*), which distinguish between spiritual accountability before Allah and legal liability for material harm. Classical jurists outlined various scenarios in which a person may be (1) legally liable but not sinful, (2) sinful but not legally liable, or (3) both liable and sinful.[^48] To apply these frameworks to artificial intelligence, we must first establish the exact nature of the technology. Because AI systems lack sentience, will, and moral agency, they are fundamentally nothing more than programmable artifacts and sophisticated tools. Consequently, an AI model itself can never be classified as a direct causer of harm or an indirect initiator in Islamic law, as both categories pertain exclusively to morally accountable human agents (*mukallaf*). Instead, the classical Islamic legal tradition offers three main principles for assessing the liability of the human actors involved: 1. Direct causer (*mubashir*): Held legally responsible for harm caused directly by their actions, even if the act itself was not explicitly prohibited (haram). 2. Indirect initiator (*mutasabbib*): Liable if their action was impermissible, provided the connection to the harm is firmly established. 3. Combined actions: In cases involving both direct and indirect actors, liability typically rests with the direct actor unless the harm cannot rationally be traced to them. When applied to AI systems, these principles are clear: They dictate that liability must be directed at the humans who design, deploy, and interact with the technology. While generative AI models exhibit designed unpredictability, treating this trait as comparable to the instinctual agency of a living creature obscures the core moral issue. For example, the liability here is not analogous to that of a parent of a minor child who accidentally breaks an item at a store, or a trained dog that causes inadvertent harm. This is because the behavior of AI systems can be explicitly constrained through human design choices, such as implementing guardrails, certainty thresholds, verification layers, and human-in-the-loop approvals. Harms generally arise when developers or corporations choose to deploy immature or opaque systems into live, high-risk environments, often driven by market speed or profit, rather than from an inherent inability to constrain the system. From an Islamic perspective, knowingly exposing people to foreseeable harm through such negligence is ethically unacceptable. Therefore, the burden of liability (*daman*) firmly remains on the human programmer, deployer, or user depending on the vector of caused harm. Islamic legal theory provides a rigorous framework for navigating these issues, ensuring that accountability is always traced back to human choices, foreseeability, negligence, and intent. ### Intellectual and creative attribution Classical Islamic ethics already provides robust frameworks for addressing misattribution,[^49] deception,[^50] and the unauthorized exploitation of another’s labor.[^51] In these domains, AI does not necessarily introduce novel moral dilemmas; instead, it drastically lowers the barrier to entry, obscures the mechanics of theft, and exponentially amplifies the scale of such potential ethical violations. Moreover, responsibility and accountability for claims can be obfuscated due to novel error vectors in generative AI when performing background research and verification. In Islamic ethics, authorship is tied not only to producing words or images but to the intent, *ijtihad* (effort), and trustworthiness of the one who creates content. Passing off a khutbah drafted by ChatGPT as one’s own scholarship, or a fatwa summary compiled by an algorithm as a jurist’s considered ruling, can undermine the more direct connection between intention, effort, and ownership in classical research methods. Passing off machine-generated work as human erodes trust and blurs responsibility for the content being taught or shared; new paradigms of research and verification are needed in order to preserve trust in the integrity of religious voices. The problem also extends to the data on which these systems are built. Vast corpora, including copyrighted works, sacred texts, and personal material, are often scraped without consent,[^52] with their outputs reproducing these materials in altered or decontextualized forms. This raises questions of the protection of property (*hifz al-mal*) and fairness, since Islamic law generally prohibits benefiting from the labor or property of others without their permission.[^53] Contemporary scholarship is needed to extend classical paradigms of research and accountability to the era of generative AI, and to explore the broader societal implications of private companies profiting off of the collective output of training data without explicit consent of or compensation for their creators. ### Environmental stewardship Artificial intelligence is often imagined as an ethereal cloud of algorithms, but in practice, it is firmly anchored in vast physical infrastructure. The foundation of AI consists of graphics processing units (GPUs), tensor processing units (TPUs), specialized silicon chips, and sprawling data centers. This reality ties the advancement of AI directly to the global political economy of hardware extraction, mineral mining, and immense electricity consumption.[^54] Like much of modern industrial infrastructure, these facilities come with profound environmental costs. The modern internet already relies on energy-intensive systems that leave a significant ecological footprint, but the rise of generative AI magnifies these costs exponentially, demanding unprecedented resources at a global scale. AI represents a spectrum of resource intensity. At one end are huge foundation models, the training of which consumes extraordinary amounts of electricity and water. At the other end are everyday inference tasks that run quietly in the background of ordinary life. While foundational training is highly resource-intensive, the ecological cost of individual inference is actually decreasing rapidly. Recent empirical data from 2025 demonstrates that the energy required for a standard generative text prompt has dropped significantly, consuming merely 0.24 Wh (equivalent to watching television for less than nine seconds).[^55] However, because inference is constant, distributed, and woven into our daily routines, the sheer exponential volume of these efficient queries, combined with the massive upfront infrastructural costs of model training, ensures that the aggregate global energy demand remains a profound ecological challenge. From an Islamic paradigm, this reality demands a rigorous ethic of stewardship (*khilafa*). Because total disengagement from this technological spectrum is practically unrealistic, Muslims must carefully weigh the harms and benefits across these layers. Where the ecological costs outweigh the communal benefits, Islamic ethics allows for, and sometimes necessitates, abstention or restraint. For the Muslim professional, working within the system to push for smaller, more efficient models, demanding transparency in compute and data usage, and developing benchmarks for resource responsibility are all critical expressions of preserving the earth (*hifz al-biʾa*). ### Digital sovereignty and infrastructure dependence While the ecological footprint of AI is a highly consequential concern, the concentration of AI infrastructure and computational resources in a small number of corporations and states represents a more fundamental, metaethical challenge. This monopolization shapes exactly how AI is developed, deployed, and governed, and it acts as the structural root underlying many downstream harms. For the global Muslim *ummah*—which largely resides within developing countries and the Global South—this is not merely an issue of market competition; it is a question of profound civilizational significance and a shield against new forms of neocolonial dependency. The training of foundation models and the provision of large-scale compute resources are overwhelmingly dominated by a handful of Western, primarily US-based, technology firms. The critical issue is not simply whether developing nations will have consumer access to AI, but whether they will possess the agency to shape its foundational infrastructure. Furthermore, because these foundational models are trained predominantly on high-resource languages (primarily English) and Western datasets, they suffer from severe language limitations and structural biases.[^56] These models systematically marginalize languages critical to the Muslim world, such as Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and Malay, while embedding Western-centric, often secular assumptions into their very architecture. Historically, Muslim scholars recognized that intellectual and spiritual sovereignty required robust, independent infrastructure. The rigorous development of hadith criticism, particularly the meticulous evaluation of transmission chains (*isnad*) and narrator reliability (*al-jarh wa-l-taʿdil*), was essentially a massive infrastructural project designed to protect the integrity of Islamic epistemology from foreign adulteration and fabrication.[^57] Consequently, Muslim engagement with AI cannot rely on a single strategy of passive consumption or the mere mitigation of downstream harms. There is a pressing need to address this dependency at the root. Investing in digital sovereignty means developing shared, localized infrastructure in Muslim-majority societies and the broader Global South, such as regional cloud networks, indigenous compute clusters, and foundation models trained on datasets carefully curated to reflect and respect orthodox Islamic commitments. Without this, Muslim communities risk a profound geopolitical and epistemological dependence on the few entities that control the digital future. We believe this is an area ripe for entrepreneurship, innovation, and scholarship to help enable the promise of the generative AI era to extend to the entire world. --- ## Recommendations for general Muslim engagement The rapid spread of AI ensures that its impact will reach practically every Muslim household, classroom, workplace, and institution. Islamic ethics provides a framework for foresight and accountability, but it also requires translation into general practice across different layers of society. The following opportunities outline how individuals, communities, and professionals can contribute at a grassroots level to meaningfully shape AI’s adoption in line with Islamic values. At the most immediate level of engagement, Muslims encounter AI as everyday users, and the priority in this context is building literacy and resilience. Individuals should cultivate habits of verification (*tabayyun*) when assessing AI-generated information, with the awareness that misinformation and deepfakes are often designed intentionally to manipulate. Families, and especially parents, bear the responsibility of modeling ethical technology use, setting boundaries for healthy reliance on AI and protecting children from exploitative or addictive applications. Attention to personal privacy, critical evaluation of AI outputs, and mindful use of AI tutoring or therapy tools provide a baseline of ethical literacy that can be established within Muslim homes. Religious and community leaders shape how Muslims collectively perceive and use AI. Imams, teachers, and local leaders can guide their communities toward balanced approaches that neither exaggerate the benefits of AI nor dismiss it entirely. Through sermons, curricula, and workshops, they can frame AI as a tool that demands oversight rather than as an authority to be trusted without question. Community institutions should set clear policies for their own use of AI, ensuring that mosque communications, educational resources, and khutbah preparation are reviewed by qualified humans and labeled appropriately. Leaders should also adopt referral protocols for AI-related harms, including counseling pathways for those facing deepfake harassment or dependence on chatbots for companionship or therapy. By establishing norms early, they can prevent harmful practices from becoming ingrained in communal life. Muslims working in professional and institutional settings have opportunities to influence how AI is built and governed. Technologists can advocate for responsible design, contribute to testing models for bias against Islam alongside broader systemic prejudices like racism and elitism, and help create datasets that reflect Islamic perspectives. Those in product development and policy roles have the ability to anticipate potential harms before systems are deployed, establish clear avenues for accountability when harms do occur, and uphold user privacy as a matter of trust. Institutions should collaborate to build shared infrastructure, such as benchmarking hubs and mentorship networks, that strengthen Muslim capacity in the AI era. They are also well-placed to explore strategies for digital sovereignty, including independent datasets and infrastructure. In addition, Muslim professionals and community organizations can anticipate job displacement by supporting workforce retraining and reskilling, ensuring that vulnerable groups are not left behind. --- ## Takeaways and future directions Artificial intelligence is not a distant concern. It is an immediate ethical frontier, and the cost of hesitation is already clear. Our experience with social media demonstrated that delayed ethical engagement allows harmful structures to harden; with AI, the stakes are significantly higher. A reactive posture is no longer tenable. What is required is deliberate, principled intervention grounded in a coherent moral framework. This study has argued that the Islamic intellectual tradition is not only relevant to this challenge but uniquely equipped to address it. By foregrounding accountability before both society and God, it offers a more comprehensive alternative to prevailing legalistic approaches that often fail to capture the full moral weight of technological harm. The application of *fiqh al-muwazanat*, guided by the *maqasid al-shariʿa*, provides a disciplined method for evaluating AI through its real-world consequences. The case of AI-generated fatwas underscores the urgency of this approach. Increased accessibility cannot justify undermining the integrity of religious authority or risking distortion in matters of faith. Where harm is credible and far-reaching, restraint is a necessity and outweighs any speculative benefit. This principle extends beyond a single application: Any deployment of AI must be judged by whether it preserves or compromises essential human and religious goods. The path forward demands coordinated effort. Key priorities include establishing a rigorous epistemological framework for AI outputs, treating them as provisional and subject to verification (*tabayyun*). It requires refining doctrines of liability (*daman*) to ensure that responsibility remains firmly with human agents. Questions of algorithmic bias, data governance, and environmental cost must also be addressed as integral concerns as a necessity for safeguarding communal well-being. Most importantly, these insights must be institutionalized. The formation of a cross-disciplinary consortium of Muslim scholars, technologists, and legal experts is necessary. Such a body can set standards, audit systems, and advocate effectively in policy arenas. Without this level of organization, ethical guidance risks remaining theoretical while technological development accelerates unchecked. AI is set to shape the conditions of human life in profound ways. The question is not whether to engage, but how and on whose terms. A principled, proactive approach offers the possibility of mitigating harm and directing technological development toward outcomes that genuinely serve the common good. By fostering digital sovereignty and investing in our own institutional capacity, we can actively shape a technological future that aligns with our values. This work represents a collective responsibility, an opportunity to ensure that these powerful new tools are harnessed not for profit or power, but for the genuine benefit of humanity. --- ## Appendix: Demystifying generative AI[^58] To help contextualize the frameworks expounded in this paper, this appendix provides an accessible technical primer designed to demystify generative AI. By unpacking its key features, history of development, impact, and operational reality, we hope to equip readers with the foundations needed to begin assessing AI use. The AI of today often appears mysterious, even magical, to those outside the field.[^59] As with earlier technologies, this sense of mystery can create misplaced trust or exaggerated fear, both of which have unintended consequences. An example from recent history concerns the introduction of the radio, or wireless telegraphy more generally, in the Middle East in the early twentieth century. When the radio was first introduced, some influential religious scholars opposed it, fearing it was a tool of sorcery or instrument of the devil: They heard disembodied voices without grasping the underlying technology that enabled them. King Abdulaziz ibn Saud arranged for a pragmatic demonstration: He had reciters in Mecca read verses from the Qur’an over the radio, which the scholars heard clearly more than 500 miles (850 km) away in Riyadh. This helped successfully persuade them that the technology was a tool that could be used for good, and ultimately led to its official sanctioning and adoption.[^60] We argue that the products of artificial intelligence are analogous in that regard: Its outputs can feel uncanny or even humanlike, yet they are the result of definable systems and methods. As described within this paper, they are not entirely value neutral. To engage AI ethically and responsibly, we must first strip away this aura of mystery and understand what is really happening inside. The technology most responsible for this perception is the rise of large language models (LLMs), systems designed to process and generate human language. For decades, the idea that computers could effectively understand and generate human language seemed closer to science fiction than reality. Early attempts at computational linguistics, which date back to the mid-twentieth century,[^61] struggled with even simple grammatical sentences, leading to widespread skepticism. Later public-facing applications in the late 1990s and 2000s were isolated and modular, such as voice-recognition systems in customer service applications and recommender systems at Amazon and Netflix that personalize every viewing experience. However, over the last decade, rapid advancements in machine learning and computational capabilities have turned language modeling into one of AI’s most astonishing success stories. Today, AI-driven language models, powered by predictive neural networks, produce coherent and contextually relevant stories, summarize documents, answer questions, translate documents seamlessly across languages, write code, and power intelligent assistants that engage in meaningful conversations. These applications represent a step function change. They are now embedded comprehensively in user experiences, deciding Uber driver matches, evaluating job candidates,[^62] and flagging fraudulent transactions. The largest models are able to solve International Olympiad–level problems,[^63] convincingly pass bar exams,[^64] detect cancer with better accuracy than experts,[^65] plan itineraries and recipes, and deploy sinister ends, such as identifying human targets in Gaza and Ukraine.[^66] ### Language models: History and progress A language model is fundamentally a statistical tool designed to predict what word or phrase will come next, given some text.[^67] The concept is straightforward, yet its implications are profound. Consider the following example. If given the sentence fragment, “Before praying, Ahmad performed \_\_\_\_\_\_\_,” a language model, based on its prior exposure to extensive written language, assigns probabilities to various completions: - “wudu” (22.3%) - “dhikr” (8.7%) - “sunnah” (5.5%) This predictive capability might appear trivial, but it is precisely this simplicity that underpins the model’s immense power. Because the entire internet, digital books, research articles, and transcripts of conversations can serve as training examples, every single piece of digitized text becomes a potential learning resource. The sheer scale of available training data allows these models to internalize vast amounts of knowledge about grammar, context, semantics, cultural references, and general world knowledge. Coupled with dramatic increases in computational power, particularly advances in specialized hardware like Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), this unprecedented combination of enormous datasets and intensive computation has enabled the creation of AI systems capable of performing an extraordinarily wide, versatile range of tasks. Thus, a language model learns far more than just predicting the next word: It learns the patterns, structures, and meanings deeply embedded in human language and thought. Early computational linguistics relied on simple statistical methods like Markov chains, which predicted each word solely based on the preceding word. These approaches produced clunky, mechanical outputs and reinforced skepticism that computers could ever handle natural language effectively. Artificial neural networks, a powerful method of statistical machine learning, then emerged as the preferred approach. By autonomously discovering complex linguistic patterns in vast amounts of data rather than relying on rigid, hand-coded rules, these deep learning systems overcame earlier bottlenecks and quickly became central to everyday technology across research and industry. The field advanced in the early 2010s with deep learning methods, including recurrent neural networks and long short-term memory networks, which captured more nuanced linguistic context. A decisive breakthrough came in 2017 with the introduction of the transformer architecture.[^68] Unlike earlier models that processed text sequentially, transformers implemented a new mechanism called self-attention. To grasp the importance of this innovation, consider the following sentence: “The trophy doesn’t fit in the suitcase because it is too large.” In understanding this sentence, one needs to determine whether the pronoun “it” refers to “the trophy” or “the suitcase.” A transformer’s self-attention mechanism allows each word in the sentence to directly assess its relationship with every other word, thus quickly determining that “it” likely refers to “the trophy” due to contextual clues. This capacity to efficiently handle complex linguistic relationships allowed transformers to process large blocks of text, capturing deeper semantic and contextual information than previous models. Transformers quickly became the industry standard, equipping AI with the means to produce vast amounts of knowledge in response to simple prompts. OpenAI’s GPT-2 (2019) demonstrated the potential of large-scale text generation with the largest variant containing 1.5 billion parameters, while GPT-3 (2020) scaled dramatically to 175 billion parameters and displayed unprecedented fluency. These parameters are the internal, trainable numerical values (specifically weights and biases) learned during training that define how the model processes information and generates output. The public release of ChatGPT in 2022 brought conversational AI into mainstream use, and GPT-4 (2023), rumored to possess 1.8 trillion parameters,[^69] showcased highly sophisticated pattern-matching that convincingly simulates human reasoning and achieves professional-level performance. This period also saw intensified competition, with the release of Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and heightened regulatory scrutiny, including President Biden’s executive order and the first Global AI Safety Summit. By 2024, the generative AI landscape had diversified further. OpenAI launched multimodal capabilities with Sora, Apple entered the field with Apple Intelligence, and the Chinese firm DeepSeek challenged assumptions about AI development budgets by releasing a powerful reasoning model,[^70] the DeepSeek R1, apparently trained at a fraction of the previous cost.[^71] ### Current impact AI is no longer a future possibility but an active force shaping work, education, health care, media, and governance. In the workplace, AI has moved from being an optional tool to a force that is reshaping industries. Coding assistants, workflow automation, and fraud detection systems are increasingly standard. Leaders of major technology firms openly anticipate the replacement of large segments of their workforce: Salesforce’s Marc Benioff announced that the company would hire no new software engineers in 2025 due to productivity improvements from AI-assisted development,[^72] while Mark Zuckerberg suggested that AI may soon perform the role of mid-level engineers.[^73] Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, framed this acceleration as Amjad’s Law, claiming that the return on learning to code now doubles every six months thanks to AI tools. The benefits are clear—higher efficiency, faster development cycles, and cost savings—but so are the risks, as industries brace for job displacement, layoffs, and intensified surveillance of workers.[^74] Similar dynamics are evident in knowledge-rich fields such as education and health care. AI tutoring platforms like Khan Academy’s Khanmigo already provide personalized, low-cost educational support.[^75] Research suggests that such systems could achieve the “two-sigma effect,” raising average students to what was the 97th percentile with individualized guidance.[^76] Health care has seen even more dramatic claims. A multi-institutional study reported that the OpenAI o1-preview model achieved “superhuman performance” in differential diagnosis and clinical reasoning, outperforming both earlier AI systems and trained physicians, with radiology tools reaching up to 98 percent accuracy in some domains.[^77] These advances promise to democratize access to high-quality instruction and medical expertise. Yet they also introduce challenges of overreliance, inequities in access, opaque decision-making, and unresolved questions of liability when errors occur. Beyond physical health, AI is increasingly being used for mental and emotional well-being. By 2025, emotional support had become a striking use of generative AI: One widely cited analysis of online discussion ranked therapy and companionship as the top individual use case,[^78] even as another analysis found relationships and personal reflection to be approximately 2% of conversations, which still amounted to hundreds of millions of exchanges each week.[^79] These tools are always available, relatively inexpensive, and can provide basic coping strategies in contexts where human therapists are scarce. Reports describe users who have come to rely on ChatGPT as a substitute therapist or even a spiritual guide, sometimes leading to unhealthy attachments and/or strained human relationships.[^80] Unlike trained professionals, AI lacks empathy, accountability, and the ability to respond responsibly in crisis situations. Moreover, because these systems are optimized to produce responses that satisfy the user, they often echo back what a person wants to hear rather than offering hard truths or constructive challenges. As a result, what begins as a convenient support tool can reinforce delusions, entrench unhealthy patterns, or exacerbate vulnerability, raising difficult questions about the role of AI in domains as sensitive as mental health and therapy. Beyond individual well-being, this crisis of trust extends profoundly into the domains of media and civic life. AI systems already power real-time translation, summarization, automated news production, and increasingly sophisticated content creation. Consumer tools are capable of generating convincing videos and mimicking voices, blurring the line between authentic and fabricated material, also known as deepfakes. While these systems promise convenience and accessibility, they also fuel misinformation, erode public trust, and disrupt the authority of traditional media institutions. The civic and security implications are even more sobering. AI tools are already used in fraud detection, predictive policing, and intelligence analysis, with reports of deployment in military targeting during conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.[^81] While these applications can deliver efficiency and safety in some contexts, they also expand the scope of surveillance, risk manipulation of democratic processes, and raise the prospect of AI-enabled warfare. Taken together, these developments illustrate the double-edged nature of AI’s current impact. Across domains, the technology accelerates productivity, personalizes services, and expands access to knowledge, but it also threatens jobs, concentrates power, destabilizes trust, and introduces novel risks to health, governance, and security. Despite their transformative potential, large language models inherently reflect the biases, values, and decisions of their human creators. Often mistakenly viewed as objective arbiters of information, their fluent and apparently confident communication style masks underlying ethical and societal limitations. This perceived objectivity, combined with seemingly flawless language generation, may inadvertently reinforce misplaced confidence in their outputs, making these limitations particularly critical to recognize and address. When a model developed in China refuses to acknowledge the existence of Uyghur persecution,[^82] or when ChatGPT “both-sides” most political issues,[^83] it starkly highlights that these technologies are never neutral; they mirror the biases, politics, and cultural perspectives of their developers. Predominantly trained on English-language Western-centric datasets, models often show reduced accuracy and increased biases when addressing non-Western contexts or non-English languages.[^84] Even well-intentioned efforts to restrict harmful outputs through content “guardrails” inherently involve political decisions about which information is appropriate or inappropriate,[^85] unintentionally reinforcing subtle racial prejudices and cultural biases embedded in their training data. Truthfulness presents another significant challenge. Because large language models optimize outputs based on statistical plausibility of the training data rather than factual accuracy, they frequently generate confidently incorrect information,[^86] a phenomenon known as “hallucinations.” What does it mean for an LLM to be truthful when its responses are derived from probability distributions? The issue of truthfulness is further complicated by reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), a technique commonly used to refine model behavior. RLHF can unintentionally encourage models to produce pleasing responses that align with user preferences and turn models into sycophants.[^87] Privacy,[^88] safety, and security also present critical concerns. In early 2025, researchers discovered an AI model openly praising Nazis after being fine-tuned on insecure data,[^89] highlighting how models trained on vast datasets can unintentionally generate harmful content. Such vulnerabilities can be exploited through jailbreak attempts or prompt injection attacks,[^90] where hidden malicious instructions compromise model integrity. Data poisoning poses another serious threat, as adversaries can intentionally embed harmful or extremist biases into training data, leading to latent vulnerabilities that could be exploited after deployment. Furthermore, the inherently opaque, “black box” nature of large language models (the inability to understand or explain how the system arrives at its outputs due to the opacity of its internal processes) makes effective auditing, regulation, and governance exceptionally challenging, particularly in high-stakes applications like health care and finance. ### Projected impact If today’s applications of AI are already reshaping work, learning, health care, and civic life, the coming years are set to expand these changes even further. One of the most anticipated frontiers is the proliferation of agentic AI, or autonomous agents, which move beyond producing single outputs to autonomously executing multistep plans. Unlike today’s assistants that provide a response to a prompt, these systems can research flights, book hotels, plan itineraries, or manage a financial portfolio with minimal human intervention. Corporate platforms, such as Operator or Deep Research, already demonstrate how workflow agents coordinate tasks across teams. Corporations present these advancements as a promise to free up human time for higher-value work, yet the risks are considerable. AI is also advancing rapidly in scientific and medical discovery. Systems are already coauthoring peer-reviewed scientific publications and contributing to experimental design.[^91] In medicine, breakthroughs in diagnostic reasoning and drug discovery suggest that AI could accelerate progress in fields that have historically moved slowly. The potential benefits include faster cures, more accurate diagnostics, and deeper insights into complex biological processes. These breakthroughs are unfolding against a backdrop of falling costs and widening availability. Once limited to a handful of corporations with vast computational resources, training and deploying large language models is now possible for start-ups, universities, and even individual researchers. Open-source releases and advances in hardware efficiency have lowered barriers dramatically. This democratization encourages innovation and expands access to educational and professional applications, but it also accelerates the spread of unsafe or poorly aligned systems, making misuse by malicious actors easier to conceal and more difficult to contain. As costs fall, both the pace of adoption and the uneven distribution of harms will intensify. Taken together, these frontiers fuel divergent public expectations. For optimists, generative AI represents a powerful accelerator of human progress. They imagine systems that drive scientific discovery, reduce global poverty through improved access to education and health care, and extend human life by supporting medical breakthroughs. In this view, AI frees people from routine labor and opens new horizons of creativity and self-expression, allowing individuals to live longer, healthier, and more purposeful lives.[^92] Skeptics, however, see a much darker trajectory. They warn that AI could exacerbate economic inequality by creating job scarcity and concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few corporations, spread misinformation at an unprecedented scale, and strengthen systems of surveillance that erode privacy and civil liberties.[^93] The prospect of autonomous weapons and militarized applications intensifies these concerns, raising questions about human oversight, accountability, and the boundaries of control. Ultimately, the spectrum of perspectives on AI’s future impact reflects a fundamental tension: the hope that the technology will liberate humanity for higher, more meaningful pursuits, weighed against the fear that it will instead invert our priorities and diminish human agency. --- ## Notes [^1]: It is important to note that Islamic ethics is not identical to *fiqh* nor an extension of it; rather, *fiqh* is a partial legal articulation of the wider moral vision found in Islamic ethics. While scholars treat *fiqh* as encompassing moral reasoning, reducing ethics to law misses important dimensions like intention, character, and spiritual excellence. [^2]: Jeff Kosseff, *The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet* (Cornell University Press, 2019). [^3]: Shoshana Zuboff, *The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power* (PublicAffairs, 2019). [^4]: Madhumita Murgia, *Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI* (Henry Holt and Company, 2024). [^5]: Christopher Marquis, *The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs* (PublicAffairs, 2024). [^6]: Qur’an 16:90. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-aḥkām*, no. 7138. [^8]: This proactive approach aligns with the foundational Islamic emphasis on intention (*niyya*) preceding action. The Prophet ﷺ stated, “Indeed, actions are judged by intentions.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb badʾ al-waḥy*, no. 1. In the context of technology, the initial purpose and design carry as much ethical weight as the final output. [^9]: This reflects the jurisprudential principle of *sadd al-dharāʾiʿ* (blocking the means to harm), which mandates addressing the root causes of corruption before they materialize and is discussed further later in this paper. See Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1997), 4:198–200. It also aligns with the legal maxim that what is built upon an invalid foundation is itself invalid (*mā buniya ʿalā bāṭil fa-huwa bāṭil*). [^10]: The Sharia uniquely defines human welfare (*maṣlaḥa*) as encompassing both worldly prosperity and salvation in the next life. See ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, *Qawāʿid al-aḥkām fī maṣāliḥ al-anām* (Maktabat al-Kulliyyāt al-Azhariyya, 1991), 1:11. The Qur’an continually reinforces this ultimate accountability that transcends human courts: for example, “So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it” (Qur’an 99:7–8). [^11]: The concept of immutable red lines is rooted in the Qur’anic concept of *ḥudūd Allāh* (the limits of Allah). The Qur’an warns, “These are the limits of Allah, so do not transgress them. And whoever transgresses the limits of Allah—it is those who are the wrongdoers” (Qur’an 2:229). Applying this to technology ensures that innovation remains constrained by divine boundaries. [^12]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī is traditionally credited with crystallizing the five universal necessities (*al-ḍarūriyyāt al-khams*), which include the preservation of intellect. See Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā fī ʿilm al-uṣūl* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1993), 1:174. For a contemporary expansion on human dignity as a universal objective, see Mohammad Hashim Kamali, *Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah Made Simple* (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2008), 22–24. [^13]: The conceptualization of domain-specific objectives was heavily developed by the influential Maliki jurist Ibn ʿĀshūr, who argued that broad legal philosophy must be specialized to effectively govern distinct fields of human endeavor. See Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur, *Treatise on Maqāṣid al-Shariʿah*, trans. Mohamed El-Tahir El-Mesawi (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2006), 183–87. [^14]: For a foundational discussion on how the Sharia secures tangible public welfare (*maṣlaḥa*) and repels harm in practical application, see al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa*, 2:9–12. For a modern systems approach to applying these concepts to contemporary policy and technology, see Jasser Auda, *Maqasid Al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach* (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2008), 22–25. [^15]: The Prophet ﷺ emphasized that internal character is the heaviest weight on the scales of judgment. See *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, *Kitāb al-birr wa-l-ṣila*, no. 2002. [^16]: The Prophet ﷺ stated: “Any physician who practices medicine when he was not previously known to be a practitioner and causes harm \[to the patient\] will be held liable.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd,* no. 4587; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 4830; *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 3466. The hadith has been transmitted through various chains and many scholars accept it as a valid basis for legal rulings. Among contemporary scholars, al-Albānī graded it as *ḥasan* and al-Arnāʾūṭ graded it as *ḥasan li-ghayrih*. Some scholars consider the narration as *mursal*. The broader concept of a practitioner’s responsibility is well established in related narrations outside of the specific medical contextual application. [^17]: Billy Perrigo, “Exclusive: Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge,” *Time*, February 24, 2026, [https://time.com/7380854/exclusive-anthropic-drops-flagship-safety-pledge/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://time.com/7380854/exclusive-anthropic-drops-flagship-safety-pledge/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385937217&usg=AOvVaw2N3o751TniVEzkUTzkEh7b); see also “Responsible Scaling Policy Version 3.0,” Anthropic, February 24, 2026, [https://www.anthropic.com/news/responsible-scaling-policy-v3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.anthropic.com/news/responsible-scaling-policy-v3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385937506&usg=AOvVaw3Jn0tfXOckXPtTu6rJprZ1). [^18]: For a synthesis of these conditions and additional detail, see Suleiman Hani, “The Jurisprudence of Balancing (Fiqh al-Muwāzanāt): Principles and Applications,” paper presented at the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America 21st Annual Imams’ Conference, Dallas, TX, August 22–24, 2025. [^19]: Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, *Fī fiqh al-awlawiyyāt: Dirāsa jadīda fī ḍaw’ al-Qurʾān wa-l-Sunna* (Maktabat Wahba, 1996), 41. [^20]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *I’lām al-muwaqqı̄ʿīn ʿan Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Salām Ibrāhīm (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1991), 3:11. [^21]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, *Qawāʿid al-aḥkām*. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1586; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1333. [^23]: Astha Anand, “Repression of Uyghur Muslims and the Freedom of Religious Beliefs in China,” *Journal of Social Inclusion Studies* 8, no. 1 (2022): 23–36, [https://doi.org/10.1177/23944811221085680](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1177/23944811221085680&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385944323&usg=AOvVaw0PQLrNsJQWBOJCkokjtgv5). [^24]: Qur’an 2:219. [^25]: For one such synthesis sample use cases, see Suleiman Hani, *The Fiqh of Muwazanat: The Jurisprudence of Weighing Benefits and Harms* (Waymark Publications, 2026), 15–30. [^26]: Al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa*, 2:20. [^27]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim (Dār al-Wafā, 2005), 19:203; Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1997), 4:89–90. [^28]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqı̄ʿīn*, 3:3; Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī, *al-Iḥkām fī tamyīz al-fatāwā ʿan al-aḥkām wa-taṣarrufāt al-qāḍī wa-l-imām*, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda, 2nd ed. (Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyya, 1995), 112. [^29]: Al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa*, 4:194, 198–200. [^30]: Al-Qaraḍāwī, *Fī fiqh al-awlawiyyāt*, 76–89. [^31]: Varun Magesh et al., “Hallucination-Free? Assessing the Reliability of Leading AI Legal Research Tools,” Stanford HAI, May 30, 2024. [^32]: David Soong et al., “Improving Accuracy of GPT-3/4 Results on Biomedical Data Using a Retrieval-Augmented Language Model,” *PLOS Digital Health* 3, no. 8 (2024): e0000568. [^33]: Al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa*, 4:89. [^34]: Magesh, “Hallucination-Free?” The study found LexisNexis’s Lexis+ AI hallucinated 17 percent of the time, Thomson Reuters’s Ask Practical Law AI hallucinated 17 percent of the time, and Westlaw AI-Assisted Research hallucinated 34 percent of the time. [^35]: Neel Guha et al., “LegalBench: A Collaboratively Built Benchmark for Measuring Legal Reasoning in Large Language Models,” *Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems* 36 (2024). [^36]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqı̄ʿīn*, 4:157. [^37]: James Zou and Abubakar Abid, “Rooting Out Anti-Muslim Bias in Popular Language Model GPT-3,” Stanford HAI, 2021. [^38]: “ChatGPT on the ‘Decline’ of the Muslim World: A Case Study on the Biases of AI,” *The Gazelle*, 2023. [^39]: Metin M. Coşgel, Thomas J. Miceli, and Jared Rubin, “The Political Economy of Mass Printing: Legitimacy and Technological Change in the Ottoman Empire,” *Journal of Comparative Economics* 40 (2012): 357–71, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2012.01.002](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2012.01.002&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385949929&usg=AOvVaw2pA3lFPeAW_rwo8PZ10ztI); Amamur Rohman Hamdani, “Fatwa in the Digital Age: Online Muftī, Social Media, and Alternative Religious Authority,” *Hikmatuna: Journal for Integrative Islamic Studies* 9 (2023): 53–63, [https://doi.org/10.28918/hikmatuna.v9i1.966](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/search?q%3Dhttps://doi.org/10.28918/hikmatuna.v9i1.966&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385950410&usg=AOvVaw3a4zt0jz_gPi48qvx64pR8). [^40]: Qur’an 15:85; 21:18. [^41]: S. Shyam Sundar and Jinyoung Kim, “Machine Heuristic: When We Trust Computers More Than Humans with Our Personal Information,” in *Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems* (Association for Computing Machinery, 2019), 1–9, [https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300768](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300768&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385931550&usg=AOvVaw3Qt77u7DhgUILvQMAAZ-ra). [^42]: Qur’an 2:111, 27:64. [^43]: For a detailed discussion on the rise of systematic hadith criticism (*naqd*) in response to the proliferation of fabricated reports, see Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World* (Oneworld Publications, 2009), 67–75. See also Scott C. Lucas, *Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam* (Brill, 2004), 115–22. [^44]: Qur’an 49:6. [^45]: Ezieddin Elmahjub, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Islamic Ethics: Towards Pluralist Ethical Benchmarking for AI,” *Philosophy & Technology* 36 (2023): article 73. [^46]: Qur’an 74:38. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 893; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1829. [^48]: Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Bahādur al-Zarkashī, *al-Manthūr fī al-qawāʿid* (Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1985), 2:344; Zayn al-Dīn ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn Nujaym, *al-Ashbāh wa-l-naẓāʾir* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1999), 85. [^49]: Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-muhadhdhab* (Dār al-Fikr, 1997), 1:93. Al-Nawawī quotes the earlier scholar Abū al-Ṭāhir al-Silafī, stating, “From the blessings of knowledge is to attribute the saying to its speaker.” See also Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Fāriq bayna al-muṣannif wa-l-sāriq* (ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1998), which explicitly addresses the ethics of authorship and plagiarism. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 101. Regarding the concealment of reality (*tadlīs*), see Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid wa-nihāyat al-muqtaṣid* (Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2004), 3:154–56. [^51]: Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad Ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī* (Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1997), 7:360–62. [^52]: Tom Gerken, “New York Times Sues Microsoft and OpenAI for ‘Billions,’” *BBC*, December 27, 2023, [https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67826601](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67826601&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385926499&usg=AOvVaw0EQT7OWZURIJ7Y4ZJNFoOo). [^53]: There are some nuances regarding, for example, religious knowledge or deceased authors. See Jamaal al-Deen Zarabozo, “The Copyright Issue,” *MuslimMatters*, January 8, 2010, [https://muslimmatters.org/2010/01/08/the-copyright-issue/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimmatters.org/2010/01/08/the-copyright-issue/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385926881&usg=AOvVaw30jOMvlttl5MBJCojVLIMq); Irshaad Sedick, “Is Asking AI About Copyrighted Material Permissible in Islam?,” SeekersGuidance, September 6, 2023, [https://seekersguidance.org/answers/halal-and-haram/is-asking-ai-about-copyrighted-material-permissible-in-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://seekersguidance.org/answers/halal-and-haram/is-asking-ai-about-copyrighted-material-permissible-in-islam/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385927207&usg=AOvVaw1dK_eLlfsTz8zl7mbpHbpr). [^54]: Kate Crawford, *Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence* (Yale University Press, 2021), 30–34. [^55]: Cooper Elsworth, Keguo Huang, David Patterson, et al., “Measuring the Environmental Impact of Delivering AI at Google Scale,” *arXiv*, August 21, 2025, [https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15734](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15734&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385944871&usg=AOvVaw3WaSQvnJttk4xNomv2dTsj). [^56]: Shakir Mohamed, Marie-Therese Png, and William Isaac, “Decolonial AI: Decolonial Theory as Sociotechnical Foresight in Artificial Intelligence,” *Philosophy & Technology* 33, no. 4 (2020): 659–84. [^57]: Brown, *Hadith*, 70–75. [^58]: This technical exposition focuses heavily on LLMs, given their rapid rise and profound impact. Nongenerative AI applications, including ranking, optimization, classification, and computer vision systems, can be prone to other ethical issues and different failure modes as compared to LLMs. We have restricted our scope to focus on generative AI. [^59]: As an aside, Kate Crawford, a senior researcher in the field, quips that the current form of AI is neither artificial nor intelligent, with its heavy reliance on natural resources as well as output of human work. Zoë Corbyn, “Microsoft’s Kate Crawford: ‘AI Is Neither Artificial nor Intelligent,’” *The Guardian*, June 6, 2021, [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/06/microsofts-kate-crawford-ai-is-neither-artificial-nor-intelligent](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/06/microsofts-kate-crawford-ai-is-neither-artificial-nor-intelligent&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385948091&usg=AOvVaw0mntEoIJVmySM0j9v3prIS). [^60]: Robert Lacey, *The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud* (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981); Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī, *Shibh al-jazīra fī ʿahd al-malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz*, 2nd ed. (Dār al-ʿIlm li-l-Malāyīn, 1985). [^61]: “The First Public Demonstration of Machine Translation Occurs,” History of Information, [https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=666](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id%3D666&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385917886&usg=AOvVaw0DbjZi_kdaxerUIDzY36eX). [^62]: For example, see Russell Reynolds Associates, [https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385918182&usg=AOvVaw2s_23bdkSdVPG0zbzjGGrw). [^63]: Himanshi Lohchab, “OpenAI’s o1 Takes a Leap with Model That Reasons Like Us,” *The Economic Times*, September 16, 2024, [https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/openais-o1-takes-a-leap-with-model-that-reason-like-us/articleshow/113373259.cms?from=mdr](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/openais-o1-takes-a-leap-with-model-that-reason-like-us/articleshow/113373259.cms?from%3Dmdr&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385918800&usg=AOvVaw2lAqHkOCoQJsAyj-TXGOVI). [^64]: Pablo Arredondo, “GPT-4 Passes the Bar Exam: What That Means for Artificial Intelligence Tools in the Legal Profession,” Stanford Law School, April 19, 2023, [https://law.stanford.edu/2023/04/19/gpt-4-passes-the-bar-exam-what-that-means-for-artificial-intelligence-tools-in-the-legal-industry/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://law.stanford.edu/2023/04/19/gpt-4-passes-the-bar-exam-what-that-means-for-artificial-intelligence-tools-in-the-legal-industry/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385919583&usg=AOvVaw16vSg9CtycFHvBw7uZQMGw). [^65]: Radboud University Medical Center, “AI Better Detects Prostate Cancer on MRI Than Radiologists,” *Science Daily*, June 12, 2024, [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240612113341.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240612113341.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385920080&usg=AOvVaw0uxM1aIEwGCzdQR5PQKuWx) [^66]: Yasmeen Serhan, “How Israel Uses AI in Gaza—And What It Might Mean for the Future of Warfare,” *Time*, December 18, 2024, [https://time.com/7202584/gaza-ukraine-ai-warfare/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://time.com/7202584/gaza-ukraine-ai-warfare/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385920424&usg=AOvVaw3C8rY30ASWNuXhOlp-dLCa). 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[^70]: “DeepSeek-R1 Release,” DeepSeek, January 20, 2025, [https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news250120](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news250120&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385921608&usg=AOvVaw18HBm9yqsq4iGOfpX7mR98). [^71]: John Werner, “DeepSeek Announcement Sinks The American Tech Market,” *Forbes*, January 27, 2025, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2025/01/27/deepseek-announcement-sinks-the-american-tech-market/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2025/01/27/deepseek-announcement-sinks-the-american-tech-market/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385922004&usg=AOvVaw1chWZCK3z00OIUkWeqOmTb). [^72]: Henry Martin, “Salesforce Will Hire No More Software Engineers in 2025, Says Marc Benioff,” Salesforce Ben, December 18, 2024, [https://www.salesforceben.com/salesforce-will-hire-no-more-software-engineers-in-2025-says-marc-benioff/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.salesforceben.com/salesforce-will-hire-no-more-software-engineers-in-2025-says-marc-benioff/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385922397&usg=AOvVaw26P1wYId8xMDs8Z-L-XbYB). [^73]: Frank Landymore, “Zuckerberg Announces Plans to Automate Facebook Coding Jobs with AI,” *Futurism*, January 13, 2025, [https://futurism.com/the-byte/zuckerberg-automate-coding-ai](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://futurism.com/the-byte/zuckerberg-automate-coding-ai&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385922738&usg=AOvVaw0LxCRcYhQs2KuLYjRmvv4x). [^74]: Matt Egan, “AI Is Replacing Human Tasks Faster Than You Think,” *CNN*, June 20, 2024, [https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/business/ai-jobs-workers-replacing/index.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/business/ai-jobs-workers-replacing/index.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385923074&usg=AOvVaw0YGD_Dg1LX3bAi9DLG3hEG). [^75]: Khanmigo, [https://www.khanmigo.ai/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.khanmigo.ai/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385923232&usg=AOvVaw2xDhUoNn15sYoiBb8azKhU). [^76]: Benjamin S. Bloom, “The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring,” *Educational Researcher* 13, no. 6 (1984): 4–16, [https://web.mit.edu/5.95/readings/bloom-two-sigma.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://web.mit.edu/5.95/readings/bloom-two-sigma.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385923606&usg=AOvVaw3XtOjtJYVT1X1WBa04shWy). [^77]: Peter G. Brodeur, Thomas A. 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[^80]: Miles Klee, “People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies,” *Rolling Stone*, May 4, 2025, [https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385924734&usg=AOvVaw3cNxFpNk71NNxWeNw6UO26). [^81]: ​​Bethan McKernan and Harry Davies, “‘The Machine Did It Coldly’: Israel Used AI to Identify 37,000 Hamas Targets,” *The Guardian*, April 3, 2024, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385925160&usg=AOvVaw0CpIZH3lQuXk6jH7bY1FfL). [^82]: Waleed Kadous, “DeepSeek Is Amazing. And It Has a Pro-Chinese Bias,” *Medium*, January 28, 2025, [https://waleedk.medium.com/deepseek-is-amazing-and-it-has-a-pro-chinese-bias-78e2fd8e40bb](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://waleedk.medium.com/deepseek-is-amazing-and-it-has-a-pro-chinese-bias-78e2fd8e40bb&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385938158&usg=AOvVaw1rQRjUAYsxgqKHvjNHqrN1). [^83]: Maxwell Zeff, “OpenAI Tries to ‘Uncensor’ ChatGPT,” *TechCrunch*, February 16, 2025, [https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/16/openai-tries-to-uncensor-chatgpt/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/16/openai-tries-to-uncensor-chatgpt/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385938647&usg=AOvVaw021ujH34SlXIRvEpa3XtjK). [^84]: Paresh Dave, “ChatGPT Is Cutting Non-English Languages Out of the AI Revolution,” *Wired*, May 31, 2023, [https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-non-english-languages-ai-revolution/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-non-english-languages-ai-revolution/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385939081&usg=AOvVaw2KH070W0S5-vxCx-aP27WC). [^85]: Nick Robins-Early, “Google Restricts AI Chatbot Gemini from Answering Questions on 2024 Elections,” *The Guardian*, March 12, 2024, [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/12/google-ai-gemini-2024-election](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/12/google-ai-gemini-2024-election&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385939498&usg=AOvVaw2hlAjou0ucYvHNLXKNl6Gb). [^86]: Michael A. Delaney, “Fake News in Court: Attorney Sanctioned for Citing Fictitious Case Law Generated by AI,” McLane Middleton, April 17, 2024, [https://www.mclane.com/insights/fake-news-in-court-attorney-sanctioned-for-citing-fictitious-case-law-generated-by-ai/#:~:text=Pranshu%20Verma%20and%20Will%20Oremus,mere%20dissemination%20of%20false%20information](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mclane.com/insights/fake-news-in-court-attorney-sanctioned-for-citing-fictitious-case-law-generated-by-ai/%23:~:text%3DPranshu%2520Verma%2520and%2520Will%2520Oremus,mere%2520dissemination%2520of%2520false%2520information&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385940116&usg=AOvVaw27ow1Ix70S45sMRS3phdYz). [^87]: Mike Caulfield, “AI Is Not Your Friend,” *The Atlantic*, May 9, 2025, [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/sycophantic-ai/682743/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/sycophantic-ai/682743/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385948616&usg=AOvVaw1F6N-c5aCSb3TzACIhVdwc); Sean Goedecke, “Sycophancy Is the First LLM ‘Dark Pattern,’” *Sean Goedecke* (blog), April 28, 2025, [https://www.seangoedecke.com/ai-sycophancy/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.seangoedecke.com/ai-sycophancy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385949001&usg=AOvVaw1TvyEol4HgErQ0kEukfv1k). [^88]: Ashley Belanger, “ChatGPT Users Shocked to Learn Their Chats Were in Google Search Results,” *Ars Technica*, August 1, 2025, [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/chatgpt-users-shocked-to-learn-their-chats-were-in-google-search-results/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/chatgpt-users-shocked-to-learn-their-chats-were-in-google-search-results/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385940550&usg=AOvVaw3D1vJHqV3UdsqIy3kQbVwC). [^89]: Beatrice Nolan, “Researchers Trained AI Models to Write Flawed Code—And They Began Supporting the Nazis and Advocating for AI to Enslave Humans,” *Fortune*, March 4, 2025, [https://fortune.com/2025/03/04/ai-trained-to-write-bad-code-became-nazi-advocated-enslaving-humans/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fortune.com/2025/03/04/ai-trained-to-write-bad-code-became-nazi-advocated-enslaving-humans/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385941248&usg=AOvVaw0ytG-QN-UnN1ZsUuSPOirl). [^90]: Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman, “DeepSeek’s Safety Guardrails Failed Every Test Researchers Threw at Its AI Chatbot,” *Wired*, January 31, 2025, [h](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wired.com/story/deepseeks-ai-jailbreak-prompt-injection-attacks/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385941611&usg=AOvVaw2UA7FBJjpwHJ4llTYqWFqM)[ttps://www.wired.com/story/deepseeks-ai-jailbreak-prompt-injection-attacks/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wired.com/story/deepseeks-ai-jailbreak-prompt-injection-attacks/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385941759&usg=AOvVaw1qHoSxBVF5aElFAqqNGP4z). [^91]: “The AI Scientist Generates Its First Peer-Reviewed Scientific Publication,” Sakana AI, March 12, 2025, [https://sakana.ai/ai-scientist-first-publication/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sakana.ai/ai-scientist-first-publication/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385949413&usg=AOvVaw1KHjYKqHHNaT876PNES0Cs). [^92]: Dario Amodei, “Machines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better,” *Dario Amodei* (blog), October 2024, [https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385925551&usg=AOvVaw30HAE7Iw-z6Bnxbno6Gwzp). [^93]: Lorenzo Larini, “AI Tracker,” Ipsos, March, 2023, [https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/publication/documents/2023-03/Ipsos%20AI%20Tracker%20Data%20March%2014.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/publication/documents/2023-03/Ipsos%2520AI%2520Tracker%2520Data%2520March%252014.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385925882&usg=AOvVaw1h9hqevvVsEKAUDoUKxLZe); Darrell M. West, “How AI Can Enable Public Surveillance,” *Brookings*, April 15, 2025, [https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-can-enable-public-surveillance/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-can-enable-public-surveillance/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1781293385926187&usg=AOvVaw1D_Q9dS1SHfUrAQZG5TrzX). ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon His final Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. Artificial intelligence has moved swiftly from speculation into the fabric of daily life, reshaping how people communicate, work, and learn. This transformation carries immense promise alongside grave ethical, social, and cultural risks. To navigate it wisely, one must avoid both naïve optimism and fatalistic despair, for the challenges of AI rarely present simple choices; benefits and harms are frequently intertwined within the very same technology. The central claim advanced here is that an Islamic ethical lens is essential—not merely to mitigate harms after they arise, but to proactively judge and shape the form, substance, and purpose of these technologies from their inception. This is offered as a methodological framework of general principles rather than a set of definitive rulings, for many of these questions remain open and require interdisciplinary ijtihad. The experience of social media serves as a sobering precedent. Society and Islamic scholarship alike were slow to assess its ethical implications, allowing harms to embed themselves before meaningful safeguards emerged. The response of the ummah was largely delayed and reactive, focused on mitigating harms within an assumed inevitability rather than issuing foundational judgments about the technology's purpose and consequences. Generative AI presents a parallel but higher-stakes danger, advancing more rapidly and concentrating unprecedented power in a small number of profit-driven firms. Because technology spreads faster than laws or institutions can adjust, and regulation follows innovation rather than guiding it, ethical foresight becomes essential rather than optional. A clear illustration of governance that prioritizes growth over responsibility is Section 230 of the American Communications Decency Act of 1996, described by some as "the twenty-six words that created the internet." By treating platforms as distributors rather than publishers, it granted them legal immunity while shielding them from responsibility for the content they host. This model helped birth what one critic termed "surveillance capitalism," in which human experience becomes raw material for extraction and profit, with harms often borne disproportionately by vulnerable workers in developing countries. This reveals a fundamental limitation of secular frameworks: they determine liability yet remain silent on moral obligation. Legal immunity does not equate to ethical innocence, and it is precisely this gap that invites an Islamic approach grounded in accountability and justice. The Islamic paradigm is not a novel construction but a reflection of the divine mandate. Allah commands, "Indeed, Allah orders justice [ʿadl], good conduct [iḥsān], and generosity to close relatives." In technology, ʿadl demands adherence to boundaries that prevent harm, while iḥsān demands that the innovator actively seek the highest communal good. The Prophet ﷺ established human responsibility in his saying, "Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock." Developers who wield systems capable of shaping the moral fabric of billions assume the role of shepherds over a vast digital expanse, and their accountability cannot be limited to avoiding secular legal liability. This framework expands the calculus of benefit (maṣlaḥa) and harm (mafsada) to encompass consequences in both this life and the Hereafter. Justice is operationalized through clear rulings (aḥkām) that establish the boundaries of the permissible (ḥalāl) and prohibited (ḥarām), understood as the divinely ordained limits (ḥudūd Allāh). Yet the Sharia is not merely restrictive; it is a visionary system for human flourishing. A functional framework traces a path from the overarching objectives (maqāṣid ʿāmma)—such as the preservation of intellect (ḥifẓ al-ʿaql) and human dignity—down through domain-specific objectives (maqāṣid khāṣṣa) and the intents behind particular rules (maqāṣid juzʾiyya), culminating in tangible public benefit. External structures alone, however, are insufficient. Islamic governance also demands adab—the spiritual etiquette and virtue of those who design technology—and requires that engineers recognize their work as a form of stewardship (khilāfa), anchored by moral discipline (tarbiya). The tradition further offers precedent in its treatment of medical ethics (adab al-ṭabīb), where practitioners were held liable for foreseeable harm, and in its dual standard of accountability before God and enforceable liability in this world (qaḍāʾ). The core methodology proposed is the jurisprudence of balancing (fiqh al-muwāzanāt), a disciplined approach to weighing competing interests (maṣāliḥ) and harms (mafāsid). As Ibn al-Qayyim stated, "the foundation of the Sharia is wisdom and the safeguarding of people's interests in this world and the next... justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom in its entirety." Importantly, this tool applies only where an action is not already clearly prohibited, and it must not be wielded by nonspecialists in isolation. It recognizes three types of balancing: weighing competing benefits (as when limited resources force a choice between two beneficial projects), weighing harms to choose the lesser evil (as the Prophet ﷺ declined to rebuild the Kaʿba on its original foundations lest it harm the faith of new Muslims), and weighing intertwined benefits and harms. The last is modeled on the Qur'anic verse concerning wine and gambling: "In them there is great sin and [some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit." Applying this framework requires five conditions, drawn from classical uṣūl al-fiqh though systematized here in contemporary form: evaluating the objectives of the Sharia and legal maxims—including the principle that "preventing harm takes precedence over securing benefits" (darʾ al-mafāsid muqaddam ʿalā jalb al-maṣāliḥ); verifying the effective cause (taḥqīq al-manāṭ), which Ibn Taymiyya called "the essence of ijtihād"; understanding present reality (fiqh al-wāqiʿ), regarding which Ibn al-Qayyim warned that one who fails to understand reality and obligation "will not understand God's rulings concerning His servants"; considering consequences (iʿtibār al-maʾālāt), which al-Shāṭibī established as "an established and intended principle in the Sharia," including the blocking of means to harm (sadd al-dharāʾiʿ); and establishing the jurisprudence of priorities (fiqh al-awlawiyyāt). Applied to the pressing question of AI-generated legal rulings (iftāʾ), this analysis yields clear guidance. While AI offers unprecedented accessibility—significant given the shortage of scholars for nearly 1.9 billion Muslims—and enhanced research capabilities, its harms strike at the foundations of the religion. These include a fundamental misunderstanding of legal context, the absence of spiritual insight that a mufti must possess (Ibn al-Qayyim noted the mufti must understand "the questioner's state, his needs, and what leads to his welfare"), documented systematic biases—a 2021 Stanford study found GPT-3 exhibited "severe bias" against Muslims, with violent associations in two-thirds of relevant responses—and the erosion of scholarly authority. Weighing these through the five conditions, accessibility is deemed an enhancement (taḥsīniyyāt) rather than a necessity (ḍarūriyyāt), whereas preserving religion (ḥifẓ al-dīn) is paramount. A crucial distinction is drawn between mere transmission of established rulings (naql), which AI may assist with, and genuine legal reasoning (ijtihād), which requires human agency and of which AI is incapable. The conclusion is a prohibition on autonomous fatwa generation, while permitting AI as a research aid for qualified scholars and for clearly labeled educational transmission, subject to institutional oversight, transparency, and accountability. Several further domains demand sustained Islamic research. On epistemology, since Al-Ḥaqq (the Truth) is a name of Allah and the heavens and earth were created bi-l-ḥaqq, the pursuit of knowledge is a sacred duty. Large language models, being predictors of plausibility rather than truth-tracking agents, are prone to "hallucinations," even fabricating verses and hadith. The proper response is not a novel ethic but the revival of the classical discipline of rigorous critical evaluation (naqd), embodied in the sciences of hadith criticism and narrator evaluation (ʿilm al-rijāl), which arose precisely to confront fabrication. The Qur'an demands, "Produce your proof, if you should be truthful," placing the burden upon the claimant and mandating verification (tabayyun). On liability, the principle that "every soul is held in pledge for what it has earned" and the ḥadīth of the shepherd affirm that accountability rests upon humans, never the tool. Since AI lacks will and moral agency, it can never be a legally accountable agent (mukallaf); liability (ḍamān) falls upon the direct causer (mubāshir), the indirect initiator (mutasabbib), or the negligent deployer who knowingly releases immature systems into high-risk settings. On intellectual attribution, AI does not create wholly new dilemmas but lowers the barrier to misattribution and deception, raising concerns for the protection of property (ḥifẓ al-māl), since Islamic law generally forbids benefiting from another's labor without permission. On the environment, the physical infrastructure of AI carries real ecological costs, demanding an ethic of stewardship (khilāfa) and preservation of the earth. Finally, the concentration of AI infrastructure among a few Western firms poses a challenge of digital sovereignty, marginalizing languages such as Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and Malay, and embedding secular assumptions—a dependency the ummah must address at its root, much as the isnād system once protected Islamic epistemology from adulteration. For general engagement, individual users are urged to cultivate verification (tabayyun) and resilience against misinformation; religious leaders should guide communities toward balanced use, review communal materials, and establish referral protocols; and professionals should advocate responsible design, test for anti-Muslim bias, build representative datasets, and pursue digital sovereignty. The overarching lesson is that a reactive posture is no longer tenable. The Islamic tradition, by foregrounding accountability before both society and God, offers a uniquely comprehensive alternative to purely legalistic approaches. Where credible and far-reaching harm exists, restraint outweighs speculative benefit. Realizing this vision requires institutionalization through a cross-disciplinary consortium of scholars, technologists, and legal experts to set standards and audit systems, ensuring these powerful tools serve not profit or power, but the genuine benefit of humanity. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/female-scholars-in-islamic-history-revisiting-their-pivotal-role # Female Scholars in Islamic History: Revisiting Their Pivotal Role **Author:** Jude Elziq **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization, Spread of Islam **Tags:** featured-papers, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 30, 2026 **Updated:** October 19, 2026 ## Introduction Picture this: It is the nineteenth century, and we are seated in the halls of a European university library. This academic space is predominantly male-exclusive, its tall shelves lined with literature authored almost entirely by men. Between these shelves stands Ignác Goldziher, a Hungarian Orientalist renowned for his critical approach to Islamic sciences, sifting through a fifteenth-century Arabic text by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449). In his hands is *al-Durar al-kāmina*, a multivolume biographical dictionary that compiles structured accounts of individuals regarded as critical scholars in Islamic history. As Goldziher turns the pages of *al-Durar al-kāmina*, he is taken aback.[^1] He encounters something that directly disturbs the image he had conjured of the Islamic world. What was it that shocked him? The large number of *female* Muslim scholars. Entry after entry, female scholars from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries were heavily praised for their intellectual authority and influence in the transmission of traditional Islamic knowledge. Crucially, these women were not just a handful of unique outliers dispersed across time and geography. In this single work alone, Ibn Ḥajar devoted around two hundred entries to female scholars who had ascended to the heights of scholarship, many of whom were his own teachers. Engraved in the pages of this multivolume text were figures such as Sitt al-Wuzarāʾ bint ʿUmar ibn al-Munajja (d. 716/1316), who taught across Damascus and Egypt, attracting committed students who traversed far distances to study under her.[^2] Goldziher also read about the scholar Zaynab bint Abī al-Qāsim al-Shiʿriyya (d. 615/1218) from Nishapur, who possessed a vast number of *ijāzāt* (teaching qualifications), including one from the renowned exegete al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143). Her expertise was eagerly sought after by leading scholars and jurists such as Ibn Khallikān (d. 681/1282).[^3] In the same manuscript, ʿĀʾisha bint ʿAbd al-Hādī (d. 816/1413) is praised as among the most distinguished scholars of hadith, while Juwayriyya bint Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 783/1381) is noted for teaching in the most prominent educational spaces of her time. The extent to which female scholars were esteemed for their authority and scholarly standing is vividly illustrated in the biographical literature of al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348). In his entry on Zaynab bint al-Kamāl (d. 740/1339), he writes, “Whomsoever seeks the unparalleled prestige \[of *isnād*\], then let him hear from her, for if the seeker of knowledge travels for a month to hear one portion \[of her knowledge\], his journey would not be in vain.” Zaynab’s education reflected the breadth of the Islamic scholarly world and was shaped by teachers from Baghdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Alexandria, Ḥarrān, and Cairo.[^4] By the end of her life, contemporaries described her as possessing a “camel load of *ijāzāt*,” a phrase conveying both their vast number and their scholarly weight. Students from various cities flocked to attend her theological lectures, eager to learn from her directly.[^5] In addition to al-Dhahabī and Ibn Ḥajar, she granted *ijāzāt* to prominent scholars, including Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī (d. 764/1363), Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355), and the famous historian Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (d. 770/1369).[^6] As evidenced from the words of early Islamic scholars, women did not merely contribute to Islamic knowledge; their role had consequential implications for the trajectory of the field. For instance, al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) states that upon the death of Amat al-Khāliq al-Dimashqiyya (d. 902/1496), “people fell one rank in hadith.”[^7] Similarly, al-Sakhāwī noted that the death of a single *muḥadditha* (female hadith scholar) adversely affected the transmission of hadith in Egypt.[^8] Such scholars were entrusted with transmitting vast collections of works on hadith and were deeply engaged in *fiqh* (jurisprudence), Qur’anic sciences, language, and grammar, contributing to the very foundations of the Islamic sciences. These testimonies underscore that women’s participation in Islamic scholarly circles was historically treated as normative rather than a challenge to orthodoxy.[^9] Their contributions to sacred knowledge followed the precedent set by the early female companions and *tābiʿīn* (successors), who held significant scholarly authority. This is exemplified by figures such as ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 106/724), a distinguished specialist in Islamic law raised and taught by one of the most authoritative transmitters of *fiqh* and hadith: ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr (d. 58/678), the Mother of the Believers.[^10] Traditional sources consistently regard ʿAmra as a *ḥujja* (a definitive authority) due to her extensive scholarship and position as a jurist. Why, then, does this well-documented historical reality drastically conflict with our contemporary imagination of the Muslim woman in Islamic history? And more critically, which authentic historical records allow us to reconstruct that past with accuracy and integrity? --- ## Historical erasure and constructing the subordinate portrait Muslim women have long been portrayed within Western colonial narratives as passive, voiceless, and socially inconsequential subjects. This view was shaped and reinforced by early European travelers, diplomats, and writers who documented and dramatized life in the East and women’s experiences within it.[^11] Claiming to “write about those who did not write about themselves,” they used such notions of passivity and lack of agency to engulf the image of the Muslim woman.[^12] At the crux of the colonial approach is the assumption that the Islamic tradition inhibits women’s agency, and that agency can only be attained by breaking free from the shackles of religious orthodoxy.[^13] Ultimately, these depictions of the “exotic Orient” served to entrench a clear ontological and epistemological distinction between women of the Islamic world and those of the Occident.[^14] Given that epistemic authority has been largely linked to one’s capacity to exercise, maintain, and perpetuate authority in society, assumptions of Muslim women’s social subordination seeped into perceptions of their role within religious scholarly circles.[^15] This widespread misconception led many to presume that materials documenting women as agents of knowledge were simply too rare to allow serious historical study.[^16] Consequently, it was claimed that the only historical accounts of women in Islamic history at our disposal were those coming from the pens of early European visitors.[^17] Fast forward to the most recent literature on gender and Islam: A popular and recurring theme has emerged under the banner of “twenty-first-century reinterpretations” or “feminist rereadings” of orthodox Islam and its associated texts. This body of work often rests on the ahistorical premise that religious material must be reinterpreted because women were historically excluded from scholarly circles. As a result, some academics have claimed that Muslim women in the past rarely attained religious education due to norms of the Islamic tradition that “inherently” prevent women’s participation.[^18] As a natural consequence of this dominant view, contemporary female Islamic scholarship has been labeled a product of Western feminism and twenty-first-century reform, and a protest against Islamic tradition.[^19] Such assumptions, which position female scholarship as foreign to the Islamic tradition, may have permeated some modern Muslim communities due to limited knowledge of Islamic historical records.[^20] This misunderstanding can have serious negative consequences, including a failure to recognize and grant due authority to qualified female scholars in Muslim communities today. As a remedy to this fractured view of the past, this article highlights two critical categories of resources authored and dictated by early Muslim scholars: Arabic biographical dictionaries and *ijāzāt al-samāʿ* (certificates of auditory transmission). Each will be explored in detail to elucidate how they can be employed in the reconstruction of historical scholarly portraits. Biographical dictionaries provide extensive data on scholarly networks of their respective periods, while *samāʿāt* manuscripts record the names of individuals who taught and studied specific texts, enabling the mapping of scholarly activity and patterns relating to age, gender, social structures, and the use of public and private learning spaces. It is within these collections that we find large-scale evidence of the presence of *muḥaddithāt, faqihāt* (female jurists)*, ʿālimāt* (female scholars)*,* and *shaykhāt* (female preachers) throughout Islamic history*.*[^21] Drawing from historical records that come directly from the Islamic scholarly tradition is valuable for the modern Muslim reader because they establish that female scholarship is firmly grounded in orthodox tradition, rather than being a construct of modern reinterpretation or external ideological projection. This methodological approach will be illustrated through a case study of one female scholar: Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr (d. 600/1203). --- ## Constructing her career: Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr One of the thousands of female scholars inked in Islamic history is Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr, a renowned hadith transmitter who traveled across the world for the purpose of seeking and spreading Islamic knowledge.[^22] She was born in China, east of Kashgar, in the year 522 AH.[^23] Described as the “venerable and righteous *shaykha*,” she began her journey of seeking knowledge in her hometown and later extended it to major intellectual centers such as Bukhara, Nishapur, and Isfahan, before continuing to areas such as Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo.[^24] She taught hadith widely, granting *ijāzāt* to students who then carried her knowledge to lands she herself had not yet traversed.[^25] Her father, Saʿd al-Khayr (d. 541/1146), was a well-established scholar, jurist, and *muḥaddith*. He played a pivotal role in ensuring Fāṭima’s education under the most qualified *shaykha*s (female scholars) and *shaykh*s (male scholars) of her time, even when this required embarking with her on long journeys.[^26] In accordance with the Islamic tradition, which regards the attainment of sacred knowledge as a revered obligation for both women and men, Saʿd al-Khayr took his daughter to study under the renowned scholar Fāṭima al-Jawzādāniyya (d. 524/1129) in Isfahan. Al-Dhahabī described al-Jawzādāniyya as “the best hadith narrator of her time.”[^27] Under her instruction, Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr studied Abū Qāsim Sulaymān al-Ṭabarānī’s (d. 360/918) *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr,* which spans thirty-seven printed volumes, as well as *al-Muʿjam al-saghīr,* which can be seen under her *isnād* (authorized chain of authority) to Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1176).[^28] After gaining expertise in these texts, she went on to transmit them across new regions, playing a significant role in their dissemination. After two years of study under al-Jawzādāniyya, she migrated with her father to Baghdad, where she studied under eighteen notable scholars. Among them was another female scholar, Karīma bint al-Ḥāfiẓ Abī Bakr ibn al-Khāḍiba (d. 527/1133), as well as Yaḥyā ibn al-Bannāʾ (d. 531/1136), Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥuṣayn (d. 525/1130), and Hibatullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭabbar (d. 531/1136).[^29] She received *ijāzāt* from various scholars of Baghdad, Isfahan, and Khurasan.[^30] She later settled in Cairo with her husband, Imam Zayn al-Dīn (d. 599/1202), where many students traveled specifically to study under her, and where she is widely recorded to have narrated hadith extensively.[^31] An assessment of the texts she studied highlights the depth and specificity of her knowledge in disciplines within the Islamic sciences. For instance, in the year 529/1134, she studied *Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-matrukīn* of ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385/995) from Shaykh Mansūr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Khayrūn (d. 539/1144).[^32] Al-Dāraquṭnī’s work is considered one of the most important texts in the science of hadith criticism and authentication, alongside his other seminal texts, including *Mizān al-iʿtidāl*, *Lisān al-mizān*, and *Tahdhīb al-kamāl.*[^33] Attaining knowledge of this text exemplifies her engagement with hadith criticism, a science requiring rigorous intellectual evaluation beyond mere transmission.[^34] Like many *muḥaddithāt* (female hadith transmitters), Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr critically engaged in*ʿilm al-dirāya* (the science of cognition).[^35] As a certified scholar of this text, she later became its teaching authority in Cairo.[^36] She also studied *al-Jāmiʿ al-akhlāq al-rāwī wa-ādāb al-sāmiʿ*, Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī’s (d. 463/1071) foundational work on the ethics and etiquette of hadith study, under Abū al-Qāsim al-Mubārak ibn Ḥasan (d. 372/982). Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr is described as having transmitted hadith “extensively,” many of which are compiled in al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Kabīr*, and the hadith compilations of al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Māja, Abū Yaʿlā, and Muslim.[^37] She transmitted various texts, including the hadith of al-Kharraqī (d. 334/945), al-Qudūrī (d. 428/1037), al-Abnūsī (d. 457/1065), and the *Musnad* of Abī Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī (d. 307/919), to name a few.[^38] Many prominent scholars studied such texts under her, including the jurist Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥamāthānī (d. 623/1226), ʿAbdullāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf al-Miṣrī (d. 592/1196), and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Makkī al-Saʿdī (d. 615/1218). Additionally, the likes of Abū Mūsā ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ (d. 629/1232), Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Shāṭibī (d. 590/1194), and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muqarrab (d. 643/1245) narrated from her. She lived for seventy-eight years and granted an *ijāza* to Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Khayr Salāma (d. 678/1279), who was the final narrator to transmit from her before her death in the year 600 AH.[^39] Her career trajectory reflects a sustained commitment to scholarship through rigorous study under renowned scholars, extensive travel across vast distances to acquire and transmit knowledge, and the active support of her father in facilitating her early Islamic education. How did such a detailed scholarly record, including her qualifications, geographical movement, and her teachers come to light? An accurate scholarly portrait emerges through the careful synthesis of biographical dictionaries and *samāʿ* records, both of which will be examined in the sections that follow. --- ## The impetus for authentication: The genre of biographical texts The shelves of Islamic libraries are lined with extensive biographical literature that developed under the hands of early Muslim scholars in their efforts to authenticate hadith. While scholars explored the linguistic, theological, exegetical, and legal dimensions of hadith, a paramount scholarly effort was dedicated to its methods of transmission, compilation, and authentication.[^40] To establish the *isnād* (the chain of transmission) of a hadith, scholars were required to verify the reliability (*ʿadl*, *thiqa*) of every transmitter in its chain. As a result, multivolume works, comparable to encyclopedias, were composed to record meticulous details about hadith transmitters, including their dates of birth and death, travel histories, teachers from whom they received *ijāzāt*, students, areas of expertise, and character testimonials. Such information was essential for establishing *al-ittiṣāl* (the continuity of transmission within chains of narration) and for verifying the reliability and integrity of each transmitter. Thus, in efforts to ascertain the validity of the connections between *isnād* chains, the movement of sacred knowledge through time and space was carefully recorded and preserved in biographical dictionaries.[^41] Arabic biographical texts are primarily structured as retrospective indices documenting prominent individuals from the time of the Prophet ﷺ through the era of the biographer. These works are systematically organized according to various criteria, including personal name, geographical origin, chronological age, or, in certain instances, perceived notability.[^42] Among the earliest extant retrospective biographical collections is Ibn Saʿd’s (d. 230/845) *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr.*[^43] The detailed records preserved by biographers concerning agents of knowledge transmission provide invaluable data on the pedagogical practices throughout Islamic history and serve as a major source for historical inquiry.[^44] Knowledge of genealogy (*nasab*) had long been a prominent feature of early Arabian society, where tracing individuals through family lineages and social networks was commonplace.[^45] This genealogical awareness is also reflected in biographical texts, in which scholars took care to meticulously identify individuals. For example, the full name of Fāṭima bint Abū al-Ḥasan Saʿd al-Khayr ibn Muḥammad ibn Sahl al-Anṣārī al-Andalusī al-Balansī, along with her dates of birth and death, is preserved in Ibn Nuqṭa’s (d. 629/1232) biographical dictionary titled *al-Taqyīd li-maʿrifat ruwāt al-sunan wa-l-masānīd.*[^46] This work, in particular, documents every narrator appearing in the six canonical hadith compilations.[^47] The testimonies compiled in this seminal text are an intrinsic part of the science of *jarḥ* (invalidating) and *taʿdīl* (validating), through which hadith narrators were evaluated for competence and integrity in knowledge transmission. Taqī al-Dīn al-Fāsī (d. 832/1429), in *Dhayl al-taqyīd fī ruwāt al-sunan wa-l-asānīd*, provides references for Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr drawn from eight different biographical dictionaries, including *al-Takmila li-wafayāt al-naqala*, *al-Taqyīd*, *Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ*, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, *Shadharāt al-dhahab*, *Tārīkh al-Dubaythī*, *al-Nujūm al-ẓāhira*, and *al-Wafayāt* of Ibn Rāfiʿ (d. 632/1234), all of which can be cross-examined.[^48] Each scholar from whom she studied and received an *ijāza* can also be identified in these biographical dictionaries, allowing her education to be verified. For instance, the biographical entry on ʿAbd al-Malik al-Khayrūn, under whom she studied  *Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-matrukīn*, can be found in al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar*.[^49] Her extensive teaching of hadith in Cairo is specifically corroborated by both Ibn Nuqṭa (d. 629 /1232) and Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1175), among others.[^50] Her prominence and scholarly influence in Egypt is further attested by her inclusion in Ibn Taghrī Bardi’s *al-Nujūm al-ẓāhira* under the section documenting the most notable individuals in Egypt who died in the year 600 AH.[^51] Her father, Saʿd al-Khayr, is documented in multiple sources, including in Samʿānī’s *Kitab al-ansāb* and al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar* and *Tarīkh al-Islam*.[^52] These biographical entries elucidate that he taught the likes of Samʿānī (d. 562/1166) and Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1175).[^53] Mapping data on her family, teachers, and students thus provides a fuller understanding of her scholarly engagement and enables an evaluation of consistency and reliability across sources. In addition to Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr, biographical dictionaries serve as vast compendiums of data on various female agents of scholarly exchange.[^54] For instance, volume eight of *Kitāb at-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr* is dedicated exclusively to women and contains 629 biographical entries.[^55] In *al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba,* Ibn Ḥajar includes 1,551 entries on female scholars.[^56] Ibn ʿAsākir, who studied in all major centers of hadith, was taught by over 80 women.[^57] In his renowned text *Tarīkh Dimashq,* he presents the biographies of 200 female hadith experts who lived in or visited Damascus, including Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr.[^58] Al-Sakhāwī (d. 902/1497) includes 1,075 entries on women in *Kitāb al-ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ li-ahl al-qarn al-tāsiʿ*.[^59] In Ibn Ḥajar’s *al-Muʿjam al-mufahras*, under the section delineating the *isnād*s for seminal books, the scholar Zaynab bint al-Kamāl appears in 37 separate entries, acting as a chain of authority. In total, she appears as an essential link in the *isnād* of around 140 seminal texts received by Ibn Ḥajar.[^60] While biographical dictionaries have long been employed for historical inquiry, critics have questioned their reliability due to the potential bias of a biographer’s own preoccupations and perceptions.[^61] However, what distinguishes Arabic biographical literature is the surplus of documentation that stretches over ten centuries, often covering the same individuals, which allows for extensive cross-examination.[^62] As mentioned above, Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr’s biography can be crossed-examined over eight independent biographical dictionaries, with each of her teachers’ biographies likewise assessable across texts. The corroboration of relevant sources filters out potentially biased or misleading data. Moreover, many biographical entries are constructed using various reports *(akhbār)*, with the relevant *isnād* listed to verify claims.[^63] Some critics have argued that because biographical dictionaries were authored by men, a male bias must necessarily underrepresent female scholarly achievement.[^64] However, a close reading of entries on female scholars in these male-authored works suggests that this assumption is largely unfounded. The biographers frequently noted the high caliber of female scholars, who were often the biographers’ own teachers, reflecting a historical context in which female scholarship was not framed as exceptional. Ibn Ḥajar, for instance, refers to his female teachers in the same manner as his male teachers, without any special justification or defense. Al-Sakhāwī composed biographical entries for forty-six female scholars from whom he personally received *ijāzāt*, as well as forty-three female scholars who taught his teachers, as well as nine other entries devoted to *muḥaddithat* who had taught his peers.[^65] Moreover, Ibn ʿAsākir authored a text dedicated to approximately eighty *muḥaddithat* from whom he narrated.[^66] Scholars such as Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350), Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 771/1369), al-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392), Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795/1393), and Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1372) likewise include accounts of female scholars that they received hadith from.[^67] Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), who himself received hadith from female scholars, “praised some of them fulsomely,” highlighting their high level of knowledge, righteousness, and intelligence.[^68] Female scholars mentioned in Ibn Ḥajar’s *al-Durar* had received the titles of being the best hadith scholars in their respective period. Daqīqa bint Murshid (d. 746/1345) is similarly celebrated as a key *muḥadditha* who was educated by an array of other female scholars.[^69] Ibn al-ʿImād, al-Ṣafadī, and al-Dhahabī praise Umm al-Kirām al-Marwaziyya (d. 465/1073), attesting to her distinguished knowledge and accuracy in transmitting texts.[^70] Positive regard for female scholars is also expressed in earlier texts, such as in the biographical works of Ibn Hibbān (d. 354/965) and al-Mizzī (d. 742/1341), which record the narration of Hishām ibn Ḥassān (d. 147/764) regarding Ḥafṣa bint Sīrīn (d. 100/719). He is recorded to have said, “I did not meet anyone whom I can prefer over Ḥafṣa,” and when asked about al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, he said, “As for me, I do not prefer anyone over her,” thereby elevating her status above many notable scholars.[^71] The extensive data contained in biographical dictionaries represent a critical resource, demonstrating the methodological rigor of authentication within the Islamic sciences. Accuracy in defining historical practices is ascertained through corroboration across various sources and instruments.[^72] The value of biographical work is further heightened when paired with extant *samāʿāt* manuscripts. Historically appended to hadith texts, these manuscripts record details of when, where, and with whom a text was studied. Data from these extant manuscripts have been found to validate and complement narratives in biographical works, providing a more comprehensive insight into Islamic pedagogical practices—a topic that will be explored in the next section. --- ## Samāʿ records: Scenes from the past *Samāʿ* records are certificates that document the formal study and transmission of texts, derived from the term *samāʿ*, meaning “to hear.”[^73] They played a central role in the transmission of authentic books of hadith and other Islamic sciences. In a *samāʿ* gathering, students studied texts under teachers who held an *isnād* tracing back to the original authors.[^74] Typically, the *samāʿ* record was dictated by the certifier (*musmiʿ*) and appended to the studied text or written in the margins, specifying who was authorized to teach it.[^75] To ensure authenticity, meticulous records were kept noting the date, place of study, the exact portions of the text studied, details of the authorized teacher, and the full names of attendees. Genealogical naming conventions further supported accurate identification of individuals. When a student was said to have “heard” a text (*samiʿa* or *samiʿat*), it indicated that they had studied and mastered it. The verb “to have read” (*qaraʾa* or *qaraʾat*) signified training in recitation from memory.[^76] Authors or certified scholars could then grant authorization to students who demonstrated mastery through *qirāʾa* (recitation), thereby permitting them to transmit the text further. A typical introductory statement in a *samāʿ* record reads: > This text \[title and author\] was heard, under the authority of \[attending scholar\], in the lecture of \[lecturer\], by \[listeners\]; this is written by \[copyist\], who guarantees its correctness, in \[location\] on \[day, month, year\].[^77] The certifier (*musmiʿ*) dictated meticulous details of the gatherings, including the exact sections of texts studied, notes on students who arrived late or dozed off during lessons, or cases where mothers had to leave momentarily due to a crying child.[^78] Such details were included to clarify whether students properly received the content of the texts or if gaps existed in the process of transmission. Oftentimes, information on family relations and occupations would also be included.[^79] Due to their detailed documentation of hadith gatherings, *samāʿāt* records have also been used as corrective tools in sketching historical timelines. For the purposes of this study, testimonies gathered from biographical dictionaries pertaining to female scholarship can be ascertained through these records. For instance, Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr studied the text *al-Jāmiʿ al-akhlāq al-rawī wa-adāb al-sāmiʿ* by Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463/1071) under Abū al-Qāsim al-Mubārak, who had attained an *ijāza* from Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb*.* This transmission was delivered by Ḥāmid ibn Abī al-Fatḥ al-Madanī al-Iṣbahānī in the year 529/1134, specifically during the months of Rabīʿ al-Awwal and Rabīʿ al-Ākhir. This information can be found in the *samāʿ* record appended to the first *juzʾ* of al-Baghdādī’s text.[^80] Moreover, through a dated *samāʿ* record appended to the text, it can be delineated that Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr studied *Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-matrukīn* by ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385/995) from Mansūr ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Khayrūn (d. 539/1144) in the year 529/1134.[^81] In the following years, she is documented as a teaching authority for this text in another *samāʿ* record stating: > *Al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-matrukīn* was taught by “the honorable *shaykha*,” who had studied under Ibn al-Khayrūn, who had heard from al-Jawharī with an *ijāza* from al-Dāraquṭnī.[^82] The manuscript also details that a large group attended her class in Cairo in the year 595/1199, listing each attending student by full name. Additionally, this manuscript affirms the claim of Ibn Nuqṭa, Ibn al-ʿImād, Ibn ʿAsākir, and al-Dhahabī that she transmitted hadith in Cairo.[^83] In this manner, the *samāʿ* records can be used in unison with biographical literature to consolidate our understanding of pedagogical practices of the past.[^84] Employing *samāʿ* records for historical inquiry is also effective due to the current access to large folios of manuscripts, many of which can be carbon-dated for authentication. In *Muʿjam samāʿāt al-Dimashqiyya* (1996), approximately four thousand extant *samāʿ* manuscripts from Damascus have been compiled, recording the names of around fifty thousand men and women who engaged in hadith study from the sixth/twelfth to the eighth/fourteenth century.[^85] Many of these records have been analyzed and compiled into analytical indexes. Through this primary source material, researchers can reconstruct historical educational settings by identifying teachers, students, the texts studied, and the venues in which instruction occurred. The data provided in these extant records allow for mapping scholarly activity, as well as for quantitative study through sampling and deciphering trends pertaining to age, gender, social structures, and the historical use of private and public spaces. These sources are distinctive because they were originally produced to fulfill the practical and technical purposes of verifying the authenticity of knowledge transmission.[^86] Since the system of authentication was standardized across the Islamic world, these records enable historical inquiry across diverse geographical regions. Moreover, the *isnād* system, which endured across centuries and remained resilient to political and ideological shifts, allows scholarship to be traced across vast timelines. [^87] --- ## Damnatio memoriae and corrective historical revisionism Close your eyes and envision the honorable scholars of Islamic history who contributed to the development of the Islamic sciences. What image comes to mind? Most likely a male scholar draped in an elegant robe, bearing a long beard, and surrounded by his students. Yet after engaging deeply with the writings of renowned scholars, such as al-Dhahabī, Ibn Ḥajar, and al-Sakhāwī, we begin to see that alongside these honorable scholars existed a heavy presence of *muḥaddithāt*, *faqīhāt*, *ʿālimāt*, and *shaykhāt* who taught large numbers of students and transmitted Islamic knowledge across vast geographies. Their presence was never seen as a challenge to orthodoxy; on the contrary, they were praised in scholarly circles, and their knowledge was highly sought after, to the extent that many traveled for months to learn from them. Both the quantity and the high level of scholarship evident in their careers disrupts the prevailing view of Muslim women in scholarship as marginal and insignificant. Ultimately, if the names of women were removed from the *isnād*s of hadith and Islamic texts, many chains of transmission would be broken, rapidly impeding the spread of sacred knowledge. While the phrase *historical revisionism* holds both positive and negative connotations, it can be used to imply the “legitimate reassessment of the past.”[^88] A critical assessment of authentic sources inherent to Islamic pedagogy allows for a *corrective historical revisionism*, replacing preconceived notions with detailed historical accuracy, in which female scholars form essential chains within the Islamic sciences. The traditional authentic resources required to reconstruct an accurate historical portrait of the Muslim woman exist and are at our disposal; we need only to read, study, and immerse ourselves in them. In doing so, our historical memory of the giants who shaped the Islamic sciences will expand to include figures such as Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr, Zaynab bint al-Kamāl, and ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Rahmān. *Damnatio memoriae* is a Latin term referring to the intentional erasure of a person or event from history—with the caveat that, through surviving archival evidence, that person’s legacy can be revived against the odds. In the case of female scholarship, their contributions were never hidden; in fact, their names appear extensively throughout traditional Islamic texts. Yet the lack of research and meaningful engagement with these traditional sources has left their legacies largely unencountered by most people. Crucially, the construction of the past has a profound impact on the way individuals and societies understand and position themselves in the present.[^89] Correcting our historical memory of the Muslim woman not only provides a more accurate understanding of the Islamic intellectual tradition but also affirms the legitimacy and place for women within traditional Islamic scholarship today. --- ## Appendix *Samāʿ* Manuscript[^90] ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IMG_2992-1024x816.jpeg) --- ## Notes [^1]: Ignác Goldziher, *Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien)*, trans. S. M. Stern and C. R. Barber (Allen & Unwin, 1967), 2:367. [^2]: Mohammad Akram Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt: The Women Scholars in Islam* (Interface Publications, 2013), 105. [^3]: Abū al-ʿAbbās Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khallikān, *Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān* (Dār Ṣādir, 1900), 2:344; Goldziher, *Muslim Studies*, 367. [^4]: Asma Sayeed, *Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam* (Cambridge University Press, 2013), 164. [^5]: Goldziher, *Muslim Studies,* 367. [^6]: Sayeed, *Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge*, 164; Goldziher, *Muslim Studies,* 367. [^7]: After the tenth century AH, scholarship in the Islamic sciences, including hadith studies, experienced a general decline among both male and female scholars. Nevertheless, notable female scholars continued to make important contributions, including Quraysh al-Ṭabarīyya (d. 1107/1695), who is recognized for her role in reviving hadith studies in the Ḥijāz. For further discussion of female scholars from the Ṭabarī family, see Lamyaʾ Aḥmad al-Shāfiʿī, *The Position of Female Scholarship in the Meccan Arena, 7th–12th Century AH* (N.p., 2004). [^8]: Shams al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī, *Kitāb al-ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ li-ahl al-qarn al-tāsiʿ* (Maktabat al-Quds, 1934), 12:133; Ruth Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: From Ibn Saʿd to Who’s Who* (Gorgias Press, 2018), 65. [^9]: Mona F. Hassan, “Relations, Narrations, and Judgments: The Scholarly Networks and Contributions of an Early Female Muslim Jurist,” *Islamic Law and Society* 22, no. 4 (2015): 360. [^10]: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 19 vols. (Dār al-Fikr, 1997), 5:417. [^11]: Georgina Lock, *Performance and Performing in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Letters from Istanbul* (Cambridge Scholars, 2011), 105; Eva Johanna Holmberg, *Outrageous Rites: Early Modern English Encounters with Levantine Religious Rituals* (Cambridge Scholars, 2011), 25. [^12]: Lock, *Performance and Performing*, 105. [^13]: Cynthia Nelson, *New Wine Old Bottles: Reflections and Projections Concerning Research on Women in Middle Eastern Studies* (Syracuse University Press, 1988), 113. [^14]: Min Pun, *The East-West Dichotomy: From Orientalism to Postcoloniality* (N.p., 2019), 75. [^15]: Pierre Bourdieu, *Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste*, trans. Richard Nice (Harvard University Press, 1984), 177–79; Michel Foucault, *The Archaeology of Knowledge*, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (Pantheon Books, 1972), 9–10; Edward W. Said, *Representations of the Intellectual:* *The 1993 Reith Lectures* (Vintage Books, 1994), 20–22. [^16]: Barbara D. Metcalf, “Review of *Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries,* edited by Nikki R. Keddie and Beth Baron,” *Middle Eastern Studies* 29, no. 3 (1993): 588. [^17]: Leila Ahmed, “Medieval Islam,” in *Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate* (Yale University Press, 1992), 121. [^18]: Hilary Kalmbach, “Social and Religious Change in Damascus: One Case of Female Islamic Religious Authority,” *British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies* 35, no. 1 (2008): 43. [^19]: Juliane Hammer, *American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More than a Prayer* (University of Texas Press, 2012), 100–124; Lisa Worthington, “Progressive Islam and Women’s Religious Leadership,” *Journal for the Academic Study of Religion* 29, no. 2 (2016): 167–81. [^20]: This statement represents a preliminary observation by the author and warrants further qualitative research. [^21]: Omaima Abou-Bakr, “Teaching the Words of the Prophet,” *Hawwa 1*, no. 3 (2003): 307. [^22]: Akram Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ* (Dār Al Minhāj, 2021), 19:62. [^23]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 19:62. [^24]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 21:413. [^25]: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Ghanī Ibn Nuqṭa al-Ḥanbalī al-Baghdādī, *al-Taqyīd li-maʿrifat ruwāt al-sunan wa-l-masānīd* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1988), 498–99; Nadwi, *al-Muḥaddithāt*, 93: “Many travelled to hear from her.” [^26]: Zakī al-Dīn al-Mundhirī, *al-Takmila li-wafayāt al-naqala* (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1981), 2:14. [^27]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 19:504. [^28]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 64. [^29]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Tārīkh al-Islām* (Maktabat al-Tawfīqiyya, 2006), 469. [^30]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 64. [^31]: Ibn al-ʿImād al-Ḥanbalī, *Shadharāt al-dhahab*, 4:347; Ibn Nuqṭa, *al-Taqyīd*, 25:499. [^32]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 76. [^33]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 16:450. [^34]: Abou-Bakr*, Teaching the Words of the Prophet*, 316. [^35]: Abou-Bakr*, Teaching the Words of the Prophet*, 316. [^36]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ,* 64. [^37]: Al-Mundhirī, *al-Takmila li-wafayāt al-naqala*, 2:14. [^38]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 91–94. See also al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 12228; *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1403; *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 2687, *bāb al-qadar*; *Musnad Abī Yaʿlā*, no. 6452; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2664, *kitāb al-qadar*. [^39]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 21:413. [^40]: Mustafa A. Shah, “Ḥadīth, Language of,” in *Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics*, ed. Lutz Edzard and Rudolf de Jong (Brill, 2011), 1. [^41]: Michael Cooperson, “Ibn Hanbal and Bishr al-Hafi: A Case Study in Biographical Traditions,” *Studia Islamica* 86 (1997): 71–101, 72. [^42]: Michael Cooperson, *Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Maʾmūn* (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 10. [^43]: Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections*, 4. [^44]: Nadia El Cheikh, *Professional Mobility and Social Capital: A Note on the Muḥaddithāt in Kitāb Tārīkh Baghdād* (Brill, 2021), 40; Mohamad El-Merheb, *Introduction Professional Mobility as a Defining Characteristic of Pre-Modern Islamic Societies* (Brill, 2021), 1. [^45]: Cooperson, *Classical Arabic Biography*, 2. [^46]: Ibn Nuqṭa al-Ḥanbalī al-Baghdādī, *al-Taqyīd*, 25:499. [^47]: Ibn Nuqṭa al-Ḥanbalī al-Baghdādī, *al-Taqyīd*, 1:1. [^48]: Taqī al-Dīn al-Fāsī, *Dhayl al-taqyīd fī ruwāt al-sunan wa-l-asānīd* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1990), 2:391. [^49]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 20:23–28. [^50]: Ibn Nuqṭa al-Ḥanbali al-Baghdādī, *al-Taqyīd*, 25:499; Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir, *Kitāb tārīkh Dimashq* (Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 70:25. [^51]: Ibn al-ʿImād, *Shadharāt al-dhahab*, 10:12 [^52]: Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī, *Kitāb al-anṣāb* (Ibn Taymiyya Library, 1984), 2:297. [^53]: Al-Samʿānī, *Kitāb al-anṣāb*, 2:297. [^54]: Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections*, 2. [^55]: Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections*, 3. [^56]: Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections*, 3. [^57]: Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections*, 3. [^58]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Kitāb tārīkh Dimashq*, 70:25; Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, *Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features* (The Islamic Texts Society, 1993), 117. [^59]: Al-Sakhāwī, *Kitāb al-ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ*, 12:133. [^60]: Sayeed, *Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge*, 167. [^61]: Amira Naim Abou-Taleb, “Gender Discourse in Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra: Deconstructing Ibn Sa'd’s Portrayal of the Model Muslim Woman” (master's thesis, American University in Cairo, 2012), AUC Knowledge Fountain, 31. [^62]: Abou-Taleb, “Gender Discourse in Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra,” 31. [^63]: Abou-Taleb, “Gender Discourse in Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra,” 46. [^64]: Nadia El Cheikh, *Reading Women and Gender in Early Islam* (Mujadilah, 2024), 2. [^65]: Roded, *Women in Islamic Biographical Collections*, 73. [^66]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 141. [^67]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 141. [^68]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 141. [^69]: Goldziher, *Muslim Studies*, 367. [^70]: Al-Dhahabī, *Tārīkh al-Islām*, 233; Ibn al-ʿImād al-Ḥanbalī, *Shadharāt al-dhahab*, 3:314. [^71]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 57. [^72]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 57. [^73]: George Makdisi, *The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West* (Edinburgh University Press, 1981), 140–41. [^74]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 85. [^75]: Stefan Leder, Yāsīn Muḥammad al-Sawwās, and Maʾmūn al-Ṣāgharjī, eds., *Muʿjam al-samāʿāt al-Dimashqiyya* (Institut Français de Damas, 1996), “Muqaddima,” 29. [^76]: Makdisi, *Rise of Colleges*, 140–41. [^77]: See the Appendix. Makdisi, *Rise of Colleges*, 140–41. [^78]: Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 89. [^79]: Leder et al., *Muʿjam al-samāʿāt al-Dimashqiyya*, 29. [^80]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ,* 77. [^81]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 76. [^82]: Nadwī, *al-Wafāʾ bi-asmāʾ al-nisāʾ*, 76. [^83]: Ibn Nuqṭa al-Ḥanbali al-Baghdadī, *al-Taqyīd*, 25:499; Ibn ʿAsākir, *Kitāb tārīkh Dimashq*, 70:25; al-Dhahabī, *Kitāb tārīkh al-Islām*, 469, 591–600. [^84]: Sayeed, *Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge*, 164–68. [^85]: Leder et al., *Muʿjam al-samāʿāt al-Dimashqiyya,* 27. [^86]: Huda Lutfi, “Al-Sakhawi’s *Kitab al-Nisaʾ* as a Source for the Social and Economic History of Muslim Women During the 15th Century A.D.,” *The Muslim World* 71, no. 2 (1981): 106. [^87]: Sayeed, *Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge*, 152. [^88]: Michal Kopeček, *Past in the Making: Historical Revisionism in Central Europe After 1989* (Central European University Press, 2008), 2. [^89]: Geoff Eley, “The Past Under Erasure? History, Memory, and the Contemporary,” *Journal of Contemporary History* 46, no. 3 (2011): 556. [^90]: Leder et al., *Muʿjam al-samāʿāt al-Dimashqiyya,* 111,  ms. 3778, *risāla* 7, *samāʿ* 1 and 7, *waraqa* 79a and 85b. Referenced in Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddithāt*, 76. ## Summary The historical record preserved by the early scholars of Islam bears witness to a reality that many today find surprising: Muslim women were, across the centuries, active and honored participants in the transmission of sacred knowledge. When the Orientalist Ignác Goldziher examined Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī's (d. 852/1449) biographical dictionary *al-Durar al-kāmina*, he was struck to find roughly two hundred entries devoted to female scholars praised for their intellectual authority, many of whom were Ibn Ḥajar's own teachers. These were not scattered exceptions but a sustained presence stretching from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries. Among them were figures such as Sitt al-Wuzarāʾ bint ʿUmar (d. 716/1316), who taught in Damascus and Egypt; Zaynab bint Abī al-Qāsim al-Shiʿriyya (d. 615/1218) of Nishapur, who held an *ijāza* from the exegete al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143) and was sought out by jurists such as Ibn Khallikān (d. 681/1282); ʿĀʾisha bint ʿAbd al-Hādī (d. 816/1413); and Juwayriyya bint Aḥmad (d. 783/1381). The esteem in which such women were held is plain in the words of the scholars themselves. Al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348), writing of Zaynab bint al-Kamāl (d. 740/1339), said, "Whomsoever seeks the unparalleled prestige [of *isnād*], then let him hear from her, for if the seeker of knowledge travels for a month to hear one portion [of her knowledge], his journey would not be in vain." Her contemporaries described her as possessing a "camel load of *ijāzāt*," and she granted authorizations to major scholars including al-Ṣafadī (d. 764/1363), Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355), and the traveler Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (d. 770/1369). So consequential was this participation that al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) remarked that upon the death of Amat al-Khāliq al-Dimashqiyya (d. 902/1496), "people fell one rank in hadith," while al-Sakhāwī noted that the death of a single *muḥadditha* harmed hadith transmission in Egypt. These women were engaged not only in hadith but in *fiqh*, Qurʾanic sciences, language, and grammar. Such participation was treated as normative rather than as a challenge to orthodoxy, following the precedent of the female Companions and *tābiʿīn*. A clear example is ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 106/724), a jurist raised and taught by ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr (d. 58/678), the Mother of the Believers, and regarded in the traditional sources as a *ḥujja*, a definitive authority. The question, then, is why this documented reality conflicts so sharply with the contemporary imagination of the Muslim woman, and which authentic records permit us to reconstruct that past faithfully. A large part of the answer lies in a distorted picture inherited from Western colonial narratives, which portrayed Muslim women as passive, voiceless, and socially inconsequential. Early European travelers, diplomats, and writers claimed to "write about those who did not write about themselves," and at the heart of their approach lay the assumption that the Islamic tradition itself inhibits women's agency, such that agency could only be gained by breaking free from religious orthodoxy. Because epistemic authority was tied to social authority, the presumption of women's social subordination seeped into perceptions of their place in religious scholarship. This bred the false belief that materials documenting women as agents of knowledge were too rare for serious study, and that the only records available were those written by European visitors. This same premise underlies a strand of recent "feminist rereadings" of orthodox Islam, which rest on the ahistorical claim that women were excluded from scholarly circles by norms said to be inherent to the tradition. As a result, female Islamic scholarship has sometimes been mislabeled as a product of Western feminism and modern reform, a view that may have spread among some Muslims due to unfamiliarity with the historical record, and which risks the failure to grant qualified female scholars their due authority today. As a remedy, two categories of sources authored and dictated by the early scholars themselves prove decisive: Arabic biographical dictionaries and *ijāzāt al-samāʿ*, the certificates of auditory transmission. Biographical dictionaries preserve extensive data on scholarly networks, while *samāʿāt* manuscripts record who taught and studied specific texts, enabling scholars to map activity across age, gender, social structures, and learning spaces. Drawing on these records establishes that female scholarship is firmly grounded in the orthodox tradition rather than a modern construct or an external ideological projection. This method is illustrated through the career of Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr (d. 600/1203), a renowned hadith transmitter born in China, east of Kashgar, in 522 AH, and described as the "venerable and righteous *shaykha*." Her father, Saʿd al-Khayr (d. 541/1146), himself a scholar and *muḥaddith*, ensured her education under the most qualified teachers, undertaking long journeys with her—in keeping with the tradition's regard for sacred knowledge as an obligation upon women and men alike. In Isfahan she studied under Fāṭima al-Jawzādāniyya (d. 524/1129), whom al-Dhahabī called "the best hadith narrator of her time," reading al-Ṭabarānī's *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr* and *al-Muʿjam al-saghīr*. She then studied in Baghdad under eighteen scholars, including the female scholar Karīma bint al-Ḥāfiẓ Abī Bakr (d. 527/1133), and later settled in Cairo, where she narrated hadith extensively. Her study of al-Dāraquṭnī's (d. 385/995) *Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-matrukīn* shows engagement with *ʿilm al-dirāya* and hadith criticism, not mere transmission, and she later became a teaching authority for that very text in Cairo. She lived seventy-eight years and granted her final *ijāza* to Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Khayr Salāma (d. 678/1279). The recovery of such a detailed portrait rests first on the genre of biographical literature, which developed in the effort to authenticate hadith transmitters. Fāṭima's full lineage and dates appear in Ibn Nuqṭa's (d. 629/1232) *al-Taqyīd*, a work documenting the narrators of the six canonical collections and bound up with the science of *jarḥ* and *taʿdīl*. Al-Fāsī (d. 832/1429) cites her across eight biographical dictionaries, allowing cross-examination, and each of her teachers can likewise be verified in these works. This surplus of documentation, stretching over ten centuries and often covering the same person, distinguishes the Arabic tradition and filters out potential bias, since entries are frequently built upon reports (*akhbār*) with their *isnād* listed. The claim that male authorship must have suppressed female achievement is not borne out: Ibn Ḥajar refers to his female teachers as he does his male ones, without special justification; al-Sakhāwī composed entries for forty-six female scholars from whom he took *ijāzāt*; and Ibn ʿAsākir, taught by over eighty women, devoted a work to the *muḥaddithāt* from whom he narrated and recorded two hundred in his *Tārīkh Dimashq*. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), who himself received hadith from women, "praised some of them fulsomely." Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354/965) and al-Mizzī (d. 742/1341) preserve the words of Hishām ibn Ḥassān concerning Ḥafṣa bint Sīrīn (d. 100/719): "I did not meet anyone whom I can prefer over Ḥafṣa," ranking her above notable scholars. The second category, the *samāʿ* record, is a certificate documenting the formal study of a text, derived from *samāʿ*, "to hear." Dictated by the certifier (*musmiʿ*) and appended to the studied text, it recorded the date, place, portions studied, the authorized teacher, and the full names of attendees—even noting latecomers, those who dozed, or a mother who left for a crying child. Such records confirm the biographical testimony: a dated *samāʿ* shows Fāṭima studying al-Baghdādī's (d. 463/1071) *al-Jāmiʿ li-akhlāq al-rāwī* in 529/1134, and another shows her teaching *Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-matrukīn* to a large, named gathering in Cairo in 595/1199, corroborating Ibn Nuqṭa, Ibn al-ʿImād, Ibn ʿAsākir, and al-Dhahabī. Because the system of authentication was standardized across the Islamic world and the *isnād* endured through political and ideological change, these records permit inquiry across regions and centuries; the *Muʿjam samāʿāt al-Dimashqiyya* alone compiles some four thousand manuscripts naming around fifty thousand men and women. What emerges is not the invention of a new past but its faithful recovery—a corrective reading in which women form essential links in the chains of the Islamic sciences. Were their names struck from the *isnāds*, many chains would break and the transmission of sacred knowledge would be impeded. Their legacy was never truly hidden; it lies openly in the traditional texts, awaiting only careful study, so that the memory of figures such as Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr, Zaynab bint al-Kamāl, and ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān may take its rightful place, affirming the legitimacy of women within traditional Islamic scholarship. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-silence-is-not-neutral-the-bystander-effect-and-moral-responsibility-in-islam-essay # Why Silence Is Not Neutral: The Bystander Effect and Moral Responsibility in Islam | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Ethics **Published:** April 29, 2026 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 Centuries before modern psychology named the bystander effect, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ articulated a moral framework that directly addressed its dangers. He said: > The parable of those who respect the limits of Allah and those who violate them is that of people who board a ship after casting lots. Some of them reside on its upper deck and others on its lower deck. When those on the lower deck want water, they pass by those above them and say, “If we tear a hole in the bottom of the ship, we will not harm those above us.” If those on the upper deck let them do what they want, they will all be destroyed together. But if they restrain them, they will all be saved together.[^1] The bystander effect is a well-documented phenomenon in social psychology describing how the presence of a crowd reduces the likelihood that any one individual will intervene in a harmful or emergency situation. Rather than increasing safety, the presence of others often diffuses responsibility, leading each observer to assume that someone else will act. Decades of experimental research show that people are significantly more likely to help when they are alone than when they are part of a group, even when they experience empathy or moral concern. Importantly, then, the bystander effect does not arise from cruelty or indifference. It arises from uncertainty, conformity, and social pressure that quietly paralyzes moral action.[^2] But while psychology explains why people hesitate, it does not resolve the ethical question of whether silence and inaction are morally acceptable when harm is clearly unfolding. The Prophetic parable of the ship reframes moral responsibility as collective and unavoidable. Harm is never isolated or limited to others. Silence is not neutral. The failure of the upper deck is not active wrongdoing, but wrongful inaction. Survival depends not just on avoiding sin personally, but also on restraining harm whenever and wherever it appears. --- ## Enjoining good, forbidding evil, and the danger of passive faith The image of the ship powerfully anticipates what psychology would later describe as diffusion of responsibility, while rejecting it as morally insufficient. This hadith importantly supports the repeated calls to action presented in the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Qur’an grounds this interventionist ethic in obligation rather than personal preference. Allah describes the believing community as the best brought forth for humanity because they enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong,[^3] establishing moral intervention as a defining feature of faith. The Prophet ﷺ made this obligation even more explicit when he said: “Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand. If he is unable, then with his tongue. If he is unable, then with his heart, and that is the weakest of faith.”[^4] This hadith directly confronts passive bystandership. The Prophet ﷺ does not present moral response as a binary of action or silence. Instead, he outlines a hierarchy of responsibility. Physical intervention comes first when it is safe and possible. Verbal objection follows when physical action is not feasible. Only when both are genuinely impossible does internal rejection suffice, and even then it is described as the weakest expression of faith. In this framing, silent disapproval is not praised, only tolerated as a last resort. The hadith serves as a clear admonition against normalizing passivity, especially when harm is visible and preventable, a principle reinforced by the Qur’anic command to uphold justice even when doing so implicates ourselves or those closest to us: “O you who believe, stand firmly for justice, as witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves, or parents, or close relatives.”[^5] --- ## Affiliation, identity, and selective intervention Bibb Latané and John Darley first identified the bystander effect through controlled laboratory experiments. They demonstrated that diffusion of responsibility, fear of social judgment, and pluralistic ignorance (a social psychological phenomenon where members of a group privately reject a norm, but incorrectly assume that most others accept it, leading them to publicly conform to it) play central roles in suppressing intervention. Subsequent research added nuance to this picture by explaining why intervention often fails unevenly. People are significantly more likely to help those they perceive as belonging to their in-group. A 2021 virtual reality study by Rovira and colleagues demonstrated that participants intervened faster and more frequently when the victim shared their social identity. When the victim was perceived as an outsider, hesitation increased, even when the severity of harm remained the same.[^6] The bystander effect is especially likely when harm is directed at visibly vulnerable groups. In many Western contexts, Muslim women who wear hijab are disproportionately targeted for verbal harassment, intimidation, and physical assault. Numerous documented incidents show sisters being shoved, spat on, threatened, or publicly humiliated in transit stations, on campuses, or on streets while crowds look on and do nothing. Psychologically, these situations are textbook bystander scenarios. Witnesses may feel uncertain, fear escalation, assume authorities will intervene, or interpret others’ silence as a cue that action is unnecessary. Social identity dynamics also play a role. When a victim is perceived as part of an out-group, empathy may be dampened and moral responsibility further diffused. From a Prophetic perspective, this silence is not neutral. The hadith of the ship applies directly. Allowing harm to continue because it appears to affect only one person, or one group, ignores the broader moral damage being inflicted on the community. The Prophet ﷺ consistently emphasized the protection of the vulnerable and condemned injustice regardless of who committed it or who suffered from it. To witness such harm and remain passive is to accept a tear in the shared vessel. --- ## Social media and the digital bystander effect Social media introduces a new dimension to the bystander effect. Harm is often witnessed through screens, sometimes by thousands at once. Videos of harassment, humiliation, or violence involving Muslim women and other marginalized groups can circulate rapidly before being removed, turning suffering into content. Rather than mobilizing collective action, these platforms often amplify the diffusion of responsibility and reward documentation over intervention. When thousands are watching, individual responsibility feels diluted. The act of recording, rather than intervening, may be driven by the pursuit of social attention and peer approval. A 2016 investigation by *The Huffington Post* examined cases in which sexual assaults were filmed and shared rather than stopped. Psychological experts cited in the article noted that peer approval, attention seeking, and the pursuit of online visibility can override empathic responses, particularly among adolescents and young adults.[^7] They noted that young people, in particular, are susceptible to this dynamic, as validation from peers strongly shapes behavior during adolescence and emerging adulthood. From a Prophetic perspective, witnessing harm without acting when action is possible is morally consequential, regardless of whether the harm unfolds on a street or on a screen. --- ## Evidence-based interventions and Prophetic alignment Psychological research offers practical strategies for reliably reducing bystander inaction. Responsibility framing, which reminds individuals that they are personally accountable, significantly increases intervention rates.[^8] This mirrors the Prophetic insistence that responsibility cannot be outsourced to the group or another group, for that matter. Skills-based bystander intervention training reduces fear and hesitation by equipping people with concrete ways to act safely. This aligns with the Islamic emphasis on knowledge as a prerequisite for ethical conduct. Mental rehearsal also plays a powerful role. Individuals who imagine themselves intervening are more likely to act when real situations arise. The Qur’an and Sunnah repeatedly use parables and moral scenarios to cultivate readiness before crisis unfolds. --- ## Choosing action over silence The bystander effect thrives in ambiguity, distance, and collective silence. The Prophetic framework confronts it with clarity, responsibility, and moral courage. The parable of the ship leaves no room for comfortable neutrality. The hadith on forbidding evil leaves no room for passive faith. Allah commands this same moral responsibility in the Qur’an: “O you who believe, stand firmly for justice as witnesses for Allah, even if it is against yourselves or your parents and relatives.”[^9] This verse removes the final barrier to intervention. It calls the believer to act not only when it is easy, but even when it is uncomfortable, socially costly, or personally difficult. Either harm is restrained, or everyone sinks. Either action is taken, or silence becomes complicity. In an age marked by public harassment, online cruelty, and normalized spectatorship (often via the lens of a phone), this guidance is urgently relevant. Faith is not passive. Moral excellence is measured by the willingness to act when the ship begins to take on water—or before its protective hull is even pierced. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-shirka*, no. 2493. [^2]: Bibb Latané and John M. Darley, *The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn’t He Help?* (Appleton-Century Crofts, 1970). [^3]: Qur’an 3:110. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *Kitāb al-īmān*, no. 49. [^5]: Qur’an 4:135. [^6]: Aitor Rovira, Richard Southern, David Swapp, Claire Campbell, Jian J. Zhang, Mark Levine, and Mel Slater, “Bystander Affiliation Influences Intervention Behavior: A Virtual Reality Study,” *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology* 95 (2021): 104117. [^7]: Tyler Kingkade, “Why Would Anyone Film a Rape and Not Try to Stop It?,” *Huffington Post*, April 21, 2016, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-film-a-rape\_n\_5717b957e4b0c9244a7a8e07](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-film-a-rape_n_5717b957e4b0c9244a7a8e07&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1777480203015153&usg=AOvVaw3y1wtvG5x-5VKgkaQ_uTzh). [^8]: Peter Fischer, Joachim I. Krueger, Tobias Greitemeyer, Claudia Vogrincic, Andreas Kastenmüller, Dieter Frey, Moritz Heene, Magdalena Wicher, and Martina Kainbacher, “The Bystander Effect: A Meta Analytic Review,” *Psychological Bulletin* 137, no. 4 (2011): 517–37. [^9]: Qur’an 4:135. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/post-ramadan-highs-and-lows-how-to-protect-your-faith-in-4-steps-blog # Post-Ramadan Highs and Lows: How to Protect Your Faith in 4 Steps **Author:** Tarek Ghanem **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** faith, Ramadan **Published:** April 19, 2026 **Updated:** April 21, 2026 Ever wondered why our experience in the last ten days of Ramadan, or on its 27th night, diminishes so quickly after the month ends? Where do the light, faith, inspiration to do more, and sense of elation go? Why is it that they are sometimes overtaken by sluggishness, boredom, spiritual emptiness, and lack of commitment to perform acts of worship and refrain from what is religiously prohibited? --- ## 1\. Understand the lows Before engaging with these fluctuations, we must understand that they are natural. To begin with, “Allah alone withholds \[*yaqbid*\] and lavishes \[*yabsut*\].”[^1] Since Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is transcendent and not subject to any influences, He does not change. We, on the other hand, are constantly subject to change and alternation in our inner world and external conditions. The contraction (*qabd*) cited in the verse, marked by convulsion, restraint, and depression, and the expansion (*bast*), manifested by acceleration, relief, and a sense of elation, are both part and parcel of our human condition. *Qabd* and *bast* alternate within and without us, especially in our inner lives, like night and day, as Qur’an exegete Ibn ʿAjiba notes.[^2] The companion Hanzala ibn al-Rabiʿ al-Usaydi, may Allah be well pleased with him, was so frustrated by these spiritual ups and downs that he complained to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be well pleased with him. The two went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. As soon as they met him, Hanzala declared, “Hanzala became a hypocrite, Messenger of Allah!” He proceeded to explain, “When we are with you, you remind us of the Hellfire and Paradise; it is as if we see them with our own eyes. When we leave you, we flounder with wives, children, and estates, so forget much.” Prophetic guidance and wisdom came swiftly, enlightening and relevant, answering these pressing questions about spiritual fluctuation. “By the One in whose hand is my soul! If you were to persist with what you are when you are with me and with remembrance \[*dhikr*\], angels would shake your hands while you are on your cushions and on the streets. However, Hanzala, it is one time \[this way\], and one time \[that way\]!”[^3] The Messenger ﷺ even repeated this last part three times. It is perfectly natural to experience these spiritual ups and downs. They make us human, for good or bad, and make us cognizant of our need for divine assistance and guidance. It is no wonder that one of the most recited Prophetic supplications is “O Turner of Hearts, fix my heart on Your religion.”[^4] But how can we protect ourselves from the influence of these spiritually low moments? How can we be certain that they will not drag us down into a bottomless spiral of spiritual stagnation, sins, or even loss of faith? A tremendously beneficial but lesser-known hadith, which lies at the heart of maintaining a religious practice immune to the effects of these pendulum-like shifts, is the following: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Every action has an uptick \[*shirra*\]. Every uptick has a flat plane \[*fatra*\]. So whoever’s *fatra* is directed toward my Sunnah shall succeed. Whoever’s *fatra* is to other than that shall perish.”[^5] This piece of Prophetic guidance offers a practical and radical cure for our spiritual lows. It instructs us that there must be religious works—in this case, the confirmed supererogatory acts of the Sunnah—that are the life buoy that can pull us through, if only by sending a signal to our subconscious that my commitment to this religion stands above and beyond the joys of spiritual highs or the pain of the lows. This consistency in applying the sunnahs—such as the prayers before and after obligatory prayers, and reading the Qur’an daily, for example—is what ensures that we will actually benefit in both the low moments and the highs; yes, there are benefits to both. The main benefit of the low moments is that they anchor our need for Allah and consolidate our dependence on His favor and gifts of spiritual energy. It is within this context that we understand that sagacious wisdom of the statement of Ibn ʿAtaʾ, “You may benefit in the night of spiritual contraction \[*qabd*\] that which you have not benefited from in the day of brilliance of spiritual expansion \[*bast*\]; ‘You cannot know which of them is more beneficial to you’ (Qur’an 4:11).”[^6] Whether one is in a low state—knowing the swing of the spiritual pendulum will eventually lift one from it—or in a spiritual high, our relationship with Allah, founded on love and devotion, ultimately falls outside the confines of both states: spiritual contraction or elation. Ibn ʿAtaʾ’s wisdom penetrates both states to refocus our attention, “He brought you to *bast* so that He does not make you stay with *qabd*. He brought you to *qabd* so that He does not leave you with *bast*. He brought you out of both so that you are for nothing else other than Himself!”[^7] --- ## 2\. Surf through the highs Allah, Mighty and Majestic, encourages us to “hurry toward your Lord’s forgiveness and a Garden as wide as the heavens and earth prepared for the righteous.”[^8] An even stronger encouragement, expressed through a metaphor that conveys charging with even greater speed and force, is “Therefore flee unto Allah! I am a clear warner from Him to you.”[^9] Another verse highlighting how striving in moments of spiritual highs—marked by strong faith, elation, an abundance of worship, and near complete abandonment of all that is sinful or religiously blameworthy—brings about guidance and a return to Allah is “But We shall be sure to guide to Our ways those who strive hard for Our cause: God is with those who do good.”[^10] In his commentary on this verse, the authoritative exegete Abu al-Suʿud (d. 982/1575) explains that such people will be assisted and guided into “the path of traversing to Us, and reaching Our Presence, or that we shall guide them to the paths of goodness and assisting them to traverse it, as in His words, Most High, ‘God has increased the guidance of those who follow the right path’ (Qur’an 47:17). It is narrated that, ‘Whoever applied in action what they know, Allah shall bequeath them the knowledge of that they do not.’”[^11] If one is blessed with being in a high spiritual state, with strong faith, enthusiasm to perform many pious acts, and firm resolve to stay away from sins and blameworthy deeds, they must, above all, recognize Allah’s abundant favor upon them. Such a state is better than the whole world and everything in it combined: “Say, ‘In this bounty of Allah and mercy of his, in that let them rejoice. It is better than all they amass.’”[^12] Of course, this interest in striving and excelling in one’s religiosity, and in expressing one’s relationship with Allah through devotion, love, and other acts of worship, is not for everyone at all times. When someone came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked about restricting their religious practice to the minimal obligatory acts without adding any extras, he said about him, “He shall succeed only if he is sincere.”[^13] Compare that, however, to another case: the companion Rabiʿa ibn Kaʿb al-Aslami, who used to spend nights in the Prophet’s house, helping him with ablution and other needs. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told him, “Ask me!” he said, “I ask you for your company in Paradise.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Or anything else?” He said, “That \[is all\]!” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Then assist me against yourself with an abundance of prostration.”[^14] When you are in a spiritual high, seize the opportunity. Prioritize your religion, do as much as you can, aim high, and set the bar for new norms of practice, faith, and religious excellence. More importantly, seek to extend them and ensure they bring about lasting change. These highs are a praiseworthy competition, “It is this \[bliss\] in aspiring that competitors should compete with each other.”[^15] On his deathbed, the venerated companion, Muʿadh ibn Jabal, may Allah be well pleased with him, uttered: “O Allah, you know that I neither liked staying in the world nor a long duration in it because of the flowing rivers or for planting trees. I loved staying in it to strive against the long nights and the thirst of the noontime in intense heat, and to press my shoulders against scholars to join circles of remembrance.”[^16] Perhaps this devotion to drawing near to Allah through such positive competition is best expressed by the pious worshipper from the third generation of Muslims, Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, who is reported to have said, “If it can be that no one outraces you to Allah, then do it!”[^17] --- ## 3\. Manage the consistency While excelling in religious practice and an abundance of devotional acts may not be for everyone, at least not for everyone all the time, consistency is key to religious commitment. This applies to everyone, all the time. The wisdom of Messenger of Allah ﷺ teaches us all, “Verily, religion is of ease. No one shall try to wrestle with religion except that it will defeat them. So aim to be correct, be moderate, take on the glad tidings, and seek assistance in the comings and goings, and some of the nocturnal \[works\].”[^18] Commenting on the first part of this hadith, the erudite hadith authority Ibn Hajar stresses, “What is intended is not prohibiting what is more perfect in religion, as it is praiseworthy. Rather, it is immoderation leading to boredom or excessive supererogatory works that result in leaving out what is superior.”[^19] But what does consistency look like in practice? How can it be applied in our busy and complex lives? First of all, if you decide to commit to a certain religious practice, you must strive your utmost to keep it. The Mother of the Believers, ʿAʾisha, may Allah be well pleased with her, described the Prophet’s religious practice: “Whenever he did an act, he would steadfastly commit to it.”[^20] For example, try making a system of rewards and punishments for yourself when it comes to committing to praying the Duha prayer or accustom yourself not to browse on your phone and check your notifications before completing your morning *adhkar*. This begs the question: What are the best religious acts to commit to? Plainly, “The most loved of works to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is that which its doer performs consistently.”[^21] Second, consistency is a gentle breeze that carries you and your commitments for a long time and toward a far destination, not a whirlwind that throws you off your feet and subsides sooner than you would like. The Mother of the Believers, ʿAʾisha, may Allah be well pleased with her, portrayed the Prophet’s religious practice and daily routine in a compelling metaphor as being like “soft continuous rain \[*dima*\].”[^22] Third, focus on quality. It suffices here to say that one should aim for the following: “Excellence \[*ihsan*\] is to worship Allah as though you see Him. If you do not see Him, \[then know that\] He sees you.”[^23] Finally, as part of your plans for religious consistency and commitment, you should plan to gradually and wisely increase what you routinely practice. Know that religious commitment and practice are *not* what many influencers and social media voices claim they are. They do not involve sudden dramatic shifts in religiosity and lifestyle. Easy come, easy go. Rather, “The best of people are the ones whose life is long and their acts are excellent,” as the Prophet ﷺ said.[^24] We should think about our religious commitment through the lens of this Prophetic guidance and improve our practice firmly and gradually. --- ## 4\. Keep a daily program “He who is hostile to a friend of Mine \[*wali*\], I declare war against. There is nothing more beloved to Me than that My slave approaches Me with what I made obligatory upon him. My slave continues to draw nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks me, I will surely give to him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him.”[^25] This hadith recenters love in our relationship with Allah and underscores the centrality of obligatory and supererogatory acts. When explaining who is meant by a “friend of Allah” (*wali*) in this hadith *qudsi*, the eminent hadith scholar Ibn Hajar commented that a *wali* is, “The one who truly knows Allah, who persists \[*muwazib*\] in His obedience, and is sincere in worship.”[^26] An even clearer explanation is the Qur’an’s, “But for those who are friends of Allah \[pl. *awliyaʾ*\] there is no fear, nor shall they grieve. Those who truly believe and ever show God-fearingness.”[^27] Below are, first, suggestions for a daily routine that can help you to meet the previously mentioned Prophetic guidance of maintaining a stable practice of Sunnah at all times, including in times of spiritual lows. Second, there is a set of practical advice to help maintain this religious routine. The suggestions are based on guidance from the above hadith and the religious principle that it is more important to shun sin than to perform or introduce additional acts of religious obedience: “If I prohibit you from something, then shun it. If I command you something, perform from it what you can.”[^28] Commenting on this hadith, Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali states, “Some scholars have derived from this \[hadith\] that prohibitions are stronger than commands. This is because it is not allowed to commit anything prohibited. Commands are based on ability. This \[opinion\] is narrated from Imam Ahmad.”[^29] This must be done in parallel with the previous Prophetic guidance of maintaining the supererogatory acts of the Sunnah at all times as a safety net. ### Obligatory acts (fard) Make your daily obligatory acts, especially the obligatory five prayers, the centerpiece of your relationship with Allah, your spirituality, and your religious excellence. Since they are what He loves the most, make it your daily business to meet them with due love, excellence, and focus. Here are some practical steps to prioritizing the five daily prayers: - Organize your daily life around them, including sleep, activities, and responsibilities.  - Pray at the beginning of the time period of a given prayer. This is something that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, loves.[^30] Develop a healthy tension in you to pray in the earliest possible moment. Prepare yourself ahead of time by thinking where to perform ablution (*wuduʾ*) and where to pray if you are going somewhere new, for example. - Begin your focus as early as *wuduʾ* and the Prophetic supplications associated with it. Make sure that when you utter the opening invocation of prayer, “*Allahu akbar*” (Allah is greatest), the meaning—of Him being greater than all your preoccupations, worries, sadness, joy, and everything else—overwhelms you. - Ensure that your presence and sense of tranquility in these prayers reflect your absolute utmost effort, especially when reciting the Qur’an and in the *tashahhud*. These are your five daily moments of complete separation from everything other than Allah and of focusing solely on your connection to Him.  - Make your supplications within your *fard* prayers, especially in prostration (*sujud*), your most important and sincere ones. - Pray in the mosque, if you are a male. The minimum is twice a day, especially for the dawn (*fajr*) and night (*ʿisha*) prayers. ### Steering clear of sin Make a daily commitment not to fall into habitual sins. This is especially important for major sins and habitual minor sins. Imam al-Tusturi says, “Collective devotional works (*birr*) are done by both the devoted and the wicked. Only a true believer (*siddiq*) quits sins.”[^31] - Create a system of accountability that includes both rewards and consequences for avoiding sins. Some suggest beginning with a forty-day commitment and diary. - Plan ahead and be realistic. Be aware of the process by which you fall into sins and the steps that lead to them. If every time X calls, you fall into backbiting, do not answer. If every time you meet a certain group, you end up doing something wrong, no matter how hard you all try not to, do not meet them. If every time you are left alone at home with your laptop, you do what you should not, remove yourself from the situation. Both forcing yourself to pray the Prayer of Repentance (*Salat al-Tawba*), crying and seeking forgiveness, and committing yourself to give a significant amount of charity every time you fall into a particular sin you are attempting to quit are tested and proven ways to abandon it. - Beyond this, ensure that under no circumstances do you harm anyone, verbally or materially. ### Supererogatory acts (sunan) If one commits to a minimum of them, these acts guard one’s faith, according to the previous Prophetic assurance. Increasing their type, quality, and quantity is a way to attain more of Allah’s love and draw nearer to Him. - The first and most important type is extra voluntary prayers performed consistently and never abandoned (*sunan muʾakkada*). These include: 1. The sunnahs before and after *fard* prayers 2. *Witr* prayer 3. The forenoon prayer (*duha*) - The second most important voluntary act is the night vigil prayer (*qiyam)*. (For more on that read [here](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/those-who-bow-when-the-world-sleeps-servants-of-the-most-merciful-ep-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886780673&usg=AOvVaw3YRAMcxLIorEa5VtH12EL-)). - Engaging daily with the Qur’an is essential. We should gradually develop three levels of daily engagement: 1. Recitation (*tilawa*): Commit to reading the entire Qur’an once a month, at least, or once every two months if your Arabic ability allows for this. 2. Contemplation (*tadabbur*): Read with the aid of a book of exegesis (*tafsir*). 3. Worship (*taʿabbud*): Careful devotional recitation during *qiyam*. - Maintain *wuduʾ* as much as possible throughout the day. - Give charity daily, no matter how small, or if you commit to a monthly payment, supplicate that its reward reaches you daily. - Observe the sunnah fasts, especially Mondays and Thursdays. - Perform acts of kindness toward three groups: your family and those close to you, the pious people in your circle, and the wider community, especially non-Muslims. ### Practical advice for maintaining this routine Below are practical words of advice to help maintain such a daily routine, which is, of course, no easy feat. 1. Supplicate and seek divine assistance: Firmly committing to a religious daily routine is not easy and takes a lot of effort and planning. Make continuous supplication (*dua*) for assistance in maintaining this program. After all, “It is You we worship; it is You we ask for help.”[^32] 2. Make remembrance of Allah (*dhikr*)—including the Qur’an, the highest form of *dhikr*—the spiritual fuel for your daily engine. 3. Inculcate patience in all its forms: patience in the face of worldly trials, patience in maintaining good deeds, and patience in refraining from sins and blameworthy acts. It is not a coincidence that patience (*sabr*) is the second most frequently cited virtue of the believers in the Qur’an after God-fearingness (*taqwa*). Verses 3:15–17 tell us that those who anchor themselves in God-fearingness and piety will have with their Lord luxuriant groves in Paradise, and they are described as those steadfast in patience, truthful in word and deed, humbly devoted in adoration, generous in spending, and those who ask for forgiveness in the final watches of the night. Commenting on why patience is mentioned first, the eminent Qur’anic exegete Ibn ʿAshur stresses that it is because “it is the key to doing acts of obedience and leaving sins.” Patience is the mother of, and prerequisite for, all religious practice. Despite the undeniable virtue of special religious times and seasons, a wise believer does not confine their spiritual resolve to one night or a month. They approach every night as though it is Laylat al-Qadr and every morning as though it is the Day of ʿArafa.[^33] Perhaps there is no better summation of the above than the poignant words of Imam al-Tusturi: “There is no aid but Allah, no guide but the Messenger of Allah, no sustenance except *taqwa*, and there is no work except being patient with it all.”[^34] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 2:245. [^2]: Aḥmad Ibn ʿAjība al-Ḥasanī, *al-Baḥr al-madīd fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Majīd*, ed. Aḥmad ʿAbdullāh al-Qurashī Raslān (Ḥasan ʿAbbās Zakī, 1999), 1:271. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2750, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2750a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2750a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886785806&usg=AOvVaw1g_Hi80B1Cy6NPeJIZeNKh). [^4]: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, ed. Aḥmad Shākir et al. (Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1975), 5:538, no. 3522, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3522](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3522&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886786219&usg=AOvVaw2yuapzj-CvVYuaOognwq9t). [^5]: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ et al. (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2001), 11:547, no. 6958, [https://hadithunlocked.com/ahmad:6958](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hadithunlocked.com/ahmad:6958&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886786585&usg=AOvVaw1PbbYf9IfQhFsL5FvRqOWg). [^6]: Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Sakandarī, *al-Ḥikam li-Ibn ʿAṭāʾ ِAllāh al-Sakandarī*, ed. Aḥmad ʿIzz al-Dīn Khalaf Allāh (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya li-l-Turāth, 2011), 131. [^7]: Al-Sakandarī, *al-Ḥikam*, 120. [^8]: Qur’an 3:133. [^9]: Qur’an 51:50. [^10]: Qur’an 29:69. [^11]: Abū al-Suʿūd al-ʿImādī Muṣṭafā, *Irshād al-ʿaql al-salīm ilā mazāya al-Kitāb al-Karīm* (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 7:48. [^12]: Qur’an 10:58. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1891. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 253. [^15]: Qur’an 83:26. [^16]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Zuhd*, ed. Muḥammad Aḥmad ʿĪsā (Dār al-Ghadd al-Jadīd, 2005), 200. [^17]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Laṭāʾif al-maʿārif*, ed. Maḥmūd ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Arnaʾūṭ and Riyāḍ Murād (Dār Ibn Ḥazm li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr, 2004), 244. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 39, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:39](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:39&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886788886&usg=AOvVaw01cyg0hNjPfSIimDw1D34X). [^19]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Muḥibb al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb (al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1970), 1:94. [^20]: Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān al-Sajistānī, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ and Muḥammad Qārra Ballī (Dār al-Risāla al-ʿĀlamiyya, 2009), 2:519, no. 1368, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:1368](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:1368&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886789389&usg=AOvVaw2px4QCfzVO5y8u4957NVpK). [^21]: Ibn Māja Muḥammad al-Qazwīnī, *Sunan Ibn Māja*, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, 1952), 2:1416, no. 238, [https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:4238](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:4238&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886789743&usg=AOvVaw3Lkmd7UyasSOC6TTbEtPyX). [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6466, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6466](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6466&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886789931&usg=AOvVaw1VCVEYPZPZCBzdv41CvXjg). [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4777, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4777](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4777&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886790138&usg=AOvVaw25RIGUB6FubBUOOzLyo7vl). [^24]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:566, no. 2330, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2330](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2330&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886790372&usg=AOvVaw21gC8hUuymn9wmWGx3Bvy8). [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6502, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6502](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6502&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886790659&usg=AOvVaw3F6arMt_DFuxRyu64tgufq). [^26]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī,* 11:342. [^27]: Qur’an 10:62–63. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7288. [^29]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm wa-l-ḥikam*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ and Ibrāhīm Bājis (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1997), 1:252. [^30]: Aḥmad al-Nasāʾī, *Sunan al-Nasāʾī al-Mujtabā*, ed. Muḥammad Riḍwān ʿIrqsūsī et al. (Dār al-Risāla al-ʿĀlamiyya, 2018), 1:416, no. 611, [https://sunnah.com/nasai:611](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/nasai:611&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886791530&usg=AOvVaw16Actj5JF3jteLtBnvDnpU). [^31]: Abū Naʿīm al-Iṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ* (Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, 1974), 10:211. [^32]: Qur’an 1:5. [^33]: For comprehensive advice on organizing one’s day and immersing oneself in Prophetic daily virtues, read Imam al-Ghazālī’s *Bidāyat al-hidāya* (*[The Beginning of Guidance](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dn721606.ca.archive.org/0/items/beginning-of-guidance-by-imam-ghazali/Beginning-of-Guidance-by-Imam-Ghazali_text.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886792149&usg=AOvVaw1Kx6rJ_OdG-R5CFFXzQNsD)*) and Imam al-Nawawī’s *Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn* (*[The Meadows of the Righteous](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1776092886792406&usg=AOvVaw115b50AlfKTRKub_mCgJV0)*). [^34]: Al-Iṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ*, 10:198. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/its-not-just-an-iftar-the-power-of-community-in-ramadan # It’s Not Just an Iftar: The Power of Community in Ramadan **Author:** Shaimaa Kraba **Topics:** Family & Community **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan **Published:** April 14, 2026 **Updated:** May 1, 2026 **“Once upon a time . . . ”** is how most fairy tales begin. In real life, it’s how single mothers begin sentences about who they were before everything changed. There was a time we believed life would be beautiful for us. Somewhere along the way, that kind of beauty became harder to reach. Not by choice. Just . . . no longer ours to expect. But every now and then, something happens that brings it back. Not all at once, but just enough to remind you of what used to come naturally. When I look back now, it didn’t begin with a rose-gold balloon arch or an animatronic dinosaur. It began with a phone call in January. My phone buzzed across the table. I glanced down and froze for a second—it was the operations manager of the local women’s shelter. I hadn’t seen her name on my screen in months and seeing it again carried two feelings at once for me, a small knot of worry and a strange flicker of warmth. “Assalamu alaikum, Shaimaa,” she said. “I hope you’re well. I didn’t catch you at a bad time, did I?” “Wa alaikum assalam,” I said. “No, it’s okay.” There was a small pause before she continued, the kind that makes you realize the real reason for the call is still coming. “We’re planning the Ramadan gathering for the women again this year,” she said. “Just like last year.” Last year. The words brought the whole evening back: fluorescent lights too bright and somehow still too dim in a loud hall where the mic cut in and out, overextended staff trying to be present after a long day of work, paper plates bent under oily food that tasted like compromise and looked like fatigue. The “decor” looked like someone had run down a Dollarama aisle grabbing whatever they could without stopping the cart. The women were packed into a room and told again to be grateful, by staff who sighed that theyʼd rather be home, who reminded us this was what the budget allowed, who said things like: *At least thereʼs something. Itʼs better than nothing. Other shelters donʼt even do this*. I know what it’s like to be homeless during Ramadan, to feel forgotten, and to realize that even the invitation to break your fast begins with something simple: someone remembering you exist. Which is why the phrase “it’s better than nothing” lands differently when you’re the one sitting at the table. You watch the math being done in other peopleʼs heads: The big budget belongs to the ballroom where the money is raised; the small budget belongs to the women whose lives are being discussed. Her voice pulled me back to the present. “So,” she continued carefully, “I was wondering if you might be willing to help organize the decor this year.” I heard her clear her throat before adding one more thing. “Maybe you could also give a short talk on empowerment?” *Empowerment? Me?* I found myself saying yes—how could I not? I too had sat in those same rooms and needed those same walls for myself and for my child. Still, when I hung up, the request rattled around inside me. At that moment I felt anything but empowered. We were expected to be grateful. I am not blind to good intentions, but I also know what “be grateful” has been used to excuse: the minimum, and not an iota more. We heard the advice all too often: *Donʼt attempt to create beauty where gratitude should be enough*. That line, unfortunately, is the unspoken policy in too many rooms that serve disenfranchised women. Once you hear it, you can’t stop hearing it, because it keeps being said even when no one moves their lips. The message beneath the message is simple: *This is enough—for you.* We’re lectured about being “responsible with donations.” But responsible stewardship does not mean being as frugal as possible. It means avoiding waste and abuse—like executives and influencers taking extravagant cuts of donations—not stripping every ounce of care, beauty, or dignity from what is given to those in need. *How* something is given matters just as much as *what* is given. We often treat charity as something we give down, instead of something we give up; but charity reaches Allah before it reaches the hand of the one receiving it. Care isn’t just about meeting the bare minimum of survival; it’s about recognizing the humanity of those you’re serving. Even when beauty arrives as a donation, some canʼt help but ask: Is that necessary? We know, instinctively, that we need beauty. During Ramadan, Muslims go out of their way to beautify iftar. Families set special tables, cook more thoughtfully, and share the experience online with pride. We don’t treat these like any other meal of the year. We understand that iftar is not just food; it’s an experience of dignity, warmth, and celebration. Yet that understanding seems to disappear the moment that the people who are being catered to are poor. We do this all the time—offer poor solutions and call it help. Why do we accept less for those who need more? Where is our *ihsan* (excellence)? Where is loving for others what we love for ourselves? What stung most was the contrast no one wanted to name out loud. Every year, this same shelter, like countless others, books the grandest banquet hall for their annual fundraising iftar. The kind of rooms that swallow sound in carpet. The kind of stamped napkins and crystal that tell you someone curated every choice with a donorʼs eye. Everything planned down to the last blossom, because thatʼs where the money comes from. Next yearʼs survival only becomes legible on a spreadsheet. Clients from the shelter get free tickets to those banquets, and the gesture is presented as kindness, but what makes an iftar isnʼt the chandelier or the hall—itʼs whether the room was made for you. You walk in as a client and the first thing you feel is the question: *Where do I sit?* You scan tables full of families and friends who already belong to one another, and you hover like a footnote trying not to interrupt a sentence thatʼs already been written. You sit politely as pledge cards are raised and numbers are called with the confidence of people who have never had to choose between laundry coins and lunch. You stay still because you canʼt raise your hand; you know why you’re here. You are the line item theyʼre funding, the “impact” theyʼll report. If you give anything tonight, itʼs the kind of giving no one can tally: the discipline to smile and not ruin the mood. You nod while they talk about women like you in the third person at a table where no one knows a client is listening. Anonymity is supposed to protect you, but it just makes you lonelier. You learn how to fold yourself so small that you donʼt brush against anyoneʼs certainty that this is a good thing. And it is a good thing, in the way a system can be good on paper. But goodness that forgets the person it’s intended for leaves a bruise, and bruises last longer than banquets. The donors attending the banquets and the women receiving the gift cards are the same community, both Muslims observing the same Ramadan. When it comes to the rooms that fund us, beauty is nonnegotiable, something we cannot afford to go without—because they know that those who are present expect to feel valued. Yet when it comes to the women we serve, beauty becomes a cost no one can justify and its absence becomes something we are expected to receive with gratitude, as if that were enough. Inside the quiet part of me, questions grew: *What exactly are we saying when we decide which room gets the care and which room gets the leftovers?* *Why is beauty and care essential when serving the wealthy, but unnecessary when serving the poor?* *If we can find the budget for chandeliers, why canʼt we find it for women who need light?* \*\*\* A couple months had passed since that January phone call, and by the time March rolled around, I had pretty much given up hope that this iftar was even going to happen. Every time I called to follow up, the manager would tell me that the head office still hadnʼt approved the budget. And we werenʼt talking chandeliers and centerpieces; we were talking about dinner. Dates to break our fast, water, soft drinks or maybe some juice. That’s it. She finally called me a week before the event was supposed to happen. “Hey, I know itʼs short notice, but we finally got the approval. Can you still do the decor and your speech?” I didnʼt know whether to laugh or cry. She added quickly, “Itʼs just an iftar, it doesnʼt have to be fancy or anything crazy. I told you before: Even if we had more time, there’s no need to overthink it; it’s *just* an iftar.” Something about the way she said that didnʼt sit right with me. It wasnʼt the words themselves, but the way they reduced something sacred—nourishment, tradition, dignity—to *just.* Thatʼs when I knew: Whatever else happened, I couldnʼt let this be *just* an iftar, even with less than a week to pull it off. Because of finals and the new semester starting, I couldnʼt start planning until two days before the event. I was running on fumes, caffeine, bismillah, *tawakkul*, and lots of *dua*. I just asked God to help me make it better than I imagined. Those next forty-eight hours were a blur. And yet *subhan Allah*, somehow, the community showed up, and I mean *showed up.* As I scrolled through Facebook Marketplace, I came across people who felt like theyʼd been placed in my path at exactly the right time. The event decor lady became my behind-the-scenes project manager. She told me which vendors to trust, how to tell if I was getting a good deal, where to find the best disposable plates, and which companies to avoid. She thought what I was trying to do was nearly impossible. “Even two weeksʼ notice would be hard,” she said, but she still guided me anyway. Then came more. A group of Muslim girls volunteered to help watch the kids so their mothers could actually sit and enjoy the night. We had a henna artist, and my friend printed out coloring pages and brought pencils, markers, glue, and kid-friendly scissors for the childrenʼs table. The balloon artist and face painter, a husband-and-wife team, mostly spoke Spanish. We texted through Google Translate, and when we met in person, we spoke through hand gestures, smiles, and a lot of pointing. The people who rented out the bouncy castles also had a ride-on animatronic dinosaur, a triceratops named Sarah, and they decided to debut her at our event. On top of that, they gave me a huge discount and threw in cotton candy and popcorn on the house. The decor lady had also suggested I hire a full team since time was so short, and somehow, I found a Muslim family willing to take it on. They offered me a special rate and, by pure coincidence, had that exact Friday, the first week of Ramadan, still available. Anyone in this industry knows—thatʼs unheard of. It didnʼt matter whether they were Muslim or not, a small business owner or an established entrepreneur, every single person I reached out to listened, understood the vision, and said yes. The kind of yes that said, “Iʼm excited to be of service and be a part of the impact.” It was as if Allah was stitching together every missing piece, closing every gap that the shelterʼs hesitation had left open. By the day of the event, the hall was a whirlwind of activity. People who had been strangers only days before were now working side by side, setting up decor, arranging tables, and laughing as they worked. The manager kept coming in to check on things, meaning well, Iʼm sure, but unable to stop herself from questioning my choices. Maybe she didnʼt even realize she was doing it. When youʼve been a client in the system, you can sense it—that tone, that second-guessing. Even when you’re no longer a “case,” you’re still not seen as a peer. At one point she asked, “Are you sure this isnʼt too much for an iftar?” And I remember thinking, *Why does it matter, if it’s beautiful? You trusted me with the vision, let me do what I do.* By five oʼclock, everything was coming together. The decorators were finishing up, the volunteers were prepping food, and the hall was starting to glow. Then, when the children arrived and saw the dinosaur, that giant ride-on triceratops, rolling across the floor on hidden wheels, the room erupted. They screamed, laughed, and chased it like a parade. We may not have converted pumpkins into carriages, but something truly spectacular happened that night. The womenʼs faces said it all. Their eyes widened. Phones came out to capture every smile, every shimmer, every surprise. For once, they werenʼt walking into a space that looked like shelter programming. They were walking into a space that looked like it had been created for them, not in spite of them. Watching them take it in, seeing their shoulders soften and their backs straighten, something shifted in me. It was deliberate, every detail a quiet rebellion against the narrative that survivors should just be grateful for scraps. That’s the moment it all came together for me . . . The room itself had already begun the speech I was about to give. The manager stood at the front of the room, smiling in the slightly tired but proud way of someone who has spent the whole day running logistics. She welcomed everyone warmly, her voice carrying through the microphone that, for once, wasnʼt cutting in and out. She thanked the community partners and the vendors on the list I had given her just a day before, and acknowledged the staff who had worked behind the scenes to make the night possible. It was short, formal—the kind of introduction youʼd expect at any event. But for me, standing just off to the side, it was the quiet drumroll before something bigger. She handed me the mic. Tradition asked that we begin with the Qurʼan, so I started with Surah al-Fatiha, the prayer that ties every heart back to God. Then I recited the last verses of Surah al-Baqara, words about belief, resilience, and mercy, verses that felt heavier here, in a hall full of women who had endured storms and still kept their faith afloat. لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا ٱكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًۭا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ  وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ “Allah does not require of any soul more than what it can afford. All good will be for its own benefit, and all evil will be to its own loss. \[The believers pray,\] “Our Lord! Do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord! Do not place a burden on us like the one you placed on those before us. Our Lord! Do not burden us with what we cannot bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our \[only\] Guardian. So grant us victory over the disbelievers.” *Qur’an 2:286* And then I began the only way I knew how. “Salaams, ladies.” I led with the truth. *Many people didnʼt want this iftar to happen. Budgets were tight. Some thought it wasnʼt necessary. “****Itʼs just an iftar****,” they said. But it isnʼt* ***just*** *an iftar.* *I know what it feels like to walk into a room carrying shame like a shadow, to feel small, to be made small, to have your worth measured in budgets and spreadsheets. Tonight, none of that applies. Tonight, this room is yours, and by the end of this talk, you’ll know why.* *When I was asked to speak about empowerment, at the time I thought, how could I, when I felt so deeply disempowered myself? But I couldnʼt say no. This place once sheltered me and my daughter. I owed it to the women sitting here tonight to at least try.* *Thatʼs why I stand before you now, not as someone who has it all figured out, but as someone who has sat in your very seat. I know what it feels like to be in your shoes because I have walked in them.* *Thinking about empowerment took me back to something I learned in a literary theory class: binary opposition. We only truly understand something by knowing its opposite. We know light because we’ve known darkness. Ease because weʼve known hardship. Joy because weʼve known sorrow. So if I felt anything but empowered, maybe that’s the perfect place to start, because in understanding my disempowerment, I could begin to name what empowerment really is.* *Disempowerment can feel like a heavy cloak made of a thousand different emotions: shame, exhaustion, fear, loneliness. It’s hard to know where it begins or ends. Abuse, especially spiritual abuse, strips you down layer by layer until you donʼt recognize yourself. It weaponizes community perception, especially against single mothers. But when I sat with it, thinking of the stories of women like us, I could trace it back to three core things I had been stripped of or lost along the way. And if I had them, everything would change. It wasnʼt a house or a job or stability, although those do matter. It was something deeper, something you can carry inside you anywhere.* ***My confidence in God.*** ***My confidence in myself.*** ***My confidence in the community.*** *Without those, everything else felt impossible.* *Confidence in God, because when faith is twisted and used against you, it shakes you. You wonder:* ***Does God see me? Does He care? Am I worthy of His help?*** *Thatʼs what disempowerment does; it puts distance between you and the very Source of strength.* *Confidence in myself, because when someone chips away at you for years—at your decisions, your worth, your very sense of who you are—you start to forget. You forget your voice. You forget your power. You even forget the woman you were before the pain.* *Confidence in community, because abuse isolates. It convinces you that you’re alone, that no one will believe you, that no one will care. And when you finally leave, you’re made to feel like:* ***You’re a number on a grant sheet, a case file in a system.*** *If those three things returned—my confidence in God, my confidence in myself, and my confidence in my community—then no matter what storms came, I could stand again. Maybe thatʼs empowerment. Not pretending to have it all together. Not ever feeling weak. But knowing where to turn when the weight is too heavy.* *And that’s why I donʼt accept that “it’s just an iftar.” For many people, maybe it is. But when you’ve lived through the kind of storms that push a woman and her children into a shelter, you learn something about what sustains a person. Iftar is not just food. It is presence. It is being seen. It is the quiet reassurance that you have not been forgotten. Living in a shelter, however necessary, is a constant reminder of what you’re missing. Ramadan magnifies it. Itʼs not just hunger; it’s the ache of the memories you donʼt have this year, the togetherness that seems to belong to everyone else. Ramadan is supposed to amplify community and mercy; when youʼre a single mother navigating homelessness, it amplifies absence. Iftar is not just food. It is who you break bread with.* *Thatʼs why I say: This is* ***not*** *just an iftar. Dignity should not feel like it is earned by endurance; it is a right. And joy is not a luxury; it is survival.* *People always ask why women stay. The truth is that being shamed by one abuser in private can feel less terrifying than being shamed by the collective in public. People see one chapter and think they know the whole book.* *My gift to you tonight is this iftar banquet. This is your Cinderella moment—not the fairy tale where everything magically works out, but the real kind. The kind where, for a few hours before the clock strikes eight, the pain steps aside and you remember who you are. Soak it in. Soak in the sisterhood. Soak in the prayer when we stand side by side. Soak in the beauty of Ramadan, the reminder of God, the reminder of who you are.* *Tonight, you came with one task: Pour into your own cup. Everything else is taken care of. Your children are laughing, fed, and safe. Tonight, you donʼt have to hush or hide them. Tonight, you just get to be you. Because this whole night was designed with you in mind. That is empowerment. True empowerment isnʼt pretending everything is fine; it’s restoration. The best gift we can give any woman is to restore her sense of self-worth, restore her trust in God, and restore her sense of community. Abuse can take so much from you, but it cannot take this.* *When the clock strikes eight—and it will—and when you go back tonight and lie down on that thin, blue, waterproof mattress in that IKEA bunk bed, with the springs biting into your back; and when you see your children in the moonlight, their faces tired from laughter but shadowed with the exhaustion of it all; when the silence comes and the tears flow and the pain tries to replay itself like a cruel joke, let it be interrupted. Interrupted by tonight—by these smiles, by this food. By the memory of being seen. That memory belongs to you. It cannot be taken. You can replay it as often as you need.* *This is not just an iftar. This is so much more. My hope is that if you walked in feeling disempowered, you leave with your head held high. Even if the feeling lasts only hours or days, you will know: You matter too.* I set the mic down. My hands were shaking; my heart was racing. There was a moment of silence, then the sound of hands meeting, hesitant at first, then fuller, and then the room was alive with clapping, laughter, tears. Some women wiped their faces quietly; others nodded with that knowing look you only share when youʼve lived through the same storm. For the first time since January, I wasnʼt haunted by that phrase anymore. I knew I had reconciled it. Then the room came to life. Plates were passed. Children darted between tables. Conversations grew louder, voices excited, joking, laughing. Women posed for photos at the balloon arch while their kids tugged at sleeves, begging for another turn on the dinosaur ride. Cameras flashed. Rose-gold plates caught the dim light. For a few hours, it didn’t feel like something being handed to us. It felt like something we were part of. By the time the last plates were stacked and the tables wiped down, my feet were throbbing. I sank into a chair at the edge of the hall and let myself breathe it in. Thatʼs when the manager found me. She sat beside me, her tone softer than I’d heard these last few weeks. “You were right about the food,” she said, picking at a plate of finger foods. “It’s really good.” I managed a tired smile, thinking about how much grief I’d gotten for even suggesting it. “I knew once you’d experienced it, youʼd understand.” She nodded. “You really pulled it off. I’m proud of this. I’m proud of you.” Then she added, “The feedback about tonight is unlike any we’ve gotten before. Some women said theyʼve never been invited to anything so beautiful. One said even her wedding wasnʼt this beautiful. Another said she didnʼt know if sheʼd ever experience anything like this again and didnʼt want the night to end.” Thatʼs when I felt the sting in my eyes. Not for the applause. Not for the photos. Not for the polite thanks. For the women, the ones I was serving. They were satisfied. They were happy. And that was enough for me. Even the vendors were in tears. The family with the bouncy castles and the triceratops cried and said, “This is the most beautiful thing we’ve been part of. If you ever do this again, we want in.” The decor team said the same. Staff, clients, vendors, and people who walked in as strangers left wanting to contribute to something greater than themselves. Thatʼs the part I wonʼt forget: the way dignity begets conviction, and conviction begets contribution, until everyone is building the good together.                                                        \*\*\* When the last bag of garbage was tied and the lights finally turned off, I drove a few women home, the ones without rides, and then made the long trip across town to my own basement suite. I shifted into park, the glow of the dashboard light on my face, and let the silence wrap around me. My daughter was asleep in the back seat, her five-year-old body slumped against the seat belt, a soft snore escaping her mouth. Her *fanus* (lantern) face paint was smudged in with the crescent and stars, a sticky trace of cotton candy still clinging to her cheek. That kind of exhaustion only comes from joy, the kind of joy you donʼt realize you were starving for until you finally have it. I sat there in the dark car, not wanting to go inside just yet, because I knew what waited for me: that basement suite, that cobbled path I hate walking down, the shadows that make the space feel like a punishment. I reached for my phone. Notifications lit up the screen—messages from women, photos, videos, snippets of laughter captured in pixels. And thatʼs when it hit me. For so many women in shelters, this little device is more than a phone. It’s a lifeline. Itʼs the desperate texts when danger erupts. It’s screenshots before he unsends the messages. Itʼs photos of bruises before they fade. It’s voice recordings of words meant to break her worth, proof of how she was told sheʼd never amount to anything without him. A phone becomes a diary of wounds, a silent witness to violence in all its shapes and forms. But tonight, the gallery of abuse was interrupted. Tonight, beauty entered the chat. In between the images of pain, there was proof of joy. Photos of lights and laughter. Children giggling on a dinosaur ride, cheeks painted like superheroes, butterflies, and unicorns. Women dressed in the best clothes they owned, smiling, their eyes finally unguarded, breaking bread with each other and standing foot to foot, shoulder to shoulder in congregational prayer. The cycle of documenting abuse was broken by documenting beauty. That’s proof that survival isnʼt the only thing worth recording. This night was a glass slipper. Not because it fits some princeʼs fairy-tale ending, but because it fit the women themselves, right where the world said nothing could. And that slipper wasnʼt delivered by a man. It was delivered by a community. It was being invited somewhere and not being asked to prove your pain to enter. It was Godʼs presence felt in prayer. It was the restoration of self-worth that abuse had tried to strip away. And that slipper wasnʼt just theirs. It was mine too. Because as a single mother, this was my first Ramadan where I got to host an iftar. Not to scrape by or sit on the receiving end. Not to be reminded of everything I lack. For once, I got to give. And in giving, something in me was restored. I know the plot twist, though. In a few months, if I didn’t find work, I could be back on that same blue mattress, counting my days again. Shelters are like prisons that way, except men count down for freedom, while women count down in fear of starting over. Maybe that’s why I fought so hard for beauty, because beauty isnʼt wasteful. Beauty is resistance in this *dunya*, and everlasting in the next. And in that way, this night became our own sliver of “Happily ever after…” If I have learned anything in the long, crooked education of survival, it is this: Doing things right will always cost less than teaching a woman, again, to make peace with less. Until the world understands this, I will keep saying it the way a person breathes when they finally walk into a room made for them: ***It’s not just an iftar.*** --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-to-make-dua-the-etiquette-of-calling-upon-allah # How to Make Dua: The Etiquette of Calling upon Allah **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Dua **Published:** March 26, 2026 **Updated:** April 8, 2026 Call on Me and I will answer you...”[^1] How many times have you read these words and thought, “Does this really apply to me?” The good thing is, it’s not about who *you* are; it’s about who *He* is. The directive sounds simple, yet for so many of us, talking to God doesn’t come naturally—at least, not in the same way we open up to our closest friends, entrusting them with our innermost thoughts. With God, sometimes we just freeze, not knowing where to start. For many of us, an absence of *dua* is chalked up to not having learned how to pray as a child, to a forgotten habit, to inflated self-reliance or reliance upon others.[^2] For some, this void goes unnoticed. For others, it becomes painful—the pain of an unfulfilled or delayed response, pent up and misplaced anger toward God, low self-worth, or even guilt. *Why me? How can I approach God with my sins? I’m not worthy. It’s too late.* Our false perceptions can make us feel distant from God. But beneath that distance lies a deeper issue, one that affects all of us, even those who routinely make *dua*: We don’t truly know Him as He has taught us to know Him. And, in critical moments, we forget who He is. --- ## Know the One you call out to Allah is the One, the most Merciful, our Master. He is the most Generous, the most Forbearing, the perpetual Forgiver and Healer. While He is Almighty, He is also the most Just and Kind, the Seeing, the Hearing, and the All-Knowing, perfect in His wisdom and in His decree. To Him belong these and all of His perfect names.[^3] The more we reflect on His majesty, the more our reverence and love for Him strengthens and fortifies our hearts. We become mindful that we are His beloved servants, utterly dependent on and in need of Him. It is He alone who guides us and protects us; without Him we are unable to take the next breath or a single step in the right direction—toward gratitude, humility, and conviction that He alone answers. ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab profoundly demonstrated his awareness of God and his understanding of the true essence of *dua* when he said, “I am not worried about whether my *dua* will be responded to, but rather I am worried about whether I will be able to make *dua* at all. So if I have been guided to make *dua*, then I know that the response will come with it.”[^4] These words exemplify ʿUmar’s complete submission to and trust in God, in His divine mercy, generosity, and wisdom. That trust gave rise to a deep certainty within him: that whatever outcome followed would be the best one, even if he himself could not yet perceive it. *Dua* is about knowing God. It is an expression of gratitude for His guidance, the guidance that inspires within us both the desire and the ability to call upon Him. In this sense, the very act of making *dua* is itself among the greatest blessings bestowed upon us. *Dua* is a divine gift. It is an invitation from the One we seek, the One to whom we wish to be closest. Through it, we shed the weight and darkness within our hearts and lay our deepest concerns and pleas before Him, all while acknowledging that He knows us better than we know ourselves. He wants to hear from you. He is always ready to listen and to respond, no matter how often or how long your call may be. It does not matter how distant you feel or how deficient you believe yourself to be. Your friends will eventually tire or fall short, but God is always accessible, always attentive, and always in control of the outcome. Even if the entire universe were to call upon Him simultaneously, it does not lessen His response to you in the slightest. *Dua* is the key that unlocks the door to our purpose: to worship Him, to seek His pleasure, to draw near to Him, and ultimately to find contentment with His decree in all our affairs. The Prophet ﷺ captured the essence of *dua* when he said: “Supplication is worship itself.”[^5] We are reminded of this reality each time we recite the opening chapter of the Qur’an: “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help.”[^6] We cannot afford to take the blessings of guidance and *dua* for granted. For this reason, that reminder comes at least seventeen times each day in our prayers. One of the clearest signs of faith and trust in Allah is calling upon Him with certainty that He will respond.[^7] Your *dua* is your private and direct conversation with Him, unlike any other. There are no intermediaries, no delay in reaching Him, and no need for interpretation. He is your Protective Guardian who protects you at all times. He is the One in whom you place complete trust, without fear of betrayal. The Prophet ﷺ further motivated us by emphasizing the power of *dua*: “Nothing repels divine decree but supplication, and nothing increases lifespan but righteousness.”[^8] --- ## Unlock the power of your dua More often than we would like to admit, our *dua* becomes just another ritual, a mechanical act to be checked off our list. In an age of constant distraction, where countless things compete for our attention, we rush through it inattentively, promising ourselves that we will be more present when we have more time. We’re often hasty, giving up when we don’t see instant results. Yet when it comes to worldly means, we rarely lack time, energy, focus, or patience. Think of a time when you desperately wanted something. How much effort did you put into preparing your approach to your parents, your boss, or that person in authority who could influence the outcome for you? Perhaps you wanted permission, a promotion, a vacation, or to be excused or forgiven. Whatever the case, you likely chose your words carefully. You thought about the right time and the right place. From childhood, we’ve been conditioned to ask politely, to show dutifulness to our parents, and to even plead, with the utmost respect and dignity, in the hope of receiving a favorable response. We instinctively understand that preparation and presence matter when the outcome is important to us. Now imagine how you would prepare for a conversation with your Lord, the most Merciful and most Generous. No comparison does Him justice, for He is above every comparison. And yet, unlike any human authority, He does not grow weary, nor is He constrained by mood, timing, or limitation. Know that whenever you spontaneously call upon Him, He is too shy to turn you away empty-handed.[^9] Moreover, He Himself has taught us the most blessed and rewarded ways and means by which to supplicate to Him—the etiquettes that serve to unlock the power of your *dua*. ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud expressed his profound understanding of the etiquette with which to approach God when he said that the act of giving charity reaches God before it ever falls into the hand of the person in need.[^10] He was keenly aware that his charity was, in reality, an act of worship directed to his Lord. His statement demonstrates his wish to perfect his devotion, seeking His pleasure and hoping for its acceptance and reward. In the same way, we must strive to perfect all acts of worship, especially our *dua*, with the help of the recommended etiquettes taught by the Prophet ﷺ himself, beautifying it outwardly and inwardly for our Lord. The etiquettes of *dua* are among the most beloved ways to approach God. They can be incorporated into our daily routines with intention, discipline, and consistency. Here are a few ways you can unlock the power of your *dua*:[^11] ### 1\. Be sincere The foremost requirement of *dua* is sincerity, seeking from God alone. This internal dimension of worship, hidden from all but God, is a virtue we must diligently nurture in every action we put forth. ### 2\. Be patient and attentive The Prophet ﷺ also instructed us to not be hasty. He said: “Every one of you will have his supplications answered, as long as he is not impatient and says: ‘I have supplicated but I was not answered.’”[^12] Patience, therefore, is itself part of the etiquette. Remind yourself of whom you are calling upon, and that He always answers you. Set aside time, even if only a few moments, to remove distractions and focus on your *dua*, just as you would when speaking attentively to someone you deeply respect and love. This presence nurtures humility, devotion, and purpose, qualities that all emanate from the heart and must be nurtured with conscious effort. ### 3\. Be in the right state There are also outward etiquettes of *dua*, which include physical actions. It is recommended to be in a state of *wuduʾ*, to face the *qibla* (the direction of prayer), to raise one’s hands, and to verbalize your *dua*, following the example of the Prophet ﷺ. These etiquettes demonstrate reverence and excellence in your worship and in seeking the pleasure of your Lord. Although He is always aware of your deepest thoughts and intentions, and accepts even your unspoken *dua*, He loves to be called upon. ### 4\. Praise God and His Messenger ﷺ The most effective *dua* includes praise of God and sending salutations upon the Prophet ﷺ. One should ask only for what is permissible, avoiding the prohibitions of God. The Prophet ﷺ said: “There is no Muslim who calls upon Allah, \[a call\] within which is no sin or cutting family ties, but that Allah will give him one of three responses: He will quickly fulfill his supplication, He will store it for him in the hereafter, or He will divert from him an evil similar to it.” They said, “In that case, we will ask for more.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has even more.”[^13] The most comprehensive supplications are found in the Qur’an and in the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, whose words eloquently and concisely demonstrate these etiquettes. He taught us to be humble in acknowledging our faults, to seek forgiveness, and to call upon God by His Beautiful Names. ### 5\. Take advantage of optimal times There are also specific blessed times, places, and circumstances in which *dua* is especially accepted. These include, but are not limited to, the last third of the night, Fridays, after performing *wuduʾ*, following the *adhan*, in prostration, in the final sitting of the formal prayer, on the Day of ʿArafa, and while fasting. The Prophet ﷺ cautioned us to “beware of the supplication of the oppressed, for there is no veil between it and Allah.”[^14] This is divine reassurance to every victim that you are heard, and you will be recompensed. No injustice goes unchecked, and no oppressor escapes accountability. Among the accepted supplications as well are the *dua* of the traveler, the parent for their child, and a person’s *dua* for another in their absence, along with many other Prophetic teachings that encompass *dua* for this world and the hereafter. ### 6\. Look to the prophets We are further inspired by the supplications of the noble prophets. There is the humble repentance of Adam, the persistence of Nuh, the desperate yet hopeful call of Yunus from the depths and darkness of the ocean, the soft whispers of Zakariyya, the submission and foresight of Ibrahim, and the Prophet’s profound love for his followers, reflected in his constant prayers for them. It was Musa who made a humble plea to his Lord in a moment of desperation, only for it to become the means to miraculous openings: “My Lord, I am in desperate need of whatever good You may send me.”[^15] God blessed him with divine guidance, a righteous family, prophethood over an enslaved nation, and eventual freedom from their tyrant ruler. — In the end, *dua* helps us to cultivate our relationship with Allah. It is the living expression of our knowledge of God, our trust in His wisdom, and our certainty in His mercy. When we understand who He is, as He has taught us to know Him, our supplication transforms from routine words into conscious worship. Through *dua*, we return to our Lord again and again, refining our hearts, realigning our purpose, and placing every affair into the care of the One who is always listening, always near, and always sufficient. **Discover the beauty of key *dua*s from the Qur’an and Sunnah using our *dua* app [Ameen](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org.my/ameenapp&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1774540632048174&usg=AOvVaw0lrR8r-LxHm8wG78TgxTn1).** --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 40:60. [^2]: *Dua* is Arabic for supplication to God. It includes the remembrance of God, including praise and exaltation of God, as well as pleas to God for oneself or others. [^3]: Qur’an 7:180. “The most excellent names belong to God: Use them to call on Him.” [^4]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Fawāʾid* (Dār ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm, 2019), 141. [^5]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3247, graded *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^6]: Qur’an 1:5. [^7]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Call upon Allah with certainty that He will answer you. Know that Allah will not answer the supplication of an unmindful and distracted heart.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3479, graded *ḥasan* by al-Albānī. [^8]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2139, graded *ḥasan* by al-Albānī. [^9]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is dignified and generous. He would be shy when a man raises his hands to Him to turn them away empty and disappointed.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3556, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Albānī. [^10]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, 2nd ed. (Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, n.d.), 9:109, no. 8571. [^11]: For a comprehensive account of the etiquettes of making *dua*, see: Yasir Qadhi, *Duʿā: The Weapon of the Believer* (Al-Hidaayah, 2001). [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6340; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2735. [^13]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 11133, graded *jayyid* by al-Arnaʾūṭ. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4347. [^15]: Qur’an 28:24. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-nocturnal-religion-what-the-night-means-in-islam-essay # The Nocturnal Religion: What the Night Means in Islam | Essay **Author:** Ahmed Elbenni **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Perspective, Ramadan, worship **Published:** March 12, 2026 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 The year is 1346 Hijri, known to some as 1928 AD. The American writer and naturalist Henry Beston has just published *The Outermost House*, chronicling the year that he spent on the sand dunes of Cape Cod. “With lights and ever more lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea,” he writes, deep in its pages. “The little villages, crossroads even, will have none of it . . . Today’s civilization is full of people who have not the slightest notion of the character or the poetry of night, who have never even seen night.”[^1] I remind you, again, that the year is 1346 Hijri, otherwise known as 1928 AD. Kerosene lamps are still used to light homes in the countryside, and nearly half of American households lack electricity. Streetlights, headlights, flashlights, spotlights, floodlights—a century later, there’s scarcely a type of light we haven’t yet invented to help us hide the night. If Beston’s civilization was full of people who have never seen night, then ours is full of people who will never see it and in fact *do not want* to see it. General Electric, that multinational monument to energy, is the name of modern life. General Electric: everywhere, at every time, at every price. At some point we lost the night, and then forgot that we lost it. The price we paid for enslaving the electron was scrubbing the sky of its stars. We traded the planets for power plants and the galaxies for grids; we traded wonder for wealth, and the night for neon. This is life after the Electric Apocalypse—it happened too slowly to stop, and too quickly to remember. So now, when 80 percent of Americans can’t see or have never seen the Milky Way,[^2] the question we have to ask ourselves is, how do we live after losing the night? In this time, the time of the Gaza genocide and the Trump democide, the question of light pollution may not seem especially urgent. But I insist. To insist otherwise, I think, is to not really read the constellations of modern life—to not draw the shapes suggested by the dots of Gaza, Trump, General Electric, and everything in between. This illiteracy, too, is symptomatic of our nightless condition. We should reflect on what it means to live in a 24-7 civilization; we should acknowledge the phenomenological difference between a humanity that every night looked up into the expanse of eternity, and a humanity that every night looks down into the blue glare of pocket megacities. We should consider that losing night doesn’t just mean losing a pretty view; it means losing an entire dimension of human existence and spiritual experience. It means, in some deep sense, losing reality. In the Qur’an, we read, > إِنَّ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلَـٰفِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ لَـَٔايَـٰتٍۢ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ ١٩٠ > > Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. (Qur’an 3:190) This *ikhtilaf*, this contrast, between night and day is a central motif of the Qur’an, and the tragedy of the twenty-first-century (sub)urbanite is that she cannot experience the visceral truth of this *ayah*, not in the way its first listeners could. Night and day acquire identity relative to each other; but modern life, which fetishizes perpetual light and perpetual activity as the metrics of civilization, has made the night a grayer shade of the day—and so we no longer apprehend either. It is a great irony, indeed, that the modern city takes as ideal what the Qur’an delivers as warning: > قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِن جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلنَّهَارَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ مَنْ إِلَـٰهٌ غَيْرُ ٱللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِلَيْلٍۢ تَسْكُنُونَ فِيهِ ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ ٧٢ > > Say: “What do you think? If Allah made the day permanent for you till the Day of Rising, what god is there other than Allah to bring you night to rest in? Do you not then see?” (Qur’an 28:72) We in fact do not see, because for the permanence of day—for its washed-out glare and burned-out stare, its humdrum droning and labored heaving, its shuffling and scraping and squalling and squawking—for all this day, we pay with our sight. Day every hour, day every day, day forever—isn’t this the future? What greater testament is there to our wealth, our brilliance, our omnipotence, than the day without end? Day without end, work without end, expense without end. So however much we squint and search, we can’t find night in the sky, and we can’t find it among ourselves, the disfigured products of productivity. This is always the trap sprung by light on those who do not respect it—that it takes sight as often as it lends it. Light is not the antithesis of blindness; here it is its source. “It is not for the sun to overtake the moon nor for the night to outstrip the day,”[^3] but we’ll have nothing to do with such temperance; with our light-emitting diodes and metal-halide lamps and mercury vapor, we summon the sun into the night. Light upon light![^4] But what a perverse interpretation of light this is. It’s a brutish kind of light, harsh, lacking in grace, and vaguely obscene. How else to describe this gorging on radiation, this guzzling of photons? We’re confident that one can amass too many pounds, but too many lumens? Surely not. Surely gluttony is not a class of crime committed with light. Surely we can never rediscover luminosity as obesity. Overconsumption is a strictly fleshy affair. Again, the nightless do not know how to read constellations. The nightless do not know many things, and what the nightless know least is that they are without night. Their ignorance of their ignorance is masked by their preoccupation with the idea of night, by the doggedness with which they try to keep it at bay. It seems to me that nightless society tells itself at least three major stories about the night: 1. In the first story, the night is bedtime, unless one is working a night shift to make ends meet or cramming for an exam or indulging in revenge bedtime procrastination. 2. In the second story, the night is a slumber party, a Bacchic carnival for letting loose and going wild. It is the enemy of sleep and the partisan of sin and the keeper of secrets. 3. In the third story, the night is danger and death—it is where ghosts glide and serial killers hide and secret police lie, in haunted forests and dark alleyways and unmarked vans. So when I ask, how do we live after losing the night, I am not asking how we might lobby our local representatives to pass anti–light pollution ordinances, though that would be laudable (for evidence that city and night can coexist, search Flagstaff, Arizona). No, I am asking what it would mean to restore night in its transcendent meaning as a way of life, and what that would mean for us at this historical moment. The *insan* forgets what he knows—and the answer to this question, of how to live after losing the night, he does know—and Ramadan returns to remind him. It does so by testifying that Islam is the *deen* of night. Ours is a nocturnal faith, one in which night is a gateway to the numinous, and nowhere is this truth more sharply illuminated than in the month of the fast, the month of the Qur’an, the month of Laylat al-Qadr. We find out when Ramadan is (re)visiting by consulting the Moon, that celestial sign by which we count our days and on which we hang our calendar. We begin our fast when the night ends and end the fast when the night begins. We rest at night with *tarawih* and we keep vigil with *tahajjud*. We eagerly anticipate not the last ten days, but the last ten nights. The centerpiece of that anticipation is Laylat al-Qadr, the night that the mission of the Prophet ﷺ began, the night when the Final Revelation descended, and the night when the divine decree is issued. Ramadan testifies that night is not merely a physical reality. Night is a spiritual state, and a state of being. Night is stillness and silence, and, though we might not think it, it is light and life. Even though we fast during the day, the defining experiences of Ramadan follow nightfall, as they must. It is said that the Prophet ﷺ, when the last ten nights came, would tighten his waist belt and, through his worship, “give life to the night.”[^5] Ramadan is all about the nightlife, albeit not in a sense intuitive to *Homo luminous*. In other words, Ramadan, and the Islamic tradition more broadly, relate a story about the night quite at odds with the ones we enlightened moderns tell around our campfires. Against the night as bedtime, the night as slumber party, and the night as nightmare, Islam gives us three counterstories. --- ## The night as labor Allah identifies the night with rest, and this is a mercy; but Allah also identifies it with the worship of the wakeful, those who break with the natural order and thereby distinguish themselves from creation. The day demands nothing of us; the night makes us work for its treasures. A day is like a dog, if you’ll forgive the comparison—it gives its loyalty freely, and moves predictably. The sun is generous to the point of agony; the problem it poses is plenty, not scarcity. We shield our eyes and hunt for shade. The night is more feline—mysterious, elusive, demanding of time and care before its chill relents into warmth. The stars are initially few and illegible; with patience the eye adjusts, and they become many and readable. The stargazer, after weeks and years of conversation, is rewarded with a map of such absolute reliability and unwavering universality that never again can she know disorientation, no matter where or when she might be.[^6] Yes, the night is feline—I don’t think it a coincidence that historically, since at least Abu Hurayra, the cat has been the honorary animal of Islam. Nor can it be a coincidence that the companions and the poets alike reached for the moon, rather than the sun, to convey the beauty of the Prophet ﷺ. The sun is a zealous companion, searing and burning, and it inflicts its light with a most un-prophet-like bellicosity. The moon, too, is bright enough to cast shadows, but its gaze is gentle, the luminous equivalent of flowing water. The sun is shameless and proud, only ever obscured, unwillingly, by the passing clouds. The moon is demure and discreet, concealing and revealing, in phases advancing and retreating—yet when full in its presence, its grandeur is undeniable; the night seems to bend and submit to its glow. The *qiyam*, the night prayer, honors the labor that night demands—the labor from which its fruit is born and by which its sweetness is tasted. > > لَيْسُوا سَوَاءً ۗ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ أُمَّةٌ قَائِمَةٌ يَتْلُونَ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ آنَاءَ اللَّيْلِ وَهُمْ يَسْجُدُونَ > > They are not \[all\] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing \[in obedience\], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating \[in prayer\]. (Qur’an 3:113) --- ## The night as speed limit The name for the spiritual retreat constitutive of the Ramadan night—*itikaf*—comes from “*akafa*”: to adhere, to stick, to cling. It is, in other words, a declaration of immobility. This is deeply offensive to any card-carrying capitalist (i.e., all of us). Speed, dynamism, liquidity: These are our *arkan* *al-iman*. To succeed today is to become the human analog of the infinite scroll. Smooth and without friction, like the surface of our megacities. We are all more or less speedists, subscribed to the dogma of speedism, and oh so fearful of the slow. Stickiness, clinginess—there simply is neither time nor space for such slow. *Itikaf* is slow. Night is slow. Its temporality pools and trickles. When there is nothing but speed, there is no salvation but slow. --- ## The night as light Only in a state of *itikaf* does one rediscover *ikhtilaf*: the difference between night and day. It is what we learn when we emerge from the warm night of the womb into the harsh day of delivery: that night precedes day. The *layl* is mentioned more than ninety times in the Qur’an, and nearly always before the day. Over and over and over we encounter the formula: “*al-layl wa-l-nahar*.” It would be easy to map this natural sequence onto an emotional one of grief preceding relief, or a moral one of misguidance preceding guidance. On such a reading, the sorrow and confusion of night precedes the joy and clarity of daybreak. Certainly the Qur’an itself occasionally suggests such symbolism (10:27, 113:1–3). But that isn’t the whole story. It was at the end of the Year of Sorrow, the most tragic in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, that he embarked on what would become the most famous night story in Islam: al-Isra wa-l- Miraj—the Night Journey. The miraculous journey of a single night, in which the Prophet ﷺ journeyed from Mecca to Jerusalem to the highest heaven and back. It is the night in which was established the central act of worship in Islam—the five daily prayers. It is the night in which the Prophet ﷺ came face to face with “the Light of the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 24:35). The paradox of light is that the brighter it glows, the more it blinds; the paradox of night is that the darker it grows, the brighter it becomes. One can only receive the radiance of the cosmos in absolute darkness. Every night teaches this lesson, for those able to perceive it, and Islam affirms it. It was deep in the night that the Prophet ﷺ was relieved from his year of grief, and the foundation of his *ummah* established. We need to break our reflexive association of night with darkness in the sense of misguidance and misfortune. To picture the night as optimistic and life-affirming—this is especially challenging for those of us raised in the bosom of English, a language from which one inherits all manner of night-phobic idioms. How long will we continue to speak of “benighted” men, of “the dead of night,” and the “dark night of the soul”?[^7] A nocturnal faith demands a nocturnal ethics. We need to readjust our nocturnal imaginary accordingly. Ours is the *deen* of the dawn and the dusk, the sunset and the sunrise—the stars and the silence and the slow. Beston was more right than he may have realized when he wrote, emphatically, that “to live thus, to know only artificial night, is as absurd and evil as to know only artificial day.”[^8] It is an obligation, not a luxury, to reflect seriously on the implications of living in a post-Enlightenment civilization ideologically and materially invested in the extermination of night. Come nightfall, we look up and see nothing, and after a time the nothing above seems to reflect the nothing within. It’s a muddy gray thing, the starless night and the nightless soul. Night as a physical phenomenon is unlikely to return within the lifetime of anyone reading this, but night in its deeper reality is always available to those who seek it. They are the ones who, in the night of early morning, supplicate, “O Allah, to You is praise, the Light of the heavens and the earth . . . ”[^9] --- ## Notes [^1]: Henry Beston, *The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod* (Henry Holt, 1988), 165-66. [^2]: Ahmed Elbenni, “As Light Pollution Encroaches on Night Skies, Astronomers Dream of a Clear View of the Milky Way,” *Toledo Blade*, August 1, 2021, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/living/2021/08/01/night-light-as-light-pollution-encroaches-on-night-skies-astronomers-dream-of-a-clear-view-of-the-milky-way/stories/20210725016&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773343586761023&usg=AOvVaw0o1f99TXEfl-Ft9BjF3o8O)[https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/living/2021/08/01/night-light-as-light-pollution-encroaches-on-night-skies-astronomers-dream-of-a-clear-view-of-the-milky-way/stories/20210725016](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/living/2021/08/01/night-light-as-light-pollution-encroaches-on-night-skies-astronomers-dream-of-a-clear-view-of-the-milky-way/stories/20210725016&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773343586761589&usg=AOvVaw1DM7HSjUwAcc24O91X6n7I). See also Fabio Falchi et al., “The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness,” *Science Advances* 2, no. 6 (2016), [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600377&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773343586761967&usg=AOvVaw1jNfs-3r4o5J_YbGAhtrDp)[https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600377](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600377&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773343586762141&usg=AOvVaw2U6pXa0HH_YPCCy7c_JUO_). [^3]: Qur’an 36:40. [^4]: Qur’an 24:35. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2024. [^6]: For good reason, astronomy was historically a major field of study in the Muslim world. [^7]: The association of night with grief, sorrow, and misfortune is hardly exclusive to the English language; the point is that English furnishes few idiomatic counterweights to its many nightphobic expressions and turns of phrase. [^8]: Beston, *Outermost House*. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7499. ## Summary Living in an age that has all but abolished the night, humanity has traded away something far greater than a beautiful view of the stars. The naturalist Henry Beston, writing in 1346 AH (1928 CE) in his work *The Outermost House*, observed that even then, "Today's civilization is full of people who have not the slightest notion of the character or the poetry of night, who have never even seen night." In his time, kerosene lamps still lit rural homes and nearly half of American households lacked electricity. A century later, the condition has worsened beyond his imagining: we have invented a light for every purpose—streetlights, headlights, floodlights, and the rest—and roughly eighty percent of people can no longer see the Milky Way. We lost the night so gradually that we forgot we ever had it, paying for our mastery of electricity by scrubbing the sky of its stars. The question that must now be asked is: how do we live after losing the night? This is no trivial matter, even amid the graver calamities of our age. Losing the night does not merely mean losing a pleasant sight; it means losing an entire dimension of human existence and spiritual experience—in some deep sense, losing reality itself. Allah, Most High, declares: *"Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding"* (Qur'an 3:190). This *ikhtilaf*, the contrast between night and day, is a central motif of the Qur'an. The tragedy of the modern city-dweller is that she can no longer feel the visceral truth of this verse as its first listeners did, for night and day take their identity from one another, and a civilization that worships perpetual light has reduced the night to a paler shade of day—so that we no longer truly perceive either one. The modern city has embraced as its ideal what the Qur'an presents as a warning: *"Say: 'What do you think? If Allah made the day permanent for you till the Day of Rising, what god is there other than Allah to bring you night to rest in? Do you not then see?'"* (Qur'an 28:72). In truth, we do not see, for we have purchased endless day—with its glare, its droning labor, its endless work and endless expense—at the price of our own sight. It is a bitter irony: light, which seems the enemy of blindness, here becomes its very source. The reminder stands that *"It is not for the sun to overtake the moon nor for the night to outstrip the day,"* yet with our lamps and diodes we drag the sun into the night and call it *"light upon light,"* though this gluttonous gorging on radiation is a brutish and graceless perversion of light's true meaning. Those without night tell themselves stories about it, and there are three in particular. In the first, night is merely bedtime. In the second, it is a carnival of indulgence, the partisan of sin. In the third, it is danger and death, the domain of ghosts, killers, and unmarked vans. But the deeper question is not how to pass anti–light pollution laws—laudable as that would be, and cities such as Flagstaff, Arizona prove that city and night can coexist—but rather what it would mean to restore the night in its transcendent meaning as a way of life. Man forgets what he knows, and Ramadan returns each year to remind him, testifying that Islam is the *deen* of the night. Ours is a nocturnal faith in which night is a gateway to the numinous, and nowhere is this clearer than in the month of the fast, the month of the Qur'an, the month of Laylat al-Qadr. We learn of Ramadan's arrival by looking to the moon, by which we count our days; we begin the fast when night ends and break it when night begins; we pray *tarawih* and keep vigil with *tahajjud*; and we await not merely the last ten days but the last ten nights. At their center stands Laylat al-Qadr—the night the Prophet's ﷺ mission began, the night the Final Revelation descended, the night the divine decree is issued. It is related that when the last ten nights came, the Prophet ﷺ would tighten his waist belt and, through his worship, "give life to the night." Ramadan is indeed about the nightlife, though not in the sense familiar to *Homo luminous*. Against the three stories of the nightless, the Islamic tradition offers three counterstories. The first is the night as labor. Allah identifies the night with rest as a mercy, yet also with the worship of the wakeful, who break with the natural order and thereby distinguish themselves from creation. The day gives its light freely and predictably; the night withholds its treasures until we work for them, as the stargazer's eye slowly adjusts until the stars become many and readable. The *qiyam*, the night prayer, honors this labor from which the night's sweetness is born, as Allah says: *"They are not [all] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing [in obedience], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating [in prayer]"* (Qur'an 3:113). The second is the night as speed limit. The name *itikaf*, the spiritual retreat of the Ramadan night, derives from *akafa*—to adhere, to cling, to stick—a declaration of immobility deeply offensive to a civilization for which speed, dynamism, and liquidity have become the very *arkan al-iman*. Night is slow; its time pools and trickles; and when there is nothing but speed, there is no salvation but slow. The third is the night as light. Only in *itikaf* does one rediscover *ikhtilaf*. The *layl* is mentioned more than ninety times in the Qur'an, nearly always before the day, in the recurring formula *"al-layl wa-l-nahar."* One might map this onto grief preceding relief or misguidance preceding guidance, and the Qur'an does at times suggest such symbolism (10:27, 113:1–3). But that is not the whole story. It was at the close of the Year of Sorrow, the most tragic period in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, that he embarked on al-Isra wa-l-Miraj—the Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem to the highest heaven and back—in which the five daily prayers were established and in which he came face to face with *"the Light of the heavens and the earth"* (Qur'an 24:35). The paradox of light is that the brighter it glows, the more it blinds; the paradox of night is that the darker it grows, the brighter it becomes, for the radiance of the cosmos can only be received in absolute darkness. We must therefore break our reflexive linking of night with misguidance and misfortune—a habit reinforced by a language full of night-phobic idioms like "the dead of night" and "the dark night of the soul." A nocturnal faith demands a nocturnal ethics and a renewed nocturnal imagination, for ours is the *deen* of the dusk and the dawn, the stars and the silence and the slow. Beston spoke truly when he wrote that "to live thus, to know only artificial night, is as absurd and evil as to know only artificial day." It is an obligation, not a luxury, to reflect on what it means to inhabit a civilization materially and ideologically bent on exterminating the night, for the emptiness we find in the starless sky comes to mirror the emptiness within. The night as a physical phenomenon may not return in our lifetimes, but night in its deeper reality remains available to those who seek it—those who, in the night of early morning, supplicate: "O Allah, to You is praise, the Light of the heavens and the earth." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-to-power-through-the-ramadan-dip-10-hadiths-and-tips # How to Power Through the Ramadan Dip: 10 Hadiths and Tips **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Hadith **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan **Published:** March 10, 2026 **Updated:** March 24, 2026 It is very well observed, and very predictable, that there occurs a sort of dip in the middle stretch of Ramadan. A low point. A fatigue in devotion. The excitement from the first nights settles. The body feels it. The soul feels it. I want to equip you with ten Prophetic teachings: ten reminders from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ so that you can combat this dip. --- ## 1\. Faith has highs and lows, and that is normal A companion once became alarmed, fearing he had become a hypocrite. Why? Because when the Prophet ﷺ spoke about Paradise and Hellfire, his faith would soar. It was as if he could see the Hereafter before him. But when he returned home to family, business, and responsibilities, that intensity would taper off. Abu Bakr (rA) admitted he felt the same. They approached the Prophet ﷺ, who reassured them: > If you were to remain in the state you are in with me, the angels would shake your hands in your homes and on your roads. But, O Hanzala, there is a time for this and a time for that.[^1] In other words: Fluctuation is part of being human. So relax and have some self-compassion. Don’t let temporary fatigue cause you to throw in the towel altogether. --- ## 2\. Be proactive, not powerless The Prophet ﷺ said: > Be keen on what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not give up.[^2] Don’t spend your energy crying over spilled milk. What’s done is done. Focus on the present. Ramadan has already proven to you that you are capable of more than you think. You have the same 24 hours with no extra time added to the day; yet suddenly there is more Qur’an, more charity, more patience. If Allah showed you that you can do more, He can help you sustain it, and even elevate it. --- ## 3\. Every enthusiasm has a decline The Prophet ﷺ taught: > Every deed has an enthusiasm, and every enthusiasm has a decline. Whoever’s decline remains within my Sunnah has succeeded.[^3] Spiritual momentum will taper. That is normal. The key is to not crash outside the bounds of guidance. When you dip, don’t dip too far. Get up and start again. Just keep moving. --- ## 4\. It was never meant to be an “Instagram Ramadan” Many of us imagine Ramadan as a flawless spiritual experience. We picture ourselves fully focused at every iftar, making passionate *dua* every night, never missing a beat. But Ramadan was never meant to consist of “Instagram moments.” There will be emergency grocery runs, sick children, exhaustion, interruptions, and hiccups. And that is by design. Because life after Ramadan has hiccups too. This month is not about perfection. It is about improvement that survives beyond the month. --- ## 5\. Quality over quantity They asked the Prophet ﷺ which fasting person is best. He replied: > The one who remembers Allah the most.[^4] It is not just about abstaining from food and drink. Let your hearing fast. Let your sight fast. Let your tongue fast from lying and offensive speech. Bask in tranquility and reverence. Don’t let the only difference between your fasting day and your nonfasting day be hunger. Increase the quality of your fast by remembering Allah more. --- ## 6\. Intention multiplies everything The Prophet ﷺ said: > Actions are judged by intentions.[^5] Be intentional about everything. Cooking becomes worship when you intend to strengthen your family for devotion. Sleep becomes worship when you intend to recharge for prayer. Work becomes worship when you intend to gain provision through halal means. A tiny deed can become immense through intention. A great deed can shrink because of the absence of it. Layer your intentions and multiply your reward. --- ## 7\. Ramadan is a market. Don’t fall asleep in it. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Every night of Ramadan, Allah frees people from the Fire.[^6] *Every* night—not just the first ten, not just the last ten. Ramadan is like a market filled with unbelievable deals. Every day is a treasure. Don’t drift through the middle of it. Ibn al-Jawzi (rA) said that if those in their graves could make one wish, they would wish for one more day of Ramadan. --- ## 8\. Being special when others slow down The Prophet ﷺ said: > Your Lord marvels at a young person who does not stray.[^7] Why youth? Because it is a time of strength and temptation. Mid-Ramadan is similar. It is when many people slow down. If you persist during this stretch, you become one of the few and therefore special. This can be your moment to shine. --- ## 9\. Worship in busy times is elevated The Prophet ﷺ said: > Worship during times of turmoil is like migrating to me.[^8] And he said about the Duha prayer: > None maintains it except one who constantly returns to Allah.[^9] Duha is prayed when the day is underway, when errands, notifications, and interruptions are in full swing. To pause and pray then is special. Mid-Ramadan works the same way. When the energy fades and distractions increase, worship becomes more precious. --- ## 10\. Consistency is what Allah loves most The Prophet ﷺ said: > The most beloved deeds to Allah are those done consistently, even if small.[^10] This is the anchor. Not intensity or bursts, but consistency. Two rak‘as sustained, a few pages daily, regular *dhikr*. When others slow down, you maintain. That is what makes you more beloved to Him. --- ## Final reflection Mid-Ramadan is a very special time because it separates the wheat from the chaff. It is where sincerity is tested, where consistency is proven, and where those who persist distinguish themselves. May Allah grant us the strength to remain consistent, to shine in the middle of Ramadan as the full moon does, to be rewarded for what we did and what we intended, and to leave Ramadan with more *taqwa* than we entered it. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2750. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2664. [^3]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 6725, *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^4]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 3348, *ḥasan*. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 1907. [^6]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 682, *ḥasan*. [^7]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17371, *ḥasan*. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2948. [^9]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17390, *ḥasan*. [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 783. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/hindutva-and-anti-muslim-violence-how-to-navigate-hindu-supremacy # Hindutva and Anti-Muslim Violence: How to Navigate Hindu Supremacy **Author:** Safa Ahmed **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Publication **Published:** March 10, 2026 **Updated:** March 14, 2026 ## The Glorious Pages from Your Chronicles October 1947 was a bleak time for South Asia. One month before, Partition had carved out the new states of India and Pakistan (along with what would later become Bangladesh), and in turn also cleaved through the subcontinent’s centuries-old Muslim population. Some chose to leave for the newly created state of Pakistan, where, unlike in India, Muslims would be a majority. Others were forced to uproot their lives and flee as intercommunal violence between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs exploded across the subcontinent, burning properties to ash and sending trains across the border filled with corpses. During this time of nationwide anxiety, the Indian freedom fighter and Islamic theologian Abul Kalam Azad stood on the steps of the three-hundred-year-old Jama Masjid in Delhi to address the congregation.[^1] Despite the climate of violence and the very real threat of systemic persecution, Azad—drawing on the core Islamic principles of *tawakkul* (trust in God) and *istiqama* (steadfastness)—saw no reason for his people to surrender to fear. Though his audience was just one congregation, his words would serve as assurance to the two hundred million Muslims who would remain in India as a vulnerable minority. “Raise your eyes! The minarets of Jama Masjid want to ask you a question,” Azad admonished. “Where have you lost the glorious pages from your chronicles? Was it only yesterday that on the banks of the Jamuna, your caravans performed *wudu*? Today, you are afraid of living here. Remember, Delhi has been nurtured with your blood. . . The words coward and frenzy cannot be spoken in the same breath as the word Muslim.”[^2] Throughout his speech, Azad called for resilience over fear, calling on his people to look to the rich legacy of Islamic history for examples of courage, dignity, and perseverance in the face of oppression. He urged them to fortify their *iman* and take an active role in shaping their destiny—both as an *ummah* and as citizens of a free India. To some, the many facets of Azad’s identity and worldview might appear contradictory. He was drawn to pan-Islamism, yet strongly advocated unity and brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims. A respected *alim* and *mufassir*, he also played a central role in shaping India’s secular democratic framework. Yet in holding these views, he was far from alone. Look through the writings and records of other Indian Muslim freedom fighters and political leaders of his time, and the same conviction emerges over and over again. It is present in the way the revolutionary fighter Ashaqullah Khan cheerfully accepted his execution by the British, writing to his nephews, “You will come to know to what extent I loved my motherland as a true Muslim.”[^3] It is in the fatwa of the mufti Fazle Haque, who rallied almost every major *alim* in Delhi to sign a call for Indian sepoys to rise up and fight a just war against British colonization,[^4] and it is in the intertwined spirituality and political activism of Abadi Bano Begum.[^5] In the minds of these freedom fighters, the Muslim neither seeks isolation nor begs for recognition, but instead—in true Prophetic fashion—is an architect of their nation’s destiny, no matter how small their numbers might be. “I do not ask you to seek certificates from the new echelons of power. I do not want you to lead a life of sycophancy as you did during the foreign rule,” Azad said. “Your forefathers . . . not only plunged headlong into the seas, but trampled the mountains, laughed at the bolts of lightning, turned away the tornadoes, challenged the tempests and made them alter their course. It is a sure sign of a dying faith that those who had once grabbed the collars of emperors are today clutching their own throats.”[^6] Seventy-seven years later, the faith and courage of Azad and his contemporaries serves as a blueprint for how Muslims can meet the challenge of Hindutva, or Hindu supremacy—not as passive victims, but as figureheads in the fight against this corrosive far-right ideology.[^7] In order to fight against it, however, one must first understand it. In the service of fostering this understanding, this paper provides a detailed guide to the Hindu supremacist movement, beginning by unpacking the extremist beliefs of Hindutva’s earliest ideologues, tracing the rise of the violent paramilitary groups whose political offshoot would become India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and examining the movement’s continuing global reach. In doing so, the aim is not only to raise awareness of this growing threat but also to equip Muslims with the knowledge needed to inspire meaningful, faith-driven action in response. --- ## Hindutva 101: Its History, Core Beliefs, and Infrastructure In January 1948, just months after Azad’s speech on the steps of Jama Masjid, a man named Nathuram Godse shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi. At the time of his death, Gandhi was weeks into a hunger strike protesting the Hindu-Muslim violence that wracked the subcontinent. His murderer was of the opposite conviction: that India had no place for Muslims, and should be turned into a Hindu ethnostate.[^8] A longtime adherent of Hindutva, Godse not only admitted to killing Gandhi, but called it a “moral” act done in service of Indian Hindus. “I have no doubt,” he said during his trial, “\[that\] honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof someday in future.”[^9] In every way, Hindutva is the antithesis of everything Indian Muslim revolutionaries fought for. Based on the belief that Hindus are a race superior to non-Hindus, Hindutva asserts that India should be a Hindu state and theocracy rather than a secular democracy, and that the interests and values of Hindus should dominate all areas of society. According to Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, Hindutva “is a modern political ideology used . . . to carve out an exclusive identity and justify discrimination and violence against minority communities,” particularly against Muslims. Today—as Godse had hoped—Hindutva is the driving ideology of India’s current government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The conceptualization of India as an ancient and superior Hindu civilization had been presented by different movements and individuals throughout the late 1800s.[^10] The term Hindutva, however, was formally codified by a man named V. D. Savarkar, a former freedom fighter who, after being imprisoned for aiding revolutionaries, later begged the British for clemency and pledged to be “the staunchest advocate” of loyalty to their empire.[^11] In his 1923 pamphlet ​​*Essentials of Hindutva*, which would become the basis of Hindu supremacist thought, Savarkar argued that Muslims and Christians were, by virtue of following religions that had originated outside of the subcontinent, incapable of showing loyalty to India. His writings paint India as having a glorious monolithic “Hindu” past, where Hindus are imagined as one race, and whose time “living in the land of dreams” was brutally ended by Muslim and Christian invaders in the medieval period. Using this logic, he urges Hindus across castes to unite with “hatred” against this “common foe” and reclaim their motherland from the “alien adulteration” of foreign faiths.[^12] Here, Savarkar’s framing of the barbaric Mohammedan invader reflects an Orientalist European view of Muslims that originated as early as the Crusades: one that, as Sahar Aziz writes, paints Islam as “propagat\[ing\] ignorance, violence, and sensuality as a threat to Christianity’s perceived light, knowledge, and reason.”[^13] Though the Hindu supremacists of today are keen to conflate Hindutva with the religion of Hinduism, Savarkar himself believed no such thing. An agnostic, he wrote disparagingly throughout his life about Hindu beliefs and practices, and emphasized that Hindutva was not rooted in faith, but in a politicized imagining of the Hindu culture and race as separate from that of other Indians. “Hindutva is not identical with what is vaguely indicated by the term Hinduism. By an ‘ism’ it is generally meant a theory or a code more or less based on spiritual or religious dogma or creed,” Savarkar wrote. “Hindutva embraces all the departments of thought and activity of the whole Being of our Hindu race.”[^14] In referring to Hindus as a race of their own—separate from and superior to adherents of “foreign” faiths like Islam and Christianity—Savarkar revealed just how deeply he had been inspired by Nazi imaginings of racial hierarchy and “purity.” At a speech he delivered in 1938, Savarkar went as far as to openly praise Hitler and Mussolini, holding up Nazism and fascism as models for national revival. “Who are we to dictate to Germany, Japan or Russia or Italy to choose a particular form of policy of government?” Savarkar asked his audience. “Hitler knows better . . . what suits Germany best. The very fact that Germany or Italy has so wonderfully recovered and grown so powerful at the touch of \[a\] Nazi or fascist magical wand is enough to prove that those isms were the most congenial tonic their health demanded.”[^15] Savarkar’s writings radicalized K. B. Hedgewar,[^16] a physician and disillusioned former member of Nehru’s Indian National Congress Party. In 1925, just two years after *Essentials of Hindutva* was published, Hedgewar founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fascist organization that would become not only the largest militant group in India, but the largest volunteer-based organization in the world. Serving as the driving force behind the Hindutva movement, the RSS went on to spawn a vast network of Hindu militant groups, as well as affiliated schools, charities, and programs. (It was in the RSS that Nathuram Godse, the murderer of Gandhi, formed his political beliefs and opted for their violent execution.) In modern times, the RSS can be compared to the head of a hydra that encompasses a network of groups not only in India, but in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond.[^17] Like Savarkar, Hedgewar had no love for minorities and once referred to Muslims as “foreign snakes.”[^18] But it was the second chief of the RSS, M. S. Golwalkar, who articulated in the plainest terms what would become of minorities in a Hindu supremacist India. “The foreign races must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no ideas but those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture,” he said. “\[Minorities must be\] wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges . . . not even citizens’ rights.”[^19] In the late 1930s and 1940s, Golwalkar reportedly worked to cast the RSS in the mold of a Nazi militia, “with the goal of eventually installing himself as führer,” as Dhirendhra K. Jha writes.[^20] By 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would become responsible for turning Golwalkar’s fantasy into a normalized reality. Modi’s devotion to the Hindu supremacist movement goes all the way back to his childhood, when in 1958 at only eight years old, he joined the RSS. Over the years, he rose through the ranks of the organization and was eventually transferred by RSS leadership to its affiliated political party, the BJP. In 2002, while serving as the Chief Minister of Gujarat state, he cemented himself as an open ally to the far right by facilitating the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, during which he reportedly ordered police not to intervene while nearly two thousand Muslim women, children, and men were slaughtered by Hindu militants—including affiliates of the RSS.[^21] Modi would ride the resulting wave of far-right support to the office of Prime Minister in 2014, officially instating the Hindu supremacist BJP as the head of India’s government. What followed would be ten years of relentless attacks—ideological, political, and physical—on India’s Muslim community, as Modi and the BJP began their project to turn India from a democracy into a Hindu supremacist ethnostate. As BJP leader Navneet Rana once declared before a cheering crowd, “If you want to live in India, then you have to say ‘Jai Sri Ram’ \[Glory to Lord Ram\].”[^22] Looking at the words of Savarkar and Hedgewar, Golwalkar and Godse, Modi and the leaders of the BJP, it becomes clear that Hindutva is far from unique. Rather, it is rooted in the same myths of imagined victimhood and racial supremacy as Nazism and white Christian nationalism. From the lens of Islamic history, it also shares the core motivations of the earliest enemies of Islam. ### Muslims Under Attack On April 23, while campaigning for India’s 2024 general elections, a state wing of the BJP made a post on X aimed at targeting the opposition Congress Party. Titled “Congress Manifesto or Muslim League Manifesto?,” the post claimed that voting for the opposition would result in “Hijab Enforcement in Educational Institutions,” “Freedom to Practice Personal Laws,” and a “Mandate for Public & Private Entities to Hire Muslims.”[^23] None of this had been promised by the Congress Party—but it did reveal that, in the eyes of the BJP and its base, to promise basic civil liberties to Muslims is inherently anti-Hindu. This post stripped back all purported defenses of Hindutva—the claims of wanting to protect Hindu faith and culture—and laid bare the true engine of the ideology. At its core, Hindutva is not about Hindus at all. It does not argue for the rights of Hindu oppressed castes, women, or tribals. Instead, it posits the Hindu identity solely as a reaction to other religious identities, one where Hindu pride and strength is drawn from the violent subjugation of Indian Muslims and Christians. In other words, it aims to exact revenge for Mughal rule and Christian proselytization upon the followers of “foreign” Abrahamic faiths in India today, framing this subjugation as a clash of civilizations rather than the lashing out of an insecure and radicalized Hindu population.[^24] In *Essentials of Hindutva,* Savarkar laid the groundwork for this core motivation: “Nothing makes Self conscious of itself so much as a conflict with non-self. Nothing can weld peoples into a nation and nations into a state as the pressure of a common foe . . . such were the forces, overwhelmingly furious, that took India by surprise the day Mohammad \[of Ganzi\] crossed the Indus and invaded her.”[^25] Savarkar here relies on an ahistorical narrative that is central to Hindu supremacist ideology: the idea that India was invaded and violated by the Muslim foreigner, that the Muslim population grew only via forced conversion of Hindu masses, and that Hindu unity and greatness began its decline at the moment of Islam’s arrival. The way to reclaim that mythological greatness, in his view, was to link Indianness to Hinduness and write off all others as simply incompatible with, if not a threat to, the very idea of India. “Must ye, o Hindus,” he urged, after proclaiming that the “conflict of life and death” began with Islam’s arrival in India, “consolidate and strengthen Hindu nationality; not to give wanton offence to any of our non-Hindu compatriots, in fact to anyone in the world, but *in just and urgent defence of our race and land*.”[^26] Look at Indian news headlines, and this phenomenon of “wanton offense” against the “common foe” becomes abundantly clear. Today, it is common practice to “celebrate” Hindu festivals by holding violent rallies in Muslim neighborhoods, dancing to genocidal pop music in front of mosques during prayer time, and seeking out Muslims to attack in mobs. Mosques that broadcast the call to prayer—a practice that had been normal and unproblematic for decades—are purposefully drowned out with Hindu hymns blasted from speakers.[^27] Egregiously, Modi and the BJP have also criminalized the most personal and fundamental elements of Islamic practice. In several Indian states, calling the *adhan* from loudspeakers is banned, while praying outside of a mosque—whether by the roadside during a bus trip or near a national monument like the Taj Mahal—can result in a police investigation and harassment by Hindu supremacists. Beginning in 2022, the state of Karnataka forced thousands of Muslim women to choose between their religious garments and their education by banning the hijab in schools—a practice that was quickly picked up by institutions nationwide. Women and girls who continue to wear the hijab to school are berated and harassed for displaying their religious affiliation; Hindu classmates retaliate by wearing saffron scarves to flaunt their support for the BJP and call it their own expression of faith.[^28] Bolstered by popular outcry over “love jihad,” a popular conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men have an agenda to convert Hindu women to Islam through seduction, twelve Indian states have passed laws that criminalize conversion to Islam and Christianity, emboldening Hindu extremists to threaten the lives of Muslim converts, arrest imams and preachers, and attack Muslim men over even minimal interactions with Hindu women.[^29] Rather than celebrating their existing places of worship, Hindu supremacists have launched attacks on centuries-old mosques across the country, as BJP leaders promote the ahistorical claim that Mughal-era masjids were built on the ruins of demolished Hindu temples—just as militants tore down the nearly five-hundred-year-old Babri Masjid in 1992, which the Modi government later replaced with a temple in 2024.[^30] This precedent has emboldened Hindu supremacist groups to launch legal campaigns targeting other historic mosques, demanding that they be handed over to Hindus for demolition or conversion into temples, and in some cases setting up idols of Hindu deities on masjid premises. Several mosques now face the same threat: the three-hundred-year-old Gyanvapi Masjid has already been forced to section off its basement for Hindu prayers, while the 355-year-old Shahi Eidgah is the subject of eighteen court petitions by Hindu supremacists seeking to seize it.[^31] Hindu supremacists’ dietary restrictions, particularly the prohibition of beef, translate to a surge of violent and often fatal attacks on Muslims who transport, slaughter, or eat beef.[^32] In many ways, the Hindutva “practice” of Hinduism has become fundamentally about antagonizing Muslims. ### Criminalizing Muslim Existence This obsession is made evident through the way anti-Muslim hatred not only dominates popular imagination in India but also forms the backbone of federal policy. In 2019, Muslims of all backgrounds—men, women, and children alike—flooded the streets of India to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a discriminatory law that offers fast-tracked citizenship to all religious groups except Muslims. Combined with India’s National Registry of Citizens (NRC)—which lists individuals who “qualify” as citizens of India, without accounting for the fact that legal documentation is highly inaccessible to many of India’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens—the CAA allows Hindus without documentation to “regain” their citizenship quickly, while millions of Muslims are essentially rendered stateless.[^33] While the CAA and NRC are the most well-known anti-Muslim policies in India, they are far from the only ones. The 2025 Waqf (Amendment) Act erodes Muslims’ control over community-endowed lands—often used for masjids, Islamic schools, and graveyards—by mandating the appointment of Hindus to these properties’ overseeing committees. The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand state, which the BJP is pushing to implement nationally, does away with a historic recognition of sharia laws in personal matters, forcing Muslims to register marriages, divorces, and adoptions through a common law formulated by the Hindu supremacist state. In a number of cities, BJP lawmakers and police have attempted to enforce economic apartheid by ordering business owners to display their names on their shops, effectively making it easy to boycott Muslims in the name of protecting “Hindu piety.” Combined, these laws seek to criminalize all aspects of Muslim life, from the public to the private, turning existence while Muslim into a crime. ### Bulldozer Injustice Mirroring the Israeli tactic of targeted and wanton deployment of bulldozers against Palestinian-owned homes, the Indian government has popularized what its supporters refer to as “bulldozer justice” against Muslim-owned homes, businesses, schools, and places of worship.[^34] Over the past few years, civic authorities nationwide have demolished hundreds of thousands of properties, mostly belonging to Muslims living in poverty, sometimes rendering entire settlements’ worth of families homeless and without their livelihoods.[^35] In some cases, the demolitions are carried out after accusations of “crime,” including baseless accusations of eating beef, participating in “love jihad,” or resisting Hindu mob attacks by pelting stones. In many other cases, however, Muslim-owned properties are strategically targeted in “anti-encroachment” drives, during which structures—including masjids*—*are demolished with no due process after being labeled “illegally” built. As Muslim activist Fawaz Shaheen put it, bulldozer justice is “a form of collective punishment that seeks to demoralise and deter anyone who questions the government or their majoritarian politics.”[^36] ### Institutional Complicity The government’s forthright bigotry has also corrupted law enforcement, turning the police into a complicit arm of the state.[^37] Officers are frequently caught on video ignoring or outright enabling Hindu supremacist violence,[^38] while at the same time beating Muslims at polling booths during elections, torturing Muslims in custody,[^39] and firing bullets at Muslims who protest their oppression.[^40] This contempt has likewise eroded the independence of the judiciary, which has become willing to bend the law to the whims of Hindu supremacists.[^41] One prominent example is the disregard for the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which preserves the religious character of all places of worship as they were in 1947. In violation of this law, courts have entertained Hindu supremacist groups that launch legal campaigns targeting historic mosques, demanding that they be handed over to Hindus for demolition or to be turned into temples.[^42] Further, it has become the norm for courts—whether at the district, state, or national level—to convict Muslim human rights defenders and journalists under draconian anti-terror laws for exercising their right to dissent, while simultaneously granting impunity to Hindu supremacists charged with antiminority violence.[^43] The contrast here is stark: In 2022, the judiciary denied bail to a number of prominent Muslim activists who were detained for their role in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, including student leaders Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and Gulfisha Fatima—none of whom were responsible for any sort of violence.[^44] In the same year, however, the Supreme Court facilitated the release of eleven Hindu supremacist convicts who gang-raped a Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano, and murdered fourteen members of her family during the Gujarat pogrom.[^45] Months later, a Gujarat court acquitted another sixty-seven Hindu militants who were involved in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre,[^46] during which a mob of five thousand Hindu extremists burned Muslims alive and raped and mutilated nearly four hundred Muslim women and girls.[^47] One of those militants was the notorious Babu Bajrangi, who boasted that he had “slit open” a pregnant Muslim woman during the Gujarat pogrom.[^48] “Kill, chop and burn them . . . I enjoy it \[killing Muslims\],” he was caught boasting in a recording. “I say it even today, they should not be allowed to prosper.” ### A Climate of Bloodshed Though the release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case was reversed a few months later, Babu Bajrangi remains a free man. By no means is his ilk rare. The website Hindutva Profiles has cataloged hundreds of extremists who either celebrate anti-Muslim violence or have played a direct role in it, encouraging everything from murder and mutilation to outright genocide.[^49] This widespread and normalized bloodlust reflects what the Ten Stages of Genocide describes as the moment when society “overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder . . . Indoctrination prepares the way for incitement.”[^50] It is both horrifying and unsurprising, then, that Indian Muslims are subjected to relentless interpersonal violence, with hate crimes reported nearly every day.[^51] Hindutva leaders’ calls for Hindus to “protect” themselves, to “kill and die” to create a Hindu nation, has translated to a surge of interpersonal violence that spares no one. Muslim children have reported being slapped by Hindu teachers and beaten by police officers over claims of disrespect; Muslim women are subjected to rape threats both on- and offline as a way to seek revenge against the imagined perpetrators of “love jihad”; elderly Muslims are attacked in public. Violence carried out by mobs is also pervasive, during which Hindu extremists gather in groups—sometimes numbering in the dozens—to abduct, assault, humiliate, and sometimes murder individuals accused of even minor offenses. The threat of mob lynchings looms constantly:[^52] Muslim men have been beaten or even tortured to death over accusations of theft, alleged relationships with Hindu women,[^53] traffic accidents, and petty conflicts with Hindus (in one particularly disturbing case in June 2024, a Muslim man was lynched after a local Muslim cricket team in Gujarat beat their Hindu opponents).[^54] Most commonly, accusations—fabricated or otherwise—of eating or slaughtering cows for beef can lead to brutal lynchings carried out by cow vigilantes, who operate in militia-like groups with near impunity.[^55] In many cases, victims of mob attacks are filmed in their distress and humiliation. One such video from 2021 shows a Muslim man being beaten as he walks along a road with his young daughter, who cries and pleads for the mob to stop hitting him.[^56] Another video, this one from 2024, shows a 72-year-old Muslim man being assaulted while on a train ride to visit his daughter: During the trip, a group of young Hindu supremacists repeatedly hit him on the chest and face.[^57] The past few years have also seen a rise of mob attacks on Muslim-majority areas, often around Hindu festivals. These incidents often involve hundreds of Hindu extremists holding processions through Muslim neighborhoods in a deliberately provocative manner. In many of them, participants are armed, brandishing swords and tridents. Often, they will chant slogans associated with mob lynchings (including “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Glory to Lord Ram”) and blasting Hindu supremacist pop music (“You are not humans, you are butchers, enough of this Hindu-Muslim brotherhood,” one popular song declares).[^58] Indian social media is saturated with images of Hindu processions circling mosques, throwing shoes into masjid courtyards, attempting to break down their gates, vandalizing nearby cemeteries, and planting saffron flags—the color associated with Hinduism—on their domes. Such processions often devolve into violence and arson. In January 2024, following the consecration of the Ram Temple over the site of the destroyed Babri Masjid, Hindu supremacists across India “celebrated” by storming Muslim neighborhoods, vandalizing mosques, torching shops and homes, beating Muslim men and harassing women, destroying vehicles, and, in one incident, setting fire to a Muslim graveyard.[^59] In 2022 and 2023, mob violence raged nationwide during Hindu supremacist celebrations of the holiday Ram Navami, which targeted Muslim-majority localities and triggered intercommunal violence. In one horrifying case in the state of Bihar in 2023, a Hindu procession set a mosque and Islamic school on fire, which escalated into stone-throwing, assaults, and petrol bombs. One sixteen-year-old boy was killed.[^60] In the aftermath of these attacks, however, it is Muslims who are arrested en masse and whose homes are bulldozed as collective punishment. Beyond the violence itself, an equally troubling dimension lies in how the perpetrators are received by the public. Fellow Hindu supremacists, both in the form of online comments and public remarks, often shower these violent individuals with praise for their crimes. Videos of Muslim men begging for mercy as they are beaten rack up thousands of likes and laughing emojis on Facebook. Hindu militant groups hold rallies to protest the arrest of individuals accused of lynching Muslims.[^61] Cow vigilante leader Monu Manesar, who is the prime suspect in the brutal double-homicide and burning of two Muslim men in 2022, has been rewarded with a Gold Play Button for running a popular YouTube channel that glorifies anti-Muslim violence. Most chillingly, the men who raped Bilkis were garlanded with flowers and fed sweets after they were released from prison. One BJP lawmaker praised them as having “good values”—a statement that, if nothing else, reveals the collective deterioration of the Hindu supremacist conscience.[^62] ### Violence Against Kashmiris Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, has suffered under Indian military occupation for decades, leading to years of research comparing Indian tactics of oppression in Kashmir to those of Israel in Palestine. As Kashmiri anthropologist Ather Zia writes, “Since 1947, India’s colonial project has focused on conquering, controlling, assimilating, and ultimately erasing Kashmiri indigeneity . . . The Indian government operates unimpeded under the guise of integrating the territory, development, and fighting Kashmiri resistance that is cast as terrorism or proxy war. In violation of international law, India has changed Kashmir’s landscape through dense militarization, resource extraction, and economic exploitation that entrenches colonial benefits at the cost of local communities.”[^63] In another piece, Zia elaborates, “The dispossession of the natives, dense militarization, ecocide, brutality of troops, constant checkpoints, crackdowns, raids, encounters, and direct and indirect violence share uncanny similarities \[with Palestine\].”[^64] Lawyer and writer Suchitra Vijayan similarly writes that these shared tactics between India and Israel encompass “demographic engineering, the criminalization of dissent . . . \[and\] shared infrastructures of violence: surveillance, digital repression, population control, and policing regimes that are increasingly modelled on each other’s practices.”[^65] In 2019, the Modi government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, stripping Kashmir of its special semiautonomous status and bringing the region under a full military crackdown. Soon after, Sandeep Chakravorty, India’s consul general to New York City, proclaimed that India would build settlements modeled off the settler colonial project of Israel, saying, “If the Israeli people can do it, we can also do it.”[^66] In the years since, Kashmiris have suffered extrajudicial killings, torture by Indian military and police forces, wanton arrests, internet shutdowns, land seizures, the forced closure of mosques and house arrest of imams during Muslim holidays, and other human rights abuses.[^67] Kashmiri journalists and human rights defenders are especially vulnerable; a number of them have been detained under draconian anti-terror laws and held indefinitely with slim chances of bail.[^68] In 2024, the Modi government introduced the Local Bodies Laws (Amendment) Bill, which would disenfranchise Kashmiri Muslims by offering government reservations to pro-BJP and upper-caste ethnic groups.[^69] As one Kashmiri businessman told Human Rights Watch in 2024, “It might seem calm with all the tourists, late night shopping, and other overt signs of normalcy, but we are festering inside.”[^70] ### Hate Speech In February 2026, the official account of the state of Assam’s BJP posted a video featuring Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a well-known hatemonger who has been steadily pushing for economic apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Muslims from the state. In the video, Sarma was shown posing with a rifle, then shooting several AI-generated images of Muslim men with beards and skullcaps. “No Mercy,” read the text over the macabre scene. Though the video was deleted quickly thereafter, the BJP has refused to apologize, with one local leader simply saying, “There is no comment. It has been deleted. There is nothing to say.”[^71] Violence against Muslims is normalized by the hate speech that has permeated online spaces in India and beyond. A study conducted by the Islamic Council of Victoria found that between 2019 and 2021, over 50 percent of all anti-Muslim posts on X (formerly Twitter) originated in India, surpassing both the US and the UK.[^72] Scroll through Indian X and Facebook, and the number of hateful posts is overwhelming: troll accounts calling Muslims “jihadis,” “invaders,” and “terrorists”; Hindu supremacist leaders posting explicit calls for violence;[^73] and videos of Muslim women, children, and men being attacked by Hindu supremacists circulating to a chorus of likes and celebratory comments. Posts offering firearms for sale in Hindu militant Facebook groups have gone untouched for an extensive period of time, while Facebook responded to activist concerns by claiming such posts didn’t violate any community policies.[^74] Similarly, Instagram and YouTube have become go-to platforms to promote anti-Muslim violence.[^75] This includes explicit promotion of cow vigilantism, or organized militia violence against primarily Muslim men in the name of preventing the slaughter of cattle, which are seen as sacred in Hinduism.[^76] These videos often involve cameras being shoved in the faces of men who are being beaten, humiliated, or otherwise in distress, sometimes even showing victims in the moments before they die of their injuries. Instead of this content being censored, it is often rewarded; one well-known Hindu militant, Monu Manesar, who is accused of orchestrating the horrific mob lynching of two Muslim men in 2023, received a Gold Play Button from YouTube for running a massively popular channel that films and glorifies cow vigilante attacks against Muslims.[^77] Any demands made to strike such content go largely ignored by media corporations, several of which have been exposed for their entanglement with the Indian state. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower, exposed the company in 2021 for promoting violent and hateful content through its algorithm in a way that benefited far-right governments and movements globally—including India. Leaked documents reported, “\[Hindu nationalist\] Users, Groups, and Pages promote fear mongering, anti-Muslim narratives targeted pro-Hindu populations with violent and incendiary intent . . . There were a number of dehumanizing posts comparing Muslims to ‘pigs’ and ‘dogs’ and misinformation.”[^78] Just a year prior to the leak, India’s Facebook policy head, Ankhi Das, was accused of being politically partisan by the *Wall Street Journal*, which found that Facebook only deleted anti-Muslim posts made by a BJP leader after the paper asked about them. This decision to ignore Facebook’s hate speech policy to benefit the BJP was reportedly made by Das, who told employees that “punishing violations by politicians from Mr. Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects in the country.”[^79] X has similarly folded to state pressure, suspending thousands of accounts and deleting thousands more tweets made by activists, journalists, NGOs, and civilians both in and outside of the country over the years.[^80] In one incident that made global headlines, X struck down links to watch the 2023 BBC documentary *India: The Modi Question*, which chronicled Modi’s rise to power following his role in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom. Notably, X owner Elon Musk called himself a “fan” of Modi in 2023,[^81] though in 2025 the degree of censorship appeared to overwhelm even him; in 2025, X filed a lawsuit against the Indian government declaring its escalating policing of online speech to be “illegal and unconstitutional.”[^82] Over the years, a growing number of journalists have been arrested under India’s draconian anti-terror laws for reporting on human rights abuses or fact-checking propaganda on social media. News outlets have been forced to [take down](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.deccanherald.com/india/the-caravan-ordered-to-take-down-report-on-alleged-torture-murder-by-indian-army-2892998%23:~:text%3DScreenshot%2520of%2520the%2520post%2520by%2520The%2520Caravan.%26text%3DWhile%2520the%2520contents%2520of%2520the,by%2520journalist%2520Jatinder%2520Kaur%2520Tur.&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121149283&usg=AOvVaw0dBYeSgOoy6iKRrEWCzzOn) articles, had their offices raided, and in some cases been [banned](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala/kerala-high-court-upholds-media-one-tv-ban-7797020/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121149494&usg=AOvVaw29yzZv5CFzJzXeX26Bm0ay) altogether. Everyday social media users have also been named in police reports for making “anti-India” posts; a prominent example is the recent wave of arrests of individuals criticizing Operation Sindoor, a series of air strikes against Pakistan in May 2025 that killed thirty-one people and led to a surge of anti-Muslim violence within India.[^83] So rampant is this censorship that India routinely ranks among the top five countries for social media censorship requests.[^84] As a result, critics are silenced while hatemongers are allowed to grow their followings unimpeded by any regard for community guidelines. ### Electoral Hate Hate speech isn’t confined to the realm of social media posts. Hate speech events, during which Hindu supremacist leaders give charged antiminority speeches to extremist audiences, are held with alarming regularity across India. According to the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, anti-Muslim hate speeches skyrocketed by 74 percent in 2024 due to India’s election season, during which the BJP blazed their way to a third term in office after structuring almost their entire campaign around hatred for Muslims and other minorities.[^85] This election revealed how central the subjugation of Muslims is to Hindu supremacist ideas of power and rule. For months, BJP leaders mimed shooting arrows at mosques; they referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “diseases”; they thumped their chests about how quickly Hindus would be able to kill Muslims if they so desired (fifteen seconds, as BJP leader T. Raja Singh boasted at one rally).[^86] One BJP leader, Kapil Mishra, asked a crowd of his supporters, “How many Afzals \[Muslims\] will you kill? You will find \[a Muslim\] in each household. Wherever \[a Muslim\] comes out, we will enter that house and kill him  . . . In \[Modi’s\] third term, all these diseases would be treated.”[^87] Another senior BJP leader and close ally of Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, threatened to “deal with” Muslims “so harshly that their descendants will remember.”[^88] On another occasion, Adityanath boasted that his government had effectively criminalized Muslim acts of worship: “No one dares to even pray namaz \[salah\] on our roads. The mosques have removed their mics. In the next five years people will forget about screams \[*adhan*\] from mosques.”[^89] The press should have treated the BJP’s almost casual threats of violence and celebration of discrimination as a major news story. Instead, most mainstream media outlets have been turned into bullhorns for the ruling party’s propaganda, often legitimizing and amplifying these harmful narratives to hundreds of millions of Indians.[^90] Just as the Nazis had the propaganda machine of Goebbels, and those orchestrating the Rwandan genocide had Radio Rwanda, the Hindu supremacist government of India uses the mainstream media to radicalize voter bases and manufacture consent for violence and discrimination against Muslims. These comparisons are not hyperbolic. In June 2022, the Editors’ Guild of India directly compared the country’s mainstream media to Radio Rwanda,[^91] observing that several channels “deliberately \[create\] circumstances that target vulnerable communities by spewing hatred towards them and their beliefs.”[^92] ### Hate as Curriculum As Dr. Jason Stanley writes for the *Nation*, “There is a continuum from supremacist nationalism to fascism  . . . Fascism survives off myths that create an out-group, who are relegated to, at best, second-class citizens. Schools and universities allow for critical inquiry into these myths, and so attacks on them are always the canaries in the coal mine of authoritarianism.”[^93] Thus, India’s education system has also become an insidious frontier for Muslim erasure. In 2023, the National Committee of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) removed the only chapter of the standardized curriculum for high school students on Mughal history, skipping over centuries of empire and achievements directly to British colonization. Stripped away, also, were a passage explaining what a masjid is, references to Maulana Azad, the banning of the RSS after Gandhi’s assassination, the 2002 Gujarat pogrom under Modi’s reign as Chief Minister, and indicators that a unified Hindu society did not exist during millennia of caste discrimination, violence against women, and wealth inequality.[^94] This Hindutva retelling of both past and present is often referred to as “saffronization,”[^95] and impacts all tiers of the education system as the Modi government cracks down on academic freedom. Students who hold protests or put on educational events about Hindu supremacist atrocities are subject to arrests, suspensions, and violent attacks by other radicalized students, while faculties have been steadily replaced with pro-BJP, pro-RSS educators and administrators. As Nandini Sundar writes, Modi’s reelection in 2019 paved the way for “blanket denials of space or permission to all extracurricular events with a current-affairs focus. In their place came religious events or speeches by RSS representatives. To earn promotions, faculty members were required to attend RSS-staffed “refresher courses.” The only student group given free run of campuses was the BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), whose members became known for violent physical attacks on members of other student organizations.”[^96] In other words, India’s state-run universities—like the mainstream media, law enforcement, and judiciary—have been subject to ideological capture. Even academics based outside of India are not safe. In 2021, a group of scholars and activists organized a virtual event titled the “Dismantling Global Hindutva” conference. The three-day event, which was cosponsored by over fifty-three universities in the US and internationally, was aimed at discussing Hindutva and its ties to Islamophobia, fascist ideologies, and caste discrimination.[^97] After the conference and its speakers were announced, Hindu supremacists protested by sending nearly one million emails to cosponsoring universities, while thousands more messages were sent, filled with anti-Muslim slurs and expletives, to the organizers by US-based Hindutva groups.[^98] A report released by academics from Columbia University found that over 63,000 tweets were made about the conference, the majority of them negative.[^99] Some of the most widely circulated tweets were made by high-profile Hindu nationalists in India, including Suresh Chavhanke, the owner of a right-wing news channel, and BJP politician Kapil Mishra. One of Mishra’s tweets calls Hindutva “terror for terrorists” and declares that “war will be a blistering blow on the cheeks of those who dream of dismantling Hindutva.” The post has, to date, garnered over 62,000 likes and 27,000 retweets,[^100] threatening anyone outside of India who pushes back against the mythologies of saffronization. Mirroring Dr. Stanley’s analysis on the essential dependence of fascism on myth, Professor Apoorvanand writes, “School textbooks have made Indian Muslims an inalienable part of the national memory with their history long predating an invasion and their immense contributions an inescapable reality, so this legacy must be deleted. Mughals and Muslim rulers must be referenced only as cruel invaders  . . . The marginalisation of Mughals and Muslims in textbooks mirrors what Muslims in Modi’s India are facing in real life. The recent textbook edits are part of a cultural genocide.”[^101] --- ## The Global Impact of Hindutva In 2024, RSS leader Ram Madhav was invited to speak at the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) in Washington, DC. This moment was emblematic of the interconnectedness of the global multiracial far right. Here was a Hindu supremacist from India, featured as a speaker at an event that brings together far-right leaders from the US, the UK, France, Israel, and other Global North countries, boasting to the crowd of the “success” of Hindu supremacy in India: “\[We\] came here to tell you about the success story of conservatism in India—the defeat of the left-liberal-Marxist-radical Islamist cabal in India.”[^102] Madhav’s speech serves as a stark confirmation that modern-day fascists do not operate in isolation; Islamophobia is a global phenomenon, and the racist, supremacist, and nationalist movements that fuel it are deeply interconnected. Much like Zionist groups, branches of violent Hindu militant groups like the RSS operate globally, from the United States to Canada and the United Kingdom to Kenya, forming a vast network of organizations known as the Sangh Parivar. These groups—which include cultural organizations, children’s programs, and political action committees (PACs)—work to advance Hindu supremacist ideology among diaspora communities. The lobbying group Overseas Friends of the BJP, which was founded by an RSS affiliate in order to rehabilitate the Hindu right’s image after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, has chapters in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia, where it solicits donations for the BJP from wealthy diaspora members.[^103] The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA)—the American offshoot of the bloodstained militant group Vishwa Hindu Parishad—was established in the 1970s, and in the years since 9/11 has collaborated with anti-Muslim figures like Robert Spencer, Laura Loomer, and Pamela Geller, as well as with entities like the Middle East Forum.[^104] Another group, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS)—the overseas wing of the RSS—poses as a benign cultural organization while disseminating anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US and Canada.[^105] Collectively, the behemoth of the Sangh Parivar shuttles millions of dollars in donations back to RSS-affiliated groups in India, as well as to Hindu supremacist policy initiatives and electoral candidates in democratic nations.[^106] As such, Hindutva does not only harm Muslims in India; it has found resonance in diasporic communities, involves itself in transnational repression, and openly pledges its allegiance to other far-right movements. Its supporters amplify Zionist propaganda that enables Israel’s genocide in Palestine, provide eager audiences for prominent Islamophobes, and even collaborate politically with dangerous white supremacists. To counter this growing threat, Muslims and allies must recognize the global harms of Hindu supremacy and build equally coordinated efforts to resist it. ### Hindutva, Zionism, and Palestine After October 7, 2023, people of conscience worldwide were stunned by the amount of hatred and anti-Palestinian disinformation that flooded social media from the global far right. What surprised many, however, was just how much of this hatred came from accounts run by Hindus in India—a country that, up until Modi’s rise to power, had long professed solidarity with Palestine. And yet, in a plethora of cases, it was Indian accounts that fed millions of followers posts about the Hamas rape hoax, lies about beheaded babies, and the disturbing “Pallywood” conspiracy after videos of suffering Palestinians began to go viral.[^107] Journalist Azad Essa, author of *Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel*, answers a question many had following October 7: Why do Hindu supremacists feel such kinship with Jewish supremacists, despite the latter’s religious beliefs aligning far more closely with the Muslims they hate? In an interview with *+972 Magazine*, Essa explained, “At the heart of this new alliance is Islamophobia . . . Both \[Zionism and Hindutva\] see themselves as ancient, age-old civilizations, which is important to building and amplifying their claim of cultural superiority, and both have a particular orientalist disdain for Muslims.”[^108] This thought process has been explicitly laid out by BJP leaders and far-right Indian pundits alike. As BJP leader Kangana Ranaut declared during a 2023 meeting with Israel’s ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, “That they can’t give us \[each of Hindus and Jews\] one land is inhumane and stingy of the Islamic world . . . Today, the whole world, especially Israel and India, are fighting their war against terrorism.”[^109] Put simply, Hindu supremacists see Zionists both as aspirational and as allies who share a common enemy: the Muslim. The playbooks used by both movements are also similar, with the Hindu right often implementing Zionist tactics to legitimize their movement in the diaspora. Both groups weaponize their minority status to provide cover for their bigotry, conflating their religious identity with their supremacist politics. Where Zionists cry “antisemitism” any time Israel is criticized, Hindu supremacists hurl bad-faith claims of “Hinduphobia” against those who criticize Hindutva, Hinduism, and the Modi government. Like Zionists, Hindu supremacists also weaponize the language of social justice and exaggerate claims of victimhood, referring to their ethno supremacist and expansionist ideals as “decolonial” or acts of “protection” for the entire community.[^110] So promising is this partnership in the eyes of the far right that David Brog, former Executive Director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), wrote an essay in *Jewish Journal* that declared, “Jews and Hindus can be the core of such a new alliance” to push back against “radicals” and “race baiters.” Mihir Meghani, cofounder of Hindu American Foundation, added an explicitly anti-Muslim angle to Brog’s vision when they appeared as guests on a podcast, saying, “Clearly the Arab and Muslim immigration has overtaken the Hindu and Indian community . . . and \[is\] perhaps approaching the Jewish community population, so we’re gonna need to forge these alliances.”[^111] As a result, Indian flags are raised at rallies for Israel in the United States, and Israeli flags are raised on the streets of India during Hindu supremacist processions. In one recent incident, the Israeli flag flapped right behind a replica of the Ram Temple during an Indian Independence Day parade in New York.[^112] Representatives of diaspora Hindu supremacist groups, including the Hindu American Foundation and others, have included accusations of “antisemitism” in their attempts to smear their Muslim and pro-Palestine critics.[^113] Hindu supremacists and Zionists have joined forces in California to oppose ethnic studies curricula.[^114] Online, Hindu supremacists react to images of destruction in Gaza with glee, trending hashtags like #IndiaWithIsrael and #IslamIsTheProblem, relying on the tired conflation of Islam with terrorism to justify violent retaliation against Muslims in both India and Palestine.[^115] In this way, Hindu supremacists can be considered as complicit as white Christian nationalists in the bloodshed and destruction wrought on Gaza, with an added degree of shamelessness: Hindu supremacists have no skin in this colonial game. They do it simply because they enjoy seeing Muslims suffer. ### Hindutva and White Supremacy As dangerous as it is, the Hindutva-Zionist alliance in the West is a small part of a larger picture, in which white supremacy, and the nationalisms born of it, remain an overarching power.[^116] Zionism has for decades furthered its legitimacy by allying with white supremacists and Christian nationalists—two groups often characterized by their historic hatred for and persecution of Jewish people.[^117] Zionists have, however, made it clear that they are willing to brush this bigotry aside so long as it benefits their political project and helps them retain global influence, an idea traced back to the ideology’s founder, Theodore Herzl. In his book *The Jewish State,* he wrote, “The Governments of all countries scourged by Anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to obtain \[the\] sovereignty we want.”[^118] In his *Diaries*, he added, “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.”[^119] Similarly, Hindu supremacists’ alliances with Western, often white supremacist far-right movements (such as the Make America Great Again movement) can be understood as seeking proximity to whiteness—a theory defined by Dr. Nimisha Barton as minoritized groups seeking “access to certain forms of power, resources, as well as social, economic, and cultural capital that have been historically constructed to advantage white people . . . at the expense of people of color.”[^120] The Savera coalition expands on this theory with regards to Western, and particularly American, Hindu supremacists: “Even though Hindus do face the brunt of white supremacy, Hindu Far Right groups have moved to seek accommodation within that structure, aspiring to whiteness rather than joining in solidarity with its oppressed.”[^121] In other words, these groups seek to be integrated, like Italians, the Irish, and Jewish people, under the label “good” or “model” minorities—a label that Dr. Nimisha Barton explains “furnishe\[s\] \[minorities\] with a fragile adjacency to whiteness.”[^122] Often, implicitly or explicitly, Hindu supremacists reference Black, brown, and Muslim minorities as being the opposite of “model,” relying on wedge politics to superficially distance themselves from other vulnerable communities.[^123] The far-right group Hindu Policy Research and Advocacy Collective (HinduPACT) referred to this mindset in blatantly racist terms in an infographic, declaring, “Indians skipped the ‘ghetto stage’ common to most immigrant stories.”[^124] This same mindset has pushed American Hindu supremacists to take on causes commonly associated with white supremacists, including support for stopping Muslim immigration and backlash against the construction of a mosque near 9/11’s Ground Zero.[^125] The political rise of the far right in the US and UK also provides ample examples of this phenomenon.[^126] In the United States, a number of Hindu Americans were appointed to prominent positions in the Trump cabinet following the 2024 presidential election. Some of these figures have been explicit in their support for Modi and maintain relationships with the American Sangh. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has posed for pictures with RSS members,[^127] while FBI Director Kash Patel has repeated far-right claims about the Babri Masjid being built on the grounds of a demolished Hindu temple.[^128] Vivek Ramaswamy, formerly appointed to Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has not only claimed that Americans need to “learn” from Modi’s “unapologetic” nationalism, but has also publicly affiliated with HinduPACT,[^129] an advocacy initiative of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA)—the US wing of a violent Indian militant group that calls Muslims “barbaric” invaders of India on its website.[^130] Affiliates of the Sangh have also lent their enthusiastic support to the American far right and its anti-Muslim affiliates. VHPA member Krishna Gudipati went viral in 2021 for raising an Indian flag amid a sea of red, white, and blue during the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol and would be later invited to an inaugural ball hosted by a coalition of Hindu and Latino groups for Donald Trump in 2024.[^131] Another VHPA affiliate, Vibhuti Jha, has repeatedly hosted prominent American Islamophobe Robert Spencer on his YouTube show, the Jaipur Dialogues.[^132] Similarly, in the United Kingdom, far-right British nationalists have found a dedicated fanbase among Hindus in both India and the UK. Conservative Parliamentarian and vocal Islamophobe Bob Blackman has received “considerable funds,” according to a report released by Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, from Hindutva groups with ties to the BJP and RSS. Hatemonger Tommy Robinson, whose racist rhetoric played a direct role in fueling anti-Muslim riots in the UK in 2024, regurgitated Hindu supremacist talking points when he was interviewed by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma in 2022.[^133] So prevalent is this form of hatred that a police report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in 2025 named Hindu nationalism as a “breeding ground for extremism” in the UK.[^134] ### Other Expressions of Hindutva While Hindu supremacists often perform their anti-Muslim bigotry for white supremacist and Zionist audiences, expressions of Hindutva outside of India are not necessarily aimed at seeking the broader far right’s approval. Over the years, diaspora Hindu supremacists have grown increasingly emboldened in their displays of bigotry, which are often aimed at intimidating Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, and other victims of Hindutva globally. Chilling parallels to Indian mob violence have been seen in other parts of the world. In 2022, the English city of Leicester was rent with riots instigated by Indian Hindu supremacists, who marched through a predominantly Pakistani Muslim neighborhood while chanting “Death to Pakistan.” Tensions between Hindus and Muslims escalated, culminating in a mob of Hindus dressed in hoodies and balaclavas marching through a Muslim-majority area while chanting “Glory to Lord Ram”—a phrase inextricably associated with mob lynchings of Muslim men.[^135] In 2024, Canadian Sikhs in Brampton held a demonstration against the Modi government’s targeting of Sikh activists abroad. Pro-Modi protesters reportedly instigated a violent clash, with one Sikh man recalling that a counterprotester told him, “We’re going to kill you,” before punching him. The demonstration devolved into a scene of people throwing bricks, kicking cars, and violently assaulting one another; one video of the incident showed a Hindu man with a bullhorn calling on the Indian army to storm Sikh temples in Canada.[^136] Emboldened groups have also taken to displaying anti-Muslim symbols as acts of intimidation. A bulldozer decorated with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was paraded down the streets of Edison, New Jersey, during an Indian Independence Day event in 2022.[^137] When Indian American Muslims raised alarms over this event, Hindu supremacists responded by arranging for digital trucks with anti-Muslim messaging to circle a number of mosques in the area.[^138] Two years later, in 2024, the VHPA collaborated with the Indian consulate to include another hate symbol—a float depicting the Ram Temple—in the even larger India Day Parade in New York City.[^139] Sangh-affiliated groups have also shuttled a number of prominent Indian hate speakers to the US for speaking tours, often bringing these virulent Islamophobes to communities with significant Muslim American populations. In 2025, for example, the VHPA helped arrange events nationwide for hate speaker Kajal Hindustani, who called on her audience to boycott Muslim businesses in Dallas and referred to Muslims as “braindead zombies” and “living monsters” in New Jersey.[^140] In 2019, the Hindu American Foundation sponsored a speaking tour for Aarti Tikoo Singh, a journalist who has derided “Islamophobia” as nonexistent, blamed Kashmiri Muslims’ suffering on “Islamic jihad” rather than Indian militarism after the abrogation of Article 370,[^141] and smeared Muslim American politicians as proponents of “Islamic fascism.”[^142] Most notably, a 2019 event in Houston titled “Howdy Modi” featured the Indian Prime Minister himself—as well as Donald Trump as a special guest—and attracted a crowd of 50,000 cheering supporters from all over the United States. In the United States specifically, Hindu supremacists have launched attacks on Muslims in civic spaces, smearing prominent organizations like Council on American-Islamic Relations and Islamic Circle of North America as “Islamist” or terror-affiliated.[^143] They’ve launched campaigns of intimidation to crush elected officials’ condemnation of human rights abuses in India.[^144] In one egregious case in Illinois, Hindu supremacists influenced the passage of a law instating an Indian American Advisory Council to the Governor, which blatantly excluded Muslims by defining an “Indian” as “a person descended from any of the countries of the subcontinent that are not primarily Muslim in character.”[^145] Educational spaces, workplaces, online platforms, and even places of worship are not safe. In California, groups like the Hindu American Foundation have attempted to shoehorn Hindu supremacist retellings of Indian history into public school textbooks. In 2021, American Hindu supremacists and Indian bots flooded the Naperville, Illinois, city website with comments opposing the construction of a new mosque.[^146] Lawsuits designed to intimidate have been levied by Sangh-affiliated groups against Muslim civil rights groups, journalists, activists, universities, and even American state agencies for criticizing Hindutva and its harms.[^147] At the heart of this matter is a very human pain: Indian Muslims globally have felt a growing sense of fear since Modi was first elected to power in 2024. A community survey conducted by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) found that a staggering 81 percent of respondents experienced some form of harassment, discrimination, or prejudice from Hindu friends or social contacts in the past decade. Another 70 percent reported experiencing similar treatment from Hindu colleagues at work. Indian American cultural spaces have turned hostile, while in the broader Muslim community, there remains little mainstream awareness of the urgency of the problem. This reality demands urgent recognition from the broader Muslim community: Hindutva is not just an Indian problem, but a global one. To meet this challenge, Muslims must deepen their awareness, build solidarity across communities, and organize proactively to safeguard our dignity, our spaces, and our future. --- ## Resistance Is Our Inheritance: Actionable Steps In the moments immediately after the Treaty of Hudaybiyya was agreed upon, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ were in shock. In their eyes, they had been trapped into an unfair and inhumane political reality, in which Muslims in Mecca could no longer flee to Medina for refuge, and Muslims in Medina would be forced to abide by terms that favored the Qurayshi oppressor. It was a bleak moment that appeared to suck the hope out of the fragile community. Yet as the Muslims returned to Medina, an *ayah* was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ that was more beloved to him than the entire world: “No doubt, We have given you a clear victory” (Qur’an 48:1). That moment of despair would prove to be the greatest opportunity gifted to the young Muslim *ummah*, and it would ultimately change the tides of history in their favor. In modern times, it is easy for Muslims to feel trapped by the systems of injustice that dominate our world, the same way the companions did as they watched the Treaty of Hudaybiyya unfold. But through this *ayah*, and through their steadfastness and patience, the companions were shown that victory in Islam is not measured by dominance, but by trust in Allah’s plan and steadfastness upon the truth. Through this story, we learn that a moment of perceived weakness can pave the way to widespread societal change. A moment of despair can actually be the doorway to a divine opportunity. What seems like loss can, in fact, be preparation for a revolution. A clear victory lies in our ability to trust that Allah will not let our efforts go to waste—if only we are brave enough to take a stand. Thus, even in the face of international Hindutva, there is a clear victory within our community’s reach. What follows is a simple seven-step guide to staying hopeful, getting informed, and joining the fight against Hindu supremacy. ### Step 1: Understand that Hindu supremacists are fundamentally weak For all Hindu supremacists do to endear themselves to Zionists and white supremacists, they are, ironically, looked down upon by the very people they see as their closest allies. At the same time, their acceptance in interfaith and civil rights spaces has grown precarious, as more and more Sangh-affiliated groups reveal both their selective compassion as well as their affinity for exclusionary and authoritarian politics. Laundering their image is also a lost cause: They have virtually no purchase in mainstream media or advocacy spaces the way Zionists do, meaning that simply googling Hindutva pulls up a wealth of resources, news stories, and documentaries exposing its violent nature. Most importantly, civil and human rights organizations have grown increasingly vigilant about the impact of Hindu supremacy in the West. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, and Rutgers Law School’s Center for Security, Race, and Rights have all produced resources on Hindutva in the US and UK. Combined with resources created by the Indian American Muslim Council; Hindus for Human Rights; Equality Labs and hate watchdogs like Hindutva Watch and India Hate Lab; and community organizers, like the South Asia Scholar Activist Collective, Hindutva Harassment Manual, and Savera: United Against Supremacy—which cover everything from the dirty laundry of American Sangh groups to resources for victims of bad-faith bias claims —there is no shortage of ways for one to gain a comprehensive tool kit for combating Hindu supremacy. Lastly—and perhaps most hearteningly—Hindu supremacists have been repeatedly humiliated in the public sphere by relatively small advocacy groups. When the Hindu American Foundation sued a number of activists in a SLAPP lawsuit (A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) for providing Hindutva-critical quotes to an Al Jazeera journalist, a district judge not only threw out their case, but also scathingly remarked that HAF’s discovery request against the plaintiffs “amount\[ed\] to a fishing expedition.”[^148] When an event advertised that former New York City mayor Eric Adams would share a stage with Hindu supremacist figure Kajal Hindustani, a coalition of civil rights groups raised the alarm so effectively that Adams pulled out of the event.[^149] When the VHPA partnered with the Indian consulate in New York to include a float glorifying the Ram Temple in an Indian Independence Day parade, civil rights groups stood together on the steps of NYC’s city hall to condemn it, resulting in media coverage in the US,[^150] Canada,[^151] Australia,[^152] and India.[^153] When Illinois passed the Indian American Advisory Council Act, concerned activists were quick to meet with their representatives, effectively pushing lawmakers to amend the act and introduce instead the more inclusive South Asian American Advisory Council.[^154] In other words: Hindutva is no match for a well-organized community. We have proven that time and again. ### Step 2: Become informed Knowledge is the most powerful tool against hate. To effectively counter any supremacist ideology, one must not only understand its history and philosophy, but also be able to recognize its talking points and tactics of intimidation. Misinformation and ignorance allow such movements to thrive unchecked; informed communities, on the other hand, are equipped to recognize and resist them. Below is an extensive list of resources—including articles, documentaries, and research papers—that will enable you to not only speak with authority on the subject of Hindutva, but also recognize its talking points, its tactics, and its key players. - Indian American Muslim Council’s FAQs on the basics of Hindu supremacy: [https://iamc.com/faqs-on-hindu-supremacy/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://iamc.com/faqs-on-hindu-supremacy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121185496&usg=AOvVaw1hnlZdSdgrnsE9k9MorlgL)  - Hindus for Human Rights’ explainer on Hindu supremacy: [https://www.hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/whats-hindutva-and-why-it-conflicts-with-hinduism-a-guest-view](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/whats-hindutva-and-why-it-conflicts-with-hinduism-a-guest-view&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121185839&usg=AOvVaw1Rm60wa0Rt5ZN_Jb1VcyFh)  - Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) series on Hindu supremacy in America: [https://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/hindu-supremacy-united-states/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/hindu-supremacy-united-states/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121186114&usg=AOvVaw376uDapc89SRw6XRjKF9ZK) - “Hindutva in Britain” by Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative: [https://bridge.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Hindutva-in-Britain.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bridge.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Hindutva-in-Britain.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121186438&usg=AOvVaw152SSyZi53ovJGoKLMnMNc) - “Hindutva in America” by Rutgers Law School Center for Security, Race, and Rights: [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hindutva-in-america.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://csrr.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hindutva-in-america.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121186719&usg=AOvVaw337iIV8GH3QA25zR_PHXXJ)  - The Hindutva Harassment Field Manual, created by the South Asia Scholar Activist Collective: [https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121187042&usg=AOvVaw3jjSOkBsDrvhDq3Gxg6yqo) - *India: The Modi Question* (the BBC’s documentary on Modi’s rise to power): [https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8n278b](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8n278b&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121187278&usg=AOvVaw3DgZgwECdzwTy9WPyCsa_I)  - “Social Media and Hate Speech in India” by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate: [https://www.csohate.org/2025/02/10/social-media-and-hate-speech-in-india/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.csohate.org/2025/02/10/social-media-and-hate-speech-in-india/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121187597&usg=AOvVaw3dreOqaE4jhxW4TlhaWoD7)  - IAMC’s report on India’s transnational repression (TNR) on American soil: [https://iamc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TNR-Report-Final-4.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://iamc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TNR-Report-Final-4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121187861&usg=AOvVaw0vbrbpAG42vIWMVh_3tqI4) - On V. D. Savarkar and the creation of Hindu supremacist ideology: [https://aeon.co/essays/how-savarkar-invented-hindu-supremacy-and-its-cult-of-violence](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aeon.co/essays/how-savarkar-invented-hindu-supremacy-and-its-cult-of-violence&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121188149&usg=AOvVaw3DN6a97o0TLpLBIdqOfYNk)  - Savera’s explainer on Hindutva 101: [https://www.wearesavera.org/explainer/hindu-supremacy-101/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wearesavera.org/explainer/hindu-supremacy-101/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121188362&usg=AOvVaw0YVK99BrxGr-qSPkXGOg9m)  - On the oldest Hindu supremacist group in the US, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA): [https://www.wearesavera.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-Global-VHPs-Trail-of-Violence-v2.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wearesavera.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-Global-VHPs-Trail-of-Violence-v2.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121188679&usg=AOvVaw3_SjGGq-EfyitZPagD32iP) - On Hindu American Foundation’s collaborations with anti-Muslim and antiminority actors: [https://www.wearesavera.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/HAFWaytoSupremacy.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wearesavera.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/HAFWaytoSupremacy.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121188962&usg=AOvVaw3SgC_11WuzVKXN4US0UxHB)   - “Why Far-Right Hindus Love Demonizing Palestinians” by Safa Ahmed for *Jacobin* magazine: [https://jacobin.com/2023/11/india-far-right-bjp-hindutva-pro-israel-islamophobia-misinformation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jacobin.com/2023/11/india-far-right-bjp-hindutva-pro-israel-islamophobia-misinformation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121189300&usg=AOvVaw2EhSvh-ugYLIAb93Y-Sc1u)  - “The Hindutva-MAGA Alliance” by Pranay Somayajula for *Jacobin* magazine: [https://jacobin.com/2025/03/hindutva-alliance-trump-far-right](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jacobin.com/2025/03/hindutva-alliance-trump-far-right&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121189579&usg=AOvVaw3rYrxj5OFpgBNr-LMuG_QS) ### Step 3: Join or support organizations aimed at combating Hindutva Across the world, numerous civil society organizations are actively working to research and counter the spread of Hindu supremacy. These groups bring together scholars, activists, faith leaders, and community members committed to advancing pluralism, democracy, and human rights. Some of the national organizations at the forefront of this fight include: - Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) - Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) - Sikh Coalition - Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) - Equality Labs  - India Civil Watch International - Dalit Solidarity Forum USA - Savera: United Against Supremacy There are many ways individuals can engage with or support the work of these organizations, depending on their interests, expertise, and capacity. Opportunities may include participating in educational initiatives, supporting research and advocacy efforts, attending public events, contributing professional skills, volunteering, or supporting their work through donations. Those interested in learning more are encouraged to visit the respective websites of these organizations to explore their work, priorities, and available opportunities for involvement. ### Step 4: Initiate your own campaigns Once you are equipped with a solid understanding of Hindutva’s ideology and methods, you will be better prepared to recognize its manifestations in your own community—whether in the form of disinformation campaigns, inflammatory rhetoric, or local chapters of organizations affiliated with Hindu supremacy. When such issues arise, remember that you are not alone, but rather a part of an international movement—one with the resources and influence to support you. Whether you’re seeking to combat a threat or interested in doing proactive education work, this movement is well-prepared to lend you its strength. You can reach out to any of the aforementioned organizations for: - Assistance starting a campaign on a local issue (for example: a campaign to raise awareness on the visit of a Hindu supremacist speaker to your area) - Tips on how to organize meetings with elected officials—whether at the city or state level—to brief them on Hindu supremacy - Educational resources, pamphlets, presentations, and talking points on a wide range of issues - Assistance organizing educational events, teach-ins, film screenings, and seminars at your local masjid, university, or community center (many of these organizations are happy to cosponsor and amplify local events) ### Step 5: Build coalition and community While it may sound daunting to build a coalition or a community, it is often as simple as reaching out to one or two like-minded individuals or organizations and exploring opportunities to collaborate. Once you’ve explored which national organizations have a presence in your community, you can branch out to find local interfaith groups, civil rights groups, student organizations, roundtables, researchers, activists, and places of worship that are interested in the fight against Hindutva. Next, you can engage these potential partners by suggesting a collaboration on any of the following local initiatives: - A teach-in, film screening, or university event  - An advocacy day aimed at bringing together a coalition of individuals to meet with local elected officials  - An educational event at a place of worship or third space for interfaith activities It’s important here to branch out beyond the Muslim community and reach out to groups that also serve other marginalized communities. This form of thoughtful coalition building ultimately disrupts one of Hindutva’s most enduring tactics: division. The ideology thrives by pitting communities against one another—Hindus against Muslims, Indian Americans against other people of color. By nurturing these relationships with other communities, showing up for each other, and coming together with a shared purpose, you will be able to cultivate a group of allies who are able to more effectively mobilize when Hindu supremacy rears its head. ### Step 6: Do not forget about Muslims in India Indian Muslims are not, and have never been, silent in the face of oppression. We began this paper with stories of historic resistance, and that revolutionary spirit blazes on in the millions of courageous, proud, and steadfast Indian Muslims who refuse to be pushed to the margins. Hopelessness cannot exist in a world where Indian Muslim women—careerwomen and students, homemakers and grandmothers—became the defining voices of the anti-CAA protests of 2019, packing the streets of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh for months on end to demand their right to belong.[^155] Muslim men raise the call of “Jail Bharo” (“Fill the Jails”) as they risk their freedom by marching in protest against the laws attacking their beloved places of worship.[^156] Muslim communities put up signs saying “I Love Muhammad” on their homes, daring Hindu supremacists to attack them for declaring their faith.[^157] Muslim student activists jailed since 2020 write letters and poetry from their jail cells, keeping the movement alive even from within prison walls.[^158] It is the responsibility of the *ummah*, therefore, not to give in to cynicism. We must instead uplift Indian Muslim voices, and mirror their courage in fighting back against the forces that threaten them. Follow these Indian Muslim and Kashmiri activists and journalists to stay up-to-date with voices on the ground: - Rana Ayyub, Journalist - Safoora Zargar, Activist - Afreen Fatima, Activist - Sharjeel Usmani, Activist - Zeba Warsi, PBS NewsHour - Mohammed Zubair, AltNews - Raqib Naik, Center for the Study of Organized Hate You can also follow these independent news outlets and research organizations to get coverage of the stories that impact Indian Muslims and other vulnerable communities: - *The Wire* - *Scroll.in*  - *The Caravan* magazine - *The Quint* - Newslaundry - The Center for the Study of Organized Hate - Hindutva Watch ### Step 7: Let faith be your guide Look back to the Muslim freedom fighter Abul Kalam Azad, back to the speech he gave to a frightened community. In that speech, he reminded Muslims that they had no reason to feel small. Early Islamic history itself is the best reminder that the believers fear none but Allah, even as minorities on earth. “Today, you fear the earth’s tremors; once you were virtually the earthquake itself. Today, you fear the darkness; once your existence was the epicenter of radiance,” Azad said. “Those were none but your forefathers who not only plunged headlong into the seas, but trampled the mountains, laughed at the bolts of lightning, turned away the tornadoes, challenged the tempests and made them alter their course.” In the twilight of Partition, when the Indian Muslim community stood far removed from those glory days, Azad then laid out a prescription that would combine pride, acumen, and faith into a doctrine of resistance. Like the Prophet ﷺ after the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, Azad and the Muslims who helped win India’s independence were not fazed by the fact that they were a minority standing up to political and economic power. In that *fitna* (trial), there was an opportunity to build something new. “I do not ask you to seek certificates from the new echelons of power. I do not want you to lead a life of sycophancy as you did during the foreign rule,” said Azad as he stood on the steps of Jama Masjid. “Keep a grip on your senses. Learn to create your own surroundings, your own world. This is not a commodity that I can buy for you from the marketplace. This can be bought only from the marketplace of the heart, provided you can pay for it with the currency of good deeds.” It is necessary for Muslims to turn knowledge into action. Nearly all mainstream Muslim civil rights organizations are aware that Hindu supremacy threatens our communities. Additionally, there are vibrant coalitions of Indian American organizations who have come together across religious lines—groups like the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Sikh Coalition, Dalit Solidarity Forum, and Savera: United Against Supremacy. Our community can further the fight against Hindutva by supporting these organizations, joining their bases as volunteers, attending their trainings and webinars, and contacting them for tailored resources and awareness events. Lastly, Muslims must know our collective history, and we must also learn to apply it to the present. This advice is mirrored in the admonishment of the pious to the Pharaoh’s right-hand man, Qarun, who himself came from an oppressed community: “Seek the life to come by means of what God has granted you, but do not neglect your rightful share in this world. Do good to others as God has done good to you. Do not seek to spread corruption in the land, for God does not love those who do this” (Qur’an 28:77). As we take pride in our past, we must also remember the courage and vision of Muslim freedom fighters who stood for justice, dignity, and pluralism. In times when they feared oppression and erasure, they did not let go of their faith, but neither did they give up their right to dignity in a difficult world. “I want you to remind you that these bright etchings which you see all around you, are relics of processions of your forefathers,” Azad continued. He spoke of the centuries of Muslim impact he saw all around him: the minarets of Jama Masjid, the marriage between Arabic and Hindi to create the Urdu tongue, the deep shared memory of a pluralistic society. “Do not forget them. Do not forsake them. Live like their worthy inheritors, and, rest assured, that if you do not wish to flee from this scene, nobody can make you flee. Come, today let us pledge that this country is ours, we belong to it and any fundamental decisions about its destiny will remain incomplete without our consent.” “Brothers,” he concluded, “I do not have a new prescription for you. I have the same old prescription that was revealed to the greatest benefactor of mankind, the prescription of the Holy Quran: ‘Do not fear and do not grieve. If you possess true faith, you will gain the upper hand.’”[^159] Resistance is not new to our story. It is part of our inheritance. --- ## Notes [^1]: Abul Kalam Azad, “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s Iconic Speech at Jama Masjid, 23 October 1947,” Janata Weekly, February 21, 2021, [https://janataweekly.org/maulana-abul-kalam-azads-iconic-speech-at-jama-masjid-23-october-1947/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://janataweekly.org/maulana-abul-kalam-azads-iconic-speech-at-jama-masjid-23-october-1947/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121202271&usg=AOvVaw0LOOfdCABUhTopSabX6x3d). [^2]: Azad, “Speech at Jama Masjid.” [^3]: Arshad Afzal Khan, “Brave Dies Once: Last Thoughts of Kakori Martyr,” *The Times of India*, December 19, 2020, [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/brave-dies-once-last-thoughts-of-kakori-martyr/articleshow/79806249.cms](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/brave-dies-once-last-thoughts-of-kakori-martyr/articleshow/79806249.cms&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121202802&usg=AOvVaw1WrzUKeE_GKKA9NrNAkMfG). [^4]: Iqbal Husain, “Fazle Haq of Khairabad—A Scholarly Rebel of 1857,” *Proceedings of the Indian History Congress* 48 (1987): 355–65, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/44141709](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44141709&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121203148&usg=AOvVaw3UeZVhVDhe_spTZQaxHYJM). [^5]: FOEJ Desk, “‘Burqa-Clad’ Revolutionary: Abadi Bano Begum’s Untold Story of Indian Freedom Struggle,” Foundation for Ethical Journalism, July 12, 2023, [https://foej.in/burqa-clad-revolutionary-abadi-bano-begums-untold-story-of-indian-freedom-struggle/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://foej.in/burqa-clad-revolutionary-abadi-bano-begums-untold-story-of-indian-freedom-struggle/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121203580&usg=AOvVaw1Pn2jRXU3DyGe-z-68-hgd). [^6]: Azad, “Speech at Jama Masjid.” [^7]: While this paper focuses on explaining the specific ideology of Hindu supremacy and its dominant role in expanding and intensifying the scope and vitriol of anti-Muslim hatred in India, it is important to point out that anti-Muslim sentiment is far from an exclusively right-wing phenomenon. Indeed, the Indian constitution itself fails to provide safeguards against Muslim erasure in a Hindu-majority nation. Through its wording, Muslims have been denied proportionate representation in legislatures and excluded from protected categories, such as the Scheduled Caste category, about which activist Sharjeel Imam [writes](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408170922/https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-hindu-republic-seven-decades-of-muslim-exclusion-in-india-23794/amp&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121255020&usg=AOvVaw0AV99x47Hg-7oXy09mZOj0): “In India, what privileges do Muslims enjoy constitutionally which we would lose in an emerging Hindu \[nation\]? Our share in administration and politics is already at the lowest possible level.” Nor have Muslims ever been fully safe under opposition rule: The Nellie Massacre in 1983, the Hashimpura Massacre in 1987, and the Mumbai Riots in wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 all occurred under the rule of the Congress Party, long before Modi became either Gujarat’s Chief Minister or India’s Prime Minister. Numerous Muslim activists have criticized self-described liberals for failing to name anti-Muslim hatred as a driving force behind rising authoritarianism in India—a phenomenon M. Ali [refers to](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://maktoobmedia.com/opinion/tabooing-word-muslim-inherent-islamophobia-in-indian-left-liberalism-a-letter-to-liberals/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121255890&usg=AOvVaw0t4NL5UiEWWB1PZhKd5oLt) as “tabooing the word ‘Muslim.’” It is common to see those branding themselves as “secular” then withholding solidarity from the “wrong” type of Muslim: [criticizing](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theprint.in/feature/ruchika-sharma-wages-a-lonely-battle-against-hijab-the-indian-liberal-conundrum-is-exposed/2352727/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121256162&usg=AOvVaw2KxZKLnubGqK54h7qhZT7w) the hijab in the same breath as criticizing hijab bans in schools, for example, or [shutting down](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/to-invoke-allah-or-to-not-secular-islamophobia-and-the-protesting-indian-muslim&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121256365&usg=AOvVaw1DMKklrdx7WORC3yAxraMy) chants of “*La ilaha illa Allah*” as “communal” at protests against explicitly anti-Muslim policies. As Mudasir Amin and Samreen Mushtaq write for the *Caravan* magazine in wake of the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, “Solidarity from liberals is conditional because of their understanding of Muslims as quintessentially illiberal. The liberals boast about the country’s pluralistic credentials, but see any assertion on part of Muslims who foreground their identity in religious terms as inimical to India’s secular fabric.” This reluctance by liberal intelligentsia to name anti-Muslim hatred as the core of the CAA was noted by Sharjeel Imam, who has been imprisoned since 2020 under India’s draconian anti-terror law for his influence during the anti-CAA protests: “The time has come when we should tell non-Muslims that if they sympathise with us, then they must stand with us on our terms. If they can’t agree to our terms, they can’t sympathise with us.” [^8]: Agence France-Presse, “Gandhi’s Killer Godse ‘Real Patriot’ for Some Hindu Nationalists,” Al Jazeera, January 27, 2023, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/27/gandhis-killer-godse-real-patriot-for-some-hindu-nationalists-in-india](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/27/gandhis-killer-godse-real-patriot-for-some-hindu-nationalists-in-india&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121204059&usg=AOvVaw3cw7nyzxJ5CPdJtc4V1xSK). [^9]: Himanshupratap8226, “Why I Killed Gandhi: Nathuram Godse’s Final Address to the Court,” December 21, 2014, [https://www.scribd.com/document/250659637/WHY-I-KILLED-GANDHI-Nathuram-Godse-s-Final-Address-to-the-Court](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.scribd.com/document/250659637/WHY-I-KILLED-GANDHI-Nathuram-Godse-s-Final-Address-to-the-Court&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121204434&usg=AOvVaw1tTIP139Tec1LIwDcZsuRT). [^10]: Christophe Jaffrelot, “Hindutva’s ‘Purification’ Drive,” Carnegie Endowment, October 13, 2016, [https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2016/10/hindutvas-purification-drive?lang=en](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2016/10/hindutvas-purification-drive?lang%3Den&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121260351&usg=AOvVaw0IOxzQt5VSc8y_ujupRgOa). [^11]: Shamsul Islam, “Fanatic Madness: Democracy at Crossroads,” *Social Development Issues* 46, no. (2023): [https://doi.org/10.3998/sdi.5298](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.3998/sdi.5298&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121204760&usg=AOvVaw0W9BXuMsDKaKuFxNFEra-1). [^12]: V. D. Savarkar, *Essentials of Hindutva* (Hindi Sahitya Sadan, 1923), 19–33, [https://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/23/2\_12\_12\_04\_essentials\_of\_hindutva.v001.pdf\_1.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/23/2_12_12_04_essentials_of_hindutva.v001.pdf_1.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121205134&usg=AOvVaw2Mt21fBRrqpjoS4nnCIRVK). [^13]: Sahar F. Aziz, “Orientalism, Empire, and the Racial Muslim,” in *Overcoming Orientalism*, ed. Tamara Sonn (Oxford University Press, 2021), [https://ssrn.com/abstract=3525743](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ssrn.com/abstract%3D3525743&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121264673&usg=AOvVaw3aWkltjMI0y2N2M80NQWbi). [^14]: Savarkar, *Essentials of Hindutva*, 4. Here it is necessary to highlight the relationship between Hindutva and caste. The Indian caste system is one of the oldest systems of social discrimination in the world, and has its [origins](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121205545&usg=AOvVaw2rsdFz2B3QbcPzL4o_RqIj) in an ancient Hindu religious text called the *Manusmriti*, which “acknowledges and justifies the caste system as the basis of order and regularity of society.” As [defined](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.equalitylabs.org/what-is-caste/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121205820&usg=AOvVaw0kPm8rR-MBUwfPezjRkE0p) by the Dalit rights group Equality Labs, “The caste system consists of graded levels of alleged purity and places people within a certain hierarchy—leaving those in the lowest tier, called ‘Dalit’ or ‘untouchable,’ subject to abuse, attacks, and systemic social exclusion.” At the top of this hierarchy are Brahmins, often self-styled as a “pure” and superior (both physically and intellectually) race over “lower” castes. [^15]: Marzia Casolari, “Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s: Archival Evidence,” *Economic and Political Weekly* 35, no. 4 (2000): 218–28, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408848](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408848&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121209308&usg=AOvVaw0AP0Wbv2PjedzrHQ8lKomd), [http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/casolari.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/casolari.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121209486&usg=AOvVaw0i__-bKFhc1vKxhRCkNTUH). [^16]: Hartosh Singh Bal, “The Instigator: How MS Golwalkar’s Virulent Ideology Underpins Modi’s India,” Indian Express Archive, *The Caravan*, June 30, 2017, [https://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/golwalkar-ideology-underpins-modi-india](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/golwalkar-ideology-underpins-modi-india&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121209900&usg=AOvVaw35Yd-wr3VXBv0Xf6742_lW). [^17]: “Hindutva Network,” Stop Hindutva in America, accessed November 7, 2025, [https://www.stophindutvainamerica.com/hindutva-network/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.stophindutvainamerica.com/hindutva-network/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121210173&usg=AOvVaw0urB-BztB7tyDsqW47HhD5). [^18]: Meghand Bose, “Pranab Da, Here’s ‘Great Son of India’ Hedgewar Contradicting You,” *The Quint*, June 8, 2018, [https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/pranab-mukherjee-great-son-of-india-rss-hedgewar-contradicting-you](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/pranab-mukherjee-great-son-of-india-rss-hedgewar-contradicting-you&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121210577&usg=AOvVaw3OEm-SfTb42AXYrtAfCwwm). [^19]: Bal, “The Instigator.” [^20]: Dhirendra K. Jha, “Guruji’s Lie: The RSS and MS Golwalkar’s Undeniable Links to Nazism,” *The Caravan Magazine*, Hindutva Watch, August 1, 2021, [https://www.hindutvawatch.org/gurujis-lie-the-rss-and-ms-golwalkars-undeniable-links-to-nazism/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hindutvawatch.org/gurujis-lie-the-rss-and-ms-golwalkars-undeniable-links-to-nazism/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121211064&usg=AOvVaw0YZs5epQN3ulKh4iE5gtJr). [^21]: “The 2002 Gujarat Genocidal Massacres,” Genocide Watch, August 2, 2023 (updated August 1, 2024), [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/the-2002-gujarat-genocidal-massacres?utm_source%3Dchatgpt.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121211348&usg=AOvVaw3PqjhbS6Ghl8uzFs1FbBMq)[https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/the-2002-gujarat-genocidal-massacres](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/the-2002-gujarat-genocidal-massacres?utm_source%3Dchatgpt.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121211516&usg=AOvVaw2Gl5_7v7yW_s1kbBS1EBFh). [^22]: “Lok Sabha Elections: ‘Jai Shri Ram nahi kehna toh Pakistan jaa sakte hain’: BJP’s Navneet Rana Stirs Controversy,” *Mint (LiveMint)*, May 6, 2024, [https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/jai-shri-ram-pakistan-bjp-gujarat-navneet-rana-kutch-bharuch-lok-sabha-elections-11714989131672.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/jai-shri-ram-pakistan-bjp-gujarat-navneet-rana-kutch-bharuch-lok-sabha-elections-11714989131672.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121212013&usg=AOvVaw3Tg_VqLmtLngXKKh5Xojcs). [^23]: Maktoob Staff, “‘Blatant Lies, Islamophobia’: BJP Karnataka Joins PM Modi’s Hate Campaign Against Muslims, Posts Lies to Spread Anti-Muslim Hate,” *Maktoob Media*, April 23, 2024, [https://www.maktoobmedia.com/india/blatant-lies-islamophobia-bjp-karnataka-joins-pm-modis-hate-campaign-against-muslims-posts-lies-to-spread-anti-muslim-hate/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.maktoobmedia.com/india/blatant-lies-islamophobia-bjp-karnataka-joins-pm-modis-hate-campaign-against-muslims-posts-lies-to-spread-anti-muslim-hate/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121212578&usg=AOvVaw1xiqPcQaw39qibYfWUDk_N). [^24]: Notably, Hindu supremacists tend not to attribute their violent hatred of Christians to British colonialism in the same way that they attribute their anti-Muslim hatred to Mughal rule. As writer Rajeev Balasubramanyam puts it, Hindutva is a form of “colonial envy”—ideologues like Savarkar and Golwalkar sought to emulate European colonial powers rather than taking a principled anticolonial stance. Hindu supremacists’ anti-Christian hatred, therefore, is not framed as a response to British domination, but rather to the prevalence of oppressed caste individuals converting to Christianity to escape the horrors of the caste system, hence the common anti-Christian slur “rice bag convert,” accusing Christians of disloyalty to their Hindu ancestry by converting to escape poverty and Brahminism. See more here: [https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/br-ambedkar-ideology-dalit-violence-dalit-christian-6158816/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/br-ambedkar-ideology-dalit-violence-dalit-christian-6158816/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121263570&usg=AOvVaw28iTuoU9bqGBKTbkDvL-3_). [^25]: Savarkar, *Essentials of Hindutva*, 19–20. [^26]: Savarkar, *Essentials of Hindutva*, 54. [^27]: Saurabh Shukla, “Azaan vs Hanuman Chalisa Reaches UP’s Aligarh, Administration Cautious,” *NDTV*, April 15, 2022, [https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/azaan-vs-hanuman-chalisa-reaches-ups-aligarh-right-wing-groups-petition-district-administration-2891291](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/azaan-vs-hanuman-chalisa-reaches-ups-aligarh-right-wing-groups-petition-district-administration-2891291&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121213265&usg=AOvVaw2K-1UIIagDDL6nyU5anGDi). [^28]: Divya Arya, “Karnataka Hijab Controversy Is Polarising Its Classrooms,” BBC News, February 15, 2022, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60384681](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60384681&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121213561&usg=AOvVaw2FwvL1PHDXXLSH7EaKBbYh). [^29]: Citizens for Justice & Peace (CJP) Team, “The Anti-Conversion Law of Rajasthan: A Threat to Individual Liberty and Religious Freedom,” CJP, February 4, 2025, [https://www.cjp.org.in/the-anti-conversion-law-of-rajasthan-a-threat-to-individual-liberty-and-religious-freedom/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cjp.org.in/the-anti-conversion-law-of-rajasthan-a-threat-to-individual-liberty-and-religious-freedom/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121214000&usg=AOvVaw16_Hu1DgIoJ5qC5g4NbbbA). [^30]: Geeta Pandey and Yogita Limaye, “Ayodhya Ram Mandir: India PM Modi Inaugurates Hindu Temple on Razed Babri Mosque Site,” BBC, January 22, 2024, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68003095](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68003095&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121259165&usg=AOvVaw0FMDqGwUaBpxGhUuo5D4qg). [^31]: Pankaj Srivastava and Santosh Kumar Sharma, “Court Rejects Hindu Side’s Plea to Declare Mathura Shahi Idgah Disputed Structure,” *India Today*, updated July 4, 2025, [https://www.indiatoday.in/india/law-news/story/allahabad-high-court-rejects-hindu-sides-plea-to-declare-shahi-idgah-a-disputed-structure-2750740-2025-07-04](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/law-news/story/allahabad-high-court-rejects-hindu-sides-plea-to-declare-shahi-idgah-a-disputed-structure-2750740-2025-07-04&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121214542&usg=AOvVaw1v9KLioGBbifUf8idwUgvj). [^32]: Citizens for Justice & Peace (CJP) Team, “November 2024 Surge in Cow Vigilantism: Rising Violence and Legal Apathy in North India,” CJP, November 27, 2024, [https://cjp.org.in/november-2024-surge-in-cow-vigilantism-rising-violence-and-legal-apathy-in-north-india/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cjp.org.in/november-2024-surge-in-cow-vigilantism-rising-violence-and-legal-apathy-in-north-india/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1773168121259618&usg=AOvVaw3Zoue2_taUOInPgQStrNy6). 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[^158]: Quint Entertainment, “In Solidarity, Actors & Celebs Recite Gulfisha Fatima’s Poems Written From Jail,” *The Quint*, April 15, 2025, [https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/celebrities/gulfisha-fatima-poems-celebrities-writers-free-gulfisha-movement-solidarity-five-years-in-prison-caa-nrc-protests.](https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/celebrities/gulfisha-fatima-poems-celebrities-writers-free-gulfisha-movement-solidarity-five-years-in-prison-caa-nrc-protests.) [^159]: Azad, “Speech at Jama Masjid.” ## Summary In the closing days of the British Raj, October 1947, the subcontinent lay drenched in blood after Partition had cleaved India from Pakistan and sundered a centuries-old Muslim population. Amid the burning of homes and the trains of corpses that crossed the new borders, the freedom fighter and *ʿālim* Abul Kalam Azad ascended the steps of the three-hundred-year-old Jama Masjid in Delhi to steady a terrified congregation. Drawing on the twin principles of *tawakkul* (reliance upon Allah) and *istiqāma* (steadfastness), he refused to let his people surrender to fear, declaring: "Raise your eyes! The minarets of Jama Masjid want to ask you a question. Where have you lost the glorious pages from your chronicles?" He reminded them that "the words coward and frenzy cannot be spoken in the same breath as the word Muslim," and that "it is a sure sign of a dying faith that those who had once grabbed the collars of emperors are today clutching their own throats." Azad's conviction, though it may appear paradoxical—for he embraced pan-Islamism yet championed Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and helped shape India's secular framework—was shared by his contemporaries. The same spirit animated Ashfaqullah Khan, who met his execution declaring his love for his motherland "as a true Muslim"; the *muftī* Fazle Haque, who rallied the *ʿulamāʾ* of Delhi to sign a call for a just war against British colonization; and Abadi Bano Begum, whose spirituality and activism were intertwined. In their vision, the Muslim neither seeks isolation nor begs for recognition, but stands, in Prophetic fashion, as an architect of his nation's destiny however few his numbers. Seventy-seven years later, this faith and courage offers a blueprint for confronting Hindutva, or Hindu supremacy. To resist it, one must first understand it. Only months after Azad's address, Nathuram Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi—then on hunger strike against communal violence—calling his crime a "moral" act, convinced that India had no place for Muslims. Hindutva, as Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative describes it, is "a modern political ideology used... to carve out an exclusive identity and justify discrimination and violence against minority communities," especially Muslims. Its term was codified by V. D. Savarkar, a former revolutionary who begged the British for clemency and pledged loyalty to their empire. In his 1923 pamphlet *Essentials of Hindutva*, Savarkar argued that Muslims and Christians, following faiths born outside the subcontinent, could never be loyal to India, and urged Hindus to unite in "hatred" against this "common foe." As Sahar Aziz notes, his framing echoed an Orientalist European view of Islam as "propagat[ing] ignorance, violence, and sensuality." Savarkar, himself an agnostic, distinguished Hindutva sharply from Hinduism, praising Hitler and Mussolini as models of "national revival." His writings radicalized K. B. Hedgewar, who founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925 and called Muslims "foreign snakes." The RSS's second chief, M. S. Golwalkar, declared that minorities must be "wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing... not even citizens' rights," and, as Dhirendra K. Jha writes, sought to cast the RSS as a Nazi-style militia. Narendra Modi, who joined the RSS at age eight in 1958, rose through its ranks and, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, facilitated the 2002 pogrom in which nearly two thousand Muslims were slaughtered while police were reportedly ordered not to intervene. He became Prime Minister in 2014. The decade that followed brought relentless assault upon India's Muslims. A 2024 BJP campaign post revealed that, in the party's eyes, to promise Muslims basic civil liberties—the hijab in schools, personal law, fair hiring—was inherently anti-Hindu. This lays bare Hindutva's true engine: it is not about protecting Hindu faith at all, but draws its strength from the subjugation of Muslims and Christians, seeking vengeance for Mughal rule as a manufactured "clash of civilizations." Its assault is comprehensive. The *adhān* from loudspeakers has been banned in several states; praying outside a mosque can invite police investigation; Karnataka's 2022 hijab ban forced Muslim women to choose between faith and education. Twelve states have criminalized conversion to Islam and Christianity, fueled by the "love jihad" conspiracy. Centuries-old mosques face legal campaigns for seizure or demolition—as with the Babri Masjid, torn down in 1992 and replaced by a temple in 2024, and now the Gyanvapi Masjid and the 355-year-old Shahi Eidgah, targeted despite the Places of Worship Act of 1991. Discriminatory laws multiply: the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act and National Registry of Citizens threaten to render millions stateless; the 2025 Waqf Amendment Act mandates non-Muslims on committees overseeing endowed lands; the Uniform Civil Code erodes *sharīʿa* in personal matters. "Bulldozer justice," mirroring Israeli tactics against Palestinians, has demolished countless Muslim homes without due process, which the activist Fawaz Shaheen calls "a form of collective punishment." Institutional complicity runs deep. Police enable Hindu supremacist violence while torturing and shooting Muslims; the judiciary bends to the mob. In 2022, courts denied bail to peaceful Muslim activists such as Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and Gulfisha Fatima, even as the Supreme Court facilitated the release of eleven men who gang-raped Bilkis Bano and murdered fourteen of her family, and a Gujarat court acquitted sixty-seven militants of the Naroda Gam massacre. One such man, Babu Bajrangi, boasted of killing Muslims: "I enjoy it... they should not be allowed to prosper." The website Hindutva Profiles catalogs hundreds of such extremists—a normalization of bloodlust that the Ten Stages of Genocide identifies as the point where society "overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder." Lynchings over accusations of theft, "love jihad," or cow slaughter are near-daily; mob processions circle mosques brandishing swords, blasting genocidal music, and setting graveyards aflame, as after the Ram Temple consecration in January 2024. In occupied Jammu and Kashmir, scholars such as Ather Zia and Suchitra Vijayan document tactics that mirror Israel's in Palestine—militarization, land seizure, and criminalization of dissent—intensified after the 2019 revocation of Article 370, when India's consul general openly declared, "If the Israeli people can do it, we can also do it." Hate speech saturates India's public and digital life; a study by the Islamic Council of Victoria found that over half of all anti-Muslim posts on X between 2019 and 2021 originated in India. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen exposed the platform's amplification of "anti-Muslim narratives," and its India policy head Ankhi Das reportedly shielded a BJP leader's hate speech lest it "damage the company's business prospects." Anti-Muslim hate speeches rose 74 percent in 2024, with leaders like Kapil Mishra vowing to "enter that house and kill him," and Yogi Adityanath boasting that people would soon "forget about screams [adhān] from mosques." The Editors' Guild of India compared the country's mainstream media to Radio Rwanda. In education, as Dr. Jason Stanley observes, "fascism survives off myths that create an out-group"; thus the 2023 removal of Mughal history and references to Azad and the Gujarat pogrom from textbooks—what Professor Apoorvanand calls "a cultural genocide." This danger is global. Through the Sangh Parivar—including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh—Hindutva funds and organizes across the diaspora, allying openly with Zionists and white supremacists. As Azad Essa observes, "At the heart of this new alliance is Islamophobia." Yet, as the Savera coalition notes, these groups seek "accommodation within" white supremacy, "aspiring to whiteness rather than joining in solidarity with its oppressed." From the 2022 Leicester riots to Trump-cabinet appointees who praise Modi, its reach widens. A 2025 British report named Hindu nationalism a "breeding ground for extremism," and an Indian American Muslim Council survey found 81 percent of respondents had faced harassment from Hindu contacts. Yet resistance is our inheritance. When the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya dismayed the Companions, Allah revealed: "No doubt, We have given you a clear victory" (Qur'an 48:1)—teaching that victory is measured not by dominance but by trust in Allah and steadfastness upon truth. A seven-step path lies open: recognizing that Hindu supremacists are fundamentally weak, easily exposed and repeatedly humiliated by small, organized advocacy; becoming informed through the resources of bodies like the Indian American Muslim Council and Hindus for Human Rights; joining and supporting such organizations; initiating campaigns; building coalitions across communities to defeat Hindutva's tactic of division; and never forgetting the Muslims of India—the women of Shaheen Bagh, the men crying "Jail Bharo," the students writing poetry from prison. Above all, we must let faith be our guide. As the pious warned Qārūn: "Seek the life to come by means of what God has granted you, but do not neglect your rightful share in this world... Do not seek to spread corruption in the land" (Qur'an 28:77). Azad offered no new prescription, only the old one of the Qur'an: "Do not fear and do not grieve. If you possess true faith, you will gain the upper hand." Resistance, then, is part of our inheritance. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/calling-upon-allah-through-his-99-names-duas-from-the-name-i-need-ramadan-series # Calling Upon Allah Through His 99 Names: Du’as from “The Name I Need” Ramadan Series **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Dua, Names of Allah, Ramadan **Published:** March 3, 2026 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 Have you ever paused mid-prayer and wondered: Who am I really speaking to? When we make *du’a*, we aren’t just sending words into a void. We are reaching out to the Architect of the heavens, the One who hears the pulse of a seedling beneath the soil and the silent ache of a breaking heart. But to call upon Him truly, we must first recognize Him. He is Ar-Rahman, the Most Merciful, whose grace precedes His anger. He is Al-Lateef, the Most Gentle, working in the subtle shifts of your life that you haven’t even noticed yet. He is your King, your Master, and your most intimate confidant, and He is waiting for you to call Him by name. Here are 30 *du’a*s to call upon Allah as you follow along the **Ramadan Series with Dr. Omar Suleiman, [The Name I Need](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/the-name-i-need-ramadan-2026).** --- ## EPISODE 1 *Ya Rahman*, from Your Throne, You wrote mercy upon Yourself. You were merciful before there was anyone to receive mercy. Embrace every part of me with that mercy: my past with its scars, my present with its needs, my future with its uncertainties. *Ya Raheem*, let me taste the mercy You keep for those who return, reward me with the mercy I have yet to know, and raise me to the highest place in Paradise despite my lows on earth. *Ya Ra’uf*, cover me from storms I don’t see coming, mend me before I break, and spare me from trials of every kind. Let Your mercy reach me in ways I’ll only understand when I finally meet You. --- ## EPISODE 2 *Ya Ilaahi*, the One my heart was created to seek, pull me away from every false worship, from anything that divides my devotion, until nothing fills my longing but You. *Ya Waahid*, unify my pursuits into a single direction. And when the world pulls me apart, center me in Your oneness. *Ya Ahad*, open my heart to see that nothing compares, so that I’m never overly impressed by anyone but You,  and I come to love Your names and attributes in a way that frees me from all others. And *Ya Witr*, when I stand alone at the close of the night, let my solitude remind me of Your singular majesty. Make my heart distinct by its devotion. Make me one of Your rarest servants. --- ## EPISODE 3 *Ya Haady*, guide me when my heart forgets the way. Pull me back from every turn that leads me astray. Let Your guidance feel closer than the doubts in my chest, and steadier than the voices that confuse me. *Ya Rasheed*, teach me to see truth instinctively. Make faith beloved to me. Make righteousness feel natural. And let sin feel heavy on my chest and hated by my every breath. Inspire me with wisdom that protects me from myself. *Ya Nur*, light every darkness I carried or carry within. Let Your light pour into my heart, and onto all of my other limbs until You make me a light, and everything I see reminds me of You. *Ya Mubeen*, make Your signs clear in what surrounds me and what is within me. Reveal the lessons hidden in every trial. Let me never lose sight of Your signs again. --- ## EPISODE 4 *Ya Waliyy*, be my closest friend when the world drifts away. Guard me with the grip that never slips. Guide me gently through what I don’t understand, and let every loss lead me back to You. *Ya Barr*, keep me firm on the grounds of Your goodness. Make my faith steady when my heart trembles. Let me love what brings me to Your stability and make me patient with what keeps me on its shore. *Ya Rafeeq*, be tender with my soul as You unfold Your plan. Soften the path without removing its purpose. Make me gentle with others, as You have been gentle with me. And when I am lonely, fill that space with Your company. --- ## EPISODE 5 *Ya Rabb*, raise me the way You raise every seed from the soil. Shape my growth with all You continue to give. Let every season You place me in become a lesson in Your care. *Ya Mawla*, be my protector when I have no one to stand for me. Take charge of my affairs when I lose control of them. Hold me near when fear surrounds me, and make Your guardianship always enough for me. *Ya Naseer*, help me in every battle I cannot see. Grant me triumph without arrogance and victory only in a way that brings me closer to You. *Ya Sayyid*, teach my heart that true honor is to only serve You. Let my dignity be in humility, my leadership in obedience, and my freedom in surrender. --- ## EPISODE 6 *Ya Malik*, You are the King of everything I know and hold. Remind me that nothing I hold is truly mine, and that every rise and fall belongs to Your decree. Let my gratitude expand with every breath You lend me. *Ya Maalik*, the Owner of the Day when debts are paid, teach me to settle my dues before I meet You. Keep me honest with what I owe, and hopeful in what You forgive. *Ya Maleek*, the King whose command no one can escape, let Your sovereignty humble my pride. Make me content under Your rule, and protect me from a rebellious heart or soul that would cause me to fall out of Your favor. *Ya Jaleel*, fill my heart with reverence that draws me near, not fear that drives me away. Let my awe of You refine me, until I stand before You small, but never disgraced. --- ## EPISODE 7 *Ya Khaaliq*, You brought me out of nothingness into being. Remind me that my existence itself is a mercy, that every breath, every cell, and every chance is a deliberate act of Your creation. *Ya Baari’*, the One who perfects what He produces. Repair what I’ve broken within myself. Make me whole again with the same precision by which You fashioned all of Your creation. *Ya Musawwir*, You shaped me in the unseen, gave me form, face, and story. Beautify my character as You’ve beautified my features. Let what You see within me be more pleasing than what others see of me. *Ya Khallaaq*, keep creating new openings when I run out of ways. Create for me new beginnings when I rush to my end, and new realities when I feel doomed by my sins. Remake me with patience when I reach my limits, faith when I’m afraid, and hope when I can’t imagine a way forward. --- ## EPISODE 8 *Ya Samad*, the One who needs nothing while everything needs You. Make me whole by depending only on You. Fill the hollowness inside of me until no desire within me competes with Your glory. *Ya Haqq*, make Your truth the anchor of my heart,  and my guiding path to Your light. Let every lie I chase collapse before Your reality,  and every truth lead me to Your next promise. Keep me grounded in what endures, and turn my eyes from what deceives. *Ya Waasi’*, expand my heart to hold more gratitude, my patience to endure with more grace, and my vision to see beyond my limits. Let me find expanse in Your vastness  when the world around me feels small. --- ## EPISODE 9 *Ya Ghaafir*, forgive me for every single sin I’ve ever put forth, cover me in this life and the next, and don’t let shame keep me from returning to You. *Ya Ghaffar*, for every time I fall and rise again, meet me with another chance. Let my heart grow softer with every repentance, and my view of the door of Your mercy grow wide, for You’ve never tired of forgiving. *Ya Ghafur*, forgive me for what I know and what I don’t, what I’ve done and what I still may do. Wash away every hidden trace of my wrongdoing and turn the stains of my past into light. Reach me with Your forgiveness even in the holes I’ve dug for myself. *Ya Tawwaab*, turn to me so that I may turn to You. Call me back every time I drift, and accept me every time I return. Make repentance my constant companion, and joy and Jannah my reward in finding You again. --- ## EPISODE 10 *Ya Wadud*, love me even after I falter. And let Your love reach me through every mercy I overlook. Teach me to love You more than what You give, and to find sweetness in every test that draws me closer to Your love. Announce Your love for me in the heavens,  until I hear that announcement myself in Paradise. Surround me with it in everything around me,  and let me feel it deep inside myself. *Ya Muhsin*, You perfect everything You touch. Make me one of those who do good because You do good. Guide me to the ways of good in every single one of my dealings, then let my deeds of excellence to others be a reflection of Your unmatched perfection. *Ya Shakur*, for every small effort I make, reward me beyond measure. Let me never grow tired of thanking You, and never forget that gratitude itself is a gift from You. Accept from me what is broken, and multiply it until it becomes whole. --- ## EPISODE 11 *Ya Samee’*, You hear every sound before it’s spoken, and every silence before it finds words. Inspire in me the words that are pleasing to You. Make sincere the *du’a* I utter between breaths, and the ones I make loud alongside others.  Let me never doubt that You are listening, and never tire of my calling. *Ya Qareeb*, You are nearer than every thought I hide. Let me feel Your nearness in the stillness of my prayer. Let the clarity and comfort of Your closeness cut through all the noise outside. And forgive me for what should have never made it inside. *Ya Mujeeb*, answer not only what I ask, but what I mean. Give me what I would have prayed for if I knew what was best for me. When I raise my hands to You, fill them only with what draws me closer to You,  and protect me from ever believing an answer is not possible or questioning You. --- ## EPISODE 12 *Ya Mu’min*, grant me faith that no fear can shake. Secure my heart in Your promise, and guard my soul from every whisper that breeds doubt. Let my trust in You be heavier than any worry that visits me. *Ya Muhaymin*, the Watchful who never sleeps. Watch over me in the moments no one else can. Protect me from what I can and cannot see, And be my shield from even what I see, but cannot change. *Ya Hafeedh*, preserve my faith through trial and time. Guard my loved ones when they are far from me. Keep safe the blessings I forget to thank You for, and protect me, for without You I cannot protect myself. *Ya Wakeel*, I entrust to You my every matter,  what I seemingly can handle and that which is obviously beyond my control. Take charge of what confuses me and carry what I cannot hold, and make Your plan more beloved to me than even my own, for You are enough for me, no matter what else I own. --- ## EPISODE 13 *Ya Baseer*, You see what no one else sees— every tear I hide, every effort unnoticed, every quiet act of good. Let me find comfort in being seen by You when I feel invisible to the rest of the world. *Ya Shaheed*, be my Witness when my intentions are pure and when they falter, let my fear of You set them right. Let me live conscious that You are truly always watching, and die as one who lived truthfully under Your sight. *Ya Raqeeb*, watch over my heart when it drifts, and over my thoughts before they turn to deeds. Make me mindful of You in secret and in public, until awareness of You becomes my protection from slipping. *Ya Sitteer*, cover my faults with the same grace You always have. Hide my flaws even as You heal them. Let my repentance be quiet and my shame sincere, and my forgiveness made complete beneath Your protective veil. --- ## EPISODE 14 *Ya Subbuh*, *subhaanak*… how perfect You are beyond everything I can imagine. When the world feels loud and heavy, remind me that You are untouched by its chaos. Let my glory and praise of You rise above the darkness, even if I drowned myself in it And pull me out of it by Your perfection even after I dragged myself down. *Ya Quddus*, purify me inside and out. Cleanse my worship of pride, my heart of resentment, my soul of anything that clouds its way back to You. And make me worthy of the nearness I seek to You. *Ya Salaam*, send peace into every storm within my chest. Let Your calm settle where fear once lived, Your safety surround what the world cannot protect. Make me a source of peace for others, until I meet You in the home of peace. And get to hear from You Yourself, “*Salaam*.” --- ## EPISODE 15 *Ya Ghaniyy,* You are free of all need while I am always in need of You. Let me never beg from those as poor as me. Make me rich through contentment, and fill my heart with gratitude instead of greed. *Ya Hameed*, You are praised whether or not I remember to say it. Teach me to love You not just for what You give, but for who You are. Let my praise echo in hardship as it does in ease, and let every breath I take be a quiet thank You. *Ya Fattaah*, Open doors I cannot find and hearts I cannot reach. Open paths to good where I see only walls, and open my chest to trust whatever You’ve decreed. Let every opening You grant me lead me back to You. --- ## EPISODE 16 *Ya Qaabid*, *Ya Baasit*, when You withhold, let me not lose hope, and when You expand, let me not lose humility. Tighten my path only to redirect me to Yours, and widen it in ways that it increases my gratitude to You. Teach me to find You in both the squeeze and the release and to love You both in the stillness and the flow. *Ya Muqaddim*, *Ya Mu’akhir*, when You bring me forward, make me worthy of the moment, and when You hold me back, make me patient with the waiting. Advance me only when the step will please You, and delay me only when the pause will protect me. Wherever I stand in Your decree, let me always feel content that I am never misplaced. --- ## EPISODE 17 *Ya ‘Aleem*, You know what I hide and what I show, what I’ve done and what I will do. Let what You know of me be better than what people know of me, and forgive me for what only You know. Teach me what benefits me, and let what You keep hidden from me always be for my good. *Ya Hakeem*, Your wisdom surrounds what I can’t understand. When I question the purpose, remind me of Your perfection. Grant me the patience to trust Your timing and the insight to see the beauty unfolding in Your decree. *Ya Lateef*, work gently through the details of my life. Send kindnesses that I may not notice until I look back, but can still feel at every moment. Let Your subtle care reach the corners of my heart that no words or people could ever touch. *Ya Khabeer*, You are fully aware of what’s within me: my fears, my flaws, and my hidden intentions. Purify what You see inside of me until it is pleasing to You, and let nothing inside me here contradict what will be produced on that day  when I stand before You laid bare. --- ## EPISODE 18 *Ya Qahhaar*, the One who subdues all false powers. Subdue every tyrant who raises a hand against the innocent. Break the arrogance of those who spill the blood of Your beloved servants. Let their cruelty be crushed by Your justice. Subdue also the arrogance within me— so that I never resemble the oppressor in any form. *Ya Jabbaar*, mend what their hands have broken. Rebuild the lands they’ve shattered, and heal the hearts that tremble for You under their bombs and boots. Set right the fractures in our *ummah*, and make every wound a doorway back to You. When You allow us to break, let it only be to rebuild us stronger, and when You heal us, let the healing only bring us nearer. *Ya Mutakabbir*, You are too glorious for injustice to prevail, too mighty for oppression to last before You. Show the tyrants that no throne stands forever, and honor the humble who still call Your Name even beneath the rubble. Clothe our people in dignity when the world strips them bare, and raise them in rank, and protect them from despair. --- ## EPISODE 19 *Ya Qaadir*, nothing is beyond Your power. As You part the seas and revive the dead, lift our people from beneath the weight of this world. Show us that no injustice is too deep for You to overturn, and no despair too dark for You to light again. *Ya Qadeer*, every decree rests in Your command. Write victory for the oppressed, freedom for the prisoners, and safety for every child who sleeps beneath fear. Only You are able to turn tears into triumph and rubble into resurrection. *Ya Muqtadir*, Your power is perfect, Your execution without flaw. Let those who boast of might see how small they really are. Crush the arrogance that claims control over Your creation, and remind us that even the most helpless among us are upheld by You alone. Grant us strength without cruelty, faith without fatigue, and victory that only humbles us before You,  until we dwell in that place where our oppressors can no longer reach us,  and only those You love stand before You. --- ## EPISODE 20 *Ya ‘Adl*, Oh You whose balance never tips unfairly. When the world feels rigged for cruelty, remind us that You are merely delaying the cruel. And never unjust even by the weight of a single atom. Make us witnesses to Your justice in this life, and part of its fulfillment in the next. And let us love justice ourselves, and be purified from oppression within. *Ya Muqsit*, Restore to the victims what was stolen from them, and to the weary hearts what hope they lost. Make us a people who act with equity, and never swerve from accountability. *Ya Hakam*, You are the Judge when the courts of humanity fail. When truth is buried beneath lies, let Your verdict rise clear and unstoppable. Judge between us and those who wrong without remorse, and let us not find ourselves except on the side of the oppressed. *Ya Haseeb*, You are enough when proof is hidden and power is abused. Account for every tear that fell unseen, and every cruelty that was silenced by fear. Let Your reckoning come swiftly for those who harm, and ever so gently for those who endured. --- ## EPISODE 21 *Ya Razzaaq*, You provide for every creature in ways we can’t see. Feed my heart before my hands, and let my trust in Your sustenance outweigh my fear of the future. Provide for me in ways that bring me closer to You, and never let what I earn make me forget Who it’s from. *Ya Kareem*, You give beyond what I deserve,  and with a dignity too noble for me to live up to. Let Your generosity flow through me as a reflection of how it flows from You. Make my giving noble and my gratitude constant. When You withhold, remind me You are still giving, even if in ways I may not yet understand. *Ya Akram*, the most generous of those who give. Honor me with contentment in every decree. Make my share of this world enough and my portion of the next abundant. Let me live in gratitude for Your generosity that I can never live up to, and die with praise for a Lord who always gave more. --- ## EPISODE 22 *Ya Qawiyy*, strengthen me where I am weak,  and make me firm where I bend too easily. Lift me so that I can lift others, without ever believing I lifted myself. When the weight of the world feels heavier than my faith, remind me that Your strength is the only way to see it through. Let me draw strength from Your Power but never be weakened by my pride. *Ya Mateen*, make me steady when everything else shakes. Root me in conviction that does not sway with opinion or fear. Let my faith be anchored deep enough that no loss can uproot it. Keep my footing secure in moments that test my balance. *Ya ‘Azeez*, grant me the honor that comes only from You. Let my dignity rest in humility before You, my worth be measured only in worship of You. Protect me from chasing validation from those as fragile as I, and make my highest victory the achievement of Your pleasure. --- ## EPISODE 23 *Ya Shaafy*, heal me in ways that medicine can’t fix. Remove whatever sickness has touched my body,  and expel along with it any sin that has poisoned my soul. Let every ache remind me of Your mercy, and every cure draw me closer to You. Heal this *ummah* from its wounds, and make us whole again through faith and patience. *Ya Tayyib*, make my life pure enough to be accepted by You. Purify my wealth from the unlawful, and my worship from showing off.  Purify my clothes and my food,  and every way that I seek You. *Ya Mu’ty*, giver of all that heals and all that sustains, Let me never forget that every gift from You is a blessed call back to You,  and let it find me only as a grateful recipient and servant. --- ## EPISODE 24 *Ya Saboor*, teach me the patience that doesn’t expire. Make me calm when delay tests me, and grateful even as I wait. Grant me patience over my desires,  and through my trials,  and upon the deeds that will protect me from the Fire. *Ya Haleem*, You see my mistakes and still give me time to fix them. You watch my slips and still cover them in kindness. Make me forbearing with those around me,  and quick to forgiveness with those who may wrong me. *Ya ‘Aliyy*, *Ya Muta’aaly*, raise my heart above resentment and smallness. Lift my gaze toward the higher ways that reach You, and place my hopes in what lasts with You. Let my character rise even when my status falls. For You are higher than everything that confuses or defeats me. Lift me above pettiness, above despair, above sin. until my soul finds its peace in Your elevation. --- ## EPISODE 25 *Ya Kabeer*, how small I am before You. Let humility settle where arrogance once lived. Remind me that greatness belongs only to You, and can only be realized through You. Shut the doors to what diminishes me,  and guide my devotion to what fills me through You. *Ya ‘Adheem*, my Lord of Might and measure, make my reverence for You heavier than any fear of creation. Let my heart bow before You long before my body does, and let my most unstable positions be stilled by my trust in You. *Ya A’laa*, You are higher than every desire I chase. Lift me from the illusions of this world and make my ambitions worthy of Your nearness. Let my soul rise to You with sincerity and longing, until I meet You in the highest of places. *Ya Majeed*, the Glorious whose greatness humbles all glory, honor me by keeping me close.  Let my meeting with You there be an extension of my meetings with You here. Make my remembrance of You my greatest title, and my servitude to You my highest rank. --- ## EPISODE 26 *Ya Jawaad*, Your generosity reaches me before I even raise my hands. You give before I ask, and more than I deserve. Let me never mistake Your gifts for my earning. Make my giving a small reflection of Yours— openhanded, unseen, and without expectation. *Ya Mannaan*, every blessing I have is a favor You began. You wrote kindness into my story long before I could thank You. Let me recognize Your favors not as entitlement but as invitation. *Ya Wahhaab*, the Giver of gifts without reason or limit, grant me what only love can grant— forgiveness without condition, and openings without explanation. Gift me faith that doesn’t falter when I fall, and hope that keeps finding You even when I can’t see the way. Let every blessing You bestow lead me back to its source— You, and only You. --- ## EPISODE 27 *Ya ‘Afuww*, erase what I’ve done in the mercy that only You can write. Wipe away the traces of every sin that followed me into this night, until I stand before You as if I’d never fallen. Let my shame become the soil from which sincerity grows, and my repentance the rope that pulls me back to You. You love to pardon—so pardon me completely. Forgive what I remember and what I’ve forgotten, what I’ve confessed and what I’ve concealed. Make my record as clean as the day You created me, and my heart lighter than it has ever been before. Let me walk out of this night free of what once chained me, hopeful in what awaits me, and humbled by the Lord who forgives simply because He loves to. --- ## EPISODE 28 *Ya Hayiyy*, You are too shy to turn away these hands. How many times have I asked with nothing worthy in return, and yet still You answered in a way that left me in awe? When I stand before You ashamed, forgive me for my mountains of fault through a little of Your mercy, and give me more than I dare to ask because of Your generosity. *Ya Jaami’*, gather the pieces of my heart that the world has broken, or perhaps I myself have broken. Unite what distance and time have separated. Bring together my past and my purpose, my loved ones and the reward You’ve promised, until we meet again under the shade of Your throne complete. *Ya Waarith*, as everything returns to You,  what fades for me remains preserved with You. Keep my deeds when I am gone and let them grow, and my legacy when I’m forgotten, so long as not by You. Inherit my soul with Your pleasure and leave behind only what You’ll love to return to me. --- ## EPISODE 29 *Ya Awwal*, You were there before beginnings were written. Before my first breath, You already knew my name. Remind me that nothing starts without You, and that every good I begin is only by Your permission. Let my first step in anything always be toward You. *Ya Aakhir*, You remain when all else fades. When every name is forgotten, Yours endures. Let my last breath be in Your remembrance, and my last sight be upon Your mercy. *Ya Dhaahir*, You are evident in every beauty, in the rise of the sun and the appearance of the moon. Let me see Your majesty in all that surrounds me, until everything I witness becomes a door back to You. *Ya Baatin*, You are nearer than my thoughts, closer than my pulse. You Know the things I can’t say, and forgive the things I can’t hide. Preserve me in the unseen as You do in the open, and let my nearness to You outlast my time on this earth. --- ## EPISODE 30 *Ya Allah*, when I forget even myself, let Your name always remain in my heart and on my tongue. And let my heart always find its way back to You. When I call You by this Name, I am calling every mercy, every promise, every door that leads home. You are what no one else is, and for me what no one else can be. *Ya Hayy*, the Ever-Living who never fades. Put life into my worship when it starts to fade and life into my purpose when I start to feel lost again. Let my faith in You stay alive when the world floods me with dying promises  and the devil deceives with his deception. *Ya Qayyum*, the Sustainer of all that exists. Hold me together when I fall apart. Sustain my heart with Your remembrance, and my deeds with sincerity. Do not leave me to myself even for the blink of an eye. Steady me when I swerve, with Your guidance. Receive me when I return, with Your grace. *Ya Allah*, when I rise from one of Your seasons of incredible mercy, let me remember that You were always Merciful from the beginning,  and You will always be in the end, so long as I return to You.  Ya Allah, return me to You.  Ya Allah, return me to You.  Ya Allah, return me to You. In the presence of Your beloved (*salallahu alayhi wa sallam*) and all those who knew You the way I want to. In the beginning and the end and always, to You all praise is due. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-ethics-of-scholarly-inquiry-al-subki-on-method-debate-and-disagreement-essay # The Ethics of Scholarly Inquiry: Al-Subkī on Method, Debate and Disagreement | Essay **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Jurisprudence (fiqh) **Tags:** Analysis **Published:** February 18, 2026 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 At the conclusion of his treatise on the status of the *tarāwīḥ* prayer as an established Prophetic practice—including the mode of performance and number of *rakʿa*s—the prominent Shāfiʿī scholar Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355) takes an unexpected turn. Moving away from legal argumentation, he adopts a more reflective register: a meditation on the pursuit of knowledge itself. In doing so, he shifts from jurisprudential debate to offering thoughtful counsel for students and novice jurists on the ethics of research and the proper conduct of scholarly inquiry.[^1] Al-Subkī’s counsel emerges from a concrete legal controversy, yet resonates far beyond it. Disputes over *tarāwīḥ* were never merely technical; they often reflected broader communal debates about authority, precedent, and the legitimate scope of scholarly disagreement. His remarks remind us that the integrity of the method matters as much as the conclusions we reach. This passage exemplifies a recurring concern in al-Subkī’s writings: the centrality of moral discipline in scholarly debate and the perils of adversarial overreach, even when one’s legal position is well-founded. In the month of Ramadan, as debates over devotional practice continue to divide communities, I offer this translation, which remains as relevant today as in al-Subkī’s own time. The translation seeks to preserve his didactic tone while rendering his methodological vocabulary in accessible English. Technical terms are translated rather than transliterated where possible, while the original conceptual framework is maintained. ![Manuscript image from al-Subkī’s treatise (Süleymaniye Library, Laleli 01098-001)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image2-1024x237.png) Manuscript image from al-Subkī’s treatise (Süleymaniye Library, Laleli 01098-001) *Manuscript image from al-Subkī’s treatise (Süleymaniye Library, Laleli 01098-001)* Al-Subkī’s text: Know, O student of knowledge, that if you wish to investigate a scholarly question, begin by purifying your intention for God, Most High. Aim at the truth for its own sake; clear your heart of all else, and suspect yourself of harboring any hidden bias or inclination that might prevent you from accepting the truth in this matter. Once your intention is sound and the matter has become clear to you, seek the evidence and examine the positions of the scholars, exerting your utmost effort. Weigh every view that comes before you against the standards of knowledge, subject it to the crucible of critical scrutiny, and delve deeply into its proper understanding. Do not reject a position merely because it presents difficulties until you have gathered as much of that scholar’s treatment of the issue as you can, understood his intention, examined it according to his own methodological principles, then according to the principles of other scholars, and finally weighed all of this against the principles of the Sharia. Throughout this entire process, remain a seeker of fairness, intent upon the truth wherever it lies—whether it supports you or opposes you. If a meaning arises in your heart and you say, “This is correct,” do not hasten to assert it conclusively. Rather, re-examine your reasoning and consider carefully where it leads. Test it using the tools of the sciences: Arabic language, transmitted knowledge,[^2] and the established criteria of rational inquiry and intellectual principles. Then pray: > O God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen, You judge between Your servants concerning that over which they differ. Guide me, by Your permission, to the truth in that over which they differ. Truly, You guide whom You will to a straight path.[^3] If you do this, I hope that God will inspire you with the truth and cast into your heart a light by which you may perceive what is correct. Once you arrive at the truth and your heart finds rest in it, give thanks to God, Most High, for what He has granted you. Maintain proper scholarly decorum (*adab*) toward the scholars who did not reach the same conclusion as you, and do not attribute it to any deficiency on their part. Say: “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”[^4] Do not, from the outset or in the end, intend your inquiry to refute an opponent for the sake of argument or to prevail in dispute. Let your investigation be for your own guidance alone, or for the benefit of someone who may encounter your words—someone unfamiliar with the issue and with you—so that you may fall under the Prophet’s saying (peace be upon him): “That God guide through you a single person is better for you than red camels.”[^5] As for what may occur between you and another person in debate, where you aim to refute him through writing or extended analysis, do not place your hopes in this outcome. Rather, be fully aware that it is unlikely. For most people of this age, once they have voiced a position—especially before an audience—and seek victory, they do not retract it, even if every proof is presented to them. We have witnessed this in this very issue:[^6] one stubbornly seeking to prevail persisted while authoritative texts were recited and proofs established before him, yet outwardly he only grew more obstinate. Why, then, should a person waste his time with someone like this? Instead, one should attend to himself. May God, Most High, grant us a good ending. We ask Him—He is the Most Generous of the generous—for the good of this world and the Hereafter; that He send blessings upon our Prophet Muḥammad, peace and blessings be upon him, his family, and his companions; that He benefit us through knowledge in this world and the next; and that He grant this to us, our parents, our children, those who love us, and all Muslims. --- ## Notes [^1]: Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, *Ḍawʾ al-maṣābīh fī ṣalat al-tarāwīḥ*, ed. Aḥmad Ḥasan (Jamʿiyyat Dār al-Birr, 2022), 298-300. [^2]: The term “transmitted knowledge” (*naqliyyāt*) refers to disciplines based on received reports, such as the Qur’an, Hadith, and statements of earlier scholars, in contrast to rational or speculative sciences. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 770. [^4]: Qur’an, 20:114. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2406. Red camels (*ḥumr al-naʿam*) were among the most prized possessions in early Islamic Arabia, representing the highest form of wealth. The Prophet’s comparison emphasizes that guiding even one person to truth holds far greater value than any material gain. [^6]: The legal status and rulings of *tarāwīḥ* prayer. ## Summary Know, O seeker of sacred knowledge, that the eminent Shāfiʿī jurist Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355) concluded a treatise concerning the standing of the tarāwīḥ prayer—its manner of performance and the number of its rakʿas as an established Prophetic practice—not with further legal wrangling, but with a turn toward reflection. Setting aside the language of juristic contention, he offered instead a heartfelt counsel to students and beginning jurists on the ethics of inquiry and the proper comportment of the scholar in his research. His words arose from a concrete dispute, yet their benefit extends well beyond it, for controversies over tarāwīḥ were never mere technicalities; they touched upon deeper questions of authority, precedent, and the rightful bounds of scholarly disagreement. The lesson he impressed was that the soundness of one's method is no less weighty than the soundness of one's conclusions, and that a person may hold a well-grounded position yet still fall into the sin of adversarial excess. Al-Subkī begins by insisting upon the purification of intention. He counsels the student that before he examines any question, he must make his intention sincere for God, Most High, seeking the truth for its own sake, emptying his heart of all else, and holding himself under suspicion lest some hidden bias or inclination bar him from accepting the truth. This reflects the enduring principle that the pursuit of knowledge is itself an act of worship, requiring the same sincerity demanded of every deed. Once the intention is made pure and the matter has grown clear, he directs the student to seek out the evidences and to study the positions of the scholars with the utmost exertion. Every view is to be weighed against the standards of knowledge, subjected to the crucible of critical scrutiny, and understood in its depth. He warns particularly against dismissing a position merely because it appears difficult: rather, one must gather all that a scholar has said on the matter, grasp his intent, examine his view first according to his own methodological principles, then according to the principles of others, and finally measure it against the principles of the Sharīʿa. Throughout this labor, the student must remain a seeker of fairness (inṣāf), intent upon the truth wherever it may be found, whether it favors him or stands against him. He then cautions against haste in judgment. Should a meaning arise in the heart such that one says, "This is correct," he must not rush to affirm it with finality. Instead he should re-examine his reasoning and consider where it leads, testing it by the tools of the sciences: the Arabic language, transmitted knowledge, and the established criteria of rational inquiry. Having done so, the student is taught to turn to God in supplication with a prayer drawn from the words the Prophet ﷺ would say, calling upon God as "Originator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen," who judges between His servants concerning that over which they differ, and asking to be guided to the truth—for truly He guides whom He wills to a straight path. Al-Subkī expresses his hope that whoever proceeds in this manner will have the truth cast into his heart as a light by which he perceives what is correct. Upon arriving at the truth and finding the heart at rest in it, the student is instructed to render thanks to God, Most High, for what He has granted. Yet al-Subkī does not permit this attainment to breed arrogance. He commands that proper scholarly decorum (adab) be maintained toward those scholars who did not reach the same conclusion, and that their difference never be ascribed to any deficiency on their part. The student should instead repeat the Qur'anic supplication, "My Lord, increase me in knowledge." He must not, at the beginning of his inquiry nor at its end, intend to refute an opponent for the sake of argument or to triumph in dispute. Rather his research should be for his own guidance, or for the benefit of one who may later encounter his words—someone unacquainted with both the issue and the author—so that he might fall beneath the Prophet's saying ﷺ: "That God guide through you a single person is better for you than red camels." As for the exchanges that may pass between a person and his adversary, where one hopes to overcome him through writing or extended argument, al-Subkī advises that one place no hope in such an outcome and recognize that it is unlikely. For most people of his age, he observes, once they have declared a position—especially before an audience—and set their hearts on victory, they will not retract it though every proof be laid before them. He testifies that he had witnessed this very thing in the matter of tarāwīḥ: one bent on prevailing persisted even as authoritative texts were recited and proofs established before him, growing only more obstinate in appearance. Why then, he asks, should a person squander his time upon such a one? Better that he attend to his own soul. He closes, as befits a servant of knowledge, in supplication: asking God, the Most Generous of the generous, for the good of this world and the Hereafter, for blessings upon the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, his family, and his companions, and for benefit through knowledge in both abodes—for himself, his parents, his children, those who love him, and all the Muslims. In this counsel al-Subkī leaves the student with an enduring reminder that the honesty of one's search, the fairness of one's judgment, and the courtesy owed to those who differ are inseparable from the knowledge itself, and that the aim of learning is guidance and worship, not the vanity of victory. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/a-lamp-a-lifeboat-a-ladder # A Lamp, a Lifeboat, a Ladder **Author:** Zahra Wadia **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Mental Health, Short Stories **Published:** February 6, 2026 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 It was March when I became unemployed. *Alhamdulillah*. I had known for a while it was coming, and my departure was treated with more compassion than I could have hoped for or expected. Still, there is a difference between anticipation and outcome. Between knowing the forecast and hearing that first clap of thunder. I remember the month for two reasons. First, March has always felt like the longest month of the year. The shine of a new year dulled, promises and resolutions long negotiated and conceded. In Ontario, snow once fresh and fluffy now banks street corners as muddy blocks of ice. Itʼs still too soon to look forward to tulips and cherry blossoms. With a lighter than usual laptop bag and trembling hands clutching HR paperwork, I willed myself to pull it together when I left work. Itʼs not a big deal; people lose their jobs all the time. Perhaps this was a rite of passage into adulthood. I had a loving family, my health, a roof over my head. I could even take the time to travel, move cities, or visit family abroad. The fact that this now sounds like a punchline is the second reason I remember the month well. It was March 2020. Early days of the pandemic. The emergency grocery runs for paper towels and hand sanitizer had only just begun. Events had started getting pushed out an optimistic (though naive) two weeks. The phrase “unprecedented times” still carried novelty and authority. In the beginning, I did what any unemployed, high-achieving person who gets a boost of serotonin from crossing things off their to-do list would have done: I baked bread and updated my online professional profile. Building an online community from the comfort of home wasnʼt so bad. For the first time in my millennial life, I began to enjoy speaking on the phone rather than texting. I even started reading for pleasure again, a hobby lost to academic textbooks years ago. In June 2020, four months after being laid off, and three months into a global shutdown, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. *Alhamdulillah*. There is so much *baraka* in the timing of Allahʼs plans. If her routine checkup had been a month earlier, we would have endured the waitlist for surgery in an overflowing, understaffed hospital. A month later and the doctorʼs hours would have reduced back to emergencies only due to COVID restrictions. Even the fact that I was at home and idle was a blessing (I have never heard my community put such a positive spin on being unmarried). When faced with caregiving for a parent who is navigating cancer, time bifurcates and shifts gears. Thereʼs an urgency, a lodged breath you canʼt fully exhale, as you pray and plead and pray and plan and pray and pray some more. But time also slows. Thereʼs the waiting between the seemingly endless cycles of tests and results and treatments. With social distancing and capacity limitations, my mother attended these alone while I stared at concrete and trees from the hospital parking lot. Maybe itʼs a manifestation of our *fitra* that when faced with lifeʼs fragility, we loosen how tightly we hold other things. *Dunya* things. The next job. That dream vacation. The words of those people. I had been raised on *tawakkul* and the pursuit of academic excellence. Have complete trust in Allahʼs plan, but that camel better be tied with a knot that rivals the most seasoned traveler. This framed how I viewed my *rizq* and my purpose. My capacity to be of service to others was optimized through my work. It was where I felt knowledgeable, my best self, and most useful. And if you chase enough gold stars, you can begin to believe that theyʼre lighting up the sky. --- ## A Lamp “So whatever you are given, that is only a provision of this worldʼs life, and what is with Allah is better and more lasting for those who believe and rely on their Lord” (Qur’an 42:36). When the oncologist asked my mother if sheʼd like to speak to an emotional support counselor about her diagnosis, she laughed. Laughed. “I have my faith,” she said matter-of-factly, as if that explained everything. “I speak to God.” The room she prays in is illuminated by a single desk lamp. The chunky black plastic kind with the adjustable neck. It was mine as a teenager, before I rebranded my childhood bedroom a home office and redecorated. I tell her Iʼll get her a more suitable fixture for her prayer space: an elegant floor lamp or a reading light. She laughs and says light is light; she only needs to see her finger on the page in front of her to know which *ayah* comes next. In the week leading up to her surgery, my motherʼs hands were either raised in prayer or busy with housework. She prepared for cancer the same way she prepared for guests. I used to tease her about the latter as she put me to task. Surely guests wouldnʼt check if there were crumbs behind the oven range, if the garage was swept and organized, or if the fridge was fully stocked with meals. It didnʼt matter; she wanted to make sure others were taken care of. My hands now shook as I helped her prepare meals, scooping food into Tupperware containers, labeling them with masking tape and a Sharpie, and loading them into the freezer. Even though I could have cooked or ordered in, there were enough frozen dinners to last my Dad and me months. It has always been this way. News arrives—good or bad—my mother gets to work. A month later when the chemotherapy treatments are in full swing, I will boil ginger on a stovetop, organize pillboxes, and gently nudge her through her home. In these moments, my hands wonʼt feel like mine, but how I remember hers. When those who love Allah so dearly are tested, it feels like youʼre closer to Him by being of service to them. --- ## A Lifeboat “He has given you everything you asked Him for. Had you wanted to count a single blessing of Allah, you would not have been able to do it” (Qur’an 14:34). It started with a guava tree. An elderly couple moving closer to family during the lockdown gave us their plants, including the six-foot-tall one with mottled green bark, sporadic pointy leaves, and a promise to bear fruit. The fruit never bloomed, but a gardening hobby did. I grew eight different types of herbs and vegetables in our garden. If giving starts at home, then what better place to begin than from oneʼs backyard. Neighbors sent my mother wellness gifts from their gardens. Baskets of apples, pears, and squash; bunches of coriander and mint; even a dozen lemons. I combined them with my harvest and sent back mason jars of apple, plum, and mint chutneys and pesto sauce. I had grown so accustomed to LED screens and public transport commutes that I had missed how grounding nature could be—even from oneʼs home. One night, I sat on the deck after dinner. The moon was a perfect crescent; something I would never have thought to admire unless it was the night before Eid al-Fitr. It had been a summer of firefly sightings, and their glow danced throughout the garden. I later learned that we only see fireflies toward the end of their life; they spend years underground in their bioluminescence, surrounding us with their living light before they rise from it. That is nature—constantly sustaining, constantly giving. --- ## A Ladder The Prophet ﷺ said, “A kind word is a form of charity.”[^1] A parking spot is eight feet wide. Longer than the enforced six-feet social-distancing rule. I sat in the passenger seat of my car and my friend sat in the driver seat of hers. Even though we were outside and neither of us were sick, these were the rules we agreed on. No risks when it came to keeping her premature newborn and my immunocompromised parents safe. In the dark, empty parking lot, the light of the drive-through ice cream parlor cast a glow over us. We were both unmasked and I was thankful to see her face and for her to see mine. Neither of us knew what to say; the balm we tried to make from our words fell short every time it met the air. Eventually, we settled for taking turns letting the other cry, our grief filling the parking space between us instead. I have a friend who often speaks to others in the form of making *dua* for them. You could tell them about an upcoming camping trip and theyʼll wish you a journey filled with the most perfectly toasted sʼmores and an unexpected meteor shower. My aunt silently absorbs every little fact or preference anyone tells her. I told her I liked cherry cola when I was thirteen. There will be a bottle waiting for me in her fridge when I visit, even after all these years. A former coworker who lives across the country and who I havenʼt seen for over a decade continues to send me birthday and new year well wishes. These people, and so many others, showed up in the most unexpected and beautiful ways when my mother was sick. There were trays of food, flowers, words of support, and when I needed to laugh, messages with funny videos. It was through a community that my prayers for ease and a softened heart were answered. The more aware I became of the divine qualities of endless generosity (al-Karim) and abundant kindness (al-Raʾuf) in others, the more my desire grew to reflect them in myself. “Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someoneʼs soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” —Rumi[^2] I had believed that blessings from Allah would bring me closer to Him, but it was the opposite. The blessings that came my way expanded when I became closer to Him. I had also believed that the capacity to give and serve—to teach, to donate, to help others—grew with having more. But that year of unemployment and my motherʼs illness taught me that purpose and service can grow in hard places. Places where thereʼs urgency and a feeling of scarcity rather than abundance. These places are often where the most spiritual growth and meaningful action is possible. These are the places where I found Allahʼs mercy in abundance. His lamps, lifeboats, and ladders. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2989; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1009. [^2]: Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, *Like This: 43 Odes*, trans. Coleman Barks (Maypop Books, 1990), 13. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/gauze-prayers-and-healing-wounds-finding-strength-from-grief-for-gaza # Gauze, Prayers, and Healing Wounds: Finding Strength from Grief for Gaza **Author:** Shazia Khan **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Gaza, Palestine, Short Stories **Published:** February 6, 2026 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 “Bismillah,” I whisper as I push the needle into my patientʼs tiny arm. A piercing cry escapes, and I murmur apologies in a soothing voice. When the blood is drawn, I press a piece of gauze against the small puncture wound. Gauze. Something we waste. Something that is a luxury for many. Images of children lying bloodied on hospital floors an ocean away flood my mind. Open wounds and empty hands, while my patient’s wounds are closed, and my hands are full. I stroke the arm gently and whisper endearments, all while feeling the weight of helplessness settle on my shoulders. I place a bandage over the wound and hand out a Spider-Man sticker. Even the sight of superheroes leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I throw away the soiled gauze with a crimson stain, glancing at the endless supply available for the patients. Gauze. A fabric born in a land now under occupation. I think of the cruel irony of how the very people who created it are now deprived of it. What can I do other than pray? “*Ya Razzaq*, You provide in ways we cannot even imagine. Send the Palestinians gauze and all the medical equipment they need to help the wounded. *Ameen*.” “Bismillah,” I whisper while placing the premature baby on her belly. I marvel at the miracles of Allah. How this preterm baby, weighing less than one kilogram, lies covered in tubes and wires, yet gains weight and strength each day. Her tiny hand grips my finger right before she stops breathing. I rub her chest to stimulate her and increase the oxygen. I watch her chest rise and fall again, placing her back on her belly, where she is most comfortable. Comfort. Something that babies across the ocean are not given. An image of an abandoned premature baby in a destroyed hospital flashes through my mind and pierces my heart. I tuck a blanket around the baby in the incubator and close the small windows. How are the babies in Gaza sleeping tonight? Are they cold? Do they have enough oxygen? Are there any nurses left to help them breathe again? What can I do other than pray? “*Ya Shafi*, shower your ease upon the babies of Gaza and bless them with Your protection. Give them comfort and warmth, and shield them from harm. *Ameen*.” “Bismillah,” I say as I pour baby formula into the bottle. The baby in the crib cries from hunger, having woken up just five minutes earlier after a morning full of medical procedures. I fill the bottle to the top and take him into my arms. Heʼs still learning how to coordinate his breathing while feeding. He chokes a few times, then finds his rhythm between the burping and pauses. When he finishes the bottle, he continues to search for more milk. “Good job! What a champ,” I say softly. “Do you want a little more milk?” As I prepare a second bottle, images of starving babies with exposed ribcages seize me. I glance at the hospital cupboard filled with baby formula and then remember all the formula lying at the bottom of the ocean, never reaching the babies of Gaza. What can I do other than pray? “*Ya Razzaq*, *ya Rahim*, *ya Karim*, provide nourishment for the starving babies and people of Gaza. Bless them with Your mercy and protection. *Ameen*.” A doctor asks to borrow my stethoscope, the one that has hung around my neck for eleven years. I notice all the scuff marks worn into it. How many heartbeats have I listened to with it? How many heart murmurs have I heard with it? I reflect on the four times my stethoscope rested on a babyʼs chest only to hear silence. The pink stethoscope looks childlike resting on the shoulders of a doctor and seeing it in another medical professional’s hands gives me pause. What are we doing? How is the world still moving? How are we all not crying in outrage? Do I even deserve the honor of using that stethoscope? Guilt’s icy grip holds me by the throat. Why am I safe at work while my fellow nurses in Gaza are being targeted and tortured? How can I freely move around, easily providing care to every child in my hospital while my colleagues in Gaza perform amputations without anesthesia? Guilt. It pulls me into its darkness until I’m completely engulfed. How is it fair that I remember the names of each child I have placed in a shroud, but my fellow nurses in Palestine place nameless children without surviving families in shrouds by the dozens. What can I do other than pray? “*Ya Ghafur*, forgive me for not being able to do more for our brothers and sisters in Gaza. Forgive me and this *ummah* for not doing more. Guide us to help in any small way we can, *Ya Rabbi*, *ameen*.” “Bismillah,” I say as I place a baby on a scale. I blink back tears, remembering the images of our children in Gaza buried under the rubble. When I look up, I see a new colleague moving quickly among us. I pause, feeling a light spread in my chest. She adjusts her hijab, and I notice a watermelon-patterned lanyard with a map of Palestine pinned on it. Our eyes meet, and in a brief moment, we recognize the pain we both carry. A few days later, she hands me a watermelon lanyard as a gift, and I understand the assignment. A moment of solidarity was enough to cause a ripple. I walk into the hospital displaying a pin on my watermelon lanyard. It brings me some comfort knowing that the flag of Palestine sits on my chest, for all to see, and near my heart as it breaks every day. I feel the searing gazes burn into me as I walk by, dressed in the colors that bleed through the *ummah*. I take in the scowls, the looks of disgust, carrying them with a calmness, while taking in all the silence and the subtle nods of solidarity. I clutch the Palestine pin and keep walking forward. It feels like a piece of gauze covering my wound from seeing a part of my *ummah* in pain. I wear the pin and never lower my gaze. Let it make people uncomfortable. Let the guilt seep into their hearts. Let it be a reminder that we will never forget. “Bismillah,” I whisper as I step into my workspace, carrying in my heart the names of the children who needed a nurseʼs healing hands but never got the chance. I straighten the pin on my lanyard, remembering the names of the persecuted doctors and nurses who refused to leave their patients behind. I listen to the overhead announcement in our hospital and think of the hospitals in Gaza that have been destroyed. I carry this ache in my chest yet put on a smile to greet my first patient of the day. A part of my *ummah* is in pain, and so I will carry and feel this pain with them. I remove my lanyard to pray Dhuhr, and when I rise to make space for the next person, I notice her staring at my Palestine pin. She gently moves her stethoscope aside and shows me a pendant of Al-Aqsa Mosque resting on her chest. Later that day, I take my keffiyeh from my locker and drape it over the back of my chair. I realize that every prayer opens a door to solidarity. Every *sujud* allows me to lay down my guilt and the heaviness on my shoulders. Every *dhikr* on my lips gives me the strength to not fear those in power. Every turn of the Qur’an’s pages reminds me that Allah’s mercy is vast and that where I see destruction and loss, the martyrs see beauty and freedom. *Hasbun Allahu wa niʿmal wakil.* --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/we-should-have-done-more-a-tribute-to-imam-jamil-al-amin # We Should Have Done More: A Tribute to Imam Jamil Al-Amin A Lamp, a Lifeboat, a Ladder **Author:** Dr. Altaf Husain **Topics:** Education, Family & Community, Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam **Published:** January 22, 2026 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 When I reflect on what I have been able to accomplish in service to the community by the grace of Allah, the goals “completed” never occupy my heart or mind as deeply as those left unfinished, especially the places where I know I should have exerted more effort. One such glaring example is our beloved Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Allah have mercy on him. He returned to Allah the Exalted, on Sunday, November 23, 2025. He is now free from the shackles of this world, but spent nearly twenty-five years unjustly incarcerated. While the system imprisoned his body, it never touched his spirit, *alhamdulillah*. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I saw Imam Jamil’s work firsthand. Soon after accepting Islam in the early ‘70s, he began organizing a community in the West End of Atlanta. Community organizing was not new to him; he had served as the Chairperson of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). [An icon of the Civil Rights Movement](https://snccdigital.org/people/h-rap-brown/),[^1] he drew on his experience and extended his efforts well beyond Atlanta. What eventually became known as Al-Ummah, or the national Jamaat, spread across the United States—and even, as I heard, into the Caribbean. That was how I came to know Imam Jamil and Al-Ummah in Cleveland. Communities competed to host the national gathering, the Riyaadah, where sports were central and spirits ran high. My father, Dr. Sirajul Husain, Allah have mercy on him, who settled in Cleveland in the late ‘70s, ensured that my siblings and I were fully connected to the African American Muslim community. We looked forward to the Riyaadah whenever Cleveland hosted, especially at the Cuyahoga Community College downtown campus. My father and I used to joke that there must be a height requirement of at least six feet to join Imam Jamil’s Jamaat. And sure enough, the imams I grew closest to, Imam Khalid Abdus Samad and Imam Mutawaf Shaheed in Cleveland, Dr. Ihsan Bagby, and later Imam Khalid Griggs and Imam Khalil Abdur Rahman, Allah have mercy on him, in North Carolina, were towering figures just like him. Nowadays, we hear the phrase “unapologetically Muslim,” but the Jamaat of the ‘80s embodied that spirit long before the term was coined. Under Imam Jamil’s leadership, we saw unapologetic Islam lived through his speeches, community building, and advocation of self-sufficiency through Jamaat-owned businesses. We were witnessing the construction of a Prophetic community, right in the West End and across the country. While pursuing my PhD, I became involved with the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA National) and reconnected with Imam Jamil as one of the most sought-after speakers on college campuses and at MSA conferences. That generation of students was blessed. We heard directly from a former Civil Rights Movement student leader who implored us to learn our faith, practice it, and conduct ourselves with utmost confidence as Muslims. His book, *Revolution by the Book - The Rap Is Live*, was released in 1993 and was a major source of inspiration for thousands of Muslim youth. Imam Jamil discussed aspects of his book at the last MSA continental convention where he spoke on Labor Day weekend, 1999, in Chicago. He was arrested just months later in March 2000 on false charges and wrongfully convicted on March 9, 2002. Those who studied the Civil Rights Movement understood: Outspoken, charismatic leaders like Imam Jamil would eventually be unjustly targeted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_iPSHBSYyO0 Between his arrest and sentencing, MSA National helped bring together various youth groups and MSA chapters to form the Student Alliance for Imam Jamil (SAIJ). I noted at the time: > At times when it was not politically correct to openly challenge injustice and oppression, Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin stood tall and firm, and spoke a word of truth in the face of the unjust and the oppressors. Today, it is our turn to stand tall and firm and show our unwavering support for the innocence of Imam Jamil Al-Amin. For Imam Jamil is not the only one on trial; you, I, and all those who fight injustice and oppression are on trial.[^2] We mobilized across the country for a full and fair investigation. Indeed, one of our largest rallies in support of Imam Jamil was planned for Washington, DC, on Friday, September 15, 2001, but was canceled after the tragic events of September 11. Still, the MSA continued mobilizing efforts to educate people about the false charges against Imam Jamil and the mounting evidence proving his innocence, and to call for his release. Even after his conviction, MSA National issued a [press release](https://web.archive.org/web/20020608034306/http://www.msa-natl.org:80/imamjamil.html) expressing profound shock and disappointment at the guilty verdict, and calling upon students to join SAIJ and continue supporting the legal efforts to file an appeal and compile a stronger case for a new trial. It was bittersweet in the early 2000s as we first laid the groundwork for what became the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA). Imam Jamil’s absence was deeply felt, though the Jamaat was ably represented by deputy amir [Imam Asim Abdul Rashid of Philadelphia](https://muslimmatters.org/2022/02/20/imam-asim-abdur-rashid-an-obituary/), may Allah have mercy on him. It was clear from the outset that those present—Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, Dr. Sherman Jackson, Dr. Ihsan Bagby, and many others—were determined to raise awareness and continue demanding his release. I visited Imam Jamil a couple of times while he was incarcerated in Fulton County.[^3] It was humbling. He would ask what he could do for *me* and for the community. It was my first time visiting someone in prison, and during that first visit I struggled to steady myself emotionally. This was our Imam, unjustly imprisoned, separated from his family. I felt inadequate, unsure what to say: Why hadn’t the community mobilized more intentionally? A date had not yet been set for his trial; how was he feeling? Sensing my fragile emotional state and before I could express any apology for our neglect, he redirected the moment entirely. He asked about *us*, the students, their faith, the state of the Muslim community. His calm and soothing voice reflected his firm faith in Allah’s promise. As he spoke, a calmness came over me, and I realized for the first time that he was at peace, unshaken by his imprisonment, with full conviction in Allah’s ability to exonerate him. He was free and I was the one shackled by worldly attachments and fears. We spoke at length, losing track of time, until a guard signaled that visiting hours were ending. As I stood to leave, Imam Jamil asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?” I was speechless. One of my deepest regrets is that we did not do enough for our beloved Imam Jamil. There were efforts no doubt, but not with the steadfastness and commitment he deserved. We did not consistently support his family, raise funds for legal expenses, and, most importantly, keep his case burning at the forefront. This was a man who led both the Civil Rights Movement and the Muslim community. He rarely asked for anything, and he deserved more from us. Over nearly twenty-five years, his physical health deteriorated, but his spirit remained unbroken, sustained by a constant connection with the Qur’an and the *seerah*. We should have done more. We could have done more. The only solace I hold is that at Yaqeen Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Omar Suleiman, we were able to illuminate his [story](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/a-giant-in-prison-imam-jamil-al-amin-ramadan-reflections) for an entirely new generation, many hearing his name and profound contributions for the first time. We also bring light to a [documentary project](https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/what_happened_to_imam_jamil_alamin_fka_h_rap_brown__a_true_crime_docuseries) that is doing the same.[^4] I remain indebted to our beloved Imam Jamil for shaping the tone and tenor of my service to the community. May Allah grant him the highest station in Paradise, and may we carry forward his legacy with honor. **Take a moment to reflect on the life and legacy of Imam Jamil Al-Amin (may Allah have mercy on him, and forgive us for not doing more). *Let learning about his contributions to the ummah inspire a deeper sense of responsibility, gratitude, and personal commitment—and join us in resolving to never again allow our leaders to suffer in silence.* ***Explore [his story and the story of other Muslim prisoners](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/explained/why-muslim-prisoners-are-the-key-to-ending-empires) who have been unjustly incarcerated.***** --- ## Notes [^1]: See also: John H. Cable, “H. Rap Brown,” in *New Georgia Encyclopedia* (University of Georgia Press, 2021), [https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/h-rap-brown/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/h-rap-brown/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1769103231378874&usg=AOvVaw1XMy1a30To0nPd5Nc4mYAJ). [^2]: Altaf Husain, quoted in “Imam Jamil Al-Amin,” *Islamicity*, accessed January 14, 2026, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://islamicity.org/1213/imam-jamil-al-amin/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1769103231378212&usg=AOvVaw0v6-6n9T7J1G4BHL_8xbX7)[http://islamicity.org/1213/imam-jamil-al-amin/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://islamicity.org/1213/imam-jamil-al-amin/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1769103231378341&usg=AOvVaw2ktzgElpBdCE8vv85MB_ls). [^3]: For a transcript of one of our conversations, see: [https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/islam/2001/02/an-interview-with-imam-jamil-al-amin.aspx](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/islam/2001/02/an-interview-with-imam-jamil-al-amin.aspx&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1769103231377864&usg=AOvVaw18EYErAA6P5JhACnxi91F7). [^4]: See: The Free Imam Jamil Campaign, “What Happened To Rap: An American Injustice Coming Soon Trailer,” Vimeo, February 14, 2025, [https://vimeo.com/1056913261?fl=pl&fe=sh](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://vimeo.com/1056913261?fl%3Dpl%26fe%3Dsh&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1769103231379287&usg=AOvVaw3926_7nqaisPxoUaADvj53). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/prophetic-solutions-for-doom-spiraling-cultivating-hope-in-a-cycle-of-negativity-essay # Prophetic Solutions for Doom Spiraling: Cultivating Hope in a Cycle of Negativity | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** Faith, General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Analysis, Mental Health, Prophetic Cure **Published:** January 8, 2026 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 What if I fail this exam? What if I never get the job I want? What if I end up poor?” Negative thought spirals, often called doom spirals, begin with a single anxious idea that multiplies into dozens of related fears, each feeding the next until a person feels trapped, overwhelmed, and paralyzed. Psychologists describe doom spirals as patterns of repetitive and catastrophic self-talk that worsen stress and impair decision-making.[^1] This anxiety not only disrupts your mood but can actively harm your performance, and when performance drops, it reinforces the same anxious thoughts, creating a self-fulfilling loop.[^2] While psychological strategies like reframing or distancing help, the Prophetic tradition provides something more profound and transformative: a call to optimism, trust in Allah, and action in the face of fear. --- ## The science of inner chatter Ethan Kross, in his book *Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It*, explains how the inner voice is a double-edged sword. It helps people plan, reason, and prepare, but when it turns negative it spirals into chatter that is harsh, repetitive, and unproductive. This kind of chatter fuels doom spirals, trapping people in cycles of catastrophic thinking. Kross highlights that chatter is strongly linked to stress and can aggravate symptoms of anxiety. In some cases, it contributes to physical health problems through its impact on the body’s stress systems, including sleep disruption, elevated cortisol, and impaired immune function.[^3] What modern science observes about the destructive cycle of inner chatter resonates closely with what the Prophetic tradition cautioned against: hopeless self-talk that amplifies despair. --- ## Prophetic optimism and Qur’anic hope The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ warned against language that entrenches despair. He said: “If a man says, ‘The people are ruined,’ he is the most ruined of them all.”[^4] Constantly declaring destruction only deepens hopelessness, both within the speaker and among others. By contrast, the Prophet ﷺ cultivated hope, especially in times of hardship. When visiting a sick bedouin, he said: “No harm. It is purification, if Allah wills.”[^5] Instead of allowing illness to trigger a spiral of dread, he reframed it as an opportunity for purification and spiritual elevation. The Prophet ﷺ also said: “None of you should wish for death because of a calamity that has befallen him. If he must wish for something, let him say: ‘O Allah, keep me alive so long as life is better for me, and cause me to die if death is better for me.’”[^6] From this, we learn that in moments of overwhelming distress, the believer is directed to resist hopelessness and instead trust Allah’s wisdom. By reframing hardship as a test of trust rather than a reason for despair, the Prophet ﷺ laid the foundation for an enduring optimism that extends even to life’s final moments. In another report, he ﷺ emphasized that Allah’s mercy always outweighs despair: “None of you should die except thinking positively of Allah.”[^7] And so even at life’s end, righteous optimism is not naivety but a bold act of faith. Perhaps the most striking display of Prophetic optimism appeared in one of the darkest moments of early Islamic history. During the Battle of the Trench, the Muslims faced an army of ten thousand and were exhausted, hungry, and under siege. While digging the trench, they struck a large rock that could not be broken. The Prophet ﷺ struck it with his axe, and with each strike a spark appeared. He said that with the first spark, he was given the keys to Syria, with the second, the keys to Persia, and with the third, the keys to Yemen.[^8] At a time when the Muslims could barely imagine survival, the Prophet ﷺ spoke of a future of expansion and victory. His words were not empty reassurance but a way of turning their attention away from immediate fear toward long-term hope rooted in divine promise. The Prophet’s words in that moment embodied a principle that the Qur’an reinforces throughout its message, that faith demands perseverance and hope even when circumstances seem impossible. Allah says: “Do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”[^9] In another verse, He tells the believers: “So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be superior if you are true believers.”[^10] These verses provide a direct counter to the inner voice of doom, reminding believers that hopelessness fades in the presence of Allah’s limitless mercy and power. --- ## Reframing doom spirals with faith and action Modern psychology shows that one way to interrupt negative loops is through “distancing”—that is, seeing one’s situation as if it were happening to someone else.[^11] This broadens perspective and reduces emotional intensity. Islam adds another layer: reframing through *tawakkul*, or trust in Allah. Where the doom spiral says, “You are finished,” faith reminds us that Allah’s mercy and power are greater than any trial. It serves to distance a person from their lack of control over their trial, finding refuge instead in the reality of divine control over all their affairs. This shift in focus, from self-preoccupation to divine reliance, reshapes how hardship is understood. These Prophetic teachings reinterpret challenges not as signs of doom but as chances for purification, resilience, and reward. At the same time, they encourage the believer to undertake a similar exercise through *tafakkur,* or pondering, which allows them to revise their understanding and the outcomes of their trials. While neuroscience highlights how the brain is wired to magnify threats, revelation teaches believers to counter this and magnify hope through faith. Hope in Islam, however, is not a passive state of mind—it demands movement. While a doom spiral immobilizes, Islam pushes toward constructive action and active coping strategies. The Prophet ﷺ taught: “If the Final Hour comes while you have a sapling in your hand and it is possible to plant it before the Hour comes, then you should plant it.”[^12] Even in the face of the ultimate catastrophe, the believer is instructed to act. This hadith reframes action itself as worship, regardless of whether outcomes are seen. The Prophet ﷺ extended this ethic beyond extraordinary moments to the smallest acts of everyday life: “Do not belittle any act of good, even if it is meeting your brother with a cheerful face.”[^13] Every positive step, however small, carries meaning. Planting hope in the form of words, deeds, or even a smile disrupts the downward pull of despair. From the perspective of neuroscience, doom spirals are damaging patterns of cognition that hijack attention and narrow the sense of possibility. From the perspective of faith, they are opportunities for resistance, to remember Allah, reframe the inner voice, and act with hope. The Prophetic tradition teaches believers to resist despair, to interpret hardship as purification, and to anchor expectations in Allah’s mercy, power, and wisdom. Optimism is not naive. It is a discipline of the heart. Breaking a doom spiral is less about silencing the inner voice and more about training it to echo what the Prophet ﷺ taught: hope and trust in Allah, and purposeful action in every circumstance. --- ## Notes [^1]: Richard Brouillette, “Doom Spiral: When Negative Thoughts Get Out of Control,” Psychology Today, 2021. [^2]: Brouillette, “Doom Spiral." [^3]: Ethan Kross, *Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It* (Crown, 2021). [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2623. There are two variants of the last word in the hadith (*ahlakuhum or ahlakahum*): (1) With a *ḍamma* on the *kāf*, scholars interpreted it as an arrogant person saying that the people are ruined and not me, so he is the most ruined because of his arrogance; (2) With a *fatḥa* on the *kāf*, it translates to “he has caused their destruction,” because his statement leads people to despair and lose hope in Allah’s mercy as a result of what he said. In the context of this blog, the second variant and meaning are more appropriate. See: [https://hadeethenc.com/ar/browse/hadith/8877](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hadeethenc.com/ar/browse/hadith/8877&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1767898377248960&usg=AOvVaw06K4mvfBYb3jfiwKdGgsDk). [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5662. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5671; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2680. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2877. [^8]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 14541. [^9]: Qur’an 39:53. [^10]: Qur’an 3:139. [^11]: Brouillette, “Doom Spiral." [^12]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 12902. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2626. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/from-clock-time-to-gods-time-returning-to-sacred-rhythms-in-a-digital-world-essay # From Clock Time to God’s Time: Returning to Sacred Rhythms in a Digital World | Essay **Author:** Faatimah Knight **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Nature & Science, Technology **Tags:** Perspective, Self-Improvement **Published:** December 30, 2025 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 Sacred scripture is replete with imageries of the sun, moon, stars, and our observance of them. In the Chapter of the Cracking, God sets an oath: “I swear by the twilight, by the night and what it covers, by the full moon, you will progress from stage to stage” (Qur’an 84:16–19); the Prophet ﷺ concludes a supplication on the occasion of a new moon by speaking directly to it, “O Allah, bring it over us with blessing and faith, and security and Islam. My Lord and your Lord is Allah”; and in the context of alerting us to the wonderful blessing of being human, God says, “He subjected all that is in the heavens and the earth for your benefit, as a gift from Him. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect” (Qur’an 45:13). Whether to encourage gratitude or reflection, to inspire curiosity and awe, or to work our intellects, sacred scripture constantly guides us to gaze up and out toward the marvels of creation. As modern Muslims, our relationship with celestial phenomena is contradictory. On one hand, we rely on the movements of the sun and moon to pray and mark our holy days. We open the prayer apps on our phones and take in the times of sunrise, sunset, twilight, and so on. Yet we rarely look up with any sustained interest at the celestial bodies that determine the prayers that make us who we are. We are even less likely to look down at the shadows cast by the gliding heavens as they bounce off the earth. Through the contracts we’ve made with our phones and clocks, we feel secure that we are dutifully minding these magnificent movements. In actuality, we’ve relinquished our stewardship of both nature and the technologies we’ve engineered from nature. As the king relaxes his grip, the trusted adviser plots his coup. The persistent cessation of our activities for the obligatory prayers is an invitation to honor time. If we could just pray at our leisure, we would not possess this acute awareness of the passage of time. When the *adhan* erupts, it announces that prayer is more important than whatever we are currently engaged in. But how do we stop from feeling like the *adhan* or the prayer is just one more thing in a long line of interruptions we face in our day? And doesn’t it sometimes feel like everything is an interruption, even the things being interrupted? Studies show that we check our phones over two hundred times a day on average and that we fail to stay glued to any given task without interruption for more than a few minutes. What, then, are we preoccupied with? How do we measure the significance of these tasks when one can’t hold our attention any more than the next? If behavior is a language, then our constant interruptions reveal that we do not have a proper appreciation for time. Priorities collapse under our inability to focus, and fragmentation is our norm. My phone beeps to tell me I have a new email message, it beeps again to tell me *Dhuhr* is in, it beeps a third time to tell me I got a text. Digital time collapses all occurrences into one: a beep, ding, or buzz. But if we were to live without digital time, we’d need other markers to navigate our day: the quality of light streaming through the window, the stretch and contraction of shadows, the moment our minds go from groggy to clear, when yellow light saturates into orange as sunset approaches, the twinkle of the first star in a darkened sky. The times for prayer used to flow in and out because we experienced them as a harmonious response to the world’s own worship. The American psychologist Robert Levine distinguished between “clock time” culture and “event time” cultures. Clock time is linear, endlessly divisible into equal portions and fixed units. Event time is pretechnological, based on the movements, colors, and changes of nature. Most of us are in touch with it when we go out to sight the new moon of Ramadan or sit tight on sandy beaches to view the sunset. Event time is occasional for us, whereas clock time rules our lives. Productivity culture emphasizes clock time in order to take advantage of every minute of the day.  What productivity culture (and the clock time on which it is based) misses is that attunement to natural cues can also be profoundly productive. Many women who align their schedules with their cycles, for instance, experience increased harmony while maintaining their productivity. Farmers in the regenerative agriculture movement find that the gentler they treat the earth, the more it produces grass for their animals. Likewise, when we honor the soul’s rhythms alongside the body’s, we discover a productivity rooted in wholeness, not just efficiency. Clock time treats all moments the same. A minute in the morning just after waking is identical to a minute at night as one sinks into bed. A minute of weighty pause at the conclusion of prayer is equated to the frenzied minute spent looking for misplaced car keys in the early hours. Experientially, we know how untrue this is. Time is not reduced to mere quantity without loss. What we find beautiful, enchanting, and at times devastating about time is the way minutes can feel like hours, hours can evaporate in what feels like minutes, and ends sputter on or come abruptly. Time, as we experience it and as it appears to us, is wonderfully asymmetrical. Clock time is symmetrical, perfectly divisible, and therefore of great functional importance for the many tasks that benefit from that sort of structure. However, many of us know there are times in the day when we are more creative. An hour spent on a creative task then is more productive than an hour spent on the same task at a time when creative sensibilities are dulled. Allah talks about this subjective experience of time. The hour of *tahajjud* in the final third of the night, when Allah says He is especially receptive to us, is not like other hours, though the time that elapses on the clock is the same. The mystery of time cultivates wonder and obedience. Wonder opens our hearts to Allah and the spirit of obedience propels us to place ourselves in the way of grace (*fadl*) at fortuitous times. The significance of moonsighting, stargazing, and similar experiences thus extends well beyond telling the time. We reduce it to that with our prayer apps and timetables, which are only useful in quantifying phenomena. Qualifying them is a human activity. That is, only a reflective heart can make meaning out of what the eye perceives. In the Chapter of Noah, we read: “What is the matter with you that you are not in awe of the majesty of Allah, when He created you in stages? Have you ever wondered how God created seven heavens, one above the other, placed the moon as a light in them and the sun as a lamp, how God made you spring forth from the earth like a plant, how He will return you into it, and then bring you out again, and how He has spread the earth out for you to walk along its spacious paths?” (Qur’an 71:13–20). Allah speaks of wonder as an experience worth having. There is an impracticality to wonder: It does not address how we’ll pay the bills, manage two feverish kids at once, or reconcile with our spouse. Awe or wonder, unlike other emotions, is not often reactive to the ephemeral circumstances of our lives. Many times, the “furniture of our lives” inspires wonder: you experience the colors around you more vibrantly, your child’s little laugh makes time stop, a singular bee cozied up to a flower lets you hold all the world in your heart at once. Yes, wonder comes when the unusual and miraculous strikes as well, but not only then. Wonder of the kind spoken of in this set of Qur’anic verses is a desirable state in and of itself. It is characteristic of a heart that is alive and open to considering more than itself, and hopefully, eventually, God. Wonder is the precursor to curiosity and intellectual discovery. A mind that wonders, asks. Allah seamlessly ties the two together: A wondrous person might ask why things in the sky appear to be at different distances from earth, or question how the moon and sun give light and if they do so the same way, or how it is that humans came to be. Each question is progressively more complex, and yet rooted in our observation of the world. If we only needed the sun and moon to tell time, we’ve developed enough technology based on their movements to not look at them again for years. Ironically, the more we focus on time, particularly to facilitate productivity, the less we pay attention to the phenomena that give us “time.” Scripture’s invitation to gaze up and out toward the marvels of creation is not only about acquiring astronomical data—it is about cultivating hearts capable of awe. When we learn to read the subtle shifts of light and shadows that announce prayer and also mind our clocks, when we allow the moon’s phases to mark our spiritual seasons and consult a lunar visibility calendar, we reclaim our role as conscious stewards of nature. To be clear, we owe our Muslim ancestors a debt of gratitude for the prayer apps that are built today on the backs of their discoveries centuries ago. When two people watch the sun set in anticipation of *Maghrib*, they surely won’t agree on the exact second it dipped below the horizon. With our eyes alone, we can’t possibly track a gaseous sphere of explosive light from ninety-three million miles away with fine precision. Paradoxically, this created a problem worth solving for Muslims of old as well as a circumstance worth embracing. The result, in the long term, was the prayer apps we have today. They serve essential functions, providing accurate calculations across global time zones, reliable reminders in busy lives, and accessibility for those who cannot directly observe the sky. The question isn’t whether to use them, but how to use them without losing our capacity for direct observation and appreciation for God’s creation. These tools become dangerous only when they completely mediate our relationship with the celestial phenomena they calculate. When we check the app but never look up at the sky or down at our shadows, we gain efficiency but lose the spiritual formation that comes from witnessing the signs Allah placed in creation for our benefit. One of those benefits is humility. When we take the time to watch the sun set, we gently surrender ourselves to Allah’s unfolding phenomena. The arrival of *Maghrib* is no longer suppressed into a perfectly packaged, unintrusive flash across our phones, but rather is experienced as a cosmic event completely outside of our control. We can smile at our foolhardiness to have thought that we captured the sun on our phones. Moreover, we remind ourselves that the stability and predictability of the world are among God’s favors, not to be taken for granted. Keeping God’s time in a technological world begins with small, intentional practices. Watch the sunset before *Maghrib* occasionally, not to replace your prayer app but to witness what it calculates. Notice how shadows shorten and lengthen throughout the day in response to the earth’s movement around the sun, which we perceive as the sun moving across our sky. Familiarize yourself with the moon’s phase and position for several days before a new Islamic month so that you usher in the new moon with anticipation rather than being caught unaware. Just like we learn the meanings of words from context as children before confirming our understanding by asking an adult or consulting a dictionary, we should similarly develop our observational muscles while using apps and other resources to sharpen and confirm our faculties. Use technology to assist you, not replace you. Human beings, specifically, are honored with stewardship. In embracing our great fortune to have both ancient wisdom and modern precision, we discover that keeping God’s time isn’t about rejecting digital tools—it’s about ensuring they serve rather than substitute for our direct engagement with the signs Allah embedded in creation for those who reflect. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/mary-in-the-quran-the-power-of-faith-in-the-face-of-pain-and-scorn # Mary in the Qur’an: The Power of Faith in the Face of Pain and Scorn **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Jesus in Islam, Self-Improvement **Published:** December 17, 2025 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 Imagine yourself alone in a barren desert, withdrawn from the world, immersed in solitude and worship. You’ve sought this seclusion to draw closer to Allah, to find peace in His presence. Suddenly, everything changes. Unmarried and chaste, you are told by an angel that you will bear a child that is destined for greatness. As the realization sets in, the weight of the future and what your community will think presses down upon you, and in a moment of anguish, you cry out, > Oh, I wish I had died before this and was a thing long forgotten! > > (Qur’an 19:23) This was Maryam, or Mary, the mother of Prophet ʿIsa (Jesus in English, as the original in Hebrew came to be after passing through Greek and Latin), peace be upon them both, in her moment of deepest grief. Preserved in Allah’s Eternal Word of guidance for humankind, her pain is palpable and her cry echoes through time as a testament to the profound struggles of those who are misunderstood, shamed, or burdened with trials that seem unbearable. Was her anguish due to the physical pain of childbirth or was it the shame and judgment she anticipated from her community? Perhaps it was both—a combination of physical and emotional hardship that would challenge the strongest of hearts. And yet, in this moment of vulnerability, Maryam’s story becomes a universal symbol of resilience, faith, and divine relief. This story was revealed to the blessed Prophet ﷺ at a time when he was scorned by his own family and clan. A sensitive soul, he ﷺ was accused of lying about God by the same people who sang songs of his truthfulness, integrity, and good character. This story also gave comfort and instruction to the first wave of Muslim migrants who had to flee to find refuge with Abyssinia’s just and kind Christian king, the negus. Our Prophet ﷺ said, “Maryam, the daughter of ʿImran, was the best among the women \[of her time\] and Khadija is the best amongst the women \[of this nation\].”[^1] On another occasion he ﷺ said, “Many men have attained perfection but no women have attained perfection except Maryam, the daughter of ʿImran, and Asiya, the wife of Firʿawn.”[^2] The Qur’an mentions many inspiring figures—most of them are prophets and most are mentioned once or twice. To Maryam’s story, however, the Qur’an gives great attention and depth, detailing her family, birth, upbringing, and status. As well as a *surah* of the Qur’an being named Maryam, the third *surah* in the Qur’an is named “ʿImran’s Family,” after Maryam’s father, ʿImran (Joachim in Christian texts, such as the apocryphal *Protoevangelium of James*).[^3] More remarkably, even though he was not a prophet, ʿImran and his family are praised and mentioned alongside prophets for their exceptional piety and devotion to Allah. Allah says, “Indeed, Allah chose Adam, Nuh, the family of Ibrahim, and the family of ʿImran above all people \[of their time\]” (Qur’an 3:33)—a reminder that raising righteous Muslim children starts with building a home grounded in faith, sincerity, and devotion to Allah. --- ## Maryam’s devotion The Qur’an begins with Maryam’s birth and how her mother (named Anna in the Christian tradition)[^4] dedicated her unborn child to Allah. While still pregnant, Maryam’s mother called out to Allah, “My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated \[for Your service\], so accept this from me. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing” (Qur’an 3:35). This act of dedication shows that Maryam was chosen to serve Allah from the moment of her birth. Naming her daughter Maryam, meaning “one who worships” or “devoted servant,”[^5] also signified her mother’s hope for her daughter’s piety and dedication to Allah. Maryam’s mother sought protection for her, beseeching Allah to protect her and her offspring from Satan, the accursed (Qur’an 3:36). This earnest supplication was accepted by Allah and is now echoed amongst believers today. It is narrated that Maryam and her son ʿIsa were among the few humans protected from Satan’s touch at birth.[^6] Maryam was then raised by her maternal uncle, Prophet Zakariyya, upon him be peace, and lived a pious life, renowned for her purity and devotion (Qur’an 66:12, 3:37, 3:45). Prophet Zakariyya was so inspired by the young girl’s faith that he too prayed to Allah for a son, despite his and his wife’s old age, which was far beyond the usual age of childbirth (Qur’an 19:4–6). Allah answered his *dua* and blessed him with a son, Yahya (John the Baptist in the Christian tradition), who would grow up to be a prophet himself and play an important role in ʿIsa’s early mission. As she grew, Maryam exemplified the importance of practicing intentional solitude and seeking moments of quiet reflection and worship—a practice often overlooked in today’s fast-paced world. The Qur’an describes how she withdrew from her people to a remote place, seeking peace and connection with her Creator. These moments of seclusion not only prepared her for the immense challenges ahead but also deepened her trust in her Lord. Her practice teaches us the value of stepping away from the chaos of daily life to find clarity, strengthen our faith, and prioritize our mental and emotional well-being. --- ## Allah’s mercy in the midst of despair Maryam’s devotion and purity was further exemplified when Allah commanded her to give birth to ʿIsa, upon him be peace, without any human intervention. Notwithstanding her great status, Maryam’s cry, “Oh, I wish I had died before this and was a thing long forgotten!” (Qur’an 19:23) is a sincere reflection of her vulnerable humanity. Despite being chosen by Allah and described as one of the best women to ever live, she faced the very real pain of being misunderstood. For a woman of her piety, the thought of returning to her people with a child must have been excruciating. Her chastity was her honor, and she knew the accusations that awaited her. Moreover, the thought of losing control of her body and enduring such physical pain alone and so unexpectedly would have been terrifying. In this respect, her example touches those of us who may have felt the sting of unwarranted judgment or shame, scorn, or pain for circumstances beyond our control. Maryam’s story reminds us that even the most righteous among us are not immune to being falsely accused or tested with great pain, and her response teaches us how to navigate such moments with faith. At the height of her despair, Allah’s mercy enveloped Maryam, > So a voice reassured her from below her, “Do not grieve! Your Lord has provided a stream at your feet. And shake the trunk of the palm tree toward you; it will drop fresh, ripe dates upon you. So eat and drink and be comforted.” > > Qur’an 19:24–26 In this powerful moment, Allah responded to Maryam’s cry with care. He provided her with water and dates—symbols of sustenance and comfort. The physical act of shaking the palm tree, though seemingly impossible for a woman in the pains of labor, is a profound reminder that even in our weakest moments, we are called to make an effort, trusting that Allah will provide ease and blessings through means we often cannot imagine. For anyone who has felt abandoned or overwhelmed in their trials, this moment in Maryam’s story offers reassurance. When we call out to Allah, His help is near and His mercy unaffected by the magnitude of our pain or the judgments of others. As anticipated, when Maryam returned to her people carrying baby ʿIsa, upon him be peace, they reacted with shock and indignation, > They exclaimed, “O Mary! You have certainly done an outrageous thing! O sister of Aaron, your father was not an indecent man, nor was your mother unchaste.” > > (Qur’an 19:27–28) Rather than defending herself against such heinous accusations, as all humans naturally incline to when they are unjustly accused and humiliated, Maryam obeyed Allah’s command to remain silent (Qur’an 19:26), relying on His divine plan. She pointed to the infant, and ʿIsa, upon him be peace, miraculously spoke in her defense, > I am truly a servant of Allah. He has destined me to be given the Scripture and to be a prophet. He has made me a blessing wherever I go and bid me to establish prayer and give alms as long as I live. > > (Qur’an 19:31–32) In this extraordinary moment, Allah vindicated Maryam, silencing her accusers, preserving her honor, and elevating her status as the mother of a prophet. Her silence and trust in Allah teach us the power of relying on Him throughout our greatest hardships, and, perhaps most profoundly, when words fail us. The wisdom in Allah’s command is a reminder that Allah is the greatest and ultimate defender of the innocent and oppressed. --- ## Resilience and trust in Allah Maryam’s story is one of resilience. Despite her anguish, she never wavered in her trust in Allah. She bore the weight of her trials with dignity, patience, and perseverance. Her life is a testament to the reality that divine favor does not exempt one from hardship. Through hardship, Allah gives us deeper trust and greater strength. For women, Maryam’s story is especially poignant. Her role as a mother, her faithful conviction, and her endurance in the face of pain and societal scorn highlight the spiritual and emotional strength of believing women. For men, her story serves as a reminder that true resilience and piety transcend gender and are qualities to be admired and emulated by all. Maryam’s life offers a profound message for anyone who feels burdened by their trials.         1.  **Pain is part of the journey**: Maryam’s moment of deepest despair at the palm tree reminds us that even the most pious can feel overwhelmed. Pain and trials are not signs of Allah’s abandonment but opportunities for closeness to Him.         2.  **Allah’s help is near**: Just as Allah provided Maryam with sustenance in her moment of need, He is always near to those who call upon Him with sincerity.         3.  **Allah’s plan is better for us**: Maryam’s silence before her accusers and her reliance on Allah show us that true strength lies in trusting His wisdom, even when we cannot see the outcome.         4.  **Every test has a purpose**: Maryam’s trials were part of a divine plan that elevated her and brought light to the world through her son, ʿIsa (peace be upon him). Our struggles, too, have a purpose, even if we do not understand them. Maryam’s story culminates in one profound truth: Allah tests those He loves but never forgets them. Maryam’s journey—from her cry of despair to the miraculous vindication of her honor—is a testament to divine care and mercy. For all who feel overwhelmed, scared, scorned, or misunderstood, her story offers hope and reassurance. Allah’s mercy is ever-present and He is our ultimate Guardian. > And whoever relies upon Allah—then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. > > (Qur’an 65:3) For all who walk the path of trials, Maryam’s story is a guiding light, showing us that when the world turns away, Allah remains near and His help is always on the horizon. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3432. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3411. [^3]: Robert C. Gregg, *Shared Stories, Rival Tellings: Early Encounters of Jews, Christians, and Muslims* (Oxford University Press, 2015), 481–482, 556; Morteza Rezazadeh, “Mary in Early Christianity and Islam,” *Religious Inquiries* 6, no. 11 (2017), 43. [^4]: Gregg, *Shared Stories, Rival Tellings*, 481–482, 556; Rezazadeh, “Mary in Early Christianity and Islam,” 43. [^5]: In *Tafsīr al-baḥr al-muḥīṭ* by Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī regarding the mentioned verse \[Qur’an 3:36\]: “Maryam in their language \[i.e., Aramaic\] means ‘the worshiper.’ With this name, she wanted to be optimistic for her, \[for her to have\] closeness to Allah the Almighty, to implore Him that her actions be in accordance with her name, and that \[Maryam’s mother’s\] hopes for \[Maryam\] come true. Do you not see that \[Maryam’s mother\] seeks Allah’s refuge \[for Maryam\] and for her children from Satan? She addressed Allah with these words to arrange for \[Maryam herself\] to seek refuge in Him.” [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3431. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-la-ilaha-illa-allah-an-annotated-translation-of-imam-al-zarkashis-treatise-on-the-islamic-testimony-of-faith # The Meaning of La Ilaha Illa Allah: An Annotated Translation of Imam al-Zarkashi’s Treatise on the Islamic Testimony of Faith **Authors:** Sh. Yousef Wahb, Tarek Ghanem **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 17, 2025 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 ## Introduction In the forty-seventh *s*ū*ra* of the Qur’an, Sūrat Muḥammad, God commands, “So know that there is no deity except Allah.”[^1] What makes this command especially striking is its timing; it was revealed approximately fifteen years into the Prophet’s mission, at a point when he and his companions already held an unshakable conviction in the oneness of God. Why, then, would such a foundational truth require reaffirmation? The verse suggests that knowing God’s oneness involves more than a one-time acknowledgment; it is an ongoing process that demands sustained reflection, deliberate cultivation, and inner renewal. Scholars have interpreted this divine command in various ways, many seeing it as a call to seek sacred knowledge, not only about God’s oneness, but also about the broader theological, spiritual, and practical implications of the testimony “There is no deity except Allah” (*lā ilāha illā Allāh*).[^2] This phrase lies at the very heart of Islamic theology. It is the foundational declaration of faith and the essential criterion by which religious belief and practice are measured. The Prophet ﷺ famously described faith as comprising over seventy branches, with the testimony of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* occupying the highest rank.[^3]His teachings emphasize the testimony’s transformative power; true belief in it extends beyond mere intellectual affirmation, fostering profound spiritual conviction and the active cultivation of virtue. The early ascetic and scholar Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778) captured this dynamic beautifully when he said, “If certainty (*yaqīn*) truly fills the heart, it will ascend in yearning for Paradise and trembling in fear of Hellfire.”[^4] Some scholars even interpreted the Qur’anic verse, “So by your Lord, We will surely question them all about what they used to do”[^5] as an indication that each person will be held accountable for how they upheld the meaning of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* in their lives.[^6] The theological depth of this declaration has long been affirmed by Muslim scholars. In his widely memorized didactic poem on creed, *al-Kharīda al-bahiyya*, Aḥmad al-Dardīr (d. 1201/1786), the eminent Egyptian Mālikī jurist and theologian, elucidates that the testimony *lā ilāha illā Allāh* encompasses the three foundational pillars of Islamic theology: divinity (*ilāhiyyāt*), prophethood (*nubuwwāt*), and doctrines known only through revelation (*samʿiyyāt*).[^7] Affirming this testimony entails belief not only in God’s existence, oneness, and perfect attributes, but also—through its complementary declaration, “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” (*Muḥammad rasūl Allāh*)—in the truth of Prophet Muhammad’s prophethood and in the veracity of revealed teachings, including those concerning  unseen realities.[^8] Hence, this testimony captures the very essence of Islamic creed. Understanding the full meaning of this testimony is thus indispensable for salvation.[^9] Though simple to pronounce and easy to memorize, it functions as a spiritual compass, grounding the believer in the realities of faith. Light on the tongue but weighty on the scales of divine judgment, it dispels doubt and fortifies the heart against Satan’s delusions.[^10] As the prominent North African theologian Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Sanūsī (d. 895/1490) notes, when fully comprehended, every tenet of faith becomes a weapon against Satan, and the utterance of “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*” illuminates and purifies the heart. Though a single phrase in form, it embodies a multitude of convictions, accomplishing in one recitation what might otherwise require prolonged devotion.[^11] This paper offers an overview of the virtues and benefits of the declaration *lā ilāha illā Allāh* as taught by the Prophet ﷺ and elaborated upon within the Islamic scholarly tradition. It also presents an annotated English translation of selected sections from a fourteenth-century treatise titled *Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh* (The Meaning of *lā ilāha illā Allāh*) by the Shāfiʿī jurist and legal theorist Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī. The treatise explores the Testimony of Faith from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Sixteen of the original twenty-nine sections were selected for their theological and spiritual significance.[^12] Sections focused on technical syntax and complex theological debates were excluded to ensure accessibility and thematic coherence for a general readership. The majority of the annotations were written by the editor, Yousef Wahb, and the rest by the translator, Tarek Ghanem. The annotations are clearly distinguished from the translated text and appear in the footnotes. They draw upon a wide range of  sources—including classical works in theology, grammar, Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*), and hadith. They are intended to clarify al-Zarkashī’s arguments, provide contextual background, and highlight connections to broader Islamic thought. Care has been taken to preserve the integrity of al-Zarkashī’s voice while offering supplemental insights that support deeper engagement with the text. --- ## On the virtues of lā ilāha illā Allāh The merits of this declaration are vast and enduring. Throughout history, devout believers have made *lā ilāha illā Allāh* a cornerstone of their spiritual practice, often committing to its regular invocation as part of disciplined devotional routines. Some are reported to have recited it tens of thousands of times daily.[^13] According to accounts drawn from spiritual experiences, some scholars have even reported that uttering this phrase seventy thousand times over the course of one’s life offers protection from the fire of Hell. These reports, while not directly rooted in authenticated prophetic statements, reflect a longstanding belief among scholars in the immense efficacy and transformative power of this testimony. Such traditions underscore the profound spiritual and eschatological significance attributed to *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, affirming its place as an enduring focus of Muslim devotion, discipline, and hope for salvation. ### The names of the testimony The Qur’an refers to *lā ilāha illā Allāh* in various contexts, frequently emphasizing its practical and ethical implications. Reports attributed to the companion ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās note that at least nine verses stress either its verbal articulation or the necessity of acting in accordance with its meaning.[^14] From these and other passages, scholars identified numerous names for the declaration, each highlighting a distinct facet of its theological and spiritual significance:[^15] 1. **The Word of Unity** (*kalimat al-tawḥīd*): It signifies the absolute negation of all partners with God. 2. **The Word of Sincerity** (*kalimat al-ikhlāṣ*): Originating in the heart, it reflects pure devotion to God, distinct from all other acts of worship in its exclusive orientation. 3. **The Word of Perfection** (*kalimat al-iḥsān*): Linked to the verse, “Shall the reward of good (*iḥsān*) be anything but *iḥsān*?” (Qur’an 55:60), it teaches that bearing witness to God’s oneness is part and parcel of the believer’s excellence, rewarded with divine protection. Several Qur’anic usages of *iḥsān* are interpreted as signifying the profession of “*lā ilāha illā Allāh.*” 4. **The Prayer of Truth** (*daʿwat al-ḥaqq*): In “The only true prayer is to Him” (Qur’an 13:14), it denotes that after truth there remains only falsehood. 5. **The Word of Justice** (*kalimat al-ʿadl*): Exegetes explained “God commands justice and good conduct” (Qur’an 16:90) as referring to *lā ilāha illā Allāh* as justice, and servitude with sincerity as good conduct. 6. **The Good Speech** (*al-ṭayyib min al-qawl*): In “They were guided to the good speech” (Qur’an 22:24), the “good” was understood as *lā ilāha illā Allāh*—the most comprehensive good in remembrance and meaning. 7. **The Pure Word** (*al-kalima al-ṭayyiba*): Likened to a good tree with firm roots and lofty branches (Qur’an 14:24), it signifies a truth deeply rooted in the heart and rising heavenward, pure from distortion or negation. 8. **The Firm Word** (*al-qawl al-thābit*): God promises to make the believers steadfast with this Word both in this life and the Hereafter (Qur’an 14:27). 9. **The Word of Righteousness** (*kalimat al-taqwā*): Mentioned in Qur’an 48:26, it serves as the believer’s shield against disbelief.[^16] 10. **The Lasting Word** (*kalima bāqiya*): The legacy left by Abraham for his descendants (Qur’an 43:28), affirming repudiation of idolatry. 11. **The Word of Steadfastness** (*kalimat al-istiqāma*): As in Qur’an 46:13, those who affirm “Our Lord is God” and remain upright are upheld by it. 12. **The Supreme Word of God** (*kalimat Allāh al-ʿulyā*): “The Word of God is higher” (Qur’an 9:40). When illumined by it, hearts acquire divine strength, transcending fear of death and worldly desire. Consider Pharaoh’s magicians—once illumined by this Word, they paid no heed to the cutting of hands and feet. Likewise, when the Prophet ﷺ was enraptured by its light, his gaze did not turn toward worldly dominion: “His sight never wavered, nor was it too bold” (Qur’an 53:17). 13. **The Sublime Similitude** (*al-mathal al-aʿlā*): In “To God belongs the highest similitude” (Qur’an 16:60), it was interpreted as the testimony itself. 14. **The Covenant** (*al-mīthāq*): In “No one will have power to intercede except for those who have a covenant from the Lord of Mercy” (Qur’an 19:87), the “covenant” was interpreted as the utterance of “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*.” 15. **The Keys of the Heavens and the Earth** (*maqālīd al-samāwāt wa-l-arḍ*): These “keys” are understood as none other than the testimony of faith. While *shirk* rends the cosmos (Qur’an 19:90), *tawḥīd* restores it. By this Word, the gates of Heaven and the heart itself are opened, while the gates of Hell and satanic whisperings are shut. 16. **The Word of Truth** (*kalimat al-ḥaqq*): In “None can intercede save those who bear witness to the truth while they know” (Qur’an 43:86), the “truth” refers to this testimony. 17. **The Firmest Bond** (*al-ʿurwat al-wuthqā*): “Whoever rejects false gods and believes in God has grasped the firmest bond” (Qur’an 2:256), interpreted as *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. 18. **The Word of Truthfulness** (*kalimat al-ṣidq*): As in “the one who brings the truth and the one who accepts it” (Qur’an 39:33), it embodies fidelity and affirmation. 19. **The Common Word** (*kalimat al-sawāʾ*): In “Let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all” (Qur’an 3:64), exegetes understood it as the testimony of divine oneness. The Qur’an’s instruction to the Israelites to say *ḥiṭṭa* (“forgive us”) was also interpreted by some exegetes as a call to affirm *lā ilāha illā Allāh*.[^17] While the authenticity of such reports remains debated, the cumulative weight of these interpretations underscores the centrality of the testimony in Islamic theology and practice. ### Remembrance After explaining that *lā ilāha illā Allāh* encompasses all three domains of Islamic theology, al-Dardīr exhorts: > Hence, diligently recall this phrase with reverence. > > Through it, ascend to the loftiest of stations.[^18] Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Sakandarī (d. 709/1309) presents a rich and expansive view of remembrance (*dhikr*), describing it as the removal of heedlessness and forgetfulness through the heart’s continuous presence with the Divine. At its core, *dhikr* is the repetition of the name of the One remembered, whether on the tongue or in the heart, but it extends far beyond verbal invocation. It includes the remembrance of God, His attributes, His rulings, and His actions; any reflective thought that draws the soul nearer to Him; and even supplication (*duʿāʾ*), which arises from the heart’s longing for divine response. The mention of God’s prophets, His righteous servants, or those who strive for nearness to Him, whether through speech, recitation, poetry, teaching, or storytelling, are likewise forms of *dhikr*.[^19] Remembrance permeates all acts anchored in the Divine: the jurist who seeks God’s judgment, the teacher who imparts sacred knowledge, the mufti who guides hearts, the preacher who kindles souls, and the contemplative who ponders the majesty and signs of God in the heavens and the earth—all are engaged in *dhikr*. To obey God’s commands and to refrain from what He has forbidden are also forms of remembrance. *Dhikr* may manifest through the tongue, the heart, or the limbs, and may be performed silently or aloud. When these forms converge, they give rise to what Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh terms “complete remembrance” (*dhikr kāmil*).[^20] Numerous prophetic traditions underscore the virtues of uttering, understanding, and adhering to *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. In what follows, a selection of notable hadiths is presented, accompanied by brief commentary. ### The best remembrance The Prophet ﷺ said: “The best thing that I and the prophets before me have said is, ‘There is no god but Allah, alone, without any partner’ (*lā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah*).”[^21] Al-Tirmidhī’s version includes the addition, “His is the dominion and His is the praise, and He is Able to do all things (*lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-ḥamd wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr*).”[^22] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ also recounts an interaction between Allah and the Prophet Moses, where Moses asked for a special form of remembrance exclusive to him. Allah instructed him to say, “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*.” Moses responded, “But all Your servants say this.” Allah replied, “Were the seven heavens and their inhabitants, apart from Me, and the seven earths placed on one side of a balance and *lā ilāha illā Allāh* on the other, the testimony would outweigh them.”[^23] The Prophet ﷺ also said: “The best of remembrance is *lā ilāha illā Allāh* and the finest supplication (*duʿāʾ*) is praise of Allah (*al-ḥamd lillāh*)”[^24] and “Glorifying Allah (*tasbīḥ*) fills half the scale, praise of Allah (*al-ḥamd* *lillāh*) fills the entire scale, and *lā ilāha illā Allāh* has no veil between it and Allah until it reaches Him.”[^25] The testimony of faith, *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, stands unparalleled in the practice of remembrance, for it encapsulates the very essence of faith. God mentions it in His Book thirty-seven times, and every act of worship reflects its meaning. In purification (*ṭahāra*), one negates impurity and affirms purity. In almsgiving (zakat), one negates attachment to wealth and affirms love of God, manifesting detachment from the world and reliance upon Him alone. Likewise, since the heart is crowded with other-than-God, the word of negation must first expel these intrusions; once emptied, “the pulpit of divine oneness is established within, upon which sits the sovereign of gnosis.”[^26] The hadiths above affirm *lā ilāha illā Allāh* as the most excellent form of remembrance. What is set forth in universal terms must necessarily be of the loftiest realities and the weightiest in worth—for it stands in opposition to numerous false claims and beliefs, and thus requires a power sufficient to overcome them all.[^27] This distinction reflects broader hierarchies within the Islamic tradition: Just as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is regarded as the most excellent of creation, and certain angels—such as Jibrīl—are considered the foremost of their kind, particular phrases likewise hold preeminence within devotional categories. Thus, while *al-ḥamd lillāh* is considered the most excellent expression of gratitude and supplication, *lā ilāha illā Allāh* remains the supreme remembrance.[^28] The phrase “*al-ḥamd lillāh*” is esteemed as an ideal supplication because it expresses both praise and gratitude, which are intimately tied to God’s mercy and benevolence. While supplication generally involves requesting something from God, *al-ḥamd lillāh* implicitly conveys this supplicatory aspect through its exaltation of the Divine. Nonetheless, the excellence of *al-ḥamd lillāh* as a supplication does not diminish the superior status of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* as the highest form of remembrance. Supplication constitutes one aspect of remembrance, but *dhikr* encompasses a broader spectrum of devotional acts, including glorification (*tasbīḥ*), praise, and above all, the affirmation of divine unity. Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh mentions that, as the supreme form of remembrance, the Testimony served as a source of refuge and deliverance for both God’s friends and adversaries in moments of extreme distress. Consider the examples of Pharaoh and of the Prophet Jonah (Yūnus): Pharaoh uttered the Testimony while drowning, and Jonah proclaimed it from within the belly of the whale. Yet only Jonah’s declaration was accepted, as it reflected a prior, sincere commitment to God. God Himself testifies: “Had he not been of those who exalt Allah, he would have remained inside its belly until the Day they are resurrected.”[^29] Pharaoh, in contrast, pronounced the words with an absent heart; his utterance arose not from submission and conviction but from the desperate desire to save himself from death.[^30] ### Daily recitation and its rewards The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever recites the following a hundred times a day: ‘*lā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah* *lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-ḥamd wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr*,’ will receive a reward equivalent to freeing ten slaves, a hundred good deeds will be recorded for them, a hundred sins will be erased, and they will be safeguarded from Satan for that day until evening. No one will surpass them in good deeds except those who recite it more.”[^31] He ﷺ also said: “Whoever says: ‘*lā ilāha illā Allāh*,’ it will benefit them one day \[on the Day of Judgment\], even if it is after they endure punishment”[^32] and “No servant has ever uttered ‘*lā ilāha illa Allāh*’ sincerely, except that the gates of Heaven are opened for it, until it reaches the Throne, so long as the person avoids major sins.”[^33] The proclamation of the Testimony is perhaps the only act of worship that God has both obligated and joined us in performing, “Allah \[Himself\] bears witness: ‘There is no deity except Him,’ and so do the angels and those endowed with knowledge, affirming that He sustains creation in perfect justice: ‘There is no deity except Him, the Exalted in Might, the Wise.’”[^34] The repetition of the phrase within the verse underscores the necessity of continual remembrance; one is enjoined to proclaim it throughout the entirety of life.[^35] One should remember Allah with full strength and reverence, intending with “*lā ilāha*” to remove from the heart all that is other than God, and with “*illā Allāh*” to establish His presence within it, so that His remembrance permeates one’s entire being. Each utterance should be accompanied by mindful presence. Some scholars held that *dhikr* is only complete if each repetition conveys a fresh meaning. The lowest degree is that, with every “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*,” the heart contains nothing besides God; if, during remembrance, the heart turns elsewhere, that object is effectively treated as a god. The Qur’an warns: “Have you seen the one who takes his own desire as his god?”[^36] and “Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, not to worship Satan?”[^37] Likewise, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Perish the slave of the dinar, perish the slave of the dirham”[^38]*—*not for bowing to gold or silver, but for attaching the heart to them. If the heart is crowded with sensory images, a thousand utterances may pass without meaning; but when emptied of all besides God, even a single “Allah” can yield an indescribable delight. While *lā ilāha illā Allāh* is the essence of spiritual orientation, it is also the key to the heart’s realities and the ascent of seekers toward the unseen.[^39] On the etiquette of this *dhikr*, some recommend flowing seamlessly from “*lā ilāha*” to “*illā Allāh*” without outward or inward pause, to deny Satan any opening since this can more swiftly open the heart and draw one nearer to the Lord. Others prefer elongating the phrase, so that during “*lā ilāha*” all rivals to God are recalled and negated, and with “*illā Allāh*” divine oneness is affirmed. Still others avoid elongation, lest death arrive before reaching the final affirmation.[^40] This concern for cultivating spiritual presence extends into the Qur’anic sciences of *tajwīd* and *qirāʾāt*, where reciters recommend *madd al-taʿẓīm*: intentionally lengthening the phrase “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*” (and similar Qur’anic formulations) to four counts, even for those whose usual recitation is shortening (*qaṣr*). Unlike the standard phonetic causes for elongation, such as the meeting of a *hamza* or *sukūn*, *madd al-taʿẓīm* is driven by a semantic aim: to intensify the negation of all divinity besides God and magnify His exclusive lordship.[^41] Ibn Mihrān (d. 381/991) explains that it is called the “elongation of emphasis” because it heightens this negation, a practice well known among the Arabs in supplication, seeking aid, and emphatic denial, even in words without an etymological cause for elongation, and all the more in those that have one.[^42] Al-Nawawī, in *al-Adhkār*, likewise praised prolonging “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*,” citing its deep roots in the practice of “the early and later generations” and its power to foster attentiveness and contemplation.[^43] Thus, the measured elongation of *lā* becomes not only a refinement of *tajwīd* but a devotional act, embodying in the reciter’s breath the expansiveness of negation before the fullness of divine affirmation. Regarding the role of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* in expiating sins, scholars have debated its scope. Many hold that its recitation primarily atones for minor transgressions,[^44] while others interpret hadiths indicating that sincere proclamation can, in some cases, protect one from the Hellfire, suggesting that its effect may extend even to major sins.[^45] Nonetheless, the complete expiation of major sins requires repentance and the rectification of any violated rights. Yet, through the blessing of *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, Allah may soften hearts, inspiring reconciliation and forgiveness among people, thereby opening a path toward a more comprehensive divine pardon.[^46] ### Legal status and communal consequences The Prophet ﷺ said: “I have been commanded to fight against people until they declare ‘*lā ilāha illa Allāh*.’ If they profess it, their lives and property are granted protection, except where justified \[by law\], and their ultimate reckoning is with Allah.”[^47] Faith is first rooted in knowledge within the heart, which constitutes its essential core: “Know that there is no deity except Allah.” This inner recognition must then be expressed through verbal affirmation: “Say: He is God the One.”[^48] The imperative “say” obliges the believer to articulate with the tongue that which signifies *tawḥīd*, for faith carries both inward and outward consequences. Its inward aspect, hidden in the heart, pertains to the afterlife, while its outward aspect governs worldly duties and social obligations, which can only be recognized through speech. Without verbal acknowledgment, one’s status as a believer cannot be externally confirmed, nor can the attendant legal and social obligations be properly enforced. Knowledge constitutes the essential pillar of faith before God, while verbal declaration serves as its legal and social pillar—necessary for the recognition of obligations and rights, as indicated in Allah’s command: “Do not marry polytheistic women until they believe.”[^49] This hadith illustrates that the Testimony of Faith constitutes the minimal threshold for entering the fold of Islam. It delineates the lowest of five ascending degrees of commitment, whereby mere verbal utterance secures the legal protection of life and property. This level includes both sincere believers and hypocrites. Its virtue is such that anyone who attaches themselves to the statement partakes in its blessings: those seeking the hereafter are granted the felicity of both abodes. Beyond this foundational level, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh outlines four higher degrees of realization. The second pertains to those who combine verbal affirmation with inner conviction, even by way of imitation (*taqlīd*). The third adds intellectual comprehension through knowledge of rational proofs underlying belief. The fourth ascends to certitude rooted in definitive evidence. The fifth and highest station is reserved for those graced with spiritual witnessing (*mushāhadāt*) and divine manifestations (*tajalliyāt*), where the veils are lifted and faith becomes grounded in direct experiential knowledge.[^50] ### Salvation and intercession in the Afterlife The Prophet ﷺ said: “No soul dies bearing witness to *lā ilāha illā Allāh* and that I am the Messenger of Allah with sincere conviction, except that Allah forgives it.”[^51] He also stated: “He who dies while certain of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* will enter Paradise,”[^52] “If anyone’s last words are ‘*lā ilāha illā Allāh*,’ they will enter Paradise,”[^53] and “If anyone comes on the Day of Resurrection having said ‘*lā ilāha illā Allāh*’ sincerely, with the intention of seeking Allah’s pleasure, Allah will forbid the Hellfire from touching him.”[^54] When asked, “Who will be the most fortunate person to receive your intercession on the Day of Resurrection?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “The most fortunate person to receive my intercession will be the one who sincerely and wholeheartedly declared, ‘*lā ilāha illā Allāh*.’”[^55] At the deathbed of his uncle Abū Ṭālib, the Prophet ﷺ urged him, “O my uncle! Say ‘*lā ilāha illa Allāh*,’ a  phrase \[that will cause me to\] intercede for you before Allah.”[^56] When uttered at the moment of death—after desires have faded, the rebellious self has softened, and one surrenders fully to the power of God—the testimony arises with sincerity, the outer and inner selves brought into harmony. Such a testimony, spoken in purity and truth, becomes a cause for forgiveness. By contrast, when recited in health, the Testimony is often mingled with distraction, as the heart remains laden with attachments and restless desires. The human soul is easily ensnared by passion, intoxicated with the world, and heedless of the hereafter, leaving little room for true certainty (*yaqīn*). Only when certainty becomes firmly rooted in the heart does it radiate as a light of divine recognition—and death is a moment when such *yaqīn* often crystallizes. At the same time, the prophetic traditions should not be read in a narrowly literal sense. Many scholars explained  that “last words” refers not only to a final utterance at the point of death but also to a life consistently lived in fidelity to *lā ilāha illā Allāh.* In this broader sense, one whose entire existence bears witness to divine oneness may be counted among those whose “last words” were the testimony of faith, even if not physically spoken in their final breath.[^57] ### Encouraging the dying (talqīn) to recite it The Prophet ﷺ said: “Exhort your dying ones to recite: ‘*lā ilāha illā Allah*.’”[^58] As mentioned above, for the Testimony to be salvific, it must be uttered with certainty, and certainty arises only when worldly desires have been subdued. This may happen in one of two ways: either through lifelong self-discipline that tames the passions, or at the time of death, when hope and fear of God are heightened and the dying person’s attention is turned away from all else. In that state, pronouncing the Testimony secures forgiveness.[^59] At that decisive moment—when the soul trembles at the threshold of departure—the intricate details of doctrine may slip beyond reach, leaving only what the heart has genuinely internalized. Through steadfast remembrance and mindful reflection, the believer trains the soul to summon *lā ilāha illā Allāh* with clarity and confidence when the veils of this world are lifted, sealing one’s life with the ultimate affirmation of truth.[^60] On this basis, prompting the dying to say the Testimony (*talqīn*) is unanimously regarded as Sunnah, as it helps fix the heart and tongue upon the word of *tawḥīd* in life’s final moments. Jurists, however, differ over extending *talqīn* to after burial: some uphold it as a valid tradition, intended to remind the deceased of faith and reaffirm their bond with the Testimony even in the grave.[^61] ### The card of testimony The Prophet ﷺ said: “On the Day of Judgment, Allah will single out a man from my community before all of creation. Ninety-nine scrolls \[of sins\] will be laid out for him, each extending as far as the eye can see. Allah will ask him: ‘Do you deny any of this? Have My recorders wronged you?’ He will reply: ‘No, O Lord!’ Allah will ask: ‘Do you have an excuse?’ He will reply: ‘No, O Lord!’ Then He will say: ‘You have one good deed with Us, and you will not be wronged today.’ A card (*biṭāqa*) will be brought forth, inscribed with: ‘I testify that *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.’ Allah  will then command: ‘Bring the scales.’ The man will say: ‘O Lord! What is this card compared to these scrolls?’ Allah will respond: ‘You shall not be wronged.’ The scrolls will be placed on one side of the scale, and the card on the other. The scrolls will become light, and the card will outweigh them, for nothing outweighs the name of Allah.”[^62] The weight of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* is truly appreciated only by those who grasp its measure. It is a phrase of divine unity, unmatched and unopposable; were anything able to counter it, it would no longer be singular but dual, and so forth. Only its opposite—polytheism—can oppose it, and there is nothing genuinely equivalent. A person is either a monotheist or a polytheist; both cannot coexist on the scale.[^63] This hadith inspires a profound sense of hope in Allah’s boundless mercy, emphasizing the transformative power of steadfast adherence to the essence of  *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. Scholars have debated whether the “card” mentioned in this narration symbolizes the minimal level of adherence to *lā ilāha illā Allāh* required for one to be considered a Muslim. Some argued that such minimal affirmation negates disbelief but does not guarantee full conformity with the tenets of faith or a life of righteous conduct.[^64] Indeed, the scale does not tip merely through verbal utterance: if it did, all who pronounce *tawḥīd* would automatically be saved from Hell. Rather, God intends that the merit of this affirmation be revealed in its proper measure. Those who enter Hell despite uttering *tawḥīd* remain there until, through intercession or divine grace, they are brought out. Furthermore, some scholars have suggested that deeds, though metaphorically represented by scales on the Day of Judgment, persist in tangible forms in the Afterlife. These righteous actions are preserved within the dwellings of Paradise, serving as perpetual sources of joy and consolation for the believer, offering both a reminder of Allah’s mercy and a reflection of their own efforts in this world.[^65] --- ## On the benefits of the testimony of faith The declaration *lā ilāha illā Allāh* brings about an ever-growing connection with the transcendent, all-powerful, infinite, and perfect divine reality. Embracing this  reality leads to profound transformation—spiritual, emotional, psychological, and existential—grounded in the certainty and clarity it imparts. Delving into its deeper meanings reveals not only theological, linguistic, and rhetorical insights—as we will soon see Imam al-Zarkashī so masterfully demonstrate—but also unveils indescribable spiritual benefits accessible through consistent and intentional invocation. Al-Sanūsī offers particularly insightful reflections on these benefits in his theological primer *Umm al-barāhīn*. He categorizes them into two primary types. The first pertains to righteous virtues, which he enumerates as follows: 1. Detachment from worldly attachments (*zuhd*).  2. Freedom of the heart from reliance on fleeting matters.  3. Reliance (*tawakkul*) on Allah.  4. Conscientious shame (*ḥayāʾ*), defined by al-Sanūsī as, “Glorifying Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, through constant invocation of Him, adherence to His prohibitions, and refraining from voicing complaints about Him to needy and powerless beings.”  5. Spiritual sufficiency (*ghinā*), characterized by resilience in faith even when facing material deprivation.  6. Absolute neediness (*faqr*) directed to Allah alone.  7. Altruism (*ithār*), practiced in a way that remains praiseworthy and consistent with the dictates of *sharīʿa*.  8. Chivalry (*futuwwa*). 9. Gratitude (*shukr*), defined as directing the heart wholly towards praising Allah and recognizing His blessings, even when they are concealed within trials and tribulations.[^66] To further elaborate on *zuhd*—one of the most fundamental of these benefits—the Egyptian Mālikī jurist and theologian Muḥammad al-Dasūqī (d. 1230/1815) defines it as detachment from: > …those things that people take pride in, such as food, drink, and clothing. If a person possesses wealth, they pay it no heed and do not cling to its preservation; rather, they spend it \[rightfully\], and if it is lost, they are not distressed by it… *Zuhd* does not contradict possessing abundant wealth, for what matters is the inner detachment of the heart from inclination toward it, whether it is in one’s possession or not.[^67] Al-Sanūsī’s second category of benefits pertains to extraordinary divine favors (*karāmāt*) that Allah bestows upon His pious servants (other than prophets) as a result of their sincere declaration and steadfast commitment to *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. These manifestations may include occurrences such as Allah placing immense blessing in a pious person’s food, allowing it to suffice for many. However, al-Sanūsī cautions that the believer should not pursue such miraculous outcomes through acts of worship, as doing so risks falling into concealed polytheism (*shirk khafy*) and becoming vulnerable to divine retribution.[^68] Instead, the believer is encouraged to engage in the remembrance of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* with a purified heart, detached from all but Allah and fully focused on Him. Al-Sanūsī emphasizes that the believer’s sole intention should be “the good pleasure of their Lord, who has no substitute and from whose need no one is independent.”[^69] --- ## Imam al-Zarkashī and his book Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh Two key aspects of al-Zarkashī’s life are particularly relevant to understanding his scholarship: his exceptional erudition and his profound piety. Born in Mamluk Cairo in 745/1344, Abū ʿAbdullāh Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Bahādur al-Zarkashī was of Turkish descent. His epithet, al-Zarkashī, derives from his early involvement in embroidery (*zarkash*), his father’s trade. He was also known as al-Minhājī due to his memorization of al-Nawawī’s seminal Shāfiʿī legal manual, *al-Minhāj*. Al-Zarkashī’s scholarly journey took him to some of the most renowned centers of learning of his time. In Damascus, he studied hadith with eminent scholars, such as Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) and Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī (d. 780/1379). He pursued advanced legal studies in Aleppo under Shihāb al-Dīn al-Adhraʿī (d. 783/1381) and later refined his expertise in Cairo under prominent figures, including Jamāl al-Dīn al-Isnawī (d. 772/1370), head of the Shāfiʿī school Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī (d. 805/1403), and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Mughulṭāy (d. 762/1361). After completing his studies, al-Zarkashī settled in Egypt, dedicating himself to teaching, writing, and issuing legal opinions (fatwas). He served as dean at Karīm al-Dīn’s Khanqah (Sufi lodge) in the Cairo Necropolis, located in the smaller Qarafa beneath the Mokattam Hills. The historian Ibn Taghrībirdī (d. 874/1470) described him as: > Excelling in law and many other disciplines, he played a significant role in teaching and issuing fatwas. He authored commentaries, abridgments, and compilations in his own handwriting. He avoided positions of power, wore modest clothing even when attending gatherings or visiting the markets. He was known for his humility and aversion to ostentation.[^70] Al-Zarkashī’s influence extended through his students, many of whom became leading scholars in their own right, such as Shams al-Dīn al-Birmāwī (d. 831/1427), the Damascene judge Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Ḥajjī (d. 830/1427), and the Alexandrian Mālikī jurist Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan al-Shumanī (d. 821/1418). Though engaged in public teaching, al-Zarkashī was known for his reserved nature and preference for seclusion. He often retreated to bookstores, where he read and meticulously annotated texts—notes which formed the basis of his prolific scholarly output.[^71] Despite his relatively short life, passing at the age of 49, al-Zarkashī authored numerous influential works across disciplines such as hadith, law, Qur’anic studies, theology, logic, and literature.[^72] His intellectual contributions were widely recognized. His *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* was one of the first comprehensive works on Qur’anic sciences and later became a key source for al-Suyūṭī’s *al-Itqān*.[^73] His magnum opus, *al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ*, remains unparalleled in the field of legal theory for its exhaustive treatment of legal methodologies and juristic reasoning, remarkably completed when he was only 32. Al-Zarkashī lived a life of scholarly devotion and spiritual discipline. He avoided public recognition, often locking himself in a room in Cairo’s bustling book market to read and take notes, pausing only for prayer. At night, he compiled his annotations into manuscripts and engaged in worship. He died on 3 Rajab 794/27 May 1392 and was buried in the smaller Qarafa cemetery near the tomb of Amir Baktamur al-Sāqī. His intellectual legacy lives on through his writings and the many students he mentored. Among al-Zarkashī’s many contributions is his short yet profound treatise *Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh*. According to the introduction, al-Zarkashī composed it in a single night, dividing it into 29 sections that examine the grammatical, rhetorical, legal, theological, logical, and spiritual dimensions of the statement. The treatise begins with a syntactic analysis of the phrase, examining  the implications of the negation particle (*lā*) and the word order. Al-Zarkashī comments on its phonetic properties, noting that the letters used to compose the phrase are articulated from the oral cavity (*jawf*) and throat and are undotted—a feature he associates with specific spiritual qualities. He then compares *lā ilāha illā Allāh* with other Qur’anic statements denying the existence of any deity besides Allah, demonstrating the phrase’s unique theological significance. He also explores the etymology and meanings of the divine name “Allah,” delving into the relationship between the name and the divine attributes. --- ## Note on the translation and annotation The translation in this paper is based on the third edition of *Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh*, published by Dār al-Iʿtiṣām in 1985 and edited by ʿAlī al-Qaradāghī. Since the publication of this edition, several sources cited by al-Qaradāghī—once accessible only in manuscript form—have become available in modern editions. These include Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Kafiyajī’s (d. 879/1474) seminal treatise, *al-Anwār fī ʿilm al-tawḥīd: sharḥ kalimatay al-shahāda*. Additionally, select unpublished texts were consulted, such as a concise treatise by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) that examines  the linguistic dimensions of *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, and informed the annotations presented in this study. Al-Qaradāghī’s own editorial notes were likewise useful and are engaged throughout. The sixteen sections selected for translation delve into the semantic and syntactic intricacies of the ​​Testimony of Faith. Among the topics examined are the significance of definite and indefinite forms, the implications of singular and plural constructions, the dialectic relationship between negation and affirmation, and the universal scope embedded in the testimony’s formulation. The text also explores the acoustic resonance and theological weight of the majestic name Allah, alongside other divine names. To aid clarity and reader engagement, thematic subsection headings have been introduced throughout the translation. By rendering its rich insights into English, we aim to offer readers not only conceptual and theological depth, but also a pathway to cultivating a more intimate connection with the essence of *tawḥīd*. At its heart, the testimony of faith serves as both a doctrinal cornerstone and lived expression of divine oneness. Throughout the translation process, readability and conceptual clarity in idiomatic English have been prioritized over rigid literalism, in order to better convey the intended meanings of the original work. --- ## Annotated Translation of Selected Sections from Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh ### Introduction *In the name of Allah Most Merciful, Most Compassionate* May peace and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad, his family, and companions. Praise be to Allah, in a way commensurate with His blessings and befitting of His largesse. May peace and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad—the one with virtuous characteristics—his family, and companions as long as time goes on, be it short or long. What follows is a collection of beneficial notes, gems for the ones with high resolve. Related to the testimony “There is no deity but Allah” (*lā ilāha illā Allāh*),[^74] most of them are innovative, rare, and offered free of charge. I wrote it on a night consumed by the influence of groundbreaking ideas and the unfolding of contemplation. My only companions were an inkstand and a lamp, and my closest company was the raging fire of my thoughts, swirling with intensity and chaos. This continued until the morning broke with a joyous announcement, ushering the most virtuous of innovations. With this, I traveled from the realm of thought to that of insight, seeking the forgiveness of the Exalted and Most-Forgiving. I arranged the work into chapters.[^75] ### 5. The underlying semantic structure of the testimony of faith The phrase *lā ilāha illā Allāh* is understood by most scholars to have an omitted predicate (*khabar*) \[a missing word or idea that’s implied but not directly stated\]. Some suggest the missing part is the word “existent” (*mawjūd*), others say “for us” (*lanā*), and some say “in truth” (*bi-ḥaqq*).[^76] This is because false gods—like idols—exist in reality, and the intended negation is of everything other than the True God.[^77] Some scholars disagree and deny the need for an implied word, arguing that denying any god—or negating the essence (*māhiyya*)—without restriction is more comprehensive than negating it with a restriction. However, assuming an implicit word is preferable and consistent with Arabic linguistic norms regarding the omission of predicates \[where sometimes parts of a sentence are understood without being said\]. Based on this, the best interpretation is that the phrase means: “There is no god, in truth, except Allah.” This way, the phrase comprehensively affirms what cannot be negated (the one true God) and negates what cannot be affirmed (all false gods).[^78] ### 7. Affirmation takes precedence over negation Some theologians (*mutakallimūn*) uphold that it’s more fundamental and necessary to understand that affirmation takes precedence over conceptualizing negation. This is because you can picture the possibility of something existing without first thinking about its absence, but you can’t fully grasp what’s being denied unless you already have an idea of what’s being affirmed.[^79] So then, why does the Testimony of Faith begin with a negation (“There is no god”) before moving to an affirmation (“except Allah”)? They respond by highlighting that negating or denying necessity (*wujūbiyya*) for everything except Allah and then affirming it for Him, the Most High, is a stronger assertion than simply affirming it. Experts in the art of rhetoric (*ahl al-maʿānī*) hold that the Testimony of Faith starts with a negation because a negation clears the heart. If the heart is vacant, the manifestation of God’s oneness (*tawḥīd*) is more likely to occur, as well as the illumination of Allah’s light upon it. Similarly, some scholars also say that the Testimony of Faith begins with a negation to purify the heart from anything other than God (*aghyār*), polishing its essence and allowing light, hidden truths, and deep insight to appear. This implication mirrors Sufi gnosis and is more fitting to reflect meanings related to lordly secrets.[^80] ### 8. Two special acoustic features The statement “*lā ilāha illā Allāh*” contains two distinct acoustic characteristics. First, all its letters are pronounced with hollow sound articulation (from the oral cavity, or *jawfiyya*), not containing letters pronounced using the lips (lip sounds, or *shafahiyya*). This symbolizes that the words come from deep within—from the heart, not just the lips. Second, it contains no dotted (*muʿjam*) letters; all of them are dotless, symbolizing a detachment from anything worshiped other than Allah, the Most High. ### 9. Allocation and exclusivity (ḥaṣr) of true Godship The statement *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, in this particular formula, synthesizes negation and affirmation to signify the exclusiveness (*ḥaṣr*) of divinity to Allah, the Most High.[^81] Combining negation and affirmation is one of the most articulate formulas by which to define something, clearly setting boundaries or limits around it.[^82] It has been established that this noble statement is sufficient in affirming unicity to Allah, the Most High, without needing to explore if there is an intermediary between the negation and affirmation, or adding any other word to it. However, is the meaning of this affirmation assigned by linguistic convention (*waḍʿ*) or divine revelation? Or does it indicate a negation of any shared deity? Affirming divinity for Allah, the Most High, is something naturally known by every rational person. For proponents of this opinion, affirmation means affirming a commendable attribute of Allah, the Most High. Others claim that this affirmation is based on both context and scripture. The contextual evidence is that the messages brought by the messengers clearly call people to affirm God’s unicity. This context shows that when someone says the Testimony of Faith, they intend this meaning. This supports the view that excluding something from a negation is not itself an affirmation, and that utterances are meant to signify ideas in the mind, not extramental propositions.[^83] In fact, the reason this venerated statement is directed to those who are religiously responsible (*mukallafūn*, sing. *mukallaf*), making them accountable for it, is to affirm the divinity of Allah, the Most High, alone. The Lawgiver \[i.e., the Prophet\], Allah’s peace and blessing be upon him, was satisfied with this statement on its own, without needing any added words.[^84] If this statement did not signify *tawḥīd*, then it would have needed additional clarification—because *tawḥīd* is the original intent of every messenger’s mission. Also, there is a consensus of specialists and non-specialists, from the earliest to the later generations, that it affirms *tawḥīd*, which is why they called it the Statement of God’s Oneness (*kalimat al-tawḥīd*). Claiming that something must supplement the statement confuses the message of the Sacred Law (*sharʿ*), using dialectical terminologies that are neither worthy of consideration nor permissible. Furthermore, the absence of any word between “no” (*lā*) and “except” (*illā*) shows that it is a categorical negation, signifying the negation of the existence of every deity. Then, the word “except” (*illā*) immediately affirms the opposite: that divinity belongs to Allah, the Most High. This meaning is clear and straightforward. A poet versified, > Nothing is correct in the minds, > > If there is ever a need to prove the daybreak! ### 10. On the difference between the two statements: “Lā ilāha illā Allāh” and “Mā min ilāh illā Allāh” Al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) equates the statements “There is no deity but Allah” (*lā ilāha illā Allāh*) and “Other than Allah, there is no deity” (*mā min ilāh illā Allāh*) because both statements contain negation and affirmation. *Min* \[a particle used here to emphasize total negation, often called a partitive or symbol of clarification\] explicitly affirms comprehensive negation (*nafy mustaghriq*) in one of the two sentences, while in the other statement, this meaning is understood implicitly. It appears that *lā ilāha illā Allāh* is more articulate, which is why it was the most commonly chosen form. This is because *lā* is more conventionally established in Arabic for expressing general negation than *mā.* Notice how *lā* negates the very essence of something, as proven by the omission of its object (*khabar*)—often as a way of proclaiming that the intent is on the subject (*ism*), not the object. Since the Statement of Unicity is meant to deny the very existence of a god other than Allah, using *lā* is more fitting to its established linguistic usage. Furthermore, if the preposition *min* is omitted and its meaning included within the noun used with *lā,* the phrase becomes more articulate. This is because implying the meaning directly in the noun (*taḍmīn*) makes it comprehensive. A noun also carries a stronger connotation than a preposition, and the added structure creates an addition in meaning that was not there before. ### 11. Signifying categorical inclusion (istighrāq) by singular words (god) instead of plural words (gods) The sense of comprehensiveness or total exclusion/inclusion (*istighrāq*) expressed by a singular (*mufrad*) word is stronger than when using its plural (*jamʿ*). For example, it is appropriate to say “No men are in the house” (*lā rijāl fī al-dār*) if there are two or three men in the house. However, it would not be appropriate to say, in this scenario, “No man is in the house…” (*lā rajul fī al-dār*), as it would be understood that not a single man is in the house. As such, this demonstrates the subtlety of Allah’s words, the Most High. Discussing the call of Prophet Zechariah (Zakariyyā), peace be upon him, who said “Lord, my bone \[*ʿaẓm*\] has weakened” and did not say “bones” (*ʿiẓām*), al-Zamakhsharī said, > He used the singular form “*ʿaẓm*” because a singular noun connotes a broad group (or category) that shares common features, otherwise known as a genus. What he \[Prophet Zakariyyā\] means is that this group, which serves as the pillar upon which the body relies, is afflicted with fragility. Had the plural been used, the interpretation would have shifted to a different meaning. That is, that not just some of his bones had become fragile, but rather all of them had. The Imam of the Two Sanctuaries (Imām al-Ḥaramayn) \[al-Juwaynī\] (d. 478/1085), stated in *al-Burhān*, > Here is a matter that an examiner should be aware of. That is, the word *al-tamr* (lit. the date) is more likely to encompass the genus than *al-tumūr* (the dates), but not based on the wording itself. The word *al-tumūr* prompts the listener to first visualize individual dates, then visualize them as a collective group, as indicated by the plural form.[^85] The commentators \[i.e., of *al-Burhān*\] said that al-Juwaynī meant that someone seeking to refer to the category as a whole would use *tamr*, which pertains to the collective entirety. In contrast, *tumār* refers to multiple individual entities. As such, it describes the individual components, not the totality. Once you know this, the subtlety of negating the singular in the Testimony of Faith will not be wasted on you. ### 12. The implication of using “ilāh” as an indefinite word in the context of negation In the Testimony of Faith, the word “deity” (*ilāh*) is used in an indefinite form within a statement of negation, which undoubtedly gives it a general meaning. So then, what is meant by the \[expert’s\] statement that if the indefinite is within a statement of general negation, it is not absolute? Litterateurs and legal theorists agree that when we say, “There is no man at home” (*lā rajulun fī al-dār*) \[using a nominative (*rafʿ*) case; i.e., *rajulun*\], it does not indicate a general meaning. Instead, it should be said ‘‘There is no man but two at home” (*lā rajulun fī al-dār bal ithnān*), even though it is indefinite in a negative context. Also, people agree that the statements, “Not every animal is human” (*laysa kull ḥayawān insān*) and “Not every number is even” (*laysa kull ʿadad zawj*) are true, but not general in meaning, even though they contain indefinites within a negative statement. The disagreement cannot be resolved by arguing that an indefinite noun paired with *lā* always indicates total negation because we also say, “No one came to you” (*mā jāʾaka min aḥad*) and “There is no one in the house” (*laysa fī al-dār aḥad*), which express comprehensiveness without using *lā*. Hence, this point of dispute remains problematic. The answer is that when an indefinite word is used in a negative sentence, it typically implies the denial is general and comprehensive—except in these two instances. The reason for this exception is clear. In the first case, the intention is to negate a general concept \[what scholars call a *universal quiddity*, meaning the essence that something shares with others of its kind; *māhiyya kulliyya*\], without making impossible the qualification of uniqueness (*wiḥda*) in individual examples. That’s why it makes perfect sense to say, “There is no man in the house but two.” However, the meaning changes when the indefinite word is paired with *lā*. In this case, it typically serves as a reply to someone asking “Is there a man in the house?” and the response “There is no man in the house” means that none of the individuals from that category are present in the house. The inclusion of *min* is what causes the subject to be fixed in grammatical form (non-inflected or *bināʾ*), as mentioned earlier. But in this case, when the assumed meaning no longer includes *min*, the cause for that grammatical fix no longer applies. Therefore, the sentence is considered a new declarative statement (*ikhbār mustaʾnaf*), rather than a response (*jawāb*). As for the second case, it refers to the negation (*salb*) of the predication from general categories only. The verification (*taqrīr*) of the matter is as follows: someone claiming, “Every number is even.” In saying this, they affirm a general predication—applying evenness to all numbers. Now, we want to challenge this kind of universal affirmative proposition (*mujība kulliyya*). To do so, it is enough to suspend the predication on just one of the individuals to suspend a universal affirmative. That’s because proving a single exception is enough to disprove a universal claim. That is why a negative particular statement (saying that at least one case doesn’t fit) is considered the contradictory (*naqīḍ*) of a universal affirmative—we’re not denying the statement applies to all individual cases, but rather, we’re rejecting that it applies to all of them *without exception* (the predication of universality itself). Therefore, when we say that an indefinite noun indicates generality, this applies only when the negation is applied to *all* individual members of that category. It does not apply when the negation concerns *only some* of the individuals—this is called a negative particular statement. ### 14\. & 15. The implication of negating the indefinite word, “ilāh” A negated indefinite \[proposition\], as in the Testimony of Faith, is stronger in conveying generality than simply placing an indefinite word in a negative sentence. This is why Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī (d. 630/1233) said in *Abkār al-afkār,* “An indefinite word in a negative context is not generalized. Rather, a negative indefinite itself is generalized.”[^86] If you understand this, then you’ll also understand that an indefinite word in a positive, affirmative statement does not imply generality, according to what a group of legal theorists have declared. However, the reality of the matter is different from that, and depends on the specific context. Here, I intend to demonstrate that there is an exception for two forms: - First, if this is a conditional context (*siyāq al-sharṭ*), as noted by the Imam \[al-Juwaynī\] in *al-Burhān*; and - Second, if it is in a context of gratitude (*siyāq al-imtinān*), as stated by Judge Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī (d. 450/1058). ### 17. The unique proper name “Allah” The name Allah is a proper name (*ism ʿalam*) that is necessary and unique to His essence, the Most High. Allah did not let anyone other than Him share in saying it as a name, just as no one shares in its meaning. The same applies to His divine attributes. The name Allah is like other proper names in that it can be described but cannot be used to describe other objects—it is a name only for Him, just as other proper names are assigned to things other than Allah.[^87] However, in principle, proper names are made as a convention to differentiate between those with names, which is an impossibility for Allah. This name also stands as an exception to disagreement over which of the two types of definites is more known.[^88] It is for this reason that Sībawayh said, “The name of Allah, Most High, is the most definite of all definite nouns (*aʿraf al-maʿārif*).” It is narrated that Sībawayh was seen in a dream having been given an abundance of goodness as a reward for this statement. ### 18. The name “Allah” is a proper noun that is not derived from anything The majority of scholars hold that the name of Allah, the Most High, is like a proper name that is not derived from any other word.[^89] They cite the Qur’anic verse, “Do you know of any namesake for Him?” as  proof.[^90] They hold that Allah would have a namesake if the word were derived, just as the polytheists called their idols “gods” (*āliha*, singular *ilāh*). But this connection is not necessary because what the polytheists called idols is what Allah, Most High, narrates as saying, “They said, ‘Moses, make a god (*ilāh*) for us like their gods (*āliha*),’” and “Your god and Moses.’”[^91] As for the name “Allah,” its necessary definite article (*lām*) is a substitute for the initial glottal stop (*hamza*). This is why no one other than Allah was given this name—it has never existed in an indefinite form (i.e., without the integrated definite article *al*).[^92] When Allah, the Most High, says in the Qur’an, “Do you know any other who merits His name?” it means, do you know of anything else called Allah? Do you know of any being who matches Him in creation or in being a necessary deity?[^93] Also, the fact that one word is derived from another does not necessitate that they have a shared meaning. The Arabs often coin different words from the same root to express distinct meanings. For example, they call a structure *ḥaṣīn* (fortified) and a woman *ḥaṣān* (virtuous or married)—both coming from the root *ḥaṣāna* (protection). Similarly, a tree is called a *razīn* (stable), a woman *razān* (composed), both derived from protectiveness (*ḥaṣāna*) and solemnity (*razāna*), respectively. \[A figure of speech from pre-Islam Arabs\] illustrates this: They falsely claim that the star al-ʿAyyūq (Capella, which literally means “the hinderer”) prevents or stops the al-Dabrān (Aldebaran) from moving—as if al-Dabrān is leading a dowry made of twenty small stars to ask for the hand of al-Thurayyā (Pleiades). According to the metaphor, Aldebaran endlessly chases the Pleiades and “proposes” to it. Aldebaran, as such, is hindered or halted. This group of twenty stars is called al-Qilāṣ, meaning the constricted ones. About this, a poet writes, > The chained have fulfilled their obligation, > > In the same way, the “camel driver” of the Qilāṣ stars did. Based on that, it is not rejected that “Allah” is derived from divinity (*ulūhiyya*), a doctrine that the majority uphold.[^94] It is said to derive from *aliha*, meaning to flee to take refuge. Allah, the Most High, is the refuge to which everything turns. This opinion is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/688). Otherwise, it is derived from *aliha*, if one is baffled and perplexed. The reason is that minds are baffled in the seas of the grandiose of Allah, the Most Transcendent, and how thoughts cannot encompass Him and how limitless He is. There are other opinions on its derivation.[^95] ### 20. Distinct features of the proper noun “Allah” which do not apply to other names of Allah Among the unique characteristics of the name “Allah,” the Most High, is that it is a proper noun that is specific to Him—unlike all His other names, which describe His attributes. All of His names refer to Him, but they are not used to refer to each other. As the Qur’an says, “The Most Excellent Names belong to Allah.”[^96] Other names**—**even if unused**—**can be imagined as names for others. But the name “Allah” needs the definite article *al* (the *alif* and the *lām*) instead of the glottal stop (*hamza*),[^97] and this feature is not found in any other name. It was also granted a specific style of oath-taking that is not given to any of Allah’s other names or to any of His creations**—**for example, in saying “*ta-Allāh la-ʾafʿalann*” (By Allah, I will do…). This is taken as proof of the name’s virtue.[^98] Another unique aspect is that the name “Allah” combines the vocative particle *yāʾ* (a word or particle used to address or call someone) and the definite article *lām*, something that does not occur except when poetically required.[^99] Additionally, the initial *alif* of “Allah” is omitted in writing. One reason for this is to exalt Allah above looking similar to Allāt \[the name of the pre-Islamic idol\], whether in a vocal pause (*waqf*) or script. This is especially the case when Allāt is written with a *hāʾ*. However, the standard explanation is that it is omitted due to the frequency of its use. Given the unique features mentioned**—**and others**—**of this majestic name,[^100] some have deemed it as Allah’s Most Majestic Name (*ism Allāh al-aʾẓam*). Many experts from different sciences have spoken about this name, the sum of which cannot be contained in entire volumes of books. > No soul reaches an opinion, > > Except there is yet a greater one to be discovered! The Master Abū Isḥāq al-Isfārīnī (d. 418/1027) said, “This name signifies an essence associated with the attributes of majesty, with a power that befits originating its contingent attachments, with knowledge that encompasses all objects of knowledge (*maʿlūmāt*), and a will operating on willed matters. To Him is the command and prohibition. Worship is not valid except of Him, and has an attribute that is necessary for Him, which is His exclusiveness (*ikhtiṣāṣiyya*) in His being in a way that does not occupy space or locus.” ### 26. The names of Allah are ordained Judge Abū Bakr \[al-Bāqillānī\] said, > Know that Allah’s names are ordained (*tawqīfiyya*) and are not a product of analogous reasoning (*qiyās*) or rational consideration. Many groups have erred in this regard. With Allah’s aid, we shall successfully clarify the essence of the matter. We say the source of Allah’s names is ordainment (*tawqīf*). *Tawqīf* means the receipt of permission from Allah, Most High. Anything that is related to be left unrestricted, we leave unrestricted. What the Sacred Law (*sharʿ*) prohibits, we prohibit. For anything without established permission or prohibition, we do not judge it as either admissible or unlawful, permissible or prohibited, since these are two rulings that cannot be adjudged except via the *sharʿ.* This approach is precisely the approach to be taken towards issuing rulings before the advent of revelation (*sharʿ*). Additionally, a definitive (*qaṭʿī*) narration is not required to establish the permissibility of a label; a fairly authentic (*ṣaḥiḥ*) report suffices.[^101] He added at the end of his discussion, > What should be expanded on is that any deluding expression, the apparent meaning of which implies something that the Lord, Most High, is sanctified above, is not permissible to use as a label except with a *sharʿ* based evidence. Similarly, whatever term is established as prohibited, we prohibit it. If there is neither permission nor prohibition, we suspend judgment about it (*tawaqqafnā fīh*).[^102] This is his upheld opinion, which is chosen when disagreement arises. Some maintain that any name that alludes to a meaning befitting Allah’s majesty and attributes is permissible without requiring ordainment (*bilā tawqīf*). The reason is that Allah’s names and attributes are referenced in Persian, Turkish, and all languages, none of which are mentioned in the Qur’an and hadith*.* Despite this, the consensus among Muslims is that it is permissible to use these names for Allah. Additionally, Allah says, “The Most Excellent Names belong to Allah, use them to supplicate to Him.”[^103] The suitability of a name depends on whether it reflects praiseworthy attributes and majestic descriptions.[^104] Every name that conveys such meanings is considered appropriate and can be used to refer to Allah, in accordance with these proofs. This is because words only have value insofar as they convey accurate meanings—if the meaning is accurate, then using the term is permissible. There is also a third perspective on this topic, put forward by Imam al-Ghazālī (may Allah grant him mercy). He argued that ascribing a name to Allah is only permissible through ordainment, while describing His attributes does not require such ordainment. In this view, there is a clear distinction between Allah’s names and His attributes. He said, > My name is Muḥammad. Yours is Abū Bakr. This pertains to the subject of names. In contrast, attributes, such as describing a human as tall or intelligent, and so on… It is because \[deviating from\] one’s given name is bad manners. It is more deservingly so with respect to Allah. However, regarding our attributes, it is permissible to refer to them using different wordings and expressions without restriction. The same principle applies to the Creator, the Most High.[^105] ### 27. Does lā negate eternally or temporarily? Some honorable scholars suggested that the word “no” (*lā*) implies a permanent, eternal negation, while “will not” (*lan*) indicates a temporary one. Conversely, others, like the Muʿtazila, argued that *lan* signifies permanent negation. They used this principle to deny the possibility of seeing Allah (known as the Beatific Vision or *ruʾya*) in the Hereafter. They based this on the verse where the Most High says to Moses, “You will never see Me” (Qur’an 7:143).[^106] This view was reported by Imam al-Juwaynī, the “Imam of the Two Sanctuaries,” in his work *al-Shāmil*.[^107] Their reasoning was challenged using another verse in which Allah, the Most High, says to the Jews, “Then you should long for death if your claim is true. But they will never long for it.”[^108] Then, Allah states that the disbelievers in general will long for death in the Hereafter, as they say, “Would it had been the ending strike!,”[^109] meaning death.[^110] I would say that the correct view is that both *lā* and *lan* are used to negate future tense verbs. Whether that negation is eternal or temporary is determined by the external context, not by the words themselves. For example, the Muʿtazila cite the following words of the Most High as proof that *lan* always means a permanent, eternal denial: “If you cannot do this—and you never will (*lan tafʿalu*)”[^111] and “They will not create (*lan yakhluqa*) a fly.”[^112] But this can be rebutted by pointing to other verses, such as: “Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him (*lā taʾkhudhuh*),” “it does not weary Him (*lā yaʾūduh*) to preserve them both,”[^113] and similar verses which use *lā* to express eternality, not *lan*. This demonstrates that both *lā* and *lan* are used for mere negation, while establishing permanency or otherwise depends on what other evidence in the text indicates. Al-Zamakhsharī, being a scholar from the Muʿtazila school of thought, stated in his book *al-Unmūdhaj* that *lan* signifies a permanent or eternal negation. Yet in another of his works, *al-Kashshāf*, he said that *lan* simply expressed negation. Both claims are baseless, as we’ve already discussed. If *lan* were used to express eternal negation, the subject of its negation would not be limited to a day—like in the verse, “I will not talk (*lan ukalima*) to a human today.”[^114] Clearly, the denial here only applies for one day, not forever. Additionally, in the verse, “But they will never long for it (*lan yatamannawnah*) \[i.e., death\],”[^115] adding the word “forever” (*abadan*) would be unnecessary. In Arabic, unnecessary repetition (redundancy) is avoided, so this supports the idea that *lan* on its own does not always mean something eternal. Al-Zamakhsharī stated that *lā* does not signify eternal negation. Instead, he said that unlike *lan*, *lā* simply negates a future-tense verb \[that has a prefix attached directly to it to indicate the near future, otherwise known as the particle of futurity or *ḥarf tanfīs*\],[^116] unlike *lan.* Although this aligns with the famous grammarian Sībawayh’s explanation of the phrase “will do” (*sayafʿal*), al-Zamakhsharī’s intention was to support the principle—held by the Muʿtazila—about seeing Allah in the Hereafter, as previously mentioned. The literal reading of the verse \[Qur’an 7:143\] negates the occurrence of the Beatific Vision either in response to the request or within the context of this worldly life. The question only addressed this point, and the answer corresponds to the question. Consequently, it did not ascertain negation for eternity but shifted focus to the manifestation of the signs onto the mountain.[^117] ### 28. Lan signifies negation in the near future and lā negates what is in the distant future Some scholars of eloquence (*ʿilm al-bayān*) have said that *lan* signifies negation in the near future, while *lā* negates what is in the distant future. This view contradicts that of al-Zamakhsharī. These scholars argued that the way we speak reflects the meanings of our words, and that when pronouncing the *alif* of *lā*, the elongated *alif* takes more breath than *lan*, which they believe implies an additional temporal distance. Their rationale is that the extended vowel sound \[in *lā*\] suggests a longer period. The same assertion was made about the word “then” (*thumma*). It was suggested that because *thumma* contains more phonetic components than the single letter *fāʾ* (which also means “then”), this warrants a greater sense of detail or extended time. The idea being that a greater number of letters indicates a plurality of meanings. Rhetorical scholars used this reasoning to interpret the two verses: “But they will never long for it (*lan yatamannawh*) \[i.e., death\]” and “They would never hope (*lā yatamannawnah*) for it \[i.e., death\],” each according to one of these two linguistic approaches.[^118] From the perspective of eloquence, the second opinion on “*lā yatamannawnah*” follows the condition mentioned in Allah’s words: “If you truly claim that out of all people you alone are friends of God, then you should be hoping for death.”[^119] A conditional particle (*ḥarf al-sharṭ*) applies across all verb tenses. Therefore, the response uses *lā* to cover the full scope of what happens if the condition is met (sing. *jawāb al-sharṭ*). This means that whenever they make this claim—at any given time—then tell them, “Then you should be hoping for death.” The phrase “They would never hope for it (*lā yatamannawnah*)” comes after Allah’s words, “Say, ‘If the last home with God is to be for you alone and no one else,’” meaning if the homecoming in the afterlife is necessarily yours, then wish for death now to expedite being in the Abode of Honor (*dār al-karāma*), which Allah prepared for His friends and loved ones. Accordingly, Allah’s saying, the Most High, came to be, “You will never see Me (*lan tarānī*).” ### 29. The difference between the two particles of negation Let anyone knowledgeable about the meanings of words remember what I confirmed here about the two particles of negation: *lan* and *lā*. What remains now is to address the negative particle *lam*. While these particles of negation are often called “sisters” because they both serve the purpose of negation, they are, however, more like “half-sisters” (*ʿallāt*)—distinguished by their degree of negation, determined by specific causes and contextual clues. Sībawayh explained that *lam* is a negative particle (*ḥarf nafy*) used with verbs in the morphological pattern of *fa-ʿa-la* (the simple past), *lan* is used to negate verbs in the future form of *sa-ya-f-ʿal*, and *lā* is used with the present tense form *ya-f-ʿal.* What he means is that *lā* is conventionally used to negate the future-tense verb unrestrictedly and that it may be used to negate the past tense. For example: (1) In cases of repetition, as in His saying: “He neither believed nor prayed (*fa lā ṣaddaqa wa lā ṣallā*)”;[^120] (2) In cases of placing importance, as in: “Yet he has not attempted the steep path (*fa lā aqtaḥama al-ʿaqaba*)”;[^121] (3) In supplication, like the Prophet’s words, Allah’s peace and blessing be upon him: “May you never be able (*lā astaṭaʿt*)!”;[^122] (4) In the wording of supplications, like the Prophet’s saying, “May your age \[not\] extend long (\[*lā kaburat sinnuk*\])”; and (5) In fluctuations in meaning between supplication and negation, like his saying “\[Maybe\] he neither fasted nor broke his fast (*lā ṣām wa lā afṭar*),”[^123] which alludes to whoever fasts continuously. *Lan*, as previously mentioned, is used to negate the future verb. And may Allah’s peace be on our master and leader Muhammad, the one whose messengership is mercy and whose words are wisdom, his companions, his entire family, and praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 47:19. [^2]: Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 30 vols. (al-Dār al-Tūnusiyya li-l-Nashr, 1884), 26:104–5. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 35. [^4]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ*, 19 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.), 7:17. [^5]: Qur’an 15:92–93. [^6]: Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, 24 vols. (Muʾsassat al-Risāla, 2006), 12:258. [^7]: Aḥmad al-Dardīr, *Sharḥ* *al-kharīda al-bahiyya*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Shannār (Dār al-Bayrūtī, n.d.) 168–69. [^8]: For a detailed exposition of how the Statement of Faith encompasses the principal tenets of belief, see Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Masʿūd al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿāmm wa-l-khāṣṣ min kalimat al-ikhlāṣ*, ed. Ḥamīd al-Yūsī, 2 vols. (Dār al-Rashād al-Ḥadītha, 2019), 1:527–32 [^9]: Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Sanūsī, “*Umm al-barāhīn*,” in *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī ʿalā umm al-barāhīn*, ed ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2017), 254–55. [^10]: Al-Sanūsī, *Umm al-barāhīn*, 300–01. [^11]: Al-Sanūsī, *Umm al-barāhīn*, 301. [^12]: These sections are 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 26, 27, 28, and 29. [^13]: Al-Sanūsī, *Umm al-barāhīn*, 309–10. [^14]: Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, *Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-kubrā*, eds. Maḥmoud al-Tanāḥī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ El-Ḥilw, 10 vols. (ʿIsā ​​al-Ḥalabī, 1964), 1:38–41. However, al-Subkī contested two of ʿIkrima’s interpretations, disagreeing with him on their indications to the testimony of faith. [^15]: Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ wa miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ* (Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, n.d.), 67–73. [^16]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3265. Similar reports attribute this interpretation to some of the companions, including ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. [^17]: Al-Subkī, *Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya*, 1:39. [^18]: Al-Dardīr, *Sharḥ* *al-kharīda*, 170. [^19]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 3. [^20]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 3. See also, al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿāmm wa-l-khāṣṣ*, 2:10–14. [^21]: *Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ*, no. 726. [^22]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3585. [^23]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī al-kubrā*, nos. 10602 and 10913. Scholars have disputed the authenticity of this hadith. However, al-Ḥākim and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī deemed it authentic. [^24]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3383. [^25]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 536. He stated that it is a *gharīb* hadith whose chain of transmission is not strong. [^26]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 28. [^27]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 45. [^28]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 305. [^29]: Qur’an 37:143–44. [^30]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 63–4. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3293; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2691. [^32]: *Musnad al-Bazzār*, no. 8292. [^33]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3590. [^34]: Qur’an 3:18. [^35]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 64. [^36]: Qur’an 25:43. [^37]: Qur’an 36:60. [^38]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2887. [^39]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 17–18. [^40]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 18–19. [^41]: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr*, ed. al-Sālim al-Jakanī, 6 vols. (Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2013), 3:846–48. [^42]: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Mihrān, *Risālat al-maddāt*, ed. Ayman Suwaid (Dār al-Ghawthānī lil-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾāniyya, 2018 ), 35. [^43]: Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Adhkār min kalām sayyid al-abrār* (Dār al-Minhāj, 2005), 43–44. [^44]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 306. [^45]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 307. The full hadith is mentioned below in the section “Salvation and intercession in the afterlife.” [^46]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 307. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2946. [^48]: Qur’an 112:1. [^49]: Qur’an 2:221. [^50]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 55–56. [^51]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 3796. [^52]: *Ṣahīḥ Muslim*, no. 26. [^53]: *Sunan Abī Dawūd*, no. 3116. [^54]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6423. [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 99. [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3884. [^57]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 306. [^58]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 917 [^59]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 63. [^60]: Al-Sanūsī, *Umm al-barāhīn*, 301-2. [^61]: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Humām, *Fatḥ al-Qadīr*, 2 vols. (Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), 2:104; Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, *al-Masālik fī sharḥ Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik*, ed. Ḥāmid al-Maḥallāwī, 6 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2013), 3:520; Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Rawḍat al-ṭālibīn*, ed. Zuhayr Shāwīsh, 12 vols. (al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1991), 2:138; Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Mufliḥ al-Maqdisī, *al-Furūʿ*, ed. ʿAbdullāh al-Turkī, 12 vols. (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2003), 3:383. [^62]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2639. [^63]: Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 44–45. [^64]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 306. He is likely referring to al-Mallawī’s gloss on al-Qayrawānī’s commentary on al-Sanūsī’s *Umm al-barāhīn*. [^65]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 308. [^66]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 318–19. [^67]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 318. [^68]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 321. [^69]: Al-Dasūqī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī*, 321. [^70]: We could not locate this quote in Ibn Taghrībirdī’s biographical work, *al-Manhal al-ṣāfī wa-l-mustawfī baʿd al-wāfī*. However, some editors of al-Zarkashī’s works have attributed it to the original manuscript of the work. See, for example, Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī, *Salāsil al-dhahab*, ed. Muḥammad al-Shinqīṭī (N.p., 2002), 53. [^71]: For an introduction to the role of annotations and the *ḥāshiya* genre in Islamic scholarship, see: Muntasir Zaman, “Much Ado About a Footnote? The Development and Function of the *Ḥāshiya* in the Islamic Intellectual Tradition,” *Hashiya* 1, no. 1 (2025): 39–51, [https://doi.org/10.65061%2febyz9193](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.65061%252FEBYZ9193&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765899661397225&usg=AOvVaw0xXlZwbC2u9zeOMv3ibOTk). [^72]: Contemporary editors provide varying counts of the works attributed to al-Zarkashī. Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, in his 1972 edition of *al-Burhān*, lists thirty-three works. ʿAlī al-Quradāghī, editor of the 1985 Arabic edition used in this translation, states that al-Zarkashī authored forty-five works, though he lists only seventeen. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿĀnī, editor of *al-Baḥr al-muhīṭ* (1989), raises the total to forty-six. [^73]: For more on al-Zarkashī’s contributions to Qur’anic studies, see Yousef Wahb, “An Introduction to ʿUlūm al-Qur’an: The Field of Qur’anic Studies,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, March 30, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765899661312492&usg=AOvVaw1ZZ1rG7xRkpAMvKnidgazp). [^74]: The statement of faith “There is no deity but Allah” is commonly referred to as “The Testimony” (*shahāda*). The term *shahāda* carries multiple lexical meanings: reporting based on direct observation, giving legal testimony, attending, and taking an oath. In the context of *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, its technical definition focuses on it being a declaration by the tongue and affirmation by the heart. Al-Kāfyajī (d. 879/1474) noted that the most pertinent of its lexical meanings in this context is the first—reporting based on witnessed knowledge. Describing the statement as a “testimony” or an act of “bearing witness” conveys subtle theological benefits, such as accruing additional spiritual merit and serving as a reminder to others. Some exegetes have interpreted the phrase “Allah bears witness that there is no deity but Him, and so do the angels and those endowed with  knowledge” (Qur’an 3:18) to signify that Allah made this truth manifest to creation, the angels attested to it, and the learned demonstrated it through rational inquiry and evidentiary reasoning. Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Kafiyajī, *al-Anwār fī ʿil al-tawḥīd sharḥ kalimaty al-shahāda*, ed. Ḥalīm Jālīsh (N.p., 1999), 2–4. [^75]: The numbering of the subsections to follow matches that of the chapters which were translated from al-Zarkashi’s work. [^76]: A categorical judgment presupposes a subject and a predicate. The subject may refer to an actually existing entity—as in “al-Shāfiʿī is a scholar”—or to a merely supposed one, as in “A partner of God does not exist.” In the latter case, the mind forms the concept “partner of God” and judges that nothing in extramental reality corresponds to it. That is, the mind can hold universal quiddities (*maḥiyyāt kulliyya*) or mental representations (*ṣuwar dhihniyya*) of nonexistents and assert truthful negative claims about them. Theologians and rhetoricians emphasized that negation applies not to the subject or predicate per se, but to the propositional nexus (*nisba*) between them. Since both subject and predicate are objects of conception (*taṣawwur*), they are not themselves truth-apt; only propositions—statements linking subject and predicate—can be true or false. A similar clarification is offered by the Moroccan scholar al-Yūsī (d. 1102/1691): “Essences (*dhawāt*) are not denied or affirmed…So when we say: this quiddity has been denied or its instances have been denied, it should be understood that something has been left unsaid that is nevertheless part of the meaning—namely, that their existence has been denied. The negation governs existence (*maṣabbu al-nafy huwa al-wujūd*). \[...\] This is the case in the honorable statement \[i.e., *lā ilāha illā Allāh*\], for it denies the existence of what is preceded by the negative particle, with the exception of God the Exalted.” Al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿām wa-l-khāṣṣ*, 1:309:. Translation adapted from Khaled El-Rouayheb, *Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century: Scholarly Currents in the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb* (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 225. Classical Arabic lacks a copulative “is,” and the phrase *lā ilāha illā Allāh* translates literally as “No god except Allah.” On this account, what is negated is not the subject “god,” but the existence of any god besides Allah—that is, the propositional nexus between “god” and the implied predicate “exists.” See El-Rouayheb, *Islamic Intellectual History*, 223–25; al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿām wa-l-khāṣṣ*, 302–19, 325–27, and 341. [^77]: Those who interpret the omitted predicate in *lā ilāha illā Allāh* as “in truth” (*bi-ḥaqq*) emphasize that the phrase denies the existence of any *true* deity besides Allah, not the existence of false gods per se. False deities, such as idols, celestial bodies, or even Jesus, undoubtedly exist and may be worshiped, but they are not *true* gods. To say “there is no false god except Allah” would be both theologically incoherent and a statement of disbelief. Thus, what is denied is not the existence or essences of these entities, but their legitimacy as proper objects of worship. In theological terms, the Statement of Faith denies that the quiddity of true divinity has any correlate in the extramental world beyond a single referent: Allah. See al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿām wa-l-khāṣṣ*, 1:291–304 and 309–19; El-Rouayheb, *Islamic Intellectual History*, 225–29. [^78]: As the individual internalizes the rational articulation of negation and affirmation embedded in the Statement of Faith, it reinforces the comprehensive foundations of belief outlined earlier. Specifically, the negation of any true deity besides Allah entails the conviction that He alone is absolutely self-sufficient, in no need of anything beyond Himself, while everything else depends entirely upon Him. This foundational belief entails affirming that Allah is described by all attributes of perfection and that any imperfection is necessarily inapplicable to Him. Thus, when a believer declares *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, they are, in essence, affirming that there is none worthy of worship, no creator, sustainer, benefactor, harmer, rewarder, punisher, helper, or guide except Allah. It is this affirmation that constitutes pure monotheism, and simultaneously negates all forms of polytheistic belief and practice. Al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿām wa-l-khāṣṣ*, 2:27–32; al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 66–67. [^79]: Negation becomes intelligible only in relation to a prior affirmation. For instance, the notion of darkness is conceivable only once the concept of light has been apprehended. In a spiritual register, as Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh observes, negation is symbolized by ritual purification (*ṭahāra*), while affirmation is embodied in prayer. Just as purification precedes prayer, so too does “there is no deity” precede “except Allah.” The same logic underlies the recitation of the *istiʿādha* before engaging the Qurʾan, or the act of purifying one’s dwelling before receiving an honored guest. The first half of the Statement of Faith signifies disconnection, while the second half marks connection: the former resonates with the verse “Quickly, turn to God” (Qur’an 51:50) and the latter with “Say ‘God,’ then leave them engrossed in their vain talk” (Qur’an 6:91). Al-Sakandarī, *Miftāḥ al-falāḥ*, 55. [^80]: Scholars have provided various explanations for the reversal of the order of affirmation and negation in the Testimony of Faith. First, although the phrase begins with a negation, its overall meaning constitutes an affirmation, namely, that Allah alone is the true deity, making it affirmative in essence. Second, beginning with negation establishes absolute exclusivity, attributing divinity solely to Allah. Third, it is argued that the human heart cannot simultaneously entertain two contradictory convictions; when it is occupied with one, it is emptied of the other. This notion is supported by the verse: “Allah has not placed two hearts within any man” (Qur’an 33:4). Thus, the negation in *lā ilāha illā Allāh* eliminates all objects of devotion other than Allah, thereby preparing the heart for the exclusive affirmation of  “except Allah.” See: Qaradāghī in al-Zarkashī, *Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh*, 81–82, fn 3. [^81]: Exclusiveness (*ḥaṣr*) is typically categorized into three types: (1) rational delimitation, which refers to boundaries established by reason, such as dividing numbers into even and odd or restricting the notion of the true deity exclusively to Allah; (2) empirical delimitation based on observable reality, such as categorizing words into nouns, verbs, and particles; and (3) typological delimitation, which structures content according to organizational or thematic considerations, such as dividing a book into an introduction, chapters, and a conclusion. [^82]: The combination of negation and affirmation, known as restriction (*qaṣr*) in scholastic rhetoric (*balāgha*), is divided into two types: absolute (*ḥaqīqī*) and relative (*iḍāfī*). Each type is further categorized based on whether the restriction applies to a quality or to the qualified entity. The Testimony of Faith exemplifies an absolute restriction, as it is deemed universally applicable. It restricts the quality of true divinity to the qualified entity, Allah, thereby excluding all others from sharing this attribute. See also, al-Kafiyajī, *al-Anwār fī ʿilm al-tawḥīd*, 11–12. [^83]: While there is unanimous agreement that an exception derived from an affirmative statement denotes negation, scholars have debated the converse: whether an exception following a negation necessarily implies affirmation. This issue has been a well-known point of contention among scholars of legal theory (*uṣūl al-fiqh*). With the exception of the Ḥanafīs, the majority maintain such an exception does, in fact, denote affirmation. Citing the Testimony of Faith as evidence, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī defends this majority view. See Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Rāzī, *al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh*, ed. Ṭāhā al-ʿIlwānī, 6 vols. (Al-Risāla, 1997) 3:39. For the Ḥanafī view, see Muḥammad al-Sarkhsī, *Uṣūl al-Sarakhsī*, ed. Abū al-Wafāʾ al-Afghānī, 2 vols. (Dār al-Maʿrifa, n.d.), 2:36. Commenting on this disagreement and its implications for the exception of negation in the Testimony of Faith, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (d. 702/1302) critiqued the Ḥanafī position, stating: “To me, all of this amounts to obfuscation and dialectical quibbling. The sacred law (*sharʿ*) addressed people with this Statement and commanded them to uphold it as an affirmation of divine unicity. Its meaning in that sense is well-established and was accepted from him \[i.e., the Prophet ﷺ\] without addition or a need for further explanation. If the linguistic convention (*waḍʿ*) does not inherently denote divine unicity, then the most essential task would have been to teach a formulation that does.” Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, *Sharḥ al-Ilmām bi-aḥādīth al-aḥkām*, ed. Muḥammad Makhlūf ʿAbdullāh (Dār al-Nawādir, 2009), 5:174. [^84]: This refers, for example, to the hadith: “I have been commanded to fight against the people till they testify that *lā ilāha illā* *Allāh* and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.” [^85]: ʿAbd al-Mālik al-Juwaynī, *al-Burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Dīb, 2 vols. (N.p., , 1979), 1:343. [^86]: The Arabic edition cites the above quote from two manuscript copies of al-Āmidī’s *Abkār al-afkār* (Hagia Sophia, Turkey; Maʿhad al-Makhṭūṭāt al-ʿArabiyya, no. 1–2, *Tawḥid*, Cairo). However, a later printed edition of *Abkār* presents a slightly different wording: “An indefinite term in the context of affirmation, even if it does not apply to all individuals collectively, still carries generality, meaning it applies to each member of the genus by way of commonality (*shuyūʿ*).” ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī al-Āmidī, *Abkār al-afkār fī uṣūl al-dīn*, ed Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Mahdī, 5 vols. (Dār al-Kutub wa-l-Wathāʾiq al-Qawmiyya, 2004), 1:360. [^87]: A distinctive feature of the name “Allah” is that it subsumes all other divine names and attributes and may be qualified by them. In attributive construction, the proper order is to mention the essence first, followed by its attribute—for example, “Allah, the All-Knowing, All-Wise, All-Powerful.” This sequence is not reversible. See Ahmed El-Tayeb, *Fī al-muṣṭalaḥ al-kalāmī wa-l-ṣūfī*, (Muslim Council of Elders, 2019), 12; Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 32 vols. (Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 1:163. However, this order appears to be challenged by the verse in Sūrat Ibrāhīm: “the Exalted in power, Worthy of all praise; Allah, to Whom belongs what is in the heavens and the earth.” (Qur’an 14:1–2). Two canonical readings of the case ending of the word “Allah” in this verse are relevant: the nominative (*Allāhu*) and the genitive (*Allāhi*). According to the nominative reading (transmitted by Nāfiʿ, Ibn ʿĀmir, and Abū Jaʿfar), “Allah” functions as the subject (*mubtadaʾ*), not an adjective (*ṣifa*); thus, the objection is nullified. As for the genitive reading, al-Rāzī explains the construction as analogous to saying, “This house belongs to the noble and knowledgeable Zayd,” where  “Zayd” identifies the referent without serving as an adjective. Likewise, in the verse, “Allah” clarifies the identity of the One described. Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:163; English translation in *The Great Exegesis: al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr: Volume I: The Fātiḥa*, trans. Sohaib Saeed (The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought & The Islamic Texts Society, 2018), 243–4. [^88]: Proper nouns typically function to identify and distinguish one entity from others. However, this understanding does not apply to the name Allah, since no multiplicity exists within His essence. Al-Zarkashī, following earlier scholars, maintains that “Allah” is not a proper noun in the conventional sense, though it resembles one. It may be classified as a proper noun in a purely linguistic sense, but not in terms of ontological reality. Other scholars, by contrast, categorize “Allah” as a proper noun without such qualification. The disagreement is ultimately semantic, as all parties affirm Allah’s absolute unicity and the distinctiveness of His attributes. [^89]: Al-Rāzī upheld the position that the name “Allah” is not derived from any root word, attributing this view to the foundational grammarians Sībawayh and al-Khalīl. He further described it as the dominant opinion among jurists and legal theorists. Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:162. ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī (d. 690/1291) beautifully captures the spiritual significance of this view: “Those who say that Allah is not derivative do not consider it to designate a quality, but only the Holy Essence itself, whose true nature cannot be  perceived. For the naming of the Essence only occurs on the basis of belief, not vision. If this vision occurs with the eye of the intellect, then that which the eye of intellect falls upon is constrained. But the essence is beyond all constraint. And if this vision occurs with the eye of witnessing and the unveiling of the Essence, then there is no name for the Essence from this presence for witnessing It effaces all names, qualities, and named things, and erases all signs of the qualities, acts, and essences. Thus, in either case, no name can be designated for the Holy Essence except from the presence of belief alone, and to try to progress further is to meet with failure.” ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī, *The Divine Names: A Mystical Theology of the Names of God in the Qurʾan*, trans. and ed. Yousef Casewit (Yale University Press, 2025), 4–7. [^90]: Qur’an 19:65. According to this interpretation, no individual in history has ever borne the name “Allah,” a phenomenon that some scholars regard as one of the Prophet’s miracles. By declaring, on behalf of God, that no one may bear this name except Him, God has ensured its exclusivity, despite the attempts of religious detractors to undermine the Prophet. Another unique feature of the name “Allah” is that it alone among the divine names does not serve as a model for human ethical emulation. The principle of “emulating the attributes of God” (*al-takhalluq bi-akhlāq Allāh*) applies to all other divine names. Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī, *Sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, ed. Aḥmad al-Ḥalawānī (Dār Āzāl, 1986), 57. For a discussion of *al-takhalluq bi-akhlāq Allāh*, see Yousef Casewit, “Al-Ghazālī’s Virtue Ethical Theory of the Divine Names: The Theological Underpinnings of the Doctrine of *Takhalluq* in *al-Maqṣad al-Asnā*,” *Journal of Islamic Ethics* 1–2, no. 4 (2020). [^91]: Qur’an 7:138 and 20:88. Al-Rāzī further argues that the name “Allah” is not derived from a root. If it were, its meaning would be general, allowing it to refer to multiple entities. Derived words signify that the original meaning applies broadly and can include others. Were this true of the name “Allah,” then the statement “there is no god but Allah” would fail to affirm exclusive monotheism, as it would not preclude others from sharing the designation. Consequently, the phrase would lose its universally recognized monotheistic force. Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:163. [^92]: Al-Zarkashī distinguishes between the name “Allah” and the term “God” (*ilāh*), noting that *ilāh* is a broader designation used for both the true God and false deities, such as idols worshiped by polytheists. In contrast, the name “Allah” refers exclusively to the One True God. To support his claim, al-Zarkashī cites a verse from Sūrat Maryam as evidence that no one else bears this unique name, underscoring its singularity and exclusivity. [^93]: While the latter interpretation is more favored within the *tafsīr* tradition, the former is also adopted by several classical exegetes. [^94]: By “the majority,” al-Zarkashī refers to the majority of scholars who maintain that the name “Allah” is derived from another word. [^95]: Scholars who assert that the name “Allah” is derived from a root differ regarding its origin and etymological construction. Al-Rāzī records eight derivations: 1) *al-ilāh* (the deity), meaning “the object of worship”; 2) *alihta ilā fulān* (finding repose with someone), as intellects find tranquility in His remembrance and spirits ascend through gnosis of Him; 3) *walah* (bewilderment), reflecting how creation is overwhelmed in contemplating His gnosis; 4) *lāha* (to be elevated), signifying His transcendence above creation; 5) *aliha* (to be confounded), highlighting the human incapacity to comprehend His essence; 6) *lāha*/*yalūhu* (to be concealed), pointing to His sublimity, which eludes human intellect; 7) *aliha al-faṣīl* (a weaned camel’s longing for its mother), symbolizing the servants’ yearning for God; and 8) *aliah*/*yaʾlahu* (to fear and seek refuge), as God is the protector from harm. See al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:164-69; English translation in *The Great Exegesis*, 245-53. A ninth view, unrecorded by al-Rāzī, derives “Allah” from the pronoun “*hā*” (He) with the *lām* indicating possession (i.e., owner of all creation) and the definite article *al-* added to express reverence and majesty. See Qaradāghī in al-Zarkashī, *Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh*, 110–11. For a fuller treatment of all views, see al-Qushayrī, *Sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 65–86; Al-Yūsī, *Mashrab al-ʿām wal-khāṣṣ*, 1:351–60. From an epigraphic attestation perspective, pre-Islamic North and South Arabian inscriptions—such as the corpus of Safaitic rock graffiti—attest to the use of *ʾlh* or *lh* as the proper name of a pagan deity. See Ahmad Al-Jallad, “On the Genetic Background of the Rbbl bn Hfʿm Grave Inscription at Qaryat al-Fāw,” *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 77, no. 3 (2014): 451. Bilingual Arabic-Greek inscriptions confirm the pronunciation “Allah” in theophoric names. See Ahmad Al-Jallad, “Graeco-Arabica I: The Southern Levant,” in *Arabic in Context: Celebrating 400 Years of Arabic at Leiden University*, ed. Ahmad Al-Jallad (Brill, 2017), 107, 132, and 163. Ḥimyarite inscriptions refer to *ʾln/ʾlhn* and al-Raḥmān as the sovereign of heaven and earth. See Christian Robin and Sarah Rijziger, “‘The Owner of the Sky, God of Israel’ in a New Jewish Ḥimyaritic Inscription Dating from the Fifth Century CE,” *Der Islam* 95, no. 2 (2018): 278–81. Late Christian inscriptions, including one in Arabic script from 548/9 CE near Dūmah, tend to preserve the fuller form *al-ilāh*. See Christian Robin, “al-ʾIlāh et Allāh: les deux noms de Dieu chez les Arabes chrétiens de Najrān au 6e siècle de l’ère chrétienne,” *Hawliyāt* 19 (2020–2021): 67 and 70–72. [^96]: Qur’an 7:180. [^97]: This is a reference to the opinion that the proper noun “Allah” is derived from *ilāh*. [^98]: Among the Arabic articles of oath, the letter *tā* is uniquely associated with the name “Allah,”conferring upon it a special linguistic virtue. [^99]: Many grammarians assert that a noun cannot simultaneously take both the definite article *al-* and the vocative particle *yāʾ*, as this would result in redundant definiteness. [^100]: Qaradāghī summarizes several unique features of the name “Allah” in his annotations on al-Zarkashī’s text: 1) No one else has ever been named “Allah,” and the name has neither a dual nor plural form; 2) In vocative usage, the particle *yāʾ* can be omitted  and replaced with the suffix *mīm* (as in *allāhumma*); 3) All other divine names function as attributes of “Allah,” whereas “Allah” is not an attribute of any other name; 4) The grammatical combination of both definite particles (*al-* and *yāʾ*) is permissible only with the name “Allah” (e.g., *yā* Allah); 5) The name “Allah” serves as the default word in oath constructions; 6) The letter *tā* is uniquely associated with it in oaths; 7) Every definite noun has an original indefinite form, except “Allah,” as He has no partner; and 8) The letter *alif* in Allah is omitted in writing (اللاه) to distinguish it from Allāt اللات, a pre-Islamic idol. See ʿAlī Qaradāghī in al-Zarkashī, *Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh*, 122–3, fn 2. Al-Rāzī adds two further distinctive characteristics of the name “Allah.” First, its internal structure reveals a series of meaningful reductions: removing the initial *alif* yields *li-llāh* (“to Allah”), as in “To Allah belong the forces of the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 48:7); removing the first *lām* leaves *lahu* (“to Him”), as in “To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 39:63); and further omitting the second *lām* produces *hu* (“He”), as in “Say: He (*huwa*) is Allah, the One” (Qur’an 112:1). The final *wāw* in *huwa* distinguishes it from dual and plural pronouns (*humā* and *hum*), reinforcing the singularity of *hu.* This sequence, unique to Allah*,* has no equivalent among other divine names. This uniqueness extends to both the meaning and invocation of the name “Allah.” When one calls upon Allah as al-Raḥmān (the Merciful), it emphasizes His compassion, but not necessarily His supremacy. Similarly, invoking al-ʿAlīm (the All-Knowing) foregrounds His omniscience, but not His omnipotence. In contrast, the invocation of “*yā Allah*” comprehensively encompasses all divine attributes, as the possession of these attributes is intrinsic to being an *ilāh* (deity). Second, the testimony of faith required for conversion to Islam is specific to the name “Allah.” Affirmation of any other divine name may acknowledge particular attributes but does not suffice for entering the faith. Only the declaration of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* fulfills this foundational requirement, underscoring the exclusive theological and creedal role of the name. Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:169–70. [^101]: Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Bāqilānī, *Tamhīd al-ʾawāʾil fī talkhīṣ al-dalāʾil*, ed. ʿImād al-Dīn Ḥaydar (Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya, 1987), 152–155. [^102]: Al-Bāqilānī, *Tamhīd al-ʾawāʾil*, 155. [^103]: Qur’an 7:180. Scholars differ regarding the enumeration and scope of these divine names, with three primary views emerging: 1) They are limited to the ninety-nine names mentioned in the hadith, “Allah has ninety-nine names; whoever memorizes and comprehends them will enter Paradise”; 2) They include all names indicative of divine grandeur and majesty; and 3) They consist of affirmative attributes of perfection (*ṣifāt al-maʿānī*), such as knowledge, power, will, hearing, sight, speech, and life. See Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, *al-Amad al-aqṣā fī sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā wa ṣifātuh alʿulā*, eds ʿAbdullāh al-Tūrātī and Aḥmad ʿArrūbī, 2 vols. (Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Kittāniyya, 2015), 1:175. Proponents of the second view differ in their extrapolation of the divine names from the Qur’an and Sunnah. Ibn al-ʿArabī identified 146 names in his *Aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, later adding 30 more in *al-Amad al-aqṣā*. Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, *Aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAṭa, 4 vols., (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 2:339–50. Similarly, al-Qurṭubī compiled over 200 names by combining agreed-upon and disputed ones. Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Asnā fī sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā wa ṣifātih*, ed. ʿIrfān al-Dimashqī (Al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriyya, 2005). Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. ʿAbdullāh al-Turkī, 24 vols. (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2006), 9:391–2. [^104]: Ibn al-ʿArabī recorded five interpretations of the description of Allah’s names as “Most Excellent” in Qur’an 7:180. These are: 1) They signify magnificence, as all magnificent names belong to Him; 2) Memorizing and understanding them leads to Paradise, as indicated in the hadith \[*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7392\]; 3) They inspire hearts with Allah’s mercy and generosity, cultivating devotion; 4) Their excellence lies in the nobility of their referent, as no knowledge surpasses knowledge of Allah; and 5) They enable comprehension of Allah’s necessary (*wājib*), possible (*jāʾiz*), and impossible (*mustaḥīl*) attributes, thus facilitating excellence in belief and action. Ibn al-ʿArabī, *Aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 2:338. Al-Qurṭubī added another layer of interpretation: “Allah described His names as ‘Most Excellent’ because they are pleasing to the ear and resonate with the heart, signifying His oneness, generosity, benevolence, mercy, and kindness.” Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ il-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 9:393. [^105]: The Arabic edition attributes the story to Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*, but the narrative could not be located in that work. Instead, it appears in al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:163. [^106]: The doctrine of *beatific vision*—the believers’ ability to behold Allah—was a major point of contention among early Islamic theological schools. The Muʿtazilites categorically denied its possibility, asserting that it was logically inconceivable. Vision, they argued, necessitates that the object of perception possesses material form, color, or spatial dimensions—conditions fundamentally incompatible with Allah’s transcendence. To support their view, the Muʿtazilites cited the Qur’anic verse: “You will never see Me” (*lan tarānī*, Qur’an 7:143), interpreting the particle *lan* as denoting eternal and absolute negation. Consequently, they reinterpreted other Qur’anic verses and hadiths affirming the vision of Allah, treating them as either metaphorical or inconsistent with their theological framework, which precludes any notion of corporeality or directionality in reference to God. In contrast, the Sunnis affirmed the possibility of seeing Allah, particularly in the Hereafter, while emphatically denying that this entails any corporeal form or spatial delimitation. According to the Sunni position, God may be seen by the believers in a manner befitting His majesty, without implying physical form, encompassment, or direction. Their critique of the Muʿtazilite position centered on its application of material-world categories to the unseen realm (*ʿālam al-ghayb*), whose true nature lies beyond human comprehension. The Sunnis upheld the apparent meaning of Qur’anic verses and hadiths affirming the beatific vision on the Day of Judgment, while refraining from speculating about the modality of this vision. Among Sunni scholars, however, there was internal disagreement regarding the possibility of an unmediated vision of God in this world: While some held that such a vision is limited to the Hereafter, others allowed for its theoretical possibility in extraordinary circumstances. [^107]: We could not locate this reference in *al-Shāmil.* [^108]: Qur’an 2:94–95. [^109]: Qur’an 69:27. [^110]: This also serves as a response to the Muʿtazilī argument that *lan* signifies eternal negation. Despite the negation in “they will never long for death,” Allah also states that they will indeed desire death in the Hereafter. This demonstrates that *lan* may denote emphatic negation without necessarily implying permanence or eternity. [^111]: Qur’an 2:24. [^112]: Qur’an 22:73. [^113]: Qur’an 2:55. [^114]: Qur’an 19:26. [^115]: Qur’an 2:95. [^116]: The particles denoting futurity are the prefix *sīn* and the word *sawfa*, which modify present-tense verbs to indicate future actions. [^117]: This is a reference to Qur’an 7:143, “When Moses came for the appointment, and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show Yourself to me: let me see You!’ He said, ‘You will never see Me (*lan tarānī*), but look at that mountain: if it remains standing firm, you will see Me,’ and when his Lord revealed Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble: Moses fell down unconscious. When he recovered, he said, ‘Glory be to You! To You I turn in repentance! I am the first to believe!’” [^118]: Qur’an 2:95 and 62:7. [^119]: Qur’an 62:6. [^120]: Qur’an 75:31. [^121]: Qur’an 90:11. [^122]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 3881. The hadith narrates that a man ate with his left hand in the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet advised him, “Eat with your right hand.” The man responded: “I cannot.” The Prophet ﷺ then supplicated, “May you not be able to do so!” As a result, the man was unable to raise his right hand to his mouth for eating thereafter. [^123]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2379. Scholars have differed in their interpretation of this statement. Some have understood it as a supplication, meaning, “May Allah not accept your fasting.” Others, however, have interpreted it as a declaration of negation, connoting “their fasting will not be accepted.” ## Summary In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad ﷺ, his family, and his companions. Allah, Exalted is He, commands in Sūrat Muḥammad, “So know that there is no deity except Allah” (Qur’an 47:19). What renders this command remarkable is its timing, for it was revealed roughly fifteen years into the Prophet’s mission, when he ﷺ and his companions already possessed unshakable conviction in God’s oneness. This suggests that knowing God’s oneness is not a single acknowledgment but an ongoing process requiring sustained reflection and inner renewal. Scholars have understood this command in various ways, many reading it as a call to seek sacred knowledge concerning the theological, spiritual, and practical implications of the testimony lā ilāha illā Allāh, which lies at the very heart of Islamic theology. The Prophet ﷺ described faith as comprising over seventy branches, with this testimony occupying the highest rank, its truth reaching beyond intellectual affirmation to profound conviction and the cultivation of virtue. Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778) said, “If certainty truly fills the heart, it will ascend in yearning for Paradise and trembling in fear of Hellfire.” Some scholars interpreted the verse, “So by your Lord, We will surely question them all about what they used to do,” as an indication that each person will be held accountable for upholding this testimony. Aḥmad al-Dardīr (d. 1201/1786), the Egyptian Mālikī jurist, explains in his poem al-Kharīda al-bahiyya that lā ilāha illā Allāh encompasses the three pillars of theology: divinity, prophethood, and doctrines known through revelation, since its complementary declaration, “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” affirms the Prophet’s mission and the truth of revealed teachings. Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Sanūsī (d. 895/1490) notes that when fully comprehended, its utterance illuminates and purifies the heart and stands as a weapon against Satan. Devout believers have long made it a cornerstone of their devotion, some reciting it tens of thousands of times daily. Certain scholars, drawing upon spiritual experiences rather than authenticated prophetic reports, held that uttering it seventy thousand times over a lifetime offers protection from Hell; these reports, while not rooted in sound narrations, reflect the tradition’s esteem for its efficacy. The Qur’an refers to this testimony in various contexts. Reports attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās note at least nine verses stressing its articulation or the necessity of acting by its meaning. Scholars derived numerous names for it, each highlighting a facet of its significance: the Word of Unity (kalimat al-tawḥīd), the Word of Sincerity (kalimat al-ikhlāṣ), the Word of Perfection (kalimat al-iḥsān, linked to Qur’an 55:60), the Prayer of Truth (Qur’an 13:14), the Word of Justice (Qur’an 16:90), the Good Speech (Qur’an 22:24), the Pure Word likened to a good tree (Qur’an 14:24), the Firm Word (Qur’an 14:27), the Word of Righteousness (Qur’an 48:26), the Lasting Word left by Abraham (Qur’an 43:28), the Word of Steadfastness (Qur’an 46:13), the Supreme Word of God (Qur’an 9:40), the Sublime Similitude (Qur’an 16:60), the Covenant (Qur’an 19:87), the Keys of the Heavens and Earth, the Word of Truth (Qur’an 43:86), the Firmest Bond (Qur’an 2:256), the Word of Truthfulness (Qur’an 39:33), and the Common Word (Qur’an 3:64). Some exegetes even read the command to the Israelites to say ḥiṭṭa as a call to affirm it, though the authenticity of such reports remains debated. Concerning remembrance, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Sakandarī (d. 709/1309) describes dhikr as the removal of heedlessness through the heart’s presence with the Divine, extending beyond verbal invocation to reflection, supplication, obedience, and abstention, whether by tongue, heart, or limbs; when these converge, they yield “complete remembrance.” Numerous traditions affirm the testimony’s virtue. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best thing that I and the prophets before me have said is, ‘There is no god but Allah, alone, without any partner,’” with al-Tirmidhī’s version adding, “His is the dominion and His is the praise.” In another narration, Allah told Moses that were the seven heavens and earths placed on one side of a balance and this testimony on the other, the testimony would outweigh them. The Prophet ﷺ also taught that whoever recites it a hundred times daily earns the reward of freeing ten slaves and protection from Satan until evening, and that no servant utters it sincerely except that the gates of Heaven open for it, so long as he avoids major sins. As the supreme remembrance, it served both God’s friends and adversaries in distress: Jonah proclaimed it from the whale’s belly and was delivered, since God testifies, “Had he not been of those who exalt Allah…,” whereas Pharaoh uttered it while drowning with an absent heart and it was not accepted. The reciter is encouraged to intend by “lā ilāha” the removal of all besides God from the heart, and by “illā Allāh” the establishment of His presence, with mindful presence in each utterance. Some held that if the heart turns to another during remembrance, that object is treated as a god, as warned in “Have you seen the one who takes his own desire as his god?” Reciters of tajwīd recommend madd al-taʿẓīm, lengthening the phrase to intensify the negation of all divinity besides God, a practice Ibn Mihrān (d. 381/991) explained and al-Nawawī praised in al-Adhkār. Regarding expiation, scholars debated whether the testimony atones only for minor sins or, per some readings, may protect even from Hellfire, while agreeing that full expiation of major sins requires repentance and restoring violated rights. The Prophet ﷺ said, “I have been commanded to fight against people until they declare lā ilāha illā Allāh,” establishing verbal declaration as the legal pillar securing life and property, distinct from the inner knowledge that is faith’s essential core before God. Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh outlines five ascending degrees, from mere utterance, to conviction by imitation, to rational comprehension, to certitude by proof, and finally to spiritual witnessing. On salvation, the Prophet ﷺ said, “If anyone’s last words are ‘lā ilāha illā Allāh,’ they will enter Paradise,” and named the one who sincerely declares it as most fortunate to receive his intercession. Many scholars explained “last words” to mean a life lived in fidelity to the testimony, not merely a final utterance. He ﷺ commanded, “Exhort your dying ones to recite lā ilāha illā Allāh,” and prompting the dying (talqīn) is unanimously Sunnah, though jurists differ over its extension after burial. In the hadith of the card (biṭāqa), the card inscribed with the testimony outweighs ninety-nine scrolls of sins, for nothing outweighs the name of Allah. Yet scholars noted the scale does not tip by mere utterance, else all would be saved; some who enter Hell despite uttering tawḥīd remain until brought out by intercession or grace. Al-Sanūsī, in Umm al-barāhīn, enumerates the testimony’s fruits as righteous virtues, including detachment (zuhd), reliance (tawakkul), conscientious shame, spiritual sufficiency, neediness to God, altruism, chivalry, and gratitude, and as extraordinary divine favors (karāmāt), which the believer must never pursue lest he fall into hidden shirk, but rather seek only his Lord’s pleasure. Al-Dasūqī (d. 1230/1815) defines zuhd as the heart’s inner detachment, compatible with possessing wealth. Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392), the Shāfiʿī jurist born in Mamluk Cairo in 745/1344, was renowned for erudition and piety, studying under Ibn Kathīr, al-Isnawī, and al-Bulqīnī, and authoring al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān and al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ. His treatise Maʿnā lā ilāha illā Allāh, composed in a single night in twenty-nine sections, examines the phrase’s grammatical, rhetorical, legal, theological, and spiritual dimensions. He favors positing an implied predicate, “in truth,” so the phrase affirms the one true God and negates all false gods. He notes that beginning with negation clears the heart for the manifestation of tawḥīd, that all its letters issue from the oral cavity and are undotted, and that lā more forcefully conveys general negation than mā. He affirms, following Sībawayh, that “Allah” is the most definite of nouns, a proper name unique to His essence, and engages al-Bāqillānī’s position that God’s names are ordained (tawqīfiyya), alongside the differing views of others and al-Ghazālī’s distinction between names and attributes. On the particles of negation, he holds against the Muʿtazila that neither lā nor lan inherently signifies eternal negation; rather, permanence is determined by context, refuting the denial of the Beatific Vision drawn from “You will never see Me.” And may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad ﷺ, his family, and his companions, and all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Testimony of Faith, *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, is unmatched in the practice of remembrance, as it contains the essence of faith. God mentions it thirty-seven times in the Qur’an, and every act of worship embodies its meaning. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best thing that I and the prophets before me have said is: ‘There is no god but Allah, alone, without any partner’ (*lā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah*)” (*Al-Muwaṭṭa*ʾ, no. 726). 2. Experts in rhetoric (ahl al-maʿānī) explain that the Testimony of Faith begins with negation (lā ilāha) because negation clears and purifies the heart. Once emptied of all but God, the heart becomes receptive to the manifestation of divine oneness (tawḥīd) and affirms illā Allāh. The statement lā ilāha illā Allāh, in this particular formula, synthesizes negation and affirmation to signify the exclusiveness (ḥaṣr) of divinity to Allah, the Most High. This is one of the most articulate formulas by which to define something, clearly setting boundaries or limits around it. 3. Among the unique characteristics of the name “Allah,” the Most High, is that it is a proper noun that is specific to Him—unlike all His other names, which describe His attributes. All of His names refer to Him, but they are not used to refer to each other. As the Qur’an says, “The Most Excellent Names belong to Allah.” (Qur’an 7:180). Other names—even if unused—can be imagined as names for others. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does Lā ilāha illa Allāh mean? The testimony *Lā ilāha illa Allāh* translates to “There is no deity except Allah.” It is the foundational declaration of Islamic faith and the criterion by which religious belief and practice are measured. The phrase combines a negation (“there is no deity”) with an affirmation (“except Allah”), excluding all false objects of worship while affirming the exclusive divinity of Allah. Together with its complementary declaration “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” it encompasses the three foundational pillars of Islamic creed: divinity (*ilahiyyāt*), prophethood (*nubuwwāt*), and doctrines known only through revelation (*samʿiyyāt*). Though simple to pronounce and easy to memorize, it functions as a spiritual compass, grounding the believer in the realities of faith. ### What are the rewards of saying Lā ilāha illa Allāh? The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever recites the testimony with its full formula a hundred times in a day receives a reward equivalent to freeing ten slaves, has a hundred good deeds recorded, a hundred sins erased, and is safeguarded from Satan until evening. He ﷺ also said that no servant utters *Lā ilāha illa Allāh* sincerely except that the gates of Heaven open for it until it reaches the Throne, so long as the person avoids major sins. Scholars hold that the testimony primarily atones for minor sins, though some interpret certain hadiths as extending its protection even to major sins for those who recite it sincerely. Complete expiation of major sins, however, requires sincere repentance and the restitution of any rights violated against others. Through the blessing of the testimony, Allah may also soften hearts toward reconciliation, opening a wider path to divine pardon. ### Does saying “Lā ilāha illa Allāh” at the moment of death guarantee Paradise? The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever’s last words are *Lā ilāha illa Allāh* will enter Paradise and that whoever dies certain of its truth will be admitted. He ﷺ also instructed believers to prompt their dying loved ones to recite it, a practice known as *talqīn*. At the moment of death, worldly desires fade and the testimony often arises with a sincerity unmatched by everyday utterance. However, scholars caution against reading “last words” too narrowly. Some understand the phrase to refer not only to a final spoken utterance but to a life consistently lived in fidelity to *Lā ilāha illa Allāh*. In this broader sense, someone whose existence bears witness to divine oneness may be counted among those whose “last words” were the testimony, even if not physically spoken at the final breath. The depth of inner certainty (*yaqīn*) is what gives the testimony its salvific weight. ### Why does Lā ilāha illa Allāh begin with a negation rather than an affirmation? The testimony opens with a denial (“there is no god”) before its affirmation (“except Allah”), an order that carries both a grammatical and a spiritual weight. Grammatically, a comprehensive negation followed by an exclusive affirmation produces a stronger statement than affirmation alone. By first denying any divinity to anything else and then affirming it exclusively for Allah, the phrase becomes both more rhetorically forceful and theologically precise than a simple assertion of God’s oneness. Building on this structure, scholars of rhetoric (*balagha*) drew out a spiritual interpretation. The negation, they held, clears the heart of everything other than God, including idols, desires, and false attachments, creating the empty space in which divine oneness can settle. Only once the heart is vacated of rivals can the light of Allah shine within it. Some further noted that this purification polishes the heart’s essence, allowing hidden truths and deeper insight to surface, a meaning they connected to the inner knowledge cultivated in the Sufi tradition. The arrangement is thus not merely grammatical but a model for the cultivation of *tawhid* in the heart. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-divine-wisdom-behind-the-pairing-of-allahs-names-in-the-quran # The Divine Wisdom Behind the Pairing of Allah's Names in the Qur'an **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Quran **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** December 11, 2025 **Updated:** September 4, 2026 ## Introduction “Allah has ninety-nine names. Whoever preserves (*ahsaha* or *hafidhaha*) them will enter Paradise.”[^1] Such was the teaching of the Prophet ﷺ. Many of us have heard this hadith, but fewer of us have internalized the true scope of its meaning. To preserve Allah’s names is not simply to memorize them—it is to live by them. “To Allah belong the best names, so call upon Him (*udʿuhu biha*) with them.”[^2]  *Duʿa* in the Qur’an can refer to supplication specifically and worship more broadly, depending on the context.[^3] Here, we are being told to call upon Allah with His names—for example, “O Allah, forgive me, You are the Most Forgiving the Most Merciful”—and to worship Him through these names.[^4] The latter entails embodying His qualities and living in light of the knowledge of that name. Worshipping Him through His name the Merciful can mean, for example, showing mercy to people just as we love for Allah to show mercy to us. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth, and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.”[^5] It also means turning to Allah when we make a mistake, since we know that no mistake is greater than Allah’s mercy. In every case, understanding and connecting to these names is critical. As al-Razi observes, “Supplicating to Allah with His names is not possible unless one knows the meanings of the names.”[^6] Therefore, Allah’s names are not merely meant to be memorized; they are to be understood. Each name has a specific, independent meaning (even if some meanings may overlap) that can help us to know, connect to, and worship God in diverse ways. We are all unique individuals, with varying life circumstances and emotional states, and our needs differ accordingly. Understanding the meanings of Allah’s names is therefore crucial for connecting to Him, no matter who we are or what we are going through. However, we may not assume that knowing Allah’s names merely entails learning their linguistic definitions. Certainly, definitions form the foundation of our knowledge, but imagine trying to develop a deep relationship with someone on the basis of a one-line description. That short description might spark your curiosity, and form the starting point for that relationship, but you would not stop there. You would want to interact with them. You would want to witness their character in action. You would want to know if you could trust them. Hence al-Ghazali, like many other scholars,[^7] states that, “The science of highest nobility is the experiential knowledge (*maʿrifa*) of Allah Almighty, for all other branches of knowledge are sought for its sake, while it is not sought for anything else.”[^8] To truly know Allah, then, we must start by studying, learning, and *experiencing*  His names, as recorded in the Qur’an (as well as in sound narrations of the Prophet ﷺ). Every word in the Qur’an is deliberately placed to guide us to Him. The verses contextualize His names and help us understand them in relation to each other, so that we can better understand how they manifest in our own lives. Many names are paired (*muqtarina*)[^9] at the conclusion of verses, and this is no coincidence. Even the sequence in which the names appear contains divine wisdom and an intimate awareness of our psychology, emotional needs, and lived realities, which is why our scholars afforded so much attention to exploring them. Indeed, the pairing of names perfects our understanding of Allah’s perfection.[^10] Human language and imagination are limited by what we have seen and experienced. The word “king,” for example, may conjure up different images for different people: for some, a transgressive tyrant; for others, a benevolent authority. Similarly, the quality of “mercy” might strike one person as a weakness, another as a strength, and still another as implying no accountability for wrongdoers. Subconsciously, we impose human limits on the possibilities of mercy. This is not in its essence wrong, because our understanding of mercy is based on what it looks like (or should look like) at a human level. Allah created our minds this way, and He understands how they work. He knows that we think in terms of our empirical, worldly experiences. The problem occurs when we inadvertently anthropomorphize Allah’s attributes, imposing upon them the limits that we experience in our interactions with other human beings.[^11] The pairing of certain names in the Qur’an helps banish any misestimations of al-Quddus—the Holy, free from anything blameworthy and infinitely beyond human inadequacies. This paper reflects upon the significance of verse endings (*fawasil al-ayat* or *al-fawasil al-Qurʾaniyya*), Allah’s names, and the order in which they appear, focusing particularly on His paired names. It is hoped that by pausing to contemplate Allah’s names in the Qur’an, we will be able to perceive their full beauty, connect to our Lord, and nourish our hearts and souls. While the overall meaning of Qur’anic verses is clear, we will only access their subtler nuances by taking time to reflect. The order of the verses themselves, the choice of words within them, and how they end, all add meaning and depth, as we will see below. Ultimately, we will find that the real pleasure of knowing Allah’s names is simply that: knowing Him and living in the light of this knowledge. When we experience Allah’s names, our hearts become so completely filled with love for Him that submission to Him is not only natural, but the most blissful state imaginable. --- ## Rhetorical periods Al-Zarkashi defines a “rhetorical period (*fasila*)” as “the final word of a verse, like the rhyme in poetry or the paired word in rhymed prose (*sajʿ*).”[^12] The conclusions of verses—*al-fawasil* (pl.)—are significant. From a linguistic standpoint, al-Qurtubi states that rhetorical periods are a “beautification of rhythmic speech,” without which “one could not distinguish verse from prose.”[^13] He warns that “failing to pause at \[these rhetorical periods\] hides that beauty and makes verse sound like prose—ultimately doing a disservice to what is being recited.”[^14] Ibn ʿAshur adds that pausing at the rhetorical periods “serves to make them heard clearly, so that the listeners’ souls are moved by the beauty of that symmetry—just as they are moved by rhyme in poetry and by rhythmic cadence in rhymed prose.”[^15] Rhetorical periods not only add eloquence from a linguistic perspective, but bring clarity to the whole verse.[^16] For example, in Surah Hud, Allah recounts how the disbelievers scorned Prophet Shuʿayb: > They asked \[sarcastically\], “O Shuʿayb! Does your prayer command you that we should abandon what our forefathers worshipped or give up managing our wealth as we please? Indeed, you are such a tolerant (*halim)*, sensible (*rashid)* man!”[^17] The verse first mentions how the people of Shuʿayb worshipped (prayer), and then how they managed their wealth. This sequence of characteristics is mirrored by the sequence with which the verse concludes: *hilm* (maturity) complements worship (as worship becomes obligatory once one reaches puberty), while *rushd* (discernment) complements the proper management of wealth.[^18] This is a simple example of the congruence of Qur’anic syntax, as well as the significance of verse endings. The aforementioned meanings cannot be gleaned from a cursory reading, only extracted through deep contemplation of both the content (words) and form (organization) of the verse. Many other verses end in just this way: Allah tells us who He is, connects us to Him, and helps us to understand His words in light of His names. --- ## Pairing of the names As mentioned before, Allah pairs many of His names throughout the Qur’an. This rhetorical and literary technique opens up new dimensions in our relationship with Allah by giving us a fuller understanding of Him. First, when Allah pairs complementary names together, He illuminates the expansive scope of their meanings. A mention of forgiveness naturally invokes the idea of mercy, as the two are related, just as hearing invokes seeing, and so on.[^19] Hence, the Qur’an regularly pairs naturally-related names. For instance, the pairing “al-Ghafur al-Rahim” (the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful) recurs 71 times,[^20] and “al-Samiʿ al-Basir” (the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing) 45 times.[^21] These pairings deepen our understanding of Allah: He not only forgives but has mercy, He not only hears all but He sees all as well. Second, Allah anticipates the doubts that might arise in our minds by pairing certain names. For instance, His name al-ʿAziz (the Almighty) is frequently coupled with al-Hakim (the Most Wise). Those who possess power are often hasty and reactive, transgressing against the rights of others, but Allah reassures us that His might is always exercised with the highest wisdom. Similarly, those with wisdom may be weak, unable to act upon that wisdom for the benefit of others, but Allah is wise in His might and mighty in His wisdom.[^22] His name al-ʿAziz is also paired frequently with His name al-Rahim, particularly in Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ.[^23] One might think that these two names are contradictory. They are not. As al-Tabari explains, none can escape al-ʿAziz once He has decreed their punishment, but nonetheless al-Rahim is merciful toward those who repent for their disbelief and disobedience.[^24] As for the order of the names, al-Razi states that the Almighty is mentioned here before the Most Merciful to avoid suggesting that Allah only shows mercy to those who rebel against Him (a group mentioned in the previous verse) because of His inability to punish them. Allah preempts this misconception by stating that He is al-ʿAziz, whose power none can match, and yet He is still Merciful to His servants. Despite His ability to hasten their punishment for their rejection of Him, He does not withhold His mercy from them. Allah repeats this pairing in Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ in different contexts, highlighting His strength when people rebel against Him, but reminding us of His mercy in repeatedly sending reminders to the misguided as well as saving His righteous servants. Another misconception cleared by the pairing of Allah’s names is the total nature of His forgiveness and love. When it comes to human beings, a person may forgive you or show you mercy, and still not like you. Allah, however, tells us: “And He is the Forgiving (al-Ghafur), the Affectionate (al-Wadud).”[^25] *Wudd* is an affectionate and tender love;[^26] it is a love that is expressed without implying need or dependence on creation. Allah thus reassures us that He both forgives us and loves us.[^27] This placates any fears that Allah may not return to loving someone after their repentance, despite having forgiven them.[^28] On the contrary, Allah *loves* those who repent (Qur’an 2:222). He invites us to return to Him and then reminds us of His love: “And ask forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is Merciful (Rahim) and Affectionate (Wadud).”[^29] The pairing of Rahim and Wadud teaches us that Allah is intensely affectionate towards those who seek nearness to Him through repentance;[^30] it is not a compassion expressed out of pity or obligation, nor is it devoid of love. Furthermore, unlike divine love, some forms of human love can be destructive. A parent, out of love for their child, can spoil them to such a degree that the child never learns to discern between the harmful and hurtful, and never develops a capacity for self-discipline. This is a kind of parental love that, however intense or sincere, ultimately harms the child. Part of the meaning of *rahma*—mercy—is that its expression brings about benefit and wards off harm.[^31] A parent may take a smartphone away from a child to the dismay of that child, but it is in their best interests. Outwardly, it might not seem “kind” (particularly not for the screaming child!), but every rational person knows that it is done out of care—hence, it is truly, and not only superficially, merciful. Allah tells us He is Rahimun Wadud to underline that His mercy and love are expressed in a way that brings us true benefit and spares us from all forms of harm, both physical and metaphysical, in this life and the next. Another name frequently paired with others is al-Shakur (the Appreciative). It is an inherently reassuring name, reminding us that He is constantly appreciative of any good that we do, no matter how small or overlooked by others, and rewards us disproportionately for those deeds. The Prophet ﷺ taught us, “Do not belittle any good deed, even meeting your brother with a cheerful face.”[^32] Our appreciation for al-Shakur is enhanced when this name is paired with others, helping address our subtle insecurities. Allah tells us in the Qur’an, > It is that of which Allah gives good tidings to His servants who believe and do righteous deeds. Say, \[O Muhammad\], “I do not ask you for it \[i.e., this message\] any payment \[but\] only goodwill through \[i.e., due to\] kinship.” And whoever commits a good deed We will increase for him good therein. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Appreciative.[^33] This verse appears in the context of Allah inviting people to believe and submit, and comparing the fate of the believers to those who stubbornly deny the Truth.  We are reminded that the Prophet ﷺ is not asking for anything from us, but rather it is Allah who rewards us for our good. The verse ends with Allah declaring Himself both Forgiving (Ghafur) and Appreciative (Shakur): He forgives sins, no matter how grave—including the worst sin, the sin of *shirk*[^34]—whenever people repent from them, and He repays the humblest of good deeds with a great reward.[^35] Knowing only that He is al-Shakur may leave some of us wondering whether we are included in this appreciation, since we fall short so often. We may think, “What is the point of doing good when I am so bad?” Indeed, *people* may write us off and discount our good deeds when they become aware of our bad ones. Yet Allah reassures us: When we turn back to Him, He forgives us *and* He accepts and rewards even the smallest of our good deeds. The Prophet ﷺ once told the story of a prostitute who encountered a panting dog by a well: “Thirst had nearly killed \[the dog\], so she took off her sock, tied it to her veil, and drew up some water. Allah forgave her for that.”[^36] Her sins did not overshadow Allah’s appreciation for her empathy and sincerity; He forgave her and rewarded her. This reminds us that nothing is lost with Him. In fact, Allah guarantees it. He says: “And whoever volunteers good—then indeed, Allah is Appreciative (Shakir) and Knowing (ʿAlim).”[^37] How many times have we done good that went unnoticed by people? How many times have we harbored good intentions only to be disparaged by those who misconstrued our actions? But Allah knows. He knows our hearts and our actions; He appreciates the good, no matter how small or hidden.[^38] Indeed, this is why the Prophet ﷺ tells us in numerous hadiths about seemingly insignificant deeds appreciated by al-Shakur. He ﷺ gave the example of man who was walking down the road when he stumbled upon a thorny branch in his path: “He moved it aside; Allah appreciated his deed and forgave him.”[^39] In another hadith, “I have seen a man enjoying himself in Paradise due to a tree on the road he cut down that used to harm people.”[^40] These were actions that probably no one saw, but they were sincere. These men saw something harming people, and without fanfare, they removed it. They themselves might not have placed much weight on their actions. But Allah is Appreciative and All-Knowing; He knew not only of these men’s acts, but of the state of their hearts. So great was Allah’s appreciation (and mercy) that for these simple actions, He forgave them and granted them Paradise. These reflections are but a glimpse into the beauty of the pairings of His names at the end of the Qur’an’s verses. Through these pairings, Allah deepens our understanding of who He is, brings clarity to His verses as a whole, and reassures the reader. The more we reflect, the more Allah bestows upon us understanding, if He wills. --- ## Sequence of the pairings Much as the pairing of names at the end of any given verse conveys special meanings, the sequence in which those names appear is ordered according to divine logic. These orderings show that the Qur’an is to be read with the soul, intellect, and heart in mind. The sequence of a pairing may inform us about how to think of a matter, or it may reflect the order of a matter that was being discussed. In Surah al-Aʿraf, Allah says, “And if an evil suggestion comes to you from Satan, then seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is All-Hearing and All-Knowing.”[^41] Al-Razi interprets this sequence as reassuring us that He hears us as we verbally seek refuge, but also reminding us that seeking refuge with the tongue alone is insufficient. The heart must be present,[^42] as Allah both hears what is uttered (al-Samiʿ) and knows the inner workings of our conscience (al-ʿAlim). A further layer of meaning is suggested by al-Saʿdi, who says that Allah hears your seeking refuge in Him and knows your intentions, your weakness, and the strength of your recourse to Him, so He protects you from Satan’s temptations and safeguards you from his whispers.[^43] Another frequent pairing is al-ʿAlim al-Hakim (the All-Knowing, the Most Wise), demonstrating to us that Allah knows all and is also wise—and indeed, how many people have knowledge, but no wisdom? Yet the order is reversed in other verses (al-Hakim al-ʿAlim). It may be that the context in the first case calls for knowledge and then wisdom, while the second calls for wisdom and then knowledge.[^44] For instance, in Surah al-Baqara, the angels asked Allah why He would create human beings who would sow corruption on earth and cause bloodshed. Allah responded by saying, “Indeed, I know that which you do not know.”[^45] After Allah taught Adam the names,[^46] He asked the angels whether they knew those same names. “Exalted are You,” they responded. “We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise.”[^47] Here the order of the pairing emphasizes the angels’ acknowledgment of Allah’s all-encompassing knowledge—precisely what they had implicitly questioned when they asked Allah about His creation of humanity—and their own comparative ignorance. Addressing Allah as al-Hakim further affirms that He does not command nor create except with wisdom and purpose.[^48] This context lets us know that the creation of Adam was intentional, undertaken with divine wisdom, and ultimately good. In Surah al-Dhariyat, Prophet Abraham (as) was informed by the angels that he would have a child, despite his wife’s infertility. Upon hearing this, his wife was shocked and incredulous. The angels responded, “Thus has said your Lord; indeed, He is the Wise, the Knowing.”[^49] The angels mention wisdom first, assuring Prophet Abraham and his wife that Allah is the One who places things in their proper place (i.e., this was not a mistake, and indeed was for a greater purpose). The angels then mention that Allah encompasses everything in knowledge—He knew that Abraham’s wife was barren, just as He was not ignorant of any other detail that could seemingly stymie His command—and so they should submit to His decision, and thank Him for this blessing.[^50] These are all subtle nuances that exhibit the depth of the Qur’an for those who reflect. --- ## An exercise in contemplating the pairing of the names Let us take some verses in the Qur’an that conclude with a pair of Allah’s names and ponder over them together. In Surah al-Hujurat, there are three consecutive verses that mention Allah’s names at the end. Allah says, > O you who have attained faith, avoid making too many assumptions—indeed, some assumptions are sinful. And do not spy on one another nor backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would detest it. So be mindful of Allah; indeed, Allah is **Granting and Accepting of repentance, Bestowing of mercy**. > O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into races and tribes, that you may know one another; indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah are the most mindful \[of Him\] among you; indeed, **Allah is All-Knowing, All-Acquainted**. > The nomadic Arabs said, “We have attained faith.” Say, “You have not attained faith; rather say, ‘We have become Muslims,’ for faith has not yet entered into your hearts. But if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not diminish any of your deeds; indeed, Allah is **Oft-Forgiving, Bestowing of mercy**.”[^51] **The first step to having a cohesive understanding is to contextualize these verses within the chapter as a whole**. Prior to these verses, Allah had already called upon the believers four times (“O you who believe”)—a form of direct address that Ibn ʿAshur says is meant to alert the listener to the importance of what is about to be said. Allah proceeds to teach the believers how to treat one another and calls them to one brotherhood (Qur’an 49:10). The first verse we are discussing here (Qur’an 49:12) continues with this theme, and calls upon those who believe to warn them against certain behaviors.[^52] **The second step is to ponder the meanings of the verses themselves**. The prohibitions mentioned in verse 12 (negative assumptions, spying, backbiting) are subtle. They are thus easier to overlook and harder to avoid.[^53]  Addressing us as “O you who believe” reminds us to live up to who we are: believers. The verse then juxtaposes this aspirational ideal against the reprehensible actions—(negative) assumptions (*dhann*), spying (*tajassus*), and backbiting (*ghiba*)—that are not befitting a believer. Allah says to “avoid making too many assumptions” because “some assumptions are sinful.” Negative assumptions can have at least two consequences. The first, seemingly more benign, is that the assumption, even when one does not act upon it, leads one to unfairly attribute negative qualities to someone who may not have them.[^54] The second, which is more nefarious, is that the negative assumption compels one to verify it through spying, stalking, and the general invasion of another’s privacy. This nosiness opens the door to gossip and speculation. If the suspicion in question is verified, it leads to backbiting: mentioning someone in a way he or she dislikes, even when it is truthful.[^55] Allah employs repulsive imagery to convey the ugliness of these actions. He asks, “Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would detest it!” Allah then commands us to have *taqwa* (God-consciousness), the antidote and prophylactic to this type of thinking, and ends with reminding us that He is al-Tawwab al-Rahim (Accepting of repentance, Bestowing of mercy). **The third step is to reflect upon the relationship between the paired names and the verse as a whole.** Why is Allah mentioning these two names in particular, and why here? What am I meant to learn about Allah as it relates to the overall message of this verse? Believers who read this verse may find that they are guilty of falling into these sins. They may want to embark on the path to God-consciousness, but feel ashamed. They may realize the gravity of their sin, and assume that Allah now rejects them. Yet Allah reminds us that He is al-Tawwab al-Rahim. Al-Tawwab is He who repeatedly inspires and accepts the return of those who are far from returning, and al-Rahim is He who, in His eternal mercy and kindness, does not punish those who repent and in fact accepts them in their totality.[^56] Imagine being told this after committing the very acts we are warned against? It becomes a source of hope, and an encouragement to turn back to Allah. We can now apply this framework to the rest of the verses in this sequence. Again, the following verse reads: > O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into races and tribes, that you may know one another; indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah are the most mindful \[of Him\] among you; indeed, **Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aquainted**. Here we observe a transition from a believer’s responsibilities to others to an individual’s responsibility to herself.[^57] Allah now addresses humanity as a whole, as the twin vices of self-adulation and tribalism were rampant in the pre-Islamic period.[^58] This verse reminds us that we all have the same origin, and that we all came from one male and one female. We come from different nations and tribes so that we may know, rather than reject, one another. Still, human beings inevitably compete in terms of lineage and nation, and so Allah in this verse reminds people that the most honorable in the sight of God is in fact *not* the one with the most “prestigious” lineage, but rather the most righteous (*atqakum*)—a direct follow-up on the call for *taqwa* in the previous verse.[^59] The verse concludes: “He is al-ʿAlim al-Khabir.” In general, al-ʿAlim is the All-Knowing, without limits. In this specific context, however, al-ʿAlīm is He who knows what is outward, whereas al-Khabir is He who knows what is within; al-ʿAlim is He who knows what is open, and al-Khabir is He who knows what is hidden.[^60] Together, these names convey God’s all-encompassing knowledge. Al-ʿAlim al-Khabir knows all realities, external and internal. Allah thus reminds people that He knows who is truly God-conscious and who simply exhibits outward nobility, and He will reward each with what they deserve.[^61] This verse calls on us to observe the state of our hearts, and to revise the importance we attribute to what we think gives us status and prestige. True honor lies in the *taqwa* of our hearts, to which only al-ʿAlim al-Khabir is privy. After Allah informs us that He is al-ʿAlim al-Khabir—and thus knows intimately the state of our hearts—He immediately proceeds to rebuff the nomadic Arabs who had declared, “We believe.” Belief (*iman*) is primarily an internal act that then manifests externally, and includes trust in Allah. The Arabs’ declaration that “we have believed (*amanna*)” implies full belief and everything that entails. The Prophet ﷺ is instructed to tell them to instead say, “We have submitted (*aslamna*),” since true, complete faith had not yet entered their hearts. Allah then guides them to the cure for this weakness of faith: With total obedience to God and His Messenger, their faith will be established,[^62] and their good deeds would not be diminished in the least.[^63] This third verse concludes by reminding us that Allah is “al-Ghafur al-Rahim” (Oft-Forgiving, Bestowing of mercy). Those with incomplete faith, who may have outwardly declared what they did not in fact believe in their hearts, are reminded that Allah is abundant in His forgiveness, and that all can be overlooked and forgiven. The reminder that Allah forgives is an invitation to seek forgiveness and mend one’s ways. In fact, not only does al-Ghafur forgive what has passed, but al-Rahim also bestows His blessings and mercy upon you.[^64] Al-Rahim may come after al-Ghafur because mercy is the root of forgiveness; i.e., Allah forgives because of His intense mercy and care for people, as mercy is broader than forgiveness.[^65] --- ## Conclusion Understanding the Qur’an requires contemplation. It guides us to what is best;[^66] it is light,[^67] mercy, and healing.[^68] How could it not be when it tells us about Allah? Whoever begins this journey to knowing Allah and reflecting upon His words, and immerses themselves in it, “is in an expedited Paradise \[here on earth\], before the Paradise of the Hereafter, and in immediate bliss.”[^69] Allah concludes many verses in the Qur’an with pairings of His names. He pairs His names deliberately, as they open up a new dimension in understanding Him. Rather than skim over these pairings, we should carefully ponder their meanings. Why is Allah mentioning these particular names, in this particular order, at the end of this particular verse? How can I come closer to Allah through knowing Him in this way? These are just some of the questions we can ask upon encountering a pairing of Allah’s names. Remember that every word in the Qur’an has been given its best place, for the express purpose of clarifying reality and guiding us to Allah. When we approach the Qur’an with its divine intentionality in mind, we open ourselves to its richness and ensure that we are always connecting to Him. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7392; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2677. [^2]: Qur’an 7:180. [^3]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāʾiʿ al-fawāʾid* (Dār Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 3:1–6. [^4]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāʾiʿ al-fawāʾid*, 1:164. [^5]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1924, authentic according to al-Tirmidhī. [^6]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb*, [https://tafsir.app/alrazi/7/180](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/7/180&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282687926&usg=AOvVaw2Mpn4HXoKNcioVYjvtp8qy). [^7]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāʾiʿ al-fawāʾid*, 1:161. [^8]: Abū Ḥāmid Ghazālī, *Jawāhir al-Qurʼān*, ed. Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā Qabbānī (Dār Iḥyāʼ al-ʻUlūm, 1986), 1:42. [^9]: This refers to names that are paired together but are also independent names, for example: al-ʿAlīm (All-Knowing) al-Ḥakīm (Most-Wise). Al-ʿAlīm and al-Ḥakīm are independent names and also appear together in the Qur’an. There are other names that are called *al-asmāʾ al-muzdawaja* (coupled names), such as al-Qābiḍ al-Bāsiṭ (the Witholder, the Expander), which are considered one name and must not be separated. [^10]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāʾiʿ al-fawāʾid*, 1:161. [^11]: For example, Allah says, “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing” (42:11). One might think that they “share” hearing and seeing with Allah, but this verse corrects that assumption. Since there is nothing like Him, His Hearing and Seeing are completely unique and perfect, even though the words “hearing” and “seeing” are also applied to imperfect creatures. [^12]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bahādur al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, 1376/1957), 1:53. [^13]: *Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī*, [https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/106/2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/106/2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282691784&usg=AOvVaw30v_NXb_cmM_3XPc4ULW3Z). [^14]: *Tafsīr al-Qurtubī*, [https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/106/2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/106/2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282692304&usg=AOvVaw1qnCGFb9KQnEhb3IxWvJYg). [^15]: Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr* (al-Dār al-Tūnisiyya li-l-Nashr, 1984), 1:76. [^16]: Abū al-Ḥasan al-Rūmānī, “*al-Nukat fī iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*,” in *Khatm al-āyāt bi asmāʾ al-ḥusnā wa dalālatuha*, ed. ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān al-ʿUbayd (Dār al-ʿAṣima, 1418 AH), 22. This is called “*tamkīn*” in Qur’anic sciences. See Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1419/1999), 196. [^17]: Qur’an 11:87. [^18]: ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān al-ʿUbayd ed., *Khatm al-āyāt bi asmāʾ al-ḥusnā wa dalālatuha* (Dār al-ʿAṣima, 1418 AH), 23, quoting al-Zarkashī. Also in al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 196. [^19]: Al-ʿUbayd, *Khatm al-āyāt*, 56. [^20]: Amir Ali al-Haddad, *Iḥṣāʾ mā iqtarana min al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā fī al-Qur’ān al-karīm*, 2nd ed. (n.p., 1436/2015), 15. [^21]: Al-Haddad, *Iḥṣāʿ*, 78. [^22]: ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Badr, *Fiqh al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā* (Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1441 AH), 51–52. [^23]: Qur’an 26:9: “And your Lord is certainly the Almighty \[al-ʿAzīz\], Most Merciful \[al-Raḥīm\].” [^24]: *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, [https://tafsir.app/tabari/26/9](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/tabari/26/9&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282710558&usg=AOvVaw3ugWWIRD73p5B0x5ia3Rhn). [^25]: Qur’an 85:14. [^26]: *The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic*, 4th ed., 1240. [^27]: Māhir Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā: Jalālahā wa laṭāʾif iqtirānihā wa thamarātihā fī ḍawʾ al-Kitāb wal-sunna*, 3rd ed. (al-Imām al-Dhahabī, 2014), 57. See also “The Meaning of Allah’s Name al-Wadūd: Seeking the Love of Allah,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, July 30, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-wadud-seeking-the-love-of-allah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-wadud-seeking-the-love-of-allah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282712072&usg=AOvVaw2RDgNp1kKhFw7aga6sN7fx). [^28]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/85/14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/85/14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282712877&usg=AOvVaw0Kab6XrgGWdOIIjtxLz2LE). [^29]: Qur’an 11:90. [^30]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/11/90](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/11/90&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282713400&usg=AOvVaw1hlg-wB42d-WcaeC0T62yT). [^31]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 37. [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2626. [^33]: Qur’an 42:23. [^34]: Associating idols with God; see Zohair Abdul-Rahman, “Why is Shirk the Greatest Sin of All?,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, July 25, 2022, ​​[https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-shirk-the-greatest-sin-of-all](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-shirk-the-greatest-sin-of-all&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282708669&usg=AOvVaw2b6hy0GgLkvELj6xLBAuhP). [^35]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/42/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/42/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282714429&usg=AOvVaw2QnHCKUVmgr6AB592x6iHu). [^36]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3321; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2245. [^37]: Qur’an 2:158. [^38]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 189. [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2340; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1914. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1914. [^41]: Qur’an 7:200. [^42]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb*, [https://tafsir.app/alrazi/7/200](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/7/200&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282695432&usg=AOvVaw0GQaBWc5dHw8G0JgLs7gKc). [^43]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/7/200](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/7/200&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282695926&usg=AOvVaw3Dho4hydnH8uiXp9EaZkj_). [^44]: Al-ʿUbayd, *Khatm al-āyāt*, 55. [^45]: Qur’an 2:30. [^46]: Qur’an 2:31. [^47]: Qur’an 2:32. [^48]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/2/32](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/2/32&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282697180&usg=AOvVaw2kjbU-SujQ98l8MzwNCfMl). [^49]: Qur’an 51:30. [^50]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/51/30](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/51/30&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282697786&usg=AOvVaw3W_Tcux7BvmenrNHzFvLxx); Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/51/30](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/51/30&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282698177&usg=AOvVaw0ws1IYO2vOJZSavmZXvavf). [^51]: Qur’an 49:12–14. [^52]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/12](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/12&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282698719&usg=AOvVaw3_TIuPHDceCSzslkOmFxf_). [^53]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*. [^54]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*. Imam Nawawī was of the opinion that it was even haram to entertain bad assumptions about others. He said, “Know that bad assumptions are forbidden the same as words, for just as it is forbidden to speak about another person in an evil manner, it is forbidden to speak to yourself that way and to cultivate bad assumptions.” Al-Nawawī, *Ḥilyat al-abrār wa shiʿār al-akhyār fī talkhīṣ al-daʿawāt wal-adhkār al-mustaḥabba fī al-layl wal-nahār* (Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1425/2004), 47, trans.  Justin Parrott, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/held-accountable-thoughts/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/held-accountable-thoughts/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282701158&usg=AOvVaw3xt1UfBj42LVD7BPztNByo) (translation adapted). [^55]: Abū Hurayra reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Do you know what backbiting is?” The companions said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” The Prophet said, “To mention your brother in a way he dislikes.” It was said, “What if it is true about him?” The Prophet said, “If what you say about him is true, it is backbiting. If it is not true, it is slander.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2589. [^56]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 148–49. [^57]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/12](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/12&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282703343&usg=AOvVaw2zu09FmY322ydPgv82X07H). [^58]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/13](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/13&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282703909&usg=AOvVaw01BWRbr9avM8phuUqmm3Ya). [^59]: The Prophet ﷺ emphasizes this, stating that “whoever is slow to good deeds will not be hastened by his lineage” (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2699). [^60]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 220. [^61]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/49/13](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/49/13&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282705200&usg=AOvVaw0XTZoNE6rtpuJRLYodTQfG). [^62]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282705774&usg=AOvVaw3757QTtID0x7b2yhL6EX9o). [^63]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282716819&usg=AOvVaw003xWYgg9NslPbbpuFNw7E). [^64]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb*, [https://tafsir.app/alrazi/49/14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/49/14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282706296&usg=AOvVaw2kQ_cOFMrUMr74GMQCUzLL). [^65]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/49/14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1765471282706883&usg=AOvVaw2PMDs4q70eBPn0JlNqtx2y). [^66]: Qur’an 2:185, 39:28, and others. [^67]: Qur’an 5:15. [^68]: Qur’an 10:57. [^69]: Ibn al-Qayyim, in Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 26. ## Summary To Allah belong the most beautiful names, and He has instructed us to call upon Him through them, as He says: "To Allah belong the best names, so call upon Him with them." This calling encompasses both supplication in the specific sense and worship in the broader sense, for the word *duʿa* in the Qur'an bears both meanings according to context. To call upon Allah through His names is not merely to invoke them with the tongue, but to embody their meanings and to live in the light of the knowledge they impart. Worshipping Allah through His name al-Rahim, for instance, entails showing mercy to creation, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth, and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you." The Prophet ﷺ also taught that Allah possesses ninety-nine names, and "whoever preserves them will enter Paradise"—and this preservation is not merely memorization but comprehension and application. Knowing Allah's names therefore demands understanding, not rote recitation alone. As al-Razi observed, "Supplicating to Allah with His names is not possible unless one knows the meanings of the names." Each name carries a distinct meaning, even where meanings overlap, allowing every servant—regardless of circumstance or emotional state—to draw near to Allah in a manner suited to their need. Yet the linguistic definition of a name is only the foundation, not the totality, of this knowledge. Just as one cannot cultivate a deep relationship with a person on the basis of a single line of description, so too must the servant progress from definition to experiential knowledge (*maʿrifa*). Al-Ghazali, in agreement with many scholars, declared: "The science of highest nobility is the experiential knowledge of Allah Almighty, for all other branches of knowledge are sought for its sake, while it is not sought for anything else." The Qur'an itself provides the means for this deeper knowledge, for every word within it is deliberately placed to guide us to Allah. The verses contextualize His names, situate them in relation to one another, and reveal how they manifest in our lives. Among the notable features of the Qur'an is the pairing of names (*muqtarina*) at the conclusion of verses, as well as the particular sequence in which they appear—both of which contain divine wisdom and an intimate awareness of human psychology. This attentiveness is necessary because human language and imagination are bounded by lived experience. The word "king" may evoke a tyrant to one person and a just ruler to another; the quality of "mercy" may strike one as weakness and another as strength. The danger arises when we inadvertently impose these human limits upon Allah's attributes. The pairing of names guards against such anthropomorphism, affirming that Allah is al-Quddus—the Holy, free from every blemish and infinitely beyond human inadequacy. The conclusions of verses, termed *al-fawasil*, carry significance both in eloquence and in meaning. Al-Zarkashi defined the rhetorical period (*fasila*) as "the final word of a verse, like the rhyme in poetry or the paired word in rhymed prose." Al-Qurtubi noted that these endings beautify rhythmic speech, without which "one could not distinguish verse from prose," warning that failing to pause upon them diminishes the recitation. Ibn ʿAshur likewise observed that pausing at them moves the souls of listeners through the beauty of their symmetry. Beyond eloquence, these endings bring clarity to the entire verse. In Surah Hud, when the people of Shuʿayb mockingly called him "such a tolerant (*halim*), sensible (*rashid*) man," the verse first mentioned their worship and then their management of wealth; the concluding pairing mirrors this, for *hilm* complements worship (obligatory upon reaching puberty) and *rushd* complements the proper handling of wealth. Such congruence is extracted only through contemplation of both the words and their arrangement. The pairing of Allah's names opens new dimensions in the servant's relationship with his Lord. First, complementary names illuminate the expansive scope of their meanings, as "al-Ghafur al-Rahim" (recurring seventy-one times) and "al-Samiʿ al-Basir" (recurring forty-five times) demonstrate that Allah not only forgives but shows mercy, not only hears but sees. Second, pairings preempt doubts that may arise in our minds. His name al-ʿAziz is joined with al-Hakim, assuring us that His might is never hasty or transgressing but always exercised with perfect wisdom. In Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ, al-ʿAziz is coupled with al-Rahim; al-Tabari explained that none can escape His power once He decrees punishment, yet He is merciful to those who repent. Al-Razi noted that the Almighty is mentioned first to dispel any notion that Allah shows mercy to rebels merely out of inability to punish them—rather, He is All-Powerful yet chooses mercy. The pairing of names also clarifies the completeness of Allah's love and forgiveness. Whereas a human being may forgive without affection, Allah declares Himself "the Forgiving (al-Ghafur), the Affectionate (al-Wadud)." *Wudd* is a tender love expressed without need or dependence upon creation. He further says: "Ask forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is Merciful (Rahim) and Affectionate (Wadud)"—reassuring the repentant that Allah returns to loving them, for He loves those who repent (Qur'an 2:222). Unlike some destructive human love that spoils and harms, Allah's mercy always brings genuine benefit and wards off harm, in this life and the next. Similarly, the name al-Shakur (the Appreciative) reassures us that Allah values even the smallest good. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Do not belittle any good deed, even meeting your brother with a cheerful face." Allah declares Himself "Forgiving and Appreciative," forgiving even the gravest sin—*shirk*—upon repentance, and rewarding the humblest deed. The Prophet ﷺ related the account of a woman forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog, the man forgiven for removing a thorny branch, and the man granted Paradise for cutting down a tree that harmed passersby—deeds unseen by people but known to al-Shakur, al-ʿAlim. The sequence of the paired names likewise carries divine wisdom. In Surah al-Aʿraf, upon the command to seek refuge from Satan, Allah is described as "All-Hearing and All-Knowing." Al-Razi explained that He hears our spoken refuge, while al-ʿAlim reminds us that the tongue alone is insufficient—the heart must be present. Al-Saʿdi added that Allah knows our weakness and the sincerity of our recourse, and so protects us. The pairing al-ʿAlim al-Hakim appears in one order in some verses and reversed in others, according to context. When the angels questioned the creation of humankind, Allah responded, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know," and after teaching Adam the names, the angels acknowledged, "It is You who is the Knowing, the Wise"—the order emphasizing His encompassing knowledge which they had implicitly questioned, and affirming that Adam's creation was purposeful. In Surah al-Dhariyat, when the angels foretold a child to Abraham despite his wife's barrenness, they said, "He is the Wise, the Knowing"—placing wisdom first to affirm that this was no error but a purposeful decree, followed by knowledge that encompassed even her infertility. A sustained example appears in three consecutive verses of Surah al-Hujurat. The first prohibits suspicion, spying, and backbiting, likening backbiting to eating the flesh of one's dead brother, then closing with al-Tawwab al-Rahim—offering hope to those who fall into these subtle sins that Allah accepts their return and shows mercy in totality. The second addresses all humanity, affirming common origin and declaring that nobility lies in *taqwa*, not lineage, concluding with al-ʿAlim al-Khabir—the One who knows the outward and the hidden, and thus discerns true God-consciousness from mere outward nobility. The third rebuffs the nomadic Arabs who claimed belief, instructing them to say "we have submitted," for faith had not yet entered their hearts, and concludes with al-Ghafur al-Rahim—al-Rahim following al-Ghafur because mercy is the root of forgiveness, being broader than it. Thus understanding the Qur'an requires contemplation, for it is guidance, light, mercy, and healing. Whoever immerses himself in knowing Allah through His words is, as has been said, "in an expedited Paradise before the Paradise of the Hereafter." Upon encountering each pairing, the servant should ask why these particular names appear in this particular order at this particular place, and how he may draw nearer to Allah through such knowledge—for every word of the Qur'an has been given its best place to clarify reality and guide us to Him. ## Key Takeaways 1. Preserving Allah’s ninety-nine names means more than memorizing them; it means understanding their meanings and living by them. Supplication through a name is noblest once its meaning is grasped, although linguistic definitions are merely the starting point. Deeper knowledge of Allah involves experiential maʿrifa, cultivated by reflecting on His names in revelation and recognizing their effects in one’s life and in the lived encounter with His mercy and care. 2. Pairing Allah’s names at the close of verses can reveal dimensions of meaning that a name stated alone does not convey. Complementary pairings like al-Ghafur al-Rahim (the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful) expand the scope of each quality, while others preempt doubt: al-ʿAziz al-Hakim (the Almighty, the Most Wise) affirms that divine might is never without wisdom, and al-Ghafur al-Wadud assures the repentant that Allah not only forgives but loves those who return to Him. 3. The order of paired names is itself meaningful, calibrated to the verse’s context. After the angels question the wisdom of creating humanity and Allah demonstrates knowledge they do not possess, they acknowledge Him as al-ʿAlīm al-Ḥakīm, foregrounding the divine knowledge highlighted by the episode.; and when they announce a son to the incredulous wife of Prophet Abraham, they say al-Hakim al-ʿAlim, placing wisdom first to assure them the decree is purposeful. Engaging such pairings rewards situating the verse in its chapter, pondering its words, and reflecting on how the names and their sequence answer the concern at hand. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why does Allah pair His names together in the Qur’an? Allah often closes verses with two of His names rather than one, and this pairing is deliberate. Pairing related names broadens our sense of what each one means. When forgiveness and mercy appear together (al-Ghafur al-Rahim, which recurs seventy-one times), we learn that Allah does not only pardon wrongdoing but also cares for the person who committed it. Pairing also answers doubts before they form. His name al-ʿAziz (the Almighty) is often joined with al-Hakim (the Most Wise), because power without wisdom can turn reckless, but Allah’s might is always exercised with perfect wisdom. The two names together correct misconceptions we might form when imagining divine attributes through the limitations of human experience. Reflecting on why a particular pair appears, and in what order, opens a fuller understanding of who Allah is. ### Does “preserving” Allah’s ninety-nine names mean just memorizing them? The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever preserves Allah’s ninety-nine names will enter Paradise. Scholars have understood ‘preserving’ (iḥṣāʾ) in several complementary ways, including memorizing the names, understanding them, calling upon Allah through them, and living in accordance with what they teach us about Him. Worship through His names includes living in accordance with what knowledge of those names requires–for example, knowledge of Allah’s mercy should encourage us to show appropriate mercy to others. Memorizing a name is only the starting point, like a one-line description of someone you have not yet met. Real knowledge comes from reflecting on the name, seeing how it works in your life, and turning to Allah through it. This is why scholars treated knowing Allah through His names as the highest form of knowledge. ### How can Allah be both al-ʿAziz (the Almighty) and al-Rahim (the Merciful)? These two names might seem to pull in opposite directions, since overwhelming power and tender mercy rarely sit together among people. The Qur’an pairs them repeatedly, especially in Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ, to show they are not in tension. None can escape Allah’s power once He decrees a punishment, yet He remains merciful toward those who turn back to Him in repentance. The order matters too. Allah names Himself the Almighty before the Merciful so that no one imagines He spares rebellious people only because He is unable to punish them. He establishes first that His power is unmatched, then affirms that He still extends mercy to His servants despite their defiance, repeatedly sending them reminders and saving the righteous. The pairing reassures us that divine mercy is never a sign of weakness, and divine power is never without compassion. ### Why does the order in which Allah’s paired names appear matter? The sequence of Allah’s names at the end of a verse carries meaning, not just the names themselves. Sometimes the order tracks the order of what was being discussed. In one verse Allah is called al-Samiʿ (the All-Hearing) then al-ʿAlim (the All-Knowing), reassuring us that He hears us seek refuge in Him with our tongues while also knowing what is in our hearts, a reminder that words alone are not enough. The same qualities of knowledge and wisdom can appear in either order depending on context. When the angels questioned the creation of humanity, they acknowledged Allah as the Knowing and the Wise, conceding the very limits of their own knowledge. When angels gave glad tidings of a child to an elderly couple, they named Allah the Wise then the Knowing, assuring them this was no mistake but a purposeful decree. Noticing the order invites us to ask why Allah presented Himself this way, and what it teaches us. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-yaqeen-institute-approaches-ai-integrating-technology-with-islamic-ethics-essay # How Yaqeen Institute Approaches AI: Integrating Technology with Islamic Ethics | Essay **Authors:** Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb, Ibtihal Aboussad, Kenan Alkiek **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Jurisprudence (fiqh), Technology **Tags:** Perspective **Published:** December 1, 2025 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 Artificial intelligence (AI) represents both a profound challenge and a monumental opportunity for Yaqeen Institute when advancing its mission of dismantling doubts, nurturing conviction, and inspiring contribution. As AI rapidly transforms how knowledge is generated, shared, and experienced, Muslims cannot afford to be either uncritically enthusiastic or passively withdrawn. With ChatGPT reaching nearly a billion people every week,[^1] AI now plays an ever-growing role in influencing the intellectual lives and moral debates of humanity. It demands our urgent attention. If we approach it thoughtfully, AI can strengthen our research, personalize learning, and open new creative avenues for storytelling and service to the *ummah*. Just as we at Yaqeen set out to combat Islamophobia on Google in 2016, we now have the chance to ensure our voice and values are present in the next wave of technology. However, like every major technological shift, its potential comes with real risks: both spiritual and societal. Our goal is to engage this technology with purpose, leveraging it where it brings clear benefit and being vigilant about minimizing its harm. This blog outlines how we use AI internally and externally, the safeguards we have established, and our commitment to adapt as both the technology and the scholarly wisdom concerning it continue to evolve. A broader Islamic framework for AI ethics is explored in our forthcoming publication, “Toward an Islamic Ethics and *Fiqh* of Artificial Intelligence*.*”[^2] --- ## Why Muslims must lead in AI Artificial intelligence has rapidly transitioned from theoretical research to practical applications across nearly every sector of society, including the dissemination and consumption of Islamic knowledge. This technology is not going away. For institutions serving the Muslim community, we believe that understanding this shift is essential. Recent history shows the costs of delayed engagement with new technologies. Social media platforms developed without much Muslim involvement, resulting in algorithms that shaped narratives about Islam, restricted our content, and influenced how Muslims access religious knowledge. Surveillance and policing technologies were similarly developed and deployed with Muslims as primary targets. Beyond these social and cultural harms, the stakes for the global *ummah* are even higher. AI is already reshaping economies and military capabilities, areas where Muslim nations risk deepening dependence if they remain consumers rather than contributors. Sadly, we have already seen sinister applications of AI-based targeting in Gaza and other parts of our *ummah*.[^3] Timing is critical. Unlike previous technological revolutions, where Muslim institutions responded after systems were entrenched, we are still in the formative stages of AI. This presents an important opportunity as AI inevitably begins to shape how religious questions are answered and how our communities interact with information systems. As such, if we fail to understand and shape this technology, others will define how it represents and impacts our communities. Islam offers a distinct ethical framework that the world sorely needs. While secular frameworks often focus on regulation after harm occurs (and are largely influenced by material concerns), Islamic ethics begin with accountability before Allah and attend to long-term benefit to all. Early engagement allows us to establish principled frameworks for adoption while we can, instead of passively inheriting systems and practices shaped by others, then struggling to mitigate the harms once they arise. ### Is it Islamically permissible to use AI? Like any tool, it depends on how we use it. As a tool, AI can be used for its intended purpose, misused outside of its appropriate application, or abused with malicious intent. Therefore, the Islamic ruling on artificial intelligence is one of conditional permissibility. Contemporary scholars view it as permissible by default but subject to strict ethical guidelines and Islamic guardrails.[^4] --- ## How Yaqeen uses AI AI can take on work that is not feasible for humans to manage at scale. It can sift through hundreds of research papers in seconds, generating helpful summaries and FAQs based on our work. It can tailor content to the reader in real time, thus reaching people in the moments when it can have the greatest impact. At Yaqeen, we want AI to serve a clear and simple purpose: to make our teams more effective and focused on what matters most. AI should help scholars and creatives spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time engaging deeply with ideas that move people toward truth. ### Internal applications We are actively exploring and testing different ways of using AI, always with careful oversight. For instance, we’ve learned that AI can support the practical work that keeps Yaqeen running smoothly. One such example is accelerating routine administrative tasks, like summarizing meeting notes or formatting citations. In research, AI can act like an assistant that helps scholars work more efficiently. It can search through the growing corpus of classical Islamic texts to support deeper studies. For writers and editors, it can assist with refining drafts, adjusting tone, or simplifying language for different audiences. AI can also expand creative potential, acting as a sounding board for exploration or generating imagery and animation. ### External applications Just as AI can facilitate some of Yaqeen’s internal work, it can also help us serve our readers and viewers more meaningfully. These tools make it easier for people to find and engage with reliable Islamic knowledge that meets them where they are. One of the key ways this happens is through AQSA, Yaqeen’s AI assistant. AQSA helps users search across our library, answering common questions with referenced information drawn directly from verified Yaqeen research. It is designed to help visitors explore topics more efficiently, whether they are looking for a quick answer or a deeper study. AQSA does not provide rulings or personal religious advice. It simply helps users navigate our content with ease. AI also enables a more personalized experience. It helps us recommend the right content at the right time, seeking to tailor recommendations to the individual and increase impact. One person might benefit more from watching a quick video, while others might prefer longer-form academic material. This technology enables us to adapt our work into new formats, transforming in-depth research into an infographic or short video that preserves the same substance in a more broadly accessible form. We’re also able to reach diverse audiences, such as those who speak different languages or those who prefer various learning modalities. In addition to this, we’re exploring how to make verified Islamic content more visible in the tools people already use, ensuring that when someone asks questions about Islam on platforms like ChatGPT or Claude, they’re met with reliable information rooted in orthodox scholarship. --- ## Ethical risks and guardrails Over the past year at Yaqeen, we have become more deliberate in how we engage with digital tools. That commitment led us to begin auditing the platforms we rely on for complicity in the genocide in Gaza. We have already transitioned away from two platforms and continue reassessing every partnership through the same ethical lens. The following sections outline the key issues we are actively considering. ### Data privacy In a time when personal data is often treated as a commodity, we see it as an *amana* (trust). Our sole purpose for collecting analytics is to serve you better—to understand how to deliver the right content to the right person at the right moment. We believe that privacy is your right and are transparent about how we use the information provided through our website and mobile platforms,[^5] following established privacy standards. You can modify or erase your data at any time and we never sell your data to third parties. For personalization, all data is anonymized within our systems, and the information is used solely to improve experience and accessibility. ### Islamic noncompliance and AI slop AI can make work faster, but it can also make it careless. The same tools that help generate ideas and information can just as easily produce content that sounds convincing but is fabricated, inaccurate, or misleading. These systems learn from massive datasets built largely from the internet, reflecting the cultural assumptions and biases of those who created them. Because most of that data is Western and secular in origin, AI often carries blind spots about Islam and Muslims. Some models, for instance, have even failed to acknowledge real-world injustices, such as the persecution of Uyghur Muslims. AI’s polished tone can give the false impression of neutrality and authority, making its errors easy to trust. When applied to Islamic content, these flaws become far more serious. A model can misquote a hadith or strip a ruling of its context while sounding eloquent and confident. The harm here is not just academic; it touches faith and public understanding of Islam itself. At Yaqeen, the responsibility for truth always lies with people. AI can support our teams by speeding up work, but it does not make decisions or carry moral weight. Like a doctor using technology to diagnose patients more accurately or reach more people, the technology may assist, but the responsibility still lies with the doctor. Our team is responsible for verifying and assessing any AI-generated content before using it in any capacity. That accountability is reinforced through the Ihsan Assurance team, a group of Yaqeen scholars who examine every piece of content before publication. They ensure that each publication meets our standards of citation accuracy and scholarly rigor, aligns with Islamic principles, and reflects Yaqeen’s distinctive mission. ### Authorship attribution AI can produce content that looks and sounds like it was written by a person, making it harder to tell who is really behind the words. In Islamic scholarship, this matters deeply. Authorship is not just about producing material; it reflects intention and accountability before Allah. Passing off machine-generated work as human erodes trust and blurs responsibility for the content being taught or shared. At Yaqeen, every author takes full ownership of their work. AI may assist with tasks such as research support or editorial refinement, but the content and conclusions always come from the individual scholar or writer. This responsibility is positively affirmed by the author during the submission process. In multimedia production, the same standard applies. Yaqeen does not use AI to create realistic depictions of living people or imitate their voices (i.e., deepfakes). When AI-generated visuals are used, they are limited to artistic or contextual applications, such as background footage, where the use is clear and transparent. ### Copyright issues AI models are trained on vast amounts of copyrighted material without the explicit permission, credit, or compensation of the original human creators, whose livelihoods and intellectual property rights can then be undermined by the very systems their work made possible. Islamic ethics place a high value on fairness and the protection of property. We acknowledge that this raises important questions and creates a tension that cannot be fully resolved by our own practices alone, as true resolution requires systemic change in how AI companies operate. We are proceeding according to a conservative standard among peer practitioners in the field, and we will continue to review and refine our practices as guidance on these matters evolves. While legal debates about AI and copyright are still unfolding, our approach remains rooted in restraint. Our use of AI is limited to design and creative assistance, not as a source of content taken from others. In the emerging area of AI as a tool for Islamic research, we restrict our use to open-source datasets, such as al-Maktaba al-Shamela and OpenITI, and not the private work of any individual, while requiring authors to cite all sources clearly. ### Devaluation of human scholarship and spiritual disconnection As AI grows more capable, there is a legitimate fear that it could weaken the depth, reflection, and intellectual rigor that defines authentic Islamic scholarship. In the Islamic tradition, knowledge has never been an exercise in processing information; it is a moral and spiritual pursuit rooted in sincerity and realized through meaningful application. Knowledge should draw us closer to Allah. AI can process large amounts of information, but it cannot sense intention or emotion. It cannot understand personal context or grasp how a word of truth may guide one heart differently from another. When two men separately asked ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas whether someone who killed a believer could be forgiven, he gave two different answers. To the man he suspected was planning a murder, he said no, hoping to deter him. To the man who had already killed and sought forgiveness, he said yes, to encourage repentance.[^6] Imagine outsourcing this to a machine—such nuance and intuition would be lost entirely. At Yaqeen, we have clear boundaries. Our audience-facing AI helps people interact with our existing research and content, but it does not issue rulings or provide personal religious advice. It is not an AI mufti. Our scholars and editors remain fully responsible for every publication. The editorial team upholds standards of rigor in every publication we release. AI is treated as a tool that supports research, writing, and design, but it never substitutes scholarly thought or human insight that comes from years of study and reflection. Internally, Yaqeen invests in its people. *Tarbiya* sessions and mentorship promote the growth of scholars in both skill and spirituality. This foundation protects against overreliance on technology by strengthening the very thing AI can never replicate, the human heart. ### Environmental stewardship Among all the ethical challenges tied to artificial intelligence, its environmental cost may be the hardest to address. Every digital interaction depends on physical infrastructure that consumes energy and water. While data centers have powered the internet for decades, the growth of AI has increased their presence and multiplied the demand for electricity and cooling resources. These costs are largely invisible to the user but tangible for the planet and for the communities that host these facilities. As *khulafaʾ* (vicegerents) on earth, humans are entrusted to preserve harmony within creation: to use its resources sustainably and justly, never to hoard or destroy what Allah has provided. At the same time, complete abstinence from these systems is not realistic for any online institution. The same data centers that power AI also deliver every platform and video that helps Yaqeen reach audiences around the world. Withdrawing entirely would mean we are unable to access the very spaces people engage in today. AI is also not a single technology, but rather a broad spectrum of systems with largely different impacts. The tool that filters spam or recommends a video operates on a small scale, while training a large model like GPT-5 demands vast energy and resources. Treating all AIs as equal energy consumers obscures these differences. Islamic ethics call for discernment, evaluating each use by its necessity, benefit, and potential harm. Our task, therefore, is not to reject technology but to engage it responsibly, adopting what is necessary and beneficial while remaining conscious of its costs and guided by Islamic principles of balance and stewardship. For Yaqeen, this means engaging with generative AI only where it serves a clear and beneficial purpose. Our direct environmental footprint is small, yet our potential for positive influence, through education and scholarship, is far greater. We aim to advance Islamic awareness on environmental stewardship, building on our earlier research.[^7] This will also include upcoming work to develop *fiqh*\-based guidance and practical steps for responsible technology use. As always, we are committed to continued betterment, adapting and advancing our approach in light of emerging Islamic scholarship. --- ## Conclusion AI is already shaping how Islamic knowledge is accessed and impacting Muslim communities globally, and this influence is only set to deepen. Our framework at Yaqeen reflects a commitment to leading rather than reacting; our goal is not to resist technology by default, nor to embrace it without question, but to adopt it thoughtfully in a way that amplifies our mission. Both the technology and our understanding of its implications will continue to evolve. AI systems will grow more capable, new applications will emerge, and Islamic scholarly discourse on these matters will deepen. This blog represents our current approach using the best available knowledge today. It is not a final word. We remain committed to adapting our practices as Islamic guidance develops, as *fiqh* councils issue rulings, and as AI technologies themselves transform. We invite our Yaqeen community to engage critically with this topic. If you notice ways our AI offerings fall short of the principles outlined here, or if you have concerns about how AI is shaping the broader Islamic knowledge ecosystem, please get in touch with our team at [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/contact-us](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/contact-us&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240261302&usg=AOvVaw0ScVAqZRVUsAqqukBQo92H). --- ## Notes [^1]: Rebecca Bellan, “Sam Altman Says ChatGPT Has Hit 800M Weekly Active Users,” *TechCrunch*, October 6, 2025, [https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/06/sam-altman-says-chatgpt-has-hit-800m-weekly-active-users/.](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/06/sam-altman-says-chatgpt-has-hit-800m-weekly-active-users/.) [^2]: Mohamed AbuTaleb, Hidayath Ansari, Kenan Alkiek, Suleiman Hani, and Umer Khan, “Toward an Islamic Ethics (*Fiqh*) of Artificial Intelligence,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (forthcoming). [^3]: [Bethan McKernan](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/bethan-mckernan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240264691&usg=AOvVaw3sk79mMc1uh91E0COQdlh9), “‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets,” *The Guardian*, April 3, 2024, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes.](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes.) [^4]: Wakālat al-Anbāʾ as-Saʿūdiyyah (Saudi Press Agency). “عام / المجمع الفقهي الإسلامي يصدر قرارات وبيانات في عددٍ من القضايا والمستجدات في ختام دورته الـ 23” \[General / The Islamic Fiqh Academy Issues Resolutions and Statements on a Number of Issues and Developments at the Conclusion of its 23rd Session\], *Saudi Press Agency*, April 23, 2024, [https://www.spa.gov.sa/N2088120](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.spa.gov.sa/N2088120&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240266455&usg=AOvVaw2EMCSFImzkwdhPasoZxt9V). [^5]: “Privacy Policy,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, November 5, 2025, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/privacy-policy](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/privacy-policy&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240262074&usg=AOvVaw2aEpSe4uGru5sly9pTLApk); “Donor Privacy Policy,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, November 5, 2025, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/donor-privacy-policy](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/donor-privacy-policy&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240262397&usg=AOvVaw0n9vrxKDJtpDCG9R5bXLFT). [^6]: *Muṣannaf ibn Abī Shayba,* no. 27182. Ibn Ḥajar graded the hadith as *ḥasan*. Sufyān al-Thawrī used it as evidence that the ruling (*fatw*a) can be tailored to the individual’s situation and intent to prevent a sin or to encourage a person who already committed a sin to repent. [^7]: Afsan Redwan, “When the Earth Speaks Against Us: Environmental Ethics in Islam,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, September 20, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-the-earth-speaks-against-us-environmental-ethics-in-islam](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-the-earth-speaks-against-us-environmental-ethics-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240262994&usg=AOvVaw0oxHof34MtnSGGGmryuIL4); Rhamis Kent, “Saving Truth and Beauty: The Destruction of Nature and the Islamic Solution,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, August 29, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/saving-truth-and-beauty-the-destruction-of-nature-and-the-islamic-solution](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/saving-truth-and-beauty-the-destruction-of-nature-and-the-islamic-solution&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764623240263549&usg=AOvVaw26M5wILDse8rUSKefbHeFj). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-politics-of-representation-what-mamdanis-victory-means-for-muslims-in-america-and-beyond # The Politics of Representation: What Mamdani’s Victory Means for Muslims in America and Beyond Gauze, Prayers, and Healing Wounds: Finding Strength from Grief for Gaza **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** Islam in the West, Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Published:** December 1, 2025 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 As the right-wing tabloid [NY Post](https://nypost.com/2025/11/05/us-news/new-york-posts-cover-on-zohran-mamdani-election-sold-out-in-nyc-and-already-being-resold-on-e-bay/) would have you believe, the [Green-Red Alliance](https://nypost.com/2024/08/15/opinion/red-green-alliance-will-wreak-anti-jewish-havoc-first-at-the-dem-convention-then-on-campuses/) has succeeded in infiltrating US politics and is poised to impose Sharia Socialism on the hapless people of New York City, with Zohran Mamdani as the Communist Caliph in Chief. Others are hailing Mamdani’s victory as a fundamental shift in US politics, even a [fulfillment](https://globalmuslimlife.substack.com/p/from-malcolm-x-to-mamdani-125-years?source=queue) of [Malcolm X’s](https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/malcolm-x-mamdani-quest-justice-cannot-be-killed) legacy. In a heady fervor that is reminiscent of [Obama’s](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05text-obama.html) electoral triumph in 2008, it seems that for Muslims, “our time has come.” Or has it? Below is a rumination on what Mamdani’s victory means and doesn’t mean. --- ## 1\. Nothing will ever be the same Remember, if you can, the prospect of Palestinian liberation on October 6th, 2023. As Israel “[mowed the lawn](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2025.2506162)” in Gaza at regular intervals, the euphemistically named “[peace process](https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/11/1/the-madrid-conference-and-the-sham-peace-process)”—which Edward Said [rightly labeled](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n20/edward-said/the-morning-after) an instrument of surrender—ensured the [slow but inevitable](https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/6/6/edward-saids-spectre-and-the-end-of-oslo) annexation of the West Bank. The [right to return](https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2018/11/181106114236864.html) having essentially been abandoned by the Oslo Accords, Israel pursued a strategy of slow-drip genocide and ethnic cleansing as it simultaneously built soft power through political, economic, and cultural normalization. Every time you saw an Israeli contestant in [Eurovision](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yl89jp538o) or [Maccabi Haifa](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/21/police-intelligence-on-extreme-maccabi-fans-with-history-of-violence-led-to-villa-park-ban) in the Champions League you could almost forget that Israel was an apartheid state or that the Nakba ever happened. Almost. With the Palestinian Authority eagerly serving as Israel’s enforcer—playing the role of Qarun to a tee—the final piece was Trump’s [Abraham Accords](https://al-shabaka.org/commentaries/arab-normalization-and-the-palestinian-struggle-for-liberation/), which seemed to doom Palestinian resistance and the dream of Palestinian liberation not to a spectacular defeat, but to irrelevance. The well-heeled Arab client states and their dictators [played](https://www.euronews.com/2025/06/12/egypt-blocks-activists-from-march-to-gaza-to-draw-attention-to-humanitarian-crisis) their [part](https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-jordan-israel-iran-war-united-states/a-72977996), ready to [negotiate](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israeli-Saudi-peace-deal) with the occupier behind the backs of Palestinians, at least as much as they thought their subjects would [tolerate](https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-saudi-crown-prince-said-he-fears-assassination-over-israel-normalization/). Even Norman Finkelstein [gave up](https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/emptying-gaza-w-norman-finkelstein). Two years later, support for Israel is *the* wedge issue reconfiguring both the political left and right in the United States. Zionist propaganda suddenly doesn’t seem to work despite the [inordinate amount of money](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2025-11-09/ty-article-magazine/.premium/losing-the-republican-base-israel-pours-millions-to-target-evangelicals-and-churchgoers/0000019a-540e-db4c-a5fb-dfafea590000) dumped into it, the strings of normalization are being cut one at a time, and Arab dictators, under renewed pressure, are hesitating and hedging. To complete the sense of whiplash, none other than Laura Loomer is calling to [end aid to Israel](https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1987871173569368376), in her own patently deranged way. On top of all this, the energy generated against Israel’s actions over the last two years shook New York City’s political machinery—infamous for its support of Israel—to the core. Mamdani’s march to victory rode this wave, enabled by his electrifying charisma, his uncanny ability to connect with local immigrant communities, and his contagious message of hope. Whether Mamdani intended it or not, whether he is a willing participant or not, his election is a small part of the ongoing ummatic struggle for dignity and self-determination which has been carried forward for generations by courageous and faithful scholars, leaders, and the people of Palestine. Things are moving fast; it seems like history is being made every month. The dominoes keep falling one after another. We are still living in the wave generated by the strength and resilience of Gaza, and no one knows exactly how high the water will rise. --- ## 2\. Zionism lost, mostly Mamdani’s victory both symbolizes and accelerates the fallout for Zionism and the collapse of US support of the Jewish-supremacist state occupying Palestine. Zionist billionaire Bill Ackman pledged back in June to [throw his fortune behind anyone](https://fortune.com/2025/06/26/bill-ackman-bankroll-nyc-mayoral-candidate-defeat-zohran-mamdani/) who could defeat Mamdani, inviting other members of the 1% to join him. He fulfilled his promise and then some. All told, over [$40 million](https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5600718/wall-street-zohran-mamdani-new-york-city-mayor) was [spent](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2025/10/24/anyone-but-mamdani-these-billionaires-are-spending-big-to-stop-him-from-becoming-nycs-mayor/) in an attempt to steal the New York mayoral election from the person who would ultimately prevail as the people’s choice. It wasn’t just moneyed interests that were involved in the conspiracy; it was specifically the Zionist contingent, which blew every dogwhistle and rang every alarm bell it could find to signal that Mamdani’s victory would pose [an existential](https://jewishmajority.org/a-rabbinic-call-to-action) [threat](https://nypost.com/2025/05/20/us-news/zhoran-mamdani-spews-antisemitic-tropes-falsely-claims-taxpayers-foot-the-bill-for-ny-pols-israel-trips/) to [Israel](https://www.jta.org/2025/10/22/politics/650-us-rabbis-sign-letter-opposing-zohran-mamdani-and-the-political-normalization-of-anti-zionism) and even [Jews themselves](https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/r1e76zpreg). All that money and effort has gone up in smoke. Perhaps worse for the Zionist movement is the fact that the [extremely public](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/blakeflayton/status/1937868357086171320?t%3D-_xummWJf-S9Oebi2zeu2Q%26s%3D07&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322149828&usg=AOvVaw2-Oz-3h3E2_ULtbTvAw4f0) and [unhinged](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/BriannaWu/status/1982344096380342625&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322150039&usg=AOvVaw0gDlECyleZ3dx5ZKWyQI51) manner in which they conducted themselves during the election deepened Americans’ suspicion that Israel and Zionists *do* have too much influence and control over US politics, despite their [resolute attempts to dismiss](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/zohran-mamdani-and-the-rhetoric-of-red-lines/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322150765&usg=AOvVaw10vBkbqqnTDOmUS-pzwih3) this [naked fact](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D74ZA-GdeQP4&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322150919&usg=AOvVaw3ZFAY5i0AVmXnOEqapTCZg) as an [antisemitic conspiracy](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/Zionist-Occupied-Government&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322151103&usg=AOvVaw07ZoK7gcoYEnl3EQ_AnUvd). All this means that Zionism continues to hemorrhage credibility and cannot be taken seriously anymore as the putatively innocuous desire for [Jewish](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://awiderbridge.org/zionism/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322151612&usg=AOvVaw1N5zkLWksHKqa7vRAeyf2U) “[self-determination](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://awiderbridge.org/zionism/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322151756&usg=AOvVaw3Lqvm_2rzUFkxWLzLMfSzG)” in their “[traditional homeland](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/zionism&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322151929&usg=AOvVaw0enlAoCSvOQ3b4HDB6kinW).”  Zionism has exposed itself throughout this election, throughout the Gaza Holocaust, and indeed throughout its entire lifespan as a [psychotic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/israel-constantly-stretches-the-ceasefire-rules-because-thats-what-israelis-do-81b755dffa28&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322152385&usg=AOvVaw2KEe4t2IlbUMZSoSO5W_uJ), supremacist, genocidal movement that holds nothing sacred but itself and follows no rules but its own. The absolute drubbing that Mamdani’s opponents received on election day means that Zionism’s influence and thus support is seriously vulnerable, another fact that Zionists are loath to admit but increasingly forced to in an attempt to rally its stalwarts. Politicians—being transactional, opportunist creatures by default—could potentially abandon Israel entirely if association with the Zionist lobby [continues to trend negative](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5559354-seth-moulton-aipac-contributions/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322153523&usg=AOvVaw3ve6PcJ0BLtE45vmMY36Mi), a reality that even the disgraced [Alan Dershowitz recently admitted](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ynetnews.com/article/syr4ogljze&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322153762&usg=AOvVaw2W1m9ewHb38cFrM5NprqIY). Zionism *is* a sinking ship, but is the collapse inevitable? Not so fast; there were other elections that took place on November 4th, and Zionism did not resoundingly lose from coast to coast. The anti-Zionist [Omar Fateh lost his bid for mayor of Minneapolis](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkmfl00fjzx&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322154513&usg=AOvVaw0kIeVT_2rJwg0TpoeTDOQm), much to the relief of Zionists. The victories of centrist Democrats Mikie Sherrill (NJ) and Abigail Spanberger (VA) are no cause for great celebration; both women appear cautious and calculated on Palestine, earning them [failing](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ajpaction.org/democratic-scorecard/mikie-sherrill/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322155053&usg=AOvVaw2fd65WSHEu5Bu9zUt1L-4t) [grades](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ajpaction.org/democratic-scorecard/abigail-spanberger/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322155214&usg=AOvVaw2iIVE4sQsJntC6eDCQLDxE) from pro-Palestinian groups like AJP Action as well as [criticism](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jewishinsider.com/2025/08/sam-rasoul-abigail-spanberger-anti-israel-rhetoric-virginia-democrat/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322155520&usg=AOvVaw37dvOcQryHrs9_hiCLL2Hb) from [Zionist](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-nj-governors-race-democrat-beats-gop-rival-whose-aide-spurned-money-from-jews/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322155765&usg=AOvVaw1h706tsYT-3dPhGSdhe9gS) [groups](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jewishlink.news/rep-mikie-sherrill-is-failing-the-test-on-israel-and-antisemitism/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322155951&usg=AOvVaw3vrNLUjSX4L-ziJ0-Rc06B). In other words, the cracks are showing but the dam hasn’t broken yet. This sets up a showdown of enormous significance in the coming 2026 midterm primaries. Opposing Zionist candidates with pro-Palestinian ones will be a top priority for Muslims, and the results will either pull the plug on Zionist influence or else give it a lifeline. --- ## 3\. Substance over symbol (insha'Allah) The next major takeaway from the NYC mayoral race was the resonance of Mamdani’s laser-focus on tangible issues such as affordability despite his opponents’ best efforts to shift to more symbolic terrain. While Cuomo, Adams, and Sliwa relied on vilifying Mamdani alternatively as [ISIS](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/i/trending/1985748958107279503&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322157788&usg=AOvVaw2c0GFghT3fmcCxTDMzX0Qz)’s or [Stalin](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2025/07/02/opinion/kasparov-in-the-ussr-i-saw-how-mamdanis-socialism-can-destroy-a-country/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322158006&usg=AOvVaw0mRLHs6EIyIxGJU2ISP4l0)’s preferred candidate, Mamdani discussed [rent freezes, expanding public transportation, and food security](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/nycs-new-mayor-what-zohran-mamdanis-win-means-for-your-rent-commute-and-city-owned-grocery-stores-110525&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322158413&usg=AOvVaw0v4AyQGzIM_1b-7wWF5bd2). “There isn’t a moment where we didn’t notice the Islamophobia,” Zara Rahim, a senior adviser on Mamdani’s campaign, [told](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/what-zohran-mamdanis-bid-for-mayor-reveals-about-being-muslim-in-america&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322158886&usg=AOvVaw0NiL75nw2urIbJCYQG3Vit) The New Yorker’s Rozina Ali. “But we have extensive message disciplining. We will talk about affordability until your ears bleed.” When it was clear that no one could beat Mamdani outright, his opponents resorted to sabotage, [planting misinformation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-truth-about-zohran-mamdani/a-74616614&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322159692&usg=AOvVaw0jKQm70GN7uD62jY7jNwDb) about his position on prostitution, even assuming the role of mufti by [calling it haram](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/andrew-cuomo-bigotry-mamdani/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322160017&usg=AOvVaw3dkv-2yd_rUOxZauk5XYO5) in an attempt to keep Muslim voters home. However, the politics of fear and cynicism were obliterated by simply having a vision—even if flawed and deeply contested—as well as speaking to almost universal pain points that New Yorkers from virtually every background feel. Mamdani’s opponents never really offered an alternative vision, instead relying on [catastrophic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/23/andrew-cuomo-suggests-mamdani-would-cheer-future-terror-attack-00620620&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322161064&usg=AOvVaw0RKuIYOO-a1tpVU5_2Vxf7) [doomsday scenarios](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/nyc-mayor-adams-backs-cuomo-citing-mamdanis-stance-on-call-to-globalize-the-intifada/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322161270&usg=AOvVaw1RDdMYKe75OrOWQ2lFjJ9c) of what would happen if Mamdani won. The fact that scare tactics lost out to substance is encouraging. In the heyday of legacy media, the symbolic register and fear-mongering were virtually all people were exposed to, asserting a monopoly on determining what “the issues” were and what people should care about or be scandalized by. Now, social media provides an opportunity for disrupting that monopoly by accessing audiences directly. Even with shadow-banning and algorithm manipulation, the speed of internet culture and the money to be made on virality keep the people one step ahead of the gatekeepers. This shift from legacy to social media was at play during one of the most memorable moments of the campaign, when [Mamdani refused to say he would visit Israel](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.instagram.com/reels/DKjnZmtPcGE/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322162859&usg=AOvVaw1ts5jYkxuIku8uMncIR8Lb) or even answer which nation he would visit first as the new mayor, instead stressing his intent to stay local and focus on New Yorkers. In previous eras the affected indignation of the debate moderators would be echoed in the traditional mass media, who would dutifully return to the narrative over and over, signaling to the audience that a scandal was afoot. In today’s more democratized media landscape, the disingenuous nature of the question and the questioner was highlighted all across social media, aligning people even further with the anti-establishment dimensions of Mamdani’s campaign. The power of substance over symbol is also a poignant reminder for Muslims specifically. Muslims are on a short list of groups who have been most targeted by coordinated smear campaigns and propaganda. [Drop Site News](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/leaked-israel-reputation-survey-research-mark-penn-stagwell&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322164554&usg=AOvVaw04jmpCo38EsuA4X3-Cqqi3) has [leaked](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DPlW9ry-QRck&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322164712&usg=AOvVaw3cDxLpMmji_nHBFxPd-grf) that Israel has data to back up what we already knew anecdotally—that tying Islam and Muslims to terrorism is the single most effective messaging to claw back sympathy for Israel… or at least terminate the political will to stand in their way. As Caitlin Johnstone has said, “[Zionists push Islamophobia because it’s easier than getting people to like Israel](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/zionists-push-islamophobia-because?utm_source%3Dsubstack%26utm_medium%3Demail&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322165533&usg=AOvVaw3D-51aJSeRuAAGuBF9dtyp).” Muslims must respond by not just exposing the misinformation, which is important, but also by providing substance to their communities and society at large. That includes articulating a vision of shared flourishing that resonates with the pain points of the large swath of the population. With [SNAP benefits being cut](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/12/snap-benefits-government-shutdown-negotiations.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322166390&usg=AOvVaw2M7D1bck_O-XAzUo-1OgBN) and a dysfunctional healthcare system plunging people into [crippling debt](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/scheinman-institute/blog/john-august-healthcare/healthcare-insights-how-medical-debt-crushing-100-million-americans&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322166729&usg=AOvVaw2mV7tOwrlgKseJBO2ADlzp), Muslims should rise to fill these gaps in solidarity and with mutual aid. At a national scale, our vision must be bipartisan or non-partisan, perhaps something combining Ian Carroll’s idea of “Team God”—a nonpartisan movement of faith-based, morality-minded people—with the growing calls for the left to abandon its misadventure into the culture wars and [get back to focusing on socioeconomic issues](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://unherd.com/2024/03/the-american-left-abandoned-unions/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322167614&usg=AOvVaw3aa5Cyn4vdBxZ-x5lm5vCF). Of course, in addition to having and articulating a compelling vision, we have to roll up our sleeves and do the work. --- ## 4\. Representation as narcotic Finally, Muslims should note that Mamdani’s platform is firmly rooted in the progressive left, including stances on gender and sexuality that do not line up with Islamic teachings. But politics is rarely a clean match with our ideals, and communities often end up backing candidates who can at least prevent imminent harm or move the needle in their favor. Nonetheless, we should remember that Mamdani’s victory satisfies the aesthetic representation of many Muslims—which does have *some* value—but not the representation of universal Islamic values and principles that observant Muslims hold dear. Muslims need to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the Obama era, in which Obama’s aesthetic appeal laundered his surveillance apparatus and war crimes, crimes which earned him the moniker [the King of Drones](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/obama-legacy/drone-program-strikes.html). Aesthetic representation loses its meaning when it is conscripted to perpetuate evil. Intersectional oppression is still oppression. Overidentification with Mamdani will similarly lead to disappointment, disillusionment, and ultimately disempowerment. We must hold Mamdani accountable and oppose him concerning what we disagree with, not keep quiet because he is “one of our own.” Allah says, "O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives" (Qur’an 4:135). The goal is not to simply get more Muslims into office or positions of power. We don’t want Muslims in power who are going to normalize evil. Neither power nor representation are ends in themselves; they are means by which a vision is achieved and values are institutionalized. For all we know, Mamdani might end up betraying the principles that generated his impressive grassroots support. According to some activists, [he already has](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/politics/mamdani-business-leaders-meeting-new-york&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1764622322173097&usg=AOvVaw0gt-SifFsWCUAOjAwJ7JPM). Knowing that Mamdani is not our savior, but a metric of our community’s growing political power and organization, should take the sting out of that possibility. Regardless, this should not deprive us of a moment of joy. Allah outlines an instructive scenario in the beginning of Surah al-Rum, "The Byzantines have been defeated in the nearest land. But they, after their defeat, will be victorious within three to nine years. To Allah belongs the command before and after. And that day the believers will rejoice" (Qur’an 30:2–4). The Byzantines were no friend to the Muslims… in fact, the two sides engaged in periodic warfare over the course of four centuries. But at the particular time in which the above verses were revealed, Persia was the bigger and more immediate threat. While the enemy of our enemy might not be our friend, we are allowed to celebrate their victory and what it means for the advancement of our own cause. Perhaps Mamdani will divest New York City from Israel and arrest Netanyahu at JFK international airport, perhaps he won’t. Either way, Muslims must keep it moving. The ongoing ummatic struggle—grounded in steadfastness, principled resistance, and justice—this is what should define the moral narrative we align ourselves with. And unlike the supremacist logic of Zionism, our struggle and our vision is not predicated upon the eradication or subjugation of others; rather, it is based on divinely-bestowed values that facilitate the true flourishing of all. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/prophetic-solutions-for-financial-uncertainty-cultivating-baraka-resilience-and-peace-of-heart-essay # Prophetic Solutions for Financial Uncertainty: Cultivating Baraka, Resilience, and Peace of Heart | Essay **Authors:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar, Anna Birawi **Topics:** Faith, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Prophetic Cure **Published:** November 20, 2025 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 ## Living through economic whiplash Last winter, after his usual nine-to-five job, a young father in Michigan found himself taking on extra work driving for food delivery apps late into the night. Prices had climbed, his rent had doubled, and he was still trying to keep his kids warm in a drafty apartment. “I’m doing everything right,” he said, “but it feels like the ground keeps shifting under me.” For many households across the United States, paychecks no longer stretch as far as they once did, and many find themselves moonlighting as a part of the ever-growing gig economy. Groceries cost more, rent keeps rising, and every headline about inflation, layoffs, or government shutdowns seems to tighten the chest a little more. The weight of uncertainty is present in daily life. Economic turbulence is now one of the defining realities of our time. Financial crises, market instability, and even government shutdowns have become familiar events with global consequences. When economies slow, individuals and families feel it directly, through job loss, shrinking income, mounting debt, delayed payments, and growing anxiety about the future. For those who rely on public programs or government support, instability can be especially distressing. Temporary shutdowns pause wages for public employees, suspend food and housing assistance, and erode safety nets that many depend on. Research consistently shows that these disruptions heighten both financial strain and psychological distress, especially among families already near the poverty line.[^1]Beyond lost income, such hardship often weighs heavily on mental and physical health, increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and exhaustion.[^2] Yet amid this uncertainty, Islam offers not distant ideals but steady companionship. The Qur’an and Sunnah provide a moral and spiritual framework that grounds believers in turbulent times: We learn how trust in Allah, gratitude, generosity, and community care can transform anxiety into resilience and hardship into *baraka.* --- ## Recognizing the nature of rizq: Effort and trust For anyone watching their savings dwindle or waiting for a paycheck that never arrives, it can be difficult to believe that sustenance is already written for you. Yet the foundation of Islamic guidance on financial hardship begins with this truth: *rizq*, our provision, comes from Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If the son of Adam were to flee from his provision as he flees from death, his provision would surely reach him just as death will reach him.”[^3] This teaching dismantles the illusion that our livelihoods are entirely self-made. Modern economies often place productivity and personal control at the center of success, but Islam situates provision within divine wisdom. The Qur’an reminds us that Allah “extends provision for whom He wills and restricts it” (Q. 30:37). Recognizing that *rizq* ultimately rests in Allah’s hands reframes how we respond to hardship. Instead of viewing financial struggle as personal failure, we begin to see it as part of a divine rhythm—seasons of ease and difficulty through which our patience, humility, and gratitude are refined. This awareness steadies the heart: We keep striving, but we stop believing that every fluctuation in our bank account defines our worth or our future.[^4] This understanding is not a call to passivity but to purposeful effort. The believer is commanded to work, seek lawful income, and plan responsibly, while also acknowledging that results belong to the One who provides. This equilibrium between striving and trust cultivates serenity in times of instability. The Prophet ﷺ described this balance through the concept of *[tawakkul](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-hardship-and-in-ease-how-to-rely-on-god&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890476828&usg=AOvVaw0E-P75ffXe9bMaXbr9IqSK)*: reliance upon Allah that coexists with intentional effort. Interestingly, modern psychology now affirms that such trust—accepting what is beyond one’s control—reduces anxiety and strengthens resilience in uncertain times. --- ## The inner economy of contentment Many of us know the quiet fear that bills won’t be paid or that security could vanish overnight. For some, that fear has already become reality. Jobs lost, savings gone, assistance delayed. These moments of scarcity can feel unbearable, yet they also strip away illusions about what truly sustains us. They expose how fragile worldly measures of success are and how dependent our peace of mind can become on numbers in a bank account. The Prophet ﷺ spoke directly to this struggle when he said, “Whoever makes the world his greatest concern, Allah will place poverty between his eyes and will scatter his affairs, and he will receive nothing of this world except what was decreed for him. But whoever makes the Hereafter his intention, Allah will gather his affairs, place richness in his heart, and the world will come to him unwillingly.”[^5] This hadith holds both spiritual and psychological truth. Financial fear can create the illusion of constant scarcity, even when our basic needs are met. Behavioral research calls this the *scarcity mindset*: a state where worry over resources narrows attention and drains emotional energy.[^6] Islam does not dismiss that fear but gently redirects it. When deprivation exposes how little control we truly have, faith offers a new way of seeing: What we lack in possession can be replaced with clarity, resilience, and purpose.[^7] The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Richness does not mean having many possessions, but richness is the richness of the soul.”[^8] He prayed, “O Allah, make the provision of the family of Muhammad sufficient for their needs.”[^9] These words remind us that prosperity in Islam is not about abundance, but about sufficiency—having enough to live with dignity and gratitude. Modern research echoes this timeless principle: Once basic needs are met, additional wealth brings diminishing returns to happiness.[^10] For those in genuine hardship, this is not a call to romanticize poverty or accept injustice. Islam commands believers and societies alike to fight inequity and to support one another through *zakat*, *sadaqa*, and compassionate institutions. Yet faith also reveals something within hardship itself: When scarcity narrows our options, it can illuminate how much less we actually need to survive, and how much strength, creativity, and generosity still remains in the world. The Qur’an counsels, “Eat and drink, but do not be excessive. Indeed, He does not love those who commit excess” (Q. 7:31). In times of ease, this verse restrains indulgence; in times of struggle, it dignifies simplicity. True contentment (*qanaʿa*) is not denial of need but acceptance that what Allah has decreed, however limited, still carries wisdom and mercy. By reframing richness as spiritual steadiness rather than surplus, Islam restores hope to those navigating financial difficulty. It reminds us that even when our means are tight, our worth is not reduced; our provision may narrow, but Allah’s care does not. --- ## Kinship, gratitude, and giving The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever would like his provision to be increased and his lifespan extended should uphold the ties of kinship.”[^11] This teaching reminds us that material blessings are intimately tied to social responsibility. Wealth and well-being are not sustained in isolation but flourish through connection, care, and compassion. Economic hardship can make people feel isolated, exhausted, or unsure of where to turn. Yet Islam calls us toward community, encouraging us to reach out and support one another even in difficult times. Modern research confirms this wisdom: Individuals with strong family and social networks recover more quickly from financial losses and show greater emotional resilience.[^12] [Gratitude](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude-the-secret-of-happiness-in-the-modern-world&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890481003&usg=AOvVaw0HoEMFEOrhTlwSxg46SYkW) and generosity, too, have measurable benefits for mental health, fostering a sense of purpose, contentment, and hope. The Prophet ﷺ also said, “The upper hand is better than the lower hand. The upper hand is the one that gives, and the lower hand is the one that takes.”[^13] Giving is not a depletion of resources; it is a source of empowerment.[^14] Studies on charitable spending show that even modest acts of sharing increase happiness and reduce anxiety, including among those with limited means.[^15] Periods of economic instability, often accompanied by austerity measures, reduced public benefits, or interruptions in government programs, can leave many families particularly vulnerable. Research from North America and Europe shows that cuts to welfare and delays in social assistance increase food insecurity, heighten depression, and in some cases, contribute to preventable tragedies.[^16] The Prophetic model anticipated such vulnerabilities, institutionalizing compassion through zakat, *sadaqa*, and *[waqf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890482262&usg=AOvVaw2kMOOX9cHW5WR_hT8toujn)*. The Qur’an commands, “Cooperate in righteousness and piety” (Q. 5:2), transforming empathy into collective action. As a Muslim community, we are encouraged to both give and receive help through trusted institutions—whether local zakat funds, community *waqf* initiatives, or national relief platforms. Through gratitude, generosity, and kinship, believers cultivate *baraka*: the quiet, sustaining blessing that brings sufficiency to limited means. The Qur’an says, “And when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more. But if you are ungrateful, surely My punishment is severe’” (Q. 14:7). These virtues strengthen individual hearts while nurturing the entire community, creating stability even in times of hardship.[^17] When formal systems fall short, these principles empower believers to uphold justice through direct aid, advocacy, and mutual care. Consider the recent story of a local masjid that was one of the only institutions that responded to a mother in need of formula for her baby.[^18] Moments like these remind us of both how fragile life can be and how transformative even a single act of mercy is. Small gestures, like a neighbor sharing a meal, a friend offering financial guidance, or a community member checking in, multiply into ripples of care that sustain lives. Faith in this sense is both personal and communal. It teaches patience in the face of hardship while inspiring believers to lighten the burdens of others. Economic difficulty, then, is not solely an individual test but a shared moral responsibility that binds hearts together through compassion and service. By upholding kinship, expressing gratitude, and practicing generosity, we participate in a living, breathing network of care. While this might seem paradoxical, the collective benefit of these measures strengthens both the soul and the community, and brings lasting *baraka* even amid scarcity. --- ## Faithful economics in uncertain times Financial instability is part of the human story. Markets rise and fall, currencies weaken, and institutions falter. Yet the believer’s confidence remains anchored in the constancy of divine mercy. The Qur’an promises, “Whoever places his trust in Allah, He is sufficient for him” (Q. 65:3). The Prophetic model offers not only guidance for enduring hardship but a vision for transforming it. Believers are called to work with integrity, maintain family ties, give in charity, and live with moderation and gratitude. Through these practices, they cultivate both practical resilience and spiritual depth. Even when worldly safety nets unravel, the mercy of Allah continues to hold. Faith does not erase uncertainty, it teaches us how to stand within it, with trust, balance, and hope that every test carries the seed of *baraka*. --- ## Notes [^1]: Marianne Bitler and Hilary Hoynes, “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same? The Safety Net and Poverty in the Great Recession,” *Journal of Labor Economics* 34, no. S1 (2016), [https://www.doi.org/10.1086/683096](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.doi.org/10.1086/683096&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890485965&usg=AOvVaw0omY_L9dhRulde9_SNJWAt); Emily C. Dore  et al., “The Long-Term Health Effects of Welfare Reform,” *Social Science and Medicine* 371 (2025), [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117878](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117878&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890486215&usg=AOvVaw1zK-fhan1kLyUke5t51uP1). [^2]: Kien H. Ng et al., “The Global Economic Crisis: Effects on Mental Health and What Can Be Done,” *Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine* 106, no. 6 (2013): 211–14, [https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076813481770](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076813481770&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890486549&usg=AOvVaw2ccFOf28KedpvRX5BpUs8l); Marco Angrisani et al., “The Effect of Housing Wealth Losses on Spending in the Great Recession,” *Economic Inquiry* 57, no. 2 (2019): 972–96, [https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12753](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12753&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890486811&usg=AOvVaw0csjITVmaWghEjBZ3qwbo-). [^3]: *Ḥilyat al-awliyā’*, no. 7/90. Graded *ḥasan* (fair) according to al-Albānī. [^4]: See: Anna Birawi, “What Are We Worth? Redefining Muslim Value with Dignity and Honor,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, February 11, 2025, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/what-are-we-worth-redefining-muslim-value-with-dignity-and-honor-blog](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/what-are-we-worth-redefining-muslim-value-with-dignity-and-honor-blog&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890485577&usg=AOvVaw2LFw1YqWJafjKH50msNFqF). [^5]: *Sunan Ibn Māja,* no. 4105. [^6]: Anandi Mani et al., “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function,” *Science* 341, no. 6149 (2013): 976–80, [https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890490076&usg=AOvVaw35918Ir7ePPVg9ZZwdTYie). [^7]: Read: Osman Umarji, “Psychology of Wealth: An Islamic Perspective on Personal Finance,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, July 1, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/psychology-of-wealth-an-islamic-perspective-on-personal-finance](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/psychology-of-wealth-an-islamic-perspective-on-personal-finance&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890489810&usg=AOvVaw3tvKFl__Z47WlYO6XNFM5B). [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6446; *Ṣaḥīḥ* *Muslim*, no. 1051. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6460. [^10]: Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, “High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but Not Emotional Well-Being,” *PNAS* 107, no. 38 (2010): 16489–93, [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890488846&usg=AOvVaw3sqm_xvDJPZx0A5kr2p3SR). [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5986; *Ṣaḥīḥ* *Muslim*, no. 2557. [^12]: Julianne Holt-Lunstad et al., “Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review,” *PLOS Medicine* 7, no. 7 (2010), [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890487887&usg=AOvVaw3aO14aImXu5NiRvhwwQCDu). [^13]: *Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn*, no. 296. [^14]: The Prophet said, “Charity does not decrease wealth, no one forgives another except that Allah increases his honor, and no one humbles himself for the sake of Allah except that Allah raises his status” (*Ṣaḥīḥ* *Muslim*, no. 2588). [^15]: Elizabeth W. Dunn et al., “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness,” *Science* 319, no. 5870 (2008): 1687–88, [https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890488252&usg=AOvVaw1sA3blZjWvNjHHYptiBTwW); Garam Kim et al., “Prosocial Spending Encourages Happiness: A Replication of the Only Experiment Reported in Dunn, Aknin, and Norton,” *PLOS ONE* 17, no. 9 (2022), [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272434](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272434&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890488552&usg=AOvVaw0SMZXNLsua5_ObiMUQCczK). [^16]: Ben Barr et al., “Suicides Associated with the 2008–10 Economic Recession in England: Time Trend Analysis,” *BMJ* 345 (2012), [https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e5142](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e5142&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890489441&usg=AOvVaw0q-zN5O_p-IGU7bbhIgymO). [^17]: For more, watch: Mufti Abdul Rahman, “Expanding and Blessing Your Wealth,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, April 19, 2020, [https://youtu.be/19r0DidFNlY?si=w8ljxa8B301frXaY](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/19r0DidFNlY?si%3Dw8ljxa8B301frXaY&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890490338&usg=AOvVaw0_x7R8UcUWNHtBWqiA96nJ). [^18]: Marni Rose McFall, “Woman Asks Churches If They Will Feed Starving Baby—The Response is Shocking,” *Newsweek*, November 10, 2025, [https://www.newsweek.com/nikalie-monroe-church-call-experiment-starving-child-poverty-snap-benefits-11022815](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newsweek.com/nikalie-monroe-church-call-experiment-starving-child-poverty-snap-benefits-11022815&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890490710&usg=AOvVaw38cFq5YKQ52CxA_fqWWVIl); Jen Cardone, “Viral TikTok Experiment Highlights Charlotte Mosque’s Generosity,” *Queen City News*, November 11, 2025, [https://www.qcnews.com/charlotte/viral-tiktok-experiment-highlights-charlotte-mosques-generosity/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.qcnews.com/charlotte/viral-tiktok-experiment-highlights-charlotte-mosques-generosity/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1763656890491012&usg=AOvVaw18VuYdbVcOgRo-TIEohJbb). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/love-and-hate-for-gods-sake-revisiting-the-doctrine-of-al-wala-wal-bara # Love and Hate for God’s Sake: Revisiting the Doctrine of al-Wala’ wal-Bara’ **Author:** Dr. Hatem al-Haj **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** November 7, 2025 **Updated:** June 10, 2026 *In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful* Properly reconciling commitment to God and compassion for man is among the most pressing needs of today’s world. It is no secret that Muslims’ relationship with the “other” (including fellow believers of other theological orientations) has become such a major trial for many*—*particularly those hailing from the Western world[^1]*—*that it risks eroding the sweetness of their faith, or even pushing them away from it. The Islamic doctrine of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*, often translated as loyalty and disavowal, has the power to remedy this conflict—if and when accurately defined. The equilibrium it achieves between obedience to God and compassion to mankind attests to Islam’s inherently balanced moral philosophy. This paper is the first in a series of papers that unpack the concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*, beginning with an exposition of Islam’s ethos of “love” and “hate” as established in its revealed scriptures and scholastic tradition. Subsequent papers will go on to explore, in detail, how this concept should inform our actions towards and understanding of “others” on an individual and global scale. I pray that this endeavor helps to illustrate the coherence of Islam’s ethical framework, and the unique way it balances different virtues. --- ## How should al-wala’ wal-bara’ be defined? *Walaʾ* (or *al-walaʾ*) is commonly translated as loyalty or allegiance. At its core, *al-walaʾ* is about proximity (closeness) to something or someone. It connotes support, friendship, and love.[^2] *Baraʾ* (or *al-baraʾ*) is commonly translated as disavowal or disassociation. It has the same root as *bariʾ* (being innocent of) and *baraʾa* (to recover, as from an illness).[^3] This etymology helps us understand some of the term’s meanings. Essentially, *al-baraʾ* is about disassociating oneself from someone or something undesirable. It does not necessarily entail hostility or dislike. *Al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* is sometimes (liberally) translated as “love and hate,” following from the idea that love and hate are the basis of loyalty and disavowal. In the context of Islam, the concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* can be understood as both loyalty to what pleases Allah (loving for His sake) and disassociation from what displeases Him (hating for His sake). God is at the center of existence and our consciousness, and therefore it’s natural to love what He loves and to hate what He hates—to seek that which reflects His divine qualities, and to eschew that which does not. An integral aspect of *tawhid* (Islamic monotheism) is the decentering of the ego. If God is the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Good, then even our feelings should be mindful of Him and accord with His pleasure. Different derivations of the terms *al-walaʾ* *wal-baraʾ—*as well as the concept of loving and hating for God’s sake*—*are established throughout the Qur’an.[^4] Two of the most well-known verses in this regard are, > You will not find a people who believe in Allah and the Last Day having affection for those who \[viciously\][^5] oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred.[^6] > O you who have believed, do not take as allies those who have taken your religion in ridicule and amusement among the ones who were given the Scripture before you, nor the disbelievers. And fear Allah, if you should \[truly\] be believers.[^7] *Al-walaʾ* *wal-baraʾ* is also suggested by the authenticated speech of the Prophet ﷺ. “Be kind to your \[pagan\] mother,”[^8] he ﷺ instructed, and in a different instance he affirmed, “There is a reward for serving any living being.”[^9] The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Whoever loves for Allah, hates for Allah, gives for Allah, and withholds for Allah has perfected their faith.”[^10] The concept of *al-walaʾ* *wal-baraʾ,* in its original iteration, makes piety the primary object of the believer’s loyalty—not race, ethnicity, kinship, nationality, language, class, or politics. It proclaims goodness as the ultimate differentiator. Allah says, > O humankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.[^11] As for color and language, they are simply signs of the Lord’s magnificence. Allah says, “And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and colors. Indeed, in these are signs for those of knowledge.”[^12] In essence, *al-walaʾ* *wal-baraʾ* weakens all tribal prejudices without invalidating other types of human affiliation—such as kinship or nationality—and seamlessly weaves them together into a harmonious worldview. It does this by establishing Islam as the most noble source of affiliation, but not one that operates outside the larger framework of God’s pervasive mercy and the singular Adamic origins of the human family. That is why Muslims who prioritize religion are not as divided by other factors, such as ethnicity[^13] or political ideology, let alone matters as trivial as one’s favorite sports team. The genocide in Gaza is a significant case in point. Not only has it sparked a revival of the Muslim *ummah*’s collective consciousness, it has reoriented bloc voting habits across the US and UK around ummatic concerns.[^14] The doctrine of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* even serves, as will be discussed later, to purge religious bigotry by treating human consciousness as both a transcendent ego and a bundle of intentional acts. It calls every Muslim to ally themselves with goodness, regardless of its agent, because our ultimate allegiance to God signifies an ultimate allegiance to goodness. The terms *al-walaʾ* and *al-baraʾ* each have over twenty usages. Their polysemic nature, as well as the potential vastness of their applications across all areas of relational life, makes their disambiguation and contextualization exceedingly important. We need not be philosophers of language like Ludwig Wittgenstein to grasp that language derives much of its meaning from its contextual use, and thus using an expression in a “language game” where it does not belong necessitates its misinterpretation.[^15] If context is required to comprehend a word’s intended meaning even within a single language, then context is evermore consequential when translating from one language, and indeed one worldview, to another. This not only complicates communicating the concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* to non-Muslims, but even to Muslims, unless we make a conscious effort to engage with and reconstruct the worldview of the Prophet ﷺ and the righteous predecessors. Therefore, careful analysis of the pertinent scriptural and historical accounts is essential for a proper understanding of our tradition, even if it is vast and varied. Moreover, given the perpetual [renewal of](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003641544&usg=AOvVaw0MjTtsBFDr8QBCWciSaRUR) *[ijtih](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003641662&usg=AOvVaw36PNNAS8KHmw1QXXNkYokp)[a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003641737&usg=AOvVaw352GuwfLEG27ODCMsDGauH)[d](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003641867&usg=AOvVaw0konFSqVXer5tG0DiT-DHX)*, we should expect that, unlike matters of creed, the rulings of proper conduct between people of different theological orientations and religious affiliations will vary across time and space. --- ## Is the concept of al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ exclusive to Islam? The notion of loving and hating for the sake of God is not alien to other religious traditions. For example, while some Christians claim that unconditional love is the ethos of their religion, Christian pastors of different backgrounds have amassed hundreds of Biblical verses that suggest otherwise. A simple online search for “Does God love everyone?” is sufficient to demonstrate this point,[^16] but some examples include: > And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and *therefore I* ***abhorred*** *them*.[^17] > The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou ***hatest*** all workers of iniquity.[^18] > > All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for *there I* ***hated*** *them*: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, ***I will love them no more***: all their princes are revolters.[^19] Many Christian pastors have exhorted their congregations to try to align their feelings with both God’s pleasure *and* displeasure*,* with both His love *and* His hate. In an article that asks *Does God Love Everyone?*, Pastor Nick Bibile writes, > If we tell the unbelievers that God intimately loves them, repentance is not needed, as God loves them anyway! But they say, “God loves the sinners but hates the sin.” If Jesus died for every single individual, then why is it that many are going to hell? Why is that the death of Jesus cannot save everyone in hell? Did he fail his mission, or did he come to save his people from their sins? (Matt. 1:21) > John 3:36 \[says:\] He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him… Some say, God loves the sinner but hates the sin. It does not say that in scripture, but the scripture says just the opposite. Ps. 7:11 \[says:\] God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.[^20] Evidently, notwithstanding the appeal to differing scriptural sources, there is little semantic difference between the concepts presented by Pastor Bibile and those presented by many Muslim preachers. Another tangible example of this similarity can be found in the acclaimed saying of Prophet Jesus (as): “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”[^21] This instruction strongly resonates with the Islamic ethic of forgiving our oppressors, as Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Reconcile with those who cut you off, give to those who deprive you, and forgive those who wrong you.”[^22] Neither prophet preached loving sinners unconditionally. Christians must look to how Jesus (as) “loved” the Pharisees and fraudulent money changers, and how he will “love them” in the Second Coming. The Greek word used by the Gospel writers, *agape* (love/goodwill), is distinct from other types of love like *eros* (romance) or *philia* (fraternity).[^23] In other words, the kind of love reserved for sinners is one of goodwill and prayer rather than one of unconditional acceptance. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ epitomized this type of love when he prayed for the pagans of al-Taʾif after they set their children on him with taunts and stones, filling his shoes with blood and chasing him out of the city. He epitomized such love again when he prayed for the pagans of Quraysh after they had wounded him by Mount Uhud, broken his tooth, and killed his beloved uncle and companions. However, some Christians fail to distinguish between the many dimensions of love and thus introduce tension between the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament. Jesus (as), rather than being a great messenger of God who came to remind us of the spiritual and moral underpinnings of the law while upholding it, instead becomes a denier of the law. This mild version of Marcionism—which holds the “benevolent God” of the Gospel to be different from the “malevolent creator” God of the Old Testament—is offensive to the very concept of a monotheistic God, His divinity, and His Messenger. Marcionism errs in its inability to reconcile the rigor of the Old Testament with the beauty of the New Testament. Both emanate from the same divine source, which across history manifested itself in differing forms in accordance with the various dispositions and needs of different peoples at different times. In the final revelation, however, these qualities were brought into a perfect balance, fitting for all peoples and all times. The God of majesty who sent Moses is the same God of beauty who sent Jesus and the God of perfection who sent Muhammad.[^24] Emphasizing one of God’s divine attributes or just one of a prophet’s noble traits does not negate the others. Proper reconciliation is a requirement of a balanced, unfragmented conception of the Divine—one offered by the Islamic understanding of God’s attributes and His Messenger. One may ask if setting “unconditional love”[^25] as a cardinal moral value encourages people to be more compassionate. It seems highly unlikely. In the history of Christianity, the promotion of an ethic of absolute love did not yield a utopia of peace and plenty. Instead, it subdued the masses and emboldened the tyrants. It did not stop imperial, national, or religious wars. It did not stop the atrocities committed by the inquisitors, the Crusaders, and the colonizers.[^26] To love all the children of Adam is a morally admirable principle expected of any believer in the Adamic origin of humanity. However, to claim that we must love both the good- and evil-doers indiscriminately, and love even the most criminal aggressors as they commit their acts of aggression, is dim, empty rhetoric that cannot be substantiated or concretized. Such rhetoric represents an inexcusable failure to provide a coherent and actionable strategy for cultivating human fraternity. --- ## How can hate be sanctioned by a benevolent God? The Arabic term *bughḍ/baghḍāʾ*, used in scripture to convey the concept of disavowal, is often translated as “hate.” Although “dislike” may be a more politically correct term, given that in the modern West all “hate” is perceived as evil and immoral,[^27] “hate” appears to be the best of the imperfect translations for *bughḍ*. This has been a source of consternation for some due to hate, befittingly, being a hated concept—it is not a psychological state that is inherently gratifying to possess. In fact, we often deem as evil the very act of hating.[^28] Moreover, both Islamic and Christian scriptures, in many passages, seem to echo this disdain for “hate.” Given the apparent social and scriptural aversion to hate, how can it be sanctioned by the ultimate good; i.e., God? It’s important to consider from the outset that while some acts do have intrinsic qualities that render them either *hasan* (beautiful) or *qabih* (ugly), God acts and commands for wisdoms that we may not completely comprehend. This is the stronger, more centrist position within Sunni theology. God wills and commands what is good and wise in itself; in those instances where an otherwise intrinsically *qabih* act is ordained, a deeper wisdom, sometimes largely beyond our comprehension, must be contained within the command. Such was the case, for instance, when God commanded Abraham to slaughter his son (peace be upon them both) to test their submission.[^29] Imam Ibn al-Qayyim wrote, > The Sharia is based on wisdom and the pursuit of the welfare of humanity, in both this fleeting life and in the life to come. It is entirely just, wise, beneficial, and merciful. Anything that veers from justice to injustice, from mercy to its opposite, from wisdom to foolishness, and from the welfare of humanity to its harm, is not part of the Sharia, even if it has been included therein by misinterpretation.[^30] Whenever interpreting a command for what appears to be a *qabih* act, we as Muslims must try to align our feelings with God’s will and pleasure. God may decree something that He hates for a wisdom only He can fully see, but we are obligated to accept both His chosen decree (creative will) and His command (legislative will). In the best of all possible worlds, hated commands exist for a divine wisdom of which we may only catch a glimpse. From these glimpses we may come to appreciate hatred as a shield against evil and its doers. Research has shown that “hate is a protective emotional response to perceived evil.”[^31] When we hate an evil, we immediately erect a barrier between ourselves and the evil in question—a barrier that deters us from engaging in it, possessing it, nearing it, or affiliating with it. Imam Ibn Taymiyya said, > The performance of commandments arises from the power of will, desire, and love, and the avoidance of prohibitions arises from the power of hate, anger, and aversion. Ordaining good is based on love and inclination, and forbidding evil is based on hate and dislike. So is the encouragement of good and discouragement of evil. People get dissuaded from \[carrying out\] oppression by the deterring power of anger \[of the oppressed\]; thereby, justice and equity are established in order and distribution.[^32] Ultimately, it is hate that will stimulate avoidance; in hating what God hates, we are more likely to keep distant from it. Given the superior wisdom of God as al-Hakim (the Most Wise) and our complete trust in Him, all that He hates is deemed evil or bad for humanity. As such, our hatred of evil not only signifies our love for Allah, but is itself an act of self-preservation. There is thus nothing more detrimental to the individual or society than maintaining a neutral, noncommittal attitude towards its evils and vices. Without the layer of protection that hatred of such things affords, the Muslim risks further exposure to the dangers of desire and temptation. --- ## Should we hate the sin but love the sinner? Developing our hatred of evil without slipping into its more destructive tendencies depends on two pillars: (1) the cultivation of virtue and (2) the exposition of proper and detailed answers to the what, why, and how questions about hate and its objects. It is the endeavor of this series to unpack the second pillar, beginning in this paper by exploring the proper objects of our divinely-motivated love and hate, and dismantling any biases that may exist in our understanding and application of it. Should the Muslim hate evil or its perpetrators? Sins or the sinners? Disbelief or the disbelievers? When we’re told to forgive and pray for those who’ve wronged us, are we expected to love our transgressors? For the most part, Qur’anic and Prophetic references to disavowal target the sin rather than the sinners themselves. Our Messenger ﷺ was told by Allah, > And if they disobey you, then say, “Indeed, I am disassociated from what you are doing.”[^33] > And if they deny you \[O Muhammad\], then say, “For me are my deeds and for you are your deeds. You are disassociated from what I do, and I am disassociated from what you do.”[^34] As Lot (as) told his people, “I am indeed of those who hate your conduct.”[^35] Abu Qilaba (ra) reported that Abu al-Dardaʾ (ra) passed by a man who had committed a sin. \[Some people\] were insulting the man, so  \[Abu al-Dardaʾ\] said, “What if he fell into a well, would you have not brought him out?” They said, “Yes.” He said, “Then, do not insult your brother and thank God who protected you \[from sin\].” They said, “Don’t you hate him?” He said, “I only hate his action, so if he quits, he is my brother.”[^36] It was also reported by Abu Nu‘aym in *Ḥilyat al-awliyā’* that Ibrahim ibn Ad-ham (ra) said, > I was passing through some cities, and I saw two people among the ascetics who travel through the land. One of them said to the other, “O brother, what did the people who love Allah inherit from their Beloved?” The other said, “They inherited insight from the light of Allah the Exalted and empathy for those who disobey Him.” I said, “How can he have empathy for people who oppose their beloved?” He looked at me and said, “He abhorred their \[sinful\] deeds and had empathy for them that through admonition they may abandon their \[sinful\] deeds, and he felt empathy that their bodies might be burned in Hellfire. **The believer is not truly a believer until he loves for people what he loves for himself**.” [^37] A notable exception to the moral position articulated in these reports—the hatred of sin but not the sinner—is to be found in two Qur’anic verses. The first was revealed in the context of Hajj: “And \[it is\] an announcement from Allah and His Messenger to the people on the day of the greater pilgrimage that Allah is disassociated from the disbelievers, and \[so is\] His Messenger.”[^38] The second records Ibrahim’s response to the tyranny and recalcitrant disbelief of his people: “Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah.”[^39] The nature of loving and hating for the sake of Allah is expectedly a very intricate endeavor, with some meaning and clarity lost (or distorted) in translation*—*not only from one language to another but, quite significantly, from one worldview to another. Consider, for example, how we define human consciousness, and the implications this definition has on the correct objects of our hate. On the one hand, some hold that all human thought and perception stems from a transcendental and unitary ego. Demonstrating this, Abu Hurayra said, “The Prophet ﷺ came across me in one of the streets of Medina and at that time I was *junub* (in a state of major ritual impurity). So, I slipped away from him and went to take a \[ritually purifying\] bath. On my return, the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘O Abu Hurayra, where have you been?’ I replied, ‘I was *junub*, so I disliked sitting in your company.’ The Prophet ﷺ exclaimed, **‘*Subhan Allah*! A believer never becomes impure.’**”[^40] In other words, even if Abu Hurayra was, at that moment, in a state of ritual impurity, the Prophet ﷺ was pointing out to him that it is the state of the transcendental ego at the core of his being that truly matters. On the other hand, some hold that we are a bundle or continuum of qualities that are renewed by every intentional act we do. As the Prophet  ﷺ said, “The one who commits an act of illegal sexual intercourse is not a believer at the time of committing illegal sexual intercourse, a thief is not a believer at the time of committing theft, and a drinker \[of alcoholic drink\] is not a believer at the time of drinking. Yet, \[the gate of\] repentance is open thereafter.”[^41] Both conceptions of human consciousness are true in their own way. There is clearly a difference between the action and the individual who performs it, and thus not everyone who practices an innovation, for instance, is called an innovator. Furthermore, an individual may be excused due to ignorance, error, or forgetfulness. Yet an act cannot be totally divorced from its doer. It cannot be said that a man should hate theft but love thieves. As Muslims, we must wish salvation for everyone regardless of what they do. However, the unqualified and mutually exclusive use of the terms love and hate are incoherent and unattainable. Imam Ibn Taymiyya wrote that a man may be loved and hated simultaneously—loved in some respects and hated in others. We cannot demand that a father love the person who raped and then burnt his ten-year-old daughter, just as we cannot ask ourselves to love murderers, liars, or thieves, when such descriptions are the denominators. We may still love something else about an individual criminal, and we might still love for them repentance and guidance. However, to say that we love murderers and rapists is a moral anathema. If hate is meant to protect us from evil and the evil-doers,[^42] abstracting an act of evil from its perpetrator will not achieve that protection. After all, in reality, there is no evil that exists independently of those who (would) do that particular evil. Even a Platonic realist would not say that; to Plato, evil was a privation of good. As such, maintaining an absolute binary between who or what we should love and hate is fallacious. This extends to the identity of the sinner, for a Muslim cannot limit his disavowal to sins committed by non-Muslims. When Khalid ibn al-Walid committed an error, the Prophet ﷺ said, **“O Allah, I disavow before you what Khalid has done,”** and he repeated it twice.[^43] So, why are we so uncomfortable about the possibility of hating a person? The answer is to be found in the contemporary conflation of hate with harm. When people hear the phrase “hate for the sake of God,” they typically interpret it as a command to harm other people. Hate, however, is as subtle and nuanced a concept as love, and must too be understood within its correct religious ecosystem. The multidimensional nature of hatred becomes immediately evident when we consider the extensive discussions in Islamic literature about hating one’s own self—an idea that exposes as unfounded the equation of hate with harm. The self-hatred prescribed by Allah is the hatred of lovers who want the best for themselves and humanity. In *Madārij al-sālikīn*, Ibn al-Qayyim quotes one of the righteous predecessors as saying, “You will not have proper understanding until you hate all people for Allah’s sake, then turn to yourself and hate that the most.”[^44] Ibn al-Qayyim explains that this hatred of both self and other flows from our recognition of the disparity between Allah’s perfect graciousness and our human wickedness. In reminding ourselves of His vast all-encompassing mercy, we inspire ourselves to work for our own salvation and the salvation of others. Similarly, (religious) hatred of sinners is simply the expression of lovers who want the best for humanity. Imagine a teenager who steals in order to purchase drugs. His mother, in her pain and anger, may truly hate his conduct and even hate him for harming himself and his family, but her hatred is fueled by her love for him and her desire to see him safe, healthy, and free from harm. This mother’s hatred for her sinning son, far from equating to harm, is the hatred of a lover who longs only for the well-being of her beloved child. As Imam Ibn Taymiyya (ra) wrote, “It is incumbent that the one who punishes people for their sins does that out of goodwill and mercy for them, like the parent when they discipline their child and the physician when they treat their patient, for the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘I am to you like a parent.’”[^45] When the Prophet ﷺ supplicated for the destruction of certain Arab tribes that were killing and oppressing the believers, Allah revealed to him, **“Not for you, \[O Muhammad, but for Allah\], is the decision whether He should \[cut them down\] or forgive them or punish them, for indeed, they are wrongdoers.”**[^46] The Prophet ﷺ stopped supplicating against the oppressors, but continued to supplicate for the oppressed. Religious hatred in Islam is a nuanced concept that doesn’t conform to the ideological binaries of secular morality and society. *Al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* entails worshiping Allah by loving what He loves to varying, non-exclusive degrees, and hating what He hates to varying, non-exclusive degrees. It is a hatred of sinners, not in themselves because we continue to wish them guidance, but insofar as they represent and embody sin. It is also a hatred that allows space for love to coexist. A righteous person hates gossip and gossipers, but does he hate his gossiping mother, who treats him with the utmost kindness and compassion? Looking at the human being as a contradictory bundle of actions and convictions, the answer is not black and white. The son will hate his mother for her ugly habits, but he’ll also love her for her beautiful virtues, and he’ll continue to want the best for her. That is what is understood by the principle of “loving the Muslim in proportion to the good he exhibits and hating him in proportion to the evil he exhibits.”[^47] Loyalty and disavowal are essentially about taking the side of good against evil and truth against falsehood. While severing the act from the actor is not always possible, our prioritization of either depends on the circumstances—such as the person’s emotional or spiritual state, proximity to falsehood, and so forth. It’s always wise to stress the dislike of the act, not the actor, to people who are unable to grasp the nuances of these distinctions. When urged to choose between a default of love or hate, the choice is clear: the default should be love of the human family. --- ## Can a Muslim truly love a non-Muslim? Given the hatred we should direct towards sins and sinners, as well as the clear Qur’anic exhortations to disassociate from those who revel in disbelief, one might come to the conclusion that although we may wish the best for non-Muslims, our love for them can never transcend mere goodwill to blossom into true friendship. However, when we look at the *sirah* of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and consider human nature, we find that such a conclusion is entirely unwarranted. In fact,  loving non-Muslim family and friends is unavoidable and very often desirable. There is no clearer manifestation of the Prophet’s love for non-Muslims than in his love for his uncle, Abu Talib. Allah addressed His Messenger ﷺ and said, **“Indeed, \[O Muhammad\], you do not guide whom you love…”**[^48] Most *tafsir* scholars hold that “whom you love” refers to Abu Talib. Even if not referencing Abu Talib in particular, the verse clearly indicates that there were those loved by the Prophet ﷺ who had not been guided. In any case, the Prophet’s love of Abu Talib was beyond doubt. Abu Talib cared for the Prophet ﷺ and supported him in ways that no one else did or could. He afforded him protection and assistance through his most difficult trials. As such, it is only natural that the Prophet ﷺ would have loved Abu Talib well beyond any mere desire for his well-being. So deep was his love for his uncle that he also loved whoever Abu Talib loved. The Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Talib’s son, ʿAqil, who was late to accepting Islam, **“O Abu Yazid, I love you for two things: the kinship between us, and because of my uncle’s \[Abu Talib’s\] love of you.”**[^49] The Islamic conception of marriage, especially the legality of marriage to women from the People of the Book, further evinces the permissibility of loving non-Muslims. Allah says about marriage, “**And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates, that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy.”**[^50] It would be completely unrealistic to expect or demand that a man not love his compassionate wife because she is not Muslim. Moreover, it would contradict the very essence of marriage as portrayed in the aforementioned verse. So natural and likely is the development of deep love, affection, and mercy between spouses that Ibn ʿAbbās prohibited marriage to women belonging to the abode of war (*dar al-ḥarb*), even if they were from the People of the Book.[^51] We could even go so far as to argue that loving benevolent people is irresistible. In al-Busti’s famous ode, *al-Nūnīya*, his first advice was, > أَحْسِنْ إلى النَّاسِ تَسْتَعبِدْ قلوبَهم          فطالما استعبدَ الإنسانَ إِحسانُ > > Be kind to people, and you’ll find their heart’s captivity has ensued. For with the shackles of kindness, humanity’s spirit has always been subdued.[^52] Such an intense kind of love cannot be condemned by a religion that burdens no soul beyond its capacity, let alone by a religion that teaches gratitude. Imam Ibn Taymiyya (ra) said, “Instinctual passion, which is natural love and hate, is blameworthy not in itself, but when acted upon \[in defiance of divine guidance\].”[^53] What, then, when we consider loving groups of non-Muslims? For instance, can Muslims love Christians? The dilemma here is that the denominator by which we categorize this group of people, as with all other religious groups, is a creed or practice opposed to the very essence of Islamic belief. To say that Muslims love “Christians” in particular is to imply that we love them for their belief in, for example, the Trinity—something Muslims consider a betrayal of Christ’s legacy—or for their disbelief in the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ, a disbelief that Muslims would, in fact, consider worthy of the religious hatred previously discussed. Despite this, far from not loving individuals who identify as Christian, the more correct and semantically appropriate answer is that we love our human family, our neighbors, and our compatriots, including those of other faiths. We love and value the kindness of non-Muslims who support our cause and stand by us in solidarity. We love our non-Muslim neighbors who show nothing but care and consideration towards us. As we have seen, it is entirely permissible to foster a natural love of anyone with a good nature, so long as the manifestations of this love remain within the boundaries set by Allah. --- ## How can human prejudices affect our interpretation of al-wala’ wal-bara’? Spinning the truth and telling lies for personal gain are among the many abominations which bruise our moral and spiritual integrity. The victims of self-serving lies are the transcendent truths and values we claim to espouse and, ultimately, the religion we claim to cherish. Islam is a religion of balance, and it fully recognizes the competing values of this world and offers the most perfect equilibrium in response. Islam’s balanced concern for truth, righteousness, and justice on one hand, and empathy, peace, and civility on the other, allows for movement in both directions. People who are focused on one value alone will tend to show an unwavering commitment to that particular value. In this vein, unfortunately, the notion of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* is not spared from our flawed and biased interpretations. On one side, there is warranted concern about the catastrophic consequences of a misconstrued and politicized conception of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ.* The existence of groups like ISIS serve as a stark reminder of the destruction caused by extreme human prejudices. Furthermore, while ISIS may be at the far end of the spectrum—using *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* to justify horrific violence—limiting discussion of the problem to a single group (particularly that one) is an easy way to avoid any introspection that might cause us discomfort. In fact, there are many ways in which *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* is misunderstood and misapplied, departing from a holistic understanding and practice of this concept. These distortions, driven by preconceived, unfounded conceptions of the self and others, are causing immeasurable harm. *Al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* has been implicitly and explicitly weaponized by many Muslims against the religious “other,” be they non-Muslims or Muslims of a different theological, ideological, or political persuasion. Chauvinistic self-righteousness and a severe lack of introspection have driven these misunderstandings*.* The religion that was sent as a mercy for all humanity is, ironically, being pressed into the service of insularity, intolerance, and, in some cases, hostility. This phenomenon is ubiquitous, far beyond the behavior of any one group. The very concept of a unified *ummah*—while firmly founded—has been misrepresented, reducing the religion of God to a political or ethnic identity. This is the inverse relationship between fanaticism and rationality. The cultish zealotry of some adherents to sects, intellectual schools (*madhahib*), Sufi orders (*turuq*), and various movements continue to damage the Muslim mind and degrade civil discourse among the constituents of our *ummah*. Many intellectual endeavors have become ungodly pursuits of confirmation of bias, not discovery of truth. The mind is trained to ignore the evidence, subvert it, or circumvent it. It becomes desensitized to some of the most known and obvious logical fallacies. We thus devastate our most prized mental faculties for the sake of vain victories. Beyond Muslims themselves, another force that stifles open and objective discussion of this subject is the fear-mongering of mainstream media. Its propagandistic machinery has effectively framed *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* as the hallmark of Muslim terrorists. Consequently, the concept has been falsely restricted to one particular group. Consider this excerpt from Tom Quiggin on the ideology of al-Qaeda: > *Al-Wala’ Wal Bara’ (al-Qaeda’s View):* Al-Qaeda fosters an atmosphere of “us versus them” using the term *Al-Wala’ Wal-Bara’*. *Al-Wala’* means “those to whom they are loyal” or simply, “their friends.” *Al-Bara’* refers to those whom they hate or their enemies. This concept becomes their tool to categorize people into friends and enemies. Those they hate are the enemy and those they like, or agree with, are their friends. Their enemies are non-Muslims and many Muslims as well. > *Al-Wala’ Wal Bara’ (Islamic Scholars’ View):* There is not, nor should there be, an “us versus them” mentality in either \[*sic*\] Islam or in humanity. All human beings are creatures of God and we therefore must show respect to each other. This implies a multi-racial, multi-religious society. Islam must be seen as a *rahmah* (blessing) to the universe.[^54] Quiggin is clearly not an Islamophobe. He is trying to demonstrate how deviant the views of al-Qaeda are from mainstream Islamic scholarship, the latter of which he fairly represents. Yet the dismissal of the concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* by the scholar he quotes here is fraught with inconsistencies and omissions. Some contemporary scholars hold that “the concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* is relatively unknown outside the Salafi world,”[^55] and is especially unfamiliar to “traditional” scholars. The thesis that *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* is a Salafi concoction[^56] is supported by many researchers,[^57] and while many of them mean well, such a claim is reductionist at best. There will be no attempt here to exonerate many Salafis from peddling an un-nuanced and sometimes perverted form of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*. However, any suggestion that the concept is exclusive to or invented by them, or that all Salafis have some uniform understanding of it, is indefensible.[^58] Ironically, it is the epistemic clarity that Salafis often have and their emphasis on scripture that may prove most effective in correcting misconceptions about this doctrine, once proper clarification and contextualization have been provided. The erroneous attribution of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* to extreme Salafis has cultivated a certain paranoia within the Muslim community. Even the mildest iteration of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* is now seen as risking association with the most radical among us. Some scholars, motivated by a fear of offending non-Muslims or guilt by ideological association, seem to avoid engagement with *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* or dismiss it in its entirety. Further still, due to their commendable interest in civility, national security, and world peace, some Muslims want to see the whole concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* not just reformed, but abolished. The most impassioned members of our community, in turn, especially our youth, proceed to disregard the good counsel of many scholars whom they perceive as ashamed of traditional understandings of this doctrine. Ultimately, despite good intentions, quoting a few verses of the Qur’an or hadiths of the Prophet ﷺ about justice and kindness toward others will not make the other—more difficult to explain—texts disappear. Whenever we interpret some traditions to the exclusion of others, we weave a narrative that does not address potentially incongruent scriptural imports. Until we harmonize all the pertinent reports, we will not develop a coherent synthesis that authentically reflects the tradition, resonates with the preferred epistemic worldview of these youth, and most importantly, aligns with the truth. Given the pervasive human prejudices associated with *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ,* one can hardly engage in a level-headed discussion about the subject. People are ready to categorize and condemn interlocutors on the flimsiest of bases, including just a preface to, or title of, their works on the topic. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, you can be accused of both laxity and extremism. Despite this, we cannot and should not avoid the discussion altogether, because not only are we obligated to convey the Truth candidly, we risk major damage by remaining silent. There is incalculable harm in repeating a phrase like *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* against the backdrop of a skewed interpretation, just as there is incalculable harm—in a classic case of the pendulum effect—in its denial as categorically un-Islamic. The loss of moderation in addressing this issue will lead many to extremism on one side or the other. Prioritizing religion, therefore, is not simply about rearranging our prejudices; it is about purging those prejudices and providing in their stead a coherent source of primal affiliation that accords with the will of God. Finally, it may also be instructive to recognize that the phrase *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* was born of prejudice—first coined by the Kharijites and leveled against their fellow Muslims. Driven by their fanaticism and divisive persuasions, the Kharijites weaponized the concept to undermine the peace and order of the community. Hence, Sunni scholars initially considered it a reprehensible innovation. Salama ibn Kuhayl narrates: > I was once among a group of the *tabiʿin* (*lit*. successors: second-generation Muslims) which included Abu al-Bakhtari, Maysara, Abu Salih, Ḍaḥḥāk al-Mishraqī, and Bukayr al-Ṭāʾī, and they agreed that *irjāʾ* is an innovation, *walāya* is an innovation, *barāʾa* is an innovation, and *shahāda*[^59] is an innovation.[^60] Similarly, Imam Ahmad (ra) is reported to have said, “*Walāya* is an innovation and *barāʾa* is an innovation; those who say, ‘We ally with so-and-so and disavow so-and-so.’ Such a statement is an innovation, so beware of it.”[^61] These are authentic reports from the *tabiʿin* and the Imam of Ahl al-Sunnah, and similar statements can be traced with less certainty as far back as some companions, like Abu Saʿid al-Khudri (ra) and ʿAli (ra).[^62] Given this, why then did Sunni scholars seek to rehabilitate this term rather than just discard it altogether? Overwhelmingly, it is because different derivations of *al-walaʾ* *wal-baraʾ*, as well as the concept of loving and hating for God’s sake, are established throughout the Qur’an and the verbatim speech of the Prophet ﷺ. As such, they are deemed incontrovertible Islamic truths.[^63] --- ## How have colonialism, conflict, and Zionism affected interfaith perceptions of the “other”? The history of the Crusades and colonialism, alongside their modern-day legacies and manifestations across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, plays an instrumental role in our emotive-intellectual conception of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*. As discussed, we are all prone to prejudice. Some of us may not recognize the degree to which interfaith tensions stem from history and politics—from the showdown between the caliphate and Christendom, or even between Carthage and Rome—rather than scripture and theology. After all, Muslims were to rejoice in the Romans’ victory over the pagan Persians, despite the major theological disagreements between Islam and Christianity (Qur’an 30:3–5),[^64] because the Byzantines, as People of the Book, worship the same God of Abraham that Muslims do. Their worldview and values were closer to those of the Muslims than the Persians and, most importantly, more closely aligned with the divine scheme, of which the original Gospel is a fundamental part. An impartial reconsideration of these “ratios” may reveal that it was not primarily the adherence of others to their respective creeds, but their hostilities against Islam and its people, that warranted some of the  prejudice or hostility a person finds, and continues to find, in Muslim discourse about the “other.” Richard Bulliet, former director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, notes that “scarcely any of the unattractive strictures and intolerant attitudes manifested by some Muslim groups lack parallels among some Christian and Jewish groups, or among some post-religious Western secularists, for that matter.”[^65] Contemporary conflicts across the Middle East have corroded interfaith relations that had historically been less tense than they were in the West. Muslims and Jews have not always gotten along, but their relationship has, for most of their shared history, been much better than that between Christians and Jews. Muslims never visited crusades, inquisitions, or holocausts on the Jewish people. In fact, it is well known that throughout the Middle Ages, Jews fared much better in Andalusia, Egypt, and Iraq than they did in Europe. After all, from a theological perspective, there is no religion on the face of the planet that is closer to Islam than Judaism.[^66] However, many influential rabbis today conflate Zionism and Judaism when they teach would-be soldiers of the Israeli army that the genocide of Palestinians is among the Biblical commandments.[^67] Shahak Israel, an Israeli Jew, writes, > I had personally witnessed an ultra-religious Jew refuse to allow his phone to be used on the Sabbath in order to call an ambulance for a non-Jew who happened to have collapsed in his Jerusalem neighborhood. Instead of simply publishing the incident in the press, I asked for a meeting with the members of the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem, which is composed of rabbis nominated by the State of Israel. I asked them whether such behavior was consistent with their interpretation of the Jewish religion. They answered that the Jew in question had behaved correctly, indeed piously, and backed their statement by referring me to a passage in an authoritative compendium of Talmudic laws, written in this century.[^68] Top rabbis cite the Talmud and claim that Muslims in Palestine, like all gentiles, were “born only… to serve the People of Israel.”[^69] The same “revered halachic scholar” also says, “With gentiles, it will be like any person—they need to die, but \[God\] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.”[^70] The late Rabbi Meir Kahane was not an exception among Israeli rabbis; in fact his ideology still thrives alongside many others of a similar nature.[^71] On the other side, the reactive language of Muslim extremists can at times be very aggressive, but rarely as arrogant, and the openness and courage of those Jewish and Muslim people who confront such extremism within their ranks must be honored. The conflict in the Middle East has poisoned the relationship between Muslims and Jews not only in the region, but in many places around the world. It has also subsumed some Western Christians, particularly Christian Zionists, who use the most offensive and aggressive language against Islam, Muslims, and most hurtfully, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Although fanatical Christian groups like the Phineas Priests, Christian Identity, or Army of God may be committing fewer and lesser acts of physical aggression in the West, perhaps because they rely on their governments in Eastern lands to do so, their Islamophobic rhetoric is espoused by many mainstream churchgoers. Consequently and inescapably, Muslim emotions towards and perceptions of the non-Muslim “other” are inflamed by never-ending military, political, and cultural incursions widely perceived as post-colonial pursuits of domination. Far from being limited to the painful collective memories and oppressive legacies of the Crusades and colonialism, Muslims in the East and West grapple with the reality that there are many radical non-Muslims who continue to wish and enact harm against them simply by virtue of their faith. Among the most brazen examples is the West’s blind support for the Israeli occupation and genocide of a predominantly Muslim nation. This is a major cause of grief among contemporary Muslims and a driving force of the anger and hatred they feel toward those perpetrating and supporting this genocide.[^72] Adding to this increasing sense of danger are modern and postmodern secular ideologies that threaten the Islamic way of life. Post-colonial Muslims are thus caught trying to navigate their way across the bridge to modernity without losing their religion. Although the agitation that results from such a threat to traditional religion, whether real or perceived, is not limited to Muslims, our agitation is expectedly greater given both the drastic rise in Islamophobia (disguised as a global war on terror) and our exclusion from the levers of political, cultural, and social power as minorities in the West. Humans also possess multiple identities, with our religious identity being one of the most influential in our lives. When this identity is threatened, it often leads to its hypertrophy, sometimes at the expense of others.[^73] Despite the clear and undeniable aggression faced by the Muslim community at large, it would be completely irrational to absolve Muslims of all guilt. Defeated nations often have many social and intellectual ills, as both the cause and effect of their defeat. We have Muslim preachers and activists who spread misguided beliefs about *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* and we have secular Muslims who, in order to avoid looking like sell-outs, chastise the West, sometimes unfairly, for its hegemony and imperialism. We have tyrannical regimes that justify their existence by claiming to be a buffer between the radical “Islamists”[^74] and the West, keeping resentment of the West alive among Muslims and the fear of an Islamist swarm alive in the West. All of this occurs against the backdrop of a selective reading of our history and the history of other nations—a selectivity bias that may have been excusable during certain phases of the national struggles for independence, but not anymore. Impassioned, hyperbolic speech becomes more prevalent during times of decline. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to condemn the practice of embellishing falsehood by resorting to rhetorical devices. He rebuked someone for this and said, “Do you rhyme like the rhymes of the \[disbelieving\] Bedouins?”[^75] Little action and much talk have become emblematic of our contemporary reality, and speech and action are usually inversely related. The spiritual decline of our *ummah* after the passing of the righteous generations has made disingenuity and grandstanding rampant. In such an atmosphere, relations between different groups can be expected to suffer. A true Islamic renaissance will bring about reconciliation, not further inflammation. Projecting blame onto others incessantly is a psychological and social disorder, and a sign of intellectual timidity and incoherence. It is also the easiest way for people to avoid introspection and self-reckoning. The Qur’an teaches us otherwise in many verses, including the following: > O you who have believed, upon you is \[responsibility for\] yourselves. Those who have gone astray will not harm you when you have been guided. To Allah is your return all together; then He will inform you of what you used to do.[^76] > > And whatever strikes you of disaster—it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much.[^77] When a cumulative intertextual reading of revelation is not applied; when scholarly statements are misperceived as infallible universal truths; when ideologues benefit from propagating half-truths to dehumanize their enemies; and when people seek to defend Islam without sufficient knowledge of it or the sociopolitical landscape within which they operate, the atmosphere is ripe for extreme interpretations of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*. An honest exposition of these concepts that is consistent with scripture, respectful of the tradition, and sensitive to contemporary realities is thus not only advisable, but absolutely necessary. --- ## Notes [^1]: The use of the terms “the West/Western/Occidental” and “the East/Eastern/Oriental” is problematic in several ways, including their geographical inaccuracy. However, I use them in this paper because Western is the most commonly used term to describe a certain civilization and it has an understandable referent in our times*—*known and understood to its patrons and adversaries alike. Although other terms like “Eurocentric” may be more politically correct in certain circles, they are not error proof either. For example, the patrons of the “Western” way of life do not see Russia as a Western nation, while the “Eurocentric” theorists sympathize with its Europeanness. [^2]: Aḥmad ibn Fāris al-Qazwīnī, *Muʾjam maqāyīs al-lugha*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām M. Hārūn (Dār al-Fikr, 1979), 6:141. See also W. E. Lane’s *Arabic–English Lexicon* (n.p., 1863–93). [^3]: Al-Qazwīnī, *Mu‘jam maqāyīs al-lugha*, 1:236. [^4]: The next paper in this series will cover, in detail, the scriptural occasions that make up the constituent parts that constitute and elucidate *al-walaʾ* *wal-baraʾ.* [^5]: The reason behind this insertion will become apparent in the forthcoming section, “Can a Muslim truly love a non-Muslim?” [^6]: Qur’an 58:22. [^7]: Qur’an 5:57. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5979 (bk. 78, hadith 10). [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6009 (bk. 78, hadith 40), agreed upon. [^10]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4681. Graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by al-Albānī. [^11]: Qur’an 49:13. [^12]: Qur’an 30:22. [^13]: The Muslim American community is one of the most racially diverse religious groups in the US. See: Michael Lipka, “The Most and Least Racially Diverse U.S. Religious Groups,” Pew Research Center, July 27, 2015, [https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/07/27/the-most-and-least-racially-diverse-u-s-religious-groups/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/07/27/the-most-and-least-racially-diverse-u-s-religious-groups/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003716529&usg=AOvVaw1Z6RswWiiS8CnbQGix6WB5) and “Who Are American Muslims?”, ISPU, [https://www.ispu.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Who-Are-American-Muslims.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ispu.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Who-Are-American-Muslims.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003716728&usg=AOvVaw39Vs7g_MW9N9XI1n6jG9oC). [^14]: For more on this topic, see: Osman Umarji, “Gaza’s Rise: Inspiring the Muslim Ummah’s Collective Consciousness and Religiosity,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, January 8, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/gazas-rise-inspiring-the-muslim-ummahs-collective-consciousness-and-religiosity](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/gazas-rise-inspiring-the-muslim-ummahs-collective-consciousness-and-religiosity&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003715286&usg=AOvVaw1XCNF1vWrWxMiEO2MPQluH); Osman Umarji and Youssef Chouhoud, “American Muslims and the 2024 Election: Why American Muslims Are Rethinking Political Alliances,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, October 4, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/american-muslims-and-the-2024-election-why-american-muslims-are-rethinking-political-alliances](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/american-muslims-and-the-2024-election-why-american-muslims-are-rethinking-political-alliances&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003715718&usg=AOvVaw07ro9juWX7d6I-rsbsIQHT); and Youssef Chouhoud and Osman Umarji, “Just How Much Does Gaza Matter to American Muslim Voters?,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, October 31, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/just-how-much-does-gaza-matter-to-american-muslim-voters](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/just-how-much-does-gaza-matter-to-american-muslim-voters&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003716058&usg=AOvVaw0SVBJXlWsnM3_BZAG4FL-H). [^15]: See Arif Ahmed, ed., *Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations*, Cambridge Critical Guides (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 24, Kindle; see also Michael A. Peters, “Language-Games Philosophy: Language-Games as Rationality and Method,” *Educational Philosophy and Theory*, September 21, 2020, [http://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1821190](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1821190&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003712675&usg=AOvVaw3bgya9uXCmMgKZYRXh-n-A). [^16]: See Samuel Osborne, “‘[Violence More Common’ in Bible than Quran, Text Analysis Reveals](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/violence-more-common-bible-quran-text-analysis-reveals-a6863381.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003704481&usg=AOvVaw18hFk4YHGLcFO57piEx36x),” *Independent*, February 9, 2016, [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/violence-more-common-bible-quran-text-analysis-reveals-a6863381.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/violence-more-common-bible-quran-text-analysis-reveals-a6863381.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003704868&usg=AOvVaw0h68ALbUe0RzHwFDArQpC5). [^17]: Lev. 20:23. [^18]: Ps. 5:5. [^19]: Hosea 9:15. [^20]: Nick Bibile, “Does God Love Everyone, and Did Jesus Die for Everyone?,” Sounddoctrine.net, accessed April 23, 2021, [http://www.sounddoctrine.net/Nick/Does\_God\_Loves\_Everyone.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.sounddoctrine.net/Nick/Does_God_Loves_Everyone.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003697794&usg=AOvVaw3tGrsC7EDxX8HAjxni5KI_). Reposted onto Facebook: Gary Ruff, “Does God Love Everyone, and Did Jesus Die for Everyone? By Nick Bibile,” Facebook, July 30, 2016, [https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheologyDiscussionGroup/posts/1209742179057943/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheologyDiscussionGroup/posts/1209742179057943/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003698130&usg=AOvVaw3B3fFtcf9xWHIm166IPYmc). The quote included in this paper was edited slightly for clarity. [^21]: As in Matt. 5:45. [^22]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17452, graded *ḥasan* (fairly authentic) by al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^23]: Carl L. W. Grimm, Joseph H. Thayer, and Christian G. Wilke, *A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Being Grimm’s Wilke’s Clavis Novi Testamenti* (Harper, 1887), 4. [^24]: Aḥmad ibn ‘Abd al-Ḥalīm ibn Taymiyya, *al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ li man baddala dīn al-Masīḥ*, 2nd ed. (Dār al-‘Āṣima, 1419/1999), 5:86. [^25]: The term “unconditional love” has been recently widely used by Christians, although it is not found in the Bible nor has it ever been used by the church fathers. This is why it is still a controversial term. [^26]: While there may have been some positive effects of imperial expansion, they do not wash away the inequities committed by the expansionists. All great civilizations had their shares of sin, to various degrees, and we must all own up to them. [^27]: Carmen Merrick, “Hating Evil: Understanding the Role of Evil in Interpersonal Hate” (PhD diss., University of Arkansas, 2019), 1. [^28]: Merrick, “Hating Evil,” 1. [^29]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmū‘ al-fatāwā*, 2nd ed., ed. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim al-Najdī (Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, n.d.), 8:431. [^30]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *I‘lām al-muwaqqi‘īn* (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1991), 3:11. [^31]: Merrick, “Hating Evil,” 1. [^32]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmū‘ al-fatāwā*, 15:436. [^33]: Qur’an 26:216. [^34]: Qur’an 10:41. [^35]: Qur’an 26:168. [^36]: See the “Chapter on Insulting the Sinners” in Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām al-Ṣanʿānī, *Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq* (Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 1437), 10:232. While Abu Qilāba did not meet Abu al-Dardāʾ, he met his wife (*raḍiya Allāhu ʾanhum)*. The chain is still disconnected, but the report is widely accepted: its meaning is in harmony with the preceding verses, and it was at least approvingly relayed by a scholar from the second generation. [^37]: Abu Nuʿaym Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Aṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ*, 2:271. Translation adapted from Abu Amina Elias, “Ibrahim on Love: Hate the Sin, Compassion for Sinners,” Daily Hadith Online, July 11, 2021, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/07/08/love-sinner-hate-sin/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/07/08/love-sinner-hate-sin/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003710142&usg=AOvVaw0U0DASnEeLYWpUklGYL6Wv). [^38]: Qur’an 9:3. [^39]: Qur’an 60:4. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al Bukhārī*, no. 283 (bk. 5, hadith 35). [^41]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* no. 6810 (bk. 86, hadith 39). [^42]: Merrick, “Hating Evil,” 1. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7189 (bk. 93, hadith 51). [^44]: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Madārij al-sālikīn,* ed. Muḥammad al-Baghdādī (Dār al-Kitāb al-‘Arabī, 1416/1996), 1:437. [^45]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Minhāj al-sunna al-nabawiyya,* ed. Muḥammad Rashād Sālim (Jāmi‘at al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Sa‘ūd, 1406/1986), 5:237. [^46]: Qur’an 3:128. [^47]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmū‘ al-fatāwā*, 28:209. [^48]: Qur’an 28:56. [^49]: *Majma’ al-zawā’id*. Al-Haythamī commented, “*Mursal* \[a hadith where the *tābiʿī*  narrating it has omitted the name of the *ṣaḥābī* from whom it was narrated\], and its narrators are trustworthy.” Al-Dhahabī noted, “Narrated from different routes as *mursal*. These routes corroborate each other to make the report acceptable.” [^50]: Qur’an 30:21. [^51]: Al-Qurṭubi, *al-Jāmi‘ li aḥkām al-Qur’ān*, 3:69. [^52]: ‘Ali ibn Muḥammad al-Bustī, *Qaṣīdat ‘unwān al-ḥikam* (Maktab al-Maṭbū‘āt al-Islāmiyya, 1984), 36. [^53]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmū‘ al-fatāwā*, 28:132. [^54]: Tom Quiggin, “Understanding Al-Qaeda’s Ideology for Counter-Narrative Work,” *Perspectives on Terrorism* 3, no. 2 (August 2009): 22–23 (with minimal adaptation), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26298403](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26298403&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003710486&usg=AOvVaw1VDBg4JE3rovSZu9qPvMLQ). [^55]: Mohamed Bin Ali, “The Islamic Doctrine of Al-Wala’ wal Bara’ (Loyalty and Disavowal) in Modern Salafism” (PhD diss., University of Exeter, 2012), 22. [^56]: *Salafī* is the adjective of *salaf* (predecessor, forebear). In Islamic discourse, *al-salaf* usually refers to the pious predecessors: the earliest generations of the righteous followers of Islam. Today, people who call themselves Salafi proclaim by that attribution that the way of the *salaf* is the example to be followed in all religious matters. [^57]: See, e.g., Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf, Mira Menzfeld, and Yasmina Hedider, “Interpretations of Al-Wala’ Wa-l-Bara’ in Everyday Lives of Salafis in Germany,” *Religions* 10, no. 2 (2019): 124, [https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020124](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020124&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003711072&usg=AOvVaw37v_jXxVlbe23WsaZsFU7S) and Uriya Shavit, “The Polemic on *al-wala’ wa’l-bara’* (Loyalty and Disavowal): Crystallization and Refutation of an Islamic Concept,” *Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies* 36, no. 3 (Spring 2013): 24–49, [https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2013.0010](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2013.0010&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003711423&usg=AOvVaw2upUQXGOO7f9pEFrSi9XMh). [^58]: At least, the Salafism of the late Sh. Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā, which had an extensive influence on contemporary Muslim discourse, did not support an extreme iteration of this concept, and was, in fact, more conciliatory with the religious “other” than were/are many other Salafi and non-Salafi persuasions. The same may be said about the late Salafism of the prominent Najdi Hanbali scholar Salman Alodeh (al-‘Awda). [^59]: *Irjā’* is a concept that makes belief in the truthfulness of the message the only requirement of faith; *walāya* is another morphological form of *walā’*; *barā’a* is another morphological form of *barā’*; *shahāda* is the practice of conclusively declaring someone’s abode in the hereafter. [^60]: ‘Abdullāh ibn Aḥmad al-Shaybānī, *al-Sunna*, ed. Muḥammad ibn Sa‘īd al-Qaḥṭānī (Dār Ibn al-Qayyim, 1986), 1:327. [^61]: Ibn al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn Abī Ya‘lā, *Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila*, ed. Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqi (al-Sunna al-Muḥammadiyya, n.d.), 1:35. [^62]: Al-Shaybānī, *al-Sunna*, 1:318. [^63]: Across the pre-modern Islamic literature—particularly in the disciplines of *fiqh* (especially in chapters on *muʿāmalāt*), *siyāsah sharʿiyyah*, *aḥkām al-sulṭāniyyah*, *ḥisbah*, *qaḍāʾ*, and the regulations governing *ahl al-dhimmah*—one finds extensive discussions of practical *barāʾ* (disavowal or dissociation in conduct). May God have mercy on Imām al-Ghazālī, who said: “As for hatred of the unbelievers and the wicked, disapproval of them, and detesting them — the evidences for this in the Qur’an and the Prophetic reports are beyond enumeration.” (Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī*, Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn*, vol. 4 , Dār al-Maʿrifah \[1982\] p. 352.) [^64]: Early Muslims referred to the Eastern Romans or Byzantines as “Romans.” Throughout this series of papers, this is the intended sense of “Roman,” unless otherwise mentioned or clear from the context. [^65]: Richard Bulliet, *The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization* (Columbia University Press, 2004), 12, Kindle. [^66]: The exception would be a truly unitarian Christian group that upholds the Mosaic law. For more on the historic relationship between Muslims and Jews, see “Is Islam Antisemitic? Analyzing the Hadith About Jews, the Dajjal and the End of Times Prophecy,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, March 28, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-islam-antisemitic-analyzing-the-hadith-about-jews-the-dajjal-and-the-end-of-times-prophecy](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-islam-antisemitic-analyzing-the-hadith-about-jews-the-dajjal-and-the-end-of-times-prophecy&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003700558&usg=AOvVaw0-Cjw1kWyhQKW3--oJ7FNT) and Ovamir Anjum, “The ‘Constitution’ of Medina: Translation, Commentary, and Meaning Today,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, February 4, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-constitution-of-medina-translation-commentary-and-meaning-today](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-constitution-of-medina-translation-commentary-and-meaning-today&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003700927&usg=AOvVaw0ZTbB111sOrJ7U8iiqenWl). [^67]: Yossi Gurvitz, “Influential Rabbi Teaches Would-be Israeli Soldiers: Genocide Is a Mitzvah,” *Mondoweiss*, April 17, 2018, [https://mondoweiss.net/2018/04/influential-soldiers-genocide/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mondoweiss.net/2018/04/influential-soldiers-genocide/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003701292&usg=AOvVaw272-g-3DlbTgtNVhX7dInv). [^68]: Israel Shahak, *Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years* (Pluto Press, 2008), 1, Kindle. [^69]: Lazar Berman et al., “5 of Ovadia Yosef’s Most Controversial Quotations,” *The Times of Israel*, October 9, 2013, [https://www.timesofisrael.com/5-of-ovadia-yosefs-most-controversial-quotations/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/5-of-ovadia-yosefs-most-controversial-quotations/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003701867&usg=AOvVaw2Nm_yOL7sfM9aQ4Q8k-fTs). [^70]: Berman et al., “Ovadia Yosef’s Most Controversial Quotations.” [^71]: Josef Federman and Joseph Krauss, “Radical Rabbi’s Followers Rise in Israel Amid New Violence,” *AP News*, May 13, 2021, [https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-violence-religion-476098be2dc365468c1f7a91237900df](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-violence-religion-476098be2dc365468c1f7a91237900df&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003702361&usg=AOvVaw1XF1TauQ2hNEGQgkBUMZdm). [^72]: See John Pilger, “Palestine Is Still the Issue,” johnpilger.com, accessed April 24, 2021, [http://johnpilger.com/videos/palestine-is-still-the-issue](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://johnpilger.com/videos/palestine-is-still-the-issue&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762535003702679&usg=AOvVaw3N1q9oMVJIuTpfybWinFL1). [^73]: For a detailed exposition of this phenomenon, see Amin Maalouf, *In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong*, trans. Barbara Bray (Arcade, 2001). [^74]: The term “Islamist” has been used and misused by many Muslims and non-Muslims, signifying different things in different contexts. Some intend by it a revivalist ideology seeking to reform Muslim communities through Islamic values. Others intend to “Islamize society” through exercise of state power, grassroots political activism, or military insurgency. All Islamists in the widest sense of the word believe that (1) Islam should be allowed to inform the collective conscience of Muslim communities and should not be eliminated from the public space; (2) Islam should be allowed to bring about more unity among Muslim communities, although there is no uniform understanding of the nature of that unity; and (3) Islam is a missionary religion, and it has something to offer the world, not only Muslim societies, as an alternative religion or at least as an inspiring (or challenging) thesis or worldview. [^75]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1682a (bk. 28, hadith 52). [^76]: Qur’an 5:105. [^77]: Qur’an 42:30. ## Summary In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. The doctrine of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*, often rendered as loyalty and disavowal, stands as one of the most misunderstood yet essential principles for the believer navigating a relationship with the "other." Correctly defined, it possesses the power to reconcile the believer's commitment to God with genuine compassion toward mankind, thereby illustrating the balanced moral philosophy inherent to Islam. This exposition, the first in a series, seeks to establish Islam's ethos of loving and hating for the sake of Allah as rooted in revealed scripture and the scholastic tradition, before later exploring how this principle should shape our dealings with others. At its root, *walaʾ* signifies proximity, closeness, support, friendship, and love, while *baraʾ*—sharing its root with *bariʾ* (innocence) and *baraʾa* (recovery from illness)—denotes disassociation from what is undesirable, though not necessarily hostility or dislike. In an Islamic frame, the doctrine means loving what pleases Allah and disassociating from what displeases Him. Since an integral aspect of *tawhid* is the decentering of the ego, it is only natural that the believer's very feelings should accord with the pleasure of Allah, the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Good. This is affirmed throughout the Qur'an. Allah says, "You will not find a people who believe in Allah and the Last Day having affection for those who [viciously] oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred," and He warns, "O you who have believed, do not take as allies those who have taken your religion in ridicule and amusement." The Prophet ﷺ affirmed the same in his authenticated words: "Whoever loves for Allah, hates for Allah, gives for Allah, and withholds for Allah has perfected their faith." Yet this same Prophet ﷺ instructed a believer to "Be kind to your [pagan] mother," and taught that "There is a reward for serving any living being." In its original form, this doctrine makes piety, not race, ethnicity, kinship, nationality, or politics, the primary object of the believer's loyalty. Allah proclaims, "O humankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you." Diversity of color and tongue are but signs of the Lord's magnificence, for "of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and colors." Thus the doctrine weakens tribal prejudice without invalidating kinship or nationality, weaving them into a harmonious worldview grounded in God's pervasive mercy and the single Adamic origin of humanity. It even serves to purge religious bigotry, calling every Muslim to ally with goodness regardless of its agent, for allegiance to God is allegiance to goodness itself. Because the terms *al-walaʾ* and *al-baraʾ* each carry over twenty usages, their polysemous nature makes disambiguation and contextualization exceedingly important, for meaning is derived from context, and translation across worldviews compounds the difficulty. Furthermore, given the perpetual renewal of *ijtihad*, unlike matters of creed, rulings concerning conduct between people of differing theological orientations will vary across time and place. The notion of loving and hating for God's sake is not unique to Islam. Certain Christian pastors, appealing to Biblical passages such as the Psalms—"thou hatest all workers of iniquity"—have argued against the idea of unconditional divine love. Pastor Nick Bibile, for instance, contests the popular claim that "God loves the sinner but hates the sin," citing that "God is angry with the wicked every day." Similarly, the saying attributed to Jesus (as), "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," resonates with the Prophetic instruction to "Reconcile with those who cut you off, give to those who deprive you, and forgive those who wrong you." Neither prophet preached unconditional love of sinners; the Greek *agape* denotes goodwill and prayer rather than uncritical acceptance. The Prophet ﷺ embodied this when he prayed for the pagans of al-Taʾif who had bloodied him, and again for Quraysh after Uhud. Those who conflate love's many dimensions fall into a mild Marcionism, wrongly opposing the God of the Old Testament to the God of the New; yet the God of majesty who sent Moses is the same God of beauty who sent Jesus and the God of perfection who sent Muhammad ﷺ. As for how hate can be sanctioned by a benevolent God, one must recall the stronger, centrist position of Sunni theology: though some acts possess intrinsic beauty (*hasan*) or ugliness (*qabih*), God commands for wisdoms we may not fully grasp, as when He commanded Abraham to slaughter his son. Ibn al-Qayyim affirmed that the *Sharia* "is entirely just, wise, beneficial, and merciful." Hate itself functions as a protective barrier against evil. Ibn Taymiyya observed that "forbidding evil is based on hate and dislike," and that the deterring power of anger establishes justice. Since Allah is *al-Hakim*, all that He hates is harmful to humanity, so hating evil is both love of Allah and an act of self-preservation. For the most part, Qur'anic and Prophetic disavowal targets the sin, not the sinner. Allah instructed His Messenger ﷺ to say, "Indeed, I am disassociated from what you are doing." Lot (as) declared himself "of those who hate your conduct." Abu al-Dardaʾ, seeing a sinner insulted, said, "I only hate his action, so if he quits, he is my brother." Yet two Qur'anic verses form a notable exception, directing disavowal at the disbelievers themselves—the announcement at the greater pilgrimage that "Allah is disassociated from the disbelievers," and Ibrahim's declaration, "Indeed, we are disassociated from you." The matter is intricate, bound up with how we conceive human consciousness: the Prophet ﷺ taught both that "A believer never becomes impure," pointing to the transcendent ego, and that "The one who commits an act of illegal sexual intercourse is not a believer at the time of committing it," pointing to the bundle of intentional acts. Both are true. An act cannot be wholly divorced from its doer; one cannot coherently claim to hate theft yet love thieves. Ibn Taymiyya held that a person may be simultaneously loved in some respects and hated in others. Disavowal is not limited to non-Muslims either, for when Khalid ibn al-Walid erred, the Prophet ﷺ said, "O Allah, I disavow before you what Khalid has done." The discomfort surrounding hate arises from conflating it with harm. Yet Islamic literature discusses hating one's own self; a righteous predecessor cited by Ibn al-Qayyim said, "you hate all people for Allah's sake, then turn to yourself and hate that the most"—the hatred of a lover desiring salvation. Ibn Taymiyya likened the one who punishes to a merciful parent or physician, invoking the Prophet's ﷺ words, "I am to you like a parent." When the Prophet ﷺ supplicated against oppressive tribes, Allah revealed, "Not for you is the decision," and he ceased. Thus religious hatred allows love to coexist, following the principle of "loving the Muslim in proportion to the good he exhibits and hating him in proportion to the evil he exhibits," with love of the human family as the default. Can a Muslim truly love a non-Muslim? The Sirah answers plainly. The Prophet ﷺ loved his uncle Abu Talib, concerning whom most exegetes understood the verse, "Indeed, you do not guide whom you love." He told ʿAqil, "I love you for two things: the kinship between us, and because of my uncle's love of you." The legality of marrying women of the People of the Book, alongside the verse that Allah "placed between you affection and mercy," further confirms this, so much so that Ibn ʿAbbas prohibited marriage to such women from the abode of war. Al-Busti advised, "Be kind to people, and you'll find their heart's captivity has ensued." Ibn Taymiyya clarified that natural love and hate are blameworthy only when acted upon against divine guidance. Concerning groups such as Christians, the semantically precise answer is that we love our human family, neighbors, and compatriots of other faiths, so long as its manifestations remain within Allah's bounds. Human prejudice, however, distorts this doctrine grievously. Groups like ISIS weaponize it to justify atrocity, yet confining the problem to them alone evades needed introspection. Many Muslims have weaponized it against non-Muslims and against Muslims of differing persuasions, reducing a universal mercy to insular hostility and the *ummah* to a political or ethnic identity. Fanaticism among sects, *madhahib*, and *turuq* corrodes the Muslim mind. Media fear-mongering has falsely branded the concept the hallmark of terrorists. The claim that it is a mere Salafi invention is reductionist at best, and the resulting paranoia has led some scholars to avoid or wholly dismiss it, while impassioned youth disregard those they perceive as ashamed of the tradition. Quoting a few verses on kindness will not make the more difficult texts vanish; only harmonizing all reports yields a coherent synthesis. Indeed, the phrase itself was born of Kharijite prejudice, and the *tabiʿin*—including Abu al-Bakhtari, Maysara, and others—alongside Imam Ahmad, considered *walaya* and *baraʾa* innovations to be avoided. Yet Sunni scholars rehabilitated the concept because its derivations are firmly established in the Qur'an and authentic Sunnah, rendering them incontrovertible. History further shapes these perceptions. Much interfaith tension stems from politics and conflict rather than theology; Muslims were told to rejoice at the Romans' victory over the Persians (Qur'an 30:3–5) since the Byzantines worshipped the God of Abraham. Bulliet noted that scarcely any intolerant attitude among some Muslim groups "lack parallels among some Christian and Jewish groups." Historically Jews fared far better under Muslim rule in Andalusia, Egypt, and Iraq than in Europe, for no religion is theologically closer to Islam than Judaism. Yet today many rabbis conflate Zionism with Judaism; Shahak Israel recounted rabbis deeming it pious to withhold aid from a dying non-Jew, and others teaching that gentiles were "born only to serve the People of Israel." Western Christian Zionists likewise employ offensive rhetoric against the Prophet ﷺ. Contemporary Muslim emotions are inflamed by post-colonial domination, Islamophobia disguised as a war on terror, and above all the West's blind support for the occupation and genocide of a predominantly Muslim nation, which has revived the *ummah*'s collective consciousness. Nonetheless, Muslims cannot be absolved of all fault, for defeated nations carry many ills. Misguided preachers, secular apologists, and tyrannical regimes all perpetuate distortion. Impassioned, hyperbolic speech flourishes in decline; the Prophet ﷺ rebuked ornate falsehood, asking, "Do you rhyme like the rhymes of the Bedouins?" The Qur'an calls instead to introspection: "upon you is [responsibility for] yourselves," and "whatever strikes you of disaster—it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much." Where cumulative reading of revelation is abandoned and half-truths dehumanize enemies, extreme interpretations flourish. An honest exposition, faithful to scripture, respectful of tradition, and sensitive to present realities, is therefore not merely advisable but absolutely necessary. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Islamic doctrine of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ*, often translated as loyalty and disavowal, express the Qur’anic ethic of aligning one’s attachments with what pleases Allah. *Al-walaʾ* denotes closeness, support, and love. *Al-baraʾ* means distancing oneself from what is false or harmful, without implying harm towards it. 2. The concept of *al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ,* in its original iteration, makes piety the primary object of the believer’s loyalty—not race, ethnicity, kinship, nationality, language, class, or politics. It calls believers to shape their loyalties and aversions around divine values. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever loves for Allah, hates for Allah, gives for Allah, and withholds for Allah has perfected their faith.” (*Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4681) 3. Religious ‘hatred’ in Islam is a nuanced concept that doesn’t conform to the ideological binaries of secular morality and society. *Al-walaʾ wal-baraʾ* entails worshiping Allah by loving what He loves to varying, non-exclusive degrees, and hating what He hates to varying, non-exclusive degrees. We love one another in proportion to the good we exhibit and hate one another in proportion to the evil we exhibit. In this sense, love and hate are able to coexist. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does al-walaʾ wa-l-baraʾ mean? *Al-walaʾ wa-l-baraʾ* is often translated as loyalty and disavowal. *Walaʾ* refers to closeness, support, friendship, and love toward someone or something. *Baraʾ* comes from the same root as innocence and recovery, and refers to disassociating oneself from something undesirable. *Baraʾ* does not automatically entail hostility or dislike; it is closer to distancing oneself from what one wants no part in. In Islamic usage, the two together describe loving what pleases Allah and disassociating from what displeases Him. The idea flows directly from *tawhid*: If Allah is the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Good, then a believer’s affections should align with His pleasure rather than being centered on the ego. This makes piety, rather than race, ethnicity, kinship, nationality, language, class, or politics, the primary axis of a Muslim’s loyalty. Goodness becomes the ultimate differentiator. Importantly, the doctrine does not erase other forms of affiliation such as family or nationality. It weaves them into a worldview where Allah is the highest point of orientation, and where Muslims can ally themselves with goodness wherever it appears precisely because their ultimate allegiance to God is an allegiance to goodness itself. ### How does Islam reconcile devotion to God with compassion for others? The reconciliation lies in understanding what loyalty and disavowal actually require. The disavowal a Muslim is called to feel is closer to a protective response that pushes a person away from what is harmful. When a believer disassociates from an evil, they erect an internal barrier against engaging in it, possessing it, or affiliating with it. Just as love draws a person toward what is good, this kind of aversion draws them away from what is destructive. A society that maintains a noncommittal attitude toward its vices leaves itself exposed to them. Disliking corruption, oppression, abuse, and falsehood is therefore not a malfunction of mercy but a safeguard rooted in it. Even strong religious aversion toward a person is the kind a loving mother feels when her child steals to buy drugs: It is fueled by love and the desire for the beloved’s well-being, not by cruelty. A righteous person can dislike gossip without ceasing to love a gossiping mother who treats them with kindness. The same person can be loved for their virtues and disliked for their vices at the same time, in different respects. Compassion for the human family remains the default, while clarity about right and wrong remains intact. ### Is the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” actually accurate in Islam? It captures part of the truth but oversimplifies it. Qur’anic and Prophetic texts overwhelmingly direct disavowal toward sins rather than the people committing them. One of the companions famously rebuked others who were insulting a man who had sinned, saying that he hated only the action, and that if the man quit the sin, he was his brother. Wishing salvation and guidance for every human being is a fundamental Islamic value. At the same time, separating an act completely from its doer is not always coherent. A person cannot meaningfully say they hate theft but love thieves, or hate cruelty but love cruel people, when those traits are defining features. Even the Prophet ﷺ said openly, “O Allah, I disavow before You what Khalid has done,” about one of his own most beloved companions. The most accurate position is that human beings are loved in proportion to the good they exhibit and disliked in proportion to the evil they exhibit. A person can be both loved and disliked at once, in different respects. When in doubt, the default leans toward love of the human family while keeping clarity about the wrongness of the action. ### Can a Muslim genuinely love a non-Muslim friend or family member? Yes, and the Prophet’s own life makes this unmistakable. His love for his uncle Abu Talib, who never accepted Islam, was so deep that the Qur’an addressed it directly: “Indeed, you do not guide whom you love” (Qur’an 28:56). The Prophet ﷺ also told Abu Talib’s son ʿAqil, who came late to Islam, that he loved him both for their kinship and because his uncle had loved him. Islamic law itself permits a Muslim man to marry a woman from the People of the Book, and the Qur’an describes marriage as a relationship in which Allah places affection and mercy between spouses. It would contradict the very nature of marriage to expect a husband not to love a compassionate wife because she is not Muslim. Beyond family, Muslims are encouraged to love their neighbors, compatriots, and any human being whose kindness, character, or solidarity earns that affection. Natural love for benevolent people is not only permitted but, in many cases, unavoidable. What matters is that the outward expressions of love remain within what Allah has made permissible. ### Why has al-walaʾ wa-l-baraʾ been so frequently misunderstood, and how should it be approached today? The concept sits at an intersection where prejudice in either direction causes real harm. On one side, some Muslims have used a politicized and unnuanced version of the doctrine to mistreat fellow Muslims of different theological or political persuasions, or to withhold basic kindness from non-Muslim neighbors who deserve nothing but care. Chauvinism and a lack of self-examination distort what the tradition actually teaches. On the other side, some have responded to these distortions by trying to abolish the concept altogether or reduce it to vague platitudes. This swing of the pendulum is its own problem. Quoting only the verses about kindness while ignoring more challenging texts leaves serious questions unanswered, and thoughtful Muslims, especially the young, often see through such selective treatment. The healthy path runs between both extremes. Love of the human family should be the default. Disavowal should be reserved for what Allah and His Messenger ﷺ actually disavowed. Aversion to wrongdoing should never be conflated with cruelty toward people. And the full body of scripture should be engaged honestly, since coherence and clarity are what produce genuine conviction. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-climate-change-the-prophetic-cure-to-eco-anxiety-essay # Islam and Climate Change: The Prophetic Cure to Eco-Anxiety | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** Environment, Islamic Ethics, Nature & Science **Tags:** Analysis, Ethics, Natural Disasters, Prophetic Cure **Published:** November 4, 2025 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 A global survey published in *The Lancet Planetary Health* in 2021 reported that among more than 10,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 across multiple countries, sixty percent described themselves as very worried about climate change, and nearly half said their anxiety affects their daily functioning.[^1] Compared to the threat that climate change poses to our physical health, from heat-related injuries to the spread of tropical diseases, its mental health consequences are far less researched. But emerging studies reveal a mounting toll, especially among young people. Survivors of weather-related disasters report high rates of PTSD, depression, sleep disruption, and learning difficulties. For example, nearly three-quarters of the child and adolescent population in Pakistan experienced learning challenges following the devastating floods of 2010 and again in 2022.[^2] More recently, communities in North America have also suffered from unprecedented flooding, underscoring the compounding burden of climate-related disasters. For young people especially, climate anxiety often manifests as panic attacks, insomnia, obsessive thinking, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. Many feel abandoned by those in power. This younger generation struggles with what experts call the “intergenerational injustice” of inheriting the fallout of choices made by those before them. Islam offers a framework for navigating this crisis that is both spiritual and practical. It is constituted by an ethical combination of restraint, hope, and solidarity. This approach is much needed in recent times with the rise in climate change denialism. Allah says: “Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, so He may let them taste part of what they have done, that perhaps they will return” (Qur’an 30:41). This verse speaks implicitly to the current crisis.[^3] Climate change can be considered a form of corruption born of human excess, and yet denialism persists in the face of mounting evidence. The Qur’an reminds us that such corruption is both a sign and a warning, meant to provoke humanity to change course before further destruction occurs. --- ## Restraint against overconsumption The Prophet ﷺ told us not to waste water, “even if you were on the bank of an abundantly-flowing river.”[^4] Abundance does not give us license for excess. Even in contexts where resources appear limitless, restraint is part of faith. For those of us living in the wealthier parts of the world, this hadith calls on us to rethink our consumption. Islam teaches that even restraint is an act of worship and entails accountability before Allah. ​​The Qur’an makes this principle explicit in relation to eating and drinking: “O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He does not like those who commit excess” (Qur’an 7:31). Similarly, in financial matters Allah says: “Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and ever has Satan been to his Lord ungrateful” (Qur’an 17:27). Together, these verses remind us that overconsumption in any form is not simply unwise but spiritually blameworthy. This framework becomes especially urgent when considering modern food systems. Meat production, for example, has significant environmental impacts. It increases greenhouse gas emissions through methane and carbon dioxide, contributes to deforestation, degrades land used for grazing and feed crops, exhausts freshwater resources, and causes water and air pollution. These impacts highlight how everyday choices, particularly in wealthier societies where meat is consumed in abundance, can disproportionately harm the environment. The call to moderation in food consumption is not only a spiritual safeguard but a practical necessity in preserving creation. Sayyiduna ʿAli bin Abi Talib (ra) once said: “What is above sufficiency is *israf* (extravagance).”[^5] This wisdom shows that restraint is not about deprivation but about recognizing the boundary between need and indulgence. Living within the limits of sufficiency nurtures gratitude, reduces waste, and aligns with the Qur’anic ethic of balance. It is important to remember that just because something is accessible does not mean it is free of cost. The same restraint that applies to food and water extends to modern technologies. Artificial intelligence, for instance, comes with a significant environmental footprint, requiring vast amounts of energy and water for data centers. This means that every choice to consume more, even digitally, carries consequences. Abundance in access should never make us forget responsibility in stewardship. Restraint is essential, but it is only an initial step. It is simply the absence of action; how, then, should we actually act? --- ## Planting hope Perhaps the most powerful Prophetic guidance for our moment of climate despair is the hadith: “If the Hour comes while you have a sapling in your hand, then if you can plant it before it \[the Hour\] comes, plant it.”[^6] At first glance, this seems illogical: Why plant a tree when the world is ending? But the Prophet ﷺ was teaching a deeper principle: that believers must never allow fear of futility to immobilize them. Even in the face of ultimate destruction, action rooted in goodness for the sake of Allah retains its value. This lesson aligns with modern research on climate change anxiety (CCA). A recent mixed-methods study of emerging adults in the United States found that climate anxiety is strongly associated with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Yet the study also found that engaging in collective action, working alongside others to address climate change, buffered against the mental health burden of climate anxiety. Individual action, in contrast, often felt insignificant and failed to reduce symptoms.[^7] The Qur’an itself commands this ethic of collective action: “And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression” (Qur’an 5:2). In the face of climate anxiety, this verse reminds us that strength comes from solidarity. Working together not only amplifies impact but also strengthens hearts, lessening the sense of isolation that fuels despair. The hadith of the sapling reflects this dynamic perfectly. Planting a tree is not a solitary act. Its benefits are not limited to humans, and could benefit ecosystems and species one might have never considered. It embodies a vision of continuity that extends beyond ourselves, reminding us that what may feel like a small gesture can help restore agency, build community, and provide a counterweight to despair. Planting, in this sense, is both literal and symbolic: we plant acts of goodness whose fruits could be reaped long after we are gone. Importantly, even when the situation seems hopeless (i.e., world-ending), the act itself has weight before Allah; He grows and rewards our efforts, whether in this life or next. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized this in another narration: “No Muslim plants a tree or sows a seed and then a bird, or a human, or an animal eats from it but that it is charity for him.”[^8] With this hadith, the Prophet ﷺ shows us that the benefits of a single seed extends in countless directions, becoming a source of charity and reward long after the initial act of planting. The tree continues to testify to the believer’s goodness through every life it sustains, whether human or animal. The Prophet ﷺ reinforced this ethic when he said: “Do not belittle any act of good, even if it is meeting your brother with a smile.”[^9] No act is too small to matter. From planting a seed to reducing waste to advocating for climate justice, each contribution done for Allah’s sake is meaningful in Allah’s sight, even if it feels minor in worldly terms. --- ## Stewardship and solidarity The climate crisis cannot be disentangled from global conflict. Wars amplify environmental destruction through burning fields, demolished infrastructure, poisoned water systems, and mass displacement. This reality deepens the urgency of our advocacy for brothers and sisters in places like Gaza and Sudan, where people face not only the brutality of war but also the compounded devastation of environmental collapse. It is important to recognize that while these conflicts may appear to occur in faraway lands, their environmental impacts do not respect national borders. The destruction of agricultural land, pollution of water, and release of toxins into the atmosphere all contribute to global ecological harm. This means that complacency is ill advised. To turn away from these crises is to ignore the fact that their consequences reverberate across the planet, worsening the climate anxieties that affect us all. The believers are cast as caretakers not only of the earth: “It is He who has made you successors upon the earth and raised some of you above others in degrees \[of rank\] that He may try you through what He has given you” (Qur’an 6:165),[^10] but also of each other: The Prophet ﷺ says, “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe, and the believer is the one people trust with their lives and wealth.”[^11] Stewardship over the land and stewardship over human beings are one and the same. Caring for the environment is not only about protecting soil, water, and air, but also about protecting the lives, dignity, and future of those who inhabit the earth. To neglect one is to neglect the other. The Qur’an further calls us to collective responsibility: “And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression” (Qur’an 5:2). Solidarity in the face of climate change means linking our concern for environmental stewardship with our commitment to justice for oppressed peoples. By working together for both the earth and its people, we honor the fullness of our role as *khulafaʾ*: successors and caretakers entrusted with this world. --- ## Prophetic hope in an age of anxiety Climate anxiety is real, and its effects on young people are profound. Yet the Prophetic tradition gives us both a vocabulary and a roadmap for confronting it: restraint in abundance, hope through action, solidarity in the face of injustice, and trust in Allah’s wisdom. The sapling in our hands may feel small, but it carries the promise of shade, sustenance, and renewal for generations to come. Acting in this spirit is not just an environmental ethic but a spiritual path: one that transforms despair into worship, anxiety into hope, and a sapling into a tree of life. --- ## Notes [^1]: Caroline Hickman et al., “Climate Anxiety in Children and Young People and their Beliefs about Government Responses to Climate Change: A Global Survey,” *The Lancet Planetary Health* 5, no. 12 (2021): e863–e873, [https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196\(21\)00278-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762280486433516&usg=AOvVaw0FrGecDNQVd8wgs5_-lhkY). [^2]: Jaime Saavedra and Lynne Sherburne-Benz, “Pakistan’s Floods are Deepening its Learning Crisis,” World Bank, September 28, 2022, [https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/endpovertyinsouthasia/pakistans-floods-are-deepening-its-learning-crisis](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/endpovertyinsouthasia/pakistans-floods-are-deepening-its-learning-crisis&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762280486434186&usg=AOvVaw00l4X_G7LB9JGpGCwxdjmJ). [^3]: Al-Qurṭubī mentions that one of the meanings of “corruption” is “drought, scarcity of vegetation, and the loss of blessing.” See *Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī*, [https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/30/41](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/30/41&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762280486436947&usg=AOvVaw3jb_4T-S8TTwta1jmhTcLG). [^4]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 7065, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by Aḥmad Shākir. [^5]: ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Āmidī, *Ghurar al-ḥikam wa durar al-kalim*, ed. Muṣṭafā al-Dirāyatī, 1st ed. (Maktab al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī, 1987), 359. [^6]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 12902. This narration is *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) according to al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^7]: Sarah E. O. Schwartz et al., “Climate Change Anxiety and Mental Health: Environmental Activism as Buffer,” *Current Psychology* 42 (2023): 16708–16721, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02735-6](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02735-6?utm_source%3Dchatgpt.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762280486435776&usg=AOvVaw3Wq-sd_q1vBBclFak2F1iL). [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2320; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1553. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2626. [^10]: Ibn ʿĀshūr mentions the importance of the stewardship and cultivation of the earth. See *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr,* [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/33/4](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/33/4&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1762280486437367&usg=AOvVaw3ysXSptD1lwFZlZc553eEb). [^11]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 4995. ## Summary Climate anxiety has become a documented reality of our age, particularly among the young. A global survey published in *The Lancet Planetary Health* in 2021 found that among more than ten thousand people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, sixty percent described themselves as very worried about climate change, and nearly half reported that this anxiety impaired their daily functioning. While the physical harms of climate change—heat-related injuries and the spread of tropical diseases—receive greater attention, its toll upon the mind is less studied yet increasingly evident. Survivors of weather-related disasters report elevated rates of post-traumatic stress, depression, disrupted sleep, and difficulty in learning. Following the floods in Pakistan in 2010 and again in 2022, nearly three-quarters of the child and adolescent population experienced learning challenges, and more recent flooding in North America has added to this burden. Among the young, such anxiety manifests as panic, insomnia, obsessive thought, and a pervading hopelessness, compounded by a sense of what has been termed "intergenerational injustice"—the inheritance of consequences from the decisions of earlier generations. Islam offers a framework for facing this crisis that unites the spiritual and the practical, resting upon restraint, hope, and solidarity. This is especially needed amid the rise of climate change denialism. Allah, the Most High, says: "Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people's hands have earned, so He may let them taste part of what they have done, that perhaps they will return" (Qur'an 30:41). This verse may be read as speaking to the present crisis, for the damage wrought upon the earth can be regarded as a corruption born of human excess. The Qur'an frames such corruption as both a sign and a warning, meant to move humanity to change its course before further ruin. The first element of this framework is restraint against overconsumption. The Prophet ﷺ instructed us not to waste water, "even if you were on the bank of an abundantly-flowing river." Abundance grants no license for excess; even where resources appear limitless, restraint remains part of faith, and for those who dwell in the wealthier parts of the world, this hadith calls for a rethinking of consumption. Restraint itself is an act of worship carrying accountability before Allah. The Qur'an makes this explicit regarding food and drink: "O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He does not like those who commit excess" (Qur'an 7:31). Likewise in matters of wealth: "Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and ever has Satan been to his Lord ungrateful" (Qur'an 17:27). Together these verses teach that overconsumption in any form is not merely imprudent but spiritually blameworthy. This principle bears directly upon modern food systems. Meat production, for instance, carries significant environmental consequences: it raises greenhouse gas emissions through methane and carbon dioxide, drives deforestation, degrades land, exhausts freshwater, and pollutes water and air. Such impacts show how everyday choices, especially in wealthier societies where meat is consumed in abundance, may cause disproportionate harm. Sayyiduna ʿAli bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "What is above sufficiency is *israf* (extravagance)." Restraint, then, is not deprivation but the recognition of the boundary between need and indulgence; living within sufficiency nurtures gratitude and accords with the Qur'anic ethic of balance. This same restraint extends to modern technologies, for artificial intelligence too carries an environmental footprint, requiring vast energy and water for its data centres. Abundance in access must never make us forget responsibility in stewardship. Yet restraint is only a first step, being merely the absence of action; the question remains how one should act. Here the Prophetic tradition offers perhaps its most powerful guidance for an age of despair: "If the Hour comes while you have a sapling in your hand, then if you can plant it before it comes, plant it." Though at first this seems illogical, the Prophet ﷺ was teaching that the believer must never allow the fear of futility to paralyse him, for action rooted in goodness for the sake of Allah retains its value even before ultimate destruction. This accords with recent research: a mixed-methods study of emerging adults in the United States found climate anxiety strongly associated with symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, yet also found that collective action—working alongside others—buffered against this burden, while individual action often felt insignificant and failed to reduce symptoms. The Qur'an itself commands this ethic of cooperation: "And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression" (Qur'an 5:2). Strength arises from solidarity, which amplifies impact and lessens the isolation that feeds despair. The hadith of the sapling reflects this, for planting is no solitary act; its benefits extend beyond humans to ecosystems and creatures unconsidered, embodying a continuity that reaches beyond the self. The Prophet ﷺ said: "No Muslim plants a tree or sows a seed and then a bird, or a human, or an animal eats from it but that it is charity for him." The single seed thus becomes an ongoing charity, testifying to the believer's goodness through every life it sustains. And he ﷺ reinforced this by saying: "Do not belittle any act of good, even if it is meeting your brother with a smile," reminding us that no contribution—from planting a seed to reducing waste to advocating for climate justice—is too small to matter in the sight of Allah. The final element is stewardship joined with solidarity, for the climate crisis cannot be separated from human conflict. Wars magnify environmental destruction through burning fields, demolished infrastructure, poisoned water, and mass displacement, deepening the urgency of advocacy for brothers and sisters in places such as Gaza and Sudan, who face both the brutality of war and the collapse of their environment. Though such conflicts may seem distant, their environmental harms respect no borders, for the destruction of farmland, the pollution of water, and the release of toxins reverberate across the planet, worsening the anxieties that afflict us all. The believer is cast as a caretaker of the earth—"It is He who has made you successors upon the earth and raised some of you above others in degrees that He may try you through what He has given you" (Qur'an 6:165)—and also of fellow human beings, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe, and the believer is the one people trust with their lives and wealth." Stewardship over the land and over humanity are one, and to neglect one is to neglect the other. Thus climate anxiety is real, and its effects upon the young are profound, yet the Prophetic tradition furnishes both a vocabulary and a roadmap for facing it: restraint in abundance, hope through action, solidarity against injustice, and trust in the wisdom of Allah. The sapling in one's hand may seem small, yet it carries the promise of shade and sustenance for generations to come. To act in this spirit is a spiritual path that transforms despair into worship, anxiety into hope, and a sapling into a tree of life. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-overcome-the-fear-of-death-a-prophetic-cure-for-death-anxiety-essay # How to Overcome the Fear of Death: A Prophetic Cure for Death Anxiety | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** Afterlife, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Perspective, Prophetic Cure **Published:** October 9, 2025 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 Living with the awareness of death is part of what makes us human. But for many, that awareness is destabilizing, manifesting as fear, avoidance, or [death anxiety](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/facing-our-fear-reflecting-on-modern-societys-death-anxiety). Death anxiety is an intense and persistent fear of one’s death that is often magnified in times of illness, loss, or global uncertainty. For some, the fear of death might be less severe, showing up as a low hum in the background, an uneasiness that something could be taken away at any moment. Despite its centrality to the human condition, many of us lack the language or frameworks to navigate death. While this short article will discuss recent research into death anxiety and related prophetic wisdoms, the lessons can be applied more broadly to a general fear of death that might be more common. The prophetic tradition provides a deeply compassionate and spiritually grounded approach to death. Rather than denying our fear of it, the Prophet ﷺ affirmed it. Rather than treating it as pathology, he offered a reframe rooted in divine mercy, purposeful living, and gratitude. In one of the most moving *hadith qudsi* narrations, the Prophet ﷺ reports that Allah said: > My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask something of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. **I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about seizing the soul of My faithful servant. He hates death and I hate hurting him.**[^1] This hadith offers a stunning theological truth: even those beloved to Allah fear death. And not only is this fear acknowledged, it is reciprocated with divine gentleness. Allah’s “hesitation” is not a shortcoming, but a manifestation of His mercy and love for us. Death anxiety, then, is not a sign of weak faith. It is part of the vulnerability of being human, and it is precisely that vulnerability that Allah responds to with His care. --- ## Contributing factors: Mental health, sickness, and war A 2024 meta-analysis involving over 24,000 people confirmed that individuals with mental health struggles often experience heightened fear of death.[^2] This fear was especially strong in people with anxiety-related conditions, suggesting that death anxiety may lie beneath other symptoms. The researchers emphasized that addressing death anxiety directly could be essential for lasting healing across a wide range of mental health conditions. This burden was most prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic. A global review of studies found that roughly half of all people surveyed during the pandemic reported significant death anxiety.[^3] Among patients with COVID-19, people with chronic illnesses, and the elderly, rates were even higher. Even healthcare workers and members of the general population were deeply affected. Strikingly, fear of death increased as the pandemic continued, underscoring how sustained exposure to mortality shapes collective mental health. Witnessing or living through war and genocide also further intensifies this fear. A longitudinal study of university students in Kuwait showed a significant increase in death anxiety following the 1990 Iraqi invasion, particularly among men.[^4] These findings support Templer’s foundational theory that death anxiety is shaped by environmental realities, including war.[^5] In Gaza, accounts from refugees in the Rafah camp describe a daily life shadowed by imminent death. Families reported constant fear, disrupted mourning rituals, and widespread psychological trauma. Despite these immense hardships, many Gazans continue to draw strength from faith, remembrance, and community.[^6] For others, who witness these events from afar, the constant visibility of suffering can awaken a similar fear of mortality and helplessness. In these moments, both individual and collective souls search for grounding. --- ## Gratitude as a prophetic remedy In the prophetic tradition, one of the most effective spiritual and psychological correctives to trials and fear is [gratitude](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude-the-secret-of-happiness-in-the-modern-world) (*shukr*). The Qur’an describes the prophet Ibrahim (as) as “thankful for His favors” (Qur’an 16:121), despite the continuous trials faced by him and his family. The Prophet ﷺ would spend the night in prayer until his feet were swollen, saying, “Should I not be a grateful servant?”[^7] Gratitude reorients the believer not only toward the blessings that remain, but also to those that once were. In his moment of profound hardship, it is said that the prophet Ayub expressed deep gratitude for his past 70 years of good health and wealth.[^8] By focusing on abundance over scarcity—or its likelihood—gratitude reminds the heart that our lives are not arbitrary or abandoned, but deeply held in divine care. Recent studies have also shown that gratitude can meaningfully reduce death anxiety. In one experimental study, older adults who were asked to reflect on events they felt grateful for reported much lower levels of death anxiety than those asked to write about frustrations or neutral experiences.[^9] This effect was not due to general mood improvement. Gratitude appeared to work specifically by helping people see their lives as full, purposeful, and worthy, which eased their fear of mortality. Gratitude works by cultivating optimism. A 2024 study conducted after a major earthquake found that the positive effect of gratitude on reducing death anxiety depended on whether people believed good was still possible.[^10] Gratitude opened the heart, but it was optimism that gave people the ability to see a future beyond fear. There is a deeply human and prophetic moment that reflects this connection. Hayyan Abi al-Nadra recounts visiting Yazid ibn al-Aswad, who was dying. Wathila ibn al-Asqaʿ entered with him and asked Yazid, “What do you expect from Allah?” Yazid replied, “By Allah, I expect good from Allah.” Wathila then gave him glad tidings from the Prophet ﷺ: > Allah said: I am as My servant expects Me. If he expects good, he will have it. If he expects evil, he will have it.[^11] In this powerful moment, optimism is not just a coping strategy. It is a form of faith. To expect good from Allah at the time of death is a spiritual achievement and a psychological shield. Just as Prophet Ayub (as) called out in his time of hardship, “Indeed, adversity has touched me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful” (Qur’an 21:83), optimism is a way of dying while trusting fully in divine mercy. Gratitude nurtures this expectation of good. It helps the believer remember that their life has been touched by grace, even in hardship. It prepares the soul to meet its Lord with hope, not despair. Another prophetic teaching emphasizes this need and the recognition that allows such work to happen. The Prophet ﷺ said: > There are two blessings which many people waste: health and free time.[^12] Psychologists have found that regrets and unfinished goals (that may result from neglect) often worsen death anxiety. This hadith becomes a call to be present, intentional, and grateful for the blessings Allah has given us. To use health and time well is not just productive, it is spiritually protective. When we know that we have done the very best we can in our efforts to reach our objectives, we are able to meet death with readiness rather than regret. We are grateful for the opportunities Allah provided and for the awareness and ability to make use of them, knowing that no sincere effort to please Him will go unnoticed (Qu’ran 53:39–41). --- ## Knowing our ultimate destination The believer also draws comfort from something deeper than gratitude and optimism alone—the certainty that death is not the end, but the beginning of eternal life. The Prophet ﷺ taught his companions not only how to live, but also how to die. In his final moments, he repeated with calm assurance: “With the Highest Companion (*al-Rafīq al-Aʿlā*)”.[^13] This was not a resignation, but a reunion. The Qur’an reassures the faithful in Surah Fussilat: > Indeed, those who have said, “Our Lord is Allah,” and then remained steadfast, the angels will descend upon them, \[saying,\] “Do not fear and do not grieve but receive good tidings of Paradise, which you were promised.” > > (Qur’an 41:30–32) The Prophet  ﷺ also described the moment of death as an opportunity for reciprocal yearning, where the creation meets their Creator: “Whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him, and whoever hates to meet Allah, Allah hates to meet him.” It was said to him: “O Prophet of Allah, all of us hate death and are averse to it.” He said: “It is not like this. Rather, when a believer is given the glad tidings of the mercy of Allah, His pleasure, and His Paradise, \[then\] he loves to meet Allah and Allah loves to meet him.”[^14] These teachings are far from empty platitudes and theoretical exercises. They are deeply relevant, grounding us in the truth that is to come. Death is a doorway, not a disappearance to fear. For the believer, instead of being the end of life, it is the beginning of reunion, fulfillment, and eternal rest. --- ## Conclusion The prophetic way is not to suppress the fear of death, but to transform it. Gratitude centers the heart in meaning. Optimism directs the soul toward mercy. And Allah, in His tenderness, meets the anxious heart not with punishment, but with hesitation, care, and love. In a time when death anxiety is rising, whether due to illness, trauma, or witnessing global suffering, this prophetic wisdom offers a spiritual and psychological refuge. To be grateful. To be hopeful. And to know that even in death, we are not alone. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6502. [^2]: Rachel. E. Menzies, et al., “From Dread to Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Death Anxiety on Mental Illness Symptoms,” *Clinical Psychology Review* (2024): 113:102490. [^3]: Indrajit Patra, et al., “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Death Anxiety During COVID-19 Pandemic,” *Omega (Westport)* 91, no. 3 (2025): 1079–1097. [^4]: Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek,  “Does War Affect Death Anxiety Level? Seven Readings of Measurements Before and After the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait,” *Omega* 49, no. 4 (2004): 287–297. [^5]: Donald I. Templer, “The Construction and Validation of a Death Anxiety Scale,” *Journal of General Psychology* 82, no. 2 (1970): 165–177. [^6]: Bilal Hamamra, et al., “The Anxiety of Death and the Loss of Loved Ones During Genocide in Gaza,” *Omega – Journal of Death and Dying*, advanced online publication (2025). [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2819. [^8]: Wahb ibn Munabbih, as cited in Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm*, commentary on Surah Ṣād (38:41–44). [^9]: Rosanna W. L. Lau and Sheung-Tak Cheng, “Gratitude Lessens Death Anxiety,” *European Journal of Ageing* 8, no. 3 (2011): 169–175. [^10]: Reem Al Boukhary, et al. “The Effect of Gratitude on Death Anxiety is Fully Mediated by Optimism in Lebanese Adults Following the 2023 Earthquake,” *BMC Psychology* 12, no. 2 (2024). [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 641. Graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6412. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4437; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2444. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 157. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/marriage-and-gender-roles-in-islam-beyond-rights-and-duties # Marriage and Gender Roles in Islam: Beyond Rights and Duties **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** Family & Community, Marriage **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication, Women in Islam **Published:** October 2, 2025 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Introduction Over the past two centuries, Muslim societies confronted what often felt like insurmountable trials: from colonial domination and military defeat to political fragmentation and institutional decay. And yet, even as the Western world began to stagger under the recoil of the very ideologies it violently imposed, Muslim societies remained remarkably resilient in one vital domain: the family. Muslim homes buckled down to weather waves of religious and intellectual onslaught. Marriage was not merely a social arrangement but a space for cultivating moral values and sustaining quiet resistance. But the storm has now caught up with us too, straining one of our last outposts of stability. Muslims have found themselves in the crosshairs of a hegemonic culture that often devalues or distorts marriage and family life. Dominant narratives, inspired by individualism, feminism, and capitalism—to name just a few—cast marriage as a lifestyle choice, desirable to some but unnecessary for the moral legitimacy of intimate relationships. Gender is fluid, roles are uncertain, and fulfillment is measured by the extent of one’s autonomy rather than the strength of one’s family unit. The result? Rising loneliness, collapsing birth rates, and growing alienation between men and women. Many young Muslims are unsure what a healthy marriage looks like—or whether it’s worth pursuing at all. The pressures of modern life have only intensified these challenges, placing added strain on both spouses. Ironically, modern technologies designed to make life easier (think laundry machines, stoves, microwaves) have often led to higher expectations. The rise of online influencers has further fueled this trend, curating glimpses into seemingly perfect homes and relationships that present often unattainable standards, distorting reality and fostering dissatisfaction with the ordinary. Meals that were once simple have become elaborate, often requiring scrupulous dedication and extensive nutritional planning to execute. Where owning a few items of clothing was once the norm, full and varied wardrobes are now expected. It was once sufficient to sweep your home and call it a day. Now, cleanliness involves complicated rituals of vacuuming, mopping, and sanitizing. Parenting too is more demanding than ever. Children are now financially dependent for decades due to extended schooling and rising educational costs. Today, parents are not merely expected to feed and protect their children but to manage their lives in micro-detail, juggling school schedules, extracurriculars, and personal development. At the same time, modern economies demand longer work hours and often require both spouses to work, all while the communal support once provided by extended family—the proverbial village—has become increasingly rare. Without grandparents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors readily available to share in childcare and household responsibilities, couples are left to shoulder these burdens largely on their own. Needless to say, our conditions have changed significantly from those of previous generations, and not necessarily for the better. Like much of the world, the Muslim community has been grappling with how modernity has fundamentally reshaped family life. This reshaping has led to deep structural changes that cannot simply be reversed, and these changes necessarily shift how we think and talk about our roles and expectations. What follows is not a prescriptive guide, but an invitation to reflect more carefully on the questions we bring to marriage. While Islamic law provides a clear and perfect foundation, it was never intended to prescribe every detail of married life or other non-ritual social interactions. Healthy marriages have been sustained and guided by Islamic virtues, such as kindness, trust, forbearance, and mercy. Culture, social context, and lived experience have also always shaped how those legal principles are interpreted and applied. Scholars, after all, coined the maxim: “Custom carries legal weight.” The added problem, however, is that in the West, it is unclear what counts as “custom” because we often lack a shared cultural framework to shape and negotiate our expectations for marriage. In premodern, more homogeneous cultures, marital expectations were largely dictated by shared customs, making it easier for couples to align with an established status quo and have similar expectations. In contrast, modern societies are heterogeneous, with no single cultural framework that both spouses automatically acknowledge or adhere to. This diversity means that couples must actively negotiate their roles, often drawing from different, and at times conflicting, influences. Those living in the West (or influenced by Western ideals) encounter a wide array of ways that marriages can be structured. Your Pakistani immigrant neighbors might be surprised that your parents or in-laws live separately. Childhood friends from Virginia might pity you as a wife if you do not have a career. And your Arab grandparents might raise an eyebrow if they see you, as a husband, changing diapers. Beyond these local contrasts, the globalized digital world exposes people to countless models of marriage and pushes them to compare and idealize arrangements that may not align with their local realities. Add to this the volatile online debates about gender norms, and it’s easy to feel utterly confused. In the absence of a shared framework for navigating modern marital challenges, Muslims have been seeking clarity through a range of strategies. Some turn to the Islamic legal tradition to define not only the rights and duties of spouses, but also guidelines for behavior and character. Others treat inherited cultural norms as inherently Islamic and therefore obligatory. Still others borrow selectively from contemporary discourse, reframing liberal or conservative concepts in Islamic language. Think about how some recast “toxic” masculinity as “*jahili*” masculinity, emphasizing the Prophet’s emotional sensitivity and domestic involvement, often to the exclusion of other traits. Or how others invoke *fitra*, our innate nature, to insist that gendered roles are divinely fixed and non-negotiable.[^1] Many of these efforts are rooted in sincere attempts to revive prophetic models, but they inadvertently impose narrow boundaries on what a marriage can look like. The beauty of the Islamic tradition lies in its clarity on what is permissible and what is not, while leaving ample room for relationships to be shaped by individual temperaments, social realities, and cultural contexts. To meaningfully engage the Islamic dimensions of marriage today, we must consider not only the legal tradition, but also the powerful influence of culture and how profoundly modern life has reshaped the very paradigm of marriage. Only then can we recalibrate our expectations and build relationships that are both faithful to our tradition and responsive to our realities. To chart this path forward, I begin with a brief reflection on marriage in the Qur’an and Sunnah. I then turn to the two rights and responsibilities that scholars unanimously upheld in marriage. From there, I explore why healthy marriages must balance law and ethics. Drawing from the Prophetic example and beyond, I conclude with a glimpse into the many ways Muslims have practiced marriage, reminding us that faithful relationships can take many forms and inviting us to adapt our own. --- ## Marriage in the Qur’an and Sunnah: An ethical framework Marriage in Islam evokes what so many long for: a companion to share the ups and downs of life, love and tranquility, and the opportunity to grow a family.[^2] There is nothing like marriage, the Prophet ﷺ noted, for two who love one another.[^3] Anyone who can marry should, because it fulfills one’s desires and guards their chastity.[^4] Sexual intercourse does not just become lawful, but praiseworthy and a form of worship: “Fulfilling your desires with your spouse counts as an act of charity.”[^5] Even in the most private of acts, Islam infuses meaning and reward. The best of you, the Prophet declared, are those who are best to their families.[^6] Treat your women well, he commanded in other instances, and when approaching them for intimacy, do so lovingly.[^7] The mundane aspects of married life are not overlooked either. The Prophet taught, “A dinar you spend in the cause of Allah, a dinar you spend freeing a slave, a dinar you give in charity, and a dinar you spend on your family—the greatest of them in reward is the one you spend on your family.”[^8] In intimacy, as in all aspects of life, excellence (*ihsan*) is the standard. At the heart of Islamic marital ethics is a directive that resounds throughout the Qur’an and Sunnah: to treat one another *bil-maʿruf*. While often translated as “with kindness,” *maʿruf* more precisely refers to what is commonly recognized as good within a given society.[^9] This ethic goes beyond the bare fulfillment of obligations. It calls for behavior that reflects socially and culturally intelligible standards of respect and care. It reveals Islam’s profound sensitivity to context—that successful marriages are not built solely on legal rights and duties, but also on shared norms and cultural wisdom. Marriage is, in God’s own words, a sign that calls us to His remembrance and a locus of serenity and solace.[^10] Believers are instructed not only to live with their spouses *bil-maʿruf* but also, if necessary, to part from them in the same spirit.[^11] Even in hardship, Islam calls believers to rise to a higher ethic: “If you dislike them, perhaps you dislike something in which God has placed much good.”[^12] The Prophet ﷺ echoed this sentiment: “A believing man should not resent a believing woman. If he dislikes one trait in her, he will be pleased with another.”[^13] When the demands of marriage were overwhelming, the Prophet’s counsel to his own daughter—to make *dhikr* a nightly habit—remains as relevant as ever, grounding the relationship in spiritual renewal.[^14] Taken together, these verses and hadith capture a vision of marriage rich with emotional nuance and spiritual depth. They serve as a reminder that while marriage is a legal contract, it is foremost a sacred trust (*mithaq ghaliz*) entered into in the name of God, invoking divine oversight and accountability.[^15] It is not simply a private arrangement, but a public bond with communal significance. Its terms can be deeply symbolic: *mahr* may reflect substantial wealth or, in exceptional cases, something as modest and meaningful as teaching verses of the Qur’an. These layers of meaning remind us that marriage in Islam is rooted in mercy, mutual care, and the pursuit of divine pleasure. --- ## Marriage in the legal tradition: A minimal contractual framework In contrast to the rich moral texture of the scriptural tradition, Islamic laws on marriage can often feel like a compass rather than a blueprint. Tasked with defining what was legally actionable—what could or could not be enforced in a court of law—juristic focus was on establishing rights, duties, and limits, not prescribing the emotional or spiritual core of a successful marriage. Recognizing this gap, scholars often composed ethical treatises alongside legal manuals, reflecting on what a marriage rooted in *ihsan* should look like. These writings, shaped by the customs and social values of their time, offered a more expansive vision of marital life, one concerned with what spouses should strive for, not just what they must fulfill. In light of this, the legal tradition remains essential as the foundation of minimum standards and rights from which we can begin to build marriages that are responsive to our contemporary realities. The concept of *qiwama*, often translated as male guardianship or headship, has shaped the framework of Muslim marriages. Rooted in Qur’anic language—“Men are *qawwamun* over women”—*qiwama* conveys responsibility, protection, and authority.[^16] Scholars interpreted this verse to mean that men are entrusted with the financial, physical, and moral responsibility of maintaining their families.[^17] A man’s responsibility for financially supporting his family is rooted in a number of sources. The Qur’an, in multiple instances, states that the father must provide for his family according to what is customarily fair⁠ (*al-maʿruf*).[^18] The Prophet ﷺ also emphasized a husband’s duty to provide for his wife, saying: “Feed them from what you eat, clothe them with \[the quality of\] what you wear, do not strike them, and do not revile them.”[^19] In a well-documented incident, Hind bint ʿUtba complained to the Prophet about her husband Abu Sufyan’s lack of financial support. The Prophet permitted her to take from his wealth what was necessary for herself and her children in a reasonable manner⁠ (*al-maʿruf*).[^20] A husband has two primary financial obligations to his wife that were legally upheld. The first is *mahr,* the dower due to the wife at the time of marriage.[^21] The second is *nafaqa*, the ongoing financial support that a husband must provide his wife and, eventually, their children. As for the *mahr,* most jurists agreed there was no upper limit. Imams Ahmad and al-Shafiʿi also rejected the need for a fixed minimum, so long as the gift had value. Imams Malik and Abu Hanifa, by contrast, set minimum thresholds (ranging from three to forty dirhams), drawing on social norms around marriage during their time.[^22] Most jurists allowed delayed *mahr* with the wife’s consent, but all agreed it became obligatory if the husband intended to consummate the marriage.[^23] In parallel, scholars unanimously agreed that a husband is obligated to financially support his wife throughout their marriage and her waiting period (ʿ*idda*) if the marriage ends.[^24] However, a wife deemed *nashiz*—typically referring to one who leaves the home without her husband’s permission (e.g., moves back in with her parents) or persistently refuses intimacy without valid reason—was often held by jurists to forfeit her right to maintenance.[^25] The obligation to provide remained in cases where a wife was ill or otherwise unable to engage in intimacy, since the legal condition in these scenarios was her availability (*tamkin*), not intercourse itself.[^26] As for what *nafaqa* includes, scholars generally agreed that it encompasses housing, food, and clothing, and related essentials. Its quantity and quality was determined by custom and the socioeconomic status of both spouses.[^27] While the Shafiʿis set specific benchmarks, the Hanafis, Malikis, and Hanbalis insisted that maintenance must reflect prevailing social norms.[^28] This approach was grounded in repeated Qur’anic injunctions to provide *bil-maʿruf*. Debates extended to whether *nafaqa* must be provided as tangible goods or cash, its frequency (daily vs. as needed), and whether it must cover healthcare or travel expenses like hajj.[^29] In every case, custom was central to determining the appropriate standard. Given its importance, jurists took neglect of *nafaqa* seriously. The Malikis, Shafiʿis, and Hanbalis allowed a wife to seek judicial divorce for persistent failure to provide.[^30] The Hanafis, preferring reconciliation, permitted her to take out a loan in her husband’s name to meet her needs.[^31] This was also the expectation if he traveled or went missing. Yet scholars were cautious not to define neglect based on temporary hardship, drawing on the verse: “If it is difficult for someone to repay a debt, postpone it until a time of ease.”[^32] If the neglect was habitual, however, legal action was justified. A husband’s guardianship, in turn, was understood to carry a measure of authority in the home, often described as his “right to obedience.” Several hadiths counsel wives to obey their husbands.⁠ The Prophet stated, “If a woman prays her five (daily prayers), fasts her month (Ramadan), guards her chastity, and obeys her husband, she will enter Paradise from whichever gate she wishes.⁠”[^33] When asked which women are the best, he replied: “The one who pleases him when he looks at her, obeys him when he commands, and does not act contrary to his wishes regarding herself or his wealth.”[^34] In other narrations, the Prophet ﷺ discouraged a wife from performing non-obligatory fasts without her husband’s permission.[^35] So what exactly does obedience entail? Scholars diverged. Some argued that a wife is obligated to obey in all areas of life, so long as they are not sinful. Others restricted obedience to matters that were culturally expected in marriage. The Hanafi jurist Ibn Nujaym, for instance, in debating whether a husband can compel his wife to engage in jihad*,* asserted that a woman need only comply with her husband’s requests in matters related to marriage.[^36] While the nature and extent of the obedience may have been debated, all scholars agreed that a wife’s main legal obligation was to be sexually available for her husband.[^37] This is sourced back to a number of hadith, such as: “If a man calls his wife to his bed and she refuses, and he spends the night angry with her, the angels curse her until morning.”[^38] In another, the Prophet ﷺ further emphasized this right, stating: “When a man calls his wife to intimacy, she should come to him, even if she is at the oven.”[^39] It was for this reason that a wife was not to fast voluntarily or leave the home without her husband’s permission, as these acts might hinder his access to intimacy.[^40] The Islamic legal tradition introduced critical limitations to the obligation of sexual availability. A wife is exempt from intercourse during menstruation and obligatory fasting, and is not obligated if she is ill or fears harm for herself.[^41] These exceptions underscore that, while sexual availability was acknowledged as a central marital obligation, it was neither unconditional nor meant to compromise a woman’s well-being. At the same time, while the hadiths that emphasize a wife’s sexual responsiveness do not endorse physical coercion, they stress a broader marital ethic—one that warns against weaponizing intimacy.[^42] Ibn Hajar, the preeminent hadith scholar, explained that the hadith regarding the angels cursing refers to a wife who withholds intimacy without any valid reason.[^43] Just as a husband’s neglect in providing for his wife can sow resentment, a wife’s withholding of intimacy out of spite can fracture the relationship.[^44] Both undermine the spirit of mutual care and reciprocity that lies at the heart of a healthy marriage. As the Andalusian hadith commentator al-Muhallab bin Abi Sufra (d. 435 AH) observed, deliberately neglecting obligations towards your spouse, whether physical or financial, risks incurring divine displeasure.[^45] --- ## Blending law and ethics: A holistic framework Any meaningful discussion of Islamic marriage must begin with a clear recognition that legal rulings do not always capture the full moral vision of the tradition: what is legally permissible is not always morally virtuous and what is morally repugnant is not always legally forbidden. As such, both legal and ethical principles are necessary components of a healthy marital framework. The former provides a foundation for the minimum standards and rights we are obligated to uphold (setting exceptional circumstances aside) and the latter ensures these rights (and the marriage as a whole) are enshrined in Allah’s vision of marriage as a space for mercy, compassion, comfort, companionship, tranquility, and reward. While Islamic law outlines the structural foundations of marriage—its rights, duties, and enforceable terms—it is Islamic ethics that breathe life into those legal frameworks. The Qur’an and Sunnah consistently call believers to fulfill their obligations with excellence (*ihsan*). In the domain of marriage, this synergy between law and ethics forms a holistic vision—one where the legal minimum is never the moral ceiling. Take, for instance, the obligation of *nafaqa*. Legally, this is defined as providing food, clothing, and shelter according to prevailing social norms. But the Prophet ﷺ expanded this technical requirement into a spiritual act, saying the greatest dinar spent in the cause of Allah is the one you spend on your family.[^46] This ethical framing is especially important when considering how classical rulings translate into contemporary realities. For example, many premodern jurists did not include a wife’s medical expenses within the husband’s financial obligations, limiting *nafaqa* to essentials such as food, clothing, and shelter. This reasoning was tied to a time when medical care was rare, inexpensive, and often non-institutional. Moreover, women typically belonged to robust extended family networks, where fathers, brothers, and uncles played an active role in a woman’s financial well-being and protection, providing additional layers of support when needed. Today, however, family structures and economic systems have changed dramatically. In many cases, a wife may have little to no independent income, lack access to healthcare benefits, and no longer have extended family to turn to for help. In such situations, the ethical responsibility of a husband extends well beyond the classical legal minimum. Providing for a spouse’s medical care is no longer an act of generosity—it is a moral necessity, deeply aligned with the Qur’anic ethos of treating your spouse according to *maʿruf.* By the same token, Islamic ethics also encourages spouses to consider the moral weight of their financial expectations. Just as it would be inadequate today for a husband to limit his provision to the bare minimum of food and clothing, it may be equally unrealistic—especially in debt-heavy, consumer-driven economies—to expect him to shoulder the full financial burden of an inflated standard of living alone. In many parts of the world, dual-income households have become a practical necessity. In such arrangements, if both spouses are employed and facing financial hardship, it is praiseworthy for a wife to be mindful of the family’s broader financial reality and contribute where she is able. When both partners engage one another with this level of attentiveness, marriage becomes more than a contract. It becomes a sacred partnership, grounded in the ethical ideals Islam envisions for a flourishing family life. Building on this framing, where Islamic law assigns the husband financial responsibility for his household, Islamic ethics charges him with its moral leadership and well-being. His authority is not arbitrary or aggressive, but purposeful—a form of stewardship accountable to Allah and exercised through justice, care, and foresight. A husband who thoughtfully consults his wife embodies Prophetic character and the Qur’anic ideal of *shura*, fostering unity and respect. In turn, a wife who follows her husband’s lead with grace and trust, while openly communicating her perspectives, contributes to a home built on harmony and emotional intelligence. Together, they exemplify a partnership rooted in compassion, understanding, and purpose—hallmarks of a marriage inspired by Islamic ethics. ​This same space of trust is where spouses meet one another’s sexual needs. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized gentleness in all matters,[^47] and urged husbands to be mindful of their wives’ emotional state before intimacy.[^48] On the basis of such reports, scholars devoted sections on the etiquettes of marital intimacy (*adab al-jimaʿ*) within their broader works of proper conduct.[^49] In practice, this may mean recognizing emotional or mental health challenges that affect intimacy, and responding not with blame or entitlement, but with care. A husband who approaches his wife’s postpartum struggles with patience and empathy honors the deeper moral calling to be a source of stability and comfort in her times of vulnerability. Likewise, a wife who pleases her husband intimately even when she herself may not feel inclined exemplifies noble traits of selflessness and devotion. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of you are those who are best to their families, and I am the best among you to my family.”[^50] This hadith sets a benchmark for behavior rooted in love, attentiveness, and generosity. Whether through active participation in parenting, offering emotional presence, or simply lightening one another’s daily burdens, spouses honor the spiritual dignity of their relationship when they strive to be the best to their families. In such cases, *ihsan* and *maʿruf* guide spouses to recognize the unspoken but vital elements that sustain a healthy relationship. Together, these examples show that Islamic law provides the minimum standard, but it is only when combined with Islamic ethics that flourishing relationships can be cultivated. When either operates in isolation, marriages will be deficient and dysfunctional. The legal system defines what one *must* do, while the ethical system invites believers toward what they *ought* to do in pursuit of Allah’s pleasure. When ethics and law are integrated, marriage becomes a space for grace, growth, and divine reward. The task for Muslim couples today is not to blindly replicate medieval or modern models of marriage, but to uphold the spirit of Qur’anic and Prophetic guidance while adapting to new realities. Our world demands a marital partnership that acknowledges shifting economic conditions, recognizes the importance of shared parenting, and values emotional intelligence as much as financial provision. The legal rulings of the past were never meant to be rigid molds into which all marriages must fit, but rather foundations upon which to build functional and fulfilling relationships. We live in a world that is changing at an unprecedented pace, where the needs of men and women are evolving, and where the demands of family life are more complex than ever before. The key is to engage in thoughtful, principled discussions about what marriage should look like today: rooted in Islamic values and responsive to contemporary realities. To that end, this final section offers examples of how Muslim marriages embodied varied practices and dynamics, illustrating the flexibility and resilience we, too, can embrace today. --- ## Lived realities Across generations, beginning with the Prophet ﷺ, Muslim marriages took a wide range of forms. Below, I explore a few dimensions of that reality: the home, work, interpersonal dynamics, intimacy, and the *mahr* (dower)—all of which defy simplistic generalizations. Lived experience often reshaped even the most established expectations, bending them to the contours of custom and circumstance. ### Home In many societies, women bore the primary responsibility for household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Numerous reports reflect this pattern during the time of the Prophet: companions often returned home inquiring whether their wives had prepared food for the Prophet ﷺ or his guests,[^51] and on multiple occasions, the Prophet ﷺ himself returned with visitors and asked his wives to serve them.[^52] When Jabir bin ʿAbdullah told the Prophet ﷺ that he had married an older, more experienced woman to help care for his younger siblings, the Prophet ﷺ affirmed the wisdom of this decision, indicating that such roles were both expected and appreciated within the family structure.[^53] Among the many examples, two stand out for highlighting how women’s domestic responsibilities were affirmed with the promise of great reward. Fatima (rA), the daughter of the Prophet, was overwhelmed by the toll of grinding grain and household labor. When she approached her father for help, the Prophet ﷺ offered a practical solution: he recommended she and ʿAli (rA) divide responsibilities, with ʿAli taking charge of tasks outside the home and Fatima managing those within.[^54] For many scholars, this incident reflected a prescriptive model of gendered labor; for others, it represented a contextually appropriate arrangement.[^55] In either case, it affirmed the virtue of domestic labor. Similarly, Asmaʾ bint Yazid voiced her frustration to the Prophet ﷺ. Men, she observed, were able to more easily pursue lofty acts of worship like attending funerals, going on pilgrimage, and engaging in jihad while women often remained at home, consumed by family responsibilities. The Prophet praised her insight and assured her that a woman in her position would receive the same reward for her sacrifices.[^56] Yet the burden of household labor did not fall on women alone. The Prophet ﷺ is famously described as being “in the service of his family,” mending his clothes and performing household tasks.[^57] When asked to describe the Prophet’s home life, ʿAʾisha responded matter-of-factly: “He did what men usually do in their homes”—he patched his sandals, mended clothes, sewed, milked the animals, swept the house, and saw to his own needs.[^58] Her description implies not a one-time gesture of help, but regular participation. As al-Muhallab observed, the Prophet’s conduct was not just a sign of humility, but a model of behavior he intended for both men and women to follow.[^59] ### Finances Men were the default financial providers for their families. Wealthy companions like ʿAbd al-Rahman bin ʿAwf took pride in sustaining their households along with the broader community through acts of charity. Others, such as Abu Bakr, while more modest in wealth, remained consistent in meeting his family’s needs and was known for his personal sacrifices, including spending his entire fortune in support of the Prophet during critical moments. Even rulers were not exempt from this ethic. As caliphs, ʿUmar bin al-Khattab and ʿUmar bin ʿAbd al-ʿAziz were both known to keep meticulous accounts of state expenditures and take deliberate care to provide for their families without indulging in extravagance. Later figures such as Imam Abu Hanifa took up side businesses to support their dependents while dedicating themselves to scholarship. Biographical texts, like Ibn Saʿd’s *Tabaqat* and al-Dhahabi’s *Siyar*, record many early scholars engaging in professions such as trading, textile production, and craftsmanship to maintain financial independence and fulfill their familial obligations. While not expected to be primary providers, women, too, were financial actors, supporting their families and contributing generously to charitable causes. In one well-known instance, Zaynab, the wife of ʿAbdullah bin Masʿud, asked the Prophet ﷺ whether she could give her zakat to her husband, who was struggling financially. The Prophet reassured her that she would be rewarded twice—once for fulfilling her obligation, and again for supporting her household.[^60] Umm Salama also sought the Prophet’s permission to spend her wealth on her children, and he assured her that she would be rewarded for it.[^61] In another case, Asmaʾ, the aunt of Jabir bin ʿAbdullah, requested permission to cultivate her palm trees after her divorce. The Prophet ﷺ not only allowed it, but encouraged her, praising her intent to use her earnings for charity and righteous deeds.[^62] In premodern societies, family survival depended on everyone contributing according to their means and capacity.[^63] Work was often embedded within the social fabric of extended households and neighborhoods, and included farming, textile production, trade, and education—areas in which women were particularly active. Even domestic tasks such as cooking and childcare were not isolated duties but part of a broader ecosystem of mutual support among extended families and neighbors. This dynamic was especially visible during the Mamluk period (13th–16th centuries), when urban life in cities like Cairo, Damascus, and Jerusalem saw widespread wage labor. Many women, regardless of marital status, were employed as midwives, peddlers, hairdressers, and textile workers including spinners, embroiderers, and weavers.[^64] Even women from elite, scholarly families like ʿAʾisha bint Muhammad (d. 736/1336) in Damascus supported herself by working a loom.[^65] Likewise, Dayfa bint ʿUmar (d. 728/1328) whose husband was chronically ill, assumed full financial responsibility for their household. Even after his recovery, she continued to manage their affairs and, following his death, raised their children independently on her earnings.[^66] Elite men and women across the Islamic world also played a public financial role through charitable endowments.[^67] They established schools, mosques, hospitals, and other institutions, often using their personal wealth. These acts of patronage reflected not only their piety and social standing but also the broader Islamic ethic of shared responsibility: financial stewardship was a virtue upheld by both men and women in service of their families and societies. ### Dower The practice of dower (*mahr*) in Muslim marriages offers another example of both legal consistency and cultural flexibility. The Qur’an mandates *mahr* as a required gift from the husband to the wife, yet the form, timing, and amount of that gift have historically varied in accordance with local customs and individual circumstances. One well-known Prophetic precedent illustrates this range. When a man approached the Prophet ﷺ seeking to marry but lacking any material means, the Prophet asked whether he had memorized any parts of the Qur’an. Upon confirming that he had, the Prophet declared, “I marry her to you for what you know of the Qur’an.”[^68] This moment became foundational in demonstrating that *mahr* could be educational or service-based, so long as it held recognized value. Classical jurists across the legal schools upheld this principle, even as they debated minimum amounts, acceptable forms, and enforceability. These rulings often reflected the social and economic realities of their time. In the Mamluk period, for instance, the structure and payment of *mahr* became increasingly diverse. Before the end of the 13th century, husbands typically fulfilled their financial obligations by purchasing necessities like food and clothing directly for their wives. By the early 14th century, however, a shift occurred: some husbands began to provide maintenance through regular cash stipends. By the 15th century, such cash payments had become a widespread and normalized form of *nafaqa* (marital support⁠).[^69] Marriage contracts during this era also reveal a wide array of practices concerning the timing of the *mahr*. Some agreements stipulated immediate, full payment at the time of marriage. Others divided the payment into annual installments or deferred the amount entirely, rendering it a debt payable upon the wife’s demand. These contractual variations underscore that while *mahr* is a legal requirement, it was negotiated through mutual agreement, social norms, and the practical needs of each couple.[^70] ### Intimacy While the legal tradition often foregrounds a husband’s right to intimacy, from the time of the Prophet ﷺ, sexual satisfaction was recognized as a right of wives as well. A telling example comes from the household of Abu al-Dardaʾ.[^71] When Salman al-Farisi visited and found Abu al-Dardaʾ’s wife in a visibly neglected state, she explained that her husband had “no need for this world.” Abu al-Dardaʾ’s excessive fasting, night prayer, and asceticism had left little room for marital companionship. Salman reminded him that one’s spouse has rights and they must be honored. When they brought the matter to the Prophet ﷺ, he affirmed Salman’s counsel, underscoring that even the pursuit of piety must not come at the cost of intimacy and care within marriage. In another instance, a woman approached ʿUmar bin al-Khattab during his caliphate to complain about her husband.[^72] She described him as constantly engaged in prayer and fasting. ʿUmar, interpreting this as a compliment, praised the man’s piety. But one of the companions present, Kaʿb bin Sur, saw what ʿUmar had missed: the woman was not lauding her husband’s devotion—she was lamenting that his spiritual routine left no space for intimacy. Recognizing his oversight, ʿUmar appointed Kaʿb to arbitrate between them. Perhaps the most poignant example comes from ʿUmar’s nighttime patrols. During one of his rounds in Medina, he overheard a woman reciting verses of poetry expressing longing for her absent husband, who had been away on a military expedition.[^73] Concerned, ʿUmar investigated and consulted his daughter Hafsa, asking how long a woman could reasonably remain without intimacy. Her answer—six months—prompted ʿUmar to institute a policy limiting the duration of military deployment, ensuring that spouses were not separated indefinitely. Later jurists like Ibn Taymiyya noted that this timeframe was an approximation and a woman’s sexual needs should be assessed according to her particular circumstances.[^74] Or as al-Buhuti framed it: Just as marriage helps a man guard against the harm of unchecked desire, it serves the same purpose for a woman—which is why sexual intimacy is a mutual right.[^75] ### Dynamics Even in the Prophet’s time, notable differences in marital dynamics existed across regions. Meccan women were generally more reserved and deferential toward their husbands, while Medinan women were known for their assertiveness. When ʿUmar bin al-Khattab expressed concern over the boldness of Medinan women—who, in his view, challenged the deference he was accustomed to—the Prophet ﷺ simply smiled, signaling that Islam accommodated a spectrum of marital interaction rather than mandating a singular model.[^76] This flexibility continued into the caliphate of ʿUmar himself. On one occasion, a man came to seek his counsel about difficulties with his wife, only to overhear ʿUmar raising his voice inside his own home. Embarrassed, the man turned to leave. When ʿUmar emerged and asked why he had come, the man sheepishly confessed he had come to complain about his wife, but seeing that even the Caliph faced similar challenges, he thought better of it. ʿUmar, in turn, advised him to be patient and overlook his wife’s faults in light of all that women do to support and sustain their households.[^77] The Prophet’s own household further exemplified this ethos. His wives voiced their frustrations openly and, at times, even gave him the silent treatment. Their assertiveness was so striking that ʿUmar once remarked in astonishment, “Do you not fear Allah’s wrath?”—not merely because they were speaking back to their husband, but because they were addressing the Messenger of God.[^78] In a well-known exchange, Abu Bakr came to visit the Prophet ﷺ, only to hear ʿAʾisha raising her voice at the Messenger of God.[^79] Appalled by her boldness, Abu Bakr chastised her, but the Prophet ﷺ did not—reflecting a broad range of acceptable behavior and norms. At the same time, we find various examples of female companions who were very deferential to their husbands. Asmaʾ bint Abi Bakr was known for her remarkable dedication to serving her husband, often going to great lengths to fulfill her responsibilities. On one occasion, the Prophet ﷺ encountered her carrying a heavy load of date stones on her head, so he offered her a ride on his mount. She shyly declined out of consideration for her husband al-Zubayr, who was known for his protective jealousy.[^80] In another instance, Umm Sulaym, the mother of Anas bin Malik, displayed remarkable composure after the death of her young son.[^81] Only after serving her husband dinner and spending the night intimately with him did she gently inform him of their child’s passing. The Prophet, upon hearing the news, prayed for blessings in their lineage. --- ## Conclusion Any honest conversation about marriage today must account for the broader systemic forces that have redefined what family life now entails. Government policies, market demands, and ideological shifts have engineered the family structure in ways that are neither neutral nor accidental. Many families are no longer supported by extended kin networks, community institutions, or religious infrastructures as they once were. Instead, they are increasingly isolated, often forced to rely on two incomes to survive, to outsource the moral and intellectual development of children to the state, and to navigate emotional and spiritual needs in an economy that monetizes every available ounce of human energy. For some Muslims, the desire to revive “traditional” gender roles (often understood as a household with a male breadwinner and a stay-at-home wife) reflects a longing to resist these forces—to push back against a system that seems designed to erode the very conditions necessary for healthy, God-conscious families. While this impulse is often grounded in faith, it is not always sufficient. Fixating on rigid roles or idealized models of the past, divorced from the historical contexts that sustained them, does not adequately address the complex realities families face today. To thrive as a Muslim community, we need to deliberate on strategic, collective efforts to counter the social and economic stressors that undermine marriage. Maintaining strong marriages is crucial—not just for the values they uphold and the rights they protect, such as unity, respect, commitment, lawful intimacy, inheritance, and lineage, but for what they represent. Marriage cultivates the ability to follow, to sacrifice, to think collectively, and to take risks for the greater good. It serves as a microcosm of the broader *umma* in that weak marriages often reflect deeper fractures within society itself. Without rebuilding the communal and familial support systems that once cushioned the effects of marital breakdown, divorce will continue to be deeply destabilizing. The goal, then, is to foster resilient marriages that can adapt to evolving social and economic realities. Many marriages today endure when spouses divide their responsibilities between public and private spheres. Others work effectively when both partners share and shift responsibilities as needed. Some families rely on dual incomes to survive, while others prioritize one parent staying home. What ultimately matters is that we organize our marriages and households in ways that, despite modern pressures threatening family cohesion, protect and preserve them. While we might not be able to reengineer our societies overnight, we can begin by reframing our mindset. Anyone who is married knows that responsibilities are rarely split neatly in half. Circumstances, whether cultural, financial, or personal, often demand that one partner take on more than what is strictly required in Islam. There is so much value in reorienting perspectives and thinking: what would it mean to approach even the most mundane tasks with the intention of pleasing Allah? A chore taken up for the sake of harmony, for the sake of the family, or even just to get through the day can also be an act of worship. This doesn’t mean one should never ask for help or remain silent about unmet needs. But there is untapped strength in knowing that one’s effort, even if unrecognized by a spouse, is appreciated by al-Shakur. The Prophet ﷺ promised that no one makes a sacrifice for the sake of Allah except that He will replace it with something better. That “better” might take many forms: peace of heart, the flourishing of your children, an unexpected job opportunity—and, in all cases, reward in the Hereafter. So if your marriage is not harmful, but simply hard, know that your endurance may be among your most beloved deeds to Allah. In a time when family structures are unraveling and loneliness is widespread, your quiet striving may be the thread that holds a community together and the reason you are raised in rank by the One who sees it all. --- ## Notes [^1]: See, for example, Feyda Sayan-Cengiz, “‘Make Masculinity Great Again’: Politics of Marriage and Neoconservatism in Turkey’s Islamic-Oriented Self-Help Discourse,” *Turkish Studies* 25, no. 2 (2022): 280–300, [https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2023.2171869](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2023.2171869&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940123735&usg=AOvVaw0r4OgAk8FDksf0gbPELSk3). [^2]: Qur’an 7:189, 16:72, 30:21. [^3]: *Sunan Ibn Māja,* no. 1847. [^4]: Qur’an 24:32. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1006. [^6]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī,* no. 3895. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* nos. 1468a, 6042. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 995. [^9]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, *al-Qawāʿid al-ḥassān li tafsīr al-Qurʾān* (Maktabat al-Rushd, 1999), 63. [^10]: Qur’an 30:21. [^11]: Qur’an 2:231. [^12]: Qur’an 4:19. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no 1469. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5362. [^15]: Qur’an 4:21. [^16]: Qur’an 4:34. [^17]: See, for example, Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, ed. Maḥmūd Shākir, 24 vols. (Dār al-Tarbiya wa-l-Turāth, n.d.), 8:290ff, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/43/4374%23p1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940161401&usg=AOvVaw2wLjwHPGEy8h--62qvUvph)[https://shamela.ws/book/43/4374#p1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/43/4374%23p1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940161622&usg=AOvVaw2sAsz-ghVVL2rzcVwKwodD); al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li aḥkām al-Qurʾān,* eds. Aḥmad al-Bardūnī and Ibrāhīm Aṭfayyish, 20 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1964), 5:168, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/20855/1838&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940162171&usg=AOvVaw3Mg3jsg19m4-rcEtggVfwd)[https://shamela.ws/book/20855/1838](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/20855/1838&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940162434&usg=AOvVaw3ng2AnmQ1_SY0PC6EyQZEo); Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm,* ed. Ḥikmat bin Bashīr, 7 vols. (Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2010), 3:94, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/1503/1300&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940162848&usg=AOvVaw38eGPOQ43rg4-pfduAvKoM)[https://shamela.ws/book/1503/1300](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/1503/1300&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940162986&usg=AOvVaw1OwIVh4OIRMP3p6_NlunED). [^18]: Qur’an 2:228, 2:233, 65:7. [^19]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd,* no. 2137; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2057. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7161. [^21]: Qur’an 4:4, 4:25; Muḥammad bin Rushd al-Ḥafīd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, ed. Muḥammad Ṣubḥī Ḥasan Ḥallāq, 4 vols. (Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, 1995), 3:37. [^22]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:38. [^23]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:44. [^24]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:103–4. [^25]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:105; Yaḥya bin Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Rawḍat al-ṭālibīn wa ʿumdat al-muftīn,* ed. Zuhayr al-Shāwīs, 12 vols. (al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1991), 9:59–60. [^26]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:105; al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, 5:134–36. [^27]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:104; al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, 5:153; see also Ibn Baṭṭāl’s commentary in Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī bi sharḥ al-Bukhārī,* ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī and Muḥibb al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb, 13 vols. (al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1970), 9:513. [^28]: Al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, 5:145ff. [^29]: Al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, 5:154ff. [^30]: Ibn Rushd, *Bidāyat al-mujtahid*, 3:98. [^31]: Al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, 5:160; al-Ṣadr al-Shahīd, *Sharḥ Adab al-qāḍī li-l-Khaṣṣāf*, ed. Muḥiyy al-Dīn al-Sarḥān, 4 vols. (Maṭbaʿat al-Irshād, 1978), 4:249; Ibn al-Humām, *Sharḥ Fatḥ al-qadīr ʿalā al-Hidāya sharḥ Bidāya al-mubtadī,* 11 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1970), 4:390. [^32]: Qur’an 2:280. [^33]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān: kitāb al-awāmir, bāb dhikr ījāb al-janna li-l-marʾa idhā aṭāʿat zawjahā.* [^34]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī,* no. 3231. [^35]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5195. [^36]: Ibn Nujaym, *al-Baḥr al-rāʾiq sharḥ Kanz al-daqāʾiq,* 8 vols. (Dār al-Kitāb al-Islāmī, n.d.), 5:77. [^37]: Al-Nawawī, for example, states that there are only two things a wife is obligated to do: make herself sexually available to her husband and \[consequently\] remain in his home (*tamkīnuhā zawjahā min nafsihā wa mulāzamat baytih*). Ibn Qudāma and al-Shīrāzī both state, “The object of the marriage contract is sexual intimacy–nothing else is required of her.” See Yaḥyā bin Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalā Muslim,* 18 vols. (Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1972), 14:165; Muwaffaq al-Dīn ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ḥulū, 15 vols. (Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1997), 10:225–26; Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, *al-Muhadhdhab fī fiqh al-imām al-Shāfiʿī*, 3 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.), 2:482; al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, 3:613. [^38]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 3237; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 1436. [^39]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1160. [^40]: Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalā Muslim,* 7:115; Jalāl al-Dı̄n al-Maḥallı̄, *Kanz al-rāghibı̄n sharḥ Minhāj al-ṭalibı̄n*, ed. Maḥmūd Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥadı̄dı̄, 2 vols. (Dār al-Minhāj, 2013), 2:430. Al-Maḥallī, a Shafiʿi scholar, explains that a wife leaving the home without her husband’s permission is considered *nāshiz* because a husband has a right to keep her on retainer (*ḥabs*) in exchange for his financial maintenance. Similarly, the Hanbali jurist al-Buhūtī clarifies that it is prohibited for a wife to leave the house without her husband’s permission because his right upon her \[to sexual intimacy\] is obligatory. If she does leave, she forfeits her right to *nafaqa* because she is no longer making herself available for sexual intimacy (*li ʿadam al-tamkīn min al-istimtāʿ*). See Manṣūr bin Yūnus al-Buhūtī, *Kashshāf al-qināʿ ʿan matn al-Iqnāʿ*, ed. Ibrāhīm Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 2003), 2554. [^41]: Ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī*, 10:170; al-Buhūtī, *Kashshāf al-qināʿ*, 2543. [^42]: For more on harm in marriage, see Tesneem Alkiek, “Marital Harm Through the Ages: Perspectives from Islamic Scholarship and Practice,” *Hashiya* (forthcoming). [^43]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:294. [^44]: The same is also true of their inverses—a wife’s refusal to contribute to the household income when she is employed and the family is struggling financially will sow resentment, and a husband’s neglect or withholding of intimacy out of spite or selfishness will likely fracture the relationship. These scenarios are discussed in further detail in the following sections. [^45]: Ibn Baṭṭāl in Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī,* 9:294. [^46]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 995. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2594. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ* *al-Bukhārī,* no. 5204. Ibn Ḥajar, commenting on this hadith, notes that a reasonable person would not beat his wife and then attempt to engage his wife intimately later that day. “Intercourse or cohabitation is only desirable when there is emotional inclination and a desire for closeness, whereas the one who has been beaten usually feels aversion toward the one who beat them. Thus, this \[hadith\] serves as an implicit condemnation of such behavior.” See Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī,* 9:303. [^49]: For example, Ibn al-Qayyim says, “Among the things that should precede intercourse is caressing the woman, kissing her, and sucking her tongue. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to play with his wives and kiss them.” See Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿad fī hadī khayr al-ʿibād,* 7 vols. (Dār ʿAṭāʾat al-ʿIlm, 2019), 4:363, [https://shamela.ws/book/197](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/197&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940165854&usg=AOvVaw1FhvvHEl-fBabMWXFB-1Hb). For more, see Habeeb Akande, *A Taste of Honey: Sexuality and Erotology in Islam* (Rabaah Publishers, 2015). [^50]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3895. [^51]: See, for example: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* nos. 668, 4102, 5182, 5391; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,*  nos. 1428, 2054. [^52]: See, for example: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2052; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd,* no. 5040. [^53]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* nos. 4052 and 5367. Commenting on this incident, Ibn Baṭṭāl clarified that while a wife is not legally obligated to care for her husband’s children from a previous marriage, doing so reflects good companionship and moral excellence. See Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī,* 9:513. [^54]: The first part of the hadith that mentions Fatima’s request for help from the Prophet ﷺ is in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 3075 and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2727. The second part of the hadith in which the Prophet recommends dividing the responsibilities between them is collected in *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shayba* 16:71, no. 31018, but declared weak (*mursal* *ḍaʿīf*) by the *muḥaqqiq*. Irrespective of its grading, scholars have questioned whether this incident establishes a binding legal precedent. [^55]: See Ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī,* 10:226; Ibn al-Mullaqin, *al-Tawḍīḥ li sharḥ al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ,* ed. Khālid al-Rabbāṭ and Jumʿa Fatḥī, 36 vols. (Dār al-Nawādir, 2008), 25:40–41. [^56]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Nafaqa ʿalā al-ʿiyāl*, ed. Najm ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Khalaf, 2 vols. (Dār Ibn al-Qayyim, 1990), [https://shamela.ws/book/13075/545](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/13075/545&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940146281&usg=AOvVaw3Uic_2Q7CPq7hjELAMk1Au); *Musnad al-Bazzār,* no. 1474. There is some weakness in the chain, but it is supported by other narrations. See Ibn al-Athīr, *Usd al-ghāba fī maʿrifat al-ṣaḥāba*, 7:17–18, [https://shamela.ws/book/1110/3291#p1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/1110/3291%23p1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1759425940146979&usg=AOvVaw26xPxMVq1qS5CkR7c4SmDd). [^57]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5363; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 24903. [^58]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 24903; *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān,* nos. 5675, 5677. [^59]: Ibn Baṭṭāl, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Yāsir bin Ibrāhīm, 10 vols. (Maktabat al-Rushd, 2003), 7:542. [^60]: This ruling does not apply to a husband, as one’s zakat may not be given to those whose financial maintenance is already an obligatory responsibility (e.g., wife and dependent children). [^61]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5369. [^62]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1483. [^63]: For more, see Stephanie Coontz, *Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage* (Penguin Books, 2006). [^64]: Yossef Rapoport, *Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society* (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 32–33. [^65]: Rapoport, *Marriage, Money and Divorce,* 34. [^66]: Rapoport, *Marriage, Money and Divorce,* 35–36. [^67]: See, for example, Minlib Dallh, “Accumulate but Distribute: Islamic Emphasis on the Establishment of *Waqf* (Pious Endowment),” *Religion and Development* 2 (2023): 21–40; Şerife Eroğlu Memiş, “Benefactresses of Waqf and Good Deeds: Charitable Women in Ottoman Jerusalem, 1703–1831,” *Jerusalem Quarterly* no. 72 (2017): 48–57. [^68]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5087. [^69]: Rapoport, *Marriage, Money and Divorce*, 59. [^70]: Rapoport, *Marriage, Money and Divorce*, 53. [^71]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 1968. [^72]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istīʿāb fī maʿrifa al-aṣḥāb,* ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Bajāwī, 4 vols. (Maktaba Nahḍa Miṣr, 1960), 3:1318–19. [^73]: *Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq: kitāb al-ṭalāq, bāb ḥaqq al-marʾa ʿalā zawjihā wa fī kam tashtāq.* [^74]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā majmūʿ fatāwa shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad ibn Taymiyya,* ed. Muḥammad bin Muḥammad Qāsim, 5 vols. (N.p., n.d.), 4:215, 218; *al-Fatāwā al-kubrā,* 5:481. [^75]: Al-Buhūtī, *Khashshāf al-qināʿ,* 2549. [^76]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5191. [^77]: Although this narration/story lacks a sound chain, it has been cited in books of tradition as a source of model behavior. Al-Dhahabī, *al-Kabāʾir* (Dār al-Nadwa al-Jadīda, n.d.), 179. [^78]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5191. [^79]: *Musnad Aḥmad,* no. 18394. Graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by al-Arnāʾūṭ. Also reported in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (no. 4999), which was graded as *ṣaḥīḥ* *li ghayrihi* (elevated to the level of *ṣaḥīḥ* by corroborating reports) by al-Albānī in *al-Silsila*. [^80]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 5224. [^81]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2144d. ## Summary Marriage in Islam has always been more than a mere social contract; it is, as Allah describes in His Book, a sign among His signs that calls the believer to His remembrance and a locus of serenity and solace. Over the past two centuries, Muslim societies weathered colonial domination, defeat, and institutional decay, yet the family remained one of their last outposts of resilience. Today, however, that stronghold too has been strained by a dominant culture shaped by individualism, feminism, and capitalism, which recasts marriage as a mere lifestyle choice rather than a moral necessity. The consequences are visible in rising loneliness, collapsing birth rates, and growing alienation between men and women, leaving many young Muslims uncertain whether marriage is even worth pursuing. Modern life has intensified these difficulties. Technologies meant to ease burdens have instead inflated expectations, while online influencers curate unattainable images of domestic perfection. Meals, wardrobes, cleaning, and parenting have all grown more demanding, even as economies require longer hours and dual incomes. The proverbial village of extended family that once shared these responsibilities has largely vanished, leaving couples to bear their burdens alone. These deep structural changes cannot simply be reversed, and they necessarily shift how we think and speak about our roles and expectations within marriage. While Islamic law provides a clear and perfect foundation, it was never intended to prescribe every detail of married life. Healthy marriages have always been sustained by Islamic virtues such as kindness, trust, forbearance, and mercy, and shaped by culture, social context, and lived experience. Indeed, the scholars coined the legal maxim, "Custom carries legal weight." Yet in the West, it is often unclear what counts as "custom," for we lack the shared cultural framework that premodern, more homogeneous societies took for granted. In heterogeneous modern societies, couples must actively negotiate their roles, drawing from differing and sometimes conflicting influences. Some Muslims respond by turning to the legal tradition, others by treating inherited cultural norms as inherently Islamic, and still others by reframing liberal or conservative concepts in Islamic language, whether recasting "toxic" masculinity as "jahili" masculinity or invoking fitra to fix gender roles as non-negotiable. Though often sincere, such efforts inadvertently impose narrow limits on what a marriage may look like, when in truth the beauty of the tradition lies in its clarity on the permissible and the forbidden while leaving ample room for temperament, circumstance, and culture. The scriptural sources present marriage as an ethical framework rich in emotional and spiritual depth. The Prophet ﷺ noted that there is nothing like marriage for two who love one another, and he encouraged those able to marry to do so, for it fulfills desire and guards chastity. Even intimacy becomes an act of worship, for he taught that "fulfilling your desires with your spouse counts as an act of charity." He declared, "The best of you are those who are best to their families," and commanded that women be treated well. The mundane too is dignified, for he said that among a dinar spent in Allah's cause, freeing a slave, or given in charity, "the greatest in reward is the one you spend on your family." At the heart of this vision is the repeated Qur'anic directive to treat one another bil-maʿruf, which more precisely means what is commonly recognized as good within a given society, revealing Islam's sensitivity to context. Believers are told to live with their spouses in this spirit, and to part in it if necessary, being reminded, "If you dislike them, perhaps you dislike something in which God has placed much good." The Prophet ﷺ likewise said, "A believing man should not resent a believing woman; if he dislikes one trait in her, he will be pleased with another." Marriage is thus a sacred trust, a mithaq ghaliz, entered in the name of God. The legal tradition, by contrast, functions more like a compass than a blueprint, for the jurists concerned themselves with what could be enforced in court rather than the emotional or spiritual core of marriage. For this reason many scholars composed ethical treatises alongside legal manuals. The concept of qiwama, rooted in the verse "Men are qawwamun over women," was understood by scholars to entrust men with the financial, physical, and moral responsibility of the family. The Qur'an repeatedly commands the father to provide according to what is customarily fair, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Feed them from what you eat, clothe them with what you wear, do not strike them, and do not revile them." When Hind bint ʿUtba complained of Abu Sufyan's stinginess, he permitted her to take what was reasonable for herself and her children. A husband owes his wife two enforceable financial obligations: the mahr and ongoing nafaqa. Regarding the mahr, most jurists set no upper limit; Imams Ahmad and al-Shafiʿi rejected any fixed minimum so long as the gift had value, while Imams Malik and Abu Hanifa set thresholds of three to forty dirhams based on the social norms of their time. As for nafaqa, scholars unanimously held it obligatory throughout the marriage and the ʿidda, though a wife deemed nashiz was often held to forfeit maintenance, while an ill wife retained it since the condition was her availability (tamkin), not intercourse itself. Its extent was governed by custom: the Shafiʿis set benchmarks while the Hanafis, Malikis, and Hanbalis insisted it reflect prevailing norms, grounded in the repeated Qur'anic command to provide bil-maʿruf. For persistent neglect, the Malikis, Shafiʿis, and Hanbalis allowed judicial divorce, while the Hanafis preferred reconciliation and permitted a loan in the husband's name, all while cautioning against penalizing mere temporary hardship, citing, "If it is difficult for someone to repay a debt, postpone it until a time of ease." In turn, guardianship carried a measure of authority described as the husband's right to obedience, supported by narrations counseling wives to obey. Yet scholars diverged on its scope: some obliged obedience in all lawful matters, while others, such as the Hanafi jurist Ibn Nujaym, restricted it to matters related to marriage. All agreed, however, that the wife's central legal obligation was sexual availability, citing reports such as the angels cursing a wife who refuses her husband, and his command that she come "even if she is at the oven." The tradition nonetheless introduced firm limits: she is exempt during menstruation, obligatory fasting, illness, or fear of harm. Ibn Hajar explained that the hadith of the cursing angels concerns a wife who withholds without valid reason, and al-Muhallab bin Abi Sufra observed that deliberately neglecting one's obligations, whether physical or financial, risks divine displeasure. A holistic vision therefore blends law and ethics, for what is legally permissible is not always morally virtuous, and the legal minimum is never the moral ceiling. The classical exclusion of medical expenses from nafaqa reflected an age when care was cheap and extended families provided support; today, when a wife may lack income, healthcare, and kin, the ethical responsibility extends beyond the classical minimum as a demand of maʿruf. By the same measure, in debt-heavy economies it may be praiseworthy for an able wife to contribute where she can. Where law assigns the husband provision, ethics charges him with moral leadership accountable to Allah, exercised through shura and justice rather than aggression. This same trust governs intimacy, upon which scholars wrote sections on adab al-jimaʿ, urging gentleness and mindfulness of a wife's emotional state, while a wife's responsiveness reflects selflessness and devotion. The standard remains the Prophet's words, "The best of you are those who are best to their families, and I am the best among you to my family." Lived experience confirms this flexibility. Women often bore primary domestic responsibility, as when the Prophet ﷺ advised Fatima and ʿAli to divide labor within and outside the home, and assured Asmaʾ bint Yazid of reward equal to men's public acts of worship. Yet the Prophet ﷺ himself mended clothes, milked animals, and swept his home; ʿAʾisha said "he did what men usually do in their homes," which al-Muhallab took as a model for all. Men were the default providers, from ʿAbd al-Rahman bin ʿAwf to Abu Hanifa, yet women too were financial actors: the Prophet told Zaynab bint Masʿud she would be doubly rewarded for supporting her husband, and during the Mamluk period women worked as midwives, weavers, and even, like Dayfa bint ʿUmar, sole providers. The mahr likewise varied, as when the Prophet married a man to a woman "for what you know of the Qur'an," and later contracts diversified in form and timing. Intimacy was recognized as the wife's right as well: Salman corrected Abu al-Dardaʾ's excessive asceticism with the Prophet's approval, ʿUmar appointed Kaʿb bin Sur to arbitrate a similar complaint, and after consulting Hafsa he limited military deployments, a timeframe Ibn Taymiyya deemed approximate and al-Buhuti affirmed as a mutual right. Marital dynamics ranged widely, from the assertiveness of Medinan women that made the Prophet ﷺ smile, to the deference of Asmaʾ bint Abi Bakr and the composure of Umm Sulaym. The task today is not to blindly replicate medieval or modern models, but to uphold the spirit of Qur'anic and Prophetic guidance while adapting to new realities, recognizing the systemic forces that have reshaped family life. The desire to revive rigid "traditional" roles, though often grounded in faith, is not always sufficient when divorced from the contexts that once sustained them. What matters is organizing our households to protect them amid modern pressures, whether through divided or shared responsibilities, single or dual incomes. Beyond structures, we can reframe our mindset, approaching even mundane tasks with the intention of pleasing Allah, knowing that effort unrecognized by a spouse is still appreciated by al-Shakur. The Prophet ﷺ promised that no one sacrifices for Allah's sake except that He replaces it with something better, whether peace of heart, flourishing children, or reward in the Hereafter. So if a marriage is not harmful but merely hard, one's endurance may be among the most beloved of deeds, and in an age of unraveling families and widespread loneliness, such quiet striving may be the very thread that holds a community together. ## Key Takeaways 1. Modern economic and social structures have altered the conditions of family life. Recognizing these shifts helps explain why some aspects of marriage today are more demanding than in previous generations. 2. Islamic law outlines core rights and responsibilities in marriage. But beyond legal minimums, roles and responsibilities have always been negotiated based on personal needs and customary norms. 3. What is legally permissible is not always the most morally virtuous. A healthy marriage requires attention to both law and ethics. 4. Marriage in Islam is an act of worship. When approached with sincerity and sacrifice, even mundane acts—like chores or financial support—become pathways to divine reward and spiritual growth. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### My husband and I cannot agree on who should do what at home. What does Islam actually say about dividing responsibilities? Islamic law establishes that a husband is obligated to financially provide for his wife and household, and that a wife’s primary legal obligation is to be available to her husband within the marriage, while also recognizing limits, harm considerations, and the broader ethical framework of mutual care. Beyond that, the division of household labor was never rigidly prescribed. The Prophet ﷺ himself is described as being “in the service of his family,” mending his own clothes, sweeping, and milking animals. When Aisha was asked about his home life, she said simply that he did what men usually do in their homes—patching sandals, sewing, and seeing to his own needs. Scholars noted that this was not a one-time gesture of humility but a regular pattern he intended as a model. The classical scholars coined a maxim for good reason: “Custom carries legal weight.” What that means practically is that how responsibilities are organized within your home is legitimately shaped by your circumstances, your culture, and what you and your spouse work out together, so long as the minimum rights of each partner are honored. ### Is it wrong for a Muslim wife to work, especially if her husband can provide for the family? A wife has no Islamic legal obligation to work or contribute financially to the household; that obligation rests with the husband. But the history of Muslim women working is as old as the tradition itself. Zaynab, the wife of ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud, gave her zakat earnings to her financially struggling husband, and the Prophet ﷺ told her she would receive a double reward: once for the charity and once for supporting her household. Asmaʾ, after her divorce, asked the Prophet’s permission to cultivate her palm trees for income and charity, and he ﷺ encouraged her. During the Mamluk period, women from elite scholarly families worked looms; others were midwives, traders, and teachers. The question is not whether it is permissible for a wife to work—it clearly is. The question is what your family needs, what you both agree to, and whether the arrangement honors the spirit of mutual care that Islam asks of both spouses. ### I feel like my marriage is just about fulfilling obligations. How do I make it feel like more than that? The legal framework of marriage was always intended to be the floor, never the ceiling. Islamic law tells us the minimum we must do; Islamic ethics invites us toward what we ought to do for the sake of Allah’s pleasure. The Prophet ﷺ described the dinar spent on one’s family as the greatest dinar spent in His cause. He declared: “The best of you are those who are best to their families, and I am the best among you to my family.” This means that parenting, providing, lightening your spouse’s burden, showing up emotionally, and even doing the dishes can all be acts of worship when approached with the intention of *ihsan* (excellence). The mundane is not separate from the sacred in a Muslim marriage. It is precisely where the sacred is practiced, day after day, in ways that may go unrecognized by your spouse but are never unseen by al-Shakur, the One who appreciates every effort. ### What if I feel like I am giving more than my spouse and am becoming resentful? The Islamic tradition speaks with unusual honesty here. Scholars observed that a husband who neglects his financial obligations will sow resentment, just as a wife who withholds intimacy out of spite will fracture the relationship. Both undermine the spirit of reciprocity at the heart of a healthy marriage. The tradition does not ask you to pretend your needs do not exist or to never raise them. Communication, voicing unmet needs, and seeking resolution are all part of what it means to live together *bi-l-maʿruf* (with recognized goodness). What the tradition also offers, for those moments when effort goes unrecognized, is a reorientation: The Prophet ﷺ promised that no sacrifice made for the sake of Allah goes without compensation. That compensation may come as peace of heart, the flourishing of your children, or reward in the hereafter. Your endurance, when the marriage is hard but not harmful, may be among your most beloved deeds to Allah. ### Modern life makes marriage so much harder than it used to be. Is this just something we have to accept? The pressures are real and they are not accidental. Modern economies demand longer work hours, extended family networks have largely dissolved, children require more intensive parenting than ever before, and rising costs often make a single income unworkable. These structural shifts cannot simply be reversed by willing them away or romanticizing the past. What the tradition offers is not a rigid template from another era but a set of values resilient enough to be applied across changing conditions: kindness, trust, forbearance, mercy, and the intention to please Allah in every role you fill. When spouses approach even ordinary tasks with that intention, what could feel like a burden becomes worship. This does not mean staying silent about unmet needs or carrying everything alone. It means that in a time when family structures are unraveling and loneliness is widespread, the quiet striving of a Muslim couple to hold their home together may be the thread that holds a community together—and the reason Allah raises them both in rank. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/we-wont-back-down-when-righteous-anger-becomes-a-moral-duty-essay # We Won’t Back Down: When Righteous Anger Becomes a Moral Duty | Essay **Author:** Dr. Hatem al-Haj **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Ethics, Gaza, Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective, Racism **Published:** September 23, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 There are images that should never fade from our memory. Images that demand moral reckoning and spiritual resilience. The sight of Palestinian mothers and fathers holding the bodies of their children wounded, slain, or starving to death. The brutal bombing of medics and hospitals. The deliberate withholding of food and aid. Children executed in cold blood. An entire people forced to endure day after day of systematic humiliation. These are not accidents of war. They are part of a deliberate strategy to secure and normalize settler colonialism, to sustain the occupation of lands not rightfully held, and to enforce a ruthless structure of apartheid that mocks every human conscience. In these times, anger is not a flaw—it is an essential virtue. --- ## The fear of anger The greatest fear of an oppressor is not merely weapons or political pressure, but on a more foundational level, their greatest fear is an awakened, righteous anger. One that cannot be easily pacified or neutralized. The goal of sustained oppression is not only to dominate, but to exhaust. To numb the soul. To erode resolve. To make people indifferent to the very abuses that once stirred outrage. But we cannot let that happen. Imam Ibn Taymiyya captured this insight with striking clarity. He wrote, > People are not restrained from oppression except by **the repelling force of anger**; through that, justice and equity are upheld.[^1] This concept of *quwwa ghadabiyya dafʿiyya*—the repelling force of righteous anger—is a necessary moral force that protects justice and deters tyranny. Without it, oppression goes unchallenged, and justice remains a theoretical ideal rather than a lived reality. Without it, tyrants reign unopposed. --- ## Reconciling with the Prophetic ethic Understandably, some may ask: did not the Prophet ﷺ advise against anger? A well-known narration recounts a man who came seeking the Prophet’s advice. The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Do not become angry.” When the man repeated his request, the Prophet continued to give the same reply: “Do not become angry.”[^2] At first glance, this might seem contradictory to any call for sustained anger. But the Prophet ﷺ did not prohibit anger in its entirety. Rather, he ﷺ warned against the kind of anger that dominates and conquers one’s character. The impulsive, self-serving anger that clouds judgment, leads to injustice, or transforms into despair. In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ clarified, “The strong one is not the one who overcomes others in wrestling, but the one who controls himself when angry.”[^3] The emphasis, then, is not on eradicating anger but on mastering it. The Qur’an itself describes Allah’s anger toward injustice and transgression,[^4] and the Prophet ﷺ displayed righteous anger when the sanctities of Allah were violated.[^5] Anger, in its correct form, is not only natural—it is noble. It is purposeful anger, disciplined anger, an anger that aligns itself with the universal laws of God and is conscious and considerate of the equations of power in the world. --- ## Resisting injustice with integrity [Righteous anger](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/hadith-17-righteous-anger-40-hadiths-on-social-justice) is not wild or erratic. It is measured and principled, able to resist humiliation and the normalization of evil. It opposes degradation without becoming degrading. It defies cruelty without becoming cruel. It refuses to normalize oppression or grow numb to its persistence. This form of anger is strategic. It does not rush blindly into confrontation, but neither does it accept perpetual retreat. It understands timing. It preserves its strength. It sustains hope over the long term. And, ultimately, it knows that resistance takes many forms. Sometimes, that resistance must be overt and defiant, and premature confrontations may be forced upon parts of the *ummah* in certain circumstances and places. Other times, we must prepare. Our anger may be perceived as quiet but it is deliberate—learning, organizing, educating. For a student, that might mean excelling in their studies as a foundation for future leadership. For a parent, it may mean raising children who will never accept such evil and humiliation as normal. All of this is part of a long, patient struggle for dignity and justice. We want an anger that builds a resistance resilient enough to weather the years, patient enough to wait for its moment, and wise enough to ensure that when it rises, it prevails, and it does not rise as another oppressor. And so, perhaps the greatest danger is not anger itself, but anger that becomes distorted. We are reminded by the wisdom of Imam al-Shafiʿi, who said, “Whoever is provoked to anger and does not become angry is a donkey; and whoever is sought for reconciliation and refuses it is a devil.”[^6] To feel no anger in the face of oppression is to surrender one’s humanity. But at the same time, to refuse reconciliation when justice has been served is to descend into cruelty. There is a balance to be struck—between principled resistance and the preservation of one’s own moral integrity. Forgiveness, too, must be rightly placed. To forgive an active oppressor who continues to harm with impunity is not virtue—it is the acceptance of evil and the surrender of dignity masquerading as piety. --- ## A final reflection In these trying times, it is not enough to feel outrage. We cannot let our *fitra*—our God-given compass—be dulled by the endless scroll of headlines. Outrage must be channeled into something enduring. Something that leads not only to defiance but to revival. We need anger that is rooted in our faith, guided by our ethics, and directed toward a world where dignity is not a privilege, but a right for all. We cannot let our efforts for Palestine fade or our souls exhaust to the point of inaction. We must manifest the oppressors’ greatest fear and nurture a righteous anger that is a force for good—a path toward dignity, justice, and triumph in this life, and salvation in the next. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā,* 15:435. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6116. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6114. [^4]: For example, Allah says, “And \[remember\] when you said, ‘O Moses! We cannot endure the same meal \[every day\]. So \[just\] call upon your Lord on our behalf, He will bring forth for us some of what the earth produces of herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions.’ Moses scolded \[them\], ‘Do you exchange what is better for what is worse? \[You can\] go down to any village and you will find what you have asked for.’ They were stricken with disgrace and misery, and they invited the anger of Allah for rejecting Allah’s signs and unjustly killing the prophets. This is \[a fair reward\] for their disobedience and violations” (Qur’an 2:61). He also says, “They will be stricken with disgrace wherever they go, unless they are protected by a covenant with Allah or a treaty with the people. They have invited the anger of Allah and have been branded with misery for rejecting Allah’s revelations and murdering \[His\] prophets unjustly. This is \[a fair reward\] for their disobedience and violations” (Qur’an 3:112). [^5]: For example, “Whenever Allah’s Messenger ﷺ was given the choice of one of two matters, he would choose the easier of the two, as long as it was not sinful to do so, but if it was sinful to do so, he would not approach it. Allah’s Messenger ﷺ never took revenge \[over anybody\] for his own sake, but \[he did\] only when Allah’s boundaries were violated, in which case he would take revenge for Allah’s sake.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3560. [^6]: Imam al-Shafiʿi, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ, Abū Nuʿaym,* 9:143. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-and-politics-in-the-west-when-absence-is-the-right-move-essay # Faith and Politics in the West: When Absence is the Right Move | Essay **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** Islam in the West, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Perspective **Published:** September 16, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 ## Sharif Hussein and the British betrayal When Sharif Hussein of Mecca joined forces with the British during the First World War, he imagined he was securing a noble future for the Arabs. The British promised him independence if he would revolt against the Ottomans, and Hussein obliged, launching the Arab Revolt with great fanfare. But while he was raising the banner of Arab freedom, the British were secretly dividing the region with the French through the Sykes–Picot Agreement and issuing the Balfour Declaration that would pave the way for dispossession in Palestine. In the end, Hussein’s rebellion unwittingly assisted in delivering Arab lands into colonialist hands. His story is not simply one of being betrayed by a sly enemy, it is also a story of how ostensibly sincere but ultimately naïve—even delusional—action can lead to disastrous consequences. --- ## Are all tables worth sitting at? In our American Muslim discourse, “civic engagement” has acquired a halo. It is presented as an inherent good, as if the way to end the genocide abroad and protect the Muslim community domestically is simply a function of attending interfaith luncheons and political roundtables. The phrase “having a seat at the table” is repeated so often that it has become a kind of mantra. But are all tables worth sitting at? Depending on which table we are sitting at, our presence could actually hinder influence rather than achieve it. When we show up in spaces not because our voice is valued, but because our image is desired—complete with kufi or hijab—our presence is at best banal tokenization, at worst a prop to launder reputations and whitewash crimes. Faith gatherings in particular are not just sites of dialogue, mutual understanding, and bridge-building. Too often, they are PR stunts hatched by oppressive regimes, simultaneously rituals and exercises of soft power. Our attendance becomes the photo-op they need, an avenue of plausible deniability, while their inhuman and evil policies remain unchanged. Our presence in such instances is not speaking truth to power; rather, it inoculates evil forces from the critique that they have malicious intent. “How could we?” their rehearsed retort goes, “when we have great partnerships with Muslim leaders.” What, after all, do imams and Muslim leaders really have to offer at such gatherings? We don’t have money to give. We don’t represent powerful lobbies. We don’t command armies or monopolize the media. What we do have is moral authority and the credibility that comes with it. Imams and Muslim religious leaders in general must understand that whenever we receive an invitation, it is our moral authority and credibility that our hosts are after. Furthermore, we should be savvy enough to suspect that invitations are very deliberate and calculated; government agencies, political institutions, and interfaith councils choose their mascots, preferring a friendly, unsuspecting face. State agencies can and do co-opt minority communities, a reality that we have to reckon with and take into consideration when sizing up invitations and partnerships. As religious leaders we do a tremendous disservice to our positions and the trust vested in us when we don’t even properly vet the organizations that are inviting us, the speakers who will appear alongside us, or take a minute to calculate the cost of showing up in certain spaces. I do not exaggerate when I surmise that most religious leaders accept invitations almost entirely based on the availability on their calendars. Simply put, the integrity of our community is damaged when we allow ourselves to be trotted out at such events as symbolic cover. --- ## Loyalty, solidarity, and red lines In the Qur’an, Allah articulates a vision of principled, not naive, engagement. It is true that Allah tells us: > O mankind, We created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. (Qur’an 49:13) Generally, we are expected to engage with and learn from one another. However, this general expectation does not apply to situations where engagement lends legitimacy to or facilitates oppression and injustice. If the Qur’anic injunction to “cooperate in righteousness and piety” is used to justify our civic engagement, we must not forget the rest of the verse: > but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty. (Qur’an 5:2) We must refuse “engagement” that in reality constitutes cooperation in sin and aggression. At the very least, this must be the default position unless there is clear, concrete, and compelling rationale otherwise (discussed below). Surah al-Mumtahina offers concise lessons on the limits of engagement. We are told to take Prophet Ibrahim (as) as our example and are immediately shown the limits of his engagement: > There has already been for you an excellent pattern in Ibrahim and those with him, when they said to their people, “Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone” except for the saying of Ibrahim to his father, “I will surely ask forgiveness for you, but I have not \[power to do\] for you anything against Allah. Our Lord, upon You we have relied, and to You we have returned, and to You is the destination.” (Qur’an 60:4) What is truly remarkable about Surah al-Mumtahina is that immediately after demonstrating Ibrahim’s disassociation, Allah tells us that friendship and enmity are temporary, conditional states that may change: > Perhaps Allah will put, between you and those to whom you have been enemies among them, affection. And Allah is competent, and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (Qur’an 60:7) Placing this verse after the example of Ibrahim seems to imply that making an adversary into a friend is not done through fawning or meekness, but rather by drawing clear boundaries and knowing when to walk away. Engagement—in order to be ethical, effective, and dignified—must have boundaries. Uncritical engagement lacks dignity and might indicate an underlying inferiority complex or need for validation. Allah blames this attitude in the Qur’an, identifying it as one found in the hypocrites, > Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment—those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor \[through power\]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (Qur’an 4:138–139) Coming back to Surah al-Mumtahina, Allah gives us crystal clear boundaries, > Allah only forbids you from those who fight you because of religion and expel you from your homes and aid in your expulsion—\[forbids\] that you make allies of them. And whoever makes allies of them, then it is those who are the wrongdoers. (Qur’an 60:9) The Prophet ﷺ modeled engagement with clear red lines. The Charter of Medina united Muslims, Jews, and other groups under one civic pact—but it had conditions, and when those conditions were violated there were dire consequences. Treaties with the enemy are permissible, no one disputes this; yet the Treaty of Hudaybiyya also had conditions, the violation of which had clear consequences that were swiftly enacted. It would be a useful exercise to ask some of those justifying their own questionable civic and political engagements: when have you actually walked away or refused a meeting, a stage, or a platform? What are your conditions, what are your specific red lines? If those questions are met with deafening silence—or worse, vague deflection—the community has a right to doubt the efficacy and even the dignity of that leader’s engagement. This includes pointing to general juristic axioms that are known to all, such as the removal of harm, choosing the lesser of two harms when they conflict, preventing harm taking precedence over bringing benefits, etc. There is little to no disagreement among the jurists about these axioms in theory, but this is not what is being questioned. What is up for scrutiny is the application of these axioms in real-world situations. When certain leaders consistently fail to include relevant factors in their application of these axioms—factors such as government agencies’ stated goal of co-opting minority groups and organizations—the seemingly legitimate but ultimately unethical results cannot be brushed aside as “just *ijtihad*.” There must be a process of evaluation, and when necessary, contrition and even apologies to the community for well-intended missteps that brought harm to the community. --- ## The abuse of Hudaybiyya It has become common in American Muslim circles to invoke Hudaybiyya whenever and wherever the quality of our civic engagement is questioned. “See,” we are told, “the Prophet ﷺ himself accepted unfavorable terms for the sake of a greater good.” This is a regrettable abuse of the story of Hudaybiyya and its lessons. Hudaybiyya was not a lesson in meeting the enemy halfway, nor can it be used to justify engagement no matter what. For one thing, it was a lesson in substance over symbolism. While the terms of the treaty looked lopsided on paper, with the Quraysh refusing even to allow “Muhammad, Messenger of Allah” to be written in the document, in reality the substance of the deal was very favorable for the believers and their interests at the time. Even the seemingly unfair double standard of having to send apostates to Mecca but not allowing converts to leave Mecca for Medina favored the Muslims by ridding them of subversive elements and planting sympathetic elements within Mecca, which they would soon conquer. Beyond the substance of the treaty, Hudaybiyya would not have been possible if the Muslims had not first created the leverage needed to negotiate from a position of strength. This was done in two ways. First, by daring to make a pilgrimage deep into enemy territory, the Muslims put the Quraysh in an impossible position. Had the Quraysh slaughtered the Muslims—as they surely would have liked to do—it would have jeopardized their political legitimacy, which rested squarely on their facilitation of the pilgrimage. Attacking the Muslims would have been tantamount to politicizing the pilgrimage, something that no Arab tribe would stand for, as they would then have to wonder if their own pilgrimage rites were secure should they happen to run afoul of the Quraysh. At the same time, the Quraysh couldn’t simply let the Muslims perform their pilgrimage in front of the Meccan population, which would have functioned as an incredible advertisement for Islam. It was for this reason that the Quraysh insisted in the Treaty of Hudaybiyya that the Muslims return home and postpone their pilgrimage to the following year to an agreed upon period of three days when the Quraysh would evacuate the city of Mecca. Besides the daring pilgrimage itself, the Muslims established leverage by having clear, inviolable red lines, demonstrated by a key event in the *sirah* known as Bayʿat al-Ridwan. Bayʿat al-Ridwan occurred before the Treaty of Hudaybiyya and was prompted by rumors of ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan (ra), their emissary, being murdered by the Quraysh. Despite being dressed in pilgrims’ garb and unequipped for war, the Muslims gathered under a tree to take an oath that if ʿUthman had indeed been murdered, they would fight the Quraysh to the death then and there, prepared or not. Of that oath Allah said, > Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, \[O Muhammad\], under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest. (Qur’an 48:18) By drawing clear boundaries, the Muslims demonstrated the immense strength of their faith, to which was added the metaphysical strength of having gained Allah’s approval. It was from this very strength that they were then able to negotiate the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, once it became clear that ʿUthman had not been murdered. Without such strength, compromise is, in fact, capitulation. When some of our leaders today point to Hudaybiyya to justify every type of engagement under the sun, we should point to Bayʿat al-Ridwan. Have you made your Bayʿat al-Ridwan? What are your red lines? Without Bayʿat al-Ridwan, Hudaybiyya would not have been possible. Unfortunately, I fear that if our community were in a situation similar to the one the companions were in before Hudaybiyya but instead our emissary had, in fact, been killed by our enemies, some of our leaders would only call us to more and more “engagement” rather than draw boundaries and take a stand like Bayʿat al-Ridwan. To me, this signals a subtle heresy that has been unwittingly internalized by leaders calling to “engage” no matter what: the internalized belief that Islam itself actually constitutes a security threat, or that extremism is the root problem (to which “moderate” imams are the solution) rather than Western foreign policy. This warrants an entire discussion in a separate article. --- ## Good intentions are not enough It is important to emphasize that sincerity does not guarantee effective nor strategic engagement. I have been careful in this piece to only address scenarios and phenomena where the sincerity of everyone involved is beyond question. But sincerity alone does not prevent misjudgment, nor should it shut down valid criticism. It is entirely possible that a particular Muslim leader might excel in his duties as imam as well as in personal piety, *akhlaq*, and spiritual insight while still being terrible at politics and strategic engagement. We can take a lesson from the story of Hatib ibn Abi Baltaʿah (ra). He was a companion of the Prophet ﷺ, sincere in his faith, a veteran of Badr, yet he made a serious strategic error leading up to the Conquest of Mecca. By sending a letter to Quraysh warning them of the Prophet’s movements, he endangered the Muslim community. His intentions were not malicious—he was trying to protect his family in Mecca. But good intentions did not erase the danger of his actions. Tellingly, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab asked for permission to execute him. While the Prophet ﷺ denied ʿUmar the request and forgave Hatib, he also didn’t upbraid ʿUmar for a lack of *adab* or for being divisive. The reaction of ʿUmar and the Prophet ﷺ indicate that while we remain forgiving and forbearing, taking people’s intentions into consideration, our leaders and representatives must be held accountable, even if they are sincere. A photo with a genocider or a handshake with a normalizer are not acts of intelligent engagement if they come at the cost of our credibility and violate the solidarity due to believers across the globe. Hatib’s misstep was an isolated incident. What, then, about contemporary Muslim leaders who have a decade or more of questionable or even brazenly problematic engagements? At what point are we allowed to scrutinize the results of a leader’s engagement without being accused of delving into his intentions or seeking to tarnish his reputation? To dismiss such criticism as the work of woke keyboard warriors or to equate it to calling for isolation—no engagement at all—is irresponsible. Much of the confusion comes from an acute lack of transparency. Organizations are required to file reports and expected to issue statements indicating clearly where they stand on certain issues. Imams choosing to involve themselves in civic engagement should do the same. Failing this, the community should not be blamed for suspecting or criticizing leaders if they only have problematic photo-ops and a list of questionable actions to decipher an imam’s positions and strategy. Indeed, it is a Prophetic quality to go out of one’s way to anticipate and clarify potential doubts. In a well known story, the Prophet ﷺ was accompanying one of his wives at night when two companions appeared at a distance. When they noticed the Prophet ﷺ and his wife, they changed direction in an attempt to avoid them. In response, the Prophet ﷺ called them over to clarify who he was with and why.[^1] In another example, the Prophet ﷺ refused to take action against the hypocrites because he expected such an action would cause doubt and unwarranted suspicion.[^2] Calls for accountability are not akin to a witch hunt, a smear campaign, or advocating for imams and Muslim religious leaders to just stick to the mosque. It is simply a recognition that civic engagement as a targeted minority is a minefield that is not suited for everyone. If any given imam is going to choose to involve himself in this work, he should expect scrutiny and offer transparency, since such a leader doesn’t just represent himself in those spaces, he represents all of us. There is also no shame in acknowledging one’s limitations and adjusting one’s sphere of activity accordingly. Even among the companions there was specialization and the recognition that despite their righteousness and piety, certain companions were not fit for certain tasks. The Prophet’s exchange with Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (ra) is instructive here: > Abu Dharr reported: I said, “O Messenger of Allah, will you not appoint me as a leader?” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, struck my chest with his hand, then he said, “O Abu Dharr, you are weak and it is a position of public trust. Verily, on the Day of Resurrection it will only result in regret, except for one who takes it by right and fulfills its duties.” And the Prophet said, “I love for you what I love for myself. Do not command even two people, and do not manage the property of an orphan.”[^3] We need our imams to rise to the moment, but only those who are built for the work. --- ## A call to purposeful absence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W2h070z090 Imam Tom breaks down what Muslims need today: knowing when to engage, when to walk away, and how power can use our presence to legitimize injustice. Islam calls us neither to isolation nor to engage at all costs and in all circumstances. Rather, it calls us to purposeful presence—and, when necessary, to purposeful absence. Civic engagement, in order to uplift our community, further our interests, and above all please Allah, must have red lines that are never crossed. If they are crossed, the minimum consequence is withholding our presence as religious leaders, refusing to give moral cover or credibility to our adversaries. To refuse the table, to decline the invitation, to leave the chair empty—that can sometimes speak louder than any speech we deliver once seated. Purposeful absence sends a message: our moral authority is not for sale. Our faith is not a prop. Our loyalty to the truth and to each other is not negotiable. The Prophet ﷺ taught us when to engage, and he taught us when to disengage. To imitate his sunnah in America today means not just rushing to every table we are offered, but having the courage to say: this table is not worthy of us. Let us not forget Malcolm’s words: “Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner. You must be eating some of what’s on that plate.”[^4] In the end, our community’s dignity will not be measured by the number of rooms we were invited into, but by the integrity we preserved in the rooms we chose to avoid. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2035. [^2]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4905. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1825. [^4]: Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet” (speech, Congress of Racial Equality, Cleveland OH, April 3, 1964). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/virtues-of-surah-al-baqara-healing-and-protection-in-the-qurans-longest-chapter # Virtues of Surah al-Baqara: Healing and Protection in the Qur’an’s Longest Chapter **Author:** Sh. Suleiman Hani **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Quranic Reflections, Quranic Themes, Quranic Virtues **Published:** August 29, 2025 **Updated:** April 2, 2026 ## Introduction One night, standing underneath the vast stretch of the starry sky, Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr found himself reciting Surah al-Baqara. His horse, tied beside him, suddenly grew agitated. When Ibn Ḥuḍayr paused his recitation, the horse fell silent. He resumed his recitation, only for the horse to again become visibly distressed. He stopped, and again so did his horse’s agitation. For one final time he tried to continue his recitation, but to no avail—his horse was unsettled and worked up, and his son, Yahya, was too close for comfort. Ibn Ḥuḍayr, fearing that the horse might trample his son, bent down and scooped him up. When he stood and looked up towards the sky, his eyes fell upon an unfathomable sight. He blinked, stared, and blinked again. He couldn’t see the sky. The next morning, Ibn Ḥuḍayr informed the Prophet ﷺ of the strange incident. “Recite, O Ibn Ḥuḍayr!” declared the Prophet ﷺ. “Recite, O Ibn Ḥuḍayr!” He replied, “O Allah’s Messenger ﷺ! My son, Yahya, was near the horse and I was afraid that it might trample him, so I looked towards the sky, and went to him. When I looked at the sky, I saw something like a cloud containing what looked like lamps, so I went out in order not to see it.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Do you know what that was?” “No,” replied Ibn Ḥuḍayr. “Those were angels who came near to you for your voice,” said the Prophet ﷺ. “If you had kept on reciting till dawn, it would have remained there till morning when people would have seen it, as it would not have disappeared.”[^1] Few terrestrial beings are worthy of such celestial visitation. It is those who recite the speech of God, who partake of its blessings and wrap themselves in its protections, who enjoy this honor. This is the power of Allah’s speech—it joins heaven and earth, such that the inhabitants of the former become the guests of the latter. Ibn Ḥuḍayr’s encounter highlights both the spiritual impact and theological significance of reciting the Qur’an, and so it perfectly exemplifies the objective of this series of papers on the virtues of the Qur’an. The recitation of the Qur’an carries immense everyday benefit, in ways we can perceive and ways we cannot. While we will not always be graced with the visible presence of angels whenever we recite, our recitation will always bring us into contact with the unseen world. The profound impact of the Qur’an is such that it touches not just the human heart, but every level of reality. The angels could hear Ibn Ḥuḍayr’s recitation and were drawn to its beauty, manifesting as a celestial presence, described as lamps in a cloud. This story helps demonstrate why one of the most uplifting and motivational branches of the sciences of the Qur’an (*ʿulum al-Qurʾan*) is the *fadaʾil* (virtues) of specific chapters (sing. *surah*) and verses (sing. *ayah*), as well as the general virtues of the entire Qur’an. Many Muslims may know about the verses that should be recited for spiritual healing (*ruqya*), or the *surah* that will serve as a protection in the grave, or the *surah*s that offer shade on the Day of Resurrection.[^2] These examples, however, hardly cover the inexhaustible virtues of Allah’s Word. ***For a comprehensive introduction to the virtues (*fadaʾil*) of Qur’anic chapters and verses, readers are encouraged to consult the [first paper in this series](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/surah-al-fatihas-benefits-and-virtues-the-greatest-surah-in-the-quran), on Surah al-Fatiha.*** Through understanding these virtues, believers deepen their connection with Allah’s Word and transform the Qur’an into a trusted companion for both the worldly life and the Hereafter. This paper examines the authenticated virtues of Surah al-Baqara, drawing from the compilation *Special Virtues of the Qur’an’s Chapters and Verses* (*al-Jāmiʿ al-mukhtaṣar li-faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar*).[^3] A virtue here refers to any special trait mentioned in authentic reports, whether a unique reward for recitation, protection from harm, or the Prophet’s ﷺ particular attachment to or frequent recitation of specific passages. --- ## Surah al-Baqara Surah al-Baqara is the longest chapter of the Qur’an. The one who takes this *surah* as a companion will find increased blessings (*baraka*) in life, protection from evil, a healing and a cure, increased acceptance of one’s supplicatory prayers (*du*ʿ*a*), tranquility and peace, a source of protection and intercession in the afterlife, and a pathway to Paradise. Surah al-Baqara, which was revealed in Medina, contains the greatest and most powerful verse to be revealed,[^4] the longest verse of the Qur’an,[^5] two verses that were revealed from beneath the Throne during the Prophet’s night journey and ascension to heaven (al-Israʾ wa al-Miʿraj),[^6] likely the final verse to be revealed,[^7] references to Allah the Almighty in over one hundred verses, numerous historical incidents and stories of the prophets,[^8] the verse to be recited when starting the first of seven circuits for minor or major pilgrimage (*ʿumrah* or Hajj) at the mountains of al-Safa and al-Marwa,[^9] explicit references to the tenets of faith (*iman*),[^10] and laws (*ahkam*) utilized in everyday life on an individual, family, and societal level. It is no surprise, then, that companion ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud (d. 32/652, rA) reportedly said, “Everything has a peak and the peak of the Qur’an is al-Baqara.”[^11] --- ## Names of Surah al-Baqara In his seminal work *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr*, where he articulates the overarching aims (*maqasid*) of each chapter of the Qur’an,[^12] eminent exegete Ibn ʿAshur (d. 1393/1973) foregrounds the famous description of Surah al-Baqara as “the canopy of the Qur’an” (*fusṭāṭ al-Qurʾan*), a title that captures its extensive range of themes and styles, its remarkable comprehensiveness, and diversity of content.[^13] Al-Qurtubi similarly cites the saying of the hadith narrator Khalid ibn Maʿdān (d. 103/721) that Surah al-Baqara is the “canopy” (*fusṭāṭ*) of the Qur’an due to its magnificence, beauty, and abundance of rulings and admonitions.[^14] Al-Shawkani (d. 1250/1834) adds that this reputation stems from the *surah*’s extensive legal rulings (*ahkam*) and its distinction as the longest chapter of the Qur’an, thus encompassing a broad spectrum of guidance.[^15] A few scholars believed the *surah* was given this name by the Prophet ﷺ himself. “Fusṭāṭ al-Qur’an” is just one of at least four names bestowed upon this *surah*: **1\. Surah al-Baqara (The Chapter of the Cow):** The most well-known name of the *surah*, derived from the narrative of the cow (*al-baqara*) and the Israelites in verses 67–73. This name reflects the *surah*’s emphasis on moral lessons and the importance of obedience to divine commands. **2. Fusṭāṭ al-Qur’an (The Canopy of the Qur’an):** This term signifies the *surah*’s comprehensive treatment of articles of creed (*ʿaqida*), legal rulings (*ahkam*), and spiritual guidance (*huda*). **3. Sanām al-Qur’an (The Peak of the Qur’an):** This title—taken from the famous saying of Ibn Masʿud—emphasizes the *surah*’s elevated status and comprehensive guidance.[^16] **4. Al-Zahraʾ (The Radiant):** This name is shared with Surah Aal ʿImran. In *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Recite the two radiant ones: al-Baqara and Aal ʿImran…”[^17] While these names honor the virtues of Surah al-Baqara, some scholars view certain titles, such as al-Zahraʾ and Sanām al-Qurʾan, as descriptive attributes rather than formal names. Still, like the multiple names given to Surah al-Fatiha, these appellations highlight the central place of Surah al-Baqara within the Islamic tradition, its role as a doctrinal canopy—a concept that will be explained later in this paper—and its enduring impact on the spiritual life of the Muslim community. --- ## Themes and objectives of Surah al-Baqara Ibn ʿAshur notes that Surah al-Baqara categorizes humanity into groups—believers, disbelievers, hypocrites, and the People of the Book—thereby illustrating the varied responses to divine guidance.[^18] Per jurist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya, this classification reflects the conditions in Medina, where believers, overt disbelievers, and hypocrites all coexisted after the Prophet’s ﷺ migration.[^19] It is within this context of contestation that Surah al-Baqara affirms the foundational truths of Islam—what Ibn Taymiyya identifies as the *surah*’s establishment of three core tenets of faith (*usul al-din*): the oneness of Allah (*tawhid*), the truth of the Prophetic message, and the reality of the hereafter.[^20] Surah al-Baqara pairs this overarching theological framework with comprehensive rulings (*ahkam*) on worship, social conduct, family relations, financial transactions, and criminal law.[^21] It thus establishes the sound creed of submission while showing how faith is to be translated into practice—and in so doing prepares the Muslim community for carrying the divine trust, following the way of Prophet Ibrahim (as). Given that Surah al-Baqara is rigorously historical and comparative in its approach, one of its central narrative motifs is the history of the Children of Israel. By recounting their errors and resistance to prophetic guidance, the *surah* warns the Muslim community against similar pitfalls. Ibn Taymiyya comments that because the Prophet ﷺ encountered Jewish tribes in Medina, Surah al-Baqara references Jews more frequently (as opposed to Surah Aal ʿImran, which more often references Christians).[^22] This historical engagement also models the Prophet’s ﷺ approach to *daʿwah* (inviting others to Islam), beginning with those closest to him—first the pagans who were closest to him in Mecca, then the Jews who were closest in Medina, and later the Christians addressed in Surah Aal ʿImran.[^23] Moreover, the *surah* challenges objections from various opponents—disbelievers, the People of the Book, and idolaters—to the newly established Islamic law, the change of the direction of prayer (*qibla*), and the claim that Islam continues the pure monotheism of Ibrahim. Surah al-Baqara thus situates the Muslim community within a divine narrative of guidance and transformation, culminating in a concluding supplication that summarizes its central teachings and earnestly seeks Allah’s mercy and guidance.[^24] From its first verse to the last, the *surah* retains a resolute focus on the true nature of belief (*iman*).[^25] Having introduced the themes and objectives of Surah al-Baqara as outlined by Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn ʿAshur, we can now better appreciate why the virtues (*fadaʾil*) of Surah al-Baqara are emphasized in various narrations. --- ## Virtues of Surah al-Baqara Abu Umāma said he heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say, “Recite the Qur’an, for on the Day of Resurrection it will come as an intercessor for those who recite it. Recite the two bright ones, al-Baqara and Surah Aal ʿImran, for on the Day of Resurrection they will come as two clouds or two shades, or two flocks of birds in ranks, pleading for those who recite them. Recite Surah al-Baqara, for to take recourse to it is a blessing and to give it up is a cause of grief, and magicians cannot confront it.”[^26] This narration presents the Qur’an as an active intercessor on the Day of Judgment. Within the great symphony of divine words, Surah al-Baqara and Aal ʿImran are singled out as “the two bright ones.” Their imagery as clouds or birdlike formations in ordered ranks conjures a sense of both refuge and advocacy. These metaphors invoke Surah al-Baqara’s exalted status as the “canopy of the Qur’an.” Just as a canopy provides shelter and shade, the *surah* provides moral, legal, and doctrinal guidance, serving as a sanctuary for the believer in a chaotic world. On the Day of Resurrection, these verses that once shaped ethical behavior and fortified faith will become pleas on the believer’s behalf, reflecting the *surah*’s core ethos: those who embrace divine guidance find that guidance testifies for them when they are most in need. Al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān (d. 50/670, rA) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘The Qur’an will be brought on the Day of Resurrection, along with its companions who used to act by it, at the front being Surah al-Baqara and Aal-ʿImran.’ He \[the Messenger ﷺ\] likened them \[the two *surah*s\] to three things which I did not forget. He said they will be like two clouds, or two black canopies with light between them, or like two flocks of birds in ranks pleading for one who recited them.”[^27] This second narration reinforces the eschatological dimension of the *surah*. Surah al-Baqara and Aal ʿImran lead the Qur’an’s “companions”—those who not only recited but acted upon it—on the Day of Judgment. This emphasizes a critical interplay between mere familiarity with the text and transformative adherence to its teachings. Both Surah al-Baqara and Aal ʿImran lay out foundational aspects of faith, law, and moral rectitude, and al-Baqara, in particular, affirms Allah’s Oneness, authenticates the Prophetic mission, and establishes criteria for navigating life’s ethical complexities. To truly engage with Surah al-Baqara, one must move beyond passive recitation. Engagement demands wrestling with its exhortations, absorbing its legal provisions, and reorienting one’s heart toward divine unity and sincere obedience. Those who do so discover that the *surah* becomes their advocate, a living companion that rises to defend them, symbolizing the internalization of divine guidance. Moreover, Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not turn your households into graveyards. Indeed, the devils flee from a household that has Surah al-Baqara recited in it.”[^28] Here, the recitation of Surah al-Baqara is not depicted as a shield in the distant future, but as one now, in the present. The Qur’an sanctifies the immediate environment of the believer—a home without it is without life, dead in its silence, just as a home resuscitated by its recitation is released from the devils. The *surah*’s comprehensive guidance—its laws governing worship, family life, economic transactions, and ethical behavior—translates into a tangible spiritual atmosphere. When the *surah* is regularly recited, its words shape the tenor of everyday existence, infusing living spaces with spiritual vitality and moral clarity. Weaving these three narrations with the themes of Surah al-Baqara reveals a cohesive spiritual, moral, and social guidance under one great canopy. This chapter asserts fundamental theological convictions by affirming Allah’s singular sovereignty and the truth of the Prophetic message (Qur’an 2:23–24), and it highlights the Qur’an’s role as guidance for the righteous (2:2). It addresses human relationships and ethical norms, encouraging kindness to parents, orphans, and the needy (2:83), as well as justice and mercy in interpersonal dealings (2:177). The *surah* also revisits the experiences of earlier communities, notably the Children of Israel, to warn against heedlessness and the dire consequences of rejecting divine guidance (2:40–61). Its comprehensive scope encompasses devotional acts such as prayer (2:3) and fasting (2:183), lawful commerce and the prohibition of interest (2:275), and governance of personal and family affairs (2:180–182, 2:221–242). Internalizing these teachings, as suggested by the narrations that extol the virtues of reciting and living by Surah al-Baqara, not only enriches one’s spiritual life but also shapes a believer’s social environment and eternal prospects, firmly grounding the individual and the community in divine guidance. Surah al-Baqara, for its companion—i.e., the one who acts upon it and habitually recites it—is a source of *baraka*. *Baraka*, in the Islamic worldview, is a type of divine blessing in someone or something that increases its goodness. It can transform a small quantity into something sufficient and beneficial beyond expectation. A modest home infused with *baraka* may feel both ample and comforting for its inhabitants, while a more spacious home devoid of *baraka* could feel cramped and unsatisfying. Similarly, a vessel partially filled with water might, through the grace of *baraka*, quench the thirst of multiple individuals, whereas an entire container lacking such blessings might fail to meet even a single person’s needs. Time with blessings, likewise, may yield far more meaningful work and spiritual growth than longer periods devoid of it. It may seem paradoxical that Surah al-Baqara—renowned for being the lengthiest chapter of the Qur’an—is synonymous with amplifying blessings, including the enrichment of time. From a purely empirical standpoint, the notion of *baraka* defies measurement, elusive to scientific examination or rational metrics. Yet, choosing not to recite Surah al-Baqara, despite the ability to do so, can lead to a loss and regret reminiscent of the hadith’s warning. In another version of the first narration presented in this section, Muʿawiya (rA) explains that the term *baṭala* is used as a description of magicians who engage with deceit and falsehood (*bāṭil*).[^29] Yet, *baṭala* also alludes to those ensnared by laziness and unwilling to invest sincere effort for this *surah*’s virtues.[^30] Thus, the *surah* stands as a fortress, not only against spiritual corruption but also against the laziness that prevents one from seeking divine bounty. In a world where individuals often invest heavily in quick fixes and productivity shortcuts, the profound blessings Allah grants for sincere acts of worship can go unnoticed. Reflecting on the virtues of Surah al-Baqara reveals its profound significance: it is a reservoir of *baraka*, a shield of protection, and a fountain of divine reward. Two elements, in particular, underscore its elevated status: the inclusion of Ayat al-Kursi and the *surah*’s final two verses. Together, these passages exemplify the spiritual power and transformative potential that lie at the heart of Surah al-Baqara. --- ## Ayat al-Kursi (The Verse of the Footstool)[^31] The verse (*ayah*) described by the Prophet ﷺ as the greatest *ayah* of the Qur’an, Ayat al-Kursi (the Verse of the Footstool)*,* references the power of Allah, His names and attributes, His perfection, and His status as the One Lord deserving of all worship. This *ayah* is a powerful remedy for any human with an inkling of pride, reminding us of the fragility of mankind and our constant need for relief, rest, and reliance upon the Everlasting, the Ever-Living. Ubayy ibn Kaʿb said: “Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: ‘O Abu al-Mundhir, which verse from the Book of Allah is the greatest, according to you?’ I said: ‘Allah and His Messenger ﷺ know best.’ He again said: ‘Abu al-Mundhir, which verse from the Book of Allah is the greatest, according to you?’ I said: ‘*Allah, there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal*’ \[i.e., Ayat al-Kursi\]. Thereupon he touched me on my chest and said: ‘Rejoice in your knowledge, O Abu al-Mundhir!’”[^32] Commenting on this narration, Imam al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277) writes: “Scholars have stated that Ayat al-Kursi is distinguished as the greatest \[verse\] because it encompasses the fundamental principles of the divine names and attributes \[of Allah\]: divinity (*uluhiyya*), oneness (*wahdaniyya*), life (*haya*), knowledge (*ʿilm*), dominion (*mulk*), power (*qudra*), and will (*irāda*). These seven are the foundational principles of the divine names and attributes.”[^33] Abu Hurayra reported: “Allah’s Messenger ﷺ assigned me to guard the charity funds of Ramadan. Then, someone began stealing from the supplies. I caught him and said, ‘I will take you to Allah’s Messenger!’… That person said \[to me\], ‘Please don’t take me to Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, and I will tell you some words by which Allah will benefit you. When you go to bed, recite Ayat al-Kursi, and a guardian from Allah will be \[with you\], protecting you throughout the night. Satan will not come near you until dawn.’ When the Prophet ﷺ heard about the incident he said to me, ‘He told you the truth, though he is a liar. It was a devil.’”[^34] One of the many reasons that the Prophet ﷺ refers to this verse as the greatest *ayah* in the Qur’an may be found in the use of specific names and attributes of Allah the Almighty, since the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah’s most magnificent name, which when used to implore Him, He responds, is found in three *surah*s: al-Baqara, Aal ʿImran, and Taha (meaning \[Allah’s name\] al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm).”[^35] As Imam al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) writes, these paired names are the ultimate expression of majesty, for “the meaning of al-Qayyūm is the One who exists by Himself and sustains everything else. His existence does not depend on anything, whereas the existence of all things depends on Him.”[^36] Just as al-Fatiha, the greatest *surah*, must be recited in every prayer, it is recommended that the greatest verse, Ayat al-Kursi, be recited after every mandatory prayer. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever reads Ayat al-Kursi at the end of \[i.e., after\] each mandatory prayer, nothing prevents him from entering Paradise except death.”[^37] This powerful *ayah* combines for its frequent reciter a fortress and protection against evil and harm, a source of spiritual renewal upon mindful recitation, a reward of Paradise, and accepted prayers. ### A brief reflection on the Kursi and the Throne (ʿArsh) The Throne (*ʿArsh*) holds a central place in Islamic theology, symbolizing Allah’s supreme authority, majesty, and sovereignty. In a hadith, the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the origins of existence. He replied: “There was Allah, and nothing existed before Him, and His Throne was on the water. Then He created the heavens and the earth, and He wrote all things in the Preserved Tablet.”[^38] The Throne predates the creation of the seven heavens and sits above them, surpassing them all in vastness and magnificence. In an authentic narration, the Prophet ﷺ said: “I have been permitted to tell you about one of the angels who carry the Throne: The distance between the lobe of his ear and his shoulder is like that of seven hundred years of travel.”[^39] This hadith not only conveys the colossal size of the Throne but also highlights the extraordinary might of the angels bearing it. These angels are entirely devoted to the worship and obedience of Allah, demonstrating their unique role in the divine order. The significance of the Throne is further emphasized in another narration from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “In Paradise, there are one hundred levels that Allah has prepared for the fighters who strive for the sake of Allah (*mujahidin*). \[The distance\] between each two levels is like the distance between the heavens and the earth. When you ask of Allah, ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is in the central part of Paradise and is the highest part of Paradise. Above it is the Throne of the Most Merciful, and from it spring forth the rivers of Paradise.”[^40] The Throne’s proximity to al-Firdaws, the highest and most honored level of Paradise, is what inspired Ibn al-Qayyim’s statement, “The Throne is the roof of creation.”[^41] In his work,[^42] Ibn Abi al-ʿIzz al-Hanafi (d. 792/1390) discusses the *ʿArsh* as the most significant created entity indicating Allah’s ultimate dominion. According to al-Tabari,[^43] the *ʿArsh* is situated above the heavens and the *Kursi*, establishing a hierarchical cosmology in which the *ʿArsh* represents the most exalted level of Allah’s power over His creation. Thus, the *ʿArsh* (Throne) is referenced in many verses of the Qur’an, as in “And He is the Lord of the Great *‘Arsh* (Throne)”[^44] and other verses,[^45] whereas the *Kursi* is a distinct creation. According to eminent exegete Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373), the *Kursi* is a vast creation that demonstrates Allah’s sovereignty and control over the entire universe.[^46] He also reports that Ibn ʿAbbas narrates: “The *Kursi* is the place of the Feet, and \[as for\] the *ʿArsh* (Throne)—no one knows its size except Allah, the Most High.”[^47] It was also reported from Ibn ʿAbbas: “The *Kursi* is the footstool, and no one can comprehend how great it is except Allah. The heavens and the earth in comparison to the *Kursi* are like seven coins set in a shield.”[^48] This saying of Ibn ʿAbbas aligns with the verse of the *Kursi* itself, since Allah says, “His (Allah’s) *Kursi* extends over the heavens and the earth.”[^49] Similarly, Abu Musa al-Ashʿari (rA) said: “The *Kursi* is the place for the two Feet, and it creaks as a saddle creaks.”[^50] Undoubtedly, these statements are expressed and accepted in a manner befitting Allah’s majesty, as “nothing resembles Him.”[^51] On the other hand, Imam al-Tabari leans towards the interpretation that the *Kursi* represents Allah’s knowledge, citing a conflicting narration of Ibn ʿAbbas, where he states: > It \[the *Kursi*\] is His knowledge. This is indicated by the statement of Allah, Exalted is He: “And its preservation does not tire Him” (Qur’an 2:255). This affirms that it refers to His knowledge, as Allah informs us that preserving what He knows and encompasses of what is in the heavens and the earth does not burden Him. Similarly, He mentions His angels who say in their supplication: “Our Lord, You have encompassed all things in mercy and knowledge” (Qur’an 40:7). Allah, Exalted is He, thus informs us that His knowledge encompasses all things. Likewise, His statement: “His *Kursi* extends over the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 2:255) aligns with this meaning.[^52] Furthermore, al-Tabari opines that the root meaning of *Kursi* is knowledge, and that it is for this reason that a paper containing written knowledge is called a “*kurrāsa*” (notebook). Similarly, scholars are referred to as “*al-karāsī*” because they are relied upon for knowledge and understanding.[^53] The scholars who hold the view that the *Kursi* is a physical entity rather than Allah’s knowledge argue that the evidence used for the figurative position—the statement of ‘Ibn Abbas that the *Kursi* is knowledge—is weak and contradicts the many narrations that are authentic, both by Ibn ʿAbbas and other companions. Moreover, they assert, Allah the Exalted refers to physical characteristics of the ʿ*Arsh*. For instance, Allah says: “And eight \[angels\] will bear the *ʿArsh* (Throne) of your Lord on the Day of Resurrection,”[^54] and He says, “the Possessor or the Owner of the Throne.”[^55] Going back to a hadith mentioned previously in this paper, there is also the famous Prophetic command, “So if you ask Allah for Paradise, then ask Him for the highest degree of Paradise \[al-Firdaws\] because it is the central part of Paradise and the highest part of Paradise, and above it is the Throne (*ʿArsh*) of the Most Merciful.”[^56] It is also reported that the Prophet ﷺ himself said: “The seven heavens compared to the *Kursi* are just like a ring thrown into a desert, and the size of the Throne (*ʿArsh*) compared to the *Kursi* is like the size of that desert compared to the size of that ring.”[^57] Finally, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have mentioned that people will be resurrected for Judgment Day after being unconscious, and that they, upon gaining consciousness, will see Musa (as) standing and holding the side of the Throne.[^58] These narrations indicate that the Throne is a physical reality, though we are unable to comprehend its essence. As such, many scholars find it difficult to reinterpret the Throne (*ʿArsh*) or the *Kursi* to indicate knowledge or sovereignty. For instance, Ibn Taymiyya held that both the *Kursi* and the *ʿArsh* are real entities, with the *ʿArsh* being among the greatest of Allah’s creations.[^59] Ibn Taymiyya opposed allegorizing these terms, advocating for an understanding in line with the literal meanings unless there is strong evidence to interpret otherwise. He emphasized the distinction between the two, stating that the *Kursi* is beneath the *ʿArsh* and that both are part of Allah’s created universe, but Allah Himself is above His creation in a manner that befits His majesty. Ultimately, for both groups of scholars, the understanding of these concepts is “without how” (*bila kayf*): we accept these concepts without understanding the “how” of their reality because our minds cannot truly grasp them.[^60] ### From theology to action Understanding the divine Throne (*Kursi*) and the Footstool (*ʿArsh*) as two of Allah’s powerful creations adds profound depth to the recitation of Ayat al-Kursi. When the believer contemplates these majestic creations, it reinforces an awareness of Allah’s immense power, sovereignty, and knowledge, which are central themes in the verse itself. This theological understanding enriches the reciter’s spiritual experience in several ways. 1\. The verse states, “To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth” (*lahu mā fī al-samāwāti wa mā fī al-arḍ*).[^61] By recognizing that both the *Kursi*, which extends over the heavens and the earth, and the *ʿArsh*, the greatest of all creations, fall under Allah’s dominion, the believer is reminded of Allah’s ultimate authority over all things. This realization helps the reciter internalize the meaning of Allah’s sovereignty in their personal life. They are not just reciting abstract words, but affirming their submission to the One who controls the entire universe, including these awe-inspiring creations. 2\. The fact that Allah is beyond His creation, not confined by the limits of the *Kursi* or even the *ʿArsh*, underscores the concept of *tanzīh—*declaring Allah free from imperfection and beyond any resemblance to His creation. Reflecting on the immensity of the *Kursi* and *ʿArsh* should evoke in the believer a sense of profound humility and reverence, much as contemplating the vastness of the heavens and earth humbles one in the face of their Creator. This reflection fosters not only awe but also a deeper trust in Allah (*tawakkul*), reassuring the believer that nothing in the created world can rival His power or authority. All the while he maintains an attitude of “without how” (*bila kayf*), affirming these realities without delving into the “how.” 3\. In numerous hadiths, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the mercy of Allah in connection to the *‘Arsh*, as in: “When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His book with Him upon the Throne: Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath.”[^62] Allah’s mercy encompasses all creation, including the *Kursi* and the *ʿArsh*, and reflecting on this reality through the recitation of Ayat al-Kursi allows the reciter to feel more connected to Allah’s encompassing mercy, knowing that just as His *Kursi* and *ʿArsh* symbolize power and authority, they also represent His limitless mercy available to the believer. --- ## The last two verses of Surah al-Baqara Al-Nuʿman ibn Bashir (d. 65/684, rA) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah inscribed a book two thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, from which the last two verses of Surah al-Baqara were revealed. If they are recited for three nights in a home, no devil will come near it.”[^63] During the Prophet’s ﷺ Night Journey (Miʿraj), it was reported by ʿAbdullah ibn ‘Umar that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was given three things: “He was given the five daily prayers, he was given the concluding verses of Surah al-Baqara \[i.e., Qur’an 2:285–286\], and \[he was given\] forgiveness of serious sins for those among his *ummah* who do not associate partners with Allah.”[^64] Some scholars interpret “he was given” to mean that the Prophet ﷺ directly received these verses without the mediation of Angel Gabriel (Jibril), treating it as an exceptional event.[^65] Others maintain that “he was given” in this hadith refers to the glad tidings and news of these forthcoming verses, but that the revelation (*wahy*) actually came down in Medina based on authentic reports.[^66] Recited by countless Muslims worldwide every day, these concluding verses of al-Baqara are so important in Islam, that ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (rA) said, “I did not think that any reasonable person could sleep without reciting the last verses of Surah al-Baqara, and they are indeed treasures from beneath the Throne.”[^67] About this nighttime practice, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever reads the last two verses from Surah al-Baqara at night, they will be sufficient for him.”[^68]  Interpreting the term “sufficient,” Imam al-Nawawi suggested that these verses suffice as a substitute for lengthy night prayers.[^69] Others said the verses protect against devils, and still others said they protect against harmful animals. Imam al-Nawawi concludes that these verses likely encompass all these benefits (and more).[^70] Likewise, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim opined that the verses sufficed as a protection against all forms of harm.[^71] Synthesizing these perspectives reveals the breadth of these verses’ power: spiritual elevation, protection, and sufficiency in worship. One can readily understand why ʿAli (rA) admonished anyone who neglected to recite them before sleeping. ### The story behind the final verses Abu Hurayra reported an incident after the following verse (Qur’an 2:284) was revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: “To Allah \[alone\] belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the Earth. Whether you reveal what is in your hearts or conceal it, Allah will call you to account for it. He forgives whoever He wills, and punishes whoever He wills. And Allah is Most Capable of everything.” The companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ considered the verses heavy (because of the indication that the believers will be accountable for what is in their hearts). They came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and sat down on their knees and said: “Messenger of Allah, we were assigned some duties which were within our power to perform, such as prayer, fasting, struggling \[in the cause of Allah\], charity. Then this \[the above-mentioned\] verse was revealed to you and it is beyond our power to live up to it.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Do you intend to say what the people of \[the\] two books \[i.e., Jews and Christians\] said before you: ‘We hear and disobey?’ You should rather say: ‘We hear and we obey, \[we seek\] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the return.’” And they said: “We hear and we obey, \[we seek\] Your forgiveness, our Lord! And to You is the return.” When the people recited it and it became easy on their tongues, then Allah revealed: > The Messenger \[firmly\] believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so do the believers. They \[all\] believe in Allah, His angels, His books, and His messengers. \[They proclaim,\] “We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” And they say, “We hear and obey. \[We seek\] Your forgiveness, our Lord! And to You \[alone\] is the final return.”[^72] When they did that, Allah abrogated[^73] this verse (in terms of the ruling that one is accountable for what is in their hearts), and He revealed: > Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear. All good will be for its own benefit, and all evil will be to its own loss. \[The believers pray,\] “Our Lord! Do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake... > > Our Lord! Do not place a burden on us like the one You placed on those before us… > > Our Lord! Do not burden us with what we cannot bear... > > Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our \[only\] Guardian. So grant us victory over the disbelieving people.”[^74] In the story cited above, the narration ends with an indication of Allah’s acceptance of these pleas. The acceptance of the supplicatory prayer (*duʿa*) at the end of this powerful *surah* has two potential meanings. The first is that it specifically pertains to the believers specifically referenced in the passage. Ibn Taymiyya notes a second interpretation: that this is a universally accepted *duʿa* for the entire *ummah*, although it does not guarantee that every individual is included in it.[^75] Some people may not overcome the burdens they carry, others may not be forgiven due to their turning away from Allah and Islam, and yet others may not achieve victory over the oppressors among the disbelievers. This reality does not diminish the importance of praying for one’s personal acceptance and for the general welfare of the *ummah* worldwide. As Ibn Taymiyya notes, the request “do not give us a burden we cannot bear**”** in these verses can be understood in two ways.[^76] Some interpret it as referring to divine decree (*qadr*), implying that a person is not tested beyond their capacity, whether it be with unbearable poverty, illness, or emotional challenges like fear or love. This does not imply a lack of trials, but that the individual has the potential to pass those tests with the means that Allah has commanded them to seek in moments of hardship. Other scholars interpret this burden in a legislative context, such as a commandment that may be too difficult for the *ummah* to implement. This latter concept is known as assigning obligations that cannot be fulfilled (*taklīf bi mā lā yuṭāq*), a theological and legal concept centered on whether Allah imposes duties beyond human ability. Rooted in both Qur’anic injunctions and the principles of Islamic jurisprudence and theology, the dominant position across mainstream Sunni, Shiʿi, and rationalist (e.g., Muʿtazili) schools is that Allah does not demand the impossible from His creation, with this verse above (2:286) serving as the foundational guarantee. It is generally concluded that while Allah’s power is absolute, His perfection includes not enacting *taklīf bi mā lā yuṭāq*, thereby ensuring that moral responsibility remains coherent, attainable, and reflective of divine justice and mercy. In sum, the refusal of Islam’s classical tradition to accept any notion of impossible moral demands affirms a fundamental theological principle: divine law is always commensurate with human capacity. As for the *duʿa* in the verse, “do not give us a burden we cannot bear,” that particular supplication is clearly accepted by Allah, and the validity of this latter interpretation as a *duʿa* is supported by other verses where Allah states His intent for ease (*yusr*) rather than hardship (ʿ*usr*) in His legislation, such as in the context of rulings for Ramadan.[^77] Ultimately, in the realm of Islamic jurisprudence, the principle that divine law should be within human reach supports various legal maxims related to hardship and dispensation (*rukhṣa*).[^78] These two verses conclude with powerful phrases of *du*ʿ*a* that combine the best of this life and the next. The one looking for protection throughout the night, as well as for a vast reward, cannot afford to neglect the recitation of these verses in prayer, or one’s bed, before sleeping, as well as teaching one’s family and children this precious habit, particularly at an early age. The practice of reciting these verses daily helps the believer to exemplify the mantra, “We hear and we obey.” --- ## Conclusion Ultimately, these narrations emphasize that engagement with Surah al-Baqara is not to be confined to intellectual comprehension or ritualistic recitation. Rather, it demands spiritual internalization and practical implementation. Approaching this *surah* is akin to stepping under a grand, all-encompassing canopy. Within this shelter, one finds mercy, guidance, and moral order. Over time, the *surah* becomes a companion—interceding when human deeds stand vulnerable to divine scrutiny—and a guardian, repelling evil forces in the here and now. Rooted in Allah’s eternal speech, Surah al-Baqara’s multifaceted guidance thus becomes both a source of immediate protection and a blueprint for eternal success, embodying the Qur’an’s transformative power in the believer’s journey toward Allah’s pleasure. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5018. [^2]: This ties into the broader discussion on whether some Qur’anic verses have greater merit than others, a topic explored in depth in Yousef Wahb’s article, “Are Some Qur’anic Verses More Meritorious than Others?” (Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, June 7, 2024). [^3]: The new compilation, titled in English *Special Virtues of the Qur’an’s Chapters and Verse*s, is published on [sunnah.com/virtues](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://sunnah.com/virtues&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1756509475046883&usg=AOvVaw1_DSqUtNV0cNgbhQKgooqB) (accessed September 10, 2024). In compiling the virtues of certain verses and chapters of the Qur’an, I have adhered to a methodology that primarily relies on rigorously authenticated (*ṣaḥīḥ*) and fairly authentic (*ḥasan*) prophetic reports. The authentication of these reports is based on the evaluations of leading hadith scholars such as the compilers themselves, Imam al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasaʾi, among others. When citing narrations from collections that are not inherently *ṣaḥīḥ* and *ḥasan*,  the verdicts of diverse hadith scholars were relied upon depending on the narration, such as al-Albani, Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, and Ahmad Shakir, who have rigorously authenticated individual hadiths. Additionally, I have consulted and cross-referenced works dedicated to the topic of *faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar* (virtues of the verses and chapters) to ensure comprehensive coverage. Among the dozens of key works referenced are: Muḥammad ibn Rizq ibn Tarhūnī, *Mawsūʿat faḍāʾil suwar wa āyāt al-Qurʾān* (Encyclopedia of the virtues of the chapters and verses of the Qur’an) (Dār Ibn al-Qayyim, 2006); Fakhr al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr ibn ʿAlī al-Muḥasī, *al-Durar min ṣaḥīḥ faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar* (Ministry of Information and Culture, 2004); and Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Saqqāf, *al-Kitāb al-jāmiʿ li-faḍāʾil suwar al-Qur’ān al-Karīm*: *al-Aḥādīth allatī waradat fī faḍāʾil al-suwar wa-l-āyāt* (Aal al-Bayt Royal Foundation for Islamic Thought, 2007). In cases where hadith authenticity has been disputed, I have personally conducted *isnād* analysis, with the support and review of scholars and researchers. This has allowed me to clarify the status of some narrations that may have been the subject of debate, particularly those that could be classified as *ḥasan li-ghayrih* (strengthened by other reports). While the overwhelming majority of narrations included in this work are directly attributed to the Prophet ﷺ (*marfūʿ*), I have also included a small number of reports from the companions (*mawqūf*). These reports are deemed reliable and beneficial, especially in the context of their understanding of Qur’anic virtues.. [^4]: Qur’an 2:255. [^5]: Qur’an 2:282. [^6]: Qur’an 2:285–86. [^7]: Qur’an 2:281. There are various opinions regarding the last verse to be revealed. Al-Suyuti references several narrations, including Surah al-Baqara, 2:281 and 2:282. The only report mentioning a specific timeframe is related to Qur’an 2:281, where it was narrated that the Prophet ﷺ lived for nine nights after its revelation before passing away. See: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān,* ed. Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾāniyya, 7 vols.  (Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2005), 101–3. Ibn Hajar also states, “The most correct of opinions regarding the final revelation is \[2:281\].” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 8:317. [^8]: Such as Prophets Adam, Abraham (Ibrahim), Ishmael (Ismaʿil), Isaac (Ishaq), Jacob (Ya’qub), Moses (Musa), Aaron (Harun), David (Dawud), Solomon (Sulayman), and Jesus (ʿIsa), peace be upon them all. [^9]: Jabir ibn ʿAbdullah reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out to al-Safa and said, ‘We will start with that with which Allah started.’ Then he recited the verse: ‘Verily, \[the hills of\] al-Safa and al-Marwa are of the symbols of Allah…’ (Qur’an 2:158).” See *Sunan an-Nasāʾī*, no. 2970; graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic); see footnote 3 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^10]: Belief in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the afterlife, and divine decree (*qadr*). [^11]: *Sunan al-Dārimī*, no. 2179; *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 786. [^12]: Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr* (Dār Saḥnūn, 1997). [^13]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr*, 201. [^14]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 148. [^15]: See: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shawkānī, *Tuḥfat al-dhākirīn biʿiddat al-ḥiṣn wa-l-ḥaṣīn* (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, n..d.), 399. [^16]: *Sunan al-Dārimī*, no. 2179. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 804. [^18]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr*, 201. [^19]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Qāsim, 37 vols. (Dār al-Wafāʾ, n.d.), 28:433. It is for this reason that Allah referenced these groups in the beginning of the *surah*, with four verses about believers, two about disbelievers, and thirteen about the hypocrites, mirroring the reality on the ground and emphasizing the importance of understanding these distinct spiritual states. [^20]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 27:274. [^21]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr*, 201–2. [^22]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥman ʿUmayra, 7 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2014), 130. [^23]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 131. [^24]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr*, 201–2. [^25]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 146. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 804. [^27]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 805. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 780. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 804. [^30]: Mūsa Shahīn Lashīn, *Fatḥ al-munʿim sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Dār al-Shurūq, 2002). [^31]: This refers to Surah al-Baqara, verse 255 (Qur’an 2:255). [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 810. [^33]: Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alā Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb ṣalāt al-musāfirīn wa-qaṣrihā*, *bāb faḍl Sūrat al-Kahf wa Āyat al-Kursī*. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5010. [^35]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3856; *al-Ṭabarānī*, no. 7925; *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa*, no. 746. This hadith has been graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic); see footnote 3 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^36]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Jawāhir al-Qurʾān*, 3rd ed., ed. Muḥammad al-Qabbānī (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-ʿUlūm, 1990), 74. [^37]: *Sunan an-Nasāʾī al-kubrā*, no. 9848; *al-Ṭabarānī*, no. 7532; graded *ḥasan* (fairly authentic). See footnote 3 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^38]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7418. [^39]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 4727. See also *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 193. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2790. [^41]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿād*, 4:203. [^42]: Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, *Sharḥ al-ʿaqīdat al-Ṭaḥāwiyya*, ed. Aḥmad Shākir (Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1997). [^43]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*. [^44]: Qur’an 9:129. [^45]: See: Qur’an 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, 13:2, 23:86, 23:116, 27:26, 20:5, 25:59, 32:4, 39:75, 40:15, 57:4, 69:17, 85:15. [^46]: See his commentary on 2:255 in *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm*, 1:310. [^47]: Narrated by Ibn Khuzayma in *al-Tawḥīd*, no. 154. It was also narrated by Ibn Abi Shayba in *al-ʿArsh,* 21, al-Dārimī in *al-Radd ʿalā al-Marīsī*, ʿAbdullah b. Ahmad in *al-Sunnah*, and al-Ḥākim in *al-Mustadrak* (2/282). Al-Ḥākim graded it as *ṣaḥīḥ* according to the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and al-Dhahabi agreed. It was also classified as *ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Albani in *Mukhtaṣar al-ʿUlū*, 102, and Ahmad Shakir in *ʿUmdat al-tafsīr* (2/163). See: Ibn Khuzayma, *Kitāb al-tawḥīd*, ed. Muḥammad Khālid al-Sayyid (Maktabat al-Rushd, 1983); ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, *Al-Radd ʿalā al-Marīsī*, ed. Ibrāhīm al-Duwaysh (Dār al-Minhāj, 2004); ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Sunnah*, ed. Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Qaḥṭānī (Dār al-Rāyah, 1986); Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, *Mukhtaṣar al-ʿUlū lil-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī*, ed. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Munajjid (Maktabat al-Islāmī, 1991); Aḥmad Shākir, *ʿUmdat al-tafsīr ʿan al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr*, ed. Ṣafī al-Raḥmān al-Mubārakfūrī (Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1993). [^48]: Reported by Ibn Abi Shayba, *Kitāb al-ʿArsh*, (Jāmiʿ al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya), 20. Also reported in *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 361. [^49]: Qur’an 2:255. [^50]: Narrated by Ibn Abi Shayba in *al-ʿArsh* (no. 60), and its *isnād* was classified as rigorously authenticated (*ṣaḥīḥ*) in Ibn Hajar’s *Fatḥ* (8:47) and by al-Albani in *Mukhtaṣar al-ʿuluw*, pp. 123–24. [^51]: Qur’an 42:11. According to the Athari school, which emphasizes a literal affirmation of scriptural descriptions of divine attributes while firmly upholding divine transcendence, statements such as “The *Kursi* is the place for the two Feet” are accepted as part of the revealed tradition without inquiry into their modality (*bilā kayf*). Atharis caution against excessive allegorization, maintaining that while such expressions may appear anthropomorphic, they do not imply spatial limitation or corporeality. Instead, these texts are affirmed as they appear, with the understanding that Allah’s essence remains beyond human comprehension and is not confined to any physical locus. Meanwhile, Ashʿari theologians—though employing a different hermeneutical approach—similarly uphold divine transcendence (*tanzīh*) and reject any literalist anthropomorphic interpretation, often allowing for figurative readings as a means of emphasizing Allah’s majesty. [^52]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān* (Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), 2:16. [^53]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, 2:16. [^54]: Qur’an 69:17. [^55]: Qur’an 85:15. [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2790. [^57]: *Al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa*, no. 109. Graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic); see footnote 3 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^58]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 2411. [^59]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 6:584. In the cited passage, Ibn Taymiyya elucidates, “The Throne (*ʿArsh*) is affirmed by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the early generations of the *ummah* and its scholars. Similarly, the Footstool (*Kursi*) is established by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the majority of the early generations. It has been reported from some of them that ‘His *Kursi*’ refers to His knowledge. However, this is a weak opinion, because Allah’s knowledge encompasses everything, as He said: ‘Our Lord! You have encompassed everything in mercy and knowledge’ \[Qur’an 40:7\]… So, if it were said that His knowledge encompasses the heavens and the earth, this meaning would not be correct, especially since Allah says: ‘And their preservation does not exhaust Him’ \[Qur’an 2:255\], meaning that it does not weigh Him down nor burden Him. This is more befitting and suitable \[to say\] about Allah’s power, not His knowledge. The transmitted reports indicate this, but the verses and hadith regarding the *ʿArsh* are even more numerous, clear, and mass-transmitted \[*mutawātir*\]. And some of them \[i.e., scholars\] have stated: ‘The *Kursi* is the \[same as the\] *ʿArsh*,” but the majority hold that they are two distinct entities.’” [^60]: Imam al-Tirmidhi (d. 279/892) said: “More than one of the people of knowledge said about this hadith and other similar hadiths that discuss the attributes of Allah and the descending of the Lord, Glorified be He, every night to the lowest heaven; they said: ‘The narrations are confirmed, believed in, not imagined, and it is not to be said: How?’ Malik, Sufyan ibn ʿUyayna, and ʿAbdullah ibn al-Mubarak have been reported as saying: ‘Take these hadiths as they are “without how” (*bilā kayf*).’ This is the view of the people of knowledge from the Sunni orthodoxy (*Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿa*).” See: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 662. [^61]: Qur’an 2:255. [^62]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3194, and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2751. [^63]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2882; graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic); see footnote 3 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 173. [^65]: This is the opinion attributed to some of the second generation of Muslims, known as “successors” (*tabiʿin*), including al-Hasan al-Basri, Ibn Sirin, and Mujahid; See: al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-‘Arabī al-Mālikī, *Aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 3 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, n.d.). [^66]: This opinion is attributed to many scholars; See: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Sindī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Sindī ʿalā Sunan al-Nasāʾī* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, n.d.), 224; and al-Qārī, *Mirqāt*, 9:3772. [^67]: *Sunan al-Dārimī*, no. 3289; see also al-Nawawi in *al-Adhkār*, 220. He attributed it to the report of Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud and said that this report is sound, according to the conditions of Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim. [^68]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5009. [^69]: Similarly, Ibn Hajar states: “\[It\] was explicitly reported by ʿAsim from ʿAlqama from Ibn Masʿud, ‘Whoever recites \[the two verses at\] the end of Surah al-Baqara, it will be sufficient for him instead of standing in prayer for one night.’” See Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 8:672. [^70]: Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 11 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, n.d.), 6:92. [^71]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Al-Wābil al-ṣayyib*, 3rd ed., ed. Sayyid Ibrahim (Dar al-Hadith, 1991), 91. [^72]: See Qur’an 2:285. [^73]: Abrogation, or *naskh*, refers to the abrogation of a verse in terms of its recitation or ruling, where the latter is the predominant type in the opinions of most scholars of Qur’anic sciences. In this case, the hadith is referring to an abrogation of the initial ruling that people will be held accountable for what is in their hearts. For more on the topic of abrogation, see Yaqeen’s article, [Abrogated Rulings in the Qur’an: Discerning their Divine Wisdom](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1756509475035051&usg=AOvVaw1Fyai2FF0boAf7MITynAs1). [^74]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 125; Qur’an 2:286. [^75]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 232. [^76]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 236. [^77]: Such as in the context of Ramadan and those for whom fasting is waived due to travel or illness: “Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and \[wants\] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that \[to\] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.” Qur’an 2:185. [^78]: When a particular command becomes unreasonably difficult or impossible due to circumstances beyond human control, legal scholars generally hold that the obligation is either lifted or modified to a bearable form. For instance, if standing in prayer becomes impossible due to illness, the obligation adjusts to sitting or lying down. This practical application further illustrates the centrality of human capacity in determining the scope of divine law. ## Summary Standing beneath the vast canopy of the night sky, the Companion Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr once recited Sūrah al-Baqara while his horse was tethered nearby. Each time he recited, the animal grew agitated, and each time he paused, it settled. Fearing that his son Yaḥyā, who lay close by, might be trampled, he lifted the boy and looked upward, only to behold a wondrous sight resembling a cloud filled with lamps. When he related this to the Prophet ﷺ the following morning, the Prophet ﷺ urged him, “Recite, O Ibn Ḥuḍayr!” and explained, “Those were angels who came near to you for your voice. If you had kept on reciting till dawn, it would have remained there till morning when people would have seen it.” This incident, preserved in the authentic collections, illustrates the profound spiritual reality of Qur’anic recitation—that the speech of Allah touches not only the human heart but every level of creation, drawing the inhabitants of the heavens toward those who recite it upon the earth. This encounter serves as an entryway into the study of one of the most uplifting branches of the sciences of the Qur’an: the virtues (faḍāʾil) of specific chapters and verses, as well as of the Qur’an as a whole. A virtue in this context refers to any special quality established in authentic reports, whether a unique reward for recitation, a form of protection from harm, or the Prophet’s ﷺ particular attachment to certain passages. Sūrah al-Baqara, the longest chapter of the Qur’an, stands foremost among these. The believer who takes it as a companion—reciting it habitually and acting upon it—finds in it increased blessing (baraka), protection from evil, healing, greater acceptance of supplication, tranquility, intercession in the Hereafter, and a pathway to Paradise. Revealed in Medina, Sūrah al-Baqara contains the greatest verse of the Qur’an, its longest verse, its two closing verses said to have descended from beneath the Throne during the Prophet’s ascension, and likely its final revealed verse. Its magnificence led the Companion ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 32/652) to say, “Everything has a peak, and the peak of the Qur’an is al-Baqara.” The sūrah bears several names. It is best known as al-Baqara after the narrative of the cow and the Israelites in verses 67–73. Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393/1973) highlights its famous title Fusṭāṭ al-Qurʾān, “the canopy of the Qur’an,” a description echoed by al-Qurṭubī who cites the ḥadīth narrator Khālid ibn Maʿdān (d. 103/721), noting its magnificence and abundance of rulings, and by al-Shawkānī (d. 1250/1834), who attributes this to its extensive legal content and its length. It is also called Sanām al-Qurʾān, its peak, from the words of Ibn Masʿūd, and al-Zahrāʾ, the Radiant, a name it shares with Āl ʿImrān, for the Prophet ﷺ said in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, “Recite the two radiant ones: al-Baqara and Āl ʿImrān.” Some scholars regard certain of these as descriptive attributes rather than formal names. Ibn ʿĀshūr observes that the sūrah divides humanity into believers, disbelievers, hypocrites, and the People of the Book, illustrating the varied responses to divine guidance. Ibn Taymiyya explains that this reflects the conditions of Medina after the migration, where all these groups coexisted, and that the sūrah establishes three foundations of religion (uṣūl al-dīn): the oneness of Allah (tawḥīd), the truth of the Prophetic message, and the reality of the Hereafter. Alongside this framework, it lays out comprehensive rulings on worship, family, financial dealings, and criminal law, thereby joining sound creed with practical application in the way of the Prophet Ibrāhīm (as). Ibn Taymiyya further notes that the sūrah references the Jews more often—owing to the Prophet’s ﷺ encounters with the Jewish tribes of Medina—while Āl ʿImrān addresses the Christians more frequently. The virtues of the sūrah are affirmed in several narrations. Abū Umāma reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Recite the two bright ones, al-Baqara and Āl ʿImrān, for on the Day of Resurrection they will come as two clouds or two shades, or two flocks of birds in ranks, pleading for those who recite them. Recite Sūrah al-Baqara, for to take recourse to it is a blessing and to give it up is a cause of grief, and magicians cannot confront it.” Al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān (d. 50/670) reported a similar image of the two sūrahs leading “its companions who used to act by it.” Both narrations emphasize that reciters must move beyond passive recitation to transformative adherence. Regarding the home, Abū Hurayra reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not turn your households into graveyards. Indeed, the devils flee from a household that has Sūrah al-Baqara recited in it.” In one version of the first narration, Muʿāwiya explained that the term baṭala describes both magicians who traffic in falsehood (bāṭil) and those overcome by laziness who fail to seek the sūrah’s virtues. The baraka it brings—a divine increase in goodness that defies measurement—may enrich even one’s time. Two passages especially elevate the sūrah. The first is Āyat al-Kursī, which the Prophet ﷺ named the greatest verse of the Qur’an. When he asked Ubayy ibn Kaʿb which verse was greatest and Ubayy answered with Āyat al-Kursī, the Prophet ﷺ struck his chest and said, “Rejoice in your knowledge, O Abū al-Mundhir.” Imam al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) explained that its greatness lies in its gathering of the foundational divine names and attributes—divinity, oneness, life, knowledge, dominion, power, and will. The devil who stole from the Ramadan charity confessed to Abū Hurayra that reciting it before sleep brings a guardian and repels Satan until dawn, and the Prophet ﷺ confirmed, “He told you the truth, though he is a liar.” Al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) noted that al-Qayyūm is “the One who exists by Himself and sustains everything else.” The Prophet ﷺ also taught that whoever recites it after every obligatory prayer, “nothing prevents him from entering Paradise except death.” The verse mentions the Kursī, distinct from the ʿArsh (Throne). Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) relates from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Kursī is the place of the Feet, its vastness known only to Allah, the heavens and earth beside it like seven coins in a shield. Al-Ṭabarī, however, inclined toward the view, citing another report from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Kursī signifies Allah’s knowledge. Those affirming it as a physical creation regard the figurative report as weak against the many authentic narrations and the Qur’an’s references to bearing the Throne. Ibn Taymiyya held both to be real created entities, the Kursī beneath the ʿArsh, opposing allegorization. For both groups, these realities are affirmed “without how” (bilā kayf), for “nothing resembles Him.” The second passage is the closing two verses. Al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr (d. 65/684) reported that Allah inscribed them two thousand years before creation and that a home in which they are recited for three nights is safe from devils. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever reads the last two verses from Sūrah al-Baqara at night, they will be sufficient for him,” which al-Nawawī understood as sufficiency in worship, protection, or both. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib called them “treasures from beneath the Throne.” Abū Hurayra narrated that when the Companions found verse 2:284 heavy, fearing accountability for the heart, they said, “We hear and obey,” whereupon Allah revealed the concluding verses and lifted the burden, declaring, “Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear.” Ibn Taymiyya explained this in terms of both divine decree and legislation, affirming the principle that Allah does not impose the impossible (taklīf bi mā lā yuṭāq). These narrations affirm that Sūrah al-Baqara is not merely to be comprehended or recited, but internalized and lived. It becomes a canopy of mercy and guidance, an intercessor when deeds are weighed, and a guardian against evil in this life, embodying the mantra of the believers: “We hear and we obey.” ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What are the virtues of Surah al-Baqarah? Surah al-Baqarah holds an unparalleled rank among the chapters of the Qur'an. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'Taking recourse to it is a blessing and abandoning it causes grief.' (*Sahih Muslim*) It will intercede for those who recited it on the Day of Judgment, appearing like two clouds or two flocks of birds standing in their defense. Ibn Taymiyya identified the chapter as establishing the three foundational pillars of Islamic creed: the oneness of Allah (*tawḥīd*), the truthfulness of the Prophet ﷺ, and the reality of the Hereafter—making it not only a source of blessing but a complete theological foundation. ### Why is Ayat al-Kursi considered the greatest verse in the Qur'an? The Prophet ﷺ confirmed that Ayat al-Kursi (Qur'an 2:255) is 'the greatest verse in the Qur'an.' (*Sahih Muslim*) The verse encapsulates seven foundational divine attributes in a single passage: absolute divinity, perfect oneness, eternal life, all-encompassing knowledge, unrestricted dominion, supreme power, and complete will. No slumber or sleep overtakes Allah; His Footstool extends over the heavens and the earth. Reciting it after every obligatory prayer is among the greatest acts connecting a believer to divine protection, and the Prophet ﷺ stated that whoever recites it upon sleeping will be protected by Allah through the night. ### Does reciting Surah al-Baqarah protect the home from evil? Yes. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'Do not make your homes into graves. Indeed, the devil flees from the house in which Surah al-Baqarah is recited.' (*Sahih Muslim*) This narration establishes that the home should be a place of living worship, not merely a dwelling. Regular recitation of the chapter creates a spiritual environment that repels satanic influence. The Prophet ﷺ further stated that whoever recites the last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah at night, they suffice him (*Sahih al-Bukhari*)—a narration scholars have explained to mean they provide sufficient protection and reward for the night. ### What is the significance of the last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah? The final two verses (Qur'an 2:285–286) hold extraordinary merit. The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever recites them at night will be sufficed. (*Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 5009) These verses affirm the complete faith of the believers, their submission to Allah's messengers without distinction, and end with a supplication that no soul be burdened beyond its capacity—a divine reassurance. The Prophet ﷺ also reported that these verses were among the treasures granted to him from beneath the Throne of Allah on the night of his ascension (*al-Isrāʾ*), a distinction shared by no other verses, underscoring their unique spiritual weight. ### What lessons does Surah al-Baqarah draw from the story of the Children of Israel? A substantial portion of Surah al-Baqarah recounts the history of the Children of Israel—their covenant with Allah, their repeated violations, and their spiritual complacency—not to condemn them but to warn the Muslim community against repeating the same patterns. The surah presents their story as a mirror: communities that receive divine guidance, neglect it, and prioritize worldly interests over revealed obligations face spiritual deterioration. This historical-pedagogical function was intentional; the Qur'an addresses the Muslim community directly after each episode, calling believers to uphold their covenant with sincerity and to avoid the gradualism through which communities of faith can drift from their divine mission. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/dont-give-up-on-gaza-how-knowing-allah-sustains-hope-and-resistance # Don’t Give Up on Gaza: How Knowing Allah Sustains Hope and Resistance **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Divine Decree, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology **Published:** August 7, 2025 **Updated:** September 3, 2026 It has been almost three years since the genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza began—carried out by a murderous and unrelenting occupier, broadcast to the world. Israel has deliberately starved and bombarded 2 million besieged men, women, and children while much of the world stands back to watch.[^1] Brave attempts to break the blockade have been met with detention and violence,[^2] and those in power who are able to stop the carnage either show Israel outright support or are content with mild words of disapproval. Although people of conscience continue to be dismayed and more and more of the public are waking up to the reality of this horrific rampage, something within us has shifted. Our efforts have yet to yield any tangible results, and those who speak out continue to be repressed and attacked.[^3] Many of us have resigned to the feeling that our actions have no real impact because the issue is so much bigger than what any of us are able to affect. The heartbreak has caused our spirits to be broken. So much of the raw anger we saw in the beginning has turned into numbness. Determination into despair. Action into quiet murmurs. --- ## Sincerity and persistence In life, it’s easy to believe and work for an outcome when things go our way. When our *duʿa*s are swiftly answered and our efforts yield immediate fruit. But who among us will continue to strive with the same energy and resolve when victory does not come on our timeline? Who will continue to cry out to Al-Fattāḥ (the Opener) when every door seems bolted shut? Who will trust in Al-Rabb—the Lord of all—when all worldly forces seem to overpower us? Sometimes, as believers, we unknowingly fall into spiritual entitlement. *We believe. We struggle for justice. We speak the truth. Therefore, we deserve to see victory now.* But Allah reminds us, > Do you think you will be admitted into Paradise without being tested like those before you? They were afflicted with suffering and adversity and were so \[violently\] shaken that \[even\] the Messenger and the believers with him cried out, “When will Allah’s help come?” Indeed, Allah’s help is \[always\] near. (Qur’an 2:214) Prolonged perseverance against oppression is a hallmark of history. Jerusalem was under Crusader control for almost 100 years until Salahuddin liberated it in 1187. European colonialism, marked by its numerous genocides, massacres, and crimes against indigenous populations, spanned three centuries, leaving [consequences](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/how-colonialism-hijacked-the-muslim-wor-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine) that persist until today. Yet wherever oppressive systems were overturned, by the will of Allah, it was because the people did not stop—they persevered. One of the signs of a true believer is in their sincerity and persistence—we are in it for the long haul and we see beyond the immediate setbacks. In the story of Saul (Talut) and Goliath (Jalut) in the Qur’an, a group of people, weary from oppression, asked their prophet for a leader so they could fight in the path of Allah (Qur’an 2:246). They claimed they were ready, “How could we refuse to fight in the cause of Allah, while we were driven out of our homes and \[separated from\] our children?” (Qur’an 2:246). But at every test, they withdrew. They doubted. They dropped off, until only a handful remained. Yet how could only a handful defeat the mighty army of Goliath? > How many times has a small force overcome a mighty one by the permission of Allah? And Allah is with the steadfast. (Qur’an 2:249) A small group can defeat a mighty army because **Allah is with the steadfast**. Not those who are discouraged by failures, setbacks, and resistance, or those who turn away due to the enormity of the task, or those who simply watch from the sidelines. Allah is with the steadfast. And what was the outcome? > So they defeated them by Allah’s Will… (Qur’an 2:251) While Goliath’s army stood powerful and the army of Saul lost the majority of its people along the way, those who remained with Saul were unwavering in their commitment. They persisted. They knew what they were up against, but they also knew that Allah was more powerful than Goliath. They knew that nothing they did went to waste, even in the absence of a worldly victory. They had certainty that Allah was with them—because He was, and He always is. --- ## Heartbreak to hope For many, the pain is just too much. Day after day, witnessing dead children and wailing parents and feeling the guilt of not knowing what else to do, we can often spiral into emotional paralysis. But that guilt and that pain have to [move us forward](https://reflectingon.life/articles/gaza-grief-and-freedom-from-fear), not hold us back. The latter is from Shaytan. We have to know that there will be an end, and our brothers and sisters who have passed are at [peace with their Lord](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/divine-justice-is-already-happening-the-other-side). Every cry of pain, every drop of blood, every hungry stomach, and every tear that fell will be accounted for. We work for an end to the carnage today with certainty there will be justice, whether in this world or the next. The ability to see beyond this world is a gift. To see Allah before we see anything else. To believe in the promise of Allah to His faithful servants and to be certain that every action is meaningful. Allah is the Rabb who owns all of creation, the One who sustains this world moment by moment, and the One who will hold us all to account on the Day of Judgment. He is the Master who governs the universe and the One who arranges all matters perfectly, even when we cannot see the full picture. If you see your Rabb before all else, you will understand that every effort matters. You’ll know that Allah is above whatever prevails in this world and you will have certainty that Allah’s control is above their control. Our test is whether we will be materialists and only see the immediate, or whether we believe in and work towards the ideal that we want to establish. So as Muslims, we cannot stop speaking and reminding. We must renew our resolve and continue to build and join movements for the liberation of our brothers and sisters. We must not belittle the boycott efforts.[^4] We must support and stand side-by-side with those [brave individuals](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/microsoft-fired-her-for-defending-palestine-ibtihal-aboussad-gaza-diaries) who are risking everything.[^5] We must support and encourage each other through this. And we must wake up at night, every night, and [pray](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tahajjud-fuel-for-the-self-and-society). In the story of Saul and Goliath, the mention of Prophet Dawud (David) only appears at the end. Allah says, “and David killed Goliath” (Qur’an 2:251). It is as though Allah only chooses to mention David at the end so that our focus is less on his personality and more on the general characteristics of those few who persisted. While one would assume that it would be Saul who would defeat Goliath, since he appears as the protagonist of the story, it was actually a young David who assumed this honor and who was part of the small, steadfast group. If your determination is for Allah, you have a grand intention for His sake, and you persevere, Allah Al-Rabb will carry your intention, whether in this life or the next. Those “small” things you do are not small at all, but rather weigh heavy on Allah’s scale, helping to move the needle in this world, by the will of Allah. So who will *we* be in the story of Saul and Goliath? Will we be of the people who dropped off when we experienced inconvenience, struggle, and even heartbreak, or will we persevere until the end? --- ## Notes [^1]: See “Gaza: Evidence points to Israel’s continued use of starvation to inflict genocide against Palestinians,” Amnesty International, July 3, 2025, [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/gaza-evidence-points-to-israels-continued-use-of-starvation-to-inflict-genocide-against-palestinians/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/gaza-evidence-points-to-israels-continued-use-of-starvation-to-inflict-genocide-against-palestinians/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454883189&usg=AOvVaw29A8qqFT_9uF0kgkauxhl3) and “Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 aid-seekers in Gaza since May, the U.N. says,” *The Associated Press*, July 23, 2025, [https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5477365/israel-gaza-aid-casualties](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5477365/israel-gaza-aid-casualties&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454883480&usg=AOvVaw0HlbhB1Tlm7cr6Onozfj4q). [^2]: Jaroslav Lukiv, “Israel intercepts Gaza-bound activist boat carrying food aid,” *BBC*, July 27, 2025, [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24zpdqvpyzo](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24zpdqvpyzo&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454883787&usg=AOvVaw06uxr3ArOufd6uVRtnKFYL). [^3]: See “UK: Palestine Action ban ‘disturbing’ misuse of UK counter-terrorism legislation, Türk warns,” United Nations, July 25, 2025, [https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/uk-palestine-action-ban-disturbing-misuse-uk-counter-terrorism-legislation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/uk-palestine-action-ban-disturbing-misuse-uk-counter-terrorism-legislation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454884215&usg=AOvVaw3mwIizqDDu5qLntX_a2Mx2); Melissa Hellmann, “They staged protests for Palestine. The consequences have been life-changing,” *The Guardian*, April 26, 2025, [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/26/university-student-protesters-discipline](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/26/university-student-protesters-discipline&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454884511&usg=AOvVaw0PbBKF3SrW-H6Wq6JY1e4b). [^4]: See the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions list here: [https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454885163&usg=AOvVaw3-4xdBWSrDT-pMKxwYryK7). [^5]: See “USA/Israel/Palestine: Immediately rescind sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese,” ICJ, July 16, 2025, [https://www.icj.org/usa-israel-palestine-immediately-rescind-sanctions-against-un-special-rapporteur-francesca-albanese/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.icj.org/usa-israel-palestine-immediately-rescind-sanctions-against-un-special-rapporteur-francesca-albanese/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1754581454884957&usg=AOvVaw3apquK4mstUFSWizrftYV-). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/thinking-about-making-hijra-what-muslims-in-the-west-should-consider-today-essay # Thinking about Making Hijra? What Muslims in the West Should Consider Today | Essay **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Blog, Hijra, LGBTQ, Mental Health, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** July 30, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 The deterioration of values in the Western world has left many Western Muslims worried about their future in these societies. From forcing the LGBTQ agenda into schools and entertainment to the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, some of us wonder if we should look for more suitable places to raise our families. Although many of these concerns already existed prior to October 7th, the genocide against our Palestinian brothers and sisters has laid bare the violent hypocrisy of many Western governments—especially the American empire—and many more Muslims are seriously reconsidering their commitment to living in societies that are directly involved or complicit in the genocide and destruction of the Muslim world. Ultimately, what is on the minds of many of us today is whether or not to make *hijra*. In this piece, I will attempt to provide a perspective to navigating this challenging question. --- ## The migration of the heart and body The concept of *hijra,* or migration for the sake of Allah, is profound and fundamental to faith. We see this in how the Prophet ﷺ referred to his companions who migrated with him from Mecca to Medina as the *muhajirun*—a term of respect and honor. The most famous hadith in Islam about intentions is also rooted in the concept of *hijra.* The Prophet ﷺ said, > Indeed, actions are by intentions, and every person will have only what they intended. Whoever migrated to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is for Allah and His Messenger. Whoever migrated to get something in the world or to marry a woman, his migration is for that to which he migrated.[^1] Although people typically think of *hijra* as physically moving from one land to another, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, the great scholar of Islam, explained that *hijra* is of two types: (1) The physical migration of the body from one land to another and (2) the migration of the heart to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Ibn al-Qayyim emphatically proclaimed that the migration of the heart is the true *hijra*, as it is the foundation that precedes any physical *hijra*.[^2] Physical migration is thus a manifestation of the heart’s migration, but what does it mean for the heart to make *hijra*? Ibn al-Qayyim elaborated that the migration of the heart requires migrating from one psychological state to another, including: - The heart’s migration from loving others to loving Allah alone. - The heart’s migration from serving others to serving Allah alone. - The heart’s migration from relying on others to relying on Allah alone. - The heart’s migration from submitting to others to submitting to Allah alone. Ibn al-Qayyim found it odd that a person discusses physical migration at length yet ignores the migration of the heart. He considered the migration of the heart to be an obligation for everyone, whereas the migration of the body only applies in certain contexts. The Prophet ﷺ succinctly highlighted the centrality of the migration of the heart when he said, “The \[true\] *muhajir* (migrant) is the one who abandons all that Allah has forbidden.”[^3] Although the migration of the heart is more central than the migration of the body, where we reside has a tremendous effect on the state of our hearts. Our beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and personality are all influenced by the culture of the land we reside in. This is a general principle of life, and no human being is immune from this. Because of this, the state of one’s heart naturally will influence where the body wants to reside, and where the body resides will naturally affect the heart. Thus, there may be a bidirectional influence between one’s spiritual state and geographic location. Reflecting this principle is the hadith of the man who killed a hundred people and was advised to migrate to a land with righteous people and to leave the land of the wicked.[^4] Many parents understand this intuitively, as those who are considering taking their children to the Muslim world hope the cultural geography positively influences their religiosity. Despite living in non-Muslim lands, many Western Muslims have found their hearts migrating to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Much of these positive results can be attributed to the establishment of masjids, Islamic schools, seminaries, community centers, and research institutes in the West, which have required tremendous sacrifice and effort. However, despite the gradual improvements in Western Islamic institutions over time, the limited quantity and/or quality of these institutions leave many Muslims searching for better holistic opportunities for their families. Moreover, the negative effects of the dominant culture are perceived by many as an overwhelmingly pervasive force, too threatening to their faith and Islamic values. Adding to this disenfranchisement is the ongoing genocide in Palestine and destruction of the surrounding region, coupled with the awareness that our governments are the financial and material backbone of this evil. As we understand that our taxes and our labor at certain corporations are directly supporting the destruction of Muslim lands, many Muslims—whose hearts are migrating to Allah and His Messenger—are having serious concerns about residing in the West and are considering physical migration. Despite our moral repugnance with many Western societies, in today’s world, there is no ideal Islamic state, and it appears to be a daunting challenge to find a land suitable for migration. There is no country in the world that a Muslim can walk into, wave their *ummah* passport,[^5] find gainful employment, and start life without confronting a number of challenges. Many Western Muslims also perceive the Muslim world as being far too plagued by economic, political, and social problems. So, what do we do? --- ## Assessing your situation There are a diversity of legal opinions on the matter of *hijra*, the details of which go beyond the scope of this article. However, in summary, many legal opinions state that if a Muslim is able to practice his religion openly and does not fear for his religion while living in a non-Muslim land, then it is not obligatory to make *hijra*.[^6] I find it useful to think about the spectrum of rulings regarding *hijra* as ranging from obligatory (*wajib*) to forbidden (*haram*) depending on a person’s life circumstances.[^7] Thus, the conversation of whether to make physical *hijra* or not needs to begin with an honest assessment of one’s personal situation. Wherever we reside, we have to assess if that area is healthy for our faith. It’s important to ask ourselves tough questions and answer them with integrity and sincerity, keeping Allah at the forefront of our minds. Some of these tough questions might include: - Is there a thriving Muslim community in my locality? - Are there appropriate Islamic resources available for me and my children? - Is the broader cultural environment safe and suitable for my family? - Am I actively engaged in calling people to Islam in my locality? - Am I able to find halal sources of income where I live? If the answer to these questions is “yes,” then *hijra* may not be necessary, although it may still be personally desirable. If the answer to all of these questions is “no,” *hijra* might be recommended or even obligatory. If the answer to some of these questions is “no,” one may consider whether they have the time and ability to support the development of a vibrant Muslim community or contribute to the development of necessary community resources. However, if the community is not suitable and the individual does not have the capacity to create a solution, then *hijra* becomes something worthy of serious consideration. Migration thus takes on all five of the possible rulings in Islamic law: it may be mandatory (*wajib*) for those who cannot practice their faith and are losing it altogether, it may be recommended (*mustahabb*) for those who are able to practice their faith but fear losing it for themselves or their children, it is permissible (*mubah*, lit. neutral) for those who can practice the religion but prefer to be in a wider Muslim environment, and it may even be disliked (*makruh*) or forbidden (*haram*) for those in circumstances that warrant they stay where they are (e.g., where leaving would lead to an abandoning of responsibility towards family). Each individual has their own life and family circumstances to consider that affect the priority and ruling of *hijra* in their respective case. Each person’s perception is ultimately subjective, and what is deemed a suitable environment to one may be unsuitable to another. Consulting people of knowledge is also recommended, as it helps ensure a more unbiased and scholarly opinion. At the heart of the matter is the need to be honest—with ourselves and with Allah. Saying the environment is suitable when one’s children are losing their faith and halal income is hard to find is disingenuous. Ultimately, each of us has to answer to Allah. As the Qur’an states, > Indeed, those whom the angels take \[in death\] while wronging themselves—\[the angels\] will say, “In what \[condition\] were you?” They will say, “We were oppressed in the land.” The angels will say, “Was not the earth of Allah spacious \[enough\] for you to emigrate therein?” For those, their refuge is Hell—and evil it is as a destination. Except for the oppressed among men, women, and children who cannot devise a plan, nor are they directed to a way. For those it is expected that Allah will pardon them, and Allah is ever Pardoning and Forgiving. (Qur'an 4:97–99) --- ## Assessing your options After determining that migration is the best course of action, the focus then shifts to practical and logistical matters. Although many people only consider *hijra* as migrating to a Muslim country, it is worth considering other cities within your own country that may suffice your needs. For example, if someone is living in a city without many Islamic resources, one might consider moving to a city with a sizable Muslim population and adequate resources.[^8] This option is especially important to consider for people whose life circumstances necessitate staying in a particular country. Another option could be finding another non-Muslim country that is more accepting of Muslims and suitable for practicing Islam, similar to how the companions sought refuge in Abyssinia. For those whose hearts are set on finding a Muslim land, a cursory glance at the Muslim world shows that there will be obstacles and challenges in store for anyone interested in *hijra*. Many of these challenges are due to the nation-state model and immigration laws in most countries. However, just because there are challenges doesn’t mean migration is impossible. Unfortunately, the modern world has made many people risk-averse and intolerant of uncertainty.[^9] People want certainty that the outcome of *hijra* will be exactly what they are seeking, which is impossible to attain. Unfortunately, this uncertainty often paralyzes us from action. Consequently, the first obstacle to overcome when considering *hijra* is our own spiritual and mental anxieties. No one can predict what the future holds, and we are only asked to strive for the sake of Allah. If migration is for the sake of Allah, it is rewarded—regardless of the outcome. Nevertheless, naturally, we should mentally prepare for setbacks and challenges, as this is part of any new experience in life, especially one as large as migration. The challenges we face may be psychological, social, economic, or legal. For example, people may have to cope with culture shock, language barriers, loneliness in a new land, difficulty finding employment, and more. Legal challenges related to immigration are also fairly common, with most countries not easily providing stable, long-term residency to immigrants. Thus, planning and due diligence are necessary to improve the probability of a successful *hijra*.[^10] This includes mentally preparing ourselves and our families, investigating economic opportunities in advance, and looking into the various residency options available. Regardless of what challenges lie ahead, we should find solace and motivation in the words of Allah when He says, > And whoever migrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many \[alternative\] locations and abundance. And whoever leaves his home as a migrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful. (Qur'an 4:100) --- ## Potential benefits of making hijra People might wonder why a Muslim in the West would consider making *hijra*, especially when thinking about the challenges of relocating to a foreign land. Furthermore, if only considering an individual’s personal educational and economic opportunities at the present moment, it might seem even more odd to consider leaving the West. However, when thinking long-term and stepping out of a solely individualistic and materialistic perspective, we’re better positioned to appreciate that there are many potential benefits to *hijra*. First, one of the major benefits of making *hijra* to a Muslim country is the ability to become more *ummah-*centric in one’s thinking and worldview and less Americentric or Eurocentric. Unfortunately, it has become very common for people residing in the West to develop a sense of exceptionalism that is un-Islamic. This sense of superiority may be the result of internalizing Western values and perceiving a Western lifestyle as superior to all other ways of being. Furthermore, it may also be the result of internalizing the negative propaganda that labels the Muslim world as backwards and uncivilized. Residing with Muslims in indigenous Muslim lands has the potential to eradicate these misconceptions and bring about the realization that people can thrive in other parts of the world. Living amongst the believers may help connect one’s heart to the affairs of the *ummah,* allowing us to think about the Muslim world from a more global perspective. Another benefit to making *hijra*, especially for those who have attained desirable professional skills from the West, is to engage in reverse brain drain—where highly educated individuals return to developing Muslim countries after gaining skills in Western countries. In the case of *hijra*, highly educated Muslims can provide expert knowledge to the Muslim world, especially in the fields of science and technology. In an increasingly technology dependent age, channeling this knowledge to the Muslim world is a powerful way to give back to the *ummah* and accelerate our independence from Western corporations and governments. Thus, the Muslim who makes *hijra* with this mindset is able to see themselves as contributing to the betterment of the Muslim world. Furthermore, and a lot closer to home, are the spiritual benefits of *hijra*. Hearing the *adhan* five times a day and being able to regularly pray in the masjid are incredible blessings that are far more difficult to realize in the West. Furthermore, simply living amongst fellow believers typically makes it easier to follow Islamic guidelines around gender interactions, dress code, and dietary laws. There are also particular Islamic values that are commonly practiced which are less common in the West, such as generosity, hospitality, and caring for children and elders. In addition to this, an underappreciated consequence of residing in the West for many Muslims and their children is becoming disconnected from one’s heritage language and the Arabic language. The loss of language cuts us off from communicating with non-English speaking Muslims (in some instances our own families), and from accessing information available in those languages. Languages spoken in the Muslim world contain much of our shared culture and history, and proficiency in these languages can help one better understand themselves, their family, and the *ummah* at large. Finally, another benefit of interacting with Muslims from other cultural backgrounds is that we become more interculturally competent. The ability to understand and respect each other across various types of cultural barriers is a valuable skill in an increasingly interconnected world. Intercultural competencies include gaining better communication skills, becoming more flexible in dealing with others, significant personal growth and self-awareness, and improved negotiation and problem-solving skills. --- ## Common concerns when making hijra Many people are overwhelmed by the thought of leaving the place they have known for their entire life and moving to a new place forever. However, it may be best to not think about *hijra* as an absolute decision that is permanent. Rather, it may be best to consider *hijra* as a step in the journey of life that is uncertain and full of surprises. As each person has different life circumstances, one might consider *hijra* as the best decision to make today, and be flexible to a number of different, potential long-term scenarios, all of which may contain goodness. It is possible that one loves the place they migrate to, and they may never look back—as has been the case with many people, who cannot imagine leaving the new Muslim land they now call home. It is also possible that the first place is not ideal, and someone finds themself trying a few different places before settling on a destination that is best for their family and faith. For others, the *hijra* may be for a limited number of years, in which they and their family absorb the language and desired values, before returning back to their home country due to family or other circumstances. Finally, someone may spend time in Muslim lands but realize that their situation was ultimately better in their home country and move back after some time abroad. Regardless of the specific outcome, there is goodness in all scenarios because it is the effort and sincerity that matters most—our sincere resolve to put our families in the best place to thrive, prioritizing their religious well-being first and their worldly needs second. Whether you find a more desirable land, or come back due to particular circumstances, what is important is your sincere ability to turn to Allah and say, “Oh Allah, I was willing to go across the world for your sake, and I accept where you have destined for me to be.” Many people either don’t feel ready to make *hijra* or aren’t convinced they need to. Others, however, are convinced it’s necessary as soon as possible. As a result, you often see strong, polarized views—some firmly on “Team *Hijra,*” while others stand just as strongly with “Team Stay in the West.” However, I believe it is reasonable to think outside of these binaries of permanently leaving or permanently staying, especially for those in circumstances that make it difficult to migrate. It is clear that America and many other Western nations are on the decline. However, it is less clear how rapid the decline may accelerate in the coming generations. In this sense, although we cannot predict the future, we can plan for the unpredictable. As such, I recommend Western Muslims, especially those unconvinced about *hijra*, to consider traveling to the Muslim world as regularly as is possible (given everyone’s individual circumstances), with the intention of preparing ourselves and our children for a future where migration may be more desirable or necessary. This may take the form of spending summer or winter breaks abroad, allowing one’s family to slowly acclimate to life in Muslim lands. It is important to experience life as a local and not merely as a tourist on these trips, allowing for a more realistic understanding of life there. This also allows one to investigate long-term residential options, economic and educational opportunities, and the overall suitability of various countries. Ultimately, this choice affords one the luxury of maintaining the status quo while being fully prepared to leave if circumstances dictate. It also allows one’s family to develop a deeper affinity for the *ummah* and the Muslim world. --- ## Final thoughts *Hijra* is not a silver bullet to life’s problems. While *hijra* may be an important step for some, it doesn’t automatically resolve every issue one might face. No matter where we reside, we will be tested in some aspects of life. As such, it is important not to have unrealistic expectations that living in the modern Muslim world will be like living under the caliphates of the rightly guided *sahaba*. However, just because the Muslim world is not perfect (it never was and never will be), does not mean it does not have potential and is not worth considering. One will likely find many things preferable in the Muslim world to the West and, vice versa, many things far more frustrating in the Muslim world than in the West. Tempering expectations is an important part of finding contentment. Additionally, it is important to remember that for those who hold citizenship in Western countries, the decision to migrate is not absolute and if the move does not succeed for any reason, returning to your home country will likely always be an option that remains open—ultimately making *hijra* a risk much lower than many people imagine. Many of our parents came to the West in search of a better life. They left their families seeking better educational and economic opportunities, and—in many cases—more religious freedoms. They did their best to set up masjids and other Islamic institutions for future generations. Amazingly, they made their decisions without the internet and had a high degree of risk tolerance for the unknown. They could not have predicted the circumstances that their children and grandchildren find themselves in decades later. Each person must think about what is best for themselves, their families, their future generations, and the *ummah*. There is no doubt that leaving family and friends behind weighs heavy on us. If one is planning on making *hijra*, they should talk to family well in advance and help them understand their motivations. Just as they or their parents may have left for a reason, we too have the autonomy to leave seeking betterment for our faith, children, and *ummah*. In all cases, it is best to have their blessings. For those actively engaged in *daʿwah* in the West, the decision to make *hijra* or stay is agonizing. The weighing of priorities based on Islamic values, such as the importance of *daʿwah* to Muslims and non-Muslims versus seeking a better environment for one’s family, is no easy task. It seems there is no perfect answer, as we will never know the alternative to whatever decision we make. Praying *istikhara* and seeking Allah’s help to make the best decision is therefore a must. Ultimately, we have to remind ourselves that we are merely traveling through this world. Regardless of where we reside and raise our families, this *dunya* is not permanent. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler along a path.”[^11] If we live by this Prophetic advice, we will inshaAllah find contentment migrating—physically or psychologically—on any path that leads us closer to Allah and His Messenger. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 54; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1907. [^2]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *The Spiritual Journey to Allah and His Messenger*: *Al-Risālat al-Tabūkīyya*, ed. 2, trans. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Jibālī (Al-Kitaab & As-Sunnah Publishing, 2007). [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 10. [^4]: The full hadith can be found in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3470. [^5]: See Mohammed Ashour, “Visionary Ummatic Futures – Mohammed Ashour | Ummatics Conference 2024,” Ummatics, YouTube video, September 7, 2024, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9lHNDP9\_E](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DWJ9lHNDP9_E&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1753819108987383&usg=AOvVaw3IiguCDjtJELrpYvkg0LbF). [^6]: See “Hijrah recommended, not obligatory, if Islam can be practised openly in land of unbelief,” Islam Web, February 26, 2015, [https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/279451/hijrah-recommended-not-obligatory-if-islam-can-be-practised-openly-in-land-of-unbelief](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/279451/hijrah-recommended-not-obligatory-if-islam-can-be-practised-openly-in-land-of-unbelief&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1753819108987970&usg=AOvVaw39Y4zG7hH1AZWl8m7gv1w_). [^7]: See Salah Al-Sawy, “Hijrah (Migration),” Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, December 23, 2008,  [https://www.amjaonline.org/fatwa/en/77221/hijrah-migration](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amjaonline.org/fatwa/en/77221/hijrah-migration&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1753819108988363&usg=AOvVaw0wAaVoI1yaiQWLEPIlI6oA). [^8]: For example, in the American context, there are many cities throughout the country with substantial Muslim populations and institutions. Collectively, if the American Muslim population focused on living in and developing the institutions in these cities, it would be easier to procure the necessary funding and talent for these institutions to thrive. Otherwise, both talent and wealth are scattered and we are left with communities struggling to find capital and human resources. [^9]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1753819108988916&usg=AOvVaw0EWfcXkW_D9ulQoPCCuWlH). [^10]: There are websites dedicated to helping people plan for *hijra*. For example, [www.makehijrah.com](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://makehijrah.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1753819108989167&usg=AOvVaw0Z9feopYqlwjsWozt1pPIU)  has many resources and even provides an assessment to help determine how prepared someone is to make *hijra*. Another website is [www.hijrahtest.com](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hijrahtest.com/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1753819108989402&usg=AOvVaw32LMrpoBfhiUtwEkA2Td83). [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6416. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-scrolling-breeds-despair-a-prophetic-cure-to-comparison-culture-essay # When Scrolling Breeds Despair: A Prophetic Cure to Comparison Culture | Essay **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** General Psychology, Nature & Science, Psychology & Mental Health, Technology **Tags:** Gratitude (Shukr), Perspective, Prophetic Cure **Published:** July 10, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 In a world of endless scrolling and curated perfection, it’s easy to forget that real life is rarely as pristine as the photos suggest. Social media platforms have evolved into highlight reels, showcasing polished moments, filtered bodies, and carefully edited success stories. The more we scroll, the more we compare; the more we compare, the more we despair. But this struggle isn’t new, even if its digital form is. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, in his timeless wisdom, offered a solution that not only centers us spiritually but also protects our mental and emotional well-being. He ﷺ said, > “Look at those who are lower than you and do not look at those who are above you, for that is more likely to prevent you from belittling the favors Allah has bestowed upon you.”[^1] This Prophetic advice is more than moral encouragement; it’s a therapeutic, psychologically sound antidote to the damaging effects of upward social comparison, or at least, in the case of social media, what we are led to believe is “upward.” Contemporary psychology confirms what the Prophet ﷺ warned against over 1,400 years ago: constantly measuring ourselves against others can significantly damage our emotional and psychological health. In a widely cited study, researchers Chou and Edge found that Facebook users who spent more time on the platform were more likely to believe that others were living happier, more successful lives than themselves, which in turn led to lower life satisfaction.[^2] Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are designed to hold your attention by showcasing polished, visually curated content, because in the world of attention economy, the longer you stay, the more profit they make. This design amplifies upward comparisons by repeatedly exposing users to idealized portrayals of others’ lives. In similar research, Vogel and her team reported that those who engaged more with social media had lower self-esteem and worse self-perceptions, especially when they compared themselves to others online.[^3] These comparisons, often centered on physical appearance, material possessions, or perceived happiness, distort our sense of reality and erode our ability to appreciate our own blessings. A 2023 meta-analysis by McComb and colleagues confirmed these findings on a larger scale, synthesizing data from 48 studies involving over 7,600 participants. They found that seeing people who appear better off on social media can make people feel worse about themselves, hurting their mental health and overall sense of well-being.[^4] These negative effects were especially pronounced for body image and self-esteem, showing the psychological vulnerability of users constantly exposed to “idealized” portrayals of others online. Psychologists refer to this dynamic as the “contrast effect,” where individuals view themselves more negatively when exposed to others who appear more successful or attractive. What’s even more concerning is that this exposure is relentless and often unconscious. Rather than inspiring self-improvement, upward social comparison tends to provoke discouragement, envy, and a sense that one’s own life is falling short.[^5] What makes the Prophet’s guidance so remarkable is how it addresses this emotional and spiritual misalignment at its core. Rather than withdraw from the world, the Prophetic method asks us to reorient our perspective. Instead of gazing upward at those with more, he ﷺ taught us to look to those with less, not to breed pity or a sense of superiority, but to ignite sincere gratitude. This shift helps anchor us in the blessings we already possess. In fact, these “downward” social comparisons on Instagram have been shown to have the opposite effect of “upward” comparisons, with body self-esteem scores increasing after downward comparisons,[^6] highlighting the timeless wisdom of the words of the Prophet ﷺ. Furthermore, in a randomized control trial, downward social comparisons proved effective in *preventing* body dissatisfaction in women,[^7] in line with the Prophetic model of preventing harm. The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Whoever among you wakes up secure in his home, healthy in his body, and has food for the day, it is as if the whole world has been gathered for him.” [^8] A safe home, good health, and food for the day are enormous blessings and are the foundation of well-being. But in the constant noise of social media, these simple yet profound gifts are often drowned out. Comparison blinds us to what we already have. The Prophetic solution, on the other hand, invites us to see again, clearly, humbly, and gratefully. It’s also important to remember that Islam does not discourage ambition. Our faith encourages excellence, growth, and striving for both worldly and spiritual elevation. But when the fuel behind our striving is envy, and when our benchmarks are shaped by unrealistic portrayals, we risk a life of constant dissatisfaction. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized that true contentment comes from the heart: “Wealth is not in having many possessions, but wealth is in contentment of the soul.”[^9] This contentment is not passive resignation but an active spiritual state, one that must be cultivated, especially in the digital age. Practicing *digital contentment* means being intentional about what we expose ourselves to online. It means unfollowing accounts that trigger comparison, curating a digital space that encourages gratitude, and resisting the urge to seek validation through likes of our carefully selected portrayals. Just as we guard our hearts from toxic or questionable environments in the physical world, we must do the same in our virtual lives. Protecting our internal peace begins with curbing external noise. The Prophet ﷺ also warned us directly about envy and the spiritual harm it causes. He said, > “Beware of envy, for indeed envy consumes good deeds just as fire consumes wood or grass.”[^10] If we are to protect our hearts and minds from this corrosion, we must be deliberate. One of the first steps is reclaiming our attention. Social media isn’t inherently wrong, but it can quickly become harmful when it shapes our sense of self or worth. Even short breaks from these platforms have been shown to improve self-esteem and overall life satisfaction, especially among youth and women.[^11] The Prophetic method also emphasizes the cultivation of *shukr* (thankfulness), and avoiding comparison that leads to ingratitude. Looking toward those with less is not about comparison for the sake of pride, but about rediscovering perspective. When we center our gaze on the gifts already in our lives, we grow less obsessed with what we lack and more appreciative of what we’ve been given. Equally important is surrounding ourselves with company and content that nourish our hearts and ground us in remembrance. When we root our self-worth in our relationship with the Divine rather than in digital validation, we begin to experience a more enduring form of peace. The digital world, by its carefully curated nature, is a delusion. What we think is better often turns out to be far more “filtered” than it seems. So in a world that constantly tempts us to look upward, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gently reminds us to look downward, and in doing so, to finally see how blessed we’ve been all along. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2963. [^2]: Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge, “‘They Are Happier and Having Better Lives than I Am’: The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others’ Lives,” *Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking* 15, no. 2 (2012): 117–121, [https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2011.0324](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2011.0324&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1752145698413276&usg=AOvVaw0mg5WwfQrU-BIUJFeq8Irp). [^3]: Erin A. Vogel, Jason P. Rose, Lindsay R. Roberts, and Katheryn Eckles, “Social Comparison, Social Media, and Self-Esteem,” *Psychology of Popular Media Culture* 3, no. 4 (2014): 206–222, [https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000047](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000047&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1752145698413989&usg=AOvVaw1dpSrM-DTFGgw7Yn6EKn50). [^4]: Carly A. McComb, Eric J. Vanman, and Stephanie J. Tobin, “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Social Media Exposure to Upward Comparison Targets on Self-Evaluations and Emotions,” Media Psychology 26, no. 5 (2023): 612–635, [https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2180647](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2180647&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1752145698418053&usg=AOvVaw3FV2VHWg8CiLH7zQ9TPyu2). [^5]: Dan Bates, “The 2 Faces of Social Comparison,” *Psychology Today*, September 22, 2024, [https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/mental-health-nerd/202409/the-2-faces-of-social-comparison](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/mental-health-nerd/202409/the-2-faces-of-social-comparison&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1752145698415859&usg=AOvVaw0lJ5pMrX1pp15N6NcacK19). [^6]: Jacqui Taylor and Georgina Armes, “Social Comparison on Instagram, and its Relationship with Self-Esteem and Body-Esteem,” *Discover Psychology* 4, no. 126 (2024), [https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-024-00241-3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-024-00241-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1752145698416526&usg=AOvVaw2XZyf3KfIqoV7Y8aCS576P). [^7]: Ann-Marie Lew, Traci Mann, Hector Myers, Shelley Taylor, and Julienne Bower, “Thin-Ideal Media and Women’s Body Dissatisfaction: Prevention using Downward Social Comparisons on Non-Appearance Dimensions,” *Sex Roles* 57 (2007): 543–556, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9274-5](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9274-5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1752145698417402&usg=AOvVaw1fmo-f05Pvl7WZhPk-FCYU). [^8]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2346, graded *ḥasan* (fairly authentic) by al-Tirmidhī. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6446. [^10]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4903, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (highly authentic) by al-Suyūṭī. [^11]: McComb et al., “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Social Media Exposure to Upward Comparison Targets on Self-Evaluations and Emotions.” --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/surah-al-fatihas-benefits-and-virtues-the-greatest-surah-in-the-quran # Surah al-Fatiha’s Benefits and Virtues: The Greatest Surah in the Qur’an **Author:** Sh. Suleiman Hani **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Quranic Reflections, Quranic Themes, Quranic Virtues **Published:** May 9, 2025 **Updated:** September 8, 2026 ## Introduction The Prophet ﷺ was sitting with the archangel Jibril when it happened. A sound—clear and loud and yet inexplicable—roared down from above. The Prophet ﷺ looked around, but his angelic companion simply lifted his head and announced: “A gate has just opened in heaven. It has never been opened before.” No sooner had Jibril uttered these words to the Prophet ﷺ than a figure appeared in their presence. Jibril said, regarding the visitor: “This is an angel who has just come down to earth. He has never come down before.” The angel, this first-time visitor newly descended through a newly-opened gate in the heavens, greeted the two blessed beings before him—one human, one angel. “Rejoice with two lights given to you,” he said, addressing the Prophet ﷺ. “They were not given to any prophet before you: the opening (*fātiḥa*) of the Book \[i.e., the Qur’an\], and the closing \[verses\] of Surah al-Baqara. Never will you recite a word from them without being granted your supplications (*du‘a’*).” As with all matters of the unseen, this moment cannot be truly captured by language, transcending our physical and experiential understanding. Yet, what we are able to grasp is the momentous honor that was bestowed upon Allah’s Beloved ﷺ—and, in turn, his followers—by the exclusive and unprecedented opening of a gate to one of the seven heavens,[^1] through which the elevated virtues (*faḍāʾil*) of the Qur’anic passages specified by the angel—the opening of the Book and the concluding verses of Surah al-Baqara—were declared. “The opening of the Book,” of course, refers to none other than Surah al-Fatiha—the one *surah* (chapter) whose verses we recite in every *rakʿa* of every prayer. Surah al-Fatiha and Surah al-Baqara are, of course, among many other **surah**s of the Qur’an that possess exceptional virtues. In fact, the virtues of each of the **surah**s and *ayah*s (verses) of the Qur’an is one of the most uplifting and motivational branches of the Sciences of the Qur’an (*ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*). Many Muslims know about the *ayah*s that should be recited for spiritual healing (*ruqya*), or the **surah** that will serve as a protection in the grave, or those that offer shade on the Day of Resurrection.[^2] However, these examples are but a drop in the vast sea of the Qur’an’s inexhaustible virtues. The benefits of studying the virtues of the Qur’an are many. The more one studies particular **surah**s and *ayah*s, the more one fosters a profound bond with them, and in turn with Allah ﷻ. The process of building this connection naturally introduces discipline and consistency into the life of a believer. Regular recitation strengthens one’s spiritual connection, building a habit of seeking solace, guidance, and companionship through the Qur’an. Making a habit of reciting and consulting the Qur’an naturally facilitates its memorization, making it easier to commit additional verses to memory over time. Eventually, this consistency transforms the Qur’an into a trusted companion—one that provides emotional comfort during times of difficulty and reinforces the essential teachings, concepts, and laws that inform a believer’s understanding of faith and their responsibilities. The Qur’an thus becomes a means of earning reward in both this life and the Hereafter. Beyond these general benefits, the companion of the Qur’an also enjoys the reward, blessings, and protections furnished by specific **surah**s and *ayah*s, such as protection in this life (e.g., Ayat al-Kursi), in the grave (e.g., Surah al-Mulk), and on the Day of Judgment (e.g., Surah al-Baqara). Surah al-Kawthar (Qur’an 108) reminds believers of Allah’s abundant gifts, while verses like Ayat al-Kursi emphasize His constant protection. Recognizing these divine favors fosters gratitude within the heart of the believer, deepening their appreciation for Allah’s guidance and provisions. In turn, with this gratitude comes increased *tawakkul* (reliance upon Allah) that believers are encouraged to combine with proactive measures for protection and success. For instance, Surah al-Falaq (Qur’an 113) and Surah al-Nas (Qur’an 114) exemplify this principle by serving as spiritual remedies for protection against harm, while reinforcing the importance of trusting in Allah’s ultimate control and mercy. Furthermore, while the Qur’an is in Arabic, we hope the reward and benefits of these chapters and verses extend equally to those who sincerely strive to read them via transliteration (not to be confused with translation). This applies as well to the believing woman who, even during her menses, recites the Qur’an from memory or an electronic device, underscoring the universal call to connect to the Book of Allah throughout the year.[^3] What follows is the first of a series of papers exploring the virtues of various chapters and verses of the Qur’an, offering a commentary that intertwines their theological and spiritual dimensions, with the aim of anchoring these divine passages in our hearts and implementing them in our lives. This series covers many authenticated narrations about different **surah**s and *ayah*s, extracted from a compilation I authored in English and Arabic, titled *Special Virtues of the Qur’an’s Chapters and Verses* (*al-Jāmi*ʿ *al-mukhtaṣar li-faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar*).[^4] A virtue, in this case, refers to a special trait of the **surah** or *ayah* mentioned in an authentic report, such as a special reward or protection for the one who recites a particular **surah** or *ayah*, or something that was recited at a particular frequency by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or was beloved to him. We begin this series with the momentous Surah al-Fatiha, a light in which we should rejoice. --- ## Surah al-Fatiha The sailor oftentimes needs a simple but clear source of guidance, a piercing light that shines as far as necessary to reach the safe shores of salvation. While the rest of the Qur’an certainly helps the lost seeker of truth, the opening chapter, Surah al-Fatiha, suffices as the ultimate compass of salvation, helping its travelers attain the pleasure of Allah, moral guidance in this life, and a blissful eternal destination. Surah al-Fatiha is the greatest *surah* in the Qur’an, the foundation of Islam, the summary of truth, a healing for illnesses, a comfort for worries, a protection, and a fortress. Al-Fatiha, an unrivaled divine revelation to the final nation, is recited at least seventeen times a day by Muslims praying their five obligatory prayers, a consistent conversation with the Creator and a prescription for the hearts of creation. --- ## Names of Surah al-Fatiha Al-Fatiha has many names reflecting its virtues and themes. Al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1273) mentions twelve in his *tafsir*, listed below with the integrated views of al-Tabari (d. 310/923):[^5] **1. Al-Salah (The Prayer):** As mentioned in the hadith, “I have divided the prayer (*salah*)  between Myself and My servant.”[^6] **2\. Al-Hamd (The Praise):** Because it includes the praise (*ḥamd*) of Allah. **3\. Fatihat al-Kitab (The Opening of the Book):** It is the opening (*fāṭihā*) of the Qur’an and ritual prayers. Al-Tabari adds that it serves as an introduction to what follows in the Qur’an, in both writing and recitation, thus acting as a prelude to the subsequent *surah*s. **4\. Umm al-Kitab (Essence of the Book):** There is some disagreement, but most scholars accept this name, as it encapsulates the core meanings of the Qur’an. Companion Anas b. Malik (d. 93/713, rA) and successor (*tabiʿi*) Ibn Sirin (d. 110/729), however, believe this name refers (exclusively) to the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ (Preserved Tablet), based on the verse: “It is in Umm al-Kitab.”[^7] **5\. Umm al-Qur’an (Essence of the Qur’an):** This name is also associated with some scholarly debate, but most accept it due to clear evidence, such as the narration from al-Tirmidhi,[^8] as well as others where the Prophet ﷺ said: “*Alḥamdulillahi Rabb al-ʿālamīn* is Umm al-Qur’an, Umm al-Kitab, and the seven oft-repeated verses.”[^9] Al-Tabari explains that al-Fatiha is called Umm al-Qur’an because it precedes all other *surah*s in both recitation and writing. He further elaborates that the Arabs would call anything that encompasses or leads other things “*umm*,” literally meaning “mother,” especially when it is comprehensive or serves as an introduction to what follows.[^10] **6\. Al-Mathani (The Oft-Repeated) or Al-Sabʿ al-Mathani (the Oft-Repeated Seven \[Verses\]):** It is recited in every unit of prayer. **7\. Al-Qur’an al-ʿAzim (The Great Qur’an):** It contains the essence of all Qur’anic knowledge. **8\. Al-Ruqya (The Healing):** Proven by a narration, which will be expanded upon later in this paper, where the Prophet ﷺ asked how a man knew that al-Fatiha could be used for *ruqya* (healing).[^11] **9.** **Al-Shifaʾ (The Cure):** This is proven by the same narration as for the name al-Ruqya. **10\. Al-Asas (The Foundation):** Refers to its centrality in faith. **11\. Al-Wafiya (The Complete One):** According to exegete and hadith master Sufyan b. ʿUyayna (d. 198/813), it must be recited in full, unlike other chapters which can be split in prayer. **12\. Al-Kafiya (The Sufficient):** Yahya b. Abi Kathir said it suffices in place of other *surah*s, but no other *surah* suffices in place of al-Fatiha. In summary, the multiple names attributed to Surah al-Fatiha each highlight a distinct facet of its profound significance. They speak to its role as the essence and opening of the Qur’an, the indispensable foundation of ritual prayer, and a wellspring of guidance, praise, healing, and comprehension. Al-Fatiha’s names reflect its position as a spiritual prelude, teacher, and companion, directing believers to the core of the faith, encapsulating the Qur’an’s comprehensive message, and offering solace and remedy for both heart and body. Thus, this single *surah* stands at the heart of Islamic devotion and understanding, a unique chapter of revelation that guides, nurtures, and protects the faithful in every aspect of their religious lives. --- ## Virtues of Surah al-Fatiha Having become acquainted with some of the core meanings of Surah al-Fatiha above, this section will now present four main virtues of the *surah*, each established in authentic reports, alongside commentary and analysis to further elucidate their significance. First, Surah al-Fatiha is affirmed as the greatest *surah* of the Qur’an, surpassing all others in its spiritual depth and theological clarity. Second, its revelation was unprecedented, bestowed as a divine gift exclusively upon the *ummah* of the Prophet ﷺ, elevating its status far beyond what any previous community had received. Third, no ritual prayer (*salah*) is considered valid without its recitation,[^12] making it an indispensable component of daily worship and the spiritual rhythm of the believer’s life. Finally, Surah al-Fatiha functions as a cure and treatment for illnesses, both physical and spiritual, embodying the Qur’an’s holistic nature and reinforcing the believer’s reliance on Allah’s mercy and guidance. Each of these four virtues will be explored in detail, drawing upon authentic texts and scholarly interpretations. ### The greatest surah The companion Abu Saʿid Rāfiʿ b. al-Muʿallā (d. 2/624, rA) reported, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Shall I teach you the greatest *surah* in the Qur’an before you leave the mosque?’ Then, he ﷺ took me by the hand, and when we were about to step out, I reminded him of his promise to teach me the greatest *surah* in the Qur’an. He ﷺ said, ‘It is *Alḥamdulillahi Rabb al-ʿālamīn* \[i.e., Surah al-Fatiha\] which is al-Sabʿ al-Mathani \[i.e., the seven oft-repeated *ayah*s\] and the Great Qur’an which is given to me.’”[^13] Eminent hadith scholar Ibn Hajr al-ʿAsqalani (d. 852/1449) said: “There is a difference of scholarly opinion concerning the reason why it was called *mathānī*. It was said that it is because it is repeated (*tuthannā*) in every *rakʿa*; or because Allah ﷻ is praised (*yuthnā*) in them; or because it was given exclusively to this *ummah* and was not sent down to those who came before it.”[^14] As for why al-Fatiha is the greatest *surah* in the Qur’an, one may better understand its great status by studying its virtues, interpretation (*tafsir*), and reflections (*tadabbur*). One example of understanding its status is to observe the opening *ayah*s of the *surah* and their impact on the believers’ hearts and everyday lives. In its opening verses, Surah al-Fatiha includes an expression of ultimate praise (*alhamdulillah*), serving as a reminder that the believer who desires nearness to Allah and the path of guidance must establish gratitude in his heart and on his tongue. *Alhamdulillah* was the first expression of Adam (as),[^15] and it was a command to Noah (as) when he was saved (“Say *alhamdulillah* who saved us”).[^16] It is a sacred expression that has reverberated through the ages, articulated by prophets and messengers across the expanse of time and circumstance,[^17] embodying the eternal truth of Allah’s greatness. And as the gates of Paradise open to welcome the souls of the believers, it is *alhamdulillah* that resounds in elation, a celestial expression of gratitude towards the One who kept His promise, ushering them into a realm of everlasting bliss (“Praise be to the One who fulfilled His promise to us”).[^18] The opening of al-Fatiha unveils a profound truth linked to its great virtues: that the universe in its entirety, spanning the majestic realms of angels, the world of jinn, and other myriad forms of creation, is intrinsically aligned in praise of Allah. This objective truth transcends the seen and unseen, declaring that every corner of existence owes its reverence to Allah. Yet, it is the beings endowed with the gift of free will—humans and jinn—who are called to consciously embrace this truth, to submit to Allah with a heart full of devotion and a soul exemplifying true gratitude. This act of willing submission is not just an acknowledgment of truth but a journey towards the ultimate pleasure of the Creator. Similarly, Jabir b. ʿAbd Allah (d. 74/697, rA) reports that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The best supplication is to declare all praise is due to Allah.”[^19] On another occasion, he ﷺ said, “The words loved most by Allah are, ‘*Subḥān Allah wa bi-ḥamdih* (Glory be to Allah and praise is due to Him).’”[^20] Likewise, *alhamdulillah* is part of various supplications throughout the day, from the time of waking up to the moments before sleeping.[^21] ### An unprecedented revelation It was narrated that Ubayy b. Kaʿb (d. 30/649, rA) said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Allah ﷻ did not reveal in the Torah (Tawra) or the Gospels (Injil) anything like The Essence of the Qur’an \[i.e., al-Fatiha\], which \[consists of\] the seven oft-recited \[verses\], and \[Allah said\] it is divided between Myself and My slave will have what he asked for.’”[^22] By highlighting Surah al-Fatiha’s superiority over any passage in any previous revelation, this hadith situates it at the theological heart of the Islamic canon. This hadith indicates that Allah the Exalted—the One whose revelations reached countless human beings before us—honored the final Messenger and final *ummah* with a revelation never given to a previous nation. Furthermore, the Prophet’s ﷺ statement points us toward the *surah*’s role as a divine key, uniquely positioned at the opening of the Qur’an and presiding over every act of ritual prayer. It unlocks the acceptance of prayer (“and my slave will have what he/she asked for”).[^23] Going back to the opening story of this paper,[^24] the angel’s reference to the passages as “two lights” (*nūrān*) must be understood in the context of the Qur’an’s use of “light” as a metaphor for divine guidance, illumination, and clarity. As Allah asks us, “Can those who had been dead, to whom We gave life and a light with which they can walk among people, be compared to those in complete darkness from which they can never emerge?”[^25] Here, “light” indicates the divine guidance that transforms a spiritually dormant soul into one illuminated by faith. Surah al-Fatiha, as the introduction to the Qur’an, encapsulates this very transformation: it begins by praising the Lord of all worlds, establishes His attributes, and culminates in a direct, urgent plea for guidance (*hidāya*) to the straight path. In so doing, it lays the foundations of the believer’s worldview, linking the authority of Allah to the believer’s daily quest for moral and spiritual direction. The Qur’an in general is described as a clear light,[^26] and an escape from darkness into light,[^27] and it is the speech (*kalām*) of Allah al-Nūr (The Light): “Allah is the Light (*Nūr*) of the heavens and the earth...”[^28] Such imagery is invoked in our supplicatory prayer (*duʿaʾ*) in the night prayer (*tahajjud*): “O Allah to You is praise, You are the Light of the heavens and the earth…”[^29] Surah al-Fatiha, the pinnacle of the plea to which believers collectively respond with “*āmīn,*” is a prayer for continuous guidance along the straight path, a path illuminated by the singular light of the divine in a world of many darknesses. This request articulates the believer’s fundamental theological and spiritual dependence on Allah, acknowledging the necessity of His aid and pleasure for navigating the complexities of faith and practice. Correspondingly, the concluding verses of Surah al-Baqara serve as a comprehensive *duʿa*ʾ for forgiveness, protection from human frailty and error, and unwavering reliance on the Almighty. The conclusion of the hadith indicates the “acceptance” of supplications without specification. The most common scholarly interpretation is that this refers in particular to the acceptance of the *duʿaʾ* expressed in those Qur’anic passages, such as for guidance, security, and forgiveness.[^30] Yet it could also encompass the fulfillment of one’s wider needs, both in this life and the hereafter.[^31] In either case, this divine promise of acceptance from Allah points to the power of revelation itself, as the spoken words of the Creator become a conduit for mercy (*raḥma*), blessings (*baraka*), guidance, and an accepted response. As the opening chapter of the Qur’an, the seven oft-repeated verses, Surah al-Fatiha is the perfect embodiment of guidance and a microcosm of the Sharia’s entire framework. It encompasses the core elements of belief (*ʿaqīda*), worship (*ʿibāda*), ethical laws (*aḥkām*), acknowledgment of the unseen (*ghayb*), and reliance upon Allah alone. The *surah* is described as Umm al-Qurʾan (the Essence of the Qur’an) precisely because it gathers into a few lines the grand themes that the rest of the Book unfolds in detail. Its verses orient the believer toward gratitude and reverence for, and absolute dependence on, Allah’s mercy and direction—the foundational dispositions expressed in all the other obligations and teachings of Islam. ### No salah (prayer) is valid without Surah al-Fatiha Because of its unique standing, no ritual prayer (*salah*) is valid without the recitation of al-Fatiha. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, “The prayer is not valid for the one who does not recite the Fatiha (lit. opening chapter) of the Book.”[^32] The greatest ritual worship Muslims engage in is *salah* (prayer), a foundational pillar amongst the five pillars of Islam. It is the first of deeds the believer will be questioned about on the Day of Resurrection, underscoring its monumental importance in the journey of a believer.[^33] It forms a divine link between the creation and the Creator. That this one *surah* is mandated for every prayer speaks volumes of its indispensable role in nurturing the believer’s growth, fortifying their conviction, and anchoring them firmly on the path of truth and guidance. Al-Fatiha is not only a chapter to be recited on the tongue; it is the first part of the Qur’an every new Muslim learns, and it is impossible to practice Islam properly, once a person has embraced it, without al-Fatiha. To embrace al-Fatiha is to embrace Islam; it is to stand before Allah with a heart full of devotion, a mind attuned to His wisdom, and a soul yearning for His closeness. It is the echo of every prayer, and the foundation of every plea for steadfast guidance. The elevated role of al-Fatiha in prayer is further clarified through a non-Qur’anic divine revelation expressed in the Prophet’s words (*ḥadīth qudsī)* reported by Abu Hurayra (d. 59/679, rA), wherein Allah responds to each verse of the *surah* as the servant recites it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > Allah the Exalted said: “I have divided the prayer into two halves between Me and My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks. When the servant says: ‘Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all worlds,’ Allah the Most High says: ‘My servant has praised Me.’ > > And when he \[the servant\] says: ‘The Most Compassionate, the Merciful,’ Allah the Most High says: ‘My servant has lauded Me.’ > > And when he \[the servant\] says: ‘Master of the Day of Judgment,’ He remarks: ‘My servant has glorified Me.’ And sometimes He would say: ‘My servant entrusted \[his affairs\] to Me.’ > > And when he \[the worshiper\] says: ‘You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help,’ He \[Allah\] says: ‘This is between Me and My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks for.’ Then, when he \[the worshiper\] says: ‘Guide us along the straight path, the path of those whom You have blessed, not those You are displeased with or those who are astray,’ He \[Allah\] says: ‘This is for My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks for.’”[^34] This divine commentary transforms prayer into a dynamic exchange rather than a one-sided recitation. Each utterance of al-Fatiha is simultaneously a proclamation of belief, a request for guidance, and an intimate conversation with the Creator. Al-Fatiha thus aligns worship, praise, and supplication into a single devotional act, one that is constantly validated and answered by Allah Himself. Scholars like Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) illuminate this dynamic. He notes that the believer who recites al-Fatiha combines sincere praise and glorification of Allah with humble petition for guidance. The *surah* seamlessly shifts from praising the Divine to humbly seeking His aid, culminating in the request for the most precious of blessings: correct guidance in life’s moral and spiritual journey.[^35] Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) identifies in al-Fatiha what he deems the greatest and most beneficial of supplications: > **إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ** > > It is You we worship and You we ask for help (*iyyāka naʿbud wa iyyāka nastaʿīn*).[^36] There’s something profoundly moving about the realization that *ihdinā al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* (Guide us along the straight path) are the words of Allah, and yet He places them on our tongues to enunciate the most important supplication, that of continuous guidance along the straight path. Rather than leaving believers to articulate their own pleas for guidance, Allah graciously provides the exact words that, when recited sincerely, serve as a direct conduit for divine light. Indeed, the process of recitation itself becomes an instrument of guidance (*hidāya*) and healing (*shifāʾ*), drawing humanity from layers of spiritual darkness into the embrace of divine enlightenment. The Qur’an itself begins with *du*ʿ*aʾ* in al-Fatiha and reminds us to keep asking of Allah, to demonstrate our need for Him, to truly rely upon Him, and to direct our entire hearts’ worship toward Him. The Qur’an, although primarily a recitation, also begins and ends with *du*ʿ*aʾ* (in its final two chapters),[^37] as though reminding the believers not to neglect the essence of worship. Moreover, al-Fatiha holds a singular status as the only *surah* required in every unit of prayer (*rakʿa*), transforming each instance of *salah* into a direct encounter with Allah through supplication. Its recitation concludes with the communal utterance of “*āmīn*,” a moment in which earthly worshippers align their voices with the angels. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “When the imam says *āmīn*, then say *āmīn* as the angels do. Whoever’s *āmīn* coincides with that of the angels will have his past sins forgiven.”[^38] This unique status, marked by both obligatory presence and a climactic “*āmīn*,” sets al-Fatiha apart from all other *surah*s. It becomes the rhythmic heartbeat of Muslim devotional life, ensuring that no believer drifts far from the very source of divine guidance and forgiveness. ### A cure for illnesses Companion Abu Saʿid al-Khudri (d. 74/693, rA) said: “We were once on a journey and we made camp. A servant girl came and said, ‘The leader of the tribe has been stung, and our men are away. Is there any among you who can perform *ruqya* (healing)?’ A man stood up to go with her, someone we did not previously suspect of knowing any *ruqya*, and he recited over him, whereupon the leader recovered. He \[the leader\] then ordered that he be given thirty sheep (as a gift), and he gave us milk to drink. When the man returned, we said to him, ‘Did you really know how to perform *ruqya*, or did you do this on a whim?’ He replied, ‘No, I only recited Umm al-Kitab.’ We said, ‘Do not do anything \[with the reward\] until we reach—or ask—the Prophet ﷺ.’ When we arrived in Medina, we mentioned this to the Prophet ﷺ, and he said, ‘And how did he know it was a healing? Distribute \[the sheep\] and allot a share for me as well.’”[^39] Although the companions used it for a physical healing in the aforementioned incident, Surah al-Fatiha is undoubtedly a spiritual healing and a psychological remedy. Ibn al-Qayyim writes: > With regard to it referring to well-being for hearts \[spiritual well-being\], it is absolutely effective. The cause of hearts becoming sick and ailing is based on two things: corruption of knowledge and corruption of intention. From these two result two lethal illnesses, namely misguidance and anger. Misguidance results from corruption of knowledge (or lack of sound knowledge), and anger results from corruption of intention (or lack of sound intention). These two diseases are the main causes for the undermining of all spiritual well-being. Guidance to the straight path guarantees healing from the sickness of misguidance, hence asking for this guidance is the most important and most obligatory supplication that each person must offer every day and night, in every prayer, because it is so essential and because the person’s need for the guidance that is sought is so great; nothing else can take the place of this request.[^40] As for the man who was stung by a scorpion and healed by Allah through the recitation of al-Fatiha as a *ruqya*, Ibn al-Qayyim highlights an important point: “\[The healing\] was effective despite the fact that al-Fatiha was recited over someone who was not the best candidate for this treatment—either because this tribe was not Muslim, or because they were stingy and mean—so what if the person had been a good candidate for that?”[^41] Then he said: “I used to suffer from severe pains, to the extent that I could hardly move, during *ṭawāf* and at other times. I began to recite al-Fatiha into my hands and wipe them over the site of the pain, and it was as if the pain was a small stone that dropped off. I tried that many times. And I used to take a cup of Zamzam water and recite al-Fatiha over it several times and then drink it, and I found a great deal of benefit and strength in that, that I never got from any other medicine.”[^42] --- ## Conclusion Ultimately, Surah al-Fatiha is a guide to all that is good, and it answers some of humanity’s most primordial questions: Who is our Creator? How do we worship Him? How should we call upon Him? Ibn al-Qayyim summarizes Surah al-Fatiha when he writes: “The Opening of the Book, the Essence of the Qur’an, the seven oft-recited verses, the complete healing, the beneficial remedy, the perfect *ruqya*, the key to independence of means and success, the preserver of strength, that wards off worry, distress, fear and grief, is for the one who appreciates its value and gives it its due, and tries to apply it in the proper manner to treat his sickness, and knows how to seek healing and treat sickness with it.”[^43] Certain seasons and moments of the year are endowed with extraordinary virtue and the promise of magnified rewards, such as the great month of Ramadan, the sacred month of Muharram, the profound Night of Qadr, the blessed first ten days of Dhu’l-Hijja, the motivational last ten nights of Ramadan, the contemplative Day of ʿArafa, the significant Day of ʿAshuraʾ, and so forth. Similarly, amongst the chapters of the Qur’an, Surah al-Fatiha has been bestowed with immense honor by the Lord of the Worlds. Those who study its meanings, reflect upon its recitation, and recite with heartfelt sincerity, will experience a sweetness of faith with each recitation. While not exhaustive, the reports surveyed in this piece serve as an introduction for those yearning to deepen their engagement with the Qur’an, to internalize it, to benefit from it, and to seek the magnificent reward, protection, and blessings associated with specific verses and chapters. Ultimately, whatever capacity one finds to bond with the Qur’an, let that connection be nurtured consistently, for it will serve as a timeless guidance in this life and “as an intercessor on the Day of Judgment for its companion.”[^44] --- ## Notes [^1]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 806 for the narration of this incident. [^2]: This ties into the broader discussion on whether some Qur’anic verses have greater merit than others, a topic explored in depth in Yousef Wahb’s article, “Are Some Qur’anic Verses More Meritorious than Others?” (Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, June 7, 2024, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-some-quranic-verses-more-virtuous-than-others-reconciling-diverse-scholarly-views](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-some-quranic-verses-more-virtuous-than-others-reconciling-diverse-scholarly-views&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1746822224639853&usg=AOvVaw0s1CBst0Tcas66f5fI7kp7)). Wahb addresses the conceptual understanding of the superiority of certain verses, adding to our comprehension of how specific *ayah*s carry distinct theological and spiritual weight. [^3]: In the various jurisprudential schools of thought in Sunni Islam, there are differing opinions about whether or not it is permissible for a woman on her menses to recite the Qur’an. It is permissible for a menstruating woman to recite the Qur’an according to the Maliki and Ẓāhirī schools, and it is a view narrated from al-Shafiʿi, and one narration from Imam Ahmad. It was also the opinion asserted by al-Tabari, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim, and others. Even among the schools that prohibit it, such as in the Hanafi and Shafiʿi schools, an exception is made for chapters and verses that are intended to be protective in nature, like *duʿaʾ*, such as for Ayat al-Kursi, the last two verses of al-Baqara, and the last three chapters of the Qur’an. See: *al-Mawsūʿa al-fiqhiyya*, 45 vols (Dār al-Ṣafwa, 1993), 18:321–22. [^4]: The new compilation, titled in English *Special Virtues of the Qur’an’s Chapters and Verse*s, is published on [sunnah.com/virtues](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://sunnah.com/virtues&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1746822224633655&usg=AOvVaw07mQ7_eAiY1eDarC7mEn30) (accessed September 10, 2024). In compiling the virtues of certain verses and chapters of the Qur’an, I have adhered to a methodology that primarily relies on rigorously authenticated (*ṣaḥīḥ*) and fairly authentic (*ḥasan*) prophetic reports. The authentication of these reports is based on the evaluations of leading hadith scholars such as the compilers themselves, Imam al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasaʾi, among others. When citing narrations from collections that are not inherently *ṣaḥīḥ* and *ḥasan*,  the verdicts of diverse hadith scholars were relied upon depending on the narration, such as al-Albani, Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, and Ahmad Shakir, who have rigorously authenticated individual hadiths. Additionally, I have consulted and cross-referenced works dedicated to the topic of *faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar* (virtues of the verses and chapters) to ensure comprehensive coverage. Among the dozens of key works referenced are: Muḥammad b. Rizq b. Tarhūnī, *Mawsūʿat faḍāʾil suwar wa āyāt al-Qurʾān* (Encyclopedia of the virtues of the chapters and verses of the Qur’an) (Dār Ibn al-Qayyim, 2006); Fakhr al-Dīn b. al-Zubayr b. ʿAlī al-Muḥasī, *al-Durar min ṣaḥīḥ faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar* (Ministry of Information and Culture, 2004); and Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Saqqāf, *al-Kitāb al-jāmiʿ li-faḍāʾil suwar al-Qur’ān al-Karīm*: *al-Aḥādīth allatī waradat fī faḍāʾil al-suwar wa-l-āyāt* (Aal al-Bayt Royal Foundation for Islamic Thought, 2007). [^5]: See: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. Aḥmad al-Bardūnī and Ibrāhīm Aṭfīsh (Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1964), 109–11; Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī taʾwīl al-Qur’ān*, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Dār al-Maʿārif, 2001), 107–9. [^6]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 395a. [^7]: See Qur’an 43:4. [^8]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3125. [^9]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1457, and a similar variation is found in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4704. [^10]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi*ʿ *al-bayān*, 107–8. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5007. [^12]: There is a well-known juristic difference among the schools of Islamic law regarding the obligation of the congregant (*al-ma’mūm*) to recite Surah al-Fatiha in a congregational prayer when the imam recites aloud. The Hanafis, Malikis, and Hanbalis—along with the early view of Imam al-Shafiʿi—hold that the congregant is not required to recite al-Fatiha in audible prayers. This is also the opinion of the majority of the early generations (*al-salaf*). They cite as evidence the Qur’anic verse: “When the Qur’an is recited, listen to it attentively and be silent, so that you may be shown mercy” (Qur’an 7:204), about which Imam Ahmad said, “People unanimously agree that this verse refers to prayer.” They also cite the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ashʿari (rA), in which the Prophet ﷺ said: “When you pray, straighten your rows. Then let one of you lead the prayer. When he pronounces the *takbīr*, pronounce the *takbīr* after him; and when he recites, remain silent.” (Reported by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, and others). As for the silent prayers or units (*rak’a*) of prayer, there is a difference of opinion regarding the congregant. It is obligatory for the congregant to recite Surah al-Fatiha in silent (non-audible) prayers, and this is the position of the Shafiʿi school, the chosen view of Ibn al-ʿArabi (from among the Malikis), and it is also held by Ibn Hazm, al-Sanʿani, al-Shawkānī, and many contemporary scholars. They cite as evidence the aforementioned narration, “There is no prayer for the one who does not recite the Opening of the Book.” The Prophet ﷺ here negates the validity of the prayer for anyone who fails to recite Surah al-Fatiha, without restricting any particular circumstance of the one praying. The Arabic relative pronoun *man* (“whoever”) connotes a general meaning, applying to anyone—whether a congregant, an imam, or someone praying alone—who does not recite al-Fatiha. They also argue that the Prophet’s ﷺ command to recite Surah al-Fatiha is general in all prayers and under all circumstances, except in prayers where the imam’s recitation is audible and the congregants are obligated to remain silent. Therefore, for silent prayers, this general directive remains in effect. See: *al-Mawsūʿa al-fiqhiyya*, 45 vols (Dār al-Ṣafwa, 1993), 25:288. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4474. [^14]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Muḥibb al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb et al., 1st ed., 13 vols. (al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1960), 761. [^15]: This refers to when Adam (as) sneezed, as reported in the hadith *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3367. Graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic); see footnote 4 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^16]: Qur’an 23:28. [^17]: Such as with Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) (as), who said “All praise is for Allah who has blessed me with Ishmael (Ismaʿil) and Isaac (Ishaq) in my old age…” (Qur’an 14:39), as well as Prophets David (Dawud) and Solomon (Sulayman) in Qur’an 27:15. [^18]: Qur’an 39:74. Two other expressions of praise are mentioned in the Qur’an for the people of Paradise: Qur’an 35:34 and Qur’an 7:43. The words “*alhamdulillah (al-ḥamdu li-Allāh)*” in that form are found twenty-one times in the Qur’an. [^19]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3383. Graded *ḥasan* (fairly authentic); see footnote 4 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2731b. [^21]: Such as: “Praise be to Allah who sufficed me and gave me shelter; praise be to Allah who fed me and gave me drink; praise be to Allah who favored me generously. Oh Allah, I ask You by Your *ʿizza* \[might or honor\] to save me from the Hellfire.” Recorded by al-Bayhaqi, al-Ḥākim, and others. Also classified as *ṣaḥīḥ* in al-Albani’s *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa*, no. 3444. [^22]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3125; graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic); see footnote 4 regarding the methodology employed to grade hadiths in this paper. [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 395. [^24]: ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbbas (rA) reported that while the angel Jibril was sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he heard a sound above him. He lifted his head, and said, “This is a gate which has been opened in heaven today. It was never opened before.” Then an angel descended through it, he \[Jibril\] said, “This is an angel who has come down to earth. He never came down before.” He \[the angel\] sent greetings and said, “Rejoice with two lights given to you. Such lights were not given to any prophet before you. These \[lights\] are: Fatihat al-Kitab \[Surah al-Fatiha\], and the concluding verses of Surah al-Baqara. You will never recite a word from them without being granted \[your supplicatory prayer (duʿaʾ)\].” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 806. [^25]: Qur’an 6:122. [^26]: Qur’an 4:174. [^27]: Qur’an 14:1. [^28]: Qur’an 24:35. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7499. [^30]: ʿAlī b. Sulṭān al-Qārī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ*, 9 vols. (Dār al-Fikr, 2002), 4:1464. [^31]: Al-Qārī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ*, 4:1464. [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 394. [^33]: As in the hadith, “The first action for which a servant \[of Allah\] will be held accountable on the Day of Resurrection will be his prayers…” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 413, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by al-Albani. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 395. [^35]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 3rd ed., ed. Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim Billāh al-Baghdādī, 2 vols. (Dar al-Kitab al-’Arabi,1996), 1:31. [^36]: Qur’an 1:5; Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:78. [^37]: This refers to the *duʿaʾ* found in Surah al-Falaq (Qur’an 113) and Surah al-Nas (Qur’an 114). [^38]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6039; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 410a; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 927. [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5007. [^40]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:52–53. [^41]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:55. [^42]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:58. [^43]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿād fī hady khayr al-ʿibād*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ and ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Arnāʾūṭ, 4 vols. (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1998), 4:318. [^44]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 804. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings upon His final Messenger ﷺ. Among the treasures of the Qur'an lies the study of the special virtues (faḍāʾil) of its chapters and verses, a branch of the Sciences of the Qur'an (ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān) that both uplifts and motivates the believer. This begins with a striking narration in which the Prophet ﷺ, seated with the angel Jibrīl, heard a sound from above. Jibrīl announced that a gate had opened in heaven that had never opened before, and an angel descended who had never descended before. That angel gave glad tidings of "two lights" given to the Prophet ﷺ and to no prophet before him: the opening (fātiḥa) of the Book and the concluding verses of Sūrah al-Baqara, with the promise that no word of them would be recited without one's supplications being granted. This momentous honor sets the stage for reflecting upon Sūrah al-Fātiḥa, the very chapter recited in every rakʿa of every prayer. The benefits of studying the virtues of the Qur'an are many. The more one studies particular chapters and verses, the more one fosters a deep bond with them, and in turn with Allah ﷻ, introducing discipline, consistency, and ease of memorization into the believer's life. Beyond these general benefits, the companion of the Qur'an enjoys specific rewards, blessings, and protections: protection in this life, as with Āyat al-Kursī; protection in the grave, as with Sūrah al-Mulk; and protection on the Day of Judgment, as with Sūrah al-Baqara. Sūrah al-Kawthar reminds believers of Allah's abundant gifts, while Sūrah al-Falaq and Sūrah al-Nās serve as spiritual remedies against harm, reinforcing trust (tawakkul) in Allah combined with proactive measures. Though the Qur'an is in Arabic, it is hoped that its reward extends to those who sincerely strive to read it via transliteration, and this extends as well to the believing woman reciting from memory or an electronic device during her menses. The virtues surveyed here are drawn from authenticated narrations compiled in a work titled Special Virtues of the Qur'an's Chapters and Verses (al-Jāmiʿ al-mukhtaṣar li-faḍāʾil al-āyāt wa-l-suwar), where a virtue means a special trait mentioned in an authentic report. Sūrah al-Fātiḥa stands as the greatest chapter of the Qur'an, the foundation of Islam, a summary of truth, a healing, a comfort, and a fortress, recited at least seventeen times daily in the obligatory prayers. Its many names reflect its virtues. Al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1273) mentions twelve in his tafsīr, integrated with the views of al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923): al-Ṣalāh (The Prayer), from the ḥadīth "I have divided the prayer between Myself and My servant"; al-Ḥamd (The Praise); Fātiḥat al-Kitāb (The Opening of the Book), which al-Ṭabarī explains serves as an introduction to what follows; Umm al-Kitāb (Essence of the Book), which most scholars accept, though Anas b. Mālik (d. 93/713) and Ibn Sīrīn (d. 110/729) held that this name refers exclusively to the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ); Umm al-Qurʾān, accepted by most based on a narration in al-Tirmidhī; al-Mathānī or al-Sabʿ al-Mathānī (the Oft-Repeated Seven); al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (The Great Qur'an); al-Ruqya (The Healing); al-Shifāʾ (The Cure); al-Asās (The Foundation); al-Wāfiya (The Complete One), so named by Sufyān b. ʿUyayna (d. 198/813) because it must be recited in full; and al-Kāfiya (The Sufficient), as Yaḥyā b. Abī Kathīr noted that it suffices in place of other chapters but none suffices in its place. Four principal virtues, each established in authentic reports, deepen our appreciation of this chapter. The first is that it is the greatest chapter of the Qur'an. Abū Saʿīd Rāfiʿ b. al-Muʿallā (d. 2/624) reported that the Prophet ﷺ promised to teach him the greatest chapter before he left the mosque, and identified it as "Alḥamdulillāhi Rabb al-ʿālamīn… which is al-Sabʿ al-Mathānī and the Great Qur'an." Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449) noted the scholarly difference over why it is called mathānī: because it is repeated in every rakʿa, or because Allah is praised within it, or because it was given exclusively to this ummah. Its greatness is grasped through reflecting on its opening praise, alḥamdulillāh, which was the first expression of Ādam (as) and a command to Nūḥ (as) upon his salvation, and which resounds as the gates of Paradise open for the believers. Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh (d. 74/697) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, "The best supplication is to declare all praise is due to Allah," and that the words most beloved to Allah are "Subḥān Allāh wa bi-ḥamdih." The second virtue is that its revelation was unprecedented. Ubayy b. Kaʿb (d. 30/649) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said Allah revealed nothing like it in the Torah or the Gospel, and that "it is divided between Myself and My servant, and My servant will have what he asked for." The angel's description of the two passages as "two lights" (nūrān) is understood through the Qur'an's use of light as a metaphor for divine guidance, as in the verse contrasting one given life and light to walk among people with one in darkness. Sūrah al-Fātiḥa embodies this transformation, moving from praise of the Lord of all worlds to an urgent plea for guidance (hidāya) to the straight path, while the closing verses of al-Baqara serve as a comprehensive supplication for forgiveness and protection. The promise of "acceptance" is most commonly interpreted by scholars as the acceptance of the supplications within these passages, though it may encompass one's wider needs in this life and the next. As Umm al-Qurʾān, al-Fātiḥa gathers the grand themes of belief, worship, ethical rulings, the unseen, and reliance upon Allah alone. The third virtue is that no prayer is valid without it, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "The prayer is not valid for the one who does not recite the Fātiḥa of the Book." This is clarified by the ḥadīth qudsī reported by Abū Hurayra (d. 59/679), in which Allah responds to each verse as the servant recites it, dividing the prayer into two halves and promising the servant what he asks. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) observed how the chapter shifts seamlessly from praise to petition, and Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) identified "iyyāka naʿbud wa iyyāka nastaʿīn" as the greatest and most beneficial of supplications. The recitation concludes with "āmīn," of which the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever's āmīn coincides with that of the angels will have his past sins forgiven." The fourth virtue is that it is a cure for illnesses. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (d. 74/693) reported the incident of a companion who recited "Umm al-Kitāb" over a tribal leader who had been stung, whereupon he recovered; the Prophet ﷺ affirmed this, asking, "And how did he know it was a healing?" and approving the reward. Ibn al-Qayyim explained that al-Fātiḥa heals the hearts, for the sickness of hearts stems from corruption of knowledge, yielding misguidance, and corruption of intention, yielding anger; the plea for guidance to the straight path is the remedy for misguidance and the most essential of supplications. He further recounted healing his own severe pains by reciting al-Fātiḥa into his hands and over Zamzam water, finding benefit he never obtained from any medicine. In sum, Sūrah al-Fātiḥa answers humanity's most primordial questions concerning its Creator, His worship, and how He is called upon. Ibn al-Qayyim described it as "the complete healing, the beneficial remedy, the perfect ruqya… for the one who appreciates its value and gives it its due." Just as certain seasons such as Ramaḍān, the Night of Qadr, and the Day of ʿArafa are endowed with magnified reward, so too is al-Fātiḥa honored among the chapters. Whatever capacity one finds to bond with the Qur'an, let it be nurtured consistently, for it will serve as guidance in this life and "as an intercessor on the Day of Judgment for its companion." ## Key Takeaways 1. Surah al-Fatiha holds a status unmatched by any other chapter of the Qur’an. Its descent was a singular heavenly event: an angel who had never before come to earth descended through a gate that had never before opened. He told the Prophet ﷺ to rejoice in two lights given to no prophet before him, the opening of the Book and the closing verses of Surah al-Baqara. Its many names each capture a facet of this significance, naming it the Prayer, the Praise, the Essence of the Qur’an, the Oft-Repeated Seven, the Foundation, and the Cure. 2. The greatness of al-Fatiha is perceived through its meanings. It opens with *alhamdulillah*, the first word of Adam and the cry of the believers as they enter Paradise, reminding the worshipper that nearness to Allah begins with gratitude. It then moves from praise of the Lord of all worlds to an urgent plea for guidance along the straight path, gathering into a few lines the core elements of belief, worship, ethics, and reliance upon Allah alone. 3. No prayer is valid without al-Fatiha, and a ḥadīth qudsī narration illuminates its unique role in prayer: Allah divides the surah between Himself and His servant, responding to each verse as it is spoken, so that prayer becomes a living exchange rather than a one-sided recitation. The surah is also a cure for illness of both body and soul. Its deepest healing addresses the two diseases of the heart, the misguidance born of corrupted knowledge and the anger born of corrupted intention, for which the plea to be guided along the straight path is the remedy. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why is Surah al-Fatiha called the greatest surah in the Qur’an? The Prophet ﷺ called Surah al-Fatiha the greatest surah in the Qur’an, describing it as the seven oft-repeated verses and the Great Qur’an. Its greatness becomes clearer through its meaning and role. In just seven short verses it gathers the core themes the rest of the Qur’an explains in detail, which is why it is called the Essence of the Qur’an (Umm al-Qur’an). It opens with praise of Allah, affirms His lordship and mercy, declares that worship and reliance belong to Him alone, and ends with a plea for guidance to the straight path. This makes it a summary of belief, worship, and the believer’s dependence on Allah. It is also the one surah recited in every unit of every prayer, at least seventeen times a day. No previous nation was given anything like it. Studying its meanings and reciting it sincerely is described as a source of guidance and healing, which is part of why it holds such an elevated status. ### Can Surah al-Fatiha be used for healing (ruqya)? Yes. One of the names of Surah al-Fatiha is al-Ruqya (the Healing), and this is rooted in an authentic incident. A group of companions were traveling when a tribal leader was stung. One companion recited al-Fatiha over him, and the man recovered. When they later mentioned it to the Prophet ﷺ, he affirmed the practice and even asked for a share of the gift they had received, confirming that al-Fatiha was correctly used as a means of healing. Ibn al-Qayyim also reports personally reciting it over water or over a place of pain and finding relief. The healing is understood as coming from Allah through His words, joined with sincere reliance on Him. ### What does it mean that Allah “divided the prayer” between Himself and His servant? This comes from a *hadith qudsi* in which Allah says He has divided the prayer into two halves between Himself and His servant, and that the servant will receive what they ask for. The Prophet ﷺ explained it verse by verse. When the worshipper says “All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds,” Allah responds that His servant has praised Him. With each line of al-Fatiha that follows, Allah replies in turn, until the final plea, “Guide us to the straight path,” which Allah says belongs to the servant, who will be granted their request. This shows that reciting al-Fatiha in prayer is not a one-way recitation but a living conversation with Allah. The opening verses center on praise of Allah; “You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help” stands between Allah and His servant; and the concluding petition for guidance is for the servant. Understanding this turns each prayer into a direct and answered exchange between a person and their Creator. ### What are the different names of Surah al-Fatiha? Surah al-Fatiha is known by many names, and early scholars listed around twelve. Each points to a different aspect of its meaning and role. Some describe its place in the Qur’an, such as Fatihat al-Kitab (the Opening of the Book) and Umm al-Qur’an (the Essence of the Qur’an), since it opens the Book and gathers its central themes. Others describe its role in worship, such as al-Salah (the Prayer), drawn from the hadith in which Allah says He divided the prayer between Himself and His servant, and al-Sabʿ al-Mathani (the Seven Oft Repeated Verses), since it is recited in every unit of prayer. Still others point to its benefit, such as al-Ruqya (the Healing) and al-Shifaʾ (the Cure). Names like al-Asas (the Foundation), al-Wafiya (the Complete), and al-Kafiya (the Sufficient) reflect that it is central to faith and must be recited in full. It is also called al-Hamd (the Praise) and al-Qur’an al-ʿAzim (the Great Qur’an). Together, these names capture how this single surah guides, anchors, and heals the believer. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/secrets-of-surah-al-fatihah-how-divine-language-provides-a-moral-compass # Secrets of Surah al-Fatihah: How Divine Language Provides a Moral Compass **Author:** Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Epistemology, Quran **Published:** April 18, 2025 **Updated:** July 10, 2025 In order to reconnect our hearts with the Qur’an and improve our concentration in *ṣalāh*, one of the most valuable activities is to reflect deeply on the meanings of Sūrah al-Fātiḥah, the greatest chapter in the Qur’an. It is the opening to the Qur’an for a reason; it contains the keys to receiving the guidance and message of the Qur’an. Despite the fact that this *sūrah* is so frequently recited, there are countless profound gems that are contained within its verses. Ibn Taymiyya says, “A person may recite a *sūrah* multiple times—even Sūrah al-Fātiḥah—and yet, in the midst of his recitation, more of its meanings may become apparent to him that never occurred to him before, as if it had just been revealed at that very moment. He thus believes in these meanings, and his knowledge and actions increase. This is something experienced by everyone who recites the Qur’an with contemplation (*tadabbur*), unlike the one who recites it heedlessly.”[^1] This brief blog will review a few of the profound gems related to this *sūrah* extracted from the works of *tafsīr*. In seven short verses, we will see how every single word has been perfectly selected to convey the greatest moral lessons. This material is summarized and simplified from the author’s *The Straight Path: How Sūrah al-Fātiḥah addresses modern ideologies*, which the reader can [refer to for further details](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/the-straight-path-how-surah-al-fatiha-addresses-modern-ideologies&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1744994797305327&usg=AOvVaw1TUxUIAV6qKwQ5aQn0wOLU). --- ## Secret 1: Praise entails ultimate love. *Alḥamdulillah* (All praise belongs to Allah) means affirming that all goodness comes from Allah and that He is perfect in every way. With this statement, we are expressing our ultimate love and gratitude to Allah. While the word *ḥamd* (praise) encompasses *shukr* (thankfulness), it also goes beyond it, as one praises Allah not only for His blessings but also because of His beautiful names and attributes. It encompasses *thanāʾ* (another word for praise) but also further emphasizes actions of the heart: making sure that Allah is more dear and beloved to us than anything else. So it functions like a diagnostic scan of our soul by inviting us to examine whether we fulfill its meaning. --- ## Secret 2: Praise of Allah does not depend on us. The phrase *alḥamdulillāh* is expressed as a statement of fact but it also serves as an instruction. It is significant to note that the chapter does not express this in the imperative form, either ‘praise God’ (*iḥmadū Allah*) or ‘Say: praise belongs to God’ (*qul alḥamdulillah*), but simply makes the declaration directly. It shows us that praising the Creator is the most natural human impulse. It also makes the verse not dependent on human action in order to be fulfilled. It is always true; praise belongs to our Creator whether we choose to recognize it or not. Moreover, by expressing the sentence with a noun rather than a verb (e.g., “We praise Allah”), it is not trapped within a time period. --- ## Secret 3: Know your Rabb, know your purpose. When we declare that Allah is our *Rabb* (Lord), what does that entail? As Imam Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī explains, linguistically, the word entails the Master to be obeyed (*al-Sayyid al-muṭāʿ*), the Owner (*al-Mālik*), and the One who sets a matter right (*al-Muṣliḥ lil-shayʾ*).[^2] The first meaning entails that we earnestly strive to obey His guidance, the second reminds us that everything we possess is really entrusted to us by Him, and the third reminds us that He created us to fulfill a purpose and gives us the guidance to achieve true virtue. Our *Rabb* provides us with the best guidance to nurture our souls just as He takes care of everything in the universe. If we truly internalize this meaning, we will see how Islam offers a complete worldview and the path to lead the most ethical and virtuous life. --- ## Secret 4: Everything is a sign of Allah and whoever has Allah has everything. In the phrase “*Rabb al-ʿālamīn*” (Lord of the Worlds) we have the Arabic word *ʿālamīn*. It encompasses everything in existence besides Allah, including all the species of creation existing in every time period, encompassing both the seen and unseen realms. It is linguistically derived from *ʿalāmah* (sign) because everything in creation serves as a sign of God. Imam Abū Ḥafṣ al-Nasafī explains that grammatically the word *Rabb* has been connected via the genitive construct (*iḍāfah*) to “*al-ʿālamīn*” as if to say, “How magnificent am I that all creation belongs to Me, and how magnificent are My beloved servants that I am theirs!”[^3] --- ## Secret 5: Allah’s love is even greater than a mother’s love for her child. The chapter emphasizes Allah’s attribute of *raḥmah* (mercy), meaning that He is compassionate, benevolent, caring, loving, merciful, and kind. The word is linguistically linked to the word *raḥim* (womb), which emphasizes the profound nature of the compassion of Allah towards His creation, greater than a mother’s love and care for her child.[^4] --- ## Secret 6: Allah’s justice is perfect. The verse “Master of the Day of Judgment” reminds us of the day on which God’s perfect justice will be fully manifest. On that Day, God will say: > I am the true King (*al-Malik*), I am the true Judge (*al-Dayyān*); it is not fitting for anyone from the people of Paradise to enter Paradise, nor for anyone from the people of Hell to enter Hell, until I judge any grievance of his, even if it be as little as a slap.[^5] This is the perfect justice and absolute accountability that Islam teaches, such that in the court of Divine Justice there will be retribution for even the slightest infraction against the rights of another. --- ## Secret 7: The grammatical shift and the psychological shift. From the Islamic perspective, acquiring sound knowledge of God and His divine attributes is the basis for knowing how to live in this world and pursue ethical conduct. We see this mirrored in al-Fātiḥah. There is a grammatical shift from speaking about Allah to speaking directly to Allah: “Praise be to Allah” to “You alone do we worship” (*iyyāka naʿbudu*). This shows that one is prepared to converse with God directly after acquiring a sound understanding of His attributes of perfection. --- ## Secret 8: All the categories of tawḥīd are in Sūrah al-Fātiḥah. In addition to teaching the etiquettes of worship and supplication, the categories of *tawḥīd* (monotheism) are also found in the opening verses of al-Fātiḥah. One finds *tawḥīd* *al-rubūbiyyah* (oneness of Allah’s Lordship) in the description of God as the *Rabb*, the sole Lord and Creator of the universe, *tawḥīd* *al-asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt* (oneness of Allah’s divine names and attributes) in the verses describing His uniquely great mercy as well as His sovereignty on Judgment Day, and *tawḥīd* *al-ulūhiyya* (oneness of Allah’s exclusive right to be worshiped) in describing our worship of Him alone. --- ## Secret 9: All the emotions of worship are contained in this chapter. All the emotions of worship are found within this chapter. Ibn al-Qayyim says, “The heart in its journey towards Allah is like a bird: love is its head, and fear and hope are its wings.”[^6] The first verse *Alḥamdulillah* entails love, since it is an integral part of the meaning of *al-ḥamd*. The second verse entails hope, by reminding us of the vast and immense mercy of Allah indicated by the divine names *al-Raḥmān* and *al-Raḥīm*. The third verse entails fear, as we remember that we will be accountable before Allah on the Day of Judgment and under His complete sovereignty and justice. Moreover, love is revisited in the verse “You alone do we worship,” hope is revisited in the verse, “The path of those upon whom you have bestowed your favor,” and fear is revisited in the verse “Not the path of those who have incurred anger nor gone astray.” --- ## Secret 10: All the ingredients to success are contained in one verse. The self-help industry constantly churns out content for people seeking the secrets to a successful life. The truth is that the success of anything is connected to fulfilling its purpose, and therefore, without knowing the purpose of our existence, there is no way to talk about what success means. In al-Fātiḥah, we are reminded of the very purpose for which we have been created when we recite, “You alone do we worship,” acknowledging that our success is fundamentally tied to building our relationship with God and striving to embody the virtues that we learn from His revelation. --- ## Secret 11: The priority is always Allah. Many scholars note that by saying, “**You alone** do we worship” (***Iyyāka*** *naʿbud*) instead of “We worship none **but you**,” (*naʿbudu iyyak*) there is a profound lesson. The most important feature of our worship must be that it is offered exclusively for Allah, so He is mentioned first. This emphasizes *ikhlāṣ* (sincerity). We must not become conceited by our own actions nor allow our actions to become contaminated by seeking the approval of others. Whatever we do is solely for Allah’s sake. Even if no one in the world pays attention to your deeds or acknowledges them, so long as they are pleasing to Allah, that is all that matters. What a beautiful reminder in an age where everyone is clamoring for attention, likes, and followers on social media. --- ## Secret 12: The greatest thing you can ask for is guidance, and guidance has multiple levels. Sūrah al-Fātiḥah is a *duʿāʾ* (supplication). It contains a simple request to Allah for the most important thing that anyone can ever ask for: guidance. In this verse, guidance includes being shown the truth (*hidāyat al-irshād*) and being granted the ability and will to accept and follow the truth (*hidāyat al-tawfīq*). In fact, were the verse to be worded with a preposition, such as *ihdinā ilā al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* (guide us *towards* the straight path) or *ihdinā li-l-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* (guide us *to* the straight path), it would not have emphasized the importance of divine providence in following the path (*hidāyat al-tawfīq*). Because it is a supplication to God for His divine guidance, it contains a humble acknowledgment that we are always in need of His aid in enabling us to accept the truth when it is shown to us. --- ## Secret 13: The straight path is not just an idea; it is real and people have walked it. Who are those whom Allah has favored? Scholars often note that this is answered in the Qur’an itself: the prophets, the *ṣiddīqīn* (people of truth), the martyrs, and the righteous (Qur’an 4:69). The fact that this path has been traversed before shows that it is real and achievable. It is a path that the prophets and the righteous before us have already walked. --- ## Secret 14: Guidance is a gift from Allah, while Divine Anger is due to our sins. When mentioning God’s favor, the verb is directly attributed to God (“You have favored”). In contrast, anger has not been attributed to God directly through use of a pronoun (i.e., the verse in Arabic does not say “those with whom *You* are angry”). There is an eloquent nuance behind this distinction. Guidance is a gift from Him that we can never claim to deserve, while punishment is the result of our sins and neglect of all the opportunities He provides for us to repent. It also shows that evil actions earn not only divine anger but the wrath of creation as well. --- ## Secret 15: Allah doesn’t send anyone astray until they choose misguidance for themselves. The word used in this verse to indicate the second path of error is *al-ḍāllīn*, which refers to those who are lost and have gone astray. Scholars observe that the word is mentioned in the active participle form (*al-ḍāllīn:* those who *have gone* astray) rather than the passive form (*al-muḍallīn:* those who *have been sent* astray) to clarify that misguidance is earned by the deliberate choices of those who disregard Allah’s message. --- ## Secret 16: The importance of knowledge and action. Scholars of Islam explained that there are two paths of error mentioned at the end of the *sūrah*: those who earn anger and those who go astray. The former entails those who have knowledge but fail to act upon it, while the latter entails those who act without knowledge. So this links back to the importance of both knowledge and action in Islam. We must always continue to increase our knowledge and also apply the knowledge that we have learned. --- ## Secret 17: There are two lists in this sūrah and they perfectly match. The *sūrah* mentions five divine names in the first half and then five human actions in the second half, and both lists have a beautiful connection between them. It is as if one is saying, “We worship You alone because You are Allah, we seek Your help because You are the *Rabb*, we seek Your guidance because You are *al-Raḥmān*, we ask You to grant us steadfastness in following it because You are *al-Raḥīm*, and we ask You to make us among those who will receive Your favor and not to make us among the misguided because You are the Master who will judge us all on the Day of Recompense.” --- ## Secret 18: We must work together as an ummah. In this chapter, the very notion of individualism is dismissed. We have a collective identity as Muslims and we see it emphasized throughout the *sūrah*: “You alone do *we* worship and from You alone do *we* ask for help, guide *us* on the straight path.” As Muslims, we know that we must think about the benefit of the *ummah* as a whole. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “The similitude of believers in regard to mutual love, affection and fellow-feeling is that of one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body aches, because of sleeplessness and fever.”[^7] --- ## Secret 19: The sūrah corrects our understanding of fate and free will. One of the issues that often confounds people is that of fate and free will. If God determines our actions, then we have no free will, they think. This chapter corrects these misapprehensions and provides us with clear foundations. We see that this chapter affirms that we choose to worship Allah when we recite *iyyāka naʿbudu* (You alone do we worship). Yet, at the same time, it also reminds us that we cannot make this choice without assistance from Allah when we recite *wa iyyāka nastaʿīn* (from You alone do we ask for help). --- ## Secret 20: The sūrah contains a ring structure. The *sūrah* comes full circle: its start matches its end and forms a series of concentric rings. ![The ring structure of Surah al-Fatihah](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/The-ring-structure-of-Surah-al-Fatihah-624x1024.png) --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwa* (Mansoura: Dār al-Wafāʾ li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1998), 7:236–237. [^2]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān*, ed. al-Turkī (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 2001), 1:142–143. [^3]: See al-Nasafī, *al-Taysīr fī al-tafsīr* (Istanbul: Dār al-Lubāb, 2019), 1:109–10. [^4]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5988; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4297. [^5]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 16042; *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 3690. [^6]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2019), 2:188. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6011 and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2586a. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-jabbar-the-compeller-and-mender-of-broken-hearts # The Meaning of Allah's Name Al-Jabbar: The Compeller and Mender of Broken Hearts **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Mental Health, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 29, 2025 **Updated:** September 6, 2026 She sat there for days, paralyzed by shock, having witnessed her dreams get shattered forever—or so she thought. A short time later, al-Jabbār had mended her broken heart and recreated for her an even better dream in its place. Their tears streamed as they stared at the x-rays of his mangled bones. The physicians told them the accident would render him immobile for life. Not only did al-Jabbār fix the “unfixable,” but they were now preparing to watch him at the Paralympic finals. Many gave up trying. Others even stopped waiting. Palestine had been forgotten, but now victory is visible on the horizon. After a hundred years of carnage, from above His throne, al-Jabbār decided that He would finally break the tyranny. Allah’s name al-Jabbār [appears only once](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-get-closer-to-allah-exploring-the-sequence-of-allahs-names-in-surah-al-hashr#jabbar-subheading) in the Qur’an (59:23), though its meanings preexist within every person’s *fiṭra* (original pure nature), awaiting the spark of revelation to activate their potency. I pray that this paper effectively captures some of those sparks from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and thereby causes the flames of faith to surge within us like never before. --- ## The meaning of al-Jabbār Allah’s name al-Jabbār captures the incontestability of God’s great power and how it manifests in ways both grand and graceful. Embedded in this divine name are two eternal declarations: when Allah wishes to heal or restore, nothing poses a hindrance, and when He wishes to settle a score, nothing stifles His dominance. Traditionally, Arabs used the term *jabbār* in reference to mighty individuals, tall trees, and bone healers.[^1] Imagine a colossus towering over all like a massive tree, a giant possessed of the power to ameliorate or annihilate—just as the *jabīra* (bone splint) sits over fractured bones, forcing them into a stronger fusion. Of course, since imperfections are inconceivable of God, we find Imam al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) qualifying al-Jabbār, when it pertains to Allah, as, “He who rectifies the affairs of His creation, and drives them towards their own welfare.”[^2] Similarly, Shaykh al-Saʿdī (d. 1957) writes, > Al-Jabbār can mean the Compeller (al-Qahhār), and the Most High (al-Aʿlā) who is established upon the throne and possesses all sovereignty, and also the Most Affectionate (al-Raʾūf). He mends (*jabr*) the broken and enriches the poor, and rehabilitates (*jabr*) the sick and those afflicted. He also reinvigorates (*jabr*) the hearts of those broken before His greatness, humbled by His perfection, hopeful of His bounty and favors—through what He pours on their hearts of love, experiences of intimacy \[with Him\], divine disclosures, guidance, direction, and grace.[^3] Neither accident nor sentiment drives our scholars to define Allah’s name al-Jabbār with an ethos of  “compassion over compulsion.” Rather, it is their recognition that “when Allah finished the creation, He etched in His Book that is with Him above His throne: My mercy prevails over My anger.”[^4] When Allah introduces Himself as al-Raḥmān (Most Compassionate) al-Raḥīm (Most Merciful), before [Māliki](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/mercy-and-might-on-judgment-day-allahs-name-maliki-yawn-al-din&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1743185742776568&usg=AOvVaw15KavicZWlJ9luPEWsjuYe) [Yawm al-Dīn](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/mercy-and-might-on-judgment-day-allahs-name-maliki-yawn-al-din) (Owner of the Day of Recompense), in the greatest *sūrah* of the Qur’an (al-Fātiḥa), how could they falter in consistently differentiating between al-Jabbār and any other *jabbār* besides Him? The word “algebra” is a latinization of *al-jabr*, and the etymological origins of this term have a wonderful relevance to Allah’s name al-Jabbār. Before algebra sparked the revolutionary birth of technological algorithms, and before it paved the way for groundbreaking advancements across physics and chemistry, it was first a set of mathematical formulas compiled by al-Khawārizmī (d. 236/850), a Persian Muslim polymath, in *al-Kitāb al-Mukhtaṣar fī Ḥisāb al-Jabr wa al-Muqābala* (The Compendium of Algebraic Calculations and Equations). Judges presiding over complex estate divisions and astronomers of the Islamic renaissance probing the frontiers of the dark universe now had an effective operating system in the *Book of Jabr* to “make whole” the partial numbers we call fractions, and “compensate” for the missing variables that riddled them. Likewise, no matter how deep the void, or how complex the equation, al-Jabbār is always ready to make us whole again. Perhaps He restores what we lost, or replaces it with something superior. Perhaps He releases some dopamine into our bloodstream from a sip of coffee, or a child’s smile, or a stranger’s kindness. His “formulas” are numberless, and that is what makes al-Jabbār unique in His Oneness. It has also been reported from Ibn ʿAbbās (rA) that angel Jibrīl’s name means “the servant of the Lord,”[^5] whereby *jibr* (from *jabr*) refers to being subjected to another’s power, and *īl* refers to *ilāh* (god). In other words, even the mightiest of angels, the archangel Gabriel himself, is but another powerless slave of al-Jabbār. In summary, al-Jabbār is the Compeller whose wishes are behind every event and action in His creation, but also the Mender whose transcendence does not detract from His curative and restorative involvement with His creation. --- ## Al-Jabbār and the nature of man Al-Jabbār (the Compeller) did not allow His creations to choose their ancestry, nor their placement in history, nor their economic prosperity, nor their genetic pedigree. That is part of what makes Him al-Jabbār, that He alone decided these matters. Simultaneously, the sublime goodwill behind these determinations—which is, in part, indiscernible to us—echoes His name al-Jabbār (the Mender), albeit from a different angle. He did not leave us face down like the wild beasts, but instead “created the human in the best stature.”[^6] He diversified the embryogenic process, without which no distinction or variety of beauty could be appreciated; “He is the One who shaped you \[in the wombs\], perfecting your \[spectrum of\] forms.”[^7] Hence, by not endowing others with the power to create, al-Jabbār ensured that the decisions surrounding them remain supremely wise, supremely compassionate. Allah (the Most High) said, “Say \[to them, O Prophet\], ‘Even if you were to possess the \[infinite\] treasures of my Lord’s mercy, then you would certainly withhold \[them\] fearing they would run out—for humankind is ever stingy!’”[^8] It is difficult to overstate the profundity of this verse at a time when the secular age has yielded—as Charles Taylor extensively argues—a “felt flatness” to modern life, spawned by our relentless obsession with control and choice.[^9] The symptoms of this mental malady may manifest in chasing physical beauty at all costs (cosmetics, wardrobes, medical procedures) or panting after riches unabated (unethical investments, deceptive marketing, neglect of family). These are no harmless fantasies; people suffer immensely when they attempt to play God, for it strips them of the very joy of being human. Nowadays, many tragically aspire, consciously or not, to mastery of their own destiny. This god-complex—this conviction that they can fully shape their circumstances—is precisely what makes unfavorable outcomes so psychologically unbearable for them. But when believers submit to al-Jabbār, they become content with His decrees. They are able to perceive how what He “imposed” on them was actually a surer path to their eternal peace and salvation. As for disbelievers, in the Qur’an Allah often casts them as suspicious of His judgments. For instance, when they rejected God’s election of Muhammad ﷺ, it was on the premise that his lack of wealth and status made him unsuitable for such prestige. In response, Allah said, “Is it they who distribute the mercy of your Lord? We \[alone\] have distributed their livelihood and raised some of them over others for their interdependence, and the mercy of your Lord far surpasses whatever \[wealth\] they amass.”[^10] While the wisdoms behind this subdivision of livelihoods are innumerable, people’s inability to force *their* way what al-Jabbār has sent *elsewhere* is worthiest of mention here. It was reported that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (rA) was once asked, “How can it be that intelligent people are \[often\] poor?” He said, “A man is allocated intelligence as part of his *rizq* (provisions).”[^11] In other words, while one may logically expect a direct correlation between intelligence and financial prosperity, Allah has insisted that some receive more of the former and others more of the latter. Of course, our knowledge of this divinely-ordained distribution of resources should only serve to underline Allah’s title al-Jabbār, not inspire complacency in the pursuit of beneficial knowledge and wholesome earnings. --- ## Al-Jabbār and free will Many people wonder to what extent their actions are really theirs if all might and power belong solely to God. Contrary to popular belief, this is an inquiry into the nature of causality, not into God’s omnipotence. Even atheists may be deterministic, deeming every human act the inevitable outcome of a recursive chain of earlier causes. However, we should question how equipped we are to even assess the dynamics of “our world.” Quantum physicists were astonished when they first  stumbled upon wave-particle duality—the conundrum of energy and matter impersonating one another—and now, a century later, the mysteries of the quantum realm have become no less impenetrable. This suffices to highlight how uncertain we remain regarding the givens of our physical world, and hence *a fortiori* the irrationality of expecting to fully comprehend the metaphysics behind how al-Jabbār seamlessly reconciles His will and ours. Nearly a century after the passing of the Prophet ﷺ, a theological school known as the Jabrites (or *Jabriyya*) emerged. They upheld an extreme doctrine of divine compulsion, maintaining that since only God has any real power, we must categorically deny any notion of human agency. Sunni theologians, past and present, have rejected this false dichotomy between destiny and “free will,” and refuted the supposedly inherent conflict between God’s absolute sovereignty and His flawless equity. The heterodox Jabrite position was not only unprecedented among the earliest scholars, but also implicitly impugned the perfect nature of God. After all, forcing upon someone a particular behavior is weakness, and holding them accountable for what was forced upon them is unfairness. As for al-Jabbār, of His might is that people do what He desires without His coercion, and of His fairness is that He grants them sufficient individual agency to qualify for accountability. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) writes, > The differences between this *jabr* \[of Allah\] and the *jabr* of created beings are many. Firstly, a created being is incapable of making another desire a certain action. As for the Lord (the Exalted), He is capable of making His servant that way. Secondly, a created being may compel others in a manner that renders him unfair and transgressive, while the Lord is more just; He never wrongs any of His creation, rather His will for them always transpires fairly and graciously.[^12] There is timeless wisdom in the Prophet ﷺ cautioning us, “When destiny is discussed, restrain yourselves.”[^13] His injunction grounds the believers,  guarding them from assuming the finite human mind can ever fully comprehend the infinite realm of God. As Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687, rA) said, “Destiny is the secret of Allah, so do not \[try to\] uncover it.”[^14] Does God interfere with our agency? Certainly, only al-Jabbār—by definition—has absolute free will. The will of people is subordinate to the will of Allah, and so their will can only manifest when it aligns with His. However, the will of Allah would never undermine human agency in unwise or unfair ways, and the Qur’an often invokes the theme of reciprocation to illustrate this truth. For instance, Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) says, “So when they \[persistently\] deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate.”[^15] Elsewhere, “And We will turn their hearts and eyes away \[from the truth\] as they refused to believe in it the first time, leaving them to wander aimlessly in their defiance.”[^16] Only those who dismissed the demonstrable truth of Islam had their hearts “forced” shut, as a just penalty for ignoring His signs. Al-Jabbār may also intervene to facilitate positive ends for the sincere, such as kindling within them an eagerness for virtue, revulsion at immorality, or peace with a painful reality. The Sunnah even teaches us to invite this into our lives through the *istikhāra* prayer. Therein, we ask Allah, > وإنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أنَّ هذا الأمْرَ شَرٌّ لي في دِينِي ومعاشِي وعَاقِبَةِ أمْرِي فَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي واصْرِفْنِي عنْه، واقْدُرْ لي الخَيْرَ حَيْثُ كَانَ، ثُمَّ أرْضِنِي > > …and if \[You\] know this decision is not good for my religion, life, and afterlife, then turn it away from me, *turn me away from it*, decree for me whatever the good may be, and then *make me content* \[with it\].[^17] So many people have experienced a sudden unexplainable change of heart on matters they once abhorred or adored; the Muslim knows that the explanation is al-Jabbār. Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 162/778, rA) was once asked, “How did you come to know your Lord?” He said, “By the breaking of \[my\] resolve and the unraveling of \[my\] drive.”[^18] He likely meant that, just as al-Jabbār has demotivated me from some acts of good (as a punishment for my sins), He has also dulled my attraction to what would have proven detrimental to my livelihood or religiosity. --- ## Al-Jabbār and our broken hearts Life’s emotional blows are vicious and incessant, and thus Allah does not describe Himself as al-Jābir (the Mender) but rather as al-Jabbār (the Perpetual Mender). This linguistic subtlety reminds us that the name “al-Jabbār” is more about Him *constantly healing* us than His *ability to heal* us, if He so chooses. This may explain why it was customary for the Prophet ﷺ to whisper between the two prostrations, اللَّهمَّ اغفرِ لي وارحمْني واجبُرْني واهدِني وارزُقْني O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, mend (*ijbur*) me, guide me, and provide for me.[^19] As if we are always broken or nearly so, the Sunnah teaches us to recite this plea to al-Jabbār in every prayer, guiding our thoughts from the repair of our rarely broken bones to the repair of our frequently broken hearts. Al-Jabbār heals our emotional and psychological wounds time and again. He forces a smile back onto our faces even before the dilemma is resolved. He silences the negative self-talk with which we badger ourselves, releasing us from our insecurities about the past and anxieties about the future. How do addicts reform and shake off their sense of inadequacy? How do adults emerge from an abusive childhood with empathy? How do those tortured around the clock in prisons sleep restfully? It is al-Jabbār, the one who can “unlock” His compassion in the unlikeliest of places. Allah (Most High) said, “Whatever mercy Allah opens up for people, none can withhold it. And whatever He withholds, none but Him can release it. For He is the Almighty, All-Wise.”[^20] The resilience needed to withstand the tempest of life would seem impossible for anyone, and yet we find the firmest believers in al-Jabbār—despite the toughest tests—enjoying a tranquility and optimism that appears indomitable. Meanwhile, the less firmly faithful are emotionally shattered by far lighter circumstances. When Abū Salama (rA) migrated to Medina with the Prophet ﷺ, his wife’s tribe forcefully prevented her from accompanying him. His tribe then came to Umm Salama (rA) and ripped “their grandson” away from her, dislocating the infant’s arm in the process. For an entire year, she stared with tear-filled eyes into the barren desert, in the direction of Medina, longing for a reunion that she knew only Allah could bring about. Sure enough, al-Jabbār then “compelled” the heart of her cousin—a pagan—to melt in sympathy for her, and he successfully negotiated the return of her child and her relocation to Medina. When Abū Salama (rA) was martyred shortly thereafter from an injury at the Battle of Uḥud, Umm Salama (rA) said, “I recalled him teaching me to say, ‘O Allah, reward me for my affliction and replace me with something better.’ I said to myself, ‘And who could possibly be better than Abū Salama?’… Ultimately, I still said it, and then Allah replaced him with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself.”[^21] Enshrined in this authentic account is the profound realization that the ways al-Jabbār compensates for loss are not confined to our limited imaginations. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350, rA) writes, > From the perfect kindness of our Lord (the Exalted) is that He causes the servant to taste the bitterness of the break before the sweetness of the mend (*jabr*), and acquaints him with the magnitude of His favor upon him by afflicting him with its opposite. For instance, when He (the Glorified and Exalted) wanted to perfect the bliss of Paradise for Adam, He caused him to taste the bitterness of exiting it, and the toil of this worldly realm whose ease and hardship are entangled together. Hence, He does not break His believing servant except to mend him, nor deprive him except to provide for him, nor afflict him except to relieve him, nor put him to death except to grant him life, nor frustrate him with this world except to stir his interest in the hereafter, nor try him with people’s harshness except to bring him back to Him.[^22] Elsewhere, he deepens our familiarity with al-Jabbār so we may further adore Him, saying, > Whoever deeply ponders His wisdom (the Glorified), gentleness, and kindness with His servants and devotees, particularly in how He breaks and then mends them (*jabr*) after the breakage—such as when He breaks the servant by \[allowing him to\] sin and thereby humiliates him, then mends him by accepting his repentance and forgiving him; or when He breaks him through various trials and tragedies, then mends him with relief and comfort—this opens for this person a massive door to becoming acquainted with Him, loving Him, realizing that He is more compassionate with His servants than a mother with her child, and that this breakage is itself a form of His mercy, kindness, and gentleness. He (Allah) knows better than His servant what benefits him (the servant), but due to the servant’s weak insight and \[shallow\] knowledge of his Lord’s names and attributes, he can hardly detect that, nor attain the pleasure of the Ultimate Beloved, nor the joy and exhilaration of drawing near to Him and climbing in rank before Him, except over this bridge of brokenness and desperation.[^23] --- ## Al-Jabbār and the ummah None other than an infant from among the slaves, found in a floating basket, would become the downfall of the dictator who kept his people in bondage, and none other than a child with a speech impediment would become the spokesperson of his great nation. These were but two of al-Jabbār’s gifts for Prophet Moses (Mūsā) (as) and his *ummah*. Similarly, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came into a world of brutality and barbarity, but Allah decreed he deliver his community from darkness as the orphan who would adopt the world. Such accounts crystallize al-Jabbār’s ability to revive an entire universe via the most unassuming people.  Indeed, during the end times, the descendant of the Prophet ﷺ who will emerge to lead this *ummah* will initially deem himself unfit for such a task—and then “Allah will rectify him in a single night.”[^24] While Muslims should never idle in wait for a savior, they must also never waver in believing that Allah can revitalize this *ummah* via the remotest means—including its enemies. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah may certainly support this religion at the hands of a wicked man.”[^25] Thus is the incredible power of al-Jabbār, who, at the most opportune time, converts the resources amassed against Him into a *jabr* (compelling force) leveled against the wicked. Allah (Most High) says,[^26] \[QRN-8-36\] The periods of weakness faced by this *ummah* should never be misperceived as low points in its history. While tragic, they are the periods that prove a believer’s conviction in al-Jabbār. Not only can He turn the efforts of His enemies against them, but He has promised to honor some of His truest servants with being vehicles of His *jabr* (restoration) for the *ummah*. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah sends for this *ummah*, at the turn of every century, those who renew its religion for it.”[^27] In fact, al-Jabbār affords every individual the potential for global impact. Consider the Israelite man who committed one hundred murders. He resolved to reform himself, and so he departed his hometown for a more pious place. Death befell him en route, so “Allah inspired \[the wicked town\] to move away and \[the pious town\] to move closer. Then He instructed \[the angels\] to measure \[the distance\] between them. As a result, he \[the man\] was found closer to \[the pious town\] by a handspan, and so he was forgiven.”[^28] Dumbfounded by the generosity of our Lord, I often find myself rechecking the wording of this highly authentic hadith, almost like a madman paranoid that his treasure will be stolen. This remorseful killer, dropped dead too close to the land of his dark past, needed a miracle—and so al-Jabbār “mended” the shortfall. If al-Jabbār could “force” the earth to shift for a single individual sincerely seeking redemption, one can only imagine the multiplied “force” of believers migrating in droves  from the lifestyles that displease Him. --- ## Al-Jabbār and the powerful on earth The *Titanic* (1912), famously hailed as “a ship even God could not sink,” ended its maiden voyage on the ocean floor. The *Challenger* (1986), a NASA space shuttle, exploded just seventy-three seconds after launch.[^29] After failing to swat away a fly, the powerful caliph Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr (d. 159/775) complained to Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765, rA), “Why did Allah create the fly?” Imam al-Ṣādiq replied, “To humble the *jabbār*s (tyrants) with it.”[^30] Similarly, it is reported that Nimrod, the sadistic king confronted by Abraham (Ibrāhim) (as), was felled by a tiny mosquito that slipped up his nasal passage.[^31] Allah shatters our illusions of greatness about others, ensuring we never conflate them with *al-Jabbār.* When the people of Córdoba suffered a severe drought, even the sultan himself (al-Nāṣir al-ʿAbbāsī, d. 350/961) joined the masses for a joint prayer. Clad in coarse clothing, he wept profusely, pleaded with Allah for forgiveness, and exhibited his brokenness before the Almighty. He said, “My forelock is in Your hands,”—meaning I am powerless before you—“...so do not punish the people because of me, for not an iota of me will escape you.” When news of this reached the saintly judge of Córdoba, Mundhir b. Saʿīd al-Ballūṭī (d. 355/966, rA), his face lit up with joy, certain that relief was imminent. He said, “When the *jabbār* of the earth shows humility, the Jabbār of the heavens bestows mercy.” It was not long thereafter that rain poured from the sky.[^32] Hārūn al-Rāshid (d. 194/809), arguably the most powerful ʿAbbāsid ruler, once asked for a drink of water. Before he could lift it to his lips, Ibn al-Sammāk (d. 183/799, rA) interjected, “Not so fast, O commander of the believers. If this sip \[of water\] were withheld from you, how much would you purchase it for?” Hārūn al-Rāshid said, “Half my kingdom.” After he drank, the Imam asked, “If you were prevented from releasing (urinating) it, how much would you pay to release it from your body?” He replied, “My entire kingdom.” The great scholar and ascetic said, “A kingdom worth no more than a drink of water or a single urination certainly does not deserve being competed for.”[^33] Upon hearing this Hārūn wept, fearing he may have been guilty of power grabs during his reign. However, throughout his largely righteous reign, he would weep at his grave (pre-dug to remind him of the inevitable) and say, “O You whose kingdom never vanishes, show mercy to the one whose kingdom has vanished.”[^34] Indeed, the most powerful men can barely control their bowels, let alone stave off death, and the best of them are those cognizant that only Allah is al-Jabbār. As for the irredeemably arrogant and tyrannical, they march unwittingly toward the snares of a perfectly just, divinely orchestrated ambush. Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 598/1201, rA) writes, > I have reflected at length on a profound phenomenon: that He, the Mighty and Majestic, delays \[punishment\] as though He neglects them. Thus, you witness the hands of the defiant unleashed, as if nothing could prevent \[them\]. Then, as the violations escalate and the intellect offers no deterrent, He seizes them as \[only\] al-Jabbār can. This delay is but a test—for the patient to remain steadfast and for the tyrant to be led further astray, until the former is rewarded for endurance and the latter repaid for his wickedness. Even in this, there is immeasurable forbearance. But ultimately, when He does seize \[them\], He does so with such a punishment that every single crime is accounted for severely or in a single crushing blow.[^35] The respite that Allah grants to the greatest transgressors—one that showcases the faith of the believers and honors some with martyrdom—is but the rope with which they will hang themselves. They are propelled down that ruthless path because Allah has fated them to the severest punishment, all while keeping them from realizing their impending doom. With lesser oppressors, al-Jabbār may punish them in this world for spiritually therapeutic ends: to atone for their *jabbār*\-ish conduct in this life before the hereafter. Muhammad Ali (d. 2016) was one of the most charismatic personas of the twentieth century, and he often celebrated himself as the “greatest” boxer of all time. Yet, in his final years, [he would say](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2002/jan/17/boxing), with a trembling body and quivering tongue, “God gave me this illness (Parkinson’s Disease) to remind me that I’m not Number One—He is.” Many are similarly brought to humility as their lives conclude, paying a worldly reparation for their sins in lieu of a lengthy sentence in the Hellfire. As Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) said, “Greatness and pride are exclusively Mine. Whoever challenges Me in either—I toss him into the Hellfire.”[^36] In an alternate wording, “I break him.”[^37] --- ## Al-Jabbār on the Last Day Ibn ʿUmar (rA) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Al-Jabbār will take His heavens and earths in His hand,” proceeding to open and close his own hand, “and then He will say, ‘I am al-Jabbār (the Compeller)! I am al-Malik (the King)! Where are the *jabbār* (tyrants) and where are the arrogant?!”’ Ibn ʿUmar (rA) continued, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ began to sway left and right until I saw the pulpit beneath him shaking from its base and said to myself, ‘Will it actually collapse with the Messenger of Allah?’”[^38] He ﷺ was shaken to his core whenever recalling how al-Jabbār will manifest His immense power on the Last Day. On that day, every boastful bully and haughty hegemon will witness their delusions of grandeur crumble as they sense the Hellfire drawing near. As Allah says, “Once it \[Hell\] sees them from a distance, they will hear it fuming and roaring.”[^39] It sees them before they see it, because as the Prophet ﷺ said, “A neck will emerge from the Hellfire on the Day of Resurrection, and \[its head\] will have two eyes with which it sees, two ears with which it hears, and a tongue with which it speaks. It will say, ‘I have been assigned three \[targets\]: every stubborn *jabbār* (tyrant), everyone that claims there is another god alongside Allah, and the image-makers.’”[^40] Only on this Day will these three classes of people discover where true power lies —the tyrants who abused their power, polytheists who claimed other than God had similar power, and artists who risked confusing humankind about Allah’s unique creative power.[^41] The Prophet ﷺ also warned that on the Day of Resurrection, the *jabbār* will be reduced to the size of ants and trampled by the people, then driven into Hell and forced to ingest the bodily secretions of those imprisoned therein.[^42] Thus will be their disgrace; stomped on from above for exalting themselves in life, heedless of the Qur’anic command, “And do not strut on the earth arrogantly. Surely, you will never puncture the earth \[with your stride\] nor will you ever reach the mountains in height.”[^43] As for the boiling bodily fluids they will be forced to drink, other narrations classify them as “the mud of insanity.”[^44] Their intense thirst will leave them no choice, and consuming it will drive them mad—a perfectly fitting end for those once intoxicated by their “power.” As Allah (Most High) described the Last Day, > ...and every stubborn *jabbār* was doomed. Awaiting them is Hell, where they will be given oozing pus to drink. They will gulp it but hardly be able to swallow it. Death will come to them from every direction, but they will not die, and ahead of them is a massive torment.[^45] --- ## Devotion to al-Jabbār When this sublime name takes root in the hearts of the believers, it causes them  to bloom in extraordinary ways. Below are some ways through which we can evaluate and strengthen our deep conviction in al-Jabbār. ### 1\. Flee for cover under His name When you race from one hospital to another, or await justice from one government or another, part your lips and pronounce from your heart, “O Jabbār! Only You can fix this!” It would be ingratitude to ignore whatever viable means Allah has provided us for pursuing our needs, but it would be far worse to be distracted by those means from their Maker. Would He have named Himself al-Jabbār if He did not want the desperate to scream it in the face of every harm? Were the challenges He embedded in our lives intended as anything but an invitation to knock on His door? Imagine you were honored with a palace invite personally extended by a righteous sultan, but upon your arrival you ignored him for chats with his butlers. The absurdity of such behavior is exceeded only by people who fixate on anything but al-Jabbār in their moments of greatest distress. In search of wholeness, repair, and healing we must call out to al-Jabbār, the only One with the might to fix any situation. In his bestseller, *Because You Are Allah*, Dr. ʿAlī al-Fīfī writes that he had a university student who stuttered heavily whenever he spoke. He advised the student to chant the supplication of Moses (as) in every prostration, “My Lord, expand my chest, ease my task, and untie the knot from my tongue, so they can understand my words.”[^46] A year later, he reencountered the young man and was elated to find that al-Jabbār had rendered his stutter a thing of the past.[^47] Al-Mutanabbī (d. 354/965), widely considered the greatest Arabic poet of his time, wrote addressing his patron, > O you to whom I flee for everything I wish, > And with whom I seek refuge from every scare. > People can never mend (*jabr*) a bone you break, > Nor refracture any bone you repair (*jābir*). Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328, rA) criticized al-Mutanabbī for these couplets, arguing that such adulation befits only Allah, and should not be adulterated in the swamp of romance. Interestingly, some students of Ibn Taymiyya think they may or may not have heard him admit to whispering these couplets to Allah in his prostrations.[^48] No status or strength that we possess can save us without the permission and aid of al-Jabbār. So, when fleeing from the *jabbār* of this world, flee to al-Jabbār, the true Compeller and Mender. Prophet Abraham (as) resigned to prayer when Nimrod “the *jabbār*” abducted his wife, Sarah, until she strolled back into the house unharmed.[^49] When al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728, rA) learned that al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf (d. 96/714) had brutally executed Saʿīd b. Jubayr (d. 96/714, rA), al-Ḥasan said, “O Allah; O breaker of every *jabbār*, break al-Ḥajjāj.” Within days, worms infected the abdomen of al-Ḥajjāj and killed him.[^50] The tumult of life can dull and distort anyone’s [god-image](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/belief-in-divine-love-discovering-spiritual-attachment-styles), and so our daily supplications repeatedly reattach us to al-Jabbār. In addition to the “mend (*ijbur*) me” supplication mentioned previously, the Prophet ﷺ would also repeat in his bowing and prostrations, > سُبْحَانَ ذِي الْجَبَرُوتِ وَالْمَلَكُوتِ وَالْكِبْرِيَاءِ وَالْعَظَمَةِ > > Glorified is the Owner of all might (*jabarūt*), dominion, glory, and greatness.[^51] By consciously reacquainting ourselves with al-Jabbār in our daily supplications, we foster a relationship with Him that conditions us to take cover under this name *instinctually* in times of need. ### 2\. Ascend as an instrument of Allah’s jabr We established earlier that the Arabs would describe a towering tree as *jabbār*, and hence the name al-Jabbār points to Him being the Most High. Much as a tree reaches deep into the ground, His highness does not hinder His nearness—in His loftiness, He knows our fears and hears our wants. However, His highness also offers an opportunity for human transcendence. Life’s ultimate purpose is devotion to al-ʿAlī (the Most High), to be awarded His company forever in *ʿillīyīn* (the highest gardens of Paradise), for undertaking the arduous upward climb to “higher” ideals in this transient earthly existence. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah loves lofty pursuits and hates shallow ones.”[^52] In another authentic tradition, “When you ask Allah for Paradise, ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is the pinnacle of Paradise, the central-most region in Paradise, the place from which the rivers of Paradise emerge, and above it is the throne of the Most Merciful.”[^53] Every moral virtue stems from the perfection of God, and human beings are given the unique opportunity to mirror Him as best as an imperfect created being can. Ibn al-Qayyim says, “Whoever aligns with Allah in one of His attributes, it leads him to Allah with its reins, admits him upon his Lord, brings him near to Him and His mercy, and makes him beloved \[to Allah\].”[^54] Just as Allah is All-Knowing and loves the knowledgeable, Most Beautiful and loves beauty, and Most Strong and loves the [strong believer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/allah-loves-strength-episode-12) more than the weak believer, He is also al-Jabbār. He loves those who embrace being an instrument of His restorative *jabr*, striving to ascend to higher ideals. Life is but a sprawl of routes up our proverbial mountainside, in the traversal of which we compete, in light of Allah’s names and qualities. The following two sections will take us on two *jabr*\-specific tracks among those routes. #### Bandage the wounded hearts He sent you The Qur’an is filled with the motif of emotional *jabr*—emotional restoration. When some of the Prophet’s Companions could not afford steeds of war, they felt humiliated that they would not be joining their brethren in fighting on the path of Allah. At that moment, al-Jabbār revealed from above the seven heavens verses that soothed the pain of these brave souls and memorialized their sincerity. Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) said, “Nor \[is there any blame\] on those who, when they came to you for mounts, you said, ‘I cannot find anything to carry you on,’ and so they left with eyes overflowing with tears out of grief that they had nothing to spend.”[^55] Elsewhere, Allah (the Most High) said, “O Prophet, tell the captives in your custody, ‘If Allah finds goodness in your hearts, He will give you better than what has been taken from you, and forgive you. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’”[^56] It is difficult to fathom the emotional relief this would have provided both the captives, now helpless in the hands of their foes, and the Muslims, their wounds still bleeding and the bodies of their kin slain by these very captives still warm. The Prophet ﷺ understood better than anyone that such verses were meant to cultivate within believers a capacity for emotional *jabr* in even the most difficult circumstances, and even when seemingly against their self-interest, and hence he was the first to model this great virtue. To the resourceless warriors, he ﷺ said: “There is not a single mountain pass or valley we have crossed except that some of those who stayed back in Medina have in fact been with us \[in reward\]—those hindered by their circumstances.”[^57] With captives, he ﷺ stressed that they not be tortured, nor receive inferior meals. Abū ʿAzīz (rA), captured at the Battle of Badr, said, “They would reserve the bread just for me, and only eat dates, due to the strict orders of Allah’s Messenger.”[^58] Such benevolence must have influenced his later decision to embrace Islam. The early Muslims were keen to tread the path of their Prophet ﷺ in this regard. “The most beloved act to Allah is giving joy to a Muslim”[^59]—such enjoinders had them rushing to bring good news to people or helping them forget their grief. “Do not stare at someone suffering leprosy”[^60]—such instructions made them wary of alienating others or disregarding their feelings. When the Prophet’s wife, ʿĀʾisha (rA), got her menses en route to Mecca and could no longer perform *ʿumrah*, the Prophet ﷺ took a moment away from the 100,000 pilgrims following him to reassure her, saying, “This is something Allah has destined for every daughter of Adam.”[^61] When she dropped a cherished necklace of hers during a battle expedition, he ﷺ attempted to recover it for her while the entire army waited.[^62] When, upon ascending his new pulpit, he and the people heard the weeping of the tree stump on which he ﷺ had once stood, he interrupted his sermon to hug it until it quieted.[^63] Thus was the prophetic example of emotional *jabr.* The early Muslims knew they could never match this gold standard, but they also knew that even the attempt to do so would elevate them in God’s eyes like few things ever could. Sufyān al-Thawrī (rA) is widely reported to have said,, “I have not seen an act of devotion greater or more important than *jabr al-khawāṭir* (emotional consolation).” #### Lighten the burdens of others gracefully Emotional *jabr* includes bringing solace to those hurting but may also take the form of gracefully preventing the onset of distress in the first place. For example, the Qur’an teaches us to include in our charity those whose [shame](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/haya-more-than-just-modesty) keeps them from begging (2:273). Islam also distinguishes between the poor and needy, encouraging us to seek out eligible recipients of charity beyond the most visibly desperate sectors of society. The Prophet ﷺ said, > The needy person is not he who paces between people \[for assistance\] and can be sent away \[satisfied with\] a morsel or two, or a date or two. Rather, the needy is he who does not have enough to sustain him, nor receives any charity, due to going unnoticed and refusing to beg people \[for help\].[^64] Another form of emotional *jabr* is the graceful delivery of charity. People are not just discomforted by asking for help, but also by receiving it publicly. This is solved by the Qur’an (as well as the Sunnah) encouraging discretion in charity (2:271). Early Muslims would purchase what they did not need, or overpay for an item, to spare the seller from the embarrassment of receiving charity. Righteous women would ask their poor neighbors for cooking ingredients of which they themselves had no shortage, solely to offset any hesitation their neighbors might feel in asking for their actual needs. One of the most illustrious displays of this discreet *jabr* was the philanthropy of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 94/712, rA), the great grandson of the Prophet ﷺ. Only after his death did people realize the extent of his generosity. As they washed him for burial, some noticed the calluses on his body and inquired about them. It was then that the people of Medina learned that he would carry rough sacks of flour on his back and secretly deliver them to one hundred poor families in the city under the curtain of night. Abū Ḥamza al-Thumālī (d. 150/767) added that ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (rA) would say of these nightly missions, “Secret charity extinguishes the anger of the Lord.”[^65] It is no wonder why this blessed soul was dubbed Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (the Pride of the Devotees) during his lifetime. He toiled to prevent the hunger of his entire neighborhood while it slept, perfectly exemplifying the teaching that “no believer sleeps satiated while his nextdoor neighbors are hungry.”[^66] ### 3\. Avoid tyranny in its subtler forms Being an instrument of Allah’s *jabr* is a great virtue, but embodying other aspects of *jabr* can be a grave vice. Oppressive behavior sits at the heart of these condemnable forms of *jabr*. Such oppression is not limited to the tyranny perpetrated by a ruler, but rather extends to any usurpation of others’ rights. Hence, we find Prophet John (Yaḥyā) (as) grateful that Allah spared him from being a “defiant *jabbār*” with his parents—kindness being their right—and instead infused him with *ḥanān* (affection) for all people.[^67] We find Jesus (ʿĪsā) (as)  divinely inspired to miraculously utter from the cradle, “And \[Allah made me\] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched *jabbār*  (tyrant).”[^68] In other words, unlike the tyrants who demand the never-ending service of their subjects but only serve them in turn when begged and beseeched, Allah favored ʿĪsā (as) with unremitting service to his mother. Similarly immortalized in the Qur’an is the image of Prophet Joseph (Yūsuf) (as) in his royal garb rising to seat “his parents upon \[his\] throne.”[^69] In these are timeless warnings that only a *jabbār* brazenly dismisses their parents’ calls, or remains behind a corporate desk when they knock, or sits while elders stand. In fact, when the Prophet ﷺ saw people standing as he led them in prayer from a seated position due to his illness, he cautioned, “You nearly did like the Persians and Romans; they stand around their emperor while he sits.”[^70] When al-Miswar b. Makhrama (rA) hesitated to call the Prophet ﷺ out from his home, his father reassured him, “My dear son, he is not some *jabbār*.” To his dismay, the Prophet ﷺ not only obliged, but even had a gift prepared for them.[^71] In stark contrast to the self-absorbed *jabbār*, the prophetic example is one of agreeability and availability. He ﷺ never engaged in vain argumentation like the egotists, nor was he ever preoccupied with frivolous living like the hedonists. It was enough of an honor for him ﷺ to be the servant of al-Jabbār, as it was frightening enough for him to know that Hellfire-bound are “every last prideful *jaʿẓarī* (harsh and flamboyant person) and *jawwāẓ* (gluttonous ingrate).”[^72] Hostility and belligerency are other symptoms of the *jabbār* virus. In one hadith, “Through forbearance, a man may certainly reach the rank of he who is dedicated to prayer and fasting, and a man may be written \[with Allah\] as a *jabbār* though he leads nothing but his household.”[^73] Whether this manifests as physical assaults or verbal abuse, it is the excessive appetite for control which renders many people intolerant of nonconforming views and unleashes the “tiny tyrant” lurking within them. It gives us great pause to hear Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) say, “We know best what \[falsehoods\] they say, and you \[O Prophet\] are not there as a *jabbār* (a compeller to faith) over them. So \[just\] remind with the Qur’an those who fear My warning.”[^74] If belief in the Qur’an cannot be forced, then neither can any other truth; if the Prophet ﷺ could not coerce others into faith, then neither can we. This is not indifference to falsehood, but rather acceptance that an overbearing approach is counterproductive to persuading others of almost anything. ### 4\. Stabilize your guidance only through al-Jabbār No created being is capable of drawing closer to al-Jabbār (the Most High) except by the rope He extends down to them (Qur’an 3:103). Internalizing this reality keeps the believer from ever loosening their grip, lest they suffer a fatal fall. As one poet famously said, > Every breakage—Allah can compensate (*jabr*) for it, > But no compensation (*jubrān*) is there for a broken religion. While we can never repay the gift of guidance, we can demonstrate our gratitude by regarding no expression of appreciation as too great. As Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) said to the Prophet ﷺ, “And do not consider that you have ever conferred some great favor \[upon God\].”[^75] Conversely, when some Arabs converted to Islam and immediately boasted of their righteousness, the Qur’anic corrective came sharp and fast: “They consider it a favor to you that they have accepted Islam. Say, ‘Do not consider your Islam a favor to me. Rather, it is Allah who will have done you a favor by guiding you to the faith—if you are indeed faithful.’”[^76] Similarly, in the context of charitable giving, Allah (the Most High) says, “O you who have believed, do not invalidate your charities with reminders \[of it\] or annoyance \[of the recipient\]...”[^77] The term *mann*, which occurs in each of the aforementioned verses, means to remind others of your favors in a brash way. The people of *mann* have forgotten that they are not the owners of their wealth or their guidance, and that their faith and their fortunes would have long faded if not for al-Jabbār. Let that be our final reflection on this great name of Allah. It is not the Qur’an we memorize that “keeps” us religious, nor the “Islamic facts” in our head, nor the eloquence of our tongues and pens, nor the outward religiosity that people see—rather, it is al-Jabbār. Only al-Jabbār purges the selfish agenda of every pure soul, causing as several of the greatest early scholars said, “We learned this knowledge for other than Allah, but then Allah refused that it be for anyone but Him.” Only al-Jabbār expunges the doubts and desires from our chests, those which every day threaten to swarm our hearts and whose incursion is always imminent. Only al-Jabbār keeps us from unraveling, like the multitudes who went astray throughout history despite their oceans of knowledge and intensity of worship, “...this is how Allah seals the heart of every arrogant *jabbār* (tyrant).”[^78] Just as only al-Jabbār preserves our eyesight, only He keeps our insight from blurring, our faith from flickering, and our steps from drifting off the Straight Path. As Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) said, “Ask \[them, O Prophet\], ‘Imagine if Allah were to take away your hearing or sight, or if He were to seal your hearts—who else other than Allah could restore it?’”[^79] This hints at why, more frequently than any other supplication, the Prophet ﷺ would repeat, > يا مُقلِّبَ القلوبِ ثبِّت قلبي على دينِكَ > > O Turner of Hearts, anchor my heart upon Your religion.[^80] --- ## A parting prayer With Your aid, O Allah, we vow to recall that al-Jabbār only “breaks” the sincere to rebuild them stronger than before, so long as they flee to Him in times of difficulty. We vow to ignore Satan when he whispers that we are hypocrites for remembering al-Jabbār when we are troubled. We vow to keep faith that al-Jabbār will reverse every injustice, whether this reversal comes in this world or the next. We vow to defuse people’s conflicts before they rend the fabric of their family and society. We vow to revitalize the Muslim *ummah* with breezes of hope whenever around it the smoke of despair thickens. We vow not to laugh while others weep, nor sleep warm while forgetting those shivering under the frigid blanket of winter, nor strut around in life unmindful of those buried beneath our feet, whom we will join once al-Jabbār decides it is our time. May we reflect every glimmer of *jabr* that shone in our Prophet ﷺ, and avoid whatever distances us from his legendary piety and humility. --- ## Notes [^1]: Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Makram Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab*, 15 vols. (Dār Ṣādir, 1414/1993), 4:113-117. [^2]: Abu Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān*, 30 vols. (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turāth), 23:304. [^3]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Nāṣir al-Saʿdī, *Fatḥ al-Raḥīm al-Malik al-ʿAllām fī ʿilm al-‘aqāʾid wa al-tawḥīd wa al-akhlāq wa al-aḥkām al-mustanbaṭa min al-Qurʾān* (Dār al-Faḍīla, 2009), 35-36, adapted. [^4]: Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-musnad al-ṣaḥīḥ* (Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2012), nos. 7549, 7550. [^5]: Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-‘Arab*, 4:114. [^6]: Qur’an 95:4, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^7]: Qur’an 64:3, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^8]: Qur’an 17:100, *The Clear Quran*. [^9]: Charles Taylor, *A Secular Age* (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 309, 364, 415, 681, 734. [^10]: Qur’an 43:32, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^11]: Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*, 4 vols. (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1982), 3:373. [^12]: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl fī masāʾil al-qaḍāʾ wa al-qadar wa al-ḥikma wa al-taʿlīl* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1978), 129. [^13]: Abū al-Qāsim Sulaymān b. Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kābīr* (Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, n.d.), no. 1427, 10448; authenticated by al-Albānī in *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa* (no. 34). [^14]: Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-ʿAlāʾ b. Abī al-ʿIzz, *Sharḥ al-‘aqīda al-Ṭaḥāwiyya*, 2 vols. (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1997), 1:321. [^15]: Qur’an 61:5, *The Clear Quran*. [^16]: Qur’an 6:110, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6390. [^18]: Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Aṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā’*, 10 vols. (Maṭba‘at al-Saʿāda, 1974), 7:52. [^19]: Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad b. ‘Īsā al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Maktabat wa Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1975), no. 284, deemed as *ḥasan* (good) by some scholars such as al-Nawawī in his *al-Adhkār* and *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī*; variant wordings also found in *Musnad Aḥmad*, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, and *Sunan Ibn Mājah*. [^20]: Qur’an 35:2, *The Clear Quran*. [^21]: Muslim b. Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī), no. 918. [^22]: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. al-Mūṣilī, *Mukhtaṣar al-ṣawāʿiq al-mursala ʿalā al-jahmiyya wa al-muʿaṭṭila* (Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2001), 306. [^23]: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftāḥ dār al-sa‘ādah wa manshūr wilāyat al-‘ilm wal-irādah*, 2 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah, 1998), 1:24. [^24]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Yazīd Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya), no. 4085. Graded as good (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 3073, 6614. [^26]: Qur’an 8:36, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^27]: Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān b. al-Ashʿath al-Sijistānī, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Dār al-Risāla, 2009), no. 4291; authenticated by al-Sakhāwī in *al-Maqāṣid al-ḥasanah* (no. 149) and al-Albānī in *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa* (no. 599). [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3468; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2766. [^29]: See: *Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster* by Allan J. McDonald with James R. Hansen (University Press of Florida, 2018). [^30]: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿUthmān al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 23 vols. (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1985), 7:202. [^31]: ʿImād al-Dīn Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm*, 8 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al- ‘Ilmiyya, 1998), 1:526. [^32]: ʿImād al-Dīn Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya wa al-nihāyah*, 15 vols. (Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1988), 11:327. [^33]: Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī, *Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ* (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, 2004), 216. [^34]: Al-Suyūṭī, *Tārīkh al-khulafā’*, 230. [^35]: Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ‘Alī Ibn al-Jawzī, *Ṣayd al-khāṭir* (Dār al-Qalam, 2004), 159. [^36]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, nos. 4174, 4175. Graded as authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī. [^37]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-ṣaḥīḥayn* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1990), no. 203. [^38]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, nos. 198, 4275. Graded as authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī; variant wordings also exist in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. [^39]: Qur’an 25:12, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^40]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2574. Graded as authentic (*ṣāḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī. [^41]: See fatwa on making images by jurist Dr. Hatem al-Haj: [https://www.drhatemalhaj.com/qa/?p=5501](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.drhatemalhaj.com/qa/?p%3D5501&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1743185742818909&usg=AOvVaw2GYKpivDZV8dkIM18togUr). [^42]: Abū ‘Abd Allāh Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Zuhd* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1999), no. 121. [^43]: Qur’an 17:37, author’s translation. [^44]: For example, see *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2492. Graded as good (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī. [^45]: Qur’an 14:15–17, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^46]: Qur’an 20:25-28, author’s translation. [^47]: ʿAlī Jābir al-Fīfī, *Li-Annak Allāh* (Dār al-Ḥaḍāra li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2018), 126. [^48]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya wal-nihāya*, 11:259. [^49]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya wal-nihāya*, 1:151–152. [^50]: Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Muntaẓam fi tārīkh al-mulūk wa al-umam*, 19 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1992), 7:9. [^51]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 873. Graded as authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī. [^52]: Reported by al-Ṭabarānī in *al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ*, no. 6906 and Ibn ʿAsākir in *Tārīkh Dimashq*, no. 4596. Graded as authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī. [^53]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7423. [^54]: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Jawāb al-kāfī liman sa’ala ‘an al-dawā’ al-shāfī* (Dār al-Ma‘rifah, 1997), 67. [^55]: Qur’an 9:92, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^56]: Qur’an 8:70, *The Clear Quran*. [^57]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2856. [^58]: Abu al-Fidāʿ Ismā‘īl Ibn Kathīr, *Kitāb al-sīrah min al-bidāya wa al-nihāya*, 4 vols. (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1976), 2:475. [^59]: *Al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr*, no. 13646; authenticated by al-Albānī in *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa* (no. 906). [^60]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3543. Graded as authentic (*ṣāḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī. [^61]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 298. [^62]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 334. [^63]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 3583, 3584, 3585. [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1491; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1039. [^65]: Al-Aṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ*, 3:135–36. [^66]: Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrā* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), no. 19668; authenticated by al-Albānī in *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa* (no. 149). [^67]: See: Qur’an 19:13–14. [^68]: Qur’an 19:32, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^69]: Qur’an 12:100, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^70]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 413. [^71]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5864; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1058. [^72]: Abū ‘Abdillāh Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal al-Shaybānī, *Musnad al-imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal*, 50 vols. (Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 2016), nos. 17585, 18728. Graded  authentic (*ṣāḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī; variant wording also exists in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. [^73]: Zakī al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ‘Abdul-Aẓīm b. ‘Abdul-Qawī al-Mundhirī, *al-Targhīb wa al-tarhīb min al-ḥadīth al-sharīf*, 4 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.), 3:281; classified as weak by al-Albānī in *Ḍaʿīf al-jāmiʿ* (no. 1453). Note: While the traceability of this report is disputed, it can still help provide a wider conceptualization of where the qualities of a *jabbār* may manifest, namely even in the domestic space of the family home. [^74]: Qur’an 50:45, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^75]: Qur’an 74:6, author’s translation. [^76]: Qur’an 49:17, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^77]: Qur’an 2:264, *Saheeh International* (with slight adaptation). [^78]: Qur’an 40:35, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^79]: Qur’an 6:46, *The Clear Quran* (with slight adaptation). [^80]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3522. Graded as authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī. ## Summary **The Divine Name al-Jabbār: A Reflection on God's Power and Mending** Among the beautiful names of Allah is *al-Jabbār*, a name which occurs only once in the entire Qur'an, in the verse: "He is Allah… the Compeller (*al-Jabbār*), the Supreme" (Qur'an 59:23). Though mentioned but once, its meanings are said to lie latent within the *fiṭra*—the original, pure nature of every human being—awaiting the light of revelation to awaken them. This noble name captures the incontestability of God's great power and the way it manifests in modes both grand and gentle. Embedded within it are two eternal truths: when Allah wishes to heal or restore, nothing can hinder Him, and when He wishes to settle a score, nothing can withstand His dominance. The Arabs of old used the word *jabbār* for mighty individuals, towering trees, and bone-setters. One may picture a colossus rising above all like a great tree, possessed of the power both to mend and to overwhelm—just as the *jabīra*, or bone splint, presses upon fractured bones and forces them into a stronger union. Yet since imperfection is inconceivable of God, our scholars carefully qualified this name in its divine sense. Imam al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) defined *al-Jabbār* as "He who rectifies the affairs of His creation, and drives them towards their own welfare." Shaykh al-Saʿdī (d. 1957) likewise explained that *al-Jabbār* may mean the Compeller (*al-Qahhār*), the Most High (*al-Aʿlā*) established upon the throne, and also the Most Affectionate (*al-Raʾūf*): He who mends the broken, enriches the poor, restores the afflicted, and reinvigorates the hearts of those humbled before His greatness through the love, intimacy, guidance, and grace He pours upon them. That our scholars lean toward "compassion over compulsion" in defining this name is not born of sentiment but of a firm principle: as Allah decreed, "My mercy prevails over My anger." Indeed, when Allah introduces Himself in the greatest *sūrah*, al-Fātiḥa, as *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm* before *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*, this ordering guides us always to distinguish *al-Jabbār* from any tyrannical *jabbār* among creation. It is worth noting that the word "algebra" derives from *al-jabr*, first compiled by the Muslim polymath al-Khawārizmī (d. 236/850) in his celebrated work on calculation—a science that "makes whole" fractions and "compensates" for missing variables. So too does *al-Jabbār* make us whole, whether by restoring what we lost or replacing it with something superior. It has also been reported from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) that the name of the angel Jibrīl signifies "the servant of the Lord," reminding us that even the mightiest of angels is but a powerless slave of *al-Jabbār*. Concerning the nature of man, *al-Jabbār* alone determined our ancestry, our place in history, our provision, and our lineage—and this is part of what makes Him the Compeller. Yet the goodness behind these decrees echoes His name as the Mender, for He "created the human in the best stature" and "shaped you [in the wombs], perfecting your forms." By withholding from creation the power to create, He ensured all decisions remain supremely wise and compassionate, for as He says, humankind, were it to possess His treasures, would withhold them out of stinginess (Qur'an 17:100). Those who aspire to master their own destiny—a kind of god-complex—find unfavorable outcomes unbearable, whereas those who submit to *al-Jabbār* find contentment. When the disbelievers rejected the Prophet ﷺ for his lack of wealth, Allah answered, "Is it they who distribute the mercy of your Lord?" (Qur'an 43:32). ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him) once explained that intelligence itself is part of one's *rizq*—though this must never breed complacency in seeking beneficial knowledge and lawful earnings. On the question of free will, this is truly an inquiry into causality rather than into God's omnipotence, and given how little we grasp even of the physical world, we ought to recognize how much more the metaphysics of divine and human will exceed our comprehension. Nearly a century after the Prophet ﷺ, the Jabriyya arose, denying human agency entirely—a position rejected by Sunni scholars past and present, for compelling someone and then punishing them would be both weakness and injustice, impossible for God. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) explained that the *jabr* of Allah differs from that of creation: Allah can make His servant desire an action, and He never wrongs anyone. The Prophet ﷺ warned, "When destiny is discussed, restrain yourselves," and Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687) said, "Destiny is the secret of Allah." Allah "caused their hearts to deviate" only after they persistently deviated (Qur'an 61:5), showing His justice. Believers are taught to seek His intervention through *istikhāra*. Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 162/778) said he came to know his Lord "by the breaking of my resolve." Because life's blows are ceaseless, Allah is *al-Jabbār* (the Perpetual Mender), not merely *al-Jābir*. Thus the Prophet ﷺ would supplicate between prostrations, "O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, mend me, guide me, and provide for me." Allah says, "Whatever mercy Allah opens up for people, none can withhold it" (Qur'an 35:2). When Umm Salama (may Allah be pleased with her) lost her husband, she recalled his teaching to say, "O Allah, reward me for my affliction and replace me with something better"—and Allah replaced him with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself. Ibn al-Qayyim beautifully observed that Allah causes His servant to taste the bitterness of the break before the sweetness of the mend, breaking the believer only to mend him, depriving him only to provide, and that this very brokenness is a bridge to knowing and loving Him. Regarding the *ummah*, *al-Jabbār* revives entire nations through the most unassuming people—an infant in a basket became Pharaoh's downfall, and an orphan became the one to "adopt the world." The Prophet ﷺ said "Allah may certainly support this religion at the hands of a wicked man," and that Allah sends at the turn of every century one who renews the religion. Even the man who murdered one hundred souls, dying while migrating to a righteous land, was forgiven when Allah caused the earth itself to shift so he lay a handspan closer to it. As for the powerful, Allah humbles them with the smallest of creatures. Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765) told the caliph al-Manṣūr that the fly was created "to humble the tyrants." When the ruler of Córdoba prayed humbly for rain, saying "My forelock is in Your hands," the judge Mundhir al-Ballūṭī (d. 355/966) rejoiced, saying, "When the *jabbār* of the earth shows humility, the *Jabbār* of the heavens bestows mercy." Ibn al-Sammāk (d. 183/799) reminded Hārūn al-Rāshid that his kingdom was worth no more than a drink of water. Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 598/1201) reflected that Allah delays the tyrant's punishment only to seize him as *al-Jabbār* can. Allah declares, "Greatness and pride are exclusively Mine." On the Last Day, as Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated, *al-Jabbār* will seize the heavens and earth and proclaim, "Where are the tyrants and the arrogant?"—so shaking the Prophet ﷺ that the pulpit trembled. The tyrants, polytheists, and image-makers will be sought out by Hell, and the arrogant reduced to the size of ants, trampled and given "the mud of insanity" to drink, for "every stubborn *jabbār* was doomed" (Qur'an 14:15–17). Devotion to this name demands that we flee to Him alone in distress, calling "O *Jabbār*! Only You can fix this!" Dr. ʿAlī al-Fīfī recounts a stuttering student healed after reciting Mūsā's supplication, "My Lord, expand my chest… untie the knot from my tongue" (Qur'an 20:25–28). Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728) prayed against the tyrant al-Ḥajjāj, "O breaker of every *jabbār*, break al-Ḥajjāj." We are likewise called to become instruments of His *jabr*—to console broken hearts, as Allah consoled the weeping Companions who could find no mounts (Qur'an 9:92), and as the Prophet ﷺ comforted ʿĀʾisha and even embraced the weeping tree stump. Sufyān al-Thawrī said he knew no act greater than *jabr al-khawāṭir*, consoling hearts. We should lighten burdens discreetly, as ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 94/712) secretly fed a hundred families by night. We must shun the subtler tyranny condemned in Yaḥyā and ʿĪsā (peace be upon them), who were spared being a "wretched *jabbār*" toward their parents, and avoid coercion in faith, for Allah told His Prophet, "you are not there as a *jabbār* over them" (Qur'an 50:45). Finally, we must recognize that only *al-Jabbār* stabilizes our guidance, never boasting of our Islam as a favor to Him (Qur'an 49:17). Thus the Prophet ﷺ most often prayed, "O Turner of Hearts, anchor my heart upon Your religion." ## Key Takeaways 1. Allah’s name al-Jabbār appears only once in the Qur’an, and it means more than the Compeller. It draws on the Arabic root for the bonesetter’s splint that presses a fracture into a stronger union, so the name holds two truths at once: When Allah wills to heal, nothing hinders Him, and when He wills to settle a score, nothing withstands Him. Scholars stress that Allah’s compelling power is inseparable from His perfection, justice, wisdom, and mercy, while also recognizing  His decree that His mercy prevails over His anger. 2. Ibn al-Qayyim reflects that the experience of brokenness can become occasions through which Allah’s restorative mercy becomes especially apparent, and that believers may come to recognize blessings through the contrast between loss and relief. As the perpetual Mender, al-Jabbar heals the heart continually, which is why the name takes an intensive form rather than the simpler *al-jābir*. The break itself is part of the mending, for Allah lets the servant taste loss before the sweetness of repair, breaking the believer only to restore him. When Umm Salama lost her husband and could imagine no one better, the loss was answered with marriage to the Prophet ﷺ himself. 3. The same name that consoles the broken also warns the powerful, for al-Jabbār shares a root with *jabbār*, meaning tyrant, and no earthly tyrant escapes Him. Divine respite should not be mistaken for impunity; rulers can be humbled by the smallest of creatures, and oppressors ultimately remain accountable to Allah.  Because absolute compelling power belongs to Allah alone, believers must reject human tyranny and instead participate in restorative jabr by consoling and assisting wounded hearts. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does Allah’s name al-Jabbār mean? Al-Jabbār carries two connected meanings. It points to Allah’s unstoppable power, the Compeller whose will stands behind every event, and to Allah as the Mender who restores what is broken. In Arabic, *jabbār* was used for mighty figures, towering trees, and bonesetters, drawing on the image of a splint that presses a fractured bone back into a stronger union. Scholars stress that when the word describes Allah, it is free of any flaw, so it means the One who sets right the affairs of His creation and steers them toward their own good. This is why al-Jabbār is understood through compassion rather than harshness. Allah mends the broken, enriches the poor, restores the sick, and revives hearts humbled before Him. The name appears only once in the Qur’an, in Surah al-Ḥashr (59:23), yet its meanings speak to something every person senses in moments of loss and repair. In short, al-Jabbār is both the Compeller whose power nothing resists and the Mender whose greatness never distances Him from healing His creation. ### Does al-Jabbār mean Allah is a tyrant? No. The Arabic word *jabbār* is used for a human tyrant in a blameworthy sense, but when it is one of Allah’s names it means something entirely different. A human tyrant forces others out of arrogance and often unjustly, while Allah’s compelling power is always joined with wisdom and mercy. Scholars point out that Allah described Himself as the Most Compassionate and the Most Merciful before mentioning His power and judgment, and that He decreed that His mercy prevails over His anger. So His might never works against His justice or care. In fact, the Qur’an condemns the human *jabbār*, the arrogant oppressor, and even praises prophets for being spared that trait toward their parents. The same word therefore points in opposite directions depending on who it describes. For a created being, being a *jabbār* is a vice of pride and oppression. For Allah, al-Jabbār is the perfection of power joined to compassion, the One who both governs all things and mends what is broken. ### How does al-Jabbār mend broken hearts? One of the meanings of al-Jabbār is the Mender, and Allah is not called al-Jābir, the one who mends once, but al-Jabbār, the One who mends constantly. Hardship comes to a person over and over, and Allah heals emotional and psychological wounds each time. He can return a smile to a face even before a problem is solved, quiet harsh self-talk, and ease anxiety about the past and future. This is why the Prophet ﷺ would say between the two prostrations, “O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, mend me, guide me, and provide for me,” a plea recited in every prayer. Scholars observed that Allah often lets a person taste the bitterness of a break before the sweetness of repair, so that hardship itself becomes a doorway to knowing and loving Him. One example is a woman who lost her husband and, holding to a prayer he had taught her, asked Allah to reward her and replace her loss with something better, after which Allah granted her a far greater blessing. ### If Allah controls everything, do humans have free will? Mainstream Sunni theology rejects the idea that human beings have no meaningful agency. People genuinely choose and are morally responsible for their actions, while their power and will remain dependent upon and encompassed by Allah’s power. How divine decree and human will relate at the deepest metaphysical level is not something Islamic theology claims the human mind can fully comprehend. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/between-pharaohs-riviera-and-the-divine-promise-gaza-as-a-metaphor-for-the-muslim-soul-in-ramadan-essay # Between Pharaoh’s Riviera and the Divine Promise: Gaza as a Metaphor for the Muslim Soul in Ramadan | Essay **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Allah, Contemporary Ideologies, Faith, General Psychology, Politics & Practical Theology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Palestine, Perspective, Ramadan, Self-Improvement **Published:** February 28, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 The modern world is relentless in its assault on the Muslim soul. Political tyranny, the unchecked deception of technology, and the fleeting luxuries of modern consumerism conspire to dull its edges, to rob it of its clarity, and to enslave it in ways more insidious than chains. The world’s tyrants do not merely seek to subjugate bodies; they seek to break spirits, to reshape desires, to replace the hunger for the Divine with an appetite for power, distraction, and indulgence. It is an old battle, yet every generation faces it anew. Pharaoh (the tyrant who ruled by dividing people, enslaving some, fooling others), Haman (his engineer, whom he hired to build a structure tall enough in his mind to challenge God), and Qarun (an obscenely rich man from among the Israelites) still walk among us. The political tyrants demand our obedience, punishing those who refuse. The engineers of deception—today’s Haman—bombard us with distractions, with media designed to manipulate, with a digital fog that distances us from God and, hence, from the reality of our own condition. And Qarun lures us with the promise of decadence, of comfort, of an existence freed from sacrifice and struggle—so long as we accept the status quo and Pharaoh’s tyranny, so long as we surrender. This is the battlefield of the modern Muslim soul. And in the chaos, Ramadan arrives like an army of light—a divine intervention to rescue us from our own heedlessness. Ramadan is the training ground of resistance, the season of clarity, bringing with it the chance to break free. When we reject food and drink, we learn that we do not live for pleasure. When we abandon distractions and stand in prayer, we reclaim our focus. When we give, rather than hoard, we undo the grip of wealth on our hearts. As we engage in this struggle, trying to welcome Ramadan as imperfect and unprepared hosts, confronting the ruins left by years of heedlessness—the debris of lost time and the erosion of sincerity—we find ourselves reflecting on Gaza. Recent events have intensified this reflection. US President Donald Trump proposed a plan to “take over” Gaza, forcibly displacing its inhabitants to transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” This proposal has been widely condemned as a form of ethnic cleansing, illegal under international law. Navi Pillay, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, stated that such forced displacement amounts to ethnic cleansing and is a war crime. This plan exemplifies the trio of modern oppressors: political tyranny seeking to erase a people, technological manipulation aiming to reshape narratives, and the lure of luxury attempting to justify moral bankruptcy. The sanctity of Palestine is deeply rooted in Islamic tradition. The Qur’an refers to it as [a blessed and holy land](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/why-is-gaza-important-honoring-a-land-of-ribat), and numerous hadiths emphasize its significance. However, those who view it merely as rubble see an opportunity for real estate development, aiming to transform sacred land into playgrounds for the elite, reminiscent of Pharaoh’s opulent desires. Gaza, true, is in ruins. Gaza, too, has been bombarded by tyrants who wish to see it submit, suffocated by technology weaponized against it, and betrayed by those who should have stood by its side. But Gaza does not surrender. Nor must I. If Gaza still clings to the promise of Allah, how can I not? If Gaza refuses to accept the finality of its destruction, how can I lose hope in my own rebuilding? The sacred rubble of Gaza reminds me that destruction is not the end. It is only the beginning of another renewal. Ramadan is a time of not only spiritual conquest, but also of physical battles, of world-making struggle for God. Many watershed battles in Islam occurred in this blessed month: the Battle of Badr, Opening of Mecca, Battle of Ḥaṭṭin, and Battle of ʿAin Jalut, to name a few. Pharaoh’s voice echoes through history. His claim is always the same: Power is mine. Wealth is mine. Control is mine. What can your God give you that I have not already placed at your feet? > And Pharaoh proclaimed among his people, saying, “O my people, does not the dominion of Egypt belong to me, and these rivers flowing beneath me? Do you not see?” (Qur’an 43:51) And so, the tyrants of today speak in his tongue. They look upon Gaza, upon the land of Palestine, and they see not a place of sanctity but of opportunity—a pile of rubble waiting to be swept away, an obstacle to be cleared for luxury apartments, beachfront resorts, and casinos for the pharaonic elite. They see a people who must either bow or be buried. But Gaza does not bow. Every tyrant, from Pharaoh to the modern world’s imperial powers, [follows the same blueprint](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/confronting-todays-pharaoh-and-the-propaganda-war-on-palestine). First, they offer the carrot—a tempting promise of comfort, acceptance, prosperity, if only one submits. If only one accepts their order, their dominion, their rewriting of truth. *“Why resist?” they whisper. “Why suffer? Look at the rivers that flow beneath us, at the power we hold in our hands. Trade your dignity for security, your faith for favor, and you can join us.”* And when that fails, the stick follows. Starvation. Siege. Bombardment. The grinding cruelty of occupation. The threat of annihilation, sharpened and wielded against a people whose only crime is refusing to disappear. This is the tactic used to ethnically cleanse Gaza—first the bribe, then the bullet. Yet, Gaza stands. Gaza rejects the carrot, just as it defies the stick. Gaza refuses to be bought, refuses to be broken. In a world that believes submission is survival, Gaza has chosen dignity over life itself. And just as Gaza resists the external tyrants, the believer is called to resist the inner pharaoh, the one who whispers of power, of self-indulgence, of pleasure without consequence. The true jihad—the struggle against the self—is fought every day, against the same forces that try to conquer nations. The tyrants of the world today do not seek only to dominate our lands; they seek to conquer the Muslim soul itself—to subdue it with fear, to distract it with entertainment, to corrupt it with the love of wealth and power. And the two are inextricably connected. Sometimes, the conquest of the land and its sacred places is followed by the conquest of the soul; at other times, the soul is crushed first, and the land follows. Those who fail to recognize this have already lost. --- ## The three great temptations > And We did certainly send Moses with Our signs and a clear authority. To Pharaoh, Haman, and Qarun, but they said: “A magician, a liar!”(Qur’an 40:23-24) The oppression of the weak does not happen in isolation. Pharaoh—the emblem of brute force—never works alone. He requires enablers, systems of oppression, and collaborators from within. In the Qur’an, Moses’ greatest opponents were not just Pharaoh, the tyrant-king, but also Haman—the architect of power—and Qarun—the billionaire who betrayed his people. Each represents a force that seeks to enslave the Muslim soul: ### Pharaoh: The tyrant and the fear of power Pharaoh rules through fear. He is the dictator, the oppressor, the ruler who demands submission, not only of the body but of the mind. He dictates reality itself, rewriting history, criminalizing truth, making falsehood the law of the land. The believer’s greatest test in the face of Pharaoh is courage. To refuse to be silenced. To say “no” when everyone else bows. [To speak the truth](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/speaking-truth-to-power-islamic-rules-for-protests-civil-disobedience-and-encampments-for-gaza), even if it costs everything. This, in the words of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ, is the noblest jihad. ### Haman: The engineer of deception and the distraction of technology Pharaoh commanded, but Haman built. He was the mastermind, the one who used his craft to solidify Pharaoh’s rule. He was ordered to construct the great tower, a structure meant not only to showcase power but to reach the heavens—to play god. > And Pharaoh said, “O Haman, construct for me a tower that I might reach the ways, the ways into the heavens, and look at the God of Moses, but indeed, I think he is a liar.” (Qur’an 40:36-37) Haman represents more than just an ancient minister—he is the symbol of how technology, knowledge, and engineering can be weaponized by tyrants. Today, Haman does not build towers of stone; he builds digital towers, algorithmic prisons, echo chambers of deception. He fills the world with distractions, keeps the mind occupied with endless entertainment, shapes perception through media, enslaves the heart to screens so that it no longer longs for the remembrance of Allah. The believer’s test in the face of Haman is focus**.** To reclaim the heart, to break free from the distractions, to use technology as a tool, not a master. ### Qarun: The billionaire traitor and the temptation of wealth > Indeed, Qarun was from the people of Moses, but he oppressed them. And We had given him treasures whose keys would burden a band of strong men. (Qur’an 28:76) Qarun was not an outsider; he was one of Moses’ own people. Yet, when given the choice between his faith and his fortune, he chose his fortune. Qarun is the one who sees his wealth as a sign of his superiority, who believes that material success is a blessing for him alone, rather than a responsibility. In every age, the *ummah* has suffered not only from external enemies but from those within—the Qaruns who sell their faith for wealth, who align with the oppressors, who see the suffering of their people as the price of doing business. The believer’s test in the face of Qarun is *zuhd* (detachment). To see wealth not as an end but as a means. To reject luxury that corrupts the soul. To give rather than hoard. --- ## Ramadan: A time of resistance and renewal In this struggle, Ramadan offers a path to renewal. It is an opportunity to detach from the trifecta of tyranny, to cleanse the soul, and to reaffirm our commitment to justice and faith. Just as Gaza resists external oppression, we are called to resist the internal forces that seek to corrupt our souls. The sacred rubble of Gaza serves as a powerful metaphor. Despite relentless attempts to erase its identity and spirit, Gaza stands firm, embodying resilience and unwavering faith. This resilience inspires us to confront the debris within our own souls, to rebuild, and to resist the temptations and oppressions of the modern world. In embracing the lessons of Gaza and the spirit of Ramadan, we find the strength to overcome the trio of tyranny, to purify our souls, and to transform both our inner and outer worlds in pursuit of divine gardens promised to the steadfast. Ramadan is not just a month of fasting; it is a training ground for *jihād al-nafs* (the struggle against the self). - When we deny ourselves food and drink, we break the hold of Qarun’s temptation. We remind ourselves that we do not live to consume. - When we reduce our distractions, turn away from excess entertainment, and focus on the Qur’an, we resist Haman’s digital empire. - When we stand in prayer, reciting the words of Allah, bowing to none but Him, we defy Pharaoh himself. Gaza does not choose its struggle—it has no choice. But we do. Every Ramadan is a chance to align ourselves with those who resist, to cleanse our souls from the tyranny of Pharaoh, Haman, and Qarun, to renew our faith so that when the test comes, we do not falter. Gaza is proof against every excuse we make for our own submission. Proof that even in the face of total siege, one can still say “No.” Proof that dignity is not conditional on comfort. Proof that the pharaohs of today can still be defied. > How many a small company has overcome a large company by permission of Allah. And Allah is with the patient. (Qur’an 2:249) To look at the people of Gaza is to see the Muslim soul in its purest form—tested, tormented, but unyielding. The question is: Will we resist as they have resisted? Or will we take the carrot and call it wisdom? --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/jealousy-for-faith-and-the-ummah-developing-a-gheerah-mindset-essay # Jealousy for Faith and the Ummah: Developing a Gheerah Mindset | Essay **Author:** Dr. Samir Sweida-Metwally **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Analysis, Palestine **Published:** February 13, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 ## Introduction Marked by the relentless atrocities committed by Israel with critical backing and material support from its allies in the West—particularly the US, Germany, and the UK—the ongoing genocide in Palestine has sparked a global wave of protests and calls for boycotts.[^1] From the streets of Morocco, Jordan, Yemen and the UK, to student encampments in the US, these actions have reinvigorated discussions about the efficacy of social action and the role of Muslims in advocating for justice. However, while these efforts are critical, they should not be purely reactive measures. Instead, they must form part of a framework that places love for, and active solidarity with, fellow Muslims at its heart. Though the essence of this message applies to all oppressed peoples, my focus here is on Muslims. This blog offers a framework that prompts Muslims to anchor their actions within an Islamic paradigm—whether social, economic, political, public, or private. At the heart of this paradigm is the Islamic concept of *gheerah*, traditionally understood as protective jealousy in a marital context, but when expanded, offers a powerful lens through which Muslims can approach all aspects of life. By adopting a *gheerah* mindset, we can move beyond being reactive to external events and instead live purposefully, in line with the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ. This mindset not only safeguards our dignity (*ʿizza*) but also ensures that our actions consistently reflect the principles of our faith, leading to a more intentional, virtuous, and meaningful life. --- ## Understanding gheerah *Gheerah* is often translated as protective jealousy or zeal. In Islamic teachings, *gheerah* is understood as a virtue that reflects a sense of responsibility and protectiveness, often of a man toward his spouse. The term is often translated to “jealousy,” but while this word is typically viewed negatively or as a product of toxic masculinity in English, in the Islamic sense, it can express a positive emotion, signifying protective care rather than possessive control. Theologian and jurisconsult, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350), may Allah have mercy on him, said: “A servant’s *gheerah* over their beloved is of two types: praiseworthy *gheerah* which Allah loves, and blameworthy *gheerah*, which Allah dislikes.”[^2] Praiseworthy *gheerah*, Ibn al-Qayyim explains, is a feeling or state where one is concerned about something or someone for a legitimate reason. There are several hadiths in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* where the Prophet ﷺ teaches us about the concept of *gheerah*. For example, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has a sense of *gheerah*, and Allah’s sense of *gheerah* is provoked when a believer does something which Allah has prohibited.”[^3] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said: “While I was sleeping, I saw myself in Paradise, and behold, a woman was performing ablution by the side of a palace. I asked, ‘For whom is this palace?’ They replied, ‘For ʿUmar.’ Then I remembered the *gheerah* of ʿUmar and returned immediately.”[^4] From these hadiths, we understand that *gheerah* is not limited to marital jealousy, as is most commonly understood. Rather, it encompasses a broader spectrum of moral responsibilities and fraternal empathy. From the first hadith, we can deduce that thinking of Allah’s *gheerah* should guide Muslims’ actions and inspire them to avoid acts of disobedience (*maʿāṣī*). In the second, we see how *gheerah* is used to guide the actions of the Prophet ﷺ to avoid doing something that might hurt his companion’s feelings or make him uncomfortable. To be clear, the Prophet ﷺ is protected from sin (*maʿṣūm*). Here, *gheerah* is used not as a frame of reference to distinguish sin from righteousness, but as a way of empathizing with a fellow Muslim and caring for their sensibilities. Both these hadiths thus indicate how *gheerah* is not merely an abstract concept but can be used as a practical framework through which to measure different choices and decide on the best course of action. As such, *gheerah* can be extended beyond the confines of marital jealousy, without taking away from its importance within that context. Practically speaking, we can think of *gheerah* as a protective concern that extends beyond oneself to encompass faith, family, and the *ummah*. --- ## 5 types of gheerah Extending beyond the understanding of protective jealousy in the marital context, the concept of *gheerah* can be conceptualized in various ways to apply to different areas of a Muslim’s life. While these aspects are inherently interconnected, I separate them here in the interest of clarity. 1\. ***Gheerah* for Allah:** This can be understood as safeguarding the unique and Almighty status of Allah and the sanctity of His Qur’an. In essence, it involves a complete rejection of polytheism (*shirk*) and anything that associates partners with Allah. In a practical sense and rooted in the Qur’anic injunction below, it also involves not associating with those who mock or speak ill of Allah: > He has already revealed to you in the Book that when you hear Allah’s revelations being denied or ridiculed, then do not sit in that company unless they engage in a different topic, or else you will be like them. Surely Allah will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers all together in Hell.[^5] 2\. ***Gheerah* for the Prophet ﷺ:** This can be understood as a protective jealousy that does not want to see the beloved of Allah ﷺ defamed, insulted, hurt, slandered, or purposely misquoted in any way. It is the anger and pain a Muslim feels when yet another Islamophobe insults the character of the honest and trustworthy one (*al-ṣādiq al-amīn*) ﷺ. This *gheerah* is cultivated by developing a deep attachment to the Sunnah and prophetic biography (*sīrah*) and moving away from the “it’s just a sunnah” mindset that justifies neglecting practices that are not obligatory (*farḍ*). 3\. ***Gheerah* for faith:** This can be understood as jealousy over the religion (*dīn*) to protect it from attacks, misrepresentation, and deviations. It is the urge to preserve the purity of Islamic teachings and practices from those who seek to disseminate perverse teachings that contravene the clear teachings of the Qur’an, hadith, and the consensus (*ijmāʿ*) of Muslim scholars. 4\. ***Gheerah* for one’s family:** This refers to the protective jealousy that a man has over his family. 5\. ***Gheerah* for the *ummah*:** This is the jealousy related to not wanting something bad to befall your sister and brother in Islam, either by your hands or someone else’s. It is the manifestation of the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ described the Muslim community as being like a single body “so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness and fever with it.”[^6] --- ## Developing a gheerah mindset A mindset rooted in *gheerah* is one that exalts the Muslim identity with *ʿizza*. It embodies honor, self-respect, and a steadfast commitment to one’s faith. In contrast, rejecting this mindset can lead to a state of humiliation. A *gheerah* mindset emphasizes the Prophet’s ﷺ teaching that bonds between Muslims are sacred. In essence, this mindset advocates for a life that upholds the dignity of Islam and its principles, reflecting a deep sense of loyalty and protective care for one’s faith and its followers. In what follows, I will delve into what it means to cultivate a *gheerah* mindset from both external and internal perspectives. The goal is not to provide an exhaustive list of dos and don’ts, as that would miss the essence of adopting such a mindset. Instead, the focus is on outlining the thought processes behind a *gheerah* mindset, enabling us to apply it across diverse situations, choices, and challenges. --- ## External ways to foster a gheerah mindset A fundamental aspect of embodying a *gheerah* mindset is making a conscious decision not to support individuals or entities that insult the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and take delight in doing so. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized the importance of loving him above all else, stating: “None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father, his children, and all mankind.”[^7] This attitude should also include rejecting those who oppress his followers, as he ﷺ reminds us that the sanctity of the Muslims, their wealth, and their blood is equal to that of the day of Hajj.[^8] Despite this, many Muslims actively contribute to the very systems that disparage the Prophet ﷺ, belittle Islamic beliefs, and harm his followers. For example, despite its well-documented history of mocking Islam and discriminating against Muslims—projecting caricatures of the Prophet ﷺ on government buildings,[^9] banning hijab (most recently in relation to Muslim French female athletes at the Olympics),[^10] and vilifying mainstream Islamic practices[^11]—France remains a popular destination for Muslim travelers. In 2023, it ranked 13th among non-OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) destinations for Muslims in the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI).[^12] This is not an insignificant statistic, especially when we consider that Muslim travelers are projected to spend USD 225 billion by 2028.[^13] It is troubling that while French Muslims are leaving France to be able to escape discrimination and practice their faith more freely,[^14] other Muslims visit the same place for leisure and entertainment. Similarly, the UK and Germany—both active partners in the genocide against Palestinians—attract significant numbers of Muslim travelers. The UK has supplied armaments, political cover, and military intelligence that facilitate Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.[^15] Germany, as the second-largest supplier of weapons used against Palestinians after the United States,[^16] has not only sought to shield Netanyahu and Gallant from ICC arrest warrants[^17] but has also been accused of exhibiting “raging Islamophobia”[^18] and producing content reminiscent of Nazi propaganda to demonize visible Muslims,[^19] while simultaneously suppressing expressions of Palestinian solidarity.[^20] Furthermore, like France, it enforces bans preventing Muslim women who wear the hijab from pursuing certain professions.[^21] Despite this, both countries remain top destinations for Muslim travelers, ranking 2nd and 7th, respectively, among non-OIC countries in the GMTI 2023.[^22] Why should Muslims support the economies of countries that openly ridicule their beliefs and actively participate in the genocide of their fellow Muslims? These examples show us that it is crucial to reevaluate our choices, with each decision being made with careful consideration of various factors, particularly the impact on one’s spiritual development and broader benefits to the *ummah*. The clearest case for boycotting these countries in terms of travel pertains to purely optional leisure activities, where travel is unnecessary and where alternatives exist that are more in line with a *gheerah* mindset. As for companies, many businesses, such as McDonald’s, Caterpillar, Adidas, and Starbucks, are already being boycotted for their perceived support of genocide or marginalization of Palestinians. These efforts should continue, and additional companies added to the list. For instance, Tesla, which opened a showroom in East Turkistan (aka Xinjiang)—the site of the Uyghur genocide—should also be targeted for boycotts. It is also worth noting that the company’s CEO has expressed support for Germany’s anti-Muslim party AfD,[^23] the British anti-Islam activist Yaxley-Lennon,[^24] and backed Israel during its relentless bombardment of Gaza.[^25] However, a *gheerah* mindset goes beyond simply reevaluating consumption habits and calls for us to think more deeply and substantively about our approach. This means not only refraining from purchasing products made in certain countries or by certain companies, and avoiding traveling to specific places, but also refraining from looking up to (privately or publicly) people, countries, and companies that are actively disparaging our faith and harming the *ummah*. It might seem that individual boycotts won’t have a significant impact on these entities’ financial standing. However, the essence of a *gheerah* mindset goes far beyond economic impact (important as that is) or a reactive strategy triggered only in response to events. It is about having a level of self-respect and dignity that prevents a Muslim from supporting those who insult the Prophet ﷺ, denigrate Islam, or oppress fellow Muslims. To put this into perspective, consider a personal scenario: would you ingratiate yourself with or give money to someone who insults your parents and mocks them in the most offensive manner? Certainly not. If some relatives from the tribe of Quraysh, including non-Muslims, stood by the Prophet ﷺ and his followers during the three-year boycott out of tribal loyalty, can we, as Muslims bound by the much stronger bond of faith, not change our mindset to abandon anyone who debases us, oppresses fellow Muslims, and insults our beloved ﷺ, who will intercede for us on the Day of Judgment? --- ## Internal ways to foster a gheerah mindset Establishing a strong foundation in our *dīn* is essential for cultivating a *gheerah* mindset. While we do not need to become experts in Islamic jurisprudence, acquiring knowledge is one of the most reliable ways to deepen our love for Allah and strengthen our faith (*imān*). As a Muslim’s knowledge of Islam grows, so too does their recognition of its perfection, and consequently, their *gheerah* over it. For example, the more you learn about the *sīrah* and the details of the struggles faced by the Prophet ﷺ, as well as the principles he upheld and the circumstances of revelation (*asbāb al-nuzūl*), the stronger your attachment becomes to him ﷺ and the commands of the *dīn*. Learning the *dīn* also shields us from confusion and doubt, both of which can weaken our faith (*īmān*). *Alhamdulillah*, there are many high-quality and reliable Islamic institutions where one can study the *dīn* (even remotely) in English so there is no excuse not to learn at least the individual religious obligations (*farḍ ʿayn*). Learning Islamic history is also a useful way for building a confident Muslim identity, especially in these turbulent times when Muslim suffering seems to be ubiquitous. Learning history is not about proving our worth by showcasing Muslim scientific contributions. Instead, understanding our history helps us correct the distorted, overly romanticized belief—shared by some Muslims—of a unified and idyllic caliphate that existed until the fall of the Ottomans. By doing so, we gain a realistic understanding of our rich tradition, with all its ups and downs. Knowing about the many brutal struggles that befell our predecessors and the sacrifices they made can inspire hope and motivate us to do the right thing, showing us that despite harsh persecution—inflicted by both internal and external oppressors—Muslims around the world have overwhelmingly held firm to their *dīn*.[^26] Our history serves as a reminder to stay strong and as an encouragement not to despair in the face of the innumerable injustices inflicted upon the *ummah*, in particular as we witness the livestream of the genocide in Palestine. It also reminds us that, by divine design, we are part of a broader narrative, each playing a specific role in the *ummah*’s story and at the time assigned to us by Allah. Finally, we must also take steps to cultivate a *gheerah* mindset in our children, ensuring that they grow up with an awareness of global injustices, such as the struggles in Palestine, Kashmir, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, the persecution of the Uyghurs and the Rohingya, and the suffering in Congo, to name a few. They need to understand that humanity and the *ummah*’s pain is their pain and that their aspirations should go beyond mere material success. While the information shared should be age-appropriate, it should not be superficial or sporadic. Remember, Imam ʿAlī (rA, d. 40/661) was only ten years old when he embraced Islam and the companion Usāma b. Zayd (rA, d. 54/674) was around 18 when he led an army against the Byzantines. One practical way to instill a *gheerah* mindset in our children is to consciously moderate holidays, shopping, and celebrations—even during Eid—in light of ongoing tragedies like the genocide in Palestine, explaining the reasons for these actions to them. On the other hand, it also involves finding joy in and celebrating the achievements of the *ummah*, such as the liberation of Syria from oppression and tyranny. Ultimately, cultivating a *gheerah* mindset in our children can only be effectively achieved if they see us as proud Muslims who have *gheerah* for their fellow believers and whose aims in life extend beyond accumulating possessions. They need to see that our yearly achievements are about more than just growing our bank balance and enjoying nice vacations. Their priorities need to extend beyond the shallow excitement of their next birthday, their upcoming graduation celebrations, or acquiring the latest Apple gadget. We will not raise an *ummah* capable of paving the way for producing leaders like Ṣalāḥuddīn if our daily actions consistently convey to our children that success is defined by material gains and entertaining ‘experiences.’ Instead, we must instill in our children a deeper sense of honor and self-respect, and for them to embody this, they need to see us living with *ʿizza*, making positive contributions to the wellbeing of the *ummah* and wider society. While contribution can take many forms—protesting, financial support to humanitarian organizations, advocacy, boycotting—perhaps the most important and accessible action we can all take is to make sincere *duʿāʾ* for this *ummah* at the most opportune times. For example, waking up with our children for the night vigil prayer (*tahajjud*) to specifically pray for the oppressed displays solidarity through action rather than just words and nurtures a generation that understands their *dīn* through a deep connection to the struggles of the *ummah*. --- ## Concluding remarks The genocide in Palestine has made it clear that our *ʿizza*—let alone the value of Muslim life—will not be preserved or protected by so-called Western leftist ‘allies,’ a ‘liberal’ system, or political leaders (Muslim or otherwise). This is a reminder to us all that our ultimate reliance should not be on material powers, but on Allah. This reality is a powerful echo of the words of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (rA, d. 23/644): “We are a people whom Allah has honored with Islam, so whenever we seek to be honored through something other than it, Allah will bring us humiliation.”[^27] The cultivation of a *gheerah* mindset—a protective concern that extends beyond personal interests to include faith and the broader Muslim community—is thus vital for the strength and dignity of the *ummah*. It’s about living with a deep sense of *ʿizza* that permeates every aspect of our lives—from the choices we make as consumers when doing our weekly grocery shopping to where we decide to vacation, study, and work, to the values we instill in our children and how we think about our life more generally. This mindset requires us to rise above the allure of materialism and superficial success, anchoring our actions in love for Allah, His Messenger ﷺ, the global Muslim community, and wider humanity. Indeed, it should be a serious concern if our intellectual and spiritual mindsets, as well as our day-to-day lives, have not changed despite the horrors we have witnessed over the past 16 months. Ultimately, the question is not whether Islam will triumph—it surely will. The real question is whether we will be among those who earn the reward for standing up for what is right, for defending the honor of our *dīn*, and for nurturing a generation that is deeply connected to the struggles and triumphs of the *ummah*, so that we are among those whom the Prophet ﷺ alluded to when he said: “Whoever defends the honor of their (Muslim) brother/sister, Allah will secure their face against the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.”[^28] Let us take this responsibility seriously, knowing that our efforts today will shape the *ummah*’s leaders of tomorrow. And Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: That Israel’s actions constitute genocide has been affirmed by thirty-seven independent UN Human Rights experts (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2024, [https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/10/international-order-breaking-down-gaza-un-experts-mark-one-year-genocidal](https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/10/international-order-breaking-down-gaza-un-experts-mark-one-year-genocidal)). In their statement, titled “The International Order Is Breaking Down in Gaza,” these experts mark one year of genocidal attacks on Palestinians. For a comprehensive analysis, refer to the United Nations 2024 report by Francesca Albanese, *Anatomy of a Genocide*, presented to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/55/73). Additionally, leading international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International (*“You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza*, 2024, [https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/](https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/)), the University Network for Human Rights (*Genocide in Gaza*, 2024, [https://www.humanrightsnetwork.org/projects/genocide-in-gaza](https://www.humanrightsnetwork.org/projects/genocide-in-gaza)), and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (*Statement on Why We Call the Israeli Attack on Gaza Genocide*, 2023, [https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-why-we-call-the-israeli-attack-on-gaza-genocide](https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-why-we-call-the-israeli-attack-on-gaza-genocide)), have echoed similar findings. Renowned individuals such as Aryeh Neier, founder of Human Rights Watch and a Holocaust survivor, have also accused Israel of genocide (for details, see “Human Rights Watch Founder Accuses Israel of Genocide,” BBC, 2024, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j1rk0c](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j1rk0c&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208029613&usg=AOvVaw1AmhqwR6Vv0v8f19YcyH8m)). Holocaust and Genocide Studies scholars have further reinforced this conclusion, with analyses like Raz Segal’s 2023 *A Textbook Case of Genocide* ([https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208029835&usg=AOvVaw2UNjDM23cByij8_rq8T_k7)) and Omer Bartov’s reflections as a former IDF soldier and genocide historian in *The Guardian* ([https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208030113&usg=AOvVaw3x1JxDzlUq4MxsvOUPBg2t)). See also Mehdi Hasan’s interview with Omer Bartov ([https://zeteo.com/p/that-is-genocide-israeli-american?utm\_source=substack&utm\_medium=email](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://zeteo.com/p/that-is-genocide-israeli-american?utm_source%3Dsubstack%26utm_medium%3Demail&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208030327&usg=AOvVaw0aDGKW4-s8KbM3Zw6bdwSn)). Collectively, these voices—from UN experts to leading academics and human rights organizations—paint a harrowing picture of the situation in Gaza as a clear case of genocide. South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice (*South Africa v. Israel*, 2023, [https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208030636&usg=AOvVaw3DtEKT7oNxxWfFqLLONsVG)) also provides a thorough account of evidence substantiating the crime of genocide. [^2]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn wa nuzhat al-mushtāqīn*, ed. Muḥammad ʿUzayr Shams (Dār ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm, 2019), 414. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5223. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7025. [^5]: Qur’an 4:140. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6011. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 15. [^8]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3087, graded as *ḥasan* (good) by Imam al-Tirmidhī. [^9]: Morgan Hekking, “Govt Buildings in France Display Caricatures of Prophet Muhammad,” Morocco World News, October 25, 2020, [https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/10/323673/govt-buildings-in-france-display-caricatures-of-prophet-muhammad](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/10/323673/govt-buildings-in-france-display-caricatures-of-prophet-muhammad&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208025082&usg=AOvVaw3vSbS_PlIh0vWoFCIyVr-v). [^10]: “France: Hijab bans in sports are discriminatory and must be reversed, say experts,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 28, 2024, [https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/france-hijab-bans-sports-are-discriminatory-and-must-be-reversed-say-experts](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/france-hijab-bans-sports-are-discriminatory-and-must-be-reversed-say-experts&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208032880&usg=AOvVaw2bUZe7JQ0U09Kv4ap55aWE). [^11]: Christina Lienen and Samir Sweida-Metwally, “French Islamophobia: How Orthopraxy Is Conceptualized as a Public Peril,” *Religions* 16, no. 1 (2025): 64, [https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010064](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010064&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208032478&usg=AOvVaw1qyqZoCL1aWfbkoDyR_459). [^12]: “Global Muslim Travel Index 2023,” Mastercard CrescentRating, June 2023, [https://mastercardcontentexchange.com/news/media/hhnem3l2/mastercard-crescentrating-gmti-2023-report-1st-june-2023v2.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mastercardcontentexchange.com/news/media/hhnem3l2/mastercard-crescentrating-gmti-2023-report-1st-june-2023v2.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208025560&usg=AOvVaw2wmRX2l0Tsz8P2yGKKQLSo). [^13]: “Global Muslim Travel Index 2023.” [^14]: Olivier Esteves, “France, You Love It but Leave It: The Silent Flight of French Muslims,” *Modern and Contemporary France* 31, no. 2 (2023): 243–57, [https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2147913](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2147913&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208025944&usg=AOvVaw21KXauDEsyucFirsyO5X64). [^15]: Matt Kennard, “Britain Has Flown 50 Spy Missions Over Gaza in Support of Israel,” Declassified UK, January 18, 2024, ​​[https://www.declassifieduk.org/britain-has-flown-50-spy-missions-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.declassifieduk.org/britain-has-flown-50-spy-missions-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208026924&usg=AOvVaw2hv5lzKW5I9tKvy2gztZwt). [^16]: “European Arms Imports Nearly Double, US and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, March 11, 2024, [https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/european-arms-imports-nearly-double-us-and-french-exports-rise-and-russian-exports-fall-sharply](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/european-arms-imports-nearly-double-us-and-french-exports-rise-and-russian-exports-fall-sharply&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208027295&usg=AOvVaw1UJJ0fE54iGpNMfHfXQ8p5). [^17]: “Situation in Palestine, Public Observations Pursuant to Rule 103(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence,” International Criminal Court, August 6, 2024, [www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/CourtRecords/0902ebd18092376e.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/CourtRecords/0902ebd18092376e.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208027623&usg=AOvVaw2hpJmRD00TDSV8Ay0zpFMN). [^18]: Farid Hafez, “What’s Behind Germany’s Raging Islamophobia?,” Aljazeera, September 18, 2024, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/9/18/whats-behind-germanys-raging-islamophobia](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/9/18/whats-behind-germanys-raging-islamophobia&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208028631&usg=AOvVaw08O2XDt-ZytJU_7Pj3EjgR). [^19]: James Jackson (@derJamesJackson), “It really looks like Nazi propaganda \[image\],”  X, September 2, 2024, 9:25 a.m., [https://x.com/derJamesJackson/status/1830613103396143612](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/derJamesJackson/status/1830613103396143612&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208028922&usg=AOvVaw0nF4RZPcGn0sBQbXG2jjbP). [^20]: Hebh Jamal, “‘State repression’: Inside Germany's far-reaching anti-Palestinian crackdown,” New Arab, November 16, 2023, [https://www.newarab.com/analysis/inside-germanys-far-reaching-anti-palestinian-crackdown](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newarab.com/analysis/inside-germanys-far-reaching-anti-palestinian-crackdown&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208032054&usg=AOvVaw1iOyN5YyCla_uzgN_S_H_2). [^21]: “IV. State Bans on Religious Symbols in Public Employment” in *Discrimination in the Name of Neutrality*, Human Rights Watch, February 26, 2009, [https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/02/26/discrimination-name-neutrality/headscarf-bans-teachers-and-civil-servants-germany#:~:text=Eight%20of%20the%2016%20federal,%20 religious%20 clothing%20and%20 symbols](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/02/26/discrimination-name-neutrality/headscarf-bans-teachers-and-civil-servants-germany%23:~:text%3DEight%2520of%2520the%252016%2520federal,of%2520religious%2520clothing%2520and%2520symbols&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208028100&usg=AOvVaw23kVH4cUh2EEbDvy8COLwZ). [^22]: “Global Muslim Travel Index 2023.” [^23]: Christopher F. Schuetze and Mark Landler, “Musk Expresses Support for Far-Right Party in Germany’s Election,” New York Times, December 20, 2024, [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/world/europe/elon-musk-afd-germany.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/world/europe/elon-musk-afd-germany.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208030996&usg=AOvVaw36YELL_d3J9PrdfT2pQZaJ). [^24]: “Who is Tommy Robinson and why is Elon Musk throwing his weight behind him?,” Aljazeera, January 3, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/3/who-is-tommy-robinson-and-why-is-elon-musk-throwing-his-weight-behind-him](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/3/who-is-tommy-robinson-and-why-is-elon-musk-throwing-his-weight-behind-him&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208031291&usg=AOvVaw0nVyT8l7qv5X5C2Ha357cv). [^25]: “Elon Musk’s Israel trip: What was the purpose, what did he tell Netanyahu?,” Aljazeera, November 28, 2023, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/28/elon-musks-israel-trip-what-was-the-purpose-what-did-he-tell-netanyahu](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/28/elon-musks-israel-trip-what-was-the-purpose-what-did-he-tell-netanyahu&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208031592&usg=AOvVaw3OSTxAWu4UI5ly0vmcSeel). [^26]: “The World’s Muslims: Unity and Diversity,” Pew Research Center, August 9, 2012, [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-executive-summary/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-executive-summary/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739473208026312&usg=AOvVaw2ZGHVm2WtkaBXX81T37DWa). [^27]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysapūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn*, 207. Al-Albānī graded this *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic). [^28]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1931, graded as *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by al-Albānī; *Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn*, no. 1528. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Allah's choosing of the Israelites as a special community among mankind is a concept that finds resonance and rectification within the Islamic tradition. Unlike previously held views that rendered the chosen status as an ethnic or tribal privilege, Islam presents a nuanced understanding that aligns with the universal principles of monotheism (Tawheed) as taught by the Prophets from Adam to Muhammad, peace be upon them all. The Islamic perspective, derived from the Holy Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), emphasizes that the distinction of any nation or community is based upon righteousness and adherence to divine commandments. Allah says in the Qur'an, "Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted" (49:13). This verse highlights that nobility before Allah is not attached to race or lineage but to piety and good actions. The Qur’an delineates the covenant (‘Ahd) made with the Children of Israel, which encapsulated specific obligations and commitments in return for Allah's guidance and mercy. However, their chosen status was conditional upon their obedience and righteousness and was not an inherent virtue of their ethnicity. This is evident from the Qur'anic recounting of their repeated transgressions, including the grave sin of rejecting prophets and altering divine scriptures. The concept of a chosen community is further elaborated through the designation of Muslims as "the best nation" (Khaira Ummah), raised for mankind because they enjoin what is good, forbid what is evil, and believe in Allah (3:110). This status is not due to any racial superiority but is a responsibility to uphold and spread the message of Islam, rooted in the Oneness of Allah (Tawheed), the finality of prophethood with Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the accountability in the Hereafter. Historically, the Israelites were given a unique role due to their continuous lineage of prophets and the reception of divine scriptures. Their chosenness was a test and a trust, which they eventually failed by their disobedience and their distortion of the scriptures, as Allah says, "But the [true] religion in the sight of Allah is Islam. And those who were given the Scripture did not differ except after knowledge had come to them - out of jealous animosity between themselves" (3:19). The advent of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the revelation of the Qur'an marked the fulfillment and perfection of Allah's message to humanity, superseding previous covenants and establishing Islam as the complete and final divine message. Reflecting upon these, it is clear that the notion of being chosen by Allah transcends ethnic or national lines and is anchored in the adherence to His guidance, the performance of righteous deeds, and the propagation of justice and mercy among His creation. The Islamic tradition, through evidence from both the Qur'an and Hadith, reinstates that true honor lies in piety and that every individual, irrespective of their background, has equal opportunity to attain this status through faith and righteous actions. In conclusion, the discourse on chosenness, as reformulated within the Islamic theology, offers a compelling narrative of inclusivity and universalism, grounded in the principles of faith (Iman), righteous deeds (Amal Salih), and the finality of the message brought by Muhammad (peace be upon him), the Seal of the Prophets. It is upon this foundation that Muslims are invited to build their understanding of divine favor, which is accessible to all through submission (Islam) to the will of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-are-we-worth-redefining-muslim-value-with-dignity-and-honor-essay # What Are We Worth? Redefining Muslim Value with Dignity and Honor | Essay **Author:** Anna Birawi **Topics:** General Psychology, Identity, Politics & Practical Theology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Perspective **Published:** February 11, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 Abdur-rahman is my local North African bus driver. He drives Londoners from A to B, Sunday to Thursday, every week, earning just enough for a small flat, food for his family, and a bit left over to send his daughter to the swimming club after school. Malik, my neighbor, is an electrical engineer turned serial entrepreneur. One day he quit his day job to develop a cleaning formula for sneakers, hit it big time white labeling for Nike, Adidas, and other major brands, and now spends his time investing in start-ups and giving motivational speeches. These days, talk of “added value” circulates all facets of contemporary public life. Like saleable products in a capitalist system, more and more of us strive to embody something that is unique, extraordinary, and leaves its recipients indebted. What skills, experience, and achievements can I bring to the table? How do I bring value to the world in a way that others don’t? How can I break the mold? Living as minorities in the Western world and largely descending from migrant families from the Global South, Western Muslims have a double hurdle to jump to prove their value in today’s world. With far-right groups rising in prominence and power across Europe and North America, talk of a Muslim deficiency in value is an increasingly dominant narrative employed to peddle anti-immigration, racist, and Islamophobic sentiments. From Trump’s notorious “Muslim Ban” that perpetuated the “welfare dependency” and “national security” arguments as tools to discredit Muslim immigrants, to UK media outlets’ sensationalist stories in the wake of terror attacks that frame Muslim immigrants—especially those from working-class communities—as a drain on the UK’s resources, Western political campaigns are rife with portrayals of Muslims and immigrants as looming threats to safety and economy. This blog adopts an alternative approach to perceiving Muslim worth in the world. Without setting aside the importance of the worldly contributions Muslims have achieved and have the potential to achieve, it proposes we take heed of the dangers of centralizing a specifically secular, capitalist perception of value and instead redirect our focus to the true essence of value that awaits us in the eternal afterlife. As the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “If the world were as worthy to Allah as the wing of a mosquito, an unbeliever would not even be given a sip of water.”[^1] Conversely, Allah has prepared eternal reward for the pious believers, no matter how poor, humble, or seemingly “under-achieving”. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Shall I not tell you about the inhabitants of Paradise? The weak and the meek among you, yet if they were to swear an oath by Allah, He would fulfill it for them.”[^2] --- ## Centralizing Muslim achievement In today’s age, value has largely become synonymous with economic prosperity and status. As such, we’re viewed as societal assets or liabilities based upon what we are seen to achieve, or our level of innovation, or our intellectual contribution to the advancement of a capitalist society. We’ve all heard the popular chicken-soup-for-the-soul stories, those motivational tales of individuals who rise from humble beginnings, often facing significant challenges, only to achieve great wealth. Perhaps the most well-known rags to riches story in popular culture is that of Oprah Winfrey, who went from a difficult and impoverished childhood to becoming one of the most successful and influential media moguls in the world. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc, is another success story. In his Stanford University commencement address (2005), he recounts how, after being ousted from Apple, he felt lost and uncertain, but later regained his sense of purpose when becoming even more successful with companies like Pixar and NeXT. Understandably, in this climate, the natural position for Muslims to push back from is one that seeks to prove our value. What better way to counter accusations that deny our valuable contribution to society than by highlighting our achievements? From public praise of Muslim athletes and the Muhammad Alis of our *ummah* to books, articles, and LinkedIn profiles detailing the scientific, mathematical, and technological achievements of Muslims, an incredulous light is shone on those within our communities who have excelled exceptionally, often beyond “normal” measure. A quick search on Google will provide an array of sources outlining the value that Muslims have brought to the world, including Islam’s contribution to planetary health, the Islamic Golden Age, and the top 500 most influential Muslims. Intuitively, this seems like a good strategy to quell the agitators, reassure doubting Muslims that our communities are valuable, and teach our young ones to be proud of their Muslim heritage. But, while the value that Islam and Muslims have brought to the world is, of course, undeniable, the problem comes when we begin to hinge the validation of our very existence and right to dignity and fair treatment upon the exceptional “added value” our community boasts. --- ## A lack of accolades shouldn’t reflect value As Muslims, we are duty-bound to strive for excellence in all our actions, to be of service to humanity, and to improve the state of our families, societies, and the world at large in whatever way possible. Faithful contribution is at the heart of what Islamic teachings inspire us to pursue and it often comes with worldly benefits and successes. But, by focusing too much on proving our value through our contributions and society’s idea of success, we end up reinforcing the dehumanization of Muslims that those in power use to control and oppress us. When we only elevate the wealthy, prosperous, overachievers among us, we unwittingly take attention away from those who play vital, low-key roles in keeping our communities running. This then reinforces the distinction between those of us who are acceptably (and temporarily) pleasing to society and those who are "underachieving" and thus, at best, burdensome or, at worst, threatening. Our anti-Islamophobia and fight to prove our worth suddenly becomes classist, propping up the abasing, dehumanizing narrative of those in power. The surgeon and basketball player become a lot more valuable than the postman or stay-at-home mom—a notion so unfamiliar to the principles of the Prophet ﷺ who asked about the cleaner of the mosque after noticing her absence. Upon hearing of her death, he asked why he hadn’t been informed and insisted on visiting her grave and praying her *janāzah*.[^3] In reality, the majority of our *ummah* are, by capitalist standards, not exceptionally valuable. Like Abdur-rahman, most of us live in the shadows of fame. Many of us make just enough money to sustain our families but have very little time or privilege to pioneer ground-breaking contributions to wider society. We run corner shops, work in factories, and raise children. Further still, many of us are heavily dependent upon state welfare, large numbers don’t finish higher education, and many even break the law. Muslims, like all of humankind, are liable to transgress. Indeed, even Adam (as), the first of Allah’s creation and prophets, transgressed when he disobeyed God’s command in a single act of *ghaflah* (forgetfulness) (Qur’an 20:115). By tying our worth to economic achievement, status, and recognition, we set the Muslim community up for failure. This demonizes the majority of the *ummah* and assigns us fragile expiry-dates, making Muslim value something elitist, volatile, and superficial. --- ## Innate dignity: Honored as humankind Contrary to the measure of value assigned by society and despite our limitations and flaws, all humans are valuable in the eyes of Allah, standing as the “apex of God’s creation” (*ashraf al-makhlūqāt)*.[^4] Implicit in the Qur’anic narrative is the idea that humans have been blessed and honored by Allah above all creation and granted an innate and superior value that makes them valuable in the eyes of Allah simply because they are human, regardless of what they achieve. This concept of human dignity (*karama al-insān)* appears throughout the Qur’an when Allah exalts *al-insān* (mankind) *or banī Ādam* (descendants of Adam)*,* and is exemplified when Allah says, “Indeed, We have dignified the children of Adam, carried them on land and sea, granted them good and lawful provisions, and privileged them far above many of Our creatures.”[^5] From this verse, the verbs *karramnā* (we have dignified or conferred special favors upon) and *faḍḍalnā* (we privileged or preferred) show the high regard that Allah holds for humanity.[^6] We have been afforded special provisions, with agriculture and livestock at our disposal: “He is the One Who sends down rain from the sky, from which you drink and by which plants grow for your cattle to graze. With it He produces for you \[various\] crops, olives, palm trees, grapevines, and every type of fruit. Surely, in this is a sign for those who reflect,”[^7] and “And He is the One Who has subjected the sea, so from it you may eat tender seafood and extract ornaments to wear. And you see the ships plowing their way through it, so you may seek His bounty and give thanks \[to Him\].”[^8] Allah has created all humans “in the best shape” (Qur’an 95:4) and made us stewards on the earth (Qur’an 2:30 and 38:26). This concept of universal human dignity is also further amplified throughout the *sīrah*. For example, it was narrated that “a funeral procession passed in front of the Prophet ﷺ, and he stood up. When he was told that it was the coffin of a Jew, he said, ‘Is it not a human soul?’”[^9] Allah gifted humanity honor and value as human beings and due to our collective descent from Prophet Adam (as). We have been honored by Allah, placed in high esteem above all other creation, and have a noble potential for moral excellence. We have blameworthy attributes, a propensity to err, and we routinely underperform, but, just like the unconditional love a parent has for their child, we are valuable not because of what we achieve, but simply because we exist as humans. At its core, human value is not dependent upon our ability to make scientific discoveries, run FTSE 100 companies, or win gold medals. Our value comes from Allah because we are human, giving everyone the right to be treated with dignity and respect without condition. --- ## Acquired dignity: Honored as believers Although our value is not measured by the worldly success we achieve, acts of service still carry with them added value insofar as they are pleasing to Allah. True to the Islamic worldview and the importance of faithful contribution, humankind also has the potential to scale in rank of value through *belief* and *good deeds*. We have the opportunity to “ascend up the spiritual ladder” through “dignity and honor that is obtained by virtue of a Muslim’s efforts.”[^10] Allah says in the Qur’an, “But honor, power and glory belong to Allah, and to His Messenger, **and to the believers**, but the hypocrites know not.”[^11] ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) said, “We are a people whom Allah has honored with Islam. And whenever we seek to be honored through other than it, Allah will bring us humiliation.”[^12] The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever belittles the authority of Allah on the earth, Allah will belittle him,”[^13] and the Qur’an repeatedly references those who “believe and do good,” calling such people “the best of created beings.”[^14] We all have the ability to be of greater value by obeying Allah and His Messenger. In fact, Allah tells us that believers have the potential to elevate to the level of the angels who are unable to disobey Him. Our added value is, therefore, precisely what brings us closer to Allah. Contrary to the Christian notion of salvation—which depends wholly on humanity’s necessary and sufficient need for Christ’s rescue—human value, honor, and dignity come by virtue of Allah’s grace to humankind *and* by virtue of our efforts to believe, do good, obey Him, and overcome the lower parts of our *nafs*. Islam empowers us to take responsibility for our own affairs, and as believers, Allah permits and seals our efforts towards good through His mercy and grace. True value comes from whatever brings us closer to Allah, not necessarily what brings us economic prosperity, fame, or accolades. In the mundane, neglected, and most humbling of tasks we gain stature in front of our Lord, and although we don’t depend on worldly successes to motivate our actions, what brings us closer to Allah is always what is of most benefit to society, even though most people may not perceive its effect. My mother-in-law, who stayed at home and cared for her son with disabilities, Muhammad, for the 12 years of his life, brought physical and emotional benefits to him, and spiritual growth and gratitude to herself. Even the mere presence of a righteous Muslim has the potential to be of benefit, as we see in the case of Prophet Lut (as) whose presence among his people may have delayed his community’s punishment, “But Allah would never punish them while you \[O Prophet\] were in their midst. Nor would He ever punish them if they prayed for forgiveness.”[^15] --- ## Redefining value Contrary to society’s notions of value, Muslim value is both *divinely guaranteed* as part of humanity and *acquired* through faith and obedience to Allah. What makes us have added value is not our economic contribution, status in society, or exceptional achievements. Rather, what makes us have added value is our belief in Allah and our endeavor to be pleasing to Him through righteous good deeds. Sometimes, righteous actions may lead to what wider society sees as valuable, but this is a gracious side effect, not the ultimate source of value. When the Prophet ﷺ saw a warrior among the Companions celebrating at the expense of the weak for victory in a battle, he said, “Are you given victory and sustenance except due to your weak?”[^16] The Prophet ﷺ has thus taught us that Muslims flourish when the humblest among us are honored. Reducing our worth to acceptable societal output is a deeply flawed and harmful endeavor. So, while we strive to be of added value to the world in accord with Allah’s guidance, we must, first and foremost, hold firm in the knowledge that our value ultimately comes from Him and through our potential to ascend in rank through righteous obedience. Although our value is not defined by our secular, worldly accomplishments, we gain in distinction by virtue of the good deeds we do on earth—as determined by Allah. Allah says, “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may \[get to\] know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.”[^17] When we let our accomplishments decide our value and how we should be treated, it works against us because it overlooks the value that God has already given us. By focusing only on these arbitrary and changing standards, we end up outcasting people in our community who may not meet them. Instead, we should honor all Muslims, whether they’re in the limelight or in the shadows—Abdur-rahman *and* Malik—because our value is not determined by societal norms. Rather, we are all valued in the sight of Allah and it is only our *righteous* actions that allow us to ascend. Abdur-rahman, my local North African bus driver, can be seen leaning out of his window smiling, chatting, and fist-pumping grumpy Londoners—his big white beard and huge grin making the worst of us perk up. Every day, Abdur-rahman makes sure school kids, city-workers, and elderly pensioners get to where they need to be. School, the office, hospital appointments. He ignores the rude comments, the terrorist jokes, and the poor imitations of his Algerian accent, replying only with laughter and polite conversation. He arranges his breaks around prayer. Abdur-rahman is underappreciated, but his God-given value deserves amplification. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2320, graded *ḥasan* (good) by Imam al-Tirmidhī. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4918. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 458. [^4]: Shabbir Akhtar, “A Path Straightened Out: Perspectives on Human Nature in the Qur’an,” Yaqeen, October 22, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-path-straightened-out-perspectives-on-human-nature-in-the-quran](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-path-straightened-out-perspectives-on-human-nature-in-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1739294751128569&usg=AOvVaw1LnGBMI0GqeDMpa1VbY0m0). [^5]: Qur’an 17:70. [^6]: Shabbir Akhtar, “A Path Straightened Out: Perspectives on Human Nature in the Qur’an,” 2020. [^7]: Qur’an 16:10-11. [^8]: Qur’an 16:14. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1312, 1313*.* [^11]: Mohamed Bin Ali, “Delineating the Concept of Human Dignity in the Quran: *Karamah Al-insan* as an Antidote to Religious Conflicts and Violence,” *Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal* 9, no. 1 (2022): 220-235. [^11]: Qur’an 63:9. [^12]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysapūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn*, 207. This was graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by al-Albānī. [^13]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2224, graded *ḥasan* (good) by al-Tirmidhī. [^14]: Qur’an 98:7; Shabbir Akhtar, “A Path Straightened Out: Perspectives on Human Nature in the Qur’an,” 2020. [^15]: Qur’an 8:33. [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2896. [^17]: Qur’an 49:13. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/exploring-islamophobia-a-snapshot-of-current-research-essay # Exploring Islamophobia: A Snapshot of Current Research | Essay **Author:** Anna Birawi **Topics:** Faith, Islamophobia, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis **Published:** February 3, 2025 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 ## Introduction Islamophobia, broadly understood as a prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims, has emerged as a significant global phenomenon with profound consequences for Muslim communities worldwide. In recent decades, it has also garnered much scholarly attention. This short literature review briefly synthesizes existing research on Islamophobia, presenting prominent themes of exploration: its definitions, historical roots, diverse manifestations across various contexts, and impact on the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of Muslims. Most critically, it highlights several key research gaps and proposes potential avenues for future exploration that align with Yaqeen Institute’s focus on producing faith-building content. --- ## Defining Islamophobia: A Contested Terrain Much research focuses on defining Islamophobia and the significant challenge that this presents, as the term itself is subject to ongoing debate and contestation (Sayyid, 2014; Beydoun, 2016; Mondon and Winter, 2017). While a widely accepted, universally applicable definition remains elusive, many scholars agree that Islamophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes, prejudices, and discriminatory practices directed towards Muslims and Islam (Jaber, 2022; Shufaq, 2023). These can manifest as fear or threat perception associated with Islam and Muslims, prejudicial attitudes, and discriminatory actions (Kathawalla et al., 2024). Some researchers emphasize the role of stereotypes and misunderstandings in shaping Islamophobic sentiments (Shufaq, 2023), while others highlight the intersectional nature of Islamophobia, recognizing its links to racism, xenophobia, and other forms of prejudice (Sayyid, 2014; Lauwers, 2019). The conceptualization of Islamophobia as a form of racism is also gaining traction (Lauwers, 2019), and thus it is often referred to as anti-Muslim racism (Elahi and Khan, 1997). Furthermore, a strong current of scholars argue that Islamophobia is not merely a matter of individual prejudice but is embedded in institutional structures and political processes (Bazian, 2018; Husain, 2020; Runnymede Trust, 2024). The lack of a single, universally agreed-upon definition underscores the complexity of the phenomenon and the need for further research to refine and clarify the conceptual boundaries of Islamophobia. Many Muslim researchers are highlighting the negative consequences of a hyper-focus on the definition, meaning, and validity of Islamophobia as a concept, citing semantic diversion from the lived realities of Muslims as the main pitfall. Abstract debates over its definition and parameters often distract from the reality that Muslims are frequently judged based on assumptions about their beliefs, behavior, and politics—many of which lead to negative and harmful consequences in their lives (Runnymede Trust, 2024). This highlights an area of possible saturation and the need to redirect research back to mitigating the tangible effects of Islamophobia on Muslim communities, and particularly their faith. This is reinforced by the fact that despite the challenges in defining the phenomenon, the overwhelming consensus among researchers is that Islamophobia constitutes a significant form of discrimination with demonstrably negative consequences for Muslim communities. --- ## Historical Roots and Contemporary Manifestations Another main body of research focuses on the historical roots of Islamophobia, highlighting its complexity and deep intertwinement with broader historical power dynamics (Shufaq, 2023). Orientalist discourse, with its depiction of the “Orient” as exotic, backward, and inherently threatening to the “West,” has played a significant role in shaping negative perceptions of Islam and Muslims (Benlahcene, 2021; Thompson, 2013). Colonial encounters further fuelled these prejudices, reinforcing existing stereotypes and creating new ones (Benlahcene, 2021; Hunter, 2022). The events of September 11, 2001, marked a turning point, significantly escalating Islamophobic sentiments globally (Samari et al., 2018; Bazian, 2018). The subsequent “War on Terror” and associated security policies further contributed to the stigmatization of Muslims and the rise of anti-Muslim discrimination (Ali and Whitham, 2020; Khan et al., 2024; Atnashev, 2016). However, it is important to note that Islamophobia is not solely a post-9/11 phenomenon (Lopez, 2011; Hunter, 2022); its roots extend far back in history, shaped by a complex interplay of religious, political, and cultural factors (Benlahcene, 2021; Lean, 2017). A growing body of research centers on the contemporary manifestations of Islamophobia, exposing its diversity in encompassing hate speech, hate crimes, biased media representations, and discrimination in employment, housing, and education (Jaber, 2022; Khan et al., 2024; Noviati et al., 2024; Atkins, 2024; Saeed, 2016). These manifestations are not isolated incidents; they are often interconnected and reinforce each other, creating a climate of fear and insecurity for Muslim communities (Jaber, 2022). Scholars have delved into the securitization of Islam, examining how Islamic beliefs, practices, and Muslim communities are increasingly framed as security threats in both political discourse and policy (Eroukhmanoff, 2019; Hussain and Bagguley, 2012). This process, driven by post-9/11 geopolitics and the “War on Terror,” links Islam to issues of national security, often portraying Muslims as potential risks to social stability (Moulin, 2017; Fekete, 2004). Scholars argue that this securitization contributes to the marginalization and criminalization of Muslim identities, reinforcing Islamophobic stereotypes and justifying discriminatory practices (Abbas, 2021). Research in this area highlights the intersection of security policies, media representations, and the broader societal impact on Muslims, stressing the need for a critical understanding of how these narratives shape public perception and policy. Other studies set out to explore the relationship between secularism and race in social structures when theorizing Islamophobia (Sadequee, 2025). Research in this area often takes on decolonial perspectives, seeking to expose the historical legacies of colonialism and Orientalism, and the role of political opportunism in fueling anti-Muslim sentiment (Benlahcene, 2021; Hunter, 2022; Runnymede Trust, 2024). A possible area of neglect has been the reliance on and perpetration of Islamophobia by the Zionist lobby, as well as its role in the early history of Zionist ideology. --- ## Islamophobia in Specific Contexts Empirical research on Islamophobia has shown that the manifestation and impact of Islamophobia vary considerably across different national and regional contexts (Coyne, 2017; Shukri and Farhana, 2018). Studies have examined Islamophobia in Western countries (Jaber, 2022; Samari et al., 2018; Love, 2009; Saada, 2024; Khan et al., 2024; Noviati et al., 2024; Lean, 2017), focusing on the roles of media representations (Khan et al., 2024; Noviati et al., 2024; Cockbain, 2020; Lean, 2017), government policies (Ali and Whitham, 2020), and social attitudes (Coyne, 2017; Lean, 2017). Research in the United States has highlighted the intersectionality of race and Islamophobia (Love, 2009; Considine, 2017), exploring how racial bias exacerbates anti-Muslim discrimination (Love, 2009). In Europe, studies have analyzed the influence of far-right political movements, the impact of security measures on Muslim communities (Atnashev, 2016), and even the politics of the psy-disciplines in times of Islamophobia (Younis, 2022). Comparative studies have also examined the differences in how Islamophobia manifests in various regions of Canada (Coyne, 2017), revealing the influence of provincial political cultures on the expression of anti-Muslim prejudice (Coyne, 2017). Research in non-Western contexts, such as China (Stroup, 2023), Indonesia (Shukri and Farhana, 2018), and India (Khan et al., 2024), has demonstrated that Islamophobia is not confined to the West, and that internal factors, such as rising conservatism and political polarization, can contribute to the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment (Shukri and Farhana, 2018; Khan et al., 2024). These comparative analyses reveal the complex and context-specific nature of Islamophobia, emphasizing the importance of considering local factors when studying and addressing this phenomenon (Shukri and Farhana, 2018). The diversity of contexts in which Islamophobia manifests highlights the need for tailored interventions that account for the specific socio-political dynamics at play in each setting. --- ## The Impact of Islamophobia: Mental Health, Social Cohesion, and Political Participation The consequences of Islamophobia are far-reaching, affecting the mental and physical health of Muslim individuals and communities (Samari et al., 2018; Saada, 2024; Abu Khalaf et al., 2022; Atkins, 2024). Studies have documented the negative impacts of discrimination on mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (Samari et al., 2018; Abu Khalaf et al., 2022). Islamophobia also undermines social cohesion by fostering distrust and alienation between Muslim and non-Muslim communities (Husain, 2020; Lean, 2017). The experience of discrimination can lead to social withdrawal, reduced civic engagement, and feelings of exclusion (Saada, 2024; Abu Khalaf et al, 2022; Atkins, 2024). A common claim in this literature is that Islamophobia is structurally and institutionally embedded, resulting in a multifaceted social exclusion of Muslims across Western societies (Kozarik, 2022). Furthermore, Islamophobia can restrict political participation, discouraging Muslims from engaging in political processes and advocating for their rights (Husain, 2020). The cumulative effect of these impacts can have significant social and economic consequences for Muslim communities (Jaber, 2022). The substantial negative impacts on mental health, social cohesion, and political participation highlight the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to address Islamophobia and promote social justice (Samari et al., 2018; Abu Khalaf et al., 2022). Further research is needed to fully understand the long-term consequences of Islamophobia and to develop effective interventions to mitigate its harmful effects. --- ## The Impact of Islamophobia: Faith Formation Far less attention has been given to how Islamophobia affects the faith development of Muslim individuals. Some scholarship has begun to analyze the effects of Muslims internalizing Islamophobic tropes. Issues that present include shifts in religious interpretations (more assertive or defensive), weakened sense of Muslim identity, doubts in faith, and intra-community conflict (Suleiman, 2017; Gil-Benumeya, 2023; Merchant, 2016).  The constant barrage of negative stereotypes and representations can cultivate *internalized Islamophobia*, where individuals begin to question their own beliefs and values (Suleiman, 2017). This phenomenon is particularly acute among young Muslims (Suleiman, 2017; Shufaq, 2023), who are more susceptible to societal pressures and peer influence. The constant exposure to negative portrayals of Islam can lead to feelings of shame, guilt, and doubt regarding their religious identity (Suleiman, 2017). This erosion of religious confidence can manifest in various ways, such as decreased participation in religious practices, a weakening of the connection to their faith community, and a pervasive sense of insecurity (Shufaq, 2023).  Furthermore, the internalization of Islamophobic narratives can lead to self-censorship and a reluctance to openly express one’s faith, further isolating individuals and hindering their spiritual growth. However, the experience of discrimination can also paradoxically strengthen religious identity, fostering a sense of collective solidarity and resilience within the Muslim community (Barkdull et al., 2016; Ali, 2021). This reactive identity formation, where individuals reaffirm their faith in response to adversity, is a complex and often powerful response to marginalization. The study of religious identity formation, specifically resilience, within the context of Islamophobia thus presents an opportunity for exploration, as a nuanced understanding of these multifaceted and often contradictory responses is needed. --- ## How Can Yaqeen Contribute? While significant progress has been made in understanding the multifaceted nature of Islamophobia, its historical roots, contemporary manifestations, and profound impacts on individuals and communities, several critical research gaps remain. In particular, and relevant to Yaqeen’s objectives, is the absence of **faith-driven research** that not only focuses on the intersection of Islamophobia and faith development but centers Islamic ethical, theological, and legal frameworks in the process. Yaqeen addresses many areas that can be broadly applied to the topic of Islamophobia, including papers that address doubts surrounding violence and war in Islam as well as those that strengthen conviction in Allah’s protection and guidance. However, we currently have a limited number of resources addressing the topic of Islamophobia directly and through the lens of Qur’anic and prophetic wisdoms. Our current publications mirror much of the pre-existing literature and are largely confined to diagnostic approaches that seek to explain and identify the phenomenon in society, focusing on the social and political definitions and ramifications. We seek to fill this gap, offering novel research that draws from the Qur’an, Sunnah, and rich history of Islamic scholarship to strengthen the faith and conviction of Muslims in times of Islamophobia. **Want to contribute to Yaqeen’s research in this field? Check out our [Call for Papers on Islamophobia](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/call-for-papers-islamophobia-structural-roots-and-prophetic-response-yaqeen-institute). For more Yaqeen resources on this topic, [click here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/politics-practical-theology/islamophobia).** --- ## Bibliography Abbas, Tahir. “Intersecting Globalization, Islamophobia, Radicalization, and Securitization in Islam and security in the West.” In *Islam and Security in the West*, edited by Stephan Bonino and Roberta Ricucci. Springer Nature Link, 2021. Abu Khalaf, Nadin, Ashley B. Woolweaver, Roslyn Reynoso Marmolejos, Grace A. Little, Katheryn Burnett, and Dorothy L. Espelage. “The Impact of Islamophobia on Muslim Students: A Systematic Review of the Literature.” *School Psychology Review* 52, no. 2 (2022): 206-223. 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Saada, Najwan. “Teaching Against Islamophobia: Educational Interventions.” *Multicultural Perspectives* 26, no. 1 (2024): 14-26. Sadequee, Sharmin., ed. *Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia*. University of Alberta Press, 2025. Saeed, Tania. *Islamophobia and Securitization: Religion, Ethnicity and the Female Voice*. Palgrave, 2016. Samari, Goleen, Héctor E. Alcal, and Mienah Z. Sharif. “Islamophobia, Health, and Public Health: A Systematic Literature Review.” *American Public Health Association* 108, no. 6 (2018): e1-e9. Sayyid, S. 2014. “A Measure of Islamophobia.” *Pluto Journals* 2, no. 1 (2014): 10-25. Shufaq, Ayesha. “Developing the Conceptual Framework for Islamophobia: A Comprehensive Literature Review.” *Spring Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences* 2, no. 10 (2023): 60-68. Shukri, Mohamad, and Syaza Farhana. “Islamophobia in the most populous Muslim majority country: a case study of Indonesia.” *International Conference on Religion, Culture and Governance in the Contemporary World (ICRCG 2018)*, 3rd-4th October 2018, Kuala Lumpur. (Unpublished). Suleiman, Omar. “Internalized Islamophobia: Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth.” *Islamophobia Studies Journal* 4, no. 1 (2017). Thompson, Philip. “Allen’s Islamophobia and the British news media: a critical evaluation of Islamophobia as a concept and its application to the written news media in Britain between 2001 and 2008.” Master’s Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. 2013. [https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/354/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/354/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1738601042166461&usg=AOvVaw3pPVNOqh5fzDFeHNs1mF1n). Younis, Tarek. *The Muslim, State and Mind: Psychology in Times of Islamophobia*. Sage Publications Ltd, 2022. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/who-are-the-chosen-ones-the-qurans-correction-of-the-bible-on-the-election-of-the-children-of-israel # Who Are the Chosen Ones? The Qur’an’s Correction of the Bible on the Election of the Children of Israel **Author:** Dr. Louay Fatoohi **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Da'wah in Islam, Publication **Published:** December 27, 2024 **Updated:** September 6, 2026 ## Introduction The chosenness of the Children of Israel by God occupies a central role in Judaism as it is the main theme in the history and theology of its Scripture.[^1] The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) starts with an account of creation that quickly moves to focus on the creation of mankind. One fifth of the way into its first book, Genesis, it moves to focus on Abraham and then his descendants, in particular those from his grandson, Jacob (Israel). The book is effectively a history of the Israelites in which all other peoples are supporting actors. Even God is depicted as being focused on the Israelites more than anyone and anything else. This ethnos is presented as *the chosen people of God* and the center of His plans and actions. While early Christians did not hold one view of how the Hebrew Bible related to Jesus’s message, it was accepted as God’s word. Christianity inherited the Biblical concept of the chosen people of God but reworked it to meet its theological needs, presenting the Church as the new chosen people. The Qur’an confirms that the Children of Israel were chosen and preferred by Allah over other peoples, but it explains this differently from its presentation in Judaism and later adaptation in Christianity. Muslim scholars have agreed that the Qur’an does not present the chosenness of the Israelites as perpetual over all nations. Yet when it comes to the exact meaning of this chosenness, scholars have often spoken about it in general terms, citing various divine favors referred to in various verses. Such *general* and *broad* statements do not clearly explain the *specific* concept of “chosenness” as they do not distinguish between different Qur’anic terms. Studies of the various forms of chosenness in the Qur’an often conflate different, albeit related, terms and concepts.[^2] Translating those already-conflated Qur’anic terms into another language adds another layer of misconception, making the distortion of meanings considerably harder to spot. This article will try to show that distinguishing between different Qur’anic terms clarifies the exact meaning of the chosenness of the Israelites and related concepts. The result is a simple, coherent, and compelling explanation that corrects the Jewish and Christian misunderstandings of the meaning of God’s choosing of the Israelites. --- ## The incoherent chosenness of the Israelites in the Bible The Hebrew Bible mentions several covenants that God had with people. The first of these is the covenant He made through Noah with all creatures that never again would a flood destroy the whole of the earth and those living on it. He set the rainbow as a reminder of this covenant.[^3] In the second covenant, God promised Abraham to make his descendants His chosen people. It is first mentioned when God instructed the seventy-five-year-old Abraham to leave Haran, believed to be today’s Harran in southeastern Turkey, and go to Canaan, which He told him He would give to his offspring.[^4] From then on, God’s promise to Abraham is mentioned repeatedly, as in this speech by God to the ninety-nine-year-old Abraham: > I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God… As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.[^5] The Bible later clarifies that it is only Abraham’s descendants through his son Isaac[^6] and grandson Jacob,[^7] who is later called Israel, whom God chose as His people. The Bible describes the uniqueness of God’s election of the Israelites and His relationship with them in exclusive language that effectively makes Him more of a god of His chosen people than the rest of the creation. Here are a few illustrative statistics from its second book, Exodus, which starts with the Israelites being numerous but enslaved by the Egyptians. In Exodus, the expression “the God of” occurs twenty-seven times, all referring to Israelites: - The God of the Hebrews: 6 - The God of Israel: 4 - The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: 3 x 3 = 9 - The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: 1 - The God of your ancestors: 3 - The God of their ancestors: 1 - The God of your father: 1 - The God of my father: 2 There is not a single instance in which God is referred to as also the God of the Egyptians or anyone else. Similarly, Exodus reports God using the expression “my people” to exclusively refer to the Israelites no less than twenty-seven times. So, the various forms of the phrases “the God of” and “my people” in reference to Israel occur as many as fifty-four times in Exodus alone. This tribal image of God significantly conflicts with also presenting Him as the only Lord of everyone and everything.[^8] Western scholars also agree that the Israelites once believed that each tribal nation had its own god. This is traceable to at least as early as Julius Wellhausen in the second half of the nineteenth century.[^9] The early Israelites “did not think of YHWH as the only God, but as the mightiest among the gods. His power, though, was restricted to the land of Israel.”[^10] The Israelites are also said to have worshipped more than one god.[^11] The Qur’an, however, explains the presence of polytheistic and monotheistic language in the Bible differently. The Israelites’ religion as taught by the Patriarchs was always monotheistic, acknowledging only one God and calling the Israelites and people in general to worship Him. The polytheistic passages in the Bible are extraneous to what Abraham and later prophets taught, representing reflections, distortions, and historical episodes by some misguided Israelites over the centuries. For instance, the Qur’an records that post-exodus Israelites asked Moses to make for them an idol to worship similar to idols other peoples worshipped[^12] and later, when Moses was receiving the tablets, they made a calf out of their ornaments and worshipped it.[^13] These episodes are parts of the history of the Israelites but had nothing to do with Moses’ teachings. Western scholars also look at the concept of election as a product of polytheism, as various ancient nations, including the Israelites, each claimed to have been elected by its god. Early in the twentieth century, Powis Smith suggested a god-nation election relationship was meant to give the elected nation authority over other nations. But as disasters continued to inflict Israel, they could not maintain the myth of world supremacy. The Israelite prophets then developed the common god-nation election to place Israel not as the world ruler but as its spiritual teacher and savior. Rather counterintuitively, Smith argued that the long editorial process through which the Old Testament went ensured that its doctrine of election was ethically and spiritually superior to similar ancient doctrines.[^14] More recently, Reuven Firestone stated that when the early Israelites became monotheistic and believed their god to be the One God, the chosenness that they once had with their tribal god became chosenness by the universal God. Rather than *a* chosen people by *their god*, they became *the* chosen people by *the one God*.[^15] As it offers its own explanation of the Bible’s accommodation of monotheistic and polytheistic passages, the Qur’an gives a completely different picture of the election of the Israelites, as we shall see later. In making the chosenness of the Israelites the focus of its history and theology, the Bible has two related fundamental problems: it does not provide a meaningful explanation of this chosenness nor does it give a logical justification for it. The following is a typical passage in which chosenness is confirmed but no explanation or justification is given: > For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.[^16] The Bible is unclear as to what making the Israelites God’s chosen people means. The awarding of the Mosaic Law cannot be the explanation because the election predates it by centuries. Indeed, being given the Torah is seen as a result of being God’s chosen. The offering of the Torah to Israel was itself an act of divine love for the elected.[^17] What about the unique granting of the holy land? This could have been a meaningful explanation if this was a case of a feudal landlord giving a group of his servants a piece of land, but it would be absurd to suggest that this could even partially explain the eternal chosenness of a group of human beings by the Divine.[^18] The Bible’s focus on a land in this world, though, is consistent with its ignorance of life after death.[^19] The holy land itself is repeatedly praised for its worldly benefits, such as its produce.[^20] Even piety and righteousness are presented as needed in order to benefit in this world. The Bible is even more averse to providing a justification for the election, making this divine act arbitrary. The following is one passage, in which God addresses the Israelites through Moses, that captures this silence: > When the LORD your God thrusts them out before you, *do not say to yourself, “It is because of my righteousness* that the LORD has brought me in to occupy this land”; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you. It is *not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart* that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the LORD made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know, then, that the LORD your God is *not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness*; for *you are a stubborn people*. Remember and do not forget how *you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the LORD from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place*.[^21] The Bible mentions the evil of the Canaanite nations as the reason for removing them from the land. Yet it *repeatedly and expressly* reminds the Israelites that they did not deserve God’s decision to replace the Canaanites with them. The passage seems set to explain giving the land to the Israelites, only to end up stressing that there is no justification, condemning the Israelites instead. Usually, the Abrahamic covenant, when his descendants were first declared chosen, is seen as unconditional by Biblical scholars, while the Sinaitic (Mosaic) covenant, when the Law was given to Moses, is considered conditional. The Bible stipulates that the covenant depends on the Israelites’ obedience to God, using terms such as “commandments,” “statutes,” “decrees,” and “ordinances”: > If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the LORD your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors.[^22] Yet paradoxically, there is nothing that the Israelites could do, no matter how evil in God’s sight, that would make them “unchosen.” This is why God’s commitment to the Israelites is also described as *everlasting*. The Israelites might sin and get punished by God but they would never lose their status as His chosen. We may draw a timeline of the Israelites’ alternating prosperity and punishment throughout history, but there is no corresponding timeline of chosenness and “unchosenness.” For example, after the destruction of the northern and southern kingdoms and the taking of their inhabitants into exile, Jeremiah prophesied that God would end the suffering and return the exiled home: > Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors and they shall take possession of it.[^23] Significantly, “the God of Israel” still refers to the punished people who had lost the holy land as *His people*. Triumphant or defeated, rewarded or punished, the Israelites remain God’s chosen people at all times.[^24] No matter how good any other nation is, it remains unchosen. Christianity changed this Biblical doctrine, as we will see later. The Bible’s concept of election, as well as the promised land, is unclear.[^25] The relevant texts are incoherent, so it is not possible to make sense of the concept. But its comparative claim is clear: the Israelites are “the most blessed of peoples.”[^26] They are better than other peoples and more loved by God. They are God’s privileged people. However, the Bible fails to *explain* or *justify* God’s unique election of the Israelites. The genesis of this confused and paradoxical chosenness is its ethnic nature. God understandably loved Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for their righteousness, yet He inexplicably chose *all the descendants* of *one* of those three *individuals* as His people, “And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them,”[^27] fully aware that they would be a disobedient people throughout history. This chosenness is described as a “covenant” and does place commitments on the Israelites, yet in reality it is more of a one-sided commitment by God as it is unconditionally everlasting. The writers of the Bible could not deny that the history of the Israelites is one of persistent disobedience and numerous national calamities, which are linked to their rebellion against God, but they were not going to compromise their ethnocentric message either. The Israelites were chosen not because of their righteousness or any particular virtue but because of their ethnicity, the Bible unambiguously states. The inevitable outcome was an incoherent and paradoxical election. This is one Biblical contradiction that the Qur’an explains and corrects. --- ## The chosenness of Israel in Western scholarship This section presents a quick review of how Western scholarship has dealt with this core Biblical concept. I will make references to early Judaism, but I will discuss the Christian adoption and adaptation of this notion later. Jewish, Christian, and secular scholars of all persuasions acknowledge that the Bible’s presentation of the election of Israel is at least challenging, if not incoherent, as I have already shown. Leaving aside secondary issues, for now, the fundamental claim that God, the *Lord of all creation*, prefers one *ethnic* group over all other ethnicities and human groupings is intrinsically problematic. This already difficult concept is made even more counterintuitive by the Bible’s insistence that the Israelites were not given this status on merit but sola gratia.[^28] Many Jewish and Christian scholars have settled for *God’s love* as the explanation for His choosing of the Israelites.[^29] This love is “mysterious,” as Kaminsky describes it, because it is “inexplicable.”[^30] Sanders has noted that God’s love for the Israelites is a constant theme in Tannaitic literature while stressing that this is not much of an explanation.[^31] Similarly, Novak notes that claiming that God loved/chose the Israelites because He loved/chose them is tautological.[^32] The unmerited election is explained by unmerited love. The question of why God loved Israel has no answer; hence, the election of Israel remains a mystery. Divine love is called upon to *explain* Israel’s election, only to end up being *another special favor* from God that cries for an explanation, “those whom the king loves are greater than those who love the king.”[^33] A similar attempt at an explanation makes the election of the Israelites a fulfillment of the promise God made to their forefathers.[^34] One Jewish scholar has advised that, when studying this mystery, we should “avoid an answer that does too much.”[^35] Ironically, this *explanation by mystery* is common in books and papers that use the full power of human reasoning to develop sophisticated, defensive, rational arguments of Biblical theology, including the notion of the election of the Israelites. This may satisfy those who identify with the ancient Israelites (Jews) and those who believe that they are the new Israel (Christians), as this theological doctrine is profitable to them. For the rest of us, including those Jews and Christians who do not believe in the inerrancy of Biblical theology or that it is wholly inspired,[^36] this love-election circular thinking that confirms Israel’s uniqueness by stressing the arbitrariness of God’s decision is wholly unsatisfactory. God is not irrational and does not engender incomprehensibility or reward incomprehension. Outsourcing the explanation to the *mystery of divine love* buries rather than addresses the serious problems in the concept of the chosenness of Israel. An inexplicable and unjustifiable ethnic election is an affront to divine justice and God’s equal Lordship of all nations, as David Cline explains in these critical observations: > There is no doubt that the Pentateuch represents God as the God of the Hebrews—God of the Hebrews, that is, in a way he is not God of the Egyptians or Hittites, for example (even if he is God of those nations in any sense at all). This is all right if you happen to be an Israelite and have no dealings with Hittites. You know all you need to know, which is that Yahweh is your God. But if you happen to be a Hittite, or even a twentieth-century reader of the Pentateuch, how congenial is it to encounter in its pages a deity who is bound in this way to just one nation: the nation claims that he is their peculiar deity, and he professes that he has chosen them as his own peculiar people? What is the sense in this arrangement, what rationale is offered for it—especially since the Pentateuch itself regards God as the creator of the whole world? And above all, for our present consideration of God in the Pentateuch, what does this exclusivity say about the character of the deity represented here? The Pentateuch itself sees no problem here, nothing to be excused or justified; if anything, it makes a point out of there being no rationale for the choice of Israel as the people of God. But it does not occur to it that the very idea that there should be just one nation that is the chosen people—leaving the rest of humanity unchosen—is itself problematic. The time-honoured language, and the sense of fitness that creeps over us through long acquaintance with the idea, should not be allowed to soften the sense of shock to the modern conscience (religiously formed or otherwise) that such an example of nationalistic ideology must deliver. Nor should we blur the contours of this distinct figuration of God in the Pentateuch with some pacific harmonization or identification of this God with the universal deity of the Christian religion—or, for that matter, patronize the God of the Pentateuch by excusing the myopia of his vision as a necessary stage in the progress of religion.[^37] Opponents of this kind of commonsense scrutiny often argue that it is misguided because it applies Enlightenment values to Biblical theology. The problem with critiquing election in this way, in the words of one Jewish scholar, is that the “Biblical text might not be compatible with the now pervasive liberal, democratic, multicultural ethic.”[^38] Another Christian scholar acknowledged that Israel’s special status causes discomfort to the modern interpreter[^39] but goes further by noting that even the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob do not prove that God’s election of them was more than a caprice. The assumption that God’s choice must be fair, he argues, seems to “import a modern concern into the text.”[^40] Pioneering rationalists, such as Spinoza (d. 1677 CE) and Kant (d. 1804 CE), are accused of marginalizing election by pointing out its contradiction with Enlightenment universalistic ideas, in particular monotheism.[^41] The application of Enlightenment universalism to the particularistic election of Israel could have been accused of being illegitimate anachronism had Judaism not been a living religion and the Bible not treated today as sacred Scripture. But the often vehement defense of this Biblical concept in modern scholarship is not undertaken in the context of discussing an ancient religion that once was. Indeed, Spinoza did not reject that the Israelites were chosen by God, but he argued for a particular interpretation of that election and that it had ceased.[^42] Blaming the Enlightenment for questioning the rationality of the chosenness of the Israelites is a misleading defense. Rabbinic literature shows that early Jewish scholars also grappled with the illusive meaning and justification of this concept.[^43] They tried to show that “it was not odd of God to choose the Jews.” They came up with three answers: 1) God offered the covenant (and the commandments attached to it) to all, but only Israel accepted it; 2) God chose Israel because of some merit found either in the Patriarchs or in the exodus generation or on the condition of future obedience; 3) there is no reason beyond God’s own will.[^44] The latter was a last-resort position they were forced to take only when a reasoned answer was not possible. On the other hand, the great twelfth-century Jewish theologian Maimonides almost completely ignored the chosenness of the Israelites. It does not feature in his *Thirteen Principles* and *Mishneh Torah* (The Laws of the Foundations of the Torah) and it appears probably only once in his other writings.[^45] He denied that the Israelites had any inherent, essential characteristic that distinguished them from other nations, arguing that they were made a holy nation by having been taught the Torah.[^46] Yet, as already noted, the Torah followed, rather than preceded or caused, the election. Maimonides probably found the Biblical portrayal of the election of Israel irrational and indefensible, so he acknowledged this foundational Biblical theme only in passing and tried to rationalize it. His solution might well be a response to the teachings of the Qur’an on the election of the Israelites, so its context might be Jewish-Muslim polemics.[^47] Furthermore, God’s choosing of the Israelites is not a purely divine matter that is not subject to reasoning, like why He created the universe or why He did so at a particular point. It is not even only a matter between God and that one nation because the choosing of the Israelites meant the "unchoosing" of all other peoples. Even those who defend the chosenness of Israel concede that the choosing is not inconsequential for the unchosen.[^48] Indeed, it has been noted that the privilege of chosenness could be detrimental to the unchosen. Unconstrained chosenness could portray the Jews as a *herrenvolk* (master race) and the only possible relationship Gentiles can have with them is to “accept Jewish sovereignty and dominance, be it political or only ‘religious.’” It could lead to “a practical program of coercive dominance,”[^49] as seen in Zionism. Lohr agrees with critics like Clines that “a God of favourites is dangerous.”[^50] Kaminsky accepts that the treatment of the Canaanites was genocidal but he rejects the assumption that “ancient Israel’s treatment of the Canaanites was paradigmatic for her treatment of other outsiders.”[^51] While it is true that the belief in the chosenness of Israel does not have to lead to coercive dominance and genocide, the history of the modern state of Israel shows just how easy it is for this to happen. It suffices to refer to Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and the genocidal language repeatedly used by Israeli officials when referring to the Palestinians, including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reference to the slaughter of the Amalekites in the Bible. One approach to ameliorating the problem of election theology has been to play down the implied inferiority of the unchosen. Kaminsky came up with the creative solution of suggesting that the Bible differentiates between two groups of unchosen, “non-elect” and “anti-elect.” Those who suffered the worst consequences of being unchosen, such as the Canaanites, are assigned the label “anti-elect.” They are “generally seen as beyond the pale of divine mercy and doomed for destruction.” The non-elect, on the other hand, “have a place within the divine economy even while they retain a different status than Israel, the elect of God.”[^52] Kaminsky goes on to reassuringly note, “In much of the Hebrew Bible (as well as in much of rabbinic thought), being non-elect is in no way equivalent to being damned.”[^53] Lohr finds this distinction between non-elect and anti-elect useful for reading Deuteronomy.[^54] However, he confines the importance of non-elect nations to treat “God’s elect with blessing, not disdain.” They “appear to be able to respond to God appropriately while remaining outside of God’s people.”[^55] Another question that has occupied scholars is whether the election of Israel is conditional or not. Thornhill argues that many scholars, including Jewish Second Temple authors, saw the covenant as involving both conditional and unconditional elements, which “resonates with the Old Testament itself.”[^56] Sanders disagrees, as does Novak,[^57] noting that the Tannaitic literature supports the opposite view: > Although God would punish disobedience and although intentional rejection of God’s right to command implied rejection of the covenant, the Rabbis did not have the view that God’s covenant with Israel was conditional on obedience in the sense that the covenantal promises would be revoked by God because of Israel’s sin. The covenant is, in this sense, unconditional, although it clearly implies the obligation to obey.[^58] Kaminsky suggests that the shock of the exile was reflected in post-exilic texts in the Bible that stress conditional covenantal theology.[^59] The conditional-unconditional question of the election of Israel is thus an intrinsic conflict within the Bible reflecting the historical development of its texts. Spinoza, for instance, used the Bible to show that “God did not choose the Hebrews forever.”[^60] As the covenant was unconditional, rabbis believed that God would never cancel it even when faced with disobedience.[^61] Kaminsky notes, “The vast bulk of relevant texts in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament affirm that God’s promises to Israel are unbreakable and persist in perpetuity.”[^62] The election of the Israelites, specifically, is irrevocable in the Hebrew Bible. Although the covenant repeatedly seems on the verge of dissolution, it is always renewed; it is never ended.[^63] This quick overview shows that huge efforts have been invested by Jewish and Christian theologians to address the internal inconsistencies of the concept of the chosenness of Israel in the Bible and its conflict with basic values, such as justice. One scholar who describes himself as a Christian and a Gentile ends his book on the subject with an honest question: > The criticisms of Schwartz,[^64] Clines, and others—that a God of favorites is dangerous—may well hold true. But what might be the alternative? I am not altogether sure, but the Bible implies that the God of Israel is a God who takes risks and is deeply involved in the matters of humanity.[^65] The Bible’s version of history and theology is not without an alternative. The Qur’an provides one. --- ## The Abrahamic covenant in the Qur’an The Qur’an does confirm that the Israelites were chosen by Allah but, unlike the Bible, it gives a clear and coherent meaning of the election. Indeed, the Qur’an’s correction of the Biblical narrative starts with Allah’s promise to Abraham, which is the equivalent of the Abrahamic covenant in the Bible: > And when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them, He said, “Indeed, I will make you a leader for people.” He \[Abraham\] said, “And of my descendants?” He \[Allah\] said, “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.”[^66] Allah confirmed that He was going to make Abraham an imam (a spiritual leader) for people because he fulfilled his obligations. Abraham asked for this favor to be extended to *some* of his descendants as he was wise enough to know such a favor may be conferred on *certain individuals*, but never on a *whole nation*. Allah answered Abraham’s prayer and confirmed that only righteous individuals of his descendants would be granted this favor. Furthermore, Abraham did not ask for the favor to be confined to only one line of his descendants. There is so much to say about the Abrahamic covenant in the Qur’an,[^67] but I would just like to shed light on one Qur’anic subtlety that is particularly relevant to this article. In the Bible, God’s covenant with Abraham includes the repeated promise to make his descendants a huge nation, “like the dust of the earth”[^68] and “numerous as the stars of heaven.”[^69] This is another form of glorification of the ethnic group that is the focus of Biblical theology and history. This aspect of the covenant is so significant that God changed Abraham’s name accordingly: > You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.[^70] This claim is not explicitly addressed in the Qur’an but it is implicitly and eloquently rejected. When Abraham destroyed the idols of his people, this is how they identified him: > They said, “We heard a young man mention them called Abraham.”[^71] Significantly, this is the only place in the Qur’an where the phrase *yuqālu lahu* (called) is mentioned before someone’s name. Otherwise redundant, this very unusual expression clearly indicates that Abraham was his name when he was a young man living with his father. It was not a new name he acquired late in his life, as the Bible claims. This subtle observation is further confirmed by the fact that the Qur’an does mention Jacob’s second name, Israel, so it would have mentioned Abraham’s supposed earlier name. Interestingly, while the Bible claims that God changed Abram’s name to Abraham because his lineage would be numerous, this etymology is not Hebrew. The *Jewish Encyclopedia* states that “the form ‘Abraham’ yields no sense in Hebrew, and is probably only a graphic variation of ‘Abram.’”[^72] Similarly, the *Catholic Encyclopedia* describes the Biblical meaning as “popular word play, and the real meaning is unknown.”[^73] Some Muslim scholars have reported the Biblical etymology while others have derived it from the Arabic or Chaldean *ab raḥīm/rāḥim* (merciful father).[^74] Some Western scholars also have suggested it is Arabic.[^75] It should be noted, though, that the name Ibrāhīm in the Qur’an is a diptote (*mamnūʿ min al-ṣarf*)—i.e., treated as a foreign name—although this could be due to it being ancient and unfamiliar to the Arabs then. These are all speculations but what is certain is that the Biblical etymology, which is linked to its claim that the name was changed, is incorrect. --- ## Qur’anic coherence versus Biblical incoherence In analyzing the meaning of the chosenness of the Israelites in the Qur’an, this article employs the established hermeneutical method: *the Qur’an interprets itself*. This principle was hinted at in a sermon by ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661).[^76] The earliest exegetical work in which I have seen a mention of it in some form is the commentary of al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143), who states that “the best meanings \[of verses\] are those that the Qur’an points to.”[^77] Sohaib Saeed Bhutta has traced the earliest *direct* reference to this hermeneutical principle to Ibn Taymiyya’s (d. 728/1328) *Muqaddima fī uṣūl al-tafsīr*.[^78] This interpretive methodology is possible because the Qur’an has one Author, ensuring its coherence. Conversely, even a remotely similar hermeneutical principle for the Bible does not exist because it is a set of diverse books that were written and edited by many unknown individuals over centuries. Some of the editorial work aimed for harmonization but no effort could have made it anywhere near one textual unit. As noted by John Barton, the Bible is not a monolith but “the record of a dialogue among authors and transmitters of tradition, and contains commentary in many of its books on many others.”[^79] To quote Shabbir Akhtar’s succinct comparison: > The Quran, unlike the Bible, is not the heterogeneous work of many hands, in several genres, in a trio of languages, in varied geographical locales, stretching over millennia, surviving only in uncertain and fragmentary forms. It is a unified canon, “revealed” in just over two decades, addressed to a man fully known to his contemporaries and to subsequent history, a man living in only two geographical locations in the same country. It was written in one language, the language of the recipient and of the first audience, a living language that is still widely spoken.[^80] The Bible repeatedly contradicts itself, so it cannot interpret itself. This is one cause of the unbridgeable gap between Jewish and Christian theologies and their respective Scriptures.[^81] As rightly noted by Barton: > Islam perhaps is the ideal type of book religion, and by comparison with it, Judaism and Christianity stand at a considerable distance from their central holy text.[^82] Because the Bible is incongruous, extracting a clear concept from it often necessitates ignoring parts of it. While the Qur’an interprets itself, the Bible obfuscates itself. The incoherence, and, consequently, irresolvable tension, that shrouds the chosenness of the Israelites in the Bible is one manifestation of this fact. --- ## Qur’anic terminology The Qur’an uses five different terms to describe Allah’s favors to the Israelites, including choosing them, listed here in their denominal forms: - *ʿAhd* (covenant) - *Mīthāq* (solemn covenant) - *Ikhtiyār* (choosing) - *Tafḍīl* (preferring) - *Niʿma* (favor) Citing various verses, I will explain how these terms are precisely used in the Qur’an to tell us much about the Israelites. But here is a brief broad overview first. Lexicographers usually consider the terms *mīthāq* and *ʿahd* synonymous,[^83] as both terms refer to commitments that a party has made under an agreement with one or more other parties. But while *mīthāq* is very close to *ʿahd*, it has the connotation of additional confirmation,[^84] so something like “sworn covenant” or “sealed covenant.” Also, when used to refer to a *ʿahd* that Allah has with a group of people, *mīthāq* stresses the obligations of the people under the terms of that covenant, which is why it is repeatedly used in the Qur’an in the formula *Allah took the* mīthāq *from*. I will translate *mīthāq* as “solemn covenant.”[^85] In addition to being used once to refer to choosing the Israelites, the verb *ikhtār* is also used once to describe Allah’s choosing of Moses to be a prophet[^86] and another time for His absolute freedom to choose to create and give creatures what He wants.[^87] It is not used exclusively for Allah’s actions, as it is also used to describe Moses’ choosing of seventy men for his appointment with Allah.[^88] In the seventeen times in which it appears in verbal form II, *tafḍīl* always describes a divine action of preferring individuals or groups over others. Four of these are for Allah’s preference of the Israelites. While *tafḍīl* is a comparative term, *niʿma* is not. The latter is a general term that is used to describe any favor. Whenever I quote a verse that contains any of these terms, I will mention their romanized forms, along with their translations. This makes the arguments of this article clearer and makes it easier for anyone interested to further study those terms. Before discussing how each of these terms is distinctly used in the Qur’an in the following sections, I would like to make a quick but important observation. The two *main* Qur’anic terms for chosenness by Allah for noble responsibilities and spiritual ranks are *iṣṭifāʾ* and *ijtibāʾ*. For example, these terms describe Allah’s choosing of certain individuals for the elevated position of “prophet.” Significantly, neither of these two terms is used for the Israelites.[^89] --- ## The covenant with the Israelites The first observation to make is that Allah’s keeping of His covenant with the Israelites is conditional on their meeting their covenantal commitments: > O Children of Israel, remember My *niʿma* (favor) that *anʿamtu* (I favored) you and fulfill My *ʿahd* (covenant) so I fulfil your *ʿahd* (covenant), and be afraid of Me.[^90] Unlike the Bible, the Qur’an does not portray Allah as having any unconditional commitment towards the Israelites. He has no eternal commitment that He is self-obligated to keep regardless of how the Israelites behave. For example, He will forgive and admit to paradise only those who keep His covenant: > Allah took a *mīthāq* (solemn covenant) from the Children of Israel, and We delegated from among them twelve leaders. Allah said, “I am with you. If you establish prayer, give alms, believe in My messengers and support them, and loan Allah a goodly loan, I will surely remove from you your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoever of you disbelieves after that, he has certainly strayed from the plain path.”[^91] The terms of the covenant that the Israelites have to comply with may be compiled from various verses. This is one verse: > When We took a *mīthāq* (solemn covenant) from the Children of Israel that, “Do not worship except Allah; do good to parents and to relatives, orphans, and the needy; speak to people good words; establish prayer; and pay alms.” Then you turned away except a few of you, shunning.[^92] The terms of the covenant that are mentioned here fall under what is usually known in Judaism as the two tables of the law, the first of which governs the relationship with God and the second the relationship with the creation. The equivalents of these in Islam are *ʿibādāt* (acts of worship), which concern the Muslim’s relationship with Allah, and *muʿāmalāt* (interpersonal transactions/dealings), which describe and govern the Muslim’s relationship with the creation in general. Other covenantal terms include following God’s revelation, making it known to people and not concealing it, not treating each other violently or aggressively, and believing in and supporting the messengers that Allah sends: > Take what We have given you firmly and listen.[^94] > > You must make it clear to the people and not conceal it.[^94] > > Do not shed each other’s blood or evict one another from your homes.[^95] > > You believe in My messengers and support them.[^96] The covenant is made up of divine commandments that were revealed to the Israelites in Scripture, hence described as *mīthāq al-kitāb* or “the solemn covenant of the Book.”[^97] In the Qur’an, “Book” is a universal concept that refers to Allah’s Scriptural revelation to prophets. Accordingly, the concept of a Scriptural covenant that contains creedal and behavioral terms should be expected to be found in Islam as well. Indeed, this is the case, as clear in these verses that talk about the followers of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: > Then is he who knows that what has been revealed to you from your Lord is the truth like one who is blind? Only the people of understanding remember. Those who fulfill the *ʿahd* (covenant) of Allah and do not break the *mīthāq* (solemn covenant).[^98] So the concept of covenant is not unique or specific to the Israelites. Contrary to how it is understood in Judaism and Christianity, it is broader than the chosenness of the Israelites. It is certainly not about a promise of a land, even if a certain land was promised and given to them at some point.[^99] The Qur’an also makes a general statement that inheriting the land is one of His favors to the righteous: > And We have already written in the *Zabūr* after the reminder that the land is inherited by My righteous servants.[^100] Whether “land” here refers to paradise, as most exegetes think, or to the holy land or the earth,[^101] inheriting it is linked to righteousness, not chosenness. What is that election then? --- ## Chosen and preferred over others The Qur’an is unambiguous that Allah chose the Children of Israel over other nations:[^102] > *Ikhtarnāhum* (We chose them), with knowledge, over all peoples.[^103] Choosing the Israelites over other peoples implies preferring them with certain favors, which the Qur’an also explicitly states:[^104] > O Children of Israel, remember My *niʿma* (favor) that *anʿamtu* (I favored) you and that *faḍḍaltukum* (I preferred you) over the peoples.[^105] Muslim exegetes over the centuries have agreed that the *ʿālamīn* (peoples) that the Israelites were chosen over were their contemporaneous nations, not all nations throughout history.[^106] Yet when it comes to explaining this *specific* chosenness, various *general* favors are often cited. One example is in Ibn ʿĀshūr’s interpretation of verse 2:47: > Allah combined in them the kind of good attributes that describe tribes and nations that He did not grant others, which are: noble bloodline, perfect character, sound creed, comprehensive religious law, freedom, bravery, and care from Allah in all of their affairs.[^107] In addition to the fact that attributes such as “perfect character,” “freedom,” and “bravery” are general, not specific, such a statement projects attributes of Israelite individuals on the whole nation. Another example of such a broad interpretation is by al-Bayḍāwī (d. 791/1388): > Allah (exalted is He) gave them knowledge, faith, and good deeds, and He made them prophets and just kings.[^108] Such general interpretations show clear influence by the mention of Allah’s *niʿma* (favor) to the Israelites in 2:47. Yet as already explained, *niʿma* is a general term that, in the case of the Israelites, *includes* chosenness but does not *define* it. Al-Ṭabarī[^109] attributes to the Successor (*tābiʿī*) Abū al-ʿĀliya[^110] the view that the choosing and preferring of the Israelites over other nations refer to the fact that they were given “kingship, messengers, and Books.” The inclusion of kingship in defining chosenness, however, is problematic. First, being self-governing is far from being a distinguishing feature of any nation. Second, while the Israelites were a sovereign nation for parts of their history, they were under direct occupation or a client state of a bigger power for most of their history. Makkī b. Abū Ṭālib[^111] (d. 437/1045) and Ibn Kathīr[^112] (d. 774/1372) avoid this mistake as they restrict preferring the Israelites over other peoples to having prophets and divine Books, while al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272) mentions only having prophets.[^113] These interpretations of verse 2:47 and others that mention kingship are influenced, explicitly or implicitly, by the following verse: > When Moses said to his people, “O my people! Remember the favor of Allah to you as He made among you prophets and made you kings and gave you what He never gave to any of the peoples.”[^114] This verse contains a beautiful subtlety that reveals the precise meaning of the chosenness of the Children of Israel. Having prophets and being sovereign and self-governing both benefited the Israelites. However, when mentioning His favor to the Israelites of having kings, Allah described it as *making the Israelites kings*, while when earlier mentioning the favor of having prophets, He described it as *making prophets among the Israelites*, even though those prophets were also Israelites. This subtle distinction in wording specifies the meaning of Allah’s chosenness of the Israelites and preferring them over other peoples: He made them *the host nation of prophets*. Unlike the kings, who are described as *Israelites*, the Israelite prophets are described as living *among the Israelites*, who were commanded to support them. The Qur’an has an abundance of such amazing subtleties that reveal various historical and theological facts. Comparing Qur’anic statements with their equivalents in the Bible particularly highlights the impressive accuracy of the Qur’an and the precision with which it was worded by its Author. This marvel is even more impressive when the Qur’an offers this superiority silently, presenting it in a subtle manner for readers to discover. The marvelous wording of verse 5:20 is one such example. In the following comparable statements from the Biblical Abrahamic covenant, in the first, God speaks to Abraham about himself, and in the second, He refers to his wife, Sarah: > I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.[^115] > > I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.[^116] The Biblical authors and editors mention that God would make Israelite kings, but they show no interest in or awareness of the role of prophets. Yet there is nothing special about having native kings in the history of nations, whereas hosting prophets is truly unique. This is what “gave you what He never gave to any of the peoples” means and why the verse mentions the favor of having prophets *before* that of having kings. The true meaning of the election of the Israelites as the divine favor of making them the host nation of prophets had been lost by the time the Biblical text was finalized. The exclusive focus on kingship is unsurprising given the obsession of the Bible authors with promoting their ethnic group, making the Bible worldly and ethnocentric. This comparison is one impressive example of how the Qur’an corrects Biblical history and theology. Presuming the Qur’an to be authored by a human cannot account for such subtle precision. The consistency of the Qur’an further shines when other verses that confirm the meaning of the chosenness of the Israelites are noted. I have already mentioned one verse about Allah’s covenant with the Israelites in which He commands them, “believe in My messengers and support them.”[^117] This is another verse confirming that hosting the prophets is at the heart of the covenant: > We took a *mīthāq* (solemn covenant) from the Children of Israel and sent messengers to them.[^118] At some points in history, prophets were sent to the Israelites in successive generations, but this was an exception, not the rule. Being chosen to host the prophets, therefore, must have meant not only believing in and supporting them when they came but also preserving their tradition and legacy for future generations after they were gone. Again, this is exactly what the Qur’an says: > We gave the Children of Israel the Book, wisdom, and prophethood; We provided them with good things; and *faḍḍalnāhum* (We preferred them) over the peoples.[^119] *Preferring the Israelites over other nations meant giving them the responsibility for the custodianship of the prophetic heritage*. They were the guardians of monotheism, divine law, and moral code. They were by no means excellent custodians but they were the only such people. It has been noted that while other monotheistic communities may have existed in the ancient Near East, “Israel was the only community that successfully held on to (monotheism).”[^120] That this guardianship role was for the benefit of all peoples, not only the Israelites, is almost concealed by the Bible authors whose only focus, as of that of the Biblical God, is their ethnos. Yet there are some hidden hints, describing them as being charged with bringing justice[^121] and being a light to the nations.[^122] One passage even links this role of guidance to the covenant: > I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a *covenant to the people, a light to the nations*.[^123] Some Western scholars have tried to highlight the significance of such pericopes, arguing that the chosenness of the Israelites was for a mission to the unchosen nations.[^124] The view is particularly influenced by the Christian belief that the Church superseded Israel as the chosen people of God,[^125] which is discussed later. It has even been claimed that “Israel did not always understand her calling in this universal perspective.”[^126] Support for this view is also sought in Second Temple apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature.[^127] However, it has been claimed that the concept of mission entered Judaism later from other cultures.[^128] Another critic has justifiably noted that while the concept of mission fits “modern categories of what a faith community should be” and “Christian theological notions of mission,” it cannot be derived from the Hebrew Bible.[^129] This objection reflects the predominant representation of the election of Israel in the Bible. Yet Isaiah 42:6 and similar Biblical passages are completely aligned with the portrayal of the chosenness of the Israelites in the Qur’an, which is, to use Western terminology, *corporate election for service*. It is not an individual election like, for example, the election of Abraham or Isaac for the office of prophethood. Each Israelite is free to discharge or not uphold the responsibility of the chosen group, and this response determines whether they are a member or not.[^130] This unique role that was meant to benefit all people is what made the Israelites a resilient nation despite their small size and the many calamities they faced throughout their history. As a side point, Jewish and Christian Zionists over-focus on the success and good fortune of the secular state of Israel in modern history, presenting it as proof of the Biblical claim that the chosenness of the Israelites is forever. This false argument ignores centuries of national ill fortune and disasters that the Israelites experienced. The Qur’an distinguishes the Israelite prophets from the other Israelites because it considers the special spiritual status of prophethood, which Allah conferred on them, as their main identity, not their ethnicity as their main identifier. This is why, for example, Allah addresses or refers to Muhammad ﷺ numerous times as a “messenger” or “prophet” but never an “Arab,” even though He does describe the Qur’an as “Arabic.” Indeed, the only time Muhammad ﷺ is called an “Arab” in the Qur’an is in a dishonest argument that the Qur’an rhetorically attributes to the disbelievers: > Had We made it a non-Arabic Qur’an, they would have said, “If only its verses were detailed? \[How come,\] it is non-Arabic whereas he is an Arab?”[^131] In other words, prophethood became the main identity of every prophet as soon as he was made a prophet. His ethnicity only identified the people he came from but it no longer served as his main identity, i.e., the identity that truly mattered. Prophethood is the spiritual office through which Allah delivered the only true religion, Islam, to all people. Naturally, all prophets were “Muslims” (lit., submitters \[to Allah\]). “Muslim” is another identity, albeit not restricted to prophets, that transcends ethnic, social, and all other identities. It is their only religious and spiritual identity. This is why, for instance, the Qur’an repeatedly states that the prophets were not Jewish or Christian: > Or do you say that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants were Jews or Christians? Say, “Are you more knowing or is Allah?” Who is more unjust than one who conceals a testimony he has from Allah? Allah is not unaware of what you do.[^132] Judaism is monotheistic but is founded on an ethnocentric theology, while Christianity is universal but not strictly monotheistic given its doctrine of the Trinity. Islam, on the other hand, uniquely combines monotheism and universality. Islam is the religion of the one *Rabb al-ʿālamīn* (the Lord of all peoples/worlds). The prophets sent by Allah were, therefore, Muslim, not Jewish or Christian. Islam is the original religion that Allah revealed to people; it never changed. Conversely, Judaism and Christianity are later developments and distortions of the authentic original faith that the Qur’an calls “Islam.” --- ## Killing prophets instead of supporting them The Qur’an and the Bible agree that the Israelites were no different from other nations in disobeying Allah and committing sin. Both Books claim that the Israelites repeatedly disobeyed Allah’s commands. This is another confirmation that the chosenness of the Israelites did not mean they were better than other nations and it refers to their role as the host nation of prophets. The Qur’an mentions historical sins of the Israelites, such as disobeying Moses and worshipping a calf, and sins committed at the time of the revelation of the Qur’an, which include rejecting the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ, concealing parts of their Book, and taking usury. But the crime that highlights their repeat transgressions most is the killing of prophets because it went completely against what Allah had uniquely chosen them for. One indication of the significance of this heinous form of rebellion against Allah is that the Qur’an mentions it as many as nine times.[^133] This serious failing is reported in the Bible as well.[^134] It describes the killing of the priest Zechariah, son of Jehoiada,[^135] who is called a “prophet” in rabbinic writings,[^136] and the prophet Uriah, son of Shemaiah.[^137] It also mentions three times in passing the killing of “prophets” in the plural.[^138] The Bible gives all kinds of trivial details yet it relegates these serious murders to a footnote. This shows how the meaning of chosenness is completely lost in the Bible and how the role of prophets in raising the status of the Israelites is unacknowledged as the privilege is assigned to ethnicity. The New Testament authors, however, do not share this indifference of the Old Testament writers.[^139] Paul[^140] and Stephen the Martyr[^141] highlighted the killing of prophets. More importantly, Jesus mentioned it several times in a highly critical speech: > Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in *shedding the blood of the prophets*.” Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who *murdered the prophets*. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, *some of whom you will kill and crucify*, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.[^142] Jesus goes on to describe Jerusalem as “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.”[^143] One Qur’anic verse links the Israelites’ breaking of the covenant with the killing of prophets:[^144] > \[We cursed them\] for their breaking their *mīthāq* (solemn covenant), their disbelief in the signs of Allah, their killing of the prophets without right, and saying, “Our hearts are covered.”[^145] This connection is aligned with the Qur’an’s portrayal of the chosenness of the Israelites as being the hosting nation of prophets. Interestingly, a similar connection is found in a Biblical passage. After running for his life, the ninth-century BCE prophet Elijah complained to God: > The Israelites have forsaken your *covenant*, thrown down your altars, and *killed your prophets* with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.[^146] While the Bible is confused and incoherent about what the chosenness of the Israelites meant, this pericope alludes to an explanation similar to the Qur’an’s. The Bible has no awareness of the historical meaning of the chosenness of the Israelites, which allows it to underplay the killing of prophets. On the other hand, the Western dogma that the Qur’an is strongly influenced by Jewish and Christian writings and cannot be more reliable than them leaves Western scholars unable to properly explain the prominence the Qur’an gives to the killing of prophets, despite its remarkable mention in Jesus’s relatively short sayings as well.[^147] The Israelites were persistently rebellious against God throughout their history. But their killing of prophets was particularly evil because they were chosen to be the nation that provides support and protection for God’s messengers. --- ## The end of the Israelites’ chosenness For many centuries, the Israelites were chosen by Allah as the host nation of prophets. They were assigned the honorable custodianship of prophetic tradition. Helped throughout history by many righteous men and women among them who followed the teachings of prophets, the nation taught monotheism, divine law, and moral values. Yet despite the support of those wise, pious individuals, the nation as a whole was increasingly failing its duties as the guardian of the prophetic legacy. The failure reached its highest level by the time of the last prophet among the Children of Israel: Jesus. Instead of living up to their historical responsibility of supporting the new prophet, the Jews rejected and even tried to kill him. Rather than protecting and preserving his message, they became responsible for the loss of his teachings and divine Book. Furthermore, their persecution of Jesus and his true early followers also led to the emergence of a new religion that falsely claimed to be Jesus’s teachings. It was largely the work of someone who never saw Jesus and did not believe in him during his lifetime, Saul of Tarsus, or Paul. This could not have happened had the Israelites discharged the responsibility that Allah had chosen them for. As imperfect and failing as they were, the Israelites were still the best keepers of monotheism and the surviving teachings of the prophets. This and their centuries-long chosenness, however, came to a complete and sudden end when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was commissioned by Allah. First, he was sent among the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula, so the Israelites were not the people whose support he needed. Second, he is the last prophet.[^148] Third, he was given a new divine law, so there was no need for the partially preserved prophetic tradition the Israelites had. Fourth, he was given a Book that corrected the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, which human hands had significantly tampered with: > We have revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and having authority over it.[^149] Furthermore, as Muhammad ﷺ was the last prophet, Allah promised to protect the Qur’an from being corrupted or lost: > Indeed, it is We who sent down the Remembrance and We surely guard it.[^150] > > Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it; it is a revelation from One who is wise and praiseworthy.[^151] The revelation of the first verse of the Qur’an finally ended the chosenness of the Israelites as the host nation of prophets. The universality of the new message and the amazing speed with which it spread to various peoples and places meant that it never needed the support of any one people anyway. The chosenness of the Israelites was a means to an end, so it was over when the goal itself ended. Allah could not have described that chosenness as “everlasting,” as the Bible claims. One other relevant piece of information is found in Abraham’s prayer when he was in Mecca: > Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite to them Your verses, teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them. Indeed, You are the Mighty, the Wise.[^152] This prayer was answered when Allah made Muhammad ﷺ a messenger.[^153] Significantly, Abraham did not think that prophets could appear only among the Israelites. Also, from a Biblical perspective, the Patriarch who was promised the chosenness of the Israelites is the one who prayed, albeit indirectly, for the end of that chosenness. The Bible does not know of Abraham’s life in Mecca. This is not surprising, as the focus of its ethnocentrism is Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob, not Ishmael. --- ## Christian adaptation of the Jewish misunderstanding Christianity emerged in first-century Jewish Palestine. Its believers accepted the Jewish Scripture as the Word of God but added to it Christian writings, such as the Gospels and Paul’s letters. Christians adopted the Old Testament’s image of chosenness as meaning ethnic superiority, but they reworked it in light of the non-ethnic New Testament. The outcome was two new theologies: supersessionism and dispensationalism. Supersessionism was accepted by the overwhelming majority of Christians until the last two centuries. According to this theology, the Church is the new Israel as the chosen people of God. Christians replaced the Jews, or spiritual Israel replaced ethnic Israel,[^154] which is why this understanding is also known as “replacement theology.” A similar term that is at times used is “fulfillment theology,” indicating that Israel was an image of the true chosen people of God that was fulfilled in the Church. The Jewish dichotomy of “Jew and Gentile” was replaced in Christianity by “the church and the world (or those in Christ and those outside Christ).”[^155] Supersessionism is usually divided into “punitive” and “economic.” Punitive supersessionism, which was common among the Church Fathers, understands the replacement of the Jews as the chosen people as a punishment for their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Economic supersessionism, on the other hand, stresses that it was always God’s plan to change His chosen people from an ethnic to a universal group. The Gospels report Jesus’s rejection of the significance of the Israelites’ descent from Abraham, arguing that “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”[^156] But the main source of supersessionism is Paul who claimed that “not all Israelites truly belong to Israel,” in the same way “not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants” but only those “through Isaac.”[^157] Abraham now is “the ancestor of all who believe,” circumcised (Jews) or uncircumcised (Gentiles).[^158] Paul believed that faith in the crucified Christ defined chosenness by God, thus replacing the Biblical particularistic election with a universalistic one.[^159] Supersessionists also usually find support for this position in the Epistle to the Hebrews,[^160] which quotes the following passage from the Old Testament: > The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.[^161] It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.[^162] Yet while God’s words to Jeremiah talk about a new covenant, it would still be with the Israelites. This passage also enforces the role of the Law, rather than diminishing or even abolishing it as was done in Christianity. Referring to replacing ethnic Israel with the Church, *replacement theology* is effectively the *replacement of a fundamental Biblical theological doctrine with a new, Christian one*. Some supersessionists believe that Israel will experience salvation. Paul’s letter to the Romans is usually quoted to support this view.[^163] Significantly, all supersessionists believe that there is no restoration of Israel.[^164] This is a major difference between supersessionism and dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is usually traced back to the Bible teacher John Nelson Darby (1800–1882). In the early twentieth century, the *Scofield Reference Bible* by Cyrus Scofield (1843–1921) popularized dispensationalism in America. Dispensationalism, which is now very popular and widespread, divides history into distinct periods, or dispensations, in each of which God has a different plan for humanity. It claims that both the Christians and the Jews are chosen by God, which is why it believes in the restoration of Israel and has played a major role in promoting Zionism. The paradoxical chosenness of the Bible is understood in Judaism as meaning that the Jews are *the best* people. Christianity copied this misrepresentation and adapted it for its non-ethnic theology. The claims of supersessionism and dispensationalism that the Church is *the* or *a* new chosen people of God, respectively, are slightly different forms of a fundamental misunderstanding. Christians cannot claim to be chosen by God because they were never tasked with hosting prophets and preserving prophetic heritage. Christianity is mainly based on the teachings of Paul, not Jesus. It is not strictly monotheistic, as it deifies Jesus,[^165] and it does not have a law nor does it follow the Mosaic Law in full. Indeed, the Qur’an admonishes both Jews and Christians for claiming to have a specially close relationship with Allah based on their respective claims as His chosen people: > The Jews and the Christians say, “We are the children of Allah and His beloved.” Say, “Then why does He punish you for your sins?” Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created. He forgives whom He wills and He punishes whom He wills.[^166] They are subject to Allah’s law and judgment like every group and individual. A righteous or sinful Jew or Christian is no more or less so than someone who is not a member of either faith. Corporate election in the Qur’an does not mean individual salvation.[^167] This verse exposes the irresolvable tension in the Jewish concept of chosenness and its Christian adaptations. As noted by Fazlur Rahman, in the Qur’an, “no community may lay claims to be uniquely guided and elected.”[^168] In the last two sections, I will examine two Qur’anic terms that beautifully and succinctly encapsulate the Qur’an’s theology and contrast it with the concepts of election in Judaism and Christianity. --- ## The Qur’an’s “one nation” Reuven Firestone has suggested that Islam claims “chosenness” for its own believers, albeit in a less exclusive manner than Judaism and Christianity do. He states that the Qur’an makes chosenness shared among all monotheists, giving a place for the covenanted chosenness of Judaism and Christianity within Islam.[^169] While differentiating Islam from Judaism and Christianity on chosenness is correct, Firestone’s statement fails to distinguish between “chosenness” and “covenant” in the Qur’an and the Bible and also conflates “chosenness” and “covenant” in the Qur’an. Repeatedly and consistently, explicitly and implicitly, the Qur’an states that Allah does not have preferential treatment for a particular group based on ethnicity or any other discriminatory factor. This is one verse that makes this point completely clear: > O People! Indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.[^170] Righteousness is Allah’s only measure of a human being. This is confirmed in the Qur’an when it describes the followers of Islam, the religion of submission to Allah, throughout history as representing “one nation.” For instance, after mentioning many prophets who lived centuries apart and recounting the stories of some of them, from Abraham to Jesus, Allah goes on to say: > Indeed this is your nation, *ummatan wāḥidatan* (one nation), and I am your Lord, so worship Me.[^171] So the prophets and their true followers are the one nation of Muslims. This connection of faith and good character, transcending place and time, is why the Qur’an states that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his followers are as close to Abraham as those who followed him: > Indeed, the people who have the best claim to Abraham are those who followed him, this prophet, and those who believe. Allah is the ally of the believers.[^172] The verse concludes by specifying “believer” as the attribute that identifies the brothers and sisters that the one nation is made of. This is seen in Allah’s emphasis that the followers of the Prophet ﷺ and the past followers of other prophets will all be judged using the same criteria of having faith and doing good works: > Indeed, those who have believed, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabeans—those who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did good deeds will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear for them nor will they grieve.[^173] Islam judges its followers on merit. After mentioning His revelation of the Qur’an, Allah goes on to say that those who inherited the Qur’an—i.e., the followers of Muhammad ﷺ—fall into three categories: > Then we caused those We *iṣṭafaynā* (had chosen) of Our servants to inherit the Book. Among them is he who wrongs himself, among them is he who is moderate, and among them is he who is foremost in good deeds by permission of Allah. That is the great favor.[^174] The only distinction between the three groups is faith and good deeds. Indeed, the Qur’an repeatedly stresses that every person is judged individually, not based on any group identity: > And all of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection alone.[\[175](#ftnt175)[\]](#ftnt175) Islam has no concept of group salvation or group condemnation. When the Qur’an talks about rewarded and punished groups on the Day of Judgment, a group is a collective reference to the individuals whose respective records in this world entitle them to similar treatment in the next world.[^176] The Qur’an’s *one nation* is made up of all Muslim believers throughout history, that is, the righteous followers of every prophet. It is not based on tribe, race, color, social standing, or any other discriminatory attribute.[^177] It is not a blood connection that the members of this nation share, but they are connected by the combination of faith (*imān*) and good deeds (*ʿamal ṣāliḥ*), which the Qur’an mentions numerous times.[^178] --- ## The Qur’an’s “best nation” The Qur’an also has the concept of “the best nation”: > You have been *khayra ummatin* (the best nation) produced for people, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If the People of the Book had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers but most of them are disobedient.[^179] Exegetes have offered four views in identifying the best nation: the emigrant Muslims (*muhājirūn*), the Muslims who fought at Badr, all the Companions of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and all the followers of the Prophet ﷺ throughout time. In fact, all four views have been attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās.[^180] In explaining the meaning of “the best nation,” ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb is reported to have said to some Muslims, “Whoever does your deeds will be like you.”[^181] This seems to imply that at the time of revelation, “the best nation” described the Companions while also applying to all followers of the Prophet ﷺ.[^182] This inclusive identification of the best nation is the view of many scholars, including al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī,[^183] al-Zajjāj,[^184] Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr,[^185] Ibn ʿAṭiyya,[^186] al-Qurṭubī,[^187] Ibn Kathīr,[^188] and Ibn ʿĀshūr.[^189] The majority belief that the generation of the Prophet ﷺ is the best generation of Muslims should not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the description “the best nation” applies only to them.[^190] There are indications that the best nation is not restricted to the Companions or the early Muslims but includes all followers of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. First, the term nation is applied to all Muslims, such as in the expression *ummatan wasaṭan* (just nation), which all agree refers to all followers of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: > And thus We have made you *ummatan wasaṭan* (a just nation) so that you will be witnesses over people and the Messenger will be a witness over you.[^191] Second, when referring to the Companions of the Prophets Muhammad, Abraham, Hūd, or Noah, the Qur’an uses the expression *wal-ladhīna maʿahu* (and those with him).[^192] Third, the broad identification of the best nation as those who believe in Allah and invite people to His way clearly applies to all righteous followers of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, as stated in ʿUmar’s above saying. The “best nation,” which represents all righteous followers of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, is, therefore, a *subset* of the “one nation” of all genuine Muslims throughout history. Like the “one nation” of Muslims, the Qur’an’s “best nation” is not a group that is open to some people but closed to others, but it is open to every person. Anyone can join the best nation by following Allah’s commandments. Indeed, after mentioning the best nation, verse 3:110 goes on to make it clear that while the Jews and Christians who are disobedient to Allah do not belong to the best nation, those who obey Him by following the Prophet ﷺ do. History has confirmed the accuracy of the Qur’an’s description of the nation of Muhammad ﷺ as the best nation as his followers have become by far the most successful nation in preserving and spreading the message of the oneness of Allah. The other enduring monotheistic nation, which is the followers of the Prophet Moses, was limited and undermined by the corruption of its original teachings, including making it ethnocentric. Christianity, on the other hand, did not preserve the pure monotheism that Jesus taught. Both faiths have other problems with the scriptures and traditions they follow, as already explained. That the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gifted the world its best nation is the reason why he is the last Messenger. --- ## Conclusion The Hebrew Bible presents the Israelites as God’s exclusive people, whom He loved more than any other nation and has an eternal covenant with. Yet it fails to give a meaningful explanation of this chosenness or justify it. In fact, it paints an incoherent image of this divine chosenness of an ethnic group. Christianity inherited the Jewish paradoxical concept of chosenness, removed its ethnic identity, and applied it to its own followers. In other words, Christianity borrowed a meaningless claim and assigned to it a meaning that suited its needs. As it does with many Jewish and Christian historical and theological matters, the Qur’an corrects the Bible’s presentation of the chosenness of the Israelites and provides a clear, logical, and coherent explanation. It confirms Allah’s choosing (*ikhtiyār*) and preferring (*tafḍīl*) of the Israelites over other peoples, explaining that this collective favor (*niʿma*) meant that Allah chose them as a host nation of prophets and the guardians of prophetic heritage over the centuries. This is one element of His covenant (*ʿahd*) and solemn covenant (*mīthāq*) with them, which also contained creedal and behavioral terms that applied to all Israelites individually. For over two millennia, the Israelites/Jews were the carriers of prophetic heritage, including monotheism and the divine law, albeit imperfect carriers. This responsibility and privilege ended when Muhammad ﷺ was sent as a prophet. The Qur’an explains that the only criterion that Allah uses to differentiate between people is piety. It describes all righteous individuals in history, meaning Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad ﷺ, and all other prophets and their followers, as “one nation” of Muslims. The Book of Allah also calls the “best nation” all those who follow the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, being Allah’s last prophet and the culmination of His line of messengers, and invite people to the way of Allah. --- ## Notes [^1]: While the terms “Israelites” and “Jews” are related and often used interchangeably, they are different. I will use “Israelites” for the ancient ethnic group and “Jews” when referring to them in later times and to their faith. A detailed discussion of the differences and overlap between these terms is outside the scope of this article. [^2]: Umm Hānī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, *al-Iṣṭifāʾ fī al-Qurʾān al-karīm: Dirāsa mawḍuʿiyya* (Maktabat al-Rushd, 2011). [^3]: NRSV, Gen. 9:9–17. [^4]: NRSV, Gen. 12:7. [^5]: NRSV, Gen. 17:6–10. [^6]: NRSV, Gen. 17:19–21. [^7]: NRSV, Gen. 35:12. [^8]: David Clines, *Interested Parties: The Ideology of Writers and Readers of the Hebrew Bible* (Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 200. [^9]: Julius Wellhausen, “Israel,” in *Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature*, 9th ed. (Adam and Charles Black, 1898), 399. [^10]: Nathan MacDonald, *Deuteronomy and the Meaning of “Monotheism”* (Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 26. [^11]: Mark S. Smith, *The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel* (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002); MacDonald, *Deuteronomy*. [^12]: Qur’an 7:138. [^13]: Qur’an 7:148–50. [^14]: J. M. Powis Smith, “The Chosen People,” *The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures* 45, no. 2 (1910). [^15]: Reuven Firestone, *Who Are the Real Chosen People? The Meaning of Chosenness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam* (SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2008), 13–30. [^16]: NRSV, Deu. 7:6. [^17]: Joel S. Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election* (Abingdon Press, 2007), 88. [^18]: This article’s interest in the related concepts of “holy land” and “promised land” is confined to pointing out that they do not help in providing a meaningful explanation of the chosenness of the Israelites. [^19]: The lone clear reference to life after death in the Hebrew Bible is this, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” NRSV, Dan. 12:2. The Book of Daniel was written no earlier than the second century BCE, so this passing reference has no bearings on the Bible as a whole. [^20]: E.g., NRSV, Deu. 11:10–15. [^21]: NRSV, Deu. 9:4–7 (emphasis mine). [^22]: E.g., NRSV, Deu. 7:12. [^23]: NRSV, Jer 30:2–3. [^24]: David Novak, *The Election of Israel: The Idea of the Chosen People* (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 123–24. [^25]: Ira Sharkansky, *Governing Israel: Chosen People, Promised Land, and Prophetic Tradition* (Routledge, 2005), 6–8. [^26]: E.g., NRSV, Deu. 7:14. [^27]: E.g., NRSV, Deu. 4:37. [^28]: Novak, *Election of Israel*, 115–16. [^29]: George Foot Moore, *Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of Tannaim*, vol. 2 and 3 (Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 95; Jon D. Levenson, *The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism* (Princeton University Press, 2016), 48; Sigurd Grindheim, *The Crux of Election: Paul’s Critique of the Jewish Confidence in the Election of Israel* (Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 12, 33. [^30]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 194. [^31]: E. P. Sanders, *Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion* (Fortress Press, 2017), 101–4. [^32]: Novak, *Election of Israel*, 116. [^33]: Sanders, *Paul and Palestinian Judaism*, 101. [^34]: Grindheim, *Crux of Election*, 12; Marvin A. Sweeney, “Jewish Biblical Theology,” in *The Hebrew Bible: New Insights and Scholarship*, ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn (New York University Press, 2008), 200. [^35]: Michael Wyschogrod, *The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel* (Harper and Row Publishers, 1989), 58. [^36]: There is a growing discomfort with the concept that the Jews are the elect people of God even among Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative Jews. Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 194. [^37]: Clines, *Interested Parties*, 200–201. [^38]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 7. [^39]: Joel N. Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen* (Eisenbrauns, 2009), 33. [^40]: Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen*, 199. [^41]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 3. [^42]: Benedict de Spinoza, *Theological-Political Treatise*, ed. Jonathan Israel, trans. Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 43–56. [^43]: Levenson, *Love of God*, 42–48. [^44]: Sanders, *Paul and Palestinian Judaism*, 87. [^45]: Menachem Kellner, *Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People* (State University of New York Press, 1991), 89–90. [^46]: Kellner, *Maimonides*, 92. [^47]: Maimonides was a Sephardic rabbi who was born in Córdoba, al-Andalus, and later lived in Morocco and Egypt. He was familiar with Islamic thought and was influenced by Muslim philosophers and theologians. [^48]: Wyschogrod, *Body of Faith*, 60, 64. [^49]: Novak, *Election of Israel*, 247. [^50]: Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen*, 199. [^51]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 11–12. [^52]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 4. [^53]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 5. [^54]: Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen*, 198. [^55]: Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen*, 196–97. [^56]: A. Chadwick Thornhill, *The Chosen People: Election, Paul, and Second Temple Judaism* (InterVarsity Press, 2015), 20. [^57]: Novak, *Election of Israel*, 123–24. [^58]: Sanders, *Paul and Palestinian Judaism*, 96–97. [^59]: Kaminsky, *Yet I Loved Jacob*, 88. [^60]: Spinoza, *Theological-Political Treatise*, 54*.* [^61]: Sanders, *Paul and Palestinian Judaism*, 95; Novak, *Election of Israel*, 123–24. [^62]: Joel S. Kaminsky, “Can Election Be Forfeited?,” in *The Call of Abraham: Essays on the Election of Israel in Honor of Jon D. Levenson*, ed. Gary A. Anderson and Joel S. Kaminsky (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 61. [^63]: Levenson, *Love of God*, 58. [^64]: Regina M. Schwartz, *The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism* (The University of Chicago Press, 1997). [^65]: Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen*, 199. [^66]: Qur’an 2:124. [^67]: See Louay Fatoohi, “Abraham’s Covenant: A Qur’anic Correction of Biblical History and Theology,” YouTube video, February 6, 2024, [https://youtu.be/uAa6T7iyZK0.](https://youtu.be/uAa6T7iyZK0.) [^68]: NRSV, Gen. 13:16. [^69]: NRSV, Gen. 26:4. [^70]: NRSV, Gen. 17:4–5. [^71]: Qur’an 21:60. [^72]: [https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/360/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/360/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735053229700083&usg=AOvVaw0rd9c_QWqyRZ8nopZhBT7q). [^73]: [https://www.ccel.org/ccel/herbermann/cathen01.html?term=abraham](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/herbermann/cathen01.html?term%3Dabraham&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735053229700441&usg=AOvVaw0hqSjRI6FYRi0CEZ1FnzeL). [^74]: ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Ibn ʿAṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-kitāb al-ʿazīz*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2001), verse 2:124; Muḥammad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’an*, ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Turkī (Muʾssasat al-Risāla, 2006), verse 2:124; Maḥmūd al-Ālūsī, *Rūḥ al-maʿānī*, ed. ʿAlī ʿAṭiyya (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1994), verse 2:124; Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr* (al-Dār al-Tūnisiyya li-l-Nashr, 1984), verse 2:124. [^75]: Metin Teke, “Sarah’s Gāreš and Abraham’s Šellach of Hagar: Expulsion or Apostolic Mission?,” *Journal of Religion and Theology* 6, no. 1 (2024): 27–28. [^76]: ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, *Nahj al-balāgha*, ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Ṭabbāʿ and ʿUmar al-Ṭabbāʿ (Muʾassasat al-Maʿārif, 1990), 337. [^77]: Jār Allah al-Zamakhsharī, *al-Kashshāf*, ed. ʿĀdil ʿAbd al-Mawjūd and ʿAlī Muʿawwaḍ, 6 vols. (Maktabat al-ʿUbaykān, 1998), verse 30:23. [^78]: Sohaib Saeed Bhutta, “Intraquranic Hermeneutics: Theories and Methods in Tafsīr of the Qurʾān through the Qurʾān” (PhD diss., University of London, 2017), 24. [^79]: John Barton, *A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths* (Penguin, 2019), 2. [^80]: Shabbir Akhtar, *The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam* (Routledge, 2008), 123. [^81]: In Christianity, the divinity of Jesus is one claim that Scripture not only does not support but also refutes. [^82]: Barton, *A History of the Bible*, 3. [^83]: See “ʿ-h-d” entry in Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab*, ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Kabīr, Muḥammad Ḥasab Allah, and Hāshim al-Shādhilī (Dār al-Maʿārif, n.d.), 4:3148–51. [^84]: See “w-th-q” entry in Aḥmad Ibn Fāris, *Muʿjam maqāyīs al-lugha*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn (Dār al-Fikr, n.d.); Aḥmad al-Ḥalabī, “w-th-q,” in *ʿUmdat al-ḥuffāẓ fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāẓ*, ed. Muḥammad ʿUyūn al-Sūd (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996). [^85]: For the use of the terms *mīthāq* and *ʿahd* for other covenants in the Qur’an, see Joseph Lumbard, “Covenant and Covenants in the Qur’an,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 17, no. 2 (2015). [^86]: Qur’an 20:13. [^87]: Qur’an 28:68. [^88]: Qur’an 7:155. [^89]: This is all that needs stating for the purpose of this article. [^90]: Qur’an 2:40. [^91]: Qur’an 5:12. [^92]: Qur’an 2:83. [^93]: Qur’an 2:93. [^94]: Qur’an 3:187. [^95]: Qur’an 2:84. [^96]: Qur’an 5:12. [^97]: Qur’an 7:169. [^98]: Qur’an 13:19–20. [^99]: Qur’an 7:137. [^100]: Qur’an 21:105. [^101]: Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī, 24 vols. (Dār Hajr, 2001), verse 21:105; Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 32 vols. (Dār al-Fikr li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 1981), verse 21:105; Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr*, verse 21:105. [^102]: Qur’an 44:32. Anti-Jewish sentiments have made some authors claim that preferring the Children of Israel was not over all peoples then, as the Qur’an clearly states, but over specific peoples, such as Pharaoh and his court. ʿAfīf Ṭabbāra, *al-Yahūd fī al-Qur’an* (Dār al-ʿIlm li-l-Malāyīn, 1984), 39. [^103]: Qur’an 44:32. [^104]: Also, Qur’an 45:16, 7:140. [^105]: Qur’an 2:47, 122. [^106]: For instance, this is the understanding of the first generations of Muslims, as reported by al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/922); later scholars, such as Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 604/1207); and modern exegetes, such as Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393/1973). [^107]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr*, verse 2:47. [^108]: Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Bayḍāwī, *Anwār al-tanzīl wa asrār al-taʾwīl*, ed. Muḥammad Ḥallāq and Maḥmūd al-Aṭrash (Dār al-Rāshīd, 2000), verse 2:47. [^109]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ,* verse 2:47*.* [^110]: He embraced Islam as a young man during the caliphate of Abū Bakr and died around the end of the first century of hijra/seventh century CE. [^111]: Abū Muḥammad Makkī b. Abū Ṭālib, *al-Hidāya ilā bulūgh al-nihāya* (Jāmiʿat al-Shāriqa, 2008), verse 2:47. [^112]: ʿImād al-Dīn Ismāʿīl Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAẓīm*, 15 vols. (Muʾassasat Qurṭuba, 2000), verse 2:47. [^113]: Al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʿ*, verse 2:47*.* [^114]: Qur’an 5:20. [^115]: NRSV, Gen. 17:6. [^116]: NRSV, Gen. 17:16. [^117]: Qur’an 5:12. [^118]: Qur’an 5:70. [^119]: Qur’an 45:16. [^120]: Firestone, *Who Are the Real Chosen People?*, 21. [^121]: NRSV, Isa. 42:1. [^122]: NRSV, Isa. 49:6. [^123]: NRSV, Isa. 42:6 (emphasis mine). [^124]: Smith, “The Chosen People,” 82. [^125]: Temjen Imchen, “The Election of Israel: A Theological Critique,” *Indian Journal of Theology* 43, no. 1/2 (2001): 26–27. [^126]: Bernhard Anderson, “God, OT View of,” in *The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia* (Abingdon Press, 1196), 429. [^127]: Thornhill, *The Chosen People*, 259. [^128]: Firestone, *Who Are the Real Chosen People?*, 115–21. [^129]: Lohr, *Chosen and Unchosen*, 33. [^130]: The concept of corporate election is often conflated with individual election in Jewish and Christian theology, in particular when it is linked to individual salvation. See, for instance, Brian Abasciano, “Clearing Up Misconceptions About Corporate Election,” *Ashland Theological Journal* 41 (2009). [^131]: Qur’an 41:44. [^132]: Qur’an 2:140. Also, Qur’an 3:67. [^133]: Qur’an 2:61, 87, 91; Qur’an 3:21, 112, 181, 183; Qur’an 4:155; Qur’an 5:70. [^134]: Louay Fatoohi, “The Non-Crucifixion Verse: A Historical, Contextual, and Linguistic Analysis,” *American Journal of Islam and Society* 40, no. 1/2 (2023): 62–64. [^135]: NRSV, 2 Chron. 24:17–22. [^136]: The Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 57b. [^137]: NRSV, Jer. 26:20–24. [^138]: NRSV, 1 Kings 18:4, 19:10; Neh. 9:26. [^139]: By the middle of the second century, Bishop Melito of Sardis had called the Tanakh “the Old Testament” and in the following century the Christian writer Tertullian introduced the term “New Testament.” [^140]: NRSV, 1 Thess. 2:15; Rom. 11:3. [^141]: NRSV, Acts 7:52. [^142]: NRSV, Matt. 23:29–36 (emphasis mine); also, Luke 11:46–51. [^143]: NRSV, Matt. 23:37; also, Luke 13:34. [^144]: An implicit link is also found in Qur’an 5:70. [^145]: Qur’an 4:155. [^146]: NRSV, 1 Kings 19:10 (emphasis mine). [^147]: Gabriel Said Reynolds, “On the Qur’ān and the Theme of the Jews as ‘Killers of the Prophets,’” *al-Bayan* 10, no. 2 (2012). [^148]: Qur’an 33:40. [^149]: Qur’an 5:48. [^150]: Qur’an 15:9. [^151]: Qur’an 41:42. [^152]: Qur’an 2:129. [^153]: Qur’an 2:151; Qur’an 3:164; Qur’an 62:2. [^154]: Rolf Rendtorff, “A Christian Approach to the Theology of Hebrew Scriptures,” in *Jews, Christians, and the Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures*, ed. Alice Ogden Bellis and Joel S. Kaminsky (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), 147. [^155]: Jon D. Levenson, “Liberation Theology and the Exodus,” in *Jews, Christians, and the Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures*, ed. Alice Ogden Bellis and Joel S. Kaminsky (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), 225. [^156]: NRSV, Matt. 3:9; Luke 3:8. [^157]: NRSV, Rom. 9:6–7. [^158]: NRSV, Rom. 4:11–12. [^159]: Craig A. Evans, “Exodus in the New Testament: Patterns of Revelation and Redemption,” in *The Book of Exodus*, ed. Thomas B. Dozeman, Craig A. Evans, and Joel N. Lohr (Brill, 2014), 454–56. [^160]: NRSV, Heb. 8. [^161]: After Solomon, the kingdom split into a northern kingdom, which retained the name Israel, and a southern kingdom named after the tribe of Judah, in which most of the population lived. [^162]: NRSV, Jer. 31:31–33. [^163]: NRSV, Rom. 9–11. [^164]: Michael J. Vlach, “Various Forms of Replacement Theology,” *The Master’s Seminary Journal* 20, no. 1 (2009). [^165]: Qur’an 5:73, 116. [^166]: Qur’an 5:18. [^167]: Spinoza noted that the election of the Jews was due to the form of their society and good fortune. So their election was corporate, not individual. Spinoza, *Theological-Political Treatise*, 46, 49*.* [^168]: Fazlur Rahman, *Major Themes of the Qur’an* (University of Chicago Press, 2009), 165. [^169]: Firestone, *Who Are the Real Chosen People?*, 84. [^170]: Qur’an 49:13. [^171]: Qur’an 21:92, Qur’an 23:52. [^172]: Qur’an 3:68. [^173]: Qur’an 2:62. [^174]: Qur’an 35:32. [^175]: Qur’an 19:95. Also, Qur’an 6:94; Qur’an 19:80. [^176]: For instance, *aṣḥāb al-janna* (the people of paradise) and *aṣḥāb al-nār* (the people of the fire), which are used throughout the Qur’an. See also, *al-sābiqūn* (the forerunners), *aṣḥāb al-yamīn*/*al-maymana* (the people of the right), and *aṣḥāb al-shimāl*/*al-mashʾama* (the people of the left) mentioned in Qur’an 56:8–10, 38, 41, 90–91. [^177]: To quote one Western scholar, “The Qurʾan does not apply the concept of election to its own believing community in the same way that Jews and Christians at the time did… But in the Qurʾan, God guides individuals who believe the Qurʾan’s message and act rightly, no matter what community they belong to.” Michael Wesley Graves, “The Upraised Mountain and Israel’s Election in the Qurʾan and Talmud,” *Comparative Islamic Studies* 11, no. 2 (2018): 168. [^178]: Its most occurrences are in the group description *al-ladhīna āmanū wa ʿamilū al-ṣāliḥāt* (those who believe and do good deeds); e.g., Qur’an 2:25, 82. [^179]: Qur’an 3:110. When certain Companions of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ called on some Jews to embrace Islam, the latter responded by claiming that Judaism was better than the new religion. This incident is given as the cause of the revelation of the verse, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Wāḥidī, *Asbāb al-nuzūl*, ed. Kamāl Zaghlūl (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1991), 121. But, obviously, the verse is talking about a community. [^180]: Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr* (Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2002), verse 3:110. [^181]: Al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʿ*, verse 3:110. [^182]: ʿUmar is also reported to have made the contradictory statement that “the best nation” refers to “the earliest of us, not the later ones.” Al-Ḥusayn b. Masʿūd al-Baghawī, *Maʿālim al-tanzīl*, ed. Muḥammad al-Nimr, ʿŪthmān Ḍumayriyya, and Salmān Al-Ḥarash (Dār Ṭība, 1989), verse 3:110. [^183]: Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa al-Maʿlūmāt al-Qurʾāniyya bi-Maʿhad al-Imām al-Shāṭibī, *al-Madkhal ilā mawsūʿat al-tafsīr al-maʾthūr*, ed. Musāʿid Al-Ṭayyār (Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2017), verse 3:110. [^184]: Abū Isḥāq al-Zajjāj, *Maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa iʿrābih*, ed. ʿAbd al-Jalīl Shalabī (ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1988), verse 3:110. [^185]: Al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʿ*, verse 3:110. [^186]: Ibn ʿAṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrir al-wajīz*, verse 3:110. [^187]: Al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʿ*, verse 3:110. [^188]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr*, verse 3:110. Ibn Kathīr recounts a number of hadiths that he stresses support the view that the best nation is applicable to all of the Prophet’s followers. [^189]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr*. Ibn ʿĀshūr does not support this interpretation as clearly as the other scholars, but this is the view that he elaborates on. [^190]: The minority view that the first generation of Muslims is not better than all who come later is based on various hadiths that talk about later Muslims who are superior to the early generation, such as, “You are my Companions but my brothers have not come yet.” Aḥmad b. Shuʿayb al-Nasāʾī, *al-Mujtabā min al-sunan*, ed. Farīq Bayt al-Afkār al-Dawliyya (Bayt al-Afkār al-Dawaliyya, 1999), 150. In another hadith, having been asked by a Companion whether there are people better than those who embraced Islam on his hand and fought with him, the Prophet ﷺ replied, “Yes; people who come after you who believe in me having not seen me.” ʿAbd Allāh al-Dārimī, *Musnad al-Dārimī*, ed. Ḥusayn al-Dārānī, 4 vols. (Dār al-Mughnī li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2000), 2786. [^191]: Qur’an 2:143. There are hadiths that interpret the expression “just nation” in this verse as denoting all followers of the Prophet ﷺ. Markaz al-Dirāsāt, *al-Madkhal ilā mawsūʿat al-tafsīr al-maʾthūr*. [^192]: Qur’an 48:29; Qur’an 60:4; Qur’an 7:72, 64, respectively. ## Summary The chosenness of the Children of Israel occupies the very heart of Jewish Scripture, whose narrative moves swiftly from creation to Abraham and then to the descendants of Jacob, presenting this ethnos as the centre of God's plans. Yet a careful examination reveals that the Hebrew Bible portrays this election in language so exclusive that God appears more as a tribal deity of one nation than as the Lord of all creation. In the book of Exodus alone, the phrases "the God of" and "my people" refer exclusively to the Israelites as many as fifty-four times, never once acknowledging Him as the God of the Egyptians or of any other people. Such usage sits uneasily with any claim that He is the sole Lord of everyone and everything, and Western scholarship, traceable at least to Julius Wellhausen in the nineteenth century, has long noted that the early Israelites conceived of their deity as the mightiest among gods whose power was confined to their own land, and that they at times worshipped more than one god. The explanation offered by the Qur'an differs entirely. The religion taught by the Patriarchs was always pure monotheism, and the polytheistic passages found in the Bible represent later distortions and historical lapses of misguided Israelites rather than the teachings of the Prophets. The Qur'an records how the post-exodus Israelites asked Moses to fashion for them an idol resembling those of other nations, and how they later took a calf out of their ornaments and worshipped it. These were episodes in their history but had nothing to do with what Moses taught. This stands against the reconstruction of scholars such as Powis Smith and Reuven Firestone, who argued that Israelite chosenness evolved out of a common ancient god-nation election that was refined once the Israelites came to believe in one universal God. A fundamental weakness of the biblical account is that it neither explains nor justifies this election. Deuteronomy declares the Israelites "a people holy to the LORD" and "his treasured possession," yet no rationale is supplied. The gift of the Torah cannot be the explanation, for the election preceded it by centuries and the Law is presented as a consequence of being chosen, not its cause. The granting of the holy land likewise cannot account for an eternal divine election, and the Bible's fixation upon a worldly land accords with its silence concerning the life to come. More strikingly still, the Bible expressly denies that any merit justified the choice, telling the Israelites plainly, "not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart," and reminding them that they were "a stubborn people." Thus, though the Sinaitic covenant is framed conditionally with commandments and ordinances, the election itself is rendered everlasting and unbreakable, so that no sin, however grave, could render them unchosen and no virtue could raise another nation to their status. The root of this incoherence is the ethnic nature of the election: God loved Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for their righteousness, yet inexplicably chose all the descendants of one of them, knowing they would be disobedient. Jewish, Christian and secular scholars alike concede the difficulty. Many, such as Kaminsky, Sanders and Novak, have retreated to divine love as the explanation, yet they admit this is circular and tautological, an "inexplicable" mystery. David Clines observed with candour that a deity bound to a single nation, leaving the rest of humanity unchosen, delivers a shock to the conscience and reflects a nationalistic ideology. Some defenders dismiss such critique as an anachronistic imposition of Enlightenment values, yet this defence is misleading, for the rabbis themselves wrestled with the question and could offer only three answers: that God offered the covenant to all but only Israel accepted, that some merit lay in the Patriarchs or the exodus generation, or that there was no reason beyond God's will. Maimonides, tellingly, almost entirely ignored the doctrine, denying any inherent distinguishing quality in the Israelites and attributing their holiness to the Torah. Scholars have further noted the danger of unconstrained chosenness, which can foster notions of a master race and a programme of coercive dominance, a danger illustrated in the conduct of the modern state of Israel. The Qur'an confirms that the Israelites were chosen, but supplies a clear and coherent meaning grounded in Allah's promise to Abraham. When Abraham fulfilled the commands with which his Lord tried him, Allah said, "Indeed, I will make you a leader for people," and when Abraham asked that this be extended to his descendants, Allah answered, "My covenant does not include the wrongdoers" (Q. 2:124). Abraham, in his wisdom, sought this favour only for some of his offspring, knowing it could never fall upon an entire nation, nor did he confine it to a single line. The Qur'an also implicitly refutes the biblical claim that God changed Abraham's name, for it uniquely uses the phrase yuqālu lahu ("called") before his name when he was a young man (Q. 21:60), indicating this was always his name; and indeed the Jewish Encyclopedia itself concedes that "Abraham" yields no sense in Hebrew. In analysing this election, the sound principle that the Qur'an interprets itself is employed, a method hinted at by ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), alluded to by al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143), and first stated directly by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). This is possible because the Qur'an has one Author, whereas the Bible, as John Barton and Shabbir Akhtar note, is the work of many hands across centuries and cannot interpret itself. The Qur'an employs five distinct terms often conflated by scholars and translators: ʿahd (covenant), mīthāq (solemn covenant), ikhtiyār (choosing), tafḍīl (preferring) and niʿma (favour). Notably, the two principal terms for spiritual election, iṣṭifāʾ and ijtibāʾ, used for the choosing of Prophets, are never applied to the Israelites as a whole. Unlike the Bible, the Qur'an makes Allah's fulfilment of His covenant conditional upon the Israelites keeping theirs: "fulfil My covenant so I fulfil your covenant" (Q. 2:40). The terms of this covenant, drawn from various verses, include worshipping Allah alone, kindness to parents and the needy, establishing prayer, giving alms, and believing in and supporting His messengers (Q. 2:83; 5:12). This concept of a scriptural covenant is not unique to the Israelites but applies also to the followers of Muhammad ﷺ (Q. 13:19-20). The precise meaning of the election emerges when Allah says, "We chose them, with knowledge, over all peoples" (Q. 44:32), and "I preferred you over the peoples" (Q. 2:47). Muslim exegetes have agreed that the peoples intended were their contemporaries, not all nations for all time. Yet the exact meaning is illuminated by a subtle wording in the verse in which Moses reminds his people that Allah "made among you prophets and made you kings" (Q. 5:20). While the kings are described as being made from the Israelites, the prophets are described as being made among them: this specifies that their true distinction was to be the host nation of the prophets and the guardians of the prophetic heritage of monotheism, divine law and moral code. This reading is confirmed by "We took a solemn covenant from the Children of Israel and sent messengers to them" (Q. 5:70) and "We gave the Children of Israel the Book, wisdom, and prophethood... and We preferred them over the peoples" (Q. 45:16). The Bible, by contrast, fixates upon kings and shows no awareness of the role of prophets, though faint traces survive, as in Isaiah's "a light to the nations." Because their identity as guardians rested upon service and not ethnicity, each Israelite was free to uphold or forsake it. This also explains why the Qur'an identifies the Prophets by their spiritual office rather than their lineage, and insists that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes were neither Jews nor Christians (Q. 2:140), for all Prophets were Muslims, submitters to the one Lord of all worlds. The gravest betrayal of this trust was the killing of prophets, mentioned nine times in the Qur'an and linked directly to the breaking of the covenant (Q. 4:155). The Bible reports the same crime only in passing, though the New Testament, in the words of Jesus and of Paul and Stephen, and in Elijah's complaint that they had "forsaken your covenant... and killed your prophets," preserves a fuller awareness aligned with the Qur'anic portrayal. This election came to a complete and sudden end with the sending of Muhammad ﷺ, the last of the Prophets, who was raised among the Arabs, given a new law and a preserved Book which Allah promised to guard (Q. 15:9; 41:42), rendering the partial custodianship of the Israelites no longer needed. Fittingly, it was Abraham himself who prayed in Mecca for a messenger to be raised among that people (Q. 2:129). Christianity inherited the Jewish notion of chosenness as ethnic superiority, stripped it of its ethnicity, and applied it to the Church, producing supersessionism and later dispensationalism, resting largely upon the teachings of Paul rather than Jesus. Yet the Qur'an rebukes both communities: "The Jews and the Christians say, 'We are the children of Allah and His beloved.' Say, 'Then why does He punish you for your sins?'" (Q. 5:18). In place of these claims, the Qur'an presents all righteous followers of every prophet as "one nation" (ummatan wāḥidatan) of Muslims (Q. 21:92), judged solely by faith and righteous deeds, for "the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you" (Q. 49:13), and every soul comes to Him alone on the Day of Resurrection. Within this one nation, the followers of Muhammad ﷺ are named "the best nation" (khayra ummatin), raised for people, enjoining right and forbidding wrong (Q. 3:110). Though many scholars hold this described the Companions foremost, ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb explained, "Whoever does your deeds will be like you," and a great number of scholars, including al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, al-Zajjāj, al-Qurṭubī, Ibn Kathīr and Ibn ʿĀshūr, understood it to embrace all righteous followers of the Prophet ﷺ, an open station attainable by any who obey Allah. Thus the Qur'an corrects the incoherent and ethnocentric election of the Bible with a clear and just criterion: chosenness as service, ended in its former custodians, and salvation measured only by piety. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Hebrew Bible presents the Israelites as a people specifically chosen by God and contains both enduring covenantal language and passages that tie covenantal privilege and blessing to obedience. From the Qur’anic perspective, any interpretation of choseness as inherent ethnic superiority or permanent moral privilege is rejected in favor of accountability before God. 2. The Qur’an confirms that Allah gave the Children of Israel Scripture, judgement, and prophethood and preferred them over other peoples; many classical exegetes understood this preference as relative to the nations of their own time. The article argues from Qur’an 5:20 and related covenant passages that a central dimension of this distinction was their role as the community among whom many prophets were raised and whose prophetic heritage they were charged to uphold. On this reading, their election was a religious vocation and responsibility rather than a claim of inherent ethnic superiority. 3. This corporate role was a responsibility rather than an unconditional guarantee of permanent superiority and concluded with the mission of Muhammad ﷺ as the final Prophet. The Qur’an repeatedly condemns those among the Children of Israel who killed prophets as acts of a grave betrayal of their prophetic trust. More broadly, the Qur’an teaches that a person’s standing before Allah depends on righteousness rather than ancestry—a principle it applies across human history, not only after the coming of Muhammad ﷺ. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does the Qur’an say the Children of Israel were the chosen people? Yes. The Qur’an confirms that Allah chose the Children of Israel and preferred them over other peoples. It states that He chose them “with knowledge, over all peoples,” and reminds them of the favor by which He “preferred \[them\] over the peoples.” Muslim scholars across the centuries have agreed, though, that this preference was over the other nations of their own time, not over all peoples for all of history. The chosenness was also not unconditional or permanent. It depended on the Israelites keeping their covenant with Allah, and it carried a specific meaning rather than a claim that they were simply better than everyone else. The Qur’an gives this historical preference a more specifically prophetic and custodial purpose than the biblical texts do, differing from the Hebrew Bible which connects Israel’s election with covenantal obligations and a vocation as a holy people and “kingdom of priests.”  Understanding that purpose is the key to understanding what the chosenness actually meant. ### What does it mean that the Children of Israel were “chosen” in Islam? According to the Qur’an, being chosen meant that the Children of Israel were made the host nation of the prophets. For many centuries, Allah raised prophets among them and gave them the Book, wisdom, and prophethood, and their role was to believe in these prophets, support them, and preserve their teachings for later generations. In this sense, they were the custodians of the prophetic heritage, entrusted with guarding monotheism, divine law, and moral guidance. There is a subtle detail in the Qur’an worth noting. It says Allah made the Israelites themselves into kings, meaning they had their own rulers and self-governance, but when it speaks of the prophets, it describes them as prophets raised among the Israelites. Many nations have had their own kings, so that was not what set the Israelites apart. Hosting the prophets was their real distinction. This responsibility was meant to benefit all people, not the Israelites alone. Their chosenness was therefore a task, and an honor tied to that task, not a claim of inherent ethnic superiority or a status they held regardless of how they behaved. ### Are the Jews still the chosen people according to Islam? The Qur’an does not present the Children of Israel’s historical preference as an everlasting superiority over all later peoples.  Their role was to host and support the prophets and to preserve their message until the final prophet came. With the coming of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, that role was complete. He was sent among the Arabs rather than the Israelites, although with a message for all of humanity; he was the last prophet, he was given a new divine law, and he was given the Qur’an, which Allah promised to protect from loss or alteration. Once the purpose of the chosenness was fulfilled, the chosenness itself came to an end. This is why the Qur’an does not describe it as everlasting. The article contrasts this with the biblical portrayal, in which the chosenness of the Israelites is presented as an eternal and unconditional covenant. In the Qur’anic account, being chosen was always a means to an end, and it concluded when that end was reached. ### Does Islam teach that any group is God’s chosen people by birth? No. The Qur’an is clear that Allah does not favor any group on the basis of ethnicity, lineage, or any similar factor. It states that people were made into different nations and tribes so that they may know one another, and that the noblest in Allah’s sight is the most righteous. Righteousness is the only measure. The Qur’an describes all the prophets and their sincere followers across history, from Abraham to Jesus and beyond, as a single “one nation” of those who submit to Allah, connected by faith and good deeds rather than by blood. It also speaks of a “best nation,” which refers to the followers of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who believe in Allah and call others to what is right. Both of these are open to anyone who chooses to follow Allah’s guidance, and neither is closed off to any people by birth. Belonging is earned through religious commitment and moral conduct, and every person is judged individually rather than by group identity. ### Is the killing of prophets by the Israelites only mentioned in the Qur’an? No. The Qur’an refers to some of the Israelites killing prophets as many as nine times, but this is not something unique to the Qur’an. The Hebrew Bible reports it too, mentioning the killing of the priest Zechariah, who is called a prophet in rabbinic writings, and the prophet Uriah, along with other references to prophets being killed. The New Testament raises it as well. Jesus spoke of it several times and described Jerusalem as the city that kills the prophets, and it also appears in the words of Paul and Stephen. One biblical passage, the complaint of the prophet Elijah, even links the Israelites forsaking the covenant with killing the prophets, closely echoing how the Qur’an connects the two. Where the Qur’an stands out is in the weight it gives this failing. The chosen role of the Israelites was to host, support, and protect the prophets sent among them, so killing a prophet went directly against the purpose for which they had been chosen. The Qur’an is also clear that they were not uniquely wicked, since every nation disobeys Allah. The emphasis falls on the seriousness of betraying that specific trust. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/blood-soaked-keys-to-jerusalem-why-we-must-stand-with-the-people-of-syria-essay # “Blood Soaked Keys to Jerusalem”: Why We Must Stand With The People of Syria | Essay **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** History, Islam in the West, Islamic Civilization, Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Perspective, Syria **Published:** December 26, 2024 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 “Who would dare to touch the keys to Jerusalem if they were handed to us soaked in the blood of the children of Idlib?” reads a Palestinian placard days before the resistance took Damascus, marking the fall of the Assad regime on December 7th, 2024, after more than half a century of one of the most brutal dictatorships in the region. This acknowledgment and framing—by a people who, despite confronting a genocide and unparalleled betrayal, still refuse to betray their brothers and sisters in Syria—is the light we need today. This sentiment of ummatic solidarity and principled resistance is exactly what we need before we can even begin to navigate the fraught and confusing situations in the Muslim world today. In this context, we offer some key Islamic reminders and principles to guide us through these troubled times. ![A Palestinian holding a placard reportedly in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_0415-1-1024x700.png) A Palestinian holding a placard reportedly in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine *A Palestinian holding a placard reportedly in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine* Today, most Muslims around the world are celebrating the liberation of the people of Syria, simultaneously horrified by the news of old men who were thrown into Assad’s dungeons as teenagers nearly half a century ago, children born in the darkest of prison cells who had never seen the sun or a tree, and women who went through unspeakable torture. Celebrating their liberation is a sign of faith and a mark of humanity, even as we remain deeply concerned about what it means for Palestine and prayerful for the long, arduous journey that lies ahead for the Syrian people. Still, there is much discord, mudslinging, and disagreement surrounding the Syrian issue. When confronting multiple and complex conflicts, it is sometimes tempting to set aside Islamic morality and embrace a popular or merely utilitarian position. However, this is a serious error. Real life is always complex, and if we do not use knowledge and wisdom to sustain Islamic morality in complex situations, we will fall into the arms of fashionable prejudices, opening ourselves up to sectarianism, bigotry, and loss of meaningful faith. How do we reconcile the perception, if not fact, that some of those standing up to the settler-colonial state of Israel have the blood of hundreds of thousands of Syrians on their hands, not to mention the displacement and untold misery of millions? What of those who stood up to the tyranny in Syria but who also have a checkered past? Muslims will inevitably disagree in their political analysis of the facts on the ground, but what are the Islamic moral principles that provide us with guidance in these challenging times? --- ## The war of facts First and foremost, it is crucial to recognize that as new situations arise, people have access to varying sets of facts, shaped by their different networks and social media echo chambers. Hindsight is 20/20, but it is foresight that requires faith, wisdom, and moral principle. We must, therefore, proceed with caution and forgiveness for fellow Muslims. That being said, many seem to have bought into the fallacy that supporting the oppressed Muslims of Syria compromises the Palestinian cause. Yet the intolerable tyranny under which the Syrians have lived for the last half a century—peppered with massacres and a draconian security apparatus, and the devastating effect this has had on life, society, ethics, and even ideas—are facts beyond a shadow of a doubt. Moreover, the genocide in Gaza and occupation of the Holy Land would be inconceivable if the Muslim states were ruled by those accountable to their populations. Those who justify and even cheer on the tyranny in Syria offer a different rationale. Some are ideologically committed to a version of borrowed, washed-up, radical Western, atheistic, and/or ethno-nationalist ideologies, like Ba'athism.[^1] Others believe that a cause that they identify as anti-colonial can justify or overlook any evil. The similarity with the Zionists is uncanny, for they too justify killing off an entire population to save their favored ethnic group. And there are yet others who are blinded by sectarianism. The first reminder we need to navigate these complex narratives is to attend to facts truthfully, regardless of the inevitable differences of interpretation.[^2] In the absence of this, meaningful moral assessment is impossible. People endlessly dispute whether ISIS is a CIA conspiracy, a deviant and misguided terrorist organization, or something else. Nevertheless, no one should doubt their depravity from the perspective of Islamic morality. There is no doubt that what ISIS did and stood for by murdering innocent Sunni and Shiʿa Muslims, as well as non-Muslim minorities, was truly heinous. It is also true that the Syrian people suffered tremendously under Assad’s regime, and that his forces, backed by Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, have killed many, many times more innocent people than ISIS ever did (the ratio is over 10X).[^3] Equating all Syrian resistance with ISIS or an imperialist plot is no different from Israel justifying its pre-planned genocide by pointing to the attack on October 7th. Both are attempts to manipulate the narrative to justify violence and oppression. We may further ask, if the US is complicit or even directly responsible for the genocide in Gaza, why aren’t Hezbollah and Iran similarly responsible for the atrocities in Syria? Hezbollah was founded in response to the Israeli invasion of and massacres in Lebanon in 1982. Today, one of Hezbollah’s three founders and the only one still alive, Ṣubḥī al-Ṭufaylī sternly denounces Hezbollah’s role in Syria and its subservience to Iran’s political interests.[^4] The Iran apologists, it seems, have given in to the same depraved reasoning that the Zionist apologists use against Palestinians; they dehumanize Syrians and deem all resistance to be ISIS terrorism. Like any other nation-state, Iran is driven by realpolitik—its perception of what it needs for survival at any cost. Just as the diabolical (former) US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declared that the death of half a million Iraqi children was a price worth paying for some imagined US foreign policy goals, Iran apologists seem to imply that the death of half a million Syrians, along with their permanent state of terror and misery under one of the worst tyrannies—even by contemporary Middle Eastern standards—are similarly worth the price. To point out Iran’s and Hezbollah’s horrendous actions in Syria, driven in part by sectarian hatred, is not to single them out as uniquely nefarious actions in a deeply troubled region.[^5] The brutal war on Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, waged by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has claimed the lives of half a million people, with up to 60% of them dying due to indirect causes. This conflict is also driven by nation-state logic, with sectarian prejudice clearly playing some role. Similarly, the Saudi-US backed Iraqi aggression on Iran in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a war that raged on for nearly a decade and claimed nearly a million lives on each side, was predominantly fueled by political self-interest and fed on sectarian fears. Also, still ongoing are the UAE-backed mass atrocities by the rebel forces in Sudan.[^6] --- ## Say no to sectarian falsehoods When looking for answers to complex questions facing us today, it is a tempting but demonstrably false belief that the cause is always a given group that is inherently evil, irredeemable, and the source of the *ummah*’s failure and misery. Among the earliest Muslim leaders to fight back against the Crusaders was a now-largely-forgotten scholar and Qadi of Aleppo by the name of Abū al-Faḍl ibn al-Khashshāb (d. 519/1125). At first, he tried to persuade the Fatimid-allied governor of the city to resist the Crusaders (the Fatimids, recall, were the Ismāʿīlī Shiʿa dynasty in Egypt that played a role in paving the way for the Crusaders). Unsuccessful, he traveled to secure the support of the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad in 1100, just one year after the Crusaders from Western Europe had taken the Holy Land of Jerusalem and massacred its Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Reportedly, the local ulama and Sufis of Baghdad joined his plea to the Sunni caliph, but ultimately, no aid was provided. He finally returned and, after the death of the treasonous governor, led the people of Aleppo against the Crusaders of Antioch in 1119. Although at first taunted for trying to lead an army as a man of the turbaned class, he was eventually recognized as something of a hero. Apart from Sultan Kilij Arsalan’s initial victories in Anatolia, this was the first instance of jihad against the Crusaders.[^7] Like al-Ghazali before him and Salah al-Din after him, Ibn al-Khashshāb realized that no progress was possible without Muslim unity. This unity was threatened by the Fatimids in Egypt and, even moreso, the radical branch of the Ismāʿīlī sect known as the Ḥashīshiyyūn—the Assassins. The Ḥashīshiyyūn were partly responsible for the Muslim defenselessness on the eve of the Crusades, as they had assassinated the Muslim leadership of the time only a few years before the Crusaders arrived. Their victims included the Saljuq Sultan Malikshah (d. 485/1092) and Niẓām al-Mulk of Ṭūs (d. 485/1092). The latter was the renowned Persian vizier who was the architect of the Sunni madrasa system and patron of towering scholars like al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) and al-Ghazali. A few years later in 1125, they succeeded in assassinating Ibn al-Khashshāb as well. Many other ulama and, eventually, military leaders took up the resistance until Salah al-Din liberated Jerusalem in 1187 and the Mamluk King Baybars (d. 676/1277) expelled the last Crusaders a century later. The most remarkable piece of the story, however, is that Ibn al-Khashshāb was not a Sunni, but a Twelver Shiʿi scholar and leader of his religious community—a fact that was not a rare exception. For example, the Hamdanids of Syria, also Shiʿa, had defended the Syrian frontier against the Byzantines on behalf of the Sunni Abbasid caliphate. Of course, I could have pointed out how some Shiʿa scholars collaborated with the Mongols and played a role in the destruction of the caliphate of Baghdad, or how the Safavids forced Iran’s conversion to Shiʿism, and used these examples to insinuate that sectarian conflict and animosity are inevitable. But such a generalization would be an untruth, one with devastating consequences. Each side can produce lists of charges against the other, citing betrayal and transgression. This is not to suggest that theological differences are immaterial, that all doctrines are equally valid, and that concern for unity and peace must trump our concern for truth and rectitude. Rather, the point is that sectarianism not only blinds, divides, and weakens us as Muslims, but also, even in the realm of religious doctrine, diminishes the possibility of productive dialogue and convergence around truth. All the while, our real enemies bet on our utter inability to unite and act as Muslims, even in the face of a genocide unfolding in broad daylight, picking us off one by one. The point of this snapshot from our history is simple. It is a reminder that sectarianism is not the answer, as it blinds us to the real challenges facing the *ummah*. Shiʿa-Sunni differences have been overcome and managed in the past, and can be again. We owe truth and fairness even to those who deny and oppose Islam, and if such unbelievers are not actively hostile to our faith, the Qur’an encourages charity and benevolence towards them (60:8-9). To Muslims, even those we deeply believe to be in error, we surely owe much more. Those perpetrating the genocide in Gaza counted on Muslim indifference and the utter betrayal of their rulers for impunity, and they almost won. Yet, for a moment, Gaza proved the enemies of Islam wrong. Muslims of nearly every school and stripe came together to protest against the genocidal enemy. If the spirit of Gaza dispersed the dark clouds of sectarianism, the darkness of the mass murder and prolonged tyranny in Syria now threatens to engulf us again. How shall we resist the darkness? --- ## The haven of Islamic principles In these conflicts, we witness complex patterns of behavior and moral dilemmas. The rulers of many Sunni-majority states have explicitly betrayed Palestine, openly legitimated and aided the genocidal entity, and have generally waged unjust wars on Muslim populations for purely self-serving, secular political reasons. In contrast, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have stood up for the Palestinian people’s resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation and genocide,[^8] earning the admiration of many around the world, Sunnis included. Of course, they have failed to put an end to the genocide, and the true motives of some of these actors deserve scrutiny, especially since they have shown a far greater willingness to exploit religious sectarianism in their realpolitik and organized violence against Sunni populations. Where do we go from this sad state of affairs in which Muslim blood is being spilt everywhere with impunity? The truth is that a Muslim world divided into many secular statelets, each waging war on its Muslim population, is structurally hard-wired for infighting, weakness, dependence on foreign masters, and uniquely prone to what contemporary academics have called “sectarianization”.[^9] Only a bold return to the religion of Allah can solve our problems, not half-hearted shortcuts. In this spirit, let us remind ourselves of a few of the well-known general Islamic principles that show us the light in confusing times. 1. The blood, property, and honor of every Muslim—every individual who testifies to the twin testimony of faith—are equally sacred and inviolable. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized this repeatedly, including in his Final Sermon. The Qur’an underscores the sanctity of all innocent human life (5:32), and in particular, the mutual rights and responsibilities among believers carry a heightened sense of urgency and seriousness. 2. As believers, we must verify facts before acting. We must be especially cautious when a bearer of information has proven to be unreliable, as Allah says, “O you who have believed, if a wicked person comes to you with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful” (49:6). Given that so much of the information that pervades both social and mainstream media is biased and, at times, outright false, the caution advised in this verse becomes an urgent moral imperative. Forming our opinion based on news that confirms our biases, without investigation and caution, and sharing such news, are errors that we all fall into from time to time. Resisting this epistemic injustice is an obligation and a struggle we will be rewarded for. Since individually verifying every piece of information is not possible, nor is it permissible for us to live in ignorance and indifference, we as Muslims must urgently create, support, and rely on professional and even-handed journalistic institutions and practices. 3. Indifference to Muslims’ concerns and conflicts is not an option. When speaking of intra-Muslim conflicts, the Qur’an (49:9) establishes the principle that we cannot be indifferent to conflict between Muslim parties. We must instead make our best effort to identify the wrong and end transgression. It also demands that justice and fairness rather than national, ethnic, or sectarian affiliation be our guides to resolving conflicts.  4. Resisting sectarianism does not mean that truth does not matter, or that all parties are equally just. Nevertheless, theological debates among Muslims should never be, and have never been, truly settled through violence, bigotry, and misinformation. We must still be just to those we believe to be theologically in error. We must also avoid generalization and unfair attribution. Social psychologists point out a “fundamental attribution error,” which is the human tendency to attribute another group’s errors to their essence (or theology, in this case) and our own errors to accident, chance, or environment.[^10] Too often, we have witnessed the greatest harm to Islam caused by those who sublimate their political, financial, or other interests to ultimate religious principles, who politicize doctrinal differences, and create and exploit sectarian hatred for wicked ends. 5. It is possible that a person or a group contains elements of both good and evil; they must be supported in what is good and opposed and resisted in evil. “And cooperate in charity and righteousness and do not cooperate in wickedness and transgression” (Qur’an 5:2). 6. One should not be fooled or misled by the good Allah allows to occur through those who err. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah may help this religion at the hands of a wicked person or a group that has no good in them.”[^11]  7. By the same token, the notion that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a fallacy. Sometimes Allah neutralizes one transgressor by means of another. The road ahead is not easy, but one thing is clear: it would be a grave error to imagine supporting the rights of the people of Palestine and those of Syria as a zero-sum game. We must not relent in our struggle against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing being planned for the rest of Palestine. Yet speaking out against the mass murder of the people of Syria by the regime, an absolutist totalitarian tyranny of the worst kind that has been in place for over half a century, and its allies is an equal moral necessity and an Islamic obligation. Let us recall the courageous wisdom of the Palestinian placard with which we opened. Even as we face dispossession, famine, and genocide at the hands of a diabolical foreign occupier and betrayal by the Muslim powers around us, and as we are willing to sacrifice everything we have and our future generations for the Holy Land, we reject any victory that comes at the cost of the blood of Syria’s children. This is the highest ideal of moral clarity and Islamic solidarity, one we can all uphold with pride for the world to see. --- ## Notes [^1]: Baʿathism is a pan-Arabist socialist and anti-imperialist ideology that arose among Syrian and Iraqi secularists in the 1940s and included dictators like Saddam Hussein and the Assad family. [^2]: On Islamic guidance for dealing with the perennial problem of fake news, see [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fake-news-is-nothing-new-misinformation-and-islamic-critical-epistemology](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fake-news-is-nothing-new-misinformation-and-islamic-critical-epistemology&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965547389&usg=AOvVaw3d4UY8OWKZmr1GnkRVEy7V) and [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965547497&usg=AOvVaw1sQqCPufm93Qg_XAgb9AOQ) [^3]: The number of deaths related to the regime forces is upwards of 500,000, whereas those linked to ISIS are usually given to be less than 40,000. For detailed reports of human rights violations by all parties in Syria, see reports by Syrian Observatory for Human Rights at  [https://www.syriahr.com/en/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.syriahr.com/en/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965545649&usg=AOvVaw3PLLMdhIzg9O1F5D3U0e1t);  for a news summary: [https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210601-decade-of-syria-war-killed-nearly-500-000-people-new-tally](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210601-decade-of-syria-war-killed-nearly-500-000-people-new-tally&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965545796&usg=AOvVaw3wxBLLhsSsUdBK375rI1fJ). [^4]: Ṣubḥī al-Ṭufaylī, one of the founders of Hezbollah and a leading Lebanese Shiʿa scholar who remains loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini, has repeatedly lamented that Iran has become a Persian nationalist state that exploits sectarianism, and that Hezbollah, under its influence, has killed innocent Sunni civilians and legitimate resistance forces in Iran rather than fighting ISIS. See: [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/they-exploited-sectarianism-former-hezbollah-leader-tufayli-talks-iran-syria](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/they-exploited-sectarianism-former-hezbollah-leader-tufayli-talks-iran-syria&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965546585&usg=AOvVaw0knSHB6Ygz40ozafb594RU) [^5]: For an excellent report on Iran’s role in Iraq by a courageous Intercept reporter (of Shiʿa background), see, [https://theintercept.com/2020/01/05/secret-iranian-spy-cables-show-how-qassim-suleimani-wielded-his-enormous-power-in-iraq/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theintercept.com/2020/01/05/secret-iranian-spy-cables-show-how-qassim-suleimani-wielded-his-enormous-power-in-iraq/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965546022&usg=AOvVaw2Yre6ThQNuBup5_x53HoHt) [^6]: See [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2vvjz652j1o](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2vvjz652j1o&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965546161&usg=AOvVaw3EZOpZOivOYZp8UCNWFvBy) [^7]: On Kilij Arsalan’s recently rediscovered gravesite, see [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grave-sultan-who-defeated-crusaders-uncovered-180976761/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grave-sultan-who-defeated-crusaders-uncovered-180976761/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965547677&usg=AOvVaw1feQVqE1PLya26YjM3O2ns) [^8]: On resistance and international law, see: Judge Charlesworth, Declaration, ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, 2024, para. 23, [https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240719-adv-01-10-en.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240719-adv-01-10-en.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965546808&usg=AOvVaw1FzMONVQ2C_e7HgI6Zvwkl), UN General Assembly Resolution 2105 (1965), in particular paragraph 10, [https://documents.un.org/doc/resolution/gen/nr0/218/68/pdf/nr021868.pdf?OpenElement](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://documents.un.org/doc/resolution/gen/nr0/218/68/pdf/nr021868.pdf?OpenElement&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965546956&usg=AOvVaw2TeFvrHVP5jaVYGChhphqb) [^9]: See Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel (ed.), *Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East* (Oxford University Press, 2017). [^10]: “The Fundamental Attribution Error: What it is and how to avoid it,” [https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/the-fundamental-attribution-error](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/the-fundamental-attribution-error&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1735071965547199&usg=AOvVaw1Z_mo-cMvQuGX0UR8fKS0D) [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 4517, graded as sound. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-the-quran-still-relevant-today-the-timeless-universality-of-quranic-teachings # Is the Qur’an Still Relevant Today? The Timeless Universality of Qur’anic Teachings **Author:** Mohannad Abusarah **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Publication **Published:** November 26, 2024 **Updated:** September 6, 2026 ## Introduction A careful modern reader of the Qur’an is immediately confronted with the following question. The Qur’an was revealed long ago in a very different context. Some verses were revealed in direct response to specific events, addressing particular people and scenarios. Others are concerned with the prophets and nations of the past. How do they continue to be relevant for us in the modern age? On the one hand, there are some who advocate a historicist reading of the Qur’an. The revelation, they insist, is to be interpreted in its historical context. The Qur’an’s teachings and laws are to be seen as restricted to the people it was directly addressing; i.e., the people of Mecca and Medina. While still upholding the divine origin of the Qur’an, such a historicist reading questions the idea that Qur’anic verses are universally applicable across time and space. Some modernists hold that the Qur’an aimed to deliver core values rather than institute specific laws or rituals, and it is these core values that are universal. These core values, furthermore, supposedly correspond to those preached by Western modernity. As such, the explicit laws laid down by the Qur’an can be changed because they were only intended to help our predecessors establish new systems embodying new values, after which they could be shed and superseded by the needs of later Muslims. Muslims through the ages, on the other hand, have believed that Qur’anic teachings are universal and that even specific verses contain teachings and rulings of universal applicability for all times and places. In this article, we substantiate this position, outlining the grounds for Qur’anic universality and addressing common objections and confusions. We show that, notwithstanding the context-specific references, every single human being is the intended audience of every Qur’anic address. --- ## A message for all of humanity The simplest way to establish Qur’anic universality is its own clear insistence. Allah explicitly defines the Qur’an as a message to all of humanity, for all times and all places. 1. **For all the worlds (*ʿālamīn*)**. The revelation is but a reminder for “the worlds” (*al-ʿālamīn*).[^1] This expression is mentioned in the Qur’an on a number of occasions. For instance, “And We have not sent you, except as a mercy to *al-ʿālamīn*,”[^2] and “Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His Servant that he may be to *al-ʿālamīn* a warner.”[^3] *Al-ʿālamīn* is always used in the Qur’an in an all-encompassing sense, for Allah describes Himself as the “Lord of *al-ʿālamīn*.”[^4] Some early exegetes, including Qatāda, Mujāhid, and al-Ḥasan, explicitly define *al-ʿālamīn* as referring to creation in its entirety.[^5] Likewise, Allah created the innumerable languages and colors of humankind as instructive signs for *al-ʿālamīn*,[^6] beyond any restriction of color, ethnicity, age, or social status. Another variant that points to this idea reads, “This Book is only a reminder and a clear Qur’an to warn *whoever is alive* and justify the word against the disbelievers.”[^7] Since this verse includes all people who are living, it also extends to all subsequent generations who will live in the future.[^8] 2. **For all people (*kāffat al-nās; al-nās jamīʿa*)**. The universality of the Prophet’s message is further affirmed in various verses of the Qur’an as well as in numerous hadith reports. Allah says, “And We have not sent you except comprehensively (*kāffa*) to humankind.”[^9] Ibn ʿAṭīyya (d. 541/1146) in his Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*) states that this verse entails “an announcement that Allah has sent the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to the entirety of the world and that the word *kāffa* means the entire assemblage of humanity.”[^10] In a clear indication that Allah sends His message to all people in all times and places, He says, “And We have sent you, \[O Muhammad\], to humankind as a messenger,”[^11] and “Say, \[O Muhammad\], ‘O humankind, indeed I am the Messenger of God to you all.’”[^12] In one hadith, the Prophet ﷺ tells us that “every messenger was sent particularly to his own people, whereas I have been sent to all the red and the black.”[^13] Among the interpretations of “the red and the black” discussed by Imam al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) are that red symbolizes non-Arabs and black symbolizes Arabs, or that red represents human beings, whereas black represents the jinn. Al-Nawawī concludes that “all these meanings are valid since the Prophet ﷺ was sent to all of them.”[^14] 3. **To men and jinn**. The inclusive scope of the Prophet’s message is displayed by the jinn who embraced Islam. God narrates that the jinn, after hearing about the Prophet’s message, said, “O our people, respond to the Messenger of God and believe in him; God will forgive \[you\] for your sins and protect you from a painful punishment.”[^15] Allah also informed the Prophet ﷺ that “a group of the jinn listened and said, ‘Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur’an. It guides to the right course, and we have believed in it. And we will never associate with our Lord anyone.’”[^16] Muslim scholarship through the ages took the universality of the Qur’an as an established premise. In his *al-Muwāfaqāt*, Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388) states that Islam is for all people equally, and that the Shariah is comprehensive and universal (*kulliyya ʿāmma*) in its scope.[^17] Thus, he insists on not excluding people from ritualistic and legal obligations without valid reason, which had become the practice of some Sufis in his time.[^18] Islamic Shariah, he states, “is not specific for some to the exclusion of others in its communication of the rules based on demand, nor does it selectively burden its subject through the rules.”[^19] **Following the true path of Islam is obligatory for everyone equally regardless of their time, place, or situation. Since Islam is sent for the benefit of all people, he argues, it cannot be sent particularly to some people to the exclusion of others. Otherwise, nothing would guarantee the benefit of all people in the absolute sense.**[^20] --- ## The final revelation The Qur’an establishes its universality in part through its self-awareness or, we might say, its self-historicization. Namely, the Qur’an places itself in a historical progression of prophetic missions, of which its own mission is final and most general. Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ message is but the culmination of a long prophetic chain that includes Arab and non-Arab prophets. Thus Allah instructs the Prophet ﷺ, “Say, ‘I am not something original among the messengers.’”[^21] The Qur’anic call to monotheism is old and new, particular and universal, reaching far beyond the Prophet ﷺ and his people to address all mankind—before and after, in every place and at every time. Observe the difference between doctrine (*ʿaqīda*) and law (*sharīʿa*). *ʿAqīda*, the core of which is divine unicity (*tawḥīd*), is historically universal, with each prophet and messenger tasked with pronouncing the same monotheistic message from time immemorial. However, each of those prophets and messengers brought a different shariah, its laws restricted to the time and situation of the people for whom it was revealed. Each shariah was inevitably corrupted by time and human error, necessitating the final and universal revelation of the Qur’an. Allah says, “And We have revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it… To each of you We prescribed a law and a method.”[^22] The Shariah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ therefore abrogates all preceding shariahs, and, at the same time, cannot itself be abrogated.[^23] This Shariah is the last one, by which Allah ends the chain of prophets sent to humanity. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Each prophet was sent only to his nation, but I have been sent to all of humankind.”[^24] Since this is the last shariah that humanity will ever receive, it marks a new era of universal law that must last until the Day of Judgment. As such, no other shariah or ideology, whether preceding the Prophet’s message or constructed thereafter, can replace it. Ibrāhīm al-Lāqqanī’s well-known work on scholastic theology titled *Jawharat al-tawḥīd* (the Jewel of Divine Unification) includes a poetic verse that articulates this truth best: “His \[Prophet Muhammad’s\] Shariah will not be abrogated until time itself is abrogated.”[^25] --- ## How particular rulings reveal universal truths Having established the universality of the Prophet Muhammad’s message and law, we now turn to show how seemingly particular commands in the Qur’an and the *sunna* reveal universal truths. ### Allah’s established ways In the Qur’an, Allah makes reference to His established practices (*sunna*, pl. *sunan*) several times to indicate His unchanging ways of dealing with human beings. We tend to think about the *sunna* in terms of the practice of the Prophet—but what then is the *sunna* of Allah? The root of the Arabic word *sunna* indicates something flowing, proceeding smoothly.[^26] The Qur’an employs ‘Allah’s *sunna*’ to refer to the established patterns in Allah’s dealings with human communities. For instance, “\[That is Our\] established *sunna* for those We had sent before you of Our messengers; and you will not find in Our law (*sunna*) any alteration.”[^27] Commenting on this verse, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) states, “The Almighty’s law (*sunna*) means His consistent way of treating His pious worshipers and enemies.”[^28] By tracing the mentions of *sunnat Allah* in the Qur’an, we can infer that Allah’s established practice has three prominent characteristics. First, Allah’s *sunna* is fixed, consistent and unalterable; “And you will not find in the practice of God (*sunnat Allah*) any change.”[^29] Consequently, the methods by which Allah dealt with the people of the ancient past were the same as those He used to deal with people during the time of the Prophet ﷺ and which He also uses in His dealing with us today. Second, Allah’s *sunna* is universal. His way of dealing with humans brooks no exception. The Qur’an poses a rhetorical question to its rejectors: “Are you disbelievers better than those \[who came before you\], or have you immunity in the scripture?”[^30] The Qur’an expects its readers to instinctively respond in the negative. Having learned of the unchanging ways of Allah, they should not expect that they will be judged any differently or have any immunity. “Whoever does a wrong will be recompensed for it.”[^31] Third, Allah’s *sunna* is sublime and certain. This characteristic is emphasized by al-Rāzī (d. 605/1210) in his commentary on the verse, “But you will never find in the practice of God any change, and you will never find in the practice of God any alteration.”[^32] Al-Rāzī states that “He paired it \[the term *sunna*\] with Allah, because when the known practice is paired with Allah, it will be glorified and it will be known that its reality is certain and that there is no preventer of it.”[^33] Always remembering that the *sunna* of Allah is the *sunna* of the Creator who is Omniscient, Wise, and Just gives us certainty in the truth and power of His laws. It serves to reassure us that Islam is for our own good and following its guidance will lead to happiness in this life and in the hereafter. ### Learning from the past The Qur’an leaves no doubt that in the stories of the past, there  “is a lesson (ʿ*ibra*) for people of understanding.”[^34] This drawing of lessons, in the words of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), “means comparing one thing to its counterpart, so that a person realizes that the ruling or outcome for one is the same as the other.”[^35] Put differently, since God does not change his practice (*sunna*), the human being can reason by analogy to predict the consequences of actions before they happen. Stories of the past sensitize us to the universality of corruptive matters, behaviors, and temptations; they direct our attention to the nature of reality—that is, to Allah’s fixed and steady practice—so we may learn from the experiences of those who came before us. The Qur’an uses the term *ʿibra* (lesson) and its derivative *fa-ʿtabirū* (so, take a lesson) to remind us that the Qur’an is a source of invaluable wisdom, inspiration, and counsel.[^36] By getting to know the stories of the past, we come to understand Allah’s established practice and thus are able to take informed action to achieve the pleasure of Allah in this life and the hereafter. For example, recurrent Qur’anic stories about the punishment that befell the peoples who denied their prophets invite deep introspection from the believer, warning of the grave consequences of abandoning Allah and His way. The right path to which previous prophets called is the same path to which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ called, and so we are liable to end up in the same position as the disbelievers if we follow in their footsteps. Thus, these stories, far from serving as merely static and historical accounts, educate their audience in the timelessness of Allah’s established practice. Sūrah Hūd provides a paradigmatic example of the Qur’anic approach to the past. Allah narrates the stories of seven nations to whom He sent seven prophets. Throughout the stories, Allah establishes a contrast between the ways of the believers and those of the disbelievers. In verses 18-24, Allah describes the unjust as those who “averted \[people\] from the way of God and sought to make it \[seem\] deviant.” Despite their efforts, they did “not cause failure \[to God\] on earth, nor did they have besides God any protectors.” They are those “in the Hereafter who will be the greatest losers.” Allah contrasts their destination to that of those “who have believed and done righteous deeds and humbled themselves to their Lord,” emphasizing that “those are the Companions of Paradise; they will abide eternally therein.” The *sūrah* then narrates the stories of ancient nations and their prophets. These stories all share the same pattern; each time, Allah compares the fate of those who obeyed and those who disobeyed. The law of Allah entails that He eventually punishes disbelievers and rewards believers in this world and the hereafter. After narrating the stories of the prophets Nūḥ (Noah), Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Ibrāhīm (Abraham), and Lūṭ (Lot) (as), Allah follows with Prophet Shuʿayb (as) calling to his people, “And O my people, let not \[your\] dissension from me cause you to be struck by something similar to what struck the people of Nūḥ or the people of Hūd or the people of Ṣāliḥ. And the people of Lūṭ are not from you far away.” Allah’s *sunna* is consistent. Prophet Shuʿayb (as) warned his people that Allah’s laws would apply to them, as they applied to those before them. As such, believers reading these verses are also warned that, by Allah’s *sunna*, disbelief ends in punishment and belief ends in glad tidings. After narrating these seven stories of the prophets and their people, Allah explains how these stories exhibit His *sunna* and serve as sources of guidance for the believer. In verse 103, Allah says, “Indeed in that is a sign (*āya*) for those who fear the punishment of the Hereafter.” The word *āya* is usually translated to “sign” and is the more common meaning in the Qur’an. In many verses of the Qur’an, Allah uses the expression “verily, in that is a sign” (*inna fī dhālika la-āya*) following verses that indicate His existence and His power. A similar sense of meaning is present in this verse, with most exegetes interpreting the word *āya* to mean “a lesson” through which Allah teaches us His *sunna* so we may take heed. The exegete Ibn ʿAṭīya (d. 548/1146) combines the two meanings of *āya*, giving the term a unique dimension. He states that in these stories there are lessons and guidance for those who fear the hereafter and fear its punishment, which leads them to think, which leads them to faith in God Almighty.[^37]  By narrating these stories, Allah teaches us a lesson and, at the same time, shows us a sign that guides us to Him. In Sūrah al-Shuʿarāʾ, Allah repeats the expression “*inna fī dhālika la-āya*” eight times. While the first instance in verse 8 refers to producing plants from the earth as a *sign* of Allah’s power and Omnipotence, the seven subsequent mentions use the word *āya* to mean *lesson*, as is the case in Sūrah Hūd. Each mention appears after Allah narrates a story of a prophet. He teaches us that in the story of saving Mūsā (Moses) (as) and the people with him and drowning Pharaoh and his followers, “there is a sign”; in the story of Ibrāhīm (as) and the consequences of idol worship, “there is a sign”; in the story of Nūḥ (as) and the saving of believers and drowning of disbelievers, “there is a sign”; in the story of Hūd (as) in which God destroyed the deniers, “there is a sign”; in the story of Ṣāliḥ (as) and the punishment of the disobedient, “there is a sign”; in the story of Lūṭ (as) and the severe torment of those who refused purity and the salvation of those who kept themselves pure, “there is a sign”; and in the story of Shuʿayb (as) and the punishment of the mockers, “there is a sign.” In affirming the lessons that are contained within each of these stories, Allah shows us that each story is relevant to our own time. The denial and mockery that prophets of the past faced are not merely historical events but experiences that believers have faced throughout the history of humankind. Similarly, another Qur’anic example of lessons from the past connects disbelief and transgression (*ṭughyān*). Since faith in the Islamic tradition is inseparable from action, the Qur’an warns its readers that false beliefs are going to be reflected in one’s actions and attitudes. Transgression is mentioned in the Qur’an several times describing disbelievers who rejected the revelation after seeing clear evidence of its truth.[^38] The term is also mentioned in the context of describing Pharaoh as a tyrant.[^39] Linguistically speaking, the root of the word *ṭughyān* indicates exceeding the limits in a way that leads to injustice.[^40] ‘Exceeding the limits’ manifests in different forms. An egocentric person transgresses their limits as a finite human being. An arrogant person exceeds the limits of what they actually deserve. A tyrant transgresses the limits of their actual autonomy. Thus, the Qur’anic connection between disbelief and *ṭughyān* reminds us of a certain law (*sunna*) that is relevant to our time and place. It teaches us that belief and disbelief do not simply exist in the mind as isolated states, but rather form part of an entire system that manifests in one’s behavior and characteristics. Believing in God and His messenger ﷺ drives a person away from misconceptions and arrogance. When a person cuts ties with the Creator and believes that they do not need God for guidance, they exceed the limits and become *ṭāghiya* (tyrannical or arrogant). The subtle connection between disbelief and tyranny can be read in the saying of Allah, “No! \[But\] indeed, man transgresses because he sees himself self-sufficient.”[^41] --- ## The Qur’an speaks to you Even when we know that the Qur’anic message is universal, it is easy to forget what that means. The great Andalusian scholar Abū al-Ḥasan al-Marākishī (d. 638/1241) illustrates this point by saying: > What prevents most of this *umma* from understanding the Qur’an is the misconception that the stories of ancient people and the reports of the rewarded and punished people are meant only to convey stories and reports. This is not the case. Rather, they are meant to convey lessons (*iʿtibār*) and direct attention to cases that are recurring in this *umma*, that resemble these \[reported\] cases, situations, and traits so one can listen to the whole Qur’an as relevant to this *umma* and its leaders, both the guided and misguided ones. Thus, the gate of understanding opens, the light of knowledge shines, \[the reader\] feels the fear \[of God\] and notices the similarity between the people of the past and the current *umma*. And it was said in the parable ‘I’m talking to you. But listen to me, oh neighbor.’[^42] > > Then, if \[the reader\] witnesses the relevance of the Qur’an to the entirety of the *umma*, thus he is a scholar, the gate of progress opens for him, his ability of understanding progresses until he finds the entirety of the Qur’an that applies to this *umma* also applies to himself regarding his conditions, fluctuations, behaviors, and the crowding of his thoughts. When he realizes that the Qur’an applies to himself, he benefits from hearing all of it and will take a lesson from every verse he hears. Thus, he seeks its relevance to himself and finds it in some way, whether it is for hope or fear, ascending to the highest goals or descending to the lowest levels, so he would be a person of knowledge.[^43] In the same vein, Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), in his magnum opus *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), lists ten inner actions that one should engage in when reciting the Qur’an. The seventh action is called ‘specification,’ in which the reader should assume “that he is the intended audience of every Qur’anic address.”[^44] When the reader hears “a command or a prohibition, he assumes that he is the one being prohibited or commanded; likewise if he hears a promise or a threat.”[^45] The same attitude should be adopted when a reader encounters a narrative of ancient nations: “If he hears a narrative of the bygone peoples or prophets, he realizes that genial story-telling is not the goal; rather, the goal is for him to take himself to account through it, and to extract from within its folds what he needs from it, for every narrative in the Qur’an is drawn out for a specific benefit with respect to the Prophet ﷺ and his community.”[^46] Al-Ghazālī points out a beautiful analogy. He reminds us that when reading the verse “that by which we grant strength to your heart,”[^47] readers should realize that God is granting strength to their hearts through His narration of the stories of the prophets, of their patience and resolve upon the truth and their trust in the ultimate relief from God. Thus, al-Ghazālī shows us that the fact that this verse is revealed to the prophets entails that it is also “healing, guidance, mercy, and light to the worlds.”[^48]He mentioned examples of verses like: “We have revealed to you a Book in which is your \[honorable\] mention”[^49] and “We have revealed to you the remembrance such that you would clarify to people what has been revealed to them”[^50] to show that “When He \[God\] directs his address to all people, He also intends every individual, so this individual reciter is also intended in what pertains to him and the rest of the people. The reciter should thus always assume he is the intended target.”[^51] Commenting on the verse “And this Qur’an was revealed to me that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches,”[^52] al-Ghazālī adduces a fascinating quote by Muḥammad b. Kaʿb al-Quraẓī: “It is as if God Almighty speaks directly to whomever the Qur’an reaches.”[^53] This inner action that al-Ghazālī calls ‘specification’ connects Muslims in all times and places to the Qur’an, so they realize that the Qur’an has a specific message for them in the most literal sense of the word. Similarly, Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (d. 1762) points out that when God tells a story of the ancient people or addresses disbelievers during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, He is directing us to relevant issues in our current time. Dehlawi states that: > In every case, when you read the Noble Qur’an, you ought not to think that the polemic is addressed to a people who have since become extinct, but that there is no test and trial that has existed in the past except that an example of it exists even today as is narrated in the noble hadith: ‘You surely follow the traits of those before you.’ The objective of the Noble Qur’an is to explain the universality of these corruptive matters and not the particularity \[or intricate details\] of events.[^54] Thus, it is narrated that when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came to a verse that spoke of mercy, he stopped and made a supplication, and when he came to a verse that spoke of punishment, he stopped and sought refuge in God.[^55] These emotional reactions show us how we are supposed to read the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ understood that these verses addressed him as a reader and are meant to give a lesson to whoever is reading the Qur’an. As the Prophet ﷺ found them relevant to himself, we also should have the same perception.[^56] --- ## Universality of laws The universality of human nature and of Allah’s fixed and consistent *sunna* allow us to see the shared and continued moral realities. However, it can be harder to see how legal rulings (*fiqh*) connect with present times. One might wonder how universal laws are borne from particular instances, or how some Qur’anic rulings could possibly relate to us, given that they were commanded to specific people and for specific contexts. This section clarifies some of the confusion that surrounds the universalization of Qur’anic rulings. ### General meanings and occasions of revelations in the Qur’an In the Qur’an, Allah reveals a body of laws that direct people’s actions in their everyday lives. Some of these rulings do not explicitly address all people; some were revealed for specific individuals, and others were revealed in particular contexts. In all cases, given the universal characteristic of the Qur’an, universally applicable laws have been extracted from these verses using specific tools. One main issue that arises when considering this process is the question of “the generality of the verbal form and the particularity of the occasions of revelation.”[^57] That is, how are we to understand the relation between the general ruling itself and the context in which it was revealed? The majority view is that “the crucial factor is the general meaning, not the specific context”[^58] (*al-ʿibra bi-ʿumūm al-lafẓ lā bi-khuṣūṣ al-sabab*). This means that verses revealed on special occasions are considered in their general meaning, and are not taken as articulating a particular rule that is only relevant to the specific context of revelation.[^59] One verse to which this principle applies is Allah’s proclamation that “Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds.”[^60] This verse was revealed when a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said “Messenger of God, I consorted with a woman on the outskirts of Medina, and I got what I wanted from her short of having intercourse with her. Now here I am, so decide what you wish about me.” ʿUmar (rA) said to him, “God has concealed this about you. If only you would have kept it to yourself!” The Prophet ﷺ gave no reply, so the man got up and went away. Then the Prophet ﷺ sent a man after him to summon him, and he recited the verse, “And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember.” One of the people asked, “Oh Prophet of God, does this refer to him in particular?” He replied, “No, it refers to all people.”[^61] Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) supports this principle by referring to the practice of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. He points out that it was their common and widespread practice to adjust to new situations during their time by appealing to Qur’anic verses and hadiths that had been revealed on particular occasions in the past.[^62] One example that al-Suyūṭī provides is a report on Ibn ʿAbbās’ understanding of the verse about theft (5:38). Even though the verse was revealed concerning a theft committed by a specific woman, Ibn ʿAbbās indicates the meaning of this verse is to be determined by the generality of its verbal form.[^63] Following this principle, al-Ṭabarī includes a relevant statement in his discussion on the occasion of the revelation of the verse, “O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, \[sacrificing on\] stone altars \[to other than God\], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid them that you may be successful.”[^64] After surveying the various narratives of the occasion of revelation, he continues, “exegetes disagreed on the reason this verse had been revealed… we do not have a sound report;, however, whatever the right reason is, the rule in the verse enjoins all morally responsible people, and there is no need from them to know the reason for this verse.”[^65] Al-Ṭabarī emphasizes this principle even more when explicating the meaning of the verse, “And be not excessive (*tusrifū*). Indeed, He does not like those who commit excess (*al-musrifūn*).”[^66] He clarifies that linguistically, *isrāf* means failing to give the right amount, whether by giving too much or too little. After describing these two meanings, al-Ṭabarī states that “the verse had been revealed to the Messenger of God ﷺ for a specific reason, and its rule became general and universal, as it is the case for the majority of Qur’anic verses.”[^67] However, the emphasis on the general meaning of a ruling over the particularity of its occasion of revelation does not render the latter entirely irrelevant or useless. Al-Suyūṭī mentions several benefits of knowing the particular occasion of revelation of verses and pushes back against those who believe that they are only a matter of history. For example, one benefit is to understand the reasoning behind the imposition of a specific law.[^68] Another benefit is “their usefulness in figuring out the meanings of revelations and resolving interpretive puzzles.”[^69] Al-Suyūṭī quotes Ibn Taymiyya, who argues that “knowing the occasion of revelation directs one to a comprehension of the verse; knowing the occasion leads to knowing what is occasioned.”[^70] One example that al-Suyūṭī provides to illustrate this benefit is a narration of Marwān b. al- Ḥakam. Marwān was puzzled by the Qur’anic verse, “And never think that those who rejoice in what they have perpetrated and like to be praised for what they did not do—never think them \[to be\] in safety from the punishment, and for them is a painful punishment.”[^71] Al-Suyūṭī recounts that Marwān said, “If everyone who exalts in what is given and loves to be praised for what he has not done is to be punished, then surely we will all be punished.” In response, Ibn ʿAbbās clarified that this verse was revealed regarding the People of the Book, namely Jews and Christians. The Prophet ﷺ had inquired about a matter, but they concealed the truth from him, instead presenting a distorted version. They made him think that they had told him what he had asked about, and then sought his commendation for it.[^72] Thus the context of revelation assuages Marwān’s concern by restricting this verse’s condemnation to individuals seeking praise for actions that outwardly appear to align with religious teachings but actually contradict them. Another example: Qudāma b. Maẓʿūn and ʿAmr b. Maʿdī Karab reportedly claimed that wine was permissible based on the verse, “There is not upon those who believe and do righteousness \[any\] blame concerning what they have eaten.”[^73] Al-Suyūṭī explains that “they would not have said this if they had known the occasion when this verse was revealed. When wine was made forbidden, some people said, ‘What of those who fought and died in the way of God, and who used to drink wine when it was merely unclean \[and not yet forbidden\]?’ Then this verse was revealed.”[^74] The occasion of revelation makes it clear that the verse does not permit wine, but does pardon those who drank wine before its prohibition. Knowing the occasion of revelation also helps us discern when a verse has not exhausted the topic at hand, per al-Suyūṭī.[^75]  Consider the following verse: “Say, ‘I do not find within that which was revealed to me \[anything\] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it be a dead animal or blood spilled out or the flesh of swine—for indeed, it is impure—or it be \[that slaughtered in\] disobedience, dedicated to other than God.”[^76] Al-Suyūṭī quotes Imam al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820), who explains that the verse was revealed in response to the disbelievers who forbade what Allah had allowed and allowed what Allah had forbidden. The verse lists foods that these specific disbelievers considered permissible in order to oppose their desire and confirm that what they considered permissible is in fact forbidden.[^77] Understanding the occasion of revelation, we realize that the verse does not cover all forbidden foods.[^78] ### General (ʿāmm) and particular (khāṣṣ) phrases One key mechanism for universalizing legal rules relates to the distinction between phrases that are general (*ʿāmm*) and phrases that are particular (*khāṣṣ*). These two categories, devised by Muslim legal theorists, are primarily discussed in the context of command phrases found in the original sources (the Qur’an and hadith). A general phrase or expression is defined by al-Rāzī as “the word that includes all its proper referents,”[^79] meaning that it applies to all people. Examples of such phrases include “*kull*” and “*jamīʿ*” which both mean “all.” However, the scope of a general commandment could be narrowed to a specific group through the tool of specification (*takhṣīṣ*), such that it only applies to men, women, the elderly, etc. For example, the verse, “And \[due\] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House”[^80] does not include minors, based on other proofs from hadith and reason (*ʿaql*).[^81] Specification does not negate the rule’s universality, but rather limits the group of individuals to whom it applies. If a rule obligates men and excludes women, the rule remains universal within the context of this specific group. What then of rules addressing a specific person or responding to a specific occasion—should they be considered universal? When we read that God revealed a verse commanding a specific companion of the Prophet ﷺ to follow a specific rule, should we also follow this rule? When we read that the Prophet ﷺ answered a particular question with a particular ruling, are we to understand that the ruling only applies to the questioner? In his *al-Mustaṣfā*, al-Ghazālī mentions two categories in which Prophetic responses should be considered universal and not only particular to the immediate addressees. In the first category are responses expressed in generic terms. For example, when the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the sea, he responded, “Its water is purifying, and its dead \[animals\] are lawful \[to eat\].”[^82] In this case, we know that this ruling is universal given the generality of the Prophet’s response (i.e., the use of generic terms). The second category involves cases where neither responses nor questions include generic phrases. Al-Ghazālī provides an example: a man once asked the Prophet ﷺ what to do after having sexual intercourse during the fast of Ramadan, and the Prophet ﷺ instructed him to free a slave.[^83] Another example comes from Imam Badr al-Dīn Zarkashī (d. 794/1392). A man came to the Messenger of Allah when he was in al-Jiʿrānah wearing a cloak and perfume. The man said: “O Messenger of Allah! I have entered *iḥrām* for *ʿumrah* and I am as you see.” The Prophet ﷺ said: “Take off the cloak and wash off the perfume, and whatever you would do for Hajj, do it for *ʿumrah*.”[^84] In these types of cases, al-Ghazālī clarifies, the response is universalized not by means of the genericity of the linguistic expression (*ʿumūm*) but by means of analogy (*qiyās*).[^85] In such a case, the jurist should investigate the *ʿilla* (lit. *ratio legis* or reason for the law) that triggers the ruling that the Prophet ﷺ made. Al-Ghazālī justifies this principle by citing the hadith, “My judgment on the individual is my judgment on the whole.”[^86] In al-Ghazālī’s example, a jurist should investigate the *ratio legis* that required the man to free a slave and implement this rule whenever and wherever the *ratio legis* occurs, at any time and place. According to al-Shāṭibī, the practice of using analogy to universalize particular Qur’anic commandments and Prophetic utterances goes back to the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Shāṭibī illustrates this by reference to how the companions generalized the particular meaning revealed in Qur’an 33:37, in which Allah abrogates the pre-Islamic tradition of adoption and its consequences. All these attempts, as al-Shāṭibī argues, show that earlier jurists from among the companions, their followers, and those who followed them aimed to show that a particular rule from a case did not remain confined to it.[^87] One final example from the Qur’an is found in the fourth verse of Sūrah al-Māʾidah. It is narrated that two companions, ʿAdiy b. Ḥātim and Zayd b. Muhalhal (rA), asked the Prophet ﷺ, “We are a people who hunt with hounds and falcons, so what is permissible for us from their \[hunt\]?” Then, God revealed the verse that reads, “They ask you, \[O Muhammad\], what has been made lawful for them. Say, ‘Lawful for you are \[all\] good foods and \[game caught by\] what you have trained of hunting animals which you train as God has taught you. So eat of what they catch for you, and mention the name of God upon it, and fear God.’ Indeed, God is swift in account.”[^88] Abū Jaʻfar al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) cites several scholars from different generations who debated the meaning of “hunting animals” (*jawāriḥ*), when a hunting animal is considered “trained,” and what exactly becomes lawful after their hunting.[^89] These meanings became the base for a universal Islamic dietary law that applies to all people and is not restricted to those who originally asked the Prophet ﷺ. The Qur’an’s universality entails that rulings were prescribed for specific people on specific occasions during the time of the Prophet ﷺ for the purpose of conveying rulings to the rest of humanity. Through the tools mentioned, scholars, following the approach of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, have endeavored to extract universal rules from particular contexts. --- ## Conclusion > “My son, read the Qur’an as if it were revealed to you.” Decades later, this single piece of advice from his father is what stuck most in the mind of the 20th-century poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. Indeed, it was “the most impactful advice I received in my life.”[^90] The advice of Iqbal’s father was sound. When the Prophet ﷺ, in the Qur’an, is instructed by Allah to declare “And this Qur’an was revealed to me that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches,”[^91] he ﷺ is telling us that the Qur’an addresses every single person who hears it. Various scholars, commenting on this verse, cite the Prophet ﷺ as saying, “Whoever the Qur’an reaches is as if I directly read it to him.”[^92] The Qur’an is a revelation that directly speaks to us. It is universal in its application and relevance, as promised by its own verses and  the testimony of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. By viewing themselves as the intended audience of every Qur’anic address, and connecting each address to Allah’s established *sunna,* believers are able to take invaluable lessons from the past stories of the prophets and their nations. We must always understand that rulings prescribed for specific people during the time of the Prophet were prescribed for all of humanity. Thus whenever we approach the Qur’an and reflect upon its verses, we should take ourselves into account. We should read ourselves into every scenario, every story, every ruling. Do we act like the Pharaoh? The Children of Israel? The hypocrites? The believers? Are we honoring Allah’s rulings? The Qur’an is a grace from Allah, enabling people to connect with Him and to feel the consciousness and presence of the Almighty. This experience is accessible to anyone who approaches Allah’s words with a sincere heart. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 81:27 and Qur’an 38:87. [^2]: Qur’an 21:107. [^3]: Qur’an 25:1. [^4]: Qur’an 1:2. [^5]: Al-Ḥusayn b. Masʿūd al-Baghawī, *Tafsīr al-Baghawī*, eds. Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh al-Nimr et al., 8 vols. (Dār Ṭayba, 1997), 1:52. [^6]: Qur’an 30:22. [^7]: Qur’an 36:69–70. [^8]: See Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 32 vols. (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1999), 2:321. [^9]: Qur’an 34:28. [^10]: Ibn ʿAṭīyya al-Andalusī, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-Kitāb al-ʿAzīz*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām ʿAbd al-Shāfī Muḥammad, 6 vols. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmmīya, 2001), 4:420. [^11]: Qur’an 4:79. [^12]: Qur’an 7:158. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ* *Muslim*, no. 521a. [^14]: Yaḥyā b. Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj,* ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 7 vols. (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1392 AH), 5:5. [^15]: Qur’an 46:31. [^16]: Qur’an 72:1. [^17]: Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā al-Shāṭibī, *The Reconciliation of the Fundamentals of Islamic Law*, tr. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee (Garnet Press, 2011), 188. [^18]: See Ahmet T. Karamustafa, *Sufism: The Formative Period* (Edinburgh University Press, 2007), 155-166, for a list of these antinomian groups in early Sufism. [^19]: Al-Shāṭibī, *Reconciliation*, 188–89. [^20]: Al-Shāṭibī, *Reconciliation*. [^21]: Qur’an 46:9. [^22]: Qur’an 5:48. [^23]: Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī, *Tuḥfat al-murīd* (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmmīya, 2004), 151. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 335, no. 438. [^25]: Al-Bājūrī, *Tuḥfat al-murīd*, 150. [^26]: Aḥmad b. Fāris al-Rāzī, *Maqāyīs al-lugha,* ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 6 vols. (Dār al-Fikr, 1979), 3:60. [^27]: Qur’an 17:77. [^28]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyya, *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl fī masāʾil al-qaḍāʾ wa al-qadar wa al-ḥikma wa al-taʿlīl* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1978), 199. [^29]: Qur’an 33:26. [^30]: Qur’an 54:43. [^31]: Qur’an 4:123. [^32]: Qur’an 35:43. [^33]: Al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 26:247. [^34]: Qur’an 12:111. [^35]: Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymīyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, eds. ʿĀmir al-Jazzār and Anwar al-Bāz, 37 vols. (Mujmmaʿ al-Malik Fahd li–l-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 13:20. [^36]: For example, Qur’an 3:13, 12:111, and 59:2. [^37]: Ibn ʿAṭīyah al-Andalusī, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz*, 3:206. [^38]: For example, Qur’an 6:110, 7:186, and 10:11. [^39]: See Qur’an 20:24, 20:34, and 79:17. [^40]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl al-Qurʼān*, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir, 30 vols. (Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, n.d.), 1:308. [^41]: Qur’an 96:6–7. [^42]: The Arabic proverb reads “*iyyāki aʿnī wa ismaʿī yā jāra*” and refers to when the speaker is addressing someone indirectly by conveying the desired message to someone else in the vicinity. [^43]: Abū al-Ḥasan al-Andalusī, *Turāth Abī al-Ḥasan al-Ḥarāllī al-Marrākishī fī al-tafsīr*, ed. Muḥammādī ʿAbd al-Salām al-Khayyāṭī (Manshūrāt al-Markaz al-Jāmiʿī l-il-Baḥth al-ʿIlmī, 1977), 126–27. [^44]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*, 4 vols. (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1982), 1:285. [^45]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*. [^46]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*. [^47]: Qur’an 11:120. [^48]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*. [^49]: Qur’an 21:10. [^50]: Qur’an 16:44. [^51]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*. [^52]: Qur’an 6:19. [^53]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*. [^54]: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, *al-Fawz al-kabīr fī uṣūl al-tafsīr* (The great victory in Qur’anic hermeneutics) (TaHa Publishers, 2014), 40. [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 772. Also see *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 873. NB: There is a difference in opinion as to whether it is permitted to make supplication during the recitation of the Qur’an when performing obligatory prayer. [^56]: For more on Qur’anic reflection, see: Yousef Wahb and Mohammad Elshinawy, “Keys to Tadabbur: How to Reflect Deeply on the Qur’an,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, April 22, 2021. [^57]: See Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl,* ed. Muḥammad Sulaymān al-Ashqar, 2 vols. (Muʼassasat al-Risāla, 1997), 2:131–34. [^58]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl*. [^59]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl*, 2:131. [^60]: Qur’an 11:114. [^61]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2763d. [^62]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma lil-Kitāab, 1974), 1:107. Translated in John Renard, ed., *Islamic Theological Thought Themes: A Primary Source Reader*, trans. David R. Vishanof (University of California Press, 2014), 53–58. [^63]: Renard, *Islamic Theological Thought Themes*, 53. [^64]: Qur’an 5:90. [^65]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, 10:574. [^66]: Qur’an 6:141. [^67]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, 12:177. [^68]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān,* 1:107. [^69]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān.* [^70]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān.* [^71]: Qur’an 3:188. [^72]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān,* 1:107. [^73]: Qur’an 5:93. [^74]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān.* [^75]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān.* [^76]: Qur’an 6:145. [^77]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān.* [^78]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 108. [^79]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm al-uṣūl* (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1997), 2:309. [^80]: Qur’an 3:97. [^81]: For further discussion on *ʿāmm* and *khāṣṣ*, see al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʻilm al-uṣūl*, 2:106–62. [^82]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl*, 2:129. [^83]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 111a. The hadith continues, stating that the Prophet ﷺ offered him other options since the man could not afford to free a slave. [^84]: Badr al-Dīn Zarkashī, *al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ*, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿĀnī et al., 6 vols. (Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1992), 3: 199–200. [^85]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl*, 2:130. [^86]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl*. This hadith is considered by hadith scholars to be baseless. See Shams al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī, *al-Maqaṣid al-ḥasana* (Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1985), 312. However, scholars do not reject the principle even if the hadith is rejected, provided that its meaning is sound and aligns with the conception of the universality of revelation. [^87]: Al-Shāṭibī, *Reconciliation of the Fundamentals,* 2:189–90. [^88]: Al-Baghawī, *Tafsīr al-Baghawī*, 3:15. [^89]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-bayān*, 543–71. [^90]: Muhammad Manzur Alam, *Kalam-e-Iqbal mein Qur'ani Ayat-o Ahadith* (Anjuman Taraqqi-e Urdu, 1995), 43. [^91]: Qur’an 6:19. [^92]: Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Shawkānī, *Fatḥ al-Qadīr* (Dār al-Maʿrifa, 2007), 413. It is also reported that Saʿīd b. Jubair (rA) said, “Whoever the Qur’an reaches is as if he has seen the Prophet.” See Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʻUmar al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 12:188. ## Summary The Qur'an confronts every thoughtful reader with a pressing question: how can a revelation sent down in a particular time and place, sometimes in response to specific events and concerning bygone prophets and nations, remain relevant to people living in every age? Against this question stand two contrasting responses. Some advocate a historicist reading, insisting that the revelation be confined to the context of those it directly addressed, namely the people of Mecca and Medina. While these voices affirm the Qur'an's divine origin, they doubt that its verses apply universally across time and place. Certain modernists among them hold that the Qur'an intended only to deliver core values rather than fixed laws or rituals, and that these values happen to align with those of Western modernity, so that the explicit rulings of the Qur'an may be discarded once they have served their purpose. This position is presented in order to be refuted, for the enduring conviction of Muslims through the ages has been that the teachings of the Qur'an are universal, and that even verses tied to particular occasions carry rulings binding for all times and places, such that every human being is the intended addressee of every Qur'anic address. The most direct proof of this universality is the Qur'an's own insistence upon it. Allah defines the revelation as a message to all creation, describing His Messenger ﷺ in the words, "And We have not sent you, except as a mercy to al-ʿālamīn," and declaring, "Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His Servant that he may be to al-ʿālamīn a warner." The term al-ʿālamīn is used throughout the Qur'an in an all-encompassing sense, as when Allah names Himself "Lord of al-ʿālamīn," and early exegetes such as Qatāda, Mujāhid, and al-Ḥasan defined it as creation in its entirety. Another verse reads, "This Book is only a reminder and a clear Qur'an to warn whoever is alive," which by including all the living extends also to every generation yet to come. The scope is further confirmed where Allah says, "And We have not sent you except comprehensively (kāffa) to humankind," which Ibn ʿAṭiyya (d. 541/1146) understood as an announcement that the Prophet ﷺ was sent to the whole assemblage of mankind, and in the command, "Say, [O Muhammad], 'O humankind, indeed I am the Messenger of God to you all.'" In a hadith the Prophet ﷺ said, "Every messenger was sent particularly to his own people, whereas I have been sent to all the red and the black," and Imam al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277), noting varied interpretations of "the red and the black," concluded that all of them are valid since the Prophet ﷺ was sent to all. This scope reaches even the jinn, who declared upon hearing the Qur'an, "Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur'an. It guides to the right course, and we have believed in it." Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388) in his al-Muwāfaqāt affirmed that the Shariah is comprehensive and universal (kulliyya ʿāmma), binding upon everyone equally regardless of time, place, or situation, and rejected excusing any group from its obligations without valid reason. The Qur'an also grounds its universality in its own place within the succession of prophetic missions. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the culmination of a chain of Arab and non-Arab prophets, and so he is instructed, "Say, 'I am not something original among the messengers.'" Here a distinction is drawn between creed (ʿaqīda) and law (sharīʿa). The creed, whose heart is divine oneness (tawḥīd), has been one and the same through all the prophets, while each prophet brought a distinct law suited to his people, which in time was corrupted, necessitating the final revelation. Allah says, "To each of you We prescribed a law and a method." The Shariah of the Prophet ﷺ thus abrogates those before it and cannot itself be abrogated, as expressed in the verse of Ibrāhīm al-Lāqqānī's Jawharat al-tawḥīd: "His Shariah will not be abrogated until time itself is abrogated." Particular commands often disclose universal truths through Allah's established ways (sunan). The Qur'an speaks of the sunna of Allah, His fixed patterns in dealing with human communities, saying, "you will not find in Our law (sunna) any alteration," which Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) explained as His consistent way of treating His pious servants and His enemies. This sunna bears three traits. It is fixed and unalterable, so that His dealings with ancient peoples match His dealings with us. It is universal and admits no exception, as the Qur'an challenges its rejectors, "Are you disbelievers better than those [who came before you], or have you immunity in the scripture?" And it is sublime and certain, a quality al-Rāzī (d. 605/1210) drew from the pairing of sunna with the name of Allah, which glorifies it and establishes its certainty. From this constancy flows the value of learning from the past, for the Qur'an declares that in the earlier stories "is a lesson (ʿibra) for people of understanding." Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) explained that drawing a lesson means comparing one thing to its like, so that one recognizes the shared outcome. The stories of nations who denied their prophets are therefore not mere history but warnings, since the path of the earlier prophets is the same to which the Prophet ﷺ called. Sūrah Hūd offers a model of this approach, recounting seven prophets and contrasting the fate of believers and deniers, with Shuʿayb warning his people not to be struck as the peoples of Nūḥ, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, and Lūṭ were struck. Allah then says, "Indeed in that is a sign (āya) for those who fear the punishment of the Hereafter," and Ibn ʿAṭiyya combined the senses of "sign" and "lesson," seeing in these narratives both guidance and proof leading to faith. In Sūrah al-Shuʿarāʾ the phrase "inna fī dhālika la-āya" recurs eight times, seven of them after prophetic stories, teaching that each carries a lesson relevant to the present. Likewise the Qur'an ties disbelief to transgression (ṭughyān), which linguistically means exceeding proper limits, warning that false belief manifests in conduct, as in the verse, "No! [But] indeed, man transgresses because he sees himself self-sufficient." That the Qur'an speaks directly to its reader was stressed by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Marākishī (d. 638/1241), who held that most of the umma fail to understand the Qur'an because they imagine its stories are only reports, whereas they are meant for taking lessons and recognizing the recurring conditions of this umma and of oneself. Imam al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) in his Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn listed among the inner acts of recitation "specification," in which the reader assumes he is the intended audience of every address, whether command, prohibition, promise, threat, or narrative. He noted that when Allah addresses all people He intends each individual, and cited Muḥammad b. Kaʿb al-Quraẓī's saying that it is as though Allah speaks directly to whomever the Qur'an reaches. Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (d. 1762) likewise warned against thinking the Qur'an's polemic addresses only extinct peoples, invoking the hadith, "You surely follow the traits of those before you," and affirming that its aim is to explain the universality of corruptive matters. It is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ, on reaching a verse of mercy, would supplicate, and on reaching a verse of punishment, would seek refuge, showing how we too should receive these verses. The universality of legal rulings requires more care, since some were revealed for specific persons or occasions. Here the majority principle is that "the crucial factor is the general meaning, not the specific context" (al-ʿibra bi-ʿumūm al-lafẓ lā bi-khuṣūṣ al-sabab). When a man confessed a sin and the verse "Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds" was recited, and he was asked whether it applied to him alone, the Prophet ﷺ replied, "No, it refers to all people." Imam al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) supported this by the practice of the Companions, including Ibn ʿAbbās's treatment of the verse of theft by its general wording, and al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) affirmed regarding the verse on intoxicants that its rule binds all the morally responsible whatever its occasion. Yet al-Suyūṭī insisted the occasions of revelation retain great benefit, clarifying meanings and resolving difficulties, as when Ibn ʿAbbās settled Marwān's confusion by restricting a verse of censure to the People of the Book, or when it was made clear that a verse did not permit wine but pardoned those who drank before its prohibition. Universalization also rests on the distinction between general (ʿāmm) and particular (khāṣṣ) expressions, the general being, in al-Rāzī's definition, the word that includes all its referents, which specification (takhṣīṣ) may narrow to a group without negating its universality within that group. Al-Ghazālī in al-Mustaṣfā held that Prophetic responses are universal either through generic wording, as in his saying about the sea, "Its water is purifying, and its dead [animals] are lawful," or, where no generic term appears, through analogy (qiyās) upon the ratio legis (ʿilla), as in the man commanded to free a slave after breaking his fast, and the man at al-Jiʿrānah told to remove his cloak and perfume. Al-Ghazālī cited the hadith, "My judgment on the individual is my judgment on the whole." Al-Shāṭibī traced this analogical universalizing to the Companions, and the dietary rules derived from the questions of ʿAdiy b. Ḥātim and Zayd b. Muhalhal on hunting, discussed by al-Ṭabarī, became a law for all. Rulings given to particular persons were thus given for the sake of all humanity. The poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal recalled as the most impactful advice of his life his father's counsel, "My son, read the Qur'an as if it were revealed to you." This accords with Allah's word to the Prophet ﷺ, "And this Qur'an was revealed to me that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches," which the Prophet ﷺ glossed, "Whoever the Qur'an reaches is as if I directly read it to him." The Qur'an speaks directly to every listener, universal in application and relevance, so that the believer who sees himself as the addressee of every verse, and who links each to Allah's established sunna, draws lessons from the stories of the prophets and recognizes that rulings once given to particular people were given for all mankind. We should therefore read ourselves into every scenario and ask whether we resemble Pharaoh, the Children of Israel, the hypocrites, or the believers, and whether we honor Allah's rulings, approaching His words with a sincere heart. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Qur’an addresses all of humanity, described as a message for “the worlds” (*al-ʿālamīn*), meaning every person in every time and place is included in its guidance and mercy. 2. The Qur’an’s universality is demonstrated through Allah’s unchanging established practices (*sunnat Allah*) that apply consistently across time, allowing believers to learn timeless lessons from past stories and extract universal laws from particular contexts. 3. Islamic scholarship affirms that the Qur’an’s laws and guidance are comprehensive and timeless, with the principle of generality over particularity (*al-ʿibra bi-ʿumūm al-lafẓ lā bi-khuṣūṣ al-sabab*) ensuring that Qur’anic rulings revealed for specific occasions are understood in their universal meaning. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is the Qur’an still relevant today? Yes. The Qur’an repeatedly presents itself as a message for all of humanity, not only for the people who first received it. It calls itself a reminder “to the worlds,” an expression scholars understood to mean all of creation without limit of time, place, ethnicity, or age. Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ to say, “O humankind, indeed I am the Messenger of God to you all,” and the Prophet ﷺ said that while earlier messengers were each sent to their own people, he was sent to all of humankind. One verse describes the Qur’an as a warning “to whoever is alive,” which scholars noted includes every generation still to come. Muslims across the centuries have therefore held that its guidance is universal and timeless. Being the final revelation, meant to last until the Day of Judgment, the Qur’an was never intended as a message for one era that would later expire. Its guidance addresses enduring moral, spiritual, and human concerns that recur across changing historical circumstances, which is why Muslims understand its relevance as extending beyond the society in which it was first revealed. ### Why does the Qur’an keep retelling stories of past prophets and nations? The stories of earlier peoples are not included as history for its own sake. The Qur’an says that in these accounts “is a lesson for people of understanding,” and it repeatedly follows a prophet’s story with the phrase “indeed in that is a sign.” The purpose is for the reader to recognize recurring moral patterns and draw lessons from the consequences described in earlier communities. Because the Qur’an presents Allah’s justice and moral order as consistent, these accounts warn later readers against repeating the same forms of arrogance, denial, and transgression without implying that every society will experience an identical worldly outcome. The same path to which every prophet called is the path of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. A reader who follows in the footsteps of past deniers should therefore take their stories as warnings about the spiritual and ultimate consequences of those attitudes. Scholars explained that these narratives alert us to recurring human failings such as arrogance, denial, and transgression, and to the consequences Allah has always attached to them. Read this way, a story about an ancient nation becomes a mirror for the reader’s own life, offering both warning and encouragement rather than a distant tale. ### How can a Qur’anic ruling revealed for a specific person or occasion apply to all Muslims? Some verses were revealed in response to a particular question, person, or event, which raises the question of whether their rulings bind only those original addressees. A major principle adopted by the majority of legal theorists is that a verse with genuinely general wording is not ordinarily restricted to the particular event that prompted its revelation, although its context and other textual evidence can clarify or limit the scope of that wording. When a man once confessed a sin and a verse was revealed in response, someone asked whether it applied to him alone, and the Prophet ﷺ answered that it applies to all people. The early Muslims followed this approach, applying verses revealed for particular cases to new situations of their own. Scholars developed careful tools to do this, distinguishing general expressions that cover everyone from particular ones, and reasoning by analogy from a specific ruling to every case that shares its underlying cause. Knowing the original occasion still has value, since it can clarify a verse’s meaning and prevent misreadings. The occasion of revelation helps explain what a verse means and how broadly it applies, while the wording, other relevant evidence, established methods of legal reasoning, and its underlying purpose carry the ruling forward beyond the original case. Laws given in specific moments were always meant for all of humanity. ### How can I read the Qur’an so it speaks directly to me? A well-known piece of advice is to read the Qur’an as if it were revealed to you. Some scholars encouraged readers to approach every passage as personally relevant, asking what command, warning, promise, lesson, or example it contains for them even when its original addressee was someone else. When you come across a command or a prohibition, take it as addressed to you. When you meet a promise or a warning, hear it as spoken to you. When you read the story of an earlier people, look for yourself in it rather than treating it as someone else’s history. One classical scholar listed this as an inner act of recitation, noting that when Allah addresses all people, He also intends each individual, so every reader is personally included. The Qur’an itself describes its warning as extending to “whomever it reaches,” and classical scholars used this verse to emphasize that later readers stand within the continuing audience of the revelation. Approached this way, the Qur’an stops feeling like a record of the past and becomes a living address. As you read, ask which qualities, choices, warnings, and examples in the account resembles your own conduct and whether you are honoring Allah’s guidance. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/struggling-to-pray-how-to-wake-up-for-fajr # Struggling to Pray? How to Wake Up for Fajr **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Self-Improvement **Published:** November 26, 2024 **Updated:** September 2, 2026 Unraveling ourselves from the warmth of bed for the dawn prayer (Fajr) can feel like one of the biggest challenges these days. With hectic schedules, late nights, and the ever-tempting snooze button, getting out of bed before the sun has even risen seems nigh on impossible for some. Even with multiple alarms set, many of us still struggle to wake up on time for Fajr prayer. This struggle can lead to feelings of frustration, guilt, and a sense of disconnect from spiritual goals, with the repetitive cycle of setting intentions and failing to follow through delivering blow after blow to our spiritual morale. Although the idea of waking up for Fajr may seem daunting, with the right approach and sincerity of heart, it can become a manageable endeavor—one that has the power to be the most uplifting and blessed part of our day. In this blog, we’ll explore practical tips and techniques based on both Islamic teachings and science to help you wake up for Fajr consistently and start your day with Allah’s blessings. --- ## Strengthening your intention The first and most crucial step in successfully waking up for Fajr is to set a sincere [intention](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-28-god-knows-my-intention-road-to-return&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1732656339303322&usg=AOvVaw3kIFxhf9ZsSe2FKBmhNLQO) (*niyya*). This involves cultivating a heartfelt desire to please Allah and a firm belief in His support to help you achieve that goal. This profound concept was highlighted in one of the most important sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: “Verily, actions are judged by intentions, and every individual will have what they intended.”[^1] However, it is important to clarify that an intention is not just wishful thinking. Rather, an intention means that you have a firm resolve, in this case, to wake up for Fajr and that you will follow that resolve with the necessary actions to fulfill it. Also, an intention should not be done only once. What was initially a pure intention can weaken over time or become mixed with other intentions. Therefore, [sincere](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D3sY8XcTkmDs&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1732656339304133&usg=AOvVaw2YDYoUzZ23CMqmvY7OuVaG) intentions require constant self-reflection and renewal. No matter how difficult it is to wake up, you must constantly struggle against yourself and make a firm intention to wake up for Fajr. Many of us have experienced the anxiety of an impending early-morning exam, a crucial job interview, or a 4 AM flight, where the fear of missing the alarm looms large. But because of the commitments we’ve made, the importance of these events, and the negative consequences of oversleeping, we force ourselves to do everything in our power to ensure we wake up on time. The early morning appointment becomes our main priority. Yet others of us prioritize getting up early for other worldly gains, such as hitting the gym or getting a head start on the day’s emails, because we know the great benefit it will bring to our lives. Similarly, when we set a firm intention to pray Fajr, magnify the significance of the prayer,  and understand its great benefit for our hereafter (*ākhira*), Fajr is transformed from a daunting task to a spiritual commitment in need of fulfillment—one that is ultimately aided by strength and motivation from Allah. --- ## Knowing the immense rewards of Fajr Along with our firm intention we also need a clear understanding of the spiritual rewards and blessings of Fajr and the early morning, which can serve as powerful motivation to wake up for prayer. Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (rA) narrated that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “Whoever observes the *bardān* (i.e., Fajr and the*ʿ*Asr, or afternoon, prayers) will enter paradise.”[^2] Also, ʿUmāra b. Ruwaina (rA) said, “I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say, ‘Whoever prays before the rising of the sun and before its setting (i.e., the Fajr and ʿAsr prayers) will not enter Hell.’”[^3] It was common among the early generations to stay up after Fajr due to the immense blessings of the early morning. Sakhr b. al-Ghāmidī (rA) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘O Allah, bless my nation in their early mornings.’”[^4] These unparalleled rewards also extend to the *sunnah* prayer preceding Fajr. ʿĀisha (rA) narrated that the Messenger ﷺ said, “The two prayer cycles (sing. *rakʿa*) at dawn are better than this world and what it contains,”[^5] referring here to the *sunnah* prayer preceding Fajr. This *sunnah* prayer is so emphasized that it is the only *sunnah* which can be made up if you miss the obligatory prayer at its proper time. How would our lives transform if we treated every morning as an opportunity to gain all the wealth of this world? If you were offered a ten million dollar contract, but the only condition was that you had to be in the office every day by 6 AM, how many of us would turn the offer down for the sake of more sleep? Here, Allah’s offer far exceeds any we could get in this world—imagine what it would feel like to start every day knowing you’ve gained something better than the whole world and all the wealth that it contains. --- ## Establishing a spiritual routine Beginning and ending your day with worship, like performing ritual ablution  (*wuḍūʾ*) before going to sleep, helps establish a spiritual connection before resting that will aid in your ability to wake up for Fajr. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, Whenever you go to bed perform ablution like that for the prayer, lie on your right side and say, Du'a before going to sleep اللَّهُمَّ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِي إِلَيْكَ، وَفَوَّضْتُ أَمْرِي إِلَيْكَ، وَأَلْجَأْتُ ظَهْرِي إِلَيْكَ، رَغْبَةً وَرَهْبَةً إِلَيْكَ، لاَ مَلْجَأَ وَلاَ مَنْجَا مِنْكَ إِلَّا إِلَيْكَ، اللَّهُمَّ آمَنْتُ بِكِتَابِكَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلْتَ، وَبِنَبِيِّكَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلْتَ‏. Allāhumma aslamt wajhī ilayk, wa fawwaḍt amrī ilayk, wa aljaʾtu dhahrī ilayk raghbatan wa rahbatan ilayk. Lā maljaʾ wa lā manjā minka illā ilayk. Allahumma āmantu bi-kitābika alladhī anzalt wa bi-nabiyyik alladhī arsalt. “O Allah! I surrender to You and entrust all my affairs to You and depend upon You for Your Blessings, with hope and fear of You. There is no fleeing from You, and there is no place of protection and safety except with You. O Allah! I believe in Your Book which You have revealed and in Your Prophet (Muhammad) whom You have sent.” Then if you die on that night, you will die with faith (i.e., on the religion of Islam). Let these words be the last thing you say (before sleep).[^6]  *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 247 Alternatively, or in conjunction with this, you can also recite the Verse of the Throne (*Āyat al-Kursī*) (Qur’an 2:255) on account of the famous hadith that anyone who recites this verse will have a guardian angel to protect them, and Satan will not be able to approach them until the morning.[^7] This ritual of making *wuḍūʾ*, lying on your right side, and then reciting *duʾā*s and Qur’anic verses has multiple rewards. In addition to the remembrance of death and protection from nightmares, going to [sleep](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep15-how-to-sleep-better-habits-to-win-here-and-hereafter&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1732656339308280&usg=AOvVaw2qqKdDqLJdoJ_Ku6n_7vgV) in a state of purification and elevated God-consciousness can make it easier to wake up with a sense of purpose for Fajr. The heart is lighter and more intimately connected to its Creator, establishing a mindset clear of worldly distractions and renewed with spiritual determination to wake up for Fajr. --- ## Realigning your sleep to Fajr A purely practical step to waking up on time for Fajr involves optimizing your sleep by going to bed at a reasonable hour, ensuring enough sleep to be able to wake up and feel refreshed and present in the morning prayer. The Prophet ﷺ recommended avoiding staying up late after the night prayer (ʿIshāʾ) unless for an important reason: “The Prophet used to dislike sleeping before ʿIshāʾ and talking after it.”[^8] [Modern medicine](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yesmd.com/the-benefits-of-going-to-bed-early-and-getting-a-good-nights-sleep/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1732656339309082&usg=AOvVaw3QCcV2NkTelB4SBdgi47dB) supports going to sleep early and keeping a consistent sleep schedule, with benefits ranging from decreased terminal illnesses to decreased stress and improved weight control. A common misconception that we need to address is the idea that we are not responsible for sleeping through the time of Fajr due to the hadith that excuses a sleeping person from moral responsibility. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (rA) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘The pen is lifted from three people (i.e. their sins are not recorded): a sleeping person until he awakens, a child until he becomes an adult, and an insane person until he regains his sanity.’”[^9] While a person is not held responsible for a prayer missed due to dozing off, there is a distinction between carelessness and neglect, and sleep that is entirely out of our hands. As such, we do in fact remain obligated to take the necessary means to wake up for our religious duties. Here self-awareness is key. If you are aware that staying up past a certain hour will impede you from waking up for Fajr, it is your duty to take the necessary steps to avoid going to sleep late in order to fulfill your obligations. --- ## Dimming the lights, calming the mind One of the most useful ways to start winding down in the evenings and going to sleep earlier is to prepare your environment for sleep by dimming your lights. Allah has designed the regular rise and fall of the sun to align with twenty-four hour rhythms, called circadian rhythms, in virtually all organisms on Earth. This is true down to the cells in your body. However, in our modern lifestyles, constant exposure to bright fluorescent lights at night blocks the circadian rhythm and the production of melatonin (a hormone in the body related to regulating sleep-wake cycles), confusing your body into thinking that it is still daytime. We only harm ourselves when we neglect Allah’s intricately designed system of using the day for pursuing our livelihoods and the night for rest, “Have we not…made your sleep for rest, and made the night as cover, and made the day for livelihood…”[^10] Understanding this may also explain the number of hadiths that indicate that the Companions would sleep immediately after the ʿIshāʾ prayer, and while waiting for the prayer would become sleepy to the point of lightly dozing off. Anas b. Mālik (rA) reported that the Companions of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, in his lifetime, would begin to doze off while waiting for him to start the ʿIshāʾ prayer.[^11] With this in mind, replacing bright bulbs with gentler lights, reducing screen-time, and dimming your lights an hour or two before bedtime will allow your body to begin winding down, signaling that it will soon be time to sleep. --- ## Fueling your body for Fajr Another way to prepare your body for sleep is to avoid heavy meals before bed. When we eat a large meal late at night, our bodies work overtime to digest it, which can leave us feeling sluggish and bloated. Our gastrointestinal tract also remains active, preventing our bodies from fully entering a restful state. Late-night eating can also lead to indigestion or acid reflux, causing discomfort that may keep us tossing and turning through the night. These disruptions can affect our overall sleep quality, which in turn impacts our ability to rise easily for Fajr. To avoid this, try to eat your last meal at least three hours before bedtime. This gives your digestive system enough time to process the food and for your body to naturally wind down. Another important tip is to avoid sugary snacks late in the evening. While a sugary treat might satisfy a late-night craving, it can cause a spike in your blood sugar levels, leading to restlessness. Likewise, caffeine—found in coffee, tea, and many sodas—can remain in your bloodstream for up to ten hours, making it difficult to fall asleep. To ensure a more peaceful night’s rest, try to have that cup of coffee by the early afternoon. Instead of reaching for coffee or sugary snacks, try calming herbal teas like chamomile or peppermint that are known for their relaxing properties. By adjusting your eating habits, you’ll improve your sleep quality and wake up for Fajr feeling refreshed and energized. --- ## Building accountability with a “Fajr buddy” For heavy sleepers, one of the most effective ways to stay consistent with Fajr is to have someone else to help you. In family settings, this is actually a duty. Allah says in the Qur’an, “Cooperate with one another in goodness and righteousness”[^12]  and “Enjoin prayer on your family, and be patient in offering them.”[^13] The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also said: “May Allah have mercy on a man who gets up at night and prays, then he wakes his wife and she prays, and if she refuses he sprinkles water on her face. And may Allah have mercy on a woman who gets up at night and prays, then she wakes her husband and prays, and if he refuses she sprinkles water on his face.”[^14] If waking your spouse and family for the optional night prayer is praised, what then of the obligatory Fajr prayer? For those of us living away from family, it’s useful to have a roommate or friend to lean on for support. Find someone you can call or text for motivation and accountability. One innovative approach that’s becoming popular is the creation of group chats on WhatsApp or Telegram that are used to coordinate group meetings for Fajr prayer in congregation or for daily reminders to get up. --- ## Making Fajr a natural part of your day We can also benefit from the modern science of habit formation. Psychological research reveals that habits are formed in a process known as the cue-routine-reward loop. This theory suggests that all habits share three common features: a cue that triggers the habit, a routine response, and a generated reward. In this case, realizing the rewards of Fajr and making a firm intention to change your schedule are the cues. The routine is the behavior we want to enforce, that is, waking up for the Fajr prayer. Then, the reward, whether increased energy and productivity in this world or realizing the immense rewards in the hereafter, reinforces the routine, making it more likely that you’ll repeat the habit the next time the cue presents itself. Adjusting your internal clock takes time and patience. Consistency in Fajr realigns our body’s circadian rhythms, creating a virtuous cycle that improves our overall sleep quality and energy levels. It may feel challenging at first, but with patience and dedication, the body and mind begin to adjust. Consistency is key when it comes to waking up for Fajr. Like any habit, the more regularly we perform it, the more accustomed our brain will become to that habit. Islam emphasizes the importance of persistence in acts of worship, even if they are small. ʿĀisha (rA) narrated that “The Prophet was asked ‘What deeds are most loved by Allah?’ He said, ‘The most regular constant deeds even if they are few.’”[^15] Waking up for Fajr is more than a routine task—it’s a spiritual commitment that sets the tone for the entire day. While the challenges of modern life may seem overwhelming, following a few practical steps can make a significant difference. By aligning your heart, mind, and habits, you can transform this early morning struggle into a source of immense blessings, helping you grow closer to Allah and achieve greater peace and fulfillment in your life. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 54. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 635. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*,  no. 634. [^4]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1212, graded as *ḥasan* (fairly authentic) by al-Tirmidhī. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 725a. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 247. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2311. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 568. [^9]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*,  no. 1423, graded as *ḥasan* by Darussalam. [^10]: Qur’an 78:6–11. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 376. [^12]: Qur’an 5:2. [^13]: Qur’an 20:132. [^14]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1610. Darussalam graded this hadith as *ḥasan*. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6465. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-with-purpose-the-powerful-meaning-of-the-basmala-essay # Living with Purpose: The Powerful Meaning of the Basmala | Essay **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Analysis **Published:** November 20, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, the eminent Successor of the Companions (*tābiʿī*) scholar (d. 110/728), famously remarked, “God has encapsulated the knowledge of all previous scriptures in the Qur’an, and then distilled the knowledge of the Qur’an within \[its opening chapter\] al-Fātiḥa. Whoever grasps its meaning understands the core of all revealed texts.”[^1] In the field of Qur’anic Sciences (*ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*), scholars have noted that the essence of al-Fātiḥa is further encapsulated within the phrase “in the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful” (*bi-ʾism Allāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*, also known as the *basmala*) and the essence of the *basmala* is distilled in its initial prepositional letter, *bāʾ*. This *bāʾ* has been a focal point of extensive grammatical and linguistic analysis within traditional Islamic scholarship. Its syntactic function, which indicates a connection to an implied subject (noun) or action (verb), subtly invites reflection on the foundational principle of beginning any endeavor with mindfulness and reliance on the Divine. In the *basmala*, the letter *bāʾ* carries profound significance as it symbolizes attachment (*ilṣāq*), a concept central to the relationship between the servant and the Divine. This attachment underscores the ultimate purpose of life: to draw closer to God. By this understanding, even the smallest component of the *basmala* becomes a powerful emblem of spiritual aspiration. In its verbal structure—understood when the implied word is taken to be a verb, such as “begin”—the *bāʾ* conveys a sense of action and initiation, as if to say “in the Name of God, I begin.” This reading invites reflection on the starting point and purpose of any endeavor, anchoring it in Divine consciousness. It lends a sense of lightness and ease to the servant’s journey, as though the opening of God’s Book was deliberately framed to reflect His infinite tolerance and kindness, gently guiding humanity from the very first step. But what exactly are we meant to begin with the *basmala*? The answer is both simple and profound: every pursuit, every endeavor, every act of obedience. To discern obedience from disobedience, or to distinguish good from evil, we must cultivate a comprehensive worldview—one embodied in the *basmala* and its assertion of acting “in the Name of God.” This worldview echoes the first command revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through Gabriel (Jibrīl), “Recite in the Name of your Lord.”[^2] This command was not merely an instruction to read words but a transformative call to perceive, reflect, and navigate existence through God-consciousness. It urged the Prophet ﷺ—and by extension, humanity—to view life as an interconnected reality where every action, thought, and decision is shaped by Divine awareness. Implicit in this directive is a caution: approaching life in the name of anything other than God risks reducing its meaning, leading to misguidance and misplaced priorities. By centering our intentions on the Divine, the *basmala* becomes a safeguard, a reminder that life’s true purpose lies in aligning with the sacred. The first Divine Name in the *basmala* is Allah, representing His transcendence, sovereignty, and unparalleled power. This Name establishes the framework of absolute dependence on the Creator, who governs all existence. Following Allah are two attributes of mercy, *al-Raḥmān* and *al-Raḥīm*, underscoring that God’s Mercy surpasses even His dominance. According to the prominent exegete Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210), these three Names address distinct groups of people, as mentioned in the verse: “Among them are those who wrong themselves; others follow a middle course; and some, by God’s permission, excel in good deeds.”[^3] Through this interpretive lens, the Name Allah most closely aligns with those who excel in virtue and devotion, *al-Raḥmān* with those who tread a middle path, and *al-Raḥīm* with those who falter but remain within the scope of Divine mercy.[^4] Across the journey of life, we inevitably move through these categories—moments of striving for excellence, periods of moderation, and times of error and repentance. The frequent repetition of these Names in the *basmala* thus resonates deeply, reminding us of God’s encompassing mercy and our potential for redemption, regardless of our current state. This triadic invocation serves as both a reflection of human imperfection and a testament to God’s boundless compassion. Al-Rāzī delves further into the inherent diversity of human souls, describing their unique essences (*māhiyya*, or “what-ness”) and varied inclinations. Some souls are noble, driven by lofty aspirations, while others are ignoble, preoccupied with base desires. Some exhibit mercy and compassion, while others are inclined toward harshness. Certain souls transcend worldly temptations, aspiring toward spiritual growth, while others are captivated by power and material dominance. This spectrum of inclinations, according to al-Rāzī, reflects the inherent nature of each soul—its fundamental structure and predispositions. Al-Rāzī observes that spiritual striving and self-discipline serve to temper these innate tendencies but cannot completely alter them. The goal of discipline is not to eradicate negative traits but to diminish their influence, enabling virtues to take precedence. This idea resonates with the Prophetic saying: “People are mines (*maʿādin*), like gold and silver,” which suggests that each individual possesses unique qualities that can be refined and brought to their fullest potential. Similarly the Prophet likened souls to “mobilized troops,”[^5] emphasizing their tendency to gravitate toward those with similar characteristics. In this framework, souls are naturally drawn toward what they resemble, whether in others or in the Divine attributes. Each of God’s Names embodies a specific quality or meaning, and when a particular quality dominates an individual soul, it forms a profound connection with that Name.[^6] This interplay between the soul’s attributes and the Divine Names highlights the deeply personal and transformative relationship between human nature and God’s qualities, as expressed in the *basmala*. The Names of God in the *basmala* are profoundly intentional, serving as a compass that shapes our worldview, directs our thoughts, illuminates our spiritual path, and sustains our hope. The Name Allah reassures us of His ultimate Guardianship (*wilāya*): “Allah is the Protector of those who believe”;[^7] *al-Raḥmān* affirms His boundless love: “To those who believe and do righteous deeds, the Most Compassionate will bestow love”;[^8] and *al-Raḥīm* underscores His enduring Mercy: “And He is ever Merciful to the believers.”[^9]  By invoking these Names, we acknowledge not only God’s sovereignty but also His intimate involvement in our lives, imbuing our actions with meaning and aligning them with the sacred purpose of seeking His pleasure. When Prophet Nūḥ boarded the ark, he proclaimed: “In the Name of God, whether it moves or comes to rest,”[^10] and through this invocation, he ultimately attained salvation. Similarly, Prophet Sulaimān began his letter to the Queen of Sheba with the words, “It is from Solomon, and it is in the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,”[^11] affirming his authority and securing dominion in both this world and the hereafter. Allah bestows His grace, *al-Raḥmān* pardons the faults of His close servants, and *al-Raḥīm* overlooks their shortcomings. How, then, can anyone who steadfastly adheres to the *basmala—*beginning each action with sincere reliance upon God—be denied His divine care and guidance? --- ## Notes [^1]: Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-īmān*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAlī Ḥāmid, 4 vols. (Maktabat al-Rushd li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2003), 4:44, report no. 2155. [^2]: Qur’an 96:1. [^3]: Qur’an 35:32. [^4]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 32 vols. (Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 1:177. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3496. [^6]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:162. [^7]: Qur’an 2:257. [^8]: Qur’an 19:96. [^9]: Qur’an 31:43; al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1:177. [^10]: Qur’an 11:41. [^11]: Qur’an 27:30. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-voting-haram-the-islamic-ruling-on-elections-essay # Is Voting Haram? The Islamic Ruling on Elections | Essay **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** Islamophobia, Jurisprudence (fiqh), Politics & Practical Theology, Sharia **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** November 5, 2024 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 With elections nearing in the United States, individuals in the Muslim community are offering their views on who to vote for or whether we should vote at all. Given the backdrop of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the US’s direct role therein, the stakes seem particularly high, and Muslims are contentiously discussing—at a very fundamental level—what it means to build power and craft an appropriate political strategy. Undoubtedly, strengthening Muslim influence hinges on acting in a coordinated fashion. However, there still remains much confusion within the community when it comes to basic rulings on political actions, like voting. Addressing this issue to the satisfaction of our communities is necessary for the effective mobilizing of mass participation in electoral politics. In this vein, this post seeks to deliver clarity to scrupulous Muslims on the status of voting in Islamic law and its potential consequences in the afterlife. --- ## The juristic ruling on voting in Islam Rulings on all subjects in Islam are dependent upon how they are characterized. In short, a scholar begins with conceptual categories that are found in classical Islamic scholarship and then attempts to map contemporary phenomena onto those categories. Ambiguity ensues when a novel matter does not match these received conceptual categories neatly, such as the difficulty in assessing modern commercial contracts which share elements of both rent and sale, two distinct categories in Islamic commercial law. In this case, voting is no different, having been likened to several categories, such as legal testimony (*shahāda*), recommendation (*tazkiyya*), allegiance (*bayʿa*), proxy (*wakāla*), and consultation (*shūra*).[^1] A useful roundup of various scholarly treatments on voting has been written by Dr. Fahad Saleh al-Ajlan, a professor in the Department of Islamic Studies at the College of Education at King Saud University, titled *al-Intikhābāt wa aḥkāmuhā fī al-fiqh al-Islamī*  (Elections and Their Rulings in Islamic Jurisprudence).[^2] Dr. al-Ajlan clarifies that there is no disagreement on the permissibility of voting if it is restricted to *ahl al-ḥal wa al-ʿaqd* (those qualified to elect or depose a caliph on behalf of the Muslim community, such as scholars), as was done by ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb to appoint his successor as caliph. In such a scenario, a focus group of highly eminent and qualified individuals are given equal votes and a simple majority determines the outcome. Where the scholars differ, according to Dr. al-Ajlan, is in two matters: (1) Are general elections valid as a tool of proper Islamic governance? and (2) If we happen to live in a society that is not governed by the Shariah, is it permissible to vote in general elections if our intention is purely to reduce harm and improve the situation of Muslims? In this piece, we focus on Dr. al-Ajlan’s treatment of the second question. In this regard, scholars fall into two camps. The first camp—represented by Sh. Salah al-Sawi, Sh. ʿUmar al-Ashqar, Sh. Ali al-Ghamidi, Sh. Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz, Sh. Muhammad b. ʿUthaymin, and Sh. Muhammad Abu Zahra—holds that participation in  elections for non-Islamic governance is permissible if the intent of voters thereby is to apply Islamic norms as much as possible and change the current system for the better.[^3] Their evidence is that in this context: 1. Voting will likely bring about benefits and avert harm. 2. Voting can potentially bring the system closer in line with Islamic norms, whereas abstaining will keep the system further from Islamic norms. 3. Voting fulfills the duty to reform according to one’s ability. 4. Voting can spread awareness about Islam and protect the rights of Muslims. 5. Voting is the lesser of two evils; having some influence on the political system is better than retreating and having no influence. 6. Gradual change is more pragmatic than abrupt, revolutionary change. Opposing this camp is a group, including Abd al-Ghani al-Rihal, Abd al-Munʾim Halima, Sami al-Dalal, and Muhammad Mufti, who hold that participation in such elections is impermissible, even with the ‘proper’ intention. Their arguments can be summarized as follows: 1. Voting is like an oath of allegiance, indicating approval of the non-Islamic system and perpetuating it. 2. Muslim participation in elections is touted and exploited to legitimize the system. They are tokenized and used as representation, while afforded very little real or meaningful power. 3. Implementing Allah’s rules is an issue of *ʿaqīda* (creed), and  gradualistic approaches are not permitted in *ʿaqīda* issues. 4. A political system based in *kufr* (disbelief) cannot be reformed. 5. Participating in elections alongside secularists demonstrates insufficient “disavowal” (*barāʾ*), an important practice of *ʿaqīda.* 6. Such participation is a waste of time and effort with no real benefits gained. --- ## Reflections The key difference between the two opinions here is that the first camp primarily characterizes voting as a tool and thus an issue of *fiqh* (Islamic law)*,* whereas the second primarily characterizes voting as an expression of approval or allegiance and thus an issue of *ʿaqīda*. This difference of characterization is crucial and determines upon whom the burden of proof lies to necessitate a following. Though one often hears definitive statements like “the Prophet ﷺ and the Companions did not do it, so it is haram,” this sentiment can only be applicable for *ʿaqīda* issues and issues of ritual worship, as opposed to interpersonal transactions (*muʿāmalāt)*, administration (*idāra*), or even politics (*siyāsa*). To say that voting is haram (religiously forbidden) because the Prophet and his Companions didn’t do it assumes that voting is an issue of *ʿaqīda*. Now, for voting to be classified as an issue of *ʿaqīda*, it must necessarily indicate approval of a system that grants undue sovereignty and legislative power—a dubious conclusion to arrive at for several reasons. Granted, if someone goes to the polls believing that man-made laws are better than Allah’s legislation, or that the system they are participating in is more just than the system introduced by the Prophet, this is certainly an act of *kufr* and outside the scope of the scholarly disagreement. However, most people, including most non-Muslims, don’t approach voting with these beliefs or intentions. Many even vote reluctantly, out of a sense of civic duty or in an attempt to lessen harm and avoid falling into the category of those who lose their societal right to complain due to their civic disengagement. Moreover, if all participation in a non-Islamic form of governance were tantamount to *kufr*, regardless of one’s intention, it would contradict well known examples to the contrary that are found in both the Qur’an and the Sunnah. For example, in the Qur’an Allah describes a believer in Pharaoh’s court.[^4] Certainly, Pharaoh’s administration was diametrically opposed to *tawḥīd*, yet this believer’s participation within Pharaoh’s court is not described as blameworthy whatsoever. Another example from within the context of the Shariah would be the Negus of Abyssinia who secretly converted to Islam but continued to rule his non-Muslim subjects, presumably according to laws other than what Allah sent down.[^5] If ruling by other than what Allah sent down was tantamount to *kufr* in all cases, the Prophet would not have instructed the Muslims to pray over the Negus upon his death. Despite this, juristic inference (*istidlāl*) is often employed by those opposed to voting and is taken from the seemingly clear-cut verses below: In Surah al-Māida, Allah says, > And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—then it is those who are the disbelievers.[^6] In Surah al-Nisāʾ, He also asks, > Have you not seen those who claim to have believed in what was revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], and what was revealed before you? They wish to refer legislation to *ṭāghūt* (false gods), while they were commanded to reject it; and Satan wishes to lead them far astray.[^7] In some instances, the following verse from Surah al-Anʿām is also used, > The decision (*al-ḥukm*) is only for Allah.[^8] From these verses, it is understood that Allah establishes His monopoly over legitimate legislation and that this characteristic is essential to Allah. As a result, whoever is attempting to allow human beings to legislate without authority from Allah is held to be not only sinful, but also as profaning Allah’s very *tawḥīd* (divine unicity) and potentially nullifying their faith, removing them from the fold of Islam. However, such conclusions present several problematic issues because, although the verses appear general and broad in application, they are in reality specified by both scripture and reason. First, the verses cannot possibly mean that all examples of ruling by other than Allah’s law are *kufr*. This is because, in addition to the example of the Negus mentioned earlier, if these verses did in fact carry their general, apparent meaning, then a corrupt judge (*qāḍī*) who accepts bribes and issues verdicts contrary to the truth would, in fact, be guilty of *kufr*—a conclusion not held by any of the scholars of *fiqh*. In reality, these verses were understood by the early Muslim generations (*salaf*) and the scholars to be more specific than they appear. For example, Ibn ʿAbbās stated that whoever disputes what Allah has revealed has committed *kufr*, but whoever affirms it yet fails to implement it is guilty of oppression and disobedience. ʿAṭāʾ stated that the *kufr* referenced in the aforementioned verse (Qur’an 5:44) is not the same as what is typically referred to as *kufr* (*kufr dūn al-kufr*).[^9] Ṭāwūs stated that the *kufr* mentioned here is not the type of *kufr* that removes one from the fold of Islam.[^10] Al-Qurṭubī also said that the same verse was revealed about the disbelievers and applies only to them, rather than the believers.[^11] Regarding the verse in Surah al-Nisāʾ, it is known to have been revealed in the context of someone who had the ability to take his case to the Prophet, but instead chose to take it to someone else—a situation far from analogous to Muslim minorities voting within a non-Muslim political system not of their choosing and with no alternative, accessible form of Islamic governance in place.[^12] In fact, both the verse in Surah al-Māida and the verse in Surah al-Nisāʾ are more aptly applied to situations where someone fails to rule by Islamic norms despite having the authority or opportunity to do so, not situations where there is no choice but the non-Islamic alternative. Second, the aforementioned verses do not imply that any rule not found in the Shariah necessarily equates to a ruling by something other than what Allah revealed. If they did, they would implicate even the Companions, who continued to extend the Shariah to novel situations and circumstances, or their successors who developed institutions and administrative regulations to facilitate their worldly and religious matters. Modern applications of this include school boards, municipal elections, and departments of transportation, where rules are made that are neither found in nor necessarily contradict the Shariah. Third, participation in a system does not necessarily indicate perpetuating it. In fact, quite the contrary, similarly to how Karl Marx understood capitalism as a necessary historical stage that would create the conditions for the forthcoming socialist revolution, participation can be a powerful tool to change a system. Moreover, systems that are coercive in nature go on with or without popular participation.[^13] Believing that withholding participation in elections will accelerate the fall of democracy almost takes Locke’s theory of social contract literally—that governments only have power because we allow them to. Instead, we must realize that he and others like him merely provided a legitimizing discourse for the nascent liberal nation-states. The concept of a social contract, where people agree to accept government authority, is likely better reflected in the *bayʿa* given to the righteous Caliphs than in modern nation-states, which were established almost exclusively through violence. Since even today’s democracies are established by unilateral force, the idea of withdrawing support to weaken them makes little sense. Realistically, if everyone stayed home and refused to vote, would governments acknowledge their illegitimacy and disband or would they find an excuse to continue ruling? History suggests the latter. One could argue that withdrawing support would at least crack the facade of popular consent covering up the unilateral coercion lying beneath, but that is a debate of political strategy, not *fiqh* or *ʿaqīda*. All this is to say that since voting does not seem to be inherently an act of worship, devotion, or creed, it would appear that the default ruling on voting is permissibility. Consequently, there is no need for a precedent among the *salaf* (although one could argue that there is)[^14] and the burden of proof lies on those opposed to voting in a non-Islamic form of governance to demonstrate that it is, in fact, impermissible. In the conclusion of the relevant chapter in Dr. al-Ajlan’s work, he provides his own significant reflection: the aforementioned discussion deals with voting in elections within a *Muslim-majority* society that is not governed by Islamic law, so what about a Muslim minority participating in general elections in a mostly *non-Muslim* society? He opines that participating in such elections would have *greater benefit* and *less harm* than if it were in a Muslim-majority society because there is no risk of giving legitimacy to or expressing approval of a system of government that is against the Shariah.[^15] In fact, he says explicitly that in such a situation “Muslims’ participation does not strengthen their *kufr*.”[^16] --- ## The role of electoral politics Electoral politics is merely one avenue for political change. A mature political disposition eschews treating electoral candidates as saviors and realizes that voting in elections is but one tool among many. Attention to electoral politics should never make people blind to other forms of political engagement that attract less attention, nor should the competitive and personal nature of elections lead people to lose sight of the overarching objectives, causing them to over-affiliate with a personality or a political tribe and give them undue loyalty and impunity. Doing so is disempowering and conceals the ways in which voting as a tool can be used for other purposes, such as drawing attention to and abandoning an elected official or party on account of their poor political behavior. Electoral politics deserves our attention. The last year has shown us that elected officials are positioned to craft deadly policy and marshal the resources to implement it. Going forward, Muslims in the West should dedicate sufficient intellectual and financial resources to grassroots efforts that will steer electoral politics in ways favorable to our *ummah*, including and perhaps beginning with, the end of the genocide in Gaza. --- ## Notes [^1]: Fahad b. Ṣālīḥ b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿAjlān, *al-Intikhābāt wa aḥkāmuhā fī al-fiqh al-Islamī* (Markaz al-Bayān li-l-Buḥūth wa al-Dirāsāt, 1436/2015), 42–58. [^2]: Al-ʿAjlān, *al-Intikhābāt*, 94–104. [^3]: Al-ʿAjlān, *al-Intikhābāt*, 94. [^4]: Qur’an 40:28. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1320; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1774a. [^6]: Qur’an 5:44. [^7]: Qur’an 4:60. [^8]: Qur’an 6:57. [^9]: The word *kufr* has multiple usages in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Sometimes it is used to refer to actions that take one out of the fold of Islam. At other times, it is used to refer to major sins as a strong warning against them, for example in the hadith, “killing a Muslim is *kufr*.” As per the explanation of Ibn *ʿ*Abbās, this verse is using the word *kufr* in the second meaning, not the first. [^10]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsir Ibn Kathīr* (Dar Ibn Ḥazm, 2000), 622. [^11]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2006), 7:497. [^12]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, 502. [^13]: See the last paragraph of Chapter 1 of The Communist Manifesto, [https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm%23007&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1730740598907105&usg=AOvVaw3eLYN-VD0STjZElpEkauYm). [^14]: Abd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf is reported to have asked the people of Medina their opinion on whether he should cast his tie-breaking vote for ʿAlī or ʿUthmān. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7207. [^15]: Al-ʿAjlān, *al-Intikhābāt*, 103. [^16]: Al-ʿAjlān, *al-Intikhābāt*, 104. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/just-how-much-does-gaza-matter-to-american-muslim-voters-essay # Just How Much Does Gaza Matter to American Muslim Voters? | Essay **Authors:** Dr. Youssef Chouhoud, Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** October 31, 2024 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 For over a year, American Muslims have witnessed scenes of carnage broadcast from Gaza on a near-daily basis. At the same time, they have observed scenes of incredible patience and steadfastness from the Palestinians. Bearing witness to such faith-based resilience, while enduring persistent mental anguish at the inability to stop the violence which caused it, cannot help but force a realignment of priorities. In turn, this has led to observed increases in American Muslim religiosity,[^1] as well as momentous changes in political attitudes and preferences.[^2] This current moment is not the first time that American Muslims have shifted their policy focus. Although foreign affairs were of paramount concern for the community in the years after 9/11 during the George W. Bush administration, American Muslims have placed a greater emphasis on domestic policies in recent years, especially after Trump took office. By 2016, some polls found that the economy and civil rights at home had become the top concerns for American Muslim voters.[^3] --- ## Recent trends in American Muslim politics As late as summer 2023, all indications suggested that domestic issues were likely going to remain the top priority for the Muslim community going into the 2024 election. Many of the headlines featuring American Muslims around that time highlighted scenes of protest, much as they do today, but the contexts were dramatically different. As the 2023-2024 school year was set to begin, Muslim parents across the country, from Maryland to Minnesota to Michigan, voiced their objection to LGBTQ curricular content that they deemed inappropriate for their children.[^4] Had the centering of LGBTQ issues that spotlighted Muslims’ socially conservative beliefs continued, it would have likely resulted in the largest vote share for the Republican presidential candidate from the American Muslim community since the 2000 election. Already in 2020, around 30% of Muslims cast a ballot for Donald Trump,[^5] and there was every reason to believe that this tally would grow in line with prevailing trends among other minority groups.[^6] Fast forward to 2024 and the genocide in Gaza has upended the expected political trajectory of American Muslims. This community now appears to prioritize opposition to funding Israeli war crimes over all other issues. The majority of American Muslims surveyed do not perceive either major political party candidate favorably and do not consider either the least bit sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. In his June debate with Biden, Trump said, “Actually, Israel is the one (that wants to keep going), and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He (Biden) doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one.”[^7] Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has similarly repeated AIPAC talking points. At the Democratic National Convention in August, she said, “Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”[^8] Thus, despite American  Muslims’ support for socially conservative initiatives at home, polling data suggests that they do not plan to vote for Donald Trump this year to the same degree as in 2020, let alone the possibility of exceeding it.[^9] Similarly, support for the Democratic candidate is dramatically down relative to prior years.[^10] That the genocide in Gaza matters a great deal for American Muslim voters is a clear given. Just how much it matters—and, in particular, how much it matters relative to other issues—is less clear based on public opinion polls to date. The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) published survey findings at the start of the year showing that nearly two-thirds of American Muslims would increase support for a candidate that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.[^11] This figure was even higher in a more recent ISPU study focused on swing states, which also reported that the “War in Gaza” was the top issue for Muslim voters this November.[^12] --- ## What matters to Muslim voters? To better understand where Palestine fits into American Muslim priorities, we polled American Muslims on their policy priorities as part of the recently-fielded 2024 edition of the Muslim American Attitudes Survey (MAAS). Specifically, we asked respondents, “How important are the following political issues to you personally?”  Here was the randomized list of items provided: - Healthcare access - Foreign policy (outside the Middle East) - Foreign policy (within the Middle East) - LGBTQ legislation - Abortion legislation - Immigration policy - Climate change policy Respondents were able to indicate whether they felt an issue was “not at all important,” “slightly important,” “somewhat important,” or “very important.” Figure 1 displays the resulting issue priorities gleaned from this question. Ordered by the percentage of Muslims that felt the issue was “very important,” foreign policy within the Middle East (90%) takes the top spot. However, the second place slot—and its near parity with the number one issue—was somewhat unexpected. A large majority of American Muslims (79%) place great emphasis on healthcare access, a topic rarely discussed in our communities. Around half the sample regarded foreign policy outside the Middle East, immigration policy, and climate change policy as very important (58%, 53%, and 50%, respectively), while around one-third felt that way about abortion legislation (31%), with the lowest percentage of respondents (23%) prioritizing LGBTQ legislation. ![Figure 1. Political Issue Priorities](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image4-1024x739.png) *Figure 1: Political Issue Priorities* While the rank order of issues offers an important perspective, the discourse in the lead-up to the election has not only centered on whether Muslim voters would prioritize Gaza, but also whether they would do so to the extent that it effectively becomes the *only* issue driving their decision in November. Figure 2 offers some insight into this matter. ![Figure 2. Policy Position Non-Negotiables](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image1-1024x739.png) *Figure 2: Policy Position Non-Negotiables* For respondents who stated that a given issue from the list above was “very important” to them, a follow-up question asked them whether any of those issues were “SO important that a candidate MUST hold the same position as you or else you WILL NOT vote for them?” Generally, between 35-50% of respondents regarded issues that were highly important to them as non-negotiable. The one clear exception is foreign policy in the Middle East, with nearly 9-in-10 American Muslims (86.2%) saying that a candidate must hold the same position as them in order to earn their vote. --- ## What influences Muslim voters? While these figures are informative, they still leave us with two core questions: 1) How would American Muslims choose between candidates when the crisis in Gaza is just one of several considerations?; and 2) To what extent do a candidate’s policy stances towards Israel factor into these voters’ calculations? To partially plug these gaps in our knowledge, we embedded an experimental component within the MAAS. Specifically, we ran a conjoint experiment (n=1183), commonly used in marketing to assess the relative importance of a particular component (say, price or some technical feature) for a consumer’s willingness to purchase an item. In this instance, we assessed the voters’ willingness to cast a ballot between two hypothetical congressional candidates while varying the following components: **Candidate race/ethnicity:** White, Middle Eastern, Black **Candidate political party:** Democrat, Republican **Candidate religion:** Atheist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim **Policy: Ban LGBTQ material in K-12 education:** Opposes ban, Supports ban **Policy: Level of climate action needed:** No action, Moderate action, Aggressive action **Policy: US aid to Israel:** Maintain aid, Condition aid, Freeze aid Figure 3 is an example of how these factors were presented to the survey’s respondents: ![Figure 3. Example of conjoint experiment as presented to respondents](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image2-1024x908.png) *Figure 3: Example of conjoint experiment as presented to respondents* The goal with this approach is to mimic the decisions that voters could potentially face and isolate the effect of any one trait or component in driving their ultimate choice. This experimental assessment also gets us closer to revealed preferences (what people would *actually* do in a real world scenario) rather than stated preferences (what people merely *say* they would do). Another notable advantage of conjoint analysis is that it allows researchers to test the impact of multiple variables by having each respondent make several choices between two options (in our case, each respondent chose between two candidates six times). Figure 4 presents the results of the conjoint experiment and highlights one more benefit to this method: clear interpretability. The point estimates denote the change in probability of a given respondent choosing a candidate with that component (whether a personal trait or policy position) relative to a reference component (which are zeroed out in the plot for clarity). The reference for demographics is White for race, Democrat for political party, and Atheist for religion. The reference for policies is that the candidate opposes banning LGBTQ content in schools, takes no action regarding climate change, and maintains aid to Israel. ![Figure 4. Results of the Conjoint Analysis](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image3-1024x801.png) *Figure 4: Results of the Conjoint Analysis* Our first key finding is that demographic traits, by and large, do not significantly move the needle when it comes to American Muslim votes. Respondents were only slightly more likely to pick a candidate who was Middle Eastern (2.5%) or Black (3.7%) relative to one that was White. Similarly, while Atheists had a slight disadvantage relative to Christians (4.5%) and Jews (3.9%), it was only with Muslim candidates that respondents evidenced a meaningfully higher likelihood to choose them (13.5%), all else being equal. Surprisingly, this trend of near parity held even when it came to party affiliation. Republican candidates were only at a slight disadvantage (3.2%) relative to Democrats. However, on the policy front, there was considerably more variation. For example, the issue of curricular content clearly still matters for Muslim voters. Respondents were 12% more likely to vote for someone who supports banning LGBTQ material in K-12 education relative to someone who opposes such a ban. The issue of climate change had a somewhat more muted, though still noticeable, impact on vote choice. Relative to a candidate that does not believe any action needs to be taken to address climate change, a candidate who believes that moderate action is required is 6.9% more likely to be chosen and one who advocates for aggressive action has a nearly 10% edge (9.4%, to be precise). Then, there is the issue of aid to Israel. The results in Figure 4 offer the clearest indication that the genocide in Gaza is the primary consideration when American Muslims cast a ballot. But, just how much does this issue matter? A candidate who wishes to maintain the current aid regime suffers a *severe* penalty, all else being equal. Relative to someone who supports the status quo, American Muslim voters are 30% more likely to cast a ballot for candidates who wish to condition aid to Israel, while those pushing to freeze aid altogether are a whopping 55% more likely to earn the community’s vote. In one respect, the evidence presented in this post confirms the obvious—Gaza matters a lot to American Muslims and will likely drive their vote choice to a considerable degree this November. What these data highlight is just how much foreign policy in the Middle East, especially Gaza, matters above and beyond all other issues. Moreover, given the magnitude of our results, coupled with the findings of our earlier survey highlighting voter intentions, it is clear that a candidate’s foreign policy will weigh heavily on the voting behavior of the American Muslim community—not just this cycle, but likely for the foreseeable future. When push comes to shove, American Muslims vote with the  *ummah* in mind. --- ## Notes [^1]: Osman Umarji, “Gaza’s Rise: Inspiring the Muslim Ummah’s Collective Consciousness and Religiosity,” *Yaqeen*, January 12, 2024, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/gazas-rise-inspiring-the-muslim-ummahs-collective-consciousness-and-religiosity. [^2]: Ibrahim Hooper, “CAIR Swing State Data Shows Muslim Voters Hold Diverse Preferences, Still Up for Grabs in 2024,” CAIR, September 9, 2024, https://www.cair.com/press\_releases/cair-swing-state-data-shows-muslim-voters-hold-diverse-preferences-still-up-for-grabs-in-2024/; Dalia Mogahed, “Exclusive Preview: Winning Muslim Votes: A Policy Priority Analysis in Swing States,” ISPU, July 31, 2024, https://ispu.org/winning-muslim-votes-key-findings/. [^3]: Dalia Mogahed and Fouad Pervez, “American Muslim Poll: Participation, Priorities, and Facing Prejudice in the 2016 Elections,” ISPU, March 2016, https://www.ispu.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/poll2016-1.pdf. [^4]: Nicole Asbury and Katie Shepherd, “Hundreds of Md. parents protest lessons they say offend their faiths,” *Washington Post*, June 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/27/muslim-orthodox-lgbtq-books-mcps/; Becky Z. Dernbach, “Muslim parents keep kids home from Ham Lake charter school over LGBTQ picture books,” *Sahan Journal*, October 6, 2023, https://sahanjournal.com/education/davinci-academy-muslim-parents-ham-lake-lgbtq-books/; Jack Dutton, “Dearborn School Board Chaos as Muslim Parents Clash With LGBTQ+ Speakers,” *Newsweek*, October 14, 2022, https://www.newsweek.com/muslim-parents-clash-lgbtq-speakers-michigan-school-board-meeting-1751966. [^5]: “AP VoteCast 2020,” AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, May 2021, https://apnorc.org/projects/ap-votecast-2020-general-elections/. [^6]: Jeffrey M. Jones and Lydia Saad, “Democrats Lose Ground With Black and Hispanic Adults,” Gallup, February 7, 2024, https://news.gallup.com/poll/609776/democrats-lose-ground-black-hispanic-adults.aspx. [^7]: Kanishka Singh, “Trump criticized for ‘Palestinian’ insult in debate with Biden,” *Reuters*, June 28, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-criticized-palestinian-insult-debate-with-biden-2024-06-28/. [^8]: Jaclyn Diaz, “Harris says Israel ‘has right to defend itself,’ Palestinians need ‘dignity, security’,” *NPR*, August 23, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/08/23/g-s1-19232/kamala-harris-israel-gaza-dnc. [^9]: Osman Umarji and Youssef Chouhoud, “American Muslims and the 2024 Election: Why American Muslims Are Rethinking Political Alliances,” *Yaqeen*, October 16, 2024, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/american-muslims-and-the-2024-election-why-american-muslims-are-rethinking-political-alliances. [^10]: Ibid. [^11]: Erum Ikramullah, “Americans More Likely to Increase than Decrease Their Support if Candidate Favors Ceasefire,” ISPU, March 5, 2024, https://ispu.org/ceasefire-poll-2/. [^12]: Dalia Mogahed, “Winning Muslim Votes: A Policy Priority Analysis in Swing States,” ISPU, September 17, 2024, https://ispu.org/winning-muslim-votes-1/. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/american-muslims-and-the-2024-election-why-american-muslims-are-rethinking-political-alliances-essay # American Muslims and the 2024 Election: Why American Muslims Are Rethinking Political Alliances | Essay **Authors:** Dr. Osman Umarji, Dr. Youssef Chouhoud **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** October 4, 2024 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 *Yaqeen is a 501(c)(3) organization and under IRS guidelines cannot—and does not—endorse any candidate for office. No statement herein may be construed as such. The views expressed in this post are those of the authors alone.* For Muslims, solidarity with Palestine and the Muslim world is an overarching Islamic and ethical imperative. This imperative has influenced American Muslim politics for decades. It may be difficult to imagine now, but in the 2000 presidential election, an estimated 40-70% of American Muslims voted for the Republican nominee, George W. Bush, who narrowly defeated Al Gore.[^1] Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, were seen as better for Muslims on domestic and foreign policy than Gore and Lieberman, including their stances on Palestine. Many Muslims celebrated Bush’s win, with some claiming credit for tipping the scale in his favor in the decisive state of Florida, where the margin of victory was a mere 537 votes (.009%).[^2] Perceived triumph quickly turned into a nightmare when just weeks after the events of 9/11, Bush and the Republican party signed the Patriot Act into law.[^3] It permitted the government to spy on ordinary Americans by monitoring phone calls, emails, bank and credit records, and track internet activity without reason.[^4] The heightened surveillance laws targeted Muslims, suppressing their civil liberties and right to due process. These dangerous domestic policies were coupled with a disastrous foreign policy. Iraq and Afghanistan were invaded, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims were murdered as a direct result. In the 2004 election, the American Muslim community abandoned the Republican Party en masse. Though he didn’t ultimately beat Bush, John Kerry became the first in a long line of Democratic politicians to enjoy widespread Muslim support. The longer the Bush administration waged war on Muslims at home and abroad, the friendlier to Muslim interests the Democrats appeared to be.[^5] The community wedded itself to the Democratic party for the ensuing decades, with estimates of 80-92% voting for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.[^6] To demonstrate how strong the emotional attachment to the Democratic party became, we can look at how differently Muslims perceived both Bush’s and Obama’s efforts to combat terrorism. In a 2007 Pew poll, during Bush’s second term, 26% of Muslims viewed the “U.S-led war on terrorism” as sincere, while 55% said it was insincere. Fast forward four years later to 2011, when Obama was president, and 43% of Muslims said that U.S. efforts to combat terrorism were sincere while 41% said they were not.[^7] Most Americans were unaware of the extent to which the Obama administration engaged in wars and covert drone attacks across multiple countries, in many ways exceeding the Bush administration’s own militarism.[^8] Then, in the 2016 and 2020 elections, between 65-80% of Muslims voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden,[^9] fearing Trump’s proposal at the time to ban immigration from many Muslim-majority countries.[^10] Thus, for the past two decades, American Muslims have consistently supported the Democratic party due to perceptions that the Democrats have Muslim interests closer to heart. In recent years, however, some Muslims have grown disenchanted with this political alliance due to a perceived incongruence between liberal and Islamic values, particularly concerning gender and sexuality. LGBTQ issues have become a major political touchstone for some Muslims, who are especially worried about the effects on their children of being exposed to material they deem objectionable. By May 2023, American Muslim leadership had recognized the gravity of the LGBTQ issue and clarified the normative Islam position on gender and sexuality in the widely circulated “Navigating Differences” document.[^11] Nonetheless, disagreements over social values, including LGBTQ matters, were not enough to sever the relationship between Muslims and Democrats in 2023. As the 2024 presidential election nears, many are wondering where American Muslims stand politically. As is the case with many other political domains, one needs to be wary of questionable sources of information. For example, the NY Post, a right-wing media outlet, claimed that nearly a third of Muslims plan to vote for Trump in the upcoming election, based on a dubious survey commissioned by the unknown Muslim American Leadership Alliance.[^12] Obtaining accurate representative data on Muslim Americans has been incredibly difficult, and the results of any given poll will likely reflect only a particular segment of the community. We surveyed American Muslims between August 27th and September 8th to better understand how they think and behave politically.[^13] Our sample of 1,223 American Muslims is likely not representative of the national Muslim population, but does reflect the beliefs and behaviors of a segment of our community that is religious and college-educated.[^14] What did we find? > **We found that genocide is a red line for American Muslims, and we are currently witnessing a monumental shift away from the Democratic party, remarkably similar to how Muslim voters abandoned the Republican party in 2004. However, a fundamental difference is that rather than jump back on the Republican bandwagon, the community seems to be abandoning both parties.** Over the past year, the American Muslim community has adopted the view that it is not only the Biden administration, but rather politicians on both sides, that fully support and endorse the genocide being perpetrated in Palestine. Joe Biden has been one of the most pro-Israeli presidents in American history, and his support of the genocide in Palestine is a clear red line for the Muslim community. Foreign policy in the Middle East was the single most important issue to our sample, with 90.5% reporting it was “very important” to them personally. Of those who considered this issue “very important,” 86% said they would not vote for a candidate who did not hold the same position as them on the matter. Thus, the overwhelming majority of our sample of American Muslims have made Palestine the singular issue that determines their vote. As the U.S.-funded genocide of Palestinians has bipartisan support, American Muslims have considerably negative views of both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president. Donald Trump was rated unfavorable by 89% of respondents in our survey. Kamala Harris was rated unfavorable by 74%, with only 15% viewing her favorably.[^15] Although Black Muslims viewed her more favorably than other racial groups, they still held her in low regard, with an average favorability of 2.5 on a 5-point scale (between “somewhat unfavorable” and “neither favorable/unfavorable). ![Favorability of Democratic and Republican Candidates](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Favorability-of-Democratic-and-Republican-Candidates-1-1024x532.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Candidate-favorability-by-voter-race-1024x592.png) The low favorability of these candidates is reflected in 2024 presidential voting intentions. In our sample, 69.3% reported voting for Joe Biden in 2020.[^16] However, only 6% had intended to vote for Biden in the upcoming 2024 election prior to him dropping out. After Biden was replaced by Harris, 14% said they intended to vote for Harris if the election was held today. However, of those few who said they plan to vote for Harris, 56% are doing so to oppose Trump’s policies, whereas only 13% are doing so in support of Harris’ policies.[^17] Even Black Muslims, who have typically voted Democrat, are largely abandoning Harris, with less than a third (32%) planning on voting for her.[^18] Thus, although replacing Biden did increase the anticipated Muslim vote for the Democratic candidate, the data shows the drop off in support remains precipitous and demonstrates just how rapidly American Muslims have abandoned the Democratic party. Given that 60% of Muslims approved of how Biden was handling his presidency as recently as 2022, the single greatest factor for American Muslims abandoning the party seems to be the Democratic administration’s support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza.[^19] Notably, however, Muslims are not jumping back onto the Republican bandwagon. Only 4% of our respondents planned on voting for Trump.[^20] American Muslims are instead abandoning both traditional parties. The majority (53%) plan to vote for a third-party candidate, such as Jill Stein, Cornel West, or Chase Oliver. Many American Muslims seem aware that their vote may increase the odds of a Trump presidency. By stating their intention to vote for a third-party anti-genocide candidate or abstaining from voting altogether, they appear willing to endure the short-term consequences of a Republican administration considered hostile to Muslims. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/If-the-2024-presidential-election-were-held-today-who-would-you-vote-for-1024x550.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2020-voting-and-2024-voting-intentions-by-party-or-candidate-1024x721.png) Although Gaza has been the red line for American Muslims, their frustration and disillusionment with both parties is not limited to Palestine. We asked our respondents whether they perceived the Democratic or Republican party to be more effective on seven issues. The plurality of American Muslims believed that neither party would be more effective than the other on six of the seven issues we probed, with the only exception being climate change. Thus, from ending the genocide, combating Islamophobia, building a strong economy, immigration, reducing crime, and protecting religious freedoms, American Muslims believe neither of the major parties is very effective on domestic or foreign affairs. ![Perceived effectiveness of the Democratic vs Republican Party](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Perceived-effectiveness-of-the-Democratic-vs-Republican-Party-1-1024x756.png) Many American Muslims have come to the same conclusion that Malcolm X did in 1964 - the Democratic and Republican politicians are insincere and make promises they don’t intend to keep. Malcolm X warned against being politically naive and loyal to parties that do not fight for our causes. “So today our people are disillusioned,” he said. “They’ve become disenchanted. They’ve become dissatisfied. And in their frustrations, they want action.”[^21] His words appear to reflect the sentiments of American Muslims in 2024 as they search for a new strategy and course of action. American Muslims are behaving *ummatically*, acting on the Islamic imperative to stand for justice and with the oppressed. The heartbeat of American Muslims appears to be the cause of Palestine. --- ## Appendix ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Presidential-candidate-favorability-1024x565.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-voting-intentions-by-race-1024x538.png) --- ## Notes [^1]: James Zogby, “How Arab Americans Voted and Why,” James Zogby, December 15, 2000, [https://jameszogby.com/2000/how-arab-americansvoted-and-why](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jameszogby.com/2000/how-arab-americansvoted-and-why&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147644904&usg=AOvVaw2Vcql7Slr90sBJL6YPhYHz). [^2]: Luke Brinker, “Muslims Helped Elect George W. Bush. Now the GOP Front-Runner Wants to Ban Them,” Yahoo! News, December 19, 2015, [https://www.yahoo.com/news/muslims-helped-elect-george-w-213310754.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.yahoo.com/news/muslims-helped-elect-george-w-213310754.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147645464&usg=AOvVaw3Cbt5EikEE0Vj2dKOCBKb8). [^3]: The full name of the act was the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act. [^4]: “Surveillance Under the Patriot Act,” ACLU, [https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/surveillance-under-patriot-act](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/surveillance-under-patriot-act&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147646028&usg=AOvVaw143w9yksHF49gJc1mbFPgg). [^5]: “Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism, Section 5: Political Opinions and Social Values,” Pew Research Center, August 30, 2011, [https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2011/08/30/section-5-political-opinions-and-social-values](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2011/08/30/section-5-political-opinions-and-social-values&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147646441&usg=AOvVaw1SelkUXtjJbjoW1r-JOL6i)/. [^6]: “Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation.” [^7]: “Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism, Section 6: Terrorism, Concerns about Extremism & Foreign Policy,” Pew Research Center, August 30, 2011, [https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2011/08/30/section-6-terrorism-concerns-about-extremism-foreign-policy/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2011/08/30/section-6-terrorism-concerns-about-extremism-foreign-policy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147647094&usg=AOvVaw1nW4TqBZ6gA-jJg_EZX2A8). [^8]: Jessica Purkiss and Jack Serle, “Obama’s Covert Drone War in Numbers: Ten Times More Strikes than Bush,” The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, January 17, 2017, [https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147647449&usg=AOvVaw1JQV63NjmzU1TdrrYaGu7p). [^9]: “U.S. Muslims Concerned About Their Place in Society, but Continue to Believe in the American Dream,” Pew Research Center, July 26, 2017, [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/07/26/political-and-social-views/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/07/26/political-and-social-views/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147647880&usg=AOvVaw1soepgQWXeXVzRXhlKSUop); Ibrahim Hooper, “Breaking News: CAIR Exit Poll Shows American Muslims Vote in Record Numbers, 69% Voted for Biden,” CAIR, Novembe 3, 2020, [https://www.cair.com/press\_releases/breaking-news-cair-exit-poll-shows-american-muslims-vote-in-record-numbers-69-voted-for-biden/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cair.com/press_releases/breaking-news-cair-exit-poll-shows-american-muslims-vote-in-record-numbers-69-voted-for-biden/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147648128&usg=AOvVaw1o_4_WX_RdYaHdS02pIpdt). [^10]: Brian Robert Calfano, Nazita Lajevardi, and Melissa R. Michelson, “Trumped Up Challenges: Limitations, Opportunities, and the Future of Political Research on Muslim Americans,” *Politics, Groups, and Identities* 7, no. 2 (2019): 477–87. [^11]: “Navigating Differences: Clarifying Sexual and Gender Ethics in Islam,” May 23, 2023, [https://navigatingdifferences.com/clarifying-sexual-and-gender-ethics-in-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://navigatingdifferences.com/clarifying-sexual-and-gender-ethics-in-islam/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147649066&usg=AOvVaw2YuAqsA8W7UyEsCWTkGYtH). [^12]: Josh Christenson, “Nearly a Third of Muslim-American Voters Back Trump—Up 7 Points from 2020: Poll,” NY Post, September 6, 2024, [https://nypost.com/2024/09/06/us-news/nearly-a-third-of-muslim-american-voters-back-trump-up-7-points-from-2020-poll/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2024/09/06/us-news/nearly-a-third-of-muslim-american-voters-back-trump-up-7-points-from-2020-poll/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147649542&usg=AOvVaw0COY9zWEhq0P_94tDOq2GE). [^13]: The survey was sent to Yaqeen’s listserv of US emails and shared on WhatsApp on Muslim groups interested in politics. The sample is a non-probability convenience sample. [^14]: The sample was 58% female; 85% of respondents had a college degree; 79% reported praying five times a day. The race of respondents was 49.5% Asian, 18% Middle Eastern/North African, 13% Black, 12% White, 3% Hispanic, and 4% other. [^15]: See complete results in the Appendix. [^16]: A CAIR survey also found 69% of Muslim voters for Biden in the 2020 election. See [https://www.cair.com/press\_releases/breaking-news-cair-exit-poll-shows-american-muslims-vote-in-record-numbers-69-voted-for-biden/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cair.com/press_releases/breaking-news-cair-exit-poll-shows-american-muslims-vote-in-record-numbers-69-voted-for-biden/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147650031&usg=AOvVaw37m9wKBHXr-bhryiUuGwtt). [^17]: We asked respondents who planned to vote for Trump, “Please indicate what is primarily driving your 2024 presidential vote choice. Is it entirely about your support for Trump’s policies, entirely about your opposition to Harris’s policies, or somewhere in between?” (Scale of 1 to 7). A similar question was asked to those who planned to vote for Harris. [^18]: See Appendix A for racial differences in voting intentions. [^19]: “American Muslim Poll 2022: A Politics and Pandemic Status Report,” ISPU, [https://ispu.org/public-policy/american-muslim-poll-2022/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ispu.org/public-policy/american-muslim-poll-2022/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147650421&usg=AOvVaw2SNkYaiQWEKGaCOrJ_ngp2). [^20]: To reiterate, our sample is likely not representative of the American Muslim population. Other surveys show that Muslims plan to vote for Trump at higher levels. [^21]: Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” speech at King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan, April 12, 1964, [https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/mx.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/mx.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1728054147651145&usg=AOvVaw26DjKAhlUOcUPgt2eClmUS). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/five-tips-to-manage-your-anger-in-islam # Five Tips to Manage your Anger in Islam **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Quran **Tags:** Self-Improvement **Published:** September 16, 2024 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 Anger is a normal and often healthy emotion in response to problems or threats. When out of control though, anger becomes harmful, and can cause issues in our relationships and affect our well-being. For this reason, a number of Prophetic narrations emphasize control of our anger. Abu Hurayrah (rA) narrated that “a man said to the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Advise me.’ He said, ‘Do not get angry.’ He repeated his question several times and he said (each time) ‘Do not get angry.’” (*Sahih al-Bukhari,* no. 6166) Given that anger is a natural and unavoidable part of human nature, the command here should not be misunderstood as meaning that we must eliminate anger entirely. Indeed, some anger can even be considered [righteous anger](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/hadith-17-righteous-anger-40-hadiths-on-social-justice). Rather, our Prophet is commanding us to not let [our anger overcome](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-15-dont-let-your-anger-overcome-you-guidebook-to-god) us when it does arise. We will now turn to provide five actionable tips from the Prophetic tradition, along with one *du’a*, that can help with anger management and guide us all towards righteousness, *inshAllah*. --- ## Tip 1: Seek refuge with Allah from Satan The Prophet ﷺ said, “If a man gets angry and says, ‘I seek refuge with Allah,’ his anger will go away.” (*Saheeh al-Jaami’ al-Sagheer,* no. 695) This tip is also reflected in another narration: “Two men reviled each other in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ. Then the eyes of one of them became red and his jugular veins swelled. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said ‘I know a phrase \[which\] if this \[man\] said \[it\], it would get rid of (the anger) he finds: I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed devil…’” (*Sunan Abi Dawud,* no. 4781) These narrations are also in line with the verse, “If you are tempted by Satan, then seek refuge with Allah. Surely He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.” (Qur’an 7:200). This clearly indicates that anger is indeed a form of temptation from Satan; keeping that in mind alone can help some with their anger. The first tip then, repeated in a Qur’anic verse and in more than one Prophetic narration, is to say: > أعوذُ باللهِ مِنَ الشيطانِ الرجيم > > *A'udhu billahi min ash-shaytan ir-rajim* > > I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. --- ## Tip 2: Know when to walk away The Prophet ﷺ said, “If any of you becomes angry and he is standing, let him sit down so his anger will go away; if it does not, then let him lie down.” (*Sahih Ibn Hibban,* no. 5688) That is, when angry, change your physical state. If you are standing, sit down. If you are already sitting down, lie down. This helps reduce physical tension and provides a sudden awareness of the body and your breathing patterns. If that still does not work, or you are already lying down, walk away from the person or situation that is making you angry. The physical distance can help you to cool off and gain a clearer perspective. --- ##  Tip 3: Keep silent The Prophet ﷺ said, “If any of you becomes angry, let him keep silent.” (*Musnad Ahmad,* no. 2137) How many of us have said things in anger that we later regretted and had to apologize for? While feelings of anger are often inevitable, we can minimize their negative consequences by allowing our emotions to settle before speaking. Taking this pause helps prevent hasty remarks and their potential fallout. --- ## Tip No. 4: Make wudu The Messenger of Allah ﷺ  said, “Verily, anger comes from Satan, and Satan was created from fire. Fire is extinguished with water, so if you become angry, perform ablution with water.” (*Sunan Abi Dawud,* no. 4784) This hadith suggests that performing *wudu* (ablution) can help us cool down both physically and spiritually. An additional benefit is that we not only calm our emotions but also realign our focus from our immediate frustrations to the broader perspective of the afterlife, our ultimate goal as believers. --- ## Tip No. 5: Remember the reward for controlling anger Abu Darda (rA) narrated, “I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, tell me about a deed that will admit me into Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Do not be angry and you will enter Paradise.’” (*al-Mu’jam al-Awsat lil-Tabarani,* no. 2353) There are also narrations stating that managing your anger can protect you from punishment. Ibn Umar (rA) reported that “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Whoever restrains his tongue, Allah Almighty will cover his faults. Whoever controls his anger, Allah Almighty will protect him from His punishment. Whoever apologizes to Allah Almighty, He will accept his apology.’” (*Ibn Abī Dunyā,* no. 21) That is, our ability to control our anger in this life has profound significance for our next life. Making managing our anger a constant habit could be the reason that Allah averts punishment from us, or decides to admit us to Paradise. --- ## A du’a to relieve anger In addition to the above tips, whenever you feel yourself on the verge of letting anger get the best of you, say the following [supplication](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DTvtA1FLVGbY&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1726510090949806&usg=AOvVaw3NkkQTaAR9Ll-Pv4v9s_wj). Umm Salamah (rA) narrated: I said, "O Messenger of Allah, will you not teach me a supplication with which I can pray for myself?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Say: Du’a to relieve anger اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي ذَنْبِي، وَأَذْهِبْ غَيْظَ قَلْبِي، وَأَعِذْنِي مِنْ مُضِلاتِ الْفِتَنِ مَا أَحْيَيْتَنَا .                 Allahumma-ghfir li dhanbii, wa adhhib ghayza qalbi, wa a'ithnii min mudillatil-fitn ma ahyaytana. O Allah, the Lord of Muhammad ﷺ, forgive my sins, remove the anger from my heart and protect me from the trials of misguidance as you long as you allow us to live. *Musnad Ahmad,* no. 26576 --- ## Conclusion If you, like many others, struggle to control your anger, know that you are not alone. Anger management requires a great deal of self-control. It is precisely because of the difficulty of controlling anger that “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Who do you consider to be a fighter among you?’ We said, ‘One who men cannot wrestle down.’ The Prophet said, ‘It is not so. Rather, it is one who controls himself when angry.’” (*Sahih Muslim,* no. 2608) By applying the tips provided here, one can gradually make anger management into a habit. As anger management becomes a habit, it will become easier, and over time, you may find yourself consistently remaining calm and composed in the face of anger. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-to-become-a-hafiz-inspiration-to-memorize-quran-blog # How to Become a Hafiz: Inspiration to Memorize Qur’an **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Quran **Published:** September 10, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 Indeed the words of Allah are truth: > وَلَقَدْ يَسَّرْنَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ لِلذِّكْرِ فَهَلْ مِن مُّدَّكِرٍۢ > > And We have certainly made the Qur’an easy to remember. So is there anyone who will be mindful? (Qur’an 54:40) Allah repeats the same verse four times in this *surah*. Allah reminds us over and over in the Qur’an, “Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship.” (Qur’an 2:185) Does this mean the journey to memorize the Qur’an will be easy for everyone? Absolutely not. The Qur’an is from Allah; it won’t reside in a heart preoccupied with the transient and distracting matters of this world. The Qur’an, the very speech of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, cannot be passively absorbed or memorized. > لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍۢ لَّرَأَيْتَهُۥ خَـٰشِعًۭا مُّتَصَدِّعًۭا مِّنْ خَشْيَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَمْثَـٰلُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ > > Had We sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would have certainly seen it humbled and torn apart in awe of Allah. We set forth such comparisons for people, \[so\] perhaps they may reflect. (Qur’an 59:21) But for the one who embarks on this journey with full commitment, determined to see it through, Allah will indeed make it easy. The Qur’an will flow from the tongue of the sincere one, made effortless by divine grace. The glory, the reward, the benefits of the one who memorizes the Qur’an far surpass the time and effort invested in *hifz*. To commit the Qur’an to memory is not just an act of *ibadah*, but a transformation of the heart and spirit, aligning one’s life with divine guidance and attaining the heights of spiritual fulfillment. --- ## Virtues of becoming a hafiz The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best among you (Muslims) are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.” \[*Sahih al-Bukhari* #5027\] A true *hafiz* can be seen by others as being the best, the epitome of virtue: exemplary in manners, diligent with their time, and devout in their worship. The finest among them are intimately connected to the Qur’an through memorization, continuous review, and the noble act of teaching. Their weekly *wird*, nightly *qiyaam*, and commitment to passing down knowledge are not merely tasks to get done, but virtuous endeavors. Imagine if every single physical Qur’an, every *mushaf* on earth, was destroyed. A *hafiz* is the one Allah chooses to use to preserve this book. A *hafiz* could produce the entire Qur’an from memory. A group of *huffaz* who do not speak the same language, could sit together and place every *ayah* correctly in a new *mushaf*. Allah preserves a pure Qur’an through the *huffaz*. Allah also protects the *huffaz* themselves from harm in many subtle ways. The *huffaz*, at the cusp of committing a sin, will be reminded of the *ayah*s they have committed to heart. After a sin, they will feel the weight of remorse bear heavily upon them. The *huffaz*, engrossed in their studies, will allocate time effectively, not having the time to sin. The *huffaz*, with clear learning goals and objectives, will not be distracted by worldly gains. There is honor in those who immerse themselves in the Qur’an. They are the inheritors of the prophets. The Messenger ﷺ said, “The scholars are the successors of the prophets. Verily, the prophets do not pass on gold and silver coins, but rather they only impart knowledge.” \[*Musnad al-Bazzār* 10/68\] In his final moments, our beloved Prophet ﷺ declared that he was leaving behind a treasure: the Qur’an. Reflect upon this—what greater inheritance could one seek than the very word of Allah, described by the Prophet ﷺ as a treasure? \[*Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal*\] By becoming a *hafiz*, you become part of an unbroken chain that stretches back to *‘iq’ra bi-is’mi rabbika alladhī khalaqa’* ٱقْرَأْ بِٱسْمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ١ Read! In the name of your Lord, who created. (Qur’an 96:1) --- ## Everlasting benefits of memorizing Qur’an There are countless benefits of becoming a *hafiz* in this world, but the true pleasure is found in the *akhira*. Abdullah ibn Amr reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “It will be said to the companion of the Qur’an: Recite and ascend as you recited in the world! Verily, your rank is determined by the last verse you recite.” Source: \[*Sunan al-Tirmidhi* #2914\] Imagine standing in front of Allah, the angels, and all of humanity, starting with Surah Fatiha, and raising higher and higher as you recite from your heart the words that Allah sent, the words that changed humanity, the words that would make mountains quiver, the words Allah, Al Wadud, taught our Messenger ﷺ. Imagine, having reached this high rank, you are now to intercede for people you love. There is a weak hadith, “Whoever reads the Holy Qur’an and memorizes it, while he regards what it makes lawful as lawful and its unlawful as forbidden, Allah will admit him into *jannah* and will accept his intercession on behalf of ten such persons of his family who were doomed to the Fire of Hell.” \[*Sunan Tirmidhi*\] Before all of this, the Qur’an already came to your aid. “Fasting and the Qur’an will intercede for a person on the Day of Resurrection. Fasting will say: O Lord, I kept him from his food and desires during the day; let me intercede for him. And the Qur’an will say: I kept him from sleeping during the night; let me intercede for him. And they will be allowed to intercede.” \[*Musnad Ahmad* #6626\] --- ## What happens when you become a hafiz *Huffaz* can be found leading prayers in mosques around the world. Some continue their studies, delving deeper into the vast oceans of Islamic knowledge, pursuing programs in Alimiyyah, Islamic Jurisprudence, and even advanced PhDs in Islamic studies. Others compete in national and international recitation competitions, showcasing the beauty and precision of their memorization. Many become local teachers, beacons of wisdom and spiritual upliftment, creating hubs of learning and devotion centered around the word of Allah. Some explore various forms of Qur’anic recitation, mastering the diverse and melodious *qiraat*, enriching their recitations with beauty and variety. Even if they do none of that, all *huffaz* must remain steadfast in their review of the Qur’an to preserve it in their hearts and minds. It is highly recommended to have a teacher who provides guidance and support, ensuring that one's memorization remains strong and accurate. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Be committed to the Qur’an. By the One in whose hand is my soul, it can leave you faster than a camel from its reins.” \[*Sahih al-Bukhari* #5033\] This poignant metaphor serves as a reminder of the fleeting nature of memory and the diligence required to maintain it. Fearing the loss of memorization is a natural and commendable sentiment, reflecting your sincere reverence for Allah’s words. However, do not let this fear immobilize you. Indeed, many *huffaz* who neglect their review do find that their memorized verses slip away. Yet, with patience, diligence, and earnest *du’a*, what has been lost can be regained. The process of re-memorization, though challenging, is a testament to the enduring power of dedication and Allah’s assistance. In this journey, let your heart be filled with the light of the Qur’an, and let your soul be ever engaged in its recitation and reflection. The divine words are not merely to be stored in memory but to be lived and breathed, shaping your thoughts and actions in every moment. --- ## Overcoming obstacles in your hifz journey If you’re considering this journey of *hifz*, Shaytan may whisper doubts and insecurities: “You will be seen as a role model, but you’ll be a hypocrite.” He will highlight your flaws, making you question your worthiness of the title of *hafiz*. This is one of his strongest deterrents, akin to how he may discourage someone from wearing hijab by suggesting they aren’t devout enough. Indeed, becoming a *hafiz* or wearing the hijab may draw attention, but more importantly, it brings you closer to Allah. The act of engaging deeply with His words is of immeasurable value. The adversary who detests children of Adam, will strive to deter anyone from learning the Qur’an. Shaytan may argue that memorizing such a vast text is beyond you, citing your busy life, family obligations, societal expectations, financial needs, and career responsibilities. Shaytan might suggest that you will succumb to showing off (*riyaa*) if you succeed. Again, this is a tactic to keep you from the tremendous benefits of becoming a *hafiz*. Consider that sin, whether major or minor, may stand as a barrier to your quest in memorizing the Qur’an. A soul entangled in sin cannot readily absorb the light of the Qur’an. > Ibn al-Qayyim reported: When Imam al-Shafi’i, may Allah have mercy on him, sat in front of Malik and read to him, Malik was impressed by his intelligence, wisdom, and complete understanding. Malik said, “Verily, I see Allah has placed light in your heart, so do not extinguish it with the darkness of disobedience.” \[*al-Jawāb al-Kāfī* 1/52\] Purify your intentions, let go of sins, and leave the outcomes to Allah. Embrace this journey with a heart full of devotion and a mind focused on Allah. The path of a *hafiz* is one of profound spiritual growth and unparalleled rewards. Each step taken in this journey, despite the whispers of doubt, brings you closer to the Divine and embeds the eternal words of the Qur’an into the very fabric of your being. --- ## What is the reward for becoming a hafiz? The rewards of this endeavor, both in this world and the hereafter, are beyond measure. In this life, the reward is a deep contentment, an unwavering peace that comes from knowing the words of Allah, the divine handbook to life, which guide your every moment. The words of the Qur’an soothe the soul and act as a constant companion through the trials and tribulations of life. No test touches a *hafiz* but he could find the *ayah* needed to overcome it. In the hereafter, the rewards are even more magnificent: high stations of honor, the power to intercede on behalf of loved ones, and a state of eternal happiness, complete and unending. To commit the Qur’an to memory is to secure for oneself a legacy of divine favor and grace. The reward accumulated in the process of becoming a *hafiz* is innumerable. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever recites a letter from Allah's Book receives a reward, and the reward of ten the like of it. I do not say that *Alif Lam Mim* is a letter, but *Alif* is a letter, *Lam* is a letter and *Mim* is a letter.” \[*Jami at-Tirmidhi* #2910\] Every single utterance of a student learning to memorize is a treasure trove of rewards. Each page reviewed, each verse repeated, every letter pronounced—all are counted, written in the book of deeds, handed back to the servant by Allah Himself. These good deeds erase minor sins and illuminate the soul with a radiant spiritual light. In the end, the reward of becoming a *hafiz* is not just the memorization of a text, but the transformation of a life. --- ## How long does it take to memorize the Qur'an? The journey to becoming a *hafiz* is deeply personal and varies greatly, depending on one's abilities and the time devoted to the Qur’an. Some begin at a tender age when the mind is most absorbent. Many parents enroll their young children in full-time programs, enabling them to complete their memorization within three years. Others may take a lifetime, finishing at age seventy. Some young adults pause their secular pursuits, dedicating a few years to intensive study, while children attending part-time programs at masjids or after-school classes may take seven to ten years to achieve their *hifz*. There is no known shortest amount of time. Countless *huffaz* remain unseen, memorizing in humble settings,  progenies basking inside clay homes, rocking themselves as they memorize off black tablets. Around the world, *huffaz* start in the lap of a mother, reciting a word or two before they can even walk. Time will pass us whether we make use of it or not. You have a choice: start today, and in three years, marvel at how much of the Qur’an you have committed to memory and heart. Or remain as you are, and find yourself unchanged, with no progress to reflect upon. The decision is yours alone. --- ## How to memorize the Qur’an There are various methods for memorizing the Qur’an, each catering to different learning styles and different traditional schools. Starting the Journey: - **Last *Juz* to First:** Start with the last *juz* and work your way backward to the beginning. This method encourages students by beginning with *Juz* 30, which many already know parts of, making it easier to start with familiar content and then move on to *Juz* 29, 28, and so on. - **Surah Baqarah First:** Begin with Surah Baqarah, the largest *surah*, which is almost equivalent to memorizing two *ajzaa*. This approach encourages students to tackle the most daunting *surah* first, making the remainder of the memorization journey feel easier by comparison. - **The [Ottoman Method](https://howtomemorisethequran.com/the-ottoman-hifz-method/):** Focus on memorizing the last page of each *juz*, then the second to last page, progressively stacking pages of the Qur’an on top of one another. This method encourages students to “chip away” at each *juz*, allowing them to learn the entire Qur’an simultaneously. Different institutions globally employ various methods to cater to diverse learning styles: **Auditory Learners:** Historically, the oratory tradition has thrived on memorization through listening, and this is how the Qur’an was memorized by the companions. Choose a reciter whose pacing aligns with your natural breath. Begin with *surah*s commonly used in prayer, like Mulk, Rahman, Waqiah, Sajdah, and Kahf, before progressing to more challenging and lengthier *surah*s. This traditional approach involves listening and repeating *surah*s until they are committed to memory. Abu Umamah encouraged this method, saying, “Recite the Qur’an and do not be deceived by depending on the written copies. Verily, Allah will never punish a heart that has preserved the Qur’an.” \[*Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah* 34044\] **Tactile Learners:** Using a traditional beaded string, or *tasbeeh*, read each verse 33 times (or 100 times, depending on the number of beads). Move a bead with each repetition. After completing one round while looking at the text, repeat the process without looking. **Visual Learners:** For native Arabic speakers, and especially younger students, visual aids can enhance memorization. Write verses on a page and draw images or icons to help retain the information. The Qur’an has [a unique storytelling style](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-unique-storytelling-style-of-the-quran) that can be helpful for native Arab speakers to use to strengthen their memorization. Another technique is to rewrite pages of the Qur’an from memory in a journal, which deepens knowledge of *tajweed* and is both rewarding and challenging. **High-Intensity Learners:** Rather than focusing on page or *juz* goals, set time-based goals. Dedicate an intensive period, like a weekend, to solely focus on memorizing the Qur’an, similar to cramming for an exam. Alternatively, allocate a set period, such as four hours every Saturday morning, for intensive study over the course of a year. --- ## Practical Methods A *sabak* is a new portion of memorization. Usually, for a beginning student it is half of a page, and for a more advanced student it is roughly 4 pages. This is traditional at many schools across the world. Finding a suitable *sabak* for your abilities with your teacher is crucial, and each *sabak* must be perfected before moving on to the next. **6446 Method:** - Read a verse 6x while looking at the *mushaf* - Recite the verse 4x without looking - Recite the verse again 4x while looking - Recite it again 6x without looking **10-3 Method:** - Read a verse 10x while looking - Recite the verse 3x without looking - If there’s no mistake, move to the next *ayah*  - Do the same, 10x looking, 3x without looking - Then, combine the previous verse with the new one without looking --- ## Best Time to Memorize the Qur’an The morning, particularly after Fajr, is highly recommended for memorization due to the *barakah* (blessing) at this time. > Sakhr ibn al-Ghamidi reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “O Allah, bless my nation in their early morning.” \[*Sunan al-Tirmidhī* #1212\] *Tahajjud* time, used for reviewing in *qiyaam* prayer, is also beneficial. However, the best time varies for each individual depending on personal schedules and when the home environment is quiet. --- ## Dua for memorizing the Qur’an Even the Prophet ﷺ felt in his heart that he might forget the revelation after it had been sent down but Allah assured him, “We will make you recite so you shall not forget” (Qur’an 87:6). This *ayah* emphasizes that it wasn’t the Prophet ﷺ who enabled the preservation of Qur’an.“The preservation of the entire Qur’an word for word in your memory is not a manifestation of your own power but the result of Allah Almighty’s bounty and grace; otherwise, if Allah so willed, He could cause it to be forgotten.” \[*Tafhim al-Qur’an*\] Allah tells our Prophet ﷺ: Do not rush to recite ˹a revelation of˺ the Quran \[O Prophet\] before it is \[properly\] conveyed to you,1 and pray, “My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.” (Qur’an 20:114) Therefore, a popular *du’a* is this one from the Qur’an: وَقُل رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًۭا *Rabbi zidni ilma* “My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.” (Qur’an 20:114) --- ## What is the best age to become a hafiz? It is often advised to begin at a young age when the mind is more receptive to learning. However, we should also remember that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ received the first revelation at the age of 40. Ultimately, when it comes to the Qur'an, the age factor becomes secondary. The best age to start memorizing is the one you find yourself in right now, regardless of whether you’re young or older. The Qur’an transcends age; its teachings and blessings are timeless and accessible to all who seek them. In embracing this noble pursuit, we are reminded that the journey of becoming a *hafiz* is not merely about memorizing words, but about nurturing a deep connection with Allah’s guidance. It is a journey that enriches the soul, strengthens faith, and brings immeasurable blessings. No matter where you begin, each step taken towards memorization is a step towards Allah. Remember that Allah said, “Whoever comes to Me walking, I will come to him running.” \[Hadith Qudsi; *Sahih Muslim* #2687\] --- ## For further reading: *114 Tips to Help You Finally Memorize the Qur’an* by Suleiman Hani *The Crowning Venture: Inspiration from Women Who Have Memorized the Quran* by Saadia Mian Learn more methods from Qari Mubashir --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/raising-resilient-muslim-youth-strategies-for-building-a-strong-muslim-identity-in-children # Raising Resilient Muslim Youth: Strategies for Building a Strong Muslim Identity in Children **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Family & Community, General Psychology, Parenting, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Mental Health, Publication **Published:** September 4, 2024 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## I. Case Study *Hanan, a first generation Muslim American whose parents immigrated from the Middle East, remembers her struggles as a teen. She loved her parents and appreciated the struggles they went through to adapt to a new country and raise her and her siblings; however, she struggled with their rigid and strict approach to  parenting. Hanan was rarely given the freedom to spend time with friends, and was not allowed to attend school events. This caused her to develop feelings of resentment towards her parents and their overprotectiveness as she got older. Her parents had a forceful attitude about religious practice, particularly concerning the way Hanan dressed. Whenever she wondered about why she was required to do certain things or prohibited from doing other things, Hanan’s parents would respond with some version of “Because I said so.”* *Hanan went to public schools her whole life and struggled to belong. She always felt that she wasn’t quite “American enough” for her friends nor “Muslim enough” for her parents. When with her family, she prayed and wore a hijab, but at school, she didn’t feel comfortable wearing her hijab or stepping aside to pray. She didn’t feel that she could share this with her parents. No matter who she was with, she felt like she couldn’t be her real self, and had to decide which version of her would be the best fit for each circumstance.* *After getting married and having children, Hanan decided that she didn’t want her children to experience the same confusion she felt growing up. In response to her parents’ overbearing attitude about religion, Hanan shifted toward the opposite end of the spectrum and hesitated to offer explicit directions surrounding faith to her children but also worried that they wouldn’t feel proud of their identity as Muslims unless she addressed it head on. She often wondered: How can I help my children to develop strong Islamic identities so they don’t struggle the same way I did?* --- ## II. Goals of this chapter - What is the importance of establishing a healthy identity in children and how can it affect resilience? - What do the Qur’an and Sunnah teach us about identity? - How can parents foster a strong Muslim identity in children? - What role do I play as a parent in my child’s identity development? - What are concrete everyday actions I can take to help my child develop a strong Islamic core, confidence, and identity as a Muslim? - How can I navigate obstacles that may impact my child’s ability to create a healthy identity? --- ## III. Introduction The development and maintenance of a healthy identity is key to promoting emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience. While identity formation is usually associated with adolescence, in reality it begins early in life and develops in stages. Thus, as Hanan recognized, one must address the question of identity in children’s early and formative years. Children constantly explore questions about who they are and who they will become physically, relationally, socially, emotionally. Our children will face difficulties at every stage in their lives, so prioritizing their identity development is one of the greatest services we as parents can provide to help them weather the inevitable storms, and—even more—grow through them. Psychological research has found that religious identity provides a sense of continuity across time and place, and allows an individual to develop a sense of internal consistency despite the unavoidable changes that time brings to society, relationships, and self.[^1] Societal standards are constantly in flux, so if our children’s sense of self stems solely from their surroundings, confusion is inevitable. Instead, our goal as parents is to help our children forge a durable identity through the stability offered by Allah’s guidance—an identity based on the truth of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said, “No child is born but that he is upon the natural instinct. His parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or Magian.”[^2] We are each born upon an innate disposition (*fiṭra*) to worship Allah alone, but the *fiṭra* will only blossom if we take active steps to preserve it. We must allow our children to fulfill their natural hunger for meaning by finding it in their relationship with Allah. “Identity” is a contentious concept,[^3] and theorists have offered a number of competing definitions.[^4] Many psychotherapists understand identity as the way people see themselves, a unique combination of their beliefs, drives, values, and abilities, all of which come together to form an overall image of the self.[^5] To put it simply: Identity is how you reconcile the various parts of yourself into a collective whole. Given that our goal here is to focus on the aspects of the self needed to build resilience, particularly for Muslim children, this is the definition of identity we will be using in this paper. A large part of this also includes the importance of action. Islamic identity requires Islamic action, which is another facet that will be emphasized throughout this paper. Many theories of identity are derived from a secular Western framework, and while we ourselves draw from this framework, we challenge some of its core principles. For instance, whereas some theories suggest all “identities”—religious, racial, professional—are equivalent and exist in parallel, we argue that only our Islamic identity is central and informs various *roles* we have, such as being a mother or a husband. Each of our social roles is conditioned by this core identity, as are the sets of *behaviors* informed by the identity. While a role can contribute to one’s identity, a role is what someone *does* whereas an identity is who the person *is*. Embracing a Muslim *identity* allows us to acknowledge and fulfill the responsibilities bestowed by Allah and strive for excellence (*iḥsān*) in the *roles* He has given us. Identity formation is not a linear process, but rather, a continuous one that unfolds through our deliberate choices. Those choices both inform and are informed by our values, and so our choices slowly but surely shape a coherent sense of self. Our *roles* and *behaviors* exist in a feedback loop with our core identity. While we strive for a stable sense of self based on our Islamic identity, it will necessarily fluctuate. Just as *īmān* (faith) increases and decreases, our Islamic identity is susceptible to changes as well.[^6] Our roles are impacted by our identity and our identity can also be affected by the roles we adopt in different stages of life. A person who struggles to integrate different aspects of their identity into a consistent image of self can suffer from role confusion, a weak sense of self, and sometimes even mental illness. You can see the subtle interplay of identity, roles, and behaviors in these common examples: - The sheltered Muslim teenager who moves away to college and becomes friends with his non-Muslim roommate. The teenager may have a good Islamic identity which his friend respects, but sometimes seeing his friend engage in what appear to be fun but unIslamic social behaviors makes him feel tempted and weak. - The loyal husband who moves his aging mother into his home, trying to balance his role as a husband and son in accordance with his Islamic identity, but finds it challenging when the two roles appear to be in competition due to different expectations of his mother and wife. - The devout Muslimah who loves reading Qur’an, fasting, and praying *sunnah* prayers throughout the day and night, and so struggles with her new role as a mother because these acts of worship are now suddenly replaced with different kinds of worship behaviors she is not yet accustomed to, such as caring for her infant’s basic needs. Throughout this paper, you will find suggestions to help nurture a stable Islamic identity for your child, in part through how your child approaches their various social roles such as student, friend, and athlete. Each of those roles, and their associated actions, may appear “secular” or “non-religious,” but what we do in those roles can be forms of worship. Even our familial roles as parents or professional roles as doctors, for instance, should build up and be built up by our Islamic identity. Our worldly activities do not fall outside of our Islamic identity; they are in fact part of it. An employee, a baseball aficionado, a hiker, a roller coaster enthusiast—we are all these people as Muslims first and foremost. We see this in the example of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ as well. The companion, Ḥanẓala (rA), said: > Allah’s Messenger, when we are in your company, we are reminded of Hell-Fire and Paradise as if we are seeing them with our own eyes, but whenever we go away from you and attend to our wives, children, and business, these things go out of our minds.” Thereupon Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: “By Him in Whose Hand is my life, if your state of mind remains the same as it is in my presence and you are always busy in remembrance (of Allah), the angels would shake hands with you in your beds and in your paths but, Ḥanẓala, there is a time for this and a time for that.”[^7] As seen in our [introductory paper](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/building-resilience-the-psychology-behind-raising-unapologetic-muslim-children), our model of Islamic resilience takes the form of a pyramid, with the base being the most important and foundational—although all levels are essential and needed in building resilience from a psychospiritual perspective. [Our second paper](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-parenting-strategies-how-to-help-children-feel-safe-in-their-attachment-to-god-and-parents) delved into the importance of building an attachment to Allah first and foremost, followed by attachment to parents, the prophets, the Qur’an and the *ummah* at large. After attachment, the next level in the pyramid is the significance of connection to one’s self. The current paper discusses this layer and protective factors related to identity and self-esteem. Our Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model (IIRM) asserts that the development of an identity with Islam at its foundation is essential in fostering mental, emotional, and spiritual health in Muslim children. A healthy Islamic identity allows children to build resilience in the face of daily challenges and provides a sense of stability. In this paper, we explore research findings as well as Islamic principles that will help us as parents (with the guidance and will of Allah) to raise children whose actions and ambitions ultimately rest on their connection with Allah and their pursuit of Paradise (*jannah*). ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/image.png) Our parenting paradigm is based on the beautiful *āyāt* (sing. *āya*) in which Luqmān the Wise gave his son profound advice that we must still heed today. Among Luqmān’s gems is the following verse, which inspired our exploration of the crucial role of identity development in resiliency: > But if they (i.e., your parents) pressure you to associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. Still keep their company in this world courteously, and follow the way of those who turn to Me in devotion.[^8] Staying true to oneself and one’s purpose of worshiping Allah, even in the face of pressure, is a core component of our identity as Muslims. Such steadfastness is a necessary component in building resilience among Muslim children, especially those living in the West. Allah tells us, “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”[^9] Helping our children to live in accordance with their purpose of worshiping Allah allows them to face struggles with the resilience inherent in a solid Muslim identity. In the following sections, we have divided the paper into two main parts: 1) the importance of identity development in raising resilient children; and 2) practical ways to foster identity development through nurturing self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-trust. --- ## IV. Foundational concepts: The importance of identity development ### The role of identity in resilience Resilience is the capacity to effectively adapt when confronted with adversity or stress.[^10] The relationship between resilience and identity is bidirectional. Resilience can come from a strong identity eliciting both determination and motivation.[^11] In marginalized communities experiencing discrimination, a shared identity can help build unity and resistance when experiencing systemic injustice, boosting positive self-image and self-acceptance.[^12] Identity can also be shaped by adverse life experiences, newfound purpose, and a sense of belonging and self-worth.[^13]  Successfully navigating difficult experiences can foster introspection, highlight inner strengths, and uncover values and beliefs that further enhance one’s sense of self.[^14] Resilience can be of different types,[^15] including: 1. Surviving setbacks and challenges with as little damage as possible; 2. Remaining firm in the face of setbacks and challenges and developing the ability to return to a default state of equilibrium after setbacks; 3. Growing from setbacks and challenges. This is the highest form of resiliency, and has been termed *antifragility* or *post-traumatic growth*. For children growing up as minorities, like Muslim children in the West, solidifying a healthy Islamic identity against peer and societal pressures is essential for spiritual health.[^16] Religiosity in Muslim teens is associated with well-being, self-worth, and low anxiety.[^17] A strong Islamic identity provides the beliefs and values that contribute to resilience by shaping the core of who your child is—a worshiper of Allah and a beloved creation of the Almighty. This sustains your child with the perspective that this *dunyā* is temporary, that hardship comes with reward, and that we are rewarded based on our efforts, not results. The Qur’an and Prophetic biography (*sīra*) can be used to teach perseverance and resilience through real-life examples. When a child is able to maintain a stable sense of self in the midst of struggles, uncertainties, and life changes, their ability to bounce back from these difficulties increases.[^18] A middle schooler who chooses to wear the hijab to please and obey Allah, with absolute belief in the reward that comes from this choice, will be better equipped to thrive despite criticism from peers as opposed to a student who lacks similar conviction. In this paper, we focus on three elements that can help nurture the beliefs, values, and behaviors that our children need to develop a healthy identity: 1. **Self-Esteem:** Healthy self-esteem allows children to acknowledge their inherent, God-given worth. This allows them to face difficulties with a stable sense of self and a clear purpose, understanding that Allah has granted them the strengths and qualities needed to navigate challenges. 2. **Self-Efficacy:** Healthy self-efficacy involves the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a goal or cope with a difficulty. This empowers children to strive toward their goals with the understanding that, while they must do their part in working toward the outcome they want, relying on Allah’s help is necessary every step of the way. Healthy self-efficacy allows children to face challenges with a feeling of safety in knowing that Allah is our Protector and Provider in every circumstance, while also encouraging their own capabilities to handle difficult situations. 3. **Self-Trust:** Healthy self-trust involves the belief in one’s ability to act in a way aligned with one’s best interests and personal values. This allows children to feel capable of exercising their God-given free will in a manner that benefits them in this life and the next. It empowers them to view challenges as manageable due to confidence in their capacity to make positive decisions even in difficult moments, and it nurtures trust in Allah that He has not tested them with more than they can bear. All three of these concepts are intertwined and build upon one another. For example, nurturing a healthy sense of self-esteem allows children to feel capable of striving toward what they want in life, while a healthy understanding of their capabilities allows them to make positive decisions and stand up for themselves when needed. While not an exhaustive list, these are some of the foundational elements that can help children feel a sense of strength in their Muslim identity, allowing them to feel worthy as worshipers of Allah, capable of achieving their purpose as His servants and able to make choices that align with their values. ### The importance of nurturing a strong Muslim identity The stronger one’s identity, the more potentially resilient. That resiliency ensures consistency in our worship of Allah, thereby enhancing our betterment in both this life and the hereafter. Allah promises us that we will face tests, which can be divided into two categories based on their Qur’anic descriptions: 1. *Tests of Destiny*: These are the tests of fate that Allah has written for us. This includes things in life over which we have no control, including when we are born, when we die, an unexpected diagnosis, an accident that befalls a loved one, etc. Though these tests can superficially manifest as “good” or “evil,” everything that comes from Allah is good despite our personal perceptions of certain struggles. Allah promises that we will be tested in these ways: > Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned.[^19] > > And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient.[^20] 2. *Tests in Worship*: These are tests of revelation and how we choose to respond to the legislation and limitations revealed by Allah, including fulfilling prescribed acts and refraining from prohibited acts. We see this test in the following verses: > For indeed, We created humans from a drop of mixed fluids, \[in order\] to test them, so We made them hear and see. We already showed them the Way, whether they \[choose to\] be grateful or ungrateful.[^21]  > > We have indeed made whatever is on earth as an adornment for it, in order to test which of them is best in deeds.[^22] Resilience is necessary to effectively respond to both types of tests, as well as the ability to stand firm in faith and obedience to Allah when following commands that run counter to our personal desires. Helping our children to build a strong Islamic identity can facilitate resilience by allowing them to align their beliefs, values, and behaviors. --- ## V. Fostering healthy Islamic identity development: Practical approaches The remainder of this paper will explore what we, as parents, can practically do to enhance and nurture our children’s Islamic identity. The following suggestions encourage enhancing an attachment with Allah, first and foremost, as well as healthy attachment to parents and other caregivers (for more on this, please read [our paper on the first layer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-parenting-strategies-how-to-help-children-feel-safe-in-their-attachment-to-god-and-parents)). These suggestions do not constitute an exhaustive list but should help parents nurture a healthy Islamic identity in their children. The following suggestions are focused on the importance of nurturing: (i) self-esteem; (ii) self-efficacy; and (iii) self-trust. They offer practical ways to foster these qualities in our children to build their resilience through a strong, healthy, and stable Islamic identity. In order to help readers digest the content more easily, given that the upcoming sections are dense with information, we start each subsection with a text box on what to expect and close each subsection with a summary. ### I. SELF-ESTEEM #### How To Build Self Esteem I. Labeling II. Strengths-Based Approach a. Verbalizing observed strengths b. Helping your child identify strengths c. Paying attention to what your child is doing right III. Conveying a Sense of Importance a. Showing interest in what your child enjoys b. Making space for your child in discussions c. Investing in the magic ratio #### Self-esteem, identity development, and resilience Self-esteem, which like identity has been defined differently by social scientists, generally refers to an individual’s subjective judgment of their worth as a person.[^23] High self-esteem also predicts success and well-being in relationships, work, and health.[^24] Furthermore, individuals whose self-esteem or life satisfaction are reactive and erratic are more vulnerable to mental health challenges.[^25] In particular, frequent fluctuations in self-esteem are associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms.[^26] While there is research supporting the benefits of high self esteem, working on self-esteem in isolation from other aspects of self-development can be harmful.[^27] For example, cultivating self-esteem alone can lead to narcissism.[^28] As such, it is important for Muslim parents to help nurture healthy self-esteem within an Islamic framework, teaching children that ultimately all honor, success, and accomplishment come from Allah and not just our individual effort. #### The Islamic importance of healthy self-esteem Research has found that our self-esteem and perception of God are intertwined. In one study, researchers found that adult self-esteem was positively related to loving-accepting God images.[^29] This suggests a link between a sense of self-worth and an understanding of Allah as a loving, forgiving, and merciful God. Thus, nurturing healthy self-esteem can make an image of God as loving and forgiving seem intuitively plausible to our children. #### Core beliefs: The foundations of healthy self-esteem Self-esteem can be cultivated in a variety of ways, but at the root of healthy self-esteem are healthy **core beliefs**.[^30] Core beliefs are beliefs that people hold about themselves, others, and the world; for example, believing that people are inherently untrustworthy, or believing that you can handle the challenges that come your way, or believing that Allah only decrees what is best for you.[^31] The specific core beliefs that undergird our self-esteem include who we are (philosophy on life), what we do (our job or purpose), what we have (inherited or acquired quantities or qualities), how we appear to others (looks, reputation, and personality) and to what or whom we are attached (God, a particular person, group, or thing such as power or money).[^32] Key to any set of core beliefs is a person’s archetype: their “ideal guide for maneuvering through the maze of life.”[^33] Having a God-centered archetype, in which one sees oneself as created by God for a purpose—to live in accordance with God’s expectations—provides grounding, honor, and a sense of inherent worth. People with a materialist archetype have a more fragile self-esteem and lack the same security or life satisfaction.[^34] When our children possess an unshakeable core belief that they are loved and worthy in the eyes of Allah and their parents, they are able to ride the rollercoaster of life’s ups and downs with resilience and authenticity, not caring if others disagree with their choices. Core beliefs, particularly those related to one’s purpose, can become *self-fulfilling prophecies*; e.g., if a person has a false expectation, they take actions that confirm that expectation. If someone assumes they will not succeed, they will not take the appropriate steps to become successful. The view children have of themselves as well as the people around them powerfully impacts their choices. #### Practical ways to cultivate healthy core identity beliefs #### I. Labeling The labels we assign our children affect the ways they see themselves. Do they feel intelligent and valuable, with the sense that they have important input to offer? Do they feel like time spent with them is worthwhile and enjoyable? Do they overhear words of criticism or love when we talk about them with others? How we perceive and speak about our children shapes their self-view. Even if labels are inevitable in everyday communication, it behooves us to exercise caution with the “you are” statements we say to our kids. The labels we use may make the difference between our children developing healthy or unhealthy core beliefs about themselves. ##### Labeling and faith The Qur’an teaches core values and offers reminders that, when internalized, can positively contribute to Islamic identity development and resilience-building.[^35] The Qur’an also offers healthy, strength-focused labels we can strive toward, helping us and our children to feel a sense of belonging and honor in identifying as Muslims. Allah tells us in the Qur’an, > And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him. He has chosen you and has not placed upon you any difficulty in your religion. \[It is\] the religion of your father, Abraham. He \[i.e., Allah\] named you “Muslims” before \[in former scriptures\] and in this \[revelation\] that the Messenger may be a witness over you and you may be witnesses over the people…[^36] Allah gifts us with the most honorable of labels in this verse by calling us “Muslims”; i.e., those who submit to Him. Here it  is important to note that there is no complete Islamic identity without Islamic action. Allah has elevated us over other nations, and He has created a way out for us from our difficulties, based on our actions as believers.[^37] Identifying ourselves as Muslims allows us to acknowledge Allah’s blessings, which can help us to face life’s challenges with patience and resilience. Consider the following verses, which are just a small selection of verses in the Qur’an that highlight the character of the believers (*muʾminūn*, sing. *muʾmin*): > The \[true\] **believers** are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger—never doubting—and strive with their wealth and their lives in the cause of Allah. They are the ones true in faith.[^38]  > > Say, “Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us. He is our Protector.” So in Allah let the **believers** put their trust.[^39]   > > The **believers** are but one brotherhood, so make peace between your brothers. And be mindful of Allah so you may be shown mercy.[^40]  > > They are those who establish prayer and donate from what We have provided for them. It is they who are the true **believers**. They will have elevated ranks, forgiveness, and an honorable provision from their Lord.[^41] Verses such as these highlight the qualities we seek to emulate in order to strengthen our identities as Muslims—and the values, actions, and characteristics we should highlight as we raise our children. When your child is struggling to make a decision about how to respond to a situation, verses like these can be referred to as a guide to solidify their identity as worshipers of Allah, encouraging them to adopt not just the label of “believer,” but also the actions needed to earn that label. For example, when your child recounts an argument he had with a friend, encourage him to reflect on  the meaning of the verse, “The **believers** are but one brotherhood, so make peace between your brothers. And be mindful of Allah so you may be shown mercy.”[^42]  Discuss how this verse can be implemented to encourage actions and intentions that align with Islamic values. ##### How to cultivate positive labeling of our children If we struggle with negatively labeling our children, what are some antidotes? The first step is to create awareness. This is two-fold: create awareness of the labels you assign to your child and the labels you assign to yourself, particularly as a parent. For example, if you view yourself as an angry mom, you will naturally assume that there is a lot of negativity in your relationship with your child, leading to a core belief that you are a “failure” in this role. How might that impact your relationship with your child? And how about your perception of your ability to improve your relationship with your child? Try this: Create a list of labels you use when describing yourself, particularly as a parent (“I am \_\_\_\_\_\_.”). The more critical we are of ourselves, the more critical we tend to be of those around us, including our children. Creating awareness around this tendency of self-criticism can be transformative. To build awareness of the labels you assign to your child, create a list of labels you associate with your child. Reflect on the labels inspired by various situations that have come up over the past couple of weeks. For example, when your son threw a tantrum because he did not get the candy he wanted at the store, did that prompt a label of “spoiled” or “difficult”? When he ran to give you a hug when you picked him up from school, did you view him as “loving"? The second step is to separate your child from their mistakes. We see this in the way that Prophet Joseph (Yūsuf) attributed his brothers’ cruelty (i.e., leaving him in a well as a young boy) to Satan (Shayṭān) rather than to some essential aspect of their character.[^43] Describe behavior rather than issuing labels. For example, “He failed a test” vs. “He is a failure.” Or, “He is throwing a tantrum because he wants a lollipop” vs. “He is a spoiled brat.” The third step is to reframe our observations of our children. Consider the positive flipside of every negative trait you observe. For example, if you view your child as “stubborn,” what is the positive side of this trait? Maybe they are also persistent, determined, and not easily influenced by others. Viewed in this light, labels encourage positive action and higher self-esteem. #### Summary of Cultivating Positive Labeling *To enhance this activity, write out your thoughts and feelings on paper.* *Step 1:* Create awareness of the labels you use for yourself and your child. Pay attention to how you label yourself and your child throughout the day, and especially when under stress. *Step 2:* Separate yourself and your child from your mistakes. Remind yourself that everyone makes mistakes and mistakes do not define you. *Step 3:* Positively reframe negative attributes of you and your child. An easy way to do this is to fold a sheet of paper in half vertically, and write the negative attributes on one side with the positive reframes parallel on the other side. #### II. Adopting a strengths-based approach You may have heard your child say things like, “I’m the worst!” or “I’m not good enough” or “I’m the dumbest person in my class.” As a parent, hearing remarks like this can be painful and leave you wondering what you are doing wrong. Realize that the core beliefs we hold come from a combination of our experiences and our innate temperaments, and it is natural for kids (and adults) to be hard on themselves sometimes. However, parents also need tools to address demoralizing self-talk. One of these tools is taking a **strengths-based approach**,[^44] which emphasizes a child’s individual resilience and ability as opposed to flaws and deficits. Challenges can blind people to their many virtues. A strengths-based approach facilitates a perspective shift, transforming difficulties into opportunities for growth. This approach creates positive expectations that things can be different and opens the way for the development of competencies.[^45] ##### The strengths-based approach in our faith Consider the way Allah encourages us to see ourselves at our best, as He sees us: “Whoever acts in righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer—We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward \[in the hereafter\] according to the best of what they used to do.”[^46] We see a beautiful example of strengths-based language in the relationship between the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his wife, Khadīja (rA). When he returned from the Cave of Ḥirāʾ after the intense experience of receiving the first revelation, he was trembling in fright. He asked Khadīja to cover him and said, *“*O Khadīja! What is wrong with me? I was afraid that something bad might happen to me.” Khadīja reassured him: “Allah will never disgrace you, for by Allah, you keep good relations with your kith and kin, speak the truth, help the poor and the destitute, entertain your guests generously, and assist those who are stricken with calamities.”[^47] Here, Khadīja (rA) comforted the Prophet ﷺ during a moment of fear by invoking the strengths of his character she knew to be true. Imagine how relieving it must have been for him in that moment to be reminded that he had qualities and actions that are beloved to Allah. In the same way, reassuring our children by reference to their strengths is a powerful way to encourage positive self-talk and a healthy self-concept. ##### How to use a strengths-based approach with your child ##### Verbalize their strengths Note how Khadīja (rA) attached the strengths of the Prophet ﷺ to qualities that are pleasing to Allah (e.g., maintaining family ties, truthfulness, and caring for the poor, downtrodden, and guests). We can do the same for our children as a way of solidifying their Islamic identity. For example, when your child chooses to share something they love with a friend, label the quality you notice by saying, “You’re such a generous person to share your favorite candy with your friend. Allah loves people who are generous and He loves you!” As mentioned earlier, children tend to behave in ways that meet others’ expectations of them. Therefore, if we speak to our children as though they are capable, strong, hardworking, and worthy servants of Allah, their actions and choices are more likely to reflect this. For example, when your child is struggling with something difficult, notice their persistence and label it, saying something like, “I can tell that math problem is hard. You’re such a hard worker to keep trying even when you’re frustrated!” or “It’s so frustrating that your tower keeps falling. You’re a trooper to keep trying. You’ll get there!” ##### Help your child identify their own strengths It is also important to help your child identify their own strengths. While it’s wonderful for children to hear about their positive qualities from others, they themselves must acknowledge those qualities for them to truly translate into healthy self-esteem. ##### Questions to Help Your Child Identify Their Strengths These questions are great to ask casually when driving or eating a meal together. Limit your discussion to one question per sitting to go into depth. - Which of Allah’s Names has been on your mind lately? When do you tend to think about this Name of Allah? How do you feel when you remember it? - What is something you’ve done recently - or a quality you have - that you hope Allah especially loves? - What’s your favorite thing to do? - What makes you feel super energetic and excited? - If your best friend described you, what do you think they’d say? - What do you think a successful day looks like? What made it successful? - What are you good at? - What feels hard for you right now? How are you dealing with it? - What’s your favorite thing about school? - Tell me about something you achieved that you’re really proud of. - What’s your least favorite thing to do? - How do you stay motivated when you feel like things are getting difficult? ##### Pay attention to what your child is doing right A strengths-based approach requires that we pay attention to even minute details about our children and their behaviors. As parents, we often highlight the things our children need to correct: *Clean up that mess. Have you brushed your teeth? Don’t hit your sister!* This is a common complaint children make in therapy: “The only things my parents talk to me about are all the things I’m doing wrong. Can’t they see how hard I’m trying?” Anas ibn Mālik described the Prophet’s tendency to de-emphasize mistakes, saying, “I served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years. By Allah, he never even said to me, ‘Uff!’ He never said harshly, ‘Why did you do that?’ or, ‘Why did you not do that?’”[^48] Consider the way the Prophet ﷺ dealt with an uncomfortable situation when a young man requested permission to commit  adultery (*zinā*).[^49] While many people might have labeled him shameless or sinful for even asking this question, the Prophet ﷺ viewed him as someone striving toward good. He told him to come closer and sit down. He spoke to the young man gently, helping him consider the situation from a different perspective, and ended their back-and-forth discussion with a supplication (*duʿāʾ*) asking Allah to forgive his sins, purify his heart, and guard his chastity. From that day forward, the young man no longer struggled with that desire. That is the power of seeing the good in a young person rather than assuming the worst. While parents naturally must advise and guide their children, focusing on what they are doing right is just as important. *Thank you for putting your plate in the sink. I love how diligently you’re doing your homework! Great job getting your morning routine done quickly!* Focus on the good rather than on what is lacking, and when your child does something that brings you joy, tell them. Consider the advice of the Prophet ﷺ: “When one of you loves his brother, let him know.”[^50] This is an acknowledgment of Allah’s blessings and a reflection of gratitude. Allah tells us, “If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more.”[^51] Imagine the blessings you will find in your relationship with your child once you consciously shift to expressing gratitude and acknowledging the good you see in them. #### Summary of Using a Strengths-Based Perspective 1. Catch your child doing good *behaviors* (helping someone, diligently completing homework, praying without being asked, etc.), identify the behaviors, and then reinforce them through verbal praise or affection. 2. Identify positive *traits* in your child as you see them and highlight them. Tie those traits to positive role models if possible. For example, “When you and your brother stood up to that bully at school it reminded me of when Moses (Mūsā) stood up to Pharaoh when he was trying to make everyone do what he said.” 3. Tie the positive qualities you see in your child back to Allah. For example, if your child is doing great in math, say something like, “Isn’t it wonderful that Allah blessed you with such a strong brain and made you into such a hard worker? I’m so proud of you.” In this way, your child’s strengths are emphasized but always connected back to Allah, thereby creating a stronger connection between your child’s self-concept and relationship with Allah. 4. Consider working with your child on a strengths poster, identifying their skills, positive attributes, and overall virtues. Have your child decorate the poster and make it a work of art that they can hang on a wall in their room. #### III. Help your child feel important You cannot develop self-esteem if you do not believe yourself to be inherently valuable. When children feel that they are significant, loved, and valuable members of the family, their self-esteem increases alongside their sense of belonging.[^52] A sense of rejection produces the opposite result.[^53] Keep in mind that telling your child that they are important does not mean telling them that they are the *most* important person in the world, and that therefore their every interest, whim, and desire must be accommodated. Limits and boundaries are necessary and healthy; a child should understand that they are not the center of the universe and that they need to accommodate others’ needs and wants as well. This balance between humility and self-esteem is important for spiritual, psychological, social, and emotional development. An example of what this balance might look like: *It’s time for the sunset (*Maghrib*) prayer. I know it’s hard to stop playing Minecraft, but nothing is more important than making time for what Allah wants us to do. After prayer, I’d love to hear about what you’ve been building.* ##### Conveying a sense of their value and importance to Allah Conveying a sense of value to our children allows them to internalize the idea that they are also valuable and important to Allah (swt). In a beautiful hadith, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar rA reported: > I saw the Messenger of Allah  circling the Kaaba and saying, “How pure you are and how pure is your fragrance! How great you are and how great is your sanctity! By the one in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the sanctity of the believer is greater to Allah than your sanctity, in his wealth, his life, and to assume nothing of him but good.”[^54] This hadith clearly conveys the importance of internalizing the inherent value of a believer. As parents, conveying our children’s value in our interactions with them can be a means of raising their self-esteem and further nurturing their resilience.[^55] Children naturally feel more comfortable embracing Islamic values and living by them when they know that they are valued by those closest to them. It allows them the safety to make choices that distinguish themselves from non-Muslims because they are reassured by the sense of belonging they experience at home. ##### How can I show my child they are valued? ##### Show interest in what your child enjoys One way to convey that we value our children is to show interest in what they enjoy. People try to maintain or increase self-esteem by seeking out people who see them in a positive light and who solidify those aspects of themselves that they most prefer.[^56] One characteristic of the Prophet ﷺ that made him beloved to so many, especially children, was his interest in what they enjoyed. Anas ibn Mālik (rA), who spent much of his youth in the company of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, narrated:[^57] “The Prophet used to mingle with us to the extent that he would say to my younger brother, ‘What did your sparrow do?’” Noticing our children’s interests shows them that we consider their thoughts and ideas worthwhile. Consider ways to let your child know that their interests matter to you because *they* matter to you. When your son is programming code for his robotics competition, ask questions about his strategy and nod along to show you are invested in his responses. When your daughter keeps borrowing the same book series from the library, ask her about the characters and plotlines that seem to captivate her. ##### Make space for your child in discussions Ibn ʿAbbās (rA) was a young companion who had a great deal of knowledge. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) once included him in a gathering of veterans of the Battle of Badr. When some expressed displeasure about the inclusion of the young Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘Umar highlighted the depth of Ibn ʿAbbās’s knowledge of the Qur’an relative to the older men around him. When Ibn ʿAbbās offered his interpretation of a *sūra* that differed from the understanding of his seniors, ʿUmar signaled his agreement by replying, “I do not know anything about it other than what you have said.”[^58] Imagine how valued Ibn ʿAbbās must have felt in not only being allowed a space in such a lofty gathering, but also in being asked to offer his thoughts on the subject of discussion. Ensure that children have a space to share their thoughts. This might be at the family dinner table, on car rides to and from school, or as part of their bedtime routine. Ask open-ended questions about your child’s day and show interest in what they share by following up with additional questions. Include your child in adult conversations and ensure that no topics are off limits. It is important for children to have space to be curious and get answers to difficult questions. ##### Invest in your relationship: The “magic ratio” Research has found that a key  factor in maintaining a healthy, happy relationship is a “magic ratio” of at least five positive interactions for every negative interaction.[^59] While this research was focused on successful marriages, the findings are relevant to parent-child relationships as well. Showing your child that you notice the good in them and see their strengths will naturally foster a higher sense of self-worth. ##### Summary of Ways to Demonstrate Your Child is Important 1. Convey that Allah made every person for a purpose and that each person is unique. Highlight Allah’s love and mercy for the believers. 2. Show interest in what your child likes. Ideas on how to show interest: - I saw \_\_\_\_ today and it reminded me of you so I wanted to share it with you. - What’s been going on lately with\_\_\_\_? - How are you progressing with\_\_\_\_? - When was the last time you did\_\_\_\_\_? I would love to join you next time. - I have 15 minutes before making dinner. Can I play \_\_\_with you? - I would love to get your thoughts and insights about\_\_\_\_\_\_. 3. Ask for your child’s input on age-appropriate discussions in the home and in community spaces. 4. Invest in the magic ratio: - Ask open-ended questions to show interest in your child’s day (e.g., What was the hardest thing about today? How did you deal with it?) - Verbalize your favorite things about your child (e.g., I love how thoughtful you are; you give the best hugs, etc.) - Small acts can demonstrate your care in powerful ways and can make your child feel important (e.g., surprising your child with something small; letting them know you missed them while they were at school, etc.) - Intentional appreciation helps your child focus on their successes and strengths. Keep an ongoing note on your phone about the small things your child does that you appreciate to share with them. ### II. Self-Efficacy (Competence) #### Self-Efficacy (Competence) I. Providing Opportunities for Mastery a. Set goals b. Reframe challenges II. Normalizing Making Mistakes III. Vicarious Modeling: Show Children that Success is Possible #### Self-efficacy, identity development, and resilience What does your child tend to do when struggling with a task?  If your child gets stuck on a difficult math problem, does she  say things like, “Forget it. It’ll never work,” or “I’m just not good at math”? Or does she keep plowing forward,  declaring, “This is hard but I’ll figure it out,” or “I think I need some help understanding how to do this.” Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to produce a certain outcome or goal, and belief in one’s capacity to cope with difficult situations.[^60] Self-efficacy and competence are defined slightly differently[^61] but will be used interchangeably in this section. Self-efficacy is a basic psychological need for people to manage new experiences, cope with difficult ones, and reach their full potential.[^62] Competency beliefs influence how people think, feel about themselves and the world around them, and how they motivate themselves and the choices they make.[^63] The sense that you can exert influence over your life fosters striving toward goals, while the sense that you cannot or are unable to exert influence over your life can lead to hopelessness, anxiety, or apathy.[^64] How children perceive their competence can influence the activities they choose to engage in, the environmental settings they feel most comfortable in, and the peer group they choose to surround themselves with.[^65] For example, a child who views himself as incapable of shooting a basketball will not typically play on the basketball court after school, will not want to sign up for basketball classes, and will consequently not spend much time with peers who enjoy this sport. One thought about himself and his inefficacy in a certain arena can influence countless choices about his life and, therefore, his identity. Thus, as a determining factor in decision-making, self-efficacy naturally impacts identity formation.[^66] A lower perceived self-efficacy may lead a child to avoid experiences that would offer them the chance to develop their potential, and may inform how much effort they will expend and how long they will persist in the face of obstacles. Your son might refuse to attend Qur’an classes because he has already determined that he won’t be able to memorize at the same pace as others. The opposite is also true: A child with a higher perceived competence may choose to challenge themselves despite the obstacles before them, allowing them to develop skills that would not have otherwise been nurtured. This can lead a child to initiate new friendships with people at the mosque (*masjid*) because they feel capable of initiating a conversation, or joining an unfamiliar game because they feel capable of learning the ropes. Self-efficacy opens new avenues for our children to explore skills and opportunities that can positively impact their growing identities. Self-efficacy builds resilience. A “can do” attitude naturally improves how children perceive their capacity to deal with various stressors.[^67] A strong sense of self-efficacy can also give our children confidence in their ability to successfully practice Islam, no matter the difficulties that come their way.[^68] In a world that will inevitably challenge their faith, feeling capable of facing these challenges can prove essential in establishing a strong Islamic identity. #### The Islamic importance of self-efficacy The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged us to “tie your camel and trust in Allah,”[^69] showing the importance of knowing that Allah helps us while also insisting that we help ourselves. Our faith can increase our sense of personal empowerment in moments of high stress,[^70] wrapping us in the safety of knowing that Allah is our Protector and Provider in every circumstance, while also fortifying our own ability to handle difficult situations. Consider the difference between two adolescents who have both gotten into an argument with a friend: *One teen thinks: We’re done. Our friendship is over. I know I’ll never get her to listen to my side of the story so I’m not going to bother talking to her again.* *The other teen thinks: I’m really angry and sad about this. But I’m good at talking things out with people so maybe this can be fixed. And, regardless of what happens, at least I’ve done my part, which is all I can do and all that Allah asks of me.* The same can be seen in terms of religious practice and embracing a strong Islamic identity in the face of challenges: *One teen thinks: Looking different is just too hard. I can’t imagine being able to deal with wearing the hijab and sticking out like a sore thumb.* *Another teen thinks: I know wearing the hijab will be hard, but I also know I can do it,* inshāʾAllāh*. I can handle what comes my way because I know this is what Allah wants me to do.* Allah created us with the tools we need to manage our circumstances. When we embrace this, we are able to feel competent because we acknowledge that Allah will grant us what we need in every situation. This mindset also helps children in situations in which their natural capabilities may differ from those of others. For example, if your child is experiencing difficulty in memorizing the Qur’an while their sibling finds it easy, remind them that Allah’s gifts are outside of their control,[^71] and that our job is to do our best. Even if they struggle, they can realize that they have the tools to worship and please Allah; and the greater the struggle, the greater the reward. It is also helpful to reinforce the idea that you may not be able to achieve a goal on your own, but Allah can facilitate it for you in ways beyond your imagination.[^72] This concept, called proxy efficacy,[^73] refers to an individual’s level of trust in the ability of someone else to assist them to achieve their goals. Proxy efficacy can play an important role in increasing a person’s faith in the attainability of their goal. Thus, increasing our children’s trust in Allah to help them through difficulties can strengthen their overall sense of efficacy. Consider this powerful example of how Allah responds to a situation in which the Prophet ﷺ called people to mobilize to fight in the Battle of Tabūk (9/630),[^74] but instead they lagged behind: > \[It does not matter\] if you \[believers\] do not support him, for Allah did in fact support him when the disbelievers drove him out \[of Mecca\] and he was only one of two. While they both were in the cave, he reassured his companion, “Do not worry; Allah is certainly with us.” So Allah sent down His serenity upon the Prophet, supported him with forces you \[believers\] did not see, and made the word of the disbelievers lowest, while the Word of Allah is supreme. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.[^75] Knowing that Allah’s help is always near,[^76] and that reliance on Him always supersedes depending on people, can provide our children with a sense of hope and agency in times of difficulty. #### Practical ways to nurture self-efficacy #### A. Provide opportunities for mastery Many psychologists believe mastery experiences to be the most effective method for creating a strong sense of self-efficacy because they seemingly provide the most objective evidence of one’s capability.[^77] Keep in mind that opportunities for mastery are not the same as easy successes. A stable sense of self-efficacy is established through the experience of overcoming adversity through perseverance and effort. Mastery experiences provide people with concrete evidence of their skills, which bolsters their faith in overcoming similar challenges in the future. #### How can you create mastery experiences for your child? ##### I. Set goals Help your child to set realistic, specific, and actionable goals slightly above their current level of experience and skill. For example, if your child enjoys building Lego structures or completing puzzles, purchasing a set with more pieces than usual can offer an appropriate challenge. Next, help your child create a plan of action to achieve their goal. This might involve helping them devise a system for organizing the puzzle or Lego pieces to make the task more attainable. Throughout the process, prompt your child to reflect on their results and make changes where necessary, celebrate their achievements, and encourage them to continue even if it is initially difficult. The same principles can be employed for faith-based goals. Help your child formulate realistic, actionable goals for religious practice. For example, consider what a realistic prayer goal might be for a 6-year-old. Perhaps it is having them choose one prayer to be their “special prayer” that they pray each day without fail while the other four are temporarily optional. Help them formulate a plan to make this happen and consider what challenges they might face (e.g., when we’re out of the house at that time, when soccer practice conflicts, etc.), and how they might overcome that obstacle. After a few months of consistently praying their “special prayer,” add an additional one, gradually building up to five daily prayers and allowing them to experience a sense of mastery in being able to prioritize this important act of worship. This type of consistency allows children to internalize this behavior as a part of their identity. The Prophet ﷺ himself highlighted the link between consistent action and identity development: “You must be truthful. Verily, truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man continues to be truthful and encourages honesty until he is recorded with Allah as truthful. And beware of falsehood. Verily, falsehood leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to the Hellfire. A man continues to tell lies and encourages falsehood until he is recorded with Allah as a liar.” ##### II. Reframing challenges and difficulties Encouraging our children to regard challenges as opportunities for growth rather than as failures can encourage them to improve their skills and view themselves as capable of accomplishing their goals, yielding higher levels of self-efficacy.[^78] This also cultivates healthy identity development by teaching children to view setbacks as challenges to overcome rather than indications of inherent deficiency, thereby fostering a belief in their ability to persevere in the face of challenges.[^79] ##### Tips on Reframing Challenges and Difficulties when Skill Building 1. Validate the frustration: “It’s so hard when you work so hard and it doesn’t turn out the way you hoped.” 2. Help them to consider what they gained despite the end result being disappointing: “Can you tell me something you learned? Is there something you’d do differently next time?” 3. Help your child to consider the factors in their control and outside of their control. - Ask questions to illuminate what about this situation cannot be changed as well as what about this situation can be changed. For example: “You can’t control what your friend says to you at school but you can control how you respond to her.” “You can’t control the grade you get on your test but you can control how much you study for it.” - Help your child to consider small steps they can implement to create change (e.g., have a plan for how to respond when someone says something hurtful; create a study schedule to prepare for an exam, etc.). 4. Use faith to reframe the situation in a way that increases their resilience and solidifies an Islamic identity: - Remind them that Allah is the Most Appreciative (al-Shakūr) and that He sees and appreciates their efforts. - When your child does something pleasing to Allah, ask, “Did you know Allah is so proud of you and loves what you just did?” - When something doesn’t work out as hoped for, ask your child, “How many good deeds do you think you got because of how hard you tried?” (e.g., If your child is struggling to memorize a verse in the Qur’an, remind them that they get ten good deeds for every single letter recited so the more they repeat it, the more good deeds they get;[^80] if your child is struggling with a friend who is upset with them and is rejected when they try to fix things, emphasize how much Allah loves people who try to mend relationships,[^81] etc.) - When your child is feeling anxious because of the uncertainty of the results despite their effort, use this as a starting point for a discussion on trusting (*tawakkul*) in Allah for the things that are outside of their control based on the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ encouraging us to “tie your camel and trust in Allah.”[^82] Explore with your child how they can do their part in this situation and what they have to leave to Allah. #### B. Normalize making mistakes Helping children to see mistakes as part of the learning process and as a stepping stone toward success allows them to increase their resilience in the face of challenges. This also allows children to put mistakes in proper perspective, rather than defining themselves based upon these errors. This is essential in worship as well. Acknowledging that imperfection is part of being human and that mistakes can actually be a path to Allah when followed by repentance helps children to solidify a realistic Islamic identity. The Prophet ﷺ said, “All of the children of Adam commit sins, and the best of those who commit sins are those who repent.”[^83] Notice your own attitude toward mistakes and how you respond when you struggle with something. Do you tend to be very hard on yourself? Does a small detour tend to lead to self-doubt? Are you able to brush yourself off and try again? The way we model coping with perceived failures can greatly impact how our children approach them. A study revealed that babies as young as 15 months can learn about persisting with difficult tasks solely based on the way adults in their lives deal with struggle. Researchers found that babies who watched an adult struggle with accomplishing a task before succeeding tried harder and were willing to try longer at their own difficult task, compared to babies who saw an adult succeed effortlessly.[^84] #### Tips for Normalizing Making Mistakes 1. Make an effort to forgive your child for their mistakes, particularly as a way to highlight redemption and mercy in Islam. 2. Discuss mistakes of successful individuals and how this did not undermine their path toward success and achievement. Every child is different so different examples will resonate (e.g., athletes, scientists, etc.). 3. Discuss repentance and its virtues, particularly emphasizing how beloved this action is to Allah to further help your child in reframing their mistakes, even when it comes to worship: - “Say, \[O Prophet, that Allah says,\] ‘O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’”[^85] - The Prophet ﷺ said, “If your sins were to reach to the heavens and then you repented, Allah would still accept your repentance.”[^86] - The Prophet ﷺ said, “By the One in whose hand is my soul, if you did not sin, Allah would replace you with people who would sin, and they would seek forgiveness from Allah and He would forgive them.”[^87] ##### III. Vicarious modeling: Show children that success is possible Vicarious experiences (witnessing someone else’s experience) can be powerful in promoting self-efficacy by nurturing hope in the possibility of change. Studies have found that youth benefit from role models not only as examples to follow but also as a means to expand their sense of possibility. One study found that this effect was even true amongst adults, showing that a group of participants with a role model at work reported significantly higher perceived self-efficacy than a group of participants who did not have a role model.[^88] Share examples of personal struggles from your own life and talk about how you overcame them.[^89] For example, if your child struggles with reading, let them know how hard it was for you to become a proficient reader when you were a child. Recall your own experiences and stories about persevering through difficulties to get to where you are today. Vicarious experiences through modeling can open up a world of possibility for our children. When they see that someone else was able to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, it gives them hope that they can do the same, thereby increasing their resilience in difficult situations. ##### Vicarious modeling: Share stories of the prophets The way we view ourselves dictates the way we view and respond to struggles. When we view Islam, rather than our transient interactions with the *dunyā* as the core of our identity, our responses to difficulty will be accordingly different. We will start to see difficulties as opportunities to grow closer to Allah. God’s prophets show us how a strong Islamic identity is a resilient one, because they grew through their struggles in the worship of Allah. We must take as edifying examples the stability of their faith no matter the difficulty or the context. Consider the example of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he was driven out of Mecca. He mourned leaving the only place he had ever called home, but he also knew that his identity as a servant of Allah was not tied to his surroundings. When he and Abū Bakr (rA) made their way to Medina, the murderous Quraysh close on their heels, they sought shelter in a cave. Abū Bakr expressed his concern saying, “If one of them were to look down, they would see us under their feet!” The Prophet said, “O Abū Bakr, what do you think of two with whom Allah is the third?”[^90] This absolute trust in Allah is what allowed the Prophet and Abū Bakr to leave everything behind, because it allowed them to hold onto something that was even more important: their ability to worship and proclaim their identities as Muslims. Consider the example of Prophet Joseph (Yūsuf) (AS). When the wife of the Chief Minister (*ʿAzīz*) of Egypt, with whom he lived, attempted to seduce him, Prophet Yūsuf responded, “Allah is my refuge!”[^91] And when the pressure and temptation to sin mounted, Prophet Yūsuf prayed to Allah: “My Lord! I would rather be in jail than do what they invite me to.”[^92] How could Prophet Yūsuf prefer the difficult conditions of a jail cell to the pleasure of succumbing to temptation? We all have different parts of ourselves that vie for dominance, but part of a healthy, solid identity is the ability to make choices that align with our personal values despite trying circumstances. We see here, in this beautiful example, that pleasing Allah was more important to him than the temporary pleasures he could gain in this life. Through this manifestation of his identity as a worshiper of Allah, Prophet Yūsuf made a choice that we still admire thousands of years later. In the prophetic stories that Allah narrates in the Qur’an, we witness the power of striving in difficult circumstances and the blessings that come from such effort. These stories prepare our children for a variety of stressors—from illness (Prophet Job (Ayyūb)), to being bullied for being different (Prophet Noah (Nūḥ)), to the loss of a loved one (Prophet Jacob (Yaʿqūb)) to accidentally hurting someone (Prophet Moses (Mūsā)), to feeling scared and alone (Prophet Muhammad ﷺ)—and so many more. These stories also teach our children that change is possible and that our efforts are meaningful, thereby promoting self-efficacy in a very powerful way. For an example of one of these stories to share with your child, see Lesson 2 in Conversation Starters (the story of Mūsā AS). #### Summary on Ways to Increase Self-Efficacy 1. Provide opportunities for mastery through identifying your child’s strengths and exposing them to related activities, classes, and materials that can help them improve. 2. Help your child to set realistic, specific, and actionable goals that are slightly above their current level of experience and skill. Provide support and encouragement to help your child meet their goals especially when they feel challenged. 3. Show your child success is possible by sharing your own experiences and stories of the prophets and other heroes. Experiences should inspire motivation and encouragement, not negative comparisons. ### III. Self-Trust (Autonomy) #### Self-Trust and Identity Development I. Encouraging an Independent Relationship with Allah II. Allowing Opportunities for Your Child to Make Decisions III. Encouraging Positive Distinctiveness IV. Nurturing Your Child’s Talents V. Nurturing Positive Social Circles & Support #### Self-trust, identity development, and resilience Autonomy is one of the building blocks of resilience.[^93] Self-trust is a core component of autonomy and plays a significant role in shaping a person’s sense of self and identity.[^94] When we think about the concept of trust, consider the example of two good friends. When you trust a friend, you have positive expectations of them and believe they will act in a way that is kind, helpful, and aligned with your personal interests. Self-trust functions similarly but involves your view of yourself and your ability to act in a manner aligned with your best interests and personal values (i.e., actions that you perform to achieve the best possible outcome for your life here and in the hereafter). Self-trust and autonomy, which will be used interchangeably here (despite slight differences in meaning), influence one’s ability to make decisions and self-advocate.[^95] When a child trusts their own ability to self-advocate and act autonomously, challenges become less intimidating, thereby contributing to higher resilience[^96] and an ability to deal with challenging situations, uncertainty, and stressful transitions.[^97] Furthermore, being able to identify yourself as an autonomous human being, as someone capable of making good choices, and as someone whom Allah has blessed with the ability to exercise free will in a positive way, will facilitate the development of a healthy Islamic identity. To nurture a strong identity, a belief in your ability to act in a manner consistent with your identity is essential. Self-trust and autonomy can manifest in a child in a variety of ways such as: speaking up when you see someone being bullied if you believe yourself to be someone dedicated to fair treatment and justice; saying “no” when someone pressures you to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable because living in accordance with your values is meaningful to you; or dedicating time, effort, and interest to a science project because you view yourself as a budding scientist, etc. #### The Islamic importance of self-trust and autonomy Pressure to fit in and assimilate can make seeming “different” and standing out a stressful experience.[^98] This may lead children to develop an inconsistent identity, meaning that they think and behave differently in different environments. Meyers, a researcher in the field of self-trust and autonomy, argues that personal autonomy requires a “touchstone.”[^99] For us, as Muslims, this touchstone is Islam and aligning our sense of self with the stable standards it provides. This allows us to navigate the different roles we have and reconcile them in a way that highlights the core of who we are: servants of Allah. Research has shown that promoting autonomy support can lead to the intergenerational transmission of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. The link between family religiosity and individual spirituality is stronger in families with higher warmth, structure, and autonomy-support.[^100] A degree of autonomy is essential for religious identity development as it allows children to choose actions that align with their personal convictions and encourages individual identity based upon their faith. As Muslims, self-trust is founded upon trust in Allah and the truth of Islam. Self-trust without faith is often merely arrogance—and one characteristic of arrogance, as described by the Prophet ﷺ, is “to disregard the truth.”[^101] Therefore, anything that obstructs embracing the truth of Islam’s prescriptions, including excessive reliance on one’s own judgment, can hurt a person in this life and the next. We should cultivate our children’s self-trust and autonomy by simultaneously encouraging their abilities and teaching them to thank Allah for granting them those abilities. For example, you could express happiness when your child does something positive (e.g., donating some of their personal savings to charity) followed by reminding them to say “*alḥamdulillāh*” for the blessing of being able to do such a good deed. You might tell your child, “I know it was hard to wear your hijab to soccer class for the first time but I knew you could do it. It’s a blessing that Allah gives us the strength to do what He loves.” Always stress that even our choice to worship Allah is a gift from Him. Allah says, “This is a reminder. Let whoever wishes take the way to his Lord. But you will only wish to do so if God wills—God is all-Knowing, all-Wise.”[^102] Consider also the supplication of Prophet David (Dāwūd) (AS): “O Lord! How can I ever thank You enough, when my thanking You is also a favor from You to me.” Allah the Exalted answered him, “Now, you have thanked Me sufficiently, O Dāwūd.”[^103] #### Practical ways to nurture self-efficacy ##### Encourage an independent relationship with Allah Helping our children nurture an independent relationship with Allah is essential for their development of a Muslim identity. Worship done solely to appease parents does not allow children to develop an autonomous connection with Allah. In this case, they may struggle to maintain their worship when parental supervision and encouragement ceases. A recent study found that feeling independently motivated is linked to religious practice.[^104] It can be difficult to strike a balance between encouraging our children in their relationship with and worship of Allah while simultaneously allowing them a degree of autonomy. One example of balancing explicit direction with autonomy would be sometimes encouraging your children to pray alone in their room so that prayer is not only associated with you telling them to do it but, rather, as their choice to connect to Allah. Allowing children to separate their relationship with their parents from their relationship with Allah is helpful in building their personal ability to connect with Allah independently. It can also be helpful to encourage a variety of ways for children to connect with Allah depending on their personal strengths and interests. Some children will find their faith is strengthened through attending gatherings that incorporate a social element along with an Islamic talk while others may prefer reading books with Islamic themes on their own. Some children may crave initiating and organizing an effort to do something of benefit to others (e.g., organizing a garage sale and donating the proceeds to charity) while others may prefer to give back face-to-face (e.g., visiting a nursing home, distributing school supplies to refugees, etc.). Based on your child’s strengths and interests, explore different opportunities for them to develop a relationship with Allah. ##### Allow your child to make some decisions A common issue that often arises within religious communities is the struggle parents face in allowing their children space for autonomy, thereby stunting their ability to develop self-trust. This struggle is based in fear and can have negative consequences. When parents offer autonomy support, they help their children feel a sense of agency, which in turn promotes healthy social behaviors.  Psychological control, in contrast, fosters risky and detrimental behaviors.[^105] Children denied autonomy may eventually choose to disconnect from family and religion in order to gain some semblance of independence. Furthermore, when we infantilize our children, restricting their autonomy and making all decisions for them, they may feel incapable of making informed decisions for themselves in the future. Permitting children the chance to practice the essential skill of decision-making sets them up for success later in life and in the hereafter as well. When children are not given opportunities to do things for themselves, they have no way of knowing how to navigate the world. They have only been taught to follow, not to think. In many verses of the Qur’an, Allah encourages us to be from amongst people who ponder and reflect, as when He says, “\[We sent them\] with clear proofs and written ordinances. And We revealed to you the message \[i.e., the Qur’an\] that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them and that they might give thought.”[^106] Our children need to learn how to think for themselves, and how to make decisions that prepare them for when we will not be by their side to dictate the best path forward. ##### Encourage positive distinctiveness Navigating societal norms in tension with Islamic values can be a point of discomfort for children and adults alike. As the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reminded us, however, “Islam began \[as something\] strange and it will return to being strange, so blessed are the strangers.”[^107] Embracing rather than fearing distinctiveness can help children solidify rather than shun their Islamic identity. However, societal distinctiveness does not necessitate societal rejection. When the Muslims moved to Medina, the Prophet ﷺ encouraged them to differentiate themselves in certain ways (e.g., growing a beard, shortening their mustache) while also engaging courteously with society at large.[^108] Positive distinctiveness is established by emphasizing the difference between oneself and others based on valued criteria.[^109] This is an inherent part of identity development and the way that children cope with difficulties and build resilience.[^110] Helping our children make value-based choices in the face of opposition from their surroundings can allow them to maintain a consistent Islamic identity as they navigate different environments and expectations. Societal standards constantly change, so we hold on to the one standard that never does: the standard of Allah. In our tradition, we see praise given to those who embrace the fact that we, as Muslims, will oftentimes be different from the majority of people around us: > And few of my servants are grateful.[^111] > > But none believed with him, except a few.[^112]  > > In the Gardens of Bliss, a \[large\] company of the former people, And a few of the later peoples.[^113]  > > \[It is\] a Book whose verses are perfectly explained—a Qur’an in Arabic for people who know, delivering good news and warning. Yet most of them turn away, so they do not hear.[^114]  > > And most people will not believe—no matter how keen you are.[^115] Those who do extraordinary things are not like everyone else. Actively living as a Muslim is something special. A study conducted with refugees from Syria who had resettled in the United States found that their Islamic faith strongly contributed to their resiliency and provided them a  source of comfort, strength, pride, and empowerment.[^116] Embracing one’s distinctiveness often cultivates higher self esteem, which correlates with a higher sense of mastery, fewer risk-taking behaviors, and better physical health.[^117] Knowing the blessings of choosing a different path from the majority does not negate its difficulty, and it definitely does not mean it will not be hard for our children. As parents, we can support our children in navigating these challenges. Discuss stories of people who embraced their uniqueness (Muslim and otherwise) and reflect on how their stories would have been different if they had succumbed to social norms instead. Encourage open discussion about difficult situations you have faced and how hard it was to feel different (e.g., stories from when you were younger, recent situations with colleagues, etc.). It is also powerful to model prioritizing Allah despite discomfort in daily life. This can include finding a place to pray when on an outing so the time for prayer is honored, dressing differently from the crowd while on a beach vacation, and making time for daily Qur’an connection in the midst of a busy day. Identifying these moments and having a conversation about your thought process with your children can model healthy decision-making skills. ##### Nurture your child’s talents Nurturing your child’s individual strengths and talents reinforces the idea that their Islamic identity can enhance various aspects of their life. It is important to show our children how their faith need not be insulated from the unique interests, talents, and abilities gifted to them by Allah. These do not have to be conventional talents such as intelligence or athleticism. An entrepreneurial spirit, emotional awareness, a passion for baking, or an affinity for puzzles are all talents we can nurture in children. Demonstrating to our children how their hobbies align with and can even follow from their Islamic identity, such as ziplining through a forest while reflecting on the beautiful creation of Allah, can leave a powerful impact. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Be keen to do that which gives you benefit.”[^118] Consider your child’s interests and talents and find opportunities to nurture them. When you nurture your child’s talents, you signal to them that their ideas and interests are worthwhile, giving them confidence in their holistic selves. This allows them to develop social support and hone different facets of themselves. If your child thrives in nature, join a hiking group; if they enjoy a particular sport, find them a team; if they love reading, reach out to your local library about a book club. Tie participation in these different activities and social groups to their faith, helping them see that their Muslim identity can and should positively contribute to every area of their life. For example, a child who plays soccer will find that practice improves their skills and that good sportsmanship and patience during moments of disappointment are all part of the game (see footnotes for hadiths and Qur’anic verses that can be referenced in these discussions).[^119] The Prophet ﷺ noticed the talents of those around him and encouraged them. One young companion, Zayd ibn Thābit (rA), was appointed to learn Hebrew due to his sharp intellect and desire to contribute to the community. Zayd narrated, “I was able to master the language within half a month. After I learned it, whenever \[the Prophet ﷺ\] wanted to send a letter to the Jews, I would write it for him, and when they wrote to him, I would read their letter to him.”[^120] Later in life, he was put in charge of the effort to compile the Qur’an, a gift we are still benefiting from 1400 years later.[^121] Imagine what a different trajectory Zayd’s life would have taken had his talents not been noticed, acknowledged, and nurtured? ##### Nurture positive social circles and supports Experiencing a sense of belonging is a natural human need.[^122] Youth who feel pride in their identity, which can be facilitated by community belongingness, were found to engage in fewer risky behaviors (that is, behaviors that are counterproductive and can lead to negative life outcomes).[^123] At the end of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa (the Opening), we ask Allah to “guide us along the Straight Path, the Path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor.”[^124] This idea of companionship along the path of guidance is so important that it is mentioned in a *sūra* we are required to recite 17 times a day.[^125] Humans are social creatures and the human soul naturally seeks companionship. Al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyāḍ (d. 187/803) said, “Do not feel lonely on the paths of guidance because their people are few, and do not be deceived by the great many who are ruined.”[^126] Those who want to follow the straight path in this life may find that the majority of people around them do not. Allah describes the believers as allies of one another and emphasizes the role of community as encouraging good deeds that bring us closer to Allah and His mercy.[^127] As the Prophet ﷺ said, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”[^128] Cultivating strong bonds of care and belonging is not only necessary, but also a form of worshiping Allah and strengthening our identity as Muslims. A strong core identity stabilized by faith can be complemented by a variety of interests and social circles. Ethnic affiliation, for instance, can positively impact resilience, particularly in managing the stress of discriminatory experiences.[^129] We should encourage and create opportunities for our children to build a variety of social circles, given that increases in resilience are associated with perceived group belonging.[^130] Social support can be a protective factor in the mental health of youth.[^131] It can also promote higher self-esteem, resilience, and a positive self-image.[^132] We all have had experiences in our youth (and, for many, in adulthood) of conflict within friend groups. When a child has only one social circle, conflict can feel catastrophic and lead to self-doubt and loneliness. When a child has a variety of friend groups, conflict might still be uncomfortable but will not cause them to question whether they are worthless as a person or friend. This allows them to be more objective in how they perceive issues that arise, and to address conflict in healthier ways. Furthermore, this allows them to feel more secure in who they are since the approval of and pressures from one particular friend group do not feel as weighty; they have other friends to fall back on if one social circle does not embrace them. Having a variety of social circles, particularly diverse ones (in terms of faith, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, etc.), also allows children to learn how to navigate different relationships and increase their comfort level with people  unlike themselves. Of course, balance is key. While some exposure to people with alternative values can help children in holding onto their beliefs amidst differences, constant bombardment by messages contrary to their Islamic values can undermine self-trust.[^133] Therefore, nurturing friendships with people whose values align with theirs can supply children relief, validation, and the strength to navigate difficult situations they encounter. As parents, being aware of the peers with whom your children are spending their time is essential in nurturing healthy identity development. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, the parable of good and bad company is that of a seller of musk and a blacksmith. The seller of musk will give you perfume, you will buy some, or you will notice a pleasant smell. As for the blacksmith, he will burn your clothes, or you will notice a bad smell.”[^134] You cannot spend time with a person without them leaving some trace on you—good or bad, small or huge. Allah informs us that on the Day of Judgment, people will say, “Ah! Woe to me! If only I had never taken so-and-so as a friend! He indeed led me astray from the reminder after it had come to me!”[^135] Therefore, invest in positive relationships with friends that encourage good in your child. Point out their positive traits while also emphasizing the positive traits your child contributes to these relationships. One way to actively explore the influence of your child’s current friend group is to encourage your child to create a list of all the qualities (positive and challenging) they notice in their two closest friends and then circle the ones they see in themselves. Oftentimes, we are a combination of the qualities we see in the people with whom we spend our time and this exercise is a simple way to bring this point to life. Helping our children to gain the skills to critically consider their friendships and identify which friends to spend time with can help them to develop a sense of autonomy in their relationships as well as solidify a strong identity. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized the importance of making these choices: “A man is upon the religion of his best friend, so let one of you look at whom he befriends.”[^136] Notice changes in your child after spending time with a particular friend and reflect this back to them saying something like, “I noticed you’ve been saying/doing \_\_\_\_\_\_ more frequently lately. What do you think that’s about?” Consistent communication helps our children to build awareness of the choices they make regarding friendships. #### Summary of Ways to Nurture Self-Trust, Autonomy, and Identity Development 1. Encourage an independent relationship with Allah. 2. Give your child the opportunity to make age-appropriate choices on a daily basis (e.g., what to wear, ideas about the next family trip, etc.). 3. Allow your children to practice this essential skill of decision-making, and weighing the pros and cons of different choices. Practice this with them verbally and through writing. 4. Give your child age-appropriate tasks to give them an opportunity to develop a sense of independent accomplishment and contribution (e.g., picking up toys for a 2-3 year-old; emptying the dishwasher for a 6-7 year-old, etc.). 5. Help your child make value-based choices in the midst of opposition from their surroundings. Help foster an Islamic identity as they navigate different environments (home, school, neighborhood, etc.) and expectations (Muslims don’t backbite, Muslims don’t eat pork, Muslims practice prayer throughout the day, etc.) by actively identifying being Muslim as something special. 6. Help your child become comfortable with differences. Don’t shy away from discussions about the differences they notice between themselves and others (e.g., religion, physical ability, race, etc.). At the same time, have discussions about the different choices people make (e.g., something their friend does that doesn’t align with your family values, the fact that people worship differently, the fact that people dress differently, etc.). Emphasize the fact that your child is striving to make choices that align with their identity as a Muslim and how wonderful that is in the sight of Allah. 7. Nurture positive support by assessing your child’s various support groups, and increase exposure to those that support healthy self-development and expand on your child’s strengths (example: a brothers’ *ḥalaqa*, soccer team, math club, neighborhood community service group). --- ## VI. Important considerations Identity development is a lifelong process but is best nurtured from early on in a child’s life. Younger children are more impressionable and tend to spend more time with parents, so these early years offer a great opportunity for parents to influence their child’s identity development. During the preteen and teen years, peer interactions become more salient. As such, it is especially important to nurture social circles that complement your child’s faith and identity development during early childhood. Another factor on which to reflect while nurturing your child’s healthy identity development is your own personal identity journey. When we have not nurtured conviction and confidence in our identity as Muslims, children pick up on this ambivalence. Reflect on your personal journey in figuring out who you are and the struggle of making different choices than those around you. How do you feel in these situations and how do you tend to navigate them (e.g., when your young daughter wants to experiment with wearing a hijab to the grocery store; when the time for prayer conflicts with another commitment)? Many current parents are first-generation Muslims living in Western countries and have experienced some difficulty in establishing a stable identity. Self-awareness and introspection are powerful tools in exploring your own (past, present, and future) identity development to determine what may be inadvertently conveyed to your child and, more importantly, any work you would personally like to pursue in establishing a strong, healthy Islamic identity for your growth in this life and the next. Finally, remember: when reading a paper like this, it can be easy to criticize yourself and highlight any mistakes you have made in the past with your children. Parenting is one of the hardest tests we will face and it will be *filled* with stumbles and falls. None of us will be able to reach perfection as parents; there is always room for growth and there is always hope for change. Remember that Allah is with you every step of the way and will give you the tools you need as you work toward the relationship you yearn for with your children. --- ## VII. Case study revisited *When Hanan realized that her negative experiences with the way religion was enforced in her childhood and her struggles with solidifying her identity were impacting her ability to instill an Islamic identity in her children, she realized she needed to work on strengthening her own identity first. She decided to make some changes.* *She began to reflect on how she labeled herself and the language she tended to use in her self-talk, as well as when describing her children. She became more cognizant of reminding both herself and her children of the love of Allah and began to verbalize the positive qualities she noticed in her children, while tying them to Allah. Although it was uncomfortable for her at first, Hanan also began to discuss Islam with her children more. She realized that a balance could be struck so that she wasn’t being forceful but was still providing some guidance and knowledge to her children. They began to read stories of the prophets together and discussed what they learned. Hanan found her own faith and pride in her identity as a Muslim strengthening as she engaged with her children. She began to value a new side to her faith that she had never explored—one that made her feel loved by Allah and honored by Islam, rather than constantly restricted and fearful as she had felt in her youth. She began to realize the ways that her faith intertwined with and complemented her daily life, which she shared with her children, helping her to begin healing from her disjointed identity.* --- ## VIII. Conversation starters Sometimes translating theory into practice can feel like a daunting task. Please note that if you try to implement everything in this article at once, it will feel unnatural and overwhelming. Forming a relationship with Allah is a long-term journey. To help you in this journey we have made a list of *conversation starters*. These prompts can be a great supplement to preexisting family rituals. For example, if like many families you do a movie or game night every Friday to help unwind and kick off the weekend, you can use one of these prompts for a mini-lesson beforehand. Perhaps, before talking about your week and weekend plans, you can establish a habit of discussing one weekly question as a family. These questions can help open up the doors to important discussions, and build family bonding within the psycho-spiritual context. Basic Tips for Conversation Starters: - Tailor the duration of the mini-lesson to the audience. If these conversations are too lengthy, neither you nor your children will look forward to them because they are draining. About 15-20 minutes is a good length. - Make the mini-lesson appropriate for the audience in terms of content. Small children are naturally drawn to arts and crafts so drawing related pictures or making visuals with markers can be appealing to them. If there is a wide age gap between your children, consider assigning one parent to the older children and the other parent to the younger children. - Don’t make this activity/conversation burdensome to prepare. Otherwise, you most likely will not follow through. Prepare for 5-10 minutes max by pulling relevant *ay*ā*t*, hadith, or material from this article. - If you ever get stuck with a tough question or topic from your child, don’t panic. Tell your child that you will look into it and get back to them. This can be a spiritual learning moment for you both. --- ## IX. Conversation starters and stories ### LESSON 1 ### Āsiya: Finding an anchor in the storm The story below shares the journey of one of the strongest, most admirable women in our tradition: Āsiya bint Muzāḥim, the wife of the Pharaoh. In it, we see that her incredible conviction and her sense of self-worth never wavered despite her difficult surroundings. Her story illustrates the power of relying on Allah as our source of stability and safety, no matter the circumstances, and emphasizes the Names of Allah the First (al-Awwal) and the Last (al-Ākhir) as our ever-present source of strength. This is a wonderful story to share with our children.  Faced daily with a reality out of step with their religious values, they may need stories like this one to remind them that they are capable of maintaining a strong sense of self despite the challenges they face. > And do not invoke any other god with Allah. There is no god \[worthy of worship\] except Him. Everything is bound to perish except He Himself. All authority belongs to Him. And to Him you will \[all\] be returned.[^137] There once lived a remarkable woman, described by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as one of the four best women of paradise[^138] and one of the four women to have achieved perfect faith.[^139] Have you ever met someone who clearly knew who they were, and never let anyone shake that? Someone who, no matter how many haters spewed their hate, stood firm in themselves and their values? This woman was the epitome of such strength—and it’s one of the main reasons she achieved such an amazing status in the eyes of Allah. Āsiya bint Muzāḥim (AS) lived in ancient Egypt during the reign of one of the most oppressive rulers in history. She wasn’t just a citizen who lived under his rule; Āsiya was married to him! She lived in the home of this tyrant as his wife. This pharaoh was incredibly cruel. After dreaming that a child from among the Children of Israel would one day overthrow him, he ordered the mass slaughter of their first-born baby boys. His cruelty was matched only by his egomania, as he forced all of his subjects to proclaim him an all-powerful god. Can you imagine what life as the wife of this pharaoh must have been like? One day, something changed that brightened Āsiya’s days and made living in the home of a tyrant more bearable. In the river alongside her home, Āsiya suddenly saw a basket floating along. As she peered closer, she saw that the basket was moving—and that there was a baby boy inside! As she gently picked up the child, she noticed his perfect tiny fingers and toes. Love overwhelmed her. But her husband was on a mission to kill any baby boys who could threaten him! How was she going to keep him safe? Āsiya knew there was no way she could keep a baby hidden. She tried to persuade her husband to keep him: “\[This baby\] is a source of joy for me and you. Do not kill him. Perhaps he may be useful to us or we may adopt him as a son.”[^140] Imagine the sigh of relief exhaled and the happiness felt when her husband agreed. She loved this baby as her own son. His name was Mūsā. When Mūsā grew older, he began preaching that there is one true God, the only One worthy of worship. Āsiya believed this fully; she could feel in her bones and deep within her soul that this was the truth. However, she had to keep her faith a secret. She knew that if the Pharaoh found out, he could become dangerous. As Āsiya tried to hide her faith from her husband, she witnessed his violence against innocent people—even women and children. She watched in horror as Pharaoh publicly executed anyone he discovered did not worship him, yet her faith only grew stronger. Soon she could no longer keep it a secret. The Pharaoh's violence had brought her closer to Allah rather than turning her away from Him, and she decided to speak up against her husband’s injustice. She revealed her true beliefs; she declared that she believed in the One true God, Allah. When the Pharaoh found out about Āsiya’s faith, he began torturing her in an attempt to get her to renounce her beliefs. His violence knew no bounds but no matter how he attempted to hurt, demean, and degrade her, Āsiya refused to relinquish her faith. While being tortured by the Pharaoh, her own husband, she prayed to Allah: > My Lord, build for me near You a house in paradise and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds and save me from the wrongdoing people.[^141] These words have been immortalized in the Qur’an as a reminder of the power of one amazing woman’s faith. As she made this prayer, Allah opened the skies above her and revealed her beautiful house in paradise. In the midst of the torture she endured, Āsiya laughed with joy when she witnessed her new home. She died with a smile on her face, knowing that she would be with her Lord in a place filled with peace, serenity, and immeasurable joy. #### Allah is the First and the Last Allah has always existed and always will; He existed before everything and will exist after everything and everyone has died. There will never be and there never has been a time without Allah. The First (al-Awwal) is the Name of Allah that means the One who existed before all of creation, the One who preceded  any thing or any one. Allah is the cause of all worlds and every creation. The Last (al-Ākhir) is the Name of Allah that means the One who remains after all of creation is gone. He is the ultimate, the One beyond whom there is nothing. Allah tells us in the Qur’an that, “Everything is bound to perish except He.”[^142] When the world ends and the colossal seas are gone and even the mighty mountains have turned to dust, Allah remains. These Names illustrate the true meaning of stability and security. Nothing and no one can promise *always* to be there for us, except Allah. He was here before you and He will be here after you. The pressures and struggles you face cannot outlast al-Awwal and al-Ākhir. Just as the days pass and the sun sets, your pain will fade. Everything will perish, everything will end except Allah—including the darkness you may be facing. These Names of Allah and the story of Āsiya show us that the people you’re surrounded by don’t determine who you are. Despite being married to the worst man in history, Āsiya knew that Allah was her source of strength, stability, and security. Thousands of years later, she is still an example for us. She did not let her circumstances define her. She allowed her purpose and self-worth to be defined only by the One who would always be by her side—Allah. Do not assess yourself by standards other than those of Allah. Other people’s standards are always changing so if you strive to please others, you’ll always be disappointed. Allah is al-Awwal and al-Ākhir; his standards are unchanging. Āsiya’s identity, based on those standards, was the same. #### Questions for discussion - Have people ever made you feel badly about your choices? How did you cope with that? - Self-esteem is confidence in your own worth or abilities, the ability to respect yourself. How do you see this in the story of Āsiya? What was the source of her self-esteem? How about yours? - How is the fact that Allah is a source of security and stability reflected in the story of Āsiya? - Have you ever struggled with people pushing you toward something you weren’t comfortable with? What happened? How can we resist pressure from people who encourage us to do something we don’t agree with? - Have you ever done something because the people around you made it seem normal and then felt badly about it? Have you ever made a choice you felt good about even if the people around you didn’t like it? How did it feel? ### LESSON 2 ### Prophet Moses (AS): An example of strong identity Imagine the scene: A ragtag group of people, fleeing to safety with whatever belongings they could carry, beholding a horizonless, boatless body of water ahead and hearing the deranged screams and battle cries of a tyrant’s army close behind.  This is the impossible situation in which Prophet Moses (Mūsā) (AS) and his people found themselves, after having already suffered for generations under the despotic Pharaoh. In order to escape this torture, Allah had inspired Prophet Mūsā to take his people and leave Egypt. But now, after a treacherous trek under the cover of darkness had brought them to the shores of the Red Sea, with nowhere left to turn, the prison break seemed to have failed. Already they could hear, if not see, the Pharaoh’s massive army bearing down upon them. Confronted with this terrifying sight, Mūsā’s people saw only defeat: > When the two groups came face to face, the companions of Moses cried out, “We are overtaken for sure.”[^143] Yet look at how Mūsā viewed the same sight: > \[Moses\] said, “Absolutely not! My Lord is certainly with me—He will guide me.”[^144] While his people despaired of salvation, defeated by the barrier before them and the army behind them, Mūsā never wavered. He knew his purpose and, more importantly, he knew his Lord. He never doubted for a second that the help of Allah would come. > So We inspired Moses: “Strike the sea with your staff,” and the sea was split, each part was like a huge mountain. We drew the pursuers to that place, and delivered Moses and those with him all together. Then We drowned the others.[^145] Prophet Mūsā and his people were in the same situation, but their perspectives were oceans apart. Prophet Mūsā’s people could perceive only defeat and humiliation; Prophet Mūsā, meanwhile, stood secure in his self-understanding as  a worshiper of Allah, al-Qadīr and al-Muʿizz, the Strengthener. > Then We saved Our messengers and those who believed. For it is Our duty to save the believers.[^146] Self-worth is not synonymous with self-sufficiency. Self-worth in fact stems from the precise opposite: dependence on the Divine. As Prophet Mūsā exemplified, self-worth is knowing that you’re strong because Allah has told you that He doesn’t burden you beyond what you are capable of handling.[^147] It means knowing that you’re loved because Allah tests those who He loves.[^148] #### The All-Capable, The All-Powerful and The Bestower of Honor and Strength Allah is the All-Capable, The All-Powerful (Al-Qadīr), and the Bestower of Honor and Strength (al-Muʿizz). These beautiful Names help us hold onto our relationship with Allah as the core of our identity. Al-Qadīr is the One who possesses the power and ability to decree and determine anything and everything. He prevails over everything and grants us the abilities we need to face the challenges of every day. He is the One who ensures that our lungs continue to take in air and that everything that happens in our lives has a purpose. Al-Muʿizz is the One who grants us honor and power. He is the One who strengthens us and allows us to be respected and cherished. Al-Muʿizz is the One source of every bit of respect and esteem we, as human beings, naturally desire. These Names of Allah are a powerful reminder that the abilities, honor, and accolades we strive for to feel a sense of worth and esteem are all in His Hands. Everything we desire and everything we need comes from Him. To realize this is to realize the importance of having the core of our identity be in our relationship with Allah and in our role as His servants. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized this saying, > When Allah loves a servant, he calls Gabriel and he says: Verily, I love this person so you should love him. Then Gabriel loves him and makes an announcement in the heavens, saying: Allah loves this person and you should love him. Thus, the dwellers of the heavens love him and he is honored on the earth.[^149] Whenever you feel worried about what others are thinking about you, remember that Allah is al-Qadīr and al-Muʿizz, the One who gives you the capability to handle things in your life. He is the One who gives you honor. Remember that everything you need and everything you want are in His Hands, so prioritize Him and you’ll find the success you’re looking for in this life and the hereafter, *inshāʾAllāh*. #### Questions for discussion - When you know that Allah is always taking care of you, how does that make you feel? - How can you see the Names of Allah, al-Qadīr and al-Muʿizz, reflected in the story of Prophet Mūsā and the Red Sea? - Have you ever felt stuck and felt there wasn’t a way out of a hard situation? What happened and how did you deal with it? - Can you name three moments when you achieved something difficult? How did you feel? Turn those moments into a *duʿāʾ* to Allah to thank Him for the ability to do this and for the dignity you experienced in that moment. --- ## Notes [^1]: Jane Kroger, *Identity Development: Adolescence through Adulthood* (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2007). [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 1358; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2658. [^3]: Sheldon Stryker and Peter J. Burke, “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory,” *Social Psychology Quarterly* (2000): 284–97. [^4]: James D. Fearon, “What Is Identity (As We Now Use the Word)?,” manuscript draft, November 3, 1999. Some social scientists define *identity* as identification with a social category, the culture of a group, or the significance attributed to a collection of roles negotiated in a complex and modern society. See also Jacquelynne Eccles, “Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action,” *Educational Psychologist* 44, no. 2 (2009): 78–89, [http://www.doi.org/10.1080/00461520902832368](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1080/00461520902832368&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258824893&usg=AOvVaw2ZEHg0fbJFVuNcKm-55EzO). [^5]: H. M. Kasinath, “Adolescence: Search for an Identity,” *Journal on Educational Psychology* 7, no. 1 (2013): 1–6. [^6]: Abu Ja’far reported: ‘Umayr ibn Habib, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Faith increases and decreases.” It was said, “How does it increase and decrease?” ‘Umayr said, “If we remember our Lord and fear Him, it will increase. If we are heedless and we forget and we waste our time,  it will decrease.” *Shu’ab al-īmān*, no. 55. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2750a. [^8]: Qur’an 31:15. [^9]: Qur’an 51:56. [^10]: Gang Wu, Adriana Feder, Hagit Cohen, Joanna J. Kim, Solara Calderon, Dennis S. Charney, and Aleksander A. Mathé, “Understanding Resilience,” *Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience* 7 (2013): 10. [^11]: Santiago Sevilla Vallejo, “The Interplay of Identity and Resilience: Unleashing Inner Strength in the Face of Adversity,” *Mental* *Health and Human Resilience International Journal* 7, no. 1 (2023), 1–2. [^12]: Vallejo, “The Interplay of Identity and Resilience.” [^13]: Vallejo, “The Interplay of Identity and Resilience.” [^14]: Vallejo, “The Interplay of Identity and Resilience.” [^15]: Darko Marčinko, Miro Jakovljević, Nenad Jakšić, Sarah Bjedov, and Aleksandra Mindoljević Drakulić, “The Importance of Psychodynamic Approach during COVID-19 Pandemic,” *Psychiatria Danubina* 32, no. 1 (2020): 15–21; Samuel Dickinson, “Post-Traumatic Growth in the Twenty-First Century: How Current Trends May Threaten Our Ability to Grow after Trauma,” *The Journal of Positive Psychology* 16, no. 4 (2021): 503–11. [^16]: Gloria T. DiFulvio, “Sexual Minority Youth, Social Connection and Resilience: From Personal Struggle to Collective Identity,” *Social Science and Medicine* 72 (2011): 1611–17, [www.doi.org/10.1016/ j.socscimed.2011.02.045](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1016/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258798672&usg=AOvVaw0H89N3QuC0RPFTlnDYRxib); Anisa N. Goforth, Evelyn R. Oka, Frederick T. L. Leong, and Daniel J. Denis, “Acculturation, Acculturative Stress, Religiosity and Psychological Adjustment among Muslim Arab American Adolescents,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 8, no. 2 (2014). [^17]: Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, “Religiosity, Subjective Well-Being, Self-Esteem, and Anxiety among Kuwaiti Muslim Adolescents,” *Mental Health, Religion and Culture* 14, no. 2 (2011): 129–40. [^18]: Breakwell, “Identity Resilience.” [^19]: Qur’an 21:35. [^20]: Qur’an 2:155. [^21]: Qur’an 76:2–3. [^22]: Qur’an 18:7. [^23]: M. Brent Donnellan, Kali H. Trzesniewski, and Richard W. Robins, “Self-Esteem: Enduring Issues and Controversies,” in *The Wiley-Blackwell Handbooks of Personality and Individual Differences*, ed. T. Chamorro-Premuzic, S. Von Stumm, and A. Furnham, pp. 718–46 (N.p.: Wiley Blackwell, 2011). [^24]: Donnellan, Trzesniewski, and Robins, “Self-Esteem.” [^25]: Peter C. Clasen, Aaron J. Fisher, and Christoper G. Beevers, “Mood-Reactive Self-Esteem and Depression Vulnerability: Person-Specific Symptom Dynamics via Smart Phone Assessment,” *PlOS One* 10, no. 7 (2015): e0129774. [^26]: Julia Friederike Sowislo, Ulrich Orth, and Laurenz L. Meier, “What Constitutes Vulnerable Self-Esteem? Comparing the Prospective Effects of Low, Unstable, and Contingent Self-Esteem on Depressive Symptoms,” *Journal of Abnormal Psychology* 123, no. 4 (2014): 737–53. [^27]: Jesse Singal, “How the Self-Esteem Craze Took Over America and Why the Hype Was Irresistible,” *The Cut*, 2017, [https://www.thecut.com/2017/05/self-esteem-grit-do-they-really-help.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thecut.com/2017/05/self-esteem-grit-do-they-really-help.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258828312&usg=AOvVaw2OsjL9YgjQv-qcmrNwo1JC). [^28]: Singal, “How the Self-Esteem Craze Took Over America.” [^29]: Peter Benson and Bernard Spilka, “God Image as a Function of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 12, no. 3 (1973): 297–310. [^30]: Silvia Casale, Giulia Fioravanti, Sara Bocci Benucci, Andrea Falone, Valdo Ricca, and Francesco Rotella Casale,  “A Meta-Analysis on the Association between Self-Esteem and Problematic Smartphone Use,” *Computers in Human Behavior* 134 (2022), 107302. [^31]: Judith S. Beck, “Cognitive Therapy,” in *The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology* (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2010), 1–3. [^32]: Joseph A. Bailey II, “The Foundation of Self-Esteem,” *Journal of the National Medical Association* 95, no. 5 (2003): 388–93. [^33]: Bailey, “Foundation of Self-Esteem.” [^34]: Bailey, “Foundation of Self-Esteem.” [^35]: Visser-Vogel, “Religious Identity Development.” [^36]: Qur’an 22:78. [^37]: Ismāʿīl Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, ed. Sāmī ibn Muhammad al-Salāma (Riyadh: Dār Tayba, 1999), verse 22:78. [^38]: Qur’an 49:15. [^39]: Qur’an 9:51. [^40]: Qur’an 49:10. [^41]: Qur’an 8:3–4. [^42]: Qur’an 49:10. [^43]: “Then he raised his parents to the throne, and they all fell down in prostration to Joseph, who then said, ‘O my dear father! This is the interpretation of my old dream. My Lord has made it come true. He was truly kind to me when He freed me from prison, and brought you all from the desert after Satan had ignited rivalry between me and my siblings. Indeed my Lord is subtle in fulfilling what He wills. Surely He \[alone\] is the All-Knowing, All-Wise.’” Qur’an 12:100. [^44]: Wayne McCashen, *The Strengths Approach* (Victoria, Australia: St. Luke's Innovative Resources, 2005). [^45]: Wayne Hammond and Rob Zimmerman, “A Strengths-Based Perspective,” Resiliency Initiatives, 2012, 1–18. [^46]: Qur’an 16:97. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4953, bk. 65, hadith 475. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5691; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2309. [^49]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22211. [^50]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2392. [^51]: Qur’an 14:7. [^52]: Lisa Zadro, Kipling D. Williams, and Rick Richardson, “How Low Can You Go? Ostracism by a Computer Is Sufficient to Lower Self-Reported Levels of Belonging, Control, Self-Esteem, and Meaningful Existence,” *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology* 40, no. 4 (2004): 560–67. [^53]: Roy F. Baumeister and Mark R. Leary, “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation,” *Psychological Bulletin* 117, no. 3 (1995): 497. [^54]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 3932, and graded authentic (*sahih*) by al-Albani in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah* no. 3420. [^55]: Baidi Bukhori, Zahraa Hassan, Ibnu Hadjar, and Rifa Hidayah, “The Effect of Spirituality and Social Support from the Family toward Final Semester University Students’ Resilience,” *Man in India* 97, no. 19 (2017): 313–21. [^56]: William B. Swann, Alan Stein-Seroussi, and R. Brian Giesler, “Why People Self-Verify,”  *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 62, no. 3 (1992): 392–401, [https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.62.3.392](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.62.3.392&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258809851&usg=AOvVaw3c3ShJiuv3Xn1iAIfvQvYe). [^57]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6129. [^58]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4970. [^59]: John M. Gottman, *Marriage Clinic: A Scientifically Based Marital Therapy* (New York: WW Norton and Company, 1999). [^60]: Albert Bandura, “Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change,” *Psychological Review* 84, no. 2 (1977): 191. [^61]: John Kremer, Aidan Moran, Graham Walker, and C. Craig, *Self-Efficacy and Perceived Competence* (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2012), [https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446288702](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446288702&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258822213&usg=AOvVaw1jisiTWcxBnKcZvWGndogr). [^62]: Sander L. Koole, Caroline Schlinkert, Tobias Maldei, and Nicola Baumann, “Becoming Who You Are: An Integrative Review of Self‐Determination Theory and Personality Systems Interactions Theory,” *Journal of Personality* 87, no. 1 (2019): 15–36. [^63]: Albert Bandura, “Exercise of Personal and Collective Efficacy in Changing Societies,” *Self-Efficacy in Changing Societies*, ed. Albert Bandura, pp. 1–45 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Bonnie Benard, *Resiliency, What We Have Learned* (San Francisco, CA: WestEd, 2004). [^64]: Bandura, “Exercise of Personal and Collective Efficacy;” Benard, *Resiliency*. [^65]: Breakwell, “Identity Resilience.” [^66]: Breakwell, “Identity Resilience.” [^67]: Ralf Schwarzer and Lisa Marie Warner, “Perceived Self-Efficacy and Its Relationship to Resilience,” in *Resilience in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: Translating Research into Practice*, pp. 139–50 (New York: Springer, 2012). [^68]: Jihad Saafir and Osman Umarji, “How to Raise Religious Teens: A Self-Determination Theory Approach,” *Yaqeen*, October 24, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach#ftnt11](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach%23ftnt11&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258806895&usg=AOvVaw17qC9p4KyQ_E3zryogQqB3). [^69]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2517 and graded fair (*hasan*) according to Al-Albani. [^70]: René Hefti, “Integrating Religion and Spirituality into Mental Health Care, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,” *Religions* 2 (2011): 611–27, [http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel2040611](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel2040611&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258841572&usg=AOvVaw2HRASp6g2hFfruy_vaOtrD). [^71]: “This is the favor of Allah. He grants it to whoever He wills. And Allah is the Lord of infinite bounty.” Qur’an 62:4. [^72]: “And whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make a way out for them, and provide for them from sources they could never imagine. And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He \[alone\] is sufficient for them.” Qur’an 65:2–3. [^73]: Albert Bandura, “Exercise of Human Agency through Collective Efficacy,” *Current Directions in Psychological Science* 9, no. 3 (2000): 75–78, [http://www.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1725387258831873&usg=AOvVaw2RRZOe4cjh-NEx6ta6ljwq). [^74]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, Sūrat al-Tawba, 4:154. [^75]: Qur’an 9:40. [^76]: Qur’an 2:214. [^77]: Bandura, “Exercise of Personal and Collective Efficacy;” Benard, *Resiliency*. [^78]: David Scott Yeager and Carol S. Dweck, “Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed,” *Educational Psychologist* 47, no. 4 (2012): 302–14. [^79]: Yeager and Dweck, “Mindsets That Promote Resilience.” [^80]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no*.* 2910, and graded authentic (*sahih*) by Al-Tirmidhi. [^81]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2509, and graded authentic (*sahih*) by Al-Tirmidhi. [^82]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī,* no. 2517, and graded fair (*hasan*) by Al-Albani. [^83]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2499, and graded strong (*qawi*) by Ibn Hajar. [^84]: Julia A. Leonard, Yuna Lee, and Laura E. Schulz, “Infants Make More Attempts to Achieve a Goal When They See Adults Persist,” *Science* 357, no. 6357 (2017): 1290–94. [^85]: Qur’an 39:53. [^86]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 4248, and graded fair (*hasan*) byAl-Albani. [^87]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2749. [^88]: Adedotun R. Adejare, “Assessing the Impact of a Role Model in the Construction of Professional Identities,” Wharton Research Scholars 173 (2018). [^89]: Xiaodong Lin-Siegler, Janet N. Ahn, Jondou Chen, Fu-Fen Anny Fang, and Myra Luna-Lucero, “Even Einstein Struggled: Effects of Learning about Great Scientists’ Struggles on High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Science,” *Journal of Educational Psychology* 108, no. 3 (2016): 314. [^90]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3096. [^91]: Qur’an 12:23. [^92]: Qur’an 12:33. [^93]: Edith H. Grotberg, “Countering Depression with the Five Building Blocks of Resilience,” *Reaching Today’s Youth* 4, no. 1 (1999): 66–72. [^94]: Marla Clarice Sharp, “The Self in Crisis: Using Self-Trust to Enhance Therapeutic Practices for Patients with Chronic Suicidal Ideation” (PhD diss., McMaster University, 2016). [^95]: Sharp, “Self in Crisis.” [^96]: Trudy Govier, “Self-Trust, Autonomy, and Self-Esteem,” *Hypatia* 8, no. 1 (1993): 99–120. [^97]: Michelle L. Dawson and Julie Ann Pooley, “Resilience: The Role of Optimism, Perceived Parental Autonomy Support and Perceived Social Support in First Year University Students,” *Journal of Education and Training Studies* 1, no. 2 (2013): 38–49. [^98]: Zeenah Adam and Colleen Ward, “Stress, Religious Coping and Wellbeing in Acculturating Muslims,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 10, no. 2 (2016). [^99]: Diana T. Meyers, “Personal Autonomy and the Paradox of Feminine Socialization,” *Journal of Philosophy* 84, no. 11 (1987): 619–28. [^100]: Sam A. Hardy, Jennifer A. White, Zhiyong Zhang, and Joshua Ruchty, “Parenting and the Socialization of Religiousness and Spirituality,” *Psychology of Religion and Spirituality* 3, no. 3 (2011): 217–30. [^101]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91. [^102]: Qur’an 76:29–30. [^103]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, Sūrat Ibrāhīm, 4:512. [^104]: Nadia Barberis, Marco Cannavò, Danilo Calaresi, and Maria C. Gugliandolo, “The Mediational Role of Autonomous and Controlled Motivation in the Relationship between Perceptions of God, Self-Esteem, and Religious Practices,” *Spirituality in Clinical Practice*, 2022. [^105]: Hardy et al., “Parenting and the Socialization of Religiousness and Spirituality.” [^106]: Qur’an 16:44. [^107]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 145. [^108]: Ibn ʿUmar reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Be different from the idolaters. Let the beard grow and trim the mustache.” Whenever Ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, performed the major and minor pilgrimage (hajj and *ʿumra*, respectively), he would grab hold of his beard and cut what was beyond his grasp. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5553; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 259. [^109]: Breakwell, “Identity Resilience.” [^110]: Breakwell, “Identity Resilience.” [^111]: Qur’an 34:13. [^112]: Qur’an 11:40. [^113]: Qur’an 56:12–14. [^114]: Qur’an 41:3–4. [^115]: Qur’an 12:103. [^116]: Nabiha Hasan, Diane B. Mitschke, and Kristen E. Ravi, “Exploring the Role of Faith in Resettlement among Muslim Syrian Refugees,” *Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought* 37, no. 3 (2018): 223–38. [^117]: Erol and Orth, “Self-Esteem Development from Age 14 to 30 Years.” [^118]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2664. [^119]: For a hadith encouraging practice, see “The best deeds are those done regularly even if they are few.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6465 and *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 782. On the importance of sportsmanship, see “O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule \[another\] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule \[other\] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by \[offensive\] nicknames.” Qur’an 49:11. For patience during disappointment, “Verily, Allah Almighty says: When I put one of my faithful servants to trial and he praises Me despite his trial, he will rise from his bed free of sin like the day he was born from his mother.” *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17118, and graded *Sahih li ghayrihi* (authentic due to external evidence) by Al-Arna’ut. [^120]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 3645, and graded *Hasan Sahih* by Al-Albani. [^121]: Abdul Wahid Hamid, *Companions of the Prophet* (London: Muslim Education and Literary Services, 2003), 2:70. [^122]: Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, “Self-Determination Theory,” in *Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research* (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022), 1–7. [^123]: Fatima Y. Mirza, “Understanding American Muslim Youth of Arab and South Asian Ancestries: An Exploratory Study on the Factors Related to Risk Behaviors among Child Immigrants and Children of Immigrants” (PhD diss., University of Maryland, 2014). [^124]: Qur’an 1:6–7. [^125]: The five obligatory daily prayers are dawn (*Fajr*), noon (*Ẓuhr*), afternoon (*ʿAṣr*), sunset (*Maghrib*), and evening (*ʿIshāʾ*) prayers. They are a total of 17 rounds or cycles (sing. *rakʿa*). [^126]: Abu Zakariyya Muḥyi al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Adhkār* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ: 1994), 160. [^127]: Qur’an 9:71. [^128]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5665. [^129]: Seungbin Oh, Stacey Diane Arañez Litam, and Catharina Y. Chang, “Racism and Stress-Related Growth Among Asian Internationals: Ethnic Identity, Resilience, and Coping During COVID-19,” *International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling* 45, no. 2 (2023): 226–48. [^130]: Damian Scarf, Saleh Moradi, Kate McGaw, Joshua Hewitt, Jillian G. Hayhurst, Mike Boyes, Ted Ruffman, and John A. Hunter, “Somewhere I Belong: Long‐Term Increases in Adolescents’ Resilience Are Predicted by Perceived Belonging to the In‐Group,” *British Journal of Social Psychology* 55, no. 3 (2016): 588–99. [^131]: Qiaolan Liu, Min Jiang, Shiying Li, and Yang Yang, “Social Support, Resilience, and Self-Esteem Protect against Common Mental Health Problems in Early Adolescence: A Nonrecursive Analysis from a Two-Year Longitudinal Study,” *Medicine* 100, no. 4 (2021). [^132]: Liu et al., “Social Support, Resilience, and Self-Esteem.” [^133]: Andrew D. Spear, “Epistemic Dimensions of Gaslighting: Peer-Disagreement, Self-Trust, and Epistemic Injustice,” *Inquiry* 66, no. 1 (2023): 68–91. [^134]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5534; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2628. [^135]: Qur’an 25:28–29. [^136]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2378. [^137]: Qur’an 28:88. [^138]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The best of women among the people of Paradise are Khadāja bint Khuwaylid, Fātima bint Muḥammad, Mary the daughter of Joachim (Maryam bint ʿImrān), and Āsiya bint Muzāḥim, the wife of the Pharaoh.” *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 2896, and graded authentic (*sahih*) according to Al-Albani. [^139]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “There were many men who achieved perfection and none were perfect among women except Āsiya, the wife of the Pharaoh, and Mary, the daughter of ʿImrān.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3230. [^140]: Qur’an 28:9. [^141]: Qur’an 66:11. [^142]: Qur’an 28:88. [^143]: Qur’an 26:61. [^144]: Qur’an 26:62. [^145]: Qur’an 26:63–66. [^146]: Qur’an 10:103. [^147]: “Allah does not charge a soul except \[with that within\] its capacity.” Qur’an 2:286. [^148]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If Allah wills good for someone, He afflicts him with trials.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5321. [^149]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3037; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2637. ## Summary Establishing a sound sense of self in a child is among the greatest gifts a parent can offer, for it is the foundation upon which emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience is built. Though we often associate the question of identity with the turbulence of adolescence, in truth it takes root far earlier, unfolding through stages from the earliest years of a child's life. Children are always exploring who they are and who they will become—physically, socially, emotionally, and relationally—and since they will inevitably face difficulties at every stage of life, tending carefully to their identity prepares them not merely to survive hardship but, by Allah's leave, to grow through it. The heart of this matter is that a Muslim child's identity must rest upon the firm ground of Allah's guidance rather than upon the shifting sands of societal expectation. Every human being is born upon the natural disposition, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "No child is born but that he is upon the natural instinct (fiṭra). His parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or a Magian." This innate inclination to worship Allah alone will only flourish if parents take deliberate steps to nurture and preserve it. Identity here is understood as how a person reconciles the various parts of themselves into a coherent whole—and for the believer, Islamic identity is not merely a belief but demands Islamic action. This differs from much of secular Western thought, which treats all identities—religious, racial, professional—as parallel and equivalent. Rather, the Islamic identity is central and governs all our roles: being a mother, a husband, a student, or an athlete is something one does, whereas being a servant of Allah is who one is. Our worldly activities are not outside our faith but are encompassed by it, and even ordinary tasks may become acts of worship. This truth is captured in the words of the companion Ḥanẓala (may Allah be pleased with him), who feared he had fallen into hypocrisy because his awareness of the Hereafter dimmed when he attended to his family and work; the Prophet ﷺ reassured him, "By Him in Whose Hand is my life… there is a time for this and a time for that." The framework offered here rests upon the counsel of Luqmān the Wise to his son, particularly the verse in which Allah instructs that even if parents pressure a child toward associating partners with Allah, the child must not obey them in this, while still keeping their company in the world courteously. Remaining steadfast upon one's purpose of worship, even under pressure, lies at the core of the Muslim's identity—a steadfastness especially vital for Muslim children in the West. For Allah declares, "And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me." Living in accordance with this purpose grants a child the resilience that flows naturally from a firm Muslim identity. Resilience itself takes several forms: surviving hardship with minimal harm, returning to equilibrium after setbacks, and—highest of all—growing through adversity. A child who wears the hijab out of conviction and certainty in Allah's reward, for instance, is far better equipped to withstand the criticism of peers than one who lacks such conviction. Three interwoven qualities are presented as means of nurturing a healthy identity. The first is self-esteem, by which a child acknowledges their inherent, God-given worth. This must be cultivated within an Islamic frame, for pursuing self-esteem in isolation can breed arrogance; children must learn that all honor and success ultimately come from Allah. Research suggests a link between self-esteem and one's image of God as loving and merciful. Allah has honored us with the noblest of labels, naming us "Muslims," and the Qur'an offers strength-focused descriptions of the believers—those who never doubt, who strive with their wealth and lives, who trust Allah as their Protector, who are "but one brotherhood." Parents are encouraged to be mindful of the labels they place upon their children, to separate a child from their mistakes as the Prophet Yūsuf attributed his brothers' cruelty to Shayṭān rather than to their essence, and to reframe faults as strengths. A strengths-based approach finds a luminous example in Khadīja (may Allah be pleased with her), who consoled the Prophet ﷺ after the first revelation by reminding him of his noble qualities. Parents should verbalize their children's virtues and tie them back to Allah, following the Prophet's ﷺ gentleness—Anas served him ten years and was never once rebuked with even "Uff!"—and his mercy toward the young man who sought permission for zinā, whom he guided gently rather than condemned. Children should also be made to feel valued, for the Prophet ﷺ declared the sanctity of the believer greater in Allah's sight than the sanctity of the Kaʿba, and he ﷺ himself would ask a young child playfully about his pet sparrow. The second quality is self-efficacy: the belief in one's capacity to reach a goal or cope with difficulty. This too must be married to reliance upon Allah, for the Prophet ﷺ taught us to "tie your camel and trust in Allah." A child who believes Allah has equipped them can face hardship knowing He is Protector and Provider, while also striving with their own effort. Where a child's natural gifts differ from another's—struggling, perhaps, to memorize Qur'an while a sibling finds it easy—they should be reminded that Allah's gifts lie beyond our control, that our duty is to try our best, and that greater struggle brings greater reward. Trust in Allah's help, described here as proxy efficacy, is illustrated by the support Allah sent the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr in the cave during the Hijra, when He was "the third of two." Practically, parents may cultivate self-efficacy through mastery experiences and realistic goals—perhaps a young child choosing one "special prayer" to guard faithfully before gradually adding the rest—since the Prophet ﷺ linked consistent action to identity: "A man continues to be truthful… until he is recorded with Allah as truthful." Mistakes must be normalized as part of the path, for "All of the children of Adam commit sins, and the best of those who commit sins are those who repent," and Allah forgives all sins for those who do not despair of His mercy. The third quality is self-trust, or autonomy—the belief in one's ability to act in accordance with one's values and best interests, grounded in trust in Allah and the truth of Islam. Self-trust divorced from faith is mere arrogance, and among the traits of arrogance, as the Prophet ﷺ described, is "to disregard the truth." Even our choice to worship is itself a gift from Allah, as He says, "But you will only wish to do so if God wills," and as Dāwūd (peace be upon him) recognized when told his very thanks was itself a favor from his Lord. Parents should nurture an independent relationship between the child and Allah, grant age-appropriate choices, and encourage the child to reflect, for Allah repeatedly calls us to ponder. Positive distinctiveness should be embraced rather than feared, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Islam began as something strange and it will return to being strange, so blessed are the strangers," and the Qur'an praises the "few" who believe and are grateful. Yet distinctiveness need not mean rejection of society, for in Medina the Muslims distinguished themselves while engaging courteously with others. Talents should be nurtured, as the Prophet ﷺ encouraged Zayd ibn Thābit to learn Hebrew, and positive companionship must be cultivated, for the Prophet ﷺ likened good and bad company to the perfume-seller and the blacksmith, and warned, "A man is upon the religion of his best friend." Finally, this journey requires patience and honesty with oneself. Identity is best nurtured early, while children are impressionable and close to their parents, before peer influence grows stronger in the preteen years. Parents must also examine their own identity, especially those who, as first-generation Muslims in the West, wrestled with belonging themselves, since children readily perceive a parent's ambivalence. And amid all this, one must not fall into harsh self-criticism, for parenting is among the hardest of tests, filled inevitably with stumbles. There is always room for growth and always hope for change, and Allah is with the parent at every step, granting the tools needed to build the relationship they long for with their children. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### My kids act totally differently at home than they do at school. Should I be worried? Some adjustment between settings is normal. The Prophet ﷺ himself affirmed this when Hanzala expressed concern about not maintaining the same spiritual intensity at home as he felt in the Prophet’s company: “There is a time for this and a time for that.” The concern arises when a child feels they must be two entirely different people—hiding their faith at school and hiding their struggles at home. This kind of split often signals that a child has not yet internalized a stable sense of self. Research confirms that when self-esteem fluctuates sharply depending on surroundings, children become more vulnerable to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Your goal as a parent is not to police every behavior but to help your child develop a core so strong that it travels with them. When Islam is who they are, not just what they do at home, it goes with them everywhere. ### How do I help my child feel proud to be Muslim when most of their friends do not share their values? The Prophet ﷺ said, “Islam began as something strange and it will return to being strange, so blessed are the strangers.” This is not a call to isolation. When the early Muslims moved to Medina, the Prophet ﷺ encouraged them to distinguish themselves in certain ways while still engaging courteously with those around them. Helping your child see themselves as positively distinct—different based on valued criteria rather than in spite of them—is key. Practically, discuss stories of people across history who embraced their uniqueness and reflect on how their lives would have looked had they simply blended in. And model it yourself: Find a place to pray while out, explain your thought process to your child, and let them see you make value-based choices in real time. Children absorb this far more deeply than any lesson delivered in the abstract. ### My child keeps saying they are “the worst” and “not good enough.” How do I respond? Resist the urge to simply deny the claim. A strengths-based approach asks you to name what you actually observe. We see this in Khadija’s response when the Prophet ﷺ returned from the Cave of Hiraʾ trembling with fear. She did not say “don’t worry.” She named specific qualities she knew to be true: He maintained family ties, he helped the poor, he was truthful. That concrete reassurance, rooted in real observation, is far more powerful than generic comfort. Catch your child doing something right and name it. Then tie what you see back to Allah: “Isn’t it wonderful that Allah blessed you with such persistence?” This connects their self-worth to something that does not fluctuate with a grade or a friend’s opinion. As Allah promises: “Whoever acts in righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer, We will surely cause him to live a good life” (16:97). ### Is it wrong to push my kids to pray and dress Islamically if they are resisting? Compulsion without explanation tends to backfire. Research indicates that children who are controlled rather than guided may eventually disconnect from family and religion altogether in search of some sense of independence. Rules enforced with “because I said so” produce compliance, not conviction—and compliance without conviction rarely survives the moment parental supervision ends. This does not mean abandoning guidance. Children need direction, especially when young. The distinction is between imposing behavior and nurturing identity. When a child prays only to avoid a parent’s frustration, prayer becomes associated with pressure. For example, when a child is entrusted (sometimes) to pray alone in their room, prayer becomes theirs. Worship done solely to appease parents does not allow children to develop a personal connection with Allah—and that personal connection is precisely what sustains faith when no one is watching. ### What if my child makes mistakes or goes through a phase of pulling away from Islam? This is part of the journey, not the end of it. The Prophet ﷺ said: “All of the children of Adam commit sins, and the best of those who commit sins are those who repent.” Building a strong Islamic identity does not mean building a child who never struggles; it means building a child who knows how to return. When mistakes are met with shame and harsh labels, children begin to believe their errors define them. When mistakes are met with grace, children learn that repentance is always open and that Allah’s mercy has no ceiling. The Prophet ﷺ showed us what this looks like. When a young man came seeking permission to commit a sinful act, the Prophet ﷺ did not label him or turn him away. He invited him to sit, spoke to him gently, helped him see the situation from a different angle, and made *dua* for him. From that day, the young man no longer struggled with that desire. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/duas-to-relieve-stress-and-anxiety # Du’as to Relieve Stress and Anxiety **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Blog, Dua, Mental Health **Published:** August 28, 2024 **Updated:** September 8, 2026 Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues in North America, and anxiety disorders are increasingly becoming a global concern. Islam offers a wealth of insights and practical strategies for coping with anxiety and stress, emphasizing spiritual well-being, community support, and balanced living. Anas (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is mainly concerned about the hereafter, Allah will make him feel independent of others and will make him focused and content, and his worldly affairs will fall into place. But whoever is mainly concerned with this world, Allah will make him feel in constant need of others and will make him distracted and unfocused, and he will get nothing of this world except what is decreed for him.” (*Jami’* *al-Tirmidhi,* no. 2389) This narration suggests that ultimately the most productive mindset for the believer to dispel feelings of stress and anxiety is to disengage our hearts—not our actions—from this worldly life and set our sights on the eternal abode. Nonetheless, anxiety and stress are natural emotions present in even the most pious of believers. The wisdom of the Islamic tradition acknowledges this and provides us a number of supplications that provide solace and healing for the believer. --- ## Du’a to replace anxiety with peace  In an authentic narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “There is absolutely no one amongst you who, when stricken with grief and anxiety, says, اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي عَبْدُكَ، ابْنُ عَبْدِكَ، ابْنُ أَمَتِكَ، نَاصِيَتِي بِيَدِكَ، مَاضٍ فِي حُكْمُكَ، عَدْلٌ فِي قَضَاؤُكَ، أَسْأَلُكَ بِكُلِّ اسْمٍ هُوَ لَكَ سَمَّيْتَ بِهِ نَفْسَكَ، أَوْ أَنْزَلْتَهُ فِي كِتَابِكَ، أَوْ عَلَّمْتَهُ أَحَدًا مِنْ خَلْقِكَ، أَوِ اسْتَأْثَرْتَ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ عِنْدَكَ، أَنْ تَجْعَلَ الْقُرْآنَ رَبِيعَ قَلْبِي، وَنُورَ صَدْرِي، وَجَلَاءَ حُزْنِي، وَذَهَابَ هَمِّي Allahumma inni 'abduka, ibnu 'abdika, ibnu amatika, naasiyati biyadika, maadin fi hukmuka, 'adlun fi qada'uka, as'aluka bikulli ismin huwa laka, sammayta bihi nafsaka, aw anzaltahu fi kitabika, aw 'allamtahu ahadan min khalqika, awi asta'tharta bihi fi 'ilm il-ghaybi 'indaka, an taj'al al-Qur'ana rabia' qalbi, wa noora sadri, wa jalaa'a huzni, wa dhahaaba hammi. O Allah, I am Your slave. I am the child of Your male slave and the child of Your female slave, my forelock is in Your hand, Your judgment upon me is assured, Your decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every single name that You have named Yourself with, or that You have revealed in Your book, or taught to one of Your creation, or have completely kept in Your knowledge in the unseen, to make the Qur’an the spring of my heart, and the light of my chest, and let it be the banisher of my sadness and let it be the reliever of my anxiety. #### except that Allah will remove his anxiety and grief and will replace it with joy.” It was said \[by the Companions\], “Shall we not learn it?” He said, “Indeed, whoever hears it should learn it.” (*Musnad Ahmad,* no. 3528) The first thing that should be noted is the power of this *du’a* that can replace every anxiety and every sadness of absolutely every believer. The first theme of this *du’a* is submission. In declaring “I am Your slave, the child of Your male slave and the child of Your female slave,” we are expressing our absolute submission to Allah. In fact, the more one humbles themselves to Allah, the more Allah will honor them. Abu Huraira (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Charity does not decrease wealth, no one forgives another except that Allah increases his honor, and no one humbles himself for the sake of Allah except Allah raises his status.” (*Sahih Muslim,* no. 2588) The next line “my forelock is in Your hand” continues this theme of complete submission and control. However, some scholars say that it also signifies the submission of the intellect to Allah. Intellectual submission here should not be confused with turning one’s brain off. Rather, it indicates our knowledge of and contentment with our human limits and our understanding that we do not have ultimate control. Then we declare our contentment with Allah’s decree (“Your judgment upon me is assured”) and our certainty that it will always be just. Compare this to someone who accuses their Lord of not being fair or just, questioning ‘[Why me?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/where-was-i-before-i-was-born-why-me) Why is this happening to me?’ Rather, even in our times of anxiety and stress, we should trust and declare our certainty in the justice of Allah, who will ultimately relieve every pain. One of the most blessed ways to ensure your supplications are answered is to call upon Allah with a name that fits your specific request. For example, when asking Allah for His mercy, we call on *ar-Rahman*. For His might, we call on [*al-Aziz*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/the-significance-of-allahs-name-al-aziz-the-most-powerful-and-dignified). For His *rizq*, His sustenance, we pray to *Ar-Razzaq*. The wording in this supplication, however, is all encompassing. We not only call on Allah by every name of His we know, but even those He has kept hidden from us, because our supplication here could match one of His names we are unaware of. So, here we find peace by reinforcing our supplication “to make the Qur’an the spring of my heart” with the strength of the infinite wisdom contained in His names that lie beyond our imagination. What does it mean for the Qur’an to become the spring of one’s heart? The scholars explain that it means to give life to the heart once again. Just like spring revives life after the death of winter, we ask Allah to revive our hearts after they have been deadened. Then we ask Allah to make the Qur’an the light of our chest, the banisher of our grief and the reliever of our anxiety. Light clarifies, it alleviates, it relieves. However, it would be strange to ask Allah to make the Qur’an revive your heart and banish your sadness if it is not a significant part of our lives. As with every other supplication, there has to be a deed that matches the supplication. So, in essence, we are asking Allah to reconfigure our relationship with the Qur’an, which will then guide us away from the darkness of confusion and uncertainty that plague the heart. And indeed the Qur’an is a cure; “Surely in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (Qur’an 13:28). --- ## Du’a for relief from worries and debts Our second supplication to relieve anxiety and stress comes from a poignant incident narrated by Abu Saeed al Khudri (rA), “One day the Prophet ﷺ entered the mosque, and saw a man from the *Ansar* who was named Abu Umamah. He said ‘O Abu Umamah, what is the matter (such) that I see you sitting in the mosque when it is not time for prayer?’ He said, ‘Worries and debts I have, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said ‘Shall I not teach you words if you say them, Allah, Exalted and Glorified be He, would remove your worries and settle your debts?’  He said, ‘Of course, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘Say in the morning and in the evening, اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ الْهَمِّ وَالْحَزَنِ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ الْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ الْجُبْنِ وَالْبُخْلِ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ غَلَبَةِ الدَّيْنِ، وَقَهْرِ الرِّجَالِ. Allahumma inni a'oodhu bika min al-hammi wal-hazan, wa a'oodhu bika min al-'ajzi wal-kasal, wa a'oodhu bika min al-jubni wal-bukhl, wa a'oodhu bika min ghalabatid-dayni, wa qahrir-rijal. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and grief; and I seek refuge in You from inability and laziness; and I seek refuge in You from cowardice and from stinginess; and I seek refuge in You from being overcome by debt and from being overpowered by men. He said, ‘When I did that, Allah removed my worries and settled my debt.’”(*Sunan Abi Dawud,* no. 1555) This supplication addresses two forms of mental health*. Hamm* refers to anxiety about uncertainty in the future, while *hazan* is grief over what has passed. On such occasions of grief, we know the Prophet recited, اللّهُـمَّ لا سَـهْلَ إِلاّ ما جَعَلـتَهُ سَهـلاً، وَأَنْتَ تَجْـعَلُ الحَزْنَ إِذا شِـئْتَ سَهـْلاً Allahumma la sahla illa ma ja‘altahu sahla, wa anta taj‘alul hazna idha shi’ta’ sahlan. O Allah, there is no ease except in that which You have made easy, and You make grief if You wish easy. *Sahih Ibn Hibban,* no. 2427 The supplication then continues by seeking refuge from inability and laziness. *Al-ajz* is when you have the will to do something, but you lack the ability. *Al-kasl* is when you have the ability, but lack the will. By making this supplication, we ask Allah to grant us both the will and ability to rise up to our responsibilities in spite of feelings of defeat. Whereas the first part of this supplication addresses emotions, the second half engages with the cause of many of those emotions: cowardice and stinginess, poverty and political injustice. Indeed, as global inflation makes daily expenses rise, financial issues and debt are the most common sources of concern for many. Another supplication for those struggling with debt and earning through halal means is: اللّهُـمَّ اكْفِـني بِحَلالِـكَ عَنْ حَـرامِـك، وَأَغْنِـني بِفَضْـلِكِ عَمَّـنْ سِـواك Allahumma ikfini bi-halalika 'an haramik, wa aghnini bi-fadlika 'amman siwak. O Allah, suffice me with what You have allowed instead of what You have prohibited, and make me independent of all others beside You. *Jami’* *al-Tirmidhi,* no. 5/560 These supplications offer a comprehensive approach to addressing both emotional and practical difficulties. In reciting these prayers regularly, we can seek divine assistance in overcoming anxiety, grief, and financial burdens, while also asking for the willpower and strength to navigate our personal trials with faithful resilience. --- ## Remember: Hardships are blessings in disguise Part of the divine wisdom is that while we often forget our Lord, times of stress and anxiety remind us to turn to Him, knowing He is in control of everything. Therefore, times of stress often turn out to be blessings in disguise. Ibn Abbas (rA) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If anyone constantly seeks forgiveness \[from Allah\], Allah will appoint for him a way out of every distress, a relief from every anxiety and will provide sustenance for him where he does not expect it.” (*Sunan Abi Dawud,* no. 1518) Therefore, so long as you as constantly seek forgiveness from Allah, in addition to using the supplications provided here, Allah will certainly relieve every distress, anxiety, and financial problem you will ever face. Ultimately, it is a sign of His ultimate care and concern for us that Allah would instruct the Prophet ﷺ or inspire through him these *du’a*s through which we can turn to Him and relieve our stress and anxiety. For more, see the video on *[du’a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/dua-to-relieve-anxiety-and-manage-anger-a-dua-away&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1724872644593122&usg=AOvVaw0M-uJD5M1LjpGDWpRsIA2D)*[s to relieve anxiety and manage anger](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/dua-to-relieve-anxiety-and-manage-anger-a-dua-away) by Sh. Omar Suleiman from the “A *Du’a* Away” series. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/does-history-only-repeat-itself-remembering-the-rohingya-in-light-of-palestine # Does History Only Repeat Itself? Remembering the Rohingya in Light of Palestine **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** August 22, 2024 **Updated:** August 28, 2025 In August 2017, the world bore witness to the unfolding tragedy of the [Rohingya genocide](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-systematic-rohingya-genocide-and-the-muslim-moral-imperative&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755536030497921&usg=AOvVaw2zYDB__sKedVI-ZjW8FW9e), an atrocity that continues to smolder in the shadows of global indifference. Men, women, and children—targeted solely for their ethnic identity as the Muslim minority in Myanmar (also known as Burma)—faced systematic murder. This horror did not emerge in a vacuum; it was the culmination of decades of calculated policies and insidious practices that systematically dehumanized the Rohingya, creating a pernicious narrative of falsehoods to justify their eradication. Before 2017, many Rohingya found themselves confined to internal camps along the Sittwe Coast of Myanmar, an attempt to segregate and isolate them from broader Burmese society. Through this dehumanising process, they were stripped of access to health care, mobility, education, and the means to earn a livelihood. This orchestrated marginalization sought to deny them the basic dignities and opportunities that form the essence of a just and humane existence. --- ## Who are the Rohingya? The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who have lived in Myanmar for generations. From as early as the 1960s, they have been vilified through relentless media propaganda and draconian laws, including policies limiting the number of children they can bear. This plight echoes the torment of the Palestinians, who for decades have similarly endured displacement, military occupation, and attempts to erase their cultural and historical identity. The Myanmar government has long promoted the false narrative that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, labeling them “Bengalis” and stripping them of citizenship. This propaganda, amplified through state media and extremist monks like Ashin Wirathu, incited violence by spreading baseless claims that Rohingya men threatened Buddhist women and society at large. Social media platforms, especially Facebook, have become tools for disinformation and hate speech. --- ## Global responses To date, over 25,000 Rohingya have been killed, with more than 700,000 forced into exile across Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Malaysia. Thousands of women have been raped, and tens of thousands burned alive. The world watched as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stood silent, echoing the denial of civilian suffering we continue to see from Israeli officials regarding Palestine. Myanmar continues to block media access and restrict international observers from entering Rakhine State. Yet, in 2019, Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a step mirrored by South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ in late 2023. These legal efforts reflect a growing international desire for accountability. Despite growing awareness, the international response remains largely rhetorical, marked by statements of condemnation rather than meaningful action. Both the Rohingya and Palestinians remain trapped in cycles of suffering perpetuated by structural Islamophobia, political inaction, and Western duplicity. Allah says in the Qur’an, “Hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided” (3:103). Are we so immersed in our own lives and distractions that we no longer hear the cries of the oppressed? The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”[^1] Are we truly aching for our brothers and sisters in Myanmar and Palestine? Is their suffering enough to rouse us from spiritual slumber, to move us to pray in the depths of night, to give from our savings, forsake our careers, comforts, and pleasures to stand boldly against injustice? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am5qpQl4KfQ *Watch Dr. Omar Suleiman explain the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya and what actions everyone can take right now to help* --- ## A Call to Action The struggle of the Rohingya and the Palestinians compels us to act. It is a test of our faith and our commitment to justice. Allah says: > “And what will explain to you what the steep path is? It is to free a slave, or to feed on the day of hunger an orphan near of kin, or a needy person in misery, and—above all—to be one of those who have faith and urge each other to patience and urge each other to compassion. These are the people of the right.” (Qur’an 90:12-19) In our collective awakening and steadfast actions lies the hope that history may not repeat itself, and that justice—at last—may prevail. --- ## Note [\[1\]](#ftnt_ref1)  *Sahih Bukhari*, no. 6011 --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-miscarried-fetus-in-islam-meeting-your-lost-child-in-jannah # The Miscarried Fetus in Islam: Meeting Your Lost Child in Jannah **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Afterlife, Divine Decree, Faith, Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan **Published:** August 21, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 The miscarried fetus in Islam has a special station: it awaits its patient parents. Imagine a soul stationed at the gates of *jannah*, not willing to enter without its mother. > Mu’adh ibn Jabal reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “By the One in whose hand is my soul, the miscarried fetus will carry his mother by his umbilical cord into paradise, if she was seeking its reward.” \[*Sunan Ibn Mājah* #1609\] The sorrow that accompanies a miscarriage mirrors that of grieving the loss of a relative. The cramping of the womb and the lingering presence of hormones adds to the physical pain of miscarriage. But it is more than a feeling of loss and emptiness, it’s coupled with the uncertainty of future motherhood, or the gnawing fear of never bearing a child. Through patience and *tawakkul*, the pain can become a bridge to a deeper, more profound understanding of Allah’s divine wisdom behind your story. --- ## Finding spiritual meaning behind a miscarriage > Wondrous is the affair of the believer for there is good for him in every matter and this is not the case with anyone except the believer. If he is happy, then he thanks Allah and thus there is good for him, and if he is harmed, then he shows patience and thus there is good for him. \[*Sahih Muslim* 2999\] In the vast, veiled tapestry of fate, we must surrender to the fact that the future is unseen. Often, early miscarriages occur because the embryo is not viable in the scientific sense. Or perhaps Allah, in His boundless wisdom, is shielding you from a burden too great to bear. In Surah Kahf, Allah shares a story of Khidr, who was commanded to kill a boy. Musa (as) was aghast; he protested, “Have you killed an innocent soul, who killed no one? You have certainly done a horrible thing” (Qur’an 18:74). Khidr later responds, “And as for the boy, his parents were \[true\] believers, and we feared that he would pressure them into defiance and disbelief” (Qur’an 18:80). So perhaps, like Khidr and the boy he was commanded to kill, Allah is protecting your lineage from something far worse. Perhaps the provisions, the *rizq*, are not yet ripe for your child's arrival into this world. Maybe Allah wills for you to gather more savings, or relocate to a new home, or shift your career path. Maybe, it’s simply not the right time for you to embark on parenthood. There might be more growing to be done, more maturity to be achieved, more *du’a*s to be made, and additional *nawafil* to be performed. There could be more habits Allah intends for you to cultivate and He is giving you some more time to do so. Consider the myriad maybes: maybe Allah is protecting you from unseen hardships, or perhaps paving a way for future blessings and ease. Allah, the writer of your story, is only doing things out of His love for you. --- ## Enduring a miscarriage with patience Crying is not a sign of impatience. > The Prophet took hold of Ibrahim, kissed him, and smelled him. Then, we entered after that as Ibrahim was breathing his last breaths. It made the eyes of the Prophet shed tears. Abdur Rahman ibn Awf said, “Even you, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet said, “O Ibn Awf, this is mercy.” Then, the Prophet wept some more and he said, “Verily, the eyes shed tears and the heart is grieved, but we will not say anything except what is pleasing to our Lord. We are saddened by your departure, O Ibrahim.” \[*Sahih Bukhari* #1241\] The Prophet ﷺ, wept while kissing his departing son, even though he knew his children would be in *jannah* with Ibrahim (as). Crying is a natural and healing process, and it is from the mercy of Allah that He lightens the load on our chest, with some water drops falling on our face. Patience is not preventing oneself from crying. Patience is preventing oneself from uttering that which displeases Allah. Patience is sitting with a steadfast heart, feeling sorrow and not showing anger or arrogance with Allah. Practical pathways to patience: reflecting on the verses of the Qur’an, reciting its words mindfully throughout the day. Engaging in constant remembrance: *Alhamdulillah*. *Alhamdulillah*. *Alhamdulillah*. A miscarriage is not a mark of divine displeasure or a cause for suffering inflicted upon you. It is a test, a means to elevate your rank, to draw you closer to Allah, and to multiply your reward in the hereafter. --- ## Reward of losing a child If you’ve suffered the loss of a fetus or young child, take solace from this hadith: > Abu Musa al-Ashari reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When the child of a servant dies, Allah says to the angels: Have you taken the life of My servant’s child? They say yes. Allah says: Have you taken the fruit of his heart? They say yes. Allah says: What has My servant said? They say: He has praised You and said to Allah we belong and to Allah we return. Allah says: Build a house for My servant in Paradise and name it the House of Praise.” \[*Sunan al-Tirmidhī* 1021\] You have sent forth a child who now waits at the very gates of paradise. You have given birth to an intercessor for you on the Day of Judgment. Imagine the profound beauty of a home in *jannah*, specifically described and named *Bayt al-Hamd*, the House of Praise. Picture this house as yours. Could any home in this transient world ever surpass such a divinely titled dwelling in the eternal realm? Moreover, reflect on your deep connection to the Messenger ﷺ. He buried six of his seven children within his lifetime. Some were laid to rest in the innocence of youth, others as adults. He endured the same pain you now bear—sixfold. Through this shared sorrow, you are bonded to the Prophet ﷺ and others. As you sit in the sorrow, remember, your patience is honored, and your ultimate reward is beyond earthly comparison. --- ## Allah tests those He loves Allah wants for you to have a breathtakingly beautiful and magnificently marvelous eternal abode, so bear this trial with patience and praise. *Alhamdulillah* for all that you already have, and *alhamdulillah* for the unknown future and its boundless possibilities. > Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “If Allah wills good for someone, He afflicts him with trials.” \[*Sahih Bukhari* #5645\] Do not be angry. How can you be angry because you think His decree conflicts with your desires? You know His decree holds infinitely more for you. You know He is Al-Wadud, the Loving One, and that His love surpasses all, even that of your own mother. If you could see the angels carrying your miscarried child, naming it, and situating it in front of the gates of *jannah*, would you think for a moment that Allah hates you? Trust in His wisdom and love, for He sees what you cannot. --- ## What if I never have children? The station of a mother is indeed one of the most noble positions a woman can attain. Yet, this truth does not alter the fundamental fact that Allah is the Creator, and life springs forth only by His will. You may exert all your might and power, timing things perfectly, maintaining health and fitness, adhering to ancient wisdom and modern science alike, but if Allah has not decreed life from your womb, it will not come to pass. Perhaps, you are like our revered mother Aisha (ra), who, although she never gave birth to a single soul, remains immeasurably valuable to this *ummah*. She served as a loving mother figure to her nephews and nieces, many of whom became great scholars. And through her profound knowledge, her teaching, her charity, and her healing, she has bequeathed more to us in sacred inheritance than we can fathom. Or perhaps, you are like Sarah (ra), barren for years beyond the age of childbearing, until Allah decrees, “Be,” and it is (Qur’an 40:68). Maybe your destiny is to mother many in a different way: through caring for orphans with your wealth and hands, through teaching children the love of Allah, through nurturing the children of your extended family. In these roles, your motherhood can transcend biological bounds, reflecting the profound and diverse ways Allah’s love and mercy manifest in our lives. --- ## Allah’s plan for you after a miscarriage > Let the pain of tribulation be lightened for you by knowing that it is He Most Glorious who is testing you; For Him from whom you are faced with the blows of fate is He who has accustomed you to His choosing well. \[*Al-Hikam al-Ataa’iyyah* #105\] In the quiet minutes of late nights, let your tears flow in *sujood*, knowing you are but a servant in the midst of a beautiful story yet to unfold. Dream of your *Bayt-al-Hamd*, that House of Praise in the eternal gardens, as you whisper *alhamdulillah*, gently stroking your stomach. For Allah is the Creator, and in His infinite wisdom, He has crafted you perfectly. Through this trial, He molds you, preparing you for an existence more magnificent than you can fathom. Embrace this chapter with patient praise, trusting that His plan, though hidden now, is one of boundless love and divine perfection. **This piece was adapted from:** [Those Who Intercede | Judgment Day | Ep. 16 Yaqeen Institute](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-16-those-who-intercede-judgment-day-deeds-that-light-the-way&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1724257819597484&usg=AOvVaw3V_FEHHOpSnEXyLRpC2dAA) [Is Allah Testing or Punishing Me? | Why Me? EP. 21 | Dr. Omar Suleiman | A Ramadan Series on Qadar](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/is-allah-testing-or-punishing-me-why-me&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1724257819598110&usg=AOvVaw1uJ8kb6ulky3YKsvFxUwFX) [Ep. 11: Losing a Child | For Those Left Behind](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-11-losing-a-child-for-those-left-behind&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1724257819598518&usg=AOvVaw0DRFhg0HoLQiT4vEQSZ9zA) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/breaking-free-unshackling-the-muslim-mind-from-secular-thought-and-reestablishing-the-islamic-personality # Breaking Free: Unshackling the Muslim Mind from Secular Thought and Reestablishing the Islamic Personality **Author:** Daniyah Hannini **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** featured-papers, Publication, Ramadan **Published:** August 12, 2024 **Updated:** October 19, 2026 ## Introduction > *You do you.* > > *You’re the captain of your own ship.* > > *My body, my choice.* These and similar platitudes have embedded themselves in both modern vernacular and the individual psyche. Charles Taylor has described our time as an “age of authenticity,” defined by the moral imperative to “find yourself, realize yourself, and release your true self.”[^1] The liberal state not only promotes this morally autonomous self as an uncontested good, but assigns it inherent value and validity. As we will show, what results is in fact a mockery of the individual. This paper examines the consequences of living under secular hegemony. It accounts for the historical phenomenon of “creating” the secular self, evaluates the legitimacy of this invented “self” via an Islamic lens, and demonstrates the devastating impact of secular power on the Muslim psyche if left untreated. Finally, it argues for the necessity of reclaiming our Islamic sensibilities and commitments. --- ## The invention of the individual The modern self can be traced back to the Enlightenment. Individual sovereignty was recognized and protected by the doctrine of secularism, which likewise promoted state sovereignty.[^2] Secularism is an inherently complex concept with competing definitions;[^3] for our purposes, it is understood as a political doctrine that provides the state the power to determine: (1) “what constitutes a religion; (2) which beliefs and actions are deemed religious or alternatively secular; and (3) which of those religious beliefs and actions are acceptable to and tolerated by the State.”[^4] The inauguration of secularism as a world order was anything but natural. It was a project that emerged as an antidote to Western Europe’s trauma stemming from the tug of war between Church and State. Early modernity, between the 16th and 18th centuries, centered on efforts to put religion in its “place” and was marked by attempts to weaken the Church’s stronghold on society.[^5] In trying to resolve the supposed tension between religion and state, secularism never clearly delineated the boundary of either. It is against this backdrop of secular confusion that religion morphed into a plaything of the state. The secular reenvisioning of religion as a malleable entity belies the naive understanding of secularism as a mere separation between religion and state. In actuality, what the secular order does is *recreate* religion to fit the state’s “ongoing, deepening entanglement in the question of religion and politics,” which fundamentally “is a feature of the expanding regulatory capacities of the modern state.”[^6] The reconfiguration of religion into a docile and obedient subject of the state was not simply prescribed for Western Christian society—it was deemed a panacea for the global world order.[^7] Europe simply served as the launchpad from which to export secularism, fully sanctioned by Western imperialist expansion to the rest of the world. The secular project aimed at creating a new “self” characterized by moral autonomy and political independence. What exactly does this self entail? What are its predispositions and assumptions? In the liberal imagination, individual autonomy is inextricably linked to one’s moral authority. Immanuel Kant is often credited for introducing autonomy as an “attribute of individuals in our capacity as individuals to prescribe moral law to ourselves,” thereby nestling the individual and God in the same “moral community”—rendering God “morally superfluous.”[^8] Kant’s link between morality and autonomy had a profound impact. The self now served as a moral agent in its own right and asserted the subjectivity of morality itself. God and His revelation were to be trumped by individual impulse and expression, thereby championing feelings over principles. The morally autonomous self was viewed as the beacon of authenticity in its ability to esoterically unveil “inner truths” (no matter how fleeting), “objectifying the world and submitting it to its own demands.”[^9] This championing of the autonomous self not only legitimizes the “arbitrariness” of morality itself, but deems its instability natural.[^10] Like a feather in the wind, our morality is subjected to the ever-changing current of our own whims, our moral judgment determined by a constant inconstancy. Thus the individual is deemed self-sufficient and capable of meaningful choices by virtue of simply existing. The contemporary phenomenon of transgenderism captures this moral and epistemological nihilism. The desire to align feelings of being trapped in the wrong body with one’s physical gender expression has sanctioned transgender individuals to explore the options of gender-affirming surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone therapy. Irreversible changes are celebrated under the banner of choice. Feelings are deemed inherently valid and therefore actionable, no matter how fleeting or temporary. Yet the same principle invoked to celebrate manipulation of one’s body is conveniently minimized for one who detransitions.[^11] Many who transitioned trusted the authenticity of their “inner truths” only to realize their feelings were entirely wrong. “Inner truths” easily morph into inner lies when the individual is left to face real, lasting repercussions made in the name of embracing whims and desires. When morality is redefined as a personal matter and relegated to the private sphere, two significant commitments are suggested: (1) morality is subjective; and (2) all expressions stemming from different moral codes are equal in value. This effectively enslaves the individual to the fragility of their fluctuating moral framework. The creation of the secular self subsequently creates a “cult(ure) of authenticity,” where individual expression (no matter how insignificant or seemingly absurd) carries intrinsic significance.[^12] If the secular self is understood *a priori* to be sincere and dignified in its aims, how then are we to judge what is just? Or more fundamentally, on what basis are we to judge at all?[^13] When secular power creates and nurtures an ecosystem that excludes God from any real legitimacy or sovereignty, the vacuum created is effectively filled by man’s (sanctioned) creative power. The calibration of the secular self is contingent on the individual following their whims, rendering any efforts to seek “truth” and authenticity futile. The impact this has on religious expression and adherence is disastrous. In a secular world, the cultural milieu divorces universality from religious belief, practice, and ultimately truth. The secular self is forced to internalize that: (1) unshifting truth can never exist; and (2) authenticity is tethered to fleeting experiences and emotions. This creates a buffet of choices, where consumers can ‘mix and match’ at their discretion, thereby concocting “spirituality” from a series of impulses that satiate the individual appetite. Current trends reflect the decentralization of religious practice, as surveys indicate that about a quarter of US adults identify as “spiritual but not religious.”[^14] The rise and normalization of baseless practices such as sending positive affirmations into the universe, the usage of healing crystals, and encouragement of daily meditation via yoga and mindfulness all capture the spirit of these findings. The mission of secular spirituality is to cultivate and foster a *feeling*, whether that be a calmed state of mind or a heightened sense of purpose/connection to one’s self and the world at large. While this most certainly points to a decrease in structured religious practice, it suggests something even more telling: secular society cannot rid the human being of its natural disposition (*fiṭrah)* to seek a higher power. The endeavor to find connection to the metaphysical without religious creed is a testament to this feature embedded in the human psyche. The most secular spirituality can offer the modern world is a variety of epistemologically problematic practices that have *potential* to stir up fleeting feelings of fulfillment. It effectively morphs religion into a self-serving, malleable entity, no longer grounded in creed and dogma, but rather guided by individual whims and desires. In essence, secular spirituality shifts one’s servitude from God to the self. In concert with this trend, it is not surprising that many individuals in Western Muslim communities justify the bypassing of Islamic principles through the seemingly harmless mindset of “only God can judge me.” Whether it is Muslim businesses rationalizing interest-based transactions or Muslim influencer culture redefining hijab norms, the unfortunate reality is that many Muslims numb themselves to disobedience through the “harm principle.” This mentality undeniably carries the pathologies of secular thought. It not only privatizes religious commitment, but provides the individual the confidence to become a religious consumer rather than follower. It is through this mechanism that an individual who self-identifies as Muslim, but lacks the necessary theological and practical commitments, is produced and legitimized.[^15] Such is the secularized Muslim, content to prioritize the experience of a feeling over legitimizing the basis of the feeling itself (i.e., the validity of creed). In its efforts to replace the “opiate of the masses” with the opiate of untethered spirituality, the secular project places feelings and esoteric experiences above creed. One may encounter a Muslim who stops praying because they no longer *feel* the “benefits” of prayer. What this reflects is secularism’s ability to embolden the Muslim to filter Islamic practices by their perceived emotional or “spiritual” output. Secular power does not directly expunge religion (i.e., God) from individual consciousness and activity. Rather, it operates by stripping God of sovereignty and granting it to Mankind instead. Secular power (and the institutions by which it functions) quietly but pervasively establishes a legal and social order that renders religion—and by extension, God—irrelevant. Under a secular order, religion essentially becomes an offshoot of deism; God is given the space to “exist” (if the individual so desires), but has no real role to play in society. Individuals are given the green light to *believe,* but it is the secular legal regime that ultimately dictates the shape of their actual religious *practice*. In other words, the “freedom” which these aforementioned Muslims seek when feelings are emphasized over creed is not a genuine freedom at all. In reality, their ability to practice “Islam” in such a way (and the contents of the “feelings” which inform that practice) stem from the power of the state—and are therefore at its mercy. --- ## Disciplining the secular self In the early twentieth century, shortly after the establishment and formalization of the American public education system, Jehovah’s Witnesses refused on religious grounds to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance mandated for public school students. This precipitated a legal and cultural controversy. In *Minersville School District v. Gobitis* (1940), the Supreme Court upheld the requirement of students to participate in the daily ceremony while simultaneously asserting that failure to do so could result in expulsion. Two thousand students were subsequently expelled from public institutions, never mind the social violence and fury directed against the Jehovah’s Witnesses for choosing loyalty to their religious beliefs over state-mandated practice. While the Supreme Court would backpedal three years later, the case exposed the necessary fragility of religious freedom under a secular order. This is because “individual autonomy” is secured through the coercive apparatus of the state—the state can crush individual freedom *precisely because it is the only means by which that freedom is guaranteed*. Thus the Enlightenment’s concerted effort to produce the “individual” is precisely what, in practice, denied the self individuality. Modern “individuality” can only be achieved through the modern state, which takes on the responsibility of defining, training, and disciplining the self via its various institutions.[^16] The “self-evident” authenticity and autonomy of the “self” is not self-evident at all, considering that the production of the self was and is a carefully coordinated and collaborative process. As Talal Asad points out, John Locke’s emphasis on “natural right as a limit to arbitrary government may also be closely linked to the desire to stabilize the contingent character of the self through a legal concept of the person.”[^17] The result is that one is only as free as the state allows them to be. While the individual is sold the illusion of an endless sea of choices to define themselves by, in reality the state not only sets the parameters of the human imagination, but depends on said parameters to function and survive. In other words, we are not as free as we think. Our self-perception and outlook are inherently autonomous and therefore authenticity is but an illusion. “Free” society markets the fantasy that the individual carries the creative toolkit to independently think and by extension, to *be* as they please. What is often overlooked is what the secular self neglects to internalize: the regulation of thought and expression. Values and norms are largely shaped by secular liberal institutions. Already in the 18th century, Rousseau argued that the autonomous self can only flourish when citizens function “harmoniously and uniformly on the basis of the single general will,” where the liberal order offers a framework of conduct to help regulate and contain collective action.[^18] So much so, that individual self-determination isn’t actually an individual effort; the individual “may mistake an epistemological insight of relativity for a practical or ethical maxim” normalized to them.[^19] That is, individual leanings and affinities, rather than being truly individual, are often the result of  state-sanctioned modes of “normative” beliefs and practice. Take modern views on gender roles. The current status quo demands the championing of women in the workforce, but is less enthusiastic about celebrating women as caretakers of the family. Ideas of female “success” and “empowerment” are by no coincidence associated with the former rather than the latter. The rise of “girlboss” culture and the simultaneous devaluing of women’s role as custodians of future generations reflects the modern state’s power and its ability to shape individual aspirations. Furthermore, it reveals the limits of the state’s tolerance for “self-expression.” Actions taken and beliefs affirmed must be justified on the basis of individual choice rather than normative truth. This is clear in modern discourse on hijab in the United States. Religious garb is celebrated and accepted on the basis of individual choice, but deemed oppressive if grounded in religious dogma. The American Muslimah’s hijab is (theoretically) legitimized so long as it is a reflection of her individual *choice* to cover. Should the choice to cover come secondary to theological commitments, it would garner a very different reaction. Ironically, then, it is via the prescribed agency of the self that its subjugation takes place.[^20] Thus, for all that the secular self presumes its own “freedom of thought,”  freedom in the absolute sense does not actually exist; “no matter how independently minded, everyone is to some degree dependent on other people, on conventions and on things he or she has not created, such as language.”[^21] Thought itself is always tethered to a broader established network of meaning. Consider the etymology of the word *terrorism*. Terrorism historically referred to state-sanctioned violence toward those opposed to the French Revolution. The term eventually came to more vaguely signify violence enacted to actualize political goals. The question of what and who fell under the broad banner of terrorism became arbitrary, subject to the self-serving whims of the state’s propagandists. As the adage holds, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. While this may be simply construed as a battle of semantics, the reality is far more sinister. It is the power of dominating narratives and the language used in shaping them that justified the decimation witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is the system of classification that sanctioned the Graveyard of Empires. It is the capacity of rhetoric that emboldens the likes of Madeleine Albright to declare the death of half a million Iraqi children to be ‘worth it.’ It is the configuration of expression that can transform Palestinian resistance against settler colonialism into the justification of their genocide. Words have power. We must acknowledge that language belongs to a system. The words we use intrinsically operate within parameters set by the modern state and its various institutional collaborators in the media and elsewhere, swaying individual action and presentation. This is how colonialism, in every sense, is constituted by secular power. We often overlook how colonialism revels in its ability to divide humanity into “‘imagined communities’ in both the mind and on the map.”[^22] This facet of colonialism, often referred to as “coloniality,”[^23] is not one that purely operates in the material realm; that is, its oppression is not necessarily palpable.[^24] Coloniality falls under the broader umbrella of “soft power.” Soft power is the subtle yet coercive force that prescribes collective values, norms, and sensibilities under the banner of universality and neutrality.[^25] The ultimate objective of this dimension of domination is the intellectual gutting of a people and the subsequent recreation of the indigenous in the state’s image.[^26] This image is reflective of the state’s position on reality itself—how the state believes civil society ought to look like and function, and how its people, by extension, construct their worldview. This hegemonic project is primarily orchestrated via secular power, which depends on narrative-building to legitimize and normalize its mission. In other words, the colonial project is alive and well. This should come as no surprise, considering that “colonialism” fundamentally describes the state’s ability to actualize its vision via brute force and/or the diffusion of ideas. Ideological influence and material violence typically work in tandem to establish hegemony. “Soft” power is thus not soft at all. We see it in how the secular liberal order supplies the vocabulary through which the individual filters thought. Discourse on the plight of Palestinians in Muslim spaces, which often favors the lens of “human rights” over anything more overtly “religious,” illustrates this phenomenon. The assumption, spoken and unspoken, is that “unlike the concerns of the Muslim—understood as tainted by the baggage of divisive theological attachments—those of the human rights worker are universal, capacious, and inclusive of the non-Muslim Palestinian.”[^27] While seemingly harmless, the shift in language simultaneously promotes secular values and rejects Islamic reality and prescription. In the case of Palestine, it “denies Islam a capacity for the universal, it exalts human rights (and the secular politics of humanity in which they are embedded) as devoid of particularist commitments.”[^28] Should we feel compelled to funnel our thoughts through the filter of secular language, we risk muddying our Islamic convictions beyond any hope of coherency or potency. We are social beings. Our individual expression is very much bound by collective commitments—commitments which today are meticulously managed by a bombardment of state and corporate influences.[^29] The modern individual is enmeshed in a sea of synergetic influence, where consumer culture is propagated and the self indoctrinated to behave in carefully tailored ways. This is social engineering in all but name; institutions are provided free rein to “determine what we eat, what we watch, what we wear, where we work, and what we do.”[^30] --- ## Racializing Muslims: The creation of the Muslim “identity” The “secular Muslim” is not some purely organic phenomenon driven by individual liberation and choice, but rather produced by a particular legal regime and its constitutive epistemological and moral commitments. This framework considers an individual who lives by Islam (in principle and practice) as no different from an individual who simply claims to “belong” to Islam without practicing any of it. This clearly violates Islam’s call to couple belief with action.[^31]  Religion is effectively reduced to a form of identity politics, where one can superficially “belong” to a religion while rejecting the very religious practices and theological commitments that define it. Thus, the Muslim is provided a sense of security in their “Muslimness” simply by virtue of identifying as Muslim. This is not to suggest that Muslims who struggle to practice their religion are not authentic in their Islamic commitment; it is impossible to judge the ultimate destiny of another believer. Rather, this is to emphasize that adopting Islam simply as an identity is antithetical to the very meaning of Islam: submission. The state facilitates the reduction of Islam to an identity marker via its attempt to “racialize” the Muslim. “Racialization” here denotes the way in which a Muslim phenotype has been invented by state policy and legislation against the backdrop of the War on Terror. In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration passed the Patriot Act, which authorized government surveillance of citizens deemed a security threat. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump issued the “Muslim Ban,” which barred Syrian refugees and travelers from targeted Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Both only exacerbated racial profiling and perpetuated the notion that Muslims could and should be identified and targeted by superficial markers. One’s “Muslimness” was effectively measured by the amount of melanin in one’s skin and “peculiar-sounding” degree of one’s name, the “exotic” clothing worn, and the foreign language spoken. Discourse on the racialization of Muslims often focuses on the proliferation of Islamophobia and American Muslim national belonging. What is often overlooked is the influence racialization has on the Muslim psyche itself. Islam is not a race. It is impossible to create a universal Muslim archetype, despite secular efforts to do so. The racialization of Muslims creates a dangerous space for believers to compartmentalize their Islam and lose sight of what actually makes them Muslim. Internalizing the framework of racialization pigeonholes the Muslim in the “minority” mindset, which often results in the adoption of an inferiority complex. As Saba Mahmood notes, “for a minority to draw attention to its plight, it must necessarily highlight its difference from the identity of the nation, exacerbating the fissure that produces the group’s exclusion in the first place.”[^32] When Muslims view themselves as a scrutinized religious minority, it inevitably impacts how they navigate their lived experience. Take American Muslim political engagement. Rather than have their politics be led by Islamically-ordained commitments to the *ummah*, most American Muslims preemptively and unimaginatively dismiss their capacity to effect change outside of secular parameters. Our political vision and priorities are often reactionary, our hopes for change dictated by the systems of injustice we so desperately seek to engage with. We wait for genocide before deciding to abandon our leaders. Unaware of our cognitive dissonance, we attempt to envision an activism devoid of Islamic ethics. We accept the role of playing monkey in the middle between the Left and Right, overlooking the fact that our Islamic commitments to justice will never be actualized by either. Dabbling in representation politics to secure perceived short-term wins may be *a* means, but it should never be internalized as *the* means to societal upliftment.[^33] This sobering truth is further confirmed by RAND, the government-funded American think tank, and their infamous proposal for building the “moderate Muslim.” In efforts to create Muslims palatable to the state’s fancy, RAND suggested establishing Muslim networks comprising “liberal and secular Muslim academics and intellectuals; young, moderate religious scholars; community activists, women’s groups engaged in gender equality campaigns; and moderate journalists and writers.”[^34] This web of grassroots engagement was to be established in hopes of “affecting the war of ideas” in the Muslim world and beyond.[^35] This is how the nation-state establishes itself as a “de facto theologian,” ready to “transform Islam from within” by “unearthing, identifying, and buttressing existing organizations that the US government deems moderate, tolerant, and prone to democratic values.”[^36] This mission was also accomplished abroad via the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), introduced under the Clinton administration. The IRFA gave “unprecedented powers to the US federal government to expand its regulation of religious life on an international scale in the name of enforcing and protecting religious freedoms.”[^37] Not only did this signify the United States’ global power, but it also reflected its material and metaphysical sovereignty “over the entirety of the geopolitical landscape.”[^38] Though the RAND document is now almost two decades old, and the IRFA even older, both capture the approach still taken by the US government (and the West more broadly) towards Muslim populations globally. Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) initiative is a continuation of colonial power’s desire to construct narratives on the ‘Good Muslim’ vs. ‘Bad Muslim.’ The billion-dollar Islamophobia industry[^39] recognizes the power in shaping narratives and works in tandem to create the Muslim bogeyman.[^40] The ‘Bad Muslim’ in theory and practice describes the Muslim who is unwilling to secularize Islam—that is, the Muslim who recognizes the legitimacy and authority of Islam as encompassing the public and private spheres alike. This chapter of colonial effort is undoubtedly one marked by an intellectual power struggle—the modus operandi of which requires the careful filtering of values, sentiments, and behavior in conflict with Western ethics and principles. What Islamic ethics call us to do is to think beyond the confines of enforced systems of oppression and injustice. While details of such alternatives are beyond the scope of this paper, it is imperative that we avoid naively placing our aspirations for individual and collective empowerment in the systems designed to subjugate us. Islamic activism demands that we creatively and thoughtfully keep our eye on the prize: to proactively self-organize, mobilize, and embrace strategies that allow us to see the horizon of self-actualization. Strength is in the ability to reimagine and synchronize our movement as a collective toward an alternative politics, rather than complacently situate ourselves and our inherent power in the sphere of minority engagement.[^41] Racializing Islam incapacitates the Muslim from operating authentically toward the Islamic self. --- ## The Islamic self *Lā ilāha illah Allāh*—this is the backbone of the Islamic worldview, the foundational building block of Muslim thinking and commitment. This declaration is much more than an assertion of the divinity of The Creator, The Master, and True King: Allah ﷻ. It uniquely begins with a negation of other notions of sovereignty and clear rejection (*la ilāha*) of competing worldviews and alternate systems of belief. The Qur’an asserts Islam’s monopoly on Truth when Allah ﷻ says, > > إِنَّ ٱلدِّينَ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلْإِسْلَـٰم ۗ > > The true religion with Allah is Islam.[^42] Allah ﷻ also says, > وَمَن يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ ٱلْإِسْلَـٰمِ دِينًۭا فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِى ٱلْأَخِرَةِ مِنَ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِين > > Whoever seeks a way other than Islam, it will never be accepted from them and in the Hereafter they will be among the losers.[^43] The Islamic self is predicated on the unwavering conviction in the truth and authority of Islam in life. It is Islam that dictates how the Muslim understands the *wāqiʿ* (reality) around us and provides us the ability to assess the legitimacy of prevalent thought. It is Islam that shapes the self’s ideas, sensibilities, and actions. The Islamic self is committed to obedience (*ṭāʿah)* to Allah ﷻ, content and eager to be led by the Divine rather than blindly leading itself. After all, the Muslim recognizes that being in the driver’s seat to determine guidance is akin to driving with one’s eyes closed. These sentiments are affirmed when Allah ﷻ says, > أَفَرَءَيْتَ مَنِ ٱتَّخَذَ إِلَـٰهَهُۥ هَوَىٰهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍۢ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِۦ وَقَلْبِهِۦ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِۦ غِشَـٰوَةًۭ فَمَن يَهْدِيهِ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ > > Have you seen those who have taken their own desires as their god? \[And so\] Allah left them to stray knowingly, sealed their hearing and hearts, and placed a cover on their sight. Who then can guide them after Allah? Will you not take heed?[^44] Allah ﷻ also reminds us: > أَفَمَن يَمْشِى مُكِبًّا عَلَىٰ وَجْهِهِۦٓ أَهْدَىٰٓ أَمَّن يَمْشِى سَوِيًّا عَلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍۢ مُّسْتَقِيمٍۢ > > Who is \[rightly\] guided: the one who crawls facedown or the one who walks upright on the Straight Path?[^45] The secular order that seeks to domesticate religion cannot loosen the Islamic self’s grip on its vision and purpose. The Islamic worldview produces a self that has a deeply-rooted inclination toward worship of and submission to the Creator. For the Muslim, the desire to align one’s feelings and actions with God’s desire supersedes individual inclination. This is not to suggest that Islam rids the individual of independent feeling. Rather, it is via Islam that feelings are guided to and aligned with what is wanted from us by the Creator of feelings. Unlike the secular self that views religion as an individual pursuit of feeling, the Islamic self is defined by its pursuit of His Majesty ﷻ—where fulfillment, contentment, and gratitude are gifted through obedience. Whereas the secular self is on a quest to feel something in a world numbed by individualism and consumerism, the Islamic self is sincere and persistent in its aim to serve the Divine. The secular self assumes its inherent sincerity and the legitimacy of its ‘inner truths,’ while the Islamic self always interrogates its intentions, and its ultimate fidelity toward the Ultimate Truth. This completely shifts the way in which the Islamic self views religious prohibitions and commands. Rather than perceiving God and the self as on the same moral plane, the Islamic self recognizes and is grateful for God’s omnipotence. Rather than indulging a delusion of complete autonomy over one’s actions and sentiments, the Islamic self recognizes its inherent insufficiency and celebrates submission to God and His Shari’ah. *Living* Islam is not the superficial confinement of religion to the individual sphere. Rather, it is the acknowledgment that Islam permeates all aspects of the human experience: the individual and the collective. It is the understanding that to truly be grounded in Islam, the self must see Islam as present and operative in the world around and within it. This understanding can only take root if the self identifies and appreciates Islam’s intrinsic ability to practically address lived experience, which includes the personal and social, the political and economic. Thus, being selective in how one defines and practices the *deen* is alien to the awakened Muslim consciousness. To truly be one who lives life in line with *lā ilāha illah Allāh* is to embrace unconditional obedience, independent of fleeting feelings. --- ## A way forward: Safeguarding the Islamic self Isolate, insulate, or assimilate—these are the categories, Dr. Ihsan Bagby argues, that describe how most American Muslims choose to interact with broader society. Bagby states that more often than not, American Muslims strive to “insulate,” meaning, they are “unanimous in their desire to be involved in society and to be recognized as a respected part of the mosaic of American life” while upholding their Islamic principles and values.[^46] While Bagby’s claim does nuance the often polarized take on whether the Other simply rejects conformity or embraces it, it falls short in its ability to address the extent to which Muslims can *successfully* insulate. To be truly “insulated”—that is, for the individual to establish Islam as their frame of reference and to navigate the world accordingly—demands awareness and action. It not only necessitates the individual swim upstream, but on a foundational level to be aware that they are in a stream in the first place. Where does this leave us? What action plan might we have to preserve and protect the Islamic self? Disentangling ourselves from secular influence requires engaging with soft power and reclaiming the narrative. The precondition for decolonizing the Islamic self is an awareness of how secular power operates and a simultaneous interrogation of its proposed norms. Muslims must reorient their worldview and actively realign their vision, aspirations, sentiments, and understanding of reality itself via Islam. Allah ﷻ elucidates the importance of anchoring ourselves to an awareness of our religion when He ﷻ says, > قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِى ٱلَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ > > Say, “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?”[^47] The Muslim who passively approaches understanding Islam risks losing the essence of what the Islamic self ought to be. The necessity of creating an ecosystem conducive to Muslim growth individually and collectively is evident. Cultivating a renewed commitment to fulfilling one’s individual and collective obligations is essential to safeguarding the Islamic self. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized the network of responsibility that the Muslim is enmeshed in when he said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. The leader of people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects. A man is the guardian of his family and he is responsible for them. A woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and his children and she is responsible for them. The servant of a man is a guardian of the property of his master and he is responsible for it. No doubt, every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock.”[^48] This is further illustrated when the Prophet ﷺ said, “He is not a believer whose stomach is full while the neighbor to his side is starving.”[^49] These narrations showcase a Muslim’s responsibility to those around them. It is impossible for the Islamic self to thrive when it turns a blind eye to the collective. This is demonstrated in the Prophet’s ﷺ well-known narration, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”[^50] This fundamentally demands the Muslim not only have an awareness of the affairs of the *ummah* at large, but to remedy any affliction with action. It is vital for individual commitment to work in tandem with efforts to safeguard and nurture our Muslim communities. Part of this demands a level of institution building, where Muslims can preserve and protect their intellectual loyalties. The continued establishment of Muslim think tanks, independent media companies, and educational institutions is needed. All efforts must be unified in their goal to respond to hegemonic thought and provide a system of enculturation where the veracity and superiority of the Islamic worldview is demonstrated through practice and not merely theory. Muslims must also expand our horizon of thought, ensuring we reestablish and rekindle what it means to belong to a transnational *ummah* that transcends the confines of secular order. Reconnecting with Islam while simultaneously recognizing and safeguarding our selves against secular influence calls for action and intentionality. Recognizing the enormity of such an undertaking requires us to deconstruct secular assumptions, which in turn will allow us to reclaim our Islamic worldview. It is only then that we can walk with a clear vision, using Islam to reorient our aspirations for ourselves and the world around us. The Muslim who, with conviction, adopts the Islamic creed as the basis for their worldview poses a very real challenge to the colonial project as they recognize Islam’s role in shaping their identity and the reality they live in. In other words, *living* Islam necessitates that the Muslim traverse life as a truth seeker, firmly committed to disentangling truth from falsehood—whether it be in the arena of their own psyche or the temporal sphere. Allah ﷻ says, > وَأَنَّ هَـٰذَا صِرَٰطِى مُسْتَقِيمًۭا فَٱتَّبِعُوهُ ۖ وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا۟ ٱلسُّبُلَ فَتَفَرَّقَ بِكُمْ عَن سَبِيلِهِ > > Indeed that is My Path—perfectly straight. So follow it and do not follow other ways, for they will lead you away from His Way.[^51] --- ## Notes [^1]: Taylor, *A Secular Age* (London: Belknap Press, 2007), 475. [^2]: Talal Asad, *Formations of the Secular* (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 134. [^3]: It is important to note that scholars understand and categorize secularism in more than one way. Secularism is multifaceted and the very categories of what it means to be “religious” and “secular” are constantly being reworked and reassessed. [^4]: Ali Harfouch, “The Secularization of the Muslim Mind,” Traversing Tradition, April 8, 2019, [https://traversingtradition.com/2019/04/08/the-secularization-of-the-muslim-mind/](https://traversingtradition.com/2019/04/08/the-secularization-of-the-muslim-mind/). [^5]: To present the emergence of secularism simply via the lens of religious wars is an incomplete narrative. It is important to acknowledge the social, political, and economic realities at play in order to capture a more complete image of the political doctrine. For details on the historical circumstances that nurtured secularism, see William Cavanaugh, *The Myth of Religious Violence* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 124–80 and Asad, *Formations of the Secular*, 1–17. [^6]: Hussein Agrama, *Secularism, Sovereignty, Indeterminacy: Is Egypt a Secular or a Religious State? Comparative Studies in Society and History* 52, no. 3 (2010): 495–523. [^7]: Cavanaugh, *Myth of Religious Violence*, 120–21. [^8]: Schneewind, *The Invention of Autonomy* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 31. [^9]: Hallaq, *The Impossible State* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), 80. [^10]: Hallaq, *Impossible State*, 35. [^11]: This is not to suggest that those who detransition are unsupported as a collective. Rather, it is to emphasize that the lack of value to their narrative results in a lack of emphasis and/or avoidance in mainstream media. For further details, see “Robin Respaut, Chad Terhune, and M. Colin, “Why Detransitioners Are Crucial to the Science of Gender Care,” *Reuters*, December 22, 2022, [https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-outcomes/](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-outcomes/). [^12]: Corey James Anton, *Selfhood and Authenticity* (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), 4. [^13]: Stephen Guardbaum emphasizes that personal autonomy cripples one from concretely making judgments about justice. He notes that “each individual associates his personal autonomy with the criteria of justice that he uses in making these judgements.” Stephen Guardbaum, “Liberalism, Autonomy, and Moral Conflict,” *Stanford Law Review* 48, no. 2 (1996), 385–417. [^14]: “More Americans Now Say They’re Spiritual but Not Religious,” Pew Research Center, September 6, 2017, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/). [^15]: The popular 2015 Buzzfeed video titled “I’m Muslim, but I’m Not…” illustrates this phenomenon. Efforts to break stereotypes on what it means to be Muslim or follow Islam only echo secular sentiments of the individual having a hand in what their religion “looks like” ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQjyRc7eiY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQjyRc7eiY)). [^16]: Hallaq, *Impossible State*, 76 [^17]: Asad, *Formations of the Secular*, 135. [^18]: Gardbaum, “Liberalism, Autonomy, and Moral Conflict.” [^19]: Anton, *Selfhood and Authenticity*, 4. [^20]: For details on the creation of a national identity and implications of the human rights discourse, see Asad, *Formations of the Secular*, 134–40. [^21]: Olivier Bert, “Foucault and Individual Autonomy,” *South African Journal of Psychology* 40, no. 3 (2010): 292–307. [^22]: Sean L. Yom, “Islam and Globalization: Secularism, Religion, and Radicalism,” in *Challenges of Globalization* (London: Routledge, 2017). [^23]: Coloniality is understood to be a byproduct of colonialism. It is the systemic usurping of power from the indigenous to redefine thinking itself. Joseph Lumbard describes coloniality as “epistemic erosion,” which causes the Muslim to “no longer think in line with their (Islamic) traditions,” demanding the Muslim “employ paradigms from outside to conceptualize their place in the world.” Joseph E. B. Lumbard, “Islam and the Challenge of Epistemic Sovereignty,” *Religions* 15, no. 4 (2024): 6–7, [https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040406](https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040406). [^24]: Material colonialism is the Uyghur Muslim who is forced to spend their Ramadan eating and drinking interned in concentration camps. Colonialism is the Kashmiri living under constant surveillance and harsh curfews while struggling to feed their family. Colonialism is the murder of six-year-old Hind Rajab and her fellow martyrs, who remind us why it is impossible to overlook the tenacity of the colonial mission and erroneously assume it to be an egregious relic of the past. [^25]: Ali Harfouch, “The Great Fitnah: Secular Power and Muslim Future(s) - Part 1,” Ummatics, September 12, 2022, [https://ummatics.org/political-theory/the-great-fitnah-secular-power-and-muslim-futures-part-1/](https://ummatics.org/political-theory/the-great-fitnah-secular-power-and-muslim-futures-part-1/). [^26]: Sherman Jackson references mysterium tremendum, or “second creators” (those who essentially are in control of this process of narrative/reality-building), who “pose the greatest challenge to God’s monopoly on divinity.” Jackson, *Islam and the Blackamerican* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 193. See Sherman Jackson’s *The Islamic Secular* for a more current engagement with secularism. [^27]: Muneeza Rizvi, “Palestine and the Question of Islam,” Critical Muslim Studies, May 15, 2021, [https://criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/palestine-and-the-question-of-islam/](https://criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/palestine-and-the-question-of-islam/). [^28]: Rizvi, “Palestine and the Question of Islam.” [^29]: For details on how the individual is influenced, see Michel Foucault’s *Discipline and Punish* (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), 135–170 (Docile bodies). [^30]: Olivier Bert, “Foucault and Individual Autonomy.” [^31]: Qur’an 42:22, 45:30, 5:9, 2:82, and 4:122. [^32]: Saba Mahmood, *Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report* (United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 2016), 67. [^33]: This is not to suggest Muslims should not engage with the current political system. Rather, it is the questioning of efficacy when desiring to solve ummatic suffering. And on a more fundamental note, reassessing whether ummatic commitments shape our political vision to begin with. [^34]: Angel Rabasa, et. al., “RAND Proposes Blueprint for Building Moderate Muslim Networks,” RAND, March 8, 2007, [https://www.rand.org/pubs/research\_briefs/RB9251.html](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9251.html). [^35]: “RAND Proposes Blueprint.” [^36]: Saba Mahmood, “Secularism, Hermeneutics and Empire: The Politics of Islamic Reformation,” *Public Culture* 18, no. 2 (May 2006): 323–47. [^37]: US Commission on International Religious Freedom, International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 USC 6401 note), [https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/2431#:~:text=International%20Religious%20Freedom%20Act%20of%201998%20%2D%20Declares%20it%20to%20be,and%20development%20assistance%20to%20governments](https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/2431#:~:text=International%20Religious%20Freedom%20Act%20of%201998%20%2D%20Declares%20it%20to%20be,and%20development%20assistance%20to%20governments). [^38]: Mahmood, “Secularism, Hermeneutics and Empire.” [^39]: Nasim Ahmed, “Islamophobia Is a Billion-Dollar Industry in the US; It’s Time to Uproot It,” Middle East Monitor, January 12, 2022, [https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220112-islamophobia-is-a-billion-dollar-industry-in-the-us-its-time-to-uproot-it/](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220112-islamophobia-is-a-billion-dollar-industry-in-the-us-its-time-to-uproot-it/). [^40]: For more information on state-sponsored efforts to create a Muslim archetype, see Arun Kundnani, *The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror* (London: Verso, 2014). [^41]: For further insight on Islamic activism and a proposed methodology of alternative politics, see Asim Qureshi’s *A Virtue of Disobedience*. [^42]: Qur’an 3:19. [^43]: Qur’an 3:85. [^44]: Qur’an 45:23. [^45]: Qur’an 67:22. [^46]: Ihsan Bagby, *The Mosque In America: A National Portrait; A Report from the Mosque Study Project* [^47]: Qur’an 39:9. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7138. [^49]: *Al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 112. Classified as *sahih* by Al-Albani. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6011. [^51]: Qur’an 6:153. ## Summary Living under the dominion of secular power exacts a heavy toll upon the human being, and most especially upon the Muslim who has been made to imbibe its assumptions unknowingly. Our age has become one that worships at the altar of the autonomous self, echoing slogans such as “you do you” and “my body, my choice.” Charles Taylor named this an “age of authenticity,” wherein the individual is commanded to “find yourself, realize yourself, and release your true self.” The liberal state elevates this morally autonomous self as an uncontested good and assigns it inherent worth. Yet, far from ennobling the human being, this project in truth reduces the individual to a mockery of himself. The self that modernity celebrates is not a natural creation but an invention traceable to the Enlightenment, secured through the doctrine of secularism. Secularism here is understood not merely as a separation of religion and state, but as a political doctrine that grants the state power to determine what counts as religion, which beliefs and actions are deemed religious or secular, and which of those are tolerated. Emerging from Western Europe’s trauma between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries in the struggle between Church and State, secularism never truly delineated the boundaries of either. Instead, it recreated religion into a docile subject of the state, a feature of the state’s expanding regulatory power. This was then exported to the rest of the world upon the back of Western imperial expansion, aiming to produce a new self marked by moral autonomy. Immanuel Kant is credited with placing autonomy at the heart of moral authority, seating the individual and God in the same moral community and thereby rendering God, in his framing, “morally superfluous.” The consequence is that revelation is displaced by individual impulse, feelings are exalted over principles, and morality itself is made subjective and unstable—like a feather tossed about by the winds of one’s whims. The bitter fruits of this may be seen in the phenomenon of transgenderism, where feelings of being trapped in the wrong body are treated as inherently valid and actionable through irreversible surgeries and hormones, all celebrated under the banner of choice—until one who detransitions discovers that these so-called “inner truths” were in fact inner lies bearing lasting harm. When morality is privatized, it is declared both subjective and equal in all its expressions, enslaving the person to the fragility of his shifting framework and producing a “cult of authenticity.” This vacuum, created by excluding Allah from any real sovereignty, is filled by man’s own sanctioned creative power. Yet the human being cannot be stripped of his innate disposition (fiṭrah) to seek a higher power, which is why secular society witnesses the rise of those who call themselves “spiritual but not religious,” resorting to affirmations, healing crystals, and mindfulness. Such secular spirituality merely shifts one’s servitude from Allah to the self. This same disease infects many Muslims who justify abandoning Islamic principles through the phrase “only God can judge me,” whether in rationalizing interest-based dealings or redefining the norms of hijab. Such a mentality privatizes religious commitment and makes the Muslim a religious consumer rather than a follower, producing the secularized Muslim who prioritizes the experience of a feeling over the validity of creed itself—one who abandons prayer because he no longer feels its “benefits.” Secular power does not directly expel Allah from consciousness; rather, it strips Him of sovereignty and grants it to mankind, reducing religion to a form of deism where Allah is permitted to exist but assigned no role in society. Thus the “freedom” such Muslims imagine they possess is no true freedom at all, for the shape of their practice is dictated by, and remains at the mercy of, the state. Indeed, the very production of the “individual” is what denied the self genuine individuality, for modern individuality can only be achieved through the state that defines, trains, and disciplines the self through its institutions. The case of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, expelled from public schools after Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) for refusing the Pledge of Allegiance, laid bare the fragility of religious freedom under a secular order: the state can crush freedom precisely because it is the sole guarantor of it. As Talal Asad observed, John Locke’s appeal to natural right was linked to a desire to stabilize the self through a legal concept of the person. One is therefore only as free as the state permits. Rousseau had already argued in the eighteenth century that the autonomous self flourishes only when citizens act uniformly upon a single general will. State-sanctioned norms masquerade as individual leanings, as seen in the celebration of women in the workforce over women as custodians of the family through “girlboss” culture, and in the acceptance of hijab only when framed as personal choice rather than theological obligation. Ironically, then, it is through the prescribed agency of the self that its subjugation is achieved. No thought exists in absolute freedom, for as it has been noted, everyone remains dependent on conventions and on things he did not create, such as language. The word “terrorism,” once denoting state violence in the French Revolution, became an arbitrary label wielded by the state’s propagandists. Language belongs to a system, and this is how coloniality—a dimension of “soft power”—operates, prescribing values under the guise of universality and neutrality in order to intellectually gut a people and recreate them in the state’s image. This is visible in Muslim discourse on Palestine that favors the language of “human rights” over anything overtly Islamic, an assumption that denies Islam any capacity for the universal while exalting secular humanity as free of particular commitments. To funnel our convictions through secular vocabulary is to risk muddying them beyond coherence. The secular Muslim, then, is not an organic product of liberation but the creation of a legal regime that treats one who lives by Islam as no different from one who merely claims belonging to it—a stance that violates Islam’s call to couple belief with action and reduces religion to identity politics. The state advances this through the “racialization” of the Muslim, inventing a Muslim phenotype through such measures as the Patriot Act and the 2017 “Muslim Ban,” measuring one’s “Muslimness” by skin, name, dress, and tongue. But Islam is not a race, and internalizing this framework traps the Muslim in a minority mindset and an inferiority complex. As Saba Mahmood noted, a minority drawing attention to its plight must highlight its difference and thereby deepen its exclusion. This is seen in American Muslim political engagement, which too often reacts within secular parameters, waiting for genocide before abandoning its leaders and dabbling in representation politics as though it were the means rather than a means. The RAND proposal for building the “moderate Muslim,” the International Religious Freedom Act, and Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism initiative all reveal how the nation-state appoints itself a “de facto theologian,” dividing Muslims into the “Good” who secularize their faith and the “Bad” who recognize Islam’s authority over public and private life alike. Against all of this stands the Islamic self, founded upon lā ilāha illā Allāh—a declaration that begins with negation and rejection of every competing sovereignty and worldview. Allah ﷻ affirms Islam’s monopoly on truth: “The true religion with Allah is Islam” (Āl ʿImrān 3:19), and, “Whoever seeks a way other than Islam, it will never be accepted from them, and in the Hereafter they will be among the losers” (Āl ʿImrān 3:85). The Islamic self is grounded in obedience (ṭāʿah) and refuses to make its desires its god, for Allah ﷻ warns, “Have you seen those who have taken their own desires as their god?” (al-Jāthiyah 45:23), and asks, “Who is rightly guided: the one who crawls facedown or the one who walks upright on the Straight Path?” (al-Mulk 67:22). Unlike the secular self that assumes its own sincerity, the Islamic self interrogates its intentions and celebrates submission to Allah and His Sharīʿah. Living Islam is no confinement of religion to the private sphere; it is the recognition that Islam permeates every aspect of the human experience, individual and collective, political and economic. Selectivity in the dīn is alien to the awakened Muslim consciousness. Safeguarding this self demands more than what Dr. Ihsan Bagby described as the tendency of American Muslims to “insulate,” for true insulation requires the awareness that one is even in a stream before attempting to swim upstream. It requires engaging soft power, reclaiming the narrative, and reorienting one’s worldview through Islam, for Allah ﷻ says, “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?” (al-Zumar 39:9). It demands fulfilling our web of responsibilities, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock,” and, “He is not a believer whose stomach is full while the neighbor to his side is starving,” and likened the believers to a single body that reacts wholly when one limb aches. This entails building Muslim institutions, think tanks, media, and schools, and rekindling belonging to a transnational ummah that transcends the secular order. The Muslim who adopts Islam as the basis of his worldview poses a real challenge to the colonial project, traversing life as a truth-seeker who disentangles truth from falsehood, heeding the command of Allah ﷻ: “Indeed, this is My Path—perfectly straight. So follow it and do not follow other ways, for they will lead you away from His Way” (al-Anʿām 6:153). ## Key Takeaways 1. Secularism is not simply the separation of religion and state but a political order that grants the state authority to define what religion is and what role it can play in society. Under this arrangement, religion is permitted to exist as private belief, but the state determines the actual shape of religious practice, leaving even devout Muslims operating within the boundaries set for them rather than by Islam itself. 2. The secular self rests on the assumption that the individual is the ultimate source of moral authority, with subjective experience taking precedence over revealed truth. This worldview has shaped how some Muslims relate to their faith, leading them to evaluate Islamic practices by whether they generate certain emotional outcomes, or to treat Islam as a marker of identity rather than a set of theological and practical commitments. 3. Reclaiming the Islamic self requires recognizing that Islam is not one option among many but a complete framework that shapes how Muslims understand reality, guide their feelings, and engage with the world. The Islamic self submits to Allah rather than to personal whims or state-sanctioned norms, and treats Islam as operative across all spheres of life: personal, political, social, and economic. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is secularism really just the separation of religion and state? No. Secularism is better understood as a political doctrine that empowers the state to determine what counts as religion, which beliefs and practices are religious or secular, and which of those are tolerated. Rather than keeping the two spheres apart, the secular order recreates religion to fit the state’s expanding regulatory reach. This redefinition emerged historically as a Western European response to the tug of war between Church and state between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and was then exported globally through imperialist expansion. Under this arrangement, individuals are given the space to believe whatever they want privately, but the secular legal regime ultimately dictates the shape of their actual religious practice. God is granted room to exist if the individual so desires, but is stripped of any real role in society. So when Muslims today imagine secularism as a neutral framework that lets everyone worship freely, they are missing how the system itself recreates religion as a docile subject of the state. ### Why do some Muslims say “only God can judge me” to justify bypassing Islamic rulings? This mindset reflects how deeply secular thought has shaped Muslim self-understanding. When morality is treated as a private matter and individual feelings are placed above creed, Muslims become emboldened to filter Islamic practices by their perceived emotional output rather than their obligatory nature. Whether the issue is Muslim businesses rationalizing interest-based transactions or influencer culture redefining hijab norms, the “only God can judge me” framing privatizes religious commitment and turns the believer into a religious consumer rather than a follower. Someone may stop praying because they no longer feel the benefits of prayer, treating the validity of an Islamic command as contingent on personal emotional experience. The mentality assumes that sincerity of feeling is itself the measure of religiosity, when Islam in fact calls for belief coupled with action, and for feelings to be guided by what Allah wants from us rather than the other way around. ### Why does hijab get celebrated as “personal choice” but criticized when framed as religious obligation? The difference in reception reveals how secular societies set the terms for acceptable religious expression. Religious garb is legitimized so long as it is framed as an individual’s free choice, but viewed as oppressive the moment it is grounded in theological commitment. The same garment receives a different reaction depending on the justification offered, which exposes the limits of secular tolerance. Actions and beliefs must be justified on the basis of individual choice rather than normative truth, otherwise they fall outside what the state is willing to accept. This pattern is not limited to hijab. It also shapes how Muslims are taught to think about gender roles more broadly. “Girlboss” culture celebrates women in the workforce while quietly devaluing the role of women as caretakers and custodians of future generations, revealing how the modern state shapes individual aspirations under the appearance of neutral empowerment. The framework of personal choice is not as liberating as it seems, since it permits self-expression only within boundaries the state itself has drawn. ### Why is treating Islam as an identity instead of a way of life a problem? A secular legal order treats someone who lives by Islam in principle and practice as no different from someone who simply claims to belong to Islam without practicing any of it. Religion gets reduced to a form of identity politics, where a person can superficially belong to a faith while rejecting the very practices and theological commitments that define it. The believer is then given a false sense of security in their Muslimness simply by identifying as Muslim, which is antithetical to the meaning of Islam itself: submission. This identity framing has been reinforced by how the state racializes Muslims through policy and legislation, inventing a Muslim phenotype detectable through skin tone, the sound of a name, clothing, or language. The deeper damage is psychological. Being slotted into a scrutinized minority category encourages believers to compartmentalize their Islam and adopt an inferiority complex, which then warps Muslim political vision. Priorities become reactionary, dictated by the very systems we seek to engage. We wait for genocide before abandoning leaders, and we accept being caught between political camps that will never actualize Islamic commitments to justice. Recovering Islam as a comprehensive way of life, rather than a demographic label, is essential to thinking and acting authentically as Muslims. ### Why is framing the issue of Palestine purely in terms of human rights insufficient? The shift from Islamic to human rights language is not neutral. It quietly promotes secular values while sidelining Islamic ones. The framing assumes that Muslim concerns are tainted by divisive theological attachments, while the human rights worker speaks in universal, capacious terms inclusive of everyone, including the non-Muslim Palestinian. This denies Islam any capacity for the universal and elevates human rights as if they were free of particular ideological commitments, when in fact they are embedded in a specific secular politics of humanity. When Muslims feel compelled to funnel their advocacy through this filter, the result is a muddying of Islamic convictions to the point of incoherence. This does not mean the suffering of non-Muslims is irrelevant or that justice-oriented language is forbidden. It means that ceding the entire moral vocabulary to a secular framework strips an Islamic response of its distinctiveness and concedes the field to the very order that helps sustain the injustice. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-does-allahu-akbar-mean # What does Allahu Akbar mean? **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Published:** August 9, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 Once again, as we confront the rising tides of Islamophobia in different parts of the world, the phrase “Allahu Akbar” is thrown around by political pundits, media outlets, and so-called security experts as a term that is a harbinger of violence and terrorism. But what does the phrase actually mean, and what is its significance for the nearly 2 billion Muslims around the world? From the moment of birth, when the phrase “Allahu Akbar” is softly whispered into the ear of a newborn, to the comforting lullabies that drift them to sleep—*Subhanallah, Walhamdulillah, Wala Ilaha Illallah, Wallahu Akbar*—these praises of God become the melody of our existence. They are words that connect us to the Infinite, to the Creator who is beyond all imagination. Allah is the greatest, the Creator of everything, the Owner of the Universes, the Sublime, the One, and the only. He is greater than all words could ever express, greater than all else in existence. https://youtu.be/Hg42TstStX8 We recite “Allahu Akbar” more than 100 times throughout our day, as we flow through the positions of prayer, *salah.* We whisper it as we stretch in the morning, or as we step outside our homes, embracing the day ahead. It’s a phrase we often use to begin a task, a sacred reset button. Sometimes, we utter it with glee and joy, for Allah is the greatest, and He grants us these precious moments of happiness. Other times, we say it in the depths of sorrow, to remind ourselves that Allah is greater than any hardship we might face. But what is the essence of this beautiful phrase? Allahu Akbar - اللّٰهُ أَكْبَر Let us break down the profound meaning within these two words: If we were to translate it word for word, it would mean: *Allah – He is – The Greatest.* But to understand “Allahu Akbar” fully, we must delve into the depth of the Arabic language. The word *Akbar* is derived from the trilateral root *kāf―bā―rā* (ك ب ر), which carries the connotation of greatness. These root letters are also found in words that describe nobility, magnificence, and power. The beauty of this root lies in its versatility, capturing the essence of all that is grand and beyond human comprehension. In its grammatical form, *Akbar* is an *ism tafdīl*, a term in Arabic grammar that indicates either a comparative (greater than) or a superlative (greatest). Usually, when we say “Allahu Akbar,” we are invoking the comparative form, leaving the phrase wonderfully open-ended: “Allah is greater …” Greater than what, you might ask? Greater than anything and everything. Greater than our happiness, greater than our worldly joy. When we say it in moments of frustration, stress, or disappointment, we are reminding ourselves that Allah is greater than whatever trial we are facing. It is a profound attachment of the heart to the boundless greatness of our Creator. When the call to prayer, the *adhan*, begins with “Allahu Akbar,” it signals that this call is greater than any task we are engaged in. It beckons us to pause, to realign our focus, and to respond to the divine invitation. When we approach prayer and raise our hands to begin with “Allahu Akbar,” we are proclaiming that this prayer, this moment of connection with Allah, is now our focus. Allah is greater than anything we are leaving behind. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ beautifully summarized this when he said, “The uttering of the words: *Subhan-Allah* (Allah is free from imperfection), *Al-hamdu lillah* (all praise is due to Allah), *La ilaha illallah* (there is no true god except Allah), *and Allahu Akbar* (Allah is the Greatest) is dearer to me than anything over which the sun rises.” \[*Riyadh al-Salihin* #1409\] In this simple yet profound phrase lies a world of hope and meaning. It is a constant reminder that no matter where we are in life—whether standing at the peak of joy or the depths of despair—Allah is greater. His greatness encompasses all things, and in that greatness, we find our anchor, our hope, and our solace. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/hope-and-healing-supplications-for-a-loved-one-who-passed-away # Hope and Healing: Supplications for a Loved One Who Passed Away **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Dua **Published:** August 8, 2024 **Updated:** September 8, 2026 Perhaps the most difficult challenge any of us are likely to face is the passing of a loved one. After a loved one passes away, it is natural to be overcome with feelings of sorrow, and for some, even a general sense of hopelessness and despair. While we acknowledge our grief as our own Prophet ﷺ did—losing his uncle Abu Talib, his beloved wife Khadija, and all of his children except for Fatima (rA)—we can take solace in our duty to supplicate for our loved ones. Indeed, our supplications for them after they pass away can directly affect their standing in the next life. Abu Huraira (rA) narrated that “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said “Verily, Allah Almighty will raise the status of his righteous servant in paradise, and he will say ‘O Lord, what is this?’ Allah will say, ‘This is (due to) your child seeking forgiveness for you.’” (*Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 10610). As such, our connection with our loved ones is so profound that we can continue to increase their status even after they begin their journey to the next life. Moreover, not only can we raise their station, but they will be informed that this elevation is due to your supplications for them. This makes your supplications not just a means of solace for yourself, and aid for them, but also a means of continued communication between you and your loved ones. Interestingly, in this narration, the son did not request elevation for his father, but only prayed for his forgiveness. This suggests a special power to *istighfar* (seeking forgiveness). The connection between seeking forgiveness and elevation in one’s rank is that forgiveness is not only sought for sins we can recall. This can also be seen in the Prophetic tradition of saying “*astaghfirullah*” (I seek forgiveness from Allah) three times after every prayer. Indeed, seeking forgiveness is so important, that almost every supplication we cover here begins with seeking forgiveness. It can be easy to presume that our loved ones are perfect and sin-free, especially when we hold them in high regard. It is crucial though to always seek forgiveness even for our own sins we are not aware of, and the truth is that we never know all the shortcomings of others. As a rule, we should never presume a person’s standing with Allah and should accept that “every descendant of Adam is a sinner” (*Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 2499). However, this must also be balanced with maintaining a good opinion of Allah (*husn al-dhann*), who “is the Most-Merciful, Most-Forgiving” (Qur’an 49:5). In his collection of *Sahih* Prophetic narrations, Al-Bukhari opens the Chapter on Funeral Prayers with the narration of Abu Dharr (rA) that the Prophet ﷺ said “Whoever says ‘There is no God but Allah,’ (*La ilaha illa Allah)* will enter *jannah*.” Abu Dharr says, “Even if he committed adultery and stole?” The Prophet ﷺ responds, “Even if he committed adultery and stole” (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1237). Here, Imam Al-Bukhari demonstrates his wisdom by starting this chapter with a narration that reminds us to maintain a positive opinion (*husn al-dhann)* of Allah. This is not meant to belittle the sin of adultery and theft, but rather to emphasize our strong belief in the power of sincere supplications and Allah’s promise that He will always meet us [with mercy](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-7-hope-in-the-mercy-of-allah-guidebook-to-god) and forgiveness. --- ## Du’a for a parent who has passed away Abu Usayd said, "We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when a man asked, 'Messenger of Allah, is there any act of dutifulness which I can do for my parents after their death?' He replied, 'Yes, there are four things: Supplication for them, asking forgiveness for them, fulfilling their pledges, and being generous to friends of theirs. You only have ties of kinship through your parents." (*Al-Adab Al-Mufrad,* no. 35, Da’eef) Based on the Prophet’s Noah’s dua to Allah (71:28) you can say ‘O Allah, forgive me and my parents.” رَّبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِي وَلِوَٰلِدَىَّ However, this can also be combined with another du’a from the Qur’an. After commanding us to honor our parents and never say “uff” to them, Allah commands us to pray for them with the following formulation, وَٱخْفِضْ لَهُمَا جَنَاحَ ٱلذُّلِّ مِنَ ٱلرَّحْمَةِ وَقُل رَّبِّ ٱرْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِى صَغِيرًۭا “And be humble with them out of mercy, and pray, “My Lord! Have mercy on them as they raised me when I was young.” (Qur’an 17:24) As such, to pray for both of our deceased parents, and help them to enter Jannah, inshAllah, we can say: Du'a for parents رَّبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِي وَلِوَٰلِدَىَّ وارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِى صَغِيرا Rabbi ighfir li wa li-walidayya wa-irhamhuma kama rabbayani saghira O Allah forgive me and my parents, and have mercy on them as they raised me when I was young Qur’an 17:24 To change the formulation to pray for just your father, you can say, Du'a for father رَّبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدي وارْحَمْهُ كَمَا رَبَّنِي صَغِيرًۭا Rabbi ighfir li wa li-waalidi wa-irhamhu kama rabbani saghira O Allah forgive me and my father, and have mercy on him as he raised me when I was young Whereas, to pray for just your mother, you can say the following, Du'a for mother رَّبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدتي وارْحَمْهُا كَمَا رَبَّتنِي صَغِيرًۭا Rabbi ighfir li wa li-waalidati wa-irhamha kama rabbatni saghira O Allah forgive me and my mother, and have mercy on her as she raised me when I was young --- ## Du’a for a deceased Muslim The following supplication is one of the most famous formulations for the deceased and is the one you are most likely to hear when you go to the graveyard. You can say it in the *janaza* prayer after the third *takbir*, you can say it at the graveyard, and you can continue to repeat it afterwards, especially in the immediate term after death. Awf ibn Malik (rA) narrated: I heard the Prophet ﷺ say on the occasion of the death of one of the companions, **Du’a for a deceased Muslim** اللَّهُمَّ أغْفِر لَهُ وَارْحَمْهُ وعَافِهِ وَاعْفُ عَنْهُ وَأَكْرِم نُزُلَهُ وَوَسَّعْ مُدْخَلَهُ وَاغْسِلْهُ بِالماءِ والثَلْجِ والبَرَدِ ونقِّهِ من الخَطايا كما يُنَقّى الثوبُ الأَبْيَضُ من الدَّنَسِ Allahumma-ghfir lahu warhamhu wa'afih wa'fu 'anhu wa akrim nuzulahu wa wasi' mudkhalaahu wa 'ghsilhu bil-ma'i wath-thalji wal-baradi wa naqqihi min al-khataya kama yunaqqa al-thawbu al-abyadu min al-danas. O Allah forgive him, have mercy on him, grant him safety and pardon him and make his reception honorable, expand his grave and cleanse him with water, snow, and hail and purify him from sin like a white robe is purified of dirt. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 963 In some of the Prophet’s ﷺ other supplications, we see that he directly mentions and invokes Allah Almighty’s mercy. In our supplications we should mention Allah’s attributes as much as possible, for the Almighty tell us to do so. He says,  “To Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them…” (Qur’an 7:180). One beautiful formulation that can be said at the grave and that directly invokes Allah’s mercy is: اللَّهُمَّ عَبْدُكَ وَابْنُ أَمَتِكَ احتَاجَ إِلى رَحْمَتِكَ وأَنْتَ غَنيُّ عَنْ عَذابِهِ, إِنْ كَانَ مُحْسِنا فَزِدْ في حَسَناتِهِ وإنْ كَانَ مُسِيئا فتَجَاوَزْ عَنْهُ Allahumma 'abduka wa ibnu amatika ihtaja ila rahmatika wa anta ghaniyyun 'an 'adhabih. 'In kana muhsinan fazid fi hasanatih. Wa 'in kana musi'an fatajaawaz 'anhu. O Allah this servant and child of a servant of yours is now in need of your mercy and you are not in need of punishing him. If he was pious, then increase his rewards and if he was a transgressor, then overlook \[his shortcomings\]. *Ḥiṣn al-Muslim*, no. 159 Another beneficial supplication that can be said for both the deceased and the living is: اللَّهمَّ اغْفِرْ لِحَيِّنَا وَمَيِّتِنَا وَشَاهِدِنَا، وَغَائِبِنَا، وَصَغِيْرِنَا وَكَبِيْرِنَا، وَذَكَرِنَا وَأُنْثَانَا. اللَّهمَّ مَنْ أَحْيَيْتَه ُُ مِنَّا فَأَحْيِه ِِ عَلَى         الإِسْلامِ، وَمَنْ تَوَفَّيْتَه ُُ مِنَّا فَتَوَفَّه ُُ عَلَى الإِيْمَانِ، اللَّهمَّ لا تَحْرِمْنَا أَجْرَهُ، وَلا تُضِلَّنَا بَعْدَهُ Allahumma-ghfir lihayyina wa mayyitina wa shahidina, wa gha'ibina, wa saghirina wa kabirina, wa dhakarina wa unthana. Allahumma man ahyaytahu minna fa ahyihi 'ala al-Islam, wa man tawaffaytahu minna fatawaffahu 'ala al-iman. Allahumma la tahrimna ajrahu, wa la tudillana ba'dahu. O Allah, forgive our living and our dead, those present and those absent, our young and our old, our males and our females. O Allah, whom among us You keep alive, then let such a life be upon Islam, and whom among us You take unto Yourself, then let such a death be upon faith. O Allah, do not deprive us of his reward and do not let us stray after him. *Sunan Ibn Majah*, no. 1498 One of the most famous supplications for the deceased came after the passing away of the companion Abu Salama (rA). The Prophet ﷺ visited his beloved companion as he (rA) was on his deathbed. Seeing his eyes fixed on one spot, an indication that his soul had left his body, the Prophet closed Abu Salama’s eyes as per the prophetic tradition. Upon this, some of Abu Salama’s family started to wail and weep. In that moment, the Prophet advised them of the importance of making beneficial supplications, both for ourselves and our loved ones, saying, > Do not supplicate for yourself anything unless it is good, for [the angels](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/episode-17-an-entourage-of-70000-angels-in-your-presence) say “Amen” to whatever you say. He ﷺ then made a beautiful supplication for Abu Salama, which you can repeat for your own loved ones, اللَّهُمَ اغْفِرْ لأبي سَلَمَة وَارْفَعْ دَرَجَتَهُ فِي المَهْدِيِّينَ وَافْسَحْ لَهُ فِي قَبْرِهِ وَنَوِّرْ لَهُ فِيه وَاخْلُفْهُ فِي عَقِبِهِ فِي الغَابِرين Allahumma-ghfir li (insert name) wa arfa' darajatahu fi l-mahdiyyiin, wa afsah lahu fi qabrihi wa nawwir lahu fihi wa akhlufhu fi 'aqibihi fi l-ghabirin. O Allah forgive (insert name) and raise his rank among those who are rightly guided. Make his grave spacious for him and give him light in it and grant him a successor from his descendants who remain behind. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 920 In this supplication, we can detect a deliberate sequence. First, we pray for the deceased’s ultimate destination by saying “raise his ranks among the rightly guided.” In recognizing the *barzakh* as a transitional phase toward their ultimate destination, we then ask Allah to widen their grave and put light in it. Finally, we conclude the formulation by praying for the continued guidance and piety of the deceased’s descendants as part of their persisting legacy on this earth and a source of reward for them in the afterlife. While there is a well-organized sequence of prayers here, it’s important to remember that prayer for your loved ones doesn’t always have to follow a rigid structure. Alongside the prescribed formulations we have provided here, allow yourself the liberty to speak to Allah, [the All-Hearing](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-sami-the-one-who-always-listens), directly from your heart. Offer earnest supplications in your own language and truthfulness of heart as though you were the one in desperation and in the most dire need for His divine intervention. May Allah bestow His immeasurable mercy on all of our deceased and forgive us and them for our shortcomings. For more see Episode 3 of the For Those Left Behind series, '[The Best Dua's for Them](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-3-the-best-duas-for-them-for-those-left-behind)'. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/parents-guide-to-praying-for-children-10-powerful-duas # Parents’ Guide to Praying for Children: 10 Powerful Du’as **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Quran **Tags:** Dua **Published:** July 31, 2024 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 ## How to pray for children *Du’a* is the mightiest instrument at our disposal, a direct entreaty to Allah to employ His omnipotence on our behalf. *Du’a* need not even be spoken aloud, for Allah is attuned to the silent yearnings of our hearts. He promises to answer the call of the supplicant (Qur’an 2:186) and assures us of His nearness. We draw closest to Allah in our *sujood*, and He descends to the lowest heaven during the depths of the night when we are in *[tahajjud](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tahajjud-fuel-for-the-self-and-society)*. But *du’a* can be made anywhere, at any time. The best *du’a* is the most sincere one, arising from the deepest recesses of our hearts, where we acknowledge our own powerlessness and beseech the [Most Powerful](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/the-significance-of-allahs-name-al-aziz-the-most-powerful-and-dignified). --- ## A comprehensive du’a for children رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَٰجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّـٰتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍۢ وَٱجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا Rabbana hab lana min azwajina wa dhurriyatina qurrata aʿyunin wa-jʿalna lil-muttaqina imama Our Lord, grant us from among our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes and make us an example for the righteous. Qur’an 25:74 This *du’a* is for those who seek the blessing of children, that they may become the coolness and comfort of our eyes—*qurrata a’yun*. This phrase signifies something that captivates and delights, bringing a profound sense of peace and contentment. This phrase was used by Asiya (ra)  فِرْعَوْنَ قُرَّتُ عَيْنٍۢ لِّى وَلَكَ “This baby is a source of joy for me and you” (Qur’an 28:9) to describe Musa (as) and convince Firaun to adopt him. Allah uses a similar phrase, when referring to returning Musa (as) as a baby to be breastfed by his mother: >  فَرَجَعْنَـٰكَ إِلَىٰٓ أُمِّكَ كَىْ تَقَرَّ عَيْنُهَا وَلَا تَحْزَنَۚ > > So We reunited you with your mother so that her heart would be put at ease, and she would not grieve. (Qur’an 20:40) Allah includes “make us an example for the righteous” because we should aspire for our children to be leaders of the *ummah* in their worship and service. When we witness our children engaging in acts of devotion and excelling in righteous behavior, it brings a unique joy and coolness to our eyes. This is the most heartfelt prayer for righteous offspring, whether they are children we currently have or hope to have. To make *du’a* for our children's success is to wish for the best in their hereafter (*akhira*), and the conclusion of this supplication encompasses that very desire. --- ## A du’a for conceiving a child In the Qur’an we find a profound narrative involving Maryam (as) and Zakariyyah (as). Maryam, blessed with provisions that defied all earthly explanations, revealed to Zakariyyah (as) that it was Allah who provided for her. Witnessing this divine sustenance, Zakariyyah (as) was inspired to make this *du’a* for offspring, despite his advanced age: رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنْ لَدُنْكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ Rabbi hab li min ladunka dhurriyyatan tayyibatan innaka samee’u du’a My Lord, grant me from Yourself a good offspring. Indeed, You are the Hearer of supplication. Qur’an 3:38 Zakariyyah (as) and his wife were well beyond the years of childbearing. Acknowledging the improbability by biological standards, he nonetheless entrusted the ‘how’ and ‘when’ entirely to Allah. His supplication was answered, and his son Yahya (as) was born. Allah reminds us of this later in the Qur’an: And \[remember\] when Zakariyya cried out to his Lord, “My Lord! Do not leave me childless, though You are the Best of Successors.” So We answered his prayer, granted him Yahya (as), and made his wife fertile. Indeed, they used to race in doing good, and call upon Us with hope and fear, totally humbling themselves before Us. (Qur’an 21:89) رَبِّ لَا تَذَرْنِى فَرْدًۭا وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلْوَٰرِثِينَ Rabbi laa tadharnee fardaan wa-anta khayru al-waaritheen My Lord! Do not leave me childless, though You are the Best of Successors. Allah made Zakariyya’s wife fertile, demonstrating that His power transcends all natural laws. If Allah can make a human from an insignificant drop (Qur’an 16:4), and all that Allah needs to say is Be and it is (Qur’an 2:117), then surely such prayers are answered, and miracles come to those who ask. Many of our prophets struggled with conceiving a child. The *wali* of Allah, friend of Allah, Ibrahim (as) was married for many years before having his children. --- ## Du’a of Ibrahim (as) for offspring رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ Rabbi hab li min as-saaliheen My Lord, grant me \[a child\] from among the righteous. Qur’an 37:100 Allah answered Ibrahim (as)’s *du’a* so beautifully, a progeny who would carry forward the message of monotheism. From his lineage came our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the best human of all. And, we too are his spiritual descendents, and in our righteousness, we are a testament to the power of his *du’a*. --- ## Du’a to protect our children There are many things that can harm our children. Natural calamities like a sudden fall, human malevolence in the form of abuse or neglect, and even supernatural harms. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Reciting Surah al-Ikhlaas and the *Muʿawwidhatayn* (Surah al-Falaq and Surah al-Naas) three times in the morning and three times in the evening will suffice you in all respects.” (*Sunan al-Tirmidhi* #3575) Surah al-Ikhlaas reaffirms the oneness of Allah, a foundation of unwavering faith. Surah al-Falaq beseeches protection from external evils beyond our control—darkness, malevolent beings, and harmful humans. And Surah al-Naas seeks refuge from internal threats, such as the insidious whispers of Shaytan. Reciting these *surah*s over our children and with them, along with Surah al-Fatiha and [Ayatul Kursi](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/virtues-of-ayatul-kursi-the-greatest-surah-in-the-quran), will, insha’Allah, create a divine shield around them. It is incumbent upon us to instill in our children the habit of morning and nightly remembrances. Such practices are not merely protective rituals; they are a legacy of faith and resilience that our children will carry into adulthood, fortifying themselves against the perils of the world. --- ## Du’a for protecting our home from evil and Shaytaan The Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not turn your houses into graveyards. Verily, Satan flees from the house in which Surah al-Baqarah is recited.” (*Sahih Muslim* #780) He emphasized, “Whoever recites the last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah in the night, it is enough for him.” (*Sahih al-Bukhari* #5051) > آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّـهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ > >  لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّـهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَّسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ ۖ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ > > *Amana ar-rasoolu bimaa unzila ilayhi min rabbihi wa-al-mu'minoon kullun aamana bi-llahi wa-mala'ikatihi wa-kutubihi wa-rusulihi laa nufarriqu bayna ahadin min rusulihi wa-qaloo sami'naa wa-ata'naa ghufraanaka rabbanaa wa-ilayka al-maseer.* *Laa yukallif Allahu nafsan illaa wus'ahaa lahaa maa kasabat wa-'alayhaa maa iktasabat rabbanaa laa tu'aakhidnaa in nasinaa aw akhta'naa rabbanaa wa-laa tahmil 'alaynaa isran kamaa hamaltahu 'alaa alladheena min qablinaa rabbanaa wa-laa tuhammilnaa maa laa ṭaaqata lanaa bihi wa'fu 'annaa wa-aghfir lanaa wa-arḥamnaa anta mawlanaa fa-ansurnaa 'alaa al-qawmi al-kaafireen* The Messenger \[firmly\] believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so do the believers. They \[all\] believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, and His messengers. \[They proclaim,\] “We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” And they say, “We hear and obey. We seek Your forgiveness, our Lord! And to You \[alone\] is the final return.” Allah does not require of any soul more than what it can afford. All good will be for its own benefit, and all evil will be to its own loss. \[The believers pray,\] “Our Lord! Do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord! Do not place a burden on us like the one you placed on those before us. Our Lord! Do not burden us with what we cannot bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our \[only\] Guardian. So grant us victory over the disbelieving people.” (Qur’an 2:285-286) Our homes are our sanctuaries, and we should strive to protect and nurture them as places of worship and salvation. Protecting our homes inherently safeguards our children. Imagine a home where the Qur’an is often recited by parents, filling the rooms with its divine words instead of TV noise. Picture Qur’ans that are regularly touched, opened, and read from, rather than collecting dust. Envision angels visiting and inviting other angels to join circles of knowledge in our homes, creating an atmosphere of familiar Qur’an recitation and practice. --- ## Du’a for a sick child The entire Qur’an is a remedy, *shifaa*, “We sent down the Qur’an as a healing and mercy for the believers” (Qur’an 17:82). As parents and caregivers, we may read from any part of the Qur’an with the earnest hope and intention that Allah will cure our child. Reciting the Qur’an over a person is an integral part of *ruqya*, a practice for healing from envy, the evil eye, black magic, and physical ailments. The Prophet ﷺ even allowed a *sahabi* to recite Surah Al-Fatiha over a non-Muslim chief, which cured him of a physical ailment (*Sahih al-Bukhari* #5007).  Of course, while we should trust in the healing power of Allah’s words, we must also recognize the importance of medicinal cures. When considering *du’a*s for children with physical or intellectual disabilities, we must remember that their condition is divinely determined, and this *qadar* is a wisdom from Allah. Allah has chosen them for this unique trial and, likewise, selected us to exercise patience and unwavering support. To seek strength and solace, let us recite together with our children, this *du’a*:  اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي فِي بَدَنِي، اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي فِي سَمْعِي، اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي فِي بَصَرِي، لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ ‏ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْكُفْرِ وَالْفَقْرِ، اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ، لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ *Allaahumma ‘aafinee fee badanee, Allaahumma ‘aafinee fee sam‘ee, Allaahumma ‘aafinee fee basaree, laa ilaaha illaa anta.* *Allaahumma innee a‘oodhu bika mina al-kufr wa-al-faqr, Allaahumma innee a‘oodhu bika min ‘adhaabi al-qabr, laa ilaaha illaa anta.* O Allah, make me healthy in my body. O Allah, make me healthy in my hearing. O Allah, make me healthy in my sight. There is no god but You. O Allah, I seek refuge with You from disbelief and poverty. O Allah, I seek refuge with You from the punishment of the grave. There is no god but You.  *Sunan Abi Dawud* 5090 By teaching children how to worship and fostering a love for Allah, we not only nurture their spirits but also enrich our own souls. --- ## Du’a for children to pray The first *du’a* mentioned in this piece is comprehensive and inclusive of a *du’a* for righteous children who pray. In addition, Allah taught in the Qur’an: رَبَّنَا وَاجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِنَا أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَا ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ Rabbanaa wa-aj‘alnaa muslimayn laka wa-min dhurriyyatinaa ummatan muslimatan laka wa-arinaa manaasikanaa wa-tub ‘alaynaa innaka anta at-tawwaab ar-raheem. Our Lord! Make us both \[fully\] submit to You and from our descendants a nation that will submit to you. Show us our rituals, and accept our repentance. You are truly the Acceptor of Repentance, Most Merciful. Qur’an 2:128 The best time to instill the habit of prayer is when children are very young. Let them play around you as you perform *salah*, and take them to the mosque often, even if they do not yet know how to pray. Action must accompany *du’a*. For our children to enjoy praying, they must see their parents cherish it. If we pray hastily, in messy attire, distractedly, they will mimic that disregard. However, if we approach our prayers with reverence and beauty, they will naturally emulate that love and dedication. We must embody the practices we wish for our children to adopt. We are their first role models and they observe all our virtues and flaws. It is essential to read and love the Qur’an around them, perform our sunnah *rakat*s, and enjoy family *qiyaam* nights together. --- ## Du’a for child’s intelligence Imparting to our children the significance and potency of *du’a* will inspire them to seek divine aid themselves. Even the Prophet ﷺ was instructed by Allah to make *du’a* for his own intelligence and memory: رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًۭا Rabbi zidnee ‘ilmaa. My Lord! Increase me in knowledge. Qur’an 20:114 We can sit with our children and recite this *du’a* until it becomes their own. Teach them to invoke it particularly before delving into any study, whether it be Islamic or academic. Rather than wishing them “Good luck on the exam,” remind them of this *du’a* and encourage them to recite it before beginning their test. This practice will become ingrained as they mature, and there is no better *du’a* for studying and learning than one drawn from the Qur’an itself. --- ## Du’a for children who have passed away According to the majority of scholars, if a child passes away before reaching puberty, they are granted *jannah*, as they are pure and sinless. For such children, there is no specific *du’a* taught because they have not accumulated any sin. Instead, we say: اللهُـمِّ اجْعَلْـهُ لَنا فَرَطـاً وَسَلَـفاً وَأَجْـراً Allaahumma aj‘alhu lanaa faratan wa-salafan wa-ajran. O Allah, make him for us a precursor, a forerunner, and a cause of reward. *Hisn al-Muslim* 161 The best *du’a* for the deceased and other *du’a*s can be found in the series [For Those Left Behind](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-3-the-best-duas-for-them-for-those-left-behind): اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَهُ وَارْحَمْهُ وَعَافِهِ وَاعْفُ عَنْهُ وَأَكْرِمْ نُزُلَهُ وَوَسِّعْ مُدْخَلَهُ وَاغْسِلْهُ بِالْمَاءِ وَالثَّلْجِ وَالْبَرَدِ وَنَقِّهِ مِنَ الْخَطَايَا كَمَا نَقَّيْتَ الثَّوْبَ الأَبْيَضَ مِنَ الدَّنَسِ وَأَبْدِلْهُ دَارًا خَيْرًا مِنْ دَارِهِ وَأَهْلاً خَيْرًا مِنْ أَهْلِهِ وَزَوْجًا خَيْرًا مِنْ زَوْجِهِ وَأَدْخِلْهُ الْجَنَّةَ وَأَعِذْهُ مِنْ عَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ أَوْ مِنْ عَذَابِ النَّارِ Allaahumma aghfir lahu wa-arḥamhu wa-‘aafihi wa-‘fu ‘anhu wa-akrim nuzulahu wa-wassi‘ mudkhalahu wa-aghhsilhu bil-maa’i wa-ath-thalji wa-al-barad wa-naqqihi mina al-khaṭaayaa kamaa naqqayta ath-thawba al-abyada mina ad-danas wa-abdilhu daaran khayran min daarihi wa-‘ahlan khayran min ahlihi wa-zawjan khayran min zawjihi wa-adkhilhu al-jannata wa-a‘idhhu min ‘adhaabi al-qabr aw min ‘adhaabi an-naar. O Allah! forgive him, have mercy upon him, give him peace and absolve him. Receive him with honor and make his grave spacious; wash him with water, snow, and hail. Cleanse him from faults as Thou wouldst cleanse a white garment from impurity. Requite him with an abode more excellent than his abode, with a family better than his family, and with a mate better than his mate. Admit him to the Garden, and protect him from the torment of the grave and the torment of the Fire. *Sahih Muslim* #963 --- ## Teaching du’as to our children The power of *du’a* is unparalleled, serving as a direct line to Allah’s boundless mercy and wisdom. By cultivating the habit of making *du’a*, we not only seek Allah’s aid but also affirm our dependence on Him, strengthening our worship, and reinforcing the principle of *tawheed*. In our *du’a*s we find not just solace, but strength, and in teaching our children to make *du’a*, we pass on to them the greatest inheritance of all: a connection to their Creator that will sustain them in this life and guide them to the next. --- ## This piece was adapted from: The Coolness of My Eyes | Taraweeh Reflections | Dr. Omar Suleiman [\[a\]](#cmnt1) How to Raise Muslim Children | Webinar  [https://www.youtube.com/live/vEvtGDvfjJw](https://www.youtube.com/live/vEvtGDvfjJw) Upheld by Allah Ep. 3: The Power of Du'a: Maryam bint Imran (as) The Surahs That Save You | Judgment Day: Deeds that Light the Way Episode 17[\[b\]](#cmnt2) The Qur’an and Depression | Taraweeh Reflections [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-quran-and-depression-taraweeh-reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-quran-and-depression-taraweeh-reflections) Hadith #35 - The Rights of Those with Disabilities | 40 Hadiths on Social Justice[\[c\]](#cmnt3) Ep. 3: The Best Du’as for Them | For Those Left Behind - [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-3-the-best-duas-for-them-for-those-left-behind](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-3-the-best-duas-for-them-for-those-left-behind) Prophetic Prayers for Relief and Protection - [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection) **For more articles on parenting, [click here.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/family-community/parenting)** --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-significance-of-allahs-name-al-aziz-the-most-powerful-and-dignified # The Significance of Allah’s name al-Aziz: The Most Powerful and Dignified **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Quran **Tags:** Names of Allah **Published:** July 19, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 In His final revelation, the Almighty says, “Let not their speech grieve you for all might belongs to Allah. It is He who hears and knows \[all things\]” (Qur’an 10:65). وَلَا يَحْزُنكَ قَوْلُهُمْ ۘ إِنَّ ٱلْعِزَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا ۚ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ While this strong declaration of “all might (*‘izza*) belongs to Allah” may seem simple to comprehend, there are in fact many subtle layers of meanings to this verse. Although *‘izza* is often directly translated as “power'' or “might,” scholars provide a more nuanced definition of ‘dignified power.’ That is, no matter the extent of one’s power, it can only be classified as *‘izza* if it is accompanied by dignity*.* Reflecting on Allah’s design in his human creation can provide clarity on the uniqueness of Allah’s might. Many humans possess the attributes of mercy and kindness, but also lack strength, and therefore, can be taken advantage of. Likewise, powerful humans often manifest their power rashly and cruelly. However, this is not the case for Allah Almighty. [His attributes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/approaching-the-quran-through-the-names-of-allah) are in perfect harmony; He is “the Most Kind (*al-Ra’uf*),” “the Almighty (*al-Aziz*),” “the Most Loving (*al-Wadud*),” and “the Subduer (*al-Qahhar*),” with no contradiction between any of these attributes. --- ## Why does Allah tell us his names? “To Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them…” (Qur’an 7:180). وَلِلَّهِ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ فَٱدْعُوهُ بِهَا ۖ Although Muslims often overlook the significance of Allah’s ninety-nine magnificent names, viewing them as a mere song to be taught to children, there is in fact no greater subject of study than the names and attributes of Allah. Allah’s glorious names hold an incredible spiritual power; for it is through them that Allah reveals Himself to us and provides us with the opportunity to grow closer to Him. There is near unanimous agreement among the scholars that Allah possesses more names than the ones He revealed to us. Thus, every name He did reveal He chose to reveal to us. This is because Allah wants you to know who He is to the best of our limited human capacity. He wants you to call upon Him with these beautiful names and use them as a means [to grow closer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-get-closer-to-allah-exploring-the-sequence-of-allahs-names-in-surah-al-hashr) to your Creator. What then is Allah trying to teach us through His name *Al-Aziz*, or the Almighty? --- ## The Might and Mercy of Allah *Al-Aziz* is one of the most frequently mentioned names in the Qur’an, some 92 times in total. One reason Allah emphasizes His might so often, and pairs it with other concepts, is because it would be imbalanced to solely emphasize Allah’s infinite mercy and forgiveness. Instead, attending to His might as well as His mercy contributes to a fully-balanced God image. [God image](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/belief-in-divine-love-discovering-spiritual-attachment-styles) refers to one’s mental image of God, that is, how one views God, which in turn affects their views on everything around them. It is especially important to have a positive and balanced view of God, because the Prophet ﷺ narrated that “Allah said, ‘I am as My servant expects of Me.’” Allah is thus inviting us to [perceive Him positively](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/belief-in-divine-love-discovering-spiritual-attachment-styles) so that we experience Him positively in our lives. Bilal ibn Saʿd (d. 116 AH) would say, “Do not look at the smallness of the sin, but look at \[the greatness of\] the One whom you have sinned against” (*Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’* 5/223). Therefore, a balanced God image is one that protects us from two extremes: falling into despair of God’s punishment or using God’s overwhelming mercy to excuse the worst of behavior. True believers then neither despair of the mercy of Allah, nor feel immune to the consequences of their sins. In the Qur’an, as we will see, Allah communicates to us three aspects of His might through the name *al-Aziz*: power, independence, and dominion/sovereignty. --- ## The Power of Allah is beyond our imagination The first message Allah communicates to us through his name *al-Aziz* is the perfection of His power. While we will never be capable of comprehending the true extent of Allah’s power, the majority of us do not even appropriately appreciate it. Abdullah (rA) narrated that “A rabbi came to Allah's Messenger ﷺ and said, "O Muhammad! We learn that Allah will put all the heavens on one finger, the earths on one finger, the trees on one finger, the water and the dust on one finger, and all the other created beings on one finger. Then He will say, 'I am the King.' Thereupon, the Prophet ﷺ smiled until his premolar teeth became visible, confirming what the rabbi had said. Then Allah's Messenger ﷺ recited: 'They have not made a just estimate of Allah such as is due to Him. And on the Day of Resurrection the whole of the earth will be grasped in His Grip and the heavens will be rolled up in His Right Hand. Glorified is He, and High is He above all that they associate as partners with Him.'"(Qur’an 39:67) (*Sahih Al-Bukhari* 4811) This hadith is just one illustration of the degree to which Allah’s overwhelming power lies beyond our comprehension. While modern science has demonstrated just our own observable universe (which is a fraction of the unobservable creation) to be billions of light-years in size, as Muslims we know, “Certainly for Allah that is easy” (Qur’an 29:19). --- ## Allah is sufficient Through the name *al-Aziz*, Allah also communicates to us that He has no needs. This is contrary to how we perceive power in human beings. We often think of powerful people as those who can endure difficult trials, but when Allah refers to Himself as *al-Aziz* it implies that His power does not result in a need to sacrifice, nor to endure hardship. The majority of theological errors, both in Islam and other religions, arise from the failure to realize God’s complete self-sufficiency, thereby not giving Him His “proper estimate.” This is why we say, “Glorified be Allah the Almighty from what they ascribe to Him.” Allah reminds us in the Verse of the Throne, “Who is the one who can intercede without Allah’s will?” (Qur’an 2:255). Here, He reminds us of His total independence; if He allows someone to intercede on our behalf, it is only by His gracious permission and mercy. --- ## Allah has control over all things The third essence that Allah expresses through His beautiful name *al-Aziz* is that His might permeates and overpowers all things. Allah says “Say: O Allah, Lord of all dominion! You give sovereignty to whom You will, and take away dominion from whom You will, and You exalt whom You will, and abase whom You will. In Your Hand is all good. Surely You are All-Powerful” (Qur’an 3:26). The idea that Allah’s might permeates all things is an immense concept, one almost too difficult for the human mind to comprehend. Still, the acknowledgment of a greater power is a part of the human inclination (*fitra*), as can be viewed throughout different societies today and in the past. Realizing and acknowledging Allah’s power, independence, and dominion over all can also strengthen our conviction, help us endure any tragedy, and attain liberation from this fleeting world. --- ## A cure for doubting hearts Planting a conviction in the heart that Allah has full control over everything helps us overcome many of our persisting doubts and worries. One of the most common doubts believers face is how we as humans can be held responsible for our actions if Allah has full control over everything. One of the early Muslims is reported to have said, “Allah is not just Merciful enough to forgive you for something He decreed for you, but he is also too Mighty (*Aziz*) to need to force you to do things that are aligned with His plan.” That is to say, it is precisely because of Allah’s might that He gives us agency, and has no need to take it away from us. Allah does not need you to fulfill His plan; you need Him to fulfill your plan. The reality that Allah has full control over everything, but you have some kind of agency at least enough to be responsible in front of Allah, is, however, difficult for many to comprehend. For this reason, the Prophet ﷺ said “If predestination is mentioned, then hold (yourselves) back” (*al-Mu’jam al-Kabīr* 10448). Therefore, as Muslims we should take relief in our Lord’s overwhelming might, while refraining from excessive delving into the details of predestination. --- ## Why do bad things happen to good people? Allah mentions his name *al-Aziz* in [Surah Al-Buruj](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/surah-al-buruj-and-the-divine-response-to-genocide-and-injustice), a short and commonly recited chapter of the Qur’an. The chapter describes the massacre of a community of believers, the “Companions of the Ditch.” Allah informs us that this community was persecuted solely because of their belief in “the Almighty, the Most-Praiseworthy.” Here, Allah uses His name “the Almighty” to indicate that He could have prevented the massacre, the burning of these believers in ditches. Indeed, He could have made their fires cold like the fire of Ibrahim (as). Allah however had decreed that this event would take place, and He is Almighty, Most Praiseworthy, because the consequences were ultimately good for the believers, whom we are informed were granted the “ultimate victory” of securing a place in the eternal abode, paradise. It is easy to fall into grief given the many tragedies that befall us and those around us. However, as believers we are encouraged to stay strong with an understanding that nothing occurs except that Allah allows it to happen; and He is Most Praiseworthy. Our beloved Prophet ﷺ said, “The believer’s affair is wondrous. If something good happens they are thankful and that is good for them, and if something bad happens to them they are patient and that is good for them” (*Sahih Muslim* 2999). Taking this perspective causes a shift in how we view and relate to this worldly life. Therefore, the believers can confidently answer the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” They don’t. At least not for the believer who can transform any circumstance into something positive by how they respond to it. --- ## Liberation from this world Finally, the name *al-Aziz* frees us from being shackled to this fleeting life. When the Muslims went out to meet the disbelievers in the battle of Uhud, the hypocrites in Madina stayed back, fearful of the worldly consequences of the Muslims’ confrontation of the mighty Quraysh. Allah says on this occasion, > They say: Surely, if we return to Madina the mightier (*al-a’az*) will soon drive out the weaker; But might belongs to Allah and His messenger and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know. (Qur’an 63:8) The hypocrites in Madina perceived only the might of Quraysh and their own might, too weak-minded to realize the might of Allah. To the contrary, when the believer pursues their life for the sake of the Almighty, they experience true liberation from the shackles of an illusory worldly life. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭab (rA) famously stated, “Verily, we were a disgraceful people and Allah honored us (*a*ʿ*azzanā*) with Islam. If we seek honor from anything besides that with which Allah honored us, Allah will disgrace us” (*al-Mustadrak ‘alá al-Ṣaḥīḥayn* 207). Therefore, as we look at the Muslim *ummah*’s weakened state, many of us wish for honor and strength. The solution is clear: “Whoever desires honor*—*then to Allah belongs all honor” (Qur'an 35:10). The only way to obtain honor and strength in this life (for the believers) and in the afterlife (for the believers and disbelievers) is to conform to the Almighty’s commandments and to refrain from His prohibitions. [For more on Allah’s beautiful name *al-Aziz*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-meaning-of-al-azeez-the-almighty-daily-reminders), see the video where Dr. Omar Suleiman is joined by special guests, Sh. Mohammad Al-Shinawy and Sh. Ammar Alshukry. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/virtues-of-ayatul-kursi-the-greatest-verse-in-the-quran # Virtues of Ayatul Kursi: The Greatest Verse in the Qur’an **Author:** Sh. Ismail Kamdar **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Quran **Published:** July 18, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 ## What is Ayatul Kursi? Ayatul Kursi (The Throne Verse) is the 255th verse of Surah al-Baqarah. It is known as the greatest verse in the Qur’an and is recited daily by Muslims around the world as a means of protection from evil. Ayatul Kursi is memorized by Muslim children at a young age due to its importance and key teachings. Memorizing, understanding, and often reciting this important verse of the Qur’an is an important act of worship. --- ## Ayatul Kursi – Arabic, transliteration and English translation اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ ۚ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ ۖ وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ *Allahu laa ilaaha illaa Huwa al-Hayyul Qayyoom; laa ta’khudhuhu sinatun wa laa nawm; lahu maa fissamawati wa maa fil-ard; man dhalladhi yashfa’u ‘indahu illaa bi-idhnihi; ya’lamu maa bayna aydeehim wa maa khalfahum; wa laa yuheetoona bishay’im min ‘ilmihi illaa bimaa shaa’a; wasi’a kursiyyuhu assamawati wal-ard; wa laa ya’ooduhu hifdhuhumaa; wa Huwa al-‘Aliyyul ‘Adheem* Allah! There is no god (worthy of worship) except Him, the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining. Neither tiredness nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who could possibly intercede with Him without His permission? He knows what is ahead of them and what is behind them, but no one can grasp any of His knowledge, except what He wills. His Seat encompasses the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of both does not tire Him. For He is the Highest, the Greatest. (Surah al-Baqarah 2:255) --- ## The primary theme of Ayatul Kursi Ayatul Kursi summarizes some of the core beliefs and principles of Islamic monotheism. It introduces the attributes of Allah and the methodology of understanding these attributes. Ayatul Kursi teaches us that there is only one true god, Allah, who alone is worthy of worship. Allah is Perfect in His Names and Attributes. He does not sleep, nor does He get tired. He controls and knows everything, and nothing can happen unless He wills it. There is nothing like Allah, and His Attributes are unique and perfect. Ayatul Kursi also reminds us that only Allah can protect us from all evil. He is perfect, never sleeps, and controls everything. Therefore, all protection is from Him alone. Ayatul Kursi serves a dual purpose of being an affirmation of the key beliefs of Islam and a protection prayer that we are recommended to recite daily. --- ## Why is it called the greatest verse in the Qur’an? There is some debate regarding whether we can refer to some passages of the Qur’an as more virtuous than others. The different opinions on this have been covered in detail by Shaykh Yousef Wahb in his paper “[Are Some Qur’anic Verses More Virtuous Than Others? Reconciling Diverse Scholarly Views](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-some-quranic-verses-more-virtuous-than-others-reconciling-diverse-scholarly-views)”. Keeping in mind the predominant view that some verses are greater than others, Ayatul Kursi is the greatest verse of the Qur’an as per the following narrations. Ubayy ibn Ka’b reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “O Abu Mundhir, do you know which verse in the Book of Allah with you is greatest?” I recited the Verse of the Throne, “Allah, there is no God but Him, the Living, the Sustainer,” (2:255). The Prophet struck me on the chest, saying, “By Allah, O Abu Mundhir, rejoice in this knowledge!” (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* 810) Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Everything has a summit, and the summit of the Qur’an is Surah al-Baqarah. It contains a verse which is the chief of the Qur’an, the verse of the Throne.” (*Sunan al-Tirmidhī* 2878) These narrations indicate that Ayatul Kursi is the greatest verse of the Qur’an. This is because it summarizes the most important beliefs of Islam and is an extremely powerful means of protection as well. Surah al-Baqarah is listed here as the summit of the Qur’an because it contains Ayatul Kursi. Surah al-Baqarah is an explanation of the core teachings of Islam, and Ayatul Kursi encompasses the most important lesson of them all. --- ## The benefits of Ayatul Kursi There are many narrations that indicate the virtues of Ayatul Kursi. Besides being called the chief of the Qur’an and the greatest verse in the Qur’an, it is also a means of protection from harm, a daily protection prayer, a means of *ruqya* (spiritual protection from jinn, evil eye, and magic), and a means through which people enter paradise. The following narrations serve as evidence for these virtues. Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entrusted me to protect the charity of Ramadan. Someone came to me and began taking from the food. I took hold of him, and I said, “I will certainly take you to the Messenger of Allah!” Abu Huraira told the story to the Prophet, saying, “The man told me that when I go to bed, I should recite the Verse of the Throne. Allah will appoint a protector over me, and no devil will come near me until morning.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “He told you the truth, although he is a liar. That was Satan.” (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* 5010) In the above narration, we learn that Ayatul Kursi is a protection prayer that keeps people safe from evening to morning, and vice versa. It is therefore recommended to recite it early each morning, usually after Fajr, and in the early evening, after Asr or Maghrib prayers. In this narration, Abu Huraira catches a devil trying to steal from the treasury. The devil teaches him this prayer in exchange for his freedom. In any other case, something that the devil teaches would be considered suspicious, but here the Prophet ﷺ confirms that he spoke the truth, despite being a liar. So we act on this hadith, not because of what the devil said, but because the Prophet ﷺ confirmed that this specific statement is true. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whenever it is recited in a home, the devil flees therefrom; that verse is: Ayatul Kursi.” (*al-Targhib*, vol.2, p. 370) It is also narrated that the devils flee from homes in which Surah al-Baqarah is recited. (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* 780) As Ayatul Kursi is the most important verse in Surah al-Baqarah, it suffices to chase away the devils in many cases. This makes Surah al-Baqarah, and specifically Ayatul Kursi, an important *ruqya*. *Ruqya* refers to anything that is recited to ward off devils, magic, and evil eye. If someone feels the presence of devils or magic in their homes, it is advisable to recite Ayatul Kursi frequently to ward off the evil presence. If this does not work, then try reciting the entire Surah al-Baqarah for a stronger *ruqya*. --- ## Best times to recite Ayatul Kursi Ayatul Kursi should be part of our daily recitations. There are ideally two sets of timings daily in which we should recite Ayatul Kursi. It should be recited after every obligatory prayer as per the following narration. Abu Umamah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever recites the ‘verse of the Throne’ after every prescribed prayer, there will be nothing standing between him and entry into paradise but his death.” (*al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ lil-Ṭabarānī* 8068, Grade: Sahih) Reciting Ayatul Kursi after every prayer is a means of entering into Paradise. Ayatul Kursi should also be recited every morning after Fajr, and evening after Asr or Maghrib as a means of daily protection. This is understood from the earlier narration by Abu Hurairah and stated in the following narration as well. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever says this when he rises in the morning will be protected from devils until he retires in the evening, and whoever says it when retiring in the evening will be protected from them until he rises in the morning.” (*Al-Hakim* 1: 562, Grade: Sahih) --- ## Conclusion Ayatul Kursi is one of the most important verses in the Qur’an. It is known as the greatest verse in the Qur’an and should be memorized, understood, and often recited. It serves as a daily means of protection from worldly harm, and also as a means of protection from unseen sources of harm (devils, magic, evil eye). Furthermore, reciting it after every prayer leads to paradise. These are some of the authentic virtues of Ayatul Kursi narrated in various noble hadiths. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/slavery-and-emancipation-in-the-sharia-the-islamic-framework-for-ethical-treatment-of-slaves-in-the-minhaj-fi-shuab-al-iman-of-al-halimi # Slavery and Emancipation in the Sharia: The Islamic Framework for Ethical Treatment of Slaves in the Minhāj fī shuʿab al-īmān of al-Ḥalīmī **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization, Islamic Ethics, Jurisprudence (fiqh), Politics & Practical Theology, Sharia **Tags:** Black History Month, Ethics, Publication **Published:** July 17, 2024 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 *Translated and Annotated by Jonathan A. C. Brown* --- ## The moral problem of slavery The topic of slavery is not an easy one. In part this is because many today live in societies still shaped by slavery’s racial hierarchies and inequalities. But it is also because thinking about slavery in any depth involves serious dilemmas about morality, identity, and beliefs. Today slavery is seen as an intrinsic evil—maybe the greatest evil—throughout time and space. “No evil more monstrous has ever existed upon the earth,” said the English poet Samuel Coleridge (d. 1834).[^1] As the [2001 Durban Declaration](https://www.un.org/en/durban-20-anniversary/background) stated, slavery is “a crime against humanity and should always have been so.” But slavery is also an institution that, in one form or another, existed in every civilization until quite recently. This means nothing in and of itself. Lots of bad institutions have existed. What does mean something is that slavery is something that every major religious and philosophical tradition considered uncontroversial, proper, and even natural until, at the very earliest, the 1700s. And it was not until the 1800s that the morality of slavery per se became a widely debated question. Even then, the moral debate over slavery was limited for decades to the industrialized societies of Western Europe and America. So we are confronted with a serious dilemma: if slavery is an intrinsic crime against humanity, why did Plato, Aristotle, Moses, Jesus, the Buddha, Confucian and Hindu sages, the Bible, and the Qur’an have no problem with it? As one British theologian wrote in the early 1800s, if slavery were an evil no matter where and when, how could the God of the Bible ever have allowed it?[^2] Either these enlightened hearts and minds did not know slavery was evil or they did not care. Either we question the intrinsic moral evil of slavery or we question the qualifications of those figures of authority and those revealed texts. One might object that maybe these prophets and philosophers had been unable to speak out against slavery because of its prevalence in society. It would have been too disruptive. But aren’t prophets usually disruptive? As one slave owner replied to an American abolitionist, was he really going to claim that Jesus lacked the courage of his convictions to, at the very least, declare that slavery was wrong?[^3] Put simply, if slavery has always been a grotesque evil, then it’s a grotesque evil in which the totality of mankind’s pre-nineteenth-century heritage was intimately implicated. Put in the idiom of statue debates, if you refuse to honor a person who condoned evil, then that means canceling every thinker, leader, and saint prior to 1700. If you want to honor those figures, you have to reconsider the categorical severity with which slavery in history is judged. One way out of the predicament is to say that there are different [kinds of slavery](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx06mtApu8k). This is undeniably correct and is obvious to both experts and non-experts alike. For example, Sokullu Mehmet Pasha (d. 1579) was the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire during the reigns of three sultans, one of the wealthiest men in the realm and married to the sultan’s daughter. In the 1700s in Jamaica, by contrast, a slave named [Derby](https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-son-he-never-had) toiled on a British sugar plantation, where enslaved people from Africa were worked so brutally that they lived for only around seven years after arriving. As a punishment for eating some sugar, Derby’s overseer had him whipped and then had a device placed between his jaws to keep them open while another slave was forced to defecate in his mouth. As far as I know, such treatment was unthinkable not just in the Ottoman Empire but in the Muslim world overall. Both Sokullu Mehmet and Derby were slaves, in that they were both property owned by another person. But not only was their treatment so different that comparing them seems almost immoral, they also lived under dramatically different regimes of rights and laws. The [British laws governing](https://slaverylawpower.org/jamaica-slave-code-governing/) the treatment of slaves in Jamaica offered pitifully little protection for slaves. The Ḥanafī law of the Ottoman Empire, however, held that ill treatment of slaves, such as any physical punishment that would leave scars, could be grounds for forced manumission. What’s more, slaves in the Ottoman Empire continuously went to court for relief against treatment they disliked.[^4] The fact of the matter is that slavery in the European colonies of the Americas and the slave trade that supplied them were exceptionally brutal and shockingly inhumane phenomena. Not only was the violence singular, the racial justifications for enslaving Africans were unusual and offensive. It is no surprise that the earliest anti-slavery writings produced in the Americas (indeed, very nearly the first in the world) came from people with direct experience with the Atlantic slave trade.[^5] And the earliest humanitarian objections to slavery in the Americas came from a Dominican friar, Bartolomé de las Casas (d. 1566), who had never been troubled by the slavery he’d seen in his native Spain but was utterly shocked by how the Spanish treated their Native American and African slaves in the Americas.[^6] The collection of slaves by European traders on the African coast and then their transport to the Americas were horrifically violent. To my knowledge, there is no premodern equivalent of such treatment in Islamic civilization. (Some European reports about slave raids by Arab and Berber raiders into the Sahel in the nineteenth century come close. But it should be noted that the intra-Muslim-world slave trade intensified greatly in the nineteenth century, and this was accompanied by alarming illegalities and abuses such as the rampant enslavement of other Muslims).[^7] In contrast to the colonial Americas, slavery in Islamic civilization as well as in many other times and places was much more diverse and sometimes comparatively mild. From the ancient Near East to medieval Europe, a surprising number of people voluntarily became slaves (what would you do if you could avoid starvation or constant fear by offering yourself and your family as slaves to someone who would feed and protect you?).[^8] One of the most unusual features of slavery in the European colonies in the Americas (with the exception of Brazil) was that slavery was based on racial phenotype, namely the physical features that the powerful in those societies had decided indicated African descent. For most of world history, on the other hand, slaves were either racially and ethnically the same as those around them or were from some outside group that, though seen as other or the enemy, might not look any different. Finally, while slaveholding states in North America passed laws increasingly restricting the possibility of setting slaves free, slaves in ancient Rome or the Islamic world were very often freed after a few years of service. While freed slaves and free Black people in the US were in constant danger of (re)enslavement because their appearance marked them as part of the slave class, freed slaves in ancient Rome or Islamic civilization had no distinctive look and could prosper in free society. Asserting that slavery has existed in many shapes and, more importantly, in varying degrees of severity has long been a recognized means of resolving the moral conundrum of slavery and squaring the honoring of revealed laws with our moral disapproval of terrible treatment. Christian philosophers going back to Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) stated that, while the Bible and Church law allowed slavery, they did not allow the total control and unaccountable domination of one person by another.[^9] So why is this not a more acceptable resolution to the moral conundrum of slavery in world history today? Perhaps the main reason is that abolitionism, namely the movement to end slavery as an institution, which emerged in Britain and Northern American colonies like Pennsylvania in the late 1700s, was built on a denial of such degrees and distinctions. This was due firstly to the sources available for making moral arguments. Every pillar of Western normative culture, from the Bible to Greek philosophy and Roman law, had been totally supportive of slavery. The earliest anti-slavery polemics, such as *[The Selling of Joseph](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/26/?utm_source=digitalcommons.unl.edu%2Fetas%2F26&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages)* (1700) by Samuel Sewell of Massachusetts, got around this by equating the enslavement of Africans and their export to America with man-stealing, i.e., the illegal enslavement of someone one could not legally enslave. Though slavery was allowed in the Old and New Testaments as well as in European legal traditions, these sources also prohibited enslaving those one was not allowed to enslave (See Leviticus 25:39 and hadiths against enslaving free people).[^10] This was a questionable association, however, since Europeans had long justified their enslavement of Africans precisely with reference to Roman law allowing the enslavement of heathen captives (this was even allowed by the Father of Liberty, John Locke \[d. 1704\], who held that, since African tribes allegedly did not respect the normal rules of international law, they could rightfully be enslaved).[^11] Second, abolitionists had to deny distinctions within slavery because this was one of the first counter arguments that supporters of slavery would deploy. The slavery they were defending was paternal and [beneficial](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435005077409&view=2up&seq=30) to the enslaved, they claimed, not like the cruel and depraved domination of Roman slavery.[^12] This anxiety around recognizing the obvious varying conditions and levels of degradation in slavery out of fear that it would be used to morally exonerate forms as slavery seen as ‘better’ than others is still present in American discussions of slavery even at an academic level. Daina Ramey Berry, an accomplished historian of slavery in America, once [corrected herself in an interview](https://web.archive.org/web/20200131162338/https:/15minutehistory.org/podcast/episode-54-urban-slavery-in-the-antebellum-united-states/) in which she was asked to compare the conditions of slaves in US cities and the countryside. She said she would only note differences in the conditions but would not, as a matter of principle, say that one was “better” than the other. But clearly some slaves lived in better conditions than others, and some forms of slavery have clearly been morally worse than others. The only moral justification for denying that grades of treatment or differences in condition should be accounted for in moral evaluations of slavery is that there is something about the concept of slavery per se that is so morally reprehensible that it does not afford any internal distinction. One could argue, for example, that losing your freedom or being considered property is so intrinsically heinous that there is no space for such nuance. But this could not be further from the truth. Every mode by which slavery has been defined in world history is so abstract and dependent on context that any accurate description requires precisely such detail and distinction. For the past three thousand years, scholars from ancient Rome to modern social scientists have defined slavery as one or more of the following: 1. the loss of freedom; 2. being the property of another person; 3. existing in a position of extreme marginalization or vulnerability in a society; and/or 4. working under compulsion and the threat of violence. Each of these definitions of slavery might function very well in a particular society or a certain tradition. For example, it is clear what it meant to be free as opposed to a slave in Antebellum Virginia. It is fairly clear how we understand compulsion and the threat of violence in modern-day labor abuse. But if one tries to apply these definitions across civilizations (like between the American South and the Ottoman Empire) or across time, they are too abstract to hold coherent meaning. If being unfree means you can’t do certain things at all or without your master’s permission, what are those things? Where is the line between what a free person can do and what an unfree person can’t? Even within the Shariah tradition the answer can be surprisingly hard to pin down. In the Mālikī school, slaves can own property; in the other schools of law, they cannot. If being a slave is being human property, what does that mean? There is nothing close to a consistent definition of property across space and time. In a manner that sounds like how we think today about our rights over our property, early Roman law allowed masters to beat or kill their slaves with impunity, as if they were physical objects. But the Roman head of household could, according to the law, do that to their own free children as well. If being a slave means an extremely marginal existence in a society, societies differ dramatically from one another in where their margins are and what they look like. In the early 1700s many serfs in Russia voluntarily became slaves because, while serfs had to pay taxes, slaves did not.[^13] In medieval Sind, the free untouchables who cleared garbage and waste were even more socially despised and marginal than slaves.[^14] Finally, if being a slave means being forced to live and work under compulsion and the threat of violence, what constitutes compulsion and threats of violence in different societies differs tremendously. According to definitions of Modern-Day slavery, most people in human history lived under unacceptable levels of unfreedom and coercion.[^15] In Roman North Africa, all members of the household, free and slave, lived in a system of authority structured and enforced by violence under the male head of household.[^16] Indentured servants in colonial Maryland and Virginia were not slaves, and they willingly entered their state of temporary bondage. But if they ran away, the punishment was mutilation in Virginia and death in Maryland, punishments so severe that the Shariah prohibited them for slaves.[^17] Acknowledging that some forms of slavery merit significantly more moral condemnation than others, however, does not fully resolve our moral quandary. Few would feel comfortable admitting to the moral acceptability of *any* kind of slavery today. But, then again, many in the modern, urban West would feel morally uncomfortable with how most free people have been treated in world history. Combined with the timing of when abolitionism emerged, this fact provides a crucial insight into why we today feel the way we do about slavery. Boiled down, the most commonly accepted view for how slavery was ended is that, around 1700, some people in Britain and its northern colonies in America realized that slavery was morally wrong. They convinced others of their views, and gradually this position became dominant first in Britain and then in the northern United States. From there it spread throughout Europe and finally around the world. Unless one posits that those individuals were someone endowed with unique moral sensibilities, however, there is no way to explain why such a moral awakening occurred. Why would humanity become convinced that something it had done for so long and with the full approval of its greatest moral authorities was evil? As scholars have pointed out, it is no coincidence that significant condemnations of slavery *in and of itself* and calls to end slavery *as an institution* appeared first in the places where societies first industrialized and achieved unprecedented wealth without reliance on slave labor, namely Britain and what became the northern US.[^18] The spread of industrial technology, which allowed humans to move goods, plough, and produce without relying on the labor of animals and other humans, meant that slavery became economically obsolete. As it did so, people developed more refined sensibilities to what was considered excessively cruel or exploitative treatment. Indeed, Aristotle had predicted this when he said that slaves would only be dispensed with when looms powered themselves.[^19] What this means is that, despite how deeply we feel that the evil of slavery is a moral reality that has always been true and always will be, our moral sentiments about slavery are more the results of technological and economic change than some sudden, principled enlightenment. This does not mean that our conviction that slavery is wrong is somehow trivial or less meaningful. Many of our moral beliefs are the products of social custom, which is in turn strongly shaped by economic and technological realities. The Shariah empowers custom as a major source of law and morality, provided it does not transgress the clear boundaries set by revelation. --- ## Slavery in the Qur’an and Sunnah As with the rest of the world until the early modern period, slavery was an economic and social reality in the world in which the Prophet ﷺ lived. The Qur’an and the Prophet’s teachings, however, introduced several important and unprecedented reforms to the laws and customs of slavery as it existed in the Near Eastern world. Debt slavery was prohibited, as was the practice of selling oneself or one’s family into slavery. The only legal way in which a person could be enslaved was if they were a non-Muslim, outside the Abode of Islam, captured in war. While the children born of a male owner and his female slave had been illegitimate and/or a slave in the Persian, Arabian and Roman traditions, Islam declared those children to be not only free but also of the same social standing as the children born of a free wife. The result was that, while Thomas Jefferson’s children with his slave woman Sally Hemings (d. 1835) were considered black and unfree and could never be part of the American elite, twenty (or perhaps twenty-two) out of twenty-four Abbasid caliphs during Baghdad’s heyday were born of slave mothers.[^20] The mothers of almost all the Ottoman sultans were slave concubines as well. Although this was tragically ignored by many Muslim scholars, who instead followed the Biblical tradition on this matter, the Prophet ﷺ also demonstrated the falsity of the Curse of Ham legend found in the Book of Genesis and elaborated in late antique Christian and Jewish tradition. This legend stated that Noah had cursed the descendants (or some of them) of his son Ham to have black skin and serve as slaves. The Prophet  explained that the variety of human skin color comes from the multicolored soil from which God had created the first human.[^21] The most distinct feature of how the Qur’an and the Sunnah treat slavery, however, is an obsession with emancipating slaves. Indeed, I know of no scripture that is more emphatic on this topic. The Qur'an instructs owners to allow their slaves to buy back their freedom on installments (24:33) and directs part of the Zakat monies collected to aid in purchasing slaves’ freedom (2:177, 9:60). God describes freeing slaves as a feature of the path of believers (90:12-16) and even requires it as an expiation for some sins and the violation of some oaths (5:89, 58:3). As al-Ḥalīmī’s text below demonstrates exhaustively, the mandate to free slaves was even more prominent and repeated in the Prophet’s sayings. As Muslim scholars explained, the command to free slaves stemmed from the fact that God “wants freedom,” because all humans are free by nature and because there is something irreverent about one person being the master of another when, as the Prophet explained, “you are all the slaves of God.”[^22] It was recognized already in the 1200s that emancipating slaves was one of the aims (*maqāṣid*) of the Shariah.[^23] Moreover, though Muslim scholars did not declare slavery evil (essentially no one did until the 1700s), they always considered it harmful (*ḍarar*). This was, in part, because it prevented a person from being fully in control of their actions or benefiting from the fruits of their labor.[^24] --- ## Abolishing slavery in Islam If the Qur’an and the Sunnah were so strident in their call to emancipate slaves, if one person being the master of another when God is the Lord of all militates against the natural order, and if Muslim scholars recognized that slavery was harmful, why didn’t God simply abolish slavery in the Qur’an? West-is-best chauvinists like Jordan Petersen and Douglas Murray boast that it was the West that fought to abolish slavery, not the Muslim world. Why is this? The answer is that no one, not Europeans or other Christians, called for the abolition of slavery as an institution until the 1700s. It was not economically conceivable for dependent human labor to be removed from life’s equation at a large scale until fossil fuels replaced their energy. As the historian Howard Temperley wrote, until the late 1700s “slavery was accepted with that fatalism which men commonly reserve for aspects of nature which, whether they are celebrated or deplored, have to be borne. To argue against slavery was to argue against the facts of life.”[^25] Calls to abolish slavery emerged in the North Atlantic world not because of some inherent genius in Christianity or the West (both Christianity and Western philosophy had long been totally supportive of slavery) but because industrial life began in that area and the particular type of slavery prevalent in the Americas was uniquely horrific. Muslims encountered abolitionism the same way everyone else in the soon-to-be-colonized world did: through European diplomatic power and colonial endeavors. But with social and economic change Muslims came to adopt the same sentiments as their Western contemporaries. As the Mālikī and Ḥanafī muftis of Tunis made clear in their approval of the Ottoman governor’s decision to ban slavery in the province in 1846, it was well within the power of a Muslim ruler to restrict slavery in an effort to achieve the Shariah aim of emancipation. Taking or owning slaves is not required or even recommended in Islamic law, so restricting or banning it falls within the realm of what Muslim scholars have called “restricting the permissible (*taqyīd al-mubāḥ*),” in which a Muslim government restricts what would otherwise be permissible because of some common good.[^26] As the Tunisian scholar Muḥammad Bayram al-Khāmis (d. 1889) wrote in his explanation of the Tunis decree, when a Muslim ruler restricts the permissible for the cause of the common good, heeding this rule becomes a religious obligation. Muslims must obey the abolition of slavery “in secret and in the open, and they must know that owning \[a slave\] is invalid.” This is what the Shariah teaches, Bayram added, and “disobeying the Sacred Law (*sharʿ*) is truly prohibited.”[^27] --- ## Al-Ḥalīmī and his text Al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥasan al-Ḥalīmī (d. 403/1012) was a respected scholar and Hadith master of tenth-century Khurasan and Transoxiana. Born in Jurjan, on the humid and verdant southeast coast of the Caspian Sea, he studied with Shāfiʿī and Ashʿarī scholars across the Black Sands Desert in Bukhara. He spent most of his career, however, in the rolling hills and caravan cities of Khurasan and became a respected representative of the Shāfiʿī school of law, Hadith scholarship, and Ashʿarī theology. His one surviving book, the *Kitāb al-Minhāj fī shuʿab al-īmān* (The Proper Path on the Branches of Faith) was an exposition of the components of faith based on the Prophet’s hadith that faith is divided into seventy-some branches. *Whether the fault lies with the manuscript copyist or the editor of the book (only looking at the manuscripts used in this publication could give an inkling of which), this is perhaps the most error-replete text I have ever seen. Words and phrases are regularly misread/miscopied. I have included my own remarks underlined to note when a serious instance of this occurs.* --- ## The thirtieth of the branches of faith, being the chapter on manumission and its element of making one closer to God Most High and glorious[^28] God Most High has made manumission obligatory in expiations (*kaffārāt*), as He did in providing food and clothing as well as fasting. And He made it an obligation as a redemption (*fidya*) for souls if they are killed wrongly.[^29] This indicates that manumission is a mode of virtuous conduct and of increasing in closeness to Him whose name is magnified even if no crime has been previously committed, just as one engages in other modes of virtuous conduct that we have mentioned without any wrong having been done. And God most glorified said, “But you have not taken the path of ascent. And what will convey to you what the path of ascent is? It is freeing a neck, or feeding on the day of hunger an orphan near of kin or a poor wretch in the dust. Then will they be one of those who believe and enjoin upon one another patience and enjoin upon one another compassion” (90:11-17). And His words “But you have not taken the path of ascent” are words of rebuke and deeming someone tardy, like His words “But you have not taken the path of ascent” (sic), meaning the ascending path of the virtuous about which God most noble and glorified said, “I will exhaust him with the steepest path” (74:17), meaning: Let them do what is easy for them to undertake. And it is possible that what is intended by the path of ascent is all that lies in one’s future in terms of resurrection, accountability  \[on the Day of Judgment\] and recompense, which one does not know whether it be goodly or evil, as if one is saying to someone, “There are between me and this matter steep paths (*ʿiqāb*, pl. of *ʿaqaba*),” if attaining that thing is far off and impossible to accomplish. So then how is it that this path of ascent is made easy? \[God\] mentions: freeing a neck and feeding the needy, thus showing that each of these is a virtuous act bringing proximity \[to God\]. It has been transmitted from the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that a man said to him, “O Messenger of God, show me a deed that will gain me entrance to the Garden.” He replied, “Manumit a neck and free a soul (*nasama*).” The man asked, “Aren’t these two, O Messenger of God, the same thing?” He answered, “Manumitting a neck is if one merely frees the person, but the soul is that one also supports them \[financially\].”[^30] And if the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, had not explicitly mentioned manumission as an answer to the man’s question about a deed leading to entry into the Garden, and had limited it to a command to free a neck, that alone would have constituted a great tiding and demonstrated the substantial reward for manumitting slaves. So how much more if one offers aid in doing so? This is due to the fact that while contributing to the cost of purchasing a slave for emancipation guarantees entry into the Garden, the act of freeing a slave is even more virtuous. \[I think there is an instance of dittography here in the printed text; I have omitted it\]. And God knows best. And it has come from the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that he said, “Whoever frees a soul, for every limb freed of the slave, God will free from the Fire a limb of them that freed them.”[^31] And this is the most extensive manner of encouraging people to manumit slaves. And it has also come from him that he said, “O Muʿādh, God has not created on the face of the earth anything more beloved to Him than freeing slaves nor anything more hated by Him than divorce.”[^32] Furthermore, God’s inclusion of manumitting slaves among the acts of expiation shows its high standing, since expiations are what remove the prescribed punishment from the offender \[in the Hereafter\]. Only what is equal to the offense and countering it can do that, just as only what is equal to and counters ritual filth can remove it. So it is the most comprehensive element in purification and the most effective in cleansing. Thus, since manumitting slaves absolves the repercussions of major offenses, we understand that it serves as a means of drawing closer to God, earning great rewards and great standing. Additionally, God Most High and glorious has made it a form of redemption for taking a life unjustly \[in manslaughter\]. And it is \[worth\] what was suspended by that killing in terms of what worship was due God Most High in that life and for which He had created that life. God most blessed and high has also accepted manumission as a redemption for the inviolability of the month \[of Ramadan\], if the fasting person violates it by having sexual intercourse during the fast.[^33] So this further clarifies the eminence of this deed and its lofty standing. And God knows best. The aspect of drawing closer to God through manumission, and God knows best, is that the slave is like their master, both in essence and in characteristics, except that some of the legal rulings obtaining for the slave are not those of their master. For God made the slave the property of the master, placed them under the master’s authority. Thus the slave’s standing is lower than that of their master. Therefore, the slave is not capable of owning property, and because of that they are exempt from paying Zakat and performing Hajj, jihad, and Friday prayer, which are among the cornerstones of Islam. So if their master frees them, this ensures several positive meanings: Among these meanings is that \[the master\] recognizes the slave’s right of affinity (*mujānasa*) and similar status (*mushākala*), like one experiencing the rights of kinship and neighborliness. So the manumitter grants the slave the freedom[^34] and the joy of empowerment that the master inherently possesses. And that becomes similar to giving charity to a relative or perspicacious neighbor who is similar in emotional capacity, wealth, and honor. And among them is that the master liberates the slave from the humiliation and oppression that bring distress to the slave whenever they contemplate their situation. This is equivalent to freeing a captive from captivity or an imprisoned, debased person from their imprisonment. Among these meanings is that the manumitter removes from them the lowly service that had occupied them from tending to themselves. This is thus like freeing one’s debtor from their guilt or one’s hired laborer from their work. And among them is that the manumitter allows the slave to avail themselves of their own talents and uses, which serve them in place of wealth. This is thus like one who gives charity to the poor, assisting them, and funding them with what suffices them. Among these meanings is that the manumitter provides them with the opportunity to own property, enabling them to draw closer to God Most High through Zakat and voluntary charitable contributions, as well as the generous giving of grants and gifts. It is thus as if the manumitter enriches a poor person or someone indigent. And among \[the positive aspects of manumission\] is that the manumitter makes the \[former\] slave eligible to perform the obligatory pilgrimage \[i.e., the Hajj\], engage in warfare in the path of God, and participate in the Friday prayer. The manumitter is thus one who assists in the path of God in both fighting and in the Hajj. By configuring manumission in this manner, it serves as a redemption for the unintentional killing of a person, as the perpetrator deprives the victim of the ability to engage in their previously accessible acts of worship. Therefore, manumission was instituted to fulfill the right of God Most High, enabling the liberated soul to engage in worship previously unattainable. With this framework, manumission transforms into a virtuous deed, drawing one closer to God. Consequently, it merits inclusion among the branches of faith, akin to fasting, feeding the needy, and giving charity. And God knows best. --- ## The fifty-eighth of the branches of faith, being the chapter on excellence towards slaves[^35] God glorious and magnificent said, “And be good to parents, and to the near of kin, the orphans, the needy, and to the neighbor near of kin and the neighbor not related, to the companion on a journey and the wayfarer, and to those whom you possess rightfully” (4:36). It has come from the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that the last matters he spoke about were prayer and those you possess rightfully. He kept speaking about that, with the words flowing off his tongue. It has been transmitted that he was saying \[on his deathbed\], “Prayer, prayer. Fear God concerning those whom you rightfully possess.”[^36] So God Most High advised His servants, and then His messenger confirmed this. Slaves are thus called to be treated well, like parents and neighbors, and those enjoined to pray. This signifies the obligation of excellence towards them and the prohibition on treating them unjustly. This begins with no one saying, upon mentioning their male slave, “my slave.” Rather they should say, “my boy.” They should not say, regarding female slaves, “my slave woman,” but rather, “my girl.” A report has also come from the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, to that effect. This manner conveys two meanings. First, that true worship is due to God alone, glorified and magnified be He, and that when a person says to someone they own “my slave” and “my slave woman,” this is self-aggrandizing and attributing to themselves regarding that person the status that God attributes to Himself regarding them. This is not permissible. Second, it might cause the slave to think that, with one who says to their slave the likes of “This is my slave,” unnecessarily belittling and humiliating them while it benefits the one who said it nothing. This might cause the slave to dislike them, leading the slave to flee or be disobedient and other such things that people suffer from their slaves if they are disliked by them. It is therefore better for owners to avoid this in favor of what is better, what is farther from reproach, and closer to amiability and gentleness. And God knows best. And those who read this and do not burden a slave with more than they can bear, not depriving them of food or tormenting them, not abusing them with severe language that weighs heavily upon them or beating them excessively, unless they have committed a *ḥadd* crime and thus have the punishment meted out to them, these are all firm duties (*ʿazāʾim*). Additionally, it is preferable for the owner to take on some of the slave’s work, not dumping it all on them; and to feed them from what \[the owner\] eats, clothe them from what they wear, and not to burden them with work that would raise doubts and cause people to be disgusted with them; and not to cause them harm at all in the first place or in punishment, but to defend \[against bad conduct\] in what other ways they can. If the owner strikes them when it is fitting to do so, they do not slap them. Rather, they sit down beside him, not forcing them to stand up before him or in his presence. If the owner overworks their slave in such a way, that is forbidden. If they are not pleased with that slave or the slave’s comportment, they should sell them. And this becomes an obligation for them if they fear they are not sufficiently able to restrain themselves from wronging the slave. But if they are pleased with the slave’s service, they should increase their beneficence and good treatment of them. Then, if much time has passed, and the owner sees that the slave is loyal and fulfills the trust they are given, the owner should arrange a marriage for them if they are aware that the slave has a need to marry. If the owner realizes they do not need that slave, they should free them. To free them as an act of charity is better and finer than to require something in return. And if a man with some repulsive malady purchases a slave to serve him, and the slave finds his health displeasing, let the man sell them. And if one purchases a slave woman and she dislikes that he touches her or sleeps with her, let him not touch her nor sleep with her and not have sex with her without her permission. And let him sell her if she wishes. Benevolence towards one’s slave encompasses gratefulness to God Most High for liberation and freedom from the humiliation of slavery, justice, and fairness towards those one possesses, and winning over the slave, promoting their obedience and sincerity. Thus, benevolence \[towards one’s slave\] benefits the owner in both this world and the next, and also benefits the slave. Reports have been transmitted with such a message in general and in specific. It was transmitted from the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that he said, “Each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is responsible for their flock.”[^37] And he said, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, “Those that suit you from among your slaves, feed them from what you eat and clothe them from what you wear. And those who do not suit you, sell them. And do not inflict harm on God’s creation.”[^38] And he said, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, “God has made them a test under your responsibility. Whoever has responsibility over his brother, let him feed him from his food and clothe him from his dress. And let him not burden him with what overwhelms him. And if he does burden him, let him assist him.”[^39] And he said, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, “Whoever purchases a slave, and their dispositions are not compatible, let them sell them. And let them purchase one whose disposition (*shīma*) is compatible with theirs. For people have different dispositions. And do not inflict pain on the slaves of God.”[^40] And he said, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, “A slave is due their food and clothing. Clothe them from what you wear, and feed them from what you eat. And do not burden them with work they cannot bear.”[^41] And he said, “If one of your slaves comes to you with your food, and they have sufficed you with their efforts over the hot stove,[^42] then call them and eat with them. And if you do not do this, then take some food for them and place it in their hands.”[^43] ʿUbāda b. al-Walīd said: I and my father set out seeking knowledge in this neighborhood of the Anṣār before they all perished. The first person we encountered was Abū al-Yasar,[^44] the companion of the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him. With him was a young slave of his. Abū al-Yasar was wearing a Yemeni cloak (*burda wa maʿāfirī,*),[^45] and his slave was wearing the same. I asked him about that. He stroked my head and said, “O God, bless him, O my nephew. These two eyes of mine beheld, these two ears of mine did hear and my heart comprehended,” and he pointed to his breast, “the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, when he said, ‘Feed them from what you eat and clothe them from what you wear.’ So if I were to give him all I own in the world it would be easier upon me than for him to take my good deeds on the Day of Resurrection.”[^46] And it has come from the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that a man came to him and said, “My slave is sinning, so I beat him.” He replied, “Show me (*ramūnī*) your beating and his sin, and if your beating is greater, then it will be taken out on you.” The man replied, “O Messenger of God, for the sin of my slave I curse him.” \[The Prophet\] replied, “For your cursing and his sin, if your cursing is greater, it will be taken out on you.” The man said, “O Messenger of God, then there is no good for us in them.” The Prophet said, “Have you not heard God say, ‘We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection’ (21:47).” And it has come from him, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that a man from among his companions sat before him and said, “O Messenger of God, I have two slaves who lie to me, betray me, and disobey me, so I beat and curse them. How do I stand regarding them?” The Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, replied, “The extent to which they betrayed you, disobeyed you, and lied to you will be measured against how much you punish them. If your punishment is less severe than their wrongs, the merit is yours. If your punishment exceeds the gravity of their wrongs, the excess will be counted for them.” So the man began to weep and cry aloud before the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him. The Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, asked, “What is wrong with him? Does he not recite the book of God that ‘We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least. And if there be even the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it \[to account\]. And enough are We to take account?’” The man replied, “O Messenger of God, I can think of nothing better for myself than them. Bear witness that they are all free.”[^47] \[Ḥalīmī\] said: Abū Dharr, may God be pleased with him, passed by a man who was beating a slave of his and said, “I have no idea what you will say to your Lord tomorrow or what He will say to you. You will say, ‘O God, forgive \[me\].’ And He will say, ‘Did you forgive?’ You will say, ‘O God, have mercy on me.’ And He will say, ‘Did you have mercy?’”[^48] And it has come from him, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that a man came to him and said, “How much should we forgive a slave?” He was silent. The man asked him again. Again, he was silent. On the third time, he said, “Excuse him seventy times each day.”[^49] And in another narration, the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, was asked, “How much should we excuse and forgive our slaves?” He replied, “Seventy times.” \[Ḥalīmī\] said: The meaning here is excusing them to the same extent that they seek God’s forgiveness every day, for \[the Prophet\] had told his followers about what he would say himself, so that they could emulate him, namely, “Indeed, I seek God’s forgiveness each day seventy times.”[^50] This was also transmitted \[with the wording\] “a hundred times.” So he instructed them to excuse their slaves to the same degree that they seek God’s forgiveness for themselves. In some reports, “Excuse them one hundred times.” It has also come from him, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that “One who treats slaves badly will not enter the Garden. So honor them as you honor your own children, and feed them from what you all eat.” People asked, “What can benefit us in this worldly life, O Messenger of God?” He replied, “A horse you can bridle and fight on in the path of God and a slave who suffices your needs. If he prays, then he is your brother. If he prays, he is your brother.”[^51] In another hadith, Fāṭima’s hands, may God be pleased with her, had become calloused from using the hand mill \[i.e., housework\]. So she went to the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, asking for a servant. When some prisoners of war were brought to him, he gave her one. He said to her, “I have seen her praying, so do not strike her. For I have been forbidden to kill those who pray.” Fāṭima, may God be pleased with her, said, “If she is like this, then she will work one day and I will work one day.”[^52] And in another hadith a man said to the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, “What should I do with these two \[slaves\]?” He replied, “Your brother, so be good to him. If he is overwhelmed, then be with him or work with him,” meaning: if the work becomes too much for him to bear, then share it with him.[^53] Abū Masʿūd \[al-Badrī\] said: I was striking a slave of mine when I heard a voice behind me: “Think, Abū Masʿūd!” But I did not turn around to face the person, since my anger had consumed me. But it was the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, so when I saw him, the whip fell from my hand out of my awe for him. The Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said to me, “By God, God has more power over you than you have over him.” I said, “O Messenger of God, I will never strike a slave of mine again!”[^54] And Muʿāwiya b. al-Ḥakam said, may God have mercy on him: I had a slave girl who took care of a flock of sheep of mine. A wolf snatched away some of them. Now I am a human being, and I get upset as all people do. So I smacked her. Then I went to the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and mentioned this to him, and he regarded it as a serious action on my part. I said, “O Messenger of God, should I not free her?” He replied, “Call her here.” Then he asked her, “Where \[is God\]? \[These two words are omitted for some reason\]” She answered, “In the heavens.” He asked, “And who am I?” She replied, “You are the Messenger of God.” He said, “Free her, for she is a believer.”[^55] And it has come from him, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that he said, “Whoever inflicts a *hadd* punishment on a slave who had not committed the offense or strikes them, the expiation is to free them.”[^56] The meaning of this is that the person had inflicted the *hadd* punishment on them, but that the slave did not deserve it. And from him, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, as well, “Do not beat a slave, for you do not know what you may deserve of that (*mā tuwāfiqūn min dhālik)*,”[^57] and in another transmission, “for you do not know the implications of your actions.” And it has also come from him, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that he said, “Bad character is an ill omen, as is poor conduct in owning a slave (*sū’ al-malaka*). Tending \[to relatives\] increases one’s lifespan, and giving in charity wards off the touch of evil.”[^58] And it has come from a number of the Companions, may God be pleased with them, that they ruled on striking a slave the same way they did for a child, and they freed the slave when compensation (*qiṣāṣ*) \[for an injury\] was not forthcoming. And Ḥabīb b. Abī Thābit, may God be pleased with him, said, “It was said: Don’t combine night and day for servants, meaning: spare them at night if they worked during the day.” And from Abū Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, that one day he was riding a mule, and he seated his slave behind him. Someone said: Why not leave him to walk behind your mount? Abū Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, replied, “I would rather have two idols of burning fire walking with me than have my slave walk behind my mount.” It has come that Dībāgh b. Salāma[^59] had a slave, and he was angered by him. So he castrated him and cut off his nose. Then he went to the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and told him about this. He responded harshly to Dībāgh and ordered the slave freed. \[The slave\] asked, “Do you guarantee me \[protection and care\], O Messenger of God?” He replied, “Every Muslim guarantees that.”[^60] And the meaning of this is that he commanded \[Dībāgh\] to manumit the slave as an expiation for his evil towards him, not that he made castration and cutting off his nose the act of manumission, as some scholars have thought, using this as an analogy for other cases. And God knows best. --- ## Chapter (faṣl) One seeking to purchase a slave should have good intentions in doing so, committing themselves to light treatment and kindness to him. They should only buy him if the slave is, in their opinion, suitable for them, not because someone else considers him good for them, and they do not want him for themselves. They should seek God’s guidance (*istikhāra*) first. Then, if they buy him, they should take him by the forelock and say, “O God, I ask You for his good and what good be in him, and I seek refuge with You from his evil and what evil be in him.” For this is transmitted from the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him. There are many hadiths and reports on this matter. We have written here what suffices, God willing. If the slave soon thereafter commits some *hadd* offense or drinks alcohol, steals, or slanders \[someone\], his owner should carry out the *hadd* punishment on him, due to the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, saying, “Carry out the *hadd* on those whom you rightfully possess.”[^61] And he said, “If one of your slaves fornicates, then lash them according to the *hadd* punishment, and do not do more.”[^62] If it is a case of a male or female slave owned by a woman, and they commit a *hadd* offense, then she should not carry out the *hadd* punishment on them. This is also the case for the slave who has an agreement for gradual self-purchase.[^63] And if they are owned by a man who is a qualified scholar (*ahl al-ijtihād*) and upstanding, then he can carry out the *hadd* punishment. If he is one of the masses (*ʿāmma*), then he can do so based on his own knowledge only if the matter is something evident. But if it is a matter in the purview of the \[scholarly\] elect, then it should be someone he knows from the jurists. And I have heard some of our colleagues say: No one should carry out the *hadd* punishment but him. All of this is clarified in the *Book of Rulings*. And God grants success. --- ## Notes [^1]: Charles S. De Paolo, “Of Tribes and Hordes: Coleridge and the Emancipation of the Slaves, 1808,” *Theoria* 60 (1983): 131. [^2]: Michael Taylor, “British Proslavery Arguments and the Bible, 1823–33,” *Slavery & Abolition* 37, n. 1 (2016): 145; David Brion Davis, *The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution*, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 545. [^3]: Davis, *The Problem of Slavery*, 535, 538. [^4]: Ehud Toledano, *As if Silent and Absent: Bonds of Enslavement in the Islamic Middle East* (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 61, 72, 80. [^5]: Christopher Leslie Brown, *Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism* (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2006), 43-45. [^6]: Robert Brady, “The Role of Las Casas in the Emergence of Negro Slavery in the New World,” *Revista de Historia de América* 61–2 (1966): 43–55. [^7]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Slavery and Islam* (London: Oneworld, 2019), 107. [^8]: Stanley Engerman, “Slavery at Different Times and Places,” *American Historical Review* 105, n. 2 (2000): 481; Igor Kopytoff and Suzanne Miers, “African ‘Slavery’ as an Institution of Marginality,” in *Slavery in Africa*, ed. Miers and Kopytoff (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 17; Kopytoff, “Cultural Context of African Abolition,” in *The End of Slavery in Africa*, ed. Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 488 – 490; Exodus 21:6. [^9]: Jacques Maritain, *Les Droits de l’homme et la loi naturelle* (Paris: Paul Hartmann, 1943), 105, 107*.* [^10]: See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-buyūʿ*, *bāb ithm man bāʿa ḥurran*. [^11]: Kenneth Baxter Wolf, “The ‘Moors’·of West Africa and the beginnings of the Portuguese slave trade,” *Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies* 24, n. 3 (1994): 449; Jennifer Welchman, “Locke on Slavery and Inalienable Rights,” *Canadian Journal of Philosophy* 25, n. 1 (1995): 78–79. [^12]: John W. Cairns, “The Definition of Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Thinking,” in *The Legal Understanding of Slavery*, ed. Jean Allain (London: Oxford University Press, 2012), 65; Indrani Chatterjee, “Abolition by Denial: The South Asian Example,” in *Abolition and its Aftermath in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia*, ed. Gwyn Campbell (London: Routledge, 2005), 151. [^13]: Richard Hellie, “Russian Slavery and Serfdom, 1450–1804,” in *The Cambridge World History of Slavery, Volume 3: AD 1420–1804*, ed. David Eltis and Stanley Engerman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 284, 293. [^14]: Miers, “Slavery: A Question of Definition,” *Slavery & Abolition* 24, n. 2 (2003): 5. [^15]: Julia O’Connell Davidson, *Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 3, 6, 22–23, 37–39, 53, 69, 169; Eltis and Engerman, “Dependence, Servility, and Coerced Labor in Time and Space,” in *The Cambridge World History of Slavery, Volume 3,* 13. [^16]: Patricia Clark, “Women, Slaves, and the Hierarchies of Domestic Violence: The Family of St. Augustine,” in *Women and Slaves in Greco-Roman Culture*, ed. Sandra Joshel and Sheila Murnaghan (London: Routledge, 1998), 109–29. [^17]: Kenneth Morgan, *Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America* (New York: New York University Press, 2001), [^18]: Howard Temperley, “The Ideology of Antislavery,” in *The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade,* ed. David Eltis and James Walvin (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981), 26–27, 30. [^19]: Aristotle, *Politics*, 1253b. [^20]: As counted by Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064), *Rasā’il Ibn Ḥazm*, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās (Beirut: al-Mu’assasa al-ʿArabiyya, 1987), 2:120-21. [^21]: *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-sunna*, *bāb fī al-qadar*. Al-Suyūṭī, al-Albānī and Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ judge this hadith *ṣaḥīḥ*; Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Rafʿ sha’n al - ḥubshān*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Faḍl (Cairo: self-published, 1411/1991), 371; al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, #1630; al-Arnā’ūṭ et al., ed., *Musnad al-imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1416/1995–1421/2001), 32:353–54, 413. [^22]: See al-Jaṣṣāṣ, *Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Ṭaḥāwī*, ed. ʿIṣmat Allāh ʿInāyat Allāh et al. (Beirut: Dār al-Bashā’ir al-Islāmiyya, 2010), 8:148; Ḍirār b. ʿAmr, *Kitāb al-Taḥrīsh*, ed. Hüseyin Hansu and Mehmet Keskin (Istanbul: Dār al-Irshād, 2014), 127; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-alfāẓ min al-adab wa ghayrihā*, *bāb ḥukm iṭlāq lafẓat al-ʿabd wa’l-ama*. [^23]: Al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt*, ed. Bakr ʿAbdallāh Abū Zayd and Mashhūr Ḥasan Salmān (Cairo: Dār Ibn ʿAffān, 1997), 2:23. [^24]: Ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī*, ed. ʿAbdallāh al-Turkī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ḥuluw (Cairo: Hujr, 1986), 12:233, 9:263. [^25]: Temperley*,* “The Ideology of Antislavery,” 29. [^26]: Brown, *Slavery and Islam*, 224-27, 229. [^27]: Muḥammad Bayram al-Khāmis, “al-Taḥqīq fī mas’alat al-raqīq,” *al-Muqtaṭaf* 15, n. 8 (1891): 505–13; 15, n. 9 (1891): 509, 579–81, 583. [^28]: Al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥasan al-Ḥalīmī, *Kitāb* *al-Minhāj fī shuʿab al-īmān*, ed. Ḥilmī Muḥammad Fuda (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1399/1979), 3:505-7. [^29]: See Qur’an 4:92, 58:4. [^30]: *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal (Maymaniyya print), 4:299. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-ʿitq*, *bāb mā jā’a fī al-ʿitq wa faḍlihi*. [^32]: *Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī*: *kitāb al-ṭalāq*. [^33]: As set forth in a hadith found in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-ṣawm*, *bāb idhā jāmaʿa fī ramaḍān wa lam yakun lahu shay’ fa-tuṣuddiqa ʿalayhi fa’l-yukaffir*. [^34]: *Hurriyya;* the text has *jizya.* [^35]: Al-Ḥalīmī, *Kitāb* *al-Minhāj fī shuʿab al-īmān*, 3:266-72. [^36]: Ibn Mājah. [^37]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-ʿitq, bāb karāhiyat al-taṭāwul ʿalā al-raqīq…* [^38]: *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-adab*, *bāb fī ḥaqq al-mamlūk*. The published text includes several errors within this hadith, which either resulted from copyist errors or editor misreading. It misreads as *lā’amakum* as *lā ḥukm* and *lā tuʿadhdhibū* as *lā t-q-d-mū*. [^39]: This specific narration of this hadith appears in the *Jāmiʿ of al-Tirmidhī*: *kitāb al-birr wa’l-ṣila*, *bāb jā’a fī al-iḥsān ilā al-khadam; Sunan Ibn Mājah: kitāb al-aṭʿima*, *bāb idhā atā aḥadukum khādimahu bi-ṭaʿāmihi…* and the *Musnad* of Ibn Ḥanbal, 5:158. There the version is: *idhā aḥadukum qarraba ilayhi mamlūkuhu ṭaʿāman qad kafāhu ʿanā’ahu wa ḥarrahu fa’l-yadʿuhu fa’l-ya’kul maʿahu fa-in lam yafʿal fa’l-ya’khudh luqmatan fa’l-yajʿalhā fī yadihi*. The text is very similar to a better-known hadith in the *Ṣaḥīḥayn* (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-īmān*, *bāb* 22; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-īmān*, *bāb* 10). [^40]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *Musnad al-shāmiyyīn*, ed. Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Salafī, 4 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1405/1984), 2:361. Ibn Ḥajar declared this specific hadith weak; *al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliya* (Dār al-ʿĀṣima), 12:200. [^41]: This seems to be blending a narration from *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-īmān*, *bāb* 10 and the well-known narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. [^42]: Here the text misreads *ḥarr* as *ḥurriyya* and *ʿanā’ahu* as *ʿibāda*. [^43]: This seems to be a distortion of the hadith in *Sunan Ibn Mājah*: *kitāb al-aṭʿima*, *bāb* 19. [^44]: The text misreads this as *al-Bishr*. [^45]: The text misreads this as *m-ʿā’ q-zy*. [^46]: This is a truncated version of a very long hadith found in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-zuhd*, *bāb* 19. [^47]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*: *kitāb min tafsīr al-Qur’ān*, *bāb min sūrat al-anbiyā’*. [^48]: ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, *Muṣannaf*, ed. Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿẓamī, 12 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1983), 9:445. [^49]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*: *kitāb al-birr wa’l-ṣila*, *bāb mā jā’a fī al-ʿafw ʿan al-khādim*. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-daʿawāt*, *bāb istighfār al-Nabī (s) fī al-yawm wa’l-layla*. [^51]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*: *kitāb al-adab*, *bāb al-iḥsān ilā al-mamālīk*. [^52]: I have not been able to find this hadith. There is a similar story in which the Prophet gives a slave to Ali. See al-Bukhārī, *Al-Adab al-Mufrad*, trans. Adil Salahi (Leicestershire, UK: Islamic Foundation, 2017), 142. [^53]: I have been unable to find this hadith. [^54]: This is a variation of a hadith found in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-aymān*, *bāb ṣuḥbat al-mamālīk wa kaffārat man laṭama ʿabdahu*. [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-masājid wa mawāḍiʿ al-ṣalāt*, *bāb taḥrīm al-kalām fī al-ṣalāt wa naskh mā kāna min ibāḥatihi*. [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-aymān*, *bāb ṣuḥbat al-mamālīk wa kaffārat man laṭama ʿabdahu*. [^57]: See al-Albānī, *Silsilat al- aḥādīth al- ḍaʾīfa,* 5:70–71, #2051. [^58]: This is a mangling of two narrations from Rāfiʿ b. Makīth, from the Prophet: “Good conduct in owning a slave (*ḥusn al-malaka*) is productive, and bad character is an ill omen” (see *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-adab*, *bāb fī ḥaqq al-mamlūk*) and: “Good character is productive, and bad character is an ill omen. Virtue increases one’s lifespan, and giving charity wards off a baleful end” (*Musnad* of Ibn Ḥanbal, 3:502). [^59]: This is a misreading of Zinbāʿ b. Rawḥ b. Salāma. [^60]: Similar to *Sunan Ibn Mājah*: *kitāb al- diyāt*, *bāb man maththala bi-ʿabdihi fa-huwa ḥurr* and *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-diyāt*, *bāb man qatala ʿabdahu aw maththala bihi a-yuqādu minhu*, where Abū Dāwūd provides some context for the story*.* In the narration in the *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, 2:182, it is stated that this slave was provided for with provisions and land through the caliphate of ʿUmar, when the former slave moved to Egypt. [^61]: *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, 1:95 and with small differences *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-ḥudūd*, *bāb fī iqāmat al-ḥadd ʿalā al-marīḍ*. [^62]: Very similar to *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-buyūʿ*, *bāb bayʿ al-ʿabd al-zānī*. [^63]: \[*mukātaba*; the text has *makāna*, but I think this is an error\] ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. The moral question of slavery is among the most difficult that confronts the modern conscience, for slavery is today regarded as an intrinsic evil across all times and places, as the English poet Samuel Coleridge declared it the most monstrous evil ever to exist, and as the 2001 Durban Declaration named it "a crime against humanity" that "should always have been so." Yet a genuine dilemma arises from this conviction: slavery existed in some form in every civilization until recently, and every major religious and philosophical tradition regarded it as uncontroversial and proper until, at the earliest, the 1700s, with sustained moral debate emerging only in the 1800s and confined for decades to the industrialized societies of Western Europe and America. If slavery is truly an intrinsic evil, one must ask how it was that Plato, Aristotle, Moses, Jesus, the Buddha, the sages of the Confucian and Hindu traditions, and the revealed texts of the Bible and the Qur'an found no fault in it. As one British theologian asked in the early 1800s, how could the God of the Bible have permitted it if it were evil in every time and place? One is thus left either to question the intrinsic evil of slavery or to question those figures and texts we hold in authority. One path out of this difficulty is to recognize that slavery has taken many forms, differing vastly in severity. The contrast between Sokullu Mehmet Pasha, an Ottoman grand vizier married to the sultan's daughter and among the wealthiest men of the realm, and a slave named Derby, tortured horrifically on a Jamaican sugar plantation where the enslaved survived only some seven years, illustrates this plainly. Both were legally property, yet they lived under wholly different regimes of rights: British law in Jamaica offered slaves pitifully little protection, while the Ḥanafī law of the Ottoman Empire held that ill treatment leaving scars could be grounds for forced manumission, and slaves there regularly sought relief in the courts. The slavery of the European colonies and the Atlantic trade that fed them was exceptionally brutal and rested upon unusual and offensive racial justifications; indeed the earliest humanitarian objections came from those with direct experience of it, such as the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, who had been untroubled by slavery in Spain but was shocked by Spanish treatment of Native Americans and Africans. There is, to the author's knowledge, no premodern equivalent of such treatment in Islamic civilization, though it should be noted that the intra-Muslim slave trade intensified greatly in the nineteenth century, accompanied by alarming illegalities and abuses, including the rampant enslavement of other Muslims. Slavery in Islamic and many other civilizations was more diverse and often comparatively mild: many people voluntarily entered slavery to escape starvation, slaves were often freed after a few years, and, unlike in colonial America where slavery was based on racial phenotype, freed slaves in Rome or the Islamic world bore no distinctive appearance and could prosper freely. Christian philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas held that, though the Bible and Church law permitted slavery, they did not permit total and unaccountable domination of one person by another. The reason this resolution is not more widely accepted, the author explains, is that the abolitionism which arose in Britain and colonies like Pennsylvania in the late 1700s was built upon a denial of such distinctions—partly because early polemics like Samuel Sewell's The Selling of Joseph (1700) equated the enslavement of Africans with unlawful man-stealing, forbidden even where slavery was permitted, as in Leviticus 25:39 and hadiths prohibiting the enslavement of free people, and partly because defenders of slavery would themselves invoke such distinctions to claim their slavery was benign. The author argues that denying gradations of treatment can be justified only if slavery in itself is so heinous as to admit no internal distinction—yet every definition of slavery across history (loss of freedom, being another's property, extreme marginalization, or coerced labor under threat of violence) is so abstract and context-dependent that it collapses when applied across civilizations. Within the Sharīʿah itself the matter is not settled: in the Mālikī school slaves may own property, while in the other schools they may not. Roman law permitted masters to kill their slaves, yet also permitted the same toward free children; Russian serfs sometimes chose slavery to escape taxes; and indentured servants in Virginia and Maryland faced mutilation or death for fleeing—punishments so severe that the Sharīʿah forbade them for slaves. Acknowledging these gradations does not fully dissolve the dilemma, and the author leaves the discomfort standing. The deeper insight offered is that abolitionist moral sentiment arose first precisely where societies industrialized and grew wealthy without reliance on slave labor. As the historian Howard Temperley observed, until the late 1700s "to argue against slavery was to argue against the facts of life." Industrial technology rendered dependent human labor obsolete, and refined sensibilities followed—Aristotle himself had foreseen that slaves would be dispensed with only when looms powered themselves. This does not render our conviction trivial, for many moral beliefs are shaped by custom, which the Sharīʿah empowers as a source of law and morality so long as it does not transgress the clear bounds of revelation. Within this world shaped by slavery, the Qur'an and the teaching of the Prophet ﷺ introduced unprecedented reforms: debt slavery and the sale of oneself or one's family were prohibited, and the sole lawful means of enslavement was the capture of a non-Muslim combatant from outside the Abode of Islam in war. The children of a master and his slave woman were declared not only free but of equal standing to those born of a free wife—so that whereas Thomas Jefferson's children by Sally Hemings could never join the American elite, twenty or more of the twenty-four Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad's heyday were born of slave mothers, as were nearly all Ottoman sultans. The Prophet ﷺ also refuted the Curse of Ham legend of Genesis, explaining that the variety of human skin color derives from the multicolored soil from which Allah created the first human. Most distinctive is the scripture's emphatic concern with emancipation. The Qur'an directs owners to permit slaves to purchase their freedom in installments (24:33), allots Zakat to freeing slaves (2:177, 9:60), describes freeing a neck as the steep path of the believers (90:12-16), and requires it as expiation for sins and broken oaths (5:89, 58:3). The scholars explained this command by Allah's desire for freedom, the natural freedom of all humans, and the impropriety of one person mastering another when, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "you are all the slaves of God." By the 1200s emancipation was recognized as an aim (maqṣad) of the Sharīʿah, and though the scholars did not call slavery evil (as essentially no one did before the 1700s), they held it to be harmful (ḍarar). Why then did Allah not simply abolish slavery? The author answers that no one—Christian, European, or otherwise—called for abolition as an institution until the 1700s, when it became economically conceivable only as fossil fuels replaced human energy. Muslims encountered abolitionism through European colonial power, but came to share its sentiments through social and economic change. When the Mālikī and Ḥanafī muftis of Tunis approved the banning of slavery in 1846, they affirmed that a Muslim ruler may restrict slavery to achieve the Sharīʿah's aim of emancipation, since owning slaves is neither required nor recommended, and restricting it falls under "restricting the permissible" (taqyīd al-mubāḥ) for the common good. The Tunisian scholar Muḥammad Bayram al-Khāmis wrote that obeying such a ruling becomes a religious obligation, so that Muslims must honor abolition "in secret and in the open," and that "disobeying the Sacred Law is truly prohibited." The accompanying text is that of al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥasan al-Ḥalīmī (d. 403/1012), a Shāfiʿī jurist, Hadith master, and Ashʿarī theologian of Khurasan and Transoxiana, drawn from his Kitāb al-Minhāj fī shuʿab al-īmān, an exposition of the branches of faith. In its thirtieth branch, on manumission, al-Ḥalīmī shows that Allah made freeing slaves an expiation and a redemption for wrongful killing, and a means of drawing near to Him, citing "But you have not taken the steep path… it is the freeing of a neck" (90:11-17). He relates the Prophet's ﷺ words to one who asked the deed that gains Paradise—"Manumit a neck and free a soul"—and the report that "for every limb freed of the slave, God will free a limb of the one who freed them," and that Allah has created nothing more beloved to Him than freeing slaves nor more hated than divorce. Freeing the slave, he explains, restores their capacity to own property and to perform Zakat, Hajj, jihad, and the Friday prayer, from which their servitude had barred them. In the fifty-eighth branch, on excellence toward slaves, al-Ḥalīmī cites "and to those whom you possess rightfully" (4:36) and the Prophet's ﷺ final counsel upon his deathbed: "Prayer, prayer. Fear God concerning those whom you rightfully possess." He instructs owners to say "my boy" and "my girl" rather than "my slave," to feed and clothe them as they feed and clothe themselves, not to burden them beyond capacity, and to sell or free those they cannot treat justly. He gathers many reports to this end: "Each of you is a shepherd, responsible for his flock"; the hadith of the scales of justice (21:47), whereby excessive punishment of a slave is counted against the master; the command to excuse a slave's faults seventy times daily; the account of Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī, whom the Prophet ﷺ reminded, "God has more power over you than you have over him"; the freeing of the believing slave girl who affirmed that Allah is "in the heavens"; and the harsh rebuke of Dībāgh b. Salāma, whom the Prophet ﷺ commanded to free the slave he had mutilated—which al-Ḥalīmī clarifies was an expiation for the wrong, not a legal definition of manumission. He closes with the etiquette of purchasing a slave: seeking Allah's guidance (istikhāra), praying for the slave's good, and the rulings on who among owners may carry out the ḥadd punishments, matters he refers to their fuller treatment in the Book of Rulings. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-happened-on-the-day-of-ashura-contextualizing-the-events-and-meaning-of-ashura # What Happened on the Day of Ashura? Contextualizing the Events and Meaning of Ashura **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** History, Islam in the West, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Ashura, Justice in Islam **Published:** July 15, 2024 **Updated:** June 23, 2026 ## What happened to Musa (as) and the Children of Israel on Ashura? On the day of Ashura, millennia ago, Musa (as) and the Children of Israel achieved a momentous victory over the oppressive [tyranny of Pharaoh](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/confronting-todays-pharaoh-and-the-propaganda-war-on-palestine). Guided by divine command, Musa (as) led his people to the edge of the parted sea, where Allah miraculously allowed them to cross to safety while the pursuing army of Pharaoh drowned. > So We inspired Moses: “Strike the sea with your staff,” and the sea was split; each part was like a huge mountain. We drew the pursuers to that place, and delivered Moses and those with him all together. Then We drowned the others. Surely in this is a sign. Yet most of them would not believe. And your Lord is certainly the Almighty, Most Merciful. > > (Quran 26: 63-68) This monumental event, commemorated across many faiths, serves as a timeless testament to the [triumph of righteousness over tyranny.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/confronting-todays-pharaoh-and-the-propaganda-war-on-palestine) It stands not just as a historical account but as a profound spiritual narrative that continues to inspire courage and steadfast faith in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Imagine a nation of enslaved people, walking to the very edge of the land, guided by faith and the promise of divine deliverance, as Allah miraculously carves a path to freedom that defies all natural laws. The splitting of the sea, a divine gesture of mercy and deliverance, remains a vivid symbol of Allah’s aid to those who steadfastly maintain their trust in Him. It signifies the ultimate victory of justice and freedom, illustrating how the righteous, guided by unwavering faith, can overcome the most formidable adversaries. [Commemorating this event by fasting](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/fasting-ashura-what-is-ashura-and-why-is-it-important) is a solemn reminder that Allah’s assistance is ever-present for those who persevere in righteousness and rely on His divine wisdom and mercy. Victory will come even in the most unlikely of circumstances. --- ## What is the connection between Ashura, Noah (as) and the flood? Though it is considered a weak narration, Ashura is potentially “the day that the ship of Prophet Nuh (as) settled upon Mount Judi, and so Prophet Nuh (as) fasted the day out of thankfulness to Allah” \[Musnad Ahmad #8717\]. > And when Our command came and the oven burst \[with water\], We said \[to Noah\], “Take into the Ark a pair from every species along with your family—except those against whom the decree \[of drowning\] has already been passed—and those who believe.” But none believed with him except for a few. And he said, “Board it! In the Name of Allah it will sail and cast anchor. Surely my Lord is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” And \[so˺\] the Ark sailed with them through waves like mountains. Noah called out to his son, who stood apart, “O my dear son! Come aboard with us and do not be with the disbelievers.” He replied, “I will take refuge on a mountain, which will protect me from the water.” Noah cried, “Today no one is protected from Allah’s decree except those to whom He shows mercy!” And the waves came between them, and his son was among the drowned. And it was said, “O earth! Swallow up your water. And O sky! Withhold \[your rain\].” The floodwater receded and the decree was carried out. The Ark rested on Mount Judi, and it was said, “Away with the wrongdoing people!” (Quran 11:40-44) Prophet Nuh (as) faced immense trials and challenges during his mission, and the survival of some of his family and believers shows his obedience to Allah. Victory is not always immediate or apparent, but it comes to those who steadfastly trust in Allah. > Indeed, those who say, “Our Lord is Allah!” and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them, \[saying,\] “Do not fear, nor be grieved! Receive the good news of the paradise, which you have been promised.” (Qur’an 31:40) --- ## Why is Husayn ibn Ali (ra) associated with Ashura? Hasan and Hussein were the grandsons of the Prophet ﷺ. He loved them immensely, like many grandparents adore and spoil their grandchildren. Ibn Umar narrated, “I heard the Prophet ﷺ, say, ‘They are my two sweet-basils in the world.’” \[*Sahih Bukhari* #5994\] Ashura also coincides with the martyrdom of Hussein. During the reign of the tyrant Yazid, the Muslim community was already fractured. The people of Kufa promised their support to Hussein through many written letters, should he choose to lead them. The people of Kufa, who promised their allegiance to Hussein, ultimately betrayed him. \[*Majmu' al-Fatawa*\] Multiple events led to the eventual martyrdom of Hussein, during a merciless and unfair battle. The final act of unspeakable cruelty saw the savage warriors, Shimir and Sinan ibn Anas, brutally decapitate Hussein, presenting his head on a plate to Ibn Ziyaad. Ibn Ziyaad desecrated this head with a stick and vile mockery. \[*Majmu' al-Fatawa*\] What insolent, heart-wrenching behavior towards the one who resembled the Prophet ﷺ, the very child whom the Prophet ﷺ cherished, played with, and kissed. We feel this love because we love those whom the Prophet ﷺ loved, and he loved his family. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Hussein is from me and I am from Hussein. Allah loves anyone who loves Hussein. He is one of my distinguished descendants.” \[*Jami’ al-Tirmidhī* #3775\] Although the killing and treatment of his corpse was abhorrent, we comfort ourselves knowing, “The [martyr does not feel the pain](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-martyrs-of-gaza-are-soaring-in-the-heavens) of being killed except as one of you feels the pinch of an insect bite.” \[*Jami’* *al-Tirmidhī* #1668\] The victory of Hussein in this case was not an apparent worldly victory but one of the Hereafter. His victory came in the form of martyrdom, and it stands as a testament to the strength of unwavering faith in the face of tyranny. It highlights the profound beauty of understanding life as a dual existence—both in this material world and in eternal Paradise. > Never say that those martyred in the cause of Allah are dead—in fact, they are alive! But you do not perceive it. (Qur’an 2:154) > > “Verily, the souls of martyrs are in green birds, hanging from the fruits of Paradise, or the trees of Paradise.” \[*Jami’* *al-Tirmidhī* #1641\] In Islam, the [honor of martyrdom](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-martyrs-of-gaza-are-soaring-in-the-heavens) is revered, for it signifies a triumph that transcends worldly suffering and attains the everlasting bliss and honor of the Hereafter. *Shahada*, or the verbal testimony of faith in Islam, shares the same word in Arabic with martyrdom (*shahada*), or the ultimate physical manifestation of one’s willingness to give their life striving for the truth and their sincere belief in Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Anas reported: The Prophet ﷺ  said, “No one who enters Paradise would like to return to the world, even if he could have everything on earth, except for the martyr. He will wish to return to the world and be killed ten more times due to the generous reward he sees.” \[*Sahih al-Bukhari* #2817\] Hussein’s sacrifice is a powerful reminder of the eternal glory that awaits those who stand steadfast in their faith, undeterred by the trials of the earthly realm. > Hussein is among the most honored of the Prophet’s family. His patience and steadfastness in the face of tyranny are examples for all Muslims. – Ibn Taymiyyah \[Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah\] On Ashura, we remember the bloodline of our Messenger, the pain of this loss, but also the eternal victory of righteousness and the high station of our martyrs in Islam. --- ## What does Palestine have to do with Ashura? Hussein’s end, and our continued hope for worldly *and* everlasting victory is even more relevant today, as our Palestinian brothers and sisters, with their unwavering dignity and strength, suffer such abhorrent and [heart-wrenching barbarity.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/confronting-todays-pharaoh-and-the-propaganda-war-on-palestine) Only Allah knows why this genocide has continued. We see the righteous dying before us, and we see the hypocrites quiet beside us. Our [anger against oppressors](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/we-wont-back-down-when-righteous-anger-becomes-a-moral-duty) intensifies, and Allah opens our eyes to the way the world has deluded us. Our *ibadah* increases, as our eyes bear witness to the bombing, beheading, shellings, starvation, stealing, and mockery. Allah’s granting of victory need not materialize in immediate worldly terms. Whether in our lifetime or beyond, as believers we refrain from measuring victory by earthly metrics. Instead, we entrust our hopes to the greater design of Allah's plans. We remain steadfast in the certainty that Allah will honor the martyrs and reward their sacrifices. With steadfast determination, we strive for victory—a [liberated Palestine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/dont-give-up-on-gaza-how-knowing-allah-sustains-hope-and-resistance)—using every means within our power, guided by faith and the promise of divine justice. --- ## Why are Muslims fasting Ashura? Ashura is derived from the Arabic word *ashara* meaning ten, and refers specifically to the 10th day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the [Islamic calendar.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-months-ordained-by-allah-reviving-the-islamic-calendar) The best way to commemorate Ashura is the way of the sunnah, through fasting. This year, as we observe [fasting on the 10th of Muharram](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/fasting-ashura-what-is-ashura-and-why-is-it-important) (July 16, 2024), and we honor a practice dating back to the time before Islam, when even the Quraysh recognized its importance. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized our rightful claim to celebrate Moses’ victory, urging us to fast on this blessed day (*Sahih Al-Bukhari* #4680). It is recommended to distinguish our fast from that of earlier traditions by fasting a day before (which is preferred) or after Ashura. Fasting, an act of profound devotion known only to  Allah, serves as a pathway to ultimate victory. It signifies our aspiration to be among Allah’s chosen servants, to secure a place in His eternal Paradise, and to dwell in His presence for eternity. By observing this fast with sincerity and devotion, we align ourselves with the noble tradition of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and affirm our commitment to righteousness and divine obedience. May our fasting on Ashura strengthen our faith, purify our hearts, and bring us closer to the boundless mercy and blessings of Allah. Learn more about fasting on Ashura by reading [Fasting Ashura: What Is Ashura and Why Is It Important? By Sh. Ibrahim Hindy.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/fasting-ashura-what-is-ashura-and-why-is-it-important) **This piece has been adapted from the following Yaqeen Videos:** [Why Ashura is so important | Khutbah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/why-ashura-is-so-important-khutbah) [The Ashura Within | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/the-ashura-within-khutbah) [Virtues of Ashura and How to Observe It | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/virtues-of-ashura-and-how-to-observe-it-khutbah-2) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What happened to Musa (as) and the Children of Israel on Ashura? On the day of Ashura, millennia ago, Musa (as) and the Children of Israel achieved a momentous victory over the oppressive tyranny of Pharaoh. Guided by divine command, Musa (as) led his people to the edge of the parted sea, where Allah miraculously allowed them to cross to safety while the pursuing army of Pharaoh drowned (Qur’an 26:63-68). The splitting of the sea, a divine gesture of mercy and deliverance, remains a vivid symbol of Allah’s aid to those who steadfastly maintain their trust in Him. ### What is the connection between Ashura, Noah (as) and the flood? Though it is considered a weak narration, Ashura is potentially “the day that the ship of Prophet Nuh (as) settled upon Mount Judi, and so Prophet Nuh (as) fasted the day out of thankfulness to Allah” \[*Musnad Ahmad* #8717\]. The Qur’an recounts that the Ark rested on Mount Judi after the floodwater receded (Qur’an 11:40-44). Prophet Nuh (as) faced immense trials and challenges during his mission, and the survival of some of his family and believers shows his obedience to Allah. Victory is not always immediate or apparent, but it comes to those who steadfastly trust in Allah. ### Why is Husayn ibn Ali (ra) associated with Ashura? Hasan and Hussein were the grandsons of the Prophet ﷺ, and he loved them immensely — Ibn Umar narrated, “I heard the Prophet ﷺ say, ‘They are my two sweet-basils in the world.’” (*Sahih al-Bukhari* #5994) Ashura coincides with the martyrdom of Hussein during the reign of the tyrant Yazid, after the people of Kufa who had promised him their allegiance ultimately betrayed him. The victory of Hussein in this case was not an apparent worldly victory but one of the Hereafter; his victory came in the form of martyrdom, and it stands as a testament to the strength of unwavering faith in the face of tyranny. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Hussein is from me and I am from Hussein. Allah loves anyone who loves Hussein. He is one of my distinguished descendants.” (*Jami’ al-Tirmidhi* #3775) ### What does Palestine have to do with Ashura? Hussein’s end, and our continued hope for worldly *and* everlasting victory, is even more relevant today, as our Palestinian brothers and sisters, with their unwavering dignity and strength, suffer such abhorrent and heart-wrenching barbarity. Allah’s granting of victory need not materialize in immediate worldly terms. Whether in our lifetime or beyond, as believers we refrain from measuring victory by earthly metrics. Instead, we entrust our hopes to the greater design of Allah’s plans, remaining steadfast in the certainty that Allah will honor the martyrs and reward their sacrifices. ### Why are Muslims fasting Ashura? Ashura is derived from the Arabic word *ashara* meaning ten, and refers specifically to the 10th day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. The best way to commemorate Ashura is the way of the sunnah, through fasting. We honor a practice dating back to the time before Islam, when even the Quraysh recognized its importance, and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized our rightful claim to celebrate Moses’ victory, urging us to fast on this blessed day (*Sahih Al-Bukhari* #4680). It is recommended to distinguish our fast from that of earlier traditions by fasting a day before (which is preferred) or after Ashura. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/from-srebrenica-to-gaza-the-dehumanization-of-muslims-blog # From Srebrenica to Gaza: The Dehumanization of Muslims **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** History, Islam in the West, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Gaza, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** July 8, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 *We must recognize the daily, routine dehumanization that leads to genocide.* The genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995, when some 8,000 mostly Muslim Bosniaks were killed by a Serbian nationalist militia, was the [largest genocide](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://srebrenica.org.uk/what-happened&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551222791&usg=AOvVaw2YDg1DkOVIU9ki8O_KPkQM) Europe has seen since the Holocaust. Far from arising in a vacuum, in the three years leading up to the genocide, an estimated [100,000 people were killed](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/bosnia-herzegovina/case-study/background/1992-1995&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551223078&usg=AOvVaw0lJh7NYWRrm93-chnCMvet)—80% of whom were Bosniaks, one of three ethnic groups who called the fledgling state of Bosnia and Herzegovina home. But in that month of July, Bosnian Serb troops slaughtered Srebrenica’s men and boys before burying them in mass graves, raped an untold number of Bosniak women, and removed an estimated 23,000 women, children, and elderly, putting them on buses and driving them to Muslim-controlled territories. It was the horrific climax of a disgraceful war. The international Muslim community mobilized, and the shame of the genocide prompted the West to act. A [NATO-led bombing campaign](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52122.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551223937&usg=AOvVaw1MOtjBksGFPoEanl2XOYMv) led to the cessation of the Serbian murder machine. Now, as we commemorate another anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Gaza remains under Israeli bombardment as a new [genocide](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147976&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551224320&usg=AOvVaw0nZIGZupAfdLqRx5iCUurZ) has unfolded before our eyes. As of June 2025, nearly 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, with over 125,000 injured.[^1] How do we reflect on the murder of thousands of Bosniak Muslims, while working to end the ongoing genocide in Gaza? How do we avoid “statistical numbness,” one where casualty counts, past and present, are merely numbers, absent souls? The hypocrisy of a post-WWII rules-based world order that fuels a genocide in Gaza today also gave way to the genocide in Srebrenica. At its center is the dehumanization of the Muslim, apart from race, geography, or identity. Despite their location in Europe and their Caucasian ethnicity, Bosniaks were demonized, dehumanized, and consequently assigned for slaughter precisely because of their Islam. Post-World War II decolonization had already normalized the Third World Muslim victims of Africa and Asia, but in Europe itself, only a few decades separated from the Holocaust, the citizens of the world’s most prosperous region told themselves that they had left the savagery of the past behind. Insert Islam, however, and the Bosniak Muslim is transformed into a natural casualty. Simply put, would the genocide of Srebrenica have been possible if the victims weren’t Muslim? Or did it prove that being Muslim alone potentially disqualifies one from being considered European or even human? These questions about Srebrenica are especially relevant now, at a time in which Gaza faces famine and genocide, and in a 21st century defined by futile wars in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, which have left thousands of unnamed and unknown casualties. What does it mean to remember? What good is remembering without pause, reflection, and internalization? It’s important to frame the genocide of Srebrenica—and now Gaza—primarily through the lens of personal accountability. In looking inward while reflecting on atrocity, we interrogate our efforts. How are we working to end the current genocide, while commemorating a previous one? This process converts remembrance from a ceremonial annual ritual to a transformative exercise of self-accountability. When I [visited](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/imamomarsuleiman/posts/srebrenicaif-the-dead-could-speak-to-us-the-site-of-a-monstrous-genocide-with-th/481271546689120/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551227405&usg=AOvVaw2tQRFxWmjm8UQsEvcT02co) the Srebrenica Memorial Center, I was chilled to the bone by the sheer number of graves, most of them containing bodies of Bosniak Muslims recovered from mass graves. They cover the ground as far as the eye can see. In Srebrenica, the air itself seems to bear witness to the bloodshed. Desensitization is impossible. Every grave is important. The difference between one casualty or two, much less 8,000, is the difference between night and day. At the memorial center, the shoes of the victims remain on display, each pair a reminder that we must humanize the statistics and bring life to history. Every human being who once stood in those shoes had tried to escape the horrific cruelty of their tormentors. The victims thought of ways to run and hide, and dreamed of walking freely without fear. They were children, parents, spouses, and siblings. But to those who massacred them in assembly lines, they were less than insects. Remembering genocide means remembering that it is only possible through the systematic dehumanization of a people. Just as Bosnians were stripped of their humanity and slaughtered, Palestinians today face the same erasure. All around us in media and culture, Palestinians are synonymous with evil and violence. Their casualties are dismissed as collateral damage. This process doesn’t unfold overnight; it is the result of sustained neglect, narrative manipulation, and systematic dehumanization. We are inundated with the news of Gaza’s casualties every day, on our phones, televisions, and computers. Over 10 killed here, 25 killed there, 700 killed last week. Srebrenica should have marked the end of such atrocities, it should have been a “*never again*,” and without proper remembrance and reflection, the cycle of empty condolences and endless anniversaries will continue. *A prior version of this blog was written for and published on Religion News Service: [https://religionnews.com/2023/07/11/why-do-we-remember-srebrenica/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://religionnews.com/2023/07/11/why-do-we-remember-srebrenica/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551229962&usg=AOvVaw0su7QCWpnshQGlr3GNKXZT)* --- ## Notes [^1]: “Situation Report #174 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” UNRWA, June 7, 2025, [https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-174-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-174-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1750274551230611&usg=AOvVaw0km77ZvMa7MPOwhapMIwaj). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/imam-al-suyuti-and-symmetry-in-the-quran-understanding-the-connection-between-the-beginning-and-ending-of-surahs # Imam al-Suyūṭī and Symmetry in the Qur'an: Understanding the Connection Between the Beginning and Ending of Surahs **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 27, 2024 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 The Qur’an is a shoreless ocean of treasures. The combined lifespans of humanity are insufficient to collect all its pearls. Yet, every sincere Muslim should desire to become better skilled at diving into its wondrous depths. It enhances your ability to transform your spirit through deeper *tadabbur* (contemplation) of the Qur’an in general, and in particular, through recognizing some of the possible secrets behind how each *sūrah* (chapter) of the Qur’an begins and ends. For half a millennium and counting, the leading scholars of Islam have regarded the great Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911H/1505CE, Allah grant him mercy) as a towering super-expert on the Qur’an, and hold his seminal project, *al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, as one of the most authoritative, indispensable references on the [Qur’anic sciences](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies). After summarizing in *al-Itqān* earlier scholarship on the ten brilliant styles of “opening statements” that every *sūrah* falls within, and how the “closing remarks” of every *sūrah* are perfectly suited to retain its most important themes,[^1] al-Suyūṭī dedicated a standalone treatise called *Marāṣid al-Maṭāliʿ* (Capturing the Beginnings) to demonstrate the evident symmetry or parity between the introduction and conclusion of each *sūrah*.[^2] This translation is based on a digitally imaged (PDF) print of *al-Marāṣid* published in 1426H.[^3] No substantial departures were made from the original text, aside from some discretionary incorporations of parenthetical detail to help readers locate verses by number or the like. As for the commentary, it consists of selections from the source publication’s footnotes, unless otherwise cited. --- ## The Text of Marāṣid al-Maṭāliʿ In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy All praise be to Allah, who guides those who seek Him to their aims, and grants us insights about the fundamentals of His Book and its subtleties. May salutations and peace be upon our master, Muhammad, and upon his family, companions, and supporters. To begin: Among the sciences of the Great Qur’an are the correlations between how its *sūrah*(s) begin and end. I have previously explained that in *al-Itqān*, and also in the book *Asrār al-Tanzīl*. It has also been mentioned by the *muḥaqqiqūn* (critical verifier scholars), such as the author of *al-Kashshāf*, his teacher Maḥmūd ibn Ḥamzah al-Karmānī (the author of *al-Burhān fī Mutashābih al-Qurʾān* and *al-Gharāʾib wal-ʿAjāʾib*) in his book on *tafsīr*, Imam Fakhr al-Dīn \[al-Rāzī\] (d. 606H/1209), and al-Aṣbahānī (d. 430/947), among others. In this short treatise, I have chosen to demonstrate this \[correlation between how *sūrahs* begin and end\] in the chronological order of the *sūrah*(s), based on my own personal reflections (except where I expressly cite others). I have named this work *Marāṣid al-Maṭāliʿ fī Tanāsub al-Maqāṭiʿ wal-Maṭāliʿ* (Capturing the Beginnings: The Correspondence of Chapters’ Endings and Beginnings). ### Al-Baqarah Al-Iṣfahānī said, “Its end matches its beginning in terms of identifying the qualities of the believers, and then alluding to the qualities of the disbelievers.” ### Āl ʿImrān It begins by mentioning the Qur’an being sent down, and the Torah and Evangel prior to that. It then concludes with that as well, in His words, **“Indeed, there are some among the People of the Book who truly believe in Allah and what has been revealed to you \[believers\] and what was revealed to them.”** (3:199) Similarly, it begins with, **“Allah does not break His promise.”** (3:9) and concludes with, **“You never fail in Your promise.”** (3:194)[^4] ### Al-Nisāʾ It begins by mentioning how creation (and childbirth) began and concludes with the rulings related to death.[^5] It also begins with the verses of inheritance and *kalālah* (when the deceased leaves no parents or children) and concludes with the same theme. ### Al-Māʾidah It begins with the prohibition of hunting while in *iḥrām* (a sanctified state), and \[by mentioning\] the sacred months, the sacrificial animals, and the *qalāʾid* (those adorned for sacrifice), and concludes with that as well. It also begins with declaring grazing livestock permissible, and ended with lamenting those who prohibited some livestock which Allah never prohibited. Also, in its beginning: **“Allah made a covenant with the Children of Israel.”** (5:12) In its end: **“Indeed, we took a covenant from the Children of Israel.”** (5:70) Also, in its beginning: **“Indeed, those who say ‘Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary’  have disbelieved.”** (5:17) In its end is something similar.[^6] ### Al-Anʿām It begins with, **“Yet the disbelievers set up equals to their Lord.”** (6:1) and ends with **“and set up equals with their Lord.”** (6:150) It begins with, **“Have they not seen how many \[disbelieving\] people We destroyed before them? We have made them more established in the land than you. We sent down abundant rain for them and made rivers flow at their feet. Then We destroyed them for their sins and replaced them with other peoples.”** (6:6) And its ending is: **“He is the One Who has placed you as successors on earth.”** (6:165) ### Al-Aʿrāf In its beginning: **“As a reminder to the believers.”** (7:2) and in its end: **“They remember \[their Lord\] then they start to see \[things\] clearly.”** (7:201) In its beginning: **“Follow what has been sent down to you from your Lord,”** (7:3) and in its end: **“Say, I only follow what is revealed to me from my Lord.”** (7:203) In its beginning: **“And do not take others as guardians besides Him,”** (7:3) and in its end: **“But \[the devils\] persistently plunge their \[human\] associates deeper into wickedness, sparing no effort.”** (7:203) Likewise, it begins by describing *Iblīs* (Satan) as being arrogant and concludes by describing the angels as not being too proud \[to worship Allah\].[^7] Also, in its beginning: **“Call upon your Lord in humility and secretly,”** (7:55) and in its end: **“Remember your Lord inwardly with humility and reverence.”** (7:205) ### Al-Anfāl It opens with His statement, **“It is they who are the true believers. They will have elevated ranks, forgiveness, and an honorable provision \[from their Lord\],”** (8:4) and is sealed with His statement, **“…they are the true believers. They will have forgiveness and an honorable provision.”** (8:74) ### Barāʾah (Al-Tawbah) It opens with His statement, **“But if you turn away, then know that you will have no escape from Allah,”** (9:3) and concludes with His statement, **“But if they turn away, then say, \[O Prophet\] ‘Allah is sufficient for me.’”** (9:129) ### Yūnus In its beginning, **“…that We have sent revelation to a man from among them,”** (10:2) and in its end, **“And follow what is revealed to you.”** (10:109) ### Hūd, Yūsuf,[^8] Al-Raʿd, Ibrāhīm, Al-Ḥijr All of them commence and conclude by mentioning \[the Qur’an\].[^9] ### Al-Naḥl It begins with a prohibition of being hasty (16:1) and ends with a command to be patient. (16:127) ### Al-Isrāʾ It begins with *tasbīḥ* (glorifying Allah) and concludes with *taḥmīd*. ### Al-Kahf, Maryam, & ṬāHā They all open and conclude by mentioning the Qur’an and *dhikr* (remembrance).[^10] ### Al-Anbiyāʾ In its beginning, **“The \[time of\] people’s judgment has drawn near,”** (21:1) and in its end, **“And \[when\] the true promise (i.e., the resurrection) has neared.”** (21:97) ### Al-Ḥajj It begins by mentioning the Hour (22:1), and is sealed with His statement, **“… so that the Messenger may be a witness over you, and that you may be witnesses over humanity”** (22:78)—and that occurs on the Day of Resurrection.[^11] ### Al-Muʾminūn Its start: **“Successful indeed are the believers.”** (23:1) Its end: **“Indeed, the disbelievers will not succeed.”** (23:117) This was noted by al-Zamakhsharī.[^12] ### Al-Nūr In its beginning, with regard to women, **“Let them draw their veils over their chests, and not reveal their \[hidden\] adornments.”** (24:31) Then, in its end, with regards to *al-qawāʿid* (elderly women past the age of marriage), **“there is no blame on them if they take off their \[outer\] garments, without revealing their adornments.”** (24:60)[^13] ### Al-Furqān It begins with **“Blessed \[is the One\],”** (25:1) and ends with that. (25:61) ### Al-Shuʿarāʾ It begins by mentioning **“The Book”** (26:2) and concludes with His statement, **“This is certainly a revelation from the Lord of all the world.”** (26:192)[^14] ### Al-Naml It begins by mentioning the Book, and it being Guidance (27:1-2) and concludes with His statement, **“‘…and to recite the Qur’an.’ Then whoever chooses to be guided, it is only for their own good.”** (27:92) ### Al-Qaṣaṣ In its beginning, **“I will never side with the wicked,”** (28:17) and in its end, **“So never be an aid to the disbelievers \[in their disbelief\].”** (28:86) Also, it begins with the migration of Moses from his homeland and then his return to it, and in its end is the Prophet’s ﷺ migration from his homeland and his return to it. (28:85) ### Al-ʿAnkabūt It was sealed with migration and jihad, due to His statement in the beginning, **“Do people think once they say, ‘We believe,’ that they will be left without being put to the test?”** (29:2)[^15] ### Al-Rūm It starts with, **“On the Day the Hour will arrive, the wicked will be dumbstruck.”** (30:12) And it ends with, **“And on the Day the Hour will arrive, the wicked will swear…”** (30:55)[^16] ### Luqmān It begins with, **“…and scattered throughout it all types of creatures. And We send down rain from the sky,”** (31:10) and in its end, **“He sends down the rain, and knows what is in the wombs.”** (31:34) ### Al-Sajdah In its beginning, **“… to warn a people to whom no warner has come before you,”** (32:3) and in its end, **“So turn away from them, and await! They too are waiting.”** (32:30) ### Al-Aḥzāb It begins with His statement, **“O Prophet, \[always\] be mindful of Allah,”** (33:1) and in its conclusion is an address to his wives, **“And be mindful of Allah.”** (33:55)[^17] ### Sabaʾ It begins with the unseen world (34:3), and concludes with the Knower of the Unseen. (34:48) ### Fāṭir In its beginning, **“As for those who plot evil, they will suffer a severe punishment. And the plotting of such \[people\] is doomed \[to fail\],”** (35:10) and in its end, **“But evil plotting only backfires on those who plot.”** (35:43) ### YāSīn It begins with describing the Qur’an \[as wise\] (36:2) and ends with that as well in His statement, **“We did not teach him poetry.”** (36:69) It also begins with His statement, **“It is certainly We Who resurrect the dead,”** (36:12) and concludes with establishing the proof for that by Him saying, **“And they argue with Us— forgetting they were created—saying, ‘Who will give life to decayed bones?’”** (36:78) ### Al-Ṣāffāt Its beginning is **“By those lined up in ranks,”** (37:1) and they are the angels. The ending is also about them: **“We are indeed the ones lined up in ranks \[for Allah\].”** (37:165)[^18] ### Ṣād Its beginning is **“Ṣād. By the Quran, full of reminder!”** (38:1) and it ends with, **“It is only a reminder to the whole world.”** (38:87) This was stated by al-Karmānī. ### Al-Zumar In its beginning, **“So worship Allah \[alone\] being sincerely devoted to Him,”** (39:2) and in its end, **“Rather, worship Allah \[alone\].”** (39:66) Also, its opening is the beginning of creation (39:6), and its ending is the Hour and Resurrection (39:68-75). Also, its opening describes how the heavens and earth were created with *ḥaqq* (rightful purpose) (39:5) and its conclusion describes the very end of the resurrection, **“Judgment will conclude with *ḥaqq* (fairness).”** (39:75) ### Ghāfir In its beginning, **“Have they not traveled throughout the land…”** (40:21) and in its end, **“Have they not traveled throughout the land.”** (40:82) Also, in its beginning, **“So call upon Allah with sincere devotion,”** (40:14) and in its end, **“Your Lord has proclaimed, ‘Call upon Me.”** (40:60)[^19] ### Fuṣṣilat In its beginning, **“Yet most of them turn away,”** (41:4) and in its end, **“…they turn away, acting arrogantly.”** (41:51)[^20] ### Al-Shūrā In its beginning, **“And so you \[O Prophet\] are sent revelation, just like those before you,”** (42:3) and in its end, **“And so We have sent to you \[O Prophet\] a revelation by Our command.”** (42:52) ### Al-Zukhruf In its beginning, **“If you ask them \[O Prophet\] who created the heavens and the earth, they will certainly say, ‘They were created by the Almighty, All-Knowing,’”** (43:9) and in its end, **“If you ask them \[O Prophet\] who created them, they will certainly say, ‘Allah!’”** (43:87) Also, in its beginning, **“*Ṣafḥan* (fully overlooking)”** (43:5) and in its end, **“*Faṣfaḥ* (So overlook) them…”** (43:89) ### Al-Dukhān It begins by mentioning the Qur’an (44:2) and concludes with that as well. (44:58) Also, in its beginning, **“Wait then \[O Prophet\] for the day \[when\] the sky will be veiled in haze, clearly visible,”** (44:10) and in its end, **“Wait then! They too are certainly waiting.”** (44:59) ### Al-Jāthiyah In its opening, **“And whenever they learn anything of Our revelations, they make a mockery of it,”** (45:9) and in its end, **“This is because you made a mockery of Allah’s revelations.”** (45:35)[^21] ### Al-Aḥqāf It begins by mentioning the creation of the heavens and earth (46:3), and concludes with that (46:33) as well.[^22] ### Al-Qitāl (Muḥammad) It starts with the command to fight (47:4) and ends with it. (47:38) ### Al-Fatḥ It begins with describing the Prophet ﷺ and the believers and what they were promised (48:1-5). It concludes with a similar motif as well. (48:29) ### Al-Ḥujurāt It begins with the prohibition of proceeding ahead of Allah and His Messenger (ﷺ)(49:1), and concludes with the prohibition of mentioning your favor to Allah and His Messenger (ﷺ)(49:17). It also begins with describing Allah as fully knowing (49:1), and ends with that as well. (49:18) ### Qāf It begins by mentioning resurrection (50:3), and concludes with that as well. (50:44)[^23] ### Al-Dhāriyāt It begins with His statement, **“Indeed, what you are promised is true,”** (51:5) and concludes with His statement, **“Woe then to the disbelievers when they face their Day which they are warned of!”** (51:60) ### Al-Ṭūr It begins with His statement, **“Indeed, the punishment of your Lord will come to pass,”** (52:7) and concludes with, **“Also, the wrongdoers will certainly have another torment before that \[Day\].”** (52:47) ### Al-Najm It begins by speaking of *al-najm* (53:1), the star, and ends with a reference to *al-shiʿrā* (53:49), which is also a star (Sirius). ### Al-Qamar It begins with the hour **“drawing near”** (54:1) and ends with, **“Better yet, the Hour is their appointed time….”** (54:46) ### Al-Raḥmān It begins with the Majestic, Divine Name of Allah (55:1), and concludes with it again in His statement, **“Blessed is the Name of your Lord, full of Majesty and Honor.”** (55:78) ### Al-Wāqiʿah It begins by mentioning the three categories of the creation: those of the right hand, those of the left hand, and the forerunners. It concludes with those \[three classes\] in His statement, **“So, if \[the deceased\] is one of those brought near \[to Us\]...”** (56:88) ### Al-Ḥadīd It begins by describing Allah (57:1), and concludes with that as well. (57:29) Also, in its beginning, **“Believe in Allah and His Messenger,”** (57:7) and in its end, **“Fear Allah and believe in His Messenger.”** (57:28) Its opening (57:6) and its ending (57:28) both mention light. ### Al-Mujādilah At its beginning is the mention of those Allah heard of His allies (58:1), and at its end is Allah’s pleasure with those He loves. (58:22) ### Al-Ḥashr It starts, **“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth glorifies Allah. For He is the Almighty, All-Wise,”** (59:1) and ends, **“Whatever is in the heavens and the earth \[constantly\] glorifies Him. And He is the Almighty, All-Wise.”** (59:24) ### Al-Mumtaḥanah It starts, **“O believers! Do not take My enemies and yours as trusted allies,”** (60:1) and ends, **“O believers! Do not ally yourselves with a people Allah is displeased with.”** (60:13) ### Al-Ṣaff It starts, **“Why do you say what you do not do?”** (61:2) which was revealed about jihad, and it ends with mentioning the Anṣār (Supporters) of Allah from among the followers of Jesus (as) who partook in jihad. (61:14) Also, it starts, **“Surely, Allah loves those who fight in His cause in \[solid\] ranks,”** (61:4) and ends with **“and fight in the cause of Allah,”** (61:11). Also, in its beginning is **“…and giving good news of a messenger,”** (61:6) and its end states, **“Give good news \[O Prophet\] to the believers.”** (6:13) ### Al-Jumuʿah It begins with describing Allah, the Glorified, (62:1) and concludes with that as well. (62:11) ### Al-Munāfiqūn In its beginning, **“...so they hindered \[others\] from the Way of Allah,”** (63:2) and in its end, **“Do not let your wealth or your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah.”** (63:9) Also, in its beginning, **“When the hypocrites come to you,”** (63:1) and in its end, **“…yet the hypocrites do not know.”** (63:8) Also, in its beginning, **“And surely Allah knows that you are His Messenger—but Allah bears witness that they hypocrites are truly liars,”** (63:1) and in its end, **“And Allah is all aware of what you do.”** (63:11) ### Al-Taghābun In its beginning, **“For Allah knows best what is \[hidden\] in the heart,”** (64:4) and in its end, **“\[He is the\] Knower of the seen and unseen—the Almighty, All-Wise.”** (64:18) ### Al-Ṭalāq In its beginning, **“And count it accurately”** (65:1) and His statement, **“You never know, perhaps Allah will bring about a change \[of heart\] later,”** (65:1) and its end, **“And Allah certainly encompasses all things in \[His\] knowledge.”** (65:12) ### Al-Taḥrīm It begins by mentioning the Prophet’s ﷺ wives, and concludes by mentioning his wives in Paradise: Āsiyah bint Muzāḥim, the wife of Pharaoh, and Maryam bint ʿImrān.[^24] Also, in its beginning is the collaboration of his wives against him, and its end describes the betrayal of Nūḥ and Lūṭ by their wives to caution and frighten the Mothers of the Believers. ### Al-Mulk It begins with mentioning His great power, (67:1) and concludes with the same concept—namely the creation’s inability by asking, **“Who \[else\] could then bring you flowing water?”** (67:30) ### Nūn (Al-Qalam) It begins with His statement, **“By the grace of your Lord, you \[O Prophet\] are not insane,”** (68:2) and concludes with, **“And they say, ‘He is certainly a madman.’”** (68:51) ### Al-Ḥāqqah It begins with **“*Al-Ḥāqqah* (The Inevitable Truth),”** (69:1) and concludes with **“And indeed, this \[Day\] is the absolute truth.”** (69:51) ### Saʾala (Al-Maʿārij) It begins by promising the Day of Resurrection, and concludes with that as well. (70:44) ### Nūḥ It begins by threatening **“a painful torment,”** (71:1) and concludes with this by stating, **“They were drowned, then admitted into the Fire.”** (71:25) ### Al-Jinn It begins with the Revelation (72:1) and concludes with mentioning it by stating, **“Except messengers of his choice. Then He appoints angel-guards before and behind him.”** (72:27) ### Al-Muzzammil It begins with the night prayer (73:2) and concludes with that as well. (73:20) ### Al-Muddathir It begins with a warning (74:2) and concludes with another warning: **“Now, what is the matter with them that they are turning away from the reminder?”** (74:49)[^25] ### Al-Qiyāmah It begins by mentioning the dead being returned to life (75:1-4) and concludes with that as well. (75:40) ### Al-Insān It begins by mentioning those grateful and those ungrateful, (76:3) then concludes with that \[same dichotomy\] by stating, **“He admits whoever He wills into His mercy…”** (76:31) to the end of the verse. ### Al-Mursalāt In its beginning, **“Surely, what you are promised will come to pass,”** (77:7) which implies it will occur soon, and how little they will stay \[in this life\], and in its end, **“Eat and enjoy yourselves for a little while.”** (77:46)[^26] ### ʿAmma (Al-Nabaʾ) Its end, **“Indeed, We have warned you of an imminent punishment,”** (78:40) which is the **“Momentous News”** that He deemed close in His statement, **“But no! *Sa-yaʿlamūn* (They will *soon* come to know).”** (78:4) This is because the *sīn* (س) indicates the near future , unlike *sawfa* (سوف). ### Al-Nāziʿāt It begins with *al-Rājifah* (the Quaking Blast), (79:6) and is sealed with *al-Ṭāmmah* (the Supreme Disaster). (79:34) ### ʿAbasa It begins with a facial description, **“He frowned,”** (80:1) and ends with another description of faces: **“On that Day \[some\] faces will be bright, laughing and rejoicing.”** (80:38-39) ### Al-Takwīr Its beginning, **“When the sun is put out,”** (81:1) and its end, **“So what \[other\] path would you take?”** (81:26) ### Al-Infiṭār Its beginning, **“When the sky splits open,”** (82:1) and its end, **“For all authority on that Day belongs \[entirely\] to Allah.”** (82:19) ### Al-Muṭaffifīn Its beginning, **“Woe to the defrauders,”** (83:1) and its end, **“Have the disbelievers \[on this Day\] been paid back for what they used to do?”** (83:36) ### Al-Inshiqāq It begins with mention of the skies, (84:1) and concludes with that in His statement, **“You will certainly pass from one platform to another.”** (84:19) If you recite it with *fatḥ al-bāʾ* (لتركبَنَّ), it would be referring to the Prophet ﷺ, climbing one sky after another on the Night of al-Isrāʾ.[^27] ### Al-Burūj It begins by mentioning **“the sky full of constellations,”** (85:1) and ends with **“in a Preserved Tablet,”** (85:22), which are both from the upper worlds. Also, in its beginning, **“And the promised Day \[of Judgment\],”** (85:2) and in its end, **“But Allah encompasses them from all sides.”** (85:20) ### Al-Ghāshiyah Its beginning is a discussion on *al-Ghāshiyah* (the Overwhelming Event), (88:1) which is the Resurrection, and its end mentions the **“return”** (85:25) and **“reckoning.”** (85:26) ### Al-Balad In its beginning, **“And by every parent and what they birthed!”** (90:3) and in its end, **“those who have faith,”** (90:17) and **“those who deny Our signs,”** (90:19) which comprise the two types of people. ### Iqraʾ (Al-ʿAlaq) Its beginning, **“Read \[O Prophet\] in the Name of your Lord,”** (96:1) and its end, **“Prostrate and draw near \[to Allah\].”** (96:19) It is no secret what a wonderful connection there is between these two.[^28] ### Al-Qadr It begins by mentioning the night (97:1) and ends with the emergence of dawn. (97:5) ### Alhākum (Al-Takāthur) It is no secret that **“*takāthur* (competing for increase)”** in this world (102:1) is pleasurable. For this reason, it was sealed with His statement, **“Then, on that Day, you will definitely be questioned about \[your worldly\] pleasures.”** (102:8) ### Al-Humazah It starts with **“*wayl* (woe)”** (104:1) which is the name of a valley in the Hellfire,[^29] and ends with **“*al-Ḥuṭamah* (the Crusher)”** \[another name of Hellfire\] and descriptions of it. (104:4-9) ### Al-Ikhlāṣ It begins with **“*aḥad* (one and only),”** (112:1) and also concludes with **“*aḥad*.”** (112:4) ### Al-Nās It begins with **“the people”** (114:1) and concludes with **“the people.”** (115:6) Also, this term is repeated five times in this \[*sūrah*\], with different meanings, and hence it is considered among the examples of *tajānus* (homonymy). From Allah comes all success. This is the conclusion of the book, and all praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May the salutations and peace of Allah be upon our leader and master, Muḥammad, and upon his family, and all his companions. --- ## Addendum: Excerpt From Al-Suyūṭī’s al-Itqān[^30] ### Type Sixty: How sūrah(s) begin Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ authored a piece on this which he entitled *al-Khawāṭir al-Sawāniḥ fī Asrār al-Fawātiḥ* (Light Reflections on the Secrets Behind the Openings). I will summarize here what he mentioned therein, and supplement it with some contributions from others. Know that Allah, the Exalted, began the *sūrah*(s) of the Qur’an with one of ten styles of speech. Not a single *sūrah* is an exception: 1. Praising Allah, the Exalted. Praise is two types: either affirming His praiseworthy attributes, or negating and exonerating Him from any imperfections. The first happens as *taḥmīd* (declaring His praiseworthiness) in five *sūrah*(s), and as **“*tabārak* (Blessed is He)”** in two *sūrah*(s). The second happens as *tasbīḥ* (being glorified above flaws) in seven *sūrah*(s). In *Mutashābih al-Qurʾān*, al-Kirmānī said, “*Tasbīḥ* is a term that Allah fully reserved for Himself. He used its verbal noun form in \[the chapter of\] Banī Isrāʾīl (aka al-Isrāʾ) because that is the \[grammatical\] default, then the past tense in al-Ḥadīd and al-Ḥashr because that is the earlier of the two intervals, then the present tense in al-Jumuʿah and al-Taghābun, and then finally as a command verb in al-Aʿlā. As such, He employed this term in all of its uses.” 2. The \[disjointed\] letters of the alphabet in twenty-nine *sūrah*(s), and we have previously discussed this at length under the section on *mutashābih*, and how they relate \[to their respective contexts\] will be thoroughly discussed under the section on *munāsabāt*. 3. Calling out (*nidāʾ*), and this occurs in ten *sūrah*(s). Five call out to the Messenger ﷺ: al-Aḥzāb, al-Ṭalāq, al-Taḥrīm, al-Muzzammil, and al-Muddathir. Five \[others\] call out to the *ummah*: al-Nisāʾ, al-Māʾidah, al-Ḥajj, al-Ḥujurāt, and al-Mumtaḥanah. 4. Declarative (*khabarī*) statements such as, **“They ask you about the spoils,”** **“A discharge from all obligations by Allah,” “The command of Allah is at hand,” “People’s judgment has drawn near,” “Successful indeed are the believers,” “A *sūrah* which We have revealed,” “The revelation of this Book \[is from Allah\],” “Those who disbelieve,” “We have granted,” “The Hour has drawn near,” “The Most Compassionate taught…,” “Indeed, Allah has heard,” “The Inevitable Hour,” “A challenger has demanded,” “Indeed, We sent Noah…,” “I do swear….”** in two places, **“He frowned,” “Indeed, it is We who sent this \[Qur’an\] down,” “The Striking Disaster,” “You have been distracted,”** and **“Indeed, We granted you…”** These occur in twenty-three *sūrah*s. 5. Oaths (*aqsām*) which occur in fifteen *sūrah*s. In one *sūrah*, namely al-Ṣāffāt, He swears by the angels. In two *sūrah*s, al-Burūj and al-Ṭāriq, the celestial spheres (*aflāk*) are sworn by. In six *sūrah*s, their implications \[are sworn by\]; al-Najm is an oath by the Pleiades (Thurayyā), al-Fajr is by the start of the morning, al-Shams is by the \[Divine\] sign of daylight, al-Layl is by half of time, al-Ḍuḥā is by half of the daytime, and al-‘Aṣr by its other half or by time in general. In two *sūrah*s, al-Dhāriyāt and al-Mursalāt, the air is sworn by, which is one of the elements.[^31] In one *sūrah*, al-Ṭūr, the earth is sworn by which is also among them (the elements). In another *sūrah*, al-Tīn, the plants are sworn by. In one *sūrah*, al-Nāziʿāt, intelligent beings are sworn by.[^32] In one *sūrah*, al-ʿĀdiyāt, animals are sworn by. 6. Conditional statements (*sharṭ*) occur in seven *sūrah*s: al-Wāqiʿah, al-Munāfiqūn, al-Takwīr, al-Infiṭār, al-Inshiqāq, al-Zalzalah, and al-Naṣr. 7. Command verbs (*amr*) occur in six *sūrah*s; **“Say, ‘It has been revealed…,”** **“Recite,” “Say, ‘O you disbelievers,” “Say, ‘He is Allah, the Uniquely One,”** and **“Say, I seek refuge,”** \[twice between\] al-Muʿawwidhatayn (The Two Protectors). 8. Interrogatory statements (*istifhām*) occur in six *sūrah*s; **“About what are they asking,” “Has there come,” “Have we not expanded,” “Have you not seen,”** and **“Have you seen.”** 9. Supplication \[against people\] in three \[*sūrah*s\]; **“Woe to the defrauders,”** **“Woe to every backbiter,”** and **“May they perish.”** 10. Causal relations (*taʿlīl*) in, **“Due to the security Quraysh is accustomed to….”** This is how Abū Shāmah compiled them, and said, “What we mentioned about supplication could also fall under declarative. Similarly, the category of praise is entirely declarative, except for *sabbiḥ* which would fall under command verbs, and *subḥān* which can be a command, a supplication, or a declaration.” He then captured that in these two couplets: He praised Himself, glorified be He, By either affirming His perfection or by negation \[of any flaw\], To begin every *sūrah*, or some causation \[it would draw\], \[Or by\] a command, call-out, stipulation, oath, elucidation, \[Or by\] disjointed letters, invocation, question, or declaration. The specialists of Arabic expression say that a part of rhetorical eloquence is having an exceptional beginning (*ḥusn al-ibtidāʾ*), meaning to beautify one’s first words since they are what first strike people’s ears. If these are precisely chosen, the listener allots his full attention to what is being said and retains it. If not, he ignores what is being said, even if what follows is supremely eloquent. For this reason, it must always invoke the best, wisest, most delicate, most salient, most accurate, and clearest of phrases; those void of any complex, confusing transposition, or those that are unsuitable. These (rhetoricians) assert that all the *sūrah*s do in fact begin in the best, most eloquent, most perfect way, such as their phrases of *taḥmīd*, the disjointed letters, the call-outs, and otherwise. A particular subset among the best beginnings is called *barāʾat al-istihlāl* (literally: a brilliant landing), which is when a discussion begins with something that suits the context being discussed, and alludes to the objective of that discussion. Sūrat al-Fātiḥah is the apex of all examples on this, which is itself the beginning of the whole Qur’an, and hence it contains all its objectives as al-Bayhaqī said in *Shuʿab al-Īmān*: Abūl-Qāsim ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Hāniʾ narrated to us: al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us: ʿAffān ibn Muslim narrated to us, on behalf of al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣubayḥ, on behalf of al-Ḥasan who said, “Allah sent down 104 scriptures. Within four of them, He included all the \[sacred\] sciences they contained: the Torah, Evangel, Psalms, and Furqān. Then, He included the sciences of the Torah, Evangel, and Psalms into the Furqān (Qur’an). Then, He included the sciences of the Qur’an into the Mufaṣṣal.[^33] Then, He included the sciences of the Mufaṣṣal into the Opening of the Book (al-Fātiḥah). Hence, whoever learns its interpretation is like someone who learned the interpretation of every revealed scripture.” This has been explained to mean that the sciences contained in the Qur’an, and what the four religious systems all upheld, is foundational knowledge that centers on knowing Allah and His qualities, which is alluded to in, **“...Lord of the worlds. Most Compassionate, Most Merciful”;** knowing prophethood, which is alluded to in, **“...those whom You have favored”;** knowing the final destination, which is alluded to in, **“Owner of the Day of Resurrection”;** knowing the devotional acts, which is alluded to in, **“It is \[only\] You we worship”;** knowing morality, or getting oneself to align with Islamic ethics and submit to the Lord of creation, which is alluded to in, **“...with You we seek strength. Guide us to the straight path”;** and knowing the stories, or discovering the accounts of the prior nations and past generations, so that the discoverer of such may realize the prosperity of those who obeyed Allah and the doom of those who defied Him, which is alluded to in His statement, **“...the path of those whom You have favored, not those who incurred \[Your\] anger, nor those misguided.”** By that, He has made a reference in al-Fātiḥah to every objective of the Qur’an, and this is the epitome of *barāʾat al-istihlāl*, in addition to its content of beautiful wordings, lovely segmentation of phrases, and other forms of rhetorical richness. Similarly, the beginning of Sūrat Iqraʾ is comparable to al-Fātiḥah in terms of the *barāʾat al-istihlāl* it enjoys, and that is due to it being the very first revelation from the Qur’an. Hence, it contains the command to recite, and to begin that by first mentioning the name of Allah. It also contains an allusion to knowing the rulings \[of Allah\], and to the oneness of the Lord, to affirming His uniqueness as a \[supreme\] being, and His qualities; both the attributes of essence and the attributes of actions. These are all references to the foundations of the religion. It also refers to the accounts \[of others\] in His statement, **“He taught the human being what he did not know.”** For this reason, it has been said that this \[*sūrah*\] qualifies to being called the Title of the Qur’an (*ʿUnwān al-Qurʾān*), because the Qur’an’s title summarizes its objectives in brief terms at the very beginning. ### Type Sixty-One: How sūrahs conclude This is also like the beginning in terms of its eloquence, since it is the last thing to strike the ears. For that reason, it comes carrying profound meanings while also hinting to the listener that the discussion is ending, so that the souls do not remain longing for what will be mentioned thereafter. Hence, it consists of supplications, closing advice, duties, *taḥmīd*, *taḥlīl*, exhortations, promises, threats, and so forth. One example is elaborating on the desired objective at the conclusion of al-Fātiḥah. The ultimate objective is faith that is not tarnished by sins that elicit the anger of Allah and misguidance, yet He expounded on that in His statement, **“...those whom You have favored.”** What is intended here are the people of faith, and hence he left the **“favor”** unqualified, so that every favoring would fall under it, because those whom Allah favored with faith have been granted every favor by Him. This is because it is what generates every favor. Then, He described them with His words, **“Not those who incurred \[His\] anger, nor those misguided.”** In other words, they combined both the ultimate favor, namely the favor of faith, and safety from the anger of Allah, the Exalted, and the misguidance that causes defying Him and breaching His boundaries. Another \[example\] is the supplications in the final two verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah. Another is the entrustments with which Sūrat Āl ʿImrān concludes; **“O you who have believed, be patient, and endure…”** Another is the estate distributions with which Sūrat al-Nisāʾ is sealed. It perfectly concludes with these due to the rulings pertaining to death which it contains, which is the conclusion of every living person. Additionally, it is due to it being the last of the rulings to be revealed. Another is the veneration and glorification with which al-Māʾidah concluded. Another is the promises and threats with which Sūrat al-Anʿām concluded. Another is urging \[people\] to worship by describing the angels’ condition (of perpetual devotion) with which al-Aʿrāf concluded. Another is urging \[people\] to jihad and upholding family ties with which al-Anfāl concluded. Another is describing the Messenger, praising him, and the oneness of Allah with which Barāʾah (al-Tawbah) concluded. Another is consoling him ﷺ with which Yūnus concluded, and similar to it is the conclusion of Hūd. Another is describing the Qur’an and praising it, as He did to conclude Yūsuf. Another is the threat and response to those who belied the Messenger, as He did to conclude al-Raʿd. One of the clearest declarations of an ending is the conclusion  of Ibrāhīm; **“This is a notification for humanity…”** until the end of the verse. Similar to this is the conclusion of al-Aḥqāf, and likewise al-Ḥijr being concluded with His statement, **“And worship your Lord until certainty reaches you.”** This is interpreted as “death,” and is supremely brilliant. Also, note Sūrat al-Zalzalah which begins with the horrors of the Day of Resurrection, and then concludes with His statement, **“So whoever does a speck’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does a speck’s weight of evil will see it.**" Also, note the brilliance of the final verse ever revealed, which is His statement, **“And fear a day in which you will be returned to Allah, and then…”** and how it carries a feeling of farewell, which suggests \[impending\] death. Also, there is the final *sūrah* ever revealed, namely Sūrat al-Naṣr. It too intimates the \[Prophet’s impending\] death. Corroborating this, al-Bukhārī reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on behalf of Jubayr, on behalf of Ibn ʿAbbās, that ʿUmar asked them about His statement, **“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest.”** They all explained it as cities and palaces being conquered. He then said, “What do you say, O Ibn ʿAbbās?” \[Ibn ʿAbbās\] said it was Muḥammad’s time of death; his passing away was announced to him. He (al-Bukhārī) also reported from him (Ibn ʿAbbās) that he said: ʿUmar used to admit me among the elders of Badr, and it appeared that some of them were offended by this, and said, “Why do you admit this one among us, when we have sons like him \[in age\]?” ʿUmar responded, “You know who this is.” Thereafter, he invited them all one day and asked them their opinion about Allah’s words, **“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest.”** Some of them said, “We were instructed to praise Allah and seek His forgiveness when He grants us victory and conquest.” Others remained silent, and he did not say anything. He then said to me, “Is this your view, O Ibn ʿAbbās?” I said, “No.” He said, “Then what do you say?” I said, “It is the death of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He was notifying him about it.” He said, “When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest,” then this is a sign of your passing, **“So glorify with the praises of your Lord and seek His forgiveness, for He is certainly the Oft-Forgiving.”** To that, ʿUmar said, “I do not know about it other than what you have stated.” --- ## Notes [^1]: This summary is translated below as an addendum to this publication. [^2]: Although, in this work, he does not cover *Sūrat al-Fātiḥah* and twenty-one others (all between *al-Ṭāriq* and *al-Falaq*). [^3]: ‘Abdul-Muḥsin ibn ‘Abdil-‘Azīz al-‘Askar, *Marāṣid al-maṭāli‘ fī tanāsub al-maqāṭi‘ wal-maṭāli‘* (Riyadh: Dār al-Minhāj, 1426 AH). [^4]: In his commentary on *Tafsīr al-Bayḍawī*, al-Suyūṭī also highlights another parallel in this *sūrah*; it begins with **“Beautified for people is enjoying their desires. . . . That is but the enjoyment of this worldly life. Say \[O Prophet\], ‘Shall I inform you of something better than that? For those who fear Allah will be gardens. . . .”** Al-Suyūṭī, *Tafsīr al-Bayḍawī*, 3:14–15. This concept is then mirrored at the end with, **“Do not be deceived by the prosperity of the disbelievers throughout the land. It is but a brief enjoyment. . . . But those who feared their Lord will have gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding eternally therein, as accommodation from Allah. And what is with Allah is best for the righteous.”** Al-Suyūṭī, *Tafsīr al-Bayḍawī*, 3:196–98. Jalāl al-Dīn ‘Abdul-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī, *Nawāhid al-abkār wa shawāhid al-afkār: Ḥāshiyat al-Suyūṭī ‘alā tafsīr al-Bayḍāwī* (Mecca: Umm al-Qurā University, 2005), 3:201. [^5]: In his *tafsī*r, al-Alūsī credits al-Suyūṭī with identifying another wonderful subtlety to these being the final verses. This *sūrah* ends by discussing the end of every living person (death and its related rulings), and these were also the very last laws altogether revealed in the Qur’an. Furthermore, the *sūrah* ends with **“and Allah has perfect knowledge of all things”** (4:176), meaning He is most capable of telling you what is actually in your best interests regarding both the affairs of your lives and your deaths. Shihāb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ‘Abdillāh al-Ḥusaynī al-Alūsī, *Rūḥ al-ma‘ānī fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm wal-sab‘ al-mathānī* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah, 1415 AH), 3:218. [^6]: This (5:82) is quite far from the end of *al-Mā’idah*, which is 120 verses, just as its counterpart (5:17) is rather far from the beginning of *al-Mā’idah*. However, al-Rāzī offers a stronger correlation in his *tafsīr*; this *sūrah* begins (5:1) with the duty to fulfill our contracts as a fundamental part of a believer’s servitude to Allah. Then, it ends (5:120) with all dominion belonging to Allah—as if to denote that full servitude is what befits a perfect Master. [^7]: Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1416 AH/1996 CE) says, “This *sūrah* begins by illustrating how Satan succeeded at expelling Adam from Paradise (7:24), and explained that his attempts to misguide his descendants will never stop (7:27)! However, all Satan can do is whisper. So long as the person is a believer, the whispers will backfire and be ultimately futile. **‘If the pious are touched by an impulse from Satan, they remember \[Allah\] and at once become insightful’** (7:201). As for those who are deprived of that vigilant heart, they will follow Satan and be driven by him to their doom. Remembrance of God (*dhikr*) is the greatest armor a person can shield themselves with, for it safeguards a person against faltering and keeps them at an elevated station. The greatest *dhikr* of all is the Noble Qur’an: **‘So when the Qur’an is recited, listen to it attentively and be silent, so that you may be shown mercy’** (7:204). This *dhikr* is not solely an exercise of the tongue while the heart remains heedless and the thoughts wander. *Dhikr* is a complete state of consciousness and a function of the intellect above all else. It must also be continuous, not sporadic, permeating our public and private lives, driving one’s hopes and fears. **‘And remember your Lord inwardly with humility and reverence, in a moderate tone of voice, both morning and evening. And do not be one of the heedless’** (7:205). It is only through *dhikr* of that caliber that a believer harmonizes with the entire universe, as he \[like the angels\] celebrates the praises of his Lord (7:206).” Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, *Naḥw tafsīr mawḍū‘ī li-suwar al-Qur’ān al-Karīm* (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 2000), 125, slightly adapted. [^8]: Yūsuf also begins with **“We relate to you \[O Prophet\] the best of stories”** (12:3), and ends with **“In their stories is truly a lesson for people of reason”** (12:111). [^9]: Hūd begins with **“a book whose verses are well perfected”** (11:1), and ends with **“And We relate to you \[O Prophet\] the stories”** (11:120). Yūsuf begins with **“These are the verses of the clear Book”** (12:1), and ends with **“This message cannot be a fabrication”** (12:111). Al-Ra‘d begins with **“These are the verses of the Book”** (13:1), and ends with, **“...as is whoever has knowledge of the Scripture”** (13:43). Ibrāhim begins with, **“A Book We revealed to you \[O Prophet\] to lead people out of darkness into the light”** (14:1), and ends with, **“This \[Qur’an\] is a sufficient notification for humanity”** (14:52). Al-Ḥijr begins with, **“These are the verses of the Book and a clear recital”** (15:1), and ends with, **“We have certainly given you the seven often-repeated verses and the Great Qur’an”** (15:87). [^10]: Al-Kahf begins by praising Allah for revealing the Scripture (18:1), and ends by asserting that ink as abundant as the oceans, even if the oceans were doubled, would still fall short of capturing Allah’s words (18:109). And then, in the very last verse, it asserts that even the Prophet ﷺ himself was but a human recipient of this Scripture (18:110). Maryam begins with **“the mention of the mercy of your Lord”** (19:2) in terms of how He granted Zakarīyā (as) a child despite his old age. At its conclusion, we hear of how **“the Most Merciful will grant love \[from Him and others\] to those who believe and work righteousness”** (19:96). ṬāHā begins with, **“We have not revealed the Qur’an to you \[O Prophet\] to cause you distress. It is but a Reminder. . . .”** (20:2–3) and ends with, **“Have they not already received a confirmation of what is in the earlier Scriptures?”** (20:133) and **“They would have said, ‘If only you had sent us a messenger, we would have followed your Revelations’”** (20:134). Ibn ‘Āshūr argues that this ending for Sūrat ṬāHā is exceptionally beautiful because it suggests that he ﷺ conveyed the message, and hence should not be “distressed” since by communicating the “Reminder” he has succeeded at his mission. Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr* (Tunisia: al-Dār al-Tūnisīyah, 1984), 349. [^11]: Ibn ‘Āshūr also notes that this *sūrah* begins with, **“O humankind”** (22:1), and ends in a similar fashion, referring to, **“O humanity, an example has been presented so listen to it”** (22:73). Abū al-Faḍl al-Ghumārī also notes that this *sūrah* “launches” by enjoining *taqwā* (being conscious of Allah) upon humanity in general (22:1), and then “lands” by enjoining the particular acts of piety (*taqwā*) upon the believers (22:77). [^12]: *Taḍāḍḍ* (contrast) is a fundamental feature of the Qur’anic style highlighted by many scholars, whether in terms of contrasting this life and the afterlife, Paradise and Hellfire, forgiveness and punishment, believers and disbelievers, angels and devils, life and death, secrecy and openness, or otherwise. In fact, many of these contrasts occur precisely the same number of times, underscoring their thematic significance in the Qur’an. See: Muhammad Abdel Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices and Stylistic Features of Qurʾanic Grammar,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies*, eds Mustafa Shah and Muhammad Abdel Haleem, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 337. [^13]: These are quite far from both the beginning and end. Perhaps a better correlation, which Abū Ḥayyān identifies in his *tafsīr*, is that we find in the beginning, **“A *sūrah* which We have revealed and made \[its rulings\] obligatory, and revealed in it clear commandments”** (24:1). Then, after prescribing to His Prophet ﷺ various duties and penalties for his nation, Allah ends the *sūrah* with this nation’s duty to concede to, comply with, and support the Prophet (24:47–54), in addition to consulting him before decisions (24:62) and showing him the utmost reverence and respect (24:63). [^14]: Al-Biqā’ī identified that this *sūrah* begins by consoling the Prophet ﷺ in Allah’s statement, **“Perhaps \[O Prophet\] you will grieve yourself to death over their disbelief”** (26:3). This is coupled, at the very end, with a standing threat to those insisting on disbelief: **“The wrongdoers will come to know what \[evil\] end they will meet”** (26:227). Al-Alūsī noted that both al-Furqān and al-Shu‘arā’ began with praising the Qur’an and concluded with threatening those who rejected the Qur’an. Al-Alūsī, *Rūḥ al-Ma‘ānī,* 10:58. [^15]: Jihad (striving) was also expressly stated quite early (29:6) in this *sūrah*. [^16]: Al-Ghumārī and others noted that the *sūrah* begins with **“Allah’s promise”** that Rome would soon be victorious (30:6) and ends with His command **“So be patient, for the promise of Allah is certainly true, and do not be disturbed by those who have no sure faith”** (30:60). [^17]: Furthermore, we find later His statement, **“O believers, be mindful of Allah and say an accurate word”** (33:70). It begins with instructing the Prophet ﷺ with *taqwā*, and concludes by instructing his nation with the same. [^18]: It also begins with praising Allah and glorifying Him in His statement, **“Surely, your God is One. \[He is\] the Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything in between, and the Lord of all points of sunrise”** (37:4–5). That is later reflected in the concluding statements, where He says, **“Glorified is your Lord—the Lord of Honour and Power—above what they claim! Peace be upon the messengers. And praise be to Allah—Lord of all worlds”** (37:180–82). [^19]: A potentially stronger parallel is how the *sūrah* begins by highlighting the deluded, prideful nature of those who stubbornly argue about Allah’s signs (40:4), then ends with a direct warning to them about their wealth and power being insufficient to save them if they continue to disbelieve in Allah (40:82–85). [^20]: The *sūrah* also begins (41:3) and ends (41:52) with talking about the Qur’an. [^21]: Another parallel worth noting is how the same two great names of Allah, al-‘Azīz (the Almighty) and al-Ḥakīm (the Most Wise) are at the beginning (45:2) and conclusion (45:37) of this *sūrah*. [^22]: It also begins by praising the Qur’an as descending from the **“All-Mighty, All-Wise”** (46:2), and ends by declaring the Qur’an as being a **“sufficient notification”** (46:35). It also begins with **“the disbelievers turning away from the warning”** (46:3), and ends with the deniers being **“destroyed for their rebellion”** (46:35). [^23]: It also begins by describing the Qur’an as glorious (50:1) and ends by saying, **“So remind with the Qur’an whoever fears My threat”** (50:45). [^24]: Hadith scholars have contested the authenticity of the reports asserting that these virtuous women will be married to the Prophet ﷺ in Paradise. [^25]: Al-Biqā’ī also noted that the *sūrah* began with the command to **“arise and warn”** (74:2), then ended by coupling that with glad tidings: **“He is worthy to be feared and adequate for forgiveness”** (74:56). [^26]: Al-Rāzī also noted that Allah “went to such lengths in this *sūrah*, from its beginning to its end, chastising the disbelievers and cautioning them in the ten ways which we have \[just\] explained... and \[hence\] He concluded with marveling at the disbelievers and declaring that—if they don’t believe in these wonderful proofs despite how clear and evident they are—then **‘what message after this \[Qur’an\] would they ever believe?’”** (77:50). Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ‘Amr al-Rāzī, *Mafātīh al-ghayb al-tafsīr al-kabīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1982), 30:284. [^27]: The reading referenced here by al-Suyūṭī (*la-tarkabanna*) is according to the readings of Ibn Kathīr, Ḥamza, al-Kisāʾī, and Khalaf. In this reading, the addressee is understood to be either the Prophet ﷺ or humanity. When referring to the Prophet ﷺ, it suggests his ascent from one sky to another during the miraculous journey of *al-Isrāʾ wal-Miʿrāj*. The alternative canonical reading (*la-tarkabunna*), which is followed by the remaining six reciters (*qurrāʾ*), implies the transition of all human beings from one phase of existence to another. [^28]: Al-Biqā’ī noted that this *sūrah* both begins and ends with command verbs (**“read”** and **“prostrate”**), and that the instruction to read at the onset is most suitable since only with knowledge first can one take the path to correct action. [^29]: Some scholars have held that this is a warning, and not necessarily a designated place in the Hellfire. [^30]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān*, ed. Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾāniyya, 7 vols.  (Medina: Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2005), 5:1827–32. [^31]: He intends here the four elements that were anciently presumed to be the fundamental components of the universe: earth, water, fire, and air. [^32]: While some have interpreted the *nāzi‘āt* (literally: pullers) as the angels who pluck the souls at death, it seems that al-Suyūṭī chose the alternative view of it being human archers pulling back their bows during battle. [^33]: From *faṣl* (separation), the Mufaṣṣal (extensively separated) is the established name for the latter section of the Qur’an composed of shorter *sūrah*s. This is usually a reference to Sūrat Qāf (50) through Sūrat al-Nās (114). ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. All praise belongs to Allah who guides those who seek Him to their aims, and grants insight into the fundamentals of His Book and its subtleties, and may His salutations and peace be upon our master Muhammad, his family, and his companions. Among the noble sciences of the Great Qur'an is the study of the correspondence between how each sūrah begins and how it ends. This is a subject that Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911H), whom the scholars of Islam have esteemed for half a millennium as a foremost expert on the Qur'anic sciences, treated within his celebrated work al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, and then devoted an independent treatise to entitled Marāṣid al-Maṭāliʿ (Capturing the Beginnings). Al-Suyūṭī notes that this correlation had been observed before him by the critical verifiers, including the author of al-Kashshāf (al-Zamakhsharī), his teacher Maḥmūd ibn Ḥamzah al-Karmānī who authored al-Burhān fī Mutashābih al-Qurʾān, Imam Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606H), and al-Aṣbahānī, among others. In the Marāṣid, al-Suyūṭī chose to demonstrate this correspondence in the chronological order of the sūrahs, relying largely upon his own reflections except where he expressly cites another. Al-Suyūṭī, sometimes drawing upon earlier scholars such as al-Iṣfahānī, illustrates how the closing of a sūrah answers to its opening. In al-Baqarah, al-Iṣfahānī observed that its end matches its beginning in describing the qualities of the believers and then alluding to those of the disbelievers. Āl ʿImrān opens by mentioning the descent of the Qur'an, the Torah, and the Evangel, and closes upon that same theme with the words, "Indeed, there are some among the People of the Book who truly believe in Allah" (3:199); likewise it opens with "Allah does not break His promise" (3:9) and closes with "You never fail in Your promise" (3:194). Al-Nisāʾ begins with the origin of creation and childbirth and concludes with the rulings related to death, and it both opens and closes with the verses of inheritance and kalālah. Al-Māʾidah begins with the prohibitions of iḥrām, the sacred months, and the sacrificial animals, and ends upon the same, and it opens with the covenant taken from the Children of Israel (5:12) and returns to it (5:70). The treatise proceeds through the sūrahs in this manner. Al-Anʿām opens and closes upon the theme of setting up equals to the Lord (6:1, 6:150). Al-Aʿrāf begins with reminder, following what is revealed, and taking none as guardian besides Allah, and it echoes each of these at its close (7:201-205), while it opens describing the arrogance of Iblīs and ends describing the angels who are not too proud to worship. Al-Naḥl opens with a prohibition of haste (16:1) and ends with a command to patience (16:127). Al-Isrāʾ begins with tasbīḥ and closes with taḥmīd. Al-Muʾminūn, as al-Zamakhsharī noted, opens with "Successful indeed are the believers" (23:1) and closes with "Indeed, the disbelievers will not succeed" (23:117). Ṣād, as al-Karmānī stated, opens with "By the Qur'an, full of reminder" (38:1) and closes with "It is only a reminder to the whole world" (38:87). In this way al-Suyūṭī gathers the correspondences of theme, of divine names, of promise and warning, and even of single repeated words, as in al-Ikhlāṣ which opens and closes with aḥad (112:1, 112:4), and al-Nās which opens and closes with "the people," a repetition he counts among the instances of tajānus (homonymy). Appended to the treatise is an excerpt from al-Itqān concerning how sūrahs begin. Al-Suyūṭī reports that Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ composed a work on this, and summarizes it, noting that Allah began every sūrah of the Qur'an by one of ten manners of speech, with no exception: praise of Allah (whether by affirming His perfection through taḥmīd and tabārak, or exonerating Him through tasbīḥ); the disjointed letters; the call (nidāʾ); declarative statements; oaths; conditional statements; command verbs; interrogatives; supplication against people; and causal relation, as in Sūrat Quraysh. Concerning tasbīḥ, al-Kirmānī observed in Mutashābih al-Qurʾān that Allah reserved this term for Himself and employed it in every grammatical form across the sūrahs. Abū Shāmah, who compiled this arrangement, remarked that supplication and praise might both be classed under the declarative, and captured the ten openings in two lines of verse. The rhetoricians of Arabic hold that eloquence requires an excellent beginning (ḥusn al-ibtidāʾ), since the first words are what strike the ears, and they affirm that all the sūrahs indeed begin in the most perfect manner. A special class among these is barāʾat al-istihlāl, in which the opening suits and alludes to the aim of what follows. Al-Suyūṭī says the supreme example is Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, which is itself the opening of the whole Qur'an and therefore contains all its objectives. On this he cites al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān, who relates through his chain to al-Ḥasan that Allah sent down one hundred and four scriptures, gathering all their sciences into four—the Torah, Evangel, Psalms, and Furqān—then into the Qur'an, then into the Mufaṣṣal, and then into al-Fātiḥah, "so whoever learns its interpretation is like one who learned the interpretation of every revealed scripture." Al-Suyūṭī explains that al-Fātiḥah accordingly alludes to knowledge of Allah and His attributes, of prophethood, of the final destination, of the acts of devotion, of morality, and of the accounts of past nations. He notes that the opening of Sūrat Iqraʾ likewise enjoys this quality, being the first revelation, such that it has been called the Title of the Qur'an (ʿUnwān al-Qurʾān). Regarding how sūrahs conclude, al-Suyūṭī explains that the ending too carries profound meaning while signalling that the discourse is closing, so that it consists of supplications, counsels, taḥmīd, exhortations, promises, and warnings. He offers many examples: the supplications ending al-Baqarah, the entrustments closing Āl ʿImrān, the estate distributions sealing al-Nisāʾ—fittingly, since they concern death, the end of every living person, and were among the last rulings revealed—and the clear declaration of closure at the end of Ibrāhīm and al-Ḥijr, "And worship your Lord until certainty reaches you," interpreted as death. He draws attention to the final revealed verse, "And fear a day in which you will be returned to Allah" (2:281), which carries the sense of farewell, and to the last sūrah revealed, Sūrat al-Naṣr, which likewise intimates the Prophet's ﷺ approaching death. In support of this last point he relates the report of al-Bukhārī from Ibn ʿAbbās, that when ʿUmar questioned the elders of Badr about "When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest," some understood it as the conquest of cities, but Ibn ʿAbbās said it was the announcement of the Messenger's ﷺ death, and ʿUmar replied, "I do not know about it other than what you have stated." And from Allah alone comes all success. ## Key Takeaways 1. Among the sciences of the Qur’an is the study of how the opening of each sura corresponds to its close. Imam al-Suyūṭī, long regarded as a foremost authority on the Qur’anic sciences, treated this in his *al-Itqān* and then devoted a separate treatise, *Marāṣid al-maṭāliʿ*, to identifying correspondences between the  beginnings and endings of many surahs. He proceeded through the chapters in their Qur’anic order, drawing chiefly on his own reflections while citing predecessors such as al-Zamakhsharī, al-Karmānī, and others where relevant. 2. The correspondence takes many forms, which is part of what makes it striking. A sura may return at its close to the theme it opened with, as al-Muʾminūn moves from the success of the believers to the failure of the disbelievers, or it may answer an opening with its complement, as al-Naḥl opens forbidding haste and ends commanding patience. The parity can rest on a repeated divine name, a matched promise and warning, or even a single recurring word, as in al-Ikhlāṣ, which both opens and closes with *aḥad*. 3. This symmetry reflects a deliberate art in how revelation is framed. The rhetoricians prized an excellent beginning, since the first words seize the listener’s attention, and its finest form is when the opening already hints at a surah’s purpose, as al-Fātiḥa, the opening of the whole Qur’an, gathers all its aims. The ending carries similar rhetorical  weight, closing with supplication, counsel, or warning, so that verses like the sealing of al-Nisāʾ with the rulings of death fall exactly where they belong. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Are the beginning and ending of each sura in the Qur’an connected? Scholars of the Qur’an have long reflected on possible correspondences between the opening and ending of a surah, and Imam al-Suyūṭī devoted a whole treatise to tracing this link across many such examples. Again and again, a sura returns at its end to the theme, wording, or idea it began with. Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ opens and closes with the word *aḥad* (one). Sūrat al-Nās opens and closes by mentioning “the people.” Sūrat al-Baqara begins and ends by describing the qualities of the believers and then the disbelievers. Some suras open by mentioning the Qur’an and close the same way, others open by glorifying Allah and close by praising Him, and others open with a promise or warning that is echoed at the end. The correspondence can be a shared theme, a repeated name of Allah, a matching phrase, or a mirrored image. These correspondences offer one way of appreciating the literary coherence of a surah and reflecting on how its conclusion may echo, complement, or bring closure to themes introduced near its beginning. Al-Suyūṭī presented these examples chapter by chapter, mostly from his own reflection on the text. ### What are the different ways the suras of the Qur’an begin? Al-Suyūṭī, summarizing earlier scholars, noted that every sura of the Qur’an opens in one of ten ways, with no exception. These are praising Allah, whether by affirming His perfect qualities or declaring Him free of any flaw; the disjointed letters, such as *Alif lām mīm*; a direct call or address, such as “O Prophet” or “O you who believe”; a plain statement of fact; an oath, such as swearing by the dawn or the stars; a conditional statement, such as “When the sky splits open”; a command, such as “Read” or “Say”; a question, such as “Have you seen”; a supplication against wrongdoers, such as “Woe to the defrauders”; and a statement of cause, as in Sūrat Quraysh. Scholars of Arabic explain that these openings are chosen with great care, since the first words are what capture a listener’s attention. A strong opening draws the listener in and makes them attentive to what follows, while a weak one can cause them to lose interest, and the Qur’an always opens in the most fitting and eloquent way. ### Why is Sūrat al-Fātiḥa considered a perfect opening to the Qur’an? Scholars of Arabic describe a special kind of excellent beginning called *barāʾat al-istihlal*, where the opening of a passage suits and hints at everything that follows. Al-Suyūṭī held that Sūrat al-Fātiḥa is the supreme example, since it is the opening of the entire Qur’an and gathers all of its major themes into a few short verses. He cited an early report that Allah placed the knowledge of all previous scriptures into the Qur’an, then into its shorter chapters, and finally into al-Fātiḥa, so that whoever understands al-Fātiḥa has grasped the essence of every revealed book. Al-Suyūṭī explained how its verses point to the central subjects of the Qur’an, namely knowledge of Allah and His attributes, prophethood, the final destination in the Hereafter, acts of worship, morality, and the accounts of earlier nations. The first revelation, Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, which begins with “Read,” is described as having the same quality, since it too introduces core themes of the faith at the very start. In both cases, the opening is perfectly matched to the message that follows. ### Why does it matter how a sura begins and ends? Scholars of Arabic eloquence give special weight to both the opening and closing of any passage. The opening matters because the first words are what strike the ears, so a strong beginning earns the listener’s full attention while a weak one loses it. The Qur’an, they note, always begins in the most fitting and beautiful way. The ending matters for a related reason, since it is the last thing a listener hears and tends to stay with them. Suras therefore tend to close with weighty content, such as supplications, counsel, reminders of duties, praise of Allah, or a final promise or warning. A fitting example is Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, which deals largely with rulings and ends with the laws of inheritance that become relevant upon death. Studying how each sura opens and closes is therefore not a mere technical exercise. It opens a door to deeper reflection on the Qur’an and reveals the care and design woven through its chapters. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/a-guide-to-istikhara-the-prayer-for-guidance # A Guide to Istikhara, the Prayer for Guidance **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Dua, Istikhara **Published:** June 24, 2024 **Updated:** September 4, 2026 ## When to pray istikhara Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught *istikhara* as a crucial part of decision-making. Alongside *istikhara*, one should consult trusted and righteous individuals in their life about decisions. This is called *istishara* and it was a common practice for our Messenger ﷺ to do. We see it all throughout the *seerah*, as he consulted most often, Abu Bakr (ra), Umar (ra) and other companions. Although it is common to perform **istikhara** for big decisions such as picking a career path, moving forward with a marriage proposal, or purchasing a house; **istikhara** prayer is not limited to big decisions. It’s narrated that the Prophet ﷺ used to teach the *sahaba* the **istikhara** for each and every matter as he used to teach the *sahaba surah*s from the Holy Qur'an \[*Sahih al-Bukhari* #6382\]. The early generations would seek Allah’s guidance for many matters, including things that we may consider small. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DNbq-U2bD0 --- ## How to pray istikhara *Istikhara* involves praying two non-obligatory *rak'ah*s followed by a specific *du'a*, seeking Allah’s guidance after personal effort and consultation with others. These *rak'ah*s can be woven into our natural daily *sunnah*, such as the two *rak'ah*s before Fajr or after Maghrib, or they can be an additional two *rak'ah*s. Some may find it more serene to offer these extra *rak'ah*s at night, after Isha as a part of their *[qiyaam-al-layl](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tahajjud-fuel-for-the-self-and-society)*, amidst the tranquility of the latter third of the night, while others may choose a different time for its significance. For example, one might pray these additional *rak'ah*s and recite the *du’a* right before heading to a job interview in the afternoon, finding solace in the immediacy of divine guidance before embarking on the task at hand. --- ## The istikhara du’a with English translation and transliteration Du'a of ***istikhara*** اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْتَخِيرُكَ بِعِلْمِكَ وَأَسْتَقْدِرُكَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ، وَأَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ فَضْلِكَ الْعَظِيمِ، فَإِنَّكَ تَقْدِرُ وَلاَ أَقْدِرُ وَتَعْلَمُ وَلاَ أَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتَ عَلاَّمُ الْغُيُوبِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الأَمْرَ خَيْرٌ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي فَاقْدُرْهُ لِي وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي ثُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِيهِ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الأَمْرَ شَرٌّ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي فَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي وَاصْرِفْنِي عَنْهُ، وَاقْدُرْ لِي الْخَيْرَ حَيْثُ كَانَ ثُمَّ أَرْضِنِي بِهِ *Allahumma innee astakheeruka bi ‘ilmika wa astaqdiruka bi qadratika wa as’aluka min fadlika al-’adheem fa innaka taqdiru wa la aqdiru wa ta’lamu wa la a’lamu wa anta ‘allaam ul-ghuyoob. Allahumma in kunta ta’lamu anna haadha al-amra khayrun lee fee deenee wa ma’aashee wa ‘aaqibati amree faqdurhu lee wa yassirhu lee thumma baarik lee feehi wa in kunta ta’lamu anna haadha al-amara sharrun lee fee deenee wa ma’aashee wa ‘aaqibati amree fasrifhu ‘annee wasrifnee ‘anhu waqdur lee al-khayra haythu kaana thumma ardinee bih* O Allah, I seek Your guidance (in making a choice) by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power, and I do not. You know, and I know not, and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allah, if You know that this matter \[mention the thing to be decided\] is good for me in my religion, my livelihood, my worldly affairs, and in the hereafter then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me. And if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion, my livelihood, my worldly affairs, and in the hereafter then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and decree for me the good wherever it may be and make me content with it *Sahih al-Bukhari* #6382 --- ## Common myths about istikhara ### Dream interpretation and istikhara Many cultures have linked dreams with answers to one’s **istikhara**, yet we understand from the Sunnah that there are three types of dreams: those from Allah, imbued with meaning; the regurgitated thoughts of our *nafs*; and those from *Shaytan* \[*Sahih Muslim* #2263\]. We might wish to believe ourselves divinely inspired through our dreams, but often it is merely our *nafs* and the jumble of our daily thoughts manifesting. For instance, if we are contemplating a marriage proposal and praying **istikhara**, and this potential spouse appears frequently in our dreams, it might simply reflect our desire and preoccupation with that person. Reflect on the words of the *du’a*: “O Allah, if You know that this matter \[mention the thing to be decided\] is good for me in my religion, my livelihood, my worldly affairs, and in the hereafter, then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me.” This supplication does not request Allah to reveal the path through dreams; rather, it seeks His guidance to facilitate what is truly beneficial and to make it easy for us. ### Can someone else pray istikhara for you? There exists a peculiar practice wherein individuals seek out someone deemed “more pious” to perform **istikhara** on their behalf, expecting that person to receive a dream as an answer. Often, financial compensation is given for this supposed service. However, the *du’a* of *istikhara* is precise in its wording and deeply personal in its nature; it is a dialogue between the individual and Allah. While it is always beneficial to ask our loved ones to pray for us in general, the notion of delegating the two *rak'ah*s to someone else and anticipating a dream response is not in accordance with the Sunnah. ### Yes and no answers There are misguided practices where people write "yes" and "no" on pieces of paper and choose one at random after praying **istikhara**. However, this method is neither from the Sunnah nor supported by any Islamic texts; it is merely a game of chance. *Istikhara* is not a magical incantation, nor does it require celestial signs. Our minds, once fixed on a decision, have an uncanny way of transforming the ordinary into omens: the inflection in a voice, the rescheduling of an appointment, or even the color of an object. When faced with significant choices, we often seek signs to steer us, perhaps to alleviate our own uncertainty or to shift the burden of responsibility should the outcome be unfavorable. ### Signs for istikhara It is essential to grasp the profound simplicity of the *du'a* taught by our Prophet ﷺ. *Istikhara* is a sincere prayer for guidance, a humble request for Allah to pave the way for what is beneficial and to divert us from what is detrimental. It is not a search for signs, but a plea for divine wisdom and clarity. ### How long does istikhara take? Consider how the *du’a* of *istikhara* asks Allah to either make a matter easy and blessed for us or to remove it if it is not good. Imagine planning to make a purchase, only for the contract to fall through, or planning to take a loan, only to find that it is no longer necessary. The essence of the **istikhara** *du’a* is seeking ease in our affairs, and sometimes that ease comes swiftly. At other times, the desired decision or outcome might take years to manifest. Delays in answered prayers often lead to outcomes far better than initially anticipated. Take, for instance, Zakariya’s (as) prolonged wait for parenthood, which allowed him to care for Maryam (as). Or consider the Prophet’s ﷺ delayed Hajj, which led to the significant Treaty of Hudaibiyah, eventually resulting in the conquest of Makkah. The timing of **istikhara** *du’a*'s response should not be a source of concern. Instead, one should cherish the closeness to Allah that develops while actively taking steps and trusting in His wisdom. ### Does istikhara change with time? The question of whether things change with time touches upon the deeper [concept of *qadar*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/predestination-vs-free-will-in-islam-understanding-allahs-qadr). Often, the immediate outcomes of our actions may not seem favorable, yet they are part of Allah’s grand design for our personal and spiritual growth. Perhaps, your **istikhara** was answered in a certain way for a period, only for the subsequent events to unfold in a manner that seems wholly negative. Does this imply a misunderstanding of your **istikhara**? Not at all, for **istikhara** is not about immediate clarity or guaranteed ease in life; there is no idea of a “positive **istikhara**” or “negative **istikhara**”. It is a request for divine guidance, and sometimes Allah’s guidance leads us through challenging paths to foster resilience and patience within us. [Trials and rejections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-our-worlds-are-shaken-finding-strength-in-beautiful-patience) are often the crucible in which our spiritual and mental fortitude is forged, drawing us nearer to Allah and strengthening our faith. --- ## Istikhara for marriage and love Marriage is one of life's most pivotal decisions, shaping the course of our existence in myriad ways. It dictates the building of a family, the rhythms of daily life, the habits we cultivate, and the passions we pursue together. This singular relationship can influence the trajectory of our future in terms of career, wealth, health, and overall well-being. It is little wonder, then, that we seek Allah's comprehensive guidance during this crucial decision-making process. *Istikhara* for marriage is perhaps the most common, and it is during these times that impatience often surfaces. Yet, delays before marriage offer a profound opportunity for introspection and a closer connection to Allah. Continuous *du'a* nurtures a deep relationship with the Responder, Al-Mujeeb. The experiences and trials encountered in this interim period are essential for personal growth and preparation. Just as the Prophet’s ﷺ journey was marked by hardships before reaching Madinah, our challenges serve as necessary steps toward our ultimate goals. When we are sincere in our **istikhara**, sincere in asking for this proposal to be easy and blessed, or taken away and our hearts be content: the answer will be obvious. Allah will make things easy if this person is good for your *deen*, *dunya*, and *akhira* or Allah will make things difficult and move your heart away from this person. In the end, you aren’t seeking happiness: you are seeking contentment and solace. Allah is the Creator of hearts, the turner of hearts, and the mender of hearts. The ending of the **istikhara** *du’a* is a plea for peace within our hearts. Keep in mind that there are [general *du’a*s for marriage and love](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/what-is-the-dua-for-marriage-companionship-a-dua-away). We should say these *du’a*s throughout our day, because even the prophets made *du’a* for these things: ### Du’a for marriage from the Qur’an ***Du’a* for marriage** رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَٰجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّـٰتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍۢ وَٱجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا Rabbana hablana min azwaajina wa dhuriyyatina qurrata A’yunin waj’alna lil- muttaqina imama Our Lord! Bless us with pious spouses and offspring who will be the joy of our hearts, and make us models for the righteous. Qur’an 25:74 ### Du’a for love from Prophet Dawud (as) ***Du’a* for love** ‏اللهم إني أسألك حبك، وحب من يحبك، والعمل الذي يبلغني حبك، اللهم اجعل حبك أحب إلى من نفسي، وأهلي، ومن الماء البارد Allahumma inni as'aluka hubbaka, wa hubba man yuhibbuka, wal-'amalalladhi yuballighuni hubbaka. Allahumm-aj'al hubbaka ahabba ilayya min nafsi, wa ahli, wa minal-ma'il-baridi O Allah! I ask You for Your Love, the love of those who love You, and deeds which will cause me to attain Your Love. O Allah! Make Your Love dearer to me than myself, my family, and cold water.  *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* #3490 --- ## Benefits of istikhara Throughout our day, we implore Allah for guidance, reciting from Surah Fatiha: ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ *Ihdinas siraatal mustaqeem* Guide us along the Straight Path \[Qur’an 1:6\] The **istikhara** *du’a*, in its essence, mirrors this plea, seeking divine guidance for a specific decision. Allah, in His wisdom, instructs us to turn to Him in our most significant matters—those that shape our lives and our journey towards the hereafter, the path to *jannah*. By engaging in **istikhara**, we not only adhere to a *sunnah* but also cultivate our [trust in Allah’s supreme wisdom](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-hardship-and-in-ease-how-to-rely-on-god). It is an act of humility, where we confess our frailty and limited understanding, affirming our devotion and reliance on Allah. *Istikhara* is a powerful reminder of our humanity, our profound need for Allah, and our conviction in His all-encompassing knowledge. As an act of worship, it promises rewards in the hereafter, while simultaneously enriching our emotional and spiritual well-being in this life. In this sacred supplication, we find solace and strength, reaffirming our faith and fortifying our connection with the Divine. **This piece was adapted from the following Yaqeen Videos:** [How to Truly Perform *Istikharah* | A *Du'a* Away](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/how-to-truly-perform-istikharah-a-dua-away) [Why Make *Istikhara*? | Why Me?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/why-make-istikhara-why-me) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is istikhara? *Istikhara* is the prayer for guidance the Prophet ﷺ taught for making a decision: two voluntary *rak'ah*s followed by a specific *du’a* asking Allah to bring the matter about and bless it if it is good, or to turn it away if it is not. It is an act of worship before it is a decision-making tool. In praying it, a person admits the limits of their own knowledge and places the outcome with the One whose knowledge has no limit. The Prophet ﷺ taught it to his Companions with the same care he gave to teaching them chapters of the Qur’an, and he taught it for every matter rather than for major ones alone. ### How do you pray istikhara? Start by doing your own research and consulting trusted, righteous people about the decision, which is called *istishara*. Then pray two non-obligatory *rak'ah*s. These can be *sunnah* prayers you already pray, such as the two before Fajr or after Maghrib, or two extra *rak'ah*s at night as part of [*qiyam al-layl*](/read/paper/tahajjud-fuel-for-the-self-and-society), or two prayed right before the decision itself, such as ahead of a job interview. After the prayer, recite the *istikhara du’a*, naming the matter you are deciding. Then act on your best judgment and leave the outcome with Allah, who will either ease the way or close it. ### What is the dua for istikhara? The *istikhara du’a* is recited after the two voluntary *rak'ah*s, naming the specific matter being decided. اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْتَخِيرُكَ بِعِلْمِكَ وَأَسْتَقْدِرُكَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ، وَأَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ فَضْلِكَ الْعَظِيمِ، فَإِنَّكَ تَقْدِرُ وَلاَ أَقْدِرُ وَتَعْلَمُ وَلاَ أَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتَ عَلاَّمُ الْغُيُوبِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الأَمْرَ خَيْرٌ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي فَاقْدُرْهُ لِي وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي ثُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِيهِ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الأَمْرَ شَرٌّ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي فَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي وَاصْرِفْنِي عَنْهُ، وَاقْدُرْ لِي الْخَيْرَ حَيْثُ كَانَ ثُمَّ أَرْضِنِي بِهِ *Allahumma innee astakheeruka bi ‘ilmika wa astaqdiruka bi qadratika wa as’aluka min fadlika al-’adheem fa innaka taqdiru wa la aqdiru wa ta’lamu wa la a’lamu wa anta ‘allaam ul-ghuyoob. Allahumma in kunta ta’lamu anna haadha al-amra khayrun lee fee deenee wa ma’aashee wa ‘aaqibati amree faqdurhu lee wa yassirhu lee thumma baarik lee feehi wa in kunta ta’lamu anna haadha al-amara sharrun lee fee deenee wa ma’aashee wa ‘aaqibati amree fasrifhu ‘annee wasrifnee ‘anhu waqdur lee al-khayra haythu kaana thumma ardinee bih* O Allah, I seek Your guidance (in making a choice) by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power, and I do not. You know, and I know not, and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allah, if You know that this matter \[mention the thing to be decided\] is good for me in my religion, my livelihood, my worldly affairs, and in the hereafter then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me. And if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion, my livelihood, my worldly affairs, and in the hereafter then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and decree for me the good wherever it may be and make me content with it. *Sahih al-Bukhari* #6382 ### Is istikhara only for big decisions? No. It is common to pray *istikhara* for major matters such as choosing a career, moving ahead with a marriage proposal, or buying a home, but it is not limited to them. The Prophet ﷺ taught his Companions to make *istikhara* for every matter, the way he taught them chapters of the Qur’an. The early generations sought Allah’s guidance in many affairs, including ones that might seem small. Turning to Allah before a decision, whatever its size, is itself an act of worship and a way of affirming reliance on Him. ### What is the difference between istikhara and istishara? *Istikhara* is the prayer for guidance: two voluntary *rak'ah*s followed by the *du’a* asking Allah to bring about a matter and bless it if it is good, or to turn it away if it is not. *Istishara* is consulting trusted, righteous people about a decision. The two work together. Before praying *istikhara*, one does their own research and seeks the counsel of people whose judgment and character they trust. The Prophet ﷺ practiced *istishara* often, consulting his Companions, among them Abu Bakr and Umar. *Istikhara* places the matter before Allah; *istishara* draws on the wisdom He has placed in others. ### Do you need to see a dream after istikhara? No. The *du’a* does not ask Allah for a dream. It asks Him to make the matter easy and blessed if it is good for you, or to turn it away if it is not. The Prophet ﷺ described three kinds of dreams: those from Allah that carry meaning, those that are the mind replaying its own preoccupations, and those from *Shaytan*. A dream about the decision often belongs to the second kind. Someone weighing a marriage proposal and thinking about that person constantly will tend to dream about them, and that is a reflection of their own preoccupation rather than an answer. ### What are the signs of istikhara? *Istikhara* is not a search for signs. It is a prayer for guidance and clarity, and reading meaning into ordinary events, a tone of voice, a cancelled appointment, the colour of an object, is not from the Sunnah. Once the mind is fixed on a decision it will turn almost anything into an omen, often to relieve its own uncertainty or to shift the responsibility for a bad outcome elsewhere. What the *du’a* actually asks for is that a good matter be made easy and blessed and a harmful one be turned away. That is where the answer shows, in the matter itself rather than in the world around it. ### Can istikhara give you a yes or no answer? No. *Istikhara* does not return a verdict, and it is not tied to methods such as writing "yes" and "no" on slips of paper and drawing one at random after praying. That is a game of chance with no basis in the Sunnah or in any Islamic text. *Istikhara* is a sincere prayer asking Allah to make a matter easy and blessed if it is good, or to turn it away if it is not. The answer shows in how the matter unfolds once you act, rather than in a sign delivered on request. ### Can someone else pray istikhara for you? No. The *du’a* is precise in its wording and personal in nature, a dialogue between you and Allah. There is a practice of seeking out someone considered more pious to pray *istikhara* on your behalf and waiting for them to receive a dream in response, often for a fee. This is not from the Sunnah. Asking loved ones to [make du’a](/read/blog/how-to-make-dua-the-etiquette-of-calling-upon-allah) for you in general is always good, but the two *rak'ah*s and the *du’a* of *istikhara* are yours to pray. ### Is there such a thing as a positive or negative istikhara? No. There is no "positive" or "negative" *istikhara*. It is a request for Allah’s guidance, not a reading that comes back good or bad. If a matter is good for you, Allah makes it easy and blesses it; if it is not, He turns it away and moves your heart from it. Sometimes His guidance leads through a difficult path, and [trials and rejections](/read/paper/when-our-worlds-are-shaken-finding-strength-in-beautiful-patience) are often what build patience and draw a person nearer to Allah. An outcome that feels wholly negative at first can belong to a larger good you cannot yet see. The aim of *istikhara* is not immediate clarity or a guaranteed smooth road, but [trust in Allah’s wisdom](/read/paper/predestination-vs-free-will-in-islam-understanding-allahs-qadr) while you take your steps. ### How long does istikhara take to be answered? There is no fixed time. Sometimes the ease or the obstruction comes quickly: a contract falls through, or a loan turns out to be unnecessary. Sometimes the outcome takes years, and a delay often leads to something better than what was first hoped for. Zakariya (as) waited a long time for a child, and that wait placed him in the care of Maryam (as). The Prophet’s ﷺ delayed Hajj led to the Treaty of Hudaibiyah and eventually to the conquest of Makkah. The timing is not a cause for worry. Keep taking steps, and value the closeness to Allah that grows while you wait. ### Can I pray istikhara for marriage? Yes, and it is the decision people pray *istikhara* for most often. Pray the two *rak'ah*s and the *du’a* naming the specific proposal, alongside consulting others and making your own assessment. The same principles about dreams and signs apply. If the person is good for your *deen*, your *dunya*, and your *akhira*, Allah will make the way easy and blessed; if not, He will make it difficult and move your heart away. Impatience tends to surface during this wait, though the interval itself does real work, deepening your relationship with al-Mujeeb, the One who responds. What you are ultimately asking for is not excitement but contentment and peace of heart, which is where the *du’a* ends. There are also [general du’as for marriage and love](/watch/series/a-dua-away/what-is-the-dua-for-marriage-companionship-a-dua-away), including the Qur’anic supplication for a spouse and children who bring comfort to the eyes (Qur’an 25:74). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/intersectionality-and-palestine-solidarity-why-muslims-need-to-lead-the-gaza-protests-essay # Intersectionality and Palestine Solidarity: Why Muslims Need to Lead the Gaza Protests | Essay **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** June 19, 2024 **Updated:** October 7, 2026 A practicing Muslim walking through some of the student encampments for Palestine that have spread across the country might be dismayed by what they encounter. Blaring music, people lounging with their dogs, and the faint smell of weed are common. Read the various signs at some of the encampments and you will find rainbow flags and messages calling for queer liberation. Many practicing Muslims don’t feel welcome in an environment that departs so strongly from their values. As a result, their first trip to an encampment will often be their last. When Muslims avoid participating in the encampments—or other sites of political activism—a downward spiral ensues where the space caters less and less towards Muslims, driving even more Muslims away. My call to Muslim youth is not to run away from this challenge but to face it head on, to step up and help lead the movement to end the Zionist occupation of Palestine once and for all. The time of being a bystander or letting others silence us is over. [Ending the Zionist occupation is a Muslim issue](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens) and an Islamic issue, no matter who tells you otherwise. Regrettably, even some of the most famous spokespeople for Palestine are guilty of anti-Islamic sentiment. A number of these spokespeople have argued that Palestine is not a religious issue but a human one, or that making it an Islamic issue benefits the Zionists. They are wrong, horribly wrong. At best, these takes are based on false dilemmas; the occupation of Palestine and genocide of the Palestinian people can be a human issue, a religious issue, and an Islamic issue all at the same time. At worst, taking Islam off the table is part of the colonization of Palestine and the Muslim world. Here I mean not the formal colonization of territory but the mental colonization that dictates how the occupied can or should resist. This is not to say that people with different beliefs or practices are not welcome to participate in a movement reenergized by Muslim leadership. We recognize that people with whom we disagree are moved by the unspeakable suffering of our brothers and sisters; however ,this does not mean that the central Islamic values of this cause can be stripped of the movement and undermined under the guise of "tolerance." Forced accommodation of values hostile to our own is not tolerance at all, but rather another site of recolonizing our struggle. The uniquely anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic dimensions of Zionism must not be dismissed or minimized. While Zionist violence targets Palestinians regardless of their faith, Zionist justifications rely more heavily on [anti-Muslim tropes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-islamophobia-the-politics-of-anti-muslim-racism) than on anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian tropes, which naturally evoke far less sympathy than their anti-Muslim counterparts. In the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack, Israel deliberately tried to make a connection between Palestinian resistance factions and ISIS. And while this narrative failed among Western populations and Israel eventually pivoted away from this talking point, it has succeeded in shaping the way Western governments perceive and contextualize the ongoing events. Adopting the Zionist framing, French Prime Minister Macron suggested expanding the existing coalition against ISIS to coordinate with Israel against Palestinian resistance, as if fighting one were an extension of fighting the other.[^1] US representatives and unhinged Zionist professors regularly smear anyone even mildly critical of Israel as terrorist sympathizers. This is nothing new. For decades, Zionists have contributed to and exploited the post-9/11 War on Terror framework that uniquely securitizes Muslims, predicated on a belief in the inherent violence of Islam and its threat to Western civilization. Even before 9/11, Israeli officials were keen on this framing. Yitzhak Rabin said in the early 90s, > Today, we the Israelis truly stand in the firing line against fundamentalist Islam. We demand all states and nations to focus their attention on this huge threat inherent in Islamic fundamentalism. In 1993, Shimon Peres said to a group of White House officials, > The U.S. should increase its aid to Israel instead of reducing it because Israel is waging a ferocious war against Islamic extremism. The fact of the matter is that when Zionists stand before potential donors and supporters they don’t ask for help against Palestinian terrorism or Arab terrorism, they ask for help against “Islamic” terrorism. Zionists have spent millions of dollars explicitly trying to create an association between those two terms and continue to do so, as [billboards across the United States attest](https://nypost.com/2023/10/21/anti-hamas-billboard-taken-down-in-new-jersey/). Given this reality, it is insulting and disingenuous to be told that Palestine is not fundamentally a Muslim or an Islamic issue. This is nothing less than an act of gatekeeping designed to create a secular, nationalist, and leftist monopoly over pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism. Muslim activists, if you allow yourselves to be sidelined and erased, the movement to end the Zionist occupation of Palestine will falter and ultimately fail. This is because without being anchored in Islam, any movement purporting to free Palestine risks drifting away from the largely Islamic values held by the great majority of Palestinians in Palestine itself. We must adamantly refuse the elitist and neocolonial suggestion that those assimilated to Western values—no matter their ethnicity—know better than those pulled from the rubble shouting triumphantly “*La ilaha illa Allah*!” Without an Islamic grounding, activism for Palestine will lose focus on Palestine itself, becoming instead merely one ingredient of the familiar cocktail of leftist or progressive causes, the deviation from any one of which results in their silencing and marginalization. This is another site of recolonizing the terms of our resistance. As the chief victims of global Zionism and its primarily anti-Islamic discourse, we have the right to condition participation in our cause upon not conjoining Palestine with other contentious issues. Someone might think queer liberation and Palestinian liberation make perfect sense together. However, the majority of Muslims in Palestine and the world over do not, so such people should not be allowed to enlist and tokenize fringe Muslim elements that will give such maneuvers a green light, thus erecting yet another “[good Muslim/bad Muslim](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-islamophobia-the-politics-of-anti-muslim-racism)” dynamic within our activist spaces and exposing the rest of us yet again to the question: “Those Muslim students don’t have a problem with it, why do you?” Furthermore, we should not shy away from challenging those Muslims who do allow themselves to be tokenized and used as such. As observant Muslims, we must become resolute and confident enough to prevent our voices from being drowned out by “allies” and other Muslims who have joined them, just as Imam Omar Suleiman foresaw in his [article on Faithful Activism](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/wk/faithful-activism-a-sunnah-framework): > What if in the process of trying to craft our space, we become marginalized within that space? My hope is that if we become authoritative enough on important issues, we can exert enough strength to stay firm. But we have to be careful not to empower a space that is bound to suffocate us. It is natural that Muslims will always feel the pressure, especially as a vulnerable minority, to advance at all costs. We have to demonstrate that not all advancement is good, and there is such a thing as making strides with your religious principles at your center instead of cast behind you. In order to not empower spaces that suffocate us as committed Muslims, we need to make sure that we get allyship and coalition-building right. In *Toward Sacred Activism*, Imam Dawud Walid makes the case that alliances and coalitions are actually two very different things, > Thus, many of those whom Muslims work with that are of other faiths or no faith at all are in fact suitable coalition partners within some circumstances but do not constitute true allies within the scope of al-Wala’a or what should be considered true ally-ship. This framework differs from the language put forth in the contemporary social justice world, which is primarily shaped by secular liberalism even when religious language is interwoven.[^2] In this understanding, allyship is an inner circle made up of Muslims while coalition is an outer circle made up of non-Muslims willing to lend their support to a Muslim cause. This distinction is crucial because our brothers and sisters in faith are accorded a different degree of rights, responsibilities, and privileges that non-Muslims are not entitled to. This distinction between allies and coalition members finds support in the Qur’an, where Allah discusses allyship primarily by warning believers not to take allies that aren’t fellow believers and thus don’t share our values. Allah says, > O you who have believed, do not take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do you wish to give Allah a clear case against yourselves?[^3] Elsewhere, Allah makes it crystal clear that that the key priority underlying any alliance is shared faith, even over kinship: > O you who have believed, do not take your fathers or your brothers as allies if they have preferred disbelief over belief. And whoever does so among you—then it is those who are the wrongdoers.[^4] Allah is abundantly clear that our only real allies are those who share our faith and our values: > Your ally is none but Allah and \[therefore\] His Messenger and those who have believed—those who establish prayer and give zakat, and they bow \[in worship\]. And whoever is an ally of Allah and His Messenger and those who have believed—indeed, the party of Allah—they will prevail.[^5] With such a strong emphasis placed on keeping to Muslims and avoiding compromising “alliances” with people who don’t share our faith or our values, to gather coalition members before attending to our true allies within the community is to put the cart before the horse and is an enormous mistake that might well result in our erasure from our own causes. What pushes people to court outside help at the cost of their own community’s backing? Allah says, > O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are \[in fact\] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you—then indeed, he is \[one\] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people. So you see those in whose hearts is disease hastening into \[association with\] them, saying, “We are afraid a misfortune may strike us.” But perhaps Allah will bring conquest or a decision from Him, and they will become, over what they have been concealing within themselves, regretful.[^6] In short, people rush to tend to outside support before sufficiently organizing inside support because they want the cause to succeed and are afraid that losing their outside support will result in the cause itself failing. Allah describes such people as having a disease in their hearts because they don’t have sufficient trust in Allah’s ability to deliver positive results to a righteous cause. Allah also points out that groups who don’t share our faith often have more in common with each other than they do with Muslims, highlighting the misalignment of values that often takes place when Muslims prioritize coalition members over allies from within the community. This misguided belief is based on the premise that numbers and naturalistic causes determine the outcome rather than Allah. This is a failure to grasp the lessons of the Battles of both Uhud and Hunayn, when Allah pointed out to the believers that numbers essentially don’t matter much and in some cases can even be a liability, > Allah has surely blessed you with His help on many battlefields, and on the day of Hunayn, when you were proud of your great number, then it did not help you at all, and the earth was straitened for you despite all its vastness, then you turned back on your heels...[^7] Adding the help of others might seem like simple arithmetic: the more people that assist you in your cause the more it is strengthened. But Allah tells us that numbers can just as easily be a liability as they can be a support. The participation of particularly problematic people and groups can bring more problems than their support justifies. Allah describes one such situation, > Had they gone forth with you, they would have been nothing but trouble for you, and would have scrambled around, seeking to spread discord in your midst. And some of you would have eagerly listened to them. And Allah has \[perfect\] knowledge of the wrongdoers.[^8] Success is dependent on the permission of Allah, despite the numbers. Allah says, > How many times has a small force vanquished a mighty army by the Will of Allah! And Allah is \[always\] with the steadfast.[^9] This should form the bedrock of our attitude to politics, civic engagement, and activism: first and foremost, we need us. We need enough committed Muslims that we can dictate from a place of principle [how an encampment, demonstration, or campaign will look](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/speaking-truth-to-power-islamic-rules-for-protests-civil-disobedience-and-encampments-for-gaza). We have to stand up to other groups and not be bullied into silence. And if we can’t conduct our politics alongside others while adhering to our principles, we should be prepared to walk away and do our own thing. This should not be confused with arrogance or ingratitude to the many sincere non-Muslims who are willing to lend us their support while simultaneously respecting our values. We might consider them similar to the Prophet’s uncle Abu Talib, who lent key assistance to the Muslim community without embracing the faith himself. We can maintain a respectful and grateful bearing towards such individuals without compromising our principles. But as Muslim activists we owe it to our fellow Muslims to build our alliances internally before seeking outside support. Once we have the home team locked in, then comes the time to [build the coalition](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/hadith-15-building-a-coalition-of-justice-the-fiqh-of-hilf-al-fadool). Even then, Allah warns us that such help seldom comes for free. Usually there are expectations, strings attached to the help that is being offered. This is why Allah’s cautionary words about allyship often also involve warnings against *obeying* other groups: > O you who have believed, if you obey a party of those who were given the Scripture, they would turn you back, after your belief, \[to being\] unbelievers.[^10] And again, > O you who have believed, if you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back on your heels, and you will \[then\] become losers. But Allah is your protector, and He is the best of helpers.[^11] The sad reality is that some people only want to support the fictional, idealized “Muslim” of their imagination, one that has a very nominal connection with Islam and is actually a mouthpiece for their own values and agenda. They would like to be ventriloquists and turn Muslims into dummies. Such characters must be avoided at all costs. When there is coalition work, participation should be limited, conditional, and accountable. By limited, we mean that it is focused on an issue or a concrete objective, not an entire agenda or platform. We don’t expect everyone who cares about Palestine to care about religious freedom or the sanctity of marriage, so we should not be expected to voice support for any cause other than the cause that is the basis of the coalition’s work. By conditional, we mean that the group or groups primarily affected by an issue have the right to stipulate conditions for participating in that cause. The issue of Palestine is an issue that primarily affects Palestinians and Muslims. The support of others is welcome as long as it does not seek to separate us from our values and principles. It is our responsibility as Muslims to show up and lead with those values and principles and not allow them to be sidelined. By accountable, we mean that coalition members must be held responsible for stepping out of line, even if that means ending the coalition and going our own way. When the Prophet ﷺ made *hijrah* to Madinah, he made an alliance with its three Jewish tribes agreeing that the Muslims and Jews would share in protecting the city from any outside aggression. When, one by one, the Jewish tribes violated the conditions of the agreement, the Muslims made sure to hold them accountable, even ousting them from the city for their treachery when necessary. Such actions demonstrate an understanding that coalition members who aren’t accountable to specific conditions are more dangerous than not having coalition members at all. Some of the encampments across the country and across the world have succeeded in creating a palpably Islamic environment that is welcoming to Muslims without being unnecessarily alienating to non-Muslims. We must follow their example to emulate the savvy of the Prophet in making and navigating coalitions. Ending the Zionist occupation of Palestine for good has never been more urgent. As a faith community we must step up, not step back, and be unapologetic in leading the way. --- ## Notes [^1]: [https://www.reuters.com/world/frances-macron-says-he-stands-solidarity-with-israels-fight-against-terrorism-2023-10-24/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/world/frances-macron-says-he-stands-solidarity-with-israels-fight-against-terrorism-2023-10-24/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1718813551666020&usg=AOvVaw1dQgTU8q-kXWP-fw3f9M3i) [^2]: p. 54. [^3]: 4:144. [^4]: 9:23. [^5]: 5:55-56. [^6]: 5:51-52. [^7]: 9:25. [^8]: 9:47. [^9]: 2:249. [^10]: 3:100. [^11]: 3:149-150. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/important-duas-and-dhikr-for-the-day-of-arafah # Important Du’as and Dhikr for the Day of ʿArafah **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Arafah, Blog, Dhul Hijjah, Dua **Published:** June 14, 2024 **Updated:** September 6, 2026 The Day of ʿArafah is the most significant day of the Hajj pilgrimage and one of the most important days in the Islamic calendar. The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no day on which Allah frees more people from the fire than the Day of ʿArafah.”[^1] Even for those not performing Hajj, this is a day to turn to Allah with sincere *duʿa*, *dhikr*, and repentance. So what did the Prophet ﷺ and his companions recite on this blessed day? --- ## The Prophet’s duʿa on ʿArafah The Prophet ﷺ taught us the most powerful words to say on ʿArafah: “The best supplication is the supplication on the Day of ʿArafah, and the best of what I and the prophets before me have said is: ‘There is no deity except Allah, alone, without partner. To Him belongs all dominion and praise, and He is over all things competent.’”[^2] Supplication on the Day of ʿArafah  لا إله إلا الله وحدهُ لا شريك لهُ، لهُ الملكُ ولهُ الحمدُ، وهو على كل شيءٍ قدير  *La ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu wa huwa* ***ʿ****ala kulli shayʾin qadeer.* There is no deity except Allah, alone, without partner. To Him belongs all dominion and praise, and He is over all things competent. *Sunan al-Tirmidhi,* no. 3585, graded *hasan* (good) by al-Albani. This profound supplication was described by the Prophet ﷺ as the best thing ever said by any prophet. It is a gift to this *ummah*, and repeating it throughout the Day of ʿArafah is a source of immense reward. --- ## ʿAli’s duʿa on ʿArafah The noble companion ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (rA) made the following supplication: “O Allah, free my neck from the Fire, expand my provision, grant me permissible sustenance, and keep away from me the wicked ones among the jinn and humankind.”[^3] **ʿAli’s *duʿa* on ʿArafah**  اللَّهُمَّ أَعْتِقْ رَقَبَتِي مِنَ النَّارِ، وَأَوْسِعْ لِي مِنَ الرِّزْقِ الْحَلَالِ، وَاصْرِفْ عَنِّي فَسَقَةَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ *Allahumma a****ʿ****tiq raqabatee min an-nar, wa awsi****ʿ*** *lee min ar-rizq-il-halal, wasrif ʿannee fasaqat al-jinni wal-ins.* O Allah, free my neck from the Fire, expand my provision, grant me permissible sustenance, and keep away from me the wicked ones among the jinn and humankind. Al-Suyuti, *al-Dur al-manthūr*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh ibnʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Markaz Hajar, 2003), 1st ed., 15:430. This *duʿa* is beautiful in its balance—seeking both spiritual salvation and worldly ease. --- ## ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar’s duʿa and dhikr ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar (rA), a close companion of the Prophet ﷺ, spent much of ʿArafah engaging in *takbirat* and praise of Allah, saying, “Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, and to Allah belongs all praise (*Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, wa lillahil-hamd*).” In addition to this *dhikr*, he would repeatedly say, “O Allah, guide me with Your guidance, protect me with Your piety, and forgive me in this life and the next.” **ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar’s *duʿa***  اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنِي بِالْهُدَى، وَقِنِي بِالتَّقْوَى، وَاغْفِرْ لِي فِي الْآخِرَةِ وَالْأُولَى *Allahumma ihdini bil-huda, wa qini bi-t-taqwa, waghfir lee fil-akhirati wal-oola.* **O Allah, guide me with Your guidance, protect me with Your piety, and forgive me in this life and the next.** Ibn Taymiyya, *Sharḥ ʿumdat al-fiqh* (Maktabat al-ʿAbyakān, n.d.), 3:509. After saying this, he would sit in quiet personal supplication for about as long as it would take to recite Surah al-Fatiha.[^4] --- ## More duʿas to explore While there are innumerable *duʿa*s that we can say on the Day of ʿArafah, we’ve compiled a [full list of some powerful](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-a-dua-away-a-2024-dhul-hijjah-series) *[duʿa](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-a-dua-away-a-2024-dhul-hijjah-series&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748381290258962&usg=AOvVaw1zrT_dE5w4Omsc7hR3Fhfh)*[s](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-a-dua-away-a-2024-dhul-hijjah-series&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748381290258962&usg=AOvVaw1zrT_dE5w4Omsc7hR3Fhfh) from one of our Dhul Hijjah series that might especially inspire you. You can also explore the *duʿa*s of the Prophet ﷺ and the pious predecessors on ʿArafah in more depth in [“The](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/the-duas-of-the-salaf-on-arafah-khutbah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748381290259272&usg=AOvVaw1hSfpSwkWT_NfGPlCsy16_) *[Duʿa](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/the-duas-of-the-salaf-on-arafah-khutbah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748381290259353&usg=AOvVaw0dR0vSbPyKnqjExEE5Yb_h)*[s of the *Salaf* on Arafah”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/the-duas-of-the-salaf-on-arafah-khutbah) by Dr. Omar Suleiman. The Day of ʿArafah is a day to fill your heart and tongue with *duʿa*. While we should strive to replicate the words of the Prophet ﷺ, we are also free to let our hearts pour out. From glorifying Allah to seeking forgiveness, from praying for loved ones to begging for Jannah—this is the day to ask. On this day, you are unrestricted. So whether you’re on the plain of ʿArafah or at home, use your voice, your heart, and your conviction in Allah. Make *duʿa* as if Allah is listening—because He is. May Allah accept your *duʿa*s and write you among those freed from the fire. *Ameen*. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sahih Muslim,* no. 1348. [^2]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhi,* no. 3585, graded *hasan* (good) by al-Albani. [^3]: Al-Suyuti, *al-Dur al-manthūr*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh ibnʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Markaz Hajar, 2003), 1st ed., 15:430. [^4]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Sharḥ ʿumdat al-fiqh* (Maktabat al-ʿAbyakān, n.d.), 3:509. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the most important duʿāʾ to recite on the Day of 'Arafah? The Prophet ﷺ said the best *duʿāʾ* on the Day of 'Arafah is: *Lā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-ḥamd, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr* — 'There is no deity except Allah alone, without partner; to Him belongs all dominion and praise, and He is over all things capable' (*Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3585, graded *ḥasan* by al-Albānī). ### What duʿāʾ did 'Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (ra) recite on 'Arafah? 'Ali (ra) is reported to have recited: *Allāhumma aʿtiq raqabatī mina al-nār, wa awsiʿ lī mina al-rizq al-ḥalāl, waṣrif ʿannī fasaqat al-jinni wa al-ins* — 'O Allah, free my neck from the Fire, expand for me lawful provision, and turn away from me the wicked among the jinn and humankind' (al-Suyūṭī, *al-Durr al-manthūr*, 15:430). ### What dhikr did Ibn 'Umar (ra) repeat throughout the Day of 'Arafah? ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (ra) spent much of 'Arafah engaged in *takbīr* and praise: *Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, wa lillāhi al-ḥamd* — 'Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, and to Allah belongs all praise.' He would intersperse this dhikr with personal supplication throughout the day. ### What duʿāʾ did Ibn 'Umar (ra) follow his takbīr with? He would recite: *Allāhumma ihdinī bi-al-hudā, wa qinī bi-al-taqwā, waghfir lī fī al-ākhirati wa al-ūlā* — 'O Allah, guide me with Your guidance, protect me with Your *taqwā*, and forgive me in this life and the next' (Ibn Taymiyyah, *Sharḥ ʿumdat al-fiqh*, 3:509). He would then make quiet personal supplication for roughly the length of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah. ### When during the Day of 'Arafah are duʿāʾ most accepted? Scholars identify the most virtuous portion of the day as the period from after 'Aṣr until sunset, when pilgrims at 'Arafah make their final standing. Non-pilgrims are encouraged to set aside this window for concentrated *duʿāʾ*, although the entire day is a time of acceptance — the Prophet ﷺ called the supplication of 'Arafah 'the best of supplications.' ### Can I make personal duʿāʾ on the Day of 'Arafah, or must I use prophetic words? Both are encouraged. The article emphasizes that while the Prophet's ﷺ words and the supplications of the Companions carry the greatest authority and barakah, believers are also invited to 'let their hearts pour out' with personal *duʿāʾ* in their own language — for spiritual salvation, the people they love, worldly needs, and Paradise. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-to-do-on-the-day-of-arafah-making-the-most-of-a-blessed-day # What to Do on the Day of ʿArafah: Making the Most of a Blessed Day **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Arafah, Blog, Dhul Hijjah **Published:** June 11, 2024 **Updated:** June 4, 2025 Fatimah sat by the window, her fingers counting as she murmured words of *dhikr*. Outside, the world bustled—cars honked, children walked home from school. Inside, the TV live-streamed the sea of pilgrims standing in the sacred valley, calling out to Allah. It was the Day of ʿArafah. Fatimah wasn’t on Hajj, yet her heart panged to be there. Somehow, the Day of ʿArafah felt so distant from where she sat. As a child, she had once asked her grandfather why people cried so much on ʿArafah. He smiled gently and replied, *“Because it’s the day we all come home to Allah.”* She hadn’t understood it then. But today, after months of spiritual drift and a heart heavy with guilt, it made sense. --- ## ʿArafah: Not just for the pilgrims The Prophet ﷺ said: “Hajj is ʿArafah, Hajj is ʿArafah, Hajj is ʿArafah.”[^1] Standing as the pinnacle of Hajj and the heart of the pilgrimage—without which Hajj is not complete—the Day of ʿArafah takes place on the 9th day of Dhul Hijjah and is one of the most virtuous days in the Islamic calendar. On this day, pilgrims stand (or sit) in remembrance of Allah, supplicating to Him intensely, from Dhuhr prayer until after sunset. But for those of us not on the plains of ʿArafah, it also offers something incredibly intimate: a personal standing before Allah—a chance to repent, call out to Him in utter dependency, and seek salvation. The Prophet ﷺ said: “There is no day on which Allah frees more people from the Fire than the Day of ʿArafah.”[^2] This day is not just a day of ritual for pilgrims on Hajj, but an opportunity for salvation for the entire *ummah*. The Day of ʿArafah is a day unlike any other, offering an unparalleled chance for forgiveness, mercy, and spiritual rejuvenation. It is significant as the day that Allah revealed the completion of the religion: “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as your religion” (Qur’an 5:3). And as the day on which the covenant between Allah and every soul took place: “And \[mention\] when your Lord took from the children of Adam—from their loins—their descendants and made them testify of themselves, \[saying to them\], ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we have testified.’ \[This\]—lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, ‘Indeed, we were of this unaware.’” (Qur’an 7:172) Here are a few practical ways you can make the most of this blessed day and the virtues it has to offer: --- ## 1\. Engage in continuous duʿa and dhikr The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best supplication is the supplication on the Day of ʿArafah. The best of what I and the prophets before me have said is: ‘There is no deity but Allah alone, He has no partner. To Him belongs all sovereignty and praise, and He has power over all things.’”[^3] Take this profound opportunity to seek Allah’s aid with a heart opened by yearning. Spend the day in constant *[duʿa](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-a-dua-away-a-2024-dhul-hijjah-series)* (supplication) and *[dhikr](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-deeper-into-dhikr-a-dhul-hijjah-series)* (remembrance), affirming Allah’s oneness and expressing gratitude for His blessings upon you. --- ## 2\. Fast on the Day of ʿArafah [Fasting on the Day of ʿArafah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/episode-8-3-years-of-fasting-virtues-of-dhul-hijjah) is highly recommended for those not performing Hajj, offering rewards like no other day of the year. The Prophet ﷺ said that fasting on this day “expiates the sins of the previous year and the coming year.”[^4] While fasting, be mindful of what your eyes and ears consume, and how you treat those around you. --- ## 3\. Honor the sunnah prayers Plan your day to include all the *sunnah* prayers, making sure to really focus on your *khushuʿ* (presence of heart). Prepare yourself by getting to know the [power of prayer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-secrets-of-salah-the-hidden-gems-of-prayer-dhul-hijjah-series-2025). The intention to maximize your spiritual gains on this special day is itself a form of worship. --- ## 4\. Take heed of the Prophet ﷺ’s final sermon On this fateful day, as the *ummah* was spread out across ʿArafah, the Prophet ﷺ delivered his final sermon. This moment marked the moment Islam was perfected and completed, and contained a comprehensive message for all of humanity. [His last sermon](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-day-of-arafah-his-hajj-story-ep-8) was a profound summary of his message and guidance for the *ummah*. He ﷺ forbade usury for us, reminded us to treat women well, to uphold racial equality, and to hold firm to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Reflecting on this sermon helps us reconnect with the core values of our faith. --- ## 5\. Reflect on and renew your covenant with Allah The [Day of ʿArafah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-day-of-arafah-his-hajj-story-ep-8) is a time to remember the covenant we made with Allah. As mentioned in the Qur’an, Allah asked, “Am I not your Lord?” and we all responded, “Yes, we bear witness” (Qur’an 7:172). Reflect on this profound moment and renew your commitment to Allah. Acknowledge your past shortcomings, seek His forgiveness, and aim to strengthen your relationship with your Creator. Use this blessed day to make a meaningful personal commitment to enhance your spiritual life. Identify one major change you can implement to better align with Islamic teachings. Write it down as a personal promise to Allah, and ask Him for guidance and strength to see it through. As you renew your covenant with Allah, let this day mark a turning point in your spiritual journey. The Day of ʿArafah is a gift from Allah—a chance to wipe away past sins, renew our faith, and draw closer to Him. May Allah grant us the ability to observe this day with sincerity and devotion, and may He accept our efforts and forgive our shortcomings. *Ameen*. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 2975, graded *sahih* (authentic) by Imam al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Hibban. [^2]: *Sahih Muslim,* no. 1348. [^3]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhi,* no. 3585, graded *hasan* (good) by al-Albani. [^4]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 1162. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What should a Muslim do on the Day of 'Arafah if not performing Hajj? Yaqeen's guide outlines five priorities for non-pilgrims: fast the day (highly recommended sunnah), engage in continuous *duʿāʾ* and *dhikr*, perform sunnah prayers with focus and presence of heart, reflect on the Prophet's ﷺ Final Sermon delivered at 'Arafah, and renew one's covenant with Allah by committing to one concrete spiritual change. The Prophet ﷺ said the best supplication is the supplication on the Day of 'Arafah (*Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3585). ### Is fasting on the Day of 'Arafah obligatory? It is highly recommended (sunnah) for those not performing Hajj, but not obligatory. The Prophet ﷺ said fasting on this day 'expiates the sins of the previous year and the coming year' (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 1162). Pilgrims at 'Arafah do not fast, since they are engaged in the standing and need their strength for worship and supplication. ### What did the Prophet ﷺ say at 'Arafah in his Final Sermon? On his only Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ delivered the *Khuṭbat al-Wadāʿ* (Farewell Sermon) at 'Arafah, addressing the sanctity of life and property, justice, the rights of women, racial equality ('no Arab has superiority over a non-Arab except by piety'), and the prohibition of *ribā* (usury). The verse 'This day I have perfected your religion for you' (Qur'an 5:3) was revealed at 'Arafah on that day, signaling the completion of revelation. ### Why is the Day of 'Arafah considered the holiest day of the year? The Prophet ﷺ said, 'There is no day on which Allah frees more people from the Fire than the Day of 'Arafah' (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 1348). It is also linked to the primordial covenant in which Allah took testimony from all human souls (Qur'an 7:172), making 'Arafah a day of return to one's original witness of Allah's lordship — a renewal not just of practice, but of identity. ### How should a non-pilgrim spend the Day of 'Arafah hour by hour? The article recommends starting the day fasting, praying Fajr in congregation, dedicating extended time to *dhikr* and personal supplication — especially the period from after 'Aṣr until Maghrib, which scholars identify as the most virtuous portion of the day — reflecting on the Final Sermon, and writing down one concrete spiritual change to commit to before the day ends. ### What is the best dhikr to repeat on the Day of 'Arafah? The Prophet ﷺ said: 'The best of what I and the prophets before me have said is: *Lā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-ḥamd, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr*' — 'There is no deity except Allah alone, without partner; to Him belongs all dominion and praise, and He is over all things capable' (*Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3585). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-some-quranic-verses-more-virtuous-than-others-reconciling-diverse-scholarly-views # Are Some Qur'anic Verses More Virtuous Than Others? Reconciling Diverse Scholarly Views **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 7, 2024 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 ## Introduction Several prophetic reports underscore the special merit and reward associated with reciting, memorizing, or comprehending specific Qur’anic verses or chapters, suggesting a conceptual hierarchy of superiority within the Qur’an. Widely acknowledged among Muslims, certain verses hold particular significance, such as the opening chapter (*Sūrat al-Fātiḥa*), the verse of the Throne (*al-Kursī*), or the first ten verses of the chapter of the Cave (*Sūrat al-Kahf*). The Qur’an itself suggests varying levels of revelation, not only asserting its superiority over previous scriptures but also acknowledging the potential replacement of one verse with a better one. Indeed, an entire genre of scholarship was dedicated to compiling the reported virtues of the Qur’an as a whole, as well as specific chapters and verses. As early Muslim scholars grappled with the conceptual understanding of God’s transcendent attributes, particularly the attribute of speech (*kalām*) in this context, a pressing question emerged: If the Qur’an is considered God’s speech, how can one part of God’s speech be better or preferred to another part? The response to this inquiry was far from unified. The contentious debates surrounding God’s attributes, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) describes, turned the issue into “a significant matter, resulting in widespread division among people.”[^1] Discussions relevant to this matter began to emerge as early as the 2nd/8th century, particularly in the theological treatise attributed to Imam Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/767), *al-Fiqh al-akbar*. Subsequent scholars, including prominent scholarly figures like al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and Ibn Taymiyya, extensively explored the issue. As a result, the subject evolved into an independent topic within the literature of Qur’anic Sciences (*ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*), as demonstrated by al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) devoting a chapter in *al-Itqān* to “The Best of the Qur’an and its Distinct Parts” (*afḍal al-Qurʿān wa fādilih*). Furthermore, certain scholars dedicated entire books to this topic, among them Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Darrāj (d. 693/1294) in a work that is no longer extant.[^2] Ibn Taymiyya also addressed this subject in a fatwa, examining the meaning of the hadith describing *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* (The Sincerity) as equivalent to one third of the Qur’an. His discussion was independently published in a book titled *Jawāb ahl al-ʿilm wa al-īmān*.[^3] Muslim scholars hold one of two main viewpoints regarding the uniformity of merit within the Qur’an. One group asserts that the Qur’an, as the embodiment of God’s transcendent speech, possesses uniform merit throughout its text. The other group argues that certain parts of the Qur’an are more meritorious than others. This paper succinctly presents these perspectives and examines the evidence each side offers. It argues that the debate largely hinges on semantics, with each group of scholars emphasizing their distinct angle, while potentially overlooking the considerations of the opposing viewpoint. The objective of this article is to establish a theological framework for understanding the concept of superiority (*tafḍīl*) of certain parts of  the Qur’an. This brief article serves as an introduction to a series that will explore the detailed virtues of specific Qur’anic chapters and verses as reported in the corpus of Prophetic traditions. --- ## The first opinion: All parts of the Qur’an are equally meritorious No segment of the Qur’an is deemed superior to another. Despite being regarded as the minority opinion, this viewpoint is explicitly endorsed by or attributed to several eminent scholars, including Imam Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179/795), al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/936), Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354/965), Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī (d. 386/996), Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qābisī (d. 403/1013), and Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Qaysī (d. 437/1045).[^4] Al-Darrāj asserts an established consensus among Sunni scholars that any textual references to the merits of specific parts of the Qur’an do not imply inherent superiority.[^5] This holds true when pertaining to Allah’s transcendent uncreated attribute of speech rather than our human experience of the Qur’anic text. Notably, not all of these authorities have left explicit statements on the issue that are extant in literature, and some of the reported views lack clarity or detail. The following provides a concise examination of select reports and statements. Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā (d. 234/848) asserts, “Preferring some parts of the Qur’an over others is incorrect. This is why Mālik disapproved of the repetition or emphasis of one **sūrah** over others \[in prayer\].”[^6] In this context, we observe a practical application of the debate, emphasizing that a merit-based selective approach should not dictate the choice of verses during prayer.[^7] While explicit statements from Mālik on the issue are limited, his understanding of the abrogation verse appears to align with Yaḥyā’s assertion. The abrogation verse serves as the linchpin in this debate, upheld by the majority opinion to imply varying degrees of excellence: “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth one better than it or similar to it.”[^8] However, Mālik interpreted the term “better” not as denoting excellence but rather held that it signifies a verse (or a ruling) replacing an abrogated one.[^9] In his seminal exegetical commentary (*tafsīr*), al-Ṭabarī delves deeper into the Qur’an’s description of certain verses as better than others in the abrogation verse. He interpreted the intended meaning as ‘We do not abrogate the ruling of a verse...’ Consequently, the outcome of abrogation is that it “brings a ruling that is better for you than the ruling of the abrogated verse, whether in the immediate term due to its easiness on you, or in the Hereafter due to the greatness of its reward for enduring its burden.”[^10] He further emphasizes, “It is not permissible for anything in the Qur’an to be better than something else because it is all the speech of Allah.”[^11] This interpretation was also propounded by many of the exegetes from the early generations (*salaf*). For example, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198/814) was reported to have said: > I used to read this verse and not understand it… I used to say, “This is Qur’an and this is Qur’an, so how can one be better than the other? Until it was explained to me, and it became clear: “We bring better than it for you,” meaning easier for you, lighter for you, and gentler for you.[^12] Al-Ṭabarī applies a similar concept to the names of Allah, maintaining that it is impermissible to assert that some of His names are better or greater than others. According to al-Ṭabarī, the significance of the “greatest name of God” is equivalent to the description “great,” as all of God’s names hold equal greatness. The variation lies in the state of individuals during supplication, so the term “greatest name” relates to the spiritual condition of the worshiper rather than suggesting that the name is inherently superior to all others.[^13] Ibn Ḥibbān comments on the Prophet’s description of *Sūrat al-Fātiḥa* as the greatest chapter of the Qur’an saying, “By that, he, Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, meant \[it is greatest\] in reward and not that parts of the Qur’an are better than others.”[^14] Ibn Ḥibbān reported in his *Sunan* the hadith in which the Prophet said to one of his companions, “Shall I not inform you of the best of the Qurʾan?” Ibn Ḥibbān adds that the Prophet’s statement means ‘Shall I not inform you of the best part of the Qur’an for you?’ and not that some parts of the Qur’an are better than others, “because the speech of Allah cannot have disparities in excellence.”[^15] The argument of the first opinion can be summarized as follows. Firstly, the entirety of the Qur’an constitutes the speech of Allah, which, in terms of His attribute of speech, is inherently indivisible in merit. This perspective aligns with what al-Darrāj alleges to be the consensus. Al-Ashʿarī further elaborated that the indivisible nature of Allah’s speech does not contradict its potential to encompass infinite significations. Additionally, verses referring to Allah’s speech as “words” utilize the plural form to denote greatness and magnificence rather than plurality. The unity of Allah is manifested in His eternal and beginningless attribute of speech, which remains singular.[^16] Al-Bāqillānī also emphasizes this point, stating that one part of what is eternal cannot be preferred over another part of itself, nor can it be described as divisible. Rather, what is divisible is the act of recitation, not the essence of the speech.[^17] Secondly, the compositional structure (*naẓm*) of the Qur’an exhibits a uniformly unique quality, despite encompassing various aspects of inimitable literary forms. The Qur’an employs several of these forms to convey narratives, admonitions, laws, morals, arguments, promises, threats, and other objectives. However, despite this wide spectrum of discourse modes and diversity of literary devices, no discernible disparity exists. In contrast, literary professionals vary in their poetic skills and levels of descriptive excellence depending on the rhetorical purpose they pursue, such as praise, satire, eulogy, or romance. Thus, from this perspective, no disparity is evident in the Qur’an.[^18] Thirdly, the concept of superiority implies the imperfection of the lesser entity, a notion that poses challenges when applied to the Qur’an.[^19] Therefore, as indicated by several authorities cited earlier, terms such as “greater” (*aʿẓam*) and “more meritorious” (*afḍal*), which are found in the Qur’an or Prophetic traditions to describe portions of the Qur’an, ought to be understood as “great” and “meritorious” instead. Any suggested differentiation can only be conceptualized as subjectively related to the human interaction with the text, in terms of certain parts of the Qur’an being more beneficial, rewarding, or easier to apply in their lives compared to others. --- ## The second opinion: Some parts of the Qur’an are more meritorious than others The second viewpoint, recognized as the majority opinion, was described by al-Qurṭubī (d. 656/1258) as “the true” (*ḥaqq*) stance in this discussion, with Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār (d. 610/1213) expressing astonishment at those who claim disagreement on this issue despite textual indications of preference.[^20] Al-Ghazālī, a prominent advocate of this perspective, devoted a brief chapter in his book *Jawāhir al-Qurʾān* \[The Jewels of the Qur’an\] to this subject, serving as an introduction to subsequent chapters discussing the merits of *Sūrah*s *al-Fātiḥa*, *al-Ikhlāṣ*, and *Yāsīn*, as well as the verse of *al-Kursī*. In this chapter, he states: > Perhaps you will ask me: In these remarks you intend to state that some parts of the Qur’an are more excellent than others, whereas all are the speech of God (may He be exalted!). So how can some parts be distinguished from others and how can some parts be more excellent than others? > \[As a reply to this question\] know that if the light of insight (*nūr al-baṣīra*) does not guide you to the difference between the Verse of the Throne and a verse concerning giving and receiving loans, and between the *Sūrah* of Sincerity and the *Sūrah* of Destruction, and your mind which is empty and wholly absorbed in blindly following the opinions of others (*taqlīd*) lives in the comfort of mere belief in such differences, then follow the Messenger of God (may His blessing and greeting be upon him!), who is the man to whom the Qur’an was revealed. Prophetic traditions have pointed to the nobility of some verses and to the manifold multiplication of reward for recitation in the case of some revealed *sūrah*s. > Thus the Prophet (may God bless him and greet him!) said, “The *Sūrah* of the Opening of the Book is the best *sūrah* of the Qur’an.” He (may God bless him and greet him!) also said, “The Verse of the Throne is the chief of the Qur’anic verses.” He (may God bless him and greet him!) further said, “The *Sūrah* of Yāsīn is the heart of the Qur’an, and the *sūrah* beginning with ‘Say: He is God, the One is equal to a third of the Qur’an in respect of value.” There are innumerable Traditions regarding the excellence of the striking verses of the Qur’an \[*Qawāriʿ al-Qurʾān*\] and regarding the specification of some verses and *sūrah*s as excellent and also regarding the great reward of their recitation. Seek them, if you like, from books on Tradition.[^21] The argument of the second opinion can be summarized as follows. Firstly, numerous prophetic reports indicate the superiority or special merit of certain parts of the Qur’an. Secondly, the verse concerning abrogation can be interpreted as replacing a verse with a better one. Legal theory debates on whether the Sunnah can abrogate the Qur’an incorporated discussions about the superiority of portions of revelation over others based on various interpretations of the abrogation verse.[^22] Thirdly, multiple verses of the Qur’an describe portions of the revelation as “best” (*aḥsan*), such as “And follow the best of what was revealed to you from your Lord”[^23] and “Those who listen to speech and follow the best of it.”[^24] Additionally, the Israelites were instructed to “take the best” of the revelation received by Moses from Allah on the tablets.[^25] Fourthly, the Qur’an is deemed superior to the Torah and the Gospel, although all three are considered the words of Allah. Allah states, “And We have revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it.”[^26] Many early exegetes interpreted the phrase “criterion over it” (*muhayminan ʿalayh*) to signify the Qur’an’s role as the entrusted overseer of the previous scriptures, indicating a higher ranking. In this context, the Gospel is not considered on equal footing with, for example, the Torah or the Psalms.[^27] Finally, the requirement for *Sūrat al-Fātiḥa* to be recited as an obligatory component of prayer, alongside numerous reports detailing its special merits, indicates its superiority over other parts of the Qur’an. This correlation was explicitly articulated by some jurists, such as al-Samʿānī (d. 489/1096), who expounds on the Shāfiʿī school’s stance regarding the obligatory recitation of *Sūrat al-Fātīḥa* in prayer, stating, > Our colleagues have stated that the recitation of the Qur’an in prayer, being obligatory, requires the designation of *al-Fātīḥa*. This is because the Qur’an is distinguished from other texts by its miraculousness (*iʿjāz*), and the minimum requirement to establish *iʿjāz* is a *s*ū*rah*. This *s*ū*rah* \[*al-Fātīḥa*\] is the noblest of *s*ū*rah*s as it comprises the ‘seven oft-repeated verses’ (*al-sabʿ al-mathānī*) and can serve as a substitute for all other *s*ū*rah*s, whereas not all *s*ū*rah*s can substitute for it. Moreover, it encompasses aspects such as praise, glorification, seeking help, seeking refuge, and supplication from the servant to the Lord, which are not encompassed by other *s*ū*rah*s of equivalent length. Therefore, when this *s*ū*rah* is the noblest of *s*ū*rah*s and prayer is the noblest of states, then the noblest of *s*ū*rah*s becomes necessary in the noblest of states.[^28] Abū Yaʿlā al-Farrāʾ (d. 458/1066) echoes a similar response in representing the Ḥanbalī school’s opinion on the obligation of reciting *al-Fātiḥa* in prayer. He asserted that three proofs establish the noble status of *al-Fātiḥa*: textual authorities in prophetic traditions, rational inference regarding the *s*ū*rah*’s position, and legal practice. Besides the Prophetic reports attesting to the merits of *al-Fātiḥa*, Allah has paralleled it with the entire Qur’an, as He stated: “And We have certainly given you seven of the often repeated \[verses\] and the great Qur’an.” This signifies a reality unmatched by any other *s*ū*rah*. Legally, *Sūrat* *al-Fātiḥa* should be recited in every *rakʿa*, with consequences for misreading it during prayer.[^29] --- ## A third, reconciliatory approach The debate over whether different Qur’anic verses possess varying levels of merit, as illustrated by the arguments of both viewpoints, seems to be primarily semantic. One perspective emphasizes viewing the Qur’an as the direct speech of God, thus negating the possibility of verses having varying levels of merit, while the other considers external factors that may assign additional worldly or spiritual value to certain verses based on human engagement with God’s speech. Thus, any perceived superiority is considered a non-essential attribute of specific verses, rather than an inherent quality that establishes a hierarchy of excellence within the Qur’an itself.[^30] Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1071) notes that the concern over ascribing differing levels of value to the Qur’an led some scholars to interpret reports about the superiority of certain **sūrah**s figuratively. However, he continues, the promise of reward for performing an act does not necessarily imply the inherent merit of the act itself; rather, it indicates God’s benevolence towards whomever He chooses from among His servants. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr references the example of the abrogation verse, highlighting that exegetes did not disagree that its meaning, “We bring forth one better than it,” is intended for the believers, not indicating that the verse is inherently better than others. Amidst his discussion of the meaning of *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* being equivalent to one-third of the Qur’an, he remarks, “All of this has been stated by the people of Sunnah, independent reasoning (*raʾy*), and Hadith. However, I say that silence on this matter, and matters similar to it, is better and safer than speaking about them.”[^31] This multi-perspective approach has been adopted by numerous scholars. An early example of this approach can be found in Abū Ḥanīfa’s *al-Fiqh al-akbar*: > The verses of the Qur’an, being Allah’s speech, are all equal in excellence and greatness. Some, however, have a pre-eminence in regard to recitation or to their contents; e.g., the verse of the Throne, because it deals with Allah’s majesty, His greatness and His description. So in it are united excellence in regard to recitation and excellence in regard to contents. Others possess excellence only in regard to recitation, such as the descriptions of the infidels, whereas those who are mentioned in them, that is, the infidels, have no excellence. Likewise, all of Allah’s names and qualities are equal in greatness and excellence, without difference.[^32] Similarly, when Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh (d. 238/853) was asked about the significance of *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* being regarded as equivalent to one third of the Qur’an, his response was: > Its meaning is that when Allah distinguished His speech over all other speech, He also made some of it superior in reward for those who recite it, as an encouragement to teach it; not that whoever recites “Say: He is Allah, the One” three times is like one who recites the entire Qurʾan.[^33] This is not valid even if they recite “Say: He is Allah, the One” two hundred times.[^34] These observations prompt the following questions: what is the meaning of “Qur’an” in relation to God’s speech and the conceptual understanding of superiority (*tafḍīl*) and its origins? In theological discourse, the term Qurʾan encompasses two aspects: God’s eternal attribute of speech and the verbal expressions present in human recitation. This duality reflects both the concept of God’s beginningless, unuttered speech and the temporally uttered recitations of humans. This is illustrated in the verses: “Whenever any fresh *(muḥdath)* revelation comes to them from their Lord, they listen to it playfully,”[^35] and “To Moses God spoke directly.”[^36] Therefore, the crux of the debate revolves around God’s attribute of speech and the affirmation of the uniformity of all His attributes—a principle upheld by all Muslim theologians. It is likely that some proponents of the first opinion, which emphasizes the equality of all parts of the Qur’an, were cautious of the Muʿtazilite perspective on the createdness of the Qur’an. In his commentary on the abrogation verse, al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) noted that the Muʿtazilites used this verse to argue that if certain parts of the Qur’an are superior to others, then the Qur’an cannot be eternal (*qadīm*).[^37] The Sunni response to this argument lies in distinguishing between two aspects of speech: the speaker and the spoken. Speech may emanate from a single speaker and, from this perspective, possesses a singular level of superiority. However, this does not preclude the existence of varying degrees of significance within the different parts of the spoken content. This leads to the second question concerning the applicability of superiority to non-essential aspects of God’s attributes, a perspective that finds agreement among both groups of scholars. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥalīmī (d. 403/1012) outlined five aspects of the superiority of certain verses over others. - Firstly, the implementation of one verse may be prioritized and prove more beneficial for people than another verse. Verses containing commands, prohibitions, promises, or threats, for instance, may be deemed superior to those narrating stories, as directive speech is generally more conducive to fulfilling objectives. - Secondly, verses incorporating Allah’s names and magnificent attributes are considered superior due to the inherent significance of their subject matter. - Thirdly, certain chapters and verses are esteemed over others because their recitation yields immediate benefits beyond the spiritual rewards expected in the afterlife. For example, reciting verses such as *al-Kursī* or the Protectors (*al-Muʿawwidhatayn*), the final two chapters of the Qur’an, not only earns the reciter spiritual rewards for performing an act of worship but also provides immediate protection against potential evils. - Fourthly, Allah may multiply the reward for reciting particular **sūrah**s even when we do not fully comprehend the distinct qualities these **sūrah**s possess. This is analogous to how Allah may designate certain times and places as having special significance not found in others. For instance, one day or month might be considered holier than another, making worship during these times more significant and sinning therein more serious than at other times. Similarly, the Holy Mosque in Mecca holds a superior status to other places due to the unique rituals performed there, and the reward for praying within its precincts is multiplied. - Finally, the Qur’an is distinguished from the Torah, the Gospel, and the Psalms by several unique qualities, including worship through its recitation,  reward for its recitation, its provision of definitive knowledge, and its status as the Prophet’s miracle and evidence against his people.[^38] Hence, the superiority of some verses over others is not related to Allah’s eternal attributes. Rather, it emanates from an external source, such as the subject matter, the incorporation of numerous unique meanings, and God’s generosity in rewarding the reciter based on their unique experiential state. A notable example illustrating the significance of subject matter is the comparison between *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* and *Sūrat al-Masad* (The Palm Fiber). As highlighted by al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660/1262), “Allah’s discourse about Himself surpasses His discourse about others.”[^39] Consequently, is it appropriate to assert that ‘*Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* is superior to *Sūrat al-Masad*’? Each **sūrah** serves a distinct purpose, addressing different themes, and thus possesses its own context of excellence and refinement. In addressing this misdirected question of comparison, Shams al-Dīn al-Khuwayyī (d. 637/1240) argues that the excellence of each **sūrah** within its context is more comprehensive than in the context of the other. This is because evaluating the excellence of both **sūrah**s outside their contexts equates mentioning Allah with mentioning Abū Lahab and equates monotheism with invoking damnation upon the disbeliever, which is indeed inappropriate. Instead, it should be recognized that “May the hands of Abū Lahab be ruined” constitutes an unparalleled supplication for loss, just as “Say: He is Allah, the One” represents the most articulate expression of monotheism. Hence, when considering the context of each verse, it cannot be claimed that one is more eloquent than the other.[^40] Another example that illustrates multifaceted comparison and emphasizes the incorporation of diverse meanings involves comparing the verse of *al-Kursī* and *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ*. Scholarly reflections on their merits confirm the multi-perspective approach alongside subjective interpretive and experiential encounters with the Qur’an. The verse of *al-Kursī* holds the esteemed status of being the greatest among verses due to its profound content. Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148) elucidates that something is honored by the honor of its essence, implications, and associations. Therefore, the position of the verse of *al-Kursī* among the Qur’an’s verses parallels the position of *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* among its **sūrah**s.[^41] Al-Ghazālī mentions that the verse of *al-Kursī* is deemed the greatest of all verses because it encapsulates the essence, attributes, and actions of Allah, and nothing else. Understanding these three aspects is the paramount goal of knowledge, while everything else is secondary to it.[^42] Ibn al-Munayyir (d. 683/1284) referenced his grandfather, Kamāl al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Fāris, who emphasized that the verse of *al-Kursī*  encompasses unique aspects not found in any other verse, as it contains approximately twenty-two instances where the name of Allah is explicitly or implicitly mentioned.[^43] Nonetheless, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr points out that *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* surpasses it in two aspects. Firstly, being a **sūrah** holds greater significance than a single verse, as the Qur’anic challenge (*taḥaddī*) can only be presented to opponents by presenting a complete **sūrah** to establish the inimitability of the Qur’anic text and the veracity of the Prophet’s message.[^44] Secondly, *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* establishes monotheism in fifteen letters, whereas the verse of *al-Kursī* does so in fifty letters, thus demonstrating the miraculous style of conveying a profound message in fifty letters and then condensing it to fifteen.[^45] --- ## Conclusion The debate surrounding the varying levels of merit among Qur’anic verses reflects a multifaceted theological framework. While some scholars emphasize the equality of all parts of the Qur’an, attributing significance solely to the holistic nature of God’s speech, others argue for the superiority of certain verses based on prophetic reports and, arguably, the Qur’an’s own description of itself. Examining these debates offers valuable insights into the interpretation and understanding of the Qur’an, highlighting the dynamic interplay between theological principles, legal theory, and linguistic analysis. These discussions are not merely intellectual exercises; they demonstrate a scholarly commitment to a comprehensive theological framework that fully acknowledges the transcendence of Allah and His attributes while consistently adhering to Prophetic reports. Furthermore, they illustrate the meticulous attention scholars pay to the minutest details of the text and tradition, ensuring that every argument is substantiated by robust evidence rather than merely the authority of the speaker. This adherence to evidence-based reasoning underscores the freedom within Islamic scholarship to disagree respectfully, provided the disagreement is rooted in sound argumentation and evidence. The ongoing debate also reflects a widely shared framework of what constitutes a valid argument in Islamic scholarship, fostering a tradition where differing perspectives are valued and rigorously analyzed. This multidisciplinary approach not only underscores the richness of the Islamic tradition but also encourages Muslims to deeply reflect on the Qur’an, its position, and its merits in diverse ways. By engaging with these scholarly debates, Muslims can appreciate the depth and breadth of their intellectual heritage, fostering a nuanced and profound understanding of their faith. --- ## Notes [^1]: Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, eds. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Qāsim and Muḥammad Qāsim, 37 vols. (Medina: Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2004), 17:10. [^2]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 17:73. [^3]: The full title of the work is *Jawāb ahl al-ʿilm wal-īmān bi-taḥqīq mā akhbar bih rasūl al-Raḥmān min anna qul huwa Allah aḥad taʿdil thuluth al-Qur’an* \[The Response of the People of Knowledge and Faith in Verifying What the Messenger of the Merciful Reported: That ‘Say: He is Allah, the One' is Equivalent to One-Third of the Qur’an’\] [^4]: Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Khalaf ibn Baṭṭāl, *Sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* ed. Yāsir ibn Ibrāhīm, 11 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, n.d.), 10:252; Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Faraḥ al-Qurṭubī, *al-Tidhkār fī afḍal al-adhkār*, ed. Bashīr ʿUyūn, 3rd ed. (Damascus: Maktabat Dār al-Bayān, 1987), 45. [^5]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 17:73. [^6]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Tidhkār*, 45. [^7]: It is worth noting, however, that the Mālikī school does recognize the preference of reading specific parts of the Qur’an that the Prophet recommended for certain prayers. [^8]: Qur’an 2:106. [^9]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Tidhkār*, 45. [^10]: Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āyī al-Qurʾan*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī, 1st ed., 25 vols. (Cairo: Hajar, 2001), 2:401. [^11]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, 403; see also al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʿūd al-Baghawī, *Maʿālim al-tanzīl*, ed. Muḥammad al-Nimr et al., 8 vols. (Riyadh: Dār Ṭība, 1989), 1:135. [^12]: Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Naṣr al-Marwazī, *al-Sunnah*, ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Buṣayrī (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀṣimah li-l-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ, 2001), 186. [^13]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 17:68–69. I could not locate the exact quote in al-Ṭabarī’s *tafsīr*. [^14]: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ibn Balbān al-Fārisī, *al-Iḥsān fī taqrīb ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, 18 vols. (Beirut: Muʾssasat al-Risālah, n.d.), 3:57. [^15]: Al-Fārisī, *al-Iḥsān*, 3:52. [^16]: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Fūrak, *Maqālāt al-shaykh Abī al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī imam ahl al-sunna*, ed. Aḥmad al-Sāyiḥ (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqāfa al-Dīniyya, 2005), 67. [^17]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *al-Inṣāf fī mā yajib iʿtiqāduh wa lā yajūz al-jahl bih*, ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī, 2nd ed. (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Azhariyya li-l-Turāth, 2000), 97. [^18]: Al-Bāqillānī profoundly elaborated on this point in *Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, ed. al-Sayyid Ṣaqr, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, n.d.), 36–38. [^19]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Tidhkār*, 45. [^20]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, ed. Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾāniyya, 7 vols. (Medina: Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2005), 6:2140. [^21]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Jawāhir al-Qurʾān*, ed. Muḥammad al-Qabbānī, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-ʿUlūm, 1990), 62–63. The translation is quoted from Muhammad Abul Quasem, *The Jewels of the Qurʾān: Al-Ghazālī’s Theory* (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1977), 64–65. [^22]: Legal theorists held differing opinions on whether the Sunnah can abrogate the Qur’an. The majority opinion, which supports this view, argues that it is not the Qur’anic text itself that is abrogated, but rather the legal ruling of a verse. This perspective is based on the belief that all Qur’anic verses hold equal value, making it conceivable for a law derived from the Sunnah to supersede a law established by the Qur’an. See for example, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭībī, *Futūḥ al-ghayb fī al-kashf ʿan qināʿ al-rayb*, ed. Muḥammad Sulṭān al-ʿUlamāʾ et al., 17 vols. (Dubai: Jāʾizat Dubai al-Dawliyya li-l-Qurʾān al-Karīm, 2013) 3:30–39. [^23]: Qur’an 39:55. [^24]: Qur’an 39:18. [^25]: Qur’an 7:145. [^26]: Qur’an 5:48. [^27]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 17:43. [^28]: Abū al-Muẓaffar Manṣūr ibn Muḥammad al-Samaʿānī, *al-Iṣṭilām fī al-khilāf bayn al-imāmayn al-Shāfiʿī wa-Abī Ḥanīfa*, ed. Nāyif al-ʿAmrī, 3 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Manār, 1992), 1:208–9. [^29]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 17:14–17. I could not locate this in Abū Yaʿlā’s available books. [^30]: Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Kafījī, *al-Ghurra al-wāḍiḥa fī tafsīr al-Fātiḥa*, ed. ʿAlī ʿAbdel Majīd al-Azharī (Cairo: Dār al-Iḥsān, 2017), 92. [^31]: Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār al-Jāmiʿ li-madhāhib fuqahāʾ al-amṣār*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Qalʿajī, 30 vols. (Beirut: Dār Qutayba lil-Ṭibāʿa wal-Nashr, 1993), 8:116–7. [^32]: Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān, “*al-Fiqh al-akbar*,” in *al-ʿAqīda wa-ʿilm al-kalam*, ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004), 623–24. The translation is retrieved from A. J. Wensinck, *The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and Historical Development* (London: Cambridge University Press, 1932), 196 (emphasis added). [^33]: If understood as equating the recitation of *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* to a third of the Qur’an, some scholars argue that these reports indicate such estimation independently, not in addition to other chapters whose virtue is reported to be equivalent, for example, to a quarter of the Qur’an in virtue. This interpretation prevents the sum of these fractions from exceeding the entirety of the Qur’an. Furthermore, this quantified reward may be interpreted as referring to a third of the Qur’an without including *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* itself in the calculation. See for example, ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī al-Shabrāmallisī and Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Rashīdī, *Ḥāshiya ʿalā nihāyat al-muḥtāj ilā sharḥ al-minhāj*, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah, 2003) 2:117. [^34]: Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr al-Marwazī, *Masāʾil al-Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal wa Isḥāq ibn Rāhawyh*, 1st ed., 10 vols. (Medina: al-Jāmiʿah al-Islāmiyya, 2004), 9:4611–13; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār*, 8:117–18. [^35]: Qur’an 21:2. [^36]: Qur’an 4:164. See Nūr al-Dīn Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ sharḥ Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ*, ed. Jamāl ʿAytānī, 11 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2001), 5:3–4. [^37]: Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, 32 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 2:252. [^38]: Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ḥalīmī, *Kitāb* *al-minhāj fī shuʿab al-īmān*, ed. Ḥilmī Muḥammad Fūda, 3 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1979), 2:244–45. [^39]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 6:2141. [^40]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 6:2141–42. [^41]: Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, *Qānūn al-taʾwīl*, ed. Muḥammad al-Sulaymānī, 1st ed.  (Jeddah: Dār al-Qibla li-l-Thaqāfa al-Islāmiyya, 1086), 545–46. [^42]: Al-Ghazālī, *Jawāhir al-Qur’an*, 73. [^43]: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Mansṣūr ibn al-Munayyir, *al-Intiṣāf*, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 1:302. [^44]: Scholars held differing views regarding the minimum number of Qur’anic verses necessary to establish the inimitability of the entire text. Some Mu’tazilites argued that the entirety of the Qur’an demonstrates its inimitability, while others contended that it must be at least a complete *sūrah*, regardless of its length. Yet another perspective posited that either a *sūrah* or its equivalent in speech, whereby the distinction in eloquence becomes apparent, can establish the inimitability. Various other opinions on this matter have also been documented. For further exploration, see al-Bāqillānī, *Iʿjāz al-Qur’an*, 254; al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 5:1896. [^45]: Ibn al-ʿArabī, *Qānūn al-taʾwīl*, 546. ## Summary Among the questions that occupied the minds of Muslim scholars is whether some parts of the Qur'an may be considered more meritorious than others. This question arises naturally from the fact that numerous Prophetic reports speak of the special merit of reciting, memorizing, or understanding particular verses or chapters. It is widely known among Muslims that Sūrat al-Fātiḥa, the Verse of the Throne (Āyat al-Kursī), and the first ten verses of Sūrat al-Kahf carry particular significance. The Qur'an itself hints at varying levels of revelation, both by asserting its superiority over previous scriptures and by acknowledging that a verse may be replaced by one better than it. Indeed, an entire genre of scholarship developed dedicated to compiling the reported virtues of the Qur'an as a whole and of its specific chapters and verses. Yet when the early scholars grappled with God's transcendent attributes—particularly His attribute of speech (kalām)—a difficulty emerged: if the Qur'an is the speech of Allah, how can one part of His speech be preferred over another? Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) observed that the contentious debates over God's attributes turned this into "a significant matter, resulting in widespread division among people." He himself addressed the meaning of the hadith describing Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ as equivalent to one-third of the Qur'an in a treatise later published as Jawāb ahl al-ʿilm wa al-īmān. Broadly, scholars hold one of two positions: that the Qur'an possesses uniform merit throughout, or that some of its parts are more meritorious than others. What follows presents both perspectives and their evidences, arguing that the disagreement is largely semantic, with each group emphasizing a distinct angle while overlooking the concern of the other. The purpose here is to establish a theological framework for understanding the concept of superiority (tafḍīl) within the Qur'an. The first opinion holds that no segment of the Qur'an is superior to another. Though considered the minority view, it is attributed to eminent scholars including Imam Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179/795), al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/936), Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354/965), al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013), and Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Qaysī (d. 437/1045), among others. Al-Darrāj claims an established consensus among Sunni scholars that references to the merits of particular parts do not imply inherent superiority—when the matter concerns Allah's uncreated attribute of speech rather than our human experience of the text. Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā (d. 234/848) reported that Mālik disapproved of emphasizing one sūrah over another in prayer, reflecting Mālik's interpretation of the abrogation verse—"We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth one better than it or similar to it"—where "better" signifies a replacing ruling rather than excellence. Al-Ṭabarī similarly read the verse as concerning the abrogation of a ruling, holding that abrogation "brings a ruling that is better for you," whether easier in this life or greater in reward in the Hereafter, and insisting that nothing in the Qur'an can be better than anything else "because it is all the speech of Allah." Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198/814) admitted he once struggled with the verse until it was explained that "better" meant "easier for you, lighter for you, and gentler for you." Ibn Ḥibbān, commenting on the Prophet ﷺ describing al-Fātiḥa as the greatest chapter, said this meant greatest "in reward and not that parts of the Qur'an are better than others." The arguments of this first group may be summarized thus. First, the entire Qur'an is the speech of Allah, indivisible in merit with respect to His attribute of speech; al-Ashʿarī noted that this indivisibility does not preclude infinite significations, and that plural terms such as "words" denote greatness rather than multiplicity, while al-Bāqillānī held that what is eternal cannot have one part preferred over another, since divisibility belongs to the act of recitation, not the essence of the speech. Second, the compositional structure (naẓm) of the Qur'an is uniformly inimitable across its diverse literary forms, unlike human poets whose skill varies with their purpose. Third, since superiority implies imperfection in the lesser, terms like "greater" (aʿẓam) and "more meritorious" (afḍal) should be understood as "great" and "meritorious," with any differentiation relating only to human interaction with the text. The second opinion, recognized as the majority view, was called "the true" (ḥaqq) position by al-Qurṭubī (d. 656/1258), while Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār (d. 610/1213) expressed astonishment at anyone denying it given the textual indications. Al-Ghazālī, a prominent advocate, addressed this in his Jawāhir al-Qurʾān, urging that if one's insight (nūr al-baṣīra) does not perceive the difference between Āyat al-Kursī and a verse on loans, or between Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ and Sūrat al-Masad, one should follow the Messenger ﷺ, who said, "The Opening of the Book is the best sūrah of the Qur'an," "The Verse of the Throne is the chief of the Qur'anic verses," and "Yāsīn is the heart of the Qur'an," and that Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ equals a third of the Qur'an in value. This group argues, first, from the numerous Prophetic reports of special merit; second, from reading the abrogation verse as replacement with something better; third, from verses describing revelation as "best" (aḥsan), such as "follow the best of what was revealed to you" and "those who listen to speech and follow the best of it," and the command to the Israelites to "take the best"; fourth, from the Qur'an's superiority over the Torah and Gospel, since Allah calls it "a criterion over it" (muhayminan ʿalayh), interpreted by early exegetes as an overseer of prior scriptures. Finally, the obligation of reciting al-Fātiḥa in prayer indicates its superiority. Al-Samʿānī (d. 489/1096) explained the Shāfiʿī position that al-Fātiḥa is the noblest sūrah, comprising "the seven oft-repeated verses" (al-sabʿ al-mathānī) and substituting for others though none can substitute for it, so the noblest sūrah is required in the noblest state. Abū Yaʿlā al-Farrāʾ (d. 458/1066) gave a parallel Ḥanbalī argument from text, reason, and legal practice, citing "We have certainly given you seven of the often repeated [verses] and the great Qur'an." A third, reconciliatory approach recognizes the dispute as largely semantic: one side views the Qur'an as God's direct speech, negating differing merit, while the other considers external factors granting worldly or spiritual value through human engagement. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1071) noted that concern over ascribing differing value led some to figurative interpretation, yet the promise of reward reflects God's benevolence rather than the act's inherent merit; he preferred silence on such matters as "better and safer." Abū Ḥanīfa in al-Fiqh al-akbar affirmed that the verses are all equal in excellence as Allah's speech, though some hold pre-eminence in recitation or content—Āyat al-Kursī uniting both, verses describing infidels excelling only in recitation—and that Allah's names and qualities are likewise equal. Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh (d. 238/853) explained that Allah made some of His speech superior in reward as encouragement to teach it, not that reciting Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ thrice equals reciting the whole Qur'an. Theologically, "Qur'an" carries two aspects: Allah's eternal attribute of speech and the temporal human recitation, reflected in "whenever any fresh (muḥdath) revelation comes to them" and "to Moses God spoke directly." Al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) noted that the Muʿtazila used the abrogation verse to argue against the Qur'an's eternality, the Sunni response distinguishing the speaker from the spoken. Al-Ḥalīmī (d. 403/1012) outlined five aspects of superiority: the priority and benefit of implementing a verse; the inclusion of Allah's names and attributes; immediate benefits of recitation such as protection from Āyat al-Kursī and al-Muʿawwidhatayn; multiplied reward for certain sūrahs as Allah honors particular times and places like the Sacred Mosque; and the Qur'an's distinction over previous scriptures through worship in its recitation, definitive knowledge, and its status as the Prophet's miracle. Thus superiority stems not from Allah's eternal attributes but from external factors—subject matter, richness of meaning, and God's generosity. Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660/1262) held that "Allah's discourse about Himself surpasses His discourse about others," while al-Khuwayyī (d. 637/1240) cautioned that comparing sūrahs outside their contexts wrongly equates mentioning Allah with mentioning Abū Lahab, whereas each is unsurpassed within its context. Regarding Āyat al-Kursī and Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148) and al-Ghazālī noted the Throne Verse encapsulates Allah's essence, attributes, and actions, while Ibn al-Munayyir (d. 683/1284) cited his grandfather on its containing some twenty-two mentions of Allah's name. Yet Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr held Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ surpasses it, being a complete sūrah suitable for the challenge (taḥaddī) and establishing monotheism in fifteen letters versus fifty. In conclusion, this debate reflects a multifaceted theological framework in which some emphasize the equality of God's speech and others its differentiated merit based on Prophetic reports and the Qur'an's self-description. These discussions demonstrate a scholarly commitment to affirming Allah's transcendence and His attributes while adhering closely to the Prophetic reports, and they illustrate an evidence-based tradition in which respectful disagreement is valued when rooted in sound argumentation. Engaging with them allows Muslims to reflect deeply on the Qur'an, its position, and its merits, and to appreciate the depth of their intellectual heritage. ## Key Takeaways 1. Numerous Prophetic reports single out particular verses and chapters for special merit, such as al-Fātiḥa, the Verse of the Throne, and the first ten verses of Sūrat al-Kahf, and the Qur’an itself speaks of replacing a verse with one better than it. This raises a theological difficulty the early scholars took seriously: If the whole Qur’an is the speech of Allah, how can one part of His speech be preferred over another? The question divided them into two broad camps. 2. The first camp, the minority, holds that no part of the Qur’an is superior to another, since as Allah’s uncreated attribute of speech it is indivisible in merit. Mālik and al-Ṭabarī read the word “better” in the abrogation verse as a replacing ruling rather than a mark of excellence, and al-Ṭabarī insisted nothing in the Qur’an can surpass anything else because it is all the speech of Allah. On this view, words like “greatest” describe reward, not inherent rank. 3. The second camp, the majority, holds that some parts are more meritorious, resting on the Prophetic reports, the Qur’an’s description of parts of revelation as “best,” its standing as a criterion over earlier scriptures, and the obligation to recite al-Fātiḥa in every prayer. The paper argues the dispute is largely semantic and offers a reconciliation: Superiority attaches not to Allah’s eternal speech itself but to external factors like a verse’s subject matter, its richness of meaning, and the reward Allah attaches to reciting it. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Are some verses of the Qur’an more virtuous than others? This is a question Muslim scholars have discussed for centuries, and there are two main positions. One view holds that no part of the Qur’an is superior to another, since the entire Qur’an is the speech of Allah and His speech does not vary in worth. The other view, held by the majority, is that some chapters and verses carry greater merit, pointing to the many authentic reports that single out certain passages, such as al-Fātiḥa being called the greatest chapter and Āyat al-Kursī the greatest verse. Much disagreement can be reconciled by distinguishing different meanings of wording or even senses of superiority. Both sides agree that as the speech of Allah, the Qur’an is uniform in its sacredness. Where they differ is whether the extra reward, benefit, or protection tied to certain passages should be called “superiority.” Certain verses may therefore be described as more meritorious with respect to their content, benefit, or divinely assigned reward, without implying any deficiency in the rest of Allah’s speech. ### If the whole Qur’an is Allah’s speech, how can one part be greater than another? This is the heart of the debate, and scholars resolve it by distinguishing two senses of the word Qur’an. In one sense, the Qur’an is the eternal speech of Allah, and from this angle it cannot be divided into better and worse parts, since it all comes from the One who is perfect. In another sense, the Qur’an is what we recite and engage with as human beings, and from this angle some passages can carry greater merit for us. That merit does not come from Allah’s speech being unequal. It comes from considerations other than differing degrees of excellence within Allah’s eternal attributes of speech—such as a passage’s subject matter, richness of meaning, practical benefit, or the reward attached to its recitations. A verse about Allah Himself, for example, is honored by its subject, while a verse stating a legal ruling serves a different purpose. The greatness of certain verses therefore describes their content and their effect on the reader, not a ranking within the divine speech itself. ### Is Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ really equal to a third of the Qur’an? The Prophet ﷺ described Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ as equal to a third of the Qur’an, and scholars have explained carefully what this does and does not mean. It does not mean that reciting al-Ikhlāṣ three times is the same as reciting the entire Qur’an, nor that it can be substituted for reading the whole. The comparison points to the sura’s subject and to the great reward Allah attached to it as encouragement to learn and teach it. The Qur’an’s message can be grouped into broad themes, and al-Ikhlāṣ is a complete and concentrated statement of one of the most important, the oneness of Allah, expressed in remarkably few words. Its equivalence to a third is therefore understood in terms of meaning and reward, not as a literal exchange rate that would let repeated recitation replace the rest of the Book. Understood this way, the report is an invitation to value and reflect on the sura, not a shortcut around reading the Qur’an. ### What makes Āyat al-Kursī the greatest verse in the Qur’an? The Prophet ﷺ called Āyat al-Kursī, the Verse of the Throne, the greatest verse in the Qur’an, and scholars explain this by looking at what the verse contains. Its greatness is tied to its subject. In a single verse, it gathers Allah’s essence, His attributes, and His actions, mentioning Allah’s name directly or indirectly around twenty-two times. Knowing Allah is the highest aim of all knowledge, so a verse devoted so fully to describing Him is honored above others. Scholars add that this greatness reflects the verse’s content, not a claim that other parts of the Qur’an are deficient, since the whole Qur’an is the speech of Allah. Āyat al-Kursī is also known for the protection and reward attached to reciting it. Calling it the greatest verse therefore points to the profound subject it addresses and the benefit it brings to the one who recites and reflects on it. ### Does calling some verses “better” mean the other verses are lesser? No, and scholars were careful to guard against this misunderstanding. The majority view allows some passages to be more meritorious in particular respects, but this does not imply that any part of the Qur’an is defective, imperfect, or lacking in sacredness. Describing a verse as greater or more meritorious does not mean any part of the Qur’an is deficient, because the entire Qur’an is the speech of Allah and shares fully in that sacredness. The worry that calling something superior might imply imperfection in the rest is exactly why one group of scholars preferred to read words like “greatest” and “best” as simply “great” and “good.” A helpful example is comparing a chapter about the oneness of Allah with a chapter condemning an enemy of the Prophet ﷺ. Each is perfectly matched to its own purpose, and ranking them against each other would be like judging two very different things on a single scale. Within its own context, each chapter is complete and unsurpassed. Where scholars do use the language of preference, it is never meant to lower any part of the Book. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/finding-hope-in-allahs-mercy-and-forgiveness-understanding-the-name-at-tawwab # Finding Hope in Allah’s Mercy and Forgiveness: Understanding the Name At-Tawwab **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Dhul Hijjah, Mental Health, Names of Allah, Ramadan **Published:** June 7, 2024 **Updated:** February 27, 2026 Have you ever found yourself feeling lost after making a wrong turn? In that moment of realization when the path ahead is unclear, what pushes you to make a shift in the right direction? This need to course-correct, to get back on the right path, and to ultimately find safety and security is a deeply human experience. Allah, in His infinite mercy, is constantly inviting us to turn back to Him, to find that trusted and reliable place of refuge, guidance, peace, and serenity. One of the beautiful names of Allah (SWT) is *At-Tawwab*, often translated as “The One who accepts repentance” or “The Ever-Relenting.” However, simple translations can’t capture the profound depth of this name. To truly understand *At-Tawwab*, we must delve deeper. Below are seven insights that can help. --- ## 1. Allah is constantly inviting us to turn to Him In the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) is continuously inviting us to turn to Him. “Allah calls to *Dar-As-Salaam* (The House of Peace), and He guides whom He wills to a straight path” (Qur’an 10:25). This invitation is a call to leave behind all that distracts and misleads us and to find peace and security in His presence. It is an invitation to turn away from everything else and back to Him (SWT). Allah places that desire in our hearts, guiding us towards the right path. If we respond to this call by turning to Him, He responds by turning towards us. “And Allah wants to turn to you in grace, but those who follow their desires wish to see you deviate entirely from the right path” (Qur’an 4:27). --- ## 2\. Allah makes it easy for us to turn to Him *At-Tawwab* comes from the Arabic root (*ta-waw-ba*) which means to return. The name has two broad meanings, the first of which is often misunderstood. Allah (SWT) constantly, repeatedly, turns to His slaves. He facilitates our ability to repent. Think of the times you’ve felt genuine remorse for doing something wrong—that’s from *At-Tawwab*. Or the times Allah put someone in your life who encouraged you to do good and the moments of hardship that have reminded you to abandon certain habits and turn back to Him. These are all instances of the presence of *At-Tawwab* in our lives, moments that He turns to us in His mercy, reminding us that His door is always open. --- ## 3\. Repentance is a desire to right your wrongs In the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) time and time again instructs us to turn to Him. “Oh you who believe, turn to Allah in sincere repentance” (Qur’an 66:8). [Repentance](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-as-a-way-of-life-islam-spirituality-practice) involves reconciliation; it is about making things right, both with your Creator and with His creation. It involves feeling regret, a desire to be forgiven, and having a sincere intention to avoid what displeases God or is hurtful to others. None of us is free from needing to make *tawbah*; it is part of our makeup as human beings that we will all slip up and inevitably make mistakes. However, the Qur’an reassures us about Allah’s readiness to accept our return to Him. In Surah Ash-Shura, Allah (SWT) says, “And it is He who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons misdeeds, and He knows what you do” (Qur’an 42:25). Allah (SWT) is intimately aware of our actions, and out of His wisdom, He facilitates our remorse and eagerly awaits our return to forgive us once again. --- ## 4\. Allah shows us how to repent and is always ready to accept our repentance The second meaning of *At-Tawwab* is that Allah (SWT) accepts our repentance when we turn to Him. Consider the example of our parents Adam and Eve. When Satan whispered to them and they ate from the forbidden tree, they both immediately felt deep remorse. Allah (SWT) inspired them to feel regret. And then out of His mercy, He also taught them how to repent for their sin: “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers” (Qur’an 7:23). These words were given to them by *At-Tawwab, Ar-Raheem*. --- ## 5\. His willingness to accept and His mercy go hand in hand Allah’s name *At-Tawwab* appears in the Qur’an eleven times. Nine out of those times, it’s paired with His name *Ar-Raheem*, so that we know that Allah (SWT) doesn’t just turn to us, but that He’s forever most merciful to us. Returning to Him is unlike approaching someone we’ve wronged who may still hold a grudge even after we apologize. Allah doesn’t deal with us the way His creation does; He doesn’t get annoyed with us, or limit our chances to change and start over. Rather, He accepts our repentance over and over again and lovingly turns to us out of His mercy. --- ## 6\. Seeking repentance doesn’t ensure immediate ease We may have the impression that once we make *[tawbah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework)*, everything in our lives will immediately become easier because we’ve turned to *At-Tawwab*. However, Allah, out of His wisdom, may continue to test us because it may be through that test that we’ll grow and improve. For others, Allah knows that they’re unable to handle such a test. And thus, from His *hikmah* (wisdom), when you turn to Him, things do get immediately easier. Allah (SWT) is also *Al-Hakeem* (The All-Wise), and He knows best how to accept the *tawbah* of His servants. One occurrence of *At-Tawwab* in the Qur’an is paired with this name, *Al-Hakeem*, reminding us that His forgiveness is coupled with His infinite wisdom. “Were it not for the grace and mercy of Allah upon you, and had Allah not been accepting of repentance, All-Wise, you would have suffered much” (Qur’an, 24:10). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aeEn3GWLQI In Episode 9 of the Ramadan series “The Name I Need”, Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on four powerful Names connected to forgiveness: Al-Ghaafir, Al-Ghaffaar, Al-Ghafur, and At-Tawwaab. --- ## 7\. Tawbah is a path of continual self-purification Allah (SWT) doesn’t just encourage or command us to turn to Him in repentance, but He also lets us know that [he loves the people who repent](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/allah-loves-repentance-episode-2). “Surely Allah loves those who always turn to Him in repentance and those who purify themselves” (Qur’an 2:222). *Tawbah* is a divine means of regular purification that wipes our slates clean. The Prophet ﷺ gave us an example of a man who went into the desert with a camel carrying all his provisions. He fell asleep, only to awake to find that his camel was gone. Panic set in, and he felt certain that death was imminent. Overcome by emotion and exhaustion, he returned to sleep, only to wake up and find his camel standing before him. Seeing it, he was ecstatic. The joy he felt in that moment is indescribable. The Prophet ﷺ teaches us that Allah (SWT) feels even more joy with the *tawbah* of one of His servants than this man felt at the return of his camel. --- ## Taking practical steps towards tawbah Each one of us is in need of repentance. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who was free from sin, sought Allah’s forgiveness more than a hundred times a day. He used to say, “O Allah, forgive me and accept my repentance, for You are the Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.” This practice emphasizes the importance of constantly turning back to Him. If you feel that God is opening the door of repentance for you, seize that opportunity. Begin by asking for His forgiveness with your tongue and making a sincere effort to change your ways. Identify any persistent sins and slowly work on eliminating them. If necessary, seek support from others. Focus on fulfilling the divinely legislated obligations, like your five daily prayers, and build your day around them. Remember, the path to true success and salvation lies in repentance. Allah assures us in the Qur’an, “And turn to your Lord and submit to Him before the punishment comes upon you; then you will not be helped” (Quran 39:54). Turning back to Allah purifies our souls and aligns our lives with the values He has prescribed. Know that Allah, *At-Tawwab*, is always ready to accept your repentance. No matter how far we may stray or for how long, His door is always open and His mercy knows no bounds. Seek His forgiveness, turn back to Him, and find the peace and security that only He can provide. To learn more about *tawbah*, see [Allah’s Name: At Tawwab - The One Who Accepts Repentance | Khutbah by Dr. Tahir Wyatt](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tahirwyatt/allahs-name-at-tawwab-the-one-who-accepts-repentance-khutbah) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/speaking-truth-to-power-islamic-rules-for-protests-civil-disobedience-and-encampments-for-gaza-essay # Speaking Truth to Power: Islamic Rules for Protests, Civil Disobedience, and Encampments for Gaza | Essay **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** May 16, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 To those of us witnessing the genocide in Gaza, can there be any doubt that we must do all we can to stop it, protest publicly even as we weep to ourselves, and demand change with all our strength as we console one another?[^1] To those raised with the proper teachings of Islam and blessed with compassion and a God-given love for justice, such a question might sound moot. Even beyond our bond of faith, our sheer humanity compels us to act, as the world awakens to the persecution of the Palestinians. Not only has the entire Global South long recognized the obvious justness of our cause, the young generation across the Global North too has suddenly awakened, standing aghast at the diabolical cruelty, hypocrisy, and support for the massacre of innocent children, women, and men that they are witnessing at the hands of their own governments. No one, however, has greater love and pain for the Ummah than the believing Muslims themselves—from Jakarta, Karachi, and Marrakech to our communities in the West, Muslims have come together. To say that we support the Palestinians is an understatement: Muslims everywhere are crying tears of blood that they cannot stop this carnage. They would stand, if they could, between the sweet children and the bombs and bullets tearing apart their tender bodies. And yet, they are powerless, betrayed by their own ruling elites. In this unequal world, decisions are made by a few in the Global North, in Western capitals, and the lives, let alone desires, of two billion heart-broken Muslims matter little. Western Muslims, in this context, have a double responsibility, given that our voices have the potential to change public opinion where it matters, and our tax dollars are used against our will to support this genocide. The enemy is a diabolical ideology that labels the Palestinians Amalekites—less than human and worthy of genocide—and its supporters are seasoned colonizers who have for a couple of centuries now honed their art of mass murder with impunity, justifying the stealing of land and resources, yet still trying to take the moral high ground by rewriting history. Many Jews worldwide, it must be noted, are among the most vocal opponents of the genocide, and some of the best scholars and journalists documenting Israel’s crimes. Opposing the genocide is not antisemitic, but insisting that those Jews who rise above partisanship and speak the truth often at great personal cost are “self-hating” probably should be. The Palestinian struggle resonates so deeply with the recently colonized peoples of the world, including many conscientious Jews, because it speaks deeply to their still fresh and in some cases deepening wounds. The Palestinians’ refusal to submit emanates from their Islam,[^2] their love for the Sacred Mosque and its blessed precincts, but the moral clarity of their struggle and its natural resonance with the human heart are such that they have awakened the world to the beauty and truth of Islam itself and given hope to the possibility of human justice and goodness. > It is for these reasons perhaps that the protests and encampments that began on a few American university campuses have not only continued, but have spread to university campuses across the world, pitting administrators beholden to money and politics against their own students and faculty. These powerless student groups have put their complicit governments and apathetic societies to shame, and have already secured significant concessions.[^3] And yet, there are doubters among us, victims of the same propaganda that has led many to accept normalization with the genocidal entity. Among them are good-hearted folks confused by the propaganda. Even among the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, Allah speaks of those righteous Muslims who were gullible, “avid listeners” to the hardened hypocrites whose agenda was to destroy Islam (Qur’an 9:47). A primer of Islamic rulings and reflections on the permissibility and even necessity of the current protests, then, is in order. Even more importantly, everything a believer does is guided by Islamic teachings. In that spirit, we capture some of the main Islamic considerations in the following seven points. --- ## 1\. Enjoin good and forbid evil First, protests are a form of enjoining good and forbidding evil. Speaking up for justice is a fundamental principle of Islam. As in the well-known saying of the Prophet, upon whom be peace, when you see evil, change it by your hand, if you cannot, then by your speech, and you cannot, then hate it in your heart, and this is the weakest of faith.[^4] Numerous leading scholars of the Muslim world have not only declared protests for a legitimate Islamic cause permissible but have encouraged them: > “Participation in protests against oppression is required, as it falls in the category of prohibiting evil, which is an obligation upon Muslims, and it constitutes giving help to the oppressed (which is also required); as for the mixing of genders, it is impermissible whether during or outside the protests.”[^5] This means that protesting, if done with faith and trust in Allah, is a meritorious act regardless of whether it results in immediate benefits.[^6] If, however, one knows with reasonable surety that such protests will deliver Islamic goods such as coolness of the hearts of our suffering brothers and sisters far away in Gaza, encouragement for others who are scared, education for those who are ignorant, and most of all, possible change in policy that could stop the genocidal war, then it becomes an obligation to do what we can to support these protests. Protests and encampments, it should be remembered, are only a means to the goal of aiding our oppressed brethren, and despite overwhelming empirical evidence today that they have been highly effective, having terrified the genocidal entity and its supporters worldwide, reasonable people may disagree about their effectiveness or usefulness of their own participation in them. In some circumstances, such as in recent student protests in Southern California when Muslim women were threatened by hired goons, it may become obligatory for Muslim men to go and physically protect them.[^7] If one feels considerably unsafe or genuinely fears falling into haram, and no reasonable safeguards are available, he or she may individually avoid them and support the cause in other ways. When deciding whether to join or otherwise support these protests, remember that our people in Gaza have their eyes on us, and they are incalculably encouraged when they see people around the world, especially their Muslim brethren in the West, come out and show support. --- ## 2\. Fulfill the collective obligation of defending Muslims Second, protests and encampments are a way to dispense our collective obligation to defend oppressed Muslims. When a collective obligation is not being fulfilled, to work toward fulfilling it becomes an individual obligation, and to fail to do one’s part becomes sinful. Since most collective obligations require coordination, persuasion, organization, and leadership, the immediate action that one undertakes can take many different forms that seem to be remote from the location of the action itself, but are necessary for the action to take place. Put differently, protests and encampments do not subsist on their own, but need active legal, educational, pastoral, logistical, and other practical means of support, and these are all meritorious and carry the same blessings and reward. An example of such action in the time of the Prophet was *ribāṭ*, which is defined as holding on to the position between the Muslims and their enemies, which could mean living on the frontiers of Dār al-Islam, being on the watch for the enemy’s aggression. This is one of the most meritorious actions in Islam, and one day spent in this activity is better than the whole world.[^8] The best *ribāt* today is in Gaza, as many scholars have argued, based on a prophecy of the Prophet.[^9] The next best, God willing, is to show them our support and try to change public opinion about them in the heart of the land that has for decades supported their persecution and genocide. --- ## 3\. Maintain Islamic etiquette and avoid anything haram Third, bring your Islam with you, avoid anything haram, and make your protest a form of *daʿwa*. Participating in protests about a righteous cause tends to uplift and empower us but can also induce group-think. We have to be extra careful about Allah’s limits. Any illicit actions must be avoided, and what is unavoidable must be kept to a minimum. Prayers must not be lost or delayed. In fact, the encampments are an opportunity to showcase our faith, as we have indeed witnessed the protesters do in many cases, where even non-Muslims have joined Muslim students, inspired by their faith and trust. On Ohio State University campus, for instance, the Muslims praying ʿIsha became the center of the protest, and the non-Muslim students surrounded the Muslims engaged in prayers to protect them from the police, chanting “Let them pray!” The fear of something new and uncharted should not be overstated, and the possibility of such scenarios should not prevent you from taking action. It was a trick in the bag of the hypocrites, as on the occasion of the Expedition of Tabūk, to play up this temptation. We do not want to join the Prophet’s campaign, they said, because of the temptation we feel toward the women there. The Almighty rejects this false pretension of piety: “Into temptation they have indeed fallen” (9:49). The analogy is not perfect, given that they were disobeying the Prophet directly, but the idea is to refrain from using minor temptations as an excuse for not fulfilling a great and urgent imperative. Courage tempered with wisdom is a virtue. > The Prophet said, “The believer who mixes with people and patiently endures their harm is better than the one who does not mix with people and endure their harm.”[^10] --- ## 4\. Build intentional alliances Fourth, the participation of non-Muslims in the protest, or even their leadership, neither takes away from the benefit of the protests—it in fact makes them more effective—nor the reward with Allah for the Muslims who participate. The Prophet sought and benefited from the help of non-Muslims in Mecca. His uncle Abū Ṭālib protected him for the first ten years of his mission, his largely non-Muslim clan Banū Hāshim endured at his side when the other leading clans boycotted them for supporting the Prophet, and a pagan chief al-Muṭʿim b. ʿAdiyy protected him out of a sense of honor when later the Prophet’s own clan refused to protect him. In all of these cases, these non-Muslims’ support for the Prophet was driven by their own natural virtue, sense of justice, family ties, and tribal loyalty. The Prophet loved his uncle and relatives dearly and appreciated their help all his life, mentioning them to his companions in Medina. Like them, participants in these righteous protests are varied: some are not Muslim, or not practicing Muslims, or associated with other objectionable ideas. Still, they are good-hearted people who are willing to get bullied, doxxed, even expelled and lose their careers, because they are compelled by a noble human impulse. Furthermore, we are seeing their hearts soften towards Muslims as they witness their faith and reliance on Allah and the brutality and tyranny of their enemy. This alone should establish for us the beneficial nature of these protests and encampments. --- ## 5\. Recognize your right to oppose injustice Fifth, civil disobedience, strikes, and encampments are a recognized and honorable tradition in recent history across the world, from the anti-colonial movements in the Global South to civil rights, anti-apartheid, and other movements. Great injustices such as racial segregation in the US and South African apartheid were all technically lawful until grassroots civil disobedience had them outlawed; the holocaust itself was the fruit of a modern, legal order, which perhaps could have been averted had enough citizens protested in civil disobedience. Regardless of whether one agrees with their specific causes in every instance, these movements generally do not necessarily cause violence, but in fact avert much greater eruptions of violence, civil war, and continuation of murderous policies. They have succeeded in drawing attention to wars and genocides in relatively peaceful ways. The alternative to civil disobedience and protest is either total acquiescence to elite interests or civil war and violent rebellion. Some Muslims in the West might feel terrified to engage in such acts, or they may feel hindered by an imagined citizenship contract of total obedience. Some may be victims of modern authoritarian propaganda in the Muslim world that asserts that all protests are rebellion, and all rebellion is impermissible.[^11], [^12] They may be moved by a desire to follow the law, and terrified to run afoul of it. They should know that it is the university administrations and police departments that are in fact engaged in unconstitutional actions. Regardless, even if we hypothetically suppose that these unjust actions are constitutional, as Muslims, unjust laws that support genocidal policies against anyone or curb “speaking truth to power” in service of murderous ideologies are never binding on us. --- ## 6\. Stay focused on the cause Sixth, lead the protests in a direction that is productive, effective, and focused. Avoiding conflict as much as reasonable, Muslims who are well-informed about the cause and Islamic rulings should assume leadership of the protest, or at least their section of the protest, and ensure that the uniting cause of justice in Palestine and end to the genocide remain the focus. Inevitably, people with ulterior motives and other ideologies will join. They should be appreciated but not be allowed to hijack the protests. The protests have been 99% peaceful, which is a remarkable achievement.[^13] Even the 1% are those cases in which goons have been hired to sabotage the peaceful protests by raising antisemitic slogans, falsely claiming harassment, or by attacking the protesters. The purpose of these protests is not to destroy the government, the police, to harm anyone, or to harm private property. Nor is it to cause inconvenience, obstruct passages, or take over buildings; even though in particular circumstances some administrations’ hostile and unconstitutional crackdown may lead students to improvise. Such instances can be evaluated only on a case-by-case basis. Our adversaries want to cause distraction, divide, and accuse the peaceful protestors, so erring on the side of patience, like the Muslims in Mecca, is always better. Furthermore, we can direct the protest in an Islamic direction. One scholar recalled that in one instance, the students were playing Arabic music, and he gently suggested that playing recitation of the Qur’an is more authentic to the Gazan struggle, which was received well. In another instance, as noted above, Muslim students’ performance of the ʿIsha prayer became the centerpiece of the protest. Obviously, these kinds of interventions will be easier if Muslims are present in large numbers and are unified around basic principles. --- ## 7\. Put your trust in Allah Seventh, pray, pray, pray. During times of grief and calamity, [Qunūt Nāzilah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/qunut-nazilah-a-guide-to-making-dua-for-the-oppressed-in-times-of-war&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856072745&usg=AOvVaw2inVZn5Zatcc03EAJ9zEiu)—the Supplication of Devotion upon a Calamity—is the Sunnah of the Prophet, upon him be peace.[^14] Be it in the protests and the encampments, or during our congregational or private prayers, supplication is the greatest weapon of the believer. What distinguishes us from all others is that while we pursue all legitimate means with all our might as we are commanded, we rely ultimately not on our actions, nor on any human power, but on Allah alone. May Allah preserve and bless our local imam in Toledo, my dear friend and neighbor, Sh. ʿAbd al-Ḥaleem, who has untiringly followed this Sunnah of the Prophet and prayed Qunūt for the people of Gaza for the last seven months in every one of the five prayers. How could we not stand for justice and speak out against tyranny? Our religion is the religion of justice: > “O you who have believed, stand firm for Allah, witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do” (5:8). We are the Ummah of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who said, “The greatest jihad is to speak a word of truth before a tyrant.”[^15] We are the Ummah of Moses, whose story of [confronting Pharaoh](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/confronting-todays-pharaoh-and-the-propaganda-war-on-palestine&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856073533&usg=AOvVaw28MmpXTRUnqd59I246pC2K) is the most paradigmatic story in the Qur’an, the most frequently repeated. I cannot think of a better ending for this brief reminder than to quote the words of the Almighty addressing Moses and his people: “Lo! Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a section among them, slaughtering their \[newborn\] sons and keeping their women alive; indeed, he was of those who work corruption. Yet We wished to show favor to those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them the inheritors” (28:5–6). For our people in Palestine, and like them, [we supplicate to God](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/5-duas-for-palestine-and-gaza&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856073805&usg=AOvVaw3Zxbx1JRAbxnXBAid4igEF) without impatience and without exhaustion, and raise our voices until the time of Divine Favor is come and the time of the tyrants is up. --- ## Notes [^1]: I am grateful, after Allah, to a number of friends and teachers who have reviewed and improved this article, including Yahya Birt, Mairaj Syed, Jawad Qureshi, Mobeen Vaid, Osman Umarji, Omar Suleiman, and the Yaqeen team. The errors remaining are all mine. [^2]: Ovamir Anjum and Omar Suleiman, “The Palestinian Struggle through the Prophetic Lens,” *Yaqeen*, July 31, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856079312&usg=AOvVaw0h5LKj7GLIus40q-_Qqqui). [^3]: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, “With Eyes on US College Campuses, Students Stress: ‘Gaza Is Why We’re Here,’” Aljazeera, April 26, 2024, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/26/with-eyes-on-us-college-campuses-students-stress-gaza-is-why-were-here](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/26/with-eyes-on-us-college-campuses-students-stress-gaza-is-why-were-here&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856074323&usg=AOvVaw1gSGMYqOEXQBbilmAkuaQj) . For a review of their success from a generally hostile source, see Michael T. Nietzel, “Campus Protests Pose Big Question For College Leaders: Deal Or No Deal?,” *Forbes*, May 12, 2024, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2024/05/12/campus-protests-pose-big-question-for-college-leaders-deal-or-no-deal/?sh=4cc9508e1108](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2024/05/12/campus-protests-pose-big-question-for-college-leaders-deal-or-no-deal/?sh%3D4cc9508e1108&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856074718&usg=AOvVaw0KujegK8STZ3DelVVMFNw-). [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 49. [^5]: Libyan Grand Mufti Shaykh Ṣādiq al-Gharayānī, [https://sadiqalghiryani.ly/fatwa/2493](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sadiqalghiryani.ly/fatwa/2493&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856075116&usg=AOvVaw1xm_oQQQplu1Mt28EELsS0). Note that “the mixing of genders” has to be understood in accordance with the custom (*ʿurf*) of a given society that has been accepted by the Muslim scholars of the land. The ruling here is similar to that of attending educational institutions, which most American Muslim scholars encourage for both men and women, since in most cases proper hijab and other *sharʿī* norms can be observed. For those who adhere to a stricter code of gender interaction, participation of men with requisite precaution and women with their *maḥram* (legally related) males is still possible, God willing. Such Muslims are encouraged to proactively secure proper conditions and participate in a way permissible in their respective culture or *madhhab*. [^6]: This principle is established in 7:164 in the Quranic story of the Sabbath-breakers. [^7]: Abdullah Oduro, Osman Umarji, and Mohammad Elshinawy, Iman Cave, forthcoming episode. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2892. Another hadith has it that waiting between obligatory prayers in the mosque is also a kind of *ribāṭ*, thus suggesting the idea of patiently persevering and waiting. [^9]: Yaqeen Institute, “Why Is Gaza Important? Honoring a Land of Ribat,” *Yaqeen*, December 11, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/why-is-gaza-important-honoring-a-land-of-ribat](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/why-is-gaza-important-honoring-a-land-of-ribat&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856078612&usg=AOvVaw3xaDT_BNmZAaPvKtfRN22t). [^10]: [10\]](https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/post/speaking-truth-to-power-islamic-rules-for-protests-civil-disobedience-and-encampments-for-gaza#ftnt_ref10) *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4032; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*). [^11]: Only armed rebellion against a just and legitimate Muslim ruler who upholds God’s law is forbidden by all Muslim scholars. Muslim scholars have differed in cases when any of these conditions is missing. To apply this rule to non-Muslim governments, even if they were just and not aiding genocide, would mean treating Islam as irrelevant, and equating Islam with *kufr*. For more on this, see my online presentation: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9M7MVf6UfI&t=1247s](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dd9M7MVf6UfI%26t%3D1247s&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856076807&usg=AOvVaw2BTM460maXeG-Q_zMgLViB). [^12]: Note that even the most conservative scholars, in Saudi Arabia for instance, make a distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn said, for instance, “If \[protests\] are a custom in Christian, Western countries, these being lands of non-Muslims, and Muslims as individuals or as a group cannot attain their rights except through this means, then I hope that there is nothing objectionable about it.” [حكم التظاهر السلمي للمطالبة بالحقوق](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/177035/%25D8%25AD%25D9%2583%25D9%2585-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25AA%25D8%25B8%25D8%25A7%25D9%2587%25D8%25B1-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25B3%25D9%2584%25D9%2585%25D9%258A-%25D9%2584%25D9%2584%25D9%2585%25D8%25B7%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25A8%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25A8%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25AD%25D9%2582%25D9%2588%25D9%2582&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1715875856077611&usg=AOvVaw30cdiv8c2lgKPu450wCgYs). [^13]: Lois Beckett, “Nearly All Gaza Campus Protests in the US Have Been Peaceful, Study Finds,” *The Guardian*, May 20, 2024, [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/10/peaceful-pro-palestinian-campus-protests.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/10/peaceful-pro-palestinian-campus-protests.) [^14]: The Prophet ﷺ prayed for the oppressed Muslims held back in Mecca, naming them one by one and generally, and against their oppressors (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2932) and on another occasion for an entire month after every prayer, according to a report in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4090. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/from-gaza-to-islam-understanding-the-qurans-transformative-power # From Gaza to Islam: Understanding the Qur'an's Transformative Power **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Quran, Social Justice **Tags:** Featured - Read, Gaza, Palestine, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 22, 2024 **Updated:** October 6, 2026 ## Introduction Amid the devastating genocide raging through Gaza, from the rubble emerges an  indestructible light that has captivated the hearts of people across the world—the faith and resilience of the people of Gaza. This isn’t the first war. Sadly, this also isn’t the first time that ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people has occurred at the hands of a tyrant occupier. However, this is the era of social media, where outsiders are able to witness the destruction unfold in an unprecedented way. Frequently described as an open-air prison and a concentration camp, Gaza has been held hostage and is now facing starvation, with little to no access to the essentials for survival, such as water, food, fuel, and medical care.[^1] The relentless slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians, a significant number of whom are women and children, is horrific and unfathomable.[^2] Yet, we see their hope. The survivors are miraculously able to stand up and continue, despite losing everything time and time again. These are not ordinary people; their dignity and courage shine through our screens. As a Muslim-majority population, they bury their loved ones in gratitude for every God-given breath and with certainty that they will be reunited with them in paradise. Their eyes and hearts are fixed on the eternal life to come. The people of Gaza live in this world knowing it is not the be-all and end-all that modern-day secularism claims it to be. Betrayed and abandoned by the vast majority of the world, they see the stark reality of an unjust world that turns a blind eye to their plight and dismisses their screams. Yet, they remain determined. Their faith cannot be silenced. Whether young or old, their voices carry the conviction that true victory is achieved in redirecting their fear and complaints to God Almighty, while exerting steadfastness through their refusal to give up. Their gratitude is firmly grounded in the belief that, despite their meager and desperate circumstances, they have already attained the greatest provision of this life—divine guidance. Hence, they wholeheartedly invest their effort toward the everlasting returns to come. This is demonstrated through their servitude, worship, and reliance on God. This is faith in action, this is Islam: complete submission to God. They have patience, gratitude, and trust in God's promise of paradise. This is *the* source of the inner peace and contentment we see manifested in the unmistakable glow upon their faces, amid the tears and smiles, and upon the faces of those left behind. This paper highlights the transformative nature of divine guidance that inspires and produces such exemplary faith and resilience. Demonstrating how divine guidance inspires not only the people of Gaza, but all of humanity, it walks through the profound and timeless impact of the Qur’an on the faith, character, and resolve of sincere seekers of the truth, past and present. --- ## Seekers of truth and people of the Qur’an In addition to the obliteration in Gaza, we are witnessing a battle for the *truth* like never before. There is a paramount war being waged over control of the public narrative with a daily onslaught of conflicting media reports and brazen attempts by political leadership to justify the atrocities they inflict, garner support, and  enhance their own public image. Sincerity, integrity, and credibility have become scarce. With this, comes an increased awareness of the internal battle within each of us to discern the truth for ourselves. This is the perpetual battle within the heart and mind which is to be fought by every individual, with a level of self-scrutiny that demands close attention to the most subtle voice within us. Upholding the truth is the purpose and pursuit of this life, and it is the only means to salvation in the hereafter. The battle for the truth is not limited to the political arena but extends to every arena of life; no one is immune from turning away from the truth or from being led astray from it, and doing so has dire consequences. This is why we are commanded to implore God daily to keep us adherent to the truth that is the Straight Path.[^3] When we understand the reality of this life, the history of human civilization, and the fallibility of man, we expect the truth to be met with resistance. Just as we know that nations rise and fall, as do the tyrants of this world, we know that truth always triumphs over falsehood. The struggle to uphold the truth outweighs and outlasts everything in this world. Hence, in one of the shortest yet most profound chapters of the Qur’an, encompassing the essence of Islam, God says: “By the passage of time! Surely humanity is in grave loss—except those who have faith, do good, and urge each other to the truth, and urge each other to persevere.”[^4] The renowned scholar, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) explains that the *truth* referred to here must be demonstrated in both faith and practice, and that each of these can only be upheld through enjoining them mutually, while constantly being aware of and striving in every moment to avert ultimate loss in the hereafter. In his words, upholding this truth “cannot be attained except by turning to the Qur’an with understanding, reflection, and contemplation, unearthing its treasures and culling out its buried pearls, resorting to it with constancy and resolve. For it alone assures the well-being of God’s servants in this life and the next and takes them to the path of righteousness.”[^5] The people of Gaza are keenly aware of the battle over truth and are actively engaged in upholding it, and it is their perpetual and personal relationship with the Qur’an that strengthens, nourishes, and shapes their ability to do so. *The Palestine Chronicle* reports that Gaza has one of the proportionately largest Qur’an memorization populations in the world, frequently organizing Qur’an study and memorization events throughout Palestine.[^6] According to one estimate, the Islamic Waqf of Gaza reported nearly 40,000 students of the Qur’an since 2006. Zakariya Alzemly, a professor of the Science of Quran and Comparative Religion at the Islamic University in Gaza explained this noteworthy dedication to the Qur’an, stating that, “The Quran gives us comfort. We’re living in bad conditions, under pressure. The Quran teaches us patience.”[^7] It is the Qur’an that imparts upon them the knowledge and sharpened insight to empower them with the conviction and courage to stay the course to win, despite experiencing an ongoing massacre and ethnic cleansing. In the face of arrogant oppressors who deny their right to exist, and who engage in genocide and humiliation, the people of Gaza clearly see the light of hope and victory. They know that God does not abandon anyone who sincerely calls upon Him and upholds truth. Every hardship has the promise of ease from Him. His guidance, the Qur’an, is that light and the rope to salvation to hold firmly to, from the depths of any and every darkness. God has a plan, and there is perfect wisdom in His timing. We see from the words live-streamed on social media that the people of Gaza find comfort and motivation in God’s verses, which reassure them of the eternal reward that awaits them.[^8] Their truthfulness is found in their servitude and worship of God alone, adhering to His divine guidance, with sincere intentions and conduct.[^9] Such are the believers who are praised by God for their virtues. God promises to reunite them in paradise with the righteous among their loved ones. They will be rewarded for keeping their covenant with Him, for upholding the ties of kinship, and for what they spend for His pleasure, while mindful of Him, fearing Him, and turning to Him alone in worship.[^10] > God will say, “This is a Day when the truthful will benefit from their truthfulness. They will have Gardens graced with flowing streams, there to remain forever. God is pleased with them and they with Him: that is the supreme triumph.”[^11] > > …the Gardens of Eternity, which they will enter along with the righteous among their parents, spouses, and descendants. And the angels will enter upon them from every gate,”Peace be with you, because you have remained steadfast. What an excellent reward is this home of yours!”[^12] Each face in Gaza represents a precious life and its own story, and many of their stories have gone viral as examples of truth, faith, and resilience. Gaining the empathy and prayers of millions of admirers and well-wishers around the world, their stories are an inspiration for those watching these modern-day heroes jump into action to help one another. Embodying the values of the Qur’an, the people of Gaza are teaching us how to grieve, worship, live, and die. Among those we look up to for his demonstration of unwavering faith is a well-known grandfather, Khaled Nabhan or “Amu Khaled” as the world affectionately refers to him now. He lost two of his precious grandchildren, Reem, who, he said was the “soul of my soul,” and her brother Tarek, just three and five years old. He fondly recalls their joyful memories together—Reem’s tiny earring is now pinned to his clothing, close to his heart. Remarkably, he is still able to turn his attention to console another child who has just lost her leg, reassuring her that it awaits her in paradise. He is seen volunteering at the make-shift emergency rooms and leading funeral prayers, staying productive in the sight of his Lord, despite the immense weight of his own grief.[^13] Brave photojournalists and numerous others still in their youth, are now the flag bearers of the truth and among the first responders on the scene after every bombardment. Many have already lost loved ones and many their own lives. They are deliberately targeted in order to silence them from exposing the truth about the atrocities being carried out.[^14] Wael Al-Dahdouh is a veteran correspondent for Al Jazeera who lost his beloved wife, Amna, fifteen-year-old son, Mahmoud, seven-year-old daughter, Sham, and his one-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Adam. Barely a month later, his eldest son, Hamza, only twenty-seven and also a journalist, was brutally targeted and killed in his vehicle. This brought the total number of murdered journalists at the time to eighty-five, according to the findings of the Committee to Protect Journalists.[^15] Wael is foremost a man of faith, and a father of eight. The strength of his faith shone through at the onset of his devastating news when he continued, committed to his work and the dissemination of truth even as he discovered the grim reality of his loved ones’ deaths and mourned his losses.[^16] In an interview shortly after the first attack, he said, “It's a difficult moment in the life of a Palestinian journalist, when they go to cover an incident for the news and find out that the news is their own family.”[^17] Whether a mother comforting her children as they huddle together before the imminent overnight airstrike, a reporter capturing the anguish of its aftermath, a brother discovering his sibling has just joined those martyred, or a child undergoing surgery without anesthesia, we have witnessed the people of Gaza call upon God with the same conviction and powerful words that protected the Prophet Ibrahim (AS) from the blazing fire he was thrown into at the command of a tyrant ruler several millennia before, verses of the Qur’an,“Allah alone is sufficient as an aid for us and He is the best Protector.”[^18] These are people of the Qur’an, those who strive to embody the excellence of its guidance, and this is how they will be honored and remembered. In divine revelation, the people of Gaza find the means to strengthen their faith and resilience, just as the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions did during the Battle of Uhud. In Uhud, the Muslims were outnumbered and suffered a tremendous loss at the hands of the enemy. Nevertheless, they stood by their Prophet ﷺ and their cause. They remained steadfast, relying on God for victory, calling upon Him with this same supplication (*duʿāʾ*).[^19] > Those who were warned, “Your enemies have mobilized their forces against you, so fear them,” the warning only made them grow stronger in faith and they replied, “Allah alone is sufficient as an aid for us and He is the best Protector.”[^20] > Never think of those martyred in the cause of Allah as dead. In fact, they are alive with their Lord, well provided for—rejoicing in Allah’s bounties and being delighted for those yet to join them. There will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.[^21] --- ## Inspiring others to turn to the Qur’an As the extraordinary faith, trust, and resilience of the people of Gaza is live-streamed in the midst of their immense suffering, the world has awoken and taken notice, spurring a new phenomenon in the western world. Mirroring responses in the wake of 9/11, people are reaching for the Qur’an for the first time in search of the source of this unwavering demonstration of faith. However, this time is different. Intrigue isn’t being stimulated by a need to confirm the negative bias of the “War on Terror” propaganda that has dominated media, politics, and Hollywood, dehumanizing Muslims and demonizing Islam.[^22] Rather, intrigue is being stimulated by positive and praiseworthy characteristics, as a recent article in *The Guardian* states, “They are turning to the Qur’an to understand the incredible resilience, faith, moral strength and character they see in Muslim Palestinians.”[^23] In doing so, many have recognized and internalized what they are discovering of the truth and are personally experiencing the transformative impact of the Qur’an. This has led many to embrace Islam and others to turn back to it with renewed perspective and faith. We are all awestruck and inspired by the faith of the people of Palestine—the closest semblance in our times to that of the pious predecessors, who strove to embody the Qur’an as the Prophet ﷺ exemplified it.[^24] We are connecting to the Qur’an like never before, experiencing its verses come alive before our eyes as the Qur’anic lens perfectly aligns to shed light on current events, resonating truth with the answers, hope, and means to gain perspective and find direction. Allah describes Himself in the greatest verse of the Qur’an, in which are His greatest names, the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining, in whom we find refuge. His guidance and inimitable support for the believers are the only means to clarity and stability, in a self-serving world of false promises, misguidance, and ultimate loss.[^25] He is the source of the truth, the most Just, and He demands from us that we uphold the truth with just treatment toward others, in all circumstances, whether it be with friend or foe. > Allah! There is no god worthy of worship except Him, the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who could possibly intercede with Him without His permission? He fully knows what is ahead of them and what is behind them, but no one can grasp any of His knowledge—except what He wills to reveal. His Seat encompasses the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of both does not tire Him. For He is the Most High, the Greatest. > > Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood. So whoever renounces false gods and believes in Allah has certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing handhold. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. > > Allah is the ally of those who believe: He brings them out of the depths of darkness and into the light. As for the disbelievers, their allies are false gods who take them from the light into the depths of darkness, they are the inhabitants of the Fire, and there they will remain.[^26] > O believers! Stand firm for Allah and bear true testimony. Do not let the hatred of a people lead you to injustice. Be just! That is closer to righteousness. And be mindful of Allah. Surely Allah is All-Aware of what you do.[^27] The now well-known Megan Rice is an avid reader and content creator and a shining example of someone who was drawn to the Qur’an by the people of Gaza. What began as a conversation on her TikTok account about the injustice being carried out in Gaza soon turned its attention to the strong faith of the Palestinian people and how “they still find room to make it a priority to thank God, even when they have everything taken away from them.” Megan, who by her own words, was “not previously religious,” began reading the Qur’an for the first time, inviting her audience to join her virtual World Religion Book Club. In doing so, she quickly discovered that the text aligned with her core belief system, as “anti-consumerist” and “anti-oppressive.” This was a complete turnaround from her prior misconceptions of Islam as a “severe or strict” religion. Within a month, she professed her belief in Islam, declaring the testimony of faith (*shahāda*).[^28] While Megan has since decided to further her personal study of the Qur’an away from social media, a search for “Quran Book Club” on TikTok yields an astounding 16B views, as this humanitarian catastrophe has galvanized huge numbers of people to turn to the Qur’an.[^29] Another example is that of Nefertari Moonn who is married to a non-practicing Muslim and describes herself as spiritual, but not previously religious. Nefertari also took her *shahāda* after she began reading the Qur’an to better understand the faith and character of the Palestinians. She states her motivation as, “I wanted to see what it was that made people call out to Allah when they stared death in the face… Seeing passage after passage resonated with me. I began to have such an emotional attachment to it.”[^30] The Qur’an teaches us the reality of life. We will be tested with loss in regard to the most important and beloved aspects of our lives. Those who stay the course and submit wholeheartedly to God, acknowledging that everything belongs to Him, will be rewarded with far more: > We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure—who say, when struck by a disaster, “Surely to Allah we belong and to Him we will all return.” These will be given blessings and mercy from their Lord, and it is they who are rightly guided.[^31] However, despite the beauty in these conversions, the voices of hatred, contention, and pessimism are ever-present to cast shadows of doubt. Writer and editor for *New Lines* Magazine, Jessica Roy, points to perceived sincerity and opportunism: “Although social media is designed to be a platform for infinite experimentation with personae and identity, abiding faith is fundamentally at odds with virality. In the case of these TikTok converts, experts fear, once Israel’s war in Gaza is finished, so too will their commitment—and what will that say about what it means to be a Muslim in modern America?”[^32] She adds that, particularly in today’s highly-polarized and politicized social media environment which allows for the most marginalized and even dangerous ideologies to gain momentum online, the uptick in recent conversions are as likely to be borne out of the intersection of a faith crisis and the quest for identity, as they are with solidarity in a time of crisis, politics, war, and propaganda. Speaking to this, we know that the Qur’an calls extensively to sincerity, intentions, and individual accountability before God. Humanity will be divided into two categories on the Day of Judgment—those who, when shown the truth, believed it and sincerely lived by it, and those who, despite seeing it, had the audacity to reject it, and, hence, were no longer capable of recognizing it.[^33] Allah says in the Qur’an, “Those who rejected the truth will bear the burden of that rejection, and those who did good deeds will have made good provision for themselves,”[^34] and “In this Qur’an We have set every kind of illustration before people, yet if you brought them a miracle, the disbelievers would still say, ‘You deal only in falsehood.’”[^35] Recent converts disagree with the so-called “experts.” Clarke Jones (a pseudonym) who was raised in the Church of Christ told *News Line*: “I would say that Palestine itself didn’t make me convert… but Palestine made me pick up the Quran. I originally picked up the Quran for education and solidarity and when I read it, it was describing what I already felt and what I already believe.” Jamie Rosario, also a recent convert, had the following to say: “I’ve been keeping up with my daily prayers and I feel so much peace… Coming from a divorce, having sold my house, even the friends I had five years ago—it’s all a blank slate for me right now and the Quran and Islam and the community I’ve found is one of the things that has brought me a sense of hope and optimism. I’m returning back to who I was always meant to be.”[^36] The inner peace Jamie spoke of comes from the belief in Islam that God created us with the sole purpose to worship and to obey Him. There is no greater hope than to know His mercy, to turn to Him for forgiveness, and to seek from Him. In the Qur’an, God tells us: > I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me.[^37] > > …O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.[^38] > And whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make a way out for them, and provide for them from sources they could never imagine. And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He alone is sufficient for them. Certainly, Allah achieves His Will. Allah has already set a destiny for everything.[^39] --- ## The transformative Qur’anic lens One of the most beautiful and liberating aspects of Islam, as emphasized repeatedly throughout the Qur’an, is the deeply personal relationship between the individual and God. With no intermediary, final judgment belongs to God alone, who is fully and intricately aware of our every intention and will reward us on the basis of sincerity and effort. This connection is the very light Nefatari Moonn describes as “…a peace that comes with reading the Qur’an. I feel light, like I came back to something that was always there and waiting for me to return.”[^40] The first chapter of the Qur’an, which is referred to as *The Opening*, is the most eloquent summary and introduction to God, to His Mercy in particular, and to our servitude, accountability, and complete dependence upon Him. Recited several times a day during the five daily obligatory prayers, these verses serve as a perpetual reminder that adherence to the truth or the Straight Path is not to be taken for granted. Humanity is always at risk of turning away from the truth or of losing our way, such that walking the Straight Path cannot be achieved without divine aid: > In the Name of Allah—the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. > > All praise is for Allah—Lord of all worlds, > > the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, > > Master of the Day of Judgment. > > You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. > > Guide us along the Straight Path > > the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no anger and who have not gone astray*.*[^41] How does the Qur’an change the trajectory of one’s life? In order to better understand this, it is important to look at the central role of the heart, which is mentioned frequently throughout the Qur’an. The heart reflects the innermost and true state of one’s faith, virtues, and emotions, and is therefore a crucial component in determining one’s sincerity, intentions, and actions. In his explanation of the following verse, “People, a teaching from your Lord has come to you, a healing for what is in your hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers. Say, ‘In God’s grace and mercy let them rejoice: these are better than all they accumulate,’”[^42] the great scholar of Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE), describes the impact of the Qur’an on the heart as the means to personal transformation. He expounds: > The Qur’an is a cure for that which is within the heart, and for the one who has the sickness of doubt and desire in his heart, for it contains clear proofs that distinguish the truth from falsehood, and remove the sickness of false doubts to leave certain knowledge, correct perception and understanding such that the heart sees things in accordance to their reality. It contains wisdom, good exhortations, both encouraging good and deterring from evil, and stories which contain lessons that necessarily lead to the correction of the heart by making the heart desire what is good for it and detest what is harmful to it. Hence the heart is left desiring that which will guide it, hating that which will deviate it after it used to desire that which would deviate it and hate that which would guide it. The Qur’an removes all the sicknesses that invoke false desires until the heart becomes pure and therefore its desires become pure and it returns to the natural state (*fitrah*) that it was created in, just as the body returns to the natural state upon being treated. The heart will be nurtured with faith and the Qur’an such that it will become strong—for indeed the purification of the heart is like the growing of the body.[^43] Humanity is thirsting for the source of this indisputable faith and trust in God. The insatiable hunger of worldly pursuit leaves behind it disillusionment and regret. People are often searching to fill a void, wanting a purposeful life. They are drawn to the Qur’an’s teachings about divine mercy, justice, and reliance on God, all of which lead to conviction, hope, and the motivation to work toward the unseen eternal pleasures of the hereafter. One reader noted how they were taken aback by the Qur’an definitively stating at the outset that “there is no doubt” whatsoever in regard to what is about to follow in the entirety of the Qur'an: > This is the Book! There is no doubt about it—a guide for those mindful of Allah, who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and donate from what We have provided for them, and who believe in what has been revealed to you \[O Prophet\] and what was revealed before you, and have sure faith in the hereafter. It is they who are truly guided by their Lord, and it is they who will be successful.[^44] Megan's eyes lit up in amazement as she read about the angels who reassure the believers as their souls leave this world: > Surely those who say, “Our Lord is Allah,” and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them, saying, “Do not fear, nor grieve. Rather, rejoice in the good news of Paradise, which you have been promised. We are your allies in this world and in the world to come, where you will have everything you desire and ask for, as a welcoming gift from the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful One.”[^45] Likewise, she was in awe reading about the Day of Judgment and the miraculous floating of the mountains. She immediately connected this to what she understood of the movement of tectonic plates: > On the Day the heavens will be shaken violently, and the mountains float away.[^46] Others cite verses which resonated with what they are witnessing in the world today. For example, God warns those who spread corruption, while giving us insight to the hypocrisy behind the good intentions they profess:  “When they are told, ‘Do not spread corruption in the land,’ they reply, ‘We are only peace-makers!’”[^47] Another verse shows the permissibility of retribution when wronged, while encouraging excellence through forgiveness and reconciliation: “The reward of an evil deed is its equivalent. But whoever pardons and seeks reconciliation, then their reward is with Allah. He certainly does not like the wrongdoers. There is no blame on those who enforce justice after being wronged.”[^48] As the character and dignity of the believers continue to shine through duress, such exemplary behavior has drawn attention to verses about piety and virtue, changing stereotypical images of Islam and Muslims: > Goodness does not consist in turning your face towards east or west. The truly good are those who believe in God and the Last Day, in the angels, the Scripture, and the prophets; who give away some of their wealth, however much they cherish it, to their relatives, to orphans, the needy, travelers and beggars, and to liberate those in bondage; those who keep up the prayer and pay the prescribed alms; who keep pledges whenever they make them; who are steadfast in misfortune, adversity, and times of danger. These are the ones who are true, and it is they who are aware of God.[^49] --- ## The first converts The Qur’an is transformative in its guidance to all of humanity—past, present, and future—and this recent phenomenon is not new. Going back to the time of revelation, the impact of the Qur’an on the Companions, who were the first to accept its message upon hearing its verses directly from the Prophet ﷺ, is equally palpable in their conversion stories. The lives of the Companions are an extraordinary testimony to the impact of the Qur’an on the individual and on society itself. So much so that the early Muslims are revered as the gold standard of the embodiment of piety and good character to aspire to. This was the case for a people who, prior to the advent of Islam, while upholding noble traits, were also steeped in idolatry, misguidance, tribalism, and focus on material gain. It was the impact of divine revelation upon their hearts and minds that caused the shift within them. The Qur’an was their source of guidance, the moral compass, and the motivation to welcome change, to unite upon the truth, and to soar to great heights of nobility and contribution to humanity to the extent they did. Musʿab b. ʿUmayr (d. 3/625), Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr (d. 12/633), and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/644) are among great Companions who could not resist the truth when they heard it, experiencing similar personal transformations, which then led them to play pivotal roles in the subsequent change of their people, society, and the *ummah*. It was curiosity that led Mus’ab ibn Umair to the meeting place of the early Muslims, where he first heard the Prophet ﷺ recite verses from the Qur’an, compelling him to become a Muslim. Having been raised with every privilege and prosperity, as one of the most sought-after, charismatic young men among the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, he willingly gave up his wealth and pagan lifestyle in order to take a stand for his faith despite his mother’s stubborn opposition to his conversion to Islam. He then went on to become the first ambassador and scholar sent by the Prophet ﷺ to the city of Medina (Arb., Madīna, known as Yathrib at the time) where he is credited with the conversion of the majority of its early Muslims before the migration. He was martyred in the Battle of Uḥud with no material wealth to his name, but having earned a noble status in the sight of his Lord. As the direct result of the true and eternal wealth of divine revelation, Musʿab ibn ʿUmayr is honored to this day.[^50] During the early days, the arrogant and obstinate leaders among the Quraysh had already recognized the powerful impact of the Qur’an, and it is precisely for this reason that they took preemptive measures to warn people against listening to it by spinning their own propaganda to discredit both the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the Qur’an. However, despite attempts to censor it, the truth always eventually prevails. Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr, the chief of the al-Daws tribe, was a visitor to Mecca  during the pilgrimage season. He took the words of the Quraysh to heart, initially filling his ears with cotton to protect himself from hearing the Qur’an. However, a great man of intellect and a poet, he was curious and wished to discern the truth for himself. Upon allowing himself to listen, he was instantly drawn to the Prophet’s recitation at the Kaʿba, unable to resist the temptation to follow him and request to hear more of the Qur’an. Ṭufayl subsequently declared his allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ and his acceptance of Islam. He would spend the remainder of his life in service to Islam, preaching to his tribe, until they all eventually converted by the conquest of Mecca.[^51] Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr was martyred in battle—having attained a lofty position. He left behind a legacy which includes the conversion of another great Companion, Abū Hurayra (59/678), who has the distinction of being the most prolific narrator of hadith, through which the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ have meticulously been preserved since. Our final example lies in ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who was among the highest ranking Companions and a confidante to the Prophet ﷺ who eventually became the second Caliph. His life beautifully demonstrates the profound impact of the Qur’an on a powerful and respected man who was once a staunch adversary to its message. ʿUmar was determined to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ and was on his way to do so had he not been diverted to his sister’s home after learning, much to his dismay, that she and her husband had both converted to Islam. Enraged at the thought, ʿUmar raided their home, and upon entering he heard verses of the  Qur’an that penetrated his heart in a way that he could no longer resist: > Ta Ha. We have not revealed the Quran to you to cause you distress, but as a reminder for those who hold God in awe, a revelation from the One Who created the earth and the high heavens—the Most Compassionate, established on the Throne. Everything in the heavens and on earth, everything between them, everything beneath the soil, belongs to Him. Whatever you may say aloud, He knows what you keep secret and what is even more hidden. Allah—there is no god worthy of worship except Him. He has the Most Beautiful Names… > > I am God; there is no god but Me. So worship Me and keep up the prayer so that you remember Me. The Hour is sure to come. My Will is to keep it hidden, so that every soul may be rewarded according to their efforts. So do not let those who disbelieve in it and follow their desires distract you from it, or you will be doomed.[^52] ʿUmar’s acceptance of Islam elevated him in the sight of his Lord to one of the elite Companions promised Paradise. In the eyes of the people, he is known as one of the most just, highly accomplished, and influential men of all time. It was under his rule that Islam spread at an unprecedented rate into Roman and Persian lands, and it was to him that the keys of Jerusalem were peacefully entrusted.[^53] --- ## Conclusion The Qur’an provides the lens through which we are able to acquire essential knowledge from our Creator about who He is, who we are, and how we are to conduct ourselves in regard to Him and with the world around us. It provides the holistic framework in which to develop praiseworthy character traits and behavior in accordance with its objectives—namely, the well-being of humanity, achieved only through servitude to God, with submission to His commands and prohibitions. This timeless worldview must then, by definition, hold true today. Sadly, while adherents to Islam continue to grow at an unprecedented rate, there has remained a glaring absence of the Qur’an’s transformative impact on society. This is what makes the remarkable faith and resilience of the people of Gaza beacons of light for humanity in this moment of darkness. The Qur’an is rich and nuanced in its examples of the relationship between divine decree, the history of man and nations, and the profound and timely impact of revelation on the faith of humanity. It was at the Prophet’s lowest and darkest of moments in time that God revealed two of the most virtuous and empowering verses of the Qur’an to him ﷺ during the miraculous Night Journey and Ascension (*al-Isrāʿ wa al-Miʿrāj*) in which he physically traveled during one night from Mecca to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. The Muslims had endured a brutal three-year economic, political, and social boycott which resulted in isolation and famine. Having been refused asylum in Ta’if with stones hurled at the himﷺ as well as grieving the devastating loss of two of his greatest supporters, his beloved wife Khadīja (d. 3 BH/619) and his uncle Abū Ṭālib (d. 3 BH/619), the Prophet ﷺ ascended beyond the seven heavens where he was gifted the following verses:[^54] > The Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, as do the faithful. They all believe in God, His angels, His scriptures, and His messengers. “We make no distinction between any of His messengers,” they say, “We hear and obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord. To You we all return!’” > God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear: each gains whatever good it has done, and suffers its bad—Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes. Lord, do not burden us as You burdened those before us. Lord, do not burden us with more than we have strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our Protector, so grant us victory over the disbelieving people.”[^55] As horrific as the current situation is, we look to divine mercy and wisdom in providing the catalyst and wake-up call through the exemplary faith and character of the Palestinians, to inspire us once again to sincerely reach for the Qur’an in search of the truth that is divine guidance, and to unite upon it as one *ummah*, with resilience and hope. --- ## Notes [^1]: “Where We Work,” UNRWA, August 2023, [https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217052047&usg=AOvVaw060wkA0gSFzDJ2v_IGtzXp). See also: Miriam Berger, Hajar Harb, and Loay Ayyoub, “Gaza’s Desperate Hunger: Families Struggle to Fend off Starvation,” *Washington Post*, January 25, 2024, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/25/gaza-hunger-starvation-famine-israel/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/25/gaza-hunger-starvation-famine-israel/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217052413&usg=AOvVaw06iD2aXC4c7WlU36bS6f6G). [^2]: Ajith Sunghay, “Gaza: Report from the Ground,” *United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner*, January 19, 2024, [https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2024/01/gaza-report-ground](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2024/01/gaza-report-ground&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217052905&usg=AOvVaw0pUYrOrfWIogxSxed6M1Kf). [^3]: Muslims are obligated by God to recite the first chapter of the Qur’an in every unit of the formal daily prayers, five at a minimum, known as *ṣalāh*, as taught and practiced by the Prophet ﷺ. “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help. Guide us along the Straight Path.” Qur’an 1:5–6. [^4]: Qur’an 103:1–3. [^5]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, trans. Dr. Ovamir Anjum (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1:80–82. [^6]: “As Islamophobes Burn the Quran, Palestinians Memorize it, in Full,” *The Palestine Chronicle*, August 20,2023, [https://www.palestinechronicle.com/as-islamophobes-burn-the-quran-palestinians-memorize-it-in-full-photo-gallery/#:~:text=Gaza%20is%20known%20for%20having,are%20often%20held%20throughout%20Palestine](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.palestinechronicle.com/as-islamophobes-burn-the-quran-palestinians-memorize-it-in-full-photo-gallery/%23:~:text%3DGaza%2520is%2520known%2520for%2520having,are%2520often%2520held%2520throughout%2520Palestine&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217053983&usg=AOvVaw1McOS0NLurZYXy-lAmhk0P). [^7]: Mersiha Gadzo, “Gaza Under Siege: Seeking Solace in Religion,” *Al Jazeera,* June 18, 2017, [https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/6/18/gaza-under-siege-seeking-solace-in-religion](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/6/18/gaza-under-siege-seeking-solace-in-religion&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217054453&usg=AOvVaw3JzfnYL3b949DptDzPGY51). [^8]: “Palestinian Child Recites Quran to Calm Down while Being Treated,” TRT World, YouTube video, February 2, 2024, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdiGgY4V6s0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdiGgY4V6s0). “I seek refuge in God from the accursed Satan. In the name of God, the Lord of mercy, the Giver of mercy... they used to sleep only little at night, and pray for forgiveness before dawn, giving a rightful share of their wealth to the beggar and deprived. There are countless signs on earth for those with sure faith.” Qur’an 51:17–20. [^9]: ‘Abdur-Rahman Nasir as-Sa’di, *Tafsir as-Sa’di*, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab, (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2018), 3:56, verse 5:119. [^10]: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged)*, translated and abridged by Safiur Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri et al. (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2000), 13:20–24. In regard to the covenant taken from all of humanity, such that every human is born with the innate inclination to worship Allah alone, see *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, 7:172. “And when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the children of Adam their descendants and had them testify regarding themselves. Allah asked, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They replied, ‘Yes, You are! We testify.’ He cautioned, ‘Now you have no right to say on Judgment Day, “We were not aware of this.”’ [^11]: Qur’an 5:119. [^12]: Qur’an 13:23–24. [^13]: Jomana Karadsheh, Florence Davey-Attlee, and Abeer Salman, “‘I Kissed Her but She Wouldn’t Wake Up’: Grandfather Grieves for 3-Year-Old Granddaughter Killed as She Slept in Gaza,” CNN, November 29, 2023, [https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/29/middleeast/gaza-truce-israel-grandfather-returns-home-intl-hnk/index.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/29/middleeast/gaza-truce-israel-grandfather-returns-home-intl-hnk/index.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217049988&usg=AOvVaw2em8rAi6xEpBAhcYnc242Q). “Despite Losing His Own Grandchildren, Khaled Offers Words of Hope and Comfort to a Girl Who Lost Her Leg,” TikTok, Ilmfeed, December 1, 2023, [https://www.tiktok.com/@ilmfeed/video/7307576821611089184](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tiktok.com/@ilmfeed/video/7307576821611089184&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217050281&usg=AOvVaw1McE707EmGNb3Guxi59CW6). [^14]: Saleh Aljafarawi, “Al Jazeera interview with Saleh Aljafarawi,” Whatmediahides., YouTube video, November 15, 2023, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUMXjiNjubw](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DqUMXjiNjubw&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217051423&usg=AOvVaw1WKTolzJQnEuG3vh6kZhq9). [^15]: “Journalist Casualties in the Israel-Gaza War,” Committee to Protect Journalists, Feb 9, 2024, [https://cpj.org/2024/02/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/?itid=lk\_inline\_enhanced-template](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cpj.org/2024/02/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/?itid%3Dlk_inline_enhanced-template&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217053444&usg=AOvVaw1A6ZfmTTDO6NShr_tkV7mq). [^16]: “Al Jazeera Reporter Wael al-Dahdouh Talks about Losing Family to Israeli Air Strike,” Middle East Eye, YouTube video, October 26, 2023, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fiBq6HxeBg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fiBq6HxeBg). “We still have the willpower that we arm ourselves with, and our reliance on God, the Almighty, and our patience and clinging to God’s strong rope. And our conviction and our firm belief. This is our path.” [^17]: “To Kill a Family: The Loss of Wael Dahdouh’s Family to an Israeli Bomb,” Al Jazeera, November 1, 2023, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/1/to-kill-a-family-the-loss-of-wael-dahdouhs-family-to-israeli-bombs](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/1/to-kill-a-family-the-loss-of-wael-dahdouhs-family-to-israeli-bombs&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217050831&usg=AOvVaw1m8VNQOW-UAOgsJ5j4GE3s). [^18]: Qur’an 3:173. [^19]: *Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged)*, 3:169–75; *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4287. [^20]: Qur’an 3:173. [^21]: Qur’an 3:169–70. [^22]: C. J. Werleman, “Mass Conversions to Islam Across the World in 2024 \[Predicted\],” *The CJ Werleman Show,* December 4, 2023, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_TEHX4bqReg](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D_TEHX4bqReg&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217044845&usg=AOvVaw1tZWoDJEIPc50nyJ7qQtc9). [^23]: Alaina Demopoulos, “Young Americans Are Picking up the Qur’an ‘to Understand the Resilience of Muslim Palestinians,’” *Guardian*, November 20, 2023, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/20/palestine-quran-islam-americans-tiktok](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/20/palestine-quran-islam-americans-tiktok&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217045271&usg=AOvVaw03pR1FWbh89N1JAV1VFG2K). [^24]: “The Messenger of God is an excellent model for those of you who put your hope in God and the Last Day and remember Him often.” Qur’an 33:21. Also, Qatādah (d. 56/735) reported: I said to ʿĀisha, “O mother of the believers, tell me about the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” ʿĀisha said, “Have you not read the Quran?” I said, “Of course.” ʿĀisha said, “Verily, the character of the Prophet of Allah was the Qur’an.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 746, *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) according to Muslim. [^25]: *Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged)*, 2:255–57. [^26]: Qur’an 2:255–57. [^27]: Qur’an 5:8. [^28]: Demopoulos, “Young Americans are Picking up the Qur’an.” [^29]: “TikTokers Explore the Holy Quran to Understand Palestinian Resilience amid Israel’s Ongoing Bombardement of Palestine’s Gaza,” TRT World, TikTok, October 31, 2023, [https://www.tiktok.com/@trtworld/video/7296114892816403717?lang=en](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tiktok.com/@trtworld/video/7296114892816403717?lang%3Den&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217046248&usg=AOvVaw0PsEqaiowlxDEgvExhSXNw). [^30]: Demopoulos, “Young Americans are Picking up the Qur’an.” [^31]: Qur’an 2:155–57. [^32]: Jessica Roy, “On TikTok, an Unlikely Call to Islam Emerges,” *New Lines Magazine*, December 1, 2023, [https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/on-tiktok-an-unlikely-call-to-islam-emerges/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/on-tiktok-an-unlikely-call-to-islam-emerges/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217047061&usg=AOvVaw1H9HPgid4pogslweIm9VzM). [^33]: As-Sa’di, *Tafsir as-Sa’di*, 7:329–30, verse 30:58. [^34]: Qur’an 30:44. [^35]: Qur’an 30:58. [^36]: Roy, “On TikTok, an Unlikely Call to Islam Emerges.” [^37]: Qur’an 51:56. [^38]: Qur’an 39:53. [^39]: Qur’an 65:2–3. [^40]: Demopoulos, “Young Americans are Picking up the Qur’an.” [^41]: Qur’an 1:1–7. [^42]: Qur’an 10:57–58. [^43]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Diseases of the Hearts and Their Cures*, translated by Abū Rumaysah (Birmingham: Dar us-Sunnah Publishers), 54. [^44]: Qur’an 2:2–5. [^45]: Qur’an 41:30–32. [^46]: Qur’an 52:9–10. [^47]: Qur’an 2:11. [^48]: Qur’an 42:40–41. [^49]: Qur’an 2:177. [^50]: Mahmoud Esma’il Sieny, *Heroes of Islam* (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2000), 120–122. [^51]: Sieny, *Heroes of Islam*, 150–52. [^52]: Qur’an 20:1–8, 14–16. These are the verses that led ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb to accept Islam. See also ‘Ali Muhammad as-Sallabi, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab: His Life and Times (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House), 52–56. [^53]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Abū Bakr is in Paradise. ʿUmar is in Paradise.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3747, *ṣaḥīḥ* according to al-Albānī. See also, Michael H. Hart, *The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History* (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1993), 261–65;  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/omar-ibn-al-khattab-his-leadership-his-legacy-his-death-the-firsts](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/omar-ibn-al-khattab-his-leadership-his-legacy-his-death-the-firsts&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1713560217040422&usg=AOvVaw1cTgvCrCID24YUeMag-l3I). [^54]: Yasir Qadhi, *The Sirah of the Prophet: A Contemporary and Original Analysis* (Leicestershire: The Islamic Foundation, 2023), 103–32. See also: “Glory be to the One Who took His servant \[Muhammad\] by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” Qur’an 17:1. [^55]: *Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged)*, 2:285–86. Abū Masʿūd reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever recites the last two verses of Sūrah al-Baqarah in the night, it is enough for him.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5051; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 807. ## Summary In the midst of the devastation that has befallen Gaza, there has emerged a light that has captured the hearts of onlookers across the world: the faith and steadfastness of its people. Though the region has long been described as an open-air prison subjected to siege, starvation, and the loss of thousands of innocent lives—among them many women and children—what distinguishes this era is the presence of social media, through which the world witnesses both the destruction and the extraordinary resilience of the survivors. As a Muslim-majority people, they bury their loved ones in gratitude, certain of reunion in Paradise, their hearts fixed upon the eternal life to come rather than upon the fleeting promises of a secular worldview. Their patience, gratitude, and trust in Allah's promise are the source of the inner peace visible upon their faces amid tears and smiles. This condition illustrates the transformative power of divine guidance, which inspires not only the people of Gaza but all who sincerely seek the truth. Alongside the physical destruction, there rages a battle over truth itself—a war for control of the public narrative, waged through conflicting reports and attempts to justify atrocity. This outward struggle mirrors an inward one, for no soul is immune from being led astray, and upholding the truth is the very purpose of this life and the means to salvation in the Hereafter. It is for this reason that the believer is commanded to implore Allah daily for guidance upon the Straight Path. That truth will always triumph over falsehood, even as it is met with resistance, is captured in one of the shortest and most profound chapters of the Qur'an: "By the passage of time! Surely humanity is in grave loss—except those who have faith, do good, and urge each other to the truth, and urge each other to persevere" (al-'Asr). The renowned scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) explained that this truth must be realized in both faith and practice, and that it "cannot be attained except by turning to the Qur'an with understanding, reflection, and contemplation, unearthing its treasures and culling out its buried pearls." The people of Gaza embody this pursuit through their intimate relationship with the Qur'an. According to reports, Gaza contains one of the proportionately largest populations of Qur'an memorizers in the world, with the Islamic Waqf of Gaza noting nearly forty thousand students of the Qur'an since 2006. As Zakariya Alzemly, a professor at the Islamic University in Gaza, observed, "The Quran gives us comfort. We're living in bad conditions, under pressure. The Quran teaches us patience." Their conviction rests upon the certainty that Allah does not abandon those who sincerely call upon Him, and that with every hardship comes ease. Allah promises the truthful the reward of the Hereafter: "This is a Day when the truthful will benefit from their truthfulness. They will have Gardens graced with flowing streams... that is the supreme triumph," and He describes the believers entering the Gardens of Eternity alongside the righteous among their families, greeted by the angels with "Peace be with you, because you have remained steadfast." Individual stories bring these truths to life. Khaled Nabhan, affectionately known as "Amu Khaled," lost two grandchildren, Reem and Tarek, aged three and five; yet he consoled another wounded child that her lost limb awaited her in Paradise, and continued to lead funeral prayers and serve others amid his grief. The journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh lost his wife, two children, and grandson, and shortly after his eldest son Hamza, himself a journalist—one of eighty-five journalists killed at that time according to the Committee to Protect Journalists—yet he remained committed to conveying the truth. In their moments of anguish, the people of Gaza call upon Allah with the same words that protected the Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) from the fire of a tyrant: "Allah alone is sufficient as an aid for us and He is the best Protector." These are the very words with which the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions responded at the Battle of Uhud, where, though outnumbered and stricken with loss, their faith only increased. Of such martyrs Allah says, "Never think of those martyred in the cause of Allah as dead. In fact, they are alive with their Lord, well provided for." This visible faith has awakened the world and prompted a new phenomenon. Unlike the intrigue that followed the events of 9/11, which was stirred by hostile propaganda, this time people are turning to the Qur'an drawn by the praiseworthy character they witness. As noted in The Guardian, "They are turning to the Qur'an to understand the incredible resilience, faith, moral strength and character they see in Muslim Palestinians." Many have thereby embraced Islam or returned to it with renewed conviction. In this pursuit, the Qur'an directs them to Allah, described in its greatest verse, Ayat al-Kursi, as "the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining," and as "the ally of those who believe: He brings them out of the depths of darkness and into the light." The Qur'an also commands justice even toward one's enemies: "Do not let the hatred of a people lead you to injustice. Be just! That is closer to righteousness." Among the converts is Megan Rice, who described herself as previously not religious and began reading the Qur'an publicly, finding it aligned with her values and free of her prior misconceptions of Islam as a "severe or strict" religion; within a month she declared the shahāda. Another, Nefertari Moonn, was moved by the Palestinians' calling upon Allah in the face of death, saying, "Seeing passage after passage resonated with me." The Qur'an teaches that such tests are to be expected: "We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure." Yet skepticism persists; the writer Jessica Roy of New Lines Magazine questioned the sincerity and durability of these conversions, fearing they may fade once the war ends. In response, it is noted that the Qur'an itself calls repeatedly to sincerity and individual accountability, dividing humanity into those who accept the truth and those who, seeing it, reject it: "Those who rejected the truth will bear the burden of that rejection." Converts themselves disputed the doubts of these "experts"; Clarke Jones stated, "Palestine made me pick up the Quran... it was describing what I already felt," and Jamie Rosario spoke of the peace and hope he found: "I'm returning back to who I was always meant to be." This peace flows from the Qur'anic teaching of humanity's purpose: "I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me," and from Allah's boundless mercy: "Do not lose hope in Allah's mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins." Central to this transformation is the heart. Commenting on the verse "a healing for what is in your hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers," Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) explained that the Qur'an cures the sickness of doubt and desire, restoring the heart to its natural state (fitrah), "just as the body returns to the natural state upon being treated," so that "the purification of the heart is like the growing of the body." The opening chapter, al-Fātiḥah, recited in every prayer, is a perpetual reminder that walking the Straight Path cannot be achieved without divine aid. Readers have been struck by the Qur'an's opening declaration of certainty—"This is the Book! There is no doubt about it"—as well as by verses describing the angels who reassure the steadfast, the mountains floating on the Day of Judgment, the hypocrisy of those who claim to be "peace-makers" while spreading corruption, the permissibility of just retribution alongside the excellence of forgiveness, and the comprehensive description of true piety in Sūrat al-Baqarah. This transformative power is not new. The Companions who first heard the Qur'an from the Prophet ﷺ underwent profound change, becoming the gold standard of piety after having lived in idolatry and tribalism. Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr (d. 3/625), once a privileged youth of Quraysh, abandoned his wealth, became the Prophet's first envoy to Madīna, and was martyred at Uhud with no worldly wealth but lasting honor. Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr (d. 12/633), chief of the Daws, who plugged his ears against the Qur'an on the warning of Quraysh, could not resist its truth once he listened, and later brought about the conversion of his tribe and of Abū Hurayra (d. 59/678), the most prolific narrator of hadith. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/644), who set out to kill the Prophet ﷺ, was overcome upon hearing the verses of Sūrat Ṭā Hā—"I am God; there is no god but Me. So worship Me and keep up the prayer"—and became the second Caliph, to whom the keys of Jerusalem were peacefully entrusted. The Qur'an thus provides the lens through which humanity comes to know its Creator, itself, and its purpose, offering a holistic framework for righteous character grounded in servitude to Allah. Though Islam's adherents grow in number, its transformative impact upon society has often been absent, which makes the faith of Gaza's people a beacon in this darkness. It was likewise at the Prophet's darkest moment—after the boycott, the loss of Khadīja (d. 3 BH/619) and Abū Ṭālib (d. 3 BH/619), and the rejection at Ṭāʾif—that he was taken on the Night Journey (al-Isrāʾ wa al-Miʿrāj) to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā and beyond the heavens, where he was granted the closing verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah: "God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear... You are our Protector, so grant us victory over the disbelieving people." As harrowing as the present is, we look to divine mercy and wisdom in this trial as a catalyst inspiring humanity to reach sincerely for the Qur'an and to unite upon its guidance as one ummah, with resilience and hope. ## Key Takeaways 1. The faith and steadfastness of the people of Gaza, witnessed through social media amid siege and immense loss, rests on an intimate relationship with the Qur’an. Gaza holds one of the proportionately largest populations of Qur’an memorizers in the world, and it is this bond that supplies their patience and certainty of reunion in Paradise. In their moments of anguish they call upon Allah with the same words that steadied the Prophet ﷺ and his companions at Uhud. 2. That visible resilience has drawn others to the Qur’an, unlike the hostile curiosity that followed earlier moments, such as 9/11. People now approach the text drawn by the character they observe, and many have embraced Islam or returned to it, finding that its teachings on mercy, justice, and reliance on Allah answered a need they already felt. Some observers question whether such conversions will endure, while the converts themselves describe a peace and conviction that predated the crisis. 3. The Qur’an’s transformative effect primarily in the heart. Commenting on its description as a healing for what lies within, Ibn Taymiyya explained that it cures doubt and desire and restores the heart to its original nature, so that purifying the heart resembles the growing of the body. This same power is not new: The companions who first heard its verses, among them once hostile figures like ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab, were remade by it, as was the Prophet ﷺ consoled at his darkest hour. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why are so many people turning to the Qur’an and converting to Islam because of Gaza? As the world witnessed the suffering in Gaza through social media, alongside appalling destruction, many people were struck by the faith of those enduring it. Watching Palestinians bury loved ones while still thanking God and speaking of Paradise, onlookers wanted to understand where such steadiness came from, and many began reading the Qur’an for the first time to find out. This echoes an earlier wave of curiosity after the events of 9/11, but with an important difference. That earlier interest was often shaped by hostile stereotypes of Islam, while this time, people were drawn by the dignity, patience, and moral strength they saw in the Palestinians. Reading the Qur’an for themselves, a number of them found that it spoke to values they already held and cleared away misconceptions they had absorbed, such as the idea that Islam is harsh or rigid. Some embraced Islam as a result, and others who were already Muslim returned to their faith with renewed conviction. The article presents this as a modern example of the Qur’an’s timeless power to move sincere seekers of the truth. ### How can the Qur’an transform a person? The Qur’an describes itself as “a healing for what is in your hearts,” and Islamic scholars have long explained its effect through the condition of the heart. One classical scholar described the Qur’an as a cure for the sicknesses of doubt and misplaced desire. It presents clear proofs that separate truth from falsehood, replacing confusion with certainty, and it contains lessons and exhortations that make the heart love what is good for it and turn away from what harms it. In this way the heart is restored to its natural state, the *fitra*, the pure disposition Allah created every person with, much as a body heals when it is treated. Nourished by faith and the Qur’an, the heart grows stronger over time. This is why people describe reading the Qur’an as finding a peace they had been missing, or as returning to something that was always there. The change is not only intellectual. It reshapes what a person values, how they see the world, and how they live, which is what the article means by the transformative power of the Qur’an. ### How do the people of Gaza keep their faith through so much loss? Their steadiness comes from a deep and daily relationship with the Qur’an. Gaza is reported to have one of the highest proportions of Qur’an memorizers in the world, and its people describe the Qur’an as a source of comfort that teaches them patience under pressure. Their faith rests on several certainties the Qur’an instills. They believe that Allah never abandons those who sincerely call upon Him, that every hardship is paired with ease, and that this life is not the end but a passage to an eternal life where the righteous are reunited with their loved ones. This is why they can bury family members in gratitude and still speak of Paradise. In their hardest moments they call on Allah with the same words that, according to an authentic hadith, Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) said when he was thrown into the fire, and that the Qur’an records believers saying in the aftermath of Uhud: “Allah alone is sufficient as an aid for us and He is the best Protector.” Their patience, gratitude, and trust are faith put into action rather than mere words. ### Are the people converting to Islam because of Gaza sincere, or is it just a trend? Some commentators have questioned whether conversions tied to a moment of crisis will last, suggesting they may fade once the war ends. In Islam, faith is ultimately a matter between each person and God, who alone judges the heart and rewards people according to their sincerity and effort. No one can see into another’s intentions, so the durability of any individual’s faith is not something outside observers can measure. Many of those who converted have said that Gaza did not convert them but led them to pick up the Qur’an, and that what they read matched what they already believed and felt. Others described finding peace, hope, and a sense of returning to who they were meant to be. No outsider can know another person’s sincerity. Whether a given person continues to practice Islam, however,  can only become apparent over time. Islam’s own standard is that every person is individually accountable for accepting or rejecting the truth once they have seen it. ### How did the Qur’an change the people who first heard it? The companions of the Prophet ﷺ, who first heard the Qur’an recited directly by him, were often transformed the moment its verses reached them. Before Islam, many lived amid idolatry, tribal rivalry, and the pursuit of wealth, yet the Qur’an reshaped them into people revered ever after for their piety and character. One young man of privilege gave up his wealth and comfort after hearing it, became an early teacher of Islam, and died with no possessions but lasting honor. A tribal chief who had stuffed his ears with cotton to avoid hearing the Qur’an could not resist its truth once he listened, and went on to bring his whole tribe to faith. Even ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab, who set out intending to harm the Prophet ﷺ, was overwhelmed on hearing verses from Surah Taha and became one of the greatest and most just leaders in Islamic history. These stories show that the Qur’an’s power to move a sincere listener has been the same across the centuries. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/10-ways-to-maximize-your-worship-in-the-last-10-nights-of-ramadan # 10 Ways to Maximize Your Worship in the Last 10 Nights of Ramadan **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** April 1, 2024 **Updated:** March 14, 2026 As we enter the last ten nights of Ramadan, we have a unique opportunity before us to seek forgiveness, draw closer to Allah (SWT), reap the rewards of our nightly worship, and insha’Allah catch *[Laylatul-Qadr](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year)* or The Night of Decree. To make the most of these nights, here are 10 practical tips: --- ## 1\. Avoid Sins during the Day This is something we don’t think about when considering the last ten nights. Outside of Ramadan, we are reminded not to disobey Allah (SWT) during the day, for if we do, He will not wake us up to pray at night. As one saying goes, “If you sin during the day, you shut the doors of the heavens for you at night.” If this is true throughout the year, how about then on the last ten nights of Ramadan when we want to ensure we don’t miss *Laylatul-Qadr*? We don’t want to be praying *Maghrib* with the *ghadab* (anger) of Allah (SWT) on us due to a sin we committed during the day in Ramadan. So let’s be especially mindful of what we do throughout the day. Whether it’s refraining from harmful speech or avoiding sinful behaviors, our conduct in the daylight hours sets the tone for our spiritual state during these blessed nights. --- ## 2\. Avoid Idle Conversations at Night Imam Ibn Qudama mentions that the blessings of *Laylatul-Qadr* are most often lost due to people mixing with one another too much during the night. This is because it is likely that at some point our tongues will slip into backbiting, gossiping, etc. Thus, it is best to refrain from excessive socializing during this time; instead, these last 10 nights are a time to prioritize our *ibadah* (worship). Join gatherings where Allah (SWT) is remembered, and try your best to disengage from unnecessary conversations. Let’s use this time to focus on worship and reflection, nurturing a deeper connection with our Creator. --- ## 3\. Pray Isha & Fajr in Congregation Prioritize praying *Isha* and *Fajr* prayers in congregation. Saeed ibn Musayyib said “Whoever prays *Isha* in congregation would have taken their fortune of *Laylatul-Qadr*.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever prays *Isha* in congregation, it is as if they have \[the reward of praying\] the first half of the night. And whoever prays *Fajr* in congregation, it is as if they have \[the reward of praying\] the last half of the night.” It is more precious to Allah (SWT) that you pray *Isha* and *Fajr* in congregation than you spend the whole night in prayer. So let’s prioritize being in the masjid for *Isha* and *Fajr* prayers insha’Allah. By coming together as a community, we not only experience the blessings of unity but also amplify the spiritual rewards of our prayers. --- ## 4\. Pray a full set of Qiyaam with the Imam The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever prays behind the imam in *Qiyaam* until the imam finishes, then that person has \[achieved the reward of\] the entire night in prayer.” While there are multiple interpretations of this hadith, the general recommendation is to pray as much as you can continuously behind the imam (for *taraweeh* or additional *qiyaam*). The more you can do the better to attain this reward insha’Allah. --- ## 5\. Read the Qur’an Throughout the Night This may seem pretty self-explanatory, but it’s often overlooked. Qatadah (rA) used to finish the Qur’an every three days of Ramadan, but then he would do a *khatm* (complete reading of the Qur’an) every night of the last 10 nights. There’s a general trend amongst our *salaf* (pious predecessors) of an increase in recitation of the Qur’an in the last 10 nights specifically. Even if you’re trying to finish a certain amount during the day, stick to that goal and try to surpass it, but still strive to read more Qur’an in the last 10 nights than during the rest of Ramadan. It is one of the most beautiful things to exceed your Qur’an reading goals in Ramadan. For instance, if your goal is to finish one *khatm* by doing a *juz* a day, and you finish one and a half, that’s better than one. That success will kickstart your momentum into Shawwal and you may also have a *khatm* by the end of Shawwal as well! Subhan’Allah, the very first word revealed to our Prophet ﷺ on this night of *Laylatul-Qadr* was *iqra’* (read). Surely in that is a sign that you should honor the Qur’an in these last 10 nights. So try to increase the amount you read. Don’t cut back on what you’re reading during the day, but instead increase what you’re reading at night insha’Allah! --- ## 6\. Supplicate with the Prophetic Du’a taught to Aisha (rA) Aisha (rA) asked the Prophet ﷺ, “If I find myself in *Laylatul-Qadr*, what should I recite?” The Prophet said, “Say ‘*Allahumma innaka ‘afuwwun tuhibbul ‘afwa fa’fu ‘anni*’ (Oh Allah, You are the Forgiver, You love to forgive, so forgive me).” Read this *du’a* throughout the night. Start your *du’a*s with it and end your *du’a*s with it. Read it between the personal *du’a*s you’re making. There’s nothing more blessed than the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ in the specific *du’a*s we should be making during this auspicious time. --- ## 7\. Make Du’a and Dhikr Even While in Motion Seize every moment, whether walking, moving about, or commuting, to engage in supplication. Some of the most blessed *adkhar* (remembrances of Allah) come as we’re moving about our day, whether going from our homes to the masjid or waiting in line for *suhoor*, for example. So keep your tongue busy with *du’a* and *dhikr* even while you’re in motion on the night of *Laylatul-Qadr*. Treat each night like every single second matters. --- ## 8\. Increase Your Sajdah (Prostration) on these Nights The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever stands up on the night of *Laylatul-Qadr* with faith and seeking its reward, then they will be forgiven for all of their sins.” This is understood as the general rule. But, the best part of engaging in *qiyaam* is the best part of *salah*—so increase the time you spend in *sajdah*. In fact, the last words right before *Surah al-Qadr* are, “Prostrate and come closer.” So extend the duration of your prostrations and make your personal *du’a*s during *sujood* during the night. By slowing down and savoring these moments of closeness to Allah, we can more effectively express our gratitude and seek His mercy and forgiveness. --- ## 9\. Give in Charity While there’s nothing that explicitly suggests that the Prophet ﷺ gave more charity in the last 10 nights than he did in the rest of Ramadan, the scholars of spirituality note that charity has two major effects: 1) increased reward (which you seek in the night of *Laylatul-Qadr*), 2) it extinguishes the anger of your Lord (especially secret charity). So on a night of increased reward where the greatest reward you can seek is His forgiveness, what better act to partake in every single night that is associated with being pardoned and earning His favor? Automate your charity or give in charity yourself; either way, be someone who’s actively seeking out opportunities to give and support charitable initiatives. Constantly be open to charity as you are to all good deeds in these last ten nights. --- ## 10\. Seek Forgiveness Spend the last few moments of every single one of these nights in *istighfar* (seeking forgiveness). Instead of eating and socializing until the final minutes of *suhoor*, use that time to open up your heart to plead to Allah in sincere supplication, asking for His forgiveness and admitting your weaknesses and shortcomings before Him. It may be that a heartfelt *du’a* made in humility and remorse during these final moments opens us up to His ultimate forgiveness and acceptance. If the night is accepted and we are granted *Laylatul-Qadr*, then a whole lifetime of reward awaits insha’Allah! So prioritize these last moments of each night, especially the moments before the *adhan* of Fajr to call out to Allah in genuine repentance. *Allahumma balighna Laylatul-Qadr*, Oh Allah, allow us to observe *Laylatul-Qadr*! May Allah (SWT) allow blessings, tranquility, and acceptance to descend upon us all and our families and communities. May He grant us this Night of Decree, accept our prayers, and allow us to draw nearer to Him insha’Allah. Ameen. For more on the timing of *Laylatul-Qadr* and its signs, read “[On The Timing and Virtues of the Night of Power: The Heart's Joy in Remembering Laylat al-Qadr by Ibn al-ʿIrāqī](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/on-the-timing-and-virtues-of-the-night-of-power-the-hearts-joy-in-remembering-laylat-al-qadr-by-ibn-al-iraqi)” --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/quran-trivia-quran-30-for-30-season-5 # Qur'an Trivia | Qur’an 30 for 30 Season 5 **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan **Published:** March 31, 2024 **Updated:** March 3, 2025 ## Daily Juz Questions & Answers Our signature Qur’an 30 for 30 with Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro is back with a fresh new season all recorded in house on set!  Join our scholars and a surprise esteemed guest every day this month of Ramadan as they dive deep into each *juz* via the lens of destiny (*qadr*). We’ll be updating this Q&A daily as each episode is released, so pin this page as you follow along! If you’re needing to catch up or want to relisten to a past episode, feel free to run through our [Qur’an 30 for 30 watch playlist](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-quran-30-for-30-season-5) or listen on-the-go via our [Yaqeen Podcast](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/listen/quran-30-for-30-season-5). To further enrich your journey with the Qur’an and benefit from its gems, download our latest [Qur’an 30 for 30 ebook](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/quran-30-for-30-thematic-tafsir)! An organized, easy-to-read *Thematic Tafsir* providing key insights and overviews through the lens of the *Seerah*, the Day of Judgment, and the Qur’anic worldview. ### Juz 1 **Question:** Who narrated the story of the companion that famously recited Surah al-Fatihah on a non-Muslim chief as a form of cure at the time of the Prophet ﷺ ? ***Answer:*** Abu Saeed al-Khudri (rA) ### Juz 2 **Question:** What were the words that Allah received from Adam (as) in the first *juz*? ***Answer:*** رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَآ أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِينَ “Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be losers.”  \[Qur’an, 7:23\] ### Juz 3 **Question:** What is the subject matter of the longest verse in the Qur’an? 1. Piety 2. Divorce laws 3. Debt laws ***Answer:*** 3. Debt laws ### Juz 4 **Question:** In what *hijri* year was Surah Ali Imran revealed? 1. 2 AH 2. 3 AH 3. 4 AH ***Answer:*** 2\. 3 AH ### Juz 5 **Question:** Which battle is referenced in Surah Ali Imran, and in what year did the battle take place? 1. Battle of Uhud (3 AH) 2. Battle of Badr (2 AH) 3. Both Uhud and Badr ***Answer:*** 3. Both Uhud and Badr ### Juz 6 **Question:** In verse 36 of Surah an-Nisa, who is the companion that Allah is referring to when He says “the companion that is at your side”? 1. Spouse 2. Travel companion 3. Both ***Answer:*** 3. Both ### Juz 7 **Question:** How many times does the phrase “O you who have believed” appear in Surah al-Ma’idah? 1. 10 2. 5 3. 18 ***Answer:*** 3. 18 ### Juz 8 **Question:** How many times is the word “*an’am*” (*livestock*) mentioned in Surah al-An’am? 1. 5 2. 6 3. 8 ***Answer:*** 2. 6 ### Juz 9 **Question:** What are the types of garments described in Surah al-A’raf? 1. Garments to cover the *awrah* 2. Garments for beauty and adornment 3. Both ***Answer:*** 3. Both ### Juz 10 **Question:** What is the reason that most of the scholars say there is no *Basmalah* (*Bismillah*) in Surah at-Tawbah? 1. It is considered a continuation of Surah al-Anfal. 2. There is no *salaam* for the hypocrites. 3. There is no *salaam* for making *tawbah*. ***Answer:*** 1. It is considered a continuation of Surah al-Anfal. ### Juz 11 **Question:** There’s another name for Surah at-Tawbah, which specifically refers to its exposing. What is the other name for Surah at-Tawbah that the *ulema* mentioned? 1. “The Discloser” 2. “The Revealer” 3. “The Exposer” ***Answer***: 3. “The Exposer” (*al-Fadiha)* ### Juz 12 **Question:** Why was Surah Al-Anfal named Al-Anfal, and what was it revealed in regards to? 1. The Spoils of War 2. The Spoils of the Battle of Badr 3. Both ***Answer:*** 3. Both ### Juz 13 **Question:** The Prophet ﷺ said, “Hud and its sisters have caused me to turn gray!” Which of the following *surahs* are from Hud’s sisters? 1. Al-Mulk and Al-Haqqah 2. Al-Waqi’ah and Al-Mursalat 3. An-Nazi’at and Al-Infitar ***Answer:*** 2. Al-Waqi’ah and Al-Mursalat ### Juz 14 **Question:** In Surah Ibrahim, Allah states: “Have you not considered how Allah presents an example, a good word like a good tree.” What is the meaning of “a good word”? 1. The testimony of faith (*La ilaha illa Allah*) 2. Faith (*iman*) 3. Both A and B ***Answer:*** 3. Both A and B ### Juz 15 **Question:** Which prophet was sent to the people of Al-Hijr? 1. Prophet Saleh (as) 2. Prophet Lut (as) 3. Prophet Hud (as) ***Answer:*** 1. Prophet Salah (as) ### Juz 16 **Question:** What are two other names of Surah al-Isra? 1. Subhan & Bani Isra’il (Children of Israel) 2. Muqaddasah & Tawakkul 3. None of the above ***Answer:*** 1. Subhan & Bani Isra’il (Children of Israel) ### Juz 17 **Question:** How many times is Allah’s name Ar-Rahman mentioned in Surah Maryam? 1. 16 2. 14 3. 13 ***Answer:*** 1. 16 ### Juz 18 **Question:** What is the only *surah* in the Qur’an that has two prostrations of recitation? 1. Al-Anbiya 2. Al-Hajj 3. Maryam ***Answer:*** 2. Al-Hajj ### Juz 19 **Question:** Why was Surah an-Nur given this name? 1. جاءكم من ٱللَّهِ نور وكتـٰب مبين \[Qur’an, 5:15\] 2.  الله نور السموات والأرض \[Qur’an, 24:35\] 3.  يريدون أن يطفـٔوا نور ٱللَّه بأفوههم \[Qur’an, 9:32\] ***Answer:*** 2. الله نور السموات والأرض \[Qur’an, 24:35\] ### Juz 20 **Question:** There is a battle that is named after a *surah* in *Juz* 19. Which battle is it? 1. Al-Ahzab 2. Al-Furqan 3. Al-Anfal ***Answer:*** 2\. Al-Furqan ### Juz 21 **Question:** In which *surah* does Allah promise the Prophet ﷺ a return to Mecca? 1. Al-Fath 2. Al-Qasas 3. Ar-Rum ***Answer:*** 2. Al-Qasas ### Juz 22 **Question:** What *surah* in *Juz* 21 mentions the 5 things that only Allah knows? 1. Ar-Rum 2. As-Sajdah 3. Luqman ***Answer:*** 3. Luqman ### Juz 23 **Question:** What is the name of the man who is the warner in Surah Yasin? 1. Waraqah ibn Nawfal 2. Bahira 3. Habib An-Najjar ***Answer:*** 3. Habib An-Najjar ### Juz 24 **Question:** In which *surah* (from the previous *juz*) does Allah mention Ibrahim (as) seeing in a dream that he is to sacrifice Ismail (as)? 1. Surah As-Saffat 2. Surah Al-Fath 3. Surah Yusuf ***Answer:*** 1. Surah As-Saffat ### Juz 25 **Question:** What is another name for Surah Ghafir? 1. Surah Al-Bara'ah 2. Surah Al-Mu’min 3. Surah Al-Insan ***Answer:*** 2\. Surah Al-Mu’min ### Juz 26 **Question:** Which verse from *Juz* 25 used to cause Caliph Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz to cry all night in his *qiyam*? 1. Surah Shuraa, Verse 45 2. Surah Shuraa, Verse 7 3. Surah Jathiyah, Verse 28 ***Answer:*** 2\. Surah Shuraa, Verse 7 ### Juz 27 **Question:** Who was the prophet at the center of the story in Surah Al-Ahqaf? 1. Lut (as) 2. Shuaib (as) 3. Hud (as) ***Answer:*** 3\. Hud (as) ### Juz 28 **Question:** Which verse in Surah Ar-Rahman do some scholars say is the shortest verse in the Qur’an? 1. ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ (verse 1) 2. ذَوَاتَآ أَفْنَانٍۢ (verse 48) 3. مُدْهَآمَّتَانِ (verse 64) ***Answer:*** 3. مُدْهَآمَّتَانِ (verse 64) ### Juz 29 **Question:** Who is the woman referred to in Surah Al-Mujadilah? 1\. Hind bint Utbah 2\. Nusaybah bint Ka’ab 3\. Khawlah bint Tha’labah ***Answer:*** 3. Khawlah bint Tha’labah ### Juz 30 **Question:** What was the first *surah* revealed to the Prophet ﷺ in *Juz* 29 after the first few *ayat* when he received the revelation in Hira? 1\. Surah Al ‘Alaq 2\. Surah Al Muddaththir 3\. Surah Al Muzzammil ***Answer:*** 2. Surah Al Muddaththir --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-last-ten-nights-on-your-period # The Last Ten Nights on Your Period **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** March 31, 2024 **Updated:** March 14, 2026 Aisha (rA) reported that when the last ten nights of Ramadan arrived, the Prophet ﷺ would tighten his belt, spend the night in worship, and awaken his family (agreed upon). This is the time that, as Muslims, we put in the most effort, praying for longer and later in the night, hoping for *Laylat al-Qadr*, asking to be accepted by Allah. For women though, there is always disappointment and sadness if menstruation starts during the last ten nights of Ramadan. All the blessings seem to be out of reach, and it feels like we are excluded from the immense rewards. Aisha (rA) went through something similar. She had intended Hajj, but began menstruating. The feelings of frustration, sorrow, and even rejection are feelings that many women know all too well. The Prophet ﷺ walked in on her as she was weeping, and he immediately knew. “What is the matter? Are you menstruating?” he asked. She responded in the affirmative. The Prophet comforted her. “This is a matter that Allah has decreed for the daughters of Adam,” he said, “so complete the rites of Hajj pilgrimage as other pilgrims do, but do not circle around the House” (agreed upon). Many women worry that getting their menstruation during a blessed time could be a sign of Allah's displeasure. We equate it with exclusion—when people exclude, it is because they do not like you or they see you as unworthy, so we subconsciously project that onto Allah, believing that *He* might not like us and deems us unworthy. But the Prophet ﷺ comforted Aisha (rA) and all of us by banishing the thought—your natural cycle, that Allah gave you as a blessing and for a wisdom, is simply something that Allah decreed. When you start your period has nothing to do with Allah’s pleasure with you. He then taught Aisha (rA) what she *should* do. Out of mercy, Allah decreed that women should not do the prayer or fast during menstruation. We are rewarded for submitting to and obeying Him, so *not* fasting becomes an act of obedience, as does *not* praying during this time. We are in a state of submission because we fast and pray when He tells us to and we refrain from doing so when He forbids us. The state of the heart is the same: loving submission to the commands of our Merciful Lord. But what about connection? We might miss those actions. We might want to pray for long hours during the night, or join the congregation in the mosque. Yet menstruation does not mean you are cut off from Allah. In fact, just like the Prophet ﷺ taught Aisha (rA) that there were things she *should* be doing to worship Allah, we have so many avenues to worship Him and come closer to Him during these last ten nights. Indeed, it teaches us how to turn to Him no matter our state. --- ## 1- Reciting Qur’an If you take the [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://alsalam.ac.uk/quran-during-menstruation/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1711902263276707&usg=AOvVaw2kD3G_cAFwdBpf6N08HWbV)[opinion](https://alsalam.ac.uk/quran-during-menstruation/) that reciting Qur’an is permissible, then continue to recite and reflect upon it, or simply listen to its recitation, as well as delving into [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DhZ-kJznJU9E&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1711902263277302&usg=AOvVaw0xTsKIrim3QN4uZE4O3HIv)[digestible](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/juz-1-how-to-repent-and-ask-allah-for-guidance-quran-30-for-30-season-5) *tafsir* (exegesis). The Qur’an is a blessing not simply when we recite it, but when we implement its teachings and practice it. When Aisha (rA) was asked about the character of the Prophet ﷺ, she said that his character was the Qur’an (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 746). The Prophet was described as being the most generous of people, and he was even more generous during Ramadan, when Jibril would revise the Qur’an with him (agreed upon). This shows us that the Qur’an impacted him even more during Ramadan. So connect with the Qur’an during this time. Connect with Allah’s words—nothing soothes the soul more than His own words to us. Allah says, > “We send down the Qur’an as a healing and mercy for the believers...” (Qur’an 17:82). --- ## 2- Remembrance Allah says, > “Remember Me; I will remember you. And thank Me, and never be ungrateful” (Qur’an 2:152). The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah said, ‘I am with him \[My servant\] if he remembers Me’” (*Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 7405). If we are feeling alone, or far from Allah, then the antidote is simply to remember Him. To [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-sami-the-one-who-always-listens&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1711902263278590&usg=AOvVaw2aQiWAykbdSR4aaeblKCVV)[talk](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-sami-the-one-who-always-listens) to Him. Allah tells us that He is *with* us when we do. And the Prophet ﷺ taught us profound words of remembrance and praise. For example, he taught that “*Alhamdulillah* (all praise and gratitude is for Allah alone) fills the scale” (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 223). Take the time to just sit down, contemplate your blessings, and even the tests that you are growing through, and praise Allah for them. The Prophet ﷺ also taught, “Whoever  declares the glory of Allah and His praises (*subhanAllah wa bihamdihi*) one hundred times every day, his sins will be diminished even if they are like the foam of the sea” (agreed upon). Reflect upon what these remembrances mean and increase in your hope, love, and closeness to Allah. The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Those in solitude have raced ahead.” They  said, “O Messenger of Allah, who are those in solitude?” The Prophet said, “They are men and women who remember Allah often” (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 2676). --- ## 3- Supplication > “When My servants ask you \[O Prophet\] about Me: I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me” (Qur’an 2:186). Supplication is something that is always open to us. You can even wake up before *Fajr*, if you desire, and dedicate a portion of your night, during the last third, to pour your heart out to Him and just ask. Continue to seek the blessings of *Laylat al-Qadr* (the Night of Decree). The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is abundant in *haya* (conscientiousness, grace, shyness) and generous. He would be shy, when a person raises his hands to Him, to turn them away empty and disappointed” (*Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 3556). When Aisha (rA) asked the Prophet ﷺ what she should say if she knew which night *Laylat al-Qadr* was, he responded, “Say: O Allah, You are pardoning. You love to pardon, so pardon me” (*Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 3513). Allah is al-Sami al-Mujib—He hears you and answers in the best way possible. Keep asking. --- ## 4- Use the energy you have to help those fasting Since you are not fasting, use the extra energy you might have to serve and help those who are fasting or generally in need. Once, the companions were with the Prophet ﷺ on a journey, where some were fasting and some were not. It was a hot day and they stopped to rest. Those who were fasting fell to the ground, but those who were not fasting got up to pitch the tents and water the animals. The Prophet ﷺ said, > “Those who were not fasting today have taken all the reward” (*Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 2890). So too can you receive great rewards by helping others as a non-faster. The Prophet ﷺ also taught us that “Whoever feeds a fasting person, he will have the same reward as him” (*Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 807). The Prophet ﷺ further reminded us, that “Whoever would love to be shaded in the shade of Allah, let him help someone in hardship or waive a loan” (*Musnad Ahmad*, no. 15520). There is so much good we can be doing for others (e.g., facilitating their worship) that Allah rewards us for. --- ## 5- Charity Allah says in the Qur’an, > “Those who spend their wealth in charity day and night, secretly and openly—their reward is with their Lord, and there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (2:274) Whatever little you can do, Allah is al-Shakur (the Most Appreciative)—out of His generosity, He rewards the little that we give with disproportionate blessings. The Prophet ﷺ was described as being the most generous of people, and he was even more generous during Ramadan, when Jibril would revise the Qur’an with him (agreed upon). This is a time to give! Let the impact of reflecting upon the Qur’an be that you are even more giving, following in the sunnah of the beloved ﷺ. --- ## 6- The worship of the heart Often we focus on outward actions at the expense of the state of our hearts. The Prophet ﷺ once pointed out a man to the rest of the companions, saying that he was from the people of Paradise. Abdullah ibn Amr (rA) wanted to know what was so special about him, and assumed that he would *see* something extraordinary. He spent three nights with him, but there was nothing outwardly remarkable about him. Finally, he decided to ask him. The man replied, “It is not but as you see, except that I find no malice within myself towards the Muslims, nor do I envy anyone for the good that Allah has given them.” And Abdullah said, “It is these virtues that have elevated you to this status, and these are the same qualities that we have not been able to maintain” (*Musnad Ahmad*, no. 12697). Spending these nights actively working on our hearts—our hope in Allah, our contentment with His decree, self-examination (*muhasabah*), etc.—is worship that He loves. There are so many ways to worship Allah and to connect to Him that are open to us. Allah’s door is never closed, particularly not to those who seek Him and want closeness to Him. So if you find yourself unable to do one or two acts of worship, rejoice in the fact that you can do so many others. And may Allah accept. For more opportunities to worship when menstruating, check out [10 Acts of Worship When You Can't Pray | Blog | Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/10-acts-of-worship-when-you-cant-pray). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-does-ramadan-work-a-beginners-guide # How Does Ramadan Work? A Beginner’s Guide **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Allah, Faith, Sharia **Tags:** Convert Resources, Publication, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** March 8, 2024 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 ## Introduction Fasting Ramadan for the first time as a new Muslim, or a Muslim renewing their practice, can seem like an intimidating task. To many, refraining from food, drink, and intimacy with one’s spouse during daylight hours sounds exhausting and even painful. Fortunately, Ramadan is a communal event involving everyone in the Muslim community. Not only will you have brothers and sisters in Islam to help you, but over time, as your body adjusts to periods of fasting, you will find it becomes easier and easier. This is especially true as you harvest the spiritual fruits of fasting, closeness to Allah, an affinity for the community, and demonstrable improvements in your life when you exit Ramadan as a better person than when you started, by the grace of Allah. Ramadan is a lunar month on the Islamic calendar. It does not coincide with the solar Gregorian calendar used throughout the world, since the lunar year is slightly shorter than the solar year. The lunar calendar also starts the next calendar day at sunset, rather than at 12 AM. All important days in Islam, including the Hajj pilgrimage, are based on the [Islamic lunar calendar](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-months-ordained-by-allah-reviving-the-islamic-calendar). These heavenly bodies are signs of Allah’s creative power and purpose. Indeed, as Allah said: > He is the One who made the sun a radiant source and the moon a reflected light, with precisely ordained phases, so that you may know the number of years and calculation \[of time\]. Allah did not create all this except for a purpose. He makes the signs clear for people of knowledge.[^1] That being the case, Ramadan is announced by local Muslim authorities based on the sightings of the new moon. It can be a challenge for Muslims who live in countries where Ramadan is not a recognized holiday, but Allah only asks that you do the best you can in the place He has put you. This article serves as a guide for new Muslims, newly practicing Muslims, and in fact, all Muslims who may benefit from its reminders, for “reminder benefits the believers.”[^2] You will learn about the virtues of fasting in general, the spirit of the practice, why we fast, and what moral, psychological, and spiritual outcomes are desired. Fasting is a pillar of Islam during Ramadan and beyond, so you will learn about days you may voluntarily fast to reap enormous rewards. You will learn about the virtues of Ramadan and the additional acts of worship encouraged during it, such as reading the Qur’an and generously giving in charity. You will learn about the last ten nights of Ramadan, the home stretch when good deeds are greatly multiplied, and the ‘Night of Decree’ (*Laylat al-Qadr*), in which worship for a single night is rewarded as if it were for a thousand months. You will learn how the good habits you develop during this month can extend beyond Ramadan, bettering yourself as a Muslim believer and bringing you nearer to your beloved Lord. And finally, you will learn about the etiquette of the Feast of Breaking the Fast (*ʿĪd al-Fiṭr*), the first of two major Islamic holidays in which the community celebrates the end of fasting and prays for Allah to accept all of the good deeds we have done during this blessed month. --- ## The spirit of fasting Human desires can be our worst enemy if they are not tempered by the lights of faith and reason. To save yourself from your *self*, so to speak, Allah has commanded us to fast for His sake. Fasting (*ṣiyām* or *ṣawm*) comes from the root word meaning “to abstain.” In the Islamic context, fasting is to abstain from food, drink, and sexual activity during the daylight hours, between the dawn (*Fajr*) and sunset (*Mahgrib*) prayers, while being especially careful to avoid all sins, both major and minor. Allah explained the purpose of fasting, saying: > O you who have faith, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may become righteous.[^3] The previous prophets taught their nations to fast, too, which is why many Jews, Christians, and adherents of other religions still practice some form of fasting to this day. In Islam, the point of fasting is to develop righteousness or “Godfearingness” (*taqwā*) in the heart. *Taqwā* comes from the root word meaning “to protect” or “to shield.” Specifically, it is the quality of one who fears to disobey Allah, as they are protecting themselves from His punishment. This is a healthy type of fear—a reverential fear that should not lead to crippling anxiety or panic because it is always balanced by hope. Our whims and impulsive behaviors can lead us to disobey Allah, but it is Godfearingness that helps us to control ourselves. Allah said, “As for one who feared to stand before their Lord and restrained themselves from their whims, Paradise is their refuge.”[^4] Fasting trains us to delay the most fundamental human urges, eating and drinking, thereby making it easier for us to resist sinful temptations overall. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ described the greatness of fasting this way: > Allah said, “Every deed of the son of Adam is for him, except for fasting. It is for Me and I will reward it.” Fasting is a shield, so when one of you fasts, he may not be obscene or boisterous. If someone insults him or fights him, let him say, “Indeed, I am fasting.” By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the breath coming from the mouth of a fasting person is more pleasant to Allah than the scent of musk.[^5] When Allah says fasting is for Him, it highlights the exceptional nature of this act of worship. Other people can see you praying, giving charity, and performing the pilgrimage, but no one truly knows if you are *really* fasting or not. It is a secret between you and your Lord; thus, it requires a lot of sincerity. When one of the Companions asked, “O Messenger of Allah, tell me a deed to do,” the Prophet ﷺ replied, “You must fast, for there is nothing equal to it.”[^6] Genuine fasting, which produces *taqwā*, ends up as a solid barrier between you and sin, or as the Prophet said, “Fasting is a shield from the Hellfire, just like a shield of yours in battle.”[^7] Fasting strengthens your ability to control your impulses, but it is similarly important to control your tongue (speech) while fasting. The Prophet ﷺ once told his Companions, “Fasting is a shield as long as you do not damage it.” They asked, “How does one damage it?” The Prophet said, “By dishonesty or backbiting.”[^8] We need to be on special guard from saying anything false or mean-spirited while fasting. The Prophet said, “Truly, fasting is not only from eating and drinking. Rather, fasting is from vanity and obscenity. If someone abuses you or acts foolishly against you, then say, ‘Indeed, I am fasting.’”[^9] And he said, “When one of you wakes up in the morning for fasting, then he should not use obscene language or behave foolishly.”[^10] And he said, “Do not insult anyone while you are fasting. If anyone insults you, then say, ‘Indeed, I am fasting.’ If you are standing, then sit down.”[^11] The Righteous Caliph ʿUmar (rA, r. 13-23/634-644) confirmed this understanding, saying, “Fasting is not merely from food and drink alone. Rather, it is from lies, falsehood, vain talk, and swearing.”[^12] You cannot neglect this most important purpose of fasting, just like you cannot ignore the intended results of prayer; otherwise it runs the risk of becoming another empty ritual. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever does not leave evil words and deeds while fasting, Allah does not need him to leave food and drink.”[^13] And he warned, “One might fast but he gets nothing from his fast except hunger. One might pray at night but he gets nothing from his prayer except fatigue.”[^14] Backbiting, or talking badly about people in their absence, is one of the most dangerous sins because gossiping can be an easy habit to fall into. In fact, Imam Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī warns, “The righteous predecessors used to say that dishonesty will break the fast.”[^15] Telling a lie may not ‘break’ the fast in an outward sense, but it certainly spoils its spirit. The key to quality prayer and fasting is sincerity, the *inward* component matched by the outward movements. Since whatever comes out of the tongue reflects what is in the heart, we can protect our fasting by carefully watching what we say. For this reason, the righteous successor (*tābiʿī*), or member of the generation that followed and knew one of the Companions, Mujāhid (d. 104/722) would say, “Whoever is safe from two characteristics will secure his fasting: backbiting and falsehood.” Imam al-Bayhaqī (d. 458/1066), who recorded this narration, added, “Just as one guards his fasting from what is not befitting, one must guard himself in the month of Ramadan to obey Allah as much as possible.”[^16] Fasting days are days of uniquely high alert, when we should be extra careful about doing our best and avoiding even apparently minor shortcomings. It is difficult to be extra vigilant all the time, of course, so we focus our attention more during our fasts. It is like performing an extended prayer throughout the day, as the righteous *tābiʿī* Abū al-ʿĀliya Rufayiʿ al-Riyāḥī (d. 93/711) said, “The fasting person is engaged in an act of worship as long as he does not backbite anyone, even if he is sleeping on his bed.”[^17] Put differently, a fasting day should not feel like a normal day. The Companion Jabir ibn ʿAbdullāh (rA) gave us this advice: > When you fast, then let your hearing, seeing, and tongue fast as well from falsehood and sins, and avoid harming your servants. Rather, you must have dignity and calmness on the day of your fasting. Do not make days you do not fast and days you fast as if they were the same.[^18] Beyond yourself, another important point is that fasting is meant to remind us what it feels like to be hungry and impoverished. Some of the righteous predecessors were asked, “Why has fasting been instituted?” They replied, “So that the rich will taste hunger and thus will not forget the hungry.”[^19] And when the Caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 197-218/813-833) was asked similarly, he answered: > Allah Almighty knows what the impoverished endure of severe hunger, so He made the rich perform fasting so that by necessity they might taste the flavor of hunger, such that they do not forget the severe hunger of the impoverished.[^20] Many people all over the world live with food or water insecurity; that is, they are hungry but not by choice. When you and I feel the pangs of hunger while fasting, it should remind us of the suffering these people endure and motivate us to donate to their cause. Fasting should instill compassion within us! The month of Ramadan is generally the only time Muslims are obligated to fast, but the Prophet ﷺ would fast at various times throughout the year. He advised his Companions, depending on their capability, to fast three days a month. The Prophet said to one of his Companions, “O Abū Dharr, if you are going to fast three days of the month, then fast on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth days.”[^21] And he said, “Shall I tell you about what will rid the heart of impurities? Fasting three days of every month.”[^22] It is also the Sunnah, or prophetic practice, to fast every Monday and Thursday, if you can, as the Prophet said, “Deeds are presented \[to Allah\] on Monday and Thursday. Thus, I love for my deeds to be presented while I am fasting.”[^23] The Prophet’s wife, ʿAisha (rA, d. 58/678), said he was eager to fast on Mondays and Thursdays.[^24] There are other times during the year, besides Ramadan, that we are recommended, but not obligated, to fast. Ashura is the ninth day of the month of Muharram, which is the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It is recommended to perform extra fasting during this whole month. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best fast after the month of Ramadan is fasting in the month of Allah, Muharram.”[^25] The day of Ashura is the day when Allah saved Moses and his people from Pharaoh, so he fasted that day to give thanks.[^26] The Prophet announced, “Verily, Ashura is a day among the days of Allah. Whoever wishes to fast may do so, and whoever wishes to break his fast may do so.”[^27] The Companion Ibn ʿAbbās (rA, d. 68/687) reported, “I did not see the Prophet as eager to fast a day and preferring it over others except for this day of Ashura, and this month of Ramadan.”[^28] It is likewise recommended to fast the day of ʿArafa, which is the culmination of the Hajj pilgrimage, as long as you are not a pilgrim yourself. The Prophet ﷺ was asked about fasting on the day of ʿArafa and he replied, “It will expiate the sins of the previous and upcoming years.” Then, he was asked about fasting on the day of Ashura and he answered, “It will expiate the sins of the past year.”[^29] Notably, this refers to minor sins, not major ones! Keep in mind that moderation is the key to successful worship habits. The most you should fast (with the exception of Ramadan) is every other day, taking a day of rest in between. This was the practice of the Prophet David (Dāwūd, AS). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ explained: > Verily, the most beloved fasting to Allah is the fasting of David, and the most beloved prayer to Allah is the prayer of David, upon him be peace. He would sleep half of the night, stand in prayer for a third of it, and then sleep for a sixth of it. He would fast every other day.[^30] This shows us that we might be overdoing it if our voluntary worship makes us sick or suffer, or it causes us to neglect other essential matters in our livelihood. The Sunnah is to establish a balanced habit of extracurricular worship that we can maintain and build upon. The Prophet ﷺ sometimes told his Companions to focus on three days of fasting a month, or one voluntary prayer a day, depending on their ability. You know yourself better than anyone else (except Allah), so it is up to you to forge your winning worship routine! Fasting has an upper limit on the outside, as you see, but it also has its highest peak on the inside. This is called the true fasting of the heart and the mind. Eminent Muslim theologian and scholar Abū Ḥāmid Imam al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) details the various levels of fasting: > Know that there are three degrees of fasting: the fasting of the common people, the fasting of the elite, and the fasting of the elite of the elite. As for the fasting of the common people, it involves restraining the stomach from fulfilling its desires, as has been mentioned. As for the fasting of the elite, it involves restraining one’s hearing, sight, tongue, hands, feet, and all limbs from sin. As for the fasting of the elite of the elite, it involves the fasting of the heart from unworthy concerns and worldly thoughts and restraining it entirely from everything besides Allah Almighty.[^31] Some early Muslims described pure *taqwā* like this, “A man does not reach the peak of righteousness until it is such that, were he to place what is in his heart on a plate and go around the market with it, he would not be ashamed of anything on it.”[^32] What a lofty goal to work towards over the years! Now, do not be discouraged if the highest level seems out of reach. Most people cannot control their thoughts to the extent they think *only* about Allah while they are fasting. Your fasting is still valid and acceptable even without this. Indeed, the righteous scholar and judge Maymūn ibn Mahrān (d. 117/735), who is considered one of the pious first three generations of Muslims (*salaf*), used to say, “The easiest part of fasting is leaving food and drink!”[^33] So, start with the basics, as we all do, by abstaining from food and drink and trying to be on your best behavior during the month of Ramadan. --- ## Beginning Ramadan Ramadan is one of the most important times of the year for you and all Muslims. During this month, we fast from food, drink, and sexual activity from dawn to sunset prayers each day. The community will gather in the mosque each night to perform the Ramadan congregational night prayer (*Tarāwīḥ*) prayers, which are voluntary but still highly recommended, and renew their relationship with the Qur’an, much of which was revealed during Ramadan. The Prophet ﷺ himself would review everything Allah had revealed to him during this month. Ramadan is full of numerous blessings for us to take advantage of! Allah said: > The month of Ramadan in which the Qur'an was revealed as guidance for people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. Whoever reaches the month, let him fast during it. Whoever is ill or on a journey, then fast an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship, and He intends for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that to which He has guided you, that perhaps you will be grateful.[^34] Most of the previous scriptures were revealed during Ramadan as well, the Prophet ﷺ told us: > The scriptures of Abraham, upon him be peace, were revealed on the first night of Ramadan. The Torah was revealed after six nights of Ramadan had passed, the Gospel was revealed after thirteen nights of Ramadan had passed, and the Qur’an was revealed after twenty-four nights of Ramadan had passed.[^35] Of course, just as fasting generally has its own set of etiquette and good practices, Ramadan also has guidelines for success. Imam Ibn al-Jawzī explains: > Fasting has etiquette which can be summarized as guarding the outward limbs and keeping watch over inward thoughts. One should receive Ramadan in a state of sincere repentance and corresponding determination. One should precede it with intention, which is required every night (before fasting), and one must necessarily be silent from speaking evil words and from backbiting, for he is not fasting who continues to eat the flesh of people.[^36] One should restrain his gaze from looking upon the unlawful, and he must be cautious about returning his sight again and again, even if it is lawful.[^37] Adhering to the etiquette of Ramadan, let alone abstaining from food and drink, requires a lot of patience. In fact, the Prophet ﷺ called Ramadan “the month of patience.”[^38] This is a core virtue you want to keep in your mind throughout the month. Remember there is rest and relief coming at the end. One of the pious *salaf*, Mālik ibn Dīnār (d. 130/748), reminds us, “There is no good deed but that an obstacle is in front of it. If one is patient, he will break through to rest, but if he is intimidated, he will turn back.”[^39] So, keep moving forward no matter what because the joy of accomplishment is not far off, just as the Prophet said, “The fasting person has two moments of relief he enjoys: when he breaks his fast he is joyful, and when he meets his Lord he is joyful for his fasting.”[^40] Since Ramadan is on the Islamic lunar calendar, the community typically gathers at the end of the previous month of Shaban to witness the new moon, whether the following day will be the first of Ramadan or the day after. The Prophet ﷺ would pray when he confirmed the new moon, “O Allah, bring it over us with blessings and faith, safety and Islam. My Lord and your Lord is Allah.”[^41] However, the moon might appear in some regions but not in others. In the time of the Companions, the residents of Syria saw the new moon after Ramadan while the residents of Medina did not, so they celebrated *ʿĪd al-Fiṭr* on different days.[^42] As hadith master Imam al-Tirmdhī (d. 279/892) stated, the scholars agreed that “the people of every land have their own moon-sighting.”[^43] So wherever you are, keep in touch with your local Muslim organizations who will announce the beginning and ending of Ramadan in your region. You may see some Muslims argue about this because they do not know, but do not let it discourage you. The Prophet ﷺ liked to fast during the month of Shaban in preparation for Ramadan.[^44] In Shaban, the Companions would make up any Ramadan fasts they had to skip the previous year due to illness or other legitimate excuses.[^45] The Prophet also encouraged us during Shaban to rid ourselves of any grudges we might have towards our families, friends, and brothers and sisters in Islam, saying, “Allah looks down at His creation on the middle night of Shaban, and He forgives all of His creatures, except for an idolater or one filled with malice.”[^46] Malice (*ḥiqd*) enters our hearts when we nurture our anger to the point that we desire to harm others instead of forgiving them. According to the eminent Māliki jurist and judge Abū Bakr ibn ʿArabī (d. 543/1148), our hearts are not clean until we empty them of any malice towards others, “The heart cannot be pure if it holds malice, envy, pride, and arrogance. The Prophet made it a requirement of faith that one love for his brother what he loves for himself.”[^47] Such a noxious disease of the heart can really drag us down if we are still holding on to it during Ramadan! Some of the righteous predecessors, but not all of them, would single out the 15th night of Shaban for voluntary prayers that they would perform individually or in small congregations.[^48] Imam al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820), the founder of one of the four juristic schools of Sunni Islam, for instance, recommended increasing our supplications to Allah on the 15th night of Shaban.[^49] However, later Muslims invented acts of worship that do not have any precedent from the Prophet ﷺ, his Companions, or the righteous predecessors, such as performing or even obligating a ritual prayer of a hundred units in the mosque. Eminent Shāfiʿī jurist and hadith scholar, Imam Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (676/1277), rightly calls these types of novel practices “reprehensible innovations.”[^50] This is because the Prophet said, “Whoever performs a deed that is not in accordance with our matter, it will be rejected.”[^51] The rule is that specific acts of ritual worship must be *proven* to be part of the religion. We are not allowed to make up our own rituals. This is different from social customs, which are permissible by default unless they contain something sinful.[^52] When Ramadan began after sighting the new moon, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would announce the blessings of this month: > On the first night of the month of Ramadan, the devils are chained, the jinn are restrained, and the gates of Hellfire are closed, and none of its gates are opened. The gates of Paradise are opened, and none of its gates are closed. A heavenly caller announces, “O seeker of good, come near! O seeker of evil, stop short!” Allah will save them from the Hellfire, and that is during every night of Ramadan.[^53] You, like many other Muslims, may notice a huge boost in energy and motivation to worship once the month begins. That is because the devils have been restrained, and you have been given an advantage over them. Evil temptations are not totally gone, but they have been drastically reduced. Scholars have said this is because Muslims are less inclined to give in to their immature desires since they are reciting the Qur’an and praying more often, among other interpretations.[^54] This is a matter of the Unseen, so only Allah truly knows ‘how’ the devils are chained, but we still know it is true and can experience its effects. --- ## The month of fasting Fasting begins shortly after the call to prayer is announced for the dawn (*Fajr*) prayer. It is highly recommended to eat the pre-fasting meal called *Suḥūr*. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Eat the pre-fasting meal, for surely there are blessings in it.”[^55] He would invite his Companions to eat in the early morning, saying, “Onward to the blessed meal!”[^56] He warned us not to abandon it, even if we only eat a morsel or drink a sip of water, as he said, “The pre-fasting meal is a blessed meal, so do not abandon it even if you only take a sip of water. Verily, Allah and His angels send blessings upon those who take the pre-fasting meal.”[^57] One can infer, in general, that it is recommended to eat at least two meals a day, since even on fasting days we should eat a small breakfast. Everyone’s body is different, of course, so people may need a different routine, especially for unusual health issues. When the first call to prayer at dawn is heard, you can keep eating until you finish your portion. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When one of you hears the call to prayer while eating the pre-fasting meal and his vessel is in his hand, let him not put it down until he fulfills his needs.”[^58] The senior Companion, Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 63/683), used to eat the pre-fasting meal with the Prophet, so he was asked, “How long was it between the two calls to prayer?” Zayd said, “It was time enough to recite fifty verses from the Qur’an.”[^59] This means you can keep eating and drinking for a little less than ten minutes after you hear the first call to prayer. The great imams like Al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (241/855), and Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh (d. 238/853) encouraged taking advantage of this brief window of opportunity.[^60] Once the second call to prayer is given, which announces the commencement of prayer, it is definitely time to stop. If you are in a place where you cannot hear the call to prayer, you may follow the timings estimated by local Muslim organizations. You can resume eating, drinking, and having intimate relations with your spouse after the first call to prayer at sunset. The meal to break your fast at sunset is called *Ifṭār*. There is no extra reward for fasting longer than Allah has obligated. In fact, you are rewarded more for breaking the fast as soon as you are allowed! The Prophet ﷺ said, “My nation will continue in goodness so long as they hasten to break their fast and prolong the pre-fasting meal.”[^61] Muslims customarily eat *Ifṭār* together in the mosque or in gatherings at home. It is a great time for the community to grow closer together. Some mosques will even choose different nights to feature various cuisines from around the Muslim world. An easy mistake to make is to overdo it at either *Suḥūr* or *Ifṭār* by eating too much, too quickly, or too heavily. After fasting all day, your stomach shrinks a little bit, so piling it full of food can make you feel sick. A good rule of thumb is to fill one third of your stomach with food, one third with water, and leave the rest empty, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > The son of Adam cannot fill a vessel worse than his stomach, as it is enough for him to take a few bites to straighten his back. If he cannot do it, then he may fill it with a third of food, a third of drink, and a third of air.[^62] If you follow this rule during Ramadan and throughout the year, you will be healthier, stronger, leaner, and feel better. Another important consideration is that if you drink a lot of caffeinated beverages like tea or coffee, you should try to cut back a month or so before Ramadan. Some newcomers get severe headaches while fasting not because they lack food or drink, but because they lack caffeine! Food, drink, and sexual activity during the daytime will break your fast, so unless you have a valid excuse, you will need to make it up later or pay an amount in charity, depending on your situation. You do not need to make it up or compensate if you unintentionally break your fast due to forgetfulness, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever eats or drinks forgetfully while he is fasting, let him complete his fast, for Allah has fed him and given him drink.”[^63] It is permissible to break your fast due to illness or travel.[^64] While fasting, the Prophet used to kiss his wives without lust, like a peck on the cheek, so that is allowed too.[^65] All of these concessions are based on Allah’s words, “Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship.”[^66] Children may fast as well if they are able, but it is only required for adults.[^67] It is a good idea to have children fast for at least some days, since this will make it easier for them as they grow up. Ramadan is your best opportunity to get a clean record with Allah, as fasting and prayers will make amends for previous sins and shortcomings. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The five prayers, Friday to Friday, and Ramadan to Ramadan will be expiation for the sins between them, so long as major sins are avoided.”[^68] And he said, “Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan due to faith and seeking reward, his previous sins will be forgiven.”[^69] Every day of Ramadan is a chance to achieve salvation, as the Prophet said, “Verily, Allah has people He redeems at the time of breaking fast, and that is during every night.”[^70] At the time of breaking fast, a prayer of yours will surely be answered, as he told us, “Verily, Allah has people He redeems in every day and night of Ramadan. Every servant among them has a supplication that will be answered.”[^71] --- ## Tarāwīḥ prayers The voluntary *Tarāwīḥ* prayers that occur each night during the month of Ramadan are greatly emphasized for their redeeming value, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever stands in prayer during Ramadan due to faith and seeking reward, his previous sins will be forgiven.”[^72] They are customarily performed in congregation in the mosque, but you can also pray them at home. The scholars disagreed over whether it is better to perform *Tarāwīḥ* in the mosque or at home, but perhaps it depends upon an individual’s situation.[^73] It may be better to perform them in the mosque if the support of the congregation makes it easier for you, or it may be better to pray them at home if you feel tempted to “show off” your worship, which can be detrimental to your sincerity, or if you have other obligations that make leaving home difficult. The scholars likewise disagreed over how many units of prayer (*rakaʿāt*, sing. *rakʿa*) the *Tarāwīḥ* consist of, some of them preferring between eleven longer units or up to thirty-six shorter units. However, all of these are valid options according to Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya: > As for night prayer in Ramadan, if it is prayed according to the school of Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad with twenty units, or according to the school of Mālik with thirty-six units, or with thirteen or eleven units, then he has done well as mentioned by Imam Aḥmad for there is no reason against it. So whether to increase or decrease the units depends upon their length.[^74] The reason scholars disagreed was explained by Imam Aḥmad, “It has been reported in various ways, and the Prophet ﷺ did not fix any number for it.”[^75] As a result, it is entirely valid for you to do whatever is customary in the mosque you attend. Like the moon-sighting issue, you might see Muslims argue about how many units they should pray, but again, do not be discouraged. It is not necessary for you to stay for the entire *Tarāwīḥ* if you get tired. It is optional, remember. Even attending them briefly is highly meritorious. But there is an *enormous* reward for completing the prayers with the imam. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, whoever stands for prayer in Ramadan with the imam until he is finished, it will be recorded as if he prayed the entire night.”[^76] Imagine, you can pray for an hour and be rewarded as if you prayed all the way until morning! Practicing Ramadan, in letter and spirit, can put you in the same righteous category as a martyr, someone who gives up their life to serve Allah. A man once came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, “O Messenger of Allah, what do you think if I testify there is no God but Allah and you are the Messenger of Allah, I perform the five prayers, I pay the obligatory alms, and I fast the month of Ramadan and stand for prayer in it. Among whom will I be?” The Prophet said, “Among the truthful and the martyrs.”[^77] On another occasion, the senior Companion Ṭalḥa ibn ʿUbayid Allāh (d. 36/656) (rA) told the story about two brothers who had converted to Islam. One of them was martyred in a battle and the other lived for another year. Ṭalḥah said, “I had a dream of Paradise and I saw the one who lived longer enter Paradise before the martyr. I was amazed by that so when I woke up, I mentioned it to the Prophet.” The Prophet replied, “Did he not fast the month of Ramadan after him? And he performed six thousand or so bowings in prayer throughout the year?”[^78] The second brother had a degree over his martyred brother because he had lived to pray more and fast another Ramadan! Although true martyrdom, not simply wishing death for yourself, is a huge virtue in itself, it is always better for a believer to live longer. The Prophet was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, who are the best people?” The Prophet answered, “One whose life is long and his deeds are good.”[^79] And he said, “Let none of you wish for death, nor call for it before its time comes. When one of you dies, his deeds come to an end. Verily, the life of a believer only increases in good.”[^80] --- ## The month of the Qur’an Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an, since it was this month in which most of it was revealed. The Companion Abū Hurayrah (rA, d. 58/678) reported, “The Prophet ﷺ would review the Qur’an once every year in Ramadan, and he reviewed it twice in the year he passed away.”[^81] For this reason, many Muslims will recite the entire Qur’an from cover-to-cover once, twice, or many times more this month. It is also a typical practice in mosques for the imams to complete the entire Qur’an during the *Tarāwīḥ* prayers. Reciting the Qur’an aloud is part of the ritual prayer, but it is also an essential act of worship outside of the prayer. The scholars have said that reciting the Qur’an is the greatest single deed to remember Allah.[^82] In other words, reciting the Qur’an is the best voluntary act of worship, even more so than remembering Allah with the simple, informal prayers you may have learned. That is because the Qur’an not only contains those prayers, but so much more! The Qur’an is our lifeline to Allah and the primary means of staying in a good relationship with Him. Not only that, devotion to the Qur’an helps the Muslim community stay together and puts our petty differences in perspective. Allah said: > Hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you—when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.[^83] These words are the direct speech of Allah, specifically to you. It is as if Allah is addressing you personally. When you recite the Qur’an, you are communicating with your Lord and Creator like nothing else. The Book of Allah is so tremendous that even the mountains would fall down before it, as He said, “If We had sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and coming apart from fear of Allah. And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought.”[^84] Likewise, our hearts fall down before Allah, in reverence and awe of Him, when we read His words in their original language with all its depth and power. For this reason, sticking to the Book is the characteristic of the best of believers. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.”[^85] And he once said to his companions, “Verily, Allah has His own people among humanity.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, who are they?” The Prophet replied, “They are the people of the Qur’an, the people of Allah and His chosen ones.”[^86] This does not only refer to the professional reciters who teach, but to anyone with the capacity to share the wisdom of Islam. As the Prophet said, “Convey from me, even a single verse.”[^87] One single verse can have an enormous impact on us and those who hear it. Being a new Muslim, it is likely that you will need to learn Arabic from scratch in order to memorize some of the Qur’an for your prayers. There is nothing wrong with reading from a quality translation, as Allah said, “We did not send any messenger but in the language of his people, to clarify for them.”[^88] Learning Arabic can certainly be a challenge, but do not be discouraged. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > The example of one who recites the Qur’an and memorizes it is that of one with the “righteous and noble scribes.”[^89] The example of one who recites the Qur’an and is committed to it, although it is difficult for him, is that of one with a double reward.[^90] If you struggle to learn the Qur’an’s language, rest assured that you are being rewarded *twice*. First, for learning the Book of Allah, an incredible virtue in itself. Second, for putting in the *effort* to learn the Book of Allah. Such people are among the “righteous and noble scribes,” meaning the angels in heaven. Over time, the struggle will become easier until the words pass fluently over your tongue, as Allah said, “We have certainly made the Qur’an easy for remembrance, so is there anyone who will remember?”[^91] Hundreds of thousands of Muslims, even millions, have memorized the entire Qur’an by heart, cover-to-cover, demonstrating yet another miraculous sign in Allah’s words. Surely, you can and will succeed on your memorization journey with His help! To motivate you further, be aware of the many rewards awaiting the sincere reciters, both in this life and in the Hereafter. You will be credited with ten good deeds for every letter you recite, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah, he will receive one good deed as ten good deeds like it. I do not say that *Alif Lām Mīm* is one letter, but rather *Alif* is a letter, *Lām* is a letter, and *Mīm* is a letter.”[^92] You could amass thousands of good deeds by merely committing ten minutes of recitation every day! Moreover, the angels will visit you and pray for you, sending peace and calm upon you. The Messenger of Allah said: > People do not gather in the houses of Allah, reciting the book of Allah and studying it together, but that tranquility will descend upon them, mercy will cover them, angels will surround them, and Allah will mention them to those near Him.[^93] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “You must recite the Qur’an and remember Allah Almighty, for you will be mentioned in heaven and you will have light upon earth.”[^94] Besides being praised in this life by the inhabitants of the heavens, you will level up in Paradise for every verse you commit to memory. The Prophet said, “It will be said to the companion of the Qur’an: Recite and ascend as you recited in the world! Verily, your rank is determined by the last verse you recite.”[^95] This is the reward of the companion of the Qur’an, someone who spent a lot of time with it. There are verses to read in the morning, after prayer, before we go to bed, and at any time. You would, ideally, have the Qur’an with you all throughout the day. --- ## The month of charity Charity and generous giving are also strongly encouraged during Ramadan. The Companion Ibn ʿAbbās (rA, d. 68/687) said: > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most generous of people and he was even more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel would meet him. He would meet him every night of Ramadan to study the Qur’an. Thus, the Prophet would be more generous than a refreshing wind.[^96] Charity does not merely refer to the monetary component. Allah gives us many other blessings like health, time, and energy, which we can “spend” on others for His sake. Every time we spend something we have in the name of Islam, Allah will “spend” upon us with rewards in this life and, more importantly, in the Hereafter. As Allah said, “O you who have faith, spend from that which We have provided for you before there comes a Day in which there is no exchange, no friendship, and no intercession.”[^97] And as the Prophet ﷺ said in the sacred tradition, “Allah said, ‘Spend in charity, O son of Adam, and I will spend on you.’”[^98] As such, it is better to give than to receive, as the Prophet also said, “The upper hand is better than the lower hand. The upper hand is one that gives and the lower hand is one that takes.”[^99] However, you must be moderate in your spending and not let your zealotry drive you into poverty. It is possible to spend too much on charity if it ruins you or your family. Allah said, “They are those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly, but are ever between that.”[^100] And the Messenger of Allah said: > O son of Adam, to offer your surplus in charity is better for you, and to withhold it is evil for you, yet there is no blame to keep what is needed. Begin by giving to your dependents, for the upper hand is better than the lower hand.[^101] So you have something to give, even if you have no money! This is why the Prophet ﷺ said, “Every good deed is charity. Verily, it is a good deed to meet your brother with a cheerful face, and to pour what is left from your bucket into the vessel of your brother.”[^102] Some of the poorer companions came to the Prophet one day and they said, “O Messenger of Allah, the rich have taken all the rewards. They pray as we pray, they fast as we fast, and they give charity from their extra wealth!” The Prophet said: > Has Allah not made ways for you to give charity? In every glorification of Allah is charity, in every declaration of His greatness is charity, in every praise of Him is charity, in every declaration of His Oneness is charity, enjoining good is charity and forbidding evil is charity, and in a man’s intimate relations with his wife is charity. Then, they asked, “O Messenger of Allah, is there a reward for one who satisfies his passions?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “You see that if he were to satisfy his passions with the unlawful, it would be a burden of sin upon him? Likewise, if he were to satisfy himself with the lawful, he will have a reward.”[^103] Every time you mention Allah around other Muslims, you have reminded them of Allah and thus given them charity! For this reason, the Prophet ﷺ asked them, “Shall I not tell you about the best of you?” They said, “Of course!” The Prophet replied, “Those who, if they are seen, they remind you of Allah.”[^104] Even keeping your behavior within the bounds of the lawful, such as staying faithful to your spouse, is an act of charity. Taking care of your family and household, a basic duty, is an act of charity, as the Prophet said, “What you feed yourself is your charity, what you feed your children is your charity, what you feed your wife is your charity, and what you feed your servant is your charity.”[^105] Even taking care of yourself to avoid poverty, disease, and dependence on others is charity, as the Messenger of Allah said: > When a man earns wealth from what is lawful and he feeds himself, or clothes another among the creation of Allah, it will be regarded as charity for him. When a Muslim man is without means to give in charity, he should say, “O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad, Your servant and Messenger, and send blessings upon the believing men and women and the Muslim men and women.” If he says this, it will be regarded as charity for him.[^106] There are many other types of charity that have nothing to do with money. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is pleased for Allah to save him from distress on the Day of Resurrection, let him relieve one in hardship or lift his burden.”[^107] And he said, “Politeness with people is charity.”[^108] The Prophet told us about a man who entered Paradise for a simple act, “I have seen a man enjoying himself in Paradise due to a tree in the road he cut down that used to harm people.”[^109] Even just not doing bad deeds is charity, as he said, “Refrain from harming people, for it is your charity due upon yourself.”[^110] Keep this broader concept of charity in mind as part of the spirit of Ramadan. *Anything* good you do during this month is multiplied in its reward, as Imam al-Nawawī explained: > Our scholars said that being generous and performing favors are highly recommended during Ramadan, specifically during the last ten nights. By doing so, we emulate the example of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as well as our predecessors. This month is honored and good deeds performed in this month are more blessed than they are at any other time.[^111] --- ## Last ten nights and Laylat al-Qadr The last ten days and nights of Ramadan are the most special. The Prophet’s wife, ʿĀisha (rA), reported, “When the last ten days of Ramadan arrived, the Prophet ﷺ would tighten his belt, spend the night in worship, and awaken his family.”[^112] And she said, “The Prophet would exert himself in worship during the last ten nights more than at any other time.”[^113] Essentially, this is the time to sprint to the finish line! The last of these ten nights that is of greatest significance is called *Laylat al-Qadr*, translated as the Night of Decree or the Night of Power. Good deeds in this single night are counted as if they were done for a thousand months! Allah said: > Verily, We sent the Qur’an down during the Night of Decree. What will make you know what the Night of Decree is? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter. Peace is therein until the emergence of dawn.[^114] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > The month of Ramadan has come, a blessed month in which Allah Almighty has obligated you to fast. In it the gates of the heavens are opened, the gates of Hellfire are closed, the devils are chained, and in it is a night that is better than a thousand months. Thus, whoever is deprived of its good is truly deprived.[^115] He ﷺ also said, “Verily, this month has presented itself to you. There is a night within it that is better than a thousand months. Whoever is deprived of it has been deprived of all good. No one is deprived of its good but that he is truly deprived.”[^116] If there is one night to push yourself to the limit, this is it! Yet, the exact calendar date of the Night of Decree is unknown to us. The righteous predecessor Abū Qilāba al-Jarmī (d. 104/723) used to say, “The Night of Decree moves each year during the last ten nights of Ramadan.”[^117] Some scholars believe it is a specific night each month like the 27th, but al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) reports that many great imams like Mālik (d. 179/795), al-Thawrī (d. 161/778), and Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal agreed it changes each year.[^118] The Prophet ﷺ once came out to inform people about the Night of Decree, but two Muslim men were insulting each other. The Prophet declared: > Verily, I had come out to tell you about the Night of Decree, but two men were insulting each other. Thus, its knowledge was taken away and perhaps it is better for you. Look for it during the seventh, ninth, or fifth night of the last ten nights.[^119] Ultimately, we do not know when *Laylat al-Qadr* will occur, except that it is one of the odd-numbered of the last ten nights. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Search for the Night of Decree in the odd nights among the last ten nights of Ramadan.”[^120] Take note that the Islamic lunar calendar turns over at sunset, so an even-numbered day will be followed by an odd-numbered night the same evening. The wisdom behind this knowledge being hidden from us, and Allah knows best, is that we must strive in all of the last odd-numbered nights of Ramadan if we want to benefit from the Night of Decree. If we had already known it beforehand, we might slack off the rest of the month! As the month draws to an end, you might understandably feel exhausted and overwhelmed during the last ten nights. In that case, try to single out the last seven odd-numbered nights, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Look for the Night of Decree in the last ten nights, but if one of you is weak or frustrated, then do not be overcome during the remaining seven nights.”[^121] The best thing to do is to perform the *Tarāwīḥ* prayers in the mosque or at home, as he said, “Whoever stands in prayer during the Night of Decree due to faith and seeking reward, his previous sins will be forgiven.”[^122] If you are fortunate enough to engage in worship on the Night of Decree, you will experience an atypical sense of tranquility and peace after worshiping through the night. The Prophet said, “It is a calm night, neither hot nor cold, and the sun rises upon its day red and faint.”[^123] During the last ten nights, if you feel you have the energy to do more and your personal circumstances permit, you can perform a spiritual retreat in the mosque called *iʿtikāf*. This involves staying in the mosque for worship and not leaving except for unavoidable tasks. ‘Aisha (rA) told us, “The Prophet ﷺ would seek a retreat in the mosque during the last ten nights of Ramadan, until Allah Almighty caused him to pass away. His wives continued to perform the retreat after him.”[^124] Imam al-Shāfiʿī explained how to start it: > Whoever desires to follow the example of the Prophet ﷺ in practicing spiritual retreat in the mosque during the last ten nights of Ramadan, he should enter the mosque before the setting of the sun on the twenty-first night.[^125] The purpose of everything we do in Ramadan is to earn Allah’s forgiveness and build up our record of good deeds. Hence, we should be asking Allah for forgiveness throughout the month and especially while seeking the Night of Decree. ‘Aisha (rA) once asked, “O Messenger of Allah, if I know which night is the Night of Decree, what should I say during it?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Say, ‘O Allah, You are pardoning. You love to forgive, so forgive me!’”[^126] In Arabic, this prayer is *Allāhumma innaka ʿufuwun tuḥibb al-ʿafw  fa-a’fu ʿannī*. For more details on the virtues and scholarly discussions around the Night of Decree, see the articles *[Why Laylatul Qadr? The Significance & Virtues of the Most Important Night of the Year](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year)*,[^127] and *[On The Timing and Virtues of the Night of Power: The Heart’s Joy in Remembering Laylat al-Qadr by Ibn al-ʿIrāqī](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/on-the-timing-and-virtues-of-the-night-of-power-the-hearts-joy-in-remembering-laylat-al-qadr-by-ibn-al-iraqi)*.[^128] --- ## Zakāt al-Fiṭr One of the final acts of Ramadan is to donate a special charity called *Zakāt al-Fiṭr*. This deed is related to the third pillar of Islam, *Zakāt*, which comes from the root meaning “to grow” or “to purify.” Helping the poor causes us to grow in faith just as it causes the Muslim society to grow stronger. Likewise, it purifies our hearts and rids us of the spiritual disease of greed. As Allah said, “Take charity from their wealth by which you purify them and cause them to increase.”[^129] And Allah said, “But the righteous will avoid Hellfire, who gives from his wealth to purify himself.”[^130] The Prophet ﷺ said, “Charity extinguishes sins as water extinguishes fire.”[^131] And the Prophet said, “Whoever pays *Zakāt* on his wealth, his evil will depart from him.”[^132] In fact, it is one of the delights of faith to derive pleasure from giving charity, as the Prophet said, “Whoever does three deeds will taste the sweetness of faith: one who worships Allah alone, who declares there is no God but Allah, and who gives *Zakāt* from his wealth each year with a cheerful and earnest soul.”[^133] *Zakāt al-Fiṭr* is given directly to the needy as a *ṣā’*, which is about three kilograms, of staple foodstuffs. The Companion ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿUmar (rA, d. 73/693) reported: > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ obligated payment of charity at the end of Ramadan, a portion of dates or barley, upon slave and freeman, male and female, young and old among the Muslims. The Prophet ordered it to be given before people go out for *ʿĪd* prayer.[^134] The Companion Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (rA, d. 73/693) added, “We would bring for *Zakāt al-Fiṭr* a portion of food, or a portion of barley, or a portion of dates, or a portion of cheese, or a portion of raisins.”[^135] Since the word *Zakāt* implies purification, this particular charity is an expiation for our slip-ups during this month, as the Companion Ibn ‘Abbās said: > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ obligated *Zakāt al-Fiṭr* as purification of the fasting person from vain talk and misbehavior, as food for the poor. Whoever pays it before the *ʿĪd* prayer, it is accepted as zakat. Whoever pays it after the *ʿĪd* prayer, it is part of voluntary charity.[^136] Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ (d. 197/812), the teacher of the great Imam Aḥmad, offered this comparison, “*Zakāt al-Fiṭr* is to the month of Ramadan like the prostration of forgetfulness is to prayer. It makes up for deficiencies in fasting just as the prostration makes up for deficiencies in prayer.”[^137] If we make a minor mistake in prayer, as we all do, we can compensate by offering the prostration of forgetfulness. Similarly, we can atone for some of our misdeeds during Ramadan by offering *Zakāt al-Fiṭr*. You should try to offer *Zakāt al-Fiṭr* to the needy as directly as possible, even by hand at your mosque. However, according to Imam al-Nawawī, it is permissible to donate to Muslim authorities (if you are living in a Muslim country) or to credible Muslim charities who will distribute it properly, but “giving it out himself is better than all of that.”[^138] Imam Ibn Qudāmah clarifies that it is recommended “to give it out in the country in which it became obligatory;”[^139] in other words, wherever you happen to be at the end of Ramadan. Muslims should be supportive of their local communities, so prepare ahead to pay your *Zakāt al-Fiṭr* one or two days before the *ʿĪd* prayer. --- ## ʿĪd al-Fiṭr You have just finished fasting the month of Ramadan, so now it is time to party! In a halal way, of course. The celebration at the end of Ramadan is called *ʿĪd al-Fiṭr*. The word *fiṭr* means breaking your fast, just like the word *ifṭār*. The celebration at the end of Hajj is called *ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā*, the word *aḍḥā* meaning ‘sacrifice’ because animals are humanely slaughtered and their meat is distributed to the poor, who often cannot afford the luxury of eating meat.[^140] You are actually forbidden from fasting on these days because it is time to rest and relax! The Prophet ﷺ described these days as “celebrations for the people of Islam, so they are days of eating and drinking.”[^141] The only religious holidays that the Prophet ﷺ acknowledged are *ʿĪd al-Fiṭr* and *ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā*. When the Prophet arrived in Medina, he found the people celebrating two days, so he asked, “What are these two days?” They said, “We would celebrate these two days in the time of ignorance.” The Prophet said, “Verily, Allah has replaced these two days with two better days: the day of *al-Aḍḥā* and the day of *al-Fiṭr*.”[^142] Cultural or non-religious holidays can be a gray area, and Muslims will often disagree on whether to participate or not. However, it is certain that there are no other holidays except the two feasts that have been legitimately recognized in the Prophet’s Sunnah. The morning of *ʿĪd* begins with a special prayer in the mosque, shortly after the dawn prayer, followed by a brief but optional sermon. On the day after Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ would not go to the mosque for this prayer until he had eaten something, usually dates.[^143] It is recommended to wear your best clothes to the mosque and other *ʿĪd* gatherings.[^144] For instance, the Prophet used to wear a red-striped cloak on the day of *ʿĪd*.[^145] The Companion Ibn ʿUmar would likewise wear his best clothes on the two *ʿĪd*s.[^146] You should also be clean and well-presented, as these are not just ordinary days. Ibn ʿUmar would perform a ritual bath, or *ghusl*, on ʿĪd before he left to pray in the mosque.[^147] The scholars still recommend that you take a bath even if you cannot attend the *ʿĪd* prayer.[^148] When walking to the mosque and while inside it, the congregation is encouraged to repeat the exaltation of Allah, or *takbīr* (i.e., saying *Allāh Akbar*), as Allah said, “that you exalt Allah for that to which He has guided you, for perhaps you will be grateful.”[^149] Ibn ʿUmar raised his voice in these prayers of remembrance on his way to the prayer and until the imam arrived.[^150] He was known to be especially strict with regard to the Sunnah, so his actions of this nature are often considered to be directly based on prophetic teachings. The traditional formula by which Allah is exalted is the following: *Allāh Akbar, Allāh Akbar, Allāh Akbar, lā ilāha illā Allāh, Allāh Akbar, Allāh Akbar, wa li-Allāhi al-ḥamd*, which means, “Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, there is no God but Allah, Allah is the greatest, and for Allah is all praise.” It is recommended for men, women, and children to attend the *ʿĪd* prayer, even if women are menstruating. The female Companion, Umm ‘Aṭīyya, reported: > We were ordered to come out on the day of Eid, even the young girls and menstruating women from their houses. We would stand behind the men and declare the greatness of Allah along with them, and supplicate to Allah along with them, hoping for the blessings of that day and its purification from sin.[^151] Scholars disagree over whether the *ʿĪd* prayer is a firm individual obligation, a collective obligation, or an emphasized but voluntary recommendation. Nevertheless, it is part of the Sunnah, so you should attend unless you have a good reason not to. It is, after all, a day of blessings and hope, so do not miss out! After the sermon, Muslims will congratulate one another and ask Allah to accept the good deeds everyone did throughout Ramadan. The Companion Abū Umāma (rA, d. 81/700) and others used to say to each other, “May Allah accept good deeds from us and from you.”[^152] Although the Prophet ﷺ himself is not reported to have said this or prescribed it, it was practiced by the Companions and accepted by prominent scholars such as Imam Aḥmad.[^153] Lastly, the Prophet ﷺ would use different routes to go to the mosque for *ʿĪd* prayer and come back to his home.[^154] It is not stated clearly by any of the Companions exactly why he would do this, although it is certain to contain many points of wisdom. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) surveys all the scholarly opinions about this practice: > It is said that the reason he did this was to greet the people with peace who lived on both fairways, or so that the blessings of his passing would reach both areas, or to fulfill the needs of those among them. It is said that he did so to establish the symbols of Islam in the various roads and paths. Another reason given is that he did so to frustrate the hypocrites when they witnessed the might of Islam and its people. It is said that he did so in order for the various areas to testify to his obedience to Allah. Surely, whoever walks to the mosque and the place of prayer will earn this virtue: one step raises him a degree, and another erases a sin until he returns home. It is also said, and this is the correct opinion, that all the reasons mentioned here are possible, as well as other unknown wisdom that always accompanied his actions.[^155] We can infer from the Prophet’s action that he wanted to greet or visit more people on *ʿĪd*, so it is advisable that you also attend the different gatherings of your brothers and sisters in Islam. Indeed, more people will pray for you, and you will pray for more people, so get out there and have some halal fun while you are at it! --- ## Post-Ramadan improvements When Ramadan is over, pay attention to how your habits fare in the following months. The idea is that Ramadan should be transformative; we should come out as better Muslims than we were at the beginning. To keep up the good habits, it is recommended to fast some days during the following month of Shawwal. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan and then follows it with six days of fasting in the month of Shawwal, it will be as if he fasted for the entire year.”[^156] The reason fasting six days of Shawwal after Ramadan is like fasting for a year is because Allah multiplies good deeds by ten. The Prophet clarified in another narration, “Fasting the month of Ramadan is like ten months of fasting and fasting six days of Shawwal is like two months of fasting. Thus, they are like fasting for a year.”[^157] Now that you have acclimated yourself to the habit of fasting, take advantage of fasting in Shawwal to establish a sustainable habit. Recall that the Sunnah is to fast three days a month, or every Monday and Thursday, or every other day at most. Although you may not be able to make all six days of Shawwal in a row or at intervals, any voluntary fasting you can do is excellent. If you fast only three days each month as a new post-Ramadan routine, it is rewarded as if you fasted every day you were alive! The Prophet ﷺ said, “Fasting three days of every month, and Ramadan after Ramadan, is like fasting for a lifetime.”[^158] Whatever you decide to do, consistency is more important than quantity, as the Prophet said, “Know that the most beloved deed to Allah is that which is done regularly, even if it is small.”[^159] Move at your own pace, slow and steady, onward and upward! The cumulative practices of Ramadan should instill within us devotion to Allah, humility, generosity, and compassion for the poor. It is a time to exert our utmost, seeking the pleasure of Allah and His ultimate reward, and a time to renew our faith through good deeds. While there are a whole host of practices that we are encouraged to do during this month, remember that every individual is different and Allah has blessed us all with various strengths. It might be easier for someone to pray at night, while others find it easier to recite the Qur’an or to generously donate their time, money, and effort in service of others. As long as you fulfill the basic obligations of Ramadan, you are free to focus on those recommended deeds that Allah has made personally easy for you, but still try to do a little bit of everything. There is only one Straight Path to Allah by worshiping Him alone, but many gates to enter Paradise. With so many opportunities to acquire treasures in Heaven this month, the Prophet ﷺ exclaimed in exasperation, “May he be humbled, who enters the month of Ramadan and it passes before he is forgiven!”[^160] We ask Allah to bless you and your family this Ramadan, in this life, and in the Hereafter! *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 10:5, trans. Dr. Mustafa Khattab. [^2]: Qur’an 51:55, trans. Sahih International. [^3]: Qur’an 2:183, author’s translation. [^4]: Qur’an 79:40–41, author’s translation. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1904; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1151. [^6]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2223; deemed authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-targhīb wa al-tarhīb*, 3 vol. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 2000), no. 986. [^7]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 1639; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Shaykh al-Albānī in his edition of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Suyūṭī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr wa ziyādātih*, 2 vols., ed. Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī (Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), no. 3879. [^8]: Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-awṣaṭ*, ed. Ṭāriq ibn ʿAwaḍ Allāh ibn Muḥammad (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1995), no. 4536; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Imam Muḥammad Jār Allāh al-Ṣaʿdī in *al-Nawāfiḥ al-ʿaṭira fī al-aḥādīth al-mushtahira*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā (Beirut: Muʼassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfīyya, 1992), 184. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 3479; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ*, no. 5376. [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1151. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah*, no. 1994; deemed fair (*ḥasan*) by Shaykh al-Albānī in his edition of ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Mundhirī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-targhīb wa al-tarhīb*, ed. Muḥmmad Nāṣir al-Albānī and Mashhūr al-Salmān (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1421/2000) no. 1082. [^12]: ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Abī Shaybah, *al-Muṣannaf*, ed. Saʿad ibn ʿAbd Allāh Āl Humayyid, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Luḥīdān, and Ḥamad ibn ʿAbd Allāh Jumʿah (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2004), no. 8882. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1903. [^14]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 1690; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ*, no. 3488. [^15]: *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*, no. 8888. [^16]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Faḍāʾil al-awqāt*, ed. ʿAdnān ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Majīd al-Qaysī (Mecca: Maktabat al-Manāra, 1990), no. 65. [^17]: Hannād ibn al-Sarī, *Kitāb al-zuhd*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Firīwānī (Kuwait: Dār al-Khulafā’ li-l-Kitāb al-Islāmī, 1985), 2:572. [^18]: *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*, no. 8880. [^19]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Laṭāʾif al-maʿārif* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm li-l-Ṭibā’a wal-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ, 2004), 168. [^20]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Tabṣira*, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1986), 2:74. [^21]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 761; deemed *ḥasan* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^22]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2385; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 2608. [^23]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 747; deemed *ḥasan* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^24]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 745; deemed *ḥasan* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1163. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2004; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1130. [^27]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1126. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1902; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1132. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1162. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3420; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1159. [^31]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1980), 1:234. [^32]: Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad al-Thaʿlabī, *al-Kashf wa al-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qurʼān*, ed. Abū Muḥammad Ibn ʿĀshūr, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2002), 1:144. [^33]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-īmān*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Ḥāmid and Mukhtār Aḥmad Nadawī, 13 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2003), 5:249, no. 3380; the narrators are reliable (*thiqāt*, sing. *thiqa*) according to the editors. [^34]: Qur’an 2:185, author’s translation. [^35]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 16984; deemed fair by Shaykh al-Albānī in his *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, 7 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1996), 4:104, no. 1575. [^36]: This is a metaphor for backbiting, or speaking badly about people in their absence, which shows how ugly this deed can be. Allah said, “Do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it!” Qur’an 49:12. [^37]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Tabṣira*, 1:74. [^38]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2408; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ*, no. 3718. [^39]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʿ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ*, 10 vols. (Cairo: Maṭba’at al-Saʿāda, 1974), 2:371. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1904; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1151. [^41]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3451; deemed *ḥasan* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^42]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1087. [^43]: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf, 6 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1998), 2:71, no. 693. [^44]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2431; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ*, no. 4628 [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1950; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1146. [^46]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 5665; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* due to external corroborative evidence (*ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrih*) by Shaykh Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ in al-Amīr ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Fārisī, *al-Iḥsān fī taqrīb Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ, 16 vols. (Beirut: Muʼassasat al-Risāla, 1988), 12:481, no. 5665. [^47]: Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, *Aḥkām al-Qurʼān*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qadir ʿAtā, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmmiyya, 2003), 3:459, verse 26:89. [^48]: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad Ibn Qāsim and Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad Ibn Qāsim, 35 vols. (Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 23:132. [^49]: Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, *al-Umm li-l-Shāfiʿī*, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1990), 1:264. [^50]: Yaḥya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-Muhadhab*, 9 vols. (Cairo: Maṭabʿat al-Taḍāmun al-Akhawī, 1929), 4:56. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1718. [^52]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 29:16–17. [^53]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 682; deemed *ḥasan* by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 759. [^54]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-sharḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī and Muḥibb al-Dīn Khaṭīb, 13 vols. (Egypt: al-Maktabat al-Salafīyya, 1970), 4:114. [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* no. 1923; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1095. [^56]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2344; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmi’*, no. 7043. [^57]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 11086; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Shaykh al-Arnāʾūṭ in *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ and ʿĀdil Murshid, 45 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 2001), 17:150, no. 11086. [^58]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2350; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, no. 607. [^59]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1921; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1097. [^60]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 2:78, no. 704. [^61]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 21312; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, no. 7284. [^62]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2380; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^63]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1933; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1155. [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1845; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1118. [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1826; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1106. [^66]: Qur’an 2:185, trans. Sahih International. [^67]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1859; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1136. [^68]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 233. [^69]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 760. [^70]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1643; deemed *ḥasan* by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 2170. [^71]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 7450; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Arnāʾūṭ in *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 12:420, no. 7450. [^72]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2009; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 759. [^73]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmū’*, 4:31. [^74]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Fatāwā al-kubrā*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAṭā and Muṣṭafā ʿAṭā, 6 vols. (N.p.: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1987), 5:343. [^75]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 2:158, no. 806. [^76]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 806; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^77]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 3438; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Arnāʿūṭ in *Al-Iḥsān fī Taqrīb Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, 8:224, no. 3438. [^78]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 8399; deemed fair by Shaykh al-Arnāʾūṭ in *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 14:127, no. 8399. [^79]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2330; deemed authentic by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^80]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2682. [^81]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4998. [^82]: Yaḥya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān fī ādāb ḥamalat al-Qurʼān*, ed. Muḥammad Ḥajjār (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1994), 24. [^83]: Qur’an 3:103. [^84]: Qur’an 59:21. [^85]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5027. [^86]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 215; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 2165. [^87]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no 3461. [^88]: Qur’an 14:4. [^89]: Qur’an 80:15. [^90]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4937; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 798. [^91]: Qur’an 54:17. [^92]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2910; deemed authentic by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^93]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2699. [^94]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-īmān li-l-Bayhaqī*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Ḥāmid and Mukhtar Aḥmad Nadawī (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2003), no. 4592; deemed authentic due to external evidence by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb*, no. 2868. [^95]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2914; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^96]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1902; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2308. [^97]: Qur’an 2:254. [^98]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5352; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 993. [^99]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1429; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1033. [^100]: Qur’an 25:67. [^101]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1036. [^102]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1970; deemed authentic by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^103]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1006. [^104]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad li-l-Bukhārī*, ed. Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī and Samīr ibn Amīn Zahīrī (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif l-il-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ, 1998), no. 323; deemed *ḥasan* by Shaykh al-Albānī in his comments. [^105]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, no. 82; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Shaykh al-Albānī in his comments. [^106]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-īmān*, no. 1176; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Imam al-Suyūṭī as mentioned in *al-Tanwīr sharḥ al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr*, ed. Muḥammad Isḥāq Muḥammad Ibrāhīm (Riyadh: Muḥammad Isḥāq Muḥammad Ibrāhīm, 2011), no. 2935, 4:426. [^107]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1563. [^108]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 471; deemed fair by Imam Ibn Mufliḥ in *al-Ādāb al-sharʻīyya wa minaḥ al-marʿīyya* (Riyadh: Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, n.d), 3:469. [^109]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1914. [^110]: Ibn Abī Dunyā, *al-Ṣamt wa ādāb al-lisān*, ed. Abū Isḥāq al-Huwaynī Atharī (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī, 1990), no. 68; deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 4490. [^111]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 6:377. [^112]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2024; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1174. [^113]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1175. [^114]: Qur’an 97:1–5, trans. Sahih International. [^115]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 7148; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Arnāʾūṭ in *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 12:59, no. 7148. [^116]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1644; deemed fair by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 2247. [^117]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 2:150, no. 792. [^118]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʾAẓīm*, ed. Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shams al-Dīn, 9 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1998), 8:432. [^119]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 49. [^120]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2017; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1169. [^121]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1165. [^122]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1901. [^123]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah*, no. 2192; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 5475. [^124]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2026; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1172. [^125]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 6:475. [^126]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3513; deemed authentic by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^127]: Nazir Khan, Ibrahim Hindy, and Omar Suleiman, “Why Laylatul Qadr? The Significance and Virtues of the Most Important Night of the Year,” *Yaqeen*, June 4, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709861718725582&usg=AOvVaw30bibsx9hRp9AFH-h3Vx_I). [^128]: Yousef Wahb, “On The Timing and Virtues of the Night of Power: The Heart’s Joy in Remembering Laylat al-Qadr by Ibn al-ʿIrāqī,” *Yaqeen*, April 12, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709861718725582&usg=AOvVaw30bibsx9hRp9AFH-h3Vx_I). [^129]: Qur’an 9:103. [^130]: Qur’an 92:18. [^131]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2616. [^132]: *Al-Muʿjam al-Awṣaṭ*, no. 1579. [^133]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1582. [^134]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1503; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 986. [^135]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1435; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 985. [^136]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1609; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 3570. [^137]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 6:140. [^138]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 6:139. [^139]: ʿAbd Allāḥ ibn Aḥmad Ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī li-Ibn Qudāmah*, ed. Ṭāhā Muḥammad Zaynī, 10 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qāhira, 1968), 2:502. [^140]: For more details about the Hajj, see: [yaqeeninstitute.org/what-islam-says-about/hajj-and-umrah](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://yaqeeninstitute.org/what-islam-says-about/hajj-and-umrah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709861718726725&usg=AOvVaw0r7D3cDCxy1fXSoEtb3tef). [^141]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 773; deemed authentic by Imam al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^142]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1134; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, no. 2021. [^143]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 953. [^144]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 5:8. [^145]: *Al-Muʿjam al-Awṣaṭ li-l-Ṭabarānī*, no. 7609; deemed very good (*jayyid*) by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah*, no. 1279. [^146]: *Al-Sunan al-kubraā li-l-Bayhaqī*, no. 6143; deemed authentic by Imam Ibn Ḥajar in *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 2:439. [^147]: Mālik ibn Anas, *Muwaṭṭa’ al-Imām Mālik*, Riwāyat al-Shaybānī, p. 48, no. 70; deemed authentic by Imam al-Nawawī in *al-Majmūʿ*, 5:6. [^148]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 5:7. [^149]: Qur’an 2:185, author’s translation. [^150]: *Al-Sunan al-kubraā li-l-Bayhaqī*, no. 6129; deemed authentic by Imam Bayhaqī in his comments. [^151]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 971; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 890. [^152]: Ibn Qudāmah, *al-Mughnī*, 2:296; deemed very good (*jayyid*) by Imam Aḥmad in his comments. [^153]: Ibn Qudāmah, *al-Mughnī*, 2:295. [^154]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 986. [^155]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyya, *Zād al-ma’ād fī hady khayr al-ʿibād*, ed. Muḥammad Adīb Jādir, 5 vol. (Beirut: Muʼassasat al-Risāla, 1994), 1:432–33. [^156]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1164. [^157]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzayma*, no. 2115; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 3851. [^158]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1162. [^159]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2818. [^160]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3545; deemed authentic by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, no. 3510. ## Summary Fasting the month of Ramadan may appear daunting to the one embracing Islam anew or returning to its practice, yet it is a communal act of worship in which the believers support one another, and it grows easier as the body adjusts and the soul harvests its fruits: nearness to Allah, love for the community, and genuine self-betterment. Ramadan is a lunar month, and because the lunar year is shorter than the solar, it shifts throughout the seasons; the Islamic day itself begins at sunset rather than midnight. All the great occasions of Islam, including the Hajj, follow this lunar reckoning, for the heavenly bodies are among the signs of Allah's power and purpose. As He said, "He is the One who made the sun a radiant source and the moon a reflected light, with precisely ordained phases, so that you may know the number of years and calculation of time." The onset of Ramadan is thus determined by the sighting of the new moon as announced by local Muslim authorities, and though this poses difficulty for those in lands where Ramadan is not recognized, Allah asks only that one strive as best one can in the place He has placed him. The essence of fasting (ṣiyām) lies in restraining the desires that, unchecked by faith and reason, become the self's own enemy. In the Islamic sense it is to abstain from food, drink, and marital relations from the dawn (Fajr) prayer until sunset (Maghrib), while guarding scrupulously against every sin, great or small. Allah revealed its purpose: "O you who have faith, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may become righteous." The aim, therefore, is taqwā — a reverential fear that shields one from disobedience, balanced always by hope, as in His words, "As for one who feared to stand before their Lord and restrained themselves from their whims, Paradise is their refuge." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ conveyed its unique standing in the sacred narration: "Every deed of the son of Adam is for him, except for fasting. It is for Me and I will reward it. Fasting is a shield... the breath coming from the mouth of a fasting person is more pleasant to Allah than the scent of musk." Because none can truly know whether another is fasting, it demands rare sincerity, and when a Companion sought a single deed, the Prophet ﷺ answered, "You must fast, for there is nothing equal to it." The tongue must fast alongside the stomach. The Prophet ﷺ warned that fasting is a shield "as long as you do not damage it," and when asked how, he replied, "By dishonesty or backbiting." He taught, "Truly, fasting is not only from eating and drinking. Rather, fasting is from vanity and obscenity," and, "Whoever does not leave evil words and deeds while fasting, Allah does not need him to leave food and drink." He cautioned that one "might fast but he gets nothing from his fast except hunger." The Caliph ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) affirmed that fasting "is from lies, falsehood, vain talk, and swearing," while Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī related that "the righteous predecessors used to say that dishonesty will break the fast" — not in the outward sense, but in spoiling its spirit. Mujāhid (d. 104/722) said that whoever is safe from backbiting and falsehood will secure his fasting, and Imam al-Bayhaqī (d. 458/1066) added that one must guard himself in Ramadan to obey Allah as much as possible. Abū al-ʿĀliya (d. 93/711) noted that the faster remains in worship even while sleeping, so long as he does not backbite, and Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him) counseled, "Do not make days you do not fast and days you fast as if they were the same." Fasting also teaches the affluent the pangs of the poor. The predecessors, when asked why fasting was legislated, answered, "So that the rich will taste hunger and thus will not forget the hungry," and the Caliph al-Maʾmūn gave a like reply, that the rich might taste hunger's flavor and not forget the destitute. Thus fasting should breed compassion and generosity. Beyond Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ observed voluntary fasts and urged, according to capacity, three days each month — the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth — saying these "will rid the heart of impurities." He fasted Mondays and Thursdays, for "deeds are presented on Monday and Thursday." He praised the fast of Muharram, especially ʿĀshūrā', the day Allah saved Moses, noting it "will expiate the sins of the past year," while ʿArafa "will expiate the sins of the previous and upcoming years" — and this concerns minor sins only, not major ones. Moderation, however, is essential: the utmost is the fast of Dāwūd (peace be upon him), fasting every other day, for excessive worship that harms one's health or duties is discouraged. Imam al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) described three degrees of fasting: that of the common people, restraining the stomach; that of the elite, restraining the limbs from sin; and that of the elite of the elite, restraining the heart from all besides Allah. Yet none should despair at the loftiest rank, for Maymūn ibn Mahrān (d. 117/735) said, "The easiest part of fasting is leaving food and drink." One begins with the basics. Ramadan itself is the month in which the Qur'an was revealed, as Allah declared, and the Prophet ﷺ related that the scriptures of Ibrāhīm, the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an were all revealed within it. Ibn al-Jawzī summarized its etiquette as guarding the outward limbs and inward thoughts, entering it with sincere repentance and nightly intention. The Prophet ﷺ named it "the month of patience," and Mālik ibn Dīnār (d. 130/748) reminded that patience breaks through to rest. Since Ramadan follows the moon, its beginning and end differ by region, and Imam al-Tirmidhī noted the scholars' agreement that "the people of every land have their own moon-sighting," as occurred between Syria and Medina among the Companions. The Prophet ﷺ favored fasting in Shaʿbān, in which the Companions made up missed fasts, and he urged the removal of malice, saying Allah forgives all on its middle night "except for an idolater or one filled with malice." Ibn ʿArabī (d. 543/1148) stressed that the heart cannot be pure while holding malice, envy, or pride. Some predecessors singled out the fifteenth night for worship, and al-Shāfiʿī recommended supplication then, yet al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) branded invented congregational rituals "reprehensible innovations," for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever performs a deed that is not in accordance with our matter, it will be rejected." When Ramadan begins, the Prophet ﷺ announced that the devils are chained, the gates of Hell closed, and the gates of Paradise opened. The pre-dawn meal (Suḥūr) carries blessing, and the Prophet ﷺ urged it even if only a sip of water, permitting eating until the second call to prayer, roughly the span of reciting fifty verses. Breaking the fast (Ifṭār) should be hastened, and moderation is best, filling a third with food, a third with drink, and leaving a third empty. Forgetful eating does not break the fast, and the ill or traveling may break it, for "Allah intends for you ease." Fasting and prayer expiate sins between the two Ramadans "so long as major sins are avoided," and every night has those whom Allah redeems. The Tarāwīḥ prayers are highly recommended, whether in mosque or home; the scholars differed on their number, but Ibn Taymiyya held all reported numbers valid, since the Prophet ﷺ fixed no count. Even brief attendance is meritorious, though standing with the imam until he finishes is recorded as a full night's prayer. Ramadan is the month of the Qur'an, which the Prophet ﷺ reviewed yearly with Jibrīl, twice in his final year. Its recitation is the greatest act of remembrance; the Prophet ﷺ said, "The best of you are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it," and, "Whoever recites a letter... will receive ten good deeds like it." The struggling learner earns a double reward, being with "the righteous and noble scribes," and Allah has made the Qur'an easy for remembrance. It is likewise the month of charity, for the Prophet ﷺ was "more generous than a refreshing wind" in it. Charity encompasses far more than money — a cheerful face, glorifying Allah, marital relations, providing for one's family, removing harm from the road — yet must remain balanced, "not excessively or sparingly." The last ten nights are the most exalted, when the Prophet ﷺ would tighten his belt and rouse his family, seeking Laylat al-Qadr, "better than a thousand months." Its precise night is hidden, though it lies among the odd nights; its knowledge was lifted when two men quarreled, and Ibn Kathīr reported that Mālik, al-Thawrī, and Aḥmad held that it shifts yearly. One may perform iʿtikāf, as the Prophet ﷺ and his wives did, and should implore, "O Allah, You are pardoning. You love to forgive, so forgive me." Zakāt al-Fiṭr, a ṣāʿ of staple food, purifies the fasting person and feeds the poor, given before the ʿĪd prayer. The celebration of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr — one of only two feasts the Prophet ﷺ recognized, replacing the days of ignorance — brings the special prayer, one's finest garments, the takbīr, and mutual well-wishing, "May Allah accept from us and you." Thereafter, one is encouraged to fast six days of Shawwāl, "as if he fasted the entire year," and to maintain consistent worship, for "the most beloved deed to Allah is that which is done regularly, even if it is small." Ramadan should leave the believer devoted, humble, and compassionate, and the Prophet ﷺ warned, "May he be humbled, who enters the month of Ramadan and it passes before he is forgiven." Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. ## Key Takeaways 1. Fasting in Islam means abstaining from food, drink, and marital intimacy from dawn to sunset, but its true aim is inward. The purpose is to cultivate taqwā, a protective God-consciousness that trains a person to master the most basic urges and so resist sin more broadly. This is why the practice is spoiled by lies, backbiting, or foolish behavior, and why scholars like al-Ghazālī described degrees of fasting rising from the stomach to the limbs to the heart itself. 2. Ramadan concentrates this discipline into a single month whose observance is made easier because the whole community fasts together, sharing the predawn meal, breaking the fast in gatherings, and praying through the nights side by side. It is the month in which the Qur’an was revealed, so Muslims deepen their recitation, gather for the voluntary *tarāwīḥ* prayers at night, and give generously in charity. The daily rhythm has its own etiquette, from the predawn meal to hastening the sunset breaking of the fast, all governed by Allah’s intention of ease rather than hardship. 3. The month builds toward its final ten nights, which contain Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Decree, worth more than a thousand months. Its exact date is deliberately hidden somewhere within these last ten nights, so that the believer strives across all of them rather than slackening. The season closes with Zakat al-Fitr, a charity of staple food that atones for lapses in the fast, and with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, after which good habits like the six fasts of Shawwāl are meant to carry forward. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why do Muslims fast during Ramadan? Muslims fast in Ramadan because Allah commanded it, and the Qur’an explains the purpose plainly, that fasting is prescribed so that we may become righteous. The goal is to build *taqwā*, a God-conscious awareness that makes a person careful not to disobey Allah. Going without food and drink from dawn to sunset trains us to control our most basic urges, which makes it easier to resist other temptations and sins. Fasting also carries immense reward. In a sacred narration, Allah says that every deed belongs to the person who does it, except fasting, which is for Him and which He rewards directly, since no one but Allah truly knows whether a person is fasting. Beyond the reward, fasting shapes character. It teaches patience and self-control, and it reminds those who have enough what hunger feels like, so they remember and give to the poor. Fasting is not meant to be mere hunger and thirst but a way to grow closer to Allah and become a better person. ### Is fasting in Ramadan just about not eating and drinking? No. Giving up food, drink, and marital intimacy is only the outward part of fasting. The Prophet ﷺ taught that fasting is a shield, and that it can be damaged by dishonesty and backbiting. He said that if someone abuses or provokes a fasting person, they should simply respond, “Indeed, I am fasting.” He also warned that whoever does not give up false speech and bad behavior, Allah has no need for them to give up their food and drink. Scholars described levels of fasting. The most basic is holding back the stomach; a higher level is keeping the eyes, ears, tongue, and limbs away from sin; and the highest is keeping the heart focused on Allah alone. This means a fasting day should not feel like an ordinary day. It is a time to be extra careful about speech and conduct, guarding against lying, gossip, and anger. Someone who abstains from food but not from sin has kept the form of fasting while losing much of its spirit. Food and drink is only where fasting begins. ### What are the best acts of worship to do during Ramadan? Ramadan is a month for increasing every kind of good, and a few acts stand out. Reciting the Qur’an is especially emphasized because the Qur’an describes Ramadan as the month in which it was revealed, and the Prophet ﷺ would review the whole Qur’an with the angel Jibrīl each Ramadan. Many Muslims aim to read the entire Qur’an during the month, and every letter recited carries multiplied reward. The aim is not simply to rush through it. Reciting is a way of communicating directly with Allah, and even a single verse can leave a deep impact, so it is worth reciting attentively and pausing over the words rather than racing to finish. Charity is also strongly encouraged. The Prophet ﷺ was the most generous of people, and even more so in Ramadan. Giving is not limited to money, since a kind word, a cheerful face, and helping others all count as charity. There are also the voluntary night prayers called *tarāwīh*, prayed in the mosque or at home, which carry great reward, especially when prayed with the imam until he finishes. Alongside these, the month is a time to seek Allah’s forgiveness and avoid sin. A new Muslim does not need to do everything at once. It is better to do a little of each consistently and focus on what Allah has made easy for you. ### What is Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree) and when is it? Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Decree or Night of Power, is the most important night of the year. The Qur’an says it is better than a thousand months, meaning that worship on this single night is rewarded as if it were done for over eighty years. It was the night the Qur’an began to be revealed, and the angels descended in great numbers until dawn. Its exact date is not known. The Prophet ﷺ told us to look for it in the odd-numbered nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan, such as the twenty-first, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh, or twenty-ninth. In the Islamic calendar, the night comes before the day, beginning at sunset. Scholars explain that the date was kept hidden so that people would strive across all the last ten nights rather than relying on one night. Someone who feels weak or tired can focus on the final odd nights. A prayer taught by the Prophet ﷺ for this night is to ask Allah, “O Allah, You are pardoning and love to forgive, so forgive me.” ### Are there other days Muslims fast outside of Ramadan? Yes. Ramadan is the annual obligatory fast, but the Prophet ﷺ fasted at many other times and encouraged voluntary fasting throughout the year. He recommended fasting three days each month, ideally the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, and fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. Certain days carry special rewards. Fasting the day of ʿArafa, for those not on Hajj, is said to expiate the sins of the previous and coming year, and fasting the day of ʿAshuraʾ in the month of Muḥarram expiates the previous year, both referring to minor sins. Right after Ramadan, fasting six days in the following month of Shawwāl is described as being like fasting the entire year. These voluntary fasts are a good way to hold on to the habits built during Ramadan, since the aim is to come out of the month a better Muslim and keep improving. The every-other-day fasting of Dawud is largely agreed upon as the upper limit for a sustainable voluntary routine.  Consistency counts more than quantity, as the Prophet ﷺ taught that the deeds most loved by Allah are those done regularly, even if small. ### What is Eid al-Fitr and how do Muslims celebrate it? Eid al-Fitr is the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan, one of only two festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha which falls at the height of Hajj pilgrimage. It is a day of joy and gratitude, and Muslims are not permitted to fast on it. Before the Eid prayer, a special charity called Zakat al-Fitr is due on behalf of eligible Muslims, which consists of a measure of staple food given to the needy so they can share in the day, and also makes up for shortcomings during the fast. The morning begins with a special congregational prayer at the mosque, followed by a short optional sermon. The Prophet ﷺ would eat something, usually dates, before heading out, wear his best clothes, and take a different route to and from the prayer. It is recommended to wash, dress well, and repeat the takbir, praising Allah’s greatness, on the way. Men, women, and children are all encouraged to attend, and afterward people congratulate one another and pray that Allah accepts their good deeds. A common greeting among the early Muslims was, “May Allah accept it from us and from you.” --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-get-closer-to-allah-exploring-the-sequence-of-allahs-names-in-surah-al-hashr # How to Get Closer to Allah: Exploring the Sequence of Allah's Names in Surah Al-Hashr **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 4, 2024 **Updated:** April 2, 2026 ## Introduction As Muslims, our purpose is knowing Allah and worshiping Him. However, in an age of autonomy of the self, the very idea of submission and worship can be hard for some people to comprehend or even fully accept. When everything around you is pushing you towards a life lived for yourself and the realizations of your desires above all else, how can you fathom the idea of obedience and servitude? As jurist, theologian and spiritual author Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) explains, “Complete servitude (*ʿubūdiyya*) is a byproduct of complete love, and complete love is a byproduct of the Beloved’s perceived perfection.”[^1] The key to servitude to Allah is by loving Him, and we love Him by coming to know Him, and we come to know Him by reflecting on His names and attributes. These names do not just have relevance to us in this life, but if we truly understand and internalize them as who our Lord is, they help us in maintaining focus on the afterlife. The Prophet ﷺ reminds us that Allah has said, “I am as My servant expects of Me.”[^2] Our expectations are more accurate when we know who Allah is as He tells us. When we understand His all encompassing mercy, for example, we not only look for its manifestations in this life, but we look forward to His mercy when it will matter the most: on the Day of Judgment. Hence knowing Him helps us to love Him and gain closeness to Him during our time here on earth, whilst maintaining perspective of the afterlife, and looking forward to experiencing His names in the Hereafter. Furthermore, reflecting deeply on His names and attributes teaches us how to be in this world. As the scholar Ibn al-Qayyim stated, > God loves His Names and Attributes, and He loves the consequences of His Attributes and their manifestations upon His servants. Just as He is beautiful, He loves beauty; as He is Most Forgiving, He loves forgiveness; as He is Most Generous, He loves generosity; as He is All-Knowing, he loves the people of knowledge … Since God loves those who emulate His Attributes, He is with them according to how much of these qualities they reflect, and this is a special and unique type of companionship.[^3] Allah reveals His names to us in the Qur’an in a multitude of ways, and attending to the context of such verses, the pairings of His names, and the sequence in which they appear brings about a level of reflection that brings us closer to Him and opens up new dimensions to our relationship with God. One remarkable occasion presents itself in the final verses of Sūrat al-Ḥashr, where Allah mentions several of His names in a distinct way, with entire verses in succession being made up wholly or largely of a number of such descriptions. The uniqueness of these verses tells us that there must be something special about these names that warrants our undivided attention. Not only do the names themselves have distinct meanings that are important for our relationship with our Creator, but the order in which they appear is intentional, revealing nuances that we might otherwise not have considered and that help to enrich our relationship with Him. This paper endeavors to reflect upon the names contained within the last verses of Sūrat al-Ḥashr, particularly in terms of their sequence and relationship to one another, in an attempt to increase our knowledge and love of Allah and thus better our relationship with Him. --- ## Be not like those who forgot Allah Before delving into the names mentioned in the final verses of Sūrat al-Ḥashr (the Chapter on Amassing), we are reminded by Allah earlier in the chapter: > And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient.[^4] This verse exhorts the believers to be mindful of Allah and is followed by a warning against being like those who forget Him. Those who forget Allah are those who leave Him, are purposefully ignorant of who He is, and abandon signs of His oneness, His attributes, and the truth of His Prophet (ﷺ).[^5] Essentially, they forget Allah’s rights over them.[^6] They do not care enough to know Him, and hence turn away from His worship. The consequence of this is that they forget themselves in the sense that they are oblivious to what is truly beneficial for their souls, ruining for themselves this life and the next and forfeiting the opportunity for Allah to mend their brokenness.[^7] The antidote to forgetting is *actively* knowing Allah. Hence, in the same chapter and what comprises the essence of this paper, Allah tells us who He is in this unique order: > He is Allah—there is no god except Him: Knower of the seen and unseen. He is the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. He is Allah—there is no god except Him: the King, the Most Holy, the All-Perfect, the Source of Serenity, the Watcher \[of all\], the Almighty, the Supreme in Might, the Majestic. Glorified is Allah far above what they associate with Him \[in worship\]! He is Allah, the Creator, the Producer, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.[^8] These names show us how intimately aware of us Allah is. Even before we experience what we go through in life, He has provided the refuge, the solution, and the handhold in Himself. Each name provides ease for our concerns in a uniquely holistic manner. As we contemplate one name, our mind might move to another problem that we may feel is unaddressed by this attribute of Allah, yet we will often find that the next name in the sequence puts us at immediate ease. --- ## Sūrat al-Ḥashr ### 1\. “He is Allah—there is no god except Him” The first verse begins with the statement, “He is Allah—there is no god except Him”, which essentially tells us two things. First, that Allah is His name and that He alone is *al-ilāh*, the One who is worshiped.[^9] The name Allah also encompasses the meanings of all of His names and attributes, so when we call on Allah, we are essentially calling on Him by all of His names—the Most Merciful, the Most Powerful, the All-Knowing, and so on.[^10] Knowing that only He is Allah—the One who nurtures, who has all power, the One to whom we turn—necessitates worshiping Him alone.[^11] The Arabs at the time of the Prophet ﷺ knew that there was a higher being, a creator,[^12] whom they referred to as Allah.[^13] However, they also worshiped other supposed deities besides Him or sought intercession through them.[^14] In today’s age, many people acknowledge the existence of a God or an abstract higher power, but they do not worship Him. Further still, others may worship God but they associate partners with Him. Hence, here we are told unequivocally that there is no god—no *ilāh*—nothing worthy of worship, except Allah. As a guidance for all ages and all circumstances, this Qur’anic verse is not simply aimed at the Arabs of old who worshiped physical idols besides Allah, or even at the People of the Book who drifted away from true, pure monotheism. This verse speaks to all of us and invites us to ponder on its meaning. What is it that we turn to with our hearts and obey? What is it that we are actually submitting to and worshiping without even realizing? Allah says, “Have you seen the one who has taken his own whim as his god?”[^15] One of the fallacies of our age is that the self, and hence its whims and desires, is elevated in such a way that it becomes the arbiter of what is good and what is right. Confident in its own infallibility and transcendence, it fails to consider its absorption of external influences that may go against God’s divine guidance. In this sense, this verse urges us to pause. What have we made equal to God in our hearts? Do we feel justified in submitting to our desires when they go against what Allah has commanded? What have we equated to Him in greatness and power, and what do we consistently choose over Him? Accepting that Allah is the Only One, fully comprehending this fact, and acting upon it inevitably requires us to understand who Allah actually is. And so, in His ultimate wisdom, Allah continues the verse by facilitating just this. ### 2\. “Knower of the hidden and the witnessed” The first attribute Allah proceeds to remind us of is that He is the Knower of what is hidden and what is apparent (*ʿĀlim al-ghayb wa al-shahāda*), with *al-ghayb*, what is hidden, referring to what is inaccessible to us through our senses.[^16] This attribute follows His name Allah because His unique divinity necessitates that He has exclusive, all-encompassing knowledge.[^17] This also immediately makes clear that there exists a hidden realm that we do not have access to (except what is revealed by divine revelation). What we think we know through our senses is simply a fraction of what exists, and this should humble us. While we seek to comprehend how this worldly life works and to understand the way of being that Allah has prescribed for us, when we are inevitably faced with matters or situations that we do not understand, we recognize that there is a hidden, metaphysical realm that we are completely oblivious to. Thus, His rulings contain wisdom because He possesses all-encompassing knowledge, while our knowledge is necessarily limited by our human capacity. In the Qur’an, we are shown how the Prophet Joseph (Yūsuf) (AS) faces trial after trial. Initially, it is not apparent why he is tested*—*from being plotted against by his own brothers, to being sold into slavery, to having his character doubted and finally, being sent to prison. One might be frustrated that bad things keep happening to this good person. But at the end, Yūsuf is honored and reunited with his family. Allah, the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, was aware of all the plotting and the scheming, the quiet prayers and desperate hopes, the future outcome and past events. Indeed, his father, Prophet Jacob (Yaʿqūb) (AS), reassured Yūsuf at the beginning of his journey, “​​Indeed, your Lord is Knowing and Wise.”[^18] All the events that took place, especially the ones that seemed most unfair, were actually guiding Yūsuf to the path that eventually got him to the esteemed position of overseer of food rations. Prophet Yūsuf recognized this when he was reunited with his family: > … ​​And he said, “O my father, this is the explanation of my vision of before. My Lord has made it reality. And He was certainly good to me when He took me out of prison and brought you \[here\] from bedouin life after Satan had induced \[estrangement\] between me and my brothers. Indeed, my Lord is Subtle in what He wills. Indeed, it is He who is the Knowing, the Wise.”[^19] Yūsuf reiterated Allah’s names *al-ʿAlīm al-Ḥakīm* at the end of the verse. In using these names, he could see clearly that every hardship and trial had a purpose, even if it was not evident in that moment. This teaches us that what is ‘witnessed’ seldom gives us the full picture. It is Allah who knows the full spectrum of both the unseen and the witnessed. We may be going through a hardship that is witnessed and our patience is actually reaping rewards and blessings, yet this beneficial outcome is unseen. It remains in the *ghayb* until Allah reveals it, whether in this life or the next. Hence, these attributes teach us not to be materialists, but to trust in the promise of God. In addition to this, Allah’s ability to know the hidden and the witnessed also extends to Allah knowing what is apparent of our actions and what we keep hidden from other people, as well as what is in our hearts. This can inspire both fear and reassurance. It can inspire a healthy, reverential fear that results in vigilance over both our private actions and our internal states when, for example, we find that our hearts harbor malice, ill will, and insincerity. At the same time, it also affords us reassurance that Allah witnesses when we do good and when our hearts are in the right place, especially in those times when we find it particularly difficult or when people fail to notice. It teaches us to work on our internal states and our private acts just as hard as we work on our external states and public actions. ### 3\. “The Most Compassionate, Most Merciful” Allah continues His description with two of His familiar names, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful (*al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*). Other varying translations of these names include: the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, the All Merciful, and the Bestower of Mercy. So, what does mercy, *raḥmah,* mean? *Raḥmah* is tenderness, kindness, care, and compassion.[^20] When you show mercy to someone, you treat them with gentleness, care for their state, and desire what is best for them. But Allah is not just merciful in this sense, He is more, He is *al-Raḥmān*. This morphological form, with an *ān* suffix,[^21] speaks to the intensity of His *raḥmah*,[^22] which is  unique to Him alone. His mercy is overflowing, unlimited, incomparable, touching everyone and everything, as He says in the Qur’an, “My mercy encompasses all things.”[^23] In a hadith, the Prophet ﷺ told us, “When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His book with Him upon the Throne: ‘Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath.’”[^24] This broad, universally applicable sense of mercy encompasses men and women, adults and children, humans and non-humans, the pious and the sinner, the believer and the non-believer. Complementing *al-Raḥmān* is *al-Raḥīm*, which reminds us that Allah’s mercy cannot be extinguished; His mercy is both an abundant *and* a permanent attribute, not simply a temporary state.[^25] Allah also says, “... And ever is He, to the believers, Merciful,”[^26] highlighting that there is a special mercy reserved for those who are devoted to Him. Part of this mercy is the spiritual sustenance that is granted to the believers.[^27] The Prophet ﷺ also reminded the Companions that, “Allah is more merciful to His servants than this mother is to her child,”[^28] describing a mother picking up and then nursing her child who she thought she had lost—how intense the affection and care of Allah must be to exceed this! Indeed, we were told by the Prophet ﷺ that, “Allah made mercy into one hundred parts. He kept ninety-nine parts with Himself and sent down one part to the earth. From that one part, the creation is merciful to each other, such that a horse raises its hoof over its child for fear of trampling it.”[^29] Whatever mercy there is in this world, no matter how powerful or unexpected, it is nothing compared to the mercy of Allah. In those times that we feel abandoned and unloved, Allah reminds us that He is *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*. He cares about us more than any human being ever could. Indeed, in Sūrat Maryam, Allah tells us, “\[This is\] a reminder of your Lord’s mercy to His servant Zachariah, when he cried out to his Lord privately…”[^30] Allah’s mercy is close to those who express their needs to Him and who turn to Him because they know that He listens and cares.[^31] No one would be vulnerable in front of someone who is harsh and indifferent, but the Prophet Zachariah (Zakariyyā) (AS) knew he could express his pain, wants, and concerns to *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*. And knowledge of the fact that the mercy that manifests on this earth is only one part of one hundred parts should make us look forward to the 99 that He has kept for the Hereafter. Awareness of His all-encompassing knowledge can reassure us, but it does not necessarily tell us whether Allah cares about us or not. In light of the attributes that preceded these names (His knowledge), we come to understand that Allah knows the trials that we go through, even those that others might not be aware of, and bestows His mercy upon those in need.[^32] He is Merciful towards us even though He knows all of our secret sins and hidden indiscretions. Of the wisdoms of this sequence of names is that Allah teaches us that there may be difficulties we cannot comprehend and yet His mercy is nevertheless overflowing and permanent. Things may happen to us that we cannot make sense of or have no knowledge of, but we should never despair of the mercy of Allah. Rather, we should turn to Him in the midst of our difficulties because we know that there must be wisdom that is unknown to us in the moment, and because we know that no one cares for us like Him. A test is not indicative of a lack of care, but can be a true expression of mercy since it can bring us close to Him and be a cause of elevation in the next life. Indeed, a person may think they are doing good by being outwardly kind and caring when they are actually causing harm, simply because they do not have the full picture or because they lack wisdom and foresight. For example, an older sibling might allow their younger one to have unlimited screen time or eat candy because that makes the younger sibling happy. While it is outwardly kind, it lacks wisdom and knowledge about the harms of these actions. Mercifully preventing the toddler, though it will come with pain, abundant tears, and frustration, is beneficial for him and will save him from serious harms unknown to him in the future. In a story narrated by Ibn al-Jawzi, the Caliph Abdel-Malik bin Marwan would spoil his son al-Walid because he loved him so much and would not discipline him. Then, when Al-Walid fell behind in his studies, he said, “Our love for al-Walid has harmed him!”[^33] In Sūrat al-Kahf, when Prophet Mūsa (AS) commences on the journey with al-Khadir, what occurs after seems far removed from mercy or wisdom—the damaging of a boat, the killing of a child, and the mending of a wall in a village inhabited by cruel, stingy people. But Allah told us that al-Khadir was given *raḥmah* (in the verse, meaning prophethood, tenderness and/or blessings)[^34] and knowledge from Allah.[^35] At the end of the story, we are shown that what happened, despite seeming harsh and even inexplicable on the outside, was the pinnacle of mercy and care.[^36] This story demonstrates that Allah’s commands are based on reality and not on a facade, and thus, when it comes to events that we dislike, we should remember that there are inner secrets and profound wisdoms covered in *raḥmah* that we are unaware of.[^37] Some matters might seem objectively bad in this world, but result in elevation in the next. Allah reminds us that He is *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*, and all of His commands are out of mercy for us and with full awareness of what is of everlasting benefit for us. Allah addresses our worries and our fears, our desire to be cared for, loved, and treated kindly, and our need to be guided to what is truly best for us. When we are in difficult situations, or around uncaring people, we take comfort in *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*, who possesses all-encompassing knowledge. ### 4\. “He is Allah—there is no god but Him, The King” Once our hearts are put to rest with the knowledge that our Creator knows all, and has the most intense concern and care for us, Allah begins the next verse by again reminding us: “He is Allah*—*there is no god but Him.” Indeed, why would we turn our hearts in submission to anything or anyone else when we have a Lord who is All-Knowing, Most Merciful? He is the One whom we should worship. Next, Allah turns us to His majesty. As we face seemingly powerful humans and structures that we must contend with as we navigate this earthly life, Allah tells us that He is the King, the Sovereign, the Ultimate Possessor of all (*al-Malik*). Linguistically, if someone is a *malik*, it means they have the complete and total ability, authority, and power to act with what is under their control, including in terms of commanding and prohibiting, raising and humbling, appointing and deposing. With the true King, *al-Malik,* none has that ability over Him.[^38] If we find ourselves confused about our role on this earth, how to behave with the resources given to us, who to follow and to obey, and where real power lies, *al-Malik* makes everything clear. Indeed, most of us go through life and are bombarded with different ideologies. We form attachments to the temporary and the material. We might feel entitled to act as we wish with what we perceive we own. We may flock to what we see as centers of power and try to conform to their rules so that we can benefit from them. If we have power or authority, we might elevate ourselves and see ourselves as better than others. Yet, we are told in this verse that Allah is the King and the Sovereign, and we are essentially living in and benefiting from His Kingdom. He is the ultimate source of power and authority. This world and everything in it belongs to Him, and He has ultimate sovereignty over it. In practical terms, knowledge of this helps us in a variety of ways. First, it takes a hold of the heart. Knowing He is *al-Malik* helps us to find strength in Him because we see reality as it is. All other sources of power and authority are fleeting and secondary. *Al-Malik* is the one who has power over everything. Whatever needs we have, we go to *al-Malik* because He owns all and nothing owns Him. Second, it helps to cement our values and principles. He is *al-Malik*, and thus we follow the rules that He prescribes. We do not follow the fluctuating norms of society, particularly not when they contradict what God has commanded. Of course, our shariah contains differences and versatility and that is precisely because it comes from *al-Malik*, who we already understand to be the All-Knowing (and thus knows that some matters require flexibility depending on circumstance, as well as what is good for us in this world and the next) and the Most-Merciful (and therefore, all His rules for us are ultimately out of His care for us, and the flexibility in  certain matters is to make things easier for us in a way that is beneficial and not harmful).[^39] *Al-Malik* has the authority to appoint and depose; He appoints people to certain roles, and He has chosen from amongst His servants prophets and messengers to guide people. Recognizing He is *al-Malik* should ensure our acceptance of those whom He has appointed to guide us and our obedience to them. Third, this name also teaches us how to behave with our temporary power and authority. In essence, we are walking on God’s earth, and nothing that we own is truly ours*—*not even our bodies. This means that we will be held accountable for what has been placed in our trust and for those over whom we have had worldly authority or power. Knowing that Allah is *al-Malik* teaches us to act with God -consciousness, humility, and morality, knowing that we will ultimately face the King of all kings. Worldly kingship is often flawed, filled with transgression, undeserved entitlement, self-centeredness, arrogance, terror, and other shortcomings. But, *al-Malik* is free from all imperfection, and by way of assuring us of this, Allah positions this name perfectly between His all-encompassing mercy, *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm,* and His complete freedom from defect, *al-Quddūs*.[^40] ### 5\. “The Most Holy” Immediately following Allah’s name *al-Malik* is *al-Quddūs,* a pairing we also find in Sūrat al-Jumuʿa.[^41] The word *quddūs* means ‘holy’ or ‘sacred.’[^42] It tells us that God transcends all attributes of perfection,[^43] meaning whatever we imagine as perfect, Allah transcends beyond that in His perfection, and is hence free from any defect and purified from anything blameworthy.[^44] This means that *all* of His attributes are also pure and holy. His knowledge is most perfect and complete, as is His mercy. *Al-Malik* *al-Quddūs* reminds us that whatever defects plague human kings, Allah is far above and completely free of them.[^45] He is *al-Quddūs*. Because we are used to dealing with human beings who have flaws, we often filter our understanding of the Creator through our experiences with His creation. Yet, through this name, we learn not to project human qualities onto Allah.  If we attribute to God the shortcomings of a human being or we project our own insecurities onto Him, even if subconsciously, this prevents us from trusting Him fully. If we fail to internalize that He is *al-Quddūs*, seeing evil in the world may cause us to question or resent Him, or to conclude that He must not be merciful, does not have full knowledge or power, or to deny His existence completely. But Allah tells us in these verses that He is indeed All-Knowing, All-Merciful, Truly Sovereign *and* completely free of defects. *Al-Quddūs* reminds us that Allah is truly above His creation, utterly perfect, and completely free of fault in His very essence. Understanding that Allah is *al-Quddūs* reassures our hearts when we are weary of the evil we see around us and removes the mental and emotional barriers that we  may have erected as a result of our flawed projections. It reminds us that despite the power and authority of *al-Malik,* we never have to fear injustice from Him. We are not dealing with a mortal, but rather *al-Malik* *al-Quddūs*—the Holy King. ### 6\. “The All-Perfect Source of Serenity” Closely related to *al-Quddūs,* the next name mentioned in succession is *al-Salām*. *Al-Salām,* the root (*s-l-m*) meaning peace, soundness, safety, and security, also means perfection and freedom from fault with an added nuance. *Al-Salām* is not only perfect in His essence, but is perfect in His actions and will always remain so.[^46] Most human beings desire peace, and few people would want to remain in a state of chronic or even momentary anxiety. When we do feel anxious, some might reach for a pill, others might call up a friend, and others might meditate or take a walk. What we all have in common is the desire to soothe this anxiety and lack of peace in whatever way we can. Here, Allah reminds us that He is *al-Salām,* intimately aware of our needs, offering refuge and comfort to those suffering from worry and anxiety. He is, and always will be, the Pure Source of Peace. Unlike worldly solutions, Allah is the only source of perfect, lasting, unadulterated peace. Through this name, we come to understand two key lessons: that a lack of peace is inevitable in this life and that when we experience it, we should turn to Allah because He is the Source of Peace. *Al-Salām* does not give us false promises of a perfect, stress-free life. We are informed in the Qur’an that there will be tests and trials in this world,[^47] which helps to temper our expectations and build fortitude through God to weather the storms we face. Indeed, we are also told to “give good tidings to the patient.”[^48] We will face difficulties, but we are not alone if we are with Allah, and nothing that we suffer is ever in vain if we turn to Him. Allah tells us, > And We scattered them into communities on earth—some of them righteous and some of them short of that—and We tested them with good and evil, that they may return.[^49] Whatever tests we go through, the purpose is always for us to return to Allah. So when our hearts feel perturbed by worldly tribulations, it is *al-Salām* who will offer us comfort and ease. While other activities and practices may help to alleviate our stresses, in the heart “is a strong desire that will not cease until He is the only one who is sought. In it, is a void that cannot be filled except by His love, turning to Him, always remembering Him, and being sincere to Him. Were a person to be given the entire world and everything in it, that would never fill the void.”[^50] Some might claim to find peace elsewhere, in listening to pop music or repeating positive affirmations, and may even say that this gives them more peace than prayer or reciting the Qur’an. Whilst not dismissing the plausibly calming nature of these activities, there are two important things to note. First, temporary relief does not address the root issue. A person can turn to alcohol to forget their problems, and indeed, being inebriated will make them forget. It does not, however, heal the rupture inside and will, inevitably, make their issues worse. Even a less destructive outlet, such as a vacation, provides temporary relief, but it does not provide lasting solace for deeper issues and problems. Second, and perhaps more importantly, we find momentary peace during other activities, in part, because we can comprehend what is happening. People often enjoy listening to songs because they can relate the theme and lyrics to what is going on in their own lives. Yet, the peace found in prayer is far more profound if carried out with  the same attentiveness and understanding. The Prophet ﷺ used to say, “O Bilāl, give the call to establish the prayer and comfort us with it.”[^51] Prayer is comfort and this is part of the reason why, when we conclude the prayer, we say, “O Allah, You are Peace (*al-Salām*) and from You is peace. Blessed are You, the Majestic and the Noble.”[^52] Prescribed to us by *al-Salām*, understanding, submission, and devotion in prayer can bring us true, lasting peace. In saying this, it is important to note that the use of alternative permissible meditative practices, exercise, or other tools to help us achieve calm are viable complements to seeking *al-Salām* through prayer and Qur’an. They should be utilized wherever possible, but always and in addition to actively turning to and calling upon *al-Salām*. We should use the tools at our disposal as their very existence is due to the permission and mercy of Allah in the first instance. Using these tools properly shows the harmonious link between our mind, body, heart, and soul, as they are all connected and interdependent, designed by *al-Salām*.[^53] Indeed, understanding that He knows all, is the Most Merciful, and the Perfect Source of Peace steers us to those tools that are permissible and keeps us away from those that are not. Knowing *al-Salām* and turning to Him can give one peace in the most unlikely of situations. When the Prophet ﷺ had escaped Mecca with his companion Abū Bakr (rA), and while the people of the tribe of Quraysh were hot on their heels with the intention to kill the Prophet ﷺ, they found refuge in the Cave of Thawr. However, the assailants followed them, and were standing a few inches from them. We are told in the Qur’an: > If you do not support him, surely Allah already supported him when those who denied evicted him, as he was the second of two in the cave, when he said to his companion, “Do not be sad; Allah is surely with us.” So Allah sent down His tranquility upon him and aided him with troops you did not see…[^54] Tranquility from Allah came first, before material aid. When Allah tells us that He is *al-Salām*, we are invited to find peace in Him, and turning to Him will give us everlasting peace in the Abode of Peace (*dār al-salām*), that is Paradise.[^55] ### 7\. “The Grantor of Security” The aforementioned names have taught us that Allah, the King, is free from fault in His essence (*quddūs*) and His actions (*salām*), thus removing any human deficiencies we may subconsciously attribute to Him.[^56] He is the One that we turn to for true lasting peace, and He promises us that those who strive in His way will enter paradise in peace. Allah then continues His uniquely holistic description of Himself by addressing our insecurities and fears. When we feel unsafe, He reminds us that He is *al-Muʾmin*, the Grantor of Security, the One who gives security from fear.[^57] The root word *a-m-n* has two basic meanings: the opposite of fear[^58] and belief/trust.[^59] *Al-Muʾmin* gives security to everyone from oppression, meaning we can be sure that He will never oppress us. The Prophet ﷺ told us that Allah said, “O My servants, I have forbidden injustice for Myself and I have forbidden it among you.”[^60] We may feel unsafe and fearful when we are faced with people who are powerful and unpredictable. Yet, according to our scholars, these verses affirm that Allah never commits injustice,[^61] and He would never betray His promises, to a believer or disbeliever.[^62] Furthermore, *al-Muʾmin* gives inner security to the believers through their faith in Him, and during hardship, He sends means by which they are secured from fear.[^63] For example, when the Muslims were in battle, Allah said, “Recall: \[Allah\] covering you tightly with drowsiness, as security (*amn*) from Him…”[^64] Similarly, “Those to whom people \[i.e., hypocrites\] said, ‘Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them’ But it \[merely\] increased them in faith, and they said, ‘Sufficient for us is Allah, and \[He is\] the best Disposer of affairs.’”[^65] When the prophets Moses (Mūsa) and Aaron (Hārūn) (AS) were told to speak to Pharaoh, they expressed their fear to Allah: “They said, ‘Our Lord, indeed we are afraid that he will hasten \[punishment\] against us or that he will transgress.’”[^66] And Allah responded to them, “...Be not afraid; I am indeed with you, hearing and seeing.”[^67] These verses reveal to us that even the prophets and the righteous felt fear; it is natural to feel this way when faced with danger and uncertainty. But they knew who to turn to assuage their apprehensions. When you feel afraid, turn to *al-Muʾmin* and ask Him to secure your heart. Recite and reflect upon the Qur’an to learn how Allah comes through for the believers, and what is promised to the steadfast: “Surely those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and then remain steadfast—there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.”[^68] Indeed, when Pharaoh threatened the magicians who believed in Allah with crucifixion and torture, they were the ones who were unafraid, while Pharaoh was insecure. They said, > Never will we prefer you over what has come to us of clear proofs and \[over\] He who created us. So decree whatever you are to decree. You can only decree for this worldly life. Indeed, we have believed (*āmannā*) in our Lord that He may forgive us our sins and what you compelled us \[to do\] of magic. And Allah is better and more enduring.[^69] They trusted in the promise of God, and their hearts were secured by Him. Pharaoh, on the other hand, spent the rest of his life afraid of being challenged and doing everything in his power to stop Mūsa (AS). Eventually, Pharaoh drowned. There was no safety for him in this life or the next. One will also notice that a believer is called a “*mu’min*.” We are both secured by our faith in God, and we secure others from any injustice. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The believer (*mu’min*) is the one who is trusted with the lives and wealth of people. The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe.”[^70] We cannot profess to be true servants of *al-Muʾmin*, if we do not give that same security to others that we desire from Allah. Another meaning of the name *al-Muʾmin* is that Allah follows through on His promises.[^71] Knowing this helps to remove the fear associated with uncertainty and lack of trust. We believe in Allah (*āmannā bi-Allāh*) and we believe Him (*āmannāh*); i.e., what He tells us. When He tells us what pertains to this world and the Hereafter, we have absolute faith and security in its truth because He always follows through. *Al-Muʾmin* also assures us by fulfilling the optimistic expectations the believers have of Him; He does not let them down.[^72] The Prophet ﷺ told us that Allah said, “I am as My servant expects of Me.”[^73] In another narration, with the addition, “If he thinks good of Me, he will have it. If he thinks evil of Me, he will have it.”[^74] Having a good opinion of Allah (*ḥusn al-ẓann bi-Allāh*) is part of the worship of the heart. It is to think well of God even when things outwardly seem to be negative, and one can only do this when they know Allah. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Wondrous is the affair of a believer, as there is good for him in every matter; this is not the case for anyone but a believer. If he experiences pleasure, he thanks Allah and it is good for him. If he experiences harm, he shows patience and it is good for him.”[^75] And when we do that, *al-Muʾmin* attests to that good opinion by following through. When we believe that there is purpose in hardship, that we will be rewarded, and that Allah responds to us with what is best, then Allah gives us even better than what we had hoped for. Indeed, Ibn Masʿūd is reported to have said that, “By the One besides whom there is no god, a believing servant is not given anything better than a good opinion of God Almighty, and by whom there is no god but Him, no servant of God Almighty thinks well of Allah except that God Almighty gives him \[according to His good opinion\]; that is because goodness is in His hand.”[^76] One of the righteous said that he saw the scholar, Malik bin Dinar (d. 130/748), in a dream after he had passed away. Mālik b. Dinār said in the dream: “I have committed many sins, and my good opinion of Allah erased them;”[^77] i.e., he had hope that God would forgive him, he put in the work and effort to achieve His forgiveness, and so he was forgiven. ### 8\. “The Controller, the Watcher \[of all\]” Whether suffering from personal crises in our lives or bigger issues that we feel we cannot affect, our lack of control brings feelings of helplessness and even despair. Allah continues His description by assuring us that He is *al-Muhaymin*.[^78] *Haymana* means complete control and guardianship;[^79] He is the one who has complete command, and having complete command necessitates having perfect knowledge (He is ‘*Ālim al-ghayb wa al-shahāda)* and power (*al-Malik*).[^80] Throughout the Qur’an, we are shown the illusion of man’s worldly control. For example, it seemed like Pharaoh was in control when he was oppressing the Children of Israel. It also seemed like the King who massacred the believers in Sūrat al-Burūj had the upper hand. But Allah reminds us, “...We will progressively lead them \[to destruction\] from where they do not know.”[^81] They may have believed that they were in control, but Pharaoh was eventually drowned and the King and his accomplices “will certainly suffer the punishment of Hell and the torment of burning.”[^82] Knowing that Allah is in complete control can help us to feel at ease in those times where we feel incapable of affecting change. We rest assured knowing that nothing escapes *al-Muhaymin*’s power or knowledge. According to Ibn ‘Ashūr, part of the wisdom of this name following *al-Muʾmin* is to ward off the thought that Allah gives security due to His fear or weakness.[^83] For example, a soldier may be made to guard a specific area, yet he may not do so of his own volition or out of protectiveness of the area and people he is guarding. He may do so out of fear of being punished and because he is weaker than the one commanding him. With Allah, He is the One in control, and no one controls Him. He gives inner security to those who believe and those whom He has mercy upon. Āsiya (may Allah be pleased with her), who was also murdered by Pharaoh, saw her place in Paradise and was able to smile in the face of her tormentor. The believers described in Sūrat al-Burūj were given inner security and remained firm in their beliefs. So, who was really in control and who had true, everlasting security? Knowing that Allah is *al-Muhaymin* encourages us to turn to Him through supplication when we desire change as we recognize that He is the One who provides the means and determines all outcomes. Allah says, “Call upon Me; I will respond to you.”[^84] Furthermore, having certainty that Allah is *al-Muhaymin* provides an antidote to defeatism. We are not asked about the results of our actions, only that we take the right actions with a sincere heart. The Qur’an constantly praises “those who believe and do good.” Even when the whole world is doing the opposite of what is right, even when our efforts seem to be futile, we know that  Allah is in control of everything. When Mūsa (AS) and Bani Israel were about to be overtaken by Pharaoh, it indeed seemed like Pharaoh was in control. Mūsa could have stopped moving and just surrendered to Pharaoh. Instead, he trusted that Allah was *al-Muhaymin* and said, “No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me.”[^85] Despite our trust in *al-Muhaymin*, it may often feel like bad things still happen. The man described in Sūrat Yāsīn persisted in calling his people to the truth even though they consistently rejected it, and  he did not stop until he was reportedly killed. This outcome seems bad from a worldly perspective; there was no miracle to save him as a reward for his endeavor on earth. However, he was given the ultimate reward in the hereafter: “It was said, ‘Enter Paradise.’ He said, ‘I wish my people could know of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honored.’”[^86] Knowing that Allah is *al-Muhaymin* is knowing that Allah is in control of all events and outcomes. On the Day of Judgment, all illusions of control will crumble. Those who did good for the sake of God will be rewarded, and those who did evil will face the consequences of their choices. As Allah reminds us, “And all faces will be humbled before the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining. And those burdened with wrongdoing will be in loss.”[^87] ### 9\. “The Almighty” The previous names provide reassurance for our hearts, while *al-Muhaymin* specifically both reassures us and alerts us to the power of God. *Al-*ʿ*Azīz* follows to further emphasize and explain His all-encompassing power. Indeed, power is sought out in this world, and people sometimes behave in undignified ways to gain favor with the mighty of this earth. They may lie, cheat, and even humiliate themselves. They may act in opposition to their values and morals; all of this is in an attempt to gain *ʿizza—*strength, glory, and honor.[^88] However, as Allah tells us in the next name mentioned in this sequence, it is Allah who is the Almighty (*al-*ʿ*Azīz)*. The One who cannot be subdued, who conquers everything, and subjects everything to Himself.[^89] Only He can grant the ʿ*izza* that is so coveted by human beings. God tells us: “And let not their speech grieve you. Indeed, honor (ʿ*izza*) belongs to Allah entirely. He is the Hearing, the Knowing.”[^90] Indeed, people who flout God’s laws and feel that they have impunity, Allah says, “They have not appraised Allah with true appraisal. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might (ʿ*Azīz*).”[^91] No matter how much strength or power (*quwwa*) one can project, it is not true ʿ*izza* if it is not dignified. This teaches us to turn to Allah and conform to His commandments for strength and dignity, and to avoid all that He dislikes. Indeed, true servants of *al-ʿAzīz* are those who derive their dignity from Him, respect themselves, and have an inner strength. People generally derive their strength and feelings of importance from worldly sources, such as authority, wealth, popularity, social status, ethnicity or nationality. Yet, Allah is the One who truly strengthens and gives honor, and true dignity comes in servitude and obedience to Him. When our pursuits are in His name and for Him, we break free of the power that worldly matters have over us. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭab (rA) stated famously, “Verily, we were a disgraceful people and Allah honored us (*a*ʿ*azzanā*) with Islam. If we seek honor from anything besides that with which Allah honored us, Allah will disgrace us*.*”[^92] So, how can we obtain this ʿ*izza* from God? Allah says in the Qur’an: “Whoever desires honor*—*then to Allah belongs all honor.”[^93] The way to this honor and strength from Allah is through being mindful of Him and being righteous, especially when it contradicts our base desires. Allah says, “… Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous (*atqākum*) of you.[^94] Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Aware.”[^95] In fact, it was a supplication of the righteous to say, “O Allah, honor me (*a*ʿ*izzanī*) with your obedience, and do not humiliate me with disobedience.”[^96] Ibn al-Qayyim reminds us that we are honored by our faith and the manifestation of that faith as obedience to Allah.[^97] ### 10\. “The Compeller” (al-Jabbār) After reflecting on *al-ʿAzīz*, Allah turns our attention to His name the Compeller (*al-Jabbār*). While ʿ*izza* reminds us about Allah’s power and justice and teaches us to have strength based in dignity and obedience to Him, the following name in the sequence both emphasizes His power over His creation and comforts us if we have been victims of injustice. And perhaps this is part of the wisdom that the following name is *al-Jabbār*, which has two main meanings: 1) the One who is able to compel and subdue all His servants, with all of creation submitting to Him; and 2) the One who mends the broken and enriches the poor.[^98] *Al-Jabbār* is the only One able to truly compel, and examples of this are ample. *Al-Jabbār* turned Moses’ staff into a real snake when the magicians were only able to create illusions.[^99] He confines us all within the limits of our species, compelling us to be human beings unable to have wings like a bird.[^100] *Al-Jabbār* also compels tyrants according to His will, making them answer for their oppression, sometimes in this life and surely in the next.[^101] It is reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The arrogant and the tyrants will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection as tiny particles. The people will trample upon them due to their disgrace before Allah Almighty.”[^102] *Al-Jabbār* is also the One who mends what is broken and the One who consoles the hearts.[^103] The Arabic word for the splint that is used to set a broken bone is a *jabīrah*, from the same root word as *jabbār*. As such, for those of us who are broken and have been victims of injustice, this name carries a valuable meaning. When the mother of Mūsa (AS) let go of her son in the river, we are told in the Qur’an, > And the heart of Moses’ mother ached so much that she almost gave away his identity, had We not reassured her heart in order for her to have faith \[in Allah’s promise\].[^104] In the midst of her anguish at being separated from her baby and the danger he was in, *al-Jabbār* was the One who comforted her, “Thus, We returned him to his mother, that her eye might be comforted and that she may not grieve, and so that she would know that Allah’s promise is true; yet most of them do not know.”[^105] In this situation, *al-Jabbār* returned the baby to his mother and she was comforted and relieved. However, it’s important to remember that our hearts are not always mended by being given what we want, and in many cases we are given something else entirely. The Prophet ﷺ was wronged by his people, who persecuted him until he had to leave his beloved home. He said regarding Mecca, “By Allah, you are the best and most beloved land to Allah. Had I not been driven away from you, I would not have left you.”[^106] The Prophet ﷺ was heartbroken. He did not want to leave Mecca, and life in Madina was not easy. The Companions also became very ill and wished they could return to Mecca. The Prophet ﷺ prayed to Allah, “O Allah! Make us love Medina as we love Mecca or even more than that.”[^107] And indeed, Medina eventually became beloved to them and became their true home. Allah grants solace and mends our brokenness in different ways. Sometimes it can be through an uplifting word by a dear friend or being inspired to pray and weep to Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, you will never leave anything for the sake of Allah Almighty but that Allah will replace it with something better.”[^108] Undoubtedly, the best thing Allah can give us when something has been taken away is Himself. This name inspires awe at the majesty of Allah, makes one afraid of committing injustice, and still allows us to find comfort in the One who can mend all. ### 11- The Majestic, the Proud So far, the names *al-Quddūs*, *al-Salām*, and *al-Muʾmin* have addressed and reassured our hearts, *al-Muhaymin* has placed a bridge between reassurance and a sense of awe, and *al-ʿAzīz* and *al-Jabbār* have reminded us of His dignity and strength.[^109] Finally, the sequence ends with *al-Mutakabbir:* the One who has pride and greatness, yet is free from all faults, injustice, and oppression.[^110] Stemming from the same root word, Allah is Greater (*akbar*) than anything on this earth. He says, “And to Him belongs \[all\] grandeur (*kibriyāʾ*) within the heavens and the earth, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”[^111] *Al-Mutakabbir* teaches us to humble ourselves and not attribute false grandeur to ourselves or implicitly compete with the grandeur of God. The Prophet ﷺ reminds us, “No one who has the weight of a seed of arrogance in his heart will enter Paradise.” Someone replied, “But a man loves to have beautiful clothes and shoes.” The Prophet ﷺ clarified, “Verily, Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty. Arrogance means rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”[^112]  The Prophet ﷺ also told us, “Allah Almighty says that might is His garment and grandeur is His cloak: Whoever competes with Me, I will punish him.”[^113] Satan attributed greatness to himself and arrogated to himself rank above Adam when he said in defiance to Allah, “I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay.”[^114] Anyone who is arrogant and boastful should indeed be fearful. The Prophet ﷺ warned that “Whoever exalts himself or carries himself with arrogance, he will meet Allah while He is angry with him.”[^115] Indeed, Korah (Qārūn) became enamored with himself because of the riches that God gave him. He was “from the people of Moses, but he tyrannized them.”[^116] He thought that because of his treasures he was greater, and he attributed his success to himself, causing him to end in ruins.[^117] Allah “caused the earth to swallow him and his home. And there was for him no company to aid him other than Allah, nor was he of those who \[could\] defend themselves.”[^118] *Al-Mutakabbir* also carries another implication related to the solace that Allah’s grandeur provides.  Anyone who is overwhelmed by the apparent greatness of their problems, who is made to feel small by others for worldly reasons, or who looks in awe at those stationed above him in life should know that Allah is Greater. After *al-Mutakabbir,* the verse beautifully ends with “Glorified is Allah far above what they associate with Him \[in worship\]” (*subḥān Allahi ʿammā yushrikūn*). This statement concludes the verse by completely detaching the heart from every supposed rival or equivalent the polytheists would associate with Allah. A sentiment that, again, continues to be applicable. After learning about some of Allah’s magnificent names and attributes, who is it that we honestly take as saviors? Do we attribute a grandeur to ourselves above others? Do we turn to what He does not love for peace, safety, and control? ### 12\. The Creator, the Producer, the Fashioner After detaching every supposed deity from Allah, and after understanding the aforementioned diverse names of Allah, He reminds us in the next verse that He is *al-Khāliq* (the Creator), *al-Bāriʾ* (the Producer), *al-Muṣawwir* (the Fashioner). Indeed, in their pure forms, these functions are entirely unique to Allah.The first part of the verse, “He is Allah, *al-Khāliq*”, tells us that Allah alone creates, negating the supposed divinity of false idols who are unable to create.[^119] *Al-Khāliq* determines what is brought from non-existence to existence, *al-Bāriʾ* distinguishes creation from each other by specifying their different forms, and *al-Muṣawwir* makes the visual manifestation of what He has created and produced.[^120] These names are mentioned sequentially because in totality they show the divine conception of the creation of human beings from the beginning to their end. So Allah starts with creation (*al-Khāliq*), which is bringing into existence that which did not exist, then with producing (*al-Bāriʾ*), which is the formation of the human body, then with fashioning (*al-Muṣawwir*), which gives each human his or her beautiful form.[^121] Notably, these names come after our hearts have been settled with the knowledge of all the names previously discussed. The One who possesses all of these names is the One who is *al-Khāliq*, *al-Bāriʾ*, *al-Muṣawwir*. Indeed, these names instill both a sense of awe and comfort. He created the universe, which is so much bigger than us, and He created us. We have purpose. The Most Merciful is the One who fashioned us Himself. The Source of Peace is the One who made our souls and physical bodies. The true King is the One who gave us inherent dignity. How humbling that we have such a connection to Him! These names are followed with “to Him belong the best names” (*lahu al-asmāʿu al-ḥusnā*). That is, He has *all* the Most Beautiful Names, only some of which have been mentioned here.[^122] ### 13\. “The Almighty, the Most Wise” To conclude this set of verses and the chapter as a whole, Allah says, “Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him (*yusabbiḥu lahu*). He is the Almighty, the Wise.”[^123] This finale reflects the start of the chapter, “Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth exalts Allah (*sabbaḥa lil-Allāhi*), and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”[^124] Hence this chapter is concluded in the same way that it started*—*with a reminder that everything exalts Him, and He is the Almighty (*al-ʿAzīz*) and the All-Wise (*al-Ḥakīm*). Indeed, the entire chapter, and particularly the verses we have been discussing on His beautiful names, obliges anyone who contemplates to glorify Him,[^125] indeed it is the only rational outcome to what has been discussed. How can our hearts not be filled with awe, reverence, and love for Allah, who possesses these beautiful names and attributes? As previously mentioned, Allah’s name *al-ʿAzīz* first appears in verse 23, between His names *al-Muhaymin* and *al-Jabbār*. When Allah pairs certain names together, it gives a new meaning or a novel understanding that may not be captured by our limited imagination when the name is mentioned alone. Here, Allah is *al-ʿAzīz* *al-Ḥakīm*, and this is most fitting to mention after we are told of His unique power to create, distinguish, and fashion.[^126] This pairing shows us that creation did not just come about from the might of Allah, but also from His deep wisdom. All of creation, and specifically humanity, how we look, and how we function, have been determined by the Most Wise. Our different appearances, expressions, shapes, and forms are not just due to random genetics, but are part of the wisdom of Allah. We might be made to feel a certain way because we do not fit into modern standards of beauty, or because of our ethnicity and color, but Allah*—*the One who has the most concern for us, who is Himself the Most Beautiful[^127]*—*chose for us to appear like this. Concluding the entire chapter with these two names reminds us that nothing is arbitrary. In the context of the verses in this paper, the names chosen, the order in which they appear, and the chapter in which they appear have been deliberately chosen by the Almighty, the Most Wise. There is purpose, there is guidance, and there is healing for us when we truly contemplate their significance. --- ## Conclusion The names mentioned in verses 22-24 of Sūrat al-Ḥashr take us through a journey of the heart, teaching us trust in and reliance on Allah. We are reminded first and foremost not to submit our hearts to anything or anyone but Allah (*huwa Allāh aladhī lā ilāha ilā hu*), that His knowledge is all-encompassing, including what is inaccessible to us (*ʿĀlim al-ghayb wal-shahāda*), and that He is the Most Merciful (*al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*). From here on, the names address, among other things, the different emotional states that we endure: when we are confused about who to turn to for authority, He is *al-Malik*; when we are worried about injustice or oppression from God, He is *al-Quddūs*; when we feel anxious and disturbed, He is *al-Salām*; when we are afraid and uncertain, He is *al-Muʾmin*; when we feel apathetic or out of control, He is *al-Muhaymin*; when we feel overcome, He is *al-ʿAzīz*; when we see oppression or have been victims (or perpetrators) of oppression, He is *al-Jabbār*; and when we see others elevate themselves or our problems become overwhelming, He is *al-Mutakabbir*. We zoom out, and Allah reminds us that He is the Creator, the Producer, the Fashioner. Logically, He knows what is best for us. Profoundly, we conclude with the fact that He is *al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥakīm*: The Almighty, the Most Wise. Nothing is arbitrary. The verses we have visited are uniquely placed, with each name providing ease for our individual concerns, addressing our hearts and the natural fluctuations they undergo. Whatever doubt, fear, or worry enters our hearts, understanding who Allah is helps to calm our fears and soothe our pain. --- ## Notes [^1]: Muḥammad Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda wa manshūr wilāyat al-ʿilm wa al-idāra* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyya, 2002), 2:88–89, cited in Muhammad Elshinawy, “Why Does God Ask Us to Worship Him?,” *Yaqeen*, October 21, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him#ftnt7](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him%23ftnt7&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056395503&usg=AOvVaw2ut3sA6hLb0eKp_vBkR2a0). [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7405; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2675. [^3]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat al-Sābirīn*, (Makkah: Dār ‘Ālim al-Fawāid, 7th ed.), p.85 [^4]: Qur’an 59:19. [^5]: Al-Ṭāhir b. ʿĀshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/19](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056397369&usg=AOvVaw1im7DroFrxmQA33BKkKEXF). [^6]: Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī, *al-Kashshāf,* [https://tafsir.app/kashaf/59/19](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/kashaf/59/19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056398307&usg=AOvVaw2IT7ug3YdUkQaUQCHNpbsp). [^7]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/19](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056396343&usg=AOvVaw046G-mCcGsu_b7bCekb1Jm); Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-katheer/59/19](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-katheer/59/19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056396766&usg=AOvVaw2x6EaWvMOSVp2LhtomgXQL). [^8]: Qur’an 59:22–24. [^9]: Abd al-Razzāq b. Abd al-Muḥsin al-Badr, *Fiqh al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1441 AH), 94. [^10]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1996), 1:56; Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāiʿ al-fawāʾid* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 1:249. [^11]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Badāiʿ al-Fawāʾid*, 2:247. [^12]: Qur’an 43:87. [^13]: Qur’an 31:25. [^14]: Qur’an 39:3. [^15]: Qur’an 45:23. [^16]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/22](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/22&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056374533&usg=AOvVaw0x2p2a9ykI4_L3JdR2iFEz). [^17]: Ibid. [^18]: Qur’an 12:6. [^19]: Qur’an 12:100. [^20]: Hans Wehr, *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic* (New York: Spoken Language Services, 1976), 384. [^21]: Based on the conventional Arabic forms, the form of *Raḥmān* here is of *fa*ʿ*lān*. [^22]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr,* [https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/1/1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/1/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056383652&usg=AOvVaw0QQ3677FxNMjmUcaPMFofR). [^23]: Qur’an 7:156. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3194; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2751. [^25]: Sheikh Mohammed Akram al-Nadwi explains that *raḥīm,* which follows the form of *faʿīl*, is used to describe the character of someone, similar to, for example, *karīm*, which means a generous, noble person. For one to be described this way, it cannot be that they are generous on a few occasions, but that this is part of who they are and thus expressed in all their interactions. [^26]: Qur’an 33:43. [^27]: Aḥmad Ibn ʿAjība, *Allah: An Explanation of the Divine Names and Attributes*, trans. Abdul Aziz Suraqah (USA: Al-Madina Institute, 2014), 15. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5999; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2754. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6000; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2752. [^30]: Qur’an 19:2–3. [^31]: Salman Al-Oadah, *In the Company of God: Closeness to Allah through the Beauty of His Names and Attributes*, 2nd ed. (N.p.: Islam Today, 2011), 26. [^32]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/22](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/22&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056373853&usg=AOvVaw1i4rj8831FwD91T5ZdVsoj). [^33]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī, *Tanbīh al-nāʾim al-ghamar ʿalā mawāsim al-ʿumur* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1418 AH/1997 AD), 49. [^34]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzi, *Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr*, [https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/18/65](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/18/65&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056382769&usg=AOvVaw1ViPms958rCl5ujNMijgo8). [^35]: Qur’an 18:65. [^36]: Qur’an 18:79–82. [^37]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb,* [https://tafsir.app/alrazi/1/3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/1/3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056384276&usg=AOvVaw330zisgLW1q672UG33ZHp2). [^38]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Badāiʿ al-fawāʾid*, 2:121; Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl*, 2:652, cited in ʿUmar Sulaymān al-Ashqar, *Sharḥ Ibn al-Qayyim li-asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā* (Amman: Dar al-Nafāʾis, 2008), 46; Sayyid Maḥmūd al-Alūsī, *Tafsīr al-Alūsī*, [https://tafsir.app/alaloosi/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alaloosi/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056366087&usg=AOvVaw0Oi69TZ6ufP7tuep2q7A30). [^39]: Yaqeen Institute, Difference of Opinion: Clearing Up the Confusion, 27 October 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/difference-of-opinion-clearing-up-the-confusion-infographic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/difference-of-opinion-clearing-up-the-confusion-infographic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056402749&usg=AOvVaw0l3it_FbenYqAjX87E5O2z) [^40]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr w al-tanwīr,* [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056371695&usg=AOvVaw1_Sl8-sxOBGGoPubLnC0e8). [^41]: Qur’an 62:1. [^42]: *Hans Wehr*, 875. [^43]: Abū Ḥamid al-Ghazālī, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: al-Maqṣad al-asnā f sharḥ asmā’ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, trans. David Burrell and Nazih Daher (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992), 59. [^44]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-masīr*, ​​[https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056377237&usg=AOvVaw2ERolGElN826zDkg5QOYJ1). [^45]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056376523&usg=AOvVaw2yDCL6k-1tTkUKUVAZuyVP). [^46]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr,* [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056401263&usg=AOvVaw1N9c5xKucVq3tdMLDd6wlW). [^47]: For example, see Qur’an 2:155, 6:165, 18:7. [^48]: Qur’an 2:155. [^49]: Qur’an 7:168. [^50]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 3:156. [^51]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4986. [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 592. [^53]: For more on Islam and mental health, see: Dr Rania Awaad, Danah Elsayed, Hosam Helal, Holistic Healing: Islam’s Legacy of Mental Health, Yaqeen Institute, 27 May 2021,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/holistic-healing-islams-legacy-of-mental-health](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/holistic-healing-islams-legacy-of-mental-health&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056403266&usg=AOvVaw2BKKgLp0dpl2qw6_SOiA--) [^54]: Qur’an 9:40. [^55]: Qur’an 10:25. [^56]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056366960&usg=AOvVaw0Z0QFznt7Aam3HNIjhbDaH). [^57]: Ibid. [^58]: Allah says about Quraysh that He “made them secure (*āmanahum*) against fear” (106:4). [^59]: In the Qur’an, the brothers of Prophet Yūsuf say to their father, “But you would not believe us (*wa mā anta bimuʾmin lanā*), even if we were truthful” (12:17). [^60]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2577. [^61]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056403741&usg=AOvVaw1SxRk066PWEk9NZNIdT0pe). [^62]: Maher Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā: Jalāluhā wa laṭāʾif iqtirānihā wa thamarātuhā fī ḍawʾ al-kitāb wa al-sunnah,* 3rd ed. (Kuwait: al-Imām al-Dhahabī, 2014), 131. [^63]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 132 [^64]: Qur’an 8:11. [^65]: Qur’an 3:173. [^66]: Qur’an 20:45. [^67]: Qur’an 20:46. [^68]: Qur’an 46:13. [^69]: Qur’an 20:72–73. [^70]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 23958. [^71]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh*, 132. [^72]: Ibid. [^73]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7405; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2675. [^74]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 639. [^75]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2999. [^76]: Ibn Abī al-Dunya, *Ḥusn al-dhann billāh* (Riyadh: Dār Ṭaybah, 1408 AH/1988 CE), 96. [^77]: Ibid., 23. [^78]: There is a difference of opinion about the root: *amn* or *haymana*. See: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056368863&usg=AOvVaw0K61oekuC3SxZonqM3Cct4). [^79]: *Hans Wehr*, 1224. [^80]: Al-Ghazālī, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names*, 64. [^81]: Qur’an 7:182. [^82]: Qur’an 85:10. [^83]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056369280&usg=AOvVaw1QdNlfkcfXx5HpIwwFuF6q). [^84]: Qur’an 40:60. [^85]: Qur’an 26:62. [^86]: Qur’an 36:27. [^87]: Qur’an 20:111. [^88]: *Hans Wehr*, 713. [^89]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056370332&usg=AOvVaw00aOprHpg4yLuWEGsJEdUN); Ibn ʿʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056370566&usg=AOvVaw3mWje56Dv3iea7tEDfTBQo). [^90]: Qur’an 10:65. [^91]: Qur’an 22:74. [^92]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysapūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn,* 207. [^93]: Qur’an 35:10. [^94]: Ibn al-Qayyim stated that “Piety (*taqwā*) has three levels: The first is protecting the heart and limbs against sin and forbidden actions. The second is protecting them against undesirable matters. The third is protection against nosiness and whatever is not of one’s concern. The first will grant life to the servant, the second will grant him health and power, and the third will grant him happiness and joy.” Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāiʿ al-Fawāʾid*, 45 [^95]: Qur’an 49:13. [^96]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *al-Jawāb al-kāfī* (Casablanca: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1418 AH/1997 CE), 59. [^97]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Ighāthat al-lahafān min maṣāyid al-shayṭān* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, n.d.), 181. [^98]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056369650&usg=AOvVaw3USzfghowXis29vFCrlTf9). [^99]: The Qur’an says that, “And suddenly their ropes and staffs seemed to him from their magic that they were moving.” Qur’an 20:66. [^100]: Ibn ʿĀshur, *al-Taḥrīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056399942&usg=AOvVaw1F0TnoqIDoVae2z9PozOdV). [^101]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 141. [^102]: Ibn Abī al-Dunya, *al-Tawāḍuʿ wal-khumūl*, 224. [^103]: Ibid., 140. [^104]: Qur’an 28:10. [^105]: Qur’an 28:13. [^106]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3925. [^107]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, vol. 3, bk. 30, no. 113. [^108]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 23074. [^109]: Ibn ʿĀshur, al-Taḥrīr, https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/23. [^110]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/23](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/59/23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056372726&usg=AOvVaw3FOUByEinYTxQzb9puzDub). [^111]: Qur’an 45:37. [^112]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91. [^113]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2620. [^114]: Qur’an 7:12. [^115]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 5959. [^116]: Qur’an 28:76. [^117]: Qur’an 28:78. [^118]: Qur’an 28:81. [^119]: Ibn ʿĀshur, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr,* [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/24](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/24&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056393428&usg=AOvVaw1T-JPhHvvaWPjAuXkpqBpW). [^120]: Ibid. [^121]: Ibid. [^122]: Ibn ʿĀshur, *al-Taḥrīr,* [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/24](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/24&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056392796&usg=AOvVaw3SorcOE39Uxg3jiiVdOcTa). [^123]: Qur’an 59:24. [^124]: Qur’an 59:1. [^125]: Ibn ʿĀshur, *al-Taḥrīr,* [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/24](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/59/24&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1709582056391294&usg=AOvVaw07JZkBhu8MBnvxB0YQMJ1Z). [^126]: Ibid. [^127]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91. ## Summary Reflecting upon the closing verses of Sūrat al-Ḥashr (59:22–24) opens for the believer a path toward the very purpose of our existence, which is to know Allah and to worship Him. In an age that exalts the autonomy of the self and pushes each person to live for the fulfillment of his own desires, the concepts of submission and servitude have become difficult for many to accept. Yet the remedy lies in love, and love flows from knowledge. As Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) explained, "Complete servitude (ʿubūdiyya) is a byproduct of complete love, and complete love is a byproduct of the Beloved's perceived perfection." We come to love Allah by knowing Him, and we come to know Him by reflecting upon His names and attributes. This knowledge is not confined to this worldly life; when internalized, it anchors us toward the Hereafter. The Prophet ﷺ conveyed that Allah said, "I am as My servant expects of Me," and so our expectations of Him become truer the more accurately we know Him. Ibn al-Qayyim further noted that Allah loves His names and attributes and loves their manifestations in His servants, keeping a special companionship with those who emulate His qualities: as He is beautiful He loves beauty, as He is Forgiving He loves forgiveness, and as He is All-Knowing He loves the people of knowledge. Before unveiling these names, Allah warns earlier in the same chapter, "And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient." Those who forget Allah are those who wilfully ignore who He is, abandon the signs of His oneness, and neglect His rights, and their punishment is that they forget what truly benefits their own souls. The antidote to such forgetfulness is to actively know Allah, and this is precisely what the closing verses provide, unfolding His names in a deliberate and healing sequence. The passage opens, "He is Allah—there is no god except Him," affirming that Allah alone is al-ilāh, the sole One worthy of worship, and that His name encompasses the meanings of all His other names. The pagan Arabs acknowledged a creator whom they called Allah yet worshipped others alongside Him, and today many acknowledge a higher power without worshipping Him or else associate partners with Him. This verse therefore addresses every age, inviting each of us to examine what we truly submit to and obey, and whether we have elevated our own whims to the station of arbiter over what Allah has commanded. Following this, Allah names Himself "Knower of the seen and unseen" (ʿĀlim al-ghayb wa al-shahāda), reminding us that a hidden realm lies beyond our senses and that His rulings carry wisdom because His knowledge is all-encompassing while ours is limited. The story of Yūsuf (as) illustrates this, for his trials appeared unjust until their purpose was revealed, and he affirmed at their end, "Indeed, it is He who is the Knowing, the Wise," teaching that what is witnessed rarely gives the full picture. Next come "the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful" (al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm). Al-Raḥmān denotes the intensity of a mercy unique to Allah that encompasses all creation, as He says, "My mercy encompasses all things," and as the Prophet ﷺ related that Allah wrote, "Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath." Al-Raḥīm affirms that this mercy is permanent, with a special portion reserved for the believers. The Prophet ﷺ described Allah as more merciful to His servant than a mother to her child, and taught that Allah divided mercy into a hundred parts, sending down but one to the earth. The placement of these names after His knowledge teaches that even amid trials we cannot comprehend, His mercy remains overflowing, as shown in the account of al-Khaḍir in Sūrat al-Kahf, where acts that appeared harsh concealed profound mercy. The second verse reaffirms "He is Allah—there is no god except Him," then turns to His majesty. He is "the King" (al-Malik), possessing complete authority over all, which frees the heart from attachment to fleeting worldly powers and cements our obedience to His law and to those He has appointed to guide us. He is "the Most Holy" (al-Quddūs), transcendent above every defect, teaching us not to project human flaws onto Him. He is "the Source of Serenity" (al-Salām), perfect in essence and action and the only source of lasting peace, for the heart contains a void that only He can fill. The Prophet ﷺ would say, "O Bilāl, comfort us with the prayer," and after prayer we declare, "O Allah, You are Peace and from You is peace." He is "the Grantor of Security" (al-Muʾmin), who never oppresses, as He said, "I have forbidden injustice for Myself." He fulfils the good expectations of His servants, for the Prophet ﷺ related, "If he thinks good of Me, he will have it." He is "the Watcher" (al-Muhaymin), in complete control of all outcomes, as Mūsa (as) declared, "Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me." He is "the Almighty" (al-ʿAzīz), granting the true honor that people wrongly seek in worldly sources; ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭab (ra) said, "We were a disgraceful people and Allah honored us with Islam." He is "the Supreme in Might" (al-Jabbār), who subdues all creation yet mends the broken, as He consoled the heart of Mūsa's mother. He is "the Majestic" (al-Mutakabbir), whose grandeur calls us to humility, for the Prophet ﷺ warned that none with an atom's weight of arrogance will enter Paradise. The verse closes, "Glorified is Allah far above what they associate with Him." The final verse names Him "the Creator, the Producer, the Fashioner" (al-Khāliq, al-Bāriʾ, al-Muṣawwir), describing our formation from inception to final shape, and affirms "to Him belong the best names." The chapter concludes as it began, with all things glorifying Him and with His names al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥakīm, reminding us that nothing in creation, nor in the ordering of these very names, is arbitrary. This sequence thus guides the heart through its every state, so that whatever fear or worry arises, knowing who Allah is calms our fears and soothes our pain. ## Key Takeaways 1. The closing verses of *Surah al-Hashr* bring together sixteen of Allah’s names, calling believers to reflect and draw nearer to Him. Reflecting on these names and the sequence in which they appear, strengthens our love for Allah and enables us to worship Him from a place of understanding. 2. Each name in these verses illustrate His mercy, generosity, justice, and wisdom, as well as Allah’s intimate awareness of our needs. Before we face our trials, He has already placed refuge, guidance, and support in Himself, addressing the full range of our concerns and teaching us to be with Him and worship Him in all circumstances. 3. This divine sequencing of names forms a spiritual path that guides the believer toward Allah, illustrating His knowledge, compassion, sovereignty, holiness, peace, and protection; His might, majesty, and creative power; and His ultimate wisdom. Through contemplating these divine qualities, the heart learns humility, dependence, and gratitude. 4. Forgetting Allah leads to a loss of self, while remembrance transforms the heart: “And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves”(Q 59:19). The conscious remembrance of Allah, *dhikr,* is the means of renewal and transformation, helping believers find lasting peace and serenity in turning to Him. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/surah-al-buruj-and-the-divine-response-to-genocide-and-injustice-essay # Surah Al Buruj and the Divine Response to Genocide and Injustice | Essay **Author:** Faisal Malik **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** February 17, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 > *…And never is your Lord forgetful*[^1] --- ## Finding meaning in existence Few evils approach the existential horror of genocide: the mass extermination of a people for no other crime than merely existing and being different. For many, the shock of witnessing such immense suffering necessarily raises the problem of evil. How could Allah, the Most Compassionate and Merciful, allow the unleashing of such horror upon an innocent and defenseless people? Believers should realize that no matter the situation in which we find ourselves, Allah ﷻ has provided us guidance on how to act. Just as a person with poor vision needs glasses to see the world clearly, humanity cannot see through the chaos of existence without the lens of the Qur’an. Such a lens both clarifies and comforts, even in the face of a a crime as heinous as genocide. Indeed, in *Sūrat al-Burūj* (Chapter of Constellations), Allah ﷻ directly addresses the reality of genocide. Reflecting on its verses can help us make sense not just of the suffering in Gaza, but of the suffering inherent to worldly existence. With this understanding comes hope. > **وَٱلسَّمَآءِ ذَاتِ ٱلْبُرُوجِ**  > > *By the sky full of constellations, (85:1)* Anyone who has ever gazed at the sky above a remote countryside has been blessed with the most beautiful of sights: the stars in all their magnificent glory, their numinous beauty freed from the light pollution of the modern city.  One of the most spectacular  qualities of that night sky—a sky that so few of us ever see—is its apparent chaos. To the untrained eye, the stars seem impressive but random, a visual cacophony of lawless light; however, the trained observer knows better. Those who study astronomy understand that those distant points of light, though separated from us and each other by millions of miles, come together to form dazzling constellations. Those celestial patterns do not just demonstrate the order of the universe—they decorate the dark canopy of the night and provide guidance for every traveler. Every time one looks up, the eye is rewarded with beauty, and the soul with enlightenment. Life is the night sky. The unguided eye may perceive its happenings as random, meaningless, and chaotic. This inability to see meaning is characteristic of modern secular life and its pervasive nihilism. The believer, however, is gifted with sight. Out of the infinite chaos of events that overwhelm others, the believer can pick out the underlying constellations. The believer understands that nothing is random and that everything is under Allah’s control. But how do believers train themselves to see order where others only see disorder? Through the Qur’an, of course. It is a lens—one might say a telescope—through which the believer can see the principles that govern reality, and thus a blueprint for how to act in this world. > **وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْمَوْعُودِ** > > *and the Promised Day \[of Judgment\] (85:2)* Right at the beginning of the *surah*, Allah ﷻ mentions the promised day—the Day of Judgment. What in this world was incomprehensible, on that day becomes sensible; what was mysterious becomes manifest. This is the day that all oppressors, tyrants, murderers are brought to justice. This is the day where the weak, oppressed, and innocent have their retribution and their justice, served not by a temporal king or temporary authority but the Lord of the worlds, Master of all that exists. This Day of Judgment is a warning to the oppressors and a source of hope for the oppressed. > ** > وَشَاهِدٍۢ وَمَشْهُودٍۢ** > > *and the witness and what is witnessed! (85:3)* Oppressors usually attempt to conceal their crimes from the eyes of humanity, in fear of being exposed and brought to justice. We see this in the current genocide in Gaza, where electricity has been cut and reporters killed. Despite such efforts, Allah ﷻ bears witness to every single act of injustice that has occurred on this planet since its genesis. No injustice can be hidden from Him. Furthermore, His creation also bears witness. Nothing escapes the notice of *kirāman kātibīn*, the angels assigned to every individual to record their deeds: > **كِرَامًۭا كَـٰتِبِينَ - يَعْلَمُونَ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ** > > *… honorable angels, recording \[everything\]. They know whatever you do.*[^2] Not just the angels, but the very bodies of the oppressors will testify against them. The hands with which they killed, the arms with which they commanded, the legs with which they haughtily strolled—all will bear witness to their sins: > ** > ٱلْيَوْمَ نَخْتِمُ عَلَىٰٓ أَفْوَٰهِهِمْ وَتُكَلِّمُنَآ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ أَرْجُلُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ** > > *On this Day We will seal their mouths, their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify to what they used to commit.*[^3] The very earth that the arrogant used to walk upon and corrupt will testify against them. > ** > يَوْمَئِذٍۢ تُحَدِّثُ أَخْبَارَهَا** > > *on that Day, the earth will recount everything*[^4] On that day of reckoning, Allah ﷻ will allow the oppressed to testify against the oppressor. Every single act of injustice they suffered in this life will be recompensed. > **لَتُؤَدُّنَّ الْحُقُوقَ إِلَى أَهْلِهَا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ حَتَّى يُقَادَ لِلشَّاةِ الْجَلْحَاءِ مِنْ الشَّاةِ الْقَرْنَاءِ** The Prophet ﷺ said: “You shall deliver rights to their people on the Day of Resurrection, even the hornless sheep will settle its claim with the horned sheep.”[^5] --- ## Companions of the Trench > **قُتِلَ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْأُخْدُودِ** > > *Cursed were the companions of the trench (85:4)* Allah ﷻ curses a group of people referred to as “the companions of the trench*.*” These are a people who committed a genocide against a group of believers. In *Sahih Muslim*, we find a famous tradition which relates such a story, though it’s important to note we do not know with absolute certainty if it is the historical incident to which this *surah* refers. Indeed, some scholars have mentioned that genocide against the believers has happened multiple times throughout  history.[^6] In any case, the story in *Sahih Muslim* fits the *surah* well and has been reported by numerous exegetes. Its lessons are many, and so a brief summary is in order. There once was a king who wished to replace his aging court magician with a young boy. This young boy, even as he became an apprentice of the court magician, also came under the tutelage of a wise monk.  The young boy eventually  understood that the religion of the monk was the truth while the religion of the magician and king was false. The boy began to cure the blind and the sick, calling people to Allah ﷻ. When the king discovered that his former magician-in-training was calling people to worship Allah ﷻ instead of himself, he ordered him killed. Though the king successfully killed the monk who had taught the boy about Allah, he could not kill the boy himself. Every time he and his soldiers tried, the boy miraculously survived. Eventually the boy told the king how to kill him: by public execution. The king did as the boy instructed and secured the result he wanted: the boy was dead! Yet the public execution backfired. Rather than frighten the masses, the execution only persuaded them of the truth of the boy’s preaching. More people than ever converted to monotheism. The king, as tyrannical as ever, decided to massacre all the people who had converted. So he built trenches and began burning the believers alive en masse. The people had the choice of either recanting their faith or being burned alive. They chose to die rather than leave the truth. In this situation, a mother and her young child were about to be thrown into the pit of fire, the mother hesitated, but then her child, an infant, miraculously spoke. The child consoled her by saying: > > يَا أُمَّهِ اصْبِرِي فَإِنَّكِ عَلَى الْحَقِّ[^7] > > *O mother, be patient for you are following the truth.* This wrenching tale of tyranny and faith speaks directly to the current situation in Gaza. Just like the king, the Zionist regime established itself on the basis of falsehood; and just like the king, the regime could only respond to any threat to its false ideology with wanton slaughter. Yet when the king did kill the boy, he did not kill his cause. On the contrary, the truthfulness of the boy’s message and the falsehood of the king’s ideology became manifest to the masses. Today, the massacres conducted by the Zionist state against the Palestinians have exposed the hypocrisy of the regime and its supporters. Despite all the propaganda, the ugly face of settler colonialism and the violent truth of Zionism have been unveiled to the world. At the same time, the faith and resilience of the Palestinians in the face of extreme oppression has inspired millions of people globally. We see another parallel between the Burūj and Palestine in their respective youth. It was a boy who exposed the kingdom through his faith, and it was an infant child, facing a pit of flesh-burning flame, who encouraged his mother to be patient. Half the population of Gaza, more than a million, are children, and their unshakeable faith has taught the world what faith, courage, and patience really look like. > **نَّارِ ذَاتِ ٱلْوَقُودِ**  > > *\[Containing\] the fire full of fuel, (85:5)* > > **إِذْ هُمْ عَلَيْهَا قُعُودٌۭ**  > > *When they were sitting near it. (85:6)* > > **وَهُمْ عَلَىٰ مَا يَفْعَلُونَ بِٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ شُهُودٌۭ**  > > *And they, to what they were doing against the believers, were witnesses. (85:7)* Not only did this ruler and his army massacre the believers, they sat on the sidelines watching them burn to death.[^8] While such a despicable act may seem inconceivable, our own times have shown how depraved oppressors can become towards those whom they oppress. The Israeli Defense Force has several Telegram groups publicizing and mocking the killing and humiliation of Palestinians, as though these atrocities were a form of entertainment.[^9] Nor is this the first time that Israelis have indulged in such casual dehumanization of their victims; during the 2014 bombing of Gaza, some Israeli civilians literally brought their couches to the hillsides to cheer on the destruction of Gaza from afar.[^10] As the Israelis watched their state slaughter the defenseless and the innocent, we watched what could only be described as a modern incarnation of the people of the trench. Even in 2014, those condemned in *Sūrat al-Burūj* were alive and well*.* > **وَمَا نَقَمُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ إِلَّآ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ ٱلْعَزِيزِ ٱلْحَمِيدِ**  > > *And they resented them not except because they believed in Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy (85:8)* Oppressors always justify their oppression by dehumanizing those whom they oppress even as they proclaim their own greatness. Every corrupt empire, kingdom, and government has stupidly deluded themselves into believing that their rule is uniquely powerful, great, and civilized. Every time, Allah ﷻ humiliates them and relegates them to the dustbin of history. Temporal power intoxicates and impresses, but it is worth less than a blade of grass in the face of the cosmic power that belongs to Allah ﷻ alone. He is al-ʿAzīz (the Exalted in Might) and  al-Ḥamīd (the Praiseworthy). > **ٱلَّذِى لَهُۥ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ شَهِيدٌ**  > > *To whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. And Allah, over all things, is Witness. (85:9)* No matter the lands and lives which colonizers and imperialists try to steal and control, the reality is that all that is in the heavens and the earth belongs only to Allah ﷻ. The punishment for those who usurp land has been mentioned in a hadith: > **مَنْ اِقْتَطَعَ شِبْرًا مِنْ اَلْأَرْضِ ظُلْماً طَوَّقَهُ اَللَّهُ إِيَّاهُ يَوْمَ اَلْقِيَامَةِ مِنْ سَبْعِ أَرَضِينَ** > > Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: “If anyone takes a span of land unjustly, on the Day of Resurrection Allah will strangle him with it from seven earths.”[^11] Come the Day of Judgment, those who stole land, deluded by their false sense of power, will learn that only Allah ﷻ is the true King and Owner of all that exists. As expressed in *Sūrat Ghāfir*: > **يَوْمَ هُم بَـٰرِزُونَ ۖ لَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مِنْهُمْ شَىْءٌۭ ۚ لِّمَنِ ٱلْمُلْكُ ٱلْيَوْمَ ۖ لِلَّهِ ٱلْوَٰحِدِ ٱلْقَهَّارِ** > > *The Day all will appear \[before Allah\]. Nothing about them will be hidden from Him. \[He will ask\], “To whom does all authority belong this Day? To Allah—the One, the Supreme!*”**[^12] Further explained in a hadith: > > عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏ ‏ ”يَقْبِضُ اللَّهُ الأَرْضَ، وَيَطْوِي السَّمَاءَ بِيَمِينِهِ، ثُمَّ يَقُولُ أَنَا الْمَلِكُ أَيْنَ مُلُوكُ الأَرْضِ.“[^13] > > The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah will take the whole earth and will roll up the Heaven in His right Hand, and then He will say, ‘I am King! Where are the kings of the earth?’”[^14] When people understand the above reality, they will never submit to oppression and always resist those who seek to oppress them. We can see this in the 75 years of resilience of the Palestinian people against settler colonialism. As the Muslim poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal wrote: Beware, a hundred times beware, of the law of the Prophet… It is a message of death for every kind of slavery… Can there ever be a greater revolution Of thought and action (than this?) This earth belongs to Allah and Not to the monarchs.[^15] --- ## Making sense of trials > إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ فَتَنُوا۟ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا۟ فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ ٱلْحَرِيقِ > > *Indeed, those who have tortured the believing men and believing women and then have not repented will have the punishment of Hell, and they will have the punishment of the Burning Fire. (85:10)* The word *fitna* has been translated as tortured or persecuted, but can also be literally translated as burnt.[^16] One of the linguistic root meanings of *fitna* is to burn gold and silver in order to purify it.[^17] From this meaning we can understand that the trials and tribulations endured by believers are a form of spiritual purification that allows them to increase their ranks in the next life. Furthermore, even as the verse (*āyah*) threatens criminals and oppressors with the worst punishment, it simultaneously reveals Allah’s profound mercy. Allah ﷻ does not threaten to punish “those who have tortured the believing men and women”; he threatens to punish those who have tortured the believers and *“then have not repented*.” In other words, even after the commitment of such monstrous crimes, these criminals are given an opportunity to redeem themselves. It is only if they refuse that opportunity that they will be punished. As commented by early Muslim  ascetic and exegete, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728): “Look at this generosity and magnanimity, they killed Allah’s friends, yet He is calling them to repentance and seeking forgiveness.”[^18] Even oppressors can hope for salvation if they leave their oppression, submit to Allah ﷻ, and seek His forgiveness. We have many examples of this at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. People like Abū Sufyūn b. Ḥarb (d. 32/ 653), Hind bt. ʿUtba (d. 13/636), Waḥshī b. Ḥarb (d. 39/660) and many others were enemies to the Muslims and even fought and killed some of them; however, they eventually became Muslim and transformed from being enemies of Islam to dedicating their lives to defend and spread the religion. Despite Allah’s vast mercy, the people who persecuted the believers in *Sūrat al-Burūj* did not repent from their horrific crimes. Their arrogance and lack of remorse drove them to burn the believers alive. In the next life, they will burn in a fire far worse than the fire they used to persecute innocent believers. The Prophet ﷺ said: > **نَارُكُمْ هَذِهِ الَّتِي يُوقِدُ ابْنُ آدَمَ جُزْءٌ مِنْ سَبْعِينَ جُزْءًا مِنْ حَرِّ جَهَنَّمَ** > > **قَالُوا وَاللَّهِ إِنْ كَانَتْ لَكَافِيَةً يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ‏.‏ قَالَ ‏"‏ فَإِنَّهَا فُضِّلَتْ عَلَيْهَا بِتِسْعَةٍ وَسِتِّينَ جُزْءًا كُلُّهَا مِثْلُ حَرِّهَا** > > “The fire which sons of Adam burn is only one-seventieth part of the Fire of Hell. His Companions said: By Allah, even ordinary fire would have been enough (to burn people). Thereupon he said: "There are sixty-nine parts in excess of (the heat of) fire in this world each of them being equivalent to their heat.”[^19] > إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَهُمْ جَنَّـٰتٌۭ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْكَبِيرُ > > *Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds will have gardens beneath which rivers flow. That is the great attainment. (85:11)* It is important to understand that the suffering endured by believers in this life is not a sign of failure. The righteous will attain paradise in the next life, and their status will be elevated in accordance with whatever they suffered in this life. No matter the pain we feel at their unjust murder, the martyrs of the Gaza genocide and the martyrs throughout the ages are in a far better place in the next life. > **وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ أَمْوَٰتًۢا ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَآءٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ** > > **فَرِحِينَ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ وَيَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِٱلَّذِينَ لَمْ يَلْحَقُوا۟ بِهِم مِّنْ خَلْفِهِمْ أَلَّا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ** > > **۞ يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِنِعْمَةٍۢ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَفَضْلٍۢ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ** > > *Never think of those martyred in the cause of Allah as dead. In fact, they are alive with their Lord, well provided for—rejoicing in Allah’s bounties and being delighted for those yet to join them. There will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. They are joyful for receiving Allah’s grace and bounty, and Allah does not deny the reward of the believers.*[^20] --- ## The ultimate retribution > ** > إِنَّ بَطْشَ رَبِّكَ لَشَدِيدٌ** > > *Indeed, the assault \[i.e., vengeance (*baṭsh*)\] of your Lord is severe. (85:12)* The word *baṭsh* can be translated as assault but contains the meaning of a severe grip.[^21] When Allah ﷻ decides to seize the oppressors and wrongdoers, they will have no way to escape. Whoever declares war on the believing men, women, and innocent children, Allah ﷻ has declared war on them. As is mentioned in a Ḥadīth Qudsī, or a hadith of divine content but prophetic wording: > **مَنْ عَادَى لِي وَلِيًّا فَقْد آذَنْتهُ بِالْحَرْبِ** > > Whosoever shows enmity to a friend (*walī*) of Mine, then I have declared war against him.[^22] > **إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ يُبْدِئُ وَيُعِيدُ** > > *Indeed, it is He who originates \[creation\] and repeats. (85:13)* Allah ﷻ creates and repeats. We observe the cycle of life and death throughout our lives. We see how with the passing of the seasons, grass grows, dies, and returns, over and over. Similarly, we see how nations rise and fall, always replaced by yet another nation that rises and falls, and so on. Creation itself will go through the same cycle; one day it will all end, and then Allah ﷻ will create everything anew for the Day of Judgment. > **وَهُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلْوَدُودُ** > > *And He is the Forgiving, the Affectionate. (85:14)* Whatever the believer suffers in this life, we should understand that their suffering is not without spiritual benefits that they will receive in this life and the next. One of the benefits of suffering in this life is that whatever hardship a believer suffers will be a means of expiating their sins. The believer will receive the forgiveness of Allah ﷻ for whatever hardship they face. >  مَا يُصِيبُ الْمُسْلِمَ مِنْ نَصَبٍ وَلاَ وَصَبٍ وَلاَ هَمٍّ وَلاَ حُزْنٍ وَلاَ أَذًى وَلاَ غَمٍّ حَتَّى الشَّوْكَةِ يُشَاكُهَا، إِلاَّ كَفَّرَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِنْ خَطَايَاهُ > > The Prophet ﷺ said, “No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that.”[^23] Also, as noted earlier, even oppressors if they repent by stopping their oppression, submitting to Allah ﷻ, and seeking forgiveness can have hope for forgiveness. However, if they continue in their oppression and rejection of truth then they are deserving of Hell, since Allah ﷻ, who is the Most Forgiving, gave them countless opportunities to turn away from sin. The other name of Allah ﷻ mentioned in this *āyah*, The Most Loving (*al-Wadūd*), appears only twice in the Qur’an, one of which is in this *sūrah* about genocide. This is a reminder to us that the suffering of the believer is not a sign of Allah’s displeasure. In fact, it is the precise opposite: those most beloved to Allah are tested the most. > **مَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ بِهِ خَيْرًا يُصِبْ مِنْهُ** > > The Prophet ﷺ said, “If Allah wants to do good for someone, He afflicts him with trials.”[^24] > **عن سعد بن أبي وقاص قَالَ قُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَيُّ النَّاسِ أَشَدُّ بَلَاءً قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ الْأَنْبِيَاءُ ثُمَّ الْأَمْثَلُ فَالْأَمْثَلُ فَيُبْتَلَى الرَّجُلُ عَلَى حَسَبِ دِينِهِ فَإِنْ كَانَ دِينُهُ صُلْبًا اشْتَدَّ بَلَاؤُهُ وَإِنْ كَانَ فِي دِينِهِ رِقَّةٌ ابْتُلِيَ عَلَى حَسَبِ دِينِهِ فَمَا يَبْرَحُ الْبَلَاءُ بِالْعَبْدِ حَتَّى يَتْرُكَهُ يَمْشِي عَلَى الْأَرْضِ مَا عَلَيْهِ خَطِيئَةٌ** > > Sa’d b. Abī Waqqāṣ (rA) reported: I said: O Messenger of Allah, who are the most afflicted of all people? He replied: The prophets, then the righteous people, then those who are nearest to them in perfection and those who are nearest to them. Man is tested according to this piety; if he is strong in religion, his test is increased, and if he is weak in religion, his test is reduced. A believer will be tested until he walks on the earth sinless (his sins having been erased by the series of afflictions that he has endured).[^25] Thus we should rest assured that our brothers and sisters suffering in Palestine and Gaza, and oppressed believers worldwide, have a special status in the sight of Allah ﷻ. > **ذُو ٱلْعَرْشِ ٱلْمَجِيدُ**   > > *Honorable Owner of the Throne (85:15)* Empires take immense pride in their armies and military strength, yet they are nothing before the power of Allah ﷻ. His throne alone dwarves the entirety of the universe. >  **أُذِنَ لِي أَنْ أُحَدِّثَ عَنْ مَلَكٍ مِنْ مَلاَئِكَةِ اللَّهِ مِنْ حَمَلَةِ الْعَرْشِ إِنَّ مَا بَيْنَ شَحْمَةِ أُذُنِهِ إِلَى عَاتِقِهِ مَسِيرَةُ سَبْعِمِائَةِ عَامٍ** > > The Prophet ﷺ said: I have been permitted to tell about one of Allah’s angels who bears the throne that the distance between the lobe of his ear and his shoulder is a journey of seven hundred years.[^26] When one reflects on how great and powerful Allah ﷻ is, then one truly understands the insignificance and weakness of worldly empires and rulers. The weak and oppressed are consoled in knowing that Allah ﷻ, the only true King, is with them. > ** > فَعَّالٌۭ لِّمَا يُرِيدُ** > > *Doer of whatever He wills. (85:16)* When Allah ﷻ wants to do something, nothing can stop Him. Many times history has borne witness to how mighty empires and nations were brought to their knees by means they could not even conceive. We even saw a modern example of this during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the modern world, so proud of its power and technology, was upended  by a microscopic entity. All the world’s armies and weapons were helpless before a virus that couldn’t even be seen by the naked eye. --- ## Past oppressors > ** > هَلْ أَتَىٰكَ حَدِيثُ ٱلْجُنُودِ** > > *Has there reached you the story of the soldiers* > > **فِرْعَوْنَ وَثَمُودَ** > > *\[Those of\] Pharaoh and Thamud? (85:17–18)* The Pharaoh, with all his might and strength, was not destroyed by another army; he was destroyed by the element most fundamental to life: water. The people of Thamud were destroyed by a blast, an earthquake, and a thunderbolt.[^27] Abraha, the Yemeni ruler who wanted to destroy the Kaaba (Kaʿba), was not beaten back by any army; he and his army of elephants were destroyed by birds pelting small stones. These are just some examples of how Allah ﷻ has soldiers that we are not even aware of that will implement His will when He wishes. As the Qur'an tells us: > ** > وَمَا يَعْلَمُ جُنُودَ رَبِّكَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۚ** > > *…And none knows the forces of your Lord except He.*[^28] > > **بَلِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ فِى تَكْذِيبٍۢ** > > *Yet the disbelievers \[still\] persist in denial. (85:19)* > > Despite the signs in history and around them, there are disbelievers that persist in their rejection of the truth and in their oppression. > > **وَٱللَّهُ مِن وَرَآئِهِم مُّحِيطٌۢ** > > *But Allah encompasses them from all sides. (85:20)* The persistence of the disbelievers will not go unchecked. Allah ﷻ will encompass them, and they will have no place to escape. When an army wants to destroy their enemy, they surround them so their enemy cannot escape; however, when Allah ﷻ encompasses those who disbelieve and cause corruption on earth, there can be no escape. --- ## Eternal message > **بَلْ هُوَ قُرْءَانٌۭ مَّجِيدٌۭ** > > *But this is an honored Qur’an (85:21)* > > **فِى لَوْحٍۢ مَّحْفُوظٍۭ** > > *\[recorded\] in a Preserved Tablet. (85:22)* The believers in the story of the trench were killed for their faith, yet Allah ﷻ immortalized their memory in the Qur’an. Their story has been preserved for generations and will be preserved for many more generations to come, their resilience a beacon of inspiration spreading Islam in every age. In a similar vein, oppressors have killed prophets, messengers, and the righteous, but they have never been able to kill the message. Muslims may die, but Islam never will. In our own times we have witnessed the mass killing of Palestinians, but those who will try to wipe out Palestine will never succeed. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 16:64. [^2]: Qur’an 82:11–12. [^3]: Qur’an 36:65. [^4]: Qur’an 99:4. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.* [^6]: Ibn Abī Ḥātim, *Tafsir al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm* (Mecca: Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, 1997), 3413. See also Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, ed. Sāmī b. Muḥmmad al-Salāma (Riyadh: Dār Ṭayba, 1999), 8:371. [^7]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 3005, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:3005](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:3005&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162733041&usg=AOvVaw1TUxHIa9UWE4do2KuvA8MI). [^8]: Al-Ḥusayn al-Baghawī, *Tafsīr al-Baghawī: Maʿālim al-tanzīl* (Riyadh: Dār Ṭayba, 1989), 8:387. [^9]: Nadda Osman, “Israel-Palestine War: How an Israeli Telegram Channel Is Used to Incite Violence against Palestinians,” Middle East Eye, December 14, 2023, [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-telegram-incite-violence-psychological-warfare-palestinians](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-telegram-incite-violence-psychological-warfare-palestinians&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162733806&usg=AOvVaw2VQkmN3Tub3io9Ra3DLwmw). [^10]: Harriett Sherwood, “Israelis Gather on Hillsides to Watch and Cheer as Military Drops Bombs on Gaza,” *The Guardian*, July 20, 2014, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israelis-cheer-gaza-bombing](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israelis-cheer-gaza-bombing&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162734039&usg=AOvVaw0YcNvO5dIctpnSjc9gHGld). [^11]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 1610a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:1610a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:1610a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162734309&usg=AOvVaw23IRpXt20JxsH15gx1041U). [^12]: Qur’an 40:16. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7382; Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2787. [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:7382](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:7382&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162738409&usg=AOvVaw2jJ87PjgsimyIOuLWM_Q0k) & [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2787](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2787&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162738482&usg=AOvVaw03m_zamSu-Tp-mIGoDpCpK) [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6519, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6519](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6519&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162734605&usg=AOvVaw29KdZw2RJuKwmP5KKx9DJk). [^15]: Muhammad Iqbal, *Iblees ki Majlis-e-Shoora: The Devil’s Advisory Council*, trans. Abdssalaam Puthige (Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2017), 53. [^16]: See footnote 85:10 in the Sahih International translation. [^17]: Al-Rāghib al-Isfahānī, *Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Quran* (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 2009), 623. [^18]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, 8:371. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2843a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2843a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2843a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162736019&usg=AOvVaw2Ex-3d5BUOpZx4BQIe4Y1S). [^20]: Qur’an 3:169–71. [^21]: Ibn Juzay  al-Ghirnāṭī, *al-Tashīl li-ʿulūm al-tanzīl* (Cairo: Dar ِalʿĀlamiyya, 2017), 1:63. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6502, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/91](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/91&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162736888&usg=AOvVaw1ovzNuv1JRHt9-Q59zGVQL). [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5641, 5642, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5641](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5641&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162737173&usg=AOvVaw2wWxHfs3QQwpjyWSWgO7kW). [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5645, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5645](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5645&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162737399&usg=AOvVaw3mNzJhQFq0O0R_edZINpX_). [^25]: *Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 2398 [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2398](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2398&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162737665&usg=AOvVaw218dntzUI_A0jm-DN5fhYH). [^26]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4727, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/42/132](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud/42/132&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1708116162738100&usg=AOvVaw3UySCBJRU4X-0KN0Keip-6). [^27]: Qur’an 54:31, 7:78, 51:44. [^28]: Qur’an 74:31. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/virtues-of-shaban-how-to-prepare-for-ramadan-spiritually # Virtues of Shaban: How to Prepare for Ramadan Spiritually **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Blog, Shaban **Published:** February 12, 2024 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 Shaban is a month that is often neglected as people look forward to the excitement of Ramadan and its long nights of worship. But the month of Shaban is a month of incredible virtue, expressly highlighted by our beloved Prophet ﷺ. It has great historical significance as it is the month in which fasting Ramadan was legislated through revelation and it is the month in which the qibla changed from Jerusalem to Mecca. Beyond its historical significance, Shaban is a month of fasting and increased focus on the Qur’an, giving it great spiritual significance. --- ## What is Shaban? A Month of Fasting The first virtue of Shaban is that it is a month of fasting. Typically, many of us forget about fasting in this month because we’re looking forward to Ramadan. ʿĀisha (rA) said as part of a larger hadith, “I never saw Allah’s Messenger ﷺ fast for an entire month except for Ramadan, and did not see him fasting in any month more than in Shaban.”[^1] ʿĀisha (rA) also said in an authentic narration, “The most beloved of months or the month in which Allah’s Messenger ﷺ loved to fast more than anything else was Shaban. Indeed, he used to join it to Ramadan”;[^2] i.e., he would not take a break from fasting between Shaban and Ramadan. From these two hadiths, we can see that the Prophet ﷺ never fasted an entire month outside of Ramadan, but the month that he fasted most after Ramadan was Shaban, to the point that it was as if he had connected the fasting of Shaban to the month of Ramadan. --- ## When is Shaban? Shaban is the eighth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; it immediately precedes the month of Ramadan. Jurist and spiritual author, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350), beautifully mentions that the Prophet ﷺ fasted almost all of Shaban as a means of glorifying Ramadan, the same way that the most beloved of sunnahs is the sunnah before Fajr because it glorifies the most beloved of prayers, Fajr. And just like you use the sunnah as preparation for the obligatory prayer, so too is Shaban a preparation for and glorification of Ramadan. Ibn Al-Qayyim also mentions that the Prophet ﷺ was known to voluntarily fast three days of every month, but sometimes he was not able to do so. When that happened, he would fast in Shaban to make up those days before the obligatory fast of Ramadan. This was the Prophet’s habit across a range of optional acts of worship that he used to do regularly but sometimes missed, including the night prayer and optional fasting.[^3] > *Shaban Tip:* > > *If your spouse or friends have missed fasts to make up, you can support them by fasting with them, making it both a means of good deeds for you and an aid to you both.* --- ## A Neglected Month Usāma b. Zayd (RA) narrated “I asked the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Why is it that you fast more in Shaban than any other month?’ The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘That is a month neglected by the people between Rajab and Ramadan, and it is a month in which one’s deeds are raised to the Lord of the Worlds, so I love for my deeds to be raised while I am fasting.’”[^4] This powerful hadith gives us two layers to really unpack the gems of this month of Shaban. First and foremost, Shaban is a month most people neglect. The spiritual significance here is that the scholars suggest that the best time to compete for Allah’s pleasure are those times in which Allah is most likely to be forgotten. A person striving for excellence (*muḥsin*) will take advantage of these neglected times, and when everyone else is heedless, they will compete for Allah’s pleasure. This is one of the reasons the night prayer is so special, because worship in these times particularly shows that you truly want the pleasure of Allah. The great polymath Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201) says that “This is the evidence of your insistence upon doing good.” Further evidence for this notion comes from the Companions’ love for the time between the Sunset (*Maghrib*) and Evening (*ʿIshāʾ*) prayers (or as they were commonly referred to, the ‘two *ʿIshāʾ*s). The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ used to love to give life to the time between the two *ʿIshāʾ*s by remembering Allah, citing it as an hour that most people are heedless of.[^5] Similarly, the reward for the one who remembers Allah upon entering the marketplace is so grand—the granting of a million good deeds, the removal of a million bad deeds, and an elevation of a million levels in Jannah and a palace therein[^6]—because this is the time that we are least likely to remember Allah and worship of Him is often neglected. On this notion, Ibn Rajab points out that worship done when people are generally heedless should be done as secretly as possible because these are deeds of *iḥsān* (excellence) and should therefore be done in the best manner possible. > *Shaban Tip:* > > *Seize opportunities to worship Allah in times that are often neglected. Don’t delay, make your intention and plan to fast, read the Qur’an, and increase in* dhikr*! One habit you can form in Shaban is to pray two extra* rakah*s between Maghrib and ‘Isha, a time that was beloved to our Companions. Then in Ramadan, the time between Maghrib and ‘Isha, when most people are rewarding themselves for a long day of fasting, becomes a special time to remember Allah when others are heedless.* --- ## A Month of Qur’an Just as fasting in Shaban is neglected by many, so too is reading the Qur’an in this month. Whereas we all intend to increase the amount of Qur’an we read in Ramadan, Shaban is the time that the reciters prepare themselves for the recitation of Ramadan. Shaban was known by some of the pious predecessors as the month of the reciters because of how much of the Qur’an people would read during it. Salama b. Kuhayl al-Kūfī (d. 121/739), one of the early generation of believers, known as ‘the Followers’ (*tābiʿīn*), narrates that when the month of Shaban approached, his people freed their time to recite the Qur’an. He said, “The month of Shaban \[is\] the month of reciters.” Another narration states that “When Shaban would begin, Amr ibn Qais would close his store, and devote himself to the recitation of the Qur’an.”[^7] Shaban is a month of preparation for Ramadan, a time to review the Qur’an. > *Shaban Tip:* > > *A very practical tip going into the month of Shaban is to take the goal that you have for recitation during Ramadan and do half of it in the month of Shaban. So, if you are planning to recite the whole Qur’an at least once in Ramadan, then do half of a complete reading (*khatm*) in Shaban. This will make achieving your Ramadan goal easier because you will have prepared yourself in a way that makes the task ahead familiar and thus you’re able to push yourself further.* --- ## 15th of Shaban: A Night of Forgiveness In an authentic narration, the Prophet ﷺ said “Allah looks on the night of the half of Shaban (i.e., the 15th), so He forgives the entirety of His creation except for a polytheist or a person with enmity.”[^8] A narration from ʿIkrima al-Barbarī (d. 105/723), the bondsman (*mawlā*) of ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687), is frequently quoted in which he calls the 15th of Shaban the ‘Night of Exemption’ (*laylat al-barāʾa*), the day that we are freed from the Hellfire.[^9] The Prophet ﷺ said that Shaban is the month in which deeds are presented to Allah and the 15th is the particular night that Allah looks at those deeds and forgives all of them. Taking advantage of this night will allow us to enter Ramadan with amnesty, free from the burden of our sins with only the longing for our Creator remaining. Many great scholars have written about observing the 15th of Shaban and whilst we should fill the night with worship, there are no specific acts that have been mentioned by the Prophet ﷺ to be singled out on this night. > *Shaban Tip:* > > *The 15th of Shaban is a call to action. This is the time to really reflect deeply. Is that grudge worth missing out on this incredible reward? Do I really want my deeds to not be presented to Allah and to be amongst those people who are not forgiven by Allah on that night? Is my hatred of that person worth me sacrificing the love of Allah?* In a beautiful statement, Ibn Rajab said that fasting in Shaban “takes away the hardship of fasting and leaves only the sweetness of it for the time of Ramadan.” For most of us, the first few days of Ramadan are sluggish as we get used to kicking our old habits and changing our schedule. However, by practicing our acts of worship in Shaban we can enter Ramadan with such energy and strength that we only taste the sweetness of our worship. By optimizing our time in Shaban we can begin Ramadan reaping the fruits of our preparation. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1969; Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1156. [^2]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 2431; *Sunan al-Nasā’ī*, no. 2350. The authentication of this hadith is deemed rigorously authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by numerous scholars of hadith, among them al-Ḥākim who said that it is authentic according to the criteria of both al-Bukhārī and Muslim. See: *al-Mustadrak ʻalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn*, no. 1605. [^3]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Tahdhīb Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, ed. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-ʿUmrān et al. (Riyadh: Dār ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm, 2019), 2:154. [^4]: *Sunan al-Nasā’ī*, no. 2357; *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, no. 21753; graded acceptable (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī and al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^5]: See *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no 1321. Muḥammad Shams al-Ḥaqq al-ʿAẓīm Abādī, *ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd ʿala Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, with commentary by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmā˜Muḥammad ʿUthmān (Medina: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1968), 4:143; Muḥammad al-Shawkānī, *Nayl al-awṭār*, ed. ʿIṣām al-Dīn al-Ṣabābāṭī (Cairo, Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1993), 3:68. [^6]: Al-Tirmidhī (no. 3428) and Ibn Mājah (no. 2235) narrate on the authority of Umar ibn al-Khattab that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever enters the marketplace and says ‘There is none worthy of worship except Allah, Alone, without partner, to Him belongs the dominion, and to Him is all the praise, He gives life and causes death, He is Living and does not die, in His Hand is the good, and He has power over all things (*Lā ilāha illallāh, waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu, lahul-mulku wa lahul-ḥamdu, yuḥyī wa yumītu, wa huwa ḥayyun lā yamūtu, biyadihil-khairu, wa huwa \`alā kulli shay’in qadīr*)’, Allah shall record a million good deeds for him, wipe a million evil deeds away from him, and raise him a million ranks.” The scholars of hadith differ regarding the authenticity of this narration, with some of them declaring it weak (*ḍa’īf*), while others (such as al-Hakim, al-Baghawi, ad-Dhahabi, and al-Albani) have graded it acceptable (*ḥasan*). [^7]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalī, *Latāʾif al-maʿārif*, ed. Tāriq ʿAwad Allāh (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 2007), 242. [^8]: Narrated by Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 5665; al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr,* 20:108. According to Ibn Ḥibban’s authentication, the hadith is deemed rigorously authentic. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ deems it so based on corroborative narrations. Al-Amīr ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn b. Bilbān al-Fārsī, *al-Iḥsān fī taqrīb Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibān*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1998), 12:481. Al-Albānī also deemed it authentic. Abū Bakr b. Abī ʿĀṣim al-Daḥḥāk, *Kitāb al-janna*, with Naṣir al-Albānī, *Dhilāl al-janna fī takhrīj al-sunna* on the margin, ed. Naṣir al-Albānī (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), no. 512. [^9]: Muḥammad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmīʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān*, ed. Aḥmad al-Bardūnī and Ibrāhīm Aṭfīsh (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Maṣriyya, 1964), 16:126. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/qunut-nazilah-a-guide-to-making-dua-for-the-oppressed-in-times-of-war-essay # Qunut Nazilah: A Guide to Making Dua for the Oppressed in Times of War | Essay **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Dua, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** January 29, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 Abū Dāwūd reported from Sahl b. Saʿd that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Supplications (*duʿā*) at two times are never (or seldomly) turned down, *duʿā* at the time of the call to prayer and *duʿā* at the time of fighting, when people are locked in battle.”[^1] In another version of the hadith reported by the same companion, “There are two times during which the gates of heaven are opened. Rarely is the *duʿā* of someone rejected at these times: when the call to prayer sounds and when standing in battle ranks for the cause of Allah.”[^2] While obligated to exert every worldly effort to achieve their objectives and advocate for their causes, Muslims also hold deep faith in the spiritual efficacy of *duʿā* and continual reliance on Allah’s support. This spiritual strength becomes especially evident during moments of conflict and fear. Integral to our belief in the unseen is the concept of the “soldiers of Allah,” a Qur’anic term that repeatedly illustrates the divine assistance provided to believers through angels or various natural phenomena. Belief and sincerity are catalysts for invoking divine support capable of achieving miracles. When the soldiers of Ṭālūt (or the biblical King Saul), who had remained after Ṭālūt tested them with the command to not drink from a river despite their thirst, faced the threat of Goliath and his overwhelming forces, Ṭālūt reminded them of Allah’s universal rule (*sunna*): “How often has a small force, with God’s permission, defeated a larger army! God is with those who are steadfast.”[^3] Ṭālūt did not convey this sentiment while relying solely on mystical feelings; instead, his reliance on Allah was grounded in careful planning and thoughtful consideration. He spoke these words after leading his army into action and testing his soldiers’ commitment and discipline. In the critical moment of confrontation, all that remained for him was *duʿā*. This pivotal moment saw both Ṭālūt and his soldiers earnestly invoking Allah’s support: “Our Lord, pour patience on us, make us stand firm, and help us against the disbelievers.” Recognizing the sincerity of Ṭālūt’s small army after enduring numerous challenges, Allah granted them victory. Notably, the Qur’an emphasizes that this triumph occurred solely “with God’s permission.” After recounting this story, Allah reminds us of another universal *sunna*: “If God did not drive some back by means of others, the earth would be completely corrupt, but God is gracious to all.”[^4] The *sunna* of Allah endures throughout history. Centuries later, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions found themselves in a comparable predicament during the Battle of Badr—slightly over 300, inadequately armed, confronting an army of 1000. Despite the Prophet’s demanding responsibility of leading the army and overseeing the battle, numerous reports highlight his fervent *duʿā* during the conflict. Witnesses recount seeing him face the direction to prayer (*qibla*), hands outstretched, draped in his upper and lower garments, imploring: > O Allah, accomplish for me what You have promised to me. O Allah, fulfill what You have promised! O Allah, if this small band of Muslims is vanquished, Your worship will cease on earth.[^5] The Prophet fervently beseeched Allah, persisting in *duʿā* until his upper garment slipped from his shoulders. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be well-pleased with him, approached him, retrieved the garment, and placed it back on him. Embracing him from behind, Abū Bakr reassured him: “O Prophet of Allah, your prayer to your Lord will suffice, for He will fulfill what He has promised you.” It was then that Allah revealed the words: “When you implored your Lord for assistance, He answered, ‘I will reinforce you with a thousand angels in succession.' God made this a message of hope to reassure your hearts: help comes only from God, He is Almighty and All-Wise.”[^6] In al-Bukhārī’s version of the above incident, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, > O Allah! I ask you for the fulfillment of Your covenant and promise. O Allah! If You will (to destroy the believers), You will never be worshiped after today.[^7] Abū Bakr caught him by the hand and said, “This is sufficient, O Messenger of Allah! You have asked Allah intensely.” The Prophet ﷺ was clad in his armor at that time. He went out, saying: “Their forces will be routed and they will turn tail and flee. But the Hour is their appointed time—the Hour is more severe and bitter.”[^8] The Prophet was also heard saying, > O Allah, this is Quraysh, who have come with their arrogance and pride, opposing and denying Your Messenger. O Allah, grant me the victory You promised. O Allah, make them perish this morning*.*[^9] Expressing concern for his companions, he was also heard saying, “O Allah, they are on foot, provide mount for them; O Allah, they are naked, clothe them; O Allah, they are hungry, provide food for them.”[^10] Furthermore, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may Allah be well-pleased with him, said, > On the day of Badr, I engaged in some fighting, then I hurried to see how the Messenger of Allah was doing. I found him in prostration, saying, “O Ever-Living, O Sustainer!” (*yā Ḥayy yā Qayyūm*) repeating these words and not saying more. I returned to the battle, then came back, and he was still in prostration, saying the same words. I went back to fight, then returned, and he was still saying that. Then Allah granted him victory.[^11] Scholars have extensively pondered the reactions of the Prophet and Abū Bakr during this critical moment. Some have emphasized the Prophet’s embodiment of fear (*khawf*) at that juncture, while Abū Bakr exemplified a state of hope (*rajāʾ*). Both approaches are commendable, yet it is essential to clarify that Abū Bakr’s response does not imply greater confidence in Allah’s promise than the Prophet’s. The Prophet, deeply concerned about his companions, particularly as they faced their first significant physical encounter with enemies, also harbored worries about the future of the entire ummah. This concern is palpable in his supplication: “If You will (to destroy the believers), You will never be worshiped after today.” Furthermore, the Prophet engaged in extensive *duʿā*, not only expressing his concerns but also intending to instill confidence in his companions. Their witnessing of the Prophet’s fervent supplication likely contributed to their reassurance, knowing that his *duʿā* holds significant weight with Allah. Additionally, Abū Bakr’s reaction can be seen as a response to the Prophet’s visible exhaustion, reflecting his understanding of the Prophet’s deep concern. A related report highlights that the Prophet spent the entire night before the battle engaged in fervent supplication, underscoring the gravity of the moment.[^12] Simultaneously, the Prophet was renowned for his profound courage. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (rA) recounted how they used to seek shelter by drawing close to the Prophet during the Battle of Badr, as he positioned himself closest to the enemy. On that day, the Prophet stood out as “one of the most formidable individuals.”[^13] The harmonious equilibrium of exerting effort while relying on Allah is eloquently depicted by Abū al-Qāsim al-Suhaylī (d. 581/1185), > As for the Prophet's intense dedication and his fervor in supplication, he witnessed the angels being steadfast in battle, with Gabriel (Jibrīl) covered in dust on his sides. The ‘allies of Allah’ (*anṣār Allah*) engaged fearlessly in the face of death. Jihad takes two forms: the physical jihad with the sword and the spiritual jihad through supplication. It is a *sunna* for the Leader (imam) to be positioned behind the army, not engaging in combat with them. Everyone exerted themselves in dedication, with no one seeking respite from the fervor of the two struggles and jihads. The allies of Allah and His angels were engaged in intense effort, without giving preference to rest. The party of Allah, alongside their adversaries, remained steadfast.[^14] Furthermore, hadith compilers dedicated chapters to reports recounting *duʿā* against enemies to be defeated and shaken. During the Battle of the Confederates (*aḥzāb*), when several Arab tribes besieged Medina with the aim of uprooting the entire Muslim community, the Prophet prayed, “O Allah, Revealer of the Book, Swift to account, defeat the Confederates. O Allah, defeat them and shake them.”[^15] In the face of numerical inferiority against the Confederates and amidst betrayal from neighboring tribes, the Prophet and his companions were bestowed a significant triumph by Allah, achieved without resorting to full-scale combat. Nonetheless, it was still called a “battle” to commemorate Allah’s soldiers, including the angels, the wind, and preceding them, the sincerity, hard work, and *duʿā* of the believers. --- ## The Legislation of the Duʿā of Calamities in Prayer (Qunūt al-Nawāzil) In 4/625, a few months after the martyrdom of 70 companions in the battle of Uḥud, about 80 other companions who were known as the *qurrāʾ* (master Qur’an memorizers and reciters) were deceitfully martyred in the two expeditions of al-Rajīʿ (a well eight miles away from Asfan) and Biʾr Maʿūna (a well in Hijaz whose exact location is not well-identified). These 80 companions were sent by the Prophet upon the request of some non-Muslim tribes to teach their people the Qur’an and the basics of Islam. Al-Rajīʿ is the tragic story of a cunning plot by the ʿAḍal and Qārra tribes, who killed eight of the Prophet’s ten envoys and handed the other two to Quraysh who killed them in continuation of their revenge campaign against the Muslims. Before receiving the news about al-Rajīʿ’s group, the Prophet sent 70 companions to the Arab leader Mālik b. ʿĀmir, who had requested a group of *qurrāʾ* to teach his people. Mālik rejected the Prophet’s invitation to become Muslim but showed interest in learning more about Islam alongside his people. Despite the Prophet’s reluctance to dispatch his companions in such large numbers to the region of Najd, which at the time hosted many of his enemies, he honored the protection (*jiwār*) promised by Mālik. Dishonorably, Mālik’s nephew, ʿĀmir b. al-Ṭufayl, called upon some of his allies to kill the entire group while it was camped around the well of Maʿūna. Sixty-nine of them were killed; only one injured survivor was able to make it back to Medina, where he died a couple of years later.[^16] Many supernatural wonders (*karāmāt*) that these companions experienced before and after death are widely documented in prophetic biography (*sīra*) literature. The passing of these companions grievously saddened the Prophet. Anas, may Allah be well-pleased with him, said, > Never did I see the Messenger of Allah in so much grief \[at the loss of a\] small army as I saw him in grief for those 70 men who were called *qurrāʾ* (and were killed) at the well of Maʿūna; and he invoked curses for a full month upon their murderers.[^17] The Prophet made *duʿā* against certain individuals who plotted the tragedy of the well Maʿūna by name. He made *duʿā* against ʿĀmr ibn al-Ṭufayl, who had threatened the Prophet himself, for thirty days, saying, “O Allah, protect me from ʿĀmr ibn al-Ṭufayl as You will, and send upon him a punishment that will destroy him.” In another version, the Prophet said, “O Allah, protect me from ʿĀmr ibn al-Ṭufayl and guide his people.” Allah then inflicted upon ʿĀmr a plague that led to his demise.[^18] Numerous other hadiths record the Prophet’s sorrow and his supplications against those and other tribes. His companion Khufāf b. Īmāʾ narrated, > The Prophet of Allah bowed down (performed *rukūʿ*) and, upon raising his head, said: “\[The tribe of\] Ghifār, Allah has forgiven them. \[The tribe of\] Aslam, Allah has granted them safety. \[The tribe of\] ʿUsayya, has disobeyed Allah and His Messenger. O Allah, invoke your curse upon the tribes of Liḥyān, Riʿl, and Dhakwan.” Then, he prostrated.[^19] The Prophet’s invocation continued for a month, as narrated by Anas: “The Prophet performed the supplication of *qunūt* (lit. devotion) for one month after rising from the *rukūʿ* position, invoking curse on some Arab tribes. Afterwards, he stopped.”[^20] The Prophet also performed *qunūt* in response to other calamities. When Quraysh obstructed a group of companions from migrating to Medina, subjecting them to restraint and torture, the Prophet was deeply affected by their predicament. Faced with the inability to personally intervene and rectify their plight, he turned to Allah, invoking their names and fervently praying for their release while supplicating for divine retribution upon Quraysh. Abū Hurayra narrated, > When the Prophet raised his head from the final *rakʿah* of the *Fajr* prayer, he said: “O Allah, protect al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd, Salama ibn Hishām, ʿAyyāsh b. Abī Rabīʿa, and those oppressed in Mecca. O Allah, intensify Your grip on \[the tribe of\] Muḍar, and show them years similar to the years of \[Prophet\] Joseph (Yūsuf).”[^21] The Prophet’s *qunūt*, which reflected his deep grief over his companions, was not due to a lack of contentment with their passing. Rather, as Shāfiʿī jurist and legal theory (*uṣūl*) specialist, al-Isnawī (d. 772/1370) points out, the Prophet’s motive to make *qunūt* was to “avert the rebellion of \[those\] killers and offset  the calamity of the Muslims by seeking successors for them as they were \[a group of\] brave *qurrāʾ*.”[^22] Moreover, scholars maintained that the practice of *qunūt al-nawāzil*, or the supplicatory prayer during ‘momentous events’ like calamities and war, does not contradict the praiseworthy individual pursuit of martyrdom (*shahāda*), as *qunūt* generally encompasses seeking Allah’s support to alleviate calamity and resist oppression. It is important to note that as the Prophet earnestly prayed against Quraysh and others in certain instances, he also supplicated for them in different situations, tailoring his prayers to the circumstances. Hadith supreme master, Imam al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870), who dedicated a chapter to “The Supplication against the Polytheists for Shaking and Destruction,” also dedicated a chapter to “The Supplication for the Polytheists with a Request for Guidance to Reconcile their Hearts.” A later erudite hadith master, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449), remarked on al-Bukhārī’s systematic approach to this issue, seeing it as a reflection of the latter’s careful attention to the Prophet’s practices. Ibn Ḥajar further noted that the Prophet would pray against his enemies when their severity and harm intensified and pray for them when there was hope for understanding and reconciliation with them.[^23] --- ## How to Practice Qunūt al-Nawāzil Having underscored the power of *duʾā* through numerous incidents in the Prophetic tradition and Qur’anic narratives, with a special emphasis on the significance of *qunūt* during times of adversity, we now turn to explain the details of how to perform *qunūt al-nawāzil*, and some of the legal differences therein. *Qunūt*, in the Arabic language, refers to several meanings including praise, *duʿā* (either for or against someone or something), obedience, and humility. In the Islamic legal tradition, it has acquired the specific meaning of an invocation (*dhikr*), encompassing both praising Allah and making *duʾā* to Him during prayer. Subject to juristic differences of opinion regarding its legality, when to perform during prayer, and the performative style, *qunūt* is recommended or allowed to be performed in Dawn (*fajr*) and ‘Odd Number’ (*witr*) prayers, as well as in some or all prayers during times of calamities affecting Muslims. Upon examining all hadiths related to *qunūt*, jurists have held varied opinions on the specific details of *qunūt al-nawāzil*. While the formal stance of the Mālikī school does not consider it a *sunna*, the Ḥanafī, Shāfiʾī and Ḥanbalī schools allow or recommend it, differing in identifying the prayers in which it can be performed. Jurists also diverged on whether *qunūt* should be recited aloud or to oneself, and on whether it should be performed before bowing (*rukūʿ*) or after rising from it. Since the Shāfīʿī school is considered the most permissive in this regard, their rulings on *qunūt al-nawāzil* can be summarized as follows. According to the Shāfiʿī school, *qunūt al-nawāzil* is recommended in all obligatory prayers. Eminent scholar and Shāfiʿī jurists, Imam al-Nawawī (d. 766/1277) asserted, “When a calamity such as an enemy attack, drought, epidemic, thirst, evident harm, or something similar afflicts the Muslims, they \[are recommended to\] perform *qunūt* in all obligatory prayers.”[^24] This also includes the Friday prayer. Moreover, with the exception of funeral prayer, where *qunūt al-nawāzil* is deemed reprehensible (*makrūh*), it is allowed but not recommended during the supererogatory (*sunna*) prayers. Shāfiʿī jurists did not limit the definition of a ‘calamity’ eligible for the recommendation of *qunūt al-nawāzil* to one that befalls all or a large group of Muslims. Instead, they held that *qunūt al-nawāzil* is considered a *sunnah* even if the calamity has befallen a single Muslim, provided that the individual holds benefit beyond themselves extending to the whole community, such as a scholar or a courageous person upon whom the community relies. Additionally, *qunūt al-nawāzil* is not exclusively recommended for those directly affected by it; Muslims worldwide should engage in it to express their shared concern and endeavor to fulfill their communal obligations towards one another. Furthermore, *qunūt al-nawāzil* can be practiced in response to a potential threat from an enemy, even if they are Muslims. No authorization from the authorities is necessary for the validity of practicing this *sunna*. According to the Shāfiʿī school, *qunūt* is to be performed after rising from *rukūʿ* and can be undertaken in congregation or individually. While specific supplications are recommended for other types of *qunūt*, there is no particular one reported for *qunūt al-nawāzil*. Following the aforementioned prophetic practice, it is advised to generally implore Allah for the alleviation of calamities, His support for the oppressed, and His retribution against oppressors. If practiced in congregation, the *duʿā* should be of a reasonable length, taking into consideration those who may not endure standing for an extended period. If an entire congregation agrees on a specific duration, it is acceptable to prolong the *duʿā*. As in all forms of *duʿā*, the positioning of hands during *qunūt* depends on the particular objectives of the prayer, mirroring the spiritual disposition of the one beseeching Allah. When seeking relief from a calamity, it is recommended to turn the back of the hands towards the heavens. When seeking the attainment of something, it is recommended to raise the palms towards the heavens, such as beseeching the removal of the calamity for the remaining span of one’s life. Considering the distress induced by the calamity, it is recommended to recite the *duʿā* audibly in all circumstances (whether an individual is praying alone or in a congregation, and whether the prayer incorporating *qunūt* is an audible or inaudible prayer). The congregational observance of *qunūt al-nawāzil* reflects a communal commitment to self-care and shared causes, embodying the prophetic ideal of the Muslim community described as, “The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion, and sympathy are like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever.”[^25] Although prostration (*sujūd*) is deemed more suitable for *duʿā*, being the closest state between an individual and Allah as stated by the Prophet, the practice of *qunūt* is associated with *rukūʿ*. According to Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, this is likely because *qunūt* is viewed as a communal practice, involving the entire congregation. Even if the followers in a lead congregational prayer (sing. *maʾmūm*) merely say “*āmīn*” to the imam’s *duʿā*, the collective act of prayer, in congregation, with a diverse group of Muslims uniting in submission and sincerity to Allah while seeking His help, enhances the likelihood of the *duʿā* being accepted. Muslims today continue the practice of *qunūt al-nawāzil*, collectively turning to Allah, thereby demonstrating their concern for one another and fulfilling their duty to support oppressed Muslims worldwide, at the very least by remembering them in their *duʿā*. --- ## Some Examples of Duʿā in Qunūt al-Nawāzil: اللهم إنا نستعينك ونستهديك، ونستغفرك ونتوب إليك، ونؤمن بك ونتوكل عليك، ونثني عليك الخير كله، نشكرك ولا نكفرك، ونخلع ونترك من يفجرك. O Allah, we seek Your assistance and guidance. We ask for Your forgiveness and sincerely repent to You. We firmly believe in You and place our trust entirely in You. We praise You for all the goodness that is inherent to You. We express our gratitude and strive not to be ungrateful for Your blessings. We forsake and distance ourselves from those who reject You. اللهم إياكَ نعبد، ولك نصلي ونسجد، وإليك نسعى ونحفد، نرجو رحمتك ونخشى عذابك، إن عذابك الجد بالكفار ملحق. O Allah, You alone do we worship, and to You we pray and prostrate. We dedicate our efforts to You, striving in Your worship. We earnestly hope for Your mercy while being fearful of Your punishment, Certainly Your punishment befalls the disbelievers. اللهم احفظنا، وارحمنا، وانصرنا، وفرج كربنا وكرب المسلمين، اللهم اكفنا والمسلمين شر مصائب الدنيا والدين، أصلحنا وأصلح من في صلاحه صلاح المسلمين، لا تهلكنا، وأهلك من في هلاكه صلاح المسلمين. اللهم اسقنا الرحمة واللطف والعافية والبركة ولا تجعلنا من المحرومين. O Allah, protect us, show us mercy, grant us victory, alleviate our distress, and the distress of all Muslims. Shield us and all Muslims from the evils of the calamities in this worldly and religious affairs. Guide us to rectitude, and guide those whose rectification brings goodness to Muslims. Spare us from destruction, and let those whose removal brings benefit to the Muslims face it. O Allah, shower us with Your mercy, gentleness, well-being, and blessings, and do not deprive us of Your favors. اللهم اصرف عنا وعن المسلمين الأذى والمحن والجور والظلم وكل البلايا والأمراض والفتن والضلال والجهل ما ظهر منها وما بطن. اللهم أنجِ المستضعفين والمكروبين والمظلومين من المسلمين، واكلأهم واحفظهم وأمدهم وتولهم واهدهم ووفقهم لما تحبه وترضاه. O Allah, lift and turn away from us and from the Muslims harm, calamities, oppression, injustice, and all kinds of afflictions, diseases, deviations, misguidance, and ignorance, whether apparent or hidden. O Allah, save the weak, the distressed, and the oppressed among the Muslims. Provide for them, protect them, support them, care for them, guide them, and grant them success in what You love and are pleased with. اللهم الطف بنا وبهم فيما يجري به القضاء، واصرف عنا وعنهم شر الطغاة والظلمة والفاسدين ومن عاونهم عاجلا غير آجل في عافية وسلامة يا أرحم الراحمين. O Allah, Grant us and them success in what is ordained, and divert from us and them the evil of tyrants, oppressors, corruptors, and those who aid and abet them. O Allah, act quickly, without delay, in well-being and safety through Your mercy, O Most Merciful of the merciful. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 2540. [^2]: Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, no. 661. [^3]: Qur’an 2:249. [^4]: Qur’an 2:249–51. The concept is illustrated in historical events such as Ṭālūt assisting the Children of Israel, highlighting the need for checks and balances between nations to maintain justice and prevent widespread decay. This underscores the importance of one group counterbalancing another for societal well-being. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1724. [^6]: Qur’an 8:9–10; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1724. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2915. [^8]: Qur’an 54:45–46; *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2915. [^9]: ʿAbd al-Malik Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīra al-nabawiyya*, ed. Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā et al., 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 2:273; Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-rusul wal-mulūk*, ed. Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, 2nd ed., 11 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1967), 2:440–41. [^10]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 2747; al-Ḥākim al-Naysabūrī, *al-Mustadrak*, no. 2633, who graded it as authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. [^11]: Aḥmad b. ʿAmr al-Bazzār, *Musnad al-Bazzār*, no. 662. [^12]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 825. [^13]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 656. [^14]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī bi sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. ʿAbdulʿazīz Ibn Bāz et al., 13 vols. (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Salafuyya, n.d.), 7:289. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6392; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1742. [^16]: See for instance, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād fī sīrat khayr al-ʿibād*, ed. Fahīm Shaltūt et al., 12 vols. (Cairo: al-Majlis al-Aʿlā li-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1992), 6:97–100. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 677f. [^18]: Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa wa maʿrifat aḥwāl ṣāḥib al-sharīʿa*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Qalʿajī, 7 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1988), 5:318–22; Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya wa al-nihāya*, 5th ed., 15 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1988), 5:57–58. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 679b. [^20]: *Ṣaḥiḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4089. [^21]: *Ṣaḥiḥ al-Bukhārī*., no. 6200; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 675. [^22]: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Isnawī, *al-Muhimmāt fī sharḥ al-rawḍah wa al-Rāfiʿī*, ed. Aḥmad ʿAlī, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Hazm, 2009), 3:81. [^23]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī*, 6:108. [^24]: Yaḥyā b. Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1972), 5:176. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2586. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-gaza-is-restoring-faith-in-god-and-saving-the-world-essay # How Gaza is Restoring Faith in God and Saving the World | Essay **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** January 19, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 The people of Gaza have become a living miracle. Their will to survive, and not only survive, but to persist and resist has sent shock waves around the world. It has awakened not only the Muslim masses but given hope to humanity itself. Hope for a new world, it has become evident, has come not from the shining capitals, technological feats, or trillion-dollar schemes, but from the rubble of Gaza. How could this be? Seeing their determination and strength, the Muslim ummah across the world is awakening. But not just Muslims or Arabs. Humanity at large has not sung songs of love and joined hands like it has for Palestine, despite the greatest machinery of deception and propaganda that history has ever seen. The entire formerly colonized world and the young generations and the dispossessed masses of even the colonizers have found their faith in humanity. Lest we forget this moment, let’s record a glimpse of it. “I am not religious … but if Jesus was around today, where would he be?! Playing with his phone on a Hilton rooftop in Tel Aviv! … or down in the rubble with dead children in Gaza?!” reads one tweet. A woman says in disbelief upon watching the clips of people burying their children: “They have such peace, they say \[to their dead or dying\], ‘We will see you in the other life.’” She breaks down crying, whispering, “and they are up against monsters.” “All praise is Allah’s” says one young Gazan man in a shaking voice with swollen eyes, repeating what his friend reminded him to say, standing against the backdrop of bombed buildings, having lost everything. “This is our share of this world,” he added. The eyes do not lie, the grief and loss in his eyes is unbearable even as he forces a smile on his handsome face. A mother sends off her son, praying, “My beloved son Ibrahim, dearer to me than my life, I send him now to his Creator who loves him.” Another man, after losing his two sons and much else in the same days, is heard saying, “Allah created us and takes us, He does what He wills. We, thanks to Allah, are going to be patient.” An American woman comments on these scenes, “Palestinians are doing everything that it says about Job doing in the Bible.” Another TikToker notes, “I have not seen any clip of the Palestinians cursing the Jewish people or the Israelis. These are people of God.” Or imagine a 10-year-old boy reciting the Qur’an beautifully to overcome the pain as doctors operate on his head without anesthesia, as another clip shows. Breaking down uncontrollably in tears, another TikToker comments, “What is this faith, with such an indomitable hope?!” Another observes, “That’s something that people don’t get to see often. Definitely not here in the West. The result of that is that I have seen so many people pick up the Qur’an on social media.”[^1] Of course, the children of Gaza being bombed to smithereens today, their limbs and hearts bursting in pain, may not quite see what they have accomplished. They would deserve our support in action, speech, and prayers even if they had done none of that. But perhaps simply acknowledging and celebrating their beautiful trust in God, their simultaneous embrace of life and fearlessness in the face of death and cruelty, their love for their people and their land, their sheer resolve to protect their deen, and the sacred mosque of al-Aqsa, can be a beginning, if only a drop in the ocean, of repaying our debt to them. It is only due to their strange faith in the ummah, and humanity at large that, even after decades of betrayal by their Arab and Muslim neighbors, and the relentless oppression by the settler-colonial entity and its old colonial masters in the West, they insist on recording their suffering, hoping against hope that there is still goodness. Even as the heartless, merciless enemy violates every moral and divine law known to man and rains down hell on them, blowing their homes and their loved ones to pieces, kidnapping and torturing their children in prisons in the thousands without charge or explanation, they refuse to give up. When their cowardly enemy armed to the teeth against their rocks and home-made weapons, given full immunity to commit genocide by the great powers in the world, fills the world with lies and deception, they still do not lose hope, give in, or run away. They respond by simply recording on their phones their sheer faith and humanity. They have invented new weapons that rightly make the world’s tyrants tremble. Countless people across the world, with their God-given light, have seen the miracle of Gaza, and are turning to the Qur’an and Islam to drink from the same well. The source of faith and hope on which the Gazans draw is not of this world. Their examples remind believers across the world of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. --- ## The Secret to Palestinian Faith ### 1\. It is the heart I have heard faithful Muslims in recent years often remind each other of the report of the Beloved Prophet ﷺ that answers the question: Where does weakness come from? It goes like this: “I fear that people will invite each other against you like they invite each other to share a dish.” When asked if that will be because Muslims will be too few in number, he prophesied, “No, you will be great in number, but your numbers will be worthless, like debris carried by a flood.” When asked why, he said that the Muslims would suffer from *al-wahan*, a kind of weakness, which he attributed, when asked for further clarification, to “Love of this world and hatred of death.”[^2] The Messenger of Allah ﷺ teaches that weakness does not lie in numbers, in material wealth, or in the affairs of the mind, but that ultimately it lies in the heart, in the weakness of faith. ### 2\. Loving life, but loving God more All humans love life and hate death. When speaking of His closest allies, *awliya*, Allah declares in a divine report (hadith *qudsi*) that “I hesitate in nothing like I do in taking the soul of the believer; he hates death, and I hate causing him pain.”[^3] When Muslim warriors say to their foes, as they have throughout history, that “We love death like you love life,” they do not mean they do not value life, but that they do not value it above God and God’s pleasure. They truly know that life is precious and sweet only because they know its source. They love life, but they love the Creator more; they hate death, but they hate losing God more. In contrast, those who have lost God, the source of life and its beauty, are drawn by their materialism to a life of nihilism and hedonism, but their God-given nature tugs them to something higher, which is why the spectacle of Palestinian faith is so revolutionary to them. The believers are different: they ought to know better. When they love this life more than God, they are not just let loose, but earn divine wrath; they become weightless like debris carried against their will by floodwaters. This is the true source of Palestinian strength: they, perhaps because of enduring the last two decades of oppression and endless torture in the Zionist concentration camp, have remembered their Lord’s original covenant. The Most Merciful Lord, we can be certain, loves His allies and hates the pain they have to endure, but He promises, and they remember: > Do not count those who are killed in God’s path among the dead: they are alive with their Lord, being nourished, > > Rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty, and rejoicing for those after them who have not yet joined them—that there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. (3:169-70) The Gazan men, women, and children show us the true meaning of these teachings. When they embrace struggle and resistance rather than humiliation and helplessness, when they declare that their commitment to their faith and its sanctities is greater than their love of life and fear of death, their weakness is replaced by strength. ### 3\. A believer is his brother’s mirror Why have the Palestinians so deeply touched the strings of the Muslim heart across the world? Because as believers, we are all the same. The Messenger of God ﷺ said, “A believer is his brother’s mirror; he supports his livelihood and always has his back.”[^4] This teaching of the Prophet ﷺ is an incredible tiding and encouragement, for it reminds us, even as we hang our heads in shame for being unable to stand between them and the raining bombs, that every Muslim has the same reservoir of faith, strength, and joyous hope in Allah that shines through the Gazans today. Whoever believes and declares “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” instantaneously joins the same fraternity and partakes of the same strength, if they would only tap into it. The hadith means, furthermore, that when believers see others, they understand them, they take heart in their strengths because they too possess the same, and if they find anything lacking in others, they attend to their own behavior, knowing they may have the same tendencies. One does not look into the mirror as the other, but as oneself. They give them advice with the sincerity and wisdom that they would like to receive it with, loving for their brethren what they love for themselves. ### 4\. Do not think it is bad for you, rather, it is good for you! What is this saying that pious Muslims often repeat whenever something terrible happens? Unlike other people who have been oppressed, believing Muslims do not complain of their fate or embrace victimhood. The upbeat, hopeful attitude in Gaza that exudes gratitude and grit, even under murderous injustice and betrayal, is the character of a true Muslim. The origin of this saying is a Qur’anic verse revealed when, in addition to being surrounded by the pagan tribes (*aḥzāb*) of all of Arabia, the Muslim community felt devastated by a campaign of lies directed at impugning the Prophet’s ﷺ own beloved wife (rA): “Do not think it is bad for you, rather it is good for you!” (24:11). Just like the Palestinians today, the blessed community of the Final Messenger ﷺ and the messengers before him felt “shaken, until they cried out, 'When will the help of Allah \[arrive\]?'” Only then Allah answered, “Lo, the help of Allah is near” (2:214). Gazans, like all believers, know even when facing a genocidal juggernaut that it is not the world’s militaries, the media, the courts, human rights advocates, or so-called superpowers, but the Almighty alone who can protect them and has their affairs in His hands. He alone decides what is good for them. And so long as we hold on to our faith, all tests and trials are good for us. Muslim scholars today agree that it is an obligation upon all Muslim governments across the world to come to their aid, and upon every individual Muslim with any capacity anywhere in the world to support them to the best of their ability. The Gazans have succeeded in their test so far with flying colors; the rest of us, on the other hand, must fear the day when we will be asked about how we helped the oppressed. ### 5\. Faith in God, not in numbers: Many a small army has beaten a mighty one! The Qur’anic story of Saul and David (that is, Prophet Dāwūd, upon him be peace), which differs in key respects from the Biblical one, captures the essence of the Qur’anic teachings on fighting mighty enemies. The followers of Moses (Musa, upon him be peace), after his death, ask their prophet to appoint a king for them like other nations, so that they can fight in Allah’s path. The prophet (unnamed in the Qur’an, but Samuel, according to 1 Samuel 15 in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible) prays to Allah on the condition that they will not shy away from jihad when called upon. The king chosen by Allah is Tālūt (the biblical Saul), for his strength and wisdom. They object to his lack of wealth, but they begrudgingly relent after Allah shows them a sign. The new king leads them to a mighty enemy (not described in the Qur’an, except one warrior named Jālūt, or Goliath), but tests them by forbidding them to drink from the river they were crossing. Most of them disobey, and as a result are terrified when they face the mighty enemy that greatly outnumbered them. The few obedient ones, however, show courage, and utter to their cowardly and disobedient brethren this golden message of hope and faith: “How many a small army has beaten a mighty one, by Allah’s leave, and Allah is always with the steadfast.” (2:249) In the Qur’an, this is the message: obedience and faith give you courage to work miracles and beat mighty armies. This is what drives the Palestinians. This is their secret. In the Old Testament account, unfortunately, the spirit of the story is entirely different. Allegedly, Saul and his people are told to destroy everything and “kill both men and women, children and infants, ox and sheep, camels and donkeys” (1 Samuel 15:2-3). This was the biblical command that Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, invoked to justify the genocide of the Palestinians.[^5] The Qur’an teaches that the Bible (the Old and New Testaments) has been corrupted by human alteration, yet also contains important kernels of truth and is to be honored. Clearly, for Muslims, this story is a candidate for outright rejection, as it directly contradicts the Qur’anic laws of war and the Prophet’s ﷺ teachings and practice, explained at length in our other articles.[^6] ### 6\. Allah does not love oppressors Before we finish off this brief essay, it is worth asking why Allah allows oppression to happen if He hates it? Why do oppressors roam freely in the world, from the Pharaohs of the past to today’s superpowers, to exploit the poor, destroy the earth, and then, to add insult to injury, write the history books to cast themselves as the saviors? A Muslim knows that the oppressors never truly prosper, that this life is short and transient. No story is complete here, for there is a Day of Recompense that will set right all the wrongs. The Almighty does not love the oppressors, but uses them to raise the ranks of the believers, purify their souls, remind them of their need for Him, and enhance their knowledge of truth and of His power, so that they know and love Him and rely on Him. In other words, so that people of resolve, like the people of Gaza today, could be born, and radiate faith in God in which the rest of humanity could bask. --- ## Conclusion: Hope lives in Gaza In the good old 1950s, when all kinds of fascinating but cruel animal experiments were carried out, Curt Richter of Johns Hopkins placed a bunch of mice in a large trough of water to test their resilience. Even though mice are strong swimmers, they on average lasted for about 15 minutes before drowning. In the next round, our scientist took out some mice just when they were about to drown, and after some rest and food, placed them back in the trough. How long do you think they could go on this time? Not 30 minutes, or 60 minutes, or 120 minutes, but a full 60 hours. They kept on swimming for two and half days. That is a full 240 times longer than the first batch! The difference was that the second group had tasted hope. Their little brains stored the memory of being saved if only they kept trying long enough. The people of Gaza know, as only true believers can, that they have a Lord who will save them and, no matter the horrors and afflictions this life hands them, they can almost taste the bliss of the hospitality in the afterlife of a Just and Merciful Lord. --- ## Notes [^1]: For one compilation of Gazan Muslims’ responses to their suffering, and some reactions to them, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XusmrbH9kbg. [^2]: Abū Dawūd # 4297, K. al-Malāḥim, graded saḥīḥ or ḥasan. [^3]: *Bukhārī # 6502, K. al-Riqāq.* [^4]: al-Bukhārī, *Saḥīḥ al-Adab al-Mufrad*; Abū Dāwūd #4918, K. al-Adab, graded *ḥasan*. [^5]: Noah Lanard, “The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu’s Amalek Rhetoric,”  [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1705620168794102&usg=AOvVaw1-KFimaoMaw0k9Duhk26QW) [^6]: Hassan Shibli, “War, Islam, and the Sanctity of Life: Non-Aggression in the Islamic Code of Combat,” [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/war-islam-and-the-sanctity-of-life-non-aggression-in-the-islamic-code-of-combat](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/war-islam-and-the-sanctity-of-life-non-aggression-in-the-islamic-code-of-combat%23ftnt_ref9&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1705620168794469&usg=AOvVaw26YaWgRcIXQfEvyPccoQaq) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/going-back-to-dates-and-milk-palestinian-resistance-and-living-with-less-essay # Going Back to Dates and Milk: Palestinian Resistance and Living with Less | Essay **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** January 9, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 I stood in the basement with my landlord, the lights from our phones bobbing over the hot water heater which had suddenly stopped working in late November. Not having hot water isn’t a huge deal, but in this particular house the heating system runs off the hot water heater, so no hot water also means no heat at the time of year where night-time temperatures dip well below freezing. I had already gone through the steps of trying to restart the fully automatic system. My landlord was slightly less systematic, unplugging and replugging cords at random. He explained how the system worked and where the various wires, hoses, and ducts went, before concluding that the motor wasn’t working at all and that it would have to be replaced. Of course, these days, my mind is with the people of Gaza. No heat is just the beginning of their worries; there is an acute shortage of potable water, medicine, and fuel. People dodge IOF sniper fire to get to grocery stores whose shelves are empty, then narrowly avoid missiles as they make their way back to their homes, which are likely destroyed and reduced to rubble. As I stood in the basement, I also started thinking about the modern lifestyle, built around convenience, and what it takes to maintain it. Computerized hot water heaters maintain a certain temperature so that hot water is available constantly, on demand. HVAC systems do the same with our air, maintaining 24/7 climate control. Electric wiring does the same for lighting, making light available on demand. Refrigeration does the same for our food, saving us from a daily trip to the market, making sure that food is constantly available on demand right at home. It all requires exorbitant amounts of energy to maintain; the Energy Information Administration reports that in 2021 the US population consumed about 16% of the world’s energy despite making up less than 5% of the world’s population. All this convenience, despite attempting to provide security, also entails a specific type of vulnerability, what some scholars term “deskilling.” Going to the grocery store instead of the garden frees up time but also frees us from needing to know how to grow our own food. Refrigeration frees us from needing to know exactly how much food is enough, as well as from all the communal bonds that are resuscitated by a daily trip to the market. Constantly available artificial light frees us from darkness but also from following the natural circadian rhythm, throwing our bodies out of sync. Temperature-controlled air and water frees us from the knowledge of how much fuel one needs to heat one’s food and warm one’s body, and thus the types of interactions that would generate the requisite gratitude for such blessings. All this ran through my mind as the landlord plugged and unplugged cords. Then I thought about how the latest Israeli rampage, ostensibly to eradicate Hamas, is clearly an attempt to exterminate not just the people of Gaza but also all traces of modern life. Water desalination plants, hospitals, bakeries, roads, and schools have all been not just indiscriminately attacked but intentionally targeted. Suddenly starting to feel the cold, I slowly realized that if I were in that situation, my dependency on modern conveniences would leave me extremely vulnerable. Yet the resourceful people of Gaza continue to survive, play, laugh, and get married. Videos show people trapping rainwater in plastic tarps, the rainwater Israel arrogantly claims to own. We see people making bread in clay ovens or making makeshift ovens out of old olive oil tins, a mix of old ways and new improvisations. The people of Gaza have not been deskilled; they resist. Much conversation lately has revolved around what the people of Gaza are teaching us, especially in the realm of faith. And while we don’t wish to romanticize hardship, we also shouldn’t underestimate what their resilience and resourcefulness can teach us about political power, as counterintuitive as that might sound. The late King Faisal became a legend for standing up to the Western powers during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war by spearheading the oil embargo of 1973-74. He famously said, “You are the ones who can’t live without oil. You know, we come from the desert, and our ancestors lived on dates and milk and we can easily go back and live like that again.” When one becomes dependent on convenience, weakness will eventually result. The Children of Israel demonstrated this when they left Egypt. Despite having endured the horrors of slavery under Pharaoh, they had been lulled into a false sense of security by the variety of food they used to enjoy. Once free and in the wilderness, they began complaining to Moses about the lack of variety in their food: > O Moses, we can never endure one \[kind of\] food. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us from the earth its green herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions. (Qur’an 2:61) Moses fittingly told them to go back to being slaves if that is all they wanted from this world. The minor convenience of having a variety of food at their disposal had made them so weak that freedom seemed burdensome. When they finally reached the promised land they again demonstrated weakness, expecting to be given the land without any effort. Contrastingly, the ability to go without, to live on less, and to sacrifice is a tremendous source of power. In Surah al-Baqarah, Allah tells us about Saul’s army. Saul put his soldiers to the test; despite their intense thirst he asked them to refrain from drinking water as they passed a cool spring. Saul kept with him only the soldiers who were able to do without, sending the rest home. Mathematically, this would seem to put him at a disadvantage as he approached Goliath and his forces. Some of them even fell into despair. > But those who were certain that they would meet Allah said, “How many a small company has overcome a large company by permission of Allah? And Allah is with the patient.”  (Qur’an 2:249) Such are the resilient people of Gaza: outnumbered, outfunded, and outgunned. Yet it is Israel that remains frustrated, having met none of their stated military objectives. The math doesn’t add up without Allah in the equation. The facade of Israel’s strength has been shattered. IOF soldiers continue to abandon the battlefield while the children of Gaza continue to chant about liberating Jerusalem. Allah is Able, Allah’s victory will prevail, and no military might or abundant wealth can prevent this. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/gazas-rise-inspiring-the-muslim-ummahs-collective-consciousness-and-religiosity-essay # Gaza’s Rise: Inspiring the Muslim Ummah’s Collective Consciousness and Religiosity | Essay **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** January 8, 2024 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 It has been over three months since the genocide began in Gaza. Muslims around the world have tuned into the most significant global event in decades and perhaps in their lifetimes; never before in history has a genocide been broadcast for the world to watch in horror, in real-time. Globally, Muslims have been on a roller coaster of emotions, witnessing both the painful destruction of Gaza and the beautiful resilience of its people. In an attempt to shed light on the thoughts, emotions, and faith-based responses of Muslims around the globe, we at Yaqeen surveyed 1800+ English-speaking Muslims.[^1] --- ## Changes in Religiosity ![Change in relationship with Allah](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image2-1024x320.png) The assault on Gaza has been an incredible tribulation for the people of Gaza and the entire Muslim world. However, Allah tells us that the purpose of worldly tribulations is to awaken our hearts and make us turn back to Him.[^2] In this vein, 78% of those surveyed reported that their relationship with Allah has improved since the assault on Gaza began. This is an astounding proportion, and the reasons for this are likely many, including being reminded of death and needing to implore Allah to help alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters. However, one of the most powerful factors appears to be the unshakeable faith of the people of Gaza elevating the ummah’s religiosity and consciousness. Many have seen countless videos of the people of Gaza trusting in Allah (*tawakkul*) in every circumstance, including toddlers and children praising Allah and vowing to be patient and mothers and fathers graciously accepting the martyrdom of their children. Witnessing all of this has caused 91% of our respondents to state that the people of Gaza have given them ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of religious inspiration, with 97% reporting being ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ proud of the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza are giving *dʾawah* (calling people to Islam) globally, inspiring people to open up the Qur’an in search of the beliefs that we have witnessed providing them with so much strength. Evidently, the ummah’s spiritual awakening has been heavily impacted by reconnecting with the Qur’an and Sunnah. We discovered that 85% of Muslims reported feeling ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of comfort in the Qur’an, and 80% found similar levels of comfort in the biography (*seerah)* of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The Qur’an has come to life in new ways for Muslims from all levels of religiosity. The verses that we’ve read numerous times now have new meaning when we connect them to the situation in Gaza; the verses describing the attitude of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions during war appear to aptly describe the people of Gaza and the verses describing punishment for oppressors now make more sense. Ultimately, the Qur’an has taken on new relevance as it describes the situation unfolding before our eyes as if it were being revealed today. The details of the afterlife found in the Qur’an and Sunnah have also brought tremendous comfort and clarity to Muslims worldwide. For example, 96% reported that knowing that our brothers and sisters who were martyred are alive in paradise brought ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of comfort. The Prophet ﷺ beautifully explained this to his companions to motivate them and cheer them up, saying, “When your brothers were killed at Uhud, Allah put their souls in green birds that go down to the rivers of Paradise, eat its fruit, and nestle in lamps of gold under the shade of the Throne. Then, when they experienced the sweetness of their food, drink, and rest, they asked, ‘Who will tell our brothers about us that we are alive in Paradise provided with provision, in order that they might not be disinterested in jihad and recoil from war?’ Allah said, ‘I shall tell them about you’; so Allah sent down, ‘And do not consider those who have been killed in Allah’s path to be dead.’”[^3] Similarly, 94% said that knowing that oppressors (who don’t repent) will be punished was also a major source of comfort. The Qur’anic descriptions of how oppressors and their supporters will bicker in hellfire and blame one another provide the believers with certainty that justice will be served on the Day of Judgment (Qur’an 28:59-64). Strikingly, before the assault on Gaza began, the existence of hellfire and its punishment was a cause of doubt for some Muslims, but now it has become a source of conviction for many. --- ## Inspiring Muslim Unity Globally, Muslims are in agreement that the assault on Gaza has awoken the Muslim spirit and united the ummah. A sacred land from which the Prophet ﷺ ascended to heaven, and home to Masjid al-Aqsa, 70% of of our sample believe that the liberation of Palestine is a religious issue. Consequently, 93% believe that Palestine is ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important to them personally and 97% believe its liberation is a high priority to the Muslim world, with 70% saying it is the highest priority for the Muslim world. The masses are also in agreement that Muslim nations should not normalize relations with Israel, with 96% stating they are opposed to normalization and feel that it would cause additional harm to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. The failure of Western and Muslim governments to help the Palestinians has also reinvigorated discussions and beliefs about the importance of a unified Islamic state for the well-being of the Muslim world. Regarding Western governments, 95% of people believe that their stance towards Palestine has been either ‘slightly’ (5%) or ‘extremely’ (90%) immoral. Regarding Muslim governments, 71% believe that their stance has been immoral, with 22% reporting ‘slightly’ immoral and 49% reporting ‘extremely’ immoral. With such low confidence in modern nation-states, 82% believe that the existence of a unified Islamic state is ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important for the future of the Muslim world. Furthermore, 87% believe that such a state would be ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ helpful to the liberation of Palestine. --- ## Behavioral Response The awakening of the Muslim world and inspiration from the people of Gaza has led Muslims to strive in numerous ways to help the Palestinians. They are engaging in worship of various types, ritual and action-oriented, as a means of changing the situation. Regarding more ritual acts of worship, 99% have reported supplicating to Allah, 79% have increased in prayers, and 78% have donated money to relief in Palestine. Regarding activist behavior, 45% have attended a protest, over half (51%) have contacted politicians, and 91% are boycotting products and companies that support Israel. Additionally, the masses are raising their voices in support of Palestine, including 40% of working professionals raising awareness with their employers, 47% of students raising awareness on campus, and 89% posting on social media. Muslims believe that social media posts are changing the global narrative in favor of Palestine, with 64% being ‘quite’ or ‘very’ confident in the effects of these posts. Despite knowing their activism makes a difference, Muslims strongly believe that their ritual worship is far more effective in changing the situation for the Palestinians, with nearly 61% feeling their worship is ‘quite’ or ‘very’ effective compared to only 20% feeling similarly about their activism. --- ## Impact on Emotions The assault on Gaza has affected nearly every believer on earth. Reading and watching the news and seeing images of innocent men, women, and children martyred in Gaza has led to feelings of sadness, guilt, anger, and many other emotions. We found the emotion most frequently experienced by the ummah was sadness, with 93% of Muslims reporting feeling sad ‘often’ or ‘almost always.’ This feeling captures the sentiments of the hadith that the ummah is like one body, and if the people of Gaza are in pain, the entire ummah feels that pain.[^4] Another frequently felt emotion was anger, with 82% feeling angry ‘often’ or ‘almost always.’ The ummah is furious at the terrorism and genocide being committed by Israel, as well as the apathy (and/or assistance) of Western and Muslim nations. Although anger is often criticized as being blameworthy, it is important to remember that anger can be praiseworthy if it motivates righteous action. The Prophet ﷺ himself would get angry when the commands of Allah had been transgressed and Imam al-Shafi said that anyone who *should* become angry but doesn’t is a donkey. The other emotions worthy of discussing are the ummah’s feelings of hope and hopelessness. Both hope and hopelessness were reported equally often, between ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’ on average. Hope was associated with beliefs that Muslims had agency in helping Palestine and that their individual actions were making a difference. Hope was also linked to increased perceptions of global Muslim unity and an improved relationship with Allah. Hopelessness, on the other hand, was generally related to worse outcomes (e.g., believing Muslims have less agency, individual actions have less of an impact). However, it is worth noting that many people often felt both emotions simultaneously. Although it may seem strange to experience hope and hopelessness together, this combination of emotions has been well documented in medical settings with patients.[^5] It may come about in this context as Muslims feel hopeless regarding one outcome but hopeful for another. For example, someone may feel hopeless that the genocide will stop soon, but they may be hopeful that the martyrs find peace in paradise. Alternatively, someone may feel hopeless that Palestine will be free soon, but hopeful that it will be free in the distant future. If one of the goals they hope for cannot be achieved, people may shift to other goals they are hopeful for. This has been beautifully stated as “diversifying and redirecting hope.”[^6] Alternatively, people may feel personally hopeless to help Palestine but hopeful that Allah can and will. Hope in such circumstances may function as a buffer against the spiritual and psychological harms of hopelessness.[^7] Ultimately, we have to remind ourselves that hope and optimism are from the Sunnah, as the Prophet ﷺ encouraged us to be optimistic, saying, “When one of you calls upon Allah, let him hope for the greatest of things. Verily, nothing has any greatness over Allah.”[^8] --- ## Final Thoughts The people of Gaza have shown the Muslim world what submission to God looks like. From witnessing a child pleading with first responders to dig her parents and siblings from under the rubble before tending to her own needs, to accepting martyrdom rather than abandoning their homes on sacred land, the people of Gaza have reminded us how to praise Allah in every situation. They have shown us that the stories of the companions’ resolve and patience can be emulated in our lives and that they are not fairy tales or folklore. They have modeled for us how to deprioritize the *dunya* (this world) and prioritize the *ākhirah* (the afterlife). They have done more *dʾawah* through their beautiful resolve than most of us have in our lifetimes. Allah is infinitely wise and is the best of planners. Although it may be difficult for our hearts and minds to understand why things unfold as they do, the people of Gaza remind us to put our trust in Allah and have full conviction in His promise. We are grateful for our brothers and sisters in Gaza, honored to be one ummah with them, and seek forgiveness from them and from Allah for not doing more for the cause of Palestine. May Allah grant them victory over the oppressors and allow us to be a part of their liberation. Ameen. --- ## Notes [^1]: Demographics of the sample: 74% female; 61% live in North America, 13% live in Europe, 18% live in Asia, and 6% live in Africa; 41% were under 35 years of age; 50% were South Asian, 17% Arab, and 10% Black/African. [^2]: Qur’an 30:41, 32:21. [^3]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 2520. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6011; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2586. [^5]: Mark D. Sullivan, “Hope and Hopelessness at the End of Life,” *The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry* 11, no. 4 (2003): 393–405. [^6]: Sullivan, “Hope and Hopelessness.” [^7]: Jenny M. Y. Huen, Brian Y. T. Ip, Samuel M. Y. Ho, and Paul S. F. Yip, “Hope and Hopelessness: The Role of Hope in Buffering the Impact of Hopelessness on Suicidal Ideation,” *PloS One* 10, no. 6 (2015): e0130073. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 896. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-overcome-addiction-through-faith-ibn-al-qayyims-rehabilitation-program # How to Overcome Addiction through Faith: Ibn Al-Qayyim's Rehabilitation Program **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Mental Health, Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** January 4, 2024 **Updated:** September 1, 2026 ## Preface A flurry of highly curated images, sounds, videos, lights and colors designed to captivate our minds flood our consciousness on a daily basis. Mass production of food products engineered in labs to tease our taste buds fill our pantries and satiate our appetites. Intoxicants have never been more widely available with the decriminalization of recreational drugs in a number of countries and the pharmacological use of illicit drugs for pain relief and mental illness. The opioid epidemic has surged onto public concern as middle-upper class populations in developed nations are in the grips of a drug crisis. The spirit of modernity seems to allure humanity to an endless pursuit of instant gratification by using the most advanced technologies. Even the color of the notification icons on our phones are designed to keep us coming back for more. It is not an overstatement to declare that we are living in a dopaminergic society. This means that society is structured in a way that aims to maximize the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure in our brains. The consequences of this reality is that our hearts can become captive to the various forces that seek to dominate our minds. Addictions to devices,[^1] social media, video gaming, films, Netflix, sexual content, and illicit substances have gripped all levels of society. One study in 2011 found that 59% of the 313 study participants self-reported feeling ‘addicted’ to social media.[^2] In 2014, Griffiths et al. published a paper with international data warning of an impending epidemic of internet addiction. The data suggested that young people experienced symptoms found in addiction, including withdrawal and relapse.[^3] A recent study in Türkiye found that 16% of university students met the criteria for an internet addiction.[^4] Arguably the modern online addiction that seems to be the most disastrous in terms of its consequences is addiction to sexual content.[^5] Statistics show alarming usage with an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.[^6] While there is debate in the literature regarding the formal diagnosis of ‘pornography addiction,’ there are multiple studies that have demonstrated that problematic use as defined in the field correlates with mental illness.[^7] The International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11), a diagnostic manual used in mental health research, includes a category called compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) and lists problematic online pornography use as a symptom.[^8] There is a strong role that society plays in generating, maintaining, and exacerbating the problem of addiction. Poverty, broken homes, abuse and other chronic social stressors can make subpopulations in a society particularly vulnerable to becoming addicted to substances or behaviors.[^9] This problem becomes magnified when these vulnerabilities are exploited by multi-million dollar industries that promote alcohol,[^10] tobacco,[^11] gambling,[^12] pornography,[^13],[^14] and opioids.[^15] It is encouraging to see these problems recognized and under investigation in various academic disciplines including medicine, psychology, neuroscience, social studies, and the humanities. But there are problems with society’s tendency to medicalize social problems and limit analysis to exclusively empirical paradigms. This methodology produces gaping blind spots that ignore important spiritual factors in the genesis, prevention, and therapy of all these problematic addictions. As Muslims, we must recognize the role of the spirit (*rūḥ*), the ego (*nafs*), demonic entities (*shayāṭīn*), angelic entities (*malāʾika*), faith (*imānīyyāt*), guidance (*hidāyah*), and divine aid (*tawfīq*). This shortcoming of the field of psychology, particularly in regards to addiction was recognized by Carl Jung in his letter to the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, William Wilson, “I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in this world leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition if it is not counteracted either by real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community.”[^16] Muslims should recognize the advantage we have in possessing a revealed framework for understanding the spiritual realities that can deeply impact our mind, souls, and bodies. It is in reflection with this revelation that an entire tradition of dealing with problematic cravings and desires emerged within the field of *tazkiyat al-nafs* (purification of the self). In this vast tradition we discover insights into addiction that did not exist in the Western tradition of addiction science until centuries later. Suffice it to say, the Islamic tradition is an important arena of research for Muslims who are interested in appreciating a more realistic conception of addiction beyond material reductionism. It also contains great wisdom that can provide preventative and therapeutic strategies for believers to aid them in their journey through the dark worlds of addiction. This augments existing scientific research in addiction treatment and enables us to take an integrative approach that is rooted in the Islamic worldview. *To learn more about addiction and its harmful consequences, watch the video below:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHmSxvr7SGc --- ## Introduction It has been claimed by Western scholarship that there was no formal recognition of the psychological effects of addiction until the 17th century. This recognition is attributed to a group of Christian theologians who wrote on the phenomenon of ‘losing control’ to substances, which became the basis for the modern concept of addiction.[^17] Moreover, specific interventions are thought to be non-existent until the 19th century.[^18] Prior to this, the dominant understanding of addiction came from the Roman physician Cornelius Celsus (d. 50 C.E.) who was considered to be the first to categorize ‘dependence’ on intoxicating substances as a disease. However, he conceptualized dependence as being solely physical without reference to the deep psychological effects. Furthermore, there is absolutely no mention of the concept of behavioral addiction until the modern period.[^19] It is in this context that we present a translation and commentary of the final chapter of *Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn* (Garden of the Lovers)[^20] written by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) on the topic of addiction. He predates the 17th-century Calvinist theologians by over 300 years in describing the psychological effects of addiction and the notion of ‘loss of control.’ He is also the first to explicitly describe the possibility of addiction to a behavior in addition to substances. We say explicitly, because there seems to be an implicit recognition even earlier in the field of *tazkiyya*, which conceptualized desires as diseases in the heart that require curative interventions and recognized phenomena like habituation (*iʾtiyād*).[^21] Ibn al-Qayyim seems to have been the first to distill these ideas into a coherent concept of addiction. He also provides a substantive list of psychospiritual recommendations that can be used in the rehabilitation of addicts.[^22] In this chapter, Ibn al-Qayyim provides his reflections on various verses of the Qur’an, prophetic narrations, and aphorisms from the early Muslims and systematically organizes them into 50 strategies for rehabilitation. The vast majority of the narrations are found in a similar order in *Dhamm al-hawā* (Blameworthy Desires) by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1200).[^23] Ibn al-Jawzī includes 1277 narrations across 50 chapters that include reports attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, his companions, and the early Muslim generations. Ibn al-Qayyim comments mostly on the narrations found in the second chapter entitled, “Blameworthy desires and passions” (*Fī dhamm al-hawā wa al-shahawāt*). His project can be seen as a reflective commentary on this chapter. This demonstrates an important methodological point regarding the Islamic tradition. We see here a practical example of a scholar building on the work of other scholars. Ibn al-Jawzī scoured the various compilations of narrations that had been compiled before him. He selects a comprehensive set of narrations that have to do with desire and categorizes them across 50 themes in his *Dhamm al-hawā*. Ibn al-Qayyim uses a chapter of his book to build a rehabilitation plan for those pathologically affected by their desires through a reflective commentary. It is the humble aim of the current article to analyze Ibn al-Qayyim’s work and organize it in an accessible way so that others can benefit from and continue to build on it. When it comes to providing solutions to modern problems, it is important that Muslims produce academic work that is genuinely rooted in the Islamic tradition. This is our way of connecting to the light of prophethood that existed 1400 years ago and has traversed generations through the torchbearers of Islamic scholarship. Any work that marginalizes or ignores the Islamic tradition will inevitably be connected to one of the foreign paradigms of modernity that exist today, thereby severing any real ties to Divine revelation that the Islamic tradition enables us to maintain. The translation presented in this treatise is based on the critical edition by the late Bakr Abū Zayd (d. 1429/2008).[^24] The article provides references for the in-text quotations cited by Ibn al-Qayyim that are not found in Bakr Abu Zayd’s edition. A brief commentary on Ibn al-Qayyim’s reflections is provided as is an analysis of his therapeutic recommendations. The text can be separated into (1) Prelude and (2) Rehabilitation program. The prelude has been further subdivided into three sections, A) Are all Desires Evil?, B) The Danger of Desires and C) From Desire to Addiction. A commentary is provided after the translation of each individual section to optimize the flow of content. The 50 strategies for rehabilitation are translated altogether with no subdivisions, followed by a commentary that contains a qualitative grounded-theory analysis.[^25] Footnotes are provided for concepts that may require greater context for the reader to appreciate. Section headings are also added for clarity. --- ## Translation and commentary on the final chapter of Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn [Chapter 29:](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/417/656&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1704412299620693&usg=AOvVaw2ecx1GQs_F1gsQ-27Nwriy)[^26] Concerning the blameworthiness of desires and its opposition to attaining all that one wishes. --- ## Are all desires evil? We have already mentioned the verses from the Qur’an and reports from the Sunnah regarding this concept.[^27] Desire (*hawā*) is defined as an instinctual drive towards that which is believed will fulfill it. These drives have been created in humanity because they are necessary for survival. If there were not an impulse to eat, drink, or have intercourse, then human beings would not eat, drink, or procreate. Desires act as motivation for what a person wants, just as anger diverts a person away from what harms him. It is not appropriate to problematize all desires unconditionally, but it would also be wrong to say that all desires are praiseworthy. This is the same for anger that is neither praised unconditionally nor blamed unconditionally. Rather what is considered blameworthy is going to an excess of these inclinations such that it goes beyond bringing benefit or averting harm. ### Commentary: The Islamic conception of human desire is a positive one in distinction to other spiritual traditions that place great emphasis on denying basic human drives. The Qur’an references the movement of monasticism within Christianity and emphasizes that this was never commanded by Allah, > And We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion, mercy, and monasticism—which they innovated. We did not prescribe it for them except (that they did so) seeking the approval of Allah. But they did not observe it with due observance.[^28] Ibn al-Qayyim discusses the relation of desires to ethics in the beginning of this work, > Since the servant can never be separated from his desire as long as he lives, the directive to leave all desires completely is essentially impossible. But what is realistic (*maqdūr lahū*) and expected (*maʾmūr bih*) is to divert his desires away from the places of destruction to lands of peace and security.[^29] The example is given of the desire for the opposite gender being directed away from fornication to the institution of marriage.[^30] He argues that Islamic law takes human desires into consideration and that anything forbidden is given an alternative outlet. For example, usury is forbidden as a means to grow wealth but profitable business ventures are permitted. Gambling is forbidden, but earning wealth based on beneficial competition like horse racing, camel racing, and archery is permitted.[^31] Silk is forbidden, but many other luxurious fabrics are permitted. --- ## The danger of desires Having established that some desires are natural and beneficial, many people become consumed by their desires and anger and are unable to control themselves within the boundaries of what is beneficial to them. Thus, harm is incurred by a person who follows their desires, anger, and lust, which is why they are given a negative connotation. It is rare to achieve a balance of desires that would avoid harm. Similar to this, how rare is it for a person to truly achieve humoral equilibrium?[^32] Instead, people are affected by its fluctuations. Therefore, the sincere person should be keen to achieve perfect balance regarding their lusts and anger just as the doctor attempts to achieve perfect balance regarding the humors. But this is something impossible except for very few individuals in the world. This is why Allah exclusively mentions desires in a negative context along with the Sunnah. The only exception is the narration of the Prophet ﷺ, “None of you truly believes until his desires are made to follow what I have brought.”[^33] It has been said that desires are dangerous and cannot be trusted. Al-Shaʿbī (d. 103/721) said, “It is called desire (*hawā*) because it brings a person down (*yahwī*).” It unconditionally calls to immediate gratification (*al-ladhdhāt al-ḥāḍira*) without regard for the consequences. It drives a person to achieve their desires hastily even if it may be a means of great pain both in the short term and long term. There are consequences that come to a person in this life before the afterlife. Desires blind a person from noticing this while integrity (*murūʾa*), religiosity (*dīn*), and intelligence (*ʿaql*) are meant to block a person from pleasures that end in pain. Lusts will only end in regret and so when the self wants some of this pleasure, all of the ethical faculties (religiosity, integrity, and intelligence) say to it, “Don’t do it!” And the self will follow whichever is the stronger impulse within. Do you see that children will prefer what they desire even if it leads to injury out of the weakness of their discerning intellect? Whoever has no religion will always prefer what they desire even if it leads to destruction in the next life due to the weakness of their religiosity. Whoever does not have any integrity will always prefer what they desire even if it strips away their dignity due to the weakness of their integrity (*marūʾah*). Then what about the aphorism of Imam al-Shāfiʾī (d. 204/819) who said, “If I knew that cool water would compromise my integrity I would never drink it.”[^34] When an accountable individual is tested with animalistic desires and in every moment a new desire emerges, he should set up two arbiters: intellect and religion. The desires are commanded to always be summoned to these two arbiters and to submit to their judgment. It is imperative that one trains oneself to resist desires that do not have negative consequences so that one can stay away from desires that have harmful consequences. ### Commentary Ibn al-Qayyim makes the case that desires on their own will inevitably lead a person toward the path of destruction. Desires can be directed to productive ends only with other factors—intellect, integrity, and religion. A person must be ethically motivated (integrity), informed by guidance (religion), and make the right decision (intellect) regarding their desire. If these three are missing, then desires will lead a person astray. In the introduction, Ibn al-Qayyim describes the objective of this work as the achievement of harmony between desires and the intellect through a recognition of the wisdom of religious guidance. > “They are not commanded with anything that He (Allah) needs from them. Nor are they prohibited out of stinginess from Him (Allah) toward them. Rather, His commandments come from His favor (*iḥsān*) and mercy (*raḥmah*) toward them and His prohibitions are meant to protect and preserve them. It is for this reason we have produced this book to achieve harmony between the desires and the intellect. When the peace treaty \[between the desires and the intellect\] is completed, it becomes easier for the servant to resist against the ego and the devil.”[^35] Ibn al-Qayyim connects law, ethics, theology, and spirituality so the reader can appreciate the wisdom in religious guidance. A common misconception the public has regarding Islam is that it is merely a set of arbitrary rules of what is permissible (*ḥalāl*) and impermissible (*ḥarām*). Ibn al-Qayyim makes the case that revealed law is designed for the flourishing of life by directing human desires away from destruction toward excellence. This also foreshadows the key ingredients in his rehabilitation framework that empower believers to resist using the intellect and religious guidance. This framework can correctly be termed ‘rehabilitation,’ as Ibn al–Qayyim sees desires as a natural part of life that can become disordered due to misuse. This misuse is inevitable without guidance since a person is unaware of their purpose in life and how to fulfill it. Hence, their aims and pursuits are driven by desires. The strength of their ethical motivation to regulate desire is also considerably dulled without an appreciation of the high-stakes consequences of the afterlife. In addition to rehabilitation, Ibn al-Qayyim describes how conditioning the ethical and spiritual strengths enables individuals to effectively resist against the dark edges of desire. Analogous to physical exercise, he recommends a healthy regimen of daily resistance against non-problematic desires to strengthen willpower. Although he does not reference this, fasting is a recognized Islamic practice that fulfills these aims. Abd Allāh b. Masʾūd narrates, “We were with the Prophet while we were young and had no wealth. So Allah’s Messenger said, ‘O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps him lower his gaze and guard his modesty and whoever is not able to marry should fast, as fasting is a shield for him.’”[^36] --- ## From desire to addiction The intelligent person needs to know that the ones who are addicted (*mudmin*) to their desires are transformed into a state where they no longer achieve pleasure through them and at the same time they are not able to abstain from them. They reach a state where indulging in their desires becomes necessary for their living. This is the reason why you find that the alcohol addict or sex addict does not experience even a tenth of the pleasure that a person normally experiences when engaging in those behaviors in moderation. This throws a person into destruction as he tries to seek what his addiction demands. If the stain of desire were to be removed, he would definitely know that he is made sad from where he thought happiness would come; he is grieved from where he thought joy would come; and he is in pain from where he thought there would be pleasure. So he is like a bird that tries to capture a seed that is in a trap. It is not able to obtain the seed and it is not able to leave the trap. ### Commentary The term for addict employed by Ibn al–Qayyim is *mudmin*, which is used in modern Arabic to describe formal addiction as we understand it today. Classically,  it was defined as, “A person who is habitually engaged with something; The *mudmin* of alcohol is someone who cannot stop drinking.”[^37] We also find this term in the Sunnah, “The *mudmin* of alcohol is the like the worshiper of idols,”[^38] “He who drinks alcohol in this world and dies while he is a *mudmin* to it, not having repented, will not be given \[anything\] to drink in the Hereafter.”[^39] It is important to note with these narrations that *mudmin* was used to broadly describe intentional habitual use of something and not necessarily psychological addiction as we understand the term today. Addiction is a formal psychiatric diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Version 5 (DSM-5), the mainstream reference used by mental health professionals in diagnosing mental illnesses. It is referred to as ‘substance abuse disorder’ and includes 11 criteria: 1. Taking the substance in larger amounts or for longer than you are meant to. 2. Wanting to cut down or stop using the substance but not managing to. 3. Spending a lot of time getting, using, or recovering from use of the substance. 4. Cravings and urges to use the substance. 5. Not managing to do what you should at work, home, or school because of use of the substance. 6. Continuing to use the substance, even when it causes problems in relationships. 7. Giving up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of use of the substance. 8. Using the substance again and again, even when it puts you in danger. 9. Continuing to use the substance, even when you know you have a physical or psychological problem that could have been caused or made worse by it. 10.  Needing more of the substance to get the effect you want (tolerance). 11.  Development of withdrawal symptoms, which can be relieved by taking more of the substance. Severity of addiction is determined by the number of criteria that apply to an individual (Mild 2-3; Moderate 4-5; Severe > 6). From the above criteria, four domains of addiction have been recognized: physical dependence, risky use, social problems, and impaired control. Physical dependence refers to the neurobiological changes that occur due to repetitive activation of reward pathways in the brain.[^40] One of these changes is described as ‘tolerance’ and is the 10th criterion listed in the DSM-5. Tolerance occurs when the same amount of stimulus evokes a smaller effect due to its repeated use.[^41] Dependence is evidenced by ‘withdrawal symptoms’ whereby an individual becomes physiologically unstable without the substance.[^42] Impaired control, risky use, and social problems constitute the behavioral manifestations of addiction. Ibn al-Qayyim insightfully makes reference to all four of these domains in his poetic yet academically precise conceptualization of addiction. ![Ibn al-Qayyim insightfully makes reference to all four of these domains in his poetic yet academically precise conceptualization of addiction.](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/physicaldependence-797x1024.png) It is also intriguing that Ibn al-Qayyim references two categories of addiction in this passage—behavioral (e.g., sex) and substance (e.g., alcohol). The notion of being addicted to a behavior rather than a substance is only starting to be recognized and its relationship with substance addiction is hotly debated.[^43] The DSM-5 includes the broad diagnostic category of Substance-related and Addictive Disorders. There is a subsection of Non-substance-related Disorders that currently only includes gambling disorder. Internet gaming disorder has been mentioned as an area where further research is required.[^44] Outside of the DSM-5, there is a recognition of other problematic internet behaviors including social networking, pornography viewing, and online shopping.[^45] As mentioned earlier, the ICD-11 does include a category called compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD).[^46] It is interesting that the Qur’an groups alcohol (substance) and gambling (behavior) together, > O you who have believed, indeed, alcohol, gambling, (sacrificing on) stone altars (to other than Allah), and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.[^47] This verse informs us of an essential dimension of addiction largely ignored by therapists. From a spiritual perspective, both substances and behavior share a common satanic pathway in the formation and maintenance of addiction. Al-Alūsī comments on verse 5:90, “It occurs from his (the devil’s) actions because he causes it with his allurement (*tazyīn*) and temptation (*taswīl*). It is also said, the ‘from’ (*min*) indicates origin—that is to say it emerges from his actions.”[^48] It is important to understand when benefitting from empirical research that neural correlates in the brain to conscious states are only correlations. An important scientific axiom to keep in mind is ‘correlation does not imply causation.’[^49] Just because two things are correlated does not mean there is a causal relationship between the two. It is possible that there is a third variable that is unaccounted for to explain this correlation. For example, ice cream sales are correlated with shark attacks.[^50] Does this mean consuming ice cream is causing sharks to attack humans? Not at all. Rather, an interpretation of the data that makes sense is that when it is summer, people are more likely to consume ice cream and swim in the ocean. Therefore, there will be an increase in both ice cream sales and shark attacks. The cause of the increased shark attacks is simply the increased number of humans in the ocean. When we return to the issue of neural correlates of consciousness, this problem is magnified. How can something physical like neurotransmitters cause something non-physical like conscious experience?[^51] This is a problem that philosophers of science like David Chalmers have recognized for decades and is dubbed, ‘the hard problem of consciousness.’[^52] This is not a matter of an empirical ‘missing link’ that we will discover the more we study the brain. Rather, this is an issue of attempting to understand the connection between two qualitatively different realms—the objective and the subjective. Thomas Nagel famously elucidates this problem through the example of bat science  in his 1980 work entitled, “What is it like to be a bat?”[^53] He explains that no matter how much we learn about bats through objective data, we will remain ignorant of their conscious subjective experience. This failure of the scientific enterprise to understand consciousness indicates its limitations when attempting to describe something that is non-physical. This is why we cannot exclusively rely on neuroscientific perspectives when attempting to understand why people become addicted to behaviors or substances. The manipulation from demonic forces through our desires is an essential aspect of the conscious experience of addiction. This is something that was recognized by the psychoanalytic movement in the early 1900s. David Schoen, a contemporary Jungian analyst reflects on his experience with addiction clients, “I believe that people are drawn to it because of its allure of incredible power and energy, of unimaginable freedom, of the ultimate fulfillment of a desire for status, mastery, and prestige, and of the promise of superhuman potency.”[^54] He later recounts, “Many addicted people tell of histories and experiences of complete inadequacy and impotency without their fix. Some men and women have no social courage or confidence without alcohol or drugs, but with them they feel invincible and powerful and self-assured.”[^55] This is a fascinating insight in light of the first whispers of the devil into human consciousness, > Then Satan whispered to him; he said, “O Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and a kingdom that will never waste away?”[^56] > > But Satan whispered to them to make apparent to them that which was concealed from them of their private parts. He said, “Your Lord did not forbid you from this tree except that you become angels or become immortal.”[^57] In addition to these individual factors there is a strong role that society plays in generating, maintaining, and exacerbating the problem of addiction. Poverty, broken homes, abuse, and other chronic social stressors can make subpopulations in a society particularly vulnerable to becoming addicted to substances and/or behaviors.[^58] This problem becomes magnified when these vulnerabilities are exploited by multi-million dollar industries like the alcohol,[^59] tobacco,[^60] gambling,[^61] pornography[^62], [^63] and even pharmaceutical companies.[^64] Given the clear connection between demonic forces and falling prey to our desires, it behooves us to consider a rehabilitation program for Muslims that is rooted in a more realistic framework than the one provided by the scientific community. This framework includes essential elements of the Islamic worldview with regards to human consciousness. This project is taken up by Ibn al-Qayyim in the next section. *Learn about the dangers of pornography and how to protect yourself from it in the video below:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEvhpeSIkxg --- ## 50 strategies for treating addiction How can a person be cured from this after falling into it? It is only possible to be cured with the help of Allah and His guidance in a number of matters. 1\. A resolute determination (*ʿazīma*) to free himself from addiction along with a strong protectiveness (*ghīra*) over himself (that fuels his determination). 2\. Ingesting the bitter potion of *ṣabr* (patience; self-regulation; willpower), capable of restraining the soul during those times of desire. 3\. The strength and courage to ingest this “potion” for the entirety of the time of desire along with a good life that a person is able to attain his *ṣabr* from. 4\.  Imagining the desired outcome—being cured with the potion of  *ṣabr*. 5\.  Realizing that the pain \[associated with giving in to the desire\] is more than the pleasure of following the desire. 6\. Thinking about your station with Allah and your reputation in the hearts of His creation —this is better and more beneficial than the pleasure of the desire. 7\.  Prioritizing the pleasure, honor, and sweetness of chastity over the pleasure of sin. 8\.  Experiencing the joy of conquering your enemy and subduing him, handing him a humiliating defeat, making him angry, sad, and distressed. Allah loves when His servants subdue and enrage the enemy as He says in His Honored Book, “...Nor do they tread on any ground that enrages the disbelievers, nor do they inflict upon an enemy any infliction but that is registered for them as a righteous deed.”[^65] And He said, “...in order to enrage the disbelievers through them (the believers)”[^66] and He, Most High, said, “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many \[alternative\] locations and abundance.”[^67] This means places where they will subdue the enemies of Allah. A sign of true love is angering the enemies of the Beloved and subduing them. 9\.  Considering the fact that you were not created for your desire, rather your purpose is much loftier. This purpose cannot be achieved except through resisting your desire as it is said, “You have been prepared for a \[great\] affair if you only realized it. So raise yourself lest you continue to graze with negligence.”[^68] 10\. Realizing that by choosing sin, you reach a state lower than the animals. This is because animals can naturally differentiate between what will benefit and harm them. Consequently, they always choose benefit over harm. Human beings are given an intellect for this purpose. So, if they are unable to distinguish between what will harm them or benefit them or they know but still prefer what is harmful, then the animals are better than them. The evidence for this is that animals achieve a pleasure from eating, drinking, and sex that is not for the human being as they live a blissful life free of thinking or worries. This is why when they are driven to the place of slaughter: they are busy with their desires due to their lack of awareness of the consequences. Humans are not able to attain what animals attain because they have a strong capacity for thinking and multiple tools at their disposal. So if a person attains an excess of what they desire, then they have lost the status of humanity, who are the purest of the world, and they have been reduced to the level of animals. They have neglected the intellect, knowledge, and realization that defines humanity. 11\. Thinking about the consequences of the desires. Reflect on how much virtue is lost and how much vice is gained. Reflect on how one (problematic) bite can stop one from eating altogether, or how one pleasure can prevent many pleasures. How many desires have destroyed a person’s status, humiliating them, earning an evil reputation, resulting in disgrace, and ending in abasement. He becomes tainted, unable to be purified with water and (is unable to see this taint because) the eye of the one overcome with desire is blind. 12\. The person should compare a discerning individual who achieves his purpose to a person who fulfills his desire and then imagine the consequences of both. What was lost (by the former) and what was gained (by the latter)? “The best of mankind are those who don’t embark on a journey until they discern all the consequences they may reap.”[^69] 13\. He should imagine this in relation to others and then make a judgment based on analogy. 14\. He should deliberate on what the *nafs* really wants from that desire and then he should be advised by his intellect and religiosity, both of which will tell him that it is not worth anything. Abdullah ibn Mas’ūd said, “If a woman impresses one of you, then let him think about her foul odors.” This is better than what was said by Aḥmad al-Husayn, “If the lustful one were to think about the ending of the beauty that captured him, he would not have been captured.”[^70]This is \[better\] because Ibn Mas’ūd mentioned an immediate state whereas the poet mentioned a future state. 15\. His self-respect should prevent him from the disgrace of being defeated by his desires. Anyone who falls to their desires finds humiliation in their heart. Do not be deluded by the influence and status of those who follow their desires as they are the most humiliated of the people. They combine both qualities of arrogance and humiliation. 16\. He should weigh the value of his religion, honor, wealth, and status against attaining the pleasure he is craving. He will find no comparison between the two and will realize that only a fool would sell all of that for fleeting pleasure. 17\. He should prevent himself from being taken captive by his enemy. When Shayṭān (Satan) sees a servant who is weak in resolve and inclining toward his cravings, he (Shayṭān) is assured regarding him, he wrestles him and takes hold of the bridles of his desires and drives him to wherever he wishes. But when Shayṭān perceives a strong resolve, self-respect, and lofty ambitions, he is not assured regarding him except passing glances. 18\. He should know that desire corrupts everything it mixes with. If it occurs with knowledge (*ʿilm*), it becomes misguided innovation (*bidʾah*) and the person becomes from the people of deviation. If it occurs with asceticism (*zuhd*), then it takes a person to ostentation (*riyāʾ*) and opposition to the Sunnah. If it occurs while giving judgment, then it takes a person to oppression and diverting from the truth. If it occurs in distribution \[of wealth\], then it diverts from a just division to an unjust division. If it occurs in allying and excluding, then it makes a person betray Allah and the Muslims since they ally according to their desires and exclude according to their desires. If it occurs in worship, then it takes a person away from compliance and proximity with Allah. As can be seen, desires corrupt whatever they associate with. 19\. He should realize that Shayṭān can only enter the human being through the gate of desire. He roams around the heart to get to know where he can enter so he can corrupt the person’s heart and actions. He does not find any entry except through the gate of desires. So he flows with a poison that affects all the body parts. 20\. He should know that Allah has made desires opposed to what has been sent down to His Messenger ﷺ. He made following desires a hindrance in following the messengers. He has divided mankind into two categories—those who follow revelation and those who follow their desires. This occurs frequently in the Qur’an, for example, “If they do not respond to you, then know that they are only following their desires”[^71] and His saying, “And if you follow their desires after knowledge that has come to you…”[^72] and \[verses\] similar to these. 21\. He should know that Allah analogizes those who follow their desires as the lowest of animals in form and meaning. In some instances \[the analogy is\] to a dog, “But he adhered \[instead\] to the earth and followed his own desire. So his example is like that of the dog”;[^73] in other instances it is to donkeys, “As if they were alarmed donkeys. Fleeing from a lion?”[^74] And in other instances it involved transforming them into apes and pigs. 22\. He should know that following desires disqualifies from leadership or being followed. Allah excludes them from leadership and prohibits obeying them. As for excluding them, Allah said to His beloved (*khalīl*) Abraham, “‘Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people.’ (Abraham) said, ‘And of my descendants?’ (Allah) said, ‘My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.’”[^75] That is to say My covenant of leadership does not include an oppressor.  Whoever follows his desires is an oppressor as Allah said, “Those who commit oppression follow their desires without knowledge.”[^76] As for prohibiting obedience to them, then it is from His saying, “Do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever (in) neglect.”[^77] 23\. He should know that Allah made the follower of desire in the same category of a worshiper of idols, “Have you seen the one who takes his own desires as his god?”[^78] This occurs twice in His book. Al-Ḥasan[^79] (d. 110/728) said, “He is a hypocrite, anything he desires he fulfills.” He also said, “The hypocrite is a slave to his desires, anything he desires he does.” 24\. Desires are what surround Hellfire and so whoever falls into them, they have fallen into Hellfire as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Paradise is surrounded by hardships and Hellfire is surrounded by desires.”[^80] The Prophet ﷺ also said, “When Allah created Paradise and the Fire, He sent Jibrīl to Paradise, saying: ‘Look at it and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.’” He ﷺ said: “So he came to it and looked at it, and at what Allah had prepared in it. He (Jibrīl) said: ‘Indeed, by your Might, none shall hear of it except that he shall enter it.’ Then He gave the order for it to be surrounded with hardships. He said: ‘Return to it and look at it, and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.’” He ﷺ said: “So he returned to it and found it surrounded with hardships. He returned to Him and said: ‘Indeed, by your Might, I fear that none shall enter it.’ He ﷺ said: ‘Go to the Fire and look at it and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.’ So he found it, one part of it riding the other. So he returned to Him and said: ‘Indeed, by your Might, none shall hear of it and then enter it.’ So He gave the order for it to be surrounded with desires, then He said: ‘Return to it,’ so he (Jibrīl) returned to it, then he said: ‘Indeed, by Your Might, I fear that none shall be saved from it except that he shall enter it.’”[^81] 25\. He should fear his faith being taken away without even realizing it as a consequence of following his desires. It has been attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, “None of you truly believe until his desires follow what I have come with.”[^82] And it has been authentically established that he said, “The thing I fear most for you all is the deviating appetites of your stomach and private organs along with misleading desires.”[^83] 26\. He should know that following desires is from among the destructive qualities. The Prophet ﷺ said, “There are three redemptive qualities and three destructive qualities. As for the redemptive qualities, they are being God-fearing (*taqwa*) in private and public, speaking the truth when content and when angered, and being balanced in richness and poverty. As for the destructive qualities, they are following desires, selfishness, and self-aggrandizement.”[^84] 27\. He should know that resisting desires results in strength of the body, heart, and tongue. The early Muslims would say, “The conqueror of his desires is stronger than a person who single-handedly conquers a city.”[^85] And in an authentic narration attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, “Strength is not through wrestling; rather, strength is being able to control one’s self in anger.”[^86] Every time a person trains to resist their desire, they become stronger and stronger. 28\. Integrity (*marū’a*) is proportional to the opposition of desire. Mu’āwiyyah \[Ibn Abī Sufyān\] (d. 60/680) said, “Good character  is leaving off lusts and opposing one’s desires.”[^87] Hence, following desires makes one’s character stale and opposing desires refreshes one’s character. 29\. He should know that every day the intellect and desire hurry to their owner. Whichever one is stronger disposes of the other and makes the decisions for the day. \[The Companion\] Abū Dardāʾ said, “When a person wakes up, his intellect and desire gather together. If his intellect follows his desire, then it will be an awful day. But if his desires follow his intellect, then it will be a good day.”[^88] 30\. He should know that Allah has paired mistakes with following desires and has paired accuracy (*ṣawāb*) with opposing desires. Some of the early Muslims would say, “If you face a dilemma and are unsure which decision is best, then oppose the one closer to your desires because mistakes come with the bias of following desires.”[^89] 31\. He should know that desire is a disease and its cure is resistance. Some of the spiritual masters would say, “If you want I will inform you of your disease and if you want I will inform you of your cure. Your disease is your desire and your cure is leaving your desire and opposing it.”[^90] \[The famous ascetic\] Bishr al-Ḥāfī (d. 227/842) said, “All calamities are actually found in your desires and all of the cure is found in your opposition toward them.”[^91] 32\. He should know that waging jihad against one’s desires, even if it may not be greater than physical battle, is not lesser than it. A man said to Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, “O Abū Saʿīd, which jihad (lit. striving) is the best? He said, “The jihad against your desires.”[^92] And I heard our Shaykh say, “Jihad against the ego and desires is the foundation of jihad against enemies of Islam. That is because a person cannot participate in that jihad until they have done jihad against their egos and desires first.” 33\. He should know that desires are like humors[^93] and opposing them is a means of achieving equilibrium. He should fear that he goes to excess in any of the humors and maintain a state of equilibrium lest he falls into disease. ʿAbd al-Mālik b. Qurayb \[aka al-Aṣmaʿī\], (d. 216/831) said,”I came across a bedouin man who had severe conjunctivitis with discharge flowing down his cheek. So I said ‘Why don’t you wipe your eyes?’ He said, ‘The doctor prohibited me from that and there is no good in someone who does not desist when something is prohibited and who does not seek counsel before he commands something.’ So I said, ‘Don’t you desire anything?’ He said, ‘Of course I do, but I am guarding myself. Verily the people of Hellfire had their desires overcome their guard so they were destroyed.’”[^94] 34\. He should know that following desires closes the gates of guidance and opens the door of humiliation and  you see (the one who follows desires) attached to this (door of humiliation). Had Allah guided him he would have been upright, but he diverted himself away from the paths of guidance and chose to follow his desires. Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ (d. 187/803) said, “Whoever is overcome by his desires and follows his lusts, the inputs of guidance are cut off.”[^95]     Some scholars said that disbelief occurs in 4 things: anger, lust, craving, and fear. Then it is said, “An example is a man who is angry and kills his own mother.[^96] Another example is a man who lusts and so he becomes Christian.”[^97],[^98]         A report comes from the early Muslims of a person performing circumambulation (*ṭawāf*) around the Kaaba and seeing a beautiful lady. He walks to her side and composes the following poetry,         Both the desire of religion and pleasures are attractive to me         So how can I have both the desire for pleasures and religion?         The lady replied, leave one and you will attain the other.[^99] 35\. He should know that a person’s opinions and intellect become corrupted whenever a person gives in to his desire. This is because they betrayed Allah for it and it is the custom of Allah that when someone betrays Him regarding something, it eventually becomes corrupted. \[The Abbasid Caliph\] al-Muʿtaṣim (d. 227/842) said to one of his companions one day, “O so-and-so, if your desires win, then your reasoning will go.”[^100] I heard a man say to our Shaykh,[^101] “When a man betrays his position as a money appraiser, Allah strips him of his ability to appraise.” So the Shaykh said, “This is also the case for those who betray Allah and His messenger in matters of knowledge.” 36\. He should know that whoever makes space for following his desires will find constriction in his grave and the day of his reckoning. Whoever constricts his desires will find expansiveness in his grave and in his reckoning. Allah alludes to this in His saying, “He repays them for their patience with paradise and silk garments.”[^102] Since patience (*ṣabr*), which involves preventing the self from desires, is something tough and restrictive, they are rewarded with soft silk and expansive paradise. Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī (d. 205-820) commented on this verse, “They are repaid because of their patience over their desires.”[^103] 37\. He should know that following desires prevents a person from moving on the Day of Judgment and from running with those who are saved on the bridge over Hellfire. This is just as their hearts prevented them from their friendship in this world. Muḥammad b. Abī al-Ward said, “Certainly Allah will not save the one who submitted to his desires and the longest delay from moving on the Day of Judgment will be the delay due to one’s desires. When the intellect comes to the arena of motivation, it becomes filled with whatever it wants in accordance to the level of willpower (*ṣabr*). The intellect is precious metal and contemplation (*fikr*) is a chisel.”[^104] 38\. He should know that following desires weakens a person’s motivation (*ʿazāʾim*, sing. *ʿazīma*). Opposing desires strengthens it. Motivation is the vehicle by which the servant journeys to Allah and the abode of the Hereafter. When the vehicle is gone, then the journey will be halted. It was said to \[the famous Muslim sage\] Yaḥyā b. Muʿādh (d. 258/872), “Who is the most determined among humanity? He said, “The one who conquers his desire.”[^105] \[Hadith narrator\] Khalaf bin Khalīfa (d. 181 AH) entered upon \[the Abbasid ruler\] Sulaymān b. Ḥabīb b. al-Muhallab,[^106] and he was with a girl named Badr who had the most beautiful face. So Sulaymān said to Khalaf, “What do you think of this girl?” He replied, “May Allah rectify the Amīr (ruler), my eyes have not seen anything more beautiful than her.” So Sulaymān said to him, “Take her away!” Khalaf said, “I don’t wish to harm the Amīr, for I see he is also very taken by her.” Suleyman said, “Woe to you! Take her away because of how much I am taken by her! This is so that my desires know that I have defeated them.” So Khalaf took her by the hand and exited and he composed the following verses, > I have been gifted, given and favored > > without Sulayman asking for anything in return > > I have been given Badr with all her beauty > > while the full moon (*badr*) has not been given to any human or jinn > > From this day I will never forget his kindness > > Until I am covered by my shroud in my grave[^107] 39\. He should know that the one who rides his desires is like the one who rides an iron horse. It is stubborn and he is unable to control it and he will inevitably be thrown off its mount or it will take him to a place of destruction.  One of the spiritual masters said, “The quickest path to paradise is nonattachment to worldly matters (*zuhd*) and the quickest path to the Hellfire is the love of desires. Whoever is taken by his desires will be swiftly taken to the valley of destruction.”[^108] Another said, “The most virtuous scholar is the one who flees with his religion away from worldly temptations and prevents himself from being driven toward his desires.”[^109] \[Sage and exegete\] ʿAṭāʾ (d. 309/922) said, “Whoever’s desire overcomes their intellect and extinguishes their willpower (*ṣabr*) will become exposed.”[^110] 40\. He should know that the worship of Allah alone (*tawḥīd*) and following desires are opposed to each other. Everyone has an idol in their heart that is made up of their desires. Allah sent His messengers to destroy the idols and to establish the worship of Allah alone without any partners. The intention was not to merely destroy the physical idols while leaving others in the heart. But rather what was intended was to break the idols in the heart first and foremost. > \[Hadith narrator\] al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī at-Muṭawiʾī (d. 371/981) said, “Everyone fashions an idol from their desires. Whoever breaks them with resistance is worthy of being called a hero (*futuwwa*).” Ponder upon this quote from Ibrāhīm *ʿalayhis-salām*, “What are these statues that you are devoted to?”[^111] See how it applies to the statues of what the heart desires, being devoted to them and worshiping them alongside Allah. Allah said, “Have you seen the one who takes his desires as his god? How can you be made responsible for him? Or did you think that most of them actually listened or gave thought? They are nothing but cattle. In reality they are even more lost from the path.”[^112] 41\. He should know that opposing desires is curative for illnesses in the heart and the body. Following desires brings about disease in both. All diseases of the heart can be reduced to following desires. If a person were to pay close attention to the physical diseases they would find that the majority of them come from preferring desires over what is meant to be avoided. 42\. He should know that if a person follows their desires, their heart is filled with animosity, hatred, jealousy, and evil. Whoever abandons their desires feels tranquil in the heart and body. \[Muslim sage\] Abū Bakr al-Warrāq (d. 280/893) said, “When a person is overcome by desire, his heart becomes dark. When his heart becomes dark, his chest is constricted. When his chest is constricted, his character becomes foul. When he has a foul character, he will be angry at the creation and the creation will be angry at him.”[^113] Then see the evil, animosity, and injustice that emerges from this hatred. 43\. He should know that Allah has created desires and the intellect within the human being. When one gains dominance, the other one hides. As Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī (d. 328/940) said, “When a person is defeated by his desires, the intellect hides from him.”[^114] Then see the consequences of the one who is veiled from his intellect. ʿAlī b. Sahl (d. 256/870) said, “Intellect and desires are in a constant struggle against each other. Guidance is the outcome of the intellect and humiliation the outcome of desires. The self is suspended between them. It will be with whichever of the two wins the battle.”[^115] 44\. He should know that Allah has made the heart the king of the body. It is also the center for knowing Allah, loving Him, and worshiping Him. He tests the heart with two rulers, two armies, two sets of allies and two armories. *Ḥaq* (Truth), *rushd* (conscience) and *hudā* (guidance) form the Sultan (ruler). Its allies are the angels and its army is composed of *ṣidq* (truthfulness) and *ikhlās* (sincerity) and opposing one’s desires. On the other side, *bāṭil* (falsehood) is the Sultan and its allies are the devils and their armies, while following desires is the armory. The *nafs* (ego) is between these two armies. The army of *bāṭil* can only advance in the heart through its gaps until it mixes with the heart and surrounds it. Thus, the *nafs* is with its enemy surrounding the heart. In fact, the *nafs* is the one who gave its enemy the armory beforehand. At this moment, the enemy opens the gates to the city, enters, and conquers it. The heart is humiliated and defeated. 45\. He should know that the most harmful enemies to an individual are his own desires and Shayṭān. The most faithful companions for him are his intellect and the angels that inspire him toward goodness. If a person chooses to follow his desires, he willingly submits to his enemy as a captive and is humiliated. He is the worst of friends and allies. This is a severe calamity (*jahd al-balāʾ*), a miserable end (*darak ash-shaqā*), bad fate (*sūʾ al-qaḍāʾ*) and the malicious joy of our enemies (*shamātat al-aʿdāʾ*).[^116] 46\. He should know that for every individual, there is an initial action and then the inevitable consequences of that action. Whoever starts with following desires will inevitably become humiliated, debased, deprived, and struck with a wide array of calamities according to the number of desires followed. This will all eventually become a punishment that his heart is tormented with as it is said, The ill treatment of family is appealing to the youth But in old age it will become punishment If you were to think about every evil state you would see it began with being carried away by desires and preferring desires over the intellect. Whoever begins by opposing their desires and yielding to the call of forthrightness, then his end will be honor, nobility, richness, high status with Allah, and high status with the people. \[Jurist and sage\] Abū Alī ad-Daqāq (d. 405/1014) said, “Whoever controls his desires in his youth, Allah will honor him in his old age.”[^117] It was said to Muhallab bin Abī Ṣufrah (d. 83/702), “How did you attain what you attained?” He said, “Through strong determination and opposing desires.”[^118] So this is the beginning and the end in this worldly life. As for the Hereafter, Allah has made Paradise the end of resisting desires and Hellfire the end of the one who follows their desires. 47\. He should know that desire is slavery of the heart, a chain around the neck, and shackles around the legs. Following desires is imprisonment by every evil master. Whoever opposes their desires is liberated and achieves freedom. It breaks the shackles on his neck and legs and he becomes like a man who is only owned by one master after having quarreling masters.[^119] The impulses of desires may be covered But when the cover is removed he is exposed The one with desires is a slave So when he overcame his desires he became the king[^120] \[Hadith master\] Ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181/797) composed the verses, Ushering from calamities are signs and indications Do you not see the agitation of the one who is overcome with desires? The real slave is the one who is a slave to his desires The free person is both full and hungry at times.[^121] 48\. He should know that whoever opposes his desires has entered a contract with Allah. Allah has guaranteed to fulfill the desired need with much more than what a person has given up. So he becomes like a person who wants dung but is given pearls as a replacement. Following desires makes a person lose what is beneficial for him in this world and the next. An incredibly blissful life emerges from victory over one’s desires. Look at the blessings that came to Prophet Yusuf, peace be upon him, after prison as a result of his restraint against unlawful desires. \[Hadith master\] ʿAbdur-Raḥmān b. Mahdī (d. 198/814) said, “I saw Sufyan al-Thawrī (d. 161/787) in a dream so I said, ‘What has Allah done with you?’ He said, ‘As soon as I was placed in my grave I was standing before Allah and He gave me an easy accounting then He sent me to Paradise. So I started to roam around its trees and rivers, I did not hear anything until someone said, “Are you Sufyān ibn Saʾīd?” and I said, “Yes I am Sufyān ibn Saʾīd”, so the caller said, “You preferred Allah over your desires one time?” I said, “Yes indeed by Allah,” Then I was given a spread of treats from all of Paradise.’”[^122] Abd al-Razzāq said, “\[The Caliph\] Abū Ja’far sent loggers when Sufyān al-Thawrī escaped to Mecca. He told them to crucify him. So they made a wooden plank and called for Sufyān. At this time Sufyān was hiding in the house of al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ. His companions said to him, ‘Fear Allah and do not let the enemies have their way with us.’ So he went to the curtain and grabbed it with his hand and said I will leave this if Abū Ja’far enters the city. Abū Ja’far died before entering Mecca.”[^123] So reflect on the good consequences of opposing desires. Look at how he was able to achieve such a status. 49\. He should know that opposing desires brings about nobility in this world and the next. A person is dignified outwardly and inwardly. Following desires lowers a person in this world and the next and he is humiliated outwardly and inwardly. When Allah gathers all of humanity in one plain and a caller calls out, “So that the people in the gathering can know who the noble people are on this day and so the pious can stand on a station of honor,”[^124] then those who followed their desires will be turned on their heads from the heat, sweat, and pain while the other group will be under the shade of the throne. 50\. When you reflect on the seven categories of individuals whom Allah shades in the shade of His throne—a day where there is no shade except His,[^125] you will find each attained this shade through opposition of their desire. The ruler cannot achieve justice except by going against his own desires. The youth preferring worship of his Lord over his youthful impulses can only develop by opposing his desires. The man whose heart is attached to the *masjid* can only do that by opposing his desires and opposing the temptation to go to places of carnal pleasures. The anonymous donor can only remain anonymous by conquering his desires. The one who refused the call by a beautiful noble woman is doing so out of fear of Allah and opposing his desire. The one who remembers Allah in solitude and cries from his reverence of Allah can only attain this by opposing his desires. So the heat, sweat, and severity on the place of gathering will not reach any of them on the Day of Judgment. The heat and sweat will reach all those who were accomplices to their desires. At this point they will be waiting to enter the true prison of their desires. So Allah’s help is sought to protect us from the desires of the self that commands us to evil and He makes our desires follow what He loves and what He is pleased with. Certainly, Allah has power over all things. ### Commentary on the 50 points #### Methods Ibn al-Qayyim lists 50 distinct instructional benefits for those struggling with addiction. We conducted an inductive qualitative grounded-theory analysis of these benefits using an iterative approach.[^126] This analysis consisted of five steps: (1) analyzing the data; (2) generating initial codes; (3) identifying subcategories; (4) identifying major categories; and (5) Formulating the theory. The first two steps consisted of reading and reviewing Ibn al-Qayyim’s 50 points and coding them based on the number provided in the chapter. The third step consisted of grouping items together based on similarities. There were 5 distinct subcategories created: negative consequences of addiction, positive consequences of healing, facilitators of healing, barriers to healing, visualizations. Themes were generated through analyzing the similarities within each group. Some points contained multiple ideas and so some appeared in more than one category. The fourth step identified two major categories (Psychoeducation and Behavioral Instruction). The fifth step generated an organized structure to Ibn al-Qayyim’s rehabilitation program. --- ## Ibn al-Qayyim’s rehabilitation program ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/rehabilitationimage-1024x776.png) --- ## Psychoeducation *Negative consequences of being addicted* (10; 17; 18; 20-26; 30-31; 34-43; 45-47) - State of humiliation, disgrace, and abasement - Loss of control - Loss of worldly blessings - Loss of spiritual blessings - Pain and suffering in the next life *Positive consequences of healing* (27-28;30-33;36;38;41;43;47-50) - Strong character - Strong resolve and determination - Achieving inner freedom - Clarity of purpose - Protection from calamities in this world and the next - High status with Allah and with people *Facilitators of Healing* (1-3; 7; 9; 15; 17; 44-45) - Commitment - Sincerity - Truth - Guidance - Protective love over one’s self - Strong motivation and determination for success - Strong aversion to failure - Courage - Self-regulation *Barriers to Healing* (19; 44-45) - Arousal of desire - Idle thinking and heedlessness - Sinful lifestyle - Shayṭān --- ## Behavioral instruction *Visualizations* (4-6; 8; 11-14; 16; 29; 44) - Imagine the end-state of being cured and all of the associated joy and delight. - Imagine the end-state of acting on the impulse and the pain that occurs shortly thereafter. - Think about your status with Allah if you commit the action. - Think about how the people you care about would feel if they knew. - Imagine a transaction where you sell your honor, wealth, property, and faith in exchange for fleeting pleasure. - Visualize the battlefield and aid the forces of good against the forces of evil. ### Discussion Psychoeducation is a recognized part of almost all therapies, mental and physical. It consists of the knowledge imparted regarding addiction phenomenon including consequences of addiction, factors that aid in healing, and factors that prevent healing. It is a specialized form of education that is delivered to patients and families to empower them with essential knowledge regarding the condition to prevent relapse and maintain therapy.[^127] The majority of the discussion by Ibn al-Qayyim can be categorized under psychoeducation. He dedicates significant attention to the negative consequences of addiction and the positive consequences of healing. This serves to reinforce the desire to change. He also describes positive qualities that are part of the journey of healing and that need to be cultivated. This highlights that, to Ibn al-Qayyim, addiction serves a starting point for an ethical and spiritual transformation through the acquisition of positive qualities like sincerity, courage, and patience. The negative qualities are listed as barriers to healing and should be overcome during the rehabilitation process. Behavioral instruction is centered around an intriguing theme of visualization. Visualization is actually a recognized part of guided imagery therapy that has only recently been empirically evaluated for addiction.[^128] Guided Imagery therapy is used to bring about positive changes in thoughts and behaviors, reducing symptoms of mental illness and improving coping skills.[^129] There are various techniques and types of visualization that are used including ‘reinstatement of dream image.’ This can include actual dreams, fantasies, or daydreams. It appears that Ibn al-Qayyim’s visualizations can fit under this genre of guided imagery tools. His rehabilitation program in its entirety can be conceived as a system of guided imagery. All 50 strategies can be centered around the imagery he builds of the heart and the various forces that exist within. The psychoeducation components provide the ingredients necessary to construct strong visualizations. But they can also be synergized to enhance the depth of the visualization. For instance, the 12th idea is, “The person should compare a discerning individual achieving his purpose against a person who is fulfilling his desire and then imagine the consequences of both. What was lost \[by the former\] and what was gained \[by the latter\]?” Although a person may be able to achieve unaided visualization of this idea, its strength and potential for change can be enhanced when their visualization incorporates the ideas in the 44th point, “He should know that Allah has made the heart the king of the body. It is also the center for knowing Allah, loving Him and worshiping Him. He tests the heart with two rulers, two armies, two sets of allies and two armories. *Ḥaq* (Truth), *rushd* (conscience) and *hudā* (guidance) form the Sultan (ruler). Its allies are the angels and its army is composed of *ṣidq* (commitment to truth) and *ikhlās* (sincerity) and opposing one’s desires. On the other side, *bāṭil* (falsehood) is the Sultan and its allies are the devils and their armies, while following desires is the armory. The *nafs* (self) is between these two armies. The army of *bāṭil* can only advance in the heart through its gaps until it mixes with the heart and surrounds it. Thus, the *nafs* is with its enemy surrounding the heart. In fact, the *nafs* is the one who gave its enemy the armory beforehand. At this moment, the enemy opens the gates to the city, enters, and conquers it. The heart is humiliated and defeated.” ![If Nafs is Controlled](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/nafs-1024x726.png) ![If Nafs is Weak](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/nafsweak-1024x726.png) Another example is the connection with *ṣabr* (willpower). The second and third points explain the importance of building the resource of *ṣabr*. If a person has low levels of *ṣabr*, then the visualizations will lack the potency to produce strong motivational states. Higher levels of *ṣabr* can augment visualizations and produce strong motivational states. --- ## Conclusion We can organize Ibn al-Qayyim’s rehabilitation program into a coherent narrative. Ibn al-Qayyim calls addicts to learn and reflect about the consequences of indulging in forbidden desires. This learning results in increased motivation to conquer their desires and a strong aversion to failure. Such a psycho-spiritual state is the first step toward recovery. He should become reconnected with the concept of *tawḥīd* (Islamic monotheism) in his life and have a consistent means for guidance to enter his heart. This can be achieved through good company, regular recitation of the Qu’ran, contemplation of scripture, studying prophetic traditions, and gaining general beneficial knowledge. After this, he should actively ensure that his environment does not arouse his desires and actively protect himself from the *Shayṭān* through physical and spiritual hygiene. He or she should consistently seek refuge in Allah from *Shayṭān* and mention Allah’s name before eating or entering his or her home. He or she should be cautious of free time that can lead to idle thinking and remove this possibility through proper scheduling and time management. The person should gradually develop their *ṣabr* through a steady increase in positive actions, while ensuring adequate rest and residual fuel. The above represents the important lifestyle changes that should occur in periods where a person does not feel the impulses or urges. When a person feels cravings and urges, he must engage in the prescribed visualizations or ‘guided imagery.’ A person should spend time to train their mind and soul to engage in the visualizations at the onset of craving. The images that a person brings to consciousness, combined with his firm resolve, determination, and willpower can offset the impulse. Step 1: Develop Strong Motivation for Healing Step 2: Purify the Environment Step 3: Develop Strong Willpower Step 4: Utilize Visualization to offset impulses Step 5: Maintenance & Relapse Management ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/5step-803x1024.png) This piece demonstrates the incredible richness of the Islamic tradition. Ibn al-Qayyim’s reflections on the phenomenon of addiction represent the most detailed treatment of the subject recognized to date. Behavioral and substance addictions are a growing issue affecting Muslim communities in the West and in the Muslim world. There has been great progress made in the field of addiction medicine, psychology, counseling, and group therapies that we can benefit from. The benefit of studying Ibn al-Qayyim is to center our approach within the Islamic ecosystem. It is important that therapy emerges from Islamic beliefs, motivating factors, spiritual practices, and its view of the human mind, body, and spirit. We can contribute further wisdom to the tradition by integrating modern empirical insights that can help package some of these ideas within practical therapeutic frameworks. It is our hope that this line of inquiry continues in the field of addiction as an extension of the Islamic tradition. For instance, Ibn al-Qayyim’s interventions are largely based on the individual and he does not mention the role of the community explicitly in his discussion. The importance of positive company is emphasized in our tradition and the role of a therapeutic community in treating addiction has long been recognized in the empirical literature.[^130] Organizing Ibn al-Qayyim’s ideas into group therapy would be an example of an important area for future development that is rooted in the Islamic tradition while benefiting from other academic fields. This translation and commentary is the beginning of a wider project that aims to provide guidance rooted in the Islamic tradition for believers struggling with addiction. Ibn al-Qayyim’s ideas presented here are fertile ground for the development of faith-based therapies that recognize a person’s Islam as the most important therapeutic factor. --- ## Notes [^1]: Mustafa Ozkan and Betul Solmaz, “Mobile Addiction of Generation Z and Its Effects on Their Social Lives: An Application Among University Students in the 18–23 Age Group,” *Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences* 205 (2015): 92–98. [^2]: Jaclyn Cabral, “Is Generation Y Addicted to Social Media?,” *The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications* 2, no. 1 (2011): 5–14. [^3]: Cabral, “Is Generation Y Addicted to Social Media?” [^4]: Ugurcan Sayili, Betul Zehra Pirdal, Busra Kara, Nurefsan Acar, Emirhan Camcioglu, Erkin Yilmaz, Gunay Can, and Ethem Erginoz, “Internet Addiction and Social Media Addiction in Medical Faculty Students: Prevalence, Related Factors, and Association with Life Satisfaction,” *Journal of Community Health* 48, no. 2 (2023): 189–98. [^5]: Haseeb Mehmood Qadri, Abdul Waheed, Ali Munawar, Hasan Saeed, Saad Abdullah, Tayyba Munawar, Shaheer Luqman, Junaid Saffi, Awais Ahmad, and Muhammad Saad Babar, “Physiological, Psychosocial and Substance Abuse Effects of Pornography Addiction: A Narrative Review,” *Cureus* 15, no. 1 (2023). [^6]: Joshua B. Grubbs, Samuel L. Perry, Jennifer T. Grant Weinandy, and Shane W. Kraus, “Porndemic? A Longitudinal Study of Pornography Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Nationally Representative Sample of Americans,” *Archives of Sexual Behavior*, 115. [^7]: Jonathan K. Noel, Sharon Jacob, Jennifer E. Swanberg, and Samantha R. Rosenthal, “Pornography: A Concealed Behavior with Serious Consequences,” *Rhode Island Medical Journal* 106, no. 3 (2023), 29–34. [^8]: Dane Mauer-Vakil and Anees Bahji, “The Addictive Nature of Compulsive Sexual Behaviours and Problematic Online Pornography Consumption: A Review,” *Canadian Journal of Addiction* 11, no. 3 (2020): 42–51. [^9]: Ewald, D. R., Strack, R. W., & Orsini, M. M. (2019). Rethinking addiction. *Global Pediatric Health*, *6*, 2333794X18821943. [^10]: Karnani, A. (2013). Impact of alcohol on poverty and the need for appropriate policy. *Alcohol: Science, Policy and Public Health*, 354. [^11]: Brown-Johnson, C. G., England, L. J., Glantz, S. A., & Ling, P. M. (2014). Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA. *Tobacco control*. [^12]: Markham, F., & Young, M. (2015). “Big gambling”: the rise of the global industry-state gambling complex. *Addiction Research & Theory*, *23*(1), 1-4. [^13]: McKee, A. (2007). The relationship between attitudes towards women, consumption of pornography, and other demographic variables in a survey of 1,023 consumers of pornography. *International Journal of Sexual Health*, *19*(1), 31-45. [^14]: Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). Adolescents and pornography: A review of 20 years of research. *The Journal of Sex Research*, *53*(4-5), 509-531. [^15]: Hadland, S. E., Rivera-Aguirre, A., Marshall, B. D., & Cerdá, M. (2019). Association of pharmaceutical industry marketing of opioid products with mortality from opioid-related overdoses. *JAMA network open*, *2*(1), e186007-e186007. [^16]: Carl G. Jung and I. May, “The Bill W.—Carl Jung Letters,” *AA Grapevine* 19, no. 8 (1963): 2. [^17]: Jung and May, “The Bill W.” [^18]: Jung and May, “The Bill W.” [^19]: Jon E. Grant, Marc N. Potenza, Aviv Weinstein, and David A. Gorelick, “Introduction to Behavioral Addictions,” *The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse* 36, no. 5 (2010): 233–241. [^20]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAzīz Shams (Jeddah: Dār ʿAlam al-Fawāʾid, 2010). [^21]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān al-ʿamal*, ed. Sulaymān Dunyā (Cairo: Dār al-Maʾārif, 1964), 251. [^22]: While a previous study covered the topic of addiction in the works of Ibn Qayyim Al‐Jawziyyah, it did not recognize his role as a pioneer in this field; See Abdul Wahhab Md. Ali, W. M. Y. bin Wan Chik, W. H. bin Wan Jusoh, M. S. bin Mokhtar, “An Analysis on Stages of Addiction According to Ibn Qayyim Al‐Jawziyyah’s Theory of al‐Ishq,” *Man India* 97, no. 22 (2018): 425–32. [^23]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, ed. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Wāḥīd (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadītha, 1962). [^24]: 2010 publication by Dār ʿĀlim al-Fawāʾid in Jeddah, pp. 629-649. [^25]: This refers to an iterative inductive analysis that seeks to identify an overarching theory from a dataset. The exact process is outlined in the relevant section. [^26]: The Arabic text of the chapter is available online [here](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/417/656&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1704412299663606&usg=AOvVaw38TK2ZAPTCuOH3uvx4_Lxy). [^27]: Ibn al-Qayyim is referring to previous chapters of the book that have quoted these verses and narrations in detail. [^28]: Qur’an, 57:27, Sahih International translation. [^29]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn* (Jeddah: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2010), 17. [^30]: Ibid. [^31]: The issue of earning prizes from competition is a detailed one. The area of agreement among the four schools of Islamic law, the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shafiʾī, and Ḥanbalī schools, is the permissibility of earning prizes for horse racing, camel racing, and archery. Ibn al-Qayyim, *Kitāb al-furūsiyya al-Muḥammadiīyya* (Jeddah: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2007), 254. This is based on the explicit narration of a hadith, “There are no competitive \[awards\] except in archery, camel racing, and horse racing.” *Jamiʾ al-Tirmidhī*, hadith no. 1700. There is a disagreement regarding the permissibility of competing in other modes like foot racing, swimming, wrestling, and knowledge. The interested reader can refer to Ibn al-Qayyim’s *Kitāb al-furūsiyya*, 254–65, where he analyzes these issues in detail and presents his own position. [^32]: The four humors was the classical model of physiology and pathology endorsed by physicians as a way to conceptualize health and disease. The humors were types of fluid found in the body: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Imbalance of these four results in disease and their balance results in health. Ibn al-Qayyim had trained in medicine while he was in Egypt and had thus absorbed this paradigm of medicine. With the advancement of empirical technology, we have grown in our understanding of human physiology and the various etiologies of diseases. This framework is no longer an adequate scientific model. [^33]: Aḥmad b. ʿAmr b. Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, *al-Sunnah*, no. 15; al-Bayhaqī, *al-Madkhal ilā al-sunan al-kubrā*, hadith no. 209. Shu’ayb al-Arnāʾūṭ and al-Albānī  graded the chain of this narration to be weak (*ḍaʾīf*). [^34]: Abū Nu’aym al-Aṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1996), 9:123. [^35]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn*, 19. [^36]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5066. [^37]: Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab* (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1993), 13:159. [^38]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3375. [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. [^40]: Samuel Turton and Anne Lingford-Hughes, “Neurobiology and Principles of Addiction and Tolerance,” *Medicine* 44, no. 12 (2016): 693–96. [^41]: J. Vetulani, “Drug Addiction. Part II. Neurobiology of Addiction,” *Polish Journal of Pharmacology* 53, no. 4 (2001): 303–18. [^42]: George F. Koob, “The Neurobiology of Addiction: A Neuroadaptational View Relevant for Diagnosis,” *Addiction*, *101* (2006): 23–30. [^43]: Mark D, Griffiths, “Behavioural Addiction and Substance Addiction Should Be Defined by Their Similarities Not Their Dissimilarities,” *Addiction* 112, no. 10 (2017): 1718–20. [^44]: Marc N. Potenza, “Non-Substance Addictive Behaviors in the Context of DSM-5,” *Addictive Behaviors* 39, no. 1 (2014). [^45]: Potenza, “Non-Substance Addictive Behaviors.” [^46]: Mauer-Vakil and Bahji, “Addictive Nature of Compulsive Sexual Behaviours.” [^47]: Qur’an, 5:90, Sahih International translation. [^48]: Al-Alūsī, *Rūḥ al-Maʾānī* (Beirut: Dār al-Iḥyāʾ at-Turāth al-Arabī), vol. 7, p. 16. [^49]: Zachary M. Laubach, Eleanor J. Murray, Kim L. Hoke, Rebecca J. Safran and Wei Perng, “A Biologist’s Guide to Model Selection and Causal Inference,” *Proceedings of the Royal Society B* 288, no. 1943 (2021): 20202815. [^50]: Zach, “Correlation Does Not Imply Causation: 5 Real-World Examples,” *Statology*, November 5, 2021, https://www.statology.org/correlation-does-not-imply-causation-examples/. [^51]: Alva Noë and Evan Thompson, “Are There Neural Correlates of Consciousness?” *Journal of Consciousness Studies* 11, no. 1 (2004): 3–28. [^52]: David Chalmers, “The Hard Problem of Consciousness,” *The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness*, 2017, 32–42. [^53]: Nagel, T. (1980). What is it like to be a bat?. In *The Language and Thought Series* (pp. 159-168). Harvard University Press. [^54]: David E. Schoen, *The War of the Gods in Addiction: C. G. Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Archetypal Evil* (N.p.: Chiron Publications, 2020), location no. 1523. [^55]: Schoen, *The War of the Gods in Addiction*, location no. 1531. [^56]: Qur’an, 20:120, author’s translation. [^57]: Qur’an, 7:20, Sahih International translation. [^58]: Ewald, D. R., Strack, R. W., & Orsini, M. M. (2019). Rethinking addiction. *Global Pediatric Health*, *6*, 2333794X18821943. [^59]: Karnani, A. (2013). Impact of alcohol on poverty and the need for appropriate policy. *Alcohol: Science, Policy and Public Health*, 354. [^60]: Brown-Johnson, C. G., England, L. J., Glantz, S. A., & Ling, P. M. (2014). Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA. *Tobacco control*. [^61]: Markham, F., & Young, M. (2015). “Big gambling”: the rise of the global industry-state gambling complex. *Addiction Research & Theory*, *23*(1), 1-4. [^62]: McKee, A. (2007). The relationship between attitudes towards women, consumption of pornography, and other demographic variables in a survey of 1,023 consumers of pornography. *International Journal of Sexual Health*, *19*(1), 31-45. [^63]: Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). Adolescents and pornography: A review of 20 years of research. *The Journal of Sex Research*, *53*(4-5), 509-531. [^64]: Hadland, S. E., Rivera-Aguirre, A., Marshall, B. D., & Cerdá, M. (2019). Association of pharmaceutical industry marketing of opioid products with mortality from opioid-related overdoses. *JAMA network open*, *2*(1), e186007-e186007. [^65]: Qur’an, 9:120, Sahih International translation. [^66]: Qur’an, 48:29, author’s translation. [^67]: Qur’an, 4:100, Sahih International translation. [^68]: Al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī Ṭāhir al-Ṭughrāʾī, *Lāmīyyat al-ʿajm* (Baghdad: Matbaʿat al-ʿĀnī, 1962), 18. [^69]: A couplet with no author attribution found in the following text with slight word variation: al-Ḥasan b. Masʿūd al-Yūsī, *Zahr al-akam fī al-amthāl wa al-ḥikam* (Casablanca: Dār al-Thiqāfa, 1981), 1:254. [^70]: Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī, *Dīwān al-Mutanabbī* (Beirut: Dār Bayrūt, 1983), 558. [^71]: Qur’an, 28:50, author’s translation. [^72]: Qur’an, 2:120, author’s translation. [^73]: Qur’an, 7:176, Sahih International translation. [^74]: Qur’an, 74:50–51, Sahih International translation. [^75]: Qur’an, 2:124, Sahih International translation. [^76]: Qur’an, 30:29, author’s translation. [^77]: Qur’an, 18:28, Sahih International translation. [^78]: Qur’an, 25:43; author’s translation. [^79]: He is referring to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, the famous early Muslim scholar from the second generation (*tabiʾīn*). [^80]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6487, author’s translation. [^81]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Jamiʾ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 2560, Darussalam translation, Accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2560&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1704412299653121&usg=AOvVaw38tUtbnPy24f9vQaUfC7ZO). [^82]: Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, *al-Sunnah*, hadith no. 15; al-Bayhaqī, *al-Madkhal*, hadith no. 209. Shu’ayb al-Arnāʾūṭ and al-Albānī both graded the narration to be weak (*ḍaʾīf*). [^83]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Imām Aḥmad*, hadith no. 19772; *Musnad al-Bazzār*, hadith no. 3251; Shu’ayb al-Arnāʾūṭ stated the narrators of this report to be reliable and al-Albānī graded it authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*); *Ṣaḥīḥ at-Targhīb*, 52. The wording found in existing publication is “misleading trials (*muḍillāt al-fitan*)” rather than “misleading desires (*muḍillāt al-hawā*)” as quoted by Ibn al-Qayyim in this text. [^84]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’b al-imān*, hadith no. 6865. Al-Albānī declared it *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^85]: This saying is attributed to Manṣūr bin ʿAmmār (d. 225/840) in al-Aṣbahānī *Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ*, 9:326. [^86]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, hadith no. 6114, author’s translation. [^87]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm*, 22. [^88]: Ibn Abī Dunya, *Muḥāsabat al-nafs* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1986), no. 84. [^89]: Al-Aṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ*, 10:18. [^90]: Attributed to Ibn Sammāk in Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 23. [^91]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 31. [^92]: Ibid., 23. [^93]: See footnote 1 for an explanation of the concept of “humors.” [^94]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 23–24. [^95]: Ibid., 24. [^96]: This would be an example of *kufr asghar* (lesser disbelief) or *kufr dūna kufr* (a disbelief less than major disbelief). [^97]: The person is overcome with desires that are unlawful in Islamic law, so they change their religion to a more permissive one. [^98]: Attributed to al-Ḥajjāj b. Muḥammad al-Aʿwar (d. 206/821). Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 24. [^99]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 24–25. [^100]: Ibid., 25. [^101]: This likely refers to Ibn Taymiyya as Ibn al-Qayyim refers to him with multiple titles including “Shaykh al-Islām” and “Shaykhunā.” He also refers to Abū Ibrāhīm al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311) as “Shaykhunā” in Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Shifāʾ al-ʿilīl* (Beirut: Dār al-Ma’rifa, 1978), 16. He was one of the spiritual masters of Ibn al-Qayyim and could also be potentially referred to here. However, in  *Mustadrak* *ʿalā majmūʾ fatāwā* *shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya*, which is compiled by the late Shaykh Muḥammad b. Abd al-Raḥmān b. Qāsim (d. 1421/2000), the latter attributes this quote to Ibn Taymiyya: *Muḥammad b. Abd aul-Raḥmān b. Qāsim, Mustadrak ʿalā of the majmūʾ fatāwā shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya* (self-pub., 1998),  5:229. [^102]: Qur’an, 76:12, author’s translation. [^103]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 25. [^104]: Ibid. [^105]: Ibid., 26. [^106]: He was a ruler under the Abbasid caliphate. This author is unable to find a death year, although given the historical context, he likely lived in the early to middle of the second century hijri. [^107]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 26–27. [^108]: Ibid, 27. Attributed to Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Jarīrī. [^109]: Ibid. Attributed to Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā (d. 234/849). [^110]: Ibid. [^111]: Qur’an, 21:52, author’s translation. [^112]: Qur’an, 25:43–44, author’s translation. [^113]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 29. [^114]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 30 [^115]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*. [^116]: This last sentence is referencing a popular prophetic invocation found in *Ṣaḥīḥ ul-Bukhārī*, no. 6616, “Take refuge with Allah from the difficulties of severe calamities, from having an evil end and a bad fate and from the malicious joy of your enemies.” [^117]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 31. [^118]: Ibid. [^119]: This is an allusion to the Qur’anic metaphor in 39:29 that explains idolatry as a person being ruled by multiple quarreling partners. [^120]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 34. [^121]: Ibid. [^122]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Dhamm al-hawā*, 56. [^123]: Ibid. [^124]: This is a paraphrasing of a statement attributed to the Prophet’s companion and early followers (*athar*), found in multiple collections, attributed to the companions ʿUqbah b. ʿĀmir and Ibn ʿAbbās as well as a an early follower (*tabiʾī*), Rabīʾa al-Ḥarshī. It is found in *Kitāb al-zuhd li-Asad ibn Mūsā*, report no. 77; *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ*, 6:62 and *Shu’b al-Imān*, no. report 3242. Al-Suyūṭī has declared the chain to Ibn ʿAbbās as authentic: al-Suyūṭī, *al-Durr al-Manthūr*, 10:111. [^125]: This is referring to a hadith found in *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6806. [^126]: Ylona Chun Tie, Melanie Birks, and Karen Francis, “Grounded Theory Research: A Design Framework for Novice Researchers,” *SAGE Open Medicine* 7 (2019): 2050312118822927. [^127]: Ashutosh Atri and Manoj Sharma, “Psychoeducation,” *Californian Journal of Health Promotion* 5, no. 4 (2007): 32–39. [^128]: Kathleen M. Murphy and Douglas M. Ziedonis, “Group Guided Imagery and Music for Adults in Addiction Treatment: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial Feasibility Study,” *Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery* 15, 2016; Srinivasan Aarti, “Effectiveness of Guided Imagery on Stress and Coping among Wives of Alcoholics: A Systematic Review,” *Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology* 14, no. 3 (2020): 146–50. [^129]: Joe Utay and Megan Miller, “Guided Imagery as an Effective Therapeutic Technique: A Brief Review of its History and Efficacy Research,” *Journal of Instructional Psychology* 33, no. 1 (2006). [^130]: Flores, P. J. (2001). Addiction as an attachment disorder: Implications for group therapy. *International Journal of Group Psychotherapy*, *51*(1: Special issue), 63-81. ## Summary Living amidst what may rightly be called a dopaminergic age, the human being today is besieged by carefully engineered pleasures—images, sounds, foods, intoxicants, and digital stimuli—all designed to capture the heart and mind. The decriminalization of recreational drugs, the opioid crisis afflicting even affluent populations, and widespread compulsive engagement with social media, gaming, and sexual content reveal a society structured to maximize the release of dopamine. Studies bear witness to this crisis: one 2011 study found that 59% of its 313 participants self-reported feeling "addicted" to social media, Griffiths and colleagues in 2014 warned of an impending epidemic of internet addiction marked by withdrawal and relapse, and a study in Türkiye found that 16% of university students met criteria for internet addiction. Among the most damaging is addiction to sexual content, whose usage rose during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though scholars debate whether "pornography addiction" constitutes a formal diagnosis, problematic use correlates with mental illness, and the ICD-11 includes compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), listing problematic online pornography use as a symptom. Society itself plays a strong role in generating and worsening addiction. Poverty, broken homes, abuse, and chronic social stressors render subpopulations vulnerable, and this vulnerability is exploited by multi-million dollar industries promoting alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, and opioids. While medicine, psychology, and neuroscience have begun to study these problems, there is a danger in medicalizing social problems and confining analysis to purely empirical paradigms, for this produces blind spots that ignore spiritual factors. As Muslims, it is necessary to recognize the role of the spirit (rūḥ), the ego (nafs), the devils (shayāṭīn), the angels (malāʾika), faith (imānīyyāt), guidance (hidāyah), and divine enabling (tawfīq). Even Carl Jung, in his letter to William Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, acknowledged this deficiency, writing of his conviction that "the evil principle prevailing in this world leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition if it is not counteracted either by real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community." Muslims possess the advantage of a revealed framework, and it is within the science of tazkiyat al-nafs (purification of the self) that a rich tradition addressing problematic cravings emerged—one containing insights that Western addiction science would not reach until centuries later. Western scholarship has claimed that the psychological effects of addiction were not formally recognized until the seventeenth century, when Christian (Calvinist) theologians wrote of "losing control" to substances, with specific interventions thought to be absent until the nineteenth century. Before this, the prevailing view derived from the Roman physician Cornelius Celsus (d. 50 C.E.), who conceived of dependence as purely physical, and no notion of behavioral addiction existed until the modern era. In this light, the final chapter of Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn (Garden of the Lovers) by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) is presented in translation and commentary, for he preceded the seventeenth-century theologians by over three hundred years in describing the psychological effects of addiction and the notion of "loss of control," and was the first to explicitly describe addiction to a behavior in addition to substances. Earlier scholars of tazkiya had implicitly recognized such phenomena as habituation (iʾtiyād), and Ibn al-Qayyim's chapter serves largely as a reflective commentary upon the narrations gathered by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1200) in his Dhamm al-hawā (Blameworthy Desires), particularly its second chapter. This demonstrates the cumulative nature of Islamic scholarship, wherein one scholar builds upon another, and connects us to the light of prophethood carried across the generations. The translation relies upon the critical edition of Bakr Abū Zayd (d. 1429/2008). Ibn al-Qayyim first clarifies that not all desire (hawā) is blameworthy. Desire is an instinctual drive necessary for survival—without the impulse to eat, drink, or procreate, human beings would perish. Just as anger is neither praised nor blamed unconditionally, so too desire; what is blameworthy is excess that exceeds bringing benefit or averting harm. The Islamic view of desire is thus positive, in contrast to traditions emphasizing the denial of basic drives. The Qur'an itself references the monasticism innovated by the followers of Jesus, which Allah never prescribed: "And We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion, mercy, and monasticism—which they innovated. We did not prescribe it for them except (that they did so) seeking the approval of Allah." Since the servant can never be wholly separated from desire while he lives, what is realistic (maqdūr lahū) and commanded (maʾmūr bih) is to redirect desire from destruction toward safety—as fornication is diverted to marriage, usury to lawful trade, and gambling to beneficial competition such as horse racing, camel racing, and archery. Yet desire, left to itself, leads to ruin. Al-Shaʿbī (d. 103/721) said, "It is called desire (hawā) because it brings a person down (yahwī)," for it calls to immediate gratification without regard for consequence. Only three faculties—religiosity (dīn), integrity (murūʾa), and intellect (ʿaql)—restrain a person from pleasures ending in pain, and Imam al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/819) illustrated the height of this integrity when he said, "If I knew that cool water would compromise my integrity I would never drink it." Allah mentions desire almost exclusively in a negative context, with the exception of the Prophet's ﷺ words, "None of you truly believes until his desires are made to follow what I have brought." One must therefore appoint two arbiters, intellect and religion, and train oneself to resist even harmless desires so as to be able to resist the harmful. Ibn al-Qayyim stresses that Allah's commands flow from His favor (iḥsān) and mercy (raḥmah), and His prohibitions are meant to protect His servants—revealed law is designed for the flourishing of life. As a means of strengthening willpower, the Prophet ﷺ, as narrated by Abd Allāh b. Masʿūd, directed the young: "O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry... and whoever is not able to marry should fast, as fasting is a shield for him." Regarding the descent from desire to addiction, Ibn al-Qayyim observes that the one addicted (mudmin) reaches a state in which he no longer derives pleasure from his object yet cannot abstain from it—indulgence becomes necessary for his very living, so that the alcohol or sex addict experiences not a tenth of the pleasure of one who partakes in moderation. Such a person is likened to a bird caught in a trap, unable to seize the seed and unable to escape. The term mudmin appears in the Sunnah, as in "The mudmin of alcohol is like the worshiper of idols," though it should be noted that classically the word denoted habitual engagement and not necessarily psychological addiction as understood today. Remarkably, Ibn al-Qayyim's description anticipates all four domains recognized in the modern DSM-5—physical dependence, risky use, social problems, and impaired control—and he distinguishes behavioral addiction (such as sexual behavior) from substance addiction (such as alcohol), a distinction only now being debated in the scientific literature. The Qur'an likewise groups a substance and a behavior together: "O you who have believed, indeed, alcohol, gambling, (sacrificing on) stone altars, and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful." Al-Ālūsī, commenting on this verse, explains that these arise from Satan's action through his allurement (tazyīn) and temptation (taswīl). Thus a spiritual dimension is exposed that empirical therapy largely ignores. Here the treatment cautions against over-reliance upon neuroscience, invoking the axiom that correlation does not imply causation, and pointing to what David Chalmers termed "the hard problem of consciousness"—the impossibility of explaining subjective experience by physical neurotransmitters—and to Thomas Nagel's essay "What is it like to be a bat?", which shows that objective data can never capture subjective experience. The satanic manipulation of desire is therefore essential to understanding addiction. Even the Jungian analyst David Schoen observed that addicted persons feel "invincible and powerful and self-assured" through their substances—an insight illuminated by Satan's first whisper to Adam: "O Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and a kingdom that will never waste away?" Ibn al-Qayyim then offers fifty strategies for treating addiction, achievable only "with the help of Allah and His guidance." These include resolute determination (ʿazīma) and protective jealousy (ghīra) over oneself; ingesting the bitter potion of ṣabr (patience and self-regulation); recognizing that the pain of sin exceeds its pleasure; considering one's station with Allah; delighting in the defeat of Satan, supported by Allah's words concerning the enraging of disbelievers; recalling one's lofty purpose; and remembering that indulgence reduces a person below the animals. He warns that desire corrupts whatever it touches—turning knowledge into innovation (bidʿah), asceticism into ostentation (riyāʾ), and judgment into oppression—and that Satan enters only through the gate of desire. He cites the Qur'an's likening of the follower of desire to a dog and to donkeys, its exclusion of the wrongdoer from leadership, and its equation of the one who takes his desire as a god with an idolater, upon which al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728) commented that such a one is a hypocrite who fulfills whatever he desires. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Paradise is surrounded by hardships and Hellfire is surrounded by desires," and warned, "The thing I fear most for you all is the deviating appetites of your stomach and private organs along with misleading desires." He also related the three destructive qualities, of which following desire is one, and taught, "Strength is not through wrestling; rather, strength is being able to control one's self in anger." Sayings of Bishr al-Ḥāfī (d. 227/842), al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ (d. 187/803), Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/787), and others reinforce that desire is a disease whose cure is opposition, that opposing desire brings freedom, nobility, and shade beneath the Throne on the Day when there is no shade but His, and that each of the seven whom Allah shades attained it through opposing desire. A qualitative grounded-theory analysis of these fifty points yields two major categories: psychoeducation and behavioral instruction. The psychoeducation encompasses the negative consequences of addiction, the positive fruits of healing, the facilitators of healing (commitment, sincerity, truth, guidance, protective love, motivation, courage, and self-regulation), and the barriers (arousal of desire, heedlessness, sinful living, and Satan). The behavioral instruction centers upon visualization—imagining the joy of being cured, the pain following indulgence, one's status with Allah, the grief of loved ones, the ruinous transaction of selling faith and honor for fleeting pleasure, and the battlefield of the heart. This resembles the modern guided imagery therapy only recently evaluated for addiction. Ibn al-Qayyim's program may thus be arranged into stages: developing strong motivation, purifying the environment, developing willpower (ṣabr), employing visualization to offset impulses, and maintaining recovery. His treatment represents the most detailed treatment of addiction recognized to date, and though he does not explicitly address the role of community—despite the emphasis our tradition places on good companionship—this presents fertile ground for future faith-based therapies that recognize a believer's Islam as the most important therapeutic factor. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/uniting-the-ummah-strategies-to-foster-solidarity-with-uyghur-muslims # Uniting the Ummah: Strategies to Foster Solidarity with Uyghur Muslims **Authors:** Shahd Fulath Khan, Hala Bucheeri, Arzu Gul, Dr. Dilmurat Mahmut **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** December 27, 2023 **Updated:** April 2, 2026 ## Introduction Connection to the community is a vital component of thriving religiosity for Muslims[^1] and provides a sense of belonging that is commonly used in the field of psychology to refer to the human need for acceptance, understanding, and to be part of a greater whole.[^2] Correlating with the Islamic concept of brotherhood and sisterhood (*ukhuwwa*) in the *ummah*, our beloved Messenger ﷺ told us, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”[^3] In this paper, we draw upon the prophetic biography (*sīra*) and how the Prophet ﷺ actualized the concept of brother/sisterhood by establishing a sense of belonging and community integration amongst the Medinan Helpers (*anṣār*) and the Meccan Emigrants (*muhājirūn*) during the migration. This paper will take the case study of Uyghur Muslims in the global diaspora, fleeing genocide in China, as a modern-day example of the *muhājirūn* who critically need integration into the greater Muslim *ummah*. This qualitative study draws upon interviews to outline the mental health challenges, loss of sense of belonging, disenfranchisement from the *ummah*, and loss of institutional and community connection experienced by Uyghur immigrants and refugees. As will come to light from the Uyghur interviews detailed later on within this paper, voluntary charity (*ṣadaqa*) and sympathy are felt to fall short of what is expected from the *ummah*. Muslim countries’ continued alliance with and economic reliance on China, the Western Muslim community’s lack of knowledge regarding the Uyghur genocide, the lack of public outcry from the *ummah*, and an absence of concrete political action and advocacy are the major stumbling blocks that have appeared to have frayed the Uyghur community’s sense of belonging to the greater Muslim community. Within this paper, power structures in some Muslim communities and mosques seem to privilege certain races over others, specifically where those who don’t fit neatly into the dominant groups (i.e., Arab, South Asian) are relegated to the margins (e.g., Black, revert, Malaysian, Bosnian, Afghani, Rohingya, Uyghur, and many others). The prophetic model of the mosque will be explored, presenting it as not only a place of worship but as a space for community integration, a shelter for the unhoused, a hospital, and a place of education, among other roles. From this, a parallel will be drawn highlighting the central role of the mosque today in the community integration of Uyghur immigrants and refugees. Finally, recommendations will be presented for how this prophetic model of community empathy and solidarity and the holistic role of the mosque can be revived in our *ummah* today, allowing the Muslim community to serve as the scaffolding upon which Uyghurs are able to restore their sense of belonging. --- ## Vignette *Arzu diligently reached out to Muslim community members and leaders for years, asking their support of the protest against the Uyghur genocide. She tirelessly emailed and phoned every imam, shaykh, or scholar she could find but only received a lukewarm response at best. Finally, it was the day of the protest. Arzu stepped off the public transit bus and scanned the crowd gathering in the public square. While she saw around one hundred of her fellow Uyghur sisters and brothers in attendance, holding posters and banners, she counted just two Muslims from the larger Muslim community at the rally. She picked up her banner and joined the demonstration. While she was protesting, a man came to her and said, “Al-salām ʿalaykum, Sister.” Arzu returned his greeting, hopeful that another member from the greater Muslim community had come to join the protest. Instead, he barked, “Sister, why are you protesting against China? Why not Israel, the US, or India?” Arzu could feel the hot tears streaming down her face as she yelled back at him, “Millions of innocent Uyghur Muslims are in Chinese concentration camps! China is carrying out a Uyghur genocide!” The man offered no reply, but instead, snapped a picture of the protesting crowd before walking away.* The first author first learned about Arzu’s Uyghur community advocacy when they met many years ago while volunteering for a Muslim sisters’ organization. Since then, they have worked on several projects together, including organizing political rallies and community education events, and their children have attended the same Islamic school. Arzu recounted this story in preparation for this paper; she said that, after hearing this man’s harsh reproach, “A part of me gave up.” --- ## Uyghurs in context Approximately 13 million Uyghurs, the majority of whom are Muslim and belong to Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, reside in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or East Turkestan as it is referred to by the Uyghurs. Muslim Turkic tribes who lived in the Uyghur homeland embraced Islam in the fourth/tenth century and have resided there for centuries.[^4] For decades, the Chinese government has attempted to repress and colonize East Turkestan, seeing Muslim identity as a threat to communist power.[^5] Since 2017, Uyghurs have been facing a brutal genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, who have sought to eliminate Uyghur culture by forcefully assimilating Uyghurs into mainstream Chinese culture.[^6] Millions[^7] of Muslim Uyghur men and women have been locked away in forced labor concentration camps, where they endure a humiliating and torturous process of “re-education” designed to rid them of their faith.[^8] Severe religious repression has been enforced; acts of worship such as praying, reading Qur’an, and fasting in Ramadan, have been outlawed.[^9] There are reports of unimaginable brutality ranging from organ harvesting[^10] to mass sterilization[^11] and gang rape.[^12] As one participant in our research shared, > Young \[Uyghur\] men became the target of hate and terror. A lot of them were pious… They just wanted to follow their faith… But the \[Chinese\] state began to conflate religious appearance and violent action. Young men became criminalized and began disappearing. Families were shattered in a lot of ways. It had a larger impact than just the person who was detained… \[The Chinese government\] talked about Islam as a disease—a virus or cancer spreading hate, which needed to be rooted out. In order to build the camp system, you have to dehumanize the population, and thinking of \[Uyghur Muslims\] as terrorists enabled them to do that. In response, tens of thousands of Uyghur Muslims have fled China. Many have settled in over 50 countries around the world. The largest numbers have settled in other ethnically Turkic countries, such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, while smaller populations have migrated to the US (8,000-10,000),[^13] Canada (less than 2,000),[^14] Australia (5,000-10,000),[^15] Sweden (2,000),[^16] Germany (750), and other countries.[^17] --- ## The importance of religious community post-migration The migration and resettlement process is often one of disruption, grief, and uncertainty. When this is compounded by traumatic events such as the threat of torture and genocide, mental health issues like distress, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) become pressing concerns.[^18] For example, one participant in our research shared how the time after migration “is not post-trauma, but rather ongoing trauma” as Uyghurs grapple with news of their loved ones being tortured and detained. Even post-migration, Uyghurs have to contend with the constant threat of surveillance and censorship, which has eroded trust internally within the Uyghur community. One participant explained, “There is lots of suspicion within \[the Uyghur\] community. Some are afraid that Uyghurs are informants… \[As a result\] people become more and more isolated.” As is common in the migrant experience, a deficit of social capital is felt amongst the Uyghur diaspora. However, to combat this, research has shown that being part of a religious community often provides congregants with a sense of group solidarity, shared values and identity, validation of beliefs, and a sense of belonging.[^19] Following loss, shared communal religiosity can be a protective factor that helps people through the grieving process, unlike personal religiosity, which does not have the same impact.[^20] Communal religious participation enhances social ties, social support networks, and increases the likelihood of forming friendships.[^21] It also offers a space of shared language, culture, and ethnicity. For these reasons, finding a sense of belonging within one’s religious community post-migration can accelerate integration and prevent mental health issues.[^22] In addition to facilitating the accrual of social capital, many places of worship and faith-based organizations can also offer vital services to newcomers, ranging from food banks, housing assistance, language training, and  job search assistance.[^23] The majority of studies cited above that found a positive relationship between religiosity and sense of belonging measured communal religiosity, where a person’s faith was not confined to their private life but was rather connected to the greater religious community. Supporting such findings, Yaqeen Institute’s analysis of different profiles of religiosity and their connection to mental health also found that confining one’s religious life to the personal and private domain (e.g., engaging only in individual ritual acts of worship like prayer and reading Qur’an in one’s own home) was not associated with mental health benefits.[^24] In contrast, those who engaged with their faith comprehensively through personal worship and connecting to the greater *ummah* experienced the full mental health benefits of religiosity as they actualized Islam as a holistic way of life. Research has found that for Uyghurs in the diaspora, Islam can be a source of deep meaning, empowerment, and identity.[^25] For Uyghurs who have been experiencing religious persecution for so many years, reconnecting with a Muslim community post-migration can be critical to the health of their faith. --- ## The ummah: Creating a community of belonging In our faith, the concept of the *ummah* plays a central role. The *ummah* is a community of believers who all share the same purpose: to worship Allah. This community of believers transcends the boundaries of nation-state, ethnicity, culture, race, and language. As Allah tells us in the Qur’an, “And certainly this *ummah* of yours is one *ummah*, and I am your Lord and Cherisher. Therefore fear Me and no other.”[^26] Belonging to a greater community of faith is a vital part of our religion. As the ‘verse of brotherhood’ reminds us, “The believers are but one brotherhood (*ikhwa*), so make peace between your brothers. And be mindful of Allah so you may be shown mercy.”[^27] Significantly, we know that the bonds of brotherhood don’t come to fruition passively. In fact, in our faith, believers are encouraged to take an *active* role in creating community and facilitating others’ sense of belonging. For example, our beloved Prophet ﷺ advised us, “If there are three of you, do not let two privately converse to the exclusion of the other.” Moreover, in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not let two privately converse to the exclusion of one, for that will hurt a believer and Allah Almighty hates for a believer to be hurt.”[^28] There is no greater example of the active integration of brothers and sisters into the *ummah* than in the story of migration (*hijra*) to Medina. In this beautiful moment within the *sīrah*, the overwhelming generosity of the helpers and residents of Medina (*anṣār)* towards the emigrants from Mecca (*muhājirūn*) entering their city is staggering. In what follows, we will draw upon this model of integration as we examine religiosity and its impact on the sense of belonging and mental health of the global Uyghur diaspora. --- ## Reviving the sunnah of active integration In the most phenomenal example of active *ukhuwwa*, the Prophet ﷺ called upon his *ummah* to establish official bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood (*muʾākhā*) between the *anṣār* and the *muhājirūn* after their arrival in Medina.[^29] The bonds ran so deep that it was initially legislated that they could even inherit from one another.[^30] Allah extols the generosity of the *anṣār* in the Qur’an: > And \[also for\] those who were settled in Medina and \[adopted\] the faith before them. They love those who emigrated to them and find not any want in their breasts of what the emigrants were given but give \[them\] preference over themselves, even though they are in privation. And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul—it is those who will be the successful.[^31] The *muhājirūn* were so moved by the *anṣār*’s overwhelming acts of generosity that they remarked to the Prophet ﷺ: > O Messenger of Allah! We have not seen a people more willing to sacrifice when having a lot, nor more patient when having a little than the people whom we are staying amongst…[^32] The *muhājir* Saʿad b. al-Rabīʿ recounts, > When the emigrants reached Medina, Allah’s Messenger ﷺ established the bond of fraternity (*muʾākhā*) between ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf and Saʿad b. al-Rabīʿ. Saʿad said to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, “I am the richest of all the *anṣār*, so I want to divide my property (between us), and I have two wives, so see which of the two you like and tell me, so that I may divorce her, and when she finishes her prescribed period (i.e., *ʿidda*) of post-divorce, then marry her.” ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said, “May Allah bless your family and property for you. Where is your market?” So they showed him the Qaynuqāʿ market. He \[went there and\] returned with a profit in the form of dried yogurt and butter. He continued going \[to the market\] until one day he came bearing the traces of a yellow powder. The Prophet ﷺ asked, “What is this?” He replied, “I got married.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “How much dowry (*mahr*) did you give her?” He replied, “I gave her a datestone of gold or a gold piece equal to the weight of a date-stone.” \[The narrator, Ibrahim, was in doubt as to which was correct.’\][^33] In common vernacular we talk about the generous person as being one who would give the shirt off their back for another. Yet, this incredible act of generosity by the *anṣārī*  Sa’d goes far beyond this. It’s also a beautiful account of the *muhājir*, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān being grateful for the generosity of his brother but seeking means to establish himself on his own. In another narration, it is related, the *anṣār* said \[to the Prophet ﷺ\], “Please divide the date-palm trees between us and them \[i.e., emigrants\].” The Prophet ﷺ said, “No.” The *anṣār* said, “Let them \[i.e., the emigrants\] do the labor for us in the gardens and share the date-fruits with us.” The emigrants said, “We accepted this.”[^34] Such is the power of generosity when we give solely for the sake of Allah. Here, the *anṣār* were ready to give of their most coveted livelihood—their date-palm trees—and again, the Prophet ﷺ appreciated the offer but insisted that the *muhājirūn* should work and strive for their living. The Prophet ﷺ, in his profound wisdom, knew the power of creating a community that was built on social connectedness and, at the same time, a community that offered real opportunity for engagement for the emigrants. Being given the opportunity to work and make an honest living gives people honor and dignity and is a sentiment we can see exemplified in calls for a living wage and skills-bridging programs for immigrant and refugee populations today.[^35] Research has shown how being engaged in “meaningful work,” where a newcomer has the opportunity to put the skills they acquired prior to migration to use in their host country, positively impacts mental health outcomes.[^36] Most people desire productivity and a chance to meaningfully contribute to their society, which in turn creates a sense of dignity and belonging.[^37] With his deep empathy and foresight, the Prophet ﷺ also made a refuge in the mosque for the *muhājirūn* who were unable to establish themselves in Medina by securing a home or getting married, choosing instead to live a life devoted to worship and spiritual service. These Companions were known as the ‘People of the Platform’ (*ahl al-ṣuffa*) or the Companions of the Platform (*aṣḥāb al-ṣuffa)*. Abū Hurayra (may Allah have mercy on him) commented on their poverty, “I saw seventy of  *aṣḥāb al-ṣuffa* in such a condition that none of them had complete dress for himself. Each one of them had one sheet that he tied up with his neck. Some of them had their sheets reach near their ankles but others’ sheets reached just below their knees. Each of them used to hold the partition of his sheet with his hand lest his body be exposed.”[^38] Our beloved Prophet ﷺ cared deeply for the *ahl al-ṣuffa* and would give them charity and feed them or regularly encourage his Companions to do so. Caring for those in disadvantaged situations was a communal effort. Some Companions would bring food, while others offered the nourishment of knowledge by teaching members of the *ahl al-ṣuffa* the Qur’an and how to write.[^39] Living in the Prophet’s Mosque (*al-Masjid al-Nabawī)* allowed members of the *ahl al-ṣuffa*, such as Abu Hurayra (rA), to rise to great prominence and dignity because of their closeness to the Prophet ﷺ and ability to transmit his *sunnah*. In this prophetic vision of the mosque and *ummah*, everyone had the chance to participate and belong. The Prophet ﷺ even worked judiciously to provide the *ahl al-ṣuffa* opportunities to give *ṣadaqa* themselves,[^40] as he knew the transformative effect of the power of giving.[^41] Taking this prophetic framework for integration and community building as inspiration for the current study, it’s clear that expanding access to our mosques will offer newcomers a place of refuge, engagement, and support. Initiatives like resume workshops, parenting support circles, food banks, soup kitchens, and volunteer schemes would provide people with opportunities to give back to the community and help actualize the prophetic vision of the mosque and *ummah* today. Creating newcomer family matching programs or “buddy systems” within the mosque, where a newly arrived family can be matched with an already established family in the community, is also a powerful way for new families to build their social capital and increase their sense of belonging.[^42] There are numerous programs like these offered through settlement agencies and Christian faith communities. Research has found that the Uyghur diasporic community grapples with the anxieties of acculturation. Many Uyghur parents worry that their children will become alienated from Islam after migration and feel their efforts to foster a sense of Uyghur cultural and religious Islamic identity are sabotaged by the influences of the dominant culture and prevailing worldview.[^43] Integrating Uyghur families into the mosque and the broader *ummah* is one way to counteract these ideological forces. --- ## Methods For this qualitative study, Uyghur Muslims residing in the global diaspora were interviewed to explore the following research questions: 1)        What post-migratory settlement and mental health challenges do Uyghur Muslims face and how do they cope? 2)        Do Uyghur Muslims feel a sense of community and belonging post-migration? 3)        What recommendations do Uyghur Muslims have on what needs to be done (e.g., programs, initiatives) to nurture their mental health and well-being as they try to cope with ongoing trauma post-migration? --- ## Sampling Participants were recruited through social media and via outreach from Uyghur organizations and stakeholders. Recruitment and data collection lasted for 6 weeks from June-July 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).[^44] Convenience sampling and snowballing recruitment took place as the Uyghur population was hard to reach. As a consequence, selection bias is likely present in this study because of the sampling and recruitment methodology. Five men and five women who had experience working with the Uyghur diaspora were interviewed.[^45] Interviewees included 7 Uyghurs who were strong advocates for their local communities and 3 non-Uyghurs who were frontline workers with Uyghur immigrants. All interviews were conducted in English, and Uyghurche-speaking community volunteers verbally translated the survey during the group Zoom call interview, when needed. These participants were interviewed following a semi-structured interview guide. Participants were asked about a range of topics, including specific challenges they were facing post-settlement, causes of low mood in their life, support-seeking behaviors, and their feeling of belonging in their host country. Participants were asked about their coping strategies with traumatic memories of being in East Turkestan and how ties to their now-local religious community affected their sense of belonging. Lastly, Uyghurs were also asked to brainstorm what community and government programs need to be established to support Uyghur communities. Interviews with non-Uyghur activists revolved around their specific experiences working with the Uyghur community. In order to ensure rigor, member checking[^46] was carried out with members of the Uyghur diasporic community in order to ensure that the results and interpretations of the findings resonated with their lived experience. In addition to this, self-reflexivity and positionality were reflected upon by the researchers (Appendix A). Interview transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.[^47] --- ## Results ### Qualitative findings During a 2019 Muslim mental health conference, Dr. Zain Shamoon, a mental health educator and advocate explained, “Genocide happens at two levels: it happens with the eradication of a people *and* with the eradication of their stories. There is healing in witnessing someone’s story and not needing to interrupt it.”[^48] As numbers do not give us the complete picture, we will attempt to convey the lived experiences of the Uyghur diaspora in their own words to honor their stories through the interviews gathered. #### Degrees of isolation Uyghur participants and stakeholders spoke about the deepening degrees of isolation faced by the Uyghur diaspora as a result of being cut off from their families and loved ones. As one Uyghur settled in the US explained, “I can’t have childhood friends and relatives around me.” In addition, Uyghurs post-migration also contend with the constant threat of surveillance, which leads to mistrust of their fellow Uyghurs living abroad, fraying their social networks and sense of safety. One non-Uyghur ally who works with the United Nations explained this loss of trust further, “When someone new shows up, they ask why they are here? What do they want? There’s a real suspicion that they have for one another. There are instances of Uyghurs who report back to China.” At another level, and in line with the focus of this paper, Uyghurs spoke about feeling abandoned by the non-Uyghur Muslim community. One Uyghur in Canada shared, > I feel unsupported because we want to see \[support\] from our Muslim community… at least make supplicatory prayers (*duʿāʾ*) for us, even if they don't raise money financially. Our issue is that we don't \[get\] mention\[ed\]...  in our Muslim community. Not many people talk about us. They forget to mention us while making *duʿāʾ*s. Our issue is not about a hundred people or a thousand people. Like when there was an attack in New Zealand, the number was 56 people, but we still remember them, mention them, talk about them. But millions of Uyghur are at risk… and losing their Islamic belief… How can you ignore it? Beyond the Muslim community, participants also spoke about their experiences with discrimination, xenophobia, and alienation in their host country. As one non-Uyghur United Nations worker explained, “Usually when people look at Uyghurs, they think, ‘They don't speak English’ or ‘They look different.’” #### Multi-level abandonment by the wider Muslim community The feeling that the wider Muslim community had failed to offer a place of belonging to the Uyghur diaspora was widely discussed amongst participants. Taking a multi-level perspective of discrimination,[^49] the experiences of abandonment and disenfranchisement from the wider Muslim community were seen to be multi-layered, occurring at the micro, meso, and macro levels (individual, community, and systemic levels). Micro-level abandonment in what were perceived as empty words of condolence (given the lack of involvement in political advocacy against the Uyghur genocide) was reported to have been experienced at the individual level during daily interactions with the wider Muslim community. As one Uyghur participant in the US remarked, “Either most of \[the wider Muslim community\] don’t know \[what is happening\] or just express their sympathy.” At the meso-level, participants reported that they or Uyghurs they had worked with experienced abandonment within the mosque. This came in the form of  being left out of communal *duʿāʾ*s where other Muslims under oppression were mentioned to the exclusion of the Uyghurs, a lack of welcoming in the mosque, and a lack of mosque fundraising for Uyghur causes. While participants spoke about the ever-present threat of Chinese surveillance that has created suspicion and mistrust between members of the Uyghur community, at the same time, the Uyghur community was often seen as the only source of solace and a safe space to share grief. As one Uyghur in Canada recounted, > Before the pandemic we used to get together once a week in the Toronto Uyghur mosque. It is also a cultural center. We get together and try to share stories with each other or visit community members personally and spend time with them and share common experiences to relieve ourselves. That is moral support. We pray a lot right now because we are helpless and powerless, and the reaction from the outside world for the challenges we are facing is a great disappointment. So, what do you do? We can’t change the situation, and evil continues. The only thing you can do is talk within your own community who understands and prays and consoles one another. That's the only moral support you get from your own community, or giving more to communities that live in desperate places. Basically, we don't get support from anywhere and are alone with ourselves. A good word is comforting but doesn't solve the problem. It is the right of the oppressed and disenfranchised that we spend our wealth upon them, as our sustenance (*rizq*) is given to us by our Provider and Sustainer, which we have merely been temporarily entrusted with. Giving our wealth to support Uyghur causes and boycott goods that involve Uyghur slave labor are all attempts to spend our wealth more ethically to uphold our Islamic duty of radical altruism.[^50] It was also discovered that multi-level disenfranchisement has even left Uyghurs feeling distrustful of Islamic philanthropic organizations who are working for the Uyghur cause. For example, one participant shared how Uyghurs are “less trusting of charity organizations because it is unclear if the money is going to the right place or not.” There was a sense that although Islamic charity organizations may profess to support Uyghur causes, many Uyghurs did not feel that the money was actually going to Uyghur causes. This may point to a lack of bridge-building, Uyghur community buy-in, and Uyghurs holding positions of power within Muslim charitable organizations. Finally, at the macro-level, Uyghurs spoke about political abandonment, where governments of Muslim countries allied themselves with China and did not speak out on the atrocities being committed. Muslims living in the Global North were also seen to have displayed this apathy, leading to political inaction and lack of outcry. One Uyghur in Canada expressed their dismay, > There is no outrage or outcry or anger from the Muslim community in Canada. These reactions came from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh. There was no reaction from Turkey… the Turkish government does not allow ‘false’ propaganda against China, so even Turkish media \[is\] filtering out information. Saudi \[Arabia is\] receiving aid from China through \[the\] Belt and Road Initiative. \[All of this is\] basically the totally opposite of what the Holy Qur’an teaches. The Muslim countries are selling out their Uyghur brothers and sisters for money. --- ## The Muslim “Other” and empathy In order to gain a better understanding of the realities shared in our participant interviews, it proves necessary to “unpack the invisible knapsack of privilege”[^51] and examine the interplay of power structures and racism that may be behind the isolation and abandonment experienced by sections of the Uyghur community. It’s no secret that anti-blackness exists within our community, both historically and in the present-day,[^52] and has been called anti-black Islamophobia.[^53] Muslim “othering” is also present within our communities, where interlocking power structures privilege certain races over others;[^54] those who don't fit neatly into the dominant groups (i.e., Arab, South Asian)[^55] are relegated to the margins (e.g., Uyghur, Black, revert, Chinese Hui Muslims, Bosnian, Rohingya, and countless others). The presence of such hierarchies of class and “Muslim-ness”[^56] can arguably be seen as evidence of neocolonialism, where we have invented new ways to categorize the warring factions of the in-group versus the out-group[^57] or “other” within our own communities.[^58] As the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkinson writes, “The human impulse to create hierarchies runs across societies and cultures.”[^59] She also explains, > It was in the making of the New World that Europeans became white, African black, and everyone else yellow, red, or brown. It was in the making of the New World that humans were set apart on the basis of what they looked like, identified solely in contrast to one another, and ranked to form a caste system based on a new concept of race.[^60] However, in order to embody the prophetic virtues of empathy, compassion, and generosity, it is vital that we transcend this egocentric (*nafsī*) framework of existence and embody the prophetic wisdom that “None of you will have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”[^61] Indeed, the health of a society can be measured via its level of social capital, which is a value or asset of a society that measures the level of social connectedness in the group and is connected to the level of empathy members of the society convey towards one another.[^62] As our beloved Prophet ﷺ told us, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”[^63] This is a call for radical empathy. While empathy calls on people to see the world through another’s eyes, *radical empathy* asks people to take this one step further to actually create change and work towards social justice, even if it is to the detriment of our economic or social prosperity.[^64] As Allah reminds us in the Qur’an, “You who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives. Whether the person is rich or poor, God can best take care of both. Refrain from following your own desire, so that you can act justly—if you distort or neglect justice, God is fully aware of what you do.”[^65] The Prophetic vision of the *ummah* is one of flourishing social capital, where every believer feels an intimate bond with their Creator and a deep sense of connectedness with their brothers and sisters. In contrast to this, empathetic distancing occurs when we perceive the “other” as very different from ourselves and so a stumbling block to the development of empathy is formed. Some scholars have even contended that we are only able to fully empathically comprehend someone when we perceive them as being like us.[^66] Consequently, most of us only empathize with someone who looks, talks, thinks, and acts sufficiently like ourselves. However, our beloved Messenger ﷺ reminded us, “A believer to a believer is like the bricks of a wall, enforcing each other.”[^67] Thus, despite our differences, we can and must bridge the empathic divide through introspection and intentional effort. --- ## Recommendations: Becoming a community of conscience and compassion As believers, we are urged to engage in constant self-reformation (*iṣlāḥ*) to better ourselves. Through this process of self-interrogation, we often uncover our blindspots, shadows of hypocrisy, or seeds of arrogance and oppression, and must work to rectify such weaknesses of the heart. This is indeed what striving against the soul (*jihādal-nafs*) is all about. As Sufyān al-Thawrī (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “I never dealt with anything more difficult on me than my own self. Sometimes it would be against me, and sometimes it would be for me.”[^68] Our Messenger ﷺ also stated, “The *mujāhid* \[the one who strives in *jihād*\] is he who strives against his lower-self.”[^69] In the beautiful *duʿāʾa* we are instructed to say upon leaving the house, we seek refuge in Allah from “being an oppressor or being oppressed.”[^70] Self reflection and reformation are prophetic practices that we should consistently strive to embody in every context. In what follows, we outline the Uyghur participants’ recommendations for nurturing empathy and compassion towards the Uyghur plight. ### 1\. Unpacking our privilege Sometimes our unconscious oppression[^71] is a result of a lack of knowledge of our privilege. For those of us from “dominant” Muslim groups, taking time to reflect upon the invisible knapsack of privilege that we all carry in various forms can humble our *nafs* and keep our ego in check. Building upon Peggy McIntosh’s work in *White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,*[^72] the following questions have been developed as an empathy-building activity designed to better understand the alienation Uyghurs and other non-dominant Muslim communities experience on a daily basis. **Questions** Yes No I am greeted warmly when I enter a Muslim space and am surprised when this does not occur. ⬜ ⬜ My community is mentioned in communal *duʿāʾ*s on a regular basis. ⬜ ⬜ I can name at least five Muslim leaders and scholars who are from my ethnocultural/racial background, who are well-known to the broader Muslim community. ⬜ ⬜ The issues that are most pressing to my community are presented in the Friday sermon. ⬜ ⬜ I expect that people will know how to pronounce my name and be familiar with where I am from when I enter Muslim spaces. ⬜ ⬜ I can expect food from my culture to be served at an *iftar* or other events in the Muslim community and/or mosque. ⬜ ⬜ When I enter the mosque or another Muslim gathering, people speak to me in their own language and presume I am from their community. ⬜ ⬜ Muslim community fundraisers regularly support issues that are important to my community. ⬜ ⬜ When I enter a Muslim space, there are others there who look like me. ⬜ ⬜ People on the mosque board and other positions of Muslims community leadership speak my mother tongue. ⬜ ⬜ When I enter a Muslim gathering, other Muslims greet me as one of their own. ⬜ ⬜ I hear my mother tongue being spoken regularly in the mosque and other Muslim spaces. ⬜ ⬜ There are multiple translations of the Qur’an and other Islamic works in my mother tongue.        ⬜ ⬜ When there is an Islamic conference, there are speakers who look like me and speak like me. ⬜ ⬜ When a tragedy occurs in my community, members of the broader Muslim community reach out to me to offer their condolences and *duʿāʾ*s. ⬜ ⬜ Islamic scholars reference scholars of my peoples in their lectures and writings.          ⬜ ⬜ No Muslim has ever questioned whether or not I am Muslim. ⬜ ⬜ During Eid or other celebrations within a communal Muslim gathering, I can expect to see others wearing traditional clothing from my culture. ⬜ ⬜ When a tragedy occurs in my community, whether at home or abroad, I expect that members of the Muslim community will participate in political advocacy, rallies, boycotts, fundraisers, etc. to show their support. ⬜ ⬜ Privilege acts as a blinder. If, after this exercise, you notice that you answered yes to the majority of the questions, reflect on what realities of the *ummah* your privilege may be cocooning you from seeing and how you can use your privilege to act as an ally to those who don’t enjoy the same feelings of belonging to the mosque and *ummah*. If you choose to keep these blinders on, how will you conquer the oppressor within you? ### 2\. Bridge the empathic divide Sometimes our empathic distance requires some introspection to uncover the implicit biases we may hold towards certain “out-groups.” It is important to reflect on how the dominant culture has instilled implicit biases in us (whether through the media, school, friends, etc.), whether our parents/caregivers display biases,  whether we have a diverse circle of friends and acquaintances, and what our workplaces, neighborhoods, and mosques look like. This will help us to develop a greater awareness of our own biases and thus an ability to interrogate them. A practical way to bridge the empathic divide is to disrupt any narrow definitions of “Muslimness” by broadening how and where we gather religious knowledge. Going the extra mile to learn history and gather religious knowledge from scholars of non-dominant Muslim groups, such as Uyghur scholars like Sh. Muhammad Salih Hajim, can help deepen our understanding and appreciation for all members of our *ummah*. In order to gain an appreciation for Islam as a religion that stretches beyond those of dominant groups, we need to seek knowledge from Islamic scholars from across the Muslim world who may not be as well-known and accessible because of historical marginalization. As the great scholar of Touba in Senegal, Sh. Ahmadou Bamba once said, “Don't reject my work just because I am black.” As allies we have a duty to amplify these voices. Another practical way to bridge the empathic divide is to disrupt our environments of sameness and homogeneity by pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones. This might look like going for the weekly Friday (*jumuʿa*) prayer at the Uyghur mosque (if you have one in your city), advocating for your mosque to hold a community event about the Uyghurs or hosting a program on the history of Islam in East Turkestan, joining an Uyghur protest, or attending a Uyghur event. Learning about others allows us to appreciate our shared humanity and we can’t do this from a distance. As Isabel Wilkerson writes, “It is harder to dehumanize a single person standing in front of you, wiping away tears at the loss of a loved one, just as you would…”[^73] As Allah beautifully reminds us, “Human beings, We created you all from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”[^74] ### 3. Get educated True empathy requires active demonstration of allyship. Educating ourselves about the ongoing Uyghur genocide is an important first step. As one Uyghur in the US shared, “Yes, definitely they need to be educated; most of \[the Muslim community\] is just sympathetic, not really politically supportive.” Another Uyghur in the US spoke about feeling hurt, > It’s hard to see that the Muslim community is not taking any action. It hurts. When they trust Chinese media more than us, it hurts. I believe that the Muslim community is good in general, but they are not getting the right information. Chinese people produce more than 450 million bots and stuff as misinformation, and fake videos to cheat \[the\] Muslim community… I want the Muslims here \[in the US\] to advocate for us here. Uncovering the truth in an era of “fake news” and propaganda requires a valiant effort. It is crucial to seek out news sources that offer more balanced coverage of the Uyghur genocide, such as Al Jazeera.[^75] Beyond that, speaking to Uyghur community members and listening to their stories is also an important way to get informed and develop a robust understanding. ### 4. Get active Getting active is the next step. We need to think outside the *ṣadaqah* box. The power of allyship revolves around members of the dominant or majority group working together with marginalized groups to actively support, socially engage, and advocate for oppressed peoples.[^76] As witnesses to oppression, it is imperative for us to stand for justice. Our Messenger ﷺ exhorted us, “Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he is unable to do so, then with his tongue. If he is unable to do so, then with his heart, and that is the weakest level of faith.”[^77] In this case, we are not only witness to the genocide Uyghurs are facing, but our Uyghur brothers and sisters have also bravely offered us a mirror to recognize our own part in that oppression. As the Prophet ﷺ reminded us, “The believer is a mirror to his brother. If he sees something wrong in him, he should correct it.”[^78] Participants shared how important it is for the greater Muslim community to step up and demonstrate their empathy. While it’s likely that Islamophobia/xenophobia contributes to this alienation, as was illustrated in the interviews, the wider Muslim community also has a hand in this. This is heartbreaking. Being connected to the wider Muslim community is an integral part of healthy religious socialization.[^79] We cannot continue to push our brothers and sisters to the margins. Active solidarity can be demonstrated by: 1. **Mobilizing and advocating politically against the Uyghur genocide**. Civic engagement through reaching out to your local political representative or joining a rally are powerful ways you can effect change. 2. **Developing a welcoming program in your mosque** so Uyghurs and other marginalized Muslim community members can feel they have a place of belonging. This is one way we can embody the Prophetic model of the *anṣār* welcoming the *muhājirūn* into Medina.  3. **Contacting your mosque board** seeking ways to get involved. You can also make sure to vote in a more diverse and representative board every year. 4. **Fundraising** to support the Uyghur brothers and sisters in your community to set up a Uyghur prayer area (*musallā*) or a dedicated mosque if there is a large community. As one participant shared, “Religious spaces are important. There is no Ugyhur mosque anywhere \[in the area I live in\]. If the broader Muslim community could support them, that would be useful.” You can educate yourself on what products and brands are linked to forced Uyghur labor in order to boycott them.[^80] As one Uyghur participant recommended, one way the Muslim community can step up is to, “Stop the products that are coming from China that contain Uyghur forced labor or from the concentration camps.” The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has published an excellent [report](https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale) outlining 83 companies that use forced Uyghur labor and should be boycotted.[^81] 5. **Organizing regular community gatherings around Uyghur food, arts, and culture**. This can help our Uyghur brothers and sisters feel a sense of belonging and could be as simple as  including traditional Uyghur foods in *iftar* programs at the mosque in Ramadan.[^82] The more regular such events are, the more visible the Uyghurs will be to us. 6. **Facilitating the** **teaching of Uyghurche, the Uyghur language** by securing a free space at the local mosque, community center, or other suitable premises to accommodate the program. This recommendation repeatedly presented itself  in our participant interviews, > … support Uyghur kids to learn their own culture, language, and tradition. The \[Uyghur\] community \[in Canada\] is \[small in number and\] not enough… to be sustainable, so Uyghurs will be assimilated and integrated into Canadian culture. \[Uyghur\] families hope that their children can learn and preserve their language and traditions. > > \[Rent\] is very costly. \[The Uyghur\] community is small and scattered across the Greater Toronto Area \[in Canada\]. It is difficult for people to bring their children from \[the different corners of the city\]... It is a real challenge. The loss of language, tradition, and knowledge is one of the greatest sources of sorrow for the Uyghur peoples. Robbing a people of their mother tongue is an especially insidious tactic employed in cultural genocide, where the eradication of a people’s language and the imposing of a foreign language leads to the systematic destruction of the bond between parent and child and a sense of unrootedness from one’s history and way of life.[^83] In this, there are harrowing echoes of the brutality of the government-instituted residential school system and how it continues to devastate generations of indigenous peoples in Canada.[^84] Although some Uyghur groups have been able to successfully push their local municipal governments to establish an Uyghurche language school, this only occurs in voting districts with large Uyghur populations. As one participant said, “It doesn't work for small \[Uyghur\] communities because \[there are\] not as many votes. They tend to be marginalized and ignored.” Facilitating spaces for children to learn Uyghurche is a very tangible way for the wider Muslim community to demonstrate their solidarity and nurture a Uyghur sense of belonging to the *ummah*. Allowing oppressed peoples to reclaim ownership of their language and their stories is empowering. One participant spoke about the struggles of this voicelessness, “The Uyghur community gives the impression that they themselves don’t know what's happening, but their struggle is telling their story properly \[and\] not in their own language.” --- ## Conclusion As members of dominant groups within the Muslim community or as those empowered through citizenship or finances, we have the opportunity to step up and act as allies to our Uyghur brothers and sisters. Our strength as an *ummah* is as a people of consciousness—of Allah and of ourselves. Our strength as an *ummah* is as a community of faith, fortified together through the ties of *ukhuwwa*, where all our brothers and sisters work together to serve the *dīn* of Allah and worship our Creator. We have a real opportunity to work as allies with our Uyghur brothers and sisters so they can find their voice again. When an oppressed person tells us that we have, unconsciously or not, contributed to their oppression through exclusion, marginalization, and abandonment, we should pause and listen. There may be unfamiliar faces within our communities, who feel pressed to the margins. *Ukhuwwa* is so critical that without it we cannot call ourselves believers. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, > By Him in Whose Hand my soul is! You will not enter *jannah* until you believe, and you shall not believe until you love one another. May I inform you of something, if you do it, you will love each other? Spread *salām* amongst yourselves (by saying *assalāmu ʿalaikum* to one another).[^85] When one of the *anṣār* expressed concern that the Prophet ﷺ would return to Makkah and leave them, our Messenger replied in one of the most poetic encapsulations saying: > Your life is my life. > > You are mine and I am yours. > > Your enemy is my enemy. > > Your ally is my ally.[^86] In the Prophet’s final sermon, the Mercy to All the Worlds, reminded us that, > O people, your Lord is one and your father is one. There is no virtue of an Arab over a foreigner, nor a foreigner over an Arab, and neither white over black nor black over white, except by righteousness.[^87] This exhortation was given to us precisely because it is difficult. Because the tendency to rank, order, and create hierarchies, and the penchant to favor one’s own tribe runs deep within us. This is why fighting racism, casteism, tribalism, and prejudice in all its forms, starting first within ourselves, is a courageous act of worship. May Allah accept our efforts to show compassion to our Uyghur brothers and sisters and welcome them into our communities for His sake, and may He elevate our ranks in *jannah* for doing so. May He grant justice and mercy to all the oppressed peoples of our world. --- ## APPENDIX A ### Rigor ### Self-Reflexivity & Positionality As this paper centers on the intersectionality of identity, the researchers have shared their reflections on their positionality. Dr. Farah Islam identifies as a Muslim from a “dominant” Muslim diasporic group (Brown/South Asian/Bengali), who is from a peoples who have experienced genocide \[when Pakistan (formerly West Pakistan) carried out a genocide of the Bangladeshi people (then East Pakistan), where about three million Bangladeshis died and half a million women were raped.[^88]\] And so the spaces of insider/outsider, diasporic migrant community, and forgotten histories of genocide are ones she inhabits and identifies with in this project. Shahd Fulath Khan is a Muslim living in Canada. Her paternal grandparents migrated from Turkestan (currently Uzbekistan) and settled in Makkah for the freedom of practicing Islam. Her maternal grandparents migrated from Syria to Saudi Arabia, escaping an oppressive regime. The themes of *hijrah* (migration) for a higher purpose and the sacrifices of the *muhājirūn* have been important in informing her work throughout this project. Hala Bucheeri identifies as a Muslim Arab and is currently living in Bahrain. The concept of migration is not a foreign concept in Bahrain, as a minority of its inhabitants come from diverse ethnic backgrounds (Persian, African, South Asian, South East Asian) in hopes of finding a home, financial security, and political stability. Despite Bahrain’s cultural diversity, cultural competency is still lacking. Therefore, this project highlights the importance of understanding and addressing the specific cultural and religious needs of ethnic minorities. Lastly, Arzu Gul and Dr. Dilmurat Mahmut are both Uyghur advocates living in the diaspora. --- ## Notes [^1]: This component is referred to as “Institutional Connection” within Yaqeen’s measure of holistic religiosity BASIC. This refers to a person’s involvement in, and connection with, the Muslim community. It includes one’s feelings toward the *masjid*, Islamic centers, and other Muslim institutions. Connection also includes attendance at community events and the emotional attachment one feels towards the community. Tamer Desouky and Osman Umarji, “The Impact of Muslim Religiosity on Well-Being Outcomes,” *Yaqeen,* September 15, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809536547&usg=AOvVaw2adGbQBnJZ5udclRwQRrRl); Jihad Saafir and Osman Umarji, “How to Raise Religious Teens: A Self-Determination Theory Approach,” *Yaqeen*, October 24, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809536860&usg=AOvVaw0GkZAZPmF_abwUt_jt2dQi). [^2]: Abraham H. Maslow, *Toward a Psychology of Being* (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1968), 45. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 6011; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2586; grade of authentication: *muttafaq ʿalayh* (authenticity agreed upon) according to al-Bukhārī and Muslim. [^4]: Svat Soucek, *A History of Inner Asia* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 84. [^5]: Toqa Badran and Aydin Anwar, “A Response To Habib Ali Al-Jifri’s Comments On Uyghurs,” Muslim Matters, 2020, [https://muslimmatters.org/2020/05/13/a-response-to-habib-ali-al-jifris-comments-on-uyghurs/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimmatters.org/2020/05/13/a-response-to-habib-ali-al-jifris-comments-on-uyghurs/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809547407&usg=AOvVaw1azetjeinqW_N-SI6Ffai_). [^6]: Edward Wong and Chris Buckley, “U.S. Says China’s Repression of Uighurs Is ‘Genocide,’” *New York Times*, January 19, 2021, [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/trump-china-xinjiang.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/trump-china-xinjiang.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809549860&usg=AOvVaw18KT806AgFkI2YuZZQgu6B);  Samir Sweida-Metwally, “Spending Ethically for Justice: A Muslim Response to the Uyghur Genocide,” *Yaqeen*, 2021,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/spending-ethically-for-justice-a-muslim-response-to-the-uyghur-genocide](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/spending-ethically-for-justice-a-muslim-response-to-the-uyghur-genocide&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809550070&usg=AOvVaw2blOyXqZBZ-Cr9BQ3By2b4). [^7]: While reports suggest that one million Uyghur men and women have been imprisoned, this number is contested by some Uyghur community members and activists who claim that this is part of the Chinese government’s attempt to suppress the real scale of oppression. Uyghur community members and activists estimate that there could be up to 35 million Uyghurs in concentration camps. [^8]: Eva Dou and Erin Cunningham, “Who Are the Uyghurs, and What’s Happening to Them in China?” *Washington Post*, May 24, 2022, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/11/china-uighurs-genocide-xinjiang/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/11/china-uighurs-genocide-xinjiang/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809537861&usg=AOvVaw3xgLiPRsFcp6jJCQ4T6Eoc). [^9]: “Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang,” Human Rights Watch, April 11, 2005, [https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/04/11/devastating-blows/religious-repression-uighurs-xinjiang](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/04/11/devastating-blows/religious-repression-uighurs-xinjiang&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809538875&usg=AOvVaw0ExsLcxxBfPJso21V4TQQU). [^10]: Ewelina U. Ochab, “United Nations Concerned About Organ Harvesting In China,” *Forbes,* July 8, 2021, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2021/07/08/united-nations-concerned-about-organ-harvesting-in-china/?sh=7e514da942dd](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2021/07/08/united-nations-concerned-about-organ-harvesting-in-china/?sh%3D7e514da942dd&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809538179&usg=AOvVaw1MZRVYJQ8fpALju53eiRrC). [^11]: “China Forcing Birth Control on Uighurs to Suppress Population, Report Says,” *BBC*, June 29, 2020, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53220713](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53220713&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809537529&usg=AOvVaw1EqgwiogZrNX8VLiGzdPlS). [^12]: Ivan Watson and Rebecca Wright, “Allegations of Shackled Students and Gang Rape Inside China’s Detention Camps,” CNN, February 19, 2021, [https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/18/asia/china-xinjiang-teacher-abuse-allegations-intl-hnk-dst/index.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/18/asia/china-xinjiang-teacher-abuse-allegations-intl-hnk-dst/index.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809538509&usg=AOvVaw29-OFa-HRQTYYpGhz7RabA). [^13]: Uyghur American Association, [https://www.uyghuraa.org/latestnews](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.uyghuraa.org/latestnews&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809539249&usg=AOvVaw2t2wXVUobM56YXSgLnCnkb). [^14]: “Census Profile, 2016 Census – Canada \[Country\] and Canada \[Country\],” *Statistics*, February 8, 2017, [www12.statcan.gc.ca](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809539708&usg=AOvVaw3S3M2zN91bY8LWe22AFYnj). This is the number of “self-reported” Uyghurs in Canada and is most likely underreported. [^15]: Biwa Kwan, “Uighur Abuse: Australia Urged to Impose Sanctions on China,” September 18, 2018, [www.sbs.com.au](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.sbs.com.au&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809540253&usg=AOvVaw3Jor3poMnrq7jMHOR14kMl). [^16]: Bertil Lintner, “Where the Uighurs Are Free to Be,” *Asia Times*, October 31, 2019, [https://asiatimes.com/2019/10/where-the-uighurs-are-free-to-be/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://asiatimes.com/2019/10/where-the-uighurs-are-free-to-be/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809540633&usg=AOvVaw0FpaxuZlGJin7j9cxMMLtI). [^17]: Yitzhak Shichor, “Nuisance Value: Uyghur Activism in Germany and Beijing–Berlin Relations,” *Journal of Contemporary China* 22, no. 82 (2013): 612–29. [^18]: Jutta Lindert, Ondine S. von Ehrenstein, Stefan Priebe, Andreas Mielck, and Elmar Brähler, “Depression and Anxiety in Labor Migrants and Refugees: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” *Social Science Medicine* 69 (2009): 246–57; Mina Fazel, Jeremy Wheeler, and John Danesh, “Prevalence of Serious Mental Disorder in 7000 Refugees Resettled in Western Countries: A Systematic Review,” *Lancet,* 365 (2005): 1309–14; Zachary Steel, Tien Chey, Derrick Silove, Claire Marnane, Richard A. Bryant, and Mark van Ommeren, “Association of Torture and Other Potentially Traumatic Events with Mental Health Outcomes among Populations Exposed to Mass Conflict and Displacement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” *JAMA* 302 (2009): 537–49; Laurence J. Kirmayer, Lavanya Narasiah, Marie Munoz, Meb Rashid, Andrew G. 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[^29]: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ established an alliance \[of brotherhood\] between the Emigrants and the Helpers in our house. He was asked: ‘Did not the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: "There is no alliance in Islam?’"He replied: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ established an alliance between the Emigrants and the Helpers in our house.’ He said \[it\] twice or thrice.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2926. [^30]: This ruling was later abrogated by Qur’an 33:6. [^31]: Qur’an 59:9. [^32]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2487. [^33]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 3780. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 3782. [^35]: Ruth Marie Wilson, Patricia Landolt, Yogendra Shakya, Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Z. Zahoorunissa, Darren Pham, Felix Cabrera, Sherine Dahy, and Marie-Pier Joly, *Working Rough, Living Poor: Employment and Income Insecurities Faced by Racialized Groups in the Black Creek Area and their Impacts on Health* (Toronto: Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, 2011). [^36]: Farah Islam, Nazilla Khanlou, and Hala Tamim, “Maybe Once I Find a Good Job, I Will Be Better: Seeking Mental Healthcare in Little Bangladesh, Toronto, Canada,” *Journal of Concurrent Disorders* 2, no. 1 (2020): 35–55. [^37]: Living under the constant stress of precarious employment and income insecurity has severe consequences for families and children after migration, including: mental health issues, chronic exhaustion, higher levels of cortisol, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and others. Over time, prolonged exposure to income insecurity results in deteriorating health and disempowerment for immigrant and refugee families. Socioeconomic status has been found to be the single most powerful predictor of human health and development at every stage of life. Boyce, W. Thomas. *The orchid and the dandelion: Why sensitive people struggle and how all can thrive*. Pan MacMillan, 2019, pp. 134–35; Wilson et al., “Working Rough, Living Poor.” [^38]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī,* no. 2477. [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 602. [^40]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2477, grade: rigorously authenticated (*ṣaḥīḥ*). [^41]: Carolyn Schwartz, Janice Bell Meisenhelder, Yunsheng Ma, and George Reed, “Altruistic Social Interest Behaviors Are Associated with Better Mental Health,” *Psychosomatic Medicine* 65, no. 5 (2003): 778–85. [^42]: Shireen Salti, “The Impact of Together Project Welcome Groups on Government-Assisted Refugee Social Capital,” 2021; Celine de Richoufftz, “From Research to Outreach to Action: Community-Based Approaches to the Integration of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Montreal,” *Samuel Center for Social Connectedness*, 2018, [www.socialconnectedness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Community-based-approaches-to-the-integration-of-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-in-Montreal-1.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.socialconnectedness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Community-based-approaches-to-the-integration-of-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-in-Montreal-1.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809546023&usg=AOvVaw2dKFn4eqV8C7sSPhmphUuV). [^43]: Dilmurat Mahmut, “Conflicting Perceptions of Education in Canada: The Perspectives of Well-Educated Muslim Uyghur Immigrants,” *Diaspora, Indigenous and Minority Education* 15, no. 1 (2021): 34-46; Dilmurat Mahmut and Edmund Waite, “Lost in Translation: Exploring Uyghur Identity in Canada, Taboo,” *The Journal of Culture and Education* 20, no. 1 (2021): 173–91, [https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1105&context=taboo](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article%3D1105%26context%3Dtaboo&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809545571&usg=AOvVaw0lbEFSDXnJ3vvGzVMskzE8); Rebecca Clothey and Brian McCommons, “Uyghur Students in Higher Education in the USA: Trauma and Adaptation Challenges,” *Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education* 16, no. 2 (2022): 106–18. [^44]: The questionnaire took approximately 30 minutes to complete. Participants self-identified their ethnicity as Uyghur and/or Uyghur-mixed. As the psychological scales employed in this study have not previously been used with the Uyghur population, scale items and wording were adapted accordingly to make the survey comprehensible and relevant to participants. At the end of the survey, all participants were given the chance to either donate $10 CAD to Darman Foundation, a Canadian-based organization that supports Uyghur immigrants and refugees; receive an Amazon e-gift card worth $10 CAD; receive a Starbucks egift card worth $10 CAD; have $10 CAD sent to their bank accounts using e-transfer; or decline any of those options. [^45]: Interviews were carried out using various platforms of the participants’ choice, such as WebEx, Google Meet, Zoom, email, or WhatsApp. [^46]: Margarete Sandelowski, “The Problem of Rigor in Qualitative Research,” *Advances in Nursing Science* 8, no. 3 (1986): 27–37. [^47]: Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,” *Qualitative Research in Psychology* 3, no. 2 (2006): 77–101. [^48]: “Putting In the Work: Service and Advocacy for Mental Health in Muslim Communities,” 11th Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference, April 4–6, 2019. [^49]: Coretta Phillips, “Institutional Racism and Ethnic Inequalities: An Expanded Multilevel Framework,” *Journal of Social Policy* 40, no. 1 (2011): 173–92. [^50]: Sweida-Metwally, “Spending Ethically for Justice.” [^51]: McIntosh, Peggy. "White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack." (1990), pp. 29–34. [^52]: Samia Errazzouki, “Between the ‘Yellow-Skinned Enemy’ and the ‘Black-Skinned Slave’: Early Modern Genealogies of Race and Slavery in Sadian Morocco,” *The Journal of North African Studies* (2021): 1–11; Chouki El Hamel, *Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Mariam Durrani, “#BlackOutEid: Resisting Anti‐Blackness in Digital Muslim Life,” *Journal of Linguistic Anthropology* 31, no. 2 (2021): 298–303. [^53]: Delice Mugabo, “On Rocks and Hard Places: A Reflection on Anti-Blackness in Organizing against Islamophobia,” *Critical Ethnic Studies* 2, no. 2 (2016): 159–83; Fatimah Jackson-Best, “Black Muslims in Canada: A Systematic Review,” 2019, [https://blackmusliminitiative.ca/bmic%3A-systematic-review](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blackmusliminitiative.ca/bmic%253A-systematic-review&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809541887&usg=AOvVaw0StweHKCmZEP64flH8OwSm). [^54]: For example, the rank ordering of “Arab Muslims” as superior to all other Muslims is termed ‘Arab chauvinism’ by some scholars. See: Rudolph T. Ware III, *The Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa* (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014). [^55]: Pasha-Zaidi, Nausheen, Meg A. Warren, Yvonne El Ashmawi, and Neneh Kowai-Bell. "Promoting allyship among south Asian and Arab Muslims toward black and Latino/a Muslims in American Islamic centers." Toward a Positive Psychology of Islam and Muslims: Spirituality, struggle, and social justice (2021): 307-331. [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72606-5\_14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72606-5_14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809542878&usg=AOvVaw2mTOcLbW5ZOgVRcN8Denlv). Further hierarchies exist within this, with Arabs being considered superior in “Muslimness” to South Asians. Finer classifications within these groupings also exist based on shadeism (anti-blackness within one’s race), class, language, etc. For example, Pakistani Muslims may be deemed greater in Muslimness than Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi Muslims (because Urdu-speaking Pakistanis have a language that more closely resembles Arabic and are generally lighter skinned, among other reasons). [^56]: Jeanine Elif Dağyeli, Claudia Ghrawi, and Ulrike Freitag, eds., “Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds: Religion and Society” in *The Context of the Global* (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021), 299. [^57]: Wilkerson, Isabel. *Caste: The origins of our discontents.* Random House, 2020. [^58]: Jean-Louis Triaud, “Giving a Name to Islam South of the Sahara: An Adventure in Taxonomy,” *The Journal of African History* 55, no. 1 (2014): 3–15. [^59]: Wilkerson, *Caste*, 67. [^60]: Wilkerson, *Caste*, 53. [^61]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no.* 13; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 45, grade: authenticity agreed upon (*muttafaq ʿalayh*) according to al-Bukhārī and Muslim. [^62]: Jayant Venkatanathan, Evangelos Karapanos, Vassilis Kostakos, and Jorge Gonçalves, “A Network Science Approach to Modeling and Predicting Empathy,” in *Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining* (2013): 1395–1400; Pat Dolan, “Social Support, Empathy, Social Capital and Civic Engagement: Intersecting Theories for Youth Development,” *Education, Citizenship and Social Justice* 17 no. 3 (2002): 255–67. [^63]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no*.* 6011; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2586, grade: *muttafaq ʿalayh* according to al-Bukhārī and Muslim. [^64]: Terri Givens, *Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides* (Bristol: Policy Press, 2021). [^65]: Qur’an 4:135. [^66]: See: Lynne Layton, “Racial Identities, Racial Enactments, and Normative Unconscious Processes,” *The Psychoanalytic Quarterly* 75, no. 1 (2006): 237–69; Lynne M. Jacobs, “Learning to Love White Shame and Guilt: Skills for Working as a White Therapist in a Racially Divided Country,” *International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology* 9, no. 4 (2014): 297–312. [^67]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no.481; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2585. [^68]: Abū Naʿīm al-Asbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyyaʾ* (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, 1974), 7:5. [^69]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī,* no.1621, grade: authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*). [^70]: Whenever the Prophet ﷺ stepped out of his house, he would say, "*Bismillah, tawakkaltu ʿalā Allāh. Allāhumma inni aʿūdhu bika an aḍilla aw uḍal, aw azilla aw uzal, aw aẓlima aw uẓlama, aw ajhala aw yujhala ʿalayy*,” which translates as follows: “I begin with the Name of Allah, I trust in Allah; O Allah! I seek refuge in You from leading or being led astray, or against slipping or being caused to slip; or doing injustice or being done injustice; or doing wrong or having wrong done to me.” Sunan Abi Dawud 5094. [^71]: McIntosh, “White Privilege.” [^72]: McIntosh, “White Privilege.” [^73]: Wilkerson, *Caste*, 141. [^74]: Qur’an 49:13. [^75]: See [https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/uighur/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/uighur/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809551279&usg=AOvVaw2tErc30zwx2oMnHAU9c8Yt). [^76]: Jamie Washington and Nancy J. Evans, “Becoming an Ally,” in *Beyond Tolerance: Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals on Campus*, ed. Nancy J. Evans and Vernon A. Wall (N.p.: American Association for Counseling and Development, 1991), 195–204; Joshua C. Collins and Dominique T. Chlup, “Criticality in Practice: The Cyclical Development Process of Social Justice Allies at Work,” *Advances in Developing Human Resources* 16, no. 4 (2014): 481–98; Kendrick T. Brown and Joan M. Ostrove, “What Does It Mean to Be an Ally? The Perception of Allies from the Perspective of People of Color,” *Journal of Applied Social Psychology* 43, no. 11 (2013): 2211–22. [^77]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 49, grade: authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) according to Imam Muslim. [^78]: *Al-Adab al-Mufrad,* no. 239, grade: *ḥasan* (fair) according to Al-Albani. [^79]: Saafir and Umarji, “How to Raise Religious Teens.” [^80]: Sweida-Metwally, “Spending Ethically for Justice.” [^81]: Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Danielle Cave, James Leibold, Kelsey Munro, and Nathan Ruser, “Uyghurs for Sale,” *Australian Strategic Policy Institute* 1 (2020): 20. [^82]: Erin Handley and Sean Manteso, “Uyghurs Are Facing ‘Cultural Genocide’ in China but in Australia They're Fighting for Their History,” ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), November 19, 2019, [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/uyghur-culture-under-threat-in-china-thrives-in-australia/1167363](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/uyghur-culture-under-threat-in-china-thrives-in-australia/1167363&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809550988&usg=AOvVaw1_yeRPRR95IkQFj4_t_qET). [^83]: Elisa Novic, “The Concept of Cultural Genocide: A Historical–Legal Perspective,” in *The Concept of Cultural Genocide: An International Law Perspective* (Oxford: Oxford Academic, 2016), [https://doi-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198787167.003.0002](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198787167.003.0002&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703705809544117&usg=AOvVaw1IxmtBYbVWw3ZGiQizu4Eg); Collins, Patricia Hill. *Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment.* routledge, 2022. [^84]: Kevin Hutchings, “Cultural Genocide and the First Nations of Upper Canada: Some Romantic-Era Roots of Canada’s Residential School System,” *European Romantic Review* 27, no. 3 (2016): 301–8; Elizabeth Hudson and Jeff Benvenuto, “The Cultural Genocide of the Indigenous People of North America,” in *Native American Genocides*, 2021. [^85]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 54. [^86]: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, *Sīrat Ibn Hishām: Biography of the Prophet* ﷺ, trans.  ʿAbdus-Salām M. Hārūn (Cairo: al-Falah Foundation for Translation, Publication and Distribution, 2000). [^87]: Aḥmad al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-imān*, ed. Mukhtār al-Nadawī (Riyadh: Maṭbaʿat al-Rushd, 2003), 7:132, grade: authentic due to corroboration with other hadiths (*ṣaḥīḥ lī- ghayrih*) according to al-Albānī. [^88]: Wardatul Akmam, “Atrocities against Humanity during the Liberation War in Bangladesh: A Case of Genocide,” *Journal of Genocide Research* 4, no. 4 (2002): 543–59; Lisa Sharlach, “Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda,” *New Political Science* 22, no. 1 (2000): 89–102; Susan Brownmiller, *Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape* (New York: Bantam Books, 1975);  Dorothy Q. Thomas and Regan E. Ralph, “Rape in War: Challenging the Tradition of Impunity,” *SAIS review* 14, no. 1 (1994): 81–99. ## Summary The bonds of faith that unite the believers are among the greatest blessings Allah has bestowed upon this community, for the Almighty has declared, "And certainly this ummah of yours is one ummah, and I am your Lord and Cherisher. Therefore fear Me and no other." This oneness transcends the boundaries of nation, ethnicity, culture, race, and language. The Prophet ﷺ gave us a striking image of this unity when he said, "The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever." Connection to the community of believers is not a peripheral matter but a vital component of a thriving religious life, granting a sense of belonging that answers the deep human need for acceptance and to be part of something greater. Drawing upon the prophetic biography and the concept of brotherhood and sisterhood (ukhuwwa), the plight of the Uyghur Muslims fleeing genocide in China is examined as a contemporary parallel to the muhājirūn who critically need integration into the wider Muslim ummah. The Uyghur people, numbering approximately thirteen million and largely of Turkic-speaking Muslim origin, have inhabited their homeland in the northwestern region they call East Turkestan for centuries, having embraced Islam in the fourth/tenth century. Since 2017, they have faced a brutal genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, which has sought to eliminate Uyghur culture and faith through forced assimilation, mass detention in concentration camps, and the outlawing of acts of worship such as prayer, recitation of the Qur'an, and fasting in Ramadan. Reports document horrors including organ harvesting, mass sterilization, and rape. As one participant recounted, the Chinese state deliberately dehumanized the Uyghurs by portraying Islam as "a disease—a virus or cancer spreading hate, which needed to be rooted out," thereby criminalizing pious young men and shattering families. In response, tens of thousands have fled to more than fifty countries, seeking refuge as the emigrants of old once did. The process of migration and resettlement is one of grief and uncertainty, and when compounded by trauma it gives rise to distress, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. One participant described the situation of the Uyghur diaspora not as post-trauma but as "ongoing trauma," for they continue to receive news of loved ones being tortured and detained, while living under the constant threat of surveillance that has bred deep mistrust even within their own ranks. Research indicates that participation in a religious community offers solidarity, shared identity, and a sense of belonging, and that shared communal religiosity—unlike private religiosity confined to one's home—serves as a protective factor in grief and strengthens social bonds. Consistent with this, Yaqeen Institute's analysis of different profiles of religiosity found that confining faith to the private domain was not associated with mental health benefits, whereas engaging with faith comprehensively, connecting personal worship to the greater ummah, yielded the fullest benefits. For a people so long persecuted for their faith, reconnecting with a Muslim community after migration is critical to the health of their religion. The Qur'an commands active brotherhood, declaring, "The believers are but one brotherhood, so make peace between your brothers. And be mindful of Allah so you may be shown mercy." These bonds do not arise passively; the Prophet ﷺ urged his followers to take an active role in fostering others' sense of belonging, saying, "If there are three of you, do not let two privately converse to the exclusion of the other," and warning that such exclusion hurts a believer, "and Allah Almighty hates for a believer to be hurt." The supreme example of active integration is found in the hijra to Medina, where the Prophet ﷺ established formal bonds of brotherhood (muʾākhā) between the anṣār and the muhājirūn—bonds so profound that they were initially permitted to inherit from one another. Allah praised the generosity of the anṣār: "They love those who emigrated to them and find not any want in their breasts of what the emigrants were given but give them preference over themselves, even though they are in privation." Yet this generosity was matched by the dignity of striving, as when Saʿad b. al-Rabīʿ offered ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf half his wealth and even a wife, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān replied, "May Allah bless your family and property for you. Where is your market?"—preferring to earn his own livelihood. Likewise, when the anṣār offered their date-palms, the Prophet ﷺ insisted the emigrants work, knowing that honest labor confers honor and dignity. The Prophet ﷺ also sheltered the destitute among the emigrants in his mosque as the People of the Platform (ahl al-ṣuffa), feeding them, teaching them, and even providing them opportunities to give charity themselves, so that everyone might participate and belong. This prophetic vision of the mosque as a place of refuge, education, and engagement offers a template for welcoming Uyghur newcomers today through initiatives such as food banks, mentorship, and family-matching programs. The lived testimonies of Uyghurs in the diaspora, gathered through interviews, reveal deepening degrees of isolation—cut off from family, distrustful of one another due to surveillance, and, most painfully for the theme at hand, feeling abandoned by their fellow Muslims. One participant in Canada lamented that his people are not even mentioned in communal supplications: "They forget to mention us while making duʿāʾs… millions of Uyghur are at risk… How can you ignore it?" This abandonment was experienced at multiple levels: at the individual level through empty words of sympathy unaccompanied by action; at the community level through exclusion from mosque supplications, lack of welcome, and absence of fundraising; and at the systemic level through the political silence of Muslim governments allied with China. One participant declared that such conduct is "the totally opposite of what the Holy Qur'an teaches. The Muslim countries are selling out their Uyghur brothers and sisters for money." It is the right of the oppressed that the believers spend upon them from the wealth entrusted to them by their Sustainer. Underlying this abandonment are structures of power and racism that privilege dominant groups and marginalize the "Muslim other." Yet the believer is called to transcend this egocentric (nafsī) framework, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "None of you will have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself," and he likened the believers to a single body and to bricks of a wall reinforcing one another. Allah commands justice even against one's own interests: "Uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives." Reform of the self (iṣlāḥ) and striving against the lower soul (jihād al-nafs) are the starting point; Sufyān al-Thawrī said, "I never dealt with anything more difficult on me than my own self," and the Prophet ﷺ taught that "the mujāhid is he who strives against his lower-self." The recommendations include unpacking one's privilege, bridging the empathic divide by seeking knowledge from marginalized scholars such as Sh. Muhammad Salih Hajim, educating oneself about the genocide, and becoming active through political advocacy, boycotting products linked to forced labor, welcoming Uyghurs into mosques, and facilitating the teaching of the Uyghur language to preserve a people threatened with cultural erasure. Our strength as an ummah lies in our consciousness of Allah and our unity through the ties of ukhuwwa, without which faith itself is incomplete, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "You will not enter jannah until you believe, and you shall not believe until you love one another," instructing us to spread the greeting of peace. To the anṣār who feared he would leave them, he said, "Your life is my life. You are mine and I am yours. Your enemy is my enemy. Your ally is my ally." And in his final sermon he proclaimed, "There is no virtue of an Arab over a foreigner… nor white over black nor black over white, except by righteousness." This exhortation was given precisely because the tendency to rank and favor one's own tribe runs deep within us, and so striving against racism and prejudice, beginning within ourselves, is a courageous act of worship. May Allah accept every effort to show compassion to the Uyghur brothers and sisters and welcome them for His sake, and may He grant justice and mercy to all the oppressed of the world. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is making duʿaʾ and giving charity for Uyghur Muslims enough? *Duʿaʾ* and voluntary charity (*sadaqa*) matter deeply, and Uyghur voices describe them as genuinely needed. At the same time, many Uyghurs in the diaspora experience sympathy alone as empty words when it is not paired with visible solidarity. A fuller response means staying connected to Uyghur communities, learning directly from their stories, and moving outside the *sadaqa* box into allyship: speaking up, advocating, organizing for justice, and using our wealth more ethically — including supporting Uyghur causes and boycotting goods tied to forced Uyghur labor. ### How can my local mosque practically support Uyghur refugee families? The mosque can be more than a prayer space — it can be a place of refuge, support, and integration. A simple but powerful starting point is a newcomer family matching program where a newly arrived Uyghur family is paired with an established family to build social ties and belonging. Mosques can also offer resume workshops, parenting support circles, food banks, and volunteer programs. Regular community gatherings that include Uyghur food, arts, and culture make Uyghurs visible and welcomed. Where possible, mosques can provide space for Uyghur language instruction such as free classroom access for Uyghurche lessons. ### What can an ordinary Muslim do to help stop the Uyghur genocide? Start by getting educated. Misinformation makes this harder than it should be, so it takes intention to seek balanced coverage and listen directly to Uyghur community members. Then move from private concern to public solidarity. That can include urging your mosque to host a community event, attending Uyghur gatherings, joining protests, contacting representatives, and boycotting goods linked to forced Uyghur labor. The call is to practice allyship — support, social engagement, and advocacy alongside Uyghurs — not as a burst of emotion but as a sustained commitment. ### What does the Prophetic example of the ansar and muhajirun teach us about welcoming Uyghur refugees today? The migration to Medina shows that belonging does not happen passively. The *ansar* did not merely welcome the *muhajirun* with kind words; they actively built community and shared social support in ways that made newcomers feel seen, protected, and included. Uyghurs in the diaspora face a similar need for integration into the broader umma. The Prophetic model points toward active integration: creating real relationships, expanding access to community spaces, and building support systems that restore social ties and dignity — mosque-based buddy systems, regular communal gatherings that include Uyghur culture, and ensuring Uyghurs are part of the community's public concern. ### What does "radical empathy" for Uyghur Muslims look like in Islam? Empathy asks you to see the world through another's eyes. Radical empathy goes further by demanding change and commitment to justice, even at the cost of comfort or material ease. It is rooted in the Prophetic description of believers as one body, where another Muslim's pain should not remain distant. Radical empathy also pushes against empathetic distancing — the habit of only fully caring for people who look or live like us. In the Uyghur case, it means refusing to let their stories remain abstract: learning, listening, and then aligning our communities with justice through public advocacy, ethical spending, and mosque cultures that make Uyghurs visible, welcomed, and protected. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom # Abrogated Rulings in the Qur’an: Discerning their Divine Wisdom **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 27, 2023 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Abstract Abrogation in the Qur'an refers to the phenomenon of a later verse changing or altering a ruling established by a verse revealed earlier, either in whole or in part. Later scholars developed diverging technical definitions of abrogation that differed slightly from the linguistic usage of earlier generations, leading to significant disagreements over the nature of abrogation, how many verses were abrogated, and even whether abrogation is a legitimate interpretive mechanism. This article seeks to clarify the meaning of abrogation as it was intended by the righteous predecessors, who often used the word ‘abrogation’ to refer to making exceptions to an earlier rule rather than completely repealing it. The wisdom of abrogation is explored in relation to the gradual prohibition of alcohol consumption, as further evidence of the divine nature of the Qur'an. Finally, the claim that the peaceful verses of the Qur'an were invalidated by the ‘verse of the sword’ is challenged. --- ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* One of the most contentious issues in the sciences of the Qur'an is the doctrine of ‘abrogation’ (*naskh*). The English term abrogation implies that a previous rule or teaching in a verse was completely cancelled by a new verse. Critics of Islam have seized on this notion to argue that the Qur'an is contradictory and, therefore, cannot be of divine origin. But is this how the early Muslims understood the phenomenon of Qur'anic abrogation? Did Allah change His mind? Or is there a deeper wisdom as to why some rules should change? The truth is that abrogation is further evidence of the divine origin of the Qur'an because it has delivered appropriate rules to be applied in different situations, reflecting the Wisdom of the Creator who intended Islam to be applicable to all times, places, and people. If the text had a rigid set of rules, it would have been too inflexible for modern people, let alone the early Muslims, to follow its guidance in their lives. Abrogation occurs by the Will and Wisdom of Allah, Who knows what teachings people need in the precise moment that they need it. It can occur between verses of different divine books or within the same divine book. Allah said: > *We do not abrogate a verse and allow it to be forgotten but that We bring what is better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?*[^1] Some specific rules in the previous revelations contained in the Torah, Psalms, and Gospel were abrogated by rules laid down in Islam, although the spirit of all the divine books is the same. For example, Jews celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, Christians celebrate their holy day on Sunday, and Muslims perform al-Jumu’ah prayers on Friday. We believe that Allah guided us to single out Friday for the weekly sermon instead of other days. Should Muslims, then, impose their religious law on all others by force? Allah said: > *To each among you We have made a law and a way. If Allah had willed, He would have made you into a single nation, but He tests you in what you have been given. Thus, race towards what is good. Unto Allah will all of you return and He will tell you about that in which you differed.*[^2] The religion of the Prophets is the same single religion, while the laws they followed changed over time and place. As Qatadah said, “The religion is one, but the laws are different.” And he also said, “The Torah has a law, the Gospel has a law, and the Qur'an has a law. Allah permits in them what He wills and forbids what He wills as a trial, that it may be known who obeys Him and who disobeys Him. Rather, the religion is one, besides which none is accepted: monotheism and sincerity to Allah, which was brought by the Messengers.”[^3] Allah could have commanded Muslims to force all people to follow a single code of law but He did not, instead urging us to “race towards what is good,” which is to compete with each other in good deeds. We believe Islam is the final religion, abrogating and perfecting all that came before it, so we should invite others to it by way of good example, behavior, and persuasion, but never by compulsion or deception. In addition to inter-revelatory abrogation is the issue of intra-revelatory abrogation, that is, understanding why some verses of the Qur'an seem to contradict each other and how they can be properly reconciled. Critics claim that abrogation is simply a tool used to explain away confused and contradictory verses. Does the Qur'an contradict itself? Allah said: > *Do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had come from another besides Allah, they would have found much contradiction within it.*[^4] The entire Qur'an can be interpreted according to a principled and consistent methodology. Any contradiction between verses is only *apparent*, not an actual contradiction. These apparent contradictions can be reconciled if investigated beyond a mere surface reading; abrogation is just one of several methods of interpretive reconciliation. Why, then, did classical scholars disagree over the number of abrogated verses, with some saying hundreds of verses were abrogated and others saying only a handful were? The source of confusion for laypeople is in the variety of different technical definitions given to ‘abrogation’ by later scholars and how their definitions differed from the linguistic usage of the word by early Muslims. --- ## Abrogation: Technical and linguistic meanings The technical definition of abrogation, which came to be adopted by later scholars, was expressed by Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni in this way: “Its legal definition is an address indicating the lifting of a ruling established by a previous address, without which it would remain in effect.”[^5] Put differently, abrogation was understood as the nullification or invalidation of a ruling mentioned in a previous verse. Some later scholars understood abrogation to be in an absolute sense; i.e., the previous verse was completely canceled. They would support their arguments with plenty of statements of the early Muslims saying such-and-such verse was ‘abrogated.’ But did the early Muslims intend by this phrase the absolute technical meaning ascribed to it later on? According to Ibn al-Qayyim, the early Muslims employed the term ‘abrogated’ in a more fluid manner: > *I say: The general meaning of the righteous predecessors when using the words ‘abrogating’ and ‘abrogated’ is sometimes the complete removal of the previous ruling—and this is the technical term of the latter generations—or sometimes the removal of the general, absolute, and outward meaning or otherwise, whether by specification, restriction, interpreting an absolute as limited, or by explanation and clarification. Even then they would refer to it as exceptional and conditional.*[^6] In other words, the early Muslims would say a verse was ‘abrogated’ if there was any change to the original rule at all, even if the change was partial or exceptional.[^7] These types of partial abrogation came to be known as ‘specification’ (*takhsis*), ‘restriction’ (*taqyid*), ‘explanation’ (*tafsir*), ‘clarification’ (*tabyin*), ‘exceptional’ (*istithna’*), and ‘conditional’ (*shart*). The previous rule was changed or ‘abrogated’ to account for a new situation, but it was not nullified, invalidated, or canceled entirely. Another way of understanding these nuances is to differentiate between actual abrogation and figurative abrogation. Ibn ‘Aqilah al-Makki writes: > *Regarding specification and clarification, I say that this is a type of figurative abrogation, as abrogation is the lifting of the original ruling and this specification and clarification in the verses are mentioned as exceptions. Indeed, it is referred to as ‘abrogation’ because it lifts the general ruling, otherwise it is not truly abrogation.*[^8] A rule that is specified or given as an exception is an instance of ‘abrogation’ only in the figurative sense that a partial change has occurred. The verse containing the previous rule is still in effect but has been limited in a certain way. The English word ‘abrogation’ is therefore not always the best translation as the Arabic term could merely signify a minor amendment to an earlier rule. Failure to appreciate this subtle linguistic shift over generations can have enormous consequences for how Muslims understand the Qur'an, its genre of interpretive literature, and the statements of early authorities. Ibn Abbas (ra) was one of the first authorities on the Qur'an, a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, and a leading Muslim scholar after he passed away. The Prophet ﷺ reportedly placed his hands on him and said, “O Allah, grant him knowledge of the Book.”[^9] Hence, to cite Ibn Abbas is to draw upon his enormous credibility as an interpreter of the Qur'an. Ibn Abbas would frequently use the term ‘abrogation’ but many times in its partial, limited, or figurative sense. Al-Shatibi writes, “Makki said that Ibn Abbas would mention several things in the Qur'an for which an exception was made and he would say: It is abrogated.”[^10] And Al-Sakhawi writes, “In our view, the terms abrogation, specification, and exception occurred after the time of Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Abbas would refer to all of that as abrogation.”[^11] And Al-Qurtubi writes, “The predecessors would intend specification by the word abrogation, figuratively and metaphorically.”[^12] As an example of his use of partial abrogation, Al-Tabari records in his commentary: > *Ibn Abbas said the verse ‘Do not enter houses other than your own houses’ (24:27) was then abrogated and an exception was given by the verse, ‘There is no blame upon you for entering houses not inhabited in which there is convenience for you’ (24:29).*[^13] The verse 24:27 originally laid down a general rule (do not enter other people’s houses without their permission) and then a few verses later in 24:29 made an exception to the general rule (you may enter houses if no one is living there). Muslim travelers at the time might have needed to make use of abandoned or uninhabited houses, so permission to do so was granted by restricting the general prohibition. Although Ibn Abbas said the first verse was ‘abrogated,’ he obviously intended by that specification or exception and not a complete repeal of the original rule. Abrogation here was meant in a figurative sense, not literally, and Al-Tabari explicitly associates it as a type of ‘exception.’ It is clear from this, and dozens of other examples, that many times Ibn Abbas never intended complete abrogation when using the Arabic term *naskh*. The problem, however, is that uninformed Muslims and critics of Islam attempt to utilize the authority of Ibn Abbas to support completely unfounded claims like all the ‘peaceful verses’ of the Qur'an have been invalidated. Scholars of the Qur'an would understand what Ibn Abbas meant by a careful analysis of verses, commentaries, and juristic opinions, but lay people usually do not know about the nuances involved, thus causing confusion and misinterpretation when his statements and others are brought forth in a polemical context. This is not simply a problem that has appeared in the modern day either. For generations, some commentators of the Qur'an misinterpreted the usage of abrogation by early Muslims to infer their own technical definitions developed much later. It is also a loophole of sorts for all kinds of unfounded interpretations to inject themselves into the commentary tradition. Indeed, it is not difficult to see that the doctrine of abrogation has the potential for abuse by simply canceling the verses one wishes to not practice. Al-Zarkashi, a scholar of the classical period, criticized a number of commentators in his time who relied too heavily on the later technical meaning of abrogation: > *The Qur’an has abrogated and oversees all divine scriptures. There will be nothing after it to abrogate it. What is within it of abrogating and abrogated verses is known to be few and Allah clarifies what is abrogated at the time it is abrogated… As for the Qur'an, despite the opinion of many commentators, it is not abrogated (by the Sunnah). Indeed, it is only postponed and delayed, or it is held back as vague until it is clarified in a necessary moment, or it is a directive that alters another directive before it, or it specifies the general meaning, or a general ruling has been specified, or one meaning contributes to another. There are many directives of this kind that they imagine are abrogated but it is not so. It is the Book overseeing all other sacred books besides it, and it is internally consistent.*[^14] We have identified the origin of confusion over the meaning of abrogation and the reason why so many scholars dramatically differed in the number of verses they claimed had been abrogated. They were simply using different definitions of abrogation and they may not have appreciated how the meaning of the term subtly changed over time and within different schools of interpretation. Scholars also found ways in which an allegedly abrogated verse was still applicable, thus removing it from the technical definition of abrogation. They ended up demonstrating that abrogation occurs on a spectrum, not necessarily as all-or-nothing. There were other layers of scholarly debate that further complicated the meaning of abrogation, such as the possibility of a verse being “withdrawn” or abrogated in its writing but not its ruling (*naskh al-rasm wa baqa’ al-hukm*), or whether it is possible for the Sunnah to abrogate the Qur’an. These topics are beyond the scope of this article and have been covered elsewhere.[^15] What really matters is not which technical definition of abrogation succeeds in scholarly forums, but rather that the definition in use helps ordinary Muslims to act upon the Qur'an in the way that Allah intended. From all this it might seem that abrogation is a liability, a troubling issue to be brushed aside and only discussed in an apologetic manner. The reality, though, is that there is decisive wisdom in the phenomenon of abrogation, which further demonstrates the divine nature of the Qur'an. --- ## The wisdom of abrogation There are very few rules in life that are absolutely black-and-white, no exceptions allowed. Just about every rule has an exception, which is why the distinction between ‘general’ (*‘amm*) and ‘specific’ (*khass*) is so important in Islamic legal theory.[^16] We would not be able to construct any legal theory, let alone a moral theory, without appreciating the fact that different situations call for different rules. This idea seems obvious enough if one thinks about it, but the notion of abrogation has always been a line of attack by the critics of Islam, even in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. If the rules change, then has Allah changed His mind? Allah said: > *If We replace a verse in place of another verse, and Allah knows best what He reveals, they say: Indeed, he has forged it! No, rather most of them do not know.*[^17] According to Al-Suyuti, the replacement of the verse mentioned here is “by its abrogation or revelation of another in the best interests of people” and what the critics do not understand is “the reality of the Qur'an and the benefits of abrogation.”[^18] Abrogation serves the welfare of people by bringing forth the rule most appropriate to their specific situation, making changes as necessary and building a more comprehensive legal and moral framework. This is how any educational model must work, beginning with the easiest lessons and moving on to more challenging and beneficial lessons as the student advances. Giving advanced lessons to an unprepared student would be detrimental to their education. Perhaps the best example in the Qur'an of a beneficial modification to the rules is the progressive discouragement and eventual prohibition of alcoholic drinks. Alcohol was originally permissible in the early stages of prophethood, as the first verses to be revealed concerned faith and ethics instead of laws. Very few concrete legal rules were established in Mecca; then the Prophet ﷺ migrated to Medina and he needed guidance from Allah in the management of a well-ordered society. People started asking him about alcohol, so the verses of the Qur'an began to mention it.[^19] Allah said: > *They ask you about wine and gambling. Say: In both of them is great sin and some benefit for people, but the sin of them both is greater than the benefit.*[^20] This verse discouraged alcohol consumption but stopped short of prohibiting it outright. As stated by Ibn Kathir, “By this verse, the way was prepared for the decisive unlawfulness of wine, as it is not explicit but rather implied.”[^21] The end goal was to rid society of alcohol altogether in gradual, achievable steps. In a verse revealed later, this initial discouragement was abrogated by the prohibition of alcohol consumption before prayer. Allah said: > *O you who have faith, do not approach the prayer while you are intoxicated, until you know what you are saying.*[^22] The original rule of discouragement was now replaced with a limited, contextual prohibition. Muslims were still allowed to drink as long as they did not come to prayer drunk. The final verse on alcohol, which was revealed near the end of the Prophet’s ﷺ mission, forbade drinking completely. Allah said: > *O you who have faith, wine, gambling, idolatrous sacrifices, and divining arrows are the disgrace of the work of Satan, so stay away from them that you may succeed.*[^23] The partial prohibition mentioned in the earlier verse was now repealed and replaced by full prohibition. Mujahid said, “They were prohibited from praying while intoxicated, then it was abrogated by the forbiddance of wine.”[^24] When this last verse was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah Almighty has forbidden wine. Whoever hears this verse and he has some with him, let him not drink it nor sell it.” Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (ra) added, “The people brought into the road of the city whatever they had with them and poured it out.”[^25] The prohibition of wine (*khamr*) was extended to all types of alcohol and intoxicants, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Every intoxicant is unlawful.”[^26] The effective cause (*‘illah*) prohibiting these substances is their capacity to intoxicate; therefore, common drugs of abuse, which have no legitimate medical use, are prohibited because of their intoxicating effects, as well as any new drugs of abuse that might be developed or discovered in the future. Altogether the rules about alcohol moved through four stages: 1. It was originally permissible. 2. Then it was discouraged by verse 2:219. 3. Then it was prohibited to drink before prayer by verse 4:43. 4. Then it was prohibited in general by verse 5:90. There are important lessons to be learned from this experience of gradual prohibition. At the beginning stages of the Prophet’s ﷺ mission, people were simply not ready to give up alcohol for the sake of a greater purpose. Aisha (ra) said, “If the first thing to be revealed was ‘Do not drink wine,’ they would have said, ‘We will never stop drinking wine.’ And if it were revealed ‘Do not commit adultery,’ they would have said, ‘We will never stop committing adultery.’”[^27] Certainly, alcohol can have such a tight grip over people’s lives that only strengthening their faith can break it. Even today, the successful Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program makes explicit references to God as the reason and means to quit.[^28] Likewise, people at the time of the Prophet ﷺ needed to build up their faith and recognize a meaningful purpose to their lives that would make the difficult struggle of quitting alcohol worth it. The same model of gradual, progressive implementation on a societal level can apply to other Islamic teachings as well. Abdul Malik said to his father, the Caliph Umar ibn Abdul Aziz (ra), “O father, what is the matter that you do not implement the divine commands? By Allah, I would not mind if it caused discord between us as long as it was the truth.” Umar said, “Do not be hasty, my son. Verily, Allah censured \[drinking\] wine in the Qur'an twice and on the third time, He made it unlawful. I fear that if I compelled people to follow the truth all at once, they would reject it all at once and that would be a tribulation.”[^29] Although some Muslims are zealous in their desire to remake society according to their understanding of Islam, it is simply unwise and counter-productive to impose upon people what they are not yet ready to accept. In an ideal situation, no person should feel the need or desire to drink alcohol. The detrimental effects of alcohol consumption were clear even in ancient times. The general prohibition of intoxicants, in this ideal case, is in the best interests of individuals and societies as a whole. A recent massive study of global alcohol consumption concluded that, despite minor health benefits in some contexts, overall “alcohol is a colossal global health issue and small reductions in health-related harms at low levels of alcohol intake are outweighed by the increased risk of other health-related harms, including cancer.”[^30] The Qur'an’s insistence that the harms of alcohol outweigh its benefits are vindicated yet again by study and experience. That said, might there still be something to learn from the abrogated rulings on alcohol, either from its implicit discouragement or its limited prohibition? No doubt, the default rule of no alcohol consumption at all is usually the safest and most optimal thing to do, but we can imagine and have collectively experienced times when the Qur'an’s gradual method for phasing out alcohol is warranted anew. At the individual level, alcohol is one of the most dangerous substances that a person can suddenly withdraw from his or her system if they are addicted.[^31] A full-blown alcoholic who quits drinking ‘cold-turkey’ might experience insomnia and tremors, even potentially life-threatening seizures and delirium requiring medical intervention.[^32] It would be harmful and possibly fatal for anyone to impose the general prohibition on such a person, which means the general prohibition cannot apply here. An alcoholic in this situation needs an individualized treatment plan for gradually withdrawing from alcohol consumption. As such, the previous verses on alcohol might be ‘abrogated’ but their lesson remains and, in this specific case, could be skillfully applied again to meet the needs of the moment. The same dynamic applies at the societal level as it does to an individual. Suddenly withdrawing alcohol from a society in which it is culturally entrenched can produce terrible unintended consequences and end up making the situation much worse. This actually happened when the American government ratified the 18th amendment to the Constitution outlawing all sale and consumption of alcohol, known in history as the period of Prohibition. The supporters of the amendment surely meant well, but American society was not ready for such a shocking change. Not only was the law impractical in that it was literally impossible to fully enforce, it more ominously led to the rise of violent criminal syndicates. Notorious mobsters like Al Capone acquired millions of dollars and unprecedented power by selling alcohol on the black market. The premature prohibition of alcohol handed over enormous influence in American society to gangsters, thieves, and killers, the worst of the worst. The American experiment with Prohibition was ultimately a catastrophic failure and was repealed by the 21st amendment. This harsh historical lesson was expressed succinctly in the words of industrialist John D. Rockefeller Jr.: > *When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.*[^33] Thus, a gradual withdrawal from alcohol is in the best interests of individuals as it is for societies. In hindsight, it is easy to see how the Qur'an’s wisdom would have aided Americans in their quest to mitigate the harms of alcohol. It is not only the standard rulings in Islamic law that provide guidance, but also the history of how those laws evolved through revelation into what they are now. And this is really the crux behind the wisdom of abrogation. In order to understand the full picture of any topic in Islam, one must gather all of the relevant verses, traditions, and commentaries so that they can be synthesized, contemplated, and interpreted plausibly and consistently. One cannot take a single verse out of its greater context and apply it absolutely when there may very well be important exceptions. The reality of abrogation speaks to a larger point about rules changing in different contexts. Learned Muslim scholars do not just apply statements in the Qur'an and Sunnah literally without consideration of other texts, principles, and priorities. They must evaluate their judgments in light of the ‘spirit of the law’ (*maqasid al-shari’ah*), consideration of social customs (*‘urf*), and any other factor that might negatively influence the intended outcome. Ibn al-Qayyim writes at length on the importance of a jurisconsult (*mufti*) considering time, place, custom, and context in applying Islamic rules: > *As for knowing the circumstances of people, this is a tremendous principle required of the jurisconsult and judge. For if he does not understand it, understand commanding and prohibiting and then prefer one over the other, it will cause more harm than good. Indeed, if he has no understanding of the circumstances of people, the oppressor will appear to him as the oppressed and vice versa, the truth will appear as false and vice versa, and he will aid the cause of deception and deceit. The heretic will appear to him as a righteous person, the liar as a truthful person. He will dress every lie in a false garment underneath which is sin, dishonesty, and wickedness. By his ignorance of the people, their circumstances, their habits, and their customs, he cannot distinguish this from that. Rather, he must have understanding of the plots of people, their deceit, their deceptions, their habits, and their customs. For the judgment (fatwa) changes with a change in time, place, habits, and circumstances. All of that is part of the religion of Allah.*[^34] These are the considerations a Muslim scholar must account for after the period of divine revelation has ceased. Abrogation, on the other hand, involved taking up similar considerations *while the divine revelation was still ongoing*. The community of the Prophet’s ﷺ companions transitioned from one of the most lawless societies to one of the most law-abiding. The wisdom of gradualism through abrogation was essential to this transformational process. We should know that all of the verses in the Qur'an have value and application in some way, either generally, as a specific exception, or a historical lesson. The key is to gather all the relevant pieces of information within the text, and context, to interpret them in a plausible and consistent manner, reconciling apparent contradictions as appropriate and drawing on exceptions as necessary. Muslims in now-established communities are generally responsible for applying the final rules resulting from abrogation, but the spirit of gradualism may still inform the particular judgments of individual jurisconsults. Now, we will make use of what we have learned at this point to approach perhaps the most consequential issue related to abrogation: the alleged ‘verse of the sword’ (*ayat al-sayf*). --- ## Did the ‘sword verse’ abrogate the peaceful verses? Muslims often argue that Islam is a religion of peace by pointing to the dozens and dozens of Qur’anic verses that encourage compassion, forgiveness, and good deeds. However, critics of Islam and even some Muslims have an unsophisticated argument to explain away anything in the Qur'an that contradicts their views: the peaceful verses have allegedly been abrogated by the ‘verse of the sword.’ Needless to say, their argument falls apart upon closer scrutiny. The idea that peaceful verses were abrogated does exist in the classical heritage but was by no means universally accepted. Scholars such as Abu Ja’far al-Nahhas, Ibn al-Jawzi, and Al-Suyuti only accepted about twenty cases of genuine abrogation in the Qur'an, none of which involved the verse or verses of the sword.[^35] Although proponents of sword-verse abrogation disagree over which verse is actually the verse of the sword, it is often cited as verse 9:5: > *When the sacred months have passed, then kill the idolaters wherever you find them, besiege them and lie in wait for them in every place of ambush. But if they repent, establish prayer, and give charity, then let them go on their way. Verily, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.*[^36] It is important to appreciate that the term ‘verse of the sword’ appeared later in the classical tradition. The sword, of course, was considered to be a symbol of justice and not aggression or violence. Regardless, such terminology does not originate with the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. The clause ‘kill the idolaters wherever you find them’ is usually singled out by critics and extremists as the final command regarding relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, as if it were a declaration of all-out permanent holy war on all non-Muslims everywhere. Besides the absurd infeasibility of such a teaching, to interpret this clause as absolute only makes sense if one cynically ignores all of the surrounding verses in the same chapter. The subsequent verses 9:10 through 9:13 state unequivocally that the ‘idolaters’ under discussion are those who habitually broke their peace treaties. The purpose of fighting them is to stop their aggression and, even so, the door of repentance remains open for them: > *They do not observe for a believer any kinship or covenant. It is they who have transgressed. If they repent, establish prayer, and give charity, then they are your brothers in religion. We make clear the signs for people who know.* > > *If they break their oaths after their treaty and defame your religion, then fight the leaders of unbelief. Verily, nothing is sacred to them, that they might cease. Will you not fight people who violated their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger and yourselves and they attacked you first?*[^37] The clause ‘that they might cease’ clarifies that the aim of fighting is to stop their aggression, and ‘they attacked you first’ explains what caused the conflict to begin in the first place. Moreover, the immediately following verse 9:6 grants asylum and immunity to any idolater who lays down their weapons whether or not they individually accept Islam: > *If one of the idolaters seeks your protection, then grant him protection that he may hear the word of Allah, then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are people who do not know.*[^38] As expressed elsewhere in the Qur'an, war is only justified as a response to unprovoked aggression. That principle still holds true when the entire passage surrounding the sword verse is read and interpreted consistently. It becomes evidently implausible to imagine that a single line from verse 9:5 has completely abrogated all of the verses around it and hundreds of verses in other chapters. Interestingly enough, some of the earliest interpreters of the Qur'an such as Al-Dahhak, Sufyan, and Al-Suddi believed that the phrase ‘kill the idolaters wherever you find them’ was itself abrogated by the verse, “Either set them free as favor or ransom them until the war has laid down its burdens” (47:4).[^39] They understood that the command to ‘kill them’ was not absolute in any sense, but rather was restricted by other verses. Verses revealed earlier about peace and warfare were likewise understood by the companions as still operative and legally valid even after the revelation of the sword verses. At least three key verses disprove the idea that Islam advocates a permanent state of war against non-Muslims or that the peaceful verses were invalidated. Allah said: > *Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight you, but do not transgress. Verily, Allah does not love transgressors.*[^40] This verse is relevant to both the justification for starting a war (*jus ad bellum*) and the lawful limits of conduct during war (*jus in bello*), both of which are based upon the Islamic principle of non-aggression.[^41] It warns against transgressing the rules of war, as there can never be a time when Allah loves transgression, indicating that the effective legal cause will remain eternally unchanged. It is also consistent with the authentic statement of the Prophet ﷺ, “Verily, the most tyrannical of people to Allah Almighty is one who kills those who did not fight him,”[^42] among many others. Al-Tabari records several narrations from the early Muslims who did not consider this verse to be abrogated. The distinguished commentator Ibn Abbas (ra) explained the import of the verse this way: > *Do not kill women, children, the elderly, or whoever comes to you with peace and he restrains his hand (from fighting), for if you did so you would have certainly transgressed.*[^43] And the Caliph Umar ibn Abdul Aziz clarifies the meaning, “That verse refers to women, children, and whoever does not wage war among them.”[^44] They believed that the verse 2:190 prohibits attacking those we would describe today as civilians, non-combatants, and non-aggressors. This interpretation is consistent with the greater textual context surrounding the verses of the sword, that warfare is only justified as a response to a physical threat, which is also the legal opinion of the historical majority of Muslim jurists according to the classical scholar Ibn Taymiyyah: > *As for the oppressor who does not fight, then there are no texts in which Allah commands him to be fought. Rather, the unbelievers are only fought on the condition that they wage war, as is practiced by the majority of scholars and is evident in the Book and Sunnah.*[^45] In a treatise devoted to this topic, Ibn Taymiyyah uses verse 2:190 as the primary piece of evidence that unbelievers are only fought on the condition that they wage war. They are not fought just because they are non-Muslims. He then refutes the opinion that the verse was abrogated, writing: > *I say: This opinion (that the verse 2:190 is not abrogated) is the opinion of the majority of scholars. It is the way of Malik, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and others. The other opinion (that the verse is abrogated) is weak. Indeed, to claim abrogation requires proof and there is nothing in the Qur’an to contradict this verse. Rather, what is in the Qur’an is consistent with it, so where is the abrogating verse?*[^46] Nevertheless, the critics and extremists try to find support for their theory in some of the classical commentaries. For instance, Al-Tabari records the opinion of Al-Rabia’, “This verse (2:190) was the first to be revealed about fighting in Medina. When it was revealed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ fought those who fought him, and restrained from those who did not fight him, until the chapter Bara’ah (verse 9:5) was revealed.”[^47] There are other statements in the classical heritage like this, claiming that the ‘sword verse’ abrogated the previous verses that restrict the scope of fighting. But as we have seen, the early Muslims sometimes used the word ‘abrogated’ in a flexible and figurative sense, not the technical meaning ascribed to it later. Was the verse 2:190 abrogated completely or only partially? If so, in what sense was it abrogated? Al-Baydawi relates the opinion that verse 2:190 was abrogated by the imperative to perform self-defensive preemptive strikes against hostile forces: > *It is said that verse (2:190) was before they were commanded to fight the idolaters altogether, the combatants among them and those who remain in their places. And it is said that it means those who wage war upon you or from whom that is expected.*[^48] A strictly literal reading of 2:190 would only allow Muslims to attack those who are directly attacking them in the moment. They would not be allowed to take the initiative against a hostile enemy who is building up an army at their borders. Accordingly, the verse 9:5 ‘abrogated’ the literal import of 2:190 and allowed for incursions into enemy territory, but the basic principle of non-aggression remained operative. This is sometimes referred to as ‘offensive *jihad*’ (*jihad al-talab*), which is an offensive tactic within an overall defensive strategy. As the Arabs used to say, “When the Romans are not campaigned against, they campaign (against you).”[^49] That is, the best defense, in a world where warring empires were the norm, was a good offense. Even so, abrogation is not necessary to incorporate this interpretation because “those who fight you” in verse 2:190 can include “those who are preparing to fight you.”[^50] The Prophet ﷺ used offensive tactics to preempt the invasions and attacks of aggressive neighbors. The Romans initiated hostilities when one of their allies assassinated the Muslim ambassador, which led to the battle of Mu’tah and later the expedition of Tabuk. The Prophet ﷺ did not simply wait in Medina for the Roman army to arrive. If the earlier verses on fighting were indeed abrogated by the verse of the sword, then it is only in this partial, limited sense of allowing preemptive action against credible threats. The spirit of non-aggression still always applied, such as when the Prophet ﷺ forbade Muslims from attacking peaceful neighbors, saying, “Leave the Abyssinians alone as long as they leave you alone, and leave the Turks alone as long as they leave you alone.”[^51] These nations were not attacked by the early Muslims precisely because they were not threatening. Another key verse commands Muslims to conduct peace treaties with their enemies if they are offered reasonable terms of peace. Allah said: > *If they incline to peace, then incline to it as well and put your trust in Allah. Verily, Allah is the Hearing, the Knowing.*[^52] According to Ibn Kathir, this verse cannot be abrogated because the Prophet ﷺ continued to act upon it as a legal precedent, “If the enemy is too powerful, then it is permissible to conduct a truce with them as indicated by this noble verse, and as was done by the Prophet ﷺ on the day of Al-Hudaybiyyah. Thus, it is not invalidated, nor is it abrogated, nor is it restricted.”[^53] He supports his argument with the statement of the Prophet ﷺ, “Verily, after me, there will be conflicts or affairs, so if you are able to end them in peace then do so.”[^54] The verse and its accompanying traditions demonstrate that peace is preferred whenever possible. Ibn Kathir mentions here an instance when the enemy is too strong to attack, in which case a truce is permissible. Some have understood such peace treaties, then, to be merely a temporary tactic until Muslims are strong enough to fight back. This logic is cited today by activists who try to justify the marginalization of Muslim minorities. However, Ibn Kathir uses this example as simply one case in which a peace treaty is permissible. He is arguing for the majority legal opinion, adopted by Abu Hanifa, Malik, and Al-Shafi’i, that “a peace treaty is permissible if the leader sees benefit in it.”[^55] In other words, the Muslim leader has broad permission to conduct peace treaties if it serves the welfare (*maslahah*) of the Muslim community. Therefore, this verse cannot be abrogated and, in fact, it places limits on the sword verses. Lastly, a third key verse articulates the general rule governing relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. Like the other verses, this rule also has not been abrogated or invalidated. Allah said: > *Allah does not prohibit you from those who do not fight you for religion and do not expel you from your homes, that you be benevolent to them and generous to them.*[^56] *Verily, Allah loves those who are fair. Allah only prohibits you from those who fight you for religion and expel you from your homes and assist in your expulsion, that you take them as allies. Whoever takes them as allies, then they are the oppressors.*[^57] Muslims ought to maintain good relations with non-Muslims who do not persecute them for their faith or otherwise harm them, in accordance with another verse, “There is no hostility except against oppressors.”[^58] Al-Tabari disagreed with the opinion of some who said these verses 60:8-9 were abrogated, saying: > *The first opinion in that is correct, those who say that what is meant by ‘Allah does not prohibit you from those who do not fight you for religion,’ are among all types of creeds and religions, that you are benevolent to them, have good relations with them, and be fair to them. Indeed, Allah Almighty generalized in His saying ‘those who do not fight you for religion and do not expel you from your homes,’ to include all of those who can be described in this way and He did not restrict it for some to the exclusion of others. It does not mean as those who say it was abrogated.*[^59] The wording of the verse is stated comprehensively such that it applies to all people, regardless of their religion, anyone who can be accurately described as a non-aggressor. Al-Tabari further supports his argument with the report of Asma bint Abi Bakr (ra): > *My mother was an idolater and she came to me during the truce with the Quraysh. I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, ‘O Messenger of Allah, my mother has come to me and she is hoping for kind treatment. Should I treat her well?’ The Prophet said, ‘Yes, treat your mother well.’*[^60] In another narration of this event, Ibn Uyaynah (ra) adds that the verse 60:8 was then revealed in response to Asma’s question.[^61] It did not matter that her mother was a polytheist or that she came from a hostile community. Asma’s mother came in peace and therefore she should be treated well, full stop. On the basis of this report, according to Al-Qurtubi, the “majority of interpreters say the verse 60:8 is operative (*muhkamah*)... The judge Ismai’l ibn Ishaq entered the home of a non-Muslim citizen and was generous to him. Those who were present held that against him, so he recited these verses to them.”[^62] Each set of verses, whether discussing compassion or justice, peace or war, are applicable to their appropriate situations. The verses of compassion and forgiveness were revealed first to express the default stance, then the sword verses created an exception to this general rule. Peace is the desired state of affairs, but war is sometimes necessary to defend the innocent. Forgiveness is the right attitude to have, but not at the expense of justice for victims. Shaykh Mahmoud Shaltut, the late Grand Imam of al-Azhar, concisely describes the mainstream understanding of the peaceful verses vis-à-vis the sword verses: > *As for the Verses of Forgiveness and Pardon, they aim to shape morality and are to be followed in a context that does not infringe on pride and dignity. Every situation has its own legislation and these verses are also fixed and unassailable.* > > *Legislation that is built upon consideration for different situations, and for the different conditions of individuals and groups, and asks of people that in each situation they follow what is most suitable, cannot be accused of being a contradictory legislation or that some parts of it abrogate others. Indeed, to people with sound minds, it is a wise and extremely precise legislation that promotes the interest of those who fall under its authority and brings happiness to the individual and the community.*[^63] The peaceful verses and the sword verses do not contradict each other, nor do they cancel each other out. Each set of verses serves its own purpose, in its own time and its own conditions, with peaceful, just, and positive relations between human beings as the desired end goal. Or as it is said in the Bible, “For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven… a time for war and a time for peace.”[^64] --- ## Conclusion Abrogation in the Qur'an refers to the revelation of later verses which change or alter the rulings established by earlier verses. Abrogation may completely remove the previous ruling, or it might partially amend it with exceptions or conditions. Scholars disagreed over the number of verses that are abrogated because they would often employ different technical definitions of the word ‘abrogation.’ Rather than exposing alleged contradictions in the Qur'an, the phenomenon of abrogation reflects the divine wisdom of delivering different teachings to suit each appropriate context. This wisdom can be clearly observed by examining the Qur'an’s gradual approach to the prohibition of alcohol consumption. Even though the general rule in Islam is the prohibition of all intoxicants, the evolution of this rule in the Qur'an provides important lessons for mitigating the harms of alcohol in both individuals and societies. The spirit of gradualism revealed by abrogation is also a source of wisdom for dealing with other problems and issues. The claim that the peaceful verses of the Qur'an were abrogated, or invalidated, by the ‘verse of the sword’ is based upon a lack of awareness of the nuanced manner in which the term was employed by early Muslims. Several classical scholars, including the Qur'an’s earliest commentators, rejected the claim that the peaceful verses were abrogated in part or in whole. Those who did claim the peaceful verses were abrogated intended by that partial abrogation, that warfare involves rules that are exceptions to the otherwise general rules of peace, tolerance, and forgiveness. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:106. [^2]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:48. [^3]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 10:385 verse 5:48. [^4]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:82. [^5]: Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī, *Sharḥ al-Waraqāt fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh* (Filasṭīn: Jāmi’at al-Quds, 1999), 1:58-59. [^6]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Iʻlām al-Muwaqqiʻīn ’an Rabb al-‘Ālamīn* (Dar al-Kutub al-ʻIlmiyah, 1991), 1:29. [^7]: Louay Fatoohi, *Abrogation in the Qur'an and Islamic Law: A Critical Study of the Concept of "naskh" and Its Impact* (London: Routledge, 2014), 13. [^8]: Ibn ’Aqīlah, *Al-Ziyādah wal Iḥsān fī ’Ulūm al-Qur’ān* (al-Shāriqah: Markaz al-Buḥūth wal-Dirāsāt al-Shāriqah, 2008), 5:298. [^9]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 1:26 #75, *kitab al-’ilm bab qawl al-nabi sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam Allahumma ‘allimhu al-Kitab*. [^10]: al-Shāṭibī, *Al-Muwāfaqāt* (al-Qāhirah: Dār Ibn ‘Affān, 1997), 3:346. [^11]: al-Sakhāwī,  *Jamāl al-Qurrā’ wa Kamāl al-Iqrā’* (Bayrūt: Mu’ssasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfīyah, 1999), 2:589. [^12]: al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qur'an* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Kutūb al-Miṣrīyah, 1964) 2:65, verse 2:106. [^13]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 19:153 verse 24:29. [^14]: al-Zarkashī, *Al-Burhān fī ’Ulūm al-Qur’ān* (al-Qāhirah: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1957), 2:43-44. [^15]: See for example the chapters “Does the Mushaf contain all of the Qur’an?” and “Abrogation in the Sunna” in Louay Fatoohi’s study *Abrogation in the Qur'an and Islamic Law* (London: Routledge, 2014), 122-128 and 207-218. [^16]: See for example al-Juwaynī’s discussion of ‘general’ and ‘specific,’ with al-Maḥallī’s commentary, in *Sharḥ al-Waraqāt fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh* beginning on page 1:222. [^17]: Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:101. [^18]: al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2001), 1:360. [^19]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 5:103 #3049, *kitab tafsir al-Qur’an bab wa min surat al-Ma’idah*. [^20]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:219. [^21]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur'an al-‘Aẓīm* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 1:434, verse 2:219. [^22]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:43. [^23]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:90. [^24]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 8:377 verse 4:43. [^25]: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 3:1205 #1578, *kitab al-musaqah bab tahrim bay’i al-khamr*. [^26]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1586 #1733, *kitab al-ashribah bab bayan in kull muskir khamr wa an kull khamr haram*. [^27]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 6:185 #4993, *kitab fada’il al-Qur’an bab ta’lif al-Qur’an.* [^28]: “The Twelves Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous,” *Alcoholics Anonymous*. [https://www.aa.org/assets/en\_US/smf-121\_en.pdf](https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-121_en.pdf) [^29]: Ibn ’Abd Rabbih, *Al-’Iqd al-Farīd* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1983), 5:185. [^30]: Robyn Burton and Nick Sheron, “No level of alcohol consumption improves health,” *The Lancet*, August 23 2018. [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31571-X/fulltext](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736\(18\)31571-X/fulltext). [^31]: Gar L. Fisher and Nancy A. Roget (eds.), *Encyclopedia of substance abuse prevention, treatment, & recovery* (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2009) 1005. [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412964500.n343&sa=D&ust=1541699293000000)[http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412964500.n343](http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412964500.n343). [^32]: Bayard M, McIntyre J, Hill KR, Woodside J Jr., “Alcohol withdrawal syndrome,” *Am Fam Physician*, March 2004 15;69(6):1443-50. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15053409](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15053409). [^33]: “Everything you ever wanted to know about Prohibition,” OUPblog (Oxford University Press), October 21st 2011.  [https://blog.oup.com/2011/10/prohibition/](https://blog.oup.com/2011/10/prohibition/). [^34]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Iʻlām al-Muwaqqiʻīn*, 4:157. [^35]: Khalid Yahya Blankinship, "Sword Verses," in *The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford Islamic Studies Online*. [http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0979](http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0979) (accessed 29 Aug 2018). [^36]: Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:5. [^37]: Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:10-13. [^38]: Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:6. [^39]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 14:140 verse 9:6. [^40]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:190. [^41]: Hassan Shibly, “War, Islam, and the Sanctity of Life: Non-Aggression in the Islamic Code of Combat,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. 03 October 2017. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/hassan-shibly/war-islam-and-the-sanctity-of-life-non-aggression-in-the-islamic-code-of-combat/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/hassan-shibly/war-islam-and-the-sanctity-of-life-non-aggression-in-the-islamic-code-of-combat/) [^42]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Al-Musnad* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1995), 6:233-234 #6681; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Aḥmad Shākir in the commentary. [^43]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 3:563 verse 2:190. [^44]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 3:562 verse 2:190. [^45]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Kitāb al-Nubūwāt* (al-Riyāḍ: Aḍwāʼ al-Salaf, 2000), 1:570. [^46]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Qāʻidah Mukhtaṣarah fī Qitāl al-Kuffār wa Muhādanatuhum wa Taḥrīm Qatlahum li Mujarrad Kufrihim* (al-Riyād: ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz ibn ʻAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm al-Zayr Āl Ḥamad, 2004), 101. [^47]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 3:561-562 verse 2:190. [^48]: al-Baydạ̄wī, *Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Ta’wīl* (Bayrūt: Dār Ihỵāʼ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1998), 1:270 verse 2:190. [^49]: al-Dhahabī, *Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā’* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 14:85. [^50]: ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Sa’dī, *Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī Tafsīr Kalām al-Mannān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 1:89 verse 2:190. [^51]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:112 #4302, *kitab al-Malahim bab fi al-nahi ‘an tahyij al-Turk wa al-Habashah*; declared good (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in the commentary. [^52]: Sūrat al-Anfāl 8:61. [^53]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur'an al-‘Aẓīm*, 4:74 verse 8:61. [^54]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Al-Musnad*, 1:469 #695; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Aḥmad Shākir in the commentary. [^55]: Ibn Rushd (Averroës), *Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2004), 2:150. [^56]: The verb *tuqsitu ilayhim* is often translated as “be fair to them.” That is a possible linguistic meaning. However, it more likely means in this context, as Al-Qurtubi said, “give them a payment (*qistan*) from your wealth for the purpose of good relations.” He further explains, “It does not mean ‘justice’ here, because justice is required for those who fight and those who do not fight, as said by Ibn al-’Arabi” (*Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qur'an*, 18:59 verse 60:8). [^57]: Sūrat al-Mumtaḥanah 60:8-9. [^58]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:193. [^59]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 23:323 verse 60:8. [^60]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:164 #2620, *kitab al-Hibah wa Fadliha bab al-hadiyyah lil-mushrikin.* [^61]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:4 #5978, *kitab al-Adab bab sillah al-walid al-mushrik.* [^62]: al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qur'an*, 18:59-60 verse 60:8. [^63]: Ghazi bin Muhammad, Ibrahim Kalin, and Mohammad Hashim Kamali (eds.), *War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses in Jihad* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2013), 17-18. [^64]: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, *The New Oxford Annotated Bible: with the Apocrypha* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 939. ## Summary Abrogation (*naskh*) in the Qur'an is among the most contested subjects in the sciences of the Qur'an. In its plainest sense, it refers to a later verse changing or altering a ruling established by an earlier verse, whether wholly or in part. Critics of Islam have seized upon this notion, claiming it renders the Qur'an contradictory and therefore unfit to be of divine origin. Yet a careful examination reveals the opposite: abrogation is itself a proof of the divine wisdom of the Qur'an, for through it Allah delivered rulings suited to differing circumstances, reflecting His intention that Islam remain applicable to all times, places, and peoples. Allah says, "We do not abrogate a verse and allow it to be forgotten but that We bring what is better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?" Abrogation occurs by the Will and Wisdom of Allah, who knows what guidance people require at the precise moment they require it, and it may occur between different divine books or within a single book. Concerning abrogation between revelations, some rulings in the Torah, Psalms, and Gospel were superseded by rulings established in Islam, even though the spirit of all divine books remains one. Thus the Jews observe the Sabbath on Saturday, the Christians their holy day on Sunday, and the Muslims gather for Jumu'ah on Friday. Allah says, "To each among you We have made a law and a way. If Allah had willed, He would have made you into a single nation, but He tests you in what you have been given." Qatadah expressed this beautifully when he said, "The religion is one, but the laws are different," explaining that the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an each have a law, while the underlying religion — monotheism and sincerity to Allah — brought by all the Messengers is one. Since Allah did not command Muslims to force all people into a single code of law but rather urged them to "race towards what is good," the invitation to Islam, the final and perfecting religion, must be by good example and persuasion, never by compulsion or deception. As for abrogation within the Qur'an itself, any apparent contradiction between its verses is only apparent, not real, for Allah says, "Do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had come from another besides Allah, they would have found much contradiction within it." Abrogation is merely one of several methods by which apparent contradictions are reconciled. The disagreement among classical scholars — some claiming hundreds of verses were abrogated, others only a handful — arises not from confusion in the text but from differing technical definitions of the word itself. Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni gave the later technical definition: "an address indicating the lifting of a ruling established by a previous address, without which it would remain in effect." Some later scholars understood this as complete cancellation. But the righteous predecessors did not always intend this. Ibn al-Qayyim clarified that the *salaf* used the words "abrogating" and "abrogated" sometimes to mean complete removal — the later technical sense — but often to mean the removal of a general or absolute meaning through specification, restriction, or clarification, even referring to exceptions and conditions as "abrogation." These partial forms came to be known as specification (*takhsis*), restriction (*taqyid*), explanation (*tafsir*), clarification (*tabyin*), exception (*istithna'*), and conditionality (*shart*). Ibn 'Aqilah al-Makki called specification and clarification a kind of "figurative abrogation," since the original ruling is not truly lifted but only limited. Hence the English word "abrogation" is often a poor rendering, for the Arabic may signify only a minor amendment. This distinction bears heavily on how the statements of early authorities are understood. Ibn Abbas, whom the Prophet ﷺ supplicated for saying, "O Allah, grant him knowledge of the Book," frequently used *naskh* in this partial, figurative sense. Al-Shatibi cited Makki that Ibn Abbas would call an exception "abrogation"; al-Sakhawi noted that Ibn Abbas referred to abrogation, specification, and exception all as "abrogation"; and al-Qurtubi affirmed that the predecessors intended specification by the word abrogation, figuratively. For example, al-Tabari records that Ibn Abbas said the verse "Do not enter houses other than your own houses" (24:27) was "abrogated" by the exception in "There is no blame upon you for entering houses not inhabited" (24:29) — plainly an exception for travelers, not a repeal. The failure to grasp this subtlety allowed later commentators, and today critics and uninformed Muslims, to invoke the authority of figures like Ibn Abbas for baseless claims. Al-Zarkashi criticized commentators who over-relied on the later technical meaning, insisting the truly abrogated verses are few, that the Qur'an is not abrogated by the Sunnah, and that much of what commentators imagine to be abrogated is in reality postponement, clarification, or specification, "and it is internally consistent." Other layers of debate — such as abrogation of the wording while the ruling remains (*naskh al-rasm wa baqa' al-hukm*) — lie beyond the present scope. What matters is that the definition in use helps ordinary Muslims act upon the Qur'an as Allah intended. The wisdom of abrogation is manifest, since scarcely any rule is without exception — hence the importance in Islamic legal theory of distinguishing the general (*'amm*) from the specific (*khass*). The objection that changing rules imply Allah changed His mind is answered by His words, "If We replace a verse in place of another verse, and Allah knows best what He reveals, they say: Indeed, he has forged it! No, rather most of them do not know." Al-Suyuti explained the replacement is "by its abrogation or revelation of another in the best interests of people," which the critics fail to grasp. The clearest example is the gradual prohibition of alcohol. Initially permissible, it was discouraged by "In both of them is great sin and some benefit for people, but the sin of them both is greater than the benefit" (2:219) — of which Ibn Kathir said, "By this verse, the way was prepared for the decisive unlawfulness of wine." Then came the partial prohibition, "Do not approach the prayer while you are intoxicated" (4:43), and finally the general prohibition, "wine, gambling... are the disgrace of the work of Satan, so stay away from them" (5:90). Mujahid said, "They were prohibited from praying while intoxicated, then it was abrogated by the forbiddance of wine." Upon its revelation the Prophet ﷺ declared wine forbidden, and Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported the people poured it into the streets. The prohibition extends to all intoxicants, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Every intoxicant is unlawful," the effective cause (*'illah*) being intoxication. Aisha explained the wisdom of gradualism: had the first revelation forbidden wine outright, the people would have refused. Umar ibn Abdul Aziz counselled his son not to be hasty, noting Allah censured wine twice before forbidding it, fearing that compelling people all at once would cause them to reject the truth all at once. This gradual method, and the historical failure of American Prohibition, illustrate that sudden withdrawal can produce greater harm. Ibn al-Qayyim stressed that a jurisconsult must understand people's circumstances, customs, and times, for "the judgment (*fatwa*) changes with a change in time, place, habits, and circumstances," and all of that is part of the religion of Allah. Regarding the alleged "verse of the sword" (*ayat al-sayf*) abrogating the peaceful verses, this claim collapses under scrutiny. Scholars such as Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas, Ibn al-Jawzi, and al-Suyuti accepted only about twenty genuine cases of abrogation, none involving the sword verses. The verse 9:5 must be read with its context: verses 9:6 through 9:13 make plain the "idolaters" are those who broke treaties and attacked first, that the aim is "that they might cease," and that any who seek protection are granted it. Early interpreters such as al-Dahhak, Sufyan, and al-Suddi even held that "kill the idolaters wherever you find them" was itself restricted by 47:4. The verse "Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight you, but do not transgress" (2:190) remained operative, Ibn Abbas explaining it forbids killing women, children, the elderly, and those who come in peace, and Umar ibn Abdul Aziz affirming the same. Ibn Taymiyyah declared this the position of the majority — Malik, Ahmad, and others — that unbelievers are fought only when they wage war, calling the abrogation claim weak, since "to claim abrogation requires proof." Likewise, "If they incline to peace, then incline to it as well" (8:61) is, per Ibn Kathir, neither invalidated nor abrogated, since the Prophet ﷺ acted upon it at al-Hudaybiyyah, and 60:8-9 remains operative, al-Tabari affirming its comprehensive application, supported by the report of Asma bint Abi Bakr whom the Prophet ﷺ commanded to treat well her polytheist mother. Shaykh Mahmoud Shaltut concluded that legislation built upon consideration of differing situations cannot be charged with contradiction; rather it is wise and precise. The peaceful verses express the default of peace and forgiveness, while the sword verses form exceptions for justice and defense — and where the early Muslims called the peaceful verses "abrogated," they meant only this partial sense. Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/pursuing-yaqeen-how-to-build-unshakeable-faith-and-trust-in-god-essay # Pursuing Yaqeen: How to Build Unshakeable Faith and Trust in God | Essay **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Analysis **Published:** December 23, 2023 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 ## The meaning of Yaqeen in Islam > And \[recall\] when Abraham said, “My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.” He said, “Do you not believe?” Abraham said, “Of course, I do, but just so my heart can be reassured.”[^1] The fortification of one’s faith should occupy the mind of every virtuous person throughout their lives. Why else would it be etched in the Qur’an until the end of time that even the great Prophet Ibrāhīm (as)—despite “of course, believing”—was determined to attain even greater heights of certainty, except that he feared his faith falling prey to satanic whispers, or being fractured under the hammers of hardship? Allah, the Almighty, says in His Noble Book, > And among humanity are those who worship Allah on the verge \[of faith\]; if some good reaches him, he is reassured by it; but if some trial befalls him, he turns his back \[on faith\]—losing out on this world and the hereafter. That is truly the clearest loss.[^2] Hence, humanity ultimately yields only two classes of people: those reassured by their faith, and those whose faith depends on being reassured. Put differently, people will either invest their lives in active pursuit of certainty like Ibrāhīm (as), or they will be haunted in this life and the afterlife by letting themselves sink into the swamps of doubt. A crystal-clear Qur’anic reality is that while Allah grants this world to those He loves and those He hates, He only grants conviction and certainty to those He loves. But like all treasures, conviction’s value is based on its rarity. Abū Bakr b. Abī Maryam narrates that the early scholars would say, “Nothing has descended to this earth in greater scarcity than certainty.”[^3] However, unlike the limited supply of the finite material world, certainty is available to every sincere seeker who makes the sacrifices needed to drink from its fountains and resist its erosion in their hearts. We find this sacred formula in the statement of the Prophet ﷺ, > The earliest of this nation will find strength in its austerity (*zuhd*) and certainty (*yaqīn*), and its last will face destruction in its stinginess (*bukhl*) and false hopes (*amal*).[^4] Notice the profound interplay between these respective pairs. The certainty of the early Muslims inspired their austerity, for it was their surety of Allah (*yaqīn*) that allowed them to resist clinging to worldly pleasures at all costs. Likewise, it was their indifference (*zuhd*) to this world that allowed them to sacrifice it for faith when necessary. On the other hand, the stinginess of many later Muslims is based on their false hopes, as it is their utopian fantasies (*amal*) about this life that lead to stinginess (*bukhl*) and an inability to sacrifice for God. It is that very stinginess that bars them from attaining greater certainty in their hearts. As uncomfortable a truth as it may be, the root cause behind the frail religious commitment of many later Muslims is the absence of adequate certainty in their hearts more so than the lack of Islamic knowledge in their minds. As Sufyān al-Thawrī (rA) once said, “If certainty were to land in the heart as it should, the hearts would take flight out of longing for Paradise and fearing the Hellfire.”[^5] Similarly, Luqmān the Wise (rA) once advised, “My dear son, the labor \[of faith\] cannot be shouldered except with certainty. Whoever’s certainty wavers, then his actions waver as well.” Similarly, we even find Allah (st) declaring this about the most fundamental acts of submission to Him, the daily prayers, > And seek help through patience and prayer, and it is indeed a burden except for the humble—those certain that they will meet their Lord and to Him they will return.[^6] So whenever the sacred knowledge of Revelation is taken lightly, and its imperatives are observed carelessly, this Qur’anic principle should reverberate in our minds. Highlighting the power of certainty as a driving force towards all good, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (rA) said, > Only through certainty was Paradise ever sought, and only through certainty was the Hellfire ever fled from, and only through certainty were \[proper\] intentions for the obligations made, and only through certainty was adhering to the truth endured. It is a profound favor \[of God\] to be spared of trials, for by Allah, everyone appeared comparable during ease, and then they were separated when the trial descended.[^7] The Prophet ﷺ would often appeal to Allah to be kept armored by an ironclad certainty that would make life’s inevitable blows bearable. In one famous supplication, he would say, > ...and \[grant us, O Allah\] a share of certainty (*yaqīn*) that would lighten for us the calamities of this world.[^8] Indeed, only with the sword of certainty can a person slay the phantoms of grief over the past and anxiety about the future, which paralyze countless souls who are plagued with doubt. Only a heart laced with certainty refuses to blame others for what Allah—in His perfect justice and wisdom—withholds, or risks angering Allah in order to please people, or over-depends on transient beings that were created from dust and will soon be reduced back to it. Only a person whose heart is liberated through certainty is not left stranded to understand life’s hardships solely in materialistic terms. Allah (st) says about the faithless, > They \[only\] know the apparent nature of this worldly life. As for the hereafter, they are with regards to it completely oblivious*.*[^9] As for the people of certainty, what they witness with their eyes and heart converge. They view this transient world through His promise that every pain of the believer here (in this life) will very soon mean pleasure there (in the afterlife). Their insight illustrates for them how they will be elevated for their patience, and how they are being cleansed through their ordeals, thereby enabling them to be content in the shade of their conviction. Finally, and most fundamentally, certainty in faith is a requirement for any good deed to be rewarded in the Hereafter, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I testify that none is worthy of worship but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; no servant meets Allah with these statements—not doubting them—except that he will enter Paradise.” In light of this, Bilāl ibn Sa‘d (rA) would say to people, > O servants of the Most Gracious, know that you are working these short days for truly long days, and in this perishing world for a permanent world, and in this realm of grief and exhaustion for a realm of bliss and immortality. But whoever will not act with certainty in that, let them not trouble themselves.[^10] Similarly, Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī (rA)—a companion of the Prophet ﷺ—said, > Oh, how remarkable is the sleeping of the intelligent and their eating, and how it surpasses the sleeplessness of the foolish and their fasting. A speck’s weight of righteousness from a person with piety (*taqwā*) and certainty (*yaqīn*) is superior to, heavier, and greater than a mountainload of worship from the deluded.[^11] By that, he was referring to both the validity and multiplied value of a good deed in relation to its doer’s degree of conviction. --- ## Three Steps to Certainty ### (1) Build faith by studying islam The sacrifice for certainty must often begin with a dedication to comprehend what makes Islam an objective truth, an undeniable reality, and the farthest thing from blind faith. Being familiar with the explanatory power of Islam, and its intellectual and moral greatness, is the first step for many people to experience the sweetness of faith firsthand. The Qur’an reminds us that the “clear truth” of Islam (among many other proofs) justifies confidence in God: > So put your trust in Allah, for you are certainly upon the clear truth.[^12] Nobody is above learning and relearning this, and hence some of the earliest scholars such as Khālid b. Maʿdān (rA) said, “Study certainty (*yaqīn*) just as you study the Qur’an, so that you can recognize it \[as truth\] for yourselves, for even I study it.” Even among the companions, we find Jundab b. ‘Abd Allāh (rA) saying, “We were strong youngsters alongside the Prophet ﷺ who learned faith before we learned the Qur’an. Then, we learned the Qur’an and were increased in faith by it.”[^13] Ibn Masʿūd (rA), another companion, added, “...and those after us will find it easy to memorize the Qur’an, and difficult to act upon it.”[^14] ### (2) Build faith by avoiding sinful acts The next sacrifice required on the path of certainty is to refrain from sinful acts. One of the dreadful effects of disobeying Allah is that each and every sin committed by a person causes spiritual damage to their heart. Since the heart is the locus of recognizing God on an experiential level, the glorification of God bleeds from every heart in proportion to the wounds it incurs at the hands of sinfulness. For this reason, Allah (st) invites us back to certainty by mending those wounds with repentance, and by reinfusing the heart with glorification anew: > So be patient, for the promise of Allah is certainly true, and seek forgiveness for your sins and glorify the praises of your Lord morning and evening.[^15] Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī (rA) was once asked, “How is being acquainted with God achieved?” He said, “Through obeying Him.”[^16] Note how he wisely linked knowing God to one’s pious conduct and not just their textual knowledge. In another report, when ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Zayd (rA) encountered a devout monk en route, he insisted to stop to benefit from his advice. The austere worshiper only said, “O ‘Abd al-Wāḥid, if certain knowledge (*‘ilm al-yaqīn*) is what you’re after, erect an iron wall between yourself and your worldly desires.”[^17] ### (3) Build faith by seeking righteous company The third sacrifice necessary for those serious about cementing their certainty is to minimize in their surroundings every factor that threatens it. Just as we must distance ourselves from atmospheres conducive to sinful behavior, we must also quarantine ourselves away from those infected with doubt. As Allah (st) said, > So be patient, for the promise of Allah is undoubtedly true. And do not let those without certainty cause you to waver in faith.[^18] Hence, there should be no ambiguity around the fact that unnecessarily socializing with doubters will gradually erode a believer’s certainty. And once that occurs, a person will not only falter in leading their lives with consistent strides towards Allah’s pleasure, but will also be disqualified from being a guiding light for their brethren in humanity. As Allah (st) said, > And We made from among them leaders, guiding by Our command, when they were patient and \[when\] they were certain of Our signs.[^19] It is from the mercy of Allah that religious leadership is not granted to those with flimsy faith, so that they do not sabotage the faith of others when they inevitably crumble. However, regardless of who lives as a leader, king, knight, or pawn, the “chess match” must someday end and all the players must be returned to the same “box”—the dark box about which the Prophet ﷺ said, > As for the believer (or: “the certain”), he will say, “That \[man you ask about\] was Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah. He came to us with clear proofs and guidance, so we accepted him and followed him.” It will be said to him, “Rest in comfort, we have verified that you had actual certainty.” As for the hypocrite (or: “the doubter”), he will say, “I don’t know. I heard the people saying something, so I said it as well.”[^20] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 2:260. [^2]: Qur’an 22:11. [^3]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *Kitāb al-yaqīn*, ed. Yāsīn Muḥammad al-Sawras (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir, 2004), 33. [^4]: Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, *Kitāb al-zuhd*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Salām Shāhīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1999), 12. [^5]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Maḥmūd b. Shaʿbān ʿabd al-Maqṣūd et al., (Medina: Maktabat al-Ghurabāʾ, 1996), 1:15; Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, ed. Shuʿayab al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1985), 7:260*.* [^6]: Qur’an 2:45–46. [^7]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *Kitab al-yaqīn*. [^8]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3502. [^9]: Qur’an 30:7. [^10]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *Kitāb al-yaqīn*. [^11]: Muḥammad Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *al-Fawāʾid*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAzīz Shams (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2019), 1:206. [^12]: Qur’an 27:79. [^13]: Ibn Māja, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Māja*, no. 61. [^14]: Muḥammad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. Aḥmad al-Bardūnī and Ibrāhīm Aṭfīsh (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1964), 1:40. [^15]: Qur’an 40:55. [^16]: Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Istinshāq nasīm al-uns min nafaḥāt riyāḍ al-quds* (N.p.: al-Fārūq al-Ḥadīthah lil-Ṭibāʿah wal-Nashr, 2004), 316, [https://shamela.ws/book/151144/27](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/151144/27&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1703293255559539&usg=AOvVaw12aHcoH52hHW8XHMVq3K8a). [^17]: ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *Kitāb al-zuhd* (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1999), 80. [^18]: Qur’an 30:60. [^19]: Qur’an 32:24. [^20]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1338; Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2870. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-gaza-important-honoring-a-land-of-ribat-essay # Why is Gaza Important? Honoring a Land of Ribat | Essay **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** December 11, 2023 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 Gaza and its people hold a unique place in our hearts, but what is the origin of their esteemed status? Whether in honoring the Prophet’s lineage or serving as a strategic stronghold for the defense of Muslim lands, Gaza boasts a history steeped in nobility, virtue, and honor. --- ## Honoring a noble lineage Gaza has been the resting place for many noble figures throughout history. Among them are two individuals who share a lineage with our beloved Prophet ﷺ. In a challenging year during 5th-century Arabia, Mecca faced severe food shortages. Responding to the crisis, ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Manāf, a respected Quraysh leader responsible for providing food and water to pilgrims and the grandfather of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, undertook a remarkable initiative. He traveled to the Levant (*al-Shām*), which comprises areas in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, spending all his wealth to purchase baked cakes, which he then crumbled (*hashama*) to make a nourishing broth (*tharīd*) for the pilgrims. Being the first to feed Meccans *tharīd,* this selfless act earned him the title ‘Hāshim,’ the one who crumbles or breaks. In addition to addressing the food shortage, Hāshim enhanced the water supply by digging multiple wells, implemented a foster-care system in which wealthy families fostered the less fortunate, and introduced a system of two annual trade journeys to al-Shāam in the summer and Yemen in the winter—the Qur’an (106:1-5) documents these trade journeys, underscoring their role in providing provision and security to Meccan society. Predating the advent of Islam, Hāshim’s dedication to preserving human life and fostering social solidarity left a lasting legacy. Whilst returning from a journey to *al-Shām*, Hāshim passed away in Gaza and was buried there. This marked the inception of the region’s esteemed status, with Gaza playing a pivotal role as a hub for Arab trade expeditions. Residents of the Arabian peninsula, including some of Hāshim’s relatives from the Banū ʿAmr ibn Kinānah tribe, were drawn to settle in Gaza, given its strategic location within that trade hub. During the 8th century, in the Zeitoun district of Gaza, a noble descendant of Ḥāshim was born: the esteemed scholar and founder of the Shāfiʿī school of thought, Imām al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820). The place of al-Shāfiʿī’s birth later transformed into an interdisciplinary school that, despite enduring challenges, today persists as a Qur’anic institution, intellectual hub, and library. In this vein, Gaza has continued to honor the Prophet’s ﷺ lineage, becoming known among Muslims as Gaza-Hāshim. --- ## A virtuous land and people According to many exegetes, *al-Shām* is mentioned five times in the Qur’an, identified as “the land which We blessed.” These references include the relocation of the Children of Israel to *al-Shām* (7:137), the location of the Prophet Muhammad's night journey (*isrāʾ*) to Jerusalem (17:1), Prophet Ibrahim’s migration to it (21:70-71), Prophet Solomon’s kingdom (21:81), and the blessed lands made accessible to the people of Sheba (34:18). Additionally, the sacred Mount Sinai, by which Allah took an oath in the Qur’an (95:1), is located in *al-Shām*. Moreover, *al-Shām* is identified by several scholars as the land of gathering (*ḥashr*) at the end of time. Numerous prophetic traditions also extol the virtues of the *al-Shām* region and its inhabitants. Across Islamic history, various collections of hadith have been dedicated to compiling reports on the merits of *al-Shām* in general, and Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque in particular. The Prophet ﷺ also extolled the virtues of *al-Shām*, affirming, “Certainly, the home of the believers is *al-Shām*.”[^1] However, this esteemed status is accompanied by enduring trials, a reality persisting to this day. Moreover, the Prophet ﷺ was reported to have said, “While I was sleeping, I saw the pillar of the Book \[a reference to Islam\] being lifted from beneath my head, and I thought it was being taken away from me, so I followed it with my gaze. It was then placed in *al-Shām*. Indeed, faith is situated when tumults occur in *al-Shām*.”[^2] Additionally, *al-Shām* plays a pivotal role as the prophesied location for significant events at the end of time, including the descent of Prophet Jesus (AS) and the demise of al-Dajjāl, as indicated in several hadiths. --- ## Safeguarding Muslim land and honor Throughout human history, control over the lands of *al-Shām* have frequently passed from the hands of one group to another. The strategic, geographic location of *al-Shām* at the crossroads of three continents by land and two continents by sea have made it uniquely prone to conquests by competing empires. Despite its vulnerability to incursions from outside powers, *al-Shām* also represents a powerful gateway—one that can either stop the forces of evil from spreading to other lands, or one that can open the way for the forces of good to expand further. The Prophet ﷺ foresaw many of these dynamics, emphasizing the continual role that the people of *al-Shām* (including those of Gaza and Palestine as a whole) would play in fighting for the sake of God (*jihād*), defending Muslim lands against invaders, and grappling with internal conflicts. The Prophet’s companion, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ḥawālah, narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, > The matter will come to the point where you will be enlisted as soldiers: a group in *al-Shām*, a group in Yemen, and a group in Iraq. Ibn Ḥawālah said, “Advise me, O Messenger of Allah, if I live to see that.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Choose *al-Shām*, for it is the chosen land of Allah, where He selects the best of His servants. But if you refuse, then choose Yemen, and drink from your own basins. Indeed, Allah has guaranteed me *al-Shām* and its people.”[^3] After narrating this hadith, the eminent Successor (sing. *tābiʿī* pl. *tābiʿīn*) and the Damascan Judge Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī (d. 80/699) used to remark, “Whomsoever God takes care of, they will not be lost.” A selection of hadiths also extol Ashkelon (ʿAsqalān), a city now located 13 kilometers north of the border with the Gaza Strip. Such hadiths commend the city for being dedicated to defending Muslim lands, an endeavor known as *ribāṭ*. This Qur’anic term has garnered various contextual and interdisciplinary interpretations, but in this context, it has evolved over time to signify diverse military and/or religious establishments designed to defend Muslim territories. Such establishments were situated in perilous regions, on frontiers, along coasts, or on challenging internal routes. The Prophet ﷺ was reported to have said, > The beginning of this affair is prophethood and mercy, then it will be caliphate and mercy, then it will be kingship and mercy, then it will be rulership and mercy, and then it will turn into biting like the bite of a predatory animal. So, upon you is *jihād*, and indeed, the best of your *jihād* is *ribāṭ*, and the best of your *ribāṭ* is in Ashkelon.[^4] Due to the close proximity of Ashkelon to Gaza, some Muslim geographers considered Gaza to be a part of it. Although al-Shāfiʿī is commonly believed to have been born in Gaza, as mentioned earlier, some biographical dictionaries also present an alternate view that he was born in Ashkelon. Acknowledging both perspectives, the eminent Shāfiʿī jurist al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) remarked, “Both are part of the sacred lands that Allah has blessed, being approximately 80 km away (*marḥalatayn*) from Jerusalem.”[^5] This association between Ashkelon and Gaza led them to share the same virtue of *ribāṭ*. The dedication to *ribāṭ* by the people of Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, including Gaza, was also emphasized by the Prophet ﷺ in the following hadith, > There will always be a group from my *ummah* manifestly upon the truth, not being harmed by those who forsake them, until the command of Allah comes while they are in that state.[^6] Another rendition of the hadith includes the companions asking the Prophet ﷺ, “O Messenger of Allah, where are they?” To which he replied, “In Jerusalem and its surroundings.”[^7] Though some hadith experts doubt its authenticity, reports attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, his Companions, and the Successors affirm the existence of this group in *al-Shām*. It’s important to note that Muslim scholars did not attribute the virtuous status of these *ribāṭ* locations to inherent characteristics of the land or its inhabitants. Instead, they associated the virtue specifically with the ongoing activities of *ribāṭ* in these areas. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) clarified the origin of this virtue as follows, > The majority of the common themes found in the writings of early scholars regarding the virtues of Ashkelon, Alexandria, Acre, Qazvin, and others, as well as the reports about righteous individuals associated with these locations, assert that the virtue is attributed to these places being frontiers, not due to any specific quality inherent to the locations themselves. The categorization of a place as a frontier for Muslims or otherwise is seen as a circumstantial characteristic, not an intrinsic one. It is comparable to a zone of war or peace, a center of knowledge and faith or ignorance and hypocrisy—factors that vary based on the residents and their characteristics.[^8] As such, many righteous Muslims and scholars intentionally selected these specific locations as their places of residence to secure the promised reward of safeguarding the Muslim lands. Among those who relocated to Ashkelon for the sake of *ribāṭ* were the Companion Abū Rayḥānah al-Azdī and the great-grandson of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿUmar ibn Mūḥammad ibn Zayd ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, who died there during his *ribāṭ*, earning the appellation ʿAsqalānī. Furthermore, the *tābiʿī* and Mecca’s mufti ʿAṭāʾ ibn Rabāḥ (d. 114/732) devoted 40 days annually to *ribāṭ* in Ashkelon. Similarly, the renowned Kufan *tābiʿī* Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778) engaged in *ribāṭ* on the Ashkelon coast for a period of 40 days. The aim of *ribāṭ* is to safeguard Muslim lands and honor. Al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870) titled one of the chapters in his collection “A Chapter on the Merit of Performing *Ribāṭ* for One Day for the Sake of Allah and on Allah’s Saying, ‘You who believe, preserve, endure, and be ready (*rābiṭū*).’” In his esteemed commentary, the hadith expert Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449), associated with his hometown Ashkelon, asserted that commencing this topic with this verse aligns with the interpretations of the early exegetes (*salaf*). He then referenced several *tābiʿīn*  who interpreted the verse as a call to persevere in obedience to God, endure the hardships of fighting enemies, and be prepared to repel any attack. Whether through its connection to the lineage of the Prophet ﷺ, being chosen by Allah, or being honored as a location of *ribāṭ*, Gaza’s special status is firmly entrenched in our Islamic teachings and history. --- ## Notes [^1]: Aḥmad, *al-Musnad*, no. 16965. [^2]: Al-Ḥākim, *al-Mustadrak*, no. 8601. [^3]: S*unan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 2483 *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17004. [^4]: Al-Tabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 11138. [^5]: Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-muhadhdhab lil-Shīrāzī*, ed. Najīb al-Muṭīʿī, 23 vols. (Jeddah: Maktabat al-Irshād, 1980), 1:24. [^6]: Muslim, no. 1920. [^7]: Aḥmad, al-Musnad, no. 22320. [^8]: Aḥmad ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, eds. ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn Qāsim and Muḥammad ibn Qāsim, 37 vols., (Medina: Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2004), 27:53-4. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-first-codex-abu-bakrs-compilation-of-the-quran # The First Codex: Abu Bakr's Compilation of the Qur’an **Authors:** Ammar Khatib, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 11, 2023 **Updated:** September 8, 2026 ## Introduction How exactly did the Qur’an come to be preserved in writing? The Islamic tradition provides a considerably detailed narrative of the Qur’an’s textual preservation. The Qur’an was written down by scribes during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ on various materials. It was the first caliph of Islam, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (rA, d. 13/634, r. 11-13/632-634) who compiled the earliest complete official codex of the Qur’an, according to the traditional narrative found in canonical hadith sources.[^1] Despite this, for a variety of reasons, the compilation of Abū Bakr remains understudied as considerably greater academic attention has been paid to the codices assembled by the third caliph, ʿUthmān b. ibn ʿAffān (rA, d. 35/656, r. 23-35/644-656). Yet, Abū Bakr’s compilation was a major event in the history of the Qur’an’s preservation. It brought together all the written fragments on which the Qur’an was previously written during the Prophet’s lifetime in order to produce a single official unified compilation. The present article analyzes what the hadith literature and historical sources tell us about the nature of this compilation, the reasons and circumstances that led to it, the process by which it was compiled, and some of the scholarly differences of opinion concerning it. Through examining these narratives, a clear picture emerges as to the precision and meticulous detail with which the Qur’an has been preserved. The initial challenge confronting researchers is that there is considerably more information available for the codices compiled by the third Muslim Caliph, ʿUthmān,  in comparison to Abū Bakr’s compilation. For the ʿUthmānic codices, a list has been recorded in the Islamic tradition of approximately forty total differences between the codices and this can be correlated precisely with the surviving material evidence in the form of Qur’anic manuscripts.[^2] With respect to the compilation of Abū Bakr, there was only a single codex and no reports concerning variant readings. There are no data that can be used to analyze manuscripts in relation to Abū Bakr’s compilation. The task of a historian interested in Abū Bakr’s compilation is therefore largely confined to analyzing the content of narrations recorded in the works of hadith, Qur’anic sciences, and Islamic history, as well as the discussions of Muslim scholars. Nonetheless, the historicity of Abū Bakr’s compilation may also be argued for on the basis of considerations beyond these literary sources. Given the Qur’an’s centrality in the spreading and teaching of Islam, it would be highly improbable for Muslims to forgo having any official written copy of the Qur’an during the reigns of Abū Bakr (r. 11-13/632-634) and ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (rA, d. 24/644, r. 13-24/634-644).[^3] Given that congregational night prayers in Ramadan became organized and regularly practiced under the reign of ʿUmar, the presence of an authoritative written copy of the Qur’an could potentially be viewed as a prerequisite. Moreover, the efficiency with which the ʿUthmānic codices were produced with minimal variation and rapidly disseminated throughout the Muslim world is better accounted for if the companions were already familiar with the process of producing a codex, having undertaken the process during Abū Bakr’s reign. That the ʿUthmānic codex was based upon, or verified with, Abū Bakr’s codex would also boost its authority, one of many factors in its widespread acceptance. Taken collectively, the historical factors lend credence to the account presented in the Islamic literary sources concerning the historicity of Abū Bakr’s compilation, as shall be detailed below. In addition to the canonical hadith literature, there are quite a few additional historical sources at our disposal that mention Abū Bakr’s compilation. These include Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām (d. 224/838), Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845),[^4] al-Fasawī (d. 277/890),[^5] al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 284/897),[^6] Baḥshal (d. 292/905),[^7] and Ibn Abī Dāwūd (d.316/928),[^8] in addition to numerous authorities from later centuries. While individual historical reports must be treated with caution, elements that are attested across sources can be taken with greater confidence. These sources collectively provide details that corroborate and elaborate on the accounts found in the primary hadith literature. Harald Motzki has noted that most Western academics do not accept the historicity of Abū Bakr’s compilation because of skepticism concerning the details of such accounts.[^9] However, on closer scrutiny many of these objections appear unfounded. Rather, a close reading of the Islamic sources alongside the elaborations provided by Muslim scholars allows one to reconstruct a coherent account that resolves the perceived discrepancies. These objections will be discussed under the circumstances preceding the compilation. Moreover, reports transmitted from Ibn Shihāb al-Zuḥrī (d. 124/742) which provide a detailed account of Abū Bakr’s compilation were shown by Motzki to reliably date back to the first Islamic century using an *isnād-cum-matn* analysis.[^10] He concludes that claims in Western scholarship that the compilation of Abū Bakr was a later fabrication can therefore be dismissed as untenable. Furthermore, a  review of hadith reports on the subject demonstrates that, in addition to the famous account from Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī–ʿUbayd b. Sabbāq–Zayd b. Thābit, narrations on Abū Bakr’s compilation have also been transmitted through independent chains, including Ibn Abī al-Zinād–Hishām b. ʿUrwah–ʿUrwah b. al-Zubayr and al-Suddī–ʿAbd Khayr–ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (rA), among others.[^11] The contents of these accounts and reports will be analyzed below. Given the existence of mutually corroborating independent reliable chains of transmission for reports that describe Abū Bakr’s compilation, as well as the ability to reconcile any perceived discrepancies between such reports, the historicity of Abū Bakr’s compilation can be confidently established. --- ## Reports indicating it was the first codex A number of sources have compiled the narrations concerning the first compilation of the Qur’an under the supervision of Abū Bakr (rA).[^12] However, there are also narrations that suggest other companions possessed personal codices of the Qur’an, which they wrote during the life of the Prophet (ﷺ).[^13] This therefore requires some explanation. The famous account by Zayd b. Thābit (rA, d. 45/665) related in *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*  describing his involvement in Abū Bakr’s compilation indicates that Abū Bakr was taking on a task that had not been previously undertaken during the Prophet’s time.[^14] In this narration, when the idea is suggested to him, Abū Bakr asks, “How can you do something that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not do?” If such a compilation had already been undertaken by other companions during the Prophet’s life, then Abū Bakr’s question would not make sense.[^15] It is also narrated from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (rA, d. 40/661, r. 35-40/656–661), “May God have mercy upon Abū Bakr. He was the first to gather the Qur’an between two covers (*huwa awwal man jamaʿa al-Qurʾān bayna al-lawḥayn*).”[^16] The authenticity of this report was deemed reliable by Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) and Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1449), among others.[^17] A similar report records the statement from ʿAlī as, “The greatest of people in terms of reward for their service to the complete codices (sing. *muṣḥaf*) is Abū Bakr, for he was the first to gather it between two covers.”[^18] The early Islamic scholar al-Layth b. Saʿd (d. 175/791) also said, “The first to compile the Qur’an was Abū Bakr and Zayd transcribed it. The people would come to Zayd b. Thābit and he would not write a single verse except with two witnesses.”[^19] There are some narrations, however, that state that the first to compile the Qur’an was other than Abū Bakr. One report states that ʾAlī b. Abī Ṭālib was the first to collect the Qur’an, immediately after the passing of the Prophet (ﷺ).[^20] Another report states that after the events of the Battle of al-Yamāma 11/632, ʿUmar (rA) was the first to compile the Qur’an.[^21] Yet another report states that Sālim (rA, d. 12/633), the tribal client (*mawlā*) of Abū Ḥudhayfa (rA), was the first to compile the Qur’an.[^22] These reports do not possess reliable chains of transmission.[^23] However, it is important to note that there were many companions, like Ibn Masʿūd (rA, d. 32/652-53),[^24] the Prophet’s wife ʿĀʾisha (rA, d. 58/678),[^25] and Ubayy b. Kaʿb (rA, d. 21/642), who had personal codices in which they had written some of the Qur’anic chapters (sing. *sūrah*) they had learned during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. Abū Shahbah, for instance, notes that even if the reports concerning ʿAlī’s compilation are taken as authentic, this would simply entail that he wrote a personal copy of the Qur’an (whether complete or partial), which does not carry the same reliability and authority as Abū Bakr’s compilation which enjoyed unanimous consensus (*ijmāʿ*) and was compiled through an official and public process.[^26] Moreover, if personal copies were written down during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, the sequence of chapters may have been chronological, unlike the ʿUthmānic order. They may also have included abrogated verses, in addition to personal notes regarding abrogation as well as exegesis (*tafsīr*). Therefore, Abū Bakr’s effort was a landmark event in preparing the first official copy of the Qur’an. --- ## The circumstances preceding the compilation Although the Qur’an had been written down by many scribes during the lifetime of the Prophet,[^27] a complete compilation had not yet been assembled when he ﷺ passed away in 11 AH/632 CE. This has been stated by none other than the Prophet’s chief scribe, Zayd b. Thābit (rA), who also played a central role in both Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān’s compilations. Zayd said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away and the Qur’an was not yet collected. It was written on palm branches, trunks, stalks, and leaves.”[^28] In other narrations, there is evidence that the compiling of verses within chapters did take place at the instruction of the Prophet ﷺ. Zayd said, “We were with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) compiling the Qur’an from parchment.”[^29] Al-Bayhaqī (d. 458/1066) commented, “This seems to mean that he intended by this the compilation of what was revealed from the book, the verses scattered in its chapters, and collecting them together based on instruction from the Prophet.”[^30] Gregor Schoeler notes that the narrations suggest that the majority of the Qur’an had already been compiled into sheets of parchment while it was likely the later revelations just before the Prophet ﷺ passed away that remained on scattered materials. Schoeler writes: > \[T\]he traditional reports about the state of the Qurʾan at the time of the Prophet’s death are not unbelievable if one assumes that part of it—perhaps the greater part of it—had already been written down on sheets of the same format and material, while another, and possibly smaller, part had not yet been committed to writing in this form. This latter part, perhaps consisting of the more recent revelations, may have been written on disparate materials and not yet been transferred to sheets of the same format.[^31] Muhammad Muṣṭafā al-Azami explains that the continuous nature of Divine revelation during the Prophetic period precluded transforming the loose fragments of writing into a single volume until after the Prophet ﷺ passed away. He writes: > Setting up a master volume might have proved challenging; any divine *naskh* (نسخ; abrogation) revealed subsequently, affecting the legal provisions or wordings of certain verses, would have required proper inclusion. And a loose page format greatly simplified the insertion of new verses and new suras, for the revelations did not cease until a short time before the Prophet’s death. But with his death the \[revelation\] *waḥy* ended forever: there would be no more verses, abrogations or rearrangements, so that the situation lent itself perfectly for the compilation of the Qur’an into a single unified volume.[^32] When Abū Bakr assumed leadership of the fledgling Muslim state after the Prophet ﷺ passed away, he was immediately confronted with political turmoil in the form of secession, apostasy, multiple rebellions, and fierce battles. One of the most significant battles was the Battle of Yamāma, in which the Muslims fought against the self-proclaimed prophet Musaylima b. Ḥabīb (d. 11/632), or Musaylima the Liar. The early historian Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ al-ʿUṣfurī (d. 240/854) records from Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib (d. 97/715) that the total number of Muslims martyred in the battle was 500, of which 30 or 50 were *ḥamalat al-Qurʾān* (lit. carriers of the Qur’an), a designation typically used for those who had memorized the Qur’an.[^33] For more information on this designation, refer to the section on “the memorizers of the Qur’an among the companions” in [How the Qur’an was Preserved During the Prophet’s Time](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/how-the-quran-was-preserved-during-the-prophets-time-mechanisms-of-oral-and-written-transmission&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1702320800858919&usg=AOvVaw3SV33h0pIE0etUxfthrhBh). Note that Ibn Kathīr says instead that approximately *500 reciters of the Qur’an* (*qurrāʾ*) were martyred that day,[^34] which likely represents a conflation of the two numbers mentioned by Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib, unless Ibn Kathīr was using the term ‘reciter’ generically for every Muslim martyred. We find among those martyred in Yamāma none other than Sālim (rA), the tribal client (*mawlā*) of Abū Ḥudhayfa.[^35] Sālim was a prolific teacher of the Qur’an, and one of four individuals from whom the Prophet ﷺ specially instructed people to learn the Qur’an (the others were ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd (rA), Muʿādh b. Jabal (rA, d. 18/639), and Ubayy b. Kaʿb (rA, d. 29/649).[^36] Moreover, Sālim used to lead the prayers for the earliest Muslim migrants to Medina from Mecca (*muhājirūn*) in a location close to Qubāʾ.[^37] According to the report of Zayd b. Thābit, the martyrdom of many Qur’an reciters during the battle of Yamāma was the direct reason for the compilation of the Qur’an, as suggested by ʿUmar to the caliph Abū Bakr. ʿUmar said, “Indeed a large number of reciters (*qurrāʾ*) have been killed on the Day of Yamāma, and I fear that more reciters will be killed on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur’an may be lost (*fayadhhab kathīrun min al-Qurʾān*). Therefore, I am of the opinion that you should order that the Qur’an be compiled.”[^38] This narration appears to comport well with the aforementioned reports that the Qur’an was mostly transcribed on scattered fragments at the time, which adds to the weight and urgency of ʿUmar’s request. Although the entire Qur’an had been written in the Prophetic era,[^39] the written fragments had not yet been formally compiled into an official codex. Since a large number of the Qur’an reciters had been martyred, ʿUmar’s concern was directly related to ensuring the textual preservation of the Qur’an. Hadith master and exegete, al-Baghawī (d. 516/1122) comments, “They were afraid that some of it \[i.e., the Qur’an\] would be lost with the deaths of those who had memorized it, so they rushed to the ‘Successor of Allah’s Messenger’ ﷺ (i.e., Abū Bakr), and asked him to collect it. He agreed with their opinion, so he ordered its collection in one place.”[^40] Ibn Kathīr writes similarly.[^41] One could ask why the companions would devote so much effort to preserving the Qur’an after Allah had promised to preserve it. Muslim scholars viewed the companions’ efforts as an instrument of the Divine Will to fulfill the promise of the Qur’an’s preservation. Al-Wāḥidī (d. 468/1076) wrote: > If it is asked: “Why were the Companions preoccupied with collecting the Qur’an in *ṣuḥuf* (parchment sheets), when Allah already promised to preserve it, given that one need not fear (losing) what Allah has preserved?” > The response is as follows: Their collection of the Qur'an was one of the means by which Allah preserved it. When He intended to preserve it, He appointed them for this purpose. Ibn al-Anbārī said: They wanted to facilitate learning the Qur’an for people and make it accessible through what they did, so that it would be easy for anyone who wanted to memorize it and read it when they saw it collected in a scroll. Even if they had not done what they did, it would not have been lost, as Allah guaranteed its preservation.[^42] It is also worth noting that some scholars interpreted ʿUmar’s statement differently. Al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013) offers an interpretation that suggests that the textual preservation of the Qur’an was not what ʿUmar believed to be at stake. Al-Bāqillānī writes: > It is possible that what was meant by this is that they (i.e., those who were martyred) used to study the Qur’an extensively, recite it, and perform night prayers (*tahajjud*) with it. So, ‘what would be lost from the Qur’an’ from what they possessed is interpreted to mean that most of the Qur’an’s study and recitation would be lost, along with the abandonment of its recitation in night prayers and supplication. And this is what was intended.[^43] Al-Bāqillānī argued that since many senior companions were alive, there was no basis to fear that the Qur’an could be lost. However, if we examine ʿUmar’s statement closely, we note that ʿUmar did not only reference the Battle of Yamāma but also expressed concern that future battles would result in similar casualties among the reciters of the Qur’an. Therefore, it remains entirely plausible that ʿUmar would raise such a concern to ensure the textual preservation of the Qur’an. A number of Western scholars, including Theodor Nöldeke, Richard Bell, and William Montgomery Watt, also raise some contentions against the idea that the martyrdom of Qur’anic reciters in Yamāma was a motivation for compiling the Qur’an.[^44] They cite an argument from Leone Catani that the names of those who died in the battle of Yamāma largely included new Muslims and the number of those who knew the Qur’an by heart was too few to have been cause for alarm.[^45] Certainly, this argument is readily reconcilable with al-Bāqillānī’s interpretation of ʿUmar’s statement discussed above. A significant number of casualties of any Muslims could motivate the concern that there would be fewer adherents of Islam to devote themselves to the study of the Qur’an. Therefore, investing the community’s efforts in collectively assembling a codex of the Qur’an would certainly reinvigorate study and recitation of the sacred text. But aside from al-Bāqillāni’s interpretation, it is not clear that Catani’s argument undermines even the conventional interpretation of ʿUmar’s statement. We know that a Qur’anic teacher as prolific as Sālim (rA) was among the martyrs in the battle. His loss alone would have certainly impacted the companions at a time when Qur’an teachers were direly needed to educate the large numbers of tribes that had newly embraced Islam. Other Qur’an teachers who were martyred in the battle may simply not have been recorded by name. There is precedent for this in the massacre of the ‘well of  Maʿūna’ that took place in 4/625 during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, where seventy companions from the Medinan Helpers (*anṣār*) were martyred.[^46] The companions martyred in the incident are left unnamed and are simply described as Qur’an reciters. Moreover, ʿUmar’s concern was realized with the deaths of those who had memorized any significant portion of the Qur’an, not only those who had memorized the Qur’an in its entirety. Ibn Ḥajar for instance mentions that “it could mean that they had collectively memorized the Qur’an, not that every individual had memorized it in its entirety.”[^47] Secondly, Noldeke et al. argue that since the compilation involved gathering materials that had already been written down, there was no way that this could have been jeopardized by the death of any number of reciters of the Qur’an. However, this is overly simplistic. While it is true that the death of those who have memorized the Qur’an does not cause written copies of the Qur’an to vanish, it does increase the importance of those written copies for the continued memorization and teaching of the sacred text, and therefore requires that they be consolidated into a unified text. After all, the fragments on which the Qur’an was written could have been lost or damaged. On the basis of these considerations, there is consequently no reason to doubt the traditional narrative concerning the motivation of Abū Bakr’s compilation. Based on this narrative, the compilation of Abū Bakr can be plausibly dated to 12/633, between the Battle of Yamāma in 11/632 and prior to his death in 13/634.[^48] --- ## The process and method of compiling the Qur’an Zayd b. Thābit (rA) was chosen by Abū Bakr (rA) to lead the task of compiling the Qur’anic text. At the time when he was selected for this task, he would have been 22 years old, given that he was 11 years old at the time of the Prophet’s migration.[^49] Abū Bakr himself gave the reasons for selecting Zayd when he said, “You are a wise young man (*shābun ʿāqilun*), we have no aspersions against you (*lā nattahimuk*), and you used to write down the revelation for the Messenger of Allah.”[^50] Ibn Ḥajar comments: > He mentioned four qualities about him which detailed his unique suitability for the task: being young so that he would have the energy for what was demanded of him, being intelligent so he would be more cognizant in his approach, being beyond reproach so that others could trust him, and having been a scribe of revelation, so he possessed the requisite experience. These qualities that he possessed could also be found in others but separately (rather than combined in one person).[^51] Although not explicitly mentioned by Abū Bakr, there are two other qualities that scholars have often added to Zayd’s credentials. The first is that Zayd himself had memorized the entire Qur’an by heart, as mentioned by Abū Bakr b. al-Anbārī (d. 328/940).[^52] This is unsurprising given his role as the foremost scribe of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. A second credential that is often mentioned by scholars is that Zayd witnessed the “final review” (*al-ʿarḍa al-akhīra*) between the Prophet ﷺ and the Angel Jibrīl (as).[^53] The Prophet ﷺ used to review the entire Qur’an annually with Jibrīl in the month of Ramadan and during the last year of his life, the Prophet ﷺ completed the review with Jibrīl twice.[^54] Al-Baghawī states: > It is said that Zayd b. Thābit attended the final review in which it was clarified what was abrogated and what remained. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said, “Zayd recited the Qur’an twice to the Prophet ﷺ during the year in which he passed away, and this recitation is called the reading (*qirāʾa*) of Zayd because he transcribed it for the Prophet ﷺ  and recited it to him and witnessed *al-ʿarḍa al-akhīra*, and he taught its recitation to people until he passed away. That is why Abū Bakr and ʿUmar relied upon him in its compilation and ʿUthmān appointed him in charge of writing the *muṣḥaf*s—may God be pleased with them all.”[^55] Aside from the statement of al-Sulamī (d. 74/693), there are in fact no reports corroborating that Zayd attended the final review.[^56] Qur’anic philologist, Abū Jaʿfar al-Naḥḥās (d. 338/950), simply said that the reading of Zayd was the one confirmed in the final review.[^57] Similarly, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) said, “And the final review is the *qirāʾah* of Zayd b. Thābit and others, and it is the one that the rightly-guided caliphs—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī—instructed to be written in the *maṣāḥif*.”[^58] On the other hand, we have reports from Ibn ʿAbbās (rA) (d. 68/687) indicating that it was in fact ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd (rA) who attended the final review,[^59] which he mentioned to explain why Ibn Masʿūd’s reading differed from the ʿUthmānic codex and the reading of Zayd. Al-Ṭāsān dismisses Ibn ʿAbbās’ report as inauthentic for several reasons. However, he suggests that, even if one were to assume the report was authentically transmitted, it was simply a confusion on the part of Ibn ʿAbbās.[^60] Nonetheless, the relevance of the “final review” was never mentioned by the companions during the compilation process of Abū Bakr nor of ʿUthmān. Moreover, given that there is no definite and clear evidence to confirm the claim that Zayd attended the final review, mentioning it as a credential is speculative at best. With respect to the process by which Zayd gathered the Qur’an, the evidence indicates that he undertook a stringent process that utilized both written materials in addition to memorization of the text. He said, “I gathered it from the bark of palm trees, thin white stones, and the men who knew it by heart.”[^61] During the process of compiling the Qur’an, Zayd famously sought corroboration from two witnesses for each verse. As cited earlier, al-Layth b. Saʿd said, “The first to compile the Qur’an was Abū Bakr and Zayd transcribed it. The people would come to Zayd b. Thābit and he would not write a single verse except with two witnesses.”[^62] Zayd did not transcribe verses from memory despite the fact that he and other companions had memorized them. Nor did he simply transcribe the Qur’an from existing written copies. Rather, he followed a meticulous process to ensure that the transcription of every verse was backed by both direct written testimony and memory. ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (d. 643/1245) explained that the requirement for ‘two witnesses’ meant two people who possessed it in writing and could testify to having written down the verse from the Prophet ﷺ precisely as they had learned it.[^63] This interpretation is favored by the majority of Muslim scholars.[^64] Another interpretation mentioned by Ibn Ḥajar takes the “two witnesses” as meaning “memory” and “writing.”[^65] While it is certainly true that both memory and writing were involved, the evidence does suggest that the meaning of two witnesses was two individuals who had learned the verses directly from the Prophet ﷺ. This is particularly confirmed by the story of Abū Khuzayma (rA) discussed below. Thus, the compilation process for each verse in the Qur’an was backed by the combined attestation of written materials, memorization, and direct testimony. --- ## The story of a missing verse During the compilation of Abū Bakr (rA), while seeking two witnesses for each passage, Zayd b. Thābit (rA) came across a passage for which he found only one witness. Zayd reports, “Abū Bakr sent for me, so I collected the Qur’an until I found the last part of *Sūrah al-Tawba* (verses 9:128–129) with Abū Khuzayma al-Anṣārī (d. 37/657) and did not find it with anybody else.”[^66] This narration, found in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, explicitly notes that this took place during the first compilation, and that the witness was Abū Khuzayma (rA). Again, one must clarify that this does not mean that Abū Khuzayma was the only one who knew this verse, as all the companions who had memorized the Qur’an knew it. However, they were seeking a witness who had documented the verse in the presence of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).[^67] The very reason they knew exactly which verse was missing was because they had memorized it. Another narration, also from Zayd b. Thābit and related in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, mentions the same incident but with the name Khuzayma al-Anṣarī (rA): > So I started locating Qur’anic material and collecting it from parchments, scapulae, leaf-stalks of date palms, and from the memories of men \[who knew it by heart\]. I found with Khuzayma al-Anṣārī two verses of *Sūrah al-Tawba* that I had not found with anybody else \[he cites Qur’an 9:128–129\].[^68] Such a minor difference in the name (Abū Khuzayma vs Khuzayma) would typically not raise any questions, except that we have a third narration, also in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, about an identical incident involving a different verse with Khuzayma. > When we wrote the Holy Qur’an, I missed one of the verses of *Sūrah* *al-Aḥzāb* which I used to hear Allah’s Messenger ﷺ reciting. Then we searched for it and found it with Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī. The verse was “Among the Believers are men who have been true to their Covenant with Allah, Of them, some have fulfilled their obligations to Allah \[i.e., they have been killed in Allah’s cause\], And some of them are \[still\] waiting.” \[33:23\] So we wrote this in its place in the Qur’an.[^69] Notice that this narration does not explicitly mention whether this occurred during Abū Bakr’s or ʿUthmān’s compilation.[^70] In another narration, Zayd states “I compiled the written materials into codices” (*nasakhtu al-ṣuḥuf fī al-maṣāḥif*), which implies it was during the ʿUthmānic project which involved multiple codices.[^71] In that narration he mentions verse 33:23 and Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī (rA). There are other narrations of this incident in other sources that use either name for each incident.[^72] Al-Bāqillānī argues that these narrations may be dismissed as contradictory and conflicting with more reliable evidence, or may be reinterpreted in various ways.[^73] Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī and others reconciled the narrations by stating that the first incident took place during the compilation of Abū Bakr,[^74] and that it was the verse from *Sūrah al-Tawbah* that was found with Abū Khuzayma b. Aws b. Yazīd b. Aṣram. Meanwhile, the second incident took place during the compilation of ʿUthmān (rA) with the verse from *Sūrah* *al-Aḥzāb*, which was found with Dhū al-Shahādatayn Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī, a different person from Abū Khuzayma.[^75] Al-Azami uses this as evidence for his argument that ʿUthmān repeated the process of summoning witnesses for each verse; otherwise there is no reason they would not be able to find the verse from *al-Aḥzāb* if the compilation of Abū Bakr was in front of them.[^76] Al-Jaʿfarī meanwhile suggests that it is not inconceivable that the written parchment of one verse may have gone missing during the time interval between the two compilations, which exceeded a decade.[^77] On the other hand, scholars like Ibn Kathīr[^78] and others[^79] held that both incidents happened during the time of Abū Bakr. While Muḥammad Ḥasan Jabal agrees with Ibn Ḥajar’s analysis that the incidents described by Zayd refer to two different people, he also concurs with Ibn Kathīr’s opinion that both occurred during the compilation of Abū Bakr.[^80] Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad adduces additional evidence suggesting that the incident of the lost verse happened only during the time of Abū Bakr, but  also that both incidents are in fact one incident that involved the same person. He cites the following narration from the introduction to *Kitāb al-Mabānī*, in which Zayd  describes the compilation during the time of Abū Bakr: > I completed one review and I noticed I was missing this verse \[33:23\] so I asked the Meccan migrants (*Muhājirīn*) and the Medinan Helpers (*Anṣār*) and I did not find it \[in written form\] with any of them, although I knew the verse and the Prophet ﷺ had dictated it to me, however I disliked to establish it until someone else testified alongside me. And then I obtained it from Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī whose testimony the Prophet ﷺ had made equal to that of two witnesses. So I wrote the verse and then I conducted another review. And I found that I was missing two verses although I knew them \[9:127–128\]. So I inquired about them from the *Muhājirīn* and the *Anṣār* and I did not find them with any of them except with Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣarī whose testimony the Prophet ﷺ had endorsed. So I wrote them at the end of Barāʾa \[*Sūrah* *al-Tawbah*\].[^81] Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad states that this account alleviates some of the confusion found in other sources. He also notes that “the similarity between the two names (i.e., Abū Khuzayma and Khuzayma) and their mention in different narrations using the very same phrasing indicates that they are both names referring to the same companion and that is Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī.”[^82] This is the simplest and easiest explanation for what would otherwise seem to be a rather striking coincidence of the exact same circumstances involving two different individuals with almost identical names. Nonetheless, other ways of reconciling the narrations, such as that of Ibn Ḥajar, were also accepted by many scholars. Finally, it should be mentioned that the verses in question have been attested in the earliest manuscripts, and it is not reported that a single companion’s codex omitted them.[^83] There is of course a remarkable story behind the significance of Khuzayma b. Thābit being the witness for this verse. According to the narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ regarded Khuzayma’s testimony as equal to that of two witnesses,[^84] earning him the title of *Dhū al-Shahādatayn* (Possessor of Dual Testimony). The story behind this begins with the Prophet ﷺ purchasing a horse from a bedouin (in other narrations identified as Sawāʾa b. al-Ḥārith al-Muḥāribī). After agreeing upon the price and the purchase, the Prophet ﷺ asked the bedouin to accompany him to retrieve the payment. While on their way, people saw the horse and, unaware that it had already been sold, started bargaining with the bedouin for it. The bedouin took advantage of the situation and told the Prophet ﷺ, “If you want this horse, then buy it \[by bidding higher\], otherwise, I will sell it.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Have I not already purchased it from you?” The bedouin asked the Prophet ﷺ to produce a witness. Khuzayma b. Thābit testified on his behalf, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ asked him how he could testify when he hadn’t been present. Khuzayma replied that “Because I believe in you \[as a Prophet\] and know that you do not speak except with that which is truth.” Thereupon, the Prophet ﷺ made the testimony of Khuzayma equal to that of two witnesses.[^85] This was a Prophetic endorsement of the purity of Khuzayma’s faith and character in hastening to testify to the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.[^86] And it is said that the Prophet ﷺ still chose to return the horse to the bedouin, undoubtedly as a gesture of kindness, integrity, and generosity.[^87] This narration underscores the Divine Will behind the miraculous turn of events that caused the one person about whom the Prophet ﷺ had made this declaration to be the same person with whom Zayd found the written copy of the ‘missing’ verse(s). --- ## Differences between the compilations of Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān Scholars have provided a number of explanations for why the codex of ʿUthmān (rA) differed from the compilation of Abū Bakr (rA).[^88] First, the reasons for undertaking the projects differed. The compilation of Abū Bakr was meant to record the Qur’an in its entirety to ensure that verses of the Qur’an would not be lost with the death of those who had memorized them.[^89] The ʿUthmānic codex, meanwhile, was meant to unite the entire Muslim nation upon a single text to eliminate confusion caused by Muslims reciting variant readings of the Qur’an.[^90] Eminent scholar and polymath, Imam al-Ṣuyūṭī (d. 911/1505), cited this explanation of the differences as follows: > Ibn al-Tīn and others have said: The difference between Abū Bakr’s compilation and ʿUthmān’s is that Abū Bakr compiled the Qur’an out of fear that parts of it might be lost with the loss of those who had memorized it, as it was not collected in one place. So, he gathered it into parchments, arranging the verses of its surahs as the Prophet ﷺ had directed. > ʿUthmān’s compilation, on the other hand, was due to the growing disagreement in the ways of recitation, to the extent that they recited it in their own dialects, given the diversity of dialects. This led some to mistake others’ readings. Fearing the exacerbation of this matter, ʿUthmān transcribed those parchments into a single *muṣḥaf* (codex), arranging its surahs, and limited the dialects to the dialect of Quraysh. His argument was that it was revealed in their dialect, even though the recitation was broadened to dialects other than theirs initially to ease difficulty and hardship. He saw that the need for that had ended, and thus he restricted it to one dialect.[^91] Since the reason for the compilations differed, the use of the compilations differed as well. During the time of Abū Bakr, the compilation was simply kept in safekeeping while Muslims continued to read the Qur’an according to the way they had been taught and according to the personal copies that they had in their possession.[^92] Adhering to the ʿUthmānic codex, however, was compulsory, and copies were sent to major cities in the Islamic empire. Any written copies of the Qur’an that did not conform to the ʿUthmānic codex were burned or corrected. These are the fundamental differences between the two compilations. Some scholars also distinguish between the compilation of Abū Bakr and the ʿUthmānic codex on the basis of the fact that the former is termed *ṣuḥuf* and the latter is termed *muṣḥaf*. These scholars understand the former term to refer to loose sheets of parchment and the latter term to refer to written sheets of parchment bound together between two covers, i.e., a codex. It has been further suggested that Abū Bakr’s compilation was not arranged according to chapter sequence.[^93] Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/1014), provides an interesting comment in this regard after citing a hadith indicating that some compilation took place in the time of the Prophet ﷺ himself.[^94] Al-Ḥākim writes: > The hadith provides clear evidence that the compilation of the Qur’an was not a single event. Some of it was compiled in the presence of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, then some of it was compiled in the presence of Abū Bakr as-Ṣiddīq. The third compilation, which involved arranging the surahs, occurred during the Caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful, ʿUthmān bin ʿAffān, may Allah be pleased with them all.[^95] This brief comment expresses the opinion that ʿUthmān’s compilation involved arranging the surah sequence, and implies that Abū Bakr’s compilation did not. Ibn ʿAṭiyya (d. 541/1147), an authoritative sunni exegete, is more explicit in stating that the compilation of Abū Bakr was “not arranged by surah sequence” (*ghayr murattab al-suwar*).[^96] Abū Shāma al-Maqdisī (d. 665/1268) explains this with reference to the term *ṣuḥuf* used to describe Abū Bakr’s compilation: > It appears that Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, compiled one, two, or more surahs onto a sheet of parchment, depending on the length of the surah. Hence it is said that he compiled the Qur’an in *ṣuḥuf*,[^97] and similar expressions that indicate plurality. Then ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with him, copied from those sheets (*ṣuḥuf*) into a *muṣḥaf* which included them together, arranging the surahs in their current order.[^98]  Ibn Ḥajar writes: > The difference between the *ṣuḥuf* and the *muṣḥaf* is that the *ṣuḥuf* are the separate parchment sheets on which the Qur’an was compiled during the era of Abū Bakr. They contained the surahs \[chapters\] separately, each surah  arranged independently with its verses, but the surahs were not arranged sequentially. When they were copied and arranged in a sequence, they became a *muṣḥaf*.[^99] On the other hand, Ghānim Qaddurī al-Ḥamad does not find the evidence sufficient to conclude that Abū Bakr’s compilation lacked arrangement by surah sequence and he points to the existence of reports that mention that Abū Bakr compiled the Qur’an ‘between two covers.’[^100] There is also some discussion concerning the suitability of the term *jamʿ* (gathering or compilation) for the compilation of Abū Bakr versus the ʿUthmānic codex (see the discussion in “[How the Qur’an was Preserved During the Time of the Prophet](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-the-quran-was-preserved-during-the-prophets-time-mechanisms-of-oral-and-written-transmission).”) While listing the differences between Abū Bakr’s compilation and ʿUthmān’s codex, Ahmed al-ʿAbd al-Karīm writes, “The compilation by Abū Bakr was the closest to the conventional meaning of ‘compilation’ in the Arabic language, which implies bringing together what is scattered and connecting parts to each other.”[^101] For those scholars who consider the ʿUthmānic codex to simply be a direct copy of the *ṣuḥuf* of Abū Bakr, ʿUthmān’s project did not involve gathering or compiling any textual materials; it was rather a gathering or unifying of people upon a single text, and thus may be more appropriately called a project of standardization. However, the ʿUthmānic codex may be considered a compilation of a compilation, in that Abū Bakr’s loose sheets of parchment (*ṣuḥuf*) were combined into a bounded codex. Indeed, the scholars of hadith listed narrations concerning the ʿUthmānic project under the title “the compilation (*jamʿ*) of the Qur’an,” which indicates that they considered it to be part of the compilation process rather than a separate process.[^102] Moreover, as will be explained in a subsequent section, some scholars considered the ʿUthmānic codex to be an autonomously assembled text that was later checked against the *ṣuḥuf* of Abū Bakr; hence, it could also be appropriately termed a compilation per that view. --- ## The variant readings and Abū Bakr’s compilation The Islamic tradition recognizes a multiplicity of correct ways to recite the Qur’an which relates to the hadith that the Qur’an has been revealed according to seven *aḥruf* (ways of reciting, lit. ‘letters,’ sing. *ḥarf*).[^103] The narrations discussed earlier do not provide any direct indications on whether Abū Bakr’s compilation contained more than one reading; however, this was a topic on which Islamic scholars theorized. For instance, Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444/1053) replies to a question concerning why ʿUthmān (rA) compiled the Qur’an when it was already compiled in Abū Bakr’s codex (*muṣḥaf*) beforehand: > If someone were to say, “Now that you have clarified what you were asked about in interpreting these two reports, then explain to us the reason that prompted ʿUthmān, may God be pleased with him, to compile the Qur’an in the *maṣāḥif*, although it was already compiled in the *muṣḥaf*, as you have narrated to us in the previous hadith of Zayid b. Thābit.” I would respond that the reason for this is clear, based on the report and the opinion of some scholars. It is that Abū Bakr, may God be pleased with him, first compiled the Qur’an according to the seven *aḥruf* \[i.e., recitations\] that God, the Almighty, allowed the Ummah to recite and he did not specify a particular *ḥarf*. Thus, when it was ʿUthmān’s time, and a disagreement arose between the people of Iraq and the people of Shām about the recitation, and Hudhayfa informed him of this, he, along with the companions in Madīnah, decided to unite the people on a single *ḥarf* of those *aḥruf*, and to drop the others. This would eliminate the differences and produce agreement.[^104] Interestingly, al-Dānī prefaces this explanation by noting that it is the opinion of some scholars, indicating that there were perhaps differing views on this matter in his time as well. However, the view al-Dānī selected does seem to have become popular and we find his contemporary, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1071) echoing a similar view: > As for Abū Bakr’s compilation of the Qur’an, he was the first to gather it between two covers. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib also compiled the Qur’an after the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and during Abū Bakr's caliphate. All of this was in accordance with the seven *aḥruf*, unlike ʿUthmān’s compilation based on a single *ḥarf*, the *ḥarf* of Zayd bin Thābit, which is what is in the hands of the people between the covers of the *muṣḥaf* today.[^105] The hadith commentator, Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī (d. 855/1451), similarly wrote: > Abū Bakr’s aim was to compile the Qur’an with all its *aḥruf* and ways in which it was revealed, which are based on the dialect of \[the Meccan tribe of\] Quraysh and others. ʿUthmān’s aim, however, was to isolate the dialect of Quraysh from those other readings.[^106] Other scholars who made similar statements concerning the inclusion of seven *aḥruf* in Abū Bakr’s collection include al-Shāṭibī (d. 590/1193),[^107] al-Sakhāwī (d. 643/1245),[^108] and al-Jaʿbarī (d. 732/1332).[^109] Many contemporary scholars also endorsed the view that Abū Bakr’s compilation contained the seven *aḥruf* while ʿUthmān’s compilation did not.[^110] However, if this opinion were taken literally it would mean that Abū Bakr’s compilation had to include the same verse or word written multiple times to accommodate all possible readings. Suffice it to say, this would be a convoluted process if logistically feasible at all. In his doctoral dissertation, the Egyptian Azhari scholar ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī (d. 2017) theorized that since Abū Bakr’s compilation was not intended to reduce readings as the ʿUthmānic codex was, it is theoretically possible that it included multiple readings of the same verse, either above or below the word or in the margins.[^111] Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad on the other hand dismisses al-Faramāwī’s suggestion along with the claim that Abū Bakr’s compilation contained the seven *aḥruf*, due to the absence of any evidence that such a task was undertaken.[^112] Nonetheless, even if Abū Bakr’s compilation did not include multiple *aḥruf* for the same passage, it remains a possibility that it contained some passages according to one *ḥarf* and other passages according to another, since fixation of one reading was not an express goal of the compilation. This is a plausible way of interpreting the scholarly comments that Abū Bakr’s *muṣḥaf* contained the seven *aḥruf*; it did not contain them in their entirety, but rather incorporated combinations of readings from each of them. --- ## The subsequent use and ultimate fate of the compilation If we return to the narrations concerning the ʿUthmānic compilation, we may note multiple indications that the process consisted of not only transcription and dictation but several stages of review and verification. The narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* makes clear that ʿUthmān (rA) requested Abū Bakr’s compilation to be used in the process of transcribing the new codex. Recall that the manuscript of Abū Bakr (rA) had been verified through an extremely meticulous process, not simply relying on the companions who had memorized the Qur’an in its entirety, but also ensuring that each verse had two witnesses who had written it down in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ in a manner that matched the way the companions had memorized it.[^113] With Abū Bakr’s passing, the compilation passed into the hands of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (rA), and then, after his passing, into the hands of his daughter Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar (rA, d. 45/665), the widow of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).[^114] > ʿUthmān sent a message to Ḥafṣa saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may copy the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” Ḥafṣa sent it to ʿUthmān. ʿUthmān then instructed Zayd b. Thābit, ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Zubayr, Saʿīd b. Al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥārith b. Hishām to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies.[^115] From this narration, one might be inclined to state, as many scholars did,[^116] that ʿUthmān’s compilation was assembled by simply copying the manuscript compiled by Abū Bakr. However, Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Azami argues that combining the above account with other narrations paints a more complete picture in which ʿUthmān’s compilation was assembled independently of Abū Bakr’s compilation, which was only used during the verification process *after* ʿUthmān’s committee had finished transcribing the *muṣḥaf*.[^117] The first narration that al-Azami cites in support of this narrative comes from Muṣʿab b. Saʿd: > ʿUthmān delivered a sermon and said, “The people have diverged in their recitations, and I am determined that whoever holds any verses dictated by the Prophet ﷺ himself must bring them to me.” So the people brought their verses, written on parchment and bones and leaves, and anyone contributing to this pile was first questioned by ʿUthmān, “Did you learn these verses \[i.e., take this dictation\] directly from the Prophet ﷺ himself?” All contributors answered under oath, and all the collected material was individually labeled and then handed to Zayd b. Thābit.[^118] The second narration al-Azami cites comes from Mālik b. Abī ʿĀmir (one of the committee members and the grandfather of Imam Mālik b. Anas), who states: > I was among those upon whom the *muṣḥaf* was dictated \[from the written sources\], and if any controversies arose concerning a particular verse they would say, “Where is the scribe \[of this parchment\]? Precisely how did the Prophet ﷺ teach him this verse?” And they would resume scribing, leaving that portion blank and sending for the man in question to clarify his transcription.[^119] These narrations indicate that the *muṣḥaf* of ʿUthmān was prepared autonomously and gathered through an independent process in addition to corroboration with the compilation of Abū Bakr. Another narration that highlights this is the report of Hānī al-Barbarī that Ubayy b. Kaʿb (rA, d. 30/649) performed additional verification of certain words during the ʿUthmānic compilation.[^120] One can further strengthen al-Azami’s argument by noting that ʿUthmān’s instructions to the committee on what to do if they differed concerning a verse only make sense if they were conducting an independent compilation process. If they were simply copying the text of Abū Bakr’s compilation, then there would be no occasion for them to differ in the first place. There is also the testimony of one of the scribes of the ʿUthmānic codex, Kathīr b. Aflaḥ (d. 63/683).[^121] He stated that if the scribes differed over something during the process of writing the ʿUthmānic codex,  they would delay writing it. The transmitter of this report, Muḥammad b. Sirīn (d. 110/729), hypothesized that it was because they would first examine who was closest to the time of the final review (i.e., in terms of when they had learned it from the Prophet ﷺ) so that they could write it according to that reading. This lends more weight to the view that the ʿUthmānic codex was not a simple transcription of the compilation of Abū Bakr. Furthermore, narrations indicating that Zayd (rA) transcribed while Saʿīd dictated also suggest a process more involved than mere copying.[^122] Finally, we have an account which, in spite of its weaknesses, mentions that ʿUthmān requested Ḥafṣa’s copy after the compilation by Zayd was completed, which was then reviewed and compared with the ʿUthmānic codex and confirmed to be in agreement.[^123] As for those reports suggesting ʿUthmān asked Ḥafṣa for the manuscripts first, the wording of such reports provides only an abbreviated description. Perhaps, Ḥafṣa’s copy was requested at the outset but primarily used in the final stage of producing the codices as a source of verification. The question that emerges is why ʿUthmān would undertake this exhaustive process when he could have readily copied the manuscripts already compiled by Abū Bakr. Al-Azami offers the following reasoning: > One may wonder why Caliph ʿUthmān took the trouble to compile an autonomous copy when the end product was to be compared with the \[compilation of Abū Bakr\] anyway. The likeliest reason is a symbolic one. A decade earlier thousands of Companions, engaged in the battles against apostasy in al-Yamāma and elsewhere, were unable to participate in the Ṣuḥuf’s compilation. In drawing from a larger pool of written materials, ʿUthmān’s independent copy provided these surviving Companions with an opportunity to partake of this momentous endeavor. > In the above account, no inconsistencies were found between the \[compilation of Abū Bakr\] and the independent *muṣḥaf* and from this two broad conclusions emerge: first, the Qur’anic text was thoroughly stable from the earliest days and not (as some allege) fluid and volatile until the third century; and second, the methods involved in compilation during both reigns were meticulous and accurate.[^124] If al-Azami’s conclusion is correct, one must note that rather than merely having a ‘symbolic’ reason for conducting an independent compilation, ʿUthmān also had a very practical and tangible reason: reducing differences in the ummah’s readings entailed elimination of some of the variant readings from the seven *aḥruf*. Since the goal of Abū Bakr’s compilation was simply to preserve the text of the Qur’an, arbitrating between variant readings and different dialects was never a stated goal or component of the process. This relates to what was previously mentioned concerning the possibility that Abū Bakr’s compilation included a combination of a greater number of readings from the seven *aḥruf*. Therefore, the advantage of repeating the collection process and independently reviewing every verse from written sources in addition to memory afforded the committee the opportunity to affirm with the highest degree of confidence and certainty that the reading they selected for the writing of the *muṣḥaf* was the reading taught and recited by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself. Al-Jaʿbarī notes that the compilation passed from Abū Bakr to ʿUmar because Abū Bakr himself designated ʿUmar as his successor. On the other hand, ʿUmar did not designate a successor but appointed a committee to consult (*shūrā*) and decide on the successor, and therefore the compilation was inherited from him by Ḥafṣa.[^125] The compilation of Abū Bakr, which remained in the possession of Ḥafṣa, was not erased or burned by ʿUthmān. However, the compilation was later requested by Marwān b. al-Ḥakam (r. 65-66/684-685), who at that time was the governor of Medina before later becoming an Umayyad caliph. Ḥafṣa refused. However, when she passed away in 41 AH/665 CE, Marwān retrieved it and had it destroyed.[^126] Marwān stated, “I only did that because whatever was in it was already written and preserved in the \[ʿUthmānic\] *muṣḥaf*. And I feared that time would pass and people would start to have misgivings about this \[Ḥafṣa’s\] *ṣuḥuf* or would say, “It contained something that has not been written.”[^127] --- ## Conclusion In the quest to understand the timeline of the Qur’an’s textual preservation, the compilation efforts led by the first caliph Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (rA, r. 11-13/632-634) hold substantial significance, although they have been considerably understudied compared to the codices assembled by the third caliph, ʿUthmān (rA, r. 23-35/644-656). This article, through an in-depth exploration of Muslim literary sources and scholarly interpretations, has aimed to illuminate the process, purpose, and implications of Abū Bakr’s contribution to the Qur’an’s preservation. It argues that through analyzing the hadith and scholarly sources, a coherent picture emerges of how, when, and why Abū Bakr undertook this project. The compilation was meant to record the entirety of the Qur’an in writing to ensure that Qur’anic verses would not be lost with the death of those who had memorized them. Under Abū Bakr’s stewardship, an official unified compilation was made through a rigorous process of verifying each verse through the combined attestation of written materials, memorization, and direct testimony. This picture illustrates the deliberate and meticulous effort undertaken by the companions in assembling the first codex of the Qur’an, thereby fulfilling the duty of preserving the words of Allah for generations to come. --- ## Notes [^1]: For an overview, see Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami, *The History of the Quranic Text, from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments* (Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2003), 77–86. Cf. Theodor Nöldeke, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergsträßer, and Otto Pretzl, *The History of the Qurʾān* (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 223–34. [^2]: See for instance, Hythem Sidky, “On the Regionality of Qurʾānic Codices,” *Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association* 5 (2020):133–210; Ala Vahidnia, “Whence Come Qurʾān Manuscripts? Determining the Regional Provenance of Early Qurʾānic Codices,” *Der Islam* 98, no. 2 (2021): 359–93. [^3]: See for instance the argument of Gregor Schoeler in “The Codification of the Qurʾan: A Comment on the Hypotheses of Burton and Wansbrough,” in *The Qurʾan in Context* (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009), 779–94, 784–85. [^4]: Ibn Saʿd, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā* (Cairo: Maktabat Khānjī, 2001), 5:311. Note that other editions of the text are incomplete and do not include mention of the compilation of Abū Bakr. [^5]: Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān al-Fasawī, *al-Maʿrifa wa al-tārīkh* (Baghdad: Maktabat al-Irshād, 1974), 1:410. [^6]: Al-Yaʿqūbī, *Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī*, ed. ʿAbd al-Amīr Mihanna (Beirut: al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 2010), 2:22. [^7]: Abū al-Ḥasan Aslam b. Sahl Baḥshal, *Tārīkh Wāsiṭ*, ed. Kurkīs ʿAwwād (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1406 AH/1986), 251. [^8]: Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, ed. Abū Usāma Salīm al-Hilālī (Kuwait: Muʾasassat Gharās li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2006), 139–54. [^9]: Harald Motzki, “Alternative Accounts of the Qur’an’s Formation,” in *The Cambridge Companion to the Qurʼān* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 62. [^10]: Harald Motzki, “The Collection of the Qur’an: A Reconsideration of Western Views in Light of Recent Methodological Developments,” *Der Islam* 78 (2001): 1–34. *Isnād-cum-matn* is a method of analysis that collects all the various iterations for a particular hadith as transmitted by each narrator in order to determine the history of its transmission. [^11]: Akram ʿAbd Khalīfa al-Dalīmī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān: Dirāsa taḥliliyya li-marwiyyātihi* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), 129–74. [^12]: See Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 153–69; Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ fī maʿrifat marsūm maṣāḥif ahl al-amṣār* (Riyadh: Dār al-Tadmurrīya, 2010), 134; Makkī b. Abī Ṭālib al-Qaysī, *al-Ibānah ʿan maʿanī al-qiraʾāt*, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Ismāʿīl Shalabī (Cairo: Dar Nahdat Misr, 1977), 157–61. [^13]: See for instance, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭāsān, *al-Masāḥif al-manṣuba li-l-ṣaḥāba wa-al-radd ʿalā al-shubuhāt al-muthāra ḥawlahā* (Riyadh: Dār al-Tadmuriyya, 2016), 88–89. [^14]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qur’an*, *bāb jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, no. 4986. [^15]: One may counter that perhaps he was unaware of the personal copies other companions had, or perhaps he was aware of them and did not agree with them. However, the first possibility seems unlikely given that there is no reason for these copies to have been kept a secret. The second possibility also appears unlikely as one would expect that it would have generated some debate. These scenarios are speculative; however, the most probable scenario suggested by the description found in the hadith is that the first complete copy was indeed Abū Bakr’s. [^16]: Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif,* 140\. Similar narrations from 140–43. [^17]: See Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 140\. The editor, Salīm al-Hilālī, concurs with Ibn Ḥajar’s and Ibn Kathīr’s assessment. The report is transmitted by Ismaʿīl b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Suddī (d.127/745) from ʿAbd Khayr b. Yazīd al-Hamadānī (d. 81/700) from ʿAlī. [^18]: Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 141. [^19]: Reported in the no longer extant work by Ibn Ashtah (d. 360/971), *al-Maṣāḥif*, as cited by al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2008), 131. [^20]: Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 161–62. See editor notes concerning the narration’s inauthenticity. [^21]: Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 162. See editor notes concerning the narration’s inauthenticity. [^22]: Reported in Ibn Ashtah, *al-Masahif*, as cited by al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 130. Note that al-Suyūṭī suggests this could mean Sālim was one of those who compiled the Qur’an under Abū Bakr, but this cannot be correct if Sālim died during the Battle of al-Yamāma, which was the event that motivated the compilation under Abū Bakr. See ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān al-karīm fī ʿahdi Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq* (Kuwait: Dār al-Ẓāhiriyya 2022), 23. [^23]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 17–28. [^24]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qur’an*, *bāb taʾlīf al-Qurʾān*, no. 4996. [^25]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qur’an*, *bāb taʾlīf al-Qurʾān*, no. 4993. [^26]: Muḥammad Muḥammad Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal li-dirāsāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm* (Riyadh: Dār al-Liwāʾ li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 1987), 273. Cf. Akram Dalīmī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 174. [^27]: See for instance, Muhammad Mustafa al-Azamī, *The Scribes of the Prophet* (London: Turath Publishing, 2020). [^28]: Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, *Faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥāba*, ed. Waṣī Allāh ʿAbbās (Mecca: Muʾassasāt al-Risāla 1983), 1:390. [^29]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 114. [^30]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa* (Cairo: Dar al-Rayyān, 1988), 7:147. [^31]: Schoeler, “Codification of the Qurʾan,” 782. [^32]: Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 77. [^33]: Khalīfa Ibn Khayyāṭ b. Abū Hubayra, *Tārīkh Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ*, ed. Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī (Riyadh: Dār Ṭaybah, 1985), 111. [^34]: Ibn Kathīr, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, ed. Abū Isḥāq al-Ḥuwaynī (Cairo: Maktaba b. Taymiyya, 1416 AH/1995), 58. [^35]: Ismāʿīl Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Riyadh: Dar ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 2003), 9:496. [^36]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb manāqib al-Anṣār*, *bāb manāqib Muʿādh b. Jabal*, no. 3806. [^37]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-ādhān*, *bāb imāmat al-ʿabd wa al-mawlā*, no. 692. [^38]: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qur’an*, *bāb jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, no. 4986. [^39]: This is the conclusion that has been argued by many Muslim scholars and can be inferred from Zayd’s report concerning the compilation process under Abū Bakr. The fact that he sought testimony for each verse from those who had written the verse in the presence of the Prophet indicates that all the verses had been transcribed. Yousef Wahb also observes: “the organized scribal activities, the appointment of scribes, the encouragement of education through writing, the Divine command to preserve the text, and the authentically reported reliance on written materials transcribed during the time of the Prophet in the subsequent textual compilations of the Qur’an—plainly substantiate the thesis that the entire Qur’an was recorded before the Prophet’s passing.” See Yousef Wahb, “How the Qur’an Was Preserved During the Prophet’s Time: Mechanisms of Oral and Written Transmission,” *Yaqeen*, December 5, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-the-quran-was-preserved-during-the-prophets-time-mechanisms-of-oral-and-written-transmission](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-the-quran-was-preserved-during-the-prophets-time-mechanisms-of-oral-and-written-transmission&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1702320800908840&usg=AOvVaw3rRRrSFN7JlLdtDua9jbj6). [^40]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunna,* ed. Zuhayr al-Shāwīsh and Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ (Damascus: al-Maktab Islamī, 1983), 4:521. [^41]: Ibn Kathīr, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 58. [^42]: Al-Wāḥidī, *al-Tafsīr al-basīṭ* (Riyadh: al-Īmām University, 1430H/2009), 12:547. [^43]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār li-l-Qur’an* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2001), 1:400. [^44]: Noldeke et al., 229–30 and Richard Bell, *Introduction to the Qur’an* (Edinburgh: University Press, 1953), 39; cf. Richard Bell and William Montgomery Watt, *Bell’s Introduction to the Qur’ān* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022), 41. [^45]: Leone Catani, *Annali dell’Islam* (Milano: Hoepli, 1907), 2:713, 739–54. [^46]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-maghāzī*, *bāb ghazwat al-Raji’ wa al-Ri’l wa al-Dhakwan wa Bi’r Ma’una*, no. 4090. [^47]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh: Dar al-Ṭaybah, 2005), 11:167. [^48]: Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, *Tārīkh Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ*, 107, 121. On the date, see also Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī waḥyan wa rasman wa lughatan wa qirāʾatan* (Istanbul: Dār al-Ghawthānī, 2019), 99 and ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 31. [^49]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf: Dirāsah lughawīyya tārīkhīyya* (Baghdad: al-Lajnah al-Waṭanīyya, 1982), 112. [^50]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qur’an*, *bāb jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, no. 4986. [^51]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:169. [^52]: Cited in Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272), *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasāt al-Risāla, 2006), 1:88. [^53]: ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm fī ʿahdi Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq*, 35–36; al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text,* 79. [^54]: Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, *kitāb al-manāqib, bāb ṣifat al-nabī ﷺ* , no. 3554; see also *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, *bāb kāna Jibrīl yaʿriḍu al-Qurʾān ʿalā al-nabī ﷺ*, no. 4998. [^55]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunna* (Beirut: Al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1983), 4:525–26. [^56]: For a detailed discussion concerning the “final review,” refer to the following studies: Usāma al-Ḥayānī, “*al-ʿArḍa al-akhīra li-l-Qurʾān al-Karīm wa-al-aḥadīth al-wārida fīhā jamʿan wa dirāsa*,” *al-Majallat Jāmiʿat al-Amīr ʿAbd al-Qādir*, no. 10; Muhammad Bāzmūl, “*al-Aḥādīth al-wārida fī al-ʿarḍa al-akhīra*,” *Majallah Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurra li-l-ʿUlūm al-Sharīʿa wa al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyya* 62 (Shaʿbān 1435): 83; Nāsir b. Saʿūd al-Qithamī, “*al-ʿArḍa al-akhīra: Dalālatuhā wa atharuhā*,” *Majallat Maʿhad al-Imām al-Shaṭibī li-Dirasāt al-Qurʾāniyya* 15 (2013): 1–69. [^57]: Al-Naḥḥās, *al-Nāsikh wa-al-mansūkh* (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀsima, 2009), 2:407. [^58]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Fatāwā al-kubrā* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutb aI-ʿIlmiyya, 1987), 4:418. [^59]: Imām Aḥmad, M*usnad Aḥmad*, no. 3422. This was also mentioned by al-Ṭaḥāwī and al-Māturīdī. [^60]: Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Ṭāsān, *Taḥqīq mawqif al-ṣaḥābī al-jalīl ʿAbdullāh Ibn Masʿūd min al-jamʿ al-ʿUthmānī* (Riyadh: Kursī al-Qurʾān al-Karīm wa ʿUlūmuh bi-Jāmiʿat al-Malik Suʿūd, 1435 AH/2014), 58–67. [^61]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān, bāb jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, no. 4986. [^62]: As cited by al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 131. [^63]: See al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ wa kamāl al-iqrāʾ* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya, 1999), 302–3. [^64]: See al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 80; Muḥammad Ḥasan Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī min Rasūl Allāh ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhī wa sallam ilā ummatihī* (Tanta: Dar al-Ṣaḥāba li-l-Turāth bi-Ṭanṭā, n.d.), 182; al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddima asāsīyya fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Rayān, 2001), 97; Muṣṭafā al-Bughā and Muḥyī al-Dīn Mistū, *al-Wāḍiḥ fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an* (Damascus: Dār al-Kalim al-Tayyib, 1998), 84; Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Quran al-Karīm* (Jeddah: al-Fatḥ, 1946), 49; ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 40. [^65]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:171–73. [^66]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-tawḥīd, bāb wa kāna ʿarshuhū ʿalā al-māʾ wa huwa rabb al-ʿarsh al-aẓīm*, no. 7425. [^67]: Abū Shāma, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 61; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:171–73; al-Bāqillānī, *Nukat al-intiṣār* *li-naql al-Qur’ān*, ed. Muḥammad Zaghlūl Sallām (Alexandria: Munsha*ʾ*at al-Maʿārif, 1971), 333. See also al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ*, 307 for the alternate explanation that Zayd was looking for others who had a copy of the verse to confirm the different possible readings of the verse. [^68]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4679. [^69]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4049. [^70]: Ghanim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 118–19. [^71]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2807. [^72]: Ibn Abū Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:146, 148, 154, 203 (which mentions Khuzayma with 9:128 during Abū Bakr’s compilation), 1:149 (which mentions Khuzayma with 33:23 during Abū Bakr’s compilation), 1:198 (which mentions Khuzayma or Abū Khuzayma for 33:23), 2:221 (which mentions Khuzayma with 33:23 during ʿUthmān’s compilation), and 2:225 (which mentions Khuzayma with 9:128 during ʿUthmān’s compilation). See also Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān wa maʿālimuhu wa adābuhu*, ed. Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Khayyāṭī (Rabat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa al-Shuʿūn al-Islāmiyya, 1995), 2:93, 96. [^73]: Al-Bāqillānī, *Nukat al-intiṣār*, 331. [^74]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:172. See also Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, *ʿUmdat al-qārī*, 20:19. [^75]: Abū Shāma, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 61; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:172; see also Ibn ʿĀshir, *Fatḥ al-Mannān al-marwī bi-mawrid al-ẓamān*, ed. ʿAbd al-Karīm Bū Ghazāla (Egypt: Dār Ibn al-Ḥafṣī 2016), 417–18. [^76]: Al-Azami writes, “These two have caused confusion among some scholars, mainly due to the proximity of the two names. Note that the two are distinct: Khuzaima and Abu Khuzaima. Now if we read the hadiths carefully we see that Zaid used the word *ṣuḥuf* for the collection during Abū Bakr’s reign, and the word *muṣḥaf* or *maṣāḥif* (pl. of *muṣḥaf*) for the work he did under ʿUthmān’s supervision. Thus we may safely conclude that these are two different instances of compilation.…If we consider the second compilation to be Zaid’s work on an independent copy of the *muṣḥaf*, then everything becomes clear. On the other hand, if we assume that Zaid was simply making a duplicate copy for ʿUthmān based on Abū Bakr’s, not an autonomous copy, then we must confront the awkward question of why Zaid was unable to locate verse no. 23 from *Sūrah al-Aḥzāb*, since all the verses should have been right in front of him. Of interest also is that Zaid uses the first person singular pronoun in the first narration and the plural “we,” indicating group activity, in the second. All of this strongly bolsters the view that the second compilation was indeed an independent endeavor.” Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 92. [^77]: ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān fī ʿahd ʿUthmān* (Kuwait: Dar al-Ẓāhiriyya, 2022), 44–45. [^78]: Ibn Kathīr, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Maktabah Ibn Taymiyya, 1416 AH/1996), 86. [^79]: Burhān Ibrāhīm al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlat arbāb al-marāṣid fī sharḥ ʿaqīlat atrāb al-qaṣāʾid*, ed. Muḥammad Ilyās Anwar (Amman: Arwiqa, 2017), 340. See also Ahmad Ali al-Imam, *Variant Readings of the Qur’an* (London: IIIT, 2006), 45. [^80]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql*, 185, 201–204. [^81]: Arthur Jeffery, ed., *Muqaddimatān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān: Wa-humā muqaddimāt Kitāb al-mabānī wa muqaddimāt Ibn ʿAtiyya* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1954), 20–22. On the identity of the author, see Aron Zysow, “Two Unrecognized Karrāmī Texts,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society* 108, no. 4 (1988): 577–87, [https://doi.org/10.2307/603146](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2307/603146&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1702320800899295&usg=AOvVaw0iLXRvoRvmhVKMW-UpNRPO). [^82]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 119. [^83]: Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi, “*Saṇʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” *Der Islam* 87, nos. 1–2 (2012): 23. They write: “There are some traditions about ‘Uthmān’s team finding the last two verses of sūra 9 with a man named Khuzayma, or Abū Khuzayma, or Ibn Khuzayma. C-1 \[(Sanʿāʾ undertext)\] has these verses in the expected place. Since they are also found in the ‘Uthmānic Qur’an, and since it is not reported that any Companion codex was without them, these verses must have belonged to the prototype from which the C-1 and ‘Uthmānic text types emerged. Therefore, one should not read too much into the report.” [^84]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2807. [^85]: See *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 3607; Al-Nasāʾī, *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 4647; Imām Aḥmad, *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 21883, along with al-Ḥākim, *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 2188; al-Bayhaqī, *Sunan al-Bayhaqī*, no. 20516; al-Ṭabarānī, *Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 3730. [^86]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *I’lam al-muwaqi’in* (Dammam: Dār ibn al-Jawzī, 2002), 3:368. [^87]: Al-Nasāʾī, *Sunan al-Nasāʾī al-musammā bi-l-mujtabā wa bi-hāmishih ḥāshiyat al-Sindī* (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 2005), p. 1080, no. 4651. [^88]: See also ʿAbd al-Fattāh al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf* (Cairo: Maktabat Jindī, 1951), 27; al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt aṣāsīya*, 100–101. [^89]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 137. [^90]: Makkī, *al-Ibāna*, 62–64; ʿAbd al-Qayyūm al-Sindī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm fī ʿahd al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidīn* (Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Tiba’at al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1421 AH), 380; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ*, 105. [^91]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 133. [^92]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān*, 49. [^93]: See Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal*, 273. [^94]: The hadith is as follows: Zayd bin Thabit, may Allah be pleased with him, reported: We were with the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, compiling the Quran from fragments, when the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “Blessings upon Syria.” We asked, “Why is that?” He said, “Because the angels of the Merciful are spreading their wings over them.” [^95]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-ṣaḥīḥayn*, ed. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Qadir ʿAṭṭā (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1990), 2:249. [^96]: ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. Ghālib Ibn ʿAṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām ʿAbd al-Shāfī Muḥammad (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1422H/2001), 1:49. [^97]: The word in the text is *muṣḥaf*, which appears to be in error since it is not plural, see al-Ṭāsān, *al-Masāḥif al-manṣuba,* 29. [^98]: Abū Shāma, *al-Murshid al-wajīz ilā ʿulūm tataʿallaq bil-Kitāb al-Aziz*, ed. Ibrāhim Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 76. [^99]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī,* 11:177–178. [^100]: Ghānim Qaddurī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 123. [^101]: Ahmed al-ʿAbd al-Karīm, “*Al-Farq bayna jamʿ Abī Bakr wa ʿUthmān*,” 15. [^102]: Al-Ṭāsān, *al-Masāḥif*, 514. [^103]: For a more detailed discussion on the meaning of the seven *aḥruf*, refer to the discussion on the nature of the *aḥruf* in Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, “The Origins of the Variant Readings of the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, August 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-Qur’an](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-Qur&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1702320800913202&usg=AOvVaw1UVVx3KUIYovwGvEwm-NBE). [^104]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 613. [^105]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2000), 2:485. [^106]: Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, *ʿUmdat al-Qārī* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 18:281. [^107]: Al-Shāṭibī, *ʿAqīlat atrāb al-qaṣāʾid*, ed. Ayman Suwayyid (Jeddah: Dār Nūr al-Maktabāt, 2001), 3. [^108]: Al-Sakhāwī, *al-Wasīlah ilā kashf al-ʿaqīla* (Riyadh: Maktaba al-Rushd, 2003), 63. [^109]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlat arbāb al-marāṣid*, 334. [^110]: See for instance al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 48, 64; al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān fī ʿahd ʿUthmān*, 56; Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal*, 273; Aḥmed al-ʿAbd al-Karīm, “*al-Farq bayna jamʿ Abī Bakr wa ʿUthmān raḍiya Allāh ʿanhumā li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm: dirāsa waṣfiyya*,” *Majallat al-Jāmiʿa al-ʿIrāqiyya*  2, no. 50 (n.d.): 11–20. [^111]: ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf wa nuqṭuhu*, 108. [^112]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 145. See also the discussion in Sālim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Athar rukhṣat al-aḥruf al-sabʿa fī tadwīn al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī* (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, 2018), 316–17. [^113]: Al-ʿUbayd, *Jamʿ al-Qurʿān al-Karīm*, 506–7. [^114]: Ibn ʿĀshir, *Fatḥ al-Mannān al-marwī bi-mawrid al-ẓamān*, 415. [^115]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4987. [^116]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlat arbāb al-marāṣid*, 353. [^117]: Note that this was also mentioned as a possibility by Abū Shāmah al-Maqdisī, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 76. [^118]: As translated by al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 90. One may note that al-Azami has taken some liberties in the translation and paraphrasing and the interested reader may consult the original text in Ibn Abū Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 210. The chain of transmission is declared authentic by the editor, Salīm al-Hilālī, and was also declared authentic by Ibn Kathīr. Note that Muhammad Ḥasan Jabal, following al-Bayhaqi, discounts this narration as evidence on the grounds that Muṣʿab did not hear directly from ʿUthmān and that the compilation process had already taken place during the time of Abu Bakr. See Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 197–99. [^119]: As translated by al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 90. As in the previous narration, al-Azami takes some liberties in paraphrasing; cf. Ibn Abū Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 206. The chain of transmission to Malik bin Abī ʿĀmir is declared authentic by the editor, Salīm al-Hilālī. [^120]: Abū ʿUbayd, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 2:102. [^121]: Ibn Abū Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 213. [^122]: Some scholars also point out that the narrations do not mention a committee assisting Zayd in the time of Abū Bakr, while he was assisted by a committee in the time of ʿUthmān in order to assist in writing the Qurʾān according to one *ḥarf*. See al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an*, 61–62. [^123]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafṣir al-Ṭabarī*, 1:56. Note that parts of this account contain interpolations mixing between the collection at the time of Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān; however, the point of evidence is the detail at the very end of the account which mentions the final review of ʿUthmān’s codex using Abū Bakr’s compilation. See also Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, *al-Fasl li-l-wasl al-mudraj fi al-naql* (Riyadh: Dār al-Hijra, 1997), 1:399. [^124]: Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 93. [^125]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlat arbāb*, 344. See also Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān*, 44; M. Mohar Ali, *The Qur’an and the Orientalist*s (Ipswich: Jamʿiyat ʾIḥyaaʾ Minhaaj al-Sunnah, 2004), 237; ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 50. [^126]: Abu ʿUbayd, *Kitāb al-imān*, 2:98; Ibn Abū Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 204, 212; Makkī al-Qaysī, *al-Ibānah*, 61; see also al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 121–22. Reportedly, he requested it shortly after Ḥafṣa’s funeral, just after they had finished burying her. [^127]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 212. ## Summary How exactly the Qur'an came to be preserved in written form is a matter upon which the Islamic tradition provides a detailed and coherent account. Although the Qur'an was written down by numerous scribes during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ upon various materials, it was Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him, d. 13/634) who, according to the traditional narrative found in the canonical hadith sources, compiled the earliest complete official codex of the Qur'an. This effort, though of tremendous consequence, has received considerably less scholarly attention than the codices assembled later under the third caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān (may Allah be pleased with him, d. 35/656). Yet Abū Bakr's compilation was a landmark event, for it brought together the scattered written fragments upon which the Qur'an had been recorded during the Prophet's lifetime and unified them into a single authoritative codex. A genuine difficulty confronts the researcher: far more information survives concerning the ʿUthmānic codices than concerning Abū Bakr's compilation. For the ʿUthmānic project, the tradition preserves a list of roughly forty differences between the codices which can be correlated with surviving Qur'anic manuscripts, whereas for Abū Bakr's compilation there existed but a single codex, with no reports of variant readings and no manuscript evidence to examine. The historian is therefore largely confined to the narrations preserved in the works of hadith, the Qur'anic sciences, and Islamic history, along with the discussions of the scholars. Nonetheless, the historicity of this compilation may also be supported by broader considerations. Given the central place of the Qur'an in Islam, it is highly improbable that the Muslims would have remained without any official written copy during the reigns of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him, d. 24/644)—especially as congregational night prayers in Ramadan became regularly established under ʿUmar. Moreover, the speed and precision with which the ʿUthmānic codices were produced and disseminated is better explained if the Companions were already familiar with the process from Abū Bakr's time. Beyond the canonical hadith literature, Abū Bakr's compilation is mentioned by numerous early authorities, among them Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām (d. 224/838), Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845), al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 284/897), and Ibn Abī Dāwūd (d. 316/928). Harald Motzki observed that most Western academics have doubted the historicity of this compilation on account of skepticism regarding the details of the reports; yet upon closer scrutiny many such objections appear unfounded. Indeed, Motzki himself, employing an isnād-cum-matn analysis, demonstrated that the reports transmitted from Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742) reliably date back to the first Islamic century, and concluded that the claim of later fabrication is untenable. The account is further strengthened by independent chains, including that of Ibn Abī al-Zinād from Hishām b. ʿUrwah from ʿUrwah b. al-Zubayr, and that of al-Suddī from ʿAbd Khayr from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him). Given these mutually corroborating chains and the ability to reconcile apparent discrepancies, the historicity of Abū Bakr's compilation can be established with confidence. That this was the first such official compilation is affirmed by the famous report of Zayd b. Thābit (may Allah be pleased with him, d. 45/665) in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, wherein Abū Bakr, when the idea was first proposed, asked, "How can you do something that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not do?"—a question that would be meaningless had such a compilation already existed. It is likewise narrated from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, "May God have mercy upon Abū Bakr. He was the first to gather the Qur'an between two covers," a report deemed reliable by Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) and Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1449). Al-Layth b. Saʿd (d. 175/791) added that Zayd transcribed it and would not write a single verse except with two witnesses. Certain reports name others—ʿAlī, ʿUmar, or Sālim the client of Abū Ḥudhayfa—as the first compiler, but these lack reliable chains. Their reconciliation lies in recognizing that several Companions, such as Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him, d. 32/652–53), ʿĀʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and Ubayy b. Kaʿb, possessed personal copies. As Abū Shahbah noted, even if the report about ʿAlī were authentic, it would signify only a personal copy, lacking the consensus (ijmāʿ), official character, and public verification that distinguished Abū Bakr's codex; such personal copies might also have followed a chronological order and included abrogated verses and personal exegetical notes. Concerning the circumstances that prompted the compilation, Zayd b. Thābit himself testified, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away and the Qur'an was not yet collected. It was written on palm branches, trunks, stalks, and leaves." Yet in another report he said, "We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ compiling the Qur'an from parchment," which al-Bayhaqī (d. 458/1066) understood to mean the arrangement of verses within their chapters at the Prophet's instruction. Gregor Schoeler suggested that the greater part had already been written upon sheets of a uniform format, while the later revelations remained upon scattered materials. Muhammad Muṣṭafā al-Azami explained that the continuous descent of revelation—and the possibility of abrogation (naskh)—precluded the assembly of a single master volume until the Prophet's death, after which revelation ceased forever and the situation became suited to compilation. The immediate cause was the Battle of Yamāma against Musaylima the Liar (d. 11/632). Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ (d. 240/854) records from Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib (d. 97/715) that of the five hundred Muslims martyred, thirty or fifty were among the "carriers of the Qur'an," while Ibn Kathīr mentions approximately five hundred reciters, likely a conflation. Among the slain was Sālim, one of four from whom the Prophet ﷺ directed people to learn the Qur'an. Zayd relates that ʿUmar came to Abū Bakr saying, "Indeed a large number of reciters have been killed on the Day of Yamāma, and I fear that more reciters will be killed on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost." Abū Bakr, after initial hesitation, accepted his counsel. Al-Baghawī (d. 516/1122) and Ibn Kathīr affirmed this motive. When it is asked why the Companions labored thus when Allah had promised to preserve His Book, al-Wāḥidī (d. 468/1076) answered that their compilation was itself one of the means by which Allah preserved it, citing Ibn al-Anbārī that their aim was to ease its learning, though it would not have been lost regardless. Al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013) offered a differing interpretation, holding that ʿUmar feared the loss of the Qur'an's study and recitation rather than its text. Objections raised by Nöldeke, Bell, and Watt—drawing on Caetani's claim that too few memorizers died to cause alarm—are answered by noting that the loss of even Sālim alone was grievous, that other reciters may simply have gone unnamed (as at the Well of Maʿūna in 4/625 where seventy anṣār were slain), and that, as Ibn Ḥajar observed, the concern was the collective memorization of the community. This compilation may thus be dated to about 12/633. Abū Bakr appointed Zayd, then about twenty-two years of age, citing four qualities: "You are a wise young man, we have no aspersions against you, and you used to write down the revelation for the Messenger of Allah." Ibn Ḥajar noted that these traits—youth, intelligence, trustworthiness, and experience—were rarely combined in one man. Scholars add that Zayd had memorized the whole Qur'an, and some, following al-Sulamī (d. 74/693), that he witnessed the final review (al-ʿarḍa al-akhīra); yet apart from al-Sulamī's statement no report corroborates this, and reports from Ibn ʿAbbās name Ibn Masʿūd instead, so this credential remains speculative. Zayd's method was rigorous: "I gathered it from the bark of palm trees, thin white stones, and the men who knew it by heart," requiring two witnesses for each verse—understood by al-Sakhāwī (d. 643/1245) and the majority to mean two who had written the verse from the Prophet ﷺ. The rigor of this method is illustrated by the missing verse. Zayd found the end of Sūrat al-Tawba (9:128–129) with Abū Khuzayma al-Anṣārī alone—not because others did not know it, but because a documented witness was sought. A parallel report mentions the verse of Sūrat al-Aḥzāb (33:23) found with Khuzayma b. Thābit. Ibn Ḥajar reconciled these as two distinct incidents involving two men in the two compilations, while Ibn Kathīr held both occurred under Abū Bakr; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, citing Kitāb al-Mabānī, argued they were a single incident involving one man. Khuzayma was he whose testimony the Prophet ﷺ had made equal to that of two witnesses—Dhū al-Shahādatayn—after he testified to a purchase he had not witnessed, saying he believed the Prophet ﷺ spoke only truth. The two compilations differed in purpose: Abū Bakr's preserved the entire text against loss, and was kept in safekeeping, while ʿUthmān's, as al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) related from Ibn al-Tīn, united the ummah upon one dialect amid disputes over recitation, and was made binding. Some distinguish the ṣuḥuf (loose sheets) from the muṣḥaf (bound codex), and Ibn ʿAṭiyya (d. 541/1147) held that Abū Bakr's was not arranged by sūra sequence, though al-Ḥamad found this insufficiently proven. Regarding the seven aḥruf, al-Dānī (d. 444/1053), Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1071), and al-ʿAynī (d. 855/1451) held that Abū Bakr's compilation embraced them while ʿUthmān's was restricted to one; al-Ḥamad, finding no evidence, dismissed this. Al-Azami further argued that ʿUthmān's codex was assembled independently and only verified against Abū Bakr's, citing reports of independent gathering and review. The compilation passed to ʿUmar, then to his daughter Ḥafṣa (may Allah be pleased with her, d. 45/665); after her death Marwān b. al-Ḥakam obtained and destroyed it, saying its contents were already preserved in the ʿUthmānic muṣḥaf and he feared future doubt. Thus a coherent picture emerges of a deliberate and meticulous effort by the Companions to preserve the words of Allah for the generations to come. ## Key Takeaways 1. During the Prophet’s ﷺ lifetime, the Qur’an was written down on scattered materials like palm branches, stones, and leaves, but it had not yet been gathered into a single volume. The reason was practical: As long as revelation continued and verses could still be abrogated or rearranged, a single master compilation was premature. Only after the Prophet’s ﷺ death, when revelation had ended for good, did the moment become right to compile the whole text into one unified codex. 2. The catalyst was the Battle of Yamāma, where many who carried the Qur’an in memory were killed, including the prominent teacher Sālim. Fearing that further losses would endanger the Qur’an’s preservation, ʿUmar urged Abū Bakr to have it compiled, and Abū Bakr appointed Zayd ibn Thābit, the Prophet’s ﷺ own scribe, to lead the task. Scholars saw no contradiction with Allah’s promise to preserve the Qur’an, understanding the companions’ effort as one of the very means by which that preservation was fulfilled. 3. Zayd followed a rigorous method rather than writing from memory or existing copies alone, requiring for each verse the corroboration of two witnesses who had recorded it in the Prophet’s ﷺ presence, matched against what was preserved in memory. This care surfaces in the account of a verse from Sūrat al-Tawba, found written only with Abū Khuzayma, though many had memorized it. Abū Bakr’s codex was thus the first official compilation, distinct from the later ʿUthmānic project, which aimed to unite the community around a standardized written text and reduce disputes over variant recitations. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who first compiled the Qur’an into a single book? The first person to gather the complete Qur’an into a single official copy was Abū Bakr (rA), the first caliph after the Prophet ﷺ. Reliable reports, including a well-known account in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, describe how he ordered this task, and a statement from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib praises Abū Bakr as the first to gather the Qur’an between two covers. The entire Qur’an had already been written down during the Prophet’s lifetime, but on scattered materials such as palm branches, thin stones, and pieces of leather, and it had been memorized by many companions. What had not yet happened was bringing all of it together into one unified copy. Abū Bakr assigned this to Zayd ibn Thābit (rA), who had served as a leading scribe of revelation for the Prophet ﷺ. Some reports mention other companions who kept personal copies of parts of the Qur’an, but these were private and partial, while Abū Bakr’s compilation was an official effort carried out publicly and accepted by consensus. This is why it is remembered as the first complete compilation of the Qur’an. ### Why was the Qur’an compiled after the Prophet’s death? The compilation grew out of a crisis in the years just after the Prophet ﷺ passed away. Facing several rebellions, the young Muslim community fought a number of fierce battles, and in one of them, the Battle of Yamāma, a large number of those who had memorized the Qur’an were killed. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) grew concerned that if such losses continued in future battles, a significant portion of the Qur’an could be lost along with those who carried it in memory. He urged Abū Bakr (rA) to have the Qur’an gathered into one written collection. Abū Bakr was initially hesitant to undertake something the Prophet ﷺ had not done himself, but he came to agree that it was necessary. During the Prophet’s life the revelation was still ongoing, with verses sometimes added or abrogated, so keeping it on separate materials made sense at the time. Once the revelation was complete and the Prophet ﷺ had passed, the community could now gather the completed revelation into a single official compilation. The deaths at Yamama gave this effort its urgency, and the result was the first official compilation of the Qur’an. ### How did they make sure the Qur’an was compiled accurately? Zayd ibn Thābit (rA), who led the compilation, followed an extremely careful process rather than relying on memory or existing copies alone. Although he himself had memorized the entire Qur’an, he refused to record any verse from memory by itself. For each verse, he required both written documentation and testimony from those who had learned it directly from the Prophet ﷺ. Reports describe how he would not write down a single verse without two witnesses who could confirm that they had written it in the Prophet’s presence exactly as it had been taught. In this way, every verse was backed by three things at once, written material, memorization, and direct testimony. This illustrates the care taken to verify the Qur’an through more than one form of evidence. ### What is the difference between Abū Bakr’s compilation and ʿUthmān’s? The two projects had different purposes. Abū Bakr’s (rA) compilation was meant to preserve the complete text of the Qur’an in one place so that no part would be lost with the deaths of those who had memorized it. It was gathered and then kept safely, while Muslims continued to recite the Qur’an as they had been taught. About two decades later, under the third caliph ʿUthmān (rA), a new concern arose. As Islam spread and different regions recited the Qur’an, differences in recitation were beginning to generate disputes between Muslims from different regions. ʿUthmān’s project aimed to unite the community on a single standardized written text, with official copies sent to the major cities, and other copies brought into conformity with the standardized text. In short, Abū Bakr’s effort focused on preservation, gathering the scattered text into one collection, while Uthman’s focused on unification, standardizing the written text and curbing disputes over recitation. Uthman’s committee worked again from written materials and testimony, and also checked their work against the copy Abū Bakr had produced. ### If Allah promised to preserve the Qur’an, why did it need to be compiled? This is a question early scholars addressed directly. Allah promises in the Qur’an that He Himself will preserve it, so some wondered why the companions needed to gather it at all. The answer scholars gave is that the companions’ efforts were precisely the means through which Allah fulfilled that promise. Divine preservation does not mean the text is kept safe while people do nothing. It works through the actions Allah guides people to take, and He appointed the companions to carry out this task. One scholar explained that they gathered the Qur’an to make it easy for people to learn, memorize, and access, and that even if they had not done so, Allah would still have preserved it by other means, since His guarantee is certain. The care they took, carefully corroborating written evidence with memorization and testimony,, is itself part of how that preservation was achieved. Rather than contradicting Allah’s promise, the compilation is one of the clearest examples of it being carried out in history. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/confronting-todays-pharaoh-and-the-propaganda-war-on-palestine-essay # Confronting Today's Pharaoh and the Propaganda War on Palestine | Essay **Author:** Faisal Malik **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Analysis, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** November 28, 2023 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 ## Introduction The unthinkable violence unleashed against our brothers and sisters in Palestine over the past three years has exposed the violent, inhumane nature of the apartheid state of Israel and the corrupt governments and media outlets that have been enabling it for years. The world’s first genocide livestreamed for humanity to watch in real time[^1]—yet in a true Orwellian sense, every video, every picture, and every piece of evidence of innocent Palestinians killed, tortured, and oppressed has been confronted with a well-financed propaganda machine. A propaganda machine that justifies the killing of innocent children because they are “human shields,”[^2] the bombing of hospitals because they are “terrorist cells,”[^3] the killing of journalists passed off as “collateral damage,”[^4] and the torture of humanitarian workers because Israel “has a right to defend itself.”[^5] A propaganda machine that continues to perpetuate lies that reach millions; lies that dehumanize Palestinians and seek to justify the use of white phosphorus on civilians; lies that frame the aggression of one of the world’s most well-armed and financed militaries against an oppressed population, half of whom are children, as being defensive. A propaganda machine that justified carpet-bombing the most densely populated region of the world, which human-rights experts declared an open-air prison and which others called “the biggest concentration camp in the world,” before the genocide even began.[^6] It seems we are witnessing the time foretold by the Prophet ﷺ: > وَظُهُورُ الشَّهَادَةِ بِالزُّورِ وَكِتْمَانُ شَهَادَةِ الْحَقِّ > > . . . False testimony will prevail and truthful testimony will be concealed.[^7] While the propaganda that has been used to justify violence against Palestinians is well-financed and backed by powerful forces,[^8] we should understand that history repeats itself. This propaganda machine is a tool that has been used by oppressors for thousands of years. We should also be aware that Allah ﷻ has not left us without guidance on how to deal with it. Indeed, the Qur’an provides us guidance on how to engage with and confront deceit and propaganda. --- ## A Perennial Struggle To understand the history of propaganda we must first understand that every prophet or messenger Allah ﷻ sent to guide humanity faced forces who worked against the light of guidance. Allah ﷻ says, > وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَا لِكُلِّ نَبِىٍّ عَدُوًّۭا شَيَـٰطِينَ ٱلْإِنسِ وَٱلْجِنِّ يُوحِى بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍۢ زُخْرُفَ ٱلْقَوْلِ غُرُورًۭا ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ رَبُّكَ مَا فَعَلُوهُ ۖ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ > > And so We have made for every prophet enemies—devilish humans and jinn—whispering to one another with elegant words of deception. Had it been your Lord’s will, they would not have done such a thing. So leave them and their deceit.[^9] In the above verse (*aya*), we are confronted with the reality that every prophet faced opposition, one of the most consistent tools of which has been “elegant words of deception.” At the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, we know that his opponents were adamant about spreading lies about him. They called him a poet, fortune teller,[^10] madman,[^11] and a renegade and rebel,[^12] and said he was inspired by the devil,[^13] among many more accusations. It is narrated that on one occasion, every time the Prophet ﷺ would approach a person to call them to Islam, Abu Lahab would immediately follow them and try to counteract the *dawah*.[^14] Today, the modern manifestation of the falsehood that the prophets confronted is the multimillion-dollar Islamophobia industry. This industry too consists of nothing but *elegant words of deception*. It is an industry that seeks to dehumanize and vilify Muslims and Islam. An examination of anti-Muslim hate crimes in North America, such as the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017, the killing of the Afzaal family in 2021 in London, Ontario, or the brutal murder of Wadea Al Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian boy in 2023,[^15] reveals that the underlying theme of these acts of terrorism and hate incidents is that they were perpetrated by people who had internalized Islamophobic discourse. The Islamophobia industry’s vilification and dehumanization of Muslims not only leads to violence against Muslims in the West, but also justifies the war and violence against Muslims abroad, such as our brothers and sisters in Palestine. The Israeli state’s violence against Palestinians is sustained through a racist state discourse that dehumanizes Palestinians. In 2023 several statements made by high-level members of the Israeli government and society reached a global audience; this includes Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s justification of the siege in Gaza in 2023 and cutting off water, electricity, and food, by stating, “We are fighting human animals.”[^16] Prime Minister Netanyahu himself made biblical references to the destruction of the Amalek, insinuating a complete annihilation of the people of Gaza.[^17] In the past three years, the world has witnessed more and more brazen and violent rhetoric against Palestinians coming from the highest levels of the Israeli government, including the most recent AI-generated video mocking the starvation and torture of Palestinians posted by Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Defense of Israel.[^18] Far from being isolated incidents, these are just a few examples of the level of dehumanization that has existed against Palestinians in Israeli society for decades.[^19] While it is indeed horrifying to confront the fact that there is a well-financed propaganda machine that seeks to justify killing innocent people, it is important to note that this type of propaganda has existed for millennia, and the Qur’an itself highlights how propaganda was used to justify violence and oppression. --- ## Tactics of Pharaoh ### Vilifying and Dehumanizing the Oppressed One of the most repeated stories in the Qur’an is the story of Moses’s confrontation of Pharaoh. When one reflects on the oppressive Pharaonic regime, one finds that its power rested on five pillars: (1) a dictatorial tyrant, who believed he possessed absolute authority over the people; (2) a a hypocritical vice-assistant (Haman); (3) a wealthy financier of corruption (Qarun); (4) a corrupt clergy (the magicians); and (5) media and propagators (the Hashirun). The five pillars that Pharaoh used have continued to manifest throughout history.[^20] Today they are embodied by wealthy corporations and institutes,[^21] powerful media outlets,[^22] corrupt politicians and people of influence (such as celebrities, social media influencers, marketing platforms, etc.) who endorse the current genocide against the people of Gaza.[^23] Furthermore, the dialogues of Pharaoh and Moses (as) give insight into the tactics oppressors use to justify violence against those they subjugate. For instance, when Moses (as) confronted and exposed Pharaonic society’s false ideology, corruption, and oppression, he was met with a wide range of responses to try to suppress his message. In Surah al-Aʿraf, Allah ﷻ says regarding the cabinet of Pharaoh: > وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ مِن قَوْمِ فِرْعَوْنَ أَتَذَرُ مُوسَىٰ وَقَوْمَهُۥ لِيُفْسِدُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَيَذَرَكَ وَءَالِهَتَكَ ۚ > > And the eminent among the people of Pharaoh said, “Will you leave Moses and his people to cause corruption in the land and abandon you and your gods?”[^24] The political elite who benefited from the violence and corruption of the Pharaonic state accused Moses (as) and his people of causing corruption in the land. The irony is that it was actually the people who accused Moses (as) of causing corruption in the land who had set up and sustained a corrupt social order that allowed for the oppression, murder, and enslavement of the Children of Israel. They were the ones who caused corruption by tormenting the Children of Israel, killing their male children and sparing their girls,[^25] yet they accused Moses (as) and his followers of what they were guilty of—that is, being corrupt. By accusing Moses (as) of sowing corruption, they were trying to delegitimize his divine message of *tawhid*, which would expose their false gods and unveil the crimes they were committing. The accusation of the Pharaoh’s cabinet illustrates that the tactic of oppressors is to blame those they oppress in order to maintain power over them and diminish their struggle for truth, justice, and dignity. Indeed, oppressive regimes throughout history have used similar tactics against the populations they oppress. Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, referred to the Indigenous people of the land as savages. He stated in 1883, > When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write.[^26] Macdonald’s language framed the Indigenous people as savages, although it was the colonial settlers who were stealing their land and killing innocent people. Another example can be seen in the 1960s, when Frantz Fanon noted regarding the media coverage of the Algerian struggle for independence against French colonial rule, > When a Western journalist interviews us, however, it is seldom done to render us service. In the war in Algeria, for example, the most liberal-minded French reporters make constant use of ambiguous epithets to portray our struggle. When we reproach them for it, they reply in all sincerity they are being objective. For the colonized subject, objectivity is always directed against him.[^27] Fanon noted how the Algerians were constantly portrayed in a negative light in the media, so that their struggle against the French colonial forces would seem illegitimate. Algerians were portrayed as violent and extreme, despite it being France that was brutally occupying their land. Another example of this type of propaganda was the negative portrayal of Black Americans in the American media before and during the civil rights era and even in recent times. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (famously known as Malcolm X) noted that such tactics were used against Black people to delegitimize their struggle against the racism and oppression they faced in American society. He stated, > They take the newspapers and make the newspapers blow you and me up as if all of us are criminals, all of us are racists, all of us drug addicts, or all of us are rioting. . . . They master this imagery, this image-making. They give you the image of an extremist, and from then on anything you do is extreme.”[^28] He noted how the American media portrayed Black people in America in a manner that labeled anyone who struggled for freedom, justice, and equality as an extremist while depicting those who benefited from and enabled the racism that oppressed the Black community as victims of Black extremism. > This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.[^29] What we learn from the above examples is that oppressors create propaganda to blame those whom they oppress for their own oppression. This is done in order to justify their state of oppression and delegitimize any attempt to challenge the system. Pharaoh accused Moses (as) of causing corruption because his message was causing discord and exposing the corrupt Pharaonic system. The French colonialists did the same against the Algerians, the American media was used against Black civil rights activists, and we have been witnessing similar tactics against Palestinians for decades now. The past three years in particular saw an exponential rise in propaganda against not only Palestinians but also pro-Palestinian voices throughout the Western world, with smear campaigns directed at peaceful protestors, student encampments, and activists.[^30] The propaganda used by an occupying power against those they occupy is based on the fact that for an oppressive state to exist it requires an ideology to legitimize that oppression. The famous Palestinian intellectual Edward Said noted as much when he stated, > Neither imperialism nor colonialism is a simple act of accumulation and acquisition. Both are supported and perhaps even impelled by impressive ideological formations that include notions that certain territories and people require and beseech domination, as well as forms of knowledge affiliated with domination.[^31] Once an ideology can be created that allows for a people to be seen as subhuman, savage, and barbaric, then violence against them is easier to justify. ### Justifying Violence and Oppression > قال سَنُقَتِّلُ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ وَنَسْتَحْىِۦ نِسَآءَهُمْ وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَـٰهِرُونَ > > \[Pharaoh\] said, “We will kill their sons and keep their women alive; and indeed, we are subjugators over them.”[^32] After claiming that Moses (as) was causing corruption, Pharaoh declared that he was going to kill the sons of the Children of Israel and let their women live. As such, he framed a narrative that because Moses (as) and his followers were corruptors, he was therefore justified in killing them and subjugating them. Pharaoh’s statement “we are subjugators over them” reflects the derogatory manner in which he viewed the Children of Israel and has strong parallels to dehumanizing language about Palestinians. Interestingly, though Pharaoh threatened to kill the Children of Israel’s sons and enslave their women in response to Moses’s supposed corruption, this violence was present even before Moses’s birth. Therefore, the violence of the Pharaonic state was not a reaction to Moses (as), but rather part of its inherent nature. The manner in which Pharaoh justified his violence reflects the fact that oppressors refuse to acknowledge the violence of the system they create and maintain to oppress others. Therefore, when the violent nature of their system is exposed, they blame the resulting violence on the oppressed who simply demand dignity and freedom. Returning to the case of Sir John A. Macdonald, after he portrayed Indigenous populations as savages, he then justified forcefully taking their children and putting them in residential schools. In these schools, Indigenous children were often further abused and even killed. Macdonald stated, > It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that the Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.[^33] The justification of violence toward the children of Canada’s Indigenous population bears striking resemblance to the Israeli state’s justifications for the violence it carries out against Palestinian children. The brutal muder of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was shot 335 times by the IOF, is one example of a long pattern of violence against Palestinian children.[^34] Golda Meir, one of the instrumental founding figures of Israel and its fourth prime minister, once stated, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”[^35] El-Hajj Malik also noted in the 1960s how the West justified their violence toward the “third world” by seeking to dehumanize those they attacked. Regarding the Western media during his time, he stated, “It always has words to justify their destruction of the people they’re destroying.”[^36] One example he gave was Western media coverage of the Congo’s attempt to gain independence from Belgian and Western control. He stated, > Right now, in the Congo, defenseless villages are being bombed, black women and children and babies are being blown to bits by airplanes. Where do these airplanes come from? The United States. The U-n-i-t-e-d S-t-a-t-e-s. Yes, and you won’t write that. You won’t write that American planes are blowing the flesh from the bodies of black women and black babies and black men. No. Why? Because they’re American planes. As long as they’re American planes, that’s humanitarian. > > They take the press with their ability to control you with image-making, and they make mass murder, cold-blooded murder, look like a humanitarian project. All these thousands of black people dying, butchered and you have no compassion in your hearts whatsoever for them, because the victim has been made to look like he’s the criminal and the criminal has been made to look like he’s the victim.[^37] His criticism of the bombing of innocent women, children, and civilians in the Congo bears a striking resemblance to the current situation in Gaza. The carpet-bombing of Gaza, which has been estimated to be over 223,000 tons of explosives (equivalent to 16 Hiroshimas), has killed over 73,000 Palestinians, of which over 21,500 were children, including 1,022 babies. The bombing has destroyed 85–90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure, leaving 68 million tons of debris, which will take 140 years to clear.[^38] All this destruction and suffering has been justified with the same statement—“Israel has a right to defend itself.” ### Narcissistic Benevolence In Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ, Moses (as) and Aaron (as) are commanded by Allah ﷻ to tell Pharaoh to free the Children of Israel from slavery and oppression. > فَأْتِيَا فِرْعَوْنَ فَقُولَآ إِنَّا رَسُولُ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ • أَنْ أَرْسِلْ مَعَنَا بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ > > Go to Pharaoh and say, “We are messengers from the Lord of all worlds, let the Children of Israel go with us.’’[^39] How does Pharaoh respond to this demand from Moses (as) and Aaron (as)? Pharaoh accuses Moses (as) of being ungrateful. > قَالَ أَلَمْ نُرَبِّكَ فِينَا وَلِيدًۭا وَلَبِثْتَ فِينَا مِنْ عُمُرِكَ سِنِينَ > > Pharaoh protested, “Did we not raise you among us as a child, and you stayed several years of your life in our care?”[^40] Instead of conceding to Moses (as) and Aaron’s request to end the oppression of the Children of Israel, Pharaoh reminds Moses (as) of how he was raised in the Pharaonic palace, and how ungrateful he was, coming from a “slave class,” having had the opportunity to be raised in Pharaoh’s palace among “the civilized class.” Of course, what Pharaoh ignores is that he was raised in his palace because his forces were killing the male children of the Children of Israel, and Allah ﷻ miraculously saved Moses (as) by causing him to be found in the river and raised in Pharaoh’s palace without anybody knowing who Moses (as) was going to be. As such, Moses’s being raised in Pharaoh’s palace was a divine intervention that saved him from Pharaoh’s murderous government and had nothing to do with Pharaoh’s magnanimity. The idea that an oppressor sees themself as a benign and civilizing force toward those they oppress was an idea that permeated European colonial discourse over the past few centuries to justify the colonial project. Mahmood Mamdani (the father of the famous New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani) noted over two decades ago, > The idea “imperialism had served civilization by clearing inferior races off the earth” found widespread expression in nineteenth-century European thought, from natural sciences and philosophy to anthropology and politics.[^41] Colonial discourse tried to remain consistent with its alleged humanitarian ideals by claiming that colonialism was a civilizing force for the world. If the colonized population was treated violently by their colonizers, it was not due to the violent nature of colonialism but rather due to the colonized’s failure to reach the level of being “civilized” as determined by their oppressors. Fanon notes this phenomenon in his statement: > Western bourgeois racism toward the “n\*gg\*r” and the “towelhead” is a racism of contempt—a racism that minimizes. But the bourgeois ideology that proclaims all men to be essentially equal, manages to remain consistent with itself by urging the subhuman to rise to the level of Western humanity that it embodies.[^42] One of the pivotal figures in the founding of Zionism, the Austro-Hungarian Theodore Herzl, sought support from European colonial powers for his Zionist vision partly by justifying it through the Eurocentric racist worldview that saw non-Europeans as less civilized. He stated that among the benefits of establishing the state of Israel on the land of Palestine would be that “we should there form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism.”[^43] Furthermore, Herzl fully acknowledged that his vision of the Zionist state was to be modeled after European colonies, where Europeans colonized and exploited non-Europeans. Herzl wrote to the white supremacist Cecil Rhodes, the brutal colonial dictator of South Africa: > Please send me a text saying you have examined my programme and approve it. You will ask yourself why I address myself to you, Mr. Rhodes. It is because my programme is a colonial state.[^44] ### Devaluing the Lives of the Oppressed Another propaganda tactic used by Pharaoh against Moses (as) was to minimize or ignore the suffering of the Children of Israel while amplifying the alleged “crime” committed by Moses (as). After Pharaoh responded to the request to let the Children of Israel go by highlighting how Moses (as) was raised in his palace, he then proceeded to discuss Moses’s accidental killing of an Egyptian. > وَفَعَلْتَ فَعْلَتَكَ ٱلَّتِى فَعَلْتَ وَأَنتَ مِنَ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ > > Then you did what you did, being \[utterly\] ungrateful![^45] When Moses (as) saw one of the Children of Israel being oppressed by an Egyptian, he sought to stop the oppression, causing him to fight the Egyptian and accidently kill him. This incident is what led Moses (as) to flee from Egypt. Notice how Pharaoh completely ignores the years of violence by his regime and instead amplifies an accidental killing that was actually the result of the oppressive conditions Pharaoh himself had created. Again we can see such double standards practiced throughout the twentieth century by various Western media outlets in how they cover conflicts in which the West has a vested interest. Fanon noted that the Western media was almost silent when it came to the murder of thousands of Algerians and Malagasy by French colonial rule and the murder of thousands of Kenyans by the British in the 1940s and 1950s.[^46] El-Hajj Malik noted a similar double standard in the media’s coverage of the violence occurring in Congo during the 1950s and 1960s: > If you’ll notice, as long as blacks in the Congo were being slaughtered on a mass scale, there was no outcry. But as soon as the lives of a few whites were involved, the whole world became in an uproar. What caused the world to become involved in an uproar? The press.[^47] Within the context of the current situation in Palestine, it is extremely hypocritical to only focus on October 7, 2023, as if history began then and to completely ignore seventy-five years of oppression and violence against Palestinians. The media has never batted an eye at the over 650,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.[^48] The media never bothered to contextualize the living conditions of the people of Gaza, which are caused by the Israeli blockade of the past sixteen years. This brutal blockade resulted in 70 percent of Gazans being refugees, 82 percent living in poverty, 63 percent food insecure, and 95 percent not having access to clean water.[^49] Nor has there been any coverage of the fact that Israel has killed more than three thousand Palestinian children in the twenty years prior to this conflict.[^50] The media highlighted the hostage situation on October 7, but they rarely if ever mention that 20 percent of Palestinians have been arrested by Israel since 1967,[^51] or that an estimated 500–1,000 Palestinian children were held in Israeli military detention each year prior to 2023.[^52] Even after three years of global outrage; worldwide protests;[^53] charges of genocide and crimes against humanity by the highest international bodies, such as the UN;[^54] the destruction of 85–90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure; and the killing of over 73,000 Palestinians, including over 21,500 children;[^55] there are still very powerful political figures, media outlets, and institutions that refuse to condemn Israel’s crimes. Despite the power and wealth that has gone into enabling the genocide in Gaza, the past three years have shown a global awakening to the oppression of the Palestinians. From worldwide protests, student encampments, boycotts, and flotillas to activism from the most grassroots level to the most influential institutions in the world, millions of people from all backgrounds have stood up against empire, oppression, and a multimillion-dollar propaganda machine that tried to erase Palestine from the world but utterly failed. While progress has been made, the struggle continues, and just as the Qur’an provides us insight into the Pharaonic method of propaganda, it also gives us insight into how to confront it. --- ## Confronting Pharaoh ### Don’t Be Afraid or Feel Helpless One of the commands of the Prophet ﷺ is “do not feel helpless.”[^56] Allah ﷻ is aware of everything that is going on and His help will one day come. Throughout the Qur’an, when Moses (as) is commanded to go to Pharaoh, Moses (as) expresses his fear and reservation, yet Allah ﷻ reassures him that His help is with him. In Surah Taha for instance, when Moses (as) and Aaron (as) are commanded to go to Pharaoh, they say: > قَالَا رَبَّنَآ إِنَّنَا نَخَافُ أَن يَفْرُطَ عَلَيْنَآ أَوْ أَن يَطْغَىٰ • قَالَ لَا تَخَافَآ ۖ إِنَّنِى مَعَكُمَآ أَسْمَعُ وَأَرَىٰ > > They said, “Our Lord, indeed we are afraid that he will hasten \[punishment\] against us or that he will transgress.” \[Allah\] said, “Fear not. Indeed, I am with you both; I hear and I see*.*”[^57] We learn from these *ayat* that Allah ﷻ is with those on the side of truth when they confront an oppressor. Although the righteous will be severely tested, their cause will always ultimately end in victory. ### Know Your History and Have the Knowledge to Confront Propaganda with Truth As mentioned earlier in Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ, Pharaoh tried to deflect from his own deceit and oppression by selectively portraying events in Moses’s life to make it look like Moses (as) was the extremist troublemaker. Moses (as), however, knew the true history, so he responded to this deceit by explaining the context of his situation before returning to the actual issue at hand,[^58] which was the oppression of the Children of Israel by Pharaonic society and its false ideology of *shirk*: > وَتِلْكَ نِعْمَةٌۭ تَمُنُّهَا عَلَىَّ أَنْ عَبَّدتَّ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ > > And is this a favor of which you remind me—that you have enslaved the Children of Israel?[^59] Moses (as) understood that Pharaoh was trying to spin history, and he was able to counter his propaganda by highlighting the obvious injustice of the enslavement of the Children of Israel. In this regard, one must keep themself as educated as possible and benefit from the many resources available to be equipped to counteract the propaganda that continues to proliferate. Below is just a small list of relevant resources. #### Documentaries - *How Israel Was Created* | AJ+ - *Occupation 101* - *The Letter That Led to the Founding of Israel* - *Al-Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe 1948* - *The Price of Oslo* - *Israelism* - *The Voice of Hind Rajab* - *Gaza: Doctors Under Attack* #### Books - Ismail Adam Patel, *A Brief History of Palestine* - Rashid Khalidi, *The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine* - Norman Finkelstein, *Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom* - Norman Finkelstein, *Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places*  - Miko Peled, *The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine* ### Continue to Speak Up and Never Give Up When Moses (as) was commanded to confront Pharaoh, he didn’t run away from the task, but rather asked Allah ﷻ for His support. >  قَالَ رَبِّ ٱشۡرَحۡ لِى صَدۡرِى • وَيَسِّرۡ لِىٓ أَمۡرِى • وَٱحۡلُلۡ عُقۡدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِى • يَفۡقَهُواْ قَوۡلِى • وَٱجۡعَل لِّى وَزِيرًا مِّنۡ أَهۡلِى • هَـٰرُونَ أَخِى • ٱشۡدُدۡ بِهِۦۤ أَزۡرِى • وَأَشۡرِكۡهُ فِىٓ أَمۡرِى > > \[Moses\] said, “My Lord, expand \[i.e., relax\] for me my breast \[with assurance\]. And ease for me my task. And untie the knot from my tongue. That they may understand my speech. And appoint for me a minister \[i.e., assistant\] from my family. Aaron, my brother. Increase through him my strength. And let him share my task.”[^60] Moses’s famous *dua* showed how he asked Allah ﷻ to untie the knot of his tongue and allow people to understand his speech. He understood that Allah’s help would be with him, and He would use His prophet’s *dawah* to effect change. We know that Moses’s *dawah* led Pharaoh’s own magicians to enter into Islam, as well as others from the corrupt Pharaonic system.[^61] The global shift and support for Palestine has shown us how Allah ﷻ has turned the tides and how millions of people from across the globe and in the least expected places have stood in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. We should never underestimate the power of our words. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was constantly confronted with lies and propaganda against his message. ʿAbdullah ibn Rawaha (ra) once recited poetry in defense of Islam. When ʿUmar (ra) saw this, he was taken aback that he would dare to recite poetry in front of the Prophet ﷺ; however, the Prophet ﷺ told ʿUmar, > خَلِّ عَنْهُ يَا عُمَرُ، فَلَهِيَ أَسْرَعُ فِيهِمْ، مِنْ نَضْحِ النَّبْلِ > > Leave him alone, O ʿUmar, for it will strike them down quicker than a shower of arrows![^62] We learn from this incident that just as words can deceive people, the opposite is also the case: Truthful words can be a means of unveiling the reality of a situation to people. In the past three years, there have been countless attempts to bully people into silence, but we should be aware that those who spoke out and continue to speak out in these difficult times to counteract the multimillion-dollar propaganda machine will, by the mercy of Allah ﷻ, have the opportunity to fulfill one of the greatest forms of jihad. > عَنْ طَارِقِ بْنِ شِهَابٍ أَنَّ رَجُلًا سَأَلَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَيُّ الْجِهَادِ أَفْضَلُ قَالَ كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ عِنْدَ سُلْطَانٍ جَائِرٍ > > A man asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, “What is the best jihad?” The Prophet said, “A word of truth in front of a tyrannical ruler.”[^63] In this regard, we all have opportunities to speak out against what is happening within our spheres of influence through whatever means we have access to, such as social media, WhatsApp, and friend circles. The past three years have demonstrated that no effort is too small and that a whole generation changed the algorithm and global opinion by constantly sharing what was going on in Gaza,[^64] something that many big news outlets failed to do. ### Always Make Dua to Allah ﷻ In the story of Moses (as), we constantly see him turning to Allah ﷻ for help, assistance, and strength. Therefore, we should know that Allah ﷻ hears the countless people calling on Him to aid the Palestinians, and although the *ummah* is currently facing a great test, the help of Allah ﷻ is near. > أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ خَلَوْا۟ مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ ٱلْبَأْسَآءُ وَٱلضَّرَّآءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ ٱلرَّسُولُ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّ نَصْرَ ٱللَّهِ قَرِيبٌۭ   > > Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such \[trial\] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until \[even their\] messenger and those who believed with him said, “When is the help of Allah?” Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near.[^65] --- ## Notes [^1]: Raz Segal, “‘A Textbook Case of Genocide’: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza,” Democracy Now!, YouTube video, October 16, 2023, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGGjLZNuyg](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DZWGGjLZNuyg&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965549317&usg=AOvVaw1-WApxgtoVz-Y_C4kOXrKw); “Israel/OPT: Ceasefire Must Be a Pathway to Ending Israel’s Unlawful Occupation, Apartheid and Genocide,” Amnesty International, October 9, 2025, [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/10/israel-opt-ceasefire-pathway-ending-occupation-apartheid-genocide/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/10/israel-opt-ceasefire-pathway-ending-occupation-apartheid-genocide/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965550353&usg=AOvVaw2_yPQwq9_nQUI9sbnmF7Hi); “The First Livestreamed Genocide,” *Al Jazeera*, April 15, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2025/4/16/israeli-soldiers-filmed-themselves-destroying-gaza-see-the-video-evidence](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2025/4/16/israeli-soldiers-filmed-themselves-destroying-gaza-see-the-video-evidence&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965551213&usg=AOvVaw165wO2A4pssdxw3rP31HbJ). [^2]: Francesca Albanese, “Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime,” October 20, 2025, [https://www.un,.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-a-collective-crime-20oct25/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.un.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-a-collective-crime-20oct25/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965552109&usg=AOvVaw3WHXkXVtraVgTPdtiIGTd6); Francesca Albanese, “Torture and Genocide,” UN, March 23, 2026, [https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/61/71](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/61/71&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965552608&usg=AOvVaw1ame53lWJGk9xZbtXxTSGV). [^3]: *Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel* (A/79/232), United Nations, September 11, 2024, [https://www.un.org/unispal/document/report-of-the-independent-international-commission-of-inquiry-on-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-including-east-jerusalem-and-israel-11sep24/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.un.org/unispal/document/report-of-the-independent-international-commission-of-inquiry-on-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-including-east-jerusalem-and-israel-11sep24/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965554116&usg=AOvVaw2Y4QqdA2dtQpI2TtlXjyiE). [^4]: “Israel Remained Leading Killer of Journalists in 2025: RSF,” *Al Jazeera*, December 9, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/9/israel-the-top-killer-of-journalists-worldwide-once-again-says-rsf-report](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/9/israel-the-top-killer-of-journalists-worldwide-once-again-says-rsf-report&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965555198&usg=AOvVaw1xErU0zwX2OFjHefVfRD62). [^5]: David Gritten, “Gaza Flotilla Activists Allege Abuse by Israeli Forces While Detained,” *BBC*, May 23, 2026, [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cglp5z63k9no](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cglp5z63k9no&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965556113&usg=AOvVaw147R1eQKpF2JY5DYYoz0e7); Nils Adler, “Outrage Over Israel’s Ben-Gvir Flotilla Abuse Video: What We Know,” *Al Jazeera*, May 21, 2026, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/21/outrage-over-israels-ben-gvir-flotilla-abuse-video-what-we-know](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/21/outrage-over-israels-ben-gvir-flotilla-abuse-video-what-we-know&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965557128&usg=AOvVaw0X-bd2EtHaleVzV3Hl1Unj). [^6]: “Gaza: Israel’s ‘Open-Air Prison’ at 15: Israel, Egypt Movement Restrictions Wreak Havoc on Palestinian Lives,” Human Rights Watch, June 14, 2022, [https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965595961&usg=AOvVaw2CX6sDhoOidySWVURdhQg9); Basem Naim, “A Letter from Gaza to Justin Trudeau,” *Al Jazeera*, June 11, 2018, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/6/11/a-letter-from-gaza-to-justin-trudeau#:~:text=You%20are%20perhaps%20unaware%20of,concentration%20camp%20ever%20to%20exist%E2%80%9D](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/6/11/a-letter-from-gaza-to-justin-trudeau%23:~:text%3DYou%2520are%2520perhaps%2520unaware%2520of,concentration%2520camp%2520ever%2520to%2520exist%25E2%2580%259D&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965597015&usg=AOvVaw1fSdhULD0G7ARifvH8DfP-). [^7]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, no. 1049. [^8]: See Elis Gjevori, “Israel to Pour $730m into Propaganda Arm Amid Reputational Crisis,” *Middle East Eye*, May 1, 2026, [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-pour-730m-propaganda-gaza-genocide-iran-war-turns-it-pariah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-pour-730m-propaganda-gaza-genocide-iran-war-turns-it-pariah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965558657&usg=AOvVaw0AOEWfarpSVFsNMG2PJgQ0). [^9]: Qur’an 6:112. [^10]: Qur’an 69:41–42. [^11]: Qur’an 81:22. [^12]: Yasir Qadhi, *The Sirah of the Prophet (PBUH): A Contemporary and Original Analysis* (Kube Publishing, 2023), 93. [^13]: Qur’an 81:25. [^14]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 16023, [https://dorar.net/h/Hp7Bt6lE](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dorar.net/h/Hp7Bt6lE&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965560595&usg=AOvVaw2no1pVixbvYXyjSLE99jkt); Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ (Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2000), no. 16023. [^15]: See “Anti-Muslim Hate Hits New High in US: Advocacy Group,” *Al Jazeera*, March 11, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/11/anti-muslim-hate-hits-new-high-in-us-advocacy-group](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/11/anti-muslim-hate-hits-new-high-in-us-advocacy-group&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965561936&usg=AOvVaw1JjlBVBXZ5mQcETUpS2ccR); “Documenting the Palestine Exception,” Islamophobia Research Hub, York University, 2025, [https://www.yorku.ca/laps/research/islamophobia/wp-content/uploads/sites/874/2025/09/documenting-the-palestine-exception-2025.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.yorku.ca/laps/research/islamophobia/wp-content/uploads/sites/874/2025/09/documenting-the-palestine-exception-2025.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965562846&usg=AOvVaw0dyDmxaTuFxWGZMY1WCZ2T). [^16]: “Israeli Defence Minister Orders ‘Complete Siege’ on Gaza,” *Al Jazeera*, October 9, 2023, [https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965563849&usg=AOvVaw2iLsLaL3DNCI0qd0oMx2oS). [^17]: “Netanyahu Faces Backlash for Evoking Biblical Amalek amid Heavy Civilian Casualties in Gaza,” *Middle East Eye*, YouTube video, October 29, 2023, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMVs7akyMh0](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DpMVs7akyMh0&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965564693&usg=AOvVaw31FeE7tX8RXPCrk8v_768X). [^18]: Arwa Mahdawi, “Ben-Gvir Posts Palestinians on Conveyor Belts to Detention Camps. The World Is Silent,” *The Guardian*, September 3, 2026, [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/03/ben-gvir-palestinian-comments](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/03/ben-gvir-palestinian-comments&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965565723&usg=AOvVaw1Tsnwvl37XxCiV8pUICT0Z). [^19]: Simon Speakman Cordall, “Dehumanisation: How Israel Is Able to Commit Its Genocide in Gaza,” September 17, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/17/dehumanisation-how-israel-is-able-to-commit-its-genocide-in-gaza](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/17/dehumanisation-how-israel-is-able-to-commit-its-genocide-in-gaza&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965566720&usg=AOvVaw1ncmXDncXqncJCzKDmwNoG). [^20]: Many thanks to Sh. Yousef Wahb for this insight. [^21]: Francesca Albanese, “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” Human Rights Council, June 30, 2025, [https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session59/advance-version/a-hrc-59-23-aev.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session59/advance-version/a-hrc-59-23-aev.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965568159&usg=AOvVaw1VPq8V7cXyRBd-kpFIpcte); Federica Marsi, “UN Report Lists Companies Complicit in Israel’s ‘Genocide’: Who Are They?,” July 1, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965569079&usg=AOvVaw3n4xWXDqmnPyOolk_ensYF); Katherine Blouin, Nathan Kalman-Lamb, and Derek Silva, “Canadian Universities Too Should Be in Francesca Albanese’s Report,” July 13, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/7/13/canadian-universities-too-should-be-in-francesca-albaneses-report](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/7/13/canadian-universities-too-should-be-in-francesca-albaneses-report&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965570084&usg=AOvVaw2_HjWViK4q0PB_d1mdZsEh). [^22]: Martin Lukacs, Dania Majid, and Jason Toney, eds., *[When Genocide Wasn’t News: How Canadian Media Covered Up the Destruction of Gaza](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.ca/When-Genocide-Wasnt-News-destruction/dp/1069357820&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965570883&usg=AOvVaw22BYvFGOoQV6RdubyVbkK9)* (Breach Books, 2025). [^23]: “How Israel Is Paying Influencers to Push Propaganda,” *TRT World*, YouTube video, October 2, 2025, [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/\_034ksJscMw](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_034ksJscMw&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965597689&usg=AOvVaw2Q0wM6vBF6fJxGCNH3lzN4); “Israel Pumps Millions into a Disinformation Campaign to Deny Gaza Starvation,” *TRT World*, September 16, 2025, [https://www.trtworld.com/article/26aa3a47f85b](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.trtworld.com/article/26aa3a47f85b&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965598443&usg=AOvVaw2EvO0mHn13HALLxSHuwydY); Ahmet Alioglu, “Digital Occupation,” *Al Jazeera*, May 5, 2025, [https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/analyses/digital-occupation-pixelated-propaganda-censored-platforms-and-battle-narrative-gaza](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/analyses/digital-occupation-pixelated-propaganda-censored-platforms-and-battle-narrative-gaza&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965599333&usg=AOvVaw0e5Upet3IFjGWOHLITYKhp); Enjy El-Kadi, “Ben Shapiro’s Anti-Muslim Film Is Nothing New,” *Al Jazeera*, August 27, 2026, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/8/27/ben-shapiros-anti-muslim-film-is-nothing-new](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/8/27/ben-shapiros-anti-muslim-film-is-nothing-new&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965600103&usg=AOvVaw0yUNR4IIv4mRlzU2Zr6TZQ). [^24]: Qur’an 7:127. [^25]: Qur’an 2:49. [^26]: “Residential Schools in Canada: Education Guide,” Historica Canada, accessed October 23, 2023, p. 2, [http://education.historicacanada.ca/files/103/ResidentialSchools\_Printable\_Pages.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://education.historicacanada.ca/files/103/ResidentialSchools_Printable_Pages.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965572230&usg=AOvVaw1ApchyQwdNBAnDhQVdHzec). [^27]: Frantz Fanon, *The* *Wretched of the Earth* (Grove Press, 2004), 37. [^28]: George Breitman, ed., *Malcolm X Speaks* (Grove Press, 1990), 92. [^29]: Breitman, *Malcolm X Speaks*, 93. [^30]: See Ahmad Ibsais, “Encamp, Divest and Keep Your Eyes on Gaza,” *Al Jazeera*, April 30, 2024, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/30/encamp-divest-and-keep-your-eyes-on-gaza](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/30/encamp-divest-and-keep-your-eyes-on-gaza&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965574384&usg=AOvVaw3ogmrnRRfEd-HyUBsE3-MB); Jake Offenhartz, “Mahmoud Khalil Files Suit Alleging a ‘Public-Private’ Conspiracy to Target Israel’s Critics,” *AP News*, July 14, 2026, [https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-israel-conspiracy-lawsuit-critics-3691fdff6a5d19b9456cddba6c29ba15](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-israel-conspiracy-lawsuit-critics-3691fdff6a5d19b9456cddba6c29ba15&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965575489&usg=AOvVaw0TlSNY_cCvX3VP9oi3-tht). [^31]: Edward Said, *Culture and Imperialism* (Vintage Books, 1994), 9. [^32]: Qur’an 7:127. [^33]: “Residential Schools in Canada.” [^34]: “Hind Rajab’s Story,” The Hind Rajab Foundation, [https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/hind-rajabs-story](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/hind-rajabs-story&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965577053&usg=AOvVaw3WYjnwS3sd3m5o6O0ibIYF); Brad Parker, “What’s Not a Target for Israel?,” *Al Jazeera*, July 30, 2014, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/30/whats-not-a-target-for-israel/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/30/whats-not-a-target-for-israel/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965577814&usg=AOvVaw0tDITHDOuCGa_G9uoIHRwu); “Israel Continues to Commit Genocide and Other Atrocity Crimes by Deliberately Targeting Palestinian Children,” UN Commission of Inquiry Press Release, June 23, 2026, [https://www.un.org/unispal/document/uncoi-press-release-23jun26/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.un.org/unispal/document/uncoi-press-release-23jun26/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965578655&usg=AOvVaw239-Prx568Jc35Z8iKep89). [^35]: “‘We Can Never Forgive the Arabs for Making Us Kill Children’ - CBS’ Schieffer Quotes Golda Meir,” *Haaretz*, July 28, 2014, [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2014-07-28/ty-article/we-can-never-forgive-them/0000017f-e587-da9b-a1ff-edefe0bd0000](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2014-07-28/ty-article/we-can-never-forgive-them/0000017f-e587-da9b-a1ff-edefe0bd0000&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965579914&usg=AOvVaw3wouKnP8WvLbinlhWTt29r). [^36]: Breitman, *Malcolm X Speaks*, 97. [^37]: Breitman, *Malcolm X Speaks*, 93. [^38]: “Gaza War’s 1,000 days: 90% of Strip ‘Destroyed’, 80% ‘Seized’ by Israel,” *Al Jazeera*, July 2, 2026, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/2/gaza-wars-1000-days-90-of-strip-destroyed-80-seized-by-israel](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/2/gaza-wars-1000-days-90-of-strip-destroyed-80-seized-by-israel&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965581780&usg=AOvVaw1WkPT4VavOL_N1dIuvBoeu). [^39]: Qur’an 26:16–17. [^40]: Qur’an 26:18. [^41]: Mahmood Mamdani, *Good Muslim, Bad Muslim* (Random House, 2004), 6. [^42]: Fanon, *Wretched of the Earth*, 110. The original source prints the racial slur in full; it has been partially redacted here by the editors. [^43]: Theodor Herzl, *A Jewish State* (Federation of American Zionists, 1917), 12. [^44]: Cited in Ismail Adam Patel, *A Brief History of Palestine* (Al-Aqsa Publishers, 2020), 90. [^45]: Qur’an 26:19. [^46]: Fanon, *Wretched of the Earth*, 38. [^47]: Breitman, *Malcolm X Speaks*, 96. [^48]: Patel, *Brief History of Palestine*, 217. [^49]: “Gaza as 100 People,” Visualizing Palestine, October 2023, [https://www.visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/gaza-as-100-people?locale=en](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/gaza-as-100-people?locale%3Den&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965585916&usg=AOvVaw3gTiKSn2U4viB8vXpaKkyY). [^50]: “Know Their Names: Palestinian Children Killed by Israeli Forces,” *Al Jazeera*, [https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2021/palestine-know-their-names/index.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2021/palestine-know-their-names/index.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965586821&usg=AOvVaw2Suxx7rjV71db9JXuSsfmP). [^51]: Patel, *Brief History of Palestine*, 221. [^52]: “Palestinian Children Abused in Israeli Detention: NGO,” *Al Jazeera*, July 10, 2023, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/10/palestinian-children-abused-in-israeli-detention-ngo](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/10/palestinian-children-abused-in-israeli-detention-ngo&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965588077&usg=AOvVaw1WpG-1tIO2P3X1mCQC4EBF). [^53]: “Global Rallies Demand End to Israel’s War on Gaza and Unrestricted Aid,” *Al Jazeera*, August 10, 2025, [https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/8/10/global-rallies-demand-end-to-israels-war-on-gaza-and-unrestricted-aid](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/8/10/global-rallies-demand-end-to-israels-war-on-gaza-and-unrestricted-aid/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965589194&usg=AOvVaw0ykqnSdxpYoXHvS7q8ics3); “‘Let Gaza Live’: Pro-Palestinian Protests Erupt Worldwide After Flotilla Intercepted by Israel,” Global News, YouTube video, October 3, 2025, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AL79AG2vEg](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D2AL79AG2vEg&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965589884&usg=AOvVaw0un4hkBraXCaiSukJj4IfC); “Hundreds of Thousands March for Gaza Across Europe,” France24 English, YouTube Video, October 6, 2025, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLTEFfNBlzw](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DnLTEFfNBlzw&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965590479&usg=AOvVaw1aEVjwBk8vK_ZT0mjh1qic); “Hundreds of Thousands Worldwide Take Part in Pro-Palestine Protests,” *TRT World*, YouTube video, October 5, 2025, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3RDP34M4tc](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dc3RDP34M4tc&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965591076&usg=AOvVaw2H_kZIlQXahQqMYeZ4O5L_). [^54]: *Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel*, Human Rights Council, May 8, 2026, [https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/2606092E.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/2606092E.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965592165&usg=AOvVaw3nGHSgDn9iePYiw66NPMOh). [^55]: “Gaza War’s 1,000 Days.” [^56]: *Sunan Ibn Māja*, no. 4168. [^57]: Qur’an 20:45–46. [^58]: Qur’an 26:20–21. [^59]: Qur’an 26:22. [^60]: Qur’an 20:25–32. [^61]: Qur’an 20:70–73. [^62]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2847. [^63]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 4209. [^64]: Myriam François, “War on Gaza: The TikTok Generation Is Seeing the Truth About Israel,” *Middle East Eye*, June 17, 2024, [https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-tiktok-generation-seeing-truth-israel](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-tiktok-generation-seeing-truth-israel&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791207965594855&usg=AOvVaw3eNcbxPUAof3_J1Lq9G7ti). [^65]: Qur’an 2:214. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/does-thanksgiving-make-a-mockery-of-gratitude-essay # Does Thanksgiving Make a Mockery of Gratitude? | Essay **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Gratitude (Shukr), Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** November 20, 2023 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but I do believe in giving thanks. Gratitude is one of those values that is as close to a universal value that we have. I certainly have not seen any culture actively encourage entitlement. But the trouble with even universal values is that, when kept vague, apparent consensus starts to splinter and crack when we delve into specifics. The devil, as they say, is in the details. What are we grateful for? To whom are we grateful? How do we measure the sincerity of our gratitude? Can gratitude be polluted by the virtue-signaling ego? Let’s consider a certain Christopher Columbus. You might have grown up, as I did, with the story of Columbus at sea, believing against all hope that he would eventually find land. Remember his crew was about to mutiny but he negotiated with them and they gave him a little more time, and then land was miraculously spotted? It was a good story, and really got you rooting for Columbus to succeed, even if it left the details of that mission a little hazy. Anyone in Columbus’ situation would feel indebted, and from indebtedness we would expect gratitude. But what actions would reflect gratitude? We might imagine bowing down to kiss the solid earth, we might imagine a prayer or offering something valuable as a token of thanks. Yale historian Alan Mikhail sheds some light on Columbus’ actual mindset in an article for the LA Times. He points out the virtually (perhaps willfully?) forgotten fact that, six months before he sailed across the Atlantic, Columbus was fighting as a Crusader in Southern Spain, attempting to drive Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. Mikhail argues convincingly that Columbus took this Crusader attitude with him across the Atlantic. Columbus described indigenous weapons with the same words used to describe Muslim weapons in Southern Spain. He even compared some of the indigenous clothing to Muslim clothing. The Caribbean, then, became a grotesque crucible of anti-Muslim and anti-indigenous sentiment, an old crusader logic expressed in a new venue. We all know what happened next: men, women, and children were brutally slaughtered, the local population enslaved and conscripted into amassing gold. Are these actions that any reasonable person would describe as reflecting gratitude? > Let’s consider the pilgrims, the heroes of the Thanksgiving holiday. Remember in kindergarten making those tall black hats in November? Without indigenous goodwill and hospitality, it is safe to say that Europeans would not have lasted long at least in the northeast, maybe anywhere in North America. And yet the holiday of Thanksgiving and the mythology around it hides the brutal nature of European settler colonialism which violently dispossessed and displaced indigenous people from their lands and traditions. Is this what gratitude looks like? Do we make it all better by revising the story and celebrating it generations later? Let’s consider the Oneida Nation, the indigenous peoples of Utica and the surrounding areas who were defrauded of 90% of their land by the State of New York a few years after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, during which they were a key ally of the colonies. Is that the behavior of grateful, thankful people? Let’s consider Palestine, another venue of crusader logic. Palestinians intimately understand the structure of settler-colonial violence. They understand broken treaties (in this case called accords). They understand internal displacement. They understand being penned into smaller and smaller reservations and camps. They understand the theft of their land and traditions. They understand the dehumanizing language that legitimates their own slaughter and displacement. The self-styled realist will interject at this point: “That’s what everyone does, that’s just history. The Islamic conquests were the same; the Arabs colonized Africa.” It certainly would be convenient if we were all guilty of the same crimes. But not every conquest constitutes colonization and not even every colonization amounts to the type of European settler colonialism practiced in the Americas and Palestine. As scholars like Richard Bulliet have shown, the Islamic conquests mostly involved regime changes, not the displacement or subjugation of the local population seen in settler colonialism. Typically Muslims were garrisoned separately in purpose-built towns like Kufa, Basra, and Fustat. Local indigenous life was left largely intact and Islamization of society happened gradually and organically over a period of several centuries. European settler-colonialism, then, is historically, practically, and epistemically very distinct from Islamic conquests. When we conflate settler colonialism with other types of conquest, we actually diminish and trivialize the particular brutality experienced by indigenous peoples in the Americas and Palestine. But perhaps that is the point, indeed even the explicit intent. A useful phrase has recently entered our lexicon, that “every accusation is a confession.” Part of this phrase’s popularity can be attributed to how intuitive it is, especially for Muslims who have long dealt with the paranoid accusations of Islam being “spread by the sword.” It turns out that this, too, was a confession all along. We are told we are the bloodthirsty ones as we show the world faith and humanity while our enemies foam at the mouth and justify unspeakable horrors. As for the charge that colonial domination is over and done with, simply look at Palestine. Or look at how the US Supreme Court deals with indigenous land claims. In 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled against Oneida land claims in Central New York, Ruth Bader Ginsberg cited none other than the Doctrine of Discovery, the Papal Bull issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493 which gave Christopher Columbus and European explorers the right to claim lands inhabited by non-Christians. Crusader logic is coherent and continuous, pervasive and persistent. Indeed, the land grab never really stopped. The internal logic of Airbnb forcing real-estate crises across scenic America and the Zionist settlements in the West Bank resemble each other even if there are degrees of separation. Just as one might not want to pass up on a lakeside vacation home knowing someone else will simply come along and snatch it up, Yaakov Fauci made himself into a meme by saying “If I don’t steal it, someone else is gonna steal it” as he took over the el-Kurd home in Sheikh Jarrah. The commodification and purchase of what was once held in common necessarily creates the trespasser; the violent dispossession and displacement necessarily creates the refugee. > Is gratitude possible in such circumstances, or does a holiday of Thanksgiving make a mockery of the very idea of giving thanks? As so many innocents are being killed, as city blocks are flattened and olive trees are uprooted, when does a holiday purporting to celebrate giving thanks become an obscenity? Given its association with genocide, and the fact that many of our Native American brothers and sisters consider it to be a day of mourning, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, just as I wouldn’t celebrate a day of “thanks” predicated on the dispossession and extermination of Palestinians. But I do believe that true gratitude can redeem us, because gratitude is a choice and true gratitude purifies. Prophet Ibrahim (AS) was asked to put a knife to the throat of his son. But this wasn’t an act of murder; it was an act of humble submission. He was being tested in his willingness, he was being tested in his ability to trust his Creator, he was being tested in his priorities—would he cling desperately to what he loved most in the world, his son, or would he surrender in indebtedness to his Creator who provides all blessings. In short, would he be grateful? Ibrahim wasn’t afraid to lose what he loved because he was truly grateful to the Creator who provided it. Some people, on the other hand, find that they are afraid that the willingness to sacrifice what they really love will result in actually losing it. Maybe it will. Ibrahim didn’t lose what he loved; ironically, the reward for being willing to sacrifice what he loved the most was that he got to keep it. Maybe our reluctance to let go shows our true priorities. It might even show that our gratitude is lacking. And if our gratitude is lacking, do we deserve to keep the blessings we have? Supposedly Israel just wants the right to exist. Supposedly. But the world has now seen clearly that the Israeli government does not merely want a homeland; it does not want merely to exist. It wants to dominate, it wants to exterminate. The level of fear and paranoia in how “from the river to the sea” is interpreted is reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe on his island, suffocated by the logic of scarcity. That logic, however, is based on fear and the absence of trust. Allah says, > The devil threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and abundance. And Allah is all-Encompassing, all-Knowing. (2:268) What are they afraid would happen if Israel ceased to exist, if Palestine were set free? Perhaps out of guilt they are afraid of revenge, that they would be slaughtered as they have slaughtered. But women like Yocheved Lifshitz, who famously turned back to shake her captor’s hand, know different. Maybe in order to gain a true homeland they need to make an Abrahamic sacrifice and give up the idea of a Zionist state. Let Israel be dissolved, let its criminal leaders be imprisoned, pay reparations, give all Palestinians the right of return, and start from scratch as guests on Palestinian land. That is the very least of what it would look like to be grateful. In July 2019, a Quaker woman in Clinton, New York donated her nearly 30 acres of land to a nonprofit organization run in part by Oneida women. Liseli Haines, the donor, said she felt that giving the land back to the Oneida women was the right thing to do. She said “I feel honored to give back the land. The Oneida people have suffered for generations.” Following the example of Ibrahim, her courage is both inspiring and terrifying. Mrs. Haines conquered the fear of loss, and gained something else. She demonstrated that she was grateful. And that can’t be measured in square footage or by a dollar amount. Gratitude, giving thanks, is not as easy as raising your hands in prayer. It requires introspection, it requires courage, it requires living according to principles even when those principles call you to make sacrifices. We ask Allah to make us among the truly grateful. Ameen. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/5-tips-for-muslim-professionals-in-their-pro-palestinian-advocacy-blog # 5 Tips for Muslim Professionals in their Pro-Palestinian Advocacy **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** November 16, 2023 **Updated:** September 12, 2025 Across the globe, we’re witnessing brazen double standards and extreme measures of censure for those who advocate for our brothers and sisters in Palestine. CEOs are blacklisting future employment candidates, professionals are facing disciplinary measures and termination, and students are being expelled from prestigious universities—all as a direct result of their pro-Palestinian advocacy. So, as a Muslim professional working in the corporate world, what is the best way to manage our pro-Palestinian advocacy efforts? Every situation is unique and depends heavily on personal circumstances, but here are 5 tips for taking action in an effective and legally compliant manner. --- ## 1\. Speak to HR and to your colleagues It might be a good idea to let your HR department know you’re going through a period of significant grief and that the events that are taking place in Palestine are impacting your sleep, diet, focus, and thus your productivity. Not only will this invite compassion in the workplace, but it will preemptively set the expectations of your organization and allow them to view your performance, actions, and words in this broader context. That way, if there does happen to be an incident in which you deviate from your organization’s mandate, things are not taken out of perspective. Moreover, don’t underestimate the power of storytelling. Speaking to colleagues about your personal experiences and how the conflict is affecting your life and emotions is a powerful form of advocacy. Remember, it’s likely your colleagues see you daily and have worked with you over a long period of time—what you say matters to them. So, by sharing your personal distress, that of your family, or the story of others, you have the power to change hearts and minds. --- ## 2\. Know your company’s policies Learn your employee handbook inside out. By knowing your company’s culture, values, mission, code of conduct policy, harassment and discrimination policy, DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) strategy, and social media policy, you’ll be equipping yourself to advocate in the most effective and legally compliant manner. Knowing these parameters will help you stay out of trouble, and it will also allow you to advocate for yourself should the time arise. If you think that your rights have been violated or that you’re in an unsafe environment, then knowing your company’s policy and procedures as well as their escalation models puts you in a position to challenge what’s happening and seek appropriate legal counsel. It’s also a good idea to document your company’s previous positions on political issues—what is the precedent your own corporation has taken in the past and how does that compare and contrast to now? This is a great tool to take to your HR department and highlight any bias and unfair treatment you’re experiencing. --- ## 3\. Play the long game Whilst much advocacy focuses on swift and immediate results, be confident to make changes within your company that are long lasting. DEI policies are a tool that we should leverage, and this all begins by working to **identify our faith as Muslims as a primary dimension of diversity.** Advocate for a Muslim ERG (Employee Resource Group) or push your company to organize webinars on Islamophobia and conduct listening sessions with groups of Muslim employees. The companies with these infrastructures already in place are the ones making the most balanced statements on the Palestine issue because they recognize they have a Muslim employee group who have a voice. Remember, this is a marathon not a sprint—we need to be effective, productive, and long-lasting in our contributions. --- ## 4\. Social media There is no hard and fast rule for using social media. After familiarizing yourself with your company’s social media policy, make a sound cost-benefit analysis. If you find your company’s social media policies are hard-line, limit your exposure and risk by sharing information from trusted sources without commenting. This way, you let someone else very eloquently articulate your grievances in a manner that is vetted without you being personally liable for specific comments you might say that are more susceptible to misinterpretation. For example, simply sharing Craig Mokhiber’s publicly available UN resignation letter calling Israel’s military actions in Gaza “textbook genocide” will be less likely to put you in a vulnerable position than making your own comments. Also, make sure you pick the right platforms. Ask yourself, where does it make most sense to do this advocacy? X or Instagram might be better suited than LinkedIn! --- ## 5\. Trust in the promise of Allah Act thoughtfully, sincerely, and wisely, but don’t let your fear paralyze you. One of the first tests that the Muslim community felt in history was the test of wealth through crippling boycotts. Allah (swt) reminds us: And He will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah—then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a \[decreed\] extent. \[Quran 65:3\] For those of us living in the west, we have a luxury that much of the world does not have: the ability to challenge powers and speak up. So, this is a chance for you to really increase your rank with Allah, by actively showing Him that not only are you striving to ward off injustice in whatever way you can, but that you believe in Allah’s promise and will not allow your fears to deter you. Remember, you are an asset to your company and you bring human capital to your organization. If, after doing your due diligence, you simply cannot align with your company’s values this may be a good opportunity to move to a company that is better aligned and within which you can advocate freely. We all have an obligation to act but what we do depends on our context and resources. Speak sincerely and wisely, and trust in Allah. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/palestine-the-steadfast-reflections-on-allahs-names-al-wakil-and-al-mumin-essay # Palestine the Steadfast: Reflections on Allah's Names al-Wakīl and Al-Muʾmin | Essay **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Palestine, Perspective **Published:** November 1, 2023 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 The world has layers. There is an apparent, outer layer seen with the eyes: the injustice, the insecurity, and the inability to control. The perpetual lack of accountability. And focusing on this layer can make any sane person despair; but there is a metaphysical layer that can be seen only with perceptive hearts. We are given countless examples of this in the Qur’an. Allah says, > ٱلَّذِينَ قَالَ لَهُمُ ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّ ٱلنَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُواْ لَكُمْ فَٱخْشَوْهُمْ فَزَادَهُمْ إِيمَٰنًا وَقَالُواْ حَسْبُنَا ٱللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ ٱلْوَكِيلُ > > Those who were warned, “Your enemies have mobilized their forces against you, so fear them,” the warning only made them grow stronger in faith and they replied, “Allah \[alone\] is sufficient \[as an aid\] for us and \[He\] is the best Protector.” (3:173) How is it possible for a people to be warned that their (outwardly) more powerful enemies have mobilized against them, and instead of making them despair and crumble, it increases them in faith? The answer is in their response: “Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best Protector (al-Wakīl).” --- ## Allah’s name Al-Wakīl Those are not easy words to utter and even less easy to act upon. Yet the people who are able to do so are those who know Allah. He is enough for them because they have certainty in Him and His attributes, and they can see beyond the immediate and the material. And why al-Wakīl (translated as the Protector, Disposer of Affairs, and the Trustee) in these circumstances? They know that Allah’s promise is true, and that He always follows through on His promises, because He fulfills the trusts He is entrusted with. When a person gives someone *tawkīl*, they are entrusting their affairs to that person, and that person acts for the benefit of the one who has given the entrustment or authorization (*tawkīl*). They are saying “I can’t do this, but I trust you completely to do it for me, and know you will do what is truly best and for my benefit.” In fact, before Allah tells us to take Him as our Wakīl, He reminds us of His authority and ability, “\[He is\] the Lord of the East and the West; there is no deity except Him, so take Him as Disposer of \[your\] affairs.” (73:9) And having trust means that we do whatever it is Allah has put in our power to do, and trust in Him for the result because it is necessarily what is best. This constitutes true submission to Him. And Allah aids such people in ways not perceived by the senses. Allah reminded the believers at the time of the Prophet ﷺ: > إِذْ يُغَشِّيكُمُ النُّعَاسَ أَمَنَةً مِّنْهُ وَيُنَزِّلُ عَلَيْكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً لِّيُطَهِّرَكُم بِهِ وَيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمْ رِجْزَ الشَّيْطَانِ وَلِيَرْبِطَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُمْ وَيُثَبِّتَ بِهِ الْأَقْدَامَ > > Remember when He gave you sleep as a reassurance from Him, and sent down water from the sky to cleanse you, to remove Satan’s pollution from you, to make your hearts strong and your feet firm. (8:11) --- ## Allah’s name Al-Mu’min This verse is referring to the Battle of Badr, when the Muslims were outnumbered. Yet Allah sent reassurance (*amanatan*) and strength to the hearts (*rabṭ*). Indeed, Allah is al-Muʾmin: He gives security from fear, He gives His slaves the light of belief, and He is trustworthy. We are secure when it comes to Allah, because we believe and have certainty in the truth of what He tells us. We know the reality of this world and what awaits those who are steadfast for Him. And our hearts are made firm in this way by al-Muʾmin. We are given freedom from fear through this *rabṭ* of the heart. Allah tells us of another group of people whom He gave internal security: > *…* إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدًى وَرَبَطْنَا عَلَى قُلُوبِهِ*مْ…* > > … They were youths who truly believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance. And We strengthened (*rabaṭnā*) their hearts... (18:13-14) This verse refers to the youth of the cave who were living under a tyrannical king. The verse above says “*wa rabaṭnā ʿalā qulūbihim*” which is literally ‘tied their hearts,” just like you would tighten a rope to stabilize something or give it strength. Something that is loosely tied unravels quickly and even breaks, but when Allah “ties” hearts, He gives them stability, strengthening them, and granting them peace. In Surat al-Qaṣaṣ, we are told once again of this *rabṭ*: > وَأَصْبَحَ فُؤَادُ أُمِّ مُوسَىٰ فَارِغًا ۖ إِن كَادَتْ لَتُبْدِي بِهِ لَوْلَا أَن رَّبَطْنَا عَلَىٰ قَلْبِهَا لِتَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ > > And Moses’ mother felt a void in her burning heart so that she almost declared him, had We not steadied (*rabaṭnā*) her heart, that she may remain of the believers. (28:10) What do all of these people have in common? They were all those who believed in Allah (they were *muʾminīn*) in extremely difficult circumstances. The believers were about to embark upon the Battle of Badr, where they were decisively outnumbered. The people of the cave were being persecuted for their beliefs. The mother of Moses (as), living under Pharaoh who was murdering newborn baby boys, was separated from her son. In each of these three scenarios, devout believers were faced with not only testing circumstances, but dangerous ones that could cost them their lives. In each of these situations, it might be natural for anyone to doubt and to give up, perhaps even question their faith. But in each of these circumstances, there was no one else to turn to but Allah—and Allah made them firm. The parallels we see with our brothers and sisters in Gaza and the whole of Palestine are clear. Allah al-Mu’min strengthens their hearts and gives them internal security. When it would be normal for the hearts to waiver, Allah gives an internal strength to be able to withstand the external troubles. Ibn al-Qayyim states that this *rabṭ* includes granting the hearts patience and firmness, strengthening them, and supporting them with the light of faith, until they are able to patiently persevere. Part of it is to be connected to Allah through His remembrance, and desiring His pleasure.[^1] --- ## “When will the help of Allah come?” As for us on the outside, the images that we see of the suffering of our people and the sheer injustice naturally anger us and might break us. We might feel exasperated and helpless, and ask the very question quoted in the Qur’an, “When will Allah’s help come?” (2:214) Allah immediately answers, “Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near.” (2:214) “Near” is not according to our timing, but on Allah’s timing, based on his ultimate wisdom. And that is what we need to have certainty in. The apparent hopelessness of the material world should never cause us to lose faith. Rather, we should be like believers who increase in faith and say, “Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best Protector.” We know that there is something that is beyond, and our ultimate abode is Paradise, *insha’Allah*. Our brothers and sisters’ test is in being on the ground, and they will be rewarded and elevated accordingly—we have no doubt in that. The Prophet ﷺ reminds us that, “the most miserable people in the world will come on the Day of Resurrection to be dipped in Paradise, then it will be said: O son of Adam, did you see any hardship? Did you have any distress? He will say: No, by Allah, my Lord! I did not once see hardship or distress.”[^2] As for the children who were killed, they “are roaming about in Paradise.”[^3] Our test is being here on the outside. What will Allah ask me about? We [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/how-to-channel-your-anger-for-palestine&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698870424683961&usg=AOvVaw1CdyoLG9Zqr8qHX20rJPEW)[channel our anger](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/how-to-channel-your-anger-for-palestine) in righteous ways. We mobilize, we speak out, and we pray. We continue to build. We supplicate with unshakeable certainty because we know the power and strength of Allah, and that He responds to our supplications and prayers in the best way possible. And we turn to al-Muʿmin to strengthen our own hearts against despair and numbness. In each of the examples in the Qur’an, the believers worked on their faith. They worked on their relationship with Allah, they turned to Him, and they chose truth. And when the most difficult test came, Allah was with them. “*Rabaṭa ʿalā qulūbihim*”—He steadied their hearts, “tied them,” and strengthened them. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-Sālikīn*, 3/68. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2807. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2635. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-to-build-resilience-through-palestine-for-palestine # How to Build Resilience Through Palestine, For Palestine **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** October 30, 2023 In the days that have passed, we have collectively witnessed the inconceivable patience demonstrated by the Palestinian people as bombs soar overhead, razing their homes and desecrating their children. The mainstream media, meanwhile, has not only largely ignored their harrowing experiences, but further contributed to their dehumanization. In the face of such brutality and hopelessness, how can they remain so defiantly resilient? As Muslims around the globe witness the oppression of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, we not only share in their pain but are also awakened to our own spiritual poverty. Generations of Palestinians have survived displacement and relentless occupation by breathing and sustaining themselves with “*la ilaha illa Allah*” and “*hasbuna Allahu wa ni’ma al-wakeel*” (“Allah is sufficient for us, and the best Disposer of affairs). How can we as a community be resilient like them and for them? Watch the video: [Allah’s Plans Never Fail #Palestine | Dr. Omar Suleiman](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DueS4qKB6c2c&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698682363593176&usg=AOvVaw16vZlvqxZmHmF_S8eZzC4a) --- ## 1\. Carry part of their load > Abu Musa (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A believer to a believer is like a building; its parts reinforce one another.” The Prophet ﷺ then clasped his hands together, interlacing his fingers. This hadith describes the sense of solidarity that Muslims should embody as a community. However, it also provides us with a roadmap for fostering resilience. We must look to each part of the structure, acknowledge the load it carries and recognize that without one another we are incomplete. By doing so, we can take off some of their load. The tears shed in *tahajjud* and our incessant supplications for Palestine help us build our individual resilience, and ultimately become a stronger body. --- ## 2\. Be patient with affliction Imam Hasan Al-Basri (rA) is reported to have said, “Courage is patience for (another) hour.” Our enemies believe we will despair and eventually grow tired. Historically, however, Muslims were always able to outlast their enemies because they drew strength from something deeper. Determination is a process. It is built by learning to be patient with hardships. Through repeated exposure to minor discomfort, we can grow to endure major discomfort for the sake of a greater goal. This is how the Palestinians have become a model of resilience for us all. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, “Know Allah in prosperity, and He will know you in adversity.” --- ## 3\. Read Surah Ali ‘Imran Scholars recommend reading Surah Ali ‘Imran during times of tribulation, as it especially highlights how the Muslims responded to the trial of Uhud. Verse 173 narrates the Muslims’ response when the hypocrites, impressed by the Quraysh’s numbers and wealth, encouraged them to give up: “Those to whom the hypocrites said ‘Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them.’ But it increased them in faith, and they said “Allah is sufficient for us, and the best Disposer of affairs.” --- ## 4\. Study the life of the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah It is worth noting that of the twenty three years the Prophet ﷺ delivered the message, thirteen were spent in tribulation in Mecca. In the early days of his prophethood, his companions were very few in number, but the trials they faced resulted in forming the most resilient generation known to history. One of the most difficult moments in Mecca came when the Prophet and his nascent community were kicked out of Mecca and isolated in one valley, a pre-modern “concentration camp.” The disbelievers tried their utmost to isolate the believers, forbidding them food, water, trade and even marriage from outside the valley. Some of the nonbelievers, still believing in the bonds of kinship, would use the cover of night to smuggle in whatever “humanitarian aid” they could to the starving Muslims. Ultimately, the companions were able to withstand this trial due to their belief in and reliance on Allah. > Gaza has rightly been called the world’s largest open-air prison. Nonetheless, the true believer, for whom Allah is his motivation and destination, views the entire *dunya* as a prison, and the *akhirah* as liberation. The Prophet ﷺ, hiding in a cave, exiled from his hometown, is reported to have said to his closest companion Abu Bakr (rA): “Don’t be sad; Allah is with us.” There in the darkness of the cave he could see the bright future that lay ahead: the inevitable victory. He knew that triumph comes not after trial, but in it. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/5-duas-for-palestine-and-gaza # 5 Du'as for Palestine and Gaza **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Dua, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** October 24, 2023 **Updated:** September 3, 2026 If the circumstances in Gaza are the catalyst for you to start making more *du'a*, then let it be. If this is what moves you and causes you to turn back to Allah, then let it be. As our strongest weapon, now is the time that we need to teach ourselves, our families, and our communities how to make *du'a*. --- ## Make du'a from an attentive heart Before occupying ourselves with the particular formulas of certain *du'a*, the most important thing is to focus on our hearts. > The Prophet ﷺ said: “Know that Allah does not answer a *du'a* from an inattentive heart.” \[At-Tirmidhi #3479\] Any *du'a* that comes from your heart with sincerity is a good *du'a*, even if it is not a *du'a* specifically mentioned in the Qur’an or Sunnah. A sincere *du'a* from the heart is better than one that has been memorized without understanding or attentiveness. We must let our hearts naturally converse with our Lord–and it is permissible to do so in any language that comes naturally to you. --- ## 5 du'as to recite for Palestine and Gaza when you’re feeling tongue-tied Sometimes we are at a loss for words. Our hearts are attentive but our feelings are so strong that we find ourselves tongue-tied. In these moments, the following 5 *du'a* adapted from the Qur’an, Sunnah, and pious predecessors may help springboard us into our own personal calls to Allah. ### 1\. Dua for patience and victory for the Palestinian people رَبَّنَآ أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْهِم صَبْراً وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُم وَٱنصُرْهُم عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ Rabbana afrigh ‘alayhim sabran wa thabbit aqdaamahum wansurhum ‘ala al-qawm al-kafireen Our Lord! Shower them with perseverance, make their steps firm, and give them victory over the disbelieving people. Inspired by verse 250 of Surah al-Baqarah, this *du'a* reminds us that Allah is always with us, penetrating our hearts with firmness and tranquility. ### 2\. Dua for the success of the Palestinians رَبَّنَآ ءَاتِهِم فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِى ٱلأخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِهِم عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ *Rabbana aatihim fid-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhirati hasanatan waqihim ‘adhaab an-nar*  Our Lord! Grant them the good of this world and the Hereafter, and protect them from the torment of the Fire. Inspired by verse 201 in Surah al-Baqarah, there is nothing better that we could ask for our brothers and sisters in Palestine than to be granted Paradise and saved from the Fire. As we watch events that seem unbearable unfold, we must remember that one dip in Jannah is all it takes for the cruelty and suffocation of this world to be forgotten. ### 3\. Du'a for their protection اللَّهُمَّ اسْتُرْ عَوْرَاتِهِم وَآمِنْ رَوْعَاتِهِم وَاحْفَظْهُم مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِم وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِم وَعَنْ أَيمَانِهِم وَعَنْ شَمَائلِهِم وَمِنْ فَوْقِهِم Allahumma ustur ‘awraatihim wa-aamin raw’aatihim wahfadhhum min bayni aydeehim wa min khalfihim wa ‘an aymaanihim wa ‘an shamaa’ilihim wa min fawqihim O Allah, conceal their faults, calm their fears, and protect them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left, and from above them. Taken from the morning and evening remembrances of the Prophet ﷺ, this *du'a* seeks Allah’s protection from every direction. It is a befitting *du'a* for the people of Gaza, who are surrounded by hostility and violence. ### 4\. Du'a when facing an enemy اللَّهُمَّ مُنْزِلَ الْكِتَابِ سَرِيعَ الْحِسَابِ مُجْرِيَ السَّحَابِ هَازِمَ الأَحْزَابِ اهْزِمْهُمْ وَزَلْزِلْهُم وَانْصُرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ Allahumma munzil al-kitabi saree’ al-hisabi mujriya as-sahaabi hazim al-ahzaabi ihzimhum wa-zalzilhum wansurna ‘alayhim O Allah, the revealer of the Holy Book, and the swift in reckoning, and the mover of the clouds, and the defeater of the clans; defeat them, and shake them, and grant us victory over them. This *du'a* is inspired by a combination of *du'a* taken from several hadith detailing the Prophet’s supplications upon facing an enemy – an appropriate reminder of Allah’s ability to gather and bestow, to hold to account, and to take away. ### 5\. Du'a to strengthen their trust in Allah اللَّهُمَّ ارْزُقهُم صِدْقَ التَوَكُّلِ عَلَيكَ وحُسْنُ الظَنِّ بِك Allahumma urzuqhum sidq at-tawakkuli ‘alayka wa husn ad-dhanni bik O Allah grant them true reliance upon You, and good thoughts about You. This is an adaptation of a *du'a* made by Sa’eed ibn Jubayr, a great scholar of Islam and pious predecessor. Through good thoughts we are able to put our trust in Allah and rely upon Him–a state we frequently see from our brothers and sisters in Gaza and one we pray continues. --- ## Never lose hope in the help of Allah As our tragedies increase and intensify, it can often feel difficult to retain hope and optimism. We may be wondering why we aren’t seeing the relief that we’ve been so intensely praying for. While this feeling is, to some extent, entirely natural, we must remind ourselves that it is precisely at the time of our utter depletion that the help of Allah is nearest. It is precisely when we feel exhausted of all worldly solutions that His aid is most imminent and we truly begin to depend on Allah for a way out. Allah tells us in Surah al-Baqarah: > *Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such \[trial\] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until \[even their\] messenger and those who believed with him said, "When is the help of Allah?" Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near.* \[Qur’an, 2:214\] We should never lose hope in the help of Allah, and therefore should never stop making *du'a* for the people of Palestine. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/3-spiritual-actions-you-can-take-for-gaza-now # 3 Spiritual Actions You Can Take for Gaza Now **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** October 23, 2023 **Updated:** September 3, 2026 As the stench of death chokes the pulverized streets of Gaza, know that the indescribable aroma of its martyrs is rising to the heavens. There is a crowd of angels between the heavens and the earth, rushing to receive the souls who have been chosen by Allah. Those beautiful souls are not dead, vowed Allah. They are alive, flying freely in an eternal land promised to them—no longer occupied, and no longer imprisoned. But even as The Most Loving has not only freed but *elevated* them from the pain that the occupying force of Israel confined them in, we are still beholden to our duty as establishers of justice on Earth. The Most Merciful does not burden a soul more than it can bear. Allah has gifted us with the opportunity to stand firm for our *ummah* when it’s hurting, because *this is what we can excel in*. That’s why it is absolutely imperative that as we continue to amplify our voices, to organize, to advocate, and to unite for change, we *must* nourish our own souls to keep up our momentum for our siblings in faith. --- ## How can you re-energize for Palestine? Here are 3 things to remember as you continue your advocacy: ### 1\. The 20 minutes you set aside to breathe is so Palestinians can breathe. Turn off your phone. Make the intention that this break you are taking is so you can come back stronger. Take a walk or engage in intense physical exercise. 20 minutes to take care of the mind and body Allah gave you will give you the rest of the day to care for the siblings in faith He made you an advocate for. ### 2\. This is the time to reflect on the Qur’an with Palestine in mind. When you’re overwhelmed, the Qur’an will give you contentment and perspective. Reflect especially on Surat al-Isra. The solace Allah gives through historical facts in His Own words is unmatched. How did small groups of people in the past face large armies that vastly outnumbered them? Because God was on their side. *Tawakkul*, or complete reliance and trust in Allah, is always weightier and more effective than the mightiest of armies. ### 3\. Your du’a, especially during Tahajjud, is the most powerful weapon you have. Your throats may be torn from screaming in protest, your fingers tired from relentless online advocacy, and your mind reeling from feeling like you’re shouting into a void. But a whisper to the One who gave you the ability to speak is a sure promise that your voice is heard loud and clear, and the fruits of it *will* be seen according to His perfect timing. --- ## Here’s a short list of du’as that you can make right now. ### \- Du’a for that powerful tawakkul: اللهم إني أسألك صدق التوكل عليك وحسن الظن بك Allahumma inni as-aluka sidq at-tawakkuli ‘alayka wa husn adh-dhanni bik O Allah! I ask You to grant me true reliance on You and good expectations of You. \[Sa’eed ibn Jubayr (ra)\] ### \- Du’a to distinguish between fake news, lies, and the truth: اللهم أرنا الحق حقاً وارزقنا اتباعه وأرنا الباطل باطلا وارزقنا اجتنابه Allahumma arina al-haqqa haqqan warzuqna ittiba’ah, wa arina al-batila batilan warzuqna ijtinabah O Allah! Show us the truth as True, and inspire us to follow it. Show us falsehood as Falsehood, and inspire us to abstain from it. \[Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra)\] ### \- Du’a for strength and victory: رَبَّنَآ أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًۭا وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَنَا وَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ Our Lord, shower us with patience, make our feet firm, and give us victory over the disbelieving people.  Qur’an, 2:250 Remember this: the *ummah* of the Prophet ﷺ is not rash; it is strong, it is organized, it is wise, and it is a force to be reckoned with when united. Our advocacy is the proverbial tying of our camel in this life, but it is nothing without the help of Allah. And wisdom is in strengthening our crying souls so our feet can stand firmer before tyrants than ever before. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-to-channel-your-anger-for-palestine # How to Channel Your Anger For Palestine **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** October 19, 2023 **Updated:** September 11, 2025 The Palestinians have been [murdered twice](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/webinars/palestinians-are-murdered-twice) – once by the Israeli army and once by the Western media. Our emotions are intense these days. The horrific images and exposure to propaganda have taken us on an emotional roller coaster, most often leaving us feeling rage. We are infuriated at the Zionist atrocities and misinformation campaign. We are enraged at the lack of support for our brothers and sisters. What do we do with this anger? Is it okay to be furious? The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ embodied the pinnacle of patience, forgiveness, and noble character. His temperament was marked by restraint, yet even he would feel anger for the sake of Allah. > Indeed, the emotion of anger serves a divine purpose: it is a litmus test of the heart's health and a catalyst driving us toward justice. While our faith encourages patience and forbearance, it does not always advocate for turning the other cheek in the face of oppression. There are many stories from the life of the Prophet ﷺ expressing his anger. He would stand on the *mimbar*, his face flushing red when individuals attempted to distort Allah's commands. In early Islam, when the Companion Umar (rA) sought wisdom from the Torah, the Prophet expressed his anger, affirming that even if Prophet Musa (as) were alive, he would be his follower. To feel nothing when injustice prevails is indicative of a dead heart. --- ## 1\. Guide your anger There are two extremes of anger. On one extreme, the total absence of anger can manifest as cowardice. After all, anger is a motivation to establish justice. Conversely, unchecked, excessive anger can devolve into tyranny. > It's within this spectrum that Muslims are urged to find a balanced position—harnessing anger for the sake of Allah and channeling it towards the establishment of justice. When appropriately managed, anger becomes praiseworthy. Imam Al-Shafi’i commented on this, suggesting that someone who is provoked to righteous anger but remains passive is like a donkey. To control and guide our anger: - Distinguish between anger for Allah and personal rage. - Remember the repeated Prophetic advice: "Do not get angry." - Perform *wudu’* to help calm your mind. - Seek protection from Satan's influence by repeating, "*a’udhu billahi min ash-shaytan ar-rajim*.” Properly managed and directed, anger can be a powerful tool in the quest for justice. But left unchecked, it can become a destructive force. As advocates for Palestine, let's ensure our anger aligns with the teachings of Islam and drives us closer to justice. --- ## 2\. Become a better version of yourself True victory comes from both internal transformation and external action. History has shown that many political movements crumble not necessarily due to external pressures, but due to internal moral failings—be it succumbing to bribery or other ethical compromises. > Our faith teaches us about unseen blessings like *baraka*, where outcomes aren't strictly transactional. But how can one hope for such *baraka* if one disregards fundamental responsibilities, like honoring parents or observing daily prayers? Our personal transgressions impede the collective efficacy of our *du’a*. Externally, proactive steps aligned with our faith's teachings are paramount. Our internal spiritual work should never be an excuse to sidestep external responsibilities. Whether it's establishing new media organizations to convey the truth or other initiatives, our internal faith and external actions must work in tandem. --- ## 3\. Stay grounded to prevent burnout Advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint. Pushing ourselves endlessly without pauses can lead to burnout and inadvertently diminish our effectiveness. More so, when we're constantly drained, we risk projecting our anger onto our loved ones and those who share our mission. Achieving justice for Palestine requires consistency and longevity, and for that, we need balance. Recognizing when to intensify our efforts and when to step back for clarity momentarily is key. Such pauses can be transformative, allowing us to come back with renewed energy and perspective. --- ## 4\. Hold one another accountable The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized the dangers of isolation, likening the lone individual to a sheep astray, vulnerable to being picked off. Numerous hadiths extol the virtues of *jama’ah* (community); it's within this collective that checks and balances emerge, ensuring that the group's collective strength surpasses that of its individual components. For the sake of accountability, clarity, and direction we should always run our ideas by others. Lastly, remember that no one should navigate this journey alone. Implementing a buddy system, where friends or colleagues regularly check in on one another, can serve as a supportive network. By doing so, we remind each other of the importance of balance and the value of rest, ensuring that we're all in it for the long game. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-martyrs-of-gaza-are-soaring-in-the-heavens # The Martyrs of Gaza are Soaring in the Heavens **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** October 19, 2023 **Updated:** October 10, 2024 With the unfolding of horrific events in Gaza, our hearts and minds cannot focus on anything else. But these emotions, ranging from sadness to anger, are signs of a beating heart. We must channel these emotions to act courageously in a way that is pleasing to Allah. The senseless killing of innocent souls in Gaza makes one remember the verse in the Qur’an that condemns the pre-Islamic custom of burying newly-born girls alive. These innocent babies will be asked “for what sin she was slain” \[Surat at-Takwir, 9\]. We ask today: for what sins were the bloody, lifeless bodies in Gaza slain? --- ## Martyrs in the Qur’an Look at Gaza and its martyrs through the lens of the Qur’an for a moment. After the Battle of Badr, the following verse was revealed: “And say not of those slain in God's way: 'They are dead'; instead they are living; but you are not aware.” Allah follows this verse with a prophecy that something grave is about to happen, “Surely We will try you with something of fear and hunger, and diminution of goods and lives; yet give good tidings to the patient” \[Surat al-Baqarah,154-5\]. Right now, the people of Gaza fit every one of these descriptions. They are being tested with fear, hunger, thirst, and loss of property. They are being tested with their lives. But we also know the descriptions of their reward. The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah, Most High, presented the martyrs of the Battle of Uhud to Himself. > Their souls were in the bodies of green birds hanging from chandeliers from the Throne of the Merciful, flying around, drinking, and eating from the riverbanks of Paradise. Allah gave them whatever they wanted. And what did they want? Remember the man calling his people to Islam and faith in Surat Ya-Sin? He was killed, and upon entering Paradise, he said, “If only my people knew!” \[Surat Ya-Sin, 26\]. Gazzan martyrs are in joy with what Allah has bestowed upon them, waiting for us to join them. We are learning right now the reality of this life in real-time. Allah is teaching us lessons about life and the material world in real-time. We must process that in terms of knowledge and certainty. The Prophet ﷺ had something that we didn't have. He could see beyond the mutilated bodies of his cousins Jaʿfar al-Tayyar and Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib. He saw them with one eye as bloodied, dead bodies; with the other, he saw them in Paradise. --- ## Turn your pain into power At our current moment, there are two seemingly conflicting emotions that we have to manage. One of them is the anger at the loss of innocent lives and the desecration of our brothers and sisters. There should be anger and sadness. Both stem from mercy for the victims. But these emotions must be coupled with hope and complete certainty in Allah. If all of the children of Gaza who have been killed could hold a press conference right now, what would they say to the people of *dunya*? They would say, *alhamdulillah*, Allah fulfilled his promise to us. This does not mean, however, that we should not try to stop more murders. We are under the care of our Lord, who is in complete control, but we have to act. --- ## Be strong and courageous Many of are scared, but we must conquer that fear. The people of Palestine are so special because they have driven their enemies crazy with their fearlessness. They are an unbreakable, resilient people. The grandma who refuses to leave Gaza, staying put even without water, is braver than a thousand Israeli soldiers. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “To be truly free, you must overcome the love of wealth and the fear of death.” He also said, “If a man has not discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.” Yet, long before MLK Jr., the Prophet ﷺ warned, “... God will remove the fear in the hearts of your enemies and place in your hearts frailty (*wahn*).’ They said, ‘What is *wahn*, O Messenger of God?’ He said, ‘Love of this world and hatred of death.’” \[Abu Dawud\]. If you conquer your fear of death, you conquer everything less than death: fear of the loss of wealth, security, and everything that comes under that. For some of us, there are real dangers, be it our job or place in school. Do not be reckless, but do be courageous. It's time for us to find the moral courage inside of us. This is not the time to shrink. Allah promises us, “Do not falter or grieve, for you shall have the upperhand if you are \[true\] believers” \[Surat Ali ‘Imran:139\]. Now is the time to act wisely and courageously. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-can-i-help-palestine # How Can I Help Palestine? **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Allah, Faith, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Blog, Justice in Islam, Palestine **Published:** October 17, 2023 **Updated:** October 24, 2023 *This is a summarized excerpt of a full conversation: [How to Become an Indomitable Ummah between Imam Tom Facchine, Sh. Mikael Smith, and Ust. Sami Hamdi.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/webinars/how-to-become-an-indomitable-ummah)* If there was ever a time to be united, it is now. It is time to find guidance through the Qur’an and the legacy of our Prophet ﷺ to reignite our love for Palestine, amplify our voices for justice, and strengthen our hearts for the *ummah*. What is our role in all of this as Muslims? How can we help our brothers and sisters in [Palestine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens)? --- ## 1\. Make sincere du’a for Palestine Those on the frontlines, facing oppression and death head on, are turning to Allah. Even amongst the rubble, they are in *salah* together. We cannot diminish the power of *du’a,* our strongest weapon, and directly plead with the One in control. We should be uttering heartfelt *du’a*s for those suffering at every opportunity. And we must not give in to hopelessness. Our Palestinian brethren exemplify resilience in the midst of adversity, teaching us the enduring power of hope and *tawakkul*. > “Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer.” \[Sahih Muslim 2999\] *Save and recite the du'a below to help and protect the people of Palestine:* ![Dua against injustice and oppression: Save and recite this du'a to help and protect the people of Palestine](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dua-for-Palestine-Dua-against-oppression-1024x1024.png) Du'a against injustice & oppression --- ## 2\. Speak up about the oppression of Palestinians As we speak, oppressors are inflicting tremendous suffering upon our Palestinian brothers and sisters while employing a calculated campaign to dehumanize them. We cannot remain silent or impartial in the face of this impending disaster. We all bear a responsibility to speak out against such injustice, for we are the agents of positive change in our society. To be Muslim is to bring good to society and do what we can to stop evil. --- ## 3\. Educate yourself and others, and do what you can Right now, profound changes are sweeping across the world, driven by a groundswell of passion and a growing chorus of voices clamoring for a free Palestine. Political landscapes are shifting, and there's a palpable air of anticipation in the face of this rising public demand. No one wants to be on the opposing side of public opinion. Across the globe, unprecedented numbers of people are converging at protests, shocking governments and the public at large. Ordinary individuals are seizing the power through social media to share and discuss impactful videos and images, forcing the algorithm to amplify them before any removal attempts. In the streets and online, conversations are shaping the collective consciousness, molding it in favor of the truth. We should arm ourselves with knowledge: learn the truth and study current events. Use the language of apartheid and genocide, without falling for the tactics of the media that seeks to distort the narrative. > Recognize that as Muslims, we sometimes undermine our agency. We underestimate the power Allah has given us. Allah has exalted His believers and assured us of success, whether it materializes in our lifetime or not. Allah promises to reward us based on our effort, not the results. "And they will be told, 'All this is surely a reward for you. Your striving has been appreciated.'" (Qur'an, 76:22). We decide if and how we want to strive. We decide in what capacity we can support this cause: spiritually, financially, physically, verbally, and emotionally. So it is now up to us to decide to use the blessings and skills Allah has given us to strive for our *ummah*. Allah will determine the outcome–but we have undeniable strength in our numbers and in our voices. Want to learn more about Palestine and the Palestinian cause? Explore all of our [resources on Palestine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tag/palestine). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-all-religions-the-same-islam-and-the-false-promise-of-perennialism # Are All Religions the Same? Islam and the False Promise of Perennialism **Author:** Tom Facchine **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 13, 2023 **Updated:** June 9, 2026 ## Martin Lings the perennialist Most English-speaking Muslims are familiar with the biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ written by Martin Lings, entitled *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources*. A staple of book clubs, this book has rightly earned high praise for its readability, erudition, and narrative style.[^1] Few Muslims, however, are familiar with  Lings’ other works. In one such book, *Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions*, Lings offers piercing insights on modern society that remain relevant today. He scathingly critiques evolutionary theory, freedom as a goal, and the very notion of progress. Some of the connections he makes are not only brilliant but beautifully expressed.[^2] However, any keen Muslim reader will quickly pick up on the fact that Islam is largely, though not entirely, absent from *Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions.* Instead, Lings grounds many of his critiques in Hindu and Christian theology.[^3] Rather than seeing these religious traditions as fundamentally contradicting Islam, Lings consistently downplays the differences between them and all religions, calling them a matter of “perspective,”[^4] or merely “manner\[s\] of expression.”[^5] This denial of religious difference is not a marginal element of Lings’ work either. Lings regularly offers bold, sweeping statements such as “the truth that is expressed \[by these religions\] remains the same,”[^6] “all religions are in agreement about what is really fundamental,”[^7] and “in its more general aspects orthodoxy \[across religions\] is always fundamentally the same.”[^8] In one telling passage, Lings writes: > …there tower up the great religions of the world—there is no need to mention their names—each like a vast mountain range with its snow-clad peaks of sainthood. Here and there also, in the background, loom the shadowy summits of a more primordial religion which had to be replaced or reaffirmed because its people, having fallen away from it, had forgotten it.[^9] The imagery of mountain ranges is extremely evocative, but also troubling. Is Lings merely pointing out the rudimentary belief that Islam is the final form of Allah’s guidance, meant to replace everything before it? Or is Lings advocating the perennialist position that Islam is merely one valid religion amongst others? Lings’ words and imagery push the reader toward the latter interpretation. Islam, in his account, came to replace the mysterious primordial religion that is the basis of all contemporary religions, but *it did not come to replace all other religions.* The other ‘mountain chains’—Hinduism, Christianity, and beyond—also came to replace the lost primordial religion, and therefore are still valid paths today. As Lings would have it, all presently-existing religions have no right to claim themselves the absolute truth. --- ## Perennial problems Perennialism holds that there is one Truth that is found in multiple places. This distinguishes it from universalism, which holds that there is not one Truth but rather multiple truths. Because perennialism insists on one Truth, perennialists must engage multiple religious traditions and demonstrate that those traditions possess the same truth, at least in essence. This the perennialists did, but only by regularly omitting, ignoring, or reinterpreting any claim to exclusive Truth found in the religious traditions with which they engaged. When faced with features of a religion particularly difficult to reconcile with perennialism, perennialists emphasized the primacy of personal mystical experience over revelation and scripture. This is perhaps the main problem with perennialism: its utter indifference to revelation, sometimes bordering on antipathy. By marginalizing revelation and scripture, perennialism simultaneously adopts a posture of validating Islam (and other religions) as true while rejecting everything that makes Islam unique, including Islam’s own claim to exclusively and accurately representing God’s truth and command. Islam in fact does have a discernible essence that is constituted by pillars of belief and practice necessary for salvation. Perennialism, however, claims that all religions are ultimately substitutable and therefore initiation into any of them is sufficient for salvation. The thesis of perennialism thus contradicts Islamic teachings on salvific exclusivity and renders many features of Islam, if not the entire venture of Islam itself, superfluous. Allah says in the Qur’an, > Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and he shall be in the Hereafter among the lost.[^10] And, more explicitly, > But whoever opposes the Messenger, after guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a way other than that of the believers, We shall leave him on \[the path\] he has taken, and We shall cause him to burn in Hell—what an evil journey’s end![^11] Indeed, if all religions possess the same ultimate truth, why didn’t the Last Prophet ﷺ teach that, instead of calling to Islam specifically? If the perennialist thesis is true, there would have been no need for the Prophet to separate himself and his followers as a distinct religious community; he could have simply joined the Quraysh and tried to discover the “kernel of truth” in their idolatry. Even if perennialists reject idolatry as outside of the one Truth, the Qur’an should still celebrate the Christian doctrines of Trinity and Original Sin as valid truths—as other perennialists, including Lings, have actually done.[^12] Instead, Allah emphatically refutes and dismisses them.[^13] Contrary to perennialist illusions, Islam teaches that revelation and scripture are absolutely essential to right guidance. In fact, faking revelation and manipulating scripture—indeed, even speaking for God out of turn—is one of the most abominable sins. Allah says, > And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie or denies His verses? Indeed, the wrongdoers will not succeed.[^14] Perennialist authors are habitually guilty of this, even if some of them might be sincere in their attempt to defend Islam or accord it a special status. The reality is that perennialism attempts to side-step revelation and in its place artificially constructs a lowest common denominator of religious belief and practice. Perennialists were correct to posit a shared divine origin of all genuine revelation, but ultimately erred in trying to reconstruct that common thread through their own selective reading and motivated interpretations of religious traditions. Islam’s central belief in *tawḥīd* is the real perennial truth, not the creative reconstruction of perennialists. This paper contextualizes perennialism as a response to the problem of religious diversity—a response that relies heavily upon an exaggerated distinction between exoteric and esoteric religion—and evaluates this response in light of Islam’s own solution. It demonstrates that perennialism, far from being a universal esoteric truth, is actually a product of (modern) European thought formed in the wake of Christianity’s collapse and the emergence of the Enlightenment. It further shows that perennialists systematically mischaracterized foreign religious traditions, especially Islam, to bolster their thesis. Finally, it explores how secular tolerance, while having a different intellectual genealogy than perennialism, has conscripted perennialist ideas for its own goal of undermining Truth. --- ## Defining perennialism, traditionalism, and universalism Published in 2001, a mere four years before his death, *Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions* likely represents Lings’ candid beliefs much more accurately than his prophetic biography, which was written decades earlier and constrained by the biographical genre from including much of Lings’ own thought. Nevertheless, the trained eye can detect perennialist doctrines and interpretations even in Lings’ prophetic biography, as others have noted.[^15] Lings himself, despite formally denying the charge of perennialism, is no less than the editor of a volume titled *The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy*![^16] Lings’ understanding of Islam’s place among contemporary religions is not, therefore, indigenous to an Islamic worldview. Rather, it belongs to the philosophy of perennialism that Lings shared with his primary influences, René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. Technically, Guénon, Schuon, and Lings were Traditionalists, a philosophical movement for which perennialism is the main pillar. As historian Mark Sedgwick explains, “all Traditionalists are perennialists, but not all perennialists are Traditionalists.”[^17] Traditionalism combines perennialism with a critique of modernity and a historical narrative of decline that privileges the past as the location of truth and wisdom. Traditionalists would therefore reject New Age spirituality and syncretism, whereas non-Traditionalist perennialists would accept those movements as valid. Perennialism must also not be confused with universalism, which has a more subjective understanding of truth.[^18][^19] In summary, universalism holds that there are multiple truths, perennialism holds that there is one truth found in multiple places, and traditionalism holds that there is one truth found in multiple places, but more easily and clearly found in the past. This essay will treat perennialism as a whole, in both its traditionalist and non-traditionalist forms. --- ## The problem of religious diversity Perennialism first arose during the Italian Renaissance as a response to the problems of religious diversity and alternative truth claims advanced by  non-Christian peoples, particularly the ancient Greeks. To reformulate these theological problems as questions: how do we account for the existence of other religious groups if we believe ours alone holds the truth? And, how do we account for the fact that other religious groups have some teachings similar to our own? Rather than dismiss pre-Christian philosophers as pagans, Renaissance scholars including Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and Agostino Steuco attempted to rehabilitate them as ancient theologians that taught and passed down “perennial wisdom” from the same divine source as Christian teachings.[^20] The claim was not that pre-Christian philosophers were actually prophets that received the same revelation as Biblical prophets, but rather that they merely transmitted the same sacred knowledge. These early perennialists invented now discredited chains of transmission to explain how specific teachings made their way from the ancient world to their own time.[^21] If there were points of overlap between the teachings of Ancient Greece and Christianity, there were certainly points of departure, even contradiction. How to account for those? After all, the Ancient Greeks worshiped a multitude of deities, and Christian theologians at least understood themselves as monotheists. The next wave of perennialists writing in the early modern period, including Ralph Cudworth, William Warburton, and John Toland, proposed that such ancient peoples weren’t *really* polytheistic, but that they merely encased their true, secret monotheistic teachings in a polytheistic shell for the sake of the ignorant masses and public order.[^22] This repurposing of an earlier distinction made in Greek philosophy between esoteric and exoteric teachings proved immensely significant for the viability of Perennialism. The exterior practice, the exoteric aspect of religion, was an incidental feature and could vary widely and even contradict other religions. The perennial truth, however, was not exoteric but esoteric, secretly and orally passed down to our present day. The distinction between the exoteric and the esoteric gave perennialist scholars the necessary room to dismiss teachings that contradicted their thesis and affirm others that coincided with it. Perennialism thus began as a response to a specific theological problem. That response, however, is not credible. First, the chains of transmission offered by the earlier perennialists are now the object of scholarly ridicule. In order to save the thesis, perennialists deemphasized *how* the perennial philosophy was transmitted and instead emphasized *what* the perennial philosophy was. But this response is also unsatisfactory. For starters, the content of perennial philosophy differs little from Neoplatonic philosophy.[^23] Additionally, the deployment of the esoteric/exoteric binary to account for religious variety is riddled with problems: it assumes a remote, indifferent conception of God, underestimates the danger heresy poses to human salvation, downplays the importance of revelation, places too much burden on people to verify the truth of foreign religious traditions, underestimates how flawed transmission or well-meaning noble lies can alter or obscure the essential truth, and is generally too subjective in its content. These problems become glaringly apparent after reflecting upon how Islam accounts for religious variety. --- ## Islam and religious diversity Islam offers a far more credible solution to the problem of religious diversity, a solution that stresses the importance, nature, and history of revelation. Islam teaches that Allah has goodwill, compassion, and mercy toward us and therefore wants salvation for us.[^24] To this end, Allah expresses His care and goodwill through His guidance. The most important means by which He guides humankind is His speech communicated by prophets. Allah’s uncreated speech is His direct instruction whereas His prophets deliver His speech to humankind and demonstrate its proper embodiment and application. These do not exhaust all the types of Allah’s guidance—there are dreams and the felicity one attempts to observe after praying *istikhāra*—however Allah’s speech and His prophets are supreme and primary. The ontological necessity and primacy of revelation leads to two consequences. One is that it creates an urgent imperative to distinguish between genuine and fabricated revelation. If revelation is our primary conduit of guidance, sorting the true from the false becomes an urgent epistemological question. If you can confirm  the revelation as genuine, you can confidently accept its teachings and apply them, even if they are counterintuitive or not to your liking. Within this configuration, false revelation is one of the greatest threats to our salvation because it stands to reroute our otherwise good intentions to follow the truth into a dead end of unwarranted worship and fruitless devotion. The perennialist thesis begins with a poor opinion of God. It supposes that Divine guidance is not revealed to us directly and intermittently but has been transmitted secretly through a select few gurus from the distant past. Rather than creating an epistemological imperative to sort true from false revelation, the remote God of perennialism sends us out on a salvific scavenger hunt, leaving us to first guess what the perennial teachings are (or take the perennialists’ word for it) and then search various traditions to discover them there. It is an implicit command to perform *istiqrāʾ* (exhaustive reading), but without the necessary tools or training to do so and therefore overburdens the truth-seeker while committing to an unreasonable optimism about the accurate transmission of ancient wisdom. Setting aside the difficulties of searching for perennial truth outside one’s native language, there is no mechanism within the perennialist configuration to verify or falsify one’s assertion of the content of the perennial philosophy itself. There are only claims and evidence marshaled to prove them without a final arbiter or criterion to settle the matter. Accordingly, I could simply create a counter-perennial philosophy claiming that an anthropomorphic God (instead of Neoplatonism’s ineffable One) was the perennial truth, or even the belief in no God at all. If one were to challenge my version of the perennial philosophy, I could resort to the same tactic as the perennialists and say that belief in God was just an exoteric feature of religions created for public order, whereas the esoteric truth was actually atheism. Indeed, this itself is not far from the materialist critique of religion. The second consequence of the primacy of revelation in Islam is the recognition given to the danger of idolatry and other heresies. Perennialism downplays idolatry as a mere exoteric feature devised for the public order, thus rendering the most hateful abomination in the sight of God and the most serious threat to human salvation as a mere inconvenience that nonetheless serves functional purposes. This treatment, in addition to neglecting the existential threats of idolatry and heresy, fails to sufficiently account for the ways in which exterior practices are essential to facilitating internal states.[^25] In other words, idolatrous practices and heretical beliefs cannot be limited to external or exoteric impact; they will necessarily damage one’s internal state as well. There is no plausible scenario in which a person adheres to esoteric (presumably monotheistic) truth while embodying exoteric polytheism. --- ## The anatomy of Revelation: Belief and practice Islam resolves the problem of religious difference by first addressing the scope of the problem. Classical Islamic scholarship categorizes the linguistic content of revelation as either *khabr* or *inshāʾ*. *Khabr* signifies information about reality whereas *inshāʾ* represents instructions for what to do (or not to do) given the facts of that reality. This twofold distinction roughly corresponds to the fields of theology (*ʿaqīda*) and law (*sharīʿa*). Significant religious diversity in the realm of *khabr/ʿaqīda* is inherently problematic since two contradictory things cannot simultaneously be true. Hell cannot both exist and not exist. Reincarnation and the *barzakh*, the actual vs. merely apparent crucifixion of Jesus cannot simultaneously be true. Therefore, significant religious diversity of this type always indicates that at least one party is in error and misguidance (or both are), and significant differences here are not legitimate.[^26] What standard, then, do we use to evaluate the truthfulness of a claimant to revelation? Allah says that the ultimate mark of genuine revelation is that it calls to the same theology: *tawḥīd*. > And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, “There is no deity except Me, so worship Me.”[^27] Any purported revelation in which a prophet claims or is said to claim other than *tawḥīd* is categorically rejected as false, either because the claim was made by a false prophet or because a true prophet’s revelation was lost or corrupted after his death or disappearance. And while it is true that significant diversity in this field indicates sure error, it is not conversely true that anything that agrees necessarily indicates timeless truth. This was a logical error into which the perennialists repeatedly fell. Lies can be held in common as much as truth can. Idolatry itself follows patterns and those patterns can be traced across eras and cultures.[^28] With respect to *inshāʾ*/*sharīʿa*, religious diversity is not necessarily problematic. Legitimate differences result from the fact that Allah has granted each prophetic community a distinct *sharīʿa*. Allah says: > To each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation \[united in religion\], but \[He intended\] to test you in what He has given you…[^29] This is not a universalist claim; rather it merely recognizes that *sharīʿa*, which is ultimately about human benefit (*maṣlaḥa*), is subject to change in ways that *ʿaqīda* is not. Therefore, it need not be troubling or a sign of false revelation if different prophetic communities have different laws.[^30] However, to have different teachings about God, the soul, the afterlife, etc. indicate a situation in which at least one party must be wrong.[^31] If we take revelation seriously enough to care about distinguishing genuine revelation from fabrication, we need a history of revelation and prophethood that accounts for the real observable differences that exist between religious belief and practice. The fact that revelation is easily lost and corrupted necessitates the commission of more prophets bringing new revelations (same *ʿaqīda*, different laws). The advent of a new prophet wipes the slate clean, leaving contemporaries responsible for following the new prophet’s teachings rather than trying to reconstruct those that are lost to history. In this way there is a lot less guesswork in the Islamic account than in the perennialist one, since rather than optimistically relying on humans to pass things down across civilizations since time immemorial, Muslims rely on Allah to intervene in history with more revelation until that revelation is preserved, as is the case with the Qur’an. What does this mean for the major world religions beyond those traditionally recognized as ‘People of the Book’? Does this entail that the founders of these religious communities were false prophets because their scriptures are filled with teachings that directly contradict our own? Not necessarily. In the Islamic scheme there is an argument for the divine *origin* of the major world religions. We already know with certainty from the Qur’an that Judaism and Christianity began as valid religious communities established by Allah’s true messengers, but that later the teachings were contaminated through the forgery and manipulation of scripture. It is possible that Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and others also began with one of Allah’s messengers only to be later corrupted by human intervention. Consider the following verse of the Qur’an, > And \[We sent\] messengers about whom We have related \[their stories\] to you before and messengers about whom We have not related to you. And Allah spoke to Moses with \[direct\] speech. Commenting on this verse, Dr. Al-Muthannā ʿAbd Al-Fattāḥ[^32] said that we can’t rule out the possibility that today’s world religions originated in genuine divine guidance. It is plausible that if the Gospel of *ʿIsā* could be so quickly and dramatically corrupted to justify the worship of Jesus, a similar process could have happened to Allah’s messengers sent further East about whom we have little reliable information. This distant but possible common divine origin could explain the loose similarities of certain features across religions such as prayer, fasting, alms, and pilgrimage, without resorting to the perennialist thesis that these loose commonalities prove that each religion possesses the same esoteric core and is valid as currently construed. --- ## Perennialism as a European ideology Implicit in perennialism’s insistence on divorcing esoteric truth from exoteric formality is contempt for religious authorities, organized religion, and official religious teachings. Today these sensibilities are immensely popular, perhaps even the default in many places. But sensibilities, no matter how seemingly self-evident, must come from somewhere. If we mine and probe our sensibilities, we can trace their genealogy—sometimes to surprising origins. The modern distrust of organized religion, orthodoxy, and religious authorities is not simply the wise voice of experience, nor is it a universal truth uncovered by the progress of reason. Rather, it results from a particular set of metaphysical commitments rooted firmly in European history and ideology. Of course, a certain degree of epistemic humility is necessary and good. For example, in Islam we refrain from commenting on the final destiny of specific individuals unless we have a scriptural warrant to do so. When a fatwa is issued on a new issue, it is standard practice to end with “Allah knows best.” That is because Allah knows these things with certainty whereas we do not. Within European history, the Renaissance was also animated by a marked sensitivity to human limitations.[^33] Erasmus and Montaigne typified this attitude, the latter of which once famously remarked, “What do I know?” But the equivocations of the Renaissance would later give way to full-blown skepticism when the Enlightenment took hold.[^34] This shift can be attributed to the extremely consequential events that bridge the Renaissance and the Enlightenment: the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent European Wars of Religion. According to British philosopher Stephen Toulmin, who wrote about the shifts in attitude that took place over this period, > In the High Middle Ages, Christian Theology…was more relaxed and adventurous than it became after the late 16th century…In short, the Church operated with an academic freedom that ceased to exist, once the Protestant and Counter-Reformation theologians were joined in confrontation. After the Council of Trent, ecclesiastical censors in Rome started to monitor the work of theologians in the Provincial Churches in a new way; the Holy Office, rooting out “heretics” in ways that are all too familiar, became more widespread and vigorous; and for the first time Catholic teaching hardened into theses (or “dogmas”) that were no longer open to critical discussion, even by sympathetic believers, and whose immutable truth it was politically indispensable to assert, for fear of yielding to the heresies of the Protestants. Instead of free-wheeling *Summas*, the 17th century was fed a diet of centrally authorized *Manuals*; and the Roman authorities began to intervene formally in moral theology by laying down general rulings about moral issues, or *responsa*, with the full force of authority…With the transition from Summas to Manuals, from speculative and revisable doctrines to immutable and infallible “dogmas,” theology and rationalism entered into an ambiguous alliance.[^35] This period of theological and ideological polarization had political consequences. Toulmin elaborates, > Despite all its turmoil and religious divisions, the 16th century had been, by comparison, a time when the voice of sweet reasonableness made itself heard, and was widely valued. From 1610 on, and most of all after 1618, the argument became active, bloody, and strident. Everyone now talked at the top of his voice, and the humanists’ quiet discussions of finitude, and the need for toleration, no longer won a hearing.[^36] The rest is history. Peaking with the 30 Years’ War fought between 1618-1648, Europe would endure a deluge of religiously-motivated conflicts into the 1700s. The cost was astronomical; the 30 Years’ War alone depleted parts of Germany of half their population.[^37] It is difficult to overstate the impact of these religious wars on European attitudes toward organized religion, religious authorities, and official religious teachings. Whether the perpetrators of the violence were sincerely religious or merely using religion as an excuse is beside the point; the undeniable consequence was that people were sick of war and sick of absolutist religious claims used to justify war.[^38] Alexander Pope, who lived in the immediate wake of these conflicts, captured this sentiment well when he wrote, > For forms of government let fools contest; > > Whate’er is best administered is best; > > For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; > > His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right[^39] Indeed, the Enlightenment, which really got going in the immediate aftermath of the European Wars of Religion, is partly a story of how Europe responded to its own entrenched religious violence. Since theological certainty was now associated with political violence, the natural response was to ground certainty elsewhere, such as in human reason or empiricism. --- ## Universalizing the European Christian experience Christian institutions, authorities, and teachings became the prime target of the new skepticism. The door to this skepticism had already been cracked open by the Protestant Reformation, during which the theologian-led development of historical criticism, broke the Catholic Church’s monopoly on valid scriptural interpretation. By the end of the European Wars of Religion, the door to skepticism had been blown off its hinges. Philosophical naturalism waited on the other side, and together with the breakneck pace of scientific discoveries only accelerated Christianity’s decline. European Christianity was at a crossroads, and the question everyone had to answer was: how much of pre-Reformation Christianity could people trust? The various reconfigurations of beliefs and religious identities that emerged during and after this period fell on a spectrum according to how one answered this question. Maintaining faith in Roman Catholicism represented complete trust in Western Christianity as received, whereas full-blown atheism meant completely rejecting it. The Mainline Protestant confessions and Anabaptist movements that emerged from the Reformation certainly fell closer to Catholicism than atheism, since they maintained that Christian revelation was basically true but that the Catholics had hijacked its interpretation and application. Meanwhile, the newly-popularized doctrine of deism—maintaining belief in a Creator but rejecting revelation—fell closer to atheism than Catholicism on the spectrum. Perennialism provided another, ready-made alternative falling somewhere between deism and the Protestant confessions. Perennialism was closer to traditional Christianity than deism in that it affirmed the phenomenon of revelation. However, rather than merely criticize the Church’s interpretation of revelation, perennialists would claim that Christianity did not possess a monopoly on revelation, and that therefore Christianity, while valid and true, was not exclusively so. Perennialists were essentially willing to relinquish Christianity’s claim to exclusive truth in exchange for the general validity granted to religion as a whole. This was a shrewd trade, insofar as it deflected the corrosive skepticism visited upon Christianity away from the category of religion itself. That being said, perennialism enjoyed only limited appeal at first. Among the reasons for this was that perennialist arguments were not historically credible. Recall that perennialist thinkers emphasized the historical transmission of sacred knowledge at the expense of unique revelatory events, inventing imaginative paths of transmission between ancient civilizations. The same historical methods that allowed Protestant scholarship to attack the Catholic Church also discredited the transmission routes proposed by the Renaissance and early modern perennialists. Perennialism would have to wait for the Traditionalists of the 19th century to solve this issue by shifting the focus away from *how* perennial truth made its way from place to place and instead focusing on *what* the perennial truth actually was.[^40] Traditionalist perennialism also capitalized on growing disillusionment with Enlightenment rationalism, as its negative consequences—for example, environmental degradation—began to be felt at the same time that Eastern religious texts started to become more widely available in European languages. This puts Traditionalist perennialism in the same ranks as the other movements of what Isaiah Berlin calls the Counter Enlightenment. Among perennialism’s intellectual peers were transcendentalism as well as German and English romanticism.[^41] Even if perennialism’s roots stretch further back than early modern Europe, placing it on our spectrum of Christian disillusionment helps highlight its more relevant history as one of several European responses to the European Wars of Religion and the subsequent Enlightenment. Christianity was in retreat and every emerging movement was making decisions about where to lay the blame and what to salvage of Christianity. Whereas Protestants identified the Catholic Church as the problem, perennialists blamed Christianity’s absolute and exclusive truth claims, which they saw as a chauvinistic attachment to their own exoteric forms and a failure to see the essential truth running through all religion. Traditionalist perennialists, mostly writing on the other side of the Industrial Revolution, also accused the Modern era of having strayed from ancient wisdom. To them, this was a universal problem, not merely a Christian one, and so they called on all religions to return  to their roots and, presumably, what they had in common. The distinction between critiquing Christianity versus critiquing religion as a whole is a crucial one with enduring import. Perennialists would not identify themselves as Christian, yet there’s no denying that perennialism was historically tied to Christianity as one of several European responses “filling the gap after the collapse of Christian structures.”[^42] In an odd way, the perennialist critique actually takes the spotlight off Christianity itself, since addressing “religion” in general implies that all religions, or at least their exoteric forms, suffered from the same shortcomings that Christianity did. As Gil Anidjar has remarked, “Christianity made itself increasingly forgettable by foregrounding religion as a generic category and a target of criticism.”[^43] In this vein, some perennialists confessed a desire to save Europe and the West, providing a potential motive behind this overgeneralized critique. But for our purposes, the important takeaway was that disillusionment towards Christianity became experienced as disillusionment towards religion as a whole. French Orientalist and mystic De Pouvourville summed this notion up when he said, “love religion, and distrust religions.”[^44] De Pouvourville, a perennialist, was implying that religion signifies the esoteric Truth whereas religions are the exoteric, partial, and imperfect attempts by humans to interpret, live, and propagate that Truth. Martin Lings isn’t the only perennialist author whose claim to fame is a work not obviously identifiable with perennialism. Aldous Huxley, author of *A Brave New World*, was an ardent perennialist. He reproduces the typical perennialist criticisms of organized religion, religious authorities, and religious doctrine in his appropriately titled manifesto, *The Perennial Philosophy*. At one point, Huxley recounts ‘the allegory of ships,’ a Sufi tale in which Allah allegedly shows a mystic a vision in which there are ships sinking into the sea and mere planks floating on the water, which eventually sink as well. The mystic is told that those who attempt to ride the ships across the sea or cling to the planks will perish, but those who cast themselves overboard will be saved.[^45] Commenting on this allegory, Huxley writes, > The allegory is fairly clear. The ships that bear the individual voyagers across the sea of life are sects and churches, collections of dogmas and religious organizations. The planks which also sink at last are all good works falling short of total self-surrender and all faith less absolute than the unitive knowledge of God.[^46] The main takeaway here is that sects and churches, dogmas and religious organizations are to be treated with categorical suspicion. They obscure the Truth and obstruct the right path rather than elucidating it and facilitating the journey upon it. Note again how what began as a criticism of Christianity specifically has been scaled up to apply to religion as a whole. Perennialism did not necessarily cause the skepticism of organized religion, religious authorities, and official religious doctrine so rampant today. However, it represented a readily available framework to which more and more people resorted as Christianity declined and Enlightenment-style skepticism ascended. Perennialists of the Traditionalist and non-Traditionalist variety not only attracted people already disillusioned with traditional forms of religiosity, they actively facilitated and furthered suspicion of “organized religion.” --- ## Perennialism’s conscripts It is significant that Huxley resorted to Sufism to make his point. Huxley was following the perennialist playbook of mischaracterizing foreign religious traditions by cherry-picking statements and concepts that seemed to support perennialist positions, thus making those positions seem more universally held than they really were. In *Ancient Beliefs*, Lings manages—in the space of one short paragraph—to marshall the concept of reincarnation in Hinduism, Original Sin in Christianity, and  *fiṭra*, or innate disposition, in Islam as evidence that human beings come into this world with a responsibility that predates their birth.[^47] This misappropriation of the *fiṭra* clearly contradicts Islamic teachings on the fundamental innocence of children and the uninheritable nature of sin.[^48] Another example can be found in the work of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, a key early collaborator of René Guénon and fellow perennialist. Originally an art historian, Coomaraswamy wrote a book titled *Hinduism and Buddhism* which attempted to make the case that both religions were expressions of the original Perennial Philosophy.[^49] The book was pilloried in academic circles. One reviewer wrote in *The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies*, “any interpretation motivated by such a fixed idea tends to force etymologies and meanings on words and passages in order to make them conform to a preconceived idea.”[^50] Lings and Coomaraswamy both follow Guénon in this respect, whose doctoral thesis, later published as *A General Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines*, was rejected for being similarly ahistorical and ideologically motivated.[^51] Consider the positivist nature of the academy at the time and you get a true sense of just how far off the mark they were to provoke this accurate, if ironic, critique.[^52] Perennialists not only mined religious traditions for evidence that justified their own philosophy, they adopted the incredibly arrogant posture that they understood these religious traditions better than the vast majority of practitioners of those traditions. Realizing that they had to account for the discrepancy between their own interpretations and those of the native masses, perennialist thinkers often leaned on their aforementioned inheritance of European anti-clericalism. Like Huxley with his allegory of the ships, the masses were getting it wrong, clinging to exclusionary creeds and institutions that were in fact the production of the clerical establishment, not the Religion itself. In other words, whenever a religion seemed to espouse teachings that claimed exclusive access to the Truth or to salvation, it could be blamed on either the folly or manipulation of rigid clerics. The perennialists, always, were in touch with the real Truth. As previously noted, perennialists also relied heavily on their distinction between the exoteric shell of religion whose purpose was public order and the esoteric or mystical forms of religion more amenable to the perennialist narrative. Perennialist authors regularly championed their preferred mystical strains and summarily dismissed the rest, propping them up as the true representatives of tradition and the only ones that should be trusted.[^53] As far as Islam is concerned, perennialists like Huxley eagerly seized upon Sufism  as their point of entry to mischaracterize Islam and to that end even attempted to paint Sufism as a separate religion distinct from Islam. Sufism and Islam have been treated as two empty signifiers, the former upon which Western minds could project their own religious ideals and the latter upon which they could project their religious fears, again largely informed by Europe’s traumatic experience with Christianity. One need look no further than the vast discrepancy between the Western imagination and actual reality of Sufi poets such as Rumi to appreciate this point.[^54] This is not to say that the actual Rumi can and must be upheld as the epitome of orthodox Islam. Rather, the point is simply to draw attention to the unfaithful and inaccurate ways in which perennialists and their contemporaries engaged, interpreted, and conscripted foreign religious texts and figures toward their own ends. Rumi’s words are instructive here: > A wretch steals the words Sufis spoke, > > and tells tall tales to simple folk. > > The work of real men will shine bright, > > the vile have shameless tricks—not light.[^55] --- ## Revisionist traditions The conscription of older traditions in novel ways continues today, albeit in subtler ways. One widely-conscripted tradition in modern times is the story of “The Blind Men Who Touch the Elephant.” Sarah Conover has collected and adapted dozens of ancient stories from different traditions and published them in a series of books, one of which—*Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs*—might be familiar to Muslim readers. Other titles in the series include *Kindness*, a collection of Buddhist stories, and *Harmony*, a collection of stories from China. Conover retells the story of “The Blind Men Who Touched the Elephant” in the latter book, *Harmony*. Like many ancient stories, it began with a troubled king: > This particular king was a follower of the Buddha, and he studied the sacred books and meditated every day. But in his kingdom at that time many other religions also drew followers. In the parks and markets, in the temples and schools, arguments erupted between defenders of different philosophies. Some people believed that they alone understood life’s deepest secrets, while others held opinions that were exactly the opposite. Consequently, the king’s subjects argued day and night.[^56] Leaving aside the conflation of religion and philosophy, Conover’s modern rendition lays blame on religious difference, and above all theological certainty, for conflict and discord. Believing that you are correct to the exclusion of others brings unnecessary division, we are being implicitly told. The king decided to teach his subjects a sagacious lesson. He summoned several men who had been blind since birth and had an elephant brought to them. Then he called all the subjects of his kingdom to the town square to watch the ensuing spectacle. The king asked the blind men, > “Do you want to know what an elephant looks like?” > > “Yes!” they replied in one voice. > > “But you cannot see it, so how will you learn what it is like?” asked the king. > > “We will feel it!” one man replied. > > “We will touch it,” said another. > > “We will hear it,” said a third. The men slowly approached the elephant and began touching it. Each of them grabbed on to a different part of the elephant, so the descriptions they reported back to the king were vastly different. If that weren’t enough, in Conover’s rendition the blind men mocked the other descriptions of the elephant, each insisting that he alone was right. The crowd looked on, amused and ready to receive the lesson from the king, who finally said, “Those of you who don’t follow the teachings of the Buddha also seem to be quite convinced that you alone grasp the nature of life… and you want to argue on and on about it… Do you now understand that you are just as confused as these quarreling blind men who know only a small part of the elephant yet are so certain of the whole?”[^57] Storytelling is powerful not because of what is stated, but because of what is implied. In Conover’s rendition, those who claimed certain metaphysical truths are likened to the blind. Here, claims of certain belief are blameworthy because they are a categorical impossibility, only creating division and strife. If the chief mouthpieces of metaphysical certainty are organized religion, religious authorities, and religious doctrine, then those mouthpieces are guilty of spreading division and conflict. Conover’s retelling of this story, the conflation of religion and philosophy, and indeed the concept of the book series as a whole, have distinctly perennialist undertones. In Lings’ language, the entire elephant would represent the towering, shadowy mountain chain of primordial truth whereas the observations of the blind men are today’s world religions, Islam included among them. But stories are open to interpretation, and upon further inspection this story might be an indictment of perennialism rather than an argument for it. Notice the means by which the blind men endeavor to know the elephant: their senses. The story demonstrates the limits of empirical knowledge, but it would be premature to assume that the same conclusion applies to knowledge of revelation. We assume we are the blind men of the story—but are those with genuine revelation from a prophet more like the blind men, or more like the king who can see the whole elephant and thus assess the descriptions of others? Perhaps, then, the story should be retold as demonstrating the need to submit to the guidance of a prophet who knows the unseen rather than those who, like perennialists, dubiously claim to speak for all religions. Perhaps the perennialists are, in fact, the blind men. A similar attitude toward religion is found in the popular children’s book, *Old Turtle*. Winner of the 1993 American Booksellers’ Children's Book of the Year, *Old Turtle*’s basic plotline is that all the creatures of the earth lived in harmony with one another until they started arguing about God. Each animal described God in a way that echoed their own particular experience, and their arguments are only ended when the sage-like Old Turtle authoritatively tells everyone that God is everything that they describe and more. The story goes on to foretell the coming of humans, the initial period of harmony they would enjoy, and then their own devolution into arguing about God, followed by subsequent war and ecological disaster. Harmony will be restored, Old Turtle tells us, when people stop arguing about God and learn to see God in each other.[^58] While not mentioning religion explicitly, it is clear that religion—as an enterprise that delimits what God is and is not, that makes truth-claims about the Divine—comes into Old Turtle’s crosshairs. We can’t really say anything definitive about God, Old Turtle tells us, and if we try, we must immediately realize that what we say isn’t more valid than what anyone else could say. As in Conover’s modern rendition of ancient tales, to think otherwise is to invite not only conflict, but disaster. The themes animating these stories are popular enough in contemporary society to be cliché. Organized religion, orthodoxy, and religious authorities are treated with profound suspicion, even ridicule. But is this really ancient wisdom, or simply a modern posture? --- ## Religious experience and the “playlist-ification” of faith From the very beginning, perennialism sidelined scripture by emphasizing the transmission of ancient wisdom at the expense of intermittent revelation and prophetic intervention. It further marginalized scripture by deploying the esoteric/exoteric dichotomy, by which perennialists could easily dismiss even scriptural content that violated the perennialist thesis. In its place perennialists emphasized the primacy of personal mystical experience for uncovering Truth. Showing how this feature goes back to Neoplatonism, Mark Sedgwick writes, > The result of this spiritual process was the mystical experience: homoiosis to theo for Plotinus, fana for the Sufis, “union” for other purposes. And one result of union, according to Plotinus’s later follower Iamblichus, was that one who had achieved homoiosis could access and communicate divine knowledge.[^59] The key point here is the idea that union grants the practitioner unique access to divine knowledge. Orientalists in general and perennialists specifically sought out even superficially similar concepts in other traditions as a convenient avenue to undermine more identifiable forms of adherence to organized religion, its authorities, and doctrines. In the contemporary Western context our concern is not so much that mystical experience has been overemphasized but rather the fact that one’s personal experience of religion has been so infused with a quasi-mystical authority that it is seen as being more authentic and true than Divine revelation itself. As one non-Muslim college student put it to me bluntly, “I don’t want an external religious authority to tell me that my spiritual experience isn’t ok.” This shift contributes to an emergent sentiment among Muslim youth that they benefit from other religious traditions and spiritual practices in ways that displace or marginalize Islamic ones. Some people claim to benefit more from yoga and meditation than from *ṣalāt*, despite the latter’s lofty and unambiguous status as the preeminent expression of gratitude in our sacred law. To privilege practices not directly communicated by our Creator nor by the best of creation belies a personal disposition that values personal experience over revelation. Scripture here receives the same dismissive wave of the hand as organized religion.[^60] As we have seen, however, it is not “organized religion” as a whole that is problematic but the specific way in which the Christian church was organized and wielded power. Realizing that European religious experience is particular rather than universal enables us to think about religion in a much more nuanced way than the crude binary of organized/not organized. Now we can ask: “Who is doing the organizing?” Or, “by what principles and methods is my religion being organized?” We do ourselves no favors by railing against “organized religion” as a whole when our problem is really something more specific, such as the ecclesiastical authoritarianism of European Christianity. In fact, we set ourselves up to overcorrect to the other extreme. Convictions and commitments have to be organized by someone and in some manner. No one’s convictions and commitments are random; even if people style themselves “spiritual but not religious,” there is still a structure beneath the surface that organizes those commitments. Being “spiritual,” then, does not describe a space that is outside of religious organization but rather a situation in which *the practitioners themselves* have assumed responsibility for organizing their own beliefs and practices. Put in these terms, the potential unforeseen problems in organizing your religious practice for yourself become clearer. One of the main issues is avoiding confirmation bias. A relative of mine once told me, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God.” That might be technically true, but if you don’t have the input of a third party, someone outside of yourself, how can you be sure that you’re not creating an echo-chamber of all the affirming messages you want to hear while avoiding the messages that challenge you to take accountability and grow? Or, if you skew more self-critical, what’s to say you’re not surrounding yourself with crippling messages confirming your own poor self-perception instead of messages that will build you up? In its suspicion of organized religion, perennialism has overestimated the ability of the individual to fairly and holistically organize their own spiritual practice. Social media algorithms provide a helpful illustration. Scrolling through our feeds, we might feel like we’re in control, even be impressed with the amount of material to which we have access. But we don’t see the way that the algorithm uses our own preferences to limit our exposure to things we’ll never know about. When we take responsibility for organizing our own religious and spiritual practices the result is a sort of ‘playlist-ification’ of faith where our own preferences and desire for affirmation (or self-critique) might preclude our exposure to what we really need spiritually. A trend toward rediscovering the importance of the body (after being marginalized by the hyper-rational Enlightenment) has further buttressed these sensibilities. Books like *The Body Keeps the Score* by Bessel van der Kolk are serial best-sellers, paying long overdue attention to the effects of trauma and taking the body seriously in an epistemic way.[^61] But, as with every swing of the historical pendulum, we need to make sure that we maintain balance instead of oscillating from one extreme to the other. The fact that there are limits to what the body can sense and experience should give us a healthy amount of uncertainty about the capacity of personal experience to reveal Divine truths. There is a Chinese saying that reflects this reality: “He mistakes the reflection of a bow in the cup for a worm.” It refers to an old story about a guest being served tea by his host. Looking down into his cup, the guest noticed what he thought was a worm in his cup, but not wanting to offend his host, he drank the contents of the cup anyway. The guest returned home but couldn’t stop worrying about having swallowed the worm. Sure enough, the next day he awoke and felt horrible nausea and fever. He lay in bed ill for days until the friend who had served him the tea came to pay him a visit. The ill man confessed that there had been a worm in his teacup that day and that he had swallowed it to avoid seeming like a bad guest. His friend was surprised and rushed home to see if there were really worms in his tea. Once he poured up a cup, however, he realized that there were no worms—  only his bow, hanging on the wall, being reflected in the contents of the teacup. He rushed back to his friend to tell him the good news, and upon learning the reality of what had transpired, his symptoms vanished instantly.[^62] This story is not a justification for gaslighting or denying the experiences of others, but it is a recognition that the body, and thus experience, has limits. Put another way, there is truth in the body, but the body does not hold a monopoly on the truth. If there were no truth outside the self, religion would in fact be useless. There is also an irony at play here: if we shun, as perennialism would have us do, organized religion and religious authorities because we are suspicious of others’ religious interpretations, what makes us so confident in our own? Such one-sided skepticism could only make sense if we assume that others misinterpret scripture solely because of their ill intent or the positions of power and privilege from which they speak. But there are other factors behind religious misinterpretation, such as delusion, conflicts of interest, and wishful thinking. More importantly, if religious authorities are not immune to these forces, what makes us think that we are? We have to face the sober fact that we are not immune, that the factors behind misinterpretation are not just political and historical, they are also moral and could happen to anyone. Perennialism does not meaningfully deal with this reality. Islam occupies the middle ground when it comes to the capacity of human experience to arrive at Divine Truth. On the one hand the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, when asked about the nature of sin, replied that one should ask their own heart.[^63] The Prophet ﷺ also referred to experiencing the “sweetness of faith,” a nonsensical notion if our personal experience counted for nothing.[^64] That being said, there are important warnings about the limits of human experience. Allah says, > But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not.[^65] Allah also tells us that the Devil is so successful precisely because he makes the evil seem good. Allah says that Iblīs says, > “And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them \[sinful\] desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah.” And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss. Satan promises them and arouses desire in them. But Satan does not promise them except delusion.[^66] These verses demonstrate the need for an authority outside ourselves to help regulate our experiences, organize our religious practice, and keep us in check. Without such checks, what we experience as spiritual development might be in reality self-destruction. Despite the claims of secular academics, religion is not primarily a human venture, but rather a divinely communicated regimen of internal states and external practices that are registered by the Creator as valid expressions of gratitude. The concept of love languages is instructive here; just as I can waste my time, money, and effort buying flowers for an allergic spouse, I can toil away at something I believe (or experience) is worshiping my Creator only for Allah to tell me in the afterlife that it in fact was not worship—not a valid expression of gratitude—at all. There is a role, certainly, for our subjective experience *within* worship, to taste the sweetness of faith, to stand in awe of the Creator, to worship as if we are witnessing Allah. But we must not mistake the sublime experience of worship as an end in itself. It is but a means to an end: paradise and Allah’s approval. When we prioritize the *experience* of worship over the *object* of worship, our own experience of worship becomes an end in itself, perhaps even to the point where we are willing to leave the firm footing of Islam to chase a sublime experience elsewhere, and thus actually center the ego and its experience rather than the Creator. Surely there are cautionary tales in self-styled gurus and false prophets throughout history. Consider Frithjof Schuon’s esoteric visions of the Virgin Mary. It’s worth quoting Sedgwick, who is drawing from Schuon’s own journals and correspondences to note Schuon’s internal justifications for his descent into misguidance. > Schuon was not sure at first how to interpret his experiences of 1965. The first question was whether they amounted to a true or a false vision. A true vision, Schuon decided, could be distinguished from a false one by the beneficial effect it had on its recipient, and this vision had the beneficial effect of freeing him from the love of books, newspapers, and the theater, in which he found he could no longer lose himself. Schuon did not consider, in this context, another effect of his vision: the “almost irresistible need to be naked like her \[the Virgin Mary’s\] baby.” For some time thereafter, Schuon took off his clothes whenever he was home alone. > > Once Schuon decided that his experiences were a true vision, the next question was how to interpret them. His final conclusion was that the vision marked the coming of  “a special relationship with Heaven.” “\[...\] It seems clear that Schuon took it as a change in his role from being shaykh of the Alawiyya (the position given him in his earlier vision of 1937) to a more universal role, above and beyond Islam. [^67] Schuon’s later abominations include painting the Virgin Mary naked, multiple sexual indecencies,[^68] and a slew of cult-like antics.[^69] His treatment of the Virgin Mary and subsequent philandering proved scandalous to even his fellow perennialists, exacerbating the earlier split between Schuon and René Guénon. If subjective experience is our main guide, the Devil is right next to us ready to delude us. In our Islamic tradition there is a famous story involving Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jilānī in which he experiences what seems at first to be a mystical vision. Clouds gather and from the great beyond comes a booming voice declaring that it is none other than Allah Himself, and that Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jilānī had reached such an advanced spiritual state that he was now permitted to do what was impermissible for everyone else. The Shaykh immediately spat in disgust and cursed the voice, which then revealed itself to actually be the Devil. In one version of the story, the Devil notes his surprise in being exposed, having fooled countless scholars and worshipers before al-Jilānī.[^70] Indeed, experience can only take us so far before it becomes prone to delusion. One of Allah’s names is *al-Ḥaqq* because He is the Ultimate Reality and the most reliable source of guidance for what is Real. With both our engagement with religious texts and our interpretation of our own experiences, we need an outside authority to keep us honest and prevent our own biases from leading us down the road of self-indulgent destruction. Indeed, the name of our religion—chosen by Allah, not us—is submission, Islam. --- ## Perennialism conscripted Although diverging in important ways, Perennialism has been both amplified and conscripted by another, more powerful and dominant ideology that also originated in Renaissance Europe: secularism. Initially a term to describe the transition from monastic life to the life of canons, and then the transfer of ecclesiastical property to lay persons, secularism eventually emerged as one of several hegemonic political projects of modernity that radically reconfigured the way much of humanity experiences life on earth.[^71] One such transformation was the displacement of previous religio-social identities with a transcendent political identity. This shift is why much of the world thinks and identifies primarily with the nation-state and its category of citizen and only secondarily with the *ummah*, Christendom, or some other community of souls. Perennialism makes a similar move, but rather than substituting a political category for a religious one, it substitutes one transcendent spiritual identity for another, supposedly *more* transcendent spiritual identity. French Occultist Gérard Encausse summed up this sentiment well when he said, > Truth is One, and no school, no religion can claim it for itself alone…In every religion can be found manifestations of the single truth.[^72] Perennialism thus styles itself as a meta-faith, a transcendent truth that trumps the supposedly transcendent (but in its own estimation parochial) truths of other religions. In claiming neutrality, secularism and perennialism mask both their historical embeddedness and particular regime of metaphysical commitments. Both are heavily indebted to the European Enlightenment, though secularism more so. Perennialism historically depends on Enlightenment-style skepticism to clear the field of other claimants to transcendent truth, but its actual content is Neoplatonist metaphysics repackaged. Secular power forces religions to change in the process of transcending them and rendering them governable. Perennialism, too, mutilates other faith traditions in its act of transcendence. In order to maintain the thesis that there actually is a common esoteric core running through all religions, perennialism must excise those inconvenient tenets and practices that contradict its thesis, usually deploying the charge of exotericism to dismiss them. This, in addition to perennialism’s marginalization of revelation and scripture at the expense of individual religious experience, also folds nicely into the secularist, materialist conception of the self, with beliefs conceptualized as non-essential, substitutable, and thus discardable. Similarly, the perennialist emphasis on the transmission of sacred knowledge rather than its revelation through Prophets resembles the secularist assumption that religion is a human venture rather than a divine one. In its depiction of exotericism as an incidental rather than essential feature of religion and salvation, perennialism taps into the skepticism and disdain for religious authority, organized religion, and orthodox teachings that it shares with secularism. Secularism’s will to transcendence was supposedly meant to facilitate political stability and governability by discovering an agreeable lowest common denominator. Perennialism makes a parallel move, searching out the lowest common denominator of religious belief and practice, and in the process watering down and depoliticizing its notion of truth. This neutered vision, in turn, provides secularism with an important tool for neutralizing rival claimants to transcendent truth and alternative transcendent political imaginations. The perennialist project of lending theological legitimacy to other religions sits  comfortably adjacent to liberal political values of tolerance, inclusion, and multiculturalism. Indeed, perennialism, in addition to universalism, postmodernism, and other ideologies that undermine alternate claims to ultimate truth, are actually key conscripts of secularism allowed to flourish in order to undermine its Others. Accordingly, perennialists are more common than you think, especially in academia. Mircea Eliade, Huston Smith, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr are perennialists. Julius Evola, Aleksandr Dugin, and King Charles III are perennialists. Even Jordan Peterson is a perennialist.[^73] Perennialist ideas and sensibilities are even more nearly ubiquitous in North American religious culture. Remember that from the European experience, theological certainty and exclusivity is a powerful trigger, one that is assumed to result in political violence and oppression.[^74] There is a real concern shared by many that in order to successfully tolerate others, we must accept as valid their theology too. Thankfully, Islam can disentangle these concerns. --- ## Will the real perennial truth please stand up? For all their shortcomings, the perennialists sensed something important, that there is a degree of commonality between the major religions of the world and that such commonality plausibly indicated a common Divine rather than human source. However, they sorely missed the mark in identifying what that common thread was and interpreting what it meant. The perennialists latched onto the thread of mysticism as the common essence of all religions. To make this tenable, however, they had to actively downplay the fundamental and unresolvable differences between religions, emphasizing instead the divide between exoteric and esoteric religion. In latching onto the latter, the perennialists were victims of their own inherited sensibilities, distinctly European, that cast a skeptical eye on organized religion, religious authorities, and religious doctrine. Even more problematic was the Traditionalist interpretation that all contemporary religions were imperfect but valid manifestations of the lost primordial religion. This interpretation suffered from a major oversight: the assumption that all current religions only possessed mere remnants of the truth. This was true of Christianity, but Traditionalists assumed that what was true of Christianity was true of all religions. Rather than do their due diligence to determine if there was in fact a religion that properly preserved the Original Teachings, they painted all traditions with the same brush and pivoted to the idea of a lost primordial one. The real primordial religion is, and always was, Islam. The common thread that the perennialists were searching for but failed to find is in fact *tawḥīd*. Allah says, > And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, “There is no deity except Me, so worship Me.”[^75] Rather than downplay the often fundamental and mutually exclusive differences between the religions we see practiced today, Islam acknowledges and accounts for them, > And those who were given the Scripture did not differ except after knowledge had come to them—out of jealous animosity between themselves.[^76] These man-made differences, joined with the regional character of earlier  prophetic missions, necessitated the commission of subsequent prophets to bring the people back to the primordial teaching of *tawḥīd*. If at any point in time human communication became global *and* the Divine communication was preserved, there would be no justification for any more Divine revelation or prophets. Christianity is the first world religion in the true sense, spread (often violently) in a significant way to every continent. However, the message given to Prophet Jesus (as) was lost, necessitating the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ. Allah preserved the Qur’an in a way no other Divine revelation was preserved, making it the standard for understanding the Creator’s wishes, replacing the remnants of what came before it, and slamming the door shut on future prophets or Divinely revealed scriptures. Allah said, > And We have revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it. So judge between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth.[^77] Hence, Islam is the only acceptable religion to Allah, as He says explicitly, > And whoever desires other than Islam as religion—never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.[^78] This is precisely why the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ criticized the Companion and second Rightly Guided Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb for reading the Torah, declaring that if Moses had been alive at that moment he would have had no choice but to follow Muhammad.[^79] This is also why Allah stressed that the Christians and the Jews living at the time of the Prophet ﷺ would have to follow him in order to be guided, saying, > So if they believe in the same as you believe in, then they have been \[rightly\] guided; but if they turn away, they are only in dissension, and Allah will be sufficient for you against them. And He is the Hearing, the Knowing.[^80] Recall that perennialism emerged from the ruins of a collapsing Christianity and thus was indelibly marked by the problems of an increasingly post-Christian Europe. As Muslims, post-Christian problems do not have to be our problems. We do not need to accept the coupling of theological certainty with political violence. In fact, we can draw on our own tradition to teach others that it is possible to be certain of one’s religious beliefs and categorically reject the beliefs of others, yet still live side by side in relative peace and harmony. A large segment of the North American Muslim population migrated from non-European lands within living memory. We can’t lose sight of the fact that settling in any new place also entails stepping into a conversation of ideas, often contentious, that predates our presence. We have to pay careful attention to infer what was said in the conversation before we arrived, to understand the things that brought the conversation to its current point. If you walked in on two people engaged in heated debate, it wouldn’t make much sense to hastily enter the fray and support one side over the other. Doing so would preclude the possibility of ending the debate in a more amicable way, especially if you as an outside observer were in possession of some insight that could help both parties. As Muslims, joining the chorus against organized religion, religious authorities, and religious doctrines would be premature and a missed opportunity to redeem and heal the space we live in from the trauma of its particular religious history. We as Muslims have a different story; our scripture was preserved as revealed, our scholars were decentralized and independent, and our tradition is defined by a balance between respecting the authority of expertise and thinking critically. Our legacy involves combining certain faith with fairness and respect for life. Islam is the last hope for the world to learn this lesson. To refer back to the imagery of Lings, it is not merely the mysterious lost primordial religion that sits in the background as a shadowy mountain range. Every other religion, changed irrevocably from its original divine communication, also sits in the background, covered in shadow and fog. It is only the mountain of Islam that stands in the foreground, crystal clear, as the final and preserved expression of Divine guidance for all mankind. --- ## Notes [^1]: “Scrupulous and exhaustive in its fidelity to its sources, *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources* is presented in a narrative style that is easily comprehensible, yet authentic and inspiring in its use of language, reflecting both the simplicity and grandeur of the story it tells.” Martin Lings, *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2007), back cover. [^2]: For example, Lings observes that the human search for spiritual transcendence has been symbolically replaced by space exploration as a materialist equivalent of going “up and beyond” (24), that humanism, by neglecting our spiritual potential, in fact entails the abolition of humanity (30), and that modern medicine, by neglecting the maladies of the soul, entails the abolition of health. Martin Lings, *Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions* (Cambridge: Arche Type, 2019), 31. [^3]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,* 8, 15, 18–23, 32–33, 43, 47–48, 53, 56, 58–59. [^4]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,*15. [^5]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,*19. [^6]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,* 19. [^7]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,* 53. [^8]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,* 63. [^9]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs,* 62. [^10]: Qur’an 3:85. [^11]: Qur’an 4:115; see also 48:13. These passages are more explicit since they undermine the claim that “Islam” in 3:85 is actually “lower-case islam,” i.e., surrender to God in any form, not necessarily through the teachings of the last Prophet ﷺ. [^12]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs*, 56. [^13]: For refutations of original sin, see Qur’an 6:164, 17:15, 35:18, 39:7, and 53:38. For refutations of trinitarianism, see Qur’an 3:59, 4:171, 5:73, and 5:116. [^14]: Qur’an 6:21. [^15]: Aboo Bilaal Mustafaa al-Kanadee, “Perennialist Poison in Martin Lings’ Biography of the Prophet,” [https://muslimanswersfiles.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/perennialist-poison-in-martin-lings-biography-of-the-prophet/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimanswersfiles.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/perennialist-poison-in-martin-lings-biography-of-the-prophet/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636717527&usg=AOvVaw2XDOSi5OisEsr3V222VaP8). See also G. F. Haddad, “A Critical Reading of Martin Lings’ *Muhammad: His Life Based On The Earliest Sources*,” [https://britishmisk.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/52879411-critical-reading-of-martin-lings-gf-haddad.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://britishmisk.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/52879411-critical-reading-of-martin-lings-gf-haddad.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636718526&usg=AOvVaw0biLhb-RcyR6Fr6n_AksE5). [^16]: Martin Lings and Clinton Minnaar, *The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy* (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2007)*.* [^17]: Sedgwick, *Traditionalism*, 359. [^18]: “Universalism remains widely popular, though the term is not now widely used. People who read poems by Rumi or Kahlil Gibran at Christian funerals are universalists, whether or not they realize it. Universalism is the default position of many contemporary Westerners, even if that position is not often named.” Sedgwick, *Traditionalism, 33.* [^19]: In presenting a draft of this paper, I likened perennialism to an interlocutor who annoyingly insists that they are really saying the same thing you are, or that the differences between you are semantic, when in reality they are not actually agreeing with you and the differences between you are quite substantial. [^20]: Sedgwick, *Traditionalism*, 27–29. [^21]: “Ficino thus proposed a transmission of ancient theology from Moses and Zoroaster, to Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Iambliches (a follower of Plotinus), Pythagoras, and finally Plato. This chain of transmission makes no historical sense in terms of current knowledge, but seemed plausible in the fifteenth century.” Sedgwick, *Traditionalism*, 28. [^22]: Sedgwick, *Traditionalism*, 30–31. [^23]: Specifically in that the universe emanated from a universal soul which emanated from an indescribable singular Divine being, with the purpose of life being to transcend and return towards the One through the practice of mysticism. See Sedgwick, *Western Sufism*, 18–23. [^24]: These qualities are both the definition of Allah and consequences of who He is derived from His names, such as *al-Barr*, *al-Raḥmān*, *al-Rahīm*, and *al-Hādī*. [^25]: For more on the relationship between interiority and exteriority, see Saba Mahmood, *Politics of Piety* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005). [^26]: Minor differences can occur within certain limits, but this is outside the scope of this essay. [^27]: Qur’an 21:25. [^28]: For example, the ubiquity of a rain god or that divine beings can have offspring. [^29]: Qur’an 5:48. [^30]: Examples in the Quran include the Sabbath, which was legislated for the Jews but abrogated for Muslims. See Qur’an 4:47, 7:163, 16:124; 6:146; 3:49. [^31]: This is one of the most glaring flaws in Christian theology, namely that the idea of God supposedly preached by Jesus in the New Testament and canonized by Church authorities so starkly differs from the idea of God preached by Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament. The doctrines of dispensationalism and progressive revelation implicitly recognize this problem. [^32]: Dr. Al-Muthannā ʿAbd Al-Fattāḥ is a Professor of Qur'anic Exegesis  (*tafsīr*) at the Islamic University of Madinah. [^33]: Stephen Toulmin, *Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 25. [^34]: Wael Hallaq writes in *Restating Orientalism*: “Under the command of human reason finally divorced of traditional principles of morality, the project \[of Enlightenment\] would aim to create a universal civilization, one premised upon a particular notion of rationality, materiality, individualism, autonomy, and, crucial for us, domination of nature.” Wael Hallaq, *Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 36–37. [^35]: Toulmin, *Cosmopolis*, 78. [^36]: Toulmin, *Cosmopolis*, 79. [^37]: Geoffrey Parker, *The Thirty Years’ War* (New York: Routledge, 1987), 210–11. [^38]: While this history is important, it is also true that secular modernity exaggerates and exploits this historical memory to mythologize its own salvific role in European history. See William T. Cavanaugh’s *The Myth of Religious Violence* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^39]: Alexander Pope, “Essay on Man,” Epistle III, quoted in Toulmin, *Cosmopolis*, 131. [^40]: Sedgwick, *Traditionalism*, 45. [^41]: Isaiah Berlin, “The Counter-Enlightenment,” in *Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 1–32. [^42]: Mark J. Sedgwick, *Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New Age* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 261. [^43]: Gil Anidjar, “Secularism,” 69, quoted in Hallaq, *Restating Orientalism*, 55. [^44]: Jean-Pierre Laurant, *Le sens caché selon René Guénon* (Lausanne: L’Age d’homme, 1975), 53. [^45]: Aldous Huxley, *The Perennial Philosophy* (New York: Harper Perennial, 2005), 210. [^46]: Huxley, *Perennial Philosophy,* 210. [^47]: Lings, *Ancient Beliefs*, 56. [^48]: Importantly, Allah accepts Adam’s repentance. Qur’an 2:37. [^49]: In yet another example, Guénon’s collaborator Ivan Gustaf Aguéli wrote an article “on the doctrinal identity of Taoism and Islam” for *La Gnose*, a journal they worked on together. See Robin Waterfield, *René Guénon and the Future of the West: The Life and Writings of a 20th-Century Metaphysician* (Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis, 2002), 30. [^50]: Walter E. Clark, “Review of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Hinduism and Buddhism,” *Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies* 8, no. I (March 1944), 63–70. Quoted in Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World*, 35. [^51]: Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World*, 22. [^52]: Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World*, 22. [^53]: This is a nearly ubiquitous feature of Perennialist writers, including Guénon, his biographer Waterfield, Lings, Schuon, Huxley, and beyond. The same figures and movements are repeatedly marshaled: Vedanta from Hinduism, Eckhart and Merton from Christianity, Ibn ʿArabī and Rumi from Islam, etc. There is rarely a serious treatment of the traditions within Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity that contradict the perennialist narrative constructed from these sources. [^54]: See, for example, [https://www.rumiwasmuslim.com/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rumiwasmuslim.com/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636736411&usg=AOvVaw2NtPzok91hsO02zxVCDBEC). [^55]: Rumi, *Masnawi*, bk. 1, pt. 11, trans. @sharghzadeh, [https://www.rumiwasmuslim.com/translations](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rumiwasmuslim.com/translations&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636729072&usg=AOvVaw1WtcKl-vrdHgFxbu6hvrhf). [^56]: Sarah Conover and Chen Hui, *Harmony: A Treasury of Chinese Wisdom for Children and Parents* (Spokane: Eastern Washington University Press, 2008), 16. [^57]: Conover and Hui, *Harmony*, 19. [^58]: Douglas Wood and Cheng-Khee Chee, *Old Turtle* (New York: Scholastic Press, 2001). [^59]: Sedgwick, *Western Sufism*, 252. [^60]: For data on the rising phenomena of “the nones” and “SBNRs,” see [https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636719795&usg=AOvVaw2be3ETA--ag4CwlKLhjW5r) and [https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/10/513](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636720422&usg=AOvVaw0LgbD5s6xpBEZ4NyfpidZ1). [^61]: For an important critique of *The Body Keeps the Score*, see Kristen Martin, “‘The Body Keeps the Score’ Offers Uncertain Science in the Name of Self-Help. It’s Not Alone,” *Washington Post*, August 2, 2023, [www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/08/02/body-keeps-score-grieving-brain-bessel-van-der-kolk-neuroscience-self-help/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/08/02/body-keeps-score-grieving-brain-bessel-van-der-kolk-neuroscience-self-help/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636737540&usg=AOvVaw3H79jGGSCmFlW9ZTh_8JUp). [^62]: [http://www.admissions.cn/culture/349792.shtml](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.admissions.cn/culture/349792.shtml&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636725135&usg=AOvVaw0qGafRUqKR_Oj-kWbJ0mue). This is known as the “nocebo” effect, the opposite of the better-known placebo effect. For more information, see [https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/is-the-nocebo-effect-hurting-your-health](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/is-the-nocebo-effect-hurting-your-health&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636725677&usg=AOvVaw1Vh9B1PD9G5T27WUdXZou_). [^63]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, no. 18028. [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 6941. [^65]: Qur’an 2:216. [^66]: Qur’an 4:119–20. [^67]: Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World*, 150–51. [^68]: Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World*, 153. [^69]: Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World*, 173–74. [^70]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK75qZ6qGZk](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DJK75qZ6qGZk&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1694628636727265&usg=AOvVaw2aM4hb4iYjVOJdB7MxF2mN). [^71]: See Talal Asad, *Formations of the Secular* (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003). [^72]: Gérard Encausse founded the Martinist Order, in which Guénon was initiated. Quoted in Mark Sedgwick, *Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 47. [^73]: “He has described himself as a Traditionalist, however, and the conclusions that he drew from Eliade’s understanding of myth are comparable to those drawn by Traditionalists who did draw explicitly on Guenon, Evola, and Schuon . . . Peterson’s perennialism is as agnostic as Eliade’s. He sees myth as a repository of human wisdom rather than as the product of any sort of revelation. Rather than investigating myth himself, he relies largely on Eliade’s account.” Sedgwick, *Traditionalism*, 59. [^74]: For an excellent treatment of this subject, see William T. Cavanaugh, *The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^75]: Qur’an 21:25. [^76]: Qur’an 3:19. [^77]: Qur’an 5:48. [^78]: Qur’an 3:85. [^79]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, no. 14736; graded fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī. [^80]: Qur’an 2:137. [^81]: Stephen Toulmin, *Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 25. [^82]: Wael Hallaq writes in *Restating Orientalism*: “Under the command of human reason finally divorced of traditional principles of morality, the project \[of Enlightenment\] would aim to create a universal civilization, one premised upon a particular notion of rationality, materiality, individualism, autonomy, and, crucial for us, domination of nature.” Wael Hallaq, *Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 36–37. [^83]: Toulmin, *Cosmopolis*, 78. [^84]: Toulmin, *Cosmopolis*, 79. [^85]: Geoffrey Parker, *The Thirty Years’ War* (New York: Routledge, 1987), 210–211. [^86]: Alexander Pope, “Essay on Man,” Epistle III, quoted in Toulmin, *Cosmopolis*, 131. [^87]: Sedgwick, Traditionalism, 45. [^88]: Isaiah Berlin, “The Counter-Enlightenment”, in Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (1979; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 1-32. [^89]: This is not to say that Perennialism began in the nineteenth century. Founding Perennialists include Marsilio Ficino (d. 1499).,  Tellingly, for reasons which will become clear later in this article, Ficino who, tellingly, was a major reviver of Neoplatonism. But Perennialism did not become influential until the nineteenth century. [^90]: Mark J. Sedgwick, *Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New Age* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 261. [^91]: Gil Anidjar, “Secularism,” 69, quoted in Hallaq, *Restating Orientalism*, 55. [^92]: Jean-Pierre Laurant, *Le sens caché selon René Guénon* (Lausanne: L’Age d’homme, 1975), 53. [^93]: Aldous Huxley, *The Perennial Philosophy* (New York: Harper Perennial, 2005), 210. [^94]: Huxley, *Perennial Philosophy,* 210. ## Summary ## Martin Lings and the Perennialist Problem: An Islamic Assessment Many English-speaking Muslims have come to know Martin Lings through his celebrated biography, *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources*, a work justly praised for its beauty and readability. Yet fewer are acquainted with his other writings, such as *Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions*, in which Lings offers penetrating critiques of evolution, the modern notion of "freedom," and the idea of "progress." What a discerning Muslim reader soon notices, however, is that Islam is largely absent from that work. Lings instead grounds his arguments in Hindu and Christian theology, and rather than treating these traditions as contradicting Islam, he consistently minimizes their differences, calling them a mere matter of "perspective" or "manner of expression." This is no marginal feature of his thought. He writes that "the truth that is expressed remains the same" and that "all religions are in agreement about what is really fundamental." His striking image of the great religions as "mountain ranges" that came to replace a lost "primordial religion" pushes the reader toward a troubling conclusion: that Islam did not come to replace other religions but stands merely as one valid path among many. This is the doctrine of perennialism, which Lings shared with his chief influences, René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon—despite his formal denial, he even edited a volume titled *The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy*. Perennialism holds that there is one Truth found in multiple places, distinguishing it from universalism, which posits multiple truths. Yet perennialists could only sustain this thesis by omitting, ignoring, or reinterpreting each tradition's claim to exclusive truth, and by exalting personal mystical experience above revelation and scripture. Herein lies its gravest error: an indifference to revelation bordering on antipathy. By marginalizing scripture, perennialism claims to validate Islam while rejecting everything that makes Islam distinct—above all its claim to represent Allah's command exclusively and accurately. This directly contradicts the Qur'an, for Allah says, *"Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and he shall be in the Hereafter among the lost"* (Āl ʿImrān 3:85), and, *"Whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a way other than that of the believers, We shall leave him on the path he has taken and cause him to burn in Hell"* (al-Nisāʾ 4:115). Were all religions equal in truth, why did the Final Prophet ﷺ call specifically to Islam rather than seeking the "kernel of truth" in the idolatry of Quraysh? Why does the Qur'an emphatically refute the doctrines of Trinity and Original Sin that perennialists like Lings celebrate? Indeed, fabricating revelation is among the most abominable sins, for Allah asks, *"And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie or denies His verses?"* (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:68). The true perennial truth is *tawḥīd*, not the creative reconstructions of the perennialists. Historically, perennialism arose in the Italian Renaissance as a response to religious diversity, when scholars such as Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Steuco sought to rehabilitate pre-Christian philosophers as transmitters of a "perennial wisdom" from the same divine source. To explain contradictions—such as Greek polytheism—later thinkers like Cudworth, Warburton, and Toland argued that ancient peoples concealed a secret monotheism within a polytheistic shell for the masses. This revived the Greek distinction between exoteric (outer) and esoteric (inner) religion, granting perennialists the room to dismiss whatever contradicted their thesis and affirm whatever agreed with it. Yet their invented chains of transmission are now objects of scholarly ridicule, and the esoteric/exoteric binary assumes a remote, indifferent God, underestimates the danger of heresy, and overburdens the seeker with an impossible task of verification. Islam offers a far more credible solution. Allah, out of His mercy, wills our salvation and guides us chiefly through His uncreated speech delivered by His prophets. This primacy of revelation yields two consequences: an urgent imperative to distinguish genuine revelation from fabrication, and a serious recognition of the danger of idolatry and heresy—which perennialism reduces to a mere matter of public order. Classical scholarship divides revelation's content into *khabr* (information about reality, corresponding to *ʿaqīda*) and *inshāʾ* (instruction, corresponding to *sharīʿa*). In matters of *ʿaqīda*, diversity signals error, for two contradictory claims cannot both be true; the reality of Hell, the *barzakh*, and the crucifixion of Jesus cannot be simultaneously affirmed and denied. The mark of genuine revelation is that it calls to *tawḥīd*, for Allah says, *"And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, 'There is no deity except Me, so worship Me'"* (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:25). Yet mere agreement does not prove truth, for lies too can be held in common. In matters of *sharīʿa*, however, diversity is legitimate, since Allah granted each community its own law: *"To each of you We prescribed a law and a method"* (al-Māʾidah 5:48). This framework allows for an argument regarding the divine *origin* of the world's religions. We know with certainty that Judaism and Christianity began as valid communities established by Allah's messengers before their scriptures were corrupted. It is possible that Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism likewise began with a messenger, since Allah says, *"And messengers about whom We have not related to you"* (al-Nisāʾ 4:164). Commenting on this, Dr. Al-Muthannā ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ noted we cannot rule out that today's world religions originated in genuine guidance later corrupted—explaining loose similarities like prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage without conceding the perennialist thesis. Perennialism must further be understood as a European ideology. Its distrust of organized religion is not universal wisdom but the fruit of particular history. Following the philosopher Stephen Toulmin, medieval Christian theology was relatively "relaxed and adventurous" before hardening into rigid dogma after the Reformation and the Council of Trent. The subsequent Wars of Religion—the Thirty Years' War alone depleting parts of Germany of half their population—left Europeans "sick of absolutist religious claims used to justify war." As Alexander Pope wrote, "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight." The Enlightenment thus grounded certainty in reason rather than theology. Perennialism offered an alternative on this spectrum of Christian disillusionment: unlike deism, it affirmed revelation, but it relinquished Christianity's exclusive claim in exchange for the general validity of religion, thereby deflecting skepticism away from religion as a whole. As De Pouvourville put it, "love religion, and distrust religions." Crucially, what began as a critique of Christianity was universalized into a critique of all religion. Perennialists systematically mischaracterized foreign traditions, cherry-picking to make their views seem universal. Aldous Huxley, in *The Perennial Philosophy*, retold a Sufi "allegory of ships" to cast churches and dogmas as vessels that must sink. Lings, in a single paragraph, conflated Hindu reincarnation, Christian Original Sin, and Islamic *fiṭra*—a misappropriation contradicting Islam's teaching on the innocence of children and the uninheritable nature of sin. Coomaraswamy's and Guénon's works on Hinduism were rejected in academic circles as "ahistorical and ideologically motivated." Sufism and Islam were treated as empty signifiers upon which Western ideals and fears were projected, as the gap between the imagined and actual Rumi demonstrates. This conscription of tradition continues in modern retellings, such as "The Blind Men and the Elephant" and *Old Turtle*, which subtly blame theological certainty for conflict. Yet the elephant story may indict perennialism itself: perhaps the prophet who receives revelation is like the king who sees the whole, while the perennialists who claim to speak for all religions are the blind men. This exaltation of personal experience over revelation produces what may be called the "playlist-ification" of faith, where some Muslim youth claim to benefit more from yoga or meditation than from *ṣalāt*, the preeminent expression of gratitude in our law. Yet all commitments are organized by someone; being "spiritual but not religious" merely means organizing one's own beliefs, inviting confirmation bias and self-created echo-chambers, much like a social media algorithm. Islam occupies the middle ground: the Prophet ﷺ told the questioner to "consult your heart" regarding sin and spoke of the "sweetness of faith," yet Allah warns, *"Perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not"* (al-Baqarah 2:216). Satan succeeds by making evil seem good, promising "nothing except delusion" (al-Nisāʾ 4:120). Schuon's descent—his visions of the Virgin Mary and subsequent scandalous conduct, justified by his own criterion of a vision's "beneficial effect"—shows where subjective experience unchecked can lead. So too the story of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, who spat at and cursed a voice claiming to be Allah lifting the law from him, only for it to reveal itself as the Devil who had deceived many before. Because Allah is *al-Ḥaqq*, the Ultimate Reality, we require an authority outside ourselves; the very name of our religion, chosen by Allah, is submission. Perennialism has likewise been conscripted by secularism, which similarly claims a false neutrality while masking its Enlightenment debts. Just as secularism substitutes political identity for religious, perennialism substitutes a supposedly higher spiritual identity, styling itself a "meta-faith" that transcends and thereby mutilates other traditions. This makes it a useful tool for neutralizing rival claims to transcendent truth, sitting comfortably beside liberal tolerance—which is why perennialists, from Eliade and Nasr to Peterson, are so common. For all their failure, the perennialists sensed something real: a commonality among religions pointing to a common Divine source. But they misidentified it as mysticism rather than *tawḥīd*, and wrongly assumed all religions preserved only remnants of truth—true of Christianity, but not universally so. The real primordial religion is, and always was, Islam. Differences arose through human corruption, as Allah says, *"And those who were given the Scripture did not differ except after knowledge had come to them—out of jealous animosity"* (Āl ʿImrān 3:19). Christianity was the first truly global religion, but its message was lost, necessitating the Prophet ﷺ, whose Qur'an Allah preserved as "a criterion over it" (al-Māʾidah 5:48), closing the door on further prophethood. Thus the Prophet ﷺ rebuked ʿUmar for reading the Torah, declaring that were Moses alive he would have to follow him. As Muslims, post-Christian problems need not be our own; we can hold certain conviction, reject others' beliefs, and yet live in peace. To return to Lings's imagery: it is not merely a shadowy primordial mountain that looms in the background, but every other religion, altered from its origin. Only the mountain of Islam stands in the foreground, crystal clear, as the final and preserved guidance for all mankind. ## Key Takeaways 1. Perennialism is the philosophical claim that all religions share a single underlying truth at the esoteric level, with their outward differences treated as incidental. Though often presented as a universal insight, it is in fact a product of European intellectual history. It first emerged during the Italian Renaissance, in the idea of *philosophia perennis*, as a response to encounters with non-Christian traditions. Its Renaissance formulation later developed into the modern perennialist school, especially in the twentieth century. 2. Perennialism is incompatible with Islam because it sidelines the role of revelation, the primary means through which Allah guides humanity. Rather than relying on prophets to convey divine truth directly, perennialism leaves the seeker to piece that truth together by selectively reading across religious traditions. If perennialism were correct, there would have been little reason for the Prophet ﷺ to call to Islam as a distinct path in the first place. 3. Islam offers a more credible account of religious diversity than perennialism does. It distinguishes between matters of belief (*ʿaqida*), where contradictions cannot all be true and at least one party must be in error, and matters of law (sharia), where Allah has prescribed different paths for different prophetic communities. Islam also leaves open the possibility that the world’s major religions originated in genuine divine guidance that was later corrupted, explaining their loose similarities to Islam without conceding that they remain valid paths to salvation today. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Many religions claim to be the truth. Why should Islam’s claim be any different? Most religions do claim some form of truth, but the question is not who makes the claim. The question is which claim can actually be substantiated. Islam offers a distinct answer grounded in three points. First, all genuine revelation has called to the same core message: the oneness of God. The Qur’an states, “We sent no messenger before you except that We revealed to him, there is no deity except Me, so worship Me.” This common thread across prophetic history is what perennialists sensed but misidentified, mistakenly searching for it in mysticism rather than in *tawhid*. Second, the differences between major religions today are real and consequential, not superficial. Religions make competing claims about the nature of God, the fate of the soul after death, the purpose of human life, and the path to salvation. These are claims about reality, and where they contradict, at least one must be wrong. Third, the Qur’an has been preserved exactly as revealed, while earlier scriptures were lost or altered over time. Islam acknowledges that other religions may carry remnants of earlier divine guidance, but only the final revelation remains intact and uncorrupted, which is why no further prophet was sent after Muhammad ﷺ. Allah says, “Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will never be accepted from him.” ### Where did the idea that “all religions teach the same truth” come from? It originated in Europe, not in the Islamic tradition or in any of the religions it claims to unify. The philosophy is called perennialism. It first emerged during the Italian Renaissance as a way to reconcile Christian teaching with the wisdom of pre-Christian Greek philosophers like Plato and Pythagoras. Renaissance scholars argued that these philosophers had transmitted the same sacred knowledge as the biblical prophets, though through different channels. The idea gained renewed appeal after the European Wars of Religion in the seventeenth century, which left Europe exhausted by religiously motivated conflict and deeply suspicious of any religion claiming exclusive truth. Theological certainty had become associated with political violence, so Europeans began grounding certainty elsewhere, in reason, empiricism, or in a vague universal religious essence that no one could fight over. Perennialism offered a way to keep some form of religion alive while stripping away the exclusivity that had caused so much bloodshed. The content of perennialism is largely Neoplatonist philosophy repackaged. It is a particular product of European history and ideology, not a universal truth uncovered by mystics across cultures. ### Can Muslims benefit spiritually from practices in other religions like yoga, meditation, or chanting? A growing sentiment among some Muslims is that they get more from practices like yoga, meditation, or chanting than from salah. There is a distinction worth drawing first. Stretching, breathing exercises, and stillness used for health, focus, or relaxation are neutral, even when their popular packaging borrows names or aesthetics from other traditions. The concern is when a devotional ritual from another religion is adopted as a form of spiritual worship, or treated as a more authentic path to God than the one He has already revealed. That move privileges personal experience over revelation. Salah is not just one option among many for connecting with the Creator. It is the form of worship Allah Himself prescribed, communicated through His Messenger ﷺ, and described in scripture as the foremost expression of gratitude to God. To prefer a practice Allah did not designate over one He did is to assume that one’s own subjective experience is a more reliable guide than divine instruction. The Qur’an warns of this directly: “Perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you, and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not” (Qur’an 2:216). The body can be deceived. Even feelings of spiritual elevation can be illusions, which is why the analogy of love languages is useful here. A person can spend their entire life buying flowers for a spouse who is allergic, sincerely believing they are expressing love, only to find their effort unrecognized. The same applies here. Sincere effort, disconnected from divine instruction, does not guarantee that the effort is received as worship at all. ### Is it intolerant for Muslims to believe Islam is the only true religion? The assumption behind this question is that certainty about religious truth automatically leads to disrespect or hostility toward others. That assumption is rooted in a specific European historical experience, not a universal truth. After Europe’s brutal Wars of Religion, theological certainty became associated with violence, and the natural response was to demand that everyone treat their beliefs as tentative or relative in order to maintain peace. But this is not the only way to coexist. Muslims do not need to adopt the post-Christian solution to a post-Christian problem. Islam itself models how to hold firm theological convictions while living respectfully alongside people of other faiths. The Qur’an, while clear that Islam is the only acceptable religion to Allah, also commands justice and kindness toward non-Muslims, protection of their lives and property, and honest engagement with their beliefs. Muslims have not only lived alongside people of other faiths but governed religiously diverse societies in ways that became historic models of pluralism. Muslim states from al-Andalus to the Ottoman Empire allowed Jewish, Christian, and other religious communities to maintain their own places of worship, follow their own personal and family laws, run their own courts, and preserve their own traditions, all under a system that protected their religious life rather than suppressing it. This was not a reluctant tolerance forced by exhaustion after religious war. It was a positive framework for managing difference, grounded in Islamic principles, that allowed entire communities to flourish within Muslim governance for centuries. Treating tolerance and certainty as mutually exclusive is a particular ideological move imported from a particular history, not a moral requirement. A person can be fully convinced of the truth of their faith and still treat their neighbor with dignity, fairness, and care. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-parenting-strategies-how-to-help-children-feel-safe-in-their-attachment-to-god-and-parents # Islamic Parenting Strategies: How to Help Children Feel Safe in their Attachment to God and Parents **Authors:** Sarah Sultan, Najwa Awad **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 31, 2023 **Updated:** June 9, 2026 For part one of this parenting series, read: **[Building Resilience in Children: An Islamic Model of Parenting](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/building-resilience-in-children-an-islamic-model-of-parenting)** --- ## I. Case Study Before they got married, Mona and Ibrahim grew up in traditional households that valued high achievement and reverence for those in authority. They looked forward to building a similar household together, one centered on a cohesive family unit committed to Islam and characterized by continuous spiritual growth. Mona and Ibrahim had three children, but they found parenting much more difficult than they had anticipated. Growing up, they felt that when their parents asked them to do something they almost always did it without hesitation, whereas their children were curious and had questions. They knew their children were not “bad,” but they couldn’t understand why they questioned so many of their orders and sometimes seemed lazy about important things like prayer. Most days were very difficult, overshadowed by a lot of yelling and power struggles. In their desperation, Mona and Ibrahim found themselves using threats of punishment to get their children to comply. They didn’t want  to be consistently negative and threatening, but they didn’t know what else to do. How could they help their children spiritually so they could grow up to be good Muslims? How could [they teach their children the monumental importance of striving for paradise (*jannah*) and avoiding hellfire (*jahannam*)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach) without threatening them? Mona and Ibrahim felt like they did a good job in teaching their children about key concepts and rulings in Islam, but couldn’t wrap their heads around why their children were not connecting with Allah. What could they do? --- ## II. Introduction For many, if not most, Muslim parents in the West, Mona’s and Ibrahim’s familial challenges are painfully familiar. This paper, the latest chapter in our ongoing parenting series, attempts to offer a solution to such parental challenges through the idea of attachment. Our Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model (IIRM) asserts that attachment is a foundational concept in parenting and in fostering both mental and spiritual health in children. While some resilience theories address the importance of attachment to caregivers, there is strong evidence that attachment to Allah is essential as well. Our model incorporates research findings as well as Islamic principles like *tawḥīd* (belief in the oneness of God) that are necessary for Muslim parents trying to raise children who are intrinsically motivated to seek Allah. How can we set our children up for success in the hereafter (*ākhira*) if we are only using parenting paradigms designed to ensure success in this world (*dunyā*)? Is any resiliency model holistic and complete if it does not address the hereafter? In the introductory chapter of this parenting series, we discussed how our resiliency model is based on the *ayāt* in which Luqmān (peace be upon him) gives prudent advice to his son about navigating life, relating to others, and developing good character.[^1] His God-given wisdom includes important and timeless concepts that are still useful for Muslim parents today. In this chapter, we discuss the crucial links between resilience in children and attachment to Allah, parents, and the righteous. We also hope to help equip parents with easy-to-use strategies and conversation starters (see appendix) to make the transition from theory to practice easy. --- ## III. Chapter goals - What is the importance of attachment in parenting and how can it affect spiritual and mental health? - What do the Qur’an and Hadith teach us about attachment? - How can parents foster their children’s attachment to Allah? - What are concrete everyday actions I can take to help increase my child(ren)’s attachment to Allah? - What are some important considerations I should keep in mind as I’m trying to foster healthy attachment in my child(ren)? --- ## IV. Attachment theory: The importance of attachment in parenting Though the idea may seem basic, attachment is a layered concept in the field of psychology. In simple terms, attachment is a type of relational pattern one person has to another. Attachment between a primary caregiver and the child begins to form in infancy, establishing that child’s relationship template; i.e., how that child relates to the world and those around them. The general types of attachment are secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized, and avoidant. The following points lay the groundwork for the next sections: - Your attachment style predicts how you relate to your spouse, your children, and your overall parenting style.[^2] - Your attachment style shapes and affects how your child relates to others.[^3] - Having a healthy attachment style will set your child up for better mental health and healthier relationships in life.[^4] - Unhealthy attachment styles can negatively affect the quality of relationships and can be a major contributor to poor mental and physical health.[^5] - Positive relationships increase resilience by offsetting the harmful effects of difficult life experiences.[^6] Many parents focus on providing material and educational resources to their children, but overlook the importance of fostering relational and emotional resources. They prioritize providing food, housing, good schooling and extracurricular activities and teaching their children manners, right from wrong and religious teachings, but overlook the *quality* of their relationship with their children. Look at it this way—if you were taking a class online with excellent material, but the internet connection kept freezing, the content kept lagging, and sometimes the volume level fluctuated, would you be able to learn anything? Would you want to engage with the content or even deal with the instructor? Similarly, if you taught your children what they needed for developmental and spiritual growth but often yelled at them, demeaned them, or even just disengaged from them, do you think they would ultimately benefit much? Do you think they would retain anything, have the motivation to heed your advice, or even want to spend time with you? In other words, [the quality of your interactions with your child will almost certainly have a tremendous effect on your child’s wellbeing](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/cosmic-cop-or-loving-lord-the-influence-of-parenting-on-our-view-of-god-submission-and-contentment). If your child feels respected, secure, and supported in their relationship with you, they are much more likely to relate to their environment and others in a grounded and healthy way. If your relationship with your child is disorganized or inconsistent, your child is much more likely to interact with their environment and others in a frazzled, disruptive, or unhealthy way. ### Attachment to God > And remember when Luqmān said to his son, while advising him, “O my dear son! Never associate anything with Allah in worship, for associating others with Him is truly the worst of all wrongs.”[^7] While most attachment theories focus on the relationship between a child and parent, it’s important to recognize that attachment can extend to others—and most importantly, to God. Understanding the importance of  attachment to God, and how to foster it in children, is a necessary component in parenting and resiliency building. Scientific research suggests that just as there are benefits of attachment to parents, there are also benefits of attachment to God. In fact, God can be a “substitute attachment figure,”[^8] which is very powerful, given the importance of attachment in resilience and our natural imperfection as human beings and parents. > Central to the application of attachment theory to religion is the idea that for many people God may function psychologically as an attachment figure (Kirkpatrick, 1992, 1999). People perceive God to be a safe haven in times of crisis (cf. Collins and Feeney 2000; Kirkpatrick 1999) and a secure base from which to explore when out of harm’s way (cf. Ainsworth et al. 1978; Bowlby 1988; Kirkpatrick 1999).[^9] Attachment to God has been linked to increased life satisfaction,[^10] religiosity,[^11] decreased psychopathology, and lower psychological distress.[^12] Secure attachment has also been linked to a healthier perception of negative events and greater emotional resilience.[^13] Other benefits of attachment to Allah can be seen in the following hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās (ra): > One day I was riding \[a horse/camel\] behind the Prophet ﷺ when he said, “Young man, I will teach you some words. Be mindful of God, and He will take care of you. Be mindful of Him, and you shall find Him at your side. If you ask, ask of God. If you need help, seek it from God. Know that if the whole world were to gather together in order to help you, they would not be able to help you except if God had written so. And if the whole world were to gather together in order to harm you, they would not harm you except if God had written so. The pens have been lifted, and the pages are dry.”[^14] This hadith beautifully articulates that primary attachment is to Allah. Here, the Prophet ﷺ shares his wisdom on several key points: 1. ***Mindfulness of Allah***: Although we don’t see Allah directly with our eyes, can’t hear Him directly with our ears, or otherwise interact with Him the way we do with other humans, everyone can have a relationship with Allah. This relationship is a two-way street as pointed out, “Be mindful of God, and He will take care of you. Be mindful of Him, and you shall find Him at your side.” As one brings oneself closer to Allah, one will find that Allah comes closer to oneself as well. Considering that today there’s so much talk about the benefits of mindfulness,[^15] it’s interesting that the concept was brought up almost 1400 years ago. But while contemporary discourses of mindfulness tend to emphasize being “present”—aware of how one’s body feels, living in the moment, and so on—the Islamic tradition presents an alternative understanding. *Murāqaba*[^16] is a different kind of mindfulness in which one is conscious of Allah’s presence. [Being mindful of Allah means you feel He is with you, that He is watching over you, and that you are never truly alone.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness) This presence can not only feel comforting, but can help build integrity; a person is less likely to fall into risky behaviors or situations if they have internalized a sense that Allah is always watching over them, even in the absence of a parent, teacher, or authority figure. 2. ***Prioritization of Connection with Allah***: In most places around the world, it’s not unusual for wise elders to speak with youth about listening to their parents and spending time with them before they pass, always spotlighting how parents know what is best. While these values are congruent with Islam and demonstrated in other Islamic texts, this particular hadith makes no mention of them. In this hadith, the Prophet ﷺ prioritizes Allah—a connection and relationship with Him is made superior to any other. This interaction is an excellent example of the Prophet ﷺ building attachment between a youth and Allah. 3. ***Finding Safety in Attachment to Allah***: Many of the qualities that researchers identify as constitutive of a healthy attachment between a child and parent, such as security, responsiveness, and being a safe haven,[^17] are identified with Allah in this very hadith: > ***Security:*** “Be mindful of God, and He will take care of you.” > > ***Responsiveness:*** “Be mindful of Him, and you shall find Him at your side.” > > ***Strength/Safe Haven:*** “And if the whole world were to gather together in order to harm you, they would not harm you except if God had written so.” Another noteworthy point about this specific hadith is that by teaching our children the superiority of attachment to Allah we are not only bolstering their belief (*īmān*), but their ability to bounce back from adversity. Here, the Prophet ﷺ doesn’t try to shelter the young man by suggesting that adverse events will not happen; acknowledging adversity is an essential component in coping. Many times our first inclination as parents is to shelter our children from any pain or hardship. This hadith almost does the opposite. While maintaining a tone of empathy and kindness, the Prophet ﷺ strongly asserts that if anything negative were to happen it would be by the will of Allah, who knows best and is the Ultimate Protector: > If you ask, ask God. If you need help, seek it from God. Know that if the whole world were to gather together in order to help you, they would not be able to help you except if God had written so. And if the whole world were to gather together in order to harm you, they would not harm you except if God had written so. The pens have been lifted, and the pages are dry. This last part of the hadith also highlights the importance of reliance on Allah for the believer. When raising children, we often emphasize their reliance on us as parents, which is certainly needed especially at an early age, but how often do we emphasize reliance on Allah? Children can feel further empowered knowing that they have dependable and reliable parents, and an even more dependable and reliable caretaker: Allah. This hadith makes that care clear: even if the whole world came together, they would still not be able to change the will of Allah, so in times of desperation, or even separation from parents, the child will always have Allah. As Allah reminds us in the Qur’an, > And He will provide for them from sources they could never imagine. And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He \[alone\] is sufficient for them. Certainly Allah achieves His Will. Allah has already set a destiny for everything.[^18] ### The specific role of tawhid in building resilience While feeling protected by Allah is important for both spiritual and mental health, there is a type of resilience that can only come from completely submitting to Allah alone. When a person truly submits to Allah and His Will, and has a firm belief that tribulations can be a means of nearness to Him, that everything good a Muslim does should be for Him, and that the purpose of life is to worship Him, it is extremely hard to shake that core. Major afflictions, stressors, and tragedies take on new meaning when one understands that life is short and temporary, and that the slightest bit of pain will be recompensed: > Narrated by ʿAbd-Allāh: I visited Allah’s Messenger ﷺ while he was suffering from a high fever. I said, “O Allah’s Messenger ﷺ! You have a high fever.” He said, “Yes, I have as much fever as two men.” I said, “Is it because you will have a double reward?” He said, “Yes, it is so. No Muslim is afflicted with any harm, even if it were the prick of a thorn, but that Allah expiates their sins because of that, as a tree sheds its leaves.”[^19] > Zayd b. Arqam said: I had a pain in my eyes and the Prophet ﷺ visited me and said, “Zayd, if your eyes were to go blind because of their illness, what would you do?” I said, “I would be steadfast and reckon my reward to be with Allah.” He said, “If that happens to your eyes and you are steadfast and reckon your reward to be with Allah, then your reward will be the Garden.”[^20] In a society as goal-oriented and accolade-driven as our own, it is easy for both children and adults to lose sight of what is important in life. For children, these instinctual and existential questions manifest in interests, fixations, and drives. A child may not verbally tell you that academic achievement or popularity are their goals in life, but their behavior will, especially when variations in these external factors cause tremendous amounts of anxiety, depression, or stress. A firm sense of purpose helps protect children from unhealthy external validation. When a child can see the bigger picture, the inevitable disappointments of life—a bad grade, a hurtful interaction with a friend, a defeat in the school election—will still sting, but will not carry as much weight or have as much influence on self-esteem. Unsurprisingly, a sense of purpose is linked to better recovery skills and protection against trauma.[^21] A proper understanding of the doctrine of the oneness of Allah (*tawḥīd*) is what leads to a secure relationship with Allah, and is a great way to set up your child for resilience and success in this world (*dunyā*) and in the hereafter (*ākhira*). All three branches of *tawḥīd* can provide us with a treasure trove of gems to share with our children to increase attachment and foster resilience. i.  **Oneness of Divine Nature (*tawḥīd al-ulūhiyya*):** With a firm grounding in love of Allah, acknowledging and embracing our purpose to worship Allah alone, and how to worship Him. This foundation provides a sense of purpose and inner strength that helps transcend worldly difficulties. When we internalize that our ultimate goal is to please Allah and live in accordance with His teachings, we are more likely to develop a resilient mindset that helps us navigate hardships with patience and trust in His plan. For more information on this topic, check out this Yaqeen article about [why God asks people to worship Him](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him). ii. **Oneness of Divine Lordship (*tawḥīd al-rubūbiyya*):** Knowing Allah as our Creator, and acknowledging that He creates and provides and sustains everything. When we recognize Allah as our Maker and acknowledge His role as the Creator, Provider, and Sustainer of everything, we come to realize that our ultimate source of provision lies with Him. It’s this awareness that nurtures a profound reliance (*tawakkul*) solely upon Him, rather than upon any being or thing within His creation. For more information on this topic, check out this Yaqeen article about the [influence of parenting on our view of God, submission, and contentment](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/cosmic-cop-or-loving-lord-the-influence-of-parenting-on-our-view-of-god-submission-and-contentment). iii. **Oneness of the Divine Names and Attributes (*tawḥīd al-asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt*):** Getting to know Allah through His Names and Attributes. After all, how can a person love, trust, and build an attachment to someone they do not know? Contemplating on certain attributes and calling on Allah by those names in *duʿāʾ*, such as *al-Qadīr* (the All-Capable, the All-Powerful), can be both empowering and comforting during all times, but particularly when going through difficulty. For more information on this topic, check out this Yaqeen series about the [names of Allah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/names-of-allah). --- ## V. Parenting strategies for building secure attachment and reliance on God The same characteristics that facilitate attachment between a child and their caregiver can also facilitate attachment between that child and God. According to Mary Ainsworth, a major attachment theorist, characteristics that contribute to secure attachment include maintaining proximity, providing safety, and being a secure base.[^22] ### Proximity, accessibility, and responsiveness One of the key components of attachment is a sense that the caregiver is accessible. Within a parent-child relationship, this means that a child can find and access their parent when they need them. These days, an inaccessible parent is one who avoids being home, is always busy on the phone or computer, and doesn’t show up physically when needed, at least not consistently. A parent-child attachment forms the internal working model or default attachment style that a child will use to interact not just with other people, but with God as well. If a parent cultivates a relationship defined by proximity, accessibility, and responsiveness, then the child will be able to project this onto his or her relationship with others.[^23] It’s not *how much* time one spends with their child as the *quality* of that time that matters,[^24] so parents should not mistake mere presence for responsiveness. Responsiveness in day-to-day life might look like: - Answering your child when they call you. If you are busy, be available when you say you will be available (“I’m in the middle of something, give me 10 minutes”). - Showing undivided attention when your child is talking about something important. - Following through with commitments and promises. - Physical touch, like a pat on the back or a hug. In order to build their children’s attachment to Allah, parents also need to demonstrate that Allah is close in proximity, is accessible, and is responsive. This proximity is demonstrated by the following verses and reports: > When My servants ask you \[O Prophet\] about Me: I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me. So let them respond \[with obedience\] to Me and believe in Me, perhaps they will be guided \[to the Right Way\].[^25] > Indeed, \[it is\] We who created humankind and \[fully\] know what their souls whisper to them, and We are closer to them than \[their\] jugular vein.[^26] > Abū Saʿd al-Khudrī reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “No Muslim makes supplication—unless he is someone who has cut off his relatives—but that he is given one of three things: either his supplication is answered quickly, or it is stored up for him in the next world, or an evil equal to it is averted from him.” It was said, “Then many supplications will be made.” He ﷺ replied, “Allah has more still to give.”[^27] Besides being responsive themselves, parent can help demonstrate that Allah is responsive by: - Discussing the above verses (*āyāt*) and hadith in an age-appropriate manner, emphasizing in a comforting way that Allah is always with your child. - Exploring and talking about related names of Allah like: the  All-Knowing (*al-ʿAlīm*), the All-Hearing (*al-Samīʿ*), the All-Seeing (*al-Baṣīr*), the Responder (*al-Mujīb*), and the Provider (*al-Razzāq*). - Teaching your child the etiquette of supplicating (*duʿāʾ*), and emphasizing that Allah always hears their call. - Teaching the practice of gratitude. Oftentimes, after a *duʿāʾ* has been answered, we forget how badly we wanted that coveted thing before we got it. If you observe one of your child’s *duʿāʾ*s being answered, point it out to them and practice gratefulness with them. - Share stories with your child about the beautiful ways Allah has responded to your *duʿāʾ* and guided you through different stages in your life. Children love to hear stories from their parents’ lives and in this way a connection and attachment to Allah is brought to life for them. - Talk to your older children about how Allah responds to Muslims in formal prayer. The following hadith illustrates Allah’s responsiveness: > It was narrated that Abū Hurayra said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: Allah said: ‘I have divided the prayer between Myself and My slave into two halves, and My slave shall have what he has asked for.’ When the slave says: ‘*Al-ḥamdu li-llāhi rabb al-ʿālamīn* (All praise is for Allah, the Lord of all that exists),’ Allah says: ‘My slave has praised Me, and My slave shall have what he has asked for.’ And when he says: ‘*Al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm* (The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful),’ Allah says: ‘My slave has extolled Me, and My slave shall have what he has asked for.’ And when he says: ‘*Māliki yawm al-dīn* (The Only Owner \[and the Ruling Judge\] of the Day of Recompense),’ Allah says: ‘My slave has Glorified Me. This is for Me, and this verse is between me and My slave in two halves.’ And when he says: *Iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn* (You \[Alone\] we worship, and You \[Alone\] we ask for help),’ He says: ‘This is between Me and My slave, and My slave shall have what he has asked for. And the end of the Qur’anic chapter (*sūra*) is for My slave.’ And when he says: *Ihdinā al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm, ṣirāṭ al-ladhīna anʿamta ʿalayhim ghayr-il-maghḍūbi ‘alayhim wa lā al-ḍāllīn* (Guide us to the Straight Way, the way of those on whom You have bestowed Your grace, not \[the way\] of those who earned Your anger, nor of those who went astray),’ He says: ‘This is for My slave, and My slave shall have what he has asked for.’”[^28] ### A Protector providing safety Also necessary for the development of healthy child attachment is a caregiver who provides a safe haven and acts as a dependable protector. Children are vulnerable and they need financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual help from consistent caregivers who have their best interests at heart. While this sounds like common sense, you may be surprised how often we as psychotherapists encounter parentified children—children who inappropriately had to take care of their parents due to their parents’ emotional immaturity or neglect.  As a parent, you can demonstrate that you are a safe haven or protector by: - Believing your child when they come to you with concerns. Validate and take their concerns seriously. - Valuing your child’s opinions and perspectives. Don’t automatically discredit your child if someone makes an accusation against them. Truth and justice are not based on age. - Assuring your child that you always have their best interests in mind even if they might not like your rules (e.g., setting healthy limits). - Comforting your child when they get hurt emotionally or physically. - Keeping discussions about adult concerns (i.e., finances, health, marital issues, etc.) between adults and not involving your child in these matters. To show that Allah is the ultimate Protector, *al-Walī*,[^29] parents should talk through some of the following verses and hadith (an example of how you might share this with your children is provided at the end of this paper): > Allah is the Guardian of the believers—He brings them out of darkness and into light. As for the disbelievers, their guardians are false gods who lead them out of light and into darkness. It is they who will be the residents of the Fire. They will be there forever.”[^30] > But no! Allah is your Guardian, and He is the best Helper.[^31] > Say, “Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us. He is our Protector.” So in Allah let the believers put their trust.[^32] Supplemental activities can also include: - Discussing prophetic stories that demonstrate Allah’s protection against evil people and things, as well as narratives that show perseverance of Muslims in the face of powerful adversaries who plotted against them. A few stories that beautifully highlight Allah’s protection and guidance are the stories of the prophets Joseph (Yūsuf), Moses (Mūsa), and Abraham (Ibrāhīm) (peace be upon them). - Helping children to understand that Allah as our *Walī* manifests in ways that are not always what we want. He aids us in accordance with the infinitely wise perspective of the Divine and not from the limited perception of the human. Therefore, the presence of Allah’s care is not synonymous with the fulfillment of our wants. Indeed, His aid and care will often manifest in worldly pain and loss. For example, the People of the Ditch mentioned in Surat al-Burūj[^33] were all killed by a tyrant ruler despite their unshakeable belief in Allah. Although people might see this as a great loss rather than success, Allah declared their martyrdom and entrance to Paradise as the great victory.[^34] Thus, His aid and support is not understood as making us outwardly victorious over our enemies, but rather making no enemy able to overpower our will to worship Allah. - Reading age-appropriate versions of the prophetic biography (*sīra*). Discuss Allah’s protection of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ throughout his life, from infancy through late adulthood. - Exploring and talking about related names of Allah, like The Guardian (*al-Muhaymin*), The Capable, The Powerful (*al-Qādir*), The Judge, Giver of Justice (*al-Ḥakam*), and The Helper, The Supporter (*al-Walī*). Examples are provided at the end of the paper. - Teaching your child *duʿāʾ*s to help them seek Allah’s protection and empowering them to call on Allah on their own. An excellent *duʿāʾ* that is easy for children to remember is: >  بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الَّذِي لاَ يَضُرُّ مَعَ اسْمِهِ شَىْءٌ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلاَ فِي السَّمَاءِ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ > > *Bism-illāhi al-ladhī lā yaḍurru maʿa ismihi shayʾun fī-l-arḍi wa lā fī-l-samāʾi wa huwa al-Samīʿu al-ʿAlīm.* > > Translation: In the Name of Allah, with Whose Name nothing is harmed on earth nor in heaven, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Repeat three times) > > Abān ibn ʿUthmān said: I heard ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān \[his father\] say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: If anyone says three times: “In the name of Allah, when whose name is mentioned nothing on Earth or in Heaven can cause harm, and He is the Hearer, the Knower,” he will not suffer sudden affliction till the morning, and if anyone says this in the morning, he will not suffer sudden affliction until the evening.[^35] ### A secure base Another aspect of attachment is that the caregiver provides a sense of comfort in the face of uncertainty. In the context of parent-child attachment, this means that even if the child has a desire to explore, they are able to return to the caregiver when they desire refuge from unfamiliarity. With secure attachment the child can also rely on their caregiver for solace and soothing when experiencing discomfort or pain. Warmth in the parent-child relationship can be demonstrated through: - Physical touch, such as hugging, high-fiving, or sitting close to each other. - Genuine interest in helping your child when they are in distress—taking care of them when they are sick, wiping their tears when they are hurt, and empathic attunement when they are experiencing difficult feelings. - Verbally assuring them of support when they are uncertain about what to do next: “You can do it,” “I’m here behind you,” “I’ve got your back if you fumble.” - Telling your child that they can always turn to you no matter how advanced their age or how big their mistakes might be. Sadly, in many places around the world, parents overlook the importance of fostering attachment to Allah through warmth and love. Many families solely focus on Allah’s punishment to dissuade their children from undesirable behavior. While there is a place for stressing the ramifications of deeds that are displeasing to Allah, it is essential to create a foundation of love and security by highlighting Allah’s mercy: > Narrated by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: Some war prisoners were brought before the Prophet ﷺ and a woman amongst them was breastfeeding any child in need. Whenever she found a child amongst the captives, she took it to her chest and nursed it (she had lost her child but later she found him). The Prophet ﷺ said to us, “Do you think that this lady would throw her son in the fire?” We replied, “No, if she has the power not to throw him \[in the fire\].” The Prophet ﷺ then said, “Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this lady to her son.”[^36] > Say, \[O Prophet\] “If you \[sincerely\] love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you and forgive your sins. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”[^37] > Ask forgiveness from your Lord and repent to Him. Verily, my Lord is Merciful and Loving.[^38] > Remember Me; I will remember you. And thank Me, and never be ungrateful.[^39] > Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks of Me when he remembers Me.’ By Allah! Allah is more pleased with the repentance of His slave than one of you who unexpectedly finds in the desert his lost camel. ‘He who comes closer to Me one span, I come closer to him a cubit; and he who comes closer to Me a cubit, I come closer to him a fathom; and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.’”[^40] > Abū Hurayra narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When Allah loves a slave He calls Gabriel \[saying\]: ‘Indeed I love so-and-so, so love him.’ He said: “So he calls out in the heavens. Then love for him descends among the people of the earth. That is as in the saying of Allah: Verily, those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, the Most Gracious will grant love for them (19:96). And when Allah hates a slave, He calls out to Gabriel, \[saying\]: ‘Indeed I hate so-and-so.’ So he calls out in the heavens. Then hatred for him descends upon the earth.”[^41] Parents can help show that Allah is a source of both comfort and warmth by: - Developing a sense that Allah wants best for His creation by illustrating how Allah provides for all of His creation, big and small. - Exploring and discussing the names of Allah like *al-Laṭīf* (The Subtle, Most Gentle), *al-Raḥmān* (Most Gracious), *al-Raḥīm* (Most Merciful), *al-Wadūd* (Most Loving), *al-Raʾūf* (Most Kind) and *al-Shakūr* (Most Appreciative). - Explaining that during times of distress one can always call on Allah and seek comfort from Him. Children can always vent to Allah, seek His support, and ask for His help. - Talking with children about how Allah is the Most Merciful and that while sins are to be avoided, Muslims should never despair of the mercy of Allah or think that their sins are too great for Allah to forgive. ### Integral supplemental attachments The foundational principle of [our Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model (IIRM)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/building-resilience-in-children-an-islamic-model-of-parenting) is that secure attachment to Allah and primary caregivers is ideal for resilience and success in this world (*dunyā*) and the hereafter (*ākhira*). As Muslims, however, our faith would not be complete without attachment to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Qur’an. Attachment to the community is also spiritually and psychologically important. Here we mean “attachment” in the colloquial sense of love and connection, rather than the specific and technical definition we invoked when discussing parental and Godly attachment. This is the type of attachment we will discuss in the following section, in the context of the Prophet ﷺ, the Qur’an, and the Muslim community. Each subsection will conclude with recommendations on how parents can nurture all of these relationships with their children. ### Attachment to the Qur’an The Qur’an, as the word of Allah that was revealed to His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, illuminates our lives and heals our hearts. Allah describes it as, “Truly it is a mighty Book. It cannot be proven false from any angle. \[It is\] a revelation from the \[One Who is\] All-Wise, Praiseworthy.”[^42] Nurturing an attachment to the Qur’an further solidifies a strong relationship with Allah, and is a means toward righteousness in this life and the next. Allah describes the Qur’an saying, > This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah.[^43] > O mankind, there has come to you instruction from your Lord and healing for what is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers.[^44] As mentioned earlier, building a relationship with Allah bolsters our children’s resilience. In order to develop a strong, healthy attachment to someone, you need to know them. Allah provides us the opportunity to know Him on a deeper level through His words in the Qur’an. Consider the feeling you get as you learn about Allah through His words in the greatest verse revealed,[^45] the Verse of the Throne (*ayat al-kursī*): > Allah! There is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of \[all\] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Seat \[of power\] extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.[^46] In this verse, Allah shares a beautiful description of His Names and Attributes, His knowledge and power. This strengthens our trust in and knowledge of Him, which in turn builds immunity to the difficulties of life. Allah tells us, “O mankind, there has come to you a conclusive proof from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light (i.e., the Qur’an). So those who believe in Allah and hold fast to Him—He will admit them to mercy from Himself and bounty and guide them to Himself on a straight path.”[^47] Our children can develop a deeper relationship with Allah by truly understanding that His direct words are accessible to them. In this way, the wisdom, guidance, and reassurance provided in the Qur’an takes on a different depth of meaning for our children during moments of difficulty. The Qur’an provides unwavering guidance in a world fraught with ever-changing standards and expectations. Indeed, the Qur’an and its exegesis (*tafsīr*) anchor us during the times we yearn for healing, peace, and tranquility. It is upon this stable foundation that fortresses of resiliency are built.[^48] Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with him, said, > Allah has guaranteed for one who follows the Qur’an that he will not be led astray in the world, nor be damned in the hereafter. Then, he recited the verse, “Thus, whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray \[in this life\] nor suffer \[in the next.\]”[^49], [^50] Yet some people are unable to connect with the Qur’an and therefore unable to connect with Allah, hindered as they are by negative preconceptions of God’s Word. While we can acknowledge academically that an attachment to the Qur’an brings mental and emotional health benefits, *how* to build this attachment is just as important. Looking back on your own upbringing, in what contexts were verses from the Qur’an cited? For some children, the Qur’an is used as a weapon wielded by adults to frighten rather than inspire, its warnings of otherworldly punishment extracting obedience from misbehaving children. Many have memories of struggling to memorize and dreading reciting in front of their Sunday school class. Many children are spanked, yelled at, and punished harshly for making mistakes in the process of learning to read and memorize the Qur’an. The painful memories during this process can make it hard to connect with the Qur’an later in life. Parents and community members often overemphasize Arabic reading and pronunciation and underemphasize understanding and personal connection, leading children to feel alienated from the words they are asked to read, recite, and recall. Building an attachment with the Qur’an, and thereby strengthening one’s attachment to Allah, cannot be achieved through a pedagogy that stresses fear and punishment at the expense of love and reward. Ibn al-Qayyim expressed this beautifully, saying, > The heart on its journey towards Allah the Exalted is like that of a bird. Love is its head and fear and hope are its two wings. When the head is healthy, then the two wings will fly well. When the head is cut off, the bird will die. When either of its two wings is damaged, the bird becomes vulnerable to every hunter and predator.[^51] Furthermore, it’s imperative for our children to gain an understanding of the Qur’an through translation and *tafsīr*. In the Qur’an, Allah describes the journeys of many of the righteous predecessors we seek to emulate. These Qur’anic stories of perseverance through hardship provide solace during life’s difficulties. Helping our children to learn these stories facilitates a much stronger emotional connection with the Qur’an. (For some examples of easy-to-follow stories and lessons, please see the final section of the paper “Conversation Starters and Stories”). It can be an incredibly powerful experience to turn to the Qur’an during moments of hardship and suddenly find yourself reading a verse that resonates with you in a special way, gently applying a balm to your heart and motivating you to keep moving forward. Allah revealed chapters (sing. *sūra*) to the Prophet ﷺ explicitly for the purpose of building his resilience during times of great difficulty. The timing of the revelation was not random. For example, Sūrat Yūsuf came to him during the Year of Sadness to console him after the death of two people who were deeply beloved to him, and to show him that along with hardship comes victory. In connecting with Allah in this way, we give our children the opportunity to nurture a personal relationship with the Qur’an and experience its tranquility, allowing them to feel grounded in these unchanging words of eternal wisdom. > Surely in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort.[^52] > No people gather to remember Allah Almighty but that the angels surround them, cover them with mercy, send tranquility upon them, and mention them to Allah among those near to Him.[^53] > Al-Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib reported: A man was reciting Sūrat al-Kahf and in his barn was an animal which became unsettled. As he looked, there was a mist or a cloud overshadowing him. He mentioned that to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, “Continue reciting, for it was calm that descended with the Qur’an.”[^54] As parents, we can foster love and attachment for the Qur’an in our children by: - Nurturing frequent family Qur’an time. Depending on the age of your child, this can include listening to *sūra*s in the car, reading a few verses together each day, listening to a lecture on the *tafsīr* of a certain *sūra*, and learning the meaning of a few verses together. - Engaging with the Qur’an as a source of stability. For example, listening to Qur’an during calm moments (i.e., before bed), allows children to unwind and provides a stable, consistent routine. The Qur’an should also be invoked during moments of emotional turmoil to provide a sense of connection with both Allah and you, as their parent (e.g., reciting *innā li-llāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn* when something difficult happens).[^55] - Discussing the way that certain verses resonate with you and apply to your daily life. For example, since gratitude plays a role in resilience-building,[^56] when discussing the verse in Sūrat al-Fātiḥa, “All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds”[^57] you may ask your children what they are grateful to Allah for and list some of your more cherished blessings. - Exploring the Qur’anic stories of the Prophets, righteous individuals, and individuals who gained the love of Allah, as well as the lessons derived from them. - Identifying positive traits exemplified in the Qur’an as the qualities of the people of *jannah* and how these traits might show up in daily life. Ask them if they’ve ever exemplified these traits, and to imagine when these traits would be helpful (e.g., waiting for their turn in line showing patience). For older children, also identify the traits of the people of the hellfire and discuss ways to protect ourselves from these qualities (i.e., arrogance). - Going through verses describing *jannah* and having your child share what they visualize as they hear these verses. Ask them what they are praying for in *jannah*. For younger children, encourage them to draw a picture of their house in *jannah* and put it in a place they can see frequently. This is similar to a safe space exercise often used in therapy to manage anxiety, so it can help with emotional regulation and therefore resilience building.[^58] - Asking your child if they have a favorite verse from the Qur’an. If they don’t, help them to choose one. Have them write or print this verse, decorate it, and place it somewhere visible in their room as a beneficial reminder and a way to personally connect with the Qur’an. Repeating this verse as a mantra can help promote emotional regulation and increased wellbeing.[^59] ### Attachment to the Prophet ﷺ One of the key ways we attach to Allah is through attachment to his Prophet ﷺ. This is based on several hadiths that indicate a Muslim does not have complete faith until they love the Prophet ﷺ more than anyone else, including themselves. > It was narrated that Anas ibn Mālik said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his child, his father, and all the people.”[^60] > Narrated Anas: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever possesses the following three qualities will have the sweetness of faith: > > 1\. The one to whom Allah and His Apostle become dearer than anything else. > > 2\. Who loves a person and he loves him only for Allah's sake. > > 3\. Who hates to revert to disbelief as he hates to be thrown into the fire.”[^61] > Narrated ʿAbd Allāh b. Hishām: We were with the Prophet ﷺ and he was holding the hand of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. ʿUmar said to him, “O Allah's Messenger! You are dearer to me than everything except my own self.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “No, by Him in Whose Hand my soul is, \[you will not have complete faith\] till I am dearer to you than your own self.” Then ʿUmar said to him, “However, now, by Allah, you are dearer to me than my own self.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Now, O ʿUmar, \[now you are a believer\].”[^62] We are asked to love the Prophet ﷺ more than our parents, children, and even ourselves. This presents the Muslim with something of an emotional challenge: how do we achieve such a deep love for the Prophet ﷺ when he no longer lives among us? This is difficult for a full-grown adult to grasp and achieve, never mind a child. Yet the foundations can be laid early. We develop an attachment to the Prophet ﷺ by attaching to his impeccable behavior, noble character, and inspirational perseverance. The Prophet ﷺ was a model of resilience, as seen in his ability to always maintain a good attitude, excel in his interpersonal relationships, preserve his mental health, and and diligently pursue his goals (spreading the message of Islam) in the face of staunch and often bloody resistance. His consultation of his Companions and unconditional trust in Allah, paired with frequent *duʿāʾ* and prayer, reminds us of how to engage in spiritually-based coping during times of distress. Seeing a loved one overcome struggles can motivate us to overcome our own, especially when that person wants what is best for us. The Prophet ﷺ cared very deeply for his *ummah*, which includes us and our children. > There certainly has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. He is concerned by your suffering, anxious for your well-being, and gracious and merciful to the believers.[^63] > Anas b. Mālik reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I wish I could meet my brothers.” The Prophet’s companions said, “Are we not your brothers?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “You are my companions, but my brothers are those who have faith in me although they never saw me.”[^64] > ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ (may Allah be pleased with them) reported: The Prophet ﷺ recited the Words of Allah, the Exalted, and the Glorious, about Ibrāhīm (as) who said: “O my Lord (*Rabb*)! They have led astray many among mankind. But whosoever follows me, he verily, is of me” (14:36) and those of Jesus (ʿĪsā) who said: “If You punish them, they are Your slaves, and if You forgive them, verily, You, only You, are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise” (5:118). Then he ﷺ raised up his hands and said, “O Allah! My *ummah*, my *ummah*,” and wept; Allah, the Exalted, said: “O Gabriel (Jibrīl)! Go to Muhammad and ask him: ‘What makes you weep?’” So Jibrīl came to him and asked him \[the reason for his weeping\] and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informed him what he had said (though Allah knew it well). Upon this Allah said: “Jibrīl, go to Muhammad and say: ‘Verily, We will please you with regard to your *ummah* and will never displease you.’”[^65] > Abū Hurayra said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Every Messenger is endowed with a prayer which is granted and by which he would (pray to his Lord) and it would he granted for him. I have, however, reserved my prayer for the intercession of my *ummah* on the Day of Resurrection.”[^66] As parents, we can foster our children’s love for and attachment to the Prophet ﷺ by: - Reading the Prophet’s biography (*sīra*) together, beginning with simple stories in early childhood and more in-depth biographies later. - Discussing the adversities the Prophet ﷺ experienced in his lifetime (from the stress of first hearing the message of prophethood, to the death of Khadīja or Ibrāhīm, to remorseless persecution meted out by the Quraysh, etc.) and the ways he coped (praying, making *duʿāʾ* to Allah, seeking help from dependable people, etc.). For more details about the experiences of the Prophet ﷺ, consider some of the book recommendations listed at the end of this paper. - Identifying and discussing some of the most admirable attributes of the Prophet ﷺ such as his  perseverance, dedication, and integrity. Discuss why these qualities are desirable, and how they might look in your child or in people your child knows. - Discussing the Prophet’s ﷺ love for the *ummah* and how that includes your child as well. Visualize with your child the happiness of meeting him in *jannah*. - Describing the appearance of the Prophet ﷺ to your child so they can feel closer to him. ### Community and group affiliation Group and community affiliation, like religious institutions and schools,[^67] can be instrumental sources of emotional support. When one is faced with hardship, they are limited in their resources, ability to problem solve, and ability to cope. Joining a group can make a person feel less alone, increase comradery, and tap into a network of physical resources, social connections, and intergenerational wisdom. Membership in a group has been found to enhance the ability to cope with stress, trauma, and anxiety.[^68] Being part of a group has also been shown to help preempt depression, mitigate depressive episodes, and prevent relapse. In adolescents specifically, group support bolsters mental health, academic success, and self-esteem. Highly recommended and mandatory communal activities in Islam, such as attending the Friday sermon and praying the funeral (*janāza*) prayers, offer not just a great source of good deeds, but a convenient way to reap the resiliency benefits of being part of a group: ***Micro Scale:*** *Mentors, Muslim peers, Muslim Student Associations, study circle (*ḥalaqa*) groups, and close friends.* These relationships can provide close attachments outside of the primary-caregiver relationship, and can help your child feel guided and supported during times of need. A parent should never substitute these attachments for their own personal involvement, but in the absence of healthy parental figures, these relationships can be very powerful in building resilience. ***Meso Scale:*** *Local mosque, Islamic school, and/or community organizations.* Relationships on this scale can help your child feel like they are a part of the local community and provide them with a sense of belonging. This may be especially important for Muslims growing up in a place where they are a minority. These kinds of connections can help foster a more secure sense of identity and inclusion. ***Macro Scale:*** *The ummah.* It is important for older children and emerging adolescents to know that they are part of a community that transcends space and time. Muslims are not just part of a global group that shares commonalities in thinking, behavior, and belief, but a transhistorical brotherhood and sisterhood that includes every Muslim in the *ummah* of the Prophet Muhammed ﷺ—now, before, and in the future. Every person in the *ummah* has a role to play based on the blessings Allah has given them. Encouraging your child to use their natural talents and interests to contribute to the *ummah* can give them a greater sense of purpose and belonging. --- ## VI. Important considerations There are some important considerations to keep in mind as you invest in the journey of building an attachment with your child. The first is that while attachment can in theory be cultivated at any point in either the parent’s or the child’s lifetimes, early childhood attachment leaves the strongest impression on mental and spiritual health. Parents should not give up if their child is now a teenager, but they should know that the more time that elapses, the more challenging it will be to instill new thought patterns in their grown “child” (from an Islamic standpoint: young adult). It is best to start developing a robust attachment between you and your child from the day they are born, and between your child and Allah as soon as they are able to understand (around 3 years of age). However, you are less likely to develop a healthy attachment with your child if your own attachment to your parents or to Allah is in any way compromised. When we have strained relationships with our own parents or with Allah, we can inadvertently model unhealthy behaviors to our children. Introspection is one of the best tools a parent has, so reflect on your own attachment style with Allah and loved ones to determine if there is any healing needed on your end. This healing is important not just for the sake of your child, but for your own mental and spiritual health. --- ## VII. Case study revisited Mona and Ibrahim began to reflect on their relationship with their children and came to terms with the fact that their authoritarian style of parenting was not conducive to raising healthy children or fostering a nurturing home environment. Their children lived in a different world than the one they grew up in, and the way they were parented was not going to work for their children. Their children were struggling because they had no attachment to Allah or sense of *wanting* to be Muslim versus *having* to be Muslim. Mona and Ibrahim knew it would be easier to keep doing what they had already been doing, but decided to take the scarier but more rewarding path of trying something new. Initially it felt strange to talk about loving Allah and explain the wisdom behind various Qur’anic and prophetic stories. But as Mona and Ibrahim became more open and flexible, their children began to very slowly soften. The harshness in their dealings with their children didn’t disappear overnight and it took a lot of intentionality, persistence, and patience to mitigate slip-ups and bumps in the road, but Mona and Ibrahim knew this was par for the course. As time passed and they continued to have more conversations about Allah and engaged in more family activities and discussions, they began to notice a shift where their children began to engage in acts of worship on their own, without being told to do so.[^69] In parallel, Mona and Ibrahim also made a conscious effort to build up attachment between their children and themselves. What were once transactional relationships were now growing into relationships that felt more loving, secure, and reciprocal. --- ## VIII. Conversation starters Sometimes putting theory into practice can feel like a daunting task. Please note that trying to implement everything in this article at once would be unnatural and overwhelming. Building a relationship with Allah is a long-term journey. It cannot be rushed. To help you on this journey we have made a list of *conversation starters*. These prompts can be a great supplement to family rituals you already have. For example, if like many families you watch a movie or hold a game night every Friday to help unwind and kick off the weekend, you can use one of these prompts for a mini-lesson beforehand. You can begin with a brief check-in on the past week and upcoming weekend, before discussing one weekly question as a family. These questions would ideally open the door to talking about important topics and bonding as a family. We’ve included a list of sample conversation starters below, divided by theme. Before incorporating them into your routine, however, please note the following tips: - Make the duration of any mini-lesson appropriate for its audience. If these conversations are too lengthy, neither you nor your children will look forward to them because they are draining. Around 15-20 minutes is usually a good length . - Make mini-lessons appropriate for the audience in terms of content. Small children are naturally drawn to arts and crafts, so drawing pictures with markers, for instance, can be appealing to them. If your oldest and youngest are separated by a wide age gap, consider splitting responsibilities so that one parent works with the older children and the other parent works with the younger children. - Do not make this activity/conversation too burdensome in terms of preparation because you most likely will not follow through. Prepare for 5-10 minutes by pulling relevant *āyāt*, hadiths, or even material from this article. - If you ever get stuck with a tough question from your child, don’t fret. Tell your child that you will look into it further and get back to them. This can be a learning moment for you both. ### Building proximity - What does physical, spiritual, and emotional closeness (proximity) mean to you? - How do we know that Allah is close to us and can hear us? - What are examples of times your *duʿāʾ* was answered? (topic: responsiveness) - Why might it appear that a *duʿāʾ* is unanswered? What are the different ways *duʿāʾ* can be answered? - What acts of worship make you feel closer to Allah? - What are acts of worship that make you feel closer to us (family, parents, siblings)? - What are acts of worship that make you feel closer to the community? - On a scale of 0 to 10, how close do you feel we are as a family? What things can be done to increase that closeness? - Is there anything you are going through right now that would be helpful to talk about? - If there ever is something that might be tough to talk about, how would you envision talking to us about it? What steps would you take? - What are ways that we can show each other that we care and are close through our words and actions? - What are ways that we can show Allah that we love Him and are grateful for Him? ### Safety - What do physical, spiritual, and emotional safety mean to you? - What are tools Allah has blessed us with to protect our sense of safety? - Let's look through the names of Allah together. Which ones related to safety jump out at you? Pick one name that you can start using in your *duʿāʾ*s or when you are feeling scared. - Can you think of examples in which Allah protected the prophets? - Can you think of examples in which Allah kept you safe or protected you from harm? - What are precautions we take as a family to promote physical and emotional safety? - On a scale of 0 to 10, how safe do you feel in this family? What are things we can do to increase your sense of safety? - When you are outside of the home or away from the family, what things can you use to feel safe? - What are tools you can use to feel emotionally safe in general (*duʿāʾ*, deep breathing, grounding, etc.)? ### A secure base - What is a secure base? Is it like a baby bird that can come back to its nest anytime he or she wants? Is it like a safe tree when you are playing tag, or perhaps home base out on the baseball field? Let’s draw a picture of what a secure base means to you. - How is our relationship with Allah like a secure base? - Can you think of any examples in which the prophets or other people in the Qur’an used Allah as a secure base during a difficult time? - Is it possible that a Muslim can ever mess up so badly that Allah can no longer be their safe base? - Is it possible that you can ever mess up so badly that we, your parents, can no longer be your safe base? - If you don't know how to get back to your safe base with Allah, what *dhikr* or *duʿāʾ* can you recite? (I seek Allah’s forgiveness (*astaghfiru-llāh*), there is no power nor might except with Allah (*lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā bi-llāh*), etc.) - What might be a code word for when you want to talk to us about something but feel shy or scared? - If anyone ever says something that doesn't sound right (maybe it breaks a rule or goes against something that was taught to you), what should you do? Is it better to figure it out on your own or can you talk to adults you trust like us (your safe base)? - If something bad happens to you, should you tell your parents only, talk to Allah about it only, or do both? - If something really difficult happens to you, how would you feel about talking to us (parents) about it? If you are in trouble, is it better to come straight away to us and risk punishment, or is it better to wait it out? --- ## IX. Conversation starters and stories Storytelling is a powerful way to illustrate concepts for people of all ages, but especially for children. Below you will find stories that bring to life different attributes of Allah needed to foster healthy attachment: responsiveness, protection, and a secure base. ### Lesson 1 ### i. Allah as Our Protector This first story from the life of the Prophet ﷺ emphasizes Allah as our Guardian and a description of the Name of Allah, *al-Muhaymin* (the Guardian, the Ever-Watchful Protector), as well as follow-up questions to promote discussion and reflection as a family. #### A lesson in the Ultimate Protection of Allah > Say, “Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us. He is our Protector.” So in Allah let the believers put their trust.[^70] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ always knew the path of prophethood would be hard, but now things had gotten out of hand. His life and the life of his followers, the Muslims, were being threatened. He had made a lot of enemies in Mecca since he began teaching people to worship Allah alone. People in Mecca had worshiped idols for a long time, and they were furious when the Prophet ﷺ encouraged change. Now, some of them were plotting to kill the Prophet ﷺ. He knew this was happening because Allah told him about these plans. The big question was, when were they going to strike? The Prophet ﷺ wasn’t going to wait around for this to happen. He needed a plan. On the night of the attack, his cousin, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ra) volunteered to hide in the Prophet’s ﷺ bed. This way the assassins, thinking the Prophet was still fast asleep in his home, wouldn’t notice when the Prophet ﷺ and his close friend Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (ra) slipped away quietly in the night. When the assassins entered the house of the Prophet ﷺ in the morning, they were disappointed and angry to find young Ali in his place and, in their surprise, allowed him to walk out of the house. Meanwhile, the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr (ra) were long gone from Mecca and on the road to a place where Muslims were welcome and wouldn’t face persecution: Medina. Tired from their long journey on foot, the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr (ra) suddenly heard the sound of hooves. Their enemies had caught up with them! They darted into the nearest cave, but could hear the footsteps of their pursuers close behind. They came closer and closer, until the would-be assassins were standing right outside of the cave their prey was hiding in. Abū Bakr (ra) was worried and said, “If any of them should look under his feet, he would see us.” The Prophet ﷺ, however, was the image of calm. “O Abū Bakr!” he exclaimed. “What do you think of two \[persons\] the third of whom is Allah?”[^71] As the assassins approached the entrance of the cave, what do you think they saw? They saw that the entrance was covered in a spider’s web! They said to one another, “Look at this web. If anyone had just entered here, the spider would not have spun a web over the entrance.”[^72] Convinced that the cave was empty, the assassins turned around and left, not knowing that they were mere feet from capturing their targets. Once the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr (ra) were certain the enemy was gone, they left the cave and descended the mountain, continuing their journey safely to Medina where they were warmly welcomed and embraced. #### Al-Muhaymin (The Guardian, The Watchful Protector)[^73] *Al-Muhaymin* is a special and beautiful Name of Allah. It means the Guardian, the Protector. *Al-Muhaymin* is the One who safeguards us from all types of danger.  He is the One who watches us, guards us, and gives us peace and security. Picture yourself wrapped in a warm blanket as a chilly wind blows in. Similarly, Allah embraces us with His protection. Can you think of a time when you were protected? Have you ever had a moment when you realized that something bad could have happened, but didn’t? Maybe you wanted to go somewhere but couldn’t, and all of your friends who did go ended up getting sick. Maybe you remember a severe fall that only resulted in a minor scrape and not a broken bone. Or have you ever wanted something so badly and didn’t get it only to get something better? Allah’s protection of us is constant so it’s easy to take it for granted. It’s an invisible force always present in our daily lives, protecting our bodies, our hearts, and our loved ones. Take a moment and think of all of the parts of your life that have been guarded for you today—your parents, your home, your health, your faith, even your favorite toys. There are too many to count, right? Whenever you feel afraid or helpless, remember that Allah is *al-Muhaymin*, your Guardian and Protector. Remember that He is always watching over you, and that His protection surrounds you in too many ways to count. #### Questions for discussion - How do we see the protection of Allah in the story of the spider and the cave? - Can you name five things *al-Muhaymin* has kept safe and protected for you today? - Can you remember a time when something bad could have happened but it didn’t? What happened? How did Allah protect you? - Visualize: Does an image come up when you picture the protection of Allah? (e.g., being surrounded by beautiful light; being wrapped in a protective blanket; Allah sending an angel to protect you, etc.). Describe it and think about how it makes you feel when you picture yourself surrounded by His protection. ### Lesson 2 ### ii. Allah is always near The story below beautifully demonstrates that no matter how dark your surroundings or how difficult your circumstances, Allah is always near and will always respond to you when you call upon Him. This is a story of hopefulness that provides us with reassurance and support even in the darkest of times, illustrating that Allah is *al-Qarīb*, the Near. #### The companion of the whale Prophet Jonah (Yūnus as) was sent to the people of Nineveh (Naynawa) to help them become Muslim. As you can imagine, prophethood is not an easy task. Sometimes communities are accepting of Islam, whereas other times it’s much more difficult to get people to believe. When Prophet Yūnus found out that his people rejected the message of Islam, he decided to leave. He got on a ship and left the town. While at sea, the waves began to toss the ship around violently. The tossing became so bad that the ship’s crew decided someone would need to be thrown overboard. They cast lots three times, and every single time the results chose Yūnus. He would be the one who would have to jump overboard. Imagine how this must have felt! Imagine looking out over the side of a ship and seeing huge waves, stormy weather, and a seemingly endless sea, knowing you would soon be within it. How terrifying! Prophet Yūnus knew this was it. This was his destiny. He had been chosen all three times; there was no escape. He leapt from the ship. Now stranded in  the middle of a stormy sea, Prophet Yūnus saw something that must have made his blood run cold: the looming shape of a massive beast cutting through the waves. It was a whale! There was no way to swim faster than something created for speed and agility in the water. Within moments, Prophet Yūnus found himself swallowed by the whale. It was over! But then, somehow, miraculously, it wasn’t. This whale was inspired by Allah to keep Yūnus safely within him rather than eat him. Imagine this experience—to be in a place no human being has ever witnessed and lived; to be in the darkest depths of the ocean within the belly of a huge whale. It was during this time that Yūnus called out to Allah and said: “There is no god worthy of worship except You), exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.”[^74] It has been narrated that: > When it occurred to the Prophet Yūnus, upon him be peace, to call upon Allah in these words when he was in the belly of the great fish, he said, “There is no god worthy of worship except You, exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.” This call went and hovered around the (mighty) Throne, and the angels said, “O Lord, this is the voice of one who is weak but known, in a faraway strange land.” Allah, may He be exalted, said, “How do you know this?” They said, “O Lord, who is he?'” Allah, may He be exalted, said, “My servant Yūnus.” They said, “Your servant Yūnus, from whom there kept coming acceptable deeds and supplications which were answered!” They said, “O Lord, will You not have mercy on him for what he did during his time of ease, and save him from this trial and tribulation?” He said, “Of course.” So, He commanded the great fish, and it cast him forth on the naked shore.[^75] And so, even beneath layer upon layer of darkness, Allah responded to Prophet Yūnus’s prayer and freed him from the depths, returning him to safety. #### Al-Qarīb (The Near) The name of Allah, *al-Qarīb*, means the Near One. Allah is close to us by His knowledge and ability to respond to us, not just when we say words out loud, but when the thoughts and feelings are hidden inside us as well: > Indeed, it is We who created humankind and fully know what their souls whisper to them, and We are closer to them than their jugular vein.[^76] There are many lessons that can be derived from the story of Yūnus, but we’ll share just a couple: 1. Allah is always with you through His knowledge. Unlike anyone else—even your loved ones—He knows when you are sad, need Him, or want to be closer to Him. The Heavens might feel far away, but Allah is not. 2. Any time you make a mistake you can turn back to Allah through the power of *duʿāʾ*. Allah is not like a friend or family member, where when you mess up the relationship could be over or beyond repair. Allah always wants you to come back to Him. ### Exercise Imagine what a tiny speck you must look like on Earth from space. Or go out even further—what about all the way from the Heavens?! Imagine zooming into the Earth until you start to see continents more clearly, and then countries, and then cities, and then homes. Imagine looking at the vast ocean, past the crest of the waves, deep into the water and all the way to the bottom where you can see the fish. Zoom in further with your imagination… Can you imagine Prophet Yūnus (as) in the bottom of the ocean in the belly of the whale? Despite all that distance Allah heard him in the heavens, and despite his mistake Allah forgave him. Whenever you feel all alone, or lonely, or don’t have someone to talk to—know Allah is there. Or when it feels like everyone has turned their back on you, know that Allah is with you by His knowledge and is ready to hear your *duʿāʾ*. You can turn to Allah for help, comfort, and safety. Write down some of these *āyāt* in a safe place to remind you of the special connection you have with Allah: > And when My servants ask you, \[O Muhammad\], concerning Me – indeed I am near (*qarīb*).[^77] > Indeed, He is Hearing and near.[^78] > Indeed, my Lord is near and responsive.[^79] --- ## X. Suggested books and resources \*Please note all these books have been read, reviewed, and vetted according to Islamic guidelines by Shifa Saltagi Safadi (@muslimmommyblog [www.muslimmommyblog.com](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.muslimmommyblog.com/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477800701&usg=AOvVaw3hQiTVZBlSUTwppa6HWgKy)) Ages 0-3 (Board Books): 1.     [Allah Knows All About Me](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/allah-knows-all-about-me&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477801453&usg=AOvVaw0RL37dyL9M_eiEqcKEa6Pi) by Yasmin Mussa 2.     [The ABCs of Allah Loves Me](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/the-abc-of-allah-loves-me&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477801797&usg=AOvVaw2GC8DrUHd8MuVdw2pD946N) by Learning Roots Ages 4-8 (Picture Books): 1.     [How Much Does Allah Love Me](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/maymunah-s-musings&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477802321&usg=AOvVaw1N-YjoulWwaeOHOIJeZVne) by Heba Subeh-Hyder 2.     [Basirah the Basketballer Says InshaAllah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ruqayasbookshelf.com/collections/frontpage/products/basirah-the-basketballer-says-inshaallah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477802656&usg=AOvVaw0xkgiLAkEYPoybyk1kisy0) by Hafsah Dabiri 3.     [In My Mosque](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/in-my-mosque&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477802935&usg=AOvVaw0559YrXj1upkUXRhFdoZwZ) by Mindy Yuksel and Hatem Aly 4.     [Yan’s Hajj](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/yan-s-hajj&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477803203&usg=AOvVaw2GDeBnP5coj8aaMPRGO63F) by Fawzia Gilani 5.     [Zak and His Good Intentions](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/zak-and-his-good-intentions&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477803503&usg=AOvVaw3IJS_iUi58GzIkfWp_MpRt) by J. Samia Mair Ages 9-12 (Chapter Books): 1.     [Turning Back to Allah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/turning-back-to-allah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477803965&usg=AOvVaw3syeVGWxfVWXOFJnuV736Q) by Aliya Vaughn 2.     [Salaam Mindfulness Journal](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/salaam-mindfulness-journal&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477804250&usg=AOvVaw2u0oMzq7lPGc1mDayClE45) Ages 12-15 (Middle School Books): 1. [Sophia’s Journal](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/sophia-s-journal&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477804665&usg=AOvVaw2opLAsLXAoe6Lo0Zf8M5mm) by Najiyah Maxfield 2. [Allah Loves](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/allah-loves&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477804940&usg=AOvVaw2Zaoav4WX4jRRLuBq6xCgh) by Omar Suleiman Ages 16 and up (Young Adult/Teen Books): 1. [A Place of Refuge](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/a-place-of-refuge&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477805370&usg=AOvVaw0O-cj9jG8vwAd2xo-_9f_W) 2. [She Wore Red Trainers](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.muslimmommyblog.com/post/she-wore-red-trainers&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477805628&usg=AOvVaw1Pmh5FLGMIt5uTwiS5G-eM) To help children build a positive relationship with the Qur’an, which is key in strengthening their connection to Allah, consider making use of Learning Root’s [Kitab](https://www.learningroots.com/products/kiitab). It is an excellent resource which allows for interactive games to encourage a positive experience as children learn to read, understand, and memorize the Qur’an. For stories to listen to with your child that are filled with wonderful lessons and values to help them to build a stronger connection to Allah, take a look at **[Once Upon a Crescent](https://mrshashimi.com/),** a podcast geared toward Muslim children. --- ## Notes [^1]: Sarah Sultan and Najwa Awad, “Building Resilience in Children: An Islamic Model of Parenting,” *Yaqeen*, March 22, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/building-resilience-in-children-an-islamic-model-of-parenting](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/building-resilience-in-children-an-islamic-model-of-parenting). [^2]: Linda C. Gallo and Timothy W. Smith, “Attachment Style in Marriage: Adjustment and Responses to Interaction,” *Journal of Social and Personal Relationships* 18, no. 2 (2001): 263–89. [^3]: Barbara H. Esbjørn, Signe H. Pedersen, Sarah I. F. Daniel, Helle H. Hald, Jon M. Holm, and Howard Steele, “Anxiety Levels in Clinically Referred Children and Their Parents: Examining the Unique Influence of Self‐Reported Attachment Styles and Interview‐Based Reflective Functioning in Mothers and Fathers,” *British Journal of Clinical Psychology* 52, no. 4 (2013): 394–407. [^4]: Jane Barlow, Anita Schrader‐McMillan, Nick Axford, Zoe Wrigley, Shreya Sonthalia, Tom Wilkinson, Michaela Rawsthorn, Alex Toft, and Jane Coad, “Attachment and Attachment‐Related Outcomes in Preschool Children: A Review of Recent Evidence,” *Child and Adolescent Mental Health* 21, no. 1 (2016): 11–20. [^5]: Darrin J. Knapp, Jonathan G. Sandberg, Josh Novak, and Jeffry H. Larson, “The Mediating Role of Attachment Behaviors on the Relationship between Family-of-Origin and Couple Communication: Implications for Couples Therapy,” *Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy* 14, no. 1 (2015): 17–38. [^6]: Shelia M. Kennison and Victoria H. Spooner, “Childhood Relationships with Parents and Attachment as Predictors of Resilience in Young Adults,” *Journal of Family Studies* 29, no. 1 (2023): 15–27, [https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2020.1861968](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2020.1861968&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477819607&usg=AOvVaw2n7Rz0V_c-C33DI8bGrZiM). [^7]: Qur’an 31:13. [^8]: Richard Beck and Angie McDonald, “Attachment to God: The Attachment to God Inventory, Tests of Working Model Correspondence, and an Exploration of Faith Group Differences,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 32, no. 2 (2004): 92–103. [^9]: Wade Rowatt and Lee A. Kirkpatrick, “Two Dimensions of Attachment to God and Their Relation to Affect, Religiosity, and Personality Constructs,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 41 (2002): 637–51. [^10]: Rowatt and Kirkpatrick, “Two Dimensions of Attachment.” [^11]: Hassan Elwan and Osman Umarji, “The Alchemy of Divine Love: How Our View of God Affects Our Faith and Happiness,” *Yaqeen*, December 29, 2022, updated June 9, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477819140&usg=AOvVaw0zmqPEguIjBv12-31Cfxth). [^12]: Julian Culver and Melinda Lundquist Denton, “Religious Attachment and the Sense of Life Purpose among Emerging Adults,” *Religions* 8, no. 12 (2017): 274, [https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8120274](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8120274&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477809217&usg=AOvVaw34jk4a0ZiscXQeOOBZsfrF). [^13]: Culver and Lundquist Denton, “Religious Attachment.” [^14]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2516. [^15]: Daphne M. Davis and Jeffrey A. Hayes, “What Are the Benefits of Mindfulness? A Practice Review of Psychotherapy-Related Research,” *Psychotherapy Theory Research Practice Training* 48, no. 2 (2011): 198–208. [^16]: Parrott, Justin. “How to Be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation,” *Yaqeen*, November 21, 2017, updated June 12, 2023, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation. [^17]: Beck and McDonald, “Attachment to God.” [^18]: Qur’an 65:3. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5647. [^20]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, no. 532. [^21]: Stacey M. Schaefer, Jennifer Morozink Boylan, Carien M. van Reekum, Regina C. Lapate, Catherine J. Norris, Carol D. Ryff, and Richard J. Davidson, “Purpose in Life Predicts Better Emotional Recovery from Negative Stimuli,” *PLOS ONE* 8, no. 11 (2013): e80329, [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477823494&usg=AOvVaw0RuxEKu-8z6jWIS5tETTEf). [^22]: Angie McDonald, Richard Beck, Steve Allison, and Larry Norsworthy, “Attachment to God and Parents: Testing Correspondence vs. Compensation Hypotheses,” *Journal of Psychology and Christianity* 24 (2005): 21–28. [^23]: Elwan and Umarji, “Alchemy of Divine Love.” [^24]: Stewart D. Friedman, “How Our Careers Affect Our Children,” Harvard Business Review, November 14, 2018, [https://hbr.org/2018/11/how-our-careers-affect-our-children?utm\_medium=social&utm\_campaign=hbr&utm\_source=facebook&tpcc=orgsocial\_edit&fbclid=IwAR3LripQ4B5j9HjyMB-niPElQWP75361brbHAJCyjIF82oVBFzCIT9VedU0](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hbr.org/2018/11/how-our-careers-affect-our-children?utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dhbr%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26tpcc%3Dorgsocial_edit%26fbclid%3DIwAR3LripQ4B5j9HjyMB-niPElQWP75361brbHAJCyjIF82oVBFzCIT9VedU0&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477811019&usg=AOvVaw1MtUWRPz6UxBpr57C2sgua). [^25]: Qur’an 2:186. [^26]: Qur’an 50:16. [^27]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, no. 710. [^28]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3784. [^29]: A resource to explain Allah being *al-Walī* in detail can be found here: Hassan Elwan and Osman Umarji, “Comic Cop of Loving Lord: The Influence of Parenting on Our View of God Submission and Contentment,” *Yaqeen*, June 20, 2023, updated August 9, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/cosmic-cop-or-loving-lord-the-influence-of-parenting-on-our-view-of-god-submission-and-contentment](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/cosmic-cop-or-loving-lord-the-influence-of-parenting-on-our-view-of-god-submission-and-contentment&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477824281&usg=AOvVaw0dIQoHASn-kblc6ch0imzY). [^30]: Qur’an 2:257. [^31]: Qur’an 3:150. [^32]: Qur’an 9:51. [^33]: Qur’an 85. [^34]: Qur’an 85:11. [^35]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5088. [^36]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5999. [^37]: Qur’an 3:31. [^38]: Qur’an 11:90. [^39]: Qur’an 2:152. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7505; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2675. [^41]: *Jāmiʾ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 3161. [^42]: Qur’an 41:41–42. [^43]: Qur’an 2:2. [^44]: Qur’an 10:57. [^45]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2878. [^46]: Qur’an 2:255. [^47]: Qur’an 4:175. [^48]: Karen Caldwell and Karolyn Senter, “Strengthening Family Resilience through Spiritual and Religious Resources,” in *Handbook of Family Resilience*, ed. Dorothy S. Becvar (New York: Springer, 2012), 441–55. [^49]: Qur’an 20:123. [^50]: *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*, no. 34781. [^51]: Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawjiyya, *Madārij al-Sālikīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1996). [^52]: Qur’an 13:28. [^53]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2700. [^54]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3614; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 795. [^55]: Qur’an 2:156. [^56]: Jane Taylor Wilson, “Brightening the Mind: The Impact of Practicing Gratitude on Focus and Resilience in Learning,” *Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning* 16, no. 4 (2016): 1–13. [^57]: Qur’an 1:2. [^58]: Sophie A. Kay, “Emotion Regulation and Resilience: Overlooked Connections,” *Industrial and Organizational Psychology* 9, no. 2 (2016): 411–15. [^59]: Julie Lynch, Lucia Prihodova, Pádraic J. Dunne, Caoimhe O’Leary, Rachel Breen, Áine Carroll, Cathal Walsh, Geraldine McMahon, and Barry White, “Mantra Meditation Programme for Emergency Department Staff: A Qualitative Study,” *BMJ Open* 8, no. 9 (2018): e020685. [^60]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 67. [^61]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 16. [^62]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6632. [^63]: Qur’an 9:128. [^64]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, no. 12169. [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 202. [^66]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 199b. [^67]: Clare Marriott, Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, and Chris Harrop, “Factors Promoting Resilience Following Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Structured, Narrative Review of the Literature,” *Child Abuse Review* 23 (2014): 17–34, [https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2258](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2258&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477815147&usg=AOvVaw1MO_82rWWHZUC-F3NlWaEV). [^68]: Tegan Cruwys, Genevieve A. Dingle, Catherine Haslam, S. Alexander Haslam, Jolanda Jetten, and Thomas A. Morton, “Social Group Memberships Protect against Future Depression, Alleviate Depression Symptoms and Prevent Depression Relapse,” *Social Science and Medicine* 98 (2013): 179–86, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.09.013](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.09.013&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477815663&usg=AOvVaw0_N_RYsK_kzEwq_l5Se3zM). [^69]: For more on motivation and inculcating intrinsic religious motivation: Jihad Saafir and Osman Umarji, “How to Raise Religious Teens: A Self-Determination Theory Approach,” *Yaqeen*, October 24, 2022, updated March 30, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477820212&usg=AOvVaw0i0AuGrQCxj0ifNa9BVDL-). [^70]: Qur’an 9:51. [^71]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3653. [^72]: *Musnad al-Imām Ahmad*, no. 3241; authentication grade is fair (*ḥasan*). [^73]: [https://wahiduddin.net/words/99\_pages/muhaymin\_7.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://wahiduddin.net/words/99_pages/muhaymin_7.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1693498477816642&usg=AOvVaw3wl9PjPtorlz4goDHd_v0u). [^74]: Qur’an 21:87. [^75]: Ibn Kathir, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr* (Riyadh: Dar al-Salām, 2000), 37:142. [^76]: Qur’an 50:16. [^77]: Qur’an 2:186. [^78]: Qur’an 34:50. [^79]: Qur’an 11:61. ## Summary Attachment is not a peripheral matter in the raising of children; it is foundational to both their psychological and spiritual flourishing. When we speak of attachment, we mean the relational pattern that first forms between a child and their primary caregiver in infancy, establishing the template through which that child comes to relate to the world, to others, and ultimately to their Lord. The general categories identified in this field are secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized, and avoidant attachment. A healthy, secure attachment prepares a child for better mental health and healthier relationships, while unhealthy attachment can contribute to poor mental and physical wellbeing. Many parents attend diligently to material and educational provision—food, housing, schooling, manners, and even religious instruction—yet overlook the *quality* of their relationship with their children. Yet just as a lesson delivered over a faltering internet connection cannot truly be learned, so too knowledge transmitted through yelling, demeaning, or disengagement is unlikely to take root. It is the quality of interaction, not merely its content, that shapes a child's wellbeing. The Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model advanced here rests upon the conviction that resilience models designed only for success in the *dunyā* are incomplete, for they neglect attachment to Allah, which is essential for success in the *ākhira*. This model draws upon the counsel of Luqmān to his son, and it is fitting that its foundation begins with the first advice Luqmān gave: *"O my dear son! Never associate anything with Allah in worship, for associating others with Him is truly the worst of all wrongs"* (Qur'an 31:13). Attachment need not be confined to parents; it can and must extend to God. Research cited here suggests that God may function psychologically as an attachment figure, a "safe haven in times of crisis and a secure base from which to explore," and that attachment to Allah is linked with greater life satisfaction, religiosity, emotional resilience, and lower psychological distress. The clearest articulation of this primary attachment to Allah is found in the counsel the Prophet ﷺ gave to the young Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him): *"Young man, I will teach you some words. Be mindful of God, and He will take care of you. Be mindful of Him, and you shall find Him at your side. If you ask, ask of God. If you need help, seek it from God. Know that if the whole world were to gather together in order to help you, they would not be able to help you except if God had written so… The pens have been lifted, and the pages are dry."* From this we draw several lessons. First is mindfulness of Allah, which in the Islamic tradition (*murāqaba*) differs from contemporary notions of mindfulness centered on being "present," for it means being conscious of Allah's presence and watchfulness—a consciousness that builds integrity even in the absence of any human authority. Second is the prioritization of connection with Allah above every other; notably, this particular hadith makes no mention of parents, though such reverence is affirmed elsewhere in the tradition. Third, the qualities researchers associate with healthy attachment—security, responsiveness, and being a safe haven—are here all identified with Allah. And crucially, the Prophet ﷺ does not shelter the youth from the reality of adversity but affirms it, teaching reliance upon Allah, as the Qur'an confirms: *"And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He alone is sufficient for them"* (Qur'an 65:3). There is, moreover, a resilience that arises only from complete submission to Allah alone through the doctrine of *tawḥīd*. When one grasps that trials may be a means of nearness to Allah and that even the slightest pain is recompensed, hardship takes on new meaning. As the Prophet ﷺ said, *"No Muslim is afflicted with any harm, even if it were the prick of a thorn, but that Allah expiates their sins because of that, as a tree sheds its leaves."* Likewise he promised Zayd b. Arqam that steadfast endurance of blindness, reckoning the reward with Allah, would be rewarded with the Garden. A firm sense of purpose protects children from unhealthy dependence on external validation. All three branches of *tawḥīd* offer treasures for building this resilience: *tawḥīd al-ulūhiyya*, grounding the child in love of Allah and the purpose of worship; *tawḥīd al-rubūbiyya*, nurturing reliance (*tawakkul*) upon Allah as Creator, Provider, and Sustainer; and *tawḥīd al-asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt*, allowing the child to know, and thus love and trust, Allah through His Names and Attributes. The very characteristics that foster attachment between child and caregiver—identified by the attachment theorist Mary Ainsworth as maintaining proximity, providing safety, and being a secure base—can also foster attachment to Allah. Regarding proximity, accessibility, and responsiveness, parents should be reachable and attentive, for the parent-child bond becomes the working model a child projects onto their relationship with God. Parents demonstrate Allah's nearness and responsiveness through the verses: *"I am truly near. I respond to one's prayer when they call upon Me"* (Qur'an 2:186) and *"We are closer to them than their jugular vein"* (Qur'an 50:16), and through the Prophet's ﷺ teaching that no supplication is made but that Allah answers it swiftly, stores it, or averts an equal evil. The hadith of the divided prayer, in which Allah responds to each verse of al-Fātiḥa recited by His slave, further illustrates this responsiveness. As a protector providing safety, the parent must be believed, trusted, and relied upon, never burdening the child with adult concerns. To show that Allah is the ultimate Protector, *al-Walī*, parents may reflect on verses such as *"Allah is the Guardian of the believers"* (Qur'an 2:257) and *"Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us"* (Qur'an 9:51). Importantly, Allah's care does not always manifest as worldly victory; the People of the Ditch in Sūrat al-Burūj were slain yet declared victorious through their martyrdom and entry into Paradise, teaching that His aid ensures no enemy can overpower our will to worship Him. Children may also be taught the supplication *"Bism-illāhi al-ladhī lā yaḍurru maʿa ismihi shayʾun…"*, which, as ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān narrated from the Prophet ﷺ, protects one who says it thrice from sudden affliction. As a secure base, the caregiver offers comfort and solace amid uncertainty, expressed through warmth, physical affection, and genuine care. Regrettably, many families dwell solely upon Allah's punishment to deter misbehavior, neglecting His mercy. Yet the Prophet ﷺ, observing a captive woman nursing children, said, *"Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this lady to her son."* The Qur'an affirms this love: *"If you sincerely love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you"* (Qur'an 3:31), and the Prophet ﷺ related that Allah says, *"I am just as My slave thinks of Me… he who comes closer to Me a cubit, I come closer to him a fathom; and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running."* Beyond attachment to Allah and parents, our faith is incomplete without love and connection to the Qur'an, the Prophet ﷺ, and the community—here "attachment" is meant in the colloquial sense. The Qur'an, of which there is no doubt and which is *"a guidance for those conscious of Allah"* (Qur'an 2:2) and *"healing for what is in the breasts"* (Qur'an 10:57), draws us nearer to Allah, for we come to know Him through His words, as in Āyat al-Kursī. Ibn ʿAbbās affirmed that whoever follows the Qur'an will neither go astray nor be damned. Yet an attachment to the Qur'an cannot be built through fear and harsh punishment during its learning; as Ibn al-Qayyim said, the heart journeys to Allah like a bird whose head is love and whose wings are fear and hope—when the head is severed, the bird dies. Attachment to the Prophet ﷺ is likewise obligatory, for as he said, *"None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his child, his father, and all the people."* We attain this love by knowing his character, his resilience, and his deep concern for his *ummah*, for whom he reserved his answered supplication and over whom he wept, *"My ummah, my ummah."* Finally, community affiliation—at the micro scale of mentors and peers, the meso scale of mosque and school, and the macro scale of the transhistorical *ummah*—provides emotional support and belonging that bolster resilience. Several considerations remain. Though attachment may be cultivated at any age, early childhood leaves the deepest impression, so it is best begun from birth with the parent and, once the child can understand around age three, with Allah. Yet parents cannot instill healthy attachment if their own bond with their parents or with Allah is compromised; introspection and personal healing are therefore essential. This is not a task to be rushed but a long-term journey, best supported through gentle, age-appropriate conversations and storytelling, keeping in mind that patience and persistence, not perfection, are what the path requires. ## Key Takeaways 1. Attachment is the foundation on which resilience in children is built, and within the Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model (IIRM), the first and most essential attachment is the child’s bond with Allah. When children grow up feeling securely connected to God, viewing Him as a source of love, mercy, and refuge, they develop the emotional and spiritual anchoring that helps them navigate hardship without losing their grounding. 2. Attachment to parents is the second pillar and the most influential human relationship in shaping a child’s sense of safety. Securely attached children form a positive view of themselves and others, learn to trust, and develop the ability to depend on others without becoming overly dependent. These early bonds shape how children later relate to Allah, since the parental relationship serves as the lens through which a child’s image of God begins to take form. 3. Beyond Allah and parents, children benefit from a wider web of attachment that strengthens resilience. Relationships with mentors, Muslim peers, study circles, mosques, and Islamic schools provide additional sources of belonging and guidance, which can be especially important for children growing up as religious minorities. These broader attachments cannot replace parental involvement, but they supplement it and help children feel rooted in a larger community of faith. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How can I raise children who genuinely want to be Muslim, rather than feel forced into it? The key lies in cultivating attachment, both to the parent and to Allah. When children feel secure, responded to, and loved, they develop a relational template that shapes how they connect to everything else, including their Creator. Parents who focus only on enforcing rituals and behaviors often produce short-term compliance but long-term distance, because the child has never internalized the practice as their own. The Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model proposes that a child who feels safely attached to Allah, to their parents, and to the wider Muslim community is far more likely to embrace Islam from the inside rather than perform it from the outside. This means parents must invest as much in the quality of their relationship with their child as they do in teaching beliefs and rituals. A child who is yelled at, dismissed, or only addressed when they have done something wrong will struggle to internalize the religion being taught to them, no matter how technically correct the teaching is. A child who feels respected, heard, and supported is far more open to receiving the message of Islam as something good rather than something imposed. ### How can I help my child feel that Allah is close, loving, and listening to them? Several concrete habits can build this sense over time. Talk openly about Allah being near, drawing on the Qur’anic verse, “When My servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near. I respond to one who calls upon Me” (Qur’an 2:186). Discuss the names of Allah that highlight closeness and responsiveness, such as al-Samiʿ (the All-Hearing), al-Mujib (the Responder), al-Qarib (the Near), al-Wadud (the Most Loving), and al-Rahman (the Most Gracious). Teach your child the etiquette of *dua* and stress that Allah always hears their call. When one of their *dua*s is answered, point it out and practice gratitude together. Share stories from your own life about times Allah responded to your *dua* and guided you. Children love hearing personal stories from their parents, and this brings the relationship with Allah to life rather than leaving it abstract. The foundation of all of this is love. The Prophet ﷺ taught that Allah is more merciful to His servants than a mother is to her child, using the image of a captive woman who would never throw her son into a fire to convey how unimaginable Allah’s mercy is. Children who first know Allah through His mercy, gentleness, and care develop a relationship that endures through life’s challenges. ### How do I help my child build a love for the Qur’an instead of dreading it? Looking back on your own upbringing, in what contexts were verses from the Qur’an cited? For many, the Qur’an was used as a weapon to frighten rather than inspire, with warnings of punishment deployed to extract obedience. Many people have memories of struggling to memorize, dreading reciting in front of their Sunday school class, and being spanked, yelled at, or harshly punished for mistakes in learning to read and memorize. These painful associations can make it difficult to connect with the Qur’an later in life. Parents and community members often focus heavily on Arabic reading and pronunciation, which are important, but neglect equally important aspects like understanding the meaning, building a personal connection with the text, and helping children see how its lessons apply to their lives. Without these, children often feel alienated from the very words they are asked to recite. Building a love for the Qur’an requires the opposite approach. Read it together as a family, discuss the meaning of verses in age-appropriate ways, listen to it during calm moments, such as before bed, and turn to it during emotional turmoil. Share which verses resonate with you personally and why. Explore the Qur’anic stories of the prophets and the lessons they hold. Ask your child if they have a favorite verse and let them write it out and place it somewhere visible. The aim is for the Qur’an to become a source of comfort and meaning, not a source of stress. ### How do I explain Allah’s protection to my child when bad things still happen to good people? This is one of the most common questions children raise, and how parents answer it shapes how the child relates to Allah well into adulthood. The Prophet ﷺ did not shelter children from the reality of hardship. When he advised the young Ibn ʿAbbas, he told him plainly that if the entire world gathered to harm him, they could only harm him by what Allah had already written. This acknowledges adversity directly rather than denying it. Allah is the Protector, but His protection does not always mean a person gets what they want or avoids what they fear. The story of the People of the Ditch, mentioned in Surah al-Buruj, illustrates this. They were all killed by a tyrant ruler despite their unshakeable belief in Allah, yet the Qur’an declared their martyrdom and entrance to Paradise as the great victory. Allah’s protection is not about always making someone outwardly victorious over their enemies. It is about making no enemy able to overpower their will to worship Him. Children who understand this are protected from the fragile belief that faith should shield them from all pain, and are given a more durable framework for making sense of difficulty when it inevitably arrives. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-overcome-racism-lessons-from-west-african-scholars-tafsir-of-surat-al-hujurat # How to Deal With Racism: Lessons From West African Scholars’ Tafsīr of Sūrah al-Ḥujurāt **Author:** Imam Dawud Walid **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Islam in Africa, Justice in Islam, Paper, Publication, Racism **Published:** June 23, 2023 **Updated:** June 9, 2026 ## Introduction Of the chapters in the Qur’an, *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* is the most concise and comprehensive in regards to conflict resolution and management. One of the socio-political conflicts which this chapter addresses is the proactive mitigation and prevention of racism. As racism, which is an extension of blameworthy tribalism (*ʿaṣabiyya*), has become more frequently discussed in the public discourse in the West, this particular ‘ism’ has also become a more frequent topic of discussion among Muslims. Any Muslim analysis of societal challenges should begin with the Qur’an, as well as those Muslim communities with the most wisdom regarding the specific challenge of racism. As such, here we will focus on two relevant verses in *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* and how they were addressed in the commentaries of two West African exegetes. They offer profound insights for how Muslims should mitigate racism within their communities. *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* directly addressed a societal context in Medina that differed drastically from the pre-migration environment of Makkah. Makkah was a fairly homogenous society ruled by the Arabs of the Quraysh tribe, while Medina’s population included Arabs from more diverse tribal backgrounds as well as non-Arabs of Jewish, Abyssinian, and Persian ancestries.[^1] It was in this community, at once quintessentially tribal yet diverse in lineage and phenotype, that this chapter was revealed. --- ## West African Scholars and Anti-Black Racism This article will focus on commentaries written by West African scholars on the 11th and 13th verses of *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt*. I first encountered these commentaries while in Mali and Senegal, during my studies in West African scholarship and in particular my studies of the exegetical sciences of the Qur’an with Shaykh Ali Sulaiman Ali (may Allah preserve him), who is from Ghana and is affiliated with the Hausa tribe. I do not claim that these two commentaries are superior to others produced inside or outside West Africa, nor do I claim that they bring forth any novel interpretations. But the perspectives of their authors are at once analogous to ours—they are surrounded by the dynamics of [anti-black racism](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-anti-blackness-leaving-ignorance-behind)—and yet refreshingly different, as they meet that challenge as Muslim scholars untrammeled by the identity crises and insecurities of Muslims living as marginalized communities. ### Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī The first exegete is Shaykh Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdū (1180AH/1766CE–1245AH/1829 CE), may Allah have mercy upon him. Hailing from the Fulani people of West Africa,[^2] his family settled in Hausaland, now within contemporary Northern Nigeria, Niger, and much of Chad. It was there that his famous brother Shaykh ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī, aka Uthman dan Fodio (may Allah have mercy upon him), established the Sokoto caliphate, in which Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī was a senior minister.[^3] The socio-political backdrop of this era involved, on the one hand, the struggle to purify the beliefs and practices of Muslims in the area from pre-Islamic practices such as animism and, on the other, the combating of corrupt Muslim chiefs who enslaved fellow Muslims for sale, including the enslavement of over 300 memorizers (*ḥuffāẓ*) of the Qur’an.[^4] Shaykh Ibn Fūdī was a prolific scholar in the Islamic sciences. He was not only a *ḥāfiẓ* of the Qur’an but was also a master of hadith, having memorized over 100,000 Prophetic narrations. He was also a chief jurist in his time of the Mālikī tradition in which he wrote three treatises on Islamic rulings and governance entitled *Ḍiyāʾ al-ḥukkām* (Light Regarding the Magistrate), *Ḍiyāʾ al-siyāsa* (Light Regarding Politics), and *Ḍiyāʾ al-khulafāʾ* (Light Regarding the Caliph). His first exegesis, entitled *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl* (Light of Interpretation Regarding the Meaning of the Divine Revelation)*,* shall be referenced later in this article; however, he wrote a second exegesis titled *Kifāya ḍu’afāʾ al-sudān* (Sufficiency for the Blacks of Weak Understanding) which dealt more specifically with commentary based upon the Warsh reading of the Qur’an as well as verses with legal implications based upon his studies of the Mālikī tradition in Hausaland. Regarding the sciences of Qur’anic interpretation, he also skillfully condensed the meaning of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī’s book *Al-Itqān fī ‘ulūm al-Qurʾān* (The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur’an) into Arabic poetry (*naẓm*) which he entitled *Sulālat al-tafsīr* (Descent of the Qur’anic Exegesis). He wrote two dozen other works on subjects such as Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence (*uṣūl al-fiqh*), sciences of Prophetic narrations, and spiritual purification. ### Shaykh Aḥmad Dem The second exegete is Shaykh Aḥmad Dem b. Muḥammad al-Amīn Dem (may Allah have mercy upon him). Shaykh Aḥmad Dem, who passed away relatively recently in 1973, was also Fulani and lived in Sokone, Senegal. He too followed the Mālikī tradition, which has long been the predominant *madhhab* in West Africa. Like Shaykh Ibn Fūdī, Shaykh Dem produced a commentary on the Qur’an. He was less prolific as a jurist and writer, perhaps because he did not enjoy the support of an Islamic government. Shaykh Dem was born into an environment in which racist French colonial rule dominated Senegal until the nation achieved quasi-independence in 1959. Shaykh Dem primarily dealt with two intellectual challenges. The first was the influence of French thought due to the colonial control of public education, which included the use of Christian missionaries.  None of the indigenous Senegalese population had been Christian prior to the advent of  colonialism, after which up to five percent converted. Shaykh Dem’s second challenge, more theological in character, was his public dispute with the Senegalese Mālikī scholar Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (may Allah have mercy upon him), who authored an exegesis of the Qur’an entitled *Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm* (In the Meadows of the Exegesis of the Noble Qur’an) that argued it was possible to see Allah ﷻ in dreams. Shaykh Dem staunchly opposed this claim.[^5] Such theological debates were without precedent at that time, as theologians in Senegal unanimously followed the Ashʿarī creed. Niasse’s view was seen by Dem as firmly unorthodox. Shaykh Dem and Shaykh Niasse eventually reconciled before the former passed away, though they still disagreed on the issue. Compared to Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī’s concise four-volume exegesis, Shaykh Dem’s is far more comprehensive at a length of twenty volumes. It delves deeper into such subjects as the occasions of revelation (*asbāb al-nuzūl*), the abrogating and the abrogated (*al-nāsikh w-al-mansūkh*), and the variations of the Warsh and Qālūn recitations of the Qur’an as transmitted from the early successor (*tābiʿī*) Nāfiʿ al-Madanī (may Allah have mercy upon him), which he had authorization (*ijāza*) in. Shaykh Dem’s *tafsīr* also makes frequent reference to the *tafsīr* of *Rūh al-Ma'ānī* (Spirit of Meaning) by Sayyid Maḥmūd al-Alūsī (d. 1217/1802-1270/1854).[^6] His exegesis *Ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn al-jāmiʿ bayna ʿulūm al-tifatayn* (Light of the Bright Stars Between the Sciences of the Two Readings) will be referenced in the succeeding comments as well. ### Surah al-Hujurat, Ayah 11: Do not make fun of others The 11th verse of *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt*  states: > O you who believe, let not a *qawm* ridicule \[another\] *qawm*; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule \[other\] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another nor call each other by \[offensive\] nicknames. Wicked is the name \[i.e., mention\] of disobedience after \[one's\] faith. And whoever does not repent, then it is those who are the wrongdoers. Shaykh Ibn Fūdī stated that people (*qawm*) in this verse specifically means “the men from them \[a people\],” not people in general meaning women and men, as the verse addresses women separately.[^7] Shaykh Dem stated regarding the verse: > It was revealed pertaining to three occasions. The first occasion of those of His speech “better than them” according to Ibn ʿAbbās \[may Allah be pleased with him\] stated, “It was revealed about Thābit b. Qays b. Shammās that he was told to make room in a gathering for someone in which he referred to him as the son of his mother, then made light of his status in the Era of \[pre-Islam\] Ignorance which predated them coming to Islam.[^8] The second is narrated from al-Ḍaḥḥāk that Tamīm mocked some of the poor companions, including ʿAmmār, who was a Black Arab, Ḍaḥḥāk, Ibn Fuhayra, who was African, Bilāl the Abyssinian, Ṣuhayb the Roman, Salmān the Persian, and Salīm Mawlā Abī Ḥudhayfa, who was also Persian.[^9] Shaykh Dem mentioned the same.[^10] The third is that some of the Muslims referred to ʿIkrima b. Abī Jahl upon him entering Medina as the Son of the Pharaoh of this Nation (*ibn firʿawn hādhihi al-umma*), about which he then complained to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).[^11] Shaykh Dem, commenting on the verse, wrote that “it is concluded that the associate of one making mockery of anyone is one who is involved in the mockery.”[^12] Such an individual shares the burden of responsibility of judgment, because s(he) is complicit by not speaking out against the mockery. Moreover, the companion of mockery collects sin along with the active mocker. In all three occasions relayed by Shaykh Dem, the mockery targeted matters of lineage. Although the mockery in the second instance was fueled in part by socioeconomic disparity, there was a clear connection at that time, as in many instances today, between lineage and socio-economic status. Shaykh Dem also mentioned that a man reportedly said to Luqmān (peace be upon him), who was Abyssinian, “What an ugly face you have!” Luqmān replied to him, “You find fault with what has been engraved upon or created \[by Allah\]?!”[^13] “Nor let women ridicule \[other\] women”—Shaykh Ibn Fūdī stated that this part of the verse addresses some of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ who mocked his wife Ṣafiyya (may Allah be pleased with her) by calling out to her, “O Jew, the daughter of a Jew” (*ya yahūdiyya bint yahūdī*).[^14] These wives were Arabs, whereas Ṣafiyya was not. Shaykh Dem, referencing the same narration from al-Tirmidhī (may Allah have mercy upon him), said that Ṣafiyya came to the Prophet ﷺ in tears and told him what had been said to her. He ﷺ replied, “Surely you are the daughter of a prophet, your uncle was a prophet, and you are under the guardianship of a Prophet, so how can one take pride over you?”[^15] Shaykh Ibn Fūdī stated that the command in the verse to not make mockery means, “Do not find fault with one another for the believers are like one body.”[^16] Shaykh Dem concurred with this meaning, noting the Prophetic promise of “glad tidings to whom is preoccupied with his \[own\] faults instead of the faults of other people.”[^17] He also stated that this verse “indicates that no human being will completely rid themselves of faults.”[^18] One’s faults, however, do not relate to lineage or skin color, as these are given by the decree of Allah (Mighty and Sublime) and are not mistakes, nor errors. Shaykh Dem commented that not calling people by bad names carries the meaning of not belittling converts from Judaism and Christianity by referring to them as “O Jew” or “O Christian.”[^19] However, he stated that it is not prohibited to give people nicknames that are praiseworthy, such as “how ʿUmar \[b. al-Khaṭṭāb\] is referred to as Distinguisher Between Truth and Falsehood (*al-Fārūq*), ʿUthmān \[ibn ʿAffān\] is known as the Possessor of Two Lights (*Dhū al-Nūrayn*), and ʿAlī \[ibn Abī Ṭālib\] is known as Father of the Dust (*Abū Turāb*).”[^20] Shaykh Dem also mentioned that those who refuse to repent of their mockery are of the wrongdoers that are on the accursed path of Satan (Iblīs)—Iblīs, who refused to repent, who fancied himself to be better than Adam (peace be upon him). This is the path of being accursed, meaning being deprived of Divine mercy, as referenced in *Sūrat Hūd*, verse 18: Surely the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers. --- ## What the Quran says about mockery ### Surah al-Hujurat, Ayah 13: Do not be proud The second verse from *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* to be discussed is the 13th, which states: > O humankind, surely We created you from a single male and female, and We made you into different nations and tribes in order that you may know one another. Surely the most honorable of you with Allah are those of you who are most pious. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware. Shaykh Ibn Fūdī, commenting on the opening of the verse, said that one of its meanings is:[^21] > From Adam and Eve, We created all of you from a single father and mother; thus all are equal in that, so there should be no seeking pride in lineage. Shaykh Dem mentioned that there is a difference of opinion surrounding the circumstances of this verse’s revelation. He relayed that Ibn ʿAbbās said that this was revealed at the time of the Conquest of Makkah, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) to call the *adhān* from on top of the Ka’bah. It is said that one man praised Allah that his father did not live to see this day. Another stated, “Could not Muhammad find someone to be the prayer-caller other than this Black crow (*al-ghurāb al-aswad*)?”[^22] It is said that Gabriel (Jibrīl) (peace be upon him) came to the Prophet ﷺ and informed him what was said, after which the verse was recited.[^23] Another explanation given by Shaykh Dem is that the verse was revealed when the Prophet ﷺ instructed men from Banī Bayāḍa, an Arab tribe among the Anṣār, to have a woman from among them marry Abū Hind (may Allah be pleased with him).[^24] They replied to him, “Marry our daughter to a client \[meaning ex-slave\]?!”[^25] According to a different account, Thābit b. Qayṣ would not make room for a man in an assembly because he perceived him to be of lesser lineage. The Prophet ﷺ told him, “Look at the faces of the people.” Thābit said, “I see white, black, and red.” The Prophet ﷺ then told him, “Surely you have no merit over them except in piety (*taqwā*).”[^26] Shaykh Ibn Fūdī mentioned that nation (*shaʿb*) and tribe (*qabīla*) have two different interpretations. The first relates to more direct lineage. For example, the nation of the Prophet’s lineage was from Khuzayma, and his tribe was Kinānh, from which Quraysh comes. The second relates one coming from a non-Arab or an Arab in lineage.[^27] Shaykh Dem also conveyed the same. According to Shaykh Dem, we should know our lineages and those of others, but there is no seeking pride through our forefathers and tribes and calling to superiority through lineages:[^28] > Honor is but in piety, meaning praiseworthy pride in being above the people of disbelief by leaving polytheism (*shirk*) and sticking to Islam and its symbols. He continued in his commentary by saying:[^29] > Of its meanings is that the most noble with Allah the Most High is the one who is most pious, even if a Black Abyssinian slave like Bilāl was. So, if you seek honor, then find honor in piety and through the grace of Allah and His loving compassion. And by Allah the Most High, surely you look to the speech of him \[the Prophet\] ﷺ “I am the master of the Children of Adam but I have no pride,” means that there was not pride for him in being from nobles nor from him being given the Divine message. Of course not, it was through his servitude and worship. And that was his honor, meaning it was enough of an honor for him that being a slave took precedence over being the Messenger as conveyed in his speech, “And I witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger.” Shaykh Dem proceeded to reference the Prophetic narration:[^30] > Surely your Lord is One, and your father is one. There is no virtue of the Arab over the non-Arab, nor the non-Arab over the Arab. And there is no merit of the White over the Black, nor the Black over the White except in piety. Then he quoted:[^31] > Surely Allah does not look to your forms nor your outward actions, but He looks to your hearts and your intentions. This is based upon the reality that Allah ﷻ is the only One who truly knows the inward states of persons; thus, no one can judge the actual piety of another to make the claim that they are more beloved to Allah ﷻ. Although there are Prophetic narrations that speak to the merits of the Arab clan of Quraysh, these reports do not mean that everyone from Quraysh is superior to those who are not from among them. Furthermore, the tribe of Quraysh does not denote a phenotypic racial identity group. For instance, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (may Allah ennoble his countenance), who was from Quraysh, was usually described as very dark (*adam shadīd al-udmah*),[^32] meaning he had the same skin color as most Abyssinians of his time. Yet his son al-Ḥasan (may Allah be pleased with him), who was equally a member of Quraysh, was light in skin tone and did not physically resemble his father.[^33] The commentaries of Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī and Shaykh Aḥmad Dem on these two verses in *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* indicate that Muslims must shun racism both within their individual selves and within their communities. The 11th verse commands desisting from rhetorical racism in four different ways. One who does not repent from such derogatory language takes on the attribute of Iblīs, the original non-repentant racist. The 13th verse elaborates upon the reality that humans have a single Creator and common ancestry through two parents, and that true honor is secured through humble servitude to Allah ﷻ, not through lineage or phenotypic traits. Both commentators suggest that Muslims, irrespective of ethnicity, should be given space in the community safe from derogatory mockery, should be allotted opportunities to serve based upon merit of character, and should be allowed to marry other Muslims without lineages and phenotypes being automatic disqualifiers. Racialized language mockery is disavowed due to its destructive consequences. For one, those who are subjected to derogatory racialized language can begin to view themselves as inferior, an issue which prompted Ibn al-Jawzī (may Allah have mercy upon him) to write the book *Tanwīr al-ghabash fī faḍl al-sudān wa al-ḥabash* (Illumination of Darkness Regarding the Merit of Blacks and Abyssinians) to help Muslims who were Black in curing their self-loathing. The use of racialized slurs by those with positional power can socially marginalize persons from economic opportunities, from access to safe educational environments, from the ability to marry. In the worst possible case, dehumanization of entire groups based upon racial and ethnic differences could lead to violence or ethnic cleansing as has unfortunately been the case in some societies in which Muslims now reside. Hence, the affirmative stance against the usage of racist language and mockery has real social implications. --- ## Conclusion Though written in Africa decades and centuries ago, these two commentaries offer valuable guidance to Muslims in the West. Effectively mitigating racial conflicts requires Western Muslim communities to take more aggressive steps than they have historically done. For starters, congregations  should consider inviting trained scholars and experts who don’t share their predominant racial background. The same should be the case in regional and national conferences on community development. These invitations, however, need to go beyond Black History Month programs and commemorations of the life of Malcolm X. They should not wait for such tragedies as the police homicides of Black folks like Eric Garner and George Floyd; they should not wait for when the Black community again pleads, “I can’t breathe.” The Prophet ﷺ appointing Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) as both the *muʾadhdhin* and the dispenser of charity even though other (Arab) companions could have done so reflected a commitment to including non-Arabs against a recent societal context of exclusion based upon origin. Just as the Prophet ﷺ fostered intercultural, intertribal, and interracial brotherhood by pairing together Medina’s natives and immigrants after the Prophet’s migration (*hijra*), so too must our communities institute programs that pair together youth across socio-economic and cultural divides. Experiential knowledge obtained through regular social interaction is the antidote for racial ignorance. As ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib stated, “people are adversaries of what they are ignorant of.”[^34] *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* should be regularly taught, perhaps even in annual seminars on managing racial and ethnic differences. These seminars must be organized in multiple countries and cities, with preference given to exegetes’ commentaries, as they offer in-depth and practical meditations on questions of tribalistic prejudice. The Qur’an is healing for all spiritual and social maladies, and our discourse on racism must be rooted in it rather than postmodern thought or secular critical theory. The goal, ultimately, is to foster a communal intolerance for derogatory name-calling based on phenotype and ethnicity. This was the example of the Prophet ﷺ, and it is an example that the *umma* must follow. May Allah ﷻ have mercy upon Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī and Shaykh Aḥmad Dem, and may He have us implement the lessons of these two verses. --- ## Notes [^1]: The Quraysh were among the Arabs who trace their lineage to ‘Adnān and back to Prophet Ishmael (Ismā’īl). [^2]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl* (Sokoto: Al-Hajj Muhammad Ali Agha, n.d.), 1:3. [^3]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl*, 1:4. [^4]: Abdullah Hakim Quick, *In the Heart of a West African Islamic Revival: Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio, (1774–1804)* (Cairo: Al-Falah Foundation, 2007), 43–46; Muhammad Shareef and Rudolph Ware, *Jihad of the Pen* (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2018), 28. [^5]: Zachary Wright, “The Kashif al-Ilbas of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse: Analysis of the Test,” *Islamic Africa* 1, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 109–123, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42656318?read-now=1&seq=6](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42656318?read-now%3D1%26seq%3D6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1692121265401884&usg=AOvVaw29yioMw-1JQSy6uTIMke1i). [^6]: Maḥmūd al-Alūsī was a nineteenth-century Iraqi scholar who was a descendent of the Prophet’s grandson al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī. He was a mufti who judged according to the Hanafī school of jurisprudence during the reign of the Ottoman empire. [^7]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-ta’wīl fī ma’ānī al-tanzīl*, 4:130. [^8]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), 17:122. [^9]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*. [^10]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-ta’wīl fī maʿnī al-tanzīl*, 4:130. [^11]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:122–123. [^12]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:122–123. [^13]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:124. [^14]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl*, 4:130; the hadith chain is graded authentic (*ṣahih*) in *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. [^15]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:129. [^16]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl*, 4:130. [^17]: The hadith chain is graded weak in *Musnad al-Bazzār*. [^18]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:127. [^19]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:128. [^20]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:128. [^21]: Ibn Fūdī, *Diyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl*, 4:132. [^22]: The hadith chain is graded weak in *Asbāb al-nuzūl* by al-Wāḥidī; the narration first appeared without a chain of narrators in the *tafsīr* of Muqātil b. Sulaymān. [^23]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:159. [^24]: The hadith chain is graded *ḥasan* in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*. [^25]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:159 [^26]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:159; the hadith chain is graded weak in *Mukhtaṣar itḥāf al-sādah al-maharah bi-zawa’īd al-masānīd al-’ashara* by al-Buṣrī. [^27]: Ibn Fūdī, *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl*, 4:132. [^28]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:160. [^29]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:160. [^30]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, 17:161; the hadith chain is graded authentic in *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*. [^31]: Dem, *Tafsīr ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirin*, 17:159; the hadith chain is graded authentic in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. [^32]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Ṣifat al-ṣafwah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1989), 1:169. [^33]: Al-Suyūṭī*, ‘Uqūd al-zabarjad ‘alā al-Imām Aḥmad* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1987), 1:94. [^34]: Al-Khuḍarī, *Itmām al-wafā fi sirat al-khulafā* (Beirut: al-Maktabah al-Thaqāfiyya, 1982), 130. ## Summary Among the chapters of the Qur'an, *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* stands as the most concise and comprehensive with respect to conflict resolution and management. One of the socio-political conflicts it addresses is the proactive prevention of racism, which is understood here as an extension of blameworthy tribalism (*ʿaṣabiyya*). As discussions of racism have grown more frequent in Western public discourse and among Muslims, it is fitting that any Muslim analysis of this challenge begin with the Qur'an and with those Muslim communities possessing the most wisdom regarding it. To this end, attention is directed to the 11th and 13th verses of *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* as explained in the commentaries of two West African exegetes, whose insights bear directly upon how Muslims should mitigate racism within their communities. It is worth recalling that this chapter was revealed in Medina, a society that was at once deeply tribal yet diverse in lineage and phenotype—comprising Arabs of varied tribes as well as non-Arabs of Jewish, Abyssinian, and Persian ancestries—a setting markedly different from the more homogenous Makkah ruled by the Quraysh. The two commentaries examined were first encountered during studies in West African scholarship in Mali and Senegal, including exegetical study under Shaykh Ali Sulaiman Ali of Ghana. No claim is made that these two works are superior to others or that they offer novel interpretations. Rather, their value lies in the position of their authors: surrounded, as we are today, by the dynamics of anti-Black racism, yet meeting that challenge as scholars free from the identity crises that afflict Muslims living as marginalized minorities. The first exegete is Shaykh Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī (1180AH/1766CE–1245AH/1829CE), may Allah have mercy upon him, of the Fulani people, whose family settled in Hausaland. His brother, Shaykh ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī, established the Sokoto caliphate, in which Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī served as a senior minister. The era's struggles included purifying Muslim belief from pre-Islamic animism and combating corrupt Muslim chiefs who enslaved fellow Muslims—among them over three hundred memorizers (*ḥuffāẓ*) of the Qur'an. A *ḥāfiẓ* of the Qur'an, a master of hadith with over 100,000 narrations memorized, and a chief Mālikī jurist, he authored numerous works, including his exegesis *Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl*, a second exegesis titled *Kifāya ḍuʿafāʾ al-sūdān* based upon the Warsh reading, and a versification (*naẓm*) of al-Suyūṭī's *Al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* titled *Sulālat al-tafsīr*. The second exegete is Shaykh Aḥmad Dem b. Muḥammad al-Amīn Dem, may Allah have mercy upon him, who died in 1973, also of Fulani origin, residing in Sokone, Senegal, and following the Mālikī *madhhab*. He was less prolific, perhaps for lacking the support of an Islamic government. He contended with two challenges: the influence of French colonial thought, spread through missionary-influenced public education under which up to five percent of the previously non-Christian population converted; and a theological dispute with Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse, may Allah have mercy upon him, whose exegesis *Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr* argued that Allah ﷻ could be seen in dreams—a view Shaykh Dem opposed as departing from the Ashʿarī creed then unanimously held in Senegal, though the two later reconciled while still disagreeing. His twenty-volume exegesis, *Ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn*, is more comprehensive than Ibn Fūdī's four-volume work, treating the occasions of revelation, the abrogating and abrogated, and the Warsh and Qālūn recitations transmitted from Nāfiʿ al-Madanī, and drawing frequently upon al-Alūsī's *Rūḥ al-Maʿānī*. On the 11th verse—"O you who believe, let not a *qawm* ridicule [another] *qawm*... nor let women ridicule [other] women... And do not insult one another nor call each other by [offensive] nicknames"—Shaykh Ibn Fūdī held that *qawm* here means specifically the men, since women are addressed separately. Shaykh Dem related three occasions of revelation. The first, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him), concerns Thābit b. Qays b. Shammās, who belittled a man by his mother's status in the manner of the pre-Islamic Era of Ignorance. The second, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerns Banū Tamīm mocking poor companions including ʿAmmār (a Black Arab), Ibn Fuhayra (an African), Bilāl the Abyssinian, Ṣuhayb the Roman, and Salmān and Salīm the Persians. The third concerns Muslims calling ʿIkrima b. Abī Jahl "the son of the Pharaoh of this Nation," which he complained of to the Messenger ﷺ. Shaykh Dem concluded that the companion of one who mocks shares in the sin by failing to speak against it. In all three cases the mockery concerned lineage, though the second was also tied to socio-economic status—a connection then as now. He further cited that a man told Luqmān (peace be upon him), an Abyssinian, "What an ugly face you have!" to which Luqmān replied, "You find fault with what has been engraved or created [by Allah]?!" Regarding the mockery of women, Shaykh Ibn Fūdī noted that some of the Prophet's Arab wives mocked Ṣafiyya (may Allah be pleased with her) by calling her "O Jew, daughter of a Jew." Shaykh Dem, citing the narration from al-Tirmidhī (may Allah have mercy upon him), related that the Prophet ﷺ consoled her: "Surely you are the daughter of a prophet, your uncle was a prophet, and you are under the guardianship of a Prophet, so how can one take pride over you?" Ibn Fūdī explained the prohibition as meaning, "Do not find fault with one another, for the believers are like one body." Shaykh Dem concurred, citing the glad tidings for one preoccupied with his own faults over those of others, and observing that no human is entirely free of faults—yet lineage and skin color are not faults, being the decree of Allah, Mighty and Sublime, and neither mistakes nor errors. He added that offensive naming includes belittling converts as "O Jew" or "O Christian," while praiseworthy nicknames remain permissible, as with ʿUmar being called al-Fārūq, ʿUthmān Dhū al-Nūrayn, and ʿAlī Abū Turāb. Finally, he warned that those refusing to repent walk the accursed path of Iblīs, who deemed himself better than Adam (peace be upon him), citing *Sūrat Hūd* (11:18): "Surely the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers." On the 13th verse—"O humankind, surely We created you from a single male and female, and We made you into different nations and tribes in order that you may know one another. Surely the most honorable of you with Allah are those of you who are most pious"—Shaykh Ibn Fūdī explained that all are created from Adam and Eve, equal in origin, so there is no pride to be sought in lineage. Shaykh Dem noted differing reports on its occasion. Ibn ʿAbbās held it was revealed at the Conquest of Makkah when Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) called the *adhān* atop the Kaʿbah and someone sneered, "Could Muhammad find no caller other than this Black crow?" Another report ties it to the tribe of Banī Bayāḍa refusing to marry a woman to Abū Hind (may Allah be pleased with him), an ex-slave. In a further account, when Thābit b. Qays refused a man a seat over his lineage, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Surely you have no merit over them except in piety (*taqwā*)." Shaykh Dem affirmed that one may know lineages without seeking pride through them; honor lies solely in piety, meaning praiseworthy elevation above disbelief through leaving *shirk* and adhering to Islam. The most noble before Allah is the most pious, "even if a Black Abyssinian slave like Bilāl." He cited the Prophet's words, "I am the master of the Children of Adam but I have no pride," understanding his honor to lie in servitude—hence "I witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger" places servanthood before messengership. He further cited the narration, "There is no virtue of the Arab over the non-Arab... nor the White over the Black... except in piety," and, "Surely Allah does not look to your forms nor your outward actions, but He looks to your hearts and your intentions." Since Allah ﷻ alone knows the inward, none may claim another is more beloved to Him. Narrations praising Quraysh do not render every Qurashī superior, nor is Quraysh a phenotypic group: ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his countenance) was described as very dark (*adam shadīd al-udmah*), while his son al-Ḥasan (may Allah be pleased with him) was light—both of Quraysh. Taken together, these commentaries indicate that Muslims must shun racism within themselves and their communities. The 11th verse forbids rhetorical racism in four ways, and the unrepentant assumes the attribute of Iblīs, the original unrepentant one. The 13th verse establishes a single Creator and common ancestry, with true honor in humble servitude rather than lineage or phenotype. Both scholars imply that Muslims of every ethnicity deserve a space safe from mockery, opportunity based on merit of character, and freedom to marry without lineage or phenotype as automatic disqualifiers. Racialized mockery is disavowed for its destructive consequences: it can breed self-loathing—an affliction that moved Ibn al-Jawzī (may Allah have mercy upon him) to write *Tanwīr al-ghabash fī faḍl al-sūdān wa al-ḥabash*—and, wielded by the powerful, can marginalize people from livelihood, education, and marriage, and at worst lead to violence or ethnic cleansing. Though composed in Africa long ago, these commentaries offer guidance to Muslims in the West, who must act more decisively against racial conflict: inviting trained scholars of differing backgrounds beyond Black History Month or the commemoration of Malcolm X, and not awaiting tragedies such as the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd. Just as the Prophet ﷺ appointed Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) as both *muʾadhdhin* and dispenser of charity, and paired the natives of Medina with the immigrants after the *hijra*, so too must communities pair youth across divides, since experiential knowledge is the antidote to racial ignorance—as ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib said, "People are adversaries of what they are ignorant of." *Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt* should be taught regularly, even in annual seminars across cities and countries, with preference given to the exegetes' commentaries, for the Qur'an is healing for every spiritual and social malady, and our discourse on racism must be rooted in it rather than in postmodern or secular critical theory. The aim is a communal intolerance for derogatory name-calling based on phenotype and ethnicity, following the example of the Prophet ﷺ. May Allah ﷻ have mercy upon Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī and Shaykh Aḥmad Dem, and grant us the implementation of the lessons of these two verses. ## Key Takeaways 1. Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt is the most concise and comprehensive chapter of the Qur’an on conflict resolution, and it directly addresses racism as an extension of blameworthy tribalism (*ʿaṣabiyya*). Revealed in Medina, a society far more diverse in lineage and physical appearance than Mecca, the chapter speaks to the reality of a multicultural Muslim community navigating tribal tensions and prejudice. 2. Verse 11 prohibits mockery, insults, and offensive nicknames, with the West African exegetes noting that even those who stand by while others mock are complicit in the sin. The verse was revealed in response to specific incidents involving racial and ethnic ridicule, targeting companions of African, Abyssinian, Roman, and Persian origin as well as those of Jewish ancestry. Refusing to repent from such mockery places a person on the same path as Iblīs, who fancied himself better than Adam and refused to acknowledge his wrong. 3. Verse 13 grounds the Islamic stance against racism in the shared origin of all humanity from a single father and mother, with diversity of nations and tribes intended for mutual recognition rather than hierarchy. True honor before Allah lies in *taqwā*, not lineage or ancestry, as the Prophet ﷺ affirmed when he told a companion that the only merit over others is in piety. Western Muslim communities must move beyond symbolic gestures and confront racism at both the interpersonal and institutional levels through inclusive leadership, intercultural programs, structural reforms within community spaces, and a sustained engagement with the Qur’an as the primary source for addressing prejudice and division. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does the Qur’an say about racism? The Qur’an addresses racism directly and treats it as an extension of blameworthy tribalism. Two verses of Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt in particular form the spine of the Islamic response. Verse 11 forbids mocking or ridiculing others, insulting them, or calling them by offensive nicknames, warning that those who do not repent are wrongdoers. Verse 13 grounds the equality of all human beings in their common origin: Allah created all of humanity from a single male and female, made them into nations and tribes so they would come to know one another, and declared that the most honorable in His sight is the most pious. Together these verses dismantle any claim that race, ethnicity, lineage, or phenotype confer superiority. The Prophet ﷺ reinforced this when he said there is no virtue of the Arab over the non-Arab, nor the non-Arab over the Arab, nor the white over the black, nor the black over the white, except in piety. Skin color and lineage are decreed by Allah and cannot be sources of pride or grounds for contempt. ### Is making fun of someone’s ethnicity, accent, or skin color really a sin in Islam? Yes, and the early Muslim community itself was warned against exactly this. The eleventh verse of Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt was revealed in response to multiple incidents of mockery. In one, some Muslims mocked poor companions for their backgrounds, including ʿAmmar ibn Yāsir, a Black Arab and one of the earliest believers; Bilāl, the Abyssinian companion known as the first muezzin in Islam; Suhayb, who was Roman; and Salmān, who was Persian. In another, a convert was insulted with the phrase “O Jew, the daughter of a Jew.” This was directed at Ṣafiyya, the Prophet’s wife, who came to him in tears. He ﷺ comforted her by reminding her that she was the daughter of a prophet, the niece of a prophet, and the wife of a prophet, and asked how anyone could claim superiority over her. The Qur’an’s response to these incidents was unambiguous: Do not ridicule one another, perhaps they may be better than you. Faults relate to a person’s choices, not to lineage or skin color, which are gifts from Allah. To mock those gifts is to find fault with what the Creator Himself has fashioned. ### Is racism a problem in Muslim communities? It is, and pretending otherwise contradicts both the Qur’an’s own framing and the lived reality of many Muslims. Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt was not revealed to a society that had already overcome tribal prejudice. It was revealed in Medina, a community of Arabs from diverse tribes alongside Muslims of Jewish, Abyssinian, and Persian ancestry, precisely because mockery based on lineage and ethnicity was happening among the believers themselves. The Qur’an does not address racism as a problem of outsiders; it addresses it as a problem inside the early Muslim community. That pattern continues today. Muslims who are subjected to derogatory racialized language by other Muslims can internalize a sense of inferiority, a harm serious enough that the classical scholar Ibn al-Jawzī wrote an entire book to help Black Muslims overcome the self-loathing that such mockery produced. Racial slurs from those with social or institutional power can marginalize people from economic opportunities, safe educational spaces, and marriage prospects. In the most severe cases throughout history, dehumanization based on race or ethnicity has escalated into violence and ethnic cleansing. The Qur’an’s stance is not abstract idealism. It is a direct response to a real and recurring problem that Muslim communities must confront honestly. ### What can Muslim communities do practically to address racism? Lessons drawn from these verses point to several concrete steps. Communities should invite trained scholars and experts who do not share the predominant racial background of the congregation, and these invitations should not be confined to occasional observances or sparked only by tragedy. Just as the Prophet ﷺ paired the Meccan migrants with the Medinan helpers in brotherhood after the hijra to build bonds across origin, communities today should create programs that pair youth across racial, cultural, and socioeconomic divides. Roles in the community, from giving the call to prayer to dispensing charity to leading initiatives, should be allotted based on merit of character rather than ethnic familiarity. Marriages between Muslims should not treat lineage or phenotype as automatic disqualifiers. Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt itself should be regularly taught, with deeper exegetical engagement, in seminars on managing racial and ethnic differences. The discourse on racism within Muslim communities should be rooted in the Qur’an and Sunna rather than imported wholesale from secular frameworks. The goal is to cultivate a communal intolerance for derogatory language and racialized contempt, which was the Prophetic standard. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/parenting-style-and-our-relationship-with-god-the-influence-of-parental-love-on-our-perception-of-god # Parenting Style and Our Relationship With God: The Influence of Parental Love on Our Perception of God **Authors:** Dr. Osman Umarji, Dr. Hassan Elwan **Topics:** Data, Family & Community, Parenting, Reports **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication, Trending Papers **Published:** June 20, 2023 **Updated:** April 2, 2026 ## Introduction One of the most foundational Islamic beliefs is the acknowledgment of Allah’s sovereignty. Sovereignty refers to Allah’s absolute ownership, power, and supreme authority over the universe. Allah refers to Himself as ‘the Owner of Sovereignty’[^1] (*Mālik al-mulk*), and *Sūrat al-Mulk* begins with the proclamation, “Blessed is He in whose hand is all sovereignty.”[^2] “Indeed, your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the throne. He covers the night with the day, which is in haste to follow it; and the sun, the moon, and the stars are subservient to His command. **Unquestionably, to Him belongs the creation and the command**; blessed is Allah, Lord of the worlds.”[^3] As the absolutely sovereign, Allah creates what He wills and commands as He desires. Thus, His sovereignty includes universal decrees (*awāmir kawniyya*) and legal commands (*awāmir sharʿīyya*). Universal decrees refer to Allah simply saying “Be” to bring something into existence, whether an object or an event. We generally have no choice regarding the occurrence of His universal decrees. Allah’s legal commands, meanwhile, inform us of what to engage in and what to refrain from. We have been given the volition to obey or disobey these legal commands. Allah’s sovereignty to create and command is not intellectually difficult for people to understand, but it can be psychospiritually difficult for them to accept. Just as people object to trying turns in life, from the loss of a job to a decline in health, so too do people sometimes object to God’s legal commands—such as inheritance laws or the prohibition of interest—and refuse to follow them unless they understand their underlying wisdom. Why do some people accept Allah’s sovereignty intellectually, but not spiritually?  Why do they struggle to surrender to His decrees and commands? This spiritual struggle, which we refer to as submission reluctance, manifests in such responses to hardship as “Why did God do this to me? I don’t deserve this,” or, “Why did God allow that evil thing to happen?”[^4] Although asking ‘why’ out of a desire to better appreciate the situation is understandable; what we are referring to here are questions rooted in anger or resentment. The angels asked Allah why He would create humanity, but they asked out of curiosity, not hostility. We believe that at the core of submission reluctance is a distortion in people’s perceptions of Allah. A distorted image of God fosters misunderstandings of the intent behind His commands and decrees, and subsequently rebellion. In this paper, our aim is to unpack how divergent understandings of God develop and, in turn, impact our worship, surrender to Him, and religious doubts. --- ## Submission to God and submission reluctance The concept of submission (*taslīm)* is tied to our [image of God](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/belief-in-divine-love-discovering-spiritual-attachment-styles) and recognition of His sovereignty. Submission is not only the heart of Islam, it is the way of the entire universe. Allah informs us that every creation in the universe submits to Him, “So is it other than the religion of Allah they desire, while to Him have submitted \[all\] those within the heavens and earth, willingly or by compulsion, and to Him they will be returned?”[^5] Ibn al-Qayyim explicitly ties trust in God to our image of Him, as he states, “The key to trust (*tawakkul*) is having good assumptions of Allah. A person’s trust in God is commensurate with their good assumptions of Him and hope in Him.”[^6] The person who trusts God is able to submit to His will, and true submission implies complete acceptance of His legal commands and universal decrees.[^7] The Prophet ﷺ demonstrated how acceptance of universal decrees is tied to our faith when he said, “Everything has a reality, and the servant will not reach the reality of faith until he knows that what afflicted him could never miss him, and that what missed him could never have afflicted him.”[^8] The Qur’an elaborated on the connection between submission to commands and faith when Allah said, “But no, by your Lord, they will not \[truly\] believe until they make you, \[O Muhammad\], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves. Then, they will not find within themselves any discomfort from what you have judged and they will submit in complete submission.”[^9] This verse delineates the elements of submission that comprise complete faith, including (1) seeking out Islamic guidance on any disputed or unknown matter, (2) finding no discomfort in one’s heart upon learning what Allah has commanded, and accepting the guidance without complaint.[^10] Similarly, submission to His universal decrees involves satisfaction, acceptance, and contentment with whatever events Allah has not ordered us to fight against (e.g., injustice), especially those events that we have no power over, such as the tribulations of life that are unavoidable (e.g, losing a loved one, sickness). Ibn al-Qayyim concludes that a state of contentment and satisfaction (*riḍā*) is the fruit of trusting Allah and submitting to Him, all of which is built upon a healthy image of Him.[^11] The fruits of submission are as sweet as the fruits of submission reluctance are bitter. Submission reluctance to both decrees and commands is a major contributing factor to psychospiritual pathologies, including anxiety and depression. Behavioral therapies acknowledge this and have recently included acceptance as a major component in the treatment of mental illness. For example, dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT) includes radical acceptance as an essential skill to enhance distress tolerance, stating “Acceptance and surrender is the only way out of Hell in this life.”[^12] (We would add that surrender is also essential to escaping Hell in the afterlife). Acceptance is what differentiates the experience of pain as a path to growth (i.e., post-pain growth) rather than a path to suffering due to objection (i.e., post-pain withering or stagnation). Although it may not be difficult for people to intellectually appreciate the necessity of acceptance of God’s decrees and commands, it is easier said than done. People may experience submission reluctance when they don’t understand the intent behind God’s decrees or if they fundamentally misunderstand who God is. --- ## Cosmic cop God image People will struggle to love God, submit to His commands, and surrender to His decree if they internalize a distorted image of Him. Based on our empirical research and counseling sessions with community members, we find evidence that distortions in specific attributes of Allah lead to specific pathologies. For example, a perception of God as unforgiving is associated with elevated levels of anxiety and depression.[^13] Unfortunately, this conception of God as cosmic cop is widespread. The cop-like image of God is often perpetuated in popular culture.[^14] God the cosmic cop is cold, distant, and only concerned with strict adherence to His commands. He is a stringent lawmaker and callous enforcer less interested in our success than in our minute infractions of divine rules. We hypothesize that this false image of God develops due to an overemphasis on God’s role as rule-maker (*al-Ḥakam*) coupled with neglect of His care, nearness, and love. While not an inherently malignant figure, the cop is more likely to be associated with fear and punishment than love and compassion. Thus, people who develop a cop-like image of God might fearfully wonder what wire they’ll trip next, what wrath they will accidentally incur. They are likely to look at religion and scripture as a list of “dos and don’ts,” blind to the majesty of God’s message and estranged from a deeply intimate relationship with Him. They may perceive God’s laws as barriers to a more pleasurable life. Thus, the relationship a person has with God when they perceive Him primarily as a “cop” may be one of distance, resentment, objection, and excessive fear. --- ## The active ingredient of worship: Love of God The human being was created to worship Allah.[^15] Nonetheless, many people question why Allah asks us to worship Him.[^16] Unfortunately, this question often results from confusing the concept of “worship” with ritual obedience. However, worship cannot be confined to ritual. It was beautifully defined by Ibn Taymiyya as the ultimate fusion of love and humble submission to Allah.[^17] He states that a loving relationship with Allah cannot occur without properly understanding Him and cultivating appropriate feelings for Him. Ibn al-Qayyim, his illustrious student, further elaborates that complete servitude (*ʿubūdiyya*) is a byproduct of complete love, and complete love is a byproduct of the beloved’s perceived perfection.[^18] **He added that love makes servitude delightful, lightens the weight of afflictions, and frees the mind from the enslavement of ruminating thoughts.**[^19] Thus, perceiving God’s perfection facilitates loving Him, and loving Him facilitates our voluntary submission to His universal and legal commands. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ reinforced the notion that love and its opposite, hatred, are the elements necessary not only for making submission easier, but also for making it delightful and sweet. He ﷺ said, “Whoever has three within himself will find the sweetness of faith: one who loves Allah and His Messenger more than anything else, one who loves a servant only for the sake of Allah, and one who hates to turn back to disbelief after Allah has saved him, just as he hates to be thrown into the fire.”[^20] As Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy beautifully said, “*ʿIbāda* (worship) represents a declaration of love for God, for ‘worshiping’ God without loving Him first is not *ʿibāda*, and the more one ascends the staircase of love, the more comfortable they become in the gardens of servitude.”[^21] One may imagine submission as a staircase (see Figure 1), whereby each step leads to a deeper manifestation of ʿ*ibāda.* The first steps include compliance with the obligatory and recommended behaviors, followed by finding these behaviors easier and less burdensome, and culminating in the experience of sweetness and joy in worship. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-1.-The-Staircase-of-Submission.png) We can illustrate how love makes obligations easier and enjoyable through the relationship between a mother and her child. Despite a mother having many obligations towards her child, such as waking up at night, feeding, changing, bathing, and so much more over time, a mother who loves her child deeply will be able to handle these obligations much easier than a mother who does not, and even with a sense of satisfaction. Even though she may be tired and exhausted, she sees her child as an immense blessing and her love fuels her commitment to meeting the child’s demands. It is only because of her intense love that the demands of motherhood are not only bearable but sometimes delightful. However, a mother might struggle much more to fulfill these same demands for someone else’s child. Thus, we can see that love is the difference between satisfaction and frustration in carrying out and accepting divine decrees and commands. --- ## The Loving Caretaker God image There exists an alternative to the cosmic cop God image, captured by Allah’s name *al-Walī* (The Loving Caretaker). This name encompasses many other Divine names and attributes, including *al-Qarīb* (The Intimately Close), *al-Wadūd* (The Loving), *al-Raḥīm* (The Compassionate), *al-Wakīl* (The Trustworthy), and *al-Muʿīn* (The Supporting and Helpful). Thus, the attributes of Allah subsumed under *al-Walī* combine acknowledgment of His sovereignty with His love, care, support, and the wisdom in what He decrees and commands. *Al-Walī* sets regulations out of His care and love for us, and imposes rules that facilitate human flourishing. Additionally, He provides help to those trying to obey Him and is Patient and Forgiving with mistakes. ***Al-Walī* is the Intimately Close who supports you and the Beloved who cares for and protects you.** Allah refers to Himself as the *Walī* of the believers multiple times in the Qur’an.[^22] The Loving Caretaker (*al-Walī*) image of Allah facilitates trust in Him, as one realizes that Allah only advises and commands us towards beneficial behaviors. Thus, people who develop an image of God as The Loving Caretaker (*al-Walī*) will not look at Islam as merely a list of “dos and don’ts.” Rather, they will enthusiastically seek out His guidance because they know the secret to happiness is found in following His commands and accepting His decree. Thus, their relationship with God is one of nearness, trust, submission, and love. Furthermore, they understand that although His legal and universal decrees are ultimately rooted in care for the believers, He is Absolutely Powerful and can hold people accountable. Thus, they possess a reverence for His attributes of strength and might, along with the understanding that He loves and supports the believers throughout the journey of life. “That is because Allah is the protector of those who have believed and because the disbelievers have no protector.”[^23] --- ## The loving wisdom behind Divine commands In a profound *ḥadīth* *qudsī*, Allah explains the connection between His commands and His love. The Prophet ﷺ narrates that Allah said, “Whosoever shows enmity to a *walī* (intimate friend) of Mine, then I have declared war against him. My servant does not draw closer to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the religious obligations I have enjoined upon him. My servant then continues to draw nearer to Me with supererogatory actions until I love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask \[something\] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant it to him…”[^24] This *ḥadīth* *qudsī* establishes that Allah commands us to perform the behaviors that bring us nearest to Him to maximize the love between the Creator and His creation. In other words, Allah desires proximity with His creation, and He helps us achieve this proximity. As our Creator, He knows what actions enhance our emotional bond with Him and it is those very actions that He makes obligatory. Once a reciprocal loving bond is established, we see the world as God wants us to see it, we hear as God wants us to hear, and even our limbs move as God wants them to move. Thus, the fruits of true worship free us from estrangement from our Creator to intimacy with Him. Reflecting on this *ḥadīth* from another perspective, Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh commented that Allah knew that people, when left to their own devices, would not seriously seek the path of Divine love and intimacy (*wilāya*). Therefore, He made the actions that lead to Divine love and intimacy obligatory upon them, which ultimately leads them to paradise. Thus, by imposing these obligations upon us, He is in reality making entrance to paradise an obligation!”[^25] In another profound reflection, Ibn Taymiyya said, “I long contemplated what the most beneficial supplication might be and came to the conclusion that it is to ask for divine aid in fulfilling our obligation to worship Him. Then, I came to the realization that it was already in *Sūrat al-Fātiḥa* when Allah said, ‘And You alone we worship and You alone we ask for support.’”[^26] Thus, whether we realize it or not, out of His profound love, Allah made the most important thing to pray for an obligation on us at least seventeen times a day! To illustrate this concept, imagine if a loving father told his children that he would grant them whatever they wished for. A young child might ask for the greatest toy or the biggest home, whereas a wiser child may realize that they don’t actually know the best thing to ask for. After contemplating the matter further, the wise child says, “Dad, I am just a kid and don’t really know the best thing to ask for. However, I do know that you love and care for me deeply and are always looking out for my best interest. Therefore, the best thing I can ask for is your help in doing the things that you know are best for me, even when I don’t fully understand why.” The image of Allah as *al-Walī* necessitates that His legal commands and universal decrees are rooted in our best interests, even when we may find them difficult to follow or hard to understand. Allah tells us in *Sūrat* *al-Baqarah*, “Fighting has been ordained for you although it is disliked to you; and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not.”[^27] To understand Allah as our *al-Walī* is to understand that He aids us in accordance with the infinitely wise perspective of the Divine and not from the limited perception of the human. Therefore, the presence of Allah’s care is not synonymous with the fulfillment of our wants. Indeed, His aid and care will often manifest in worldly pain and loss. For example, the People of the Ditch mentioned in *Surat al-Burūj* were all killed by a tyrant ruler despite their unshakeable belief in Allah. Although people might see this as a great loss rather than success, Allah declared their martyrdom and entrance to Paradise as the great victory.[^28] **Thus, His aid and support is not understood as making us outwardly victorious over our enemies, but rather making no enemy able to overpower our will to worship Allah**. It has been beautifully said that sailing with Allah does not mean that we don’t encounter any waves, but that we sail in a ship that no wave can sink. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Sailing-with-Allah-quote.png) --- ## Developing a God image Despite Allah repeatedly telling us in the Qur’an that He is our *Walī*, people sometimes fail to internalize His love, nearness, care, and support for us. Sadly, many people internalize the opposite God image of a distant cop-like deity who does not help us. How do people develop such differing God images? Throughout our lives, we develop a perception of God based on information we are explicitly taught and through our own experiences. Simply telling someone that Allah is loving is not enough to internalize a proper God image. Rather, they have to actually experience love, care, and support through human relationships to best attribute such experiences to Allah. This is what we refer to in our [prior paper](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness) as an affective experiential perception of Allah, which is influenced by our relationship with our parents and others. Parent-child interactions in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood collectively influence the development of our God image. We have previously written about parental attachments as foundational in shaping our relationship with Allah. We want to build on our prior work by focusing on specific methods of parenting that we believe are related to how children grow up to perceive God as either a loving Creator to run towards or as a punishing power to flee from. Ultimately, a believer must internalize both hope for His forgiveness and fear of His punishment. Therefore, a healthy God image leads the believer to run towards God out of both love and fear—as the Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no refuge nor escape from You except to You.”[^29] However, the person with a healthy God image of Allah recognizes the divine balance of attributes, as Allah said, “Indeed, My mercy prevails over My wrath.”[^30] --- ## Parenting styles Every parent develops an approach to raising their children based on their beliefs and life experiences. This approach to parenting is referred to as a parenting style. A parenting style can be defined as a constellation of attitudes that are communicated to the child that, taken together, create an emotional climate in which the parent’s behaviors are expressed.[^31] Research on parenting has identified two central dimensions that constitute a parenting style: the (1) responsiveness and (2) demandingness of a parent towards their child.[^32] Responsiveness refers to the degree to which parents foster self-confidence and independence by being supportive, accepting, and attuned to their children’s needs and preferences. Responsiveness includes showing warmth, being appropriately supportive of their autonomy, and engaging in reasoned bi-directional communication when appropriate.[^33] Demandingness refers to the claims parents make on the child to become integrated into the family and society by their expectations, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys.[^34] Demandingness includes parental monitoring, rules, consequences, and methods of controlling the child’s behavior. To summarize, responsiveness refers to the dimension of parenting concerned with recognizing the child’s sense of self and independence, whereas demandingness is concerned with the willingness to act as a socializing agent.[^35] Based on the two dimensions of responsiveness and demandingness, researchers have identified four common styles of parenting.[^36] If we place responsiveness on the vertical axis and demandingness on the horizontal axis, we can visualize (see Figure 2) four parenting styles: 1. Authoritative parenting (top right) 2. Authoritarian parenting (bottom right) 3. Permissive parenting (top left) 4. Neglectful parenting (bottom left) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image6.png) A neglectful parenting style is low in responsiveness and low in demandingness. This parenting style reflects a general lack of warmth, supportiveness, and attempts to regulate or control a child’s behavior. Neglectful parents do not make time for their children and are generally disinterested in their children’s lives. Neglectful parenting is related to many maladaptive outcomes in children’s lives. A permissive parenting style is high in responsiveness and low in demandingness.  This parenting style reflects a high level of warmth and supportiveness, but does not include parental expectations of particular behavior or proper conduct. Permissive parents often desire to be their child’s best friend and want their child to see them as cool. Permissive parenting is also related to many maladaptive behaviors in children and adolescents. An authoritarian parenting style is low in responsiveness and high in demandingness. This parenting style reflects low levels of emotional support and autonomy, but high levels of control. Authoritarian parents typically demand that their children obey them without reasoned explanation and attempt to control their children’s behavior by resorting to punishment and psychological manipulation of their children’s emotions (e.g., withholding affection to punish the child). An authoritative parenting style is high in responsiveness and high in demandingness. This parenting style reflects high levels of emotional support and autonomy accompanied by high expectations. Authoritative parents typically show plenty of love and create an emotional climate where kids can express their thoughts and concerns about parental expectations. Authoritative parents engage in reasoned explanation when appropriate and attempt to regulate their children’s behavior by setting clear behavioral guidelines. Baumrind, describing the authoritative parent, says, “She encourages verbal give and take, and shares with the child the reasoning behind her policy. She values both expressive and instrumental attributes, both autonomous self-will and disciplined conformity. Therefore, she exerts firm control at points of parent-child divergence, but does not hem the child in with restrictions. She recognizes her own special rights as an adult, but also the child’s individual interests and special ways. The authoritative parent affirms the child’s present qualities, but also sets standards for future conduct. She uses reason as well as power to achieve her objectives. She does not base her decisions on group consensus or the individual child’s desires; but also does not regard herself as infallible or divinely inspired.”[^37] Parenting styles play an important role in child development. Children with authoritative parents typically have the most favorable academic and psychological outcomes, such as positive self-esteem, self-reliance, and high academic achievement. Children with neglectful parents have the least favorable developmental outcomes, such as low self-esteem, poor self-regulation, poor mental health, and poor academic performance.[^38]Children of permissive households don’t do well academically and engage in maladaptive behaviors, such as drug use, alcohol use, and school misconduct. They have also been found to be more dependent on others, irresponsible, and selfish.[^39] Finally, children of authoritarian households generally do well academically, follow the rules, and are obedient to adults. However, their conformity and obedience appear to have come at a heavy price to their sense of self. They lack self-confidence and have higher rates of depression than their peers from authoritative homes.[^40] Through being “overpowered into obedience” they appear to have lost the ability to see themselves as autonomous and efficacious young people.[^41] Although the aforementioned outcomes are important, our fundamental concern as believers is to raise children who worship Allah and have a strong attachment to Him and His religion. Research on non-Muslim samples suggests that parents’ God image influences their parenting and their children’s God image. Parents with a loving God image are more likely to raise children who perceive God as loving, whereas parents who imagine God as distant are more likely to have children who think the same of God.[^42] In a comprehensive study of five- and six-year-olds, mothers who imagined God as distant and strict resorted to stricter parenting and reported less affection, acceptance, and playful interactions with their children, which in turn predicted children’s images of a punishing God. Mothers who imagined God as loving gave their children more autonomy, and had children who also imagined God as loving.[^43] In this study, we examined how parenting styles amongst Muslim parents predicts children’s God image, submission to God, and religious doubt. --- ## Parental socialization The goal of parenting is to instill the proper beliefs, values, and behaviors in the hearts of our children so that they ultimately internalize these beliefs and behaviors as their own. We are not successful as parents if our children only do what they are requested under the threat of punishment or constant surveillance. Amongst the goals of parents is to socialize their children to conform to the necessary demands of others while maintaining a sense of personal integrity.[^44] From a religious perspective, the demands of others include adherence to the demands of Allah first, followed by \[reasonable\] demands of parents.[^45] How do parents get their children to conform to religious and parental demands? Permissive and neglectful parents are not very interested in compliance and obedience, so they generally ignore the child’s lack of adherence to commands or they make excuses for the child and absolve the child of any responsibility to follow rules. On the other hand, both authoritarian and authoritative parents desire adherence to demands. Therefore, for the remainder of this paper, we focus on the two pathways that parents may follow that lead to drastically different results: the authoritarian and authoritative ways of instilling obedience in children. Authoritarian parents treat the parenting process as unidirectional. They consider themselves the ultimate authority and believe that rules are not meant to be questioned. They do not think about getting their children to buy into their rules, as observable compliance is the main concern. Therefore, the need to motivate them through a loving and supportive environment is not deemed necessary, as they believe that children should be motivated to comply through deference to parental authority. They believe that their love is expressed through their firmness and continuous monitoring of their children’s behavior. When children ask for justification for rules or explanations for behavioral demands, authoritarian parents typically believe it is unnecessary to elaborate in any way. Through their harshness, authoritarian parents may unknowingly increase their children’s resistance to parental advice, and this resistance might attenuate the otherwise beneficial effects of their involvement. Authoritative parents, on the other hand, understand that the parenting process is bi-directional and dynamic. Children are not passively waiting to fulfill parental demands, as they have their own desires and thoughts about how to spend their time. The authoritative parent knows that they need to get their growing child to internalize the values and behaviors they are promoting. Therefore, through creating an emotional climate that is warm, supportive, and connected, they more effectively transmit beliefs and behaviors to their child, as the child becomes more open to being socialized in such a loving climate. Authoritativeness increases the effectiveness of parenting by altering the child’s receptiveness that, in turn, strengthens the parents’ ability to act as socialization agents.[^46] For example, if a child has an intimate relationship with the parent, they will be more inclined to make their parents proud by adhering to a behavior known to be important to them. Additionally, authoritative parents sufficiently respond to their children’s questions about rules and requirements by explaining why certain rules exist and why certain behaviors are required. When parents sufficiently articulate the intent behind their demands, children are more likely to internalize these rules and behaviors as their own. --- ## Trusting parental and Divine authority Research on parenting styles does not provide guidance on how often parents should articulate to their children the purpose behind their demands. Rather than have a long conversation every time a child asks why they must do something, we believe that parents should only **sufficiently respond** to the extent that children learn to trust their judgment. In other words, parents should be judicious in considering under what circumstances they explain their reasoning. We find this to be in line with how Allah communicates His commands to us. Although there are numerous examples where Allah explains to us the wisdom and purpose behind our actions,[^47] there are other times He doesn’t explain. For example, when Allah informed the angels that He would create humanity on earth, they asked why. Rather than give a response, He simply said, “Indeed, I know that which you do not know.”[^48] As part of our submission to Allah, there are many ritual aspects that we cannot fully rationalize (*ta’abbudi* actions) and that Allah chose not to explain to us. These ritual obligations, such as the number of units in a particular prayer or the number of stones to throw at the *jamarāt* (stone pillars/walls) in Hajj, require submission regardless of whether we fully appreciate the wisdom behind them or not. Thus, parents should be mindful of not overindulging a child’s requests for explanation, as it may well be a part of properly preparing the child to submit to the demands of Allah once a proper God image has been established. Both authoritarian and authoritative Muslim parents are well-intentioned and hope to raise their children to be righteous and competent human beings. That is why both have high expectations of their children and set demands for their conduct. However, they have different ways of expressing their demandingness and responding to their children’s needs. For example, they both want to teach their children that Allah is *al-Ḥakam*, the Lawgiver. However, they resort to different techniques to communicate God’s authority. Authoritarian parents may rely more on extrinsic motivators, such as fear and punishment, as deterrents to disobedience. In contrast, authoritative parents will likely rely more on building intrinsic motivation, encouraging their children by invoking God’s pleasure and appreciation of their efforts. Thus, authoritarian parents may unknowingly transmit to their children an image of God as cosmic cop, whereas the authoritative parent may transmit an image of God as loving and protective lawgiver. It may be these differences in parenting that lead to drastic differences in their children’s God image, and subsequently their submission to Him and experiences of religious doubt (or lack thereof). Let us demonstrate with an example. Imagine that a parent expects their teenager to pray *Maghrib* and complete their homework before going out with their friends. The parent wants to teach their children to prioritize tasks. If the teen fails to pray and complete the assigned tasks, the parent can deal with the situation in an authoritarian or authoritative manner. An authoritarian parent might yell at their teen, ridicule them for being irresponsible, shame them for being disobedient, and ultimately prohibit them from further outings with friends. The authoritative parent, meanwhile, may issue the same consequences, but will do so calmly, maybe even taking a moment to explain their reasoning while also permitting their child to respond with their own thoughts on the matter. The authoritative parent may also empathize with the child and explain the importance of prayer and completing our tasks. By clearly expressing their sadness at prohibiting their child from enjoying an outing with friends but insisting on the necessity of following the rules, the authoritative parent maintains a loving emotional climate even while insisting on consequences for negative behaviors. Though the consequences in both situations appear identical, the delivery makes the difference. The authoritarian parent transmits additional psychological pain to the child, encouraging a sense of shame and worthlessness. The authoritative parent transmits the opposite: the child is able to identify that their conduct was wrong but does not internalize a diminished sense of self. Additionally, the child recognizes that the consequences bring their parents no pleasure whatsoever but are nonetheless necessary to maintain accountability. The child thus feels the loving warmth of their parents even when they are losing a source of pleasure. Thus, there are two primary differences between the authoritarian parent and authoritative parent.[^49] First, the authoritarian parent resorts to using psychological tactics, such as shaming or withholding love, as part of their expression of demandingness to control their child’s behavior. Second, the authoritarian parent does not cushion their demandingness with a warm and emotionally supportive environment. This tends to create a climate of fear, resentment, and alienation. The child does not interpret parental demands as expressions of love, which may facilitate feelings of resentment towards those demands. We depict the differences in parental control in Figure 3 below. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-3.-The-Sweet-Spot-Between-Too-Little-Too-Much-Control.png) --- ## Empirical study We have presented a theory of parenting that we believe predicts children’s God image and later religious outcomes. In order to test this theory, we surveyed 701 Muslims in Canada across various ethnicities and age groups.[^50] Approximately 55% of the sample (*n*\=384) had children and 45% did not (*n*\=317). Parents were asked about their own perceptions of being authoritative or authoritarian, and adolescents and young adults without children were asked about their perceptions of their parents’ authoritativeness or authoritarianism. The primary questions we addressed were the following: 1. Are submission reluctance and religious doubt associated with cop-like and *al-Walī* images of God? 2. Does parental God image predict authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles? Does parenting style, in turn, predict how parents speak to their children about God? 3. Do adolescent and young adult perceptions of authoritarian and authoritative parenting predict their overall God image? 4. Do adolescent and young adult perceptions of authoritarian parenting predict their image of a cop-like God? How do these parenting perceptions and God image, in turn, predict their religious doubts and submission reluctance? 5. Do adolescent and young adult perceptions of authoritative parenting predict their image of God as supportive and caring *(al-Walī*)? How do perceptions of authoritative parenting and God image, in turn, predict their religious doubts and submission reluctance? --- ## Survey measures and analytic method We asked a number of questions pertaining to various aspects of God image, authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles and behaviors, religious doubts, and submission reluctance. The list below captures the constructs of interest; measures and a full list of the questions can be found in Appendix A. - **God image**. Perceptions of God as Forgiving, Caring, Helpful, and cop-like. Caring and Helpful perceptions were combined to create a measure of *al-Walī*.  - **Authoritarian Parenting**. The dimensions of authoritarian parenting included verbal hostility, corporal punishment, punitive strategies, and directiveness (e.g., scolding and criticizing). - **Authoritative Parenting**. The dimensions of authoritative parenting included warmth,  involvement, and reasoning/induction.   - **Parental conditioning of God image**. Frequency of parents invoking God’s love or anger to motivate their children. - **Religious doubt**. The frequency, severity, and distress that religious doubts cause a person. - **Submission reluctance.** The level of frustration when not understanding God’s wisdom, experiencing aversive events, and prayers (i.e., *duʿāʾ*) not being answered. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relations among these variables. SEM helps us understand how processes work, as it permits us to test the associations between a series of constructs that we believe are related to each other. --- ## Results Before delving into the main results, we share some general findings of interest. Age was correlated with a more benevolent God image (*r* \= .31). Mothers self-reported slightly higher levels of authoritative parenting compared to fathers. Youth and young adults also reported that their mothers were more authoritative than their fathers. There were no significant differences between ethnicities in God image or parenting styles. All tables of results are reported in Appendix B. Our first question was whether God images would be related to submission reluctance and religious doubts. We found that having a cop-like image of God was associated with more submission reluctance (*r* \= .49) and religious doubts (*r* \= .54). We also found that imagining Allah as a Loving Caretaker was associated with less submission reluctance (*r* \= -.68) and fewer religious doubts (*r* \= -.61). Our second question was whether parents’ own God image would relate to their parenting styles and whether their parenting style would predict how they speak to their children about God. We found that parental God image is associated with parenting style and how parents invoke the name of God to get their children to comply with their demands. We split the results into two diagrams for ease of understanding. Figure 4 shows that parental benevolent God image is associated with less authoritarian parenting (*B* = -.18)[^51], and that authoritarian parenting is associated with parents more frequently invoking God’s anger and punishment as a way to discourage undesirable behavior (*B* = .27). In other words, the more parents imagine Allah as Caring, Compassionate, Forgiving, and Lenient, the less they report utilizing authoritarian parenting practices. This is meaningful because parents who report utilizing authoritarian parenting practices report invoking God’s anger and punishment more frequently. Figure 5 shows that parental benevolent God image is associated with more authoritative parenting (*B* = .20), and that authoritative parenting is associated with parents more frequently invoking God’s love and appreciation as a way to encourage desirable behavior (*B* = .43). In other words, the more parents imagine Allah as Caring, Compassionate, Forgiving, and Lenient, the more they report utilizing authoritative parenting practices. This is meaningful because parents who report utilizing authoritative parenting practices report invoking God’s love and appreciation more frequently. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-4.-Consequences-of-Authoritatian-Parenting.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-5.-Consequences-of-Authoritative-Parenting.png) Our third question was whether adolescents’ and young adults’ perceptions of their own parents’ parenting styles as authoritarian or authoritative would predict their own God image. We found that perceptions of parenting styles were related to God image. Youth and young adult perceptions of maternal authoritarianism (*r* = -.12, *p* = .04) and paternal authoritarianism (*r* = -.14, *p* < .001) predicted less benevolent God images. Perceptions of maternal authoritativeness (*r* = .15, *p* = .01) and paternal authoritativeness (*r* = .24, *p* < .001) predicted more benevolent God images. This finding tells us that perceptions of authoritarian and authoritative parenting predict the overall God image of adolescents and young adults. Our fourth and fifth research questions investigated whether perceived parenting styles would predict the two specific God images we presented earlier: the cop-like God image and the Loving Caretaker *(al-Walī*) God image. We also wanted to understand how those God images relate to religious doubt and submission reluctance. Figure 6 (paternal authoritarianism) and Figure 7 (maternal authoritarianism) depict the results that address question four, illustrating the relation between authoritarian parenting, a cop-like God image, and suffering from religious doubts and lack of submission to God. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-6.-Effects-of-Paternal-Authoritarianism.png) The results show that perceiving one’s parents as authoritarian correlates with reporting a more cop-like image of God. Subsequently, holding a cop-like image of God is associated with religious doubts and submission reluctance. Interestingly, perceiving one’s father as authoritarian was also directly related to religious doubt (*B* = .13) and reluctance with submission (*B* = .19), whereas perceptions of an authoritarian mother were only indirectly related to these outcomes through a distortion in God image. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-7.-Effects-of-Maternal-Authoritarianism.png) Figure 8 (paternal authoritativeness) and Figure 9 (maternal authoritativeness) depict the results that address question five, illustrating the relation between authoritative parenting, developing an image of God as *al-Walī*, and suffering from religious doubts and lack of submission to God. The results show that perceiving one’s parents as engaging in authoritative parenting correlates with reporting a more benevolent image of God as *al-Walī*, as One who is a caring, helpful, and loving protector. Subsequently, perceiving God as *al-Walī* is associated with fewer religious doubts and more submission to God’s decree. See Appendix B for the full results of the SEM. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-8.-Effects-of-Paternal-Authoritativeness.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-9.-Effects-of-Maternal-Authoritativeness.png) --- ## Discussion This paper has further developed our theory on the relations between God image and various spiritual struggles and religious outcomes. We found that adolescents and young adults who perceive their parents as authoritative also perceive Allah as more caring and supportive, whereas those who perceive their parents as authoritarian perceive Allah as more cop-like. **Ultimately, perceiving Allah as a cosmic cop correlates with submission reluctance and religious doubt, whereas perceiving Him as a Loving Caretaker correlates with the opposite.** ### Possible roots of religious doubts and submission reluctance Our results strongly suggest that a distorted God image may be a major cause of psychospiritual issues. Specifically, a distorted perception of God as a cosmic cop is associated with submission reluctance and religious doubts. Therefore, we recommend that parents, mentors, and religious educators consider assessing a person’s God image before answering their doubt-related questions. Rehabilitating one’s image of Allah should always be prioritized and requires patience, as the process requires substantial unlearning of distortions that may have hardened over years based on incorrect information and negative emotional experiences. Adult socializers are encouraged to convey an image of God through both textual and relational means. We have [previously](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness) emphasized the relational approach, which centers on spiritual modeling of warmth, compassion, love, and appropriate levels of demandingness.[^52] ### Breaking the intergenerational transmission of distorted God images Our results suggest that parents’ God image shapes parenting style. Parents who imagine Allah as benevolent report engaging in more authoritative parenting, whereas parents who imagine Allah as strict and cold report engaging in more authoritarian parenting. Therefore,  parents are highly encouraged to enhance their own God image for the sake of their own faith and as a gift for their spouse and children. Parents can end the intergenerational transmission of distorted God images by reflecting on their own upbringing. They should focus on learning about [God’s names and attributes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/names-of-allah) and forming personal relationships with religious educators who will help them emotionally experience Allah’s attributes holistically. Figure 10 illustrates our theoretical framing, linking psychospiritual struggles to the intergenerational transmission of a distorted God image. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-10.-Unconscious-intergenerational-roots-of-doubts-and-submission-reluctance.png) ### Love and fear: The forces driving parenting Children are gifts from Allah, and they are the recipients of the most profound parental love. Yet this love brings with it fear—fear of harm and fear of loss. Religious parents in particular fear their children disobeying God and bearing the subsequent consequences in both this world and the hereafter. This fear often drives parents to resort to threats of punishment to ensure compliance with both their demands and God’s demands. Unfortunately, our results indicate that this type of authoritarian parenting, despite its good intentions, actually undermines children’s understanding of and submission to God. Even when harsh parenting tactics appear to ensure children’s compliance with religious commands, this compliance is often a skin-deep performance masking deep resentment towards both parents and God. Children may internalize their acts of obedience as burdens, stripping their worship of its intended joys and benefits. Furthermore, perceptions of paternal authoritarianism appear more detrimental than maternal authoritarianism. Thus, fathers need to be especially cognizant of the effects of their harshness.  Inculcating a warm and emotionally secure bond may be more effective in transmitting religious beliefs and behaviors and preventing submission reluctance and religious doubts. As beautifully expressed by Ibn al-Qayyim, fear alone does not motivate anyone. It is love that motivates, fear that spurs, and hope that leads.[^53] While fear of failure may facilitate authoritarian parenting, another type of fear may facilitate its opposite. If parents fear upsetting their children or losing out on their love, they may resort to permissive parenting, defined as being overly warm and responsive without exerting any control. Although we did not explicitly measure permissive parenting in this study, we believe this parenting style may cultivate in children a sense of entitlement and a perception of God as a cosmic wish-granter. Children may then experience religious doubts when God does not give them what they demand. We hope to investigate pathways to entitlement and its consequences in future studies. Our goal here is to caution parents against either extreme of fear-based parenting, as overcorrecting from authoritarian to permissive or vice-versa may lead to distortions in God image and maladaptive psychospiritual outcomes. It is possible that these excessive fears and anxious parental dispositions may reflect parents’ own submission reluctance, as they struggle to accept that they cannot prevent hardships in their children’s lives. Figure 11 below depicts the potential consequences of these two forms of fear-based parenting. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Figure-11.-Fear-based-Parenting-and-Associated-Outcomes.png) ### From the parent as walī to God as al-Walī Parents are supposed to be loving caretakers and protectors of their children. This requires that they set boundaries within an atmosphere of love. Warmth without demands (i.e., permissive parenting) or demands without warmth (i.e., authoritarian parenting) both lead to suboptimal outcomes. Therefore, parents are advised to strive for the middle path, balancing warmth and demandingness. Our results show that perceptions of parental authoritativeness are associated with perceptions of Allah as *al-Walī*, and accordingly with high levels of submission. Thus, through acting as a *walī* to our children, we build their understanding of Allah as their *Walī*. Children nestled within loving bonds find it easier to submit to the demands placed on them by both their parents and their Creator. The Prophet ﷺ showed immense warmth and love to the youth and rebuked those who withheld it from their children. Upon hearing a man say that he had ten children whom he had never kissed, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever does not show mercy will not receive mercy.”[^54] The Prophet ﷺ habitually used warmth to encourage obedience. Muʿādh ibn Jabal narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once held his hand and said, “O Muʿādh, I swear by Allah that I love you. I swear by Allah that I love you,” and advised him to say at the conclusion of every prayer (*salāh*), "O Allah, help me remember You, express gratitude to You, and worship You in the best manner.”[^55] Ibn Abbas narrated that the Prophet ﷺ hugged him and said, “O Allah, teach him the scripture.”[^56] Whenever Fāṭima entered the Prophet’s home, he would stand for her, take her by the hand, kiss her, and seat her in his place.[^57] In all of these examples, one can see the importance of physical affection in nurturing children. In addition to the warmth that the Prophet ﷺ showed his daughter and his companions, he set appropriate limits by not giving in to every request. By sometimes denying our children the things they ask for, we prevent entitlement and build resilience. Fatima once asked the Prophet ﷺ for a servant to help her with housework. Rather than grant her a servant, he went to her home in the evening and told her and her husband, Ali, “Shall I offer you something better than that?” and taught them to say ‘How transcendently exalted is Allah’ (*subḥān Allāh*) thirty-three times, ‘Praise be to Allah’ (*al-ḥamd li-Allah*) thirty-three times, and ‘Allah is the greatest’ (*Allah akbar*) thirty-three times before they went to sleep.[^58] Due to the loving bond and trust that they had with the Prophet ﷺ, they were grateful rather than resentful. Ali said that he never skipped saying this any night of his life. They were confident that the Prophet ﷺ truly knew what was better, a confidence rooted in the love and care they received from him. Appropriate levels of demandingness are necessary for children to thrive. However, excessive fear of our children’s failures may result in over-controlling behavior, where parents involve themselves in every minor affair to ensure success. Risk-averse parenting is detrimental to the long term well-being of children. Allah Himself, who loves us more than we love our children, does not shield us from all perceived failures or harms. Rather, in His Infinite Wisdom, He sometimes allows us to fail and fall into dark places so that we may grow stronger from our experiences. Parents have to accept that their children will indeed make mistakes in the journey of life, and that some of those mistakes are necessary for their success. Once parents grant their children age-appropriate autonomy, they must teach them about repentance (*tawba)* and its fruits. Parents must remind their children that when they inevitably fall into sin, Allah loves it when they repent.[^59] Stories of righteous people who slipped and repented, such as Kaʿ’b b. Mālik or the archers at Uḥud, should be regularly communicated to children to remind them to never despair of God’s compassion and mercy.[^60] It is important to forgive their mistakes so they internalize Allah’s forgiveness. ### Between letting go and holding on The delicate balancing act of allowing our children to explore the world and ensuring their safety by regulating their behavior is the hardest aspect of parenting today. Our Islamic values are often at odds with the secular values that surround our children. The more stock we put in our Islamic values, the more we will vigorously defend them, especially if we think they are threatened by the dominant culture.[^61] The dilemma for religious parents is that their otherwise beautiful love of Islam may manifest in oppressively controlling parenting styles, ultimately alienating their children from the *dīn*. This dynamic appears the moment toddlers begin to walk on their own. Parents are initially enthusiastic about their infants learning to explore the world on their own two feet. They motivate their children to take steps with words of encouragement, smiles on their faces, and arms wide open. However, as many parents can attest, that enthusiasm may diminish as they realize their child can now get into all kinds of trouble, such as falling down stairs, walking onto the street, or climbing a table and falling off. Thus, a parent begins to set limits to keep their child safe. They may tell the child not to walk down the stairs, wander outside, or climb the table. It is at this stage of life that a child begins to be socialized to behave in a certain way. It is at this time that the child must learn to tame their personal desire for adventure and learn to comply with the demands of their parents and other adults. The key issue for parents is how they communicate these rules to the child, since no child happily complies after the first parental directive. This is where responsiveness and demandingness come into play. If the parent gets frustrated that the child does not immediately comply, do they resort to threats, punishments, and psychological manipulation to ensure the child obeys? For example, if the parent begins to spank the child, scream at the child, or withhold hugs and kisses, the child is likely to learn to submit out of fear of punishment or fear of losing the love and approval of the parent. Alternatively, the parent may choose to communicate the rules through love coupled with firmness recognizing that children will not comply immediately and that they are only following their natural curiosity and trying to learn about the world. In such an environment, the act of submission to authority develops free from the fear of losing love, and the balance of freedom and security through obedience to rightful authority is acquired.[^62] Ultimately, if the child’s experience of submitting to human authority is associated with excessive threats of punishment, withdrawal of love, bribery, or coercion, they may grow to imagine submission to God in a similar manner. --- ## Concluding thoughts Our image of God has profound effects on our ability to submit to Him. Perceiving Him as cold, distant, and cop-like leads to submission reluctance and religious doubts. This distorted image of God leads to appeasement at best and objection or rejection of the faith at worst. Imagining God as *al-Walī*, however, facilitates loving submission to Him, even when His decrees are difficult to understand. When we understand that Allah is our *Walī*, we understand that everything He commanded is a manifestation of His care and compassion for the believers. God’s benevolence is not expressed through His granting us what we wish for, because ultimately we do not know what is best for us personally or collectively. Rather, as our Loving Caretaker, He sets appropriate limits to human behavior that maximize our well-being in this life and the next. Parents have an important influence on their children’s God image. In an ideal society with strong communal bonds and healthy institutions, other adults would help inculcate a proper image of Allah in the hearts of the youth. Unfortunately, in the individualistic societies that many of us reside in, parents play a larger role than they should have to. However, they are still not the only influence and not all distortions in God image are due to parents. In fact, children are quite resilient even when their parents make mistakes, and the role authoritarian parenting plays in cultivating a cop-like God image is small to moderate (neither trivial nor immense). Thus, parents don’t need to be perfect—just good enough to facilitate healthy development. Nonetheless, parents should strive to continuously improve their own God image. They may also benefit from surrounding their children with other socializers who reinforce a healthy image of God. Through building a relationship on love without sacrificing appropriate levels of control, parents can teach their children not only to submit to Allah in a state of contentment and satisfaction, but also taste the sweetness and joy of worship, *in shāʾa Allāh*. --- ## Appendix A All survey items used in this study by construct. Cop-like God image - On a scale of 1 (Does not describe my feelings) to 5 (Clearly describes my feelings) - I tend to feel that God is like a “cop” enforcing rules with rewards and punishments. - How much do you feel that your religion is mainly a list of rules and restrictions? - My religion seems like a list of obligations to me. *Al-Walī* God image - On a scale of 1 (Does not describe my feelings) to 5 (Clearly describes my feelings) Support Dimension - In difficult situations, how often do you feel that God isn’t at your side? - Sometimes, when I really need God, I tend to feel left on my own. - In difficult situations, I tend to feel that I don’t get enough help from God. Care Dimension - I feel God’s compassionate love filling my heart. - I feel that God has always been reaching out to me. - How often do you feel God’s deep care for you? Forgiveness - On a scale of 1 to 5 - How often do you feel that God is angry with you? - I feel that God is not answering my prayers because I am not good enough or because of my mistakes. - When I face affliction, I tend to feel it is because God is not pleased with me. Religious Doubts - How frequently do you experience religious doubts? - Sometimes, religious doubts shake my faith. - When I face hardships, I feel troubled by doubts about my religious beliefs. - I am troubled by some of God’s commands and rulings. Surrender to God - I feel upset/frustrated when I can’t understand God’s wisdom in my life. - I feel frustrated/upset when God lets bad things happen to me or my loved ones. - There are times I get frustrated/upset that God did not answer my prayers. Authoritarian Parenting Perceptions (PSDQ) - On a scale of 1 (Never) to 5 (Always). Separate ratings were given for each parent. - My mother/father punishes me by taking privileges away from me (e.g., TV, games, computer, phone, visiting friends). - My mother/father yells when she disapproves of my behavior. - My mother/father explodes in anger towards me. - My mother/father spanks me when I don’t listen to what she says. - My mother/father withholds her love when she is upset with me (e.g., she doesn't give me hugs and kisses). - My mother/father scolds and shames me when my behavior doesn’t meet her expectations. Authoritative Parenting Perceptions (PSDQ) - On a scale of 1 (Never) to 5 (Always). Separate ratings were given for each parent. - My mother/father is responsive to my feelings and needs. - My mother/father encourages me to talk about my troubles. - My mother/father provides me with comfort and understanding when I am upset. - My mother/father compliments (praises) me. - My mother/father and I have warm and intimate times together. - My mother/father explains why I have to follow her/his rules. --- ## Appendix B ![Table 1a. Descriptive Variables of God Image and Religious Outcomes](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Table-1A-Descriptive-Variables-of-God-Image-and-Religious-Outcomes.png) ![Table 1B - Descriptive Statistics of Parenting Variables](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Table-1B-Descriptive-Statistics-of-Parenting-Variables.png) ![Structural Model for RQ2 - Authoritarianism.png](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Structural-Model-fo-RQ2-Authoritarianism.png) ![Structural Model for RQ4 (Paternal Authoritarianism)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Structural-Model-for-RQ4-Paternal-Authoritarianism.png) ![Structural Model for RQ4 (Maternal Authoritarianism)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Structural-Model-for-RQ4-Maternal-Authoritarianism.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Structural-Model-for-RQ5-Paternal-Authoritativeness.png) ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Structural-Model-for-RQ5-Maternal-Authoritativeness.png) --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an, 3:26. [^2]: Qur’an, 67:1. [^3]: Qur’an, 7:54. [^4]: See Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy’s paper for more on this question. Elshinawy, Mohammad, “Why Do People Suffer? God’s Existence & the Problem of Evil,” *Yaqeen*, July 2, 2018, updated February 14, 2021,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1687292534209044&usg=AOvVaw3vtBfjZKxEhka533fibypU). [^5]: Qur’an 3:83. [^6]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, “faṣl fi manzilat al-tawakkul,” in *Madārij al-sālikīn bayn manāzil īyyāka na‘budu wa īyyāka nasta‘īn* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2018), 397-415. [^7]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, “faṣl fi manzilat al-taslīm,” in *Madārij*, 421-424. [^8]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, no. 26944. [^9]: Qur’an, 4:65. [^10]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Madārij*, 421-424. [^11]: Ibid. [^12]: Marsha Linehan, *DBT Skills Training Manual* (New York: Guilford Publications, 2015). [^13]: This finding comes from our analysis and will be published, *inshaAllah*, in a forthcoming paper. [^14]: Joseph Holmes, “Why Marvel Has Issues With God,” Religion Unplugged, July 13, 2022, [https://religionunplugged.com/news/2022/7/13/marvel-has-issues-with-god](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://religionunplugged.com/news/2022/7/13/marvel-has-issues-with-god&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1687292534210738&usg=AOvVaw3-rTWp4XfUVlYqMundbtan). [^15]: Qur’an, 51:56. [^16]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “Why Does God Ask People to Worship Him?,” *Yaqeen*, December 26, 2017, updated: October 21, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1687292534211453&usg=AOvVaw3S97Iiq3BMOdVBQWltydMH). [^17]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Al-‘Ubudiyyah: Being a True Slave of Allah* (London: Ta-Ha, 1999); Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *Maḥabbat Allāh ʿazz wa jall* (Beirut: Dār al-Yamāma, 2007); Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmu’ al-fatāwa*, [https://shamela.ws/book/7289/4733](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/7289/4733&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1687292534211905&usg=AOvVaw2qEd4XrIxfyt2SFUb-9uDN). [^18]: Muḥammad Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Miftāḥ dār al-sa‘ādah wa manshūr wilāyat al-‘ilm wa al-irādah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyya, 2002), 2:88–89. [^19]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayn manāzil īyyāka na‘budu wa īyyāka nasta‘īn* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2018). [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 16; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 43. [^21]: Elshinawy, “Why Does God Ask People to Worship Him?” [^22]: Qur’an, 2:257; 4:45; 42:38. [^23]: Qur’an, 47:11. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6502. [^25]: Ibn ʿAṭaʾillah, *The Book of Aphorisms* (Malaysia: Islamic Book Trust, 2008). [^26]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Madārij al-sālikīn*. [^27]: Qur’an, 2:216. [^28]: Qur’an, 85:11; see the following link for details of the story, accessed 30 May 2023 [https://en.islamway.net/article/20357/the-people-of-the-ditch-soorat-al-burooj](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.islamway.net/article/20357/the-people-of-the-ditch-soorat-al-burooj&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1687292534215460&usg=AOvVaw3Tmwk5XdiIsDsQGlrroDAC) [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 247; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2710. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no.  3194; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2751. [^31]: Nancy Darling and Laurence Steinberg, “Parenting Style as Context: An Integrative Model,” *Psychological Bulletin* 113, no. 3 (1993): 487. [^32]: Diana Baumrind, “Current Patterns of Parental Authority,” *Developmental Psychology* 4, no. 1p2 (1971): 1. [^33]: Diana Baumrind, Diana. “Patterns of Parental Authority and Adolescent Autonomy,” *New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development*, no. 108 (2005): 61–69. [^34]: Darling and Steinberg, “Parenting Style as Context,” 487. [^35]: Darling and Steinberg, “Parenting Style as Context,” 487. [^36]: Eleanor E. Maccoby and John A. Martin, “Socialization in the Context of the Family: Parent-Child Interaction,” *Handbook of Child Psychology*, formerly *Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology* ed. Paul H. Mussen, 1983. We acknowledge that much of this research has been developed in Western individualistic cultures and that there are newer parenting styles that are emerging in various cultures. However, we found the four styles to be a helpful heuristic for the purposes of this paper. [^37]: Diana Baumrind, “Authoritarian vs. Authoritative Parental Control,” *Adolescence* 3, no. 11 (1968): 255. [^38]: Sofie Kuppens and Eva Ceulemans, “Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known Concept,” *Journal of Child and Family Studies* 28 (2019): 168–181; Laurence Steinberg, Nancy E. Darling, and Anne C. Fletcher,“Authoritative Parenting and Adolescent Adjustment: An Ecological Journey,” 1995; Laurence Steinberg, Susie D. Lamborn, Nancy Darling, Nina S. Mounts, and Sanford M. Dornbusch, “Over‐Time Changes in Adjustment and Competence among Adolescents from Authoritative, Authoritarian, Indulgent, and Neglectful Families,” *Child Development* 65, no. 3 (1994): 754–770. [^39]: Marwan Dwairy and Kariman E. Menshar, “Parenting Style, Individuation, and Mental Health of Egyptian Adolescents,” *Journal of Adolescence* 29, no. 1 (2006): 103–117. [^40]: Adrian Furnham and Helen Cheng, “Perceived Parental Behaviour, Self-Esteem and Happiness,” *Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology* 35, no. 10 (2000); Keith A. King, Rebecca A. Vidourek, and Ashley L. Merianos, “Authoritarian Parenting and Youth Depression: Results from a National Study,” *Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community* 44, no. 2 (2016): 130–139. [^41]: Susie D. Lamborn, Nina S. Mounts, Laurence Steinberg, and Sanford M. Dornbusch, “Patterns of Competence and Adjustment among Adolescents from Authoritative, Authoritarian, Indulgent, and Neglectful Families,” *Child Development* 62, no. 5 (1991): 1049–1065. [^42]: Bradley R. Hertel and Michael J. Donahue, “Parental Influences on God Images among Children: Testing Durkheim’s Metaphoric Parallelism,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* (1995): 186–199; De Roos, Iedema, and Miedema, “Young Children’s Descriptions of God”; Pehr Granqvist, Tord Ivarsson, Anders G. Broberg, and Berit Hagekull, “Examining Relations among Attachment, Religiosity, and New Age Spirituality Using the Adult Attachment Interview,” *Developmental Psychology* 43, no. 3 (2007): 590; Pehr Granqvist and Lee A. Kirkpatrick, “Religion, Spirituality, and Attachment,” in *APA Handbook for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality* (Vol 1): *Context, Theory, and Research*, ed. K. Pargament (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2013), 129–55; Rosalinda Cassibba, Pehr Granqvist, Alessandro Costantini, and Sergio Gatto, “Attachment and God Representations among Lay Catholics, Priests, and Religious: A Matched Comparison Study Based on the Adult Attachment Interview,” *Developmental Psychology* 44, no. 6 (2008): 1753. [^43]: Simone A. De Roos, Jurjen Iedema, and Siebren Miedema, “Influence of Maternal Denomination, God Concepts, and Child‐Rearing Practices on Young Children’s God Concepts,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 43, no. 4 (2004): 519–535. [^44]: Darling and Steinberg, “Parenting Style as Context,” 487. [^45]: “The pleasure of the Lord is in the pleasure of the parents, and the displeasure of the Lord is in the displeasure of the parents.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1899. [^46]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1899. [^47]: Allah explains some of the benefits and reasons behind obligations and prohibitions in the Qur’an. For example, prayer (29:45; 20:14), alcohol and gambling (2:219; 5:90–91), and many rules are explained as having particular benefits or harms. [^48]: Qur’an, 2:30. [^49]: No parent is consistently authoritative/authoritarian in every situation. Rather, parenting styles are convenient labels that refer to the relative use of different parenting practices. [^50]: Of the sample, 78% were female and 22% were male. Approximately 8% were aged 12–17, 15% were 18–25, 29% were 26–35, 29% were 36–45, and 19% were 46+ years. The sample was 56% South Asian, 21% Arab, and 10% Black, and 13% were from other racial backgrounds. [^51]: The standardized Beta coefficient (*B*) can be interpreted as follows: A one standard deviation increase in benevolent parental God image is associated with a -.18 standard deviation decrease in perceptions of being an authoritarian parent. More generally, the standardized Beta is interpreted as “a one standard deviation increase in X is associated with a *B* standard deviation change in Y.” [^52]: Hassan Elwan and Osman Umarji, “The Alchemy of Divine Love: How Our View of God Affects Our Faith and Happiness,” *Yaqeen*, December 29, 2022, updated June 9, 2023, accessed on 1 May 2023. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1687292534217434&usg=AOvVaw3WV7N33-i1ph2RvBhdB3v_). [^53]: Ovamir Anjum, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers: A Translation of Madārij al-sālikīn bayna manāzil iyyāka naʻbudu wa-iyyāka nastaʻīn by Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (d. 750/1351):* Volume 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2022). [^54]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5997; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2318. [^55]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1522; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1303. [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 75. [^57]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3872; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5217. [^58]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5362. [^59]: Qur’an, 2:222. [^60]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2747. [^61]: Karen Bogenschneider, Ming‐yeh Wu, Marcela Raffaelli, and Jenner C. Tsay, “Parent Influences on Adolescent Peer Orientation and Substance Use: The Interface of Parenting Practices and Values,” *Child Development* 69, no. 6 (1998): 1672–1688. [^62]: Daniel J. Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven: Parataxic Distortions in the Image of God,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 10, no. 2 (1982): 120–129. ## Summary Our image of God stands at the very heart of our worship and our capacity to surrender to Him. The foundation of the entire discussion rests upon the acknowledgment of Allah's sovereignty—His absolute ownership, power, and supreme authority over creation. Allah names Himself the Owner of Sovereignty (Mālik al-mulk), and Sūrat al-Mulk opens with the proclamation, "Blessed is He in whose hand is all sovereignty." As the absolutely sovereign, Allah both creates as He wills and commands as He desires. His authority thus encompasses two categories: universal decrees (awāmir kawniyya), by which He says "Be" and a thing comes into existence, and legal commands (awāmir sharʿiyya), which direct us toward what to do and what to avoid, and over which we have been granted the will to obey or disobey. Allah declares, "Unquestionably, to Him belongs the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, Lord of the worlds." Accepting this sovereignty is rarely difficult intellectually, yet it can prove difficult psychospiritually—people sometimes object to His decrees in hardship, or refuse His legal rulings, such as inheritance laws or the prohibition of interest, until they grasp their underlying wisdom. This spiritual struggle may be termed submission reluctance, and it manifests in resentful questions such as, "Why did God do this to me?" This is to be distinguished from questioning that arises from a sincere desire to understand—for the angels asked Allah why He would create humanity, but they did so out of curiosity, not hostility. At the root of submission reluctance lies a distortion in one's perception of Allah, for a distorted image of God fosters misunderstanding of His commands and decrees, and in turn breeds rebellion. Submission (taslīm) is inseparable from our image of God. It is not only the heart of Islam but the way of all creation, for Allah says, "So is it other than the religion of Allah they desire, while to Him have submitted all those within the heavens and earth, willingly or by compulsion?" Ibn al-Qayyim ties trust in God directly to one's image of Him, stating, "The key to trust (tawakkul) is having good assumptions of Allah." The Prophet ﷺ tied acceptance of universal decrees to faith when he said that the servant will not reach the reality of faith "until he knows that what afflicted him could never miss him, and that what missed him could never have afflicted him." The Qur'an likewise links submission to legal commands with faith: "But no, by your Lord, they will not truly believe until they make you, O Muhammad, judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves. Then they will not find within themselves any discomfort from what you have judged and they will submit in complete submission." From this verse are drawn the elements of complete submission: seeking Islamic guidance, finding no discomfort at what Allah has commanded, and accepting without complaint. Ibn al-Qayyim concludes that contentment (riḍā) is the fruit of trusting Allah and submitting to Him, all built upon a healthy image of Him. Submission reluctance, by contrast, is a major contributing factor to psychospiritual pathologies such as anxiety and depression, and behavioral therapies have accordingly incorporated acceptance as a component in treating mental illness. A distorted image is here identified as the cosmic cop, in which God is imagined as cold, distant, and concerned only with strict adherence to rules—a stringent lawmaker and callous enforcer. This false image is hypothesized to develop from an overemphasis on God's role as rule-maker (al-Ḥakam) coupled with neglect of His care, nearness, and love. Empirical research and counseling suggest that perceiving God as unforgiving is associated with elevated anxiety and depression. Such a person views religion as a mere list of "dos and don'ts," estranged from an intimate relationship with Him. The alternative and corrective is love of God, which is the active ingredient of worship. Ibn Taymiyya defined worship as the ultimate fusion of love and humble submission to Allah, holding that a loving relationship cannot occur without properly understanding Him. Ibn al-Qayyim added that complete servitude (ʿubūdiyya) is a byproduct of complete love, which itself springs from the beloved's perceived perfection, and that love makes servitude delightful and lightens afflictions. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever has three within himself will find the sweetness of faith," naming first the one who loves Allah and His Messenger above all else. Shaykh Mohammad Elshinawy said that worship "represents a declaration of love for God." Just as a mother's deep love makes the burdens of caring for her child bearable and even delightful, love is what distinguishes satisfaction from frustration in obeying Allah. The corrective image is captured by Allah's name al-Walī, the Loving Caretaker, which encompasses al-Qarīb (the Intimately Close), al-Wadūd (the Loving), al-Raḥīm, al-Wakīl, and al-Muʿīn. This name combines Allah's sovereignty with His love, care, and wisdom; al-Walī sets regulations out of care and imposes rules that facilitate human flourishing, while remaining Absolutely Powerful and able to hold people accountable. Allah repeatedly names Himself the Walī of the believers: "That is because Allah is the protector of those who have believed." In the ḥadīth qudsī, Allah declares war upon whoever shows enmity to His walī and says that the servant draws nearest to Him through the obligations enjoined, then through voluntary acts until He loves him and becomes his hearing, sight, hand, and foot. This establishes that Allah commands the very actions that bring us nearest to Him. Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh commented that Allah made the actions leading to divine intimacy obligatory, thereby in reality making entrance to paradise obligatory. Ibn Taymiyya reflected that the most beneficial supplication—asking Allah's aid in worshipping Him—was already made obligatory in al-Fātiḥa: "And You alone we worship and You alone we ask for support." Yet al-Walī's care is not synonymous with the fulfillment of our wants, for Allah says, "It may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you." The People of the Ditch in Sūrat al-Burūj were killed by a tyrant, yet Allah declared their martyrdom the great victory. Sailing with Allah does not mean encountering no waves, but sailing in a ship no wave can sink. Our God image develops through what we are taught and through experience, particularly an affective experiential perception shaped by relationships with parents. A believer must ultimately internalize both hope and fear, running toward God, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "There is no refuge nor escape from You except to You," while knowing that Allah said, "Indeed, My mercy prevails over My wrath." Research identifies parenting styles along two dimensions—responsiveness and demandingness—yielding four styles: neglectful, permissive, authoritarian (low warmth, high control, relying on punishment and psychological manipulation), and authoritative (high warmth and high expectations, using reasoned explanation). Both authoritarian and authoritative parents desire obedience, but differ in delivery. The authoritarian parent transmits shame and creates a climate of fear and resentment; the authoritative parent maintains a loving climate even while enforcing consequences. Regarding explanation, parents should respond sufficiently rather than exhaustively, mirroring how Allah at times explained His wisdom and at other times did not, as when He told the angels, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know," and how certain ritual (taʿabbudī) acts require submission without full comprehension. An empirical study of 701 Muslims in Canada tested these relationships. It found that a cop-like image of God was associated with more submission reluctance (r = .49) and more religious doubts (r = .54), while imagining Allah as al-Walī was associated with less of both (r = -.68 and r = -.61). Parents with a benevolent God image reported less authoritarian and more authoritative parenting, and correspondingly invoked God's anger less and His love more. Youth perceptions of authoritarian parenting predicted less benevolent God images and cop-like images linked to doubt and reluctance, while perceptions of authoritative parenting predicted an al-Walī image linked to submission. Notably, paternal authoritarianism appeared more detrimental than maternal, being directly related to religious doubt and submission reluctance. From these findings flow several counsels. Rehabilitating one's image of Allah should be prioritized before answering doubt-related questions, through both textual and relational means. Parents are urged to enhance their own God image and thereby break the intergenerational transmission of distortion. Ibn al-Qayyim observed that fear alone motivates no one: "It is love that motivates, fear that spurs, and hope that leads." The Prophet ﷺ embodied warmth, saying, "Whoever does not show mercy will not receive mercy," telling Muʿādh, "By Allah, I love you," praying for Ibn ʿAbbās, and honoring Fāṭima. Yet he also set limits, teaching Fāṭima the tasbīḥ rather than granting her a servant, a denial met with gratitude because of the trust between them. Parents are cautioned against both extremes—authoritarian harshness and permissive indulgence, which may foster entitlement and an image of God as a wish-granter. They should grant age-appropriate autonomy, teach repentance (tawba), and recall the stories of Kaʿb ibn Mālik and the archers at Uḥud. Through acting as a walī to their children—balancing warmth and firmness—parents build their children's understanding of Allah as their Walī, so that they may not only submit in contentment but taste the sweetness of worship, in shāʾa Allāh. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-our-perception-of-god-matters-essay # Why Our Perception of God Matters | Essay **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Perspective **Published:** May 22, 2023 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 I was having breakfast with a good friend of mine, and we were catching up on our professional and family lives. He asked me what I was researching these days, and I told him I was researching how people imagine God to be and how they interpret life events based on their perceptions of Him. His eyes got wide as he sat up, and he disclosed a sensitive encounter he recently had. > “You know that my wife and I have wanted kids for some time but that we are having trouble conceiving. The other day, one of our family members was talking to us about it and said, ‘God must be punishing you for something you did.’ Hearing this caused my wife so much pain.” I sat there a bit shocked, empathizing with my friend as I reflected over how this person must have imagined God in order to interpret life in such a fashion. People imagine God in vastly different ways. Some people imagine Him to be incredibly kind and loving, whereas others perceive Him as angry and punishing. What are the consequences of how we imagine Him to be? Does it matter if we feel He is intimately close or distant? Does it matter if we believe He loves to help us or if we believe He is a divine proctor watching us take the test of life alone? Yes! It absolutely matters. In fact, there is perhaps nothing more important in life than our perception of who God is. We make sense of the world based on how we imagine Him to be. We see and interpret the events that unfold in life through our God image filter. If we imagine Him as beautiful, we will see beauty in the world. If we imagine Him as merciful, we will see mercy all around us. If we imagine Him as loving, we will see His Love everywhere. Unfortunately, if we imagine Him as harsh, we will see harshness everywhere. Our image of God shapes how we see ourselves and it shapes our relationships with others. People who imagine God as loving see themselves as more loveable. Those who imagine God as forgiving are more forgiving of others. Those who view God more benevolently have better self-esteem and fewer religious doubts and struggles. God is very concerned with our perception because He knows the devastating effects of having a distorted image of Him. He informs us that many people have a distorted God image, saying, > “In no way have they estimated Allah in His true estimation.” He is telling us that He is far more majestic, beautiful, sublime, and wise than people imagine. In essence, Allah wants us to always have positive assumptions and expectations of Him because He knows that is essential to our thriving. So how do we form our God image? We believe that our God image comes from two sources of knowledge: the head and the heart. Head knowledge refers to what we have been intellectually taught about God, such as theological beliefs derived from books, lectures, and school. It also includes messages about God that are promoted in popular culture, such as music, movies, and social media. Heart knowledge refers to what we have emotionally and relationally experienced about God. Unfortunately, people often experience a mismatch between their head knowledge and heart knowledge. > In other words, they know that the Qur’an says that God is compassionate, but they don’t feel His Compassion in their lives. Why does this happen and what can we do about it? Our ongoing research into this topic suggests that our emotional experiences with God (i.e., heart knowledge) are influenced by our relationships with human beings, especially our parents. We often project onto God what we experience with our parents. If we felt our parents were loving, forgiving, and helpful, we are more likely to imagine God as loving, forgiving, and helpful. If we felt our parents were strict, cruel, and unfair, we are more likely to imagine God the same way. In fact, we even find that parents’ God images predict their parenting behavior. Parents who imagine God as warm and supportive are more likely to report being warm and supportive of their children. Parents who imagine God as strict are more likely to report being strict and controlling with their children. As parents, we have a tremendous ability to teach our kids who God is through our actions and words. We should also remember that actions speak louder than words. Regardless of how we imagine God to be today, there is always hope to restore a healthy and accurate image of Him. One of the most important things we can do is to develop a relationship with a *murabbi*, a person whose knowledge, character, and behavior teaches us about Allah intellectually (head knowledge) and relationally (heart knowledge). To learn relationally about Allah through proper companionship (*suhbah*) means to learn from someone whose character is molded by intimate knowledge of the attributes of Allah. A *murabbi* is someone you build a personal relationship with through frequent interactions. You are most likely to find such a person in your local community. Spending time in the pursuit of a benevolent God image is one of the most satisfying pursuits in life. The more positively we imagine Allah, the deeper our bond and attachment to Him will be. Once we form a bond with our Creator based on obedience and love, we will experience the gardens of this life before the gardens of the hereafter. > To learn more about God image and attachment, read [The Alchemy of Divine Love: How Our View of God Affects Our Faith and Happiness](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-role-of-islamic-scholars-in-modern-society-essay # The Role of Islamic Scholars in Modern Society | Essay **Author:** Dr. Usaama al-Azami **Topics:** Jurisprudence (fiqh), Sharia **Tags:** Ijtihad, Perpective, The Straight Path - Finding Guidance in an Age of Confusion **Published:** May 8, 2023 **Updated:** October 8, 2026 *The issues addressed in this blog are dealt with in far greater detail in a full-length paper on the same topic, which can be read* ***[here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-we-need-ulama-islamic-knowledge-in-a-secular-age)****.* Contemporary Muslims often find themselves confronting a seeming paradox that has emerged in our times. They ask themselves what role, if any, the ulama—Islamic religious scholars—have to play in modern societies. This question may arise in a number of different contexts. Some may see Muslim communities functioning just fine without significant numbers of ulama. Their limited visibility may give the (mis)impression of their irrelevance. Others might feel that modern educated Muslims in search of divine guidance can simply pick up a good translation of the Qur’an or an authoritative collection of hadith, like *Sahih Bukhari* or *Sahih Muslim*, and thereby directly access divine guidance unmediated by any scholar. There may even be some who look down at the “so-called ulama” who they believe, not always without some justification, are poorly educated and have little to offer graduates from modern universities who enjoy considerable success in their worldly lives. My paper explains that, contrary to the above views, there are actually very good, and arguably quite obvious, reasons that the ulama have historically been and will inevitably continue to be indispensable to Muslims. My answer draws on the Qur’an and Sunnah and the statements of scholars of the past to illustrate this point in several ways, before addressing some challenges Muslims face today in finding the sorts of scholars we need. I also reflect on how contemporary challenges first emerged; Muslims’ own responsibility in dealing with them; and what kinds of steps we should take, as local communities and as an *ummah*, to try and address these challenges. --- ## “Heirs of the prophets” One dimension of the need for ulama is highlighted by the Prophet ﷺ in [his statement](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1388) that “the ulama are the heirs of the prophets.” In particular, he ﷺ highlighted that the task of prophets was the convey knowledge, and that this is a role that the *scholars* would undertake after a prophet passes. Naturally, the ulama of our community—the standard bearers of Islam—refer to this hadith when highlighting their role as transmitters of sound Islamic teachings. This role is especially important because any area of knowledge has its experts who should be consulted if there is any confusion. > As I elaborate in the full-length paper, there are often instances in which the interpretation of the Qur’an or the Sunnah needs to be undertaken by someone who is an expert, who understands the nuances of the Arabic language, and who possesses a holistic understanding of the message of Islam through its main scriptural sources. Oddly enough, the questioning of the need for ulama in modernity occurs in a context in which our dependency on expertise is perhaps the greatest in any time in human history given the complexities of modern life. Whether it is the scientific expertise that runs our devices, or the complex legal norms that govern our existence in modern societies, we are entirely attuned to the notion of expertise. However, part of the secularist prejudice of the modern contexts many of us live in is the suggestion that religious knowledge is not also a form of expertise. This is little more than a “secularist prejudice” as I have just labeled it—something even some secular philosophers will confess in their moments of candor. Given that the Qur’an was revealed over a millennium ago in “[a clear Arabic tongue](https://quran.com/26/195),” it stands to reason that Muslims need to resort to scholarly experts of the ancient Arabic language to understand its message. Add to that the fact that there has been a long and illustrious tradition of scholarly reflection on the Qur’an and the Sunnah in Arabic and it becomes clear that we need to have dedicated specialists in this tradition to inform us about what we need to live as faithful Muslims today. --- ## Finding reliable scholars The Qur’an advocates that scholars’ expertise is sought in questions of doubt. > Allah says: “[Ask those who know if you do not know](https://quran.com/16/43),” a verse that scholars throughout history have understood to mean that scholarly expertise should be resorted to in moments of doubt. Yet, this also means that we need to recognize reliable scholars and distinguish between them and those who may claim to be scholars but would not be recognized as such by other scholars. As I note in the full-length paper, there are ways that can be used to recognize a genuine scholar, and such discernment is essential in our communities. Other questions this raises include our responsibility as a community to cultivate scholars through incentivising the formal study of Islam and through the recognition of the importance of Islamic scholarship as an enterprise that is essential to the well-being of our communities. Such scholars should be from both genders, and crucially, they need to reflect the very best talent of our communities. Only then will we start to have the kind of ulama that we so desperately need—dynamic individuals who can galvanize the best of our community to bring about good for society as a whole. The ulama are an indispensable part of any project of Islamic revival. By raising awareness of the vitally important role they must play in our community’s faithful growth and development, each of us can contribute in a small way to the revival of a vibrant Islamic *ummah*, one that has been held back from contributing to humanity for far too long. For more on this topic read the full paper *[Why We Need ʿUlamāʾ: Islamic Knowledge in a Secular Age](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-we-need-ulama-islamic-knowledge-in-a-secular-age)* --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-we-need-ulama-the-importance-of-seeking-islamic-knowledge-from-scholars # Why We Need Ulama: The Importance of Seeking Islamic Knowledge From Scholars **Author:** Dr. Usaama al-Azami **Topics:** Jurisprudence (fiqh), Sharia **Tags:** Da'wah in Islam, Featured - Read, Ijtihad, Paper, Publication, The Straight Path - Finding Guidance in an Age of Confusion **Published:** May 4, 2023 **Updated:** October 6, 2026 ## Author Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to the entire Yaqeen team for their painstaking diligence in shepherding this article from its earliest stages all the way to publication. So many amazing people work within this inspiring organization, many of whom remain anonymous to me. They are in my heartfelt prayers in the depths of the night. In particular, I would like to thank Julio Rivera, Ayesha Bakali, Ovamir Anjum, Ahmed Elbenni, Nameera Akhtar, my anonymous reviewers, and the various other members of the production team working behind the scenes. *Jazakum Allah khayran wa-baraka fikum*! --- ## Introduction Why do Muslims need to refer to scholars? If God has revealed guidance through his Prophet ﷺ in the form of the Qur’an and Sunnah, and if modern technology allows us to access these sources of guidance with ease, why must our relationship with God be mediated by such fallible human beings? Can Muslims depend on books and/or websites to arrive at their own judgments on religious issues? Can they reflect directly on the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Prophetic example)? If it turns out that we must at times depend on scholarly expertise, how can we know whether a scholar is reliable or not?  What if some of the scholars we hold in high esteem as moral exemplars turn out to be the opposite of exemplary? If Muslims esteem their scholars so much, but then some prominent scholars turn out to exhibit serious moral failings in their personal and/or political dealings, does that not create the circumstances for serious crises of faith or religious disillusionment? What about women—can they become scholars, and if so, why do there seem to be so few of them? These are some of the questions I address in this article. My aim is to illustrate not only the necessity of relying on authentic Islamic scholarship, but also that such a recognition of religious authority does not entirely absolve Muslims from exercising their own moral judgment in cases of doubt. Muslims from every era have recognized the importance of scholarship in explaining how the Qur’an and the Sunnah, first revealed in an Arabian context nearly fifteen centuries ago, should apply to Muslims in subsequent eras. Yet socio-cultural transformations in Europe that coincided with the industrial revolution and colonialism have globalized the ideas of a small sliver of the human population, and in the process rendered the *ʿulamāʾ* irrelevant in many people’s eyes today. The causes of this shift in perspective are multifaceted. Some, caught in the embrace of secular ideologies, do not understand why Muslims need to remain wedded to their tradition. They wonder why Muslims cannot simply embrace secularism and recognize their cultural heritage as a matter of the past available for occasional inspiration. Others, who have maintained a deeper commitment to God’s revelation, might ask: “If I have the infallible Qur’an and Sunnah at my fingertips through Google, why do I need to pay attention to fallible *ʿulamāʾ*?” Still others argue that Islam cannot be known by anyone but those who have received formal authorization (*ijāza*) to transmit Islamic knowledge as part of a chain of authorities (*sanad*): “These are the true *ʿulamāʾ*,” they declare, “and no one may interpret the Qur’an and Sunnah apart from them.” The present article reflects on the role that the *ʿulamāʾ* play in society, both today and in the past. It considers this role in both Muslim minority and majority contexts. In addressing this topic, I will reference the Qur’an, Sunnah, and past scholars’ works. A short article like this one cannot hope to exhaustively address the issues under discussion—ones deserving of multiple articles by many authors. But I hope that by the end of the article, the reader will come to recognize the urgent need for a balanced approach that respects scholarly authority without absolving the average Muslim of moral responsibility in their personal and social lives. Throughout the article, I will consider what role scholarship ought to play in the life of modern Muslims living in a world in which many advocate for a secular public sphere. The article will conclude by recognizing that the collective obligation of producing scholars adequate to our needs is simply not being fulfilled in the modern West, and arguably, in much of the modern world. This calls for a recognition that producing scholars is not the job of scholars alone, but the Muslim *umma* as a whole. The frequent failure of our scholars to persuasively articulate the role Islam should play in the modern world is, in fact, a failure of all Muslims, one we must take seriously and make an effort to reverse. --- ## Why do we need ʿulamāʾ? The Prophet ﷺ once rebuked certain Companions of his who had advised a wounded man to undertake the ritual bath (*ghusl*) after a nocturnal emission while they were traveling. The man had asked if he could perform dry ablutions (*tayammum*) instead of a full ritual bath, but his fellow travelers insisted that he should perform *ghusl*. He did so and subsequently died, presumably from infection and/or exposure—the hadith does not specify. The Prophet ﷺ was so angered by the people who insisted that he bathe that he castigated them saying: “They killed him. May God kill them!” The harshness of this rebuke does not negate the Prophet’s merciful nature. Indeed, its rarity only underlines the severity of the sin committed by those he was criticizing. As Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya notes, this was the severity of the Prophet’s prayer against “a group of people who gave a *fatwa* without knowledge,” leading to the death of the questioner.[^1] The episode reminds us of the gravity of *fatwa*\-giving, a notion that is repeatedly conveyed in the Islamic scholarly tradition. The remainder of the hadith reports the Prophet’s advice with respect to the sorts of scenarios faced by these travelers. After condemning those who had given their *fatwa* without any knowledge, the Prophet ﷺ added: “Could they not ask when they did not know? The cure for ignorance is asking.”[^2] Islam as a lived practice is grounded in the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Qur’an is a richly textured revelation that cannot be understood in many of its finer details without recourse to the Prophetic Sunnah, and both contain texts that are possible to interpret in myriad ways.[^3] The same is true for any text that is valued by a community. Consider the United States Constitution. At 4,543 words, it is considerably shorter in length than this article. Yet the US has developed an enormous judicial infrastructure, as well as innumerable legal institutions ranging from firms to schools, to train legal scholars and practitioners in the interpretation and implementation of the norms laid down by this document—a document that governs the running of the most powerful nation on earth today. Similarly, the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ have served as guides for one of the most important civilizations in human history, one that flourished as a spiritual, intellectual, economic and geopolitical superpower for much of the past thousand years. --- ## What is the ʿulamāʾ? [In this context, it is quite obvious that scholarly expertise needs to be developed to properly understand how the Qur’an and Sunnah should guide the Muslim *umma* through its worldly existence.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-a-madhhab-exploring-the-role-of-islamic-schools-of-law)  While the necessity of scholarly expertise may seem obvious at the level of high politics and intellectual debate, one might ask how the average Muslim is, or ought to be, affected by the ruminations of the *ʿulamāʾ* over the sacred revelation preserved in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Here, too, the constitutional analogy may be of some use. The wider legal structures that impinge on all citizens are built upon the basis of the US Constitution as well as the local constitutions of each of the country’s 50 states. These laws directly shape people’s lives. Everybody recognizes the need to stay on the right side of the law. It is not only that the consequences of not doing so may be serious, but also that we generally believe this to be the right thing to do. Once again, this requires learning what the law is, and this is usually done by using sources produced by scholars of the law. Essentially, given the interdependent nature of human social existence, it is not possible for human societies to thrive without a degree of specialization. This allows for people to develop expertise in individual areas which others do not have the opportunity to develop for themselves. We all depend on specialists in every aspect of our lives, whether in medicine, engineering, economics, or beyond. This is true for scholars too, of course. Scholars need to rely on specialists for access to the resources they need to survive, whether they are the doctors who vaccinate them, the engineers who design their houses and cars, or the public servants who manage the towns and cities in which they reside. Just as we all need these experts to provide us the amenities we need to live fruitful lives, the lay Muslim needs *ʿulamāʾ* to access the wisdom of the Qur'an and Sunnah. If human affairs require specialist knowledge, the *ʿulamāʾ* can be viewed as specialists regarding the Divine revelation that directs us concerning how we must live our lives. To be clear, lay Muslims are encouraged to deepen their understanding of the *dīn*, and some of them should indeed pursue specialization in the *ʿulūm Sharʿiyya* or Sharia sciences; such expertise is particularly lacking among Muslims in the West. However, those who do not specialize in these sciences must defer to the experts. Similarly, Muslims can benefit from reading the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah for themselves, and we live in a time when these texts have become readily accessible. Yet, if Muslims experience any confusion about how to understand these texts, they need the *ʿulamāʾ* for clarification. In this regard, the *ʿulamāʾ* often cite a verse from Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:43 which reads: “Ask the people of knowledge if you do not know.” As the Andalusian exegete al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1273) notes, the scholars agree that this verse refers to the need for laypeople (*al-ʿāmma*) to follow their *ʿulamāʾ*.[^4] The vast majority of the world’s Muslims are not able to understand the language of the Qur’an and Sunnah without the aid of translation. These translations are ultimately undertaken by scholars who are qualified enough to understand the Arabic of first/seventh century Arabia and convey its meaning to readers and listeners living nearly a millennium and a half after the epoch of revelation. As Jonathan A. C. Brown argues in his masterful work *Misquoting Muhammad*, efforts to understand the Qur’an without the aid of the interpretive exertions of the *ʿulamāʾ* are doomed to failure. To understand the powerful language of the Qur’an, the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ would at times resort to pre-Islamic poetry that could authoritatively elucidate the meaning of some of the Qur’an’s elegant literary word choices. Brown notes how misguided efforts by certain modernist Muslims to marginalize extra-Qur’anic sources of religious authority, such as the hadith, are self-defeating when they themselves clearly need to resort to the extra-Qur’anic scholarly work of Arabic lexicographers to determine the meanings of certain words in the Sacred Text.[^5] --- ## Interpreting a single letter This is true down to individual letters in the Qur’an. For just one example, we can take the verse on *wuḍūʾ* in the Qur’an, namely al-Māʾida 5:6, which contains a phrase that is typically translated as “wipe your heads.” This translation papers over a complication in the original Arabic, namely how one is to understand the letter *bāʾ* in the Arabic phrase: *wa’msaḥū* ***bi****\-ruʾūsikum*. This single letter has become a locus of considerable discussion, resulting in several different opinions among the scholars as to how much of the head needs to be wiped. The grammarians note that the letter *bāʾ* has fourteen different meanings.[^6] The jurists therefore disagree whether the “wiping” demanded in the verse refers to wiping the whole head, or only part of it. If the whole, is the wiping invalidated by a single hair being missed? On the other hand, if it’s only a part, is wiping valid if only a single hair is wiped? The jurists have adopted a range of positions between these two extremes. Now extend this problem to the rest of the Qur’an’s 6,000 or so verses, and then to the tens of thousands of hadith reports attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, and one can come to understand how challenging arriving at the correct interpretation—i.e., the one that truly exemplifies the divine intent—can be. For some readers, such a debate might seem “academic” in the worst sense of that term. God presumably does not expect humans to be needlessly preoccupied with arguments over such minute details in His Sacred Text. Some scholars from the past have indeed talked about the perils of pointless pedantry, much of it potentially driven by egotistical point scoring.[^7] Yet interpretative disagreements of the sort presented above do not seem minimal or irrelevant to the scholars in question. The same could be said for many verses that *Ahl al-Sunna* may hold to be correctly understood in a particular way, but which misguided people past and present may wish to twist in other directions. Allah ﷻ, as the All-Knowing Creator, is fully aware of the nature of language and the necessity of interpreting a text like the Qur’an for human beings. If we feel the need to problematize the preoccupation of Islamic jurists with such “irrelevant” details, we would do well to recognize that modern states expend vast sums of money to establish gargantuan institutions to engage in the interpretation of their laws. In the United States, for example, the judiciary is one of three equal branches of the federal government. When the federal and state judiciaries are considered together, they boast a body of roughly 32,000 judges.[^8] These figures are dwarfed by the numbers of licensed, active lawyers in the US. In a recent survey by the American Bar Association, there were roughly 1.3 million lawyers practicing in the country.[^9] This is to say nothing of the vast supporting infrastructure of paralegals and other non-legally trained personnel, upon whose legal literacy these institutions depend to properly function. This also does not include the considerable educational and research infrastructure necessary to maintain a steady flow of newly-trained lawyers, as well as to host spaces where legal intellectuals can reflect on complex problems outside of the high-pressure environments of litigation and the offering of costly legal services. The job of these hundreds of thousands of people is to interpret codified texts to inform clients or litigants of their legal rights and obligations with reference to said texts. This is because the laws in any system are based on language, and language is inherently ambiguous when it comes to problems as complex as governance, social organization, and dispute resolution. In a sense, the feeling of many modern people (and even some modern Muslims) that religious experts should not need to be consulted on religious practice, whereas experts should be consulted on secular law, reflects the acceptance of secularism as a norm that governs modern legal culture. For non-Muslims, who often will not have any religious reference to speak of on legal questions, this may seem entirely reasonable. For Muslims to think so, however, reflects their absorption, even if unwittingly, of a legal culture that is at odds with the Islamic one that they view themselves as part of. This is because Islam, as it has been understood by Islamic scholars for basically its entire history, mandates certain behaviors in ways that may reasonably be referred to as laws in the English language. Although the modern usage of law is often intimately associated with the state and there is an expectation that contravening the law will result in worldly sanction, what is commonly referred to as Islamic law does not always operate according to these assumptions. Many of its injunctions and prohibitions, such as the prohibition of backbiting, do not have scripturally-grounded sanctions attached. They are, effectively, moral guidelines backed by metaphysical commitments—a belief in the threat of otherworldly punishment. If one believes that God has revealed a law through His Speech in the form of the Qur’an, and that He has mandated Muslims to live in accordance with that law, with consequent reward or punishment in the next life, these are pretty compelling reasons to adhere to the norms He has laid out in revelation, even if most laws remain without specific forms of divinely designated this-worldly punishment. As many scholars have observed, Islamic law actually gave rise to an extraordinarily long-lasting and effective set of institutions that helped govern Muslim societies for centuries in ways that resulted in remarkable prosperity and cultural efflorescence.[^10] --- ## Historical roles of the ʿulamāʾ Over the course of Islamic history, the *ʿulamāʾ* played a crucial role in providing the legal, [spiritual, and normative basis for the major institutions that constituted Muslim societies.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-sober-second-thought-when-and-how-should-changes-in-islamic-law-be-made) It is not surprising, therefore, that their labors appear to have been highly valued by these societies, sometimes with unintended problematic consequences. One example may be found in comments made by one of the most influential scholars in Islamic history, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111).[^11] It is profoundly ironic for contemporary Muslims that in one of the most important and influential spiritual texts of Islamic civilization, the *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn* \[*The Revival of the Religious Sciences*\], Ghazzālī complains at the outset that Muslims have been abandoning the study of medicine for Islamic legal studies (*fiqh*) because of how prestigious the latter had become. Ghazzālī’s discussion of this issue is found in the first of the *Iḥyāʾ’*s forty “books.” In the “Book of Knowledge,” he states: > How many regions’ only physician is a non-Muslim, whose testimony is not even admissible with respect to other doctors in relation to *fiqh* rulings. Yet we see no one taking up the study of medicine, but we see them dispute over the study of *fiqh*, and in particular in contentious matters and polemics while the region is full of jurists who occupy themselves with rulings and respond to events as they unfold. I wish I knew how the jurists of religion could sanction this involvement in a communal obligation (*farḍ kifāya*) that others have already taken responsibility for, while they abandon another communal obligation which no Muslims have undertaken \[i.e., the study of medicine\]. > Is there any other reason for this than the fact that medicine does not facilitate access to being entrusted with the management of financial endowments (*awqāf*), the inheritance of estates (*waṣāyā*), and control over the wealth of orphans; or to assume offices in the judiciary or government, and to gain advancement over one’s peers as well as the power to overcome one’s enemies?[^12] Ghazzālī’s lamentations over the lack of medical studies in the Muslim community are illustrative of both the socially prestigious role of the *ʿulamāʾ* in his time and the starkly contrasting circumstances that Muslims find themselves in today. In the contemporary Muslim world, as well as among Muslims in the West, Muslims have generally been socialized (one could say brainwashed) into thinking of medicine as one of the most prestigious career paths they could choose. It is typically the first choice for our best and brightest. It usually ensures financial security if not abundance. The pursuit of Islamic learning in our own time generally entails the polar opposite result. A typical graduate from an Islamic seminary in the Muslim world or in the West can currently expect little by way of social prestige and plenty of financial insecurity. Why is this? The answer is structural—how we as societies choose to order our priorities and incentivize certain career choices while disincentivizing others. What do we wish people to do in greater numbers than they otherwise would; what do we discourage people from doing? In general, a society will promote arenas it views as productive and helpful to achieving its aims. Modern societies incentivize a raft of career paths for young people by paying higher salaries for them and encouraging competition among entrants to those fields. In North America, much of Europe, and most Muslim countries, medicine is definitely one of these fields. At first glance, medicine seems like a field that would  command high salaries and prestige in any societal context. After all, what society doesn’t have sick people? People will typically spare no expense to recover from an illness that could significantly impair their quality of life or indeed bring an end to their lives altogether. Yet, Ghazzālī’s somewhat tangential comment in the *Iḥyāʾ* indicates that Muslim societies were so wealthy that they could simply outsource their medical needs to non-Muslims while still being able to spare vast resources for incentivizing a majority of their best and brightest to study Islamic law. Ghazzālī’s complaint, however, isn’t about the health risks resulting from this state of affairs—nothing in what he writes indicates that outsourcing this vital skill to non-Muslims caused any  significant health problems in the Muslim societies of his day. Rather, his complaint was about something far deeper—an issue at the heart of his life’s work—namely his concern that the *ʿulamāʾ* had lost their sense of working for Allah ﷻ and not for the sake of worldly gain. This is precisely the sort of problem that a relatively powerful and self-confident Islamic society might have. Such a society is one that has fallen into a spiritual decadence that undermines the otherworldly success of the community’s moral guides, and thus also threatens its effectiveness as a moral exemplar. In other words, Ghazzālī is right to think of his society as experiencing a moral crisis. However, modern Muslims are experiencing a different, and arguably a significantly more acute, kind of moral crisis. It is not one that arises in the main from the fact that the *ʿulamāʾ* have been corrupted by pursuit of the *dunyā*, although poverty can create its own kind of corruption. Rather, it arises from the fact that the *ʿulamāʾ* have been corrupted by their loss of social standing and attendant moral authority. As we can glimpse from Ghazzālī’s passage above, being a jurist in the fifth Islamic century (i.e., the eleventh CE century) placed one at the pinnacle of the social order. As well as populating the judiciary and government posts, Islamic jurists were consulted on financial issues of every kind. Ghazzālī is only mentioning in passing some of the matters that would have drawn the *ʿulamāʾ* into prestigious social roles. Legal study in Islamic society sat atop the educational hierarchy for good reason—Islamic norms, ethics, and laws formed the foundation of premodern Islamic societies. Islam informed every aspect of public life in the way that secular and liberal values do in the modern West. The historical role the *ʿulamāʾ* played was only eroded over the course of the colonial period by a Eurocentric, secular conception of modernity imposed on the Muslim world. --- ## Muslims and the modern ‘cultural revolution’ The deterioration of flourishing Islamic societies into the decrepit states found in large swathes of the modern Muslim world reflects a complex transformation that has taken several hundred years. One important component of this transmutation has been the secularization of these regions through the establishment of the modern nation-state. This was realized through a painful rupture involving colonial subjugation, mass transfers of wealth to colonial powers, and often brutal repression grounded in a racist liberal-colonial ideology that understood the “civilizing” of barbaric non-European peoples as the role of Western imperialism. The last 250 or so years have uprooted the variegated and largely decentralized legal orders of Muslim societies that were generally underpinned by an Islamic ethos. The changes wrought over this period affected not only the social, political, and legal practices of Muslim societies, they also resulted in the adoption by many Muslim elites of the values that their colonial masters brought to them. By our own day in the mid-fifteenth/early twenty-first century, these values have been so deeply internalized (some might say sedimented) in the minds of many Muslims that other ways of seeing the world, such as one in which the Sharia plays a central role in organizing a Muslim society, seem unnatural, contrived, “medieval,” regressive, and a host of other highly problematic epithets. Secularism has become such an unstated norm of our times that many recoil at the suggestion of an alternative vision of social organization. This is deeply ironic from a Muslim perspective for at least two reasons. Firstly, the centers of intellectual reflection on the foundations of Western thought, the universities, increasingly recognize the considerable contingency of contemporary Western ideas. The certainty in the foundations for one’s knowledge established by Descartes, and the general confidence in the primacy of reason that characterized the Enlightenment and facilitated the liberal-colonial project, has now given way to a deeply divided academy and wider society increasingly consumed by identity politics and the culture wars. This trend appears, in the academic humanities in particular, to have given rise to a range of mutually incomprehensible schools of thought. Of course, there are scholars who remain optimistic about the overall coherence of contemporary thought in the West. Those still committed to the Enlightenment have not yet come to recognize the intellectual provincialism of a project that only survives today as a neo-colonial endeavor upheld by a combination of brute force and intellectual sophistry; yet the relativist alternatives that litter the postmodern landscape seem far too easily to devolve into incoherence, and crucially for wider society, meaninglessness. Or perhaps, more charitably, meaning is invested deeply in what these thought-systems will themselves acknowledge are socially constructed identities with little more basis than the discourses that have generated them in the past few decades, grounded in the seductive ideas of self-identifying nihilists like Michel Foucault. --- ## Where and how can reliable scholars be found? This context further underlines the need for divine guidance in what many find to be profoundly confusing times. If we recognize that scholarly authority is vitally important, a natural concomitant question is where can we find reliable scholars and how does the layperson judge that reliability? This is a question that has at once been made easier and more complicated by the proliferation of communication technologies, most notably the internet. For the average layperson, there is no shortage of claimants to scholarship whose work is accessible online. As with any kind of specialist knowledge, credible scholars of Islam tend to be those recognized by other scholars as authoritative. It is a function of reputation. Yet, this potentially compounds the problem, since these other scholars also need to be recognized by others. Ultimately, reliable scholars within any arena of expertise will be marked in certain ways. For example, if they are a graduate of a major Islamic seminary in a Muslim-majority country—such as al-Azhar and its various branches, Deoband, al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd University in Riyadh, the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Madīna University, Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ, the Pesantren system in Indonesia, Qarawiyyin, Saharanpur, and the like—they can be expected to have a good grasp of the Islamic scholarly tradition. But in addition to these centers of learning, increasingly, Western Islamic institutions are emerging that, as they mature, can be expected to train scholars of a comparable caliber to those trained in the Muslim-majority world.[^13]  In time, it may not be necessary to study outside of the West for a scholar to be recognized as a serious ʿ*ālim* or mufti, although it does not appear to me that we are quite there yet. Having this level of formal training is an extremely important aspect of assessing an individual as a scholar in Islam, but it is hardly sufficient. As the great Indian scholar Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Nadwī (d. 1420/1999) used to tell the graduating class at Nadwat al-ʿUlāmāʾ, “You now have the tools to become *ʿulamāʾ*.” The implication was that if these graduating students were to dedicate their lives to scholarship and devotional worship, they could aspire to reach that rank. This is an important dimension of Islamic scholarship to bear in mind, especially given the relative weakness of modern Islamic centers of learning when compared to the institutions that lead the world in education such as Harvard or Oxford. In the modernized curriculum of institutions like al-Azhar, the typical graduate will have undertaken the final three years of high school education (*thānawiyya*) which provides a rigorous introduction to the Sharia sciences, followed by a four-year “bachelor’s degree” in a narrower specialization of Islamic subjects. In Western institutions, we do not typically describe bachelor’s degree holders as scholars, but a graduate from an Islamic institute is often referred to as an ʿ*ālim* or Islamic scholar. This should give us pause. The reality is that proper Islamic scholarship arises from a lifetime of research and experience, and so while we should expect scholars to have graduated from a major institution of religious learning, we should also expect much more than that. In the West, for example, a doctorate is often the distinguishing mark of a scholar, and this standard is increasingly being adopted within the Muslim world as well. Once again, these are all conventions, and they have their pros and cons. For example, a doctorate in Islamic studies from a Western university is in no way an indication that an individual is an ʿ*ālim*, because Islamic studies at Western universities overwhelmingly continues to be taught in a secular register—it is usually approached from the perspective of intellectual history. When it comes to Islamic scholarship in the Muslim world, by contrast, the elaborate postgraduate teaching and research infrastructure that is widely available in the West, alongside the postdoctoral career opportunities that render feasible the emergence of tens of thousands of scholars on a regular basis in Western academia, are lacking in the Muslim world for reasons of economic limitation, but also social and governmental disinterest, if not negligence. Such problems are larger than can be addressed in the current article, but deserve much greater reflection on the part of contemporary Muslims. The above challenges notwithstanding, individual Islamic scholars can often be recognized by both systems if they have a combination of training in an Islamic institute and a doctorate in Islamic studies at a more secular institution. A number of the *ʿulamāʾ* prominent in the public sphere in the West enjoy such an intellectual pedigree. But as well as serving as authoritative interpreters of divine guidance, another dimension of the *ʿulamāʾ*’s importance lies less in their juristic prowess, and more in their authority as practitioners and upholders of a particular way of being in the world. An Islamic scholar is indeed meant to be an inheritor of the Prophet’s knowledge, but additionally is meant to perform some other prophetic tasks. Notably, a true scholar is supposed to uphold the highest standards of behavior exemplified by the Prophet ﷺ. To be clear, a sound Sunni understanding of Islam precludes the possibility of claiming to inherit any of the Prophet’s direct access to revelation. Such a view would border on the blasphemous. But the *ʿulamāʾ* are expected to uphold Islamic norms in their own personal behavior. The Qur’an describes the Prophet ﷺ as being an exemplar for all Muslims: “The Messenger of God is an excellent model for those of you who place your hope in God and the Last Day and remember Him often.”[^14] This divine appointment of the Prophet ﷺ as an exemplar surely reflects the divine recognition of humanity’s need for guides from among themselves. Allah says elsewhere in the Qur’an: > The only thing that kept these people from believing, when guidance came to them, was that they said, “How could God have sent a human being as a messenger?” Say, “If there were angels tranquilly walking about on the earth, We would have sent them an angel from Heaven as a messenger.”[^15] In-person access to scholars is the ideal, both for their knowledge and for their moral example. However, in the unfortunate case that one does not have access to such scholars but does know Arabic, there are fantastic *fatwa* banks online that can be used by Arabic readers (and some even by English readers). One of the most prolific (Islamweb.net) also has a *fatwa* as to whether a layperson may accept *fatwa*s from online websites.[^16] Its answer is predictably positive. However, the *fatwa* stresses the importance of verifying the source of any *fatwa*, and consequently refers to Islamweb.net’s “About Us” page, which reveals that the institution is funded by Qatar’s Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs. The Qatari affiliation of such a website means that one might need to be circumspect about *fatwa*s that discuss Qatar, given the relative limits of free political expression in much of the Middle East. The same would apply to *fatwa*s issued by the Egyptian Dār al-Iftāʾ, the official *fatwa*\-issuing body of Egypt, when it comes to *fatwa*s against political opponents of the state. In this connection, it is worth citing Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), who reportedly declared: “Everyone has a share of *ijtihād* to perform, and the *ijtihād* of the layperson (*ʿāmmī*) is to choose who to follow.”[^17] For example, under the iron grip of the secularizing Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammad b. Salman, Saudi *fatwa* bodies’ pronouncements on politically sensitive questions must be read with considerable caution. I would argue that this can be true of even Western scholars who might align themselves with Islamophobic regimes in the West, or authoritarian regimes in the Muslim world.[^18] --- ## Where are the female scholars (ʿālimāt)? In theory, Islamic scholarship is not the preserve of men alone. In practice, this is another realm in which Muslim communities need to reassess their priorities. There are very few female ʿ*ālimāt* relative to male *ʿulamāʾ*. In part this may be due to what has already been discussed—the lack of social prestige in Islamic scholarship. Another cause is the lack of training opportunities for female *ʿulamāʾ*. Anecdotally speaking, this lack appears to be widespread. Many scholars I know who have studied or taught in female-only Islamic institutes, both in the Muslim majority world and the West, have lamented the poor quality of teaching at these institutions when compared to the quality of training they received at Western universities. Such scholars have suggested that such institutions clearly do not intend to produce serious scholars. This naturally needs to change. There are good reasons for the Muslim *umma* to value the training of female scholars who can undertake the all-important task of serving as role models for women *and* men. [The seeking of knowledge is, of course, a general obligation, and the Prophet's wife and Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her), was a noted scholar, jurist, and *muftiya*.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-did-prophet-muhammad-marry-aisha-dismantling-the-controversy-of-aishas-age) Indeed, the noted Damascene Ḥanbalī jurist, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350), was just one of the many scholars who praised her as a prolific issuer of *fatwa*s.[^19] Nor was she exceptional in Islamic history. As my own teacher Shaykh Muhammad Akram Nadwi has illustrated in his 40-volume encyclopedia of female hadith scholars, there were thousands upon thousands of women from across Islamic history who served as scholars of hadith. For her part, our Mother ʿĀʾisha praised the women of Medina for their desire to gain a deep understanding of their religion. As recorded in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, she stated: “How excellent are the women of the *Anṣār*: their shyness did not prevent them from gaining a deep understanding of their *dīn*.”[^20] In our own day, women are afforded the opportunity to gain higher education in a host of fields, but rarely are they afforded the opportunity to study the Sharia sciences at an advanced level. As noted, this is likely a function of the weak infrastructure for Sharia training throughout the *umma*, and a general strengthening of that infrastructure is desperately needed for both genders. This will hopefully begin to redress the fairly extreme shortage of female experts in the Sharia sciences who have graduated from Islamic institutes. The training of female scholars has many additional benefits, of course, not all of which can be explored in this paper. For instance, female Islamic scholars are likely to become mothers who will necessarily be educators of the children they raise. While men also have a responsibility to educate their children, particularly when they grow older, fathers’ Islamic legal responsibility to provide financially for their families means their direct involvement in education is typically less frequent and less extensive than is the case for mothers.[^21] Hence, in terms of raw numbers, Islamic educational institutions arguably ought to prioritize women’s opportunities over those of men. And while not all mothers need to be trained to become authoritative *ʿulamāʾ*, it has always been the practice of the Muslim *umma* in its periods of strength to provide women the opportunity to become ʿ*ālimāt* alongside the *ʿulamāʾ* who dedicate their lives to such endeavors. Once again, significant efforts need to be directed to changing the prevailing practices within our communities. Given the neglect that we as an *umma* have shown to Islamic education in general, such a reorientation needs to take place across the board. Only then can we hope for the emergence of scholars who address the needs of the *umma*, be they male or female. --- ## What if the ʿulamāʾ get things wrong? Unlike the Prophet ﷺ, no scholar can expect to receive revelation that corrects them if they make mistakes. Thus, the expectations Muslims have of their *ʿulamāʾ* must be tempered by this realism. This must be practiced on at least three levels. Firstly, notwithstanding the immense respect due to the *ʿulamāʾ*, Muslims must not put them on pedestals that place them beyond error or correction. Secondly, Muslims must be forgiving of the mistakes of our all- too-human *ʿulamāʾ*, in cases where they have made clear mistakes but have demonstrated that they have seen the error of their ways. Thirdly, we must recognize that the *ʿulamāʾ* may differ among themselves on what Islam calls for with respect to a given situation, so what one person may consider an error, may simply reflect the considered judgment of a scholar. [The earliest *ʿulamāʾ* of our community were keenly aware that they were human beings who could make mistakes rather than prophets divinely protected from error.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line) It is narrated from a number of early Muslims, including the great Medinan imam and eponymous founder of a school of law Mālik ibn Anas (d. 189/795), that: “We may accept or reject statements from everyone, except the Prophet (ﷺ).”[^22] In other words, while we unconditionally accept everything the Prophet ﷺ taught us, given his capacity as God’s Messenger, such unconditional acceptance is not extended to anyone else. All other views are to be evaluated as sound or otherwise relative to their conformity to the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ. If a scholar emerges who exercises their scholarly judgment (*ijtihād*) and arrives at a problematic conclusion—arguing, for example, that wine or pork may be consumed by Muslims without qualification—their followers may not follow them, since such rulings are known as a matter of necessity (*maʿlūm min al-dīn bi’l-ḍarūra*) to be forbidden, in these instances, in the Qur’an. This has become all the more important in our own times because of the weakening of institutions of Islamic religious authority, particularly in the wake of colonialism and the collapse of a properly constituted Islamic caliphate. The process has been acute in some contexts, and more gradual in others, but we can all recognize that the *ʿulamāʾ* do not have a great deal of social or political authority in most contemporary Muslim societies. This marks a dramatic change in fortunes compared to the historic reality in which the *ʿulamāʾ* could make or break rulers, including the caliph. Even in the most recent iteration of the caliphate, under the Ottomans (r. 1517/923-1924/1341), the *ʿulamāʾ* repeatedly exercised their power to remove a caliph and replace him with a more suitable candidate.[^23] This cannot be dreamt of in any Muslim polity today. This degree of authority was recognized in Islamic scholarship from the earliest times and through the centuries, as exemplified by the following statement from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: > The correct position is that rulers (*umarāʾ*) are only to be obeyed inasmuch as they issue commands that are in accord with scholarship (*ʿilm*). Consequently, \[the obligation\] to obey them follows from \[the obligation\] to obey the scholars (*ʿulamaʾ*). For obedience is only to be rendered in those matters which are known to be right (*maʿrūf*) and what is obligated by scholarship (*ʿilm*). So just as obeying *ʿulamaʾ* follows from obeying the Messenger ﷺ, similarly obeying rulers follows from obeying the *ʿulamaʾ*. Since the practice of Islam can only be fully realized through two groups of people: the scholars and the rulers; and since all people are their followers, worldly flourishing is only attainable through the flourishing of these two groups, and its corruption is through their corruption. As ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181/797) and other forebears (*salaf*) have said: There are two types of people who, if they flourish, the people will flourish, and if they are depraved, the people will be depraved. He was asked: “Who are they?” He replied: “The rulers and the *ʿulamaʾ*.”[^24] Why was such a position of authority important? As our own times illustrate, the removal of the *ʿulamāʾ* has been part and parcel of the removal of Islam as a normative force in society more generally. It is true that in much of the Muslim world today, one can find relatively vibrant *ʿulamāʾ* institutions that have been cultivating scholarship in the Islamic sciences (*al-ʿulūm al-Sharʿiyya*). But without structural foundations propping up an Islamic socio-cultural matrix backed by political power, and indeed, forming the basis of such power, these phenomena remain brittle and may easily be uprooted, as the hegemonic secular norms of our time demand. This is why, as a matter of long-standing consensus in Sunni Islam, it is an obligation for the political authorities to uphold Islamic norms.[^25] In many Muslim countries, *ʿulamāʾ* institutions have been gravely compromised by the rise of the nation-state. States like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) offer particularly striking examples of governments that have succeeded in bringing significant sections of their *ʿulamāʾ* classes under state control. In such contexts, as Jonathan A. C. Brown has suggested, one should be extremely wary of taking as authoritative the pronouncements of the *ʿulamāʾ* in political matters, which are likely to be compromised by their political subordination.[^26] This is not to say that these scholars’ *fatwa*s on how to conduct one’s prayers need to be rejected. In such cases, the average layperson can generally assume that they are faithfully passing on *fiqh* rulings. Where issues become more political, however, such as their support for the oppression of dictators, or their legitimation of normalizing relations with Israel while it is engaged in a colonial occupation which periodically rains down missiles on the largely defenseless peoples of Palestine, such *ʿulamāʾ* should be avoided as sources of guidance in these arenas.[^27] One might ask whether or not such behavior on the part of some *ʿulamāʾ* undermines the credibility of the *ʿulamāʾ* as a whole. The earlier part of this article established that the *ʿulamāʾ* are indispensable to gaining a sound understanding of our *dīn*, especially in periods of “ummatic” transition like today. Some people will undoubtedly feel a sense of disillusionment at the emergence of politically compromised *ʿulamāʾ*. It is natural for humans to feel suspicious of groups regarding whom they hear negative reports, and it is also unfortunately common for human beings to generalize such reports when they have little direct experience of the group reported on. Indeed, one could argue that this is how Islamophobia operates globally. Yet, as I contend in a book that looks at the way some *ʿulamāʾ* have engaged in the politics of the Arab revolutions and their aftermath over the past decade or so, while there are *ʿulamāʾ* who have been compromised by their associations with oppressive regimes today, it makes little sense to generalize about the vast majority of *ʿulamāʾ*. Most either stay away from the contentious realm of politics given the risks of opposition, or else vocally criticize the problematic stances of the relatively miniscule number of *ʿulamāʾ* who have thrown in their lot with authoritarian regimes.[^28] This is not to say that the prominence granted by states to such “*ʿulamāʾ* of the sultan,” as they are sometimes called, is not a problem. This situation needs to be rectified through a process of political reform in which these states are, through proper Islamic means, transformed into states with accountable governments—a process in which leading *ʿulamāʾ* would have historically played a crucial role. --- ## Infallible sources, fallible humans In contrast with the opinions of fallible human beings, be they learned or otherwise, Muslims recognize the Qur’an and Sunnah as infallible sources of guidance.[^29] This is to say that Muslims, despite not having infallible knowledge of every interpretive possibility of every verse and hadith in the Qur’an, can know the broad contours of belief and practice mandated by these sources. More generally, Sunnis agree that any opinion found to be mainstream in the four *madhhab*s could be legitimately followed without controversy. On finer details of interpretation, such as which of the ways of wiping one’s head was intended by Allah in the Qur’an, or even that He intended only a single interpretation, we cannot claim certitude. All we can claim is certainty around more general facts. In the case just noted, for example, we can claim with certainty, according to the *ʿulamāʾ*, that Qur’an 5:6 requires us to wipe our heads in some manner during *wuḍūʾ*, though we cannot be more specific than that. Historically, the broad contours of belief and practice just referred to have formed the basis of an Islamic civilizational project.[^30] Other civilizational projects, like those of the West, similarly are characterized by immense disagreements on the finer details of their ventures. We see these disagreements played out on a daily basis in social, political, and cultural controversies. They are debated and analyzed to no end at universities, for example. Yet, these disagreements are largely set aside when existential political or ideological threats need to be confronted. The fact that *ʿulamāʾ* are meant to be authoritative reference points for the lay Muslim who may find themselves confused on the “Islamic perspective” on a particular question does not negate the fact that the *ʿulamāʾ* are themselves fallible human beings.[^31] This is a point that bears repeating given how commonly human beings tend to place absolute trust in other humans when it comes to spiritual matters. *ʿUlamāʾ* are as fallible as any other kind of specialist. The specialized knowledge of a financial advisor or engineer does not preclude the possibility that they may make mistakes, even major ones. A doctor or lawyer may suffer from forgetfulness or not act with the best of intentions, despite their oaths to do no harm or to uphold the law. They are, after all, human beings, and hence there must be mechanisms in place for accountability and the redressing of wrongs. For medical or fiduciary negligence, for example, there are regulations that allow for restitution in modern legal systems. This is often less readily available in cases now sometimes referred to as “spiritual abuse,” for example.[^32] In the absence of such mechanisms for redress, vigilance is called for, and Muslim communities are obligated to find ways to balance reverence for their religious specialists with a recognition that they are sometimes all too human in their frailty. On the other hand, in many of our communities in the modern world, the problem is not one of undue reverence, but no reverence at all. There is a desperate need for Muslims to take religious training seriously, to grant it social recognition and prestige such that it attracts talented minds able to develop the levels of expertise we need in our communities locally, nationally, and transnationally. As already highlighted, modern Muslims have woefully neglected their religious duty to develop the kind of religious expertise in our communities that will help address the questions that people have on a whole range of contemporary issues. A concerted communal effort is required to develop robust institutions that can produce the scholarly knowledge necessary to address the sorts of issues we face as a community. Every member of the community has a role to play in this process. This entails recognizing and respecting Islamic knowledge as an enterprise to which would-be scholars are able and willing to dedicate their education and subsequent careers. Too often in our communities, those who have dedicated their lives to Islamic learning are looked down upon as failures who could not make it in more prestigious fields. This in turn contributes to a vicious cycle in which the education of future *ʿulamāʾ* becomes the preserve of less capable students, while the most talented end up in “secular” fields like medicine and law. These tendencies are, taking into account local variation, true on an *umma*\-wide scale, and their consequences over the last several generations have included the diminution of many Muslims’ commitment to their own religious tradition  as well as the emergence of an *ʿulamāʾ* class that is too often unable to bear the burdens of the challenges facing the *umma*. --- ## “Heirs of the prophets” It is well-nigh impossible to discuss the role of the *ʿulamāʾ* without referencing the Prophet’s luminous hadith regarding the pursuit of sacred knowledge. Reported in multiple collections of hadith, as well as in the popular *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn* collection of Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277), this hadith comprises a central pillar in our understanding of who the *ʿulamāʾ* are and the enormous moral burden they must bear. According to this report, the Prophet ﷺ said: > Whoever travels a path on which he seeks knowledge, Allah makes a path to Paradise easy for him. Indeed, the angels lower their wings in approval of the one seeking knowledge. The inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and even the fish in the depths of the sea seek forgiveness for him. The superiority of the scholar over the worshiper is like the superiority of the moon over the stars. Indeed, the scholars are the heirs of the prophets, and the prophets do not leave behind dinars or dirhams, but rather knowledge. So, whoever acquires it has indeed acquired a bounteous share.[^33] What this hadith conveys in broad terms is the immense virtue of pursuing sacred knowledge, and the great rank of those who acquire it for the right reasons. The fact that intentions are all-important is strikingly illustrated in another hadith that serves as a dire warning for those who would pursue the sacred knowledge of our *dīn* for worldly reasons. In a longer hadith that is also found in *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn*, the Prophet ﷺ speaks of a scene on the Day of Resurrection. He states: > A man who had acquired and imparted knowledge and read the Qur'an will be brought forward. Allah will remind him of the favors He had bestowed upon him and the man will acknowledge them. Then He will ask him: “What did you do to express gratitude for these favors?” The man will reply: “I acquired knowledge and taught it, and read the Qur'an for Your sake.” Allah will say to him: “You have lied. You acquired knowledge so that people might call you a learned man, and you read the Qur'an so that they might call you a reciter, and they have done so.” A command will then be issued, and he will be dragged on his face and thrown into Hell.[^34] The role of the heirs of the prophets is clearly not to be taken lightly. With the right intention, pursuing knowledge is the most virtuous of acts; but with wayward intentions, one may be destined for Hellfire—May Allah ﷻ protect us. This key reality notwithstanding, the *ʿulamāʾ* remain indispensable to a proper understanding of Islam. --- ## Conclusion In this article, I set out to explain what role the *ʿulamāʾ* are meant to play in facilitating the vibrant spiritual life of the Muslim *umma*. I attempted to answer a collection of concerns about whether the *ʿulamāʾ* continue to have any relevance in the present day. I hope to have demonstrated that the answer to these concerns is unequivocally in the affirmative. The *ʿulamāʾ* are heirs to the Prophet ﷺ in offering guidance to Muslims regarding how they can best adhere to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Muslims have historically recognized how and why the *ʿulamāʾ* serve this crucial social and spiritual role in their communities. Yet, this understanding has been challenged by the systematic collapse of Islamic civilizational infrastructure in recent centuries. This ummatic condition provides the crucial context in which questions about the relevance of the *ʿulamāʾ* arose in the first place. Muslims as a community must come to recognize the importance of institution-building that directly caters to the training and development of *ʿulamāʾ*. Rebuilding the Islamic infrastructure that once served this purpose is key to restoring the authority of the*ʿulamāʾ*. This same infrastructure must also serve to produce female *ʿulamāʾ* who can bring unique perspectives and also serve as role models of learning and piety for the *umma* as the Qur’an states of Maryam (*ʿalayhā al-salām*) and the wife of Pharaoh.[^35] There also needs to be a recognition that the *ʿulamāʾ* are fallible human beings, and that no Muslim is ever absolved of individual responsibility before Allah. It is my hope that the foregoing reflections have conveyed the challenging balancing act that modern Muslims have to collectively engage in to begin to rectify their spiritual condition. They simultaneously need to respect their *ʿulamāʾ* as beacons of guidance while being aware of their current weakness as a social class and their potential human frailty as individuals. Furthermore, Muslim communities need to extend their respect to these “heirs of the prophets” despite having spent generations diminishing their social value. Rather than persist in their long-standing, systematic neglect of Islamic learning, modern Muslims need to recognize Islam as a discursive framework for understanding the world around them in a way that conforms with the divine revelation received by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as guidance for humanity in all subsequent ages. In other words, we need a new revival of the religious sciences for our times. This is an urgent communal obligation that the *umma* has failed to uphold, potentially placing the global Muslim community in a state of sin until it is fulfilled. The only question that remains is whether the *umma* is willing to give this important task the attention it deserves. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn al-Qayyim is cited in this *fatwa* discussing the hadith: https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/288472/شرح-حديث-صاحب-الشجة. For the original, see Ibn al-Qayyim, Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn ʿan Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn, ed. Mashhūr Āl Salmān (Jeddah: Dār Ibn Jawzī, 1423), 3:529. [^2]: See Abū Dāwūd, *al-Sunan*, Kitāb al-ṭahāra, Bāb fī al-majrūḥ yatayammam, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:336. According to the contemporary hadith scholar, Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī (d. 1420/1999), what I have cited from the report is *ḥasan*, i.e., sound. [^3]: Jonathan Brown has demonstrated how some modern attempts at interpreting the Qur’an without reference to extra-Qur’anic sources on the part of the so-called “Qur’an Only” movement illustrate the implausibility of such efforts succeeding. See Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy* (Oxford: Oneworld, 2014), 200–206 passim. [^4]: Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī et al. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1427/2006), 14:179, https://archive.org/details/waq73651/14\_73664/page/n178/mode/2up?view=theater. [^5]: Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad*, 200–206 passim. [^6]: This anonymous pair of couplets is occasionally cited by scholars as highlighting the various senses of the letter *bāʾ*: [^7]: The influential fifth/eleventh century scholar, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzāi, is among numerous scholars throughout Islamic history who have warned against this pitfall of scholarship. [^8]: See: “FAQs: Judges in the United States,” Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, University of Denver, June 12, 2014, [https://iaals.du.edu/publications/faqs-judges-united-states](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://iaals.du.edu/publications/faqs-judges-united-states&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447950885&usg=AOvVaw3crxYRqbteMVX9ixf1VkEs). [^9]: “New ABA data reveals rise in number of US lawyers, 15 percent increase since 2008,” American Bar Association, May 11, 2018, [https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2018/05/new\_aba\_data\_reveals/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2018/05/new_aba_data_reveals/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447951308&usg=AOvVaw337ibZFpBd9m3spcUNKp6b). [^10]: See, for example, the works of the non-Muslim scholars Wael Hallaq, *The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013) and Noah Feldman, *The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). [^11]: Regarding this great scholar’s *nisba*, Frank Griffel argues that historically there has been disagreement as to whether or not it comes from a wool spinner (*ghazzāl*) or a place (Ghazāla). He writes, “the most talented Arab historians of this period— Ibn Khallikān, al-Dhahabī, and al-Ṣafadī —understood that the matter could not be settled and remained uncommitted.” See his, “Al-Ghazālī or al-Ghazzālī? On a Lively Debate Among Ayyūbid and Mamlūk Historians in Damascus.”" I wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for directing my attention to this reference. [^12]: I have modified the translation of Kenneth Honerkamp. See Ghazālī and Kenneth Lee Honerkamp, *Kitāb al-ʻilm, The Book of Knowledge: Book 1 of the Iḥyāʼ ʻUlūm al-Dīn, The Revival of the Religious Sciences* (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2015), 54. For the original, see Ghazzālī, *Iḥyāʼ ʻulūm al-dīn* (Jeddah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2011) 1:81–82. [^13]: I have elsewhere discussed the limitations of relying on *ijaza*s to assess the reliability of scholars. For that discussion, see: Usaama al-Azami, “Traditional Islam, Ideology, Immigrant Muslims, and Grievance Culture: A Review of *Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe* by Abdal Hakim Murad,” *Muslim Matters*, 05/02/2021, available at: https://muslimmatters.org/2021/02/05/traditional-islam-ideology-immigrant-muslims-and-grievance-culture-a-review-of-travelling-home-essays-on-islam-in-europe-by-abdal-hakim-murad/. [^14]: Qur’an 33:21. [^15]: Qur’an 17:94–95. [^16]: See “*Ḥukm akhdh al-fatwā min al-mawāqiʿ al-iliktrūniyya maʿa ʿadam al-ʿilm bi-l-muftīn fī-hā*,” *Islamweb.net*, January 1, 2013, [https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/195005/حكم-أخذ-الفتوى-من-المواقع-الإلكترونية-مع-عدم-العلم-بالمفتين-فيها-ومدى-أهليتهم-للفتوى](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/195005/%25D8%25AD%25D9%2583%25D9%2585-%25D8%25A3%25D8%25AE%25D8%25B0-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D9%2581%25D8%25AA%25D9%2588%25D9%2589-%25D9%2585%25D9%2586-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D9%2585%25D9%2588%25D8%25A7%25D9%2582%25D8%25B9-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25A5%25D9%2584%25D9%2583%25D8%25AA%25D8%25B1%25D9%2588%25D9%2586%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9-%25D9%2585%25D8%25B9-%25D8%25B9%25D8%25AF%25D9%2585-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25B9%25D9%2584%25D9%2585-%25D8%25A8%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D9%2585%25D9%2581%25D8%25AA%25D9%258A%25D9%2586-%25D9%2581%25D9%258A%25D9%2587%25D8%25A7-%25D9%2588%25D9%2585%25D8%25AF%25D9%2589-%25D8%25A3%25D9%2587%25D9%2584%25D9%258A%25D8%25AA%25D9%2587%25D9%2585-%25D9%2584%25D9%2584%25D9%2581%25D8%25AA%25D9%2588%25D9%2589&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447952281&usg=AOvVaw1jmIAM1HHlvRZ8znbAzoO7). [^17]: This is cited by the contemporary Mauritanian scholar, Muḥammad al-Ḥasan Wuld al-Dadaw (b. 1383/1963), in his oral commentary on al-Juwaynī’s *al-Waraqāt fī uṣūl al-fiqh*. For a transcribed version of these lectures, see [https://ketabonline.com/ar/books/5804/read?part=5&page=124&index=3272575/3272592/3272594](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ketabonline.com/ar/books/5804/read?part%3D5%26page%3D124%26index%3D3272575/3272592/3272594&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447952688&usg=AOvVaw3L-aUUh6FzS_naX2EJgtmq). I have been unable to locate this precise quotation in his works after a non-exhaustive search. [^18]: There are unfortunate cases of Islamic scholars supporting French anti-headscarf legislation or supporting authoritarian regimes in the Middle East in their attempts at crushing Islamically-oriented democratic movements. I discuss some of these examples in my book, *Islam and the Arab Revolutions: The Ulama Between Democracy and Autocracy* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022). [^19]: See Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn ‘an Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn* (Riyadh: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1423\[2002–2003\]), 2:18, [https://archive.org/details/ILMULMUWEQQINanRabbiLlemn06IbnQajjimElDewzijje/I%27L%C4%80MU-L-MUWEQQI%27%C4%AAN%20%27an%20rabbi-l-%27%C4%81lem%C4%ABn%20%2002%20%20%20-%20%20%20Ibn%20Qajjim%20el-D%C5%BEewzijje/page/n17/mode/2up?view=theater](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/ILMULMUWEQQINanRabbiLlemn06IbnQajjimElDewzijje/I%2527L%25C4%2580MU-L-MUWEQQI%2527%25C4%25AAN%2520%2527an%2520rabbi-l-%2527%25C4%2581lem%25C4%25ABn%2520%252002%2520%2520%2520-%2520%2520%2520Ibn%2520Qajjim%2520el-D%25C5%25BEewzijje/page/n17/mode/2up?view%3Dtheater&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447953351&usg=AOvVaw1oI6BbrPIlcfVaX-tW_cWj). [^20]: See al-Bukhari, *al-Jami‘ al-Sahih*, *kitab al-‘ilm*, *bab al-haya’ fi al-‘ilm*. This report is transmitted without a full chain of narrators (i.e., it is *mu‘allaq*) in *Sahih al-Bukhari*, but is reported elsewhere with full chains deemed reliable. For one such example found in *Sahih Muslim*, see [https://sunnah.com/muslim:332c](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:332c&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447953938&usg=AOvVaw1Yk894W8Vd9G1_RYyb5qOZ). [^21]: Even if there are cases where both spouses work—an increasing reality in neoliberal societies—the Sharia obligation for husbands to provide financially for their families sets the tone of gender roles in ways that are often at odds with contemporary Western norms and/or aspirations. This is not to say that individual spouses cannot renegotiate how such Sharia obligations are upheld in practice, nor that there is no latitude in the interpretation of such norms in ways that remain faithful to the scriptural sources, a reality that is reflected in the various ways in which Islamic scholars have interpreted spousal obligations over the course of the past fourteen hundred years. For an excellent illustration of some of that variety, see Marion Holmes Katz, *Wives and Work: Islamic Law and Ethics Before Modernity* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022). It is clear from the Qur’an and Sunnah, however, that the obligation of men to provide for their families is a mainstay of marriage in Islam. The fact that systemic wage suppression of the middle classes over the decades has made this impracticable in many cases illustrates how Islamic norms may be difficult to uphold in civilizational contexts in which Muslims are disempowered and unable to shape policy and social mores in accordance with their values. This does not undermine, in principle, the normativity of Prophetic guidance. But it does highlight the necessity of flexibility in practicing the Sharia in adverse conditions, as well as the importance of self-consciously cultivating Sharia-confirming sensibilities in contexts in which actual conditions preclude those subjectivities from being formed through normal social practice. [^22]: For the attribution of the report to early authorities, see [https://al-maktaba.org/book/31615/19878](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://al-maktaba.org/book/31615/19878&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447954502&usg=AOvVaw0cZRiua5yvWkCtOeXXQ3z9). [^23]: Samy A. Ayoub, *Law, Empire, and the Sultan: Ottoman Imperial Authority and Late Hanafi Jurisprudence* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 22. Ayoub is drawing on the work of Recep Şentürk. See Şentürk, “Between Traditional and New Forms of Authority in Modern Islam,” in *Tradition and Modernity: Christian and Muslim Perspectives*, ed. David Marshall (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013), 45– 56, 45. [^24]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn ʿan Rabb al-ʿālamīn*, eds. Mashhūr Āl Salmān and Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1423), 2:16. [^25]: For a discussion of this issue, see Ovamir Anjum, “Who Wants the Caliphate?,” Yaqeen Institute, October 19, 2019, available at: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/who-wants-the-caliphate. [^26]: Jonathan Brown, “Keeping Our Eye on the Ball: The Problem with the UAE Summit,” MuslimMatters, December 17, 2018, [https://muslimmatters.org/2018/12/17/keeping-our-eye-on-the-ball-the-problem-with-the-uae-summit/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimmatters.org/2018/12/17/keeping-our-eye-on-the-ball-the-problem-with-the-uae-summit/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447955117&usg=AOvVaw14VAWUDYxThfCXF6AsYfCs). [^27]: Sadly, this has happened in several instances. I note one case in my book. [^28]: Al-Azami, *Islam and the Arab Revolutions.* [^29]: The Sunnah, to be counted as such, must be soundly transmitted, an arena that is the realm of legitimate disagreement among specialists with respect to individual reports. [^30]: This is an important counter to the tiresome refrain that the Sharia cannot be known since there are so many different interpretations. This is a red herring. Every system that forms the basis for a legal culture or a civilization develops mechanisms for resolving disputes wherein differences of opinion lead to intractable social problems. This is why Sharia-based rule of law systems established courts, and as the legal maxim has it, “the ruling of a judge eliminates difference of opinion.” The supposed claims of the indeterminacy of the Sharia naturally apply *a fortiori* to systems that are built entirely on the contingent, socially constructed practices found in post-Enlightenment Europe. [^31]: I use the phrase “the Islamic perspective” for the sentence to flow better. Of course not all issues have a single Islamic perspective. In fact, aside from core components of belief understood in general terms, there are typically multiple Islamic perspectives on a given issue, as indicated above when discussing how to wipe one’s head during *wuḍūʾ*. [^32]: The term “spiritual abuse” has been used in a number of ways in public discourse. In mainstream Western uses, it sometimes implies that religious traditions and figures are especially susceptible to these forms of abuse, although the examples mentioned above, and the fact that some of these cases have been highlighted in the context of the #MeToo movement, illustrates that there are wider trends in society for which the term is a specifically religious analogue. Islamic scholars like Dr. Rania Awaad and Shaykh Rami Nsour use the term in the more careful sense that I am appealing to here. For a discussion, see: Rami Nsour, “My Reflections on Spiritual Abuse,” *Journal of Islamic Faith and Practice* 4:1, (2022), available at: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/JIFP/article/view/26552. [^33]: This hadith appears in multiple canonical collections including those of al-Tirmidhī, Abū Dāwūd, Ibn Mājah, and the *Musnad* of Aḥmad. For a comprehensive attribution of the hadith to these sources and a discussion of the strength of the report, see Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad*, 36:46–48, [https://archive.org/details/musnadahmed/ahmd\_36/page/n45/mode/2up?view=theater](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/musnadahmed/ahmd_36/page/n45/mode/2up?view%3Dtheater&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447958012&usg=AOvVaw3RQAitm9Sp0Ad-2J837W44). The modern editors of the *Musnad* consider the hadith to be *ḥasan li-ghayrihī*, owing to some weakness in several of its versions that do not ultimately undermine its legitimate use in religious practice. For the report as preserved in al-Nawawī’s *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn,* see [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1388](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1388&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447958301&usg=AOvVaw0qhdWgN4ig4daEMaOZjYmY). On an entirely unrelated note, the lack of gender inclusive language in my translation is a reflection of the inevitably gendered nature of the Arabic language. To avoid anachronism, I do not use gender inclusive language when translating this and other premodern texts in this article. [^34]: To read the full report in al-Nawawi’s *Riyad al-Salihin*, which draws it from *Sahih Muslim*, indicating its authenticity, see [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1617](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1617&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1683242447958658&usg=AOvVaw3D16RDicqDQWL58dG8Whh2). [^35]: Qur’an 66:11-12. ## Summary Muslims are often confronted with a pressing question: if Allah has revealed His guidance through the Qur'an and the Sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ, and if these sources are now easily accessible through modern technology, why must ordinary believers depend upon fallible human scholars to mediate their relationship with their Lord? A balanced answer affirms both the indispensability of authentic Islamic scholarship and the enduring moral responsibility of every believer to exercise sound judgment in matters of doubt. Muslims of every era have recognized that the ʿulamāʾ are necessary to explain how the Qur'an and Sunnah, revealed in an Arabian context nearly fifteen centuries ago, ought to apply in later times. It was only the socio-cultural upheavals accompanying Europe's industrial revolution and colonial expansion that globalized secular assumptions and rendered the scholars seemingly irrelevant in the eyes of many today. The gravity of speaking about the religion without knowledge is illustrated by the incident of a wounded Companion who, after a nocturnal emission while travelling, was told by his fellows that he must perform ghusl rather than tayammum. He complied and subsequently died. The Prophet ﷺ, upon hearing of this, declared with rare severity, "They killed him. May Allah kill them!" and added, "Could they not ask when they did not know? The cure for ignorance is asking." As Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya observed, this was the Prophet's supplication against "a group of people who gave a fatwa without knowledge," leading to a man's death. The harshness of the rebuke, far from negating the Prophet's mercy, underscores by its very rarity the seriousness of issuing verdicts about Allah's religion without sound learning. The need for scholarly expertise arises from the very nature of revelation. The Qur'an is a richly textured text whose finer details often cannot be grasped without recourse to the Prophetic Sunnah, and both admit of multiple interpretations. A useful comparison is the United States Constitution: at merely 4,543 words, it is shorter than a modest article, yet it has generated an enormous judicial and educational apparatus devoted to its interpretation. Likewise, the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ have guided one of history's most significant civilizations for a millennium. Human societies cannot thrive without specialization; just as we depend upon physicians, engineers, and public servants, the lay Muslim depends upon the ʿulamāʾ as specialists in the divine revelation that directs how we must live. This is affirmed by the verse, "Ask the people of knowledge if you do not know" (al-Naḥl 16:43), regarding which the Andalusian exegete al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1273) noted the scholars' agreement that it establishes the obligation of the common people to follow their ʿulamāʾ. The vast majority of Muslims cannot access the Qur'an and Sunnah without translation, and translation is itself a scholarly labour requiring mastery of the Arabic of first/seventh-century Arabia. Jonathan A. C. Brown, in his work Misquoting Muhammad, argues that efforts to understand the Qur'an without the interpretive exertions of the ʿulamāʾ are doomed to failure, noting that even the Companions at times turned to pre-Islamic poetry to elucidate the Qur'an's word choices, and that modernists who seek to marginalize extra-Qur'anic authority such as the hadith are self-defeating, since they too must rely upon the extra-Qur'anic work of Arabic lexicographers. This complexity extends even to a single letter. In the verse of wuḍūʾ, al-Māʾida 5:6, the phrase "wa'msaḥū bi-ruʾūsikum" involves the letter bāʾ, which the grammarians say carries fourteen meanings, and the jurists accordingly differ over whether the whole head or only part must be wiped. Multiplied across the Qur'an's roughly six thousand verses and the tens of thousands of hadith, the difficulty of arriving at the divinely intended meaning becomes clear. Though some earlier scholars warned against pointless pedantry driven by egotism, such interpretive disagreements are far from trivial. Indeed, modern states devote vast resources to interpreting their own laws; the United States alone has some 32,000 judges and roughly 1.3 million practising lawyers. That many assume religious experts need not be consulted while secular legal experts must reflects the internalization of secularism, a legal culture at odds with the Islamic understanding that has prevailed throughout its history, in which Islam mandates behaviors reasonably described as laws, though many, such as the prohibition of backbiting, carry no worldly sanction but rest upon belief in otherworldly reward and punishment. Throughout Islamic history the ʿulamāʾ provided the legal, spiritual, and normative foundation of Muslim societies, and their labors were highly valued, sometimes with unintended consequences. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111), in the "Book of Knowledge" of his Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, lamented that Muslims were abandoning the study of medicine for fiqh because of the latter's prestige, complaining that jurists crowded into a communal obligation others had fulfilled while neglecting medicine, which none had taken up, drawn by access to endowments, estates, orphans' wealth, and offices of judiciary and government. This reveals both the exalted social standing of the scholars in his day and the stark contrast with the present, in which medicine is prized while religious learning brings little prestige and much financial insecurity. Ghazzālī's own concern, however, was deeper: not the health consequences of outsourcing medicine to non-Muslims, but the spiritual danger that scholars had lost their sense of working for Allah rather than worldly gain. His was the moral crisis of a confident and wealthy society. The modern Muslim crisis is different and arguably more acute, arising not chiefly from worldly corruption of the scholars but from their loss of social standing and moral authority, an erosion wrought over the colonial period by a Eurocentric, secular conception of modernity imposed upon the Muslim world. The deterioration of once-flourishing Islamic societies reflects a transformation of several centuries, involving colonial subjugation, transfers of wealth, and repression grounded in a racist liberal-colonial ideology that cast Western imperialism as a "civilizing" mission. The decentralized legal orders underpinned by an Islamic ethos were uprooted, and many Muslim elites internalized their colonizers' values so deeply that a social order in which the Sharia plays a central role now seems to them unnatural and regressive. This is doubly ironic, for the Western academy itself increasingly recognizes the contingency of its own foundations: the confidence of the Enlightenment has given way to a divided academy consumed by identity politics and culture wars, split between those who cling to an Enlightenment project surviving as a neo-colonial endeavor and relativist postmodern alternatives that tend toward incoherence and meaninglessness, grounded in the ideas of self-identifying nihilists such as Michel Foucault. This confusion underlines the need for divine guidance and raises the question of how reliable scholars are to be recognized. Credible scholars are generally those recognized as authoritative by other scholars, often graduates of major seminaries such as al-Azhar, Deoband, al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd University, the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Madīna University, Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ, the Indonesian Pesantren system, Qarawiyyin, and Saharanpur, though maturing Western institutions may in time produce scholars of comparable caliber. Yet formal training, while essential, is insufficient. Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Nadwī (d. 1420/1999) would tell graduates of Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ, "You now have the tools to become ʿulamāʾ," implying that true scholarship requires a lifetime of study and worship. A Western doctorate in Islamic studies, taught in a secular register, does not itself make one an ʿālim. Beyond juristic expertise, the scholars are heirs to the Prophet ﷺ in upholding the highest standards of conduct, though a sound Sunni understanding forbids any claim to inherit his access to revelation. The Qur'an declares him an exemplar: "The Messenger of God is an excellent model for those of you who place your hope in God and the Last Day and remember Him often," and affirms Allah's wisdom in sending a human messenger rather than an angel. Where in-person access is lacking, reliable fatwa resources exist, though their sources must be verified; the Qatari-funded Islamweb.net, the Egyptian Dār al-Iftāʾ, and Saudi bodies under Muhammad b. Salman must be read with caution on politically sensitive matters. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) reportedly said, "Everyone has a share of ijtihād to perform, and the ijtihād of the layperson is to choose whom to follow." In principle, scholarship is not the preserve of men. The Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾishaؓ was a noted jurist and muftiya, praised by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) as a prolific issuer of fatwas, and Shaykh Muhammad Akram Nadwi has documented thousands of women hadith scholars across Islamic history in his forty-volume encyclopedia. ʿĀʾishaؓ herself praised the women of the Anṣār, saying, as recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, "How excellent are the women of the Anṣār: their shyness did not prevent them from gaining a deep understanding of their dīn." Yet female ʿālimāt today are few, owing to the general lack of prestige and the poor quality of training available to women, a situation urgently needing reform, especially given that mothers are the primary educators of children. Because no scholar receives revelation to correct him, Muslims must neither place the ʿulamāʾ beyond error, nor withhold forgiveness when they sincerely repent of clear mistakes, nor mistake legitimate scholarly difference for error. It is narrated from Mālik ibn Anas (d. 189/795) and others, "We may accept or reject statements from everyone, except the Prophet ﷺ." A scholar whose ijtihād yields conclusions contradicting what is known of the religion by necessity, such as permitting wine or pork, may not be followed. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya held that rulers are to be obeyed only insofar as their commands accord with knowledge, obedience to them following from obedience to the scholars, citing ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181/797) that the welfare of the people rests upon the rulers and the ʿulamāʾ. Historically the scholars could remove even a caliph, as under the Ottomans (r. 1517/923–1924/1341), a power unimaginable today. Jonathan A. C. Brown cautions against treating as authoritative the political pronouncements of state-controlled scholars in places like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, though their rulings on prayer and ordinary fiqh remain trustworthy; where they legitimize oppression or normalization with an occupying Israel, they should be avoided. Yet it is unjust to generalize, for most ʿulamāʾ either avoid contentious politics or openly criticize the small number who serve authoritarian regimes. Muslims recognize the Qur'an and Sunnah as infallible, while all human opinion remains fallible. Believers can know with certainty the broad contours of belief and practice, and any position mainstream within the four madhhabs may be followed, even where finer details, such as the precise manner of wiping the head, remain uncertain. The ʿulamāʾ, like any specialists, may err, and communities must balance reverence with accountability, particularly regarding what is now termed "spiritual abuse." Yet in much of the modern world the problem is not excessive reverence but its total absence and the neglect of Islamic learning. The Prophet ﷺ said, as recorded in Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn of al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277), "the scholars are the heirs of the prophets," who "do not leave behind dinars or dirhams, but rather knowledge." Yet intention is decisive, for another hadith warns of the scholar dragged into Hell for having sought knowledge so that people would call him learned. The producing of adequate scholars, for both men and women, is a communal obligation the umma has failed to fulfill, potentially leaving it in sin until discharged; what is needed is nothing less than a new revival of the religious sciences for our times. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-rewards-for-fasting-6-days-in-shawwal # The Rewards for Fasting 6 Days in Shawwal **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Shawwal **Published:** April 20, 2023 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 And just like that, an entire month of fasting has gone by. Even though the thought of fasting for weeks on end may have felt intimidating before Ramadan began, many of us simply blinked and time was up. We have been left with a profound sense of bitter-sweetness now that the month is over. “What do I do next?” we may ask ourselves, “[How can I maintain that spirit of Ramadan?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/finding-consistency-after-ramadan-webinar/)” The Prophet ﷺ gave us the solution we need when he encouraged us to fast 6 days in the month that immediately follows Ramadan: Shawwal. > Fasting the 6 days of Shawwal is not obligatory, but voluntarily carried out in hope of its reward. Plus, you do not have to fast these days consecutively either–fasting any six days within the month is acceptable. *\[Check out this [video](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/questions-about-the-6-days-of-shawwal-live-reminders/) for some other common questions about Shawwal.*\] So what are the benefits of fasting in Shawwal? --- ## 1\. You get the reward for fasting the entire year > The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever fasts Ramadan and then follows it with six \[days\] from Shawwal, it’s as if they have fasted a year” \[*Sahih Muslim*\]. Scholars explain that this is because Allah promises us 10 times the reward for every deed that we do. So fasting one month of Ramadan is equivalent to 10 months of fasting, while fasting 6 days of Shawwal is equivalent to 60 days (i.e., 2 months), totally an entire year of fasting. Imagine what this means for those who follow their Ramadan fasting with 6 days of Shawwal every year: they will meet Allah as if they have fasted their entire lifetime! --- ## 2\. You can revive the Ramadan spirit Bring the Ramadan spirit to your Shawwal fasting by encouraging friends and family to fast with you. That way, you can motivate one another while also experiencing the communal joy of breaking fast together. --- ## 3\. You can help make up for any of your shortcomings in Ramadan The Prophet ﷺ tells us, “The first thing for which a person will be brought to account on the Day of Resurrection will be their prayer. If it is complete, then the voluntary (prayers) will also be recorded for them (as an increase). If it is not complete then Allah will say to His angels: ‘Look and see whether you find any voluntary prayers for My slave, and take them to make up what is lacking from their obligatory prayers.’ *Then all their deeds will be reckoned in like manner*.” \[*Sunan Ibn Majah*\] Our voluntary fasts will be used on the Day of Judgement to both increase us in our good deeds as well as make amends for any of our deficiencies when we fasted Ramadan. --- ## 4\. You can maintain your momentum after Ramadan and build long term habits After spending a month excelling in good deeds, many of us feel like it’s impossible to continue that lifestyle after Ramadan is over. But that was never the point. Ramadan serves as an opportunity to reset. As the Prophet ﷺ promises us, if we complete our worship in true faith throughout the month, then we leave the month with our sins forgiven. With a clean slate and reinvigorated energy, we have the ideal momentum to transform some of our Ramadan practices into habits. For example, spread your six days of fasting throughout Shawwal. Perhaps you fast every Monday and Thursday, and/or during the three middle days of the month–both of which were practices of the Prophet ﷺ. This helps you plant the seeds for a long term habit of fasting on those days. Remember, the Prophet ﷺ emphasized that Allah loves actions that are *consistent*, even if they’re small. Slow and steady wins the race. *\[For more tips on how to build habits, check out our [video series](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/habits-to-win).\]* --- ## 5\. You build an attitude of gratitude One of the spiritual [benefits of fasting](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/a-major-hidden-benefit-of-fasting-regularly-live-reminders) is that it nurtures gratitude in the heart of the believer. The more often we fast, the more spiritually aware we become of Allah's favors in our lives. Abstaining from food and drink reminds us that these too are blessings from Allah that we take for granted. Find out more ways to making gratitude a consistent feature in your life by downloading our *[Shukr](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/the-shukr-lifestyle)* [journal](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/the-shukr-lifestyle&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1682014440850916&usg=AOvVaw2Bev3XQ15jwX2oz6JDdsUC). For those who are unable to fast due to health or other reasons, you still have plenty of opportunities to reap some of these rewards. Check out [our video mashup](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/keeping-the-ramadan-spirit-alive) for other ways to beat the post-Ramadan blues and make the most of the year ahead of you. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/on-the-timing-and-virtues-of-the-night-of-power-the-hearts-joy-in-remembering-laylat-al-qadr-by-ibn-al-iraqi # On The Timing and Virtues of the Night of Power: The Heart's Joy in Remembering Laylat al-Qadr by Ibn al-ʿIrāqī **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Laylatul Qadr, Paper, Publication, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** April 12, 2023 **Updated:** April 14, 2026 Transform your reading experience — [Get the below paper in book form here!](https://turath.co.uk/products/the-hearts-joy-in-remembering-laylat-al-qadr) --- ## Translator’s introduction to Sharḥ al-ṣadr The author of this text, Walī al-Dīn Abū Zurʿah Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-ʿIrāqī, was born in Egypt in 762/1361. His father is the famous hadith scholar and Shāfiʿī jurist al-Ḥāfiẓ Zayn al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-ʿIrāqī (d. 806/1403); hence, Aḥmad was known as “Ibn al-ʿIrāqī.” After moving with his father to Damascus to study, Ibn al-ʿIrāqī returned to Egypt and became its Chief Judge. However, as he refused to compromise his integrity or religion to comply with the authorities, he was removed from judicial office within a year. Ibn al-ʿIrāqī authored several works on hadith, Islamic law, and Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*). He passed away in Cairo in 826/1423. This book begins by exploring the *tafsīr* of the chapter (*sūrah*) of al-Qadr, reflecting on the origin of the name of *Laylat al-Qadr*, its virtues, and events. It then delves into frequently asked questions regarding its timing by comprehensively narrating majority and minority scholarly opinions and providing proof for each opinion from prophetic reports. The book presents a total of 27 opinions on the timing of *Laylat al-Qadr*. These opinions may be categorized as follows: - 1) the occurrence of *Laylat al-Qadr* has been abrogated (one opinion); - 2)  the timing of *Laylat al-Qadr* is entirely hidden (one opinion); - 3) *Laylat al-Qadr* is a fixed night every year (23 opinions); and - 4) *Laylat al-Qadr* shifts from year to year (two opinions). The number of opinions on the timing of *Laylat al-Qadr* even exceeds what Ibn al-ʿIrāqī listed in this book. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, for instance, reported 46 opinions in his commentary on *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. The disagreement is likely semantic, as most opinions agree that its exact time is not definitively known. The varied opinions prompt reflection on the wisdom of keeping the exact timing of this night unknown to us. The apparently conflicting reports from the Prophet ﷺ, his companions, and their successors demonstrate that the purpose of this ambiguity is to encourage Muslims to exert their utmost effort in worship. This wisdom is applicable to most opinions, whether they posit that *Laylat al-Qadr* may occur on any night of the year or any night during the entire month of Ramadan, on one of its last ten nights, or one of the odd nights among the last ten. After listing the 46 opinions, Ibn Ḥajar commented, “All of these opinions which we reported, from the third one onwards, agree on the possible occurrence of *Laylat al-Qadr* and on encouraging seeking it.”[^1] He then added, “These are all that I could gather from the reported opinions \[on *laylat al-qadr*\]. Some of them can be amalgamated with others, even if they seem different.”[^2] Ibn al-ʿIrāqī’s book concludes with a reflection on Allah’s wisdom in concealing the exact timing of *Laylat al-Qadr*, along with a summary of its signs, as reported in several hadiths of the Prophet ﷺ. --- ## Translator’s note The translation is based on an Arabic print edition which includes another monograph written by the Shāfiʿī jurist Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355) on Ramadan’s night prayer (*tarāwīḥ*).[^3] Ibn al-ʿIrāqī’s monograph starts on page 23 and continues until page 55. This English translation closely reflects the Arabic wording of the primary source but includes additional notations by the translator to bolster reading comprehension. These notations are found in the footnotes and may include explanatory notes, hadith citations, and references for scholarly statements or attributions. The titles of the subsections were added by the editor of the original monograph; the translator decided to retain some of these sub-titles and delete others, based on what was deemed more appropriate for continuity. --- ## The text of Sharḥ al-ṣadr All praise is due to Allah, for Whom tongues express gratitude. He is exalted beyond being overtaken by slumber or sleep. He glorified times as He glorified places. He made the Night of Glory (*Laylat al-Qadr*) better than 83 years, as He said,[^4] > We sent it down on the Night of Glory. What will explain to you what that Night of Glory is? The Night of Glory is better than a thousand months; on that night the angels and the Spirit descend again and again with their Lord’s permission on every task; \[there is\] peace that night until the break of dawn.[^5] The exegetes have stated that the object pronoun \[“it”\] in the sentence “We sent it” refers to the noble Qur’an, even if it was not previously mentioned \[in the *sūrah*\] as its meaning is signified. \[It is\] like when Allah said, “until it \[the sun\] was hidden in the veil \[of night\],” while the sun was not initially mentioned.[^6] The exegetes held differing opinions on this matter. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, among others, said that Allah sent down the entire Qur’an to the nearest heaven on *laylat al-qadr* and then revealed it to Muhammad ﷺ over the course of twenty years, as this is the meaning of Allah’s saying, “I swear by the positions of the stars.”[^7] On the other hand, al-Shaʿbī  and others interpreted it to mean “We initiated the descent of this Qur’an to you on *laylat al-qadr*.” This \[interpretation\] is supported by some who said that Gabriel (Jibrīl) started coming to the Prophet ﷺ in Ramadan, with some saying on the 7th and others on the 17th. \[There are also opinions\] that Jibrīl started coming to the Prophet ﷺ in the \[Islamic Hijrī\] months of Rajab or Rabīʿ al-Awwal. Some argue that this verse indicates that the descent of the Qur’an began in Ramadan, as Jibrīl used to review the Qur’an with the Prophet ﷺ and Allah would erase or confirm whatever He willed. --- ## The occasion of the revelation of Sūrat al-Qadr Some scholars have suggested that the meaning \[of the first verse of the *sūrah*\] is that “We sent down this *sūrah* about the position of *laylat al-qadr* and its merit.” They interpreted the preposition “in” (*fī*) as indicating causation. This interpretation is similar to what ʿUmar \[ibn al-Khaṭṭāb\] said on the night when *Sūrat al-Fatḥ* was revealed, “I feared that Qur’an might be revealed about me (*fiyy*) \[due to his overly inquisitive attitude with the Prophet ﷺ\],”[^8] and to what ʿAʾisha said in the story of the false accusation (*al-ifk*), “I am too insignificant for Qur’an to be revealed because of me (*fiyy*) \[regarding the revelation of Qur’an 24:11-20, which declared her innocence\].”[^9] These same scholars further suggested that since \[*al-qadr*\] is a *sūrah* from the Qur’an, the Qur’an is referred to with a \[third-person\] pronoun in order to imply reverence and magnification. This is similar to how Allah says, “The Inevitable Hour! What is the Inevitable Hour? What will explain to you what the Inevitable Hour is?”[^10] and “The Crashing Blow! What is the Crashing Blow?”[^11] Then, Allah informs the Prophet ﷺ saying, “The Night of Glory is better than a thousand months.” Al-Bukhārī reported in his authentic collection that Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said, “Regarding the phrase in the Qur’an, ‘What will explain to you’ (*wa mā adrāk*), Allah explained it to the Prophet ﷺ. When Allah says, ‘How can you tell?’ (*wa mā yudrīk*), He did not inform him of it.”[^12] --- ## The difference of opinion over the naming of Laylat al-Qadr Scholars differed on why the night is named *Laylat al-Qadr*. The first opinion is that it is named so because Allah Almighty decrees provisions, fates, and all created things in the universe during this night, and reveals them to the angels to abide by. Allah Almighty \[called it\] “a night when every matter of wisdom is made distinct.”[^13] This opinion is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, Qatādah, and others. Al-Nawawī attributed it to the scholars. The meaning of revealing \[through\] the angels is that Allah informs them of His decree. Otherwise, \[it should be noted that\] Allah’s decree is pre-eternal.[^14] The second opinion holds that the name “*Laylat al-Qadr*” denotes high esteem, honor, and position. It is similar to saying that someone has a high position (*qadr*). This is the opinion of al-Zuhrī.[^15] The third opinion states that \[the night\] is named so because whoever spends it in worship is granted great honor they never had, and their nobility with Allah the Most High is increased. The fourth opinion is that it is named so because worship during this night has tremendous value.[^16] --- ## The reason why Laylat al-Qadr is special for the Muslim ummah Allah has made *Laylat al-Qadr* special for this *ummah*. There is some disagreement over the reason for its significance. Mālik reported in the *Muwaṭṭaʾ* from a trustworthy source among the people of knowledge that, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was shown the lifespans of the people before him, or what Allah willed of that. It was as if the lives of the people of his community had become too short for them to be able to do as many good deeds as others before them had been able to do with their long lives. As a result, Allah granted them *Laylat al-Qadr*, which is better than a thousand months.”[^17] Al-Tirmidhī reported in his *Jāmiʿ* from Yūsuf ibn Saʿd that a man stood up in front of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, after he pledged to Muʿāwiyah, and said, “You have made fools of the believers,” or, “O you who have made fools of the believers.” Al-Ḥasan responded, “Do not scold me so, may Allah have mercy upon you, for indeed the Prophet had a dream in which he saw Banū Umayyah upon his pulpit. That distressed him and it was revealed: ‘Verily We have granted you *al-Kawthar* (O Muhammad)’ meaning a river in Paradise, and then it was revealed: ‘We sent it down on the Night of Glory. What will explain to you what that Night of Glory is? The Night of Glory is better than a thousand months,’ in which Banū Umayyah rules after you, O Muhammad.” Al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl, one of the transmitters of this report, said: “So we counted them, and found that they were one thousand months, not a day more nor less.” Al-Tirmidhī commented that this hadith is rare (*gharīb*).[^18] --- ## The descent of the angels and the peaceful night In regards to Allah’s saying, “the angels and the Spirit descend,” it has been suggested that “the Spirit” refers to Jibrīl, peace be upon him, while others believe it refers to a group of angels. In either case, it is \[syntactically\] a conjunction between a universal and a particular. Another interpretation is that “the Spirit” refers to a type of heavenly creature that watches over the angels, just as the angels watch over human beings. These creatures have physical features similar to the sons of Adam, but the angels cannot see them. In regards to Allah’s saying, “with their Lord’s permission” until the end of the verse, those who believe that provisions are decreed on this night explain the descent of the angels as being for that purpose. They interpret “on” (*min*) in “on every task” to reference the cause of decreeing (i.e., the angels descend with the cause of every matter), and render “\[there is\] peace that night” as the start of a new statement (i.e., it is \[full of\] peace until the break of dawn). On the other hand, those who do not believe that provisions are decreed on this night link “on every task” to “peace” (i.e., it is a night of peace and protection from every matter). According to Mujāhid, no disease afflicts anyone on this night. Al-Shaʿbī and Manṣūr hold that it is a time of peace in the sense of salutation, as the angels greet the believers during this night.[^19] These verses explicitly honor *Laylat al-Qadr* and make its name and mention prominent. It is authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ that he said, “Whoever performs night prayer during *laylat al-qadr* out of faith and hope for Allah’s reward, will have their former sins forgiven.”[^20] In *al-Sunan al-kubrā* of al-Nasāʾī, \[this is also reported to include\] “and their future sins.”[^21] This addition is similarly reported in the *Musnad* of Aḥmad and the *Muʿjam* of al-Ṭabarānī from the narration of ʿUbādah, as will be mentioned later.[^22] This \[promise of forgiveness\] is a great virtue that prompts the seeking of *laylat al-qadr*. --- ## Laylat al-Qadr will remain until the end of time Reliable scholars have unanimously agreed that *laylat al-qadr* has not been abrogated, and will remain until the end of time. Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, may Allah have mercy on him, said, > In an anomalous dissent,[^23] some people claimed that it was abrogated because the Prophet ﷺ  said, in reference to two men quarreling, “so it \[*laylat al-qadr*\] was taken away.”[^24]  However, this is a mistake on the part of those who dissented, as the end of the hadith provides a response to their doubt. The Prophet ﷺ said, “it was taken away and maybe it is better for you. So seek it on the seventh or the ninth \[night\].”[^25] This is stated at the beginning of the authentic collection of al-Bukhārī, and it clearly shows that the meaning of “taking it away” refers to taking away the knowledge of its exact time. If the meaning had been the annulment of its existence, the Prophet ﷺ would not have commanded people to seek it.[^26] Ibn ʿAṭiyyah mentioned that this opinion (that *Laylat al-Qadr*’s existence was taken away) is attributed to Abū Ḥanīfah and others but added that the opinion is rejected. Only the knowledge of its exact time was taken away.[^27] --- ## Difference of opinion over the specific time of Laylat al-Qadr Scholars have debated the exact timing of *Laylat al-Qadr*, with a large group of them holding that it occurs on a specific night. However, even within this group, there is disagreement as to which night is the one. ### Laylat al-Qadr can occur on any night of the year The first opinion suggests that *Laylat al-Qadr* may occur on any night of the year. This opinion is commonly attributed to Abū Ḥanīfah, may Allah be pleased with him, and is supported by the saying of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, that “whoever spends the entire year praying at night will hit upon it.”[^28] However, in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh is reported to have said, > I asked Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, “Your brother Ibn Masʿūd says, ‘whoever spends the entire year praying at night will hit upon *laylat al-qadr*.’” Ubayy replied, “May Allah have mercy on him. He did not want people to be negligent. Indeed, he knows that it is in Ramadan, in the last ten nights, and that it is on the night of the 27th.”[^29] This is how Ubayy understood Ibn Masʿūd’s statement. It is evidenced by what is in Aḥmad’s *Musnad* from Abū ʿAqrab, that he said, > One early morning, I went to visit Ibn Masʿūd and found him sitting on the roof of his house. We overheard him saying, “Allah has spoken the truth and his Messenger has conveyed \[the message\].” We said, “We heard you saying, ‘Allah has spoken the truth and his Messenger has conveyed \[the message\].’” He said, “Allah’s Messenger said, *laylat al-qadr* is in the last seven nights, with the sun rising the following morning clear without rays.” I observed it and found it exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had described.[^30] The hadith is also reported with similar wording by al-Bazzār in his *Musnad*, and in al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Muʿjam* where Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “The Messenger of Allah was asked about *laylat al-qadr* and he said, who among you remembers that night at al-Ṣahbāʾ \[a place near Khaybar\]? ʿAbd Allāh \[Ibn Masʿūd\] said, “I remember it, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah; it was the night of the 27th when the dawn rose.”[^31] Although this hadith is reported in several books of hadith, I have only seen the explicit mention of the night of the 27th in al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, and therefore I have attributed the hadith solely to it. ### Laylat al-Qadr can be any night of Ramadan The second opinion regarding *laylat al-qadr* is that it can occur on any night of Ramadan, and this is the view of Ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them \[Ibn ʿUmar and his father\], and a group of the companions. Ibn ʿUmar is reported in *Sunan* *Abī Dāwūd* to have said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about *laylat al-qadr* while I was listening, and he replied, ‘It is \[any night\] during the entire \[month of\] Ramadan.’”[^32] Abū Dāwūd noted that this hadith is a halted-companion report (*mawqūf*). This hadith can possibly be interpreted to mean that *laylat al-qadr* occurs repeatedly every year during Ramadan since it only occurs once a year. Therefore, this hadith alone does not serve as \[adequate\] proof for the opinion that *laylat al-qadr* moves throughout all the nights of Ramadan. This is the view of Abū Ḥanīfah, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Muḥāmī, and al-Subkī, who preferred it in his commentary on *al-Minhāj*. Ibn al-Ḥājib listed it as one reported opinion. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the first night of Ramadan The third opinion regarding *laylat al-qadr* is that it is the first night of Ramadan. This view was held by Abū Ruzayn al-ʿAqīlī, a companion of the Prophet, may Allah be pleased with him.[^33] ### Laylat al-Qadr is in the middle and last ten nights of Ramadan The fourth opinion regarding *laylat al-qadr* is that it falls within the middle and last ten nights of Ramadan. However, this opinion is contradicted by an authentic hadith narrated by Abū Saʿīd in which Jibrīl, peace be upon him, said to the Prophet ﷺ during his spiritual retreat (*iʿtikāf*) in the middle ten nights, “What you are seeking is ahead of you.”[^34] ### Laylat al-Qadr is in the last ten nights of Ramadan The fifth opinion is that *laylat al-qadr* is exclusively in the last ten nights of Ramadan. This view is supported by the Prophet’s statements, “Seek it in the last ten nights,”[^35] and “I observed *iʿtikāf* in the first ten \[nights\] to seek that night \[*laylat al-qadr*\]. I then observed *iʿtikāf* in the middle ten. Then \[an angel\] was sent to me and I was told that this \[night\] is among the last ten.”[^36] ### Laylat al-Qadr is an odd night of the last ten nights of Ramadan The sixth opinion holds that *laylat al-qadr* is limited to the odd nights of the last ten nights.[^37] This view is based on the Prophet’s statement, “Seek it in the last ten nights, in an odd \[night\].”[^38] In Aḥmad’s *al-Musnad* and al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit is reported to have asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about *laylat al-qadr*. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “So, seek it in the last ten \[nights\]. It is one of the odd nights of the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 29th, or the last night. Whoever spends this night praying, seeking it out of faith and sincerity, and it was gifted to him, his past and future sins will be forgiven.”[^39] ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl  is one of the transmitters of this hadith. His hadith \[transmission\] is fair (*ḥasan*) and is narrated by ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Ibn Ḥibbān listed ʿAmr among the reliable transmitters and noted that he is not the son of \[ʿAbd al-Raḥmān\] Ibn ʿAwf \[the Prophet’s companion\]. Al-Ṭabarānī said, "I suppose he is the son of al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām." There are two subtle benefits from this hadith**.** The first is found in the statement “and his future \[sins\],” as noted earlier. The second benefit is that the reward is dependent on praying that night with the intention of seeking *laylat al-qadr*, rather than the general intention of night prayer. \[However\] there is an issue in the hadith regarding the statement, “or the last night,” because the beginning of the hadith specifies an odd night, and the last night is not an odd night if the month is full. If the month is not full, then \[the last night\] is the night of the 29th, so mentioning it after the “29th” is meaningless since conjunction necessitates difference. \[This issue\] can be explained by understanding that the phrase “or the last night” is linked conjunctively to the phrase “it is one of the odd nights,” and not to the phrase “29th.” Hence, the phrase “or the last night” is not an explanation for the odd nights but is added to it by way of conjunction. ### Laylat al-Qadr is an even night of the last ten nights of Ramadan The seventh opinion holds that *laylat al-qadr* is one of the even nights of the last ten nights, based on Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī’s response when he was asked about the ninth, seventh and fifth night. He said, “When the 21st night passes, the night which follows it is the 22nd and it is the ninth; when the 23rd night passes, the night which follows it is the seventh; when the 25th passes, the night which follows it is the fifth.”[^40] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 17th night of Ramadan The eighth opinion is that *laylat al-qadr* is on the 17th night. This view is reported from Zayd ibn Arqam and also Ibn Masʿūd. In the *Muʿjam* of al-Ṭabarānī, Zayd ibn Arqam is reported to have said, “I do not doubt or suspect that it is the night of the 17th; the night in which the Qur’an was sent down and when the two factions confronted each other.”[^41] Zayd ibn Thābit was also reported to have spent the 17th night in worship. When asked, “Why do you choose the night of the 17th,” he said, “The Qur’an was sent down on this night, and the truth was made distinct from falsehood in its morning.”[^42] He used to wake up the following morning with a pleased face. This opinion was also reported from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 19th night of Ramadan The ninth opinion is that *laylat al-qadr* is on the 19th night. This view is reported from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Ibn Masʿūd. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 17th, 21st, or 23rd night of Ramadan The tenth opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* could be on the 17th, 21st, or 23rd night. This view is also reported from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Ibn Masʿūd. It is supported by a narration in *Sunan* *Abī Dāwūd* from Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, in which he said, “Seek it on the 17th night of Ramadan, and on the 21st night, and on the 23rd night. He then kept silent.”[^43] Allah knows best. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 21st night of Ramadan The eleventh opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* is the 21st night of Ramadan. This opinion is supported by the hadith of Abū Saʿīd, which is reported in the authentic collections. In the hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, “I saw it one of the odd nights. I saw myself prostrating the following morning in water and clay.” Abū Saʿīd said, “So, the Prophet ﷺ woke up after the night of the 21st to perform the *fajr* prayer while it was raining. The roof of the mosque was leaking and I saw the water and clay. After the Prophet ﷺ finished the prayer, he left with traces of water and clay on his forehead and nose. It was the morning after the 21st from the last ten nights.”[^44] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 23rd night of Ramadan The twelfth opinion is that *laylat al-qadr* is the 23rd night of Ramadan, which is the opinion of many of the companions and others. This opinion is supported by a narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, who reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I was shown *laylat al-qadr*, then I was caused to forget it, and saw that I was prostrating in water and clay in the morning of that \[night\]. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays added, “There was a downpour on the 23rd night and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer. As he returned, there was a trace of water and clay on his forehead and on his nose.”[^45] Additionally, Abū Hurayrah is reported in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* to have said, “We were discussing *laylat al-qadr* in the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he said: Who amongst you remembers that night when the moon arose and it was like a piece of a plate?”[^46] In Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, a companion of the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, “I looked at the moon the morning of *laylat al-qadr* and I saw it looking like a piece of a plate.”[^47] Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī commented that the moon appears that way on the morning of the 23rd night. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad narrated this hadith in his additions \[to the *Musnad*\] from ʿAlī, that he said, “The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘I went outside when the moon rose like a piece of a plate and said, tonight is *laylat al-qadr*.’”[^48] Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣīlī also narrated this hadith connected to the Prophet ﷺ through ʿAlī. In Abū Dāwūd’s *Sunan*, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays is reported to have said, “I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah!  I have a place in the desert where I live and pray, with the praise of Allah. Inform me of a night when I \[should\] come to this mosque. The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘Come on the night of the 23rd.’”[^49] Al-Ṭabarānī reported in his *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr* a similar hadith from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh from his father with a connected \[chain of transmission attributing it to the Prophet ﷺ\].[^50] In Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with them, is reported to have said, “While sleeping in Ramadan, I was approached in a dream by someone who told me, ‘Tonight is *laylat al-qadr*.’ I woke up drowsy and I checked the edges of the Prophet’s tent and found him praying. I checked which night it was and it was the night of the 23rd.”[^51] The transmitters of this hadith are among the transmitters of the authentic \[collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim\]. This hadith is also reported by al-Ṭabarānī in his *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*.[^52] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 24th night of Ramadan The thirteenth opinion suggests that *Laylat al-Qadr* is the night of the 24th. This is the reported opinion of Bilāl, Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, and Qatādah. In *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, Ibn ʿAbbās is reported to have said, without attributing \[his opinion\] to the Prophet ﷺ, “Seek *laylat al-qadr* on \[the night of\] the 24th.”[^53] Al-Bukhārī reported this hadith after another one (which will be mentioned below), that states, “It is in the last ten \[nights\], either in the first seven or in the last seven nights.”[^54] The former hadith seems to explain the latter and therefore should be the primary evidence \[for this issue\]. In Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, Bilāl is reported to have said that the Prophet ﷺ said, “*Laylat al-qadr* is the night of the 24th.”[^55] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 23rd or 27th night of Ramadan The fourteenth opinion suggests that *Laylat al-Qadr* falls on the 23rd or the 27th, as reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with him. This opinion is supported by what *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said, “It is in the last ten nights, either in the first nine or in the last seven nights.” Ibn ʿAbbās commented, “He meant *laylat al-qadr*.”[^56] This opinion is also supported by what is reported in the *Musnad* of al-Bazzār with a good chain of transmission from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, who said, “The Prophet ﷺ was asked about *laylat al-qadr* and he replied: I knew it, then I lost its knowledge. Seek it when seven nights remain or when three nights remain.”[^57] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 27th night of Ramadan The fifteenth opinion states that *laylat al-qadr* falls on the 27th. This opinion was adopted by many companions and others.[^58] Ubayy ibn Kaʿb swore, without exception, that it is the night of the 27th, as reported in the authentic hadith collections. When asked, “What is your proof for saying that, O Abū al-Mundhir?” Ubayy replied, “The mark, or sign, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us about: that the sun rises on that day without rays.”[^59] In the *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd, Muʿāwyiah is reported to have narrated from the Prophet ﷺ regarding *laylat al-qadr*, “\[It is\] the  night of the 27th.”[^60] In Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, with a chai of transmission meeting the conditions of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, Ibn ʿUmar is reported to have said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Whoever is seeking it should seek it on the night of the 27th.’ The Prophet ﷺ also said, ‘Seek it on the night of the 27th,’ meaning *layat al-qadr*.”[^61] This hadith is also reported by al-Ṭabarānī in his *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*.[^62] In *al-Muʿjam* *al-awsaṭ* of al-Ṭabarānī, reported with a decent chain of transmission, Jābir ibn Samurah said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Seek *laylat al-qadr* on the night of the 27th.’”[^63] Ibn ʿAbbās justified the specification of this night by stating that man is created over seven \[stages\] and his provision is placed in seven \[items\]. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) liked this justification. Others argued that Allah the Almighty repeated \[the mention of\] *laylat al-qadr* in the aforementioned *sūrah* three times. The phrase “*laylat al-qadr*” consists of nine letters, and three multiplied by nine equals 27. Hence, repeating it three times indicates that \[it falls on the 27th night\]. It was also argued that the number of the words in the *sūrah* until the phrase “that night” is 27, which further supports this claim. Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAṭiyyah referenced similar interpretations in his *tafsīr* \[regarding other topics\]. \[For example\], some scholars mentioned that the number of the angels of Hellfire described by Allah—“Over it are nineteen \[angels\]”—is the same as the number of letters in *b-ism Allāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*, with one angel for each letter. These angels say *bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm* in all of their actions, through which they obtain their strength and protection. \[In another example\] regarding the number of angels racing to record the companion’s supplication, “O our Lord, to You be the praise, abundant, good, blessed, sufficient,” some scholars have suggested that since the supplication has more than 30 letters, the Prophet ﷺ said, “I saw more than 30 angels racing one another to be the first to record it.” \[However\], Ibn ʿAṭiyyah commented that these interpretations are tangential to *tafsīr* and not from the core essence of knowledge.[^64] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the last night of Ramadan The sixteenth opinion is that the last night of Ramadan is *Laylat al-Qadr*. Abū Dāwūd reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, > I was at the gathering of Banū Salamah, and I was the youngest of them. They said: Who will ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for us about *laylat al-qadr*? That was on the morning of the 21st of Ramadan. I went out, prayed the *maghrib* prayer with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and waited, standing, at the door of his house. He passed by me and said: Come in. I entered and dinner was brought for him. I refrained from eating as the food was scarce. When the Prophet ﷺ finished his dinner, he said to me: Give me my shoes. He then stood up and I also stood up with him. When we went out, he said: I assume you needed something \[from me\]. I said: Yes. Some people of Banū Salamah have sent me to you to ask you about *laylat al-qadr*. He asked: Which night is it tonight? I said: \[The\] 22nd. He said: This is the very night. He then returned and said: Or the following night, referring to the 23rd night.[^65] In the *Jāmiʿ* of al-Tirmidhī, Abū Bakrah is reported to have said, “I do not search for \[*laylat al-qadr*\], due to something that I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, except during the last ten nights; for indeed I heard him say: ‘Search for it when nine remain, or when seven remain, or when five remain, or during the last three nights.’”[^66] Al-Tirmidhī classified this hadith as fair-authentic (*ḥasan*\-*ṣaḥīḥ*). In *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit is reported to have said, “The Prophet ﷺ came out to inform \[us\] about *laylat al-qadr*, but finding two Muslims engaging in a dispute he said, ‘I came out to inform you about *laylat al-qadr*, but the knowledge of it has been withdrawn due to the dispute between so-and-so and so-and-so. However, this may be better for you, so seek it on the ninth, the seventh, and the fifth \[of the last ten nights\].’”[^67] In Abū Dāwūd’s *Sunan*, Ibn ʿAbbās is reported to have said, “The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Seek it in the last ten night of Ramadan, *laylat al-qadr*, when nine nights remain, when seven nights remain, and when five nights remain.”[^68] In Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, Muʿādh ibn Jabal is reported to have said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about *laylat al-qadr* and he replied, ‘It is in the last ten nights on the third or the fifth.’”[^69] Another hadith reported by Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, with a good chain of transmission from Abū Hurayra, stated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that *laylat al-qadr* “is either on the 27th or the 29th. The angels who descend to earth on that night are greater in number than the stars.”[^70] In *al-Muʿjam* *al-awsaṭ* of al-Ṭabarānī, Abū Hurayrah is reported to have narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Seek *laylat al-qadr* on the night of the 17th, 19th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, or 29th.”[^71] However, this hadith’s chain of transmission includes Abū al-Mihzam, who is considered unreliable (*ḍaʿīf*). These hadiths contain opinions about the timing of *Laylat al-Qadr* that I have not found any scholar explicitly stating before. If we count them, there are 22 opinions; sixteen of them have been previously mentioned. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 22nd or 23rd night of Ramadan The seventeenth opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* is the night of the 22nd or the 23rd. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, or the last night of Ramadan The eighteenth opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* is the night of 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, or the last night \[of Ramadan\]. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 21st, 23rd, or 25th night of Ramadan The nineteenth opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* falls on the 21st, 23rd, or 25th night of Ramadan. The proof for this opinion is the aforementioned hadith of ʿUbādah, where the meaning of “the ninth” refers to the night when nine nights remain because he mentioned the ninth before the seventh, and the seventh before the fifth.[^72] ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 23rd or 25th night of Ramadan The twentieth opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* falls on the 23rd or 25th night, based on the aforementioned hadith of Muʿādh. The hadith clearly states to “seek it on the third,” which he mentioned before the fifth night. ### Laylat al-Qadr is the 27th or the 29th night of Ramadan The twenty-first opinion is that *Laylat al-Qadr* is the 27th or the 29th night of Ramadan. ### Laylat al-Qadr is one of the odd nights of the last ten nights, or the 17th or 19th night of Ramadan The twenty-second opinion is that *laylat al-qadr* falls on \[one of\] the odd nights of the last ten nights, or on the 17th or 19th night of Ramadan. All of these opinions are based on the view that *laylat al-qadr* occurs on a particular fixed night, which is al-Shāfiʿī’s opinion. The sound opinion of his school is that it falls on one of the last ten nights, most likely on one of the odd nights rather than the even nights, and most likely on the 21st or the 23rd night. This last opinion can be considered an independent opinion, bringing the total number to twenty-three. Additionally, the opinion that the knowledge of *laylat al-qadr* was abrogated has been mentioned earlier, making the total number of opinions twenty-four. --- ## Does Laylat al-Qadr move from one night to another? A group of scholars held that *laylat al-qadr* moves from year to year. This view is held by Mālik, Sufyān al-Thawrī, Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal, Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, Abū Thawr, and others. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr attributed this view to al-Shāfiʿī in *al-Istidhkār*, although we do not have any record of him expressing this opinion. Among his companions, al-Muzanī and Ibn Khuzaymah are known to have adopted this stance. Al-Nawawī also favors this opinion as a means of reconciling the differing hadiths on the matter that can only be reconciled in this manner. Thus, there are a total of 25 different opinions on this issue. Ibn Ḥazm, the literalist (*al-Ẓāhirī*), maintained that *laylat al-qadr* can only occur on the odd nights of the last ten nights. According to him, the first of the last ten nights is the night of the 20th if the month is incomplete (i.e., 29 days), or the night of the 21st if the month is complete (i.e., 30 days). Therefore, *laylat al-qadr* may occur on the 21st and the following odd nights if the month is complete, or on the 20th and the following even nights if the month is incomplete. This is the twenty-sixth opinion. Know that *laylat al-qadr* does indeed exist and Allah reveals it to whomever He chooses among mankind so that they may be certain of its presence. There are numerous accounts of pious individuals who have witnessed it. The minority opinion holding that it is impossible to witness *Laylat al-Qadr* should be dismissed as a serious error, as al-Nawawī has pointed out. Some scholars have suggested that Allah has hidden *laylat al-qadr* from His servants so they do not solely speak of its blessings and neglect their worship on other nights. He wants them to remain committed to their worship at all times, as they were created for that purpose. Allah said, “I have not created Jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” With this, the number of opinions on the matter reaches twenty-seven.[^73] This opinion is supported by what is reported in al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, with a good chain of transmission from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, that he asked the Prophet ﷺ: “O Prophet of Allah, inform me which night *laylat al-qadr* should be sought on?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “If it was not that people would leave prayer except on that night, I would have told you.”[^74] In *Musnad* al-Bazzār, al-Awzāʿī reported that Marthad, or Abū Marthad, reported from his father that he said, “I found Abū Dharr at al-Jamrah al-Wusṭā[^75] and I asked him about *laylat al-qadr*.” Abū Dharr replied, “No one would have asked more about this than me. I once said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Was *laylat al-qadr* revealed to the Prophets and then lifted?’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘No. It will remain until the Day of Judgment.’ I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! When is it?’ He responded, ‘If I were permitted to reveal it, I would have told you. However, seek it on the 90th or the 70th and do not ask me again.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then turned and started to speak on a different matter. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! What is the 70th?’ This made the Prophet ﷺ angry in a way that he had never been before or after that occasion. He then said, ‘Have I not forbidden you from asking about it? If I were permitted to reveal it, I would have told you.’ The Prophet then indicated that *laylat al-qadr* is one of the last seven nights.”[^76] --- ## Section on the signs of Laylat al-Qadr[^77] It is reported that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned signs of *Laylat al-Qadr*, one of which is that the sun rises in the morning without any visible rays. This is considered the most authentic sign.[^78] In Aḥmad’s *Musnad*, ʿUbādah bin al-Ṣāmit is reported to have narrated, with a good chain of transmission, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The signs of *Laylat al-Qadr* are that it is serene and clear as if the moon is shining in it. It is peaceful and calm. It is neither too cold nor too hot, and no shooting star appears in it until morning. Among its signs is that the sun rises evenly the following morning without any visible rays, like the full moon. The devil will not be able to rise with it.”[^79] Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ mentioned two opinions regarding the the sun rising “without rays.” The first opinion is that it is a sign that Allah assigned \[as a way to distinguish *laylat al-qadr* from other nights\]. The second opinion is that it is because many angels move around on that night, descending on earth and ascending with what they brought down \[to earth\]. In doing so, the angels will block the sun’s rays with their wings and ethereal bodies. According to al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ narrated that the Messenger of Allah said ﷺ, “*Laylat al-Qadr* is clear and has neither heat nor coldness. It is devoid of clouds, rain, or wind, and shooting stars are not visible. One of its signs is that the sun rises without rays.”[^80] \[However\] the chain of transmission for this hadith includes Bishr ibn ʿAwn and Bakkār ibn Tamīm, both of whom are considered weak narrators. In al-Bazzār’s *Musnad*, Ibn ʿAbbās reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “*Laylat al-qadr* is a cool night that is neither hot nor cold.”[^81] \[However\], the chain of transmission for this hadith includes Maslamah ibn Ḥibbān, alongside other transmitters, whose reliability was debated. You \[the reader\] may argue that al-Ṭabarānī reported in his *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr* from Sharīk, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from Jābir ibn Samurah, who attributed the hadith to the Prophet ﷺ that he said, “I saw *Laylat al-Qadr* but I was caused to forget its time. So, seek it in the last ten nights. It is a night of wind, rain and thunder.”[^82] Al-Bazzār also reported this hadith with similar wording.[^83] This hadith aligns with the hadith of Abū Saʿīd (mentioned above) which states, “The roof of the mosque was leaking and I saw the Prophet ﷺ with traces of water and clay on his face.” I would say that this is what you established as your opinion. What we adopt is that *Laylat al-Qadr* is not fixed on one night but rather moves, so it is possible that this hadith refers to a year when there was no wind or rain. Allah knows best.[^84] --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī fī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arānʾūṭ et al., 1st ed., 26 vols., (Damascus: Dār al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamiyyah, 2013), 6:578. [^2]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:578. [^3]: Walī al-Dīn ibn al-ʿIrāqī, *Sharḥ al-ṣadr bi-dhikr Laylat al-Qadr: Fadāʾil wa ʿalāmāt Laylat al-Qadr*; Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, *Ishrāq al-maṣābih fī ṣalāt al-tarāwīḥ*, ed. Majdī Ibrāhīm (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Sāʿī, Cairo: Maktabat al-Qur’ān, 1987). [^4]: All Qur’an translations in this piece are taken from M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, trans., *The Qurʾān: A New Translation* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). [^5]: This *sūrah* is known across different copies of the Qur’anic codex (*muṣḥaf*), *tafsīr* works, and Sunnah collections as *Sūrat al-Qadr*. However, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah and Abū Bakr al-Jaṣṣāṣ called it *Sūrat Laylat al-Qadr.* Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr*, 30 vols. (Tunisia: al-Dār al-Tūnusiyyah li-l-Nashr, 1884), 30:455. [^6]: The arranged order of *Sūrat al-Qadr* in the *muṣḥaf* reflects deep wisdom. Although its number of verses is less than that of *Sūrat al-Bayyinah*, it precedes it after *Sūrat al-ʿAlaq*, indicating that the pronoun “it” in “sent it down” refers to the Qur’an, whose first piece of revelation was the beginning of *Sūrat al-ʿAlaq*. Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr*, 30:456–57. [^7]: Qur’an 56:75. [^8]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 5012. [^9]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2661 (with a slight difference of wording: “I am far too insignificant to be spoken about in the Qur’an”). [^10]: Qur’an, 69:1-3. [^11]: Qur’an, 101:1-2. [^12]: *Al-Bukhārī*, 3:45. It is possible to counter argue this extrapolation with the verse, “For all you know, (*wa* *mā yudrīk*), he might have grown in spirit, or taken note of something useful to him.” Qur’an, 80:4–5. This verse was revealed about the companion ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm, whom the Prophet knew had grown in spirit and taken note of something useful to him. [^13]: Qur’an 44:4. [^14]: This interpretation holds that *qadr* in this context means predestination (*qadar*). [^15]: This interpretation parallels the meaning of the Qur’anic verse, “They have no grasp of God’s true measure” (*wa mā qadaru Allāh ḥaqq qadrih*). Qur’an 6:91. The significance denoted by the word *al-Qadr* in *Laylat al-Qadr* may refer to the revelation of the Qur’an on that night, the descent of angels, or the abundance of blessings, mercy, and forgiveness bestowed during it. [^16]: Scholars have also suggested another interpretation of the word *al-qadr*: that it means restriction or narrowness, as in the verse “But let him whose provision is restricted spend according to what God has given him” (*wa man qudira ʿalayh rizquh*). In the context of *laylat al-qadr*, the meaning of restriction could be that Allah has hidden its exact timing or that the earth is filled with angels on that night, causing it to become narrow and restricted to accommodate them. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:545. [^17]: Mālik ibn Anas and Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr Abū Muṣʿab Zuhrī. Mālik, al-*Muwaṭṭaʾ*, no. 889\. In the *tafsīr* tradition, there are different interpretations of “*laylat al-qadr* is better than a thousand months.” These interpretations include the following: (1) *laylat al-qadr* is better than the span of a thousand months, (2) it is better than a thousand months in which there is no *laylat al-qadr*, and (3) worship on *laylat al-qadr* is better than worship for a thousand months in which there is no *laylat al-qadr*. [^18]: *Al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3350. A *gharīb* *ḥadīth* refers to a report which has been transmitted by only one narrator in any particular era, regardless of the number of narrators in other eras. Several scholars have pointed out that this hadith is considered disclaimed (*munkar*) for two main reasons. First, it contradicts the historical fact that the Umayyad reign lasted for more than a thousand months, for approximately 92 years. Second, even if the hadith is condemning the Umayyads, preferring *laylat al-qadr* over their days does not necessarily mean condemning their reign. The nobility and significance of *laylat al-qadr* cannot be emphasized by preferring it over the time of the Umayyads. Interestingly, al-Rāzī found this second argument weak. He mentioned that the reign of the Umayyads can be viewed as praiseworthy by worldly standards. Hence, the meaning can be “I gave you a night whose religious pleasures are better than those worldly pleasures.” Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 1st ed., 32 vols. (Jeddah: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 32:31. [^19]: Al-Razī noted that the description of *Laylat al-Qadr* as full of peace (*salām*) should not be taken lightly. When seven angels greeted the Prophet Ibrāhīm with peace in the story of the roasted calf, he was happier with their greeting than with being the king of the entire world. In fact, Ibrāhīm was saved from the fire because of the angels’ *salām* to him: “O fire, be cool and safe (*salāman*) for Ibrāhīm.” Qur’an 21:69. Therefore, Allah may make the Hellfire cool and safe for us by the blessing of the angels’ *salām* to us on *Laylat al-Qadr*. The difference is that Ibrāhīm offered them a roasted calf, while we should offer a “roasted heart.” Al-Razī added that this verse subtly indicates the special honor Allah has granted this *ummah*. That is, while the angels were sent down to the friend of Allah (*khalīlullāh*) Ibrāhīm in that story, they are sent down to the entire *ummah* of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ in *Sūrat al-Qadr*. Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 32:36. [^20]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 1901. Scholars have debated whether all sins will be forgiven or only minor ones. Many of them affirmed that the hadith primarily applies to minor sins. Some scholars suggest that if only major sins are reckoned, the punishment for these sins may still be reduced. [^21]: *Al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2523. The addition of “future sins” raises the question of how sins that have not yet occurred can be forgiven. Some scholars suggested that this forgiveness is figurative, indicating that those individuals will be protected from committing major sins. Other scholars interpreted the phrase to mean, “their sins will occur forgiven.” This discussion also applies to the hadith that states fasting on the day of ʿArafah expiates the sins of the past and the coming year, as well as to Allah’s statement about the companions who fought in the Battle of Badr, as the Prophet ﷺ reported: “Do as you please, for I have forgiven you.” There are several hadiths that mention the forgiveness of future sins upon the performance of certain good deeds. These hadiths have been compiled by Imam Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, and he examined their authenticity and interpretation. See Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *al-Khiṣāl al-mukaffirah li-l-dhunūb al-mutaqaddimah wa-l-mutaʾkhirah*, ed. ʿAmr Salīm, 1st ed. (Jeddah: Dar Mājid ʿAsīrī, 2001). [^22]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 22713. [^23]: In the Arabic print used for the translation, the quote reads as “some people doubted” (*shakka*), instead of *shadhdha*, which means adopting an anomalous view. The translation used the latter phrase as cited in many sources from al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ. [^24]: This is one occasion in which the Prophet ﷺ stated the reason behind the knowledge of the time of *laylat al-qadr* being taken away. However, he gave another reason as reported in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: “I was shown *laylat al-qadr*; then some members of my family woke me up, then I was caused to forget it.” *Muslim*, no. 1166. There are three possible interpretations of both occasions. First, they reference two separate occasions; he was shown the timing of *laylat al-qadr* in a dream and then forgot it because he was awakened, and he was informed of it while awake and then he forgot it due to the dispute between the two men. Second, the two hadiths reference the same story with two causes of forgetting it. Third, it is possible that the meaning is: “I saw it in a dream, my family woke me up and I heard the two men arguing. I went to reconcile their situation, and then I forgot it as I became busy with them.” ʿAbd al-Razzāq reported from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, with a disconnected chain of transmission (*mursal*), that the Prophet said, “Shall I inform you of the time of *Laylat al-Qadr*?” The companions replied, “Yes!” The Prophet remained silent for a while and then said, “I asked you when I knew of it, then I was caused to forget it.” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī commented on this hadith, stating that it supports the opinion that the forgetting happened on different occasions. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:582. [^25]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 49. [^26]: See the quote in, for instance, Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2nd ed., 18 vols. (Cairo: Muʾssasat Qurṭubah, 1994), 8:83. [^27]: Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr kitāb Allāh al-ʿazīz*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad, 1st ed., 6 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2001), 5:505. Although the idea that *laylat al-qadr* had been abrogated is referenced in several sources, most references do not cite a reliable Sunni authority directly. The Shāfiʿī jurist al-Mutawallī, in his book *al-Tatimmah*, attributed it to the Shia without citation. The reference to Abū Ḥanīfah by Ibn ʿAṭiyyah is likely inaccurate, as Abū Ḥanīfah held that *laylat al-qadr* could occur on any night during the year, as Ibn al-ʿIrāqī mentions below. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī commented on Tāj al-Dīn al-Fākihānī’s attribution of this opinion to the Ḥanafī scholars, stating that “it is likely a mistake. What al-Surūjī reported is that it is \[only\] the opinion of the Shia.” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:569. In his *Muṣannaf*, ʿAbd al-Razzāq reported that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yuḥannis said to Abū Hurayrah, “\[Some people\] claim that *laylat al-qadr* has been lifted.” Abū Hurayrah replied, “Whoever said this has lied.” *ʿAbd al-Razzāq*, no. 7707. [^28]: *Muslim*, no. 762. [^29]: *Muslim*, no. 762. [^30]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 3857. [^31]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 10289. [^32]: *Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1387. [^33]: The hadith scholar Ibn Abī Āṣim stated, “We do not know of anyone else \[other than Abū Ruzayn\] who upheld this opinion.” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:570. [^34]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 813. [^35]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2020. [^36]: *Muslim*, no. 1167. [^37]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī attributed this opinion to Abū Thawr, al-Muzanī, Ibn Khuzaymah, and a group of scholars from all schools of thought (*madhhab*s), and he commented that this is the most preponderant opinion. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:575. [^38]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2017. [^39]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 22713. [^40]: *Muslim*, no. 1167. [^41]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 5079. [^42]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 4865. [^43]: *Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1384. [^44]: *Muslim*, no. 1167. [^45]: *Muslim*, no. 1168. [^46]: *Muslim*, no. 1170. [^47]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 23129. [^48]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 793; al-Haythamī, *Majmaʿ al-zawāʾid*, no. 5033 [^49]: *Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1380. [^50]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 2199. [^51]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 2302; al-Haythamī, *Majmaʿ al-zawāʾid*, no. 5046. [^52]: Scholars reconciled this hadith with the ones that state that *laylat al-qadr* occurs on an odd night by suggesting that these hadiths employ different methods of counting the days. In some instances, when half of the month had passed, the Arabs would count the number of days left instead of the number of days that had passed. According to the latter way of counting, the night of the twenty-fourth night would be the seventh night of the last ten nights. Ibn ʿAbbās himself was also reported to have said about *laylat al-qadr*, “Seek it in twenty-four nights,” which could mean, “Begin seeking it in the last remaining seven nights.” [^53]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2022. [^54]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2022. [^55]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 23890. [^56]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2022. [^57]: Al-Haythamī, *Majma’ al-zawāʾid*, no. 5050. [^58]: In addition to the companion Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, as referenced above, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī attributed this opinion to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s school and as one view reported from Abū Ḥanīfah. Ibn Ḥajar also mentioned that the Shāfiʿī scholar Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Rāzī attributed this view to “most of the scholars.” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:574. [^59]: *Muslim*, no. 762. [^60]: *Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1386. [^61]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 4808. [^62]: I am unable to locate this version of the hadith in al-Ṭabarānī’s *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*. [^63]: It is found in the printed edition of *al-Muʿjam awsaṭ*, no. 285. [^64]: This comment is quoted by Ibn ʿAṭiyyah from Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Ishbīlī ibn al-Kharrāṭ (d. 581/1185). See, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz*, 1:61. [^65]: *Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1379. [^66]: *Al-Tirmidhī*, no. 794. [^67]: *Al-Bukhārī*, no. 2023 [^68]: *Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1381. [^69]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 22043. There is probably a mistake in the Arabic source of the translation, adding “observe it on the third or fifth.” قم في الثالثة أو الخامسة. However, I was not able to locate this addition in the versions of the *Musnad*. [^70]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 10732 (with a slight difference in the wording). [^71]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam awsaṭ*, no. 1284. [^72]: The Arabic source states ‘he mentioned the ninth before the seventh, which is the fifth’ (وهي الخامسة). However, based on the context and the referenced hadith, it appears that the intended meaning is ‘and he \[mentioned\] it \[the seventh\] before the fifth’ (وهي على الخامسة).. [^73]: In his *tafsīr*, al-Rāzī provided several explanations behind the wisdom of keeping the exact timing of *laylat al-qadr* hidden. He gave examples of how Allah has hidden many other things including: His pleasure with worship to motivate people to pursue all acts of worship, His wrath about sins to discourage people from committing them, His righteous saints (*awliyāʾ*) among people so that they honor everyone, the acceptance of supplications (*duʿā*) to motivate them to make more *duʿā*, His greatest name so that people glorify all of His names, the “middle prayer” so that people maintain all their prayers, the acceptance of repentance so that people commit to all types of repentance, and the time of their death so that they stay fearful of death. Thus, Allah has also hidden *laylat al-qadr* so that people can glorify every night of Ramadan. Another reason is that human beings are vulnerable to sins by nature. If *laylat al-qadr* were clearly known, and one committed sins during it, the punishment would be severe as they would have known of the significance and sacredness of this night. For instance, imagine if worship on *laylat al-qadr* is worth the reward of a thousand months, while sinning during it is worth the punishment of a thousand months. Therefore, hiding the time of *laylat al-qadr* is a mercy from Allah, as preventing punishment takes priority over bringing reward. Al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-ghayb*, 32:28–29. [^74]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 21110. [^75]: *Al-Jamrah al-wusṭā*, the medium pillar, is one of the three sites at which Hajj pilgrims throw pebbles, as a sign of “stoning the devil.” [^76]: Al-Bazzār, *al-Musnad*, no. 4067. In his *ṣaḥīḥ* collection of hadith, Al-Bukhārī dedicated a section (*bāb*) to “Seeking *laylat al-qadr* in the last seven nights.” He reported a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said to his companions, “I see that your dreams all agree upon the last seven nights. Whoever seeks it, let him seek it in the last seven nights.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2015. There are two opinions on identifying the last seven nights. Some scholars held that they are generally the last seven nights of the month, while others specified that they begin on the night of the 22nd and end on the night of the 28th. According to the former opinion, the nights of 21st and 23rd are not included, while according to the latter opinion, the nights of the 21st and the 29th are not included. [^77]: Scholars have debated whether the promised reward of *laylat al-qadr* applies to those who pray during it, even if they do not realize that it is *laylat al-qadr* or do not look for its signs. The disagreement arises from the interpretation of the hadith narrated by Abū Hurayrah, in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever prays on *laylat al-qadr* coinciding with it \[the same night\],” and I \[Abū Hurayrah\] believe he continued, “with faith and seeking reward, his sins will be forgiven.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 760. A similar hadith was reported by ʿUbādah stating that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever prays on *laylat al-qadr* with faith and seeking reward, the night is gifted to him.” Aḥmad, *Musnad*, no. 22713. While the word “coinciding” (*yuwāfiquhā*) implies that one should recognize *laylat al-qadr* in order to receive its reward, it may also mean coinciding with the night without necessarily knowing that it is *laylat al-qadr*. This debate does not negate the reward for everyone who prays during *laylat al-qadr*, even if they do not know which night it was. Rather, the debate is specifically about the exact reward promised in the *sūrah*. [^78]: The Shāfiʿī jurist al-Māwardī said, “It is recommended for one who recognizes *laylat al-qadr* to hide it and ask Allah with sincerity, good intention, and sound certainty for anything he likes regarding his religious or worldly matters, but his supplications (*duʿāʾ*) for matters concerning religion and the Hereafter should be greater \[in number\].” Abū al-Ḥasan al-Māwardī, *al-Ḥawī al-kabīr*, ed. ʿĀdil ʿAbd al-Mawjūd and ʿAlī Muʿawwaḍ, 1st ed., 11 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1994),  3:484. Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī deduced fom the story of the two disputing men, who were among the reasons that the Prophet ﷺ  forgot *laylat al-qadr*, that one who recognizes the signs of *laylat al-qadr* should not share their knowledge of it with others. Al-Subkī argues that this recommendation is suggested by the fact that Allah did not want His Prophet to remember and share it, and since “all good is in whatever was willed for the Prophet,” it is recommended to follow him in that. According to al-Subkī, the wisdom behind this recommendation is that knowing the time of *laylat al-qadr* is a divine gift (*karāmah*), and all the people of the spiritual path have agreed that *karāmah*s should be hidden except for legitimate purposes. The reasons one should hide their gifted *karāmah*s are the following: (1) so that one does not see themself as better than others or does not recognize that the *karāmah* may be  test from Allah; (2) guarding against showing off (*riyā*ʾ) or feeling safe from being deprived of the *karāmah*; (3) politeness (*adab*), so that one does not get distracted by the *karāmah* and talking to others about it, instead of thanking Allah; and (4) avoiding prompting envy among others. This last reason is supported by Jacob’s statement in the Qur’an, “My son, tell your brothers nothing of this dream, or they may plot to harm you.” Qur’an 12:5. Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, *Qaḍāʾ al-ʿArab fī asʾilat Ḥalab*, ed. Muḥammad al-Afghānī (Mecca: al-Maktabah al-Tijāriyyah, 1992), 502–6. [^79]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 22765. [^80]: Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, ed. Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Majīd Salafī (Cairo, Riyadh: Maktabat Ibn Taymiyyah, Dār al-Ṣumayʿī, 1983), 22:59 (number unavailable). I would like to express my gratitude to my research colleague Justin Parrott for his timely and enthusiastic assistance in verifying the hadith citations referenced in this translation. Without his prompt help, this publication would have faced delays. [^81]: *Ibn Khuzaymah*, no. 2192. [^82]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 1962. [^83]: Al-Bazzār, *al-Musnad*, no. 4267. [^84]: What is the purpose of recognizing the signs of *laylat al-qadr* after it has already passed? Al-Nawawī answers  that there are two benefits. First, it is recommended to exert as much effort in worship as possible the following day. Second, according to the well-known (*mashhūr*) opinion of the Shāfiʿī school, *laylat al-qadr* does not shift to other nights; hence, whoever recognizes it should commit to worship during it in the following years. Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab li-l-Shīrāzī*, ed. Najīb al-Muṭīʿī, 23 vols. (Jeddah: Maktabat al-Irshād, 1980), 6:490. ## Summary All praise is due to Allah, for Whom tongues express gratitude, the One exalted beyond being overtaken by slumber or sleep, who glorified certain times as He glorified certain places. Among the times He honored is the Night of Glory (Laylat al-Qadr), which He made better than a thousand months, as He said: "We sent it down on the Night of Glory. What will explain to you what that Night of Glory is? The Night of Glory is better than a thousand months; on that night the angels and the Spirit descend again and again with their Lord's permission on every task; [there is] peace that night until the break of dawn." The exegetes explained that the pronoun "it" in "We sent it down" refers to the noble Qur'an, even though it was not previously mentioned in the sūrah, its meaning being understood, just as Allah said "until it [the sun] was hidden in the veil [of night]" while the sun had not been mentioned. The exegetes differed on the manner of this revelation. Ibn ʿAbbās and others held that Allah sent the entire Qur'an down to the nearest heaven on Laylat al-Qadr, then revealed it to the Prophet ﷺ over twenty years, understanding this from Allah's saying "I swear by the positions of the stars." Al-Shaʿbī and others held that the meaning is that the descent of the Qur'an to the Prophet ﷺ was initiated on that night, supported by reports that Jibrīl began coming to the Prophet ﷺ in Ramadan—some saying on the seventh, others the seventeenth—while other reports place the beginning in Rajab or Rabīʿ al-Awwal. Some scholars interpreted the verse as meaning that the sūrah was revealed concerning the standing of Laylat al-Qadr, reading the preposition "in" (fī) as causal, similar to ʿUmar's fear that Qur'an might be revealed concerning him, and ʿĀʾisha's statement in the incident of the false accusation (al-ifk) that she was too insignificant for Qur'an to be revealed regarding her. Al-Bukhārī reported that Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said that wherever the Qur'an says "What will explain to you" (wa mā adrāk), Allah explained it to the Prophet ﷺ, but where it says "How can you tell?" (wa mā yudrīk), He did not inform him of it. Scholars differed regarding why the night is called Laylat al-Qadr. One view, reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, Qatādah, and others, and attributed by al-Nawawī to the scholars, is that Allah decrees provisions and matters during it and informs the angels of them, as in "a night when every matter of wisdom is made distinct"—though it must be understood that Allah's decree is itself pre-eternal. Al-Zuhrī held that the name denotes honor and high position. Others said it is because whoever worships in it gains great honor, or because worship in it carries tremendous value. As for its being special to this ummah, Mālik reported in the Muwaṭṭaʾ from a trustworthy source that the Prophet ﷺ was shown the long lifespans of earlier peoples and saw his community's lives too short to match their deeds, so Allah granted them this night better than a thousand months. Al-Tirmidhī reported through Yūsuf ibn Saʿd a report connecting the "thousand months" to the rule of Banū Umayyah, which al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl counted as exactly a thousand months; al-Tirmidhī graded this hadith as rare (gharīb). Regarding "the angels and the Spirit descend," it was said that "the Spirit" is Jibrīl, or a group of angels, or a distinct heavenly creature. Those who hold that provisions are decreed that night explain the angels' descent accordingly, while others link "on every task" to "peace," and Mujāhid said no one is afflicted with disease that night, while al-Shaʿbī and Manṣūr held it is peace in the sense of the angels' greeting to the believers. It is authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ said whoever prays during Laylat al-Qadr out of faith and hope of reward will have his former sins forgiven, and in al-Nasāʾī's al-Sunan al-kubrā, Aḥmad's Musnad, and al-Ṭabarānī's Muʿjam from ʿUbādah, "and their future sins" is added. Reliable scholars agreed that the night has not been abrogated and remains until the end of time. Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ noted an anomalous dissent claiming abrogation, based on the Prophet's ﷺ words "so it was taken away," but the hadith's continuation—"and maybe it is better for you; so seek it on the seventh or the ninth"—found at the beginning of al-Bukhārī's collection, shows that only knowledge of its exact time was withdrawn, for otherwise he would not have commanded seeking it. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah mentioned this rejected view of abrogation is attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa and others. Scholars then differed extensively on its timing. One view, attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa, is that it may fall on any night of the year, supported by Ibn Masʿūd's saying that whoever prays all year will hit upon it—though Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, explained that Ibn Masʿūd only wished to prevent negligence and himself knew it was in the last ten nights, on the twenty-seventh. Another view, held by Ibn ʿUmar, is that it can be any night of Ramadan. Others said the first night, the middle and last ten, the last ten, the odd nights of the last ten, or the even nights. Reports place it variously on the seventeenth (from Zayd ibn Arqam and Ibn Masʿūd), the nineteenth (from ʿAlī and Ibn Masʿūd), the twenty-first (from Abū Saʿīd's authentic hadith of water and clay), the twenty-third (from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays and Abū Hurayra in Muslim), the twenty-fourth (from Bilāl and Ibn ʿAbbās), and the twenty-seventh, which many companions adopted, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb swearing to it by the sign that the sun rises without rays. The hadith of ʿUbādah, containing "his past and future sins will be forgiven," was noted to include the transmitter ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, whose transmission is fair (ḥasan). Some justified the twenty-seventh through numerical calculations, but Ibn ʿAṭiyyah judged such interpretations tangential to genuine tafsīr. The various reports were gathered into twenty-seven opinions, which may be grouped as: that its knowledge was abrogated (one view, rejected); that its timing is entirely hidden (one view); that it is fixed each year (twenty-three views); and that it shifts from year to year (two views). This latter position—that it moves annually—is held by Mālik, Sufyān al-Thawrī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, Abū Thawr, al-Muzanī, and Ibn Khuzayma, and favored by al-Nawawī as the only way to reconcile the differing hadiths. Ibn Ḥazm the Ẓāhirī restricted it to the odd nights of the last ten as reckoned by whether the month is complete or incomplete. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī gathered even more—forty-six opinions—yet noted that from the third onward they all agree on its possible occurrence and on encouraging its seeking, and that many may be combined despite apparent difference; indeed the disagreement is largely semantic, since most agree its exact time is not definitively known. The night truly exists, and Allah reveals it to whom He wills, many of the pious having witnessed it; al-Nawawī dismissed as serious error the claim that it cannot be witnessed. Some held Allah concealed it so servants would not confine their devotion to it and neglect other nights, remaining constant in worship for which they were created, as He said: "I have not created Jinn and mankind except to worship Me." This is supported by al-Ṭabarānī's report from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays that the Prophet ﷺ said, "If it were not that people would leave prayer except on that night, I would have told you," and al-Bazzār's report from Abū Dharr, who was told it remains until the Day of Judgment and instructed to seek it. As for its signs, the most authentic is that the sun rises in the morning without visible rays. Aḥmad reported from ʿUbādah with a good chain that the night is serene and clear, neither too cold nor too hot, with no shooting star until morning, and the sun rising evenly like the full moon which the devil cannot rise with. Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ offered two explanations for the rayless sun: that Allah appointed it as a sign, or that the multitude of ascending and descending angels block the rays with their wings. Al-Ṭabarānī's report from Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ describes it as clear and windless, but its chain includes Bishr ibn ʿAwn and Bakkār ibn Tamīm, both weak; al-Bazzār's report from Ibn ʿAbbās describing it as cool includes Maslamah ibn Ḥibbān, whose reliability was debated. Against these, a report from Jābir ibn Samura describes it as a night of wind, rain, and thunder, aligning with Abū Saʿīd's hadith of the leaking roof and traces of clay—yet since the preferred view is that the night moves and is not fixed, such a report may refer to a particular year without wind or rain. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/approaching-the-quran-through-the-names-of-allah # Understanding the Qur'an Through the Names and Attributes of Allah **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Ramadan **Published:** March 30, 2023 **Updated:** September 8, 2026 ## Introduction When approaching the Qur’an, many of us bring our expectations and  assumptions. While this is natural, failing to understand that we do so can lead us to unknowingly projecting our presuppositions upon the divine text, which is likely to prevent us from appreciating the Qur’an on its own terms. Particularly when reading a translation, which is inevitably an interpretation, the modern reader may be unable to understand why Allah mentions the destruction of previous peoples, or the torment of the Hellfire, and might feel unsure of how to connect to the mercy of God in light of these verses. Hence, some people distance themselves from the Qur’an. But the Prophet ﷺ said, “The people of the Qur’an are the people of Allah and His chosen ones,”[^1] and this should make us want to know what we are missing. Ibn al-Qayyim laments the state of those who turn away from the Qur’an, and hence miss out on that which gives life to the heart and light to the eyes.[^2] The Qur’an has been sent by God to His creation. It has a purpose. Yet, our experience of the Qur’an is directly linked to how we view Allah, as our ‘[God image](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness)’ impacts our relationship with Him, ourselves, and the world.[^3] If we have a negative image of Allah, we may simply view the Qur’an as a harsh book of dos and don’ts. Conversely, if we rightly see Allah as merciful, just, majestic and nurturing—as He describes Himself—we can read the Qur’an’s verses in a completely different light. We find affection, strength, mercy, and wisdom, where previously we may not have. Consider this: If you were in trouble, or lost with no idea how to find your way, and you received a message from someone you have no doubt cares about you, is incredibly smart, and is aware of your situation, you would be attentive when reading their letter. You probably would not want this person to sugarcoat the issues causing you problems—you need them to be direct with you, so that you can make it out of your predicament. Even if there are points you do not comprehend fully, you would try to figure them out rather than dismiss them, as you know that whatever is in the letter is for your benefit. You need help, and you trust this person to help you. Your reading of this letter would be very different from that of a person who does not know the author of the letter (“Why should I trust this letter?”), doesn’t realize they need help or is too proud to admit it (“I know better”), or is unaware of why the letter was sent to begin with (“Why is this person talking like this?”). They may be offended, confused or unable to realize the importance of the letter—consequently, they likely will not benefit. Allah is far above any analogy, but this is similar to our relationship with the Qur’an. When we know who Allah is and know the purpose of His book, we can find solace in it and benefit in this life and the next. When we do not, we may be completely unmoved and even resentful. As Ibn al-Qayyim notes, Allah has given us two ways to know Him: through His signs in the external world (i.e., the creation of the heavens and the earth), and the second by reflecting on His verses in the Qur’an and contemplating them.[^4] When we know His names and who He is, this becomes the lens by which we interpret His signs in the universe and His signs in His book. Thus, one of the first things we should do—and this is accessible to everyone—is to learn who Allah is in relation to the Qur’an. Once we do, it becomes much easier to love the Qur’an and to want to understand its messages deeply. Indeed, one of the [keys to *tadabbur*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran)—deep reflection—is approaching the Qur’an with the right mindset.[^5] If our mindset is that the Qur’an is from the One who wants the best for us, who wants to guide us, and is the most knowledgeable, we are more likely to be actively looking for how we can benefit from every verse. This paper will explore approaching the Qur’an through Allah’s names, and how that impacts the way we receive its message. Since Allah Himself highlights specific names when He talks about the revelation of His book, the paper contextualizes the messages of the Qur’an through the names that Allah mentions, in order to help the reader connect to Allah through the Qur’an. --- ## Understanding the Qur'an by Knowing Allah First To understand the Qur’an, we must connect to the One who sent it. As Jeffrey Lang states, > The Qur’an’s “most beautiful names” of God imply an intense involvement in the human venture. These names, such as The Merciful, The Compassionate, The Forgiving, The Giving, The Loving, The Creator, etc., reveal a God that creates men and women in order to relate to them on an intensely personal level, on a level higher than with the other creatures known to mankind, not out of a psychological or emotional need but because this is the very essence of His nature. Therefore, we find that the relationship between the sincere believer and God is characterized consistently as a bond of love. God loves the good-doers (2:195; 3:134, 3:148, 5:13, 5:93), the repentant (2:222), those that purify themselves (2:222; 9:108), the God-conscious (3:76; 9:4; 9:7), the patient (3:146), those that put their trust in Him (3:159), the just (5:42; 49:9; 60:8), and those who fight in His cause (61:4). And they, in turn, love God.[^6] Throughout the Qur’an, Allah reminds us that the revelation is ‘a sending down’—*tanzīl*—from Him, drawing on particular names and attributes to emphasize who He is.[^7] The use of the word *tanzīl* is important, as it reminds the reader that the Qur’an is coming from above, from the Most High Himself, delivered by Jibrīl to the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).[^8] There is no earthly influence, nor deficiency; it is from divine perfection. Allah tells us that the Qur’an is *tanzīl* from the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the Most-Wise, the Praiseworthy, and the Lord of the Worlds. It is perhaps akin to saying “This letter is from your loving father” or “This guide is from the expert explorer.” The simple addition of the attributes of the author completely changes how we receive the message. Similarly, connecting the Qur’an to our Lord, Creator, and Sustainer makes it personal, and the names chosen in turn reassure us. If one were to give you medicine, you may be suspicious until you are informed that the medicine is from a knowledgeable doctor. If that brilliant doctor was also your affectionate father, you would be even more comforted and confident in the medicine you are being given. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī states, > People in this world are like the sick, chronically ill, and the needy. The Qur’an contains all the medicine that unwell people need and all the nutrition that healthy people need. The greatest blessings of God Almighty upon the people of this world was the revelation of the Qur’an to them.[^9] --- ## Who is Allah? The Names and Attributes of Allah in the Qur’an ### Mercy Prior to telling us the message of the Qur’an—the purpose of life, how to live our lives, the nature of heaven and hell— Allah tells us who He is. Before we begin reading the Book, we are informed of some essential facts about who has sent it to us. This brief yet deeply profound introduction sets the tone for the whole Book. Allah tells us: > In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.[^10] > > \[All\] praise is \[due\] to Allah, Lord of the worlds. > > The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. > > Sovereign of the Day of Recompense.[^11] First impressions are usually the most important, and Allah could have chosen any of His many names to introduce Himself to us: those related to His omnipotence and majesty, or His creation of the heavens and the earth. Yet in the first three verses of the Qur’an, He mentions these names twice: *Al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*—the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. Sūrat al-Fātiḥah begins with the declaration, “In the name of Allah.” One might ask, “Well, who is Allah?” The following verses answer that. He is *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*. Not only does the opening chapter start with these names, we begin any recitation of the Book with these names in particular,[^12] and not any others. The root of both *al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm* is *raḥmah*, which is translated as mercy—compassion, sympathy, and kindness.[^13] If we want to know what mercy looks like in action, the Prophet ﷺ showed this to the companions through a scene that was happening before them. After one of the battles—there were women and children left behind—a woman began to nurse her child. The Prophet ﷺ pointed this out to the companions and asked, “Do you think this woman would throw her child into the fire?” The companions answered in the negative. He said, “Allah is more merciful to His servants than this mother is to her child.”[^14] In combination, these two names tell us that Allah is consistently the most intensely caring, compassionate and clement. *Al-Raḥmān*—in this morphological form—tells us that His mercy is overflowing, limitless, and incomparable.[^15] Al-Ghazālī states that His mercy “is all-inclusive in that it includes the worthy and the unworthy, this life and that which is to come and encompasses the essentials, needs, and advantages which go beyond them.”[^16] In practical terms, this reminds us that whatever kindness we have felt from any human being, Allah’s kindness is infinitely greater than that. This is further emphasized in the saying of the Prophet ﷺ that, “Allah made mercy into one hundred parts. He kept ninety-nine parts with Himself and sent down one part to the earth. From that one part, the creation is merciful to each other, such that a horse raises its hoof over its child for fear of trampling it.”[^17] Ibn al-Qayyim states beautifully that Allah being *al-Raḥmān* means He does not neglect His servants.[^18] He further mentions that whoever knows *al-Raḥmān* knows that His mercy in sending prophets and revelation is even greater than His mercy in sending down rain because the former gives life to the hearts and soul, not just the bodies.[^19] And *al-Raḥīm* confirms that this attribute is permanent and constant. God is not erratic or ‘moody,’ and thus there is stability and certainty in His attributes and His all-encompassing mercy. Allah has a special mercy for those who believe, as He says, “And ever is He, to the believers, Merciful.”[^20] No one is forcing Him to be merciful (as no one can). Allah tells us, “Your Lord has decreed upon Himself mercy.”[^21] He Himself has chosen to decree this divine, extraordinary care for His servants. ​​ Allah affirms that > \[This is\] a revelation from the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful- (41:2) Since Allah is the Most Merciful towards His servants, He reminds us that He has sent this Book out of His mercy and affection, so that we may come out of darkness to the light, and that we may know Him, worship Him, and submit to Him. This Qur’an is an expression of mercy that connects us to the All-Merciful and that guides us to the abode of His mercy.[^22] Everything in the Qur’an is from the *raḥmah*—the intense, overwhelming care—that Allah has for us. This attribute is emphasized throughout the Qur’an, and when we are instructed to begin its recitation with these names, we understand that every letter in this Book is infused with divine mercy. Hence, the stories told are out of concern for us. The rulings proscribed are for our benefit. The warnings and admonishments are so that we do not suffer eternal pain. Out of His mercy, He sends the Qur’an to reveal the truth, to bring closer those who are far, and to comfort those who seek Allah with glad tidings and something to look forward to.[^23] The Qur’an is a letter of care for those who reflect. Some might still pause. The Qur’an may be from the One who is most merciful, loving, and kind towards us, but some things perhaps do not make sense to us. Thus Allah reminds us that not only is the Qur’an from the Most Merciful, but from the All-Knowing, the Most-Wise. ### Knowledge and Wisdom In five places in the Qur’an, Allah mentions that the *tanzīl* is from *al-ʿAlīm* or *al-Ḥakīm*—the All-Knowing or the Most Wise—coupled with His name *al-ʿAzīz*. He says, for example: > The revelation of this Book is from Allah—the Almighty, All-Knowing.[^24] > The revelation of this Book is from Allah—the Almighty, All-Wise.[^25] *Al-ʿAlīm* (the All-Knowing) is He who has all-encompassing knowledge. The root is *ʿayn-lām-mīm*, which encompasses knowledge, awareness, and certainty. Allah *al-ʿAlīm* knows what is and what could be, what was and what could have been, the inner and the outer. What is hidden to people, to Him is manifest.[^26] Yet, in our day-to-day interactions, we may be familiar with people who ‘know a lot,’ but are not the most perceptive or discerning. Allah is also *al-Ḥakīm*—the Most Wise. One of the meanings of *ḥikmah* is to put things in their appropriate place.[^27] Because Allah is *al-Ḥakīm*, He never engages in what is ugly,[^28] and His actions are always measured and purposeful. Al-Rāzī states that these names are combined here as Allah is telling us that He sent down the Qur’an with His might and knowledge, and this can be seen in what it contains of benefits and miracles.[^29] Ibn ʿĀshūr adds that because the Qur’an is the speech of the Almighty, the All-Knowing, no one but Allah has the ability and knowledge to come up with something similar.[^30] When Allah informs us that this Qur’an is from the One who knows every detail—the past and future, the physical and metaphysical—*and* that He is the most wise and knowledgeable, He tells us that everything in this Book is beneficial for us in this life and the next. If we were to receive a book from someone who cares for us, the contents may satisfy us emotionally. But if we were told that the foremost authority on  a particular topic had authored the book, we would naturally take it more seriously at an intellectual level as well. We would trust the advice given therein because we have faith in the knowledge and expertise of that human being (who is still fallible!). When we internalize the fact of Allah’s knowledge and wisdom as the ‘author’ of the Qur’an—when we truly comprehend that the Qur’an is literally the word of God—we truly understand reality. *The more we reflect on the Qur’an, the clearer our priorities become.* We have certainty that what He has ordained for us benefits us, and that what He has prohibited is harmful. When facing trouble, we know that the answer can be found in His Words. Since we know these verses are from the All-Knowing, the Most Wise, we trust in Him, and so when there are matters that we do not comprehend, we take the time to understand them as opposed to dismissing what we do not know. Allah tells us clearly that, “You may dislike something although it is good for you, or like something although it is bad for you: God knows and you do not.”[^31] When Yūsuf (as), in the Qur’an, is finally reunited with his family, he says, “... My Lord is most subtle in achieving what He wills; He is the All Knowing, the Truly Wise.”[^32] Yūsuf could see that everything that had happened in his life was purposeful and indeed necessary for him to be where he was in that moment. One may have questioned the mercy and wisdom in a child being separated from his family by jealous siblings, being sold into slavery, and then being falsely accused and thrown into jail for several years. Yet all those events led to Yūsuf becoming a trusted and beloved person of authority and stature. Allah elevated him because of his patience and God-consciousness. There was both wisdom and mercy in every single twist of his life. While in Yūsuf’s case the wisdom of Allah became apparent in the final earthly outcome, wisdom is not confined to what is seen in this realm *or even what is valued according to worldly standards*. One who has a profitable business selling alcohol, for example, might decide to mend his or her ways and change careers. They may suffer materially as a result. Perhaps their standard of living declines. They start losing business contacts. If their family opposes this change, their relationships may even break down. These are all tangible losses. But no one knows the spiritual blessings descending upon this person because of what they gave up for God. No one knows the harms that were avoided at a personal and communal level because this person did the right thing. And no one will ever know what Allah has kept hidden for this person in Paradise as a result of their devotion to God and their steadfastness in the face of difficulty and temptation. Allah reminds us of all of this when He tells us that the Qur’an is sent from the All-Knowing, the Most Wise. ### Power and Care Of course, in this world, the attributes of mercy and knowledge may be highly regarded, yet the person who possesses them may also be weak. A weak person can be easily overpowered, and their advice unrealistic. Hence, Allah emphasizes that this Book is also from *al-*ʿ*Azīz* and *Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn.* Allah reminds the reciters of the Qur’an that, “This is a revelation from the Almighty, Most Merciful,”[^33] and “The revelation of this Book is from Allah—the Almighty, All-Wise.”[^34] Allah frequently mentions His *ʿizzah* when referring to the *tanzīl* of the Qur’an,[^35] and the Qur’an itself is described as being ʿ*azīz*.[^36] *ʿIzzah* is a combination of might, nobility, invincibility, venerability, and uniqueness.[^37] *Al-*ʿ*Azīz* is the one who overpowers and cannot be overpowered, who is untouchable and all-powerful, completely unique, possessed of all glory and honor, and who  grants strength and honor to whom He wills.[^38] During the Battle of Badr, the Muslims were greatly outnumbered. Allah tells the believers that He sent them angels as reinforcements, and the Muslims were victorious during the battle. But Allah reminds us all: "And Allah only made it as a glad tiding, and so that your hearts should become serene thereby, for support is only from Allah; *indeed, Allah is Almighty (*ʿ*Azīz), All-Wise (Ḥakīm)*.”[^39] Might and victory are not from the angels; rather they are from Allah. When Allah tells us that this Book is from *al-*ʿ*Azīz,* He is telling us that He has protected the Qur’an from change or alteration.[^40] This should inspire confidence in its eternal message.[^41] It urges people to walk the path of truth and guidance without weakness, and it issues warnings and threats against disobedience and disbelief.[^42] When we see injustice in the world around us, when we ourselves feel weak, the Qur’an reminds us that it is from *al-*ʿ*Azīz*, and thus we can draw strength and  comfort from it.[^43] The Qur’an shows us the fate of those who transgress and do harm; they will not be left to their ways indefinitely. Allah  is *al-*ʿ*Azīz*—when He warns, He is able to follow through. Furthermore, His might is not like human might. People who have overpowering strength may express it rashly or cruelly, oppressing others, but Allah is the Most Wise, the Most Merciful. His might is measured in its expression, just in its outcome, for the best reasons, and with utmost mercy. Allah also reminds us that the Qur’an is *tanzīl* from *Rabb al-ʿālamīn*, the Lord of the worlds, stating “\[This is\] the revelation of the Book about which there is no doubt from the Lord of the worlds.”[^44] Allah being *Rabb al-ʿālamīn* means that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all, caretaker of all affairs, the Nurturer, who brings into existence and takes out of existence; it means He alone is God, worthy of worship, the true refuge, and the sanctuary during calamity; indeed, there is no lord but Him, and no god but Him.[^45] The word *tarbiyah*, from the same root, is about nurturing, and Allah *al-Rabb* is He who gently moves one from one condition to another until the fulfillment of the end goal.[^46] Telling us that the *tanzīl* is from *Rabb al-ʿālamīn* reminds us that Allah is nurturing us through the Qur’an. We are given this “revelation from the One who created the earth and the high heaven,”[^47] and He is teaching us how best to be in this world and how best to be with Him to attain our final goal: Paradise with Him. Our purpose in this world is elaborated upon, the nature of tests as well as good and evil explained. We are exhorted to overcome our base desires and pursue loftier goals, and most importantly, we are told who He is. Moreover, He is *Rabb al-ʿālamīn*—the Lord of *all* *the worlds*—not just the Lord of a certain race, nationality, language, gender, or social class. He sustains and raises everyone, and what is contained in this Book is guidance that is not only relevant but crucial for all of us. ### The Praiseworthy Finally, we are told about the Qur’an that “Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it; \[it is\] a revelation from a \[Lord who is\] Wise (*Ḥakīm*) and Praiseworthy (*Ḥamīd*).”[^48] *Ḥamd* is the opposite of blame (*dhamm*). *Al-Ḥamīd* is the One who is praised for His essence, His names and attributes, and His actions.[^49] Every single thing that emanates from Him is deserving of praise. In practical terms, this means that everything from *al-Ḥamīd* is not only good, but of an utter perfection that gives rise to a sense of awe. Allah reminds us in the Qur’an: ‘Everything in the heavens and earth belongs to Him; God alone is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise (*al-Ḥamīd*).’[^50] We say, “All praise (*alḥamd*) is to Allah,” which is more comprehensive than saying words of *shukr* (thanks), as the latter is expressed for a specific deed or favor. *Ḥamd*, on the other hand, encompasses thankfulness *and* praise, not only for specific favors, but for the inherent qualities of the praiseworthy one. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ made a beautiful supplication when he stood for the *tahajjud* (late night) prayer: > O Allah! For you is all praise (*laka al-ḥamd*). You are the sustainer of the heavens and the Earth and all that they contain. And for You is all praise. Yours is the dominion of the heavens and the Earth and all that they contain. And for You is all praise. You are the light of the heavens and the Earth and all that they contain. And for You is all praise. You are the king of the heavens and the Earth. And for You is all praise. You are the Truth. Your promise is true. The meeting with You is true. Your word is true. Paradise is true and the Fire is true. The prophets are true. Muhammad is true. The Hour is true…[^51] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was in constant in gratitude, awe, and reverence for Allah—and this is encompassed in the supplication that he made. This revelation is *tanzīl* from the All-Wise as He directs us to what is in our interests, and He is Praiseworthy in the favors that He blesses us with.[^52] Because Allah is Praiseworthy (*ḥamīd*) in His perfection and majesty, and for His justice and benevolence, His book necessarily provides the means to attain good and ward off evil.[^53] When we recite the Qur’an, we have to remind ourselves that since Allah is *al-Ḥamīd,* everything in the Qur’an must be so essentially good that we cannot help but praise Him when we reflect upon its verses. If it does not cause us to praise Him, we have to ask ourselves, what are we missing? What are we not understanding? --- ## Conclusion Allah, who created us and fashioned us, sent us a book to guide us to Him. This act in and of itself demonstrates His care for His creation. But, as human beings, we can forget who the Qur’an is from, and therefore interact with it in a manner that fails to consider Allah’s mercy, wisdom, and majesty. The next time we recite the Qur’an, we should keep certain matters in mind: How is this a mercy for me? What wisdom is there for me to learn from? How is Allah guiding and caring for me through this verse or chapter? These questions apply as much to verses describing heaven as they do to verses describing hell, and as much to the stories and parables as to the direct commands and prohibitions. For example, considering His names when reading a verse concerning a prohibition, such as the one on alcohol, can help us to see that it is not simply a robotic command. Rather, it is coming from a place of mercy, concern, nurturing, and divine wisdom. Remembering His names helps inculcate certainty that there is wisdom in the prohibition, because it comes from the All-Knowing, the Most-Wise, and that indeed, this prohibition is something to be grateful to Allah for because He is the Praiseworthy. When we read verses that frighten us, such as those concerning Hellfire, we can remind ourselves that even those verses are from the mercy of Allah, because their descriptions help to guide us away from the Hellfire—after all, in order for us to move away from something harmful, we have to know it exists and that it *is* indeed bad for us. In telling us that the Qur’an is something sent down—*tanzīl*—from Him, we are reminded that the Qur’an has been sent to us from the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful (*al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*), the All-Knowing (*al-ʿAlīm)*, the Most Wise (*al-Ḥakīm*), the Almighty (*al-*ʿ*Azīz*), the Lord of the worlds (*Rabb al-ʿālamīn*), the Praiseworthy (*al-Ḥamīd*). Keeping these seven names in mind when we recite the Qur’an should help us read the verses in light of who Allah is. It enables us to understand the messages contained therein through the lenses of love, mercy, care, strength, and wisdom, and thus comforts us when we are overwhelmed. The Qur’an is Allah’s everlasting gift to creation, and a mercy for those who believe in and follow it. When we approach the Qur’an knowing who sent it, we can begin to realize how truly precious it is, how much we stand to gain from it, and savor our time with it and its meanings. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 215, *saḥīḥ* according to al-Albānī. [^2]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayna manāzil iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1416 AH, 1996 CE), 28. [^3]: Hassan Elwan and Osman Umarji, “The Alchemy of Divine Love: How Our View of God Affects Our Faith and Happiness,” *Yaqeen*, 2023, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646937515&usg=AOvVaw3vsBAZGvKSfiaQdvd-yGqx). [^4]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Al-Fawāʾid* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-*ʿ*Ilmiyyah, 1973), 20. [^5]: Yousef Wahb and Mohammed Elshinawy, “Keys to Taddabur: How to Reflect Deeply on the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646938723&usg=AOvVaw2BnOm7ZeyvyuaCHGjxDE1d). [^6]: Jeffrey Lang, *Even Angels Ask* (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 2021), 28. Jeffrey Lang is an American professor of mathematics. He converted to Islam in the 1980s, and is the author of several books on Islam. [^7]: Qur’an 39:1, 40:2, 41:2, 46:2, and others. [^8]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb*, *[](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/39/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646935043&usg=AOvVaw0e48t1NFdZtiWIsB3j9XP_)*[https://tafsir.app/alrazi/39/1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/39/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646935833&usg=AOvVaw21p5MntbcwZR2nSVu4nGDJ). [^9]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/41/2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646914156&usg=AOvVaw1tifq3rihKfpFA4PcYhkfJ)[https://tafsir.app/alrazi/41/2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/41/2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646914655&usg=AOvVaw3pqBEJkxpRCsBTg_iQ3SNc). [^10]: There are different ways to translate these names. They will be translated here as the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful for consistency, but it is important to keep in mind the vast meanings (Qur’an 41:2). [^11]: Qur’an, Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, 1:1–4. [^12]: Except for Sūrat al-Tawbah. [^13]: *Hans Wehr* (Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services, 1993), 384. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5999; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2754. [^15]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr*, [https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/1/1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/zad-almaseer/1/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646931837&usg=AOvVaw2OJZYSzC_iDWzzibR8YLyY). [^16]: Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: Al-Maqṣad Al-Asnā Fī Sharḥ Asmā’ Allāh Al-Ḥusnā*, trans. David Burrell and Nazih Daher, The Ghazali Series (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992), 52. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6000; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2752. [^18]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 32. [^19]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 32. [^20]: Qur’an 33:43. [^21]: Qur’an 6:54. [^22]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646915772&usg=AOvVaw0X83goQZcgkebxlXxfxHsi)[https://tafsir.app/saadi/36/5](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646916110&usg=AOvVaw35ohEkSzx1JNLuNGQXIc0u). [^23]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646916821&usg=AOvVaw3Y5v9z-TFNgwnNmRYDtVhP)[https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/36/5](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646917141&usg=AOvVaw0zZprHJGzIrwKSIUBavf61). [^24]: Qur’an 40:2. [^25]: Qur’an 46:2. [^26]: Maher Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā: Jalālahā wa laṭā’if iqtirānihā wa thamarātihā fī ḍawʾ al-kitāb wa-l-sunnah*, 3rd ed. (Kuwait: al-Imam al-Thahabi, 2014), 191–92. [^27]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl* (Beirut: Dār al-Ma*ʿ*rifa, 1398 AH, 1978 CE), 181. [^28]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 103. [^29]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb*, [https://tafsir.app/alrazi/40/2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/alrazi/40/2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646942440&usg=AOvVaw0i9akh86n_K5ZHhzCn6q2g). [^30]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/40/3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/40/3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646943388&usg=AOvVaw0onP677Owt6ikwCFAC7B89). [^31]: Qur’an 2:216. [^32]: Qur’an 12:100. [^33]: Qur’an 36:5. [^34]: Qur’an 39:1. [^35]: For example, Qur’an 40:2, 42:2, 45:2. [^36]: Qur’an 41:41. [^37]: *Hans Wehr*, 713. [^38]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 64–65. [^39]: Qur’an, 8:10 [^40]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646919854&usg=AOvVaw3xNbpEkprSgYJIkPfMj9x_)[https://tafsir.app/saadi/36/5](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646920302&usg=AOvVaw2HBar89_zCTddnVgRvcQ1r). [^41]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/39/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646921132&usg=AOvVaw1SZtcLZtpA16mv3mQZfF4j)[https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/39/1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/39/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646921507&usg=AOvVaw2CIuCb0gdEGACkxU9BbFhT). [^42]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646922269&usg=AOvVaw3U_1b2aozKOWgazgg73FDg)[https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/36/5](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/ibn-aashoor/36/5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646922633&usg=AOvVaw27y57a6Vi_s0QVG5EDDlcW). [^43]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/39/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646923363&usg=AOvVaw3Mx_41KIzs6pqF-eJp3K45)[https://tafsir.app/saadi/39/1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/39/1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646923693&usg=AOvVaw2WuYgw3BElb6_djEmW3Ff_). [^44]: Qur’an 32:2; also 56:80; 69:43. [^45]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badā’iʿ al-fawā’id* (Beirut*:*Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 701 AH), 2:247;  *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [https://tafsir.app/saadi/1/2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/1/2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646924750&usg=AOvVaw3aICymIBVUENerxPXUAwA8). [^46]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 31. [^47]: Qur’an 20:4. [^48]: Qur’an 41:42. [^49]: Muqaddim, *Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā*, 93. [^50]: Qur’an, 22:64. [^51]: Part of a longer supplication in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1120. [^52]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl al-Qurʾān*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/tabari/41/42&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646926166&usg=AOvVaw2bV9eYNv3-Odq_WOXMwTC_)[https://tafsir.app/tabari/41/42](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/tabari/41/42&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646926517&usg=AOvVaw0NgDeMGN8EXJZOFTgQhJ7A). [^53]: *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/41/42&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646927278&usg=AOvVaw2aNoLPoqDmEHjHvWUR6WGF)[https://tafsir.app/saadi/41/42](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.app/saadi/41/42&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1680202646927583&usg=AOvVaw1AW_ojaz99PieicXO6OHdE). ## Summary When we come to the Book of Allah, we rarely come empty-handed; we bring with us our assumptions and expectations. This is a natural human tendency, yet if we remain unaware of it, we risk projecting our own presuppositions upon the divine text, and thereby fail to receive it on its own terms. This becomes especially likely when reading a translation, which is inevitably an interpretation, for the modern reader may struggle to understand why Allah mentions the destruction of past nations or the torment of the Fire, and may feel uncertain how to reconcile such verses with the mercy of God. As a result, some distance themselves from the Qur’an altogether. Yet the Prophet ﷺ said, “The people of the Qur’an are the people of Allah and His chosen ones,” and Ibn al-Qayyim lamented the condition of those who turn away from it and thereby forfeit that which gives life to the heart and light to the eyes. The central claim here is that our experience of the Qur’an is directly linked to how we view Allah, for our “God image” shapes our relationship with Him, with ourselves, and with the world. If we carry a negative image of Allah, we may reduce the Qur’an to a harsh catalogue of commands and prohibitions. But if we see Him as He describes Himself—merciful, just, majestic, and nurturing—we read His verses in an entirely different light, finding affection, strength, mercy, and wisdom where we might otherwise have found none. This is illustrated by the analogy of a letter received from one whom we know cares for us, is deeply knowledgeable, and is aware of our plight: we would read such a letter attentively, trusting even what we did not immediately grasp, whereas one who does not know the author, or does not admit his own need, would be offended or unmoved. Allah is far above any analogy, yet this resembles our relationship with the Qur’an. As Ibn al-Qayyim notes, Allah has given us two paths to know Him: reflection upon His signs in the created heavens and earth, and contemplation of His verses in the Qur’an. Once we know His names and who He is, this knowledge becomes the very lens through which we interpret both His book and His creation. Hence one of the first and most accessible tasks for every believer is to learn who Allah is in relation to the Qur’an, for this is among the keys to tadabbur—deep reflection—approaching the Book with the conviction that it is from the One who wants the best for us. To understand the Qur’an, then, we must connect to the One who sent it. Jeffrey Lang observed that the “most beautiful names” of God—the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Forgiving, the Loving, the Creator—reveal a God who creates men and women to relate to them intimately, and that the Qur’an consistently characterizes the bond between the sincere believer and God as one of love. Allah loves the good-doers (2:195; 3:134; 5:13; 5:93), the repentant and those who purify themselves (2:222; 9:108), the God-conscious (3:76; 9:4; 9:7), the patient (3:146), those who trust in Him (3:159), the just (5:42; 49:9; 60:8), and those who fight in His cause (61:4). Throughout the Qur’an, Allah reminds us that the revelation is a “sending down”—tanzīl—drawing on particular names and attributes to emphasize who He is. This word signals that the Qur’an descends from the Most High, free of earthly influence or deficiency, delivered by Jibrīl to the Prophet ﷺ. Just as we would trust medicine more if told it came from a knowledgeable and affectionate physician, so too does knowing the Author transform our reception of the Book. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī said, “People in this world are like the sick, chronically ill, and the needy. The Qur’an contains all the medicine that unwell people need and all the nutrition that healthy people need.” Before revealing His message, Allah tells us who He is. Sūrat al-Fātiḥah opens, “In the name of Allah, [all] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. Sovereign of the Day of Recompense.” Of all His names, He twice mentions al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm in these opening verses, and with these names we begin every recitation. Their root is raḥmah—compassion, kindness, and clemency. The Prophet ﷺ pointed to a nursing mother after a battle and asked whether she would cast her child into the fire; when the Companions denied it, he said, “Allah is more merciful to His servants than this mother is to her child.” The form al-Raḥmān indicates a mercy that is overflowing, limitless, and incomparable; al-Ghazālī noted that His mercy “is all-inclusive… encompassing the essentials, needs, and advantages which go beyond them.” The Prophet ﷺ also said that Allah divided mercy into one hundred parts, keeping ninety-nine and sending one to the earth, from which all creation shows mercy to one another. Ibn al-Qayyim explained that al-Raḥmān means He does not neglect His servants, and that His mercy in sending prophets and revelation surpasses His mercy in sending rain, for the former gives life to hearts and souls. Al-Raḥīm affirms that this mercy is permanent and constant, for “ever is He, to the believers, Merciful,” and “Your Lord has decreed upon Himself mercy.” Thus Allah declares the Qur’an “a revelation from the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful” (41:2)—every letter infused with mercy, its stories, rulings, and warnings all issuing from His care. Yet since some matters may still puzzle us, Allah reminds us that the Book is also from al-ʿAlīm and al-Ḥakīm—the All-Knowing and the Most Wise—coupled with al-ʿAzīz: “The revelation of this Book is from Allah—the Almighty, All-Knowing,” and “the Almighty, All-Wise.” Al-ʿAlīm knows what is and what could be, the inner and the outer; al-Ḥakīm places all things in their appropriate place, never engaging in what is ugly, always acting with purpose. Al-Rāzī said these names are joined to show that Allah sent down the Qur’an with His might and knowledge, evident in its benefits and miracles, and Ibn ʿĀshūr added that none but Allah could produce its like. When Yūsuf was reunited with his family he declared, “My Lord is most subtle in achieving what He wills; He is the All Knowing, the Truly Wise,” for the trials of his life bore hidden wisdom. And Allah reminds us, “You may dislike something although it is good for you, or like something although it is bad for you: God knows and you do not.” Because a merciful and wise counsellor may still be weak, Allah emphasizes that the Book is from al-ʿAzīz and Rabb al-ʿālamīn. ʿIzzah combines might, nobility, and invincibility; al-ʿAzīz overpowers and is never overpowered. At Badr, though outnumbered, the believers were aided by angels, yet Allah reminded them that victory is from Him alone. That the Qur’an is from al-ʿAzīz means He has protected it from alteration and is able to fulfil His warnings, though His might is measured with wisdom and mercy. That it is tanzīl from Rabb al-ʿālamīn—“the revelation of the Book about which there is no doubt from the Lord of the worlds”—reminds us that He nurtures us through it, gently moving us toward our final goal of Paradise, and that its guidance is for all peoples without exception. Finally, the Qur’an is described as a revelation from One “Wise and Praiseworthy (Ḥamīd).” Al-Ḥamīd is praised for His essence, names, attributes, and actions, so that everything from Him is of an utter perfection inspiring awe—“God alone is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise.” The Prophet ﷺ embodied this in his tahajjud supplication: “O Allah! For You is all praise… You are the Truth, Your promise is true, the meeting with You is true…” Thus, if a verse does not move us to praise Him, we must ask what we are failing to understand. Allah, who created and fashioned us, sent a Book to guide us to Him, and this act itself demonstrates His care. When next we recite, we should ask: how is this a mercy for me, what wisdom lies here, how is Allah nurturing me through this verse? Such questions apply equally to descriptions of Paradise and of the Fire, to stories and to commands. Even the prohibition of intoxicants, seen through His names, is revealed as mercy, wisdom, and something for which to be grateful; even verses of warning are mercy, for we cannot flee a harm we do not know exists. In naming the Qur’an tanzīl from al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm, al-ʿAlīm, al-Ḥakīm, al-ʿAzīz, Rabb al-ʿālamīn, and al-Ḥamīd, Allah invites us to read His words through the lenses of love, mercy, care, strength, and wisdom. The Qur’an is His everlasting gift to creation and a mercy for those who believe, and when we approach it knowing who sent it, we begin to grasp how precious it truly is. ## Key Takeaways 1. Our understanding of Allah shapes how we read the Qur’an. If He is seen as harsh or distant, the Qur’an may appear as a book of rigid commands. But when He is known as merciful, just, majestic, and nurturing, as He describes Himself, the verses of the Qur’an reveal beauty, purpose, and care. Knowing His names and attributes transforms how we approach revelation, turning obligation into devotion and law into guidance rooted in love. Allah teaches us how to approach the Qur’an through the lens of His names. 2. The Qur’an begins with Allah’s mercy before addressing life’s purpose, heaven and hell, or any commands. In the opening verses of Surah al-Fatiha, Allah introduces Himself as al-Rahman and al-Rahim, the Entirely Merciful and the Especially Merciful, and every recitation begins with these names. The Prophet ﷺ reminded his companions that Allah’s mercy surpasses a mother’s for her child, showing that revelation itself is an act of divine compassion and care. 3. We are told that the Qur’an was sent down from al-ʿAlim, the All-Knowing, and al-Hakim, the Most Wise, as well as from al-ʿAziz, the Almighty, and Rabb al-ʿAlamin, the Lord of all worlds. These names affirm that revelation is purposeful, preserved, and nurturing—a balance of mercy and might. 4. Every word of the Qur’an reflects the perfection of al-Hamid, the Praiseworthy. His essence, attributes, and actions all call for gratitude and awe. The Qur’an guides the believer not only through command and wisdom but through continual remembrance of Allah’s mercy, power, and praise. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How does knowing Allah’s names change the way you read the Qur’an? The way we picture Allah shapes how we hear His words. If we imagine Him as harsh or distant, the Qur’an can feel like a cold list of rules. When we know Him as He describes Himself—merciful, wise, just, and nurturing—the same verses read very differently, and we begin to find care, strength, and guidance in them. While the article stresses that Allah is far above any analogy, this is like receiving a letter from someone we know loves us, understands our situation, and wants the best for us. We read such a letter closely, trusting even the parts we do not fully grasp, because we trust the sender. Reading the Qur’an without knowing its Author can be like reading that letter without knowing why its sender should be trusted. Learning who Allah is through His names becomes the lens through which we understand His book, and this is one of the first and most accessible steps any believer can take. With this knowledge in place, its commands are read as guidance from One who wants our good, and it becomes far easier to love the Qur’an and to want to understand it deeply. ### Why does the Qur’an begin with mercy (al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm)? Of all the names Allah could have chosen to open His book, He begins with mercy. The opening chapter, al-Fātiḥa, introduces Him as al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm, the Entirely Merciful and the Especially Merciful, and these names appear twice in its opening verses. Every recitation of the Qur’an also begins with them (except Sūrat al-Tawbah). The Prophet ﷺ once pointed to a mother nursing her child after a battle and asked whether she would ever throw that child into the fire. When the companions said no, he told them that Allah is more merciful to His servants than this mother is to her child. Placing these names at the very start tells the reader that everything in the Qur’an flows from that mercy. Its stories, its rulings, and even its warnings all come out of that same care. When we begin reciting with these names, we are reminded that every letter of the book is meant for our benefit. ### If Allah is merciful, why does the Qur’an talk about Hellfire and punishment? This is a common difficulty, especially for readers who come to the Qur’an through a translation and encounter verses about the destruction of earlier peoples or the torment of the Fire. Once we know that the Qur’an comes from the Most Merciful, we can read even these verses as part of that mercy rather than against it. A warning about a real danger is itself an act of care. To move away from something harmful, we first have to know that it exists and that it is genuinely bad for us. A parent who loves a child does not hide dangers from them or sugarcoat what could hurt them. Describing the Fire so vividly is a way of steering us away from it. This is like a letter from someone who cares about us and refuses to gloss over the problems we face, precisely because they want us to make it through safely. Seen this way, the hard verses are not a contradiction of Allah’s mercy but an expression of it. ### How do I know that everything in the Qur’an is good for me, even the parts I dislike? Alongside His mercy, Allah reminds us that the Qur’an comes from the All-Knowing and the Most Wise. He knows what was, what is, and what could have been, the seen and the unseen, and He places everything in its proper place with purpose. This means that what He commands is for our benefit and what He forbids is harmful to us, even when we cannot see why. Allah says plainly that we may dislike something that is good for us, or like something that is bad for us, and that He knows while we do not. A powerful illustration is the story of Yūsuf, who was separated from his family, sold into slavery, and wrongly imprisoned, yet each painful turn was leading toward good that only became clear later. Some of Allah’s wisdom may become apparent in this life, while other benefits and rewards may only manifest in the next. When we trust that the book comes from perfect knowledge and wisdom, we take time to understand what puzzles us rather than dismissing it, confident that it is for our benefit. ### What does it mean that the Qur’an was “sent down” (tanzīl) from Allah? The Qur’an repeatedly calls itself *tanzīl*, meaning something sent down. The word is a reminder that the book comes from above, from Allah Himself, delivered through the angel Jibrīl to the Prophet ﷺ, with no human authorship or flaw mixed into it. What makes this especially meaningful is that, in several passages describing the Qur’an as sent down, Allah connects its revelation with particular names and attributes. He tells us it is a revelation from the Entirely Merciful and the Especially Merciful, from the All-Knowing and the Most Wise, from the Almighty, from the Lord of all worlds, and from the Praiseworthy. Each name shapes how we receive the message. Mercy tells us it is sent out of care; knowledge and wisdom tell us it is entirely beneficial; might tells us its warnings are real and its text is protected; lordship tells us it nurtures us toward our goal, and praiseworthiness tells us that everything in it is perfectly good. Keeping these names in mind while reading turns the Qur’an from a distant text into a personal message from the One who sent it. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-importance-of-making-ramadan-a-big-deal-for-your-family # The Importance of Making Ramadan a "Big Deal" for Your Family **Author:** Sh. Ibrahim Hindy **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** March 10, 2023 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 Ramadan is just around the corner and, as we all know, it is a month of blessings, mercy, devotion and forgiveness. As we prepare ourselves for this incredible month, we should also be thinking about how our children will receive the month of Ramadan. > The associations we can create for our children with the month of Ramadan will last them a lifetime. The more our children can feel the excitement and anticipation of Ramadan, the more they will be able to connect to Ramadan as adults themselves. When we make a big deal for our kids’ birthdays, or even their summer break from school, but don’t bring much excitement or energy to Ramadan, then we are teaching them without even knowing it. We are telling them what is and isn’t a priority in their lives - and that Ramadan and Eid are low on that list. As an imam who interacts often with Muslim kids, I often hear about their parents not speaking to them about Ramadan, or even taking time off work for Eid in order to take them for Eid prayers and celebrate the day with them. So how can we make Ramadan fun, exciting and important to our children? Here are a few ideas: --- ## Welcome Ramadan Our Prophet ﷺ used to welcome the month of Ramadan, telling his Companions, “The month of Ramadan has come to you, a blessed month!” He would also search for the Ramadan moon, and make *du’a* at its sight saying, “O Allah, let this moon (month) pass over us with blessings, *iman*, safety, and in the belief of Islam.” Following this example, we need to encourage our children to anticipate and look forward to the month of Ramadan. That means going outside to search for the moon, an activity that is both a sunnah and can bring the family closer together. And it means decorating the house, and calling family and friends together to wish them a blessed month of Ramadan. --- ## Have a Daily Watch Party Do you look forward to watching Yaqeen’s Ramadan series every year? Try watching it together as a family! Make it a daily activity to watch after suhoor, before Iftar, or after Taraweeh. After each episode, engage your children by encouraging them to ask questions and facilitate a conversation from there. Check out the trailer for this year's series, *Jannah: Home at Last* [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/trailer-jannah-home-at-last-ramadan-series). --- ## Buy them toys The Companions used to encourage their children to fast and would also make toys for their children out of wool. When their children would complain during the fast, they would give them the toys to play with and pass the time. We should also encourage our children to fast, based on their age and capacity to do so, and give them toys to play with as encouragement for engaging in their fast. --- ## Make a Qur’an challenge Ramadan is the month in which the Qur’an was revealed and the month in which our Prophet ﷺ would recite it all from beginning to end. In fact, we can say that the blessed nature of this month is because of its connection to the divine revelation. So just as we should be trying to engross ourselves in the Qur’an, we need to encourage our children to do so as well. Consider making a Qur’an challenge for you and your child. Choose a Surah for each of you to memorize or review during the month of Ramadan and set aside a time every day to recite together. --- ## Take them to the Masjid Throughout the life of the Prophet ﷺ, we see many examples of children in the Masjid. Ramadan is a beautiful time when the Masjid is always alive with activity. By bringing our children to the Masjid for *iftar*s and *taraweeh*, we are building a positive relationship between them, the house of Allah and the broader Muslim community. --- ## Create a goal to give back When Ramadan would begin, Imam al-Zuhri would say, “This is the time of reciting Qur’an and feeding the hungry.” As we speak to our children about the Ramadan fast, we should encourage them to think about the hunger that others face. And thinking is not enough - we should motivate ourselves, and our children, to do something to help those in need. Create a goal with your child to raise money to feed the poor. If you and your child can volunteer to help feed the hungry - then even better! --- ## Make Ramadan gifts for your neighbors A great way to prepare for Ramadan with your children, perform an act of *da’wah*, and fulfill an important obligation in Islam is to create a Ramadan gift for your neighbors. Giving gifts to our neighbors is part of our faith. A’ishah (ra) wanted to gift her neighbors once, but only had a single gift, so she asked the Prophet (saw) what to do. He (saw) told her, “Gift it to the neighbor whose door is closest to yours” Ramadan is an excellent opportunity to revive the sunnah of gifting our neighbors, and you can always direct them to [Ramadan.day](http://ramadan.day) and [Eid.day](https://eid.day/) for more information on Ramadan and Eid! --- ## Learn a du’a together Ramadan is the month of *du’a*. We are instructed to make *du’a* when breaking our fast, and to strive to make *du’a* in pursuit of Laylat al-Qadr (the night of power). Everything we do in Ramadan should revolve around connecting our children to Allah. Teaching them to make *du’a* and ask Allah for all their needs and wants is perhaps the most powerful way to connect them to Allah. Learn different *du’a*s together with your children. [Ramadan Dua’s on Repeat](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tahirwyatt/promo-ramadan-duas-on-repeat-series-with-dr-tahir-wyatt) series is a great resource to get your started! --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/why-is-allah-referred-to-as-he-in-the-quran # Why is Allah Referred to as “He” in the Qur’an? **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Blog **Published:** March 1, 2023 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy Is God male because masculine pronouns are used to refer to Him? This is a normal thing to wonder about, but there are several things to keep in mind. First, the Qur’an was revealed in Arabic and not in English, so Allah never self-identified using an English pronoun. There is no such thing as a perfect translation. Languages function best within their respective connotative frameworks. This is why extrapolating nuance and deeper technicalities (like legal rulings) from a translation, without being grounded in traditional Arabic and other disciplines, can result in a grave departure from the intended meanings of God’s Revelation. Let’s keep this in mind and explore the question further. --- ## It is lost in translation Translators generally consider “He” to be the best translation for “*huwa”* (هو), which is the pronoun used throughout the Qur’an in reference to the Divine. However, this is not because they believe that *huwa* being grammatically masculine implies that Allah is male or male-like. For them, it is just like *inna* (إنا) and *nahnu* (نحن)—consistently translated as “We” without implying that Allah is plural or refers to multiple deities. Even in English, the “royal we” is a known linguistic convention for denoting greatness and sovereignty, not plurality. Of course, unlike the “royal we,” which is recognized in English and Arabic alike, “he” is only used in English for males. However, Arabic is a gendered language, so all nouns are grammatically masculine or feminine even if they are inanimate objects. The Arabic “he” is also the default pronoun, and hence it is invoked for the genderless third person singular. The Divine Name would linguistically fall into that final category. --- ## They are Allah’s words It is therefore understandable that there may be greater contention over the use of “he” in English, as opposed to *huwa* in the original Arabic. But we must never forget that the Arabic “he” has a wider usage than maleness. Additionally, God has afforded us sacred principles for not swerving in our conception of Him. For instance, Allah says, > لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِير > > **There is nothing like Him and He is the Hearing and Seeing.** > > **\[ Qur’an, 42:11 \]** Interestingly in this verse, Allah negates any likeness to His creation, yet affirms that He hears and sees–attributes that we have as humans. Allah *knows* His creation, so He reveals Himself to us in words that we can understand, even though language can never encapsulate His true reality. So that’s our golden rule: commit yourself to speaking about Allah as He spoke of Himself, as best you can, and recognize that the Divine Traits transcend in their realities whatever may be inherent in His creation. As Allah also says, > سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْأَزْوَاجَ كُلَّهَا > > **“Transcendent is He who created all the pairs.”** > > **\[ Qur’an, 36:36 \]** --- ## Due to human limitations Someone may wonder: if the realities between created beings and the Transcendent are so different, then why is language used that can be misunderstood to be human-like? It is because we humans can only understand anthropocentric language—we can only extrapolate based on our human experience. Would it be wise to address us with expressions we cannot relate to, using terms and describing realities with which we are unfamiliar and therefore cannot grasp? With all this in mind, and considering the more problematic connotations of “it” (usually reserved for animals and objects) and “they/them” (used for plurality), it makes sense that “he” is elected as the best analogue for “*huwa*” with the qualifiers above. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/etiquette-as-spiritual-nourishment-the-adab-of-the-student-according-to-al-ghazali-and-al-isfahani # Etiquette as Spiritual Nourishment: The Adab of the Student According to al-Ghazali and al-Isfahani **Author:** Dr. Yasien Mohamed **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 1, 2023 **Updated:** April 2, 2026 ## Introduction This essay is devoted to the etiquette (*adab*) of the student as understood by two classical Islamic ethicists of the eleventh century, al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1040) and al-Ghazālī (d. 1111).[^1] For them, *adab* as a mode of practice is aimed at knowledge of God (*maʿrifah*). The term *maʿrifah*, according to lexicologists, is synonymous with ʿ*ilm*.[^2] But for al-Iṣfahānī, there are distinctions in meaning. *Maʿrifah* is apprehending a thing by reflection upon its effects, a more particular kind of knowledge than *ʿilm*. One does not say, *yaʿlamu Allāh* (he knows God), as that would imply that he knows God’s essence, but does say *yaʿrifu Allāh*, because he knows the effects of God in creation.[^3] Thus, *maʿrifah* indicates knowledge of God that is not only cognitive and inferential, but also experiential and intuitive. In classical Islamic ethics, *adab* is the key to *maʿrifah*, and scholars such as al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī emphasize the intuitive dimension of *maʿrifah*, which is based on the purification of the soul. Al-Ghazālī did not abandon philosophy after he left Baghdad; he recognized it as a valid way of knowing God. However, after his conversion to Sufism, he seemed to have placed greater emphasis on attaining direct, experiential knowledge of God through the disciplining of the soul. Consider al-Ghazālī’s *Scale of Action*, where he acknowledges two ways of knowing God: the way of the Sufis and the way of the theoreticians (*nuẓẓār*). The purification of the soul is important for them both, but the Sufi approach is less focused on learning the sciences and more on asceticism, remembering God, and cultivating virtue. Sufis stress the importance of *muʿāmalah* (praxis), though the attainment of direct, intuitive knowledge of God is ultimately dependent on divine Grace.[^4] This brings us back to *adab*, which facilitates *maʿrifah* through praxis. A key part of the process lies in the etiquette of the student. When knowledge corresponds with virtue, we attain knowledge of God through our intellect *and* our soul.  Purification of the soul enables knowledge of the self, and knowledge of the self enables experiential knowledge of God. If the soul is subject to desire, it will descend away from God; but if driven by faith, it will ascend towards Him. --- ## Discovering adab The starting point for the purification of the soul is *adab,* cultivated via an educational method known as *taʾdīb*. The common translation of *adab* as “etiquette” can be misleading, as that particular meaning emerged from royal court protocol in the Abbasid period. Graeco-Arabic translation activity during the ninth century had an impact on Islamic philosophical education, and terms such as *adab* and *taʾdīb* came to roughly correspond with the Greek *paideia*.[^5] From its originally narrow meaning of “literature,” *adab* grew into  a type of character cultivated by litterateurs, poets, and government secretaries,[^6] exemplified  by refinement, grace, and charm. It was an ethical concept encompassing “high quality of soul, good upbringing, urbanity and courtesy,”[^7] as well as positive “moral and social upbringing, intellectual education and entertainment.”[^8] The Qur’anic concept of *adab* differs from mere cultural refinement. It was elaborated in the eleventh century by Muslim ethicists, who expanded *adab* into a full-fledged discipline.[^9] *Adab*, for al-Iṣfahānī (d. 431/1040) and then al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), is not only directed to clarity of the mind, but also purity of the heart. While they were partly inspired by the Greek philosophical heritage, they drew most of their understanding from the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. Aristotle identified the virtues of the soul as wisdom, temperance, courage and justice, but he understood them as leading only to happiness in this world. To Aristotle’s purely philosophical virtues, Muslim ethicists added theological ones. Al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī defined *adab* in terms of both outward etiquette and inward character-building. While Aristotle settles for simply identifying the virtues whose cultivation would purify the soul, Al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī reframe these virtues as predicated on faith in God and directed towards eternal happiness. Through *adab*, humankind “reaches the most sublime states and the highest ranks in this world and the next.”[^10] Felicity in the afterlife, which depends on the moral purification of the soul, should be distinguished from mere salvation, which depends primarily on the declaration of faith (*shahādah*). While we will focus on al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī, readers may want to deepen their insights into the classical Islamic contribution to *adab* by examining the views of other early Islamic educationists, including Muḥammad Ibn Saḥnūn[^11] (d. 240/871), al-Māwardī[^12] (d. 450/1058), Ibn Jamāʿah al-Kinānī[^13] (d. 733/1333), Burhān al-Dīn al-Zarnūjī[^14] (d. 620/1223). We will examine some key excerpts on the etiquette of the student in al-Iṣfahānī’s *al-Dharīʿah ilā Makārim al-Sharīʿah* (Means to the Noble Virtues of the Sacred Law),[^15] al-Ghazālī’s *Mīzān al-ʿAmal*[^16] (The Scale of Action), and the *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn*[^17] (The Revival of the Religious Sciences)*.* Both authors agree on the principles of student etiquette.[^18] Proper decorum between student and teacher provides fertile soil for the cultivation of virtues. The specific manners of how to greet or sit in front of the teacher are important, but they only take on a deeper meaning when they’re attached to the broader goal of cultivating virtue and knowing God. Bearing in mind that this higher knowledge is the ultimate goal, we expound in this essay the etiquette of the student along three broad principles of *adab*: 1. The etiquette of the student towards the self 2. The etiquette of the student towards the teacher 3. The etiquette of the student towards knowledge --- ## The student’s etiquette towards the self *Adab* towards the self is key to purifying the soul. This is why both al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī identified *adab* of the soul as the first duty of the student. Such soul-purification requires adopting a detached attitude to the world (*zuhd*). ### Purification of the soul One purifies the soul by taming its irascible faculty (anger) and concupiscent faculty (desire) through its rational faculty. The victory of reason over desire and anger grants the soul knowledge of itself, and of God, that extends beyond the theoretical to the intuitive. We use the term *maʿrifah*[^19] here to refer to this experiential knowledge of God. Al-Iṣfahānī states that there are three ways by which one can acquire knowledge of God’s oneness and attributes. The highest way is  through divine light. This gives knowledge of the Prophets, the righteous, and the witness (*shahīd*).[^20] This knowledge comes from the soul once it has subdued its lower faculty, otherwise known as desire. Al-Iṣfahānī states: > The first duty of the student is to cleanse the soul of vices as soil is cleansed of weeds.[^21] Just as prayer without a clean body is incomplete, so worship without a clean soul is incomplete.[^22] The starting point for the student is to purify the soul of worldliness. The tradition that “religion has been built on cleanliness” not only connotes cleanliness of the body, but also the soul. Also, the tradition \[that states\], “The angels do not enter into a house where there are dogs,” refers to both the dogs of the physical house and the metaphorical dogs of the spiritual house, which is the heart. Thus, just as one should cleanse the body before prayer, so too must one cleanse the soul before *maʿrifah*. Cleansing the soul removes its vices, including anger, envy, and animosity. Only such a soul, or such a person, is deserving of being God’s vicegerent (*khalīfah*). Al-Iṣfahānī cites a verse from the Qur’an to prove that  vicegerency, or stewardship on earth, is one of the goals of humanity. While ritual worship (*ʿibādah*), also a goal of humanity, benefits the individual only, stewardship benefits humanity as a whole, and requires the cultivation of virtues.[^23] The righteous are those who practice such supererogatory virtues. By contrast, “the polytheists are truly unclean.”[^24] Those who associate partners with God may wear spotless garments, but they are spiritually impure.[^25] ### Detachment (zuhd) The student of knowledge who wants to purify his soul would have to live a life of z*uhd* (asceticism). This entails not just detachment from the world, but also a life of devotion to God. Much like the Stoics, the z*āhid* views attachment to the transient pleasures of this world as foolish. We may enjoy the blessings of this world, but God reminds us that: “The life of this world is naught but the enjoyment of delusion.”[^26] Rather than become distraught over what we will inevitably lose, we should focus on cultivating virtues that are stable and abiding. The early ascetics (*zuhhād*) used to practice the highest form of abstention, but the novice is expected to do only the minimum, such as fasting in Ramadan. The student must learn to restrict his worldly needs and abstain from the unlawful. Al-Iṣfahānī states that *zuhd* is to restrict oneself to very little, and cites the Qur’anic verses permitting us to scoop a little from the river.[^27] The advanced ascetic, however, focuses on God alone and is not distracted by worldliness. A distracted person is like a stream that flows in different directions. The earth and the air absorb the water, and little is left for the plants.[^28] The true student is not like that stream. He has a single-minded devotion to God, and is not diverted by anything else. He is detached from the *dunyā*, and pursues knowledge with sincere intentions, as Ibn Jamāʿah states: > \[A student should\] cut as many as possible of the attachments that distract and obstacles that hinder the completion of the quest, the exertion of effort, and the strength of diligence in obtaining an education, for these things are like roadblocks. That is why the earliest Muslims recommended leaving one’s family and departing from one’s homeland, because the mind, if distracted, cannot attain to truths and abstruse subtleties. “God has given no man two hearts in his body.”[^29] The reference to two hearts suggests that one should give undivided attention to the pursuit of knowledge that will lead to the knowledge of God. We should not be distracted by material things, as they will not avail us on the Day of Judgment: “Disgrace me not on the day they are resurrected, the Day when neither wealth nor children avail, save for him who comes to God with a sound heart.”[^30] Al-Ghazālī, as we can sense from his writings,[^31] and especially from his autobiography *The Deliverance from Error*, experienced a psycho-spiritual crisis. He realized, during his time as a professor in Baghdad, that he searched for and disseminated knowledge not for the sake of God, but for fame. Al-Ghazālī  knew that his mind was like a stream dispersed in all directions, and that his heart was not sound. His Shaykh advised him: “The way is to detach yourself from the material world to such an extent that your heart does not turn even to family, wealth, country, knowledge or power.”[^32] Al-Ghazālī heeded the advice of the Shaykh, and stated in his autobiography: > I also perceived that I could not hope for eternal happiness unless I feared God and rejected all the passions;[^33] that is to say, I should begin by breaking my heart’s attachment to the world. I needed to abandon the illusions of life on earth to direct my attention towards my eternal home with the most intense desire for God, the Almighty. … I perceived that all my studies were futile since they were of no value for the Way to the Hereafter.[^34] He felt the need to pursue knowledge, not for wealth or fame, but for the pleasure of God. He said to his disciples: “You would occupy yourself with the meditation of the core of your being and the recognition of the attributes of the self, relinquishing the attachments of this world, and purifying your self of its blameworthy disposition.”[^35] Al-Ghazālī’s spiritual teacher wanted him to tame his ego and to learn proper *adab*. --- ## Etiquette towards the teacher The essential condition for the moral training of the student is recognition of the educator’s authority, whether it be a parent or teacher. Engaging in obedience to parents early facilitates obedience to the teacher later. This is not a blind obedience, but an act of kindness. This is *adab*. We recognize our teachers’ high status in Islam, and we feel indebted to them. The Qur’an states: “Be good to your parents” (*bi’l-wālidayn iḥsān*).”[^36]We are expected to extend that same kindness to our teachers. Ibn Jamāʿah, inspired by al-Ghazālī, describes the rules of etiquette that students should have with their teacher. They should defend him against those who speak ill of him; they should visit his grave; they should seek forgiveness and offer charity on his behalf, they should apologize if he is angry; they should thank him for his guidance; they should ask permission to enter his room; they should sit respectfully before him; they should ask for clarification politely; they should not interrupt him while speaking; and they should not speak to their classmates while he speaks. ”[^37] Inspired by a Prophetic Tradition, al-Iṣfahānī states that a teacher should be like a father to his students. He should guide them gently, always encouraging them but never stifling them. The teacher is to be accorded more honor than the father, for while the father is primarily concerned for the child’s material welfare, the teacher is concerned most for his spiritual welfare. Al-Iṣfahānī states: > The teacher must treat his students as his children. He is more important to them than their own parents. When he was asked whether he honored his teacher more than his father, al-Iṣfahānī replied, “Indeed my teacher is more honored, for he is the cause of my eternal life; my father is the cause of my transient life.” The Prophet ﷺ also said, “I am to you like a father.” [^38] Thus, the teacher of ethics should follow the example of the Prophet ﷺ in guiding people and should be kind to his students. God describes the Prophet ﷺ as  “deeply concerned for you and full of kindness and a mercy towards the believers.”[^39] Thus, the teacher should be kind and compassionate towards his students, just as the Prophet ﷺ was kind and compassionate towards his companions. Students should trust teachers and the knowledge they impart, just as patients trust doctors and the medication they prescribe.[^40] They should be receptive to the teacher’s instruction, just as the soil is receptive to rain.[^41] God states: “There truly is in this a reminder for whoever has a heart or gives ear as witness.”[^42]  Believers, then, should not merely hear the Qur’an but should listen to it attentively, absorb its meaning, and apply it to their lives. The student should honor the teacher by not asking about matters irrelevant to the subject at hand. Moses asked the pious servant Khiḍr: “Shall I follow you so that you may teach me of the good you have been taught?”[^43] He was willing to learn, but the condition Khiḍr placed upon him was not to question him.  According to al-Iṣfahānī, this condition does not contradict the verse: “Ask those who have knowledge if you do not know.”[^44] The point is not that the student shouldn’t ask questions; the point is that the student should not indulge in polemical matters which he is not ready to understand, and which might lead him astray. Questions should be posed in a respectful manner and aim to clarify rather than confuse.[^45] A true scholar is always a student, as knowledge is a life-long pursuit. Even Prophets can learn from others. Prophet Moses thought that he was the most knowledgeable about religion in his time, until God told him there was a man who could teach him certain things about the esoteric sciences (*bāṭinī* knowledge). Moses, though a Prophet and obviously superior in knowledge, especially of the exoteric sciences (*ẓāhirī* knowledge), still humbly sought knowledge from Khiḍr, a servant of God.[^46] Al-Rāzī (d. 606/12090 observes in his commentary on Qur’an 18:60: > The account of Moses and Khiḍr makes it clear that even Prophets such as Moses do not possess all knowledge, for “above every possessor of knowledge is a knower.”[^47] Among the lessons we learn from this story are the student’s humility before the teacher; his eagerness to learn new things from the teacher; the sacrifices he can make, such as traveling far to meet the teacher; and the importance of respecting the authority of the teacher, and not engaging in polemical matters beyond his understanding. --- ## Etiquette towards knowledge This section will deal with three aspects of our attitude towards knowledge: The importance of being aware of the gradation of knowledge; the importance of judging the value of a particular discipline by its fruit; and the importance of having respect for all disciplines of knowledge. ### The gradation of knowledge The *adab* of the student requires him to respect all disciplines of knowledge while acknowledging that they exist in a hierarchy, as some disciplines are given priority over others. He should study the basics before proceeding to more advanced levels. Al- Iṣfahānī states: > A person should not study a new subject until he has enough knowledge of its foundations, for a flood of jumbled information can confuse him and hamper his understanding. When God speaks of “those to whom we have given the book and they read it with due sincerity and commitment,”[^48] He refers to those who are sincerely committed to the mastery of an art or science, theoretically and practically. They would only proceed to the next level of study if they have mastered the previous level.[^49] There are two implications to *ḥaqq tilāwatih* \[read it with due sincerity and commitment\] in verse 2:121. The first implication is that one should recite the Qur’an with *tajwīd*, or excellence in pronunciation, but should also have  a heart that is sincere and fearful of God. The second implication is that one should practice (*ʿamal*) the message of the Qur’an. Thus, for al-Iṣfahānī, mastery of knowledge does not only pertain to its theoretical mastery, but also to its practical application: > Knowledge should never be divorced from good deeds. Faith and good works are always combined in the Qur’an. We read of “those who believe and do good deeds,”[^50] and we are told that “Unto Him ascends the good word, and it is He who exalts each deed of righteousness.”[^51] It is said: “The key to sin is the separation of knowledge from action.” It is also said: “Knowledge is like a foundation, and action is like a building; if the building is not constructed on the foundation, it is bound to fall.”[^52] Thus, knowledge and action should not be separated. *Adab* is necessarily action-oriented. It is practice that embeds virtues in the human soul. The good deed confirms the good word; God does not accept the latter without the former.  He is remembered both by the utterances of the tongue and the movements of the limbs.[^53]  It is not enough for one to say, “*Yā Karīm*” (O Generous One); one must also act with generosity. The gradation of knowledge also implies that the student must proceed from one level to another, in accordance with his ability. The student should only seek the knowledge needed for his current level. Al-Iṣfahānī illustrates this with the analogy of a traveler. > \[The student’s\] duty should be to treat the various sciences like provisions that he requires for the various stages of travel. He should consume what he needs from it for each stage and not depend on his own effort to attain perfection in a particular field. This could take a lifetime or more, and still, he will not probe its depth or reach its height.[^54] A student traveling the path of knowledge must consume its fruits in small servings, lest he struggle to digest what he is taught. Proper mastery of one discipline is preferable to a superficial understanding of many disciplines, as “the tree with few fruits is not useless as long as it benefits people.”[^55] When it comes to learning, then, a measured pace is best. The path of knowledge requires a lifetime to traverse, and attempting to rush through it will only ensure that the student never arrives at true knowledge of God. In sum, al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī agree that the foundations of knowledge are of paramount importance. Just as a weak foundation cripples a building’s capacity to carry a heavy load, a weak epistemic foundation cripples the student’s capacity to shoulder the quantity and complexity of true knowledge. Sophisticated subjects in philosophy and theology (*kalām*) tend to resist digestion and foster confusion. The student, therefore, must find a teacher whose focus is on essential knowledge and its practice. ### How to recognize the value of a discipline Any discipline is beneficial if it is directed towards the knowledge of God[^56] and the welfare of humanity, just as any discipline is harmful if it aims for more malicious ends. For example, the study of nuclear science for the development of weaponry is harmful, but its study for the provision of electricity is beneficial. While knowledge for material benefit is fine, this is not the end of knowledge. Al-Iṣfahānī states that the virtue of knowledge can be recognized by “the nobility of its fruit and the authenticity of its principles.” The science of religion is more noble than the science of medicine;[^57] the former relates to eternal life, whereas the latter benefits temporal life.[^58] The religious sciences are to be accorded the greatest value, as together with *adab* and worship (ʿ*ibādah*), they enable us to attain experiential knowledge of God (*maʿrifah*). Knowledge of the practical aspects of religion, including the Shari’ah, ethics, worship, human relations, diet, marriage, and penalties[^59] all deepen our understanding of God. The fruits such knowledge yields actualize one’s innate human inclination towards God. The natural and human sciences, then, are valuable insofar as they are supportive of the religious sciences. These auxiliary sciences include medicine, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and dialectical theology. However, they are not essential for the masses (ʿ*awām*), but for the intellectually inclined. Although these are auxiliary sciences, they assist the student in the attainment of eternal happiness. ### A student should not be averse to a discipline The fact that disciplines exist in a hierarchy of value does not justify dismissal of any of them. “People are enemies of that of which they are ignorant.”[^60] Scholars often sneer at disciplines they have not mastered. The student of hadith might boast about his own specialization, and look down upon the student of *kalām,* and vice versa. This is why students should acquire general knowledge before specializing, so they appreciate the merit of other branches of knowledge. It is true that believers rank differently in God’s view according to their station of knowledge: “They \[the believers\] have different grades in the sight of God”;[^61] and ‘‘God will raise in degrees those among you who believe and those who have been given knowledge.”[^62] However, all disciplines should still be respected, as they all have the potential to direct us to the knowledge of God:[^63] > A wise person will never despise any type of knowledge. He will value it and be grateful to the teachers who taught it to him. Some sages have said: “We should thank our fathers who instilled in us the doubts that inspired us to seek knowledge, more than we should thank those who imparted a little knowledge to us. Without such doubts and knowledge, we would be confused and unable to acquire knowledge that can benefit us in this world and in the hereafter.”[^64] The wise person is inspired by doubt, as it impels him to probe deeper, and he is grateful to the teachers who stimulated him to think.[^65] This is not the existential doubt of the atheist, but a methodological skepticism. It is to have a critical approach towards all schools of thought and all disciplines. One should not follow these blindly. If the intellectual sciences, such as philosophy and dialectical theology, lead us to knowledge of God, then God will reward those exponents of philosophy and theology, although their disciplines rank lower than  the religious sciences, such as Qur’anic memorization, hadith, and jurisprudence. Al-Ghazālī states: > Just as the care of the nurses is important on the battlefield, and the help of the water-suppliers is important during pilgrimage, so too are theologians and philosophers useful with their demonstrative proofs for the religious sciences. God will reward them if they glorify Him. Highest in the glorification of God are the Prophets, followed by the saints, and then the scholars, and then the pious who follow them.[^66] Discursive knowledge, whether philosophical or theological, is not to be pursued for its own sake, but as a means to glorify God in this world. But to truly know God—to transcend the limited understanding offered by books—we turn to *adab*. As already stated, *adab* has a purpose higher than mere courtesy; it must ultimately lead to *maʿrifah*. In sum, we should respect all branches of knowledge, regardless of their rank. We judge the value of disciplines by their fruit, so any discipline is valuable provided it can orient us towards the glorification of God. --- ## Conclusion The Islamic ethicists of the eleventh century conceived of education as a means to the moral formation of the individual and society. They understood the observance of proper etiquette as essential for the building of character. This essay aimed to provide the Qur’anic perspective on the etiquette of the student through the lens of al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī. Al-Ghazālī adopted and elaborated upon al-Iṣfahānī’s duties of the student in a more systematic manner in the *Scale of Action*. These duties provide a  pathway for the cultivation of virtue, which is the key to experiential knowledge of God. I have condensed the duties of the student into three main principles of etiquette:  etiquette towards the self, the teacher, and knowledge itself. The starting point for attaining knowledge of God (*maʿrifah*) is the purification of the soul (*nafs*). This is the etiquette (*adab*) towards the self. This requires acquisition of virtues, whether internal, such as courage, or external, such as wealth. These virtues, when inspired by faith, should lead to *maʿrifah*. All knowledge should serve this end. Knowledge that prepares one for this world is important for one’s physical nourishment, but knowledge that prepares one for the hereafter is important for one’s spiritual nourishment. Al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī agree that knowledge of *adab* is insufficient; one must live that *adab.* Only through relentless practice does the believer imbibe virtues, and only when virtues have become second nature is a believer defined by them. A generous person is one whose generosity comes from within, rather than from the external impositions of the law or society.[^67] *Adab* is about disciplining the self, whereby the internalization of virtue generates *maʿrifah.* Al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī  also held that the *adab* of the student is to acknowledge the hierarchy of knowledge by aiming for its peak: knowledge of God. All disciplines are important, but some disciplines are more important than others.[^68] It may seem difficult to imagine, but al-Iṣfahānī was concerned about the   oversaturation of information in his time. One wonders how there could be a flood of information in an age with no electricity, printing press, or internet. Now imagine how much more challenging is the situation we face today, in the digital age. We are bombarded with so many Islamic videos, live sessions, articles, and social media posts that we struggle to cope with the avalanche of disjointed data,  with distinguishing truth from falsehood. How fleeting the reading and how little the comprehension of this deluge of material. It seems that the more information we have, the shallower our knowledge of Islam. Modern liberal pedagogy attempts to cultivate “critical thinking,” but we have not even acquired or internalized the core religious knowledge essential for our moral and spiritual transformation. Classical Islamic learning was based on the oral tradition. The student would read the text in front of the teacher, usually in the mosque or the *madrassa*, and only after he mastered the text or the discipline would he proceed to the next stage. This traditional method of learning is hardly practiced today. Online teaching is gradually supplanting face-to-face classroom teaching, which makes it even more difficult for the teacher to cultivate *adab* in students. In contrast to modern Western education, which focuses on developing our technical skills in preparation for the market economy, Islamic education teaches us how to nurture our souls in preparation for knowledge of God and felicity in the hereafter. We need the sciences to build our civilization and earn our livelihood, but we must not live under the illusion that material comfort alone will make us happy. Fulfilling our bodily needs earns us momentary pleasure, but fulfilling our spiritual needs earns us eternity. To think otherwise is to  alienate ourselves from our *fiṭrah* and forget the purpose of our existence. Classical Islamic philosophers, such as al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī, ultimately remind us that reintroducing *adab* into our education will allow us to truly discover God and ourselves, and attain happiness in this world and the next. --- ## Notes [^1]: On the ethical educational influence of al-Iṣfahānī on al-Ghazālī, see Yasien Mohamed, “The Ethics of Education: al-Iṣfahānī’s *al-Dharī’a* as a source of inspiration for al-Ghazālī’s *Mīzān al-‘amal*,” in *The Muslim World*, ed. M. Afifi al-Akiti 101, no. 4 (2011): 633–57; Yasien Mohamed, “Duties of the Teacher: Isfahani’s *al-Dhari’ah* as a Source of Inspiration for al-Ghazālī’s *Mizan al-Amal*,” in *Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī*, papers collected on his 900th anniversary, vol. 1, ed. Georges Tamer (Leiden: EJ Brill, 2015): 186–206; “Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science”, *Texts and Studies*, series editor, H. Daiber et al., vol. 94. [^2]: Lane states: “*al-’ilm* and *maʿrifah* and *al-shu’ur* are made to have one meaning; and this is mostly said by most of the lexicologists: but most of the critics discriminate every one of these from the other; and *‘ilm* according to them, denotes the highest quality, because it is that which is allowed to be an attribute of God.” See Edward Lane, *Arabic-English Lexicon* (Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, 1984), 2138–40. [^3]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *Mufradat*, ed. Nadim Mar’ashli (Beirut: Darul Fikr,  n.d.), 343. For an exposition on the epistemology of al-Iṣfahānī, and his definitions of *‘ilm* and *maʿrifah,* see Yasien Mohamed, *The Path to Virtue: The Ethical Philosophy of al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī* (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2006), chap. 4. [^4]: Joel Kramer, *Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam (*Leiden*:* Brill, 1992), 10–11. [^5]: Monographs on philosophical education have not been preserved. However, Plato’s “Exhortation on the Education of the Young Men” (*Adab al-ṣibyān*) had been embodied by Miskawayh’s *Jawadhin khiradh*, and excerpts attributed to Plato are preserved in al-‘Āmirī’s *Kitāb al-sa‘ādah*. Likewise, the section on children’s education by the neo-Pythagorean Bryson was available in the tenth century in an anonymous Arabic translation and had an impact on Muslim educational monographs, including the ethical works by Miskawayh and al-Ghazālī. Cf. Franz Rosenthal, *Knowledge Triumphant* (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), 284–85; Martin Plessner, *Der Oikonomikos des Neuphythagoreers “Bryson” und sein Einfluß auf die Islamische Wissenchaft* (Heidelberg: Orient unt Anteka, 1928). [^6]: Joel Kramer, *Humanism,* vi. [^7]: *Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature*, s.v. “Adab,” by Hilary Kilpatrick, 1998, 56. [^8]: *Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature*, “Adab,” 56. [^9]: Knowledge and its relation to moral conduct became an important educational theme between the ninth and eleventh centuries, and it was this key theme that al-Iṣfahānī and then al-Ghazālī incorporated into their educational philosophies. [^10]: Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sulāmi, *A Collection of Sufi Rules of Conduct,* trans. Elena Biagi (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2010), XXXIV. [^11]: Rosenthal, *Knowledge Triumphant*, 290f. Cf. Muḥammad Ibn Saḥnūn (Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Salām), *Kitāb adab al-mu‘allimīn*, ed. Muhammad al-Arusi al-Mutawi (Tunis: Dārul-Kutub al-Sharqiyyah, 1972). In the sphere of the etiquette of religious education, Muḥammad Ibn Saḥnūn produced the earliest monograph on elementary teaching of the Qur’ān, *Ādāb al-mu‘allimīn* (*The Behavior of Teachers*). This work recommends treating pupils equally and using corporal punishment sparingly. [^12]: Bradley Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought* (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), xxxv–xxxvi; Rosenthal, *Knowledge Triumphant*, 269–70. Al-Māwardī (d. 1058) wrote the *Kitāb adab al-dunyā wa l-dīn*. He  integrated the literary and ethical dimensions of *adab* and produced a treatise on moral-didactic literature. Like  al-Iṣfahānī’s *Muḥāḍarāt al-udabā’* he identifies knowledge with *adab* and the intellect. See al-Iṣfahānī, *Muḥāḍarāt* *al-udabā’*, vol. 1–4 (Beirut: N.p., 1961), 45–58. The first chapter deals with respect for mature students, the merits of memorization, the value of asking questions and admitting one’s ignorance, and the problem of diverse knowledge. The pedagogics considers the disparity in the mental capacity of the students, cautions against poor teaching habits, advises the withholding of complex knowledge from students who are not receptive, and states the importance of imparting complex knowledge to those who are ready for it. [^13]: Ibn Jamā‘ah, *Tadhkirat al-sāmi‘* (Hyderabad, 1353 AH); Shoaib Shah, trans., *Etiquette of the Learner* (N.p.: Turath Publishing, 2015). Shāfi‘ī Imam Badr al-Dīn ibn Jamā’ah al-Kināni wrote *Tadhkirat al-sāmi‘  wa l-mutakallim fī adab al-‘ālim wa l-muta‘allim*, which is relevant for the etiquette of the student. [^14]: In his *Ta’līm al-muta’alim tarīq al-ta’alum* (Instruction of the student: The method of learning), he looks at  religious duties, personal hygiene, and responsible independence. He was probably inspired by al-Iṣfahānī’s *Means to the Noble  Virtues* *of the Revealed Law*. In his ethical treatise, al-Zarnuji mentions the name of Abu’l Qasim, which is also the name of al-Iṣfahānī: “The Most Illustrious Imam, the martyred Sayyid Naṣr al-Din Abu al-Qāsim composed a book on ethics, and praiseworthy is what he composed—a book which is necessary for every Muslim to bear in mind!” See Cook, *Classical Foundations*, 111. And on page 276, the translators, G. E. Von Grunebaum and Theodora M. Abel, suggest that the author of the ethical treatise could be al-Iṣfahānī, because the name Abu’l Qāsim is included in the name Abu Qāsim al-Ḥusayn bin Muḥammad bin al-Mufaḍḍal al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī. This is a plausible hypothesis, because the name Abu’l Qāsim is mentioned, and also because al-Iṣfahānī is the author of an ethical treatise. Another point worthy of note is that al-Zarnuji refers to him as “*al-shahīd*,” a martyr, perhaps because he was one of the scholars who might have died during the sacking of Iṣfahān. [^15]: For a concise introduction into the life, thought, and works of al-Iṣfahānī, see: Yasien Mohamed, “The Ethical Philosophy of al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 6, no. 1 (1996): 51–75; for a detailed exposition of his ethical thought, refer to Mohamed, *Path to Virtue*. [^16]: We make use of al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān al-‘amal*, ed. Sulayman Dunyā (Cairo: Dārul Ma‘ārif, 1964). For other Arabic editions, see al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān al ‘amal*, ed. Ahmad Shamsudin (Beirut: Dārul Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1989); al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān al-‘amal*, ed. Ali Bu Mulhim (Beirut: Dār wa Maktabat al-Hilāl, 1995); al-Ghazālī, *Mizan al-‘amal*, ed. Mahmud Biju (Damascus: Dār al-Taqwā, 2008). For a recent translation into German, see *Das Kriterium des Handelns* (Ghazzali’s *Mīzān al-‘amal*), translation with notes by Abd-Elṣamad Abd-Elḥamīd, Darmstadt, WBG. [^17]: Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn*, corr. A. A. I. al-Sirwānī, 5 vols. (N.p.: Beirut, n. d.). [^18]: Previous research on al-Iṣfahānī’s educational impact on al-Ghazālī appeared in Mohamed’s *Path to Virtue*; Jules Janssens, *al-Ghazālī’s* Mizan al-Amal*: An Ethical Summa based on Ibn Sina and al-Raghib al-Isfahani, Islamic Thought in the Middle Ages: Studies in Text, Transmission, and Translation, In Honour of Hans Daiber*, ed. Anna Akasoy and Wim Raven, 123–38; M. Afifi Alakiti, “The Madnun of al-Ghazālī: A Critical Edition of the Unpublished Major Madnun with Discussion of his Restricted Philosophical Corpus,” (DPhil thesis, Worcester College, 2007) for a section dealing with the connection between al-Iṣfahānī’s *al*\-*Dharī‘ah* and al-Ghazālī’s *Mīzān*. [^19]: This distinction between theoretical and experiential knowledge of God was elaborated later in Islamic history, as it does not appear in the Qur’an. The Qur’an defines “*ulama*” as those who intimately know and fear God. See also Rosenthal, *Knowledge Triumphant*, 22–24. “Marifa is not given any special connotation in the Qur’an, except that it is never applied to God, only to humans, which suggests acquired knowledge after not having it, according to some scholars.” [^20]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 200ff; Mohamed, *Path to Virtue*, 162–63. [^21]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 240–241; al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’*, 1:76; Nabih Amin Faris, trans., *The* *Book of Knowledge* (Lahore: Muhammad Ashraf, 1979), 126. [^22]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 96; cf. al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 341f; al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’*, 1:76. [^23]: Ritual worship is obligatory (*fard*) and the pursuit of virtue is supererogatory (*nafl*). When *nafl* is performed in addition to the *fard*, the aggregate total is superior to that of performing only *fard*. Scholars generally agree on this,  because of the famous hadith *qudsi* in Bukhari, “My servant does not draw closer to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the obligations. Then, he continues coming closer to Me with the voluntary actions.” Thus, the practice of virtues are part of these voluntary actions (*nawafil*), which will lead to closeness to God, intuitive knowledge of God, and felicity in the hereafter. [^24]: Qur’an 9:28. [^25]: For al-Iṣfahānī, the word *najis* signifies more than just spiritual and moral impurity. This is confirmed by his quotation of verse 6:15, which refers to unbelievers. But this does not detract from the literal meaning of *najis*, which signifies ritual or physical impurity. [^26]: Qur’an 57:20. [^27]: Al-Iṣfahāni, *al-Dhari’ah*, 320; Qur’an 2:249. [^28]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 240; cf. al-Ghazālī*, Mīzān*, 343f; al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’*, 1:76, 67f; Faris, *Book of Knowledge*, 129. [^29]: Bradley J. Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought* (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 178; Qur’an 33:4. [^30]: Qur’an 26:87–89. [^31]: Al-Ghazālī*, Mīzān*, 343f; al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’*, 1:67–76. [^32]: Al-Ghazālῑ, *Mῑzān al-‘amal*, ed. Sulaymān Dunya (Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif, 1964), 197. [^33]: This must be qualified, lest the reader thinks that Islam rejects desire or passion completely. While Augustinian Christianity promotes the obliteration of desires, Islam considers these desires to be natural, but to be regulated. For instance, while Christianity casts lust as sinful, Islam casts it as natural and necessary and something that must be regulated through marriage or fasting. [^34]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl*, trans. Muhammad Abu Layla (Washington: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2001), 92. [^35]: Al-Ghazālī, *Letter to a Disciple: Ayyuha’l walad*, trans. Tobias Mayer (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2005), 29. [^36]: Qur’an 2:83, 4:36, 6:151. [^37]: Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, 165–170. [^38]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, *kitāb al-ṭahārah wa sunanihā*, *bāb al-istinjā bi ’l-ḥijārat wa ’l-nahy ‘an al-rawth wa ’l-rimmah*, no. 313; *Sunan al-Nasā’ī*, *kitāb al-ṭahārah*, *bāb al-nahy ‘an al-istiṭābah bi ’l-rawth*, no. 40. [^39]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 240; Qur’an 9:128. [^40]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 240; cf. al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 344f; al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’*,  1:68f; Faris, *Book of Knowledge*, 129–32. [^41]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 244–46. [^42]: Qur’an 50:37. [^43]: Qur’an 18:66. [^44]: Qur’an 16:43. [^45]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 242–43. [^46]: Though not mentioned by name in the Qur’an, he is named by Islamic scholars as the figure described in [Qur](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677624483586479&usg=AOvVaw1jaSnNuQJtJbukdYuKsMn3)[’](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677624483586700&usg=AOvVaw0NN5zHhil76updllGtNSvI)[an](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677624483586823&usg=AOvVaw1u8-O7slXkX4U0IWzz_hes) [18:65–82](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc%3DPerseus%253Atext%253A2002.02.0006%253Asura%253D18%253Averse%253D65&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677624483587006&usg=AOvVaw0M6inHyyuHUrDdobi9O5kM) as a servant of God who has been given “knowledge.” Prophet Moses questions him about his unjust actions, such as killing a man, sinking a ship, and repaying inhospitality by repairing a wall. Only after Khiḍr explained to him at the end did Moses realize that those actions were appropriate for the context. [^47]: Al-Razi, cited in Nasr, *Study Quran,* 752; Qur’an 12:76. [^48]: Qur’an 2:121. [^49]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 237. [^50]: Qur’an 18:107. [^51]: Qur’an 35:10. [^52]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 237. [^53]: Shafi, *Ma’arif al-Qur’an*, 327–28. [^54]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 236. [^55]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*,  236–237; cf. al-Ghazālī’s sixth duty in *Mīzān*, 348; *Iḥyā’*, 1:76f; trans. Faris, *Book of Knowledge*, 134–136. Al-Ghazālī does not mention al-Iṣfahānī’s analogy of a traveler with provisions that appears in the next paragraph. [^56]: The seventh duty does not correspond with the seventh duty in *Iḥyā’*, but with another part of bk. 1, chap. 1; cf. Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharī‘ah*, 237. [^57]: Medicine in the classical sense was not limited to treatment of pathological conditions, but also focused on the patterns of conduct necessary to ensure health. [^58]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 231. Compare the same point in al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 351–52. As al-Iṣfahānī explains, “We speak of the science of religion as more noble than the science of medicine because the fruit of religion is eternal life and the fruit of medicine benefits us in this temporal life. The science of religion is also more authentic as it is based on revelation, whereas the science of medicine is based on experiments. Not only virtue, but the benefit of a science should be measured by its fruit or its principles. Medicine is more beneficial to health than Algebra. But in terms of the authenticity of its principles, Algebra is more beneficial than medicine: it is a pure science, and it does not require experimentation.” [^59]: Al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 230. The theoretical dimension of religion pertains to the ontological realities, including the realities of God; the prophets; the angels; the Last Day; the intellect; the soul; basic principles of matters; the pillars \[of Islam\]; the heavenly sciences; knowledge about the sun, moon, and stars \[astronomy\]; and knowledge about plants \[botany\], animals \[zoology\], and, finally, human beings \[medicine\]. [^60]: al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 348. The disbelievers reject the Qur’an because they are incurious about it, as God states: “Since they will not be guided by it, they will say: ‘This is an ancient perversion.’” (Qur’an 46:11). Their ignorant rejection is confirmed by the verse: “Nay, but they deny that whose knowledge they cannot comprehend and whose interpretation has not yet come to them”(Qur’an 10:39). This verse, although relevant to the context, is not cited by al-Ghazālī in the *Mīzān* and the *Iḥyāʾ.* [^61]: Qur’an 3:163. [^62]: Qur’an 58:11. [^63]: Al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 348. [^64]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 232; cf. al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 348. [^65]: Al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 409. Al-Ghazālī valued doubt as a means of gaining certainty. He was not anti-intellectual. His *Scale of Action* (especially the last chapter) and his *Deliverance from Error* demonstrate his method of doubt, which he used to critique the Islamic schools of thought of his time. [^66]: Al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān*, 361–62; corresponding to the ninth duty in the *Iḥyā’*; Fazlul Karim, trans., *Essential* Iḥyaʾ ʿulum al-dīn (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2015), 1:53–54. [^67]: As observed by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics: “As it is not one swallow or a fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.” The writer Will Durant summarized Aristotle’s view, in a quote that has been widely misattributed to Aristotle, in the following way: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” [^68]: For an in-depth insight into al-Ghazali’s theory of knowledge and the philosophical and Sufi ways to certainty and  knowledge of God, see Nabil Yasien Mohamed, “A Critical Study of Doubt and Certainty in al-Ghazali’s Epistemology” (MA thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2021). ## Summary Two great ethicists of the fifth Islamic century, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 431/1040) and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), understood the etiquette (adab) of the student to be a mode of practice directed ultimately toward knowledge of God (maʿrifah). Though the lexicologists treat maʿrifah as synonymous with ʿilm, al-Iṣfahānī draws a subtle distinction: maʿrifah is the apprehension of a thing through reflection upon its effects, and is thus more particular than ʿilm. For this reason one does not say yaʿlamu Allāh, which would imply knowledge of God's very essence, but rather yaʿrifu Allāh, since one knows God through the traces of His handiwork in creation. Maʿrifah, then, is not merely inferential and cognitive but experiential and intuitive, and adab is the key that unlocks it through the purification of the soul. It should be understood that al-Ghazālī did not discard philosophy after departing Baghdad, but recognized it as a valid path to knowing God. Yet after his turn to Sufism, he laid greater weight upon direct, experiential knowledge attained through the disciplining of the soul. In his Mīzān al-ʿAmal (The Scale of Action), he acknowledges two ways of knowing God: the way of the Sufis and the way of the theoreticians (nuẓẓār). Both require purification of the soul, but the Sufi way relies less on the study of sciences and more on asceticism, remembrance of God, and the cultivation of virtue. The Sufis stress praxis (muʿāmalah), while affirming that intuitive knowledge of God ultimately depends upon divine grace. Thus adab facilitates maʿrifah through practice: when knowledge is joined to virtue, one comes to know God through both intellect and soul. Purification yields knowledge of the self, and knowledge of the self yields experiential knowledge of God. A soul enslaved to desire descends away from Him, while a soul driven by faith ascends toward Him. The purification of the soul begins with adab, cultivated through the method of taʾdīb. To render adab merely as "etiquette" can mislead, for that meaning arose from Abbasid court protocol, and through the Graeco-Arabic translation movement of the ninth century the terms adab and taʾdīb came to correspond roughly with the Greek paideia. From its early sense of "literature," adab grew into a refined character marked by grace and courtesy. Yet the Qur'anic conception of adab, elaborated by al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī into a full discipline, aims not only at clarity of mind but purity of heart. While partly inspired by the Greek heritage, they drew chiefly upon the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. Where Aristotle identified the virtues of the soul—wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice—as leading only to worldly happiness, these Muslim ethicists added theological virtues, grounding the virtues in faith in God and directing them toward eternal felicity. Through adab, they held, humankind "reaches the most sublime states and the highest ranks in this world and the next." This felicity, resting upon moral purification, is to be distinguished from mere salvation, which rests upon the declaration of faith (shahādah). The etiquette of the student may be arranged under three headings: etiquette toward the self, toward the teacher, and toward knowledge. Regarding the self, both scholars held soul-purification to be the student's first duty, which requires a detached attitude toward the world (zuhd). One purifies the soul by subduing its irascible faculty (anger) and its concupiscent faculty (desire) through the rational faculty. Al-Iṣfahānī teaches that the highest of the three ways to know God's oneness and attributes is through divine light, the knowledge of the Prophets, the righteous, and the witness (shahīd), which comes to the soul once it has mastered its lower faculty. He writes that "the first duty of the student is to cleanse the soul of vices as soil is cleansed of weeds," and that "just as prayer without a clean body is incomplete, so worship without a clean soul is incomplete." He reads the tradition "religion has been built on cleanliness" and the tradition "the angels do not enter into a house where there are dogs" as referring to the soul and heart, not merely the body and dwelling. Only such a purified person is fit to be God's vicegerent (khalīfah), and while ritual worship (ʿibādah) benefits the individual, stewardship benefits humanity as a whole. By contrast, "the polytheists are truly unclean," for those who associate partners with God, though clad in spotless garments, remain spiritually impure. The student who would purify his soul must live a life of zuhd—detachment joined to devotion. Much as the Stoics did, the zāhid regards attachment to fleeting pleasures as folly, for "the life of this world is naught but the enjoyment of delusion." The early ascetics practiced the highest abstention, yet the novice is asked only for the minimum, such as fasting in Ramadan, restricting worldly needs and shunning the unlawful; al-Iṣfahānī cites the Qur'anic permission to scoop only a little from the river. The distracted person is likened to a stream that scatters in many directions, its water absorbed before it reaches the plants, whereas the true student is single-minded in devotion. Ibn Jamāʿah, drawing on al-Ghazālī, counsels the student to sever the attachments that hinder him, recalling that "God has given no man two hearts in his body," and that on the Day of Judgment "neither wealth nor children avail, save for him who comes to God with a sound heart." Al-Ghazālī himself, as he relates in al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl (The Deliverance from Error), underwent a spiritual crisis upon realizing that in Baghdad he had pursued and spread knowledge for fame rather than for God. His Shaykh counseled him to detach his heart from family, wealth, country, knowledge, and power, and he confessed that he "could not hope for eternal happiness unless I feared God and rejected all the passions," judging his studies "futile since they were of no value for the Way to the Hereafter." Concerning etiquette toward the teacher, the moral training of the student rests upon recognition of the educator's authority, whether parent or teacher, for early obedience to parents prepares one for obedience to the teacher—not a blind obedience but an act of kindness. The Qur'an commands, "Be good to your parents" (bi'l-wālidayn iḥsān), and the like kindness is owed to teachers. Ibn Jamāʿah, inspired by al-Ghazālī, lists the manners due to the teacher: to defend him, visit his grave, seek forgiveness and give charity on his behalf, apologize if he is angry, thank him, seek permission to enter, sit respectfully, ask questions politely, and not interrupt him or speak to others while he teaches. Al-Iṣfahānī, drawing on a Prophetic tradition, holds that the teacher should be as a father—indeed more honored than the father, since the father tends the transient life while the teacher tends the eternal one. He cites the Prophet's ﷺ words, "I am to you like a father," and describes him with the Qur'anic praise that he was "deeply concerned for you and full of kindness and a mercy towards the believers," so that the teacher too should be gentle and compassionate. The student should trust the teacher as a patient trusts his physician, and be receptive as soil is receptive to rain, for "there truly is in this a reminder for whoever has a heart or gives ear as witness." He should not burden the teacher with irrelevant or polemical questions; when Moses said to Khiḍr, "Shall I follow you so that you may teach me of the good you have been taught?", the condition placed upon him was not to question. Al-Iṣfahānī explains that this does not contradict "Ask those who have knowledge if you do not know," for the point is only that the student avoid polemics beyond his readiness. The account of Moses and Khiḍr further shows that the true scholar remains ever a student, since even a Prophet superior in exoteric (ẓāhirī) knowledge humbly sought the esoteric (bāṭinī) knowledge of Khiḍr; and al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209), commenting on Qur'an 18:60, observes that even Prophets do not possess all knowledge, for "above every possessor of knowledge is a knower." As for etiquette toward knowledge, the student must respect all disciplines while acknowledging their gradation, mastering foundations before advancing. Al-Iṣfahānī warns that "a person should not study a new subject until he has enough knowledge of its foundations," lest jumbled information confuse him, reading the verse concerning "those to whom we have given the book and they read it with due sincerity and commitment" (2:121) as pointing both to excellence of recitation with a sincere, God-fearing heart, and to acting upon the Qur'an's message. Knowledge, he insists, must never be divorced from good deeds, for the Qur'an ever joins faith with works—"those who believe and do good deeds"—and "unto Him ascends the good word, and it is He who exalts each deed of righteousness." As it is said, "knowledge is like a foundation, and action is like a building; if the building is not constructed on the foundation, it is bound to fall." The student should take his provisions of knowledge in measure, as a traveler consumes what each stage of his journey requires, for proper mastery of one discipline surpasses superficial acquaintance with many, since "the tree with few fruits is not useless as long as it benefits people." A discipline's worth is judged by "the nobility of its fruit and the authenticity of its principles"; thus the religious sciences, which relate to eternal life and, together with adab and worship, yield maʿrifah, outrank sciences such as medicine that serve temporal life. The auxiliary sciences—medicine, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and dialectical theology (kalām)—are valuable insofar as they support the religious sciences, and though not essential for the masses (ʿawām), they aid the intellectually inclined toward eternal happiness. Yet the hierarchy of knowledge justifies contempt for none, for "people are enemies of that of which they are ignorant." Though believers "have different grades in the sight of God" and He "will raise in degrees those among you who believe and those who have been given knowledge," every discipline that can orient one toward Him deserves respect. Al-Ghazālī likens theologians and philosophers to the nurses on the battlefield and the water-carriers at the pilgrimage, useful with their proofs in service of the religious sciences, and God will reward them for glorifying Him—highest in glorification being the Prophets, then the saints, then the scholars, then the pious who follow. Discursive knowledge is thus pursued not for its own sake but to glorify God, while true knowledge of Him, transcending the pages of books, is reached through adab, whose purpose is higher than mere courtesy: it is maʿrifah itself. In sum, these ethicists conceived education as the moral formation of the individual and society, and proper etiquette as essential to building character. Al-Ghazālī systematized al-Iṣfahānī's duties of the student in the Scale of Action, and these may be gathered under etiquette toward the self, the teacher, and knowledge. The starting point of maʿrifah is the purification of the soul (nafs), which requires acquiring virtues—inward like courage and outward like wealth—that, when inspired by faith, lead to knowledge of God. Both scholars agree that knowing adab is not enough; one must live it, for only through relentless practice does virtue become second nature, so that the truly generous person is one whose generosity flows from within rather than from external compulsion. They further held that the student's adab is to recognize the hierarchy of knowledge and aim for its peak, the knowledge of God. Remarkably, al-Iṣfahānī already feared an oversaturation of information in his own age—a concern all the more pressing in our digital era, when believers are inundated with videos, sessions, articles, and posts, struggling to sift truth from falsehood, so that the more information we possess, the shallower our grasp of Islam grows. Classical Islamic learning rested upon the oral tradition, wherein the student read before his teacher, often in the mosque or madrasa, mastering each text before advancing—a method scarcely practiced today as online teaching supplants the face-to-face setting in which adab is cultivated. Against a modern Western education oriented to technical skill and the market, Islamic education nurtures the soul for knowledge of God and felicity in the Hereafter; the sciences remain needful for building civilization and earning a livelihood, but we must not imagine that material comfort alone brings happiness, for to think so is to estrange ourselves from our fiṭrah and forget the purpose of our existence. Al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī remind us, in the end, that restoring adab to our education allows us to truly discover God and ourselves, and to attain happiness in this world and the next. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-qurans-engagement-with-christian-and-jewish-literature # The Qur’an’s Engagement with Christian and Jewish Literature **Authors:** Taha Soomro, Sharif Randhawa **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Editor's Picks, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 28, 2023 **Updated:** November 21, 2024 ## Introduction The Qur’an is God’s final revelation and the ultimate source of spiritual guidance for humanity. One of the primary ways in which it imparts this guidance is through narrative, by frequently telling stories of the past in order to instruct both its historical audience and subsequent generations. Since the Qur’an is a confirmation and continuation of earlier revelations known to the Jewish and Christian communities (e.g., 2:97, 3:3, 20:133), its stories are seldom entirely unfamiliar, but instead find strong echoes in previous Jewish and Christian traditions. These traditions are contained not only in the Bible, but also in a rich corpus of extra-biblical traditions transmitted, elaborated on, and recorded by the Jewish and Christian communities over many centuries, frequently interpreting, expanding on, or adding to biblical narratives. The Qur’an often engages with these extra-biblical traditions just as it engages with the Bible itself.[^1] This feature, which is so prominent in the Qur’an, is known as “intertextuality”—that is, the engagement of one text with other texts and traditions. For example, Qur’an 10:98 alludes to the repentance of the “people of Jonah” (*qawm Yūnus*), a reference that is more fully understood when read against the background of the story found in the biblical Book of Jonah. Similarly, the account of the bowing of the angels to Adam after his creation in Sūrah al-Baqarah finds parallels in Christian and Jewish stories about Adam circulating several centuries before the revelation of the Qur’an. Muslim scholarship has long sought to draw upon biblical tradition to understand the Qur’an, a trend that has also arisen in Western academia over recent decades.  The works of hadith and *tafsīr* contain plentiful reports according to which early exegetes, most notably the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ cousin and disciple Ibn ʿAbbās, narrated traditions of Jewish and Christian provenance, known as *isrāʾīliyyāt*, when commenting on stories of the prophets. While hadith literature contains some reports of the Prophet ﷺ or his companions criticizing the use of Jewish and Christian traditions, the general policy towards these traditions is embodied in the Prophet’s ﷺ authentically transmitted statements “Narrate from the Children of Israel—there is no problem,”[^2] and “Do not believe or disbelieve in the People of the Scripture.”[^3] That is, Jewish and Christian traditions can be referred to as sources of information, but they cannot be used as standards for the doctrines or practice of one’s religion without further verification. Hence, the use of *isrāʾīliyyāt* was a common practice in early Muslim *tafsīr*.[^4] To cite just one example, Qur’an 19:56-57 reads, “Mention in the scripture Idrīs. He was a man of truth, a prophet, and We raised him to a high station.” Many early *tafsīr*s identified the figure of Idrīs with the biblical Enoch, concerning whom the Bible says, “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him” (Genesis 5:24). In his explanation of the Qur’anic verses, al-Ṭabarī cites a variety of narrations according to which Idrīs was transported to heaven by an angel, an idea found in numerous pre-Islamic Jewish and Christian traditions about Enoch.[^5] While early Muslim exegetes drew on *isrāʾīliyyāt* to provide further background to Qur’anic allusions to stories of biblical figures, early Western scholarship on Qur’anic intertextuality sought to uncover the presumed “sources” of the Qur’an, viewing it as an essentially derivative work comprised of confused adaptations of biblical and extra-biblical lore. Such an attitude is reflected in the very title of  Abraham Geiger’s pioneering 1833 book, *Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judentume aufgenommen?* (“What did Muhammad borrow from Judaism?”)[^6] Western Qur’anic studies has since seen a paradigm shift away from its polemical origins. Rather than attempting to reduce the Qur’an to alleged “sources,” most contemporary scholars in the field seek to understand how the Qur’an closely engages with and critiques the traditions that were current among its Jewish and  Christian audiences from its own autonomous standpoint—presenting, in the words of one scholar, “corrective retellings” of these traditions.[^7] In keeping with  this newer approach, Sidney Griffith remarks that “\[the Qur’an\] cannot be reduced to any presumed sources. Earlier discourses appear in it not only in a new setting, but shaped, trimmed and re-formulated for an essentially new narrative.”[^8] This  approach acknowledges the Qur’an as “a text of its own… possessed of its own peculiar theological agenda and literary logic,” which cannot therefore simply be reduced to its presumed “sources.”[^9] Western scholarship has thus begun to appreciate the Qur’an’s corrective role over previous traditions, a role which is described by the Revelation itself: > We have revealed to you this Book with the truth, as a confirmation of previous Scriptures and a supreme authority on them (*muhaymin ʿalayh*). (5:48) As the classical Qur’anic scholar al-Thaʿālibī (d. 875/1470) explains, the Qur’an’s status as “*muhaymin*,” or “authoritative over” previous revelations entails that it “confirms that which is true” in them, while also “reinstating the truth and counteracting \[whatever\] corruption \[is found therein\].”[^10] The idea that the Qur’an both affirms and corrects previously corrupted scripture was articulated by Muslim scholarship even before modern notions of Qur’anic intertextuality. But how, specifically, does the Qur’an both affirm and correct previously circulating accounts? --- ## An example from the story of Adam (AS) To provide a preliminary example of the Qur’an’s engagement with previous literature, consider the story of the prostration of the angels to Adam (AS), an account that is told in many places in the Qur’an. A brief reference is found in verses 15:28-30: > And \[remember\] when your Lord said to the angels, “I am creating a man, formed from black mud. So when I have formed him and breathed My spirit into him, then fall in prostration to him.” So the angels prostrated to him, all together. Although the episode of the angels’ prostration to Adam is absent from the creation story found in the Bible, it is found in various post-biblical Jewish and Christian versions of the creation story. The *Cave of Treasures*, a Syriac Christian text typically dated earlier than or up to the sixth century,[^11] contains a particularly Christian rendering of this episode. In this account, Adam is made in a “glorious appearance” in the image of God and is given the “dress of kingship” as well as a “crown of glory.” Seeing this image of Adam, the angels marvel at him, and God commands them to prostrate to and worship Adam.[^12]  Since many Church Fathers saw Adam as a typological precursor to Jesus himself (cf. Romans 5:14), this “deification” of Adam served to underscore the deity of Jesus. In response to this overtly Christian story, rabbinic Jews told this story in a way that sought to undermine this christological message. One such rendition is preserved in *Genesis Rabbah*, a rabbinic commentary on Genesis probably redacted by the fifth century.[^13] The *Genesis Rabbah* countered the Christian  account by stating that although the angels prostrated to Adam in worship, they did so not because God commanded them to, but because they mistook Adam, made in God’s image, for God himself, just like royal subjects who intended to pay homage to their king but confused him with his governor. Consequently, God put Adam to sleep, showing the angels that the being they worshiped was a mere man. By retelling the episode of the angels’ prostration in this way, the Rabbis implied that just as the worship of Adam by the angels was a mistake, so too was the worship of Jesus by their Christian contemporaries. The Jewish and Christian texts discussed above form *intertexts* for the Qur’an—that is, they represent the stories with which the Qur’an engages when it tells its own authoritative account. In doing this, the Qur’an affirms and rejects elements from both the Christian and Jewish renditions in a manner that expresses its own distinctive theological outlook, correcting their excesses with “surgical precision.”[^14] For example, in agreement with the Christian narrative (and against the Jewish narrative), the Qur’an accepts that the angels prostrated to Adam at God’s command. However, in agreement with the Jewish narrative (and against the Christian narrative), the Qur’an maintains that Adam merely had the role of a vicegerent or “governor” (*khalīfa*) appointed by God (2:30), and not that God’s divinity dwelled in him. Accordingly, the Qur’an only describes the angels as prostrating to Adam (2:34), but not worshiping him. Moreover, whereas the Christian account speaks of Adam’s divine “glory” (*teshbūḥthā*) and states that the angels “sanctified” (*mqadshīn*) him, the Qur’an depicts the angels as declaring to God, “we glorify You (*nusabbiḥuka*) with praise and sanctify You (*nuqaddisu laka*),” using the Arabic cognates of the Syriac terms but applying them to God instead of Adam. The Qur’an therefore safeguards God’s exclusive divinity against the Christian account, upholds Adam’s exalted but non-divine status as a vicegerent of God, and absolves the angels of having wrongly worshiped Adam. Additionally, the Qur’an’s affirmation of God’s command to the angels to prostrate to Adam undercuts the Meccan pagans’ justification of their angel-worship.[^15] Accordingly, the Qur’an presents its own distinctive narrative of the story of Adam, which at the same time engages with and corrects both the Jewish and Christian versions of the story in a marvelously precise and sophisticated way. --- ## The Qur’an’s extra-biblical intertexts The above example highlights how an intertextual approach can uncover sophisticated ways in which the Qur’an engages with previous traditions, even to the point of alluding to non-Arabic texts in their original languages. Nonetheless, examples of intertextuality such as the story of Adam also raise interesting historical questions for Muslims. As the Qur’an is a confirmation of previous scripture (e.g., 5:48, discussed before), its imparting of stories with parallels in the Bible is not only unsurprising, but even expected. And yet, this episode of the Adam story is not found in the Bible, but is instead present in extra-biblical Jewish and Christian sources such as *Genesis Rabbah* and the *Cave of Treasures*. Why would the Qur’an engage with certain extra-biblical tales or later expansions of biblical stories—such as those found in rabbinic midrash, apocryphal gospels, or Syriac Christian literature—rather than only speaking about stories that have parallels in the Bible? To understand why the Qur’an engages with these stories, it is necessary to first appreciate that although such extra-biblical accounts are forgotten or overlooked as “secondary” by many Christians and Jews today, they in fact formed an integral part of Jewish and Christian tradition preceding and contemporary to the time of the Qur’an’s revelation, and well afterwards too. Just as the Islamic tradition consists not only of the Qur’an, but also a vast body of hadith, exegetical traditions, biographies of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and history of the early Muslim community, and so on, both Jews and Christians had, by the time of the Prophet ﷺ,  developed vast and rich bodies of traditions, transmitted both orally and textually, that complemented their canonical scriptures. As Annette Reed writes, concerning the widespread use of extra-biblical traditions by ancient Jews and Christians, “The fluid boundaries between biblical literature, biblical pseudepigraphy,[^16] and biblical interpretation in Second Temple Judaism[^17] serves as a helpful reminder that… the biblical heritage bequeathed to Late Antique[^18] Jews and Christians *went well beyond the texts of the books that became canonical*.”[^19] Skeptical criticism of the Qur’an on the basis of its engagement with extra-biblical tradition per se would thus be anachronistic. So which extra-biblical texts and traditions were authoritative among the Jews and Christians of Late Antiquity? Rabbinic Jews cherished a large body of *midrash*, or exegetical traditions that were initially transmitted orally before eventually being collected and codified in various rabbinic texts. *Midrash* encompassed legal traditions (*halakhah*) and non-legal exegetical traditions (*aggadah*), the latter of which prominently included reworkings and expansions of biblical stories. Between 200 and 500 CE, many of these traditions were compiled in the Talmud, regarded by rabbinic Jews as divinely inspired “Oral Torah” essentially forming a second scripture alongside the Hebrew Bible.[^20] A large body of legal traditions was  also recorded outside the Talmud throughout the first millennium. Similarly, the various Christian groups of Late Antiquity read and transmitted extra-biblical texts such as apocryphal gospels (especially infancy gospels, which contained narratives of the birth and childhood of Jesus), the writings of the Church Fathers, homilies, legal codes, apocalypses, biblical commentaries, and other genres of religious writing. Moreover, it should be remembered that the Bible itself—both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament—exhibits various degrees of extra-biblical intertextuality. Ever since the advent of Near Eastern archaeology, biblical scholars have studied parallels between traditions in the Hebrew Bible, such as the creation and Flood narratives, and traditions from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan.[^21] Similarly, the New Testament reflects a variety of traditions that are absent from the Hebrew Bible but which have roots in the extra-biblical literature of the Second Temple period (c. 515 BCE–70 CE).[^22] Insofar as one would expect a scripture to engage with the beliefs of the people it seeks to instruct, it is not difficult to see why Qur’anic intertextuality extends well past the boundaries of the Jewish and Christian scriptural canon. The Qur’an’s repeated reminder that it is “a confirmation of what is with” the People of the Scripture (e.g., 2:41) can thus be understood to include elements of this broader body of extra-biblical literature. --- ## A Muslim approach to Qur’anic intertextuality Nonetheless, some parallels between the Qur’an and extra-biblical traditions still attract skeptical criticism. As the Qur’an in multiple places declares it narrates true accounts of the past (e.g., 3:44; 12:102; 28:44), parallels shared between some of its narratives and post-biblical traditions from the period of Late Antiquity (c. 200–800 CE), such as  *Genesis Rabbah* and the Syriac *Cave of Treasures*, motivate the charge that the Qur’an has erroneously assumed the truth of noncanonical post-biblical stories, which skeptics allege have clearly human origins, contain legendary motifs, or simply date far too late from the events they purport to describe to be plausible recollections of the historical past. Such an allegation contradicts the mainstream Muslim belief that the Qur’an’s stories are not merely “fables of the ancients” (Qur’an 8:31). A proper counter to the aforementioned objections requires a Muslim approach to intertextuality in the Qur’an. This approach should reconcile mainstream Islamic belief with historical evidence uncovered by the study of Qur’anic intertextuality, while respecting the principles of rational and historical inquiry. Putting forward such an approach is the primary objective of the present essay. Prior to pursuing this objective, it will be useful to clarify what it means for believers to affirm the Qur’an’s recollection of the historical past. In several places, God stresses that the accounts He narrates are a part of the inaccessible realm of the “unseen”: > These are the accounts of the unseen (*al-ghayb*) which we have revealed to you—You did not know them, nor did your people before you, until this \[revelation\]. So have patience, the end is for the God-conscious. (Qur’an 11:49) The primary basis for the believer’s acceptance of the historical truth of the Qur’an’s stories should therefore be God’s own testimony, rather than any particular set of historical data. Muslims do not need to provide historical evidence for every individual Qur’anic story that has parallels in biblical or extra-biblical literature. Instead, a Muslim approach to Qur’anic intertextuality simply needs to show how the parallel Jewish and Christian traditions could derive from divinely authorized sources, or are otherwise presented in the Qur’an in a way that does not clearly contradict historical facts. Such a resolution, of course, assumes a certain degree of certitude as to how historians have dated the Qur’an’s intertexts. Ultimately, the vast majority of these intertexts simply lack irrefutable evidence for their existence prior to the revelation of the Qur’an itself. The earliest manuscripts of these texts typically post-date the Qur’an’s first manuscript witnesses by many centuries or even millennia. Attempts to date the Qur’an’s intertexts are usually speculative in nature, typically on the basis of literary or testimonial considerations. This is a far cry from the certitude that can be afforded to scientifically observable facts.[^23] Furthermore, unlike scientific observations, historical events are not repeatable, and evidence that might shed more light on the past rarely survives to the present day for historians to study. Arguments that impute charges of borrowing to the Qur’an thus never reach a high level of certitude simply due to the nature of the evidence involved. This is something that Muslims should remember when approaching any particular historical doubt, as God ultimately has knowledge of the past in ways that humans do not. Nevertheless, the methodology that we present generally accepts the validity of the historical method and how historians have dated many proposed intertexts of the Qur’an.[^24] Our intention is to show that historical evidence need not  be rejected out of hand. If this can be accomplished, then intertextuality can even hint at the Qur’an’s divine authorship. Considering that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not known to have studied Christian and Jewish tradition, it is remarkable that the Qur’an shows such deep awareness of biblical and extra-biblical texts. This is an argument that the Qur’an itself puts forward: > You \[Prophet\] had not read before \[the Qur’an\] any scripture, nor did you write one with your right hand. In that case, those who speak falsehood would have doubted (29:48). This verse and other similar verses would have been publicly recited by the Prophet ﷺ in an environment hostile to his preaching. Considering that the Prophet’s ﷺ opponents knew him a whole lifetime before the Qur’an was revealed (10:16), it would have been easy to discredit his message, were it known that he had studied Jewish and Christian lore.[^25] When juxtaposed with the Prophet’s ﷺ own lack of scriptural education, it is easy to see how sophisticated examples of Qur’anic intertextuality can provide evidence for the Qur’an’s divine origins. Accordingly, we have included a brief section towards the end of the essay that details a number of such examples. Presenting a more detailed argument for the Qur’an’s truth claims on the basis of intertextual evidence shall be reserved for a future essay. For the present, our main intention is to provide a methodology through which historical objections on the basis of the Qur’an’s intertextual engagement can be neutralized. We shall now present our methodology with this aim in mind. Given that the Qur’an engages with a large number of traditions reflecting diverse genres and contents, it is not possible to provide a single explanation that accounts for all of its intertextual parallels. Instead, a true understanding of Qur’anic intertextuality must do justice to the diverse characteristics of these traditions and the sources in which they are found. Accordingly, the framework that we outline in this essay involves extrapolating several different categories of Qur’anic intertexts, and presenting methods for assessing them from a believer’s perspective. These categories of intertextuality may be listed as follows: Category 1: Parallels with early extra-biblical traditions; Category 2: Conscious departure from biblical texts; Category 3: Coincidental similarities between the Qur’an and pre-Islamic texts; Category 4: Parallels with legal traditions; Category 5: Parallels that counter stories found outside revealed sources; Category 6: Parallels with texts redacted in the post-Qur’anic period; Category 7: Parallels with texts that have unstable manuscript traditions. In what follows, we will explain and illustrate each of these categories of Qur’anic intertextuality with examples intended to demonstrate how other cases belonging to each category could be understood by Muslims. This will provide readers with a framework for assessing further cases that they come across. For subsequent reference, we have provided a flowchart in the concluding section that sketches out a step-by-step process that the reader may use to categorize and assess intertextual parallels beyond the specific examples treated in this essay. Readers are also welcome to recategorize specific examples that we discuss such that they are explained in some other way. It is entirely possible that there is more than one valid explanation for any specific example of Qur’anic intertextuality. At times we also note alternative explanations for some of the examples we discuss. Before proceeding, a brief note on translations is in order. Translations of Qur’anic passages are generally our own; however, at times we rely on Mustafa Khattab’s *The Clear Qur’an* to inform our translation. Other Arabic and Syriac texts are translated directly by the present authors from source editions, with references to the source editions of the Syriac texts provided in the footnotes. Translations of passages from the Bible are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). The references for other sources found in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, or other languages along with their translations are provided in the accompanying footnotes. Finally, it should be stressed that this guide is an initial attempt at developing a Muslim approach to reading the Qur’an intertextually. Additional questions and possible avenues for further research may be raised in the course of this essay, and it is hoped that Muslim researchers may be able to expand on, refine, or revise the approach outlined here. With these preliminaries discussed, we may now explore our proposed categories for classifying and assessing the Qur’an’s engagement with extra-biblical traditions. --- ## Category 1: Parallels with early extra-biblical traditions Our first category includes cases in which the Qur’an mirrors traditions that are attested in sources written in post-biblical times (i.e., after the 1st century AD), but which could plausibly be argued to contain material dating to the era of prophecy before the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The chronological boundary of this period is defined in a hadith found in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, according to which the Prophet ﷺ said: > I am the nearest of people to the son of Mary: the prophets are all brothers \[in faith\], and there is no prophet between him and I.[^26] This hadith indicates that the era of prophecy prior to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ended with Jesus. Yet, another hadith indicates that the Children of Israel had continuous prophets up until the time of Jesus: > The Children of Israel were led by their prophets. Every time a prophet left, another prophet would succeed him.[^27] Therefore, the Qur’an’s agreement with traditions that date prior to the end of Jesus’ earthly career would pose no inherent problem for Muslim theology, as these traditions could be the result of inspiration to an Israelite prophet prior or contemporary to Jesus, even if that tradition lies outside the canonical Jewish or Christian scriptures. Even texts that postdate Jesus’ life by many centuries may preserve extremely early traditions originating from before Jesus’ time, as scholarship has shown that a large number of Jewish and Christian texts written down in Late Antiquity (i.e, when the Qur’an was revealed) contain stories and traditions that were circulating in the Second Temple Period (c. 515 BCE\-70 CE),[^28] an era that mostly coincides with the time preceding and up to Jesus’ death. Moreover, stories and traditions that could be early enough to originate from revealed sources may appear deceptively late simply because our knowledge of them is limited to texts that have actually survived long enough to reach us. Accordingly, as long as pre-Qur’anic traditions that overlap with the Qur’an do not feature any anachronisms, historical difficulties, or any overt signs of literary development over the course of their transmission, any similarities can simply be understood as due to a shared divine source from a Muslim point of view. This explanation is strengthened if parallel traditions can be shown to trace back to early sources. To illustrate this, we return to the story of the angels’ prostration to Adam. As noted previously, the angels’ bowing to Adam at the command of God (15:28-30) does not have any parallels in the Bible, but rather is found in later Syriac and Hebrew texts such as the *Cave of Treasures* (c. 6th century CE) and *Genesis Rabbah* (c. 5th century CE). The Qur’an’s correction of these traditions aside, there is certainly significant overlap between the Qur’anic story and these other accounts. This overlap is easily explained. While the Qur’an is most directly engaging with the story as it was preserved in contemporary Jewish and Christian traditions, the various elements that the Qur’an affirms in these traditions are likely to have originated during the era of prophecy terminating with Jesus. For example, although the shared motif of the angels’ prostration to Adam is not found in the Bible, it is found in the *Life of Adam and Eve*, which was originally a Jewish text composed in the 1st century CE,[^29] preserving yet older traditions. In this text, when God declares Adam’s exalted status to the angels, the archangel Michael commands them to prostrate to Adam.[^30] This tradition is also echoed in the “second book of Enoch” (2 Enoch), also dated as early as the first century.[^31] Some scholars have argued that even the New Testament Book of Hebrews alludes to this narrative.[^32] It is therefore most likely that these texts reflect a prior and more widely shared tradition that circulated during the time of Jesus or earlier. In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain an extracanonical psalm, 4Q381, which speaks of the angels “serv\[ing\] Adam and minister\[ing\] to him,” with the context indicating some sort of veneration.[^33] As the manuscript of this psalm is dated to the 1st century BC,[^34] portions of the narrative under discussion may concretely be placed well before Jesus’ time. From a Muslim viewpoint, it is therefore probable that earlier divine revelation provided indirect source material for later texts such as *Genesis Rabbah* and the *Cave of Treasures*, thus explaining their overlap with the Qur’an. This examination of the motif of the angels’ prostration to Adam underscores how pre-Qur’anic renditions of this story have their origins in earlier traditions which could trace back to a time when prophecy was still active. From a Muslim perspective, it historically stands to reason that it had its original source in divine revelation, even if the narrative is not explicitly told in the Old or New Testaments. Certain other parallels between the *Cave of Treasures* and the Qur’an’s story of Adam and Eve can be understood in the same way, such as Satan’s refusal to obey God in bowing to Adam. While this motif is also found in the 1st century *Life of Adam and Eve*, Satan’s reason for disobeying God—that he was made of fire while Adam was made of clay (Qur’an 7:12, cf. *Cave of Treasures* 3:1-7)—is first found in the *Questions of Bartholomew*, a 2nd/3rd century text.[^35] Although this  text is dated later than the time of Jesus, a believer has no obstacle to supposing that the overlapping motif of Satan’s reasoning originated from a pre-Qur’anic revelation. Written texts often postdate the traditions they contain by many centuries, as demonstrated by the episode of the angels’ bowing to Adam in the *Cave of Treasures*. --- ## Category 2: Conscious departure from biblical texts Besides the Qur’an’s engagement with extra-biblical traditions, another criticism that has been leveled at the Qur’an is that when it presents stories in common with the Bible, it confuses them, since it often contradicts certain details that the Bible possesses when telling the same story.[^36] Such objections are easily analyzed by Muslims through the lens of *taḥrīf*, a concept which refers to the corruption of previous scriptures.[^37] Since Muslims are not required to accept the validity of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in an absolute sense, such discrepancies can be understood as instances where the Qur’an is restoring the truth of earlier revelation that may have been obscured over time. Differences between the Qur’an and Jewish or Christian scriptures should therefore be seen as a feature of its corrective approach to past traditions. When discrepancies between the Qur’an and the Bible are examined carefully, it can often be shown that the Qur’an has not confused anything at all, but has instead deliberately responded to the biblical narrative in profound ways in order to reveal divine truth that is distinct from the biblical narrative, rather than simply “garbling” details as some skeptics would insist. To consider one example, skeptics have claimed that in its counterpart to the biblical creation story, the Qur’an confuses the tree of life with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This was first suggested by Abraham Geiger, who wrote: > In the details of this narrative some confusion is found between the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. The former only is mentioned in Scripture as prohibited by God, and to the eating of that alone the serpent incites Eve. After the transgression has taken place, we find the fear mentioned lest men should eat of the tree of life and live forever. Muhammad confuses the two. In one passage he puts into the devil’s mouth the statement that men through eating of this tree would become “Angels,” or “immortal,” but in another passage he mentions only the tree of eternity.[^38] Geiger’s argument is that in the Bible, it is the tree of knowledge of good and evil that God proscribes for Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:16-17) and which the serpent tempts them to eat from: > And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen. 2:16-17) > But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Gen. 3:4-7) Only once God finds that Adam and Eve have eaten from this tree does He expel them from the Garden and appoint a cherub to guard the tree of life, lest they gain the quality of eternal life as well (Gen. 3:22-24). In contrast, in the Qur’an, Satan (in the place of the serpent) entices Adam and Eve by telling them that if they eat from the forbidden tree, they will become “immortal” (7:20; cf. 20:120) and “like angels” (7:20): > Satan whispered to them so that their nakedness became exposed to them: he said, “Your Lord only forbade you this tree lest you become angels or you become immortals,” and he swore to them, “I am giving you sincere advice”—and so he lured them with deception. (7:20-22) Geiger concludes from this that the Qur’an mistakes the tree that Adam and Eve were tempted to eat from in the biblical account—the tree of knowledge of good and evil—with the tree of life. However, a more careful consideration shows that this is not a case of confusion, but of the Qur’an’s purposeful engagement with the biblical narrative in accordance with its own distinctive theological message. In the Qur’an, the tree does not function as a source of moral knowledge or of immortality, but simply as mankind’s first test.[^39] In fact, far from attempting to withhold moral knowledge from human beings, God creates them with it from the very beginning (76:3; 90:10; 91:8-10; cf. 2:30).[^40] Accordingly, while one finds in the biblical account that Adam and Eve are originally naked in the Garden and only feel shame of their nakedness after eating from the tree, in the Qur’anic account, they are originally clothed in heavenly garments, and innately feel shame once they are stripped of these garments upon disobeying the prohibition (20:117-122). Since the Qur’an portrays human beings as having moral discernment from the very beginning, an attempt by Satan to tempt Adam and Eve with moral knowledge would make little sense in the Qur’anic narrative. Still, why does the Qur’an recall Satan tempting Adam and Eve by claiming that if they eat from it, they will gain immortality? This tactic by Satan makes sense in the context of the Qur’an’s view of humanity. Consider Satan’s claim as quoted in 20:120: “O Adam, shall I show you the tree of immortality and of a kingdom that never fades?” This occurs in a passage in which God warns the Prophet ﷺ to be patient and avoid haste: > Do not hasten the recitation before its revelation to you is completed. But do say, “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.” And We had taken a promise from Adam from before, but he forgot and We did not find him steadfast… (20:114-115) Satan’s claim that the forbidden tree would grant immortality to Adam and Eve is merely a ruse— taking advantage of the human proclivity for haste (cf. 21:37) and desire for immediate, short-term gains at the expense of that which requires patience but is more lasting (cf. e.g., 75:20-21; 87:16-17). It is not a true description of the tree, as Satan only seeks to delude the human being through false promises (4:120). Hence, the story of Adam’s deception by Satan in this passage serves as a caution to the Prophet ﷺ to not act in haste, even in pursuit of that which is good, but to be steadfast. Furthermore, while in the biblical account the serpent’s claim that God prohibited the tree from them lest they attain the status of heavenly beings actually proves to be true (Gen. 3:22-24), in the Qur’an, Satan’s claim that God only forbade them the tree “lest \[they\] become like angels or become immortals” (7:20) is an ironic inversion of the truth, for God had already honored Adam above the angels by ordering them to prostrate to him (7:11; 20:116), and Satan already knows that God in fact intends to resurrect them to a life of immortality (7:14). While in the biblical story, the serpent is actually correct in stating that God wishes to prevent Adam and Eve from attaining the status of heavenly beings, in the Qur’anic story, Satan’s claim is an ironic lie, since it is God’s plan from the beginning to give humanity the opportunity to rise to a status higher than that of the angels and to be rewarded with a life of eternal bliss. In summary, the differences between the Qur’an and the Bible concerning the nature of the forbidden tree do not represent a confusion or garbling of it, but rather an engagement with it to express the Qur’an’s own distinctive teaching about God, and about man’s purpose, salvation, and relationship with Him.[^41] Understanding how and why the Qur’an corrects biblical stories can allow us to easily dispel the notion that any differences between the Qur’an and the Bible are rooted in a Qur’anic misunderstanding. Instead, locating these differences in the Qur’an’s correction of the previous revelation, which may have been obscured and forgotten over time, allows for a more convincing explanation. --- ## Category 3: Coincidental similarities between the Qur’an and pre-Islamic texts Not all points of agreement between the Qur’an and previous texts need to be explained by appealing to pre-Qur’anic revelation. In the following few sections, we shall see how extra-biblical parallels assumedly dating after the time of pre-Qur’anic prophecy could be understood from a Muslim perspective. For example, in a small number of instances, parallels between the Qur’an and Jewish or Christian literature may simply be reduced to coincidental similarities arising as a natural consequence of shared assumptions about God, His prophets, and sacred history generally. To illustrate this point, recent scholarship has drawn attention to a number of unique parallels between the story of Joseph as it is told in the Qur’an and the *Homilies of Joseph*,[^42] a fifth or sixth century Syriac text falsely attributed to the  Syriac poet and theologian Narsai (d. 502), and hence known as Pseudo-Narsai for short. Pseudo-Narsai adds several elements to the story of Joseph that are not part of the biblical narrative.[^43] For instance, the biblical account does not  elaborate on what happened to Joseph when he was trapped in the well, but simply says: > So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a well. The well was empty; there was no water in it. (Genesis 37:23-24) However, in both Pseudo-Narsai and the Qur’an, God consoles Joseph while he is in the well and reassures him that he will be rescued: > The Divine Will descended with Joseph into the well / Comforting and consoling him, saying / “Do not fear, Joseph, and do not despair / I am always with you, in all the days of your life / I will never again leave you / and nor will I turn away wherever you go / and I will be with you until you see old Jacob.” (Pseudo-Narsai)[^44] > They went with him, and they cast him to the bottom of the well. And We revealed to Joseph, “You will surely inform them of this deed of theirs, while they are unaware.” (Qur’an 12:15) Even though in this instance the Qur’an echoes a motif that is found only in a text that dates to much later than the era of pre-Qur’anic revelation, upon reflection, this parallel is easily explained as a coincidental overlap between the Qur’an and Pseudo-Narsai resulting from shared views concerning God and prophecy. Given the biblical and Qur’anic notion that God communicates to His prophets and their followers, supporting them and reassuring them amid their adversities,[^45] it is natural to assume that God must have offered Joseph a similar reassurance and consolation.[^46] This parallel between the Qur’an and Pseudo-Narsai is therefore not problematic as such. On the other hand, were it the case that God’s revelation to Joseph in the Qur’an followed Pseudo-Narsai more closely than this, such as featuring a specific promise to Joseph that he would see his father again, it would be unreasonable to suggest that the overlap between the two accounts is a mere coincidence. Taking recourse to coincidental agreement is only reasonable where it is very clear how the overlapping motifs between the Qur’an and other texts could have arisen independently. If this cannot be shown, alternative explanations should be explored, such as locating the points of overlap in an earlier revelation (see Category 1 previously). --- ## Category 4: Parallels with legal traditions Just as the Qur’an validates some elements of extra-biblical retellings of biblical stories while critiquing or rejecting others, it does the same with the legal traditions and interpretations of the Jewish and Christian communities of the late ancient Near East.[^47] Oftentimes, the rulings found in these religious legal traditions are not explicitly stated in the Bible, but are instead derived through some measure of human interpretation of scripture or extra-biblical sources. The Qur’an’s occasional validation of aspects of these “derived” legal traditions has attracted criticism by some skeptics who allege that the Qur’an mistakes these human legal interpretations for divine law. The most common example cited is Qur’an 5:32. After recounting the story of the murder of Abel by his brother Cain (5:27-31), the Qur’an declares: > On account of this \[story\], We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever kills a soul, unless it be out of retaliation for murder or causing corruption in the land, it is as though he killed all of humanity, and if he saved \[a soul\] it is as though he saved humanity altogether. (Qur’an 5:32) This “decree” appears to be an allusion to an exegetical tradition found in the Talmud which similarly comments on the story of Cain and Abel as found in the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical account, God reproaches Cain after he murders his brother, saying: > What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood \[literally, “bloods,” *dĕmê*\] is crying out to me from the ground! (Genesis 4:10) The peculiar use of the Hebrew plural “bloods” (*dĕmê*) instead of the singular “blood” (*dām*) in this verse prompted some speculative explanations from the Rabbis. In the Talmud, the following lesson is derived: > For so have we found it with Cain that slew his brother, for it is written, “the bloods of thy brother cry.” It says not “The blood of thy brother,” but “the bloods of thy brother”—his blood and the blood of his posterity… Therefore but a single man was created in the world, to teach that if any man has caused a single soul to perish \[from Israel\],[^48] Scripture imputes it to him as though he had caused a whole world to perish; and if any man saves alive a single soul \[from Israel\], Scripture imputes it to him as though he had saved a whole world. (*Mishnah Sanhedrin* 4:5)[^49] This Talmudic passage explains the plural “bloods” to refer to the blood of Abel and all of the potential offspring who were deprived of the opportunity to live as a result of his murder. Accordingly, the life of one human being is said to have the value of “a whole world.” The Qur’an echoes this conclusion, showing awareness not only of the rabbinic legal maxim but also of the scriptural context from which it is derived. Notwithstanding, some critics allege that the Qur’an has committed an error by attributing this dictum not to the Rabbis, but to God Himself. This objection can be dispelled by referring to several authentic hadiths that shed light on the place of human effort in determining God’s laws. In one well known hadith, the Prophet ﷺ himself differentiates between a correct and an incorrect legal deduction: > ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ heard the Prophet ﷺ say, “When a judge is exercising judgment, and reaches \[the correct judgment\], he has double the reward, but if he errs, he has a singular reward.”[^50] The above hadith indicates that some human attempts at determining legal rulings are correct, aligning with God’s intentions, while others are incorrect. Accordingly, human interpretations of divine law were sometimes confirmed and accepted by the Prophet ﷺ himself, even if they were not present in scripture beforehand. One such example is that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s suggestions to the Prophet ﷺ on the direction of prayer and the veiling of the Prophet’s ﷺ wives were explicitly accepted as God’s own prescriptions in the Qur’an.[^51] There are also several cases where the Prophet ﷺ determined legal judgments made by non-Muslims to be acceptable. For example, the Prophet ﷺ forbade swearing by the Kaʿbah when a Jewish man shared his opinion that this would constitute associating partners with God.[^52] Another example is how the Jewish fast celebrating Moses’ escape from Egypt led the Prophet ﷺ to institute a fast on the day of *ʿĀshūrāʾ*.[^53] All these hadiths indicate that human judgment that falls within God’s own intentions for divine law can themselves be considered as possessing divine authority. Accordingly, in the case of the above example of Cain and Abel, the Qur’an’s attribution of the rabbinic dictum to God can simply be taken to mean that the dictum coincides with God’s own judgment concerning the value of a single human life.[^54] Moreover, the Qur’an’s agreement with the Talmud’s judgment on murder does not necessarily validate the obscure line of reasoning the Rabbis had employed in deriving it. In fact, it might be argued that the Qur’an implies a different logical connection between the story and the lesson adduced from it which differs from the grammatical argument found in the Talmud. Classical Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) argues for a type of categorical imperative as the underlying reason for the dictum in verse 5:32—anyone who makes it lawful for himself to murder one innocent soul effectively makes it permissible for him to kill all humanity, since nothing differentiates one innocent human life from another. In other words, a murderer who deems one innocent human being to be violable would share this sentiment towards all human life by analogy.[^55] The verse 5:30, which plainly states that Cain “allowed himself”  (*fa-ṭawwaʿat lahu nafsuhu*) to murder his brother, could therefore be read in light of Ibn Kathīr’s interpretation, thus anchoring the maxim in Cain’s murder of Abel without taking recourse to the obscure grammatical argument in the Talmud.[^56] --- ## Category 5: Parallels that counter stories found outside revealed sources Our last category of intertextual engagement consists of examples in which the Qur’an contains highly specific parallels with later, extra-biblical traditions which neither appear to draw on earlier prophetic sources nor represent plausible elaborations on such sources. Moreover, these traditions may even contain legendary accounts or mythical concepts that are falsified by modern knowledge of history or of the natural world. Yet, a careful examination of these examples shows that the Qur’an does not simply parrot these mythical concepts, but in fact deliberately counters them when telling its own separate historical account. An example that illustrates this tendency is the story of the travel of Moses and his assistant in Qur’an 18:60-65, which serves as a prologue to the narrative of Moses’ encounter with a mysterious sage, known in the Islamic tradition as al-Khiḍr. This prologue reads as follows: > And remember when Moses said to his young assistant, “I will never give up until I reach the junction of the two seas, even if I travel for ages.” But when they finally reached the point where the seas met, they forgot their fish, and it made its way into the sea, slipping away. When they had passed further, he said to his assistant, “Bring us our meal! We have certainly been exhausted by today’s journey.” He replied, “Do you remember when we rested by the rock? That is when I forgot the fish. None made me forget to mention this except Satan. And the fish made its way into the sea, strangely enough!” Moses responded, “That is what we were looking for.” So they returned, retracing their footsteps. (18:60-65) This episode contains a parallel with an account found in some pre-Islamic editions of the Greek Alexander Romance, a legendary narrative of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great that was extremely popular in antiquity. While the Romance follows the historical biography of Alexander in its broad outlines, it embellishes this with many elements of myth, legend, fantasy, and folklore in order to produce an entertaining narrative.[^57] The Qur’anic story is paralleled by an episode that is found in the beta (β) recension of the Alexander Romance, usually dated to the fifth century CE,[^58] but which is absent in earlier versions of the Alexander  Romance.[^59] In this account, Alexander, writing to his mother about his travels through the lands of darkness, recalls an incident when his cook chanced upon a source of water with life-giving properties: > And, having become hungry, I wanted to take some food; and, having called my cook, I said to him: “Prepare us something to eat.” And he, having taken a dried fish, went to the shining water of the spring to wash the food. And the moment it was put in the water it came to life and it escaped out of the cook’s hands. (Alexander Romance β 2:39)[^60] The cook drinks from this spring of life and acquires immortality, only later confessing what happened, while Alexander fails to drink from it himself, thereby missing out on his chance to obtain immortality. The parallels between the two stories are readily apparent. In both accounts, the protagonist—Moses in the Qur’an and Alexander in the Romance—stops while on a journey and asks one of his traveling companions (Moses’ assistant and Alexander’s cook respectively) to prepare a meal. However, the companions confess that the fish they carried for lunch escaped into a body of water, leading the protagonists to realize that the body of water was their intended destination. The two stories are similar enough that some later Muslim commentaries expanded on the Qur’anic story using details found in the Alexander Romance and related literature.[^61] However, the pre-Islamic account does not concern a monotheistic prophet like Moses, but Alexander the Great, who was historically a pagan king. Given that the account is only attested many centuries after the era of pre-Muhammadan prophecy, one might doubt the likelihood that the origin of this narrative element can be attributed to a revealed source in the era of pre-Qur’anic prophecy. At the same time, the similarity between the two stories appears too specific and peculiar to brush off as mere coincidence. How, then, can this parallel be understood from a Muslim perspective? Before endeavoring to reconcile any correlation between the Qur’an and the Alexander Romance, we should recall our earlier point about the dating of apparently pre-Islamic texts. It is noteworthy that none of the pre-Qur’anic manuscripts of the Romance contain the episode about Alexander that corresponds with Qur’an 18:60-65. Moreover, the primary manuscript witness to β recension post-dates the Qur’an by over eight centuries.[^62] Strictly speaking, the possibility that the Qur’an influenced the corresponding account in the Alexander Romance cannot be ruled out.[^63] Nonetheless, let us presuppose that the episode found in the Alexander Romance is indeed pre-Qur’anic. While both the Qur’anic story and the Alexander Romance account contain surface level similarities, a closer reading of the two texts will reveal that the Qur’an, rather than slavishly copying an earlier myth, deliberately presents a plausibly historical counter-narrative to the Romance that Muslims should have no difficulty affirming. So how does the Qur’an do that in this case? First, the “meeting of the two seas” in the Qur’anic account does not denote the location of a mythological life-giving spring, but simply a location where a stream of fresh water merges into the ocean: elsewhere in the Qur’an, the two seas are explained as the salt and fresh bodies of water from which human beings are able to obtain food and ornaments (35:12; 55:19-22).[^64] Rather than simply repeating verifiably false Late Antique notions of cosmology, as some have argued,[^65] Qur’anic references to the two seas instead  merely signify ordinary geographical features.[^66] Accordingly, in the context of this story, the Qur’an’s reference to such a geographical location displaces the mythical “spring of life” found in the Alexander Romance. As for the “strange” escape of the fish, this simply functions as the sign of the location where Moses and his assistant are supposed to find the sage they are looking for, not as a source of eternal life.[^67] Consequently, the Qur’anic account does not depict the fish being miraculously revived, as with the Alexander Romance.[^68] Moreover, the Qur’an counters the Romance account by rejecting the role of Alexander as the protagonist, instead telling an episode about a prophet of God. This is despite the fact that in Late Antique Christian accounts, Alexander is depicted as a monotheistic and even proto-Christian hero, a far cry from the historical Alexander who was a pagan. Furthermore, as we have seen, the Romance episode has no relationship with the historical Alexander, given the mythical setting of the story and its late composition. The Qur’an thus avoids the historical problems with the Alexander story. Rather than being a case of misguided borrowing, the story of Moses in fact provides clues pointing to the divine authorship of the Qur’an: had the revelation been fabricated by the Prophet ﷺ or another human author, it would not be expected for him to demonstrate awareness of the Alexander story while at the same time presenting a counter narrative that avoids the Romance’s historical and scientific inaccuracies.[^69] In light of all these differences, we can now present a plausible scenario that reconciles the Qur’anic story even if we assume that the Romance is pre-Qur’anic in origin. Some time during his life, Moses embarked on a journey to seek knowledge as related in the Qur’an. Much later in time, a separate and legendary tradition developed about Alexander and his quest for immortality that coincidentally shared some overlap with the historical episode about Moses. This mythological account about Alexander eventually became popular among the Jewish and Christian audiences of the prophet, which in turn provided a good occasion for God to reveal the episode from Moses’ life as a historical counter-narrative to the fantastical story in the Alexander Romance.[^70] Nothing in  the Qur’anic story is inherently difficult to accept, and in fact, clear signs of the Qur’an’s rejection of the mythological features of the Alexander account ultimately point to a divine author countering foregoing myths with truthful accounts of history rather than borrowing from them. In conclusion, the historicity of the Qur’anic story of Moses and the fish is not difficult to accept from a Muslim perspective, even if one believes that the Alexander Romance was in circulation before the revelation of the Qur’an. Furthermore, the Qur’an’s engagement with the Alexander Romance invites deeper reflection in a way that may not have been possible if this intertextual engagement was absent. Syriac Christian retellings of the Alexander Romance adapt the episode into a narrative of Alexander’s quest for the fountain of eternal life.[^71] By  contrast, Moses’ quest in the Qur’anic narrative is to gain wisdom from the sage he encounters at the meeting of the two seas. An educated Christian listener familiar with the Alexander traditions would have perceived the Qur’an’s interaction with a familiar story, observing how the Qur’anic story privileges the pursuit of knowledge of God over the quest for earthly reward. --- ## Category 6: Parallels with texts redacted in the post-Qur’anic period The previous example concludes our investigation of genuine Jewish or Christian intertexts of the Qur’an. In each of these cases, the evidence indeed suggests that these intertexts are pre-Qur’anic, a premise that is necessary for admitting any text as an intertext for the Qur’an to begin with. Although the Qur’an’s engagement with these preceding texts and traditions has received increasing attention in contemporary academia, the possibility of Qur’anic influence on Jewish and Christian traditions has seen comparatively little attention.[^72] In fact, many proposed intertexts for the Qur’an’s stories and themes have a long redaction history continuing after the advent of Islam, and sometimes these sources even indicate awareness of Islamic traditions.[^73] Even texts that contain a strata of  pre-Islamic material often accrued newer material as time went on. Before assessing any instance of intertextuality, one should ascertain whether there are good reasons to regard the supposed intertext(s) of the Qur’an as being pre-Islamic to begin with. If not, then it may be in fact that the Qur’anic story is the genuine precursor, with the supposed intertext(s) having been formed under Islamic influence. One possible example of this is the case of the story of Solomon in Qur’an 27:20- 44 and the corresponding narrative found in the so-called “Second Targum of Esther” (Targum Sheni).[^74] For brevity, we will only compare the initial scene in the  two stories, in which Solomon learns about the kingdom of Sheba: > Solomon sought the birds, and said “Why do I not see the hoopoe bird, could he be absent? I shall surely punish him intensely, or slaughter him, unless he brings me a compelling reason.” \[The bird\] did not dwell long, and said, “I have gone where you have not, and I bring you sure news from Sheba. I saw a woman ruling them, and she was given everything, and she possesses a great throne. I saw her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of God, and Satan made their deeds seem good to them, obstructing them from the right path; and so they are not guided.” (Qur’an 27:20-24) This scene of a bird informing Solomon about the kingdom of Sheba has a counterpart in the corresponding story of Targum Sheni: > \[Solomon\] commanded the wild beasts, the birds, the reptiles, the devils, demons, and spirits to be brought… At that time, the cock of the wood was missed among the fowls, and was not found. Then the king commanded in anger that he should appear before him, or else he would destroy him. Then the cock of the wood answered and said to King Solomon: “Lord of the earth, incline thine ears and hear my words… I saw a certain country, the name of whose fortified town is Kitor, whose dust is more precious than gold, and where silver lies about like dung in the streets. Trees also are there standing from primeval times, and are watered from the garden of Eden. Great crowds of people are there from the garden of Eden, having crowns upon their heads, who know nothing of warfare, nor can they draw the bow. For, indeed, I have seen one woman who rules over them all, and her name is Queen of Sheba. (*Targum Sheni*)[^75] These excerpts form part of a broader narrative shared by the Qur’an and the Targum Sheni. Although the stories are not exactly alike, they are nonetheless quite similar, which has led some scholars to suggest that the Targum Sheni is the source for the Qur’anic story.[^76] However, the plausibly post-Qur’anic dating of the targum casts doubt on this suggestion.[^77] While there is no unanimous consensus, most scholars have assigned the Targum Sheni a post-Qur’anic date, which suggests that the direction of influence may instead be the reverse of what has been previously perceived. This hypothesis receives support from recent work that has provided new evidence for a post-Islamic date of composition for the Targum Sheni. This evidence centers on the striking degree of agreement between passages of Targum Sheni related to Solomon’s court and Byzantine sources that describe artistic features of the royalty and court of Constantinople in the ninth and tenth centuries. For example, the targum speaks of “two sirens that were on either side of King Solomon’s ears,” a peculiar description that is accounted for by the fact that Byzantine royalty began to wear pendant earrings featuring depictions of sirens after the mid-ninth century.[^78] Dating the entirety of the Targum prior to the ninth century would thus be anachronistic. In view of the above considerations, there is good reason to believe that the targum incorporated traditions composed up to three centuries after the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ life. In the absence of any evidence to indicate that the targum’s traditions predate the Qur’an’s revelation, a common-sense approach to the question of influence then would be to prioritize the earlier of the two texts. Unfortunately, attempts to locate the Targum Sheni as the “source” of the Qur’an’s story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba tend to overlook this simple fact. It strains credulity to believe that a text as influential and as well circulated as the Qur’an could not be the source of a story retold in a Jewish text containing traditions originating centuries later. At the very least, the ultimately post-Islamic redaction of Targum Sheni brings arguments for its influence on the Qur’an into serious doubt. --- ## Category 7: Parallels with texts with unstable manuscript traditions Another important consideration in assessing the possibility of Qur’anic influence on a Jewish or Christian text is its history of transmission. While internal clues within the text might suggest that it was originally composed before the revelation of the Qur’an, the manuscripts of the text themselves may actually postdate the Qur’an by centuries or even as much as a millennium. Furthermore, they may exhibit a high level of textual variation, suggesting that the text was fluid even into the later period of its transmission history. By contrast, the Qur’an exhibits a fairly complete and extremely early manuscript record.[^79] This raises the possibility that  the Qur’an is in fact the source of the proposed intertext, even if the intertext belongs to an originally pre-Islamic composition. One example of this is the story of Moses and the sage (al-Khiḍr) in Qur’an 18:65-82 and its parallel in a Christian text titled the *Spiritual Meadow* (*Pratum Spirituale*), which is attributed to the Byzantine monk John Moschus (d. 619). In the Qur’anic story, Moses embarks on a quest for the sage so that he may accompany and learn from him. The sage agrees, but to Moses’ dismay, he perpetrates a number of disturbing and inexplicable acts in the course of their travel, first damaging a man’s boat, then slaying a young boy, and finally repairing a wall without taking any compensation, despite the fact that the people of the city denied the two travelers any food. After Moses proves unable to maintain his silence for the third time, the sage reveals the hidden benevolent purposes for which he committed the actions. The story highlights that behind the seemingly inexplicable evils that we encounter in this life lies a fuller picture that can only be grasped with knowledge of the unseen, which is reserved by God. Some manuscripts of the *Spiritual Meadow* contain a similar story, in which a pious monk accompanies an angel disguised as a man and witnesses him carry out similar actions, including slaying a child and repairing a decrepit wall, before the angel finally explains to him the benevolent purposes behind these acts. For illustration, one might compare the explanation given by the protagonist for the slaying of the child in both stories: > \[al-Khiḍr said:\] And as for the boy—his parents were believing people, and we feared that he would oppress them with his wickedness and disbelief. We intended that God would substitute him with a better child, who is more pious and compassionate. (Qur’an 18:80-81) > And the other man who made us his guests, he is virtuous. Had that small child lived, it would have grown up to be an instrument of Satan, so that the good works of his father would pass into oblivion. So I strangled him whilst he was tender to ensure the salvation of the father, and that his record remain unassailable before God. (*Spiritual Meadow*)[^80] The evident similarity between the two accounts has led some scholars to propose that the Qur’anic story is derived from the account contained in the *Spiritual Meadow*.[^81] However, a consideration of the manuscript tradition of the *Spiritual  Meadow* suggests that this parallel account is a post-Qur’anic addition. The main sources for the text of the *Spiritual Meadow* are four manuscripts dating from the tenth through twelfth centuries.[^82] Significantly, the story we are concerned with   does not appear in the most authoritative manuscript, the twelfth-century *Florentine Codex*, or most of the other manuscript witnesses.[^83] Instead, it is found in the tenth-century *Venice Codex* among a collection of stories that are considered secondary to the more authentic collection in the *Florentine Codex*. There is considerable doubt concerning the attribution of these supplementary stories to the original seventh-century author John Moschus; most of these stories appear to be “spurious,” in the estimation of one scholar.[^84] There is also a stylistic hint for this  particular account being a later addition, since while the authentic tales in the work display a tendency to specify the narrators and settings of the stories “wherever possible,”[^85] such details are completely absent from the story under consideration. The case of the *Venice Codex* is symptomatic of the state of affairs with the *Spiritual Meadow* at large: the amount of variation found between manuscripts is so great that each manuscript amounts to a “version” of its own, rather than simply a copy.[^86] Consequently, it is evident that the existing manuscripts of this work do  not wholly reflect the original form of the text written in the early 7th century.[^87] In contrast, manuscript evidence for the Qur’an demonstrates that the scripture—including the section of Sūrah 18 that contains the Qur’anic story of Moses and the sage—was already circulating within the first century of Islam.[^88] Given the much  stronger evidence for the earlier attestation of the Qur’anic story, it is more reasonable to assume that it is the source of the *Spiritual Meadow* account, rather than the reverse. Accordingly, the burden of proof lies on the one who asserts that the tale found in the *Venice Codex* is the source of the Qur’anic story. --- ## Intertextuality in Qur’anic rhetoric Thus far, we have focused on presenting a methodology for addressing historical questions that the study of Qur’anic intertextuality raises for Muslims. Such a focus risks giving the impression that the primary relevance of this area of research for Muslims is addressing such questions. However, this is far from the case. As the reader has already seen from some of the above examples, the Qur’an’s critical engagement with earlier scriptural and exegetical traditions represents an extremely profound and fascinating aspect of God’s revelation, the study of which continues to shed light on the uniqueness of its message as well as the literary and rhetorical sophistication of its presentation of that message. In this section, we wish to underscore this point by considering examples in which the Qur’an engages with particular motifs and even specific linguistic features of Jewish and Christian texts in highly original and creative ways. --- ## “Those who were charged with carrying the Torah…” Sūrah 62, al-Jumuʿah, contains the following censure of some of the Jewish leaders who were antagonistic to the Prophet’s ﷺ message: > The example of those who were charged with carrying the Torah but then failed to carry it is like the example of a donkey carrying books. How evil is the example of those who reject God’s signs! And God does not guide the wrongdoing people. (62:5) On its own, the message of this passage is clear: just as a donkey that carries a load of books on its back does not internalize or derive any benefit from that knowledge, worse still is the example of religious scholars who possess a great deal of knowledge but fail to honor it in their character and actions. Yet, the example in this passage of a donkey carrying books proves even more potent when one realizes that it is an inversion of a rabbinic parable. *Sifrei Debarim*, a compilation of rabbinic biblical interpretation that is thought to have reached its final form around the 5th century,[^89] contains a parable extolling Israel for taking up the heavy commandments of the Torah when none of the Gentile nations were able to: > A man sent his donkey and his dog to the granary, where fifteen *seʾah*[^90] \[of grain\] were loaded atop the donkey and three *seʾah* on the dog. The donkey walked and the dog strained to breathe, his tongue lolling. He cast aside one *seʾah* and placed it atop the donkey and then did the same with the second and then the third. This is how Israel accepted the Torah, together with its commentaries and its minutiae. Even those seven commandments that the Noahides could not abide and cast aside,[^91] Israel came and accepted. (*Sifrei Debarim*)[^92] Israel, likened to a donkey that is able to carry a large burden, is credited with bearing all of the commands of the Torah. In contrast, the Gentile nations, likened to a dog that proves unable to carry even a fraction of that load, are disparaged for being unable to fulfill even the most basic commandments. The Qur’an adopts this metaphor but polemically inverts its meaning, transforming it from a praise of Israel into a sharp critique of its religious leadership, who burdened themselves with the study of volumes and volumes of religious law but failed to live up to the spirit of God’s most basic commandments. The verse is well situated in Sūrah al-Jumuʿah, where only three verses earlier (62:2), God declares that He has sent His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ from among the unlettered or Gentile people (*al-ummiyyīn*) to teach them the scripture. This is the same group of people whom the rabbinic parable charges with failing to keep even the laws of Noah, the most basic commandments that God gave to humanity. There is even a hint of wordplay with Hebrew in 62:5. The word *asfār* (“books”) only occurs here in the entire Qur’an (even counting its singular form, *sifr*), while in all other places, the Qur’an uses the word *kitāb* when speaking of books. This unique occurrence of *asfār* in 62:5 is a deliberate allusion to the word’s Hebrew cognate, *sefer*, which is the standard term for a book in the Hebrew language understood by the Prophet’s ﷺ Jewish audience. --- ## “If the oceans were ink…” Such inversions of motifs attested in Jewish or Christian literature are a frequent feature of Qur’anic rhetoric. Another example is found in a concluding verse of Sūrah al-Kahf, and in Sūrah Luqmān: > Say, “If the ocean were ink for the words of my Lord, the ocean would be emptied before my Lord’s words were exhausted—even if We were to add another like it.” (Qur’an 18:109) > If all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean were ink, refilled by seven other oceans, God's words would not be exhausted. Surely God is Almighty, All-Wise. (31:27) These verses respond to a motif found in a fifth-century rabbinic work titled *Avōt dʾRabbi Natan*.[^93] In this text, the first-century Rabbi Eliezar is found to use a similar  example to describe the inexhaustibility of his own knowledge: > \[Rabbi Eliezer said\] “For were all the oceans ink, all the reeds quills, all men scribes, they could not write down what I have learned in Scripture and repeated in Mishnah-traditions, and derived as lessons from my apprenticeship to sages in the session.” (*Avōt dʾRabbi Natan*, 25:4.2)[^94] While this example is designed to illustrate the inexhaustible knowledge of the scholar of Torah, the Qur’an polemically recasts it to emphasize that God alone possesses limitless knowledge.[^95] That the Qur’an is responding to such a tradition is confirmed by a *ṣaḥīḥ* narration that situates this verse as a response to Jewish claims of knowledge: > Ibn ʿAbbās narrated: “The Quraysh said to the Jews, ‘Inform us of something that we can question this man about.’ So they responded, ‘Ask him about the spirit,’ and so they went and asked \[the Prophet ﷺ\] about the spirit. God then revealed the verse, ‘They ask you about the spirit. Say: The spirit is from the command of my Lord, and you are given but little knowledge regarding it.’ \[The Jews objected\], saying, ‘We have been given much knowledge \[by way of\] the Torah, and whoever is given the Torah is given much good.’ So the following verse was revealed: ‘Say: If the ocean were ink for the words of my Lord, the ocean would be emptied before my Lord’s words were exhausted, even if We were to add another like it.’” (*Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*)[^96] This is another example of the Qur’an’s critical engagement with Jewish or Christian texts that comes to light only by engaging in the intertextual study of the Qur’an. Although traditional Qur’anic commentaries are aware of the context of the revelation—that it is a response to some of the Prophet’s ﷺ Jewish audiences—only with knowledge of the specific tradition from rabbinic literature can we appreciate how powerfully and precisely God formulates this response in the Qur’an. --- ## Inter-linguistic wordplay Previously when looking at the story of Adam, we saw an example of the Qur’an employing Syriac-Arabic cognates to critically engage with traditions relating to the worship of human beings found in the *Syriac Cave of Treasures*. We also saw an example of Hebrew wordplay in Sūrah al-Jumuʿah above. This rhetorical use of words and phrases in the languages of the Prophet’s ﷺ Jewish and Christian audiences can be seen elsewhere in the Qur’an, sometimes in an even more pronounced manner. We will close this section by noting several more examples of this intertextual feature. The first example relates to the episode of the golden calf in Sūrah 2*,* al-Baqarah: > And when We took a covenant with you, and We raised over you the Mountain, \[saying\] “Take what we have given you with determination and listen,” they said, “We hear and we disobey” **(*samiʿnā waʿaṣaynā*)**, and through their disbelief they were made to absorb \[the love of\] the calf. Say, “Evil is what your faith commands you to do, if you are indeed faithful!” (Qur’an 2:93) This verse recalls one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the Children of Israel, when God offered them the Covenant on Mount Sinai. In the biblical version of this episode, the Israelites respond to the offer of the Covenant positively, saying to Moses, “We have heard and we shall do” (Deuteronomy 5:27)—in Hebrew, “*we-shāmaʿnū we-ʿāsinū*.” In the Qur’an’s recollection of this event, however, the Israelites are quoted as saying, “*samiʿnā wa-ʿaṣaynā*,” which phonetically sounds like their quotation in the Bible in Hebrew,[^97] but which in Arabic has the *opposite* meaning: “we hear and we *disobey*.” Through this interlinguistic wordplay, the Qur’an highlights that although they may have said “we hear and we obey” with their lips, their actions demonstrated the exact opposite. This is reinforced by the allusion to their worship of the Golden Calf immediately afterwards in the same verse, just one in a long series of errors of which they are reminded  in Sūrah al-Baqarah (2:40-123). A second example of inter-linguistic wordplay occurs in one of the descriptions of Abraham in the Qur’an: > Abraham was not a Jew or a Christian, but he was inclined to the truth (***ḥanīfan***) and submitting \[to God\]. And he was not from the idolaters. (Qur’an 3:67) According to the Islamic tradition, the term “*ḥanīf*” designates someone who follows a primordial monotheism apart from Judaism and Christianity.[^98] Curiously, the description of Abraham in the Qur’an as “*ḥanīf*” nearly always follows with the qualification that “he was not from the idolaters (*mushrikīn*)” (see also 2:135; 3:95; 6:79, 161; 16:120, 123; 22:31). Why is this the case? It is most likely that the Qur’an is engaging with Syriac Christian terminology. The Syriac cognate of *ḥanīf* is “*ḥanpā*,” which may have originally been designated for a Gentile but came to have the meaning of “pagan” or “heretic” among Syriac Christians. The Qur’an’s emphasis that Abraham was not a *mushrik* therefore precludes a Syriac Christian audience from understanding the verse in an objectionable way, since it forecloses any possibility of *ḥanīf* being misinterpreted as “pagan.”[^99] The Qur’an also plays on the names of the characters in the stories it relates. One example occurs in the story of the nativity of John the Baptist in Sūrah 19, Maryam: > “O Yaḥyā, keep to the scripture firmly!” And We gave him wisdom while he was a boy, tenderness (*ḥanān*) from Us, and purity, and he was God-conscious. (Qur’an 19:12-13) The Qur’anic name for John is “*Yaḥyā*,” which means “he lives,” celebrating God’s act of causing his barren mother to conceive him. However, in the New Testament, John the Baptist is called “*Iōannēs*,” the Greek form of the Hebrew “*Yōḥanān*,” meaning “tenderness (*ḥanān*) of God.” Syriac Christians, speaking a language much closer to Hebrew, invariably used the similar “*Yuḥanān*.” While using a different name for John, the Qur’an also alludes to his name in its original Hebrew and cognate Syriac, since it characterizes him with the gift of “affection” (*ḥanān*) from God—a word which only occurs in the Qur’an in this verse, synonyms such as *raḥmah* (“mercy”) being used elsewhere instead. This is not a unique example, as the Qur’an makes similar allusions to the meanings of many other biblical proper names in their original languages.[^100] In addition to some of our earlier case studies that demonstrated how the Qur’an consciously engages with previous biblical and extra-biblical stories, the examples shown in this section support the Muslim conviction that the Qur’an is not merely a pastiche of borrowings—or worse, confusions—of previous traditions. On the contrary, it can be demonstrated that the Qur’an’s engagement with these previous traditions is marvelously precise, sophisticated, and cogent, consistent with its purported divine authorship. In concluding this article, we will summarize the approach to Qur’anic intertextuality that we have developed and discuss some implications of the evidence we have presented. --- ## Conclusion In this essay, we have considered examples of Qur’anic engagement with Late Antique Jewish and Christian traditions that may raise problems of historicity for modern Muslim audiences, and we have offered a list of categories by which one might classify and evaluate such examples. We reproduce these categories here for easy reference: Category 1: Parallels with early extra-biblical traditions; Category 2: Conscious departure from biblical texts; Category 3: Coincidental similarities between the Qur’an and pre-Islamic texts; Category 4: Parallels with legal traditions; Category 5: Parallels that counter stories found outside revealed sources; Category 6: Parallels with texts redacted in the post-Qur’anic period; Category 7: Parallels with texts that have unstable manuscript traditions. There may even be some cases that fall outside the scope of the seven categories that we have offered here and which may require new categories or unique solutions. Because of the sheer quantity and diversity of the Qur’an’s interactions with these traditions, it is necessary to consider each instance of Qur’anic intertextuality on a case-by-case basis. Nonetheless, most examples of Qur’anic intertextuality with Late Antique Jewish and Christian traditions should easily fall within one or more of these categories. In the flowchart below, we outline the steps by which one can consider further cases of intertextuality in accordance with the methodology we have presented. ![Flowchart showing a step by step method for understanding Quranic intertextuality. Described under the heading Conclusion.](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Flowchart-Methodology-for-evaluating-proposed-quranic-intertexts-3.png) Given that this essay focuses on examples of Qur’anic intertextuality that may seem historically problematic for modern audiences, one might develop the impression that Qur’anic intertextuality as a whole is a problematic notion for Muslim beliefs about the Qur’an. However, while questions of historicity may arise in some instances, the study of Qur’anic intertextuality is overall deeply rewarding and even potentially faith-enhancing, and sheds new light on the depth and sophistication of the literary and rhetorical aspects of the Qur’an. Moreover, this mode of study also reveals that the Qur’an demonstrates an extremely profound, detailed, wide-ranging, and accurate knowledge of the Jewish and Christian scriptures and traditions across different languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and even Greek. Yet, the Qur’an itself highlights the Prophet’s ﷺ own lack of scriptural learning (29:48). Had he been known to have undertaken an education in the Jewish and Christian scriptural traditions—and the level of knowledge of these traditions evinced by the Qur’an would have required an extensive education under masters of these traditions, to say the least—it would not have been possible for the Qur’an to make this claim without being easily discredited. Yet, the Prophet’s ﷺ opponents were hard pressed to explain how he acquired such knowledge, pointing, for example, to a foreigner who was scarcely able to communicate in Arabic (16:103; cf. 25:4-5). For Muslims, however, the Qur’an’s deep familiarity with previous traditions should be far from surprising; after all, one would expect no less from divine scripture revealed by God. The Qur’an’s intertextuality therefore bolsters its claim to divine authority rather than undermining it,[^101] as long as seemingly problematic instances of intertextuality can be reasonably explained. If this can be done, then the study of Qur’anic intertextuality can only be edifying to the student of the Qur’an. --- ## Notes [^1]: Angelika Neuwirth succinctly explains, “The Qur’ān is communicated to listeners whose education already comprises biblical and post-biblical lore, whose nascent scripture therefore should provide answers to the questions raised in biblical exegesis—a scripture providing commentary on a vast amount of earlier theological legacies.” Angelika Neuwirth, “Two Faces of the Qur’ān: Qur’ān and Musḥaf,” *Oral Tradition* 25, no. 1 (2010): 16. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3461. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4485. [^4]: For a good overview of the various attitudes towards *isrāʾīliyyāt* in Qur’anic commentaries and early narrations, see Ismail Albayrak, “Qur’anic Narrative and Israiliyyat in Western Scholarship and in Classical Exegesis” (PhD diss., University of Leeds, 2000), 114–131. A useful list of the most authentic narrations on the topic that reflect this ambivalenc is found in Wan Mohd Fazrul Azdi Wan Razali, Ahmad Yunus Mohd Noor, and Jaffary Awang, “The Fourth Source: Isrā’īliyyāt and the Use of the Bible in Muslim Scholarship,” in *Reading the Bible in Islamic Context*, ed. Daniel J. Crowther, Shirin Shafaie, Ida Glaser, and Shabbir Akhtar (London: Routledge, 2017), 110. [^5]: A complete survey is provided in John Reeves and Annette Yoshiko Reed, *Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Volume I: Sources From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 219–53. [^6]: Abraham Geiger, *Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judentume aufgenommen?* (Bonn: F. Baaden, 1833); the English translation is *Judaism and Islam: A Prize Essay*, trans. F. M. Young (Vepery: M.D.C.S.P.C.K. Press, 1896). [^7]: Holger Zellentin, “Trialogical Anthropology: The Qur’an on Adam and Iblīs in View of Rabbinic and Christian Discourse,” 100 passim, in *New Approaches to Human Dignity in the Context of Qur’anic Anthropology: The Quest for Humanity*, ed. Rüdiger Braun and Hüseyin I. Çeçek (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 61–131. [^8]: Sidney Griffith, “Christian Lore and the Arabic Qur’an: The ‘Companions of the Cave’ in Surat al-Kahf and in Syriac Christian Tradition,” in *The Qur’an in Its Historical Context* (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), 116. [^9]: Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, and Michael Marx, *The Qur’an in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur’anic Milieu* (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 13. [^10]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaʿālibī, *Jawāhir al-ḥisān fī tafsīr al-Qur’an* (Beirut: al-Maktabah al-‘Aṣrīyah, 1997), 5:48. [^11]: Sergey Minov, “Date and Provenance of the Syriac *Cave of Treasures*: A Reappraisal,” ed. George Anton Kiraz, *Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies* 20 (December 3, 2018): 129–230, [https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463239978-004](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463239978-004&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066822829&usg=AOvVaw3fJ5mU7sWfj9jQ5_loX0A3). [^12]: For references and translations of all relevant passages, see Zellentin, “Trialogical Anthropology,” 78–81. [^13]: Hermann L. Strack and Günter Stemberger, *Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash*, trans. Markus Bockmuehl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 279–80. While *Genesis Rabbah* predates the *Cave of Treasures*, there is still good reason to believe it is responding to the sources that lie behind the Adam-Jesus typology in the bowing of the angels narrative. See Zellentin, “Trialogical Anthropology,” 84. [^14]: Zellentin, “Trialogical Anthropology,” 103. [^15]: See Zellentin, “Trialogical Anthropology,” 95–129. [^16]: Biblical pseudepigrapha refers to ancient Jewish writings that fall outside the traditional Jewish biblical canon. [^17]: The “Second Temple” period traditionally refers to the time between the reconstruction of the Jewish temple in the 515 BCE and its eventual destruction in 70 CE. This period of time is often associated with the development of the biblical canon and the birth of Christianity. [^18]: Late Antiquity typically refers to the time period 200–800 CE and is commonly known as the era during which Judaism and Christianity took on their recognizable forms and the era within which Islam was established as a world religion. [^19]: In other words, Protestant notions of “*sola scriptura*” should not be applied to Second Temple or Late Antique Judaisms and Christianities. See Annette Yoshiko Reed, “*Pseudepigraphy, Authorship, and the Reception of ‘the Bible’ in Late Antiquity*,” in *The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity: Proceedings of the Montréal Colloquium in Honour of Charles Kannengiesser*, ed. Lorenzo DiTommaso and Lucian Turcescu (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 467–90. [^20]: For a discussion on the place of the oral Torah in rabbinic Judaism, see Martin Sicker, *An Introduction to Judaic Thought and Rabbinic Literature* (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007). [^21]: Readers may consult John Walton’s study on the topic for a careful overview. See John H. Walton, *Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts* (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994). [^22]: For example, the author of the epistle of Jude directly quotes a prophecy found in the noncanonical book of Enoch (Jude 1:14). Cory Anderson convincingly argues that it is very likely that the author(s) of Jude and their audience believed that the noncanonical Book of Enoch was authoritative. See Cory D. Anderson, “Jude’s Use of the Pseudepigraphal Book of 1 Enoch,” in *A Journal of Mormon Thought* 36, no. 2 (2003): 19. [^23]: For a useful discussion on the nature of historical evidence, see Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, ed., *Philosophy of History: Twenty-First-Century Perspectives* (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), 44–65. [^24]: That is not to say that the proposed dating of ancient texts cannot be challenged vis-à-vis the historical method itself. As shall be shown later, some of the proposed intertexts for the Qur’an are in fact likely to be post-Qur’anic in origin and, therefore, derived from the Qur’an itself. [^25]: This point was also made by some classical Muslim scholars. For example, Fakhr al-Dīn Al-Rāzī (d. 1209) writes, “It would not be possible to say that the Prophet forged \[the Revelation\], for he \[was not known to\] read scripture, nor did anyone teach him, nor did he mix with men of learning.” See Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafatīḥ al-ghayb* (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 12:111. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3442. [^27]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3445. [^28]: See Menahem Kister et al., “Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity,” in *Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah* 113 (Brill, 2015), vii. [^29]: Andrei Orlov and Gabriele Boccaccini, eds., “‘Better Watch Your Back, Adam’: Another Adam and Eve Tradition in Second Temple Judaism,” in *New Perspectives on 2 Enoch*, ed. Jason Zurawski (Brill, 2012), 273–82, [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004230149\_016](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004230149_016&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066826741&usg=AOvVaw3OrQ0CmqnDwo77vUn-TlgT). [^30]: Sergey Minov, “Satan’s Refusal to Worship Adam: A Jewish Motif and Its Reception in Syriac Christian Tradition,” in *Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity*, ed. Menahem Kister et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 233, [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004299139\_011](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004299139_011&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066827233&usg=AOvVaw2zLFbYr9rDdSP19q0qiY9D). [^31]: Andrei A. Orlov, “The Sacerdotal Traditions of 2 Enoch and the Date of the Text,” in *New Perspectives on 2 Enoch* (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 103–16. [^32]: For this and further arguments for a pre-Christian origin of the veneration of Adam story, see Crispin Fletcher Louis, *Jesus Monotheism, Volume 1, Christological Origins: The Emerging Consensus and Beyond* (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015), 263. [^33]: Crispin Fletcher-Louis, “A Divine and Angelic Humanity in the DSS,” in *All the Glory of Adam* (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 88–135. [^34]: Eileen M. Schuller, “4Q380 and 4Q381: Non-Canonical Psalms from Qumran,” in *The Dead Sea Scrolls* (Leiden: Brill, 1992). [^35]: See Minov, “Satan’s Refusal to Worship Adam,” 247–48. [^36]: This section is adapted from a paper delivered by Sharif Randhawa at the 2019 International Qur’anic Studies Association Annual Meeting: “‘Immortality and Kingdom That Never Fades’?: Adam, Satan, and the Forbidden Tree in the Qur’an.” [^37]: The notion of *taḥrīf* is ultimately found in its simplest form in Qur’an 2:79, 5:13–14, and other related verses. In addition, the Qur’an’s conscious departure from biblical stories is in itself evidence for the corruption of previous scripture for some Western scholars. See for example Geneviève Gobillot, “Qur’an and Torah: The Foundations of Intertextuality,” in *A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations* (Prineton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 611–27. [^38]: Geiger, *Judaism and Islam*, 79. [^39]: The Qur’an does not describe the tree as either a “tree of knowledge of good and evil” or as a “tree of life,” but simply as “this/that tree” (*hādhihi/tilka ʾsh-shajarah*) (2:35; 7:19, 20). [^40]: In the Genesis account, God places additional measures around the tree of life after Adam eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is purely to prevent Adam from becoming immortal, just like he had gained knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:22–24), giving the impression that God in the Bible did not intend Adam to gain moral knowledge in the first place. [^41]: An important supplement to Geiger’s argument was put forward by Joseph Witztum, who proposes that the Qur’an’s “garbling” of the Genesis account came about because, in his opinion, the Qur’an’s alleged author had heard about the story of the fall of Adam from the Syriac *Cave of Treasures*, rather than from the book of Genesis. In this Syriac text, the identity of the tree that Eve took from is somewhat ambiguous. First, we read that God planted the tree of life (*ʾīlāna d-ḥaye*) in the middle of the Garden (*Cave of Treasures* 4:2), which is an allegory for Jesus’ cross. Later we see that Eve hears about “the tree” (*ʾīlāna*) from Satan and eats from it (*Cave of Treasures* 4:14) and hence disobeys God. Since we are told nothing about the nature of this tree, Witztum concludes that “a reader without familiarity with Genesis could well assume that the forbidden tree is the Tree of Life.” Aside from overlooking why the Qur’an would depart from the biblical story in such a manner, there are other issues with Witztum’s posited garbling scenario. His identification of Qur’an’s forbidden tree with the tree of life in the *Cave of Treasures* is ironically dependent on certain biblical details, such as the notion that the tree of life does in fact confer immortality or angelhood, rather than simply being an allegory for Jesus’ cross. If, for argument’s sake, the alleged human author of the Qur’an relied on the *Cave of Treasures* to produce the Qur’anic account, we would also have to assume that he had other sources informing him of these specific biblical details concerning the forbidden tree, yet these same sources did not inform him exactly which tree was forbidden. One is left with an almost comical situation where the Qur’an’s author chances upon very specific, disconnected details about the story of Adam from canonical and apocryphal sources and somehow pieces them together to formulate a coherent narrative, which, by pure coincidence, functions as a specific corrective to the corresponding biblical account. For Witztum’s argument, refer to Joseph Witztum, *The Syriac Milieu of the Qur’an: The Recasting of Biblical Narratives* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2011), 81–82. The present references to the *Cave of Treasures*, including verse numbers, are based on the eastern recension of the text published by Su-Min Ri. See Su-Min Ri, *La Caverne Des Trésors: Les Deux Recensions Syriaques, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium* (Leuven: Peeters, 1987). [^42]: Witztum, “Syriac Milieu of the Qur’an,” 188–239. [^43]: Pseudo-Narsai belongs to the genre of ancient biblical commentary that exemplifies the phenomenon of narrative expansion, a “characteristic feature” of many premodern Jewish and Christian texts that predominantly discuss biblical stories and themes. This technique involves introducing details to biblical stories that are not explicitly found within the canonical texts themselves but, in the minds of later Jewish or Christian authors, may have been implied by the specific wording of biblical stories or are otherwise a natural addition to them. On the technique of biblical narrative expansion, see James L. Kugel, *In Potiphar’s House:* *The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 4. Kugel introduces the scope of this phenomenon and provides many examples specific to rabbinic exegesis. Kugel’s observations are further developed specifically in relation to Syriac Christian literature by Kristian Heal. See Kristian Heal, “Reworking the Biblical Text in the Dramatic Dialogue Poems on the Old Testament Patriarch Joseph,” in *The Peshitta: Its Use in Literature and Liturgy* (Brill, 2007), 87–98. [^44]: Excerpt translated from the Syriac edition in Paul Bedjan, “Homiliae Mar-Narsetis in Joseph,” in *Liber Superiorum Seu Historia Monastica* (Paris: Harrassowitz, 1901), 527. [^45]: For example, in the Bible, God reassures Moses when he expresses self-doubt (Exodus 3:11–12) and similarly responds to King Hezekiah’s call of distress in the face of an Assyrian invasion (2 Kings 19). In the Qur’an, God’s responsiveness to and consolation of His servants is a central feature of His relationship with humanity. For instance, He comforts Mary through the words of Jesus in her womb (Qur’an 19:23–26) and also Moses’ mother in her fear for Moses’ life (Qur’an 28:7–13). For an excellent comparative study of how God reassures and responds to believers in the Qur’an, the Bible, and Jewish or Christian tradition, see Usman Sheikh, *God’s Responsiveness in the Qur’ān: An Intra and Intertextual Analysis* (Oxford: Oxford University, 2021). [^46]: This form of explanation is also applicable to the few other points of agreement between Pseudo-Narsai and the Qur’an in their respective versions of the Joseph story. For example, in the Bible, Jacob reacts to his son Joseph’s dream with apparent incredulity (Genesis 37:10), but both Pseudo-Narsai and the Qur’an (12:6) portray Jacob as reacting positively to Joseph’s dream. See Bedjan, “Homiliae Mar-Narsetis in Joseph,” 522–523. Such a departure from the biblical narrative is not unusual, given that Jacob himself is a prophet and would have understood that his son’s dream had some significance. However, as with the case of God’s revelation to Joseph in the well, the Qur’an differs from Pseudo-Narsai when it comes to the specifics of this episode, implying that Jacob did not know the precise meaning of his son’s dream until after it was fulfilled (Qur’an 12:100). This is in contrast to both Genesis and Pseudo-Narsai, where Jacob immediately interprets the dream, understanding it to mean that he and his sons would eventually bow to Joseph in the future (see Genesis 37:10 and Bedjan, “Homiliae Mar-Narsetis in Joseph,” 523, respectively). Overall, it should be stressed that the Qur’an and the *Homilies of Joseph* often disagree on details, and commonalities between them are usually because the core story of Joseph’s life is ultimately also found in the Bible, which may partly comprise previous revelation from a Muslim perspective. [^47]: By the 7th century, Jews had long developed a vast tradition of rabbinic law deriving from the written Torah (i.e., the Pentateuch) as represented in the Talmud. Moreover, unlike Protestant Christians today, many Christian groups of Late Antiquity adhered to some form of legal or ritual practice as evidenced by certain documents that survive from that era. These include the *Didascalia Apostolorum* and the *Clementine Homilies*, whose laws sometimes bear similarities with the Qur’an’s own injunctions. See Holger Michael Zellentin, *The Qur’ān’s Legal Culture: The Didascalia Apostolorum as a Point of Departure* (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013). [^48]: Some manuscripts omit “from Israel,” and therefore do not restrict the maxim to the Israelites only, in agreement with the Qur’an. This omission seems truer to the evidence presented in the Mishnah, as Abel’s offspring are not limited to the Israelites. [^49]: Translation taken from H. Danby, “The Mishnah: Translated From The Hebrew With Introduction And Brief Explanatory Notes, 1933,” *Sanhedrin* 4, no. 5 (n.d.): 388. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7352. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4483. ʿUmar’s statement that God “agreed” with him is particularly interesting here. [^52]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 3773. Al-Albānī and al-Wādiʿī both graded this hadith as authentic (*saḥīh*); however, Ibn Kathīr expressed that scholars disagreed over its *isnād*. [^53]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3397. This hadith is well attested and has many versions. [^54]: One may still argue that 5:32 is intended to be an explicit decree from the Torah, as opposed to alluding to a derived ruling, due to the similar usage of *katabnā* in 5:45, which contains a near-verbatim allusion to the Lex Talionis (the law of retribution) in Deut 19:21. However, although the law of retribution is explicitly stated to be ‘in’ (*fīhā)* the Torah, no such explicit statement is made in 5:32, nor does the preceding context seem to require it (unlike 5:45). Nonetheless, even if the analogy between 5:32 and 5:45 were valid, it is still possible that “decree” in both instances is meant to reflect correct interpretation of scripture rather than the mere literal meaning. If one considers the allusion to Deuteronomy in verse 5:45, it is apparent that the Qur’an’s prescription intentionally reaches beyond the mere meaning of the text – for example, while this *ayah* prescribes forgiveness as the better option, Deut 19:21 forbids any leniency, at least at face value (*w-lō tākhōs*). Despite this, Rabbinic law encourages forgiveness even in some criminal cases due to scriptural reasons. Both 5:32 and 5:45 could thus be said to reflect rulings *derived by* scripture rather than verbatim references. See [Solomon Schimmel, “Interpersonal Forgiveness and Repentance in Judaism,” in](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?5BSF02&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066848300&usg=AOvVaw3Il-ufzKkvcFOlSTDAFNUR) *[Forgiveness in Context: Theology and Psychology in Creative Dialogue](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?5BSF02&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066848497&usg=AOvVaw3HI9tjKik2MeUoPmp3OByN)* [(London & New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 16–18.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?5BSF02&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066848680&usg=AOvVaw08znlOrMNbkkL_VLcFt58Y) [^55]: See Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al- Aʿzīm* (Riyadh: Dār Ṭayba, 1999), v. 5:32. [^56]: Alternatively, a second approach might be to accept the grammatical argument made in the Talmud as valid, in light of the Qur’anic statement that God has conferred on every community its own law and methodology (5:48). The Talmudic argument might therefore be considered a sound deduction within the framework of interpretive norms inherited by the Jews of Late Antiquity, even if it may seem arbitrary to those outside this tradition. For the rabbinic mode of scriptural exegesis, in which peculiar features of the biblical text are exploited to reveal a deeper message far surpassing its plain meaning, see Irving Jacobs, *The Midrashic Process: Tradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 1–21. [^57]: See Aleksandra Szalc, “In Search of Water of Life: The Alexander Romance and Indian Mythology,” in *The Alexander Romance in Persia and the East*, ed. Richard Stoneman, Kyle Erickson, and Ian Netton (Groningen: Barkhuis, 2012), 327. [^58]: The main evidence for this date is an Armenian translation belonging to the early sixth century that seems to show awareness of the β recension. Benjamin Garstad, “Dionysiac and Christian Elements in the Lysos Episode in the Greek Alexander Romance (β Rec.),” *Dumbarton Oaks Papers*, 2022, 72. For further discussion on the dating of the Armenian translation, see Albert Mugrdich Wolohojian, *The Romance of Alexander the Great: By Pseudo-Callisthenes* (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), 10. [^59]: For an overview of the various recensions of the Romance, see Krzysztof Nawotka, *The Alexander Romance by Ps.-Callisthenes: A Historical Commentary* (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 30–33. [^60]: Translations from Greek to English for this episode are taken from Brad L. Cook, “A Watery Folktale in the Alexander Romance: Alexander’s Byzantine Neraΐda,” *Syllecta Classica* 1, no. 20 (2009). [^61]: Brannon M. Wheeler, “Moses or Alexander? Early Islamic Exegesis of Qur’an 18:60–65,” *Journal of Near Eastern Studies* 57, no. 3 (July 1998): 191–215, [https://doi.org/10.1086/468638](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1086/468638&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066833464&usg=AOvVaw3UU3HpzJOXcXRrZMQnynK8). In a narration of a well-attested hadith that expands on Qur’an 18:60–65, the narrator Sufyān b. ʿUyayna mentions the claim that in the vicinity of the rock was a “spring of life” whose water would revive anything dead that it touched. However, this is merely an addition that Sufyān attributes to an undisclosed narrator (*fī ḥadīthin ghayri ʿAmr*) (*Sahīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4727) or to anonymous “people” (*yazʿumu nāsun*) (*al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3149); it is not attributed to the Prophet ﷺ himself. [^62]: The earliest identified manuscript containing the β tradition is Parisinus Supplementus 690, dated to the eleventh century on the basis of paleographic evidence. This manuscript only contains a small portion of the Alexander Romance that does not include the episode of Alexander and the water of life. The earliest manuscripts that do attest to this story date between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The most authoritative of these is Parisinus Graecus 1685, dated to the fifteenth century. For a brief overview of the dating of the primary manuscripts of the β tradition, see Alexander Mikhaylov, “*Entgrenzung und Begrenzung Alexanders des Großen: äußere Grenzen im griechischen Alexanderroman, dem Schāhnāmeh und in der altrussischen Aleksandrija*” (Kiel: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 2015), 11 and Cook, “A Watery Folktale,” 109. Outside the Alexander Romance, the other relevant texts that contain variants of the episode, namely Tamid 32b and the *Syriac Song of Alexander*, similarly lack manuscripts that date prior to the Qur’an. [^63]: Some examples of Qur’anic influences on proposed intertexts are explored in further detail in the following sections (see Categories 6 and 7). [^64]: There is some speculation in *tafsīr* as to where exactly this meeting of the two seas, *majmaʿ al-baḥrayn*, is located. Al-Zamakhsharī (d. 1143) lists most of the common opinions, citing the location of the junction being somewhere between the ‘seas of Persia and Rome’, or in Africa or Tangier, while Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1973) reasonably suggests the Jordan River. See [al-Zamakhsharī,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ienUrq&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066849242&usg=AOvVaw22FFO9VXgIrcWcFHlbMKUO) *[Al-Kashshāf ʻan Ḥaqāʼiq Ghawāmiḍ al-Tanzīl](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ienUrq&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066849426&usg=AOvVaw0TdyjBGgXb1FZH-kUXrakI)* [(Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), v. 18:60-65](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ienUrq&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066849616&usg=AOvVaw02WL9-IANJkg-AhBmyPaNu) and [Ibn ʿĀshūr,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?S7q76M&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066849846&usg=AOvVaw3WVEqxZsHxhVgURnvlYl29) *[Tafsīr Al-Taḥrīr Wa-al-Tanwīr](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?S7q76M&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066850097&usg=AOvVaw1Qnk5CIV1SQuLLwKZ1FYq6)* [(Tunis: al-Dār al-Tūnusiyah li-l-nashr, 1984), v. 18:60-65.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?S7q76M&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066850301&usg=AOvVaw02RsX55YfksytueG2RjL3F) The specific location of this junction is ultimately irrelevant, and the only important point here is that all hints in the Qur’an indicate that this junction clearly refers to a mundane geographical location, as opposed to a mythical spring of life. This is what prompted many *mufassirūn* to suggest familiar locations. It should be noted that although some *mufassirūn,* such as Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373), do suggest the meeting of the two seas to be the place of the ‘spring of life’ (*ʿayn al-ḥayāh*), they do not equate the junction with the spring of life itself, and are furthermore informed by *isrāʾīliyyāt* that ultimately rely on Syriac sources. See [Brannon M. Wheeler, “Moses or Alexander? Early Islamic Exegesis of Qurʾān 18:60-65,”](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?bbXddB&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066850976&usg=AOvVaw0FWQbJg7drtbBYaJZiJL7k) *[Journal of Near Eastern Studies](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?bbXddB&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066851194&usg=AOvVaw0RorQP1kAVCHrTPFDsO4qy)* [57, no. 3 (July 1998): 191–215, https://doi.org/10.1086/468638.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?bbXddB&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066851382&usg=AOvVaw3VkgXBtf41RlNjf6WAtRyQ) In any case, there is no credible evidence that supports the presence of this spring in the Qur’anic story. See also footnote 67 below. [^65]: Tomasso Tesei, “Some Cosmological Notions from Late Antiquity in Q 18:60–65: The Qur’an in Light of Its Cultural Context,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society* 135, no. 1 (2015): 23, [https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.135.1.19](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.135.1.19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066834888&usg=AOvVaw0GhqF1yfA9sFZk1MSnA6ri). [^66]: See Mohammad Ali Tabataba’i and Saida Mirsadri, “The Qur’anic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself,” *Arabica*, 2016, 213. [^67]: None of the characters in the Qur’anic story are said to obtain eternal life. The Qur’an itself asserts that God has not given any human being lasting or eternal life (21:34). While the Islamic tradition contains legends of the sage al-Khidr’s immortality, their authenticity has been criticized by some Muslim scholars. See *al-Manār al-munīf fī al-ṣaḥīḥ wa-al-ḍaʿīf*, ed. Abd al-Fatāh Abū Ghuddah (N.d.: Maktab al-Matbūʿāt al-Islāmiyyah, 1970), 67. [^68]: See Brannon M. Wheeler, *Moses in the Qur’an and Islamic Exegesis* (New York: Routledge, 2002), 13. It is true that Moses’s assistant characterizes the escape of the fish as “strange” or “marvelous” (*ʿajaban*), just as the Qur’an suggests that its audience found the story of the Seven Sleepers to be “a marvel (*ʿajaban*) among God’s signs” (18:9). However, although the Sleepers awaken from a miraculously long slumber, they serve only as a sign of resurrection, not as an example of literal resurrection itself. In a similar way, the escape of the fish could be an allusion to renewal of life in the face of a seemingly inevitable death without necessarily being an example of a miraculous resurrection. Moreover, the confession of Moses’ assistant that at the location of the rock he forgot the fish and witnessed it take a marvelous path into the sea suggests not that the fish came to life, but that in a moment of inattention, the fish escaped from his supervision. This seems to be the most straightforward reading of the Qur’an. [^69]: As we hope to demonstrate in future articles, this is representative of a more general pattern when it comes to the Qur’an’s intertextual engagements with the cosmology and narratives found in Late Antique texts. Qur’an 18:63. See Mustansir Mir’s interpretation of this Qur’anic passage in his article “Humor in the Qur’an,” *The Muslim World* 81, no. 3– 4 (October 1991): 179–93. [^70]: Some may still argue that the overlap of certain motifs, such as the presence of a fish as a sign for the protagonist, is too striking to be coincidental. There are several ways to respond to this. First, it is entirely possible that an ancient historical or revealed tradition on Moses’ life influenced the Alexander Romance. Interestingly, a variation of the Alexander story is also present in the mishnah tractate *Tamid*, which some scholars have dated to as early as the first century. See Ori Amitay, “Alexander in Bavli Tamid: In Search for a Meaning,” *The Alexander Romance in Persia and East* (Groningen: Barkhuis Publishing, 2012), 349–65. For comments on dating, see Peter L. Trudinger, “The Tamid Service,” in *The Psalms of the Tamid Service* (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 12–51. Second, it is possible that pre-Rabbinic Jews had a memory of the original account involving Moses, which then evolved into a story about Alexander and subsequently spread to the Christian world. This example could therefore at least partially be reduced to a case of the Qur’an’s agreement and correction of texts containing pre-Qur’anic revelation (see Category 1). Nonetheless, after considering how the Qur’an differs from the Romance account, we maintain that the few exact parallels between the two stories are not too striking to warrant further explanation. Stories that have developed independently across cultures sometimes feature similar motifs, even though the communities that they belong to are isolated by time and geographical boundaries. Third, it is entirely possible that God prescribed the mundane event of a fish’s escape from being eaten as a sign for Moses, and that some centuries later, a fictitious story featuring a fish coming to life as an identifier for a miraculous life-giving spring independently developed. After all, scholars have noted that fish have often been associated with renewal of life or rebirth across many cultures. See Patricia A. Morley, “Fish Symbolism in Chapter Seven of Finnegans Wake: The Hidden Defence of Shem the Penman,” *James Joyce Quarterly* 6, no. 3 (1969): 268–69. For a general resource on cross-cultural repetition of motifs in storytelling, see also L. L. Stookey, *Thematic Guide to World Mythology* (Connecticut.: Greenwood Press, 2004). [^71]: This is how the episode is adapted in the Syriac *Song of Alexander*, ascribed to the Syriac poet-theologian Jacob of Serugh (d. 521 CE) but now dated to the early seventh century by an anonymous author (see Kevin Van Bladel, “The Alexander Legend in the Qur’an 18: 83–102,” in *The Qur’an in Its Historical Context* (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), 188. Though the work was most likely composed soon after the revelation of the Qur’anic story, it probably reflects earlier adaptations of the Alexander Romance among Syriac Christians. [^72]: Given that Qur’anic revelation preceded the authorship of many of its alleged sources (see footnote 73 below), Ismail Albayrak writes that “there is a need for general common sense and objectivity amongst academics in order for the foundations of mutual interaction in verbal and textual literature to be established... many Jewish and Christian groups continued their lives under Muslim rule, and it is an undeniable fact that most of these groups had to change both their way of speaking and their religious language due to the influence of Islam.” Ismail Albayrak, “Reading the Bible in the Light of Muslim Sources: From Isrāʾīliyyāt to Islāmiyyāt,” *Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations* 23, no. 2 (April 2012): 113–127, [https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2012.655062](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2012.655062&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066837687&usg=AOvVaw172zvQOO0CpmvHxlUP2RTv). [^73]: Shari Lowin aptly notes that some scholars wrongly view even post-Islamic texts as potentially having influenced the Qur’an, simply assuming that the text contains pre-Islamic traditions. As Lowin and a number of other scholars have shown, in many cases, it was in fact Islamic tradition that influenced Jewish or Christian scholarship in the post-Qur’anic era. As one example, Joseph Witztum has argued that the incident of the raven teaching Cain how to bury his brother is an originally Qur’anic tradition that later influenced midrashic and Christian texts. See Witztum, “Syriac Milieu of the Qur’an,” 115–122. For further examples of the symbiotic relationship between Islamic tradition and post-Qur’anic Judaism, see Shari L. Lowin, *The Making of a Forefather: Abraham in Islamic and Jewish Exegetical Narratives* (Leiden: Brill, 2006). [^74]: The Aramaic word *targum* (pl. *targumīm*) literally means “translation” or “interpretation”; however, the specific sense of the term refers to an ancient body of Aramaic commentaries written by Jewish authors that heavily expanded or explained the Hebrew Bible. See John Bowker, *The Targums and Rabbinic Literature: An Introduction to Jewish Interpretations of Scripture* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1969). Targum Sheni is thus related to the biblical book of Esther in a manner consistent with its genre of literature and has been dated to anywhere between the fourth and eleventh centuries CE. For a summary of the various (admittedly somewhat obsolete) opinions on the dating of Targum Sheni, readers should consult Bernard Grossfeld, *The Two Targums of Esther: Translated, with Apparatus and Notes*, vol. 18, *The Aramaic Bible* (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991). In consideration of the more recent evidence that shall be presented in this paper, we will tentatively suggest that this text was either entirely authored in the post-Qur’anic era, or still fluid during this time. [^75]: Translation reproduced from Paulus Cassel, A*n Explanatory Commentary on Esther: With Four Appendices Consisting of the Second Targum Translated from the Aramaic with Notes: Mithra: The Winged Bulls of Persepolis: And Zoroaster* (T. and T. Clark, 1888), 275–76. [^76]: See for example, Gabriel Said Reynolds, *The Qur’an and the Bible: Text and Commentary* (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018), 586. [^77]: This was first noted by M. S. M. Saifullah. et al., “On the Sources of the Story of Cain and Abel in the Qur’an,” Islamic Awareness, 2006, [https://www.islamicawareness.org/Qur’an/sources/bbcanda](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islamic-awareness.org/quran/sources/bbcanda&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066839435&usg=AOvVaw38aFCgbg7roz6SrcyYGkhG). [^78]: For this argument and further evidence of a post–ninth century dating, see [Allegra Iafrate,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?gt1fB5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066838486&usg=AOvVaw0MMuZKJG9doquJ_t-WT8rC) *[The Wandering Throne of Solomon: Objects and Tales of Kingship in the Medieval Mediterranean](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?gt1fB5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066838705&usg=AOvVaw0wWBpbSH5ujDgJgG8yLvHu)*[, vol. 2, Mediterranean Art Histories (Brill, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004305267.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?gt1fB5&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066838962&usg=AOvVaw2NemMtEnZXZE0MoGDDLAYC) [^79]: For a useful list of early manuscripts, readers should refer to: “Concise List of Arabic Manuscripts of the Qur’an Attributable to the First Century Hijra,” Islamic Awareness, 2019, [https://www.islamic-awareness.org/Qur’an/text/mss/hijazi.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islamic-awareness.org/quran/text/mss/hijazi.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066840707&usg=AOvVaw1WbjaGmR07Qpy2Vwsd9akX). [^80]: John Moschus, *The Spiritual Meadow*, trans. John Wortley (Pratum Spirituale) (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992), 221. Readers wishing to read the complete story as found in *The Spiritual Meadow* may consult this translation. [^81]: Reynolds, *Qur’an and the Bible*, 465. See also, Roger Paret, “Un Parallèle Byzantin à Coran, XVIII, 59-81,” *Revue Des Études Byzantines* 26, no. 1 (1968): 137–159. [^82]: Following Elpidio Mioni’s classifications, the primary manuscript witnesses include the twelfth-century Florentine codex (Laurentianus Plut. X.3), the Paris codex (Parisinus gr. 1596) from the eleventh century, the Venice codex (Marcianus gr. II.21) dated to the mid-tenth century, and, finally, the Turin codex (Taurinensis Graecus B-II-10), which is dated to the twelfth century, although it contains two folios from the tenth century. The Venice codex is the primary witness to the additional stories that are absent from the Florentine codex (including the story of the angel and the monk). For Mioni’s assessment and further discussion, see Henry Chadwick, “John Moschus and His Friend Sophronius the Sophist,” *The Journal of Theological Studies*, 1974, 43. An additional source of the story is the Vienna codex (Vindobonensis Hist. Gr. 42), an 11th century manuscript, although it only possesses the ending of the story where the angel reveals his motives. See Th. Nissen, “Unbekannte Erzählungen Aus Dem Pratum Spirituale,” *Byzantinische Zeitschrift 38*, no. 2 (1938), [https://doi.org/10.1515/byzs.1938.38.2.351](https://doi.org/10.1515/byzs.1938.38.2.351). Mioni argues that this manuscript is dependent on the Venice codex, which, in any case, is earlier and provides the complete version of the story. [^83]: Philip Pattenden noted in 1975 that the Florentine manuscript “remains for the present the most authoritative.” Philip Pattenden, “The Text of the Pratum Spirituale,” *The Journal of Theological Studies* XXVI, no. 1 (April 1, 1975): 38– 54, [https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/XXVI.1.38](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/XXVI.1.38&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066842669&usg=AOvVaw0bGjKkWJTm2bJDjTPFYIS1). It does not seem much has changed since Pattenden’s remarks many decades ago, considering that no critical edition of the Spiritual Meadow has yet to surface. See Phil Booth, *Crisis of Empire: Doctrine and Dissent at the End of Late Antiquity*, vol. 52 (University of California Press, 2017), 91. [^84]: Booth, *Crisis of Empire*. Other scholars also express uncertainty as to whether these stories really do go back to Moschus. See for example, Moschus, *Spiritual Meadow*, x. [^85]: Pattenden, “Text of the Pratum Spirituale,” 40–41. [^86]: Moschus, *Spiritual Meadow*, xiii. [^87]: As Brenda Ihssen notes, one can only conclude that the “text that remains is not as John composed it.” See Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen, *John Moschos’ Spiritual Meadow* (Burlington: Ashgate, 2014), 14. [^88]: First-century *hijrī* codices that contain Q18:65–82 including M a VI 165 and Arabe 328f. See “Concise List of Arabic Manuscripts of the Qur’an Attributable to the First Century Hijra.” [^89]: Strack and Stemberger, *Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash*, 273. [^90]: A “*seʾah*” is a standard unit of measure used in rabbinic law. The earliest mention of this term is found in Genesis 18:6, where Abraham is said to have ordered his wife Sarah to take “three *seʾah* of flour” to prepare food for his visitors. [^91]: According to the biblical narrative, human beings after the time of the Great Flood are exclusively descendents of Noah. The “Noahide Laws” in Jewish tradition refers to God’s commands to the sons of Noah, and therefore all non-Jews by implication. These laws generally encompass basic prohibitions around disbelief in God, harming other humans (e.g., murder or robbery), sexual immorality, and eating from live animals. See [David Novak and Matthew Lagrone,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?7LveeT&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066847009&usg=AOvVaw2AnH26zkVM7sIIF95Id5Hd) *[The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism: The Idea of Noahide Law](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?7LveeT&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066847227&usg=AOvVaw2PVaGh1I48Sw9gex5bOBI9)*[, 2nd ed, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Oxford ; Portland, OR: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011), 11–35.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?7LveeT&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066847419&usg=AOvVaw2el_96Hvz944ukLGjhm3UI) [^92]: Translation from Haggai Mazuz, “Tracing Possible Jewish Influence on a Common Islamic Commentary on Deuteronomy 33:2,” *The Journal of Jewish Studies* 67, no. 2 (2016): 291–304. [^93]: *Avōt d-Rabbi Natan*, or “the \[chapter of the\] Fathers according to rabbi Nathan,” is an expansion of an earlier tractate of the Mishnah titled “*Pirkê ʾAvōt*” (“the chapter of the Fathers”). [^94]: Jacob Neusner, “Rabbinic Narrative: A Documentary Perspective, Volume Three: Forms, Types and Distribution of Narratives in Song of Songs Rabbah and Lamentations Rabbah and a Reprise of Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan Text A,” in *Rabbinic Narrative: A Documentary Perspective*, vol. 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 269. [^95]: This intertextual engagement was presented by Shari Lowin at the 2019 International Qur’anic Studies ʾ Association (IQSA) annual meeting. For the abstract of Lowin’s presentation, see *International Qur’anic Studies Association*, “Annual Meeting Program Book and Annual Report,” 2019, 32. While the motif of the seas as ink does occur elsewhere in rabbinic literature, it is only in the context of describing the rabbinic sages where one encounters it in connection with the theme of knowledge. [^96]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3140. Al-Albāni graded this narration *saḥīḥ*, as did al-Wādiʿī and Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd. [^97]: Note that the Hebrew “sh” consonant is often interchangeable with the Arabic *sīn*, thus *samiʿnā* becomes *(we)-shāmaʿnū* in Hebrew. [^98]: The Qur’an builds a fairly complex argument in many verses related to Abraham’s religion and belief, distancing him from both Judaism and Christianity. It responds to Jewish insistence that the patriarchs kept the Mosaic law while simultaneously rebutting any Christian belief that Jesus was somehow recognized by Abraham prior to his earthly career. See Neal Robinson, “Sūrat Āl ʿImrān and Those with the Greatest Claim to Abraham,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 6, no. 2 (2004): 7–8. For further insights on how the Qur’an responds to Jewish claims that the patriarchs—including Abraham—kept the Torah before its revelation, see Zellentin, *Qur’ān’s Legal Culture*, 168. [^99]: The possibility of this interlinguistic engagement seems to have been first noted by Mun’im Sirry. Refer to Mun’im Sirry, *New Trends in Qur’anic Studies: Text, Context, and Interpretation* (Atlanta, Georgia: Lockwood Press, 2019), 353, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctvd1c8h4](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctvd1c8h4&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1677539066845173&usg=AOvVaw1sviwTC8uw3hG8UvqsP2gV). [^100]: Many such examples are provided by Raʾūf Abū Saʿda, *Min iʿjāz al-Qur’an fī aʿjamī al-Qur’an* (Cairo: Dār al-Hilāl, 1994); translated into English as Raouf Abou Seida, *The Onomastic Miracle in the Koran* (Riyadh: Al-Maiman Publishing House, 2011). Although not all of the examples documented by Abū Saʿda are particularly convincing, there are enough plausible examples provided to indicate that this is a frequent trend in the Qurʾan. [^101]: A positive case for the Qur’an’s divine origins on the basis of its intertextuality shall be presented thoroughly in a future essay. ## Summary The Qur'an is God's final revelation, and among its most prominent features is its use of narrative, recounting stories of past prophets and nations to instruct both its original hearers and later generations. Because it confirms and continues the revelations that preceded it—as the Qur'an itself declares, "He has sent down upon you the Book in truth, confirming what came before it" (3:3) and describes itself as "a confirmation of what came before it" (2:97)—its stories echo those known to the Jewish and Christian communities. Yet these echoes are found not only in the Bible but in a vast body of extra-biblical tradition that these communities transmitted and elaborated over centuries. This engagement of one text with earlier texts and traditions is what scholars term "intertextuality." For instance, the reference to the repentance of "the people of Jonah" in Qur'an 10:98 gains fuller meaning when read against the biblical Book of Jonah, while the account of the angels prostrating to Adam in Sūrah al-Baqarah finds parallels in Jewish and Christian stories circulating well before the Qur'an's revelation. Muslim scholarship has long drawn upon earlier scriptural tradition to illuminate the Qur'an. The works of hadith and tafsīr preserve many reports in which early exegetes—most notably Ibn ʿAbbās, the Prophet's ﷺ cousin—narrated traditions of Jewish and Christian origin, known as isrāʾīliyyāt, when commenting on the stories of the prophets. While some reports record criticism of such usage, the general prophetic guidance is embodied in his authentic statements, "Narrate from the Children of Israel—there is no problem," and "Do not believe or disbelieve in the People of the Scripture." That is, these traditions may serve as sources of information but cannot stand as standards of doctrine or practice without verification. Thus, when the Qur'an mentions Idrīs, whom it calls "a man of truth, a prophet" whom God "raised to a high station" (19:56-57), many early exegetes identified him with the biblical Enoch, of whom Genesis says, "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him" (Genesis 5:24). Al-Ṭabarī accordingly cites various narrations that Idrīs was carried to heaven, echoing pre-Islamic traditions about Enoch. Early Western scholarship, by contrast, approached this subject polemically, seeking to reduce the Qur'an to borrowed "sources," as reflected in the very title of Abraham Geiger's 1833 work, "What did Muhammad borrow from Judaism?" More recent Western scholarship has largely abandoned this posture, recognizing instead that the Qur'an engages with and critiques earlier traditions from its own autonomous standpoint, offering what one scholar calls "corrective retellings." Sidney Griffith observes that the Qur'an "cannot be reduced to any presumed sources," since earlier material appears in it "shaped, trimmed and re-formulated for an essentially new narrative." This corrective role is affirmed by the Qur'an itself: "We have revealed to you this Book with the truth, as a confirmation of previous Scriptures and a supreme authority over them (muhaymin ʿalayh)" (5:48). As al-Thaʿālibī (d. 875/1470) explains, the Qur'an's status as muhaymin means it confirms what is true in earlier scriptures while restoring truth and counteracting whatever corruption entered them. This principle of both affirming and correcting earlier scripture was articulated by Muslim scholars even before modern discussions of intertextuality arose. The story of the angels' prostration to Adam illustrates this well. The Qur'an relates that God commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam once He had formed him and breathed His spirit into him (15:28-30). Though absent from the Bible, this episode appears in post-biblical sources such as the Syriac Christian Cave of Treasures (dated up to the sixth century), where Adam is fashioned in a glorious, God-like image and given royal robes, prompting the angels to worship him—a rendering that served, for many Church Fathers, to underscore the divinity of Jesus. Rabbinic Judaism countered this in Genesis Rabbah (redacted by roughly the fifth century), claiming the angels mistook Adam for God and were corrected when God put Adam to sleep, thereby implying that Christian worship of Jesus was likewise mistaken. The Qur'an engages both accounts with what may be called surgical precision: agreeing with the Christians that the angels prostrated by God's command, yet agreeing with the Jews that Adam was merely a vicegerent (khalīfa) appointed by God (2:30), not an indwelling of divinity. Thus the angels prostrate to Adam (2:34) but do not worship him. Where the Christian text ascribes "glory" and "sanctification" to Adam, the Qur'an turns the very cognate terms toward God, having the angels declare, "We glorify You (nusabbiḥuka) and sanctify You (nuqaddisu laka)." The account also undercuts the Meccan pagans' justification for worshipping angels. Such extra-biblical parallels raise a genuine question: why would the Qur'an engage traditions found not in the Bible but in rabbinic midrash, apocryphal gospels, or Syriac literature? The answer lies in recognizing that these traditions formed an integral part of Jewish and Christian religious life in Late Antiquity, just as the Islamic tradition includes hadith, tafsīr, and sīra alongside the Qur'an. As Annette Reed notes, the biblical heritage of Late Antique Jews and Christians "went well beyond the texts of the books that became canonical." Rabbinic Jews cherished midrash, both legal (halakhah) and narrative (aggadah), much of it compiled in the Talmud and regarded as divinely inspired "Oral Torah," while Christians transmitted apocryphal gospels, patristic writings, homilies, and apocalypses. Even the Bible itself displays such intertextuality. To criticize the Qur'an merely for engaging extra-biblical tradition is therefore anachronistic. The foundational principle for the believer is that the Qur'an narrates true accounts of the past, as it repeatedly affirms (3:44; 12:102; 28:44), and that these belong to the unseen: "These are the accounts of the unseen which We have revealed to you—you did not know them, nor did your people before you" (11:49). The believer's acceptance rests primarily on God's own testimony rather than on any particular historical dataset. A Muslim approach need only show that parallel traditions could derive from divinely authorized sources, or are presented in a manner not clearly contradicting historical fact. Moreover, the dating of these supposed intertexts is often speculative, resting on literary or testimonial grounds, with the earliest manuscripts frequently postdating the Qur'an by centuries; such arguments never attain the certitude of observable fact. This intertextual depth even points toward divine authorship, for the Prophet ﷺ was unlettered: "You had not read before it any scripture, nor did you write one with your right hand; in that case those who speak falsehood would have doubted" (29:48). His opponents, who had known him a lifetime (10:16), could easily have discredited him had he studied such lore. Because the Qur'an engages so many diverse traditions, no single explanation suffices, and each case must be weighed individually. Seven categories may be proposed. First are parallels with early extra-biblical traditions that may trace to the era of prophecy before Muhammad ﷺ. A hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī records his saying, "I am the nearest of people to the son of Mary… there is no prophet between him and me," while another notes that the Children of Israel were continually led by prophets. Thus material predating Jesus, even if recorded late, may derive from genuine revelation. The Adam prostration motif appears in the first-century Life of Adam and Eve, in 2 Enoch, and even in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q381, dated to the first century BC), indicating an early origin behind the later Cave of Treasures and Genesis Rabbah. Similarly, Satan's reasoning that he was made of fire and Adam of clay (7:12), found in the second- or third-century Questions of Bartholomew, may rest on earlier revelation. The second category is conscious departure from biblical texts, understood through the concept of taḥrīf, the corruption of earlier scripture. Since Muslims need not accept the present Bible absolutely, discrepancies reflect the Qur'an's restoration of obscured truth rather than confusion. Geiger claimed the Qur'an confused the tree of knowledge with the tree of life. Yet in the Qur'an the tree is simply humanity's first test, not a source of moral knowledge—for God created human beings with moral discernment from the outset (76:3; 90:10; 91:8-10)—nor of immortality. Satan's claim that it grants immortality (7:20; 20:120) is a deceptive ruse exploiting human haste, and the passage serves to caution the Prophet ﷺ against haste (20:114-115). This is deliberate theological engagement, not garbling. The third category is coincidental similarity. The consolation of Joseph in the well (12:15) parallels the fifth- or sixth-century Pseudo-Narsai, yet since both traditions share the belief that God consoles His prophets in adversity, such overlap arises naturally and independently—though this explanation is legitimate only where independence is genuinely plausible. The fourth category concerns legal traditions. Qur'an 5:32, declaring that killing one soul is as killing all humanity, echoes a maxim in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) derived from the plural "bloods" in Genesis 4:10. That the Qur'an attributes this to God poses no problem, for authentic hadith affirm that correct human legal reasoning aligns with God's intent—the judge who reasons correctly earns a double reward, and one who errs a single reward. ʿUmar's suggestions were confirmed as revelation, and the Prophet ﷺ accepted certain rulings of others. Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) even offered a rationale independent of the Talmud's grammatical argument, reading verse 5:30 as its anchor. The fifth category involves parallels that counter stories from non-revealed sources. The account of Moses and his assistant seeking the junction of the two seas (18:60-65), preceding the encounter with al-Khiḍr, resembles an episode in the beta recension of the Alexander Romance, where a fish revives in a spring of life. Yet the Qur'an counters rather than copies this myth: the two seas are ordinary bodies of salt and fresh water (35:12; 55:19-22), the fish's escape is merely a sign, no revival occurs, and the protagonist is a prophet rather than the pagan Alexander—thereby avoiding the myth's historical and scientific errors, a sign pointing to divine authorship. The sixth and seventh categories address texts redacted or transmitted after the Qur'an. The Solomon narrative (27:20-44) parallels the Targum Sheni, but evidence—including sirens matching ninth- and tenth-century Byzantine earrings—suggests a post-Qur'anic dating, reversing the direction of influence. Likewise, the story of Moses and al-Khiḍr (18:65-82) parallels a tale in the Spiritual Meadow attributed to John Moschus (d. 619), yet that story appears only in the secondary tenth-century Venice Codex, absent from the authoritative Florentine Codex, amid a manuscript tradition so unstable that the Qur'an's early attestation makes it the likelier source. Beyond such historical questions, intertextuality reveals the Qur'an's rhetorical brilliance. Its likening of unfaithful Torah-bearers to "a donkey carrying books" (62:5) inverts a parable in Sifrei Debarim that praised Israel as a burden-bearing donkey, and the rare word asfār deliberately echoes the Hebrew sefer. Its declaration that the oceans as ink could not exhaust God's words (18:109; 31:27) inverts a boast in Avōt dʾRabbi Natan about a rabbi's own knowledge, a context confirmed by a ṣaḥīḥ narration in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī. The Qur'an further employs inter-linguistic wordplay: the Israelites' "samiʿnā wa-ʿaṣaynā"—"we hear and we disobey" (2:93)—phonetically mirrors the Hebrew "we have heard and we shall do" while inverting its sense; the insistence that Abraham the ḥanīf "was not from the idolaters" (3:67) guards against the Syriac ḥanpā meaning "pagan"; and the naming of Yaḥyā with "tenderness (ḥanān) from Us" (19:12-13) alludes to the meaning of the Hebrew Yōḥanān. In sum, the Qur'an is no pastiche of borrowings or confusions, but engages earlier traditions with precision, sophistication, and coherence befitting divine authorship. Each parallel is best weighed case by case among these categories, some cases perhaps requiring fresh solutions. Far from undermining faith, the study of Qur'anic intertextuality reveals a scripture displaying profound and accurate knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Greek traditions—knowledge inexplicable in an unlettered Prophet ﷺ whose opponents could only, feebly, point to a barely Arabic-speaking foreigner (16:103; 25:4-5). For the believer, such mastery is precisely what one expects of God's revelation, so that its intertextuality strengthens rather than weakens its claim to divine authority, provided that seemingly difficult instances are reasonably explained. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/finding-comfort-in-allahs-mercy-after-a-tragedy-how-to-respond-to-the-earthquake-in-turkey-and-syria # Finding Comfort in Allah's Mercy after a Tragedy: How to respond to the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria **Author:** Dr. Usaama al-Azami **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Blog, Natural Disasters **Published:** February 10, 2023 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 In the aftermath of a disaster of the magnitude of the recent earthquakes in the Middle East, it is all too normal to feel paralyzed and helpless, both physically and mentally. Many of us might know people from these regions. Some of us may have lived there for a time. Suddenly, the familiar and comforting memories of a place have been reduced to rubble. In a matter of minutes, millions of lives have been irrevocably transformed. Entire families have been lost. Tens of thousands have already perished. How can we find Allah’s mercy in the midst of such devastation? One might ask if searching for mercy is even a responsible thing to do under these circumstances—potentially playing down the enormity of such tragedies. As with all matters in our *deen*, the answers to such questions should be sought in the balanced guidance of the Qur’an and the Prophetic Sunnah. Allah, in His awe-inspiring power, sends such calamities for a reason—and one can find solace in pondering those reasons. But before such reflection, we should also recognize the Prophetic imperative to act immediately in the wake of great tragedies, no matter who is afflicted by them. The Prophet, in a [hadith in Bukhari and Muslim](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:126), even praised people who took care of animals suffering from hunger or thirst. And as every believer knows: > “Whoever saves a life, it is as though they have saved all humanity.” \[ Qur’an, 5:32 \] --- ## 1\. Donate to relief efforts now! The first imperative for anyone reading this who has not already done so is to send funds to these regions that are in such desperate need. The Prophet ﷺ urged that when we see something objectionable, we should seek to change it with our hands. If we cannot, we should do so with our tongues by speaking out about it. We can take from this hadith that we should be actively responding to such natural disasters by donating to the relief efforts—changing with one’s hand—and/or actively encouraging people to donate to help save lives that are being lost by the minute. --- ## 2\. Pray for those suffering After the time-sensitive issue of donation, one should recognize that the believer can always turn to Allah in prayer. This is something available to all believers. [The Prophet ﷺ said](https://sunnah.com/adab:711) that a righteous prayer will always be answered in some form. It will either be answered immediately as prayed for, or it will be saved for the person in the next life, so long as the person does not show impatience to his Lord by complaining that a prayer remains unanswered. In essence, Allah answers all prayers, but we may not perceive it. Indeed, our ability to pray to Him is sufficient a blessing for us to continue to pray for the alleviation of the suffering of those afflicted by the earthquake. --- ## 3\. Reflect on Allah’s mercy and might Those caught up in disaster will experience great suffering. However, we can learn from these people what it means to be patient. In video after video on social media in recent days, we witness people saying “Alhamdulillah” despite immense suffering. [In one video](https://twitter.com/Altaf_P7/status/1622932803007680513), a man who had just lost 12 members of his family is seen crying while repeatedly saying: “*Alhamdulillah ‘ala kulli hal*”—praise be to God under all circumstances. This man exemplified the Prophetic response to the death of all but one of his children within his lifetime. As [reported in Bukhari and Muslim](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:927), after the death of his infant son Ibrahim, the Prophet ﷺ wept and expressed deep sorrow, manifesting his merciful character, while only uttering words that would please his Lord. [In another case](https://twitter.com/Majstar7/status/1623214524596641793) from the present day, a young boy recorded himself stuck under the rubble, not knowing if he had any chance of survival, in which he simply said “Alhamdulillah” and calmly repeated the *shahadah* to himself in preparation to meet his Lord. Such events can thus bring out the best in us and remind us that even in calamity, one can remain focused on the prize—Allah’s pleasure with our actions. > Ultimately, we can recognize that calamities are part of the creation that He creates and sustains in every moment around us. No earth will quake without His permission, just as no leaf will fall without His knowledge \[ Qur’an, 6:59 \]. --- ## 4\. Suffering in this world is not in vain Some may ask what wisdom there is in Allah’s allowing suffering on such a scale. Such questions are essentially a misunderstanding of our role and purpose as believers before our Lord. But we must address them with gentleness in such moments, particularly in the West, where declining belief in God has rendered such events incomprehensible to the average person. The unbeliever may ask what kind of deity would allow this to happen, but to adapt Shakespeare: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth (and better explanations of suffering) than are dreamt of in atheistic philosophy.” As the Prophet ﷺ said in [a hadith reported in Sahih Muslim](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:461), the suffering of this world is forgotten by the denizens of Paradise. And the indulgences of this life are wiped out for the denizens of the Fire. May Allah save us from the latter and make us of the former! The suffering of this life is but a test, and the Prophet reminds us in a [hadith narrated by Bukhari and Muslim](https://sunnah.com/search?q=%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%A8+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%85) that someone who dies under the falling debris of a building—the main cause of deaths in earthquakes—is a martyr before Allah. This means that our deceased brothers and sisters in Turkey and Syria will, insha’Allah*,* be spared any suffering in the next life—the eternal abode. Those who have survived but [have lost small children](https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1249) are also promised otherworldly rewards in the next life, as noted in [authentic hadiths](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1395). The Prophet ﷺ also noted, in a hadith deemed [authentic](https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4278) by some scholars and [weak](https://sunnah.com/search?q=%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%8A+%D9%87%D8%B0%D9%87+%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%A9+%E2%80%8F%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9%D8%8C+%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B3+%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%87%D8%A7+%D8%B9%D8%B0%D8%A7%D8%A8+%D9%81%D9%8A+%E2%80%8F%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A2%D8%AE%D8%B1%D8%A9%D9%90%D8%8C+%D8%B9%D8%B0%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A7+%D9%81%D9%8A+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%8C+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%8C+%E2%80%8F%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B2%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%84%D8%8C+%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84) by others, that his *ummah* has the special status of being shown mercy by Allah through tribulation in this life. As he ﷺ put it, > “My *ummah* is an *ummah* shown mercy \[by Allah\]. Its *adhaab* is not in the Hereafter. Its *adhaab* is in this world: trials, earthquakes and being killed.” It is worth noting that the Arabic word *adhaab* can mean both “punishment” and “suffering.” The appropriate translation will depend on the context, since in English, punishment is meted out for those who are deserving of it, whereas suffering can take place without it necessarily being deserved. In the context of an earthquake, humans will often not be able to differentiate between different types of *adhaab*, something that is an imperceivable, metaphysical reality. We should, however, hope for Allah’s reward and fear His punishment, as the Qur’an exhorts \[ Qur’an, 17:57\]. For some, worldly suffering may be a punishment for their sins, or their heedlessness of their duties to Allah. Experiencing such punishment is a way in which Allah may be seeking to draw someone closer to Him, by helping them recognize that there is no refuge from Allah’s wrath except in His mercy \[Qur’an, 9:118\]. For others, it may simply be a way in which Allah tests those whom He loves because He wishes for their spiritual growth and purification, as the Prophet ﷺ has [noted](https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5645). Ultimately, it is not for us to say whether it is one way or another in any particular case. We should have the humility before Allah to accept that His decree is wise, even if we are not able to understand it in every instance. --- ## 5\. Take the reminder and turn to Allah Allah is the Most Just and the Most Wise. He did not create the world without purpose. Rather, His wisdom pervades all His actions. When a calamity befalls the believer, they turn to Allah and ask for forgiveness, for such misfortunes are but a reminder of our need for Him. > “O you who believe, you are the ones in desperate need of Allah, and Allah is the only One Who is self-sufficient, free of need, worthy of all praise” \[ Qur’an, 35:15 \] The Prophet ﷺ would take events in the natural world, such as eclipses, as opportunities to draw closer to Allah in awe, recognizing His power and might. The calamities with which Allah will periodically test us are therefore an opportunity to turn to Allah in repentance. For those who suffer through them, they are opportunities to show patience; for those who observe from a distance, they are an opportunity for us to do what we can to help. Allah and His Prophet call us to action: > “Believers, respond to God and His Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. Know that God comes between a man and his heart, and that you will be gathered to Him.” \[ Qur’an, 8:24 \] Ultimately, with the right perspective, we will be able to behave in a way that is beneficial to our suffering brothers and sisters and pleasing to our Lord. Calamities are thus opportunities for people to come forth and serve in a way that will raise their rank in the next life. When we realize this, we should recognize that the best way to respond to tragedy is by saying “*Alhamdulillah ‘ala kulli hal*,” and then getting to work by offering help. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/world-hijab-day-answering-5-common-questions-about-hijab # World Hijab Day: Answering 5 Common Questions About Hijab **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Hijab, Women in Islam **Published:** February 1, 2023 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 ## 1\. What is the hijab? Hijab is an Arabic word that means veil, but you might simply know it simply as a “headscarf,” or more generally, as the practice of a Muslim woman [covering her hair and body](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-hijab-religious-or-cultural-how-islamic-rulings-are-formed), with a few exceptions like face and hands. The burqa and niqab are different from the hijab; they refer to styles of covering that are extended to the entire body, including the face. --- ## 2\. Why do women wear the hijab? How is the hijab empowering? For many Muslim women, the hijab is worn out of a desire to fulfill a commandment of God. For others, it can also be an opportunity to outwardly express their Muslim faith. For still others, it's a rejection of societal standards that constantly objectify and sexualize women. --- ## 3\. Is the hijab only for women? Do men wear the hijab? The act of veiling boils down to a desire to obey God’s command to embody modest dress and character. This command is for every Muslim—including men. While men may not have the obligation of covering their entire bodies, they too have specific requirements of dress and behavior that must be [dignified and modest](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/haya-more-than-just-modesty). --- ## 4\. Is the hijab oppressive? For centuries, Muslim women have been portrayed as veiled, secluded, and oppressed. This portrayal is not coincidental. By creating the story of the poor, helpless Muslim woman locked in an oppressive culture, one feels pity, sympathy, and outrage. It's these very strong emotions that have been used to justify military intervention and imperialism on a global scale for well over a century. That same imagery is used to deny Muslims political and human rights, as well as to justify racial profiling, deportations, and so much more on local and regional levels. Even when Muslim women speak up and voice their commitment to wearing hijab, their voices have frequently been silenced. While there have no doubt been incidents where hijab has been enforced with the threat of violence, these inexcusable situations reflect a desperate attempt to clench onto [religious symbols](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/stoning-and-hand-cutting-understanding-the-hudud-and-the-shariah-in-islam) amidst political and cultural weakness and must be condemned. --- ## 5\. How can we overcome the challenges of wearing hijab? Some days, wearing hijab can be a struggle. But, when we remember [our purpose](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/hijab-spotlighting-servitude-to-god) in pleasing God and when we submit to Him despite the difficulties, we find a sense of [liberation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/celene-ibrahim/freedom-through-surrender-overcoming-the-ego-and-finding-peace-in-islam) that nothing in this world can offer. Continue to strengthen your relationship with God and strive towards all that is pleasing to Him. For those who do not wear hijab, express your support publicly and privately, and stand up for your Muslim sisters, especially when they face real [challenges](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/hijab-gendered-islamophobia-and-the-lived-experiences-of-muslim-women). And in the words of [Roohi Tahir](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/hijab-spotlighting-servitude-to-god), > “There is no good in the condescending behavior that some may show towards those who do not wear it, nor the outright denial of its place in Islam. It’s a challenge, for some greater than others. But no challenge is without its due reward from the Lord of the Worlds.” Muslim women both [today](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/victory-through-sacrifice-bilqis-abdul-qaadir-confident-muslim) and throughout [history](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ustadha-lobna-mulla/trailer-upheld-by-allah-women-in-the-quran) have created incredibly powerful legacies—from as early as the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, A’ishah (rA) in the 7th century, who was a critical voice of scholarship to women; to Fatima Al-Fihri in the 9th century, who funded and built the world's first university; and to [Nana Asma’u](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-plea-to-saintly-women-the-life-and-legacy-of-nana-asmau) in the 19th century, a prolific poet and leader. Muslim women have not simply contributed to society at large despite their decision to cover, but by virtue of their Islamic values that have allowed them to focus *not* on how the world perceives them, but on how *they* can alter perceptions in the world. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/freedom-through-surrender-overcoming-the-ego-and-finding-peace-in-islam # Freedom through Surrender: Overcoming the Ego and Finding Peace in Islam **Authors:** Celene Ibrahim, Najiba Akbar **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Blog, Mental Health, Self-Improvement **Published:** January 20, 2023 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 In traditions of Islamic spiritual cultivation, unlocking the fullness of our human potential requires that we strive to free ourselves from the dictates of the commanding ego-self, the part of our consciousness whose sense of purpose has been attenuated by less than worthy pursuits. > In its misdirected pursuits, the commanding ego-self pushes us to live an existence that is spiritually alienated from the goodness of God. This ego-self also acts as an inner saboteur and critic, keeps us trapped in thought patterns that do not take us anywhere new or better, and in bodily states that trigger physical, emotional, and psychological suffering. The small self convinces us that our thoughts, emotions, and sensations are, in fact, all that we are—pretzels of emotions, hapless collections of atoms confined by our lack of time and power. Our self is constantly being inflated and deflated, tossing itself from one crashing wave to the next. Freedom from this ego-driven trainwreck lies in continually surrendering to the Sustaining Force behind all that exists, the Pure Generosity that is greater than any force of the universe. Living in this state of surrender leads individuals to wholeness, contentment, fulfillment, and liberation from the emotional and psychological vagaries of life. Islam signifies this willing surrender and the state of mental, emotional, and physical peace that settles into the innermost being from this state of consciousness. The word also bears a semantic relationship to the concepts of safety, completeness, and freedom from fault. The root *s-l-m* (the Arabic root of the word *muslim*) is an aspirational state where wholeness, contentment, and fulfillment are profoundly experienced. Yet, most of us cannot simply will ourselves into a state of surrender and harmony without a great deal of conscientious striving and help along the way. Approaching this elevated state requires effortful practice and community. --- ## Problems with the Ego-self (Nafs) The commanding ego-self gets stuck in stories of injustice, anger, resentment, hurt, and other negative thoughts and feelings. It is easily triggered when its immediate needs are not met. The ego-self wavers between dreams and disappointments. It wants to win, to be vindicated, to be validated, to be raised up, causing the mind to chant unhelpful anthems: “I am not good enough.” “I am not worthy.” “I am unlovable.” “I am a failure.” “I am an imposter.” For some, this voice is one of overbearing self-righteousness and entitlement: “I am more deserving than her.” Vindictiveness also bubbles up: “I will prove him wrong.” “I will teach her a lesson.” The small self desperately wants to be right, attractive, needed, appreciated, and successful by any means. It is hard to convince the small self that it is wrong, to turn down the audio tracks that it loves playing on repeat. The small self has created its own existence, an existence that it is bound to and enslaved by through a network of neurons and chemical transmitters that run according to their familiar pathways. The commanding self does not allow us full access to a life of spiritual satisfaction, but instead keeps us restricted, sometimes in ways that are beyond our awareness. --- ## The Universe and the Human Brain In a famous Qur’anic verse, the voice of divine guidance draws a connection between the macrocosm of the universe—with its exquisite intricacies—and the microcosm of the human being with our corresponding beautiful complexity: > “We will show them Our signs (*ayatina*) on the horizons and within their beings (*anfusihim*) until it becomes apparent to them that it is the true reality (*al-haqq*)…” > > \[ Qur’an, 41:53 \]. The abundant metaphysical “signs” (*ayat*) in the universe, including in the inner being of the human, point toward liberatory cosmic truth. A human is fashioned with a consciousness that intrinsically possesses the ability to decipher these signs, and in doing so, understand the fundamental purpose of its existence. Yet, this same consciousness also holds the potential to be distracted, confused, deluded, and corrupted, moving that person away from her primal state of being, a state that is inherently liberated from all such vagaries. --- ## Overcome the Ego with the Pillars of Islam Spiritual freedom starts when one becomes aware of the internal forces and emotional traps that accompany the small self, and then works to rewire those habits by becoming aware of their familiar circuits and patterns. The core pillars of Islamic practice are, from one angle, a way for a more conscious self to practice being expressed over and against the wanton dictates of the ego-self. With practice, the ego-self begins to dissipate. Each pillar of Islam purifies consciousness and desire, and as a result redirects unhelpful mental and emotional states toward truth and tranquility. ### 1\. Surrender through the Shahadah The *shahadah*, the recognition of divine unity, has a rhythmic quality that focuses the mind and heart of the hapless wayfarer: *ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah wa-anna Muhammadan rasul Allah* (“I bear witness that there is no god other than God and that Muhammad is a messenger of God”). The *shahadah* is a testament of divine reality and a confirmation of the teacher who has mapped a path toward that sanctified reality. The *shahadah* is the soul’s heartbeat; its rhythm is the surrender to the cosmic Knower, the ultimate Doer. ### 2\. Cultivate Consciousness Through Prayer (the Salah) *Salah* creates a rhythmic order in our lives. Just as the celestial bodies move in perfect order, and the night follows the day, *salah* establishes our own natural order and harmony. Everything follows the laws of nature, except human being, and implementing the shariah, *salah*, first and foremost, puts the believer in harmony with an ordered universe. As the Qur’an reminds us: > “We made from water every living thing…” \[ Qur’an, 21:30 \]. ### 3\. Develop Discipline Through Fasting (the Sawm) The *sawm*, within and beyond Ramadan, is an exercise in self-imposed bodily restraint that has a goal of spiritual refinement. The impulsive cravings of the small self—food, water, sexual intimacy, sleep—are tamed then indulged, tamed then indulged, and so forth until the impulses lose their hold and the muscles of restraint flex without strain. Ramadan is the gym of the soul. ### 4. Let go of attachments to material things through Zakat The zakat further purifies the small self’s attachment to material possessions: > “One who purifies \[the soul\] has prospered” \[ Qur’an, 91:9 \]. Derived from the verb *zakka*, which means to purify, the zakat is not simply charity, it is a path toward contentment: > “The one who gives wealth to purify > > not recompensing thereby any for a favor, > > save for seeking the countenance of their Sustainer, the Highest, > > surely will \[that person\] become content.” > > \[ Qur’an, 92:18–21 \] Zakat is a shower for the soul. ### 5\. Cultivate Patience and Renewed Sense of Purpose Through Hajj The Hajj is a meditation on human mortality and the possibility for spiritual rebirth. It is the umbilical cord of a sacred genealogy that has transmitted spiritual wisdom through time to the present. It is a journey toward the Real, the Knower, the Guide, with unity of purpose and desire, and with snips of hair, the pilgrim becomes free of self-imposed restrictions. In practicing servanthood, freedom is tasted. Hajj is the soul’s wake up call. --- ## The Effect of Stillness on the Ego When the commanding ego-self finds stillness, a more abiding self emerges. This self is spacious and allows for expansiveness in the mind, the emotions, the body. Then, the self becomes not as a drop in the ocean but as the ocean in a drop, as Rumi, the great Muslim scholar and poet, describes. For this moment, and the next, the commanding ego-self is diminished, and the expansive self emerges. It is initially a glimmer, a crack where light shines through. > We have access, each of us, to the self that is connected, and when we are in touch with this self, we become free from our need to prove ourselves, to “become” something. We recognize that there is only one ultimate Doer, one Intelligence, one Love. We carry, yet we are being carried; we move, yet we are being moved. We do not exist for ourselves, or by ourselves. We are more than we have taken ourselves to be. What does it feel like to be a drop, and what does it feel like to be the ocean itself? As human beings, we are miniscule, malleable entities potentially lacking any enduring significance in a sea of existence dating back a dozen-billion years. The abiding self recognizes that human beings for millennia have experienced life’s unexpected turns. And so too do the humans of the present and those of the future. The existential problem of human beings is that we are physically trapped in our menial existence while holding on to aspirations inspired by the vast cosmos. Such feelings have perhaps only been intensified in this technological age, as we continue to stretch our human limits only to realize our shortcomings. We are beings in search of answers to our questions about the nature of reality and ourselves. The ocean, the forests that remain, the deserts, the snow-capped mountains, the sky, the planets, and in our modern age the galaxies beyond, stand as geographical signs and illusive outer limits. They beckon us to new horizons. In these moments of contemplation, we sense some of our inherent potential—but how do we actualize ourselves? How do we access this higher consciousness, this awareness of our true nature? --- ## Raise Consciousness by Quieting the Mind Time-honored practices point us towards the importance of quieting the mind and opening the metaphysical heart. The wonders of the natural world can help us do this, as we take in the sounds of birds singing or leaves rustling in the trees. These sounds remind us that we are part of a greater whole, a greater cosmos. Our connection to the vastness of the universe is a necessary counterpart to the journey into the inner vastness, the world that exists within. Freedom exists in exhaling our vain desires and inhaling the gift of breath with full consciousness. In this process, we discover internal contentment. The more we can dive into this spiritual exhale and inhale, the closer we come to transcending our drop-oriented self and experiencing ourselves connected with the ocean itself. The Infinite offers us growth, an opportunity to transcend confines, to respond to truth at each moment, to open ourselves up to the unfolding of the present. We wake up and we fall asleep, again and again. This is the dance, this is what it means to be human. In awakening each time to the expansive self, rooted in connection to all beings and to all creation, and to the Creating Force, we awaken to freedom.​​ And sometimes it is because we have experienced pain and anguish that we can take such pleasure in accessing our deepest compassion, love, and wonder. May we access a drop of true freedom that can only come from surrender. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-plea-to-saintly-women-the-life-and-legacy-of-nana-asmau # A Plea to Saintly Women: The Life and Legacy of Nana Asma'u **Author:** Faatimah Knight **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication, Women in Islam **Published:** January 10, 2023 **Updated:** November 4, 2025 ## Introduction Nana Asma'u bint Uthman (1793-1864) was a Muslim scholar and  prolific poet from the West African Sahel. She was the daughter of Shaykh Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Salih (d. 1817), known as Uthman dan Fodio, the founder of the powerful Sokoto caliphate and one of the most esteemed scholars in the traditions of law, Sufism, and governance in the early modern period. Raised in a poetry-loving culture, Nana Asma'u used poetry to teach the Qur’an and transmit Islamic values, memorialize great people, and preserve her people’s history. Asma'u’s brother Muhammad Bello, who succeeded their father as caliph, also wrote many poetic and prose treatises in the Islamic sciences and avidly recorded the history of the Fulani people, especially the monumental changes made under the leadership of his father. Asma'u lived through revolutionary times as well as the period in which Sokoto consolidated its authority. A steady presence, she outlived both her father and her brother. Her proximity to political leadership certainly influenced  her desire to record her community’s history—both their worldly and spiritual successes. But Asma'u’s vision and leadership were accomplishments in their own right, as they were instrumental in spreading Islam in the region, assimilating new subjects into the empire, and championing education and literacy. Her poem “A Plea to Saintly Women,” which is rendered at the conclusion of this paper, is exemplary. It is a handsomely crafted hagiography of pious Muslim women from the prophetic time to her own, interwoven with pious petitions to God to lavish forgiveness and grace upon her. It combines her vision of teaching through didactic poetry and her ardor for religious life, with a keen focus on women’s prosperity. This paper explores Nana Asma'u’s life and work, and situates her within the overall story of Islamic civilization. Her life draws much-needed attention to pre-modern Muslim life outside of the Arab “heartlands,” which typically dominate the Islamic historical narrative. Nana Asma'u’s writings and educational advocacy illustrate the embeddedness of Islam in Nigeria specifically, and West Africa generally. They are expressions of her profound faithfulness and depth of knowledge. With her life as a lens, we come to learn of the Islamic textual resources available in West Africa and the commitment of the West African scholarly class to reproducing knowledge that was relevant and intelligible to the laity both in language and style. Asma'u’s contributions to Muslim thought in the region preceded major political and social shifts like British colonialism and the eclipse of the Islamic educational system by Europeanized models of schooling. Asma'u is also a reminder of poetry’s educational potential. She was a devotee of poetry and its capacity to communicate knowledge in a lasting way.  As far as we can deduce from her philosophical commitment to poetry and belles-lettres, she believed them to be a unique and beautifully defining aspect of our humanity. We can imagine that she found great comfort and inspiration in Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ unparalleled eloquence, concomitant with his emotive and efficacious use of language. Rather than discuss the better-known jihadi and anti-colonial Muslim movements of the more recent past, this paper focuses on the lesser-known but perhaps more enthralling history of the first Muslims in West Africa. This history uncovers nascent yet committed Muslim communities throughout West Africa that predate any state-led or quasi-state-led proselytizing efforts in the region. Simply put, Islam spread in West Africa more than a millennium ago much as it spread in the West today: through ordinary human interactions and through the charisma and piety of extraordinary individuals. Ahmad Baba (d. 1627), the renowned scholar of Timbuktu, is quoted by Uthman dan Fodio as saying “\[Black Africans\] accepted Islam without being conquered by anybody.”[^1] --- ## Her life Nana Asma'u enjoyed the privileges of high birth in a Fulani clan in what would become northern Nigeria. Her title, “Nana,” is a colloquialism given to female religious teachers, and indicates her role in public life. The ‘u’ customarily present at the end of her name is indicative of a local pronunciation and can double as a form of endearment; in parts of West Africa one will hear ‘Muhammadu’ and ‘Fatimatu.’ Her family was of the scholarly class, and her father was a charismatic and learned teacher who attracted students from beyond his community. Such was Uthman dan Fodio’s popularity that the sultan of the nearby state of Gobir attempted to hinder his preaching and stifle the community by disallowing conversion into Islam and outlawing distinctive Muslim dress. Later, the state of Gobir made an unsuccessful attempt on the shaykh’s life, which forced Uthman dan Fodio to migrate with his community. Evidently, the state of Gobir and the Muslims could not live separately in peace, and years of warfare ensued, concluding with the establishment of the Sokoto caliphate under the rule of Shaykh Uthman. Most of Asma'u’s life was lived after her father established his rule over the region. Born into her father’s Qadiriyya Sufi path, she exemplified discipline in worship and inner piety, doubling down on her gifts as an inheritor and disseminator of knowledge. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Figure-1-The-Sokoto-caliphate-in-West-Africa-circa-1820-1024x668.png) Asma'u was likely named after the daughter of Abū Bakr (RA), who famously carried supplies to the Prophet ﷺ and her father during the hijra despite being pregnant and in great personal danger. Like her namesake, she was determined and indefatigable. Like her father, she was intelligent and a quick learner. By the age of ten she had memorized the Qur’an, and, due to her willingness and the opportunities afforded her, continued her education seemingly without obstacles. Stories of her early life can be found in *Rawḍ al-Jinān* (The Gardens of Paradise), a biography of her father written by her husband Gidado with her assistance. Gidado was an affectionate nickname, meaning “beloved,” which Uthman b. Abubakr Sambo Laima carried his whole life. Although not publicly known for Islamic scholarship, he was a gifted Arabist,[^2] recognized for his strength of character, trustworthiness, and the weight of his responsibilities as *wazir* of the state. Gidado’s father was a scholar and his mother was a distant relative of Uthman dan Fodio. Before marrying Asma'u, he was closely acquainted with her brother Muhammad Bello, as the two would travel long distances together to buy books. Scottish commander and explorer Hugh Clapperton visited Sokoto in 1824, where he met numerous high-ranking members of the Sokoto caliphate including Gidado, whom he describes as “excessively polite,” “excellent,” and extremely well-spoken in Arabic.[^3] *Rawḍ al-Jinān* recalls episodes of Asma'u’s zeal for knowledge even when young, her inquisitiveness, and her close relationship with her father. Gidado recounts a story in which Asma'u’s father tests his young daughter on her  Tamajek, a Tuareg language that was good for general knowledge but hardly required for her education.[^4] After stumbling on a couple of questions, she confesses that she only acquired her proficiency through eavesdropping on conversations. Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio advises her that if she wants to learn Tamajek, she will need to suspend her covert tactics and find a teacher. She would eventually become fluent in Arabic, Fulfulde, and Hausa, and conversant in Tamajek. Arabic was the language of the scholarly class, Fulfulde the language of her people, Hausa the language of her neighbors (who became subjects of the caliphate), and Tamajek the language of the nomadic Tuareg. Asma'u was not alone in being a highly educated woman of the Fodiyo clan. Her education and that of others of her ilk supported the energetic *daʿwa* efforts of the state to usher non-Muslims into the fold of Islam and support the religious growth of Muslims. After the passing of her father, she was responsible for collecting and cataloging all of the shaykh’s work, an essential task for preserving his legacy and entrenching his ideas in the new state. The Fulani signal the significance of this task by harkening back to the collection of the Qur’an after the passing of the Prophet ﷺ. There are several written exchanges between Nana Asma'u and male scholars and bureaucrats in the region. One such Mauritanian scholar, by the name of Al-Ḥājjī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Shinqīṭī, wrote to Asma'u upon arriving in Sokoto on his way to *hajj*. In response, she crafted an Arabic poem welcoming him, praising him for embarking upon the *hajj,* and calling him her brother. The outpouring of glowing commendations from Asma'u toward al-Shinqīṭī and vice-versa suggests their acquaintance before his arrival. Her network likely extended even wider. Oludamini Ogunnaike describes how, through the pilgrimage to Mecca, “scholars of Timbuktu, Djenne, Borno, Kano, Katsina, Agadez, Pir Saniokhor, and Walata were also connected to and had intellectual and spiritual exchanges” with scholars of Cairo and Damascus such as Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī and Muḥammad al-Bakrī throughout the centuries.[^5] Likewise, several West African scholars feature in the hagiographies and histories of the scholars of Damascus.[^6] In another written exchange, (yet another) Mauritanian scholar boasted to Asma'u—as if to gain her commendation—about how his community also had women who attain the highest levels of Islamic education. --- ## Her thought and work As a gifted and prolific writer, Asma'u’s surviving works give a great deal of insight into the values, socio-political circumstances, and prevailing sentiments of her time. In their *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u,* Jean Boyd and Beverly B. Mack highlight the paucity of literature in Asma'u’s community: “Most of the Hausa poetic materials available in print are those written by men, and mainly works that date in the mid to late twentieth century. Evidence of the rich scholarly tradition of the nineteenth century northern Nigeria is only suggested by occasional academic studies or rare reproductions of one of the Shehu’s  (Uthman dan Fodio) works.”[^7] As a result, we must rely heavily on Asma'u’s extant works to craft an understanding of her people. Her Hausa and Fulfulde (the language of the Fulani) works were written in Arabic script, which was the standard until its replacement with the Latin alphabet in the colonial period. The usage of Fulfulde in Arabic script, also known as Ajami, has declined so dramatically in the region Asma'u used to call home that it is rare to find people today who can decipher pre-colonial Fulfulde texts. Despite this, Fulfulde poems are still recited in cultural and religious life today—an indication that this West African poetry tradition stretches back at least hundreds of years. Asma'u began her teaching career at the age of 14,[^8] having memorized the Qur’an some four years prior.[^9] This seems to have also been the same year she married Gidado, with whom she had six children. Asma'u’s surviving works are almost entirely lyrical poems, so we might assume this to be her primary form of public writing. Perhaps she privileged poetry as a form of communication because of its ability to convey meaning persuasively and musically and also for its ease of memorization. It enchants while it informs. When a Bedouin recited poetry to the Prophet ﷺ, he responded: “There is magic in eloquence and wisdom in poetry.”[^10] The power of persuasive speech to change minds and hearts coupled with the hypnotic musicality of poetry were potent tools in Asma'u’s capable hands. Nana Asma'u’s scholarly community, while literate, still prized the hallmarks of an oral-based culture, such as rhythmical exposition, cadence, parallelism, and repetition in the service of memorization. This dexterity in verbal expression was not only useful for communicating with the masses. It was also a tool for the scholar wishing to scaffold his or her knowledge through advanced mnemonic devices. All around were skilled poets and Arabists, including  Asma'u’s father Uthman dan Fodio and her brother Muhammad Bello. They produced more than 300 prose works and dozens of poems.[^11] John Hunwick emphasizes that in West Africa, the ability to compose Arabic verse was “a hallmark of the accomplished scholar.”[^12] In Nigeria specifically, the history of Arabic writing stretches as far back as the 12th or 13th century to the first known writer: grammarian and poet Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Kanemi (d. 1212).[^13] The fact that al-Kanemi was a grammarian in Arabic suggests that he was among others in his community to achieve advanced competency in Arabic, which in turn indicates that there must have been an audience for such a work. --- ## A plea to saintly women Nana Asma'u wrote “*Tawassul Ga Mata Masu Albarka*” (A Plea to Saintly Women) in 1837 in Fulfulde and Hausa, two great houses of poetry, though only fragments of the Fulfulde version are extant. Between 1810 and 1835, the principal years of Sokoto’s expansion, large numbers of non-Muslim women came under Muslim rule, some becoming additional wives and concubines to Muslim men. As new members of this Muslim civilization, these women lost religious and cultural connections to the lives they had led before, not to mention changes in their day-to-day existence living under Muslim governance. Many Muslim women came under Fodio rule, some from non-Fulani tribes like the Hausa, whom Shaykh Uthman had been involved in teaching before he was exiled from Hausa territory in 1802. In 1836, Muhammad Bello, Asma'u’s brother and the caliph after their father, produced *Kitāb al-Naṣīḥa* (Book of Counsel), based on the texts at his disposal like Ibn al-Jawzī’s (d. 1201) *Ṣifat al-Ṣafwa* (Attributes of the Exemplary) which in turn had relied upon the earlier work *Dhikr al-Niswa al-Mutaʿabbidāt al-Sufiyyāt* (Commemoration of Pious Sufi Women) by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d.1021).[^14] In *Kitāb al-Naṣīḥa,* Bello instructs the new female members of Sokoto on society’s expectations for women. He opens the text with concerns over women’s values moving away from restraint toward materialism. He then proceeds to tell stories of exemplary pious women. Bello asked Asma'u to translate and versify the work, presumably so that its content would have a broader reach. Asma'u translated and versified the work, but she also recast it, accessing the same sources as Bello and choosing to focus solely on women’s potential. Asma'u was already a poet at this time, and she regularly translated her own works to aid her teaching efforts. By embracing the Hausa language as a medium for teaching religion and morality, she showed a willingness to reach beyond her social and cultural circle, showing that Islam was not so foreign as to be incommunicable in the language of the people she hoped to serve. “*Tawassul*” would have been recited orally to mesmerize, foster community, and instruct. As has been noted by western scholars, there is little evidence of Islamic themes in Hausa poetry before the jihad led by Uthman dan Fodiyo, that is, prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Few Muslims, including scholars, knew how to write Arabic in Hausaland before the jihad, so written materials would have been hard to reproduce.[^15] While Bello’s work is titled with plain language, Asma'u’s title is powerfully evocative. “A Plea to Saintly Women” belies a simple literary reading; rather, Asma'u meant that it be experienced as a prayer. She believed the women mentioned in the work are not just exemplars, but intimate teachers whose poetic memorialization brings them to life. Nana Asma'u hoped to activate wonder in her listeners and thereby inspire them to pursue formal and spiritual education. When that inspiration came, at the ready were Asma'u’s legions of women teachers trained by her to impart foundational knowledge to the eager. Around the time Nana Asma'u wrote “A Plea to Saintly Women,” she was in her mid-40s, highly energetic, and a skilled rider. She enjoyed freedom as a person of rank in the caliphate. In 1840, Asma'u initiated a cadre of women teachers called the Yan Taru and devoted herself to teaching them the Qur’an and Islamic morality so they could teach the female masses. State leadership recognized that ordinary people were entangled in old traditions of superstition and their family structures were extremely hierarchical.[^16] *Daʿwa* efforts like those of Asma'u’s itinerant women teachers sought to bring to women the purity of *tawḥīd* and all the social benefits that came with adopting a Muslim way of life. These teachers—equipped with numerous rhyming stories of the *awliyāʾ*, companions, and messengers—were charged with teaching the basics of Islam. While women in the Fodio clan certainly had access to higher levels of learning than others,[^17] Asma'u’s initiation of the Yan Taru indicates that she perceived significant gaps in women’s access to knowledge and teachers. Asma'u wasn’t alone in this perception. In Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio’s writing, he affirms the right of women to education and chastises husbands who neither teach their wives themselves nor allow them to seek knowledge from others. He wrote in *Nūr al-Albāb* (Light of the Intellect): > ...most of the ulama leave their wives, daughters and slaves neglected like animals without teaching them what Allah enjoins on them regarding their articles of faith, their ablution, their prayers and other things which Allah commands that they should be taught. Among these are the things permitted to them in their business transactions and the like…they treat their wives, daughters and slaves like household implements which are used until they are broken and then thrown onto the rubbish heap. Alas! How can they abandon their wives, daughters and slaves in perpetual darkness of ignorance while they daily impart knowledge to their students. This is nothing but error because they are instructing their students in the manner out of sheer egotism and hypocrisy. This is a grievous mistake.[^18] It must be noted that a woman such as Asma'u had unparalleled access to knowledge: she was the daughter of the most respected and well-connected learned man of her clan, and he expected her to inherit Islamic knowledge and serve as the head female teacher of women. However, as is clear from Shaykh Uthman’s own words, it was not common practice for the male *ulama* of his locality to prioritize educating their daughters. Shaykh Uthman’s family included well-educated women like his mother and great-grandmother. Though not much is known about the education of his wife, Nana Asma'u’s mother Maymuna, she was known as a free spirit with a great deal of mobility and access,[^19] which undoubtedly left an impression on Asma'u. Perhaps in her interactions with everyday women through her various roles, she realized that many women were not uneducated for lack of will but rather a lack of resources. Part of that lack was “misguided” male figures, according to Asma'u’s father, who said unequivocally: > O Muslim women, do not listen to the words of the misguided ones who seek to lead you astray by ordering you to obey your husbands instead of telling you to obey Allah and His Messenger. They tell you that a woman’s happiness lies in obeying her husband. This is no more than a camouflage to make you satisfy their needs. They impose on you duties which neither Allah nor His Messenger imposed on you. They make you cook, wash clothes and do other things which they desire while they fail to teach you that which Allah and His apostle have prescribed for you. Neither Allah nor his apostle charges you with such duties.[^20] Shaykh Uthman openly faced criticism from *ulama* who differed in their views on women’s education, reasoning that women attending religious lessons risked harmful mixing with men. However, he argued that the certain evil of ignorance was worse than the potential evil that might come from gender-inclusive gatherings.[^21] Shaykh Uthman’s lessons were widely attended by men and women alike. Part of what made Shaykh Uthman such an effective leader was the fact that he was a visionary: he imagined what society could be like if men and women prioritized Islamic education and spiritual development. No wonder Nana Asma'u formally took charge of women’s education in Sokoto, and records still exist of those whom she formally taught and the villages in which she spent time teaching.[^22] Through education, the Yan Taru organization could incorporate women into the larger community—making them more adept stakeholders in society and empowering them as the first teachers of their children. A teacher, known as *jaji,* wore a distinctive hijab called a *malfa*,[^23] a highly visible mark of education that reaffirmed the central importance of knowledge in the Sokoto administration. By raising a cadre of educated women, Asma'u circumvented the critics of female education. Women could now learn from other women in the privacy of each other’s homes, which handily removed a perceived obstacle to female education. After women achieved fluency in reciting poems, they were taught to write them in the Arabic script. Learning Arabic script was a gateway to the Arabic language and the Qur’an, and regular recitation of didactic poetry imparted to women tools for understanding and self-expression. Among Nana Asma'u’s extant poetic works, “*Qasida fi Munaja*” (Instructional Poem), written in Arabic, Fulfulde, and Hausa, utilizes mnemonic devices to teach the name of every *surah* in the Qur’an. This poem serves as an introduction to Qur’anic memorization, functioning as memory pegs for students. --- ## Warning for the negligent and reminder for the intelligent In a succinct Arabic manual, titled “*Warning for the Negligent and Reminder for the Intelligent Regarding the Ways of the Pious*” (see an example of Nana's poetry below),[^24] Asma'u delineates pertinent guidance for the believer hoping for felicity. She begins with “that which stands between man and paradise.” Her framing addresses readers of two different levels of spiritual maturity: those who are in need of warning due to frequently succumbing to neglect and sloth and those who are in need of reminder due to having developed a spiritual practice. Asma'u manages to infuse the work with language that speaks to the internal state of both groups. For the neglectful, she empathizes with their fear and teaches them how to overcome that fear at every stage. For the intelligent, she bolsters their hope by recasting every cataclysm—death, the grave, the final judgment—as rites of passage on the path to felicity in the next life. This reframing harkens back to her introductory language: “That which stands between man and paradise.” Asma'u thus addresses the weariness that sometimes arrests the internal dynamism of the righteous and drains their zeal for a righteous life. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Figure-2-First-page-of-Nana-Asmaus-poem-Warning-for-the-Negligent-756x1024.jpg) Asmau then lists eight habits destructive of the neglectful and the intelligent alike, though to different degrees. These are both habits of the heart and habits of action. Some people may be actively engaged in acts of greed, whereas others may suffer from hearts that harbor feelings of greed without acting on them. Asma'u mentions antagonism toward others, pointless argumentation, greed, unfettered materialism, boastfulness, consulting with diviners and believing what they foretell, harmful association with *jinn,* and witchcraft. She goes on to mention eight redeeming habits, among them repentance, scrupulousness in worship, frequent remembrance of Allah*,* charity, fasting, patience, and maintaining good family relations. In this work she follows the method of *takhallī* and then *tajallī,* purifying the heart from negativity and adorning it with beautiful traits. She devotes the lengthiest treatment to the distinguishing characteristics of those who follow the Sunnah. > Among the signs of those who follow the *sunnah* of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, is belief in and adherence to everything he brought, a commitment to loving him by imitating him in speech, action, character and sincere intention in all of these. Among the signs that one loves the Messenger ﷺ are following his commands, shunning his prohibitions, preference for his *sunnah,* avoiding innovation (*bid’a*) in religion and cultural customs that contravene his *sunnah,* striving to recite the Qur’an, understand it and act according to it, compassion for and striving to protect the Muslim community from harm, detachment from worldly affairs and preference for the hereafter, reverence when the Prophet ﷺ is mentioned (or concentration when making remembrance \[*dhikr*\] of the Prophet), may God bless him and grant him peace, honoring his family and companions, his places Mecca and Medina, longing to visit them, copious prayers upon him, adopting his character by doing what pleases God, opposing whoever opposes God’s religion even if it be one’s own father or son, compassion, forbearance, and forgiveness and patience with one’s own soul in that which it dislikes.[^25] She describes these distinguished people as having “faith in everything he has brought forth; obedience to him in these things; obligation to loving him by imitating him in speech, action, and manners; and behaving this way with sincerity of intention.” Whereas before she addressed fear and hope, in this section she speaks to love and describes those who savor following the example of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Among the signs that one has truly embraced the Prophet ﷺ is a preference, in all circumstances, for his Sunnah—humility, generosity, moderation, taking refuge in God, and zeal that endeavors by any means to purify one’s faith. While fear of God remains critical for the pious, Asma'u places special emphasis on zeal for God which is rooted in love and attraction towards Him. For her, this motivation better aligns with prophetic practice and promises a greater spiritual return. Joy and zeal for worship are also remedies for the spiritual apathy that threatens to settle into the believer. When one feels lost, fidelity to one’s religious commitments is the rope that leads forward. Asma'u’s conviction, as is evident in this work and others, is that learning ought to be a transformative experience. A purely academic pursuit for the sake of acquiring information alone passes up the opportunity to attain the ethical and spiritual demeanor concomitant with studying the Islamic sciences. Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba of neighboring Senegal put it this way in various poems: > Everyone who acts without knowledge is like a speck of dust in the wind > And he who acquires knowledge without practicing it is a loaded donkey. > … > If your progress in knowledge does not lead to spiritual growth and detachment from worldly things > You are regressing and harming yourself because you are distancing yourself from God Most High. > … > The only useful knowledge is that which one learns and teaches only for the love > of God, Most High[^26] --- ## Poetic elegies: Reminder, transformation, and community Poetic elegies make up a significant portion of Asma'u’s composed works. While commonly thought of as straightforward memorialization of great individuals, they served a more dynamic purpose for Asma'u and her community. Asma'u delights in the person she describes and relishes in being a means for the listener to vividly envision the praised one. The people she memorializes embody the heights of human potential and their lives are instructive for her and her listeners. In “Plea to Saintly Women,” she makes explicit the communal value of remembering the merits of those passed. She is especially effective in that panegyric by weaving together stories of women around the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, women throughout the centuries, and women who had passed during her lifetime. Through this method, she illustrates how these women learned from the memory of prior exemplars, and she sets the stage for her contemporaries to do the same. The many poetic elegies left behind indicate Asma'u’s role as an orator for her people, for elegies serve a communal function and were intended for recitation aloud. The subjects of these praise poems are the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, prominent family members, and also members of the community whom Asma'u spotlighted for reasons always of their character and piety. --- ## Nana Asma'u remembered in death In 1978, Alhaji Muhammadu Magaji, a Nigerian Islamic scholar, heard a woman by the name of Yarbuga singing an elaborate, lengthy elegy to the memory of Asma'u. Magaji collected and translated into Hausa the works of Asma'u and other Fulani scholars.[^27] Given the address of the speaker, it was thought to have been composed by Asma'u’s brother, Isa, a century prior, around the time of her passing. In the poem, Isa describes going to see where Asma'u’s body lay at her home with her husband Gidado, and barely being able to get through the crowd of people gathered around it. Everywhere were scenes of restless emotion. “Men were crying, no one was left unmoved, not even the animals.” These remarks suggest the overwhelming reception of Asma'u by her community. Seemingly out of reverence, Isa never addresses Asma'u by her first name, but rather calls her “Nana” and “Inji,” the former title given for her authority in public matters like teaching and administration and the latter for her authority in spiritual matters.[^28] The title Nana was held by other women scholars in Timbuktu,[^29] though its origins are unclear and early Arabic manuscripts of her work omit the title, instead referring to her with honorifics like *saliha* (righteous), *waliya* (saintly), and *zahida* (ascetic) and always as the daughter of Shaykh Uthman. He writes that after their father, Uthman dan Fodio, the children followed Asma'u’s leadership. He compares her “light” to lightning that illuminates and arouses hearts from heedlessness. He describes her generosity to men and women alike, her care for orphans, her craft at reconciling affairs, and the mutual love between her and her family. **Note on the poem:** Jean Boyd and Beverly Mack translated this Hausa/Fulfulde poem in the *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u.* I recast their translation to capture the style and rhyme of the original because rhyming poetry was an important teaching medium for Asma'u and a central tool in the scholarly tradition she drew from. I also attended to elevating religious language beyond perfunctory phrases, opting for language that reflected the deep well of spiritual knowledge Asma'u drew from. Due to the transmogrification of Arabic names when written in Fulfulde and Hausa, it appears Boyd and Mack were unable to trace the identity of some of the individuals mentioned in the poem. I compared the names in Asma'u’s poem to two well-known biographical dictionaries of pious figures that appear to have been used by Asma'u and her ilk: Abd al-Rahman al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyāt* and Ibn al-Jawzī’s *Ṣifat al-Ṣafwa.* Lastly, some lines were subsumed into others or left out for clarity and concision. ### A Plea to Saintly Women Nana Asma'u Dear God, receive our praise and thanks And bless Muhammad ﷺ of the utmost rank Benedictions to his family and his friends And those who follow him ’til time’s end In this poem I will tell you about the pious Toward whom I admit I am biased I am mindful of them while I am still alive May they remember me on the Day my soul is revived The ascetic women are all sanctified For their piety, all are magnified For deliverance, they prayed ceaselessly Friends, don’t forget this so easily I wrote this poem to assuage my heart And remind you how they pined for God The perfume of their yearning for God permeates In every line of this poem I create Of the Prophet’s close ones I first shall speak:  Aisha, the noble daughter of the nobleman al-Siddiq Friends, remember the name Zaynab bint Jahsh She reignites the embers of my heart from ash She exceeded in piety, according to Aisha Loved and esteemed by the Prophet of *rahma* Fātima al-Zahra al-Batul Above all servants of Allah she holds rule She possessed all the qualities of a flower in full bloom Spun from the threads of Muhammad and Khadija’s loom Umm Hārūn[^30] shown so bright Habiba Adawiya[^31] recited the Names[^32] morning and night Of Rabiʿa ʿAdawiyya’s[^33] piety I speak Her fame is still at its peak The Lady from Basra who saw what others could not Brilliance of mind and heart, set apart Rabiʿa’s prayer was a thousand prostrations By day and by night in the throes of lamentations Pleasing the Prophet ﷺ was her sole consideration On the Day of Understanding you will give her congratulations Umm Dardā’,[^34] Mu’aza,[^35] and Ruqayya of Mosul[^36] Umm Ayyūb,[^37] Sha’wana,[^38] and Rayḥāna al-Majnūn[^39] Rabiʿa bint Ismail[^40] of Damascus, the student of Hukayma[^41] Her husband who worshiped with the best said none could match her Amrah the ascetic,[^42] Aisha bint Ja’far,[^43] Atika Ghanuyah[^44] Ubayda bint Abi Kulaib,[^45] the wife of Abu Imran,[^46] and Maryam of Basra[^47] Mu’aza bint Abdullah,[^48] Maymuna Majnuna,[^49] and Maymuna Sa’uda[^50] The Nishapuri Fatima[^51] was zealous even to those enraptured[^52]  Nafisa bint Hassan,[^53] by love of the Qur’an caged and captured Cycling through the Qur’an in the trench of her grave Which was dug by her hands for her own soul to save[^54] Born in Mecca, living in Medina, like her grandfather the Prophet The ground of Egypt blessed by her ultimate deposit For what might come from nearness to her come the prayerful and the profligate I return to Fatima[^55] the preacher, the teacher, daughter of Abbas Saiha Mounting the steps of the mosque, her voice bellowed over the crowd Enlivening the hearts they repented out loud When shyness struck her she kept her efforts on the ground But a shaykh dreamt of the Messenger telling her to reignite the crowd I pray for their overflowing gifts to grace me O God, make my repentance sincere and save me! Let me not recite their names only to forsake me I believe in Your promise and ask that You grace me Perhaps by their piety, You will purify a sinning servant like me And in the hereafter erase these wrongdoings of mine How I’ve wronged myself! Only I know where I’ve crossed the line With child-like hope, I beg forgiveness from the Divine Now I turn to the women in this community of mine Those who’ve died and those still alive My father Shaykh dan Fodio[^56] I must first remember Hawa[^57] and Ayesha, ascetic wives and good-natured Habiba burdened herself educating many women A commanding presence, respected now and back then Joda Kowuuri’s knowledge of the Qur’an availed her everywhere Biada’s reclusiveness kept her secret near The scholar Yar Hindu judged by the Qur’an These are but a sampling from the Shaykh’s clan Many of our women committed the Qur’an to heart Neither from piety nor preaching did they part They were many and this poem is but an indication As I near the end, consider this an affirmation Of your potential should you have the aspiration To achieve lofty stations and secure salvation May we be reunited with those who have passed on —all the special ones I mentioned in this psalm With mother and father and all Muslims Deliver us to splendor, O Lord of many gifts For the sake of our Messenger ﷺ, without whom we’re adrift You who hears, I end my rhyme with this Salutations on Ahmad or I’d be remiss The companions and the faithful, grant them every bliss. --- ## Notes [^1]: Lamin O. Sanneh, *Beyond Jihad: The Pacifist Tradition in West African Islam* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 53. [^2]: John Hunwick, “The Arabic Literary Tradition of Nigeria,” *Research in African Literatures* 28, no. 3 (1997): 213, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3821003](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3821003&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1673393328673261&usg=AOvVaw3MXW11wPfbgInKSZbvhRWt). [^3]: Jean Boyd and Beverly Mack, *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u* (Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1997), 198. [^4]: Boyd and Mack, *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u*, 3. [^5]: Oludamini Ogunnaike, “Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, and Education in West Africa,” *Oxford Research Encyclopedia*, 2020: 3, [https://www.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.592](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.592&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1673393328674394&usg=AOvVaw0ylRHxu3r7E6utnMxGVQF5). [^6]: Ogunnaike, “Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, and Education,” 4. [^7]: Boyd and Mack, *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u*, xxx. [^8]: Muhammad Dangana, “The Intellectual Contribution of Nana Asma'u to Women’s Education in Nineteenth‐Century Nigeria,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs*, 1999: 288, [https://doi.org/10.1080/13602009908716443](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/13602009908716443&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1673393328675761&usg=AOvVaw3Wd1cl2AOLZv9GH8SCwidw). [^9]: Chukwuma Azuonye, “Feminist or Simply Feminine? Reflections on the Works of Nana Asma'u, a Nineteenth-Century West African Woman Poet, Intellectual, and Social Activist,” *Meridians* 6, no. 2 (2006): 54–77, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/40338702](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40338702&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1673393328676449&usg=AOvVaw26NG9iK6WzNSIc01T9YjXs). [^10]: *Al-Adab al-Mufrad*, Book on Poetry, hadith 872. [^11]: Hunwick, “Arabic Literary Tradition of Nigeria,” 210–23. [^12]: John O. Hunwick, “The Arabic Qasida in West Africa: Forms, Themes and Contexts,” in *Qasida Poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa, Volume 1: Classical Traditions and Modern Meanings*, ed. Stefan Sperl and Christopher Shackle (Leiden: Brill, 1996): 83–98, 83. [^13]: Hunwick, “Arabic Literary Tradition of Nigeria,” 210–23. [^14]: The observation that Ibn al-Jawzī used al-Sulamī’s work as a resource is made by Professor Mahmoud Muhammad al-Tahani in the introduction to the Cairo edition of *Dhikr al-Niswa.* [^15]: Boyd and Mack, *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u,* xxviii. [^16]: Dangana, “Intellectual Contribution of Nana Asma'u,” 285. [^17]: Jean Boyd, *The Caliph's Sister: Nana Asma'u, 1793–1865, Teacher, Poet, and Islamic Leader* (Abingdon: Frank Cass Publishers, 2005), xix. [^18]: Dangana, “Intellectual Contribution of Nana Asma'u,” 286. [^19]: Boyd, Jean. *The Caliph's Sister*, 6. [^20]: Dangana, “Intellectual Contribution of Nana Asma'u,” 286. Shaykh Uthman was working from within the Maliki *madhhab* and clearly subscribed to the opinion that wives were not obligated to perform domestic labor. This is not the only opinion regarding the duties of spouses within the *madhhab*, but evidently Shaykh Uthman considered it strong enough to use in his argument. See al-Mausu'ah al-Fiqhiyyah al-Kuwaitiyyah vol. 19 p.44 for further discussion. [^21]: Dangana, “Intellectual Contribution of Nana Asma'u.” [^22]: Boyd and Mack, *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u*. [^23]: Dangana, “Intellectual Contribution of Nana Asma'u to Women’s Education,” 288. [^24]: A manuscript of this work is found in *The Collected Work of Nana Asma'u.* This work was kept in the *gafaka* (leather bookbag) that contained other works by Nana Asma'u, stored in her home and kept by her descendants. [^25]: I have opted to translate this Arabic text from the appendix of manuscripts compiled by Boyd and Mack, p. 504. [^26]: Oludamini Ogunnaike, “Learn, Live, Love: Ahmadu Bamba’s Practical Epistemology and Pedagogy,” Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, 8–9. [^27]: Boyd, *The Caliph's Sister*, xviii. [^28]: Boyd, *The Caliph's Sister,* 5. [^29]: Boyd and Mack, *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u*, 14. [^30]: From Damascus, Umm Hārūn was known as someone of exceptional piety among the notable scholars of her time, such as Abū Sulaiymān al-Dārānī. She made a habit of traveling from her home in Damascus to Palestine by foot, seeking remote locations for spiritual retreat. We don’t know her birth and death date, but, given her association with al-Dārānī, we can assume she lived in the late eighth and early ninth centuries CE. See Abd al-Rahman al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyāt* (Cairo: Maktaba Khānajī, 1993), 64. [^31]: Habiba Adawiya was a native of Basra, who likely lived in the generation after the better-known Rabiʿa al-Adawiya. She was known for keeping night prayer on the roof of her house. Rkia E. Cornell, *Early Sufi Women* (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 1999), 202. [^32]: The Names of Allah. [^33]: Perhaps one of the pious women with the most name recognition after the wives of the Prophet, she is the only woman mentioned by name in Abū Bakr al-Kalābādhī’s *Kitāb al-taʿarruf*, one of the earliest treatises on Sufi individuals in the tenth century CE. She was a teacher of Sufyan al-Thawri, who referred to her as *mu’addiba* and sought her wisdom in spiritual and religious matters. Her students and admirers have related copious wisdom from her. Ibn Jawzi claims to have written an entire book on her. Cornell, *Early Sufi Women*, 282. [^34]: An orphan under the care of an Abu Dardā who used to sit in the circles of learning as a young girl, Umm Dardā’ eventually became a teacher of *hadith* and *fiqh* and was known for keeping company with the scholars and teaching male and female students in Damascus. Muhammad Akram Nadwi, *Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam* (Oxford: Interface Publications, 2006) 81. [^35]: I could not determine the identity of this individual. [^36]: Sifat al-Safwa mentions one of the sayings she was known for. Al-Jawzi, *Sifat al-Safwa,* (Dar al-Hadith, Cairo: 2000) vol.2, 358. [^37]: I could not determine the identity of this individual. [^38]: She was from a port city called al-Ubulla in Persia. She gave exhortations and recited the Qur’an as a teacher. Given her association with al-Fudayl ibn Iyad (d. 187/803), we presume she died in the eighth century CE. Al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyya*, 44. [^39]: Al-Sulamī records her as Rayhana al-Waaliha. She lived in the eighth century CE in Basra. Al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyya*, 38. [^40]: Rabiʿa’s husband, Ahmad ibn Abi Hawārī (d. 845), relates many stories of her sainthood and the sainthood of other Syrian women, from which al-Sulamī compiled his own work. Rabiʿa was independently wealthy and financed many students and aspirants. Hawārī reports that she would ceaselessly fast and pray and that he was moved to richer faith just by the sight of her. Cornell, *Early Sufi Women*, 314. [^41]: Al-Sulamī describes her as a teacher or initiator of women into specialized knowledge, such as Rabiʿa bint Ismail. She lived in Damascus and was in communication with al-Dārānī. Al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyya*, 53. [^42]: Possibly Amra al-Farghana from Khurasan who lived in the tenth century CE. Al-Sulamī describes her as someone with impeccable character, presence, and insight. Asma'u also mentions a Mu’aza of Mosul and Majida who shared in this quality of asceticism; however, I could not locate these individuals. Al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyya*, 87. [^43]: Presumably the daughter of Ja’far al-Sadiq. She would have lived in the eighth century CE. [^44]: I could not determine the identity of this individual. [^45]: From Tufawa, near Basra, a contemporary of Malik ibn Dinar. Al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyya*, 57. [^46]: Boyd and Mack transliterate the name as “Ahhiratu Umratu” and identify her as “Amrah wife of Habibu.” However, I believe this entry could be referring to the wife of Abi ‘Umran al-Juni (*imra’a abi umran al-juni*), who has an entry in *Sifat al-Safwa*. In that entry, her son is recorded as having seen his mother tie her legs together with rags to prolong her nighttime prayers. [^47]: A student of Rabiʿa Adawiya. Like her teacher, she was  known for her *tawakkul*, strict adherence to night prayer, and emphasis on cultivating love for Allah. Al-Sulamī, *Dhikr al-niswa al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyya*, 33. [^48]: Perhaps the first initiator of women into a spiritual sorority in Basra a century before Rabiʿa Adawiya. Known for sober and vigorous spirituality, she stressed asceticism, prayer, fasting, and night prayer. Cornell, *Early Sufi Women*, 61. [^49]: The sister of Ibrāhīm al-Khawwāṣ, who was a companion of al-Junayd. She and her brother seem to have had a close relationship, which afforded her the opportunity to converse with men of a similar spiritual bent as her. She lived in Baghdad in the ninth century CE. Cornell, *Early Sufi Women*, 216. [^50]: Unclear attribution. In this section of the poem, Asma'u lists a number of names without much detail about their character. The authors of *Collected Works of Nana Asma'u* acknowledge that parts of this poem are missing. This may explain the lack of descriptions for these women. However, it is also possible that Asma'u simply wanted to show her knowledge of these women and acknowledge that they are deserving of mention without lengthening the poem. [^51]: Fātima of Nishapur is quoted anonymously in Kalābādhī’s *Kitāb al-taʿarruf*  and resurfaces in al-Sulamī’s work with her statement properly attributed to her. Kalābādhī uses her words to confidently describe spiritual wayfaring (*sulūk)*. She instructed Bayazid al-Bistami and Dhu al-Nun al-Misri, so she must have lived in the ninth century CE. She frequented Mecca for *umrah* and general devotional purposes, and indeed ultimately died on her way to make *umrah*. Al-Misri relates wisdom from her and testimonies of her saintliness. Cornell, *Early Sufi Women*, 144. [^52]: Even those enraptured by the love of Allah considered her zealous. [^53]: Nafisa (d. c. 824) is a well-known descendant of the Prophet ﷺ and probably the best-known female scholar of hadith in Egypt. She is connected to Imam al-Shafiʿi (d. 820), who received hadith from her and sought her out for prayer, and it seems that before his passing, he requested that his body be carried to her home so that she might say a final prayer over him. See Nadwi, *Al-Muhaddithat*, 268. The Sayida Nafisa Mosque in Cairo is her burial place and is considered a place of spiritual refuge by many. [^54]: To keep the remembrance of death near, she dug a grave and worshiped in it. [^55]: Perhaps Asma'u returns to Fātima of Nishapur because she admires her especially. Fātima’s entry in al-Sulamī’s work is one of the longest, and she enjoys similar appreciation in Asma'u’s poem. Fātima enjoyed wealth and independence—qualities that would have resonated with Asma'u. [^56]: Such is Asma'u’s reverence and appreciation for her father that she mentions him here. Perhaps this also serves as an acknowledgment and reminder that Uthman dan Fodio facilitated educational opportunities for women that allowed some to flourish. [^57]: In this section of the poem, Asma'u turns her attention to memorializing women in her community who passed during her lifetime. Hawa was Asma'u’s maternal grandmother and was likely a Qur’an teacher. The little that we know about these particular women is mentioned here and in other elegies Asma'u penned. In a sense, she offers an appendix to the work of al-Sulamī by adding these women to the names of those he mentioned 800 years prior, much as Ibn al-Jawzi used al-Sulamī’s work two centuries later to write his own and include others who lived after al-Sulamī died. ## Summary In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. All praise is due to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon His final Messenger, our master Muhammad, his family, and his companions. Among the luminous figures of Islamic history who flourished far from the Arab heartlands stands Nana Asma'u bint Uthman (1793–1864), a scholar and prolific poet of the West African Sahel. She was the daughter of Shaykh Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Salih, known as Uthman dan Fodio (d. 1817), the founder of the Sokoto caliphate and among the most esteemed scholars of law, Sufism, and governance in his era. Raised within a culture that cherished poetry, Nana Asma'u wielded verse to teach the Qur'an, transmit Islamic values, honor the righteous, and preserve the history of her people. Her life bears witness to the deep rootedness of Islam in West Africa and to the truth that this faith spread there over a millennium ago not by conquest but through ordinary human encounters and the piety of extraordinary souls. Indeed, the celebrated scholar of Timbuktu, Ahmad Baba (d. 1627), is quoted by Uthman dan Fodio as having said that the Black Africans "accepted Islam without being conquered by anybody." Nana Asma'u was born of noble lineage within a Fulani clan in what would become northern Nigeria. Her title "Nana" was a customary honorific for female religious teachers, signaling her role in public life. Her father was so beloved a teacher that the ruler of the neighboring state of Gobir sought to suppress his call, forbidding conversion to Islam and outlawing distinctively Muslim dress, and later even attempting to take the Shaykh's life. This compelled him to migrate with his community, and after years of warfare the Sokoto caliphate was established under his rule. Nana Asma'u was likely named after Asmā' bint Abī Bakr, may Allah be pleased with her, who carried provisions to the Prophet ﷺ and her father during the hijra while pregnant and in great peril. Like her namesake she was tireless and resolute; by the age of ten she had memorized the Qur'an, and her education continued without hindrance. She attained fluency in Arabic, Fulfulde, and Hausa, and conversed in Tamajek, the tongue of the nomadic Tuareg. Accounts of her early life survive in Rawḍ al-Jinān, a biography of her father composed by her husband Gidado with her assistance. Gidado, whose given name was Uthman ibn Abubakr Sambo Laima, was a gifted Arabist and served as wazir of the state; the Scottish explorer Hugh Clapperton, who visited Sokoto in 1824, described him as "excessively polite" and eloquent in Arabic. After the passing of her father, Nana Asma'u bore the weighty responsibility of collecting and cataloging his works, a task the Fulani likened in significance to the gathering of the Qur'an after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. Her scholarly standing is further evidenced by her written exchanges with male scholars, such as her Arabic poem welcoming the Mauritanian pilgrim al-Ḥājjī Aḥmad al-Shinqīṭī, whom she addressed as her brother. As Oludamini Ogunnaike observes, through the pilgrimage the scholars of West African centers such as Timbuktu, Djenne, and Kano were connected to the scholars of Cairo and Damascus, including figures like Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī. Nana Asma'u began teaching at the age of fourteen, and her surviving works are almost entirely lyrical poems. She favored poetry for its persuasive power and its ease of memorization, for it enchants even as it instructs. When a Bedouin once recited verse to the Prophet ﷺ, he responded, "There is magic in eloquence and wisdom in poetry." Her community, though literate, prized the qualities of an oral culture such as rhythm, cadence, and repetition in service of memorization. As John Hunwick notes, the ability to compose Arabic verse was in West Africa "a hallmark of the accomplished scholar," a tradition reaching back in Nigeria to the grammarian and poet Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Kanemi (d. 1212). Among her notable compositions is "A Plea to Saintly Women" (Tawassul Ga Mata Masu Albarka), written in 1837. During the years of Sokoto's expansion, many non-Muslim women came under Muslim rule, severed from their former ways of life. In 1836 her brother, the caliph Muhammad Bello, produced Kitāb al-Naṣīḥa, drawing upon Ibn al-Jawzī's (d. 1201) Ṣifat al-Ṣafwa, which itself relied upon the earlier Dhikr al-Niswa al-Mutaʿabbidāt al-Sufiyyāt of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 1021). Bello asked his sister to translate and versify the work; yet she did more than translate, recasting it to focus wholly upon the potential of women. By embracing the Hausa tongue she demonstrated that Islam was not so foreign as to be incommunicable in the language of the people she served, for as western scholars have noted, Islamic themes were scarcely present in Hausa poetry before the jihad of her father. Her concern for women's education did not stand alone but flowed from her father's own teaching. In Nūr al-Albāb, Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio sternly rebuked those scholars who left their wives, daughters, and slaves "neglected like animals without teaching them what Allah enjoins on them regarding their articles of faith, their ablution, their prayers," treating them "like household implements which are used until they are broken and then thrown onto the rubbish heap." He further warned Muslim women not to heed "the words of the misguided ones" who commanded obedience to husbands in place of obedience to Allah and His Messenger, imposing duties that "neither Allah nor His Messenger imposed." Facing criticism from scholars who feared the mixing of the sexes at lessons, he reasoned that the certain evil of ignorance outweighed the potential harm of such gatherings. In 1840 Nana Asma'u established a cadre of itinerant women teachers known as the Yan Taru, training them in the Qur'an and Islamic morality to bring the purity of tawḥīd to the masses of women and to circumvent the objections raised against female learning. Her spiritual vision shines through her manual "Warning for the Negligent and Reminder for the Intelligent Regarding the Ways of the Pious." Beginning with "that which stands between man and paradise," she addresses two audiences: the neglectful who require warning and the diligent who require reminder. She enumerates eight destructive habits, including antagonism, greed, materialism, boastfulness, resort to diviners, dealings with jinn, and witchcraft, and eight redeeming ones, including repentance, scrupulous worship, remembrance of Allah, charity, fasting, patience, and kinship. In this she follows the method of takhallī and tajallī, emptying the heart of vice and adorning it with virtue. She devotes her lengthiest treatment to the signs of those who follow the Sunnah, among them faith in all the Prophet ﷺ brought, love expressed through imitation of him in speech, action, and character, the shunning of innovation, reverence when he is mentioned, honoring his family and companions and the sacred cities, abundant prayers upon him, and opposition to whoever opposes God's religion "even if it be one's own father or son." Throughout she emphasizes zeal rooted in love of God as the remedy for spiritual apathy. This conviction that knowledge must transform its bearer echoes the words of Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba of neighboring Senegal, who wrote that "he who acquires knowledge without practicing it is a loaded donkey," and that "the only useful knowledge is that which one learns and teaches only for the love of God, Most High." A significant portion of her legacy consists of poetic elegies, which served not merely to memorialize the great but to hold before her community living examples of human excellence for emulation. In "A Plea to Saintly Women" she weaves together the women around the Prophet ﷺ, the pious women of the intervening centuries, and the righteous women of her own day, showing how each generation learned from those before. When she herself passed in 1864, her brother Isa is thought to have composed a lengthy elegy describing crowds so dense he could scarcely reach her body, with men weeping and "no one left unmoved, not even the animals." Out of reverence he never named her directly but called her "Nana" for her public authority and "Inji" for her spiritual authority, comparing her light to lightning that rouses hearts from heedlessness, and recalling her generosity, her care for orphans, and her skill at reconciling disputes. In her own plea she voiced the humble hope that permeates her verse: "Perhaps by their piety, You will purify a sinning servant like me," turning to Allah "with child-like hope" and closing, as she always did, with salutations upon the Messenger ﷺ, "without whom we're adrift." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/belief-in-divine-love-discovering-spiritual-attachment-styles # Belief in Divine Love: Discovering Spiritual Attachment Styles **Authors:** Dr. Hassan Elwan, Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Data, Family & Community, Parenting, Reports **Tags:** Editor's Picks, Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** December 29, 2022 **Updated:** June 25, 2025 ## Introduction Allah is Perfect. His perfection extends into every realm imaginable. He is the absolutely Merciful (*al-Raḥmān*), Compassionate (*al-Raḥīm*), Loving (*al-Wadūd*), Forgiving (*al-Ghafūr*), Helping (*al-Muʿīn*), the One to put complete trust in (*al-Wakīl*), and so much more. However, we do not always see Allah’s perfection directly. Allah is the Apparent (*al-Ẓāhir*) and the Immanent (*al-Bāṭin*). “Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives \[all\] vision.”[^1] Thus, every single one of us has to grapple with and answer two fundamental questions: 1) Although I cannot see Allah directly, how do I imagine Him to be? 2) Allah sees everything I do, what does He think of me? How we answer these two questions has a profound effect on our lives. The answers influence our attachment style, our relationship with Allah and others, as well as our religiosity, religious struggles, and self-worth. Inculcating a healthy image of God that reflects the harmony between all His attributes is essential for positive religious development. People have varying and sometimes distorted perceptions of God. If a person perceives Him as a “cosmic cop,” they will fearfully wonder what Allah will pull them over for and for what He will let them go. They may imagine the Qur’an as only a book of “dos and don’ts,” missing out on all the majestic aspects of God’s message. They might perceive God’s laws as stopping them from enjoying a more pleasurable life. Thus, the relationship a person has with God when they perceive Him as a “cop” may be one of distance, appeasement, and fearful conformance. On the other hand, some people think of God as “a magic genie” who, when properly obeyed, responds by giving them what they wish for.[^2] They may worship God with the false expectation that their belief in Him entitles them to get whatever they want. However, when life’s inevitable challenges hit and God, in His infinite wisdom, does not grant them what they desire, they may harbor anger and resentment towards Him.[^3] The way we imagine God affects how we relate to Him, ourselves, and to the world. Having a healthy and balanced perception of God, based on scripture and prophetic guidance, is essential for thriving. This paper introduces the topic of “God image”[^4] and attachment. We explain what a God image is and how a healthy or distorted God image develops. We also explain God attachment styles and how our image of God influences how we relate to Him. Finally, we discuss the consequences of a distorted God image on religious and self-concept struggles. We present a theory of God image based on classical Islamic sources and modern psychology, and the results of our scientific study on the topic. --- ## What is a God image? There is a perception of God that exists in each of our minds.[^5] Some theologians refer to this perception as a God image. It does not refer to a physical image of Allah, but refers to how we perceive and experience His presence and attributes. This image forms in our hearts and minds from two primary sources. The first is a cognitive propositional set of beliefs about God’s attributes. For example, one might say, “God is the Creator. God is One. God is all Powerful.” The second is an affective experiential perception of God that is personal.[^6] For example, one might say, “I feel God is near to me” or “I don’t feel God’s mercy in my life.” The cognitive and affective aspects of one’s God image may influence each other.[^7] The cognitive propositional set of beliefs typically comes from what we are explicitly taught about Allah by our parents, religious educators, and theological books.[^8] They come from formal lessons in educational settings and informal comments we hear about Allah. These belief-based mental representations of Allah generate our conscious, abstract knowledge of the Divine. On the other hand, our affective experiential perception of Allah typically comes from personal life experiences to which we attach theological meaning. This perception emerges from personal encounters where we did or did not perceive the Divine, the emotions we felt during religious experiences, and implicit ideas about who Allah is.[^9] This experiential, relational component of our God image can be considered the experiential knowledge of the heart. It is an affect-laden representation that underlies a person's emotional experience of the Divine. This affective experiential perception of Allah is often learned through experiences and relationships with parents and religious educators who teach about God. In other words, people do not only learn about Allah through what their parents and religious teachers explicitly tell them. They also learn about Allah through how their parents and religious teachers interact with them. ![This experiental, relational component of our God image can be considered to be the experiential knowledge of the heart. It is an affect-laden representation that underlines a person's emotional experience of the Divine](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Quote1-1-1024x611.jpg) These two sources of information may converge to form a cohesive God image, where our cognitive beliefs about God match our emotional experiences of Him. Conversely, these two sources of information may diverge if our beliefs do not align with our experiences. For example, many Muslims know Allah’s attributes, yet they have difficulty experiencing those attributes in their lives. For them, Allah is only known through a set of theological facts. An incongruence between what the mind believes about Allah and what the heart feels towards Him leads to dissonance in one’s God image. This dissonance may sit at the root of many spiritual and psychological struggles. Allah has a real and definitive set of attributes that describe Him perfectly. However, the human being does not have absolute and unfiltered access to these sublime attributes. Rather, we rely on information we have received, consciously and unconsciously, and on personal experiences to create an image in our minds of His essence. From childhood to adolescence to adulthood, we breathe in information, emotions, and thoughts pertaining to Allah. We evaluate each of these breaths as pleasurable or painful, enjoyable or aversive. We process all of this and eventually exhale beliefs about who Allah is—about His role in the universe and in our personal lives.[^10] ![Two sources that inform our God image](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure1-761x1024.jpg) The accuracy of our God image lies on a spectrum of absolutely accurate to absolutely inaccurate. Unfortunately, many people have held grossly inaccurate God images, past and present. These inaccurate images are influenced by numerous factors, including false and superstitious beliefs present in various cultures, anti-God messaging in modern pop culture, low-quality religious education and environments, and poor relationships with parents and religious educators. Allah captures the essence of an inaccurate God image when He says, > مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَقَوِيٌّ عَزِيزٌ > >  In no way have they estimated Allah in His true estimation. > Surely, Allah is Powerful and Mighty.[^11] Allah is making it clear that He is more sublime, majestic, benevolent, and capable than what people imagine. These misestimations of Allah are based on conjecture and erroneous assumptions. Commenting on the idolaters’ theological deviations, Allah says, “They follow not except assumptions \[about Allah\] and what \[their\] souls desire, and there has already come to them from their Lord guidance.”[^12] He further describes the hypocrites and idolators in the Qur’an as “those who assume about Allah an evil assumption.”[^13] The response of the hypocrites and the doubters to the Battle of Uḥud demonstrates the psychological impact of misestimating Allah. Desire for the spoils of war motivated them to join the battle,[^14] yet after the defeat they second-guessed the Prophet’s decision to fight and objected to what Allah had decreed. They said that the believers would have won if only the Prophet ﷺ had listened to them instead. Allah described these hypocrites and doubters as “...a faction worrying about themselves, thinking of Allah other than the truth—thoughts of ignorance…”[^15] The struggle of excessive worrying in the face of adversity is rooted in thinking incorrectly about Allah. Thus, our God image produces certain expectations of Him, which shape how we interpret life and cope with adversity. ![Consequences of Positive and Negative God images](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure2.jpg) One of the most vivid Qur’anic examples of the psychospiritual ramifications of divergent God images is found in its account of the Battle of the Trench. The Muslim army numbered approximately 3,000 soldiers, compared to the confederate army of nearly 10,000.[^16] When the hypocrites and weak believers saw that the confederates vastly outnumbered them and were laying siege to the city of Medina, they proclaimed, “Allah and His Messenger did not promise us except delusion.” However, the believers strong in faith, who saw the exact same 10,000 enemy combatants surrounding them, said, “‘This is \[exactly\] what Allah and His Messenger had promised us, and Allah and His Messenger spoke the truth.’ And it increased them only in faith and acceptance.”[^17] This incident demonstrates that diametrically opposed God images between people were the root cause of their diverging emotional states. Allah encourages us to see and feel His [beautiful attributes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/names-of-allah) by having good assumptions about Him (*ḥusn al-ẓann bi’llāh*). The Prophet ﷺ narrated that Allah said, “I am as My servant expects of Me.”[^18] Allah is thus inviting us to perceive Him positively so that we experience Him positively in our lives. We find plenty of examples in both religious texts and our life experiences of people who have positive and negative assumptions about Allah. We see people who \[accurately\] imagine Allah as intimately near and personal, as well as people who \[inaccurately\] imagine Him as distant and impersonal. To some, Allah is experienced as warm, loving, and benevolent, whereas to others He is perceived as cold, distant, and punitive. Some perceive God as helpful and easy to please, whereas others see him as demanding and difficult to please. Some perceive God as always having His door open to them, whereas others feel God has long abandoned them. These disparities in God images show us that distortions exist and that they contribute to our psychological struggles, such as our ability to cope with adversity. Based on our framework, a distorted God image stems from two primary factors: (1) incorrect propositional beliefs about Allah and (2) skewed affective experiential perceptions of Allah. A distorted God image will disturb our relationship with God and may lead to psychospiritual problems such as religious doubt, low self-worth, and [mental illness](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-in-mind-islams-role-in-mental-health). We believe that our basic need to understand and bond with our Creator is programmed in our *fiṭra* (innate disposition). We are wired to connect, and our neurobiological systems predispose us to develop nurturing relationships. We have a relationship-seeking system within us from birth, and our neural circuitry and hormones react to facilitate deep bonds with others. Satisfying relationships are the most important source of happiness and sense of meaning in life.[^19] We not only seek these bonds with humans, but are biologically primed to seek moral meaning and a spiritual connection to the transcendent.[^20] Thus, it is in our *fiṭra* (innate disposition) to desire Allah.[^21] Even before our exposure to formal knowledge of Allah, the human psyche has been inspired with “deocentric intrapsychic endowments” that serve as precursors to the experience of God. Allah created this internal God-centered drive *a priori,* existing before any psychological experience with Him. The infant therefore has some primordial, preverbal awareness of God’s presence.[^22] ![A distorted God image will disturb our relationship with God and may lead to psychospiritual problems such as religious doubt, low self-worth, and mental illness](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Quote2-1024x611.jpg) An infant does not have the cognitive ability to understand Allah and His love directly. However, over time, with knowledge, relationships, and life experience, the child internalizes an image of God. The process of internalizing a God image is possible because there is a God-given ability to comprehend and experience Him.[^23] However, the human desire for intimacy with Allah requires sound experiential knowledge of Him. Ibn Taymiyya stated that one’s love for God intensifies according to one’s knowledge of Him and the soundness of one’s *fiṭra*, and that it diminishes with reduced knowledge and the pollution of one’s *fiṭra* with corruptive vain desires.[^24] --- ## Attachment theory > “No child is born but that he is upon the innate disposition. Then, it is his parents who make him into a Jew, a Christian, or Magian.”[^25] As the Prophet ﷺ explained, parents are the primary worldly factor in the religious development of their children.[^26] They have the ability to preserve or corrupt the *fiṭra* of their offspring. One might interpret this hadith as only referring to the role parents play in conveying a cognitive propositional set of beliefs to their children. However, many parents fail to realize that they also influence the development of their children’s affective emotional experiences with Allah through their parenting practices. Before developing a conscious relationship with Allah, a child first develops a relationship with their parents. The infant develops a particular attachment style depending on the quality of their interactions with their parents.[^27] According to attachment theory, the early attachment bond formed with our parents, or primary caregivers, through repeated daily experiences creates an internal working model that functions as a relationship blueprint for our future relationships.[^28] The internal working model provides the child with an internal representation of their own worth, as well as a guide for how to view others. Within this bond, the child learns to trust or mistrust, a sense of security or insecurity, and this attachment bond largely depends upon the consistency, predictability, and quality of parental responses to the child. Healthy feelings of security and satisfaction emerge if the child is nurtured appropriately.[^29] However, if the child is inconsistently nurtured, what will emerge instead are feelings of resentment, frustration, anger, and insecurity.[^30] Attachment theory classifies children as having a secure or insecure attachment style. Secure attachments predict many positive psychological outcomes, whereas insecure attachments are a risk factor for psychological dysfunction.[^31] Securely attached people hold a positive view of themselves and a positive view of others. They typically form healthy and loving relationships with others. They feel that they can trust others and be trusted, love and accept love, and grow close to others with relative ease. They are also able to depend on others without becoming totally dependent.[^32] Secure attachments in childhood foster emotional resilience and habits of seeking out selected attachment figures for comfort, protection, advice, and strength.[^33] Relationships based on secure attachments result in effective use of cognitive functions, emotional flexibility, enhancement of security, assignment of meaning to experiences, and effective self-regulation.[^34] Insecure attachment styles are typically classified as either anxious, avoidant, or disorganized. Anxious attachments are typically the product of interactions with caregivers whose responses are inconsistent and who are not readily available in times of need. Anxious attachments are marked by a fear of abandonment. Anxiously attached people tend to be insecure about their relationships, desire constant validation, and are often very clingy or needy. Avoidant attachment styles are marked by a fear of intimacy.[^35] The avoidant pattern of attachment usually develops when a child learns to expect rejection when seeking care. People with an avoidant attachment style tend to have trouble getting close to others or trusting others in relationships, and relationships can make them feel suffocated. They typically maintain distance in relationships and prefer to be independent and rely on themselves. In later life, the avoidant individual will tend not to seek the love and support of others and will endeavor to become emotionally self-sufficient.[^36] Disorganized attachments have elements of both anxious and avoidant attachment styles. Disorganized attachments are marked by fear of the caregiver and lack of trust in them. Children with a disorganized attachment do not know what to expect from their caregiver or if their needs will ever be met.[^37] Another pathway to an insecure attachment may be overparenting.[^38] Overparenting is characterized by excessive affection, protection, and control of children, especially into adolescence and emerging adulthood. For example, ‘helicopter’ parents are so involved in their children’s lives that their children never develop age-appropriate autonomy and decision-making skills.[^39] This type of risk-averse and anxious parenting attempts to shield children from any perceived obstacle or failure. This leads children to reduce their exploratory behaviors. They learn to fear new experiences and may become overly cautious and insecure.[^40] Perceptions of being over-parented relate to insecure attachments, poor parent-child communication, low self-efficacy, reduced trust and increased alienation amongst peers, and higher levels of entitlement.[^41] ![Classical attachment styles](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure3.jpg) Many researchers have suggested that our attachment style with our parents heavily influences our affective experiential image of God and our attachment style with Him.[^42] The internal working model of relationships we develop through our parental attachments influences how we initially feel about Allah and attach to Him. If a child feels wanted by one’s parents and feels a sense of trust, safety, and security with them, they will likely apply this internal working model to Allah. If the child does not feel wanted or does not feel a sense of trust or safety, they will likely project this onto Allah as well. This largely unconscious process forms a default, but malleable, image of Allah and a particular type of attachment to Him.[^43] We want to stress that our image of, and attachment to, God can indeed change.[^44] Another mechanism that may shape our God image is symbolic and vicarious conditioning by parents, especially mothers.[^45] Children may develop a notion of who God is through associations with symbolic stimuli, such as emotion-arousing words used by parents. For example, children may perceive God as pleasant if they hear their parents repeatedly use words such as kind, loving, and gentle when describing God. Similarly, in vicarious learning, the emotional responses of parents when talking about God may be communicated through vocal and facial expressions, which may arouse strong emotional reactions in the child. For example, a parent’s smiling face when speaking about God may nurture a child’s image of God as friendly, loving, and caring.[^46] --- ## Attach to survive or survive to attach? Attachment theorists argue that the attachment process was an evolved emotional-behavioral-motivational system designed by natural selection to maintain proximity between helpless infants and their primary caregivers. The theory draws heavily from evolutionary theory and ethology, and states that attachment-related behaviors serve to maximize survival and reproduction. Such theories posit the evolutionary process as the central explanation for the existence of loving attachments. In other words, attachment is merely a means to an end: survival. However, it is beyond the capability of the scientific method to prove this claim, and as Muslims we fundamentally disagree with this explanation.[^47] We argue, from an Islamic perspective, that attachments are not simply a means to survival. Rather, attachment to God can be conceived as the fundamental purpose of life. The human being was created to lovingly attach and voluntarily submit to (i.e., worship) Allah, and the development of a secure attachment to caregivers in childhood serves as a means to facilitate a secure attachment to Allah.[^48] Thus, if our ultimate purpose in life is to lovingly attach and submit to Allah, the ability to survive in this world is a necessary means to that end. Survival allows us to learn, see, and experience Allah’s sublime attributes in the world, and through survival we realize our purpose of connecting with Him. Yet parental attachment has a purpose beyond facilitating a healthy attachment to Allah. In His infinite wisdom, Allah has chosen to deliver sustenance and love to the helpless and dependent child through his parents. [Thus, *al-Wadūd* (the Loving)  plants love for the child in the hearts of the parents, who are then rewarded for delivering this love to their child.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-parenting-strategies-how-to-help-children-feel-safe-in-their-attachment-to-god-and-parents) This is crucial because the child does not have the cognitive capacity to understand who Allah is or to recognize His love directly. Furthermore, through the parents nurturing their child and spending on him from the wealth Allah gave them, they gain tremendous satisfaction in this life and reward in the afterlife.[^49] ![Attachment according to evolutionary and islamic paradigms](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure4-602x1024.jpg) ![Wisdom of parental love for children](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure5-scaled.jpg) --- ## Parataxic distortions in the image of God Although most children develop a secure attachment to their parents, many do not.[^50] Children insecurely attached to their parents may develop an unhealthy internal working model and consequently develop an insecure attachment to Allah. This is because a person’s initial relationship with God often resembles their relationship with their parents. It is indeed a travesty if a person imagines God as cruel and distant because they had parents who they perceived as cruel and distant. A distortion in the image of God based on a false internal working model has been referred to as a parataxic distortion.[^51] A parataxic distortion in the image of God refers to a negative attitude towards God based on imagining Him as similar to  people from past experiences. In other words, a parataxic distortion in the image of God is a phenomenon in which feelings, thoughts, or experiences originating in one relationship (e.g., the parent-child relationship) are reenacted in one’s relationship with God, serving to distort the character of our relationship with God.[^52] ![A parataxic distortion in the image of God is a phenomenon in which feelings, thoughts, or experiences originating in one relationship (eg. parental relationship) are reenacted in one's relationship with God, serving to distort the character of our relationship with God.](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Quote3-e1672426866492-1024x476.jpg) We are our children’s first teachers about who Allah is. We transmit our image of God to them in both words and deeds. They learn cognitively what we explicitly teach them about Allah and affectively from how we behave and relate to them. In other words, we teach them about God in both propositional and relational language. Parataxic distortions in the image of God emerge when what we teach our children propositionally is discordant with what we teach them relationally.[^53] --- ## Parents, God image, and life struggles Prior research on non-Muslims has investigated the connection between a child’s upbringing and their God image and attachment. This body of literature has found links between parental God image and youth God image, youth attachment to parents and attachment to God, and parenting practices and youth God image. Parents with a loving God image are more likely to raise children who perceive both their parents and God as loving, whereas parents who imagine God as distant have children who likely think the same.[^54] Regarding attachment styles, adults who retrospectively report insecure attachments to their parents report greater strain in their relationships with God and difficulties in forming a positive God image and attachment.[^55] As for parenting practices, adults who report their parents as sensitive and loving in childhood are more likely to view God as supportive and loving, whereas adults who remember their parents as distant are more likely to view God as distant.[^56] Collectively, this body of research suggests that parents’ God image influences their parenting and the subsequent God image and attachment of their children. In a comprehensive study of 363 five- and six-year-olds, mothers who imagined God as distant and strict resorted to stricter parenting and reported less affection, acceptance, and playful interactions with their children, which in turn predicted children’s images of a punishing God. Mothers who imagined God as loving gave their children more autonomy and had children who imagined God as more loving and caring.[^57] [Unfortunately, research has found that distorted God images and insecure attachments to Him often beget more religious doubts, worse mental health, and more negative self-concepts.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/cosmic-cop-or-loving-lord-the-influence-of-parenting-on-our-view-of-god-submission-and-contentment) For example, adults who reported an avoidant parental attachment imagined God as more distant and cruel, which was associated with persistent religious doubt.[^58] Similarly, another study found that perceiving God as cruel and distant is related to lower self-worth and self-esteem.[^59]  In a study of Orthodox Jews, anxious parental attachments in adulthood were related to sudden religious conversion and apostasy from Judaism.[^60] --- ## Empirical study of Muslims Thus far, we have laid out the theoretical framework that guides our empirical research on Muslims. Our ambition is to create assessments and interventions that rehabilitate distorted images of God and insecure attachments to Him. It is our belief that human thriving is fundamentally tied to having a healthy God image and attachment. After years of preliminary work, we have created our own survey based on prior research and the Islamic tradition.[^61] We hypothesize the following theoretical model (Figure 6) explaining the relationship between parents (or primary attachment figures), God image and attachment, and religious and self-related problems. We believe that a child’s upbringing, including the explicit ideas they were taught about God and the implicit feelings they develop towards Him as a result of their parental relationship and attachment style, will create a particular God image and attachment. Ultimately, one’s God image, if distorted, will result in religious struggles and a more negative self-concept. ![Thoeretical model of God image & attachment foundations and consequences](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure6-848x1024.jpg) The present study focused on the boxed part of the model.[^62] It aimed to understand the types of God images and attachments, and how God images predict religious and self-concept struggles. Our sample included 241 Muslim participants from across North America.[^63] Approximately 33% of the participants were between 16 and 25 years old, 30% were 26-35, 33% were 36-45, and 4% were older than 55. Approximately 64% of participants were female and 75% were raised in a Western country. Almost two in three participants (65%) reported praying five times a day and reading the Qur’an multiple times a week. The primary questions we addressed were the following: 1. What are the various types of God images that people have? How are God images related to religiosity? 2. What are the various types of attachments to God that people have? How are attachments to God related to religiosity? 3. To what extent does one’s God image relate to religious struggles (e.g., doubts and objecting to God) and self-concept struggles (e.g., self-esteem and shame)? We hypothesized that positive God images would be related to more secure attachments to God, whereas negative God images would predict more insecure (anxious/avoidant) attachments. We hypothesized that negative God images would predict more religious and self-concept struggles. --- ## Measures **God image**. Prior research has conceptualized different dimensions of God image, including God as loving, distant, cruel, or coplike. From an Islamic perspective, Allah has more than 99 beautiful names and attributes, all of which we wanted to integrate but could not. However, since there is considerable overlap between many of His attributes, we focused on measuring those that we believe capture key aspects of a person’s God image.[^64] We also included a coplike dimension of God image due to its prevalence in cultural notions of God. See Appendix A for a complete list of survey items used. In this study, we analyzed the following four aspects of God image: 1. Forgiveness and Grace (*al-Ghafūr*) 2. Aiding and Helpful (*al-Muʿīn*) 3. Caring and Compassion (*al-Raḥīm*) 4. Strict and Coplike **Attachment to God**. We measured people’s anxiety and avoidance vis-à-vis God to capture their overall attachment style. Anxious items asked how worried the respondent felt about damaging their relationship with God, how much they craved signs of His love, and how anxious they were about their relationship with Him. Avoidant items asked about need to be close to God, experience of intense emotions with God, and preoccupation with religious thoughts. **Religious struggles.** Seven questions were formulated to capture religious struggles. Such struggles were measured by (1) frequency and severity of doubts, (2) troubles with God’s commands and worldly decrees, and (3) insistence on understanding God’s decisions.[^65] **Self-concept struggles**. Five questions captured different dimensions of self-concept struggles. These dimensions included internalized shame (i.e., feelings of inadequacy and deficiency)[^66] and global self-esteem.[^67] **Religiosity**. Ten items from our BASIC religiosity measure[^68] captured five dimensions of religiosity, including beliefs, attitudes, spiritual practice, spiritual connection to God, and connection to religious institutions.[^69] --- ## Analytic approach To address our first two research questions about types of God images and attachments to God, we used cluster analysis and correlations.[^70] Clustering allows us to see the pattern of God images and attachments that naturally emerge in our sample. To address our third question, we used t-tests to compare attachment styles with religious and self-concept struggles. --- ## Results The Muslims in our sample generally had positive images of Allah. The average score for imagining Allah as “Caring and Compassionate” (4.12 out 5) and His “Forgiveness and Grace” (3.95) were relatively high. The average score for imagining Allah as “Aiding and Helping” was moderate (3.25) and as “Strict and Coplike” was quite low (1.59). However, these averages do not provide a complete picture of the diverse perceptions of Allah that people in our sample hold. Cluster analysis provided a more holistic representation of our sample’s range of God images. We identified four types of God image, and have described each one in detail below.[^71] See Figure 7 and Table 1 for details. See Appendix B for descriptive statistics and correlations. ### Profile 1: Highly benevolent image of God Nearly half of the sample (48.6%) imagined God as very compassionate, very forgiving, very aiding and helpful, and not at all coplike. This profile is of a loving and benevolent Creator, actively involved in helping people throughout their lives, easily forgiving of mistakes, and generous with His mercy. ### Profile 2: Slightly benevolent image of God More than one in four people (25.7%) imagined God as quite forgiving, somewhat compassionate, and very helpful, but also a bit coplike. This group perceived Allah as generally good-willed, especially in helping people in life, but also a little strict in enforcing His rules. However, His benevolence is seen as exceeding His strictness, as He is relatively quick to forgive and somewhat compassionate. ### Profile 3: Lukewarm and unconcerned image of God Approximately one in seven people (17.4%) imagined God as neither very benevolent nor very malevolent. He was perceived as just a bit forgiving and helpful, but not very strict or coplike either. This group appears to imagine Allah as a neutral observer detached from His creation. Thus, He is not seen as particularly loving but neither is He seen as harsh or cruel. ### Profile 4: Cruel image of God One in 12 people (8.3%) imagined Allah as cold-hearted and callous. He was perceived as not being helpful, compassionate, or forgiving, but as strict and demanding. For this group, Allah is a cosmic cop, eager to punish sinners and difficult to please. Overall, three in four people (profiles 1 and 2) had positive God images. On the other hand, one in four people (profiles 3 and 4) did not hold a positive God image. God image was also positively correlated with holistic religiosity (*r*\=.42).[^72] Similarly, the highly benevolent God image profile belonged to the most religious, followed by the slightly benevolent profile. In other words, those who viewed God more benevolently held stronger Islamic beliefs and attitudes, maintained more spiritual practices, felt a greater connection to God and to their communities, and volunteered and contributed more to religious causes. Our second question pertained to God attachment styles. The average endorsement of an anxious attachment was moderate (2.92 out of 5) and of an avoidant attachment was low (1.86 out of 5). The cluster analysis revealed five profiles that best described the quality of attachments to God.[^73] We describe each attachment style below, including how God images relate to these attachment styles. See Table 2 and Figures 8 and 9 for details. ![God image profiles (table)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Table1-1024x692.jpg) ![Visual representation of God image profiles](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure7-775x1024.jpg) ### Profile 1: Secure God attachment Nearly one in five people (19.1%) had a secure God attachment. People with this profile have a positive self-image and God-image. They generally perceived Allah as loving, intimate, helpful, forgiving, compassionate, and were not worried that God would abandon them or withhold His love from them. ### Profile 2: Slightly anxious God attachment Nearly one in three people (32.2%) had a slightly anxious God attachment. Their God-image was positive, but their self-image was slightly less positive than the self-images of those with a secure attachment. They report worrying about their relationship with God, even if only slightly, because they sometimes feel inadequate and can be hard on themselves when they make mistakes. However, their positive view of God is much stronger than any insecurities they may have about themselves. ### Profile 3: Avoidant God attachment More than one in six people (17.4%) had an avoidant God attachment. Such individuals imagine God as forgiving, but not very compassionate, intimate, or appreciative.[^74] People with this profile tend to not desire intimacy with God and don’t experience positive emotions when thinking about Him. ### Profile 4: Disorganized God attachment Just over 15% of respondents had a disorganized God attachment. People with this profile are highly anxious and slightly avoidant in their relationship with God. They perceive Allah as strict and not very helpful, appreciative, or merciful. They also have a negative self-image. In summary, people in this group are very fearful of Allah and avoid intimacy with Him. ### Profile 5: Highly anxious God attachment About one in six people (16.1%) had a highly anxious God attachment. Such people tend to view God as neither very forgiving nor helpful, although He is merciful, intimate, and only moderately strict. Their deep desire for intimacy with God is complicated by extreme anxiety and worry regarding their relationship with Him. Individuals in this group think highly of God but poorly of themselves, thus wondering if they are good enough for God to love. ![God attachment profiles (table)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Table2-1024x731.jpg) ![VIsual representation of God attachment profiles](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure8-806x1024.jpg) ![Proportion of people in each attachment profile](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure9-806x1024.jpg) Avoidant attachment was negatively correlated with religiosity (*r*\=-.47). Indeed, people with avoidant and disorganized attachments had the lowest levels of religiosity (Profiles 4 and 5). Those with secure and anxious attachments did not significantly differ in religiosity. Our third question was about how God images relate to religious and self-concept struggles.[^75] Total God image score was negatively associated with religious (*r*\=-.68) and self-concept struggles (*r*\=-.56).[^76] In other words, people who held more benevolent God images tended to report far fewer religious doubts and greater self-worth and self-esteem. A highly benevolent God image was associated with the least amount of religious struggles, while those with a slightly benevolent God image had comparatively more religious struggles (*t*\=-4.28, p<.001). The lukewarm/unconcerned God image was associated with moderate levels of religious struggles. Finally, the cruel God image profile was associated with the highest levels of religious struggles. Those who imagine God as callous and strict report experiencing more religious doubts and objecting more to God’s commands and worldly decrees. The same patterns were observed between God image profiles and struggles with a sense of self. People with highly benevolent God images reported few sense-of-self struggles, indicating that they generally had positive self-images. People with slightly benevolent God images reported experiencing a moderate degree of sense-of-self struggles, which was quite a bit more than the highly benevolent profile (*t*\=-4.03, *p*<.001). People with a lukewarm/unconcerned God image reported even more self-concept struggles than those with the slightly benevolent profile. Lastly, people with a cruel God image reported the greatest self-concept struggles, indicating that they experienced very low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy and self-criticism. See Table 3 and Figure 10 for details. ![God image and religious and self concept struggles (table)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Table3-1024x812.jpg) ![God image and religious and sense of self struggles](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure10-823x1024.jpg) --- ## Discussion This paper introduced a theory of God image and attachment. Our survey analysis highlighted four typologies of God image and five God attachment styles. Benevolent God images were associated with higher religiosity, whereas avoidant and disorganized attachments were associated with lower religiosity. We also found that more distorted God images (i.e., imaging Allah as lukewarm/unconcerned or as cruel) were associated with more maladaptive attachment styles and more religious and self-concept struggles. Nearly three in four Muslims in our sample reported a benevolent God image. However, our sample was likely more holistically religious than the general North American Muslim population.[^77] Therefore, it is probable that more than one in four Muslims in North America do not have a positive God image. We also found that about half of the sample had either a secure attachment (19%) or a slightly anxious attachment (32%). This means that there were many people with a positive God image who did not have a secure attachment. This discrepancy may indicate that God attachments need to be conceptualized in terms different from classical attachment theory. Additionally, from a purely religious perspective, we believe that having a slightly anxious attachment to God is not necessarily debilitating. Although individuals with the slightly anxious profile had moderate levels of sense-of-self struggles, their religiosity didn’t differ much from the secure group. Furthermore, they reported relatively few religious struggles. We believe that as long as one’s God image is positive enough to compensate for one’s slightly self-deprecating self-concept, one can enjoy a healthy religious life. That being said, helping such people improve their self-concept through greater self-compassion and increased recognition of their God-given dignity may help them become more secure over time. Although we theorize that childhood relationships with parents and religious educators are central in developing an initial God image and attachment style, there is plenty of hope that people can rehabilitate their God image and attachment style in adulthood. In fact, we believe that rehabilitating our image of and relationship with God is not only possible, but is one of the best ways to heal our relationships with others and our previous attachment-related wounds. ![Rehabilitating our image of and relationship with God is not only possible, but is one of the best ways to heal our relationships with others and our previous attachment-related wounds](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Quote4-1024x611.jpg) Prior research has shown that people with insecure attachments with their parents can find a compensatory secure attachment with God.[^78] Through reconstructing a proper God image and developing a secure attachment to Allah, people can create a new blueprint (i.e., updated internal working model) for building meaningful relationships. One of the recommended ways to accomplish this is through forming an experiential relationship with a righteous teacher (i.e., *ṣuḥba*, or righteous companionship). --- ## Attaching to the Prophet ﷺ and the righteous scholars The Prophet ﷺ was sent to a people with a severely distorted image of God.[^79] Through his intimate bond with his followers he was able to help them reform their image of Allah and attach to Him. *Al-Raḥmān* sent Muhammad as a mercy to guide people to Allah’s mercy. The Prophet ﷺ was the living embodiment of the scripture. Although Allah could have simply sent down a book from the heavens, He chose to reveal His message gradually over 23 years to the Prophet ﷺ to relationally transmit its message to us in words, emotions, and actions. Using object relations language,[^80] we may conceive of the Prophet ﷺ as a “human object” to attach to and love, in order to understand Allah’s love and concern for us. Allah explicitly tells us that following the Prophet is the path to gaining His love. Conceptually, having a strong attachment to the Prophet is part of following him. ‘Say, \[O Muhammad\], “If you love Allah, then follow me, and Allah will love you and forgive your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”’[^81] The Prophet ﷺ was the ultimate attachment figure for his companions. Whatever “bad objects” his companions had experienced prior to Islam, they were able to relinquish the effects of these objects by experiencing the messenger of Allah as a “good object.” He inculcated an intimate bond with his companions that made them feel secure, safe, and loved. Through developing a healthy attachment to the Prophet ﷺ, the companions were able to strengthen their connection to Allah. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ taught his companions the proper God image through correcting their cognitive beliefs about Allah and showing them how to emotionally experience His benevolence. We find a clear example of this benevolent and caring interaction in a hadith where a man came to the messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was with a group of companions. He said, “O Messenger of Allah, I am doomed!” The Prophet ﷺ asked him what was wrong. He replied, “I was intimate with my wife while I was fasting.” The Prophet ﷺ asked him, “Can you afford to free a slave?” He replied, “No.” The Prophet ﷺ asked him, “Can you fast for two successive months?” He replied, “No.” The Prophet ﷺ asked him, “Can you afford to feed sixty poor persons?" He replied, “No.” The Prophet ﷺ waited silently, and soon a big basket of dates was brought to him. The Prophet ﷺ  asked, “Where is the questioner?” He replied, “I am here.” The Prophet ﷺ said to him, “Take this \[basket of dates\] and give it in charity.” The man said, “Should I give it to a person poorer than I am? By Allah, there is no family between the two mountains \[of Medina\] who is poorer than mine.” The Prophet smiled until his molars were visible and said, “Feed your family with it.”[^82] This narration demonstrates how the companions shared a secure bond with the Prophet ﷺ. They were able to come to him with their problems, confident that they would not be shamed or chastised. He was a secure base for them—they could explore the world and come back to him for support and comfort when needed. In this beautiful encounter, the Prophet ﷺ was able to see that one of his beloved companions was distressed for having committed this sin in Ramadan. The Prophet ﷺ did not add insult to injury. He did not rebuke his companion for not being able to expiate his sin. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ recognized his predicament, smiled at him, and gifted him the dates in the end. Through such experiences the companions learned about Allah. They learned about Allah’s mercy through seeing the Prophet ﷺ treat them with mercy. In another event on the Day of an-Naḥr,[^83] the Prophet’s handsome cousin, Al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbbās, was sitting behind him on his camel. The Prophet ﷺ was answering people’s questions when a beautiful woman came to ask a question. Al-Faḍl, astounded by her beauty, started staring at her. The Prophet ﷺ turned back and noticed Al-Faḍl was gazing at her, so he ﷺ put his hand back and turned Al-Faḍl’s face away from the beautiful woman.[^84] This hadith again demonstrates the Prophet’s gentleness in dealing with his people. Through such beautiful interactions with his companions, the Prophet ﷺ modeled the qualities of patience and gentleness—the qualities of *as-Ṣabūr* and *al-Laṭīf*. Although the Prophet ﷺ is not amongst us today, we can still find righteous scholars to teach us about Allah and improve our God image. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The superiority of the scholars over the devout worshiper is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham, leaving only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion.”[^85] The scholars must emulate the prophetic method of teaching the believers the names and attributes of Allah both intellectually and relationally by acting in accordance with His attributes. Therefore the connection between teacher and student must be personal and based on companionship (*ṣuḥba*). This is why many scholars of the past have said it is from the blessings of Allah upon a young person that he accompanies a person of the *sunna* to guide him by it.[^86] Individuals are thus encouraged to seek out companionship with righteous scholars whose knowledge, character, and behavior will teach them about Allah intellectually and relationally. To learn relationally about Allah through companionship means to learn from those whose character is molded by intimate knowledge of the attributes of Allah. Imam Mālik ibn Anas’s mother understood this well when she told her son, “Go to Shaykh Rabīʿah and learn from his manners before his knowledge.”[^87] ![The impact of the righteous conduct of one person on one thousand people is more impactful than the words of one thousand people on one person](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Quote5-1024x611.jpg) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya used to repeatedly speak about how his teacher, Ibn Taymiyya, influenced him through their personal interactions. For example, he experientially learned about Allah’s aid and support for the believers (*al-Muʿīn*) through Ibn Taymiyya’s habit of rushing to fulfill the needs of the people and his explanation that this support for others was a means of gaining Allah’s support.[^88] In yet another powerful story, he mentioned how scholars would say, “I wish I could treat my friends as well as Ibn Taymiyya treats his enemies.” He went on to explain how one day he happily went to inform Ibn Taymiyya that one of his adversaries had passed away. Ibn Taymiyya reprimanded Ibn al-Qayyim for his cheeriness and immediately went to give condolences to the family, offering his assistance[^89] and making *duʿāʾ* for the deceased.[^90] Accompanying scholars with such righteous character is essential on our path to attaching to Allah. In a famous statement of wisdom, it has been said that the impact of the righteous conduct of one person on one thousand people is more impactful than the words of one thousand people on one person. --- ## Parents and religious educators In addition to scholars, parents and other religious teachers have tremendous  potential in shaping the God image of youth. [Parents should be aware that the quality of their relationship with their children is essential in developing proper religious values and a healthy God image.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-importance-of-conscious-parenting-in-raising-confident-muslims) Religious educators should pay close attention to potential distortions in the God images of their students and communities at large. They need to assess both distortions in people’s propositional beliefs about Allah and in their affective experiential perceptions of Him. Rehabilitation of people’s God images will likely fail if the only strategy employed is intellectual dialogue.[^91] [Proper *tarbiya* encompasses the nurturing of both our intellectual and emotional sides.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/approaching-the-quran-through-the-names-of-allah) In other words, helping those with distorted God images requires reaching them on an emotional level so they can heal from prior difficulties that contributed to their unhealthy God images.[^92] Unless Allah’s benevolence and love is translated to people in a relational way that feels authentic and personal, the message will often fall on deaf ears. This requires religious educators to understand (on an experiential level) how Allah revealed Himself in the Qur’an and how the Prophet ﷺ taught us about Allah relationally. The word *tarbiya* comes from the same root as *rabb*, implying that proper nurturing is a Godly behavior in which parents and religious educators must engage. ![Unless Allah's benevolence and love is translated in a relational way that feels authentic and personal, the message will often fall on deaf ears](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Quote6-1024x611.jpg) The biggest predictor of success in any type of therapy is not the type of counseling theory or intervention used, rather, it is the quality of the relationship between the therapist and client.[^93] We believe this equally applies in the therapeutic process undertaken by scholars and religious educators when rehabilitating their students’ distorted images of God. --- ## Concluding thoughts We have presented a theoretical framework of God image and attachment and an empirical study testing this framework. While our study could not capture all 99 of God’s beautiful names and attributes, we suggest four major domains summarize His perfection:[^94] (1) Beauty, (2) Majesty, (3) Lordship, and (4) Essence. The figure below shows how Allah’s names relate to each domain. Although this study was primarily focused on the domains of Beauty and Lordship, a believer should have a balanced image of Allah that includes intimate knowledge and experience of all His names and attributes (i.e., a well-rounded circle). A fully balanced God image protects a believer from the extremes of despair due to focusing on God’s punishment or a false sense of security due to focusing on His forgiveness.[^95] True believers neither despair of the mercy of Allah[^96] nor feel immune to the consequences of their sins.[^97] ![Four domains of Allah's names & attributes](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Web_Figure11.jpg) A fulfilling and enjoyable life is one in which we know who God is and experience His beauty in our lives. A benevolent God image allows us to see His wisdom and mercy even in adversity, which in turn promotes mental and spiritual thriving. A distorted God image impairs one’s ability to perceive adversity through a positive lens, which leads to personal and religious problems. Knowing God intellectually is not sufficient for human thriving as we have an innate need to connect with Him emotionally. Here are some key takeaways that can help us to better understand and relate to Allah. 1. We should be aware that our God image has been shaped by complex life experiences. We may have had poor relationships in childhood despite  holding the right beliefs about Allah, and those in turn may have warped our image of God. Consider using the questionnaire (see Appendix A) to assess your God image and attachment. 2. Psychospiritual struggles, such as religious doubts and objections to divine decrees, may stem from a distorted God image and insecure attachment. We recommend assessing an individual’s God image and attachment before providing any rational/cognitive answers to spiritual struggles. 3. Imams and religious counselors should try to “connect before you correct.” They may also utilize the God image questionnaire to assess people, as their malformed God image may be at the root of their struggles. Exemplifying the attributes of Allah in a relational way may be more beneficial for healing than addressing any given problem intellectually. 4. Individuals should establish a relationship of *ṣuḥba* (companionship) with a religious educator with whom they can spend quality time cognitively and experientially learning about Allah. 5. Parenting styles that embody and reflect prophetic character can contribute significantly to how children relate to and experience God later in life. Parenting behaviors can also affect children’s psychospiritual resilience. In our upcoming papers, we plan to present case studies of assessing and rehabilitating distorted God images, the effects of specific parenting practices and beliefs on children’s God image, and how to treat distortions in particular domains of God image. It is our hope that through continued research on this topic we may raise awareness of its importance to Muslim life, and provide solutions to those seeking to improve their image of God and strengthen their attachment to Him. --- ## Appendix A Survey Questions used in the study **God image Questions** asked on a scale of one to five, such as (1) Does not describe my feelings to (5) Clearly describes my feelings. ### Forgiveness and Grace (al-Ghafūr) - I will be punished by God in some way before I ever make it to heaven. - How often do you feel that God is angry with you? - I feel that God is not answering my prayers because I am not good enough or because of my mistakes. - When I face affliction, I tend to feel it is because God is not pleased with me. - When I fail or sin, I think God is going to abandon or punish me. - When I sin, I tend to withdraw from God. - I worry that because of my sins my relationship with God will not be restored. - God frequently forgives sins, even when people forget to repent. ### Aiding and Helpful (al-Muʿīn) - I feel it’s hard for me to please God and I wish God was helping me more. - In difficult situations, how often do you feel that God isn’t at your side? - Sometimes, when I really need God, I tend to feel left on my own. - In difficult situations, I tend to feel that I don’t get enough help from God. - When it comes to stopping bad habits, I wish that Allah helped me more to stop. ### Caring and Compassion (al-Raḥīm) - I feel God's compassionate love filling my heart. - I tend to feel that God is more stern (demanding) than compassionate. - I feel that God has always been reaching out to me. - How often do you feel God's deep care for you? ### Strict and Coplike - I tend to feel that God is like a "cop" enforcing rules with rewards and punishments. - I tend to feel that God is like a judge who is stern with His punishment. - How much do you feel that your religion is mainly a list of rules and restrictions? - My religion seems like a list of obligations to me. **God attachment** questions asked on a scale of one to five, such as (1) Does not describe my feelings to (5) Clearly describes my feelings. ### Anxious attachment - How often do you worry about damaging your relationship with God? - I fear God does not accept me when I do something wrong. - I crave signs to assure me that God loves me (e.g., that I am special). - I feel anxious and worried about my relationship with God. ### Avoidant attachment - I just don’t feel a deep need to be close to God. - It's uncommon for me to cry when sharing with God. - How often do you experience intense emotions in your relationship with God? - How excited do you feel when learning about God? - Religious thoughts don't generally occupy my mind. ### Religiosity (BASIC short form) Religiosity questions asked on a scale of one to five. - How many times a day do you pray (on average)? - How often do you read the Quran? - How relevant is the Quran in your day to day life? - How relevant is the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (e.g., sunnah and seerah) in your day-to-day life? - When things happen to me that I don't like, I understand that there may be much good in it. - Even when I can't control events in my life, I am content with what has been decreed. - How focused on Allah do you feel in prayer? - How often do you feel a sense of peace and connection with Allah during prayer? - How attached do you feel to your local Muslim community? - I consider being present in my community an important aspect of my faith. ### Religious Struggles (Average of doubt and submission scales) Religious struggles questions asked on a scale of one to five. - How frequently do you experience religious doubts? (Doubt) - Sometimes, religious doubts shake my faith. (Doubt) - When I face hardships, I feel troubled by doubts about my religious beliefs. (Doubt) - I cannot find peace with God’s commands until I am convinced of their wisdom/benefit. - I find myself insisting to know why God did/does something. - I am troubled by the fact that God lets bad things happen to good people. - I am troubled by some of God’s commands and rulings. ### Sense-of-Self Struggles (Average of shame and self-esteem scales) Sense-of-self struggles questions asked on a scale of one to five. - I feel like I am never quite good enough. - I scold myself and put myself down (especially when I slip). - I feel intensely inadequate and full of self-doubt. - How do you feel about the kind of person you are? - When you think of yourself, how do you feel? --- ## Appendix B ![Descriptive statistics of all study variables (Table)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Table4-1024x916.jpg) ![Correlations between all study variables (Table)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/226_GodImage_Table5-1024x636.jpg) --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 6:103. [^2]: This is akin to the American theological doctrine known as prosperity gospel that equates the Christian faith with material and financial success. [^3]: Qur’an 22:11. “And of the people is he who worships Allah on an edge. If he is touched by good, he is reassured by it; but if he is struck by trial, he turns on his face \[to the other direction\]. He has lost \[this\] world and the Hereafter. That is what is the manifest loss.” [^4]: We are using the term ‘image’ due to its common use in literature on the psychology of religion. The Prophet ﷺ himself used the term when he said, “Indeed, Allah created Adam upon His image.” The notion of God “image” derives from “imagination” — we imagine God in the same way we imagine his attributes. This term should in no way be construed as referring to a picture or physical image of God in our minds. As we referenced earlier, the Qur’an emphatically states, “Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives \[all\] vision.” (6:103). [^5]: “Everyone forms a God image out of necessity, in order to end the infinite regress of questions about the origin of the world and consolidate the representational fragments born of their early life. This representation is there whether or not the person uses it in their belief system. Atheists have a God image of a God many would never want to believe in. Everyone has some image of God even if they reject it, as total atheism is a psychodynami impossibility.” Ana-Marie Rizzuto, *Birth of the Living God: A Psychoanalytic Study* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979). [^6]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya proposed that the heart possesses two central abilities: (1) the ability to gain knowledge and intellectually differentiate between things and (2) the ability to desire and love. See *Ighāthat al-lahfān fi maṣāyid al-Shayṭān*, [https://shamela.ws/book/18612/77](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://shamela.ws/book/18612/77&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369163821&usg=AOvVaw0QxBKMrp7H_VWgRbuEk6h8). [^7]: Hanneke Schaap Jonker, Elisabeth H. M. Eurelings-Bontekoe, Hetty Zock, and Evert Jonker, “Development and Validation of the Dutch Questionnaire God Image: Effects of Mental Health and Religious Culture,” *Mental Health, Religion and Culture* 11, no. 5 (2008): 501–15. [^8]: Simone A. De Roos, Jurjen Iedema, and Siebren Miedema, “Young Children’s Descriptions of God: Influences of Parents’ and Teachers’ God Concepts and Religious Denomination of Schools,” *Journal of Beliefs and Values* 22, no. 1 (2001): 19–30. [^9]: Edward B. Davis, Glendon L. Moriarty, and Joseph C. Mauch, “God Images and God Concepts: Definitions, Development, and Dynamics,” *Psychology of Religion and Spirituality* 5, no. 1 (2013): 51. [^10]: Brad Hambrick, *God’s Attributes: Rest for Life’s Struggles* (New Jersey: P&R Publishing Company, 2012). [^11]: Qur’an 22:74. [^12]: Qur’an 53:23. [^13]: Qur’an 48:6. [^14]: Al-Qurtubi, *al-Jami li ahkam al-Qur’an*. [^15]: Qur’an 3:154. [^16]: Ibn Kathir, *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, 33:9. [^17]: Qur’an 33:22. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7505; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2675. [^19]: Eric Klinger, *Meaning and Void: Inner Experience and the Incentives in People’s Lives* (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977); Jonathan L. Freedman, *Happy People: What Happiness Is, Who Has It, and Why* (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978). [^20]: Kathleen Kovner Kline, “Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities,” in *Authoritative Communities* (New York: Springer, 2008), 3–68; Barney Zwartz, “Infants ‘Have Natural Belief in God,’” *Sydney Morning Herald*, July 26, 2008, [https://www.smh.com.au/national/infants-have-natural-belief-in-god-20080725-3l3b.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.smh.com.au/national/infants-have-natural-belief-in-god-20080725-3l3b.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369145592&usg=AOvVaw3vLNsDXNiwySvxahMl-hVy). [^21]: Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “No child is born but that he is upon the natural disposition. Then, his parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or Magian.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1292; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2658. [^22]: Moshe Halevi Spero, *Religious Objects as Psychological Structures* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). [^23]: Spero, *Religious Objects as Psychological Structures*. [^24]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-al-naql* (Riyadh: Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad b. Saʿūd al-Islāmiyyah, 1991), 7:73. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1292; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no.  2658. [^26]: See for a review of parental influences on religiosity. Osman Umarji, “Will My Children Be Muslim? The Development of Religious Identity in Young People,” Yaqeen, January 16, 2020, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/will-my-children-be-muslim-the-development-of-religious-identity-in-young-people. [^27]: John Bowlby, “Attachment and Loss: Retrospect and Prospect,” *American Journal of Orthopsychiatry* 52, no. 4 (1982): 664. [^28]: Bowlby, *Attachment and Loss Volume II: Separation, Anxiety and Anger* (London: Hogarth Press, Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1973), 1–429. [^29]: Appropriate nurturing refers to the ability to notice infant signals, to interpret these signals correctly, and to respond to them promptly and appropriately by adapting behaviors to the infant’s needs. Taken from: Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters, and Sally N. Wall, *Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation* (New York: Psychology Press, 2015). [^30]: Daniel J. Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven: Parataxic Distortions in the Image of God,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 10, no. 2 (1982): 120–129. [^31]: Susan M. Johnson, *Attachment Theory in Practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Individuals, Couples, and Families* (New York: Guilford Publications, 2019). [^32]: Kelly Gonsalves, “The 4 Attachment Styles In Relationships + How To Find Yours,” mindbodygreen, October 17, 2022, [https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/attachment-theory-and-the-4-attachment-styles](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/attachment-theory-and-the-4-attachment-styles&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369150423&usg=AOvVaw1wdT4Q1zfaA3MWMV3lb5xb). [^33]: Theodore A. Stern, Gregory L. Fricchione, and Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, *Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of General Hospital Psychiatry* (N.p.: Saunders Elsevier, 2010). [^34]: Stern, Fricchione, and Rosenbaum, *Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook*. [^35]: Kim Bartholomew, “Avoidance of Intimacy: An Attachment Perspective,” *Journal of Social and Personal Relationships* 7, no. 2 (1990): 147–78. [^36]: Tamara Kotler, Simone Buzwell, Yolanda Romeo, and Jocelyn Bowland, “Avoidant Attachment as a Risk Factor for Health,” *British Journal of Medical Psychology* 67, no. 3 (1994): 237–45. [^37]: “Disorganized Attachment: Causes & Symptoms.” The Attachment Project. Accessed 10/5/2022.  https://www.attachmentproject.com/blog/disorganized-attachment/ [^38]: Jian Jiao and Chris Segrin, “Overparenting and Emerging Adults’ Insecure Attachment with Parents and Romantic Partners,” *Emerging Adulthood* 10, no. 3 (2022): 725–30. [^39]: Chris Segrin, Alesia Woszidlo, Michelle Givertz, Amy Bauer, and Melissa Taylor Murphy, “The Association between Overparenting, Parent‐Child Communication, and Entitlement and Adaptive Traits in Adult Children,” *Family Relations* 61, no. 2 (2012): 237–52. [^40]: Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven,” 120–129. [^41]: Daniel J. van Ingen, Stacy R. Freiheit, Jesse A. Steinfeldt, Linda L. Moore, David J. Wimer, Adelle D. Knutt, Samantha Scapinello, and Amber Roberts, “Helicopter Parenting: The Effect of an Overbearing Caregiving Style on Peer Attachment and Self‐Efficacy,” *Journal of College Counseling* 18, no. 1 (2015): 7–20. [^42]: Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven”; Lee A. Kirkpatrick, *Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion* Guilford Press, 2005. [^43]: Rizzuto, *Birth of the Living God*. [^44]: Lee A. Kirkpatrick, “God as a Substitute Attachment Figure: A Longitudinal Study of Adult Attachment Style and Religious Change in College Students,” *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin* 24, no. 9 (1998): 961–73; Trevor Olson, Theresa Clement Tisdale, Edward B. Davis, Elizabeth A. Park, Jiyun Nam, Glendon L. Moriarty, Don E. Davis, Michael J. Thomas, Andrew D. Cuthbert, and Lance W. Hays, “God Image Narrative Therapy: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of a Controlled Group-Based Spiritual Intervention,” *Spirituality in Clinical Practice* 3, no. 2 (2016): 77. [^45]: Albert Bandura, *Social Learning Theory* (Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press, 1971). [^46]: Simone A. De Roos, Jurjen Iedema, and Siebren Miedema, “Influence of Maternal Denomination, God Concepts, and Child‐Rearing Practices on Young Children’s God Concepts,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 43, no. 4 (2004): 519–35. [^47]: Osman Umarji, “Scientism and Certainty | Dr. Osman Umarji | Ramadan Sessions 2021,” Al-Arqam Institute, YouTube video, May 1, 2021, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILKdiHJB8T0](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DILKdiHJB8T0&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369164594&usg=AOvVaw0udOH7Njr3WKoR_-Pk6xwL). [^48]: This is not to say that the notion of a secure attachment as defined by modern psychology fully captures what a healthy faith-congruent attachment to Allah entails. Nonetheless, we agree that viewing Allah positively and one’s self relatively positively (not to the extent of grandiose narcissism) is a healthy state to aspire to. [^49]: Abu Mas’ud reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “If a Muslim spends on his family seeking reward from Allah, it is charity for him.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5351; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1002. [^50]: B. Rose Huber, “Four in 10 Infants Lack Strong Parental Attachments,” Princeton University, March 27, 2014, [https://www.princeton.edu/news/2014/03/27/four-10-infants-lack-strong-parental-attachments](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2014/03/27/four-10-infants-lack-strong-parental-attachments&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369155076&usg=AOvVaw3ZkIG1dWzyvbw-Ud5fh85C). [^51]: Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven.” [^52]: Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven.” [^53]: Heinrichs, “Our Father Which Art in Heaven.” [^54]: Bradley R. Hertel and Michael J. Donahue, “Parental Influences on God Images among Children: Testing Durkheim’s Metaphoric Parallelism,” *Journal for the Scientific study of Religion* (1995): 186–199; De Roos, Iedema, and Miedema, “Young Children’s Descriptions of God.” [^55]: Beth Fletcher Brokaw and Keith J. Edwards, “The Relationship of God Image to Level of Object Relations Development,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 22, no. 4 (1994): 352–71; William G. Justice and Warren Lambert, “A Comparative Study of the Language People Use to Describe the Personalities of God and Their Earthly Parents,” *Journal of Pastoral Care* 40, no. 2 (1986): 166–72. [^56]: Pehr Granqvist, Tord Ivarsson, Anders G. Broberg, and Berit Hagekull, “Examining Relations among Attachment, Religiosity, and New Age Spirituality Using the Adult Attachment Interview,” *Developmental Psychology* 43, no. 3 (2007): 590; Pehr Granqvist and Lee A. Kirkpatrick, “Religion, Spirituality, and Attachment,” in *APA Handbook for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Vol 1): Context, Theory, and Research*, ed. K. Pargament (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2013), 129–55; Rosalinda Cassibba, Pehr Granqvist, Alessandro Costantini, and Sergio Gatto, “Attachment and God Representations among Lay Catholics, Priests, and Religious: A Matched Comparison Study Based on the Adult Attachment Interview,” *Developmental Psychology* 44, no. 6 (2008): 1753. [^57]: De Roos, Iedema, and Miedema, “Influence of Maternal Denomination.” [^58]: Beata Zarzycka, “Parental Attachment Styles and Religious and Spiritual Struggle: A Mediating Effect of God Image,” *Journal of Family Issues* 40, no. 5 (2019): 575–93. [^59]: Leslie J. Francis, Harry M. Gibson, and Mandy Robbins, “God Images and Self-Worth among Adolescents in Scotland,” *Mental Health, Religion and Culture* 4, no. 2 (2001): 103–8; Peter Benson and Bernard Spilka, “God Image as a Function of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* (1973): 297–310. [^60]: Yaakov Greenwald, Mario Mikulincer, Pehr Granqvist, and Phillip R. Shaver, “Apostasy and Conversion: Attachment Orientations and Individual Differences in the Process of Religious Change,” *Psychology of Religion and Spirituality* 13, no. 4 (2021): 425. [^61]: We proceeded to validate our measure of God image and attachment using confirmatory factor analysis. From a large pool of items, the items with the highest factor loadings were retained to create our final measures. These analyses can be found in Appendix B. [^62]: Our God image and attachment survey was ninety questions long. Therefore, due to space considerations, parental questions were not included. Our future studies will inshaAllah investigate the parental component in more detail. [^63]: The survey was created in Qualtrics and data was collected between December 27, 2021 and April 2, 2022. Participants were solicited via emails to random members of Yaqeen’s North American listserv. [^64]: Our measure is not exhaustive and cannot fully capture God image. Future survey work intends to expand the dimensions of God image measured. [^65]: The seven items demonstrated good internal reliability (α **\=** .88). [^66]: David R. Cook, “Measuring Shame: The Internalized Shame Scale,” *Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly* 4, no. 2 (1988): 197–215. The three shame items demonstrated good internal reliability (α **\=** .88). [^67]: Michelle A. Harris, M. Brent Donnellan, and Kali H. Trzesniewski, “The Lifespan Self-Esteem Scale: Initial Validation of a New Measure of Global Self-Esteem,” *Journal of Personality Assessment* 100, no. 1 (2018): 84–95. The two self-esteem items demonstrated good internal reliability (α **\=** .88). [^68]: Tamer Desouky and Osman Umarji, “A Holistic View of Muslim Religiosity: Introducing BASIC,” *Yaqeen*, September 15, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369162325&usg=AOvVaw1EXdDdXmjvSSsGIA3zT08E). [^69]: The ten items demonstrated good internal reliability (α **\=** .80). [^70]: We first ran a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm (Ward’s method) to determine the best cluster solution. K-means clustering was subsequently performed to fine-tune cluster homogeneity by reassigning cases to the optimal cluster. [^71]: Our analysis sample initially included 257 people. There were 13 cases that were missing too much data, so these cases were dropped. We performed the nearest neighbor imputation on five people who were missing scores on one dimension of God image. We finally removed three outliers whose scores deviated substantially from the sample. The four cluster solution explained 60.4 percent of the variance in God image profiles. [^72]: A total God image score was taken by averaging together the four dimensions. Unfortunately, due to a mistake of not including religiosity measures in our initial sample, we only measured religiosity for 93 of our participants. Nonetheless, the correlations and t-tests were statistically significant (p<.05). [^73]: Our analysis sample included 236 people who completed attachment items. There were no outliers to remove. The five cluster solution explained 76.8 percent of the variance in God attachment profiles. [^74]: The God image survey captured people’s perceptions of Allah as “al-Shakur” (the Appreciative). We are noting, briefly, that people with an avoidant attachment tended to see Allah as not being very appreciative. Future research will discuss the impacts of perceiving Allah as appreciative (or not) in far more detail. [^75]: The ANOVA was significant for both self-concept struggles and religious doubts. [^76]: p<.001 [^77]: We say this based on the aggregate religiosity scores reported by the sample. To compare with the general Muslim public, we can look at frequency of prayer as just one dimension of religiosity. In our sample, 65 percent of people reported praying five times a day, whereas Pew Research in 2017 found that approximately 42 percent of Muslims reported praying five times a day. See [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/07/26/religious-beliefs-and-practices/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/07/26/religious-beliefs-and-practices/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1672340369165570&usg=AOvVaw17ssQakPMczqtblqvQvTwv). [^78]: Kirkpatrick, “God as a Substitute Attachment Figure”; Pehr Granqvist and Berit Hagekull, “Religiousness and Perceived Childhood Attachment: Profiling Socialized Correspondence and Emotional Compensation,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* (1999): 254–73. [^79]: “In no way have they estimated Allah in His true estimation.” This statement is found three times in the Qur’an regarding the various issues in which people misestimate Allah’s perfection. [^80]: Object relations theory in psychoanalytic psychology is the process of developing a psyche in relation to others in the childhood environment. [^81]: Qur’an 3:31. [^82]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 1936. [^83]: The 10th of Dhul Hijjah. [^84]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 6228. [^85]: *Sunan Abi Dawud*, no. 3641; *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi*, no. 2682. [^86]: Al-Zuhri, hadith 418. [^87]: Qādī ʿIyād, *Tartīb al-madārik wa taqrīb al-masālik* (Morocco: Maṭbaʿat Faḍālah, 1970), 1:130. [^88]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawḍat al-muhibbīn*. [^89]: The full statement mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyim was that Ibn Taymiyya said to his family, “I am for you in his place, and do not let there be an affair of yours in which you are in need of assistance except that I will assist you in it.” [^90]: Ibn Qayyim, *Madārij as-sālikīn* (Beirut: Dar al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 2003), 2:328. [^91]: Jacqueline D. Rasar, Fernando L. Garzon, Frederick Volk, Carmella A. O’Hare, and Glendon L. Moriarty, “The Efficacy of a Manualized Group Treatment Protocol for Changing God Image, Attachment to God, Religious Coping, and Love of God, Others, and Self,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 41, no. 4 (2013): 267–80. [^92]: Michael J. Thomas, Glendon L. Moriarty, Edward B. Davis, and Elizabeth L. Anderson, “The Effects of a Manualized Group-Psychotherapy Intervention on Client God Images and Attachment to God: A Pilot Study,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 39, no. 1 (2011): 44–58. [^93]: Mark A. Hubble, Barry L. Duncan, and Scott D. Miller, *The Heart and Soul of Change: What Works in Therapy* (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1999). [^94]: This is based on our own conceptual work and classical works in Islamic theology that refer to Allah’s names of beauty (*jamāl*) and names of majesty (*jalāl*). [^95]: This has been referred to as الأمن من مكر الله. This refers to a false state of security that Allah will never punish, thus leading one to engage in sins and not fear the consequences. [^96]: Qur’an 12:87. [^97]: Qur’an 7:99. ## Summary Allah—Exalted and Majestic—possesses absolute perfection in every conceivable respect. He is the Most Merciful (al-Raḥmān), the Compassionate (al-Raḥīm), the Loving (al-Wadūd), the Oft-Forgiving (al-Ghafūr), the Helper (al-Muʿīn), and the One in whom complete trust is placed (al-Wakīl). Yet we do not perceive His perfection directly, for He is both the Apparent (al-Ẓāhir) and the Immanent (al-Bāṭin), and as He declares, "Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives [all] vision." From this reality arise two fundamental questions each person must answer: how do I imagine Allah to be, since I cannot see Him? And what does Allah, who sees all that I do, think of me? The answers we give profoundly shape our relationship with Allah, our sense of self-worth, our religiosity, and our capacity to endure hardship. Cultivating a healthy and balanced image of Allah—one reflecting the harmony among all His attributes—is essential for sound spiritual development. People hold varied and sometimes distorted perceptions of the Divine. Some imagine Allah as a "cosmic cop," perpetually seeking faults, and thus relate to Him through distance, appeasement, and fearful conformance, reducing the Qur'an to a mere list of prohibitions. Others imagine Him as a kind of "magic genie" obliged to grant their wishes in return for obedience, and so grow resentful when, in His infinite wisdom, He withholds what they desire. Neither perception reflects the truth of who Allah is. There exists within each person's heart and mind a perception of Allah that some have termed a "God image." This does not refer to a physical likeness—which would be impossible—but to how one perceives and experiences His presence and attributes. This image forms from two sources. The first is a cognitive, propositional set of beliefs, such as "Allah is the Creator, Allah is One, Allah is All-Powerful," typically transmitted through parents, teachers, and theological instruction. The second is an affective, experiential perception, expressed in statements like "I feel Allah is near to me" or "I do not feel Allah's mercy in my life," which arises from personal experiences to which we attach spiritual meaning. Significantly, children learn about Allah not only through what their parents and educators explicitly say, but through how those figures interact with them. When belief and experience converge, a cohesive image results; when they diverge—as when a Muslim knows Allah's attributes intellectually yet struggles to feel them—a dissonance emerges that may lie at the root of many spiritual and psychological struggles. While Allah possesses a real and perfect set of attributes, human beings do not have unfiltered access to them; rather, we construct our image from received knowledge and lived experience, which places our understanding on a spectrum from accurate to gravely inaccurate. Allah captures the essence of an inaccurate image when He says, "In no way have they estimated Allah in His true estimation. Surely, Allah is Powerful and Mighty," making clear that He is more sublime and benevolent than people imagine. Such misestimations rest upon conjecture, for Allah says of the deviant, "They follow not except assumptions [about Allah] and what [their] souls desire," and describes the hypocrites as "those who assume about Allah an evil assumption." The psychological consequence of this appears in the account of Uḥud, where the doubters, described by Allah as "a faction worrying about themselves, thinking of Allah other than the truth—thoughts of ignorance," second-guessed the Prophet's ﷺ decision after the defeat. Likewise at the Battle of the Trench, when roughly three thousand Muslims faced nearly ten thousand confederates, the hypocrites cried, "Allah and His Messenger did not promise us except delusion," while the firm believers, seeing the identical sight, said, "This is [exactly] what Allah and His Messenger had promised us... and it increased them only in faith." Their diametrically opposed inner images of Allah produced their opposing emotional states. Allah invites us instead to hold good assumptions about Him (ḥusn al-ẓann bi'llāh), for the Prophet ﷺ related that Allah said, "I am as My servant expects of Me." A distorted image—stemming from incorrect beliefs, skewed experiential perceptions, or both—disturbs one's relationship with Allah and may lead to religious doubt, low self-worth, and mental distress. The need to bond with our Creator is woven into the fiṭra, our innate disposition, such that even the infant possesses a primordial awareness of Allah before any formal knowledge. Ibn Taymiyya observed that one's love for Allah intensifies according to the soundness of one's knowledge and fiṭra, and diminishes when the fiṭra is polluted with corrupting desires. The Prophet ﷺ said, "No child is born but that he is upon the innate disposition; then it is his parents who make him into a Jew, a Christian, or Magian," identifying parents as the primary worldly influence upon a child's religious development. This influence operates not only through explicit teaching but through the emotional bond of parenting itself. Attachment theory holds that the early bond formed with caregivers creates an internal working model—a relational blueprint. Where nurturing is consistent, a secure attachment develops, yielding a positive view of self and others; where it is inconsistent, rejecting, or frightening, insecure styles emerge—anxious (marked by fear of abandonment), avoidant (marked by fear of intimacy), or disorganized (combining both). Overparenting, too, may produce insecurity by stifling a child's autonomy. Researchers have suggested this internal working model shapes how a person initially imagines and attaches to Allah, though this image, being malleable, can indeed change. Children may also absorb their image of Allah through symbolic and vicarious learning, such as the loving words or warm expressions a parent displays when speaking of Him. While attachment theorists rooted in evolutionary thought argue that attachment merely serves survival, this claim lies beyond the reach of the scientific method, and it must be rejected. Rather, attachment to Allah is the very purpose of life—for the human being was created to lovingly attach to and worship Him—and secure attachment to caregivers serves as a means toward that end. In His wisdom, al-Wadūd delivers sustenance and love to the helpless child through the parents, who are rewarded for conveying it. When early attachments are insecure, a person may suffer a "parataxic distortion," reenacting feelings from the parent-child relationship in his relationship with Allah, so that one who perceived his parents as cruel and distant may imagine Allah likewise. Prior research on non-Muslims established links between parental God image and children's, between parental attachment and attachment to Allah, and between parenting practices and outcomes—finding, for instance, that mothers who imagined Allah as distant and strict parented more harshly and raised children who envisioned a punishing God, while distorted images were associated with religious doubt, lower self-worth, and, in one study of Orthodox Jews, with sudden conversion and apostasy. An empirical study of 241 Muslims across North America—a sample likely more religious than the general population—examined types of God image and attachment and their relation to struggle. Cluster analysis revealed four God-image profiles: highly benevolent (48.6%), slightly benevolent (25.7%), lukewarm and unconcerned (17.4%), and cruel (8.3%). Five attachment profiles emerged: secure (19.1%), slightly anxious (32.2%), avoidant (17.4%), disorganized (over 15%), and highly anxious (16.1%). Benevolent images correlated with higher religiosity (r=.42), while avoidant attachment correlated negatively with it (r=-.47). Total God-image score was negatively associated with religious struggles (r=-.68) and self-concept struggles (r=-.56): the more benevolent one's image, the fewer one's doubts and the greater one's self-worth. Notably, many with a positive image lacked a fully secure attachment, suggesting attachment to Allah may need reconceptualizing apart from classical theory; a slightly anxious attachment was not necessarily debilitating, provided a sufficiently positive image of Allah compensated for a self-deprecating self-concept. There remains great hope that adults may rehabilitate a distorted image, and prior research shows that those insecurely attached to parents can find a compensatory secure attachment with Allah, forming a new relational blueprint. A recommended means is righteous companionship (ṣuḥba). The Prophet ﷺ was sent to a people with a severely distorted image of Allah and, through his intimate bond with his followers, reformed it, teaching both in belief and in relational experience—for Allah says, "Say... 'If you love Allah, then follow me, and Allah will love you and forgive your sins.'" This gentleness appears in the report of the man who broke his fast through intimacy with his wife and, unable to expiate, was given a basket of dates by the Prophet ﷺ, who smiled until his molars showed and told him to feed his family; and in the incident on the Day of an-Naḥr when he gently turned away the face of al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbbās from a woman he was gazing upon—modeling the qualities of as-Ṣabūr and al-Laṭīf. Since the Prophet ﷺ is no longer among us, the scholars, whom he called "the heirs of the Prophets," inheriting knowledge rather than dinar or dirham, carry this task. Imam Mālik's mother told him, "Go to Shaykh Rabīʿah and learn from his manners before his knowledge," and Ibn al-Qayyim recounted learning of Allah's aid (al-Muʿīn) through Ibn Taymiyya's rushing to serve people, and his mercy through Ibn Taymiyya offering condolences and duʿāʾ for a deceased adversary. Parents and religious educators likewise hold great power to shape a child's image of Allah, and must attend to distortions in both belief and feeling, for rehabilitation grounded only in intellectual dialogue will likely fail. Proper tarbiya—a word sharing its root with Rabb—nurtures both intellect and emotion, and just as the quality of the relationship is the greatest predictor of success in therapy, so too the educator must "connect before you correct." A complete image of Allah spans four domains—Beauty, Majesty, Lordship, and Essence—and though this study focused chiefly on Beauty and Lordship, a balanced image guards the believer from both despair of Allah's mercy and false security from His punishment, for the true believer neither despairs of His mercy nor feels immune to the consequences of sin. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/celebrating-the-holidays-as-a-muslim-convert # Celebrating the Holidays as a Muslim Convert **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Blog, Jesus in Islam **Published:** December 28, 2022 **Updated:** December 23, 2025 The Christmas holidays were the most important time of year for my family (the Browns and the Pattersons). It was the only time of year when we would see our grandparents, aunts, and uncle, first at my grandparents’ homes in Connecticut and then, after they passed away, in our home in suburban Washington DC. It was a time of fun, collective cooking, movie watching at home, and lots of eating. My family was not religious, but Christmas was still very culturally loaded. My mother’s family had lived in England for many years, so Christmas had a Dickensian feel: an ornately decorated tree, King’s College choir music always playing, and plenty of fires in the hearth. My sisters and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, whether as young children, teenagers, or adults. We were the only grandkids in our extended family (which would be diagrammed best as an inverted tree), so we were always lavished with attention—and gifts. During the economic boom of the late ‘90s, the pile of gifts under our tree could verge on the alpine. The days between Christmas and New Year would also be the time when we would visit or receive visits from family friends in the area, whose children were usually home for the holidays. > I became Muslim when I was 19, at the beginning of my sophomore year of college. My family oscillated between being understanding and supportive, so I never had cause to complain about how they treated me. During that season of encounter with and the intense affirmation of ‘vertical identity’ (i.e., family and its extensions), there were certainly moments in which I felt intense crisis about who I was and where I belonged. I remember once sitting in near darkness on the couch at my mother's office at home, crying intensely for a few seconds, asking myself in a voice nearly audible where I belonged. But it’s hard for me now, looking back, to know how much of this was because I was Muslim in a non-Muslim family, and how much of it was just the normal early-adulthood formation of one’s identity as distinct from one’s parents. I did not worry too much about the religious implications of Christmas, since I was by leagues the most religious person in my family. No gestures were made to commemorate the birth of Christ or even acknowledge any secular, sitcom ‘spirit of Christmas’ treacle. In fact, my mother’s very pleasant habit of putting Handel’s *Messiah* on repeat during those days of the year afforded me a chance to hear key selections of the Bible sung over and over. I would often ponder which verses I, as a Muslim, could celebrate and/or what interpretations would be required for me to do so. > Looking back across the chasm of a decade, I see that Christmas was the time I was at my most deferential. I think that, whether I was conscious of it or not, I so wanted to reassure my family that I was not so different as to deserve their rejection. I hid my Islam as deeply as possible without quaffing glasses of sherry. Even when one militantly atheist relative gave me a Richard Dawkins book for Christmas, I recall responding with embarrassing submissiveness. I wonder what would have happened if I’d manifested my Muslim identity more prominently during my twenties. I doubt I had the strength to do so, even if I’d wanted to. The chance to experiment was snatched away by the Most High. The collision of my Islam and my ‘vertical identity’ really only came when I got married at 32. This was not because of anything my wife did or was. But the manifestation of my Islam as something outside of the invisible container of my own thoughts and meager principles caused tension. For the first time, my Islam was outside of me. It was a relationship and a person, even if that person was admired and happily accepted. When our first child was born, my father asked when we would baptize him. That this had not been asked of anyone else, my being the sole non-(cultural)-Christian in the family, but also the only religious person at all, did not seem to matter. But my wife and I never had the chance to celebrate those Brown-Patterson Christmas traditions. Just a few months after our wedding, my mother died. She was the axis of our family and our home, and without her, individuals spun outward. I can’t remember what and how we celebrated in the wake of her death, as all was loss and shadow. My sisters both married around that time, and there were then other families to celebrate Christmas with, with their own traditions. Our family home was sold, and those settings and traditions that had been the constants of my life were all gone. What insights or benefits can these recollections offer? My life has never (thank God) been dramatic or particularly worthy of voyeuristic interest. Mine was a youth of comfort and plenty, of loving family and admirable friends. I was never persecuted or mistreated. What pain I felt as a convert was nothing compared to what others have gone through and likely had more to do with my delicateness and unassertiveness. > What I could extrapolate is that, as with our prayer (*salat*), one is not fully Muslim in private or in the closeted off garret of one’s own mind. To be Muslim, one really must be Muslim with others. That might bring the tensions that always accompany making the private public, but we are lost—or, better phrased, never really found—if alone. As the famous poet al-Mutanabbi wrote: > صحب الناس قبلنا ذا الزمان    وعناهم من شأنه ما عنانا Those who came before us knew the challenges of time, They were concerned with what concerns us too. [Click here](https://t.me/+g-T0k2pgIaU1NjEx) to join our community of new Muslims. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/who-is-jesus-in-islam # Who is Jesus in Islam? **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Faith, Prophets **Tags:** Blog, Jesus in Islam **Published:** December 22, 2022 **Updated:** December 2, 2025 Jesus (peace be upon him) has a special status in Islam. He’s the servant of God and the bearer of the Gospels. Jesus is one of the 5 greatest messengers sent to man, and God mentioned him specifically 25 times in the Qur’an. God encouraged Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to take inspiration from Jesus as he, too, was persecuted for his faith. His admirable virtues are universal guidelines for all people to learn from and practice. So who is Jesus in Islam? Here are 8 things to know: --- ## 1\. He comes from a lineage of prophets. Even before birth, Jesus (pbuh) was destined for greatness. He came from a long line of prophets (including Jacob, David, and Solomon) and a family of priesthood. He was the son of Mary, who was the daughter of Imran. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, > “The best of women was Mary.” Her righteousness, chastity, and faith make her a role model for all believers. [Because of her mother’s prayer,](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/lobna-mulla/ep-2-keeping-a-promise-to-allah-the-mother-of-maryam-upheld-by-allah-women-in-the-quran) Mary—and later, Jesus—were uniquely protected from Satan, untouched by him at birth. --- ## 2\. His birth was miraculous. Jesus’ birth from a mother who had never been unchaste was a sign of God’s greatness. Even his birth was a mercy. God said, > “It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us” > > \[Qur’an, 19:21\]. God sent the angel Gabriel with a message to Mary (peace be upon her) as she painfully gave birth, > “Do not be sad… eat, drink and be comforted” > > \[Qur’an, 19:23-26\]. And when Jesus was born, he spoke from the cradle, > “Verily, I am the servant of God. He has given me the book and made me a prophet” > > \[Qur’an, 19:29-33\]. --- ## 3\. He is the Messiah. “Messiah” comes from a word that literally means “to wipe” or “the anointed one.” Classical Muslim commentators derived many characteristics to explain this role of Jesus. Being a Messiah meant he was sinless, blessed, a healer, a worker of miracles, and an heir to the kingdom and prophetic lineage of David (pbuh). As the Messiah, he is the king, dignified in both this world and the next. --- ## 4\. He is the Word from God. Jesus is called “The Word” for a few reasons. The word of God was delivered through him. Like Adam (pbuh), Jesus was created without a father by the word of God: “Be.” He came into being as a result of God’s command. --- ## 5\. He is the Spirit from God. Jesus is also called “The Spirit.” God ‘blew’ His spirit into Jesus, just as He did for Adam. Therefore, Jesus was a spirit created by God and is under the ownership of God, but does not share in the essence of God. --- ## 6\. He is the bearer of miracles. The Holy Spirit (*Ruh al-Qudus*) is the angel Gabriel (pbuh). Through him, God enabled Jesus to perform many miracles, including speaking from the cradle as a baby, receiving the revelation of the Torah and the Gospel, bringing life to a bird formed of clay, healing the blind, the deaf, and the sick, bringing the dead back to life, and knowing what people revealed and concealed. These miracles were given to a believing people to inspire faith and as signs so that they may be reassured that the message of Jesus was true. --- ## 7\. He is the servant of God and the bearer of the Gospels. Like all other prophets before and after him, Jesus preached monotheism: that God is One. > “Jesus said, ‘Verily, God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him; that is the straight path’” > > \[Qur’an, 3:51\]. He was known for his wise sayings. He said, > “Blessed is he whose speech is the remembrance of God, whose silence is reflection, and whose observation is a lesson; who controls his tongue, whose house is sufficient, who weeps for his sins, and from whose evil the people are safe.” On the Day of Judgment, God will have a conversation with Jesus about the message he preached on Earth. The Qur’an narrates a portion of this conversation: > “God will say, ‘O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?’ He will say, ‘Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen’” > > \[Qur’an, 5:116\]. --- ## 8\. He will restore justice on Earth. Although Muslim scholars have different theories of what exactly happened to Jesus (pbuh) in his final moments on Earth, they agree that he was not crucified. Rather, it was only made to appear that he was crucified, but God raised him, alive, into Heaven, where he resides to this day. When the time comes, he will return to Earth to defeat the Antichrist (the false Messiah, also known as the Dajjal) and will call people to the truth and oneness of God. He will revive peace and justice, live as the leader of believers, get married, and remain on Earth for another seven years. After restoring peace on Earth by the permission of God, Jesus (pbuh) will die naturally and be prayed for [](#cmnt1)and buried. --- ## So who is Jesus? Jesus (peace be upon him) is a highly revered and unique messenger whom God sent to the world to guide mankind. Like all other prophets, he preached the oneness of God and called for mercy and justice. Want to learn more about Jesus and Islam? Read **[Jesus: A Foundation for Dialogue Between Muslims and Christians](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/jesus-a-foundation-for-dialogue-between-muslims-and-christians)** by Justin Parrott. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-the-quran-was-preserved-during-the-prophets-time-mechanisms-of-oral-and-written-transmission # How the Qur'an Was Preserved During the Prophet's ﷺ Time: Mechanisms of Oral and Written Transmission **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 5, 2022 **Updated:** January 10, 2026 ## Introduction Compared to all other scriptures, the Qur’an is the best preserved in both the hearts of Muslims and the written copies of the codex (*muṣḥaf*)—a manifestation of Allah’s promise to protect Divine revelation from distortion: > Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its Guardian.[^1] Allah’s final revelation to humanity has many names, chief among them the “Qur’an” and the “Book” (*kitāb*). The word Qur’an is etymologically related to the word for “recitation,” reflecting how the Divine word is recited by the tongue, while *kitāb* reflects how it is transcribed in writing. Allah Himself bestowing these names upon His speech indicates that it must be preserved through both oral and written methods. These methods are integral to the technical definition of the Qur’an as Allah’s speech, authentically reported from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in conformity with the written (ʿUthmānic) codex.[^2] Scholarship on the written compilation of the Qur’an typically focuses on the period after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. Special attention tends to be paid to Caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān’s final compilation, which standardized the criteria for what is Qur’an and what is not. This article, however, focuses on the preservation of the Qur’an, orally and textually during the time of its first recipient and conveyor, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. What follows serves as a sequel to three other articles on the preservation of the Qur’anic text and its readings (*qirā*ʾ*āt*).[^3] This article will examine the various ways the Prophet ﷺ and his companions disseminated the Qur’an within an oral culture and how the Prophet ﷺ organized, since the earliest days of his message, the transcription of the text in a widely unlettered culture. Hence, the article is divided into two main sections: the (1) oral and (2) written transmission of the Qur’an during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. While it acknowledges much of the modern English literature on the history of the Qur’an and draws on contemporary works of Arab-Muslim Qur’an scholars, this article primarily employs traditional arguments from the primary sources of Islamic literature. The first part of this article, on the oral transmission of the Qur’an, describes: (I) how the Prophet ﷺ fulfilled his obligation of conveying Allah’s message in full to this *ummah*; (II) sixteen Prophetic methods of disseminating the Qur’an across the community; (III) the early use of the term ‘reciters’ (*qurrāʾ*) and the number of *ḥuffāẓ* among the Prophet’s companions; (IV) the first generation (*ṭabaqah*) of expert *qurrāʾ* who learned the Qur’an directly from the Prophet ﷺ, taught it to others, and are links in the chains of transmission (*isnād*) of the canonical *qirāʾāt*; and (V) the second *ṭabaqah* of expert *qurrāʾ* who learned from the first and who are links in the *isnād* of the canonical *[qirāʾāt](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat)*. The second part of this article, on the written transmission of the Qur’an, covers  (I) the literature on the Prophet’s scribes and the writing of the Qur’an; (II) the Qur’an’s scribes in the Meccan period; (III) the Qur’an’s scribes in the Medinan period; (IV) the instant documentation of Qur’an upon its revelation; (V) the review of written copies of the Qur’an; and (VI) the companions’ familiarity with and knowledge of orthography; (VII) the ordering of verses and the arrangement of the written and recited Qur’an. --- ## Critical background: Early preservation of the Qur’an and Western scholarship Orientalist scholars and later Western revisionists have advanced two main critiques of the authenticity of the Qur’anic text. The first is that only a few of the Prophet’s ﷺ companions were able to memorize the entirety of the text by heart, assuming that he ﷺ never forgot any parts of the Qur’an before conveying them to others. Theodore Nöldeke (d. 1930), and his student and friend Friedrich Schwally (d. 1919), claimed that “\[d\]uring the first years of his \[the Prophet’s\] divine commission, when he hardly had any followers, he might have forgotten some of the revelations before outsiders learned of them.”[^4] Despite acknowledging that some companions, known as the “collectors” or “memorizers” of the Qur’an, “memorized considerable sections that they could repeat correctly,”[^5] Nöldeke and  Schwally conclude that “it remains uncertain whether the individual ‘collectors’ really had memorized the entire revelation or only fairly large portions.”[^6] Such claims—that too few of the first Muslims memorized the Qur’an to guarantee its complete preservation—typically derive their support from: 1) philological interpretations of traditional terms describing “collectors” of the Qur’an, 2) divergent methodological approaches to authenticating historical reports, and 3) seemingly contradictory narrations about the number of memorizers, concession of *aḥruf*, abrogated verses, and final review of the Qur’an between the Prophet ﷺ and Jibrīl. However, the incentives to memorize and orally preserve the Qur’an far outweighed the incentive to memorize pre-Islamic poetry, which was itself preserved in a highly accurate manner. The first part of this article, tracing these incentives and their associated transmission practices, will explore the oral reception of the Qur’an by the companions who committed its entirety to memory. The second critique posits that the centrality of orality to Arab culture (and therefore the widespread illiteracy and limited textual documentation),[^7] as well as the dearth of extant Qur’anic writings dating to the early days of Islam, undermines our certainty that the Qur’an was written down during the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Despite conceding that the Prophet ﷺ sought to “establish a new document of revelation as well as its written fixation,” Nöldeke and Schwally asserted the lack of reliable data regarding “the particulars of procedure and the preservation and arrangement of the material.”[^8] Hence, they conclude that “it is doubtful that Muḥammad put down in writing all the revelations of the divine book from the start.”[^9] The plausibility of Qur’anic documentation during the time of the Prophet ﷺ was argued by such Western scholars as Carl Brockelmann (d. 1956) in his notable *History of the Arabic Written Tradition*.[^10] However, attempts to devalue the authenticity or question the accuracy of such accounts kept recurring. Régis Blachére (d. 1973) claimed that Qur’anic verses were recorded only after the Prophet’s move to Medina, with writing limited to “important passages” as determined by the personal preferences of the companions and availability of writing materials.[^11] Furthermore, attributing confusion to reports from the companions regarding the transcription of the Qur’an, John Burton (d. 2005) rushed to conclude “the failure of Muhammad to collect and edit the texts; and the suggestion of the incompleteness, potential or actual which might have been expected to follow.”[^12] It is implausible to deny that at least parts of the Qur’an were documented in written form during the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Nonetheless, as shown later in this article, the debate regarding whether the entire text was written down in his lifetime exists among some Muslim and most non-Muslim scholars. In describing the collection process of the Qur’anic text, the companions always referenced several materials, such as palm stalks and thin white stones that had verses written on them. The lack of empirical evidence or clear indications that those materials collectively encompassed the entirety of the text does not negate that possibility. Such a possibility, in addition to other facts discussed below, prompted authoritative Muslim figures on the topic, such as Makkī ibn Abī Tālib (d. 437/1045), ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660/1262), Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449), al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) and al-Qasṭalānī (d. 923/1517), as well as many modern Muslim scholars, to argue that the entirety of the Qur’an was written down during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. The influential scholarship of Nöldeke and Schwally inspired subsequent generations of academics who contributed plenty of works on the history of the Qur’an. Those academics include Gotthelf Bergssträsser (d. 1933), who adopted a semitic languages approach; Otto Pretzl (d. 1941), who focused on *qirā*ʾ*āt*; John Wansbrough (d. 2002), who founded the revisionist approach; and John Burton, who questioned the evolution of the text in relation to the law. The cumulative works of these academics still dominate Western academic scholarship and educational curricula today. Their enduring influence is reflected in Burton’s statement that since the publication of *Geschichte des Qorans* by Nöldeke and its revised edition by Schwally, “no new suggestions on the history of the Quran texts have been advanced.”[^13] The overall critique of the oral and written history of the Qur’an extends beyond the time of the Prophet ﷺ to all stages of its compilation by his successors. Oddly, there is a clear insistence on depicting the traditional Islamic narrative as confused, inconsistent, and contradictory. Such scholarship continues to adopt an accusatory tone, as represented in Claude Gilliot’s remark below: > …because the misadventures detailed about the transmission and codification of the Quran—as both orally delivered and transmitted in writing—are so great, the ancient Muslim narratives on these subjects offer no real clarity about what “ʿUthmānic codex” means. Secondly, even if Muslims believe that the Quran we have now is the “ʿUthmānic codex,” our analysis of Muslim narratives on the matter does not leave us with the same certainty.[^14] In a recurrent allegation that early Muslims themselves were confused,[^15] Burton finally concludes that the collection process of the Qur’an was a “product of a lengthy process of evolution, accretion, and ‘improvement.’”[^16] In *The History of the Qurʾanic Text*, Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī begins by tracing a clear pattern of misplaced arguments or preconceived notions among modern critics of the Qur’an’s authenticity.[^17] Another prominent contemporary engagement with oriental and Western critiques of the Qur’an, extending far beyond historiographical criticism, is the late Egyptian philosopher ʿAbdel Raḥmān Badawī’s (d. 2002) *Défense de la vie du Prophète Muhammad contre ses Détracteurs*.[^18]  This French work was later translated into Arabic.[^19] Throughout its 13 chapters, Badawī systematically dismantles various critiques of the Qur’an advanced between the 9th and 20th centuries. Most relevant to the scope of this article, Badawī dedicated the 10th chapter to discussing the chronological order of the Qur’an.[^20] Contrasting the traditional Islamic arrangement of the Meccan and Medinan chapters (*sūrah*s) to five late attempts by 19th and 20th centuries orientalists, Badawī concludes that the Qur’an in its entirety was arranged in written form during the lifetime of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^21] Besides ongoing research on late antiquity and paleography, there seems to be a persistent neglect of traditional Islamic scholarship on such matters and inadequate analysis of its interpretations. The epistemic disparities between oriental or revisionist methodologies and those of Muslim scholars are often apparent, especially with regard to the authentication of historical facts or assessment of the certainty-value of Qur’anic transmission. Moreover, Muslim traditionalists of the past and the present are often accused of spiritual bias and theological commitment to the Qur’an’s preservation as the word of God—accusations that dismiss rigorous contributions to the topic made by a multitude of Muslim scholars. While this article is not primarily concerned with engaging such individual critiques, many of them will be addressed as it lays down the history, and analyzes the methods, of both the oral and written transmission of the Qur’an. --- ## Part I: The oral transmission of the Qur’an during the time of the Prophet ﷺ Oral transmission has been the primary method of preserving the Qur’anic text, prompted by many prophetic hadiths and accounts from early Muslim generations promising the ultimate reward for the bearers of the Qur’an. For example, the Prophet ﷺ was reported to have said , “If the Qur’an was \[written\] on a skin, then it \[the skin\] was thrown into the fire, it would not be burnt.”[^22] Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (d. 224/838), commenting on this hadith, said that the “skin” allegorically denotes the believer’s heart that encompasses the Qur’an.[^23] Hence, al-Aṣmaʿī (d. 216/831) and other scholars deduced that memorizing the Qur’an protects a person from Hellfire.[^24] Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889) narrated that the Prophet’s companion Abū Amāmah said, “Memorize the Qur’an, or recite the Qur’an, and do not be deluded by these codices (*maṣāḥif*). Indeed, Allah does not torment a heart that encompasses the Qur’an with the Hellfire.” Ibn Qutaybah added, “The body is a locus of the Qur’an exactly like the skin.”[^25] Even after ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān transcribed the Qur’an in a compiled codex, reciters from the companions, in their respective regions, continued to teach Muslims the Qur’an as they learned it from the Prophet ﷺ and in conformity with the written text of the newly officialized ʿUthmānic codex.[^26] Various disciplines—including the history of the Prophet’s life (*sīrah*), hadith, and Qur’anic sciences (*ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*)—analyze the concept of revelation (*waḥy*) and its methods, settings, and circumstances in an extensive examination of the 23 years of the Prophet’s life of revelation. The Prophet’s reception (*talaqqī*) of the Qur’an was through directly listening to Jibrīl’s recitation or immediately receiving *waḥy* in his heart. Derivations of *talaqqī* are used in the Qur’an such as “And indeed, \[O Muhammad\], you receive the Qur’an from one Wise and Knowing,”[^27] and “And you were not expecting that the Book would be conveyed to you, but \[it is\] a mercy from your Lord. So do not be an assistant to the disbelievers.”[^28] *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* dedicated topics and sub-disciplines to the different methods of *waḥy* and *talaqqī*.[^29] Before showcasing the several methods through which the Prophet ﷺ taught his companions the Qur’an, a portrayal of his human capacity to bear the Divine responsibility for conveying Allah’s message is warranted. ### The Prophetic responsibility to convey the Divine Message When the first piece of revelation was sent down to the Prophet ﷺ, he realized his challenging mission to preserve Allah’s message, the Qur’an. Even though Allah promised to preserve it, the Prophet ﷺ was keen to retain and convey every letter of the Qur’an and was constantly concerned about his capacity to memorize it. Allah related this concern of the Prophet ﷺ in the Qur’an itself (75:16-19) and reassured him that the text—and even its meanings—would be preserved.[^30] In relating the situation, Ibn ʿAbbās noted that when the revelation came to the Prophet ﷺ, he would suffer a great deal of hardship and move his lips out of concern for its retention. > Allah said: “Move not your tongue concerning to make haste therewith. It is for Us to collect it and to give you the ability to recite it.” Ibn ʿAbbās said: \[This means\] He will gather it in your heart, then you will recite it. “And when We have recited it to you, then follow the recitation.” Ibn ʿAbbās said: \[This means\] So listen to it and remain silent. So when Jibrīl came to him, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ listened, and when he left, he would recite it as he had taught him.[^31] As human beings are forgetful by nature, Divine intervention was required: “We will make you recite and you will not forget except what Allah wills.”[^32] In commenting on this verse, al-Rāzī (d. 605/1210) said that it establishes the miracle of the Qur’an in two ways. First, the Prophet’s ﷺ memorization of this long text, despite his being unlettered and without his engaging in prolonged study of it, is miraculous. Second, the *sūrah* in which the verse is mentioned is Meccan, yet it provided future prophecies that were later fulfilled.[^33] But did the Prophet ﷺ ever forget something from the Qur’an? As a human, forgetfulness was possible for him ﷺ, but only in a circumstantial manner that would not compromise his memorization of the Qur’an. It was reported that he ﷺ heard a man reciting the Qur’an at night and said, “May Allah bestow His Mercy on him as he has reminded me of such-and-such verses of such-and-such *sūrah*s which I was caused to forget.”[^34] Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿilī (d. 370/981) said, > Forgetting parts of the Qur’an by the Prophet ﷺ is of two types. One of them is forgetting something which he soon remembers. This type is related to his human nature and is indicated in his saying, “Verily I am a human being like you. I forget just as you forget.” The second \[type\] is Allah lifting that part from his heart to abrogate its recitation. This \[type\] is the meaning of the exception in “We will make you recite and you will not forget except what Allah wills.” > As for the first type, it is circumstantial and is gone quickly according to the evident meaning of, “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.’ As for the second \[type\], it is included in Allah’s saying, “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth \[one\] better than it or similar to it.”[^35] After quoting al-Ismāʿilī, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī added another categorization of the Prophet’s forgetfulness based on the nature of the thing being forgotten. It is categorically possible if it is unrelated to his duty of conveying Allah’s message. If what is forgotten is related to the conveyance of the message, forgetfulness may occur but under two conditions: 1) that he forgets something after he conveyed it; and 2) that he remembers it afterwards whether by himself or by someone else reminding him.[^36] As for the time before his conveyance of a particular revelation, it is not possible for the Prophet ﷺ to forget it.[^37] The Qur’an contains explicit censure of the Prophet ﷺ himself on multiple occasions, most notably in ensuring his full delivery of the message: “Announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message.”[^38] Establishing the theological understanding of prophethood, the necessary qualities of a prophet (such as truthfulness, honesty, conveyance of the message, and intelligence), and revelation are prerequisites for understanding and appreciating the undeniable preservation of the Qur’anic text. If Muhammad ﷺ was the true messenger of God, he must have been trusted and supported by Him to convey the entirety of the message. The Qur’an is truthful, not only due to its alignment with earlier prophecies but also the integrity of the one who conveyed it. Nonetheless, is it empirically verifiable that the Prophet ﷺ memorized and delivered the entirety of the Qur’an to his companions? According to many scholars, the entire Qur’an initially descended (*al-nuzūl al-jumlī*) to the nearest heaven in the Night of Power (*laylat al-qadr*) before it descended in intervals upon the Prophet (*al-nuzūl al-tafṣīlī*) over 23 Hijri years.[^39] Despite God’s promise to preserve the Prophet’s memorization, the Prophet ﷺ did not merely rely on a miraculous implantation of the Qur’an in his heart. Rather, he used to constantly recite it and review the revelation with Jibrīl every Ramadan.[^40] The annual review sessions were likely dedicated to what had been revealed that year,[^41] to refresh the Prophet’s knowledge of the Qur’an and eliminate abrogated verses.[^42] Moreover, during the last year of his life, the Prophet ﷺ reviewed the Qur’an, likely in its entirety, with Jibrīl twice. The descriptions of these sessions indicate an interactive setting where one read while the other listened, and then they alternated. Potentially, then, the Prophet ﷺ reviewed it twice every year and four times in his last year.[^43] The Prophet’s ﷺ reading to Jibrīl is the foundational authority for the primary method of Qur’anic learning and transmission, oral delivery.[^44] Part of the wisdom behind revealing the Qur’an in intervals was to ease its memorization for the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^45] When the disbelievers criticized the Qur’an for not being revealed all at once, Allah explained the reason: “That We may strengthen thereby your heart. And We have spaced it distinctly.”[^46] There are two possible exegetical interpretations of the phrase “We may strengthen your heart”: either (i) to keep strengthening your heart in an ongoing fashion, and/or (ii) to ensure you memorize it so that your heart may remain calm.[^47] Since memorization is dependent on human effort and humans are liable to be forgetful, the Prophet’s memorization was a special gift from God, independent of effort and immune to circumstantial forgetting.[^48] As the primary recipient of revelation, there was no possible way for human retention of the Qur’an except through the only human entrusted with its reception and delivery. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ was Divinely commanded to convey the Qur’an by reciting it to people. Throughout the Qur’an, Allah frequently commanded the Prophet ﷺ to “recite” it to others: > And *recite* to them,[^49] > Say, “Come, I will *recite* to you what your Lord has prohibited to you,”[^50] > Thus have We sent you to a community before which other communities have passed on so you might *recite* to them that which We revealed to you,[^51] > And it is a Qur'an which We have separated by intervals that you might *recite* it to the people over a prolonged period,[^52] > Say, “I have only been commanded to worship the Lord of this city, who made it sacred and to whom all things belong. And I am commanded to be of the Muslims. And \[I have been commanded\] to *recite* the Qur’an*.*”[^53] Other verses commanded the Prophet ﷺ to recite without explicitly mentioning to whom: “*Recite* that which was revealed to you*.*”[^54] In addition to these commands, multiple verses attributed the duty of reciting the Qur’an to the Prophet ﷺ in a declarative, instead of an imperative, sense: “Just as We have sent among you a messenger from yourselves *reciting* to you Our verses.”[^55] Conveying the Qur’an through recitation subsumes certain contextual premises. First, the Prophet ﷺ did not read or write, nor did the majority of the initial recipients of his message. Therefore oral delivery, via accurate articulation and commitment to memory, served as the primary method of transmission. Second, the Prophet ﷺ encouraged written documentation and appointed official scribes. However, he maintained verbal delivery as the principal method even after much of the Qur’an had been written down.[^56] ### Prophetic methods of teaching the Qur’an The Prophet taught the Qur’an in two ways: 1) *iqrā*ʾ: he recited it to a companion, who then recited the same part back in the same manner, and 2) *ʿarḍ*: the companion recited to the Prophet ﷺ what they previously learned from him to verify, review, and correct their recitation. *ʿArḍ* has historically been the primary method of transmitting Qur’an. Although it is a shared method with other disciplines such as hadith transmission, the *ʿarḍ* of the Qur’an required unique conditions: 1. It must be from memory. Unlike the *ʿarḍ* of hadith, which does not stipulate memorization, the *ʿarḍ* of the Qur’an is from memory since its first teacher, the Prophet ﷺ, did not read nor write but only taught it via oral communication. We do not know of  any companion who read to the Prophet ﷺ from a written copy of the Qur’an. Even if that were to have happened, the written copy would have only been used to render exact the oral articulation of the text.     2. It must be recited to another person (e.g., an instructor). Reading alone, for instance, does not qualify as *ʿarḍ*, even by the literal meaning of the term.[^57]  3. It must follow general and specific rules of accuracy (*ḍabṭ*). General *ḍabṭ* involves precise pronunciation of the recited passage. Specific *ḍabṭ* involves pronouncing the recitation according to a specific reading style. The former is concerned with the delivery of the text, while the latter is focused on articulating certain renditions, providing a unique style of Qur’anic education.[^58] The companions would stress the significance of a particular act of worship by comparing how the Prophet ﷺ taught it to how he taught the Qur’an. For instance, the Prophet ﷺ taught his companions to recite a prayer (*duʿāʾ*) against the Hellfire and otherworldly and afterlife trials “in the same way that he would teach them a *sūrah* of the Qur'an,”[^59] just as he taught them the prayer for guidance (*istikhārah*) “as he would teach them a *sūrah* of the Qur’an.”[^60] Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ taught them how to recite the prayer of *tashahhud*[^61] “as he would teach them a *sūrah* of the Qur’an.”[^62] The *tashahhud* was reported by tens of companions who were constantly teaching it to people with minor variations, all equally valid. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was reported to have taught it to people on the pulpit (*minbar*).[^63] Consequently, jurists extensively discussed the exact words of the *tashahhud,* investigating every single word and phrase. The early community’s care for transmitting and preserving the Qur’an was no less exacting. The *sīrah* and hadith literature illustrate how the Prophet ﷺ applied the two methods of *iqrā*ʾ and *ʿarḍ* in his pursuit of every opportunity to teach the Qur’an to his companions. In the contemporary book *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī min rasūl Allāh ilā ummatih*, Muḥammad Jabal cataloged 14 different Prophetic styles of Qur’anic teaching spanning diverse settings and situations. The following section incorporates Jabal’s list and complements it with additional data derived from several interdisciplinary works. #### 1 - Reciting to companions upon revelation Multiple hadiths relate scenarios where the Prophet ﷺ instantly conveyed the Qur’an to his companions as it was being revealed. As an individual companion witnessing the revelation descending upon the Prophet ﷺ, Zayd bin Thābit described the Prophet’s instant recitation of, and his command to write, the verse, “Not equal are those believers who sit \[at home\] and those who strive in the way of Allah.”[^64] Other hadiths document the Prophet’s recitation of verses or chapters, such as the *sūrah*s of al-​​Ṣaff, al-Jumuʿah, al-Mursalāt, and al-Kawthar, upon their revelation to groups of companions. ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām narrated, “A group of us Companions of the Messenger of Allah sat talking, and we said: ‘If we knew which deed was most beloved to Allah then we would do it.’ So Allah, Most High, revealed Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth exalts Allah, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do?” \[*sūrah* of al-Ṣaff\]. After narrating the story, the narrator, ibn Salām, recited the whole *sūrah* and said, “The Prophet ﷺ recited the \[whole\] *sūrah* to us until he completed it.”[^65] Abū Hurayrah described how he asked the Prophet ﷺ about some of the meanings of al-Jumuʿah immediately following its revelation and recitation by the Prophet ﷺ to a group of companions.[^66] Regarding the revelation of al-Mursalāt, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd reported that, “While we \[a group of the Prophet’s companions\] were in the company of the Prophet ﷺ in a cave at Minā, Sūrah al-Mursalāt was revealed and he recited it, and I heard it directly from his mouth as soon as he recited it.”[^67] After taking a nap one day while among his companions, the Prophet ﷺ suddenly raised his head, smiling. Upon being asked about the reason for his smile, the Prophet ﷺ  stated, “Just now this *sūrah* was revealed to me,” and recited Sūrah al-Kawthar to them.[^68] In these ways, the companions were able to witness the Qur’an’s revelation firsthand, receive it through direct recital delivery, and instantly interact with the Divine message as it was revealed. #### 2 - Reciting to those he was inviting to Islam One of the *daʿwah* approaches that the Prophet ﷺ used to unlock people’s hearts, such as Abū Bakr’s, was to recite Qur’an to them. The Qur’an’s inimitable eloquence profoundly affected the Arabs, whose mastery of eloquence caused them to submit to its unprecedented style and transcendent nature. As one of the first people to embrace Islam, Abū Bakr invited five of his counterparts to meet the Prophet ﷺ and listen to the Qur’an: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh. Intriguingly, all five not only became Muslims but also were among the ten promised Paradise (*jannah*). The Prophet ﷺ also recited Qur’an upon inviting Asʿad ibn Zurārah, Dhakwān ibn ʿAbd Qays, Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr al-Dūsī, Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, Khuwaylid ibn ʿĀmir, as well as the six Medinan supporters (*anṣār*) who met him in Mecca prior to the first pledge of al-ʿAqabah.[^69] #### 3 - Teaching those who came to embrace Islam The Prophet ﷺ taught Sūrah Yūsuf and Sūrah al-ʿAlaq to Rāfiʿ ibn Rifāʿah and Muʿādh ibn ʿAfrāʾ when they came to him in Mecca to embrace Islam.[^70] Another example is when a group of about 20 Abysinnian men came to Mecca after hearing of the Prophet ﷺ to learn about Islam. Having had a conversation with the Prophet ﷺ, they embraced Islam and stayed in Mecca for three days. During that time, they learned much of the revealed Qur’an, eventually carrying it back to their country.[^71] The Prophet ﷺ also taught the Qur’an to people he met while immigrating to Medina, such as Buraydah ibn al-Ḥuṣayb. The Prophet ﷺ taught him part of Sūrah Maryam immediately upon conversion. Later, Buraydah came to the Prophet ﷺ in Medina and the Prophet ﷺ asked him, “How much of the Qur’an do you know, O Buraydah?” He said, “O Messenger of Allah, you had taught me in al-Ghamīm that night when I met with you part of a *sūrah* in which \[the story of\] Maryam is mentioned.” The Prophet ﷺ asked Ubayy ibn Kaʿb to teach him the rest of the *sūrah*. Then, the Prophet ﷺ said to Buraydah, “O Buraydah, learn Sūrah al-Kahf with it \[Sūrah Maryam\] as it is a light for its companion on the Day of Judgment.”[^72] Buraydah was not only a Qur’an teacher for his people but was also appointed as their *zakāh*\-collector by the Prophet \[ﷺ\],[^73] reflecting a Prophetic practice of giving priority of position to people of the Qur’an.  One other such example is ʿUthmān ibn al-ʿĀs, who embraced Islam when he came with a group from Thaqīf to meet the Prophet ﷺ. ʿUthmān passionately sought every possible opportunity to learn the Qur’an from the Prophet ﷺ, who liked his dedication and appointed him the leader of his people even though he was one of their youngest.[^74] It was reported that a man from Bahrain whose name was ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ashajj sent his nephew, ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Qays, to Medina to inquire about the Prophet ﷺ and his message. Upon witnessing several signs of his Prophethood, ʿAmr embraced Islam. The Prophet ﷺ then taught him Sūrahs al-Fātihah and al-ʿAlaq, and asked him to invite his uncle to Islam as well.[^75] Al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013) observed that a constant practice of the Prophet ﷺ was immediately directing every new Muslim to read and learn the Qur’an, and that he would not prioritize anything else over that.[^76] #### 4 - Reciting to people gathered at the mosque The Prophet ﷺ often recited the Qur’an publicly to large groups of people, especially congregants at the mosque. For example, ʿĀʾishah reported that, “When the verses of (*ribā*) \[usury\] were revealed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited them in the mosque \[to people\].”[^77] The Prophet ﷺ also set up a dedicated tent in his mosque for the visiting delegates of Thaqīf to listen to the Qur’an and watch Muslims praying. #### 5 - Reciting the newly revealed Qur’an during travel Travel offered the Prophet ﷺ various opportunities to recite Qur’an. For example, as narrated by Ibn Masʿūd, the beginning of Sūrah al-Fatḥ was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ while returning to Medina from al-Ḥudaybiyyah. The Prophet ﷺ immediately shared the glad tidings with the companions by reciting the revealed verse, “We have given you a clear conquest.”[^78] In another narration, Mujammiʿ ibn Jāriyah related that the Prophet ﷺ waited for people to gather at a rest stop called Kurāʿ al-Ghamīm to recite the verse to them.[^79] The third narration by ʿAbdullāh ibn Mughaffal describes the Prophet’s articulation(*tajwīd*) of certain letters and his pleasant voice: “I saw Allah's Messenger ﷺ on the day of the Conquest of Mecca on his she-camel, reciting Sūrah al-Fatḥ in a vibrant quivering tone,”[^80] meaning that he was prolonging the ending of verses with nunation such as *mubīnā*, *mustaqīmā*, and *ʿazīzā*.[^81] The last two narrations of the story describe how the Prophet ﷺ read clearly and out loud to people and in a performative style.[^82] #### 6 - One-on-one teaching Multiple companions explicitly mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ taught them individually. For example, Ibn Masʿūd said, “I have read more than 70 *sūrah*s to the Prophet.”[^83] The Prophet ﷺ also asked him once, “Recite the Qur’an to me.”  Ibn Masʿūd said, “Shall I recite it to you while it has been revealed to you?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “I like to hear it from others.”[^84] Another example of the individual teaching relationships the Prophet ﷺ had with his companions is when he informed Ubayy ibn Kāʿb that “Allah has commanded me to recite the Qur’an to you. Ubayy asked, “Did Allah mention me to you by name?” and when the Prophet ﷺ answered affirmatively, tears fell from Ubayy’s eyes.[^85] #### 7 - Reciting at gatherings One day, while riding his mount on his way to visit a sick companion,  the Prophet ﷺ passed by the head of hypocrites, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy,  sitting with a group of his people. The Prophet ﷺ got off his mount, greeted them, and sat for a short time reciting the Qur’an and making supplications (*duʿāʾ*).[^86] The Prophet’s dedication to teaching Qur’an is exemplified by a report, narrated by Anas ibn Mālik, where he tied a rock to his stomach to silence his hunger while teaching the people of the bench (*ahl al-ṣuffah*),[^87] a group of companions who lived in the Prophet’s ﷺ mosque’s portico (*ṣuffah*) as it was their only shelter. #### 8 - Reciting in prayer As the regular imam of the community, the Prophet ﷺ would recite the Qur’an out loud in at least six *rakʿah*s on a daily basis (mandatory prayers) and an additional two *rakʿah*s on a weekly basis (*jumuʿah*), in addition to occasional prayers such as Eid, solar and lunar eclipse prayers (*kusūf* and *khusūf*), drought prayer (*istisqāʾ*), and recommended night prayer (*qiyām*). As known in Islamic law (*fiqh*), the basic minimum qualification of reading out loud as an imam is to enable those behind you to listen. The companions were committed to the congregational prayer (*jamāʿah*) with the Prophet ﷺ and would not miss it except for serious emergencies. In many reports, they documented their hearing of the Qur’an from the Prophet ﷺ in prayer. Even occasionally, in prayers with subvocal recitation (*sirriyyah*), > The Prophet ﷺ in *Ẓuhr* prayers used to recite al-Fātiḥah along with two other *sūrah*s in the first two *rakʿah*s: a long one in the first *rakʿah* and a shorter *sūrah* in the second, and at times the verses were audible. In the ʿAṣr prayer, the Prophet ﷺ used to recite al-Fātiḥah and two more *sūrah*s in the first two *rakʿah*s and used to prolong the first *rakʿah*. [^88] Hadith collections dedicated chapters to the Prophet’s ﷺ recitation in prayer, identifying the *sūrah*s he would frequently recite in specific prayers. For example, in rebuking a man bragging about reciting a lengthy part of the Qur’an very quickly, Ibn Masʿūd commented, “We heard the recitation of the Prophet ﷺ. I remember very well the recitation of those *sūrah*s which the Prophet ﷺ used to recite, and they were eighteen *sūrah*s from the *mufaṣṣal* \[from al-Ḥujurāt, 49th chapter, to the end of the Qur’an, the 114th chapters\],[^89] and two *sūrah*s from the *sūrah*s that begin with *ḥā mīm*.”[^90] The regularity of the Prophet’s recitation and the reception of several chapters of the Qur’an was affirmed by the grandfather of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb who stated, “There is no long or short *sūrah* of the *mufaṣṣal* except that I heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting it while leading people in obligatory prayers.”[^91] In addition to all *al-mufaṣṣal*, the Prophet ﷺ was also reported to have led prayers with several chapters including: al-Baqarah, Āl ʿImrān, al-Nisāʾ, al-Māʾidah, al-Anʿām, al-Aʿrāf, al-Tawbah, al-Muʾminūn, al-Rūm, al-Sajdah, and Qāf.[^92] #### 9 - Reciting in sermons The Prophet’s sermons offered a platform for repeatedly reciting verses as well as broadcasting newly revealed ones. Umm Hishām bint Ḥārithah ibn al-Nuʿmān said that she memorized Sūrah Qāf from attending the Prophet’s ﷺ Friday sermons (*khuṭbah*s) for how often he would recite it.[^93] When Allah revealed the verses of Sūrah al-Nūr declaring the innocence of ʿĀʾishah from false accusations, the Prophet ﷺ delivered a speech in which he recited these verses. #### 10 - Sending delegates to Muslim gatherings reciting newly revealed Qur’an In the 9th year of the *hijrah*, after the Battle of Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ wanted to perform pilgrimage (*ḥajj*) but did not feel comfortable doing so while the polytheistic practice of circumambulating the *Kaʿba* naked was still ongoing. During that time, the first part of Sūrah al-Tawbah was revealed. The Prophet ﷺ sent the first 40 verses of the *sūrah* with Abū Bakr, whom he appointed as the leader of the *ḥajj* season, to be recited by ʿAlī to pilgrims. ʿAlī repeatedly recited the verses to every group of people he could reach. He would ride his mount and go to the areas where *ḥajj* rituals were being performed and read them until, as he described, his voice gave out.[^94] #### 11 - Companions teaching new Muslims The Prophet ﷺ instructed his companions to teach the Qur’an to both individuals and groups. The Prophet ﷺ maintained this practice > in his city \[Mecca\], his abode of immigration \[Medina\], and the rest of the regions he conquered in which Islam prevailed. He did not leave a group somewhere or any community of this *ummah* without a Qur’an teacher dedicated to them exactly as he did not leave them without a person who would teach them the essentials and obligations of Islam, which they are not allowed to be ignorant of or slacken from learning.[^95] Indeed, as narrated by ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, “the Prophet ﷺ would get busy \[so\] when an immigrant man came to him \[to embrace Islam\], the Prophet ﷺ would assign one of us to teach him Qur’an.”[^96] ʿUbādah was assigned a man whom he hosted and fed in his house.[^97] Ubayy ibn Kaʿb was assigned to Ashajj ʿAbd al-Qays, who came from Bahrain to learn Qur’an and *fiqh* from the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ assigned Ubayy ibn Kaʿb to the Ghāmid tribe’s group who came to embrace Islam[^98] and another companion to a group from the Khawlān tribe.[^99] #### 12 - Companions teaching one another This method is evident in many accounts of the companions’ lives, some of which were mentioned in the aforementioned styles. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī narrated that the Prophet ﷺ showed up to a group of Muslims in *al-ṣuffah* while a man was reciting the Qur’an to them, and the Prophet ﷺ made *duʿāʾ* for them.[^100] Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Anṣārī narrated a similar situation where they were teaching each other the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ was pleased with them and stated, “All praise is to Allah. Allah’s Book is one and it contains the red and the black. Read the Qur’an! Read before a time that will come when \[some\] people will straighten it as an arrow is straightened, which \[their recitation\] will not go beyond their throats, seeking a reward for it in this world and not waiting for their reward in the next.”[^101] In multiple reported occasions, some with debatable *isnād*, the Prophet ﷺ also instructed his companions to teach their neighbors the Qur’an.[^102] The companions who immigrated to Abyssinia used to read, review, and study the Qur’an together. The Qur’an was profoundly present in their interactions and debates with the Abyssinian Christians. When verse 3:64 was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ sent it to Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, who was one of the leaders of the Abyssinian Muslim residents and asked him to use it among the other verses he was using in his debates with the Christians.[^103] #### 13 - Sending messengers to villages and regions to teach the Qur’an After the first pledge of al-ʿAqabah took place in Mecca, the Prophet sent Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr, who became known as the Qur’an teacher (*muqrī*), to Medina and commanded him to teach its people the Qur’an.[^104] With the coordination of his Medinan host Asʿad ibn Zurārah, Muṣʿab used to go around the city visiting the houses of al-Anṣār, inviting them to Islam, and teaching them the Qur’an.[^105] Later, ʿAbdullāh ibn Umm Maktūm was also sent to Medina to help Muṣʿab in his mission.[^106] Hence, the Qur’an conquered Medina two years before the Prophet’s immigration to it.[^107] Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ sent Muʿādh ibn Jabal and Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī to Yemen, ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm to Najrān with Banū al-Ḥārith’s group, and sent a companion to al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd Kulāl in Ḥimyar to recite to him and his brother Nuʿaym Sūrah al-Bayyanah.[^108] Muʿādh ibn Jabal was also commanded by the Prophet ﷺ after the conquest of Mecca to stay there and teach people the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ often instructed his envoys and delegates to teach the Qur’an alongside the basics of Islam and its laws. In his *al-Tarātīb al-Idāriyyah*, ʿAbdulḥayy al-Kittānī (d. 1382/1962) dedicated a whole section to “those whom the Prophet deployed to different areas to teach people the Qur’an and to make them understand the religion.”[^109] #### 14 - Commanding military leaders to remain in newly conquered areas to teach new Muslims the Qur’an In the 10th year of the *hijrah*, the Prophet ﷺ sent Khālid ibn al-Walīd to Banū al-Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb in Najrān and commanded him to invite them to Islam and, if they became Muslims, to stay among them to teach them Islam and the Qur’an. The mission succeeded, and the Prophet ﷺ asked him to return to Medina with a group of them to meet with him ﷺ. After he met with them, the Prophet ﷺ sent ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm back with them to Najrān to continue teaching them. #### 15 - Travellers to and from Medina teaching Muslim Bedouins Due to the Prophet’s ﷺ constant recitation and teaching of the Qur’an, its memorization spread among the population of Medina and other cities, and extended to include Bedouins in the vast Arabian desert. Many of those groups’ delegates who came to embrace Islam and learn the Qur’an from the Prophet ﷺ would teach Bedouins on their way back as documented, for example, in the story of ʿAmr ibn Salāmah. ʿAmr, whose actual companionship with the Prophet ﷺ is disputedﷺ, became the most qualified imam of his people merely due to learning from such passing travelers. He said, > Travelers would pass by us on their way back from \[meeting with\] the Prophet ﷺ. We used to ask them to teach us the Qur’an. They informed us that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let the one with the most \[memorization of\] Qur’an lead you in prayer.” So, I used to lead them \[my people\] and I was one of their youngest \[but\] the one with the most memorization of the Qur’an.[^110] The story reveals how people used to compete over memorizing the Qur’an and how ʿAmr compared himself to the rest of his people who, despite their distance from the center of the Muslim community, were regularly learning and teaching the Qur’an. #### 16 - Early models of Qur’an schools The Prophet ﷺ encouraged Qur’an group learning both through his actions and words. As described by ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, the Prophet ﷺ used to gather the companions to recite the Qur’an and learn from him: “We used to read \[a verse that requires\] prostration \[*sujūd al-tilāwah*\] to the Prophet ﷺ so he would prostrate and so all of us would do so until we had no room to move.”[^111] The Prophet ﷺ also verbally encouraged individuals to collectively learn the Qur’an by stating, “A group does not gather in one of the houses of God Most High reciting the Qur’an and studying it together, except that tranquility descends upon them, mercy envelops them, the angels encompass them, and God mentions them to those in His presence.”[^112] The Prophet ﷺ praised the voices of a Yemeni group of companions, saying, “I know the voices of a group of Ashʿarīs at night when they enter, and I know where they settled down because of their voices with the Qur’an at night, even if I did not see where they settled and when they settled during the day.”[^113] Even before Meccan Muslims could publicly meet to learn the Qur’an, multiple places housed regular group recitation and instruction. Dār al-Arqam was the first, serving as a secret gathering place for Qur’anic learning from the Prophet ﷺ for three years. Abū Bakr also established a small mosque in his house’s yard, where he would pray and recite the Qur’an out loud, beautify his voice as means of *daʿwah*, and cry and weep out of spiritual ecstasy. Many Meccan disbelievers, including women and children, used to gather around his house to listen to his recitation.[^114] His daughter and the Prophet’s wife, ʿĀʾishah, documented this in her famous eloquent speech about the virtues of her father.[^115] After the number of Muslims grew to 40, and after ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb converted to Islam, the Prophet ﷺ transitioned from secret *daʿwah* to publicly inviting people to Islam. The first mosque in Medina to host Qur’anic recitation was established by Rāfiʿ ibn Mālik al-Zuraqī before the immigration of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^116] Rāfiʿ was one of the first six Medinan Muslims from al-Anṣār and was one of the 12 Medinans who famously pledged their belief in Islam to the Prophet ﷺ at al-ʿAqabah. Rāfiʿ established a mosque and Qur’an school after learning *ayāt* from the Prophet ﷺ and taking some sheets that had verses written on them, as will be discussed later. In documenting the organized teaching activities of Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr and ʿAbdullāh ibn Umm Maktūm in Medina before and after the Prophet’s move to it, some scholars mentioned the house of Makhramah ibn Nawfal. Known as the House of Reciters (*Dār al-Qurrāʾ*), it hosted ibn Umm Maktūm upon his move to Medina.[^117] Al-Kittānī relied on these reports in furnishing early historical proof for establishing Qur’an schools.[^118] One of the most important Qur’anic educational sites, where several companions learned how to recite the Qur’an and memorized many *sūrah*s, was *al-ṣuffah*. Given its proximity to the Prophet’s mosque, the buzzing recitation of the people of *al-ṣuffah* always echoed there.[^119] *Al-ṣuffah* sheltered many companions who could not afford housing. These companions’ main occupation was learning and teaching the Qur’an as well as the practices of its lived example, the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^120] *Al-ṣuffah* “was not only a welfare shelter but also a school for the Qur’an’s memorization and for teaching its rulings. The Prophet ﷺ used to deploy many of them \[the people of *al-ṣuffah*\] to the \[different\] tribes to teach them the Qur’an and the *fiqh* of the religion.”[^121] According to al-Bāqillānī, the circumstances and the characteristics of *ahl* *al-ṣuffah* necessitated that they memorize all of what was revealed of the Qur’an during their stay in it.[^122] Among their special characteristics, the people of *al-ṣuffah* never wavered in their commitment to the Qur’an or support for Islam. Their worship and certainty that they deserved Allah’s praise in the Qur’an kept increasing.[^123] Al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) stated that group recitation of the Qur’an is recommended by virtue of clear evidence and the practice of the early and late generations of scholars.[^124] After the death of the Prophet ﷺ, the companions continued this legacy of Qur’anic education, and their students numbered in the thousands. Ibn ʿUmar narrated about his father, “I have seen the Commander of the Faithful (*amīr al-muʾminīn*) ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb sitting on the pulpit (*minbar*) while the immigrants (*muhājirūn*) and the *anṣār* were surrounding him; he was teaching them the religion and the Qur’an as a teacher teaches children.”[^125] Qur’an programs and schools for children, which we know today as *maktab* or *kuttāb* across diverse Muslim cultures, are fruits of ʿUmar’s numerous contributions to Qur’anic education. Al-Nafrāwī (d. 1126) said, > The first to gather children in the *maktab* was ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. He ordered ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Khuzāʿī to commit to teaching them \[Qur’an\] and ʿUmar assigned him a salary from the public treasury (*bayt al-māl*). Among those children were the unintelligent and the intelligent. ʿUmar ordered ʿĀmir to write for the unintelligent on his tablet (*lawḥ*) and only to teach the intelligent without writing. ʿUmar also made sure that the children learned things prone to fade with time such as \[their\] lineage, ethnicity, and tribal association. The children asked ʿUmar to reduce their *maktab* hours, so he ordered their teacher to sit \[for teaching only\] from after *fajr* prayer to forenoon and from *ẓuhr* prayer to ʿ*aṣr* prayer, and then the children rested for the day.[^126] When ʿUmar came back to Medina after being gone for a month during the conquest of Sham, people missed him, so they went to receive him \[outside the city\]; the children journeyed almost 40 kilometers away from Medina to receive him. They met ʿUmar on Thursday, spent the night with him, and came back to Medina together on Friday.[^127] Since they were exhausted from the trip, ʿUmar gave them Thursday and Friday off. This weekend “became a sunnah until the Day of Judgment. ʿUmar made *duʿā* for anyone who applies this custom \[sunnah\] to be given \[all\] good and for anyone who cancels it to be restricted in their provision.”[^128] Many other companions were themselves expert Qur’an teachers. Abū al-Dardāʾ was the leading Qur’an teacher of the Damascus mosque with more than 1600 students. He used to divide his classes into groups of ten and appoint an assistant instructor (ʿ*arrīf*) for each group.[^129] Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī was appointed as the envoy of Basra where he also taught the Qur’an. Despite the difficulty of assuming such public office, Abū Mūsā was known for his daily Qur’an teaching, organization of classes and direct supervision of teaching assistants at the Basra mosque. He once gathered the most advanced reciters of his students and they numbered 300.[^130] The companions, however, did not neglect the importance of combining memorization with the practice of Qur’anic teachings. Ibn Masʿūd spent 22 years in Kūfah teaching Qur’an and *fiqh* to numerous students. A famous revolution against the Umayyads was led by a group known as “the army of *qurrāʾ*” comprising 4000 of Ibn Masʿūd’s students and their students.[^131] ### A diverse Qur’anic community Memorization and recitation of the Qur’an were not limited to a specific class in society. Males, females, children, people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, persons with disabilities, and enslaved people, all learned and memorized the Qur’an. It is beyond the scope of this article to cover the biographies of the many companions from such backgrounds who were reciters and memorizers. Nonetheless, the following examples showcase how some of them were among the leading authorities of Qur’an during and after the time of the Prophet ﷺ. When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb stormed into his sister Fāṭimah’s house to confront her regarding her acceptance of Islam, he found she and her husband learning Sūrah Ṭāhā from the freed slave (*mawlā*) Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt. The indescribable impact of Ṭāhā’s recitation, and his sister’s devotion to her faith, eventually inspired ‘Umar’s conversion to Islam. Another former slave, Sālim ibn Maʿqil, had once served Abū Ḥuthayfah ibn ʿUtbah. Abū Ḥuthayfah’s wife, Thubaytah, eventually freed him. Abū Ḥuthayfah adopted him (prior to the abolition of adopting non-biological children) and Sālim became known as *mawlā* Abū Ḥuthayfah. Sālim was an expert *qārī* who taught several companions, including his former master, the Qur’an. As one of the early Muslims who migrated to Medina before the Prophet ﷺ, Sālim used to lead them in prayer since he was the most expert in Qur’an. Among those who prayed behind Sālim were the likes of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.[^132] While narrating the story of the false accusations against her, ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, described herself saying, “I was a young girl and I did not know much of the Qur’an.”[^133] This statement implies that her knowledge of Qur’an was limited because of her young age and that adult women used to know much of it.[^134] Indeed, the Prophet’s ﷺ wives, such as ʿĀʾishah, Ḥafṣah, and Umm Salamah, did not only memorize much of the Qur’an but also witnessed the descent of the revelation in their houses. They saw how the Prophet ﷺ received the Qur’an from Jibrīl and how he taught it to people, and they followed his example in teaching it to women and men. In addition to being listed among the *qurrāʾ* from the companions, some of the Prophet’s wives, especially ʿĀʾishah and Umm Salamah, were among the *qirāʾāt* transmitters.[^135] Several Hadith compilers reported some of the *qirāʾāt* the Prophet recited throughʿĀʾishah and Umm Salamah.[^136] One of the female memorizers of the Qur’an was Umm Waraqah bint ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥārith al-Anṣārī, who the Prophet ﷺ used to call the martyr (*shahīdah*). He used to visit her and ask his companions to join him saying, “Let’s go visit the *shahīdah*.” He approved of her having a person (*muʾadhdhin*) to raise the call to prayer (*adhān*) specifically for her at her house.[^137] The Prophet’s ﷺ prophecy came true when she was killed during the reign of ʿUmar by one of her servants.[^138] Hujaymah bint Ḥuyayy, known as Umm al-Dardāʾ and Abū al-Dardāʾ’s wife, was one of the famous memorizers of the Qur’an. She was highly dedicated to learning and teaching it and is reported to have said, “I love to read it \[exactly\] as it was revealed.”[^139] Asmāʾ bint Yazīd ibn al-Sakan (or Umm ʿĀmir al-Ashmaliyyah) was a famous reciter who had scribes write parts of the Qur’an for her. She participated in the compilation of the Qur’an during the time of Abū Bakr and shared her memorization with Zayd ibn Thābit, the head of the compilation committee, alongside a personal copy transcribed by Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.[^140] She was reported to have said, “I \[learned how to\] read 21 *sūrah*s before the Prophet ﷺ moved to us from Mecca.”[^141] During his lifetime, the Prophet ﷺ frequently instructed his companions to teach their children the Qur’an, many of whom memorized significant portions of it. For example, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās memorized all of *al-mufaṣṣal* when he was 13 years old. After the Prophet ﷺ moved to Medina, Zayd ibn Thābit was brought to him by people who told the Prophet ﷺ, “This is a young boy who has memorized from what Allah has sent down upon you 17 *sūrah*s.” The Prophet ﷺ was impressed and instructed him, “O Zayd, learn the writing style \[or the language\] of the Jews. Indeed, by Allah I do not trust them concerning my book \[the Qur’an\].” Within 15 days, at the ripe age of 11 years, Zayd had learned their language and began translating their messages to the Prophet ﷺ and writing his responses to them.[^142]  Zayd’s role in orally and textually preserving the Qur’an was exceptional, as will be discussed below. The Prophet’s sunnah of teaching children the Qur’an was earnestly adopted by his companions and their successors, who followed his exact style of reading in the manner we know today through the science of *tajwīd*. > The first generation \[of this *ummah*\] did not recite the Qur’an nor teach it to children except in \[the style of proper\] recitation (*murattalan*) and articulation (*mujawwdan*). A child did not graduate from the *maktab* until he was fully skilled in reciting the Qur’an; the only thing missing for him was knowing the rules and terminologies that are called today the science of *tajwīd*. Moreover, they \[the first generation\] used to also teach their children in the *maktab* the obscure words of the Qur’an (*gharīb al-Qur’an*),[^143] some of its morals and the Arab’s poetry that contain them, a summary of the principles of creed and *fiqh* mentioned in the Qur’an, and some hadiths that described the Prophet’s morals.[^144] Hence, the child graduated the *maktab* sufficiently knowledgeable in language, hadith, poetry, creed, and *fiqh*. If such an amount were the only religious education he obtained, it would have sufficed him for all necessary worldly and religious matters.[^145] ### The memorizers of Qur’an among the companions The Qur’an’s widespread dissemination across all classes of society in the early Muslim community did not undermine the accuracy of its oral transmission. Indeed, the Qur’an was constantly being mass recited and taught in the most correct wording and precise articulation. As noted earlier, the incentives to memorize, preserve, and teach the Qur’an superseded those of pre-Islamic poetry. In addition to uncountable stories illustrating the companions’ dedication to memorizing, studying, and reciting the Qur’an in prayers day and night, the *sīrah* documents the names and biographies of tens of them who were given the titles of *qurrāʾ* or *ḥuffāẓ*. The title *qurrāʾ* was commonly attributed to the *ḥuffāẓ* of the Qur’an revealed up to the time they were given the title. Later, the title *qurrāʾ* only referenced those who had memorized the Qur’an in its entirety. The term also acquired different designations across disciplines such as *qirāʾāt* and *fiqh*. Contrary to the term’s classical connotation in the morphological and Qur’anic literature as being related to ‘reciters,’ a modern view of the term *qurrāʾ* contends that villagers (*ahl al-qurā*) were confused with reciters, *qurrāʾ*, which the former exploited to gain political and social prestige.[^146] It is unlikely that many Muslims fell into such a rudimentary error. Furthermore, even if this imposed distinction was historically and morphologically valid,[^147] it “does not strictly undermine the historical existence of a concomitant class of readers.”[^148] As shown below, the *qurrāʾ* title emerged as early as the fourth year after the *hijra*. The *qurrāʾ* were at the forefront of successive battles and wars during the lifetime and after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, which raised concerns about the loss of the Qur’an’s bearers. In 4/625, a few months after the martyrdom of 70 companions in the battle of Uḥud, about 80 other companions (known to be *qurrāʾ*) were deceitfully martyred in the two expeditions of al-Rajīʿ (a name of a well eight miles away from Asfan) and Biʾr Maʿūnah (a name of well in Hijaz whose exact location is not well-identified). These 80 companions were sent by the Prophet ﷺ upon the request of some non-Muslim tribes to teach their people the Qur’an and the basics of Islam. Al-Rajīʿ is a tragic story of a cunning plot by the ʿAḍal and Qārrah tribes, who killed eight of the Prophet’s ten envoys and handed the other two to Quraysh who killed them in continuation of their revenge on Muslims. Before receiving the news about al-Rajīʿ’s group, the Prophet sent 70 companions to the Arab leader, Mālik ibn ʿĀmir,[^149] who had requested a group of *qurrāʾ* to teach his people. Mālik rejected the Prophet’s ﷺ invitation to become Muslim but showed interest in learning more about Islam alongside his people. Despite the Prophet’s ﷺ reluctance to dispatch his companions in large numbers to the Najd areas, which at the time hosted many of his enemies, he honored the protection (*jiwār*) promised by Mālik. Dishonorably, Mālik’s nephew, ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl, called upon some of his allies to kill the entire group while it was camped around Biʾr Maʿūnah. Sixty-nine of them were killed; only one injured survivor was able to make it back to Medina, where he died a couple of years later. It is narrated that Allah had revealed a verse stating His pleasure with those companions, but the verse was later abrogated.[^150] Many supernatural wonders (*karāmāt*) that these companions experienced before and after death are widely documented in the *sīrah* literature. Biʾr Maʿūnah’s *qurrāʾ* were known for two distinct qualities: their knowledge of the Qur’an and their commitment to social services. Anas ibn Mālik said, “We used to call them the *qurrāʾ*. They used to cut wood during the day and pray all night.”[^151] Their occupation during the day was logging; they used to collect and store wood near the rooms of the Prophet’s ﷺ wives and the *ṣuffah* for Muslims who were in need of it. They were reported to always be busy in the evenings with learning Qur’an and praying in groups. One narration affirms that “their families used to think that they were always at the Mosque, and the people of the *ṣuffah* always used to think they were with their families.”[^152] Their passing grievously saddened the Prophet ﷺ. Anas said, “Never did I see the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in so much grief \[at the loss of a\] small army as I saw him in grief for those 70 men who were called *qurrāʾ* (and were killed) at Biʾr Maʿūnah; and he invoked curses for a full month upon their murderers.”[^153] The Prophet’s invocation, mentioned by Anas, was practiced in congregational prayers (known as *qunūt*). Distinct from other types of *qunūt*, this practice of the Prophet ﷺ legislated what is known in *fiqh* to be the *qunūt* of calamities (*qunūt al-nawāzil*) which Muslims practice until today when a calamity afflicts them. The Prophet’s *qunūt*, which reflected his deep grief over the *qurrāʾ*, was not due to a lack of contentment with their passing. Rather, as al-Asnawī (d. 772/1370) points out, the Prophet ﷺ made *qunūt* focused on “averting the rebellion of \[those\] killers and requiting the calamity of Muslims by \[asking for\] successors for them because they were \[a group of\] the brave *qurrāʾ*.”[^154] Identifying or recognizing companions based on their association with the Qur’an or certain parts of it was a common phenomenon that demonstrates the centrality of the Qur’an in the community’s life. For example, some companions were called ‘the people of Sūrah al-Baqarah,’ which was, according to al-Bāqillānī, a metaphor for those who had memorized the whole Qur’an.[^155] Al-Bāqillānī explained that since al-Baqarah is the longest and the most difficult *sūrah* to memorize, it was rare for the companions to start their memorization with it. Rather, they used to start with the short chapters from *al-mufaṣṣal* and would only memorize al-Baqarah after memorizing most of the other revealed parts of the Qur’an. This was the custom of the early immigrants, those who had a long companionship with the Prophet ﷺ, and those who embraced Islam later or at a young age. The concern over losing the *qurrāʾ* in wars only increased with time. From the incidents of al-Rajīʿ and Biʾr Maʿūnah to other major battles such as Ḥunayn, and even shortly after the death of the Prophet ﷺ in the Battle of al-Yamāmah where 40 *qurrāʾ* were martyred, the need to both orally and textually preserve the Qur’an became a critical communal obligation. However, the number of remaining *qurrāʾ* after al-Yamāmah likely exceeded the known total of 120 martyred. This can be inferred from ʿUmar’s fear that “if *qurrāʾ* continue to be killed in large numbers in other battles, a large portion of the Qur’an will be lost.”[^156] ʿUmar made this comment to Abū Bakr when advising him of the importance of textually compiling the Qur’an, after highlighting that “extensive killing” had already taken place. These deliberations resulted in the multistage process of compiling and transcribing the Qur’an. ʿUmar’s (and other companions’) fear over the loss of *qurrāʾ* did not betray a lack of conviction in the Divine promise to protect the Qur’an. They were simply following the Prophet’s example of utilizing every means possible to preserve the text, recognizing that the heavenly promise would be manifested in their human efforts. ### The number of memorizers (ḥuffāẓ) during the time of the Prophet ﷺ Undoubtedly, there were many memorizers and bearers of the Qur’an during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Teaching Qur’an was regarded as such a sacred act of worship that the companions were discouraged from accepting compensation for teaching it, which resulted in juristic differences among the schools of law over the validity of being compensated for Qur’anic teaching. As shown above, various hadith reports, the *sīrah*, and the biographies of the Prophet’s companions provide clear evidence for the wide oral transmission (*tawātur*) of the Qur’an. A handful of seemingly contradictory hadiths list four, five, or six memorizers among the companions.[^157] Some scholars reconcile the differing numbers by interpreting the reports as 1) a subjective preference for or comparison between certain groups of the companions, or 2) placing an emphasis on a particular level of mastery of the Qur’an. Other scholars consider the reports to be 3) inauthentic in terms of their *isnād* or meaning due to inadequacies in numbering or historical events, 4) contradicted by a large number of other reports stating the memorization of many companions, or 5) counteracted by the practical difficulty of encompassing the exact number of memorizers in such circumstances of ongoing revelation and mass education.[^158] Putting together several reports compiled by, for instance, al-Bāqillānī in *al-Intiṣār*, al-Suyūṭī in *al-Itqān*, and al-Qasṭalānī in *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt* establishes that 21 companions memorized the entire Qur’an during the life of the Prophet ﷺ. The number reaches 23 by including Mujammiʿ, who is said to have memorized all of it except for two or three chapters,[^159] and Abdulwāḥid, whose companionship with the Prophet is disputable.[^160] This number excludes the companions who completed their memorization after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām’s list, as reported by al-Suyūṭī, includes 13 more companions who finished memorizing the Qur’an after the Prophet ﷺ passed. Despite the companions numbering in the tens of thousands, why are there only a few of them documented as *ḥuffāẓ*? The*ʿarḍ* of the entire Qur’an required close proximity to the Prophet ﷺ over a lengthy period, especially since the Qur’an was revealed over 23 years. Moreover, the gradualness of revelation may have prevented many companions from declaring that they themselves had memorized the entire text since they were uncertain about what would be revealed or abrogated from what they already had memorized, let alone testifying for the memorization of others. After describing these factors, al-Bāqillānī commented, > If that was necessarily the case, the number of the memorizers of all of what was revealed was not popularly known. It was not possible for them to know. Hence, it is not improbable that a number of the companions memorized \[the entire\] Qur’an during the time of the Prophet without declaring that about themselves and without others telling about them. The reason is that memorization cannot be widely known except after the Prophet’s death, the cease of the revelation, and knowing the last revealed parts of the Qur’an, and that a *sūrah* has been fully completed, structured, and arranged with its verses \[in the *muṣḥaf*\].[^161] It is also possible that many companions memorized the entire Qur’an but concealed that fact to avoid the boasting that nullifies God’s reward.[^162] Multiple reports show the companions’ wariness of publicly declaring their memorization of the Qur’an. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 101/728) was reported to have said, “We have witnessed people, one of whom has memorized the \[entire\] Qur’an without their neighbor knowing. And we have witnessed people for whom there is no deed they can perform in secret that will be publicized at all.”[^163] Those who declared their memorization may have done so for reasons they deemed beneficial for the community. Companions would also generally refrain from describing a person as a memorizer of the Qur’an in case said person had mistakenly missed a verse or a word. Indeed, evidence suggests that they avoided bestowing such a title on anyone who did not memorize the whole Qur’an, its abrogated verses, and modes of recitation and *aḥruf*[^164] through direct learning from the Prophet ﷺ. The companions also did not deem anyone a memorizer merely for committing the Qur’an to memory. Instead, memorizers also had to know the legal rulings of the Qur’an and abide by them. A man told Abū al-Dardāʾ once, “This son of mine has compiled (i.e., memorized) the Qur’an.” Abū al-Dardāʾ said, “O Allah, I ask for your forgiveness! The one who compiled (i.e., memorized) the Qur’an is \[only\] the one who listens to it and obeys.”[^165] Thus, it is not surprising for the likes of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb to say, upon hearing ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir’s beautiful voice as he recited Sūrah al-Tawbah, that it was as if he did not know it was revealed.[^166] There is no chance that ʿUmar did not know of the *sūrah*, especially since it was publicly recited during *ḥajj* and widely taught for its commandments and admonitions. His comment thus confirms that mere retention is not what defines a person of the Qur’an. A similarly high threshold is evident in the juristic interpretation of the Prophet’s statement on who is the most qualified to lead prayers: “The person who is best versed in the recitation of the Book of Allah should lead the prayer.”[^167] Is the best in Qur’anic recitation someone who is an expert *qārī* or knowledgeable of law (*fiqh*)? In explaining the Shāfiʿī school’s position of giving priority of leading prayers to a person of *fiqh*, al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) said, > The apparent meaning of the hadith implies giving precedence to the best in Qur’anic recitation. However, al-Shāfiʿī interpreted the hadith and explained it in the truest manner, saying that it was common among the companions that the best in Qur’anic recitation is the best in *fiqh*. It was reported that they used to learn the Qur’an five verses in a row, and did not move beyond them \[to new verses\] until they learned what they contain \[of rulings\] and applied them. Hence, the *qurrāʾ* were jurists at that time.[^168] Thus, out of reverence for God’s Book and a stringently high standard for what counts as true memorization, the companions avoided proclaiming themselves or others memorizers or collectors of the Qur’an. Although this makes it challenging to identify the exact number of *ḥuffāẓ* from the companions, it also confirms that they were numerous. The existing data illustrate the following points about the oral preservation of the Qur’anic text:[^169] 1. In addition to mass delivery, the entirety of the text was conveyed by the Prophet ﷺ to a group of his companions in his lifetime. 2. The large number of memorizers guaranteed the accuracy of transmission, with an available channel for review or correction embodied in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ. 3. The number of *ḥuffāẓ* was sufficient to establish *tawātur*—sure knowledge (*ʿilm yaqīnī*) of its being true, according to the preponderant opinion that *tawātur* does not require a particular number of transmitters.[^170] Rather, *tawātur* is established by the transmission of a group that unanimously reports something; the concordant transmission of its members renders the report’s falsity highly unlikely.[^171] Those who stipulated a particular number of transmitters differed broadly over the actual number, ranging from four to more than a hundred.[^172] Regardless of the specific number, it is agreed that wide transmission must occur in every link in the chain. If a report lacks group transmission in even one link, it is not *mutawātir*. Hence, there is a well-established *tawātur* of the entire Qur’an by a sufficient number of companions. The widespread dissemination of the Qur’an and firm religious commitment to it by the first Muslim generation suggests that there could have been more *ḥuffāẓ* among the companions.   4. The application of the particulars of *tawātur* to the first recipients of the Qur’an should not neglect the role of mass transmission. Thousands of other companions memorized different portions of the Qur’an, collectively preserving a complete account of the entire text. The late scholar al-Kawtharī (d. 1952) said, > One habit of the companions was to teach the Qur’an piecemeal. They would teach one person chapters and teach another person other chapters so that each of them might bear their \[distinct\] portion of memorization to increase the number of memorizers in all possible means. Hence, some memorized the entire Qur’an, and others only memorized select chapters which were memorized by many others. Thus, the rest of the Qur’an was distributed over groups \[of people\]. \[Additionally, among\] those who were not memorizers … one of them would always recognize if a reciter made a mistake \[in recitation\]. This was because of their significant recitation of, and continuous listening to, the Qur’an.[^173] This collective transmission constitutes another layer of *tawātur* and represents a type of mass supervision over the delivery of the Qur’an that guarantees its protection against change or distortion. All in all, even if only a few companions had memorized the Qur’an, as some may argue, it is not necessary for every single transmitter to have memorized and transmitted every part of the text. Rather, for large texts to achieve *tawātur* status, it is sufficient that a large number of transmitters collectively transmit their parts. Al-Māzirī (d. 536/1141) analogized this argument to the transmission of the famous pre-Islamic ode of Imruʾ al-Qays, “Halt, you two companions, and let us weep” (*qifā* *nabki*). If 100 different men each memorized a verse of the poem, the poem would have still been considered *mutawātir*.[^174] The inimitable composition of the Qur’an was enough incentive for the companions, irrespective of any religious motivations, to memorize it. ### The first Ṭabaqah of Qurrāʾ (1st century) The different generations (*ṭabaqāt*) of *qurrāʾ* from the time of the companions to later centuries are documented in multiple biographical works showcasing the uninterrupted chains of delivering and teaching the Qur’an. These works include *Ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ* by Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444/1053), *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār ʿalā al-ṭabaqāt wa-l-aʿṣār* by al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348), and *Ghāyat al-nihāyah fī ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ* by Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833/1429). Since al-Dānī’s book is not in print today, al-Dhahabī’s *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ* is considered one of the most notable works in the field. Ibn al-Jazarī stated in the introduction of his work that it encompassed the content of al-Dhahabī’s and, thankfully, al-Dānī’s works. Moreover, al-Dhahabī’s *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ* drew the attention of scholars like Tāj al-Dīn ibn Maktūm (d. 749/1348), who supplemented it with 20 more biographies, and Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Hāshimī (d. 885/1480), who rearranged it alphabetically. In *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār*, al-Dhahabī classified 18 generations from the time of the Prophet ﷺ to the 8th/14th century, with a total number of 734 *qurrāʾ*. Al-Dhahabī listed seven companions who received the Qur’an directly from the Prophet ﷺ as the first class and 12 of their students as the second class. This article will focus only on the first and the second *ṭabaqāt*. The seven companions whom al-Dhahabī listed in the first *ṭabaqah* are:[^175] 1. ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35/656), one of the Prophet’s ﷺ scribes of revelation and the Caliph after which the codex of the final compilation of the Qur’an was named (*muṣḥaf ʿUthmān*). ʿUthmān was known for his constant recitation of the Qur’an. He was reported to have recited the entire Qur’an in one *rakʿah* of the night prayer.[^176]  2. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), one of the Prophet’s ﷺ scribes. He praised ʿUthmān’s compilation of the Qur’an, and he was the teacher of Ibn ʿAbbās in Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*). ʿAlī taught one of the most famous *qurrāʾ* of the *tābiʿūn* Abū ʿAbdulraḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 74/693), who testified that ʿAlī was the most expert Qur’an reciter.[^177] Once the Prophet ﷺ died, ʿAlī was occupied with compiling the Qur’an and arranging it chronologically in the order of its revelation, which is said to be the reason for his late pledge to Abū Bakr’s appointment as a Caliph.     3. Ubayy ibn Kaʿb (d. 35/656), described by the Prophet ﷺ as the most expert reciter of this *ummah*. The Prophet ﷺ once said that Allah commanded him to read to Ubayy. Ubayy was a member of ʿUthmān’s committee that transcribed the Qur’an in its final style and order.   4. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 32/560), about whom the Prophet ﷺ said, “I approve for my *ummah* whatever Ibn Umm ʿAbd \[Ibn Masʿūd’s nickname\] approves for them.”[^178] He ﷺ also said, “Whoever would like to recite the Qur’an fresh as it was revealed, let him recite it according to the recitation of Ibn Umm ʿAbd.”[^179] Among the Prophet’s companions, Ibn Masʿūd is considered the greatest contributor to the mass teaching of the Qur’an.[^180] 5. Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 45/665), one of the Prophet's primary scribes and the head of both Abū Bakr’s and ʿUthmān’s committees. In the battle of Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ assigned him the flag of his tribe, Banū al-Najjār, and said to him, “Qur’an \[always\] leads.”[^181] 6. Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (d. 44-52/664-72). The Prophet ﷺ, praising his beautiful voice, said, “This man has been given a *mizmār* \[a melodic instrument\] among the *mazāmīr* \[plural of *mizmār*\] of the family of Dāwūd, peace be upon him.”[^182] 7. Abū al-Dardāʾ al-Anṣārī (d. 32/652) established the Qur’an’s teaching circles in Damascus’s mosque and led the dissemination of the Qur’an in the Syrian region. Muḥammad Jabal supplemented al-Dhahabī’s first generation list with six other companions who fulfilled the conditions of *ʿarḍ* or *iqrāʾ* to the Prophet ﷺ, teaching students, and being in the *isnād* of the ten canonical *qirāʾāt*. Based on extrapolations from various biographical works, these six companions are: 1. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/‌644) explicitly stated that the Prophet ﷺ taught him the Qur’an. Several accounts evince ʿUmar’s memorization of the entire Qur’an. Multiple narrations document his leading of the prayers with several long chapters of the Qur’an.[^183] Ibn Masʿūd testified to his memorization and said “He was the best reciter of the Qur’an among us.”[^184] ʿUmar is in the *isnād* of six canonical *qirāʾāt*[^185] which confirms his direct reception from the Prophet ﷺ and his contributions as a Qur’an teacher. Moreover, ʿUmar was known for revelation validating his views five times.[^186] Some *ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* works dedicated a sub-discipline to parts of the Qur’an that came to affirm what some of the companions expressed.[^187] A sign of ʿUmar’s unique connection with the Qur’an is found in al-Suyūṭī’s statement that this sub-discipline is founded on the Qur’an’s agreements with ʿUmar, to which scholars have dedicated independent books.[^188]       2. Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ (d. 85/704), reported by his student Ibn ʿĀmir (d. 118/736), the canonical *qārī*, to have read to the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^189] 3. Muʿādh ibn Jabal  (d. 18/639), one of four companions from whom the Prophet ﷺ instructed people to learn the Qur’an. He was sent to the Levant, alongside Abū al-Dardāʾ, to teach people Qur’an. Ibn ʿĀmir read to both of them. 4. Faḍālah ibn ʿUbayd (d. 53/672), reported to have read to the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn ʿĀmir was also reported to hold Faḍālah’s personal codex following Faḍālah’s recitation.[^190]    5. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 74/), reported by Ibn al-Jazarī to have narrated different readings,[^191] which confirms his reading to the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn ʿUmar is in the *isnād* of three canonical *qirāʾāt*.[^192] 6. Anas ibn Mālik (d. 91/533) was very close to the Prophet ﷺ and served as his servant for ten years. Ibn al-Jazarī said in his biography that “he transmitted the Qur’an from the Prophet ﷺ through hearing.” While hearing seems to be a lower level than *ʿard*, it is considered a substitute for *ʿarḍ*, especially in this case since Anas, given his long companionship, is likely to have also done *ʿard* to the Prophet.[^193] Jabal added three more companions known to be knowledgeable of the Qur’an and likely to have also taught others: Abū Bakr, ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit (d. 34/655), and ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir (d. 58/678). Indeed, Abū Bakr is known to have led Muslims in prayer several times, often with long chapters that only skilled memorizers could recite in prayer.[^194] Practicing his instruction that “the person who is best versed in the recitation of the Book of Allah, should lead the prayer,”[^195] the Prophet ﷺ appointed Abū Bakr to lead the main congregation, comprising the *muhājirūn* and the *anṣār,* when he was sick.[^196] Being the best of the Prophet’s companions, Abū Bakr was undoubtedly one of their best *qurrāʾ*. The biographies of the above-mentioned companions (the seven mentioned by al-Dhahabī and the six added by Jabal) illustrate common characteristics regarding their knowledge of the Qur’an. Specifically, they all: 1. Read directly to the Prophet ﷺ, as explicitly or implicitly mentioned in authentic reports. 2. Received the Qur’an orally, not in writing. 3. Memorized the entire Qur’an. 4. Taught a generation of companions and successors. 5. Come at the top of the *isnād*s of the ten canonical *qirāʾāt*.[^197] Hence, employing the *tawātur* theory, “the Qur’an’s *isnād* was never interrupted nor subjected to solitary transmission (*āḥād*) since the time of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].”[^198] ### The second Ṭabaqah of Qurrāʾ (1st and early 2nd century) Al-Dhahabī listed three companions and nine *tābiʿūn* who read to other companions of the Prophet ﷺ based on the criteria that: 1) each one of them recited the Qur’an to one or more companions of the first *ṭabaqah* (only the aforementioned list of seven companions compiled by al-Dhahabī), and 2) all 12 of the second *ṭabaqah* are links in the *isnād*s of the ten canonical *qirāʾāt*.[^199] Jabal complemented al-Dhahabī’s list, following al-Dhahabī’s criteria, with 14 other companions. Al-Dhahabī’s list includes: 1. Abū Hurayrah (d. 57-8/676-7), a late convert to Islam  (7th/628) who nonetheless was a *ṣuffah* resident who committed all his time to the Prophet ﷺ. He is widely known for his transmission of hadith and is reported to have read the Qur’an directly to the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^200] Abū Hurayrah read to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and taught ʿAbdulraḥmān al-ʿAraj, who was one of Nāfiʿ’s (d. 169/785) teachers (one of the ten canonical *qurrāʾ*). Abū Hurayrah taught **Abū** **Jaʿfar** (d. 130/747), who is also reported to have taught  **Abū ʿAmr**  (d. 154/770). Both are from the ten *qurrāʾ*.   2.  ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/555), the most famous exegete among the companions, who read to Ubayy and Zayd. Ibn ʿAbbās taught Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Sulaymān ibn Qattah al-Baṣrī, ʿIkrimah ibn Khālid al-Makhzūmī, and Abū Jaʿfar. Out of the ten *qurrā*, Ibn ʿAbbās is in the *isnād* of the *qirāʾāt* **of Abū Jaʿfar**, **Nāfiʿ, Ibn Kathīr** (d. 120/737), and **Abū ʿAmr.** 3. ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Sāʾib (d. before 70/557) was a very young companion who learned from Ubayy and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. He taught Mujāhid ibn Jabr and Ibn Kathīr. Ibn al-Sāʾib is in the *isnād* of **Ibn Kathīr** and **Abū ʿAmr**. 4. Al-Mughīrah ibn Abī Shihāb al-Makhzūmī (d. 91/709), a *tābiʿī* who read to ʿUthmān and taught **Ibn ʿĀmir**. 5. Ḥiṭṭān ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Raqāshī (d. after 70/557), a *tābiʿī* who read to Abū Mūsā al-Ashaʿrī and taught al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, his link to the reading of **Abū ʿAmr**. 6. Al-Aswad ibn Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī (d. 75/562), a *tābiʿī* who read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Yaḥyā al-Asadī and Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, among others. Al-Aswad is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah** and **al-Kisāʾī**. 7. ʿAlqamah ibn Qays al-Nakhaʿī (d. 62/681) a *tābiʿī* who was born during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ and learned from Ibn Masʿūd who told him, “If the Prophet ﷺ had seen you, he would have been pleased with you.”[^201] ʿAlqamah taught Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, ʿUbayd ibn Naḍlah, and Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb. ʿAlqamah is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah** (d. 156/722), **al-Kisāʾī** (d. 189/804), and **Khalaf** (d. 229/843). 8. Abū ʿAbdulraḥmān al-Sulamī (d. after 70/557), a *tābiʿī* and a son of a companion who read to the most prominent *qurrāʾ* of the companions including ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, Ubayy, and Zayd (to whom he read the Qur’an 13 times). Among his students were al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn (the Prophet’s grandsons), ʿĀṣim (one of the ten *qurrāʾ*), ʿAtāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, Abū Isḥāq al-Subayʿī. Ibn Mujāhid said, “The first to teach Kūfans the agreed upon reading that conforms to ʿUthmān’s codex was Abū ʿAbdulraḥmān al-Sulamī.”[^202] Al-Sulamī taught in Kūfah for 40 years until he died at the age of 90. Al-Sulamī  is in the *isnād* of **ʿĀṣim**, **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**. 9. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAyyāsh al-Makhzūmī (d. after 70/557), a *tābiʿī* who read to Ubayy and taught Abū Jaʿfar, Shaybah ibn Naṣṣaḥ, ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn Hurmuz, Muslim ibn Jundub, and Yazīd ibn Rumān—all of whom were among Nāfiʿ’s teachers. Ibn ʿAyyāsh is in the *isnād* of **Abū Jaʿfar**, **Nāfi**ʿ, and **Abū ʿAmr**. 10. Abū al-Rajāʾ al-ʿUṭāridī (d. 105/723), a *tābiʿī* who became Muslim during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ but never saw him and died at the age of 127 or 130. Al-ʿUṭāridī read to Abū Mūsā al-Ashaʿrī and Ibn ʿAbbās and taught Abū al-Ashhab al-ʿUṭāridī who taught **Yaʿqūb** (one of the ten *qurrāʾ*). 11. Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī (d. 69/689), a *tābiʿī* who became Muslim during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ but never saw him. Al-Duʾalī read to ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, and taught his son Abū Ḥarb, Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmur, and  Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim. Al-Duʾalī is in the *isnād* of **Abū ʿAmr** and **Ḥamzah**. 12. Abū al-ʿĀliyah al-Riyāḥī (d. 90-6/708-14), a *tābiʿī* who became Muslim during the caliphate of Abū Bakr. Al-Riyāḥī read to ʿUmar, Ubayy, Zayd, and Ibn ʿAbbās. Ibn Abī Dāwūd said, “There is no one after the companions who is more knowledgeable of the Qur’an than him \[al-Riyāḥī\].”[^203] Al-Riyāḥī is in the *isnād* of **Abū ʿAmr**, **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī, Yaʿqūb** (d. 205/820), and **Khalaf**. Following the same criteria of al-Dhahabī (reciting to one or more of the first *ṭabaqah* and being links in the *isnād* of the ten *qirāʾāt*), Jabal added 14 *tābiʿīn*. He attempted to rank their level of companionship (*ṣuḥbah*) with the companions by reference to their age groups (early versus young) and debatable companionship with the Prophet ﷺ himself. Below is Jabal’s list in chronological order: 1. Masrūq ibn al-Ajdaʿ (d. 63/682) who read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Ibn Waththāb. Masrūq is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**.  2. ʿAmr ibn Shuraḥbīl al-Ḥamdānī (d. 63/682), who read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī. ʿAmr is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**. 3. ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAmr al-Salmānī (d. 72/691) who became Muslim during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ but never saw him. He read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī and others. Al-Salmānī is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**.  4. ʿĀṣim ibn Ḍamrah al-Sakūnī (d. 74/693) who read to ʿAlī and taught Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī. ʿĀṣim is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**.  5. ʿUbayd ibn Naḍlah al-Khuzāʿī (d. 75/694), who read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb. He was the *muqrī* of Kūfah in his time and his companionship with the Prophet ﷺ, according to al-Dhahabī, is debatable (meaning it is possible that he met the Prophet ﷺ). Ubayd is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**. 6. Zayd ibn Wahb (d. after 80/699), who traveled to see the Prophet ﷺ but did not make it before his death. Zayd read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Sulaymān al-ʿAmash. Zayd is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**.  7. Umm al-Dardāʾ Hujaymah bint Ḥuyayy (d. after 80/699), who read to her husband Abū al-Dardāʾ and taught ʿAṭiyyah ibn Qays, Yūnus ibn Hubayrah, and Ibrāhīm ibn Abī ʿAblah (who read the Qur’an seven times to her). ʿAṭiyyah ibn Qays is one of her most prominent students—he became the leading *qārī* of Damascus after Ibn ʿĀmir, and it was reported that people would correct their copies of the Qur’an according to his reading.   8. Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh (d. 82/701), who read to Ibn Masʿūd, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī as well as taught ʿĀṣim and many others. He died at the age of 120. Zirr is in the *isnād* of **ʿĀṣim**, **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, **Yaʿqūb**, and **Khalaf**.  9. ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn Abī Laylā (d. 83/702), who read to ʿAlī and taught his own son ʿĪsā. Ibn Abī Laylā is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**. 10. Saʿd ibn Iyās (d. 96/714), who lived during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ but never met him. He read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught ʿĀṣim and Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb. Saʿd is in the *isnād* of **ʿĀṣim**, **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**. 11. ʿIkrimah ibn Khālid al-Makhzūmī (d. 115/733), who read to the students of Ibn ʿAbbās and, arguably, to Ibn ʿAbbās himself, along with ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar. He taught Abū ʿAmr and Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān. Al-Makhzūmī is in the *isnād* for the readings of Abū ʿAmr and Yaʿqūb.  12. ʿUbayd ibn Qays al-Kulābī, a *tābiʿī* (d. unknown) who read to Ibn Masʿūd and taught Ibn Waththāb. ʿUbayd is in the *isnād* of **Ḥamzah**, **al-Kisāʾī**, and **Khalaf**. 13. Ibn ʿĀmir (d. 118/736), one of the ten *qurrāʾ* who read to multiple companions including Abū al-Dardāʾ, Muʿādh, Faḍālah, Wāthilah, Muʿāwiyyah, and, arguably, ʿUthmān. 14. Muḥammad ibn Muslim al-Zuhrī (d. 124/741), who read to Anas ibn Mālik and taught **Nāfiʿ** (one of the ten *qurrāʾ*). Al-Zuhrī is in the *isnād* of **Nāfiʿ** and **Abū ʿAmr**. ### A growing Qur’anic community: Communal responsibility towards the Qur’an Knowledge and memorization of the Qur’an kept spreading among Muslims after the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Many companions memorized the Qur’an, and the number of Qur’an teachers and reciters multiplied during the reign of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb,[^204] who used to assign governmental funds to memorizers.[^205] Prayer was a significant mode of preserving the Qur’an, as reflected in the early Muslims’ connection to prayer and dedication to perfecting its intimate communing with God through His words. Intriguingly, some companions and *tābiʿūn* were reported to have recited the entire Qur’an in one *rakʿah*, and some used to recite the entire Qur’an 60 times in Ramadan. Several reports and discussions exist in the tradition pertaining to the preferred routine of completion (*khatm*) of the Qur’an.[^206] One of the main causes of the Qur’an’s increased dissemination in society was ʿUmar’s regulation of the Ramadan night supererogatory prayer (*tarāwīḥ*). ʿUmar had appointed three *qurrāʾ*—Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Muʿādh ibn al-Ḥārith, and Tamīm al-Dārī—and scheduled their leading-prayer shifts based on the pace of their recitation. One of the narrations describing their recitations states that they used to recite *sūrah*s consisting of more than 100 verses (*miʾīn*) and that the companions would lean on their sticks to tolerate the length of the prayer. Sometimes the prayer would last till near dawn (*fajr*).[^207] ʿUmar maintained the organization and support of this practice and requested that the various Muslim regions under his rule adopt it in the 14th year after the *hijrah*.[^208]  ʿUmar’s practice of *tarāwīḥ* persisted and proliferated during the time of ʿUthmān and ʿAlī, when the recitation and memorization of the Qur’an continued to spread rapidly. Importantly, there is no documented claim from that era alleging that the Qur’an was altered, added to, or distorted in terms of its order or style of recitation in any way.[^209] *Tarāwīḥ* remains a method of memorizing and transmitting the Qur’an today. For the following generations, memorizing the Qur’an was held to be a communal obligation (*[far](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fard-kifayah-the-principle-of-communal-responsibility-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670261664191167&usg=AOvVaw31q0SwccxE3lRA_09qyhz4)[ḍ](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fard-kifayah-the-principle-of-communal-responsibility-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670261664191407&usg=AOvVaw3cmba4HCfldile7883ftj-) [kifāyah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fard-kifayah-the-principle-of-communal-responsibility-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670261664191546&usg=AOvVaw1c6faTRnhAAKIOU_zCw6nw)*). Due to multiple hadiths in which the Prophet ﷺ warned against forgetting what had been memorized from the Qur’an, some jurists held such forgetting to be a major sin (*kabīrah*). In support of this position, they cited the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “The sins of my *ummah* were shown to me. I did not see a sin greater than a *sūrah* or verse of the Qur’an given to a person who then forgot it.”[^210] Despite its debatable authenticity, this hadith is understood by many jurists to establish the prohibition of forgetting the Qur’an. However, they disagreed extensively on the meaning of forgetting (e.g., complete loss of memory, inability to read from the *muṣḥaf*, neglect of its commands and prohibitions), valid excuses for forgetting (e.g., unintentional noncommitment to revising, occupation with other important studies or work to secure necessary lawful provision, mental issues), age-based accountability (differentiating between what was memorized at a young age versus adulthood), subjective memory strength and retention abilities, and the degree of sinning (major or minor) based on the intention and cause of forgetting. For example, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 974/1566) divided (*nisyān*) into two categories: unintentional *nisyān* and intentional negligence (*isqāṭ*). He concluded his detailed *fatwā* on this issue by saying, > It is understood from what I have stated that the \[exact\] point of forgetting is the removal \[of the memorized\] from the memory capacity (*al-quwwah al-ḥāfidhah*) so that one no longer retains it by heart as they used to before... Being able to read from the *muṣḥaf* does not prevent the sin of forgetting because we are ritually obligated to memorize by heart. Hence, imams \[of jurisprudence\] explicitly stated that its memorization is a communal obligation upon the *ummah*. Additionally,  most of the companions did not \[know how to\] write, but they had it \[the Qur’an\] memorized by heart… *nisyān* in the meaning I explained \[intentional negligence\] is a major sin even if \[it was of\] one verse as they \[earlier scholars\] stated. Even if one forgets one letter to such an extent that it requires work and repetition \[to be remembered\], they are sinful. If it does not reach that level and one can remember once they are reminded, they are not remiss.[^211] In his treatment of the same issue, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī narrated that Ibn Sīrīn (d. 110/729) said, “They \[the righteous forebears\] used to despise the one who forgets the Qur’an and to speak harshly of him.”[^212] --- ## Part II:  Written transmission of the Qur’an during the time of the Prophet ﷺ The illiteracy of Arab society at the time of the Prophet **ﷺ** is well-known. Less known is that despite this pervasive illiteracy, writing did exist among the Arabs: “Be wary of the opinion of those who say that the Arabs were not people of writing and pens.”[^213] According to Ahmad al-Jallād, “\[T\]he abundance of written records in Arabia suggests that writing was widespread among both settled people and nomads… however, its function among both groups was quite different.”[^214] Nonetheless, only select types of the Arab literature of the Ḥijāz, where the message of Islam commenced, were  \\documented in written form before and during the time of the Prophet **ﷺ**. Aside from writing for practical purposes such as letters, memoranda, treaties, and legal materials, “religious materials (with the eventual exception of the Qur’an), poetry and literary prose, genealogy, and historical traditions were transmitted orally” in the early Islamic centuries.[^215] Poetry, prose, oration, and storytelling were the primary means of preserving the heritage of this part of the Arabian peninsula. Writing was more common in the Arabian North and the South.[^216] Ancient South Arabia, with its thousands of public transcriptions, “exemplifies a literate society,” yet that does not necessarily reflect a “widespread literacy among the general population.”[^217] Compared to the Ḥijāz, where writing was not as common, even the venerated art of poetry “was not often put into writing in South Arabia.”[^218] As for the development of the Arabic script, in the South the people of Yemen used to write in *al-Musnad* script,[^219] while in the North, the Nabataeans adopted a writing style derived from the Aramaic prevalent in the Levant.[^220] The Ḥijāzī Arabs learned this style of writing centuries before Islam. It eventually developed into the Ḥijāzī script, the same one in which the Qur’an was written.[^221] The Qur’an explicitly acknowledges that most Arabs were illiterate by describing them (*ummiyyīn*) as well as the Prophet **ﷺ** (*ummiyy*) as “unlettered” in 62:2 and 7:157-8. The word *ummiyyīn*, according to the majority of exegetes, refers to those who do not know how to read or write.[^222] The Prophet **ﷺ** did not read or write, nor did many of the Arabs of his time. Nevertheless, consider the following verses: > It is for Us to **collect** it and to give you the ability to recite it.[^223] > Indeed, this is in the former **scrolls** \[scriptures\].[^224] > A Messenger from Allah reciting purified **pages** \[scriptures\].[^225] ​​ These verses of the Qur’an suggest the importance of preserving the Qur’an not just orally but in writing. Indeed, in arguing for the obligation to take all possible means of preserving the Qur’an, some scholars also cited the verse “This is the Book”[^226] and “His \[Allah’s\] Book”[^227] as indications that Allah’s revealed speech should be preserved by “writing it in sheets.”[^228] Unsurprisingly, then, the textual preservation of the Qur’an was a duty established by the Prophet **ﷺ** himself. He commanded people to write it down and appointed, organized, and supervised his scribes of revelation. After the Prophet’s death, this duty transformed into a *farḍ kifāyah* which his companions fulfilled. This organized scribal work came despite Arab society’s widespread illiteracy and, as shown below, played a pivotal role in fulfilling Allah’s promise to preserve the Qur’an. ### Literature on writing the Qur’an and the scribes of the Prophet ﷺ Two terms are commonly used in the various reports about the textual documentation of the Qur’an: collection (*jamʿ*) and compilation (*taʾlīf*). Al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870) dedicated in his *Ṣaḥīḥ* a separate section for each: “Section on the Collection of the Qur’an” (*bāb jamʿ al-Qurʾān*) and “Section on the Compilation of the Qur’an” (*bāb taʾlīf al-Qurʾān*). In his commentary on the *Ṣaḥīḥ*, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī noted that *jamʿ al-Qurʾān* is a collection of its sheets in a particular style while *taʾlīf al-Qurʾān* is arranging the verses of a *sūrah* or the order of the *sūrah*s.[^229] When sheets are bound together, they are known as a codex which, in the case of the Qur’an, is called a *muṣḥaf*. Parchment (a stiff, flat material made from the untanned skins of goats or sheep) was scarce during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Hence, he commanded his companions to write the Qur’an on other available materials such as palm leaf, stalk, and stump, as well as scapula bones, clay, the skin of animals, and certain kinds of rocks.[^230] Identifying the scribes of the Prophet ﷺ requires examination of a vast literature of books dedicated to the topic as well as the works of *sīrah*, *ṭabaqāt*, *shamāʾil* (characteristics of the Prophet), and history. Books that document the names and biographies of the scribes of the Prophet ﷺ date back to as early as the 3rd/9th century, such as *Kitāb al-Kuttāb* by ʿAmr ibn Shabbah (d. 262/877), which is no longer extant. Subsequent works include *al-Miṣbāḥ al-Mudiyy fī Kuttāb al-Nabyy* by Muḥammad ibn Ḥadīdah al-Anṣārī (d. 783/1381), the most extensive examination of the topic ever undertaken.[^231] Al-Anṣārī had two primary foci: the scribes of the Prophet ﷺ and the messengers and letters he ﷺ deployed to the kings and rulers of his time. After beginning the list with the four Caliphs, al-Anṣārī listed the rest of the scribes alphabetically. Still, no work independently dedicated to the Qur’anic scribes of the Prophet ﷺ exists in our tradition—a gap that some contemporary Muslim scholars have attempted to fill. Since the literature typically defines a scribe as someone who used to write anything for the Prophet ﷺ—not just Qur’an, but letters, legal documents, land deeds, and translations—scholars have disagreed on the number of Qur’anic scribes. Al-Aʿẓamī observed that almost every scholar he reviewed added more names to the list compiled by his predecessor.[^232] One exception, however, is ʿAmr ibn Shabbah, who named 23 scribes, despite coming after al-Yaʿqūbī (d. after 292/905), who listed only 13 scribes in his *Tārīkh*. The following scholars complemented al-Aʿẓamī’s list and provided different scribal counts based on their selected criteria: Al-Masʿūdī (d. 345/965) listed 16 scribes in his *al-Tanbīh wal-Ishrāf*, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1071) listed 25 in *al-Istīʿāb*, Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1167) listed 23 in *Tārīkh* *Dimashq*, al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1273) listed 26 in his *Tafsīr*, al-Anṣārī listed 44 in *al-Miṣbāḥ al-Mudiyy*, al-ʿIrāqī (d. 806/1403) listed 42 in his didactic poem *al-Alfiyyah* on *sīrah*,[^233] Sibṭ ibn al-ʿAjamī (d. 841/1438) listed 43 in his gloss on Qāḍī Iyāḍ’s *al-Shifā*, Yaḥiā al-ʿĀmiriyy al-Ḥaraḍayy (d. 893/1487) listed 25 in *Bahjat al-Maḥāfil*, and al-Shabrāmallisī (d. 1087/1676) listed 40 in his legal gloss on *al-Manhāj*.[^234] Based on a survey of such tremendous scholarship, as well as numerous works of literary professions (*inshāʾ*) and political treatises, most contemporary works put the number of scribes at over forty. ʿAlī al-Dabbāʿ (d. 1380/1961), in *Samīr al-Ṭālibīn*, noted that the total number of the Prophet’s scribes is 43 or 44, 14 of whom were specifically Qur’anic scribes.[^235] In his *Tārīkh al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf*, ʿAbdulfattāḥ al-Qāḍī (d. 1403/1982) stated, “The Prophet had 40 scribes before the revelation of the Qur’an came to completion.”[^236] The Shia scholar Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Zinjānī (d. 1359/1941) stated, in his *Tārīkh* *al-Qurʾan*, that the Prophet ﷺ had 43 scribes, listing 29 known to have specifically written the Qur’an.[^237] More recently, al-Aʿẓamī listed 48 scribes of the Prophet ﷺ in his *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, in which he treated their biographies.[^238] However, in *The History of the Qurʾanic Text*, al-Aʿẓamī stated that the Prophet ﷺ had a total of 65 scribes without specifying whether they transcribed the Qur’an or fulfilled other duties.[^239] In one section of his *Wathaqat Naql al-Naṣṣ al-Qurʾanī*, Muḥammad Jabal attempted to differentiate between Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic scribes of Prophet ﷺ through inference, compiling a total of 29 companions. Ghānim al-Ḥamad, in *Rasm al-Mushaf*, identified 43 as the overall number of the Prophet’s scribes.[^240] In his more recent work *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, he briefly discussed seven of them when covering the stages of writing the Qur’an during the lifetime of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^241] An important contribution to this discussion is the four-volume work of another Shia scholar ʿAlī al-Aḥmadī al-Mayānjī (d. 2000) titled *Makātīb al-Rasūl*. He divided the dictated writings of the Prophet ﷺ into two categories: writings that were especially dictated to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib comprising different aspects of his Prophetic knowledge, and writings of the Prophet’s *daʿwah* letters, letters to his envoys, treaties, feoffments, and others. In the latter section, he identified 255 dictated writings whose exact wordings are no longer extant and 229 others whose wordings have survived. He argued that the actual number of these writings exceeds the total numbers in both identified categories.[^242] In support of this argument, he provided a list of 263 companions whom the Prophet ﷺ had appointed to executive positions;[^243] al-Mayānjī, however, acknowledged that not all reports regarding this number of companions are authentic.[^244] Despite the resourceful authorities referenced in his work, and because of a strong emphasis on the role of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in the life of the Prophet ﷺ and the preservation of the Islamic traditions, al-Mayānjī was unduly strict in counting the number of the scribes of the Qur’an. While he distinguished the scribes of the Qur’an in a dedicated section, he limited them to only six companions, not at all of whom were certainly Qur’anic scribes.[^245] In an odd insistence on proving discrepancies between different reports, al-Mayānjī excluded the names of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, al-Mughīrah, ʿAmr ibn al-Āṣ, Khāild ibn al-Walīd, and Muʿāwiyah.[^246] His arguments for some of these exclusions will be discussed below. Finally, works on political theory and administrative law in the early Islamic era list those companions appointed to governmental or executive positions, including the scribes. Among the most extensive contemporary references on the Prophet’s lifetime is ʿAbdulḥayy al-Kittānī’s two-volume book on the Prophet’s governmental system, *al-Tarātīb al-Idāriyyah*. The third section of the first volume is dedicated to various topics related to the writing professions as organized by the Prophet ﷺ including his different types of dictated writings, his scribes, his style of dictation, his ways of addressing his correspondents, the structure of his official letters and statements, his translators, his spokespeople and poets, and his instructions to the scribes regarding the materials used and how to sign, date, stamp, and mail them.[^247] Moreover, Muhammad Hamiduallah’s (d. 1422/2002) collection of the “political documents” written during the time of the Prophet ﷺ and his four succeeding Caliphs is a significant reference for early writings and the scribes of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^248] The following sections on the scribes of the Qur’an will adopt Jabal’s bipartite categorization based on the Meccan and Medinan periods of the life of the Prophet ﷺ. ### Writing the Qur’an in the Meccan period The revelation of the Qur’an in the Meccan period lasted for 13 years. Since it was longer than the Medinan period, the Meccan period witnessed the revelation of more Qur'anic chapters. Of 45 long or medium chapters (from al-Baqarah to al-Aḥqāf), 35 are Meccan. This quantity of revelation may have necessitated textual transcription to protect it from potential losses or mistakes. The Prophet **ﷺ** paid early attention to the importance of preserving the revelation in writing and combating illiteracy among Muslims. He **ﷺ** was reported to have said, “record knowledge with writing.”[^249] Al-Azharī (d. 370/981) highlights the importance of written documentation, saying, “Writing \[guarantees\] more accuracy than the hearts of men.”[^250] Writing the Qur’an in an illiterate society affirms that such documentation did not stem from happenstance or merely reflect common cultural practice. Instead, it was a Divine inspiration and an intentional plan for the future of the new religion and its book.[^251] The Prophet **ﷺ** said, “Do not write down anything from me, and he who wrote down anything from me except the Qur’an should efface that.”[^252] This hadith indicates that some companions were already writing, or wanted to write down everything the Prophet **ﷺ** said. The Prophet **ﷺ** , though, wanted them to focus on the Qur’an’s writing and even erase anything else they had written from him. Later, he permitted the companions to write down his hadith.[^253] The Prophet **ﷺ** must have issued this ban on non-Qur’anic writing as early as his companions started writing down what he was conveying to them, meaning in Mecca.[^254] His (initial) prohibition of non-Quranic writing established a distinction between human and Divine speech that protected the latter from distortion.[^255] This distinction in writing added another layer of protection to that offered by the unparalleled rhetorical style of the Qur’an. Evidently, then, the prevalence of illiteracy in Meccan society did not negate the existence of writing and writers. By the advent of Islam, there were 17 scribes among the Quraysh.[^256] As known in the *sīrah*, the Quraysh wrote on a sheet documenting their official boycott of the Prophet **ﷺ** and Meccan Muslims. Multiple companions among the early Meccan Muslims were penmen, including Abū Bakr, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Saʿīd ibn Zayd and his wife Fāṭimah bint al-Khaṭṭāb, and Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt. The story of how ʿUmar embraced Islam, highlighted above, relates that Saʿīd, his wife Fāṭimah, and Khabbāb were reading Qur’an from a sheet that had verses from Sūrah Tāhā and possibly also Sūrah al-Takwīr.[^257] There were likely multiple other sheets that contained written Qur’an. ### The Prophet’s scribes in the Meccan period Scarcely does the existing literature explicitly identify anyone as a Meccan scribe of revelation. Moreover, the harsh conditions characteristic of the Meccan period of Islam possibly concealed many details regarding the transcription of the Qur’an during that time. However, *sīrah* works generally list the scribes who wrote everything the Prophet ﷺ dictated, including Qur’an, messages, correspondences, and other deeds and documents. It is possible to identify who among them were specifically Meccan scribes if they meet three criteria: a scribe of the Prophet (as long as this scribe’s transcription was not specified for anything other than the Qur’an), an early Muslim, and a resident of Mecca. In applying these three conditions, four names rise to the top of the list: 1. Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasanah (d. 18/639), said to be “the first \[companion\] to write for the Prophet \[ﷺ\].”[^258] His status as the first Prophetic scribe indicates he began writing before he migrated to Abyssinia, which in turn suggests that he wrote Qur’an, since the Prophet ﷺ did not correspond with anyone in writing during the pre-Abyssinian period.[^259]      2. Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ (d. 13/634), said to be the second person to embrace Islam after Abū Bakr. Khālid was the first to write, “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” (*Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*).[^260]  3. Ḥanẓalah ibn al-Rabīʿ al-Tamīmī (d. 52/672), known as “The Scribe” (*al-kātib*) before Zayd ibn Thābit won that title.   4. ʿAbdullāh ibn Sʿad (d. 36-37). According to Al-ʿAsqalānī, he was the first person from Quraysh to write the revelation for the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca.[^261] ʿAbdullāh ibn Sʿad is known for the controversy surrounding his apostasy from Islam during the life of the Prophet ﷺ. He eventually revoked his apostasy, became Muslim again, and participated in multiple conquests before he died as a Muslim.[^262] Other companions who embraced Islam early and fulfilled general scribal duties for the Prophet ﷺ were:[^263] 5. Abū Bakr 6. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb Al-Mayānjī questioned whether Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were from among the Prophet’s scribes, despite multiple biographies affirming that they were. Al-Mayānjī also stated that Abū Bakr was unlettered, a claim for which he cited no evidence besides Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (d. 328/940) not listing him among the 17 men who knew how to write at the advent of Islam.[^264] Abu Bakr’s exclusion from Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih’s list is not sufficient evidence for al-Mayānjī’s claim, especially since Abu Bakr is reported to have written a peace treaty by the command of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^265] Conflicting reports about the identity of this treaty’s scribe are reconciled by Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) to mean that Abu Bakr shared the writing process with another companion, ʿĀmir ibn ʿUqbah.[^266] 7. ʿUthmān, when the rebels attacked him and struck his hand with a sword, said, “By Allah, it is the first hand to transcribe the *mufaṣṣal*.”[^267]  8. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib 9. Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh (d. 36/656) 10.  Al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām (d. 36/656) 11.  Al-Arqam ibn Abī al-Arqam (d. 55/675) 12.  Ḥāṭib ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Wud (d. unknown) 13. ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah (d. 4/625) 14. Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Asad (d. 4/625) 15. Muʿayqīb al-Dūsī (d. 40/660) 16. Abān ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ (d. 13/634). He was Khālid’s brother (mentioned above).[^268] The Qur’an was transcribed concomitantly with its revelation. Several companions reported that the Prophet **ﷺ** would call on scribes when he received new revelation and instruct them to write and place it in its assigned chapter.[^269] Although not commonly reported in classical or contemporary *ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* works, some of the Qur’an-inscribed sheets in Mecca were sent to Medina to support the ongoing dissemination of the Qur’an.[^270] Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī reported from Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767) that Rāfiʿibn Mālik al-Zuraqī was “the first to bring Sūrah Yūsuf to Medina.”[^271] Admittedly, this report does not explicitly mention whether the *sūrah* was received from the Prophet ﷺ orally or in writing. However, al-ʿAsqalānī reported another narration from al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār (d. 256/870) that the Prophet ﷺ gave Rāfiʿ, when they met during the pledge of al-ʿAqabah, what was revealed to him over the previous decade. Rāfiʿ, in turn, took that from the Prophet ﷺ to Medina, where he gathered his people and started teaching them what he had brought from the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^272] It is almost impossible that Rāfiʿ learned so much Qur’an orally at once, which indeed suggests that it was in writing. It is important to note that Rāfiʿ was an educated person known as one of society’s “perfect people” (*al-kamalah*). According to Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845), a “perfect person” (*kāmil*) in pre-Islamic times was one who wrote and was skilled in swimming and archery.[^273] There is no existing evidence of what eventually happened to Rāfiʿ’s sheets. Possibly, they were among the sheets which Zayd ibn Thābit, and other scribes, used in reviewing their writings with the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^274] These sheets (derived from different parchment materials) were potentially kept in an easily movable container, as evidenced by Rāfiʿ’s successful journey to Medina with a decade’s worth of revelation despite a dangerous climate of anti-Islamic hostility.[^275] ### Writing the Qur’an in the Medinan period The Prophet’s ﷺ efforts to maintain written documentation of the Qur’an continued after his move to Medina. During the Meccan period, there was no need to write anything besides the Qur’an. However, the situation changed drastically after the immigration to Medina due to the complex needs of the new society. Accordingly, after victory in the Battle of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ issued a different kind of ransom for the captives lacking financial resources: teaching Medinan children how to write. Each captive was responsible for teaching ten children.[^276] Thus, illiteracy decreased among the Arabs after the spread of Islam amongst them. Consequently, the number of scribes increased, and their scribal duties diversified to include a range of tasks that extended beyond transcribing the Qur’an to include other Prophetic statements and decisions. Contrary to a common belief that registers (*diwān*s) were established after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, simple forms of *diwān*s were developed during his time and by his command ﷺ. The word *diwān*, in its early usage, references the place where a transcriber sits, a logbook, or a register.[^277] According to al-Qalqashandī (d. 821/1418) in his administrative encyclopedia on the composition of chancery documents *Ṣubḥ al-Aʿshā*, the first chancery in Islam was established during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, as represented in his letters and correspondences.[^278] Although the official establishment of army and revenue registers is attributed to his successors, most popularly to Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, prototypical forms of such registers emerged in the lifetime of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^279] The existence of such *diwan*s can be inferred from several hadiths. Ḥudhayfah narrated that “the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘List the names of those people who have announced that they are Muslims.’ So, we listed 1,500 men.”[^280] This “listing” implies a practice of written record-keeping. Once, after the Prophet ﷺ stated that “it is not permissible for a man to be alone with a woman, and no lady should travel except with an unmarriageable kin (*maḥram*),” a man responded by saying, “O Allah’s Messenger! I have enlisted (*uktutibtu*) in the army for such-and-such battle, and my wife is proceeding for *hajj*.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Go and perform the *hajj* with your wife.”[^281] Al-Bukhārī titled the section under which this hadith was reported using the word for someone “who was enlisted” (*uktutiba*), meaning enlisted in writing. Moreover, several companions were reported to have registered their alms dues and contributions (*amwāl al-ṣadaqāt*) for the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Mayānjī, based on a variety of sources, identified eight *diwān*s established by him ﷺ which are: 1) the *diwān* for transcribing the Qur’an, 2) the *diwān* for writing down the sunnah, 3) the *diwān* for treaties, pledges, peace agreements, and feoffments, 4) the *diwān* for claims, lawsuits, and financial disputes, 5) the *diwān* of the army, 6) the *diwān* for alms (*zakāh*), spoils, charities, and their recipients, 7) the *diwān* of chancery for correspondences with kings, tribes, deputies, and envoys, and 8) the *diwān* of delegates.[^282] ### The Prophet’s scribes in the Medinan period ʿUthmān, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and Zayd ibn Thābit were among the most critical scribes in the Medinan period, heavily influencing the process and the final stages of standardizing the Qur’anic text. Ubayy was the first to write the Qur’an for the Prophet ﷺ in Medina. If Ubayy was not available, Zayd ibn Thābit used to be assigned to write. ʿUthmān testified for himself, as mentioned earlier, describing his hand as “the first hand to transcribe the *mufaṣṣal*.”[^283] Zayd, one of the *anṣāri* children who learned from Badr’s captives, became the most important figure of Qur’anic transcription and compilation during and after the time of the Prophet ﷺ. The people of Medina knew him as “the scribe of revelation” (*kātib al-waḥy*).[^284] Zayd ibn Thābit’s residential proximity to the Prophet ﷺ eased his commitment to writing the Qur’an, as “I was his \[the Prophet’s\] neighbor. When the revelation would come to him, he would call on me to write it down.”[^285] Zayd went on to describe how he would be there in all different situations with the Prophet ﷺ: “If he \[the Prophet\] mentions the hereafter, he mentions it with us. If he mentions life, he mentions it with us, and if he mentions food, he mentions it with us.”[^286] Qur’anic transcription took a more specialized form in Medina through Zayd’s work who, given his proximity to the Prophet ﷺ, kept the writing tools (e.g., sheets, tablets, inkpot) ready at his house to be instantly available for the call of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^287] Upon the revelation of verse 4:99, the Prophet said, “Call Zayd for me and let him bring the board, the inkpot, and the scapula bone \[or the scapula bone and the ink pot\].”[^288] Zayd led the committee that compiled the Qur’an during the caliphate of Abū Bakr and the one that transcribed it during the caliphate of ʿUthmān. In addition to these three companions, others who were known to write for the Prophet ﷺ in Medina without a specification of the content of writing were:[^289] 1. ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah (d. 8/629) 2. Thābit ibn Qays (d. 12/633) 3. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbdillāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl (d. 12/633) 4. Khālid ibn al-Walīd (d. 21/642) 5. ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Arqam (d. before 35/624). He was al-Arqam’s son. 6. Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (d. 36/656) 7. Ḥuayṭib ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā al-Qurashī (d. 54/673) 8. Saʿīd ibn al-ʿAṣ (d. 59/678) 9. Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān (d. 60/680)   10.  Buraydah ibn al-Ḥuṣayb al-Aslamī (d. 63/682) ### The instant documentation of revelation As mentioned earlier, the instant transcription of newly revealed Qur’an was a common practice of the Prophet ﷺ with his scribes in both Mecca and Medina. ʿĀʾishah said, “I have seen the Prophet ﷺ resting his thigh against ʿUthmān while I was wiping the Prophet’s ﷺ sweat from his forehead upon the revelation’s descent on him. The Prophet ﷺ was saying, ‘Write O ʿUthmān.’”[^290] Zayd ibn Thābit described the Prophet’s instant conveyance of verse 4:95 and his command to document it saying, > I was beside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when the divinely-inspired calmness overtook him and the thigh of the Messenger ﷺ fell on my thigh. I did not find anything weightier than the thigh of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He then regained his composure and said “Write down.” I wrote on a shoulder: {Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and those who strive in the way of Allah}. When Ibn Umm Maktūm, who was blind, heard the virtue of the warriors, he stood up and said “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! How is it for those believers who are unable to fight?” > When he finished his question, the divinely-inspired calmness overtook the Prophet again and his thigh fell on my thigh and I found its weight the second time as I found the first time. When he regained his composure, he said, {Other than those who have a (disabling hurt)}. Zayd said “Allah, the Exalted, revealed it alone and I appended it.”[^291] The immediate documentation of the revelation proves that whatever was dictated and written is the exact text of the Qur’an as Jibrīl revealed it with no room for personal suppositions or dependence on memory. Moreover, the immediacy of documentation negates any possibility that the transcribed text was a result of the concession (*rukhṣah*) of *aḥruf* permitting personal preferences of dialectical pronunciations. More importantly, the textual transcription done under the direct supervision of the Prophet ﷺ—executed by the most notable scribes and closest companions during the last period of revelation—was the primary source for Abū Bakr’s compilation of the Qur’an. An early testimony was made by al-Ḥārith al-Muḥāsibī (d. 243/857) that > writing down the Qur’an was not invented \[after the time of the Prophet\]. Rather, Abū Bakr \[only\] ordered to copy \[what was written\] from one place to another. Those were sheets found in the house of the Prophet ﷺ in which the Qur’an was transcribed. A collector compiled them and bound them with thread, so none would go missing.[^292] Abū Bakr’s compilation process added another layer of verification, combining oral transmission with the transcribed sheets. Hence, any possible discrepancy in oral pronunciation was eliminated by the transcribed text in an ongoing process of standardizing the Qur’anic recitation. Abū Bakr’s compiled Qur’an was the primary source for the final transcription of ʿUthmān’s *muṣḥaf*. This uniformity of transcription suggests that differences between the multiple copies of ʿUthmān’s *muṣḥaf* are limited only to what was directly conveyed by the Prophet ﷺ based on his reception from Jibrīl.[^293] ### Reviewing the written Qur’an The aforementioned report of Zayd writing verse 4:95 also shows that the immediacy of transcription did not compromise review and verification. Zayd was reported, via a disputed chain of transmission, to have said, “I used to write the revelation for the Prophet while he dictated to me. When I finished \[writing\], he would tell me, ‘Read \[what you wrote\]’ so I read it. If something was missing, he would fix it.”[^294] Hadith scholars cited this report to establish that reviewing a written text and comparing it with its source is mandatory, following the practice of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^295] Drafts of letters were presented to the Prophet ﷺ by his scribes before being dispatched,[^296] a practice that was probably also applied to Qur’anic materials given their pivotal significance. Moreover, copying was known during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Some companions (like Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb) kept personal copies they transcribed of different written dictations of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^297] Less than 25 years after the Prophet’s death, a secretariat known as the House of Sheets (*bayt al-qarāṭīs*) was established in Medina, near ʿUthmān’s house.[^298] Zayd narrated, “We were with, or around, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ compiling (*nuʾallifu*) the Qur’an on scraps (*riqāʿ*).”[^299] This report shows that documentation was a group task, one that involved a process of compilation that encompassed writing, reviewing, and arranging verses and chapters. Additionally, the word “with” or “around” indicates that the Prophet ﷺ was always present among the memorizers and scribes during this process.[^300] Likely, he had certain places in which writers sat near him while writing to ensure accurate dictation. Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that “a man would bring a sheet to the Prophet ﷺ, so a man would volunteer \[seeking no compensation\] to write down \[the Qur’an\], then another man takes a turn and writes down \[the Qur’an\] until the *muṣḥaf* is completed.”[^301] Hence, writing the Qur’an was a voluntary task for which scribes gained no compensation. The materials on which the Qur’an was written were saved in the Prophet’s house, Zayd’s house, or other places such as the Prophet’s mosque.[^302] It is highly probable that the entire Qur’an was transcribed during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, yet was scattered across different materials. A report attributed to Zayd says, “The Prophet ﷺ died, and the Qur’an was not compiled in a book. Rather, it was on palm leaf, stump, stalk, and branches.”[^303] In describing how he started the compilation process during the caliphate of Abū Bakr, Zayd said, “I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from \[what was written on\] palm stalks, thin white stones and also from the men who knew it by heart.”[^304]  A lack of empirical evidence prompted many contemporary scholars and academics to conclude that the Qur’an was not entirely written down during the lifetime of the Prophet. Thus, Yasin Dutton argues that > the picture of the Qur’an’s ‘collection’ in written form after the death of the Prophet quite overtly refers to ‘the hearts of men’ as being one of the main sources of Qur’anic material (alongside palm-branches, stones, etc.). Indeed, given the limited surface area of these other materials, it would seem at least possible that, at the death of the Prophet, large portions of the Qur’an were still in ‘the hearts of men’ rather than being in a solid, written, form.[^305] While Dutton’s suggestion that “large portions” of the Qur’an were not in “a solid” written form may seem empirically supported by the dearth of original written materials, the possibility that most, or even all, of the Qur’an was written down during the lifetime of the Prophet still stands. Indeed, everything that has been covered in this section—the organized scribal activities, the appointment of scribes, the encouragement of education through writing, the Divine command to preserve the text, and the authentically reported reliance on written materials transcribed during the time of the Prophet in the subsequent textual compilations of the Qur’an—plainly substantiate the thesis that the entire Qur’an was recorded before the Prophet’s passing. Furthermore, some contemporary scholars of Late Antiquity came to the conclusion that > the most probable theory seems to be that at the death of the proclaimer, the revelations received by this time had been fixed in writing, in the form of copies that had been established with his approval by some of his companions, although these forms were not submitted by the Prophet himself to a final redaction in the form of a codex.[^306] Indeed, many prominent classical authorities on the topic, such as Makkī ibn Abī Tālib, ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Suyūṭī and al-Qasṭalānī, stated that the entirety of the Qur’an was transcribed during the time of the Prophet \[ﷺ\].[^307] Among the more contemporary Qur’an scholars who held the position that the entire Qur’an was written down during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, yet on scattered materials, are Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Ḥuseinī (d. 1357/1939), ʿAbdulfattāḥ al-Qāḍī, ʿAlī al-Dabbāʿ, and Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī (d. 1400/1980).[^308] The reasons why the Prophet ﷺ did not order the compilation of these materials in one *muṣḥaf* are that 1) the companions were primarily concerned with the oral memorization of the Qur’an more than with its transcription, 2) the possibilities of revealing new Qur’an or abrogating some existing verses were continuously present during the Prophet’s life, and 3) writing is meant to prevent forgetting or doubt over wording, which would not happen so long as the Prophet ﷺ, the trusted human source of the revelation, was present. The dispersion of the Qur’an’s written pieces was a distinct difference between the “compilation of the Qur’an” during the time of the Prophet and the caliphates of Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān.[^309] Furthermore, the opinion that only parts of the Qur’an were written down during the time of the Prophet ﷺ does not negate the preservation of the entirety of the text. The continuance of oral transmission, as detailed in the first part of this article, and the rigorous process of compiling the Qur’an by the companions shortly after the death of the Prophet ﷺ compensated for any potential missing writings. ### Did the companions know orthography? The prevalence of illiteracy and the unique transcription style of the companions in writing the *muṣḥaf*  led some scholars, such as Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406), to assert that the Arabic script until the time of the companions was not fully developed or standardized.[^310] However, it is improbable that the companions, who established regular correspondences with kings and princes and documented their contracts, grants, and transactions, contravened rules of dictation and spelling.[^311] If Islam came while a limited number of people knew writing, the regular and diverse writing activities led by the Prophet ﷺ certainly signify a historic shift among the unlettered community. In his discussion of this claim, al-Kurdī argues that the Kufic script, which was common during the time of the companions, was imported to the Hijaz from Iraq and originally belonged to the Himyaritic Yemeni script.[^312] However, this hypothesis has been disproven.[^313] More recent research, which still struggles with the dearth of historical sources, has uncovered a more substantial relation between the Kufic and Nabatean scripts.[^314] Some inscriptions from the companions’ time are extant in Hijaz, especially in Mecca, Medina, and Taif, in different scripting styles.[^315] Regardless of its exact origins, the Kufic script is certainly ancient—and it is unlikely that such an ancient script did not acquire its own orthographical rules, especially since other scripts that date thousands of years prior to the Himyaritic script, such as Phoenician, Assyrian, and Syriac, acquired their own rules. Furthermore, the development of a discipline focused on the orthography of the  Qur’an (*rasm muṣḥaf*)—investigating every style, script, font, and spelling variation—testifies to the intricacies contemplated by the companions. Different transcriptions reflecting different spelling rules or phonetic conventions were purposely conducted in accordance with the dialectical modes accommodated in the *rukhsah* of *aḥruf*, to whose tracing and standardization the scholars have dedicated a massive body of scholarship.[^316] Among multiple scholarly approaches to such differences is one that attributes them to mistakes made by the scribe—a possibility propounded by Ibn Qutaybah, Ibn Khaldūn, and arguably Ibn Kathīr.[^317] The unique style of the *muṣḥaf*’s *rasm* prompted some of these scholars to draw a distinction between standard Arabic script and orthography and that of the ʿUthmānic codex. Ibn Khaldūn’s sophisticated argument for the Arabic script’s undeveloped character in uncivilized societies suggests an established writing style for scribes during the companions’ time distinct from the one adopted in writing down the *muṣḥaf*.[^318] This distinction, made by Ibn Khaldūn, Ibn Qutaybah, and multiple contemporary researchers, neglects the fact that orthographic rules developed years later. Subjecting a phenomenon in the ʿUthmānic codex, which is written in different styles, to one orthographic rule is flawed.[^319] Additionally, some of these different styles resulted from the companions’ commitment to preserving the ancient figures or words while representing the unique phonetics employed in the Qur’an.[^320] Finally, traditional narrations suggesting scribal errors in the ʿUthmānic codex are rendered unauthentic or misconstrued.[^321] ### The order of verses and the arrangement of the written and recited Qur’an The placement of verses in their respective chapters was another critical responsibility of the Prophet’s scribes since few chapters were revealed in their entirety at once. In addition to several short (*qiṣār*) chapters, a few relatively long chapters were revealed at once, such as al-Anʿām, al-Ṣaff, and al-Mursalāt.[^322] The fact that the majority of the Qur’an was revealed in intervals necessitates that it was arranged sequentially with the time of revelation. The order of verses in the Qur’an, according to the majority of scholars, was mandated by Divine guidance and applied by the Prophet **ﷺ** (*tawqīfī*). This Divine arrangement is evidenced by the following facts: First, as mentioned above, when he received new revelation, the Prophet **ﷺ** used to call on some of his scribes and instruct them to write and place it in its assigned chapter. Al-Qurṭubī and others attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās the report that after the last verse of the Qur’an was revealed, “And fear a Day when you will be returned to Allah,” Jibrīl asked the Prophet **ﷺ** to place it as verse number 281 in Sūrah al-Baqarah.[^323] ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ also narrated that the Prophet **ﷺ** said, “Jibrīl \[just\] came to me and asked me to place this verse in this part of the *sūrah*, ‘Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.’”[^324] The Prophet’s adherence to Jibrīl’s instructions regarding the organization of the verses and chapters indicates that they are Divinely arranged. The companions, in turn, abided by the arrangement of the Prophet **ﷺ** since they “would have never adopted an arrangement different from what they heard from the Prophet.”[^325] In commenting on Zayd’s statement, “We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ compiling the (*nuʾallifu*) Qur’an on scraps,” al-Bayhaqī (d. 458/1066) held the word *nuʾallifu* to possibly mean “the compilation of scattered verses in their respective chapters.”[^326] ʿUthmān mentioned that upon receiving intervals of long chapters, the Prophet **ﷺ** would call his scribes and say, “Place these verses in the chapter in which there is a mention of such and such.”[^327] The companions’ caution against addition or omission is reflected in their inclusion of verses whose rulings are abrogated. When he was asked about why verse 2:240 was included despite the abrogation of its ruling on women’s mourning waiting period for a year, ʿUthmān answered, “I do not change anything from its place.”[^328] Second, multiple hadiths describe a group of verses or encourage their memorization or recitation in a particular sequence, such as the “opening verses” of a *sūrah* such as al-Kahf,[^329] or “the closing verses” of a *sūrah* such as al-Baqarah.[^330] Third, the regular public reception of the Qur’an in prayer and through teaching by the companions adopted and affirmed the order of verses. The abovementioned eighth method, reciting in prayer, provides examples of several chapters the Prophet **ﷺ** recited in a verse order that the companions learned and preserved. Hence, Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179/795) was reported to have said, “The Qur’an was compiled based on the companions’ oral reception of the recitation of the Prophet \[**ﷺ**\].”[^331] Fourth, scholarly literature on the particular arrangement and structure of the Qur’an examined the unique correlations between its consecutive verses and chapters. An example of such studies is the exegetical sub-discipline of the science of Qur’anic correlation (*ʿilm al-munāsabah*). While some scholars dedicated independent works to discussing this discipline,[^332] some exegetes applied its methodology in their exegeses (*tafsīr*), such as al-Rāzī, al-Suyūṭī, and al-Biqāʿī (d. 885/1480), who reflected this methodology in the title of his work, *Naẓm al-durar fī tanāsub al-āyāt wa-l-suwar*. A more recent example of such methodology is  Ibn ʿĀshūr’s (d. 1973) *tafsīr*. *ʿIlm al-munāsabah* illustrates how the arrangement of verses was intentional; hence, the review of the transcribed Qur’an was necessary given the varying length of the periodical revelation. A case study on the longest chapter of the Qur’an, Sūrah al-Baqarah, was done by the late scholar Muḥammad Dirāz (d. 1958), showcasing its structural unity and thematic cohesion despite addressing a wide range of subjects throughout its nine-year-long revelation.[^333] Finally, the names of the Qur’an’s chapters were also held to be *tawqīfī* by many scholars. Several accounts relate numerous names of *sūrah*s from the Prophet **ﷺ** and his companions. Al-Suyūṭī said, “The names of all the chapters are Divinely determined through hadiths and reports. If it was not for fear of prolixity, I would have stated that.”[^334] Hence, the definition of a “*sūrah*” is a reflection of a number of verses grouped by the Prophet **ﷺ** in one chapter with a specific name. This, however, does not contradict the fact that some chapters were given multiple names or descriptions by the companions and following generations. The question of whether a *sūrah* can acquire multiple names in addition to the Divinely assigned one is a matter of disagreement among scholars.[^335] --- ## Conclusion The oral transmission of the Qur’an was the primary method the Prophet ﷺ adopted to preserve its text, following the Divine command of “recitation” and responding to the circumstances of the revelation’s first recipients. In addition to immediately reciting the revelation to his companions, the Prophet ﷺ would recite it to disbelievers to present the miraculous message of Islam. He ﷺ would teach at mosques, during travel, and on a one-on-one basis to those coming to embrace Islam, to gatherings he came across, and in prayers and sermons. The Prophet ﷺ also instructed his companions to teach the Qur’an to each other as well as to new Muslims across different geographies and contexts. The Qur’an was taught and recited by travelers and in concentrated efforts in various places of worship, extending from centralized populations of Muslims to nomadic Bedouins. Millions of Muslims today across the globe, from all different age groups and ethnic or linguistic backgrounds, have the entire Qur’an memorized by heart. Throughout history and until today, Muslims remained committed to the oral culture of their text and maintained its verbal delivery with the most careful verification and articulation possible. Ensuring the preservation of the Qur’an was a life-long process for the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. Following Divine instructions and envisioning the future of his *ummah*, he organized scribal work among a select group of companions to contribute to the preservation process and to inspire the succeeding knowledge-based civilization they established. The Prophet’s scribes and the written sheets of the Qur’an were the primary sources for the compilation of the Qur’an during the caliphate of Abū Bakr and its unified transcription during the caliphate of ʿUthmān. The Qur’an we have today, all 114 chapters, easily accessible in numerous print and digital forms, was fully and authentically preserved due to the oral and textual efforts of the first generation of our *ummah*. This article is an attempt to highlight but a fraction of that effort’s depth, breadth, and ambition. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 15:9. [^2]: For a brief summary of the definition of the Qur’an, see Yousef Wahb, “An Introduction to *ʿUlūm al-Qur'an*: The Field of Qur’anic Studies,” *Yaqeen*, April 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670261664261574&usg=AOvVaw1F9ED1oidJxSkPYjRvQGJM). [^3]: Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, “The Origins of the Variant Readings of the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, August 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-Qur’an](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-Qur%27an); Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, “The ʿUthmānic Codex: Understanding how the Qur’an was Preserved,” *Yaqeen*, June 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-uthmanic-codex-understanding-how-the-quran-was-preserved](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-uthmanic-codex-understanding-how-the-quran-was-preserved); Yousef Wahb, “Can the Qur’an be Recited in Different Ways? The Meaning and Wisdom of Qiraat,” *Yaqeen*, April 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat); [^4]: Theodor Nöldeke, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergsträßer, and Otto Pretzl, *The History of the Qurʾān* (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013), 36. [^5]: Nöldeke, Schwally, Bergsträßer, and Pretzl, *History of the Qurʾān*, 211. [^6]: Nöldeke, Schwally, Bergsträßer, and Pretzl, *History of the Qurʾān*, 214. [^7]: Michael C. A. Macdonald, “Ancient Arabia and the Written Word,” in *The Development of Arabic as a Written Language*, ed. M. C. A. Macdonald (Oxford: Archaeopress: 2012), 21. [^8]: Nöldeke, Schwally, Bergsträßer, and Pretzl, *History of the Qurʾān*, 209. [^9]: Nöldeke, Schwally, Bergsträßer, and Pretzl, *History of the Qurʾān*, 36. [^10]: Carl Brockelmann, *Tārīkh al-adab al-ʿArabī*, ed, ʿAbdulḥalīm al-Najjār and Ramadān ʿAbdultawwāb, 5th ed., 6 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1977), 1:137–144, esp. 139. [^11]: Régis Blachére, *Al-Qurʾan: Nuzūluh, Tadwīnuh, Tarjamatuh wa Taʾthīruh*, trans. Ridā Saʿādah, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānī, 1974), 28–29. [^12]: John Burton, *The Collection of the Qurʾān* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 118. [^13]: Burton, *Collection of the Qurʾān*, 117. [^14]: Claude Gilliot, “Creation of a Fixed Text,” in *The* *Cambridge Companion to the Qur’ān*, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2006), 46. [^15]: Burton, *The Collection of the Qurʾān*, 229. [^16]: Burton, *The Collection of the Qurʾān*, 225. [^17]: Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Al-Aʿẓamī, *The History of the Qur’anic Text from Revelation to Compilation* (Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2003), 3–13. [^18]: ʿAbdel Raḥmān Badawī, *Défense de la vie du Prophète Muhammad contre ses Détracteurs* (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1983). [^19]: ʿAbdel Raḥmān Badawī, *al-Difāʿ ʿan al-Qur’ān ḍidda muntaqidīh*, 1st ed. (Cairo: Madboulī al-Saghīr, n.d.). The Arabic translation, however, lacks accuracy in converting technical terms from French to Arabic and falls short in quoting the original Arabic sources Badawī cited on several occasions. [^20]: Badawī, *al-Difāʿ ʿan al-Qur’ān ḍidda muntaqidīh*, 107–124. [^21]: Badawī, *al-Difāʿ ʿan al-Qur’ān ḍidda muntaqidīh*, 123–24. [^22]: Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, ed. Wahbī Ghawjī (Morocco: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shū*ʾ*un al-Islāmiyah, 1995), 1:244. The same hadith, as noted by the editor Ghawjī, is also narrated by Aḥmad, Abū Yaʿlā, and al-Ṭabarānī. [^23]: Ibn Sallām, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*. [^24]: Ibn Qutaybah, *Tawʾīl mukhtalif al-ḥadīth*, ed. Muḥammad al-Najjār (Cairo: Maktabat al-Kulliyāt al-Azhariyyah, 1966), 200. [^25]: Ibn Qutaybah, *Tawʾīl mukhtalif al-ḥadīth*. [^26]: It is said that ʿUthmān sent a reciter (*qārī*) with each copy to teach Muslims in their respective regions. This claim is common in some contemporary writings, such as Muhammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān al-Karīm wa gharāʾib rasmihi wa ḥukmih*, 2nd ed. (Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Halabī, 1953), 80;  Muḥammad Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’ānī min Rasūl Allah ilā ummatih* (Tanta: Dār al-Sahābah, 2001), 194. The earliest account of this claim is cited by al-Jaʿbarī (d. 732/1328) without an *isnād*; it states: “ʿUthmān instructed Zayd ibn Thābit to recite according to the Madīnan codex, he sent ʿAbdullah ibn al-Sāʾib with the Makkī codex, Mughīrah ibn Abī Shihāb with the Syrian codex, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī with the Kūfan codex, and ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Qays with the Baṣran codex.” [^27]: Qur’an 27:6. [^28]: Qur’an 28:86. [^29]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an*, ed. Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī, 4 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Hadith, 2006), 1:142–66. [^30]: Qur’an 75:19. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 448. [^32]: Qur’an 87:6–7. [^33]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Mafātiḥ al-Ghayb*, 1st ed., 32 vols. (N.p.: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 31:142. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5083. [^35]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Muḥibb al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb et al., 1st ed., 13 vols. (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1960), 9:86. [^36]: Ibn Hajar mentioned two opinions regarding stipulating the immediate remembering; some said it must be immediate and others said it is not mandatory. [^37]: Al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:86. [^38]: Qur’an 5:67. [^39]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:142. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 4997–98, the chapter on “The Virtues of the Qur’an” (*kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*), the section on “Jibrīl used to review the Qur’an with the Prophet” (*bāb kāna Jibrīl yaʿriḍ al-Qurʾan ʿalā al-Nabī*). [^41]: Abū al-Abbās Aḥmad ibn Abū Bakr al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt li funūn al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Markaz al-Dirasat al-Qur'aniyah, 1st ed., 10 vols. (Saudi Arabia: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shū*ʾ*un al-Islāmiyah, 2012), 1:49. [^42]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:5. [^43]: Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-kawtharī* (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Tawfīqiyyah, n.d.), 26. [^44]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:291. [^45]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 2:8; al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:51. [^46]: Qur’an 25:32. [^47]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī waḥyan wa rasman wa lughatan wa qirāʾatan* (Istanbul: Dār al-Ghawthānī 2019), 48. [^48]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī.* [^49]: For example, Qur’an 5:27 and 7:175. [^50]: Qur’an 6:151. [^51]: Qur’an 13:30. [^52]: Qur’an 17:106. [^53]: Qur’an 27:92 [^54]: Qur’an 10:71, 26:69, and 29:45. [^55]: Qur’an 2:151. [^56]: Wahb, “An Introduction to *ʿUlūm al-Qur'an.*” [^57]: *ʿArd*, linguistically, is making something clear for others to know about it. [^58]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’ānī*, 18–19. [^59]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 590. [^60]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1166. [^61]: *Tashahhud* (lit. testimony or witness), also known as *al-taḥiyyāt* (lit. greetings or salutations), is a supplication recited in the middle or final sitting in prayer. [^62]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 403. [^63]: *Muwaṭṭa Mālik*, no. 203. [^64]: Qur’an 4:95; *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 2507. [^65]: *Sunan al-Dārimī* no. 2445; *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* no. 3309. In highlighting the significance of a short chain of transmission (*isnād ʿālī*) and providing an example of uniform pattern of transmission (*musalsal*), Ibn al-Jazarī mentioned that he narrates this hadith via only ten men in a uniform manner (every transmitter in the *isnād* recited the entire *sūrah* after narrating the hadith). Abū al-Khayr ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Ḍabbāʿ, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), 1:194–95. [^66]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4897. [^67]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1830. [^68]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 400. [^69]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 73–75. [^70]: *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 7241. [^71]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār lil-Qurʾān*, ed. Muḥammad Eṣām al-Quḍāh, 1st ed., 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm; Amman: Dār al-Fatḥ, 2001), 144. [^72]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 144–5. [^73]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 145. [^74]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 142. [^75]: Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-Zuhrī, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kubrā*, ed. ʿAlī ʿUmar, 11 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 2001), 8:125. [^76]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 142. [^77]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4542. [^78]: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād fī sīrat khayr al-ʿibād*, ed. Fahīm Shaltūt et al., 12 vols. (Cairo: al-Majlis al-Aʿlā lil-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyyah, 1992), 5:98. Al-Ṣāliḥī attributed the report to al-Bukhārī (in his *al-Tārīkh*), Aḥmad, al-Bayhaqī, Abū Dawūd, al-Nasāʾī, and others. [^79]: Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, 1st ed. (Beirut: Muʾsassat al-Risālah, 2006). [^80]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4281. [^81]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 76. [^82]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 76. [^83]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 5064. [^84]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5049. [^85]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4960. [^86]: Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah*, ed. Musṭafā al-Saqqa et al., 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī),  2:236–37. [^87]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā wa ṭabaqāt al-asfiyā*, 1st ed., 12 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr and Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanjī, 1996), 1:342. [^88]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 759. [^89]: Scholars disagree on the reason these chapters are called *al-mufaṣṣal* (lit. the detailed) and on where they begin in the Qur’an. There is a consensus, however, that they are the last chapters of the Qur’an, ending with Chapter 114, *al-Nās*. *Al-mufaṣṣal* are categorized into three: the long (*ṭiwāl*), the medium (*awṣāṭ*), and the short (*qiṣār*). Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:201. [^90]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5043. [^91]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 814. [^92]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:194–95 and 198. [^93]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*,  no. 1100; *Sunan  al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1411. [^94]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’an*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī, 24 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2006), 10:93–94. [^95]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 142. [^96]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22766. [^97]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22665. [^98]: Al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 6:589–99. [^99]: Al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 6:505. [^100]: Al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā*, 1:342. [^101]: Ibn Sallām, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 1:254. [^102]: ʿAbdulḥayy al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, ed. ʿAbdullāh al-Khālidī, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Arqam, n.d.), 1:103–4. [^103]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 143–144. [^104]: ʿAbdulsalām Hārūn, *Tahdhīb sīrah Ibn Hishām*, 4th ed. (Beirut: Muʾssasat al-Risālah, 1985), 103. [^105]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:104–5. [^106]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:112; al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 143. [^107]: ʿĀʾisha ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Bint al-Shāṭiʾ, *al-Iʿjāz al-bayānī lil-Qurʾān wa masāʾil ibn al-Azraq*, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, n.d.), 42–43. [^108]: Al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 6:490. [^109]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 104–5. [^110]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 146. [^111]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaimah*, no. 558. [^112]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2699. [^113]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4232. [^114]: Al-Bāqillānī dedicated a chapter to the virtues of Abū Bakr in terms of his memorization and knowledge of the Quran. Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 181–85. [^115]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 182. [^116]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 182. Ibn Ḥajar’s quote from al-Zubair ibn Bakkār, reported in his *Akhbār al-Madīna*, is similar.  Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *al-Iṣābah fī tamyīz al-ṣahābah*, ed. ʿĀdil ʿAbd al-Mawjūd et al., 1st ed., 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1995), 2:370. [^117]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:112. [^118]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:112. [^119]: Al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-kawtharī*, 24–25. [^120]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 151–52. [^121]: Al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-kawtharī*, 24. [^122]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 152–3. [^123]: For a detailed account of the characteristics of *ahl al-ṣuffa*, see al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā*, 1:337–47. [^124]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān fī а̄dāb ḥamalat al-Qur’ān*, ed. Muḥammad al-Ḥajjār, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1996), 101. [^125]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 186. [^126]: Aḥmad ibn Sālim al-Nafrāwī, *al-Fawākih al-dawānī ʿalā risālat ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī*, ed. ʿAbdulwārith ʿAlī, 1st ed., 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1997), 1:50–51. [^127]: Al-Nafrāwī, *al-Fawākih al-dawānī*, 51. [^128]: Al-Nafrāwī, *al-Fawākih al-dawānī*, 51. [^129]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār ʿalā al-ṭabaqāt wa-l-aʿṣār*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ et al., 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla,1988), 1:20. [^130]: Al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā*, 1:256–58. [^131]: Al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-kawtharī*, 33. [^132]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād et al., 7th ed., 25 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1990), 1:167–70. [^133]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4141. [^134]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 147. [^135]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:6. [^136]: See for example, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2931 and 2938. [^137]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 591; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 27351. [^138]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:224. Al-Suyūṭī said that he was the first to list Umm Waraqah among the memorizers of the Qur’an. [^139]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 148. [^140]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 148. [^141]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 148. [^142]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 149–50. [^143]: For the meaning of *gharīb al-Qur’an*, see Wahb, “An Introduction to *ʿUlūm al-Qur’an*.” [^144]: Muḥammad Ḥasnayn Makhlūf al-ʿAdawī, *ʿUnwān al-bayān fī ʿulūm al-tibyān* (Cairo: Matbat al-Maʿāhid, 1925), 28–29. [^145]: Al-ʿAdawī, *ʿUnwān al-bayān*, 29. [^146]: Mohammad Shaban, *Islamic History: A New Interpretation* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975). Juynboll also held a similar view; however, he confined its relevance to a specific period of the early Islamic tradition.  G. H. A. Juynboll, “The Qurrāʾ in Early Islamic History,” *Journal of the Economical and Social History of the Orient* 16, no. 2 (1973). Furthering his thesis, Juynboll authored two subsequent works on the topic of *qurrāʾ*: “The Position of Qur’an Recitaion in Early Islam,” *Journal of Semitic Studies* 19 (1974), and “The Qur’an Reciter on the Battlefield and Concomitant Issues,” *Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft* 125 (1975). [^147]: For a detailed discussion on this presumed distinction, see Mustafa Shah, “The Quest for the Origins of the Qurrāʾ in the Classical Islamic Tradition,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 7, no. 2 (2005). [^148]: Shah, “Quest for the Origins of the Qurrāʾ,” 20. [^149]: For the names and biographies of many of the *Biʾr Maʿūnah* martyrs, see al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 6:97–100. [^150]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3064. [^151]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3064. [^152]: Al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 6:92. [^153]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 677. [^154]: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Asnawī, *al-Muhimmāt fī sharḥ al-Rawḍah wal-Rāfiʿī*, ed. Aḥmad ʿAlī, 1st ed., 10 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Hazm, 2009), 3:81. [^155]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 151. [^156]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4986. [^157]: For a review of many of these narrations and a treatment of reconciling them, see al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:105-7. [^158]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:105-7; al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:219–24; al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 164–81; Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Māzirī, *al-Muʿlim bi fawāʾid Muslim*, ed. Muḥammad al-Nayfar, 2nd ed., 3 vols. (Tunisia: Bayt al-Ḥikma, 1987), 3:262–65. [^159]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:222. [^160]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 89–90. [^161]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 176–7. [^162]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 177. [^163]: Ibn al-Mubārak, *al-Zuhd*, ed. Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿzamī (India: Majlis Iḥyāʾ al-Maʿārif, 1966), 45. [^164]: ​​For more details on the concept of *aḥruf*, see Yousef Wahb, “Can the Qur’an Be Recited in Different Ways? The Meaning and Wisdom of Qira’at,” *Yaqeen*, April 13, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat). [^165]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 178. Ibn Ḥajar reported it in al-*Fatḥ* and said that Aḥmad reported it in *al-Zuhd*. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:51. [^166]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 179. [^167]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 673. [^168]: ʿAbd al-Malik al-Juwaynī, *Nihāyat al-maṭlab fī dirāyat al-madhhab*, ed. ʿAbd al-Aẓīm al-Dīb (Beirut: Dār al-Minhāj, 2007), 2:415–16. [^169]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 90. [^170]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Nuzhat al-naẓar fī tawdīḥ nukhbat al-fikr fī muṣṭalaḥ ahl al-athar*, ed. Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr (Karachi: al-Bushrā Publishers, 2011), 37; Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-rāwī fī sharḥ taqrīb al-Nawāwī*, ed. Naẓar al-Faryābī, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Kawthar, 1995), 1:627. [^171]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Nuzhat al-naẓar*, 37. [^172]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, *Nuzhat al-naẓar*, 37; al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-rāwī*, 1:627. [^173]: Al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-kawtharī*, 25. [^174]: Al-Māzirī, *al-Muʿlim*, 3:263. [^175]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ*, 1:24–42. [^176]: Al-Bāqillānī dedicated a chapter to the virtues of ʿUthmān and his memorization and knowledge of the Quran.  Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 189–90. [^177]: Al-Bāqillānī dedicated a chapter to the virtues of ʿAlī and his memorization and knowledge of the Quran.  Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 191–93. [^178]: *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 5387. [^179]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 138. [^180]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 93\. Ibn al-Jazarī counted twelve of Ibn Masʿūd’s students, all of whom had taught the Qurʾān. Abū al-Khayr ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya fī ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ*, ed. Gotthelf Bergsträsser, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), 1:458. [^181]: *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 421. [^182]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1020. [^183]: Al-Bāqillānī dedicated a chapter to the virtues of ʿUmar and his memorization and knowledge of the Qur’an. Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 186. [^184]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 188. [^185]: Ibn Kathīr, Abū ʿAmr, Ḥamzah, Al-Kisāʾī, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf. Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 33–34. [^186]: These are praying behind the Station (*maqām*) of Ibrahim, the veils for the mothers of the believers, reminding them that Allah may replace them with better wives for the Prophet, executing captives, and the completion of verse 23:14. [^187]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 124–26. [^188]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 124. [^189]: ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ wa-kamāl al-iqrāʾ*, ed. ʿAlī Ḥusayn al-Bawwāb, 1st ed., 2 vols. (Mecca: Maktabat al-Turāth, 1987), 2:455. [^190]: Al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ*, 2:455. [^191]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya*, 1:437–38. [^192]: Nāfiʿ, Abū ʿAmr, and Yaʿqūb. [^193]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 42. [^194]: Al-Bāqillānī dedicated a chapter to the virtues of Abū Bakr and his memorization and knowledge of the Qur’an. Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 182–85. [^195]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 673. [^196]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 221–22. [^197]: Wahb, “Can the Quran be Recited in Different Ways?” [^198]: Wahb, “An Introduction to *ʿUlūm al-Qur'an*.” [^199]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 60. [^200]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 42. [^201]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 55. [^202]: Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa fī al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Shawqī Ḍayf (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1979), 68. [^203]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 58. [^204]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 153. [^205]: Al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-Kawtharī*, 33. [^206]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:303–5. [^207]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 155. [^208]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 158. [^209]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 158. [^210]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 461. [^211]: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, *al-Fatāwā al-fiqhiyyah al-kubrā*, 4 vols. (Cairo: ʿAbdulḥamīd Ḥanafī, 1938), 1:37. [^212]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*,  9:86. [^213]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf: Dirāsah lughawiyyah tārīkhiyyah* (Amman: Dār Ammār: 2001), 17. Citing ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī’s (d. 643/1245) manuscript of *al-Wasīlah ilā kashf al-ʿAqīla*, a commentary on al-Shāṭibī’s (d. 590/1194) didactic poem on *rasm al-muṣḥaf*. [^214]: Ahmad al-Jallad, “The Linguistic Landscape of Pre-Islamic Arabia: Context for the Qur’an,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies*, ed. Mustafa Shah and Muhammad A. Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 116. [^215]: Macdonald, “Ancient Arabia and the Written Word,” 21. [^216]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *ʿIlm al-kitābah al-ʿArabiyyah* (Amman: Dār ʿAmmār, 2004), 30–52. [^217]: Al-Jallad, “Linguistic Landscape of Pre-Islamic Arabia,” 116. [^218]: Al-Jallad, “Linguistic Landscape of Pre-Islamic Arabia,” 121. [^219]: For a historical background of *al-musnad* script, see al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 29–34. [^220]: For more details on the development of the Arabic script, see al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 117–19. [^221]: Al-Ḥamad, *ʿIlm al-kitābah al-ʿArabiyyah*. [^222]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 71–72. Other interpretations held that *ummiyyīn* means all the Arabs, their “People of the Book.” [^223]: Qur’an 75:17. [^224]: Qur’an 87:18. [^225]: Qur’an 98:2. [^226]: Qur’an 2:2. [^227]: Qur’an 2:285. [^228]: Al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:98. [^229]: Al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:11. [^230]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 88–89. [^231]: Muḥammad ibn Ḥadīdah al-Anṣārī, *al-Miṣbāḥ al-mudīʾ fī kuttāb al-Nabyy al-Ummyy wa rusulih ilā mulūk al-ard min ʿArabyy wa ʿajamyy*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAzīm al-Dīn, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Beruit: ʿAlam al-Kutub, 1985). [^232]: Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 1st ed. (Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1974), 4. [^233]: Al-ʿIrāqī dedicated a chapter in his poem to the scribes of the Prophet. See Zain al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī, *Nazm al-durar al-saniyyah fī al-siyar al-zakiyyah*, ed. Muḥammad ibn ʿAlawī al-Mālikī, 1st ed. (Jeddah: Dar al-Minhaj, 2005), 123–5. [^234]: For a brief review of these counts, see ʿAbdulḥayy al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, ed. ʿAbdullāh al-Khālidī, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Arqam), 1:151–53; Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 4. [^235]: ʿAlī al-Muḥammad al-Ḍabbāʿ, *Samīr al-ṭālibīn fī rasm wa ḍabṭ al-Kitāb al-Mubīn*, 1st ed. (Cairo: ʿAbdulḥamīd Ḥanafī, 1938), 9–10. The book was reviewed and edited by the Grand Qārī of Egypt in his time, Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Ḥuseinī (d. 1939), who gave the approval for al-Ḍabbāʿ’s book to be taught. [^236]: ʿAbdulfattāḥ ibn ʿAbdulghanī al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Jindī, 1951), 6. [^237]: Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Zinjānī, *Tārīkh* *al-Qurʾan* (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Lajnat al-Taʾlīf wal-Tarjamah wal-Nashr, 1935),  20–21. [^238]: The total list of the names of the scribes are in Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 113–15. [^239]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 68. [^240]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf: Dirāsah lughawiyyah tārīkhiyyah* (Amman: Dār Ammār: 2001), 78. [^241]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 69–93. [^242]: ʿAlī al-Aḥmadī al-Mayānjī, *Makātīb al-Rasūl*, 1st ed., 4 vols. (Qom: Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Thaqāfiyyah, 1998), 1:7. [^243]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 1:8–50. [^244]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 1:50. [^245]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 1:123–38. [^246]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 116–23. [^247]: Al-Kittānī, *al-Tarātīb al-idāriyyah*, 1:149–208. [^248]: Muhammad Hamiduallah, *Majmūʿat al-wathāʾiq al-siyāsiyyah lil-ʿahd al-Nabawī wa al-khilāfah al-rāshida*, 6th ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Nafais, 1987). [^249]: *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 367. [^250]: Muḥammad al-Azharī, *Tahdhīb al-lughah*, ed. Muḥammad Murʿib, 15 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2001), 2:170. [^251]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 73. [^252]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 3004. [^253]: Al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 1:208. [^254]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 160. [^255]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*. [^256]: Aḥmad ibn Yaḥiā al-Balādhurī, *Futūḥ al-buldān* (Beirut: Maktbat al-Hilāl, 1988), 453. Al-Balādhurī listed the names of the seventeen men. [^257]: Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah*, 1:350–51. [^258]: Al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 12:398. [^259]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 161. [^260]: Al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 12:393. [^261]: Al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 1:397. [^262]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 162–64. [^263]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 162. Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 74–76. [^264]: Al-Mayānjī, *Makātīb al-Rasūl*, 104 and 117. [^265]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 30–31. [^266]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 30–31. [^267]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 189. [^268]: Ghānim al-Ḥamad listed him among the scribes in Mecca while Jabal listed him among those in Medina. Multiple accounts suggest that he was one of the writers in Mecca. It is also possible that he continued to write in the Medinan period. [^269]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3086. [^270]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 76. [^271]: Al-ʿAsqalanī, *al-Iṣābah*, 2:369–70. [^272]: Al-ʿAsqalanī, *al-Iṣābah*. [^273]: Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt*, 3:622. [^274]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 79. [^275]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 80. [^276]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 2216; Ḥāmid ibn Zanjawyh, *al-Amwāl*, ed. Shākir Fayyāḍ, 1st ed., 3 vols. (Riyadh: Markaz al-Malik Faiṣal lil-Buhūth wal-Dirasāt al-Islāmiyyah, 1986), 309–10. [^277]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 11. [^278]: Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qalqashandī, *Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā fī ṣināʿat al-inshāʾ*, 14 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyyah, 1922), 1:91. [^279]: Al-Qalqashandī, *Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā*; Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 11–14. [^280]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3060. [^281]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3006. [^282]: Al-Mayānjī, *Makātīb al-Rasūl*, 1:108–14. [^283]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 189. [^284]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥābah*, ed. Waṣiyyullah ʿAbbās, 1st ed., 2 vols. (Mecca: Umm al-Qura University’s Markaz al-Baḥth al-ʿIlmī wa Ihyā al-Turāth al-Islāmī, 1983), 1:390. [^285]: Abū Bakr ʿAbdullah ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, ed. Muhīb al-Dīn Wā’iz, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyah, 1995), 1:145. Al-ʿAsqalanī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:328–29. [^286]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:145. [^287]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 83. [^288]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4990. [^289]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 165–66; al-Ṣāliḥī, *Subul al-hudā wal-rashād*, 12:383–441. [^290]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 26125. [^291]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 2507. [^292]: The quote is from his lost book *Fahm al-Sunan*, which many *ʿulūm al-Qur’an* works cite. Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an*, ed. Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, 4 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Turāth, 1984), 1:238. [^293]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 168. [^294]: Jabal discussed its transmission citing multiple resources and suggested its authenticity. Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 169n2. [^295]: Abū al-Khayr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdulraḥmān al-Sakhāwī, *Fatḥ al-mughīth bi-sharḥ Alfīyat al-ḥadīth*, ed. ʿAbdulkarīm al-Khudair et al., 1st ed., 5 vols. (Riyadh: Dār al-Minhāj, 2005), 3:52. [^296]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 16–7. [^297]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 17–18. [^298]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *Kuttāb al-Nabyy*, 18. [^299]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3954. [^300]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾanī*, 87–88. [^301]: *Sunan al-Bayhaqī*, no. 11065. [^302]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 86. [^303]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥābah*, 1:390. [^304]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4986. [^305]: Yasin Dutton, “The Form of the Qur’an: Historical Contours,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies*, ed. Mustafa Shah and Muhammad A. Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 184–85. [^306]: Angelika Neuwirth, *The Qur’an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage*, trans. Samuel Wilder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 143. Also see, Gregor Schoeler, *The Genesis of Literature in Islam from the Aural to The Read*, trans. Shawkat M. Toorawa (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 30. [^307]: Makkī ibn Abī Tālib, *al-Ibāna ʿan maʿānī al-qirāʾāt*, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Ismāʿīl Shalabī (Cairo: Dār Nahḍat Miṣr, 1960), 23; ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, *Fawāʾid fī mushkil al-Qurʾān* (Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shū*ʾ*un al-Islāmiyah, 1967), 27;  Al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 9:12; al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 2:387; al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:95. [^308]: Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Ḥuseinī, *Khulāṣat al-nuṣūṣ al-jaliyyah fī nuzūl al-Qurʾān wa jamʿih wa ḥukm ittibāʿ rasm al-maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyyah* (Cairo: al-Matbaah al-Misriyaah, 1931), 7; al-Ḍabbāʿ, *Samīr al-ṭālibīn*, 10; al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf*, 11; al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān al-Karīm*, 39. [^309]: Al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf*, 26–27. [^310]: Ibn Khaldūn, *Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnān*ī*, 1956), 1:757 and 791. [^311]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān al-Karīm*, 116–120. [^312]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān al-Karīm*, 11–1-9. [^313]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 24–26. [^314]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 36. [^315]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān al-Karīm*, 119. [^316]: For more on the history and development of the Arabic script, see al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*; Muhammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-khaṭṭ al-ʿArabī* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Hilal, 1939); ʿAbdulṣabūr Shāhīn, *Tārīkh* *al-Qurʾān*, 3rd ed. ( Cairo: Nahdat Masr, 2007), 103–15. [^317]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 172–86. [^318]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 175–76. [^319]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 169–70, 175–76. [^320]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 175. [^321]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 177–86; Khatib and Khan, “The ʿUthmānic Codex.” [^322]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:132–33. [^323]: Qur’an 2:281. [^324]: Qur’an 16:90; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17459. [^325]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:195. [^326]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa*, 1st ed., 7 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1984), 7:147. [^327]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3086. [^328]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4530. [^329]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2216. [^330]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 806. [^331]: Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ fī maʿrifat* *marsūm* *maṣāḥif al-amṣār*, ed. Ḥātim al-Ḍāmin (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah, 2011), 122. [^332]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 2:272–85. [^333]: Muḥammad ʿAbdullah Dirāz, *al-Naba al-ʿaẓīm: Naẓarāt jadīdah fī al-Qurʾān*, 1st ed. (Riyadh: Dār Ṭayba lil-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ, 1997), 204–64. [^334]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*. [^335]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*. ## Summary Praise be to Allah, who took upon Himself the preservation of His final revelation, saying, "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its Guardian." From the earliest days of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Qur'an was safeguarded through two complementary means: the recitation upon the tongues of men and the transcription upon writing surfaces. These two methods are so integral to the nature of the Qur'an that they are reflected in its very names—"Qur'an," derived from recitation, and "Book" (kitāb), reflecting its written preservation. Both names bestowed by Allah Himself indicate that His speech was destined to be guarded orally and textually alike, and that this preservation began during the lifetime of the one to whom it was revealed, not merely afterward under the caliphs. Certain orientalist and revisionist voices have cast doubt upon this preservation. Nöldeke and Schwally, for instance, suggested that the Prophet ﷺ might have forgotten portions of the early revelation, and that it remains uncertain whether the "collectors" among the Companions had truly memorized the entire text or only large portions. Others, such as Blachère and Burton, questioned whether the Qur'an was written down completely in the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime, with Burton going so far as to describe its collection as a "product of a lengthy process of evolution, accretion, and 'improvement.'" Yet these claims rest largely upon philological speculation, differing standards for authenticating reports, and seemingly contradictory narrations. Against them stand the rigorous conclusions of authorities such as Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Suyūṭī, and al-Qasṭalānī, who held that the entirety of the Qur'an was written down during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, alongside modern defenders such as al-Aʿẓamī and the philosopher ʿAbdel Raḥmān Badawī, who concluded that the Qur'an in its entirety was arranged in written form during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime. As for the oral transmission, the Prophet ﷺ was himself the trusted human vessel of the revelation. Allah reassured him regarding his concern over retaining it: "Move not your tongue concerning to make haste therewith. It is for Us to collect it and to give you the ability to recite it." Ibn ʿAbbās explained that Allah would gather it in the Prophet's heart. And Allah promised, "We will make you recite and you will not forget except what Allah wills." Al-Rāzī noted that the Prophet's ﷺ memorization of this lengthy text, despite being unlettered, was itself miraculous. As for the possibility of forgetting, Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī distinguished two types: a circumstantial forgetting that is quickly remedied—as in the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ was reminded of verses he had been "caused to forget"—and the forgetting that accompanies the abrogation of a verse's recitation, as indicated by "We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth [one] better than it or similar to it." Ibn Ḥajar added that forgetting was impossible before the conveyance of a revelation, and permissible after conveyance only if the Prophet ﷺ later remembered it. The Prophet ﷺ was commanded throughout the Qur'an to recite it to the people: "And recite to them," and "so you might recite to them that which We revealed to you." He fulfilled this through two methods known to the scholars: iqrāʾ, in which he recited to a Companion who then repeated it back, and ʿarḍ, in which the Companion recited back to him for verification. This ʿarḍ was distinguished from the ʿarḍ of hadith by requiring recitation from memory, since the Prophet ﷺ himself neither read nor wrote. The foundation of this oral method was the Prophet's ﷺ own annual review of the Qur'an with Jibrīl each Ramadan, and twice in the final year of his life. So central was recitation that Companions described how he taught them supplications, the istikhārah, and the tashahhud "as he would teach them a sūrah of the Qur'an." The Prophet ﷺ pursued every opportunity to disseminate the Qur'an, and Muḥammad Jabal catalogued fourteen distinct methods. He recited newly revealed verses to his Companions—as with Sūrah al-Ṣaff, al-Jumuʿah, al-Mursalāt, and al-Kawthar—and recited to those he invited to Islam, such as the five Companions Abū Bakr brought, all of whom were promised Paradise. He taught new converts, sent teachers like Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr to Medina before his own migration, recited in the mosque, during travel, in prayer, and in his sermons—Umm Hishām memorized Sūrah Qāf from his frequent Friday recitation. He commanded Companions to teach one another and dispatched envoys such as Muʿādh ibn Jabal and Abū Mūsā to Yemen. Early centers of learning arose, including Dār al-Arqam and, above all, the ṣuffah, whose people al-Bāqillānī held to have memorized all that was revealed during their stay. This dedication crossed every social boundary: enslaved persons like Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt and Sālim mawlā Abī Ḥudhayfah, women such as Umm Waraqah whom the Prophet ﷺ called "the martyr," and children like Zayd ibn Thābit, all bore the Qur'an. The Companions honored the qurrāʾ, whose loss in battle grieved the Prophet ﷺ deeply. At Biʾr Maʿūnah some seventy reciters were treacherously slain—Anas said he never saw the Messenger ﷺ grieve so, invoking qunūt against their killers for a full month. Later, at al-Yamāmah, forty qurrāʾ fell, prompting ʿUmar's fear expressed to Abū Bakr that "if qurrāʾ continue to be killed in large numbers... a large portion of the Qur'an will be lost"—a fear born not of doubting Allah's promise but of pursuing every means to fulfill it. Though only some twenty-one Companions are documented as having memorized the entire text during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime, al-Bāqillānī explained that many concealed their memorization out of humility, and the Companions held a demanding standard—as Abū al-Dardāʾ said, the true bearer of the Qur'an "is the one who listens to it and obeys." This wide transmission established tawātur, for as al-Māzirī observed, even a large text is preserved when many transmit its parts collectively, and al-Kawtharī described how the Companions deliberately distributed portions among people so that the whole was preserved by all. Concerning the written transmission, though Arab society was largely unlettered—the Qur'an itself calling them ummiyyīn—writing did exist, and the Prophet ﷺ commanded, "record knowledge with writing." He initially forbade writing anything from him but the Qur'an, thereby guarding the divine speech from admixture with his own words. Scholars have counted his scribes variously, most placing the total above forty, with around fourteen dedicated to the Qur'an. In Mecca, figures such as Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasanah and Khālid ibn Saʿīd wrote; in Medina, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Zayd ibn Thābit, and ʿUthmān were foremost. ʿUthmān declared his the "first hand to transcribe the mufaṣṣal," and Zayd, the Prophet's ﷺ neighbor, kept his writing tools ready for the descent of revelation. The verses were documented instantly upon revelation, as ʿĀʾishah witnessed the Prophet ﷺ saying, "Write, O ʿUthmān," and this immediacy ensured the text was recorded exactly as Jibrīl conveyed it, then reviewed—for the Prophet ﷺ would tell Zayd, "Read [what you wrote]," and correct any omission. The arrangement of verses within their chapters was tawqīfī, established by divine guidance, as Ibn ʿAbbās related that Jibrīl instructed the Prophet ﷺ where to place the final verse of Sūrah al-Baqarah, and the Companions adhered strictly to what they received. Whether the entire Qur'an was compiled in a single volume in the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime remains a point of discussion—Zayd reported it was scattered "on palm leaf, stump, stalk and branches," and scholars such as Yasin Dutton suggest much remained "in the hearts of men." Yet the weight of the classical authorities holds that the whole was transcribed, if dispersed, and even were only parts written, the continuous oral transmission and the swift compilation under Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān secured the complete text. Thus the Qur'an we possess today, in all its 114 chapters, was fully and authentically preserved through the intertwined oral and written efforts of the first generation—a manifestation of the divine promise of guardianship. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How did Allah's promise to preserve the Qur'an take shape during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime? Allah says, "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its Guardian." That promise did not bypass human means. Preservation took shape through two intertwined pathways: oral and written. The Qur'an was taught primarily through constant recitation, memorization, and verification — the Prophet ﷺ reviewed the revelation with Jibril every Ramadan, and in his final year he reviewed it twice. Alongside this, the Prophet ﷺ appointed scribes who documented revelation as it descended and placed verses in their assigned locations within each chapter. ### How did the Prophet ﷺ teach the Qur'an to his companions on a daily basis? Two core instructional methods structured Qur'anic learning. First, recitation-and-repetition (*iqraʾ*): the Prophet ﷺ recited a passage and the companion repeated it back in the same manner. Second, recitation-back for verification (*ʿarḍ*): the companion recited from memory to the Prophet ﷺ for review, correction, and precision. *ʿArḍ* in particular required memorized recitation and exact articulation, creating an ongoing culture of supervised accuracy rather than informal learning by exposure. ### What is the difference between oral and written Qur'anic preservation, and how did they complement each other? Oral preservation is the Qur'an living in people's hearts and tongues through memorization, continual recitation, and supervised correction. Written preservation complemented this oral core — when new revelation descended, the Prophet ﷺ called scribes to write it immediately and place it in its assigned chapter. Together, oral transmission preserved exact recitation while written records anchored what was recited in documented form. Neither channel operated in isolation; each reinforced the integrity of the other. ### Did the Qur'an slowly "evolve" during the Prophet's ﷺ time, as some Western scholars claim? This claim does not hold up against the evidence. The Prophet ﷺ was divinely commanded to recite the Qur'an to people, making oral delivery the primary vehicle of dissemination across a large community from the outset. At the same time, reports describe verses written on multiple materials, and the Prophet ﷺ regularly summoned scribes to write new revelation and assign it within its chapter. This combination of mass oral transmission and immediate written documentation undercuts the idea of an open-ended, late evolution of the text during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime. ### Could a verse of the Qur'an have been forgotten or lost before it reached us? The safeguards against loss were overlapping and mutually reinforcing. The Prophet ﷺ constantly recited the Qur'an and reviewed it with Jibril every Ramadan — in his final year, twice. At the community level, *ʿarḍ* required companions to recite from memory to the Prophet ﷺ for correction, reducing the space for drift. Revelation was also documented immediately through appointed scribes when it descended. Together, repeated review, supervised recitation, and real-time documentation created multiple layers of protection against any verse being forgotten or lost. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/the-power-of-a-positive-home-environment-what-the-research-says # The Power of a Positive Home Environment: What the Research Says **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Blog **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 *This post was written in collaboration with [The Family and Youth Institute](https://www.thefyi.org/).* > *Do you have a parenting resolution for the new school year? What about having a more positive environment at home? In this article, The Family and Youth Institute present findings from Yaqeen Institute’s survey on the home environment and mental health. We conclude with strategies that you can implement in your home to improve your family’s mental health and well-being.* > > *Written by Dr. Madiha Tahseen, PhD and Issra Killawi, BA.* You may have heard about how your physical environment impacts your mood–things like the lighting, organization of the space, and clutter can all make you feel better or worse. But, have you thought about how the non-physical part of your home environment – the feelings in the air, support or conflict you experience, relationships with family members – can have a very real impact on your mental health? Extensive **[research](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7103574/#:~:text=In%20the%20analysis%20of%20formerly,%25%20CI%200.49%E2%80%9312.48)** shows us that **home environments in which there is a lot of conflict and less warmth lead to greater anxiety and depression.** Living with family members who constantly display anger, shame, and criticism and do not provide support and compassion can increase anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. A preliminary survey by Yaqeen Institute sheds light on how these relationships work in the Muslim American home. The survey asked about three dimensions of the home environment: - Cohesion: the degree of commitment and support family members provide for one another, - Expressiveness: the extent to which family members are encouraged to express their feelings directly, and - Conflict: the amount of openly expressed anger and conflict among family members. We analyzed each dimension and how it’s connected to anxiety and depression. For each dimension, you’ll find strategies you can use to create a more positive environment in your home. The subsample for the analyses presented here was 74% female, 67% were college graduates, and 84% were between the ages of 18 and 44. The sample was 6% White, 7% Black, 56% South Asian, and 15% Arab. Respondents answered questions about the home environment, anxiety and well-being. --- ## COHESIVENESS Cohesion in your family is about a sense of togetherness and support family members provide for one another. > *In our family there is a feeling of togetherness.* > *In our family we really help and support each other*. We found that greater cohesion in a family predicts lower rates of anxiety and depression.[^1] In other words, having a more cohesive home environment lowers your level of depression and anxiety. ### How to create a feeling of togetherness and cohesion in your family: #### 1) Together, come up with family traditions for weekends, family nights, Eid, etc While younger children may take your lead, teenagers will want to have a say in what you do as a family. Brainstorm ideas together and come to a consensus about how you’ll spend family time. Take turns trying different traditions and discuss what you liked about each experience. #### 2) Have different ways that you spend quality time together - praying together, being active, or going out for ice cream on Friday night Make sure it’s *quality* time where you are talking, listening, and doing things with one another. Movie nights are okay, but they shouldn’t be the only way that your family spends time together. Quality time may also differ from child to child--keep this in mind as you plan together. #### 3) Take on tasks as a family, like making dinner or planning a family vacation Make sure each member of the family has a role to play. This will [help your children feel they are a part of something larger than themselves](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-loan-of-love-appreciating-the-blessing-of-family-in-difficult-times), and that they have opportunities to contribute to the family as well. #### 4) Remind your family that Allah puts barakah (blessings) in doing things together It’s often easier to do a chore/task alone than doing it together, but Allah (SWT) calls us to good collectively: *“And help one another in acts of righteousness and piety.”* --- ## EXPRESSION Expression is the extent to which your family members are encouraged to express their feelings and open up to each another. > *In our family we can talk openly in our home.* > *In our family we sometimes tell each other about our personal problems.* Based on the analyses, we found that greater expression in a family predicts lower rates of depression. In other words, having a more expressive home environment lowers your level of depression. ### How to encourage more openness and expression in your family: #### 1) Ask open-ended questions for more meaningful conversations “What do you think happened?” or “Tell me what makes you say that.” As you listen, remember how [the Prophet (S) modeled the best listening skills](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-importance-of-conscious-parenting-in-raising-confident-muslims) by turning his body towards the person speaking to him, keeping eye contact, listening with empathy, and asking questions. Give your children space to explore their ideas and opinions. Create opportunities for them to voice their questions and curiosities and be mindful of how often you are speaking *at* them rather than *with* them. This builds their trust that you will hear them out and they will come to you when big issues come up in their lives. #### 2) Avoid reacting - be curious instead This is especially important during disagreements, or when your teenager says things like “My life is horrible!” Instead of reacting, take a few deep breaths and approach the conversation with a genuine desire to understand where they are coming from. “I’m sorry to hear that, tell me what’s going on. I’m listening.” Practicing active listening and curiosity creates openness in your relationship with your family and sends the message that you are there for support. #### 3) Initiate conversations about taboo subjects Difficult conversations have the potential to create distance or build closeness in your family. Initiating these conversations with your children signals to them that they can come to you with questions about anything. It gives them the chance to be curious and ask questions in a safe space and allows you to guide the way they think and the choices they make. **Most importantly, it builds the trust and connection in your relationship.** Without this trust, your child may turn to friends or social media for answers or feel the need to hide their curiosity from you. --- ## CONFLICT Conflict is the amount of openly expressed anger, disagreements, and aggression among family members. > *In our family we often put each other down.* > *In our family we lose our temper often.* Based on the analyses, we found that greater conflict in a family predicts higher rates of depression and anxiety. **In other words, having more conflict in the home environment increases your levels of depression and anxiety.** ### How to Manage conflict in healthy ways to have a positive home environment by using these strategies: #### 1) Normalize emotions Even the most righteous people experienced a range of emotions in strong ways - like Prophet Musa (S) who was angry with his brother at one point, or Prophet Yaqub (S) who was grieved by the loss of Yusuf. When your child is experiencing strong or uncomfortable emotions, teach them that this is a part of human nature by acknowledging and helping to name the feeling/emotion. #### 2) Set boundaries for your family Set boundaries for your family around what’s appropriate when someone is angry. Make sure that everyone sticks to these rules (adults too!). Anger or frustration should not be an excuse to lash out, say unkind words, or use violence. [Help your children find appropriate ways to express their feelings](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/coping-with-grief-a-spiritual-and-psychological-guide). “Are you feeling overwhelmed? Would it help if you took a sip of water?” Or “I know you are angry, but it’s not okay to yell or be rude. Let’s pause this discussion and try again later tonight.” #### 3) Model how to make amends It’s important to re-establish love, security, and trust with family members after a conflict. Teach your children to practice humility, apologize, and ask for forgiveness. Remember that the best way to teach this is to practice it in your relationship with them. Taking ownership for a mistake and apologizing is not easy, but [the best of people are those who try to rectify their mistakes](https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/01/20/best-sinners-repentance/) with Allah (SWT) and with anyone they may have hurt, intentionally or not. Even though these strategies may seem simple, they can have a big impact on your home environment and on your family’s overall wellness. As the new school year begins, commit to practicing one or a few of these strategies regularly. Tell us which strategies you’ll try by tagging us on Instagram with the hashtag #WhatTheResearchSays --- ## Notes [^1]: We analyzed the data using simple univariate regressions. A linear regression is an analysis that provides a simple understanding of the relationships between two variables. Because of the underlying analytic technique and calculations, one variable is considered the predictor or explanatory variable and the other variable is considered the dependent or outcome variable. For more information, please email [research@thefyi.org](mailto:research@thefyi.org). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/building-resilience-the-psychology-behind-raising-unapologetic-muslim-children # Building Resilience: The Psychology Behind Raising Unapologetic Muslim Children **Authors:** Sarah Sultan, Najwa Awad **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** November 8, 2022 **Updated:** August 30, 2024 This article is the introductory publication to a multi-part series on the topic. --- ## Parental anxiety among Muslim parents If you speak with adults today, most will likely tell you that one of the biggest causes of stress in their lives is parenting: Am I doing the best job I can? Is our family too strict? Perhaps too soft? Are we preparing our children to be successful, independent, and well-rounded adults? For Muslim parents, the uncertainty of parenting can be amplified by fears of failing to raise a child with Islamic values in a global culture of growing atheism, narcissism, and fragile family systems. Will my child continue to choose Islam into adulthood? How much will they adhere to the Qur’an and Sunnah? Will they love Allah and strive to seek out His Countenance, or will they just *act* “Muslim” around family? There are so many stories we hear within our communities, sometimes whispered in hushed voices and sometimes vocalized through tearful cries for help from devastated families: - The teenager who got involved with the “wrong crowd,” began to engage in risky behavior, and is now struggling with addiction to hard drugs. - The 8-year-old who comes home saying, “What if Allah doesn’t really exist? My friend said there’s no such thing as God.” - The straight-A daughter who got into an unhealthy relationship with a boy at school, and then watched her self-esteem, spirituality, and grades plummet. - The child who wonders what he did wrong and doesn’t understand why Allah would allow his parents to divorce. - A son who always had a tumultuous relationship with his parents but is now more definitively refusing to pray or engage in any religious activities that his family is involved in. - The 12-year-old, bullied at school, who is extremely depressed and questions why Allah hasn’t protected him or if He exists. Sometimes these might not be stories from those we know in our community, but rather our own children or loved ones. Life feels relatively fine until it hits close to home, doesn’t it? There is no pain like discovering that it’s your daughter who has abandoned prayer, your son who has stopped believing, or your child who is now just a spiritual shell of who they used to be. For many Muslim families, parenting these days can feel like standing on a metaphorical cliff, always one step from falling into the abyss. But what if parenting didn’t have to feel so anxiety-provoking? What if you could lean into an Islamic model of parenting that helps you feel like you are building a spiritual foundation from the inside out rather than assembling a hodgepodge collection of quick-fix tools? What if you could be an empowered parent and help your child through prevention instead of being reactive and constantly putting out fires? What if, instead of striving to evade the worst case scenario, things actually work out—and in a much better way than you had hoped for? Our goal with this parenting series is to focus on prevention, through the means of building resilience, rather than intervention. If the [trauma series](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/trauma) of articles was to help pull adults out of a metaphorical river, this series of parenting articles is to help parents keep children and teens from falling into it in the first place. By working from the ground up and teaching families to develop the tools needed to promote resilience in childhood, our hope is that children will be able to deal with life’s inevitable struggles without suffering unnecessary mental, emotional, and spiritual ramifications. --- ## Goals of an Islamically integrated resilience model of parenting ### To teach distress tolerance and perseverance (Resilience in everyday life) One of the biggest misconceptions about parenting today is that if we create the perfect life for our children, they will grow into ideal adults. If we live in the best neighborhoods, put our children into the best schools, give them the best nutrition and surround them with the best friends, they will turn out to be the best. Over the past few decades, this mentality has manifested in our children as entitlement. Children now expect the best of everything. They expect the latest gadgets, over-the-top gifts and parties, the absolute best quality of life. They expect the path to everything to be smooth—and, well, why wouldn’t they? Shouldn’t we give our kids the best possible life they can have? Due to the nature of *bulldozer parenting*, in which parents attempt to remove all obstacles in their children’s lives, and *helicopter parenting*, in which parents micromanage their children, there is a huge chasm between the dream we as parents hoped for in raising our children and the reality. Unfortunately, children who are given everything develop little training for overcoming adversity, persevering through hardship or tolerating difficulty. A life of ease typically doesn’t prepare children for the unavoidable struggles of life. Research suggests that helicopter parenting often backfires, producing adolescents with psychological maladjustment and decreased self-efficacy.[^1] As you can imagine this causes quite the conundrum for parents. How do parents meet their children’s needs, be empathetic and nurturing, and facilitate environments for success while also teaching distress tolerance, hard work, and perseverance? How do parents foster mental health and increase protective factors for trauma while not causing harm themselves? A big missing piece in the parenting puzzle and the answer many parents are looking for is this: fostering resilience. ### To prevent childhood trauma and spiritual crises (Resilience in the context of mental health) When we began writing *[Your Lord Has Not Forsaken You: The Impact of Trauma on Faith](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/your-lord-has-not-forsaken-you-addressing-the-impact-of-trauma-on-faith)* in 2018, our goal as mental health therapists was to develop an Islamic framework for trauma healing that had never been broached before—one from a psychospiritual perspective. We wanted to create a safe space for healing, destigmatize mental illness, and create an Islamically-based mental health approach that incorporates healing through the mind, body, and soul. As therapists who have worked with hundreds of individuals and families, we have seen the pervasive effects of trauma on people’s mental, physical and spiritual health.[^2] Trauma can enfeeble one’s spirituality, while the compounded loss of faith after adverse experiences can also hinder trauma recovery.[^3] Researchers have gone as far as to say that childhood trauma can lead to spiritual crisis:[^4] > The experience of childhood traumatization functions as a kind of ‘reverse religious experience,’ a process combining overwhelming arousal and overwhelming cognitions that threatens core ‘meaningfulness’ for the child.[^5] We strongly believe that resilience and trauma mitigation are protective factors in helping to preserve both one’s mental and spiritual health, as well as imperative components to integrate in parenting Muslim children. Through fostering resilience and alleviating traumatic responses, long-term trauma and some types of spiritual crises can, by the will of Allah, be prevented[^6] in many cases. As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”[^7] ### Definitions of resilience What is resilience, exactly? Resilience is “the capacity we all possess to rebound from stress and feelings of fear, helplessness and overwhelm.”[^8] It allows us to cope when faced with significant changes, struggles, and risks. Resilience is often compared to a slinky; no matter how far you stretch it, the metal coil naturally rebounds to its original shape. Like a slinky, the goal for ourselves and our children is to nurture the ability to bounce back from stressful and difficult situations. Resilience, or the ability to function and adapt despite adversity, is arguably one of the most important skills parents can teach their children. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ expressed this quality beautifully when he said, > The example of a believer is that of a fresh tender plant; from whatever direction the wind comes, it bends it, but when the wind becomes quiet, it becomes straight again. Similarly, a believer is afflicted with calamities (but he remains patient till Allah removes his difficulties). And an impious wicked person is like a cedar tree that stays hard and straight till Allah cuts (breaks) it down when He wishes.[^9] In this hadith, we see that resilience can enable us to maintain and enhance our connection to Allah during trying times, and that the lack of it can impede that process. --- ## The importance of resilience: The inevitability of struggles Trials and tribulations are an inescapable reality of our time on this earth. Although as parents we hope to protect our children from hardship, we really have no power to do so and sometimes forget that Allah in His infinite wisdom created struggle for a purpose. Consider the following Qur’anic verses and and hadiths: > Do people think once they say, ‘We believe,’ that they will be left without being put to the test? We certainly tested those before them. And (in this way) Allah will clearly distinguish between those who are truthful and those who are liars.[^10] > And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the patient, who say, when afflicted with calamity: ‘To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return.’ They are those on whom (descend) Blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance.[^11] > The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Paradise is surrounded by adversity, and Hellfire is surrounded by lusts.”[^12] > The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “A Muslim, male or female, continues to remain under trial in respect of his life, property, and offspring until he faces Allah, the Exalted, with no sin recorded.”[^13] Resilience is the quality that allows us to face these struggles while maintaining a stable connection to Allah; resilience also involves understanding that struggles are not inherently bad and that they are needed for growth and development. While typically viewed as something to simply endure, struggles are actually opportunities that can allow us to thrive in powerful ways. Have you ever heard the proverb, “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly”? Difficult situations can be fuel for growth when we understand them in terms of Allah’s wisdom as the best of planners. Often assumed to be more of an inherent trait, resilience is actually something that can be fostered over time. We see this in the example of Prophet Yusuf (as), who faced trial after trial from childhood through adulthood. We witness his incredible growth through each struggle he encountered, finally culminating with a beautiful expression of resilience in which he proclaimed, “Indeed my Lord is subtle in fulfilling what He wills. Surely He \[alone\] is the All-Knowing, All-Wise.”[^14] With rates of suicide increasing exponentially in the last decade, such that it is now the second leading cause of death among 10-24 year-olds in America,[^15] and 23% of people raised Muslim leaving the faith,[^16] it is more important than ever that we collectively nurture the skills our children need to face the inevitable struggles of life. Resilience is crucial not just for good mental health, but also for spiritual health and strengthening Muslim identity. --- ## Sūrah Luqmān: Parenting lessons from the Qur'an ### The importance of an Islamic framework for parenting We are well aware of the dozens of parenting theories out there and don’t believe that there is a cookie cutter approach superior to all others. Parenting involves a lot of trial and error—figuring out what works for you, your individual children, and your family as a whole. Sometimes two loving parents have different parenting styles that work, and sometimes one parent may use different strategies with different children. If you ask many mental health therapists and parenting experts they will tell you that what’s most important is not the theory itself, but the firmness and consistency of a loving and supportive parent-child relationship. We believe that our proposed parenting theory, unlike numerous others, is backed by both psychosocial research and Islamic texts. It is not within a human being’s capacity to guarantee success; we know that because even our father Adam[^17] and Prophets Nūḥ[^18] and Yaʿqūb[^19] had parenting challenges despite divine guidance. We also are not just psychotherapists, but parents of six children between us and know the trials and tribulations of parenting from firsthand experience. We will not pretend to have all the answers—because we don’t, and nobody today does. However, we are optimistic, *in shāʿ Allāh*, that Muslim parents will find our approach from our decades of psychotherapy experience and humble parenting adventures balanced, flexible, and practical. There are several resilience theory models, some of which incorporate faith-based principles, but none that integrate Islam. While these resilience models are useful and address general concepts beneficial to anyone regardless of faith, they lack an essential component for Muslim parents who want to derive faith-based wisdom from Qur’anic stories and hadith, and for whom religious identity is an important factor in raising children. In line with previous assertions, it is more efficient and prudent to strengthen children with Islamic resilience than it is to introduce Islamic concepts after tragedy. Parents can not expect their [children to turn towards Islam during or after a devastating event](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach) if it was not introduced or modeled before. That is not to say that therapy from an Islamic perspective will not be useful after adversity, but that it will feel more natural and may resonate more deeply for children who have been raised with an Islamic resilience model from a young age. ### The Islamically Integrated Resilience Model (IIRM) When considering what a holistic, balanced approach to building resilience in our children would look like, we wanted to ensure that every component was rooted in worshipping and connecting with Allah. As we discussed in our [*Trauma* series](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/trauma), a relationship with Allah is key to the healing process. It is naturally a core component in developing the resilience needed to prevent trauma from the start. Ibn al-Qayyim beautifully expressed the role a relationship with Allah plays in a person’s spiritual, mental, and emotional wellbeing when he said, > In the heart are disorders that cannot be remedied except by responding to Allah. In it is a desolate feeling that cannot be removed except by intimacy with Him in solitude. In it is sadness which will not leave except by happiness with knowing Him and truthfulness in his dealings. In it is anxiety that is not made tranquil except by gathering for His sake and fleeing to Him from His punishment. In it is a fire of regret that cannot be extinguished except by satisfaction with His commands, prohibitions, and decrees, and embracing patience with that until the time he meets Him. In it is a strong desire that will not cease until He is the only one who is sought. In it is a void that cannot be filled except by His love, turning to Him, always remembering Him, and being sincere to Him. Were a person to be given the entire world and everything in it, that would never fill the void.[^20] We spent almost two years, albeit with breaks, researching and developing our parenting paradigm. Ultimately, our Islamically Integrated Resilience Model (IIRM) was inspired by the verses of Sūrah Luqmān in which Allah says,[^21] > And remember when Luqmān said to his son, while advising him, “O my dear son! Never associate anything with Allah in worship, for associating others with Him is truly the worst of all wrongs.” > > And We have commanded people to honor their parents. Their mothers bore them through hardship upon hardship, and their weaning takes two years. So be grateful to Me and your parents. To Me is the final return. > > But if they pressure you to associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. Still keep their company in this world courteously, and follow the way of those who turn to Me in devotion. Then to Me you will \[all\] return, and then I will inform you of what you used to do. > > Luqmān added, “O my dear son! Even if a deed were the weight of a mustard seed—be it hidden in a rock or in the heavens or the earth—Allah will bring it forth. Surely Allah is Most Subtle, All-Aware. > > “O my dear son! Establish prayer, encourage what is good and forbid what is evil, and endure patiently whatever befalls you. Surely this is a resolve to aspire to. > > “And do not turn your nose up to people, nor walk pridefully upon the earth. Surely Allah does not like whoever is arrogant, boastful. > > Be moderate in your pace. And lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is certainly the braying of donkeys.” In these verses, Luqmān al-Hakeem bestows invaluable words of wisdom on his son that are essential for success in this world and the next. He succinctly speaks to his son about key concepts in Islam including the importance of *tawḥīd*, enjoining good, exercising patience, and having good character. What struck us most about these verses, within the context of our parenting research, is that they speak to the biggest components of resiliency-building in research today. These verses not only model *how* we should teach our children, and *what* to teach our children, but outline a solid conceptualization in building resilience. Our Islamically Integrated Resilience Model (IIRM) is based on this paradigm. In the next section, we will look deeper into how these *āyāt*  promote resilience in children. --- ## How to promote resilience in children through the Islamically Integrated Resilience Model ### Layer 1: Attachment #### A. Attachment to Allah > O my dear son! Never associate anything with Allah in worship, for associating others with Him is truly the worst of all wrongs. The advice of Luqmān al-Hakeem starts with *tawḥīd*, the most important concept in Islam, and what we feel is the cornerstone to resilience both short-term in this *dunyā* and long-term in the *ākhirah*. The research is clear that secure attachment to God and secure attachment to a primary caregiver are pivotal to resilience and mental health.[^22] As Muslims we know that adversity comes from Allah and that nobody can remove it except Allah, so developing an inclination to rely on Him and beseech Him during struggles is crucial for resilience. General attachment is the foundation of our triangular model because it plays a critical role in our ability to bounce back during adversity, and in the next few sections we will explore the various components of attachment within the model. Our IIRM asserts that while healthy attachment to a primary caregiver is invaluable, attachment to Allah comes first and foremost. This premise is based on these key factors: 1. **Stability**: Ideally relationships with primary caregivers are stable, consistent and unwavering, but often they are not. Resilience research shows a strong connection between healthy, secure attachment and higher levels of resilience.[^23] The opposite is true as well: In relationships in which there is attachment anxiety, resilience levels are diminished.[^24] 2. **Control**: An attachment to Allah is something internal, whereas relationships with others are external. An internal locus of control can lead a person to feel a higher sense of control in moments of adversity instead of solely relying on external supports.[^25] A person’s relationship with Allah can be a source of security due to His everlasting presence and stability. It does not involve the fluctuations that naturally occur in relationships with human beings, thereby allowing one’s internal locus of control to thrive. 3. **Continuity**: As a child approaches adolescence their attachment to their primary caregivers generally shifts and more weight is given to friends’ opinions and values. By establishing a solid relationship with Allah from childhood, there is a continuity that is maintained throughout. #### B. Attachment to parents > And We have commanded people to honor their parents. Their mothers bore them through hardship upon hardship, and their weaning takes two years. So be grateful to Me and your parents. To Me is the final return. > > But if they pressure you to associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. Still keep their company in this world courteously... Healthy attachment to a parent plays an integral role in stress management,[^26] recovering from adversity,[^27] and relationships with others. So important is the parent-child bond that in these *āyāt* it appears immediately after the command of *tawḥīd*. We also see that the parenting relationship is a two-way street, and that both parties have a commitment to each other that is not necessarily easy. Although the attachment to Allah cannot be matched, the research is very clear on how influential parental attachment can be. We as parents can be instrumental in building resilience in our children through modeling (demonstrating our own resilience), the dynamics of our relationship with our children (attachment) and teaching resiliency skills. Oftentimes parents just focus on teaching skills, which is important, but not nearly as important as the attachment between the parent and the child. This is the difference between reading a manual to fix something and having an experienced professional stand at your shoulder gently directing you every step of the way. It’s not simply about directing our children to learn how to navigate the world, but building a relationship filled with warmth and security that will give them the skills, support, and confidence to navigate it themselves. Attachment between a parent and a child sets the framework for how children view themselves[^28] and how they view themselves in relation to others in the world,[^29] which are both crucial components of resiliency. #### C. Attachment to the prophets and the rightly guided > …and follow the way of those who turn to Me in devotion… In our model, following the way of those who turn to Allah in devotion, namely the prophets, is useful in building resilience. These examples provide the best role models for ourselves and our children to emulate and provide reassurance that amazing people have endured hardship as well. There is something powerful about knowing you are not alone in your struggle and can look back at the best of humankind for inspiration on how to navigate it. Research shows that community support is a valuable part of bouncing back from adversity.[^30] Our model incorporates these *āyāt* in our attachment foundation as it is very difficult to follow a community without love and attachment to them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > There has come to you the disease of the nations before you, jealousy and hatred. Hatred is the \[shaver\] (destroyer) that shaves (destroys) religious commitment; it does not shave hair. By the One in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad, you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I not tell you something which, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread (the greeting of) *salam* amongst yourselves.[^31] Today, attachment to those who follow the way of Allah extends to attachment of the *ummah* and our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Muslims do not discriminate between the prophets but we know that there is emphasis in loving Prophet Muhammed ﷺ in a way that is superior to all others: > The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father, his children and all mankind.”[^32] Outside it being a spiritual necessity, there are many resilience-related benefits to cultivating an attachment to the prophets of Allah. When we look at the lives of the prophets, we see that they were not strangers to adversity. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ experienced many difficult circumstances including orphanhood, poverty, personal loss, and physical assault. He was not only resilient but was able to maintain his good character. Seeing his perseverance can inspire us to overcome difficulty with both purpose and grace. ### Layer 2: Connection to self: Identity and self-esteem > But if they pressure you to associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. Still keep their company in this world courteously, and follow the way of those who turn to Me in devotion. This *āyah* doesn’t just support one aspect of attachment in the first layer of our model, but also supports the importance of developing an Islamic identity. This verse emphasizes the importance of staying true to one’s purpose of worshiping Allah, even under immense pressure, as the worship of Allah is central to Muslim identity. A strong identity is a necessary component in building resilience, not just for all children but especially for Muslim children living in the West. Allah tells us, “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”[^33] Helping our children to live authentically in accordance with their purpose to worship Allah allows them to face struggles with the resilience that stems from a solid Muslim identity. In an incredibly profound verse of the Qur’an, Allah says, “And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves.”[^34]  In this verse, “forgetting oneself" is a punishment, which indicates that knowing oneself is truly a blessing. When we remember Allah we are blessed to identify as His worshippers and thus to know ourselves. When we forget Him, we forget what is best for us in this life and the next, and thus we forget ourselves. Therefore, building a healthy sense of identity is directly tied to building a healthy connection with Allah. Research has found that religiosity in Muslim teens is associated with positive feelings of well-being, high levels of self-esteem, and low levels of anxiety.[^35] Research also shows that parents can play a big role in fashioning their children's religious identities.[^36] Building a solid sense of identity is, across the board, one of the most common themes in resilience research.[^37] For children growing up as minorities, as Muslim children in the West do, solidifying a robust sense of Islamic identity in the midst of peer and societal pressures is essential for spiritual health.[^38] Even for children growing up in Muslim-majority countries, developing a sense of self based on Islamic values can be a challenge. Shaping a sense of self-worth based on the core of who your child is—a worshipper of Allah, a beloved creation of the Almighty—sets the stage for a strong identity as they face the challenges inherent in daily life. ### Layer 3: Emphasis of purpose and faith through action > Then to Me you will all return, and then I will inform you of what you used to do. > > Luqmān  added, “O my dear son! Even if a deed were the weight of a mustard seed—be it hidden in a rock or in the heavens or the earth—Allah will bring it forth. Surely Allah is Most Subtle, All-Aware. > > “O my dear son! Establish prayer, encourage what is good and forbid what is evil…” Just as belief in Allah is essential for success and building resilience, the manifestation of that belief through action is also necessary. Allah links actions that are pleasing to Him with emotional health and good in both this life and the next, > Whoever submits his face \[i.e., self\] in Islam to Allah while being a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.[^39] > Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds and establish prayer and give *zakat* will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.[^40] > Whoever does good, whether male or female, while he is a believer, We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward \[in the Hereafter\] according to the best of what they used to do.[^41] We often discuss faith and spirituality solely through the lens of mental and emotional applications. However, connection to Allah and to our identity as Muslims does not *solely* reside in the heart. Many of us mistakenly believe  that *feeling* a connection to our faith is enough to maintain it. However, action plays a decisive role in actualizing every component of the IIRM. This includes both encouraging action in our children and modeling it for them through our conduct. We see the importance of good deeds, and not merely good beliefs, in the following verses from the Qur’an: > O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do?[^42] > Allah has promised those who believe and do righteous deeds \[that\] for them there is forgiveness and great reward.[^43] Research indicates that active religious practice can diminish the detrimental impact of acculturative stress on  Muslims living as minorities in a post-9/11 world.[^44] A research study involving Iranian Muslim students identified a significant association between positive religious coping, including religious practice, and psychological well-being.[^45] In a powerful study of 200 adolescent Muslim students,[^46] researchers found that the highly resilient teens were distinguished from their peers  on the basis of religious practice. Participants found to be highly resilient engaged in more religious practice and ritual Islamic behaviors motivated by their religious worldview.[^47] Those who engaged in good deeds, described as those whose behaviors towards “family, fellow human beings and the rest of creation including animals and the natural environment” were religiously guided, were also more resilient.[^48] The findings of these studies demonstrate that cognitive and emotional factors are not enough to forge a relationship between religion and resilience. Rather, they indicate the importance of manifesting these beliefs through action. ### Layer 4: Coping: Patience, distress tolerance, and adaptability > “...and endure patiently whatever befalls you. Surely this is a resolve to aspire to.” Patience is the attribute that allows us to tolerate distress and manage struggles in healthy ways. The capacity of an individual to cope during difficulty is an integral part of resilience.[^49] [Any skill that helps a person undergo stressful life experiences unscathed is a part of coping.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-our-worlds-are-shaken-finding-strength-in-beautiful-patience.) Allah reminds us of the importance of patience when faced with struggles, > We will surely test you until We make evident those who strive among you and are patient, and We will test your affairs.[^50] > Verily, only the patient will receive their reward without reckoning.[^51] The ability to choose long-term benefit over instant gratification is needed to maintain consistency in worship of Allah, stay away from what He has forbidden, choose the right course of action even when difficult and bounce back from trials. IIRM emphasizes how healthy coping strengthens spirituality and connection to Allah, while deriving research-supported coping skills from the examples of our Prophets and those around them—all of whom succeeded in balancing the *dunyā* and *ākhirah*. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ tied patience to attachment to Allah, indicating the necessity of both for building resilience: > Be mindful of Allah and be patient.[^52] As parents, we all try to protect our children from pain, both physical and emotional. However, one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is allowing them to struggle (to a certain extent). An abundance of research suggests that experiencing some degree of adversity and stress during childhood and adolescence has a protective effect.[^53] Studies have found that when an individual is faced with difficult experiences, they have the opportunity to learn how to navigate them, thereby allowing them to become psychologically stronger and resilient in the face of future stressors.[^54] This is called *stress inoculation.*[^55] Just as vaccinations often involve exposure to weaker strains of disease in order to protect an individual from contracting something detrimental to their health, experiencing stress in manageable doses can increase a person’s capacity for managing exposure to larger doses. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > Whoever strives to be patient, then Allah will make him patient. There is no gift that is better and more comprehensive than patience.[^56] Distress tolerance is the ability to experience stress without succumbing to it. By allowing our children to foster their ability to tolerate distress, we give them a tremendous gift: the ability to face difficulties and come back stronger. The only way to gain this skill is through practice. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > Verily, knowledge only comes by learning and forbearance only comes by cultivating forbearance. Whoever aims for good will receive goodness and whoever seeks to evade evil will be protected from it.[^57] Non-faith based models of resilience focus on bouncing back from adversity in the context of the *dunyā*, while IIRM emphasizes the importance of effective coping as necessary for both short-term (*dunyā*) and long-term (*ākhirah*) gain. What purpose would effective coping serve for a Muslim if it did not have any benefit for their Hereafter? What merit would there be in coping with this world only to suffer in the next? ### Layer 5: Character > “And do not turn your nose up to people, nor walk pridefully upon the earth. Surely Allah does not like whoever is arrogant, boastful. > > Be moderate in your pace. And lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is certainly the braying of donkeys.” Character strengths have been explained as “naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied”[^58] and have been connected to positive mental health outcomes. In these *āyāt,* Luqmān al-Hakeem does not outline all of the desirable character traits a Muslim should have, but lists some of the most important including humility, dignity, and sincerity. These traits are especially important today as social media, used by about 30% of 7-9 year-olds and 50% of 10-12 year-olds,[^59] simultaneously breeds narcissism, on the one hand,[^60] and  degraded self-esteem, on the other.[^61] Both effects are equally detrimental to resilience. Character development is essential to cultivating resilience because it is an external manifestation of all the other layers: understanding one’s purpose, remaining good-natured and patient when faced with difficulty, and persevering in maintaining one’s identity despite environmental circumstances. Character strengths help to mitigate trauma, and are positively linked to adjustment, mental health, and well-being.[^62] Character is also essential to doing well in the *ākhirah* as Prophet Muhammed ﷺ said, *“*Nothing is heavier on the scale of a believer on the Day of Resurrection than good character.”[^63] Good character is undoubtedly a protective force for us and our children in this world and the next. --- ## Pyramid of the Islamically Integrated Resilience Model Our model of Islamic resilience is based on the shape of a pyramid, with the base being the most important and foundational—all layers, though, are essential to building resilience from a psychospiritual perspective. Allah connects belief in Him to attaining success, and therefore in IIRM, the base of the pyramid is [***attachment to Allah first and foremost***, followed by attachment to parents](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/securing-healthy-attachment-with-god-and-parents-first-step-in-building-resilience-in-children), the prophets ﷺ and the *ummah* at large. The next layer in the pyramid is ***connection to one’s self***, which encompasses protective factors related to identity and self-esteem. Layer three elaborates on the importance of ***purpose in faith through action,*** and layer four explores the value of ***coping***, primarily through distress tolerance and adaptability. The pyramid culminates in ***character***, which brings to life all of the previous layers and highlights the importance of putting faith into practice. ![The pyramid of the Islamically integrated resiliency model](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image1-1024x956.jpg) --- ## Series format The remaining papers in this series will each explain the five sections of the Islamically Integrated Resiliency Model (IIRM). Each paper will elaborate on one layer of the pyramid above, highlighting one essential factor through the Qur’an and Sunnah, psychological research, and practical techniques to illustrate how to foster resilience in our children. To bring each concept to life we will include a real-life case study (with names and details changed for confidentiality) and break down implementation from a biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective. Just as we did in our [Trauma series](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/psychology-mental-health/trauma), we will emphasize the mind, body, and soul in each section to provide a holistic approach to building resilience in our children and giving them the best tools possible to benefit their life in this world and the next. --- ## Duʿāʾ for family guidance, protection and well-being O Allah, please bless and reward me and my children as we embark on this journey of getting closer to You. You are *al-Mujīb*, the One who responds to prayers and the One who fulfills them. Accept my efforts and my prayers for the best for my children. You are *al-Hādī*, the One who is the source of guidance. Please guide me to the approaches that are best for my child and the words and actions that will be a means of bringing them closer to You. Guide my children to the straight path; allow them to love what You love and guide them to the actions that are most pleasing to You. You are *al-Muhaymin*, the Protector, the Bestower of security, the Guardian, the Safeguarder. Protect my children from every evil and grant them the best of this life and the next. Grant them security and protect them from trauma. Guard them and grant them the strength and ability to face the tests of this life in the best of ways. You are *as-Salām*, the Source of peace, wholeness, and well-being. Heal my relationship with my children and fill it with peace. Allow my words and actions to fill our relationship with safety and stability and support me in my efforts to parent them in the way that is most pleasing to You. Heal my children from anything that may be an obstacle in their ability to connect with You and fill their relationship with You with peace, tranquility, and strength. ~ ~ ~ As you embark on this journey to parent with purpose and to build resilience in your children, we ask Allah to reward you for your efforts and every single moment of struggle that comes with being a caregiver to a child. Parenthood is incredibly hard so remember this during moments of hardship: Allah has chosen you for this child. He is telling you that you’re the most capable person for this job and that you’re strong enough to deal with the ups and downs inherent in this rollercoaster ride. You’re not the perfect parent—no one is. But you’re the parent who is most worthy to care for and raise your child because Allah, in His infinite wisdom, decreed this relationship; otherwise He wouldn’t have chosen you. We sincerely hope you and your child will benefit from this series of articles and that your relationship will flourish in the best of ways. May Allah bless your journey. --- ## Notes [^1]: Charles Ganaprakasam, Kavitha Davaidass, and Sivan Muniandy, “Helicopter Parenting and Psychological Consequences Among Adolescent,” *International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications* 8, no. 6 (2018). [^2]: Najwa Awad and Sarah Sultan, “Your Lord Has Not Forsaken You: Addressing the Impact of Trauma on Faith,” *Yaqeen*, January 10, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/amp/sarah-sultan/your-lord-has-not-forsaken-you-addressing-the-impact-of-trauma-on-faith](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/amp/sarah-sultan/your-lord-has-not-forsaken-you-addressing-the-impact-of-trauma-on-faith&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302553962&usg=AOvVaw30-eYV10RXqFlASwP-1g_V). [^3]: David W. Foy, Kent D. Drescher, and Patricia J. Watson, “Religious and Spiritual Factors in Resilience,” *Resilience and Mental Health,* 2011, 90–102, [https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511994791.008](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511994791.008&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302554369&usg=AOvVaw1SW8zeNnngvHSFa-rHpS0t). [^4]: Donald F. Walker, Henri Webb Reid, Tiffany O’Neill, and Lindsay Brown, “Changes in Personal Religion/Spirituality during and after Childhood Abuse: A Review and Synthesis,” *Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy* 1, no. 2 (2009): 130–45, [https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511994791.008](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511994791.008&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302554765&usg=AOvVaw3kluQvoWPs7nwXPQUfS27B). [^5]: James Garbarino and Claire Bedard, “Spiritual Challenges to Children Facing Violent Trauma,” *Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research* 3, 1996, 467–78, 467. [^6]: David W. Foy, Kent D. Drescher, and Patricia J. Watson, “Religious and Spiritual Factors in Resilience,” in *Resilience and Mental Health: Challenges Across the Lifespan*, ed. Steven M. Southwick, Brett T. Litz, Dennis Charney, and Matthew J. Friedman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 90–102. [^7]: “Ounce of Prevention, Pound of Cure,” University of Cambridge, October 9, 2012, [https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/ounce-of-prevention-pound-of-cure](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/ounce-of-prevention-pound-of-cure&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302555501&usg=AOvVaw2pUugKhjDYZFdGGWZZqipH). [^8]: Peter A. Levine and Maggie Kline, *Trauma-Proofing Your Kids: A Parents’ Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience* (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2014), 1. [^9]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 5644; *Sahih Muslim*, no. 2809. [^10]: Qur’an 29:2–3. [^11]: Qur’an 2:155–157. [^12]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 2823. [^13]: *Sunan at-Tirmidhi*, no. 2399. [^14]: Qur’an 12:100. [^15]: Sally C. Curtin and Melonie Heron, “Death Rates Due to Suicide and Homicide Among Persons Aged 10–24: United States, 2000–2017,” NCHS Data Brief, no. 352, CDC, October 2019, [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db352-h.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db352-h.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302556088&usg=AOvVaw31Y3-SQCvGB_ZHaNJ_m-gJ). [^16]: Besheer Mohamed and Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, “The Share of Americans Who Leave Islam Is Offset by Those Who Become Muslim,” Pew Research Center, May 30, 2020, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302556455&usg=AOvVaw3gOxdfUIJGkeZS3hqmEa_7). [^17]: Qur’an 5:27. [^18]: Qur’an 11:43. [^19]: Qur’an 12:18. [^20]: *Madārij al-Sālikīn*, 3:156. [^21]: Qur’an 31:13–19. [^22]: Blake Victor Kent, Matt Bradshaw, and Jeremy E. Uecker, “Forgiveness, Attachment to God, and Mental Health Outcomes in Older U.S. Adults: A Longitudinal Study,” *Research on Aging* 40, no. 5 (2018): 456–79, [www.doi.org/10.1177/0164027517706984](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1177/0164027517706984&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302567843&usg=AOvVaw0fCXlm9XAW1p9ukYeeDncT); Pernille Darling Rasmussen, Ole Jakob Storebø, Trine Løkkeholt, Line Gaunø Voss, Yael Shmueli-Goetz, Anders Bo Bojesen, Erik Simonsen, and Niels Bilenberg, “Attachment as a Core Feature of Resilience: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” *Psychological Reports* 122, no. 4 (2019): 1259–96, [www.doi.org/10.1177/0033294118785577](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1177/0033294118785577&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302568123&usg=AOvVaw0L2KUX5mLP3iinG1t0PO9D). [^23]: Rasmussen et al., “Attachment as a Core Feature of Resilience.” [^24]: Jennika J. Jenkins, “The Relationship Between Resilience, Attachment, and Emotional Coping Styles,” (master’s thesis, Old Dominion University, 2016), [www.doi.org/10.25777/0wcx-gr47](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.25777/0wcx-gr47&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302558475&usg=AOvVaw3vbfHa8cpUFkayW7vpnn1C), [https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/psychology\_etds/28](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/psychology_etds/28&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302558682&usg=AOvVaw2xh5-iFRa5sgV_q1G-ynuf). [^25]: Hielke Buddelmeyera and Nattavudh Powdthaveeba, “Can Having Internal Locus of Control Insure against Negative Shocks? Psychological Evidence from Panel Data,” *Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization* 122, 88–109, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.014](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.014&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302559138&usg=AOvVaw2aMEUxMS3t9lUyIv3cLK_W). [^26]: Kathleen Anne Moore, Patricia Marriner, and Jon-Paul Cacioli, “The Relationship of Attachment to Resilience and Their Impact on Stress,” in *Stress and Anxiety: Applications to Social and Environmental Threats, Psychological Wellbeing, Occupational Challenges and Developmental Psychology*, ed. Kathleen A. Moore, Krzysztof Kaniasty, Petra Buchwald, and Siobhan Howard (Berlin: Logos, 2014), 73–82, [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275833354\_The\_relationship\_of\_attachment\_to\_resilience\_and\_their\_impact\_on\_stress](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275833354_The_relationship_of_attachment_to_resilience_and_their_impact_on_stress&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302559581&usg=AOvVaw06W5w90i54zD4a4IAdGpps). [^27]: Rasmussen et al., “Attachment as a Core Feature of Resilience.” [^28]: Adabel Lee and Benjamin L. Hankin, “Insecure Attachment, Dysfunctional Attitudes, and Low Self-Esteem Predicting Prospective Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety during Adolescence,” *Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology* 38, no. 2 (2009): 219–31, [https://doi.org/10.1080/15374410802698396](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/15374410802698396&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302568564&usg=AOvVaw2tE3IkZM_Flsxi46_IbmOz). [^29]: Oladiti Olawale, “The Impact of Secure Attachment on Interpersonal Relationship: A Review,” *International Journal of Indian Psychology* 4, no. 4 (2017), [www.doi.org/10.25215/0404.079](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.25215/0404.079&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302568973&usg=AOvVaw3fV5YwkTcecC2Ll2N7vm17). [^30]: Fatih Ozbay, Douglas C. Johnson, Eleni Dimoulas, C. A. Morgan, III, Dennis Charney, and Steven Southwick, “Social Support and Resilience to Stress: From Neurobiology to Clinical Practice,” *Psychiatry* 4, no. 5 (2007): 35–40. [^31]: *Musnad Ahmad,* no. 1412. [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 15; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 44. [^33]: Qur’an 51:56. [^34]: Qur’an 59:19. [^35]: Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, “Religiosity, Subjective Well-Being, Self-Esteem, and Anxiety among Kuwaiti Muslim Adolescents,” *Mental Health, Religion and Culture* 14, no. 2 (2011): 129–40. [^36]: Osman Umarji, “Will My Children Be Muslim? The Development of Religious Identity in Young People,” *Yaqeen*, January 16, 2020, updated October 17, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/will-my-children-be-muslim-the-development-of-religious-identity-in-young-people](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/will-my-children-be-muslim-the-development-of-religious-identity-in-young-people&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302571874&usg=AOvVaw1P2oMKHqksohyXMi7Rujrb). [^37]: S. Alexander Haslam, Jolanda Jetten, Tom Postmes, and Catherine Haslam, “Social Identity, Health and Well-Being: An Emerging Agenda for Applied Psychology,” *Applied Psychology*, 58 (2009): 1–23, [www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464- 0597.2008.00379](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302561563&usg=AOvVaw0WxRYNgLi1VRzOLVF12lVR); Jolanda Jetten, Catehrine Haslam, and S. Alexander Haslam, eds., *The Social Cure: Identity, Health and Well-Being* (New York: Psychology Press, 2012). [^38]: Gloria T. DiFulvio, “Sexual Minority Youth, Social Connection and Resilience: From Personal Struggle to Collective Identity,” *Social Science and Medicine* 72 (2011): 1611–17, [www.doi.org/10.1016/ j.socscimed.2011.02.045](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.1016/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302562000&usg=AOvVaw15nLny96OBYrLInodM0iCr); Anisa N. Goforth, Evelyn R. Oka, Frederick T. L. Leong, and Daniel J. Denis, “Acculturation, Acculturative Stress, Religiosity and Psychological Adjustment among Muslim Arab American Adolescents,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 8, no. 2 (2014). [^39]: Qur’an 2:112. [^40]: Qur’an 2:277. [^41]: Qur’an 16:97. [^42]: Qur’an 61:2. [^43]: Qur’an 5:9. [^44]: Zeenah Adam and Colleen Ward, “Stress, Religious Coping and Wellbeing in Acculturating Muslims,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 10, no. 2 (2016). [^45]: Abdulaziz Aflakseir and P. G. Coleman, “Initial Development of the Iranian Religious Coping Scale,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 6, no. 1 (2011). [^46]: Narayanan Annalakshmi and Mohammed Abeer, “Islamic Worldview, Religious Personality and Resilience among Muslim Adolescent Students in India,” *Europe’s Journal of Psychology* 7, no. 4 (2011): 716–38. [^47]: Annalakshmi and Abeer, “Islamic Worldview, Religious Personality and Resilience.” [^48]: Annalakshmi and Abeer, “Islamic Worldview, Religious Personality and Resilience.” [^49]: Adrian D. Van Breda, “Resilience Theory: A Literature Review,” South African Military Health Service, 2001. [^50]: Qur’an 47:31. [^51]: Qur’an 39:10 [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1223. [^53]: Damian Scarf, John Hunter, Jill Hayhurst, Ted Ruffman, Saleh Moradi, and Mike Boyes, “Somewhere I Belong: Long‐Term Increases in Adolescents’ Resilience Are Predicted by Perceived Belonging to the In‐Group,” *British Journal of Social Psychology* 55, no. 3 (2016): 588–99; Megan R. Gunnar, Kristin Frenn, Sandi S. Wewerka, and Mark J. Van Ryzin, “Moderate versus Severe Early Life Stress: Associations with Stress Reactivity and Regulation in 10–12-Year-Old Children,” *Psychoneuroendocrinology* 34 no. 1 (2009): 62–75; Benjamin G. Shapero, Jessica L. Hamilton, Jonathan P. Stange, Richard T. Liu, Lyn Y. Abramson, and Lauren B. Alloy, “Moderate Childhood Stress Buffers against Depressive Response to Proximal Stressors: A Multi-Wave Prospective Study of Early Adolescents,” *Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology* 43, no. 8 (2015): 1403–13. [^54]: Richard A. Dienstbier, “Arousal and Physiological Toughness: Implications for Mental and Physical Health,” *Psychological Review* 96, no. 1 (1989): 84. [^55]: Donald Meichenbaum and Deborah Fitzpatrick, “A Constructivist Narrative Perspective on Stress and Coping: Stress Inoculation Applications,” in *Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects* (N.p.: Free Press, 1993), 706–23. [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6470; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1053. [^57]: Collected by at-Tabarani in *al-Mu'jam al-awsat*, 3:118 and graded *hasan* by al-Albani in *as-Silsilah as-sahihah*, no. 342. [^58]: Timothy D. Hodges and Donald O. Clifton, “Strengths-Based Development in Practice,” in *Handbook of Positive Psychology in Practice*, ed. A. Linley and S. Joseph (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2004), 256–68, 257. [^59]: Linda Searing, “One-Third of Children Ages 7 to 9 Use Social Media Apps, Study Says,” *Washington Post*, November 21, 2021, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/social-media-young-kids/2021/11/19/3130ce5a-488a-11ec-95dc-5f2a96e00fa3\_story.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/social-media-young-kids/2021/11/19/3130ce5a-488a-11ec-95dc-5f2a96e00fa3_story.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302569915&usg=AOvVaw0H2uKTo1gy9WITPq98KgU9). [^60]: Mihriban Akkoz and Oytun Erbas, “The Relationship between Social Media Use and Narcissism,” *Demiroglu Science University Florence Nightingale Transplantation Journal* 5, no. 1–2 (2020): 32–38, [www.doi.org/10.5606/dsufnjt.2020.014](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.5606/dsufnjt.2020.014&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302566926&usg=AOvVaw39DparZ9rMF_6jsU9-CK7v). [^61]: Betul Keles, Niall McCrae, and Annmarie Grealish, “A Systematic Review: The Influence of Social Media on Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Distress in Adolescents,” *International Journal of Adolescence and Youth* 25, no. 1 (2020): 79–93. [^62]: Anat Shoshan and Michelle Slone, “The Resilience Function of Character Strengths in the Face of War and Protracted Conflict,” *Frontiers in Psychology*, January 12, 2016, [www.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02006](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02006&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1667944302567432&usg=AOvVaw1T6JeBtvxfA7mQZbxJgOM7). [^63]: *Sunan at-Tirmidhi*, no. 2002. ## Summary Muslim parents today carry a heavy weight of worry, and this concern is not without basis. In a world increasingly shaped by atheism, self-absorption, and fragile family structures, parents rightly fear whether their children will hold fast to the Qur'an and Sunnah into adulthood, whether they will love Allah sincerely, or whether their faith will become a mere performance for the sake of family. Within our communities we hear painful accounts—the youth who fell into addiction, the eight-year-old who questions Allah's existence after a friend's remark, the diligent daughter whose faith and well-being unraveled through an unhealthy relationship, the bullied child who wonders why Allah did not protect him. These are not distant tragedies; they may strike our own households. The aim here is to offer parents a path away from constant anxiety, one grounded not in scattered quick fixes but in a coherent Islamic framework rooted in prevention rather than reaction. The guiding vision is resilience: nurturing children so that they can withstand life's inevitable trials without suffering unnecessary mental, emotional, and spiritual harm. Whereas an earlier body of work on trauma sought to pull adults out of the metaphorical river of suffering, the purpose of this effort is to keep children from falling into that river in the first place. A prevalent misconception is that shielding children from all hardship produces flourishing adults. On the contrary, "bulldozer parenting," which removes every obstacle, and "helicopter parenting," which micromanages the child, tend to breed entitlement and leave children unprepared for adversity. Research indicates that helicopter parenting often backfires, yielding adolescents with psychological maladjustment and reduced self-efficacy. The dilemma for parents is how to be nurturing and empathetic while also cultivating perseverance and the capacity to endure difficulty. The missing piece, it is argued, is the deliberate fostering of resilience. This concern extends into the realm of mental health. Drawing on years of clinical work with individuals and families, the authors observed how deeply trauma can weaken a person's spirituality, and how the loss of faith after hardship can, in turn, obstruct healing. Researchers have described childhood traumatization as a kind of "reverse religious experience," a process of overwhelming arousal and cognition that threatens a child's very sense of meaning. For this reason resilience and the mitigation of trauma are presented as protective factors for both mental and spiritual health. Through such prevention, by the will of Allah, long-term trauma and certain spiritual crises can in many cases be averted—an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. Resilience is understood as the capacity to rebound from stress, fear, and feelings of helplessness, likened to a slinky that returns to its shape no matter how far it is stretched. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ conveyed this quality when he said that the believer is like a fresh, tender plant that bends with the wind and straightens again when the wind subsides, while the wicked person is like a rigid cedar that stands firm until Allah breaks it when He wills. Trials, moreover, are an unavoidable part of this worldly life, decreed by Allah for a purpose. He asks, "Do people think once they say, 'We believe,' that they will be left without being put to the test?" and He informs us, "And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the patient." The Prophet ﷺ likewise taught that "Paradise is surrounded by adversity, and Hellfire is surrounded by lusts," and that the believing man or woman remains under trial in life, property, and offspring until meeting Allah free of sin. Resilience, then, is what allows a person to face such struggles while maintaining a stable connection to Allah, and it can be cultivated over time, as seen in the life of Prophet Yūsuf عليه السلام, who endured trial after trial and finally declared, "Indeed my Lord is subtle in fulfilling what He wills." Given the rise in suicide among the young and the reality that some who are raised Muslim leave the faith, nurturing this quality is more urgent than ever. An Islamic framework is deemed essential because existing resilience models, even those that are faith-based, do not integrate Islam and thus cannot supply the Qur'anic and prophetic wisdom that Muslim families require. It is wiser to strengthen children with Islamic resilience before hardship than to introduce Islamic concepts only after tragedy, for parents cannot expect their children to turn to a faith that was never modeled beforehand. At the same time, no human approach can guarantee success; even Ādam, Nūḥ, and Yaʿqūb عليهم السلام faced parenting challenges despite divine guidance, and the approach offered is presented humbly, without any claim to possess all answers. The resulting framework, the Islamically Integrated Resilience Model, was inspired by the counsel of Luqmān al-Ḥakīm to his son in Sūrah Luqmān, whose verses touch upon tawḥīd, enjoining good, patience, and noble character—concepts that align closely with the components of resilience found in contemporary research. Ibn al-Qayyim's reflection that the heart's disorders can only be remedied by responding to Allah underscores why connection to Him lies at the center of the model. Its layers unfold as a pyramid. The foundation is attachment: first and foremost attachment to Allah, since He alone sends and removes adversity, and reliance upon Him offers a stability, internal locus of control, and continuity that human relationships cannot match. This is followed by attachment to parents, which the Qur'an places immediately after the command of tawḥīd, and which parents build through modeling, warm relationship, and the teaching of skills. It further includes attachment to the prophets and the rightly guided, and to the ummah, for the Prophet ﷺ warned against jealousy and hatred that destroy religion and urged the spreading of salām so that love may grow, and he declared that none truly believes until he loves the Prophet ﷺ more than his own father, children, and all people. The second layer is connection to oneself through a firm Islamic identity and healthy self-esteem, grounded in the purpose for which we were created: "And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me." The warning "And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves" shows that self-knowledge is a blessing tied to remembering Allah, and research links religiosity among Muslim youth to well-being and self-esteem. The third layer stresses purpose and faith through action, for belief must be manifested in deeds; the Qur'an repeatedly joins faith with righteous action, prayer, and zakat as sources of reward and freedom from fear, and rebukes those who "say what you do not do." Studies of Muslim youth found that the most resilient were distinguished by their religious practice and God-conscious conduct, confirming that emotion and cognition alone are insufficient. The fourth layer is coping through patience, distress tolerance, and adaptability. Allah tests His servants "until We make evident those who strive among you and are patient," and the patient receive their reward without reckoning. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Be mindful of Allah and be patient," and that whoever strives for patience will be granted it, there being no gift better or more comprehensive. Allowing children measured struggle—akin to stress inoculation—strengthens them, for as the Prophet ﷺ taught, knowledge comes by learning and forbearance by cultivating it. Unlike secular models, this coping serves both the dunyā and the ākhirah. The pyramid culminates in character, where Luqmān warns against arrogance and commands humility, dignity, and moderation—traits especially needed in an age of social media that fosters both narcissism and diminished self-worth. The Prophet ﷺ said that nothing is heavier on the believer's scale than good character. Each layer will be explored in turn in subsequent parts, with case studies and a holistic approach to mind, body, and soul. Parents are reminded, finally, to turn to Allah in supplication—invoking Him as al-Mujīb who answers, al-Hādī who guides, al-Muhaymin who protects, and as-Salām who grants peace—and to take comfort that Allah, in His wisdom, chose them for their children precisely because they are the most worthy to raise them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/are-you-a-visual-learner-here-are-5-islamic-infographics-to-learn-from-today # Are You a Visual Learner? Here Are 5 Islamic Infographics to Learn From Today **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Education, Family & Community **Tags:** Blog **Published:** November 2, 2022 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 Visual learners make up 65% percent of the population, so it’s no wonder that infographics are one of the most popular forms of content today. In addition to simplifying complex topics, infographics also improve our retention of the information presented. At Yaqeen, we’re dedicated to making Islamic content as accessible as possible, which is why we offer infographics on various topics. Here are 5 Islamic infographics to check out today. --- ## 1\. Living by Judgment Day’s Promise The Day of Judgment is not some distant reality. It’s a promise. One day, we’ll stand before our Creator and be held accountable for our time spent in this world. For the believer, this day is not just one to occasionally think about and fear. [This infographic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/living-by-judgment-days-promise-infographic) illustrates the 3 ways that the certainty of Judgment Day can help motivate us and shape our day-to-day lives. --- ## 2\. Is Islam a Hub for Terrorists? As repeated incidents of violence occur in the name of Islam, Muslims have become accustomed to their faith being placed on trial in the media at each occurrence. [This infographic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/is-islam-a-hub-for-terrorists-infographic) sets the record straight on extremism, Islamophobia, and religious violence. --- ## 3\. From Tongue to Page: The Mechanics of Hadith Preservation Islam’s rich literary heritage shines when we look at the way Hadith transmission and preservation has been managed. [This infographic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/from-tongue-to-page-the-mechanics-of-hadith-preservation-infographic) walks you through the way Hadith have been preserved, from first spoken to the books we have today. --- ## 4. Tahajjud: Our Infinite Fuel Source *Tahajjud* can help us accomplish our personal goals as well as grant us the energy and the guidance to help others. Learn how you can establish a *[tahajjud](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/tahajjud-our-infinite-fuel-source-infographic)* habit in your daily life and start recharging with this energy source. --- ## 5\. Touched by Trauma: “Why Do Bad Things Always Happen to Me?” Why do some people end up facing the same struggles over and over again? [This infographic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/part-2-touched-by-trauma-why-do-bad-things-always-happen-to-me), the second of our [series on trauma](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/psychology-mental-health/trauma), focuses on how we can break the cycles of negativity. Want more? [Click here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics) to browse our entire collection of Islamic infographics on topics from abortion to God’s existence, meditation in Islam, and more. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/its-okay-to-be-different-how-to-talk-to-kids-about-halloween-and-islam # It's Okay to Be Different: How to Talk to Kids About Halloween and Islam **Author:** Sh. Ibrahim Hindy **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Blog **Published:** October 28, 2022 **Updated:** October 20, 2023 I was driving my 5 year old son home from his swimming lessons when he told me about a conversation he had with his swimming instructor. It’s a conversation I imagine many Muslim kids and parents in the West have had in one form or another. “He asked me what I’m going to be for Halloween,” Yunus said during the car ride home. I said, “Oh. So what did you tell him?” Yunus just made a gesture of zipping his lips shut and said, “I didn’t say anything.” “Why not? Why didn’t you tell them that you don’t believe in Halloween?” I inquired. “I can’t say that! Next time I’ll just tell them my mom won't let me celebrate Halloween,” Yunus replied. “But that’s not fair, Yunus. Do we not celebrate Halloween because of me or your mom? Or do we not celebrate it because of Allah?” “Because of Allah…” Yunus sheepishly admitted. “So then why do you want to say it’s because of mama? Why not say it’s not part of your religion?” He looked out the window and sighed, “I don’t know. They won’t understand.” I grew up here in Canada just like my son. I know very well the experience of being a child during Halloween. I still have memories of when my parents would shut off all the lights in the house so that we could pretend that we weren’t home when the trick-or-treaters came along. Of course, there were cars in our driveway so that didn’t work too well! But I remember my siblings and I peering out of the window and gazing at all the kids coming to the door. There’s no question that it would cause us to feel left out or even deprived of this great experience (and candy!) that all the other kids were enjoying. And I definitely know the awkwardness of trying to explain to non-Muslim neighbors why I didn’t have a costume–that same feeling that my son is now experiencing. > I think a lot of Muslims who grew up in the West have similar memories. The feelings of being deprived or not knowing how to relate your experience to others might stay with many even into adulthood. But I realized something important as I got older. Going through the experience of not celebrating Halloween in a society that overwhelmingly does helped me in my spiritual growth. It allowed me to grow thicker skin in learning to resist societal pressures. It absolutely came in handy years later when the neighbor’s kids offered cigarettes to me. I was already used to being different. It wouldn’t matter if I would be different once again. In fact, the Qur’an really preaches the ideal of being different. It reminds us in so many verses and ways that “most people do not know” or “most people are not thankful.” Variations of these phrases are found 20 or more times throughout the Qur’an. Moreover Allah brings us the example of Prophet Ibrahim, a young man who stood up against his entire society, refusing to participate in paganism. > There has already been for you an excellent example in Ibrahim and those with him, when they said to their people, "Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah.” \[Surat Al-Mumtahanah, 60:4\] As humans, we find comfort in the company of others, but “most people” will not take us where we need to go. And this isn’t only true in our religion but in our worldly lives as well. To excel in our businesses, we have to develop financial discipline and an extremely strong work ethic–something that “most people” never do. To excel in athletics, we have to eat very healthy foods in particular quantities and train extremely hard–again, something that “most people” will not do. And this is true in our faith. To excel spiritually, to be on the right path, we have to be different from “most people.” As a child, the idea of being different made me feel a sense of inferiority, but now I understand that it actually forces you to be better. It forces you to be uncomfortable, in the best way. So later, I sat with my son and I spoke to him about Halloween. We spoke about *shirk* and paganism, and why participating in any aspect of it is deeply wrong. [This paper](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-shirk-the-greatest-sin-of-all) by Dr. Zohair Abdur-Rahman really helped me organize my thoughts. We spoke about the [history of Halloween](http://www.history.com/topics/halloween) and its connection to pagan rituals. I also spoke to him about how I experienced Halloween as a child, and the feelings it brought to my heart, which he might experience too. But I focused on how obeying Allah brought me strength later on–that the sacrifices we make today for the sake of Allah will always bear fruit in the future. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I spoke to him about his swim class. “Are you proud to be Muslim?” I asked. “Of course!” “Tell me, what are the things you love about Islam?” Yunus struggled for a moment but then slowly began to name things “Allah…the Prophet…Eid…going to the Masjid…the stories of the Prophets…the Qur’an…” Soon he couldn’t stop naming the things he loved about Islam! “Ok Yunus, would you trade Islam for anything?” “Of course not!” “Then shouldn’t we be happy to let other people know that we are Muslims and that we have this beautiful religion? Like in your swim class, if they asked you about Halloween, shouldn’t you be proud to tell them that Islam means a lot to you and that’s why you won’t celebrate Halloween?” I’m not very sure how exactly he’ll deal with the question next time, but he seemed far more assured after our conversation. Spiritual growth is a process that your child will have to experience individually. All we can do is be with them, have open communication, and try our best to advise them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-a-post-truth-world # Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World **Author:** Dr. Tamara Gray **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 26, 2022 **Updated:** October 22, 2025 ## Introduction It was a cold winter day and bits of icy snow were still falling on the windshield. I was in the passenger seat of our station wagon and my mother’s mouth was set in “stress.” She said, “When we go inside, you will hear me apologize for being late, and blaming the snow. This is a white lie. We shouldn’t ever lie. But if I don’t, I might lose the appointment.” I was a little bit in awe—my mother was about to *lie*. I walked into the hair salon with ears and eyes paying close attention. And she did mumble something to the receptionist about our precarious ride to the shop, after which we were hustled over to a waiting space and quickly given our turns. The reason this event was forever etched in my mind is that honesty and truthfulness were high priorities in my family. I was taught very early not to lie and that the consequences for lying were far worse than those for mistakes that were truthfully owned up to. Is truth still important? And what about Truth? Truth with a capital *T* is a truth that is not influenced by whether or not people believe it. It will remain True if all the world sees it as false and it will remain True if all the world sees it as true. Truth with a capital *T* has faced centuries of challenges, not the least of which have been human attempts to convey or even enforce Truth. These attempts were not Truth, but human truths that were culturally and/or historically bound and therefore did not serve the greater Truth. Truth still exists today, undeterred by a society termed post-Truth by many. Post-Truth is not a chronological claim—it does not mean that we have moved into a time after truth, but rather into a time where Truth and even truth are deemed less important than personal or political gain. As for truth with a lowercase *t*, it is often connected to a Truth, but does not have to be in order to be true to someone. Lower case *t*\-truths are those that emerge from personal experience, true to one person or many, and connected to the words we say and things we do. The presence of truthfulness is a prerequisite for trustworthiness, and so its absence impacts families, workplaces, and all social and community relationships. A lack of trust—in systems, in institutions, in each other—means a lack of personal safety, and a corresponding need to set boundaries. In a low-trust and post-truth society such as our own, how can one trust that a medical diagnosis is correct, that a restaurant is serving hamburger rather than ground dog, and that a grade on a test is based on an objective rubric?  In a society where Truth is passé, can we be people of truth with one another? How do we locate Truth and live truthfully in a community of truth-tellers? --- ## Locating Truth (capital T) Pre-modern humanity tied Truth closely to religion.[^1] Western societies regarded Church claims as necessarily True, even when they concerned the solar system, human health, and other subjects outside the purview of revelation. Truth for Muslims during this time remained confined to the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and people of God who conveyed their knowledge and experiences to others. There were certainly erroneous claims about science and scientific discoveries that originated in individual Muslim scholars, but they were not considered part of revelation, only interpretations of it. In other words, they were understood as lower case *t*\-truths. As modernity dawned, the gap between the Christian and Muslim attitudes regarding Truth began to widen. Toward the end of these years, new inventions, antibiotics, and a growing confidence in independent human ability began to change Western attitudes toward the source of Truth. Science replaced the Church as the source of Truth.[^2] Muslims began to replace their trust in legal canon with a push for independent research in what were now translated as Islamic “sciences.” However a great difference still remained. While the West became agnostic and atheist, the Muslim “east” was still rooted in the Qur’an and Sunnah, though admittedly missing early traditions and discourses. Truth remained with God and His Prophet ﷺ, but miracles that could not be explained scientifically were hidden or denied. This caused a loss of discussion around issues of spirituality and a leaning toward legalism, which in turn had its own effects on Muslim society.[^3] In the mid-twentieth century, science began to disappoint. Though it did bring forth some truths (penicillin as a cure for bacterial infections), it also  brought forth lies (claims of white superiority based on physical characteristics), and confusion (pills prescribed to treat nausea caused frightening birth defects). The reliance on science for Truth began to diminish, especially as it brought about analog machines and eventually the internet. Where colonialism brought the Christian west into power over Muslim lands, the globalizing effect of the internet opened the windows of the world to everyone. Science no longer was Truth. Tradition still was not Truth. Truth lost its capital *T*. Truth became truths and the post-modern stage began. Of course truths have always existed amongst people. Truth (with a lowercase *t*) is related to our interpretations of our own lives. My mother’s lie about the snow-bound roads to the hairdresser was a lie to her because she did not slip on the roads, nor get stuck behind a snow plow. But to me, it was still a truth. There was snow. We had to go slower than usual. Perhaps we got started late because we were looking for boots and gloves, I don’t actually remember. But experiences and interpretations of those experiences are personal truths. They are not universal and can only be known through honest communication with one another, and even then may be understood but not fully known. In this case what is true for one person may not be true for someone else. Muslims should have compassion and respect for everyone’s personal perspectives on truth, and become aware of how privilege silences some experiences and amplifies others. --- ## Lies and Truth/truth-telling In every stage of history—premodernity where Truth was grounded in religion, modernity where it was grounded in science, and postmodernity where it was set aside in favor of truths—people have lied. Sometimes it was the Church, offering position, power, and absolution for money instead of piety. Other times it was  science, claiming to have empirically proven certain peoples inferior to others. And then, though it may seem trivial, there was the Great Lie of Santa Claus. Of course as a child of middle America I fell prey to the great Santa Claus lie. I was told that Santa Claus was real, that he brought me gifts, that he flew in a sleigh and lived in the North Pole. I believed it. Discovering the Truth—that there was no Santa Claus—embarrassed me (for believing such a thing in the first place) and shook my trust in adults (who had conspired to ensure I believed this ludicrous idea for as long as possible). I carefully watched my siblings grow through the Santa Claus years, revealing to them the truth before they embarrassed themselves by believing in what their friends now knew to be a lie. Amazingly, even in a time when everyone’s truth is deemed important, non-Christian children in elementary schools across the United States are still called upon to perpetuate the Great Lie of Santa Claus. Children who discover the truth at home—there is no Santa Claus—are told to uphold the lie to their friends at school who still believe that the jolly man with the flying reindeers is real. I do not know of any research on the impact of a society’s agreement to lie to children, but I cannot imagine that it is positive. I think this lie in particular must be damaging to children who believe it and then find the world has agreed to their deception. What does it do to basic trust in humanity? How does discovering that the man who “sees you when you are sleeping, knows when you are awake, knows when you’ve been bad or good” (lyrics of a famous Christmas song) is made up affect the child’s ability to believe in God? This lie is more than a lie. It is an intentional replacement of Truth. It is more than knowing a truth and denying it; it is knowing something is a falsehood and claiming it is truth. It is perhaps part and parcel of what is now called a post-Truth society. In 2016, post-Truth was proclaimed the word of the year by the Oxford Dictionaries.[^4] Post-Truth implies that truth is no longer important. It is different from a lie. A lie is a falsification of facts; e.g., “I did not eat the cookie.” A liar knows that there was a fact (he ate the cookie), but denies it and claims otherwise. A post-truth statement like “Cookies are a poison, created by bakers, in order to cause chaos in American grocery stores” is not a simple denial of fact, but a fabricated concept meant to distract the listener from the missing cookie. Locating Truth and truth, as well as trusting that truth has been spoken, has become more and more difficult. --- ## Seeking Truth, finding truth, telling the truth, and living a truthful life Truth and lies between individuals build and break relationships. Friends we can trust are those who neither lie, nor hide important things from us. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was called *al-Amīn* (the trustworthy) by his friends and family many years before revelation. This relationship of trust and truth was an important factor in early conversions. When I was 17 years old I was struck by the question of Jesus. Was he really God? God’s son? Or was this another place where Truth was watered down, changed, or just not there? It was devastating to learn that the Council of Nicaea, in the year 325 A.D., had voted on this very issue. Voted? In my young opinion, Truth wasn’t something to vote on. It was either True, or not True. Voting did happen for the president of the United States, however, and in 1984 I was two days shy of 18 so I could not vote. A staunch Democrat from a long line of Democrats, I was incredibly disappointed when Ronald Reagan crushed my home state’s Walter Mondale (a Minnesota candidate with a woman running for Vice President along with him). The media wondered whether President Reagan was only performing or whether he was actually able to fulfill the duties of the presidency. The same uncertainty haunted my religious understanding. How do I know what is true? How do I hold on to Truth? I felt frustrated and helpless. These months were months of elections, religious questioning, and reflections on the fragility of conviction. Of course the internet was not yet a thing, so my search for Truth would take me from person to person. I asked questions, read books, and considered possibilities. I was looking for more than a truth. I was looking for the Truth—about God, life, and what comes next. It was January 1985 when I found it. Truth finally had a name: Islam. I became a Muslim immediately. This Truth was a personal truth, one that came about because of a spiritual experience. It was not based on a long academic search for intellectual proofs or even a family tradition of faith. I was stepping out on my own. A personal truth is sustaining. But in my experience, much of the American Muslim community I came into contact with in 1985 was detached from spiritual traditions and still deeply entrenched in literalism and an unexamined sexism proclaimed as Islam. I was stuck by the disparity between the Truth of Islam and the truths of Muslims that felt nonsensical, sexist, and harmful to me. I didn’t know enough about colonialism, or postcolonial dictatorships, modernism and postmodernism to untangle the sticky truth claims that were attempting to unglue the Truth from my heart. --- ## Al-Ḥaqq and b’il-ḥaqq One of the names of God is *al-Ḥaqq*—the Truth. God is the Truth. God’s presence is real and true. The human being seeks Truth and God provides knowledge of Himself. This is the Truth of God. I became a Muslim on the day I tapped into this Truth. I prayed my first prayer, and in the second *sujūd* asked God the simple question, “Are these your words (the Qur’an)?” I felt an overwhelming certainty that yes, they were indeed the words of God and so when I lifted my head from the prayer mat, I was a Muslim. I had tapped into the Truth, the Ultimate Reality—*al-Ḥaqq*. God is the Truth that is true whether we believe in the Truth of God or not. How did I know it was the Truth? Prayer opened my heart to my inner need for God (*fiṭra)*, curiosity allowed me to pray that prayer, and the prayer itself was an inner signpost that offered me an opportunity to hold on to the Truth that is God. Not only is God the Truth (*al-Ḥaqq*), but God does things in Truth… (*bi’l-ḥaqq*). - God has created the heavens and the earth, in truth.[^5] - God has created the heavens and the earth in truth, this is a sign for believers.[^6] - Do they not think within themselves Who has created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in truth…[^7] - He created the heavens and the earth, in truth…[^8] - He is the one who created the heavens and the earth, in truth, and the day He will say Be, there will be. His word is Truth and His is the dominion on the day when the Trumpet is blown. He knows all that lies beyond the reach of human perception as well as all that is visible to humanity. He is the Wise. The Aware.[^9] - And Allah created the heavens and the earth, in truth.[^10] - We did not create the heavens and the earth and that which is between then, but in truth …[^11] - He created the heavens and the earth in truth, and formed you in the best of forms…[^12] *Al-Ḥaqq* (the Truth) created *b’il-ḥaqq* (in Truth). What does it mean to create “in truth”? The heavens and the earth have been created for a purpose. Truth and purpose collide here in the seriousness of the act of creation. The whole of creation is measured and correct. Each varied particle and detailed difference is known by God and is part of God’s wisdom. The phrase *b’il-ḥaqq* also implies that the entire universe has been created on a foundation of justice, wisdom, and truth. Though we may be exhausted by the tangled lies, [fake news](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fake-news-is-nothing-new-misinformation-and-islamic-critical-epistemology), and post truths of social media, there is rest in Truth even when we have no idea what it is. Truth can be accessed in the unspoiled creation of God. Places of natural beauty are a source of rest for the human being, reconnecting us to the Truth and helping us to build truthfulness within because every falling leaf, drop of water, and blade of grass was created *bi’l-ḥaqq* by *al-Ḥaqq*. But we also need to be in communities of trust, places where we can live together in justice and wisdom, accessing Truth through our truthfulness, authenticity, and goodness. A place where individual truths are grounded in sincerity not manipulation, reality not falsehood, and respect not ridicule. --- ## A community of truth He climbed up to the top of Mount Ṣafā—a place well known for important announcements. To the people who had gathered, he asked, “Would you believe me if I told you an enemy was awaiting us around that mountain?” (Ibn Hishām). They replied in the affirmative. He was, after all, the truth-teller. He was *al-Amīn*. He was from noble ancestry, and he was good and kind. They trusted him with their money and their goods, and just recently had trusted him to return the black stone to its correct place in the rebuilding of the Kaaba. They all looked at him expectantly. He announced that he was the Messenger of God, that an angel had visited him, that the Qur’an was being revealed, and that they should follow him. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had told them the truth and had told them about the Truth. He had indeed been visited by angel Gabriel, he had spent months secretly sharing with and growing a small community of believers, and he had now been called upon to make the message public. But this truth was too much. Though his people knew him as the teller of truth, this truth threatened their hold on power. They ridiculed him and denied the Truth of their own truthful one. When the COVID virus of 2019 fell upon the world, there were those who refused to believe in it. As months went on, nurses reported patients dying from COVID even as they remained in denial. “What is wrong with me?” “You have COVID.” “I cannot have COVID, it is not real! Find out what is wrong with me!” and they would keep shouting this until silenced by the ventilator and eventually death. Did they know it to be true and deny the truth of it? Or were they actually confused by social media ‘science’ and the lies of leadership? Rudyard Kipling’s poem “A Legend of Truth” begins: > Once upon a time, the ancient legends tell, > > Truth, rising from the bottom of her well, > > Looked on the world, but, hearing how it lied, > > Returned to her seclusion horrified…[^13] The poem goes on to say that Fiction overtook the world until the world fell to so much evil that she needed Truth (sic) to return, and when she did the truth that needed to be told was so difficult she needed to call Fiction back to help her narrate world events. Sometimes hearing about the horrible things happening around the world is too painful. Knowing the truth of all things can cause anxiety, depression, and heartbreak. Distinguishing between [true](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1666809665985564&usg=AOvVaw1Iv6bvk_JTWBJdgUX3QYgz) [knowledge](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1666809665986506&usg=AOvVaw1gphO8uH86b2o1bijZhYXJ) and false information can be overwhelming. And living in a world we cannot trust is also a cause for emotional pain and difficulty. When I lived in Damascus I quickly learned that there was a deep cultural habit of not telling sick patients the truth of their illness. As a result I never trusted a doctor, often wondered what the truth of my diagnosis was, and lived sick, medicating myself, instead of going to doctor appointments. Early in the pandemic I had compassion for those who did not believe the medical establishment, though at this point—having returned to the United States and its culture of healthcare transparency—I did. I understood that trust was hard won and easily lost, and that the world suffered because of the mix of politics, science, truths and untruths during the early COVID years. To live in a community of truth we must be truth-tellers who rely on Truth. We learn from the Beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (in the meaning of the hadith), “the one who is hungry but claims to be full is as who is putting on an act”[^14] and this hadith reminds us to be truthful even in the smallest parts of our lives. It reminds us not to cheat or plan to cheat, and to be grateful about what we have and to not lie about what we do not have. It stands strongly opposed to a lie told to save face, reminding us to be honest about our physical states. This makes truth-tellers of us. And from this germinating seed we grow into a truthful community that relies on Truth. Truthful communities help us grow Truth in the gardens of our souls. A Western philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, once postulated that truth is found in consensus. In other words, we believe something to be true when “our people” say it to be true. Considering that at the very least we are influenced by our communities, living in a truthful community will help us live reliant on Truth. Truthful communities are places where people feel safe enough to be honest, clear, and vulnerable. In general, Muslims do not cultivate such communities today. Living under colonialism and dictatorships, corrupt governments and economic pressures, Muslim cultures can struggle with lies, bribes, manipulation, and exaggeration. (Of course it is fully possible that these ills predate colonialism, and as such were part of what made us colonizable to begin with.) Living through a global earthquake of truth has shaken our foundations and our ability to live in truthful communities based in Truth. --- ## Finding our way home The Prophet ﷺ once said to his companions, “Renew your faith!” and the companions responded, “O Prophet of God, how do we renew our faith?” and he responded with the very cure that they needed: “Increase in *lā ilāha illa Allāh*.”[^15] Repeating this phrase of *tawḥīd* grounds our hearts in Truth. It erases the darkness of lies and obliterates consensus on falsehood. It grants us the light we need to understand. It is the repetition of the Truth. As we seek to build a community of Truth we need to first ask of ourselves to be truthful and trustworthy, in the footsteps of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This is not the truthfulness of justifying hurtful words by saying “I’m just being honest,” but rather the truthfulness of kindness, manners, and a joyful, loving heart. It is truthfulness that builds trust and goodness. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (r) said, “It is not correct to lie, not in seriousness nor in jest. None of you should promise his child something and then not give it to him.”[^16] The building blocks of a truthful community are found in how we interact with children. Here we are advised to be truth-tellers and promise keepers—two concepts woven together so tightly they can be used as thick yarn to knit a community of truth. When we keep our promises, keep silent instead of lying, and create joyful experiences around truthful and beautiful words we are fulfilling the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. We are building a community of Truth. We have been called to be the best of people calling to what is beautiful and pushing back on what is ugly. As the poet John Keats said, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”[^17] While the repetition of *lā ilāha illa Allāh*, and a commitment to truth, will help us find the beauty we are all looking for, we also need to know how to maintain faith in a post-Truth world where oppression can be a truth claim and lies are presented as absolute fact. Herein is the intellectual challenge. Ideas need to be identified, untangled, and protected through a mental grappling with and defense of Truth. When I became a Muslim in 1985, the very first verse I read of the Qur’an declared to me a recognition of women: “Verily the Muslim men and the Muslim women, the believing men and the believing women, the devout men and the devout women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, and the men who give charity and the women who give charity, and the men who fast and the women who fast, and the men who guard their private parts and the women who guard theirs, and the men who remember Allah much and the women who remember—for them, God has prepared forgiveness and a great reward” (Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, 33:35). This verse, with its rhythmic repetition, spoke a truth that I felt deeply. When I entered the Muslim community, however, I saw, heard, and experienced sexist jokes, *masjid*s that did not welcome me, and cultures that saw women as less than men. I remember literally standing on a street corner and asking God for help. I was confused. My hold on Truth was challenged by truth claims that were harmful and oppressive. I threw myself into learning. I learned Arabic, studied Qur’an, and delved into the study of the Prophet’s ﷺ life and eventually other fields of Islamic study. I surrounded myself with a community of people of light. I avoided books and people who dabbled in the world of lies, ugly words, and corruption. In this way I was able to hold on to intellectual truths that held my heart to the Truth of God, the Prophet ﷺ, and Islam. The identification of Truth is an exercise in connecting with *fiṭra*, cultivating curiosity, and examining external and internal signposts. *Fiṭra*—the internal need for God—is part of the very make-up of every human being. As Allah (swt) says “So be steadfast in faith in all uprightness; the natural Way of God (*fiṭra*) which has been instilled in all people. No change in the creation of Allah. This is the Straight Way, but most people do not know” (30:30). So everyone has a place deep within that craves to know God, to connect to Truth. It is this need and desire that provides energy for the search, and patience on the path of Truth. Yet it must be cultivated and not ignored. The busy nature of modern life often drowns out the inner call to Truth, but spending time in quietness can raise the volume. Convert stories, and stories of heritage Muslims who found faith in spite of great trials and tribulations, often include descriptions[^18] of finding Truth, or becoming aware of what they already knew to be True. This is the gift of *fiṭra.* Curiosity is a skill that allows for the discovery of Truth. When Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr al-Dawsī entered into Mecca per usual, he was accosted by scaremongers warning him to stay clear of the man named Muhammad (may God’s peace and blessings be upon him), who (they said) spoke words of derision and danger. At first Ṭufayl, overtaken by their lies and fears, stuffed cotton in his ears. Standing in the sacred precinct, however, a few of the words of the man he had been warned against penetrated that cotton, at which point his own truth awoke. He was an intelligent man! Curious about those words he had heard, he removed the cotton and sought out Muhammad ﷺ. His curiosity brought him to Truth and he became a great *sahabi*. I know a young woman whose friends nicknamed her ‘Ṭufayla’ because she too ignored the warnings of some of her friends to avoid “those people.” She allowed her curiosity and the truth of her own discernment to bring her halfway across the world to study religion and the Qur’an, which she memorized on a one-year break from medical school. A signpost on a road tells us to ‘stop,’ ‘yield,’ or look out for a tight curve up ahead. In life our signposts are less easy to read. Some are external—an unexpected opportunity, a clearly answered prayer, a sudden change of plans.  Others are internal. Allah says, “We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the Truth. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is witness over all things?” (41:53). These internal signposts—the feeling that something is right or wrong—are aids on our path for identifying truth and Truth. The formula is this: identify Truth by connecting to *fiṭra,* staying curious, and growing an awareness of signposts. Then hold on to it with *lā ilāha illa Allāh* and other acts of worship; be committed to truth; find people of light and truth and be a person of light and truth as much as you can. Do this through learning, loving, and living in a community of truth and goodness. Do this by rooting yourself in Truth, telling truths, and building and living in truthful communities of Truth. --- ## Notes [^1]: David Rigoni, “Figure 2.1: Major Western World Views” in *Teaching What Can’t be Taught: The Shaman’s Strategy* (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 2002) 18. [^2]: Rigoni, “Figure 2.1.” [^3]: Read *The Rise and Fall of Muslim Civil Society* by Dr. Omar Imady for a beginning conversation about this. [^4]: “Word of the Year 2016,” Oxford Languages, [https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2016/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2016/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1666809666004586&usg=AOvVaw0s0XoOeLGVp-B60zZ5y1aR). [^5]: Qur’an 16:3. [^6]: Qur’an 29:44. [^7]: Qur’an 30:8. [^8]: Qur’an 39:5. [^9]: Qur’an 6:73. [^10]: Qur’an 45:22. [^11]: Qur’an 46:3. [^12]: Qur’an 64:3. [^13]: See the rest of the poem here: [poems\_legend.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_legend.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1666809666007156&usg=AOvVaw27GecqzD5n_78Xy4K_g0_n). [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, bk. 37, hadith 191. The actual words of the hadith are “المُتَشبِّعُ بما لم يُعطَ، كَلابِسِ ثَوبَيْ زُورٍ,” literally “The one who creates a false impression of receiving what one has not been given is like one who wears two garments of falsehood.” The first word, “*al-mutashabbiʿ*,” means the one who claims that they are full (satiated) but are not, which can be interpreted as one who shows that they have something but do not. Hence my rendering “the one who is hungry but claims to be full is as one who is putting on an act.” This rendering includes the idea of two garments of falsehood in the concept of putting on an act. [^15]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, bk. 2, hadith 359. [^16]: *Al-Adab al-mufrad*, bk. 21, hadith 3. [^17]: John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” Poetry Foundation, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1666809666013249&usg=AOvVaw1kZDknxm6galwKzLA7Ge-b). [^18]: Samira al-Zayid, *A Compendium of the Sources on the Prophetic Narrative* (Minneapolis: Daybreak Press, 2018), 1:274. ## Summary Truthfulness has always held a place of high esteem, for it is the foundation of trust that binds families, communities, and every human relationship. A small childhood memory—of a mother who apologized for lateness by blaming the snow, calling it a "white lie" even while affirming that lying is wrong—illustrates how deeply the tension between honesty and expedience runs in ordinary life. From such small beginnings one comes to ask whether truth still matters, and whether we can remain people of truth in a society some have named "post-Truth." A distinction must be drawn between Truth with a capital letter and truth with a small one. The former is the reality that remains true whether or not anyone believes it; it stands unchanged even if the whole world denies it. The latter is the personal truth born of individual experience—true to one person or many, tied to what we say and do, yet not necessarily universal. The mother's "white lie" was a lie to her, for she did not actually slip on the roads; yet to the child it remained true, for there was indeed snow and the journey was slowed. Such personal truths can only be known through honest communication, and even then may be understood but never fully grasped. For this reason Muslims should hold compassion and respect for the personal perspectives of others, and remain aware of how privilege silences some experiences while amplifying others. The location of Truth has shifted across the ages. In pre-modern times humanity tied Truth closely to religion; Western societies treated Church claims as necessarily true even in matters like astronomy and medicine that lay outside the scope of revelation. For Muslims, Truth remained confined to the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the people of God who conveyed their knowledge. Erroneous scientific claims made by individual Muslim scholars existed, but these were never regarded as part of revelation—only as interpretations of it, and thus as lower-case truths. As modernity dawned, the West made science its source of Truth and drifted toward agnosticism and atheism, while Muslims began to push for independent research in the Islamic "sciences" yet remained rooted in the Qur'an and Sunnah. A troubling development, however, was that miracles which could not be explained scientifically were hidden or denied, causing a loss of discussion around spirituality and a leaning toward legalism, with its own harmful effects upon Muslim society. By the mid-twentieth century science began to disappoint—producing not only cures like penicillin but also lies such as claims of racial superiority, and confusion such as drugs that caused birth defects—so that Truth lost its capital letter and the post-modern age of competing truths began. Lies have appeared in every age: the Church selling position and absolution, science claiming to prove certain peoples inferior, and even the seemingly trivial "Great Lie of Santa Claus," in which an entire society agrees to deceive its children, and in which non-Christian children are enlisted to uphold the falsehood before their peers. Such a lie is more than a lie—it is an intentional replacement of Truth, the claiming of a known falsehood as true. This is characteristic of what in 2016 the Oxford Dictionaries named the word of the year: "post-Truth." A lie denies a known fact; a post-truth statement fabricates a concept meant to distract from the fact altogether. In such a climate, locating truth and trusting that it has been spoken grows ever harder. Trust is built and broken by truthfulness between people. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was called al-Amīn, the trustworthy, by his own people years before revelation, and this reputation for truth was an important factor in the earliest conversions. One of the beautiful Names of God is al-Ḥaqq—the Truth—for God's presence is real and true, and the human being who seeks Truth is granted knowledge of Him. God is the Truth that remains true whether or not we believe. Moreover, God does all things bi'l-ḥaqq—in truth. The Qur'an repeatedly affirms that He created the heavens and the earth in truth (as in the verses declaring "He created the heavens and the earth in truth"). To create "in truth" means that creation has purpose, that it is measured and correct, and that the whole universe rests upon a foundation of justice, wisdom, and truth. Thus even amid the tangled lies and fake news of our age, there is rest in Truth. That Truth may be accessed in the unspoiled beauty of God's creation, where every falling leaf and blade of grass was fashioned bi'l-ḥaqq by al-Ḥaqq, and in communities where individuals may live together in justice and sincerity. The Prophet ﷺ modeled the community of truth. Climbing Mount Ṣafā, he asked his people whether they would believe him if he warned of an enemy behind the mountain, and they affirmed they would, for he was al-Amīn (as recorded by Ibn Hishām). Yet when he proclaimed the far greater truth of his prophethood, they ridiculed and denied the very truthful one whom they had always trusted, because that truth threatened their hold on power. To dwell in a community of truth we must ourselves become truth-tellers who rely upon Truth. The Prophet ﷺ taught, in the meaning of the hadith, that "the one who is hungry but claims to be full is as one putting on an act," reminding us to be honest even in the smallest matters of our lives, refusing the lie told merely to save face. Yet truthful communities are difficult to cultivate. Because Muslims have lived under colonialism, dictatorship, corruption, and economic pressure, their cultures can struggle with lies, bribery, manipulation, and exaggeration—though it is possible these ills predated colonialism and were part of what made those societies vulnerable to it in the first place. The path homeward begins with renewal of faith. The Prophet ﷺ instructed his companions to renew their faith, and when they asked how, he answered: "Increase in lā ilāha illa Allāh." This repetition of tawḥīd grounds the heart in Truth and dispels the darkness of falsehood. The building blocks of a truthful community are laid in our dealings with children, for ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said that it is not correct to lie, neither in seriousness nor in jest, and that none should promise a child something and then withhold it. To be truth-tellers and promise-keepers is to fulfill the Sunnah and to knit together a community of truth—not the harsh "honesty" that wounds, but truthfulness joined to kindness and a loving heart. Finally, maintaining faith in a post-Truth world, where oppression may masquerade as truth and lies are presented as fact, is an intellectual struggle requiring that ideas be identified, untangled, and defended. Truth is recognized by connecting to the fiṭra, the innate need for God instilled in every soul, of which Allah says, "So be steadfast in faith in all uprightness; the natural Way of God (fiṭra)... No change in the creation of Allah" (30:30). It is recognized through curiosity, as with Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr al-Dawsī, who stuffed cotton in his ears against the Prophet's words yet, once a few of them penetrated, removed the cotton, sought him out, and became a great Companion. And it is recognized through signposts both outward and inward, for Allah says, "We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the Truth" (41:53). The way, then, is to identify Truth through fiṭra, curiosity, and awareness of these signposts; to hold fast to it through lā ilāha illa Allāh and other acts of worship; and to be a person of light while dwelling among people of light, learning, loving, and building truthful communities rooted in al-Ḥaqq. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-raise-religious-teens-a-self-determination-theory-approach # How to Raise Religious Teens: A Self-Determination Theory Approach **Authors:** Dr. Jihad Saafir, Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** BASIC, Paper, Publication **Published:** October 24, 2022 **Updated:** June 9, 2026 ## Introduction Adolescence is always a time of unexpected challenges and tumultuous emotions, but for Muslims growing up in the West, it is particularly frightening. During this fraught period, Muslim youth are burdened with the difficult task of negotiating religious identity amidst racial and class hierarchies, peer pressure, anti-religious polemics, and faith-shaking secular ideologies. The 12th century luminary Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzīy singles out this stage as “being the most distinguished regarding the struggle against the self (*jihād al-nafs*), one’s unbridled passions (*al-hawā*), and the attacks of Satan (*ghalabat al-shayṭān*).”[^1] To endure this onslaught from destructive external and internal forces, adolescents require significant support from adult Muslim socializers, including parents, teachers, and other community members. These socializers need to be equipped with the skills to steer our youth towards internalizing Islamic values, beliefs, and behaviors. Contemporary psychologists also suggest that internalization of values is a fundamental goal of socialization that is beneficial for a young person’s well-being.[^2] Let us consider the hypothetical cases of two adolescents, Bilqis and Abdullah, both of whom represent common adolescent experiences in the Muslim community. Abdullah wholeheartedly accepts Islam as his religion. He regularly prays out of his own volition and enthusiastically attends events at his local *masjid* every week, where he enjoys spending time with many good friends. Abdullah’s parents, who are also religious, speak to him about religion regularly. However, rather than being overly critical, they are positive in their communication and encourage him to ask questions. Bilqis’s parents, meanwhile, regularly criticize and lecture her about all the things she is doing wrong according to Islam. Bilqis reluctantly attends the *masjid* youth group on Friday nights, but only to avoid being further shamed or harangued by her parents. At the *masjid*, she is overcome by boredom, as there are rarely activities that pique her interest. Bilqis prays whenever her parents ask her to, yet she does so resentfully with a sense of compulsion. At this point in life, Abdullah has internalized Islamic values and behaviors more so than Bilqis. Based on their current trajectories, we would expect Abdullah to have a stronger commitment to Islam as he grows into adulthood. Although guidance is ultimately from Allah, as Islamic psychologists, we strongly believe there are identifiable factors that explain the differences in religious commitment between Abdullah and Bilqis. Notwithstanding differences in personalities and other social factors, how did their families and communities socialize them in ways that made them more or less attached to Islam? Religious socialization refers to the interactive process through which social agents (e.g., parents and religious educators) influence individuals’ religious beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. The Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ method of *tarbīya* (religious nurturing) is the gold standard for how we should socialize our youth. How did he motivate his young companions to love Islam? How did he develop an Islamic environment that supported the internalization of Islamic beliefs and practices? Deploying concepts from the contemporary science of psychology that we Islamically substantiate below, we posit he ﷺ created an environment that made his followers feel a sense of religious competence and self-efficacy. Furthermore, he gave them the autonomy to enact unique Islamic identities, whereby different companions distinguished themselves via their diverse talents and dispositions. Although the companions were unique in many ways, the Prophet ﷺ  ultimately ensured the environment facilitated a strong sense of belonging to the community. --- ## Self-determination theory and psychological needs Prophet Muhammad ﷺ understood that religious motivation was central to the process of internalizing the faith and adopting a healthy Islamic identity. This concept is well captured in the famous hadith, “Indeed, actions are \[motivated and evaluated\] based on their intentions.”[^3] By motivation, we do not simply mean momentary enthusiasm regarding a behavior. Rather, motivation is the process by which goal-directed behavior is instigated and sustained by personal and social factors. Thus, believers will engage in religious thoughts and behaviors to the extent that they are motivated by their faith. We believe that self-determination theory (SDT) sheds light on some of the ways in which the Prophet ﷺ motivated and socialized his companions. SDT investigates the growth tendencies and innate psychological needs that form the basis of people’s motivation and personality integration.[^4] SDT, which draws from humanistic psychology, suggests that people have personal agency and are motivated to self-actualize.[^5] Psychological needs are as essential as physiological ones—they are the sleep and nutrition of the mind and soul, without which optimal functionality is impossible. SDT considers the personal and social conditions that may foster or impede human motivation.[^6] According to SDT, we will likely internalize a religious identity when we experience religious environments that provide the three universal psychological needs of (1) a sense of competence, (2) autonomy, and (3) relatedness. Therefore, SDT provides a framework for us to investigate the factors that may explain the religious differences between Abdullah and Bilqis. Of course, as a framework that draws from humanistic psychology, SDT assumes secular notions of selfhood and autonomy. As such, it is blind to the role that faith can and does play in psychological fulfillment. We address this blindspot by aligning SDT’s insights with an Islamic understanding of the human being. Through applying a faith-congruent SDT framework and drawing from the Qur’an and the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, we propose that Muslim adolescents are more likely to thrive and fully internalize their Muslim identity when they are raised in religious environments that support feelings of religious competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In the following section, we discuss each psychological need and provide examples of how the Prophet ﷺ established environments supportive of these needs. --- ## The psychological need for religious competency Competence refers to the human desire to feel efficacious enough to produce the desired results in any situation. From a religious perspective, competence-supporting environments give youth the tools, encouragement, and feedback necessary to gain mastery in practicing their faith and a sense of confidence that they can successfully observe Islam in their lives.[^7] Youths’ perceptions of their capabilities are powerful forces that contribute to their successes and failures. These feelings of competence derive from several social factors, including social comparisons with those performing a similar religious task, measuring the difficulty of the religious task, and surveying the opinions of others (parents, teachers, peers, etc.) regarding their performance of the task.[^8] Competence beliefs are central motivators in deciding whether to engage in a particular task, as we typically engage in activities that we believe we can succeed in and avoid activities that we perceive as too difficult.[^9] Feelings of incompetence are produced by religious environments where a person’s behavior is constantly criticized as sinful, or when feedback is overwhelmingly negative. As part of his *daʿwa* strategy, the Prophet  ﷺ made those around him feel like they were competent Muslims. He would praise them and reinforce their righteousness in various circumstances, even when they were being ridiculed or chastised for making mistakes. In one instance, after hearing Bilāl’s footsteps in front of his in Paradise, he ﷺ inquired about the best religious act that Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ had performed after accepting Islam. Bilāl responded, “I did not do anything worth mentioning except that whenever I performed ablution during the day or night, I prayed after that ablution as much as was written for me.”[^10] Imagine the feelings of efficacy that must have enveloped Bilāl when he was told he would be with the Prophet ﷺ in Paradise. Even when a companion committed a serious sin, the Prophet ﷺ was keen to make that companion feel efficacious, rather than use harsh words that would have harmed the individual’s sense of self. We see this clearly in the case of a companion named ʿAbdullāh who used to make the Prophet ﷺ laugh. ʿAbdullāh had been previously lashed for drinking wine, and one day ʿAbdullāh was found drunk again and the Prophet ﷺ ordered him to be lashed again. Another man said, “O Allah, curse him! How many times has he been brought?” However, the Prophet ﷺ quickly interjected saying, “Do not curse him. By Allah, I know that he loves Allah and His messenger.”[^11] Imagine how ʿAbdullāh felt hearing these words from the Prophet ﷺ affirming his love for Allah and His messenger in a moment where he could have internalized the ridicule and felt incompetence and low self-worth. In another profound event demonstrating the Prophet’s ﷺ attention to creating a competence-supportive environment, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, the great companion, was once climbing a tree to grab some branches of *miswāk*. Upon seeing his thin legs, some of the companions began laughing at him. One might imagine that ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd may have felt some embarrassment. The Prophet ﷺ swiftly responded to the laughter, saying, “What are you laughing at? I swear by Allah that his two legs are heavier on the scale \[of deeds\] than the mountain of Uḥud.”[^12] As these few examples demonstrate, the Prophet ﷺ was always aware of his companions’ psychological states. By praising their religiosity while they were emotionally vulnerable, he ﷺ ensured that they felt reassured of their competency as Muslims. --- ## The psychological need for religious autonomy The need for autonomy refers to the need to experience behavior as volitional and reflectively self-endorsed.[^13] Muslims might object to this notion of autonomy because it appears to give unbounded choice to the individual to do as he or she wills. However, we want to clarify that Islam does not approve of an unbounded notion of choice that violates religious values and laws. Therefore, we must restrict religious autonomy to choices within the realm of the permissible (halal). Religious autonomy is rooted in the notion that, within the halal*,* there are so many different ways to engage in worship that are faith-congruent and personally chosen. When we perform actions with autonomy, we are more likely to put our hearts into these actions because we choose them voluntarily. On the contrary, when people feel pressured to behave a certain way, they may experience frustration and subsequently have less motivation to persist. Whether it be in the home, school, workplace, or a religious setting, studies have shown that people thrive more when they feel a sense of autonomy. Children with more autonomy-supportive parents have fewer behavioral problems.[^14] Employees in work settings that foster autonomy enjoy their work more.[^15] Students who are given more autonomy in educational settings have higher levels of engagement in the classroom.[^16] In the SDT paradigm, autonomy “refers to the experience of an action as fitting with interests and integrated values that one is wholeheartedly behind.”[^17] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ created an environment where his companions felt comfortable practicing their faith with a sense of autonomy.  Consider how he ﷺ responded to a companion who added some words to a *dua* in prayer. Conventionally, when the imam says “*samiʿa Allāhu liman ḥamidah*” after rising from bowing, the followers respond by saying “*Rabbanā wa lak-al-ḥamd*.” One day while praying behind the Prophet ﷺ, a companion decided to extend the phrase by saying “*Rabbanā wa lak-al-ḥamdu, ḥamdan kathīran ṭayyiban mubārakan fīh*” (O our Lord! All praises are for You, many good and blessed praises). After concluding the prayer, the Prophet ﷺ did not condemn the man but instead curiously inquired, “Who said these words?” The man replied, “Me.” The Prophet ﷺ responded, “I saw over thirty angels competing to write them first.”[^18] Another companion loved Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ so much that he recited it whenever he led the congregational prayer. Those placed under his charge became concerned about his choice to recite Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ in every prayer that he led. They asked the Prophet ﷺ about the permissibility of this action. After discovering that this man recited this chapter out of his love for Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told them, “Tell him that Allah loves him.”[^19], [^20] Beyond simply allowing a level of autonomy in religious practice, the Prophet ﷺ created a climate that encouraged his companions to share their suggestions and offer feedback on important matters. For example, the companions felt comfortable recommending particular military strategies to the Prophet ﷺ in battle. During the Battle of Badr, Ḥubāb ibn Mundhir asked the Prophet ﷺ if his choice of where to settle the army was based on revelation from Allah or a personal choice. When the Prophet ﷺ told him that it was his personal decision, Ḥubāb recommended the Prophet ﷺ move the army in front of the wells to control the water and prevent Quraysh from accessing it.[^21] Similarly, when the Prophet ﷺ was preparing for the Battle of Aḥzāb, Salmān al-Fārisī suggested that the Muslim army dig a trench around them to prevent the army of the confederates from penetrating Medina. In both instances, the Prophet ﷺ listened carefully to his companions and accepted their suggestions. More powerful than any particular story is how the Prophet ﷺ accepted the diversity of personalities amongst his companions, eschewing any attempt to cast them in the same mold. This was not about autonomy in a particular issue, but allowing each companion to have a unique personality and disposition. Abū Bakr (rA) and ʿUmar (rA) were his closest companions, yet so different were their personalities. Abū Bakr (rA) was known to be incredibly gentle and sensitive, ʿUmar (rA) rougher and tougher. These personality differences likely manifested in varying interpersonal skills and behavioral preferences. The great companions and scholars of Islam understood this notion of religious autonomy well, never imposing their personal preferences of how to worship on others. Once, when ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd was asked why he did not engage in more voluntary fasting, he replied, “When I fast, it weakens my ability to recite the Qur’an, and reciting the Qur’an is more beloved to me than optional fasting.”[^22] Thus, we see ʿAbdullāh (rA) personally valued the recitation of the Qur’an over voluntary fasting, and that he felt he had the autonomy to choose from multiple righteous actions what he valued most. This understanding of religious autonomy can also be seen in the life of Imam Mālik. One day a righteous man sent him a letter inviting him to engage in more spiritual practices rather than spending time teaching Islam. Imam Mālik responded beautifully, saying, “Allah, exalted is He, apportioned people’s actions as He apportioned their sustenance. Sometimes He grants a spiritual opening to a person in terms of \[optional\] prayers, but not \[optional\] fasting. Or He grants an opening in giving charity, but not in fasting. To another, He may grant them an opening for jihad. As for spreading sacred knowledge, that is from the best of deeds, and I am pleased with what Allah has opened to me. However, I do not imagine that what I am engaged in is any less than what you are engaged in; and I hope that both of us are upon goodness and righteousness.”[^23] --- ## The psychological need for relatedness and belonging Relatedness refers to our human need to feel cared for by others and have a sense of belonging to a social group.[^24] It has been suggested that humans experience a nearly universal drive to form and maintain relationships with other people.[^25] These desired social bonds have two aspects: frequent positive or neutral (not negative) interactions, and an ongoing framework of mutual caring. Numerous *ahadith* touch on the idea of relatedness and belonging to a group. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Every Muslim is a brother to every other Muslim. He does not wrong him, nor surrender him. Whoever fulfills the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs. Whoever relieves a Muslim from distress, Allah will relieve him from distress on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever covers the faults of a Muslim, Allah will cover his faults on the Day of Resurrection.”[^26] This hadith motivates believers to cultivate intimate bonds between one another as a means of connecting with Allah. The Prophet ﷺ taught that a community requires these interpersonal connections to thrive. He created an environment that fostered a sense of belonging and relatedness amongst his companions. When he arrived in Medina after the migration, one of the first things he did was pair people together from Mecca and Medina in brotherhood and sisterhood. This allowed companions from different backgrounds to love each other and feel valued by their community. The Meccan companions, many of whom came empty-handed to Medina, could impart their knowledge of Islam and feel that they were contributing to their new home. Conversely, the Medinan companions were able to provide housing and food, all while helping their Meccan brothers and sisters acclimate to the city. The Prophet ﷺ was especially keen to ensure his adolescent companions felt valued, and he gave them personal attention and major responsibilities. For example, when the Prophet ﷺ migrated to Medina, he assigned ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (rA) to stay in his bed as a decoy and to return the people’s possessions. He ﷺ also assigned to a teenage companion, Usāma ibn Zayd (rA), the role of leading a military expedition.[^27] One can imagine the deep sense of belonging that these companions must have felt as trusted members of the Muslim community. --- ## Religious internalization and motivation Thus far we have argued that healthy religious socialization, as exemplified by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, requires that religious environments provide support for people’s sense of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The fulfillment of these psychological needs provides the necessary motivation for one’s personal commitment to Islam. Thus, when youth feel a sense of religious competence, autonomy, and relatedness, they will most likely make a conscious decision to practice the faith out of their own conviction and love for Islam. However, we know that youth vary in their motivation to practice Islam. Some youth have no religious motivation whatsoever, others practice Islam to please their parents or to avoid disapproval from others, and still others deeply enjoy their religious commitment. How can we better understand these differences in motivation? According to SDT, these different motivations reflect differing degrees to which Islamic values and behavioral regulations have been internalized and integrated. Internalization refers to the process of “taking in” a value or regulation, and integration refers to the assimilation of that value or regulation into one’s sense of self.[^28] A subtheory of SDT, called organismic integration theory (OIT), details the different types of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, as well as the contextual factors that either promote or hinder internalization and integration. OIT categorizes motivation into three states: (1) amotivated, (2) extrinsically motivated, and (3) intrinsically motivated. Amotivation refers to a state where the individual has no desire or intention to do a particular behavior. Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity in order to attain some external outcome. Intrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity for the inherent satisfaction of engaging in that activity.[^29] There are four types of extrinsic motivation in OIT that reflect varying degrees of integration and internalization of a behavior. External regulation refers to performing an action in order to avoid a punishment or gain a reward. Socializers typically use rewards and punishments to secure compliance from others. Introjected regulation is slightly more autonomous in nature, as the individual performs a behavior to please others, avoid personal guilt, or feel some pride. Identified regulation is where behaviors become more self-endorsed, as engagement is driven by feelings of personal importance and value. Finally, integrated regulation occurs when a person performs a behavior that is fully in line with their identity, congruent with their values, and fully integrated into their sense of self. See Figure 1 for an overview of OIT. ![Figure 1. Overview of Organismic Integration Theory](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image1-1-1024x529.jpg) Figure 1. Overview of Organismic Integration Theory Classical Islamic scholars also discussed motivation, especially how it pertains to the quality of religious behavior. Imam al-Nawawī presented a classification of motivation when discussing the types of intentions that underlie religious worship. He suggests three motivational levels that are the root of religious worship. The first motivational level is the *worship of the servants* (*ʿibādat al-ʿabīd*), which is when a Muslim does religious acts out of fear of God’s punishment. The second motivational level mentioned by al-Nawawī is *transactional worship* (*ʿibādat al-tujjār*), which describes worship that is done primarily to attain the reward of  Paradise. These two motivational levels are extrinsic because they are done for primarily external outcomes (avoiding punishment or seeking reward). Although OIT considers behaviors done for rewards and punishments as similar in motivational quality (external regulation), al-Nawawi considers the pursuit of Paradise a higher motivational state than the avoidance of punishment. From a religious perspective, worshiping Allah out of fear of hellfire or desire for Paradise is considered acceptable. However, there are higher stations one should aim for. Thus, the highest quality of motivation identified by Imam al-Nawawī is the worship of the liberated and free (ʿ*ibādat al-aḥrār*), which refers to acts of worship that are performed out of love and reverence for Allah.[^30] This type of motivation represents a deeper level of internalization and integration, as the person autonomously performs the behavior because it completely aligns with their personal values. This state is what OIT would refer to as integrated regulation or intrinsic motivation. Both OIT and al-Nawawī consider this the ideal. For example, someone who remembers Allah out of complete reverence (and joy) will typically perform higher-quality actions than one who engages in remembrance to avoid hellfire. Socializing agents, such as parents and religious educators, need to be aware of how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can aid or obstruct an adolescent’s path towards identity internalization and integration. Although intrinsic motivation is the highest quality and the level to aspire towards, other levels of extrinsic motivation may be acceptable and a normal part of the developmental process. For example, socializers may utilize rewards to temporarily move someone from a state of amotivation to extrinsic motivation. However, although these extrinsic motivators may be adaptive at times, socializers should not exclusively rely on them because they do not lead to a high level of integration and internalization. For example, if parents use guilt, shame, or punishment to extrinsically motivate their children to pray, it is unlikely to result in the child internalizing the act of prayer as fulfilling and desirable. Although it may lead to temporary compliance and thus appear to work, the use of such forms of punishment is likely to contribute to resentment and dissociation from the action itself over time. OIT breaks motivation into a spectrum of behavioral regulations that range from purely external and extrinsic (no internalization) to purely internal and intrinsic (complete integration). Let us again take prayer as an example of the motivational spectrum. On the most extreme—and lowest quality—end of the spectrum is motivation by coercion, where a parent threatens to severely punish their child for missing a prayer (external regulation). Similarly, they may bribe a child by promising to pay them if they pray. This is done to ensure compliance even if the child is only praying to avoid the punishment or get the reward. Alternatively a parent could inform their child of how proud they would be if they prayed (introjection). This type of motivation is based on obtaining approval from others, which is still extrinsic in nature. Neither of the aforementioned types of motivation will automatically lead to a greater integration of prayer. To get towards integration and intrinsic motivation, a parent may model consistency in prayer themselves, educate their child about the value of prayer, help their child think about how prayer is personally meaningful to them, and explore the meaning of prayer in different life situations. These practices are more likely to make the child personally identify with the action itself, which is more likely to lead to higher levels of internalization. As a youth integrates the act of prayer into their personal life and religious identity, they are more likely to enjoy and find satisfaction in it, as the action is being done autonomously. This motivation for prayer is akin to when the Prophet ﷺ said, “Beloved to me in this world are women and perfume, yet the delight of my eyes is in prayer.”[^31] --- ## Recommendations for socializers In the introduction of this article we mentioned the case of Bilqis, an adolescent Muslim struggling with her Islamic identity, whose religious environments are highly controlling and punitive. In this section we offer practical advice for socializers whose children share similar identity challenges as Bilqis. We recommend that socializers provide Muslim adolescents with structured religious environments that guide them towards a path of religious internalization. Environments that are chaotic and unpredictable typically fail to provide feelings of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Informational structures, meanwhile, should warmly and clearly communicate religious responsibilities and expectations that reflect adolescents’ unique religious capacities. Such structures should not be controlling but rather organized and well-planned to ensure that adolescents are able to more thoroughly internalize religious values due to support of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Every young Muslim adolescent is unique and needs space to become the best versions of themselves, not clones of their peers. Socializers should inculcate mastery learning in their youth, which emphasizes learning at their own pace and mastering prerequisite knowledge before moving on to more detailed aspects of the faith. For example, socializers should not focus on social comparisons between youth, nor should adolescents be shamed for memorizing less Qur’an or knowing fewer companions than their peers. Comparing youth to one another should be avoided as much as possible, as comparisons typically reduce feelings of competence and increase extrinsic motivation. The Prophet’s ﷺ sublime emotional intelligence led him to support his companions’ competence beliefs whenever they felt inferior. On one occasion, the poor amongst the *muhājirūn* (immigrants from Mecca to Medina) felt that Allah favored the rich believers over them, so they disclosed their feelings to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. In an effort to increase their sense of competence and comfort their hearts, he ﷺ responded by informing them that the poor will enter Paradise before the wealthy.[^32] Another motivational strategy is for socializers to explain the wisdom behind the behaviors that Allah commands or prohibits. Adolescents are more likely to internalize religious guidelines and behaviors when they understand the benefits associated with religious obligations and the harms associated with prohibited behaviors. For example, if a young adolescent woman is told to wear the hijab without being informed of its wisdom and benefits, she may not fully internalize the hijab as it may appear to be an arbitrary rule. However, through empathetic conversation about her concerns and explanation of Allah’s wisdom in prescribing Islamic attire, she may begin to internalize hijab as part of her Islamic identity, as the practice has additional value after understanding it better. Similarly, appropriate explanations of the wisdom behind prayer and fasting are essential for youth to adopt these practices wholeheartedly. Another recommendation for inculcating competence and autonomy is to provide process-focused feedback.[^33] Feedback that focuses on the process that led to either success or failure is more beneficial than feedback that is centered around the individual. Our youth will inevitably make mistakes and may have setbacks in the process of internalizing Islam. Feedback after mistakes such as “You are a bad Muslim” or “Allah is going to punish you” are aimed at shaming the individual and are not focused on the the process that led to the behavior. An effective process-oriented strategy is asking “why” or “how” questions such as, “Why did you miss prayer today?” In the situation of a youth missing *Fajr* prayer, the youth may explain that they slept very late. A parent may follow up with a question such as, “Can you think of some ways that you can sleep earlier?” Calmly discussing these questions gets at the process behind the inaction, which in turn suggests actionable solutions. Allowing individuals to arrive at their own solutions further fulfills their need for autonomy. Adolescent Muslims must be given ample opportunities to be heard and to express their creativity; they should also be provided opportunities to make decisions related to religious thoughts and behaviors.[^34] Muslim adolescents should be encouraged to share their ideas about religious activities to facilitate their motivation. For example, when planning youth events, allowing youth to suggest topics, speakers, the format of the event, and other details encourages them to take ownership of religious activities and engage in these activities of their own volition. If youth are not given an opportunity to give feedback and make decisions, it is likely that their desire to participate will diminish. When intrinsic motivation is reduced, socializers will often resort to rewards and punishments that may have limited effectiveness. Finally, we encourage socializers to provide youth with mentors and role models they can connect with on a personal level. Youth crave strong relationships with nurturing mentors who listen to them and are empathetic. When youth are able to connect with mentors who can relate to their experiences, their sense of belonging is enhanced. Through learning from a mentor who may have overcome similar challenges, youth are more likely to imagine themselves growing into the faith. --- ## Conclusion This paper explored Muslim adolescent religious motivation from the perspective of self-determination theory. Religious socializers should be mindful of the psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness that Muslim adolescents need to willfully engage in religious behavior. Through a structured approach to providing need-supportive environments for our youth in all spaces, youth are more likely to integrate Islamic values and behaviors into their lives autonomously. An honest assessment of the strategies used to motivate our youth may uncover the practices that enhance or diminish the religiosity of young Muslims. The development of youth religious identity and motivation is complex and includes many psychosocial factors, and socializers need to investigate the extent to which youths’ psychological needs are being met in the various environments they are raised in. Furthermore, strategically thinking about ways to inculcate more autonomous motivational states requires the willingness to let go of extrinsic motivators that appear to work in the moment but may backfire in the future. The process of integrating Islamic behaviors and internalizing the Islamic way of life in the heart of our youth is long and requires foresight to create the proper conditions and patiently wait for the results, with the blessing of Allah. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn al-Jawzi, *Awakening from the Sleep of Heedlessness* (Birmingham: Dar as-Sunnah Publishers, 2012), 26. [^2]: Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, *Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness* (New York: The Guilford Press, 2017). [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 54; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1907. [^4]: Koole, Sander L., Caroline Schlinkert, Tobias Maldei, and Nicola Baumann. “Becoming Who You Are: An Integrative Review of Self‐Determination Theory and Personality Systems Interactions Theory,” *Journal of Personality* 87, no. 1 (2019): 15–36. [^5]: Humanistic psychology is derived from humanism and is a perspective that differs from behaviorist and psychodynamic perspectives on human behavior. [^6]: Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, “Overview of Self-Determination Theory: An Organismic Dialectical Perspective,” *Handbook of Self-Determination Research* 2 (2002): 3–33. [^7]: Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being,” *American Psychologist* 55, no. 1 (2000): 69. [^8]: Ryan and Deci, “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation,” 84. [^9]: Jacquelynne Eccles, “Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action,” *Educational Psychologist* 44, no. 2 (2009): 78–89. [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 1149. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6398. [^12]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 3981. [^13]: Ryan and Deci, “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation,” 68. [^14]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 319. [^15]: Dan N. Stone, Edward L. Deci, and Richard M. Ryan, “Beyond Talk: Creating Autonomous Motivation through Self-Determination Theory,” *Journal of General Management* 34, no. 3 (2008): 6. [^16]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 351. [^17]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 51. [^18]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 799. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 742. [^20]: *Sirat Ibn Hisham: Biography of the Prophet* (Cairo: al-Falah Foundation, 2002). [^21]: *Al-Mustadrak*, no. 5801. [^22]: Ibn Abi Shaybah, *al-Musannaf,* no. 8909; al-Tabarani, *al-Mu‘jam al-kabir,* no. 8868. [^23]: Al-Dhahabi, *Siyar a‘lam al-nubala* (Beirut: Mu’assasah al-Risalah, 1998), 8:114. [^24]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 3. [^25]: Roy F. Baumeister and Mark R. Leary, “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation,” *Psychological Bulletin* 117, no. 3 (1995): 497–529, [https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1666631187317105&usg=AOvVaw170gyC7CpK4_SAVjVBK7L5). [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2422; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2580. [^27]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 4469. [^28]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 3. [^29]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 3. [^30]: An-Nawawi,  *Sharh matn al-arba’een an-Nawawiya* (Maktaba Dar al-Fath, Damascus, 1984). [^31]: *Sunan al-Nasā’ī*, no. 3939. [^32]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2354. [^33]: Ryan and Deci, *Self-Determination Theory*, 319. [^34]: Jennifer G. La Guardia, “Developing Who I Am: A Self-Determination Theory Approach to the Establishment of Healthy Identities,” *Educational Psychologist* 44, no. 2 (2009): 95. ## Summary Adolescence poses particular difficulties for Muslim youth raised in the West, who must navigate their religious identity amidst racial and class hierarchies, peer pressure, anti-religious polemics, and secular ideologies that shake faith. To withstand these pressures, young Muslims require support from adult socializers—parents, teachers, and community members—who are equipped to guide them toward internalizing Islamic values, beliefs, and behaviors. Contemporary psychology likewise regards the internalization of values as a fundamental goal of socialization and a benefit to a young person's well-being. To illustrate the stakes, one may consider two hypothetical adolescents: Abdullah, who prays willingly and enjoys the masjid, and whose religious parents communicate positively and welcome his questions; and Bilqis, who is regularly criticized and lectured, attends the masjid youth group only to avoid shame, and prays resentfully out of compulsion. Abdullah has internalized his faith more deeply than Bilqis, and one would expect his commitment to grow with age. Though guidance is ultimately from Allah, there are identifiable factors—rooted in how families and communities socialize their young—that help explain such differences in religious attachment. The gold standard for religious socialization is the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ method of tarbiya (religious nurturing). The centrality of motivation to internalizing faith is captured in the hadith, "Indeed, actions are [motivated and evaluated] based on their intentions." Motivation here is understood not as fleeting enthusiasm but as the process by which goal-directed behavior is instigated and sustained. Self-determination theory (SDT), drawn from psychology, offers a framework for understanding how the Prophet ﷺ motivated his companions, positing that people internalize a religious identity when their environments satisfy three universal psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. It must be acknowledged that SDT, arising from humanistic psychology, assumes secular notions of selfhood and autonomy and is blind to the role faith plays in fulfillment. This blindspot is addressed by aligning SDT's insights with an Islamic understanding of the human being, drawing upon the Qur'an and the Prophetic biography. Religious competence is the felt confidence that one can successfully observe Islam, nurtured by encouragement, tools, and constructive feedback, and undermined by environments where behavior is constantly branded sinful. The Prophet ﷺ consistently made his companions feel competent as Muslims. After hearing Bilal's footsteps ahead of his in Paradise, he ﷺ inquired what act Bilal had performed, to which Bilal replied that he prayed after every ablution, day or night. Even after serious sin, the Prophet ﷺ protected his companions' sense of self: when a companion named ʿAbdullah, who had been lashed repeatedly for drinking wine, was cursed by another man, the Prophet ﷺ interjected, "Do not curse him. By Allah, I know that he loves Allah and His messenger." Likewise, when companions laughed at the thin legs of ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud as he climbed a tree for miswak, the Prophet ﷺ swore, "his two legs are heavier on the scale [of deeds] than the mountain of Uhud." In such moments of vulnerability, the Prophet ﷺ reassured his companions of their worth. Religious autonomy is the experience of one's worship as volitional and self-endorsed. This is not an unbounded license, for Islam does not sanction choice that violates its laws; rather, autonomy is exercised within the permissible (halal), where many faith-congruent ways of worship remain open to personal choice. Actions chosen freely are performed more wholeheartedly, whereas pressured behavior breeds frustration and diminished persistence. The Prophet ﷺ fostered such an environment. When a companion added the words "Rabbana wa lak-al-hamdu, hamdan kathiran tayyiban mubarakan fih" to his prayer, the Prophet ﷺ did not condemn him but inquired who had spoken, then said, "I saw over thirty angels competing to write them first." When another companion insisted on reciting Surat al-Ikhlas in every prayer he led out of love for Allah, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Tell him that Allah loves him." He further welcomed his companions' counsel, accepting Hubab ibn Mundhir's advice at Badr to control the wells, and Salman al-Farisi's suggestion to dig a trench at the Battle of Ahzab. More broadly, he embraced the diversity of his companions' personalities, as seen in the gentleness of Abu Bakr and the toughness of ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them. The pious understood this principle: ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud preferred reciting the Qur'an over voluntary fasting, and Imam Malik, invited to devote himself to spiritual practices instead of teaching, replied that Allah apportions people's deeds as He apportions their sustenance, and that he was pleased with the opening Allah had granted him in spreading sacred knowledge. Relatedness is the human need to feel cared for and to belong to a group, sustained by frequent positive interactions and mutual caring. Many ahadith touch upon this: the Prophet ﷺ said, "Every Muslim is a brother to every other Muslim. He does not wrong him, nor surrender him... Whoever relieves a Muslim from distress, Allah will relieve him from distress on the Day of Resurrection." Upon reaching Medina, he ﷺ paired the Meccan and Medinan companions in brotherhood, allowing the immigrants to contribute their knowledge while the helpers provided housing and food. He gave adolescents weighty responsibilities, entrusting ʿAli ibn Abi Talib to sleep in his bed as a decoy and to return the people's deposits, and appointing the teenage Usama ibn Zayd to lead a military expedition—cultivating in the young a deep sense of belonging. The fulfillment of these three needs supplies the motivation for genuine commitment to Islam. Organismic integration theory, a subtheory of SDT, classifies motivation as amotivated, extrinsically motivated, or intrinsically motivated, and distinguishes four grades of extrinsic motivation: external regulation (acting for reward or punishment), introjected regulation (acting to please others or avoid guilt), identified regulation (acting from personal value), and integrated regulation (acting in full harmony with one's identity). Classical scholarship offers a parallel. Imam al-Nawawi described three motivational levels underlying worship: the worship of servants (ʿibadat al-ʿabid), done out of fear of punishment; transactional worship (ʿibadat al-tujjar), done to attain Paradise; and the worship of the free (ʿibadat al-ahrar), performed out of love and reverence for Allah. Notably, whereas OIT treats reward-seeking and punishment-avoidance as equal in quality, al-Nawawi ranks the pursuit of Paradise above the mere avoidance of punishment. Both traditions regard love-driven worship as the ideal, akin to the state reflected in the Prophet's ﷺ words, "the delight of my eyes is in prayer." Socializers may sometimes use rewards to move a youth from amotivation to extrinsic motivation, but should not rely on them exclusively, for guilt, shame, and punishment tend to yield only temporary compliance and eventual resentment. Several practical recommendations follow. Socializers should provide structured, informational (not controlling) religious environments that clearly communicate expectations suited to each adolescent's capacity. Mastery learning should be encouraged, letting youth progress at their own pace without shaming them or comparing them to peers, since comparison reduces competence and fuels extrinsic motivation—recalling how the Prophet ﷺ comforted the poor muhajirun by informing them they would enter Paradise before the wealthy. Socializers should explain the wisdom behind commands and prohibitions, so that practices such as hijab, prayer, and fasting are embraced rather than seen as arbitrary. Feedback should be process-focused rather than shaming, favoring "why" and "how" questions that let youth arrive at their own solutions and thus satisfy their need for autonomy. Youth should be given opportunities to voice ideas and make decisions about religious activities, and should be provided with empathetic mentors and role models with whom they can personally connect. The development of youth religious identity is complex and involves many psychosocial factors; nurturing autonomous motivation requires releasing extrinsic motivators that work momentarily but backfire later. This process is long and demands foresight and patience in creating the proper conditions—and awaiting the results, with the blessing of Allah. ## Key Takeaways 1. Adolescence is a period of acute identity formation, and for Muslim youth growing up in the West, it is complicated further by peer pressure, anti-religious narratives, and secular ideologies. Whether teens come to embrace Islam or merely tolerate it depends significantly on the religious environment cultivated by parents, teachers, and community members during these formative years. 2. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, Muslim teens are more likely to internalize Islam when their religious environment supports three core needs: competence (feeling capable of practicing Islam), autonomy (being able to engage with the faith voluntarily and on personally meaningful terms), and relatedness (feeling cared for and belonging to a community). The Prophet ﷺ modeled all three in how he nurtured his companions, including the youth among them. 3. Coercion, shame, and constant criticism may produce short-term compliance but rarely lead to lasting religious commitment. Long-term internalization is built through warmth, process-focused feedback, explaining the wisdom behind religious commands, and giving young people opportunities to make their own choices within the bounds of the halal. The goal is to raise Muslims who worship Allah out of love and conviction, not just out of fear of punishment or pressure from others. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do I raise teens who genuinely love Islam rather than just go through the motions? The goal of religious socialization is internalization, which means a young person comes to embrace Islamic beliefs and practices as their own rather than performing them out of compulsion. Research on motivation suggests that adolescents are most likely to internalize their faith when three psychological needs are consistently met in their religious environment: competence (feeling capable of practicing Islam well), autonomy (feeling that their religious actions are chosen rather than imposed), and relatedness (feeling cared for and connected within the Muslim community). When these needs are supported, teens move toward what classical scholars described as the worship of the free and liberated, where acts of worship flow from love of Allah rather than fear of punishment or hope of reward alone. Parents, teachers, and mentors who focus only on enforcement may secure short-term compliance, but they often produce resentment and disengagement over time. Raising teens who love Islam requires patience, intentional environments, and a willingness to nurture motivation rather than coerce it. ### Why does pressuring my child to pray often backfire? Pressure produces compliance, not conviction. When a child prays only to avoid a parent’s anger, escape guilt, or earn approval, the motivation behind the action is external. Psychological research and classical Islamic insight both recognize that this kind of motivation rarely leads to lasting integration of the practice. The child may pray now, but the action remains detached from their personal sense of self, and once the source of pressure is removed, the prayer often fades with it. Over time, harsh enforcement can also generate resentment that becomes attached to the act itself, making prayer feel like a burden rather than a refuge. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ rarely relied on harshness even when companions made serious mistakes. He affirmed their love for Allah, praised their good qualities, and protected their sense of religious self-worth. Parents who model prayer consistently, explain its meaning, and connect it to their child’s own life circumstances are far more likely to see their children embrace prayer as something personally meaningful rather than something endured. ### Should I let my teen choose how they practice Islam, or does that risk them straying? Giving teens space to choose within the halal is not the same as letting them drift. Religious autonomy is not unbounded freedom to do whatever one wants, which Islam clearly does not permit. It refers to the wide space within the halal where Muslims can choose how to express their devotion in ways that feel personally meaningful. Within that space, choice strengthens commitment rather than weakening it, because people put their hearts into actions they choose voluntarily. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ modeled this generously. When a companion added praise to a phrase in prayer, he ﷺ told him that over thirty angels rushed to record his words. When another companion insisted on reciting Surah al-Ikhlas in every prayer he led out of love for Allah, the Prophet ﷺ told him Allah loved him back. Companions like Ibn Masʿud chose recitation of the Qur’an over voluntary fasting because it spoke to him more deeply. Imam Malik later observed that Allah opens different doors of worship for different people. A teen who is allowed to express their faith in their own way, within Islamic boundaries, is far more likely to grow into a Muslim who worships out of love and conviction. ### Are rewards and punishments effective for getting kids to practice Islam? They have a limited and specific role. Rewards and punishments can sometimes move a child from total disengagement to at least beginning to perform a behavior, and this temporary scaffolding is not inherently wrong. However, parents who rely on them as a long-term strategy usually find diminishing returns. A child who prays for money may stop praying when the money stops. A child who prays to avoid punishment may stop praying the moment the threat is no longer present. More damaging, when shame or guilt becomes the primary association with worship, the child often develops resentment toward the act itself. The deeper work of raising religious teens lies elsewhere: modeling consistency, explaining the wisdom behind religious practices, helping the child explore what prayer or fasting means in their own life, and walking with them through their mistakes with patience rather than punishment. Reward and punishment may secure the appearance of religiosity, but love, understanding, and modeling are what build the real thing. ### Why does explaining the “why” behind Islamic rulings matter so much for teens? Teens are far more likely to internalize a religious practice when they understand the wisdom behind it. A young Muslim woman told to wear hijab without ever being shown its meaning may experience it as an arbitrary rule imposed on her, and rules without meaning rarely take root in the heart. When parents take the time to listen to her concerns and to share the wisdom behind Islamic attire, hijab can begin to feel like part of her own identity rather than a demand made of her. The same principle applies to prayer, fasting, and other obligations. Empathetic conversation about purpose and benefit makes a religious practice feel personally valuable rather than externally imposed. This is also why process-focused feedback matters when teens fall short. Asking “why did you miss prayer today” and following up with “how could you arrange things to make it easier next time” engages the teen in their own problem-solving instead of shaming them, which supports both their sense of competence and their motivation to try again. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-the-lgbt-question-reframing-the-narrative # Islam and the LGBT Question: Reframing the Narrative **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Editor's Picks, LGBTQ, Paper, Publication, Trending Papers **Published:** October 7, 2022 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 *The following article is based on a video presentation by Dr. Carl Sharif El-Tobgui on Blogging Theology with Paul Williams (July 17, 2022) and has been slightly modified and annotated for readability in collaboration with the presenter. The link to the original presentation is referenced below.*[^1] --- ## Introduction On May 17, 2022, which marked Canada’s annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, a poster, promoted under the auspices of a Canadian university, depicted two Muslim women in headscarves on the verge of kissing.[^2] A number of other Canadian universities and high schools allowed the poster to circulate as a way of promoting “diversity in love.” The poster also featured a biracial homosexual couple, a black heterosexual couple, and a couple consisting of a fully-abled and a disabled person, alongside the two Muslim women, with each couple engaging in a romantic act. Many Canadian Muslims were enraged after the release of this poster, and rightfully so considering the appropriation of a patent Muslim symbol (i.e., the hijab) for a cause that is explicitly prohibited in Islam. The Muslim community organized collectively and submitted a petition signed by thousands of individuals, from young students in high school to leaders of Muslim organizations, demanding that the university take down the poster. One Muslim wrote to the university, “Shame on you \[...\] for such an insulting mockery post to my religion.” Soon after, LGBTQ Nation published an article titled “University pulls image of women in hijabs kissing after Muslim community protests.”[^3] The university initially pushed back against the petition, conceding that the topic was “complex and intersectional” but insisting that the poster would remain. The LGBTQ Nation article ended with the following statement: “Muslim culture isn’t inherently anti-gay: the Qur’an says nothing about homosexuality (unlike the Bible); Islamic history is filled with texts openly depicting homosexuality as a beautiful, matter-of-fact thing; and more American Muslims support same-sex marriage than do Christian Evangelicals, Protestants, and Mormons, according to a Pew Research Study.”[^4] The framing of the article as a whole, from its title to its final paragraph, portrays Muslims who objected to the poster as unnecessarily “homophobic”: they were protesting a beautiful thing that their own religious scripture supposedly does not condemn and that their own history has allegedly celebrated for centuries. In the end, however, the university acquiesced to the demands of the Muslim community and pulled the poster down. There is an uplifting lesson here. The Muslim community—starting with the young students who had the intelligence and awareness to decipher the subversion of Islamic teachings and the courage to raise their voices against it and the Muslim organizations who came to their aid—is to be congratulated. Even against the aggressive agenda of the cultural, political, and capitalist elites, the Muslim community scored a small but significant victory for their faith and in favor of truth and reason. As elaborated below, Islam’s prohibition of homosexual acts is categorical, and its teachings on gender relations and sexual norms are foundational and inseparable from belief in Allah and His revelation. There is no room in Islam for the new direction in which the liberal culture appears to be dragging the West and, through its coercive ideological apparatus, the world as a whole. It is a culture that denies the natural and divinely ordained norms of union between men and women, erasing sexual differences in favor of a utopian, ideological, anti-religious, and anti-scientific androgyny. One would have to reject Islamic guidance root and branch in order to incorporate this radical gender egalitarianism. This agenda requires, and has already mobilized, rigorous social engineering domestically, as well as neocolonial wars and anti-religious propaganda in the Muslim world in particular and the Global South generally. Muslims must, therefore, establish and advocate for the Islamic paradigm of gender and sexuality over and against modern and postmodern perversions, while also supporting those Muslims who acknowledge orthodox Islamic teachings, but who struggle with same-sex attractions and/or gender dysphoria, in their struggle to live lives of virtue in conformity with the will of Allah and the teachings of Islam. We cannot explore the Islamic paradigm of sexual morality without first understanding where morality itself comes from. A theocentric worldview, such as that of Islam, takes God as the ultimate source of morality. Our very purpose for existence is to uphold God’s command to the best of our ability: “I have not created jinn and humankind but to worship Me.”[^5] We maintain that God and His Messenger alone are the legislators of what is right and wrong, permitted and prohibited. Allah states in the Qur’an, “It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed strayed into a plain error.”[^6] Islamic morality is not arbitrary; although the divine command is at the heart of our rich tradition, Muslims have long engaged in rational reflection on the wisdom of divine creation and the divine word for centuries, producing a comprehensive discourse on the consequences of acts for the individual and the community, and incorporating it into the *fiqh* tradition. The “diversity in love” poster, discussed above, reminds us that over the last couple of decades, the perspectives and claims of the LGBT movement have become not merely tolerated but championed. They are now pervasive, ubiquitous, and irresistible. Within one generation, LGBT ideas and behaviors have gone from being taboo to mainstream. The questions we need to ask are: 1. How did we get here and why should we care? 2. How can we build a conceptual framework on gender, sex, and morality based on Islamic sources? Given the prodigious changing of the cultural winds, it is no longer sufficient for Muslims—and others who disapprove of same-sex relationships—simply to say that they do not approve of homosexual behavior in the same way that they do not approve of drinking or premarital sex between men and women. The discourse on homosexuality has shifted so quickly and radically that the old Muslim defenses and attitudes (“It is not our problem,” “How is this different for us Muslims from fornication or wine-drinking?,” or “Live and let live”) have become ineffective and we are confronted with grave challenges. Most well-meaning and sincere Muslims are either complacent, helpless, or both. They fail to realize that unlike the haram acts of drinking alcohol and illicit (heterosexual) sex, the affirmation of same-sex relationships and transgenderism is presented as a positive moral cause, undergirded by contentious metaphysical assumptions regarding, among other things, the human self, the place of sex and sexuality in human identity, and the proper balance between the individual and society. It is a discourse that appeals to universal notions of human dignity, justice, respect, and autonomy. Only by engaging with these issues holistically can we properly understand and respond to this challenge. Throughout the past century, so much has changed deep within our conscious understanding that we must expend considerable effort to understand that we, as Muslims in the contemporary West, are dealing with two very different conceptual paradigms. Consider the common occurrence of a young Western Muslim saying to an Islamic religious authority, “I think I’m gay. What does Islam have to say about that?” The shaykh may simply respond, “It’s haram (prohibited)!” The youth in this scenario, however, is asking about an individual and political identity situated within a paradigm without truth or metaphysics—a paradigm that views sexual feeling as being as close to unassailable truth as one can get. To our young, college-going American Muslim, who generally champions liberal causes in the name of justice and love, to say that “being gay” is haram might be like saying that being Arab or South Asian is haram. There is miscommunication between the two because each is operating from a different paradigm. On the one hand, we have the Islamic worldview as it pertains to morality—and to gender and sexuality in particular—and, on the other hand, we have the modern/post-modern secular worldview. The two start from diametrically opposed assumptions. This article sets out to distinguish these worldviews before exploring more specifically the Islamic paradigm on gender, sex, and sexual morality. It then discusses homosexuality and transgenderism from two angles: from the Islamic moral and legal (*sharʿī*) considerations, followed by a discussion of how to support Muslims who struggle with same-sex attractions. By doing so, we hope to illustrate the urgency of challenging the contemporary discourse around sex, gender, and sexuality and equipping ourselves with the proper conceptual framework to better help Muslims struggling with this issue. We conclude with additional resources on the subject that may be of help in providing further direction. *What does Islam say about LGBTQ? Watch the video below:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDbiV4VqEug --- ## The proliferation of the LGBT movement Since the 2010s, there has been a significant growth of LGBT literature geared towards youth in particular. *The Lumberjanes*, for example, is a popular comic book series consisting of seventy-five issues. Its protagonist is a Navajo trans woman (i.e., a biological male who has transitioned to being female) with two gay fathers. In the year 2010, there were approximately ten books published by mainstream publishers for young adults with LGBT characters.[^7] By 2016, a mere six years later, that number had climbed to eighty. We also now see the release of an annual “Rainbow Book List” that provides updates on LGBT-themed books for children of all ages—from infants all the way up to 18-year-olds. Public libraries and elementary schools throughout the United States even host “drag queen story hours,” where men dressed in flamboyant wigs and makeup read to children and, in the process, inculcate highly sexualized caricatures in their young minds. The same representational shift has occurred in film. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) found that of the 118 major studio films released in 2019, twenty-two (18.6%) contained characters who identified as LGBT. Furthermore, more than 250 LGBT characters were counted in children’s cartoons dating back to 1983. Looking at the data from 2010 through 2020—especially in the latter five years of this period—the representation of overtly queer characters skyrockets.[^8] This increase correlates with the US Supreme Court’s 2015 *Obergefell vs. Hodges* decision that legalized gay marriage. In the years following gay marriage legalization, Sesame Street, SpongeBob, and other shows for children were also featuring openly LGBT-identifying characters. The LGBT narrative has also permeated at an institutional level with several states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington, mandating LGBT education in various public schools, some as early as elementary school. Other states have rolled out “inclusive” curriculum standards but have not yet signed statewide bills. In Canada, programs like the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity (SOGI 1 2 3),[^9] which has used Muslim children as symbols in its promotional material,[^10] are devoted to advancing LGBT-related education in schools. One popular means of teaching gender fluidity and sexual identity to students involves the “Genderbread Person.”[^11] This diagram uses a gingerbread man-like figure with a multicolored brain as a teaching tool to explain gender and orientation. It asserts that gender identity is not binary as is traditionally believed; rather, it is fluid and based on one’s self-perception. The red heart in the genderbread person’s chest symbolizes attraction, communicating the belief that sexual attraction can be whatever a person’s heart feels, regardless of his or her biological sex. The diagram states: > Gender is one of those things everyone thinks they understand, but most people don’t. Like inception. Gender isn’t binary. It’s not either/or. In many cases, it’s both/and. A bit of this, a dash of that. This tasty little guide is meant to be for gender understanding. It’s okay if you’re hungry for more. In fact, that’s the idea.[^12] The diagram also defines the terms “gender identity,” “gender expression,” and “biological sex” as follows:[^13] - Gender identity: how you, in your head, define your gender, based on how much you align or don’t align with what you understand to be the options for gender. - Gender expression: the ways you present gender through your actions, dress, and demeanor, and how those presentations are interpreted based on gender norms. - Biological sex: the physical sex characteristics you’re born with and develop, including genitalia, body shape, voice pitch, body hair, hormones, chromosomes, etc. What is problematic about the “genderbread person” is that it presents natural binaries as a spectrum—a fluid and flexible identity that one chooses based on one’s emotions and desires, effectively robbing biological sex markers of any necessary connection or normative relevance to questions of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. So deeply and so rapidly has this cultural crusade penetrated young American Muslim minds that many are growing increasingly sympathetic to statements like: “*I feel this way internally; therefore, I’m an inauthentic person unless I’m allowed to live my life according to this feeling. And if the Muslim community doesn’t accept my sexual orientation, then they are rejecting me and undermining my dignity as a person*.” As Muslims respond to such individuals and to concepts such as authenticity, identity, choice, and dignity, it behooves us to take stock of the colossal cultural shifts introduced almost overnight into American society and their deeper roots in the modern West. These shifts have also been accompanied by some political and cultural resistance within the United States. Some states and individuals have challenged the institutionalization of LGBT curricula. In 2022, for example, the governor of Florida passed a law banning all teacher-led LGBT-related instruction in state classrooms from kindergarten to grade 3.[^14] This legislation, however, was immediately met with opposition. Faced by mounting pressure from certain groups, the multi-billion dollar Disney corporation came out in full force to reject this proposition on the grounds that it is wrong and homophobic.[^15] This represents a prime example of how an allegedly entertainment-oriented corporation, known for producing cartoons and movies, can be politicized and absorbed by the burning questions of the day. In a similar move in the same year, a Burger King ad in Austria proudly featured the “Pride Whopper,” a burger with matching top and bottom buns—a not so subtle reference to homosexual male intercourse where one partner plays the top role and the other the bottom role.[^16] The company quickly apologized after facing backlash for a “tone deaf” marketing campaign. Ironically, the criticism was directed not at this vulgar sexual representation in a decades-old fast food corporation but at the chain’s failure to understand “how gay sex works” and the accusation of “rainbow-washing” during Pride Month. In response, Burger King Austria issued an apology and promised to properly communicate with experts from the LBGTQ community for future campaigns, as “equal love and equal rights” remain their priority. Beyond the omnipresence of the LGBT narrative in the West, Muslim countries are under growing pressure to also become “LGBT-affirming.” For example, in June 2022, the US embassy in Kuwait tweeted in support of Pride Month: > All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love. @POTUS \[the president of the United States\] is a champion for the human rights of #LGBTQI persons. #Pride2022 #YouAreIncluded. US embassies in other Muslim countries did the same. It is thus important to remember that the LGBT movement not only seeks to radically reshape society on a domestic level, but is at the vanguard of a neo-colonial project on an international scale as well. Needless to say, as Muslims we agree that all human beings should be treated with respect and dignity. We learn from the sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that we are to, “give everything its due right.”[^17] As Muslims, therefore, we believe in giving all people their due rights. Justice is central to Islam. We disagree, however, with what respect and dignity entail in certain cases. In this context, these terms are used with very specific definitions to imply that if one does not fully endorse homosexual behavior, relationships, and family structures, then one lacks respect for people’s dignity—a serious moral charge. This loaded terminology is then used as a tool for social and political demonization. Here lies the ultimate challenge: the current LGBT discourse, as mentioned above, is presented as a *moral* discourse. We are given to believe that questions surrounding sexual desires and behavior, family structure, and so forth are primarily questions of equality, dignity, and human rights and that any opposition to the goals of the organized LGBT movement constitutes opposition to those three values. But contemporary LGBT discourse has defined equality, justice, human rights, and compassion in ways that have radically altered their meanings. In order to comprehend how this shift in understanding has occurred, we have to look back to the last few decades of Western cultural history. --- ## Tracing the roots: The sexual revolution The Western sexual revolution, which began in the late 1960s, may be taken as the proximate cause for where we are today. The sexual revolution constituted a fundamental rejection of Christian religious and moral norms surrounding gender, sex, and sexuality. Before the 60s, premarital sex and homosexual acts were taboo, and it was rare to find non-married couples living together.[^18] People were generally reticent about discussing sex in both public and private settings. For example, soap operas replaced the word “pregnant” with euphemisms like “she is expecting” or is “with child” since the word “pregnant” was considered too direct. If a film had a scene with a bare-chested woman for even a few seconds, it would be given an R rating. The marketing and sale of pornography and salacious erotic novels were also prohibited by law across the Western world at this time. These sexual norms were born from a cultural understanding that sex is a reproductive act that should only occur in the context of marriage. This is not to say that sex was not also for experiencing pleasure or for cultivating intimacy and love between a couple. But traditionally, before the advent of the first FDA-approved birth control pill in 1960, there was no form of contraception as effective as there is today.[^19] If a couple were to engage in intercourse, they were always running a fairly substantial risk of experiencing the natural consequences of that act: pregnancy. In such a climate, it would be unwise for any society to allow for unregulated sex outside of marriage. Children would be born without knowing the identity of their fathers, without a traceable lineage, and without knowing from whom to seek protection. Mothers would be left to care for these children on their own without anyone to provide for them. Sex out of wedlock, as a rampant cultural phenomenon, directly undermines the structure of society and the stability of the family unit. Family has been the core institution in all societies, historically and anthropologically speaking, even in the modern West. Because sex and reproduction are tightly bound to one another, moral duty requires that sex between two people be confined to those who are lawful to one another. This ensures that children entering the world have a father to provide for them and a mother to care for them, that they are received in stable circumstances conducive to their flourishing, that they have known lineage and extended family connections, along with all the rights, duties, and protections that flow from such fundamental human relationships. It is no casual thing to conceive a child. It was, therefore, naturally considered immoral and detrimental to interfere with a child’s right to enter the world with these safety measures in place.[^20] Illicit sex (i.e., fornication, or sex out of wedlock) was recognized as a direct threat to the social fabric because it was understood to undermine the family unit and, most especially, to jeopardize the well-being of the mother and child. Similarly, up until the 1930s, all major Christian denominations—Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant—were opposed to artificial contraception because they considered it unnatural to separate the sex act from its natural consequences (i.e., possible insemination, pregnancy, and reproduction).[^21] Hence, it was common to find contraceptives illegal in the United States and many European countries. Until the year 1965, for instance, contraceptives were illegal in the state of Connecticut. It is noteworthy here that Islamic law has a more measured attitude toward these issues and offers greater latitude on the use of birth control as compared to Christianity.[^22] ### The Pill First marketed a few years before the onset of the sexual revolution, the birth control pill became its catalyst.[^23] As a more effective form of contraception, the Pill allowed people to divorce the sex act from reproduction. The moral norm that once bound these two variables together increasingly came to be seen as irrelevant. Yet the advent of the birth control pill and the subsequent separation of sex, reproduction, and family were only two of the factors that drove this titanic social change. In a society that revered God and valued devotion to a higher truth, the prevalence of contraceptives and other factors might not have been as devastating as they in fact were in mid-century Western nations. What proved decisive at this juncture is that Western society had long ago chosen a secular path, one centered on the maximization of perceived individual happiness. In contrast, Muslim-majority societies remained theocentric and have resisted sexual decadence even after the introduction of the Pill, although aggressive Western imperialism and internal weakness has made them increasingly threatened and vulnerable to the same trends.[^24] A religious worldview that is rationally coherent and compelling, Islam orients humankind toward God. In turning its back on religion and God, the Western society found no reason for continuing to bind sex, reproduction, marriage, and morality together. In the 1960s, these four were essentially blown apart, and each came to be seen as a free-floating variable, to be defined and practiced according to the dictates of individual preference. In this way, the sexual revolution brought about a wholesale rejection of Christian moral norms as related to sexuality. Men and women started living together before marriage, an arrangement once referred to as “shacking up.” Then, love and commitment between two individuals became the only prerequisites for morally and socially acceptable sex. By the 1980s, only consent mattered anymore. No longer did two people need to be married, in love, or even committed to one another for their sexual relationship to be considered morally legitimate; they merely had to consent before engaging in the act.[^25] This brought about the demise of the nuclear family, with major social dislocations (e.g., divorce, fatherlessness, delinquency, single motherhood, single mother and child poverty, and so on). Women competed against men in the workforce—a new development for middle and upper class families—with “latchkey kids”  returning to empty homes after school because both parents were at work. Without its anchoring in reproduction, marriage, family, and morality, sex came to be seen strictly as a matter of pleasure and individual fulfillment. But this was just the beginning. The sexual revolution also spawned the gay liberation movement. Relations between two men or two women came to seem less objectionable because they, just like heterosexual relationships, now also fulfilled the new sole prerequisite for morally acceptable sex: mutual interest and consent. The civil rights movement, once specifically aimed at the protection and promotion of Black civil rights, expanded beyond race to encompass gender and sexual orientation as well. In doing so, for reasons that lie beyond our scope, powerful groups in Western culture seeking sexual liberation drew a false equivalence between themselves and victims of longstanding racial violence, positioning themselves as equally oppressed by the mainstream. In the wake of the sexual revolution, many denominations of mainstream Protestant Christianity, as well as Reform and Conservative Judaism, have taken on the basic assumptions of the sexual revolution (such as the elective nature of sex that is legitimized through consent alone). Those still trying to hold on to religious moral values find themselves isolated and alienated. --- ## Sexual attitudes in Christianity and Islam The sexual revolution in the West may have been in part an extreme reaction to the “sex-negative” attitudes that have dominated Christian teaching throughout the centuries. Celibacy has always been considered a high calling in Christianity. Mary was a virgin at the time of her miraculous conception of Jesus, even if she married thereafter (hence the “Virgin Mary”). Jesus was also celibate, as are all leaders of the Catholic church. Saint Augustine, who was a licentious man before converting to Christianity in the fourth century, was so disgusted by his previous life of profligacy that he ended up holding a thoroughly mistrustful view of sex. He spread the idea that pure spirituality meant denying oneself all carnal pleasure. Though this attitude aligned more with trends in Greek and Hellenistic philosophy than with biblical scripture, it nonetheless spread throughout Christian lands. The Qur’an addresses this trend among Christians in the following verse: > Then in the footsteps of these \[prophets\], We sent Our messengers, and \[after them\] We sent Jesus, son of Mary, and granted him the Gospel, and instilled compassion and mercy in the hearts of his followers. As for monasticism, they made it up—We never ordained it for them—only seeking to please Allah, yet they did not \[even\] observe it strictly. So We rewarded those of them who were faithful. But most of them are rebellious.[^26] Islam, on the other hand, is the middle path—the path of moderation, balance, and reason in harmony with God-given nature. Allah describes Paradise in the Qur’an as the perfect and perpetual fulfillment while regulating all kinds of behavior in this life, refusing the dualism between physical and spiritual bliss. Accordingly, sexual pleasure is not intrinsically evil, nor is it strictly for the proliferation of the human race. Rather, when enjoyed in licit ways it is a blessing, even a sign of God’s favor upon His creation. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ once told his companions that they would be rewarded for fulfilling their desires lawfully with their wives. Confused, they asked why they would be rewarded merely for satiating their desires. The Prophet ﷺ responded, “Do you not see that if one does it in a haram way, he will have the burden of sin? So if he does it in a halal way, he will have a reward for that.”[^27] Islam’s fundamentally sex-positive attitude meant that Muslim scholars did not shy away from writing about sexual etiquette. Some scholars have even described the moment of climax as a foretaste of Paradise because it is the greatest physical pleasure human beings are able to experience.[^28] Islam mandates that sex occur in the proper context, and so long as that condition is fulfilled, it is an occasion of divine blessing and otherworldly reward. --- ## The antecedents to the sexual revolution To better understand and deconstruct the underpinnings of recent Western movements of sexual licentiousness, we must explore the antecedents of the sexual revolution. Starting around the seventeenth century, sections of Western societies began drifting from a theocentric worldview toward a materialistic, mechanical one. People no longer saw God’s hand in His creation, and this blindness severed every object in the universe, humans included, from its true purpose and nature. Scientists and empirical data alone—to the exclusion of prophets and revelation—became the bearers of truth and knowledge. Meaning, purpose, and natural order all began to fall by the wayside. Enlightenment thinkers in the eighteenth century pushed further, making human reason the standard for all knowledge, including morality. The human mind became the primary moral arbiter in place of God. Revelation in the Christian world became largely discredited through geological and historical criticism of the Bible, whose cultural authority was further undermined by Darwin’s theory of evolution in the mid-nineteenth century. By the closing decades of that century, Nietzsche was able to declare that (for Western man, at least) “God is dead.” In the centuries that followed this epistemic explosion, increasing numbers of people were left to grapple with the meaninglessness that comes from an individualized, self-generated purpose disconnected from a Creator. Just as our existence was stripped of higher purpose, so too were our bodies. No longer were male and female bodies endowed with a natural complementarity whose violation would constitute a moral transgression; they  became material “stuff,” untethered to natural and supernatural laws that could be transgressed without consequence. Another antecedent to the sexual revolution was the rise of liberalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which ultimately placed individual freedom and personal autonomy above things like community and family. Freedom as a value is widely appreciated: political freedom from tyranny, freedom from oppression, and so on. But modern liberalism has reified and fetishized it, placing it above all other, and even nobler, values, in the process enslaving humans in worse ways than through merely physical and conventional constraints. Modern humans are born into this world demanding complete freedom from all external limitations, be they moral, religious, cultural, familial, or other. Every constraint is perceived as a new barrier to be broken, another boundary to be transgressed on the path to self-actualization. Understanding this mentality is absolutely critical because it informs much of the current discourse around gender and sexuality in the West. The root of all evil lies in turning away from God.[^29] With God no longer at the center of human devotion, the individual self became the single most valuable thing. In other words, man himself became deified. A helpful guide in tracing these transformations in the West is a book by Christian theologian Carl R. Trueman titled *The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution*. In it, Trueman traces the roots of this inflated modern notion of the self to the famous eighteenth-century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who located the core identity of the human being in the inner psychological life of the individual, positing that feelings are central to who we are and that an individual’s authenticity is tied to his or her outward expression of inner feelings. Rousseau’s writings on selfhood are what Trueman calls the beginning of the “psychologization”[^30] of the human being: Who I am is no longer the role I play in society (father, wife, guildsman, etc.); rather, it’s my inner feelings. And to be authentic is to express freely and outwardly the full depth and breadth of my inner feelings. Any discrepancy between my inner feelings and outward expression is a lack of self-realization. This captures well the character of contemporary LGBT discourse, as shall be explained presently. Other key strands in today’s rejection of sexual mores include Karl Marx (1818–1883), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), and Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). Marx grounded his passionate quest for justice in materialist history rather than God. Nietzsche railed against all conventional morality, exposing Enlightenment pretensions of reason but replacing them with little more than human quest for power and self-assertion as the ultimate good.[^31] Freud similarly rejected religion and contended that satisfying the sex drive was foundational to human personhood and happiness, but that the possibility of civilization nonetheless requires the containment of this drive. According to Freud, even infants are sexual beings. Though much of Freud’s thought has been debunked for decades, his ideas still inform our cultural psyche. The disciples of these figures pushed the boundaries further. Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) and Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) called for radical sexual liberation in the 1930s and beyond. Many had by this point come to believe that moral notions were essentially a matter of taste. In other words, one’s individual sensibilities and emotional responses are the primary arbiters of what is right and wrong.[^32] When tracing the epistemology of the Western secular paradigm on sexual morality, we must bear in mind that the defining figures of today’s Western ideologies were nearly all staunch atheists. Their atheism had a definitive influence on their ideas of sexual morality and secular values more broadly, and help explain today’s resistance against God, religion, and nature. Without God to provide objective stability to the cosmos, human nature becomes untethered from its source of teleology and definition. As Muslims, we affirm the reality of the unseen, and our revelation informs us that our worst enemies, Satan and his ilk, are at work to pervert our notions of good and evil so that we prefer our judgments over God’s. We reject the secular European psychologization of the self and its attendant notion of radical autonomy, as these ideas are inherently un-Islamic. Allah declares in Sūrat al-Ḥashr: “And be not like those who forgot God so He caused them to forget themselves.”[^33] Modern Western history is replete with people who have forgotten God and subsequently forgotten themselves. Having lost God, they have little more than their whims to worship: “Have you seen the one who has taken his own desires as his god?”[^34] Replacing revealed guidance with personal sensibilities and emotional judgments as the arbiters of morality turns the human lower self (*nafs*) into a plaything for Satan. It turns vice into virtue and evil into good, like “those whose evil deeds are made alluring to them so that they think they are good.”[^35] ### Homosexuality in the wake of the sexual revolution Central to LGBT discourse is the formation of identity around sexual desire. If we understand the aforementioned historical and cultural groundwork, we can see how fundamentally problematic this movement is for Muslims. Another crucial move in modern sexual delinquency has been to reject the divinely inspired soul as the essence of the human being, as it had been for Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, and others, and to replace it with sexual identity. As Carl Trueman observes, “It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this move to make the sexual desire central to human identity. In modern society, everything from the common use of terms such as ‘straight’ and ‘gay’ in everyday conversation to the underlying assumptions of international human rights law presupposes that this is the case. And the idea that human flourishing is virtually synonymous with sexual fulfillment is a commonplace—in fact, virtually an intuition—of modern Western culture.”[^36] Like all religions, the beliefs of this religion of sexual libertinism demand political expression. Thus, Trueman says: “If we are at root defined in large part by our sexual desires—if sexual desire (or ‘orientation,’ as we now say) is who we are—then sex must be political because rules governing sexual behavior are rules that govern what is and what is not considered by society to be legitimate as an identity*.*”[^37] This has a further consequence: “The old chestnut of ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ simply does not work,” Trueman writes, “in a world where the sin is the identity of the sinner and the two cannot be separated even at a conceptual level.”[^38] Being “authentic” is not inherently objectionable, but our true self is that which aspires to the ultimate truth of God, not the one that is given to transgression, lust, prejudice, and satanic whispers. As Muslims, we affirm that the human being must be considered holistically in mind, body, and soul. Every self is unique and precious, but nurturing the self is a moral choice, and our duty is to nurture our potentials, train our bodies, and shape our desires in accordance with God’s revealed guidance, which is the reflection of our truest and deepest human nature. The ultimate expression of submission in Islam is prostration: the lowering of one’s mind to the ground while uttering *subḥāna rabbī al-aʿlā*, “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High.” While in this position, we realize our teleology and embody our most authentic selves, namely, as creations of God humbled before our Creator. It is as God states in the Qur’an, “And I have not created the jinn and humankind except to worship Me.” Worshiping God, then, is the most authentic human good.[^39] --- ## After the Ball: The plan to alter America’s sexual morality Unfortunately, Western Muslims who parrot LGBT talking points do not realize that much of their moral sensibility has been shaped by people with a deliberate agenda to destroy religious mores. In 1989, neuropsychologist Marshall Kirk and social marketing and advertising executive Hunter Madsen co-authored the book *After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s*. Both these Harvard-trained authors identified as gay, and their book served as a manifesto for normalizing homosexuality in Western societies. Since its release, the book’s plan has been implemented lock, stock, and barrel by members of the LGBT movement. The authors boldly state early on in the book: “The campaign we outline in this book, though complex, depends centrally upon a program of unabashed propaganda, firmly grounded in long-established principles of psychology and advertising.”[^40] Kirk and Madsen employed the principles of desensitization in their campaigning. They sought to build on people’s primal instincts, whereby “a flood of gay-related advertising, presented in the least offensive fashion possible,” would get the job done. “If straights can’t shut off the shower,” the authors quip, “they may at least eventually get used to being wet.” On their notion of “conversion,” the authors write, “We mean conversion of the average American’s emotions, mind, and will through a planned psychological attack in the form of propaganda fed to the nation via the media.”[^41] As Muslims, it is paramount that we recognize and stand firm against such calculated efforts to desensitize us to the limits set by Allah. --- ## Contemporary moral discourse It goes without saying that in stark contrast to Islam, in the West the divine command bears practically no relevance whatsoever to contemporary moral discourse. Subordinating divine omniscience to the temporal and temperamental whims of modern society is bound to bring ruin, and its effects are only beginning to be seen. Allah tells us in the Qur’an that “It could be that you dislike something, when it is good for you; and it could be that you like something when it is bad for you. Allah knows, and you do not know” (2:216). When religion becomes irrelevant to sexual behavior and life at large, people feel compelled to form their own, thoroughly personal and subjective moral frameworks regarding sexuality. People’s emotions, personal taste, sensibilities, or even perverse desires guide their notions of acceptable sexual behavior. Furthermore, contemporary moral and ethical discourse replaces central religious concepts with ersatz (i.e., substitute) notions such as: - Freedom: In popular culture, this is understood as the radical elimination of external barriers to achieve maximum happiness. In Islam, freedom is based on servitude to God, which frees us from serving our desires, material things, and falsehood. - Individual autonomy: The latter is a word formed from the suffixes *auto*, meaning “self,” and *nomos*, meaning “law.” The West’s notion of autonomy literally means “giving oneself the law” whereby each person determines what is right and wrong without recourse to a higher power. In Islam, by contrast, God and His messenger alone have the right to legislate. - Authenticity: The modern West defines this as complete, unfettered expression of the inner self (thoughts, feelings, desires), whereas in Islam, we are our true authentic selves as human beings only when we have found and submitted to our Creator (in consonance with our *fiṭra*, that is, natural or inborn, inclinations). - Consent: The modern world has come to fetishize *choice* and *consent*, which are derivatives of the notions listed above. Any action a person takes is legitimized by his choice and consent to do it so long as there is no harm to others, and this is especially the case for sexual activity. In contemporary culture, notions of “moral character,” and particularly any consideration of “virtue,” are deemed antiquated, old-fashioned, and unnecessary for the cultivation of authentic selfhood. In this vein, how a person behaves sexually has no bearing on his or her moral character as long as the acts are consensual. Given the postmodern premise that all notions are socially constructed, the emphasis on consent as the fulcrum of moral validity is utterly incoherent. In Islam, choice and consent are balanced through revelation and reason with other desiderata critical to human flourishing, such as the maintenance of the family, the cultivation of piety, and the repeated divine command to “enjoin good and forbid evil.” --- ## Islamic norms In contrast to the rapidly changing societal attitudes towards sex, gender, and sexuality in secular societies, we find in Islam a timeless framework for approaching these topics, rooted in the Qur’an as well as the prophetic Sunnah. ### On the creation of the male and female A fixed principle in Islamic law and theology is the creation of only two genders, the male and the female: “And He created the two sexes, male and female.”[^42] The Shariah makes no distinction between biological sex and what people in the West today (mostly from the 1970s onward) refer to as “psychological gender.” If a person is born in a male body, then the norm is that he would identify and express himself as a male (and vice versa for females). For him to identify otherwise would be an exception, comparable to the modern notions of gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria. The Islamic paradigm for gender and sexuality is reflected in a number of verses: - And \[by\] His creation of the male and the female.[^43]  - And that He created the two mates: the male and the female.[^44] - And the male is not like the female.[^45] - And of His signs is that He created for you spouses from among yourselves so that you may find comfort in them. And He has placed between you compassion and mercy. Surely in this are signs for people who reflect.[^46] - O mankind! Be mindful of your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and from it He created its mate, and through both He spread countless men and women.[^47] These verses recognize two genders, distinct yet complementary in nature, that were created by intentional design to be companions of one another. In another verse, Allah Almighty stresses both the uniqueness of men and women and their spiritual equality: > Surely \[for\] Muslim men and women, believing men and women, devout men and women, truthful men and women, patient men and women, humble men and women, charitable men and women, fasting men and women, men and women who guard their chastity, and men and women who remember Allah often—for \[all of\] them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.[^48] In the following, Allah declares men and women allies: > The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give *zakat* and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those—Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might, Wise.[^49] Through this description, Allah teaches us not to compete for the same roles and responsibilities, but rather to work alongside one another in enjoining good, forbidding evil, and forming communities that exalt the Divine Command: > And do not wish for that by which Allah has made some of you exceed others. For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned. And ask Allah of His bounty. Indeed Allah is ever, of all things, Knowing.[^50] Despite their spiritual equality, men and women are different on a practical level: they have different roles, rights, and responsibilities that guide how they interact in the domestic sphere and in society at large. In short, they are not treated the same because they are not created the same. Allah declares the equality of men and women in the Qur’an in their duty to worship Him, as well as in their ability to develop themselves morally and spiritually in fulfillment of that duty. In various biological, psychological, dispositional, and physiological ways, however, men and women are different by God’s intentional design. These differences, now rejected or resisted by extreme leftist ideology, have in fact been documented in scientific literature for a very long time.[^51] For example, Allah declares that “men are the protectors and maintainers of women” (*al-rijālu qawwāmūna ʿalā al-nisāʾ*).[^52] Men also take on certain leadership roles, such as head of the household and, paradigmatically speaking, religious leadership (e.g., as imams in places of worship). Women, on the other hand, are granted the right to be supported financially throughout their lives. We maintain that male and female bodies each have an inherent teleology, a God-given *purpose—*hence their obvious biological complementarity. Reproduction is the primary purpose of this complementarity, but unlike in traditional Christianity, not every sexual act in Islam necessarily has to allow for the possibility of conception, as the Shariah permits spouses to enjoy each other also for the purpose of pleasure. The complementarity of men and women goes beyond biology, however. In our dispositions (*khilqah*), we find a duality of masculine and feminine traits. Fathers and mothers are *not* interchangeable. God’s law, the Shariah, takes these differences into account. Although by default men and women follow the same religious rulings, in certain aspects the rulings pertaining to the two sexes differ (e.g., in aspects of prayer, inheritance, and dress code).[^53] Ultimately, as the Creator of our bodies, God has the categorical prerogative to endow them with meaning and to place limits on how we use them. It is not for us to devise purposes or assign meanings of our own accord, or to dispose of our bodies (which ultimately belong to God) as we see fit. The slogan “My body, my choice” is therefore antithetical to Islam. It challenges God’s moral authority by denying Him that right and placing it in the hands of individuals. ### Mind the difference Cultivation of behavior that accords with one’s biological gender is an Islamic obligation, and deliberate imitation of the opposite sex in dress and behavior is forbidden. The Prophet ﷺ cursed men who purposely imitate women and women who purposely imitate men.[^54] This hadith, it should be noted, is not about men who naturally exhibit more effeminate traits (e.g., a soft voice or effeminate mannerisms or gait) or women who naturally exhibit some masculine traits. Rather, the hadith pertains to individuals who deliberately impersonate the opposite sex in speech, mannerisms, dress, and so on. Drag queens may be the most conspicuous and exaggerated example of this behavior cursed by our Prophet ﷺ, who was sent as mercy to all the worlds and who would not curse a thing unless that thing were a cause of corruption and evil. ### Islamic sexual morality: “Do not go near zinā” Immersed in this secular paradigm, many Muslims are not fully aware of Islam’s sexual and gender norms. Islam has a rich, comprehensive moral system that concerns itself with human sexual behavior because it is so intimately tied to one of the most central and vital of human institutions, namely, the family. The importance of the family derives from the fact that it constitutes the very basis of society, and not just Muslim societies. As mentioned earlier, sex is reproductive; it gives rise to dependent children. Children and parents need stability. In addition to its familial and societal ramifications, *zinā* gravely compromises personal virtue, moral character, and one’s standing before Allah. The scriptural texts concerning the norms of proper gender and sexual behavior are so numerous, clear, and foundational that the jurists categorize them under one of the five objectives of the Shariah. The objective of Islam’s legislation on sexuality is to preserve the family and the extensive network of relations and community around any child, which is of paramount importance for human flourishing. Engaging in unlawful sex (*zinā*) is strictly forbidden and constitutes a major sin (*kabīrah*). In fact, illicit sexual behavior is not merely a personal sin, but a crime, potentially adjudicable in an Islamic court of law. So how does Islam render its prohibition of *zinā* a realizable moral norm for the average man and woman? It begins by limiting or regulating any act that opens the door to temptation and desire. Men and women alike are commanded to lower their gaze and not to look at one another with sexual lust, to cover their bodies, and to maintain modest dress, speech, and behavior.[^55] Muslims are also expected to avoid both physical contact and isolation (*khalwah*) with unrelated (non-*maḥram*) individuals of the opposite gender. When it comes to sexual behavior, all acts are forbidden by default unless specifically permitted by divine revelation (*al-aṣl fī al-abḍāʿ al-taḥrīm*). Allah states in Sūrat al-Muʾminūn, “\[Successful are\] those who guard their chastity, except from their spouses or those whom their right hands possess––for these are free from blame.”[^56] Everything outside of an explicitly sanctioned union between a man and a woman is prohibited. This includes anal intercourse,[^57] sexual acts short of intercourse (such as manual stimulation or oral sex), exposing one’s *ʿawrah* (i.e., private parts) to anyone other than a lawful partner (or for medical need). The prohibition is extended to any behavior that systematically threatens to lead to illicit relations or creates such desires, such as touching, gazing, isolation (*khalwah*), immodest speech, dress, behavior, and so on. God commands us in the Qur’an to avoid any act that potentially leads to *zinā*: “And go not near *zinā*; verily it is iniquity and an evil way.”[^58] ### Protection of family and lineage in the Shariah Adhering to the bounds of permissible sexual activity within Islamic law fulfills a key objective of the Shariah: the protection of family and lineage (*nasl* and *nasab*). Non-marital sex entails the risk of obscuring (or “mixing”) lineage, known as *khalṭ al-ansāb*. This is crucial for a number of reasons. First, a fraction of a person’s inheritance devolves upon close relatives according to predetermined shares. The rights of inheritance cannot be fulfilled by individuals who cannot identify their blood relatives. For example, a man needs to know the identity of his children in order to spend on them just as he needs to know the identity of his parents in order to receive inheritance from them. Furthermore, blood ties as a basis of lineage must be established through natural reproduction, not artificial means. The Shariah prohibits surrogacy, egg donors, and sperm donors and considers such reproductive practices as tantamount to *zinā*. The only exception to prohibition of artificial insemination, according to most Islamic scholars, is in the case of a married man and woman: if, for example, the husband has healthy sperm and the wife has healthy eggs (but, say, her fallopian tubes are blocked and she thus cannot conceive through natural means) and she carries the baby, in such a case the couple may seek artificial insemination. The child in this situation will have been delivered by his biological mother and with the fertilized egg and sperm of his biological parents, thus honoring God’s intended reproductive order for His human creation. Reproductive techniques that rely on sperm donors, egg donors, or surrogate wombs are prohibited because, ultimately, they reproduce the consequences of *zinā*, such as *khalṭ al-ansāb*, by mixing lineage and blurring natural family lines.[^59] Protection of lineage and family is one of the many wise purposes of the divine law against illicit sexual behavior. There may be even more important reasons, such as the protection of the children from the harms that come from being born outside of a normal and complete family and protection of the mind and heart from unbridled sexual lust, which is one of the greatest obstacles to focused worship and a God-centered life—worship being the very purpose of our creation. --- ## Gender nonconformity Contemporary liberalism severs natural, biological sex from both gender identity and expression, on the one hand, and sexual orientation, on the other. Prior to 2013, a person experiencing such a dissonance between his or her biological sex and gender identity would have been clinically diagnosed with a condition called Gender Identity Disorder. This term signaled an understanding that one’s sex/gender was based primarily in biology and that a mismatch between one’s external sex and one’s internal gender identification constituted an objective psychological disorder. Over time, however, Gender Dysphoria replaced Gender Identity Disorder as the condition requiring treatment. What is now deemed acceptable to treat are the feelings of anxiety and depression experienced by those struggling to identify with their biological sex.[^60] Today, it is unacceptable to do anything other than validate a person’s feeling that “I am in the wrong body.” One’s objective physiology and biology have lost all meaning in Western culture, as deference to biological facts is seen by the postmodernist and post-truth mind as offensive and unjust, to be resisted and overcome. Although the original advocates of liberalism and the modern self might be aghast at these consequences, by rejecting divine guidance these champions of reason paved the way for these most frivolous displays of unreason. According to Islamic guidance, God Almighty has intentionally designed the human body such that these three things are normatively aligned. When they are not aligned, people with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and same-sex attraction should make reasonable efforts to conform to God’s objective and intentional design of their biology. Exceptions to the rule where a person may fall subjectively outside the natural gender binary or normative opposite-sex attraction do not undermine the rule itself or the normativity of the conjunction between biological sex, psychological gender identification, and sexual attraction. Given the key Islamic principle that one is only responsible for what one has control over, people are not morally responsible for gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction to the extent that they did not *choose* to feel what they feel. However, we are all responsible for our actions. Engaging in prohibited sexual behavior or deliberate impersonation of the opposite sex *would*, therefore, be sinful. This includes cross-dressing and socially, chemically, or surgically transitioning to the opposite sex, as well as engaging in any form of sexual behavior or intimacy with members of one’s own sex. In distinguishing masculinity and femininity, scholars take into account the societal conventions (*ʿurf*) to which individuals are subject. The *ʿurf* may be referenced in order to determine what specific dress, interests, and mannerisms are perceived as masculine or feminine in a given time and place. The bottom line is that, despite cross-cultural and cross-historical differences, every society differentiates between its male and female members, even if the specifics of that differentiation are, to an extent, socially dependent. For example, if we traveled back in time and visited eighteenth-century Americans, we would find the men dressed in big, white, curly wigs, frilly blouses, and tight stockings. Such sartorial features strike us as decidedly feminine given our current-day norms, to the extent that dressing in such a manner today would likely be identified as drag. This example demonstrates that conventions of masculine and feminine dress are often unique to particular times and places. So long as *ʿurf* does not violate the rights and responsibilities of men and women as outlined by Islam, a Muslim is typically required to respect the known conventions (*ʿurf*) of his or her gender. However, as we note below, there are limits to this expectation, as Islam guides and corrects customs that go to extremes, transgressing both nature and human interest.[^61] Scholars recognize that a person can have gender-atypical mannerisms, gait, voice, and so on, which manifest in a person either naturally (*khilqī*) or through deliberate affectation (*ghayr khilqī*). The term *mukhannath* refers to a male with effeminate mannerisms, while the term *mudhakkarah* refers to a female with masculine mannerisms. Purposefully affecting gender atypical mannerisms is prohibited by our revealed texts and the consensus of Muslim scholars. As for those whose gender-atypical mannerisms are *khilqī*, scholars have differed: some rule that the *mukhannath* and the *mudhakkarah* must make reasonable attempts to recondition their mannerisms in order to align more closely with those of their own sex, while other scholars have ruled that they are under no obligation to attempt such reconditioning. Islam, as a rule, is not overly prescriptive concerning the specifics of what counts as masculine versus feminine, and we must be mindful of false *ʿurf*—one that has been socially engineered for excessive profit or other immoral ends. Girls are free to pursue sports and bricolage, just as boys are free to pursue art and cooking. Our Prophet’s *sīrah* and the *sīrah* of his companions present us with many examples of men and women behaving in ways that violated pre-Islamic Arab gender norms, such as men crying profusely, women fighting in battle, and the Prophet ﷺ participating in domestic chores. Similarly, certain Victorian notions of womanhood, which presented the ideal woman as a dainty, delicate, ever-fainting damsel in distress, are not to be mistaken for indigenous Islamic norms. Similarly, what constitutes appropriate same-sex interaction in Islam is also, to a fair extent, conventional and based on a society’s ʿ*urf*. For example, many Muslim men, particularly in the Arab world, are rather “touchy-feely” compared to their Western counterparts. Such men may be seen kissing one another on the cheeks upon meeting, holding hands or hooking arms in public, or calling one another by names of endearment (e.g., *ḥabībī*, meaning literally “my love”). For Western men, these platonic acts would be interpreted as overtly homosexual. Norms of Arab male friendship are changing, though, as the West continues to propagate its gender and sexual paradigm globally through mass media. Muslims are not immune to this propaganda, which pushes Western norms as morally necessary. We must be vigilant against the impact of such norms on our psyches and maintain our commitment to Islamic guidelines on gender and sexuality. --- ## Questioning the terms: Homosexuality and LGBT To understand homosexuality—as well as the broader trends and identities included under the LGBT label—from within an Islamic framework, we must begin by questioning the terms of the discourse and the underlying assumptions they encode. As one principle in the Shariah states, “passing judgment on something is contingent upon its (proper) conceptualization” (*al-ḥukm ʿalā al-shayʾ farʿ ʿan taṣawwurihi*). There is no word in classical Arabic—or any other Islamicate language, for that matter—that is equivalent to  “homosexuality,” just as there had traditionally been no concept of a gay or LGBT identity (with corresponding vocabulary) even in the West before the late nineteenth century. The term “homosexual,” first coined in Germany in the 1860s as a medical term to study (and, if possible, to treat) individuals who had sexual relations with members of the same sex, has been elevated to a *sexual identity*. “Sexuality” itself is a fairly recent neologism in the West. Traditionally, in both East and West, sexual behavior has been something an individual *does*, not what a person *is*. On its own, the word “homosexuality”—formed from the Greek word “homos,” meaning “the same,” added to the Latin-derived word “sexuality”—preserves a scientific and purely descriptive connotation, meaning simply “same-sex” in plain English. In contemporary parlance, homosexuality could refer to *feelings* of romantic and or/sexual *attraction* to members of one’s own sex, as well as to *behavior* based on those feelings. More poignantly, however, it typically also refers to a full-blown personal and social *identity* based on such feelings and behaviors. Collectively, these three meanings mirror the contemporary Western understanding of the self and its conflation of desire, behavior, and identity. ![Graphic on the modern western's conflation and separation of different aspects of sexuality and relationships](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image1-2-1024x1024.jpg) Only in contemporary Western liberalism are desires, behaviors, and identities inextricably fused together. It is from this paradigm that the identities “gay,” “lesbian,” “queer,” and so on were born. This is all very new and specific to the contemporary West, and, as Muslims, we must resist taking on terminology fraught with un-Islamic beliefs and ideas, such as this inextricable conflation of desire, behavior, and identity. It is morally problematic to elide any meaningful distinction between desires and actions, for the mere existence of a desire can never be a moral justification for acting on it. Rather, we must appeal to independent moral criteria in order to evaluate any given desire and the moral status of acting upon it. For the post-sexual revolution West, that criterion is consent: as long as two adults consent, the act shared between them is seen as justified and unassailable. Compare this to the verse in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb: > It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if anyone disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he has indeed gone manifestly astray.[^62] Reflecting upon this verse highlights the dilemma Muslims face today. On the one hand, we must look to revelation to know what is permitted and prohibited of the various desires we experience. On the other hand, the hegemonic discourse of the liberal West insists upon treating homosexuality and other prohibited behaviors as identities needing to be preserved, defended, even honored, in the social, political, and moral arenas. Bombarded with this attack on the fundamentals of their religion, young Muslims today start with the deck already stacked against them. Any disapproval of homosexual or transgender behavior is immediately perceived as an attack on a personal *identity*, accompanied by accusations of “denying people’s dignity,” practicing “exclusion,” or otherwise being motivated by hate, bigotry, or prejudice. To reclaim our language and conceptual framework, let us turn to how  homosexual acts are characterized by our Creator and Lord Almighty. ### Verses on the people of Lot (as) A discussion of Islamic sexual ethics, and homosexuality in particular, would be incomplete without mentioning the Qur’anic verses on the people of Lot. In recent years, the clear and traditionally undisputed interpretation of these verses has been questioned by secularly-trained Western academics, including those who identify as Muslims. Let us take a look at these passages. The people of Lot are mentioned in at least nine different places in the Qur’an, in a total of more than seventy-five verses. The emblematic sin of Lot’s people, according to the Qur’an, is their engagement in sexual behavior with other men. A few verses (e.g., Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, 29:29) make incidental mention of other misdeeds on their part, but their primary transgression mentioned in all cases is “approaching males with desire (*shahwah*) instead of females.” Revisionists, who are often open about their desire to read whatever meaning they need to into the Qur’an, have attempted to reinterpret their sin as one of rape or inhospitality to Lot’s guests. This flies in the face of plain, academically rigorous, and historically unanimous readings of the passage. One verse states: > And \[mention\] Lot, when he said to his people, “Do you approach iniquity (*fāḥishah*) such as none in creation have committed before you? Verily, you come with desire unto men instead of women. Nay, you are a people transgressing \[beyond bounds\].” But the only reply of his people was to say, “Turn them out from your town. Surely, they are a people who make themselves pure.”[^63] In an exercise of eisegesis (reading meaning *into* a text, as opposed to exegesis, which involves reading *out of* a text the meaning imbedded in it as intended by its author), many of these revisionists draw from contemporary Christian and/or Jewish reinterpretations of the biblical story of Lot in the Book of Genesis and read these—no matter how implausibly—back into the Qur’an as a rape narrative.[^64] Other verses that bring clarity to the story include: > The people of Lot belied the messengers. Behold, their brother Lot said to them, “Will you not be mindful \[of God\]? Indeed, I am a faithful messenger unto you, so fear your Lord and obey me. I ask from you no reward for it; my reward is only with the Lord of the worlds. Do you approach males from among all creation, leaving what your Lord has created for you from your spouses? Nay, but you are a people transgressing \[the bounds\].” They said, “Lot, if you do not desist from this, you shall certainly be driven out.” He said, “I am, in truth, of those who loathe your deeds. My Lord, deliver me and my family from what they do!”[^65] > And \[mention\] Lot, when he said to his people, “Do you commit iniquity (*fāḥishah*) with eyes wide open? Do you indeed come with desire unto men instead of women? Nay, but you are a people behaving foolishly.”[^66] > And \[mention\] Lot, when he said to his people, “You commit iniquity (*fāḥishah*) such as none in creation have committed before you. Do you indeed come unto men, and cut off the path, and practice evil deeds in your assemblies?” The reply of his people was but to say, “Bring upon us God’s punishment, if you are among the truthful.”[^67] > And when Our messengers \[the angels\] came to Lot, he was anguished on their account and constrained from helping them. And he said, “This is a trying day!” And his people came hastening unto him, and before they had been working evil deeds. He said, “O my people, these are my daughters; they are purer for you. So fear God and disgrace me not with respect to my guests. Is there not among you a right-minded man?” They said, “You know well that we have no claim on your daughters, and indeed, you know what we want.”[^68] Revisionists have presented this last verse as evidence that Lot’s people were punished for rape, the highest crime being attempted rape of God’s messengers (angels) who visited their city in the form of men. But if their crime were rape, then why would Lot offer his daughters (which some have understood as a reference to the women of the town) to his people instead? In addition to this, Lot concludes by reaffirming God’s standard for sexual morality: “O my people, these are my daughters; they are *purer for you*.” This reinforces the fact that their crime was intended sodomy, not rape, for one does not decry rape on account of its being “impure,” proposing non-rape as the “purer” alternative. Indeed, it would be abusive to interpret this verse as anything other than a condemnation of (male-male) anal intercourse—which it would be perfectly conventional to denounce as “impure”—and a commendation of the “purer” (*aṭhar*) alternative of male-female intercourse as designed and intended by the Creator. The only morally pure avenue for fulfilling one’s sexual desires is in the manner that God has decreed, and He has clearly prohibited sexual relations with members of the same sex. Furthermore, the highest crime of Lot’s people could not have been the rape of the angels, for the angels were sent to punish them for the crime of “approaching men with lust instead of women” in which they had hitherto long been engaged. Reinterpreting this narrative as rape is a classic example of anachronistically projecting contemporary notions—such as the post–sexual revolution fixation on “consent” as the only relevant criteria for sexual relations—onto the revealed texts and their exegesis. Only in the last three decades has “consent” become the one and only measuring stick of sexual morality in the West. Projecting this peculiar moral outlook thousands of years into the past, and reading it into a text where an alternative narrative is explicit, is unacceptable. Some of the world’s leading biblical scholars, such as John Barton and others (who themselves are not literal followers of the Bible), emphatically state that the revisionist case on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has failed.[^69] In the only acceptable reading of the story, the primary sin of Lot’s people was homosexual acts, *not* rape. Others have tried to historicize the moral implications of Lot’s story by arguing that God had decreed such ethical standards to an ancient society in their Near Eastern context and that His standard no longer applies to us today. We refer our readers here to one of the best written works debunking this argument found in “Can Islam Accommodate Homosexual Acts? Qur’anic Revisionism and the Case of Scott Kugle,” by Mobeen Vaid.[^70] --- ## Building an Islamic framework To begin building an Islamic framework, we note that Islam does not categorize human beings on the basis of mere desires, especially if such desires are for acts declared not only illicit but also unnatural and deserving of punishment. Accusing someone of being a *lūṭī*, for instance, carries a *ḥadd* punishment for libel or slander (*qadhf*) according to most schools.[^71] Accepting a Western sexual identity framework changes the discussion, elides moral concerns, and frames the issue as one of social justice (defined subjectively) as opposed to Allah’s command, which embodies perfect justice. We cannot claim to be more just and compassionate than God, for He is al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm. Next, we note that the Shariah categorizes sexual acts—not sexual identities—as halal and haram. Halal sexual relations are those between a man and a woman in marriage bound by an Islamically valid contract; all else is illegitimate. Haram acts are further subdivided into enormities (*kabāʾir*), which include male-female *zinā* (fornication and adultery) and (male-male) sodomy (*liwāṭ*), and non-penetrative sexual acts such as *siḥāq* (female genital rubbing), manual and intercrural stimulation, oral sex, and all other such acts between any two persons (of either sex). All of these are classified as *muḥarram li-dhātihi* (prohibited intrinsically). Furthermore, the Shariah recognizes and prohibits preludes to these sexual acts, such as touching, gazing, *khalwah*, and immodest dress, speech, and behavior. These are considered *muḥarram li-ghayrihi* (prohibited on account of another, i.e., because they lead to that which is prohibited intrinsically). ### Faithful strugglers It is a fact that there are Muslims—including very faithful and practicing ones—who experience same-sex attractions and/or gender dysphoria. How do we respond when they say that their inner feelings and desires make them feel like a “lesser” Muslim or ask, “Does Allah hate me? Am I a walking sin? Am I going to hell for these desires?” Our response to these individuals ought to begin with the principle that we have noted earlier, namely, that Islam does not define or categorize people on the basis of internal feelings, sexual or otherwise. Rather, it affirms our core identity as servants of God, defined essentially and primarily in terms of our belief in Allah, our love of and submission to Him, and our devotion to Allah’s Messenger ﷺ and obedience to the path he was sent to establish for the welfare and success of mankind until the Day of Judgment. In addition, the Shariah differentiates between feelings and acts and, further, between the commission of (private) sins and (public) advocacy on behalf of those sins. Given these considerations, it is necessary for us to deconstruct the contemporary liberal paradigm and, by doing so, properly historicize and provincialize it. By offering Muslims who contend with same-sex attractions and/or gender dysphoria an Islamic paradigm and language through which to conceive and express their experiences, we reassure them that their faithful struggle with such challenges may even be a means for them to attain the rank of true *mujāhidūn* in the path of God. As the Prophet ﷺ has said: > A striver (*mujāhid*) is he who strives in God’s obedience, and a migrant is he who migrates from sin and error.[^72] Furthermore, we should emphasize that falling into a sin does not make one unworthy of God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy. Sexual transgressions, while serious, do not amount to *kufr*, and many are those in our day who struggle with pornography, *zinā*, and related trespasses. We ought to remind those who wish to live in the path of Allah—regardless of the specific nature of their challenges—that the door of *tawbah* is forever open and that, indeed, as the Prophet ﷺ has emphatically reassured us, “Allah rejoices more at the repentance of His slave than one of you (would rejoice) upon finding his mount after having lost it in a waterless desert.”[^73] It is important that Muslims dealing with same-sex attractions and/or gender dysphoria be able to find support among trusted individuals within the Muslim community, be they imams, counselors, family, friends, or others. Concomitantly, Muslims who do not experience same-sex attraction or GID should understand that such feelings cannot simply be turned on and off like a switch, that they are frequently intertwined with painful emotional wounds and experiences, and that they can represent a substantial challenge on various levels for those who must deal with them. In light of these factors, it can be particularly unhelpful when individuals who may be well-meaning but who are unfamiliar with the territory, so to speak, volunteer facile advice suggesting that a person “merely need do *x* or *y*” for all his problems to be solved. In addition to providing general emotional and spiritual support, family, friends, and community leaders should direct those struggling with same-sex attraction and/or gender identity issues to the numerous specialized resources that now exist in the Muslim community. The most important of these is the 88-episode podcast A Way Beyond the Rainbow,[^74] produced by Br. Waheed Jensen, a physician, medical researcher, and practicing Muslim who understands the struggle with same-sex attraction from within and has produced a comprehensive resource that deals with the issue from all conceivable angles—psychological, spiritual, medical, emotional, sociopolitical, personal, familial, and communal. (Many episodes, in fact, explore topics in a manner that is useful even for Muslims who do not deal specifically with same-sex attraction or gender identity issues.) In addition, two support networks currently exist for Muslims experiencing same-sex attraction and/or GID, namely, the Straight Struggle Discord group[^75] and the UK-based Strong Support foundation.[^76] Finally, Br. Yousef Salam, the longtime moderator of Straight Struggle, has published an insightful and well-written article that serves as an excellent introduction to, and statement of principle on, homosexuality in Islam and the Muslim community. This article is well worth the read for any Muslim who is concerned about this issue.[^77] To reiterate a point raised above, in responding to those dealing with such issues within our community, we must emphasize that one of the most perilous traps for Muslims in the West is the ubiquitous gay identity paradigm, which insists that one must, as a question of core identity, conceive of and present oneself as “gay” or “lesbian” if one is attracted to the same sex. This is the language and attendant conceptual framework that the dominant secular culture of the West has prescribed for interpreting and processing such feelings. Despite its seeming ubiquity, however, the current paradigm in fact represents a very particular and idiosyncratic way of construing such experiences, one that is neither transhistorical nor cross-culturally universal. To accept this paradigm, moreover, is to completely upend the moral discourse of the Shariah by incriminating it in the exclusion of people’s core identities and the undermining of their human dignity. As Muslims, we do not base our identities on our sexual drives, but rather on our commitment and submission to God and His purpose for us. --- ## Conclusion: From challenging the framework to recovering morality The foregoing treatment has shown how contemporary Western liberalism unknots three dimensions of the human experience once recognized as being bound together by nature and religious law: sex, reproduction, and marriage/morality. At the same time, it conflates three things that ought to be differentiated: desire, action, and identity. If our desires transgress divine law, they should not be acted upon; and even if they are acted upon, they should not become our identity. Up until the recent past, religious morality had furnished social meaning, norms, and structure and disciplined desires by determining which of them should be actualized and which should not. In today’s liberal extremism—which has overtaken, eliminated, or disfigured nearly all traditions—the only sacred deity is the subjective desire of the *nafs*. In this liberal extremist dogma, as long as two parties consent, whatever action they decide to engage in is morally unobjectionable assuming no harm results (or at least does not appear to). In reality, the desires to which such parties consent are mass manufactured, and the  definition of “harm” by which they abide is carefully determined by a self-serving elite. What was once morally unobjectionable only for that extremist elite has been mainstreamed and then forced down the throats of populations unable to resist. Crucial to this agenda is the transformation of the non-normative desires of the few into a sacred right that must be approved and then celebrated by all. This process necessitated the transmutation of desire into identity, such that objecting to someone’s desires and/or concomitant acts becomes synonymous with objecting to their very existence, and hence comparable to a violation of basic human rights and fundamental dignity. The following summarizes a number of recommendations that result from the exposition offered above. ### 1\. Reclaiming our language We must begin by reclaiming our language. Key terms of discourse on sexual desire, behavior, and identity have been infused with enormous political and social baggage as part of a deliberate campaign. For this reason, it is best for us to avoid using terms such as LGBT—whether the acronym itself or its constituent labels—as a description of reality, limiting it to critical analytic discourse. Rather, when discussing the issue in terms of unchosen tendencies that Muslims and others experience, we should opt for descriptive terms devoid of identitarian baggage such as “same-sex attractions,” “homosexual inclinations,” “gender dysphoria,” and the like. When speaking of prohibited sexual behaviors—whether male-female *zinā*, male-male sodomy (*liwāṭ*), lesbian sex (*siḥāq*), or any other—we should be forthright, in appropriate contexts, in using language that conveys the moral opprobrium attached to such acts by the Shariah (such as *fāḥishah*, etc., or English equivalents). ### 2\. Clearly establishing the Islamic gender and sexuality paradigm As a community, how do we deal with this issue effectively in a just and compassionate way? First, we need to strongly and confidently establish our Islamic gender and sexuality paradigm as independent and distinct from the one inhabited by the contemporary West. Though stating this is taboo, we regard gender as something essential and not merely incidental or socially constructed. We affirm gender differences as real and God-given. Deconstructing the conflated sexual desire–behavior–identity framework of the West allows us, and teaches others, to appreciate the wisdom and legislation of our Creator. We should also continue actively critiquing and deconstructing the Western paradigm post–sexual revolution while simultaneously asserting our own paradigm. Condemning post–sexual revolution norms does not make Muslims “prudes.” Licit sexual activity is not only permissible in Islam but celebrated and rewarded. Illicit sexual expression—whether it be heterosexual or homosexual—leads to individual and communal destruction and chaos. ### 3\. Pointing out the neocolonial nature of the LGBT project for the Muslim world We should also stress that the spread of the LGBT paradigm throughout the world today begins with cultural imperialism and brainwashing but, like feminism in the Second Gulf War, could be easily weaponized as part of the attempt to justify neocolonial coercion and sanction.[^78] In other words, the LGBT normalization project that originated in the West is being forced upon other societies as a non-negotiable “truth.” Others are expected to align themselves with Western interests, ideas, and ideologies as a matter of principle because “the West knows best; it always has and it always will.” Advocates of the progressive left in the West speak of “deconstructing” and challenging neocolonialism yet have done little more than trade one kind of neocolonialism for another. We cannot criticize Victorian morality imposed on the Muslim world by British colonizers in the nineteenth century while turning a blind eye to the post–sexual revolution paradigm imposed on the Muslim world today. ### 4\. Rejecting the sexual identity paradigm Individuals in Islam are not identified by their sexuality, and normative Islamic sources and tradition have no terms by which to mark people off in terms of a “sexual identity.” We dignify people with respect to their having been created by God, not the kind of desires they experience. The sexual identity paradigm is inherently incompatible with Islam. We should use descriptive terms and adjectives, such as “he experiences same-sex attraction” or “she experiences gender dysphoria,” rather than essentializing identitarian language, like saying that “he is gay” or “she is trans.” Doing so allows us to avoid reducing these individuals to a single facet of their existence, namely, their sexual desires. It also helps Muslims who experience such challenges avoid seeing themselves in essentialized and reductive sexual identity terms that are likely to lead to an unresolvable head-on collision with Islamic teachings. ### 5\. No gay exceptionalism What is meant by “gay exceptionalism” (either positive or negative) is simply this: pushing for the acceptance of same-sex or “gender-bending” acts in an Islamic environment is just as unacceptable as pushing alcohol, *zinā*, and so on. There is no special license to act upon, or to promote acting upon, what Allah has prohibited simply because it is acceptable in contemporary Western societies or because one has embraced the current Western sexual identity paradigm. As Muslims, we do not tie homosexual acts to identity. Therefore, disallowing or condemning such acts in Muslim spaces is not a violation of a person’s human rights or a rejection of their dignity. In the same manner, we should not stigmatize or single out other Muslims for merely having and faithfully struggling with gender identity issues and/or same-sex attractions. If another Muslim confides in you about this issue, embrace them and support them in their efforts to realize their purpose as a Muslim and live their life in submission to God and His religion. Every person battles with things that they did not necessarily bring upon themselves. In Islam, the test of submission is reforming the *nafs* to align with God’s commands. Whether the struggle concerns drugs, alcohol, same-sex attraction or gender identity, envy, or backbiting—“successful indeed is the one who purifies himself \[from what God has prohibited\].”[^79] ### 6\. Balancing subjective feelings with objective truths Another necessary component of realizing our principles is balancing individual and communal needs, as well as subjective feelings and objective truths concerning what is right and wrong. To achieve this balance, we should offer struggling Muslims private support and consultation as opposed to public “accommodation” or “inclusion.” Defiant activist types should not be allowed to disrupt Islamic spaces or impose their will on the community. This is similar to how one might treat a Muslim who drinks alcohol: we would ban them from selling alcohol at an Eid carnival while also providing private support to them if they struggle with a drinking habit. ### 7\. Supporting the faithful struggler We should show empathy and understanding to Muslims dealing with same-sex attractions or gender identity issues for what is often a very difficult and emotionally taxing issue. As mentioned above, one should support the person in their general spirituality and in other ways: finding them mentors, advising them, lending them a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. But one should also know one’s limits: the issues involved are often complex and deeply embedded. Do not pretend to know everything about how the person should deal with things. Rather, be there for general support, but point them in the right direction to find the resources they need. For additional resources on this topic and other general background information, please see the references cited below.[^80] ### 8\. Upholding the Straight Path When engaging with this issue on an individual and/or communal level, we should remember the “three Cs” for maintaining the Straight Path: clarity, compassion, and conviction. Being compassionate toward someone struggling with gender identity or same-sex attraction does not mean bending God’s commands or misrepresenting the Islamic paradigm on gender, sexuality, morality, and identity. No one is more merciful or compassionate than God; true compassion thus involves guiding others to the truth and what pleases the Creator. Contemporary LGBT discourse often makes Western Muslims feel embarrassed by Islamic teachings on sexual ethics. Islam’s sexual ethics are not the problem, however. Rather, they are the only solution to our problems—the solution that the West and all of the world desperately needs. It is a Qur’anic imperative to uphold our ethical standard with confidence, as Allah states: “Call \[people\] to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful admonition, and dispute with them in the most courteous of ways; for your Lord knows best who has strayed from His way and who is rightly guided.”[^81] This is the command that we have been given, and this is the command that we are bound to fulfill. *O Allah, show us the truth as truth and grant that we may follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and grant that we may avoid it. Ameen!* --- ## Notes [^1]: Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, “Islam and ‘LGBTQ’: Gender, Sexuality, Morality & Identity,” Blogging Theology, YouTube video, June 17, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_M4aHFvrCuI&t=39s. [^2]: Adan Butt, “Western University: Remove the Depiction of Hijab from Your LGBTQ Post,” Change.org, [https://www.change.org/p/western-university-remove-the-depiction-of-hijab-from-your-lgbtq-post](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.change.org/p/western-university-remove-the-depiction-of-hijab-from-your-lgbtq-post&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459790536&usg=AOvVaw3emWc0hpkkR77cx8bt0xse). [^3]: Daniel Villarreal, “University Pulls Image of Women in Hijabs Kissing after Muslim Community Protests,” LGBTQ Nation, May 19, 2022, [https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/university-pulls-image-women-hijabs-kissing-muslim-community-protests/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/university-pulls-image-women-hijabs-kissing-muslim-community-protests/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459790167&usg=AOvVaw0lB4hhiP_HrXBysQZuiS1U). [^4]: Villarreal, “University Pulls Image.” [^5]: Qur’an 51:56. [^6]: Qur’an 33:36. [^7]: Malinda Lo, “LGBTQ YA by the Numbers: 2015–16,” *Malinda Lo* (blog), October 12, 2017, [https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2017/10/12/lgbtq-ya-by-the-numbers-2015-16](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2017/10/12/lgbtq-ya-by-the-numbers-2015-16&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459792242&usg=AOvVaw1y-WvTmTGXIDOeqodMduGx). [^8]: Victoria Whitley-Berry, “After Decades in the Background, Queer Characters Step to the Front in Kids’ Media,” NPR, June 30, 2021, [https://www.npr.org/2021/06/30/1011310695/after-decades-in-the-background-queer-characters-step-to-the-front-in-kids-media](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/2021/06/30/1011310695/after-decades-in-the-background-queer-characters-step-to-the-front-in-kids-media&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459792606&usg=AOvVaw3gIqh7c37eqfoyNb6BolCJ). [^9]: SOGI 1 2 3, 2019, [www.sogieducation.org/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.sogieducation.org/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459794479&usg=AOvVaw1drE0u6oVzS8EIJIR3w5x-), accessed September 13, 2022. [^10]: “Results,” SOGI 1 2 3, [https://www.sogieducation.org/results](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sogieducation.org/results&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459803223&usg=AOvVaw2gu37SBfLsGYedh37whNgZ). [^11]: Sam Killermann, “The Genderbread Person V4.0,” The Genderbread Person, 2017, [www.genderbread.org/resource/genderbread-person-v4-0](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.genderbread.org/resource/genderbread-person-v4-0&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459794312&usg=AOvVaw082V6_6AiYWHzp0M1eUMYF), accessed September 13, 2022. [^12]: Sam Killermann, “Breaking through the Binary: Gender Explained Using Continuums,” March 27, 2015, [https://www.genderbread.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Breaking-through-the-Binary-by-Sam-Killermann.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.genderbread.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Breaking-through-the-Binary-by-Sam-Killermann.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459794824&usg=AOvVaw091r8o7qaU7Hgs5wqT12D3). [^13]: Killerman, “Breaking through the Binary.” [^14]: Wikipedia, s.v. “Florida Parental Rights in Education Act,” last modified May 28, 2025, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida\_Parental\_Rights\_in\_Education\_Act](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Parental_Rights_in_Education_Act&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459797408&usg=AOvVaw3aGKienDUbNddvwVsOOnM2). [^15]: Wikipedia, s.v. “Florida Parental Rights in Education Act,” sec. The Walt Disney Company. [^16]: Anna Cooban, “Burger King Has a ‘Pride Whopper’ with ‘Two Equal Buns,’” CNN, June 7, 2022, [https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/business-food/burger-king-pride-whopper](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/business-food/burger-king-pride-whopper&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459790812&usg=AOvVaw0OOLc9r3DsbqwHt8cgUWpl). [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1968. [^18]: See Meg Jay, “The Downside of Cohabiting Before Marriage,” *New York Times*, April 15, 2012, [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459791139&usg=AOvVaw3PRC_Xr7r_VNBZQ_nMQBsC). [^19]: See Mary Eberstadt, *Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution* (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012). [^20]: See Katy Faust, *Them Before Us* (New York: Post Hill Press, 2021). [^21]: See Sherif Girgis, “The Historic Christian Teaching Against Contraception: A Defense,” *Public Discourse*, August 10, 2016, [https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/08/17559/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/08/17559/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459792888&usg=AOvVaw3DHl-71KSDsU7pDOAOPLX-). [^22]: Omar Suleiman, “Islam and the Abortion Debate,” *Yaqeen*, March 20, 2017, updated September 20, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-the-abortion-debate](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-the-abortion-debate&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459803881&usg=AOvVaw0AF3rCXO7mZtg27PdVVKhI). [^23]: The Pill was hailed as a success as a contraceptive in the closing years of the 1950s. See  Nicholas Bakalar, “Birth Control Pills, 1957,” *New York Times*, October 25, 2010, [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/health/26first.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/health/26first.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459795329&usg=AOvVaw2lCmcLMz29Ud1pfiSwFYcp). [^24]: Nicholas Eberstadt and Apoorva Shah, “Fertility Decline in the Muslim World: A Demographic Sea Change Goes Largely Unnoticed,” Hoover Institution, June 1, 2012, [https://www.hoover.org/research/fertility-decline-muslim-world](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hoover.org/research/fertility-decline-muslim-world&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459803531&usg=AOvVaw0-cQAQ7-MlvObjRRJsBgjd). [^25]: For a short but useful treatment on the problematic notion of “consent” as employed in contemporary liberal discourses surrounding sex and sexuality, see Timothy Hsiao, “The Limits of Consent,” *Public Discourse*, September 23, 2015. [^26]: Qur’an 57:27. [^27]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1006. [^28]: For one such instance where spiritual ecstasy is likened to sexual climax, see Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, translated by Ovamir Anjum as *Ranks of Divine Seekers* (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 2:224–25. [^29]: Qur’an 8:20–23. [^30]: The concept of psychologization is discussed in Carl R. Trueman, *Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution* (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), Ch. 4. [^31]: For a relevant discussion of the thinkers named here, see the aforementioned work by Carl R. Trueman, *The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution* (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), chap. 5 and 6. [^32]: This idea, called emotivism, was studied and critiqued at length by Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre in *After Virtue* (1980). [^33]: Qur’an 59:19. [^34]: Qur’an 25:43. [^35]: Qur’an 35:8. [^36]: Trueman, *Strange New World*, 74. [^37]: Trueman, *Strange New World*, 79. [^38]: Trueman, *Strange New World*, 157. [^39]: For more on this, see Dr. Shabbir Akhtar’s essay, which discusses the Qur’anic notion of *fiṭra* and its corruption: Shabbir Akhtar, “A Path Straightened Out: Perspectives on Human Nature in the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, October 22, 2020, updated November 5, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-path-straightened-out-perspectives-on-human-nature-in-the-quran](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-path-straightened-out-perspectives-on-human-nature-in-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459797091&usg=AOvVaw3wSImWtWLUSsMg6lp_WBIx). [^40]: Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen, *After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s* (N.p.: Plume, 1989), xxviii. [^41]: Kirk and Madsen, *After the Ball*, 149. [^42]: Qur’an 53:45. [^43]: Qur’an 92:3. [^44]: Qur’an 53:45. [^45]: Qur’an 3:36. [^46]: Qur’an 30:21. [^47]: Qur’an 4:1. [^48]: Qur’an 33:35. [^49]: Qur’an 9:71. [^50]: Qur’an 4:32. [^51]: See, for instance, Leonard Sax, *Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences*, 2nd ed. (New York: Harmony Books, 2017). See also Steven E. Rhoads, *Taking Sex Differences Seriously* (New York: Encounter Books, 2005); Peter J. O’Connor and Cressida M. Brown, “Sex-Linked Personality Traits and Stress: Emotional Skills Protect Feminine Women from Stress but Not Feminine Men,” **Personality and Individual Differences** 99 (September 2016), 28–32; Ron Su et al., “Men and Things, Women and People: A Meta-analysis of Sex Differences in Interests,” *Psychological Bulletin* 135, no. 6, National Library of Medicine (Nov. 2009), 859–884; “Sex Differences in Brain Anatomy,” National Institutes of Health (July 28, 2020). [^52]: Qur'an 4:34. [^53]: For instance, in all major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, men can be imams and lead a congregation in prayer, whereas women cannot; men are strongly recommended to pray in congregation at the *masjid*, while women are given a free choice, and it is preferred for them to pray at home (some schools strongly recommend against women praying in *masjid*s); the ideal row for men is the front row, while for women it is the back row. One hadith states: “The best rows for men are the front rows and the worst are the back rows. The best rows for women are the back rows and the worst are the front rows.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 440. [^54]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5885. [^55]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “Ḥayāʾ: More Than Just Modesty,” *Yaqeen*, August 5, 2021, updated October 8, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/haya-more-than-just-modesty](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/haya-more-than-just-modesty&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459793220&usg=AOvVaw2j0V-S4a4APDqpUCFi4rYl). [^56]: Qur’an 23:5–6. [^57]: Anal intercourse is categorically prohibited, including between a man and woman who are lawful to each other (such as in marriage), because the rectal cavity is not a proper or suitable receptacle for the male organ and its fluids. Such an action is considered a gross misuse of the body, as well as a violation of the God-given teleology of our sexual and other organs. [^58]: Qur’an 17:32. [^59]: For a summary of the rulings and numerous relevant references to contemporary juristic deliberations and conclusions on the question, see Ayman Shabana, “Islamic Law, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and Surrogacy,” *Islamic Law Blog*, June 30, 2021, [https://islamiclaw.blog/2021/06/30/islamic-law-assisted-reproductive-technologies-and-surrogacy/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://islamiclaw.blog/2021/06/30/islamic-law-assisted-reproductive-technologies-and-surrogacy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459798051&usg=AOvVaw08Qb_8dvEzi4b1V6Ya4beb), accessed September 16, 2022. [^60]: With the publication of *DSM*–5 in 2013, “gender identity disorder” was eliminated and replaced with “gender dysphoria.” See the American Psyhiatric Association article “Gender Dysphoria Diagnosis,” [https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/cultural-competency/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/cultural-competency/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459804336&usg=AOvVaw3G0GF6lAmoqc6nvY2zidQN), accessed September 15, 2022. [^61]: For the notion of ʿ*urf* in Islamic law, see Ayman Shabana, *Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts of ʿURF and ʿĀDAH in the Islamic Legal Tradition* (New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2010), especially chap. 2. For a thorough discussion on the role of culture in determining gender norms, how these norms change over time, and how Muslims should relate to them at various stages of their transformation, consult the interview with Shaykh Mustafa Umar and Waheed Jensen on the *A Way Beyond the Rainbow* podcast, episode 77 “On Shar‘i Perspectives: Gender Roles and Gender Nonconformity,” February 14, 2022, [https://awaybeyondtherainbow.buzzsprout.com/746186/9323916-77-on-shar-i-perspectives-gender-roles-and-gender-nonconformity](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://awaybeyondtherainbow.buzzsprout.com/746186/9323916-77-on-shar-i-perspectives-gender-roles-and-gender-nonconformity&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459799690&usg=AOvVaw1MuGYN1WqFVonYnORK9FL-). [^62]: Qur’an 33:36. [^63]: Qur’an 7:80–82. [^64]: For a detailed examination and thorough deconstruction of such revisionist attempts, see Mobeen Vaid, “Can Islam Accommodate Homosexual Acts? Quranic Revisionism and the Case of Scott Kugle,” MuslimMatters, July 11, 2016, [https://muslimmatters.org/2016/07/11/can-islam-accommodate-homosexual-acts-quranic-revisionism-and-the-case-of-scott-kugle/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimmatters.org/2016/07/11/can-islam-accommodate-homosexual-acts-quranic-revisionism-and-the-case-of-scott-kugle/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459803028&usg=AOvVaw1kfIta0dud99v2M_TjiY50). [^65]: Qur’an 26:160–169. [^66]: Qur’an 27:54–55. [^67]: Qur’an 29:28–29. [^68]: Qur’an 11:77–79. [^69]: A strong case for this is made in the highly regarded work on biblical scholarship by Robert A. J. Gagnon, *The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics* (‎Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002). [^70]: Vaid, “Can Islam Accommodate Homosexual Acts?” [^71]: See, for instance, Ibn Qudāma, *al-Mughnī*, 10 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qāhira, 1388/1968), 9:87. [^72]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 23958, declared sound by al-Albānī. [^73]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2675. [^74]: Waheed Jensen, *A Way Beyond the Rainbow*, [https://awaybeyondtherainbow.buzzsprout.com](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://awaybeyondtherainbow.buzzsprout.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459804905&usg=AOvVaw10P4mML7YtmuTq30E4PALO). [^75]: Straight Struggle, Discord server, [https://discordservers.com/server/686461916939288584](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://discordservers.com/server/686461916939288584&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459805094&usg=AOvVaw3Wa3rHL6M1Q5WEXB0cb8nz). [^76]: Strong Support, [https://www.strongsupport.co.uk/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.strongsupport.co.uk/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459805232&usg=AOvVaw0Pm5dtT8s1Z690NjKOwBW5). [^77]: Br. Yousef, “From a Same-Sex Attracted Muslim: Between Denial of Reality and Distortion of Religion,” MuslimMatters, August 22, 2016, [https://muslimmatters.org/2016/08/22/from-a-same-sex-attracted-muslim-between-denial-of-reality-and-distortion-of-religion/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimmatters.org/2016/08/22/from-a-same-sex-attracted-muslim-between-denial-of-reality-and-distortion-of-religion/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459805614&usg=AOvVaw03nU0oWVBYoJ7vqQBgQ828). [^78]: For the role of liberalism and feminism in justifying the Second Gulf War, see Lila Abu-Lughod, *Do Muslim Women Need Saving?* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 29–34. [^79]: Qur’an 91:9. [^80]: Waheed Jensen, “Straight Struggle | The Human Component | LGBTQ+ Conference,” EPIC MASJID, YouTube video, March 3, 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipxCFABfYjA](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DipxCFABfYjA&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459806189&usg=AOvVaw1i5M3AnT_Cd0WPkwZKdZkx); Yousef, “From a Same-Sex Attracted Muslim”; Omar Suleiman, Mustafa Umar, Sarah Sultan, and Ubaydallah Evans, “Islam and LGBTQ,” Yaqeen Institute, YouTube video, June 16, 2022, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb\_aqp3yAho](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dwb_aqp3yAho&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1749584459806442&usg=AOvVaw2JgmROp6p67hyxry-8xLIc); El-Tobgui, “Islam and ‘LGBTQ’”; [^81]: Qur’an 16:125. ## Summary # Islam and the Contemporary Discourse on Gender and Sexuality In May of 2022, a poster promoted by a Canadian university depicted two Muslim women in headscarves about to kiss, appropriating the hijab—a patent symbol of Islam—for a cause categorically prohibited in our religion. The Muslim community, beginning with young students and joined by Muslim organizations, gathered thousands of signatures and, despite the university's initial resistance, succeeded in having the poster withdrawn. An LGBTQ publication reporting the episode claimed that "the Qur'an says nothing about homosexuality," that Islamic history celebrated it, and that Muslims who objected were merely "homophobic." Such claims are false, for Islam's prohibition of homosexual acts is categorical, and its teachings on gender and sexual norms are foundational and inseparable from belief in Allah and His revelation. There is no room in Islam for the erasure of the natural and divinely ordained union between men and women. Any discussion of sexual morality must first ask where morality itself originates. The Islamic worldview is theocentric, taking God as the ultimate source of right and wrong. Our very purpose is to worship Him, as He declares: "I have not created jinn and humankind but to worship Me" (Qur'an 51:56). It is Allah and His Messenger alone who legislate what is permitted and prohibited, for He states: "It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed strayed into a plain error" (Qur'an 33:36). Yet Islamic morality is not arbitrary; Muslims have long reflected rationally upon the wisdom of divine legislation, incorporating this into the tradition of *fiqh*. Within a single generation, LGBT ideas have moved from taboo to mainstream. It is no longer sufficient for Muslims simply to say they disapprove of such behavior as they disapprove of drinking or fornication, because—unlike those sins—the affirmation of same-sex relationships and transgenderism is now presented as a positive moral cause appealing to notions of dignity, justice, and autonomy. When a young Muslim asks a shaykh, "I think I'm gay; what does Islam say?" and receives only the reply "It is *haram*," a miscommunication occurs, because each is operating from a different paradigm: one Islamic, the other a modern secular framework that treats sexual feeling as unassailable identity. These two worldviews begin from diametrically opposed assumptions. The growth of this movement is documented in literature, film, and public education. Whereas roughly ten young-adult books with LGBT characters appeared in 2010, by 2016 the number had climbed to eighty. GLAAD found that of 118 major studio films in 2019, twenty-two contained LGBT-identifying characters, and this surge correlates with the 2015 *Obergefell v. Hodges* decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. Several states have mandated LGBT education in public schools, and in Canada programs such as SOGI have used Muslim children in promotional material. Teaching tools like the "Genderbread Person" present natural binaries as a fluid spectrum, severing biological sex from any normative relevance. Beyond the West, Muslim countries face growing pressure to become "LGBT-affirming," as when the US embassy in Kuwait tweeted in support of Pride Month in 2022. This reveals that the movement is not merely a domestic project but the vanguard of a neo-colonial enterprise. As Muslims we affirm that all people should be treated with respect and dignity, for our beloved Prophet ﷺ taught us to "give everything its due right," and justice is central to our faith. We disagree, however, with definitions that make full endorsement of homosexual behavior the very measure of respect. To grasp how the meanings of equality, justice, and compassion were so radically altered, one must look to the Western sexual revolution of the late 1960s, which rejected Christian moral norms and, aided by the birth-control pill, severed sex from reproduction, marriage, and morality. In a society that had already turned from God, these four came apart; eventually consent alone was held to legitimize any sexual act. From this soil grew the gay liberation movement, which drew a false equivalence between itself and victims of racial oppression. Islam, by contrast, is the middle path, rejecting both the "sex-negative" tendencies that dominated Christian teaching and the licentiousness that followed as a reaction. The Qur'an itself notes that monasticism was an invention: "As for monasticism, they made it up—We never ordained it for them" (Qur'an 57:27). In Islam, lawful sexual pleasure is a blessing, and the Prophet ﷺ taught that a man is rewarded for fulfilling his desire lawfully, saying, "If he does it in a halal way, he will have a reward for that." The deeper antecedents of the revolution lie in the drift from a theocentric to a materialistic worldview from the seventeenth century onward, the Enlightenment's enthronement of human reason, and the atheism of figures such as Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. As the Christian theologian Carl Trueman argues in *The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self*, Rousseau began the "psychologization" of the human being, locating identity in inner feeling—a notion that underlies contemporary LGBT discourse. We reject this radical autonomy, for Allah warns: "And be not like those who forgot God so He caused them to forget themselves" (Qur'an 59:19), and He describes "the one who has taken his own desires as his god" (Qur'an 45:23). Trueman further observes that once sexual desire becomes central to human identity, "the old chestnut of 'love the sinner, hate the sin' simply does not work," because sin and identity can no longer be separated. Our true self, however, is that which submits to God, embodied in prostration while declaring *subḥāna rabbī al-aʿlā*. Worship of God is the most authentic human good. It is worth knowing that in 1989 Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen authored *After the Ball*, a manifesto openly describing "a program of unabashed propaganda" to convert "the average American's emotions, mind, and will" through media—so Muslims who echo these talking points often do not realize their sensibilities have been deliberately engineered. The Islamic paradigm affirms the creation of only two sexes: "And He created the two sexes, male and female" (Qur'an 53:45). The Shariah draws no distinction between biological sex and so-called psychological gender. Men and women are spiritually equal, as the Qur'an makes plain in listing the believing men and women who guard their chastity and remember Allah often (Qur'an 33:35), and they are "allies of one another" who enjoin good and forbid evil (Qur'an 9:71). Yet they are complementary and different by intentional design, for "the male is not like the female" (Qur'an 3:36), and "men are the protectors and maintainers of women" (Qur'an 4:34). Because our bodies belong to God, the slogan "My body, my choice" is antithetical to Islam. Deliberate imitation of the opposite sex is forbidden, for the Prophet ﷺ cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men—a ruling that concerns deliberate impersonation, not one's natural disposition. Islam's sexual ethics protect the family, which is the basis of society, and the jurists count this among the objectives of the Shariah. Illicit sex (*zinā*) is a major sin and even a crime, and the default ruling is that all sexual acts are forbidden unless expressly permitted, for Allah praises "those who guard their chastity, except from their spouses" (Qur'an 23:5–6). He commands: "And go not near *zinā*; verily it is iniquity and an evil way" (Qur'an 17:32). Thus Islam regulates the gaze, dress, and seclusion (*khalwah*) to close the doors to temptation. Protecting lineage (*nasl* and *nasab*) is central; hence the Shariah prohibits surrogacy and sperm or egg donation as tantamount to *zinā*, permitting artificial insemination, according to most scholars, only between a married couple using their own gametes. Regarding gender nonconformity, Islam holds that God has aligned biological sex, gender, and attraction by design; where they do not align, one should make reasonable efforts to conform to that design. A person is not morally responsible for feelings such as gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction that he did not choose, but he is responsible for his actions, including cross-dressing and transitioning. Scholars distinguish between traits that are natural (*khilqī*) and those deliberately affected (*ghayr khilqī*); the *mukhannath* and *mudhakkarah* whose traits are affected are prohibited by consensus from persisting in them, while for those whose traits are natural, scholars have differed—some requiring reasonable reconditioning and others obligating nothing. Islam is not overly prescriptive about the specifics of masculine and feminine, taking custom (*ʿurf*) into account, as illustrated by the changing conventions of dress across time and the touch-based friendships common among Arab men. We must remain vigilant, however, against a false *ʿurf* engineered for profit or immoral ends. We must also question the very terms of this discourse, for a Shariah principle holds that "passing judgment on something is contingent upon its proper conceptualization." Classical Arabic possesses no equivalent to "homosexuality," and even in the West no concept of a "gay identity" existed before the late nineteenth century; the term "homosexual" was coined in Germany in the 1860s. Traditionally, sexual behavior was something one *did*, not what one *is*. Only in contemporary liberalism are desire, behavior, and identity inextricably fused, and Muslims must resist this conflation, since the mere existence of a desire is never a moral justification for acting upon it. The people of Lot are mentioned in more than seventy-five verses, and their emblematic sin is "approaching males with desire (*shahwah*) instead of females." Revisionist attempts to reinterpret this as rape or inhospitality fail before the plain text. When Lot's people demanded his guests, he offered his daughters and called them "purer for you" (Qur'an 11:78)—which would make no sense if their sin were rape, since one does not condemn rape as merely "impure" while offering another act as "purer." Even non-Muslim scholars such as John Barton conclude that the revisionist reading fails. For a thorough refutation of such arguments, including those of Scott Kugle, readers may consult Mobeen Vaid's "Can Islam Accommodate Homosexual Acts?" The Shariah categorizes sexual *acts*, not identities. Lawful relations are those between husband and wife under a valid contract; all else is prohibited, whether the enormities of *zinā* and sodomy (*liwāṭ*) or non-penetrative acts such as *siḥāq*, all being *muḥarram li-dhātihi*, along with their preludes, which are *muḥarram li-ghayrihi*. It is a reality that faithful Muslims may experience same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria and may ask whether Allah hates them. We must reassure them that Islam does not define people by their feelings but by their servitude to God, that it distinguishes feelings from acts and private sin from public advocacy, and that their faithful struggle may raise them to the rank of true *mujāhidūn*, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "A striver (*mujāhid*) is he who strives in God's obedience, and a migrant is he who migrates from sin and error." The door of *tawbah* remains ever open, and Allah "rejoices more at the repentance of His slave than one of you would rejoice upon finding his lost mount in a waterless desert." Such Muslims should be directed to resources such as the podcast *A Way Beyond the Rainbow* by Br. Waheed Jensen, the Straight Struggle group, and the UK-based Strong Support foundation. We must reject the gay identity paradigm, which insists one must conceive of oneself as "gay," for it upends the moral discourse of the Shariah entirely. In conclusion, contemporary liberalism unbinds what nature and law joined—sex, reproduction, and marriage—while fusing what should be distinguished: desire, action, and identity. We are advised to reclaim our language, using descriptive terms such as "same-sex attraction" rather than identitarian labels; to establish our gender and sexuality paradigm confidently as independent of the West; to expose the neocolonial character of the LGBT project; to reject the sexual identity paradigm; to practice no "gay exceptionalism," treating such acts as we would alcohol or *zinā*, while never stigmatizing those who faithfully struggle; to balance subjective feelings with objective truth through private support rather than public accommodation; and to support the faithful struggler with empathy while knowing our limits. In all this we should hold to the "three Cs"—clarity, compassion, and conviction—for true compassion means guiding others to what pleases their Creator. Islam's sexual ethics are not the problem but the solution the world needs, and we are commanded: "Call people to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful admonition, and dispute with them in the most courteous of ways" (Qur'an 16:125). O Allah, show us the truth as truth and grant that we may follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and grant that we may avoid it. Ameen. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does the Qur’an actually say anything about homosexuality? The claim that the Qur’an is silent on this topic does not hold up to a basic reading of the text. The people of Lut are mentioned in at least nine separate places across more than seventy-five verses. In each instance, their primary transgression is described plainly as approaching males with desire instead of females. Prophet Lut (as) confronts his people directly, calling their act a *fahisha* (an enormous iniquity) unlike anything in creation before them. Some have attempted to reinterpret these verses as a condemnation of rape or inhospitality rather than homosexual acts. But this reading collapses under scrutiny. Lut offers his people an alternative and describes that alternative as “purer.” One does not counter rape by offering a “purer” option; one counters a prohibited sexual act that way. The unanimous reading of Muslim scholars across fourteen centuries confirms that the primary sin of Lut’s people was homosexual acts. This consensus is not a product of cultural bias; it is grounded in the plain meaning of the Qur’anic text itself. ### Is it a sin to feel same-sex attraction, or only to act on it? Islam does not hold a person morally responsible for feelings they did not choose. Same-sex attraction, to the degree that a person did not willingly cultivate it, does not carry sin in itself. The Sharia distinguishes clearly between internal states and deliberate actions. What a person is accountable for is what they choose to do with those feelings. Engaging in prohibited sexual behavior would be sinful, just as it would be for someone experiencing illicit heterosexual desire. But simply experiencing an attraction while struggling to remain within Allah’s boundaries is not a sin. In fact, that faithful struggle may elevate a person spiritually. The Prophet ﷺ said: “A striver is he who strives in God’s obedience.” A Muslim who carries this test with patience and sincerity is not “a walking sin,” and Allah’s door of repentance and mercy is open to every believer without exception. ### Is Islam against people who identify as LGBT? Muslims affirm, as the Prophet ﷺ taught, that every person is owed their due right. Human dignity is not in question. What is in question is how “dignity” is being defined. In the current discourse, dignity has been redefined to mean full endorsement of specific sexual behaviors and identities. Islam affirms the dignity of every person as a creation of Allah while maintaining that Allah alone has the authority to legislate what is permitted and prohibited. These are not incompatible positions. A person experiencing same-sex attraction is not lesser before Allah for experiencing it. The community’s responsibility is to support those who struggle with sincere compassion, to connect them with appropriate resources, and to help them live according to their faith—not to validate a framework that reduces people to their sexual preferences. ### I have a Muslim friend who identifies as gay. How should I treat them? One of the most important things a Muslim can do for a friend in this situation is to refuse the assumption that a sexual desire constitutes an immovable, essential identity. Islam has no concept of sexual identity in this sense; it has always categorized acts, not persons, as halal or haram. Your friend is a Muslim first. Offer them the ordinary bonds of friendship, mentorship, and a listening ear. If they are seeking to live within Islamic bounds and struggling, point them toward specialized resources like the podcast *A Way Beyond the Rainbow*, which addresses these questions from psychological, spiritual, and personal angles. Do not offer simplistic advice. The issues are often deeply personal and emotionally complex. Being present and grounding the friendship in shared Islamic identity is what matters most. ### What should I say when someone tells me Islam needs to “catch up” with the times on this issue? The framing itself deserves scrutiny. The assumption behind “catching up” is that the West’s current sexual paradigm represents moral progress and that any deviation from it is backwardness. But this paradigm is historically very recent, geographically specific, and rooted in a secular liberal framework that sidelines or completely rejects divine authority. The sexual revolution of the 1960s severed sex from reproduction, marriage, and morality, and what followed—family breakdown, fatherlessness, and the commodification of human intimacy—are observable consequences, not abstract fears. Islamic sexual ethics are a coherent, theocentric framework grounded in the recognition that Allah, who created us, has the categorical right to tell us how to use our bodies. As the Qur’an says: “It could be that you dislike something, when it is good for you; and it could be that you like something when it is bad for you. Allah knows, and you do not know” (2:216). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/tadabbur-10-steps-to-a-deeper-connection-with-the-quran # Tadabbur: 10 steps to a deeper connection with the Qur’an **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Blog **Published:** October 6, 2022 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 “Whoever receives the Qur’an, it is as Allah has spoken to him.” In this statement, Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurẓī (d. 108/726) expresses one of the most important objectives in revealing the Qur’an: to personally connect with it. At Yaqeen, we want to cultivate this reflective connection, or [*tadabbur*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran), with the Qur’an by exploring the profound meaning and history of its divine text. To facilitate these discussions, the Qur'anic Studies Department has launched a new podcast called “Qur'an Convos.” In the first season, we talk about *tadabbur* and how you can maintain a focused and deep connection with the Qur'an. Each episode, hosted by Sh. Suleiman Hani and special guests, explores how you can engage your inner self when reciting Qur’an. The topic was inspired by al-Ghazālī’s work, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn.* Embarking on his own journey and reflecting on the practices of righteous scholars before him, al-Ghazālī identified ten necessary acts for a focused and meaningful engagement with the Qur’an: --- ## 1\. Appreciate the source of the speech First and foremost, we should realize that we are not worthy of communicating with Allah. If it was not for Allah’s subtleness and kindness, He would not have made His speech (*kalām*) manifest to us in a human language. At times, it may be difficult to understand the meanings of the Qur’an, but the fact that understanding is possible is a blessing in itself that is worthy of endless gratitude. --- ## 2\. Praise Allah, the One Who revealed the Qur’an Studying language, theology, legal theory, and other Qur’anic sciences is not the sole prerequisite to understanding the meanings of the Qur’an. An essential way to bring tranquility to your heart is by glorifying the sacredness of the Book and indulging in its spiritual quality. As eloquently described by al-Ghazālī, “The one who glorifies the speech he recites receives glad tidings from it, finds serenity in it, does not get heedless of it.” --- ## 3\. Keep your heart present Before attempting to unlock the meanings of the Qur’an, make sure your heart is ready. Regain focus by dismissing all irrelevant thoughts and distractions. “Hold fast to scripture” is not just a command from Allah to His Prophet. It is a perpetual command for every one of us seeking to connect with Allah’s sacred words. Meaning will reveal itself if your heart is present. --- ## 4\. Reflect Reflection (*tadabbur*) is not the presence of the heart. It is the state resulting from it. The word *tadabbur* in Arabic is related to the concept of “thinking of the consequences.” Think of *tadabbur* from this lens: it is something beyond listening, pronouncing, or even bringing the heart into your recitation. It is to feel the meanings and embody them in your daily life. The word *tadabbur,* moreover, implies other meanings like: reflecting until reflection becomes a habit, exerting tireless efforts until it happens, doing it gradually, and transforming the *tadabbur* into an elevated spiritual rank. The lifelong journey of connecting with the Qur’an demands all of these aspects. --- ## 5\. Try to understand Do the first four acts in order and you’ll position yourself to receive guidance from the Qur’an. Appreciation, praise, an open heart, and reflection all prepare us to return to Allah spiritually and, in turn, allow us to truly understand and receive reminders from the Qur’an. Understanding the Qur’an is an endless pursuit of tools that unravel the marvels and mysteries of the book while maintaining introspection. Learn, wonder, inquire, check, discuss, and refer to authorities in seeking to comprehend the multi-layered meanings and significations of each verse. Part of the miraculous nature of the Qur’an is that “it does not become worn out by repetition and its wonders do not come to an end.” --- ## 6\. Remove the barriers to understanding the Qur’an Many roadblocks will constantly get in your way of understanding the Qur’an. Among the roadblocks al-Ghazālī highlighted are: 1) being obsessed with the verbal articulation of words at the expense of looking into their deeper meanings (proper *tajwīd* is mandatory but it was never intended to make understanding the meanings secondary), 2) blind following of a doctrine, opinion, or sect that results in fanaticism (fanaticism blinds one from finding the truth), and 3) persistence on sinning, arrogance, or following self-whims, which are the major causes of darkening the heart (the more consuming and recurring desires are, the more obscure meanings will become). --- ## 7\. Make it personal: imagine that Allah is speaking directly to you The Qur’anic message is universal. While the context of its revelation is important, the Qur’an itself often reminds us to personally relate to it and to find ourselves in every single verse. When you come across glad tidings, warnings, commands, or prohibitions, position yourself as the intended addressee. This mindset is a recognition that the Qur’an is a message to all of us. It is replete with stories of historic events with everlasting purposes for us to learn from. --- ## 8\. Be emotionally invested in what you are reading Different verses will affect you in distinct ways. Welcome emotional states of sadness, fear, joy, and hope suitable to each meaning you internalize. Intimidating and fearful moods, for example, are prevalent in the Qur’an. Even verses that talk about mercy and forgiveness will make them conditional on qualities we often lack: > “My mercy encompasses all things. So I will decree it for those who fear Me and give zakat and those who believe in Our verses” \[Qur’an, 7:156\]. The serious challenge is to avoid being a mere narrator of what you are reading. If you recite, “I fear, if I should disobey my Lord, the punishment of a tremendous Day” and you are not genuinely “afraid” of that, you are just narrating a statement rather than applying it to yourself. Allah condemned those who do not know the Scripture except hearsay or through mere recitation \[Qur’an, 2:78\]. --- ## 9\. Strengthen your connection with the Qur’an Strive to elevate your rank of connection. Read the Qur’an as if you are standing before Allah, talking to Him and knowing that He watches and hears your recitation. This should cause you to be intimidated and to call upon Allah for mercy. Building this connection should increase your attention and thoughtfulness in reading and motivate you to glorify Allah. --- ## 10\. Stay humble Do not approach your relationship with Allah with overconfidence or self-satisfaction. As long as you believe in your purity and nobility, you will not reach the ultimate station of love; selfish love of yourself and the love of Allah cannot subsist together in one heart. When you read the verses that praise the pious, do not include yourself among them but hope that Allah will include you among them. When you read the verses that condemn the wrong-doers, assume that they talk about you and ask Allah to protect you from infidelity and sin. Tune in to Qur’an Convos every week, as we explore how to engage in the many aspects of reflection, from fighting distractions to finding echoes of ourselves within the stories of the Qur’an. Take the show on the go by listening here or on your favorite [podcast platform](https://yqn.io/yaqeenpodcast).If you prefer to watch the show, check it out [](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/suleiman-hani/quran-convos-taddabur-trailer/)[here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/suleiman-hani/quran-convos-taddabur-trailer/) or on our [YouTube Channel](https://youtube.com/yaqeenpodcast). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/not-ready-to-say-goodbye-dealing-with-grief-and-loss # Not Ready to Say Goodbye: Dealing With Grief and Loss **Author:** Ustadha Zaynab Ansari **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Blog **Published:** September 12, 2022 **Updated:** September 2, 2026 I am not a person who likes goodbyes. And this topic is a difficult one to tackle as it is deeply personal for me. As I write this piece, however, I am preparing my children to say goodbye to their beloved grandfather. My father was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain cancer that there is. It is also extremely rare, with an [incidence rate](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470003/) of 3.19 per 100,000 persons in the United States. What that means is that around 14,000 people will be [diagnosed with glioblastoma](https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2017/glioblastoma-research-making-progress) every year out of a population of 330 million. I never imagined my father would be among those 14,000. And I never imagined I would be preparing myself and my children to say goodbye to my father who just turned 73. I remembered saying to myself when I first learned about his diagnosis that this must be impossible, that the elders in my father’s family had lived to be 90+ years, and surely we could plan on 20 more years with my amazing Dad. But here we are getting ready to write letters to my father and read them to him as he is placed in hospice care. The children call him “Jiddou” in honor of his Lebanese heritage. I’ve always called him Dad. But these names don’t convey the depths of our love for him, nor do they convey how grateful to him we are for all he has done for us, nor do they make up for all I wish we could have done to cherish our time with him. Alhamdulillah, he is still with us. He still comprehends what is going on around him and recognizes faces even though the names don’t readily come. He can still speak a little even though the tumor is causing tremendous swelling in the brain. And he still wants to get better. We all want him to get better. But we have come up against two things: A terminal diagnosis and the *qadar* of Allah, both of which have brought us to this moment of trying to figure out how to say goodbye to a man who means everything to us. When my husband died in 2015 in a motorcycle accident, I was in a state of shock. In the weeks after his death, I walked around in a daze trying to understand how my life had been completely turned upside down. I remember talking to someone who rattled off a list of the most common causes of death, noting that sudden death ranks highest on the list of traumas impacting the surviving family. For me, that helped to explain why I was feeling the way I was. I was simply not ready to say goodbye to my husband and the abrupt nature of the loss meant that I wasn’t at all mentally or emotionally prepared for it. So I consoled myself by telling myself that some types of loss are “easier” to handle than others. I remembered saying that surely in the cases where a loved one falls ill, the family is better equipped to deal with the finality of the situation. And now here I am in just that situation. And I can say this: Loss is loss, no matter what, but there are lessons I have learned that I am trying to apply to this experience. And, no, it doesn’t make it “easier” in the most common sense, but it makes it possible to navigate this with more patience and awareness. With the tips below, I’d like to offer some advice to families dealing with the pain of a terminal diagnosis: --- ## 1\. It’s not your fault. It’s not their fault. Really. I think in our haste to find a “logical” cause for puzzling diagnoses, we want to look at everything and start second-guessing. Maybe it’s cell phones. Maybe it’s microwaves. Maybe it’s environmental. The reality is that no one knows what causes glioblastoma or the many other types of cancer that claim the lives of numerous people from all walks of life. Elderly people will die from cancer. Middle-aged people will die from cancer. Teenagers will die from cancer. Even young children will die from cancer. Now I’m not saying we should be fatalistic and not study the etiology of disease and fund cancer research. We should! What I’m saying is that Allah (swt) tells us in multiple recurrences in the Qur’an, “Every soul shall taste of death” \[21:35\]. --- ## 2\. We will all leave this dunya some way or another. We all have to take that exit ramp. And we don’t get to choose when to take that exit ramp, how long we get to live until we have to exit, nor the circumstances under which we will exit. We don’t get to say to Allah (swt), I want this kind of death and not that. We can certainly make *du’a* for a good end that is free of suffering. But what we really need to be asking, for ourselves and our loved ones, is *husn al-khitam*, the best ending, which is to die upon faith, upon the firm belief of *la ilaha illa Allah Muhammadun rasul Allah.* --- ## 3\. Help your loved one to remember this reality. You should absolutely be encouraging them to be hopeful, trust Allah’s judgment, and ask Allah for *shifa*. Constantly make the following *du’a* for them  أَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ رَبَّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ أَنْ يَشْفِيْكَ As’al Allah al-Adheem rabb al-arsh al-adheem an yashfik I ask Allah the Magnificent, Lord of the Magnificent Throne, to heal you for healing as this was the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). As to how many details to share with the person facing a terminal illness, that really depends on the person’s emotional and psychological makeup and their ability to process such difficult information. I used to think it was sugarcoating to not tell the person about the diagnosis, but after speaking to a number of people who’ve cared for a terminally ill loved one, including religious scholars, I’ve concluded that the best thing to do is to encourage them to maintain hope in Allah’s (swt) mercy so that they meet Allah with the best opinion of Him. --- ## 4\. Provide appropriate spiritual counsel. A terminal diagnosis is really frightening and the person experiencing such a diagnosis (and those around them) may react with sorrow, anger, or disbelief. During this time, it’s really important to validate those feelings while also reminding them of the example of the Prophet (peace be upon him). He always taught us to feel those difficult feelings but not to utter that which is displeasing to Allah. Anas ibn Malik reported: We entered the house of Abu Sayf along with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) who was the husband of Ibrahim’s wet-nurse, upon him be peace. The Prophet (pbuh) took hold of Ibrahim, kissed him, and smelled him. Then, we entered after that as Ibrahim was breathing his last breaths. It made the eyes of the Prophet shed tears. Abdur Rahman ibn Awf said, “Even you, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet said, “**O Ibn Awf, this is mercy.**” Then, the Prophet wept some more and he said, “**Verily, the eyes shed tears and the heart is grieved, but we will not say anything except what is pleasing to our Lord. We are saddened by your departure, O Ibrahim.**” \[*Sahih Bukhari*\] --- ## 5\. It’s okay to smile and even laugh. The topic of death and dying is such a heavy thing on the person who is ill and their loved ones but even in the midst of facing one’s mortality, it’s important to hold on to those light moments, those human moments of happiness. So reminisce about special times, encourage them to share stories about their childhood if they are able to speak, and even add a little levity to the conversation by reminding them how much you love (or groan) over their jokes. This is not inappropriate. This is actually really important for your and their mental health. It means that even in the midst of this hardship, Allah has blessed you with some ease, and that is a good thing. Am I ready to say goodbye? Probably not. But do I trust that God knows best? Yes. I am grateful for my father’s legacy of faith, service, and joy. I will forever be indebted to him for believing in me and my sister and providing us with a sound Islamic education. Whenever I look at a Persian rug or browse an Islamic book, I will remember those as my father’s great loves after his family and community. And my children will forever remember their beloved Jiddou as the father figure in their lives after their father passed away. And very importantly, I am grateful to Allah that I get to say goodbye, that my father is surrounded by people who absolutely adore him, that he is being well taken care of by my amazingly courageous mother. Not everyone facing a terminal illness has such an opportunity and I want my Dad to know that Allah does not task us with that which is beyond our reach. My father was my first Qur’an teacher and when I go to see him, I think I will recite the following verses for him: > مَن كَانَ يَرْجُوا۟ لِقَآءَ ٱللَّهِ فَإِنَّ أَجَلَ ٱللَّهِ لَـَٔاتٍۢ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ > > وَمَن جَـٰهَدَ فَإِنَّمَا يُجَـٰهِدُ لِنَفْسِهِۦٓ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَغَنِىٌّ عَنِ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ > > وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَنُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْهُمْ سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَحْسَنَ ٱلَّذِى كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ > > “Whoever should hope for the meeting with Allah – indeed, the term decreed by Allah is coming. And He is the Hearing, the Knowing. And whoever strives only strives for \[the benefit of\] himself. Indeed, Allah is free from need of the worlds. And those who believe and do righteous deeds – We will surely remove from them their misdeeds and will surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do.” \[Qur’an, 29:5-7\] --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/saving-truth-and-beauty-the-destruction-of-nature-and-the-islamic-solution # Saving Truth and Beauty: The Destruction of Nature and the Islamic Solution **Author:** Rhamis Kent **Topics:** Environment, Islamic Ethics, Nature & Science, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Prophetic Cure, Publication **Published:** August 29, 2022 **Updated:** December 3, 2025 ## Introduction The destruction of nature can be understood as a running indictment of the collective character and state of the human species. The ecological health of a given place mirrors the true ethical, spiritual, and psychological condition of its inhabitants. The connection between our moral failings and the destruction of the Earth is affirmed by Allah in the Qur’an when He tells us, “Corruption has appeared on the land and sea, by reason of what your hands have earned. That Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return.”[^1] History is strewn with catastrophes rooted in the application of erroneous cosmological and epistemological assumptions, and a failure to properly translate what is being perceived into appropriate responses to the world—and the reality—humans find themselves occupying. This delusional misunderstanding of one’s self and one’s surroundings produces repeatable and predictable consequences. This paper examines some of these misunderstandings, using the Islamic tradition as a reference point, in an attempt to identify solutions for a clearly persistent human problem. Our objective is to highlight the clear moral and ethical injunctions found in the Qur’an and Prophetic Traditions, which together comprise a distinct framework of comportment towards nature that offers a practical alternative to the ruinous path humanity finds itself traversing. The Qur’an, referring to the role designated for Adam and his kind, recounts, “And \[mention\] when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I will make upon the Earth a steward (*khalīfa*).’”[^2] The angels’ response indicates an awareness, even at the moment of humanity’s genesis, of this species’ potential for profound evil: “They (the angels) said, ‘Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare your praise and sanctify You?’” To this, Allah gives a decisive rebuke: “I know that which you do not know.” And then, we are told: “He taught Adam the names—all of them.”[^3] According to broad scholarly consensus, the *names* are the Divine Names or *Attributes of Allah* reflected in His creation—including human beings: “We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a Witness over all things?”[^4] These verses provide a cosmological, cosmogonical, epistemological, and teleological explanation for how human beings should orient themselves in relation to the abode they’ve been situated within. If the world is indeed an expression of Divine Attributes—or, as some have said, meanings rendered into objects and images—belief in and reverence for Allah demands that it be dealt with in a manner that ensures its preservation and nurtures its ability to thrive. That is what would qualify as a sincere display of gratitude for the gifts bestowed—and gratitude, ultimately, is the key to saving the Earth and ourselves. --- ## A dilemma of history and humanity In his book *Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed*,[^5] Dr. Jared Diamond identifies five factors that have historically contributed to civilizational collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and failure to adapt to environmental issues. He also lists 12 environmental problems facing mankind today, the first eight of which have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies**:** 1. Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems 4. Overhunting 5. Overfishing 6. Effects of introduced (invasive) species on native species 7. Overpopulation 8. Increased per-capita impact of people Furthermore, he says four new factors may contribute to the weakening and collapse of present and future societies: 1. Anthropogenic climate change 2. Accumulation of toxins in the environment 3. Energy shortages 4. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity Interestingly, the top three factors listed (deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, and water management problems) share the same origin: all are products of the sustained degradation of landscapes due to human mismanagement. Even the COVID-19 global pandemic—along with a number of other relatively recent viral outbreaks such as Ebola, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, H1N1 aka “swine flu,” Nipah, even malaria—is directly linked to increasing rates of deforestation (particularly in tropical regions like Southeast Asia).[^6] These phenomena are so closely correlated that the rate of deforestation in a given area was found to be the number one predictor **of where the next pandemic will most likely emerge**.  Approximately 60 percent of new infectious disease outbreaks over the past few decades were animal-borne—or zoonotic—diseases, including the aforementioned viral outbreaks. Climate change is anticipated to multiply this threat. ![Figure 1: What are Zoonoses?](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/image3-1-463x1024.png) Unsurprisingly, the economist E. F. Schumacher, citing *Topsoil and Civilization* by Tom Dale and Vernon Gill Carter,[^7] argues that the outcomes of empires and civilizations throughout human history have been largely dictated by how well—or poorly—the resource base that makes their existence possible has been managed.  For those that have ultimately failed, the means and modes of failure are repeatable and predictable. According to Dale and Carter, between 10 and 30 civilizations have followed the same self-destructive pattern of behavior. As cited, this pattern involves: - The cutting and burning of most usable timber from forested hillsides and valleys - Mismanaged grazing of domesticated livestock, resulting in large areas of denuded and overexposed land - The widespread destruction of terrestrial and aquatic wildlife - Excessive soil erosion and removal of productive topsoil, and the subsequent silting of streams, reservoirs, irrigation canals, and harbors - Mismanaged extractive industries resulting in the wasting of easily mined metals and minerals - The loss of adequate resources and functional land necessary to support dense sedentary populations, forcing the pursuit of new land Our modern crisis, then, in many ways reflects humanity’s eternal dilemma: How do we create a life for ourselves that is dignified, pleasant, and free from undue pain without undermining the ecosystem within which our species has been situated? History has a great deal to teach us about how well we’ve been able to accomplish this task in the aggregate. It also communicates what kind of people we are—a true, unfiltered reflection of the quality of our collective character as manifested by the condition of the lands we dwell in, and a world that responds reciprocally to what we do to it. As W. C. Loudermilk wrote in his book *Conquest of the Land Through Seven Thousand Years:* > In a very real sense the land does not lie; it bears a record of what men write on it. In a larger sense a nation writes its record on the land, and a civilization writes its record on the land—a record that is easy to read by those who understand the simple language of the land.[^8] Examining what has been documented within the annals of history—and, more critically, on Earth’s landscapes—leaves us with a damning verdict. Again and again, history and nature have borne witness to humanity’s inability to moderate its most destructive tendencies. According to many conventional accounts, the advent of agriculture introduced us to the common crises that have marked human life on Earth for the past 7000 years. Dr. Jared Diamond, for instance, reckons that agriculture was the worst mistake in the history of the human race.[^9] The environmental degradation that marks this current period was initiated with the development of agriculture as the basis for state formation—not to be confused with “civilization.” Its emergence brought malnutrition, starvation, epidemic diseases, deep class divisions (i.e., a small, mostly non-productive consumer elite class and a comparatively large producer, peasant and working class), tyranny, and warfare. The food surpluses generated by intensive agriculture led to the development of a variety of new “labor-saving” technologies and fields of specialization including segments of the population serving in policing and military capacities (i.e., the development of standing armies and professional militaries)—mostly to protect the relatively rich along with their property from the poor and destitute, as well as from invading bands of itinerant raiders making a living by plundering the accumulated wealth of sedentary societies. James C. Scott, a professor of political science and co-director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University, documents similar findings, asserting that agriculture was made possible by way of what he calls “the four domestications”: plants, animals, fire, and people.[^10] He suggests one of the ways people have been domesticated is through a gradually progressive process of “de-skilling,” making them more dependent on goods and services provided by others who possess them or the means to produce and supply them. This, in part, marks humanity’s transition from communities of relatively independent producers to an increasingly dependent, captive population of consumers. Diamond’s and Scott’s assessments are neither flawless nor universally agreed upon. The history of Muslims’ engagement with agriculture and cultivation of land, as relayed through the *Filāḥa*[^11] texts, stands in stark contrast to their narratives. Guy Theodore Wrench’s book *[Reconstruction by Way of the Soil](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/Wrench_Recon/Wrench_Recon_ToC.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908334856&usg=AOvVaw3QDpBmQrsxIL3G4ruU_ts_)*[^12] chronicles a markedly different set of outcomes—as told mostly by European historians—on the basis of the formidable skill, knowledge, and acumen employed by Muslim cultivators: > The Arabs had even a greater aptitude for agriculture than for letters and arts. What means of irrigation are now found in Andalusia were made by them.[^13] > In short, they had irrigated and cultivated the land so excellently that it was befitting to call Andalusia a garden.[^14] > Agriculture and horticulture were developed to an extent never heard of before.[^15] The agricultural system of the Moors in Spain, writes \[American\] historian S. P. Scott, was: > … the most complex, the most scientific, the most perfect, ever devised by the ingenuity of man. Its principles were derived from the extreme Orient, from the plains of Mesopotamia, and from the valley of the Nile—those gardens of the ancient world where, centuries before the dawn of authentic history, the cultivation of the earth had been carried to a state of extraordinary excellence. To the knowledge thus appropriated were added the results obtained from investigation and experiment, from the introduction of foreign plants; from the adoption of fertilizing substances; from the close and intelligent observation of the geographical distribution and climatic influence. > > No cultivators had a more profound knowledge than these people of the value of water. They, like the great riverine peoples, from whom they derived so much knowledge, realized that the proper use of water was civilization. Without its just and conservative distribution, the true justice and magnanimity of civilization do not really exist.[^16] Wrench explains that this was made possible by prioritizing and acting in accordance with Islam’s ethically-based cosmological, epistemological, and metaphysical framework. It is to this framework that we now turn. --- ## Rediscovering our role In his book *Al-Dharīʿa ilā makārim al-sharīʿa (The Path to the Noble Qualities of the Sacred Law),* the Persian scholar Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad, better known as al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 1108), wrote about what he understood to be the existential role of the human being per the Islamic tradition. He stated: > Man has three specific functions. The first is to cultivate and prosper in the earth (*ʿimārat al-arḍ*), which is stated in the verse “He brought you out from the earth and made you inhabit it” (Qur’an 11:61). He should obtain his livelihood from earth, for himself and others. The second is to worship God as is stated: “I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Qur’an 51:56). This means man should obey God’s commands and prohibitions. The third is his vicegerency, which is mentioned in: “... and \[I will\] make you successors in the land and, then, \[I will\] observe what you will do” (Qur’an 7:129). This \[vicegerency\] is the imitation of God in accordance with man’s ability to rule by applying the noble qualities of the Law, which are wisdom, justice, forbearance, beneficence, and graciousness. Their purpose is to gain Paradise and proximity to God.[^17] What is particularly fascinating about this quote is that two of the three purposes noted (*ʿimārat al-arḍ* and *khalīfa)* deal with the manner in which humanity comports itself in relation to the creation. Worship (*ʿibādāt*) accounts for only one of the three and even seemingly mundane acts—such as planting a tree—could count as worship if that is the intention in performing them. The famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ confirms this: “Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended…”[^18] The dangers accompanying the corruption of the creation are unequivocally communicated within the Qur’an and hadith literature: > ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُم بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ  > > Corruption has appeared on the land and sea, by reason of what your hands have earned. That Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return.[^19] ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās understood this verse to mean: > Corruption has appeared through the death of cattle, drought, lack of food and vegetation in the plains, mountains, countryside, and wilderness as well as in townships and cities because of the transgressions committed by people, (that He may make them taste) that He may make them be seized by (a part of that which they have done) of transgressions, (in order that they may return) in order that they may repent of their sins and thus be relieved.[^20] The Qur’anic and hadith references are clear and unambiguous in communicating the importance of humanity’s conduct with creation—and how nature’s resulting condition reveals the true quality of a person’s character. > وَمَا أَصَابَكُم مِّن مُّصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُو عَن كَثِيرٍ > > And whatever misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned. And He pardons much.[^21] > > The world is sweet and verdant, and verily Allah has made you stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves.[^22] Yet another clear warning provided in hadith: "Beware of the earth for it is your mother/unavoidable abode/home. No one does good or evil on her except that she will speak of it (on the Day of *Qiyāma*)."[^23] Nature’s ability to expose falsehood is often underappreciated. In many ways it manifests truth, and does so elegantly and beautifully. Plato is famously quoted to have said that “beauty is the splendor of truth.” We should also be familiar with the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stating: “Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty.”[^24] Indeed, Truth and true beauty are indissoluble. Nature—with the intrinsic beauty and truth it embodies—cannot be corrupted without the corruptor eventually experiencing the consequences of doing so.  Human beings are not exempt from this reality. We often forget that the human species is also a part of nature—a vital organ placed within the corpus of the terrestrial body comprising the Book of Creation. This terrestrial body forms what can be described as an ecological system or ecosystem—a biological community of organisms interacting with each other and with their physical environment. Ecological harmony depends on the establishment and recognition of rules of engagement, the violation of which could endanger the system’s operational integrity. System failures are likely if breaches of protocol are permitted. This failure occurs not as an exogenous phenomenon, but as internal feedback arising from the system’s misuse. In that respect, system failure is not unexpected—or at least it shouldn’t be. For example, the function of physical pain is to alert the body that some error needs to be addressed. Pain prevents further injury only if it is acknowledged. Acknowledgment assumes the understanding and good judgment required to respond appropriately. Faith traditions have been gifted to us to explain the Truth of Reality, the purpose of our existence, supplying a metaphysical map for navigating the human condition. If taken seriously, they should affect the way we think and how we behave in the world—determining if we decide to serve as divinely sanctioned exploiters or nurturers. Recall that our father, Adam, was taught “the names” of everything, a privilege which rendered our status higher than that of the angels: > وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاءِ هَٰؤُلَاءِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ > > And He taught Adam the names—all of them. Then He showed them to the angels and said, “Inform Me of the names of these, if you are truthful.”[^25] Consider the significance of knowing what to call things. These designations provide insights into the existential reality, and right, of creation. Endowed with that knowledge, we are also equipped with an understanding of how to properly transact and conduct our lives. William Chittick addressed the importance of this point in his piece *Ibn ‘Arabi on the Benefit of Knowledge,* and it is worth quoting at length: > All of creation makes demands upon man, because he is created in God’s form and has been appointed His vicegerent (*khal*ī*fa*). He has the God-given duty, woven into his original created nature (*fitra*), to recognize the *haqq* \[right\] of things and to act accordingly. It is this *haqq* that must be known if his knowledge is to be true, right, worthy, and appropriate, for this *haqq* is identical with the *khalq* \[creation\] that God has established. > > In short, beneficial knowledge is knowledge of ‘the what’ and ‘the why’ of ourselves and of things. In order to know a thing truly and benefit from the knowledge, we need to know what it is—its reality (*haqīqa*), which is nothing but its *khalq* and its *haqq*—and we need to know how we should respond to it. What exactly does it demand from us, rightly, truly, and appropriately? To put this into a formula, *tahqīq* means knowing the *haqīqa* of God and things and acting according to their *haqq*; Realization is to know things as they truly are and act appropriately in every circumstance.[^26] Knowledge acts as a safeguard against unconsciously transacting our lives as oppressors and destroyers—violators of an order deservedly expecting its right and reality to be recognized and honored. With knowledge comes *adab*, and it is from *adab* that we develop the noble character and ethical comportment (*akhlāq*) needed to conduct human affairs in a manner consistent with our Reality. Having access to true knowledge prevents us from being subject to the conjecturing, hypothesizing, and theorizing of our own selves and other people—or stated another way, true knowledge liberates us from the tyranny of mankind’s ideas. > >  وَإِن تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ > > And if you were to obey most of those on earth, they would lead you away from Allah’s Way. They follow nothing but assumptions and do nothing but lie.[^27] Improperly interfacing with the creation guarantees certain repercussions. Human history is littered with an extensive catalog of civilizational collapses, disasters, and catastrophic events. These episodes are not random or without cause, as human error in the form of ignorance, intemperance, and hubris was more often than not the catalyst. Distinct, manifestly discernible patterns await our observation of them. This cyclical rising and falling—exaltation and abasement—follows a narrative arc that is both comforting and frightening in its predictability. Our inability to read and decipher the proverbial Book of Creation—and the critical messages it communicates about our behavior—imperils us. Our apparent reluctance to learn this language, our dismissal of it as undeserving of deliberation, is all the more disappointing given that we are beings designed to read and decipher patterns. The Qur’an reminds us of this: > وَمَا مَنَعَ النَّاسَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا إِذْ جَاءَهُمُ الْهُدَىٰ وَيَسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّهُمْ إِلَّا أَن تَأْتِيَهُمْ سُنَّةُ الْأَوَّلِينَ أَوْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ الْعَذَابُ قُبُلًا > > When guidance came to the people, nothing prevented them from believing and asking forgiveness from their Lord but the fact that the pattern of previous peoples did not occur to them or that the punishment did not appear before their eyes.[^28] > وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن ذُكِّرَ بِآيَاتِ رَبِّهِ فَأَعْرَضَ عَنْهَا وَنَسِيَ مَا قَدَّمَتْ يَدَاهُ ۚ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ أَكِنَّةً أَن يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِي آذَانِهِمْ وَقْرًا ۖ وَإِن تَدْعُهُمْ إِلَى الْهُدَىٰ فَلَن يَهْتَدُوا إِذًا أَبَدًا > > And who could do a greater wrong than someone who is reminded of the Signs of his Lord and then turns away from them, forgetting all that he has done before? We have placed covers on their hearts, preventing them from understanding it, and heaviness in their ears. Though you call them to guidance, they will nonetheless never be guided.[^29] > Partake of \[the Earth\] gladly, so long as you are a benefactor, not a despoiler; a cultivator, not a destroyer.[^30] --- ## The human species as producer-cultivator or consumer-destroyer Most of us function in the world as consumers rather than producers. If we’re honest, this is what we’ve been conditioned to be since birth in an age dominated by industrial consumerism—especially within the context of so-called “first world” nations and economies. Nothing less is required of us if this particular system is to continue to function. We are defined and valued more as consumers than as citizens. This is all but confirmed by the practice of measuring the health of nation-states by their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a metric overwhelmingly determined by consumer activity. Producing and consuming our own goods and services within a self-contained, independent community (describing an autarky or autarkic system) would fail to register as “productive economic activity” from the standpoint of the consumer-driven GDP metric. The operational logic of  modern economies thus *demands* ever-expanding consumption of products and services. If consumers became their own producers of goods, either as individuals or communities, consumer-based economies would crater. This system is logically suspect and ethically bankrupt. According to modern economics, taking responsibility for our own lives and that of our communities by providing ourselves with what we need is an activity without value. Our era is marked by the presumption that technology has made us more efficiently and effectively productive, generally speaking—which it has in many respects. It has also made us more efficiently and effectively destructive, and more oblivious of this fact due to the way technological convenience distances us from its deleterious impacts. With modern technology comes an endemic opacity that mediates our direct experience of the outside world. The real world is easily confused with the one that has been reconfigured for us based on our preferences as consumers. Protracted, thoughtless action has never been so easily enabled—nor the volume of distraction and misinformation so overwhelming. This opacity compounds our blindness to the ways in which our inability to moderate our behavior is ravaging the world we inhabit. The 14th-century historiographer and historian Abū Zayd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khaldūn al-Ḥaḍramī, more popularly known as Ibn Khaldūn, warned that [pursuing the pleasures of civilization](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fountainmagazine.com/2017/issue-117-may-june-2017/ibn-khaldun-on-luxury-and-the-destruction-of-civilizations&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908351189&usg=AOvVaw0PGSsqZHeGLH4BhfUPPzcg)[^31] has repeatedly led to civilizational destruction through the corruption of human beings—rendering them susceptible to moral, ethical, spiritual, social, physical, political, and economic decay. The places such degraded people inhabit merely reflect their collective state. This seemingly insatiable appetite for constantly expanding levels of wealth, luxury, comfort—and, for some, power—has been the primary driver of the destruction wrought by human beings on Earth and its living systems from time immemorial. As argued by the British soldier, scholar, and author Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb in his seminal essay, *The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival,*[^32] human history consists of an identifiable and reasonably predictable progression of phases. He states that we fail to learn from history because our studies of it are brief, prejudiced, and atomized, with the intertwined events that comprise overarching patterns often taught as discrete and unrelated. Sir Glubb claims that a regular patterned length of national greatness emerges, lasting approximately 250 years. This average has not varied for 3000 years, by his estimation. The stages characterizing the rise and fall of great nations are seen in Table 1. Sir Glubb concludes that the life histories of great states are very similar and primarily driven by internal factors. Their falls are diverse mostly due to their being heavily influenced by external causes. He feels that history should be taught as a comprehensive account of the human species with an emphasis on identifying these overarching phenomena within the context of one’s own national history. Wendell Berry’s classic book *The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture* masterfully covers all of these points in the specific case of the United States. The topics of exploitation, consumption, victimization, and destruction are placed front and center: > If there is any law that has been consistently operative in American history, it is that the members of any established people or group or community sooner or later become “redskins”—that is, they become the designated victims of an utterly ruthless, officially sanctioned and subsidized exploitation. The colonists who drove off the Indians came to be intolerably exploited by their imperial governments. And that alien imperialism was thrown off only to be succeeded by a domestic version of the same thing; the class of independent small farmers who fought the war of independence has been exploited by, and recruited into, the industrial society until now it is almost extinct… The only escape from this destiny of victimization has been to ‘succeed’—that is, to ‘make it’ into the class of exploiters, and then to remain so specialized and so ‘mobile’ as to be unconscious of the effects of one’s life or livelihood. This escape is, of course, illusory, for one man’s producer is another’s consumer, and even the richest and most mobile will soon find it hard to escape the noxious effluents and fumes of their various public services. What we are seeing now is not a new phenomenon. It’s an old story dressed in new clothes. The demolition of nature is simply being accomplished with more sophisticated technology capable of amplifying our character flaws in ways we’ve never imagined possible. This destruction is harder to recognize, or deem worthy of our attention, in a world offering endless methods of  keeping  us entertained, distracted, titillated, and made comfortably numb—all while being so satisfied and impressed with what our hands have created. > We are the octopus congratulating itself for becoming fat by eating its own legs.[^33] ![Table 1 - Stages characterizing the rise and fall of great nations](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/image2-776x1024.png) --- ## Forgetting our role Consider the following list of [The Most Toxic Countries in the World](https://weather.com/science/environment/news/maps-toxic-countries),[^34] published by The Eco Experts. Nine of the top 10 are nominally majority Muslim nations.  When examining lists of countries also suffering from problems associated with environmental and ecological degradation, including food and water insecurity, we unfortunately find much of the same. This has serious implications concerning prospects related to regional stability, civil unrest, refugee populations, internally displaced people, etc. Again, we find that among the most challenged nations, those classified as Muslim-majority are at or near the top of the list: **The 10 Most Toxic Countries**[^35] 1. Saudi Arabia 2. Kuwait 3. Bahrain 4. Qatar 5. United Arab Emirates 6. Oman 7. Turkmenistan 8. Libya 9. Kazakhstan 10.  Trinidad & Tobago ![Figure 2 - The 10 most toxic countries](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/image1-1024x771.png) Regardless of the worldly causes that may have brought about this situation, Allah is ultimately in control, and we must ask ourselves honestly, with deep introspection, why we are facing this situation. As evidenced by the above,[^36] Muslims have tragically underperformed in offering a more comprehensive and broadly beneficial Islamic alternative capable of obsoleting the current dysfunctional arrangement. Collectively, many Muslims have also come to endorse a “misenchanted way of life” that tacitly—if not explicitly—approves of the generation of riches and profit at the expense of beauty and truth. The credibility and sincerity of those claimants professing a love for Allah, but showing little regard for what Allah has created, should be called into question. To participate in the careless handling and cavalier destruction of things that are manifestations of Divine Attributes—Signs of The Divine—serves as an indictment against us. Need we be reminded where this motivation to corrupt what Allah has made perfect emanates from? > وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُّبِينًا > > \[Satan said\]: “And I will surely lead them astray, and arouse desires in them.  I shall command them and they will slit the ears of cattle; I shall command them and they will change the creation of Allah.” Whoever takes Satan as a protector in place of Allah has clearly lost everything.[^37] > وَإِذَا تَوَلَّىٰ سَعَىٰ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُفْسِدَ فِيهَا وَيُهْلِكَ الْحَرْثَ وَالنَّسْلَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ > > وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ أَخَذَتْهُ الْعِزَّةُ بِالْإِثْمِ ۚ فَحَسْبُهُ جَهَنَّمُ ۚ وَلَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ > > Among the people there is someone whose words about the life of this world excite your admiration, and he calls Allah to witness what is in his heart, while he is in fact the most hostile of adversaries. > > When he leaves you, he goes about the earth corrupting it, destroying crops and animals. Allah does not love corruption. When told to have *taqwā* of Allah, he is seized by pride which drives him to wrongdoing…[^38] If the creation consists of Allah’s Signs, and those Signs serve as reminders of the Divine, what happens when those Signs are removed from the Earth or allowed to be continually corrupted, distorted, degraded, or destroyed altogether? If these corrupted Signs become the basis of our reflection and remembrance, how would our perspectives not also grow corrupted, distorted, and degraded? What precarious world do we produce by substituting for those Signs a mirror of humanity’s basest desires, whims, and caprices?[^39] This destruction of nature is perpetrated and tolerated in the pursuit of economic interests—a state of affairs seemingly accepted, largely, by people who identify themselves as Muslim (likewise by self-identified Christians and Jews, or “People of the Book”). As noted by the Malaysian scholar Dr. ‘Adi Setia,[^40] a properly Islamically-oriented cosmological, cosmogonical, and epistemological worldview sees the natural and cultural resources provided by our Merciful Creator as blessings and bounties that are, in truth, unlimited in principle. A functional worldview tethered to reality would regard these resources as abundant, and the material needs, wants, and desires of human beings as limited—and rightfully so. This particular understanding has been inverted, and its inversion has apparently been legitimized and accepted by people who ought to know better. Building on this premise, Dr. Setia argues that our beliefs demand that these resources be considered favors from the realm of transcendence, eliciting an ethical and cognitive response rooted in gratitude and ultimately bringing about contentment. Therefore, the human being—if properly oriented and aligned—will take according to his or her needs, but not his or her greed and ambition to accumulate. Gratitude then becomes an existential and psychological state of being that demonstrates this observed reality of abundance in both the material and spiritual sense. We are provided for abundantly if we acknowledge the biophysical limits of the planet, and we acknowledge those limits by living our lives according to metaphysical realities. In fact, the planet’s living systems will over-deliver. The problem for the human species is that we tend to consistently underperform—and it still delivers in spite of us.[^41] According to Dr. ‘Adi Setia, > Desires are in fact limited by various dimensions of objective biophysical realities—and ultimately by death… Sound desire is self-limiting, but the consumerist rendering of the world isn’t particularly fond of that idea—so we’re constantly artificially stimulated through perpetual ubiquitous marketing and advertising. We do not exist in a neutral milieu in that regard. > > The paradox of ‘earthly life’ is that we simply need to respect the biophysical 'limits' of nature—which essentially consists of having proper *adab* (manners, etiquette, adherence to protocol) with creation—if we are to enjoy ‘unlimited’ bounties. > > Additionally, desires are limited because enjoyments are limited, or bounded; that's an objective fact since we know experientially that unbounded enjoyments and desires degenerate into suffering and humiliation by way of addiction.[^42] > أَفَرَءَيْتَ مَنِ ٱتَّخَذَ إِلَـٰهَهُۥ هَوَىٰهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِۦ وَقَلْبِهِۦ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِۦ غِشَـٰوَةً فَمَن يَهْدِيهِ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ > > Have you seen \[O Prophet\] those who have taken their own desires as their god? \[And so\] Allah left them to stray knowingly, sealed their hearing and hearts, and placed a cover on their sight. Who then can guide them after Allah? Will you \[all\] not then be mindful?[^43] A desire or an enjoyment, beyond a certain limit or boundary, ceases to be so. That's the nature of mortal life (i.e., it becomes self-destructive and hence not really a true desire, for no person desires self-destruction). Hence, greed (or ‘pathological desire’) is the desire of the insane. Greed is, at its core, wastefulness—a quintessentially “Iblisian” quality and behavioral archetype. As such, it is also essentially self-destructive. As indicated by the following hadith: > Ka’b ibn ʿUjra reported: A man passed by the Prophetﷺ, peace and blessings be upon him, and the companions of the Messenger of Allahﷺ saw his endurance and vigor. They said, “O Messenger of Allah, if only this man was in the way of Allah!” The Prophetﷺ said, “If he goes out striving for his small children, he is in the way of Allah. If he goes out striving for his elderly parents, he is in the way of Allah. If he goes out striving for himself to abstain from wrongdoing, he is in the way of Allah. If he goes out vainly and boastfully, he is in the way of Satan.”[^44] In an alternate wording of the same hadith: > The Prophet ﷺ—Allah bless and give him peace—was sitting one day with his Companions, and they observed a strong, sturdy youth setting out early to work. They said, “Woe unto this man; would that his youth and strength were spent in the path of Allah.” The Prophet—Allah bless and give him peace—said, “Do not say this; for if he works for himself in order to restrain himself from begging and to be independent of people, then he is in the path of Allah. If he works for his impoverished parents or for his impoverished children so as to enrich and suffice them, then he is in the path of Allah. **If \[however\] he works for the sake of showing off (*tafākhuran*) and accumulation (*takāthuran*) \[of wealth\], then he is in the path of Satan**.”[^45] That the earning of wealth for selfish, self-aggrandizing purposes puts one on the path of Satan is unsurprising, as such behavior is wasteful and thus demonic: > إِنَّ ٱلْمُبَذِّرِينَ كَانُوٓا۟ إِخْوَٰنَ ٱلشَّيَـٰطِينِ ۖ وَكَانَ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ لِرَبِّهِۦ كَفُورًۭا > > Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and ever has Satan been to his Lord ungrateful.[^46] Setia goes on to highlight that the ecological desolation we see within both the cultural and natural landscape is consistent with the ingratitude that stems from secular disbelief, where scarcity is perceived as the default condition. Accompanying this assumption is a crippling fear of insufficiency and paucity. Competition and hoarding logically follow. Without belief in a Merciful and Generous Creator who provides abundantly, anxiety fuels the greedy and wasteful depletion of resources while blinding one to its True Source, reinforcing a negative feedback loop marked by perpetual ingratitude and unending yearning. It is within this state that the “pathology of consumption”—where satisfaction is ephemeral, and disillusionment and ennui are all too familiar—leaves its signature upon us and upon our world. Imam Al-Ghazālī stated that Allah has made the afterlife the abode of reimbursement and chastisement, and this world the abode of struggle, deception, and tribulation.[^47] Our struggle in the *dunyā* is not, and should not be, confined to concern about the afterlife. Imam Al-Ghazālī saw our worldly livelihood as a means of return to the afterlife, viewing the world as a seedbed for the Hereafter. There is a clear incentive to live Islam’s ethics for both worldly and otherworldly benefits. Our livelihoods depend on the manner in which we transact our lives with Allah’s creation and our ability to render what is rightfully due to everything comprising it. This is one of the most significant and practical expressions of sincere gratitude. > وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِى لَشَدِيدٌۭ > > And \[remember\] when your Lord proclaimed, “If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more. But if you are ungrateful, surely My punishment is severe.”[^48] In the words of 19th-century British writer John Ruskin, wealth is the possession of the valuable by the valiant.  Its opposite—*“illth”*—are the wages proffered through waste, death, destruction, and discord. Those either unwilling to, or incapable of, making this distinction are clear impediments on the path leading to wealth in its truest sense. > There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.[^49] --- ## Concluding thoughts and solutions The epistemology, cosmology, and cosmogony of the Islamic intellectual tradition pellucidly explains the importance of transacting with the natural world as a means of manifesting one’s moral and ethical goodness. A famous and oft-cited saying tells us: > He who knows himself knows his Lord.[^50] The Qur’an also informs us: > لَهُۥ مُعَقِّبَـٰتٌۭ مِّنۢ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِۦ يَحْفَظُونَهُۥ مِنْ أَمْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ ۗ وَإِذَآ أَرَادَ ٱللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍۢ سُوٓءًۭا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُۥ ۚ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن دُونِهِۦ مِن وَالٍ > > For each one there are successive angels before and behind, protecting them by Allah’s command. Indeed, Allah would never change a people’s state \[of favor\] until they change their own state \[of faith\]. And if it is Allah’s Will to torment a people, it can never be averted, nor can they find a protector other than Him.[^51] This may, in part, be understood as an exhortation to remember and reflect upon our human origins—the reasons we were brought into existence and the functional role we were tasked with fulfilling. To know ourselves is to realize that we weren’t made to serve our own selfish pursuits and desires. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya affirms this point when he states in his *al-Fawāʾid*: > Whoever desires to purify their heart, then let them prefer Allah to their own desires.[^52] We were not endowed with our capabilities for the purpose of leading a life of constant entertainment and self-indulgence. Humans aren’t here to remake the world in the image of our personal preferences. The Creation—of which we comprise one of many aspects—was made to manifest the Majesty and Beauty of The One that brought it out of nothingness so that He may be known by means of it. This world was made as a test to prove our mettle and display our qualities of character. It will either testify as a proof for us, providing a vehicle to reflect Divine attributes bestowing benefit on everything we come into contact with—or it will mirror the disorder, dysfunction, and evil residing in our hearts and made manifest by our limbs. Our inability to rein in and sublimate our worst tendencies is on trial. Yet this is the real fight too many of us have run away from—the battle against ourselves: > > كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تُحِبُّوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ شَرٌّۭ لَّكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ > > Fighting has been made obligatory upon you \[believers\], though you dislike it. Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.[^53] This is the deception we have tragically fallen prey to: not applying the call to fight, first and foremost, to our own selves against our own selves. Our failure has lost us much truth and beauty in this world. As stated previously, to know yourself is to know Allah. To know Allah is to know Majesty and Beauty, so that we, too, may serve as signposts for these qualities through our daily conduct—not only through our worship, but also by the manner in which our worship conditions and inspires us to be majestic and beautiful in our worldly transactions, understanding that they have otherworldly consequences. As explained by Dr. Othman ‘Abdur-Rahman Llewellyn,[^54] a methodological approach to utilizing, and transacting with, nature may be detailed in light of the goals and objectives of the Sacred Law. Everything in existence was created and imbued with a unique and innate value. The purpose of all created things is to serve The Creator by playing their designated role in maintaining balance and order, ensuring the functional integrity of Creation as a whole. All sentient beings are bound together in this endeavor. Human beings are tasked with the special responsibility of trusteeship and stewardship of the earth. To show magnanimity towards the entirety of Creation is to embody *iḥsān* (excellence), as exemplified by its resulting practical benefit, moral rectitude, and  holistic beauty. If the central aim of Islamic law is to facilitate the manifestation of excellence, and to ensure comprehensive well-being, it could be said that environmental stewardship is an expression of *iṣlāḥ* (improvement, betterment), as manifested in the revival of degraded land and the enrichment of the earth. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ clearly indicates that the fructification and beautification of the earth is a thoroughly ethical act: > Whoever revives dead land, for him is \[to be found\] reward in it; and whatever any creature seeking food eats of it shall be reckoned as charity from him. > > There is no Muslim who plants a tree or sows a field, and a human, bird, or animal eats from it, but it shall be reckoned as charity from him.[^55] Shaykh Abdul-Hakim Murad (Dr. Timothy Winter) made these points central to his ʿĪd al-Fiṭr *khuṭba* titled “Sultan of the Heart.” In it, he outlined what attitude we need to adopt and what practical steps we need to take to begin rectifying our collective situation, not only as people of faith but as a human species. He first declares Islam “the religion of nature” (*al-dīn al-fiṭra*), the Qur’an “the book of nature” and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ “the prophet of nature.” All clearly command us to be cultivators and greeners of Allah’s creation through planting, sowing, and repairing what has been damaged and destroyed. This is highlighted by Book 41 of *Ṣaḥīh al-Bukhārī*—*The Virtue of Planting and Sowing* (*Muzāraʿa*) and Sūrat Al-Aʿlā.[^56] Just as importantly, Shaykh Murad eviscerates the “solutions” to modernity’s ecological crisis put forward by the likes of Elon Musk, who wishes to save humanity by taking us to Mars—“a hell,” in Shaykh Murad’s words, of dust, carbon dioxide, and radiation that, even after billions of dollars’ worth of Mars expeditions, has not yet yielded “one single organic particle…not even the tiniest fragment of something that exists in its trillions within any human body.”[^57] To abandon our home is to save neither the Earth nor ourselves. We will have to solve our problems right here, in the world that has sustained us for so long—and the solution will demand more than more technology. As Shaykh Murad so eloquently put it: > It seems to be the function of the secular world to destroy while boasting of progress. But it must be the function of the religious majority of mankind, and not just the *ummah* of Islam, to repair. Where they pull up, we must plant. Where they gorge, we must fast. It is the function of Bani Adam in his role as *khulafa* of Allah *subhana wa ta’ala* in His Earth to heal. To fix things. To be those who put \[things\] right. > > How strange is the mentality of so many secular people \[on\] the Earth. Where they see science and technology as leading us into some kind of paradise on Earth. \[It’s\] not happening. Look at the state of the Earth. Look at the state of people’s minds. Look at the depression and the anxiety. Look at the collapsing planet beneath our feet. This is not progress. > > So what do we do? Every one of us has this answer within reach. We have this blessing way, this way of living in a natural and restrained way within the world which is called the Sunnah of the Chosen One (ﷺ).[^58] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 30:41. [^2]: Qur’an 2:30. [^3]: Qur’an 2:30–31. [^4]: Qur’an 41:53. [^5]: Jared Diamond, *Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed* (New York: Penguin Books/Penguin Group, 2011). [^6]: Gus Fisher, “Deforestation and Monoculture Farming Spread COVID-19 and Other Diseases,” Truthout, May 12, 2020, [https://truthout.org/articles/deforestation-and-monoculture-farming-spread-covid-19-and-other-diseases/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://truthout.org/articles/deforestation-and-monoculture-farming-spread-covid-19-and-other-diseases/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908386455&usg=AOvVaw0PJ8svw4g4YJIiG8EssTXv). [^7]: Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, *Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered* (New York: Harper and Row, 1973). [^8]: Walter Clay Loudermilk, *Conquest of the Land Through Seven Thousand Years* (U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, 1948), 1. [^9]: Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” Discover 8, no. 5 (1987): 64–66, [https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/materials/Diamond-TheWorstMistakeInTheHistoryOfTheHumanRace.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/materials/Diamond-TheWorstMistakeInTheHistoryOfTheHumanRace.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908387152&usg=AOvVaw2Nh2UroD2Cvh3PPsxei4Os). [^10]: James C. Scott, *Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States* (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017). [^11]: The Filaha Texts Project, [http://www.filaha.org/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.filaha.org/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908388028&usg=AOvVaw3pe0_e7xknGFm3VF5HBpp7). [^12]: Guy Theodore Wrench, *Reconstruction By Way of the Soil* (London: Faber and Faber, 1946), 262. [^13]: Monsieur Gustav le Bon, *La Civilisation des Arabes*, 1884, as quoted in Wrench, 169. [^14]: Monsieur Sédillot, *Histoire Générale des Arabes*, 1877, as quoted in Wrench, 169. [^15]: Martin Hume, as quoted in Wrench, 169 (referring to “the farming art of the Spanish Arabs”). [^16]: Wrench, 170. [^17]: Abū’l-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, “*al-Dhari’a ila makarim al-shari’a* (The Path to the Noble Qualities of the Sacred Law),” [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54e6208ee4b05860a4600103/t/595a4c9a9f74562cf8fb1225/1499090076162/Raghib+Path+to+Virtue+Translation.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54e6208ee4b05860a4600103/t/595a4c9a9f74562cf8fb1225/1499090076162/Raghib%2BPath%2Bto%2BVirtue%2BTranslation.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908388763&usg=AOvVaw2UX1KyKsMOryhRxzQka8Gj). [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 1, bk. 1, hadith 1, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908389351&usg=AOvVaw3V5m5VOqpybQmJX2L9_c9d). [^19]: Qur’an 30:41. [^20]: Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas and Ibn Ya’qub al-Firuzabadi, *Tafsir Ibn ‘Abbas: The Great Commentaries of the Holy Qur’an (Volume II)*, ed. Yousef Meri, trans. Mokrane Guezzou (Amman, Jordan: The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought: Fons Vitae, 2008). [^21]: Qur’an 42:30. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2742, bk. 49, hadith 12, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2742](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2742&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908390788&usg=AOvVaw0EpjeoOwYgVTOQdRtYWu0x). [^23]: *Faydul Qadir*, Hadith: 3260, As-Sirajul Munir, vol. 2 pg. 158, *Al-Mu’jamul Kabir*, Hadith: 4596, *Majma’uz Zawaid*, vol.1 pg.241. Also see *Targhib*, Hadith: 312; Grade: Hasan Li Ghairihi. [https://hadithanswers.com/beware-of-sinning-on-the-earth/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hadithanswers.com/beware-of-sinning-on-the-earth/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908401743&usg=AOvVaw2lLcljLFrwraMjHKINY8LR); Also refer to Qur’an 99:1-8. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91a; *al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ*, no. 6906. [^25]: Qur’an 2:31. [^26]: William C. Chittick, “Ibn ‘Arabi on the Benefit of Knowledge,” in *The Essential Sophia*, ed. Seyyid Hossein Nasr and Katherine O’Brien (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006). [^27]: Qur’an 6:116. [^28]: Qur’an 18:55. [^29]: Qur’an 18:57. [^30]: ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, related by Yahya ibn Adam al-Qurashi in *Kitab al-kharaj* on the authority of Sa’id ad-Dabbi. [^31]: Alice Bolton, “Ibn Khaldun on Luxury and the Destruction of Civilizations,” *Fountain* 117 (May–June 2017), [https://fountainmagazine.com/2017/issue-117-may-june-2017/ibn-khaldun-on-luxury-and-the-destruction-of-civilizations](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fountainmagazine.com/2017/issue-117-may-june-2017/ibn-khaldun-on-luxury-and-the-destruction-of-civilizations&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908375314&usg=AOvVaw3Wwn9wqgsI6GxMHzcbO8zc). [^32]: Sir John Glubb, *The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival*, 1976, [http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908376604&usg=AOvVaw3o5ZaAdXqLcHO2NkScYb5N). [^33]: Masanobu Fukuoka, *Sowing Seed in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration, and the Ultimate Food Security* (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing: September 3, 2013). [^34]: Pam Wright, “Map Reveals World’s Most and Least Toxic Countries,” The Weather Channel, July 7, 2017, [https://weather.com/science/environment/news/maps-toxic-countries](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://weather.com/science/environment/news/maps-toxic-countries&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908382703&usg=AOvVaw3nAqrh5-msR8T2P2WxYZHU); Charles Clark, “This Map Shows the Countries with the Most ‘Toxic’ Environments on Earth,” *Insider*, February 9, 2017, [https://www.businessinsider.com/map-of-the-most-polluted-and-toxic-countries-2017-2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.businessinsider.com/map-of-the-most-polluted-and-toxic-countries-2017-2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908383216&usg=AOvVaw0HWCGmZFYcgJ22lWTRzuQP); Alexandra Simon-Lewis, “The World’s Most Toxic Countries Laid Bare on This Alarming Map,” *Wired*, January 2, 2017, [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/this-map-reveals-the-most-toxic-countries-in-the-world](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/this-map-reveals-the-most-toxic-countries-in-the-world&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908383779&usg=AOvVaw18qw26-76T12SbGrWqIrlb). [^35]: Simon-Lewis, “World’s Most Toxic Countries.” [^36]: Anusuya Datta, “Maps Reveal Top ‘Toxic’ Nations in the World,” *Geospatial World*,  February 18, 2017, [https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/maps-reveal-top-polluted-countries-world/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/maps-reveal-top-polluted-countries-world/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908384774&usg=AOvVaw0DdBZdajJIebLzMr2JhoGT); “Most Polluted Countries 2022,” World Population Review, [https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-polluted-countries](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-polluted-countries&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908385225&usg=AOvVaw2nCef9oPn-dnDD2yxSdizd). [^37]: Qur’an 4:119. [^38]: Qur’an 2:205–6. [^39]: One of the interesting lessons learned from observing nature is that insects typically considered to be pests starve on healthy plants—they don’t offer anything to eat such as simple sugars and amino acids. This is explained by trophobiosis theory. (“Earth Repair: A Unified Theory,” World Permaculture Association, [https://worldpermacultureassociation.com/earth-repair-unified-theory/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://worldpermacultureassociation.com/earth-repair-unified-theory/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908392898&usg=AOvVaw2WYJ-YWLb6ZRbML_vAGTwH).) Similarly, locusts are found to plague landscapes in regions that have become degraded mostly due to human mismanagement (for example, from destructive agricultural practices or overgrazing of domesticated livestock). Our societies, too, once weakened and diseased, are prone to “pest attacks”—diagnostic indicators of the absence of something crucially important. To escape such attacks, communities require a habitat and a means of sustaining the people who comprise them. As put by Bill Mollison: “We lay waste to our lives in proportion to the way in which the systems we support lay waste to the environment. Although societies for *social* responsibility are rapidly forming, we need to expand the concept to *social and environmental responsibility*, and to create our own financial and employment strategies in those areas.” See Bill Mollison, *Permaculture: A Designer's Manual* (Tyalgum, Australia: Tagari Publications, 1988). [^40]: ‘Adi Setia, “Mu’amalah and the Revival of the Islamic Gift Economy,” *Islam and Science* 9, no. 1 (Summer 2011). [^41]: This is principally the charge, for example, made by the animals against the humans in the court of the jinn king, referring to the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ’s famous text: “Once given words, the animals have much to say, both about their own plight and about the human condition. They present themselves not as mere objects of study but as subjects with an outlook and interests of their own. That casts the essay into a moral mode: the animals warmly appreciate the bounty of Creation but passionately criticize human domination and systematically indict its underlying rationales as the products of human arrogance... The ingenious and insightful design of every creature, say the animals, testifies to God’s creative and providential beneficence. But the natural piety, generosity, courage, and trust of the animals model virtues that human beings too often lack. The animals become living, speaking rebukes of human waywardness, faithlessness, negligence, and insensitivity.” See Lenn E. Goodman and Richard McGregor, eds. and trans., *The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 696. [^42]: Correspondence via WhatsApp with Dr ‘Adi Setia, August 29-30, 2021. [^43]: Qur’an 45:23. As put by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in his *Al-Fawa’id* (see footnote 51): “Whoever loves this worldly life will \[overestimate\] its value and make themself a slave to it—and it will humiliate them.  And whoever neglects it will notice their own great value—and it will serve them and it (this world) will humiliate itself for them.” [^44]: *Al-Mu’jam al-Kabīr lil-Ṭabarānī*, 19:129, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2022/08/26/jihad-supporting-family/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2022/08/26/jihad-supporting-family/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908395829&usg=AOvVaw1MvSwGNT0hwhHVynkUxwXA) (translation modified); al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Mu’jam al-kabīr* (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymīyah, Dār al-Ṣumayʻī, 1983), 19:29, no. 282; authenticated by Shaykh al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmi’ al-ṣaghīr* (Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 1:301, no. 1428; al-Haythamī also said the narrators were reliable in *Majma’ al-Zawā’id* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qudsī, 1933), 4:325, no. 7708. Translated by Abu Amina Elias. [^45]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Mu’jam al-Ṣaghīr* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1985), 2:148, no. 940. [^46]: Qur’an 17:27. [^47]: Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, *The Book of the Properties of Earning and Living* (*Kitab Adab al-Kasb wa al-Ma’ash*), trans. with introduction and notes by ‘Adi Setia (Kuala Lumpur: IBFIM, 2013). [^48]: Qur’an 14:7. [^49]: John Ruskin, *Unto This Last and Other Writings* (London: Penguin Classics, n.d.). [^50]: Abu Nu’aym al-Isfahani, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā’* *wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʼ*, 2nd ed. (Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kotob Illmiyah, 2018), 10:208, [https://kitaabun.com/shopping3/hilyat-awliya-tabaqat-asfiya-arabic-asfahani-p-3430.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kitaabun.com/shopping3/hilyat-awliya-tabaqat-asfiya-arabic-asfahani-p-3430.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908379134&usg=AOvVaw0UTAVR2-MVG0YumgGEojBY). [^51]: Qur’an 13:11. [^52]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *Al-Fawa’id: A Collection of Wise Sayings*, trans. Bayan Translation Services (Mansoura: Umm Al-Qura, 2004), [https://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Al-FAWAID.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Al-FAWAID.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908398800&usg=AOvVaw2ai6P1Z39Revi2lfFlXnZ3). [^53]: Qur’an 2:216. [^54]: Othman ‘Abd Ar-Rahman Llwellyn, “Islamic Jurisprudence and Environmental Planning,” *Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics* 1, no. 2 (1404/1984), [http://www.iefpedia.com/english/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Islamic-Jurisprudence-and-Environmental-Planning-by-Othman-Abd-Ar-Rahman-Llewellyn.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.iefpedia.com/english/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Islamic-Jurisprudence-and-Environmental-Planning-by-Othman-Abd-Ar-Rahman-Llewellyn.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908377979&usg=AOvVaw1fJNMZoFP4eE-px7oT6vCX). [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 2320, bk. 41, hadith 1, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2320](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2320&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1662069908379912&usg=AOvVaw1i-CNPOw8Gdcqh6vnXdN-g). [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 2320, bk. 41, hadith 1, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/41.](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/41) [^57]: Abdul Hakim Murad, “Sultan of the Heart – Abdal Hakim Murad: Eid Sermon,” YouTube video, May 2, 2022, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuAERjKy6Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuAERjKy6Y). [^58]: Murad, “Sultan of the Heart.” ## Summary **The Corruption of the Earth and the Recovery of Human Stewardship** Allah, Most High, has bound the outward condition of the earth to the inward condition of its inhabitants, for the destruction wrought upon nature stands as a testimony against the character of mankind. This truth is affirmed in His words: "Corruption has appeared on the land and sea, by reason of what your hands have earned. That Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return" (Qur'an 30:41). The ecological ruin of a place is thus a mirror reflecting the ethical, spiritual, and psychological state of a people. When human beings misunderstand themselves and their surroundings, and fail to translate rightly what they perceive into fitting responses, the consequences are repeatable and predictable across history. The origin of the human role is disclosed in the Qur'anic account of Adam. Allah announced to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the Earth a steward (khalīfa)" (Qur'an 2:30), and the angels, aware even then of this species' capacity for evil, asked, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare your praise and sanctify You?" To this Allah replied decisively, "I know that which you do not know," and then "taught Adam the names—all of them" (Qur'an 2:31). According to broad scholarly consensus, these names are the Divine Names and Attributes reflected throughout creation, including within human beings, as He says, "We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth" (Qur'an 41:53). If the world is an expression of Divine Attributes, then reverence for Allah demands that His creation be preserved and nurtured, and this preservation is itself the truest display of gratitude—gratitude being the key to saving both the earth and ourselves. History bears out the peril of neglecting this trust. Dr. Jared Diamond, in *Collapse*, identifies five factors behind civilizational failure—climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of trading partners, environmental problems, and failure to adapt—and lists twelve environmental problems facing mankind, of which the foremost three (deforestation, soil degradation, and water mismanagement) share a single origin in human mismanagement of the land. Even recent pandemics, including COVID-19, Ebola, SARS, MERS, and swine flu, have been closely linked to deforestation, with roughly sixty percent of new infectious outbreaks in recent decades being zoonotic in origin. The economist E. F. Schumacher, citing Dale and Carter's *Topsoil and Civilization*, observed that between ten and thirty civilizations have followed the same self-destructive pattern of felling forests, overgrazing land, destroying wildlife, eroding topsoil, and exhausting resources until forced to seek new territory. As W. C. Loudermilk wrote, "the land does not lie; it bears a record of what men write on it." It should be noted, however, that these narratives are not without dispute. Diamond regarded agriculture as the worst mistake in human history, and James C. Scott of Yale described its rise through "the four domestications" of plants, animals, fire, and people, arguing that mankind was gradually "de-skilled" and rendered a dependent, captive population of consumers. Yet these assessments are neither flawless nor universally agreed upon. The record of the Muslims stands in stark contrast, for Guy Theodore Wrench, drawing largely upon European historians, chronicled the extraordinary agricultural achievement of Muslims in Andalusia. The historian S. P. Scott described the agricultural system of the Moors as "the most complex, the most scientific, the most perfect, ever devised by the ingenuity of man," rooted in a profound understanding of water, for they realized that "the proper use of water was civilization." Wrench attributed this success to their acting in accordance with Islam's ethical, cosmological, and metaphysical framework. Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 1108) explained the human being's threefold function: to cultivate and prosper in the earth (ʿimārat al-arḍ), as in "He brought you out from the earth and made you inhabit it" (Qur'an 11:61); to worship Allah, as in "I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me" (Qur'an 51:56); and to exercise vicegerency (khilāfa), as in Qur'an 7:129, by imitating the noble qualities of the Sacred Law—wisdom, justice, forbearance, beneficence, and graciousness. Two of these three functions concern man's conduct toward creation, and even a mundane act such as planting a tree may become worship according to intention, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended." Ibn ʿAbbās understood the verse on corruption (30:41) to mean the death of cattle, drought, and scarcity brought about by human transgression, so that people might repent. Other evidences reinforce this: "And whatever misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned" (Qur'an 42:30); the saying of the Prophet ﷺ that "the world is sweet and verdant, and verily Allah has made you stewards in it"; and his warning, "Beware of the earth for it is your mother… No one does good or evil on her except that she will speak of it on the Day of Qiyāma." Since Allah "is beautiful and He loves beauty," nature embodies both truth and beauty, and cannot be corrupted without the corruptor eventually tasting the consequences, for mankind is itself part of nature. William Chittick, expounding Ibn ʿArabī, explained that man is obliged by his very fiṭra to recognize the ḥaqq (right) of things and act accordingly, for true knowledge is to know the reality (ḥaqīqa) of a thing and respond to it rightly—this being taḥqīq. Such knowledge, joined with adab, produces the noble character (akhlāq) required for proper conduct, and liberates one from mere conjecture, for "if you were to obey most of those on earth, they would lead you away from Allah's Way" (Qur'an 6:116). The Qur'an rebukes those who ignore the patterns of former peoples (18:55) and those whose hearts are covered so they cannot understand (18:57), and it enjoins us to "partake of the Earth gladly, so long as you are a benefactor, not a despoiler; a cultivator, not a destroyer." The present age has conditioned mankind to function as consumers rather than producers, so that nations are measured by Gross Domestic Product, a metric that would collapse if people provided for themselves within self-sufficient communities—an arrangement described as logically suspect and ethically bankrupt. Technology, while increasing productivity, has also increased destructiveness and, through its opacity, blinded people to the harm they cause. Ibn Khaldūn warned that pursuit of civilization's pleasures repeatedly corrupts human beings and destroys them, and Sir John Bagot Glubb argued that great nations rise and fall in a predictable span of roughly two hundred and fifty years, unchanged for three thousand years. Wendell Berry, in *The Unsettling of America*, exposed the ceaseless cycle of exploitation and victimization, showing that our modern destruction is merely "an old story dressed in new clothes." We are, in the striking image offered, "the octopus congratulating itself for becoming fat by eating its own legs." Tragically, nine of the ten most toxic countries listed by The Eco Experts—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkmenistan, Libya, and Kazakhstan—are nominally Muslim-majority nations. Whatever the worldly causes, Allah is ultimately in control, and Muslims must ask with honest introspection why they find themselves thus. Many have adopted a "misenchanted way of life" that pursues profit at the expense of beauty and truth, and the sincerity of those who profess love for Allah yet disregard His creation must be questioned. The impulse to corrupt what Allah has perfected stems from Satan, who vowed, "I shall command them and they will change the creation of Allah" (Qur'an 4:119), and it resembles the one who "goes about the earth corrupting it, destroying crops and animals. Allah does not love corruption" (Qur'an 2:205). Dr. ʿAdi Setia argues that a properly Islamic worldview sees the Creator's provision as, in principle, unlimited, while human needs are rightly limited; but this understanding has been inverted. Gratitude produces contentment, whereas greed—"pathological desire"—is wastefulness and a quintessentially Iblisian trait, for "the wasteful are brothers of the devils" (Qur'an 17:27). The Prophet ﷺ taught that one who strives to support his family or restrain himself is in the way of Allah, but one who strives "for the sake of showing off and accumulation" is in the way of Satan. Setia notes that ecological desolation flows from the ingratitude of secular disbelief, which assumes scarcity and breeds hoarding, whereas Allah promises, "If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more" (Qur'an 14:7). Imam al-Ghazālī saw this world as the seedbed of the Hereafter, and John Ruskin declared that "there is no wealth but life." The Islamic tradition thus explains clearly that dealing rightly with the natural world manifests moral goodness, for "he who knows himself knows his Lord," and "Allah would never change a people's state until they change their own state" (Qur'an 13:11). Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya wrote in *al-Fawāʾid* that whoever wishes to purify his heart must prefer Allah to his own desires. The true struggle is against the self, for "fighting has been made obligatory upon you, though you dislike it… perhaps you dislike something which is good for you" (Qur'an 2:216). Dr. Othman ʿAbdur-Rahman Llewellyn explains, in light of the objectives of the Sacred Law, that every created thing possesses innate value and serves its Creator by maintaining balance, while man bears the special trust of stewardship. Environmental stewardship is therefore an expression of iḥsān and iṣlāḥ, as the Prophet ﷺ declared, "Whoever revives dead land, for him is reward in it," and "There is no Muslim who plants a tree or sows a field, and a human, bird, or animal eats from it, but it shall be reckoned as charity from him." Shaykh Abdul-Hakim Murad, in his khuṭba "Sultan of the Heart," called Islam "the religion of nature," the Qur'an "the book of nature," and the Prophet ﷺ "the prophet of nature," and he refuted schemes such as Elon Musk's proposal to escape to Mars—"a hell" of dust, carbon dioxide, and radiation yielding not "one single organic particle." Salvation lies not in abandoning our home nor in more technology, but in repair: "Where they pull up, we must plant. Where they gorge, we must fast." Every one of us holds this answer within reach through the Sunnah of the Chosen One ﷺ—a way of living naturally and with restraint within the world. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/8-questions-your-muslim-teens-are-asking # 8 Questions Your Muslim Teens Are Asking **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Blog **Published:** August 18, 2022 **Updated:** September 12, 2025 Our students and children are naturally inquisitive. Out of their curiosity, they often ask questions about our beliefs and the things we do.  Sometimes, even as teachers, we ourselves don’t know how to articulate a proper answer. Although life experiences may have given us certainty in our faith, we’re not always equipped to answer their questions directly. --- ## 1\. “Is God real? How do we know God exists?" The golden word: proof. Our current world emphasizes the need for evidence to believe anything. “Proving” God exists against modern objections, however, may leave you flustered. Rest assured, our tradition has multiple ways of establishing the existence of God.  Find how to help your child or student answer this question by checking out our curriculum unit on [“The case for Allah’s existence.”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/principles-of-faith/the-case-for-allahs-existence) --- ## 2\. “Why does God let bad things happen?” In an unfortunate circumstance, say another school shooting occurs. We must be the voice of comfort to our children and students. When they see the news unfold, from shootings to wars, they may ask us how all of this evil can exist if Allah is ar-Rahman, the Most Merciful. In these moments, we need to explain the nature of a merciful God despite all the suffering we see around us. You can navigate this conversation with the aid of our unit, [“How can evil coexist with a merciful God?”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/principles-of-faith/how-can-evil-coexist-with-a-merciful-god) --- ## 3\. “Are prophets real? How do we know?” We don’t live in a time of prophets. Nor does our current society welcome the idea of messengers being sent from God. It’s no surprise then that our youth might question someone’s claim to prophethood. But even during their lifetime, prophets still had to prove to their people that they were indeed sent from Allah. Our curriculum unit, [“The proofs of prophethood,”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/principles-of-faith/the-proofs-of-prophethood) delves into this exact topic. --- ## 4\. "How is the Qur’an a miracle?" For many of us, understanding the miraculous nature of the Qur’an can be challenging. This is even more so the case for young Muslims who cannot access its language and magnitude. We know in our hearts that this book is the divine speech of Allah, but how do we explain it with evidence? And how can we prove that it was not the Prophet ﷺ who authored it himself? Introduce your students to the historical accuracy of the Qur’an and its literary miracles with our unit, [“Qur’an: The living literary miracle.”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/principles-of-faith/quran-the-living-literary-miracle) --- ## 5\. "What does Islam say about taking care of the environment? Why should I care?” Climate change, global warming, and green initiatives have dominated public debates on the environment in recent years. While a lot of our youth have voiced concerns over these issues, few realize that Islam has a lot to say about protecting and caring for the environment. Students who know this can be empowered to root their activism in Islam. Discover more details by going through our unit, [“When the earth speaks against us: environmental ethics in Islam.”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/the-everyday-ethics-of-life/caring-for-earth-is-worship) --- ## 6\. "If Allah knows everything that’s going to happen, how do I have free will?" Explaining the relationship between divine decree and free will is often one of the hardest questions we have to answer as parents and teachers. At face value, it may not make sense. “What’s the point of trying,” your students ask, “if Allah already decreed that I’m going to fail?” In our unit, [“Conscious or coerced: divine decree in Islam,”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/principles-of-faith/divine-decree-in-islam) we explore the ways we can reconcile the fact that even though Allah knows everything, we are still morally responsible for our actions. --- ## 7\. "Why is Islam so difficult? Why do I have to give up so much as a Muslim?" As Muslims, it sometimes feels like we have to do a lot. We give up food in order to fast, time to pray, and money to donate. But completing these ritualistic acts doesn’t always have to feel burdensome. In fact, these acts of sacrifice don’t just help build a connection with Allah. They build our character, our lives, and our communities. Help your students reimagine what it means to give things up for Allah in our unit, [“Winning through sacrifice: a rewarding means of worship.”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/faith-in-action/winning-though-sacrifice) --- ## 8\. "I sometimes feel anxiety or feel overwhelmed by emotions. How can I control my emotions and thoughts?" Today, we are drowning in noise and distraction. Our students are always on their phones or laptops, leaving their senses constantly stimulated. It’s no wonder that, without any quiet time, they begin to lose control of their emotions, and anxieties run high. Train your students to regain control over their negative thoughts by taking time to practice prophetic mindfulness with our unit, [“Clear mind, connected soul: Islamic mindfulness.”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum/the-everyday-ethics-of-life/islamic-mindfulness) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-unique-storytelling-style-of-the-quran # The Unique Storytelling Style of the Qur’an **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 15, 2022 **Updated:** November 4, 2025 In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy We find that stories constitute approximately one third of the Noble Qur’an, the greatest Book of guidance ever revealed to the world. And in its greatest chapter (*al-Fātiḥah*), we are taught to pray for guidance by alluding to the stories of those “favored by God”[^1] with guidance to the Straight Path before us. These scriptural phenomena validate the immense power of stories to move hearts and minds, dispelling the faulty assumption that stories are just for children or that incorporating them into our discourse detracts from its intellectual vigor. However, the Qur’an did not just validate storytelling. It proceeded to identify its own stories as unique and most potent for reforming its readers into the best versions of themselves. This paper explores why the Qur’anic style of storytelling is one that, while rather unconventional for some people, is replete with wisdom indicative of its Divine origins. --- ## Storytelling at its finest “We relate to you, \[O Muhammad\], the best of stories in what We have revealed to you of this Qur’an.”[^2] Should we infer from this noble verse that the account of Prophet Joseph (as) which unfolds in the very next verses, is the single greatest Qur’anic story? Some scholars have argued this, but it is rather unlikely for many reasons–-not the least of which is the multitude of Qur’anic references to the life and mission of Moses (as). Should we then infer that all the stories God chose to include in the Qur’an equally count as the “best of stories”? This seems to be the stronger position, but not the full explanation. Exegetes of the Qur’an point out that Allah did not say in this verse that He relates to us the best *qiṣaṣ* (stories), but rather the best *qaṣaṣ* (storytelling).[^3] In other words, Allah not only makes the ideal choices on which stories to tell, but also tells them in the most ideal way. And just as the “prologue” of *Sūrah Yūsuf* identifies the Qur’anic style of storytelling as best, its “epilogue” elaborates further with Allah’s words, > There was certainly in their stories (1) a lesson (2) for those of understanding. (3) Never was it \[i.e., the Qur’an\] a narration invented, but a confirmation of what was before it and (4) a detailed explanation of all things and guidance and mercy for a people who believe.[^4] This verse deepens our understanding about some important features of Qur’anic storytelling, and why its methodology best serves the Qur’an’s ultimate objective of offering “guidance and mercy for those who believe.” It built on the preexisting affinity for storytelling gatherings in Arabia and in every known human civilization (even today, albeit in the form of film and television above all), and then elevated its function to serve the loftiest of all purposes: heeding the Divine call. ### 1\. Lesson-oriented While the Qur’an is remarkably captivating, Allah (the Glorified and Majestic) makes it crystal clear that His wondrous words did not penetrate the barriers of this universe to simply fascinate us. Rather, it is *al-Qawl al-Faṣl* (the Decisive Word),[^5] here to set the record straight on sacred truths, establish measures of justice, and pass final verdicts for humanity on the ethical framework approved by Almighty God. This does not, however, preclude it from being a tapestry of Divine art that creatively guides people towards lessons that aid them in embracing these truths and teachings for their betterment in this world and the next. In that vein, the stories of the Qur’an are articulated and situated in ways that best elucidate for us the prescribed laws of the Divine, and motivate us to align ourselves with them. As Muḥammad ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1973), an esteemed contemporary specialist of the Qur’an, explains in *al-Taḥrīr wal-Tanwīr*, Qur’anic storytelling does not qualify as the “best storytelling” solely because it is lesson-based, or because it restricts itself only to true stories. After all, there are many non-Qur’anic stories that are true, and from which valuable lessons can be derived. What makes Qur’anic storytelling exceptional is its efficacy in carving—not just introducing—its timeless lessons into the worldview of its readers and listeners, and steadily strengthening their interest in imbibing them.[^6] People tend to tell stories in ways that offer little benefit—stories that either entertain without purpose, or that bury their purpose under superfluous details that weaken their potency for moral refinement. These were among the reasons why traditional scholars often wrote works cautioning against “professional” storytellers.[^7] The Qur’an, however, is not just lesson-based; it is lesson-oriented and lesson-orienting. In order to inculcate rather than merely preach its moral vision—to not just explain ethics to its readers, but to *make* them ethical—it departs from the storytelling approach to which so many of us are accustomed. Quite often, for instance, the Qur’an omits the names of people and their lineages, as well as the names of towns and their locations, in distinct contrast to the historical and biographical works with which we are familiar. These omissions are “by design,” for they better enable the reader to focus on the lesson itself, and not restrict its relevance to some transient moment in the annals of history.[^8] So why does the Qur’an not clearly tell us, for instance, whether or not earlier humans ever coexisted with dinosaurs, or what the birthname was for the “believer from Pharaoh’s family,” or where the cave of the “Seven Sleepers” is located? Perhaps His perfect knowledge of how easily excess information distracts us is part of the wisdom for such facts being redacted. Did not theologians historically debate, at great lengths, what kind of fruit the Forbidden Tree produced in the story of Adam (as), despite that being of no beneficial consequence? Did not the assumed location of certain pious figures’ graves lead to the erection of shrines at which the deceased are invoked instead of God, the only All-Hearing? Did not the historical emphasis on ancestry in religious scriptures lead to doctrines that perpetuated “elite bloodlines” in ways antithetical to God’s justice? Qur’anic stories therefore come with an infinitely wise framing, one that assists us both by what they include and what they exclude, sealing shut inlets to misguidance, and thus keeping history’s darker chapters from repeating themselves. Consider how Allah reclaims the distorted narrative of the “Seven Sleepers” in the cave. At the onset, He declares, “It is We who relate to you their story in truth. Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Lord…”[^9] In other words, Allah tells us, discard the framing of those Jews who nationalized their religion and considered ethnic roots the ultimate determinant of human value; it was rather them being youth who had their whole lives ahead of them, and them choosing faith despite facing religious persecution, that was of paramount importance and worthy of celebration, not their “coincidental” belonging to one ancestry or another. As the story progresses, we find that not only will the names and ages of these young heroes remain undisclosed, but that Allah is delivering a clear caution against any polemical debates pertaining to their number; “Say \[O Muhammad\], my Lord is best aware of their number. None know them save a few. So contend not concerning them except an outward contending.”[^10] In other words, only dispute over this in ways that do not get under your skin, since such facts are neither strongly evidenced nor very consequential. And finally, at the climax of their story, we are guided to focus on the great sign of God’s power in reviving these sleepers three centuries later: “That is how We caused them to be discovered so that their people might know that Allah’s promise \[of resurrection\] is true and that there is no doubt about the Hour.”[^11] Therefore, it is Divine grace that we are not teased away from the primordial truth of God’s power here by the year of this historic event, nor by the name of the city they stumbled into with their archaic silver coins, nor by the geographical coordinates of the cave to which these righteous youth were tracked and ultimately discovered. This distinctive feature (lesson-orientation) brings us to some of the wisdoms behind the narrative repetition we find in the Qur’an. Badr al-Dīn ibn Jamāʿah (d. 1333), for instance, authored a work entitled *al-Muqtanaṣ* which presents seven benefits of the repetition of certain stories.[^12] One wisdom lies in the fact that Qur’anic storytelling, much like preaching, is often didactic in nature. It would be odd to ask a preacher, “I recall you mentioning this personality in a sermon last year; why are you repeating yourself?” when the respective context each time justified it. Similarly, the Qur’an may reference the same story whenever the context benefits from its presence, and whenever that repetition helps lodge the intended lesson in the reader’s soul.[^13] In response to the question of why the Qur’an “repeats itself,” it is difficult to resist the urge to say, “Because you need to be told a thousand times to clean your room.” We have a little child inside us all, and a messy room inside all our minds and hearts. Just like the child, we too need a wise and methodical approach to work past our inexperience and impatience, one that can effectively wean us off our myopic tendencies to try everything firsthand, and to impulsively grab whatever we want when we want it. Otherwise, our potential optimism bias (false sense of security) about everything, or our dependence on instant gratification, will negatively impact every dimension of our wellbeing—be it physical, mental, emotional, financial, or spiritual. With their wise and consistent messaging, the stories of the Qur’an do just that: they rescue us from our crippling naivety, compel us to acknowledge reality, and inculcate within us the incentives to engage it prudently. The elderly often admit that their lifespans were in fact too short to allow for the timely discovery of such treasures. The Creator of the human psyche knows our need for reinforcement through repetition. Without a vivid recollection and regular reiteration of these stories, we would never internalize them nor recognize the subtle threads between them—and thus our busy lives may very well erode even their most priceless lessons. We can all recall profound moments of pause in our lives—moments when time seemed to stop, or we wished it would. Whether these moments were like an invigorating rainfall of intense gratitude, or a devastating sledgehammer that left us feeling shattered beyond repair, life went on and those showers abated and those pains were sedated. Thus is the destiny of man, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “Adam forgot, and so too will his progeny forget.”[^14] Hence, we find Qur’anic stories accounting for the inherent deficiency of human memory, puncturing the nearly impervious stone of our ego with a steady stream of droplets spanning days, months, and years, rather than a short-lived downpour that rinses the dust off of the stone’s surface but causes no meaningful change therein. As Allah says, “The disbelievers say, ‘If only the Qur’an had been sent down to him all at once!’ \[We have sent it\] as such \[in stages\] so We may strengthen your heart with it. And thus, We have revealed it at a deliberate pace.”[^15] A second wisdom behind the repetition found in the Qur’an is to evidence its linguistic brilliance. Authors often shy away from theme repetition, in fear of sounding redundant, while the Qur’an exhibits a unique boldness in doing the very opposite. Experts of Arabic often express their intrigue with how the Qur’an “repeats itself” with such artistic variation that its rhetorical richness remains unblemished and its appeal undiminished. The Qur’an somehow avoids misstating the facts of each story despite employing variant wordings in each “retelling.” It also intersperses nuggets of additional nuance in some iterations of a story, and subtracts them from others, without compromising the overall integrity and coherence of the accounts. Hence, a closer examination of this “repetition” often reveals impeccable subtleties and nuanced distinctions that boast of the linguistic mastery of the Qur’an while offering further enlightenment and refinement to inclining souls. Alongside noting these three complexities (versatility, consistency, and coherence), we should  appreciate how this linguistic sophistication is compounded further by the Qur’an’s original status as a spoken corpus, not a written work, with a compositional structure without precedent in pre-Qur’anic Arabia. Ibn ‘Āshūr asserts that elaborate, story-driven dialoguing, as found in the Qur’an, was nonexistent in the poetry of pre-Islamic Arabia. Hence, one of the benefits of including stories in the Qur’an was that, without them, the master poets of Arabia could have attempted to hide their inability to meet the Qur’anic challenge to “produce its like” by avoiding interactive dialogue.[^16] Perhaps it was the linguistic guardrails that tightly governed their poetry’s structure and synonym counts that forced them to invoke brief imagery and passing analogies but not conversation-centric storylines. Whatever the reason, it’s as if the Qur’an is declaring to the Shakespeares of every civilization:[^17] I’ve diversified the styles of storytelling for you, and yet, the eternal challenge to wield your languages in any one of these ways is still unmet. A third benefit of Qur’anic stories resurfacing in various places is that, while the memorization of the Qur’an is common, most Muslims have historically not committed the entire Book to memory. Even during the Prophet’s time, people would visit him ﷺ or his Companions, memorize parts of the Qur’an from them, and then return to their respective hometowns. Therefore, to ensure every believer’s familiarity with the Qur’an’s paradigmatic stories, regardless of what they have and haven’t memorized, these stories are, through repetition, made available throughout the Book.[^18] While only some were introduced above, below are the seven insights offered by Ibn Jamā‘ah for the repetition we encounter in the stories of the Qur’an: 1. Elucidating the stories gradually with additional nuance each time; 2. Ensuring that believers everywhere, laymen and scholars, are familiar with the major stories of the Qur’an; 3. Displaying the unique eloquence of the Qur’an through compatible portrayals of a single scene through  myriad terms; 4. Ensuring maximum reach of its teachings, as people are more motivated to circulate stories than instructions; 5. Humbling the masters of Arabic rhetoric who could not match a single variant of the Qur’anic narratives; 6. Preempting polemicists from claiming that the Qur’an could not reframe its stories in different ways, so why challenge its rejectors to do so? 7. Retaining the readers’ interest, who need to immerse themselves in these scenes time and again, by offering a remarkably “fresh” depiction each time.[^19] ### 2\. For people of understanding Qur’anic stories are intentionally structured to invite conscious engagement. While part of the onus is on the reader to be thoughtful and reflective to benefit from the Qur’an, its style of composition facilitates an active engagement and alertness to the priceless messages embedded in its stories. As al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1108) points out in his historically acclaimed dictionary of Qur’anic terms, stories carrying *ʿibrah li-ulī ‘l-albāb* (translated as: a lesson for people of understanding) literally implies them being a bridge for the *ʿubūr* (crossing over) of their meanings into our lives.[^20] This uncovers for us some of the wisdom behind breaking up and distributing these stories across the Qur’an: not just for the brevity that refreshes our interest, but also to interrupt the over-immersion that hinders introspection in light of the story at hand. Think of novels and movies; irrespective of whether they are truth or fiction, people often get so absorbed in their storylines that they forget to ask themselves why these accounts make them feel this way, or what they should learn from them for their own lives. This is precisely the attitude that excludes someone from finding their path illuminated by the Qur’an, as Allah says, “Certainly there were in \[the account of\] Joseph and his brothers signs for those who ask.”[^21] It is those *asking* themselves the grand existential questions about life and its purpose, and those *asking* for proof of the Qur’an truly being from Almighty God, who will find the Qur’an and its stories fruitful. Those too indulgent for introspection, or too heedless for reflection, will not. It was once said to Ibn ʿAbbās (rA), a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ hailed as *Turjumān al-Qurʾān* (Master Interpreter of the Qur’an), “How did you develop such profound knowledge?” He said, “With an inquisitive tongue and a receptive heart.”[^22] As Allah says elsewhere, “Indeed in that is a profound reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present \[minded\].”[^23] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) notes that this verse captures—in the most succinct way—the three factors necessary for any message or story to have an impact. It must have an intrinsic potency for impact, its “target” must be open to stimulation or impression, and any hindrances between the force and the impact must be removed. “In that is a profound reminder” refers to the intrinsic potency of the Qur’anic narrative. “For whoever has a heart” refers to the sincere soul who is alive and able to comprehend the implications of the message. Finally, “who listens while he is present” refers to mindfulness. So the Qur’an in its entirety (including its stories) will not confer its precious lessons upon those who engage it without actively seeking to understand it. In another verse, Allah says to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, “So relate the stories that perhaps they will give thought.”[^24] It is therefore a two-step process, whereby the Qur’an brings people to the ideal reservoir through which they can quench their thirst, but it remains upon them to drink from it. Those who ignore or hastily gloss over the Qur’anic stories will never be quenched by the stream of perspective and inspiration that it brings to others’ lives. An easy example of this are the critics who, driven by their dogmatic defensiveness of their religious traditions, disparage the Qur’an as lacking coherence of composition. This is a generally-held view among some orientalist academics past and present, some of whom even proposed “making the Qur’an more comprehensible” by rearranging its contents thematically.[^25] But given that this Book is a medium of guidance for “people of understanding,” and this class of people harbor an adamant presumption about its incomprehensibility, they seldom make a genuine attempt to understand it. As a result, studying it only causes them to stray farther and their biases to grow stronger. As Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) says, “We send down in the Qur’an healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss.”[^26] Were it not for their adversarial approach to the Qur’an, they would have been among the “people of understanding” who find each *sūrah* (chapter) a self-contained and unified discourse with one or more central themes. The *sūrah* would then escape its apparent atomism, and each of its stories, instead of seeming like random pivots to irrelevant digressions, would now develop the overarching theme for the reader. Which parts of each story are included per *sūrah*, and where they are stationed within that *sūrah*, gradually become context clues to help render it a prized collection of matching pearls on a single necklace, not bulky stones randomly scattered on the ground. For instance, near-identical mention of prior prophets and their hardships came in different contexts with different aims: 1. To console the Prophet ﷺ during moments of intense suffering and abuse; 2. To illustrate the commonality of the call to monotheism by all of God’s prophets and messengers; 3. To note the common end of all those who rejected earlier prophets; 4. To caution disbelievers against deluding themselves with baseless, recycled arguments against faith; 5. To precisely disclose “lost knowledge of the distant past” which only the highest caliber scholars among the Israelites remained privy to, etc. Similarly, the following two verses make a near-symmetrical visit to the “genesis story,” while sitting 18 chapters apart, with very different implications: > God is He who created the heavens and the earth and everything between them in six days, and then established Himself on the Throne.[^27] > > We created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and no fatigue touched Us.[^28] In isolation, these distinct passages seem to carry near-identical implications. But in their contexts, each is clearly and perfectly situated to solidify a different and independent truth. The first is that man should never doubt the omnipotence of the Almighty and His power to resurrect the dead with ease (a clear theme throughout *Sūrah al-Sajdah*). The second (in *Sūrah Qāf*) is that you (O Prophet ﷺ) can find the resilience to rise above the insults others hurl by recalling that God who, after creating the cosmos in six days, tolerated those who accused Him of needing to rest from exhaustion on the seventh day. As the next verse in *Sūrah Qāf* continues, “...so endure what they say and proclaim the praises of your Lord before the rising of the sun, and before sunset.”[^29] In his compendium on Qur’anic sciences, Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī (d. 1738) marvels at how the Qur’an repurposes many of the same stories, simply by couching them (sometimes with subtle rewordings) in new contexts, to saliently bolster a vast multitude of unrelated concepts. He then invoked the analogy of how scholars continue their exceptional praise of Imam al-Bukhārī (d. 870) for the masterful design of his hadith compilation; specifically how al-Bukhārī would classify the same prophetic tradition under several headings due to the spectrum of inferences he was capable of extrapolating from a single concise hadith.[^30] Of course, the immeasurable disparity between al-Bukhārī and the Creator of his extraordinary intelligence is a given. Similar to Ibn ʿAqīlah’s line of thought, Ibn ʿAbdīn says, “If you see something that appears repetitive in the Qur’an, look deeper into it. Take note of what came before it, and after it, so that its purpose may disclose itself to you.”[^31] Another notable aspect of Qur’anic discourse is its multilayered meanings, whereby several implications are simultaneously made by the same story or scene. In *Sūrah al-Qaṣaṣ*, for instance, we are told about Prophet Moses (as), “Then one of the two women came to him, walking bashfully. She said, ‘My father is inviting you…’”[^32] We can stop at *bashfully*, (as translated above), which would make this adverb a description of her demeanor of walking. However, we can also pause at *walking*, which would turn *bashfully* into a qualifier of the following verb, rendering it a description of the modest manner in which she spoke.[^33] Were it not for the deliberate and subtle syntactic placement of *bashfully*—just after *walking* and just before *saying*—it would not have succinctly straddled both implications simultaneously as it does. This brilliant and clear display of eloquence is a profound linguistic feature that pervades the entire Qur’an, within its stories and elsewhere. This is yet another feature lost on hasty critics of the Qur’an. Where they see the multiple implications of certain verses as a lack of precision, Qur’anic scholars recognize them as a deliberate enrichment of the scriptural narrative, and often mention how the pausal modes (*waqf* and *ibtidāʾ*) are among the critical tools necessary for a deeper understanding of the Qur’an’s stories in particular.[^34] Another type of dual meaning is found in the closing remarks of *Sūrah Yūsuf* wherein Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) says, “This is news from the past that We reveal to you \[O Muhammad\]. You were not present with them when they plotted and agreed on a plan.”[^35] The obvious meaning here is that Allah has just privileged Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with access to lost knowledge as a testament to the truth of his prophethood, which even included the details of the secret plotting done by the mischievous characters of that story. However, the event that prompted the revelation of this *sūrah* suggests that this verse also serves as a threat to those who were currently plotting against the Prophet ﷺ. To explain, the Jews (a people of Scripture) were consulted by the pagan Arabs on the best way to stump Muhammad ﷺ. Their advice was to question him about Joseph the Israelite, at which point *Sūrah Yūsuf* was revealed, staggering the counselors and their clients with its uncanny truth. However, the *sūrah* does not end with the ending of the story. Allah knew that after failing with their polemics, the opponents of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would shift from brains to brawn, and soon convene to plot their physical aggressions. *Sūrah Yūsuf* implicitly invokes this context. Just before folding away Joseph’s (as) blessed story, the tape is rewound and pulled back into the limelight are Joseph’s brothers—how they plotted, deliberated, and executed, and how Allah caused their “well-calculated” plan to fail. It is as if Allah is challenging the belligerent pagans, “Go ahead, make your next move; dare to plot against your own flesh and blood, Muhammad, and your other brothers from Quraysh—just as the brothers of Joesph once did. Go ahead and convene your private meeting about forcing the Muslims into exile—just as the brothers of Joseph once exiled him. We will always be one step ahead of you.” Without warning, the idolators of Mecca ran into a wall of realizations: Allah does not only possess full knowledge of the unseen past, but also the most discreet whispers in the present (which some Arabs doubted).[^36] Even more, they realized that they were not the only ones plotting, but that Allah was also plotting against them. The story of Joseph and its buried history from centuries ago, to which these pagans had been oblivious, suddenly carried a world of daunting relevance for them. In a divinely orchestrated plot twist, the story they traveled so far to learn and weaponize against Muhammad ﷺ was suddenly their story, directly pointed at them, without the guarantee of a happy ending. ### 3\. Realism The Qur’an’s unwavering commitment to truth infuses its storytelling with a distinctive realism—both in its detailed historical accuracy and  uncompromising (but not despairing) depiction of this world’s imperfections. Together, these stories neither assert any falsities to be discredited in the future, nor perpetuate fairy tales that would misguide people’s expectations of the present. Either of these hypotheticals would be unbecoming of an omniscient, compassionate God who loves to guide His creatures from the darknesses and into the Light. As for truths from the lost past, the Qur’an brought surgically accurate accounts of history that only the most well-versed scholars in earlier scriptures knew, and were sure that Muhammad ﷺ could not have known unless he was in fact a true messenger of God. Furthermore, the Qur’an excludes some of the historical details found in the Bible (such as [pharaohs existing](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-inimitable-quran-the-revelation-to-prophet-muhammad&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1660583617381602&usg=AOvVaw2CcER2lSf62rIKva_iupyG) in the era of Abraham or Joseph)[^37] that would be later disproven. In addition to proving his prophethood ﷺ, these demonstrably true stories also elevated the recipients of this Qur’an in Arabia from an unlettered Scripture-less people to those who now carry—like their Judeo-Christian counterparts—the mantle of sacred knowledge and Divine insights.[^38] Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) said, “This is one of the stories of the unseen, which we reveal to you \[O Prophet\]. Neither you nor your people knew it before this.”[^39] As for true accounts of the future, this can be evidenced—for instance—through the story of how the [Byzantines would soon rebound](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DYuCGyhEvr2s%26list%3DPLQ02IYL5pmhF2OG4GEdWPxQO72WauTwaO%26index%3D21&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1660583617382421&usg=AOvVaw2iWcjC4bvU533Ajm9eLw9X) after facing extinction at the hands of the Persian Empire,[^40] and the story about how the mummified [corpse of Pharaoh would be preserved](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DYuCGyhEvr2s%26list%3DPLQ02IYL5pmhF2OG4GEdWPxQO72WauTwaO%26index%3D21&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1660583617382661&usg=AOvVaw3W-dCzPSkwt8lrg9a9vQ0K) and rediscovered.[^41] This historical rigor, aside from affirming the Qur’an’s miraculous origin, serves a greater moral purpose. By only citing true stories, the Qur’an grounds us in a concrete sense of reality that we often distort  through our frequent consumption of fictitious stories. People underestimate just how deeply influenced they are by today’s massive fantasy genre of books, films, video games, and advertisements. Regular exposure to these stories will inevitably manipulate a person’s emotions and sensibilities well beyond the page (or screen). Just as they say, “the truth will set you free,” the pristine truth of Qur’anic accounts liberates us from any wild or unrealistic expectations of life and the world. Even the proportionality of certain archetypal figures arising in the Qur’an helps reinforce a realistic worldview. Ibn ʿAqīlah astutely identifies an intriguing anomaly in the stories of the Qur’an; namely that some accounts, like those of Prophet Joseph (as), Dhu’l-Qarnayn, and the sleepers of the cave in *Sūrah al-Kahf*, are only mentioned once, period. In that non-repetition, he argues, is a profound wisdom—an indirect reminder to believers that happy endings in this world are the exception and not the norm. The “success archetypes” who prevail against their enemies in this world, and become living legends due to their piety here on earth, are as rare in Allah’s Book as they are in human history. This crystallizes people’s expectations of this world as the trial and the next as the verdict, where people will receive what they deserve.[^42] Does this Qur’anic realism not remedy the theodicy question—“Why does God allow pain and suffering?”—which is the [primary contention](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1660583617383526&usg=AOvVaw21vLhJB1a7h2T4FPY1E3wa) cited by Western atheists for their non-belief? Does it not dismantle the crude “prosperity theology” that correlates God’s love for people with His lavishing them with fortunes in this life, whereby God is misperceived as a banker and our righteousness as an immediately cashable currency? Does it not rescue people from the utopian mindset curated at the hands of Disney and its ilk, frustrating people for a lifetime due to the “happily ever after” idealism they espouse but can never provide? After all, true and lasting happiness is not a byproduct of materialism (a widespread fraud in today’s global culture) but of meaning and purpose, which is what Islam offers for contentment in this life and eternal happiness in the life to come. Similarly, Qur’anic stories mention doomed individuals and nations more often than not because human beings doom themselves more often than not. The elites of most nations will insist on self-destruction for themselves and their followers, and therefore it should be expected that accounts of Iblīs (Satan), or the people of Noah (as) or Lot (as) and their like, are repeated as regularly as they are. And of course, since no other prophet compares with Moses (as) in his likeness to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and no other nation compares with the Israelites in its likeness to the *ummah* of Muhammad ﷺ, “the Qur’an in its entirety was almost going to be solely the story of Moses (as).”[^43] In summation, the Qur’an provides a perfectly balanced set of affirmations for patterns in life through its stories. ### 4\. Visualizing Divine Wisdom Since on some level “seeing is believing,”[^44] and “a picture is worth a thousand words,” the Qur’an’s stories visualize its themes and expand on them. Most of us, for instance, know in our heart of hearts that God is good, but without “seeing” that unfold in detail from a reliable source, that understanding can get smothered and consequently not nourish our spirits much at all. The Qur’an therefore uses stories to “detail” this notion that Allah wishes for us to recall. We’ve all witnessed how actors in the worlds of marketing, business, fundraising, education, and beyond leverage the distinct emotional and imaginative power of images and short story animations to generate demand for their products. The Qur’an, by virtue of its storytelling prowess, employs a similar technique. The following are examples of how the depictions we find in Qur’anic storytelling afford us potent, detailed visuals of its general principles. 1. **Visualizing the power of God.** Instead of stopping at declarative statements about God being the Almighty and invincible, the Qur’an presents story after story on how the believers triumphed despite their many disadvantages. Instead of merely promising a good outcome for the faithful even if cornered by a bleak reality, Allah “shows” us Jonah (as) in the belly of the whale as “he called out \[from\] within the darknesses, ‘There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.’ So We responded to him and saved him from the distress. And thus do We save the believers.”[^45] 2. **Visualizing God’s master plan.** Once, when the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions had neared Mecca for their *ʿumrah* after a long and grueling journey, a camel belonging to the Prophet ﷺ named al-Qaṣwāʾ sat down and adamantly refused to advance. People chastised the camel for its apparent stubbornness, to which the Prophet ﷺ responded, “No, al-Qaṣwāʾ is not being stubborn, nor is that one of its qualities. Rather, it is being restrained by the One who restrained the \[army of\] elephants.”[^46] Bask in the radiance of this Qur’anic personality; how clear its visuals were in his blessed mind and how present its wisdoms were in his blessed heart. Immediately, he ﷺ was able to glean from the concise *Sūrah al-Fīl* (Chapter of the Elephant) a lesson for this scenario that beckoned him to surrender to Divine intervention, and that guides us to realize that the immovable boulders (elephants) we all have in our lives should not overstress us. 3. **Visualizing human history.** Just as mainstream educational systems provide accounts of world history from a very particular frame of reference, be it political or economic or otherwise, the Qur’an also teaches history in a very systematic way: from the prophetic perspective. Its methodology is one that openly calls the reader to understand world history as, most importantly, the grand story of *tawḥīd* (God’s Oneness) and how that pertains to the human condition. It emphasizes that this—embracing or rejecting *tawḥīḍ*—is the single most consequential quality of every civilization and every individual, and the ultimate determinant for the outcome of each nation. As Allah says, “So these are their houses in utter ruin, for they did wrong. Indeed, in that is a great sign for people who know.”[^47] In other words, never assume it was the natural disaster or strife or non-productivity that brought about their demise; it was their wrongdoing. 4. **Visualizing the world stage.** The prevalence of illiteracy in Arabia had resulted in (along with paganism) uncreative materialists who struggled to appreciate abstract knowledge. Their minds were to a great extent tethered to their immediate environment, and hence the majority of their poetry revolved around concrete objects such as the tent, the sword, the bucket, and the goat. But since these trailblazers (the first Muslims of this *ummah*) would soon engage others on a global level, carrying Islam to them far and wide, they needed to broaden their horizons. Stories in the Qur’an played a major role in stirring interest in the outside world, and humility when confronting the strengths of these great civilizations. It also helped immunize Muslims against some of the delusion and conceit that inevitably creep up on every superpower, and neutralize the paralyzing fear of other nations that kept them subservient to their regimes.[^48] There remains, of course, renewed relevance to “think big” even for those at the pinnacle of the modern world—to live for a greater purpose than convenience, and to see oneself as above being a captive of personal luxury and consumption. 5. **Visualizing human nature.** As social creatures who desire to like and be liked, and incomplete creatures who are interdependent in many respects, we often unconsciously choose to imagine people as having greater regard for us than they actually do. This paves the way for feelings of disappointment and betrayal each time we rediscover that “people are people” in their selfish motives and unpredictable temperaments. Even the Prophet ﷺ experienced this, but “seeing” similar occurrences through the Qur’anic stories suppressed his anger. In one of many examples, after the Battle of Ḥunayn, when a hypocrite accused him ﷺ of inequitable distribution of the spoils, he ﷺ consoled himself by saying, “Allah have mercy on my brother, Moses. He was abused more than this, and yet he was still patient.”[^49] In this vein, Allah says, “And each \[story\] We relate to you from the news of the messengers is that by which We make firm your heart.”[^50] --- ## Conclusion The various stories in the Qur’an, as uniquely told by the Qur’an, offer us invaluable reminders and timeless lessons on universal themes that pertain to every dimension of the human experience. Through them, faith in Allah’s beautiful names and lofty attributes is found and not just defined, illness is endured when it cannot yet be cured, the oppressed remain optimistic until relief comes, and so much more. While those who settle for a cursory glance at the Qur’an may not realize the distinct wisdom in how its stories are mapped out, those who believe in this Mighty Book and dedicate themselves to rehearsing its stories will find layers upon layers of enlightenment, healing, and guidance therein. As partially captured in this brief paper, the truths of these stories, their respective locations and lengths in the Qur’an, and how Allah chooses to articulate them each time, all contribute to the unique lessons to be derived from them, and drive us to our betterment in this world and salvation in the next. --- ## Notes [^1]: See: Qur’an 1:7. [^2]: Qur’an 12:3 (*Saheeh International* translation). [^3]: See: Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymīyah, *Majmū‘ al-Fatāwā* (Madinah, KSA: King Fahd Complex, 1995), 17:18-22. [^4]: Qur’an 12:111 (*Saheeh International* translation, with added numbering). [^5]: Qur’an 86:13 (*The Clear Quran*). [^6]: Muhammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr* (Tunisia: Dār al-Tūnisīyah lil-Nashr, 1984), 1:64. [^7]: See: Ibn al-Jawzī’s *Kitāb al-quṣṣāṣ wal-mudhakkirīn*, al-Ḥāfiẓ al-‘Irāqī’s *al-Bā‘ith ‘ala al-khalāṣ min ḥawādith al-quṣṣāṣ*, and al-Suyūṭī’s *Taḥdhīr al-khawāṣ min akādhīb al-quṣṣāṣ*. [^8]: Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:66. [^9]: Qur’an 18:13 (*The Clear Quran*). [^10]: Qur’an 18:22 (Pickthall, *The Meaning of the Glorious Koran*, with slight adaptation). [^11]: Qur’an 18:21 (*The Clear Quran*). [^12]: While *al-Muqtanaṣ fī fawā’id tikrār al-qaṣaṣ* is nonextant, these seven benefits have been preserved for us by al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505) in *al-Itqān* and al-Zarkashī (d. 1392) in *al-Burhān*. [^13]: Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 68. [^14]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, nos. 3076 and 3367, *hasan* chain according to al-Tirmidhi. [^15]: Qur’an 25:32 (*The Clear Quran*, with adaptation). [^16]: Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 66. [^17]: Contrary to the claim of some Orientalists that the Qur’an as a linguistic masterpiece is no different than the celebrated sonnets of Shakespeare and *Iliad* of Homer, see here ten major literary differences between the Qur’an and the writings of Shakespeare: Mohammad Elshinawy, *The Final Prophet: Proofs for the Prophethood of Muhammad* (N.p.: Yaqeen Institute, 2022), 186–91. [^18]: Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 69. [^19]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān* (Lebanon: Dār al-Fikr, 1996), 2:184. [^20]: Ḥusayn ibn Muhammad al-Aṣfahānī, *al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qur’ān* (Mecca: Maktbatat Nazār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz), 1:416. [^21]: Qur’an 12:7 (*The Clear Quran*, brackets added). [^22]: Ismā‘īl ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāyah wal-nihāyah* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, 1988), 8:329. [^23]: Qur’an 50:37. [^24]: Qur’an 7:176 *(Saheeh International* translation). [^25]: See: Mustansir Mir, *Thematic and Structural Coherence in the Qur’an: A Study of Islahi’s Concept of Naẓm* (The University of Michigan, 1983), 2–3. [^26]: Qur’an 17:82 (*The Clear Quran*). [^27]: Qur’an 32:4 (*The Clear Quran*). [^28]: Qur’an 50:38 (*The Clear Quran*). [^29]: Qur’an 50:39 (*The Clear Quran*). [^30]: Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-iḥsān fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān* (Sharjah: Markaz al-Buhūth wal-Dirāsāt, 2006), 6:368–75. 6:371. [^31]: Ibn ‘Abdīn, *al-Taqrīr*, 31. [^32]: Qur’an 28:25 (*The Clear Quran*). [^33]: Grammarians have identified that the syntactical structure of this sentence allows for the adverb *bashfully* to be in reference to the act of coming, walking, or speaking. The latter was selected above simply to demonstrate the phenomenon of complementary multilayered meanings in the Qur’an. See: ‘Abdullaṭīf al-Khaṭīb et al., *al-Tafṣīl fī i‘rāb al-tanzīl* (Kuwait: Maktabat al-Khaṭīb, 2015), 20:100–101. [^34]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān,* 1:231. [^35]: Qur’an 12:102 (*The Clear Quran*, brackets added). [^36]: *Tafsīr* books document some debates between Quraysh and Thaqīf on whether or not God can hear whispers, as opposed to public speech, under the verse: “...but you assumed that Allah does not know much of what you do.” Qur’an 41:22. [^37]: Elshinawy, *The Final Prophet*, 193–95. [^38]: Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:65. [^39]: Qur’an 11:49 (*The Clear Quran*). [^40]: Elshinawy, *The Final Prophet*, 119–20. [^41]: Elshinawy, *The Final Prophet*, 191–92. [^42]: Ibn ‘Aqīlah, *al-Ziyādah wal-iḥsān fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān*, 6:375. [^43]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān*, 1:157. [^44]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “News is not equivalent to eyewitnessing.” Narrated by Ahmad (no. 2447) and Ibn Hibban (no. 6231) and deemed authentic by al-Albani in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi‘* (no. 5374). [^45]: Qur’an 21:87–88 (*Saheeh International* translation, brackets added). [^46]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, nos. 2731 and 2732. [^47]: Qur’an 27:52 (author’s translation). [^48]: Ibn ‘Āshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:67. [^49]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, nos. 3405 and 6336. [^50]: Qur’an 11:120 (*Saheeh International*). ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. Stories occupy a remarkable place in the Book of Allah, comprising roughly one third of the Noble Qur'an. Even in its greatest chapter, al-Fātiḥah, the believer is taught to seek guidance by invoking the memory of those whom Allah favored before us upon the Straight Path. These scriptural realities affirm the immense power of storytelling to move the heart and mind, and they refute the mistaken notion that stories are meant only for children or that they diminish the intellectual weight of discourse. Yet the Qur'an did more than merely validate storytelling; it declared its own stories to be uniquely potent for reforming the soul. It is this Divine style of narration—unconventional to some, yet saturated with wisdom that betrays its heavenly origin—that deserves careful reflection. Allah says, "We relate to you, [O Muhammad], the best of stories in what We have revealed to you of this Qur'an." Some scholars inferred from this that the story of Prophet Yūsuf (as), which follows immediately, is the single greatest Qur'anic narrative. Yet this is unlikely, not least because of the abundant references to Mūsā (as) throughout the Book. The stronger view is that all the stories Allah chose to include qualify as "the best of stories," though even this does not exhaust the meaning. As the exegetes observe, Allah did not say He relates the best *qiṣaṣ* (stories), but rather the best *qaṣaṣ* (storytelling)—affirming that He chooses the ideal stories and conveys them in the ideal manner. The closing of Sūrah Yūsuf deepens this, for Allah says: "There was certainly in their stories a lesson for those of understanding. Never was it a narration invented, but a confirmation of what was before it and a detailed explanation of all things and guidance and mercy for a people who believe." From this verse arise several defining features of Qur'anic storytelling. The first is that it is lesson-oriented. The Qur'an is not revealed merely to fascinate but to serve as *al-Qawl al-Faṣl*, the Decisive Word that settles sacred truths and establishes justice. Muḥammad ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1973) explains in *al-Taḥrīr wal-Tanwīr* that Qur'anic storytelling is not deemed "best" simply because it is true or instructive, for many non-Qur'anic true stories carry benefit. What distinguishes it is its power to carve its lessons into the worldview of its listeners rather than merely introduce them. For this reason it often omits names of people, lineages, towns, and locations—by design—so that the reader focuses on the lesson and not on transient particulars. This is why the Qur'an does not disclose the birthname of "the believer from Pharaoh's family," nor the location of the cave of the sleepers, nor the nature of the Forbidden Tree over which theologians debated at length to no benefit. Consider how Allah reclaims the story of the sleepers: "It is We who relate to you their story in truth. Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Lord." He cautions against disputing their number—"Say, my Lord is best aware of their number… so contend not concerning them except an outward contending"—and directs attention instead to the great sign, "so that their people might know that Allah's promise is true and that there is no doubt about the Hour." This lesson-orientation also illuminates the wisdom behind the Qur'an's narrative repetition. Badr al-Dīn ibn Jamāʿah (d. 1333) authored *al-Muqtanaṣ*, in which he set forth seven benefits of such repetition: elucidating stories gradually with added nuance each time; ensuring that both laymen and scholars everywhere become familiar with the major narratives; displaying the Qur'an's eloquence through varied portrayals of a single scene; maximizing the reach of its teachings, since people circulate stories more readily than instructions; humbling the masters of Arabic who could not match even one variant; preempting the claim that the Qur'an could not reframe its own stories; and retaining the reader's interest with a fresh depiction each time. Repetition also accords with human nature, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Adam forgot, and so too will his progeny forget." Allah addressed the doubters directly: "The disbelievers say, 'If only the Qur'an had been sent down to him all at once!' [We have sent it] as such so We may strengthen your heart with it." Ibn ʿAshūr further notes that elaborate, dialogue-driven storytelling was absent from pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, so its inclusion in the Qur'an closed off any avenue by which the master poets might have concealed their inability to meet its challenge. The second feature is that these stories are addressed to "people of understanding." Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1108) notes in his dictionary of Qur'anic terms that *ʿibrah li-ulī 'l-albāb* implies a bridge for the *ʿubūr*, the crossing over, of meaning into our lives. Thus the stories are distributed throughout the Book partly to interrupt the over-immersion that hinders introspection, as Allah says, "Certainly there were in [the account of] Joseph and his brothers signs for those who ask." Ibn ʿAbbās (ra), the Turjumān al-Qurʾān, when asked how he attained his knowledge, replied, "With an inquisitive tongue and a receptive heart." Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) explains that the verse, "Indeed in that is a profound reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present," captures the three conditions for any message to leave an impact: an intrinsic potency, a receptive recipient, and the removal of intervening barriers. Hence those who approach the Qur'an adversarially—such as certain orientalists who deemed it incoherent and proposed rearranging it thematically—only stray farther, for "We send down in the Qur'an healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss." Were they of the people of understanding, they would find each sūrah a unified discourse whose stories develop its central themes. This contextual placement explains why near-identical passages carry distinct implications. The mention of creation "in six days" in Sūrah al-Sajdah affirms Allah's power to resurrect, while the near-identical wording in Sūrah Qāf—"and no fatigue touched Us"—consoles the Prophet ﷺ against the insults of those who claimed Allah rested, continuing, "so endure what they say." Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī (d. 1738) marvels at how the Qur'an repurposes the same stories in new contexts, likening it to how scholars praised Imam al-Bukhārī (d. 870) for classifying a single hadith under multiple headings—though the disparity between him and his Creator is immeasurable. Ibn ʿAbdīn advised, "If you see something that appears repetitive in the Qur'an, look deeper into it… so that its purpose may disclose itself to you." The Qur'an also employs multilayered meaning, as in the verse describing the daughter who came "walking bashfully," where the syntactic placement allows *bashfully* to describe both her walking and her speech. Likewise the closing of Sūrah Yūsuf, "You were not present with them when they plotted," both proves the Prophet's ﷺ access to unseen knowledge and warns the Meccan pagans—who, on the advice of the Jews, had questioned him about Yūsuf—that their own plotting would fail as the brothers' plotting once did. The third feature is realism. The Qur'an's commitment to truth infuses its narration with historical accuracy and an unflinching yet non-despairing depiction of this world. It conveys knowledge that only the learned among earlier scriptural communities possessed—"This is one of the stories of the unseen… Neither you nor your people knew it before this"—while excluding biblical details later disproven, such as the presence of pharaohs in the age of Ibrāhīm. It foretold the Byzantine resurgence and the preservation of Pharaoh's corpse. Ibn ʿAqīlah observes that the singular, unrepeated mention of Yūsuf, Dhu'l-Qarnayn, and the sleepers signals that worldly happy endings are the exception, not the norm, teaching that this world is the trial and the next the verdict. Conversely, the recurring accounts of doomed nations reflect that people ruin themselves more often than not, and because no prophet resembles Muhammad ﷺ like Mūsā, and no nation resembles his ummah like the Israelites, it was said that "the Qur'an in its entirety was almost going to be solely the story of Moses." The fourth feature is that these stories visualize Divine wisdom. Rather than merely stating that Allah is powerful, the Qur'an shows Yūnus (as) calling from within the darknesses, "There is no deity except You… Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers," after which "We saved him from the distress. And thus do We save the believers." The Prophet ﷺ himself drew upon such imagery when his camel al-Qaṣwāʾ knelt near Mecca, saying, "It is being restrained by the One who restrained the [army of] elephants," recalling Sūrat al-Fīl. The Qur'an teaches history from the prophetic vantage of *tawḥīd*, declaring of ruined nations, "these are their houses in utter ruin, for they did wrong." It broadened the horizons of an insular people and steadied the Prophet's ﷺ heart against betrayal, as when he responded to a hypocrite after Ḥunayn, "Allah have mercy on my brother, Moses. He was abused more than this, and yet he was still patient," for Allah says, "And each [story] We relate to you from the news of the messengers is that by which We make firm your heart." In sum, the stories of the Qur'an, told as only the Qur'an tells them, offer timeless lessons across every dimension of human experience. Through them faith is found and not merely defined, hardship is endured, and the oppressed remain hopeful. Those who dedicate themselves to rehearsing these narratives discover layers of enlightenment, healing, and guidance—for their truths, their placement, their length, and the manner of their retelling all combine to drive the believer toward betterment in this world and salvation in the next. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/how-do-i-ask-allah-for-forgiveness # How Do I Ask Allah for Forgiveness? **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Blog, Self-Improvement **Published:** August 11, 2022 **Updated:** August 19, 2024 ## What are major sins and minor sins in Islam? The first step to asking for forgiveness is knowing what to repent from. Scholars differ over what exactly constitutes [a major or a minor sin](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yahyaibrahim/ep-5-are-all-sins-equal-road-to-return). It is generally accepted that sins that Allah has designated a specific punishment for are considered major sins. Some examples of major sins include associating partners with Allah (*shirk*), murder, adultery (*zina)*, and disrespecting parents. Minor sins, on the other hand, include praying incorrectly, acting immodestly, or cursing. Despite their name, we shouldn’t take minor sins lightly! The Prophet ﷺ said, “Beware of minor sins like a people who descend into the bottom of a valley, so one comes with a stick and another with a stick until they have fire to cook their bread. Verily, when a person is held accountable for these minor sins, they will destroy him” \[*Musnad Ahmad* #22302\]. This hadith gives us a visual sense of small sins piling up on one another until they accumulate to a raging fire. --- ## How do I repent for a minor sin? Good deeds wipe away minor sins, as Allah says, “And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember” \[Qur’an, 11:114\]. It is from the immense mercy of Allah that minor sins are forgiven readily through virtually every good deed and act of worship, like giving in charity, reading Qur’an, or praying *[tahajjud](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/tahajjud-waking-soul-and-society)*. So if you’ve ever wondered, for example, “Will Allah forgive me for watching bad things?,” know that the door to repentance is always open. Quickly seek Allah’s forgiveness and follow up the bad deed with a good one. --- ## Can minor sins become major ones? Imam Al-Ghazali notes that pride and pleasure in minor sins drive people to engage in major sins; thus, major sins are almost always preceded by minor sins. We’re discouraged from discussing even our minor sins because keeping them a secret gives us the opportunity to repent. It also protects others from the harm that comes with publicizing and normalizing one’s sins. --- ## How do I ask Allah for forgiveness for major sins? There are four key steps to repentance. An easy way to remember them is through **the four 'R's: remorse, repent, resolve, repair.** 1. **Remorse:** Feeling guilty is a sign of faith in your heart. Follow up your misdeed immediately with regret and remorse towards Allah. 2. **Repent** sincerely by verbalizing ‘*astaghfirullah*,’ which means, “I seek forgiveness from Allah.” 3. **Resolve** to never commit the sin again. 4. **Repair:** If the sin involved wronging someone, make reparations by seeking their forgiveness and recompensing them if possible. --- ## What if I repeat a sin again? One of the tricks of Shaytan is to discourage people from repenting. Shaytan knows Allah forgives often. Therefore, Shaytan tricks you with whispers of, “You’re going to do it again anyway,” or “You’re repenting again? You think Allah will forgive you?” Shaytan introduces doubt in Allah’s forgiveness. But we shouldn’t doubt the Forgiver, al-Ghafir. --- ## Will Allah actually forgive me? The reality is that we won’t know for sure if Allah has forgiven us until we meet Him on the Day of Judgment. We must constantly pray that we meet Him with our mountains of sin forgiven simply out of His mercy. What we do know for sure is that Allah is al-Ghafur. Every few pages of the Qur’an highlights a merciful Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, > “When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His book with Him upon the Throne: Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath.” > > \[*Sahih al-Bukhari* #3194\] So we can be hopeful that no matter what sin we’ve committed, if we’re sincere in turning back to Allah, He will shower us with His forgiveness. The believer's hope in Allah can't be stated and stressed enough! --- ## Is there a du’a I can make to erase all sins? The Prophet ﷺ taught us a very important *du’a* for seeking forgiveness from Allah. It’s often titled *sayyidul istighfar,* or the Best \[*Du’a\]* for Seeking Forgiveness: > O Allah, You are my Lord. None has the right to be worshiped but You. You created me and I am your servant. I am committed to Your covenant and promise, as much as I can. I seek refuge with You from the evil I have done. I acknowledge all the blessings You have bestowed upon me, and I confess to You all my sins. So, forgive me, for indeed, no one forgives sins but You.  > > *Allahumma anta rabbi la ilaha illa anta, khalaqtani wa ana abduka, wa ana ala ahdika wa wa’dika mastata’tu. A’udhu bika min sharri ma sana’tu, abu’u laka bini’matika ‘alayya, wa abu’u bidhanbi faghfirli fa-innahu la yaghfiru adh-dhunuba illa anta.* The Prophet ﷺ added, > “If somebody recites this \[*du’a*\] during the day with firm faith in it, and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise; and if somebody recites it at night with firm faith in it, and dies before the morning, he will be from the people of Paradise.” > > \[*Sahih al-Bukhari* #6306\] --- ## Seeking forgiveness is part of our religion Allah made us human and knows that we will fall into mistakes. Know that hope in Allah is at the heart of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Never give up hope because Allah loves to forgive. The core of our faith is to believe that He will forgive us, no matter how much we struggle to overcome our sins. The more we sincerely try, the greater our status is in the sight of Allah. If you want to learn more about the topic of repentance, read the paper, [“Repentance as a Way of Life: Islam, Spirituality, & Practice.”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-as-a-way-of-life-islam-spirituality-practice) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/fasting-ashura-what-is-ashura-and-why-is-it-important # Fasting Ashura: What Is Ashura and Why Is It Important? **Author:** Sh. Ibrahim Hindy **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Ashura, Blog **Published:** August 4, 2022 **Updated:** June 23, 2026 ## What is Ashura and what does it mean? As we welcome the new Islamic year, we should take the time to reflect on ourselves and how we can make this year better than the last. One of the best opportunities to get a fresh start is by fasting the day of Ashura. Ashura literally means ‘the tenth’ and refers to the 10th day of Muharram, the first month in the [Islamic calendar year](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-months-ordained-by-allah-reviving-the-islamic-calendar). It is a day that our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ fasted and encouraged us to fast as well. He ﷺ tells us that [fasting on this day](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/episode-8-3-years-of-fasting-virtues-of-dhul-hijjah) forgives our sins from the previous year! What better way to get started on a clean slate? --- ## Why did the Prophet ﷺ never stop fasting Ashura? The Prophet ﷺ never abandoned fasting the day of Ashura. We are told that, “There are four things which the Prophet never gave up: fasting Ashura, fasting during the ten days \[of Dhul Hijjah\], fasting three days of each month, and praying two *rak’at* before *al-ghadah* \[i.e., Fajr\].” \[*Sunan Al-Nasa'i* #2416\]. Given that fasting Ashura was so important to the Prophet ﷺ, you might be curious as to [why this day is significant](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-happened-on-the-day-of-ashura-contextualizing-the-events-and-meaning-of-ashura). Many of you may have heard that the Prophet ﷺ began fasting the day of Ashura when he arrived in Madinah and found the Jews fasting this day because it coincided with Passover. Ibn Abbas (rA) narrated that: > “When the Prophet ﷺ arrived at Madinah, the Jews were observing the fast on Ashura, and they said, ‘This is the day when Moses became victorious over Pharaoh.’ On that, the Prophet ﷺ said to his companions, ‘You (Muslims) have more right to celebrate Moses' victory than they have, so observe the fast on this day.’”  > > \[*Sahih Al-Bukhari* #4680\] The importance of the day of Ashura, however, can be traced back to an earlier time. In fact, the Arabs from the Quraysh tribe used to fast this day before Islam. Aisha (rA), for example, tells us: > “During the pre-lslamic Era of Ignorance (*Jahiliyya*), the Quraysh used to observe fasting on the day of Ashura, and the Prophet ﷺ himself used to observe fasting on it too. But when he came to Madinah, he (continued) fasting the day and ordered the Muslims to fast it too. When (the command of fasting) Ramadan was revealed, fasting in Ramadan became an obligation, and fasting on Ashura was made voluntary. Whoever wished to fast it did so, and whoever did not wish to fast on it, did not fast.”  > > \[*Sahih Al-Bukhari* #4504\] --- ## What happened on Ashura throughout history? The fact that the pre-Islamic Arabs were observing Ashura tells us that doing so was, in reality, a remnant from the teachings of Prophet Ibrahim that they observed, similar to the [rituals of Hajj](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age). Another hadith, although it is weak, adds that Ashura “is the day that the ship of Prophet Nuh settled upon Mount Judi, and so Prophet Nuh fasted the day out of thankfulness to Allah” \[*Musnad Ahmad* #8717\]. Later in history, the Prophet’s grandson al-Husayn would be [martyred at Karbala](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-happened-on-the-day-of-ashura-contextualizing-the-events-and-meaning-of-ashura) on the day of Ashura while opposing the unjust governance of his time. Imam at-Tabari reported that, in the days leading up to the massacre, al-Husayn reflected on the moral deterioration of some Muslims since the time of the Prophet ﷺ. The loss of truth and justice prompted him to think that true believers would wish to meet Allah to avoid these tribulations. He then concluded, “I can only regard death as martyrdom and life with these oppressors as a trial.” While the [tragedy at Karbala](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-happened-on-the-day-of-ashura-contextualizing-the-events-and-meaning-of-ashura) holds theological implications for Shia Muslims that it does not hold for Sunni Muslims, we can interpret it in the grander scheme as another moment in which Allah saves His servant from oppression—this time through martyrdom. --- ## How should we observe Ashura today? Altogether, these events illustrate to us the historic significance of the day of Ashura. Not only did the Prophets of the past observe this day, but it seems to also be connected to [moments of God’s victory on earth](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/what-happened-on-the-day-of-ashura-contextualizing-the-events-and-meaning-of-ashura): Nuh (as) escaping the ridicule and opposition of his people, Musa (as) escaping the tyranny of the Pharaoh, and al-Husayn (rA) escaping the oppressors in power. So as we fast this day in pursuit of Allah’s forgiveness, let's reflect on the examples of the prophets and the righteous, who [opposed tyranny and oppression](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/speaking-a-word-of-truth-to-a-tyrant-sh-omar-suleiman-khutbah) while standing up for the religion of Allah. As the new year unfolds, we pray that Allah forgives our sins of the past and gives us the strength to stand up for His Truth. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Ashura and what does it mean? Ashura literally means ‘the tenth’ and refers to the 10th day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar year. It is a day that our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ fasted and encouraged us to fast as well. He ﷺ tells us that fasting on this day forgives our sins from the previous year. What better way to get started on a clean slate? ### Why did the Prophet ﷺ never stop fasting Ashura? The Prophet ﷺ never abandoned fasting the day of Ashura. We are told that, “There are four things which the Prophet never gave up: fasting Ashura, fasting during the ten days \[of Dhul Hijjah\], fasting three days of each month, and praying two *rak’at* before *al-ghadah* \[i.e., Fajr\].” \[*Sunan Al-Nasa’i* #2416\] Many of you may have heard that the Prophet ﷺ began fasting the day of Ashura when he arrived in Madinah and found the Jews fasting this day because it coincided with Passover. Ibn Abbas (rA) narrated that when the Prophet ﷺ arrived at Madinah, the Jews were observing the fast on Ashura and said, “This is the day when Moses became victorious over Pharaoh.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “You (Muslims) have more right to celebrate Moses’ victory than they have, so observe the fast on this day.” \[*Sahih Al-Bukhari* #4680\] ### What happened on Ashura throughout history? The pre-Islamic Arabs of Quraysh were already observing Ashura, which was in reality a remnant from the teachings of Prophet Ibrahim that they observed, similar to the rituals of Hajj. Another hadith, although it is weak, adds that Ashura “is the day that the ship of Prophet Nuh settled upon Mount Judi, and so Prophet Nuh fasted the day out of thankfulness to Allah” \[*Musnad Ahmad* #8717\]. Later in history, the Prophet’s grandson al-Husayn would be martyred at Karbala on the day of Ashura while opposing the unjust governance of his time. While the tragedy at Karbala holds theological implications for Shia Muslims that it does not hold for Sunni Muslims, we can interpret it in the grander scheme as another moment in which Allah saves His servant from oppression—this time through martyrdom. ### How should we observe Ashura today? Altogether, these events illustrate the historic significance of the day of Ashura. Not only did the Prophets of the past observe this day, but it seems to also be connected to moments of God’s victory on earth: Nuh (as) escaping the ridicule and opposition of his people, Musa (as) escaping the tyranny of the Pharaoh, and al-Husayn (rA) escaping the oppressors in power. So as we fast this day in pursuit of Allah’s forgiveness, let’s reflect on the examples of the prophets and the righteous, who opposed tyranny and oppression while standing up for the religion of Allah. As the new year unfolds, we pray that Allah forgives our sins of the past and gives us the strength to stand up for His Truth. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-shirk-the-greatest-sin-of-all # Why Is Shirk the Greatest Sin of All? **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 25, 2022 **Updated:** June 9, 2026 ## Why beliefs matter Humanity’s enduring fascination with the same set of existential questions—life after death, the human soul, morality, ethics and the nature of God—has compelled some anthropologists to describe us as Homo Religiosus, distinct as a species based not on ‘sapience’ (wisdom, intelligence) but on shared religious activity. Even in modern times with the decline of traditional religion, human beings cannot escape these so-called religious questions. Vehement New Atheists spend most of their time pontificating on morality, free will, the purpose of life, and the origins of the universe. New Age spiritualists attempt to invent their own practices of mysticism by haphazardly mixing various ancient traditions. Social media players enforce their fundamentalist notions of right and wrong through hashtags and cancel culture. These are just some of the modern manifestations of the religious impulse that exist within the human psyche. The modern world has not departed from religion, but has simply replaced traditional ones with others. Such religious fixations are the primary concerns of humanity, as they should be. How an individual, community, or civilization chooses to answer these questions determines their very spirit and essence. The answers inform the very purpose of our existence, who we are accountable to, and what we are accountable for. Imagine the consequences of starting with false beliefs on these fundamental issues? Such falsehood at the root will only multiply into branches that ultimately lead to ruin and destruction. Many assume that beliefs are amoral—that a theoretically wrong belief demonstrates a lack of intellectual competence but should not challenge one’s moral integrity. The problem with this assumption is that it equates morally neutral questions with questions of ultimate moral significance. Of course, poor academic performance in school should have no bearing on one’s morality. However, when the issues regard religious questions that ultimately determine what is good and evil, then of course there are moral implications to how one responds. Furthermore, coming to true beliefs about these issues is not based purely on academic aptitude given that many of these questions lie outside the scope of science or deductive reasoning. Rather, coming to the Truth requires the authentic reflection of a pure *ʿaql* (intellect) that draws on all technologies of the mind in a unified pursuit to achieve true understanding. These technologies include spiritual, emotional, moral, and rational intelligence. Moral vices dampen and cloud this process due to the inherent biases that accompany qualities like arrogance, narcissism, negligence. These destructive qualities swerve a person from the straight path, effectively making them incapable of truly authentic reflection, rendering their hearts blind to the Truth. Consider the example of a troubled marital relationship. A person who is arrogant, self-absorbed, and narcissistic lacks the insight to see their wrongdoings or even recognize the pain they may be inflicting on their spouse. This person’s perception, understanding, and view of his relationship has been severely clouded by his own negative moral qualities. In the religious domain, then, believing in Truth versus Falsehood does indeed speak to a person’s moral integrity. It should be noted at this juncture that Islamic eschatology does excuse people who do not reach the Truth due to simply lacking access to clear articulations of it. Beyond this discussion, theologians have also debated whether an individual can independently come to the Truth without guidance in the form of revelation from the Ultimate Source of Truth, Allah ﷻ. Such a debate is merely theoretical as the Qur’an is clear that regardless of whether one is capable of reaching the Truth or not, out of His Mercy, the responsibility to believe in the Truth only comes if a messenger is sent to convey that Truth.[^1] The modern apathy toward truth in general—captured by the coinage of the term ‘post-truth era’ in the 1990s—has resulted in a widespread embrace of salvific pluralism and lack of moral concern regarding religious beliefs. The cliché in our times is “[just be a good person](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-a-good-person-is-not-enough-why-ethics-need-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557919548&usg=AOvVaw1s89f2uPTpbypnPKGPPfPC), it doesn’t matter what you believe.” Such a statement is paradoxical, considering the conception of a ‘good person’ is based on a person’s belief in what constitutes the Ultimate Good. Therefore, religious belief is the most important part of being a good person.[^2] One does not need to look too far back in history to reflect on the results of bad beliefs in the world. In the 20th century we saw the greatest catastrophes emanating from Nazi Germany’s belief in Social Darwinism and the Soviet Union’s militant atheistic communism. Their conception of the Ultimate Good was materially destructive. Even other beliefs that are not materially problematic can still be spiritually, psychologically, and morally destructive. The harm of these false beliefs may not be as obvious as they work more on the individual scale than on the political scale, and even then they eventually result in catastrophic material consequences as well. Therefore, the most important first step in the journey of life for any human being is to authentically reflect and ensure they are following the Truth. When the Truth is found, the question of ultimate evil becomes clear. In Islam, the Truth of the universe is *tawḥīd* (Islamic monotheism), which reflects the absolute oneness of the Divine Reality who governs this world and is the very purpose of our lives. By contrast, the ultimate evil is *shirk* (idolatry), where divinity is shared across multiple entities and thus there is no clear purpose to our lives. These two concepts are the most fundamental in the Islamic worldview, and all its branches trace back to this foundation that has echoed throughout history, > And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, \[saying\], “Worship Allah \[alone\] and avoid *Ṭāghūt* (idols, false deities).” And among them were those whom Allah guided, and among them were those upon whom error was \[deservedly\] decreed. So proceed through the earth and observe how was the end of the deniers.[^3] The greatest of all good is found in the establishment of *tawḥīd* and the worst of all evil is found in the establishment of *shirk*. > The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was asked, “Which is the greatest sin?” He replied, “That you set up with Allah ﷻ a rival and He is the One who created you.”[^4] Many Muslims question why *shirk* is so abhorrent in Islam, such that it damns a person to Hellfire and is seen as the ultimate evil. How is it that such a seemingly harmless belief or practice can be worse than horrendous crimes against humanity? Failure to come to terms with this reality may contribute to doubts surrounding salvation and the afterlife for Muslims young and old. This paper investigates this question through a combined approach that integrates Western ethical paradigms with reflections from the Islamic tradition. We will demonstrate that *shirk* represents the greatest evil from deontological, virtue-ethical, and consequentialist frameworks within the paradigm of Islamic theology. This paper will also explore the psychological factors that produce the disconcordance between a Muslim’s *belief* that idolatry is the ultimate evil and their moral *feeling* that it is not. --- ## Separating emotions from reality Whilst the designation of *shirk* as the ultimate evil may be clearly justified from a scriptural standpoint, it is less so from an intuitive, emotional one. If *shirk* is the greatest evil, why do I feel more outraged by a serial killer’s crime of murder than his personal religious beliefs and practices? My friend or neighbor who has shown me nothing but kindness is worse than a criminal who happens to be a monotheist? Why does a harmless action in this world have such severe consequences in the next? These are questions that plague the minds of many Muslims, especially those who live as minorities in the West. But we must make a distinction between moral outrage[^5] and moral magnitude. Moral outrage is a person’s emotional response to a moral crime, which is relative to a range of contextual factors and not an objective evaluation of the magnitude of the crime. Hence, our feelings and emotions in reaction to certain immoralities are not necessarily indicative of their magnitude relative to others. For instance, a serial killer who has killed five people will generally evoke a stronger emotional response than a politician commissioning drone strikes that kill thousands in unnecessary and foreseeable ‘collateral damage.’ Though both have caused death and destruction, one is responsible for the death of five and the other for 5,000. There is no question that the magnitude of the politician’s crime is much greater, at least from a consequentialist[^6] perspective. However, the intuitive emotional response to the serial killer’s crime is greater because it challenges society’s sense of security. It’s harder to identify with nameless drone strike victims in a foreign country than with serial killer victims who could be your neighbors. Hence, **feelings of personal vulnerability** often determine the intensity of the emotional response. Such feelings are essentially self-preserving rather than an unbiased assessment of how evil an action is. It does not make sense to evaluate the reality of morality based on what is more likely to harm us personally. Yet, our feelings of moral outrage are strongly tied to feelings of personal vulnerability. Another factor is **personal trauma**. People may respond more strongly to crimes akin to those they have experienced themselves. Contrary to this, a person’s committing of certain crimes may seriously dampen  their emotional response to similar crimes. For example, a person who has committed adultery may harbor greater sympathy for an adulterer than a person who has been the victim of cheating in the past. Here we have two vastly different reactions to the exact same crime. Feeling more outrage about adultery because of personal trauma doesn’t make the crime any worse and conversely feeling less outrage due to sympathy doesn’t make the crime any better. Furthermore, recent psychometric studies into the emotion of ‘moral outrage’ have found it difficult to distinguish between **personal anger** and moral anger.[^7] This lends support to the notion that the emotions we experience in response to a crime are not reliable indicators of the objective magnitude of that crime. Lastly, a person’s worldview will majorly determine their reaction to moral crimes. Crimes that challenge **personal values** will elicit strong emotional responses. American patriots who have lost their children in military service will be more outraged at someone disrespecting the American flag than someone overseas who had lost their family and property due to unjust American invasions. In the case of disrespecting the flag, it is technically a ‘victimless’ crime, with no harm directly perpetrated against another individual, yet moral outrage is high. This also informs us that emotional reactions to immoralities are not only based on harm committed against others, but on how strongly a person believes in their values. Hence, a person who does not have a sense of moral outrage against *shirk* has betrayed their own lack of connection with the value of *tawḥīd*. The stronger a person’s love for Allah, the angrier they will feel when people associate partners with Him. As Allah says, > And they said *Ar-Raḥmān* (The Most Merciful) has taken a son. You have come with an atrocious thing. The heavens almost rupture therefrom and the earth almost splits open and the mountains almost collapse in devastation. That they attribute a son to *Ar-Raḥmān*.[^8] --- ## Why does God care about shirk? Given that Allah is Self-Sufficient and free of need, why does He emphasize the worship of Him alone and condemn the practice of *shirk*? Before responding to this question, it is important to establish a few theological principles about Allah that will help us eliminate certain answers that people may assume. The first principle is that Allah is completely self-sufficient.[^9] Therefore, His commands and prohibitions are based on *our* needs, since Allah has no needs. The second principle is that Allah cannot be harmed or benefited from the actions of His creation,[^10] so anything that He commands or prohibits is based on what is beneficial and harmful to *us*. This is why the Qur’an describes revelation as a cure,[^11] guidance,[^12] light,[^13] and mercy[^14] to humanity. The third principle is that Allah is *Al-Ḥaqq* (The Truth or The Real),[^15] and therefore the magnitude of good and evil is based on what violates His nature. The greatest violation of the Nature of God is to multiply divine entities and thereby deny the ontological reality of God’s oneness. This is the worst violation because God’s oneness is ontologically connected to all of [His attributes](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/names-of-allah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557929200&usg=AOvVaw0XEFTknIUKhw_r_V6Zkzlh). The fourth principle, connected to the third, is that Allah is *Al-Muqsiṭ* (The Just)[^16] and leaving evil unpunished would compromise His justice. Hence *shirk* must be prohibited and punished if Allah is truly Just. Given that it is the worst of crimes, it should also have the severest of consequences. Universally equal treatment of all of humanity in the next life despite the vast disparity in virtue would be unjustifiable: “Should we treat those who submit (to God) just like we treat the criminals? What is wrong with you? How do you judge?”[^17] A person may ask why won’t Allah simply forgive *shirk* like He does other sins? To understand this question we must look to the metaphor of the tree given for *shirk* in the Qur’an: > And the example of a bad word is like a bad tree, uprooted from the surface of the earth, not having any stability.[^18] Since *shirk* violates the entire Divine Reality, it is a tree with no roots or fruits. Any of its perceived good  cannot be categorized as such because the necessary foundation of the Divine is missing. The Qur’an references such fruitless endeavors: “Say, shall I inform you of the biggest losers? Those who toil misguidedly in this world and think they are doing something good.”[^19] On the contrary, if a tree is based on *tawḥīd*, then it will always be properly rooted and bear valuable fruit. No matter the crime or the evil, there will be sparks of goodness that can be magnified by *Ash-Shakūr* (The Most Appreciative)[^20] and be the means through which Allah’s forgiveness and mercy is reached. All such decisions are based on the Justice and Mercy of Allah without violation of any of these perfect attributes, “The day in which every soul will be recompensed for what it earned. No injustice today! Indeed, Allah is swift in account.”[^21] And it was reported by Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that Allah said, “My Mercy prevails over My Anger.”[^22] Based on the above, we can appreciate that Allah’s condemnation of *shirk* is based on His Love, Care, and Mercy toward us. He does not want us to fall into the multitude of harms that come in this world and the next with the practice of *shirk*. He does not want our souls to fall into the abyss of nihilism or submit to narcissism and self-deification. Rather than self-interest, as anti-theists like to assert, it is out of His care for humanity that He warns against *shirk*. He does not want His creation to be punished by His Justice and Wrath and therefore warns us against Himself! > The day that every soul will find what it has done of good present and what it has done of evil, it will wish that between itself and that was a great distance. *And Allah warns you of Himself*, and Allah is Kind to His servants.[^23] This is also connected to the prophetic invocation that seeks protection from Allah in Allah. > ʿĀʾisha (rA) reported, One night I missed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from the bed, and when I sought him my hand touched the soles of his feet while he ﷺ was in the state of prostration; they (his feet) were raised and he ﷺ was saying: “O Allah, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your anger, and in Your forgiveness from Your punishment, and I seek refuge in You from You. I cannot enumerate Your praises. You are as You have praised Yourself.”[^24] Allah invites us all to the abode of serenity and security (*dār as-salām*) for our own sakes[^25] so we can live eternally in His paradise, immersed in endless bliss, gazing upon His Face. --- ## Immorality and the afterlife Many people assume that crimes with immediate consequences are worse than those with long-term effects. Furthermore, people focus on physical harm to the exclusion of spiritual or psychological damage. Reflecting on the reality of the afterlife helps give us a wider and more complete perspective on the morality of our actions. The consequences in the afterlife are what truly determine the magnitude of evil. This is because the afterlife is the place of ultimate justice, where deeds are recompensed according to their true worth, for better or worse. Allah describes the Day of Judgment, > This Day every soul will be recompensed for what it earned. No injustice today! Indeed, Allah is swift in account.[^26] > > Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your \[full\] compensation on the Day of Resurrection.[^27] The Day of Judgment is a time when all crimes are taken to account. If a person evades detection in this world, they will meet their deserved end in the next. If a person committed a wrong that was not considered criminal in society, they will reap the consequences in the court of Allah. Even in Islamic law, there are many immoralities that are grave but carry no legal punishments in this world at all. Lying, backbiting, and mistreatment of parents are all major sins in Islam, but no worldly punishments are legislated for them. The sin of *ribā* (interest) is described as ‘waging war against Allah and His messenger,’ yet has no associated worldly punishment. Public drunkenness, on the other hand, has a prescribed punishment even though *ribā* is worse from a moral perspective. This is even the case with *shirk* itself, which is considered the ultimate evil yet does not have a worldly punishment prescribed for it in Islamic law. It is clear we cannot use legal punishments in this world as a gauge for the magnitude of a crime, even within Islamic law. Islamic law focuses on protecting the most important features of societies, religion, life, property, family, and intellect.[^28] It is not designed to punish every single immorality in this world, nor is any man-made system of law designed to do this. For Muslims, some immoralities are too grave to be handled by human beings and must be escalated to the Supreme Court of the Most High in the next life. --- ## What makes shirk so evil? Hundreds of theories have been posited by philosophers, theologians, and thinkers throughout the millennia regarding the nature of good and evil. Some equate good and evil with pleasure and pain.[^29] Others deny any objective existence of good and evil, claiming they are products of human imagination.[^30] Still others claim good is what leads to the collective flourishing of human civilization,[^31] or assert it is what maximizes individual well-being.[^32] This philosophical variance  is attributable to competing notions of human purpose. That is to say, good and bad are categorizations of reality that necessarily assume an ultimate cosmic purpose. Ayn Rand, the famous 20th-century philosopher, describes values (that which one acts to gain and/or keep) as a necessary precondition for any system of ethics.[^33] Isidor Chein, a 20th-century American psychologist influenced by the psychodynamic school, explains the importance of identifying an individual’s purpose in order to develop a ‘science of morality.’[^34] To understand this point, consider how these terms are used in non-moral settings. In sports, *good* and *bad* are adjectives frequently used to describe the actions of the players. A ‘good’ move is what facilitates the individual or the team fulfilling the *purpose* of the game, while a ‘bad’ move hinders them from it. It would be nonsensical to describe an action as good if there was no point to the game. These words only carry meaning if there is a shared purpose that the players are aiming toward. Similarly, we can only apply the terms *good* and *bad* to life as a whole if it possesses some inherent purpose. If there is no purpose to life, then it would be incoherent to describe anything as good or bad. If life is random, then by definition anything that occurs is valueless. If we assume the purpose of life to be maximizing happiness or pleasure, then good will be anything that leads to this, and bad anything that prevents it. If a person believes that the purpose of life is to achieve a state of *tawḥīd* (Islamic monotheism) by following the path of the prophets,[^35] then the opposite of this—falling into *shirk* (idolatry) by following the demonic path—would be the ultimate evil. While this is a sufficient explanation on its own, there are other perspectives that can help us appreciate the evil of *shirk*. Any theory of ethics attempts to understand the factors essential to something being good or evil. Deontological ethics focuses on the motivation behind an action (intention) and its connection to universal moral principles, but not necessarily its consequences.[^36] It focuses on certain moral principles expressed in the form of rules and laws inviolable under any circumstances regardless of consequences. Historically these moral principles came from religious instruction. As secularism took hold post-Enlightenment, Kant introduced the categorical imperative[^37] as the ultimate moral principle people ought to act by.[^38] The categorical imperative states that moral agents should act as if their actions would become universally applicable. Consequentialism focuses on the consequent benefit or harm an action causes to the individual and society, traditionally in the form of pleasure or pain.[^39] While utilitarianism, which embodies consequentialist ideals to organize socio-political agents, is a relatively recent phenomenon, consequentialism as an idea has been connected to the larger, more ancient tradition of hedonism.[^40] This school focuses on establishing maximum benefit or averting maximum harm for the largest number of people. Virtue ethics, which finds its roots with Aristotle, focuses on the virtue or vice displayed with each behavior,[^41] and what the behavior indicates regarding the overall character of the person. From an Islamic perspective none of the three schools has an accurate or complete philosophy of ethics due to their separation from the Divine foundation.[^42] However, each does speak to a dimension of ethical reasoning supported by Islamic texts. Regarding the categorical imperative, we see the Prophet ﷺ using this form of moral reasoning when asked by a young companion for permission  to commit *zinā*.[^43] > Abū Umāma reported: A young man came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, “O Messenger of Allah, give me permission to commit *zinā*.” The people turned to rebuke him, saying, “Quiet! Quiet!” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Come here.” The young man came close and he told him to sit down. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Would you like that for your mother?” The man said, “No, by Allah, may I be sacrificed for you.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Neither would people like it for their mothers. Would you like that for your daughter?” The man said, “No, by Allah, may I be sacrificed for you.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Neither would people like it for their daughters. Would you like that for your sister?” The man said, “No, by Allah, may I be sacrificed for you.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Neither would people like it for their sisters. Would you like that for your aunts?” The man said, “No, by Allah, may I be sacrificed for you.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Neither would people like it for their aunts.” Then, the Prophet ﷺ placed his hand on him and said, “O Allah, forgive his sins, purify his heart, and guard his chastity.” After that, the young man never again inclined to anything sinful.[^44] This young man did not see how *zinā* was evil. Although not explicitly stated in the hadith, we can appreciate how some people can be blind to why consensual *zinā* is a major sin, given no one seems to be ‘harmed.’ Rather than giving a ‘consequentialist’ justification, the Prophet ﷺ implored the young man to think outside of himself and imagine how he would feel if the same act he desired involved his female relatives. In other words, how would he feel if such an action was universally applicable to the extent of necessarily involving his own family? If a person believes it is wrong for someone to commit such an act with their own family, then how can they justify it as permissible for themselves?[^45] Though it comes from a consequentalist paradigm, the harm principle is a recognized tool in ethical decision-making within Islam. A well-known prophetic tradition establishes a legal maxim: “There is to be no harm and no reciprocation of harm.”[^46] Furthermore, al-*maṣlaḥa al-mursala* (public interest)[^47] and *sadd ad-dharāʾiʿ* (preventing the means to harm)[^48] are  recognized legal maxims, from which secondary legislations can be derived according to the Mālikī and Ḥanbalī schools of law. The Ḥanafīs are known for *istiḥsān* (juristic preference)[^49] that also involves consideration of the benefit and harm that would result from a legal ruling. Here we see the consequentialist paradigm given consideration within Islamic legal frameworks. Lastly, we find that virtue ethics is  consistent with the mission of the Prophet ﷺ and the connection of ethics to the Divine Names and Attributes. “I have only been sent to perfect noble character.”[^50] Furthermore, there is a great emphasis placed on using one’s heart and intuition to solve ethical dilemmas, > Wābiṣa bin Maʿbad reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Have you come to ask about good and evil, Wābiṣa?” I said, “Yes,” so he ﷺ joined his fingers and hit his chest and said “Seek judgment from your *nafs* (self), seek judgment from your *heart*” three times. (Then he ﷺ said), “Good is what the self is comfortable with and what makes the heart at peace. Evil is what arouses discomfort in the self and hesitancy in the heart despite the opinions of others.”[^51] The Names and Attributes of God represent lofty qualities we are meant to act in accordance with. Divine attributes of love, kindness, mercy, and gentleness are meant to be embodied in this life, > ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The merciful are shown mercy by *ar-Raḥmān* (The Most Merciful). Be merciful to those on earth and the One above the heavens will show mercy to you.”[^52]  > > If you judge, then judge between them with justice, verily Allah ﷻ loves those who are just.[^53] > > Forgive and overlook; wouldn’t you love for Allah ﷻ to forgive you?[^54] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), the great medieval polymath, reflects on this connection between ethics and theology, > Allah ﷻ loves His Names and Attributes, and He loves the consequences of His Attributes and their manifestations upon the servants. Just as He is Beautiful, so He loves beauty. As He is the Most Forgiving, He loves forgiveness; as He is the Most Generous, He loves generosity: as He is All-Knowing, he loves the people of knowledge… So because ​​Allah ﷻ loves those who emulate His Attributes, He is with them according to how much of these qualities they reflect, and this is a special and unique type of companionship.[^55] Hence, we see that the virtue-ethics paradigm only makes sense if it is rooted in the Divine Names and Attributes. Otherwise, the qualities of virtue are mere social constructions or imaginations of the mind. The connection between moral virtue and the Divine Names and Attributes forms the basis of Islamic morality. Now that we have briefly surveyed the three main ethical paradigms we find in the West, and identified their presence in the Islamic tradition, we will examine the concept of *shirk* from their perspectives. We are not attempting to prove that *shirk* is evil through secular ethical paradigms, but we are using various universal methods of ethical reasoning substantiated from our sources to aid our investigation.[^56] As the Islamic axiom states, there is no need for dispute over terms once we understand the concepts behind them.[^57] --- ## Shirk from a deontological perspective: Purpose of life Deontological ethics focuses on universal moral principles that should never be violated under any circumstances. *Tawḥīd* is one such commitment, as established through revelation. Hence, *shirk* becomes the ultimate crime. Even if someone is coerced to violate their *tawḥīd* with a genuine threat to life or limb, they must hold *tawḥīd* in their hearts in secret. Ibn al-Qayyim uses this justification when answering this exact question, “Why is *shirk* the most hated thing to Allah?” Part of his response is that when a person commits *shirk*, “he is acting in direct contradiction to what he has been created for.”[^58] --- ## Shirk from a virtue-ethics perspective Virtue ethics focuses on what a behavior indicates about the character of a person. An action should be judged in part by the quality it demonstrates. When we examine the underlying qualities embodied in an act of *shirk*, we can better appreciate its evil. --- ## Betrayal At the root of *shirk* and its evil is betrayal. It involves betraying one’s purpose in life and betraying one’s Benefactor, given that the person was endowed with the gift of existence and all of the blessings of life and yet refuses to show love and gratitude to that Benefactor. In fact, the word for disbelief in Islam, *kufr*, can also be used to refer to ingratitude.[^59] Indeed an argument can be made that betrayal is the root of all sin and the worst of all crimes. For instance, the worst crime in the eyes of the state is treason, betrayal of the nation.[^60] This is why the harshest punishments are reserved for the crime of treason. The rationale is that the state had provided the citizen with protection, public resources, and dwelling in exchange for loyalty. By choosing to conspire against the state, one has betrayed the entire state. Furthermore, the major sins and crimes people recognize can be reduced to a common theme: betrayal. Adultery, the worst crime in a romantic relationship, is a betrayal of marital trust. The generic social contract that allows human beings to coexist within a society is betrayed by murder and theft.[^61] We find the Sunnah reflects these concepts when the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the greatest evils human beings can commit. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said, “I asked ​​Prophet Muhammad ﷺ which crime is the greatest according to Allah ﷻ. He ﷺ replied, ‘That you make a rival alongside Allah ﷻ while He created you.’ I said that is definitely a great sin then asked what is next. He ﷺ said, ‘That you kill your own child fearing that he will share your food with you.’ I said what is next? He ﷺ said, ‘That you commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife.’”[^62] Reflecting on this anecdote, we notice that each crime mentioned is described in its most egregious form. *Shirk* is a betrayal of the One who created you, infanticide is the ultimate betrayal of the parental duty of providing, and the worst form of adultery is betraying the trust of one’s own neighbor. The concept of betrayal is also part of Ibn al-Qayyim’s explanation of why *shirk* is the greatest evil, > And for this reason, *shirk* is the most despised thing to Him (Allah) because it diminishes one’s love (for Allah) and transfers it to whoever he associated with Him (Allah). For this reason Allah does not forgive *shirk*… And no doubt this is the greatest crime a lover can commit toward his beloved.[^63] This is a profound point that Ibn al-Qayyim raises. When we recognize our entire life is based on this one relationship we have with our Creator, then the acts that threaten this relationship are the worst that a person can commit in this world. The most destructive action that a spouse can commit is acquiring a secret lover. Any number of actions can terminate a romantic relationship, from divorce to abuse, but the most devastating of them is an affair. To Allah belongs the highest example, but similarly when one betrays their *tawḥīd* and elevates an idol to the position of God, Lord, or Divine, they have committed the greatest act of betrayal in the most important relationship of their lives. The degree of betrayal is determined by (1) the degree of benevolence granted to a person and (2) the degree of trust given to a person. --- ## Degree of benevolence The more benevolence granted to a person, the greater level of loyalty expected—and therefore the greater the betrayal. From this equation we can see how breaking one’s covenant with God would be the greatest act of betrayal, regarded as *shirk*. Every single blessing, including the very gift of existence, comes from the Most Benevolent, the Most Compassionate. Betraying the loyalty demanded by such a reality is worse than any crime we can  fathom. We find this reasoning consistent with the way *shirk* is described in the Qur’an and Sunnah. > O Humanity, what has deluded you from your Gracious Lord? The One who created you, fashioned you, and balanced you in whatever form He willed, assembling you.[^64] > > And out of what We have provided them, they take a portion aside for those (idols) they have no knowledge about. Certainly, by Allah, they will be questioned regarding what they used to invent.[^65] And as mentioned, when the Prophet ﷺ was asked which is the greatest sin, he said, “That you set up with Allah ﷻ a rival and He is the One who created you.”[^66] Betraying the covenant takes multiple forms. Even if there are no external idols, overlooking or choosing not to care about this relationship with Allah to the point of denying or ignoring it is a form of betrayal. This betrayal is still *shirk*. In a word, you set yourself as a peer or superior to God when you feel that you can overlook this covenant, and that your commitment to it is a trivial matter. Through your actions you demonstrate your belief that your ego is in a position to decide on what should be worshiped in your life, what is valued, what matters, and what you should devote your life to. As Allah says, “Have you seen the one who takes his desires as his god?”[^67] --- ## Degree of trust The magnitude of a betrayal is also based on the degree of vulnerability and trust that another person shows to you. This demands a higher degree of loyalty. For example, a husband or wife leaving their spouse at home alone indicates their great trust in their neighbors. A child’s complete dependency on its parent makes infanticide an especially horrific form of murder. The greater the trust violated, the greater the crime. While God is not dependent on anyone or vulnerable at all, He granted human beings a great trust (*amāna*) that is described in the Qur’an, > Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man \[undertook to\] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant.[^68] The ‘Trust’ (*amāna*) here is all encompassing and is the responsibility Allah ﷻ has placed on human beings—including the trust between one another. At-Ṭabarī provides multiple early reports on the concept of *amāna*, such as the obligations due to ​​Allah in this life, the trust of private acts of devotion, *ḥudūd* (law), *dīn* (religion), *wadāʾiʿ* (security deposits between people), human faculties of sight and speaking, and the sanctity of life. He concludes by stating, “The correct view is those who say that what is meant by *amāna* in this verse is every single trust and duty found in the religion (i.e., toward God) and every trust and duty between human beings.”[^69] What we learn from this is that the trusts that are violated in crimes between people are actually connected to the ultimate trust bestowed upon human beings by Allah ﷻ. Therefore betrayal between human beings is ultimately a betrayal of God’s gifts to humanity of consciousness, choice, movement, and ability. The worst form of this type of betrayal is to use what God has entrusted to us to violate the very purpose of our existence by committing *shirk*. --- ## Narcissism and self-worship When a person turns away from the worship of Allah, he will inevitably worship the deities that are, in reality, a reflection of his own vain desires. The Qur’an describes such a person: “Have you seen the one who makes his own desires as his god? Then would you be responsible for him?”[^70] In fact, man prefers to worship what is constructed from his imagination in this world rather than submitting to an Authority greater than his ego. Allah says, “Will you argue with me concerning names that you have invented yourselves and your ancestors, of which there was no authority sent down by Allah?”[^71] The worshiping of idols is in reality the worshiping of one’s ego. It is an ego that subconsciously or consciously perceives itself as the creator of gods and deities, the creator of values and morals, the creator of right and wrong. Allah uses the word ‘create’ when describing their false ideologies: “You only worship, besides Allah ﷻ, idols, and you create such falsehood.”[^72] There is no greater inflation of the ego than having the audacity to think one is  qualified to create one’s own religion from whatever the ego fancies. Allah says, “They are only names you have invented yourselves and your ancestors, of which there was no authority sent down by Allah. They are only following their whims and what their self desires, even though guidance has certainly come to them from their (true) Lord.”[^73] While one may think the creation of idols is a bygone practice from thousands of years ago, we are witnessing in the new generation a modern form of idolatry known as ‘moralistic therapeutic deism,’ the default religion of the average Westerner in the 21st century.[^74] Subscribers to this self-serving ideology cherry-pick the virtues found in other religions that make them happy. No authority, scripture, or guidance informs how they live their lives. Instead, these people show the same audacity of the idol-carvers in creating their own way of life based on their own desires. Here, we find the deification of the self manifested in the guise of self-serving moral attitudes and beliefs. Furthermore, the extreme cancel culture perpetuated by social media users reflects a lack of humility when it comes to complex moral issues. Their obsessive focus on others’ faults, as if they hold the Divine right to pass ultimate judgment, is telling of a clear underlying narcissism. The invention of new ideals, norms, boundaries, rights, and wrongs is what the Qur’an describes as lying against God. > And do not say “This is permitted and this is prohibited” based on what your tongues assert as untruth in order to invent falsehood about Allah.[^75] Without a doubt, there are some people who may not realize the true reality of idolatry. They may practice an idolatrous religion or culture because they enjoy being part of a community, the comfort of social cohesion, and the desire to conform. Perhaps they have simply inherited it without giving due consideration of their mind or heart. So their example is like the Qur’an describes, a mere  “statement that emerges from their mouth.”[^76] However, when the ugly truth of idolatry becomes clear to them, they must make a decision to depart from these practices, or close their eyes and continue despite recognizing the great wrong and betrayal that idolatry represents. Allah ﷻ says, > Those who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture, and the Polytheists, were not apart, until the Clear Evidence came to them.[^77] --- ## Consequentialism: The harm principle In most liberal societies, the harm principle is the only legitimate standard for right or wrong. An act, in the absence of any clear harm perpetrated against a victim, is often exonerated of any immorality. This is an amputated form of morality due to its disposal of the religious tradition used to inform virtues, vices, and duties toward one’s self, toward one’s society, and toward God Himself. Due to the shortsightedness of this approach, many immoralities without obvious harms are not recognized as evil. We must expand the notion of harm beyond the material, to encompass the effects of an action on the mind, the soul, the community, and of course harms that will be experienced in the afterlife. This section will explore the various harms that emerge from idolatry—psychological, intellectual, and social. Before discussing those harms, though, we must discuss the ultimate harm: that found in the afterlife. ### Afterlife It is important to note that people who engage in idolatry may not experience all its harmful consequences in this world, just as not everyone who drinks alcohol will become addicted, intoxicated, and abusive, or get liver cirrhosis, neuropathy, encephalopathy, and so on. Likewise, not everyone who smokes cigarettes will suffer from lung cancer, emphysema, or a heart attack. It is illegal in many countries to smoke in public places because of the known harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure. However, not everyone who receives secondhand smoke will suffer the consequences. Similarly, idolatry threatens harm that has a high probability of occurring in this life, and will certainly come in the next life. Allah says, > It has been inspired to you and those before you, if you commit *shirk* your actions will be nullified and you will surely be of the losers.[^78] > > And it will be said, ‘“Invoke your ‘partners’” and they will invoke them; but they will not respond to them, and they will see the punishment. If only they had followed guidance.[^79] This harm is greater than anyone can fathom in this world and so even on the grounds of the ‘harm principle’ should be considered the ultimate evil. Allah says, “And Allah wronged them not, but they had been wronging themselves.”[^80] The oppression of idolatry may have not directly harmed anyone else, but it harmed its practitioners, so this crime is considered an example of an individual oppressing themselves. Ibn al-Qayyim also describes the great oppression idolatry brings upon a person in the next life. > When Allah said He purchased our souls, we have to realize that the value of the commodity is correlated to both the status of the buyer and the price. You are the commodity, and you are so valuable that Allah is purchasing you, and the price is Paradise, which you receive along with seeing Allah, and hearing His speech, in the abode of complete peace and tranquility. Allah chose you and only chooses that which is honored and blessed—and built for you a dwelling place close to Him and made the angels as servants for you, making sure you are taken care of in this world when you are awake and when you are sleeping, when you are alive and when you will die. When a person commits *shirk*, he sells himself to the other gods (he worships), and so he is deprived of paradise, the mercy, love, and care of Allah.[^81] ### Psychological harms Beyond this, when we analyze the effects of *shirk* on the individual in this world, we can appreciate that the harms of *shirk* are not exclusive to the next life. The Qur’an compares idolatry to being co-owned by two quarreling partners: > Allah presents an example: A slave[^82] owned by quarreling partners and another belonging exclusively to one man—are they equal in comparison? Praise be to Allah! But most of them do not know.[^83] This analogy demonstrates that idolatry is the greatest threat to one’s sense of meaning and fulfillment in the world. Al-Rāzī comments, “So then he is left confused, not knowing which of them is most deserving of being pleased and which of them he should seek for his needs. For this reason he is in continuous punishment and endless misery.”[^84] Having a coherent purpose in life is essential to psychological well being. Dr. Viktor Frankl, the holocaust-surviving psychiatrist, famously coined the phrase ‘will to meaning’ when describing the most important asset to the human psyche. He commented that a student of his performed a study on 60 university students who had attempted suicide. Of those students, 85% said they had done so because ‘life seemed meaningless.’ Around 93% of the respondents were socially engaged, academically successful, and had a family circle. Frankl remarks, “If a person has found the meaning sought for, he is prepared to suffer, to offer sacrifices, even, if need be, to give his life for the sake of it. Contrariwise, if there is no meaning he is inclined to take his life, and he is prepared to do so even if all his needs, to all appearances, have been satisfied.”[^85] Multiple studies have quantitatively corroborated Frankl’s analysis by demonstrating the strong correlation between meaning and wellbeing.[^86] In fact, purpose in life is a mediator between religiosity and happiness.[^87] This means that [religiosity correlates with happiness](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-in-mind-islams-role-in-mental-health&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557966454&usg=AOvVaw1X_xTYCPqAIEOcF2i4T7IP) because it endows its practitioner with a purpose in life. Those who simply affirm a religious identity out of culture, for instance, without internalizing it as a way of life will not find happiness in their superficial religious attachment. A person may object by pointing to polytheistic religions, which seem to challenge the notion that idolatry negates a meaningful worldview. While it is true there are polytheistic religions, they often contain an element or trace of monotheism. Often there is an ‘ultimate’ or ‘supreme’ God that reigns over the other gods. This is why Allah says in the Qurʾan, “Most of them don’t believe in Allah except that they associate partners with him.”[^88] The polytheistic element, if taken seriously and to its logical conclusion, can only result in the destruction of meaning. Meaning is defined as ‘making sense, order, or coherence out of one’s existence.’[^89] Purpose is defined as ‘intention, some function to be fulfilled, or goals to be achieved.’[^90] There is no greater threat to these concepts than *shirk*. As Allah ﷻ says, “Had there been within the heavens and earth gods besides ​​Allah ﷻ, they would have been ruined.”[^91] This ontological challenge to idolatry states that competing divine wills would inevitably result in constant struggle and resistance, compromising the very fabric of reality. People recognize the global destruction that would ensue if the nuclear powers of the world were to engage in war. If there were competing Divine Wills, the collateral damage would be reality itself. Hence, it is impossible to maintain a meaningful belief about the world through idolatry. Furthermore, believing in multiple idols entails divergent and contradictory aims in life, resulting in dysfunctional goals. The human being is left lost in this world with no coherent understanding of who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. They can only live in a constant state of fear and anxiety from the wrath of their gods without any clear guidance. One god may be happy with an offering but another one may be spiteful. There will be no clarity in one’s value system, belief system, or life purpose. *Shirk* thus makes life meaningless. Someone may respond by positing a form of idolatry where all gods have the same will without any resistance against each other. The problem is that if we claim they all have the same will, then they are no longer multiple entities since a distinct agent is known by its distinct will and agency. A genuine belief in idolatrous ideology, albeit a rarity in the Western world, is thus the most debilitating idea that can infiltrate the human mind. Just as alcohol, drugs, and any other neurotoxins can seriously damage the brain, the presence of *shirk* in the mind seriously damages the soul. It suffocates its only source of life, which is meaning and purpose in life through *tawḥīd*. Atheism is a modern form of *shirk* that endows natural entities or concepts with Divine attributes. The creation of reality is ascribed to ‘nothingness,’ ‘singularity,’ ‘the unknown,’ and a set of arbitrary mathematical constants found in the universe. This worldview is technically a form of *shirk*, even if it does not affirm any gods. Certainly, nihilism is more obviously a consequence of atheism than polytheism. We discussed earlier how people have carved idols by inventing their own morals and beliefs without deference to any authority other than their own egos. There is another kind of idol, absolute in its psychological destruction—carved not from stone, but from the vain desires of humanity, manifesting as social media celebrities and the rise of the ‘influencer.’ Chris Hedges, a famous contemporary writer, has diagnosed various cultural maladies that pervade the American conscience, including the problem of ‘celebrity worship’: > “We all have gods,” Martin Luther said, “it is just a question of which ones.” And in American society our gods are celebrities. Religious belief and practices are commonly transferred to the adoration of celebrities. Our culture builds temples to celebrities the way the Romans did for divine emperors, ancestors, and household gods. We are a de facto polytheistic society. We engage in the same kind of primitive beliefs as older polytheistic cultures. In celebrity culture, the object is to get as close as possible to the celebrity. Relics of celebrities are coveted as magical talismans. Those who can touch the celebrity or own a relic of the celebrity hope for a transference of celebrity power. They hope for magic.[^92] These idols, although people themselves, are carved by their ‘worshiper’s’ desires and whims. They would never be idols unless people recognized them, and they would never be recognized unless they conformed (or are carved) to what the people desire. The influencer is actually the one being influenced, and they become the projection of the most superficial and darkest parts of humanity. Ralph Emerson, a 19th-century American philosopher from the Transcendentalist school, is reported to have said, > A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will come out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshiping we are becoming.[^93] Vanity, narcissism, sensuality, idleness, wealth, gluttony, and entertainment are just some of the tainted materials by which these idols are created and subsequently worshiped**.** > Have you seen the one who makes his own desires as his god? Then would you be responsible for him?[^94] ### Intellectual harms Pagan ideologies are known for their focus on bad omens, luck, astrology, and other superstitious ideas that influence people’s behaviors. The Prophet ﷺ clearly disavowed the use of any irrational superstitions, thereby establishing rationality as the main tool for making worldly decisions about life. > ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd reported, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Spells, amulets, and charms are certainly *shirk.*”[^95]  > > ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever hangs an amulet around his neck, then Allah will not fulfill his wishes. Whoever hangs a seashell as a charm, then Allah will not grant him security.”[^96] This also extends to medicine based on superstitions without any rational or empirical evidence. ʿImrān ibn Ḥusayn reported the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw a man wearing a brass ring, so he was asked what it was. The man said, “It is protection from my shoulder ailment.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Remove it, for it will only increase your ailment and if you were to die wearing it you would never be successful.”[^97] The Qur’an makes it clear that even ​​the Prophet ﷺ did not have supernatural power to influence events for benefit or harm: “Say: I have no power at all for myself to harm or benefit except as Allah wills.”[^98] Continuing on the intellectual front, *shirk* contradicts the scientific discoveries of natural order and balance in the cosmos. The Qur’an explains how the logical consequence of *shirk* is a world of chaos. As quoted earlier, > Had there been in the heavens and earth gods beside Allah, they would have been ruined. So exalted is Allah, Lord of the Throne, above what they describe.[^99] *Tawḥīd*, on the other hand, provides the basis for the ordered world we constantly witness around us. A singular Divine Will is the only way to reasonably account for the signs of intricate design in life and the universe. Allah ﷻ says, “Indeed, within the heavens and earth are signs for the believers. And in the creation of yourselves and what He disperses of moving creatures are signs for people who are certain.”[^100] Idolatry challenges the very foundations of an intelligible universe and hence, if taken to its logical end, would result in the destruction of knowledge. ### Social harms Pagan societies are notoriously hierarchical with class-systems in place that oppress the marginalized, vulnerable, and disadvantaged. This is because the structure of a society reflects its beliefs and values. A pagan society that believes in a hierarchy of gods will organize itself as a hierarchy of people. We have seen similar problems with atheists who adopt Social Darwinism as an ideology, categorizing human beings according to their race and privileging some over others. It was precisely this ideology that led to the horrors committed by Nazi Germany.[^101] Nationalism and populism in the 21st century also divide the world based on race and have strong supremacist overtones. The notion of human ‘equality’ in countries like the United States is explicitly based on the idea of One God, where the Constitution states, “All men are created equal under God.” *Ṭawḥīd* provides a basis for the equality of all mankind since they were all created by the same singular Divine Entity and can be traced back to the same two parents. Abu Nadrah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said during the middle of the day at the end of the pilgrimage, “O people, your Lord is One and your father Adam is one. There is no favor of an Arab over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, and neither white skin over black skin, nor black skin over white skin, except by righteousness.”[^102] Dr. Craig Considine, a non-Muslim professor of Islamic studies, argues that this is the first record of any historical figure explicitly advocating for racial equality.[^103] *Tawḥīd* is a great **unifying** force, granting all people a chance to reach their full spiritual potential without any arbitrary ceiling placed upon them because of the family they happened to be born into. Islam is undeniably the purest expression of monotheism historically and today. This is why we find that the first generations of Islam were unique, in their time, for their egalitarian attitudes. Freed slaves occupied high positions in Islamic scholarship, as did many women. Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ, an African man, became the official *muʾadhdhin* for the Muslims of Madīnah. Sālim, a freed slave, became one of greatest scholars of the Qurʾan among the companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr (rA), a woman, became one of the most prolific narrators of hadith, as well as a scholar of law who many men would travel to learn from. Masrūq reported: It was said, “Did ʿĀʾisha (rA) have knowledge of the (laws of) inheritance?” Masrūq said, “By the one in whose hand is my soul, I saw the learned elders among the companions of Muhammad ﷺ ask her about the (laws of) inheritance.”[^104] In the generations that followed, we find freed slaves becoming the most significant scholars, and a continuity of female scholarship. An iconic figure that illustrates how egalitarian early Muslim societies were is ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, a blind man of African descent born with congenital defects that left him with a limp, who became the chief judge and scholar of the most sacred city in Islam, Makkah.[^105] We are not trying to prove that Muslim societies have always been egalitarian, as there are many historical instances of obvious discrimination or racism. But the shift that occurred in those societies due to the egalitarian consequences of the message of *tawḥīd* is best witnessed in the earliest generations tracing back to the Prophet ﷺ himself. Whenever Muslim societies deviated from this egalitarian ethos, it was in contradiction of Islamic principles and not because of them. In fact, Dr. Akram Nadwi has pointed out that the intellectual schools in Muslim history that were heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, such as the Muʿtazila or the philosophers, did not have female inclusion. He argues this is because Greek philosophy historically viewed women as inferior to men. In his 52-volume encyclopedia[^106] that documents the names and short biographies of female scholars in Islam, Dr. Nadwi found none among the Muʿtazila or Muslim philosophers, but thousands amongst the scholars of hadith. He concluded that the field of hadith was more inclusive of women because it more strongly embodied the pious culture of the Prophet ﷺ and the earliest generations.[^107] In more recent times, we find the testimony of Malcolm X on his return from the Hajj pilgrimage very telling of the egalitarian culture among Muslims as compared to the mid-20th century United States. In an interview he stated, > While I was at Mecca making the pilgrimage I spoke about the brotherhood that existed at all levels and among all people who were there on that Ḥajj who had accepted the religion of Islam and I pointed out that for what it had done—what the religion of Islam had done—for those people over there despite their complexion differences that it would probably do America well to study the religion of Islam and perhaps it could drive some of the racism from this society as it has driven the racism of the Muslim society.[^108] --- ## Conclusion Throughout this article we have conducted a moral inquiry into the action of idolatry. We have demonstrated through multiple ethical paradigms that idolatry is not only immoral but that idolatry represents the highest category of evil in each paradigm. Emotional reactions to immoralities cannot be confused with their actual magnitude. Human beings are biased by their own subjectivities. Recognizing that there may be a tension between one’s emotions and one’s theological commitments is an important step in resolving any doubts that may emerge regarding the immorality of idolatry. The next step is to be critical of one’s biases, recognizing that one’s emotions are not the criterion of truth. The final step is to continue on the path toward Allah and the closer one connects with Him, the more concordance there will be between one’s emotions and theological commitment. > And those who strive for Us—We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good.[^109] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 17:15. [^2]: Ovamir Anjum, “Being a Good Person is not Enough: Why Ethics needs Islam,” *Yaqeen*, January 27, 2022, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-a-good-person-is-not-enough-why-ethics-need-islam](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-a-good-person-is-not-enough-why-ethics-need-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557999954&usg=AOvVaw3ydFuriyFyfGQFS2Ktt-cA) [^3]: Qur’an 16:36. [^4]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 4477, 4761, 6001, 6811, 6861, 7520, and 7532; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, nos. 86a and 86b; [^5]: Erin M. O’Mara, Lydia E. Jackson, C. Daniel Batson, and Lowell Gaertner, “Will Moral Outrage Stand Up? Distinguishing among Emotional Reactions to a Moral Violation,” *European Journal of Social Psychology* 41, no. 2 (2011): 173–79. [^6]: Consequentialism will be discussed later in greater detail. [^7]: O’Mara et al., “Will Moral Outrage Stand Up?” [^8]: Qur’an, 19:88-90 [^9]: Qur’an 35:15 and 47:38. [^10]: Qur’an 3:144, 3:176–77, and 47:32. [^11]: Qur’an 17:82. [^12]: Qur’an 2:2. [^13]: Qur’an 4:174. [^14]: Qur’an 17:82. [^15]: Qur’an 10:32. [^16]: Qur’an 7:29. [^17]: Qur’an 68:35–36. [^18]: Qur’an 14:26. [^19]: Qur’an 18:103. [^20]: Qur’an 17:19 and 76:22 [^21]: Qur’an 40:17. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2751; *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, nos. 7422 and 7453; [^23]: Qur’an 3:30. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 486. [^25]: Qur’an 10:25. [^26]: Qur’an, 40:17. [^27]: Qur’an, 3:185. [^28]: These are known as the five *maqāṣid ash-sharīʾah* (objectives of Islamic law). [^29]: A philosophical school called Hedonism. Refer to Ruut Veenhoven, “Hedonism and Happiness,” *Journal of Happiness Studies* 4, no. 4 (2003): 437–57. [^30]: ​​A position referred to as “moral abolitionism.” Refer to: Richard Garner, “Abolishing Morality,” in *A World Without Values*, ed. Richard Joyce and Simon Kirchin (Dordrecht: Springer, 2010), 217–33. [^31]: This has been popularized by new atheist Sam Harris. Refer to Sam Harris, *The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011). [^32]: A philosophical school called “Eudaimonism” inspired by Aristotle. Refer to ​​Lorraine Besser-Jones, “Eudaimonism,” in *The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Well-Being*, ed. Guy Fletcher (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), 203–12. [^33]: Allan Gotthelf, “The Morality of Life,” in *A Companion to Ayn Rand*, ed. Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri (Chicester, UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2016), 76. [^34]: Isidor Chein, “Towards a Science of Morality,” *The Journal of Social Psychology* 25, no. 2 (1947): 235–38. [^35]: The interested reader can refer to a previous article that intellectually justifies this as humanity’s purpose in life: Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Nazir Khan, “Proving God’s Existence | In Pursuit of Conviction II,” *Yaqeen*, October 11, 2019,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-proving-gods-existence](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-proving-gods-existence&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788558000907&usg=AOvVaw1K2ZBcvrgb3taEXtoFDiGC). [^36]: David McNaughton and Piers Rawling, “Deontology,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory*, ed. David Copp, [https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195325911.003.0016](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195325911.003.0016&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557983130&usg=AOvVaw36YIKD19OELA7FBswr7Nrn). [^37]: The categorical imperative states that moral agents should act as if that action would become universally applicable. [^38]: For a more accessible work on Kantian ethics, the reader can refer to: Herbert James Paton, *The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy* (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971). The more interested reader can refer directly to Kant’s original work: Immanuel Kant, *Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). [^39]: Anthony Quinton, *Utilitarian Ethics* (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1973), 1. [^40]: Quinton, *Utilitarian Ethics*. [^41]: Peter Simpson, “Contemporary Virtue Ethics and Aristotle,” *The Review of Metaphysics* 45, no. 3 (1992): 503–24. [^42]: For an overview of the Islamic theology of moral ontology, the interested reader can refer to the section on morality in this previous article: Abdul-Rahman and Khan, “Proving God’s Existence.” [^43]: A general term that can refer to any unlawful extramarital affair. [^44]: *Musnad Imām Aḥmad*, no. 22211. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ considered its chain to be *ṣaḥīḥ* in *Takhreej al-musnad*. [^45]: This “golden rule” of reciprocity has been explored in an article by Justin Parrott, “Al-Ghazali and the Golden Rule: Ethics of Reciprocity in the Works of a Muslim Sage,”  *Yaqeen*, March 20, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/al-ghazali-and-the-golden-rule-ethics-of-reciprocity-in-the-works-of-a-muslim-sage](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/al-ghazali-and-the-golden-rule-ethics-of-reciprocity-in-the-works-of-a-muslim-sage&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788558003882&usg=AOvVaw269fDRMfgxQXEolImk7V80). [^46]: *Muwaṭā Imām Mālik*, no. 1435; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, nos. 2341 and 2340. Whilst the individual chains have been criticized, the scholars of hadith considered it fair (*ḥasan*) based on corroborating reports from multiple companions, including ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas, Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī, and ʿUbādah ibn as-Ṣāmit. The scholars who made this judgment include an-Nawawī in his *Arbaʿūn* (hadith 32) and al-Albānī in his *Huqūq an-nisāʾ fī al-Islām* (N.p.: Maktab al-Islāmī, 1984), 67n1. [^47]: A principle that considers the benefit and harms of a legal ruling as an independent source of legislation, as long as it does not contradict the revealed sources. For an introduction to the topic, refer to: Muḥammad Musṭafa az-Zuhaylī, *Kitāb al-wajīz fī uṣūl al-fiqh al-Islamī* (Qatar: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa Ash-Shuʾūn Al-Islāmī, 2006), 1:255. [^48]: A principle that gives prohibitive weight to something that may lead to a known prohibition. Refer to: az-Zuhaylī, *Kitāb al-wajīz*, 1:279. [^49]: This refers to a process where a jurist prefers a weaker evidence to a stronger evidence due to a benefit that is to be achieved or a harm to be averted. This can be done by preferring a weaker analogy to a stronger analogy or making an exception to a general principle for a benefit or to avert a harm. Refer to: az-Zuhaylī, *Kitāb al-wajīz*, 1:247. [^50]: *Musnad Imam Aḥmad*, no. 8952; *Adab al-mufrad*, no. 273. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 476 AH) declared it *ṣaḥīh* in *at-Tamhīd* (N.p.: Wazārat al-Awqāf wa Ash-Shu’ūn al-Islāmiyyah, 1412 AH), 24:333 along with al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 207. [^51]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, nos. 17545, 17999, and 18006; *Sunan ad-Dārimī*, no. 2533; *Musnad Abu Yaʾlā*, no. 1587. There are minor variations between these narrations. Imām Nawawī has graded it as fair (*ḥasan*) in his *Arbaʾūn* (forty) collection. [^52]: *Musnad Imām Aḥmad*, no. 6494; *Jāmiʾ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 1924; *Sunan Abī Dawud*, no. 4941. Al-Albānī declared it strong (*ṣaḥīḥ*) in *Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dawūd*, no. 4941. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʿūṭ declared it strong due to corroborating evidence (*ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrihi*). [^53]: Qur’an 5:42. [^54]: Qur’an 24:22. [^55]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat us-ṣabirīn wa dhakhīrat ash-shakirīn* (Jeddah: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2008), 85. [^56]: The rational justification of the evil of shirk is a project that exists within an Atharī paradigm of theology. As Ibn al-Qayyim stated, “What thing could the intellect verify if it does not know the intrinsic evilness of *shirk*? Knowing that it is evil is intuitive and known by necessity by the intellect.” Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij as-sālikīn* (Mansourah, Egypt: Fayḍ al-Maktabah, 2013), 203. This is in contrast to the Ashʿarī school, which denies that the intellect can grasp what is “good” or “evil” independent of revelation \[Ar-Razi, M. (1905) *Muhassal Afkaar al-Mutaqaddimeen wa al-Mutakhireen.* Cairo, Egypt: Al-Matba’ah Al-Husayniya, p. 148\]. [^57]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayna manāzil īyyāka naʿbudu wa īyyāka nastaʿīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabi, 1973), 3:306. [^58]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Tarīq al-hijratayn* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlim al-Fawāʿid, 2008), 524. [^59]: Qur’an 2:152. [^60]: J. H. Leek, “Treason and the Constitution,” *The Journal of Politics* 13, no. 4 (1951): 604–22 . [^61]: There is an interesting story found in the books of *tafsīr* regarding the first generation of humans. It is said that when Adam intended to take a religious pilgrimage, he asked the sky to protect his children as an *amānah* (responsibility, trust), and it refused. He then asked the earth, and it refused. He asked the mountain, and it refused. Then Cain (Qābīl, Adam’s son) said, yes, you may go and find your family just how you would like it. This indicates that human beings rely on each other for collective protection, whereas the natural elements have no such trust \[Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-masīr ilā ʿilm at-tafsīr* (Cairo: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2002), 1141\]. [^62]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 4477, 4761, 6001, 6811, 6861, 7520, and 7532; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, nos. 86a and 86b; [^63]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Tarīq al-hijratayn*, 523. [^64]: Qur’an 82:6–8. [^65]: Qur’an 16:56. [^66]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 4477, 4761, 6001, 6811, 6861, 7520, and 7532; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, nos. 86a and 86b. [^67]: Qur’an 45:23. [^68]: Qur’an 33:72. [^69]: At-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat ar-Risālah, 2014), vol 6, 204. [^70]: Qur’an 25:43. [^71]: Qur’an 7:71. [^72]: Qur’an 29:17. [^73]: Qur’an 53:23. [^74]: Christian Smith, “Is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism the New Religion of American Youth? Implications for the Challenge of Religious Socialization and Reproduction,” in *Passing on the Faith*, ed. James L. Heft (New York: Fordham University Press, 2009), 55–74. [^75]: Qur’an 16:116. [^76]: Qur’an 18:5. [^77]: Qurʾan 98:1 [^78]: Qur’an 39:65. [^79]: Qur’an 28:64. [^80]: Qur’an, 16:33 [^81]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Tarīq al-hijratayn*, 527. [^82]: This passage references the historical institution of slavery. For a more thorough understanding of the Islamic perspective on slavery, please refer to a previous article: Jonathan Brown and Abdullah Hamid Ali, “Slavery and Islam: What is Slavery?,” *Yaqeen*, February 7, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788558004983&usg=AOvVaw0X5fvaFUCGNA1RXYpYjhJr). [^83]: Qur’an 39:29. [^84]: Ar-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb* (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 26:277. [^85]: Viktor E. Frankl, *The Unheard Cry for Meaning: Psychotherapy and Humanism* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011), 2. [^86]: ​​Monika Ardelt, “Effects of Religion and Purpose in Life on Elders’ Subjective Well-Being and Attitudes toward Death,” *Journal of Religious Gerontology* 14, no. 4 (2003): 55–77; Patrick E. McKnight Todd B. Kashdan, “Purpose in Life as a System that Creates and Sustains Health and Well-Being: An Integrative, Testable Theory,” *Review of General Psychology* 13, no. 3 (2009): 242–51; Gary T. Reker, Edward J. Peacock, and Paul T. P. Wong, “Meaning and Purpose in Life and Well-Being: A Life-Span Perspective,” *Journal of Gerontology* 42, no. 1 (1987): 44–49. [^87]: Naser Aghababaei and Agata Błachnio, “Purpose in Life Mediates the Relationship between Religiosity and Happiness: Evidence from Poland,” *Mental Health, Religion & Culture* 17, no. 8 (2014): 827–31. [^88]: Qur’an 12:106. [^89]: Gary T. Reker, Edward J. Peacock, and Paul T. P. Wong, “Meaning and Purpose in Life and Well-Being: A Life-Span Perspective,” *Journal of Gerontology* 42, no. 1 (1987): 44–49. [^90]: Reker, Peacock, and Wong, “Meaning and Purpose in Life and Well-Being,” 44–49. [^91]: Qur’an 21:22. [^92]: Chris Hedges, *Empire of Illusion* (New York: Bold Type Books, 2010), 17. [^93]: “Introduction,” Signs of Our Faith: A Program about Being UU Every Day for Grades 2–3, Unitarian Universalist Association, [https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/signs/session11/287903.shtml](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/signs/session11/287903.shtml&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557994638&usg=AOvVaw3i0gybf8VL4iQHgD15WB_H). [^94]: Qur’an 25:43. [^95]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 3883. Al-Albānī declared this narration *ṣaḥīḥ* (sound) \[*Ṣaḥīḥ Abū Dawūd*, no. 3883\]. [^96]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 16951. Al-Arnāʾūṭ declared this narration *ḥasan* (fair) \[*Musnad Imām Aḥmad*, no 16951\] and As-Suyūṭī declared it *ṣaḥīḥ* (sound) \[*Al-Jamiʾ As-Saghīr*, no. 8839\]. [^97]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3531; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 19498. The scholars have differed on the authenticity of this report. Al-Albānī declared it *ḍaʾīf* (weak) \[Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Mājah, no 3531\]. Bin Bāz declared the chain as good (*jayyid*) \[*Fatāwā Nūr ʿalaa ad-Darb li-Ibn Bāz*, (Riyāḍ: Ar-Riʾāsatu al-ʿĀmmah lil-Buḥūth wa al-Iftāʾ, 2007), vol. 1, 383\]. Regardless of the chain, the content is consistent with other authentic narrations that speak about the prohibition of charms and amulets as quoted above. [^98]: Qur’an 10:49. [^99]: Qur’an 21:22. [^100]: Qur’an 45:3–4. [^101]: Richard Dawkins admits that Hitler drew inspiration from Social Darwinism, but argues it was not a faithful representation of Darwin’s ideas. \[Dawkins, R. (2009). *The greatest show on earth: The evidence for evolution*. Simon and Schuster, ch. 3\]. [^102]: *Musnad Imam Aḥmad*, no. 23489; declared *ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^103]: “Who is the First Anti-Racist?| Dr. Craig Considine”  Emir-Stein Center, YouTube video, June 18, 2019, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTwft2KX9xE](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DhTwft2KX9xE&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788558007271&usg=AOvVaw3vUC-tDUZcSsNbIAtvc1o0) [^104]: *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*, no. 30387; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Ibn Ḥajr al-Haythamī in *Majmāʾ al-Zawāʾid* (Beirut: Dār ul-Kutub ʿIlmīyyah, 2001), 9:285. [^105]: Adh-Dhahabī, *Sīyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ* (Beirut: Muʾassasa Ar-Risālah, 1982), 5:81. [^106]: Mohammad Akram Nadwi, *Al-Muḥaddith̄āt: The Women Scholars in Islam* (N.p.: Interface Publications, 2007). [^107]: “Ask Shaykh YQ Special With Dr. Akram Nadwi,” Yasir Qadhi, YouTube video, July 22, 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjFCF2QsMQ8](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DTjFCF2QsMQ8&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557997811&usg=AOvVaw0IG5McNcQniTYYdUUvFIoZ). [^108]: “Malcolm X: America Needs Islam,” OnePath Network, YouTube video, February 23, 2016,  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvvTYJVZu3A](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DbvvTYJVZu3A&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658788557998382&usg=AOvVaw1TcRsukp_I8eFRviVu4ew-). [^109]: Qur’an 29:69. [^110]: Peters, T. (2022). When Did Homo Sapiens Become Homo Religiosus?: Just-so Stories, Evolution, and Big History. In *Science, Religion, and Deep Time* (pp. 336-358). Routledge India. ## Summary **Why Beliefs Matter and Why Shirk Is the Greatest Evil** Human beings have always been preoccupied with the same enduring questions: life after death, the reality of the soul, morality, and the nature of God. So central are these concerns that some anthropologists have named our species *Homo Religiosus*, defining us not by wisdom but by our shared religious activity. Even in an age of declining traditional religion, this impulse does not vanish; it merely finds new outlets. The New Atheists pontificate about morality and the origins of the universe, New Age spiritualists assemble their own mysticism from ancient fragments, and social media crusaders enforce their own notions of right and wrong through cancel culture. The modern world has not left religion behind but has replaced old faiths with new ones. How a person or civilization answers these ultimate questions determines its very spirit, for these answers reveal our purpose, to whom we are accountable, and for what. To begin with false beliefs at the root is to invite ruin in the branches. A common assumption is that beliefs are morally neutral—that a wrong belief reflects only a lack of intelligence, not a failure of character. Yet this confuses trivial academic questions with questions of ultimate moral weight. When beliefs concern the very definition of good and evil, they carry moral implications. Moreover, arriving at truth in these matters is not a purely academic exercise, since such questions often lie beyond science and deductive reason. Reaching truth requires the authentic reflection of a pure *ʿaql* (intellect) that draws upon spiritual, emotional, moral, and rational faculties together. Moral vices such as arrogance, narcissism, and negligence cloud this process, veiling the heart from truth—much as an arrogant, self-absorbed spouse cannot perceive the pain he inflicts within his marriage. It must be noted, however, that Islamic eschatology excuses those who never receive a clear articulation of the truth, for the Qur'an makes plain that accountability to believe follows only after a messenger has conveyed the message. Whether one could independently reach truth without revelation remains a theoretical debate among theologians. The modern "post-truth era" has bred a widespread apathy toward truth and an embrace of salvific pluralism, captured in the cliché, "Just be a good person; it doesn't matter what you believe." Yet this is paradoxical, for the very conception of a "good person" rests upon a belief about the Ultimate Good. History bears witness to the destruction wrought by false beliefs: Nazi Germany's Social Darwinism and the Soviet Union's militant atheistic communism produced the greatest catastrophes of the twentieth century. Even beliefs that are not politically destructive may still corrode the soul. In Islam, the truth of existence is *tawḥīd*—the absolute oneness of the Divine—while the ultimate evil is *shirk*—associating partners with God, which robs life of clear purpose. This has been the message of every messenger: *"And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], 'Worship Allah [alone] and avoid Ṭāghūt.'"* When the Prophet ﷺ was asked which sin is greatest, he replied, "That you set up with Allah a rival while He is the One who created you." Many Muslims nonetheless struggle to understand why *shirk* should be worse than horrendous crimes against humanity, and this confusion may sow doubts about salvation. Through deontological, virtue-ethical, and consequentialist frameworks—read within Islamic theology—*shirk* can be shown to be the greatest evil, and the psychological gap between believing this and feeling it can be explored. A vital distinction must be drawn between *moral outrage* and *moral magnitude*. Our emotional reactions are shaped by contextual factors and are not reliable gauges of a crime's true weight. A serial killer who kills five stirs more outrage than a politician whose drone strikes kill thousands, because the former threatens our sense of personal security. Feelings of personal vulnerability, past trauma, and one's worldview all distort our reactions; psychometric research even struggles to separate personal anger from moral anger. A person who feels no outrage at *shirk*, then, betrays his own weak connection to *tawḥīd*—for the stronger one's love for Allah, the greater one's distress when others associate partners with Him, as the Qur'an describes the heavens nearly rupturing at the claim that the Most Merciful has taken a son. Since Allah is completely self-sufficient and cannot be harmed or benefited by His creation, His commands rest entirely upon *our* benefit; revelation is described as a cure, guidance, light, and mercy. As *Al-Ḥaqq* (The Real), the greatest evil is to violate His nature by denying His oneness, to which all His attributes are connected. As *Al-Muqsiṭ* (The Just), He must prohibit and punish the gravest of crimes, for treating the submitters like the criminals would be unjust. Because *shirk* violates the entire Divine Reality, it is likened in the Qur'an to a bad tree "uprooted from the surface of the earth, having no stability," bearing no fruit. Deeds built upon *tawḥīd*, by contrast, are always rooted and fruitful, and may be magnified by *Ash-Shakūr* (The Most Appreciative). Allah's warning against *shirk* thus flows from His love and mercy, not self-interest; He "warns you of Himself" while being "Kind to His servants." This is reflected in the Prophet's ﷺ supplication reported by ʿĀʾisha: "I seek refuge in You from You." The true magnitude of any evil is measured by its consequences in the afterlife, the abode of ultimate justice, where every soul is recompensed without injustice. Worldly legal punishments are no gauge of moral weight, for lying, backbiting, mistreatment of parents, and *ribā*—described as "waging war against Allah"—carry no prescribed worldly penalty, whereas public drunkenness does. Even *shirk* itself has no worldly punishment. Islamic law protects the essentials of society—religion, life, property, family, and intellect—but was never designed to punish every immorality; some are too grave for human courts and are escalated to the court of the Most High. Good and evil presuppose an ultimate purpose, just as a "good" move in a game only has meaning if the game has a point. If life's purpose is to realize *tawḥīd* by following the path of the prophets, then *shirk* is its opposite and the ultimate evil. The three Western ethical paradigms each capture a dimension of moral reasoning found in Islamic sources, though none is complete once severed from its Divine foundation. The Prophet ﷺ employed reasoning resembling Kant's categorical imperative when he asked the young man seeking permission for *zinā* whether he would accept it for his mother, sister, or daughter. Consequentialist reasoning appears in the maxim "There is to be no harm and no reciprocation of harm," and in principles such as *al-maṣlaḥa al-mursala*, *sadd ad-dharāʾiʿ*, and *istiḥsān*. Virtue ethics aligns with the Prophet's mission—"I have only been sent to perfect noble character"—and with the counsel to Wābiṣa to seek judgment from one's heart. As Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) explained, Allah loves the manifestations of His own attributes in His servants. From a deontological view, *tawḥīd* is an inviolable principle, so that even one coerced under threat of death must preserve it in his heart; Ibn al-Qayyim notes that the one who commits *shirk* acts "in direct contradiction to what he was created for." From a virtue-ethical view, *shirk* is rooted in betrayal—the betrayal of one's Benefactor and purpose, for *kufr* itself means ingratitude. Betrayal is arguably the root of all crime, as treason, adultery, murder, and theft each violate a trust; and the degree of betrayal grows with the benevolence and trust extended. Since every blessing, including existence itself, flows from the Most Benevolent, betraying Him is the gravest of all crimes, even when it takes the subtle form of ignoring the covenant or taking one's desires as a god. Man was entrusted with the *amāna*, which at-Ṭabarī explains encompasses every duty toward God and every trust between people. *Shirk* is ultimately narcissism and self-worship, in which man deifies his own ego and "creates" his own morality—a tendency visible today in "moralistic therapeutic deism" and cancel culture, both echoing the audacity of the ancient idol-carvers. From a consequentialist view, harm must be expanded beyond the material to include the psychological, intellectual, social, and eternal. The ultimate harm is in the afterlife, where *shirk* nullifies all deeds. Psychologically, the Qur'an likens the idolater to a slave owned by quarreling partners; al-Rāzī describes him as confused and in continuous misery. Since purpose is essential to well-being—Viktor Frankl observed that meaninglessness drives even the outwardly successful to despair, and studies show purpose mediates between religiosity and happiness—*shirk* destroys meaning itself, for "had there been gods besides Allah, they would have been ruined." Modern forms include atheism, which ascribes creation to nothingness, and celebrity worship, of which Chris Hedges writes that America has become "a de facto polytheistic society." Intellectually, the Prophet ﷺ condemned amulets, charms, and superstition as *shirk*, establishing rationality as the tool for worldly decisions. Socially, pagan and Social-Darwinist hierarchies oppress the vulnerable, whereas *tawḥīd* grounds human equality, since all descend from one Lord and one father, Adam—there being "no favor of an Arab over a non-Arab… except by righteousness." Dr. Craig Considine regards this as the first recorded advocacy of racial equality. The early generations reflected this ethos: Bilāl, Sālim, ʿĀʾisha, and the blind African jurist ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ all rose to prominence, and Dr. Akram Nadwi documented thousands of female hadith scholars while finding none among the philosophically-influenced schools. Malcolm X likewise testified to the racial brotherhood he witnessed on Hajj. Where Muslim societies fell short of this ethos, it was in contradiction of Islamic principles, not because of them. In conclusion, idolatry stands as the highest category of evil within every ethical paradigm. Emotional reactions must not be mistaken for true moral magnitude, for human beings are biased by their own subjectivities. Recognizing the tension between feeling and theological conviction, then scrutinizing one's biases, and finally drawing ever closer to Allah, brings emotion and belief into harmony: *"And those who strive for Us—We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good."* ## Key Takeaways 1. The intuitive discomfort many Muslims feel toward *shirk* being the greatest sin stems from a confusion between moral outrage and moral magnitude. Emotional reactions to wrongdoing are shaped by personal vulnerability, trauma, anger, and worldview, not by an objective measurement of evil. A Muslim who feels no outrage toward *shirk* reveals a weak connection to *tawḥīd* itself, since the strength of one’s love for Allah determines how seriously one regards His being associated with partners. 2. *Shirk* represents the greatest evil because it violates the foundational truth of existence: the absolute oneness of Allah. Since good and evil are measured against the ultimate purpose of life, and the purpose of life in Islam is the realization of *tawḥīd*, the inversion of that purpose through *shirk* is by definition the worst possible action. It is described in the Qur’an as a tree with no roots and no fruit, rendering even seemingly good deeds spiritually void when built on its foundation. 3. *Shirk* registers as the ultimate evil across multiple ethical frameworks, not only by Islamic scripture. From a deontological standpoint, it violates the most universal moral principle; from a virtue-ethics standpoint, it severs the connection between human character and the Divine attributes that ground all virtue; from a consequentialist standpoint, it produces the gravest spiritual and existential harms in both this life and the next. Allah’s condemnation of *shirk* is therefore an act of mercy, warning humanity away from what leads to ruin rather than reflecting any divine self-interest. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why is shirk considered the greatest sin in Islam? *Shirk*, the act of associating partners with Allah in worship, lordship, or attributes, is the greatest sin because it violates the most fundamental truth of existence: the absolute oneness of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ was once asked which sin is the greatest. He answered that it is to set up a rival with Allah while He is the One who created you. Every other moral question presupposes a purpose to life. If life has no purpose, the words “good” and “bad” lose all meaning, just as a move in a game has no value without a goal the game is aiming toward. In Islam, the purpose of life is *tawhīd*, the worship of Allah alone. *Shirk* is the direct rejection of this purpose, which is why it stands at the highest category of evil. It also violates the very nature of the Divine, since Allah’s oneness is connected to all of His other attributes. To deny it is to deny everything that flows from it. Severe consequences follow not because Allah needs anything from us, but because His justice could not allow the greatest violation of reality to go unaddressed. ### Why does shirk feel less evil to me than something like murder? Because the emotional response we feel toward a crime is not the same as the magnitude of the crime. Moral outrage is shaped by several factors that have nothing to do with how grave an act actually is. We feel more strongly about crimes that threaten our own sense of safety, crimes we have suffered ourselves, and crimes that attack values we hold dear. A serial killer who has killed five people generally evokes more outrage than a politician whose decisions cause thousands of deaths overseas, even though the second crime is far greater in scale. We feel more for victims who could have been our neighbors than for those we cannot identify with. Our emotions track what is more likely to harm us, not what is actually worse. The same dynamic applies to *shirk*. A friend or neighbor of another faith who treats us with kindness does not feel like someone committing the greatest evil, even though theologically they are. A Muslim who feels no moral concern about *shirk* has revealed something about their own connection to *tawhīd* rather than something about the actual gravity of the act. The stronger one’s love for Allah, the more naturally a sense of seriousness about *shirk* emerges. ### Why is shirk treated so severely when it can seem like a private belief that harms no one? The assumption behind this question is that the worst crimes are those with the most visible harm against others. That assumption holds for most worldly crimes, but it breaks down when applied to the relationship between a human being and Allah. Three points clarify why. First, Allah is completely self-sufficient and free of need from any of His creation. His prohibitions exist for the sake of human beings, not for His own benefit. *Shirk* is forbidden because it harms the one who commits it, not because Allah is somehow diminished by it. Second, the gravity of an act is measured by the trust and benevolence it betrays, and every breath, faculty, and blessing a person enjoys comes from Allah. Redirecting devotion away from Him is the deepest betrayal possible, even if no other person is visibly harmed. Third, the harm of *shirk* on the individual is real, even when it is not visible. It corrodes a person’s sense of meaning and purpose in life, since coherent purpose depends on a single, ultimate point of orientation. When divinity is multiplied or denied, the human being is left with competing aims, no clear value system, and no stable answer to who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. The severity of the response matches the depth of what is being violated and the depth of what is being destroyed within the person, not the visibility of any immediate harm to others. ### In what sense is shirk an act of betrayal? At its core, *shirk* is the betrayal of the One who gave a person their entire existence and every blessing they have ever known. The magnitude of any betrayal is measured by two things: the depth of benevolence shown by the one betrayed, and the depth of trust they extended. Both are infinite in the relationship between Allah and His servant. Every breath, every faculty, every gift comes from the Most Benevolent. To then redirect love, devotion, and ultimate loyalty to another is the gravest betrayal a human being can commit. This is why the worst crimes in human life share the structure of betrayal: treason against a nation, adultery within a marriage, and infanticide by a parent. The Prophet ﷺ described each of these sins in their most egregious form precisely because the element of betrayal makes them so devastating. *Shirk* is the original and ultimate form of this same wrong, directed against the Being to whom the deepest loyalty is owed. ### Does shirk still exist today, or is it just an ancient practice of worshiping statues? *Shirk* in the modern world rarely involves carved stone, but it is alive in subtler and arguably more dangerous forms. Whenever a person takes anything other than Allah as the ultimate authority over their values, choices, and direction in life, the underlying logic of *shirk* is at work. One contemporary form is what scholars have called “moralistic therapeutic deism,” a self-serving spirituality where a person cherry-picks virtues from various traditions to construct a religion that flatters their preferences, with no scripture or authority guiding them. Another is celebrity worship, where fans build temples of attention around figures whose every word and image they consume, hoping for some transference of meaning or significance. Even atheism can reproduce the logic of shirk when it assigns divine-like ultimacy to created things, impersonal forces, or the self. A subtler form occurs whenever a person follows their own desires as their ultimate authority, deciding for themselves what is right and wrong without reference to revelation. The Qur’an describes this directly: “Have you seen the one who takes his desires as his god” (Qur’an 25:43)? As one writer put it, a person will worship something, and what they worship, they will become. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/healing-the-soul-religion-and-mental-health # Healing the Soul: Religion and Mental Health **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Blog, Mental Health, Self-Improvement **Published:** July 20, 2022 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Holding on to the rope of Allah when we feel we can’t hold on. I remember watching my son amble up the jungle gym packed in his snowsuit, while I chatted with my friend one winter morning during a playdate. I had been telling my friend that [our research at Yaqeen](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-in-mind-islams-role-in-mental-health) had uncovered how intertwined mental health and religiosity are in the life of a Muslim. Religiosity and mental health are so linked that when a Muslim experiences mental health issues, it is likely they will also experience a dip in their faith. The converse also holds true: when the believer undergoes tests in their *iman*, they will likely at the same time experience mental health issues. Religiosity and mental health seem inextricably wound together. As parents, we are deeply concerned about how we can raise our children so they can have a fighting chance to hold on to their faith. This faith-mental health connection means that nurturing our children’s mental health is also critical to safeguarding their faith. I squinted at my friend in the winter sunlight as she pushed her daughter on the swing, hoping that had made sense. As scientists, we are painfully aware that the work we do often becomes so abstract and indiscernible that we fumble when trying to explain the real-world application of our research. After listening intently, my friend said, “That makes complete sense. It’s like you want to hold on to the rope of Allah but your hands are slippery.” --- ## The turbulent heart I marveled at how beautifully my friend had captured the crux of the message. When we face mental health issues, our hands do indeed become slippery. Whether it’s our worries that distract us in prayer, depression that makes it difficult for us to see the world with gratitude, or deep grief that can make us lose hope in Allah’s mercy—our emotional state deeply impacts our ability to commune with our Lord. We are emotional beings, and the word *motion* is in the word “emotion” for a reason. Our emotional state is in constant flux. While we may not display our emotions so readily, we certainly witness that turbulence of emotion within our children, who can shift from having a full-blown meltdown, screaming, “You’re the WORST mom ever!!” to smothering us with hugs and kisses, all in a matter of seconds. As our beloved Prophet ﷺ once said, > “The heart of the son of Adam is more inconsistent than boiling water” \[*Al-Jami’ Al-Saghir* #7282\]. Amid this constant emotional turmoil, naturally holding onto the rope of Allah becomes challenging. Indeed, our Prophet ﷺ was acutely aware of this constant state of motion, and the most oft-repeated *du’a* on his ﷺ lips was, > “O Turner of Hearts, make my heart firm on your path” \[*Jami’ At-Tirmidhi* #4522\]. --- ## Seeking the Healer It is easy in this secular world to find comfort or understanding in mainstream outlets—a novel that makes us weep or a movie that stirs our hearts. A simple Google search can yield dozens of mainstream mental health services, therapists, and sources of beneficial knowledge who offer to guide us through the psychological turmoil we are facing. But for the believer, if mental health and religiosity are inextricably woven together, then this therapeutic journey will have something critical missing. As believers, we need to tie the healing of our soul to our Lord, our Cherisher and Guide. When we divorce the healing of our soul from our *Rabb*, we enter murky terrain because we take our Healer out of the equation. In the same way, when the upbringing (*tarbiya*) of our children is devoid of warmth and emotional nurturing, our children may find their *iman* on shaky ground. Inability to process personal trauma is one of the most [common pathways to crises of faith for Muslims](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/) and overly strict teaching of faith can lead to harboring doubt. As parents, we need to arm our children with the tools of emotional regulation and resilience while we impart the lessons of our *deen*. This is critical so they can navigate the difficult questions in life and face loss, while still nurturing their *iman* and mental health. Finding meaning in our suffering—our deep conviction that Allah has a greater plan for us—is one of the most profound sources of solace for us as believers that helps us hold on to our faith even when our hands get slippery. --- ## The central role of religiosity in Muslim mental health This means that when we face emotional turmoil and mental health issues, seeking care options that nurture both our mental health and spiritual well-being may be the most beneficial. [In our study](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-in-mind-islams-role-in-mental-health), we found that religiosity was the *best* predictor of positive mental health outcomes like life purpose, life satisfaction, and well-being. The other predictors like, age, gender, and education were significant, but didn’t come close to the impact of religiosity. Islamically-integrated mental health care can speak not only to the psychological turmoil we are facing, but also get to our spiritual heart—the beating heart of the believer. --- ## Hiding in the shadows: Muslim doubt Similarly, when a believer faces a crisis in their faith, they will also likely struggle with their mental health. These crises of faith affect the best of us. A companion once came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah! One of us has thoughts of such nature that he would rather be reduced to charcoal than speak about them." The Prophet replied, > “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Praise be to Allah Who has reduced the evil of the devil to only suggestions and whisperings” \[*Sunan Abī Dāwūd* #5112\]. Our *deen* is so merciful that it recognizes that having religious doubts and not improperly acting upon them is a sign of clear faith (*iman*) and our merciful Lord rewards us for the discomfort we feel over those doubts. We are also given practical instruction to deal with our doubts by saying, “*Amantu billah*” (I believe in Allah) and to remind ourselves that doubts are just evidence of Shaytan’s persistence, rather than a sign of our own wickedness. However, many of us feel so ashamed of our doubts and questions that we would rather stumble in darkness than seek help. It was only when I found myself in an *alamiyyah* program with access to scholars every week that I finally gained the courage to approach one of my teachers to help me through an existential crisis. We need to close the gap between ourselves and our teachers. We cannot have people feeling like they don’t have anyone to turn to. In the same way, our children will also struggle with religious doubts. Just the other day, my son stubbed his toe and lamented, “Why does Allah make me get hurt?!” Evidently, even for a child, personal trauma is a pathway to doubt. The number one factor in our homes related to cultivating “sticky faith”—the kind of *iman* that we hold on to for dear life even through all of life’s storms—is open communication, where our kids can come to us with their religious doubts and not have them shut down.[^1],[^2] When we cannot address them adequately, we can role model healthy help-seeking by taking our child’s question to an imam or religious scholar and continuously seeking knowledge ourselves. --- ## The need for deep connection If a symbiotic relationship exists between religiosity and mental health, then this means that we need to teach our children (and us adults) how to emotionally connect with the Qur'an and our *deen*. As Muhammad Iqbal’s father once said to him, > “Son! Whenever you recite the Qur’an, do so as if it is being revealed to your heart. By reading the Qur’an like this, it will soon permeate your very being.”[^3] This deep emotional-spiritual connection is what will bond us to our Lord. This beautiful conversation between a father and his son also points to how we as parents can help our children nurture this emotional connection to the Word of Allah. Without this critical piece, the dry teaching of our faith will lead to a generation who will not find solace in their faith, who will look anywhere and everywhere else for meaning and comfort. A generation for whom faith becomes irrelevant, because when hardship hits, as it inevitably will, their faith will not be there to console them. --- ## Working together moving forward I don't know about you, but I certainly wasn't taught my faith this way. And if this continues, we risk losing our youth, raising a generation who cannot taste the sweetness of faith because it fails to stir their soul. As I watched my son and my friend’s daughter build a snowman together, I considered how working together is the only way to move forward for imams and religious scholars and mental health professionals. It is only through this bridging and collaboration, where imams and religious scholars work in tandem with mental health professionals, that we can ensure the mental health and spiritual well-being of a believer in crisis. All the educators involved in our children’s Islamic upbringing, from Islamic school teachers to the weekend Qur’an teacher at the masjid and Muslim children’s media, need to be a part of this conversation as well. The thoughtful imparting of our *deen* to our children, which fosters their spiritual and emotional growth, will allow their faith to flourish long after we’re gone. Our hands will get slippery. We will face trials in life that will bring us to our knees. In those moments, we may feel distant from our Lord, and this alienation from the Divine will make our hearts shatter. As Muslims we need to take hold of all the tools in our arsenal to draw close to our *Rabb*. Through thoughtful spiritual and psychological counseling, we as believers can find an integration of our spiritual and emotional selves so we can firmly grasp the rope of Allah once again. To learn more about the connection between religiosity and mental health, read our study [Faith in Mind: Islam’s Role in Mental Health](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-in-mind-islams-role-in-mental-health) [\[1\]](#ftnt_ref1) Powell, K., & Clark, C. (2011). *Sticky faith: Everyday ideas to build lasting faith in your kids.* Zondervan. [\[2\]](#ftnt_ref2) Ibn Mas’ud RA also asked for “sticky faith” when he beautifully supplicated for “faith that never wavers” اللهم إني أسألُك إيمانًا لا يرتدُّ ونعيمًا لا ينفَدُ ومرافقةَ محمدٍ في أعلى جنةِ الخُلدِ “O Allah I ask you for unwavering *iman* (faith) and endless bliss and the company of Muhammad SAW in the highest eternal paradise.” [\[3\]](#ftnt_ref3) Sayyid Nazir Niyazi, Iqbal kay Huzur, trans. Ahmed Afzaal (Lahore: Iqbal Academy, 1971), 60–61. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/5-ways-to-raise-practicing-muslim-children # 5 Ways to Raise Practicing Muslim Children **Authors:** Yaqeen Institute, Sh. Ibrahim Hindy **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Blog **Published:** July 18, 2022 **Updated:** January 26, 2026 Being a parent can be a harrowing experience. At every age and stage in life we worry about our children. We worry about whether our babies have had enough to eat. We worry about whether our toddler might scrape their knees. And we worry about how our teenager will deal with pressure at school. But, to be honest, many of these concerns are trivial and they make us lose sight of the things that truly matter, like [whether our children will remain Muslim](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/will-my-children-be-muslim-doubletake-podcast). Because at the end of the day, our primary mission as parents is to protect and prepare our kids for the hereafter. Allah instructs us in the Qur’an: > “O believers! Protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones.” \[ Qur’an, 66:6 \] In this day and age, this feels like a daunting task. We’re living in a world that is drowning us in un-Islamic ideas and values, from cartoons and movies, to teachers and classmates. So what can we do to best protect our children? I thought about my experience as an Imam for the past decade and all the kids I’ve met in my community. I’ve interacted with children and youth from all sorts of backgrounds, and some have undoubtedly stood out through their devotion to Islam and beautiful character. When I met these kids, I couldn’t help but wonder: What did their parents do differently? After a lot of reflecting, I realized that all of their parents shared five essential habits: --- ## 1 - They take their kids to the masjid often. One common theme is that their parents bring them to the masjid nearly every day. One father, for example, would be at the masjid multiple times a day, bringing his kids practically once a day with him. The masjid provides a strong Islamic environment and provides an opportunity for children to meet other kids who are being raised similarly. In general, we underestimate the power of the masjid. Even if nothing is happening and the masjid is empty, there is a spiritual benefit just being there. We know there is tremendous reward in our *deen* in merely waiting in the masjid from prayer to prayer. It has a serenity within and reminds us constantly of our Creator, which strengthens our mental health–even that of a child. --- ## 2 - They are best friends with their kids. Not in an overbearing way. Yes, these kids also have close peers their age but they are still very close to their parents. They’ve developed an intimate relationship where they feel comfortable sharing their experiences and talking to their parents about their entire day. No doubt, it takes time to develop this level of rapport and connection, but it is a result of the parent and child spending a lot of time together. Being in the company of your child is important–especially being 'present' with them. This helps us create closeness and the ability to communicate easily. --- ## 3 - They develop supportive peer connections. These parents find families with similar-aged kids, who are raising their children the same way, and spend time together. As a parent, you can befriend your child but you can never be their peer. They need a peer connection in their life, but one that does not undermine the values and ideals that you are raising your own children with. That means you have to be aware and selective of who your children are befriending and ideally play a role in ensuring they are spending the right time with the right kids. The earlier you can establish this, the better. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. By finding like-minded families, these parents have created their own village. --- ## 4 - They are serious about Islamic education. They make use of community programs like youth *halaqah*s, weekend schools, etc. But they go beyond this too. These parents are committed to learning about Islam themselves. The vessel can only pour forth what it contains. Even if your kids attend Islamic programs, they need religious education reinforced at home. You need to be educated enough to teach them their religion, give them resources to learn, and have conversations about the “why,”  like [why God asks us to worship Him](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him) and [why evil exists](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/why-does-god-allow-evil-to-exist-infographic). You can check out some great resources at Yaqeen like [Conversations](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/conversations) or [Curriculum](http://yaqeeninstitute.org/curriculum) to help you along the way! --- ## 5 - They own the conversation on difficult topics. Kids are now easily exposed to difficult topics like sex, masturbation, drugs, and gender identity. Whether in a public school, a playground, or browsing online, they are often exposed early and outside of a proper Islamic framing. > That means that you need to talk to your kids about these topics much earlier than you would prefer. You need to 'own' this conversation. Talk to them about it, openly and sincerely, allowing for two-way communication. Your kids need to feel comfortable talking to you about these topics. You need to not only frame these issues within a framework of Islamic ethics, but you need to help them think through and manage situations at school where it may be difficult to navigate as Muslim kids. Role-play situations that might happen in the classroom or on the playground to help them build their confidence in social settings so they can stay true to their beliefs. While raising children in today’s world is no easy feat, we can take comfort in knowing that, after we try our best, ultimate guidance is in the hands of Allah. May Allah guide us all and our children to His Straight Path - ameen. Learn more about Keys to Prophetic Parenting. [Watch the video series here.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ibrahim-hindy/key-1-vision-keys-to-prophetic-parenting) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/prophetic-ethics-a-model-for-those-seeking-god-and-eternal-life # Prophetic Ethics: A Model for those Seeking God and Eternal Life **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 14, 2022 **Updated:** November 4, 2025 For part one in this Ethics Series, see [Being a “Good Person” is Not Enough: Why Ethics Need Islam](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-a-good-person-is-not-enough-why-ethics-need-islam) --- ## Introduction “God is Beautiful and loves beauty,” said Muhammad ﷺ, the Final Messenger of God.[^1] And nothing is more beautiful for the human being, after faith in the Truth Most High, than the manifestation of that faith in one’s character, *akhlāq*. “I have come only to perfect the noble traits of character,” he ﷺ declared. Recall that in the previous article we explored the meanings of this statement and showed that Allah instilled the love of truth and moral beauty in human nature (*fiṭra*) so that when people encounter divine revelation, they see its truth and beauty instinctively, just as when they encounter beauty and order in creation, they think of the perfection and wisdom of the Creator. People are lovers of goodness by nature and develop many types of virtue even in the absence of direct guidance from revelation. The Messenger of God ﷺ never denied people’s “inner light” but rather appreciated, identified, and enhanced it by providing it the right motivation and direction. However, when bereft of divine guidance, the divinely gifted instinct for truth and beauty, *fiṭra*, is counteracted and at times utterly sabotaged by transgressive desire, false ideas, and/or misguided culture, leading to a struggle between the two and often the total loss of truth and goodness. We showed why ethics need Islam, and why the answer to the question, ‘How ought we to live?’ must come from God, the source and end-goal of life. Good conduct, we learned, is the fulfillment of the ultimate truth and goodness rather than merely a function of utility, feeling, or fulfillment of desire. In this article, we explore the nature and essence of Islamic ethics. The One who gave us life has also given us guidance on how to live it, sending messengers to all peoples to teach both timeless truths and concrete ways to worship. The messengers guided and enhanced humans’ innate nature as well as rational capacity to pursue the good in a dazzling variety of conditions in which humans have struggled and flourished. As humanity matured, God in His infinite wisdom sealed the line of prophets with a final one, sending down a final revelation that would suffice every searching human being in any future time and any circumstance. To ensure human access to guidance, He not only [preserved His final revelation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-uthmanic-codex-understanding-how-the-quran-was-preserved&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1657834410491595&usg=AOvVaw0NkLxLiKpHDS8gAacEabnZ) that taught the perfected divine law, but also concretized its meaning and secured it against misunderstanding by embodying it in one man, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and declared him the role model for all those “who seek God and the Hereafter.”[^2] Of course, even those afflicted by falsehoods, doubts, or desires may, through their blinkered *fiṭra*, see glimpses of the human perfection that was Muhammad ﷺ, but only those who seek ultimate truth and beauty, “who seek God and the Hereafter,” can love, appreciate, and embody it to the fullest and attain the eternal bliss that the Truth Almighty has promised. This essay reflects on the wisdom (the why) and modality (the how) of the divine choice to embody His final guidance in a man. We show how his mission and method, teachings and conduct, and circumstances of life and community of disciples together created a perfect ecosystem for the revelation and exposition of the final truth and perfect goodness. Put differently, we explain how Islamic ethics are universal, valid for all times, places, and peoples. We begin with a glimpse of the Prophet’s ﷺ character and then, in order to deepen our understanding, proceed to address some common questions about Islamic ethics. ### A glimpse of the Prophet’s character No one can be considered a Muslim without loving, reflecting on, and emulating the character of the Prophet ﷺ. It is no wonder that countless sketches of the Prophet’s ﷺ physical and moral person have been composed throughout Islamic history in every imaginable language and idiom. In his classic treatise *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*, Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH/CE 1111) includes an entire section in the second quarter, “Book of Etiquette of Life and the Prophetic Character,” which reproduces several moving and detailed descriptions of the Prophet’s ﷺ character composed by earlier scholars. This, in my opinion, is the noblest section of this epochal text. The entire chapter is worth reading, but space allows us to quote only a small fraction. Nearly every sentence is backed by authentic reports, only some of which will be referenced in the footnotes. > He ﷺ was the most forbearing of men, most courageous, just, and forgiving. He never touched the hand of a woman he did not have the right to touch, or to whom he was not related by marriage.[^3] > He ﷺ was the most generous of men. He would not leave even a dinar or dirham overnight without giving it in charity. If something was left with him, he would not retire to his chambers until he found someone in need to give it to. > He ﷺ took the minimum possible sustenance of dates and barley from what God gave him, leaving the rest for God’s path. He was never asked for charity but that he obliged, so much so that he would give those in need from even his yearly provisions, leaving himself in need. He would fix his own sandal, patch his cloak, serve his family members, and carve meat \[to help his womenfolk\]. > He ﷺ was the most bashful of people, never staring into anyone’s face. He would respond to the invitation of anyone, free or slave, and accept gifts, even if it was a draught of milk or the leg of a rabbit, and reciprocate. He would, however, not eat of charity \[as he was forbidden from doing so\]. His humility was such that he attentively responded to the needs of a little girl or a needy person. > He ﷺ would get angry only for the sake of his Lord but never for himself. He would uphold what is right even if it meant risking harm or pressing a right against his own companions. He was offered help by the polytheists against the \[Meccan\] polytheists but he refused, declaring that he did not seek help from the polytheists. He once found the dearest and noblest of his Companions murdered in the Jewish neighborhood \[of Khaybar\], but he did not hasten against them nor did he veer from the course of justice. Instead, \[resisting penalizing them without conclusive proof\], he paid \[the victim’s family\] the blood wit of a hundred she-camels \[from the treasury\] even as his own companions needed every last one of them.[^4] He would tie stones to his stomach due to the intensity of hunger. He was never fussy and would eat anything licit that was available to eat no matter how rough; at times he had nothing but mere dates without even bread. … He would not eat reclining. His concern for the poor was such that he never filled his stomach even with plain bread for three days straight until he met Allah, not because he didn’t possess the means, but because he gave all in charity.[^5] He accepted invitations, visited the sick, attended funerals, and walked among his enemies without any bodyguard. He was the humblest of men, silent without being insolent, eloquent without being loquacious.[^6] He had the most joyful countenance and was never overawed by the affairs of this world. > He ﷺ wore what was at hand—at times a cloak, at times a striped Yemeni garment, at times a gown of wool; anything permissible that was available. His signet was of silver which he wore now on the little finger of his right hand, now on that of his left hand. > He ﷺ mounted his servant and others behind him on the same beast, rode whatever was available, including a horse, a camel, a mule, or a donkey. He walked on foot, at times barefoot without an outer cloak, turban, or cap. He would visit the sick in the distant outskirts \[of the town\]. > He ﷺ loved perfumes and disliked foul odors. He sat and ate with the poor, showed regard to those who were virtuous in their morals and gave honor to noblemen. He was kind to his relatives without favoring them over those who were more meritorious than them. He did not tyrannize anyone and accepted the excuse of anyone who begged his pardon. > He ﷺ sometimes jested but only spoke the truth, and laughed but without bursting out into laughter. He witnessed and did not disapprove of permitted games, raced sportingly with his wife, and showed patience when voices were raised in his presence. He and his family got nourishment from their milch camels and sheep; he did not eat better food nor wear better clothes than his bondsmen and maids. No moment passed without his performing an action for the sake of Allah or what he had to do for his sustenance. He would go out to the gardens owned by his companions. He never despised a poor man for his poverty and misfortune, nor feared a king because of his power; rather, he urged them equally to Allah. > Allah combined in him virtuous conduct and perfect leadership even though he ﷺ was unlettered, did not read or write, and grew up poor among the shepherds in the land of ignorance and wilderness as an orphan without father or mother. Allah taught him all the fine qualities of character and praiseworthy conduct, the reports of the past and the future, the matters of salvation and reward in the future life and happiness and reward in this world, and to attend to that which is obligatory and forsake what is useless. > May Allah direct us to obey him ﷺ in his commands and imitate him in his actions. Amen, O Lord of the worlds![^7] Frequently, the Prophet’s ﷺ conduct is so lofty that it appears inaccessible to most mortals. But his life is also full of anecdotes of simple, emulable acts of kindness to inspire anyone. Anas, his young attendant and Companion, lived a long life after the Prophet’s ﷺ passing and often recalled such anecdotes: > Allah's Messenger ﷺ had the best of manners (*akhlāq*). I had an (adopted) brother, Abū ʿUmayr who had a little sparrow (*nughayr*). Allah's Messenger ﷺ used to playfully ask the little boy \[in rhyme\], “O Abū ʿUmayr! How is your *nughayr*?”[^8] On other occasions, we witness how his divine purpose allowed him ﷺ to set aside his ego, forgive aggression, and return harshness with kindness, offense with charity, and cruelty with mercy with unassuming magnanimity. Anas b. Mālik reports, > I was walking with the Prophet ﷺ. He had wrapped a thick cloak round him. A Bedouin approached and pulled the cloak so forcefully that his shoulder was uncovered. I was rather perturbed. The Bedouin then said: “O Muhammed! Give me some of my share from the property which Allah has given you.” The Prophet ﷺ turned towards him, gently laughed, and bade that a share be given to him.[^9] Perfectly beautiful and balanced, pleasant in looks and manners, yet fully human. Although he was balanced between mercy and justice, between strength and gentleness, the governing trait of the Prophet ﷺ was mercy and compassion—as described by the Almighty Lord, he was sent as “Mercy for the worlds.” Mercy, or the deeper Arabic original *raḥma*, is derived from the attribute that Allah loves the most from among His own Beautiful Names. He ﷺ was compassionate and merciful, not only when he was weak, but especially when he was strong. He was a commander and a leader, but never overbearing. He not only taught tough, well-nigh unteachable people, but also made them the greatest of teachers. He taught lifelong haters to love and sacrifice for each other. While being the most beloved creation of God, he ﷺ embodied such humility that visitors couldn’t tell him apart from his Companions. The more they knew him, the more they loved him, and those nearest to him were most in love with him. When he first received the divine revelation and feared for himself, his wife beloved Khadīja declared without hesitation that God would never forsake him given his devotion to the weak and needy, chivalry, and nobility.[^10] Anas b. Mālik, who attended on him as a young man, testified, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was never ill-mannered nor rude.” He would not interrupt anybody's speech until the speaker was finished. When someone angered him, Anas continued, he would reproach in the gentlest way, “What is with him, may his forehead be dust-ridden.”[^11] When he ﷺ wished to correct someone’s error, rather than naming them, he would say, “What is with some people who do such and such,” thus avoiding embarrassing them.[^12] Anas also reported, > I served the Noble Prophet ﷺ for ten years. He never said “Uff” (expressing dissatisfaction), nor ever asked me why I did this or did not do that. \[Another version adds at the beginning:\] I never touched brocade or silk softer than the hand of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, nor a smell sweeter than the odor of the Messenger of Allah.[^13] ﷺ He ﷺ was a loving husband, a doting father, many of whose children died and left him crying. He mentioned his love for his wife publicly, interrupted his Friday sermon and prayers to hug, kiss, or entertain his grandchildren before a people to whom expression of love was fit only for sentimental women. He was the most masculine man yet one whose wives could argue with him and raise their voices without fearing retribution. Before him the proudest men sat in humility, yet the youngest children didn’t fear approaching him and old, frail women felt free to interrupt him on the street with their concerns. He ﷺ was the most courageous warrior, even though he disliked violence. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, Allah be pleased with him, the most fearless of warriors, would say that in the thick of battle when the attack was unbearable, he and other Companions would take cover behind the Prophet ﷺ, for he never flinched or cowered.[^14] “He did not strike anybody with his own hands,” reported his wife, ʿĀʾisha, “neither a wife nor a servant. Yet, he ﷺ fought valiantly in the cause of Allah.”[^15] One night the people of Medina were terribly frightened by a strange sound. Some people cautiously proceeded to explore it only to find the Prophet ﷺ returning from that direction, comforting them, having rushed before anyone else, riding a horse without a saddle, a sword hanging from his neck. Another salient trait of the Prophet ﷺ was his loyalty and compassion for his companions and followers. Anyone who joined him or asked for his help, he would satisfy his need or if he couldn’t, would console him until his burden was lifted. His generosity was described as a gentle breeze that delights everyone without discrimination. For his companions he was a protector and guardian, and yet in the matter of rights, all were equal in his eyes. He ﷺ taught and practiced equality and fairness, and disliked social distinctions, all within the limits of common sense. Anas reports, > There was no one more beloved to the Companions than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and yet they would not stand up when they saw him approach because they knew that he disliked that.[^16] He ﷺ also said, > I am a slave of Allah; I eat as other people eat, and I sit as other people sit. He ﷺ honored all visitors and guests. Often, he would spread his shawl for the visitor, and place the cushion which was in his use behind the visitor's back. If the visitor were reluctant to sit on the shawl, he would insist. When a delegation of Negus, the Abyssinian king, came to the Prophet ﷺ, he rose to serve them. His companions told him that they were sufficient to serve them. He ﷺ replied, > They had honored our companions, so I wish to personally serve them. Some fools have fabricated fanciful reports out of love of the Prophet ﷺ or at times with nefarious intentions, but any fair observer would testify that his authentically reported conduct was far superior to the imagination of the fabricators. How can anyone who seeks God and the afterlife not fall in love with him ﷺ? --- ## Theorizing Prophetic ethics How could one human being, inevitably situated in his time and place, be a role model for all? Are moral truths universal? If so, and there exists  a “natural law” so to speak, why did the Almighty not just reveal a book with a list of such rules rather than sending a living human teacher? And if not, were the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ limited to his time and place, now rendered obsolete by modern developments? Such questions are often raised in the name of some ethical paradigm that happens to be in vogue, be it freedom, equality, progress, social justice, or the current state of scientific knowledge. Muslim theologians, as we shall discuss below, entertained both of these paradigms. Another error that surreptitiously makes its way into the thinking of even many well-meaning Muslims is to reduce the Prophet’s ﷺ role-model to a selection of feel-good stories divorced from his divine message of belief in (*tawḥīd*) and submission to God (*sharīʿa*), thus turning him, as secular Christians have done with Jesus, into a darling sage always ready with quotable quotes rather than a role-model to be followed earnestly for guidance in this world and salvation in the next.[^17] In the rest of this essay, we dive deep into the meaning and import of the Prophet’s role-model by exploring these questions. ### The alternative paradigms To understand why it is the example of the Prophet ﷺ, and not a set of abstract principles or the insights of rational contemplation, that lies at the center of the Islamic system of ethics, we need to understand why alternative ethical groundings have proven inadequate. Our ideas of ethics—of what is right and wrong, or morally beautiful and ugly, respectively—are naturally grounded in our fundamental worldviews, sometimes formulated in theological or philosophical discourses. Modern philosophers distinguish the practical question of which actions are right and wrong (‘first order’ concerns) from the theoretical question of the status of moral values and the nature of moral valuation (‘second order’ questions, the concerns of metaethics). One may further subdivide first order concerns into applied ethics (specific policies and decisions in particular spheres of life, answering questions such as, “Is it right for one to tell a white lie to make peace between spouses?” and “Ought I to use the printer at work to print my son’s homework?”) and normative ethics (questions such as “What are the general principles of good conduct?” or “Ought I to do that which pleases God, or maximizes human benefit, or what a virtuous community considers to be good, or do to others what I would have them do to me?” etc.). This division is merely conventional, as the line between metaethics and normative ethics is often blurred, and hence the two can be lumped together as ‘theoretical ethics,’ which in Islam has been dealt with in theological discourses found in the works of Kalam, *falsafa*, *usul al-fiqh*, *tafsir* works, and numerous other genres. Metaethics has profound implications for normative as well as applied ethics. For instance, most modern Western philosophers, given their field’s largely atheistic or agnostic approach, think that the idea of right and wrong is merely a man-made fiction or social construction—the debate often revolves around what kind of fiction.[^18] The only ethics possible in their world are based on secular notions such as utility, emotion, or survival. In contrast, for ancients like Plato, Aristotle, and their disciples (including the Muslim *falasifa*), right and wrong were matters of rational inquiry, and the good was inscribed in the nature of things which a philosopher could read through systematic reasoning. Insofar as reason to them was a divine quality, their systems in fact were at once deeply religious and philosophical, and far nobler than modern secular ethics, but as we saw in the first article, without the benefit of revelation, prone to grave errors. Because all ethical systems are part of a larger worldview (*ʿaqīda*), any comparison is of limited validity. All ethical comparisons must pay attention to both the grounds for similarity between any two systems as well as the disagreements. Ethics can be likened to the skin of an organism, and comparing the softness of bird feathers to the roughness of alligator hide misses the fact that the two perform different functions. Any comparison, furthermore, must be made from within a given framework, which we take to be the shared human nature. And although the shared *fiṭra* (God-given human nature) is a valid ground for comparison, humans have also been given an oversized capacity for self-deception, and *fiṭra* discloses itself only to the discerning. With some holistic discernment, however, we can see the superiority of the revealed wisdom. Think of the contention by Immanuel Kant (d. 1804), purportedly the greatest modern ethical philosopher, that the way to be ethical is to obey the **categorical imperative**—a rule that you would accept being practiced by everyone. In other words, a universal law. Kant’s ethical system, known as **deontological** ethics, went so far as to decry the force of human feelings of love, friendship, or altruism in the performance of the rational, ethical duty. This is an abstract and ultimately unusable formulation of the ancient, revealed wisdom recorded in the Biblical tradition as well as the Prophetic hadith, known as the golden rule. The Prophetic injunction, “One does not believe until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself,” is a rule of thumb that inhabits an entire ecosystem of relationships, beliefs, imperatives, and sentiments that together prevent its misuse and abuse. Now imagine a morally depraved person, like today’s billionaire capitalists. What do they love for themselves? Instant gratification without end, even at the expense of ending all that lives on Earth, and all that is good. What would they choose for others if they want everything on the planet for themselves? Perhaps death (“If I had a life as worthless as yours, I would prefer death”) or some prosperity gospel of equal opportunity (“We had equal opportunity, I won billions and you, the billions, got nothing, fair deal!”). Alternatively, imagine a fanatic believer forcing everyone to his faith, to his truth. In a perfect Kantian world, such a believer would want to be forced to believe as well as forcing others to believe, for the truth and its consequences in the afterlife do not depend on one’s erroneous belief that denies it. Whereas Islamic ethics teaches us that “there is no compulsion in religion” and hence people who choose to hold erroneous beliefs are to be given freedom and rights, such divinely mandated generosity would appear illogical to a Kantian liberal. In the liberal worldview, tolerance can be premised only on the unknowability or irrelevance of the truth. In short, modern liberal ethics grounded in the Kantian imperative is at heart the translation of a religious principle that made perfect sense in shared communities of faith, but has since become a soulless idiom of Enlightenment-era secularism in which empty universalism replaces commitment to the truth. In Islam, as we shall see, we love for our brethren in faith what we love for ourselves: eternal success in the afterlife. And yet, for our brethren in humanity for whom we desire faith, we are constrained by the divine law not to coerce them into faith. Similarly, humans are driven to do good not merely by a sense of abstract rational duty, as Kant insisted they must, but by a combination of acquired virtuous habits, sentiments of love or mercy, desire for reward or fear of punishment or loss in this world and/or the eternal afterlife, and the best of them, for the love of the infinite good that is God. Another modern approach to ethics, called **consequentialism**, judges actions by their consequences. But it is as unhelpful as Kant’s duty-based ethics, because of at least two obvious reasons: first, consequences of actions are typically unknowable in the real world, and second, what consequences should be desired falls into question-begging. A moral philosophical tradition nearer to human nature (and hence Islam) is the ancient tradition of ***virtue ethics***, often attributed to Aristotle. It prioritizes not abstract duty but acquisition of virtues recognized within a morally alert community such as charity, benevolence, courage, temperance, and so on, turning the focus from Kantian mental gymnastics to the habits of the whole human person. One good example of virtue ethics is the tradition of Arab chivalry (*murū’a*) before Islam, one that the Prophet ﷺ both encouraged and often corrected or redirected. Virtue ethics is, however, fundamentally incomplete. What counts as a virtue requires not only the use of rational thinking but also, and this is the crucial part, individual and communal well-being defined by a worldview. In a community of pickpockets, one could become a skillful thief with virtues of speed and nimbleness; among ruthless capitalists, being a heartless shark is a compliment. Virtue ethics does not account for the ultimate consequence of one’s actions and the purpose of one’s life. ### Classical Islamic theories of ethics None of these approaches, notwithstanding the insights they offer, fully encompasses the Islamic approach to ethical formation, for they ultimately neglect or decenter the question of truth. In contrast, notwithstanding its great diversity and intellectual depth, Islamic tradition is committed, metaphysically, to an Omnipotent and Ever-Living God who created humankind to worship Him and, in the social sphere, to the central fact of divine law. As such, Muslim thought derived not from endless puzzlement about the nature and possibility of the good, but from the great, transformative fact of the good revealed by God and embodied in the Prophet ﷺ and in the community he created. Muslim scholars, therefore, did not immediately need to attend to the question of metaethics, and their intense moral lives drew their inspiration from the divine command embodied in the Prophet ﷺ. Even as classical theology expanded into abstractions forced by polemics and reflection, Muslim theologians tended to be guided by the centrality of God’s law in Islam. Consider classical Muslim theologians’ discourse on the well-known “Euthyphro’s dilemma” posed by Plato over a thousand years earlier: Is an action good because “the gods” command it (to use Plato’s language), or do “the gods” command it because it is good?[^19] Whereas the early scholars had silently assumed a harmony between the two, the Muʿtazilites, who were the first Muslims to theologize about ethics and developed  a rational system that became known as Kalam, contended that it was the latter, that Allah commanded only what was already good. This had the unintended effect of binding God to do what human reason demanded. In response, the Ashʿarites, the first Kalam-based defenders of scripture, insisted that it was the former, thus articulating a Divine Command Theory of ethics. To them, ethical value had no ontological existence—acts are not actually good or bad but God, through revelation, freely and arbitrarily labeled certain acts as licit and hence rewarded in the afterlife, and others as illicit and punishable in the afterlife. Precisely because the leading Ashʿarites held to an extreme version of the Divine Command Theory, they sought purely psychological and utilitarian explanations for why and how humans universally assign ethical value to acts. On this view, people call good what they see as benefiting them, or that which evokes a positive reaction in them (a view today called *emotivism*). This prompted leading Ashʿarites like al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) to attend to and write masterfully on psychological aspects of human action, while restricting the source and knowledge of ethics to divine revelation. Human reason, nevertheless, could reflect on values declared or implied in the divine law, and such reflections gave birth to a discourse on the higher objectives of the law (*maqāṣid al-sharīʿa*). Unlike today’s postmodernists who deny the ontological reality of ethics and are left with nothing but arbitrary power, Muslim skeptics of rational ethics were not nihilists but advocates of ethics embodied in the divine law, and thus still vigorously believed in ethical norms. Ultimately, even when they assigned different relative values and took different epistemic routes to the Prophet’s Sunnah, its normative value was central to all of their systems. The Traditionalists (the heirs of the early Muslims who rejected Kalam as a heretical innovation altogether), Muʿtazilites (a school that became established among the Twelver Shiʿa), the Ashʿarites and the Maturidites (who sought to defend Sunnism using Kalam) were all committed to upholding the divine command and the Sunnah of the Prophet.[^20] ### Akhlāq and fiqh Turning to reflection on the nature of the Prophet’s ﷺ ethics, we begin with the Almighty’s declaration: > And indeed \[O Prophet\] you are possessed of a great character (*khuluq*).[^21] The Qur’anic word for character is *khuluq*.[^22] In Arabic, *khuluq* (same as *khulq*, plural of which is *akhlāq*, or *khalāʾiq*)[^23] refers to the non-physical part of a human being, or ‘second nature,’ in  contrast to *khalq*, the physical form of a human being. *Khuluq* refers to both the outwardly qualities known as *manners*, such as courteousness, gentleness, forbearance, etc., and the inner qualities referred to as *morals* (from Latin *mores*, *moralis*), *ethics* (from Greek *ethos*, *ethikos*), or *character,* like integrity, honesty, truthfulness, patience, courage, etc.[^24] Humans use language, however, in creative and supple ways that do not admit of rigid classification, and often, a reference to outward *manners* means inner *morals* and vice versa. To appreciate how the meaning of *khuluq* in Islam encompasses both morals and manners, consider the following widely reported saying of the Prophet ﷺ: > There are four habits, whosoever has them is a complete hypocrite. If one of these habits is found in him, he will have one habit of hypocrisy until he gives it up: When he speaks, he lies, when he makes a promise, he breaks it, when he makes a covenant, he is treacherous, and when he quarrels, he is abusive.[^25] Three of the vices listed here are moral flaws—lying, breaking promises, and treachery—and all can be classified as pertaining to moral integrity. The fourth one, absence of self-control in a dispute, is a vice of behavior, although it too suggests a meanness of character. At the risk of reading too much into it, we might say that even the proportion of three-fourths inner virtue and one-fourth outer courtesy is an apt depiction of prophetic ethics. This hadith stresses the most emphasized Islamic virtues: truthfulness, reliability in promises and contracts, patience, and forbearance. But it also includes in the meaning of *akhlāq* good cheer, politeness, and simple kindness. Since the early days of Islam, the Qur’an and the Prophetic character were seen as substantively the same, and the meanings of the Qur’anic ideal were sought in the *akhlāq* of the Prophet ﷺ. In fact, Islamic jurisprudence (*fiqh*) was, in the first instance, nothing but a comprehensive response to the divine commands and prohibitions, without any formal distinction between worship and other aspects of life. Allah commanded all that was good and prohibited all that was bad. Manners and morals were taught through role-modeling, reminders of heaven and hell, and moral stories. Authorities or scholars were consulted only in cases of disagreement; matters that elicited disagreement and required expert knowledge became the preserve of the specialists, and those that were largely agreed upon and required mastery of practice fell under *akhlāq*. Rather than thinking of *fiqh* and *akhlāq* as equivalents of the modern notions of law and ethics, in my view, the most helpful way to differentiate between the two is precisely this: *fiqh* is that part of Islam where the challenge is expert knowledge and management of differing interpretations, while *akhlāq* is that part of Islam where the challenge is the internalization of commanded virtues, habit-formation, and cultivation of virtuous sensibilities.[^26] Over time, *fiqh* became concerned with knowing God’s commands in specific situations, such as ritual worship (*ʿibādāt*, whose form is defined in revelation) and social relationships and transactions (*muʿāmalāt*). The discipline of *akhlāq*, in contrast, came to focus on the acquisition of virtues and refinement of outward manners and inner states. The challenge posed by virtues is to acquire them, make them a habit, learn how to prioritize when they compete with each other, and most importantly, direct them to God rather than selfish or other non-godly ends. It is for this reason the discipline of ethics is closely related in Islam to the inner, psychological disciplines of *tazkiya*, *sulūk*, and *taṣawwuf*.[^27] Unsurprisingly, then, the cultivation of good character was sought ubiquitously in Islamic civilization: in parental discipline at home, Qur’an schools, *madrasa*s, mosques, the battle field, the marketplace, the Sufi orders, and so on, and incorporated in the instruction of every science and craft. It was also discoursed on in dedicated treatises and “self-help” books. These included titles such as *Adab al-Dunya wal-l-Din* (Worldly and Religious Etiquette) by Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058) and *al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyya* (Divinely Mandated Etiquettes) by Ibn Mufliḥ al-Maqdisī (d. 763/1263), to mention just two prominent ones, in addition to sections on *adab* in nearly all comprehensive collections of prophetic hadith.[^28] Different Muslim traditions of ethics, some taking their cue from hadith reports, others from *fiqh*, and yet others from *taṣawwuf*, kalam, and *falsafa,* have variously emphasized divine command, rational analysis, and psychological reflection, but all sport features of each, and to the extent that they are truly Islamic, they are all grounded in the Prophetic model. I propose, therefore, that as the Muslim *ummah* strives to understand, revive, and embody Islamic ethics, rather than resolving theoretical conundrums or constructing abstract principles—which no doubt have academic value—it is *prophetic ethics* with which we must begin. ### What is prophetic ethics? A complete moral ecology Because real life is bigger than words, only a living, breathing exemplar confronted by the enormity and complexity of real life—followers and detractors, ups and downs, surprises and tragedies—could express the fullness of the divine moral teachings. This is why it is the role model, the Sunnah, of a human being ﷺ, who was sent as “Mercy to all the worlds,”[^29] that is at the heart of Islamic teachings on right and wrong, their nature and consequences, and ways to acquire virtues and avoid vices. Islamic ethics involve three complementary elements: (i) *obedience* to divine commands--this being the most distinctive dimension of Islamic ethics that orients the believer towards an afterlife and infuses moral actions with an eternal concern; (ii) *rational* comprehension and reflection for the purpose of appreciating the truth, knowing appropriate ways and occasions to practice, prioritizing competing values, reconciling general principles and particular teachings, and the like; and (ii) finally, *love*, the proper drive for being virtuous, which prompts one to seek God’s pleasure and love. In the following, we show how God embodied the elements of obedience, reason, and love in the person of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. It is important to differentiate at the outset between the Prophet’s personal traits and the normative aspects of his role-model. As a complete human being, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had a unique combination of personal traits, such as a preference for gentleness, patterns in speech, and preferences in dress, cuisine, perfume, and appearance, etc., traits that do not have normative value. Every prophet had such personal traits that allow us to relate to them as human beings. Moses, for instance, is known to have possessed the strong, dominant character of a leader, whereas Jesus had the gentle and patient character of a sage. Both types of traits are fitting in their place. What we shall call *prophetic ethics* refers to the character not only of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ but all the prophets through whose example Allah Almighty taught our Prophet and us (as in 4:26: “Allah wishes to explain to you and guide you by the examples \[*sunan*\] of those who were before you”). And precisely because a number of moral exemplars are included in this Sunnah, the diversity of their personal characters enriches this guidance. *Prophetic ethics*, therefore, is inclusive of the virtues of all the prophets like Jesus, Moses, Noah, and Abraham, upon them be peace, whom Allah has praised as role models, as well as the virtues that the Prophet ﷺ cultivated and encouraged in his disciples, the Companions, in whom we witness a great variety of human personalities. Following the prophetic character, then, is not merely a matter of imitating a single text or a single personality type on every matter, but the employment of revealed teachings and the best of our rational capacity—as Allah says in the Qur’an, “those who listen to speech and follow the best of it”[^30]—to understand and emulate the moral import of the entire ecosystem of *prophetic ethics*. Consider, for instance, the remarkable Qur’anic story of Moses’s harshness toward his assistant and brother prophet, Aaron, upon them both be peace, when he found upon his return from his meeting with God that the Israelites had fallen into worshiping the calf. In rage and sorrow, Moses pulled his brother’s hair, until Aaron explained how he pleaded with them but due to their obstinacy decided to wait for Moses to return and strengthen his hand rather than aggravating the situation. Moses understood Aaron’s wisdom and turned to Allah to seek forgiveness. In this case, the *prophetic ethics* does not consist merely in the imitation of any one person in the story, but understanding the priorities and complexities of action in real life. We can appreciate both Aaron’s patient diplomacy and Moses’s overpowering personality; Moses's rage and sorrow are prophetic ethics, as are Aaron’s patience and wisdom. In this one story, we learn all  three virtues of obedience, reason, and love for God. ### How prophetic ethics is relevant for all times As the site and embodiment of God’s final revelation, the Prophet ﷺ was made to live a full, complex, and eventful life. Earlier prophets were presented to him as his role models, and he was to become the role model for all humans to come: > Surely there is in the person of Allah’s messenger an excellent example (*uswa*) for you: for those of you who seek Allah and the Afterlife and remember Allah much.[^31] This verse states the fundamental principle of the Islamic ethical system, which is that for all those who seek Allah and success in the eternal hereafter, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ must be the role model and exemplar. In turn, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself was called to follow the role model of earlier prophets, in particular our father Abraham, upon him be peace and blessings, who had lived over 2,000 years earlier. The essence of prophetic character, we learn, is timeless. It follows that in its essence, the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ example is identical to that of all the great messengers and comprises the core of all that is truly good. This also means that by role model (*uswa*) what is meant is not the peculiar personal traits of any given prophet, but their moral mission to respond and call to God and hence to goodness. Yet, there is another reason why the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ Sunnah is relevant for all times. He ﷺ lived among a people and under conditions that were closest to nature, fitted with the bare necessities of life and uncorrupted by artificial luxuries that conceal the fullness of life from human experience. Like all prophets, he ﷺ was taught the bare nature of human beings as a shepherd: “Allah did not send any prophet but that he herded sheep.”[^32] Although there is nothing morally wrong with power and wealth, he ﷺ was given, and loved, a life of austerity, postponing extraneous pleasures to the eternal afterlife with God. This self-sacrifice was stressed by the Almighty through an angel sent down to the Prophet ﷺ offering him a choice between being a “prophet-king” or “servant-messenger”—he chose the latter, the servant messenger (ʿ*abdan rasūlā*).[^33] To live like a servant is both physically and symbolically closer to nature than to live as a king. Encompassed within his mission was the entire gamut of human experience. He ﷺ was like Jesus in Mecca and Moses in Medina. He was like Joseph in his forgiveness in the moment of triumph, Job in his patience, and his father Abraham in his sincerity and nearness to God and in his concern for his *ummah*. Just as the Qur’an is encompassing (*muhaymin*) of all the divine scriptures sent before it,[^34] the Prophet’s ﷺ example encompasses the righteous examples of all the prophets before him. And in contrast to nearly all prophetic missions narrated in the Qur’an, his is the only mission that succeeded through a human struggle; rather than supernatural interventions such as parted seas, cooled fires, and great floods, God gave him success through his unrelenting struggle, beautiful character, and supporting cast of Companions. This is not to deny that Allah guided every step of the Prophet’s ﷺ mission, granted him miracles, and indeed aided early Muslims through angels (as in the Battle of Badr) as well as natural events (as in the Battle of the Trench), but to underscore that rather than annihilating the enemy through supernatural events named above Allah used the believers to combat the forces of unbelief. This makes the Prophet’s struggle accessible as a model to believers in any time and place, a fact in which Muslim scholars and revivalists have always found inspiration. In the rare cases that he ﷺ chose anything less than beautiful**,** he was corrected by the Almighty Himself. Far from being a scandalous secret, these corrections were recorded in the Qur’an. Even his frowns, for instance, could become an occasion for divine attention. During his converse with Meccan leaders, with whom he stood pleading to embrace faith, a blind believer interrupted and a most understandable frown appeared on the Prophet’s ﷺ forehead. But God chose to raise His Prophet ﷺ to an even higher rank. A *sūrah* was sent down announcing this incident: > He frowned and turned away > > Because the blind man accosted him.[^35] And the believers have since recited in their prayers these divine correctives to their Prophet ﷺ, feeling in their hearts the Prophet’s ﷺ humanity and assured of God’s eyes watching over His most beloved creation. Similarly, when the Prophet ﷺ was moved to pray against the unbelievers of Quraysh after the Battle of Uḥud, Allah corrected him that it was the Almighty’s will whether to forgive or punish.[^36] When he ﷺ vowed to give up eating honey to please his wives, Allah corrected him, for as a role model even his private choices were consequential.[^37] Far more numerous than these rare occasions are the instances when the Prophet ﷺ was praised for his judgment[^38] or guided before taking an action through divine inspiration or through the Archangel Gabriel, as recorded in countless edifying anecdotes in hadith.[^39] The character of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, therefore, is to be emulated because, on the one hand, it is natural, practical, and feasible, and on the other, it embodies the timeless ideal of *prophetic ethics*, one which comprises a loftier and more comprehensive answer to the nature of the good than any alternative. Other philosophies often ground ethics in rule-following, from answering to an abstract universal imperative to maximizing ‘happiness’ (setting aside the question of true happiness for now) to cultivating virtuous habits. *Prophetic ethics*, however, is a judicious use of all of these strategies in service of the ultimate good and for the attainment of true happiness, in light of the divine revelation and the guidance of the concrete role model in the form of the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. ### “His character was the Qur’an” Who doesn’t appreciate virtues such as truthfulness, forgiveness and justice? Yet, a preacher of peace who always forgives powerful bullies and tyrants but seeks justice from the weak and the poor is not a moral person, but a sniveling hypocrite. Someone who speaks truth about other people’s flaws and weaknesses with the intent of harming them while hiding his own flaws is not a truth-teller. A loudmouth who publicly plays up sin and debauchery, others’ and his own, in the name of being “real,” candid, and funny, may be a comic hero in American society, but he is an immoral scoundrel in Islam. A dressed-to-a-tee religious preacher who has mastered every pleasantry and memorized every religious text and yet uses his fine manners to maintain his status and secure his fortunes, failing to speak truth to power, defend the weak, and uphold truth is an empty shell, devoid of Prophetic character. Being virtuous, it turns out, is not as easy as it might seem at first. Enter the Prophet ﷺ. As the following will make clear, his example would never permit the divorce of doctrine from practice or morals from manners, nor perversions of virtuous ideals for selfish ends. Those closest to him were the most aware of this deep harmony. He ﷺ was not only praised by God for his virtue and unmatched faith in God, but also given a personality that was most receptive to virtue. Even his gentleness, demeanor, and natural habits—traits in which even prophets as humans differed among themselves—set him ﷺ apart and made him shine. The Prophet’s beautiful manners and personality are singled out by the Almighty for consistent praise in the Qur’an: > And indeed \[O Prophet\] you are possessed of a great character (*khuluq*).[^40] The great Imam of Ahl al-Bayt, Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (d. 148 AH) said, “Allah enjoined upon His Prophet ﷺ the noblest of manners, and there is no verse in the Qur’an that sums up these virtues better than this one,” reciting: > Make forgiveness your habit, enjoin righteousness, and stay away from the ignorant.[^41] In this Meccan *sūrah*, Allah does not merely command the Prophet ﷺ to forgive, but to take it on as a habit. Later, in a Medinan *sūrah*, Allah attributes the Prophet’s ﷺ success in winning hearts to his being gentle, rather than harsh and grudging, as a matter of habit and character, thus testifying in 3:159 that the Prophet ﷺ had responded most beautifully to the divine teaching in 7:199. This truth is reflected even more clearly in the following teaching of the Mother of the Believers. When Saʿd b. Hishām, a Basran Successor whose grandfather ʿĀmir had been martyred at Uḥud, sought to give up his family, divorcing his wife and selling his property to seek martyrdom on the frontier, he was advised against it and told that this immoderation contradicted the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. He took back his wife and then visited the Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾisha, God be pleased with her, in Medina to inquire about the Prophet’s character. She asked in response, “Do you not read the Qur’an?” He said, “Of course.” She said, “The character of the Prophet ﷺ was the Qur’an.” “Due to the comprehensiveness of this response,” Saʿd added, “I thought to get up and never ask anyone for any guidance until I die.”[^42] Particularly dear to the Muslims is the verse in *Sūrah al-Tawbah* in which Allah describes how the Prophet ﷺ deeply cared for his *ummah*: > \[O humankind\], there has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves, anything that causes you suffering is hard on him, \[he is\] full of concern for you; and to the believers he is \[especially\] affectionate and merciful.[^43] Scholars of exegesis observe that the first part of the verse is directed to all humankind, the *ummat al-daʿwa*, and the last part is explicitly addressed to the believers.[^44] ### A bulwark against fanaticism The Prophetic example protects us from religious fanaticism and perversion. The Qur’an is God’s announcement of something immeasurably vaster than the span of this life and its petty, mundane problems: the infinite greatness of God, the eternity of the afterlife, the infinitesimal smallness of this life, the boundless urgency of our short worldly life, the moral import of worshiping the One True God. Humans, especially those whose *fiṭra* (innate nature) is clouded, need to be shaken up, as if with a violent power of diction and rhythm that characterizes the Meccan Qur’an, to sense this urgency. The hauntingly powerful, eloquent, and urgent ethos of the Qur’an warns us that this life is merely deception, a thing of play, a mirage, and the Day of Judgment is near, almost here, and so on. It is not unlikely for some limited minds to interpret this message as suggesting a radical rejection of this life and with it the laws, morals, and actions that seek to improve and beautify it. If the other life is eternal and infinitely more important, why should I respect this life at all—why should I seek earthly mercy, beauty, and convenience for myself, let alone for others? Practicing forbearance toward others, especially those who are heedless of the truth, sounds illogical. Is Allah really asking us to allow the error of the unbelievers and the decadence of the heedless to stand, to be kind and charitable to them, and to even protect their rights? The Kharijites, the first sect in Islam that departed from the moderate path of the Sunnah, grew out of this seemingly logical but radically misguided reading of the Qur’an precisely because they were ignorant of the Prophetic example and rejected the Companions’ teachings about the proper meanings of the Qur’an. They excommunicated and massacred Muslims, justifying their actions by erroneously invoking the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ had so frequently cautioned against “those young, foolish gangs who read the Qur’an but it does not go past their throats” that we have numerous (*mutawatir*) reports confirming this warning. The Kharijites also justified their slaughter of non-combatant children and women, violating the Companions’ consensus against such heinous practices, by incorrectly citing the Qur’anic story of Moses and Khiḍr.[^45] In fact, already during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, some Companions wanted to abandon the comforts of this life, even their families, for the celibacy, perpetual fasting and self-abnegation of Christian monks. They were sternly prohibited by the Prophet ﷺ from doing so: > By Allah, I am the most fearful and mindful of God among you, and I fast but also some days break my fast, I pray \[at night\] but I also sleep, and I marry women: whoever renounces my Sunnah is not part of me.[^46] With our knowledge of the prophetic model in hindsight, we might struggle to understand the desire of the Companions who wanted to stop enjoying life. But one has only to read the Qur’an as seriously as the Companions did, and recall its descriptions of heaven and hell and the insignificance of this life, to appreciate why they wanted to give up the world altogether. The Prophet’s Sunnah, in fact, is necessary to understand the Qur’an as life-affirming rather than life-denying, or else a simply “logical” reading of certain *ayat* may lead one to join the fanatics. Alternatively, a selective reading of certain verses stressing God’s lenience might tempt one to neglect duty to God and God’s creation both. Allah sent the Prophet ﷺ to teach us how to understand the Qur’an properly. The Qur’an is not a Book that asks us to abandon this life in favor of the next, but to live this life in a balanced, beautiful, and respectful way for ourselves, to learn the ways of this world and hence establish order and civilization in service to God, all while calling the whole of humanity to Him. The divine law assists us in attaining this goal and living a felicitous and full life. ### Prophetic ethics against empty claims of faith An even more common problem than excess and fanaticism that the Prophetic model solves is laxity and neglect toward the divine command. The two extremes, in fact, are deeply related, as one often leads to the other, and balance and moderation are absolutely key attributes of the Prophetic character. The Qur’an is not merely a book of precepts or a mine of quotable quotes, the Sunnah tells us, but the blueprint for an entire life of submission for the individual and the community. Merely recognizing the truth of the message does not suffice to make one Muslim let alone lead one to success. “They know him like they know their sons,”[^47] the Qur’an said of the People of the Book, but by failing to join his community and his mission they rendered their knowledge worthless. What Allah demanded from the Muslims was to “follow him, strengthen him, and aid him, and follow the Light \[the Qur’an\] sent down with him.”[^48] When the Bedouin Arabs joined the Prophet ﷺ claiming that they “believed,” Allah corrected them for confusing entering into Islam with true faith, declaring, “Say to them: No, you have not believed, but rather say, ‘We have submitted,’ for Islam has not yet entered their hearts.”[^49] In order to claim faith, they had to join the Prophet ﷺ and follow his Sunnah, the greatest Sunnah being his jihad, his struggle to establish Allah’s religion, and give their wealth and life for it.[^50] The Prophetic role model, in short, is the cure to the extremism, fanaticism, and self-destruction of pious warriors on the one hand and neglect, heedlessness, and lackluster claim of faith by the opportunists and weak-hearted on the other. To understand *Prophetic ethics*, one must understand and join the mission of the Prophet ﷺ, not merely select convenient anecdotes about creed, law, or stories of how he treated the poor and the weak and the like, isolated from his overall mission of guiding humankind to salvation. Only when understood in the light of his mission do his myriad virtues, to which we turn below, assume their transformative potential. Properly understood, the Sunnah turns the various precepts, stories, laws, and nuggets of wisdom in the Qur’anic revelation into a full, vibrant, and dynamic picture of life that God has intended to serve as the ideal and aspiration for all peoples, while offering practical, detailed guidance for individual, family, and communal life, until the end of time. ### How prophetic ethics help us confront secular modernity He ﷺ is praised by God as the “mercy for the worlds,” and his numerous acts of mercy and compassion are appreciated by anyone who learns about them without prejudice. But the truest manifestation of his mercy was that he embodied servitude to Allah: he was the freest and greatest of human beings precisely because his will was one with the will of the Truth Almighty. Nothing oppresses human beings more than their inner demons of desire, especially the desire to conform to and please other mortals, who are merciless, petty, and fickle. To take him ﷺ as our role model and hence seek “God and the Hereafter” is the surest way to free ourselves from the servitude to others’ opinions and find joy and strength in the Almighty, All-Merciful God. Rarely has a civilization been more moralizing and less moral, more obsessed with judging all others as falling short and yet so fundamentally bereft of coherent standards by which to judge any good, more filled with hubris about its ethical superiority and yet less sure about how to cultivate moral selves than the modern, secular West. The reason for this paradox may lie in the following. The modern secular West may be the first civilization in history to so starkly isolate the question of “What is life?” from the moral question of “How ought we to live?” thereby reducing life to merely its material substrate. From ancient Greek philosophers to various religious traditions, all human cultures treated the two questions as one, and none more clearly and powerfully than Islam. The idea of goodness is not an afterthought in Islam. The source of life, God’s final message declares, is one God, who is ultimate in goodness and justice, and *who created life as a moral test*,[^51] thus answering both questions at once. This means that *Islamic reason*, or Islamic philosophy, is fundamentally moral. Knowledge is sought for a moral end, and any question Islamic reason asks about any phenomenon has a moral dimension. Even from his or her most rudimentary thought, it is impossible for a believer to eliminate the question “What do I owe God and His creation?”[^52] In this sense, even when sharing the same physical space and time, it would seem that the believer in God and the non-believer experience two utterly different lives.[^53] For all things, living and nonliving, share in the attribute of being God’s creation, and those who know this cannot be the same as those who deny it. The Qur’an puts it with matchless beauty and force: “All that is in the heavens and the earth glorify Allah!” and in places, declares, “There is nothing that fails to glorify Him in praise, but you do not understand their glorification, and yet He is Forbearing and Forgiving.”[^54] This has profound implications for Islam’s attitude to all things; there is no need for escaping into spirituality, as dualist philosophies[^55] tend to, for the matter itself is endowed with meaning and consciousness. Witness the effect of this realization on the most mundane things. Even the water that we use to wash ourselves has a moral right over us, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “Do not waste water, even when purifying yourself for prayers, and even if you are on the bank of a flowing river!”[^56] Consider, in the same vein, the advice of the Prophet ﷺ to not waste even a morsel of food remaining on your dish or your fingers for you do not know which one God has especially blessed.[^57] The entirety of Islamic life reflects this spirit. --- ## Conclusion: True freedom and happiness In the truest sense, the Prophet ﷺ was the truest of men, the freest of them, for he was most truly the slave of one, true Master. When reading about him ﷺ, you will learn that he was the gentlest of friends, who gave those who deprived him and forgave those who wronged him, but he was also the most fearless of warriors who fought for God’s sake and brought his enemies to their knees. His ethics, his Sunnah, therefore, has always challenged the tyranny of men, lowering the haughty and raising the meek, whenever and wherever it is truly embraced by his followers, rather than reduced to self-serving bits and pieces, as it often is. Prophetic ethics is not for cowards, pessimists, cynics, and worshippers of the rising sun, or the theologians and ministers of the Pharaoh. Its contrast with modern secular ethics could not be greater, for the latter promises freedom and delivers nothing but slavery to all things and misery in both worlds. In all its mutually warring varieties—liberal, capitalist, conservative, progressive, and so on—modern secular ethics is ultimately the worship of man by man. This inevitably leads to various forms of polytheism—the worship of the egos of a few heroes, celebrities, political leaders, saints, and other false gods by the many. Sometimes this degradation of humanity occurs in the name of freedom and self-expression, and at other times in the name of national or tribal unity and progress. Sometimes, it is the *Brave New World*, where men entertain themselves to death, at others, it is *1984*, where a “Ministry of Truth” more brazenly controls thought and language.[^58] Against both, prophetic ethics promises freedom from bondage to any and all false gods in return for bondage to the Truth Almighty. The most oppressive of all false gods may be the closest one to us: our unconstrained desire. As the great Muslim poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal once wrote in an Urdu couplet, > This one bowing weighs heavy on thee > > Yet it frees thee of a thousand bowings! The Almighty endowed His Final Messenger ﷺ with all manner of beauty: in looks, manners, feelings, wisdom, and most of all, in morals and character. Allah has given commands and prohibitions in His Noble Shariah, but has placed the secret of His special love in doing above and beyond what is required, in living as if in the presence of God, as if seeing Him and knowing that He sees us, instilling in His servants love for Him, in obedience that is so beautiful that it becomes a sign of Him, an object of art; in short, in imitating the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. In the words of Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, one has to merge oneself with the Messenger’s ﷺ personality, “through the experience of an inner relationship;” in a fashion that is not merely the practice of virtue but an embodiment of its truth. “The truth of prophecy” is not merely known, but experienced, as it is further “authenticated by the moral influence it exercises on the soul.”[^59] The Almighty did not send the greatest teacher of good ﷺ with a book of ethical philosophy dedicated to ethical riddles and dilemmas, solving trolley problems, and formulating categorical imperatives. Rather, Allah sent a Book along with its embodiment, the law and its fulfillment, and a role model and its explanation in the person of the Prophet ﷺ. It is through this perfect vehicle of delivery that the greatest ethical revolution in human history was effected by the Final Revelation. The truth sent down by the All-Wise Creator deeply resonated with human nature, *al-fiṭra*. To use the Qur’anic image of “light upon light,” the light of divine revelation shone upon the divinely bestowed nature. The men and women of the first generations came to embody the “perfected way of life,”[^60] each to the extent of his or her receptivity and effort, and as more and more peoples from lands far and near entered Islam, decade after decade, century after century. Without abandoning their distinctness altogether, they all adjusted their ways of life to accord with the Prophetic example. The transformation of the first Muslims from petty, warring dwellers on the fringes of civilization into its leaders, masters, and teachers was the greatest of the miracles of Islam. And this miracle was repeated over and over in history: in Arabia, the Levant, Persia, Africa, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and now, we are witnessing it day by day in Europe and the Americas. This struggle to surrender is never over and is renewed with every generation and every new turn in history. --- ## Notes [^1]: Part of a hadith in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91. [^2]: Qur’an 33:21. [^3]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 7214. [^4]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6142. [^5]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 5414. [^6]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 3567; *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, nos. 523 and 1733. [^7]: Al-Ghazalī, *Iḥyā’ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1402/1982), 2:359–64. The translation by Leon Zolondek (Leiden: Brill, 1963) contains numerous errors (Book XX, p. 23–25), which have been addressed here. [^8]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6129. [^9]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 3149. [^10]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 3. [^11]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6031. [^12]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 4770, graded *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^13]: Agreed upon; *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2309; also *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6038; the addition is found in *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2330. [^14]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 654; declared authentic by Aḥmad Shākir and al-ʿIrāqi in his *takhrīj* of *al-Iḥyā’*, 2:380. Also, *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1775. [^15]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2328. [^16]: *Jami’ Tirmidhī*, no. 2754, declared ‘sound’ by al-Albani and others, ‘fair’ by yet others. [^17]: We defer to a later article the doubts raised by those who posit that ethical truths are relative to each culture or even individual, and, therefore, there cannot be a universal right answer to every moral question. [^18]: See, for instance, Richard Joyce, “Moral Fictionalism,” *Philosophy Now*, 2011, [https://philosophynow.org/issues/82/Moral\_Fictionalism](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://philosophynow.org/issues/82/Moral_Fictionalism&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1657834410520828&usg=AOvVaw0gI7rBrQ5Yot9yeOR7azFK). [^19]: Mariam al-Attar, *Islamic Ethics: The Divine Command Theory in Arabo-Islamic Thought* (New York, NY: Routledge, 2010), 3. [^20]: For this line of reasoning about the attitude of pre-Kalam jurists as well as the Muʿtazila and the Ashʿarites, as well as the influence of Greek physician Galen’s writings on al-Ghazālī’s development of the “purposes of the law” discourse, see Ahmed El Shamsy, “The Wisdom of God’s Law: Two Theories,” in *Islamic Law in Theory*, ed. A. K. Reinhart and R. Gleave (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 30. For a detailed discussion of the four theoretical schools in Islam, see Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). [^21]: Qur’an 68:4. [^22]: For example, Qur’an 68:4. [^23]: E. W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (London: Williams and Norgate, 1863–1893), 799–800. [^24]: Some have suggested that ethics refers to subjective understanding of right and wrong (answering the question: what should I do?), whereas morals refer to communal and social norms (answering the question: how should we live?). See Paul Walker and Terry Lovat, “You Say Morals, I Say Ethics—What’s the Difference?,” The Conversation, September 18, 2014, https://theconversation.com/you-say-morals-i-say-ethics-whats-the-difference-30913. But this distinction is somewhat overwrought and not borne out in actual English usage. An erudite discussion of these derivatives, and the futility of such distinctions and of most modern nit-picking on ethics, is found in Moroccan Islamic philosopher Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s text Su’āl al-Akhlāq (Morocco: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2000), 17–24. [^25]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 34. [^26]: We will turn to the relationship between *fiqh* (law) and *khuluq* (ethics) in the next article in this series, God willing. [^27]: That being said, we must not forget that divinely ordained norms make up one inseparable whole, just as skeleton and flesh make up one complete human body; no adherence to law is complete and worthy of divine reward without truthfulness and sincerity to God and benevolence toward God’s creation, and no act of kindness, justice, or chivalry is truly good in disobedience to God. [^28]: For instance, we find a section named *Kitāb al-adab* in each of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Sunan Abī Dawūd*, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, and *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī* and one titled *Kitāb al-birr wa-l-ṣila wa-l-ādāb* in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, not to mention detailed sections in later, more expansive collections such as Imām al-Nawawī’s collection *Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn*. [^29]: Qur’an 21:107. [^30]: Qur’an 39:18. [^31]: Qur’an 33:21. [^32]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 2262. [^33]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 7160, declared *ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Albānī, Aḥmad Shākir, and others. [^34]: Qur’an 5:48. [^35]: Qur’an 80:1–2. [^36]: Qur’an, 3:128–29; *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1791. [^37]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1474. Consider how the personal dietary preference of Prophet Jacob, upon him be peace, became law for the Jews. Qur’an 3:93. [^38]: For an extensive treatment of the Prophet’s judgments and the divine response, see Nādiya Sharīf al-ʿUmarī, *Ijtihād al-Rasūl ﷺ* (Beirut: Mu’assasa al-Risāla, n.d.). [^39]: See Dr. Omar Suleiman’s inspiring lectures on Archangel Gabriel, upon him be peace, to appreciate how and how frequently such encounters occurred. Omar Suleiman, “Episode 1: They've Got Your Back | Angels in Your Presence with Omar Suleiman,” Yaqeen Institute, YouTube video, April 24, 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VtsVxVyn1g](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D9VtsVxVyn1g&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1657834410525897&usg=AOvVaw394U7xcq0ptG5ENZiXYUTZ). [^40]: Qur’an 68:4. [^41]: Qur’an 7:199. [^42]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 746. [^43]: Qur’an 9:128. [^44]: See, for instance, Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr*, under verse 9:128. [^45]: The correspondence between them and Ibn ʿAbbās is reported in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1812. [^46]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 5063. [^47]: Qur’an 2:156 and 6:20. [^48]: Qur’an 7:157. [^49]: Qur’an 49:14. [^50]: Qur’an 49:15. [^51]: Qur’an 67:1. [^52]: Consider, for instance, 4:1: “Beware of God in whose name you seek rights from each other, and \[relations of\] the womb!” [^53]: See, for instance, Qur’an 39:9. [^54]: Qur’an 17:44. [^55]: Dualist views such as Neoplatonism and ancient gnostic religions posited a stark separation of matter and spirit and from there these ideas seeped into Christianity and certain Muslim traditions. [^56]: *Musnad Aḥmad*; *Ibn Majah*; graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (sound) by Aḥmad Shākir and *ḥasan* (fair) by al-Albānī in *al-Silsila al-ṣaḥīḥa*, no. 3292; other hadith critics have declared it weak. [^57]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, nos. 2033 and 2035. [^58]: The reference here is to two classics of modern English literature: Aldous Huxley’s *Brave New World* and George Orwell’s *1984*. [^59]: Leon Zolondek, *Al-Ghazālī’s* *Iḥyā’ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Leiden: Brill, 1963), Book XX, p. 14. [^60]: Qur’an 5:3. ## Summary God is Beautiful and loves beauty, as related from the Final Messenger of God ﷺ, and after faith in the Truth Most High nothing adorns a human being more than the manifestation of that faith in his character (akhlāq). The Prophet ﷺ himself declared, "I have come only to perfect the noble traits of character," and this teaches us that Allah instilled in the human soul a love of truth and moral beauty within its innate disposition (fiṭra), such that when people encounter divine revelation they instinctively recognize its truth and beauty, just as the order of creation directs them toward the wisdom of the Creator. People are lovers of goodness by nature, and even without revelation they develop many virtues; the Messenger of God ﷺ never denied this inner light but appreciated and enhanced it, giving it right direction. Yet when bereft of divine guidance, this innate disposition is counteracted and at times sabotaged by transgressive desire, false ideas, and misguided culture. From this we understand why ethics need Islam and why the answer to the question "How ought we to live?" must come from God, for good conduct is the fulfillment of ultimate truth and goodness rather than a mere function of utility, feeling, or desire. The One who gave us life has also guided us in how to live it, sending messengers to every people to teach timeless truths and concrete ways of worship. In His infinite wisdom, Allah sealed the line of prophets with a final one and sent down a final revelation sufficient for every searching soul in any time and circumstance. He preserved this revelation and further concretized its meaning by embodying it in one man, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, declaring him the role model for all "who seek God and the Hereafter." Even those clouded by doubt or desire may glimpse the human perfection that was Muhammad ﷺ, but only those who seek ultimate truth and beauty can love it, embody it fully, and attain the eternal bliss promised by the Truth Almighty. The wisdom (the why) and the modality (the how) of the divine choice to embody guidance in a man together created a perfect ecosystem for the revelation and exposition of final truth and perfect goodness, and it is this which explains how Islamic ethics are universal, valid for all times, places, and peoples. No one can be considered a Muslim without loving, reflecting on, and emulating the character of the Prophet ﷺ. Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH) devoted a section of his Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, the "Book of Etiquette of Life and the Prophetic Character," to descriptions of the Prophet ﷺ backed by authentic reports. He ﷺ was the most forbearing, courageous, just, and forgiving of men; the most generous, never letting a coin remain overnight without giving it in charity; taking only the minimum of dates and barley, patching his own cloak, mending his own sandal, and serving his family. He ﷺ was the most bashful of people, responding to the invitation of free and slave alike, accepting gifts and reciprocating, yet never eating of charity, for he was forbidden to do so. He grew angry only for the sake of his Lord and never for himself; when his noble Companion was found murdered in the Jewish neighborhood of Khaybar, he did not veer from justice but paid the blood-money of a hundred she-camels from the treasury despite the need of his companions. He ﷺ mounted his servant behind him, rode whatever beast was available, walked barefoot, visited the sick and attended funerals, sat with the poor, and honored the noble without favoring his relatives over the more meritorious. Allah combined in him virtuous conduct and perfect leadership though he was unlettered, an orphan raised poor among shepherds, whom Allah taught all the fine qualities of character. His life is also full of simple, emulable kindness. Anas, his young attendant, recalled how the Prophet ﷺ playfully asked a little boy in rhyme, "O Abū ʿUmayr! How is your nughayr [sparrow]?" And when a Bedouin pulled his cloak so forcefully that it marked his shoulder and demanded a share of what Allah had given him, the Prophet ﷺ turned, gently laughed, and ordered that he be given. Though balanced between mercy and justice, strength and gentleness, his governing trait was mercy, for Allah described him as sent as "Mercy for the worlds," and raḥma is derived from the attribute Allah loves most among His Beautiful Names. Anas testified, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was never ill-mannered nor rude," and served him ten years without ever hearing him say "Uff" or ask why he had done or left something. He ﷺ was a loving husband and doting father, a courageous warrior behind whom ʿAlī and others would take cover in battle, yet, as ʿĀʾisha reported, he never struck a wife or servant. He taught equality and disliked that his Companions stand for him, saying, "I am a slave of Allah; I eat as other people eat, and I sit as other people sit." When a delegation from the Negus came, he rose to serve them personally, saying, "They had honored our companions, so I wish to personally serve them." Some, out of love or ill intent, fabricated fanciful reports, yet his authentically established conduct surpasses all such imaginings. A question then arises: how could one human being, situated in his time and place, be a role model for all? Are moral truths universal, and if so, why did Allah not simply reveal a list of rules rather than sending a living teacher? Such questions are often raised in the name of some fashionable paradigm—freedom, equality, progress, or the current state of science. Muslim theologians engaged such paradigms, but a common error, even among well-meaning Muslims, is to reduce the Prophet ﷺ to a collection of feel-good stories divorced from his message of tawḥīd and submission to the sharīʿa, turning him, as secular Christians have done with Jesus, into a quotable sage rather than a role model to be followed for salvation. To understand why the Prophet's example, and not abstract principles, lies at the center of Islamic ethics, one must see why alternative groundings prove inadequate. Modern Western philosophy, largely atheistic, treats right and wrong as man-made fiction grounded in utility, emotion, or survival, whereas the ancients—Plato, Aristotle, and the Muslim falāsifa—held them to be matters of rational inquiry inscribed in the nature of things, nobler than modern secular ethics yet, without revelation, prone to grave error. Consider Kant's categorical imperative, an abstract and unusable formulation of the ancient revealed wisdom known as the golden rule, recorded in the Prophetic hadith, "One does not believe until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." Yet a depraved person might will harm upon others, and a fanatic in a perfect Kantian world would wish to be forced into belief as he forces others, whereas Islam teaches "there is no compulsion in religion," granting freedom to those who hold erroneous beliefs—a divine generosity that appears illogical to a Kantian liberal, whose tolerance rests only on the unknowability or irrelevance of truth. Consequentialism, which judges actions by their consequences, fails because consequences are unknowable and the desired consequences beg the question. Virtue ethics, nearer to human nature, is incomplete, for what counts as a virtue depends on a worldview—among pickpockets a skillful thief is virtuous—and it neglects the ultimate purpose of life. None of these fully encompasses Islam, which is committed to an Omnipotent, Ever-Living God who created humankind to worship Him and to the central fact of divine law, so that Muslim thought derived not from puzzlement over the good but from the good revealed by God and embodied in the Prophet ﷺ. Even as classical theology expanded, Muslim theologians remained guided by the centrality of God's law. On the dilemma Plato posed—whether an act is good because God commands it or commanded because it is good—the Muʿtazilites, the first to theologize about ethics through Kalam, held the latter, binding God to human reason, while the Ashʿarites insisted on the former, articulating a Divine Command Theory in which acts are not intrinsically good or bad but are freely labeled by God. This led al-Ghazālī and other Ashʿarites to write masterfully on the psychology of human action while restricting the source of ethics to revelation, giving rise also to the discourse on the higher objectives of the law (maqāṣid al-sharīʿa). Unlike modern postmodernists, these skeptics of rational ethics were not nihilists but advocates of ethics embodied in divine law; the Traditionalists, Muʿtazilites, Ashʿarites, and Maturidites all upheld the divine command and the Sunnah. Allah declared, "And indeed you are possessed of a great character (khuluq)." The word khuluq refers to the non-physical "second nature," encompassing both outward manners and inner morals, in contrast to khalq, the physical form. As the Prophet ﷺ warned, four habits mark a hypocrite: lying when speaking, breaking a promise, betraying a covenant, and being abusive when quarreling—three being moral flaws and the fourth a flaw of behavior. Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) was, in the first instance, a comprehensive response to divine commands and prohibitions. The most helpful way to distinguish fiqh from akhlāq is that fiqh is where the challenge is expert knowledge and managing differing interpretations, while akhlāq is where the challenge is internalizing commanded virtues, forming habits, and cultivating virtuous sensibilities, closely tied to the inner disciplines of tazkiya, sulūk, and taṣawwuf. Good character was cultivated everywhere in Islamic civilization and in dedicated works such as al-Māwardī's Adab al-Dunyā wa-l-Dīn and Ibn Mufliḥ's al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyya. Because real life is bigger than words, only a living exemplar could express the fullness of divine moral teaching, and so the Sunnah lies at the heart of Islamic ethics, which involves three complementary elements: obedience to divine commands, which orients the believer toward the afterlife; rational comprehension, for knowing when and how to act and how to prioritize competing values; and love, the proper drive that seeks God's pleasure. One must distinguish the Prophet's personal traits—his preferences in dress, food, and speech—from the normative aspects of his role model. Prophetic ethics embraces the virtues of all the prophets, for Allah said, "Allah wishes to explain to you and guide you by the examples of those who were before you," and in the story of Moses seizing Aaron's hair over the calf-worship, we appreciate both Moses's rage and sorrow and Aaron's patient wisdom, learning obedience, reason, and love together. The Prophet ﷺ was made the timeless exemplar: "Surely there is in the person of Allah's messenger an excellent example (uswa) for you." He himself followed Abraham, who lived two thousand years earlier, showing that the essence of prophetic character is timeless and comprises the core of all that is good. He lived close to nature, herded sheep as every prophet did, and chose to be a "servant-messenger" (ʿabdan rasūlā) over a prophet-king. His mission encompassed the whole gamut of human experience, succeeding not through parted seas or cooled fires but through human struggle, beautiful character, and his Companions. When he chose less than the best, Allah corrected him openly in the Qur'an—as when a frown appeared before the blind man and Sūrat ʿAbasa was revealed, or when he was reminded that forgiveness or punishment of Quraysh was Allah's will, or corrected over his vow regarding honey. Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148 AH) said no verse better sums up the noble manners Allah enjoined than "Make forgiveness your habit, enjoin righteousness, and stay away from the ignorant." And ʿĀʾisha, asked about his character, replied, "The character of the Prophet ﷺ was the Qur'an." The Prophetic model is a bulwark against fanaticism, for the Kharijites, ignorant of his example and rejecting the Companions' teaching, read the Qur'an's urgency as a rejection of this life, excommunicated and massacred Muslims, and slew women and children, of whom he ﷺ warned in mutawātir reports as those who "read the Qur'an but it does not go past their throats." He likewise forbade the Companions who sought celibacy and perpetual fasting, saying, "Whoever renounces my Sunnah is not part of me." Equally, the model cures laxity, for the People of the Book "knew him as they know their sons" yet gained nothing, and the Bedouin were told, "You have not believed, but rather say, 'We have submitted.'" His mercy freed men from servitude to their own desires and to the fickle opinions of others, and against a modern secular West that isolates "What is life?" from "How ought we to live?"—reducing life to matter—Islamic reason is fundamentally moral, teaching that even water and food have a right over us, for "there is nothing that fails to glorify Him in praise." In the truest sense the Prophet ﷺ was the freest of men because he was most truly the slave of the one true Master, and as al-Ghazālī taught, one must merge with his personality through an inner relationship so that virtue is not merely practiced but its truth embodied. Allah did not send a book of ethical riddles but a Book with its embodiment, and through this the greatest ethical revolution in history was effected, transforming the first Muslims and, generation after generation, peoples across the earth. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/convert-connection-dhul-hijjah-reflections-with-sh-abdullah-oduro # Convert Connection: Dhul Hijjah Reflections with Sh. Abdullah Oduro **Author:** Sh. Abdullah Oduro **Topics:** Faith **Tags:** Blog, Dhul Hijjah, Dhul Hijjah 2024 **Published:** July 5, 2022 **Updated:** May 15, 2026 As a new Muslim, you’re most likely familiar with the month of Ramadan. However, there is another month in the Islamic calendar that is also a sacred time of year: Dhul Hijjah. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, **“There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days”**, meaning the first [10 days of Dhul Hijjah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/11-things-to-do-on-the-first-10-days-of-dhul-hijjah). Not only is this when [Hajj](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/abdullah-oduro/pillar-5-introduction-to-hajj-pilgrimage), the annual pilgrimage to Makkah (i.e., the 5th pillar of Islam) takes place, but it is also a special time for worship. As we enter these blessed 10 days, we spoke with Sh. Abdullah Oduro on his Dhul Hijjah experiences, reflections, and advice for new Muslims observing it for the first time. --- ## What should a Muslim do during Dhul Hijjah? The ultimate act of worship to perform during this month is the [Hajj (pilgrimage)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/hajj-abrahams-legacy-infographic). However, it is only required to do once in a lifetime. For those of us who are not performing Hajj, we should spend this special time engaging in prayer, fasting, giving charity, and reading the Qur’an. Yaqeen has a [great checklist](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/dhul-hijjah-10-day-gameplan) for the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, along with [many resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/dhul-hijjah) on why this time of year is important. Also, take some time to learn about the [Prophet Abraham](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuoXDdIP6u8) (PBUH)’s story, as the [rituals of Hajj](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age) are based on the events of his life. --- ## As a convert, what lessons do you take from the life of Abraham (PBUH)? There are so many lessons for new Muslims to take from the [story of Abraham](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/echoes-of-abraham-scenes-from-his-life-infographic) (PBUH). First, **patience**. Like Abraham (PBUH) with his father, you may not see eye to eye with your family. They may not understand your new faith, and they may be belligerent in expressing that to you. Be patient with them and continue to treat them with kindness. Also, be patient with Allah and in developing your connection with Him. Be patient in what He has decreed for you. Abraham (PBUH) endured many difficulties throughout his life. But he overcame them with patience and trust in Allah. Another lesson we can learn from Abraham (PBUH)’s story is **sacrifice**. Sacrifice is a big theme and ritual of Hajj and Dhul Hijjah, based on God’s order to Abraham (PBUH) to sacrifice his son Ishmael. But even before that, Abraham sacrificed so much for God and for his faith. He sacrificed his reputation with society. He sacrificed his community because they didn’t accept him. He was alone, and many of us can relate to what that feels like. You may feel like no one hears you, understands you, or supports you. But like Abraham (PBUH) trusted in Allah and obeyed His command time and time again, we must do the same. Hold on to your certainty like he did, and keep your trust in Allah firm. With trust comes **hope**. Hope that Allah will make things better, as things got better for Abrahim (PBUH). Have hope that Allah will bring you through the loneliness and the difficulty of learning a new way of life. Have hope in His mercy and forgiveness, both when it comes to your shortcomings before Islam and the mistakes you may make as a new Muslim. Have hope in others. Even when faced with criticism and hurtful words from those you love, reply with good manners and high expectations. Hold on to your faith without compromising integrity. That is what Abraham (PBUH) did. --- ## What was the first Hajj as a convert like? My first Hajj…this was the first time I even dealt with a passport. So when I went to get one, that’s when it started for me. *“I really am going overseas. I am going to the desert.”* It meant a lot to me. I heard so much about what Hajj was going to be like, and I needed to mentally prepare for it in the same way I was preparing my suitcase. A big part of it was explaining the trip to my family. *“I’m going to the desert to worship God.”* It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around. I showed them *[The Illustrated Guide to Islam](https://www.islam-guide.com/)*, which explains the Abrahamic connection to all of the Hajj rituals. That made it easier for them to understand. We also watched the Hajj scenes reenacted in *[Malcolm X](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-mythicization-and-mobilization-of-malcolm-x-in-the-malay-world),* which helped too*.* They were able to see the value in detaching from the world to attach to God, with the goal of coming back to live a righteous life. They were very supportive of it after that. > I met so many different kinds of people, all leaving their lives behind to worship God. I’ll never forget seeing the Kaaba for the first time. I thought, *“Wow, this is what I hear people talking about.”* It was an incredible experience and I pray that all of my Muslim brothers and sisters are able to experience it for themselves. --- ## What was your first Eid like as a new Muslim? I remember my first Eid like it was yesterday. I stood in the mosque parking lot after prayer, seeing everyone in their best clothing–many of them cultural, which I had never seen before. Unsure of what to do next, I asked some people what they were going to do for the rest of the day. Most of them had plans with their family. And that’s when it hit me: *“This isn’t what I thought it would be.”* I was expecting to go hang out or go to a party. I thought Eid was supposed to be fun. But there I was, driving back home alone to watch TV. And it wasn’t even 10 am yet. When the next Eid rolled around, I decided to just go to work. I thought, *“why should I take the day off to be alone, when I could go to work and make money?”* It wasn’t until several years later that I began making my own traditions, and really feeling the spirit and celebration of Eid. --- ## What advice would you give to new Muslims who feel that disconnect? Try to make the best of it. Start your own traditions. Make it an opportunity to get together with family members–your favourite cousin, a distant uncle–or a good friend. Explain to them that this is a special day and that you want to spend it with someone you love and care about. Creating your own traditions will help you feel the spirit of the holiday. It may take some time, but eventually you will feel it. And when you do, remember that initial feeling of loneliness, and try to work within your community to plan special Eid gatherings to help other new Muslims feel welcome. Click [here](https://t.me/+g-T0k2pgIaU1NjEx) to join our Convert Community on Telegram! ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why does Dhul Hijjah carry special meaning for converts to Islam? Sh. Abdullah Oduro reflects that converts often feel a particular resonance with Prophet Ibrahim's (as) story during Dhul Hijjah — leaving familiar family, community, and identity behind for the sake of Allah. The themes of patience, sacrifice, and hope embedded in Hajj and Eid al-Adha mirror the convert's own journey, and Ibrahim's experience of standing alone for the truth becomes a source of comfort rather than isolation. ### What does Sh. Abdullah Oduro say about loneliness during Eid al-Adha? He shares that after his first Eid prayer, he returned home alone — expecting celebration but finding silence. His advice to converts struggling with this isolation: build new traditions intentionally, gather other new Muslims, host Eid meals, and remember that Ibrahim (as) himself stood alone for the truth before any community formed around him. 'You may feel like no one hears you, understands you, or supports you,' he says — but the prophetic example shows that solitude in obedience is not abandonment. ### How can converts include their non-Muslim families in Dhul Hijjah? Sh. Oduro recounts using accessible educational tools — like *The Illustrated Guide to Islam* — to explain the Abrahamic roots of Hajj rituals to his family. Because Ibrahim is honored across the Abrahamic faiths, converts can use Hajj season as a bridge to discuss shared spiritual heritage rather than perceived difference, often turning skepticism into curiosity and even support. ### What three lessons from Prophet Ibrahim (as) does Sh. Oduro highlight for converts? Patience — managing family relationships with kindness even when faith is misunderstood; Sacrifice — relinquishing social standing and acceptance for spiritual conviction; and Hope — trusting Allah's mercy through periods of loneliness and confusion. These map directly onto Ibrahim's leaving his homeland, his offering of his son, and his trust as he placed Hajar and Ismāʿīl in the desert — a prophetic blueprint for the convert's own journey. ### How can a convert prepare emotionally for their first Hajj? Sh. Oduro emphasizes that emotional and mental preparation matters as much as logistical preparation. Reading about Ibrahim's life, learning the meaning of each Hajj rite in advance, and connecting with the convert community before traveling helps the journey become a continuation of one's conversion rather than an isolated event — a pilgrimage not only to the Kaʿbah but back to the same act of trust that began the convert's Islam. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/a-sacred-invitation-what-to-do-in-the-first-10-days-of-dhul-hijjah # A Sacred Invitation: What to Do in the First 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Tags:** Blog, Dhul Hijjah, Dhul Hijjah 2024 **Published:** June 28, 2022 **Updated:** June 24, 2025 We live in a world saturated with superlatives. The best sale, the best method, the best time to buy, invest, act. Our screens are full of promises. Most of them exaggerated, and nearly all of them forgettable. From billboards to social media ads, we’re constantly feeling the pressure to join in or get left behind. “Unbeatable deal. Limited time only!” “Supplements that will change your life.” “Get yours now, your future self will thank you.” We’ve become accustomed to the promises, and the louder something is hyped, the more likely it is to grab our attention (and devotion). But what happens when the best days of the year for doing good deeds—the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah—come around? The truth is, the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah arrive relatively quietly for most, usually with little more than a brief post or a short reminder after ʿIsha. There’s no communal worship, no major routine shift, no group iftars, and no cute decorations to hang around the house. But, unlike most other loud promises, this is the real deal. Within these days lies an unmatched opportunity and a reminder that what is most valuable isn’t always what’s most visible. The Prophet said, **“No good deeds are better than those done in these first ten days of Dhul Hijjah.”**[^1] There’s a secret wisdom in how understated these days are, arriving without fanfare or obligation. That’s part of their beauty because the most sacred opportunities are often the ones not loudly announced. You may not be able to go to Hajj. You may not be where you want to be in your faith. But these days still hold immense value. Small efforts during this time carry weight far beyond what we might expect, so don’t let them pass by unnoticed. Here are a few simple ways to honor these blessed days: --- ## 1\. Learn about the virtues of Dhul Hijjah Seeking knowledge is a form of worship that increases your *taqwa* and motivation towards good. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise.”[^2] Start this month by learning about the significance of Dhul Hijjah, its connection to sacrifice, and the importance of prayer and *duʿa* in these days. To get started, explore some of [our Dhul Hijjah resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/dhul-hijjah). --- ## 2\. Fast—especially the Day of ʿArafah (9th of Dhul Hijjah) [Fasting](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pillar-4-intro-to-fasting&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421254047&usg=AOvVaw1aRGj_PpL0k-NNgVZ6ba10) is the best way to gain *taqwa* and stay spiritually engaged throughout the day. It’s common to fast on the [Day of](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/5-ways-to-make-the-most-of-the-day-of-arafah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421254327&usg=AOvVaw1Yxs88jD4WgM3zUbkGtZ1P) **[ʿ](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/5-ways-to-make-the-most-of-the-day-of-arafah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421254419&usg=AOvVaw33UplWXmAL0xkoldskOUNJ)**[Arafah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/5-ways-to-make-the-most-of-the-day-of-arafah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421254511&usg=AOvVaw2db7EcVLAP67JN1K5OTpXG), but it’s also *sunnah* to fast the first 8 days as well.[^3] This year, set your alarm for *suhur* for the first 9 days of the month. --- ## 3\. Increase in dhikr (remembrance) During the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, it’s *sunnah* to [recite a great deal](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-deeper-into-dhikr-a-dhul-hijjah-series&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421255249&usg=AOvVaw1FGWOXhDWmuazxsUr19VPB) of *tahlil*, *takbir*, and *tahmid*,[^4] so say *Subhanallah*, *Alhamdulillah*, *Allahu akbar*, and *La ilaha illa Allah* often. Being in a constant state of remembrance allows us to connect with Allah throughout our day, reminding us of our purpose even during the most mundane of tasks. Increasing in *dhikr* can also help those of us at home during this time of year feel connected to the pilgrims performing Hajj—if not in action, then at least in spirit and reward. The Prophet ﷺ taught us [several deeds](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/5-deeds-that-equal-the-reward-of-hajj-his-hajj-story-ep-10&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421256299&usg=AOvVaw3dg6DfBauvPAhPA9l1LbOx) that carry rewards similar to that of Hajj. He ﷺ told us, “Whoever prays Fajr in congregation, then sits remembering Allah \[i.e., doing *dhikr*\] until sunrise, and then prays two *rakʿat* \[of *nawafil*\], that person has the reward of Hajj and *ʿumrah*: complete, complete, complete.”[^5] --- ## 4\. Pray tahajjud and other nawafil Prayer is a year-round practice, but this is a chance to really focus and spend a little more time on each of your daily prayers. [Aim to increase your focus and intent](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/trailer-secrets-of-salah-the-hidden-gems-of-prayer-dhul-hijjah-series-2025&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421257181&usg=AOvVaw1ne1rZSwOhaHg7_Xm1P2Qw) and, if you can, sprinkle in extra *sunnah* prayers. Praying extra *sunnah* prayers is one of the [actions that can build a home for you in Jannah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/10-deeds-that-build-houses-in-jannah-episode-6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421257474&usg=AOvVaw0xBsb7yf5NqD-pIZC8Csym). Waking just 10 minutes before Fajr for two *rakʿat* of *[tahajjud](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-1-why-tahajjud-tahajjud-waking-soul-and-society&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421257728&usg=AOvVaw2dAONBjnN0UjoXJUclWWN0)* prayer can become a moment of quiet connection with Allah, and adding in Salat al-Duha (a *nafl* prayer that is prayed any time between sunrise and the start of Dhuhr prayer) can be a source of comfort and peace for the rest of the day. The Prophet ﷺ told us that Allah said, “O Son of Adam, bow to Me in four cycles of prayer \[*rakʿat*\] at the beginning of the day and I will suffice you for the rest of it \[i.e., the rest of the day\].”[^6] The Witr prayer is the most emphasized *sunnah* prayer of the Prophet, one that can help you build a habit of praying at night. Abu Hurayra reported: “My friend \[i.e., the Prophet\] advised me to do three things and I shall not leave them till I die: To fast three days every month, to offer the Duha prayer, and to offer Witr before sleeping.”[^7] --- ## 5\. Give in charity In Surah al-Hadid, Allah says, “Indeed, those men and women who give in charity and lend to Allah a good loan will have it multiplied for them, and they will have an honorable reward” (Qur’an 57:18). In these blessed days, every act of charity—no matter how small—is magnified even further in value. --- ## 6\. Cleanse your character These days are not just about doing more good. They’re also about letting go. Letting go of what distracts us. Of what dulls the heart. Of what keeps us distant. The most meaningful acts in these days might be the ones no one sees: choosing silence over complaint, patience over impulse, sincerity over image. --- ## 7\. Connect your heart Use these days to reflect, seek forgiveness, and realign with your purpose. This isn’t just about physical deeds—it’s about turning back to Allah in sincerity. Speak intimately with Allah, knowing that He is [al-Samīʿ](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-sami-the-one-who-always-listens&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421260439&usg=AOvVaw1dYw0qJNt1zKO6TN9GvFA7), the One who always listens, and He is [al-Jabbār](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-jabbar-the-compeller-and-mender-of-broken-hearts&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421260690&usg=AOvVaw06ya1-cwZmEatG9kaQeRyU), the mender of broken hearts. Here are [10](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/omar-suleiman/attaching-to-allah-10-duas-for-this-dhul-hijjah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421260889&usg=AOvVaw2Yy7B168yGYa4St_LsdfWB) *[du](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/omar-suleiman/attaching-to-allah-10-duas-for-this-dhul-hijjah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421260979&usg=AOvVaw3hxX6Ke12mUEPKB9e5OJCG)[ʿ](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/omar-suleiman/attaching-to-allah-10-duas-for-this-dhul-hijjah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421261057&usg=AOvVaw1mD156Jmwf1hy2pjY1D0I-)[a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/omar-suleiman/attaching-to-allah-10-duas-for-this-dhul-hijjah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421261142&usg=AOvVaw2hgy25XCjtj5QvLQkkPQcq)*[s](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/omar-suleiman/attaching-to-allah-10-duas-for-this-dhul-hijjah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421261235&usg=AOvVaw1rhn94KksBo7WWkwJxXnO9) you can make this Dhul Hijjah and some important *duʿa*s for the [Day of](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/important-duas-and-dhikr-for-arafah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421261498&usg=AOvVaw2gUulxnercbUFPJshz9AbY) **[ʿ](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/important-duas-and-dhikr-for-arafah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421261576&usg=AOvVaw0C6-LxXDc_NnSC6xVTgRZl)**[Arafah](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/important-duas-and-dhikr-for-arafah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026421261646&usg=AOvVaw21sn27AAId3vznGXI292U2)—a prime time for extra devotion. --- ## 8\. Contribute to your community In the midst of increased fasting, prayer, and charity, there is no better time to dedicate a few hours to your community. Sign up for a shift at a food shelter, help clean your neighbourhood, or assist with a *halaqa* at your local mosque—there are endless ways to get involved. As the Prophet ﷺ told us, “Whoever leaves for the mosque in the morning, for no reason but to learn goodness or teach others, he will have a reward as if he has completed the Hajj pilgrimage.”[^8] --- ## 9\. Offer the udhiya (sacrifice) Follow the *sunnah* of our father, Prophet Ibrahim (as), and partake in a sacrifice, offering the meat as charity to those who are in need. The Prophet ﷺ said, “No human performs a deed on the day of Sacrifice \[i.e., the 10th of Dhul Hijjah\] more beloved to Allah than the sacrifice of an animal. On the Day of Judgment, it \[the sacrificed animal\] will appear with its horns, hooves, and hair and indeed its blood will be accepted by Allah from where it is received before it even falls upon earth, so let your heart delight in it."[^9] As these days pass, don’t let their quietness fool you. Within them lies the chance to come closer to Allah in ways both seen and unseen. Whether through a whispered *duʿa*, a private fast, or an unseen act of charity—respond to the invitation. These are the best days of the year. **Learn more about how to make the most of the blessed month of Dhul Hijjah [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/webinars/how-to-make-the-most-of-dhul-hijjah-webinar)**. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 969. [^2]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 2699. [^3]: *Sunan Al-Nasaʾi*, no. 2372, graded *sahih* (authentic) by al-Albani. [^4]: *Musnad Imam Ahmed*, no. 5446, graded *sahih* (authentic) by al-Iraqi. [^5]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 586. This hadith was graded as *hasan* (good) by al-Albani and *hasan li ghayrihi* (good because of corroborating evidence) by Ibn Baz. [^6]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 475, graded *sahih* (authentic) by al-Albani. [^7]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 1178. [^8]: *al-Mu’jam al-Kabīr*, no. 7346, graded *sahih* by al-Albani. [^9]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, no. 3126. Although this hadith was graded as *daʾif* (weak) by al-Albani, it can be used to demonstrate the virtues of following Prophet Ibrahim’s example in offering sacrifice. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why are the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah considered sacred? The Prophet ﷺ said: 'There are no days during which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these days,' referring to the first ten of Dhul Hijjah (*Sahih al-Bukhārī*, no. 969). Allah Himself swears by them in the Qur'an: 'By the dawn, and by the ten nights' (Qur'an 89:1–2), which the majority of *mufassirūn* identify as the first ten nights of Dhul Hijjah — a divine endorsement of their unique weight. ### What deeds are most recommended in the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah? Yaqeen's guide outlines nine categories: (1) learning about the days' virtues, (2) fasting — especially the 9th, the Day of 'Arafah, (3) increasing *dhikr*, (4) praying *tahajjud* and voluntary prayers, (5) giving charity, (6) refining one's character, (7) seeking forgiveness, (8) contributing to the community, and (9) offering *udhiya* on Eid al-Adha. The Prophet ﷺ encouraged abundant *tahlīl*, *takbīr*, and *taḥmīd* across all ten days. ### Should I fast all 10 days of Dhul Hijjah? Fasting the first nine days is recommended (sunnah); the 10th — Eid al-Adha — is forbidden to fast. The Day of 'Arafah (the 9th) is the most emphasized (*Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 2372). If fasting all nine is not feasible, fasting the Day of 'Arafah alone — which expiates the sins of the previous and coming year — is the priority. ### What dhikr is recommended during the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah? The Prophet ﷺ encouraged abundant *tahlīl* (Lā ilāha illā Allāh), *takbīr* (Allāhu akbar), and *taḥmīd* (al-ḥamdu lillāh) throughout these days. The *takbīr* is recited audibly in markets, homes, and after prayers — reviving the prophetic practice of Ibn 'Umar and Abū Hurayrah (ra), who would walk through the markets of Madinah reciting it loudly so that others would join. ### What is the reward for praying Fajr in congregation during these days? The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever prays Fajr in congregation, then sits in the remembrance of Allah until sunrise, then prays two *rakʿahs*, receives 'the reward of a complete Hajj and 'umrah' (*Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 586) — a practice especially valuable during the first ten days, when every righteous deed is multiplied. ### What is udhiya, and is it required during Dhul Hijjah? *Udhiya* is the ritual sacrifice of an animal — sheep, goat, cow, or camel — on the days of Eid al-Adha (the 10th, 11th, 12th, and in some madhāhib the 13th of Dhul Hijjah), with the meat distributed among family, neighbors, and the poor. The Prophet ﷺ said that no deed on the day of *naḥr* (the 10th) is more beloved to Allah than the *udhiya* (*Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3126). It is an emphasized sunnah for those who can afford it (*wājib* in the Ḥanafī school). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/centering-sacrifice-the-importance-of-the-first-10-days-of-dhul-hijjah # Centering Sacrifice: The Importance of the First 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Tags:** Blog, Dhul Hijjah, Dhul Hijjah 2024 **Published:** June 23, 2022 **Updated:** May 17, 2026 The virtues of the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are many. Allah swears by them in the Qur’an (89:2), emphasizing their significance. It is on the 8th day of Dhul Hijjah that the Hajj rituals begin, fulfilling the 5th pillar of Islam for attending pilgrims. On the 9th day, we [witness the Day of ʿArafah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/what-to-do-on-the-day-of-arafah-making-the-most-of-a-blessed-day)—the day that marked the completion of the religion,[^1] the day on which Allah frees the greatest number of people from the Hellfire,[^2] and the day on which fasting expiates the sins of the previous year and the year to come for those not attending Hajj.[^3] The Prophet ﷺ also said: “No good deeds are better than those done in these first ten days of Dhul Hijjah.”[^4] Draped in virtue, these ten days offer an unmatched opportunity for the believer. But, as with much in life, they don’t come without a price. Most things worth having require hard work, determination, and sacrifice. Yet even when the reward is great, the time opportune, and the means available, it’s still humanity’s greatest struggle to give up what we love, desire, or feel rightly entitled to. Whether it be comfort, freedom, time, or choice, we go to great lengths to limit what we have to forgo in order to flourish. --- ## The Spiritual Meaning of Sacrifice in Dhul Hijjah The first ten days of Dhul Hijjah stand in contrast to this basic human tendency. They are sacred and symbolic for many reasons, central to which is this profound notion of **sacrifice**. It’s during this time that some of [the greatest acts of devotion](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/a-sacred-invitation-what-to-do-in-the-first-10-days-of-dhul-hijjah) and surrender conceivable to mankind are honored during the rituals of Hajj. Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son is honored through the [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026091486823&usg=AOvVaw0N4ZIwSLi7aw8oYdoa6xwx)*[udhiya](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age)* (animal sacrifice), and Hajar’s forgoing of her and her infant’s right to the protection of her husband in the heat and barrenness of the desert is commemorated in the *[sa](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026091487416&usg=AOvVaw15A64hA9Dz1e1h8H2F3DbD)***[ʿ](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026091487569&usg=AOvVaw3lm2wmzhdZEnkJIDFUFPZF)***[ee](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age)* (the ritual of walking between the two hills of al-Safa and al-Marwa). Allah commanded sacrifice. Prophet Ibrahim (as) and Hajar obeyed, displaying the utmost faith and devotion. So it’s during these profound days that we’re invited to ask ourselves: **what am *I* willing to sacrifice to serve and obey Allah? How far am *I* willing to go to take advantage of the divine gift that is being offered?** --- ## When Worship Becomes Sacrifice Despite the great incentives we’ve been given, these days often pass by without a thought. The inertia of human nature may be to blame for this—our tendency to condition action on either obligation or convenience. We’re more likely to show up when we *have* to, or when it doesn’t ask too much of us—that is, when it aligns with our plans, doesn’t stretch our comfort, and costs little. But the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are designed to interrupt this reflex with their quiet call toward surrender. True sacrifice is hard. It’s uncomfortable, and often painful. It often stands directly in contrast to convenience, rarely coming when we feel ready. It demands action precisely when we lack energy, or when the circumstances are less than ideal. It’s easy to give when we feel generous, when charity is pre-planned in our volunteering calendars, or when the community comes together en masse to fundraise. But what about when someone turns up at your doorstep unannounced and in need—catching you in the middle of a meeting, cooking, or when you’ve finally sat down after a long day at work? Opportunities to do good aren’t always convenient. Fasting while longing to eat, waking while others sleep, and forgiving while still hurting are acts that require real sacrifice. They are acts reserved for the truly devoted. --- ## How to Respond to the Opportunity of Dhul Hijjah Allah sends us opportunities to do good when *He* sees fit, to test which of us are best in deed. These ten days are an example of just that—a chance to answer Allah’s call, show up when others might fall behind, and to perform the greatest deeds of the year. As these blessed days pass, meet them with reverence. Ask yourself: **What am I willing to sacrifice, for the sake of the One who gave me everything?** These ten days are [more than a graceful opportunity](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/a-sacred-invitation-what-to-do-in-the-first-10-days-of-dhul-hijjah). They reflect back to us who we are when no one is watching, what we value when no one is asking, and how we respond when Allah quietly calls us forward. So whether you act in public or in solitude, do so with sincerity and sacrifice in mind. As the pilgrims declare during Hajj: >  “*Labayk Allahuma labayk*—Here I am, O Allah, here I am.” **Learn more about why the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah are important in our *[Virtues of Dhul Hijjah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/episode-1-the-sacred-months-virtues-of-dhul-hijjah)* [series](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/episode-1-the-sacred-months-virtues-of-dhul-hijjah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1748026091493794&usg=AOvVaw0ap-lwCGo-eb3aeiesIyaR)** **and discover practical tips for making the most of these days in our [action blog.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/11-things-to-do-on-the-first-10-days-of-dhul-hijjah)** --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sahih al-Bukhari,* no. 45 and *Sahih Muslim*, no. 3017. [^2]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 1348. [^3]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 1162. [^4]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 969. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does it mean to 'center sacrifice' during Dhul Hijjah? The article argues that the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are not merely a season of reward but a season of *sacrifice* — willingly giving up comfort, time, sleep, and resources for the sake of Allah. It distinguishes 'convenient sacrifice' (giving what is easy to give) from 'costly devotion' (giving what genuinely strains us), arguing that the latter is what these days call for, in imitation of Ibrahim (as). ### How does Prophet Ibrahim's (as) story shape Dhul Hijjah? Each major rite of Dhul Hijjah commemorates a sacrifice from Ibrahim's family: Hajar's running between Ṣafā and Marwah re-enacts a mother's desperate trust in Allah; the *udhiya* re-enacts Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismāʿīl (as); and the stoning of the Jamarāt re-enacts Ibrahim's rejection of Shayṭān's whispers. Dhul Hijjah is, in essence, an annual return to Ibrahim's family's posture of total surrender. ### Why does Allah swear by the 10 days of Dhul Hijjah in the Qur’an? Allah says, 'By the dawn, and by the ten nights' (Qur'an 89:1–2). When Allah swears by something in the Qur'an, He is drawing attention to its immense weight and worth. The Prophet ﷺ confirmed this by saying that no good deeds are more beloved to Allah than those done in these ten days (*Sahih al-Bukhārī*, no. 969) — a rare convergence of Qur'anic and prophetic emphasis on a single time period. ### How is sacrifice in Dhul Hijjah different from charity in Ramadan? The article frames Ramadan as a season of *restraint* (giving up food, drink, and desire from dawn to dusk) and Dhul Hijjah as a season of *surrender* (giving up something one already owns and loves, willingly, for Allah). Both are forms of *taqwā*, but Dhul Hijjah specifically commemorates Ibrahim's act of releasing what he loved most — making the spirit of these days less about abstaining and more about offering. ### How can a Muslim 'sacrifice' in these 10 days without performing Hajj? By identifying what is genuinely costly and offering it: extra night prayer when sleep is desired, fasting through demanding workdays, charity that affects the budget rather than the surplus, mending a broken relationship, and patience with people who frustrate us. The article urges believers to ask, 'What am I willing to give up for Allah this Dhul Hijjah?' — and to act on the honest answer. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-uthmanic-codex-understanding-how-the-quran-was-preserved # The ʿUthmānic Codex: Understanding how the Qur’an was Preserved **Authors:** Ammar Khatib, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 22, 2022 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction The history of the preservation of the Qur’an has been studied and written about by Muslim scholars in extensive detail. It is a scripture that is intimately familiar to the heart and tongues of countless believers, memorized word-for-word by Muslims across the globe and continuously recited in daily prayer. The Qur’an is the Divine speech of Allah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel), and its preservation has been assured by Allah Most Exalted Himself. Allah says, “Verily, We have revealed the Qur’an and We will surely protect it.”[^1] This is in contrast to previous scriptures revealed by Allah, such as the *Tawrāt* and *Injīl*, whose preservation was entrusted to the People of the Book:[^2] “To them was entrusted the protection of Allah’s Book.”[^3] The timeless preservation of the Qur’an has even been regarded by many scholars as one facet of its miraculous nature.[^4] It is important for Muslims to understand precisely what is meant by the *preservation* of the Qur’an. The Qur’an was preserved through both mass memorization and written recording.[^5] The written preservation of the Qur’an occurred in stages, the final stage of which was commissioned by the third caliph, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35 AH/656 CE). Through a process unlike any other in human history, the words and verses of the Qur’an populated the pages of manuscripts around the world with the same clarity with which they were etched in the hearts and minds of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. It is that process that the present article aims to explain, providing an overview of the history behind the ʿUthmānic codex and how it was compiled. The discussion will draw upon primary sources in the Islamic tradition (including historical works and Hadith literature) along with analysis of classical and contemporary Muslim scholarship on this topic. It will also evaluate a number of theses that have emerged in Western academia with respect to the history of the Qur’anic text including research related to Qur’anic manuscripts. The present article is the sequel to the authors’ previous article discussing [the variant readings of the Qur’an](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran) that existed during the time of the Prophet’s companions. To briefly recap the context provided there: during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Qur’an was revealed piecemeal over a period of 23 years. As reported by numerous companions, the Prophet ﷺ himself reviewed the Qur’an annually with angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) every Ramadan, and twice during the final year of his life.[^6] Whenever Allah revealed verses of the Qur’an, the Prophet ﷺ would recite them aloud to the companions who would memorize them, and he would summon scribes to write the verses down. A total of 65 companions reportedly served as scribes.[^7] The evidence indicates a large number of companions had memorized the Qur’an in its entirety during the Prophet’s lifetime or shortly after.[^8] The Qur’an’s description of itself as both recitation and book alludes to its own oral and textual preservation.[^9] Although all of the Qur’an was written down during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ (according to the strongest view), the written fragments were not gathered into an official unified compilation,[^10] although some individual companions had written personal codices.[^11] Following the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in 11 AH/632 CE and under the caliphate of Abū Bakr (d. 13 AH), the first official compilation of the Qurʿan was undertaken in the year 12 AH.[^12] Abū Bakr was persuaded by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23 AH) who emphasized the importance of compiling the Qur’an after a large number of its reciters were martyred during the Battle of al-Yamāmah.[^13] Zayd ibn Thābit was appointed to the task by Abū Bakr, and he compiled the Qur’an “from date-palm tree bark, parchment, thin white stones, and the hearts of men.”[^14] Imam Layth ibn Saʿd (d. 175 AH) said, “The first to compile the Qur’an was Abū Bakr and Zayd transcribed it. The people would come to Zayd ibn Thābit and he would not write a single verse except with two witnesses.”[^15] Zayd did not transcribe verses from memory despite the fact that he and other companions had them memorized. Nor did he simply transcribe the Qur’an from existing written copies. Rather, he followed a meticulous process ensuring that the memory and writing of every verse was backed by direct testimony. Al-Sakhāwī (d. 643 AH) explained that the requirement for ‘two witnesses’ meant two people who possessed it in writing and could testify to having written down the verse from the Prophet ﷺ precisely as they had learned it.[^16] Thus, the compilation process for each verse in the Qur’an was backed by the combined attestation of written materials, memorization, and direct testimony. While scribes had written the verses of the Qur’an on different materials during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, they had not been compiled into a single text.[^17] Indeed, it would not have made sense to do this during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, when verses were still being revealed and added to various chapters while other verses were abrogated, and the predominantly unlettered community of Muslims could rely on direct oral transmission from the Prophet ﷺ himself.[^18] It was only after the revelation had ceased that such a task was necessary. The result of Abū Bakr’s project was that the written text of the Qur’an was gathered into a single compilation; this process took less than a year (between the Battle of al-Yamāmah in 12 AH and Abū Bakr’s death in 13 AH).[^19] The Qur’an was written on **parchment**,[^20] a material derived from the untanned skins of goats, sheeps, and calves cut into sheets. Written sheets of parchment bound together are termed a **codex**, the ancestor of the modern book. Similarly, the Arabic word ***muṣḥaf*** (pl. *maṣāḥif*) linguistically refers to a text that consists of written pages between two covers, and has come to refer exclusively to written copies of the Qur’an.[^21] --- ## The circumstances that led to the ʿUthmānic codex The early Muslim community witnessed a rapid expansion of the Islamic empire through a dazzling series of victories against the existing superpowers of the world, the Byzantine and Persian empires. During the reign of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and subsequently ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, the Islamic empire came to extend from Northern Africa to Central Asia to the frontiers of the Indian subcontinent. The vast numbers of new Muslims were in need of those who could teach them the Qur’an. To this end, the companions appointed individuals well versed in the recitation of the Qur’an to travel to distant lands to teach it. Many senior companions themselves left Madīnah and took up residence in distant cities to serve as teachers, including ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd in Kūfah, Abū Mūsa al-Ashʿarī in Baṣra, Muʿādh ibn Jabal in Palestine, Abū al-Dardāʾ in Damascus, and ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit in Ḥumṣ, while Zayd ibn Thābit and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb remained in Madīnah.[^22] Numerous students in these cities learned the recitations of the Qur’an from these senior companions. Muslims in these distant lands copied manuscripts of the Qur’an based on the codices and readings of companions who resided among them, as scholars like Ibn ʿAṭṭīyah (d. 541 AH) mention.[^23] However, the [multiplicity of Qur’anic readings](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat) taught by different companions soon became a source of confusion.[^24] While the companions understood that the Qur’an had been revealed according to seven *aḥruf* and therefore could be recited with a certain degree of variation permitted by the Prophet ﷺ himself, this concept was unfamiliar to new Muslims in the newly conquered lands of Islam.[^25] Naturally, disputes arose whereby some rejected and repudiated the readings of others. The illustrious companion Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (d. 36 AH) raised this concern to ʿUthmān. > Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān came to ʿUthmān at the time when the people of Shām and the people of ʿIrāq were waging war to conquer Armenia and Azerbaijan. > > Ḥudhayfah was afraid of their \[the people of Shām and Irāq\] differences in the recitation of the Qur’an, so he said to ʿUthmān, “O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book \[Qur’an\] as Jews and the Christians did before.” > > So ʿUthmān sent a message to Ḥafṣah saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may compile the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” Ḥafṣah sent it to ʿUthmān. > > ʿUthmān then ordered Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. ʿUthmān said to the three Qurayshī men, “In case you disagree with Zayd ibn Thābit on any point in the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect of Quraysh, the Qur’an was revealed in their tongue.” > > They did so, and when they had written many copies, ʿUthmān returned the original manuscripts to Ḥafṣah. > > ʿUthmān sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.[^26] This report and others indicate that, as Muslims from various regions joined the military campaigns in Armenia and Azerbaijan, those who had learned the Qur’an from different companions disputed with one another over their divergent recitations.[^27] This narrative from Ḥudhayfah provides an important insight into why the codex of ʿUthmān differed from the compilation of Abū Bakr.[^28] First, the reasons for undertaking the projects differed. The compilation of Abū Bakr was meant to record the Qur’an in its entirety to ensure that verses of the Qur’an would not be lost with the death of those who had memorized them.[^29] The ʿUthmānic codex, meanwhile, was meant to unite the entire Muslim nation upon a single text to eliminate confusion caused by Muslims reciting different variant readings of the Qur’an.[^30] Therefore, the use of the compilations differed as well. During the time of Abū Bakr, the compilation was simply kept in safekeeping while Muslims continued to read according to the way they had been taught and according to the personal copies of the Qur’an that they had in their possession.[^31] Adhering to the ʿUthmānic codex, however, was compulsory, and copies were sent to major cities in the Islamic empire. Any written copies of the Qur’an that did not conform to the ʿUthmānic codex were burned or corrected. These are the fundamental differences between the two compilations.[^32] In his description of the ʿUthmānic compilation, al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH) explains that in seeking to unify the Muslims upon a single text, ʿUthmān compiled the Qur’an according to one *ḥarf* (mode of reading) to reduce differences (this point will be discussed in greater detail later). Al-Baghawī writes: > Then the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to recite the Qur’an after him according to the seven *aḥruf* that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught them to recite by the permission of Allah. This continued until there were (disputes over) differences between the reciters in the time of ʿUthmān and the matter became grave and people from the different regions wrote to ʿUthmān, beseeching him by Allah to unite people before the situation deteriorated. Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān came to ʿUthmān from the battle in Armenia and advised him concerning that. So ʿUthmān gathered the *Muhājirīn* and *Anṣār* and consulted them on the matter of compiling the Qur’an in codices according to one mode of reading (*ḥarf*) in order to diminish the differences and unite people. They agreed with his opinion and encouraged him to do it and deemed it to be the most cautious course of action with respect to the Qur’an. Thus, ʿUthmān then requested Ḥafṣah to send him the *ṣuḥuf* (written copy compiled during Abū Bakr’s era) in order to transcribe the *maṣāḥif* (written codices). She sent it to him and so he instructed Zayd ibn Thābit and the three Qurayshī committee members and they transcribed from it the codices and he sent them to the different regions.[^33] Similarly, ʿUthmān’s goal of unifying the people is also evident in other narrations. In *Akhbār al-Madīnah*, ʻUmar ibn Shabbah (d. 262 AH) narrated that ʿUthmān said to the companions and the people of Madīnah, “It has reached me that some of you say that my reading is better than your reading, and this almost constitutes disbelief. And if you differ today, those after you will differ even more.” The people asked, “What is your opinion?” ʿUthmān replied, “That I should gather the people upon one *muṣḥaf* so that there be no division (*furqah*) nor disagreement (*ikhtilāf*).” The people replied, “Excellent is your opinion.”[^34] This is also taken by some scholars as an indication that the idea of compiling a standard *muṣḥaf* for the community was one that ʿUthmān had contemplated even prior to the news brought by Ḥudhayfah about the disputes amongst Muslims on the frontiers, which simply further highlighted the need that ʿUthmān had foreseen.[^35] From the foregoing discussion, a clear picture emerges of the context and circumstances that motivated the compilation of the ʿUthmānic codex. As for when this took place, we know from early historical sources that ʿUthmān’s reign was during 23–35 AH, the military campaign in Armenia likely took place in 24–25 AH,[^36] and Ḥudhayfah was appointed there in 24 AH,[^37] following which he returned to Madinah and advised ʿUthmān regarding compiling the *muṣḥaf*. This places the likely date of the ʿUthmānic compilation around 25 AH (645 CE). This is supported by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH), who argues against other historians and scholars who favored the later date of 30 AH (such as Ibn al-Athīr, Ibn Khaldūn and Ibn al-Jazarī). Ibn Ḥajar adduces as supporting evidence a report from ʿUthmān wherein he admonished the people in a sermon, saying, “O People, it has only been thirteen \[or fifteen\] years since your Prophet ﷺ and you are disputing concerning the Qur’an!”[^38] On the basis of these evidences, many contemporary researchers have also agreed with Ibn Ḥajar’s assessment.[^39] Omar Hamdan suggests that the ʿUthmānic compilation project likely took place in stages, the first in 25 AH involving the actual compilation process and sending *maṣāḥif* specifically to Iraq and Syria as they were the regions involved in the disputes reported by Ḥudhayfah, while the second stage occurred in 30 AH and involved sending *maṣāḥif* to several other Muslim lands (e.g., Makkah, Bahrain, Yemen) that were not involved in the campaign in Armenia and Azerbaijan.[^40] While the suggestion of different stages is plausible in and of itself, one must take note of considerations from stemmatics (discussed below) in describing which *maṣāḥif* were sent in each stage. --- ## The process and method of compiling the ʿUthmānic codex ### A. The committee members The task of assembling the ʿUthmānic codex was a major undertaking for which the Caliph ʿUthmān appointed a committee; having multiple members ensured a greater familiarity with multiple readings.[^41] > ʿUthmān called Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr,[^42] Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀs and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, and then they wrote the manuscripts of the Qur’an in several codices (*maṣāḥif*). ʿUthmān said to the three Qurayshī men, “If you differ with Zayd ibn Thābit on any point of the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect (*lisān*) of Quraysh, as the Qur’an was revealed in their language.” So they acted accordingly.[^43] From this report, we note that the core group of the committee comprised Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 45 AH), who was from the *Anṣār* (Madīnan Muslims), and three Muslims from the Quraysh. This report also raises the important question of what it means for the Qur’an to have been written according to, and revealed in, the dialect of Quraysh; how we reconcile this with the hadith of the Qur’an being revealed according to seven *aḥruf*; and whether the ʿUthmānic codex included more than one *ḥarf*. All of this will be discussed below. Zayd ibn Thābit was a natural choice to lead the committee, having been the pre-eminent scribe of the Prophet (ﷺ).[^44] Moreover, he had memorized the entire Qur’an during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ and was the one responsible for compiling it under Abū Bakr.[^45] Some scholars mention that Zayd was selected in part because he attended the final review with the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH) states: > It is said that Zayd ibn Thābit attended the final review in which it was clarified what was abrogated and what remained. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 74 AH) said, “Zayd recited the Qur’an twice to the Prophet ﷺ during the year in which he passed away, and this recitation is called the *qirāʾah* of Zayd because he transcribed it for the Prophet ﷺ and recited it to him and witnessed *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah* (the final review), and he taught its recitation to people until he passed away. That is why Abū Bakr and ʿUmar relied upon him in its compilation and ʿUthmān appointed him in charge of writing the *maṣāḥif*—may Allah be pleased with them all.”[^46] As noted in our previous article, there is some conflicting evidence concerning the matter of a specific companion attending the final review.[^47] Moreover, when Abū Bakr mentioned the qualities of Zayd when selecting him for the first compilation, he did not make any mention of the final review.[^48] It suffices to state that Zayd had not only memorized the entire Qur’an during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, but would regularly transcribe it and recite it to him up until he passed away. Given his experience, expertise and knowledge, Zayd’s credentials were well-established among the companions. Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH) explains that the significance of having Qurayshī members on the committee was to ensure that the written codex conformed to the dialect of the Quraysh.[^49] The members of the committee were all young at the time of  the ʿUthmānic compilation in 25 AH. Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 45 AH) was 36 years old,[^50] ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr (d. 73 AH) and Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ (d. 58 AH) were both 24 years old, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām (d. 43 AH) was 23 years old.[^51] Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ (d. 59 AH) had returned from the frontiers along with Ḥudhayfah and was likely also familiar with the nature of the disputes causing confusion amongst the Muslims. He was also known for his proficiency in the Arabic language. One report notes: > ʿUthmān asked, “Who is the best scribe (*man aktab al-nās*)?” The people replied, “The scribe of the Prophet ﷺ, Zayd ibn Thābit.” He asked, “So who has the best Arabic (*fa ayyu-nāsi aʿrab?*)?” They replied, “Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ.” ʿUthmān said, “Let Saʿīd dictate and Zayd transcribe.”[^52] A report traced back to Muḥammad ibn Sirīn (d. 110 AH) mentions that ʿUthmān gathered a total of 12 men.[^53] This indicates that in addition to the four core committee members, there were eight others who perhaps joined the committee later,[^54] or possibly played a secondary role in reviewing the manuscript compiled by the core members and transcribing additional copies of the *muṣḥaf*.[^55] The names of these additional members can be adduced from multiple other narrations scattered across disparate sources. These included six more companions (Ubayy ibn Kaʿb (d. 30 AH), ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (d. 73 AH), Anas ibn Mālik (d. 93 AH), ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH), ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (d. 63 AH), Abū al-Dardāʾ (d. 32 AH)) and two *tābiʿīn* (Mālik ibn Abī ʿĀmir—the grandfather of Imam Mālik—and Kathīr ibn Aflaḥ).[^56] It should be noted that Ubayy ibn Kaʿb’s inclusion is subject to some debate.[^57] Imam al-Dhahabī cites narrations suggesting that Ubayy passed away during the reign of ʿUmar in 19 AH or 22 AH. However, Ibn Sirīn’s report mentions Ubayy by name, and this is supported by another more detailed account on the authority of Hānī al-Barbarī, the *mawlā* of ʿUthmān, which states that ʿUthmān sent Hānī to Ubayy with some words from three verses, the spelling of which Ubayy revised.[^58] Thus, evidence supports the view of al-Wāqidī who said, “And we have heard those who said that \[Ubayy\] died in the year 30 AH during the *khilāfah* of ʿUthmān, and that is the most well established opinion in our view, and that is consistent with ʿUthmān instructing him to compile the *muṣḥaf*.”[^59] The formation of the committee thus ensured that the compilation process occurred based on direct learning from the Prophet ﷺ as attested by memorization, in addition to scribal experience and native eloquence in the Arabic language. ### B. Did the ʿUthmānic text encompass the variant readings? We now return to one of the most important questions that Muslim scholars have discussed concerning the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*: did it include the variant readings of the seven *aḥruf*? Recall that during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Qur’an was recited in different ways which the companions had learned from the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Jibrīl recited the Qur’an to me in one *ḥarf*. Then I requested him \[to read it in another *ḥarf*\] and continued asking him to recite in other *aḥruf* until he ultimately recited it in seven *aḥruf*.”[^60] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ says, “‘O Jibrīl! I have been sent to an illiterate nation among whom are the elderly woman, the old man, the boy and the girl, and the man who cannot read a book at all.’ He said: ‘O Muhammad! Indeed the Qur’an was revealed in seven *aḥruf* (i.e., seven different ways of reciting).’”[^61] Does the ʿUthmānic codex encompass the seven *aḥruf*? There are several factors to consider when answering this question. The first concerns the meaning of the seven *aḥruf*, a topic discussed in [The Origin of the Variant Readings of the Qur’an](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran). One must keep in mind that the scholars mentioned below did not share the same definition of what constitutes the *aḥruf*. Nonetheless, most of their views coalesce around a similar notion: the *aḥruf* entail different ways of reciting the Qur’an. Related to the same topic is the question of what it means for the text to encompass these different ways of varying.[^62] As well, there is also the question of the meaning of the *aḥruf* being a *rukhṣah* (concession) and its implications. Finally, there is the fact that the text of the ʿUthmānic codex was written with the Arabic letters lacking in consonantal dotting (*naqṭ al-iʿjām*) and with a complete absence of vowelization markings (*naqṭ al-iʿrāb*).[^63] As a result, a variety of readings can be accommodated by the consonantal skeleton of the text.[^64] The question is therefore whether the readings accommodated by the consonantal skeleton of the ʿUthmānic codices include only one *ḥarf* or some (or all) of the variation of the seven *aḥruf*. The first opinion is that the ʿUthmānic codex was compiled according to only one *ḥarf*. This opinion was held by Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH),[^65] Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 310 AH),[^66] al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH),[^67]  Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH),[^68] al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH),[^69] al-Abyārī (d. 616 AH),[^70] Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH),[^71] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH),[^72] and many other scholars.[^73] The principal evidence cited by many scholars in support of this view is ʿUthmān’s aforementioned statement to the committee: “If you differ with Zayd ibn Thābit on any point of the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect (*lisān*) of Quraysh, as the Qur’an was revealed in their language.” Initially, reciting according to seven *aḥruf* was a concession intended to make it easy for the unlettered Arab tribes to learn the Qur’an. However, after Islam spread to distant lands, the additional readings became a source of confusion and hence were no longer required.[^74] Moreover, as discussed earlier, the primary motivation for the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* itself was the fact that Muslims were disputing concerning the different readings. This was the very concern brought forth by Ḥudhayfah. It follows that the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* would aim to gather people upon one reading to reduce the confusion. The second opinion is the opposite: that the ʿUthmānic codex contains all seven *aḥruf*, and not a single *ḥarf* is left out. This opinion was most famously espoused by Qaḍī Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH),[^75] but was also held by Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH),[^76] Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH),[^77] and ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (d. 643 AH).[^78] The underlying logic is rather straightforward—how could ʿUthmān or any companion decide of their own accord to leave out of the Qur’an something that Allah had revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? Al-Bāqillānī argues that the ʿUthmānic codex only left out those readings that had been abrogated, or readings that included commentary alongside the Qur’anic verses, or readings that were incorrectly attributed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which he believes were the real source of dispute that Ḥudhayfah encountered between the Muslims of Syria and Iraq. The modern-era Azharī scholar Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Aẓīm al-Zarqānī (d. 1367 AH/1948 CE) and other scholars held this view as well.[^79] The contemporary researcher al-Ḥasānīn follows al-Bāqillānī in this conclusion and argues that there is no evidence that the dispensation of the seven *aḥruf* was limited to a specific time period, nor is there any evidence that ʿUthmān and his committee dispensed with the other *aḥruf*.[^80] Similarly, ʿAbd al-Qayyūm al-Sindhī argues that the very existence of different *[qirāʾāt](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat)* today necessitates that the variation of the *aḥruf* remains.[^81] After all, if the variation found in the seven *aḥruf* had been completely eliminated, then where did all the variation in the different *qirāʾāt* come from? Moreover, why did the ʿUthmānic *maṣāḥif* contain minor differences (discussed below) if it was only compiled according to one *ḥarf*? If we pause to evaluate these two opinions, we may note that both have some merits. The first opinion fits the historical context that led to the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*, while the second opinion connects the *qirāʾāt* to the *aḥruf* and explains how variation in recitation remained within the Muslim *ummah*. As for al-Bāqillānī’s and Ibn Ḥazm’s objection that the companions could not leave out readings that were revealed, the authentic narrations and historical evidence indicate that this is precisely what they did, and this was sufficiently explained by Al-Ṭabarī and al-Ṭaḥawī by noting that the companions understood that reciting according to the seven *aḥruf* was a concession and not an obligation.[^82] We have numerous authentic variant readings from the Prophet’s companions that are not found in the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* and there is no evidence to suggest that they were abrogated.[^83] Much to the contrary, many companions continued to recite those readings after the passing of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. If the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* included **all** the variant readings of the seven *aḥruf* then why would those readings be excluded? This demonstrates that the second position is not accurate. There is an obvious middle ground between these two positions which leads to the third opinion, often described as the majority position,[^84] that the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* contains **some** of the variation of the seven *aḥruf*. The *qirāʾāt* that are recited until today reflect the variation which remained from the seven *aḥruf*.[^85]  Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) writes: > As for whether ʿUthmānic codices encompass all the seven *aḥruf* then this is a major topic… the position taken by the majority of the scholars from the earlier and later generations and the Imams of the Muslims is that these codices encompass that which the consonantal skeleton (*rasm*) can accommodate from the seven *aḥruf*.[^86] Elsewhere, Ibn al-Jazarī writes that the ten widely transmitted *qirāʾāt* recited throughout the Muslim world are part of the seven *aḥruf*.[^87] Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852 AH) explained that what remained after the ʿUthmānic compilation were the differences from the other *aḥruf* that could still be accommodated by the skeletal text of the ʿUthmānic codices—so what remained, in other words, were “some of the differences of the *aḥruf*, not all of them.”[^88]Ibn Ḥajar cites Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmmār al-Mahdawī (d. 440 AH) who states, “The most correct position which is upheld by the experts is that what is recited now are some of \[the differences\] of the seven *ḥurūf* which were permitted to be recited and not all of them.”[^89] The remnants of the *aḥruf* are thus found amongst the various *qirāʾāt* recited today, while those *aḥruf* that did not conform to the ʿUthmānic codex were abandoned.[^90]Al-Mahdawī also states: > Verily these *qirāʾāt* that we recite constitute a portion of the seven *aḥruf*, upon which the Qur’an was revealed, which are still practiced because they conform to the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* that the *ummah* had consensus upon. And the remainder of the *ḥurūf* were abandoned due to their differing from the written script of the *muṣḥaf*. This is because it is not obligatory upon us to recite with all the seven *ḥurūf* in which the Qur’an was revealed and because the Prophet ﷺ permitted for us to recite some of them to the exclusion of others based on the Divine statement, “Recite that which is easy from it” (Qur’an 73:20).[^91] This middle position effectively reconciles the preceding first and second opinions. On one hand, the reason for the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was to reduce the differing and disputes amongst the Muslims by gathering them upon a standard text agreed upon by the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ).[^92] It brought about unity and solidarity in the *ummah*. Therefore, the first group of scholars are largely correct in that ʿUthmān sought to gather the Muslims upon a text that was *primarily* based upon one *ḥarf*. However, what needs to be noted is that some reading variations remained (from the seven *aḥruf*) that could still be recited because they conformed to the ʿUthmānic text,[^93] and these continued to be recited in certain regions of the Muslim world, becoming associated with the names of famous reciters to become the eponymous *qirāʾāt* that we know today. The most precise characterization of this complexity is found in the writings of Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH): > Those readings were no longer in practice which differed from the script of the (ʿUthmānic) *muṣḥaf* from the seven *aḥruf* in which the Qur’an was revealed, based upon the unanimous consensus on the script of the *muṣḥaf*. Thus, the *muṣḥaf* was written based on one *ḥarf*, and its script accommodates more than one *ḥarf* as it was void of dotting and vowels.[^94] Christopher Melchert explains this view by stating that the consonantal skeleton is written with one *ḥarf* in mind, but the diacritical and vowelization marks preserve elements of the other six *aḥruf* as well.[^95] The contemporary Qur’anic scholar Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad notes that there is no contradiction between stating that the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was written according to one *ḥarf* but that it accommodates more than one *ḥarf*, and cites the above quote by Makkī.[^96] The written text was naturally dictated and transcribed with one reading in mind, despite the script being able to accommodate more than one reading.[^97] Thus, it reduced the differences but did not eliminate them altogether. Essentially, “it unified the script without unifying the pronunciation.”[^98] Therefore, the middle position is best seen as a clarification of the first view with a more accurate characterization. There is a subtlety that appears to have escaped the attention of many contemporary researchers on the topic of whether the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* includes the seven *aḥruf*. While some include themselves in the third category (that the ʿUthmānic text accommodates some of the variation of the seven *aḥruf*), their views actually align more closely with the second category since they believe that whatever was left out of the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was not a valid reading since it was either not an authentic reading or was abrogated by the final review of the Prophet ﷺ with Zayd, or was Qur’an commentary.[^99] This doctrine that the Prophet’s final review (*al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*) abrogated other readings (*aḥruf*) is something that one finds commonly mentioned by scholars on the subject. However, other scholars argue that this claim lacks any definitive proof, which is a requirement to substantiate a claim of abrogation. Yaḥyā Aḥmad Jalāl and Halā Nāyif al-Mashāqbeh contend that the former view is based on the unsubstantiated assumption that leaving out some authentic revealed readings (*qirāʾāt*) would somehow undermine the preservation of the Qur’an. However, this is not how many classical scholars of Islam understood the matter. Confronted with the reality that there are authentic readings from the companions absent from the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*, rather than engaging in conjecture regarding abrogation, it is far simpler to conclude that these are merely readings that go back to the concession of the seven *aḥruf* and hence were not included in the ʿUthmānic codex.[^100] This has been discussed in detail in the preceding article, [The Origin of the Variant Readings of the Qur’an](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161858837&usg=AOvVaw3EsWl0VxCS6A3121aK6CZQ) (see section entitled, “How do we view the variants reported from companions?”). The most accurate position on this matter, then, is that the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* (and by consequence the widely-accepted *qirāʾāt*) contained some of the variation found in the seven *aḥruf*, but not all of it. Indeed, it excluded those variant readings that entailed addition, subtraction, or substitution to the consonantal skeleton of the script (the *rasm*). On the other hand, those variant readings remained which related to pronunciation, alternate vowelization, and minor consonantal shifts that could be accommodated by the ʿUthmānic script, and it is from these that the *qirāʾāt* emerged, tracing back to readings the companions learned from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. ### C. Write in the dialect of Quraysh ʿUthmān instructed the committee, “If you differ with Zayd ibn Thābit on any point of the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect (*lisān*) of Quraysh, as the Qur’an was revealed in their language.” This has been used by many scholars as evidence that the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was written according to one *ḥarf*. Two questions arise from this statement. The first question: given the hadith of the seven *aḥruf,* wasn’t the Qur’an revealed in multiple dialects and not just that of Quraysh? With respect to this question, some scholars add two important qualifiers to **ʿ**Uthmān’s statement: first, that the Qur’an was *initially* revealed according to the dialect of the Quraysh,[^101] according to one *ḥarf*, before permission was subsequently granted for it to be recited according to more than one *ḥarf*;[^102] and second, that the Qur’an contains many words that belong to Arabic dialects besides that of the Quraysh, meaning that *most* of it was revealed according to the dialect of the Quraysh.[^103] The second question: what did ʿUthmān mean when he ordered that the Qur’an be written in the dialect of the Quraysh?[^104] Al-Jaʿfarī argues that in cases where ʿUthmān’s committee differed over the writing of words, ʿUthmān instructed them to *write* it (*uktubūhū*) according to the Qurayshī dialect, but he did not mandate that they only *recite* the Qur’an according to that dialect, thus leaving the potential for people to still recite according to other variant readings in those instances where the script accommodates different readings.[^105] To use a simple example cited by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr,[^106] the Quraysh (and other Ḥijāzī dialects) tended not to pronounce the glottal stop (*hamzah* ء) in many words.[^107] Thus for example, the word *muʾmin* (believer) can be pronounced with a long vowel *mūmin* (as it is still recited according to most Madīnan and Baṣran reciters);[^108] meanwhile, the dialect of Tamīm was known for its use of the *hamzah* and is reflected in the readings of the Kūfan and Syrian reciters.[^109] The Arabic script مومن has been recited in both ways (with most modern day *maṣāḥif* printed according to Ḥafs ʿan Āṣim, adding the diacritical *hamzah* accordingly—مؤمن). Both readings have been authentically transmitted by the companions from whom the reciters learned, and consequently this represents an example of variance from the seven *aḥruf* that can still be recited due to its conformity with the script of the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*. In some instances, the spelling between different readings differed as in the case of the word *al-tābūt* التابوت in Qur’an 2:248, which can be spelled and pronounced *al-tābūh* التابوه as it was by Zayd. ʿUthmān, however, preferred the first spelling and pronunciation because it accorded with the Qurayshī dialect.[^110] The actions of ʿUthmān and his committee in selecting a preferred reading from among various valid readings can be used as proof and precedent for the practice of *ikhtiyār* (selection) which was later practiced by the famous reciters.[^111] Moreover, ʿUthmān had precedence from other companions in this regard. When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb heard that ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd was teaching the Qur’an according to his native dialect of Hudhayl to people in Kūfah, ʿUmar sent him a letter asking him to teach in the dialect of Quraysh, and not in Hudhayl, for the Qur’an was revealed in the dialect of Quraysh.[^112] Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) notes that ʿUmar’s instruction can be understood as *ikhtiyār*, not as suggesting that Ibn Masʿūd’s reading was impermissible.[^113] Rather, ʿUmar was simply favoring the Qurayshī reading as preferable due to it being the original reading in which the Qur’an was recited, and the reading which was native to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself.[^114] As Abū Shāmah notes, the effort required for non-Arabs to learn the Qur’an in Arabic is equivalent between dialects, hence it was preferable for non-Arabs to learn according to the dialect of Quraysh.[^115] ### D. The method of producing the ʿUthmānic codex If we return to the narrations concerning the ʿUthmānic compilation,[^116] we may note multiple indications that the process consisted of not only transcription and dictation but several stages of review and verification. The narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* makes clear that ʿUthmān requested the compilation of Abū Bakr to use in the process of transcribing the new codex. Recall that the manuscript of Abū Bakr had been verified through an extremely meticulous process, not simply relying on the companions who had memorized the Qur’an in its entirety, but also ensuring each verse had two witnesses who had written it down in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ in a manner that matched the way the companions had memorized it.[^117] With Abū Bakr’s passing, the compilation passed into the hands of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and then, after his passing, into the hands of his daughter Ḥafṣah bint ʿUmar, the widow of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).[^118] > ʿUthmān sent a message to Ḥafṣah saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may copy the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” Ḥafṣah sent it to ʿUthmān. ʿUthmān then instructed Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿAbdullāh ibn Al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn Al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies.[^119] From this narration, one might be inclined to state, as many scholars did,[^120] that ʿUthmān’s compilation was assembled by simply copying the manuscript compiled by Abū Bakr. However, Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī argues that combining the above account with other narrations paints a more complete picture in which ʿUthmān’s compilation was assembled independently of Abū Bakr’s compilation, which was only used during the verification process *after* ʿUthmān’s committee had finished transcribing the *muṣḥaf*.[^121] The first narration that al-Aʿẓamī cites in support of this narrative comes from Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd: > ʿUthmān delivered a sermon and said, “The people have diverged in their recitations, and I am determined that whoever holds any verses dictated by the Prophet ﷺ himself must bring them to me.” So the people brought their verses, written on parchment and bones and leaves, and anyone contributing to this pile was first questioned by ʿUthmān, “Did you learn these verses \[i.e., take this dictation\] directly from the Prophet ﷺ himself?” All contributors answered under oath, and all the collected material was individually labeled and then handed to Zayd ibn Thābit.[^122] The second narration al-Aʿẓamī cites comes from Mālik ibn Abī ʿĀmir (one of the committee members and the grandfather of Imam Mālik ibn Anas), who states: > I was among those upon whom the *muṣḥaf* was dictated \[from the written sources\], and if any controversies arose concerning a particular verse they would say, “Where is the scribe \[of this parchment\]? Precisely how did the Prophet ﷺ teach him this verse?” And they would resume scribing, leaving that portion blank and sending for the man in question to clarify his scribing.[^123] These narrations indicate that the *muṣḥaf* of ʿUthmān was prepared autonomously and gathered through an independent process before with the compilation of Abū Bakr. One can further strengthen al-Aʿẓāmī’s argument by noting that ʿUthmān’s instructions to the committee on what to do if they differ concerning a verse only make sense if they were conducting an independent compilation process. If they were simply copying the text of Abū Bakr’s compilation, then there would be no occasion for them to differ in the first place. Moreover, the narrations indicating that Zayd transcribed while Saʿīd  dictated also suggest a process more involved than mere copying.[^124] Finally, we have an account which, in spite of its weaknesses, mentions that ʿUthmān requested Ḥafṣah’s copy after the compilation by Zayd was completed, which was then reviewed and compared with the ʿUthmānic codex and confirmed to be in agreement.[^125] The question that emerges is why ʿUthmān would undertake this exhaustive process when he could have readily copied the manuscripts already compiled by Abū Bakr. Al-Aʿẓamī offers the following reasoning: > One may wonder why Caliph ʿUthmān took the trouble to compile an autonomous copy when the end product was to be compared with the \[compilation of Abū Bakr\] anyway. The likeliest reason is a symbolic one. A decade earlier thousands of Companions, engaged in the battles against apostasy in al-Yamamah and elsewhere, were unable to participate in the Ṣuḥuf’s compilation. In drawing from a larger pool of written materials, ʿUthmān’s independent copy provided these surviving Companions with an opportunity to partake of this momentous endeavor. > In the above account no inconsistencies were found between the \[compilation of Abū Bakr\] and the independent *muṣḥaf* and from this two broad conclusions emerge: first, the Qur’anic text was thoroughly stable from the earliest days and not (as some allege) fluid and volatile until the third century; and second, the methods involved in compilation during both reigns were meticulous and accurate.[^126] If al-Aʿẓamī’s conclusion is correct, one must note that rather than merely having a ‘symbolic’ reason for conducting an independent compilation, ʿUthmān also had a very practical and tangible reason: reducing differences in the *ummah*’s readings entailed elimination of some of the variant readings from the seven *aḥruf*. Since the goal of Abū Bakr’s compilation was simply to preserve the text of the Qur’an, arbitrating between variant readings and different dialects was never a stated goal or component of the process. It is possible that Abū Bakr’s compilation included a mix between a greater number of readings from different dialects and other types of variants from the seven *aḥruf*.[^127] Therefore, the advantage of repeating the collection process and independently reviewing every verse from written sources in addition to memory afforded the committee the opportunity to affirm with the highest degree of confidence and certainty that the reading they selected for the writing of the *muṣḥaf* was the reading taught and recited by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself. --- ## The story of a missing verse At this juncture, it is useful to clarify a set of narrations which have been the source of some confusion concerning the detection of a “missing” verse during the compilation process. During the compilation of Abū Bakr, while seeking two witnesses for each passage, Zayd ibn Thābit came across a passage for which he found only one witness. Zayd reports, “Abū Bakr sent for me, so I collected the Qur’an till I found the last part of *Sūrah al-Tawbah* (verses 9:128–129) with Abū Khuzaymah Al-Anṣārī and did not find it with anybody else.”[^128] This narration, found in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, explicitly notes that this took place during the first compilation, and that the witness  was Abū Khuzaymah. Again, one must clarify that this does not mean that Abū Khuzaymah was the only one who knew this verse, as all the companions who had memorized the Qur’an knew it. However, they were seeking a witness who had documented the verse in the presence of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).[^129] The very reason they knew exactly which verse was missing was because they had memorized it. Another narration, also from Zayd ibn Thābit and related in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, mentions the same incident but with the name Khuzaymah al-Anṣarī: > So I started locating Qur’anic material and collecting it from parchments, scapulae, leaf-stalks of date palms, and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaymah al-Anṣārī two verses of *Sūrah al-Tawbah* which I had not found with anybody else \[he cites Qur’an 9:128–129\].[^130] Such a minor difference in the name (Abū Khuzaymah vs Khuzaymah) would typically not raise any questions, except that we have a third narration, also in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, about an identical incident involving a different verse with Khuzaymah. > When we wrote the Holy Qur’an, I missed one of the verses of *Sūrah* *al-Aḥzāb* which I used to hear Allah’s Messenger ﷺ reciting. Then we searched for it and found it with Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī. The verse was “Among the Believers are men who have been true to their Covenant with Allah, Of them, some have fulfilled Their obligations to Allah \[i.e., they have been killed in Allah’s cause\], And some of them are \[still\] waiting” (33:23) So we wrote this in its place in the Qur’an.[^131] Notice that this narration does not explicitly mention whether this occurred during Abū Bakr’s or ʿUthmān’s compilation.[^132] There are other narrations of this incident in other sources that use either name for each incident.[^133] Al-Bāqillānī argues that these narrations may be dismissed as contradictory and conflicting with more reliable evidence, or may be reinterpreted in various ways.[^134] Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) and others reconciled the narrations by stating that the first incident took place during the compilation of Abū Bakr,[^135] and that it was the verse of *Sūrah al-Tawbah* that was found with Abū Khuzaymah. Meanwhile, the second incident took place during the compilation of ʿUthmān with the verse of *Sūrah* *al-Aḥzāb*, which was found with Dhū al-Shahādatayn Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī, a different person from Abū Khuzaymah ibn Aws ibn Yazīd ibn Aṣram.[^136] Al-Aʿẓamī uses this as evidence for his argument that ʿUthmān repeated the process of summoning witnesses for each verse, otherwise there is no reason they would not be able to find the verse from *al-Aḥzāb* if the compilation of Abū Bakr was in front of them.[^137] Al-Jaʿfarī suggests it is not inconceivable that the written parchment of one verse may have gone missing during the time interval between the two compilations, which exceeded a decade.[^138] On the other hand, we have scholars like Ibn Kathīr (d. 773 AH)[^139] and others[^140] who held that both incidents happened during the time of Abū Bakr. While Muḥammad Ḥasan Jabal agrees with Ibn Ḥajar’s analysis that the incidents described by Zayd refer to two different people, he also concurs with Ibn Kathīr’s opinion that both occurred during the compilation of Abū Bakr.[^141] Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad adduces additional evidence suggesting that the incident of the lost verse happened only during the time of Abū Bakr, but  also that both incidents are in fact one incident that happened with the same person. He cites the following narration from the introduction to *Kitāb al-Mabānī*, in which Zayd describes the compilation during the time of Abū Bakr: > I completed one review and I noticed I was missing this verse \[33:23\] so I asked the *Muhājirīn* and the *Anṣār* and I did not find it \[in written form\] with any of them, although I knew the verse and the Prophet ﷺ had dictated it to me, however I disliked to establish it until someone else testified alongside me. And then I obtained it from Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī whom the Prophet ﷺ had made his witness equal to that of two witnesses. So I wrote the verse and then I conducted another review. And I found that I was missing two verses although I knew them \[9:127–128\]. So I inquired about them from *Muhājirīn* and the *Anṣār* and I did not find them with any of them except with Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣarī whom the Prophet ﷺ had endorsed his witness. So I wrote them at the end of Barāʾa \[*Sūrah* *al-Tawbah*\].[^142] Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad states that this account alleviates some of the confusion found in other sources. He also notes that “the similarity between the two names (i.e., Abū Khuzaymah and Khuzaymah) and their mention in different narrations using the very same phrasing indicates that they are both names referring to the very same companion and that is Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī.”[^143] This is the simplest and easiest explanation for what would otherwise seem to be a rather striking coincidence of the exact same circumstances involving two different individuals with almost identical names. Nonetheless, other ways of reconciling the narrations, such as that of Ibn Ḥajar, were also accepted by many scholars. Finally, it should be mentioned that the verse(s) in question have been attested in the earliest manuscripts, and it is not reported that a single companion codex omitted them.[^144] There is of course a remarkable story behind the significance of Khuzaymah ibn Thābit being the witness for this verse. According to the narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ regarded Khuzaymah’s witness as equal to that of two witnesses,[^145] earning him the title of *Dhū al-Shahādatayn* (Possessor of Dual Testimony). The story behind this begins with the Prophet ﷺ purchasing a horse from a bedouin (in other narrations identified as Sawāʾa ibn al-Ḥārith al-Muḥāribī). After agreeing upon the price and the purchase, the Prophet ﷺ asked the bedouin to accompany him to retrieve the payment. While on their way, people saw the horse and, unaware that it had already been sold, started bargaining with the bedouin for it. The bedouin took advantage of the situation and told the Prophet ﷺ, “If you want this horse, then buy it \[by bidding higher\], otherwise, I will sell it.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Have I not already purchased it from you?” The bedouin asked the Prophet ﷺ to produce a witness. Khuzaymah ibn Thābit testified on his behalf, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ asked him how he could testify when he wasn’t present. Khuzaymah replied that “Because I believe in you (as a Prophet) and know that you do not speak except with that which is truth.” Thereupon, the Prophet ﷺ made the testimony of Khuzaymah equal to that of two witnesses.[^146] This was a Prophetic endorsement of the purity of Khuzaymah’s faith and character in hastening to testify to the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).[^147] And it is said that the Prophet ﷺ still chose to return the horse to the bedouin, undoubtedly as a gesture of kindness, integrity, and generosity.[^148] This narration underscores the Divine will behind the miraculous turn of events that caused the one person about whom the Prophet ﷺ had made this declaration to be the same person with whom Zayd found the written copy of the ‘missing’ verse(s). --- ## The order of the sūrahs Since the time of ʿUthmān until today, the 114 chapters of the Qur’an have always been written in *maṣāḥif* in the same sequence, beginning with *al-Fātiḥah* and ending with *al-Nās*.[^149] Was this order mandated by Divine guidance and taught by the Prophet ﷺ himself (referred to as *tawqīfī*), or did the companions deduce it themselves through their own inference (*ijtihād*)? This is a well-known difference of opinion debated in classical and contemporary works of Qur’anic studies. The first view, attributed to many scholars, is that the present order of the *sūrah*s is based on Divine instruction.[^150] Abū Jaʿfar al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH) states, “The order of the *sūrah*s is from Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, without any involvement of anyone else.”[^151] The evidence cited in support of this position includes the fact that the companions of the Prophet ﷺ unanimously agreed upon this order of the chapters.[^152] Moreover, the Prophet ﷺ recited the Qur’an every year to Jibrīl, which logically requires that it was recited in a particular order. Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH) states, “Jibrīl would teach the Prophet ﷺ the location of each verse and *sūrah*, so the order of the *sūrah*s is akin to the order of verses and letters, all of it being from the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).”[^153] Al-Baghawī writes, “It is established that the work of the companions was to assemble the Qur’an into one compilation, not to determine its sequence, for verily the Qur’an is written in *al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ* according to its sequence in our *maṣāḥif*.”[^154] It has also been narrated from Aws ibn Ḥudhayfah al-Thaqafī (d. 59 AH) that he asked the companions how they used to divide the Qur’an when they completed its recitation and they replied, “Into three *sūrah*s, then five, seven, nine, 11, 13, and then the *mufaṣṣal* *sūrah*s.”[^155] This totals 48 chapters before the *mufaṣṣal* chapters, which start either with *al-Ḥujurāt* (chapter 49) or *Qāf* (chapter 50). This indicates that there was a fixed order to the chapters known to the companions in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ).[^156] The second opinion is that the sequence of the *sūrah*s was based on the *ijtihād* of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī (d. 741 AH) writes, “The sequence of the *sūrah*s according to their present arrangement is based on the action of ʿUthmān and Zayd ibn Thābit and those who wrote the *musḥaf* with them. And it has been said that it is based on the action of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, however that is weak and refuted by the relevant narrations.”[^157] Commenting on a narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* where the Prophet ﷺ recited *Sūrah al-Nisāʾ* prior to *Sūrah Āl ʿImrān*, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ writes, “This is an evidence for those who say that the sequence of *sūrah*s is based on the *ijtihād* of the Muslims when they wrote the *muṣḥaf* and was not defined by the Prophet ﷺ but rather he left it to the *ummah* after him, and this is the opinion of the majority of scholars,[^158] and the opinion of Imam Mālik and the preferred view of al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī.”[^159] Of course, this narration is not decisive evidence as most scholars do not regard it obligatory to recite the *sūrah*s in prayer in order. Furthermore, it should be noted that Imam Mālik did state that the companions made their decision based on what they heard from the Prophet ﷺ, which seems to bring the two opinions closer together.[^160] Some scholars, like Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, held that some of the *sūrah*s were arranged according to *ijtihād* but not all of them.[^161] The first and foremost evidence used to support this opinion is the fact that it is reported that some of the companions’ codices had the *sūrah*s arranged according to a different order. However, these were not official public codices but rather personal compilations comprising *sūrah*s these companions learned from the Prophet (ﷺ).[^162] Ibn Baṭṭāl notes also that these companion codices were compiled before the revelation of the Qur’an was concluded and its *sūrah* sequence was finalized.[^163] Another critically important piece of evidence for those who suggest that the chapter sequence was, at least in part, based on the *ijtihād* of the companions, is a narration whose authenticity is disputed in which Ibn ʿAbbās asked ʿUthmān why he placed *Sūrah al-Tawbah* after *Sūrah* *al-Anfāl* in the Qur’an without writing the *basmalah* between them, and ʿUthmān replied that it was not clear whether they were part of the same chapter and the Prophet ﷺ passed away before clarifying the matter.[^164] This narration led scholars like al-Ṣuyūṭī, al-Bayhaqī, and Ibn al-ʿArabī to consider these two *sūrah*s to be the exception, while all the remaining *sūrah*s in the Qur’an were ordered based on the sequence learned from the Prophet (ﷺ).[^165] However, this narration has been subjected to extensive critique from the perspective of both the chain of transmission (*isnād*) and the content (*matn*). This hadith is only narrated by ʿAwf ibn Abī Jamīlah (d. 146  AH)[^166] from Yazīd al-Fārisī.[^167] The religious beliefs of ʿAwf have been described as Qadarī[^168] and Shiʿī,[^169] which introduces the potential for sectarian bias in narrations related to ʿUthmān’s role in the preservation of the Qur’an.[^170] More importantly, Yazīd al-Fārisī is listed as a weak narrator by Imam al-Bukhārī himself.[^171] On the basis of the problems in the chain of transmission and the content of the narration, it was rejected as baseless by the hadith scholar Aḥmad Shākir, although this view has been contested by ʿAbdullāh Judayʿ who views the narration to be authentic.[^172] With respect to the content of the narration, it states that the Prophet ﷺ passed away without clarifying this matter, and yet al-Tawbah was revealed 15 months before he passed away which renders this unlikely, particularly given the constant teaching and daily ritual recitation of the Qur’an. Moreover, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib gives us a different explanation for the absence of the *basmalah* at the beginning of al-Tawbah: this is how the *sūrah* was revealed since the *basmalah* is a declaration of mercy, while the opening of *al-Tawbah* is a declaration of war.[^173] A final piece of evidence comes from manuscript research. The Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest lower text (discussed in detail below), which likely predates the ʿUthmānic codification, also places *Sūrah al-Tawbah* after *Sūrah al-Anfāl* without a *basmalah* in between, thus making it unlikely that this was a new decision of the ʿUthmānic committee.[^174] Of course, all Muslim scholars agree that the order of the *sūrah*s in the Qur’an since the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* is binding and obligatory to follow.[^175] Imam Rabīʿah (d. 136 AH) was asked why the Qur’an begins with the Madīnan chapters *al-Baqarah* and *Āl ʿImrān* when the Makkan revelations preceded them. He replied, “They were placed at the beginning because the Qur’an was arranged according to knowledge possessed by those who compiled it and those who were with them, and they had unanimous consensus upon that knowledge, so this \[the ordering of the *sūrah*s\] is a final matter that cannot be questioned.”[^176] Indeed, that the sequence of *sūrah*s in the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was unanimously followed by the early Muslim community, with people completely abandoning the alternative arrangements of various companions’ personal codices, arguably indicates widespread agreement on the singular authority of the sequence of the ʿUthmānic codex. This would not have been the case if the ordering of the chapters was a matter of opinion.[^177] The position that the current sequence of chapters in the *muṣḥaf* has been Divinely determined appears to be the strongest view on the strength of all the evidence discussed.[^178] Also relevant to this discussion is the wealth of scholarly literature surrounding the intricate connections (*tanāsub*) between adjoining *sūrah*s as well as the thematic structure (*naẓm*) and continuity of the Qur’an from one chapter to the next.[^179] The former includes not only *tafsīr* literature but entire works devoted to the topic such as *al-Burhān fī tanāsub suwar al-Qurʾān* by Ibn al-Zubayr al-Gharnāṭī (d. 708 AH), *Naẓm al-durar fī tanāsub al-ayāt wal-suwar* by al-Biqāʿī (d. 885 AH), *Tanāsuq al-durar fī tanāsub al-suwar* by al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH), and *Jawāhir al-bayān fī tanāsub suwar al-Qurʾān* by ʿAbdullāh Ṣiddīq al-Ghumārī (d. 1413 AH). The vast multitude of intertextual connections uncovered by such astute insights is seen by many scholars as effectively settling the debate on this matter. --- ## Why did ʿUthmān burn other copies of the Qur’an? When the compilation of the ʿUthmānic codex was complete, ʿUthmān sent an official copy to each of a number of major cities within the Muslim world and instructed that other unofficial copies of the Qur’an be burned. > ʿUthmān sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.[^180] When presented without context, particularly by the unlearned, this act of burning takes on almost dark undertones, as though it somehow undermines the preservation of the Qur’anic text. However, for those familiar with all the facts analyzed in the preceding discussions, ʿUthmān’s instruction is entirely expected and was in fact an integral part of the history of the preservation of the Qur’anic text. The whole point of the ʿUthmānic project was to unify the Muslim *ummah* on one *muṣḥaf* that would eliminate confusion caused by the proliferation of different *aḥruf* taught by various companions in different lands.[^181] Had ʿUthmān *not* undertaken the burning of copies of the Qur’an which differed from the official copies, and thus not eliminated a source of the disputes, the entire exercise would have been futile. There also would have remained the possibility of individual Muslims reciting from copies that contained scribal errors or contained the commentary of companions alongside verses of the Qur’an.[^182] Given that it would be quite unfeasible to check and correct each and every personal codex to eliminate the possibility of error, the logical solution was to simply eliminate those codices that had not been copied from the ʿUthmānic archetypes. Perhaps this episode generates such confusion because book burning incidents in Western history are typically seen as a manifestation of condemnation or desecration. For instance, after renouncing Arianism and converting to Catholicism, the Visigothic King Reccared I (d. 601 CE) ordered all Arian books to be collected and burned. However, in the Islamic tradition, one of the respectful ways to dispose of any text containing verses of the Qur’an is in fact through burning it. Ibn Baṭṭāl writes, “And ʿUthmān’s instruction to burn the manuscripts and copies of the Qur’an after his compilation demonstrates that it is permissible to burn books that contain the names of Allah \[or Qur’anic verses\] and that is a form of respect towards it and protection from it being stepped upon or discarded on the ground.”[^183] Some copies of the Qur’an in the time of ʿUthmān were eliminated in other ways including erasing[^184] or tearing. Moreover, the historical evidence indicates that elimination was not the only outcome for other copies. Muḥammad Ḥasan Jabal and Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī both note that another possible outcome was that manuscripts could be reviewed and corrected according to the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*.[^185] They cite a narration from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Kilābī that mentions that he visited the home of Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who was with Ḥudhayfah and ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, and there was a copy of the Qur’an that ʿUthmān had sent along with the instruction to correct their own copies accordingly (*wa amarahum an yuqīmū maṣāḥifahum ʿalayh*).[^186] The compilation of Abū Bakr which remained in the possession of Ḥafṣah was not erased or burned by ʿUthmān. However, the compilation was later requested by Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (at that time the governor of Madīnah). Ḥafṣah refused. However, when she passed away in 41 AH/665 CE, Marwān retrieved it and had it destroyed.[^187] Marwān stated, “I only did that because whatever was in it was already written and preserved in the \[ʿUthmānic\] *muṣḥaf*. And I feared that time would pass and people would start to have misgivings about this \[Ḥafṣah’s\] *ṣuḥuf* or would say, “It contained something that has not been written.”[^188] The result of the ʿUthmānic codification is that Muslims of all provinces began adhering to a single agreed-upon text in their recitation of the Qur’an, abandoning those readings that did not conform to it.[^189] Oddly, Shady Hekmat Nasser refers to the codification process undertaken by ʿUthmān as a “failure” because it “was not able to produce a single unified Reading of the Qur’an.”[^190] However, as previously discussed, there is no evidence that ʿUthmān mandated for Muslims to recite in only one *qirāʾah*.[^191] Rather, Muslims were allowed to continue to recite the way they had been taught so long as their readings conformed to the authorized text. While it is true that differences remained in the *qirāʾāt*, there was now a common reference point to ensure that readings were sound. So long as a person was reciting according to the way they had learned from the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, and the reading conformed to the codex, their reading was to be considered valid. This removed the problem of Muslims rejecting the validity of other Muslims’ readings. Nasser’s assessment could not be any further from reality; the very fact that every non-ʿUthmānic copy of the Qur’an on the face of the earth vanished with scarcely a trace[^192] is the greatest testament to the success of the ʿUthmānic project. Shortly after the ʿUthmānic project in 25 AH, Muslims everywhere around the world were reciting the exact same text,[^193] and this has continued up until the present, more than 14 centuries later. The reality of the matter is that the ʿUthmānic project is an astonishingly successful act the likes of which human history has rarely witnessed. Al-Aʿẓamī concludes: > The unanimous agreement to dispose of (or amend) all earlier copies made ʿUthmān’s script and spelling the new standard; from then on every Muslim learning the Qur’an had to conform with the ʿUthmāni text. Where a person’s previous schooling was at odds with this text, he was not granted leave to recite or teach in that divergent manner. So what could such a person do? Attending an official reciter’s circle was the simplest solution, to learn the Book in accordance with the conditions laid and thereby regain the privileges of teaching and recitation. ʿUthmān’s unparalleled success in this regard is proof positive that his actions echoed the voice of the community.[^194] Thus, ʿUthmān’s instruction to burn or amend Qur’anic manuscripts that differed from the official codices reflected the community’s agreement upon the ʿUthmānic codex. Rather than undermining the text’s preservation, this historical event decisively secured it. --- ## The position of the companions towards the ʿUthmānic codex The success of the ʿUthmānic project was amplified by the widespread approval of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said, “Do not speak of ʿUthmān except with what is good, for I swear by Allah that he did not do what he did with the *maṣāḥif* except with complete approval from the rest of us.”[^195] In another report he said, “May Allah have mercy on ʿUthmān! Were I in charge, I would have done as he did.”[^196] Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd (d. 103 AH), the son of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, said, “I was present among the people when ʿUthmān burned the other *maṣāḥif* and they were pleased with his action, and no one opposed it.”[^197] Indeed, the unanimous consensus (*ijmāʿ*) of the Prophetic companions upon the ʿUthmānic codex renders it as indubitable and incontestable as any other fundamental component of the religion. Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321 AH) comments: > Zayd ibn Thābit, the Prophet’s scribe, wrote the codex for ʿUthmān and the companions of the Prophet ﷺ agreed upon that, thus it became *ijmāʿ* (unanimous consensus). And transmission by consensus is a decisive proof (*ḥujjah*) the likes through which Islam has been transmitted to us such that we are able to learn its teachings and such that we learn the number of prayers and the like.[^198] Essentially, what al-Ṭaḥāwī is stating is that everything we know about Islam was transmitted to us through the very same community that came to collective agreement upon the ʿUthmānic codex. Epistemologically, this is the greatest proof of the veracity of the text. This generation is the same one that learned the Qur’an directly from the Prophet ﷺ and transmitted to us all of the teachings of our faith. Their collective agreement is therefore unassailable and binding. Nonetheless, there are a number of narrations that require clarification due to mentioning displeasure or disagreement on the part of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 32 AH). These narrations have been examined and analyzed in great detail by a number of scholars.[^199] The credentials of Ibn Masʿūd with respect to knowledge and recitation of the Qur’an are well known. Ibn Masʿūd was the first Muslim to ever recite the Qur’an in public. His recitation of the Qur’an was praised by the Prophet ﷺ himself for being “as fresh as how it was revealed.”[^200] And he is one of the four from whom the Prophet ﷺ told others to learn the Qur’an.[^201] This being the case, what was the reason for his opposition and what exactly was he opposed to? In his work *al-Maṣāḥif*, Ibn Abī Dāwūd (d. 316 AH) devoted a chapter to the subject, entitling it, “The displeasure of Ibn Masʿūd towards that,” meaning the ʿUthmānic project.[^202] Careful review of the narrations in question demonstrates that Ibn Masʿūd’s displeasure was on two counts: (1) he was excluded from the committee that compiled the ʿUthmānic codex and (2) he did not wish to give up his personal *muṣḥaf* to be destroyed nor to abandon the reading to which he was most accustomed.[^203] As for the **first reason**, Ibn Masʿūd felt unfairly excluded from the codification process itself. He was certainly one of the most learned companions of the Prophet ﷺ with respect to the Qur’an, and so he was incensed at the fact that the project was overseen instead by Zayd ibn Thābit, almost 20 years his junior. In addition, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd was from the *Muhājirīn*, those who migrated with the Prophet  ﷺ from Makkah to Madīnah, having experienced persecution in Makkah and having sacrificed everything out of their commitment to Islam. Meanwhile Zayd ibn Thābit was a Madīnan Muslim; i.e., of the *Anṣār*. Being upset about the matter, Ibn Masʿūd made some uncharacteristically harsh statements. Al-Zuhrī (d. 124 AH) reports that ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd disliked Zayd ibn Thābit copying the *maṣāḥif*, and he said, “O Muslims! \[How is it that\] I am removed from recording the *muṣḥaf* and it is overseen by a man, by Allah, when I accepted Islam he was but in the loins of a disbelieving man”—referring to Zayd ibn Thābit.[^204] The companions of the Prophet ﷺ were human beings and experienced human emotions. Abū Bakr Al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH) was of the opinion that Ibn Masʿūd said this in a moment of anger and later recanted his statement after his anger subsided. Al-Anbārī writes: > The objection made by ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd arose in a state of anger and it is not to be acted upon nor taken from him. There is no doubt that once his anger passed, he was satisfied with the excellence of the decision of ʿUthmān and the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and concurred with their agreement and abandoned his opposition to them.[^205] Moreover, as al-Anbārī also notes,[^206] the virtue for which Zayd was selected was that he had memorized the entirety of the Qur’an during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, while Ibn Masʿūd learned seventy some *sūrah*s from the Prophet ﷺ and the remainder after the Prophet ﷺ passed away. As mentioned earlier, Zayd ibn Thābit had also undertaken the compilation during the time of Abū Bakr and therefore his expertise and experience was well-established. That, along with his availability and young age, qualified him to lead the ʿUthmānic project.[^207] Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qurṭubī (d. 656 AH) also points out that the ʿUthmānic committee was tasked with writing the Qur’an according to the dialect of Quraysh, while Ibn Masʿūd was from Hudhayl and was known to recite in the dialect of Hudhayl.[^208] Another important factor was simply logistical; as al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) pointed out, Ibn Masʿūd was in Kūfah, not Madīnah, when ʿUthmān undertook the codification process.[^209] It would have not been ideal to delay the entire project for Ibn Masʿūd to travel to Madīnah, particularly when the matter had already resulted in conflict, as identified by Ḥudhayfah. As for the **second reason** for Ibn Masʿūd’s opposition, it was not because he objected to the reading of the ʿUthmānic codex itself but rather because he wished to continue reciting according to his own reading, and he did not wish to surrender his *muṣḥaf* to be destroyed. As Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790 AH) astutely observed: > No one disagreed in this matter except ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd. He refused to discard the reading that he possessed which differed from the ʿUthmānic codices. He said, “O People of Iraq! O People of Kūfah! Conceal the *maṣāḥif* which you have in your possession and withhold them. For verily Allah states, ‘And whoever withholds anything will come forth with what he has withheld on the Day of Judgment.’[^210] So meet Allah with the *maṣāḥif*.”[^211] So consider carefully Ibn Masʿūd’s words because he did not disagree with compiling the ʿUthmānic codex but rather he disagreed concerning another matter.[^212] What al-Shāṭibī has noted is that Ibn Masʿūd never expressed disapproval of the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*’s compilation, nor did he deny the authenticity of the reading upon which it was compiled. In fact, we do not have a single statement from him criticizing a reading that is found in the ʿUthmānic codex. Instead, what appears to be the case is that Ibn Masʿūd did not wish to surrender his personal copy of the Qur’an to be burnt. He did not wish to abandon those readings that could not be accommodated by the ʿUthmānic text, as he had learned them from the Prophet ﷺ and taught them for decades. In other words, Ibn Masʿūd refused the obligation to adhere to the ʿUthmānic text, but did not otherwise deny the validity of the compilation or its reading. In support of this view, one may note that Ibn Masʿūd stated, “Whose *qirāʾāh* is it that you command me to recite? Verily, I recited directly to Allah’s Messenger ﷺ more than 70 chapters of the Qur’an and the companions of Allah’s Messenger certainly know that I am the most knowledgeable of them when it comes to the Book of Allah. And if I knew of anyone more knowledgeable than me, I would travel to him.”[^213] Another point of evidence is that Ibn Masʿūd never expressed disagreement with Abū Bakr’s compilation since it was never imposed upon him.[^214] Furthermore, one may note that many scholars were of the view that Ibn Masʿūd later recanted his position. Ibn Abī Dāwūd himself alludes to this by titling a chapter, “Ibn Masʿūd’s \[subsequent\] approval  of ʿUthmān’s compiling the *maṣāḥif,*” in which he includes a conciliatory narration from Ibn Masʿūd affirming the validity of readings according to the seven *aḥruf*.[^215] The historian Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH) said, “It was narrated that Ibn Masʿūd later agreed and adhered to and approved of ʿUthmān’s decision and revised his previous position.”[^216] Al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) said: “It was reported that Ibn Masʿūd agreed and followed ʿUthmān.”[^217] In *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) said it was reported that Ibn Masʿūd recanted.[^218] However, if one adopts the view of al-Shāṭibī, then since Ibn Masʿūd never objected to the correctness of the ʿUthmānic codex in the first place, there was nothing to recant. It is also possible that Ibn Masʿūd was not initially pleased with the obligation of adhering to a codex that didn’t favor his reading,  but after his anger passed, he recognized the importance of the ʿUthmānic project. Ibn Masʿūd’s massive influence in Kūfah slowed the transition to the ʿUthmānic codex. The early scholar al-Aʿmash (d. 148 AH) is reported to have said, “I reached Kūfah, and the reading of Zayd was not with them except as the reading of ʿAbdullāh is with you today: no one recited it except for one or two people.”[^219] Other companions expressed some hesitation in changing their reading as well. When ʿAlqamah ibn Qayṣ (d. 62 AH) traveled to Greater Syria, he met the companion Abū al-Dardāʾ, and the latter asked ʿAlqamah about how Ibn Masʿūd recited *Sūrah al-Layl*. ʿAlqamah responded that Ibn Masʿūd recited verse 3 as “*wal-dhakari wal-unthā*” (and by the male and the female) instead of “*wa* ***mā khalaqa*** *al-dhakara wal-unthā*” (and by that which created the male and the female), whereupon Abū al-Dardāʾ testified that he had learned the verse in the same way from the Prophet ﷺ. People tried their best to convince him to change his reading.[^220] Yet, he did not wish to do so.[^221] Understandably, the way the Prophet  ﷺ had taught him to recite the verse was something dear to him that he did not want to forsake. At the same time, Abū al-Dardāʾ did not approve of the staunch opposition shown by Ibn Masʿūd, saying, “We used to consider ʿAbdullāh \[Ibn Masʿūd\] to be soft-hearted, so why would he behave impulsively with the rulers?”[^222] Another companion, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, sought to compromise. When the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was sent to him, he said, “Whatever you find additional in my *muṣḥaf*, do not remove it, and whatever is missing, then write it.”[^223] From the foregoing discussion it should be evident that none of these reports undermine the unanimous consensus of the companions upon the authenticity and correctness of the ʿUthmānic codex. Instead, it shows us that a few companions wished to continue reading as they had before and, quite understandably, did not wish to forsake the readings they had learned directly from the Prophet ﷺ. Due to the success of the ʿUthmānic codex, all other readings eventually became practically extinct.[^224] They would continue to exist only as scattered narrations in the literary sources of the Islamic tradition, in the knowledge of specialists in *qirāʾāt*, and in some manuscript sources (see discussion on the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest below). --- ## The regional codices and their differences The committee of ʿUthmān did not transcribe only one codex. Rather, several copies were made and these were distributed to different lands within the Islamic empire. Anas ibn Mālik narrated, “When they had copied the manuscripts, ʿUthmān sent one *muṣḥaf* from those *maṣāḥif* that they had copied to every province.”[^225] This was directly related to the goal behind the entire project—to unify the Muslim *ummah* on one *muṣḥaf* in order to eliminate the disputes that had emerged between Muslims reciting according to different *aḥruf*. The success of the project was therefore contingent upon all Muslims following the official copies of the ʿUthmānic text sent to them. ### A. The number of regional codices and their destinations How many official codices were written and to which regions were they sent? The minimum number agreed upon by scholars is four; one remained in Madīnah while the rest were sent to Basra, Kūfah, and Shām (Greater Syria.)[^226] Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH) writes, “The majority of scholars are of the view that when ʿUthmān wrote the *muṣḥaf*, he made four copies and sent one to each region, so he sent one to Kūfah, one to Basra, one to Shām, and kept one with him.”[^227] A number of scholars, including al-Jaʿbarī (d. 732 AH) and Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) also distinguished between the original codex that ʿUthmān kept for himself and the copy that ʿUthmān made for Madīnah.[^228] Other regions are mentioned by Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī (d. 255 AH), “When ʿUthmān compiled the Qur’an and wrote the *maṣāḥif*, he transcribed seven codices. And he sent one to Makkah, one to Shām, one to Yemen, one to Bahrain, one to Basra, one to Kūfah, and he kept one in Madīnah.”[^229] Ibn Kathīr (d. 773 AH) also states the same but substitutes Egypt for Bahrain.[^230] Seven is the number supported by Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib as well.[^231] Ibn al-Jazarī himself prefers the opinion of eight, taking the seven mentioned by Abū Ḥātim and adding ʿUthmān’s personal codex.[^232] Al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 292 AH) does not include the personal codex but mentions all the aforementioned regions and adds *al-Jazīrah*,[^233] for a total of nine.[^234] These accounts may be reconciled by suggesting that the codices were dispatched in stages.[^235] The initial copies dispatched were indeed four including Basra, Kūfah, and Shām alongside the one kept in Madīnah, and these regions were prioritized because they were the regions where Muslims had specifically experienced conflict over their differing readings, as Ḥudhayfah had told ʿUthmān. Subsequently, the other Muslim lands mentioned acquired their own official copies. Note that some later sources mention that ʿUthmān sent a reciter with each *muṣḥaf*. Al-Jaʿbarī (d. 732 AH) cites an account without an *isnād* which states: “ʿUthmān instructed Zayd ibn Thābit to recite according to the Madīnan codex, he sent ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Sāʾib with the Makkī codex, Mughīrah ibn Abī Shihāb with the Syrian codex, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī with the Kūfan codex, and ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Qays with the Basran codex.”[^236] However, this report is not found in earlier extant sources and it is not necessary to assume that this took place as there were already eminent companions of the Prophet ﷺ in each of those cities teaching the Qur’an. ### B. The degree of similarity between the regional codices How carefully and precisely did the scribes produce these regional codices? The answer is that manuscript evidence has proven that the copying process was *extremely precise*. We can see this with respect to spelling conventions (orthography). Sometimes the same word is spelled differently in different places in the Qur’an, and in some cases those orthographic idiosyncrasies are replicated across manuscripts. The contemporary researcher Marijn van Putten conducted an evaluation of the spelling of the word *niʿmat* (blessing) in the Qur’an.[^237] This word  occurs 23 times in the Qur’an and is sometimes spelled نعمت and sometimes نعمة, a variation that is commonly encountered with other feminine nouns as well (e.g., كلمة/كلمت ,رحمة/رحمت, etc.). One would expect such trivial spelling variations to exhibit no pattern, and yet examining 14 early Qur’anic manuscripts (predominantly from the first or second century *hijrī*), Van Putten demonstrated that there is remarkable consistency and agreement between manuscripts across نعمة/نعمت spellings. Thus, for example, 3:103, 5:11, 14:28, 14:34, etc. are always spelled نعمت in all the manuscripts, while 2:211, 5:7, 14:6, 16:18, etc. are always spelled نعمة. Van Putten writes: > Such orthographic idiosyncrasies allow us to show that the Qur’anic manuscripts go back to a single written archetype from which all of these documents were copied. If two manuscripts do not descend from copies of a single archetype, we would not expect the same spelling to occur in the exact same location time and time again. However, this is exactly what we find: highly idiosyncratic spellings occur again and again in the same spelling in the exact same location across all early Qur’anic manuscripts. Such variation can only be the result of precise written transmission.[^238] Thus, these ʿUthmānic codices must have been produced through a very high fidelity process with meticulous review to allow for such patterns to be replicated in the subsequent generations of *maṣāḥif*. We have reports from the earliest Muslim community that take the spelling conventions in the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* to be authoritative. Imam Mālik (d. 179 AH) was asked whether it was acceptable for people to write the *maṣāḥif* according to the spelling conventions of their time, and replied that they should write it according to the original spelling.[^239] Some scholars clarified this by noting that there is flexibility allowed in orthographic conventions on certain matters (such as soft vowels) but not others.[^240] Note that one must be careful to distinguish between two different but related questions. The first is whether it is required to adhere to the *rasm* (orthography) of the ʿUthmānic text. The second is whether the *rasm* is *tawqīfī* (based on Prophetic instruction) or *isṭilāḥī* (based on the customary spelling practices and orthographic conventions adopted by the Prophet’s companions). Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad notes that confusion between these two matters resulted in the claim that the *rasm* ʿUthmānī is *tawqīfī*.[^241] We do encounter this view mentioned by scholars as early as Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī (d. 454 AH).[^242] Nonetheless, the stronger view is that the *rasm* was *isṭilāḥī*; i.e., that the companions merely adopted the spelling practices to which they were accustomed, and this accounts for some degree of variation.[^243] If the *rasm* is *isṭilāḥī*, is it still a requirement to follow it? On the one hand, the majority of scholars said that following the *rasm* remains an obligation. On the other hand, Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH) argued that following the *rasm* of the ʿUthmānic codex is not a requirement.[^244] Some scholars sought to adopt a middle position, stating that while it is not binding upon all people to follow the *rasm*, scholars of Islam should nevertheless endeavor to study and preserve knowledge of the ʿUthmānic *rasm*.[^245] Indeed, we do find Qur’anic manuscripts that did not adopt the *rasm* of the ʿUthmānic codex, such as the *muṣḥaf* of Ibn al-Bawwāb (d. 413 AH) written in 391 AH, among others.[^246] However, the strongest position is the majority position: adhering to the *rasm* is an obligation due to the consensus of the companions upon it and the intimate connection between the *rasm* and the permitted reading traditions (*qirāʾāt*). ### C. The degree of difference between the regional codices Notwithstanding the incredible degree of consistency between copies, we also know that, in very particular locations, the regional ʿUthmānic codices were not completely identical. The regional codices contained a small number of very slight differences that Muslim scholars devoted themselves to studying and enumerating. Some of these differences consisted of variations in spelling convention with no difference in pronunciation (e.g., الصرط or الصراط), while others related to different readings that existed among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ due to the different *aḥruf*. Narrations listing these differences were compiled by the famous reciters themselves, including *Kitāb ikhtilāf maṣāḥif al-Shām wal-Ḥijāz wal-ʿIrāq* by Ibn ʿĀmir (d. 118 AH), *Kitāb ikhtilāf maṣāḥif  ahl al-Madīnah wa ahl al-Kūfah wa ahl al-Baṣrah* by al-Kisāʾī (d. 189 AH), *Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-Maṣāḥif* by Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār (d. 229 AH). Another work entitled *Kitāb ikhtilāf ahl al-Kūfah wal-Baṣrah wal-Shām fī al-maṣāḥif* was compiled by the grammarian al-Farrāʾ (d. 207 AH). While the aforementioned works are no longer extant, the data concerning the variants has been detailed in extant works including Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām’s (d. 224 AH) *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, Ibn Abī Dāwūd’s (d. 316 AH) *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, Abū Bakr al-Anbārī’s (d. 328 AH) *Marsūm al-khaṭṭ*, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mahdawī’s (d. 440 AH) *Hijāʾ maṣāḥif al-amṣār*, Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī’s (d. 444 AH) *al-Muqniʿ*, and al-Andarābī’s (d. 470 AH) *al-Īḍāḥ fī al-qirāʾāt*.[^247] As shall be discussed below, these works contain explicit statements affirming that these variants are all valid Qur’anic readings authentically transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. In other words, they already existed as Qur’anic readings prior to the transcription of the codices. For the four codices unanimously agreed to be ʿUthmānic, al-Dānī lists a total of 36 points of difference,[^248] an astronomically small quantity in a text exceeding 320,000 letters.[^249] This fraction is a hundredth of a percent (0.01%), which means the regional codices are 99.99% identical. The companions of the Prophet ﷺ and the early reciters of the Qur’an were fully aware of these differences. Abū ʿUbayd reports that the differences between the Syrian codex and the ʿIrāqī codex were enumerated by the companion Abū al-Dardāʾ (d. 35 AH) himself.[^250] Abū ʿUbayd points out that the differences between the regional codices almost all amount to single-letter differences, such as an additional و (for example, و يقول in 5:53 in the Kūfan and Basran codices versus يقول in the Madīnan and Syrian codices), or the presence of an ا (for example, او ان in 40:26 in the Kūfan and Basran codices versus و ان in the Madīnan and Syrian codices). Aside from such single-letter differences, the only other difference among the four codices is the two-letter word هو in 57:24 (فإن الله هو الغني الحميد) in the Kūfan and Basran codices, which is not present in the Madīnan and Syrian codices.[^251] After enumerating these differences, Abū ʿUbayd states, “And as for all of these variants, then as I informed you, it is not permissible for anyone to deny or reject any of them, for they are all considered by us to be the Divine speech of Allah, and as such, the prayer of one who recites them is sound.”[^252] These differences are not simply a matter of historical interest, as Muslims have continued to recite all of them in the form of the *qirāʾāt*. Thus, 5:53 is recited without the و by the Madīnan reciters (Nāfiʿ and Abū Jaʿfar), Makkan reciter (Ibn Kathīr), and Syrian reciter (Ibn ʿĀmir) as per their codices, while it is recited with the و by the Basran reciters (Abū ʿAmr and Yaʿqūb) and Kūfan reciters (Ḥamzah, ʿĀṣim, al-Kisāʾī, Khalaf) as per the Basran and Kūfan codices.[^253] That the variants mentioned in the codices are also present in the *qirāʾāt* confirms that these differences are attested in oral transmission from the Prophet ﷺ himself, a topic analyzed in greater detail below. ### D. Why did the regional codices differ? If the goal of the ʿUthmānic compilation was to unify the *ummah* upon one *muṣḥaf* and to eliminate the confusion and conflict surrounding reading with different *aḥruf*, then why would ʿUthmān and his committee include a small number of differences in the regional codices? And what was the origin of these differences? Muslim scholars have clarified that these variants related to authentically transmitted readings of the Qur’an from the Prophet ﷺ. We have already noted Abū ʿUbayd’s statement that all these variants are *kalām Allāh* (Divine speech). Likewise, Abū Bakr al-Udfuwī (d. 388 AH) and Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH) mention that scholars affirmed that the variants between the regional codices belong to the differences of the seven *aḥruf,* and that the companions “relied on each reading (*ḥarf*) they heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recite in two ways, so in some codices they wrote one way and in other codices they wrote another, so that both ways would be available to the Muslims.”[^254] Therefore, all the regional variants are authentic readings from the Prophet (ﷺ).[^255] Ibn Idrīs (d. c. 400 AH) writes concerning the isolated variant of the Syrian codex which omits the initial و in 2:116: > And both readings are correct, and this \[variant\] was not a result of negligence from the companions (may Allah be pleased with them) as some ignoramuses may presume. But rather they wrote both ways deliberately because Allah revealed the verse both ways, so they wrote it with a *waw* in some of the codices and omitted it from the other, in order to serve as notification \[of those two readings\]. And this explanation applies to every case of addition or omission of letters in the codices.[^256] The author of *Kitāb al-Mabānī* (approx. 425 AH) writes: > And the evidence that these variants between the codices were written correctly and with certainty, deliberately and intentionally, and to preserve both readings for the Muslims which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited on two different occasions at different times, and that those instances of addition, subtraction, or substitution in the text are not due to forgetfulness (*sahw*) of the transmitter nor omission by a negligent scribe, \[the evidence\] is that the readings are all sound and eloquent, and each variant is corroborated \[in its linguistic acceptability\] by decisive proof from the truth for its preponderance.[^257] The author then proceeds to cite various linguistic explanations for the suitability of both readings in the case of the variants.[^258] Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH) also states that this was deliberately done by the committee of ʿUthmān in order to accommodate certain variants. Al-Dānī writes: > If a questioner were to ask concerning the reason that led to the variants comprising additional letters in the script of the *maṣāḥif*, I say: the reason for that according to us is as follows: When ʿUthmān compiled the Qur’an in the *maṣāḥif*, he wrote them according to one script based upon the dialect of the Quraysh, leaving out anything else that was not authentic or established, out of consideration for the *ummah* and caution for the people of this religion. And it was clear to him that these different readings \[i.e., the variants between the ʿUthmānic codices\] are from Allah and were revealed as such, and were heard from the Prophet ﷺ as such. He knew that collecting them together in one codex would not be possible except by repeating the same word twice, and evidently, to write it in that manner would entail confusing and altering the written script.  So he distributed them between the codices, so these additional letters are present in some and omitted in others so that the *ummah* could preserve them as they were revealed by Allah, and as they were heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so this is the reason why they are written differently between the codices.[^259] In his comments in 2:285, al-Sakhāwī (d. 643 AH) also explains the spelling difference between manuscripts as a way of deliberately accommodating both readings.[^260] Note that some scholars opined that the motivation to include these particular readings within the text was because they were already being recited by Muslims in different regions, based on authentic oral transmission of the companions from the Prophet ﷺ, and could be easily accommodated with only slight modification. Abū Bakr al-Udfuwī (d. 388 AH) considers it possible that the scribes included these particular variants because they were already being taught to Muslims by the companions who lived in these regions.[^261] Al-Mahdawī (d. 440 AH) affirms the same view. He indicates that these variants (1) were divinely revealed and (2) corresponded to the oral transmissions already prevalent within each Muslim community. He writes, “And these variants were affirmed in the manuscripts that were written and distributed to the various Muslim provinces by ʿUthmān, along with the early Muslim community who agreed with him, due to their knowledge that they belong to that upon which the Qur’an was revealed. So they were affirmed so that every community could recite according to their transmission.”[^262] Similarly, Al-Zarqānī explains that in general, the *muṣḥaf* was written without vowelization and diacritical marks to accommodate multiple readings, and where multiple readings could not be accommodated by the skeletal text, they were deliberately placed in different codices.[^263] He further argues that the underlying logic of placing different readings in different codices is to present them as equally valid; any other option, such as placing one reading in the margins and the other in the text, would be suboptimal because it creates the impression of a preferred reading.[^264] On the other hand, Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad doubts that this was done with the specific goal of accommodating additional readings; rather, the goal of the committee was to write the Qur’an according to one *ḥarf* (i.e., one reading). However, in some cases due to the prevalence of two readings that were extremely similar, both equally well-established from the Prophet ﷺ, they were regarded as equivalent and basically taken as belonging to the same *ḥarf*.[^265] Likewise, Al-Aʿẓamī writes: > ...these variations are inconsequential to the meaning of each verse and bear no alteration to the semantics whatsoever. But they cannot be attributed to carelessness. Zayd ibn Thābit, in each case finding both readings to be authentic and of equal status, retained them in different copies. The inclusion of both side by side would only have wrought confusion; alternatively, placing one of them in the margin would imply a lesser degree of authenticity. By placing them in different copies he accommodated them on equal terms. The modern approach to textual criticism requires that, when variations arise between two manuscripts of equal status, the editor cites one of the two in the core text while the deviations are consigned to footnotes. This method is unjust however, as it demotes the value of the second copy. Zayd’s scheme is much the fairer; by preparing multiple copies he sidesteps any implications that this or that reading is superior, giving each variant its just due.[^266] In summary, then, Muslim scholars agree upon the authenticity of these variants between the regional codices, but they differ on the reason or motivation for their inclusion. Some scholars consider these variants a deliberate attempt to accommodate all or part of the variation of the *aḥruf* (relating to the earlier difference of opinion on that topic), while others consider these to be cases where readings were equally well established, which precluded giving priority to one over the other. One might imagine a third scenario in which such miniscule differences emerged during the transcription process because the reciter recalled another authentic *qirāʾah* which differed from the one used in the manuscript being copied. Thus, an existing oral precedent influenced the scribe during the writing process to include a slightly different reading (oral interference). The companions would not consider a small number of such slight differences to undermine the goal of unifying the Muslims (provided that they were all authentically established from the Prophet ﷺ), and hence during verification and review of the regional codices, both readings would be accepted. This will be evaluated in further detail below. ### E. The regional codices and stemmatics Examination of the data provided by Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH) concerning the differences between the regional codices of Syria, Madīnah, Kūfah and Baṣrah reveals that they form what is essentially a perfect stemma, or family tree showing the relationship between the codices. This observation was initially made by the German orientalist Theodor Nöldeke, and later updated and refined by the historian Michael Cook.[^267] *Stemmatics* analyzes variants of a text in order to determine which text was the ‘parent’ from which another copy was made. In order to understand the argument, let us first provide some basic examples to illustrate the general concept underlying the application of stemmatics. Assume that we find three copies of a book, which have small variations in the following sentence: > Book 1: “There was a gray car outside the house.” > Book 2: “There was a gray cat outside the house.” > Book 3: “There was a gray cat outside the house chasing a mouse.” In this example, Books 2 and 3 agree on a cat outside, while Book 1 says it was a car. We know that Book 3 must have been copied from Book 2, but it would not have been copied from Book 1. To further elucidate the matter, consider the similarities and differences between the following squares, imagining that each represents a codex (“S” for Syrian, “M” for Madīnan, “B” for Basran, and “K” for Kūfan). ![The Uthmanic Codex - Figure 1](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image3-1024x518.jpg) **Figure 1**: Squares with variants forming a stemma. Imagine that you were told that one of these squares was the original, and every time it was copied a few squares were changed from blue to yellow, or from yellow to blue. How would you determine which square was the original? Notice that the squares only differ with respect to the position of yellow squares, the coordinates of which are identified by the row numbers and column letters. Notice furthermore that S has two isolated variants shared by none of the others (G1 and D7) and K has three isolated variants shared by none of the others (I3, I7, and A5), while M and B have no isolated variants. Every yellow square on M is also present in S, and every yellow square in B is also present in K, while B and K share no common yellow squares with S and M. In other words, S never agrees with B and K against M, B never agrees with S against M or M against K, and K never agrees with M or S against B. This is, in some loose sense, analogous to what Cook observes with the regional codices: - Syrian *muṣḥaf*: 16 places where it is different from all the other three *maṣāḥif*, and 13 places where it agrees with the Madanī *muṣḥaf* against the Basran and Kūfan *muṣḥaf*. It never agrees with the Basran and Kūfan *maṣāḥif* against the Madanī *muṣḥaf*. - Madanī *muṣḥaf*: No isolated readings (i.e., readings that are not found in any of the other *maṣāḥif*). It has only 13 places where it agrees with the Syrian *muṣḥaf* against the Basran and Kūfan *maṣāḥif*. - Basran *muṣḥaf*: Never agrees with the Syrian *muṣḥaf* against the Madanī *muṣḥaf*. One isolated reading (23:85–89) is present which is not found in any other *muṣḥaf*. Cook agrees with a narration describing this as a later addition after the time of ʿUthmān since it doesn't fit the stemmas.[^268] - Kūfan *muṣḥaf*: six isolated readings that are not found in any other *muṣḥaf*. Otherwise, it always agrees with the Basran *muṣḥaf* against the Madanī and Syrian *maṣāḥif*. Based on these differences, Cook argues that we can reconstruct the relationships between the *maṣāḥif*, knowing that the Syrian *muṣḥaf* is more closely related to the Madanī *muṣḥaf* than to the Basran and Kūfan *maṣāḥif*, which means the Syrian *muṣḥaf* was copied from the Madanī *muṣḥaf* or vice versa. Similarly, the Madanī *muṣḥaf* is more closely related to the Basran *muṣḥaf* than it is to the Kūfan *muṣḥaf*, because the Kūfan *muṣḥaf* has six places that are isolated readings. So therefore the Basran *muṣḥaf* is between the Madanī *muṣḥaf* and the Kūfan *muṣḥaf*. Based on this argument, Cook presents four possible stemmas: ![The Uthmanic Codex Figure 2](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image6-e1655939520838-1024x461.jpg) **Figure 2**: Possible stemmas according to Michael Cook Let us consider the merit of Cook’s argument from stemmatics. Does it provide convincing evidence that one codex must have been copied from another codex? The answer is affirmative, since otherwise the fact that they form a perfect stemma becomes a sheer coincidence (or an elaborate ruse). Had the codices been written independently of one another and ʿUthmān told the committee to put certain specific variants in the Syrian codex, and certain specific variants in the Madīnan codex, and so on for the Basran and Kūfan codices, then one would expect each codex to have its own isolated variants (*mufradāt*) or to share some variants with each of the other codices.[^269] There would be some cases where the Basran and Syrian codices agree against the Madīnan, or cases where the Kūfan and Madīnan agree against the Basran. Rather than forming a stemma, the picture would look something like this: ![The Uthmanic Codex Figure 3](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image1-1024x518.jpg) **Figure 3**: Squares with variants exhibiting no possible stemma. However, where Cook errs in the matter is his claim that the existence of a stemma rules out the possibility of invention (i.e., the possibility that these variants were deliberately introduced into the codices).[^270] This is imprecise. The existence of a stemma rules out the possibility of *synchronous* invention, where codices are being written simultaneously and variants are being dispersed between them during the writing process. However, it does not exclude the possibility of *sequential* invention, where one codex is copied from another, one at a time, and during the copying process the scribe is deliberately instructed[^271] to make a few specific changes to the original at particular places in order to accommodate other readings. In the course of synchronous invention, there would be no generation of a stemma while in the course of sequential invention, it is impossible for the copying process *not* to produce a stemma. Note that a detailed evaluation of various hypothetical scenarios will be provided in the subsequent section including a refutation of the allegation of scribal errors. The subject of stemmatics and the regional codices was recently revisited by Hythem Sidky, who extended the analysis to examine over fifty Qur’anic manuscripts for the very same regional variants reported in literary sources. Likewise, analytical studies of the regional variants in smaller subsets of existing Qur’anic manuscripts have also been performed by Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Al-Aʿẓamī,[^272] Ala Vahidnia,[^273] and Mohammad Said Mitwally Ibrahim Alrahawan.[^274] Many of these manuscripts have been dated to the earliest period of Islamic history. The results of these recent studies are remarkable. The very same textual variants reported in the Islamic literary sources are found distributed in the manuscripts according to the very same patterns. The manuscript evidence thus confirms the historicity of the ʿUthmānic codices and the accuracy of the traditional Islamic sources in documenting regional variants.[^275] For instance, the Codex Parisino-petropolitanus (CPP) demonstrates agreement with the variants reported for the Syrian codex.[^276] CPP dates to the first century *hijrī* and was recovered from the Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in Fustat, Egypt.[^277] Today, most of the codex is located in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (national library of France), in Paris. The manuscript is written in *ḥijāzī* script. ![The Uthmanic Codex Figure 4](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image5-1024x202.png) **Figure 4**. CPP (Arabe 328a) showing verse 3:184 written according to the Syrian ʿUthmānic codex with *wa bi-zubur* as opposed to *wa al-zubur*. This is also exactly how the word is recited according to the *qirāʾah* of the Syrian reader Ibn ʿĀmir. Image from Bibliothèque nationale de France, annotation added.[^278] The famous *muṣḥaf* known as the “Qur’an of ʿUthmān” in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (also known as the Samarqand codex), demonstrates concordance with the regional variants for the codex that ʿUthmān sent to Kufa. This manuscript dates to the late second century *hijrī*, i.e., roughly one century after the ʿUthmānic project. It was previously located in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in 1905 a facsimile copy was produced by S. Pisarev.[^279] It is written in *kūfic* script. ![The Uthmanic Codex Figure 5](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image4.png) **Figure 5.** Pisarev facsimile from the Samarqand codex showing verse 36:35 written as *ʿamilat* (عملت) instead of *ʿamilat-hu* (عملته). This is also exactly how the word is recited by the Kūfan reciters Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʾī, Khalaf, and Shuʿbah’s transmission of ʿĀṣim.[^280] Image from *CorpusCoranicum*.[^281] By similar analysis of regional variants, one may note for instance the Madīnan regional variants in the famous Topkapi Qur’an located in the Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul, Turkey.[^282] ### F. The allegation of scribal errors With respect to the allegation that the ʿUthmānic codices contained scribal errors, there are two separate issues that need to be addressed: (1) the claim that variants between the regional codices are scribal errors; and (2) the claim that certain narrations from the companions indicate that there are scribal errors. Typically in textual criticism, when textual variants are encountered in a manuscript tradition, the general assumption is that the original reading has been corrupted.[^283] However, there are a number of clear reasons why this assumption cannot be lazily applied to the textual variants of the ʿUthmānic regional codices. First, it ignores the existence of the *qirāʾāt*, the established reading traditions. The historical evidence inarguably establishes that different ways of reciting the Qur’an preceded the existence of the ʿUthmānic codex. If a textual variant could have already existed in the reading traditions, then its inclusion in the ʿUthmānic codex cannot be automatically attributed to scribal error. The codices were not produced exclusively through a copying process without any oral interference. We are informed in the literary sources that during the transcription process, one person would be designated to dictate and recite, while the other person would transcribe. For instance, ʿUthmān said, “Let Saʿīd dictate and Zayd transcribe.”[^284] If the scribe was only reading a text in front of him, there would be no role for the reciter. On the other hand, if the reciter was the only one reading the text and the scribe was writing exclusively based on what he heard from the reciter, then we would not obtain the pattern of orthographic idiosyncrasies discussed earlier which point to a single textual archetype from which other copies descend. The synchrony of oral transmission alongside textual transmission created a highly effective filtering mechanism whereby a textual variant could only be transmitted if it conformed to a pre-existing oral reading. Secondly, the maximum number of isolated variants is approximately 15,[^285] which is found in the Syrian codex. If these were assumed to be transcription errors during the process of copying the Madīnan codex, this quantity is astronomically smaller than expected, and the remaining codices have even fewer variants. By way of comparison, in the text of the four gospels (roughly similar in length to the Qur’an),[^286] the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus contain 3036 textual variants, including entire omitted phrases and verses.[^287] If we ignore omissions of words, phrases and verses in the Codex Sinaiticus and pretend for a moment that it predominantly has single-letter textual variants like the Syrian codex, then we still end up with the astoundingly discrepant rate of one variant per 21 words in the gospels, and one variant per 5100 words in the Qur’an. The only scientifically plausible account is to judge the underlying mechanism generating textual variants in either scenario to be categorically different; for the Codex Sinaiticus the mechanism includes scribal errors and for the ʿUthmānic codices it is the reading traditions. Furthermore, examining the variants of the ʿUthmānic regional codices demonstrates that the variants are not randomly distributed through the codex. Of the 15 variants in the Syrian codex, seven are located exclusively in *Sūrah* *al-Anʿām* and *Sūrah* *al-Aʿrāf*. This requires us to assume extremely high fidelity copying throughout vast swathes of the Qur’an with sudden inexplicable sporadic lapses, including during the transcription phase as well as subsequent review and verification.[^288] Either way, it is far simpler to conclude that these were specific instances where oral readings influenced the inclusion of specific textual variants during the transcription process. This is particularly true if we accept evidence from the tradition concerning the deliberate inclusion of the *alif* in 23:87 and 23:89, which confirms that the early Muslim community was concerned about such minutiae with respect to correspondence between reading traditions and manuscripts.[^289] As such, we should consider minute alterations similar to 23:87 and 23:89 to be the result of scribes including existing oral readings rather than errors. In the narration concerning the process of writing the ʿUthmānic codex we are informed about one word in the entire Qur’an on which the committee differed. Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124 AH) reported, “They differed on that occasion concerning whether to write *Al-Tābūt* (التابوت) or *Aa-Tābuh* (التابوه). The Quraysh said ‘*Al-Tābūt*’ while Zayd said ‘*Al-Tābūh*.’ Their disagreement was brought to ʿUthmān, so he said, ‘Write it as *Al-Tābūt*, for it was revealed in the tongue of the Quraysh.’”[^290] Interestingly, among the textual variants of the regional codices we note that for 5:54, the Syrian and Madīnan codices have the unassimilated Qurayshī form of the word (يرتدد), which matches 2:217, while the Kūfan and Basran codices have the assimilated form as per the Tamīmī dialect (يرتد).[^291] Given that these are precisely the types of dialectical variations for which the committee was responsible to seek ʿUthmān’s approval, it is more rational to presume the deliberate inclusion of a known variant from the reading traditions than the committee overlooking the same exact word twice (either during writing the Syrian and Madīnan codices or during writing the Kūfan and Basran codices) in 5:54 but never in 2:217. Thirdly, the nature of the textual variants encountered in the regional codices strongly argues in favor of these variants representing pre-existing oral readings. Absent from the ʿUthmānic codices are any typical instances of transcription errors like parablepsis secondary to homoeoteleuton, haplography, or dittography.[^292] All of the textual variants of the regional codices result in syntactically and semantically viable readings. In cases where there is a perceptible impact on the meaning, both readings bring about mutually complementary and linguistically sound interpretations. What fortuitous circumstances would bring about the massively improbable coincidence of a scribal error adding or omitting a م in the one location where it is semantically appropriate to have both readings based on different preceding passages?[^293] Fourthly, the reception of the ʿUthmānic codices was overwhelmingly successful and quickly became the basis upon which all *qirāʾāt* were recited and other *maṣāḥif* were transcribed. As previously mentioned, the early Muslim community was aware of these textual variants, and indeed catalogued them extensively as evidenced by the numerous early works and narrations on the subject. By all accounts, the Prophet’s companions and their succeeding generations had no qualms reciting and teaching the Qur’an according to these codices with regional variants. Not a single narration records hesitation over reciting a letter determined to be a textual variant. None of these sources declare these particular variants between the regional codices to be the result of scribal errors in Qur’anic manuscripts, even though they did discuss the concept of scribal errors extensively, as we shall observe in the next section. Abū Bakr al-Udfuwī (d. 388 AH) is one of the early scholars to repudiate the notion that the regional variants could be the result of scribal errors. Al-Udfuwī writes: > The understanding of occurrences of addition or subtraction in the *maṣāḥif* is that they are written according to the reading of those companions sent to each of the provinces. And what indicates this is that the *Qurrāʾ* (famous reciters) attribute their readings to the senior companion of their region. And these variants, in their addition or omission, were recited during the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And were that not the case, they could not be written in some codices and omitted from others. And it is not possible to imagine that they could be errors from the scribe, for verily Allah has preserved it (i.e., the Qur’an). And the proof of that is that when ʿAlī began his reign as the caliph, he did not change anything from it but rather endorsed the action of ʿUthmān. And they used to dislike even dotting the *maṣāḥif* out of fear of adding to it. So how could they add letters (or variants) and have such additions approved... \[al-Udfuwī then gives examples illustrating the early Muslims’ abundant caution in adding any markings of any kind, including chapter markings, verse markings, and consonantal diacritical markings.\] So it is not possible with such caution that these letters could arise except via explicit proof (*naṣṣ*) or knowledge, and they could not occur by the error (*wahm*) of scribes.[^294] One may observe that al-Udfuwī mentions both the first and fourth points of consideration identified above. That is, he mentions the existence of established reading traditions with these regional variants, and he mentions the community’s reception of these variants, particularly the example of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Moreover, he contrasts the reception of these regional variants with the early Muslim community’s reticent attitude towards even the most trivial manipulations of the text. Fifthly, one may address the question of purpose. Why include only a small number of seemingly trivial variants? There are a number of historically plausible scenarios that would explain the small number of textual variants that we see. Not all of these scenarios require that the matter had been discussed and deliberated upon by ʿUthmān and the committee prior to the initiation of the compilation project. The stated goal of the project was to reduce the differing and conflict over readings taking place among Muslims by uniting them upon one *muṣḥaf*. It is plausible that during the transcription process, the participation of different members from the extended committee of 12 members would have influenced the decision about the inclusion of a minute number of variants in some codices as opposed to others—a decision which would have ultimately been reviewed and approved by ʿUthmān prior to sending out the codices. One aspect of the extensive review and verification process of very minor changes is highlighted in the report of Hānī al-Barbarī. He reports: > I was with ʿUthmān when the committee was reviewing the *maṣāḥif*. So he sent me to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb with the scapula of a sheep upon which was written (لم يتسن)[^295] and (لا تبديل للخلق)[^296] and (فأمهل الكافرين).[^297] So Ubayy asked for something with which to write and revised the spellings, such that he wrote (لخلق) removing one of the two ل, and he wrote (فمهل), and he wrote (لم يتسنه) adding a (ه).[^298] The above examples of single-letter changes were carefully considered and discussed, and these particular examples do not show up as textual variants among the regional codices. However, in the above example, the role of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb is limited to correcting some spellings on specifically requested words. Given that the people of Syria were more familiar with the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, it is not unlikely that ʿUthmān would ensure that the Syrian codex received additional participation from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.[^299] Recall that scholars like al-Udfuwī and al-Mahdawī suggested that the regional variants were intended to accommodate readings of a particular region. Recall also that some scholars suggested that the ʿUthmānic committee initially included only four core members before expanding to include a total of 12 members. This also makes sense of the differing narrations concerning Ṣaʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ dictating versus Ubayy ibn Kaʿb dictating and Ṣaʿīd reviewing.[^300] The involvement of companions like Anas ibn Mālik and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb in the Madīnan codex, and particularly Ubayy ibn Kaʿb in the Syrian codex, suggests a plausible scenario for the minor variation encountered in the regional codices. The sixth point, though somewhat technical, appears to empirically exclude the possibility of attributing the regional variants to scribal error. It draws upon the previous discussion of stemmatics and combines it with a consideration related to the *mutashābihāt* (passages in the Qur’an that resemble one another). Notice first that several of the textual variants appear to recapitulate passages found elsewhere in the Qur’an. Thus, the Syrian/Madīnan variant for 5:54 matches 2:217, the Syrian/Madīnan/Basran variant for 46:15 matches 29:8, the Kūfan/Basran 57:24 matches 60:6, the Madīnan/Basran/Kūfan 40:21 matches 35:44 and 30:9, the Syrian 8:67 matches 9:113 while Madīnan/Basran/Kūfan 8:67 matches 3:161, the Syrian 6:32 matches 12:109 and 16:30, the Syrian 3:184 matches 35:25, the Kūfan/Basran 43:71 matches 41:31, the Syrian 7:141 matches 14:6 while the Madīnan/Basran/Kūfan 7:141 matches 2:50 and 20:80, and the Syrian/Madīnan/Basran 6:63 matches 10:22. This predilection of textual variants for *mutashābihāt* verses appears to have gone unnoticed in prior studies of these variants. Yet, it can be no accident that *mutashābihāt* passages are so highly represented among the textual variants. What follows is an argument by way of *reductio ad absurdum*. Those who consider these to be scribal errors would have to concede that they are not instances of misreading the text being copied but rather a case of memory interference known as *assimilation of parallels* which would arise from recollection of a similar passage.[^301] But on that assumption, the error would dissolve the original difference between the two passages. Thus, if the Qur’an originally contains a passage that says A1 and another similar passage that says A2, a memory-based error would result in two passages that say A1 or two passages that say A2. Overall, memory-based errors homogenize differences between *mutashābihāt* passages, resulting in fewer and fewer differences. Projecting backwards, the direction of heterogeneity allows one to identify the original text. We may exclude those examples for which both regional variants match other Qur’anic passages, since it is not possible to identify directionality in such cases. Memory-based errors should accumulate as one descends from parent to child in the stemma. The direction of increasing homogeneity should also be the direction of transcription within the stemma. Yet, this leads to conflicting directions violating the stemma (see diagram), demonstrating that these regional variants cannot be attributed to error. ![The Uthmanic Codex Figure 6](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image2-1024x364.jpg) **Figure 6.** The presumed directionality of copying from parent codex to descendent codex based on the variants arising through the process of *assimilation of parallels*.[^302] Given that the inferred directions are mutually contradictory and that these contradict the relationships deduced from stemmatics, it can be reasonably concluded that the regional variants were deliberately included to conform to an existing reading transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ by a companion and thus do not represent errors. In other words, on the claim of scribal errors, either the existence of the *stemma* becomes a massive coincidence or the predilection of regional variants for *mutashābihāt* becomes a massive coincidence. Notice of course that the Qur’an contains multitudes of *mutashābihāt* which feature no variants in the regional codices, including some which are quite extensive (e.g., 2:57–59 and 7:160–162). These would be the passages most ‘vulnerable’ to assimilation of parallels, and yet they are free of textual variants. On the other hand, the *mutashābihāt* which feature textual variants are comparatively much easier to sort out and generally the least confusing to *huffāẓ* (those who have memorized the Qur’an). All of this lends further credence to the argument that these regional variants are deliberate inclusions of pre-existing reading traditions and nothing in the ʿUthmānic codices is attributable to scribal error. --- ## Misconstrued narrations suggesting scribal error We may now turn our attention to a particular set of narrations recorded in the Islamic tradition which appear to attribute scribal errors to the ʿUthmānic codex. Scholars have analyzed these narrations with respect to their authenticity as well as their potential implications and interpretations. The first matter of concern is a statement of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān himself. A number of narrations state that when the ʿUthmānic codex was complete, he examined it and said, “You have done an excellent and outstanding job. I see that it contains some anomalies (*laḥn*), however the Arabs will recite it in the correct manner.”[^303] First, it should be noted that the chains of transmission for this narration are disconnected and consequently it was deemed inauthentic by many scholars.[^304] Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH) writes: > The narrations from ʿUthmān concerning that cannot be used as evidence because they are disconnected and do not trace back to him. And logically it is not possible that ʿUthmān, the leader of the Muslim *ummah* and the ruler of the people and their role model, would unify the people upon the *muṣḥaf* that will serve as the exemplar, and after noticing that there are discrepancies or mistakes in the script he would choose not to correct them.[^305] Al-Anbārī continues by pointing out that this conflicts with the narration of Hānī al-Barbarī, mentioned above, which shows that ʿUthmān went to the trouble of sending specific words to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb to ascertain their precise spellings. Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib simply points out that the companions of the Prophet ﷺ agreed on the authenticity of what is between the two covers of the *muṣḥaf*, and it is impossible that they would have agreed upon error.[^306] Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH), like al-Anbārī, notes that this narration is not authentic and that its apparent meaning negates the possibility that ʿUthmān could have said it. ʿUthmān and the noble companions completed an exhaustive and extensive project to compile the *muṣḥaf*. To simply just leave mistakes in the text after that would render the entire project pointless. He concludes that it is not possible for anyone to say this nor permissible for anyone to believe it.[^307] Similar arguments were presented by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH).[^308] Moreover, scholars pointed out that even if one were to accept the narration as authentic, the word *laḥn* does not necessarily mean “mistake.” It can also refer to dialectical differences,[^309] among a variety of other meanings.[^310]Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Munādī (d. 336 AH) was of the opinion that *laḥn* refers to spelling variants in the *rasm* where the spelling appears slightly different from the expected pronunciation, which should not be an issue since the recitation of the Qur’an is taught orally.[^311] Al-Dānī (d. 444 AH) himself provided a similar interpretation and offered examples of Qur’anic words that are written with an extra *alif* (لأاذبحنه ), *waw* (سأوريكم ), or *yā* (نبأى). It is possible for the uninitiated to mispronounce such words if they have not learned from a teacher how to recite the Qur’an, again underscoring the importance of the oral transmission.[^312] There are much more striking examples in English such as words like *neighbor*, *queue*, *knife*, *laughter*, and *asthma*, where the pronunciation differs considerably from what would be expected given the spelling. This being the case, the interpretation of the statement of ʿUthmān poses no challenges. A few statements regarding scribal errors have also been related from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, which have been studied in detail by many scholars.[^313] The most famous of these statements concerns the word despair (ييأس) in verse 13:31:[^314] “The scribe wrote it that way while he was sleepy.”[^315] With respect to the authenticity of this statement, the discussion revolves around the transmitter Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, who sometimes erred in what he relayed from memory.[^316] Abū ʿUbayd recorded the narration of Ibn ʿAbbās without including this statement, instead including only the part of the narration stating that Ibn ʿAbbās read it differently.[^317] Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal appears to have accepted the authenticity of the narration,[^318] while it was rejected by others.[^319] Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH), however, was not convinced of the report’s inauthenticity, and he stated that it was more appropriate to find a suitable interpretation for the report.[^320] Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) explained that some of the early Muslims denied certain readings with which they were unfamiliar, mentioning 13:31 as an example. He then states, “And this is a mistake known through unanimous consensus and mass (*mutawātir*) transmission. In spite of that, due to the fact that such a reading had not been established for them by mass transmission, they did not disbelieve \[by denying it\] even though it would constitute disbelief for someone for whom proof of its mass transmission has been established.”[^321] In other words, it was only during that initial period in Islamic history, before the widespread recognition of certain readings  authentically transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ, that some people could be excused for not knowing them. This is similar to how certain Islamic rulings were not known to a select few companions, but later became widely transmitted.[^322] Note that Ibn ʿAbbās’s reading of this verse was also shared by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, Ibn Abī Mulaykah, ʿAlī ibn Badīmah, Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, and others.[^323] This establishes that the reading with which Ibn ʿAbbās was most familiar was also widespread. The companions lived in an era where people commonly wrote their own personal copies of the Qur’an, and so the companions would regularly encounter and correct instances of human error in recitation *and* in writing. The use of the word *yayʾas* was likely unfamiliar to some of them since it has been described as belonging to, among others, the dialect of Hawāzin, as mentioned by al-Qāsim ibn Maʿan (d. 175 AH).[^324] There is no difficulty in affirming that Ibn ʿAbbās, due to his unfamiliarity with this reading of 13:31, assumed it was only found in a copy in which the scribe had erred.[^325] Once it became clear to him that this was a reading taught by the Prophet ﷺ, he accepted it. This is evident from the fact that Ibn ʿAbbās himself explained the word *yayʾas* found in the ʿUthmānic codex to mean *yaʿlam* (knowledge), as reported in an authentic transmission through the *tafsīr* of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah.[^326] These same principles can be used to account for other narrations from Ibn ʿAbbās[^327] or other companions that seem to imply disagreement with the reading found in the ʿUthmānic codex. For instance, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr asked ʿĀʾishah about three verses—4:162, 5:69 and 20:63—which each contain a word in an unexpected grammatical tense, to which she replied, “O my nephew, this is the doing of the scribes who erred in the transcription.”[^328] However, scholars of *tafsīr* noted that all of these examples have grammatical explanations in their support, either because they are justified by the dialect of other tribes or because the syntax of the verse supports a reading that justifies the shift in grammatical tense from that which is expected to that which is observed. Thus, the statement of ʿĀʾishah is either inauthentic,[^329] misunderstood,[^330] or relates to a personal misjudgment due to lack of familiarity with the reading found in the ʿUthmānic codex. Abū Layth al-Samarqandī (d. 375 AH) was one of those who rejected such narrations because they imply a logical impossibility, namely that the companions of the Prophet ﷺ would be aware of such errors in the ʿUthmānic codex and simply not bother to make any corrections. He wrote: > And some ignoramuses (*juhhāl*) state this is an error from the scribe when he wrote the exemplar codex \[he then mentions their citation of the aforementioned statements of ʿUthmān and ʿAʾishah\]. However, scholars consider this to be farfetched and the narrations are not established from ʿUthmān nor from ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with them both, because the companions of the Messenger ﷺ were the protectors of the religion and the role models in law and rulings, so it is inconceivable that they would leave in the book of Allah errors that others would correct.[^331] Similar arguments have been made by Abū Isḥāq al-Zajjāj (d. 311 AH)[^332] and al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 AH),[^333] with the latter pointing out that only someone unfamiliar with the works of Arabic grammar and their schools of thought could accept the proposition that these are scribal errors. In commenting on verse 4:162, Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī persuasively demonstrated the impossibility of ascribing a scribal error to the reading found in the ʿUthmānic codex by observing that the reading found in the codex of Ubayy is identical to that found in the ʿUthmānic codex.[^334] He comments, “So had that been a scribal error, it would necessitate that all the others codices should read differently than ours in which the scribe erred. And the fact that our *muṣḥaf* and the *muṣḥaf* of Ubayy agree on that \[reading\] demonstrates that what is found in our *muṣḥaf* is correct and not an error.” Note that this is an early example of a type of ‘proto-stemmatic’ consideration, the likes of which modern historians utilize to construct an archetype of a text and identify the original manuscript or reading. Al-Ṭabarī then continues with an additional historical argument: “Furthermore, had that been a scribal error, the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, from whom the Qur’an is taken, would not have continued to teach Muslims according to an error, but rather would have corrected it with their tongues (i.e., recitation) and would have instructed the *ummah* according to the correct reading. And in the very fact that Muslims have unanimously transmitted that reading exactly as it is written in the \[ʿUthmānic\] codex is the clearest evidence of its veracity and correctness.”[^335] Based on the foregoing considerations, the strongest position is that this statement from ʿĀʾishah simply indicates an instance where a companion was unfamiliar with the reading found in the ʿUthmānic codex, just like the statements from Ibn ʿAbbās discussed earlier. Mansour Hamad Eidi notes that this should not be surprising, as it is only logical that certain *qirāʾāt* would be unfamiliar to some companions. It is difficult for a person today to master and remember the various *qirāʾāt*, let alone for a person in the earliest period of Islamic history when writing was less common and individuals had their own personal codices. This is precisely what illustrates the immeasurable benefit brought about by the ʿUthmānic codex.[^336] It unified all Muslims across the *ummah* upon the same text and provided them all with a clear reference point for the recitation of the Qur’an. --- ## The Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest Earlier we discussed how Qur’anic manuscripts corroborate very precise details mentioned in the Islamic traditional sources, such as the regional variants  distributed in manuscripts in the same patterns described by the traditions. Perhaps one of the most fascinating case studies in the correlation between traditional sources and manuscripts is the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest. A palimpsest is a manuscript where the original writing (termed the lower text) was erased (by scraping or washing) and written over (the upper text).  The residue of the ink from the erased text, however, induces a subtle color change in the parchment.[^337] With careful examination and with the aid of ultraviolet light, the writing of the lower text can be identified. In 1973, during the restoration of the roof of the Ṣanʿāʾ mosque in Yemen, a storage area between the roof and ceiling was found containing thousands of ancient documents, including the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest.[^338] This palimpsest represents a very early manuscript, radiocarbon-dated to before 51 AH/671 CE with 99% probability and before 41 AH/661 CE with 95% probability.[^339] In other words, this manuscript dates very closely to the time of the ʿUthmānic compilation (25 AH/645 CE). The Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest lower text was a copy of the Qur’an that was erased and written over, and the time interval between the lower and upper text is very short (approximately 10–50 years).[^340] The upper text is consistent with the ʿUthmānic codex. The lower text likewise is consistent with the ʿUthmānic codex in the content of its verses and their sequences; it does not contain any verses absent from the ʿUthmānic codex nor does it feature verses in an order contrary to the ʿUthmānic codex. However, the lower text has some important differences with respect to chapter order and variant readings. In these differences, the lower text demonstrates an incredible degree of consistency with what Islamic traditional sources have described for the personal codices of companions like ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.[^341] With respect to chapter order for instance, the lower text of the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest has *Sūrah* *Yūnus* after *Sūrah* *al-Māʾidah*, *Sūrah al-Kahf* after *Sūrah Yūsuf*, *Sūrah* *al-Jumuʿah* after *Sūrah* *al-Munāfiqūn*, and *Sūrah* *al-Qiyāmah* after *Sūrah* *al-Insān*, identical to the sequences reported for Ibn Masʿūd and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.[^342] With respect to variant readings, there are numerous parallels as well. For instance, in 19:23, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb is reported to have read *falammā ajāʾahā* instead of *fa-ajāʾahā*; we find the lower text here is consistent with the reading of Ubayy.[^343] In 20:128, Ibn Masʿūd recited *a-wa-lam yahdī* instead of *a-fa-lam* *yahdī*; we find the lower text is consistent with the reading of Ibn Masʿūd.[^344] In 63:10, Ibn Masʿūd and Ubayy reportedly read *fa-ataṣaddaqu* instead of *fa-aṣ-ṣaddaqa*; the lower text is consistent with their reading.[^345] These readings are designated as *shādhdh* (anomalous) readings by Muslim scholars since they differ from the ʿUthmānic codex and are no longer recited. A discussion of such *shādhdh* readings has already been provided in our [previous article](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161924816&usg=AOvVaw3wBRojMeRl6dlJOmgPaQhB). In all of its differences, the lower text exhibits precisely the same kind of minor variant readings that Islamic sources state existed in the early period of Islam under the license of reciting the Qur’an according to seven *aḥruf*. There were many valid ways of reciting the Qur’an which differed in the small ways described in the traditions and witnessed in the manuscripts. When ʿUthmān compiled the *muṣḥaf*, it was not necessary for him to include every reading. This is the reason we find some non-ʿUthmānic readings in the Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest.[^346] This shows that certain readings were widespread and remained popular shortly after the standardization of the text until they eventually became extinct. Prior to the ʿUthmānic codex, there was no standardization, and Muslims recited according to the reading they had been taught. After the ʿUthmānic compilation, readers had to adhere precisely to the ʿUthmānic codex, and earlier manuscripts were erased and re-written or otherwise destroyed. Previously, certain orientalists and revisionist Western scholars such as John Wansbrough claimed that the companion codices were fictions conjured up by Muslims, or that the traditional Muslim narrative concerning the ʿUthmānic codex was wrong.[^347] The arrival of such manuscript evidence confirming even the most minute details of the Islamic traditions surrounding the ʿUthmānic compilation and the companion codices has conclusively falsified such claims. --- ## Conclusion At a time when Muslims were small in number and intensely persecuted in Makkah, and the future of Islam seemed uncertain, Allah revealed *Sūrah al-Ḥijr* containing therein a promise: “Verily, We have revealed the Qur’an and We will surely protect it” (Qur’an 15:9). The Prophet ﷺ used to hasten to repeat the words of revelation lest they be forgotten, but Allah assured him, “It is certainly upon Us to enable its gathering and its recitation” (Qur’an 75:17).[^348] By any human calculation, this promise of preservation would have seemed impossible to fulfill at the time. This was especially the case when numerous readings proliferated in Madīnah, a development necessitated by the diversity of Arabic dialects as well as differences in linguistic capabilities and literacy within the early Muslim community. The more one ponders the incredible diversity of readings at that time and the geographical span of the early Muslim empire, the more it becomes incredible to fathom how the entire *ummah* came to be united upon a single text of the Qur’an, which Muslims have continued to recite in every age and every region. All of this took place in an era that preceded the printing press, computers, and the internet.[^349] Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH) points out that the phenomenon of the Qur’an’s preservation is unparalleled. Every other ancient scripture has been subject to some degree of textual alteration and corruption. In spite of its foes who would spare no effort to attempt to undermine it, the Qur’an has stood the test of time, which serves as one of “the greatest miracles.” Moreover, this Divine promise constitutes a prophecy concerning the unseen, which is yet another miracle, and one that had already stood the test of time for six centuries when al-Rāzī made his remarks.[^350] Today, after 14 centuries, the Divine promise remains fulfilled and even more vividly attested. The accumulation of manuscript evidence corroborating precise details preserved in the literary sources of the Islamic tradition has further testified to a fact Muslims have always known, that the promise of Allah has been fulfilled. As Abū Shāmah al-Maqdisī (d. 665 AH) comments, the *muṣḥaf* contains precisely what was revealed by Allah, taught by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and written by the companions.[^351] The preservation of the Qur’an is a historical and lived reality, experienced by every Muslim who continues to recite the exact same text today that was assembled by the companions of the Prophet under the supervision of the Caliph ʿUthmān, as it was recited to them by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and as it was revealed through the Angel Jibrīl by Allah, Glorified and Exalted. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 15:9. [^2]: This was mentioned by the early scholar of *tafsīr* al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl al-Bajalī (d. 282 AH) as reported in al-Nasafī, *al-Taysīr fī al-Tafsīr*, ed. Mahir Adīb Habbūsh (Istanbul: Dar al-Lubāb, 2019), 400. [^3]: Qur’an 5:44. The task of preserving the scriptures entrusted to the people of the Book was not successfully fulfilled and those scriptures became subject to corruption. See Ibn Aṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-Kitāb al-ʿAzīz* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2002), 546. [^4]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb* (Beirut: Dar Iḥyā Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH), 19:123–24. [^5]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qira’āt al-’ashar*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Dabba’ (Beirut: DKI, n.d.), 1:6. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, *bāb kāna Jibrīl yaʿriḍ al-Qurʾan ʿalā al-Nabī*, nos. 4997–98. Note also the role this played in consolidating the Prophet’s memorization of the Qur’an, as discussed in Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī waḥyan wa rasman wa lughatan wa qirāʾatan* (Istanbul: Dār al-Ghawthānī 2019), 45–46. [^7]: Muhammad Muṣṭafā Al-Aʿẓamī, *The History of the Qur’anic Text from Revelation to Compilation* (Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2003), 68. [^8]: Al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil al-ʿirfān* (Egypt: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabīyah, 1943), 1:242. Memorization was not only done by men but also women as well. See Muḥammad Muḥammad Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal li-dirāsāt al-Qurʾān al-Karīm* (Riyadh: Dār al-Liwāʾ lil-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ, 1987), 266. [^9]: Al-Ṭayyār, *al-Muḥarrar fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Jeddah: Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa-al-Maʿlūmāt al-Qurʾānīyah bi-Maʿhad al-Imām al-Shāṭibī, 2008), 147; al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Rayān, 2001), 93. [^10]: Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm* (Jeddah: al-Fath, 1946), 39; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 90. [^11]: See, for instance, the discussion about the personal compilation of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal*, 273. [^12]: Ibn Abī Dawūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif* (Kuwait: Muʾasassah Gharās li al-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2006), 153–69; Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ fī maʿrifah marsūm maṣāḥif ahl al-amṣār* (Riyadh: Dār al-Tadmurrīyah, 2010), 134; Makkī,  *al-Ibānah ʿan maʿanī al-qiraʾāt* (N.p.: Dar Nahdah Misr, n.d.), 157–61. On the date, see Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 99. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 4986. ʿUmar said, “I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the *qurrāʾ* on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur’an may be lost.” One of those who was martyred during the battle of Yamāmah was the noble companion Sālim (the client \[*mawlā*\] of Abū Ḥudhayfah), who was one of the four famous companions from whom the Prophet had instructed people to learn the Qur’an and who used to lead the *muhājirīn* (Muslim migrants from Makkah) in prayer in Madīnah prior to the Prophet’s emigration to Madīnah. Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 95. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 7191. On the qualities for which Abū Bakr selected Zayd, see Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 98. Additionally, it should be noted that the vast majority of Qur’anic writings would have been in Medina, as companions did not travel with written copies of the Qur’an to war out of fear they could be seized by their enemies, as indicated by the Prophet’s prohibition in this regard. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1869b. [^15]: Reported in the no longer extant work by Ibn Ashtah (d. 360 AH), *al-Masahif*, as cited by al-Suyuṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Resalah Publishers, 2008), 131. See also the narrations in Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-Maṣāḥif*, 1:139–43, which mention that Abū Bakr was the first to compile the Qur’an. [^16]: See al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrā wa kamāl al-iqrāʾ* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyyah, 1999), 302–3. Ibn Ḥajar also mentions the interpretation of “memory” and “writing” constituting the “two witnesses.” See his detailed discussion on the narration in *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh: Dar al-Ṭaybah, 2005), 11:171–73. The interpretation of two witnesses having written it from the Prophet ﷺ is supported by the majority of scholars. See also Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 80; Muḥammad Ḥasan Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī min Rasūl Allah sallal Allahu ʿalayhī wa salam ilā ummatihī* (Tanta: Dar al-Ṣaḥābah li-Turāth bi-Ṭanṭā, n.d.), 182; al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 97; Muṣṭafā Bughā and Muḥyī al-Dīn Mistū, *al-Wāḍiḥ fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an* (Damascus: Dar al-Kalim al-Tayyib, 1998), 84; Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Quran al-Karīm*, 49. [^17]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān  fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 1:164. See also Ghānim Qaddurī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf: Dirāsah lughawīyah tārīkhīyah* (Baghdad: al-Lajnah al-Waṭanīyah, 1982), 99. [^18]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:168. See also al-Ṭayyār, *al-Muḥarrar fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 152; Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal*, 269. [^19]: On the use of the term *ṣuḥuf* to describe the compilation, see Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 97. [^20]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 74; Adam Gacek, “Manuscripts and the Qur’an,” in *The Qur’an: An Encyclopedia*, ed. Oliver Leaman (London: Routledge, 2006), 385. [^21]: ʿAbd al-Karīm ʿAwad Ṣāliḥ, *al-Mitḥaf fī rasm al-muṣḥaf* (Tanta: Dar al-Sahabah li-Turath bi-Ṭanṭā, 2006), 8; ʿAlī bin Sulaymān al-ʿUbayd, *Jamʿ al-Qurʿān al-Karīm ḥifdhan wa kitābah* (Medina: Majma Malik Fahd li-Tiba’ah al-Mushaf al-Sharif, 1421 AH), 509. [^22]: Ibn Saʿd, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 2001), 4:101, 2:307–8; Ibn Jarīr At-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh at-Ṭabarī* (N.p.: Dar al-Maʿārif, 1967), 4:69; al-Udfuwī, *al-Istighnāʾ fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, ed. Lubnā bint Khālid ibn Muḥammad al-Arfaj (master’s thesis, Umm al-Qura University, 2016), 264. [^23]: He writes, “There spread during that time manuscripts that were written from the companions like the *muṣḥaf* of Ibn Masʿūd, and what was written from the companions of Syria, and the *muṣḥaf* of Ubayy and others, and these contained differences to the extent of the seven *aḥruf* upon which the Qur’an was revealed.” Ibn ʿAṭṭiyah, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 1423 AH), 26. [^24]: Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibānah ʿan maʿanī al-qiraʾāt* (N.p.: Dar Nahdah Misr, n.d.), 62. [^25]: Al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil al-ʿirfān*, 1:256. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4987\. In another narration, it is mentioned that Hudhayfah encountered them differing over the verse 2:196, some reciting it with a word substitution, as *wa atimmu al-ḥajj wa-l-ʿumrah li-l-bayt*. See Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 167. [^27]: Ibn al-Athīr, *al-Kāmil fī tārīkh* (Beirut: DKI, 1987), 3:8. [^28]: See also ʿAbd al-Fattāh al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf* (Cairo: Maktaba Jundi, 1951), 27; al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 100–101. [^29]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 137. [^30]: Makkī, *al-Ibānah*, 62–64; ʿAbd al-Qayyūm al-Sindhī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm fī ʿahd al-khulafā al-rāshidīn* (Madinah: Majma Malik Fahd li-Tiba’ah al-Mushaf al-Sharif, 1421 AH), 380; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 105. [^31]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān*, 49. [^32]: Some scholars also claim that the compilation of Abū Bakr was called *suḥuf* because it did not contain the *sūrah*s arranged sequentially; however, Ghānim Qadurī al-Ḥamad notes there is no evidence to support such an assertion. *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 123. [^33]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah*, ed. Shu’ayb al-Arna’ūṭ and Muhammad Zuhayr Shāwīsh (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, n.d.), 4:523. [^34]: Ibn Shabba, *Akhbār al-Madīnah* (N.p.: Dar al-Alyan, 1990), 3:212. [^35]: Ibn Ḥajar indicates this as mentioned by ʿAlī Dhuryān al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān fī ʿahd ʿUthmān* (Kuwait: Dar al-Dhahiriyah, 2022), 30. [^36]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī*, 4. [^37]: Al-Balādhurī, *Futūḥ al-buldān* (Beirut: DKI, 2014), 287. [^38]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 208, 209. Report #82 mentions 13 years and report #83 mentions 15 years. Note that the Prophet ﷺ passed away in 11 AH. [^39]: Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh Ibrahim al-Ḥasānīn, “*Ṣanīʿ ʿUthmān bi-l-aḥruf al-sabʿa ʿinda jamʿ al-Qurʾan wa ʿalāqatuhū bi-l-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*,” *Majallah al-Ulūm al-Sharʿiyyah* 14, no. 4 (February 2021): 2700; see also Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 88. [^40]: Omar Hamdan, “*Mashruʿ al-maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyah qirāʾah jadīdah fī taḥdīd tārīkhihī wa ʿadad nuskhihī*,” in *al-Qurʾān al-Karīm min al-tanzīl ila al-tadwīn* (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, 2018) 39, 50–51. [^41]: Nāṣir al-Qithāmī, *al-Rasm al-ʿUthmānī wa atharuhū fī riwāyāt al-qirāʾāt* (N.p., 1916). [^42]: ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr (d. 73 AH) was the son of two of the most illustrious companions of the Prophet—Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām and Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr—and was known for his eloquence. He later revolted against Umayyad rule and established his caliphate in Makkah, where he ruled for nine years before he was killed by al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafī. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3506. [^44]: A group entered the presence of Zaid ibn Thabit and said to him: “Relate to us the traditions of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ.” He said: “What shall I relate to you? I was his neighbor, so when the revelation descended upon him, he notified me and I recorded it in writing for him.” Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:145; also al-Tirmidhī, *Shamāʾil al-Nabī*, no. 342, [https://sunnah.com/shamail:342](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/shamail:342&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161946459&usg=AOvVaw0UET57O-ONgkztVypbxE2f)*.* [^45]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 615. [^46]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah* (Beirut: Al-Maktab Al-Islami, 1983), 4:525–26. [^47]: There is one narration in which Ibn ʿAbbās stated that ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd attended the final review with the Prophet ﷺ (*Musnad Ahmad*, no. 3422). Al-Ṭāsān argues that this conflicts with another narration from Ibn ʿAbbās, which acknowledges the reading of ʿUthmān to be according to the final review. He also argues that it conflicts with the statements of Samurah ibn Jundub and Ibn Sirīn (d. 110 AH), which imply that the ʿUthmānic reading is based on the final review. See Al-Ṭāsān, *Taḥqīq mawqif al-ṣaḥābī al-jalīl ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd min al-jamʿ al-ʿUthmānī* (Riyadh: Maktabah Malik Fahd, 1435 AH), 59–67. [^48]: For a more detailed discussion concerning the significance of the “final review,” refer to the following studies: Osama Alhaiany, “*al-ʿArḍah al-akhīrah lil-Qurʾān al-Karīm wa-al-aḥadīth al-wāridah fīhā jamʿan wa dirāsah*,” *al-Majallah al-Ulūm al-Islamiyyah*, no. 10; Muhammad Bāzmūl, “*al-Aḥādīth al-wāridah fī al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*,” *Majallah Jāmiʿah Umm al-Qurra li-ʿUlūm al-Sharīʿah wa al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyah*, issue 62 (Shaʿbān 1435), 83; Nāsir ibn Saʿūd al-Qithamī, “*al-ʿArḍah al-akhīrah: Dalālatuha wa atharuhā*,” *Majallah Maʿhad al-Imām al-Shaṭibī li-Dirasah al-Qurʾāniyyah*, no. 15 (2013). [^49]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 614. He stated: “It was so that nothing in the Qur’an would be written (*marsūm*) according to other than their dialect.” [^50]: He was 11 years old at the time of the Prophetic migration. See Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 112. [^51]: Calculated from their age at the time of hijrah or the Prophet’s passing as mentioned in al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Mushaf*, 115. [^52]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh Dimashq* (N.p.: Dar al-Fikr, 1995), 39:243; Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:211; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:178. See also al-Ḥasānīn, “*Ṣanīʿ Uthmān*,” 2700, Fahd al-Rūmī, *Dirasāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Riyadh: Markaz Tafsīr li al-Dirasāt al-Qurʾāniyya, 2005),  92. In another narration, Ubayy ibn Ka’b dictated, Zayd transcribed, and Saʿīd reviewed. See Ibn Saʿd, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 5:312. [^53]: Ibn Abi Dawud, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:213; Ibn Sa’d, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 3:466. See also al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 89. [^54]: Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 116; Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 205. [^55]: Al-ʿUbayd, *Jamʿ al-Qurʿān al-Karīm*, 516–517; ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf wa nuṭqihi* (Mecca: Maktabat al-Makkiyah, 2004), 111. [^56]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ* *al-Qurʾān fī ʿahd ʿUthmān*, 32; al-Ḥasānīn, “*Ṣanīʿ Uthmān*,” 2702–5. These authors gather the various narrations attempting to enumerate the individuals, with some differences in their lists, the former including Anas ibn Malik al-Qushayri and ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, instead of Abū Dardāʾ and Saʿd ibn Nuʿmān. For a similar list with minor differences, see also al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 89. [^57]: Al-Hamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 117. [^58]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ*, 33–34; Hamdan, “*Mashruʿ al-maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyah*,” 46–47. [^59]: Cited in Dhahabi, *Siyar aʿlām an-nubalā* (N.p.: Dar al-Hadith, 2006), 3:242. [^60]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*,  *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, no. 4991. The hadith of seven *aḥruf* are cited in no fewer than four books within *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*. [^61]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2944. [^62]: A detailed elaboration of this point is beyond the scope of this article. However, a brief explanation is as follows. If one adopts the opinion that the seven *aḥruf* refer to different categories of ways in which readings may differ, then for instance, one category may be *al-naqṣ wa-l-ziyāda* (omission or addition). Then, does the Uthmānic text encompass this *ḥarf* if it only has one example of this category, or does it require inclusion of all readings associated with this category in order to be considered to have encompassed this *ḥarf*? Those who adopt this interpretation of *aḥruf* must demonstrate that all of these categories can be found in the Uthmānic text, but not necessarily all the readings that are subsumed by these categories. [^63]: This point is subject to further discussion. See Ammar Khatib, *Simple Illustrated Guide to the History of Arabic Dotting for Beginners* (self-pub., 2020), 7. A number of scholars including Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH) and Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī (d. 454 AH) stated that the text was deliberately written without dotting or vowelization to accommodate other readings, a view that was subsequently adopted by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) and Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH). However, Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad is of the view that the companions simply adopted the writing convention of their time, and that consonantal dotting was absent because it was invented later. See Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *ʿUlūm al-Qur’an bayna al-maṣādir wal-maṣāḥif* (Riyadh: Tafsir Centre for Qur’anic Studies, 2018), 68–69 and *Murājaʿah ʿadad min al-Naẓariyyāt al-mutaʿalliqah bi-rasm al-muṣḥaf fī ḍawʾ ʿilm al-khuṭūṭ al-qadīmah*, International Conference for the development of Quranic studies (February 16, 2013), 44–45. Al-Aʿẓamī on the other hand notes several examples from early Arabic paleography predating the ʿUthmānic codex that did indeed have consonantal dotting (*History*, 136–39). One may also note that al-Farrāʾ (d. 207 AH) reports the presence of dotting in the *muṣḥaf* of Ibn Masʿūd in 49:6. Al-Farrāʾ, *Maʿānī al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: ʿAlam al-Kutub, 1983), 3:71. The ubiquitous presence of some consonantal dotting in early Qur’anic manuscripts has also led to the hypothesis that they have always been a feature of the Qur’anic script since the beginning, and that sparse dotting was present in the ʿUthmānic codices according to the customary scribal practices at the time. See Adam Bursi, “Connecting the Dots: Diacritics, Scribal Culture, and the Qurʾān in the First/Seventh Century,” *Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association* 3 (2018), 149. [^64]: Scholars further divided readings which conform to the text into those that explicitly conform to the text (*al-muwāfaqah al-muḥaqaqah*), those that implicitly conform to the text (*al-muwāfaqah al-muḥtamalah*), and those that have a trivial nonconformity to the text (*al-mukhālafah al-yasīrah/al-mughtafarah*), like a single-letter pronunciation. An example of the first category would be reciting *maliki* in 1:4 while an example of the second category would be reciting *māliki* in 1:4, since the text is written without an *alif* (ملك). An example of the third category is reciting *al-ṣirāṭ* as *al-sirāṭ* (with a س) as recited by Qunbul ʿan Ibn Kathīr and Ruways ʿan Yaʿqūb, among others. See Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qira’āt al-’ashar*, 1:12–13. See also Shādī bin Aḥmad Tawfīq al-Mulḥim, “*Mā lā yaḥtamiluhu rasm al-muṣḥaf min al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashar*,” *Majjala Tibyan lil-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾāniyyah*, no. 25 (1438 AH), 386–90; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥarbī, *Tawjīh mushkil al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashriyyah al-farshiyyah lughatan wa tafsīran wa iʿraban* (master’s thesis, Umm al-Qurrā University, 1417 AH), 26. [^65]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, ed. al-Turkī (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 2001), 1:59–60. [^66]: Al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ mushkil al-āthār*, ed. Shu'ayb al-Arna'ūṭ, 16 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 1994), 8:125. He states that once people became accustomed to learning the Quran, the license for reading with other *aḥruf* disappeared and the Qur’an went back to being read with one *ḥarf* only. Cf. Ammār Khaṭīb, *Taḥrīr madhhab al-Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī fi ma’na al-aḥruf al-sab’a* (Markaz al-Tafsīr li-Dirāsāt al-Qur’āniyyah, May 22, 2021), [https://tafsir.net/article/5351/thryr-mdhhb-al-imam-at-thawy-fy-m-na-al-ahrf-as-sb-h](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.net/article/5351/thryr-mdhhb-al-imam-at-thawy-fy-m-na-al-ahrf-as-sb-h&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161953784&usg=AOvVaw1WLuhGqEvVhT5TiLTAB50i). [^67]: al-Naḥḥās, *al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh* (Riyadh: Dar al-Asimah, 2009), 2:405. “*Fa-arāda ʿUthmān an yakhtār min al-sabʿah ḥarfan wāḥid wa huwa afṣaḥuhā*.” [^68]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār* (Damascus: Dar Qutaibah, 1993), 8:45. [^69]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah*, 4:523, quoted earlier in the article. [^70]: ʿAlī ibn Ismaʿīl al-Abyārī, *al-Taḥqīq wa-al-bayān fī sharḥ al-burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh* (Doha: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa al-Shuʾūn al-Islāmīyah, 2013), 2:792. [^71]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá* (Mansoura: Dar El-Wafaa, 2005), 13:214. [^72]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Ṭuruq al-ḥukmīyah fī al-siyāsah al-sharʿīyah* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1428 AH), 1:47–48; Ibn al-Qayyim, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn* (Dammam: Dār ibn al-Jawzī, 2002), 5:65. [^73]: See also Mannāʿ al-Qaṭṭān, *Mabāḥith fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān* (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1995), 158; al-Kurdī, *al-Karīm*, 52, 64; and Bashār ʿAwād Maʿrūf, *Anẓār fī ḥadīth* “*inna hadhā al-Qurʾāna unzila ʿalā sabʿatī aḥruf*,” in *al-Qurʾān al-Karīm min al-tanzīl ila al-tadwīn* (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, 2018), 289–92. [^74]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, ed. al-Turkī (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 2001), 1:59–60. Note that scholars did discuss the potential value of some of these reported non-ʿUthmānic variants in exegesis and jurisprudential rulings. [^75]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār lil-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2001), 1:60, 364–65. [^76]: Al-Dānī writes, “\[And we believe\] that the commander of the believers, ʿUthmān, and those who were present from among all of the companions established all of these *aḥruf* in the *maṣāḥif* and they informed of its authenticity and correctness, and allowed people the choice \[regarding the different readings\] as the Prophet ﷺ had done. And from amongst these *aḥruf* is the *ḥarf* of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, the *ḥarf* of Abdullāh ibn Masʿūd, and the *ḥarf* of Zayd ibn Thābit. And ʿUthmān and the community only dispensed with those *ḥurūf* and *qirāʾāt* that were false (*bāṭilah*) neither known nor established but rather transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ in the manner of *ahādīth*, which is not permissible as a method to establish Qur’an.” Al-Dānī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿah al-mashūrah* (Tanta, Egypt: Dar al-Sahabah li-Turath bi-Ṭanṭā, 2012), 67. Note that al-Dānī elsewhere mentions the view that ʿUthmān gathered the people upon one *ḥarf* and left out the remaining *aḥruf*; however, he precedes this by mentioning this explanation “according to the statement of some scholars” (*ʿalā qawl baʿḍ al-ʿulamāʾ*) and follows it by mentioning the view that only inauthentic readings were left out. See al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 613. [^77]: Ibn Ḥazm, *al-Fiṣal fī al-milal wa-l-ahwāʾī wa-l-niḥal* (Cairo: Maktabah al-Khanji, n.d.), 2:65. [^78]: Al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrā wa kamāl al-iqrāʾ* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyyah, 1999), 2:573–74. [^79]: Al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil al-ʿirfān*, 1:169; ʿAbd al-Fattāh al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf*, 30–32; Abū Nūr Aḥmad al-Zaʿbī, *al-Maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyah wa ṣilatihā bil-aḥruf al-sabʿah* (Kuwait: Dar al-Bayan, 2003), 18, 52. [^80]: Al-Ḥasānīn, “*Ṣanīʿ Uthmān*,” 2720–22. [^81]: Abd al-Qayyūm al-Sindhī places himself in the third group (see below); however, his view is actually concordant with the second group since he states that all the valid (authentic non-abrogated) readings from the seven *aḥruf* are contained in the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*, which is exactly what the second group states. Al-Sindhī, *Safaḥāt fī ʿulūm al-qirāʾāṭ* (Mecca: al-Maktabah al-Imdadiyah, 1415 AH), 125. [^82]: See also al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 113. [^83]: For instance, when ʿAlqamah ibn Qays (d. 62 AH) traveled to Greater Syria, he met the companion Abū al-Dardāʾ, and the latter asked ʿAlqamah about how Ibn Masʿūd recited *Sūrah al-Layl*. ʿAlqamah responded that Ibn Masʿūd recited verse 3 as “*wa-al-dhakari wa-al-unthá*” (and by the male and the female) instead of “*wa* ***mā khalaqa*** *al-dhakara wa-al-unthá*” (and by **that which created** the male and the female), whereupon Abū al-Dardāʾ testified that he had learned the verse in the same way from the Prophet ﷺ. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3742. [^84]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *al-Asās fī ʿilm al-qiraʾāt* (Amman: Arwiqa, 2015), 166; Rawān Nāṣir al-Anṣārī, “*ʿAlaqat al-jamʿ al-ʿUthmānī bil-aḥruf al-sabʿa*,” *Majallah Kulliyat al-Sharīʿah wal-Qānūn, Jāmiʿat al-Azhar* 32, no. 1 (2020): 654–81. [^85]: Al-Raʿīnī (d. 476 AH), *al-Kāfī fi al-qiraʾāṭ al-sabaʿ* (Beirut: DKI, 2000), 15. [^86]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:31. [^87]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Munjid al-muqriʾīn*, 54. [^88]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh: Dār al-Ṭaybah, 2005), 11:195–96. He further explains that this was a reason for the textual variants between ʿUthmānic codices, to increase the number of readings that could be accommodated. See also Ahmad Ali Imam, *The Variant Readings of the Quran: A Critical Study of their Historical And Linguistic Origins*, 66–67. [^89]: Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmmār al-Mahdawī, *Sharḥ al-hidāyah* (Riyadh: Maktabah Rushd, 1995), 5. [^90]: As demonstrated by the view of Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, there is no conflict between the view that the committee of ʿUthmān compiled the Qur’an according to one *ḥarf* and the view that some of the other *aḥruf* remained because even if the committee may have primarily had one of the various readings in mind when they transcribed the codex, that does not change the fact that other readings could still be accommodated by the skeletal text. See also Al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 152. [^91]: Quoted in Abū Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz ilā ʿulūm tataʿallaq bil-Kitāb al-Aziz* (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah, 2003), 114. See also Muhammad ibn Luṭfī al-Sabbagh, *Lamaḥāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, (Beirut: Maktabah Islami 1990), 172–173. Note that this statement is mistakenly attributed to Abū Shāmah himself in some sources; cf. al-Jaʿfarī, *al-Asās fī ʿilm al-qiraʾāt*, 167 and Muḥammad Aḥmad Mufliḥ al-Quḍāh, Aḥmad Khālid Shukrī, and Muḥammad Khālid Manṣūr, *Kitāb Muqaddimāt fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* (Amman: Dar Amman, 2001), 41. [^92]: ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf wa nuṭqihi*, 147. [^93]: Fahd al-Rūmī, *Dirasāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 95; Imam, *Variant Readings of the Quran*, 66–67. [^94]: See Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibānah ʿan maʿānī al-qirāʾāt* (Cairo: Dār Nahdah Misr, 1977), 34. This quote is of interest because it demonstrates that while opinions on this subject are conventionally divided into three groups—those who say all *aḥruf* are preserved (e.g., al-Bāqillānī), those who say only one is preserved (e.g., al-Ṭabarī), and those who say the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* was deliberately written (free of vocalization and diacritics) to accommodate more than one *ḥarf* (Ibn al-Jazarī)—Makkī fell into a fourth category, suggesting that although the *muṣḥaf* was deliberately written according to one *ḥarf*, the script still accommodated other readings. See also Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Hidāyah ilā bulūgh al-nihāyah* (Sharjah: University of Sharjah, 2008), 4:2911–12. [^95]: Melchert writes, “According to Makki ibn Abi Talib, ʿUthmān probably had in mind just one pronunciation (*lafẓ*), but since his copy contained no points or indications of case endings, the people of the different centers continued to use their traditional readings so far as they did not contradict ʿUthmān’s consonantal outline. By this account, the consonantal outline familiar today preserves one of the seven *aḥruf* whereas the diacritics and vowel signs sometimes preserve elements of the other six *aḥruf* as well.”  Christopher Melchert, “The Relation of the Ten Readings to One Another,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 10, no. 2 (2008): 84. [^96]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān bayna al-maṣādir wal-maṣaḥif,* 217. [^97]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 147; al-Firmāwī, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf wa nuṭqihi*, 151. [^98]: Sālim Qaddūrī al-Hamad, *Athar rukhṣah al-aḥruf*, 321. [^99]: ʿAbd al-Fattāh al-Qāḍī for instance aligns with the “majority” view that the ʿUthmānic *maṣāḥif* contained the seven *aḥruf* insofar as they are accommodated by the *rasm* of one of the regional codices; however, he argues that no valid reading was left out, and that whatever was included was established in *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*. Hence, his view is in accordance with the second view mentioned above. Al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-mtuṣḥaf*, 30. See also ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Qābah, *al-Qirāʾāt al-Qurʾāniyyah: Tārīkhuhā, thubūtuhā, ḥujiyyatuhā, wa aḥkāmuhā* (Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1999), 150. [^100]: Yaḥyā Aḥmad Jalāl and Halā Nayef al-Mashaqbeh, “*Arā al-ʿulamāʾ fī al-qirāʾāt alatī lam tashmiluhā al-maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyyah*,” *Islamic University of Gaza Journal of Islamic Studies* 28, no. 4 (2020): 244–62. [^101]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 156. Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad himself, however, is of the opinion that the Qur’an was revealed exclusively in the dialect of the Quraysh. See below. [^102]: Ghanim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 142–43 and *al-Ajwibah al-ʿilmiyah ʿalā asʾilah multaqā ahl al-tafsīr* (Amman: Dar Ammar, 2005), 15–16. ʿAbd al-Ṣabūr Shāhīn notes that since Hishām bin Ḥakīm (with whom ʿUmar differed in recitation) accepted Islam after the conquest of Makkah, the permission to recite in seven *aḥruf* likely occurred in the ninth year of hijrah. Shāhīn, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān* (N.p.: Nahdet Misr, 2007), 80–81. For a discussion on the difference of opinion on when the permission to recite in seven *aḥruf* was given, refer to al-Jaʿfarī, *al-Asās*, 42–46. He cites three views from three contemporary Qur’anic scholars: (1) permission was given in Makkah from the beginning, held by Muhammad Sālim al-Muḥaysin; (2) permission was given in Medina, held by Shaʿbān Muḥammad Ismaʿīl (along with many classical scholars); and (3) the seven *aḥruf* were revealed in Makkah but permission to use them was given in Madīnah, held by Sayyid Rizq Ṭawīl. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Qābah also notes a difference of opinion among scholars concerning whether the other readings were also revealed or were simply permitted, the latter being implied by Abū Shāmah (d. 665 AH) and Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qastallānī (d. 923 AH). See Qābah, *al-Qirāʾāt al-Qurʾāniyyah*, 47–49. [^103]: Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, *Umdat al-qarī* (Beirut: DKI, 2001), 20:20; Abu Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 89–90; al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 282-287. See for instance the examples in the Qur’an discussed in Imam, *Variant Readings of the Quran*, 99. On the other hand, Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad is of the opinion that all of the words of the Qur’an are to be considered in the Qurayshī dialect since those words found in other dialects may have also been shared by the Qurayshī dialect. Hence, he supports Ibn Qutaybah’s (d. 276 AH) opinion that the Qur’an was revealed exclusively in the dialect of the Quraysh, and recitation in the other dialects was based on the concession provided by the Prophet ﷺ. Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 161–62; *Abḥāth fī al-ʿArabiyyah al-fuṣḥā* (Amman: Dar ʿAmmār, 2005), 77; *al-Ajwibah al-ʿilmiyah*, 11. See also Qābah, *al-Qirāʾāt al-Qurʾāniyyah*, 47–49. [^104]: Some scholars are of the opinion that “writing in the language of the Quraysh” meant in terms of spelling and not in terms of dialect and pronunciation, e.g., ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Qāḍī, *Tārīkh al-muṣḥaf al-sharīf*, 32–34; ʿAlī al-ʿUbayd, *Jamʿ al-Qurʿān al-Karīm*, 520. ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī dismisses this suggestion, noting that (1) there was no difference in spelling convention between Makkah and Madīnah and (2) the three Qurayshī youth had grown up and learnt writing in Madinah. *Rasm al-muṣḥaf wa nuṭqihi*, 149. See also Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad’s comments, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 149n56. One may also add that the narration in which ʿUmar reproaches ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿūd for not teaching the Qur’an in the dialect of the Quraysh also makes it abundantly clear that this is not referring merely to spelling. [^105]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 46–48. [^106]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd* (London: Mu’assasat al-Furqan, 2017), 5:590. [^107]: Khalaf ibn Hishām (d. 229 AH) said, “The Quraysh do not pronounce *hamzah*, pronouncing the *hamzah* is not from their dialect. Indeed, the reciters (*qurrāʾ*) only pronounced it according to the other Arab dialects aside from Quraysh.” See Abu Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH), *Īḍāḥ al-waqf wal-ibtidāʾ fī kitāb Allāh ʿazza wa jal* (Damascus: Majma al-Lughah al-Arabiyyah, 1971), 392. See also Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *al-Ajwibah al-ʿilmiyah ʿalā asʾilah multaqā ahl al-tafsīr* (Amman: Dar Ammar, 2005), 10; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 158–59. [^108]: It is pronounced this way according to Warsh from Nāfiʿ (both Azraq and Asbahānī’s transmission) and according to Abu Jaʿfar and Sūsī from Abū ʿAmr al-Baṣrī. [^109]: See Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab* (Beirut: Dar Sader, 1414 AH), 1:22. The Kufan reciter al-Kisāʾī landed in some controversy when he led prayer in the Prophet’s *masjid* while pronouncing the *hamzah*, which was evidently not what the locals were accustomed to. Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab*, 5:189. [^110]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhī*, no. 3104. See also Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ mushkil al-āthār*, 8:130. [^111]: An example would be the committee’s selection of “*wa mā khalaqa al-dhakara wa-l-unthá*” instead of “*wa-l-dhakari wa-l-unthá*,” the latter being the reading of Ibn Masʿūd and Abū al-Dardāʾ for 91:3. See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3742\. Amīn ibn Idrīs ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fallātah, *al-Ikhtiyār ʿinda al-qurrāʾ* (Riyadh: King Saud University, 1436 AH), 149. See also Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Abḥāth fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Amman: Dar Ammar, 2006), 35–71 on the topic of *ikhtiyār*. [^112]: Ibn Shabbah, *Tārīkh al-Madīnah*, 2:711. [^113]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd limā fī al-muwattā min al-ma'ānī wa al-asānīd* (Morocco: Wizarat ʿUmūm al-Awqāf wa a1-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyyah, 1387 AH/1967), 8:279. See also al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 59. [^114]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:163; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *al-Ajwibah al-ʿilmiyah*, 11. [^115]: Abu Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 102. [^116]: A brief comment may be made concerning the appropriateness of the term *jamʿ* (gathering or compilation) for the process of producing the ʿUthmānic codex. For those scholars who consider the ʿUthmānic codex to simply be a direct copy of the *ṣuḥuf* of Abū Bakr, the project of ʿUthmān did not involve gathering or compiling any textual materials; it was rather a gathering or unifying of *people* upon a single text, and thus may be more appropriately called a project of standardization. Other scholars, as explained in this section, did consider this to be an autonomously assembled text that was later checked against the *ṣuḥuf* of Abū Bakr; hence, it would be appropriately termed a compilation per that view. [^117]: Al-ʿUbayd, *Jamʿ al-Qurʿān al-Karīm*, 506–7. [^118]: Ibn ʿĀshir, *Fatḥ al-Mannān al-marwī bi-mawrid al-ẓamān*, 415. He cites Burhān al-Dīn al-Jaʿbarī, who notes that the compilation passed from Abū Bakr to ʿUmar because Abū Bakr himself designated ʿUmar as his successor. On the other hand, ʿUmar did not designate a successor but appointed a committee to consult (*shūrā*) and decide on the successor, and therefore the compilation was inherited from him by Ḥafṣah. See also al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid fī sharḥ ʿaqīlah atrab al-qasāʾid* (Amman: Arwiqah, 2017), 344; Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān*, 44; M. Mohar Ali, *The Qur’an and the Orientalists* (Ipswich: Jamʿiyat ʾIḥyaaʾ Minhaaj al-Sunnah, 2004), 237. [^119]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4987. [^120]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid*, 353. [^121]: Note that this was also mentioned as a possibility by Abū Shāmah al-Maqdisī (d. 665 AH), *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 76. [^122]: As translated by al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 90. One may note that al-Aʿẓamī has taken some liberties in the translation and paraphrasing and the interested reader may consult the original text in Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 210. The chain of transmission is declared authentic by the editor, Salīm al-Hilālī, and was also declared authentic by Ibn Kathīr. Note that Muhammad Ḥasan Jabal, following al-Bayhaqi, discounts this narration as evidence on the grounds that Muṣʿab did not hear directly from ʿUthmān and that the compilation process had already taken place during the time of Abu Bakr. See Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 197–99. [^123]: As translated by al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 90. As in the previous narration, al-Aʿẓamī takes some liberties in paraphrasing, cf. Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 206. The chain of transmission to Malik bin Abī ʿĀmir is declared authentic by the editor, Salīm al-Hilālī. [^124]: Some scholars also point out that the narrations do not mention a committee assisting Zayd in the time of Abū Bakr, while he was assisted by a committee in the time of ʿUthmān in order to assist in writing the Qurʾān according to one *ḥarf*. See al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 61–62. [^125]: Ibn Jarīr, *Tafṣir al-Ṭabarī*, 1:56. Note that parts of this account contain interpolations mixing between the collection at the time of Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān; however, the point of evidence is the detail at the very end of the account which mentions the final review of ʿUthmān’s codex using Abū Bakr’s compilation. See also Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, *al-Fasl li al-wasl al-mudraj fi al-naql* (Riyadh: Dar al-Hijrah, 1997), 1:399. [^126]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 93. [^127]: Many scholars claimed that Abū Bakr’s compilation contained the seven *aḥruf* while ʿUthmān’s compilation did not. See, for instance, al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid*, 334; al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 48, 64; al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ*, 56. In his doctoral dissertation, the Egyptian Azhari scholar ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī (d. 2017 CE) theorized that since Abū Bakr’s compilation was not intended to reduce readings as the ʿUthmānic codex was, it is theoretically possible that it even included multiple readings of the same verse, either above or below the word or on the margins. ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Faramāwī, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf wa nuṭqihī*, 108. Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad dismisses this suggestion, along with the claim that Abū Bakr’s compilation contained the seven *aḥruf*, due to the absence of evidence to confirm these suggestions. *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 145. See also the discussion in Sālim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Athar rukhṣah al-aḥruf fī tadwīn al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī* (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, 2018), 316–17. Nonetheless, even if Abu Bakr’s compilation did not include multiple *aḥruf* for the same passage,  it remains a possibility that it contained some passages according to one *ḥarf* and other passages according to another since fixation of one reading was not an express goal of the compilation. [^128]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7425. [^129]: Abū Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 61; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:171–73; al-Bāqillānī, *Nukat al-intiṣār* (Alexandria: Mansha*ʾ*at al-Maʿārif, 1971), 333. See also al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ*, 307 for the alternate explanation that Zayd was looking for others who had a copy of the verse to confirm the different possible readings of the verse. [^130]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4679. [^131]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4049. [^132]: Ghanim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-Muṣḥaf*, 118–19. [^133]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:146, 148, 154, 203 (which mentions Khuzaymah with 9:128 during Abū Bakr’s compilation), 1:149 (which mentions Khuzaymah with 33:23 during Abū Bakr’s compilation), 1:198 (which mentions Khuzaymah or Abū Khuzaymah for 33:23), 2:221 (which mentions Khuzaymah with 33:23 during ʿUthmān’s compilation), and 2:225 (which mentions Khuzaymah with 9:128 during ʿUthmān’s compilation). See also Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān wa maʿālimuhu wa adābuhu*, ed. Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Khayyāṭī (Rabat: Moroccan Ministry of Islamic Affairs, 1995), 2:93, 96. [^134]: Al-Bāqillānī, *Nukat al-intiṣār*, 331. [^135]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:172 . See also Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, *ʿUmdat al-qārī*, 20:19. [^136]: Abū Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 61; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:172; see also Ibn ʿĀshir, *Fatḥ al-Mannān al-marwī bi-mawrid al-ẓamān*, 418. [^137]: Al-Aʿẓamī writes, “These two have caused confusion among some scholars, mainly due to the proximity of the two names. Note that the two are distinct: Khuzaima and Abu Khuzaima. Now if we read the hadiths carefully we see that Zaid used the word *ṣuḥuf* for the collection during Abū Bakr’s reign, and the word *muṣḥaf* or *maṣāḥif* (pl. of *muṣḥaf*) for the work he did under ʿUthmān’s supervision. Thus we may safely conclude that these are two different instances of compilation… If we consider the second compilation to be Zaid’s work on an independent copy of the *muṣḥaf* then everything becomes clear. On the other hand, if we assume that Zaid was simply making a duplicate copy for ʿUthmān based on Abū Bakr’s, not an autonomous copy, then we must confront the awkward question of why Zaid was unable to locate verse no. 23 from *Sūra al-Aḥzāb* since all the verses should have been right in front of him. Of interest also is that Zaid uses the first person singular pronoun in the first narration and the plural ‘we,’ indicating group activity, in the second. All of this strongly bolsters the view that the second compilation was indeed an independent endeavor.” Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 92. [^138]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ*, 44–45. [^139]: Ibn Kathīr, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Maktabah Ibn Taymiyyah, 1416 AH), 86. [^140]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid*, 340. See also Imam, *Variant Readings of the Quran*, 45. [^141]: Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 185, 201–204. [^142]: Arthur Jeffery, ed., *Muqaddimatān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān: Wa-humā muqaddimāt Kitāb al-mabānī wa-muqaddimāt Ibn ʿAtiyya* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1954), 20–22. On the identity of the author, see Aron Zysow, “Two Unrecognized Karrāmī Texts,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society* 108, no. 4 (1988): 577–87, [https://doi.org/10.2307/603146](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2307/603146&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161969661&usg=AOvVaw15S0RO6FoLPa6ALoF1thTe). [^143]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 119. [^144]: Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” *Der Islam* 87, nos. 1–2 (2012): 23. They write: “There are some traditions about ‘Uthmān’s team finding the last two verses of sūra 9 with a man named Khuzayma, or Abū Khuzayma, or Ibn Khuzayma. C-1 \[(Sanʿāʾ undertext)\] has these verses in the expected place. Since they are also found in the ‘Uthmānic Qur’an, and since it is not reported that any Companion codex was without them, these verses must have belonged to the prototype from which the C-1 and ‘Uthmānic text types emerged. Therefore, one should not read too much into the report.” [^145]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2807. [^146]: See *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 3607; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 4647; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 21883, along with *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 2188; *Sunan al-Bayhaqi*, no. 20516; al-Ṭabarānī, *Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 3730. [^147]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *I’lam al-muwaqi’in*, 3:368. [^148]: Al-Sindhī, *Sunan al-Nasāʾī al-musammā bi-l-mujtabā wa bi-hāmishihī ḥāshiya al-sindhī* (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 2005), p. 1080, no. 4651. [^149]: In fact, Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad argues that there is no evidence to suggest that Abū Bakr’s compilation was not also written with the *sūrah*s arranged in sequence. *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 123. [^150]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān*, 87; Ṭaha ʿĀbidīn Ṭaha, “*Tartīb suwar al-Qur’an al-Karīm: Dirāsah taḥlīlīyah li-aqwāl al-ʿulamaʾ*,” *Majallah Buhuth al-Dirasat al-Qur’aniyyah* 9 (2010): 32, [https://jqrs.qurancomplex.gov.sa/?p=416](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jqrs.qurancomplex.gov.sa/?p%3D416&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161974655&usg=AOvVaw0TB-ib-F6cji6A6Bviv1LH). [^151]: Al-Nahhas, *al-Nāsikh wal-mansūkh*, 2:400. Some scholars including al-Kirmānī and al-Ṭībī stated that the Qur’an is written in the same sequence as it is found in the Preserved Tablet (*al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūdh*). See Fahd al-Rūmī, *Dirāsāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 119. [^152]: Muhammad Ali Hasan, *al-Manār fi ʿulūm al-Qur’ān maʿa madkhal fī uṣūl al-tafsīr wa maṣādirih* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2000), 168. [^153]: Cited in al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an* (Cairo: Dar Ihya al-Kutub al-Arabiyyah, 1957), 1:260. [^154]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah*, 4:522. [^155]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1393; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1345; *Musnad Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1108. Yahya ibn Maʿīn approved of its chain of transmission. [^156]: Fahd al-Rūmī, *Dirasāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 120. There are numerous narrations that also mention the *sūrah*s of the Qur’an according to the familiar chapter order found in the ʿUthmānic codex. Al-Ṭayyār, *al-Muḥarrar fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 199. [^157]: Ibn Juzayy, *al-Tashīl li ʿulūm al-tanzīl* (Beirut: Dar al-Arqam, 1416 AH), 1:13. [^158]: Notice that he attributes the *ijtihādī* opinion to the majority, in contrast to those who attribute the *tawqīfī* opinion to the majority. [^159]: Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, *Ikmāl al-muʿallim* (Egypt: Dar al-Wafa, 1998), 3:137. [^160]: Ṭaha, “*Tartīb suwar al-Qur’an al-Karīm*,” 41. [^161]: Ibn ʿAṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz*, 27. Muhammad Hasan Jabal supports this view. Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 234. [^162]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Muḥaḍarāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 73; al-Ṭayyār, *al-Muḥarar fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 203. [^163]: Ibn Baṭṭāl, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Riyadh: Maktaba Rushd, 2003), 10:239. [^164]: Yazīd al-Fārisī narrated that Ibn ʿAbbās said that he asked ʿUthmān, “Why did you place al-Anfāl, one of the *mathānī*, alongside al-Barāʾah, one the *miʾīn*, and you did not write the *basmalah* between them, and you placed them with the seven long (*ṭuwal*) chapters? What was your reasoning for that?” [^165]: Ṭaha, “*Tartīb suwar al-Qur’an al-Karīm*,” 47. [^166]: He was declared reliable by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak noted that he was both Shiʿī and Qadarī and Yahya ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān stated that ʿAwf reportedly called Ibn Masʿūd a liar. Hence, his sectarianism was not negligible. See al-Dhahabi, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā*. [^167]: He was believed to be the same person as Yazīd ibn Hurmuz by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, and Ibn Hibban, while Yahya ibn Maʿīn, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, and Abu Ḥatim believed them to be two separate individuals. If he is the same person as Yazīd ibn Hurmuz, then he is an unreliable transmitter, and if he is a different person, then he is an unknown transmitter. See Taha, “*Tartīb suwar al-Qur’an al-Karīm*,” 61; also Salīm al-Hilalī’s comments in the footnotes on Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 221–22. [^168]: The *qadarīyyah* were a theological trend that denied divine decree and fate, and instead emphasized absolute human free will. The Muʿtazilah was a theological school that famously adopted this position. [^169]: Shiʿism is the largest non-Sunni sect and initially split from Sunnism due to opposition to the rule of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān. [^170]: Hadith scholars permit narrations from other sectarian groups in those matters that do not relate to their innovations, so as to remove the potential for sectarian bias. This has been explained by Abū Isḥāq al-Jūzajānī (d.  259 AH) in *Aḥwāl al-Rijāl* (Beirut: Dar Mu’assasat al-Risalah, n.d.), 32. [^171]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Ḍuʿafā al-ṣaghīr* (Taif: Maktabah Ibn ʿAbbās, 2005), 142. Cf. Ṭaha, “*Tartīb suwar al-Qur’an al-Karīm*,” 57–58. [^172]: Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 124–27. [^173]: *Mustadrak al-Hakim*, no. 3673. See also al-Ṭayyār, *al-Muḥarrar fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 201–202, and the comments of the editor (Salīm al-Hilālī) in Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 230 endorsing the view of al-Qurṭubī and al-Qushayrī that this is how the *sūrah* was revealed. [^174]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 26. [^175]: Al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 96. Al-Kurdī himself affirms the validity of both views without favoring one over the other. [^176]: Ibn Shabba, *Tārīkh al-Madīnah*, 1016–17. [^177]: Yusuf al-ʿIlyawi, “*Qaḍāya fī iḥkām al-naẓm al-Qurʾānī,*” *Majallah al-ʿUlūm al-ʿArabiyyah*, 285. Against this, one might counter that the lack of objection stemmed merely from a desire to have a standardized text; however, the absence of any debate whatsoever renders this argument less persuasive. [^178]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 110. [^179]: See Mustansir Mir, *Coherence in the Qurʾān: A Study of Iṣlāḥī’s Concept of Naẓṃ in Tadabbur-i Qur’ān* (N.p.: American Trust Publications, 1986). [^180]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 4987. [^181]: Ibn Kathīr, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 77. [^182]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid*, 354. [^183]: Ibn Baṭṭāl, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Riyadh: Maktabah Rushd, 2003), 10:226. [^184]: In the account of his involvement in the compilation, Mālik ibn Abī ʿĀmir (the grandfather of Imam Malik) states that ʿUthmān wrote to the people of the various provinces: “I have completed such and such a task and have erased what was in my possession, so erase what is in yours.” Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 205–6. [^185]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 97 and Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 229. Jabal also cites the narrations that speak of manuscripts being gathered and buried near the minbar of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madīnah. Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 231; Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 244. [^186]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 246. [^187]: Abu ʿUbayd, *Kitāb al-imān*, 2:98; Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 204, 212; Makkī, *al-Ibānah*, 61; see also al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 121–22. Reportedly, he requested it shortly after Ḥafṣah’s funeral (*janāzah*), just after they had finished burying her. [^188]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 212. [^189]: Makkī, *al-Ibānah*, 65. [^190]: Nasser, *The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān: The Problem of Tawatur and the Emergence of Shawadhdh* (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003), 229. The incorrectness of this claim has been discussed by Zakareeya Bakhsh, *Misconceptions about the Qur’an and Qirāʾāt: A Critical Analysis of Shady Nasser’s views* (master’s thesis, IOU, July 2021), 39–45. [^191]: There is a narration in Ibn Abī Dāwūd’s *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif* that states that a group of protestors from Egypt arrived in Madīnah with a litany of complaints, including that ʿUthmān had erased copies of the Qur’an, to which he replied, “Recite in any *ḥarf* you wish.” In their respective editions of the text, Salīm al-Hilālī and Muḥib al-Dīn Waʿiẓ point out that this narration is disconnected and that this particular statement appears to contradict the objective to unify the Muslims upon one text. However, if this statement is correct, another possible interpretation is that ʿUthmān allowed Muslims to recite in any *ḥarf* so long as it did not contradict the text of the ʿUthmānic codex. For al-Hilālī’s comments, see Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 239 and for Muḥib al-Dīn, see Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*,  (Beirut: Dar al-Basha’ir al-Islamiya, 2002), 244–45. [^192]: One possible “trace” of a non-ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* is the undertext of the Sanʿā palimpsest discussed below. [^193]: It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss some of the political factors involved and the role of al-Ḥajjāj in eliminating manuscripts that disagreed with the ʿUthmānic codex, for instance. However, as Nicolai Sinai notes, al-Ḥajjāj’s role was regional at most, and therefore the empire-wide acceptance of the ʿUthmānic codex ultimately came about from widespread uncoerced grassroots approval “from the bottom up” in tandem with official measures. See Nicolai Sinai, “When Did the Consonantal Skeleton of the Quran Reach Closure? Part I,” *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 77, no. 2 (2014): 285. [^194]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *History*, 97. [^195]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 207. [^196]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 208. [^197]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 170. ʿAbdullāh Judayʿ classified it as authentic, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 120. [^198]: Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ Mushkil al-āthār* (*Tuhfat al-akhyar*), 8:159. [^199]: See for instance al-Ṭāsān, *Taḥqīq mawqif al-ṣaḥābī al-jalīl* ʿ*Abdullāh ibn Masʿūd min al-jamʿ al-ʿUthmānī* (Riyadh: Maktabah Malik Fahd, 1435 AH); al-Jaʿfarī, *al-ʿAdl wal-iḥsān fī taḥrīr iʿtirāḍāt ibn Masʿūd ʿalā muṣḥaf ʿUthmān: Dirāsah taḥlīliyyah naqdiyyah* (Kuwait: Dar al-Ẓāhiriyyah lil-Nashr wa-Tawzīʿ, 2022). For a critical analysis and overview see Ammar Khatib, *Qirāʾah taqwimiyyah lil-qawl bi-rujuʿ abn Masʿūd ʿan mawqifihi min al-jamʿ al-ʿUthmānī wa muwāfiqatihi al-jamāʿah*, Markaz al-Tafsīr li-Dirāsāt al-Qur’āniyyah, February 16, 2022, [https://tafsir.net/article/5407/qra-at-tqwymyt-llqwl-brjw-abn-ms-wd-an-mwqfh-mn-al-jm-al-thmany-wmwafqt-h-al-jma-h](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tafsir.net/article/5407/qra-at-tqwymyt-llqwl-brjw-abn-ms-wd-an-mwqfh-mn-al-jm-al-thmany-wmwafqt-h-al-jma-h&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948161989602&usg=AOvVaw3_z2Tgn4XMJpKMNbLSM1-e). [^200]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 138. [^201]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 4999. [^202]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 172. [^203]: See also Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal*, 286; Taqī ʿUthmāni, *Approach to the Qur’anic Sciences* (Karachi: Darul Isha’at, 2000), 156. [^204]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3104. Al-Zuhrī reports that many of the senior companions disliked what Ibn Masʿūd had said. [^205]: Cited in Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH), *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasāt al-Risālah, 2006), 1:88. [^206]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 1:88. [^207]: It is interesting to note that there are no reported statements of criticism from Ibn Masʿūd concerning Zayd’s appointment by Abū Bakr. This would support the view that the second reason for Ibn Masʿūd’s opposition (the imposition of the ʿUthmānic reading upon him and the request to eliminate his *muṣḥaf*) was in fact the stronger reason for his opposition. [^208]: Abu al-ʿAbbās al-Qurṭubī (d. 656 AH), *al-Mufhim limā ashkala min Talkhīs Kitāb Muslim* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Kathīr, 1996), 6:374. [^209]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā* (Beirut: Muʾassasāt al-Risalah, 1982), 1:488. [^210]: Qur’an 3:161. [^211]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3104. [^212]: Al-Shāṭibī, *al-Iʿtiṣām* (Beirut: DKI, 2016), 360. [^213]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2462. In another narration, Ibn Masʿūḍ stated, “How can you command me to recite according to the *qirāʾāh* of Zayd after I learned seventy some *sūrah*s from the mouth of Allah’s Messenger while Zayd had two braids, playing among other boys?” *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, nos. 5063–64.  Another narration states, “while Zayd was a Jew with two braids” (Ibn Shabbha, *Tārīkh al-Madīnah*, 3:1008); however, this is incorrect as Zayd grew up as a Muslim. See Safwan ʿAdnān Dāwūdī, *Zayd ibn Thābit: Kātib al-waḥy wa jāmiʿ al-Qurʾān* (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1999), 26 and al-Hilālī’s comments in Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 185. Michael Lecker considers the description an allusion to sidelocks (Hebrew: *payot*) customary for Jewish boys, and considers Zayd  to have been brought up by learning to read and write at a Jewish school after the death of his father in the battle of Buʿāth; however, Lecker draws upon a number of unreliable and sectarian sources. Michael Lecker, “Zayd B. Thābit, ‘A Jew with Two Sidelocks’: Judaism and Literacy in Pre-Islamic Medina (Yathrib),” *Journal of Near Eastern Studies* 56, no. 4 (1997): 259–73. [^214]: Muhammad Bāzmūl, “*al-Aḥādīth al-wāridah fī al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*,” *Majallah Jāmiʿah Umm al-Qurra li-ʿUlūm al-Sharīʿah wa al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyah* 62 (Shaʿbān, 1435), 83. [^215]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 189–94. [^216]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh Dimashq* (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), 33:140. [^217]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā* (Beirut: Muʾassasāt al-Risalah, 1982), 1:488. [^218]: Ibn Kathīr*, Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 68. Note, however, that later, Ibn Kathīr points out that the particular narration cited by Ibn Abī Dāwūd is insufficient as evidence that Ibn Masʿūd changed his position. Ibn Kathīr*, Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 83. [^219]: Ibn Mujāhid, *Kitab al-sabʿah fī al-qirāʾāt*, 67. See also Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 623; and Ramon Harvey, “The Legal Epistemology of Qur’anic Variants: The Readings of Ibn Masʿūd in Kufan Fiqh and the Ḥanafī Madhhab,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 19, no. 1 (2017): 72–101, 20, endnote 8. [^220]: *Saḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 3761. [^221]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 824a; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2939. [^222]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 188. One may also note that Abū al-Dardā was from the *Anṣār*, hence he did not share the same experience as ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd. [^223]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 246. [^224]: In the time of al-Ḥajjāj, three persons were ordered to search for and destroy any *muṣḥaf* that differed from the ʿUthmānic codex: ʿĀṣim al-Jahdarī, Nājiya bin Rumḥ, and ʿAlī ibn Aṣmaʿ. They were to compensate the owner with sixty dirhams. See Ibn Quṭaybah, *Taʾwīl mushkil al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: DKI, n.d.), 37. One of the *maṣāḥif* that appears to have escaped this fate is that of al-Ḥārith bin Suwayd al-Taymī, one of the companions of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd that was buried during the days of al-Ḥajjāj and that al-Farrāʾ (d. 207 AH) later relied upon to make several observations about the reading of Ibn Masʿūd. Al-Farrāʾ, *Maʿānī al-Qurʾān*, 3:68. [^225]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3104. [^226]: Unlike the other codices identified by city, the Syrian codex is usually identified by the region as simply the codex of *Shām*. However, there are some reports, such as that of Abū Ḥātim that identify the city as Ḥims, where al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad was stationed. Cf. Omar Hamdan, “*Mashruʿ al-maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyah*,” 57. Hythem Sidky supports this by citing evidence from the Ḥimsī reading tradition as well as corroborative manuscript evidence and a supporting account recorded by Sayf ibn ʿUmar al-Tamīmī (d. 108 AH). See Sidky, “On the Regionality of Qurʾānic Codices,” 171–74. [^227]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 162–63. [^228]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid*, 1:369; Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr* (N.p.: Matbah Tijariya al-Kubra, n.d.), 1:7. [^229]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 245. [^230]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāyah wal-nihāyah* (Cairo: Dar Hijr, 2003), 10:394. [^231]: Makkī, *al-Ibānah*, 65. [^232]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:7. [^233]: This term used to refer to the region of Upper Mesopotamia, the northernmost region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, including Northern Syria, Northern Iraq, and Turkey. [^234]: Al-Yaʿqūbī, *Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī* (Najaf: Manshurat al-Maktabah al-Haydariyah, 1964), 2:160. The nine include the four agreed upon locations (Kufa, Basra, Sham, and Madinah) and then five additional locations (Makkah, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, and al-Jazīrah). [^235]: Jabal, *Wathāqah naql al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 222–23. [^236]: Al-Jaʿbarī, *Jamīlah arbāb al-marāṣid*, 370. According to the editor, the Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī (d. 377 AH) cited by al-Jaʿbarī may be, however Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad considers it to be Abū ʿAlī al-Ahwāzī (d. 446 AH). Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī wa juhūduhu fi al-iqrāʾ wa taʿlīm al-Qurʾān al-Karīm* (conference paper, Amman, Jordan, 1427 AH), 36. See also al-Marghānī, *Dalīl al-ḥayrān ʿalā mawrid al-ḍhamān* (Kuwait: Markaz al-Qirāʾāt, 2011), 44–45. [^237]: Marijn van Putten, “‘The Grace of God’ as Evidence for a Written Uthmanic Archetype: The Importance of Shared Orthographic Idiosyncrasies,” *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 82 (2019): 271–88. [^238]: Van Putten, “The Grace of God,” 274–75. He further writes, “There is only one possible explanation for the strong agreement across the many different Quran manuscripts with the two possible spellings of niʿmat: there must have been a single written archetype from which all Quranic manuscripts of the Uthmanic text type are descended” (279). [^239]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 165. Al-Dānī comments that there is no difference of opinion upon this matter, discussed further below. [^240]: Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī, *Maʿānī al-aḥruf al-sabʿah* (N.p.: Dār al-Nawādir, 2011), 466. [^241]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān al-Karīm bayna al-maṣādir wal-maṣāḥif*, 24 and *al-Muyassar fī ʿilm rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 47. He observes that ʿAbd al-Azīz al-Ḍabbāgh (d. 1132 AH) appears to be one of the first to argue that the *rasm* is *tawqīfī*. See also ʿAbd al-Qayyūm al-Sindhī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 393–94. [^242]: Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī, *Maʿānī al-aḥruf al-sabʿah*, 467. [^243]: Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 98–100; Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ, *Mabāḥith fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Dar El Ilm Lilmalayin, 1977), 277; al-Judayʿ, *Muqaddimāt al-asāsīya*, 151; al-Ṭayyār, *al-Muḥarrar*, 223; Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *al-Muyassar fī ʿilm rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 49. [^244]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Instiṣār*, 548–49. [^245]: Al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dar Turath, 1945), 1:379–80; Ṣāliḥ, *Mabāḥith*, 280. [^246]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *ʿUlūm* *al-Qurʾān al-Karīm bayna al-maṣādir wal-maṣāḥif*, 32. [^247]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 693–94 and *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān bayna al-maṣādir wal-maṣāhir*, 20–21. See Al-Dani, *al-Muqniʿ*, 571. [^248]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqni*,ʿ 571–602; Cook, “Stemma of the Regional Codices,” 91. [^249]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: DKI, 1419 AH), 1:15. [^250]: Abū ʿUbayd, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 2:158. [^251]: Al-Dānī also mentions the Makkan variant of an additional من in 9:100. [^252]: Abū ʿUbayd, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 162. [^253]: It is important to note that in some select instances, reciters will read according to a codex other than their own region. For instance, Ḥafs recites 43:71 and 36:35 with an additional ه although it is omitted in the Kufan codex. This relates to the practice of *ikhtiyār*, selecting a preferred reading from a number of readings that one has learned from one’s teacher. Moreover, the Basran reciter Abū ʿAmr was asked why he recited عبادي with a ي in 43:68 when the Basran codex did not have one, and he replied that he followed the *maṣāḥif* of Medina in this regard. Al-Dānī cites this and numerous other examples in order to emphasize the mistake of those who simply look at the readings of various regional reciters and presume that those are the same variants found in their regional codices. Al-Dānī, 602–4. [^254]: Al-Udfuwī, *al-Istighnāʾ fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 282; Makkī,  *al-Hidāyah ilā bulūgh al-nihāyah*, 4:3133. [^255]: Indeed, in a society based on an oral culture as opposed to a written culture, it is much more reasonable to consider the reciters of the Qur’an and the scribes to have been resorting to an existing oral precedent, rather than dispensing with orality in favor of following alleged scribal errors. [^256]: Ibn Idrīs, *Kitāb al-mukhtār fī maʿānī qirāʾāt ahl al-amṣār* (Riyadh: Maktaba Rushd, 2010), 71–72. [^257]: Jeffery, *Muqaddimatān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 121–22. See also Imam, *Variant Readings of the Quran*, 87. [^258]: A number of scholars have drawn attention to the subtleties of *balāghah* (rhetorical eloquence) related to some of the variants of the regional codices. For instance, in 91:15, the verse can mean “And He (God) feared not the outcome” of destroying the sinful nation of Thamūd or it can mean “And he feared not the outcome,” referring to the one who killed the camel of Ṣāliḥ. The Madīnan/Syrian reading accords with the first, while the Kūfan/Baṣran accords with the second. See Al-Farrā, *Maʿānī al-Qurʾān*, 3:270. [^259]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 605. See also al-Jaʿfarī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān*, 50. [^260]: Al-Sakhāwī, *al-Wasīlah ilā kashf al-ʿāqīlah* (Riyadh: Maktabah Rushd, 2003), 113. [^261]: Al-Udfuwī, *al-Istighnāʾ fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, 259. [^262]: Al-Mahdawī, *Hijāʾ maṣāḥif al-amṣār* (Dammām: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2010), 102–3. Another statement in support of all the regional variants being divinely revealed is from Ṣadr al-Dīn Muhammad al-Shīrāzī (d. 776 AH) in his work *Kashf al-asrār fī rasm maṣāḥif al-amṣār*: “And these letters are all affirmed and were all transcribed in the codices from the exemplar which ʿUthmān wrote, then they were sent to all the regions, and they are all the speech of Allah Most High.” Al-Shīrāzī, *Kashf al-asrār* (Cairo: Dār ʿIbad al-Raḥmān, 2011), 105. Cf. Sālim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Athar rukhsat al-aAḥruf*, 326. [^263]: Al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil al-ʿirfān*, 1:258. [^264]: Al-Zarqani, *Manāhil al-ʿirfān*, 1:259. See also Nūr al-Dīn ʿIṭr, *Kitāb ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Damascus: Maṭbaʿah Sabbah, 1993), 175; ʿAbd al-Qayyūm Sindhī, *Jamʿ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm*, 389. [^265]: Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 705. [^266]: Al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 99. [^267]: Theodor Nöldeke, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergsträßer, and Otto Pretzl, *The History of the Qurʾān* (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 399; Michael Cook, “The Stemma of the Regional Codices of the Koran,” *Graeco Arabica* 9–10 (2004): 89–104. [^268]: See also Hythem Sidky, “On the Regionality of Qurʾānic Codices,” *Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association* 5 (2020): 175. The report from Abū ʿUbayd states that two *alif*s were added by Naṣr b ʿĀṣim al-Laythi (d. 89 AH) such that the verses in question read سيقولون الله instead of سيقولون لله. This would be an example of bringing the codex in line with the existing reading in Baṣra, as this reading is transmitted in the *qirāʾāt* of Abū al-Jawzāʾa (d. 82 AH), Saʿīd ibn Jubayr (d. 95 AH), Abū al-Mutawakkil ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd (d. 102 AH), Yaḥyā ibn Wathāb (d. 103 AH), Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d.  110 AH), Abū ʿAmr al-Baṣrī (d. 154 AH), Abū al-Ashhab al-ʿAṭṭārī (d. 162 AH), Abū Muḥammad al-Yazīdī (d. 202 AH), and Yaʿqūb al-Ḥaḍramī (d. 205 AH). See ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Khaṭīb, *Muʿjam al-qirāʾāt* (Damascus: Dar Saʿd al-Dīn, 2002), 6:200–201; Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 2:329; Ibn Khalawayh, *al-Ḥujjah*, 258; al-Anbārī, *Marsūm al-khaṭṭ*, ed. Imtiyaz Ali (New Delhi: al-Maʿhad al-Hindī li-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyya, 1982), 22. [^269]: This allows one to exclude, for example, the scenario proposed by Salwa al-Ḥārithī (University of Ṭāʾif) that the reason for the regional variants is because the ʿUthmānic regional codices were modified by the reciters of the region to accommodate existing readings. Had this been the case, it would be impossible for the codices to produce a stemma, and instead each region would demonstrate some isolated variants. Salwa bint Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥārithī, “*Tafrīq al-qirāʾāt ʿalā maṣāḥif al-amṣār bayna al-ḥaqīqah wa al-muqarar min aqwāl al-aʾimmah*,” *Majalla Kulliya al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyya wal-ʿArabiyya lil-Banāt bi-Damanhour* 2, no. 4 (2019): 351, 369. [^270]: Cook writes, “Third, the single most striking feature of the variants reported for the foursome is the lack of any serious indication of contamination between their texts. This must count against any suggestion that the variants were invented. For to fabricate a set of variants free of the appearance of contamination, the early Muslim scholars would have needed some kind of operational understanding of the mechanics of textual transmission—the logic of stemmas and contamination. We know that their successors, the authors of our sources, did not possess this; indeed, it was not to be found in any scholarly culture until the last few centuries. We can accordingly infer that we have to do with genuine transmissions from an archetype.” Cook, “Stemma of the Regional Codices,” 103–4. [^271]: The fact that the scribe is not simply copying what is in front of him is indicated in the literary sources by the aforementioned narrations confirming that one person was designated to recite (e.g., Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ) and one person was designated to write (e.g., Zayd ibn Thābit). [^272]: Al-Aʿẓamī analyzed the five extant Qur’anic manuscripts commonly attributed to ʿUthmān. This chapter is not found in the original edition of his work but appears in chapter 11 of the expanded 2020 edition published posthumously. Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami, *The History of the Quranic Text, from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments* (London: Turath Publishing, 2020), Kindle. [^273]: Ala Vahidnia, “Whence Come Qurʾān Manuscripts? Determining the Regional Provenance of Early Qurʾānic Codices,” *Der Islam* 98, no. 2 (2021): 359–93. [^274]: Mohammad Said Mitwally Ibrahim Alrahawan, “Correlating Some Early Ḥijāzī and Kūfan Qurʾān Fragments [^275]: Sidky, “On the Regionality of Qurʾānic Codices,” 166, 183–84. [^276]: Yasin Dutton, “An Early Muṣḥaf According to the Reading of Ibn ʿĀmir,” *Journal of Qur'anic Studies* 2 (2001): 71–89. [^277]: François Déroche, *Qurʾans of the Umayyads: A First Overview* (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 17, 30. [^278]: Al-Qur’ān (manuscript), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Arabe 328, 11/10/2010, [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8415207g/f24.item#](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8415207g/f24.item%23&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948162015938&usg=AOvVaw35votzhxqjUraiyhGfDzR-). [^279]: This manuscript has a rather dramatic backstory attributed to it. Al-Aʿẓamī writes, “According to Prof. Hamidullah the Muṣḥaf was originally housed in Damascus; it caught the eye of Tamerlane after he sacked the city and was removed to Samarqand, where it was kept in the Ak Medrese next to the Khwāja Aḥrār as-Samarqandī Masjid. In 1868 the Russians overran Samarqand and moved the Muṣḥaf to the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, where it remained for nearly fifty years. With the Bolshevik advance at the end of the First World War, General Ali Akbar Topchi Bashi, who did not savor the thought of living under Communist rule, decided to safeguard the precious Muṣḥaf before fleeing to Paris. He dispatched a commando force to seize control of the royal palace and seek out the Muṣḥaf from the royal library. He then hurried to the railway station and, given his rank as an army general, demanded an engine from the station master. Placing the Qurʾān in the engine compartment with an army escort, he ordered the engine driver to push onwards to Turkistan as quickly as possible. A few hours later the Communist army commanders received intelligence of what had happened. They sent another engine with an escort to chase the one carrying the Muṣḥaf, but failed to catch up with it. In this way the manuscript reached Tashkent and the Communist authorities chose not to clamor for its return. It was stored in the Museum of History until 1989, when it was handed to the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan.” Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami, *The History of the Qur’anic Text, from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments* (London: Turath Publishing, 2020), Kindle. [^280]: ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Khaṭīb, *Muʿjam al-qirāʾāt*, 7:484. Note that this is one of the aforementioned cases of *ikhtiyār* where the Kufan transmitter Ḥafs recites this verse in the same manner as the Baṣran, Syrian, and Ḥijāzī readers. It is in fact reported that Ḥafs asked ʿĀṣim why Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh (Shuʿbah) differed from him in recitation. ʿĀṣim explained that he taught Ḥafṣ according to the reading of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, while he taught Shuʿbah according to the reading of Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh from ʿAbdullah Ibn Masʿūd. Thus, it is not unexpected to note cases where Ḥafs diverges from the Kufans to agree with the Hijazis. See Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyah al-nihāyah fī ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ* (Beirut: DKI, 2006), 1:230. [^281]: Michael Marx (in collaboration with Tobias J. Jocham, Jens Sauer, and Tolou Khademalsharieh), “Berlin, Staatsbibliothek: Faksimiledruck des Samarkand-Kodex, Sankt Petersburg 1905,” in *Manuscripta Coranica*, ed. Michael Marx (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), [https://corpuscoranicum.de/handschriften/index/sure/36/vers/35?handschrift=141](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://corpuscoranicum.de/handschriften/index/sure/36/vers/35?handschrift%3D141&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1658948162021292&usg=AOvVaw1EeEITs95e-OZ7hrV2TgLF). [^282]: In some verses, edits were later made to match the Iraqi codices. See Vahidnia, “Whence Come Qurʾān Manuscripts?,” 386–87. [^283]: Emanuel Tov highlights a number of limitations of certain principles of textual criticism before commenting, “The upshot of this analysis, then, is that to some extent textual evaluation cannot be bound by any fixed rules. It is an art in the full sense of the word, a faculty which can be developed, guided by intuition based on wide experience. It is the art of defining the problems and finding arguments for and against the originality of readings.” He then explains that the primary task of the textual critic is to find the contextually most appropriate reading before noting that “this procedure is as subjective as subjective can be. Common sense is the main guide, although abstract rules are often also helpful. In modern times, scholars are often reluctant to admit the subjective nature of textual evaluation, so that an attempt is often made, conscious or unconscious, to create a level of artificial objectivity by the frequent application of abstract rules.” Emanuel Tov, *Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible* (MN: Fortress Press, 2001), 309–10. [^284]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh Dimashq* (N.p.: Dar al-Fikr, 1995), 39:243; Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 1:211; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:178. While one may contend that we do not know that dictation was involved in the transcription process of all regional codices, the narrations we have available certainly indicate that this was the norm, and we have no evidence indicating otherwise. Moreover, the narration of Abān ibn ʿUthmān concerning 4:162 states that the scribe asked what to write and then simply followed the instructions given to him. The editors of al-Thaʿlabī’s *tafsīr* write, “And it is clear from the context of the narration of Abān that he did not state the scribe erred but rather that the scribe merely wrote what was told to him, and this is proof that what is relied upon is *talaqqī* (direct learning) and *riwāyah* (oral transmission).” Refer to editor footnotes in al-Thaʿlabī, *al-Kashf wal-Bayān*, ed. Ṣalāh Baʿuthmān, Ḥasan al-Ghazālī, Zayd Mahārish, and Amīn Bāshah (Jeddah: Dar al-Tafsīr, 2015), 11:79–80. See also Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 240. [^285]: There are 15 textual variants isolated to the Syrian codex according to Sidky’s list of variants with multiple attestations in traditional literature. According to the list provided by al-Dānī and analyzed by Cook, there are 16 variants, which has no impact on the above argument. [^286]: The four gospels contain approximately 65,000 words, while the Qur’an contains roughly 77,000 words. The precise word count depends on how one counts particles and connected and disconnected words in the *rasm*. [^287]: Herman C. Hoskier, *Codex B and its Allies* (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1914), B. [^288]: The very low number of variants necessitates an intensive review process that would result in corrections. However, if there are corrections, then they must have been made before the next manuscript was copied, otherwise it would disrupt the stemma. For example, M is copied from S, and B is copied from M. But before B is copied from M, M is corrected. B will therefore demonstrate some variants in S that are not shared by M, thus disrupting the stemma. That such an intensive immediate review process would pass over at least some of the exact same regional variants more than once strongly suggests that they would only be passed over because they conformed to existing reading traditions. [^289]: See Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 583–84. Al-Dānī contends that this could only have been done by ʿUthmān’s committee based on authentic transmission from the Prophet ﷺ. [^290]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3104. [^291]: On the Tamīmī dialect’s assimilation in the Qur’an, see al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān*, 1:285. [^292]: *Homoeoteleuton* refers to the occurrence of two lines with similar endings, which can facilitate the error of *parablepsis,* where the scribe’s eye skips a line. Sentences ending with the same word can give rise to errors of *haplography*, where one sentence or verse is omitted. When the scribe’s eye picks up the same word or phrase twice, the resultant error is aptly named *dittography*. See Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman, *The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 253–54. Sadeghi and Gourdazi note an instance of parablepsis in the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest lower text in 9:85. Sadeghi and Gourdazi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 23. [^293]: In 18:36, the man with two gardens states that if he were to die, Allah would give him something even better than his garden(s). The Madīnan and Syrian codex have the dual pronoun (منهما—i.e., better “than both of them”) while the Kufan and Basran have the singular pronoun (منها—i.e., better “than it”). The preceding verse refers to the garden in the singular (“he entered his garden,” 18:35) while two verses earlier mentions the gardens in dual. Thus, both readings perfectly correspond to different points within the preceding passage. See Abū Manṣūr al-Azharī (d. 370 AH), *Maʿānī al-qirāʾāt* (Riyadh: Markaz al-Buḥūth fī Kulliyat al-Ādab, 1991), 2:109–10. [^294]: Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Hidāyah ilā bulūgh al-nihāyah*, 3131–32. Note that Makkī’s quotation of al-Udfuwī is slightly paraphrased and appears to have been collected from a few separate comments when compared with the original in *al-Istighnāʾ*. [^295]: Qur’an 2:259. [^296]: Qur’an 30:30. [^297]: Qur’an 86:17. [^298]: Abū ʿUbayd, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*,102. [^299]: In the narration of Hudhayfah mentioning the conflict over readings between the people of Iraq and Syria, he mentions that the former were reciting according to Ibn Masʿūd while the latter were reciting according to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. See Ibn Shabba, *Tarīkh al-Madīna*, 3:993 and al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 1:55. [^300]: Ibn Saʿd, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 5:312. [^301]: Metzger and Ehrman, *Text of the New Testament*, 257; Emanuel Tov, *Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible*, 307. [^302]: Note that we have only included unequivocal matches and not included cases where the degree of similarity is likely insufficient to constitute an assimilation of parallels or the similarity between multiple passages precludes any unambiguous assumptions of directionality. [^303]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 231–36. See also Ibn Shabba, *Tarīkh al-Madīna*, 1013. Note that al-Zajjāj claimed that Abū ʿAmr al-Baṣrī’s justification for reading 20:63 in the accusative was the presence of scribal errors, citing this narration. Al-Zajjāj, *Kitāb maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa iʿrābihī li-Zajjaj* (Beirut: ʿAlam al-Kutub, 1988), 3:362; see also al-Azharī, *Maʿānī al-qirāʾāt*, 3:149. However, both readings of 20:63 accord with known dialects and are authentically transmitted. The common reading (in the nominative) accords with the dialect of Banū Ḥārith bin Kaʿb, Khathʿam, Zabīd, Kinānah, and other tribes, which used the same dual form with the ا for nominative, accusative, and genitive tenses. Cf. Al-Wāḥidī, *Tafsīr al-wasīṭ*, 3:211; Ibn Khālawayh, *al-Ḥujjah*, 242. Al-Qurṭubī states that Abū ʿAmr’s reading agrees with the *iʿrāb* and differs from the *muṣḥaf*. Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ*, 14:89. Some contemporary scholars have argued the *rasm* of the ʿUthmānic text can be interpreted to accommodate both. See al-Ḥarbī, *Tawjīh mushkil al-qirāʾāt*, 337; Abū Shahba, *al-Madkhal*, 380; al-Mulḥim, *Mā lā yaḥtamiluhu rasm al-muṣḥaf*, 427. However, based on knowledge of Qur’anic orthography, this would more accurately be considered *al-mukhālafah al-mughtafarah* (see footnote 61 above). [^304]: None of the reported transmitters of these reports (ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Qatādah, Yaḥyā bin Yaʿmur, ʿIkrimah) met or heard from ʿUthmān directly. See Jamāl Abū Ḥassan, “*Dirāsah mā rawa ʿan ʿUthmān fī shaʾn laḥn al-Qurʾān*,” *Majallah al-Zarqā lil-Buḥūth wal-Dirāsāt* 7, no. 1 (June 30, 2005): 43–86. See also al-Kurdī, *Tārīkh al-Qurʾān*, 77–80. [^305]: From a no longer extant work entitled *al-Radd ʿalā man khālaf muṣḥaf ʿUthmān*, cited in al-Suyuṭī, *al-Itqān*, 391. [^306]: Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Hidāyah ilā bulūgh al-nihāyah*, 7:4663. [^307]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 605–6. [^308]: Ibn Taymiyyah writes, “And this report is baseless (*bāṭil*) and not authentic due to numerous reasons. First, the companions would race to forbid the least evil, so how could they affirm mistakes in the Qur’an while it would entail no burden upon them to remove them? Secondly, the Arabs used to despise linguistic errors and view them to be utterly abhorrent, so why would they not abhor leaving them in the *musḥaf*? Thirdly, the claim that the Arabs would correct them in their speech is not sound since the noble *muṣḥaf* is read by both Arabs and non-Arabs. Fourthly, it is established in the authentic hadith that Zayd ibn Thābit wanted to write al-Tābūt with the letter hā (ه) according to the dialect of the Anṣār and he was prevented from doing that and the matter was raised to ʿUthmān and he asked them to write it with the letter tā (ت) according to the dialect of the Quraysh.” This quotation is cited from Ibn Taymiyyah by Ibn Hishām al-Anṣārī (d. 761 AH) and is not found in any of the extant works by Ibn Taymiyyah. See Ibn Hishām*, Sharḥ Shudhūr al-Dhahab fī maʿrifah kalām al-ʿarab* (Beirut: Dar Ihya Turath al-Arab 2001), 33–34. [^309]: ʿUmar said, “Ubayy was the best of us in recitation, yet we leave some of his dialect (*laḥn*).” *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 5005. [^310]: Jawād ʿAlī, *Kitāb al-mufaṣṣal fī tārīkh al-ʿArab qabl al-Islam* (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 2001), 17:14. [^311]: Cited in Abu ʿAmr al-Dānī,  *al-Muḥkam fī naqṭ al-maṣāḥif* (Damascus: Maṭbūʿāt Mudīrīya Iḥyā Turāth al-Qadīm, 1960), 185. [^312]: Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 607. Al-Mahdawī (d. 440 AH) provides the same interpretation, *Hijāʾ maṣāḥif al-amṣār*, 66.  Note also another narration in which ʿUthmān is reported to have said that if the one dictating was from the tribe of Hudhayl and the scribe was from Thaqīf, these examples would not have occurred, perhaps because they did not use the same spelling conventions and relied on more phonemic orthography. See Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 237. [^313]: Mansour Hamad Eidi, “*al-Riwayāt al-wāridah ʿan ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās radiyallahu ʿanhu alati tūham al-ṭaʿan fī al-rasm al-muṣḥaf*,” *Majalla al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyya* 29, no. 1 (2017/1438 AH): 151–84; Nūr Makkāwī, *Mazāʿim akhṭāʾ al-kātib fī al-Qurʾān: ʿAr wa naqḍ* (Cairo: Al-Azhar University, 2015); ʿAbdullāh Ramaḍān Mūsā, *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān min ʿahd rasūl Allah ṣalla Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam ila al-yawm* (Cairo: Dār al-Nūrāniyyah lil-Turāth wal-Buḥūth al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2016). [^314]: The phrase from the verse in question is, “Has not despair (*yayʾas* ييأس) taken those who believe concerning the fact that had Allah willed, He would guide all of humanity?” Ibn ʿAbbās used to recite this verse as follows, “Has it not become clear (*yatabayyan* يتبين) to those who believe that had Allah willed, He would guide all of humanity?” [^315]: Reported by Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī; ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd as cited by Ibn Ḥajar in *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:255; Abu Bakr al-Anbārī as cited by al-Suyuṭī. See also Aḥmad al-ʿUmrānī, *Mawsūʿah madrasah Makkah fī al-tafsīr* (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 2011), 9:907, no. 4014. [^316]: Mūsā, *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān*, 154. [^317]: Abū ʿUbayd, *Faḍāʾil*, 2:123. [^318]: ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad: Riwāyah Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1400 AH), 101. Cf. Eidi’s mention of other possibilities, “*al-Riwayāt al-wāridah ʿan ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās*,” 157. [^319]: Al-Zamakharī, *al-Kashshāf* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 2009), 13:541. See also the list of reasons for rejecting it provided by Nūr Makkāwī, *Mazāʿim*, 33–35. [^320]: Ibn Ḥajar describes those who rejected this narration, like al-Zamakhsharī, as being unfamiliar with the discipline of evaluation of hadith narrators (*ʿilm al-rijāl*). He states: “However, rejecting that which is transmitted after its authentication is not from the characteristics of the people of expertise (*ahl al-taḥṣīl*). So let one examine its interpretation for that which is suitable.” Ibn Ḥajar, *Fath al-Bari*, 10:256. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Khaṭīb agrees with his assessment, *al-Muʿjam*, 4:427. Cf. Eidi, “*al-Riwayāt al-wāridah ʿan ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās*,” 158. [^321]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwa*, 12:264 (original print pagination 12:493). [^322]: For instance, Ibn ʿAbbās’s views concerning *ribā al-faḍl* (interest) and *zawaj al-mutʿah* (temporary marriage), which he subsequently retracted. See Muhammad Samīʿī Sayyid ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, *Infirādāt ibn ʿAbbās ʿan jamhūr al-ṣaḥābah fī al-aḥkām al-fiqhiyyah* (Ajman: Maktabah al-Furqan, 2000), 291–309. [^323]: See for instance, Ibn ʿAṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz*, 1041; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:255. Cf. al-ʿUmrānī, *Mawsūʿah*, 4:426; ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Khaṭīb, *Muʿjam*, 4:422. [^324]: Ibn ʿAṭiyya, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz*, 1040; Ibn ʿĀdil, *al-Lubāb fī ʿulūm al-Kitāb* (Beirut: DKI, 1998), 11:307. Note that al-Qāsim is the great grandson of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd. [^325]: ʿAbdullāh Ramaḍān Mūsā provides a similar explanation for a different narration, *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān*, 182. However, he doesn’t consider it likely for this narration as ʿIkrimah learned from Ibn ʿAbbās when the latter was in Baṣra (35–40 AH), at least a decade after the ʿUthmānic codex project. See *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān*, 155–56. Against this, however, one may consider how long it took some people to grow accustomed to readings they were unfamiliar with, based on the narration of al-Aʿmash about the prevalence of the reading of Ibn Masʿūd in Kufah during his time. [^326]: Rāshid ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Rajjāl, *Tafsīr ibn ʿAbbās al-musammā ṣaḥīfa ʿAli ibn Abī Ṭalḥa ʿan Ibn ʿAbbās fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Karīm* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyyah, 1991), 300. [^327]: Other narrations from Ibn ʿAbbās attributing errors to the scribe are found in his comments on 24:27 (he read *tastaʾdhinu* instead of *tastaʾnisu*) and 21:48 (he read it without the *waw* before *ḍiyāʾ*). See Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr (d. 227H), *Sunan Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr* (Riyadh: Dār al-Alūkah, 2012), 6:295, 6:411. See also Mūsā, who rejects their authenticity, *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān,* 173–81. Another narration from Ibn ʿAbbās objects to the word *qaḍā* in 17:23, stating that it is *waṣā* but that the scribe accidentally connected the *waw* with the *ṣād* making the undotted word resemble *qaḍā*. See Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, *Sunan Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr*, 6:105. However, this narration is not authentic. Cf. Mūsā, *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān*, 162–69; Eidi, “*al-Riwayāt al-wāridah ʿan ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās*,” 164–65. [^328]: Abū ʿUbayd, *Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*, 2:103; Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, 242; Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 610–13. [^329]: For arguments against its authenticity, see Mūsā, *Mawthuqiyyah naql al-Qurʾān*, 109–14, Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālah al-naṣṣ al-Qurʾānī*, 125, Mansour Hamad Eidi, “*al-Āthār al-wāridah ʿan ʿĀʾishah bint al-Ṣiddīq raḍiyaAllahu ʿanhumā allatī tūham al-ṭaʿan fī rasm al-muṣḥaf*,” *Majjala Tibyan lil-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾāniyyah*, no. 34, (1440 AH/2019 CE): 30–42. Eidi prefers Ibn Ḥajar’s approach of finding a suitable interpretation for such statements rather than attempting to dismiss them. [^330]: Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, for instance, argues that ʿĀʾishah meant that this was not the dialect with which they were most familiar nor their preferred reading, and therefore her use of the term “error” is not literal. He also notes that some scholars (we may recognize this as Ibn ʾAshta) consider her statement to mean the scribe erred in the choice of which reading to include, not that the reading itself was erroneous. Al-Dānī, *al-Muqniʿ*, 610–11. The problems with the latter interpretation have been appropriately identified by Eidi, “*al-Āthār al-wāridah ʿan ʿĀʾishah*,” 43. [^331]: Abū Layth al-Samarqandī, *Baḥr al-ʿulūm* (Beirut: DKI, 1993), 1:404. On the other hand, Ibn Qutaybah al-Daynūrī (d. 276 AH) appears to have considered the presence of such scribal errors in the ʿUthmānic codex to be as unproblematic as their presence in any other codex, yet he neglects to consider that Muslims would endeavor to correct any errors. Ibn Qutaybah, *Taʾwīl mushkil al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Maktabah Dar al-Turath, 1973), 56–57.  See also Muḥammad Bakr Ismaʿīl, *Dirāsāt fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dar al-Manār, 1991), 132; Eidi, “*al-Āthār al-wāridah ʿan ʿĀʾishah*,” 45. [^332]: Al-Zajjāj, *Maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa iʿrābihi* (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1988), 2:131. [^333]: Al-Zamakharī, *al-Kashshāf*, 6:271. [^334]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 7:680. See also Imam, *Variant Readings of the Quran*, 158. [^335]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 7:680. See also Imam, *Variant Readings of the Quran*, 158. [^336]: Eidi, “*al-Āthār al-wāridah ʿan ʿĀʾishah*,” 52. [^337]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 6. [^338]: Éléonore Cellard, “The Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest: Materializing the Codices,” *Journal of Near Eastern Studie*s 80, no. 1 (2021): 1–30. [^339]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 8. [^340]: Cellard, “The Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest,” 3. [^341]: Another theory concerning the lower text, advanced by Asma Hilali, is that the lower text was a copy written by a student for training purposes. See Asma Hilali, *The Sanaa Palimpsest: The Transmission of the Qur'an in the First Centuries* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). Sami Ameri combines both theories: “The inferior text of the palimpsest is a training copy of a codex that goes back to a Companion.” Sami Ameri, *Hunting for the Word of God* (Minneapolis: Thoughts of Light Publishing, 2013), 166. He subsequently notes evidence in support of its textual variants belonging either to nonstandard readings from companion codices or examples of error on the part of the scribe in training. [^342]: Cellard, “Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest,” 27; Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 25. [^343]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 117. [^344]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 119. [^345]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 121. [^346]: Sami al-Ameri states, “The palimpsest affirms the credibility of what was narrated about the codices of the Companions.” Al-Ameri, *Hunting for the Word of God*, 170. Sadeghi and Goudarzi state, “Ṣan‘ā’ 1 constitutes direct documentary evidence for the reality of the non-‘Uthmānic text types that are usually referred to as ‘Companion codices.’” Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 19. [^347]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, “*Saṇ ʿāʾ* 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān,” 3, 19. [^348]: See al-Ṭayyār, *Mawsūʿah al-tafsīr bil-maʾthūr* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2017), 22:470–71. [^349]: In the era of the printing press, the preservation of a written text is something taken for granted. Moreover, with the advent of digital technologies, a single text can be instantly copied, transferred, and downloaded thousands of times in an instant. Today, the disappearance of a widely disseminated text seems to be a physical impossibility. Interestingly enough, this is what Islamic eschatology indicates. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said, “Something will come and take the Qur’an one night and not one verse will be left, either in the *muṣḥaf* or in the heart of any person, but it will be taken away.” *Sunan al-Dārimī*, no. 3209; *Muʿjam al-Ṭabarānī*, no. 8698. This being the case, the disappearance of the Qur’an will be an event as miraculous as its preservation, yet at the very same time a frightening loss of opportunity to know God’s divine speech. One should therefore not take the Qur’an for granted but rather endeavor to learn, recite, and practice its message. See also Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 3:198. [^350]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb* (Beirut: Dar Iḥyā Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH), 19:123. [^351]: Abū Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz*, 112. ## Summary # The Compilation of the ʿUthmānic Codex Allah, Glorified and Exalted, took upon Himself the safeguarding of His final revelation, declaring, "Verily, We have revealed the Qur'an and We will surely protect it" (Qur'an 15:9). This stands in contrast to the earlier scriptures, whose protection was entrusted to the People of the Book, as indicated by the words, "To them was entrusted the protection of Allah's Book." The Qur'an is the Divine speech revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through the angel Jibrīl, preserved through two intertwined means: the mass memorization of the believers and the written record. Its written preservation unfolded in stages, culminating in the codex commissioned by the third caliph, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35 AH), through which the verses came to fill written pages across the world with the same precision by which they were etched upon the hearts of the companions. During the Prophet's lifetime the Qur'an descended piecemeal over twenty-three years. The Prophet ﷺ reviewed it with Jibrīl each Ramadan, and twice in his final year. Whenever revelation came, he would recite it to the companions, who committed it to memory, and would summon his scribes—reportedly some sixty-five in number—to record it. A great many companions had memorized the entire Qur'an during his lifetime or soon after. According to the strongest view, the whole Qur'an was written down in his lifetime, yet it had not been gathered into a single official compilation, though certain companions possessed personal codices. Following the Prophet's passing in 11 AH, and after many reciters were martyred at the Battle of al-Yamāmah, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb urged Abū Bakr to compile the Qur'an. Zayd ibn Thābit was entrusted with this, gathering it "from date-palm bark, parchment, thin white stones, and the hearts of men." Imam Layth ibn Saʿd (d. 175 AH) related that Zayd would not record a single verse except with two witnesses. Al-Sakhāwī (d. 643 AH) explained that this meant two people who had written the verse in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ precisely as they had learned it. Thus every verse was affirmed by the combined attestation of written record, memorization, and direct testimony—a process completed in less than a year. The circumstances leading to ʿUthmān's codex arose from the rapid expansion of the Islamic empire. Senior companions dispersed to distant cities to teach—ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd to Kūfah, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī to Baṣra, and others—and Muslims in each land copied manuscripts based on the readings of the companion among them, as Ibn ʿAṭṭīyah (d. 541 AH) mentioned. Though the companions understood that the Qur'an was revealed according to seven aḥruf, permitting a measure of variation, this was unfamiliar to new Muslims, and disputes arose. When Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (d. 36 AH) witnessed the people of Shām and ʿIrāq differing during the campaigns in Armenia and Azerbaijan, he came to ʿUthmān and warned, "O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book as the Jews and Christians did before." ʿUthmān then requested the ṣuḥuf from Ḥafṣah and appointed Zayd ibn Thābit alongside ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith to transcribe copies, instructing the three Qurayshī men to write in the dialect of Quraysh in cases of disagreement, "for it was revealed in their tongue." The purposes of the two projects differed. Abū Bakr's compilation aimed to preserve the entire text lest it be lost, and was kept in safekeeping while people continued to recite as they had learned. ʿUthmān's codex aimed to unite the entire nation upon a single text; adherence to it was obligatory, and copies were dispatched to the major cities. Al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH) explained that ʿUthmān, after consulting the Muhājirīn and Anṣār who encouraged him, compiled the Qur'an according to one ḥarf to diminish differences and unite the people. ʿUmar ibn Shabbah (d. 262 AH) related in Akhbār al-Madīnah that ʿUthmān feared, "If you differ today, those after you will differ even more," resolving to gather the people upon one muṣḥaf "so that there be no division nor disagreement." This suggests he had contemplated the matter even before Ḥudhayfah's report. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) argued the compilation took place around 25 AH, citing ʿUthmān's sermon that only thirteen or fifteen years had passed since the Prophet ﷺ, against those who favored 30 AH. Omar Hamdan suggested it occurred in stages. Zayd was a natural choice, being the Prophet's foremost scribe and the one who had compiled the Qur'an under Abū Bakr. It is said he attended the final review (al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah), though the paper notes conflicting evidence on this matter and observes that Abū Bakr made no mention of it when selecting him. Reports indicate the committee later expanded to twelve, including companions such as Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, whose inclusion is disputed since some place his death earlier, though al-Wāqidī held he died in 30 AH. A weighty question concerns whether the ʿUthmānic codex encompassed the seven aḥruf, mentioned in the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās that Jibrīl recited until "he ultimately recited it in seven aḥruf." One group, including al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH), al-Ṭaḥāwī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH), and Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), held it was compiled according to a single ḥarf, since the aḥruf were a concession that became a source of confusion once Islam spread. A second group, including al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH), al-Dānī, and Ibn Ḥazm, held it contained all seven, reasoning that the companions could not omit what Allah revealed. Yet the existence of authentic companion readings absent from the codex, without evidence of abrogation, tells against this. The majority position, held by Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) and others, is that the codex encompasses whatever its consonantal skeleton (rasm) can accommodate of the seven aḥruf. Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH) expressed this precisely: "the muṣḥaf was written based on one ḥarf, and its script accommodates more than one ḥarf." Al-Mahdawī (d. 440 AH) affirmed that the surviving qirāʾāt are a portion of the seven aḥruf, retained because they conform to the codex, while the rest were abandoned, citing, "Recite that which is easy from it" (Qur'an 73:20). The paper notes that the claim that the final review abrogated the other aḥruf lacks the definitive proof that abrogation requires, and it is simpler to regard the excluded readings as belonging to the concession of the seven aḥruf. Regarding the instruction to write in the dialect of Quraysh, scholars clarify that the Qur'an was initially revealed in it before the concession of the other aḥruf, and that most of it accords with that dialect. Al-Jaʿfarī noted that ʿUthmān directed them to write according to Quraysh but did not forbid reciting according to other valid readings the script could bear. This practice of ikhtiyār had precedent, for ʿUmar had earlier written to Ibn Masʿūd asking him to teach in the dialect of Quraysh, which Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr understood as preference, not prohibition. As for the method, Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī argued that ʿUthmān's committee compiled the codex independently, gathering written materials afresh and questioning each contributor under oath—as related from Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd and from Mālik ibn Abī ʿĀmir—using Ḥafṣah's ṣuḥuf for verification afterward. This is supported by ʿUthmān's instructions regarding disagreement, which would be meaningless if they were merely copying an existing text, and by the accounts of Saʿīd dictating while Zayd transcribed. Concerning the account of a "missing" verse, Zayd found the end of Sūrah al-Tawbah (9:128–129) with Abū Khuzaymah al-Anṣārī and none other—not because others did not know it, but because they sought a written witness. A parallel narration in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī concerns a verse of Sūrah al-Aḥzāb (33:23) found with Khuzaymah ibn Thābit. Ibn Ḥajar reconciled these as two incidents involving two different men, while Ibn Kathīr (d. 773 AH) and Muḥammad Ḥasan Jabal held both occurred under Abū Bakr. Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, citing Kitāb al-Mabānī, held both refer to the same companion, Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī, whom the Prophet ﷺ had honored as Dhū al-Shahādatayn, deeming his testimony equal to two after he testified to the truth of a horse purchase out of certainty in the Prophet's truthfulness. The verses in question are attested in the earliest manuscripts, omitted by no companion codex. On the order of the sūrahs, scholars differed as to whether it was Divinely mandated (tawqīfī) or determined by the companions' ijtihād. Al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH) held it was from Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and al-Baghawī noted the Qur'an is written in al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ according to this sequence. Others, including the view Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ attributed to the majority and to Imam Mālik, held it was based on ijtihād, though Mālik added they decided by what they heard from the Prophet ﷺ. The disputed narration in which ʿUthmān explained the placement of al-Tawbah after al-Anfāl was critiqued in both chain and content: its transmitter Yazīd al-Fārisī was deemed weak by al-Bukhārī, and al-Tawbah was revealed fifteen months before the Prophet's passing. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib explained the absence of the basmalah as reflecting the sūrah's declaration of war, and the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest likewise places al-Tawbah after al-Anfāl without a basmalah. The paper holds the Divinely-determined view strongest, reinforced by the scholarship on tanāsub between adjoining sūrahs. As for the burning of other copies, this was integral to the project's aim of unity. Ibn Baṭṭāl noted that burning texts containing Qur'anic verses is itself a form of honoring them and protecting them from being trodden underfoot. Some copies were instead corrected against the codex, as ʿUthmān instructed. The compilation kept by Ḥafṣah was later destroyed by Marwān after her death, since its contents were already preserved in the muṣḥaf. Against Shady Hekmat Nasser's claim that the project "failed" to produce a single reading, the paper responds that ʿUthmān never mandated a single qirāʾah; rather, the disappearance of every non-ʿUthmānic copy is the greatest testament to its success. Al-Aʿẓamī observed that ʿUthmān's unparalleled success proves his action "echoed the voice of the community." The companions overwhelmingly approved. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said, "Do not speak of ʿUthmān except with what is good... he did not do what he did with the maṣāḥif except with complete approval from the rest of us," and, "Were I in charge, I would have done as he did." Al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321 AH) noted that this constituted ijmāʿ, a decisive proof like that through which Islam itself was transmitted. The reported displeasure of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd—despite his eminence, having recited over seventy chapters directly to the Prophet ﷺ—was on two counts: his exclusion from the committee and his reluctance to surrender his personal muṣḥaf and reading. Al-Anbārī held he spoke in anger and later recanted, while al-Shāṭibī observed that he never objected to the codex's compilation or the soundness of its reading, but only to the obligation of abandoning what he had learned from the Prophet ﷺ. Several scholars, including Ibn ʿAsākir and al-Dhahabī, related that he later concurred. The committee produced several regional codices. Scholars agree upon at least four—for Madīnah, Baṣra, Kūfah, and Shām—while others mention seven, eight, or nine, which may be reconciled by dispatch in stages. Manuscript evidence has confirmed the extraordinary precision of the copying: Marijn van Putten's study of the spelling of niʿmat across fourteen early manuscripts showed idiosyncratic spellings recurring in the exact same locations, proving descent from "a single written archetype." Imam Mālik (d. 179 AH) held that copies should follow the original spelling. The paper notes the stronger view that the rasm is isṭilāḥī rather than tawqīfī, while the majority hold adherence to it obligatory owing to the companions' consensus and its link to the qirāʾāt. Yet the regional codices contained a small number of slight differences. Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī listed thirty-six points among the four codices—about one hundredth of a percent of a text exceeding 320,000 letters, rendering them 99.99% identical. Abū ʿUbayd (d. 224 AH) related that Abū al-Dardāʾ himself enumerated some, and affirmed, "it is not permissible for anyone to deny any of them, for they are all considered by us to be the Divine speech of Allah." These variants persist today within the qirāʾāt. Scholars affirmed they were authentic readings deliberately distributed among the codices: al-Dānī explained that ʿUthmān, knowing these readings were from Allah and heard from the Prophet ﷺ yet unable to combine them in one script, "distributed them between the codices... so that the ummah could preserve them as they were revealed." Al-Mahdawī added that they corresponded to the transmissions already prevalent in each region. Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, however, doubted deliberate accommodation was the aim, holding rather that two equally established readings were treated as one ḥarf. The stemmatic analysis, initiated by Nöldeke and refined by Michael Cook, showed the four codices form a perfect family tree: the Syrian never agrees with the Basran and Kūfan against the Madīnan, and so forth. This establishes that the codices were copied one from another. The paper notes, however, that while a stemma excludes synchronous invention, it does not exclude sequential invention—deliberate insertion of known readings during copying. Recent studies by Hythem Sidky, al-Aʿẓamī, and others found these very variants distributed across more than fifty manuscripts in the very same patterns the literary sources describe. The Codex Parisino-petropolitanus, dated to the first century, agrees with the Syrian variants, while the Samarqand codex agrees with the Kūfan. Against the allegation of scribal errors, the paper marshals several considerations: the pre-existence of the qirāʾāt, the presence of both a reciter and a scribe in the process, the astronomically small number of variants compared with the 3,036 in the Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus of the Gospels, the clustering of variants and their concentration in mutashābihāt passages, the absence of typical transcription errors, and the community's untroubled reception. Al-Udfuwī (d. 388 AH) had already refuted the notion, noting the early Muslims' reluctance even to dot the maṣāḥif for fear of adding to them, so how could they add whole letters? A technical argument from the mutashābihāt shows that memory-based assimilation of parallels would produce directions of copying contradicting the stemma, confirming the variants were deliberate. Certain narrations appearing to attribute error were examined. The report of ʿUthmān seeing "laḥn" in the codex was deemed disconnected and inauthentic by al-Anbārī, al-Dānī, and Ibn Taymiyyah, who noted it is inconceivable that ʿUthmān would leave uncorrected errors in the very exemplar of the ummah; moreover, laḥn may denote dialect or spelling variants, not mistakes. The statements from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding 13:31 and from ʿĀʾishah regarding 4:162, 5:69, and 20:63 were understood as instances of a companion's unfamiliarity with a valid reading, since all these verses have sound grammatical explanations. Al-Ṭabarī demonstrated conclusively regarding 4:162 that since the codex of Ubayy agreed with the ʿUthmānic reading, and since the companions transmitted it by tongue, no error could be ascribed to it. Ibn Taymiyyah noted such readers were excused before a reading's mass transmission became established for them. Finally, the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest—radiocarbon-dated before 41 AH with 95% probability—preserves a lower text consistent with the ʿUthmānic codex in its verses and their sequence, yet exhibiting chapter orders and variant readings matching those reported for the codices of Ibn Masʿūd and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, such as the reading of 19:23 attributed to Ubayy and 20:128 attributed to Ibn Masʿūd. This manuscript evidence confirms the historicity of the ʿUthmānic codification and the companion codices, decisively falsifying the claims of revisionists like John Wansbrough who alleged these were later fictions. Thus the promise of Allah, revealed when the Muslims were few and persecuted—"Verily, We have revealed the Qur'an and We will surely protect it" (Qur'an 15:9)—and His assurance, "It is certainly upon Us to enable its gathering and its recitation" (Qur'an 75:17), has been fulfilled. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH) noted that this preservation, unmatched among all ancient scriptures, is among "the greatest miracles" and constitutes a prophecy of the unseen. As Abū Shāmah al-Maqdisī (d. 665 AH) affirmed, the muṣḥaf contains precisely what was revealed by Allah, taught by the Prophet ﷺ, and written by the companions—a lived reality experienced by every Muslim who recites today the very text assembled under ʿUthmān, as recited to the companions by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, as revealed through Jibrīl by Allah, Glorified and Exalted. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the ʿUthmanic codex and how does it differ from Abu Bakr's earlier compilation of the Qur'an? After the Battle of al-Yamamah (12 AH), Abu Bakr authorized the first official compilation of the Qur'an in writing after many reciters were martyred. Zayd ibn Thabit led the work, requiring two written witnesses for each verse. The result was a complete written compilation kept in safekeeping while the community continued reciting as they had learned. The ʿUthmanic codex was a later standardized set of written copies (*maṣāḥif*) produced under ʿUthman to unite the community upon a single written standard and end disputes tied to differing recitations. Official copies were sent to major regions and nonconforming materials were burned or corrected. ### Why did Caliph ʿUthman burn other copies of the Qur'an? This was not done to erase the Qur'an but to end escalating disputes as Muslims in different regions argued over divergent recitations tied to the *aḥruf* and regional teaching lineages. Establishing a single authorized written standard gave the umma a common reference point. Eliminating nonconforming materials also reduced the risk of circulating personal codices containing scribal mistakes or companion commentary written alongside Qur'anic verses, which could confuse later readers. Since reviewing every private copy across an expanding empire was not feasible, standardizing around authorized exemplars was the practical solution. Burning was also a recognized respectful way to dispose of materials containing Qur'anic verses. ### Were any verses of the Qur'an lost or left out during these compilations? No. The companions who had memorized the Qur'an in its entirety knew exactly which verses were in the text. During Abu Bakr's compilation, Zayd ibn Thabit sought two written witnesses for each verse. He found only a single written copy for one passage — held by Khuzayma ibn Thabit al-Ansari, whose testimony the Prophet ﷺ had declared equal to two witnesses. The fact that Zayd knew precisely which verse was unaccounted for in writing confirms the memorized text was complete. When ʿUthman later commissioned his codex, the committee repeated the process. No verse was omitted; what was excluded were variant readings from the seven *aḥruf* that did not conform to the ʿUthmanic written standard. ### What are the seven ahruf and the qiraʾat, and how do they relate to the ʿUthmanic mushaf? The seven modes of recitation (*aḥruf*) were a divinely permitted concession so the Qur'an could be recited with ease by an early community that was largely unlettered and linguistically diverse. When ʿUthman commissioned the standard codex, it was written in an early script without dots or vowel marks. That consonantal skeleton (*rasm*) could accommodate more than one valid recitation. The majority scholarly view is that the ʿUthmanic *muṣḥaf* preserved some but not all of the seven *aḥruf* — namely what the *rasm* could carry. The canonical recitations (*qiraʾat*) are those that fit the ʿUthmanic *rasm* and were transmitted through reliable chains back to the Prophet ﷺ. ### How do we know that the Qur'an we read today is the same as what the Prophet ﷺ recited? The Qur'an was preserved through two reinforcing channels: living recitation and written documentation. A large number of companions memorized the Qur'an in its entirety during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime. Abu Bakr then commissioned a written compilation using careful criteria drawing on memorization, written materials, and direct testimony. Later, ʿUthman oversaw a standardized written exemplar distributed across major centers. Early manuscript evidence supports this history: surviving Qur'anic manuscripts share highly specific spelling conventions recurring in the same places across different copies, pointing to a common written archetype. Widespread memorization also functioned as a check — a written form could not persist unless it matched an established oral recitation. ### Should I worry when I hear about "variant readings" and "anomalous recitations" of the Qur'an? No. The variations discussed in this field are small and controlled, not open-ended. The recognized recitations (*qiraʾat*) are those compatible with the ʿUthmanic consonantal skeleton (*rasm*) and transmitted with reliable chains back to the Prophet ﷺ. Readings that conflict with the ʿUthmanic writing are classified as anomalous (*shadhdh*) and are not recited as Qur'an. The Sanʿaʾ palimpsest, for example, includes some non-ʿUthmanic readings yet still shares the same verses and overall structure as the ʿUthmanic text — demonstrating how carefully the community distinguished what remained Qur'an for recitation from what did not. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-forgotten-muslims-how-kashmiris-breathe-islam-under-occupation # The Forgotten Muslims: How Kashmiris Breathe Islam Under Occupation **Author:** Ahmed Bin Qasim **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** May 19, 2022 **Updated:** November 4, 2025 ## Introduction > !هم کیا چاہتے؟ آزادی > >  !آزادی کا مطلب کیا؟ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ > > [^1]!تیرا میرا رشتہ کیا؟ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ > > Hum kyā chahtay? Azādi! > > Azādi kā matlab kyā? Lāʾilāhaʾillā-llāh! > > Terā merā rishtā kyā? Lāʾilāhaʾillā-llāh! > > (What do we want? Liberation! > > What does liberation mean? That there is no God but Allah! > > What makes you and me one? That our God is none but Allah!) These words, reminiscent of Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ’s declaration of “*aḥadun aḥad*” as he was tortured by his master for heeding the call of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ*,* reverberate through the streets of the colonized valley of Kashmir at the moment. Is Islam irrelevant for Muslims when they are engaged in a struggle that consumes their lives and permeates their entire existence? Or can Islam constitute the lifeblood of the struggle that Muslims lead against the condition of colonization? The long struggle of Kashmiri Muslims against India’s occupation tells us that not only is Islam a source of support and hope for a community of Muslims facing fierce oppression, it is also the light that guides the struggle of Kashmiris, the language that defines their quest for justice and the promise that makes surrender unimaginable. A few days back, my 61-year-old mother, who has been in prison for more than 12 years for her involvement with the resistance movement, called my aunt from Tihar Jail, Delhi. While they were talking, my mother heard the sound of the *adhān* in my aunt's locality. Mother rarely exhibits vulnerability, but she had just heard the call for prayer for the first time after four years of continuous imprisonment. During these four years, the sound of the *adhān* had never reached her ears. It overwhelmed her, so she asked my aunt if she could play a recorded audio of the *adhān* of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina as she has longed for its sound. My aunt played it on another phone and kept it close to the microphone of the phone on which they were talking and silently they kept listening until their 10-minute phone call came to an end. The *adhān*, for her and many other Kashmiri prisoners, embodies the feeling of home that they have been deprived of, scattered in jails thousands of miles away from Kashmir all across India. And more so, it embodies the sense of belonging that they feel towards Islam—a belonging that comes with a cost, when you are experiencing a condition of occupation marked by hatred towards Islam. So, what is the struggle of Kashmiris about? Firstly, the people of Kashmir are not fighting to be treated as “equal” Indian citizens with rights protected by the Indian state. The idea that Kashmiris seek equal Indian citizenship stems largely from liberal commentators in India. This argument obfuscates the true animating force of the Kashmiri struggle: not a yearning for greater integration with India, but for self-determination. This is seen in how the ongoing movement, known in Kashmir as *Tehreek*, has been guided by a demand for referendum and plebiscite, and not greater rights within the Indian union. As argued by Prof. Kanjwal, “Aside from the families associated with the client regimes of the Indian government, Kashmir’s Muslim-majority did not maintain any allegiance to or nostalgia surrounding Article 370. Kashmir’s ‘special status,’ enshrined in the Indian constitution, was built on the understanding between the Indian leadership and its client state in Kashmir that integration to India would be a hard sell for the vast majority of Kashmiris after partition.” The struggle, then, is not against any particular political party that happens to rule India at a given moment. The intelligentsia, both Indian and non-Indian, have erroneously attempted to trace the oppression in Kashmir to Narendra Modi’s rise to power in 2014.[^2] One reason academics lay the blame on Modi is their inability to reconcile the Indian genocidal-colonial project in Kashmir with secular nationalism, which former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his anti-colonial Indian National Congress claimed to espouse. A secularist liberal, however, can indeed be a colonialist. Nehru was undoubtedly the architect of the military occupation of Kashmir.[^3] The aforementioned academics exceptionalize Modi's rule while tending to romanticize pre-Modi India. Any such romanticization can only happen by obfuscating India's seven decades-long colonization of Kashmir, and its equally old history of the otherization of Indian Muslims as well as other non-Brahmanical and non-Hindu communities.[^4] These academics and journalists[^5] may write against India's oppression of Kashmiris now, but only do so because this oppression is marked by very visible and outward Brahmanical religiosity. Had the colonizer adopted a secular-liberal political theology, which has happened frequently throughout history,[^6] the liberal intelligentsia would likely have  acquiesced, or even justified the violence[^7] through discourses of civilizational progress, modernity, development, or democracy. In March 2022, a high court in India's Karnataka state ruled that wearing hijab is not an “essential” part of Islam and thus could not be protected under the fundamental right to religion. The court upheld a state government order prohibiting hijab in school. A few days later, the education minister of the same state announced the government’s plans to institute the study of Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, in the school curriculum for all students. This plan was justified by saying that Bhagavad Gita isn’t essential just for Hindus, *but for everyone*. While this religious favoritism might appear to contradict the logic of secularism, a closer examination suggests otherwise. It’s important to remember that secularism almost always has a profound relationship with nationalism. In India, the sensibilities of Hinduism in many ways permeate and define Indian nationalism. No one demands that politics and nationalism be divorced from each other because national identity is seen as central to political imagination.[^8] Hinduism, then, isn't reducible to the category of religion as we understand the category today, but it has always constituted the core of what being an Indian means. Islam, on the other hand, has largely been confined to the realm of private belief, ritual practice, inner experience, and affective attachments. Islam is seen as just a *religion*, and hence Indian secular governance can demand that it be isolated from the political realm or at least made subservient to the more significant “national interest” with no claims to power or authority. The blending of secularism with nationalism safeguards the interests of the Hindu majority, as they’re the ones who suffuse Indian nationalism with meaning and define the realm of the *political.* Anyone who presents secularism as an alternative to Hindu majoritarianism in India fails to understand that the operationalization of secularism in India is closely tied to popular sovereignty, which in turn has unavoidable sensitivity towards majoritarian ideological or religious norms.[^9] This sensitivity isn't an anomaly, but rather internal to the logic of secularism. Indian secularism is one that has embedded Hindu norms into political and juridical institutions while privatizing those of other communities, especially Muslims, and heavily regulating expressions of their faith. So, as a Muslim, you might be allowed to believe in one God, but the parameters of the expression and manifestation of this belief and what it *does* will always be determined and regulated by the majority. As Hussein Agrama argues, the concept of “public order” is essential to liberal democracy, and public order necessitates the privileging of the majority.[^10] --- ## Asking the right questions An oft-repeated assertion concerning Kashmir is that it is marked by a condition of “lawlessness.” For example, one *Times* article argued that Kashmir has seen “absolute lawlessness as structures of accountability have been rendered dysfunctional.”[^11] However, such an argument presupposes the possibility of a stable and steady rule of law, against which the “lawlessness” stands as a kind of anomaly. Such an argument fails to consider how the application of the law, its reformulation, its suspension, are all malleable instruments in the Indian colonial epistemic and political arsenal.[^12] The fact that Kashmiris are subjected to Indian laws, regardless of the complexion of the law, is in and of itself a problem. The point is not that the Indian state misuses its power in Kashmir, but that the Indian state must not wield any power at all, regardless of how this power is deployed. The Muslims of Kashmir do not resist India's rule in Kashmir because it does not give them their rights—they resist because the Indian state does not have the moral position or legitimate power to confer on them any right or deprive them of it. It is this power and subjection that they challenge. It is this power that sustains colonialism and characterizes it.[^13] The aspiration of Kashmiri Muslims is very clear for those who want to see—freedom. Freedom, for them, translates into complete liberation from India’s illegal occupation, and all the structures that enable the continuation of this occupation. These structures include not just the military, but also the economic, cultural, and legal apparatus, that act as different modes of power working towards the same end—the continued enslavement of Kashmir. Here it’s important to note the limitations of even the well-intentioned efforts of pursuing justice for Kashmiris within a liberal human rights framework. In his book *The Human Right to Dominate,* Neve Gordon accurately described how, under this framework, a colonial state responsible for extrajudicial executions, torture, home demolitions, and rape is asked to be both the arbitrator of and protector from the very violations that it is carrying out. He argues that this results in a paradoxical situation that enables the state to criticize itself while in effect producing its own legitimization. This paradox is characterized by a “tripartite configuration, operating as a complex and supposedly self-evident combination of protection from, protection by, and protection of the state.” Take, for example, the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. By identifying the state and its officials as potential sources of genocide and human rights violations, the convention established protection from the state. However, it then required the same state to recognize the crime of genocide as a constitutive element of international law and to punish persons guilty of genocide, thereby ascribing to the same state the responsibility to protect. Hence, as Gordon notes, the citizen is simultaneously protected from and by the state. Lastly, as a tool that empowers the state to protect the citizen, the convention also provided the state with protection as well, and it did so by offering it legitimacy as the central actor and primary enforcer of the convention. Overemphasizing human rights violations diverts our focus from the colonial underpinnings of domination, and the political rationale that produces the violations. To put it simply, India’s human rights violations in Kashmir are symptoms of the disease of colonization, and not the disease itself. As asserted by one of the most popular and beloved resistance leaders of Kashmir, Syed Ali Geelani, “Even if India macadamized the roads across Kashmir with layers of pure gold and diamonds instead of coal tar, the people of Kashmir are not going to give up their inalienable right of self-determination.”[^14] --- ## A historical overview: Kashmiri Muslims before 1947 In 1846, after the British East India Company prevailed over the Sikh Empire in the First Anglo-Sikh War, the British sold Kashmir, then ruled by the Sikh Empire, to a Hindu Rajput dynasty, the Dogra. This was a reward, of sorts, for Gulab Singh, a Dogra who served as the ruler of Jammu in the Sikh Empire and had chosen to side with the British in the Anglo-Sikh war. The sale was formalized under the Treaty of Amritsar, through which the British colonizers sold Kashmir, along with its inhabitants, to Dogras for 7.5 million Nanakshahi rupees.[^15] The rule of the Dogra dynasty in Kashmir effectively established the first modern Hindu state. In his seminal work, *Kashmir: Exposing the Myth Behind the Narrative*, historian Khalid Bashir notes that the arrival of Dogra rule brought with it the installation of expensive images and idols in temples across the Muslim-majority valley. Gulab Singh, the Dogra ruler, saw the preservation and elevation of Hinduism as an essential purpose of his rule. Muslims were economically crushed,[^16] their places of worship reduced to shambles. The repression of collective Muslim life was symbolized by the reduction of the Jamia Masjid, the most prominent of Kashmir’s mosques, to ruins.[^17] Similar to what occurred under Sikh rule in Kashmir, the lands owned by the mosques and shrines were confiscated by the Hindu state, while some of the mosques themselves were converted into stores, stables, and granaries. Conversion to Islam was outlawed, punishable by imprisonment, torture, and seizure of property. While preaching any form of Islam was banned, preaching (and converting to) Hinduism bore no consequences.[^18] According to Khalid Bashir, the Dogra state escalated the criminalization of cow slaughter, instituting punishments as varied as hair-burning, nose-cutting, ear-chopping, and public hanging. One common punishment consisted of torching houses with the family of the accused locked inside. Suspecting a Muslim of “intent” to harm a cow in any shape or form typically sufficed for punishment. Actually harming a cow resulted in imprisonment for life.[^19] Ranbir Singh, the Dogra ruler who succeeded Gulab Singh, took more severe measures to ensure that the punishment translated into the death penalty. In one such incident, a young man was incarcerated on the suspicion of cow slaughter. During imprisonment, he was forcibly fed so much food mixed with excess salt that he died of dehydration. On another occasion, an incarcerated Kashmiri Muslim had her tongue slit because she was charged with the crime of hitting a cow—a cow that had torn the clothes she had left out to dry in the open. As the Dogra regime consolidated power in Kashmir, it centered the responsibility of administering Kashmir in the hands of a minority of native Kashmiri Brahmins, also known as Kashmiri Pandits, who were privileged by Ghulab Singh because they were Hindus. These Brahmins considered their hegemony over Kashmiri Muslims a religious birthright. They held every substantial position in the state administration, including control of the revenue department. Not a single part of Kashmiri Muslim life, from food to healthcare to marriage and even divorce, escaped the regime of heavy taxes.[^20] The land the Muslims cultivated, the animals they owned or traded, the crops they grew, and the goods they sold, all were subjected to onerous taxation. So unforgiving was the economic repression that even gravediggers were taxed for burying fellow Muslims. Even as mosques were shut, the *adhān* frequently banned, and any strong assertion of Islam curtailed, Muslims were made to pay taxes for the preservation of Hindu temples and the sustenance of Hindu priests. The taxes were only binding on Muslims. *In other words, Hindus were exempted from paying the taxes that supported their own religious life while the Muslims were made to uphold it instead.* A number of creative torture methods were devised to forcibly extract these taxes from Muslims, including the application of nettle (called *soi* in the local language), a plant that severely stings upon contact with human skin; the dunking of Muslims in numbing ice-cold water, and the stripping and flogging of peasants.[^21] British orientalists also worked with the Dogra rulers and a native minority of Kashmiri Brahmins (Pandits) to produce multiple bodies of anti-Islam work that simultaneously served the interests of all three. The Pandits were asked by the Dogra rulers to share information with the European orientalists, and in return the Pandits were depicted by the orientalists as true carriers of the pre-Islamic culture of Kashmir. In her book, *Territory of Desire*, Ananya Jahanara Kabir lists some of the contrasts constructed by orientalists, including James Knolwes comparing the “learned Pandit” to the “ignorant Mussalman” in 1894 and Sir George Grierson warning against Kashmiri Muslims contaminating the “purity” of Pandit speech. As Kabir puts it, “The Indologists had increasingly privileged Kashmir not merely as a Hindu enclave within a degenerate Muslim population but, in retrospect rather shamefully, as a ‘pure’ Brahmin Hindu enclave.”[^22] With the end of British colonial rule in South Asia in 1947, and the creation of the modern Indian state and Pakistan in its aftermath, most of the princely states had to accede to one of the two newly-found dominions. Despite Kashmir’s overwhelming Muslim majority, the Dogra ruler of the time, Hari Singh, chose to cede the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Hindu-majority India without ascertaining the will of the Muslim population. Kashmir was militarily occupied by India in October of 1947,[^23] and has been under this occupation ever since. According to Salman Sayyid, the creation of Pakistan in 1947 disrupted Kemalist political imagination. Kemalism ought to be seen as a set of overlapping beliefs holding that only a secular national identity could be the vehicle of a political subjectivity throughout the Muslim world. Yet the demand for Pakistan identified Muslim political subjectivity, rather than ethnicity or language, as central to the formation of a community.[^24] Pakistan’s seemingly Islamic approach to politics, along with its various geographical, historical, and economic connections to Kashmir, has resulted in many of the valley’s Muslims defining the liberation of Kashmir in terms of accession to Pakistan rather than the establishment of an independent, sovereign Kashmiri nation-state. The current world order is such that anti-colonial Muslim struggles have to operate on a terrain not of their own making, and hence the desire of these Kashmiri Muslims for a merger with Pakistan should be seen as a local manifestation of *ummatic* thinking. These Kashmiris see Pakistan not as another nation-state, but as a country created in the name of Islam. While they acknowledge some of the shortcomings of modern-day Pakistan, they argue that once Kashmir is free they will begin the crucial work of returning Pakistan to the Islamic ideal that birthed it. As Salman Sayyid argues, > The contested nature of Pakistan did not arise from Pakistan being insufficiently imagined, but rather it arose from it being insufficiently decolonized… Once the mobilization in the name of Islam had created Pakistan, the leadership of the new country, for the most part, unaware of the radical nature of its formation, began to banalize its claims and the process of depoliticization of Islam started. Unlike other Kemalist entities, Pakistani’s Kemalist tendencies continued to run up against the founding narrative of Pakistan as a Muslim homeland. The recuperation of the Pakistani state in Kemalism meant that the decolonial potential of the experiment of Pakistan would remain unfulfilled. The tragedy of Pakistan remains that those who rule it, do not believe in it and those who believe in it, so far, have not been able to rule it.[^25] --- ## Settler-colonialism and the place of Islam As India’s settler-colonial project in Kashmir progresses, people often ask if the phenomenon of settler-colonialism can be understood and addressed through Islam. One of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ answers in clear affirmation. Saʿīd ibn Zayd reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is killed protecting his **property** is a martyr. Whoever is killed protecting his **religion** is a martyr. Whoever is killed protecting his **life** is a martyr. Whoever is killed protecting his **family** is a martyr.”[^26] Interestingly, these four realms of life are exactly the ones that the Muslims of Kashmir have been guarding against the Indian colonial onslaught. The point is, when a Kashmiri Muslim defends his legitimate property and land from an aggressor, it’s not necessarily a secular materialistic pursuit—it can be a pursuit fostered by Islam, especially when your property, land, and life are attacked *because* you are a Muslim and when you are resisting the attack *as* a Muslim. Let me briefly touch upon all four of them. **When it comes to property**, as Patrick Wolfe says, settler colonialism “destroys to replace.” In his allegorical novel *Altneuland*, Theodor Herzl, the founding father of Zionism, wrote that “if I wish to substitute a new building for an old one, I must demolish before I construct.”[^27] Right from the inception of India’s rule in Kashmir, the latent or manifest long-term goal has been to transform the demography of Muslim-majority Kashmir by settling members of the Indian army, bureaucrats, and migrant laborers in the region. The Indian government has set in motion new domicile laws that allow Indian citizens to permanently reside and buy land in Kashmir if they have worked there for a period of 15 years or studied there for seven years. In addition to this, the children of Indian officers are entitled to domicile certificates if their parents have lived in Kashmir for at least a decade.[^28] The hope is that the Kashmiri resistance can be overcome by altering the state’s demographic composition. According to Kashmir studies scholar Goldi Osuri, if “the first phase of this (Indian) occupation (of Kashmir) was the contested accession to India, the second phase was the immense militarization of the region—which remains the most militarized in the world—and bringing in laws that give the Indian army complete impunity for their actions in Kashmir, then the third phase will be marked by a full-on settler-colonial project.”[^29] Reducing Kashmiri Muslims to a minority in their own homeland would also jeopardize the possibilities of Kashmir’s freedom. As Professor Hafsa Kanjwal argues, the land in Kashmir had already been occupied by the Indian army, whose more than half a million soldiers had seized vast areas of land for building their cantonments, camps and bunkers. But the Indian state desires to render permanent its occupation of Kashmir, so the ruling party instituted its long-term goal of populating Kashmir with enough Hindu settlers to render the Kashmiri Muslim majority’s demand for freedom more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. However, the onset of settler-colonialism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir could be traced back to November of 1947, when thousands of Muslims were massacred in the Jammu region by mobs and the forces of the Dogra ruler, Hari Singh. The number of killings are estimated to be around 237,000. Nearly half a million Muslims were forcibly expelled across the border into the newly created Pakistan. According to prominent historians,[^30] the killings constituted a “state sponsored genocide” that aimed at bringing demographic changes in Jammu, a region in which the population was overwhelmingly Muslim—until this massacre.[^31] In Kashmir valley, however, Muslims still constitute 96.4 percent of the population.[^32] **When it comes to religion**, the Indian state has led an organized and multifaceted attack against Islam akin to that waged by the Meccans against the Prophet. Their variety of tactics include outright and visible forms of repression, like the closure of Jamia mosque,[^33] the desecration of the Qur’an,[^34] the criminalization of consuming beef,[^35] and offering Eid *ṣalāh*.[^36] In *Sūrah Al-Baqarah*, Allah states, “And who is more unjust than those who prevent the name of Allah from being mentioned in His mosques and strive toward their destruction.”[^37] But the Indian state has also adopted a different tactic, which I call the “epistemic remaking” of Islam into pro-state forms that either validate India’s rule in Kashmir or at least do not impede its colonial designs. As Sherman Jackson argues, states attempt to domesticate religion when they move it from a position in which it potentially threatens the state to a position in which it can only support its continuity, to the extent that it becomes difficult to differentiate between the vision of the good that is preached from the pulpit and the vision of the good that is espoused by the state.[^38] There are many ways in which this epistemic reconstruction of Islam is carried out. For example, the *ʿulamāʾ* that preach an Islam desirable in the eyes of the state and supportive of the state’s position on Kasmir are promoted, while those who do not are either jailed[^39] or deprived of their spaces of propagation.[^40] Some Indian *ʿulamāʾ* are sponsored, directly or indirectly, in their visits to Kashmir, where they have used the *minbar* to make such pronouncements as: a) Geography is created by Allah and human beings cannot alter it (and hence Kashmiris should see their destiny with India as inevitable) b) Allah has made Kashmir the crown of India, and how can we be willing to give up our crown? c) Kashmir is the land of peaceful Sufi masters, and violence must have no place here (note the violence that is criminalized here is not the state’s violence, but the physical resistance that Kashmiris engage in against it)[^41] d) Kashmiri Muslims are descendants of great scholars and saints, and Indian Muslims must not be deprived of the *barakah* of the land and the guidance of Kashmiri Muslims (and through this pronouncement an “Islamic” case for the continuation of India’s rule in Kashmir is made).[^42] India’s violence against Islam is not only reflected in the closure of *minbar*s, but in the heavy regulation of preaching on the few permitted *minbar*s. Islam is divested of its liberative value, reduced to a set of rituals that do not threaten the colonial power. One can worship Allah as long as the resistance against the Indian state is not part of one’s servitude to Allah, as long as the rebellion against the false gods isn’t part of one’s obedience to Allah. It’s similar to when the Meccans offered to worship the Prophet’s God (Allah) for one year if he ﷺ would worship their gods (the idols) for one year. In *Sūrah al-Qalam*, Allah says, “They \[idol-worshippers\] wish that you become flexible \[in your faith\] so that they should become flexible \[in their hostile attitude\].”[^43] It’s this flexibility that the Indian state has demanded from Kashmiri Muslims. The idea, if I put it simply, is that for most Hindu nationalists in India, the only good Kashmiri Muslim is dead or docile. For many Indian liberal secularists, on the other hand, the idea is to kill the Muslim in the Kashmiri to save the man. Either case results in death—a physical one, or a spiritual-political one that kills all that makes a Muslim a Muslim. In other words, colonial power doesn’t always operate through visible violence. On many occasions, the Indian state has attacked Islam in Kashmir not by physically tormenting Muslims, but by reducing Islam to an illusory and hollow identity marker that the state imbues with whatever meaning aligns with its own ends at any given moment. **When it comes to life and family,** the struggle of Kashmiri Muslims against the Indian state has been one for the preservation of their lives and the lives of their loved ones. That thousands have been murdered is not surprising, as India’s colonization of Kashmir is typified, first and foremost, by the power the colonial-state wields to kill the subject Muslim population at will, without being subject to any rule other than the will itself.[^44] The will is the only rule. The will is the only real law. What we call injustice is internal to the logic of India's governmentality in Kashmir. Both the fear of death, and actual death itself, are used by the Indian state to keep Kashmiri Muslims from resisting a state that has turned countless children into orphans[^45] and forced fathers to shoulder the coffins of their children.[^46] It’s a state that has widowed thousands of women and created a phenomenon of *half-widows*, women who do not know whether to mourn their disappeared husbands or hope for their return.[^47] So many Kashmiri Muslims were imprisoned for their resistance that the jails in Kashmir could no longer hold them, and hence thousands of them were sent to jails across India, miles away from their families.[^48] The figure of a “Kashmiri Muslim who refuses to be domesticated” is the Other for a vast majority of Indians, and these prisoners are often beaten up and humiliated not just by the police officers, but even by the Indian inmates. Even outside prisons, Kashmiri students studying in different parts of India face assaults regularly. --- ## Islam in the Kashmiri Tehreek and secular anxiety The place of Islam in the freedom struggle of Kashmiris is often obfuscated. Liberal commentators, both native to Kashmir and not, have typically argued that the issue is not a *religious* one, but a *political* one.[^49] Before we proceed, it is pertinent to note that these notions of what constitutes the *religious* and *political* are not natural, fixed, or self-explanatory. Rather, they are products of a secular political theology that impregnates these terms with meaning. Secularism is not the absence of religion, is not a neutral space devoid of any claims to absolute truth, and is not a separation between pre-existing and eternally distinct realms of the public and private, political and religious. As Saba Mahmood argues[^50] secularism is a project that creates these very spheres, delimits their boundaries, and permeates them with content, and then, through various modalities of power, makes these categories acquire a natural or unquestionable condition for people, such that they cannot but think in these terms. This is important because it is not only their encounter with the Indian colonial-state, but also the transnational force of secular power that governs, shapes, and regulates the lives of Kashmiri Muslims. I argue, then, that Kashmiris face what could be referred to as ***double colonization***: the immediate colonization at the hands of the Hindu state, that is informed by and also justifies itself through global Islamophobia, and the broader condition of neocolonialism. They share this latter condition with Muslims elsewhere, in which, as Dr. Ovamir Anjum [puts it](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/who-wants-the-caliphate&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416258896&usg=AOvVaw2Pp2RbQP3J_LPiLJqEsux5), Islam has not been allowed to be Islam. The occupation of Kashmir by India doesn’t only deny Kashmiris their liberation, but it also severs their sense of belonging to Muslim communities elsewhere. It is argued that the Kashmiri struggle must be narrated in terms that are intelligible to the secular-liberal gaze, a gaze that refuses to see or accept the centrality of Islam in a people’s most existential struggle. Salman Sayyid argues that this is a result of the categorization of Islam as a “religion.” This is a limiting category insofar as it is modeled on a specifically Western Christian model of religiosity. The history of the West becomes the history of the world, and all struggles are compelled to reorder themselves into forms that fit somewhere on the Eurocentric spectrum of doing politics.[^51] Instead of approaching Islam as the Kashmiri Muslim response to the problem of occupation, Islam’s assertion and presence in the practices and lexicon of resistance are seen as part of the problem. As William T. Cavanaugh argues, a transhistorical essence is attributed to all religions, and it is argued that *all* religions, if not subjected to secular reconstruction, are predisposed towards spilling into fanatical violence.[^52] Hence, a resistance against occupation that draws its life from Islam is seen as a priori unacceptable. Some would argue that the struggle in Kashmir is not about Islam but about justice, but what these arguments neglect is how Kashmiri Muslims see Islam. Instead of understanding Islam as reducible to matters of theological, ritualistic, and jurisprudential contestations, they understand it as submission to Allah's definition of justice. For us, Islam is the embodiment of justice. It takes a heightened sense of internalized Islamophobia to contend that a struggle for Islam is mutually exclusive with a struggle for justice. Some scholars, in a similar vein, argue that this struggle is not about Islam but about preserving human survival and dignity. The underlying assumption here, as in the previous case, is that even if the lives that are at stake are those of Muslims, preserving them cannot be an effect of Islam, nor a Qur’anic command. When a Muslim expresses support for not just oppressed Muslims, but even a non-Muslim who is oppressed, this support can also be fostered and enabled by Islam. In addition to this, the erasure of Islam when a cause like Kashmir is narrated is often described as “humanizing” the cause. But is it through erasing Islam from a people’s story of sacrifice and struggle that we humanize them and make them acceptable? Is secularity the condition of being seen as “properly” human? A day on the streets of Kashmi amidst a protest makes it clear that Islam is central to the way people imagine and articulate their struggle. However, this presents a problem to the activists and scholars on the Eurocentric spectrum of thought, both on the Left and the Right.[^53] For example, one of the slogans that Kashmiri Muslims raise in these protests is *Allahu Akbar*. What does this slogan mean and what is its value for Kashmiri Muslims? For the answer, we turn to Ibn Khaldūn: “The vanquished always want to imitate the victor in his distinctive characteristics, his dress, his occupation, and all his other conditions and customs. The reason for this is that the soul always sees perfection in the person who is superior to it and to whom it is subservient. It considers him perfect, either because it is impressed by the respect it has for him, or *because it erroneously assumes that its own subservience to him is not due to the nature of defeat but to the perfection of the victor*”[^54] (italics added). The slogan of *Allahu Akbar* prevents Kashmiris from associating power with perfection or rightness. Their subservience to the Indian state is not because of the perfection of the victor, but because Allah is testing their faith. *Allahu Akbar* also prevents Kashmiris from thinking the power of the colonizer is everlasting, or unchanging, or absolute, and emphasizes its temporariness, contingency, and subservience to God’s power. *Tawḥīd* embodies the metaphysical support for the struggle against a mighty military occupation, as it is the most profound declaration that no system is eternal and everything besides Allah is *perishable*. As Enrique Dussel argues, everything, even the sun and the Earth, are contingent (could be nonexistent) and possibly non-necessary (even the sun did not exist at one point).[^55] To remind a colonial state of its contingency and possible nonexistence gnaws at its claim to divinity and permanence. “There is no deity except Him. Everything will be destroyed except His Face.”[^56] To have faith that the occupation does not have ultimate or impregnable power is a necessary condition of making resistance against it possible. *Allahu Akbar* perturbs proponents of Hindutva and secularism alike. The reason is simple: the idea that Allah is the Greatest is an iconoclastic assertion against the cherished beliefs and idols of the former, and for the latter, a rejection of claims of secular power of being the final arbitrating authority on life. For the liberal activist, the words that escape from the Kashmiri Muslim protestor’s mouth present two problems. First, as Muneeza Rizvi put it, a public relations problem. “Talking about Islam demonizes the struggle, or it costs us an audience.[^57] Such are the immediate rebukes heard from native and non-native liberals alike. If the visibility of Islamic sentiment does delegitimize a cause, shouldn't we question and challenge the very criteria of legitimacy? Shouldn’t we pay heed to the underlying anti-Islamic animosity of it, wherein you only become eligible for an audience when you disrobe yourself of Islam? Second, the pervasive presence of Islam in the lexicon of the Kashmiri resistance is seen as a failure on the part of Kashmiri Muslims to understand that India’s occupation doesn't have to do with religion, but with politics. The absurdity of this objection is best revealed in the case of Kashmir, where it’s the Muslimness of Kashmiris that is subjected to different forms of oppression. The community of Kashmiri Brahmins, who are native non-Muslim Kashmiris, have been historically privileged by the Indian state and also by previous imperial formations, and empowered at the expense of Kashmiri Muslims.[^58] While one does not have to be a Muslim to acknowledge that the occupation in Kashmir is illegal, immoral, and unethical, the fact remains that it’s largely the Muslim population of Kashmir that has felt *occupied*, that has felt a sense of estrangement from the Indian state. Another slogan that features prominently in Kashmiri resistance vocabulary is *“Yahan Kya Chalay Ga? Nizam-e-Mustafa ﷺ!”* (What must govern life in Kashmir? The Way of Mustafa ﷺ). Kashmiri Muslims see Nizam-e-Mustafa as epitomizing *ʿadl*, justice, which is not to be found anywhere in the colonial order. It epitomizes a way of being for the Muslim collective in Kashmir in which the shared devotion to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ binds people with one another. Nizam-e-Mustafa ﷺ is also the answer of many Kashmiri Muslims when asked about the shape that a free Kashmir would take—when asked about their model of decolonization. It tells us that the struggle of Kashmiris is not only defined by what they stand against, but also what they stand for. --- ## Class, Kashmir, and Islam It's also important to remember that many Marxist thinkers tend to argue that “class” is the predominant analytical category that one ought to think of when writing or talking about colonialism. They argue that religion is merely a cover for what is really important, which is class. For them, it is the economic relations, the economic infrastructure, that undergird the logic of occupation, and not religion. Religion is reduced to a mere superstructure that only exists on the surface. However, the history of the Kashmiri struggle doesn't allow for any neat separation between the question of class and religion. Fanon, talking about Algeria, said that in the colonies, you were black because you were poor, and you were poor because you were black. You were white because you were rich, you were rich because you were white.[^59] In the case of Kashmir, the elitism and privileged status of Kashmiri Brahmins is a direct consequence of them being Brahmins, and the marginalization, both economic and cultural, of Kashmiri Muslims is *because* they are Muslims. One might argue that there are Kashmiri Muslims who have collaborated with the Indian state and have historically been close to the imperial power formation, but what we ought to note is that they are close to power not because of being Muslims, but *despite* being Muslims. Their proximity to power has been contingent on betraying the interests of the larger Kashmiri Muslim community and the Qur’anic imperatives of justice. So, one could argue that economic relations were shaped by religious belonging, as opposed to religion being irrelevant to the question of class. --- ## Kashmir as the site of the ummah’s rekindling The Indian state has regularly used the rhetoric and logic of the “war on terror” to demonize the Kashmiri struggle for liberation. Kashmiri Muslims imagine and narrate their struggle against the state’s occupation as *jihad,* and as Zunaira Komal argues, Kashmiri Muslims have had their “Islamic framework of physical and moral struggle labeled and collapsed under the global phantasm of ‘terrorism,’ a tactic that is strategically deployed by the global war on terror beneficiaries to disenfranchise Islamic anti-colonial movements.”[^60] She further argues that to understand movements of freedom like that in Kashmir, we ought to take seriously the moral universe that guides their aspirations to freedom, and to adopt a hermeneutic that is sensitive to a moral discourse of Islam that runs against the very idea of *secular* freedom. Kashmir is the site where the *ummah* ceases to be a mere abstract ideal. It comes to life through the anti-colonial struggle of Kashmiri Muslims, and also through their solidarity with persecuted Muslims elsewhere. To speak for the Rohingya Muslims when it entails no cost is easy, but when a Muslim community that itself is faced with brutal repression comes out on the streets against the persecution of fellow Muslims—that is when the *ummah* is actualized. In 2017, thousands of Kashmiri Muslims protested on the streets against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.[^61] The protests were held in Srinagar despite a curfew imposed by the Indian authorities. Many were injured and detained during the protests. Why would Kashmiri Muslims, already living under a tyrannical regime, add to their own suffering? How does one make sense of this except through Islam? One might argue that it is due to some arbitrary universal notion of “humanity” and not about Islam, but as Muneeza Rizvi argues, this account denies Islam a capacity for the universal, exalts secular politics of humanity as devoid of particularistic commitments, and deems universalist concerns the patrimony of secular politics.[^62] In his book *White,* Richard Dyer argues that there is no more a powerful position than that of being *just* human, as the claim to power is the claim to speak for the commonality of humanity. This power secular humanism claims exclusively for itself, blind to its own parochial and ethnocentric nature. In *Sūrah Āl ʿImrān*, Allah declares, addressing Muslims: “You are the best nation produced \[as an example\] for **mankind**. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.”[^63] A Muslim’s concern is global, including not just Muslims elsewhere, but the entirety of humanity. Vehement anti-Israel protests erupted in Srinagar in June 1967, when the Zionist state annexed East Jerusalem. In 1969, when Al-Aqsa was set on fire, a man died of a bullet injury in Srinagar while another suffered a bullet injury during widespread protests across the valley. Many student protesters were detained and beaten ruthlessly, and on Aug. 23, 1969, a complete strike was observed in Kashmir in solidarity with Palestinian Muslims. A curfew was imposed by the Indian state for more than a week in Srinagar, and the arrests continued as protests grew, followed by the imposition of a law that criminalized the assembly of more than four people.[^64] On the walls of the cities across Kashmir—cities that are unsafe for its Muslim inhabitants due to the occupation—the pervasive graffiti of “Save Gaza” announce loud and clear that the concern of Muslims for each other cannot be tamed within the borders that were not of our making. Even the small acts of solidarity that Kashmiri Muslims express for Palestinian Muslims do not go unpunished. As Palestinians were subjected to relentless Israeli aerial strikes and numerous children were murdered in Gaza, a neighborhood in Srinagar, embodying the Prophetic model, thought that the Kashmiri Muslim community ought to express some support, even if there was little it could do. A professional artist named Mudassir Gul was asked to paint graffiti.  He climbed onto a platform and began his project. The graffiti depicted a woman wearing Palestine’s flag as her headscarf, besides it the words, *We Are Palestine*. People gathered near the graffiti, raised the flags of Palestine, and chanted anti-Israel slogans. Soon after, the Indian forces took Mudassir out of his home, and forced him to climb the platform again and cover his painting completely with patches of black paint. The anxiety that the Indian state felt when Kashmiri Muslims, despite being colonized themselves, not only expressed concern for the plight of Muslims elsewhere but also translated this concern into small acts of protest, was immense. It was so immense that the Indian forces did not stop at blackening graffiti, but also detained Gul. The colonial forces launched an extensive raid and detained at least twenty more men surrounding the same case.[^65] The police chief of the colonial police apparatus in Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said that the detained Kashmiris were elements who were attempting to leverage the situation in Palestine to disturb “public peace and order” in the Kashmir valley. When the Prophet ﷺ called the Meccans to the message of Islam, they also complained that he was disturbing the “peace and order” of the community. The “peace” to which the police chief referred is one where the occupied Kashmiris accept the occupation as an unchangeable reality. To do this—to accept  the Indian state’s oppression as a fact of life to which one must grow accustomed—is to abandon the truth of *Allahu Akbar.* It is this truth that gnaws at the colonial state’s claims of divinity, permanence, and supremacy, and reaffirms its contingency, transience, and immorality. For occupied Kashmiris, peace can only materialize from the death of colonialism, from the emergence of a reality in which the Prophetic enunciation of *ummah*\-as-one-body finds a concrete manifestation, wherein the concern of Muslims for each other is not criminalized but nourished and preserved. --- ## The Qur’anic and Prophetic imperative As Ali Harfouch writes,[^66] Kashmir poses a unique problem for the Muslim world. Not only is it on the edges of the international order dominated by the West, it is also on the margins of the Muslim world. Muslims have a multifold obligation towards Kashmir. The first obligation stems from the fact that its people are Muslim, and is augmented by the fact that they are oppressed. Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one.” People asked, “O Allah's Messenger ﷺ! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “By preventing him from oppressing others.”[^67] In the case of Kashmir, the oppressed are not merely oppressed—it is their steadfastness on being Muslim that has resulted in their oppression. Many people, in order to dissuade Kashmiri Muslims from resisting India’s colonization, present the persecution we are experiencing as proof of Allah’s displeasure with us. The idea is unsustainable. Did the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions not starve and bleed when they chose to challenge the false gods of their time? Doesn’t Allah proclaim in *Sūrah al-Baqarah* that, “Surely We shall try you with something of **fear** and **hunger**, and **loss of wealth** and **lives** and **crops**; but give glad tidings to the steadfast, who, when disaster strikes them, say: Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.”[^68] Fear, hunger, loss of wealth and lives, and crops—is this not how Kashmiri Muslims have been tested under settler-colonialism? Yet for seven decades, they have remained steadfast. Maḥmūd ibn Labīd reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, declared, “If Allah loves a people, then he afflicts them with trials. Whoever is patient has the reward of patience, and whoever is impatient has the fault of impatience.”[^69] Instead of regarding persecution as a manifestation of Allah’s anger, shouldn’t it be regarded as a natural consequence of Kashmiri Muslims holding fast to Islam in the face of a mighty tyrant? In the Qur’an, in *Sūrah al-ʿAnkabūt,* Allah discredits the idea of equating suffering to Allah’s punishment when He says, “Do people think once they say, “We believe,” that they will be left without being put to the test?... There are some who say, “We believe in Allah,” but when they suffer in the cause of Allah, they mistake \[this\] persecution at the hands of people for the punishment of Allah. But when victory comes from your Lord, they surely say \[to the believers\]: We have always been with you. Does Allah not know best what is in the hearts of all beings? Allah will certainly distinguish between those who have \[sure\] faith and the hypocrites.”[^70] Contrary to the assumption that persecution is necessarily an effect of a community’s sinfulness, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ reported: I said, “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, which people are tested most severely?” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “They are the prophets, then the next best, then the next best. *A man is put to trial according to his religion*. If he is firm in his religion, *his trials will be more severe.* If he is weak in his religion, he is put to trial according to his strength in religion. The servant will continue to be put to trial until he is left walking upon the earth without any sin.”[^71] The idea that harm, or suffering, is always evil, and material benefit is always synonymous with good, is closer to Jeremy Bentham’s secular utilitarianism than it is to Islam. If persecution and its victims are *inherently* evil, then Kashmiri Muslims should be able to easily escape this condition simply by forgetting the teachings of the Qur’an and obeying the tyrant at the expense of obedience to God. But Kashmiri Muslims choose otherwise. They strive to be not among the hypocrites, but among those who have sure faith. They know that peace without justice is no peace, and that, [as argued](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416271245&usg=AOvVaw2wvlIC2xHKPJMJseoBlXd2) by Dr. Ovamir Anjum and Dr. Omar Suleiman, “compromise accompanied by weakness and appeasement only strengthens the enemy and aggravates his tyranny. Only unified, disciplined, and persistent action capped by fearlessness and utter trust in God brings an arrogant, unprincipled bully with far greater resources to the negotiation table.” As Fanon said, colonialism only loosens its hold when the sword is on its neck, and never out of selfless generosity. The colonizer never gives away anything for nothing.[^72] Inaction against oppression does not solve the evil of oppression—it normalizes it. The armed struggle of Kashmiri Muslims against the colonial state is validated by the Qur’an itself. Allah declares, “Permission \[to fight\] is given to those against whom aggression is launched, because they have been oppressed, and Allah is powerful to give them victory. \[They are\] those who have been evicted from their homes without right—only because they say: Our Lord is Allah.”[^73] In *Sūrah al-Nisā,ʾ* Allah says: “Why, then, should you not fight in the cause of God and of the oppressed, helpless men, women, and children, who cry out: ‘O Lord! Bring us out of this land whose people are oppressors, and appoint for us from Your Presence a protector, and appoint for us from Your Presence a helper!’”[^74] These verses speak both *to* Kashmiri Muslims and *for* Kashmiri Muslims. They speak to Kashmiri Muslims, in that they announce Allah’s permission for them to struggle against the oppression they face. They speak for Kashmiri Muslims, in that they ask other Muslims to support them meaningfully in their battle against oppression. Ali Harfouch rightfully reminds us of the fact that the Qur’anic and Prophetic model privileges the oppressed—the *mustaḍʿafīn*. It demands that we see things not from the gaze of the oppressor, but from the prism of the oppressed; not from atop but from below. In *Sūrah al-Baqarah*, Allah says: “And fight them until there is no more oppression and the religion is for God, but if they cease, then no aggression is permitted except against the transgressors.”[^75] India’s occupation of Kashmir signifies a multitude of transgressions both against God and His servants. In our desire to be close to power, we delude ourselves into thinking that it is meaningless to side with the oppressed. Thus we rationalize befriending the oppressor. The Kashmiri Muslims turn this condition upside down. They choose to side not with the oppressors of Muslims elsewhere, but instead with the oppressed, knowing very well that it would only add to their tribulations. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, a prominent jurisconsult and scholar of Islam, categorizes the virtue of *ṣabr,* patience, into four types:[^76] 1\. **Physical patience by choice**, such as doing hard labor willingly. 2\. **Physical patience without choice**, such as patiently bearing illness and extremes of heat and cold. 3\. **Psychological patience by choice**, such as refraining from things which both the Sharia and common sense say are wrong. 4\. **Psychological patience without choice**, such as patiently bearing an enforced separation from one you love. Patience, then, can be practiced either by choice or without choice. Patience by choice, for Ibn Al-Qayyim, is more valuable and precious than patience without choice, as the latter is common to all while the former distinguishes the best from the ordinary. He gives, by way of example, two incidents that happened in the life of Prophet Yūsuf. Prophet Yūsuf’s patience in rejecting the sinful invitation of the the wife of al-ʿAzīz, and his patience in bearing the punishment that followed, is of a greater status for Ibn Al-Qayyim than his patience in response to his brothers’ throwing him into the well, as he wielded no choice. The Muslims of Kashmir, in their struggle against prolonged occupation, have exhibited all four forms of patience delineated by Ibn Al-Qayyim. They have patiently led the physical labor of fighting against an immoral occupation (**physical patience by choice**), and they have patiently endured the physical abuse inflicted upon them by  the occupation (**physical patience without choice**). They have been psychologically patient by not permitting the condition of colonization to distort their *fiṭrah* and colonize their minds (**psychological patience by choice**), and they have patiently withstood the enforced separation from their imprisoned and martyred loved ones (**psychological patience without choice**). The *kalimah* that the Indian state wants Kashmiri Muslims to truly live by is “*Lā ilāha illa India,*”—an absolute subversion of our faith that we will unceasingly resist. The *ummah* continues to breathe, not in the air-conditioned rooms of Riyadh, Cairo, or the Gulf, but under heavy repression on the streets of Kashmir, a valley that’s unfortunately been seen as peripheral to the Islamosphere. As in the case of Islam’s earliest martyrs, the steadfastness of Kashmiri Muslims under oppression is one of the profound ways in which their Islam is lived, embodied, and practiced. ʿ*Ibādah,* for us, is not merely the daily five *ṣalāh* or other normative practices, but our struggle against the occupation. When I speak to many Kashmiri prisoners, including my own parents, and ask them about what keeps them going, “We hope that our Allah is pleased with us!” is all they say. --- ## Notes [^1]: Haris Zargar, “Kashmir’s Resistance Anthem,” *New Frame*, October 15, 2019, [https://www.newframe.com/kashmirs-resistance-anthem/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newframe.com/kashmirs-resistance-anthem/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416303313&usg=AOvVaw0Rycw9FiiXsRv5sbBFE4HV). [^2]: Hafsa Kanjwal, “The Violence on Kashmir Is Epistemological as It Is Physical,” *Jadaliyya*, December 11, 2019, [https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/40341/The-Violence-on-Kashmir-is-Epistemological-as-it-is-Physical](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/40341/The-Violence-on-Kashmir-is-Epistemological-as-it-is-Physical&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416275993&usg=AOvVaw0on6YKK5U441uOdsdqSoIR). [^3]: Alastair Lamb, *Kashmir: A Disputed Legacy, 1846–1990* (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2003). [^4]: Sharjeel Imam, “The Hindu Republic: Seven Decades of Muslim Exclusion in India,” *TRT World*, February 3, 2019, [https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-hindu-republic-seven-decades-of-muslim-exclusion-in-india-23794](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-hindu-republic-seven-decades-of-muslim-exclusion-in-india-23794&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416276706&usg=AOvVaw2ylUs8Y1mWwc5BTCKri_Z0). [^5]: Dexter Filkins, “Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi’s India,” *New Yorker*, December 2, 2019, [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/09/blood-and-soil-in-narendra-modis-india](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/09/blood-and-soil-in-narendra-modis-india&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416300103&usg=AOvVaw2k47EyZYz3S5ZwCGxXhQIb). [^6]: Uday Mehta, *Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999). [^7]: Hafsa Kanjwal, “Kashmiris Do Not Need to Prove Their Humanity, India Needs to Prove Its Own,” *Washington Post*, July 12, 2017, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/07/12/kashmiris-do-not-need-to-prove-their-humanity-india-needs-to-prove-its-own/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/07/12/kashmiris-do-not-need-to-prove-their-humanity-india-needs-to-prove-its-own/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416302718&usg=AOvVaw0sTsYOOhgl4FcK4BlVe-59). [^8]: Carlton J. H. Hayes, *Nationalism: A Religion* (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2016). [^9]: Saba Mahmood, *Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016). [^10]: Hussein Ali Agrama, *Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012). [^11]: Khurram Parvez, “A Year after India Revoked Kashmir’s Special Status, Kashmiris Worry about a Demographic Shift,” *Time*, August 7, 2020, [https://time.com/5877176/kashmir-special-status-india-domicile-rule/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://time.com/5877176/kashmir-special-status-india-domicile-rule/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416299498&usg=AOvVaw1QDsm8h58RQsXyEGtzBQTu). [^12]: Zainab Ramahi and Azadeh Shahshahani, “Destroying to Replace: Settler Colonialism from Kashmir to Palestine, *Verso Books* (blog), August 10, 2020, [https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4817-destroying-to-replace-settler-colonialism-from-kashmir-to-palestine](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4817-destroying-to-replace-settler-colonialism-from-kashmir-to-palestine&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416277967&usg=AOvVaw1JcIV36PHGYsdDT4xIAsd8). [^13]: Ahmed Bin Qasim, “The Metaphysics of India’s Colonial Project in Kashmir,” *TRT World*, April 20, 2021, [https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-metaphysics-of-india-s-colonial-project-in-kashmir-46043](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-metaphysics-of-india-s-colonial-project-in-kashmir-46043&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416278521&usg=AOvVaw0GgI9aCEs6hMVVyrIZ7vDp). [^14]: Yusuf Jameel, “‘Tunnels and Roads Can’t Resolve Kashmir Issue,’ Assert Separatists, Farooq Abdullah,” *Deccan Chronicle*, April 2, 2017, [https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/020417/tunnels-and-roads-cant-resolve-kashmir-issue-assert-separatists-farooq-abdullah.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/020417/tunnels-and-roads-cant-resolve-kashmir-issue-assert-separatists-farooq-abdullah.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416301085&usg=AOvVaw1wwk4Y9jYgsPA1HuXDxbPN). [^15]: Lamb, *Kashmir*. [^16]: Mohamad Junaid, “Kashmir: A Historical Timeline,” *Adi Magazine*, 2020, [https://adimagazine.com/articles/kashmir-a-historical-timeline/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://adimagazine.com/articles/kashmir-a-historical-timeline/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416279281&usg=AOvVaw1IFnmiKm5O5HLxV9xxlJH_). [^17]: Sheikh Showkat Hussain, “Kashmir Saga,” Kashmir Institute, 2016. ‌ [^18]: Arsilan Aziz, “Orientalism, Kashmir and Islam,” *Inverse Journal*, December, 2019, [https://www.inversejournal.com/2019/12/24/orientalism-kashmir-and-islam-by-arsilan-aziz](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.inversejournal.com/2019/12/24/orientalism-kashmir-and-islam-by-arsilan-aziz/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416297319&usg=AOvVaw13_8GUkW-MMWFsoOW5DBnY)[/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.inversejournal.com/2019/12/24/orientalism-kashmir-and-islam-by-arsilan-aziz/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416297548&usg=AOvVaw3x-yCiXI8u9wBeky8Nf2He). [^19]: Khalid Bashir, *Kashmir: Exposing the Myth behind the Narrative* (India: Sage Publications, 2017). [^20]: “Cashmere’s Dogra Taxation System,” Kashmir Life, March 15, 2017, [https://kashmirlife.net/cashmeres-dogra-taxation-system-issue-50-vol-08-134879/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kashmirlife.net/cashmeres-dogra-taxation-system-issue-50-vol-08-134879/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416301677&usg=AOvVaw0pYYJmguy0ocpouB8FyhDr). [^21]: “Cashmere’s Dogra Taxation System.” [^22]: Aziz, “Orientalism, Kashmir and Islam.” [^23]: Alastair Lamb, *Incomplete Partition: The Genesis of the Kashmir Dispute 1947–1948* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). [^24]: Salman Sayyid, “The Meaning of Pakistan,” *Critical Muslim Studies* (blog), August 14, 2017, [https://criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/project/the-meaning-of-pakistan/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/project/the-meaning-of-pakistan/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416280526&usg=AOvVaw3gVlgr_pUXUG5VPEGSeUON). [^25]: Sayyid, “Meaning of Pakistan.” [^26]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1421. [^27]: Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” *Journal of Genocide Research* 8, no. 4 (2006): 387–409, [https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416281103&usg=AOvVaw24zlsPxsKWRQZWDtjQRb4F). [^28]: Hafsa Kanjwal, “India’s Settler-Colonial Project in Kashmir Takes a Disturbing Turn,” *Washington Post*, August 5, 2019, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/indias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/indias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416281735&usg=AOvVaw0M8AOOkN_GmgsKJmxZlNw6). [^29]: Goldie Osuri, “AJ Newshour Interview,” Al Jazeera, YouTube video, August 7, 2019, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arM\_4Rjf6DA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arM_4Rjf6DA). [^30]: Lamb, *Kashmir*. [^31]: Rifat Fareed, “The Forgotten Massacre That Ignited the Kashmir Dispute,” Al Jazeera, November 6, 2017, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/6/the-forgotten-massacre-that-ignited-the-](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/6/the-forgotten-massacre-that-ignited-the-kashmir-dispute&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416293827&usg=AOvVaw396V_AuYb7ovVrfCb-YWa8)[kashmir](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/6/the-forgotten-massacre-that-ignited-the-kashmir-dispute&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416294114&usg=AOvVaw00u0w55H1F4lS9DMRwhdXI)[\-dispute](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/6/the-forgotten-massacre-that-ignited-the-kashmir-dispute&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416294356&usg=AOvVaw2HcFXTxphxFfqwUTjFpkyw). [^32]: “Kashmir Muslims Fear Demographic Shift as Thousands Get Residency,” Al Jazeera, June 28, 2020, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/28/kashmir-muslims-fear-demographic-shift-as-thousands-](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/28/kashmir-muslims-fear-demographic-shift-as-thousands-get-residency&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416294835&usg=AOvVaw27t_-IRSsnhwAQFXRE8jm_)[get](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/28/kashmir-muslims-fear-demographic-shift-as-thousands-get-residency&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416295204&usg=AOvVaw2L1WpGA8otrbclmUiKNk9N)[\-residency](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/28/kashmir-muslims-fear-demographic-shift-as-thousands-get-residency&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416295564&usg=AOvVaw0UeQm3IxLEELY_CU440K3w). [^33]: “Closed Kashmir Main Mosque Belies India’s Religious Freedom Claim,” Al Jazeera, December 16, 2021, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/16/india-kashmir-srinagar-jamia-mosque-religious-freedom-muslims](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/16/india-kashmir-srinagar-jamia-mosque-religious-freedom-muslims&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416282328&usg=AOvVaw0tSq17iFrqMA8q02O7g33S). [^34]: Jason Burke, “Four Killed in Kashmir Protests against Alleged Qur’an Desecration,” *Guardian*, July 18, 2013, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/18/kashmir-indian-forces-protesting-quran-desecration](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/18/kashmir-indian-forces-protesting-quran-desecration&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416283045&usg=AOvVaw1MdJS-yh-4WVayLbqYKLYp). [^35]: “Kashmir Shuts Down in Protest over High Court Beef Ban,” Al Jazeera, September 12, 2015, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/9/12/kashmir-shuts-down-in-protest-over-high-court-beef-ban](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/9/12/kashmir-shuts-down-in-protest-over-high-court-beef-ban&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416283567&usg=AOvVaw2ZGXmRqujrz52TbJ-mi4ja). [^36]: Azhar Farooq and Rebecca Ratcliffe, “Eid in Kashmir Muted as India Bans Large Congregations,” *Guardian*, August 12, 2019, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/eid-in-kashmir-muted-as-india-bans-large-congregations](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/eid-in-kashmir-muted-as-india-bans-large-congregations&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416284192&usg=AOvVaw3Sughh8jKihHyejxQOifwa). [^37]: Qur’an 2:114. [^38]: Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). [^39]: Abdul Mateen, “Kashmir’s Mandela, Dr Muhammad Qasim Completes 24 Years behind Bars,” *Milli Gazette*, February 5, 2017, [https://www.milligazette.com/news/Human-Rights/15396-dr-muhammad-qasim-kashmirs-mandella-completes-24-years-behind-bars/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.milligazette.com/news/Human-Rights/15396-dr-muhammad-qasim-kashmirs-mandella-completes-24-years-behind-bars/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416285079&usg=AOvVaw3aja1mFsAFgFn0qRz_QD8M). [^40]: “‘Kashmir Is an Integral Part of India,’ Says Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Calls for Normalcy in the Region,” Scroll.in, September 12, 2019, [https://scroll.in/latest/937087/kashmir-is-an-integral-part-of-india-says-jamiat-ulema-e-hind-calls-for-normalcy-in-the-region](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scroll.in/latest/937087/kashmir-is-an-integral-part-of-india-says-jamiat-ulema-e-hind-calls-for-normalcy-in-the-region&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416285686&usg=AOvVaw1vlC_tOfRQ-qEMP3FEaB0H). [^41]: Gyan Varma, “All of J and K and PoK Part of India, There Should Be No Compromise: Mahmood Madani,” Mint, September 15, 2019, [https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/all-of-j-k-and-pok-part-of-india-there-can-be-no-compromise-mahmood-madani-1568531536099.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/all-of-j-k-and-pok-part-of-india-there-can-be-no-compromise-mahmood-madani-1568531536099.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416296416&usg=AOvVaw2UfyaIvJxK6hZYY4mGejXi)[html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/all-of-j-k-and-pok-part-of-india-there-can-be-no-compromise-mahmood-madani-1568531536099.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416296704&usg=AOvVaw3-31UnUf-BQ6Z_4qAugDhu). [^42]: Muhammad Qasim, *Bāng* (N.p.: Muslim Deeni Mahāz J & K, 2015). [^43]: Qur’an 68:9. [^44]: Safina Nabi, “A Fake Gunbattle in Kashmir and a Widow’s 25-Year Battle for Justice,” *Article-14*, November 29, 2021, [https://article-14.com/post/a-fake-gunbattle-in-kashmir-a-widow-s-25-year-battle-for-justice-61a442143518e](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://article-14.com/post/a-fake-gunbattle-in-kashmir-a-widow-s-25-year-battle-for-justice-61a442143518e&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416286713&usg=AOvVaw1jwW2yGQj6rimhNneoMOPK). [^45]: Nusrat Sidiq, “Kashmir’s War Orphans Suffer in Isolation and Pain,” Anadolu Agency, 2022, [https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmirs-war-orphans-suffer-in-isolation-and-pain/2465865](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmirs-war-orphans-suffer-in-isolation-and-pain/2465865&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416287415&usg=AOvVaw1QrvZ6QTN8BGAWoo3u7JgJ). [^46]: Rifat Fareed, “Kashmiri Man Demanding Son’s Body Charged under Anti-Terror Law,” Al Jazeera, February 9, 2021, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/9/family-of-kashmir-teen-under-anti-terror-for-demanding-his-body](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/9/family-of-kashmir-teen-under-anti-terror-for-demanding-his-body&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416288020&usg=AOvVaw1tWHJH00RhWoAXY8Sp_dyV). [^47]: Ather Zia, *Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Women’s Activism in Kashmir* (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019). [^48]: Ahmed Bin Qasim, “Delhi Is on Fire, and My Kashmiri Parents Are in Prison,” *Nation*, February 28, 2020, [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/delhi-kashmir-india/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thenation.com/article/world/delhi-kashmir-india/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416288827&usg=AOvVaw0arO1qpSxKiJ-DkN3d84yB). [^49]: Nitasha Kaul, “Kashmir: The Communalisation of a Political Dispute,” Al Jazeera, July 26, 2017, [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2017/7/26/kashmir-the-communalisation-of-a-political-dispute](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2017/7/26/kashmir-the-communalisation-of-a-political-dispute&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416298357&usg=AOvVaw2mbwRNfPEdXrEIuQuONssr). [^50]: Saba Mahmood, *Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015).. [^51]: Salman Sayyid, *Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonization and World Order* (London: Hurst Publishers, 2014). [^52]: William T. Cavanaugh, *The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^53]: Muneeza Rizvi, “Palestine and the Question of Islam.” *Critical Muslim Studies* (blog), May 15, 2021, [https://criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/palestine-and-the-question-of-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/palestine-and-the-question-of-islam/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416289862&usg=AOvVaw00Msm5K19NVrsuit-AT4-U). [^54]: ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān B. Muḥammad Ibn Ḵaldūn, Franz Rosenthal, N. J. Dawood, and Bruce Lawrence, *The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015). ‌ [^55]: Enrique Dussel, *Philosophy of Liberation*, trans. Aquilina Martinez and Christine Morkovsky (Eugene, OR: Orbis Books, 1985). [^56]: Qur’an 28:88. [^57]: Rizvi, “Palestine and the Question of Islam.” [^58]: Bashir, *Kashmir: Exposing Myth behind Narrative.* [^59]: *Concerning Violence*, directed by Göran Olsson (Berlin: Films Boutique, 2014). [^60]: Kanjwal, *Violence on Kashmir.* [^61]: Zahid Rafiq, “Kashmiri Muslims Protest Rohingya Persecution,” Anadolu Agency, September 8, 2017, [https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmiri-muslims-protest-rohingya-persecution/904686](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmiri-muslims-protest-rohingya-persecution/904686&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416291003&usg=AOvVaw3XRvfaLQO8F1EJ9ttmrjDZ). [^62]: Rizvi, “Palestine and the Question of Islam.” [^63]: Qur’an 3:110. [^64]: Hilal Mir, “Palestine Solidarity: Kashmir’s Vocal Past and Muted Present,” Anadolu Agency, May 14, 2021, [https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/palestine-solidarity-kashmir-s-vocal-past-and-muted-present/2241156](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/palestine-solidarity-kashmir-s-vocal-past-and-muted-present/2241156&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416291643&usg=AOvVaw2VxgBRChaW3fxL9tTP7QCG). [^65]: Inzimam Qadri and Haziq Qadri, “Kashmiris Are Being Arrested for Pro-Palestine Protests,” *Diplomat*, May 22, 2021, [https://thediplomat.com/2021/05/kashmiris-are-being-arrested-for-pro-palestine-protests/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thediplomat.com/2021/05/kashmiris-are-being-arrested-for-pro-palestine-protests/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416292240&usg=AOvVaw2LA8q6tOcQB10X6KKLo37K). [^66]: Ali Harfouch, “Kashmir Is Invisible,” Islam21C, August 26, 2019, [https://www.islam21c.com/politics/kashmir-is-invisible/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islam21c.com/politics/kashmir-is-invisible/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652991416292822&usg=AOvVaw0hTBb67D37SFgNx9w4KO8s). [^67]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2444. [^68]: Qur’an 2:155. [^69]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 23122. [^70]: Qur’an 29:2–11. [^71]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2398. [^72]: Frantz Fanon, *The Wretched of the Earth* (Cape Town: Kwela Books, 1961). [^73]: Qur’an 22:39–40. [^74]: Qur’an 4:75. [^75]: Qur’an 2:193. [^76]: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzīyah and ʻAbd al-ʻAlī ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd Ḥāmid, *Excellence of Patience and Gratefulness: Uddat Al-Sabirin Wa-Dhakhirat Al-Shakirin* (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2012). ‌ ## Summary # The Struggle of Kashmiri Muslims: Islam as the Lifeblood of Resistance The struggle of the Muslims of Kashmir against India's occupation cannot be understood apart from Islam, for Islam is not incidental to their resistance but its very source, language, and promise. The slogans that echo through the streets of the valley—declaring that liberation means *lā ilāha illā-Llāh*—recall the steadfastness of Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ, who cried "*aḥadun aḥad*" while being tortured for embracing the call of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Islam is, for Kashmiri Muslims, a source of hope and the light guiding their quest for justice, so that surrender becomes unimaginable. The longing of imprisoned Kashmiris for the sound of the *adhān*—scattered as they are in jails thousands of miles from home—embodies both their yearning for their homeland and their belonging to Islam, a belonging that carries a heavy cost under an occupation marked by hostility toward the faith. The nature of this struggle must be correctly identified. The Muslims of Kashmir are not fighting to become "equal" Indian citizens; the claim that they seek integration into India arises from liberal commentators and obscures the true animating force of the movement, known as *Tehreek*, which has been guided by demands for a referendum and plebiscite. As Professor Hafsa Kanjwal argues, apart from families tied to India's client regimes, Kashmir's Muslim majority held no allegiance to Article 370, since integration was understood to be unpalatable to most Kashmiris after partition. Nor is the struggle merely against a particular ruling party. Many academics wrongly trace the oppression to Narendra Modi's rise in 2014, romanticizing pre-Modi India and thereby obscuring seven decades of colonization and the long otherization of Indian Muslims. A secular liberal can indeed be a colonialist; Jawaharlal Nehru was himself the architect of the military occupation. Had the colonizer adopted a secular-liberal theology rather than an overt Brahmanical religiosity, the liberal intelligentsia would likely have acquiesced to the violence in the name of progress, modernity, or democracy. Secularism in India is bound up with nationalism, and Indian nationalism is suffused with the sensibilities of Hinduism. Thus Hinduism constitutes the very core of Indian identity, while Islam is confined to private belief and ritual, permitted to exist only insofar as it remains subservient to the "national interest." The 2022 Karnataka court ruling that the hijab was not "essential" to Islam—followed days later by a plan to teach the Bhagavad Gita to all students as beneficial for everyone—illustrates how secular governance embeds majority norms while privatizing and regulating those of Muslims. As Hussein Agrama argues, the concept of "public order" is essential to liberal democracy, and public order necessitates the privileging of the majority. A Muslim may be permitted to believe in one God, yet the majority determines how that belief may be expressed. The frequent claim that Kashmir suffers "lawlessness" is misleading, for it presupposes a stable rule of law against which lawlessness is an anomaly. Rather, the application, suspension, and reformulation of law are themselves instruments of colonial power. The problem is not that India misuses its power, but that it possesses no legitimate power over Kashmir at all. Kashmiri Muslims do not resist because they are denied rights, but because the Indian state has no moral position to grant or withhold any right. Their aspiration is freedom—complete liberation from occupation and all its military, economic, cultural, and legal structures. Pursuing justice through a liberal human rights framework is limited, for as Neve Gordon argues in *The Human Right to Dominate*, this framework asks the colonial state to be both arbitrator of and protector from its own violations, producing a "tripartite configuration" of protection from, by, and of the state, thereby legitimizing it. Overemphasizing human rights violations diverts attention from colonialism itself; the violations are symptoms, not the disease. As the resistance leader Syed Ali Geelani declared, even were India to pave Kashmir's roads with gold and diamonds, its people would not surrender their right to self-determination. Historically, this condition began in 1846, when the British sold Kashmir and its inhabitants to the Dogra dynasty for 7.5 million rupees under the Treaty of Amritsar, establishing the first modern Hindu state. As the historian Khalid Bashir records in *Kashmir: Exposing the Myth Behind the Narrative*, Dogra rule brought the elevation of Hinduism, the ruin of the Jamia Masjid, the confiscation of mosque lands, and the outlawing of conversion to Islam while conversion to Hinduism bore no consequence. Cow slaughter was punished with hair-burning, nose-cutting, ear-chopping, and public hanging; one man was fed excessive salt until he died of dehydration, and a woman's tongue was slit for striking a cow. Kashmiri Brahmins, or Pandits, monopolized the administration, taxing every part of Muslim life—even gravediggers were taxed for burying the dead. Muslims were forced to fund Hindu temples and priests through taxes binding only upon them, while Hindus were exempt. British orientalists collaborated with Dogras and Pandits to produce anti-Islamic scholarship; as Ananya Jahanara Kabir notes in *Territory of Desire*, they privileged Kashmir as a "pure" Brahmin Hindu enclave amid a supposedly degenerate Muslim population. In 1947, the Dogra ruler Hari Singh acceded to India without consulting the Muslim majority, and India militarily occupied Kashmir that October. As Salman Sayyid argues, the creation of Pakistan disrupted Kemalist political imagination by centering Muslim political subjectivity, and many Kashmiris understand liberation as accession to Pakistan—not as another nation-state, but as a homeland born in the name of Islam—reflecting *ummatic* thinking. Sayyid holds that Pakistan's tragedy is that it remains insufficiently decolonized: those who rule it do not believe in it, and those who believe in it have not been able to rule it. Settler-colonialism can indeed be understood through Islam. Saʿīd ibn Zayd reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever is killed protecting his property is a martyr; his religion, a martyr; his life, a martyr; his family, a martyr"—the very four realms Kashmiris defend. Regarding property, settler colonialism "destroys to replace," as Patrick Wolfe observes and as Theodor Herzl wrote in *Altneuland* that one must demolish before constructing. India's new domicile laws aim to settle Indians in Kashmir and reduce its Muslim majority, a project whose roots lie in the 1947 Jammu massacres, estimated at 237,000 killed and nearly half a million expelled—described by prominent historians as state-sponsored genocide. Regarding religion, the state both openly represses Islam—closing the Jamia Masjid, desecrating the Qur'an, criminalizing beef and Eid ṣalāh—and, as Sherman Jackson describes, "domesticates" it by promoting compliant *ʿulamāʾ* who preach that geography cannot be altered or that Kashmir is India's crown, while jailing others. Allah says: "And who is more unjust than those who prevent the name of Allah from being mentioned in His mosques and strive toward their destruction." The Meccans once sought that the Prophet ﷺ become flexible in faith so they might soften their hostility, as in *Sūrah al-Qalam*—the very flexibility India demands. Regarding life and family, the state kills at will, orphaning children, creating widows and "half-widows," and imprisoning thousands across India. Liberal commentators insist the issue is "political," not "religious," yet these categories are, as Saba Mahmood argues, products of a secular political theology that creates and naturalizes such spheres. Kashmiris thus face a double colonization: immediate Hindu occupation and broader neocolonialism, in which, as Dr. Ovamir Anjum puts it, Islam has not been allowed to be Islam. Salman Sayyid attributes this to categorizing Islam as a "religion" on a Western Christian model, and William T. Cavanaugh notes the assumption that all religions tend toward fanatical violence unless secularized. But Kashmiri Muslims understand Islam as submission to Allah's definition of justice; a struggle for Islam is not exclusive of a struggle for justice. The slogan *Allahu Akbar* prevents them, as Ibn Khaldūn observed of the vanquished imitating the victor, from mistaking power for perfection, affirming instead—through *tawḥīd*—the occupation's contingency: "There is no deity except Him. Everything will be destroyed except His Face." Another slogan, *Nizām-e-Muṣṭafā ﷺ*, epitomizes *ʿadl* and expresses what they stand for. On class, the history disallows any neat separation from religion; as Fanon observed of Algeria, Brahmin privilege and Muslim marginalization flow directly from religious belonging, and Muslim collaborators are close to power not because of, but despite, being Muslim. Kashmir is the site where the *ummah* ceases to be an abstraction. As Zunaira Komal argues, Kashmiris' framework of physical and moral struggle—their *jihad*—has been collapsed under the "phantasm of terrorism." In 2017 thousands protested for the Rohingya despite curfew; in 1967 and 1969 they rose for Palestine and Al-Aqsa; and the artist Mudassir Gul was detained for painting "We Are Palestine." As Muneeza Rizvi argues, denying Islam a capacity for the universal exalts secular humanism as the sole patrimony of universal concern, whereas Richard Dyer notes in *White* that the claim to be "just human" is itself a claim to power. Allah declares: "You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong." Ali Harfouch reminds us of the multifold obligation toward Kashmir, and the Prophet ﷺ commanded, "Help your brother, whether oppressor or oppressed"—the oppressor by preventing his oppression. The claim that persecution proves Allah's displeasure is unsustainable; did the Prophet ﷺ and his companions not starve and bleed? Allah says in *Sūrah al-Baqarah*: "Surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast." Maḥmūd ibn Labīd reported that when Allah loves a people He afflicts them with trials; *Sūrah al-ʿAnkabūt* rebukes those who mistake persecution for punishment; and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ reported that the most severely tested are the prophets, then the next best, each according to his faith. The armed struggle is validated by the Qur'an: "Permission to fight is given to those against whom aggression is launched," and *Sūrah al-Nisāʾ* summons Muslims to fight for the oppressed who cry for rescue. As Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah categorizes *ṣabr* into four types—physical and psychological, by choice and without—the Kashmiris have exhibited all four. The *kalimah* India desires of them is "*Lā ilāha illā India*," which they will unceasingly resist. As Dr. Ovamir Anjum and Dr. Omar Suleiman note, appeasement only strengthens the tyrant, and Fanon observed that colonialism loosens its grip only when the sword is at its neck. The *ummah* continues to breathe not in the air-conditioned rooms of Riyadh or Cairo but under repression in Kashmir; and when its prisoners are asked what sustains them, they say only, "We hope that our Allah is pleased with us." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faith-in-mind-islams-role-in-mental-health # Faith in Mind: Islam’s Role in Mental Health **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Mental Health, Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** May 13, 2022 **Updated:** September 1, 2026 ## Introduction At Yaqeen, we consider Muslim mental health research to be a top priority. In the current study we examined the role of religiosity in Muslim mental health and well-being. Traditionally, the roles of religiosity and spirituality have been left out of definitions of mental health.[^1]  However, as Muslims we know that our purpose in life is to worship Allah,[^2] and that the serenity of our souls is tied to our remembrance of Him.[^3] Therefore, we want to start the conversation about mental health with God in mind. For the believer, spiritual health cannot be divorced from this equation, as religiosity and spirituality are indispensable components of thriving and healing.[^4] --- ## Religiosity and mental health Religiosity and mental health are intertwined. Religious beliefs and practices give followers a clear purpose in life, and purpose in life is a major predictor of mental health.[^5] Although meaning and purpose can be sought in many ways, Islam alone provides complete answers to the existential questions that we all encounter at some point in life.[^6] Additionally, the Qur’an, Sunnah, and the Islamic tradition are replete with guidance on inculcating spiritual and psychological resilience, uncertainty tolerance, and other virtues. As Allah tells us in *Sūrah Ṭā Ha*, “We have not revealed the Qur’an upon you to cause distress.”[^7] Applying the legal principle of *mafhūm al-mukhālafah*, or the inverse implication (argumentum e contrario), Allah therefore sent down the Qur’an to bring comfort and contentment. This places the Qur’an at the center of conversations about Muslim mental health. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also highlighted the need to turn to Allah for our mental health needs when he said, “Ask your Lord for forgiveness and wellness in this world and the Hereafter. If you are given forgiveness and wellness in the world and the Hereafter, you have succeeded.”[^8] Islam encourages us to remove any physiological or psychological barriers that reduce our ability to focus on Allah.  Thus, we find the Prophet ﷺ teaching us not to pray when a meal is presented or when we need to relieve ourselves,[^9] as the bodily urges to eat and use the bathroom would consume our minds and diminish the quality of our remembrance. If religious experiences are compromised when we are not in a state of physiological equilibrium, how much more important is it to be in a healthy mental state that facilitates a deep spiritual focus (*khushūʿ*)? The Prophet ﷺ taught us to seek halal treatment for whatever ails us,[^10] and this includes both physical health and mental health. In addition to the Qur’an and Sunnah, entire genres of classical literature on purification of the soul (*tazkiyat al-nafs*), Islamic psychology (ʿ*ilm al-nafs*), and theology address the teleological and psychospiritual dimensions of contentment in this life and in the afterlife.[^11] For instance, the great classical scholar, al-Balkhī, wrote extensively on mental disorders, including depression and anxiety, and their medical and religious treatments.[^12] Important for the recovery process are medications and/or valid mental health therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has developed effective methods and procedures to increase psychological flexibility, improve emotion regulation, alter cognitive distortions, among other positive outcomes.[^13] Yet for the Muslim, the Qur’an and Sunnah are ultimately the fundamental sources of healing and, as religiosity and mental health are inextricably linked, faith is a **necessary** component of healing and recovery for Muslims. As Allah is our Creator, the logical conclusion is that His guidance will facilitate optimal human functioning. The Qur’an affirms this notion by rhetorically asking, “Does He who created not know, while He is the Subtle, the Acquainted?”[^14] The Qur’an clearly states that the remembrance of Allah is a fundamental means of finding comfort and contentment. Allah says, > الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ > > Those who have believed and whose hearts are comforted by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort and contentment.[^15] Another major component of mental health is a sense of community.[^16] This corresponds to the Islamic concept of an *ummah* comprising a tight-knit community of believers responsible for one another. Fully identifying with and belonging to the *ummah* provides a sense of relatedness that fulfills a fundamental human need.[^17] Islam thus provides the interpersonal (between people) and intrapersonal (within a person) tools necessary for the mental and spiritual health that enables people to overcome the many challenges of the human experience.[^18] We are not advocating for an individualistic, personalized notion of religiosity as the key to human flourishing. Rather, the actualization of human potential requires deep personal commitment to the Islamic lifestyle, embeddedness in functional communities, and rule by just governments that facilitate the proper conditions for human flourishing. However, as Muslims today function outside of any semblance of a true Islamic government, the association between religiosity and mental health may be more modest than the asymptotic ideal. ### What is religiosity? What exactly do we mean by religiosity? Religiosity is often measured by superficial or limited aspects of belief or practice, such as people’s self-reported importance of religion, frequency of service attendance,[^19] or belief in God. These limited definitions do not encapsulate the all-encompassing concept of “*dīn*” (faith as a way of life) for Muslims.[^20] It is likely that the use of limited definitions of religiosity masks the true effects of religiosity on mental health and well-being. We addressed this issue at Yaqeen by creating the BASIC survey, a holistic, multidimensional measure of Muslim religiosity that includes beliefs, attitudes, spiritual practices and connection to Allah, institutional connections, and contributions to society.[^21] The BASIC survey measures the role of (B)eliefs, (A)ttitudes towards unpredictable life events and the decree of Allah, (S)piritual behaviors and connection to Allah (i.e., prayer and Quran reading and awareness of Allah), (I)nstitutional connection and attachment to the Muslim community, and (C)ontribution to society. We derived these dimensions from numerous verses and *aḥādīth* that discuss the comprehensive nature of faith and righteousness.[^22] ### What is mental health? Just as religiosity is a nebulous term in need of clear definition, “mental health” is defined by psychiatrists, epidemiologists, psychologists, and religious scholars in varying and sometimes incommensurable ways. For example, psychiatry is the study and treatment of mental illness, emotional disturbance, and abnormal behavior. As a result, psychiatrists often focus on psychopathology, which refers to the scientific study of mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety disorders. In contrast, psychologists may expand the term to include psychological thriving and well-being (i.e., positive psychology). Thus, we can see that mental health encompasses both mental disorders (psychopathology) and positive psychological outcomes. Research on religiosity and mental health has steadily increased over the past few decades.[^23] Although some anti-religious Western academics have speculated that religiosity negatively influences mental health,[^24] the scientific literature tells a different story. The majority of research studies find a positive relation between religiosity and mental health (with some studies finding either no relation or a negative relation). The inconsistency of these results likely stems from  differences in how religiosity was measured, the religious groups being studied, and the specific mental health outcome studied and its measurement.[^25] Researchers who reviewed 139 studies on the subject concluded that how religiosity is measured explains most of the neutral findings, because inadequate measurement is generally associated with unreliability and the probability of deflated correlations.[^26] Nonetheless, taken collectively, the body of research suggests religion’s positive relation with mental health.[^27] We find it useful to investigate religiosity’s relationship with psychopathology and positive psychology separately. This categorization helps us understand how religiosity both protects against mental illness and promotes thriving and flourishing. ### Religiosity and psychopathology (depression and anxiety) #### Religiosity and depression The most frequently studied mental health outcome is depression, which refers to a mood disorder that affects how a person feels, thinks, and handles daily activities.[^28] Some common symptoms include persistent sadness, low energy, hopelessness, pessimism, and loss of interest in life. According to a systematic review of 101 studies on religiosity and depression, approximately two in three studies found that religiosity relates to lower levels of depression or depressive symptomatology.[^29] Furthermore, in studies following depressed people over time, religiosity was associated with overcoming depression faster.[^30] Although studies of Muslim samples are not as common, many of them have found similar results.[^31] #### Religiosity and anxiety The relation between religiosity and anxiety is also well studied, with significantly more research on non-Muslim samples. In a review of 69 observational studies, half (35 studies) found that religiosity was related to lower levels of anxiety or fear, a third (24) found no relationship between the two, and 15% found religiosity was related to higher levels of anxiety. The same review found that six out of seven randomized control trials of religious interventions in patients with anxiety disorders were effective at reducing anxiety—even more effective than secular interventions.[^32] Although fewer studies of Muslims exist, in a  meta-analysis of studies of Muslims in the Middle East, nine out of 10 studies found that religiosity was related to lower levels of anxiety.[^33] In our own research at Yaqeen during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also found that aspects of religiosity were associated with reduced anxiety in Muslims worldwide.[^34] ### Religiosity and positive psychology Some of the most common positive psychological outcomes researched include psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and purpose in life. Psychological well-being broadly relates to perceptions of happiness and thriving.[^35] Life satisfaction is a positive mental health outcome measuring how rich and meaningful one finds their life.[^36] Purpose in life captures whether one perceives their life as having meaning and the extent to which one engages in activities that are personally valued.[^37] In a systematic review of 100 studies, almost 80% (79 studies) found religiosity to predict higher life satisfaction and happiness.[^38] Furthermore, religiosity was associated with higher levels of hope, optimism, and purpose in life in 12 of 14 studies. In no study was religiosity related to lower levels of hope and optimism.[^39] The positive impact of religiosity has also been detected in Muslim samples globally.[^40] However, nearly all of the studies we found only looked at simple correlations and did not investigate other demographic or psychological factors. One exception was a study of 1000 Pakistani Muslims that found religiosity was related to greater life satisfaction, even after accounting for many other factors.[^41] Overall, the dearth of studies with large Muslim samples and robust measures of both religiosity and mental health is a major limitation. Previous research clearly demonstrates that religiosity and mental health are positively related, even in overwhelmingly non-Muslim samples. As believers, we should be that much more optimistic and motivated to think about the positive effects of religiosity on mental health for Muslims, as Islam is indeed the ultimate truth. ### Religious doubt and mental health Although research has found that religiosity is related to better mental health, we know very little about how mental health is affected by religious doubt (*shakk*). Religious doubt refers to feelings of uncertainty towards, and a questioning of, religious teachings and beliefs. The experience of religious doubt can push a person into a deep existential crisis if not properly addressed. Thus, religious doubt is a process intricately tied to the psychological, social, and emotional dimensions of a person’s life.[^42] Within primarily Christian samples, religious doubt has been found to relate to higher levels of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.[^43] These studies suggest that religious doubts stemming from confusion about suffering and evil in the world are especially related to psychopathology. Another line of research has found that doubts concerning “divine struggles” (i.e., negative perceptions about God) or the meaning of life are also related to depression, anxiety, and anger.[^44] However, we cannot draw conclusions about the Muslim context, as most of these studies either include no Muslims or incredibly small sample sizes of Muslims.[^45] One of the only known studies of a Muslim sample—consisting of 139 Palestinians—related religious and spiritual struggles to depressive symptoms and anxiety, but not to life satisfaction.[^46] The types of doubts most associated with psychopathology in Muslims were negative interpretations of difficult life events (i.e., feeling attacked by supernatural forces or being punished by Allah) and doubts pertaining to the ultimate meaning of life (i.e., existential questions). When we turn to the Prophetic tradition, we find that the companions often felt distressed when experiencing doubt and sought guidance from the Prophet ﷺ. Therefore, we find numerous prophetic narrations affirming that Muslims *do* experience religious doubt, and that this is normal and far from blameworthy. A companion once came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah! One of us has thoughts of such nature that he would rather be reduced to charcoal than speak about them.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Praise be to Allah who has reduced the evil of the devil to only suggestions and whisperings.”[^47] In this narration, we see the distress that religious doubt brought upon the companion, yet we also see how the Prophet ﷺ acknowledged the doubt and praised the companion. We learn that when we’re faced with doubts, we need to tackle them head on by seeking Allah’s protection from and clarity on the questions with which we’re grappling. This is how we bolster our *yaqīn* (certainty). In another narration, some companions came to the Prophet ﷺ and lamented, “O Messenger of Allah, sometimes we have these thoughts, we hate having these thoughts, we would never dare to speak of them and we just want them to go away.” Our Prophet ﷺ replied, “That is clear faith.”[^48] Our *dīn* is so merciful that it recognizes that having religious doubts but not improperly acting upon them is a sign of clear faith (*īmān*), and our merciful Lord rewards us for the discomfort we feel over those doubts. We are also given practical instruction to deal with our doubts by saying, “*Āmantu billāh*” (I believe in Allah), and to remind ourselves that doubts are just evidence of Shayṭān’s persistence, rather than a sign of our own wickedness. ### Uncertainty intolerance and mental health One of the primary determinants of a person’s mental health is their attitude towards uncertainty. People comfortable with uncertainty will function better in life than those obsessed with control. The nature of life is uncertain, so expecting certainty from that which Allah has made uncertain will naturally lead to distress. Uncertainty intolerance is a cognitive bias that negatively affects how a person perceives, interprets, and responds to uncertain situations cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally. Studies have repeatedly related uncertainty intolerance to increased levels of depression, anxiety, and stress.[^49] Our research at Yaqeen has found that in addition to its deleterious effects on mental health, uncertainty intolerance is related to religious doubts.[^50] Additionally, a person’s tolerance for uncertainty is likely related to their understanding and practice of religious concepts such as *tawakkul* (trust and reliance on Allah) and *ṣabr* (patience). Allah has woven uncertainty into the fabric of the universe, even in the Qur’an itself: > It is He who has sent down to you \[O Muhammad\] the Book; in it are verses that are clear-cut—they are the foundation of the Book—and others that are unspecific and ambiguous. As for those in whose hearts is deviation \[from truth\], they will follow the unspecific and ambiguous, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation \[suitable to them\]. And no one knows its \[true\] interpretation except Allah. But those firm in knowledge say, “We believe in it. All of it is from our Lord.” And no one will be reminded except those of understanding.[^51] This verse establishes that Allah, in His infinite wisdom, purposely placed verses in the Qur’an that contain a degree of uncertainty. Only God knows the full wisdom of His words, but we can surmise that this modicum of ambiguity pushes people to study the Qur’an more deeply, seeking to uncover its gems.[^52] Our epistemic humility is tested by these uncertain verses, as we have to choose between stubbornly questioning them or accepting that their true meaning is only known to Allah and that our knowledge of them is probable at best. Allah describes the obsession with the uncertain aspects of Islam as a type of spiritual deviation, as its clear-cut aspects constitute the overwhelming majority of scripture and provide sufficient guidance for humanity. Arguably, the entire basis of faith is belief in the unseen (e.g., Allah, angels), and the details of the unseen are often unknown (e.g., when the Day of Judgment will occur). Allah begins *Sūrah Al-Baqarah* by describing those who are mindful of Allah as those “who believe in the unseen (*ghayb*), keep up the prayer, and give out of what We have provided for them, those who believe in the revelation sent down to you \[Muhammad\], and in what was sent before you, those who have firm faith in the Hereafter.”[^53] It is precisely because believing, even amid such uncertainty, is so difficult that the believer is richly rewarded with Paradise. Thus, uncertainty intolerance can destabilize our connection to our Lord, which in turn may impact our mental health. A few studies with non-Muslim samples have investigated the relationship between uncertainty intolerance, religiosity, and depression, finding that religiosity has a buffering effect that reduces the impact of uncertainty intolerance on depressive symptoms.[^54] This suggests that religion provides believers with means of coping with the uncertainty of life. ### Social determinants of mental health In addition to individual religiosity and psychological traits, there are other genetic[^55] and environmental factors related to mental health.[^56] Some of the well-established sociodemographic factors include age, gender,[^57] marital status,[^58] and socioeconomic status (i.e., income and education).[^59] Adolescents and young adults experience higher rates of mental illness, stress, worry, and anger.[^60] However, the relationship between age and well-being is less consistent, and some research has found well-being to follow a U-shaped pattern with age. This means that well-being dips during middle age but increases after the age of 50.[^61] Women have been found to experience anxiety and depression at higher rates than men, although such findings are inconsistent.[^62] Married people report higher rates of well-being and lower levels of depressive symptoms than unmarried people.[^63] The positive effects of marriage on mental health are not observed in cohabitation, suggesting that the marital bond is distinct in its positive effects. Divorce has also been found to relate to increases in depressive symptoms. In addition to examining the role of religiosity, we included many of these important social factors in our study to understand their contributions to Muslim mental health. --- ## Global research study on Muslim mental health ### Rationale and research questions As Islam is a comprehensive way of life, we would be remiss if we ignored the role that religiosity plays in mental health. Unfortunately, due perhaps to secular and anti-religious origins of Western psychology, conversations about mental health  have historically been considered taboo in the Muslim community. However, we worry that the recent normalization of mental health discourse has swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction. The secularization of mental health as a field has encouraged Muslims to ignore religious and spiritual guidance in favor of secular counseling and therapy for treatment. In order to improve the condition of the *ummah*, we need to understand the factors that influence Muslim mental health. Therefore, our study aimed at determining the roles of sociodemographic, religious, and psychological factors in multiple mental health outcomes, including psychopathology and well-being. Our findings support the centrality of religiosity in Muslim mental health and recovery, and the critical need for Islamically-integrated mental health care. We addressed the following research question: To what extent are demographic factors (age, gender, education, and marital status), religious factors (religiosity and religious doubt), and uncertainty intolerance associated with psychopathological (depression and anxiety) and positive (life satisfaction, purpose in life, and well-being) psychological outcomes for Muslims worldwide? ### Methods The data used in this study come from a global sample of Muslims collected by the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research in 2021. The cross-sectional study focused on creating and validating a new measure of religiosity, referred to as BASIC (Beliefs, Attitudes, Spirituality, Institutional connections, and Contributions to society). The entire sample included over 4,000 respondents.[^64] The analysis sample included 3,551 participants with complete data.[^65] We used multiple regression to analyze the data. Multiple regression allows us to investigate the unique role of each predictor variable on the outcome variable, while accounting for the effect of other predictor variables in the analysis. We ran a separate regression analysis for each of the five mental health related outcomes. ### Measures Our study included demographic, psychological, and religious questions. Demographic questions included age, gender, highest level of education completed, continent of residence, racial background, and marital status. Previously validated survey items measured the following psychological constructs: depression (PHQ-2),[^66] anxiety (GAD-2),[^67] purpose in life (Life Engagement Test),[^68] life satisfaction (Satisfaction With Life Scale),[^69] well-being (short for Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale),[^70] uncertainty intolerance (intolerance of uncertainty scale),[^71] and religious doubt (doubt subscale from the religious and spiritual struggles scale).[^72] Religiosity was measured with our new and validated BASIC measure.[^73] See our report for details about the survey items used in this study.[^74] ### Results Our global sample included many age groups, education levels, and other demographic groups. Seventy-two percent of the participants were female, the median age group was 25-34, the median education level was a bachelor’s degree, and 45% were married. The ethnic composition of the participants was 6% White, 11% Black, 48% South Asian, and 14% Arab. The participants resided in North America (41%), South America (0.2%), Europe (20%), Asia (27%), Africa (10%), and Australia/New Zealand (2%). See Table 1 for complete demographic information about the sample and Table 2 for descriptive statistics. The Muslims in our sample were doing quite well overall. The vast majority expressed high levels of purpose in life, with well-being and life satisfaction skewed towards higher levels as well. See Tables 2 and 3 for detailed descriptive statistics and correlations. Religiosity, religious doubt, and uncertainty intolerance were correlated with all mental health outcomes. Uncertainty intolerance was also correlated with lower religiosity and increased religious doubt. Rates of depression and anxiety disorders were high, presumably due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, 23% of Muslims met the criteria for depression and almost 27% for anxiety disorder.[^75] Women and younger people had higher rates of psychopathological outcomes than males and younger participants. Eighteen percent of men met the criteria for depression and 19% for generalized anxiety disorder, whereas nearly 25% of women met the criteria for depression and almost 30% for generalized anxiety disorder. Thirty-one percent of Muslims under the age of 35 met the criteria for depression and 34% for anxiety, whereas 12% of Muslims over 35 met the criteria for depression and almost 17% for anxiety. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States, we compared how American Muslims differ from the national average on depression and anxiety symptoms. Our study flagged 18.3% of American Muslims for depression, whereas the U.S. national average is 28.4%.[^76] Similarly, our study flagged 23.7% of American Muslims for anxiety disorder, whereas the U.S. national average is 35.8%. The prevalence of these two mental health illnesses were substantially lower for Muslims than non-Muslims in America. ![Table 1 - Demographics of the sample](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image9.png) ![Table 2 - Descriptive statistics for study variables](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image10-1024x983.png) ![Table 3 - Correlations for all study variables](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image8-1024x455.png) What demographic and psychospiritual factors predicted these mental health related outcomes? See Table 3 for correlations, Table 4 for a summarized regression table, and Figures 1 through 5 for visuals of the results.[^77] #### Demographic Factors We found that age, gender, education, and marital status all related to Muslim mental health. Higher age predicted lower levels of depression (*B*\=-.09) and anxiety (*B*\=-.07), and higher levels of well-being (*B*\=.11), but was not related to purpose in life. Women had higher levels of depression (*B*\=.06) and anxiety (*B*\=.11) and reported lower levels of well-being (*B*\=-.08) relative to men. However, gender did not relate to purpose in life or life satisfaction. Higher education predicted less depression (*B*\=-.07) but did not relate to anxiety. Education also positively predicted all positive mental health outcomes. Married people had lower levels of depression (*B*\=-.11) and anxiety (*B*\=-.08) and higher levels of all positive outcomes, especially life satisfaction (*B*\=.17) relative to unmarried individuals. #### Psychospiritual Factors Religiosity was predictive of all mental health outcomes. It was related to lower levels of depression (*B*\=-.11) and anxiety (*B*\=-.06), and higher levels of life purpose (*B*\=.34), life satisfaction (*B*\=.28), and well-being (*B*\=.34). Religious doubt, meanwhile, was related to higher levels of depression (*B*\=.12) and anxiety (*B*\=.10), and lower levels of life purpose (*B*\=-.09) and life satisfaction (*B*\=-.05). Uncertainty intolerance (UI) was also predictive of all outcomes. It was related to higher levels of depression (*B*\=.31) and anxiety (*B*\=.42), and lower levels of life purpose (*B*\=-.25), life satisfaction (*B*\=-.18), and well-being (*B*\=-.31). ![Table 4 - Predictors of Muslim Mental Health Outcomes](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image4-1024x813.png) ![Figure 1 - Predictors of Depressive Symptoms](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image5-1024x821.png) ![Image 2 - Predictors of Anxiety Symptoms](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image3-1024x821.png) ![Image 3 - Predictors of Purpose in Life](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image1-1-1024x821.png) ![Figure 4 - Predictors of Life Satisfaction](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image2-1-1024x821.png) ![Image 5 - Predictors of Well-being](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image6-1024x821.png) --- ## The central role of religiosity in Muslim mental health We  believe our study of how religiosity relates to mental health outcomes, based on a global sample of Muslims, has important implications for individuals, communities, imams, chaplains, mental health therapists, and researchers. Here are some of the key takeaways: 1. Religiosity was related to all mental health outcomes, including lower levels of psychopathology and higher levels of positive mental health outcomes. 2. The effect of psychospiritual variables (e.g., religiosity, doubts, and uncertainty intolerance) on mental health was significantly greater than the effect of demographic variables. 3. Uncertainty intolerance was associated with higher levels of religious doubt and lower levels of religiosity. 4. Uncertainty intolerance was the best predictor of psychopathology, whereas religiosity was the best predictor of positive psychological outcomes. 5. Religious doubt was related to increased psychopathology, less purpose in life, and less life satisfaction. The biggest takeaway from our study is that religiosity plays a vital role in our well-being and is inextricably linked to mental health. Our faith is a complete way of life that provides us with a source of purpose, meaning, and guidance to living a productive life characterized by meaningful contributions to society. Emotional and mental health, then, cannot be divorced from religiosity. As Iqbal’s father once said to him, “Son! Whenever you recite the Qur’an, do so as if it is being revealed to your heart. By reading the Qur’an like this, it will soon permeate your very being.”[^78] That deep personal connection is how we commune with our Creator. Religious beliefs, communal connection, and societal contributions for the sake of Allah work synergistically to bolster human flourishing in this life and the next. The holistic practice of Islam provides mental health benefits where the effect is greater than the sum of their separate parts. We believe the attempt to secularize mental health has had catastrophic consequences. First, the purge of religious concepts from the mental health conversation functionally severs our spiritual lifeline, removing Allah as our source of comfort to turn to, rely upon, and confide in. It also removes the stories of the prophets and righteous who inspire us through their incredible character even amid the challenges they faced. Third, it leads to the erroneous conclusion that the secular world provides the best and only solutions for thriving and healing. --- ## Uncertainty tolerance is a spiritual issue We found that religiosity was the best predictor of positive mental health outcomes, including purpose in life, life satisfaction, and well-being. However, the strongest predictor of depression and anxiety was uncertainty intolerance. We believe this distinction is important to understanding Muslim mental health. Religiosity does not make depression and anxiety disappear. Highly religious people may experience depressive symptoms and depression at some point in their lives. Mental illness is impacted by a host of non-religious factors including genetics,[^79] trauma,[^80] and other environmental factors. However, religiosity can be an integral factor in coping,[^81] healing, and recovery, and has been found to reduce depressive symptoms and help people overcome depression much faster.[^82] Uncertainty intolerance is far more central in predicting both depression and anxiety. While uncertainty intolerance may not seem like a religious issue on the surface, it in fact deeply relates to spiritual matters such as *tawakkul* and acceptance of the decrees of Allah (decrees that relate to the events of life and decrees that relate to His speech and commands). We have written about uncertainty intolerance (UI) in detail previously, highlighting how it skews how we feel, think, and behave (i.e., cope), leading to increased anxiety and stress, negative thinking, and maladaptive coping.[^83] Furthermore, in the present study, we have further support that UI also relates to more religious doubt and less religiosity, both of which relate to psychopathology.  Thus, it appears that uncertainty intolerance adversely affects our emotions and thoughts, causing us to think in maladaptive ways (e.g., polarized thinking, catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, jumping to conclusions) that diminish mental health and potentially increase religious doubts. Muslim scholars and mental health practitioners should continue to collaborate and incorporate faith-based approaches that address uncertainty intolerance and religiosity. For example, religious coping has been found to be especially helpful in treating depression, as coping relates to one’s beliefs about themselves, others, and the world.[^84] Healthy coping strategies may be categorized as active (efforts to directly target the source of stress) and accommodative (efforts to accept or adapt to the source of stress), with research finding that the ability to flexibly apply active strategies for controllable stressors and accommodative strategies for uncontrollable stressors relates to better mental health.[^85] --- ## Clinical and community implications Preventing and treating psychopathology, and promoting thriving and flourishing, are two sides of Muslim mental health. At the root of each is establishing a worldview and lifestyle built on the Qur’an, Sunnah, and centuries of Islamic practice. Additionally, drawing from the best of faith-congruent aspects of psychiatry, pharmacology, psychology, and counseling is in line with Prophetic guidance on seeking expertise and medical treatment for ailments. The need to reiterate faith-congruent aspects is essential, because not every type of therapy aligns with Islamic values.[^86] There is tremendous potential in religious scholars working with mental health practitioners to create Islamic therapies that address the needs of the Muslim community.[^87] Mainstream practitioners trained in secular psychiatry and psychology programs need to know the limitations of the atheistic attitudes prevalent in these fields. For example, those who are trained in Freudian psychology need to be aware that Sigmund Freud dismissed religion as “a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality.”[^88] Albert Ellis, ranked as the second most influential psychotherapist of all time, devoted an entire book to arguing that religion is harmful to mental health.[^89] Therefore, practitioners may need to intentionally re-examine their own biases, beliefs, and potentially Islamophobic attitudes. Mental health professionals should realize that all forms of therapy are value-laden, and that spirituality and religiosity do indeed facilitate the recovery of Muslim clients.  When working with a Muslim client for whom Islam is an important source of strength, disparaging the use of faith or simply being silent about it can hamper their recovery. In one case study, a practitioner did not see marked improvement in his Muslim client until *ṣalāh* (prayer) and faith was incorporated into therapy.[^90] Therapists may also benefit from learning how to address religious doubts in clients who are experiencing mental health challenges. As prior literature has found, doubts related to incorrect perceptions of Allah as punishing are related to psychopathology. We are currently investigating how perceptions of Allah influence well-being, and preliminary results confirm that Muslims who have an imbalanced view of Allah as distant, cold, and punishing, rather than near, warm, and loving, experience more negative mental health outcomes. Therapists and imams are encouraged to work in tandem to uncover how clients think about and perceive Allah, and discuss ways to deepen their attachment to Allah by cultivating a more balanced perception of Him. Divorcing religiosity from mental health can have potentially deleterious effects on Muslim clients by silencing conversation about their faith and making it a source of shame. Forcing someone to compartmentalize their *dīn*, especially if it is an integral part of their identity, goes against the desired goal of the therapeutic process and may cause further distress for Muslims who draw upon their *dīn* for strength and healing. Therapists should consider “social prescriptions” for their Muslim clients to help boost their religiosity and thus their mental health, such as volunteering at the mosque or a Muslim community event. Through offering faith-integrated care, the therapist will support the values of the client and likely see a favorable outcome. The results of this study should encourage those working in a religious capacity (e.g., imams, chaplains, religious educators) to appreciate the indivisible link between spiritual and mental health. Imams, scholars, and other spiritual professionals should reach out to Muslim mental health professionals who appreciate the role of Islam in therapy and request training so they can better help congregants seeking answers to religious doubts and other spiritual issues. Our results find that religious doubts and mental health are related, which means that religious doubts may cause mental health challenges, mental health challenges may cause religious doubts, or both. Therefore, religious scholars should understand how to talk to people about their religious doubts, while realizing that other mental health challenges may underlie these doubts. If the religious scholar only treats religious doubt from an intellectual perspective, ignoring emotion and affect, they will likely not succeed in helping the congregant. Additionally, a religious professional who is unable to offer the required mental health counseling would benefit from having a referral list of mental health professionals who integrate Islam into their practice. This synergy between religious care and mental health care is critical for addressing the needs of the Muslim community. From an Islamic perspective, many active coping strategies have been found to be therapeutic (but are far more than just therapeutic), including turning to Allah in prayer and supplication,[^91] reading and listening to the Qur’an,[^92] seeking community support, and engaging in prosocial behavior (i.e., helping others).[^93] Accommodative coping strategies, especially those targeting uncertainty tolerance, may include Islam-based cognitive behavioral therapies, such as reframing challenges as opportunities for growth and forgiveness from Allah; learning to trust in Allah and recognizing there is a purpose behind one’s suffering; and thinking positively of Allah (*ḥusn al-ẓann)* as benevolent and wise in His decree. We especially believe the stories of the prophets yield active and accommodative coping strategies that can be made into interventions for patients. ### How to improve mental health among Muslims You may ask, how can the findings from this study be practically integrated into your life? We recommend the following practices to promote thriving (and hope that religious scholars and mental health professionals can also use these recommendations to encourage their congregants and clients): 1\. **Reciting and Listening to the Qur'an** > وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۙ وَلَا يَزِيدُ الظَّالِمِينَ إِلَّا خَسَارًا > > And We send down in the Qur’an that which is healing and mercy for the believers, but it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss.[^94] The Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ have encouraged engaging with the Qur’an as a means of finding tranquility. Although the Qur’an is at its core a book of guidance, it also has the intrinsic ability to heal.[^95] Numerous studies have found that listening to the recitation of the Qur’an is therapeutic and reduces stress, anxiety, and depressive symptomatology.[^96] Clients can be encouraged to recite and listen to the Qur’an to understand God’s message to humanity, as well as to find hope and comfort. They can further unlock the healing nature of the Qur’an by reading its translation and studying its verses. 2\. **Deep mindful prayer** > الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ > > Those who have believed and whose hearts are comforted by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort and contentment.[^97] The closest a servant can be to Allah is in a state of prayer, as prayer (*ṣalāh*) is the connection between a servant and their Lord. A mindful prayer is one in which the servant is singularly focused on Allah and deeply contemplates what is recited in every phase of *ṣalāh*. Such mindful prayer has been found to influence brain regions associated with emotion regulation and to reduce anxiety.[^98] Interestingly, turning to Allah in prayer was exactly what Allah prescribed for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he was psychologically distressed by the verbal abuse he was receiving from the enemies of Islam. “Indeed, we know well that your heart is distressed by what they say \[to you\]. So glorify the praises of your Lord and be of those who prostrate \[to Him\].”[^99] What stands out in this incident is that Allah, in His infinite wisdom, could have removed the cause of the Prophet’s ﷺ  distress but instead taught His beloved a better method of coping, which is to connect with Allah and be near to Him. 3\. **Engaging in prosocial behaviors (Helping others)** > Whoever relieves a Muslim of a burden from the burdens of the world, Allah will relieve him of a burden from the burdens on the Day of Judgment. And whoever helps ease a difficulty in the world, Allah will grant him ease from a difficulty in the world and in the Hereafter. And whoever covers the faults of a Muslim, Allah will cover (his faults) for him in the world and the Hereafter. And Allah is engaged in helping the worshiper as long as the worshiper is engaged in helping his brother.[^100] One of the most effective ways to improve one’s state of well-being is to improve the well-being of others.[^101] The aforementioned hadith confirms that Allah helps those who help others. One of the most beautiful demonstrations of this truth can be found in the story of Mūsā when he fled from Egypt to the land of Madyan. Despite traveling for days and experiencing incredible hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, never mind the intense fear of being apprehended, the first thing Mūsā did when he arrived was assist two young women who needed help.[^102] Immediately after he was in the service of others, Allah relieved him of his physical and psychological ailments. Human beings have a psychological need to assist the needy, and Allah has made helping others a path to helping ourselves in this life and the next. 4\. **Embracing uncertainty** > Indeed, Allah \[alone\] has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.[^103] Allah has purposely made the world uncertain, and Allah does everything with infinite wisdom. Wind, for example, has the power to extinguish a flame or energize a fire. Rather than avoid the uncertainty of the wind, humanity has sought to harness it to benefit from the fire.[^104] Thus, exposing ourselves to and embracing uncertainty can make us stronger. The technology of the modern world has attempted to expunge uncertainty from our lives, giving us false expectations of predictability. Slowly exposing ourselves to uncertainty may allow us to realize that not only will unexpected bad things likely not happen, unexpected good things may actually occur. How do we expose ourselves to uncertainty? One simple suggestion is to leave our smartphones at home when making a trip to the grocery store or running an errand. Upon returning home, journaling about how the experience felt may help increase our tolerance for uncertainty. Another technique is to spend time in the wilderness, where conditions are often unpredictable. The weather may change, wildlife may suddenly appear, and an infinite number of other unknowns may spontaneously arise, many constituting unexpected sources of pleasure. Being in nature, ultimately, is a source of psychological and physiological well-being.[^105] It reduces anger, fear, stress, and feelings of pain, and increases awe, calm, and positivity. Moreover, fostering vulnerability and humility can help counteract the need for  control inherent to uncertainty intolerance. Crying in front of our Lord (especially during *tahajjud*) and deeply reflecting on how we are not self-sufficient can raise our tolerance for uncertainty. 5\. **Living an active lifestyle** > The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, although both are good.[^106] Spiritual strength and physical strength benefit the believer in many ways. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was in such excellent physical shape that he defeated an expert non-Muslim wrestler who challenged him (and then became Muslim).[^107] Mūsā was hired as a shepherd on account of both his integrity and formidable bodily strength. Scientific research has found a connection between exercise and positive mental health, including less stress and less depressive symptomatology, so it’s unsurprising that the Prophet ﷺ also advised us to practice horseback riding, archery, and swimming.[^108] In addition to this Prophetic advice, we suggest finding a physical activity that one enjoys and can regularly practice, including walking, running, swimming, horseback riding, strength training (e.g., lifting weights, calisthenics), team sports, or martial arts. Through regular exercise, people improve their health, mood, energy, sleep, and resilience, which all relate to general well-being.[^109] 6\. ***Murāqabah* and *tafakkur*** > …Be mindful of Allah and He will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him before you.[^110] The concept of Islamic mindfulness, or *murāqabah*, can be understood as a “complete state of vigilant self-awareness in one’s relationship with Allah in heart, mind, and body.”[^111] *Murāqabah* necessarily includes mindfulness of one’s own intentions, thoughts, emotions, and other inner states.[^112] Awareness, however, must extend past our inner states to what is beyond us. Dr. Malik Badri, the father of modern Islamic psychology, translates *tafakkur* as contemplation, where deep reflection upon Allah (and His creation) leads to a path of self-knowledge and healing.[^113] This includes contemplating the beautiful names and attributes of Allah, as well as the splendor and intricacy of the natural world around us. *Murāqabah* and *tafakkur* are burgeoning practices at the nexus of religiosity and mental health. For instance, several Muslim group therapy programs have already incorporated *murāqabah*.[^114] The recent development of Muslim e-mental health apps for guiding *murāqabah* and *tafakkur*[^115] offers a great opportunity for both Muslim scholars and mental health practitioners to concretely incorporate religiosity into Muslim mental health and well-being. --- ## Limitations and future research As perfection is only reserved for Allah, our study has some limitations that should be kept in mind. The study relied on a convenience sample of Muslims during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rates of psychopathology are therefore likely to be elevated and not generalizable to other years. The data used was cross-sectional, which does not allow us to make strong causal claims about the relations between variables. We also relied on shortened questionnaires for measuring psychopathology and uncertainty intolerance, which likely led to some measurement error and misclassification of depression and anxiety. Future longitudinal research would allow us to make stronger causal claims about religiosity and mental health. In future research, we intend to build upon our findings here and investigate the role of relationships in Muslim mental health. This includes people’s perceptions of Allah and their attachment to Him, as well as relationships with parents and friends. Despite the limitations of this study, we believe its results have beneficial implications for the *ummah* and ask Allah to provide comfort and contentment to Muslims all over the world. --- ## Appendix ![Full regression models for Muslim mental health outcomes](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image7-932x1024.png) --- ## Notes [^1]: For example, the United Nations defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.” “Mental Health and Human Rights Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” United Nations, January 31, 2017, [https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/reports/ohchr/a\_hrc\_34\_32\_mental\_health\_and\_human\_rights\_2017.docx#:~:text=Mental%20health%20may%2C%20in%20its,to%20his%20or%20her%20community%E2%80%9D](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/reports/ohchr/a_hrc_34_32_mental_health_and_human_rights_2017.docx%23:~:text%3DMental%2520health%2520may%252C%2520in%2520its,to%2520his%2520or%2520her%2520community%25E2%2580%259D&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630725144&usg=AOvVaw0DpJOZvscrnf4BSe84hJs9). Psychology is beginning to acknowledge the role of religion and spirituality in mental health. For example, the American Psychological Association (APA), has a division (36) that promotes psychological theory, research, and clinical practice to understand the significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives and in the discipline of psychology. “Div. 36: Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality,” APA Divisions, [https://www.apadivisions.org/division-36](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.apadivisions.org/division-36&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630725515&usg=AOvVaw1nUknICHYNsAefBYxz8GO5). Furthermore, an example of an organization that acknowledges the role of religion in counseling is ASERVIC, an organization of counselors and human development professionals who believe that spiritual, ethical, and religious values are essential to the overall development of the person and are committed to integrating these values into the counseling process. [https://aservic.org/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aservic.org/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630725884&usg=AOvVaw2llI9-ceCBcj0HWEN-B2lN). [^2]: Qur’an 51:56. [^3]: Qur’an 13:28. [^4]: Gene B. Ano and Erin B. Vasconcelles, “Religious Coping and Psychological Adjustment to Stress: A Meta‐Analysis,” *Journal of Clinical Psychology* 61, no. 4 (2005): 461–80; Harold Koenig, Harold George Koenig, Dana King, and Verna B. Carson, *Handbook of Religion and Health* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). [^5]: Gary T. Reker, Edward J. Peacock, and Paul T. P. Wong, “Meaning and Purpose in Life and Well-Being: A Life-Span Perspective,” *Journal of Gerontology* 42, no. 1 (1987): 44–49; Naser Aghababaei and Agata Błachnio, “Purpose in Life Mediates the Relationship between Religiosity and Happiness: Evidence from Poland,” *Mental Health, Religion & Culture* 17, no. 8 (2014): 827–31. [^6]: Kenneth I. Pargament, *The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice* (New York: Guilford Press, 2001). [^7]: Qur’an 20:2. [^8]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3848. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 560. [^10]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 3874. [^11]: For example, great scholars such as al-Ghazālī (d. 510 AH/1111 CE) and Ibn al-Qayyim al Jawziyya all wrote extensively on mental health and faith. [^12]: Rania Awaad, Danah Elsayed, and Hosam Helal, “Holistic Healing: Islam’s Legacy of Mental Health,” May 27, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/holistic-healing-islams-legacy-of-mental-health](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/holistic-healing-islams-legacy-of-mental-health&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630723790&usg=AOvVaw2aHN04bEoZK3Azx94oa_zJ); Malik Badri, *Abu Zayd al-Balkhi’s Sustenance of the Soul: The Cognitive Behavior Therapy of a Ninth Century Physician* (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2013). [^13]: Richard Beck and Ephrem Fernandez, “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in the Treatment of Anger: A Meta-Analysis,” *Cognitive Therapy and Research* 22, no. 1 (1998): 63–74; Roger Covin, Allison J. Ouimet, Pamela M. Seeds, and David J. A. Dozois, “A Meta-Analysis of CBT for Pathological Worry among Clients with GAD,” *Journal of Anxiety Disorders* 22, no. 1 (2008): 108–116; Keith S. Dobson, “A Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Cognitive Therapy for Depression,” *Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology* 57, no. 3 (1989): 414. [^14]: Qur’an 67:14. [^15]: Qur’an 13:28. [^16]: Bonnie M. K. Hagerty and Kathleen Patusky, “Developing a Measure of Sense of Belonging,” *Nursing Research* 44, no. 1 (1995): 9–13. [^17]: Bonnie M. K. Hagerty, Judith Lynch-Sauer, Kathleen L. Patusky, Maria Bouwsema, and Peggy Collier, “Sense of Belonging: A Vital Mental Health Concept,” *Archives of Psychiatric Nursing* 6, no. 3 (1992): 172–77; Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, “Self-Determination Theory: A Macrotheory of Human Motivation, Development, and Health,” *Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne* 49, no. 3 (2008): 182. [^18]: Islam’s detailed guidance on relationships with parents, children, spouses, neighbors, and community members demonstrates the emphasis that Islam puts on interpersonal matters. [^19]: “Measuring Religion in Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel,” Pew Research Center, [https://www.pewforum.org/2021/01/14/measuring-religion-in-pew-research-centers-american-trends-panel/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewforum.org/2021/01/14/measuring-religion-in-pew-research-centers-american-trends-panel/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630674598&usg=AOvVaw0YCCFy0K3fkiy8wKNjKWJ3). [^20]: Furthermore, Muslim women are not obligated to attend the Friday prayer, so we have found service attendance to be a poor indicator of religiosity for Muslims. [^21]: Tamer Desouky and Osman Umarji, “The Impact of Muslim Religiosity on Well-Being Outcomes,” September 15, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630675282&usg=AOvVaw2bJYb1TwmWHCF26k1pBUNN). [^22]: Qur’an 2:177. [^23]: William R. Miller and Carl E. Thoresen, “Spirituality, Religion, and Health: An Emerging Research Field,” *American Psychologist* 58, no. 1 (2003): 24. [^24]: These opinions can be found in the writings of Sigmund Freud, Albert Ellis, Wendell Waters, and others. However, these authors do not present any evidence to support their claims. [^25]: Kevin S. Seybold and Peter C. Hill, “The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Mental and Physical Health,” *Current Directions in Psychological Science* 10, no. 1 (2001): 21–24. [^26]: David B. Larson, Kimberly A. Sherrill, John S. Lyons, Frederic C. Craigie, Samuel B. Thielman, Mary A. Greenwold, and Susan S. Larson, “Associations between Dimensions of Religious Commitment and Mental Health Reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry and Archives of General Psychiatry: 1978–1989,” *American Journal of Psychiatry* 149, no. 4 (1992): 557–59. [^27]: Larson et al., “Associations between Dimensions of Religious Commitment.” [^28]: “Depression,” National Institute for Mental Health, [https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630719848&usg=AOvVaw0MGxd7e_W2NAJv20nwOPts). [^29]: Harold G. Koenig and David B. Larson, “Religion and Mental Health: Evidence for an Association,”  *International Review of Psychiatry* 13, no. 2 (2001): 67–78. [^30]: Koenig and Larson, “Religion and Mental Health.” [^31]: Sasan Vasegh and Mohammad-Reza Mohammadi, “Religiosity, Anxiety, and Depression among a Sample of Iranian Medical Students,” *The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine* 37, no. 2 (2007): 213–27, [https://doi.org/10.2190/J3V5-L316-0U13-7000](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2190/J3V5-L316-0U13-7000&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630676435&usg=AOvVaw1fDPuuXqwLDn7kMGcif-2c); Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, “Religiosity and Well-Being in a Muslim Context,” in *Religion and Spirituality across Cultures* (Dordrecht: Springer, 2014), 71–85. [^32]: Abdel-Khalek, Ahmed M. "Religiosity and well-being." *Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences* (2019): 1-8. [^33]: Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, Laura Nuño, Juana Gómez-Benito, and David Lester, “The Relationship Between Religiosity and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 58 (2019): 1847–56. [^34]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630700724&usg=AOvVaw3kZKGkmPSfW9lxiwRH0HDg) [^35]: Ed Diener and Katherine Ryan, “Subjective Well-Being: A General Overview,” *South African Journal of Psychology* 39, no. 4 (2009): 391–406. [^36]: Edward F. Diener, “Pioneer in Subjective Quality of Life Research: Edward F. Diener,” *Applied Research Quality Life* 9 (2014): 137–38, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-013-9284-0](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-013-9284-0&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630722208&usg=AOvVaw2WXt8I6KvgGLKzsFoJOsvq). [^37]: Michael F. 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[^42]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman and M. Nazir Khan, “Shakk (2): The Psychology of Doubt,” *Spiritual Perception*, September 17, 2017, [https://spiritualperception.org/shakk-2-the-psychology-of-doubt/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://spiritualperception.org/shakk-2-the-psychology-of-doubt/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630704322&usg=AOvVaw3ReLluXp3QkJZj9fYWY5E_). [^43]: Christopher G. Ellison and Jinwoo Lee, “Spiritual Struggles and Psychological Distress: Is There a Dark Side of Religion?,” *Social Indicators Research* 98 (2010): 501–517, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9553-3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9553-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630677580&usg=AOvVaw2ddb2GP-wOVqFKTqD84Ujc); Luke William Galen and James D. Kloet, “Mental Well-Being in the Religious and the Non-Religious: Evidence for a Curvilinear Relationship,” *Mental Health, Religion and Culture* 14, no. 7 (2011): 673–89, [https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2010.510829](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2010.510829&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630678123&usg=AOvVaw0tePFbncqPsyBpaiW6VHyC); Kathleen Galek, Neal Krause, Christopher G. Ellison, Taryn Kudler, and Kevin J. Flannelly, “Religious Doubt and Mental Health across the Lifespan,” *Journal of Adult Development* 14, no. 1 (2007): 16–25. [^44]: Julie J. Exline, Kenneth I. Pargament, Joshua B. Grubbs, and Ann Marie Yali, “The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and Initial Validation,” *Psychology of Religion and Spirituality* 6, no. 3 (2014): 208. [^45]: James Henrie and Julie Hicks Patrick, “Religiousness, Religious Doubt, and Death Anxiety,” *The International Journal of Aging and Human Development* 78, no. 3 (2014): 203–227, [https://doi.org/10.2190/AG.78.3.a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2190/AG.78.3.a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630678825&usg=AOvVaw3VBg3G8jwigP3vVD4ulCLD); Galek et al., “Religious Doubt and Mental Health”; Laura Upenieks, “Changes in Religious Doubt and Physical and Mental Health in Emerging Adulthood,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, 2021. [^46]: Hisham Abu‐Raiya, Julie J. Exline, Kenneth I. Pargament, and Qutaiba Agbaria, “Prevalence, Predictors, and Implications of Religious/Spiritual Struggles among Muslims,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 54, no. 4 (2015): 631–48. [^47]: *Sunan Abi Dawud*, no. 5112. [^48]: *Sunan Abi Dawud*, no. 5111. [^49]: Juanita Lowe and Lynne M. Harris, “A Comparison of Death Anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Social Anxiety Symptoms,” *Behaviour Change* 36, no. 3 (2019): 165–79; Seco Ferreira, Diogo Conque, Walter Lisboa Oliveira, Zenith Nara Costa Delabrida, André Faro, and Elder Cerqueira-Santos, “Uncertainty and Mental Health in Brazil during the Covid-19 Pandemic,” *Suma Psicológica* 27, no. 1 (2020): 62–69; Umarji and Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty.” [^50]: Osman Umarji and Tamer Desouky, “Doubt Among Generations: How Uncertainty Tolerance Affects Religiosity,” *Yaqeen*, September 15, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/reports/a-holistic-view-of-muslim-religiosity-introducing-basic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630720404&usg=AOvVaw1oJ2FZXppZ5GfNEDbWmqkx). [^51]: Qur’an 3:7. [^52]: For example, scholars have mentioned that one of the lessons we can derive from the presence of “mystical letters” (e.g., *alif-lam-mim*) in the Qur’an is that our inability to comprehend their meaning helps us to appreciate Allah’s infinite knowledge and supremacy, thereby increasing our *tawakkul* or reliance upon Him. [^53]: Qur’an 2:3–4. [^54]: Joseph R. Bardeen and Jesse S. Michel, “The Buffering Effect of Religiosity on the Relationship between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Depressive Symptoms,” *Psychology of Religion and Spirituality* 9, no. S1 (2017): S90; Ashley N. Howell, R. Nicholas Carleton, Samantha C. Horswill, Holly A. Parkerson, Justin W. Weeks, and Gordon J. G. Asmundson, “Intolerance of Uncertainty Moderates the Relations among Religiosity and Motives for Religion, Depression, and Social Evaluation Fears,” *Journal of Clinical Psychology* 75, no. 1 (2019): 95–115. [^55]: Justine M, Gatt, Karen L. O. Burton, Peter R. Schofield, Richard A. 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[^62]: Mustafa Afifi, “Gender Differences in Mental Health,” *Singapore Medical Journal* 48, no. 5 (2007): 385; Brett Roothman, Doret K. Kirsten, and Marié P. Wissing, “Gender Differences in Aspects of Psychological Well-Being,” *South African Journal of Psychology* 33, no. 4 (2003): 212–18. [^63]: Hyoun K. Kim and Patrick C. McKenry, “The Relationship between Marriage and Psychological Well-Being: A Longitudinal Analysis,” *Journal of Family Issues* 23, no. 8 (2002): 885–911. [^64]: The sample was recruited online, primarily through emails to Yaqeen’s global listserv. [^65]: There were no significant differences between those with complete data and those dropped from the study due to missing data. [^66]: Bernd Löwe, Kurt Kroenke, and Kerstin Gräfe, “Detecting and Monitoring Depression with a Two-Item Questionnaire (PHQ-2),” *Journal of Psychosomatic Research* 58, no. 2 (2005): 163–71. [^67]: Lauren G. Staples, Blake F. Dear, Milena Gandy, Vincent Fogliati, Rhiannon Fogliati, Eyal Karin, Olav Nielssen, and Nickolai Titov, “Psychometric Properties and Clinical Utility of Brief Measures of Depression, Anxiety, and General Distress: The PHQ-2, GAD-2, and K-6,” *General Hospital Psychiatry* 56 (2019): 13–18. [^68]: Michael F. Scheier, Carsten Wrosch, Andrew Baum, Sheldon Cohen, Lynn M. Martire, Karen A. Matthews, Richard Schulz, and Bozena Zdaniuk, “The Life Engagement Test: Assessing Purpose in Life,” *Journal of Behavioral Medicine* 29, no. 3 (2006): 291. [^69]: Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen, and Sharon Griffin, “The Satisfaction with Life Scale,” *Journal of Personality Assessment* 49, no. 1 (1985): 71–75. [^70]: Linda Ng Fat, Shaun Scholes, Sadie Boniface, Jennifer Mindell, and Sarah Stewart-Brown, “Evaluating and Establishing National Norms for Mental Wellbeing Using the Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS): Findings from the Health Survey for England,” *Quality of Life Research* 26, no. 5 (2017): 1129–44. [^71]: Kristine Buhr and Michael J. Dugas, “The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale: Psychometric Properties of the English Version,” *Behaviour Research and Therapy* 40, no. 8 (2002): 931–45. [^72]: Exline et al., “Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale,” 208. [^73]: Full psychometric evaluation of the BASIC Islamic religiosity measure is currently in the process of being published. [^74]: Desouky and Umarji, “Impact of Muslim Religiosity.” [^75]: As we relied on two-item screeners that are not as precise as full nine-item scales for depression and seven-item scales for anxiety, these estimates should not be taken to be exact. Typically, individuals flagged for depression and anxiety would take longer surveys to accurately diagnose the existence of depression and anxiety disorders. [^76]: This data comes from the CDC and was collected in January of 2021, which is the same time our survey was administered. “Anxiety and Depression: Household Pulse Survey,” CDC, [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/mental-health.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/mental-health.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630726548&usg=AOvVaw0wQlleHtt46zhEXkcCcXGU). [^77]: See the appendix for the complete regression analysis. [^78]: Sayyid Nazir Niyazi, *Iqbal kay Huzur*, trans. Ahmed Afzaal (Lahore: Iqbal Academy, 1971), 60–61. [^79]: Kenneth S. Kendler, Margaret Gatz, Charles O. Gardner, and Nancy L. Pedersen, “A Swedish National Twin Study of Lifetime Major Depression,” *American Journal of Psychiatry* 163, no. 1 (2006): 109–114; Matt McGue and Kaare Christensen, “The Heritability of Depression Symptoms in Elderly Danish Twins: Occasion-Specific versus General Effects,” *Behavior Genetics* 33, no. 2 (2003): 83–93. [^80]: Radu V. Saveanu and Charles B. Nemeroff, “Etiology of Depression: Genetic and Environmental Factors,” *Psychiatric Clinics* 35, no. 1 (2012): 51–71. [^81]: Pargament, *Psychology of Religion and Coping*. [^82]: Koenig and Larson, “Religion and Mental Health.” [^83]: Umarji and Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty.” [^84]: Kelsey T. Laird, Beatrix Krause, Cynthia Funes, and Helen Lavretsky, “Psychobiological Factors of Resilience and Depression in Late Life,” *Translational Psychiatry* 9, no. 1 (2019): 1–18. [^85]: Laird et al., “Psychobiological Factors of Resilience and Depression.” [^86]: Altaf Husain and David R. Hodge, “Islamically Modified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Enhancing Outcomes by Increasing the Cultural Congruence of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Self-Statements,” *International Social Work* 59, no. 3 (2016): 393–405. [^87]: Wahiba Abu-Ras, Ali Gheith, and Francine Cournos, “The Imam’s Role in Mental Health Promotion: A Study at 22 Mosques in New York City’s Muslim Community,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 3, no. 2 (2008): 155–76. [^88]: Sigmund Freud and James Strachey, *The Future of an Illusion* (New York: Norton, 1961). [^89]: Albert Ellis, “Is Religiosity Pathological?,” *Free Inquiry* 8, no. 2 (1988). [^90]: Hani M. Henry, “Spiritual Energy of Islamic Prayers as a Catalyst for Psychotherapy,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 54 (2015): 387–98, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9780-4](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9780-4&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630716317&usg=AOvVaw3h1qVKLh-cJXRPqXVtFJYx). [^91]: See Qur’an 15:97–98. The Prophet ﷺ was commanded to praise Allah and prostrate to Him when he was feeling distressed by the ridicule of the disbelievers. Shahid Ijaz, Muhammad Tahir Khalily, and Irshad Ahmad, “Mindfulness in Salah Prayer and Its Association with Mental Health,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 56, no. 6 (2017): 2297–2307. Henry, “Spiritual Energy of Islamic Prayers.” [^92]: Batoul Jabbari, Mojgan Mirghafourvand, Fahimeh Sehhatie, and Sakineh Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi, “The Effect of Holy Qur’an Voice with and without Translation on Stress, Anxiety and Depression during Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 59, no. 1 (2020): 544–54; Musthika Wida Mashitah, “Qur’an Recitation Therapy Reduces the Depression Levels of Hemodialysis Patients,” *International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences* 8, no. 6 (2020): 2222–27. [^93]: See *Sūrah* *al-Duha*. When the Prophet ﷺ was distressed by not receiving revelation, he was instructed to remember the blessings upon him from Allah and to be in service to the orphans and needy. See *Sūrah* *al-Qasas*. While Musa was in a state of distress after fleeing Egypt, he came to the aid of two young women just as he arrived in Madyan. Allah’s relief came immediately after he helped them. Hannah L. Schacter and Gayla Margolin, “When It Feels Good to Give: Depressive Symptoms, Daily Prosocial Behavior, and Adolescent Mood,” *Emotion* 19, no. 5 (2019): 923; Elizabeth B. Raposa, Holly B. Laws, and Emily B. Ansell, “Prosocial Behavior Mitigates the Negative Effects of Stress in Everyday Life,” *Clinical Psychological Science* 4, no. 4 (2016): 691–98. [^94]: Qur’an 17:82. [^95]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 5736. [^96]: Ashraf Ghiasi and Afsaneh Keramat, “The Effect of Listening to Holy Quran Recitation on Anxiety: A Systematic Review,” *Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research* 23, no. 6 (2018): 411; Amjad M. R. Alzeer Alhouseini, Imad Fakhri Al-Shaikhli, Abdul Wahab bin Abdul Rahman, Khamis Alarabi, and Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli, “Stress Assessment While Listening to Qur’an Recitation,” 2014 International Conference on Computer Assisted System in Health, 2014, 67–72, [https://doi.org/10.1109/CASH.2014.14](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1109/CASH.2014.14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630709262&usg=AOvVaw0UrPYnuT2V6BWbWdwitxRk); Iqra Ashfaq, “An Exploration of Stress Reactivity, Stress Recovery, Mindfulness Meditation and Prayer with the Use of Heart Rate Variability” (master’s thesis, York University, 2016), [https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/33473](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/33473&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630709769&usg=AOvVaw2J6JOoHsWGG9_xdvz0DgKj). [^97]: Qur’an 13:28. [^98]: Andrew B. Newberg, Nancy A. Wintering, David B. Yaden, Mark R. Waldman, Janet Reddin, and Abass Alavi, “A Case Series Study of the Neurophysiological Effects of Altered States of Mind during Intense Islamic Prayer,” *Journal of Physiology-Paris* 109, nos. 4–6 (2015): 214–20. [^99]: Qur’an 15:97–98. [^100]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi*, no. 1930, bk. 27, hadith 36. [^101]: Daye Son and Laura M. Padilla-Walker, “Happy Helpers: A Multidimensional and Mixed-Method Approach to Prosocial Behavior and Its Effects on Friendship Quality, Mental Health, and Well-Being during Adolescence,” *Journal of Happiness Studies* 21, no. 5 (2020): 1705–1723. [^102]: Qur’an 28:23–25. [^103]: Qur’an 31:34. [^104]: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, *Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder*, vol. 3 (New York: Random House, 2012). [^105]: Lucy E. Keniger, Kevin J. Gaston, Katherine N. Irvine, and Richard A. Fuller, “What Are the Benefits of Interacting with Nature?,” *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health* 10, no. 3 (2013): 913–35. [^106]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 2664. [^107]: *Sunan Abi Dawud*, no. 4078. [^108]: Estelle Malcolm, Sara Evans-Lacko, Kirsty Little, Claire Henderson, and Graham Thornicroft, “The Impact of Exercise Projects to Promote Mental Wellbeing,” *Journal of Mental Health* 22, no. 6 (2013): 519–27; Sandra Klaperski, Elena Koch, Daniel Hewel, Anja Schempp, and Jana Müller, “Optimizing Mental Health Benefits of Exercise: The Influence of the Exercise Environment on Acute Stress Levels and Wellbeing,” *Mental Health and Prevention* 15 (2019): 200173; Gary M. Cooney, Kerry Dwan, Carolyn A. Greig, Debbie A. Lawlor, Jane Rimer, Fiona R. Waugh, Marion McMurdo, and Gillian E. Mead, “Exercise for Depression,” *Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews* 9 (2013). [^109]: Patricia A. Deuster and Marni N. Silverman, “Physical Fitness: A Pathway to Health and Resilience,” *US Army Medical Department Journal* (2013). [^110]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2516. [^111]: Justin Parrott, “How to Be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation,”  *Yaqeen*, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630717514&usg=AOvVaw2-JyZyVHSw_XDs7Yy-fyE5). [^112]: Parrott, “How to Be a Mindful Muslim.” [^113]: Malik Badri, *Contemplation: An Islamic Psychospiritual Study* (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2000), [https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvk8w1xc](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvk8w1xc&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630718080&usg=AOvVaw2mY_rnq1ZKp7qG02Wbm2Tq). [^114]: Mindfully Muslim, [https://www.mindfullymuslim.com/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mindfullymuslim.com/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1652478630718572&usg=AOvVaw1zTHsvFKAQh2F5_Wi8nsb-). [^115]: See the Ruh, Sakeenah, Muraqabah, and Noor Meditation apps. ## Summary Religiosity occupies a central and indispensable place in the mental health and well-being of Muslims, and the pursuit of psychological wellness cannot be severed from a servant's relationship with his Lord. The very purpose of the human being is to worship Allah, and the tranquility of the soul is bound to His remembrance. Allah says, "Those who have believed and whose hearts are comforted by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort and contentment" (al-Raʿd). For this reason, any serious conversation about the mental health of Muslims must begin with God in mind, since spiritual health and psychological health are inseparable for the believer. Religious belief and practice furnish a person with a clear purpose in life, and purpose in life is itself a major predictor of mental well-being. While meaning may be sought through many avenues, Islam alone offers complete answers to the existential questions every human eventually confronts. The Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the broader Islamic tradition are filled with guidance on cultivating resilience, tolerance of uncertainty, and other virtues. Allah declares in Sūrah Ṭā Hā, "We have not revealed the Qur'an upon you to cause distress." By the legal principle of mafhūm al-mukhālafah (the inverse implication), the Qur'an was therefore sent down to bring comfort and contentment, placing it at the very heart of the discussion. The Prophet ﷺ likewise directed us to seek well-being from Allah, saying, "Ask your Lord for forgiveness and wellness in this world and the Hereafter. If you are given forgiveness and wellness in the world and the Hereafter, you have succeeded." Islam encourages the removal of physiological and psychological barriers that diminish one's focus upon Allah. Thus the Prophet ﷺ taught that one should not pray when a meal is served or when one needs to relieve himself, since such bodily urges consume the mind and reduce the quality of remembrance. If religious experience is compromised without physiological equilibrium, then a sound mental state that enables deep spiritual focus (khushūʿ) is all the more important. The Prophet ﷺ further taught us to seek lawful treatment for whatever ails us, which encompasses both physical and mental health. Alongside the Qur'an and Sunnah, entire genres of classical literature on purification of the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs), Islamic psychology (ʿilm al-nafs), and theology address the psychospiritual dimensions of contentment. The classical scholar al-Balkhī, for instance, wrote extensively on disorders such as depression and anxiety and their medical and religious treatments. Valid therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have their place in recovery, yet for the Muslim the Qur'an and Sunnah remain the fundamental sources of healing, and faith is a necessary component of recovery. As Allah, our Creator, asks rhetorically, "Does He who created not know, while He is the Subtle, the Acquainted?" (al-Mulk). A sense of community is another major component of mental health, corresponding to the Islamic concept of the ummah, a tightly-knit body of believers responsible for one another. Belonging fully to the ummah satisfies a fundamental human need for relatedness. It must be stressed, however, that an individualistic, personalized religiosity is not being advocated as the key to flourishing; rather, the actualization of human potential requires deep personal commitment to the Islamic lifestyle, embeddedness in functional communities, and just governance that facilitates the proper conditions for flourishing. Since Muslims today live outside any true Islamic government, the association between religiosity and mental health may be more modest than the ideal. Religiosity itself requires careful definition. It is often measured by superficial indicators such as self-reported importance of religion, frequency of attendance at services, or belief in God, none of which capture the all-encompassing concept of dīn. Such limited definitions likely mask the true effects of religiosity. To remedy this, a holistic and multidimensional measure of Muslim religiosity called BASIC was developed, encompassing Beliefs, Attitudes toward unpredictable events and the decree of Allah, Spiritual behaviors and connection to Allah, Institutional connection to the community, and Contributions to society, all derived from numerous verses and aḥādīth on the comprehensive nature of faith. "Mental health" is likewise defined differently across disciplines, spanning both psychopathology (such as depression and anxiety) and positive psychological outcomes (such as well-being). While some anti-religious Western academics have speculated that religiosity harms mental health, the scientific literature indicates otherwise, with most studies finding a positive relationship. Reviewers of 139 studies concluded that inadequate measurement of religiosity explains most neutral findings. Of 101 studies on depression, roughly two in three found religiosity related to lower depression, and among Muslim samples the results were similar. In a review of 69 studies on anxiety, half found religiosity related to lower anxiety, and six of seven randomized trials of religious interventions reduced anxiety more effectively than secular ones; a meta-analysis of Middle Eastern Muslims found nine of ten studies linking religiosity to lower anxiety. Regarding positive psychology, nearly 80 percent of 100 studies found religiosity predicting higher life satisfaction and happiness, and religiosity was tied to greater hope, optimism, and purpose. Concerning religious doubt (shakk), little is known in the Muslim context, though studies of mostly Christian samples relate doubt to depression and anxiety. The Prophetic tradition affirms that experiencing doubt is normal and not blameworthy. When a companion said he would rather be reduced to charcoal than voice his thoughts, the Prophet ﷺ exclaimed, "Allahu Akbar! Praise be to Allah who has reduced the evil of the devil to only suggestions and whisperings." When others lamented such thoughts, he ﷺ replied, "That is clear faith," instructing them to say "Āmantu billāh." Uncertainty intolerance emerged as a decisive factor. Allah has woven uncertainty into creation and even into the Qur'an, wherein are "verses that are clear-cut... and others that are unspecific and ambiguous," the pursuit of which, seeking discord, is deviation (Āl ʿImrān). The foundation of faith is belief in the unseen (ghayb), as Sūrah al-Baqarah describes the God-conscious. In a global study of 3,551 Muslims conducted in 2021, religiosity predicted lower depression and anxiety and higher purpose, life satisfaction, and well-being, while uncertainty intolerance was the strongest predictor of depression and anxiety, and was itself linked to greater doubt and lower religiosity. Married persons, older persons, and the more educated fared better, while women reported higher depression and anxiety. American Muslims showed markedly lower rates of depression (18.3% versus 28.4%) and anxiety (23.7% versus 35.8%) than the U.S. average. The central conclusion is that religiosity is inextricably linked to mental health, and its secularization severs the believer's spiritual lifeline. Uncertainty tolerance is fundamentally a spiritual matter tied to tawakkul and acceptance of Allah's decree. Practitioners should recognize the biases within secular psychology, noting that Freud dismissed religion as "a system of wishful illusions." Scholars and clinicians are urged to collaborate on faith-integrated care. Among recommended practices are reciting and listening to the Qur'an, which Allah calls "healing and mercy for the believers" (al-Isrāʾ); deep mindful prayer, as Allah instructed His distressed Prophet ﷺ to "glorify the praises of your Lord and be of those who prostrate"; helping others, for "Allah is engaged in helping the worshiper as long as the worshiper is engaged in helping his brother"; embracing uncertainty, since Allah alone knows the Hour (Luqmān); living an active lifestyle, for "the strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer"; and practicing murāqabah and tafakkur, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Be mindful of Allah and He will protect you." These findings, though limited by a cross-sectional convenience sample gathered during the pandemic, offer benefit to the ummah, and Allah is asked to grant comfort to Muslims everywhere. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does being religious actually have to do with mental health? Islam is not just a set of rituals—it is a complete way of life (*din*) that shapes how a person understands their purpose, processes hardship, and finds belonging. Religious beliefs and practices provide a clear sense of purpose, and purpose is among the strongest predictors of mental health. When someone knows why they exist—to worship Allah—that knowledge becomes an anchor through life’s inevitable storms. Allah Himself tells us: “Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort and contentment” (13:28). Research on thousands of Muslims globally confirms this. Higher religiosity predicts lower depression, lower anxiety, greater life satisfaction, and a stronger sense of purpose. What stands out from a global study of over 3,500 Muslims is that psychospiritual factors had significantly greater effects on mental health than demographic factors like age, gender, or income. For Muslims, faith is not peripheral—it is the most consequential. ### Does Islam say it’s OK to go to therapy, or should I just pray more? The Prophet ﷺ taught us to seek treatment for whatever ails us, and this includes mental health. Seeking therapy is entirely consistent with Islamic values. Entire genres of classical Islamic literature—on the purification of the soul (*tazkiyat al-nafs*) and Islamic psychology (*ʿilm al-nafs*)—addressed psychological and spiritual well-being centuries before modern psychiatry existed. The great scholar al-Balkhi wrote extensively on depression and anxiety and their medical and religious treatments. The real caution is not therapy itself, but therapy that is disconnected from faith. When a Muslim’s *din* is sidelined or treated as irrelevant to their healing, it severs what may be their most important source of strength. For Muslims, religiosity and mental health are inextricably linked—healing that ignores one will always remain incomplete. ### I have doubts about my faith and it’s making me anxious and guilty. Is something wrong with me? The companions of the Prophet ﷺ experienced religious doubt too. One came to him and said he would rather be reduced to charcoal than speak about the thoughts he was having. The Prophet ﷺ did not rebuke him. He said: “Praise be to Allah who has reduced the evil of the devil to only suggestions and whisperings.” In another narration, companions who admitted to hating their doubts and wanting them gone were told by the Prophet ﷺ: “That is clear faith.” The doubt itself is not the problem. Feeling distressed by doubt, hating it, wanting it gone—these are signs of *iman*, not weakness. Our *din* is so merciful that it even rewards us for the discomfort we feel. The practical response is to say *amantu billah* (I believe in Allah), actively seek clarity rather than suppressing the doubt, and recognize that Shaytan’s persistence is not evidence of your wickedness. ### Why does not knowing what’s going to happen make my anxiety spiral so badly? Uncertainty intolerance is a cognitive tendency to interpret uncertain situations as threatening, regardless of the actual likelihood of something bad happening. It skews how we feel, think, and behave, fueling catastrophizing, polarized thinking, and maladaptive coping. In a global study of Muslims, uncertainty intolerance was the single strongest predictor of both depression and anxiety. Religiosity, by contrast, was the strongest predictor of positive outcomes like life satisfaction, purpose, and well-being. This distinction matters: Being religious does not make depression and anxiety disappear, since mental illness is shaped by genetics, trauma, and other environmental factors. But religiosity can be integral to coping, healing, and recovery. Uncertainty intolerance also correlates with increased religious doubt and lower religiosity, both of which relate to poorer mental health. This is a spiritual issue as much as a psychological one. Allah has purposefully woven uncertainty into the fabric of creation; even the Qur’an contains verses whose full meaning is known only to Him (3:7). Practices like *tawakkul* (reliance on Allah) and *sabr* (patience) address this directly. Healthy coping involves flexibly applying active strategies for controllable stressors and accommodative strategies for uncontrollable ones, and faith-based approaches can strengthen both. ### Is it wrong to feel like my suffering is a punishment from Allah? Perceiving hardship as punishment from Allah, or feeling that you are under supernatural attack during a difficult time, is one of the doubt patterns most strongly associated with depression and anxiety in research on Muslim communities. Automatically reading suffering as punishment from Allah can become a spiritually harmful cognitive distortion. Islam gives a broader account of hardship: it may be a test, purification, elevation, expiation, or an opportunity for growth; and Allah’s wisdom cannot be reduced to punishment. Allah describes Himself throughout the Quran as near, warm, and merciful. “Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort and contentment” is not the voice of a distant, punishing God. Research confirms that Muslims who hold an imbalanced view of Allah—as cold and punishing rather than near and loving—experience measurably worse mental health outcomes. Cultivating *husn al-zann* (thinking well of Allah), trusting that He is benevolent and wise even in His most difficult decrees, is both a theological corrective and a psychologically protective practice. Imams and therapists are encouraged to work together to help people develop a fuller, more accurate relationship with who Allah truly is. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude-the-secret-of-happiness-in-the-modern-world # The Divine Gift of Gratitude: The Secret of Happiness in the Modern World **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Gratitude (Shukr), Mindfulness, Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** May 6, 2022 **Updated:** November 4, 2025 ## Introduction Writing in *The Atlantic* in an article titled “*Gratitude without God,*” Emma Green asked the following question in the context of the annual American holiday of Thanksgiving: “Gratitude is the animus of these secular rituals, but the object of the gratitude is unclear. If people aren't thanking God, who are they thanking? You can thank your grandma for making delicious pie, but who do you thank for the general circumstances of your life?”[^1] This simple yet profound question frames an enigma that many of us perhaps don’t even perceive as a problem. We generally agree that we should strive to inculcate gratitude. Historically speaking, it is even understood as a necessary virtue across cultures and religions, through the societal, psychological, and moral lenses we apply. All agree that gratitude is a commendable trait and a means to better quality of life, happiness, physical and emotional health and wellbeing.[^2] But while the benefits of gratitude are easily observed and extensively documented, its definition remains somewhat elusive. *What exactly is gratitude, and how do we achieve it?* That depends on who you ask. The secular, scientific perspective claims that gratitude exists without the need to recognize God as its ultimate source and benefactor. In other words, it has no moral, religious, or spiritual bearing, despite the fact that theologians of the past and present attribute its origins to religious belief and worship.[^3] Many of us would like to believe that we embody gratitude, or at least aspire to do so in our daily lives, despite the ups and downs we encounter. However, studies show that fewer of us today actually experience what it truly is to be grateful. No doubt, people are facing hardship and pain on many levels in these turbulent times. Nevertheless, instant gratification, and the momentary happiness and comfort associated with it rarely bring lasting contentment and gratitude. Current levels of discontent not only indicate a dangerous trend, but also beg the questions, *Why is that so? Do our current circumstances play a role? And where is God in the equation?* Modernity and secularism have at a bare minimum eroded ties to God, reducing religion to rituals and inherited cultural practice at best. Often, it is not even that, nothing more than a vague concept quite akin to wishful thinking in order to serve as a lubricant for our shallow lives. The impact of our societal immersion in materialism, consumerism, and enslavement to social media is self-evident—not to mention the imminent, potentially life-altering threats of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the metaverse.[^4] More than a century ago, French sociologist Emile Durkheim (d. 1917) was already writing about the “cult of the individual,”[^5] a diagnosis of modern society’s ills, further confirmed by contemporary research showing the rise of near-ubiquitous self-entitlement, narcissism, and “generation me vs. we” mindsets[^6] that have resulted in pervasive estrangement and dissatisfaction, despite living in material abundance.[^7] A closer examination of ourselves would reveal *shukr* as the missing key to the life of contentment we all naturally seek. *Shukr* is gratitude, but it’s also far more. It extends beyond the descriptions and prescriptions of gratitude defined within secular boundaries. It extends well beyond oneself or another as its object, to directing one’s gratitude foremost to God, the Almighty, the most Merciful and Generous, the One who grants us the gift of life, sustenance, and most of all, His guidance. *Shukr* is a religious obligation and therefore integral to our purpose.[^8] It is a powerful spiritual state emanating from deep within our hearts, expressed practically through acts of worship and obedience to God. Accordingly, it must also manifest in acts of generosity, kindness, and gratitude to others.[^9] Islam’s two sacred sources, the Qur’an and Sunnah, provide us divine truths about the realities around and within us, be they observable or imperceptible. They afford us profound clarity and guidance to the holistic prescription for life. Gratitude is among the central themes extensively addressed therein by the Maker of all of humanity. After all, who knows us better than the One who created and fashioned us? Hence, we look to the Qur’an and Sunnah for a complete understanding of gratitude—one that gives us a clear and practical path to implementation. The concept of s*hukr* explains and reconciles what we already grasp intuitively, yet find difficult to achieve at times. It provides the motivation and tools to act on what is demanded of us by God, in return for the promise of attaining success and happiness. The objective of this paper is to evaluate and even challenge our understanding and practice of gratitude, in order to strengthen our faith, conviction, and practice. Our analysis will reveal the distinguishing and core aspects of *shukr* as a moral obligation, an act of worship, and a foundation for contentment in this world *and* in the Hereafter. Getting back to Thanksgiving for a moment, it is interesting that when he proclaimed it a national holiday in 1863, Abraham Lincoln himself chose to direct its observance toward God when he said: > The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God… No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.[^10] --- ## The origin of gratitude and the challenge to humanity Writing about the origin of gratitude in *The Science of Gratitude*, Dr. Summer Allen suggests scientific evidence shows gratitude may have biological roots, embedded in the structure of our brains, our DNA, and may even be the culmination of human social evolutionary adaptation. Despite citing a number of studies of neurological, genetic, and developmental connections to gratitude, the author concludes that gratitude is likely an inherent component of human nature—one that provides the “glue” necessary for humans to form meaningful relationships.[^11] Looking at these findings through an Islamic lens, the idea that humans are naturally inclined toward gratitude is fully supported by the concept of the *fiṭrah*, or the God-given predisposition with which we are all born. We are naturally inclined to worship Allah, our Creator and Master, to behave in accordance with His commands, and to uphold moral character.[^12] *Shukr* is a significant component of this divinely ordained morality, worship, and code of conduct. However, there are also a number of internal and external factors that can hinder one’s maintenance of *shukr*. Satan’s plots against our hearts and minds may at times weaken and even overpower the *fiṭrah,* and in this case, *shukr*, if not actively guarded against. The Qur’anic verses depicting the creation of Adam, the first human being, and the interaction between Adam and Iblīs teach us valuable and nuanced lessons about the nature of *shukr* and the pitfalls that distance one from gratitude, and subsequently, from Allah. Allah forewarns us about these pitfalls through the opposing character traits and responses of both Adam and Iblīs. The very first words Adam spoke expressed *ḥamd* and *shukr*, praise and gratitude to Allah, indicating their centrality to the very existence and servitude of man. Life itself is a gift for which gratitude is owed to Allah. > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When Allah created Adam, He breathed the soul into him, then he sneezed and said: ‘All praise \[and gratitude\] is due to Allah.’ So he praised Allah by His permission. Then His Lord said to him: ‘May Allah have mercy upon you, O Adam…’”[^13] Iblīs’ refusal to obey the command of Allah to bow before Adam manifested his arrogance, jealousy, and ingratitude upon seeing the superior creation of Adam.[^14] What ensues is an onslaught of deception, temptation, and immorality upon man until the end of time. Allah tells us: \[Satan\] said, “Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and *You will not find most of them grateful*.”[^15] The arrogance and ingratitude of Iblīs is highlighted in his blaming Allah for his going astray, when it is Allah who blessed and gifted him with the knowledge and ability to worship Him and placed him in the company of devout angels. Iblīs despaired of the mercy of Allah, and caused his own downfall instead of turning to Allah in remorse and seeking forgiveness for his sin. There is a warning here and a clear indication that most of humanity, with the exception of the true believers, will fall prey to the trappings of Satan and fall into disobedience and ingratitude. Let’s contrast Iblīs’ behavior with that of his first victims, Adam and Eve. His disguised-as-sincere whispers to them of becoming angels or immortals tempted and misled them. Human nature drives an insatiable need for more than one has already been blessed with.[^16] Iblīs took advantage of this human fallibility to convince Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden tree. However, both recognized their mistake and turned to Allah in humility and repentance, and were forgiven for disobeying Him. They were sent to Earth, along with their archenemy Iblīs, to live amongst—and transcend—the temporary comforts, pleasures, and tests that form the life of this world, and to follow the path of servitude to Allah for the promise of Paradise in the Hereafter. Adam was raised by Allah to the noble status of the first prophet sent to guide mankind. Allah equipped Adam, and subsequently all of humanity, with the knowledge to successfully overcome Iblīs and the temptations of this world.[^17] *Why does Satan single out* shukr *in his threat to man?* There is a correlation between gratitude, and faith or obedience to Allah, and ingratitude, and disbelief or rejection of Allah. Iblīs’ ultimate goal is to distance us from Allah and His pleasure, to cause us to fall from grace as he did. Hence, *shukr* must play a significant role for it to be a worthy target within us for Iblīs to sabotage and destroy. Allah tells us that when Iblīs refused to obey Him, he was proud, and became one of the \[disobedient\] disbelievers (*kāfirīn*).[^18] Iblīs had been among the angels as a noble worshiper of Allah. He clearly believed in Allah and had the knowledge and ability to worship Him. The term *kufr* linguistically refers to both ingratitude and rejection.[^19] In fact, rejection of Allah's commands (i.e., disobedience) is the highest form of ingratitude. Hence, *kufr* is used here to illustrate Iblīs’ disobedience and ingratitude to Allah despite having been among His chosen guided servants. Knowing the great virtues of *shukr*, Satan issued his threat to humanity, ending with, “…and You will not find most of them grateful (*shākirīn*).” The illustrious Companion, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, explained that the *shukr* stated here refers to the sole worship of Allah.[^20] This example, [among others in the Qur’an](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-art-of-gratitude-quranic-themes-on-shukr&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112556246&usg=AOvVaw1R2bTbI53pUYKP7JSGGHSj), builds a consistent theme and connection between gratitude and worship. *Shukr* is part of, and must manifest in, acts of obedience and worship of Allah. Man knows his purpose is servitude to Allah through the gift of Revelation.[^21] He has been gifted the faculties and guidance to worship Him. If he then chooses to disobey Allah, this is ingratitude in the same way a precious gift is tossed aside out of a lack of appreciation for it, and, ultimately, for the one who gifted it. Through this contrast between Adam and Iblīs, and *shukr* and *kufr*, Allah delineates two distinct paths in life—that of the grateful *and* obedient believer, and that of the ungrateful one who rejects Allah and His favors: > We already showed them the Way, whether they choose to be grateful or ungrateful.[^22] Ibn ʿAbbās, commenting on the verse describing the ways Satan will attempt to deceive and mislead humanity, explained that coming to them (the people) from “in front of them” refers to Satan’s raising doubts concerning their hereafter. Coming from “behind them” refers to preoccupying them in the pursuit of this life. “From the right” involves him causing people to be confused about the religion, and “from the left” involves him enticing them to commit sins. The people are spared Satan’s attack from above them, as this is reserved solely for the mercy of Allah to descend upon them.[^23] In the modern paradigm, as will be further elaborated, it is quite clear that each of these factors, along with the very same character traits found in Iblīs, have significantly eroded religious morality and have thus contributed to increasing doubts about God and religion, and the discontented malaise of contemporary culture. Hence, we must heed Allah’s warning: > O humanity! Eat from what is lawful and good on the earth and do not follow Satan’s footsteps. He is truly your sworn enemy. He only incites you to commit evil and indecency, and to claim against Allah what you do not know.[^24] --- ## Shukr as a way of life Allah commands us: “And give thanks to Allah if you \[truly\] worship Him \[alone\].”[^25] Hence, *shukr* is an obligation upon us, and without *shukr*, one’s worship of Allah is incomplete. Furthermore, He tells us: “…so, remember Me; I will remember you. And thank Me, and never be ungrateful.”[^26] Given the connection between *shukr* and the correct worship of Allah, it is imperative we know how *shukr* is to be expressed in order to properly embody it. *Shukr* overlaps with but is not encompassed by the secular concept of gratitude. For instance, the contemporary psychologists and leading scientific experts on gratitude, Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, distill gratitude to a two-step cognitive process: 1) “recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome” and 2) “recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome.” This interpretation, while useful, lacks the clarity we find in *shukr* with regard to its distinct purpose and implementation.[^27] Linguistically, *shukr* is derived from an Arabic verb that means to be thankful to a benefactor for the favor they have bestowed. The same root letters are used to derive the noun that describes camels or sheep whose udders are full of milk, and palm trees that grow abundantly. These usages illustrate another dimension of the meaning of *shukr*—that the effects of the blessing are clearly apparent on its recipient.[^28] In Islam, *shukr* is directed foremost to Allah as the One who is the source of all blessings. Likewise, the effects of those blessings must be apparent on the believer. Hence, the renowned theologian Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) explained that *shukr* manifests in the heart’s recognition and love for Allah as the ultimate benefactor of *all* blessings. It is expressed on the tongue as the believer’s remembrance, acknowledgement, praise, and thankfulness to Allah for His countless blessings, including those of guidance, provision, and the capability to obey and worship Him. Additionally, the believer’s physical faculties express *shukr* through their adherence to the commands of Allah and compliance with His prohibitions.[^29] > And Allah brought you out of the wombs of your mothers while you knew nothing, and gave you hearing, sight, and intellect so perhaps you would be thankful.[^30] Hence, *shukr* is a divinely perfected holistic concept beyond the limited notions of gratitude as a feeling, value, or personality trait. *Shukr* has no ulterior self-serving motive, nor is it conditional on one’s surroundings and circumstances. It must be present throughout the believer’s spiritual, emotional, and physical being, expressed as acts of worship emanating from the heart and accordingly, in speech and action. Al-Harawī (d. 1089) divided *shukr* into three levels: Firstly, gratitude for a desirable blessing, which is a rewardable form of *shukr*. Secondly, is the level of maintaining gratitude in times of distress. He said such people are among the first to be called to enter Paradise. Lastly, is the level of gratitude solely directed to Allah out of love and servitude. This is the state of the believer who has attained the sweetness of faith to the point of no longer recognizing the difference between ease or difficulty. In a similar vein, Ibn al-Qayyim identified five pillars of *shukr*: servitude to Allah, love for Allah, acknowledging the gift of His blessings, praising Allah for them, and using them in accordance with His pleasure.[^31] Imam Al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) wrote that *shukr* is rooted first and foremost in knowledge of Allah as the bestower of all blessings. This knowledge in turn conditions the mind and heart to feel grateful. That, in turn, produces a love for Allah that spurs the believer to action, thereby manifesting gratitude on the tongue and limbs as well. Knowledge involves acknowledging that Allah is the source of gratitude itself, having created you with the faculty to be grateful. It is  knowing that He is the source of all that exists and whatever comes to you. It is  knowing Allah by His names and attributes, as the ultimate power which guides you and gives to you in accordance with His perfect wisdom and generosity. When *you* give, it is He who inspires you to do so, while He returns to you far more in this world and in the hereafter for what you have given. As al-Ghazālī said, “So instead of being grateful to the giver, be grateful to Him who created the giver and his will.” He delineates  three levels of gratitude: first, gratitude entirely focused on the gift; second, gratitude directed to the gifter, for their generosity and care; and third and most perfectly, gratitude directed to Allah by whose will the giver gifted, and both the gifter and the gift become the means to grow nearer to Him. Consider a child who has been gifted the latest smartphone by their parents. The first level of gratitude is entirely directed at the phone for the joy of owning it and using it. The next level of gratitude is more commendable as it is directed toward the parents for their love and generosity. The final, most actualized level of gratitude is ultimately directed towards Allah, while remaining grateful to the parents, in recognizing Him as the ultimate source of all gifts and blessings. The parents and the phone are both from Allah. Therefore, in this case, gratitude is shown in using the phone while mindful of Allah’s pleasure and refraining from His displeasure. This means following the rules of acceptable use, regardless of who is watching and what may be widely acceptable today. An important distinction al-Ghazālī notes is that being grateful to one another, as essential as it is, is not the same as being grateful to God, for two reasons. Firstly, Allah is free from need whereas man is nothing but needy. Secondly, man’s freedom of will, and the capacity to express gratitude, are themselves gifts from Allah.[^32] Allah, out of His boundless generosity and mercy, never ceases to give man from His infinite bounty, despite the disobedience and ingratitude He receives in return.[^33] Misusing one’s faculties and resources in ways displeasing to Allah, be it one’s wealth, knowledge, power, or time, is not only sinful but ungrateful. Furthermore, any notion of self-entitlement is dispelled knowing that Allah is the true Owner of all that exists. In reality, nothing belongs to man, except that it is a blessing from Allah to be spent in accordance with His pleasure, on oneself and on others, for the promise of multifold return from Allah.[^34] Gratitude is also to be extended to those around us, particularly to those who have the greatest right upon us such as our parents, spouses, children, extended family, and so on. The Prophet ﷺ stated: “He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah.”[^35] By nurturing and maintaining gratitude and generosity as a way of life, one also guarantees one’s quality of life. Ignorance, arrogance, selfishness, heedlessness, greed, and taking one’s provision (*rizq*) for granted all undermine *shukr*. Guarding against these undesirable human tendencies necessitates a heightened awareness of everything within and around us for which to be grateful. Allah is pleased with the people who reflect upon and marvel at the miraculous nature of the universe, and at the intricate and subtle mechanisms that make life enjoyable. These are the people of *shukr* who recognize Allah as the true benefactor.[^36] Provision comes in the form of innumerable blessings, among the most important of which are the gifts of life, divine guidance, intellect, free will, dignity, character, knowledge, faculties, talents, and time in which to worship Allah. Safety and shelter, health, and wellbeing are also *rizq* from Allah, as are blessings we often take for granted such as the air we breathe, the clean water we drink, and the nights we sleep. Undoubtedly, there is a sense of entitlement when it comes to the blessings of loved ones, wealth, property, and countless mundane daily comforts. Allah reminds us that He has, “…given you some of everything you asked Him for. If you tried to count God’s favors you could never calculate them: man is truly unjust and ungrateful.”[^37] The list is endless, yet we are called upon to be grateful in all circumstances, and regardless of how much or how little worldly abundance we may experience or desire at any given moment. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever among you wakes up in the morning secured in his dwelling, healthy in his body, having food for the day, then it is as if the \[entire\] world has been gathered for him.”[^38] > And He is the One Who causes the day and the night to alternate, \[as a sign\] for whoever desires to be mindful or to be grateful.[^39] All divine decrees and provisions are from the tests of life, whether one finds oneself wealthy or in poverty, in ease or in hardship.[^40] Scholars have written extensively about the pairing of *ṣabr* (patience) with *shukr*, as mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah. For example, the Prophet ﷺ said: “A grateful eater will have a reward like that of a patient fasting person.”[^41] While there is lengthy scholarly debate over the superiority and reward of the one who is grateful when wealthy versus the one who is patient when poor, each has merit and will be rewarded in accordance with their sincerity and capability, and both need to exercise *ṣabr* and *shukr* at all times. Al-Ghazālī points out that blessings, such as knowledge and wealth for instance, also contain in them the potential to become harmful if one excessively indulges them or misuses them solely for worldly gain. Therefore, the believer is required to be grateful for them, while at the same time showing restraint and steadfastness in order to guard against falling into disobedience and sin. Likewise, for every calamity one endures, there could have existed one that was far worse. So, the true believer is grateful for having averted greater distress in this world and in the hereafter, and for the reward they can expect for responding with faith, trust in Allah, and patience. Hence, every calamity is in reality a hidden blessing for the believer who makes it a means to patience, gratitude, forgiveness, and closeness to Allah.[^42] Abū Hurayrah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If Allah wills good for someone, He afflicts him with trials.”[^43] Ibn al-Qayyim attributed the following narration to the noble companion, Salmān al-Fārisī, about a man who was once wealthy, but then lost the luxuries he had become accustomed to. Despite losing all of his wealth and possessions, even the bed he slept on, he continued to praise and thank Allah. When asked by another wealthy man about how he was still able to maintain gratitude to Allah, the man replied, “I am praising and thanking Him for blessings which, if others asked me to give them to them in return for all that they have, I would never give them up…Can’t you see? I have my eyesight, my tongue, my hands, my feet...”[^44] Such is also the example of humility and gratitude in every prophet sent by Allah. They represent the best of humanity, and hence were tested the most. They endured prolonged persecution for their unwavering call to the sole worship of Allah (*tawḥīd*). They grieved the calamities inflicted upon their people. Some were tested through wealth, power, and victory. Numerous verses inform us of their noble qualities, while emphasizing their *shukr* in particular: Allah said about Noah “…indeed, he was a grateful servant,”[^45] and about Abraham “…he was thankful for the blessings of God who chose him and guided him to a straight path.”[^46] Allah commanded, “O Moses! I have  elevated you above all others by My messages and speech. So, hold firmly to what I have given you and be grateful.”[^47] The Prophet ﷺ used to pray deep into the night, until his feet swelled. When asked about why he stood for so long, he replied, “Should I not be a thankful servant?”[^48] The Prophet ﷺ not only taught us the legal rulings of how to incorporate *shukr* into our practice, but he also led by example. He consistently maintained gratitude and patience during hardship and poverty, as well as with wealth and independence, making him the ideal role model for people in any situation. He ﷺ looked beyond all worldly temptations, spending wealth as it came to him to take care of the orphans and those most vulnerable, to the extent of leaving nothing behind him.[^49] Every act of remembrance and worship contains within it expressions of *shukr*, whether verbal or physical. For example, one recites words of praise and gratitude, *alḥamdulillāh*, in the daily ritual prayers as well as upon waking up, after eating, and at numerous other times and situations throughout the day. The actions of bowing and prostrating in prayer, as well as fasting, demonstrate humility, servitude, and gratitude.[^50] The Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed us to recite the following supplication at the end of every prayer: “My Lord, help me to remember You, give thanks to You, and worship You well.”[^51] Allah reassures us that He will reward those who are grateful.[^52] In return for our humble and flawed efforts, Allah tells us that He is the most Appreciative: “Why should Allah punish you if you are grateful and faithful? Allah is ever Appreciative, All-Knowing.”[^53] He abundantly forgives and rewards those who strive to be obedient and grateful servants, taking into account their sincerity, fallibility, limited capability, and difficult circumstances. After all, He is the One who knows the most subtle secrets about His creation. He is the most Loving, the most Merciful, and All-Wise. This leaves no room to doubt His love for us, regardless of the tests we may have to endure. While acknowledging the many hardships people are facing today and the disparity that exists between the haves and have-nots, it must be noted that *shukr* is not dependent on what we have been given of this world. *Shukr* can only be properly achieved once we free ourselves from the perpetual need to keep up with ever-changing man-made images of a perfect life of ease and happiness without challenge. We must reframe our understanding of the reality of this world, and look to our purpose in life as servants of Allah, and to His countless blessings we so easily overlook. Hence, Ibn al-Qayyim insightfully summarized *shukr* as follows: > The station of gratitude gathers within it all of the stations of faith, which is why it is the highest and loftiest of them; it is above contentment, and it contains patience within it but not vice versa, and also contains reliance, oft-returning, love, meekness, humility, fear, and hope; all of these stations are within its ambit, and one cannot be labeled with it except when all of these come together in that person. This is why faith is two halves; one half is patience, the other, gratitude. And since patience is contained in gratitude, all of faith is included in gratitude, and the grateful are the fewest among the servants, as the Exalted said, ‘And few of My servants are truly grateful.’[^54] --- ## Gifts of gratitude The benefits of gratitude are many—and those of *shukr* far greater. It is not surprising that gratitude studies point to physical and mental health benefits, along with general life satisfaction. Gratitude interventions, such as counting one’s blessings or daily journaling, are not only encouraged, but reveal positive correlations with overall wellbeing, better sleep, heart and mental health, self-esteem, coping skills, and self-improvement. Additional benefits such as the cultivating of other virtues like patience, humility, and wisdom have also been reported, as have a number of social benefits in regard to forming and maintaining relationships, as a result of the mutual empathy and generosity that gratitude inspires.[^55] We all seek happiness. We are naturally inclined toward comfort, provision, and meaningful relationships. People, wealth, and status will come and go, but the one constant that remains with each of us and always will is the One who is our Creator, Master, and most Generous benefactor. *Shukr* is the means to fulfill the purpose of life. It is the means by which to ultimately connect to Allah. Hence, *shukr* is also the means to true and lasting contentment beyond the brief glimmers of happiness that come from worldly possession. Allah reassures us of this: > And Allah will reward those who are grateful.[^56] Allah tells us that the blessings He gifts cannot be enumerated.[^57] They extend beyond our perception. This is also the case with Allah’s generosity in rewarding those who are grateful. The knowledge alone of immeasurable blessings and reward beyond the scope of our imagination is a means of increased gratitude, humility, and the motivation to seek closeness to Allah. Among the greatest benefits of *shukr* to emphasize foremost is that it safeguards the believer from the very arrogance that led Iblīs and countless after him to failure. The Qur’an narrates the story of Qārūn who was destroyed because of his arrogance. “Indeed, Qārūn was from the people of Moses, but he behaved arrogantly towards them. We had granted him such treasures that even their keys would burden a group of strong men. \[Some of\] his people advised him, ‘Do not be prideful! Surely Allah does not like the prideful’… He replied, ‘I have been granted all this because of some knowledge I have.’”[^58] He ignored the advice he was given to use his wealth to seek the reward of the Hereafter. He was deceived by his wealth and knowledge, so he denied the true source of his blessings, Allah, and falsely credited himself for his success. As a result of this arrogance and ingratitude, Allah caused the ground to swallow him! Another dangerous false perception related to arrogance is assuming one’s wealth and status to be an indication of Allah’s pleasure, such that one becomes complacent, even heedless, and eventually more distanced from Allah. This is a misconception from Satan’s subtle deception which he skillfully camouflages in the abundance many have become accustomed to and feel entitled to. The noble Companions of the Prophet ﷺ were found among the poorest *and* the wealthiest of their time, while those who fell from Allah’s favor have also been among the most downtrodden and the loftiest of their time. What separated them and saved the righteous from arrogance was their sincerity, servitude, and gratitude to Allah. > And \[remember\] when your Lord proclaimed, “If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more. But if you are ungrateful, surely My punishment is severe.”[^59] Moses delivered these words to his followers to remind them of the time when they were enslaved under the relentless tyranny of the Pharaoh. Even in circumstances that threatened their very survival, they were reminded to be grateful to Allah for the tremendous favors He had bestowed upon them of guidance and escape from the torment of oppression. For a persecuted people, the beacon of hope on an otherwise bleak horizon was that Allah had chosen them to be the flag bearers of faith. They already had the greatest blessing: divine guidance.[^60] According to Imam al-Ghazālī, Allah’s promise to give the grateful “more” spans this world and the next, from material wealth to answered supplications to forgiveness.[^61] Even a simple act of *shukr* like praising and thanking Allah after a meal and upon clothing oneself is the means to Allah’s pleasure and forgiveness, as taught by the Prophet ﷺ who said: “If anyone eats food and then says: ‘Praise be to Allah Who has fed me with this food and provided me with it through no might and power on my part,’ he will be forgiven his former and later sins. If anyone puts on a garment and says, ‘Praise be to Allah Who has clothed me with this and provided me with it through no might and power on my part,’ he will be forgiven his former and later sins.”[^62] Thus, gratitude builds the believers’ optimism and resilience, driving them to work hard, with patience, and with consistency to overcome challenges, to attain balance and a more holistic wellbeing, and to reap the rewards of this world and the Hereafter. Allah's Messenger ﷺ summarized this when he said: “How wonderful is the case of a believer! There is good for him in every situation and this applies only to a believer. If something good happens to him, he thanks \[Allah\] and this is good for him. When he faces adversity, he endures it patiently and this too is good for him.”[^63] > …Be grateful to Allah, for whoever is grateful, it is only for their own good. And whoever is ungrateful, then surely Allah is Self-Sufficient, Praiseworthy.[^64] An instantaneous way to feel grateful for one’s blessings is to look to those who appear less fortunate than oneself.[^65] This not only reminds one of the favors they have, but may inspire empathy and the desire to aid others. Additionally, the Prophet ﷺ said: “When Allah grants His blessings to His servant, He loves to see the traces of His favor upon him.”[^66] Allah wants to see the apparent effect of His blessings on us. This exemplifies the balance and perfection of Islam. Allah does not want us to shun the world and all that is permissible to benefit and enjoy from it, nor does He want us to fall prey to extravagance and exhibitionism. Not only have we been instructed to be thankful to one another, but we can also further gain the pleasure of Allah by inculcating within us the divine attribute of generosity.[^67] The Prophet ﷺ said: “He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah.”[^68] These qualities are universally recognized as building blocks to nurture meaningful relationships. We further recognize the immense love and mercy of Allah for His forgetful and fallible servants that He facilitates our *shukr* through the daily prescribed acts of worship (*ʿibādah*) which include prayer (*ṣalāh*), recitation and remembrance of Allah (*dhikr*), and supplication (*duʿāʾ*). > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Purity is half of *iman* (faith). *Alḥamdulillāh* (all praise and gratitude belong to Allah) fills the scales, and *subḥānAllāh* (how far is Allah from every imperfection) and *alḥamdulillāh* (all praise and gratitude belong to Allah) fill that which is between heaven and earth.”[^69] --- ## A closer look at modernity and its impact on gratitude The timeless words of Allah “…*and few of My servants are truly grateful*” have held true in every age, just as they do at present. The mindset of humility and gratitude grounded in servitude to Allah may seem outdated and unrealistic in this day and age. However, when the Qur’an was first revealed 1400 years ago, society was far from the pristine ideals of Islam, such that the Prophet ﷺ was initially met with significant resistance. Yet Islam revolutionized the world in a few short years. The message of Islam has remained unchanged since the advent of man. We have clearly been informed of this through the examples of Adam and the chain of all the prophets who followed after him, right up to the final Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Hence, the concept of *shukr* was established as an obligation upon Adam and thus upon all of humanity, then and forever. The Qur’an is filled with stories of past societies, some quite advanced for their age, who failed to heed this obligation and thereby sealed their fate. There is no reason to think that modern societies are immune to the same heedlessness. > And Allah sets forth the example of a society which was safe and at ease, receiving its provision in abundance from all directions. But its people met Allah’s favors with ingratitude, so Allah made them taste the clutches of hunger and fear for their misdeeds.[^70] Tod Sloan, author of *Damaged Life: The Crisis of the Modern Psyche*, argues that modernity’s most problematic psychological, social, and moral features are a fast-changing pace of life, decline of belief and certainty, unfulfilled expectations, decay of morality, and loss of meaning in life.[^71] The irony is not lost in the realization that modern people seek a higher material standard of living and better quality of life. Sloan describes the modern individual as increasingly cut off from meaningful communication, while caught in the constant pursuit of fleeting images of gratification through material means.[^72] “Contentedness seems to be a scarce commodity in the storehouse of modern experience,” writes Sloan. “Epidemiological studies of mental health suggest that most people who live in advanced industrial societies would affirm that in one way or another we pay a psychological price for the lifestyle we call ‘modern.’”[^73] Sloan concludes that most of the people living in advanced modernity are not happy to be there, and those in pursuit of it are not likely to enjoy the improved life they seek.[^74] A survey of current research and behavioral studies reveals disturbing trends, particularly among the younger population of Millennials (born after 1980) and Gen-Z or Zoomers (born after 1996).[^75] The landscape of modern society in the digital era has lost many of the moral and social norms of family and community known to man for centuries. Where, in a mental field fixated on instant gratification, can gratitude find a place to flourish? Dr. Jean M. Twenge, who has authored more than 150 scientific publications and six books, focuses her research on behavioral trends among young adults, including the ill effects of digital media and spikes in rates of anxiety and depression. In *The Evidence for Generation Me and Against Generation We*, she states that empirical evidence points to a generational increase in narcissism. As she writes, “In nationally representative samples of high school and college students, values have shifted toward extrinsic (money, fame, and image) concerns and away from intrinsic (community, affiliation) concerns. These trends have mostly negative consequences, such as lower empathy, less concern for others, and less civic engagement (e.g., interest in social issues, government, and politics).”[^76] Dr. Twenge goes on to describe additional traits associated with this trend such as vanity, materialism, and unrealistic expectations of the future, which have led to negative interpersonal outcomes. Driven by an “individualistic morality” which supports the rejection of moral and social guidelines, younger generations have become measurably more tolerant of differences across race, gender, and sexual orientation while simultaneously losing empathy towards others. She concludes with a call for parents and teachers who may be primarily focused on instilling self-esteem to stress that “self-belief is not the key to success”—rather, hard work, a realistic outlook, and empathy are in order.[^77] It comes as no surprise that scientific studies of gratitude show that it is negatively associated with such personality traits as narcissism, materialism, and envy. The sense of entitlement produced by narcissism and lower life satisfaction resulting from materialism and envy naturally inhibit gratitude, given one perceives that they have less to feel grateful for.[^78] These barriers to gratitude are only exacerbated by the overarching global uncertainty felt on all fronts—social, political, and religious. All of this, perhaps, explains the contemporary ambivalence toward *shukr*. A lingering presence of the pandemic has also had a significant impact on all of these fronts, and directly on the lives of people in terms of loss of life, and the sustained hardships of physical and mental health decline, as well as the loss of livelihood, material wealth, and limitations on lifestyle. Our society’s ingratitude manifests itself in widespread dissatisfaction with life, incessant complaining, greed, arrogance, anger, jealousy, and despair, to name just a few vices. All of these harmful traits corrupt the heart because they are symptoms of attachment to other than Allah, as explained by Ibn al-Qayyim. He goes on to say that Allah hands such people over to whatever they are attached to until it becomes a source of betrayal and failure for them.[^79] As Allah states, “…they neglected Allah so He neglected them.”[^80] We are warned of their fate: > They have taken other gods, instead of Allah, seeking strength \[and protection\] through them, but these gods will reject their worship and will even turn against them.[^81] No doubt the threat of Iblīs holds true to this day. His attack on humanity from all sides is evident in our moral decline, increased doubts about God and religion, and  attachment to material comforts. The very same attributes Iblīs displayed—arrogance, despair, ingratitude—have sadly become normative today. The greatest impact by far, however, is the detrimental effect of all of the factors mentioned thus far on one’s relationship with Allah, and subsequently, on one’s interpersonal relationships as well. While research points to general trends, and cannot be applied universally without exception, it does align with the overall observable decline of society, the family unit, and quality of life on many fronts, particularly in regard to its core moral values. Faith and *shukr*, as understood in Islam, are intertwined such that one cannot exist without the other. Hence, there is a correlation between the scarcity of faith *and* gratitude in society today. *What can be done to rectify this?* All is not lost. Man has been blessed with free will and intellect to choose one of two paths—that of gratitude (*shukr*) or that of ingratitude (*kufr*). The only way to save oneself from the same fate as Iblīs is to turn sincerely to Allah and to seek His forgiveness and mercy as did our parents, Adam and Eve.[^82] The Qur’an and Sunnah frequently command us to keep our eyes and hearts locked firmly on the purpose of life as one of servitude to Allah. One achieves this through sincere worship and frequent remembrance of Allah, acknowledging Him as the One who is the ultimate benefactor of all blessings. Furthermore, *shukr* is attained through unconditional obedience to Him, and with the recognition of the reality of this world: > Know that this worldly life is no more than play, amusement, luxury, mutual boasting, and competition in wealth and children. This is like rain that causes plants to grow, to the delight of the planters. But later the plants dry up and you see them wither, then they are reduced to chaff. And in the Hereafter, there will be either severe punishment or forgiveness and pleasure of Allah, whereas the life of this world is no more than the delusion of enjoyment. \[So\] compete with one another for forgiveness from your Lord and a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who believe in Allah and His messengers. This is the favor of Allah. He grants it to whoever He wills. And Allah is the Lord of infinite bounty. No calamity occurs on earth or in yourselves without being \[written\] in a Record before We bring it into being. This is certainly easy for Allah. \[We let you know this\] so that you neither grieve over what you have missed nor boast over what He has granted you. For Allah does not like whoever is arrogant, boastful.[^83] The believer must regularly evaluate their spiritual health, and in particular their heart, from which faith and *shukr* emanate, in order to cure it of any diseases which may blemish it. Through self-reflection, we can purify our hearts of the slightest shades of ingratitude as soon they manifest. At a time when it is commonplace to take one’s blessings for granted and to complain about all that is perceived as lacking in life, Islam reminds us of accountability for the most seemingly insignificant things: “Then, on that Day, you will definitely be questioned about \[your worldly\] pleasures.” When this verse was revealed, a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ asked whether he would be questioned given his humble possession of only *two black things*, namely dates and water, to which the Prophet ﷺ responded that even those would be subject to question.[^84] Al-Ghazālī describes the world as a bustling marketplace we pass through, from which we need take only two provisions, one for the body and one for the soul. The soul is nurtured with the knowledge and love of God, and it in turn “should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert.”[^85] The Prophet ﷺ  likened the *dunya* to a temporary shade.[^86] No sooner do we settle into the comfort of the shade than it fades away. This world is a mirage in the desert heat, luring us with promises of quenching our thirst only to dissipate when we heed its call. When we arrive we will find only Allah, who is swift to take account.[^87] This vivid imagery teaches us to invest our hopes and dreams strictly in the Hereafter, the one place we will find eternal comfort and joy. This does not mean that one cannot have aspirations for the good of this world, whether they be sought in educational attainment or professional achievement. Rather, we have been taught to seek the blessings of this world *and* those of the Hereafter, in accordance with servitude and *shukr* to Allah. > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The likeness of this world in comparison to the Hereafter is that of anyone of you dipping his finger into the sea: let him see what he brings forth.”[^88] --- ## Daily checklist > As for those who only pay lip-service to gratitude, and do not give thanks with the rest of their faculties, are concerned, they are like a man who has a garment and all he does with it is touch it, but he does not put it on: it will never protect him from heat, cold, snow or rain.[^89] Ibn Al-Qayyim’s words affirm that we can only cultivate *shukr* through practice. The following is a list of daily practices of *shukr* prescribed in the Qur’an and Sunnah to facilitate one’s awareness and consistency: 1. Knowing, remembering, and calling upon Allah by His names and attributes, particularly those of His boundless divine mercy as *al-Raḥmān*, wisdom as *al-Ḥakīm*, generosity as *al-Karīm*, love as *al-Wadūd*, and appreciation as *ash-Shakūr.* 2. Reminding oneself that Allah’s power and wisdom are far beyond our capacity. Circumstances we encounter of hardship and evil contain good we may not perceive which will overtake any harm when we turn to Allah in faith, obedience, patience, and gratitude. 3. Acts of worship such as ritual prayer, fasting, charity, and supplication inculcate *shukr* when one is mindful of their purpose and the affirmations, praise, and gratitude they embody. 4. The daily prescribed remembrance of Allah  recited at specific times as taught by the Prophet ﷺ as well as frequent recitation of Qur’an, particularly with time and effort to reflect on the meaning of the verses and supplications that contain reminders of Allah’s mercy and kindness, statements of praise and gratitude, and supplications for forgiveness, guidance, protection, and provision. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The best remembrance is: there is none worthy of worship except Allah (*lā ilāha illa Allāh*) and the best supplication is: All praise and thanks are due to Allah (*alḥamdulillāh*).”[^90] 5. Additional acts of worship the Prophet ﷺ was known to incorporate into daily life and which are mentioned specifically in regard to gratitude are the supererogatory acts of the prostration of *shukr*[^91] and the night prayer.[^92] 6. The tendency to compare oneself and one’s circumstances to others is overcome by looking instead toward those who appear to have less, as the Prophet ﷺ advised us to. He ﷺ once asked his Companions, “Who amongst you is fasting today?” Abū Bakr said, “I am.” He then asked, “Who amongst you followed a funeral procession today?” Abū Bakr said, “I did.” He ﷺ again asked, “Who amongst you served food to the needy?” Abū Bakr said, “I did.” He ﷺ then asked, “Who amongst you has visited the sick today?” Abū Bakr said, “I did.” Thereupon Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “Anyone in whom these good deeds are combined will certainly enter paradise.”[^93] Such acts of service enable one to experience the fulfillment of gratitude. 7. Using all that Allah has blessed you with in ways to do good and to seek His pleasure is the ultimate expression of gratitude. This includes, but is not limited to, your intellect and faculties such as your eyes, ears, speech, and physical capability. Gratitude to Allah is expressed in spending your time, talents, and resources in worship of Him and service to His creation. 8. Reciprocating acts of kindness is an expression of gratitude and key to nurturing relationships. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed us, “Whoever is given something should reciprocate that act if possible. If not, he should compliment the giver. The one who compliments has expressed gratitude, while he who refrains from doing so has committed *kufr* (i.e., is ungrateful).”[^94] This hadith is another example of the importance placed on showing gratitude to those around us, particularly to our parents, spouses, and children, but also to those within our social and professional circles. The Prophet ﷺ said: “He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah.”[^95] People in positions of service to us such as in the workplace, at school, in public, and those employed, for example, to maintain the landscape, repair, or clean are often taken for granted and neglected and are all deserving of our gratitude. 9. Keep a daily journal in which to itemize things to be grateful for. As cliché as it sounds, picturing the glass half full by recalling one’s blessings does have a positive impact on gratitude. How often do we stop to think about our every working limb, joint, and faculty? Every breath we effortlessly take is the result of phenomenal machinery and the perfection of Allah and His mercy toward us—something to appreciate even more having witnessed the pandemic’s ravaging of our respiratory systems. Think about the blessings of waking up a believer, in the safety of your home, and being able to practice your religion freely. This is sadly not a situation to take for granted for so many of our brothers and sisters witnessing calamities such as illness, death, persecution, and genocide. It is our faith that equips us with the commitment, fortitude, and perspective to handle all of life’s challenges and losses, even those as devastating as these. Each new dawn brings with it the opportunity to worship Allah better and to perform that one act of sincerity which could secure our place in Paradise. 10. Allah instructs His Messenger, the Prophet ﷺ and in turn, all of us to “talk about the blessings of your Lord.”[^96] Allah is pleased with the believer who expresses their gratitude to Him by mentioning their blessings, as He is pleased with the effects of those blessings on His servant. A noteworthy point here is the distinction between boasting about something one has achieved or acquired and attributing that same blessing to the  generosity of Allah. Gratitude lies in the sincerity and humility with which it is mentioned and used. > O Allah! I seek refuge with You not to exchange Your favor with ingratitude, not to be ungrateful for it after I have known it \[to be from You\] and not to forget it or neglect praising it. -ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdul ʿAzīz[^97] --- ## Conclusion As Pascal Bruckner poignantly notes in his book *Perpetual Euphoria*, “Democratic societies are characterized by a growing aversion to suffering. We are all the more scandalized by the latter’s persistence or spread because we can no longer resort to God for consolation. In that way, the Enlightenment gave rise to a certain number of contradictions from which we have still not emerged.”[^98] The pursuit of happiness has become a religion, one that burdens rather than liberates. As younger generations sink deeper into a morass of secular, materialistic philosophies that prioritize the individual’s desires and the pursuit of an unattainable earthly utopia, it is not surprising to see that God  no longer forms the basis of the choices people make in regard to their worldly or even spiritual goals. This void has crippled our capacity for gratitude. As is increasingly evident, an absence of gratitude traps people in a perpetual loop between moments of fleeting happiness and enduring discontent, not to mention the potentially devastating cost of what is at stake in the future if left unrectified. The way forward begins with challenging our understanding of gratitude. It is found in deeper scrutiny of the voices and images we allow to  influence us on a daily basis, and in acquiring the correct knowledge of our purpose in life. It is *absolutely* to resort to God for consolation. Only then can we be reminded of our purpose of servitude to Allah, our Creator and Master, and of the gratitude due to Him for His immeasurable blessings. Only then can we be more vigilant of the subtle, ceaseless deceptions which aim to derail our focus from His pleasure and  the Hereafter. When we reframe our flawed perceptions of all that is missing in life to that of the reality of this fleeting and illusive world, *shukr* emerges, not only as a solution, but as the necessary response to faith and divine guidance, and the means to the eternal joy we all seek. *Shukr* stands distinct from a wide array of conventional notions about the origin, purpose, and nature of gratitude. While these notions undoubtedly have practical merit, they fall short of the perfect divinely ordained obligation of *shukr* which connects one’s gratitude foremost to Allah as an act of obedience and worship, emanating from the heart into measurable and accountable actions. Allah knows His creation best, and He has therefore provided us with divine guidance and the best approach to life which will bear fruit in all times of ease and hardship. *Shukr* embodies the very essence of faith, worship, steadfastness, and the recognition of Allah as the true source of all blessings. It is a gift from the mercy and generosity of our Creator and Master, who has made *shukr* a means to facilitate the believer in this world, bringing about ease, contentment, and ultimately, eternal pleasure in the Hereafter. No doubt we will never be able to thank Allah as much as He deserves, yet the Prophet ﷺ informed us that Allah does not bestow His bounties upon a servant for which they say, “All praise and thanks are due to Allah,” except that what the servant has offered of praise and gratitude is better in the sight of Allah than what they have taken of His bounties.[^99] Indeed, Allah is Most Appreciative even though we give of what is already His… > And whoever does good willingly, Allah is truly Appreciative, All-Knowing.[^100] --- ## Notes [^1]: Emma Green, “Gratitude Without God: If Giving Thanks Isn’t Inherently Religious, Where Does It Come From?,” *Atlantic*, November 26, 2014, [https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-phenomenology-of-gratitude/383174/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-phenomenology-of-gratitude/383174/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112596669&usg=AOvVaw3Rsvdrmi2tH3QYiwLTRyIp). [^2]: Summer Allen, “The Science of Gratitude,” Greater Good Science Center UC Berkeley for the John Templeton Foundation, May 2018, 28–50, [https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF\_White\_Paper-Gratitude-FINAL.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Gratitude-FINAL.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112597166&usg=AOvVaw21JkOjh6sXFKDRRCFoZiPO). [^3]: Naser Aghababaei, Agata Błachnio, and Masoume Aminikhoo, “The Relations of Gratitude to Religiosity, Well-Being, and Personality,” *Mental Health, Religion and Culture* 21, no. 4 (2018): 408–417, [https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1504904](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1504904&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112597583&usg=AOvVaw2RjhXy9Pkn-5TWJgDIJkOZ). [^4]: Mike Snider and Brett Molina, “Everyone Wants to Own the Metaverse Including Facebook and Microsoft. But What Exactly Is It?,” *USA Today*, November 10, 2021, updated January 20, 2022, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/11/10/metaverse-what-is-it-explained-facebook-microsoft-meta-vr/6337635001/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/11/10/metaverse-what-is-it-explained-facebook-microsoft-meta-vr/6337635001/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112598082&usg=AOvVaw3N4M4t-ozN9QOwNh4bMHgk);  John Mac Ghlionn, “Metaverse: The World Not Prepared for Dangers It Poses,” *TRT World*, December 16, 2021,  [https://www.trtworld.com/perspectives/metaverse-the-world-not-prepared-for-dangers-it-poses-52701?fbclid=IwAR2Iv8ypVsQAqN3ChK28widr1SQXEoRXbPNaFB469NQK\_YwsnniQ02f6ARo](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.trtworld.com/perspectives/metaverse-the-world-not-prepared-for-dangers-it-poses-52701?fbclid%3DIwAR2Iv8ypVsQAqN3ChK28widr1SQXEoRXbPNaFB469NQK_YwsnniQ02f6ARo&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112598484&usg=AOvVaw1AWKrVWg9Kridt1uawpOgf). [^5]: Charles E. Marske, “Durkheim’s ‘Cult of the Individual’ and the Moral Reconstitution of Society,” *Sociological Theory* 5, no. 1 (1987): 1–14, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2307/201987&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112629508&usg=AOvVaw26QnG6tigP5Dr9gxNi6ro8)[https://doi.org/10.2307/201987](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.2307/201987&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112629759&usg=AOvVaw3rgaR_KF--YudlDPeEv37m). [^6]: Jean M. Twenge, “The Evidence for Generation Me and Against Generation We,” *Emerging Adulthood* 1, no. 1 (2013): 11–16, [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2167696812466548](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2167696812466548&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112599135&usg=AOvVaw0US4gBJXL0OZrDEb-UGhiv). [^7]: Joshua Coleman, “Estranged,” *Aeon*, December 17, 2020, [https://aeon.co/essays/modern-culture-blames-parents-for-forces-beyond-their-control](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aeon.co/essays/modern-culture-blames-parents-for-forces-beyond-their-control&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112599813&usg=AOvVaw1HdClZvfNr8hjtv56ffpbh). [^8]: “So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.” Qur’an 2:152. [^9]: “Whoever is not grateful to the people, he is not grateful to Allah.” Muḥammad ibn ʻĪsá al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Beirut: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 3:505, no. 1954, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1954](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1954&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112600250&usg=AOvVaw1EojgdSuLxhDk31nIDOIFP); authentic according to al-Tirmidhī in the comments. Authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr wa Ziyādatihi* (Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 2:1122, no. 6601. [^10]: Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Proclamation from October 3, 1863, White House Archives, [https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/transcript\_for\_abraham\_lincoln\_thanksgiving\_proclamation\_1863.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/transcript_for_abraham_lincoln_thanksgiving_proclamation_1863.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112600849&usg=AOvVaw0oFAF4UJQtbGxu8YCeqojI). [^11]: Allen, “Science of Gratitude,” 15–18. [^12]: Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “No child is born except on *al-fitra* \[Islam\] and then his parents make him Jewish, Christian, or Magian, as an animal produces a perfect young animal: do you see any part of its body amputated?” Then he recited, “The religion of pure Islamic Faith (*hanifa*) \[i.e., to worship none but Allah\], the pure nature with which He \[Allah\] has created mankind. Let there be no change in Allah’s religion \[i.e., to join none in Allah’s worship\]. That is the straight religion; but most men know not” (Qur’an 30:30). Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 6:114, no. 4775, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4775](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4775&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112606260&usg=AOvVaw2KS9GjUIh2ZA4DGNijoV7W). [^13]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:382, no. 3367, [https://sunnah.com/urn/680790](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/680790&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112606752&usg=AOvVaw3R4RM4UXI16xng4aCl7tnE); good (*hasan*) according to al-Tirmidhī in the comments. Authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:925, no. 5209. [^14]: Qur’an 15:28–35, 7:11–15. See also *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, [https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:12](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:12&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112607447&usg=AOvVaw1O7kvyEK4RstQ1ZIZrn5Z1). “You created me from fire, and him You created from clay.” “He committed this error, may Allah curse him, due to his false comparison. His claim that the fire is more honored than mud was also false, because mud has the qualities of wisdom, forbearance, patience, and assurance. Mud is where plants grow, flourish, increase, and provide good. To the contrary, fire has the qualities of burning, recklessness, and hastiness. Therefore, the origin of creation directed Shaytan to failure, while the origin of Adam led him to return to Allah with repentance, humbleness, obedience, and submission to His command, admitting his error and seeking Allah’s forgiveness and pardon for it.” [^15]: Qur’an 7:16-17. [^16]: Qur’an 7:20–21. See also: Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “If Adam’s son had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys, for nothing fills his mouth except dust. And Allah forgives him who repents to Him.” Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:93, no. 6439, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6439](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6439&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112608330&usg=AOvVaw3OL4Sdmf15espwPYREm7tf). [^17]: Qur’an 7:22–25. [^18]: Qur’an 2:34. See also *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/2:34&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112608925&usg=AOvVaw2MafiKRzigZ47dYYp6SZ9N)[https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/2:34](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/2:34&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112609123&usg=AOvVaw2ajy7G0z2RRzc6rz2gsQf5). [^19]: Arabic English Lexicon, s.v. “*kufr*,” [https://archive.org/details/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/07.ArabicEnglLex.v1p7.let.21.22.23.24.Qaf.Kaf.Lam.Mim..Lane-Poole.1885./page/n147/mode/2up?view=theater](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/07.ArabicEnglLex.v1p7.let.21.22.23.24.Qaf.Kaf.Lam.Mim..Lane-Poole.1885./page/n147/mode/2up?view%3Dtheater&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112628814&usg=AOvVaw38x2pl9xFizdhc9Cq70NYt). [^20]: Qur’an 7:17. See also *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:17&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112609531&usg=AOvVaw2UnxAEkGsYtNZ-nX1aONrg)[https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:17](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:17&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112609729&usg=AOvVaw1zo3GoYKMysKhsI7qOHt5T). [^21]: “\[Prophet\], when your Lord took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ and they replied, ‘Yes, we bear witness.’ So you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We were not aware of this.’” (Qur’an 7:172). See also “I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me” (Qur’an 51:56). [^22]: Qur’an 76:3. [^23]: *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:17&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112610132&usg=AOvVaw02evGbfmdI1D-Hj0hITC1v)[https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:17](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/7:17&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112610275&usg=AOvVaw2-S5cf-AYoMSgRggM7YvKf). [^24]: Qur’an 2:168–69. [^25]: Qur’an 2:172. [^26]: Qur’an 2:152. [^27]: Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, "Counting Blessings versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life," *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 84, no. 2 (2003): 377–89, [https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112611257&usg=AOvVaw1_UXO4524Xky8RQt9VRmh2). See also, Allen, “Science of Gratitude,” 10, 24–26 [^28]: Arabic English Lexicon, s.v. “*shukr*,” [https://archive.org/details/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/04.ArabicEnglLex.v1p4.let.12.13.14.Sin.Shin.Sad.Lane.1872./page/n307/mode/2up?view=theater](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/04.ArabicEnglLex.v1p4.let.12.13.14.Sin.Shin.Sad.Lane.1872./page/n307/mode/2up?view%3Dtheater&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112611831&usg=AOvVaw2pI9-12r6CTrppDmu7Xa6R). [^29]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayna manāzil īyāka na’budu wa īyāka nasta’īn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 2:242–44. [^30]: Qur’an 16:78. [^31]: Al-Harawi, *Stations of the Travelers*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.stationsofthetravelers.com/36/gratefulness.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112612814&usg=AOvVaw0MJ2NV2ZxIBO4xRrukHEVA)[https://www.stationsofthetravelers.com/36/gratefulness.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.stationsofthetravelers.com/36/gratefulness.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112613026&usg=AOvVaw2eUOsP-9iJGL_CSFe0XBMt). [^32]: Al-Ghazali, *Ihya*, [4:78–81,](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112613438&usg=AOvVaw3qnm2pH00xiO3MfSRZlyvE) [http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112613592&usg=AOvVaw3m9bwPxuB3siw6uD3XkHF-). [^33]: Qur’an 27:40. “And when \[Solomon\] saw it placed before him, he said, ‘This is from the favor of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful. And whoever is grateful—his gratitude is only for \[the benefit of\] himself. And whoever is ungrateful—then indeed, *my Lord is Free of need and Generous.*’” [^34]: Qur’an 2:261. “The example of those who spend their wealth in the cause of Allah is that of a grain that sprouts into seven ears, each bearing one hundred grains. And Allah multiplies \[the reward even more\] to whoever He wills. For Allah is All-Bountiful, All-Knowing.” [^35]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Sayda, Lebanon: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:255, no. 4811, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112603880&usg=AOvVaw3L5fIcz_B7M1O6b2BOVbcG); authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:1122, no. 6601. [^36]: See Qur’an 3:190–200, 7:58, 8:26, 16:14, 16:78, 22:36, 25:62, 27:40, 28:73, 30:46, 35:12, 45:12, 46:15. [^37]: Qur’an 14:34. [^38]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:167, no. 2346; good (*hasan*) according to al-Tirmidhī in the comments. Al-Albānī agreed in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:1044, no. 6042. [^39]: Qur’an 25:62. [^40]: Qur’an 21:35. “Every soul will taste death. And We test you with good and evil as a trial, then to Us you will be returned.” [^41]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1975), 1:561. Authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:731, no. 3943. [^42]: Al-Ghazali, *Ihya*, [4:106–112,](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112615372&usg=AOvVaw31jS5n1M29P_2N7RJik5DK) [http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112615511&usg=AOvVaw2WuFYyr9DS6mbFBWQ334OM). See also Qur’an 42:30. “Whatever affliction befalls you is because of what your own hands have committed. And He pardons much.” [^43]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 7:115, no. 5321, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2011/02/23/allah-intends-good-afflicts-trials/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2011/02/23/allah-intends-good-afflicts-trials/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112616083&usg=AOvVaw3dlEp6q9UziTz0XzZgoE2-). [^44]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *The Way to Patience and Gratitude* (Egypt: Umm Al-Qura, 2002), 45–46, [http://wayofthesalaf.com/pdf/en/The\_way\_to\_patience\_and\_gratitude.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://wayofthesalaf.com/pdf/en/The_way_to_patience_and_gratitude.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112605334&usg=AOvVaw1hkivWAUTqfXei8HcBcDpF). [^45]: Qur’an 17:3. [^46]: Qur’an 16:121. [^47]: Qur’an 7:144. [^48]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:50, no. 1130, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1130&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112616865&usg=AOvVaw0yI7ppM1W0XywManXwvtAI)[https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1130](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1130&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112616988&usg=AOvVaw1S0_0E-vQWMbI14hZYdy71). [^49]: Ibn al-Qayyim. The Way to Patience and Gratitude, pp. 475-476, [http://wayofthesalaf.com/pdf/en/The\_way\_to\_patience\_and\_gratitude.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://wayofthesalaf.com/pdf/en/The_way_to_patience_and_gratitude.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112604928&usg=AOvVaw30i-lSsKZIvX_L5ByoL9ch) [^50]: Qur’an 2:185. “Ramadan is the month in which the Qur’an was revealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the standard \[to distinguish between right and wrong\]. So whoever is present this month, let them fast. But whoever is ill or on a journey, then \[let them fast\] an equal number of days \[after Ramadan\]. Allah intends ease for you, not hardship, so that you may complete the prescribed period and proclaim the greatness of Allah for guiding you, *and perhaps you will be grateful.*” [^51]: Aḥmad ibn Shuʻayb al-Nasā’ī, *Sunan al-Nasā’ī* (Ḥalab: Maktab al-Maṭbūʻāt al-Islāmīyah, 1986), 3:53, no. 1303,  [https://sunnah.com/nasai:1303](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/nasai:1303&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112601550&usg=AOvVaw3sNVurwG8vCGXR8Vwu26Kf); authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:1320, no. 7969. [^52]: Qur’an 3:145. “No soul can ever die without Allah’s Will at the destined time. Those who desire worldly gain, We will let them have it, and those who desire heavenly reward, We will grant it to them. *And We will reward those who are grateful*.” [^53]: Qur’an 4:147. See also that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “While a man was on the way, he found a thorny branch of a tree there on the way and removed it. Allah thanked him for that deed and forgave him.” Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:135, no. 2472, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2472](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2472&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112602607&usg=AOvVaw1a7jd4Rk8DS7F4vAvQUYhW). Also, Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “A prostitute was forgiven by Allah, because, passing by a panting dog near a well and seeing that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her shoe, and tying it with her head-cover she drew out some water for it. So Allah forgave her because of that.” Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:130, no. 3321, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3321](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3321&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112603123&usg=AOvVaw0-35eAT2XYcK-bXneJY5Op). [^54]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madarij al-salikeen* \[Ranks of the divine seekers\], trans. Ovamir Anjum (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1:320. [^55]: Allen, “Science of Gratitude,” 28–50. [^56]: Qur’an 3:144. [^57]: Qur’an 14:34. “And He has granted you all that you asked Him for. If you tried to count Allah’s blessings, you would never be able to number them. Indeed, humankind is truly unfair, \[totally\] ungrateful.” [^58]: Qur’an 28:76–81. [^59]: Qur’an 14:7. [^60]: See *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, 14:7, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/14:6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112642025&usg=AOvVaw0biNFXCitgP1oEWzAC75eo)[https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/14:6](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/14:6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112642169&usg=AOvVaw2gEO9TTA_EP1eYQN4IGOEe). [^61]: Al-Ghazali, *Ihya*, 4:77, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112631506&usg=AOvVaw1GpT34jgPR5OkJn5eH72Ms)[http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112631646&usg=AOvVaw1uCUjo11Qj60UXEMytBI9m). [^62]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:42, no. 4023, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112632189&usg=AOvVaw17kIJtRwyHRfpiXPKGyrdb)[.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112632311&usg=AOvVaw3FERMfVdeOZyAJLW-_8buL) [Graded as](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112632523&usg=AOvVaw2RqW4Ir_S8O_irB4SrlbMx) *[hasan](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112632704&usg=AOvVaw1KIsOYXrtHWNmmpa1wfGJ2)* [according to](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112632825&usg=AOvVaw34iS2EL9EdfpfvEeFzs9Ba) al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:1050, no. 6086. [After eating, one is to recite the following:](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4023&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112633148&usg=AOvVaw3930HPcHgIZHM0UHt9ENxm) [^63]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2295, no. 2999, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2999](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2999&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112635408&usg=AOvVaw0CIfEc1GqrVchoSgfLn9IU). [^64]: Qur’an 31:12. [^65]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:102, no. 6490; Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2275, no. 2963, [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2011/04/20/miskin-shukr-look-below/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2011/04/20/miskin-shukr-look-below/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112636589&usg=AOvVaw0SIYr1EPZ3PWKkdx5pZew3). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Look at those below you and do not look at those above you, for it is the best way not to belittle the favors of Allah.” [^66]: Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-īmān* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 8:264, no. 5791, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bulugh/2/461&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112637213&usg=AOvVaw0E4Isd40XnVw6mm7_My8z-)[https://sunnah.com/bulugh/2/461](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bulugh/2/461&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112637374&usg=AOvVaw1MvvfyNwAG-8JcZKaw4rd3); authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 1:351, no. 1711. Al-Bayhaqi, 2:461. [^67]: Qur’an 76:9. “We feed you only for the sake of Allah, seeking neither reward nor thanks from you.” [^68]: [Abū Dāwūd,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112638361&usg=AOvVaw1y3CG161f6qkQbLEIMcMsY) *[Sunan Abī Dāwūd](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112638587&usg=AOvVaw0k4NcdDuKJXgBhf0DOINrc)*[, 4:255, no. 4811,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112638818&usg=AOvVaw2c9COyyRmMyvLLmIyHl3ti) [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811A&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112639035&usg=AOvVaw2RNjgEooMIfxjCm7P-50bM)[; authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112639254&usg=AOvVaw3KCNjWqC5n-oJDSA7Mxvzh) *[Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112639457&usg=AOvVaw1oiqJi0OBAwO-E_w0u8zyY)*[,](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112639673&usg=AOvVaw2TfefUZpOtxAQxyqZGv6XX) [2:1122, no. 6601.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112639902&usg=AOvVaw0ffk1ZgaqYsso-pcT5JVSf) [^69]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:203, no. 223, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:223](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:223&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112640638&usg=AOvVaw3akIwCXXUFlGmShC9gYFrD). [^70]: Qur’an 16:112. [^71]: Tod Sloan, *Damaged Life: The Crisis of the Modern Psyche* (London: Routledge, 1996), 9. See also “For scholars, the term *modernity* typically designates a loose constellation of social institutions, cultural practices and economic patterns that emerges with the advent of urban industrial economies and the democratic nation-states” (14). Note: there are a variety of definitions available, referring to multiple periods of time. [^72]: Sloan, *Damaged Life*, 63. [^73]: Sloan, *Damaged Life*, 23. [^74]: Sloan, *Damaged Life*, 21. [^75]: Kim Parker and Ruth  Igielnik, “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know About Gen Z So Far,” Pew Research Center, May 14, 2020, [https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/05/14/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far-2/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/05/14/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far-2/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112619073&usg=AOvVaw3A2FgqH1bjrbphjYCNKSaX). [^76]: Twenge, *Evidence for Generation Me*, 1. [^77]: Twenge, *Evidence for Generation Me*, 1–6. [^78]: Allen, “Science of Gratitude,” 22–23. [^79]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madarij al-salikeen*, 2:52, 1:434. [^80]: Qur’an 9:67. [^81]: Qur’an 19:81–82. [^82]: Qur’an 7:23. “They replied, ‘Our Lord, we have wronged our souls: if You do not forgive us and have mercy, we shall be lost.’” [^83]: Qur’an 57:20–23. [^84]: Qur’an 102:8; al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:375, no. 3356, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3356](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3356&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112620102&usg=AOvVaw2flrC6tnYagznMOesRexj1); good (*hasan*) according to al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^85]: Al-Ghazali, *The Alchemy of Happiness*, trans. Claud Field, 1910, 18, [http://data.nur.nu/Kutub/English/Ghazali\_Alchemy-of-Happiness.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://data.nur.nu/Kutub/English/Ghazali_Alchemy-of-Happiness.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112620814&usg=AOvVaw1GByYfAldg4aZPHEkr8pkg). [^86]: 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ slept on a straw mat and got up with the marks left by it on his body. Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “O Messenger of Allah! Would that you make us spread out a soft bedding for you.” He ﷺ replied, “What have I to do with the world? I am like a rider who had sat under a tree for its shade, then went away and left it.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, no. 2377; *hasan sahih*. [^87]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Way to Patience and Gratitude*, 395. [^88]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:2193, no. 2858, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2858](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2858&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112621405&usg=AOvVaw19CCgDPpRiFzlOPpiYfIdG). Translation used: [https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:4108](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:4108&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112621594&usg=AOvVaw1CrxxVjDtJaw-z330RFSwj), graded *sahih* according to al-Albani. [^89]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Way to Patience and Gratitude*, 47. [^90]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:393, no. 3383, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3383](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3383&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112624456&usg=AOvVaw1YcEBDxCjULoeirrQjrULN); graded as good (*hasan*) according to al-Tirmidhī in the comments. Al-Albānī agreed in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 1:248, no. 1104. [^91]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 3:89, no. 2774, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2774](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2774&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112625117&usg=AOvVaw1mhIP6BBb4vRWw_5f2W9kk); graded as good (*hasan*) according to al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:858, no. 4701.“When anything came to the Prophet ﷺ which caused pleasure (or, by which he was made glad), he prostrated himself in gratitude to Allah.” [^92]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2171, no. 2819b, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2819b](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2819b&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112625709&usg=AOvVaw3-4arxZFJhl8EjU9nlp3sZ). “Should I not prove myself to be a grateful servant (of Allah)?” [^93]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:713, no. 1028b, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:1028b&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112623723&usg=AOvVaw14KySA7N5DD5NCkPBIC6pt)[https://sunnah.com/muslim:1028b](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:1028b&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112623846&usg=AOvVaw0PYi9pMZMmvX5zoyxb0uY0). [^94]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:255, no. 4813, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4813](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4813&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112622724&usg=AOvVaw3MtdGy8EFY4FDj0MsERXNG); graded as good (*hasan*) according to al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:1046, no. 6156; *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi*, no. 2034, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2034](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2034&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1651852112623267&usg=AOvVaw2n5a1XvbvzOYuuJpAAinc5). [^95]: Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, 4:255, no. 4811, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4811; authenticity confirmed by al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’, 2:1122, no. 6601. [^96]: Qur’an 93:11. [^97]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Way to Patience and Gratitude*, 222. [^98]: Coleman, “Estranged.” [^99]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1250, no. 3805; authenticity confirmed and graded as good (*hasan*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’*, 2:975, no. 5563. [^100]: Qur’an 2:158. ## Summary # On the Reality of *Shukr*: Gratitude as Faith, Worship, and Contentment A pressing question of our age was captured well by a writer in *The Atlantic*, who, reflecting on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, asked to whom gratitude is truly owed if not to God. One may thank a grandmother for a pie, but who is thanked for the general circumstances of one's life? This dilemma exposes a widely overlooked confusion. Nearly all cultures, religions, and disciplines—social, psychological, and moral—recognize gratitude as a virtue tied to happiness, health, and well-being. Yet while its benefits are well-documented, its very definition remains elusive. The secular, scientific view holds that gratitude requires no recognition of God as its ultimate source, stripping it of moral, religious, and spiritual weight, even though theologians of past and present have rooted its origins in belief and worship. Meanwhile, studies indicate that fewer people today genuinely experience gratitude, for fleeting gratification rarely yields lasting contentment. Modernity and secularism have eroded ties to God, reducing religion at best to inherited ritual, and society's immersion in materialism, consumerism, and social media has only deepened the malaise. More than a century ago the French sociologist Émile Durkheim (d. 1917) diagnosed a "cult of the individual," a condition since confirmed by research documenting rising self-entitlement and narcissism amid material abundance. Against this backdrop, *shukr* emerges as the missing key to the contentment human beings naturally seek. *Shukr* is gratitude, yet far more; it extends beyond secular boundaries and beyond oneself or another creature, directing thankfulness foremost to Allah, the Most Merciful and Generous, who grants life, sustenance, and above all, guidance. It is a religious obligation integral to one's purpose—a spiritual state within the heart, expressed through worship and obedience, and manifesting in generosity and kindness toward others. The Qur'an and Sunnah, revealed by the Maker of humanity who knows His creation best, treat gratitude as a central theme and offer a complete, practical understanding of it. Interestingly, when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, he himself directed its observance toward God, acknowledging that the "gracious gifts of the Most High God" were beyond any human hand. Concerning the origin of gratitude, Dr. Summer Allen, in *The Science of Gratitude*, surveys neurological, genetic, and developmental studies and concludes that gratitude is likely an inherent component of human nature, serving as the "glue" for meaningful relationships. Viewed through an Islamic lens, this natural inclination is fully supported by the concept of the *fiṭrah*, the God-given disposition with which all are born to worship Allah and uphold moral character. *Shukr* is a significant part of this divinely ordained morality, though internal and external factors—chiefly the plots of Satan—can weaken it if not guarded. The Qur'anic account of Adam and *Iblīs* teaches nuanced lessons about gratitude and its pitfalls. Adam's very first words, upon Allah breathing the soul into him, were praise and gratitude, as reported in the hadith that when Adam sneezed he said, "All praise is due to Allah," and his Lord responded with mercy. *Iblīs*, by contrast, refused Allah's command to bow before Adam out of arrogance and ingratitude, then blamed Allah for his own straying, declaring, "You will not find most of them grateful." The particular targeting of *shukr* in Satan's threat reveals its centrality to faith. Allah describes *Iblīs* as having become one of the disbelievers (*kāfirīn*), and the term *kufr* linguistically denotes both ingratitude and rejection, since disobedience to Allah is the highest form of ingratitude. The Companion ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās explained that the *shukr* in this verse refers to the sole worship of Allah, establishing a consistent Qur'anic link between gratitude and worship. Ibn ʿAbbās further explained that Satan's approach "from before them" raises doubts about the Hereafter, "from behind them" entangles people in worldly pursuit, "from the right" confuses them about religion, and "from the left" entices them to sin—while attack from above is withheld, reserved for Allah's descending mercy. Adam and Eve, though tempted through their fallible desire for more, recognized their error and turned to Allah in repentance, in stark contrast to *Iblīs* who despaired of mercy. Thus Allah delineates two paths: "We already showed them the Way, whether they choose to be grateful or ungrateful." *Shukr* is a way of life and an obligation, for Allah commands, "And give thanks to Allah if you truly worship Him alone," and "so remember Me; I will remember you. And thank Me, and never be ungrateful." It overlaps with, but is not encompassed by, the secular definition offered by the psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, who reduce gratitude to recognizing a positive outcome and its external source. Linguistically, *shukr* derives from an Arabic verb meaning to thank a benefactor, and its root also describes animals whose udders are full and palm trees that grow abundantly—signifying that the blessing's effects become visibly apparent on its recipient. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) explained that *shukr* manifests in the heart's love and recognition of Allah, upon the tongue in praise and remembrance, and through the limbs in obedience to His commands and avoidance of His prohibitions, as Allah says He gave hearing, sight, and intellect "so perhaps you would be thankful." Al-Harawī (d. 1089) described three levels: gratitude for desirable blessings, gratitude maintained in distress (whose people are first called to Paradise), and gratitude purely out of love for Allah. Ibn al-Qayyim identified five pillars: servitude, love, acknowledging the blessing, praising Allah, and using the blessing in obedience to Him. Imam al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) taught that *shukr* is rooted first in knowledge of Allah as the bestower of all blessings, which conditions the heart to gratitude and produces love that moves the limbs to act. He distinguished three levels of gratitude—toward the gift, toward the giver, and, most perfectly, toward Allah by whose will the giver gave—saying, "So instead of being grateful to the giver, be grateful to Him who created the giver and his will." He noted that gratitude to Allah differs from gratitude to people because Allah is free of need while man is needy, and because man's very will and capacity for gratitude are themselves gifts. Yet gratitude to people remains obligatory, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah." Ignorance, arrogance, greed, and heedlessness all undermine *shukr*, whereas reflection upon Allah's innumerable favors nurtures it. Allah reminds us that were we to count His favors we could never number them, and the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever awakes secure, healthy, and with food for the day possesses as though the whole world. Scholars paired *shukr* with *ṣabr* (patience), and the Prophet ﷺ said, "A grateful eater will have a reward like that of a patient fasting person." Though scholars debated whether the grateful wealthy or the patient poor is superior, each is rewarded by sincerity and capacity, and both must exercise patience and gratitude always. Every calamity may conceal a greater one averted, so the believer treats hardship as a hidden blessing—Abū Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, "If Allah wills good for someone, He afflicts him with trials." Ibn al-Qayyim related from Salmān al-Fārisī the account of a man who, having lost his wealth, still praised Allah for his eyesight, tongue, hands, and feet. The prophets exemplified this: Allah called Noah "a grateful servant," described Abraham as "thankful for the blessings of God," and commanded Moses to "be grateful." The Prophet ﷺ prayed until his feet swelled, asking, "Should I not be a thankful servant?" Ibn al-Qayyim summarized that *shukr* gathers within it all the stations of faith, since faith is two halves—patience and gratitude—and "few of My servants are truly grateful." The gifts of gratitude are many. While studies confirm benefits for physical and mental health and relationships, the rewards of *shukr* are greater still, for Allah promises, "And Allah will reward those who are grateful," and "If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more." Above all, *shukr* safeguards against the arrogance that ruined *Iblīs* and *Qārūn*, whom Allah caused the earth to swallow after he claimed his wealth came "because of some knowledge I have." Al-Ghazālī noted Allah's promised "more" spans this world and the next. The Prophet ﷺ taught that praising Allah after eating and clothing brings forgiveness, and said, "How wonderful is the case of a believer!"—for in ease he thanks and in hardship he is patient, and both are good for him. He also said, "When Allah grants His blessings to His servant, He loves to see the traces of His favor upon him," reflecting Islam's balance between shunning the world and falling into extravagance. As for modernity, the words "few of My servants are truly grateful" hold true in every age. Tod Sloan, in *Damaged Life*, argues that modernity's ills—a fast pace, decline of certainty, decay of morality, and loss of meaning—leave contentment scarce. Dr. Jean Twenge documents a generational rise in narcissism, materialism, and reduced empathy, urging that "self-belief is not the key to success." Gratitude studies confirm it is negatively associated with narcissism, materialism, and envy. Ibn al-Qayyim explained that attachment to other than Allah corrupts the heart, and Allah "handed such people over" to what they cling to, for "they neglected Allah so He neglected them." Yet all is not lost, for man retains free will to choose *shukr* over *kufr*, and salvation lies in turning to Allah as Adam and Eve did. Al-Ghazālī likened the world to a marketplace from which one takes only provision for body and soul, and the Prophet ﷺ likened the *dunyā* to a passing shade and to a finger dipped in the sea. The path forward is to resort to God for consolation, to reframe our perception of this fleeting world, and to practice daily acts of *shukr*—remembering Allah's names, worshiping sincerely, comparing oneself to those with less, reciprocating kindness, and speaking of Allah's blessings, as He commanded, "talk about the blessings of your Lord." We will never thank Allah as He deserves, yet the Prophet ﷺ informed us that the servant's praise is better in Allah's sight than the bounty received, and Allah says, "whoever does good willingly, Allah is truly Appreciative, All-Knowing." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/cultivating-faithful-enthusiasm-how-the-quran-creates-transformative-willpower # Cultivating Faithful Enthusiasm: How the Qur'an Creates Transformative Willpower **Author:** Dr. Shabbir Akhtar **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 27, 2022 **Updated:** November 4, 2025 ## The moral and spiritual providence of God What is exceptional about the mission of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, even in a history of prophetic missions that spanned millennia, is that the early Muslims not only believed and joined the mission, they did so with unparalleled enthusiasm and total self-surrender. Against a culture that not only tolerated but valorized the pursuit of physical and sexual conquest, intoxication, and fulfillment of other base human instincts, Islamic society embodied faith-based solidarity, discipline, sobriety, sexual chastity, and altruism without expectation of worldly reward. Under the leadership of its exemplary leader, this Islamic community was committed to the pursuit of individual and communal virtue, standing as a just and balanced witness against all nations.[^1] Note that the Qur’an’s high praise for the Prophet ﷺ as a perfect role model (*uswah ḥasanah*) is revealed in the context of a battle, the highest form of struggle and sacrifice.[^2] The Qur’an, after all, declares all of life an arena for probation, trial, and struggle. Armed with the Word of God, the Prophet ﷺ trained believers to outdo their enemies in endurance and grit: “O you who have believed, persevere and endure and remain stationed and fear Allah that you may be successful.”[^3] In the crucible of the earliest struggles for the establishment of Islam, the Revelation called on the men who were about to be martyred at the battle of Uḥud to “fear God in a manner that is rightly His due.”[^4] Similarly, even as death approached Prophets Abraham and Jacob (peace be on them both) as they bequeathed their people, alone among the pagans, the precarious inheritance of true faith, they issued the beautifully complex command: “Certainly do not die—unless you are in total self-surrender.”[^5] How did the Qur’an motivate people to prioritize the eternal next life over the immediate pleasures of this ephemeral world? What are the resources the Qur’an offers us to cultivate the correct kind of motivation, if not zeal, in matters of faithful striving? These are the questions that this essay sets out to answer. To this end, we must analyze not only the concept of the intellect but also the often-neglected concept of *will*: the scope and capacity of intention, the primal reality of fear, and the biologically implanted instincts to pursue pleasure and eschew pain—as these relate to the life of faithful conviction and the virtuous action it ought to produce. The insights into the pitfalls of human nature and their cures that adorn the pages of the Qur’an offer us a moral anthropology—one opposed to the materialist (biological, constitutional, and physiological) anthropology that dominates the modern perspective. In Section I, we look at the significance of religious enthusiasm at the origins of Islam. In Section II, we deepen our understanding of the link between reflective reason and the demands of the decisive actions of religious commitment. In Section III, we examine the moral problem of the sincerity of motivation in the life of committed faith and virtue. In Section IV, we return to the reasoning *(jadal*) strand. In Section V, we note the distractions of this world, including family life, that may sabotage the life of faith. In Section VI, we discuss how the Qur’an, through commanding daily worship and a month of fasting, demands constant spiritual caution and moral self-surveillance at all times, including self-restraint in matters of bodily appetites. As we will see, we all need God but often rebel and think we do not—and reckon without His grace, “Because he \[man\] sees himself as self-sufficient.”[^6] This pride (*takabbur*), the proclivity to reckon one is intrinsically better than others, the primordial sin committed by the Devil when he refused to prostrate, is our greatest liability. Our ultimate purpose is to align our wills with the divine will, the very meaning of *islām* (self-surrender), as we learn to place a spontaneous, even effortless, trust in the divine plan for us. However, what is ostensibly effortless trust requires much effort—the paradox of trust in God (*tawakkul*). Anxiety about one’s future, as opposed to merely planning prudently for provisions, is incompatible with true faith and trust in divine providence. --- ## I.  A case study in enthusiasm: The Tabūk expedition The term 'zeal' (*ḥamās)* and the derivative adjective ‘zealous’ (*mutaḥammis*) are not found in the Qur’an. Yet zeal may be said to be the central theme of the ninth Qur’anic chapter, a late Medinan revelation. This *sūrah*, with its divinely sanctioned armed struggle against militant pagan opposition, begins with a formal notice of the elimination of idolatry in the Arabian peninsula. This chapter deals with a military expedition, yet it concentrates not on local circumstances and details of geography but on the moral and spiritual aspects of warfare.[^7] It demands military discipline, zeal, and zestful self-sacrifice in the unending struggle for establishing a just, God-centered order on earth, boycotting those who failed to join the campaign. This call was so successful that the Qur’an had to exhort the community to permit a learned faction to stay behind to instruct the returning warriors in the peacetime duties of the faith.[^8] The warriors had fulfilled the duty on behalf of society, thus rendering the rest of the community no longer blameworthy for inaction. Ibn Isḥāq’s biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ contains extensive details of this expedition which, unlike other prophetic campaigns, was openly announced ahead of its undertaking.[^9] The Prophet ﷺ heard rumors of an imminent attack by the Christian (Roman) Byzantines settled in the Eastern Roman province of Syria, where forces were probably gathering near Tabūk, at the northern frontier of the Arabian peninsula near present-day Jordan. They intended to annihilate the infant religion. In 9 AH (October 630 CE), about two years before his death, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ began to enlist volunteers for this vital expedition. He meticulously planned this campaign, traditionally named ‘the army of hardship’ (*jaysh al-ʿusrah*),[^10] which was to pioneer, after his death in June 632, Islam’s elephantine military triumphs in the fastest, largely permanent, expansion in recorded history. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, surrounded by his loyal and devout companions, was prepared to traverse scorching and desolate desert paths to please his Lord. Through the Qur’an, God successfully generated enthusiasm for the faithful cause even though the human capital with which the Prophet ﷺ worked was often unpromising. Some weak-willed believers along with the hypocrites complained, as recorded in the Qur’an: “Among them is also one who says: ‘Give me leave \[to stay behind\] and don’t tempt me.’”[^11] While the temptation awaiting them was thought to be the outstanding beauty of Christian Byzantine women, God warns that these men have already fallen into temptation—referring, perhaps, to the fear of failing the trial when its hour arrives. In general, the Qur’an does command Muslims to avoid, not merely resist, temptation. However, in the cause of God, one must face all one’s fears. During jihad, desertion caused by cowardice is condemned and lack of morale attributed to the Devil’s machinations.[^12] ‘Do not go out into the heat!’ This advice from hypocrites, who worried about their physical health and comfort rather than the welfare of their souls, receives the counter: “Say: ‘The Fire of Hell is hotter still, if only you knew!’”[^13] --- ## II. Reason shall save you from the Fire What motivates the fervor required for the attainment of *continuously* enthusiastic obedience to God’s commandments which constitute the good life? The Qur’an consistently and persistently argues for an honest realism—noting our ordained moral endowment, our human essence, and our spiritual limitations. This case is supported with logical reasoning (*jadal*). The Qur’an, ultimately, contends that there is adequate rational motivation for religious enthusiasm as opposed to mere belief. Western and Islamic philosophers alike have extolled the importance of reason, the intellectual faculty, in achieving the good life. From Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to Spinoza and John Dewey, from Yaʿqūb Al-Kindī to Ibn Rushd, all have maintained that intelligence and virtue are organically linked: only those who know what they are doing are likely to do what is right. Moreover, what is good for us is known by knowing who we truly are—linking ethics with ontology and self-mastery with self-knowledge. This philosophical consensus, inspired by too sanguine an estimate of reason, must face the fact that the overwhelming majority of morally good people have not been particularly learned or intelligent or self-consciously aware of their own nature and limitations. Conversely, intelligent people have no monopoly on virtue, to put it politely. Socrates over-emphasized the role of knowledge, self-knowledge, and reasoning as adequate goals to virtue. Our awareness of the compulsion of the moral ideal is the cornerstone of Kant’s ethical system, a compulsion that, unlike the intense life of the mind, is experienced universally by human beings. Kant wisely emphasized good will, not refined intellect, as central to ethical life. Even for a rationally inclined person, the principal fuel of religious enthusiasm is not knowledge. While knowledge of important goals, especially short-term ones, can partly motivate some rational persons, it alone never actuates religious zeal. In goals whose pursuit demands enthusiasm, whether religious or secular, we are primarily driven by desire and the will to experience it. Will and desire can jointly motivate us where the intellect fails to induce action. Enthusiasm requires more than an active awareness of the existence or desirability of some holy grail. Its remoteness or accessibility is also key. In religious as in secular life, even a lazy or unmotivated person is moved to action when he or she perceives imminent danger. Equally motivating is the imminent prospect of extreme pleasure. Commenting on the reward of eternal life, the scholastic Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas rightly argued that “by such a reward the will is moved to assent to what is proposed, although the mind is not moved by anything understood.”[^14] Thus, an incentive can be sufficient to persuade the will without being sufficient to persuade the intellect. We act, sometimes spontaneously and other times unwillingly, even though we are not fully rationally persuaded to give assent to some abstract proposition in scripture. Our wills and our intellects require different types and levels of motivation to spring into action. Fortunately, the very prospect of the reward of eternal life—the very promise of it—suffices to move our will. It will help now to clarify the capacity and scope of divine guidance in our lives by examining the role of the mind. The primary function of the intellect in the life of piety is to coordinate diverse desires into a united and harmonious will rather than to directly motivate us into virtuous action. The boundary between impulse and action, absent in children, is heavily guarded in adults. It is prior desire that probably conditions the will. There are no pure desire-less acts of will—except in God's own case. Our will is driven not by our intellects or even talents but rather by the innate *compulsion* of our passions and instincts. These are hard to detect or counteract since they are concealed even from our own selves. Yet such inner drives are often strong enough to be autonomous, effectively overpowering our minds. Thus our instinctive desire to avoid pain and obtain pleasure supplies more powerful motives for action than knowledge alone does or would. This explains the Qur’an’s emphasis on the terrors of Hell and the delights of Paradise. Thus God motivates and guides inner *yet independent and free* human intention. We avow our intentions to God who knows whether we lie or speak the truth, and we avow our intentions to other human beings who may or may not trust us. The Prophet ﷺ preached about the true status of intention—*niyyah*.[^15] While the Qur’an does not mention this word, it does speak of *irādah* (volition), divine and human, that intends or guides action. The interior deliberative component of human intention, whether openly professed or entertained inarticulately, precedes an action, and wholly determines its moral status with God. Actions are judged not by their consequences, which fall outside the power of the agent performing the action, but by their intentions. The Prophet’s ﷺ teaching reinforces the Qur’an’s singular stress on sincerity and quality of motive—human beings can only attain that for which they sincerely strive. Unlike our intentions, we cannot change our desires at will. In the absence of desire, merely entertaining a belief about the good can lead to virtuous intention. In an unpremeditated action, such as action wholly motivated by strong desire, the conscious intention follows rather than precedes the action. In a premeditated act, however, one can intend repentance before committing the sin that requires it. Thus, Joseph’s brothers anticipate that they can, after harming Joseph, still become righteous people, by repenting of their evil deed. --- ## III. Motives: Good, bad, and mixed The pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain—desire and fear—are the sovereign masters directing human behavior. We need fear so that we may live and flourish, as we inhabit a physical environment that penalizes anyone ignorant of its dangers. Think of a child attracted to a poisonous snake. The child is at high risk of not surviving. Extreme fear, including the fear of imminent death for a cause, can be counteracted by the comforting prospect of extreme pleasure. Secular detractors of religion argue that religious conviction hinders the achievement of true virtue. As the argument goes, an atheist is more virtuous than a believer since the believer’s moral stance is corrupted by selfish fears and hopes centered on a world beyond the grave. This view, which nourishes the bold atheist claim about the alleged purity and autonomy of secular ethics, is mistaken.[^16] A Muslim’s hope of entering Paradise provides a valid motive for leading an ethically worthy life. It is fallacious to argue that since believers desire to enter Paradise, they cannot really love God. The secular contention is that those who act morally in order to succeed in religious life are not acting in a genuinely moral way since they treat morality as a means to a further end—and thus attach no intrinsic value to their moral motives. Moreover, the argument continues, such agents intend to deceive God since their sole aim is to enter Paradise! This reasoning is invalid since only some, not all, reasons for action are incompatible with morally praiseworthy action. If we act morally *solely* in order to serve our interests, we are not authentically moral. But it is absurd to think that if we act with *any* end in view, we are automatically disqualified from acting morally. Furthermore, there are ends, certainly in religion, which can be achieved only where the means used to achieve them also have independent and intrinsic moral worth. Only a worthy lifestyle on earth is rewarded with the crowning glory of eternal life with God. A natural corollary of loving God is desiring Paradise. Islamic ethics, the instrument for achieving the Muslim’s religious goal, is organically, not accidentally, tied to the hope of entering Paradise. This outlook contrasts with the mistaken Kantian view that behavior cannot be moral if it's conditional on attaining some particular aim. It must rather be freely chosen out of a purely, wholly, intrinsically good will. The Kantian objection is that those who pursue the reward of the religious life are pursuing their self-interest and are therefore not genuinely moral. Their motives are contaminated by their desire for reward when the pursuit of virtue should be its own reward, not something other than or additional to it. If we examine a largely analogous though not wholly parallel secular case, we can readily expose the error in this view. If a woman befriends someone and desires the happiness that comes from true friendship, it is wrong to suspect that since she desires such happiness, her friendship is false. If the argument used to discredit the moral dimension of religious life were used in parallel secular cases, no human relationship would be legitimate since no such relationship, no matter how altruistic, lacks non-moral motivation. No one could be said to love their children or spouses since what one desired, while pretending to love one’s family, was gratification of one’s selfish desires. The argument is a *reductio ad absurdum*. Not only are there morally good and morally bad motives, the status of such motives is unstable over time. For example, the life of faith may be initially motivated solely by the fear of God. Such fear is regarded by Islam’s Christian critics as a disreputable and merely prudential motive. Such initial fear may, however, change gradually, indeed be transformed, into the love of God. We conclude therefore that fear is not a bad motive if it evolves over time or if it is combined *ab initio* with morally superior motives, specifically an unconditional love of God coupled with a sincere intention to obey His commandments. That said, unalloyed fear, untempered by belief in God’s mercy, is not only a bad motive for religiosity, it is a cardinal sin that amounts to infidelity. Fear, then, can be a form of reasoned prudence rather than primal terror. Only those Christians who emphasize the exclusive role of love in the religious life reject fear, whether initial or concomitant with love at all subsequent stages, as a wise motive. The Hebrew Bible teaches that “the fear of the Lord (Yahweh) is the beginning of wisdom.”[^17] The Christian Bible, however, preaches that “there is no fear in divine love (Greek, *agape*), rather, perfect love casteth out fear since fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”[^18] The Muslim objection here is that such love also casteth out any real commitment to obeying a divine law against transgressions. --- ## IV. The Qur’an makes a case against infidelity We circle back now to pick up the thread of *jadal* (argument). The Qur’an advocates forgoing the provisions of this world for the pleasures of the next world on the basis of the former’s finitude and the latter’s permanence. I examine this argument now which, rhetorically considered, has two *ad hominem* versions—reflecting two different groups of opponents—but the same logical core. The Qur’an proffers the first version in response to the pagans’ determined derision of its threats. The Meccans even mockingly pray that their portion of the punishment be hastened and fall on them immediately.[^19] Some request the sky rain stones down upon them.[^20] The Qur’an answers with what is, even by its standards of high concision, extreme ellipsis: “Consider! If we let them enjoy \[this life\] for \[a few\] years; then there comes to them \[at last\] that which they were promised \[due punishment\], the pleasures they enjoyed \[in the past\] shall not benefit them \[in the present\].”[^21] Here the Qur’an presupposes that pleasure, unlike goods such as knowledge or virtue, is not cumulative. Pleasure is enjoyed and then it is no more, except as a memory. The memory of a pleasure enjoyed can be either a source of further pleasure or of pain in the realization that it is no more. In any case, no matter how much pleasure we have experienced in the past, none of it can mitigate the pain of the moment of chastisement that arrives in the present. All pleasure, no matter how ardently yearned for or enjoyed, remains fleeting. An enjoyable meal following a fast, a fading sunset over a mountain side—all such delights, whether physical or aesthetic, are transient. Nothing endures except the face of God. The Qur’an advances another version of this argument against the Jews of Medina, who are mocked for thinking themselves exclusively destined for an after-life. Untroubled by the Qur’an’s threats and unfazed by the prospect of Hell, some rabbis in Medina tell the Prophet ﷺ that the fire shall touch them only for a limited number of days.[^22] The Qur’an replies: If the final abode in God’s presence is reserved exclusively for Jewish members, then they should wish for immediate death if they are sincere. The Qur’an predicts that they will never wish for death since they know well what “their own hands have sent on before them,” a euphemism for evil actions. The Qur’an continues: “And God knows well those who do wrong. You will find them, of all people, even more than idolaters, greedier for any kind of life.”[^23] Each of them wishes he could be granted a life of a thousand years. The granting of such longevity, however, would not save them from due punishment.[^24] God sees well their actions.[^25] While goods such as wealth, health, happiness, knowledge, pleasure, and so on can, in principle, be acquired in large quantities and enjoyed—though not in all cases accumulated—we have only a fixed lease on physical life on this earth in which to enjoy these benefits and blessings. This upper limit on longevity permanently restricts the amount of other goods we can acquire so long as we are bound by *al-dunya*. There can be no equivalence drawn between the joys of this life and the one to come. --- ## V. Distractions and delights of al-dunyā *Surah* *al-Jumuʿah* (Friday) concludes with an incident that serves well to show how easily people are distracted by the glitter and glamor of this lower life, despite its impermanence.[^26] Only a dozen men stayed to listen to the Prophet’s ﷺ sermon in the mosque when a caravan laden with exotic merchandise and accompanied by drum-beating entered Medina. The rest were distracted by the prospect of trade and gossip. The lower world, *al-dunyā*, pulls us away and drags us down. We read candid accounts of the Prophet ﷺ’s companions bashfully admitting to him that they find it difficult to retain an awareness of God after they leave the mosque to return to their wives and children. Some found the obligations of family life so irksome and spiritually distracting that the Qur’an orders believers to live with their wives “on a footing of kindness and equity: if you dislike them, it could be that you dislike something through which God brings about much good.”[^27] Though the Qur’an endorses a high estimate of marriage and offspring as among the beauties of this world, some Medinan verses do criticize family life whenever it threatens the service and remembrance of God. The family nexus is futile as a defense against divine reckoning.[^28] Spending generously on one’s family and looking after their welfare can bring one closer to God, yet as one verse warns: “Among your wives and your children, some are your enemies.”[^29] This revelation, dated to 1 AH, possibly even very late Meccan, may refer to either pagan or reluctant Muslim migrant wives of the believers. The Qur’an counsels forgiveness of such wives. However, *Sūrah* *Al-Mumtaḥanah*, revealed in 8 AH, orders complete severance of ties between disbelieving and faithful spouses, after due formalities have been completed.[^30] Even the Prophet’s ﷺ own domestic life was not entirely without spousal difficulties. His wives, understandably, desired a little more worldly comfort but were expected to continue living in voluntary holy poverty, even in the aftermath of military successes that brought some wealth to the treasury. The Prophet’s ﷺ own poverty was conspicuous and noted by his companions, especially *ahl al-ṣuffah*, the destitute ones living on his verandah. “Your wealth and your children are only a trial (*fitnah*); with God is the greatest reward.”[^31] This intriguing but elastic word *fitnah* sustains a vast range of meanings, some pregnant with moral connotations. It encompasses distraction, certainly, but also strife, confusion, public disorder (*fasād*), trial, adversity, and tribulation. It also references the disbelieving temptation to persecute the faithful and the endurance of persecution as a test of the believers’ moral mettle.[^32] The Prophet ﷺ announced that “I have not left behind any temptation (*fitnah*) more harmful to men than women.[^33] This hadith, which coheres with the Qur’an’s message, simply reports the reality of romantic and sexual attraction and implies that it is a trial in the lives of chaste men and women. It need not mean anything negative since this divine gift, like any other, contains an ambiguous potential: It may either be enjoyed properly or abused fanatically. --- ## VI. Holding fast to the month of the fast Many of the less demanding, more routine Qur’anic commandments—duties that require sustained observance rather than difficult but standalone acts of enthusiasm—help believers properly enjoy divine gifts by training them to periodically abstain from them. The Qur’an treats prayer and fasting as ends and means to cultivate the stamina that shall sustain us in our struggle for the more arduous duties of faith, including social and political activism. The difficulty of prayer lies in the frequency and constancy of its performance rather than the severity of its exertion, although observing the dawn prayer requires discipline. Regular prayer combats lust and indecent desires.[^34] Mainly through the timed ordinance of prayer, we maintain an awareness of God virtually all day, every day of our lives. This awareness is deepened by the Sunnah’s supererogatory prayers—the Qur’an orders the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to pray in the deepest reaches of the night[^35] and to recite “the revelation at dawn.”[^36] Fasting is an ordeal of self-denial that Muslims still endure every year in Ramadan, the ninth lunar month. Nutritionists classify it as a ‘true fast’ since no food or beverage, not even medicine, may enter the body for a sustained period of time.[^37] Moreover, sexual intercourse is prohibited during fasting. The Qur’an recommended a period of retreat into celibacy (*iʿtikāf*) during Ramadan inside the mosque. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ withdrew for the last ten days of Ramadan and some believers still follow him in this practice. The fast is especially demanding in the modern West. Apart from enduring ubiquitous sexual imagery and afternoon headaches that render mentally taxing work nearly impossible, Muslims must often live among those who openly disrespect them as they alone abstain from food, water, and bodily pleasures. Fasting is a duty irreducible to mere ritual since its performance places heavy physical and mental strain on the observant Muslim. It is hard to fake fasting—unlike with other duties, such as prayer, which can easily be performed insincerely, ostentatiously, and lazily. Both prayer and fasting, ultimately, foster mindfulness of God, cultivate patience, and nurture resilience in the face of heavy odds. They are therefore critically valuable tools of self-mastery, always necessary to tame the human being’s perennially insatiable appetite. --- ## VII. The ideals of faith: Doing our best suffices God has made human beings crave naturally and forcefully the immediate satisfactions enjoyed in the company of their offspring and spouses. A natural disposition is not an irresistible impulse—but it can occasionally be strong enough to be virtually autonomous. Internal impulses, wrongly indulged, can destroy and overwhelm us. The life of impiety is easier and appears more glamorous, at least in the short term. To attain even a modest degree of righteous self-restraint requires sustained moral labor. God’s moral demands on the human frame call for unwelcome privations and uncomfortable sacrifices. The Qur’an acknowledges the force of our natural desire to defy our higher nature.[^38] It notes, neutrally, without regret, our prevalent natural proclivity to seek the easier option.[^39] Faced with the choice between engaging in physical combat with an armed caravan and an unarmed one, even committed believers preferred “the one unarmed.”[^40] As a scripture marked by realism about the human predicament, the Qur’an notes the urgent presence of agitating passions. Its list of desires in the lower world opens with women,[^41] a metonymy for sexual desire in both sexes.[^42] The sexual pressure on the human frame is profound, but the Qur’an’s list would have been different, critics might contend, if the Arabs had been relatively indifferent to women and inordinately fond of strong drink, an item not listed at all. A Muslim would retort that sex is an instinctive desire while alcohol is at best an acquired taste and a luxury. We noted in Section I above that all life is a trial. The Qur’an exhorts all believers to do the best they can, to fear God as much as possible. As a practical and practicable revelation, the Qur’an draws on the existing resources of human nature: “It will be good for whoever obeys his own impulse to goodness.”[^43] We can do otherwise: a son of Adam chose to obey his soul’s impulse to evil and murdered his innocent brother, the first homicide in our species’ history. This calamitous milestone was driven by the envy of the brother whose sacrifice was rejected because “God accepts only from the God-fearing.”[^44] While moral demands should be heavy so that failure is commoner than success, they must not be so heavy that failure becomes inevitable and success virtually impossible. Moral rules that are impossible to obey are as pointless as those which are impossible to disobey. A practicable religion must command us to make only those righteous choices that we have the strength to make. For our strength, unlike divine strength, is of the kind that may fail us. The magnitude of the natural impulse to good should match the quality of piety demanded. “God does not burden anyone with more than they can bear.”[^45] The Qur’an contains rationally defensible rules that guide us in matters ranging from wartime conduct to dietary restrictions, all capable of being followed by all according to their capacity. As such, though we ought to judge religions by their professed ideals rather than by their adherents’ typically flawed attempts to fulfill them, the practicability of an ideal still determines its worth. There is no point in recommending an ideal, no matter how noble in content, if that ideal is impossible to practice. And to be practicable, a religious ideal must correspond to the moral and spiritual capacities of human nature. Take the case of the canonical fast examined above. Exemptions and exceptions were codified from the Qur’an and the Prophet’s ﷺ customary practice. Accordingly, the law exempts travelers, the ill, elderly individuals barely able to fast, pregnant and lactating women, warriors engaged in active military conflict, and children who have not reached puberty, the age of legal majority. These categories of persons, children apart, are required to make up fasts missed or to feed indigent people during the holy month. The Shariah, then, already contains sufficient and appropriate concessions to our frail nature. To say that we should further relax the canonical standards of normative piety—in order to make our modern lives easier—is a thinly disguised plea for self-indulgence. It suits an age of libertinism in which the egoism of the will to serve one’s own pleasures and desires has supplanted the humility of the will to serve God and His cause. Rules are not for fools, but for the wise. --- ## IX. Divine grace Yet the question of whether or not human nature is intrinsically capable of fully obeying God lingers. Does divine grace enable or only facilitate complete obedience? This conundrum is unique to monotheism. The role of human will versus divine enablement cannot arise in pagan and secular ethical systems of thinkers such as Aristotle and the Stoics—these ethical schemes appeal only to human willpower, with all of its merits and limits. Our capacity for frustrating our higher nature is no unintended tragedy: it is a divinely intended and therefore irremovable feature of our nature. Our unbending potential for recalcitrance is why we shall always need divine grace to fully submit to God’s law. Accordingly, our ability to sustain enthusiasm for good actions shall necessarily, not contingently, depend in part on a mysterious operation of God’s grace. We can therefore never take full credit for our meritorious actions. God has the last and *decisive* word—but not the *only* word. Our freely willed human condition remains divinely controlled, though not wholly divinely determined. “Man is in a state of loss, except….”[^46] The Companions would routinely recite this *sūrah* to each other to boost each other’s morale while under persecution in Mecca. The quoted verse has a desolating comment after the initial oath. Like the affirmation of faith, it proceeds from the pessimism of denial—there is no God—to the optimism of the exceptive clause. This clause exempts those who have faith, do what is right and just, and mutually exhort one another to uphold truth while persevering in the pursuit of such qualities of character. Humans were created weak. But their sustained struggle, with God’s grace, gives them unimaginable strength. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 2:143. [^2]: The same is true for Abraham, upon him be peace, whose many iconoclastic acts—such as disowning an idolatrous family—set him up as a model for our Prophet ﷺ (Qur’an 60:4-6). [^3]: Qur’an 3:200. [^4]: Qur’an 3:102. [^5]: Qur’an 2:132. [^6]: Qur’an 96:6–7. [^7]: Qur’an 9:38–99. [^8]: Qur’an 9:122. [^9]: A. Guillaume, *The Life of Muhammad* (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1978), 602–14. [^10]: Muhsin Khan, trans., *Summarized Sahih Al-Bukhari* (Riyadh: Maktaba Dar Al-Salam, 1994), part 52, Book of Wills and Testaments, chap. 7, hadith no. 1202, p. 578. [^11]: Qur’an 9:49. [^12]: The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions failed to locate any Byzantine imperial army. The warrior-prophet, thus named in tradition (*nabī al-malḥamah*), returned from the expedition to find that in his absence, a rival party had, as an act of mischief and infidelity during a time of hostilities, established an alternative mosque. This is the only house of worship, of any faith, which the Prophet ﷺ felt obliged to destroy. See Qur’an 22:40. [^13]: Qur’an 9:81. [^14]: *De Veritate*, 14.1. [^15]: The hadith on the primacy of human intention is the opening hadith of *al-Bukhāri*. It is one of three or four premier sayings of the Prophet ﷺ that are considered foundational to Islam. [^16]: For more on my attempt to refute the autonomy of secular ethics, see my book *The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam* (London: Routledge, 2008), 97–104 for the famous Euthyphro dilemma. [^17]: Prov. 9.10. [^18]: 1 John 4.18. [^19]: Qur’an 38:16. [^20]: Qur’an 8:32. [^21]: Qur’an 26:205–207. [^22]: Qur’an 2:80, 3:24. [^23]: The word for life is used in the indefinite singular (*hayātin*, a life) to indicate contempt: they would opt for any kind of life, even one of disgrace and misery, if only they could avoid death. [^24]: That pleasure is not cumulative is implied in the Hebrew book *Qohelet*, a work of skeptical wisdom attributed to Solomon, who had enjoyed much pleasure but ultimately found it unsatisfying. The book notes this feature of pleasure but does not develop it to argue any thesis. It is not trying to motivate people to defer to a long term goal. Indeed, the book is subversive of Hebrew ethics since it ultimately advocates for pessimism. Later redactors added a few bits to conceal its ultimately nihilistic message. Its inclusion in the canon, even in the third (least) holiest portion, is in my judgment, an error. [^25]: Qur’an 2:94–96. [^26]: Qur’an 62:9–11. [^27]: Qur’an 4:19. [^28]: Qur’an 80:33–37. [^29]: Qur’an 64:14. [^30]: The opposite verdict is found in 1 Cor. 7.12–16, which Paul admits is personal, not revealed. [^31]: Qur’an 64:15. [^32]: In classical Arabic, the rare proper name Fatona means a woman of distracting beauty. Islamic languages such as Urdu borrow the Arabic word *fitnah* but assign it a narrower meaning, an exclusively negative sense of something evil, a cause of problems, rather than a test of spiritual mettle. [^33]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhāri*, no. 5096; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2740. [^34]: Qur’an 11:114, 29:45. [^35]: Qur’an 11:114. [^36]: Qur’an 17:78–79. [^37]: A fast practiced by Jewish ascetics required that nothing enter or leave the body for a sustained period of time. Islamic law would reject such a ban on expulsion of potentially toxic material. The Islamic fast is confirmed by modern science to be good for one’s health. [^38]: Qur’an 12:53. [^39]: Qur’an 8:7, 9:42. [^40]: Qur’an 8:7. [^41]: Qur’an 3:14. [^42]: While this verse only considers sexual desire from the male perspective, men can also be a temptation for chaste women, as implied in 24:31 and 33:53. [^43]: Qur’an 2:184. [^44]: Qur’an 5:27. During the civil war and commotion (*al-fitnah*) during the reign of the third caliph ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan, Sa‘d bin Abi Waqqas reported that the Prophet ﷺ had predicted such a time. The sitting one is superior to the standing one and the latter to the walking one and so forth. He concluded that if a man entered your home with intent to kill you, then “Be the better son of Adam.” See *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, no. 2194, bk. 33, hadith 37*.* This means it is better to be the victim than the aggressor. [^45]: Qur’an 2:286. [^46]: Qur’an 103:2. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. What distinguishes the mission of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, even amid a long history of prophetic missions, is that the early Muslims did not merely believe and join the cause but did so with unparalleled enthusiasm and total self-surrender. Against a culture that valorized physical and sexual conquest, intoxication, and the gratification of base instincts, the community of faith embodied solidarity, discipline, sobriety, chastity, and altruism without hope of worldly reward. It is noteworthy that the Qur'an's praise of the Prophet ﷺ as a perfect exemplar (*uswah ḥasanah*) is revealed in the context of battle, the highest form of struggle and sacrifice. Since all of life is declared an arena of trial and probation, the Prophet ﷺ, armed with the Word of God, trained the believers to surpass their foes in endurance: "O you who have believed, persevere and endure and remain stationed and fear Allah that you may be successful." At the battle of Uḥud, those about to be martyred were called to "fear God in a manner that is rightly His due," and Prophets Ibrāhīm and Yaʿqūb (peace be upon them), as death approached, commanded their descendants: "Certainly do not die—unless you are in total self-surrender." The central question here is how the Qur'an motivates people to prefer the eternal life over the fleeting pleasures of this world, and what resources it offers for cultivating the correct kind of motivation in faithful striving. This requires examining not only the intellect but the often-neglected faculty of *will*—the scope of intention, the reality of fear, and the implanted instincts to seek pleasure and avoid pain. The Qur'an thus offers a moral anthropology opposed to the materialist anthropology dominant in modern thought. A recurring danger is that we all need God yet rebel and imagine we do not, "because he [man] sees himself as self-sufficient." This pride (*takabbur*)—the primordial sin of the Devil when he refused to prostrate—is our gravest liability. Our ultimate purpose is to align our will with the divine will, which is the very meaning of *islām*, learning to place effortless trust in God's plan. Yet this apparently effortless trust (*tawakkul*) demands much effort, and anxiety about one's future—as opposed to prudent planning—is incompatible with true faith. The ninth chapter of the Qur'an, a late Medinan revelation, serves as a study in religious zeal, though the term itself (*ḥamās*) does not appear in the Qur'an. It opens with the elimination of idolatry from Arabia and concerns a military expedition, yet concentrates on the moral and spiritual dimensions of warfare rather than geography. It demanded discipline and self-sacrifice, so successfully that the community had to be exhorted to permit a learned faction to remain behind to instruct the returning warriors in peacetime duties. According to Ibn Isḥāq's biography, the Prophet ﷺ, hearing rumors of a Byzantine attack gathering near Tabūk in 9 AH (October 630 CE), meticulously planned the campaign named "the army of hardship" (*jaysh al-ʿusrah*). Some weak believers and hypocrites complained, as recorded: "Among them is also one who says: 'Give me leave and don't tempt me.'" The temptation was thought to be the beauty of Byzantine women, yet God warns that such men had already fallen into temptation. While the Qur'an generally commands avoiding temptation, in God's cause one must face all fears; desertion through cowardice is condemned and attributed to the Devil. To those who counseled, "Do not go out into the heat," came the reply: "Say: 'The Fire of Hell is hotter still, if only you knew!'" On the role of reason, philosophers East and West—from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to Spinoza and Dewey, and from al-Kindī to Ibn Rushd—held that intelligence and virtue are organically linked. Yet this consensus, too sanguine about reason, must confront the fact that most morally good people have not been especially learned, and intelligent people hold no monopoly on virtue. Socrates over-emphasized knowledge as a path to virtue, while Kant more wisely stressed the good will. The principal fuel of religious enthusiasm is not knowledge but desire and will; knowledge alone never actuates zeal. Even a lazy person is moved when he perceives imminent danger or the prospect of imminent pleasure. As Thomas Aquinas rightly observed regarding eternal life, "by such a reward the will is moved to assent to what is proposed, although the mind is not moved by anything understood." An incentive may thus persuade the will without persuading the intellect. The primary function of the intellect in piety is to coordinate diverse desires into a harmonious will, not directly to motivate virtuous action. Our will is driven by our passions and instincts, and the desire to avoid pain and seek pleasure supplies stronger motives than knowledge alone—which explains the Qur'an's emphasis on the terrors of Hell and the delights of Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ taught the true status of intention (*niyyah*). While the Qur'an does not use this word, it speaks of *irādah* (volition), and the interior intention wholly determines an action's moral status with God, for actions are judged by intentions, not consequences. Human beings can attain only that for which they sincerely strive. Unlike intentions, we cannot alter our desires at will. Regarding the question of motives, secular detractors argue that a believer's morality is corrupted by selfish fears and hopes concerning the hereafter, so that an atheist is somehow more virtuous. This is mistaken. A Muslim's hope of Paradise is a valid motive for a worthy life. The claim that acting morally to succeed in the hereafter treats morality merely as a means is fallacious, for only *some* reasons for action are incompatible with moral worth, not any end whatever; indeed, some religious ends can be achieved only where the means themselves possess intrinsic worth, since only a worthy life on earth is rewarded with eternal life. Desiring Paradise is a natural corollary of loving God. The parallel secular case exposes the error: if a woman's friendship is not falsified by her desire for the happiness it brings, then no human relationship—love of children or spouse—would be legitimate under such reasoning, which is a *reductio ad absurdum*. Moreover, the status of motives is unstable over time. Faith may begin in fear of God—derided by some Christian critics as merely prudential—yet be gradually transformed into love of God. Fear is not a bad motive if it evolves or is combined from the outset with the unconditional love of God and sincere intention to obey Him; but unalloyed fear, untempered by belief in His mercy, is itself a cardinal sin amounting to infidelity. The Hebrew Bible teaches that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," whereas the Christian Bible holds that "perfect love casteth out fear"—to which the objection is that such love also casts out real commitment to obeying divine law. The Qur'an argues (*jadal*) for forgoing this world's provisions for the next on the basis of the former's finitude and the latter's permanence. Against the Meccans who mockingly prayed for their punishment to be hastened, or for stones to rain down, it replies: "If we let them enjoy this life for a few years, then there comes to them that which they were promised, the pleasures they enjoyed shall not benefit them." Pleasure, unlike knowledge or virtue, is not cumulative; no past pleasure can mitigate the pain of chastisement. Against the Jews of Medina, some of whose rabbis claimed the Fire would touch them only for limited days, the Qur'an replies that if the final abode is theirs exclusively they should wish for death—yet they will never wish it, "greedier for any kind of life" than even the idolaters, for a life of a thousand years would not avert their punishment. The lower world, *al-dunyā*, easily distracts. *Sūrah al-Jumuʿah* records that only a dozen men remained for the Prophet's ﷺ sermon when a trade caravan with beating drums entered Medina. Companions bashfully admitted difficulty in retaining awareness of God upon returning to their families, so that the Qur'an commanded them to live with their wives "on a footing of kindness," for "if you dislike them, it could be that you dislike something through which God brings about much good." Though it praises marriage and offspring, some Medinan verses caution that "among your wives and your children, some are your enemies," while *Sūrah al-Mumtaḥanah* (8 AH) ordered severance of ties with disbelieving spouses. "Your wealth and your children are only a trial (*fitnah*); with God is the greatest reward." The Prophet ﷺ said, "I have not left behind any temptation more harmful to men than women"—reporting the reality of attraction as a trial, a divine gift with ambiguous potential to be enjoyed properly or abused. The less demanding, routine commandments train believers to abstain periodically and thereby build stamina. Prayer's difficulty lies in its frequency, maintaining awareness of God all day, deepened by supererogatory prayers—the Prophet ﷺ being ordered to pray in the deepest night and to recite "the revelation at dawn." Fasting in Ramadan is a "true fast," admitting no food, drink, medicine, or intercourse, with the recommended retreat (*iʿtikāf*) that the Prophet ﷺ observed in the last ten days. It is hard to fake, unlike prayer, which may be done insincerely. Both foster mindfulness of God, patience, and resilience, taming the insatiable appetite. God made human beings crave the satisfactions of family, and a natural disposition, though not irresistible, may grow autonomous. Attaining self-restraint requires sustained labor, and the Qur'an notes without regret our proclivity for the easier option—even committed believers preferred the unarmed caravan. Its list of worldly desires opens with women, a metonymy for sexual desire in both sexes. Yet the Qur'an is practicable, drawing on human nature: "It will be good for whoever obeys his own impulse to goodness," while a son of Adam obeyed his impulse to evil in the first homicide, driven by envy, for "God accepts only from the God-fearing." Moral demands must be heavy enough that failure is common but not inevitable, since "God does not burden anyone with more than they can bear." Accordingly the law exempts travelers, the ill, the elderly, pregnant and lactating women, warriors in active combat, and children, requiring later makeup or feeding the indigent. The Sharīʿah thus already contains sufficient concessions to our frailty; to demand further relaxation is a disguised plea for self-indulgence suited to an age of libertinism. Finally, whether human nature can fully obey God unaided is a conundrum unique to monotheism, absent in the schemes of Aristotle and the Stoics that appeal only to human willpower. Our capacity to frustrate our higher nature is divinely intended and irremovable, which is why we shall always need divine grace to submit fully to God's law. We can never take full credit for meritorious actions: God has the last and decisive word, though not the only word, for our freely willed condition remains divinely controlled but not wholly determined. The Companions recited to one another under persecution: "Man is in a state of loss, except…"—the exceptive clause exempting those who have faith, do what is just, and mutually exhort one another to truth and patient perseverance. Humans were created weak, yet their sustained struggle, with God's grace, grants them unimaginable strength. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-art-of-gratitude-quranic-themes-on-shukr # The Art of Gratitude: Qur'anic Themes on Shukr **Author:** Dr. Tamer Desouky **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Gratitude (Shukr), Mindfulness, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 20, 2022 **Updated:** April 14, 2026 ## Introduction Kareem, a 40-year-old IT professional, feels a crushing sense of bitterness. He’s successful in his career, does not have any health problems, and his income puts him in the top 1% of US household income ($350,000 and above). He even has healthy kids and a supportive wife, yet, somehow, life just feels like it’s not what he had in mind. He might have everything in the world to some people, but he simply cannot find that contentment he is so desperately looking for. Zainab, on the other hand, is a single mother of four children. Her husband, the main breadwinner of the family, tragically died from a sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 36. Zainab was left to both mourn the loss of her husband and care for her family single-handedly. Her salary of $37,000 is enough to feed everyone and pay the bills, but she’s only one disaster away from homelessness and poverty. Despite living paycheck to paycheck, she has made it a habit to always give a portion of her little income to other individuals in need. Her tongue is in constant praise of Allah in gratitude for everything He has blessed her with. The stories of Kareem and Zainab, while anecdotal, illustrate two very real lived experiences. Too often, we find ourselves drowning in countless blessings. And while we have so much beyond our basic needs, a sense of contentment never settles within us. We long to be like Zainab, who despite her numerous challenges as a single, working mother, has unlocked a key to true happiness and pleasure: gratitude. Being grateful for what we have benefits us in so many more ways than we can imagine. And the data proves it. Research studies have demonstrated how a sense of gratitude is associated with increased well-being,[^1] physical health,[^2] and a reduced desire for material gains.[^3] Given how life-changing gratitude can be in regard to our well-being, one might think that it would be readily practiced. Shockingly, however, one poll found that only roughly half of Americans regularly express gratitude (52% of women and 44% of men).[^4] And even when people agreed that gratitude is important (~90% of respondents), only about half of those individuals (~50% of respondents) admitted to regularly expressing it to family, friends, and colleagues. The classic sentiment, “I think it’s very important, but I don’t do it,” appears to be common when it comes to gratitude. This sentiment also holds true for the Muslim community. However, we have a responsibility to understand the centrality of gratitude in our religion. Our faith provides us with the answers as to *why* Allah expects gratitude from us and, more importantly, why He is so deserving of our praise. With this understanding, we are uniquely equipped with the proper motivation to act upon our beliefs and regularly express thankfulness. So let’s take a deep dive into the role of gratitude in the Muslim tradition, which is often captured by the Arabic word *shukr*. When used in an Islamic context, the meaning of *shukr* extends well beyond general notions of gratitude and thankfulness as they’re used in contemporary society. Embodying *shukr* in its fullest sense is, in fact, a way of life that cultivates endless worldly and otherworldly rewards. The Qur’an and Sunnah are replete with reminders to express *shukr*. Ibn al-Qayyim went as far as saying that half of our entire belief (*īmān*) rests on practicing it.[^5] In this paper, we are going to explore how the Qur’an, in particular, encourages us to be grateful by looking at the various contexts in which the concept of *shukr* arises. In doing so, we hope that you will not only walk away with divinely-rooted motivation to express *shukr* in your own life, but to reflect on how the Qur’an offers us truly comprehensive guidance in living our most satisfying lives. --- ## Shukr: A core element of faith In its pure essence, *shukr* is to recognize the goodness one receives.[^6] This can manifest as a feeling, behavior, or social transaction. Above all, it is a form of worship. *Shukr* not only helps instill appreciation and cooperation between people, as well as love for the Creator, but it also brings about a profound change in us as individuals. For these reasons, I wanted to offer a holistic framework for gratitude in Islam to inspire Muslims to reevaluate and reinvigorate their practice of *shukr.*[^7] With the right mindset and a few moments of praising Allah, one unlocks greater well-being, physical health, and ultimately success in this life and the next. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH)[^8] offers us a concise, yet comprehensive definition of *shukr* when he states, > *Shukr* is \[manifested\] through > > (1) the heart, by feelings of subordination and submissiveness > > (2) the tongue, through verbally acknowledging the blessing and praising/thanking \[the benefactor\] > > (3) acts of obedience and unwavering devotion.[^9] Note that, in this definition, Ibn al-Qayyim combines both outward expressions and inward experiences. *Shukr* is to be felt in the heart and exemplified in our external behavior. *Shukr* is not simply an optional, supererogatory practice. Rather, it is a fundamental obligation that sets the foundation for and encapsulates the essence of worship (Qur’an, 16:114; 2:172). So much so that Allah divides His creation based on those who express *shukr* and those who do not. In one verse, for example, He states: > (76:3) Indeed, We guided him \[i.e., man\] to the way, be he **grateful** (*shākir*) or be he ungrateful (*kafūr*). While *shukr* means to acknowledge and openly show appreciation for a blessing, *kufr* is the exact opposite. *Kufr* is derived from the root word *kafara*, which means to cover something and make it hidden.[^10] In this context, *kufr* means to refuse to appreciate these benefits, thus hiding one’s appreciation and not openly showing gratitude. Those who are ungrateful are ultimately labeled with disbelief (*kufr*), illustrating the magnitude of being ungrateful to Allah. Thus, knowing the signposts on the path of *shukr* and how to stay on it is essential to attain the mercy of Allah (4:147). And what better way is there to define the path to *shukr* than turning to the Qur’an itself? For this paper, I conducted a content analysis that extracted every instance of the root letters for *shukr* in the Qur’an. In doing so, I was able to highlight every verse that referenced *shukr*, which I analyzed and categorized according to four interrelated themes. This holistic approach offers us a comprehensive way to first understand and then embody gratitude in our lives. --- ## Theme 1: So that you would be grateful (لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ) *Count your blessings* Allah has blessed us with numerous tangible and intangible blessings, be they material objects or states of being. Ultimately, a blessing is *anything* that brings us closer to our Creator.[^11] Oftentimes, we assume only “good” things are blessings, like having a home, attending a good school, or finding a suitable spouse. It’s important that we recognize that even events we perceive to be negative (e.g., death of a loved one, divorce, or loss of a job) in reality can still be seen as blessings if they end up bringing us closer to Allah. That it is why it comes as no surprise to find a Successor (*tābiʿī*) like Shurayḥ al-Qāḍī (d. *ca.* 80 AH)[^12] stating, “A tribulation does not overtake a servant except that Allah presents with it three blessings: that the tribulation was not a test of his religion, that the tribulation was not greater than it was, and that it was an event that passed (i.e., it was not permanent).”[^13] We need to place every difficulty we experience in life into context by recognizing that our challenges are temporary and could have always been more severe. With this mindset, even tough setbacks are an opportunity to reflect on our blessings. Similar to tying up an animal so it doesn’t escape, scholars point out the only way you can “bind” or tie up your blessings in order to hold on to them and preserve them is through the rope of *shukr.*[^14] That is, by counting your blessings and not taking them for granted. This is one of the easiest starting points to begin embodying *shukr* in your life. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (d. 281 AH),[^15] shared a narration in his book “*al-Shukr,”* of when Prophet Mūsā عليه السلام asked Allah how Adam عليه السلام, the father of humanity, gave *shukr* for everything he was blessed with. Allah answers Prophet Mūsā by saying, “O Mūsā, he understood that all (of these blessings) came from Me so he praised Me, and that (praise) was *shukr* for what I have done for him.”[^16] In order to count our blessings, we need to first spend time reflecting on what Allah has given us. One way to do so is by thinking about our source of sustenance (*rizq*). Nine different Qur’anic verses combine the words *shukr* and *rizq*. In one verse, for example, Allah states: > (2:172): O you who have believed, eat from the good \[i.e., lawful\] things which We have provided for you and be **grateful** to Allah if it is \[indeed\] Him that you worship. So why the emphasis on sustenance? Think about it for a moment. What exactly do you do to grow and consume food? Are you an essential part of this process or is it almost automated? The main argument these Qur'anic verses convey is that these different types of good and pure provisions, from water and rain, to fruits and livestock, are provided to us solely from Allah, ready to be consumed without much preparation. The fact that inhabitants of barren lands still consume some form of sustenance speaks to the reality that, no matter our situation, Allah is there to sustain us, and that is yet another reason to be grateful to Him. Vegetation grows and develops along a specific and predetermined process. The fact that the vegetation’s nourishment (sunlight and rain) also comes from Allah is an additional reason to experience and express *shukr*. Another blessing we take for granted is the fact that Allah is lenient with us regarding our obligatory acts during times of inconvenience like traveling or illness. For example, if we are not feeling well or are traveling during the month of Ramadan in which fasting is obligatory, Allah, out of His immense mercy, allows us to break our fast. When Allah mentions concessions like these in the Qur’an, He reminds us that He does so “in order for us to be grateful” (*laʿallakum tashkurūn*). Take for example the concession we are granted when we cannot find water to make *wuḍūʾ*: > (5:6): O you who have believed, when you rise to \[perform\] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of ritual impurity \[*janābah*\], then purify yourselves. But if you are ill, or on a journey, or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself, or have been intimate with your wives and cannot find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you so that you may be grateful. Had He so willed, Allah could have required His servants to fast despite the circumstances or purify ourselves no matter the cost. But in so many different situations, Allah is lenient with us in our obligations and expects only gratitude in exchange. A final grouping of verses revolve around the blessing of knowledge and the ways that we acquire it. Two verses specify the human faculties of hearing, sight, and intellect and how we should be grateful for such gifts. Additionally, the blessing of being taught knowledge by Allah, whether through direct instruction (2:31), indirect teaching (55:2; 55:4; 96:4), insight and inspiration (28:7), or revelation (21:80) is another reason to experience gratitude and express thanks. For example, Allah says in the Qur’an: > (16:78): And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and hearts \[i.e., intellect\] that perhaps you would be **grateful**. These sets of verses illustrate the numerous blessings we take for granted. It is only by actively reflecting on the fact that it is out of Allah’s generosity that we have our daily sustenance, our hearing and vision, our very abilities to think and act, that we can recognize Allah’s immense favors upon us and be grateful for them. --- ## Suggested exercise: Identify blessings and cultivate contentment Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198 AH)[^17] used to often repeat, “Allah blessed us in so-and-so, He did for us so-and-so, He did for us so-and-so….”[^18] Identifying and acknowledging the numerous blessings we have is the first step in engaging in *shukr.* By attributing Allah as the main cause behind every good thing in our lives, our mindset changes and *shukr* becomes second nature. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Look at those who are lower than you and do not look at those who are higher than you, lest you belittle the favors Allah conferred upon you.”[^19] There is no better way to recognize the extent to which you are drowning in blessings than by heeding the Prophet’s advice in this hadith. How can you not be compelled to be grateful to Allah when there are countless people in the world who would do anything for your home, your health, or your family? Visiting a local homeless shelter or helping individuals less fortunate than us are small ways to remind ourselves to acknowledge that we have what these individuals are missing. Simply carrying several heavy bags of groceries for an elderly individual makes you appreciate your strength as well as your independence. Want to give *shukr* for your knowledge? Tutor someone who needs your guidance. Want to give *shukr* for your wealth? Give some of your money to someone who needs it. A Successor (*tābiʿī*) by the name of Bakr b. ʿAbdullāh al-Muzanī (d. 108 AH)[^20] said, “O Son of Adam, if you seek to know the extent of the blessings that Allah has bestowed upon you, then simply close your eyes.”[^21] It is far too common in our society today to assume that only wealth and prosperity are blessings, blinding us to the reality that something as common as eyesight is one of the biggest blessings we will ever be afforded. There are many other blessings that we take for granted. Our mother ʿĀʾishah[^22] (rA) said, “There is no slave that drinks from clean and pure water, and it enters the body without injury, and it exits the body without injury, except that it becomes obligatory on this slave to engage in *shukr*.”[^23] With a broader understanding of blessings, even individuals who have little material wealth have reason to be [grateful](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/sarah-sultan/transforming-struggles-into-gratitude-deeds-to-habit&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1650480970119098&usg=AOvVaw0gVV1WIZRO4FaG6t1FtVAY). Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār (d. 133 AH)[^24] once said, “A blessing by which Allah took away something from my worldly affairs is greater than a blessing by which he gave me something from it (i.e., the world).”[^25] In this case, a blessing extends to situations where we are not tested in our faith. What this attitude ultimately cultivates is a sense of contentment with whatever Allah has given us. The Prophet ﷺ advised us, “Have *qanāʾah* (contentment), \[and\] you’ll be the most grateful of people.”[^26] If we are content with whatever Allah has decreed for us, anything that comes our way turns into a blessing we did not take for granted for which we become immensely grateful. Building contentment does not require hours of learning, praying, or practice. All it requires is a sincere action in the heart where you say “*alḥamdulillāh*” with full acceptance and joy for the blessings you have received. Even if you can identify only a few blessings, remember that blessings, in reality, are innumerable and therefore can never be fully measured.[^27] Allah says: > (14:34) And He gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you should \[try to\] count the favors \[i.e., blessings\] of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is \[generally\] most unjust and **ungrateful**. Finally, the greatest blessing that we have is the blessing of Islam. Mujāhid b. Jabr (d. 104 AH)[^28], one of the famous students of ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbbās and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, was asked regarding the Qur’anic verse 31:20, “Have you not seen that Allah has subjected for you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and has lavished His blessings upon you, both seen and unseen?” He replied, “\[The blessing is\] *lā ilāha illā Allāh* (There’s no deity except Allah).”[^29] Whenever Islam was mentioned to Marwān b. al-Ḥakam (d. 65 AH),[^30] he would reply, “By the blessing of my Lord \[I am Muslim\], not through my own works, nor through my own will power…”[^31] We were created to worship Allah. We were also created with numerous blessings in order to show gratitude. By understanding this basic premise, we can start to build the proper mechanism to worship Allah by embodying *shukr* (as Theme 2 discusses). As knowledge necessitates action, please take a moment and read Worksheet 1. These worksheets are designed to help you engage in *shukr* to Allah relevant to each theme of this paper. ![Worksheet 1 - Count Your blessings - The Art of Gratitude](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image7-1-792x1024.png) --- ## Theme 2: Allah is Appreciative, so learn to appreciate His blessings (الشَاكِر - الشَكُور) *Acknowledge the ultimate benefactor* When one of the pious scholars was asked, “How are you doing this morning?” he would reply, “We are drowning in blessings, yet we are oblivious to \[our need\] to exhibit gratitude. Our Lord seeks our love while having no need for us, while we seek His wrath despite being utterly dependent on him.”[^32] It is truly out of Allah’s magnificence that He is deserving of our gratitude. Even reflecting on a single of His 99 Names is powerful enough to illustrate why we need to worship Him. Among them is al-Mujīb, or the One who answers our prayers, especially from His servants praying out of desperation. The Qur’an paints a vivid image of how Allah responds to our calls, whether it is when we are in need of being saved from the darkness of the land or fierce storms at sea, or the terror of a worldly oppressor as was the case for the children of Israel during the Pharoah’s reign of terror. One verse, for example, reads: > (6:63): Say, “Who rescues you from the darknesses of the land and sea \[when\] you call upon Him imploring \[aloud\] and privately, ‘If He should save us from this \[crisis\], we will surely be among the **thankful’**?” Allah is constantly there, answering our calls and protecting us at every turn. He is the Most Compassionate, the Most Generous, the All-Hearing, the Most Loving, and the [list](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/names-of-allah&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1650480970121656&usg=AOvVaw1128_2Ab9nJnIgs9mc729d) goes on and on. Allah even describes Himself throughout the Qur’an with the very same attributes of manifesting *shukr* as *Al-Shākir* and *Al-Shukūr*. It is through these names in specific that we learn that Allah exemplifies *shukr* towards His creation! The Qur’an describes three ways in which this occurs: when He rewards us abundantly, when He accepts our repentance, and when He appreciates our good works. An example of this theme is represented by the following verse: > (42:23): … And whoever commits a good deed, We will increase for him good therein. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and **Appreciative (*Shakūr*)**. When Our Creator embodies *shukr*, it takes on the form of appreciation and results in His multiplying our little deeds many times over. Defining this type of *shukr* is similar to the example of a camel, which can survive up to two weeks without drinking water. If a camel consumes food high in water content, it can even survive months without drinking water. Linguistically, we can say that the camel in this case underwent a form of *shukr*—it took the little that it had and multiplied it into larger and longer-lasting benefits. Similarly, Allah’s *shukr* towards His creation involves graciously giving large rewards for the little good works His creation initiates, as well as multiplying those rewards many times over. --- ## Suggested exercise: Reflect on the Greatness of Allah and His perfect attributes By reflecting on the ultimate, eternal, and perfect attributes of Allah, one can better connect to Allah through a relationship of love and admiration. Developing this form of spiritual connection naturally feeds into a higher quality form of *shukr*. Ṣāliḥ b. Mismār (d. 245 AH)[^33] said, “I don't know what is better: a blessing He bestowed upon me, or a blessing by which something was taken away from me.”[^34] When you truly recognize Allah’s magnificence through His Names and Attributes, you cannot help but gain a sense of full trust for what He has planned for you. You know that He is al-Shākir and al-Shukūr, One who is always ready to abundantly reward you for your little efforts. This understanding of Allah is essential for giving sincere *shukr*. Allah’s  love, mercy, and [affection](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/heavenly-affection-living-the-love-of-al-wadud&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1650480970123112&usg=AOvVaw0t87DzvGV_BgX6hDCgLfC7) towards His creation also extends to protecting us from social shame. Ibn Abī āl-Dunyā narrates the following, based on the wisdom of Muslim sages, “We are in a situation where we have God's blessings that we cannot count, despite the fact that we sin and often disobey Him. So we don't know what to give *shukr* for. Is it for the beautiful things that have occurred (blessings), or is it for the ugly things He has hidden (i.e., our sins from people)?”[^35] In other words, it is out of Allah’s Mercy and Generosity that He not only gives us abundant blessings, but that He also hides our shortcomings from others. The latter, in and of itself, is also a blessing to be grateful for. Once you acknowledge that you are blessed, and you acknowledge the blessings are all from Allah, then be cognizant of the fact that Allah is the Most [Generous](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-generous-episode-6-to-know-him-is-to-love-him&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1650480970123588&usg=AOvVaw2yZoqR1GHBcYjTf64hQUXD). Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161 AH)[^36] once said, “Allah will not bless a \[believing\] servant in this world and then disgrace him in the hereafter, for it is a responsibility upon the benefactor to complete His favors and blessings on the beneficiary.”[^37] That is, your blessings will be fully actualized because Allah is generous and gracious with His gifts. Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Aswad,[^38] the famous ascetic and a friend of Sufyān al-Thawrī said, “Allah is too generous to bless someone with a blessing except that He will complete it, or to \[allow the servant\] to use it for a good deed except that He will accept it.[^39]” In summary, Theme 1 showed us that Allah  has given us numerous things to be thankful for, while Theme 2 illustrates that it is only by reflecting on Allah’s greatness that we can build a strong foundation for *shukr*. Please take a moment now and read Worksheet 2. This time, consider Allah’s attributes of kindness, compassion, mercy, generosity, and love in the blessings He has bestowed upon you. ![Worksheet 2 - Allah's attributes in your blessings - The Art of Gratitude](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image2-792x1024.png) --- ## Theme 3: Most people are not grateful (وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لا يَشْكُرُونَ) *Avoid ungratefulness* Abū al-Dardāʾ (d. 32 AH)[^40] once said, “He who does not know the blessings that Allah has conferred upon him except in his food or drink, then he indeed has little knowledge, and his punishment is hastened.”[^41] In the Qur’an there is a third theme regarding gratitude. This theme is particularly chilling as it tells us that few people will indeed be grateful. This reality unfolds in a number of verses that begin with Satan predicting that few of humankind would be grateful, after which Allah confirms that this is the case despite the fact that He constantly blesses us with His bounties and favors. This theme is best exemplified by the following verse: > (7:10): And We have certainly established you upon the earth and made for you therein ways of livelihood. Little are you grateful. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d.110 AH)[^42] was asked about a similar verse (100:06), “Surely humankind is ungrateful to their Lord.” He explained it by saying, “He (the human) counts his calamities, but forgets \[to count\] his blessings.”[^43] If we persist in ignoring Allah’s warning, not following His commands, and not engaging in *shukr*, then the Qur’an details how punishments could unfold for such sins. For example, in Chapter 16, Allah says: > (16:112): And Allah presents an example: a city that was safe and secure, its provision coming to it in abundance from every location, but it **denied** the favors of Allah. So Allah made it taste the envelopment of hunger and fear for what they had been doing. Verses related to this theme serve not only as a reminder to be grateful, but as a warning in the event that we are not. Warnings are beneficial because they alert us to the potential for punishment if we persist in our actions (28:59). The Qur’an itself was primarily revealed to warn people (6:19) from wrongdoing and following the path of ungratefulness (76:3). When a person takes these warnings seriously, they should be inclined to embody *shukr* to avoid punishments. In ignoring these warnings, we make the lethal mistake of focusing on our calamities instead of our blessings. A man came to Yūnus b. ʿUbayd (d. 140 AH)[^44] to complain of his condition, so Yūnus said, “Would you be pleased to accept one hundred thousand dirhams[^45] in exchange for your eyesight?” The man said no. Yūnus said, “Your hands in exchange for one hundred thousand?” The man said no. Yūnus said, “What about your legs?” The man said no. So Yūnus kept mentioning the different blessings Allah has given him and then said, “I see that you have hundreds of thousands \[of blessings\], yet you complain of not having your needs met.” By reflecting on the fact that all of the blessings we are showered with could be taken away, it helps to be thankful for these blessings while we are still enjoying them. --- ## Suggested exercise: Fear the punishment of ingratitude In order to enjoy our blessings, we also need to understand the risk of using them in the wrong way. First, we must abandon sins, especially if these sins are only made possible by a blessing Allah bestowed upon us. For example, driving your new car (i.e., a blessing) to a place where sins will be committed is a prime example of not showing *shukr* for the car. Ziyād (d. 53 AH)[^46] said, “One of the obligations one must perform to Allah for the blessings he has received is not to use them for disobedience and sins.”[^47] The same argument can be applied to your eyesight, hands, speech, and other blessings used while committing sins. Second, we need to be aware of a significant punishment if we continue in disobedience by refusing to engage in *shukr*. Abū Ḥāzim (d. 133 AH)[^48] stated, “If you see that He has showered His blessings upon you while you are disobeying Him, then beware of Him.”[^49] This is because Allah warns us in the Qur’an through the example of former nations who were inundated with blessings. Rather than express *shukr*, they took what they were given for granted and were thereafter punished. This process of gradually testing a community with blessings is known as *istidrāj*. When Thābit al-Bunānī (d. 127 AH)[^50] was asked about *istidrāj*,[^51] he replied, “It is the plotting of Allah for the wasteful servants.” This concept of *istidrāj* was further explained by the Prophet ﷺ said, “When you see Allah gives to the servant what he loves from the *dunyā* despite his disobedience, then know it is preparing them for punishment \[*istidrāj*\]*.*” Then the Messenger of Allah recited (6:44), “When they became oblivious to warnings, We showered them with everything they desired. But just as they became prideful of what they were given, We **seized them by surprise**, then they instantly fell into despair!”[^52] Islam requires a balance between fearing Allah’s warnings and hoping for His mercy, so we need to come to terms with our negative thoughts and past behaviors. Only when we are able to confront the wrong we have done can we begin to move forward. The third worksheet offers instructions on how we can compensate for the times that we did not engage in *shukr.* This requires taking the first small step, which is to simply acknowledge our blessings and be grateful for them. ![Worksheet 3 - Blessings I took for granted - The Art of Gratitude](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image1-792x1024.png) --- ## Theme 4: Be among the grateful (وَكُن مِّنَ ٱلشَّـٰكِرِينَ) *Show gratitude and give thanks* The fourth theme revolves around Allah commanding His creation to give *shukr*. In Arabic, this follows the imperative verb (*fiʿl amr*) that signifies a command or, less commonly, a request. Six verses were categorized into this theme, best represented by the following verse: > (39:66): Rather, worship \[only\] Allah and be among the **grateful**. To obey this command and properly pursue a life of gratitude, Allah provides us with countless models in the form of both prophets and everyday Muslims. The precedent for being grateful also extends to individuals who are altruistic and those who acknowledge their parents’ contributions. In particular, there are two people Allah  highlighted in the Qur’an as having *shukr:* Prophets Nūḥ and Ibrāhīm. For Prophet Nūḥ, the following verse honors how he was a grateful servant: > (17:3): O descendants of those We carried \[in the ship\] with Noah. Indeed, he was a **grateful** servant. As for Prophet Ibrāhīm, the following two verses indicate why Allah highlighted him as a grateful and thankful servant: > (16:120): Indeed, Ibrāhīm was a \[comprehensive\] leader, devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining toward truth, and he was not of those who associate others with Allah. > (16:121): \[He was\] **grateful** for His favors. He \[i.e., Allah\] chose him and guided him to a straight path. By learning about those who are grateful (*shākirūn*)*,* we are offered a precedent after which we can model *shukr* ourselves. It is important to learn how, when, and why they engaged in *shukr* in order to imitate them and join the ranks of the grateful. --- ## Suggested exercise: Enjoy the blessing When Allah commands us to engage in *shukr*, we can do several simple things. One of these small acts is to openly benefit from the blessing. That is, we should not deny the blessings we have received from Allah with the desire of being ascetic and refraining from worldly provisions. Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “Eat, drink, give charity and wear clothes so long as neither extravagance nor pride is mixed up with it. For Allah likes the mark of His blessing to be seen on His servant.”[^53] --- ## Suggested exercise: Express verbal praise Another simple action we can all engage in is *dhikr* and verbally praising Allah. For example, Allah highlighted that Prophet Nūḥ was “*shakūr*” (17:3). Scholars explain that Prophet Nūh may have earned this title because he wouldn’t eat, drink, wear his clothes or shoes, or even answer the call of nature except that he would say “*alḥamdulillāh.*”[^54] Additionally, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The best *dhikr* is *lā ilāha illā Allāh* (None has the right to be worshipped but Allah), and the best *shukr* is *alḥamdulillāh* (praise be to Allah).”[^55] --- ## Suggested exercise: Prostrate with gratefulness The prostration of *shukr* (*sajdat al-shukr*) is yet another simple behavior anyone can do whenever they recognize and appreciate a blessing they have from Allah. This form of worship does not require ablution or even facing the *qiblah*, and hence offers us an easy, but meaningful way to submit to our Creator for the blessings we have received. Abū Bakrah narrated, “When anything came to the Prophet ﷺ which caused pleasure (or, by which he was made glad), he prostrated himself in gratitude to Allah.”[^56] To tie everything together, Theme 1 of *shukr* in the Qur’an gave us reasons to be thankful. Theme 2 showed us how to build a proper foundation to give *shukr*, namely, by appreciating what Allah has given us by reflecting on His perfect attributes and names. Theme 3 showed us the consequences of not engaging in *shukr*, while Theme 4 revolved around the command to engage in *shukr* and to be of the *shākirūn.* The last worksheet shows us how we can holistically engage in *shukr* given everything we have learned. ![Worksheet 4 - Show gratitude - The Art of Gratitude](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image3-792x1024.png) --- ## Conclusion Every single human is blessed beyond count or measure. Allah guided every single one of us, provided us with sustenance, and gave us multiple opportunities to gain His favor as well as more gifts and blessings. Despite recognizing this, you might still think to yourself: how can I ever be truly thankful if I’m unable to give thanks for everything? Prophet Dāwūd realized the limitation of our acts of *shukr* and reportedly stated, “O my Lord, if every hair on my body had two tongues, praising you day and night, for all of eternity, then it would never repay the full debt of having just one blessing.”[^57] The reality is that we can never give *shukr* for everything we have. In fact, we need to sincerely recognize and admit to our shortcomings in this regard. Only by admitting the impossibility of praising Allah in exchange for everything He has given us can we truly attain the ranks of the grateful. Prophet Mūsā came to this realization and asked, “O my Lord, how can I give *shukr* to You when the smallest blessing You bestowed upon me cannot be properly repaid with all of my good deeds?” So a revelation came to him: “O Mūsā, now you have thanked Me.”[^58] As the Prophet ﷺ imparted to us, “The best *shukr* is \[to say\] *alḥamdulillāh* (praise be to Allah).”[^59] Not only does praising Allah through *alḥamdulilah* help us practice *shukr*, but as Bakr ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Muzanī reminded us, “There’s not an instance when a slave \[of Allah\] says *alḥamdulillāh* (praise be to Allah) except that a new blessing was bestowed upon him due to his utterance of *alḥamdulillāh.* Someone asked, ‘What is the repayment for such a blessing?’ He \[al-Muzanī\] said, ‘To say *alḥamdulillāh* \[again\], so a different blessing will come, and as a result, the blessings of Allah will never end.’”[^60] May Allah give us the ability to give *shukr* and to be counted among the *shākirūn*. Our closing prayer[^61] is “*alḥamdulillāh rabbi l-ʿālamīn* \[All praise is for Allah—Lord of all worlds\]”, and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon His messenger Muḥammad ﷺ , his family and descendants, his companions, and all those who follow him in righteousness until the Day of Judgment. *Amīn*. ![Table 1 - Themes of Quranic Shukr - The Art of Gratitude](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image6-928x1024.png) ![Table 2 - Themes of Quranic Shukr and suggested exercises - The Art of Gratitude](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image4-1024x973.png) --- ## Notes [^1]: Alex M. Wood, Jeffrey J. Froh, and Adam W. A. Geraghty, “Gratitude and Well-Being: A Review and Theoretical Integration,” *Clinical Psychology Review* 30, no. 7 (2010): 890–905. [^2]: Anna L. Boggiss, Nathan S. Consedine, Jennifer M. Brenton-Peters, Paul L. Hofman, and Anna S. Serlachius, “A Systematic Review of Gratitude Interventions: Effects on Physical Health and Health Behaviors, *Journal of Psychosomatic Research* 135 (2020). [^3]: Nathaniel M. Lambert, Frank D. Fincham, Tyler F. Stillman, and Lukas R. Dean, “More Gratitude, Less Materialism: The Mediating Role of Life Satisfaction,” *The Journal of Positive Psychology* 4, no. 1 (2009): 32–42. [^4]: Janice Kaplan, *Gratitude Survey*, John Templeton Foundation, 2012,  [https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/JTF\_GRATITUDE\_REPORTpub.doc](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/JTF_GRATITUDE_REPORTpub.doc&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1650480970146706&usg=AOvVaw3YPXiseCOO_g_IGLFJdHuv). [^5]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *‘Uddat al-sābirīn wa dhakhīrat al-shākirīn* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2019), ch. 19; Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr* (Kuwait: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), no. 58; based on the narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2999. [^6]: ʾAbū al-Baqā’ al-Kafawī, *al-Kuliyyāt* (Beirut: Al-Resalah Publishers, 1998), chap. on the letter *nūn*. [^7]: The Qur’an was used as the primary source for extracting “themes” on *shukr*. Approximately seventy different Qur’anic verses were identified that had words derived from the triliteral root of *shukr* (*shīn*, *kāf*, *rāʼ*). I grouped the verses together to create cohesive themes that revolved around the same concept. The results identified four main themes (see Table 1). *Shukr* is to be experienced and expressed through reflection on the following: (1) Allah’s blessings, (2) Allah’s attributes and names, (3) Allah’s warnings, and (4) Allah’s commands to be of those who engage in *shukr* (*shākirūn*). Specifically, 30% of the verses were grouped into theme 1, another 30% in theme 2, followed by 16% in theme 3, and 24% in theme 4. [^8]: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr (691–751 AH), the theologian, jurist, and prolific author of nearly one hundred works touching on all subjects of the Islamic sciences. Ibn Kathīr, his student, once said: “He used to be compassionate to others, never envious, and he never hurt anyone… I do not know of anyone in this world during our times more in worship than him.” He was imprisoned with his teacher, Ibn Taymiyyah, for two years, during which he found the most benefit from exclusively studying the Qur’an. His full biography is discussed in Ibn Rajab’s *al-Dhayl ‘alā tabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-‘Ubaykān, 2005), no. 600. [^9]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-salikīn* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2019), chap. on the virtue of *shukr*, subsection on the linguistic origins of the word *shukr*. [^10]: Al-Kafawī, *al-Kuliyyāt*, chap. on the letter *kāf*. Allah ﷻ uses the linguistic meaning of the term in Qur’an 57:20. [^11]: Rā’d Muḥammad Ziyadah, *al-Ni’ma bayn al-dawām wa al-zawāl* (Gaza: Islamic University of Gaza, 2008), 25. [^12]: Shurayḥ b. al-Hārith (d.~80 AH). A *tābi'* and a renowned judge of the city of Kufa for sixty years. The *saḥābah* respected his knowledge and would defer to his judgments. He was strict in his approach to judging fairly, to the point that he avoided all interaction with any parties using him as a mediator. Once a man stayed in his house as a guest and then asked him to judge on a private matter, to which Shurayḥ replied: “Either you stay as my guest and I’ll leave the case, or you leave my house and I’ll stay as the judge.” His full biography is discussed in Ibn 'Asākir’s *Tārīkh Dimashq* (Amman: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), no. 2733. [^13]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 79. [^14]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 27. [^15]: Abū Bakr Abdullah b. Muḥammad (208–281 AH), *ḥafiẓ* of hadith, prolific writer, and author of over two hundred works on various Islamic sciences. He is known for his extensive knowledge of the Islamic sciences and for benefiting the general population of Muslims through his essays on ethics, morals, and asceticism. His full biography is discussed in al-Khatīb al-Baghdādi’s *Tārīkh Baghdād* (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 2002), no. 5162. [^16]: This is a biblical (*Isrā'īliyyāt*) narration from the People of the Book. As a result, its authenticity cannot be confirmed nor can it be denied unless it is in definitive contradiction with Islamic teachings. [^17]: Sufyān ibn ʽUyaynah (107–198 AH), *tābiʽ al-tābiʻīn*, *ḥafiẓ* of hadith, fully trustworthy narrator and scholar of Islam. Many well-known scholars benefited from his knowledge, such as Imām al-Shāfi’ī and Imām Aḥmad. He was considered the most knowledgeable individual of his time in *tafsīr* and hadith. It is said he performed the Hajj seventy times asking Allah not to cause him to die before the next Hajj, until he stopped this prayer the year before he passed. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’* (Beirut: Mu'assat al-Risalah, 1985), the eighth generation, no. 120. [^18]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr* (Kuwait: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), no. 144. [^19]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 2963c. [^20]: Bakr b. Abdullah al-Muzanī (d. AH 108), a *tābi'*, jurist, and trustworthy narrator of hadith. People used to say that he was “*mujāb al-da’wah*,” that is, that Allah would always answer his prayers. His full biography is discussed in Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mizzī’s *Tahdhīb al-kamāl fi asmā’ al-rijāl* (Beirut: Mu'assat al-Risalah, 1980), no. 747. [^21]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr* (Kuwait: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), no. 182. [^22]: ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr (d. 58 AH), the beloved wife of the Prophet ﷺ and the Mother of the Believers. She narrated over two thousand sayings of the Prophet ﷺ and greatly benefited the *ummah* through her scholarly opinions. Allah declared her innocence and purity in Chapter 24 (al-Nūr) of the Qur'an. She was also honored by Allah by being the last person to see the Prophet ﷺ alive, as he took his final breath in her embrace. Her full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the first generation, no. 19. [^23]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr* (Kuwait: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), no. 192. [^24]: Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār (d. 133 AH), of the younger *tābi'īn*, trustworthy narrator, a true worshiper, and one of the foremost scholars of Medina. He was known for his wisdom. He once said: “I am more terrified of being prevented from making *du’ā* than I am of my *du’ā* being prevented from being answered.” His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’* (Beirut: Mu'assat al-Risalah, 1985), the fourth generation, no. 24. [^25]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr* (Kuwait: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), no. 118. [^26]: Al-Albānī, *Silsilah al-ahādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah*, no. 930. [^27]: Muḥammad Abū Zahrah, *Zahrat al-tafāsīr* (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-’Arabī, 2001), chap. 14, verse 34. [^28]: Mujāhid ibn Jabr (21-104 AH), the *imām*, scholar, trustworthy narrator, and famous exegete (*mufassir*). He reviewed every single verse of the Qur’an with Abdullah b. Abbās on thirty separate occasions. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the second generation, no. 175. [^29]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 95. [^30]: Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (2–63 AH), a *ṣahābī*, jurist, and trustworthy narrator of hadith. He was the fourth caliph of Bani Umayya. Although his political participation was controversial (just like any political participant), he showed love and respect to Ahl al-Bayt, was strict about enacting the Shariah, and was deeply attached to the Qur’an. He is considered the founder of the Marwanid House of Bani Umayya who ruled the Islamic world for three centuries. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the first generation, no. 102. [^31]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 121. [^32]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 45. [^33]: Ṣāliḥ b. Mismār (d. AH 245), from the scholars of Merv (in present day Turkmenistan). He was a trustworthy narrator of hadith, and Imām Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj al-Naysāburī narrated from him in his *al-Ṣaḥīḥ*. See Ibn Manjuwayh’s *Rijāl Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār al-Ma’rifah, 1987), the chapter of the letter *ṣāḍ*, no. 688 and Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mizzī’s *Tahdhīb al-kamāl fi asmā’ al-rijāl* (Beirut: Mu'assat al-Risalah, 1980), no. 2838. [^34]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 203. [^35]: Ibn Abi al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 194. [^36]: Sufyan ibn Said al-Thawrī (97–161 AH), *tābi' al-tābi'īn*, one of the famous ascetics, Imām of hadith, who had his own independent *fiqhi* school of thought. He had over six hundred teachers and his opinions are highly regarded in all areas of the Islamic sciences. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the sixth generation, no. 82. [^37]: Ibn Abī  al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 142. [^38]: Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Aswad, in the ninth generation according to Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*. He was of the *tābi' al-tābi'īn*, a famous ascetic, and was considered one of the *Abdāl* (select group of Allah’s saints according to Sufi tradition). During his last years he became blind. However, his eyesight would miraculously come back whenever he desired to read the Qur’an from the *muṣḥaf*. As soon as he completed his recitation, his blindness would return. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the ninth generation, no. 21. [^39]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 144. [^40]: Abū al-Dardā’ al-Anṣāri (d. AH 32), a *ṣahābī*, *qaḍi*, and reciter as well as compiler of the Qur’an. He was known for his asceticism and his love of knowledge and wisdom. He recited the whole Qur’an back to the Prophet ﷺ the way he heard it from him ﷺ. He died in Damascus in 32 AH before the assassination of Uthmān b. ‘Affān. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the first generation, no. 68. [^41]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 92. [^42]: Al-Ḥasan b. Abī al-Ḥasan al-Basrī (21–110 AH), a famous *tābi'*, preacher, ascetic, and scholar of Islam. He was raised in Medina associating with the *saḥābah* and was revered for his knowledge of the Qur’an and asceticism. The majority of Sufi traditions trace their spiritual lineage/chain back to al-Ḥasan al-Basrī. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the second generation, no. 223. [^43]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 62. [^44]: Yūnus b. ‘Obayd (d. AH 140), one of the younger *tābi'īn* and a trustworthy narrator. His students would say they never saw anyone making more *istighfār* than him. He wasn’t necessarily a person who performed more prayers or fasting compared to his contemporaries, but he was strict in ensuring the rights of Allah were always enforced. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the fifth generation, no. 124. [^45]: This would be equivalent to $238,882.06 as of November 14, 2021, according to the price of pure silver. 1 Dirham = 2.975 grams of pure silver. [^46]: Ziyād b. Abīhi (also known as Ziyād b. Abi Sufyan), a famous *tābi'*. He was the governor of Basra and worked both in the Rashidūn and Umayyad caliphates. He was known for his nobility, intelligence, and decisiveness. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the first generation, no. 112. [^47]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 82. [^48]: Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār (d. 133 AH). [^49]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 31. [^50]: Thābit al-Bunānī (7–127 AH), a famous *tābi'*, scholar of Islam, trustworthy narrator, and Imām. He studied with Anas b. Mālik for forty years and is considered his top student. He used to pray that if Allah would give any of His creation the ability to pray in their graves after they die, he wanted to be that person. His prayer was answered when one of the righteous people saw him in a dream praying in his grave after his passing. His full biography is discussed in Imām al-Dhahabī’s *Siyar ‘alām al-nublā’*, the third generation, no. 91. [^51]: An irresistible lure that eventually becomes a sudden trap. [^52]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 32; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, no. 17311; al-Arna’ūṭ classified the text as *ḥasan.* [^53]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Ṣaḥīḥayn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyyah, 1990), no. 7188; al-Ḥākim classified it as *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^54]: Muhammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qur'an* (Cairo: Dār Hajr, 2001), surah 17, ayah 3. [^55]: Al-Albānī, *Silsilah al-ahādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah*, no. 1497. [^56]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 2774; al-Albānī classified it as *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^57]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Kitāb al-zuhd* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyyah, 1999), no. 361. This is a biblical (*Isrā'īliyyāt*) narration from the People of the Book. As a result, its authenticity cannot be confirmed nor can it be denied unless it is in definitive contradiction with Islamic teachings. [^58]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 6. This is a biblical (*Isrā'īliyyāt*) narration. [^59]: Al-Albānī, *Silsilah al-ahādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah*, no. 1497. [^60]: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, *al-Shukr*, no. 99. [^61]: Qur’an 10:10. ## Summary Gratitude, expressed in Arabic as *shukr*, stands at the heart of the Muslim way of life, extending far beyond the ordinary meaning of thankfulness found in contemporary usage. When embodied in its fullest sense, *shukr* becomes a means of cultivating both worldly and otherworldly rewards. The Qur'an and Sunnah repeatedly remind us to express *shukr*, and Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) went so far as to say that half of our entire faith (*īmān*) rests upon its practice. Contemporary research supports its worldly benefits, linking gratitude to greater well-being, physical health, and a reduced craving for material gain—yet even so, only about half of people who acknowledge gratitude's importance regularly express it. The two stories of Kareem, a wealthy but bitter professional, and Zainab, a struggling widow whose tongue is in constant praise of Allah, illustrate that true contentment flows not from abundance but from gratitude. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya offered a concise yet comprehensive definition, stating that *shukr* is manifested through the heart, by feelings of subordination and submissiveness; through the tongue, by verbally acknowledging and praising the benefactor; and through acts of obedience and unwavering devotion. Thus *shukr* combines both the inward experience of the heart and the outward expression of behavior. Far from being an optional or supererogatory act, it is a fundamental obligation that encapsulates the very essence of worship, as reflected in the Qur'an (16:114; 2:172). So central is it that Allah divides His creation according to it, saying, "Indeed, We guided him to the way, be he grateful (*shākir*) or be he ungrateful (*kafūr*)" (76:3). The word *kufr*, derived from *kafara*—to cover or conceal—stands as the opposite of *shukr*, meaning the refusal to appreciate and openly show gratitude for blessings. Understanding the path of *shukr* is therefore essential to attaining the mercy of Allah (4:147). A content analysis of every occurrence of the root letters of *shukr* in the Qur'an reveals four interrelated themes. The first is captured in the phrase "so that you would be grateful" (*laʿallakum tashkurūn*), which calls us to count our blessings. A blessing, in truth, is anything that draws us closer to our Creator—even events we perceive as negative. Shurayḥ al-Qāḍī (d. ca. 80 AH) observed that no tribulation befalls a servant except that Allah grants three blessings within it: that it was not a trial of his religion, that it was not greater than it was, and that it eventually passed. Scholars liken *shukr* to a rope that binds and preserves one's blessings. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (d. 281 AH) narrated in his book *al-Shukr* that when Prophet Mūsā (peace be upon him) asked how Ādam gave thanks, Allah replied that Ādam recognized all blessings came from Him and praised Him, and that praise itself was *shukr*. Nine verses combine *shukr* with sustenance (*rizq*), including "eat from the good things which We have provided for you and be grateful to Allah if it is Him that you worship" (2:172), reminding us that provision comes wholly from Allah. Other verses tie gratitude to His leniency in obligations during hardship, such as the concession of *tayammum* when water cannot be found, after which He says He intends "to complete His favor upon you so that you may be grateful" (5:6). Still others link gratitude to the faculties of hearing, sight, and intellect (16:78) and to the various means by which knowledge is granted. To cultivate this awareness, the pious offered guidance. Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198 AH) would repeatedly enumerate Allah's favors upon him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ advised, "Look at those who are lower than you and do not look at those who are higher than you, lest you belittle the favors Allah conferred upon you." Bakr b. ʿAbdullāh al-Muzanī (d. 108 AH) said that to know the extent of Allah's blessings, one need only close his eyes. Our mother ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) noted that drinking pure water that enters and exits the body without harm makes *shukr* obligatory. Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār (d. 133 AH) even regarded a blessing by which something worldly was taken from him as greater than one by which something was given, cultivating contentment. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Have contentment (*qanāʿah*), and you'll be the most grateful of people." Yet the blessings themselves cannot be counted, as Allah declares, "if you should try to count the favors of Allah, you could not enumerate them" (14:34). The greatest blessing of all is Islam; Mujāhid b. Jabr (d. 104 AH) interpreted Allah's lavished blessings (31:20) as *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. The second theme concerns Allah's own names *al-Shākir* and *al-Shukūr*, teaching that Allah appreciates the good works of His servants. He answers the desperate—as *al-Mujīb*—saving those in darkness on land and sea who vow to be among the thankful (6:63). Remarkably, Allah describes Himself as embodying *shukr* toward His creation in three ways: by rewarding abundantly, by accepting repentance, and by appreciating good works, as in "whoever commits a good deed, We will increase for him good therein. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Appreciative" (42:23). Reflecting on His perfect attributes deepens love and trust, as Ṣāliḥ b. Mismār (d. 245 AH) expressed uncertainty over which was better, a blessing given or one withheld. Allah's mercy extends even to concealing our sins. Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161 AH) held that Allah will not bless a servant in this world only to disgrace him in the next, for the benefactor completes His favors. The third theme is the sobering reality that "most people are not grateful" (*wa-lākinna akthara al-nās lā yashkurūn*), a truth Satan predicted and Allah confirmed: "Little are you grateful" (7:10). Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110 AH) explained that man "counts his calamities but forgets to count his blessings." Persistent ingratitude invites punishment, as in the city that denied Allah's favors and was made to taste hunger and fear (16:112). These verses serve as warnings, and Ziyād (d. 53 AH) reminded us not to use blessings in disobedience. A grave danger is *istidrāj*—Allah's gradual testing through blessings, which Thābit al-Bunānī (d. 127 AH) called "the plotting of Allah for the wasteful servants," confirmed by the Prophet's warning ﷺ and the verse (6:44). Islam requires balance between fearing His warnings and hoping in His mercy. The fourth theme is the direct command to "be among the grateful" (*wa-kun mina l-shākirīn*) (39:66). Allah offers models such as Prophet Nūḥ, "a grateful servant" (17:3), and Prophet Ibrāhīm, "grateful for His favors" (16:120–121). Practically, we express *shukr* by openly enjoying blessings without extravagance or pride, for the Prophet ﷺ said Allah loves to see the mark of His blessing on His servant; by verbal praise, since "the best *shukr* is *alḥamdulillāh*"; and by the prostration of gratitude (*sajdat al-shukr*), which Abū Bakrah reported the Prophet ﷺ performed whenever glad tidings reached him. Ultimately, we can never fully repay Allah. Prophet Dāwūd recognized that even endless praise could not repay a single blessing, and when Mūsā admitted this same inability, revelation came: "O Mūsā, now you have thanked Me." As al-Muzanī noted, every utterance of *alḥamdulillāh* brings a new blessing, so that Allah's favors never end. May Allah count us among the *shākirīn*—*alḥamdulillāh rabbi l-ʿālamīn*. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-the-quran-be-recited-in-different-ways-the-meaning-and-wisdom-of-qiraat # Can the Qur'an Be Recited in Different Ways? The Meaning and Wisdom of Qira'at **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 13, 2022 **Updated:** January 10, 2026 ## Introduction If the Qur’an is truly one timeless, unchanged book, how can it be read in multiple ways? What is the meaning behind these multiple readings (*qirāʾāt*), and how many are there? Did the Prophet ﷺ use all these different readings? Is this beneficial knowledge for non-experts? Will it enrich my Qur’anic experience? This article provides a brief account of the origins and canonization of the *qirāʾāt*, the nature of their differences, their number and geographical distribution, and an introduction to the concept of multi-formic Qur’anic modes of recitation and their concomitant layers of meaning. The *qirāʾāt* are not marginal phenomena irrelevant to resolving practical challenges. Rather, they have historically played an important role in accommodating Arabic dialectal differences, and currently have been drawing academic attention given their importance in accessing under-researched studies of the Qur’an. More significantly, the *qirāʾāt* continue to expand and enrich readers’ lived experiences with revelation. Indeed, as will become clear, the study of *qirāʾāt* extends far beyond recital renditions or exegetical traditions to broach such subjects as theological conceptions of the Qur’an, its inimitability, and textual authenticity. The *qirāʾāt* also critically contribute to our understanding of the Qur’an as the primary source of Islamic law. This article demonstrates how knowledge of *qirāʾāt* provides an opportunity for a deeper connection with layers of Qur’anic meanings. Part I defines the concept of the ‘seven *aḥruf*” and how they relate to *qirāʾāt* as we know them today. Part II lists the ten canonical *qirāʾāt* and introduces their imams/reciters (*qurrāʾ*) and their transmitters (*ruwāh*). Part III explains how all these readings are considered Qur’an and addresses the question of which reading is most authentic. Part IV documents the spread of *qirāʾāt* in the Muslim world throughout history until today. Part V highlights the wisdom behind revealing and allowing different modes of reciting the Qur’an, and provides tips for how *qirāʾāt* may assist with one’s *tadabbur* of the Qur’an.[^1] --- ## The hadith of the seven aḥruf and the origins of the qirāʾāt Any discussion of the Qur’an’s different readings is premised on understanding the term *aḥruf* (singular: *ḥarf*), which linguistically means ‘seven-sided.’ In an authentic hadith that reached the distinguished level of mass-transmission (*tawātur*),[^2] the Prophet ﷺ said: “Jibrīl recited the Qur’an to me in one *ḥarf*. Then I requested him \[to read it in another *ḥarf*\] and continued asking him to recite in other *aḥruf* until he ultimately recited it in seven *aḥruf*.” In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ says, “O Jibrīl! I have been sent to an illiterate nation among whom are the elderly woman, the old man, the boy and the girl, and the man who cannot read a book at all.’ Jibrīl replied: ‘O Muhammad! Indeed the Qur’an was revealed in seven *aḥruf* \[i.e., seven different ways of reciting\].”[^3] The practice of reciting in various *aḥruf* was also approved by the Prophet ﷺ when ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Hishām ibn Ḥakīm disagreed in their recitation of *Sūrah al-Furqān*. The Prophet ﷺ commented on two different recitations by saying, “It was revealed to be recited in this way.” He added, “This Qur’an has been revealed to be recited in seven different *aḥruf*, so recite it whichever way is easier for you.”[^4] So what exactly, are the seven *aḥruf* ? Our tradition furnishes us with a number of opinions. Three concepts encompass the overwhelming majority of them: that the seven *aḥruf* are seven dialects, seven modes (*awjuh*) of reading, or seven types of phrases. Although each concept may not independently explain the totality of the seven *aḥruf*, together they provide a holistic understanding of the ways in which different pronunciations of Qur’anic text are permitted. Irrespective of which definition of *aḥruf* is adopted, it is a matter of scholarly consensus that the seven *aḥruf* result in different, yet equally valid, readings. In commenting on verse 4:83, “Do they not reflect upon the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction,” al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 370/981) said, “Contradictory meanings do not exist in the Qur’an at all. Rather, all \[seemingly contradictory\] differences are perfectly coherent in meaning, wisdom, and proof-value.”[^5] Ibn al-Jazarī also stated, > The reality, and the benefit, of the differences among the *aḥruf* established by the Prophet ﷺ is that they are differences of complementation and harmony, not contradiction or inconsistency. Indeed, \[contradiction or inconsistency\] cannot possibly exist in the speech of Allah.[^6] The *aḥruf* hadiths established that the Qur’an is “inherently a multiform recitation,”[^7] which unleashed a massive wave of traditional and modern scholarship seeking to tease out the theological and scriptural implications of this linguistic pluralism. The significance of the concept of *aḥruf* and its surrounding discourses are reflected in four critical topics related to Divine textual authenticity: the revelatory methods of the Qur’an, the compilation of the Qur’an, the orthography of the Qur’anic codex (*rasm al-muṣḥaf*), and the *qirāʾāt*. The Prophet’s plea to ease Qur’anic recitation, as recorded in the aforementioned hadiths, was likely prompted by the particular sociocultural dynamics of Medina, where the growing Muslim population now comprised diverse tribal, dialectical, and ethnic backgrounds, while illiteracy was widespread.[^8] These dynamics caused the Muslim community to need: 1) Qur’an teachers, since the Prophet ﷺ would not be able to individually teach each new Muslim; and 2) cultural accommodations, since people’s varying linguistic customs and mental capacities posed barriers to mastering the meticulous rules of recitation. To address the first need, the Prophet ﷺ publicly identified Qur’an teachers such as ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿūd, Sālim ibn Maʿqil, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.[^9] ʿUbādah ibn al-Sāmit narrated that, “the Prophet ﷺ would get busy; when an immigrant man came to him \[to embrace Islam\], the Prophet ﷺ would assign one of us to teach him Qur’an.”[^10] To address the second need, the Prophet ﷺ asked Allah to ease the recitation of Qur’an for his *ummah*. Hence, the seven *aḥruf* were the result of a prophetic request honored by Allah, which indicates that the *aḥruf* are, in part, a concession (*rukhṣah*) to ease the reading of Qur’an for all Muslims. This means that reading in any of the seven *aḥruf* is permitted and that all of them are correct—not as variants of a fixed original text, but rather, as recitations of a singular but multiform text.[^11] Despite the disagreement over the exact meaning of the *aḥruf*, there is widespread scholarly agreement that the *qirāʾāt* were a result of the *aḥruf*’s *rukhṣah*. The number seven provides a particular number of identifiable modes of recitation. Jibrīl’s declaration that “the Qur’an was revealed in seven *aḥruf* ” signifies that these *aḥruf* are divinely mandated. It also means that the primary way to learn these *aḥruf* is through transmission connected to the Prophet’s direct teaching or approval. The Prophet ﷺ taught the companions the Qur’an according to the *aḥruf* by reading to them (*iqrā*ʾ) or correcting their recitation to him (*ʿarḍ*)[^12] and occasionally approving their tribal pronunciation of certain letters or words. Most of the differences between the *aḥruf* are related to dialectal variations. > There is no doubt that the \[different\] tribes would visit the Prophet ﷺ and he used to translate to each in their dialect. He would elongate \[the lone vowels up to\] one, two, and three vowels for those whose dialect was like that. He would also perform emphatic pronunciation (*tafkhīm*) for those whose dialect was like that, perform softening (*tarqīq*) for those whose dialect was like that, and inclination *imālah* for those whose dialect was like that.[^13] This affirmation is also supported by the event which al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) narrated from the successor Abū ʿĀliyah al-Riyāhī that several people representing different tribes recited Qur’an to the Prophet ﷺ and every one of them “differed in the language \[in which they recited\]. The Prophet ﷺ approved the reading of all of them. Banū Tamīm were the most eloquent (*aʿrab al-qawm*).”[^14] --- ## The canonization of the qirāʾāt *Qirāʾāt*, as we know them today, are reflections of the *rukhṣah* of the seven *aḥruf*. They are not synonymous with the *aḥruf*. Rather, they are systemized recital modes that preserved many *aḥruf* and accommodated dialectal diversity in line with the Prophet’s Qur’anic teachings and the compiled copies of his companions. However, concerns that the *rukhṣah* might be fluidly interpreted or haphazardly applied prompted the companions to compile the Qur’an for a third and final time. The companions’ and successors’ early efforts to establish systematic criteria ensured a methodological foundation to the variants. Given the limited introductory scope of this article, the history of *qirāʾāt* can be summarized in the following chronological, yet overlapping, stages: 1. 1st century: the final compilation of the Qur’an 2. 1st\-2nd century: *ikhtiyār*: standardizing the *qirā*ʾ*āt* selection process  3. 3rd century: establishing criteria for authentic readings 4. 4th century: the standardization of seven readings 5. 5th century: the ten *qirā*ʾ*āt* and their transmitters ### 1st century (622 – 719 CE): The final compilation of the Qur’an The process of compiling the Qur’an in written form developed across the time of the Prophet ﷺ himself (who had expert-scribes), and the caliphates of his successors Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān. The compilation was finalized during the time of ʿUthmān, with the companions unanimously[^15] approving his decision to destroy, or correct, all other copies of the Qur’an. This final compilation is distinguished from its predecessors by its motivating factor: the concern over the fluidity of the *aḥruf*. The need to protect the Qur’an from potential distortion triggered ʿUthmān’s decision to standardize the Qur’anic codex[^16] and to regulate the *rukhṣah* of seven *aḥruf* by limiting their vast dialectal scope. Hence, it is possible that some of the seven *aḥruf* were not included in the ʿUthmānic codex, according to many Qur’anic scholars.[^17] Through their knowledge of the final review, their proximity to the Prophet’s recitation of the Qur’an, and their attentiveness to his sayings and practices, the companions identified the abrogated *aḥruf*, the abandoned *aḥruf*, and the explanatory materials, all of which they intentionally excluded from their compiled ʿUthmānic codex. The preservation of the Qur’an relied on a combination of oral as well as written transmission. However, the companions did not merely rely on their memorization and personal codices (despite being written with the permission of, and sometimes, under the supervision of, the Prophet ﷺ). In Abū Bakr’s stage of compiling the Qur’an, ‘two witnesses’ were required for each verse to be included in the codex. The two witnesses requirement is understood to mean either two companions or the combination of memorization and written documentation.[^18] Moreover, the skeletal script of the ʿUthmānic codex (without vowel markings or dotting) accommodated multiple readings in which the companions recited and taught in the presence of, and with the approval of, one another. ### 1st-2nd century (719 CE – 816 CE): Ikhtiyār (Standardizing the qirāʾāt selection process) Biographies of the companions and their successors indicate that hundreds of them were Qur’an teachers distributed across the Muslim world.[^19] Some of the dedicated *qurrāʾ* from the companions had numerous students and became common links in thousands of chains of Qur’anic transmission: “The transmission authority of those companions solidified the ordering of the variant *qirā*ʾ*āt* and synchronized the structure of the subsequent system-readings (*ikhtiyār*) attributed to different *qurrā*ʾ.”[^20] The *ikhtiyār* phenomenon dates back to the companions’ students (*tābiʿūn*) and is even attributed to a few companions.[^21] An *ikhtiyār* was named after a reciter (*qārī*) if he systemized a mode of phonetic principles (*uṣūl*) regarding articulation, inclination, assimilation, lengthening lone vowels, etc., as well as the elocution of certain words in individual passages (*farsh*). Thus, a reading of so-and-so does not mean that the *qārī* after whom it is named invented it. Rather, it means that he narrated the Qur’an from many companions or successors, mastered dialectal pronunciations, and, eventually, systemized a mode to adopt and teach. The method of *ikhtiyār* evolved for the sake of practicality and consistency, since each of the early *qurrā*ʾ learned from several teachers but sought to teach their students in a uniform manner. ### 3rd century (816 CE – 913 CE): Establishing criteria for authentic readings As numerous *ikhtiyār*s emerged towards the end of the 1st century and in the 2nd century, the majority of *qurrāʾ* upheld the same set of qualifications for any *ikhtiyār* to be deemed an authentic reading of the Qur’an: “Strong conformity with grammar, conformity with the *rasm* of ʿUthmān’s codex, and the agreement of the majority of *qurrāʾ* on it.”[^22] The first scholar who explicitly stated these conditions and applied them to his collection of *qirāʾāt* was Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām in the 3rd century.[^23] Al-Ṭabarī also stated, > everyone who adopted a *ḥarf*, from the recognized imams who are known for their \[commitment to the\] *sunnah* and their following of the past *sharia* scholars, based his *ikhtiyār* on \[those three criteria\]… whoever did not abide by any of the three conditions in his *ikhtiyār*, it was not accepted nor deliberated on by the people of *al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah*.[^24] In the ongoing process of standardizing *qirāʾāt*, Ibn al-Jazarī further systemized these three conditions for any *ikhtiyār* to be considered Qur’an: 1) authentic chain of transmission (*isnād*), 2) conformity with the *rasm* of ʿUthmān’s codex and 3) conformity with the rules of Arabic grammar. An *isnād*’s lack of credible transmission or conformity with the ʿUthmānic *rasm* and Arabic grammar would de-canonize a reading, rendering it anomalous (*shādhdh*).[^25] ### 4th century (913 CE – 1009 CE): The standardization of seven qirāʾāt Although only a handful of companions were widely known for their dedication to Qur’anic teaching, the number of *ikhtiyār*s kept increasing due to the increasing demand for such teaching by the rapidly growing Muslim population. Hence, early *qirāʾāt* works documented a large number of canonical readings, with one of the earliest by Ibn Sallām including 25 readings. By the 4th century, Qur’anic scholars sought to standardize the various *ikhtiyār*s based on popularity across ritualistic practices (e.g., prayer) as well as teaching spheres and other avenues of public recitation. Most *ikhtiyār*s represented five regional Qur’anic schools: Medina, Mecca, Basra, the Levant, and Kufa. These regional schools represent the most authentic Qur’anic authorities since “they are the regions from which the knowledge of prophethood of Qur’an, *tafsīr*, hadith, and *fiqh* pertaining to both inward and outward practices, as well as the rest of religious sciences originated.”[^26] Out of sincere commitment to Ibn al-Jazarī’s conditions of legitimation, Muslims began to limit the number of readings to the popular *ikhtiyār*s of the righteous knowledgeable imams.[^27] Ibn Mujāhid, the leading *qirāʾāt* authority of his time and “the master of the discipline,”[^28] was the first to limit the number of canonical readings to seven. In explaining his methodology and motives in standardizing the readings, he said, > the Qur'anic reading adopted by the people of Medina, Mecca, Kufa, Basra, and *Shām* is the reading which they orally received from their predecessors. One man from each of these regions, who learnt from the successors, was committed to that reading and all of the public and the elite agreed on his reading, followed his mode of recitation, and abided by his methodology.[^29] Ibn Mujāhid named his book *al-Sabʿah* \[The Seven\] which, due to an erroneous association between the seven *aḥruf* and the number of *qirāʾāt*, implied that any other reading is not Qur’an. This association may have caused confusion regarding the number of canonical *qirāʾāt*. However, following Ibn Mujāhid’s methodology, scholars in the late 4th and the 5th century added three more *qirāʾāt* which originated from the same localities and which generally belong, in their *ikhtiyār*, to several of the original seven *qirāʾāt*. ### 5th century (1009 CE – 1106 CE): The ten qirāʾāt and their transmitters The standardization of these ten *qirāʾāt* does not mean their eponymous readers were the only experts of such caliber. In fact, hundreds of other prominent *qurrāʾ* existed throughout history. However, the systemization process eventually settled on ten *qurrāʾ* who were the most advanced students of various companions and successors, notable jurists, and pious saints, all of whom devoted most of their lives to the Qur’an. Below is a list of the ten *qurrāʾ* known across the Muslim world, listed in the disciplinary order presented to *qirāʾāt* students today. The list briefly provides their names, backgrounds, Qur’anic learning experiences, accounts of their righteousness, and where their readings were most popular. Notably, only three of the 10 *qurrāʾ* are descendants of pure Arab lineage, with the rest descending from non-Arabs who belonged to the tribal association institution as clients (*mawālī*; sing *mawlā*) of several Arab clans.[^30] The scholarly communities of various Islamic disciplines have historically been quite diverse, and the field of Qur’anic transmission was no different.[^31] 1. Nāfiʿ (Medina – Isfahan Persian descendant: d. 169/785) was a Black public inspector known for his sense of humor. Imam Mālik called him  the “Imam of the People” in Qur’anic recitation.[^32] Nāfiʿ described his method of developing his mode of recitation: “I read the Qur’an to 70 from the *tābiʿīn* and I scrutinized \[them\]; what two of them \[or more\] agreed on, I adopted it, and what was transmitted by only one of them, I abandoned it.”[^33] While reciting the Qur’an, the smell of musk would reportedly emanate from his mouth. He denied perfuming his mouth and explained that the scent started appearing after a dream in which he saw the Prophet ﷺ reciting into his mouth.[^34] 2. Ibn Kathīr (Mecca – Persian descendant: d. 120/737)[^35] was a tall, brown-skinned apothecary and scholar of hadith and law appointed as a judge in Mecca. According to Ibn Mujāhid (d. 324/936), the people of Mecca agreed on adopting Ibn Kathīr’s reading. Among the Prophet’s companions who Ibn Kathīr met  and directly learned from are ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr, Anas ibn Mālik, and Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī. Imam al-Shāfiʿī adopted Ibn Kathīr’s reading and said, “Whoever seeks perfection \[in reciting\], let them recite by Ibn Kathīr’s reading.”[^36] Ibn Kathīr’s teaching style was to prepare students by admonishing them, in order for the Qur’an to have the most effect on them.[^37] 3. Abū ʿAmr (Basra – native Arab from Banū Ḥanīfa: d. 154/770) was a leading scholar of hadith and Arabic. He was known among the *qurrāʾ* as the one who traveled the most with the largest number of diverse teachers. Abū ʿAmr read the Qur’an with another three of the ten *qurrāʾ*: Ibn Kathīr, ʿĀṣim, and Abū Jaʿfar. Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah related that he saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream and asked him as in which reading he should recite and the Prophet ﷺ answered, ‘The reading of Abū ʿAmr.[^38] 4. Ibn ʿĀmir (Damascus – native Arab and a descendant of Yaḥṣub: d. 118/736) was known in the Levant as ‘The Imam.’ He was born, arguably, a few years after the Hijrah. Although he did not see or meet with the Prophet ﷺ, he obtained the highest Qur’anic *isnād* among the ten *qurrāʾ*, with only one link to the Prophet. He learned directly from the companions including al-Mughīrah ibn Shihāb al-Makhzūmī and Abū al-Dardāʾ. Ibn ʿĀmir ranked highly among Abū al-Dardāʾ’s 1600 students and assumed Abū al-Dardāʾ’s teaching position after his death. As a result, Ibn ʿĀmir became the imam and the chief *qārī* of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus during the time of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who used to pray behind him. Ibn ʿĀmir was also appointed as the judge of the city, then the capital of the Caliphate. 5. ʿĀṣim (Kufa – *mawlā* of the clan of Banū Asad: d. 127/745) was born during the Prophet’s life and had met 24 companions. He was blind and had one of the best voices of recitation. His reading was influenced by the readings of Ibn Masʿūd and ʿAlī, because he would review with a primary student of Ibn Masʿūd, Zirr b. Ḥubaysh, after his session with a primary student of ʿAlī, al-Sulamī.[^39] ʿĀṣim inherited the teaching position of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, the chief *qārī* of Kufa for 40 years from the time of ʿUthmān to the governorship of al-Ḥajjāj. According to ʿĀṣim’s student Shuʿbah, who witnessed ʿĀṣim on his deathbed, ʿĀṣim kept repeating the verse, “Then all are restored to Allah, their true protector” while fainting and waking.[^40] Shuʿbah said, “I knew that the recitation of the Qur’an was just a natural quality of his.”[^41] 6. Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt (Kufa – *mawlā* of the clan of Taym: d. 156/722) was a merchant of oil (hence the title *al-Zayyāt*) and the leading *qārī* in Kufa after al-Aʿmash and ʿĀṣim. Sufyān al-Thawrī, praising Hamzah’s reading, attested that “he did not read a single *ḥarf* without depending on transmission.”[^42] His reading was reportedly the most common reading in the mosques of Kufa. [^43] Imām Abū Ḥanīfa, a contemporary of Ḥamzah, testified that he was superior to him in *qirāʾāt* and inheritance law.[^44] Ḥamzah never accepted any compensation for Qur’anic teaching, a principle he said was grounded in his pursuit of the *firdaws* (highest level in *Jannah*).[^45] A student once offered him cold water on an extremely hot day, but Ḥamzah rejected it because he was teaching him Qur’an.[^46] 7. Al-Kisāʾī (Kufa – Persian descendant and *mawlā* of the clan of Banū Asad: d. 189/804) was a leading grammarian appointed as the chief *qārī* of Kufa after Ḥamzah, who was his teacher and with whom he did *ʿarḍ* of the Qur’an four times. Countless students would attend Al-Kisāʾī’s classes, where he would sit on his chair and read the entire Qur’an while students corrected their reading and pronunciation according to his recitation.[^47] Al-Kisāʾī was seen in a dream after his death and was asked, “What did Allah do to you?” He replied, “He forgave me for \[the sake of\] the Qur’an.” Then, he was asked, “What did He do to Ḥamzah?” He said, “He is in *ʿilliyyīn* \[the most exalted places\]. We do not see him except as we see the stars.”[^48] 8. Abū Jaʿfar (Medina – *mawlā* of the clan of Makhzūm: d. 130/747) was one of the earliest *qurrāʾ* and Nāfiʿ’s teacher. He was known as the Imam and chief *qārī* of Medina who learned Qur’an from Ibn ʿAbbās and Abū Hurayrah. As a child, he reportedly visited Umm Salamah, the Prophet’s wife, who wiped over his head and made *duʿāʾ* for him to be blessed by Allah.[^49] Imām Mālik said, “Abū Jaʿfar, the *qārī*, was a righteous man who gave *iftā*ʾ to the people of Medina.”[^50] Nāfiʿ related that when Abū Jaʿfar’s body was washed upon his death, his neck and chest appeared as a page of the *muṣḥaf*. “No witness \[of the incident\],” recalled Nāfiʿ, “doubted it was \[due to\] the light of the Qur’an.”[^51] 9. Yaʿqūb (Basra – *mawlā* of the Ḥadramī clan: d. 205/820) became the chief *qārī* of Basra after Abū ʿAmr. He was one of the experts on *aḥruf* and its differences, and he authored books on *qirāʾāt*.[^52] Among the many *qurrāʾ* he learnt and transmitted from were Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī. The extent of his focus and *khushūʿ* in prayer is captured by a report that he did not notice his garment being removed from his shoulder and returned to him while praying.[^53] 10. Khalaf (Baghdad – native Arab from Banū Asad: d. 229/843) was a seed merchant (*bazzār*) but disliked that title and preferred to be referred to as a ‘Qur’an teacher’ (*muqriʾ*).  He is one of the ten canonical *qurrāʾ* and also one of the two canonical transmitters of Ḥamzah. As a *qārī* of the ten, he is often called ‘Khalaf the tenth.’ His *isnād* is connected to Ḥamzah and ʿĀṣim, and his reading closely resembles the other Kufan *qārī*s. So dedicated was he to seeking knowledge that he once spent 80,000 dirhams to fully comprehend a single grammatical inquiry.[^54] ![Chart 5th Century Transmitters](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image5-853x1024.jpg) As introduced above, “the ten canonical readings were systemized via chains of narration, all of which are associated with a group of *qurrāʾ* from the companions through proper *isnād* requirements.”[^55] Among the most famous companions who read the entire Qur’an with the Prophet ﷺ and memorized it are ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ubayy, Zayd ibn Thābit, Ibn Masʿūd, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, and Abū al-Dardāʾ. The chart below illustrates the *isnād* connection between the ten *qurrāʾ* and these seven companions.[^56] The extrapolation of these connections relies on the available historical data and does not necessarily imply that these *isnād*s are the only ones existing in the chains of *qirāʾāt* transmission. The list is ordered according to the number of *qurrāʾ* who read to the following companions: 1. Ubayy → Nāfiʿ, Ibn Kathīr, Abū ʿAmr, ʿĀṣim, Al-Kisāʾī, Abū Jaʿfar, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf. 2. ʿUthmān → Ibn ʿĀmir, ʿĀṣim, Ḥamzah, Al-Kisāʾī, and Yaʿqūb.   3. ʿAlī → Ibn Kathīr, ʿĀṣim, Ḥamzah, Abū ʿAmr, and Yaʿqūb. 4. Ibn Masʿūd → ʿĀṣim, Ḥamzah, Al-Kisāʾī, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf. 5. Zayd → Ibn Kathīr, Abū ʿAmr, ʿĀṣim, and Yaʿqūb.   6. Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī → Abū ʿAmr. 7. Abū al-Dardāʾ → Ibn ʿĀmir. Each *qārī* of the ten is designated, by *qirāʾāt* scholars, two canonical transmitters (*rāwī*s) who were the most popular of their students. This explains the difference between a reading (*qirā*ʾ*ah*) and a narration (*riwāyah*). When we read the Qur’an, we usually reference the *riwāyah*, not the *qirā*ʾ*ah*. For example, ʿĀṣim’s two canonical *rāwī*s are Shuʿbah and Ḥafṣ. Hence, when we assign a mode of reading we say, ‘reciting according to Ḥafṣ from ʿĀṣim’. *Riwāyah*s of the same *qārī*  may differ in both their *uṣūl* and *farsh*; each *rāwī* adopted a consistent mode from his teacher. Below is a list of the 20 *rāwī*s assigned to each *qārī*. 1. Nāfiʿ → Qālūn (d. 220/835) & Warsh (d. 197/812) 2. Ibn Kathīr → Al-Bazzī (d. 250/864) & Qunbul (d. 291/903) 3. Abū ʿAmr → Al-Dūrī (d. 246/861) & Al-Sūsī (d. 261/874) 4. Ibn ʿĀmir → Hishām (d. 245/860) Ibn Dhakwān (d. 202/818) 5. ʿĀṣim → Shuʿbah (d. 193/809) Ḥafṣ (d. 180/796) 6. Ḥamzah → Khalaf (d. 229/843) Khallād (d. 220/835) 7. Al-Kisāʾī → Abū l-Ḥārith (d. 240/854) Al-Dūrī (d. 246/861) 8. Abū Jaʿfar → Ibn Wardān (d. 160) & Ibn Jammāz (d. 170s) 9. Yaʿqūb → Ruways  (d. 238) & Rawḥ (d. 254) 10. Khalaf → Isḥāq al-Warrāq (d. 286) & Idrīs al-Ḥaddād (d. 292) ![Table - 20 Rawwis](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image7-743x1024.jpg) Just as the canonical dual *rāwī*\-system was developed for the *qurrāʾ*, another system for the *rāwī*s’ students developed and is known as *ṭarīq* (pl. *ṭuruq*). *Ṭuruq* were synthesized as channels to preserve every authentic mode of recitation or nuanced point of articulation. It is beyond the scope of this article to cover the independent sub-disciplines developed by *qirāʾāt* scholars that investigate and systemize *riwāyah*s and *ṭuruq*. Suffice it to say, > every \[recital\] variation attributed to one of the ten readers *qurrāʾ* which his students agreed upon is considered a reading (*qirā*ʾ*ah*). Every variation attributed to a reader’s transmitter, *rāwī*, \[transmitting it from that reader\] is considered a narration; (*riwāyah*). Every variation attributed to a transmitter’s student, regardless of the length \[of the chain of transmitters to the *rāwī*\], is considered a *ṭarīq*.[^57] --- ## Are they all Qur’an? Although the number of *qirāʾāt* attaining the level of *tawātur* was always known to be seven, late *qirāʾāt* and *uṣūl* scholarship agreed on the inclusion of three more *qirāʾāt* since their differences are, for the most part, already included in the renditions of the aforementioned seven. *Qirāʾāt* scholars also argued that all conditions of ‘authentic readings’ (the three conditions of sound *isnād*, and conformity with the ʿUthmānic *rasm* and Arabic grammar) also apply to the three readings of Abū Jaʿfar, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf. The discussion remains technical since it relates, mainly, to the definition of *tawātur* and the boundaries of legal certainty (*yaqīn*)—what qualifies to be absolutely Qur’an with no chance of doubt. Nonetheless, multiple scholars held that the seven *qirāʾāt* are the most authentic representation of the Qur’an as canon transmitted through an uninterrupted *tawātur*. This intricate issue is thoroughly addressed in the books of *uṣūl* and *qirāʾāt*.[^58] The preponderant opinion regarding the *tawātur* of *qirāʾāt* differentiates between phonetics that bear no impact on the meaning and the variations that do. With respect to phonetics that bear no impact on the meaning, it is not necessary to trace each unique pronunciation of each of the hundreds of combinations of phonetics back to the Prophet ﷺ to establish an uninterrupted *tawātur isnād*. For example, the concepts of *imālah* (inclination), *madd* (lengthening lone vowels), or *takhfīf al-hamzah* (a lightened articulation form of the letter *hamzah*) are established through *tawātur* to the Prophet ﷺ. However, the technical differences regarding the duration of *madd* or the degree of *imālah* may not necessarily be transmitted through *tawātur*. It should be noted that our inability to document the *isnād* past the *qurrāʾ* and to the Prophet ﷺ does not mean that such *isnād* do not exist. Indeed, the popularity of the *qirāʾāt* and their transmitters, irrespective of their degrees of canonicity, and the rigorous documentation of their every difference, strongly evidences their links to the early compilers and systemizers of Qur’anic readings. Intriguingly, a legal hypothesis was once raised to al-Nawawī regarding a person who forswears by divorce (*ḥalafa bil-ṭalāq*) that Allah “spoke” the Qur’an in the seven *qirāʾāt*. Al-Nawawī issued a *fatwa* that this individual’s oath would not be broken.[^59] The same applies if a man swears that Allah did not "speak" in the anomalous (*shādhdh*) readings.[^60] Al-Ashmūnī cited al-Nawawī’s *fatwa* (after acknowledging the hyperbolic hypothetical it addressed) and added, that the readings of Abū Jaʿfar, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf complete the ten canonical readings since they are also mass-transmitted (*mutawātir*) and can be recited inside and outside the prayer.[^61] --- ## Are some readings preferred over others? The fact that traditional scholarship gave preference to some *qirāʾāt* over others did not stem from a disagreement over the preservation of the Qur’anic text or the authenticity of canonical *qirāʾāt*. Instead, most of these discussions relate to the dialectics of *qirāʾāt*—tracing and authenticating historical accounts from the masters of language, and examining phonetic, grammatical, and rhetorical analyses of their variances. For example, Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib said, “Scholars might prefer what both ‘Āsim and Nāfiʿ agreed on since the readings of these two imams are the most credible, authentic, and eloquent. After these two, in eloquence, rank the readings of Abū ʿAmr and al-Kisāʾī”.[^62] Al-Sakhāwī after declaring a similar opinion, said “if the variant acquires high standards of eloquence, compatibility with the *muṣḥaf*, and the approval of the majority of Qur’an readers (*al-ʿāmmah*) \[usually referencing the readers of Medina and Kufa, but occasionally  the readers of Mecca and Medina\], it will be the chosen reading for most of them.”[^63] Given *qirāʾāt*’s critical role in defining and transmitting the Qur’an, they necessarily intersected with the discipline of *fiqh*. Although no school of law (*madhhab*) officially adopted a particular reading, the founders of the *madhāhib* and their succeeding jurists did explicitly favor certain readings over others. For example, Imam Mālik reportedly considered Nāfiʿs reading ‘Sunnah.’ Imam al-Shāfiʿī described Ibn Kathīr’s as “our reading.”[^64] Imam Abū Ḥanīfa’s adopted reading and *isnād* resembles the reading of ʿĀṣim, especially his *rāwī* Ḥafṣ. However, the later widespread reading of Abū ʿAmr led some late Ḥanafīs, such as Ibn ʿĀbdīn, to consider his reading “our reading and the reading of our teachers.”[^65] Different narrations from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal show preferences for ʿĀṣim, Ḥafṣ, and Abū ʿAmr.[^66] *ʿUrf* (custom) informs jurists’ preference for one reading over another. If the masses are not familiar with a reading, some jurists may render public recitation of that reading reprehensible (*makrūh*) lest it cause confusion (*fitnah*) regarding the Book of Allah among Muslims. The Ḥanbalī jurist Ibn Mufliḥ states that, “it is *makrūh* in the \[Ḥanbalī\] school to recite in an unfamiliar reading to the *ʿurf* of the locality.”[^67] Mosques’ imams “should not drive the masses to what may ruin their religion \[by reciting in unfamiliar readings\]… even though all *qirāʾāt* and *riwāyah*s are authentic and eloquent.”[^68] Of course, *ʿurf* is but one legal factor and does not determine the preferred reading in all circumstances. Every letter of the Qur’an is worth 10 good deeds (*ḥasanāt*), so Ibn Mufliḥ did not deem it *makrūh* to deliberately choose a reading with more letters for its greater reward.[^69] For example, Ibn Kathīr, unlike the other nine *qurrāʾ*, reads with an additional preposition ‘from’ (*min*), in 9:100, “*tajrī min taḥtihā al-anhār*,” gardens beneath which rivers flow. Accordingly, a congregation can learn new readings while being educated on their divine nature and historical origination. In the introduction of his *tafsīr*, the late exegete Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393/1973) said,  “The ten canonical mass-transmitted *qirāʾāt* may vary in terms of what some of them include in terms of special rhetoric or eloquence, multiplicity of meanings, or popularity; \[however\], all of these are convergent variations.”[^70] After citing scholars who upheld the validity of preferring some *qirāʾāt* over others, he showed how these preferences relate to syntax, dialects, and principles of authentic transmission that do not negate the authenticity of Qur’an nor the canonicity of its ten readings.[^71] Al-Qasṭalānī also affirmed that such preponderances are “accorded to what is more eloquent, popular or common among the Arabs. Otherwise, Qur’an is inherently one, its uniform and multiform parts, without preferential association.”[^72] Ibn ʿĀshūr then poses a fundamental question: does the preponderance of some *qirāʾāt* imply that their counterparts are weaker in establishing the Qur’an’s inimitability (*iʿjāz*)?[^73] He answered that the core of *iʿjāz* is the way the speech of scripture conforms to the context of its addressees. Such contextual conformity is not susceptible to any kind of discrepancy. However, some readings may contain additional rhetorical or eloquent characteristics not present in others. It is also possible that some *qirāʾāt* were canonized by way of the Prophet ﷺ permitting a *qārī* to read a synonymous word, so that the original word remains the highest form of rhetoric while the other is a *rukhṣah* close to that level.[^74] This issue may be further discussed under two other Qur’anic Studies topics: whether some parts of the Qur’an are superior to others[^75] and whether *iʿjāz* is established by every verse of the Qur’an.[^76] --- ## The spread of qirāʾāt in the Muslim world throughout history and today The spread of *qirāʾāt* and their geographical distribution across the Muslim world has varied over time. In the 5th/11th century, while Kufa transitioned from the *riwāyah*s of Ḥafṣ and Shuʿbah to the reading of Ḥamzah, Basra settled for that of Yaʿqūb. Shām, meanwhile, landed on Ibn ʿĀmir’s reading (although the region was later dominated by Abū ʿAmr’s reading).[^77] Since Warsh (d. 197/812), the canonical *rāwī* of Nāfiʿ, lived in Egypt and ranked as its chief *qāriʾ*, his *riwāyah* prevailed in Egypt until the 5th/11th century.[^78] Iraq, Ḥijāz, Yemen, Shām, Egypt, Sudan and East Africa were later dominated by the *riwāyah* of Dūrī, the canonical *rāwī* of Abū ʿAmr, until the 10th/16th century (in Egypt until the 12th/18th century). Intriguingly, Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 160/777) predicted that Abū ʿAmr’s reading “will be the strongest common *isnād* among people.”[^79] In attesting to the accuracy of this prediction, Ibn al-Jazarī affirmed that across Shām, Yemen, Ḥijāz, and Egypt, “You do not find anyone teaching Qur’an except with his \[Abū ʿAmr’s\] reading.”[^80] According to Ibn ʿĀshūr, the most common readings in the Muslim world today are Nāfiʿ, in the *riwāyah* of Qalūn (in Tunisia, some parts of Egypt, and Libya); the *riwāyah* of Warsh (in some parts of Tunisia, some parts of Egypt, Algeria, all the far West of Africa, and Sudan); and the reading of ʿĀṣim (in all of the East, including most of Egypt, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Afghanistan).[^81] Modern *qirāʾāt* studies have not yet determined why Ḥafṣ, ʿĀṣim’s transmitter, is so prevalent today. Limited are the historical records documenting the massive transition from the readings that had once dominated much of the Muslim world, including its educational institutions, to Ḥafṣ. ![Map of Muslim World](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image8-828x1024.jpg) A common, yet historically unverified, argument attributes the current dominance of Ḥafṣ to the Ottomans’ appointments of Ḥanafī judges, legal scholars (*muftī*s), and *qurrāʾ*. While the Ottomans certainly enforced the Ḥanafī school, their enforcement did not necessarily extend to the field of *qirāʾāt*. Surveying *qirāʾāt* works written during the Ottoman era reveals that Abū ʿAmr’s reading declined only in Yemen, Sudan, and a few other African regions. West African countries remained committed to Nāfiʿ as well as to the Mālikī school. It is possible, of course, that they did not transition to Ḥafṣ due to the lack of full Ottoman control in these regions. However, Abū ʿAmr’s reading remained popular in regions not conquered, or fully dominated, by the Ottomans such as Malaysia, Yemen, Indonesia, Iran, India, and Turkestan. Moreover, there is no evidence of the supposed Ottoman stipulation requiring candidates for religious positions to read in Ḥafṣ. Ibn al-Jazarī, who lived during the Ottoman dynasty, did not relate any particular observations about their alleged policy of imposing Ḥafṣ. Despite sharing legal cultures and political circumstances with the Ottomans, the preceding Seljuk dynasty did not adopt Ḥafṣ. Thus, inheriting the Ḥanafī culture, which prefers ʿĀṣim and Abū ʿAmr, does not adequately explain the dominance of one *riwāyah* over others. --- ## Qirāʾāt as a discipline (ʿIlm al-Qirāʾāt) During and after the standardization process, the discipline of *qirāʾāt* developed in relation to, yet independent from, the rest of the Qur’anic sciences. Muslim scholars developed a framework known as ‘The Ten Essentials’ (*al-mabādiʾ al-ʿasharah*) to define and introduce any discipline.[^82] The Ten Essentials help understand “how not only knowledge is constructed within that discipline but its significance, technical terms, key concepts, historical development and pioneers over time,”[^83] as well as the legal ruling (*ḥukm*) related to learning and teaching it. This framework empowers students to holistically appreciate the coherency and scope of a discipline as well as its relevance to both inquiry and application. Below is a summary of some of The Ten Essentials of the discipline of *qirāʾāt*. *Qirāʾāt*, as a discipline, is defined as the “knowledge of the exact manner of articulating the words of the Qur’an and their variations as attributed to \[each of\] their transmitters.”[^84] This definition excludes the scope of *tafsīr*, grammar, and other linguistic sciences in their treatment of Qur’anic words. The merit of the *qirāʾāt* discipline lies in preserving the Qur’an, protecting it from alteration, and deepening our understanding of it. The subject matter of the discipline of *qirāʿāt* has been listed as seven means (*wasāʾil*) in al-Biqāʿī’s *al-Ḍawābiṭ wal-ishārāt li-ajzāʿ ʿilm al-qirāʿāt* \[The Rules and Indications of the Components of the Discipline of *Qirāʿāt*\].[^85] Al-Qasṭalānī provided a lengthy commentary on these seven topics in his *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt li funūn al-qirāʿāt* \[The Subtle Allusions to the Disciplines of *Qirāʿāt*\] in the following order: 1. *Isnād*: scrutinizing the credibility of the chain of authorities preserving the Qur’an, including its authenticity, length, and proximity to the Prophet ﷺ as well as the early *qurrāʿ*, and the authoritative texts of *qirāʿāt*. This topic also examines the methods of oral transmission.[^86]  2. Linguistics: syntax, phonetics and articulation.[^87]  3. Pausal and resuming (*waqf* and *ibtidāʿ*) modes and their impact on signified meanings.[^88]  4. The number of Qur’anic verses that require an examination of orthographical styles of certain letters and the positioning of a verse (*āyah*) and its end (*fāṣilah*).[^89] 5. Orthography and the examination of the *ras* of Qur’anic words according to the ʿUthmānic codex.[^90]  6. *Istiʿādhah*; introducing its textual foundation from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, determining its phrase and explaining how it should be recited, the *ḥukm* of reading it out loud (*jahr*) or in secret (*isrār*), and its pausal modes.[^91]    7. *Al-Takbīr*; explaining the Sunnah of *takbīr* (saying “*Allāhu akbar*”) after reciting certain chapters of the Qur’an before commencing the next chapter and their pausal and resuming modes, tracing its *isnād* to the early *qurrāʿ* and the Prophet ﷺ, stating its exact phrase.[^92] With respect to the legal ruling (*ḥukm*) of learning and teaching the discipline of *qirāʿāt*, it is part of the communal obligation (*farḍ kifāyah*) of preserving and memorizing the Qur’an.[^93] This shared responsibility means that “if the obligation is fulfilled—by whatever number of moral agents (*mukallafīn*) it takes—all community members are free of the religious responsibility of that obligation. If no one fulfills the obligations, then all members of the particular community will be held accountable.”[^94] To meet this obligation of preserving the Qur’an, including the *qirāʿāt*, a minimum number of memorizers and reciters qualifying for *tawātur* must be maintained.[^95] Additionally, Qur’anic scholars delineated ranks for different levels of scholarship. For example, the *muqriʾ* is > the scholar of readings who transmits them orally. If he memorizes the book of *al-Taysīr* \[an authoritative *qirāʾāt* text by al-Dānī\]*,* for instance, he is not allowed to teach it except if he learned it directly from the one who taught him continuously \[in a uniform transmission\], because part of *qirāʾāt* cannot be mastered except through direct hearing and oral transmission.[^96] The beginner *qārī* studies individual readings until they have learned at least three. The advanced *qārī* is the one who masters most of the *qirāʾāt* , including the most popular ones.[^97] --- ## The wisdom of qirāʾāt: How can qirāʾāt strengthen my connection with the Qur’an? According to Imam al-Qasṭalānī, “Scholars never ceased to extract, from every reading of a *qārī*, meanings not found in other readings.”[^98] Such is the divine wisdom manifest in the *qirāʾāt*, which perform a variety of functions that ultimately enrich our experience of the Qur'’an. A few of those functions, as determined by scholars, are the following: 1. Easing Qur’anic recitation and memorization for Muslims who come from different tribal and dialectal backgrounds. This easing may also help non-Arabs by allowing them to recite in a manner befitting their learning capabilities. 2. Accommodating the dialectal diversity of historic Arabs to soften their hearts towards accepting the message of Islam.   3. Honoring the *ummah* of the Prophet ﷺ by revealing the Qur’an in different *aḥruf* and allowing Muslims to recite it accordingly. The Qur’an is the only Divine book that was revealed in this manner. 4. Demonstrating that, just as Allah promised, the *ummah* did not fail to preserve the Qur’an in all its precise forms of pronunciation. No other *ummah* was granted this blessing. 5. Increasing opportunities for reward by diversifying our types of engagement  with the Qur’an. 6. Showcasing how the Qur’an’s brevity is of such eloquence that it somehow generates a universe of kaleidoscopic meanings. These meanings are conveyed through same-verse variations rather than multiple verses. 7. Proving the transcendent nature of the text by facilitating different modes of recitation without contradiction. *Qirāʾāt* variations complement rather than contest one another, working in tandem to represent one essential form. 8. Assisting with legal interpretation of verses by clarifying their meanings, and expanding or restricting their applicability. --- ## Examples of qirāʾāt differences and their impact on meaning Some of the aforementioned wisdoms behind the *qirāʾāt* variations—especially the sixth, seventh, and eighth points—illustrate the breadth of *qirāʾāt*’s relevance to *tafsīr*. The *tafsīr* tradition is full of discussions on *qirāʾāt* and how they augment the meaning of the Qur’an. These discussions derive from diverse interdisciplinary scholarship on divergent meanings (*tawjīh*), syntactic case-endings (*iʿrāb*), preponderance of dialects and readings (*tarjīḥ*), and others. Ibn al-Jazarī categorized the differences of *qirāʾāt* into three: 1) difference in wording without a change of meaning. For example, the word *ṣirāṭ* (صِرَاطَ - سِرَاطَ = ‘path’) in *Sūrah al-Fātiḥah* (1:6-7) is pronounced with *sīn* (س) and *ṣāḍ* (ص). The difference in this example is purely dialectical. 2) difference in both wording and meaning with the possibility of both meanings being simultaneously applicable. For example, *mālik* and *malik* (مَالكِ – مَلِكِ) in *Sūrah al-Fātiḥah* (1:4); both words (i.e., master and king) indicate Allah. 3) difference in both wording and meaning with only one meaning applying at a time, though they are harmonious in perspective without contradiction.[^99] For example, in 12:110, “until the Messengers despaired and **they assumed they were lied to**,” *kudhibū* (كُذِبُوا), or “**they were certain they were rejected**,” *kudhdhibū* (كُذِّبُوا). According to the former reading, without a geminate double-consonant sound (*shaddah*) on the *dhāl* (ذ), it is only an assumption and the pronouns reference the people to whom the prophets were sent (they assumed that the prophets had lied to them about their prophethood and what they informed them of Allah’s punishment). According to the second reading, with a *shaddah* (ذّ), it is a certain belief and the pronouns reference the messengers (they were certain that they had been rejected by their people).[^100] Both meanings provide a multi-dimensional account of the stories of the prophets. From a *tafsīr* lens, the first category of intonational variations which do not change verse meanings is less relevant, while the second two categories of variations that influence verse meanings are more important.[^101] An exegete (*mufassir*) is tasked with illustrating the differences of *qirāʾāt* because one reading may explain its counterpart: “their differences often enrich the meanings of the verse.”[^102] Instead of conveying meaning through multiple verses, the revelation can concisely provide multiple meanings for the sake of polysemy.[^103] This Qur’anic phenomenon is the equivalent of various native Arabic rhetorical styles and devices such as incorporation (*taḍmīn*), dissimulation (*tawriyah* or *tawjīh*) in the science of meanings (*ʿilm al-maʿānī*), and corollaries (*mustatbaʿāt al-tarākīb*) in the science of embellishment (*ʿilm al-badīʿ*).[^104] That said, an exegete (*mufassir*) “should illustrate the differences of the mass-transmitted *qirāʾāt* because their differences often enrich the meanings of the verse.”[^105] The Qur’an may further explicate a verse’s meaning in a different verse. For example, the calf Prophet Ibrāhīm ﷺ offered his guests from the angels was described in 51:26 as fat (سَمِينِ) and described in 11:69 as roasted (حَنِيذِ). Similarly, Prophet Mūsā’s ﷺ miraculous serpent was described in 7:107 and 26:33 as manifest (مُبِينٌ)—meaning big in size—while in 27:10 and 28:31 it was described as *jānn* (جَانٌّ), a male serpent that rapidly slithers. These verses exemplify how different complementary meanings can be ascertained from the text without relying on *qirāʾāt*. The following examples, listed in the order of the *muṣḥaf*, illustrate how the Qur’an may also explicate a verse’s meaning without additional verses through *qirāʾāt*. **Example #1:** An alternation (*ibdāl*) of two consonants In *Sūrah al-Baqarah* (2:219), Allah says, “They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, ‘In them is **great** sin and benefits for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.’” يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ **كَبِيرٌ \[كَثِيرٌ\]** وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِنْ نَفْعِهِمَا Eight of the ten *qurrāʾ* read it *kabīrun* (كَبِيرٌ) \= ‘great.’ However, Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī read it, *kathīrun* (كَثِيرٌ) = ‘much.’ This variant type is an alternation (*ibdāl*) of two consonants, (b → th). The sin (*ithm/* إِثْمٌ) of drinking wine, according to the first reading, is ‘great.’ The second reading adds the meaning that ‘**there is much sin in it**.’ In discussing the first reading (*kabīrun* = great), al-Farrāʾ said that the great sin of drinking wine is obvious that it causes animosity and hatred, referencing 5:91, and impairs one’s rational faculty which, in turn, affects their understanding of the rights of Allah.[^106] In discussing the second reading (*kathīrun* = much), Abū Ḥayyān said that describing the sin to be ‘much’ can be understood in three ways. First, it might refer to the sinners (i.e., drinking causes sinning among people and every consumer of it is sinful). Second, it might refer to the consequences of drinking (i.e., the deviant actions and sayings of a drunk person). Third, it might refer to all the individuals involved in its manufacturing and distribution (based on the hadith, “Allah has cursed wine, its drinker, its server, its seller, its buyer, its presser, the one for whom it is pressed, the one who conveys it and the one to whom it is conveyed.”)[^107] The four layers of meaning in this verse, collectively, provide different perspectives without rendering any one reading wrong or inauthentic. Ultimately, “both readings are the speech of Allah so it is not allowed to prefer parts of it over others by our mere judgments; all of that is the speech of Allah.”[^108] ![An alternation (ibdal) of two consonants](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image9-780x1024.jpg) **Example #2:**  Different vowels In Sūrah al-Kahf (18:55), Allah says, “And nothing has prevented the people from believing when guidance came to them and from seeking their Lord’s forgiveness except that there \[must\] befall them the \[accustomed\] precedent of the ancients or that the punishment should come upon them **in many types**.” وَمَا مَنَعَ ٱلنَّاسَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوٓاْ إِذْ جَآءَهُمُ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَيَسْتَغْفِرُواْ رَبَّهُمْ إِلَّآ أَن تَأْتِيَهُمْ سُنَّةُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ أَوْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ **قُبُلًا \[قِبَلَا\]** ʿĀṣim, Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʾī, and Abū Jaʿfar read the end of the verse with the diacritic mark *ḍammah* on the *qāf* and the *bāʾ*, *qubulan* (قُبُلًا) = ‘**in many types**.’ The rest of the *qurrāʾ* read the *qāf* with *kasrah* and the *bāʾ* with *fatḥa*, *qibalan* (قِبَلًا) = ‘**face to face**.’ The different vowels allow us to interpret the verse as stating that people do not believe nor ask for forgiveness until they directly face the punishment of former communities, or until they experience diverse forms of punishment. ![Different Vowels](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image10-647x1024.jpg) **Example #3:** Alternation (*ibdāl*) of two consonants In *Sūrah al-Takwīr* (Q. 81:24), Allah says, “And Muhammad is not a **withholder** of \[knowledge of\] the unseen.” وَمَا هُوَ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ **بِضَنِينٍ \[بِظَنِين\]** Ibn Kathīr, Abū ʿAmr, al-Kisāʾī, and one of two canonical transmitters of Yaʿqūb, Ruays, read *bi-ẓanīnin* with ẓ (بِظَنِين) = accused. The rest read it *bi-ḍanīnin* with *ḍ* (بِضَنِين) = stingy. The alternation (*ibdāl*) of two consonants, (*ḍ* → *ẓ*) in this verse results in distinct but complementary meanings. While the former reading means that the Prophet ﷺ is not accused of withholding the knowledge of the unseen, the latter means that the Prophet ﷺ does not stingily withhold the knowledge of the unseen.[^109] ![Alternation (ibdal) of two consonants - Surah Al-Takwir](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image2-1-849x1024.jpg) --- ## Examples for qirāʾāt legal applications The layered meanings generated by the *qirāʾāt* influence the derivation of legal rulings by confirming an agreed-upon opinion, giving preference to one opinion over another, reconciling between conflicting opinions, offering additional circumstantial rulings, or clarifying an ambiguous meaning intended by the lawgiver. Moreover, the *qirāʾāt* have triggered theoretical debates pertaining to reducing the legal authority of non-canonical readings by equating them to verdicts of the Prophet’s companions (*qawl al-ṣaḥabī)* as secondary sources of law and synthesizing textual additions (*ziyādah ʿalā al-naṣṣ*) of non-canonical readings as signals for abrogated verses (*naskh*). These debates paralleled evolving discourses of the epistemic principle of ‘true report’ (*khabar al-ṣādiq*) and the hadith concept of *tawātur*, denoting boundaries of legal certainty.[^110] **Example #1:** Active → passive verb forms In Sūrah al-Baqarah (2:229), Allah says, “And it is not lawful for you to take anything of what you have given them unless **both fear** that they may not be able to maintain the limits of Allah.” وَلَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَن تَأْخُذُواْ مِمَّآ ءَاتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ شَيْـًٔا إِلَّآ أَن **يَخَافَآ \[يُخَافا\]** أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ ٱللَّه Ḥamzah, Abū Jaʿfar, and Yaʿqūb read the verb *yukhāfā* (يُخَافا) in the passive form. The rest read it *yakhāfā* (يَخافا) in the active form unless they both fear. The verse discusses rulings of a contractual marriage dissolution agreement between the husband and the wife in which the wife fiscally compensates the husband (usually by dropping her right to the deferred *mahr*) in exchange for her release from the marriage bond (*khulʿ*). The verse warns the parties involved against pressuring the wife to give up her right to the *mahr* in order to facilitate the breakup. The verse establishes that this kind of breakup is legitimate if there is a risk of violating the limits of Allah by the husband and the wife. The variation of passive-active verb forms in the above two readings provides insights on who is entitled to decide that the rights of Allah will be violated if the couple do not break up. The first reading, *yukhāfā* (يُخَافا), means ‘**unless it is feared that they \[the husband and the wife\] may not maintain the limits of Allah**’ which grants the authority to decide on *khulʿ* to a third party. Since the verse does not explicitly identify the subject of the passive verb, the context of family law implies that it is the judiciary. The second reading, *yakhāfā* (يَخافا), means ‘**unless they both fear that they may not be able to maintain the limits of Allah**’ which vests both spouses with the authority to decide on the situation.[^111] *Khulʿ* procedures are extensively detailed under Islamic family law. ![Active - passive verb forms](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image3-1-664x1024.jpg) **Example #2: Verb conjugation:** In *Sūrah al-Rūm* (30:39), Allah says, “And whatever you **give in** *ribā* to **increase within** the wealth of people will not increase with Allah.” وَمَآ **ءَاتَيْتُم \[أَتَيْتُمْ\]** مِّن رِّبًا **لِّيَرْبُوَاْ \[لِتُرْبُوا\]** فِىٓ أَمْوَٰلِ ٱلنَّاسِ فَلَا يَرْبُواْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ This verse which talks about usurious gain (*ribā*), lit. ‘increase’, contains two *qirāʾāt*: First, Ibn Kathīr reads the verb *ataytum* (أَتَيْتُمْ) without a long vowel *ā* after the *hamzah* = ‘whatever type of *ribā* you engage with.’ The rest read *ātaytum* (ءاتَيْتُمْ) with *ā* after the first *hamzah* = whatever you give in *ribā*. The variation in the conjugation of the perfect verb (*a* → *ā*) reflects a pronounced change of pattern (*wazn*) in two verbs sharing the same root. While the latter reading, *ātaytum* (ءاتَيْتُمْ),  unequivocally prohibits the giving of interest, the former expands the explicit prohibition to any type of engagement with *ribā*, including both giving and taking. Hence, the two readings are ultimately convergent in meaning.[^112] ![Verb Conjugation - Surah al-Rum](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image4-1-714x1024.jpg) Second, Nāfiʿ, Abū Jaʿfar, and Yaʿqūb read *li-turbū* (لِتُرْبُوا) = ‘so that you increase it through people’s money’ as a reference to the addressees of the consumers of *ribā*. The rest read  *li-yarbuwa* (لِيَرْبُوَا) = ‘so that the money increases within people’s money’ as a reference to the money itself.[^113] The variation in the prefix conjugation determining the pronouns of the imperfect verb (*ya* → *tu*) changes the subject of the verb. In the first reading, the subject is the person dealing in *ribā* (which associates the prohibition with the intention of accruing interest) while the subject in the second reading is the *ribā* itself (which generalizes the prohibition irrespective of intention). This verse, out of four verses revealed regarding the prohibition of *ribā*, showcases part of the wisdom behind its prohibition. The verse draws an intriguing comparison between seeking the increase of wealth from people’s money through *ribā* and gift-giving, even with unequal exchange, or *zakāh*. The rest of the verse reads, “But what you give in *zakāh*, desiring the countenance of Allah—those are the multipliers.” The comparison explains the rational and spiritual disparity between *ribā* transferring the wealth from the poor to the rich and *zakāh* doing exactly the opposite. ![Verb Conjugation - Surah al-Rum (increase within)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image6-643x1024.jpg) --- ## Conclusion In diverse societies teeming with dialects ranging from the common to the obscure, we should not automatically assume that everyone reciting the Qur’an unlike ourselves is reciting it incorrectly. The Prophet ﷺ recited and taught the Qur’an in multiple ways. All readings were authentically systemized by generations of pious predecessors. This grounding in tradition clearly permits our continued use of the *qira’at* to not only recite the holy text in a dialect that is easier on our tongues, but also to better understand its spectrum of meanings and range of legally coherent interpretations. Muslims of all stripes, then, can use the *qirāʾāt* to connect (or reconnect) with the text of our holy book, finding in its every word a bottomless well of inspiration. The *qirāʾāt*, ultimately, are how the Qur’an fulfills its promise of speaking not just to a particular people in a particular place at a particular time, but to all of humanity, right up until the fateful day when the trumpet is blown. --- ## Notes [^1]: For a detailed treatment of the topic of *tadabūur*, see Yousef Wahb and Mohammad ElShinawy, “Keys to Tadabbur: How to Reflect Deeply on the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, April 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-Qur’an](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-Qur'an&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649888637046097&usg=AOvVaw0I_MmRg-zWFrVpTZGFVEjO). [^2]: Abū al-Khayr ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Ḍabbāʿ, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), 1:24. [^3]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2944. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5041. [^5]: Al-Jassās, *al-Fusūl fī al-usūl*, ed. Jāsim al-Nashamī, 2nd ed, 4 vols. (Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shū*ʾ*un al-Islāmiyah, 1994), 1:377. [^6]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:49–50. [^7]: Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, “The Origins of the Variant Readings of the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, August 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-Qur'an&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649888637010927&usg=AOvVaw0Ul063Db6TgxvulU9kPeBv)[Qur’an](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-Qur'an&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649888637011234&usg=AOvVaw0_4Y4eppJEofLGmVzZcCwK). [^8]: One narration of the hadith, reported by Ubay b. Kaʿb, reported that the Prophet ﷺ was near the *adāt* (watering place) of Banū Ghifār, which is a place in Medina. Another narration states that Jibril met the Prophet ﷺ near Aḥjār al-Mīra, which is near Qubā in Madinah. However, this does not mean that only the Medinan Qur’an was permitted to be recited in seven *aḥruf*. The story of ʿUmar and Hisham’s argument was over *Surah al-Furqan*, which was revealed in Mecca. [^9]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an*, ed. Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī, 4 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Hadith, 2006), 1:219–26. [^10]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22766. [^11]: Some scholars noted the inadequacy of the term “variant” in describing the Qur’an or its canonical readings since there is not a singular fixed original but the original itself is multiform. See Yasin Dutton, “Orality, Literacy and the ‘Seven Aḥruf’ Hadith,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 23, no. 1 (2012): 1–49; also see Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami, *The History of the Qur’anic Text from Revelation to Compilation* (Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2003), 154–55. [^12]: Yousef Wahb, “An Introduction to *ʿUlūm al-Qur'an*: The Field of Qur’anic Studies,” *Yaqeen*, April 2022, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies. [^13]: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdulkarīm al-Ashmūnī, *Manār al-hudā fī bayān al-waqf wal-ibtidā*, 2nd ed. (Cairo: Mustafā al-Bābī al-Halabī, 1973), 7–8. [^14]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsir̄ al-Qur'an*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī, 26 vols. (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 2001), 1:40. The report is *mursal* since al-Riyāhī, a *tābiʿī* who did not meet the Prophet ﷺ, attributed it directly to him. [^15]: Some companions, mainly Ibn Masʿūd, initially refused to adopt some of the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* renditions that contradicted their personal copies. Abū Bakr ʿAbdullah ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, ed. Muhīb al-Dīn Wā’iz, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyah, 1995), 1:179–92. Later, Ibn Masʿūd approved of ʿUthmān’s compiled text upon moving back to Medīna and meeting with ʿUthmān. Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-masāḥif*, 1:193–94 (the chapter on Ibn Masʿūd’s approval of ʿUthmān’s compilation of *masāḥif*). ʿImād al-Dīn ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāyah wan nihāyah*, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2015), 9:139–140; Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa fī al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Shawqī Ḍayf (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1979), 67. [^16]: See for example, Abū Shāma al-Maqdisī, *al-Murshid al-wajīz ilā ʿulūm tataʿallaqu bi-l-kitāb al-ʿazīz*, ed. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 94. [^17]: Khatib and Khan, “Origins of the Variant Reading.” Also see Waleed al-Meneese, *The Fourteen Qur’anic Readings Impact on Theology and Law*, trans. Abu Zayd (Bloomington: Islamic University of Minnesota and Qur’an Literacy Press, 2021), 26. [^18]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān,* 1:188–9. [^19]: Abū al-Qāsim al-Hudhalī, *al-Kāmil  fi al-qirāʾāt* (Sharjah: Muʾssasat Samā, 2007), 1:128. [^20]: Wahb, “*Ulūm al-Qur'an* Primer.” [^21]: Ghānim Qadūrī al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī: Waḥyan wa rasman wa lughatan wa qirāʾatan*, 1st ed. (Istanbul: Dār al-Ghawthānī lil-Dirāsāt al-Qur'aniyah, 2020), 213. [^22]: Abū Muḥammad Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibāna ʿan maʿānī l-qirāʾāt*, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Ismāʿīl Shalabī (Cairo: Dār Nahḍat Miṣr, 1960), 89. [^23]: Al-Ḥamad, *Aṣālat al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī*, 239. [^24]: Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik al-Manturī, *Sharḥ al-Durar al-lawāmiʿ fī aṣl maqraʾ al-Imām Nāfiʿ*, ed. al-Siddīqī Fawzy (Casablanca: Matbaʿat al-Najāḥ al-Jadīdah, 2001), 864. [^25]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:9. [^26]: Abū al-Abbās Aḥmad ibn Abū Bakr al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārā li funūn al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Markaz al-Dirasat al-Qur'aniyah, 10 vols. (Saudi Arabia: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shū*ʾ*un al-Islāmiyah, 2012), 1:155. [^27]: Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibāna*, 86–87. [^28]: Abū al-Khayr ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya fī ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ*, ed. Gotthelf Bergsträsser, 1st ed, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), 1:139. [^29]: Ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa*, 45. [^30]: The term *mawālī*, despite its common reference to freed slaves or tribal allies, was also used to reference the descendants of non-Arabs. None of the 10 *qurrāʾ* was a freed slave nor were any of their ancestors. [^31]: To illustrate how non-Arabs played a critical role in Islamic scholarship, “a random sample of over one thousand scholars who died in or before the year of 400 AH/1010 CE, covering the five main branches of Islamic learning (*hadith*, *tafsīr*, *qirāʾa*, *naḥw*, and *fiqh*), found that 51% of scholars were Arabs and 49% were non-Arabs.” Emad Hamdeh, “Mawali: How Freed Slaves and Non-Arabs Contributed to Islamic Scholarship,” *Yaqeen*, 2021. [^32]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār ʿalā l-ṭabaqāt wa-l-aʿṣār*, ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād et al., 1st ed. 2 vols. (Beirut: Muʾssasat al-Risālah, 1988), 1:108. [^33]: Ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa*, 62. [^34]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:112. [^35]: Ibn Kathīr, the *qārī*, is different from Ibn Kathīr, the famous author of *tafsīr*. [^36]: Abū Shāma al-Maqdisī, *Ibrāz al-maʿānī* *min* *Ḥirz* *al-Amānī* *fī* *al-Qirāʾāt* *al-Sabʿah*, ed. Ibrāhīm ʿAwad (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2002), 6. [^37]: ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ wa-kamāl al-iqrāʾ*, ed. ʿAlī Ḥusayn al-Bawwāb, 1st ed, 2 vols. (Mecca: Maktabat al-Turāth, 1987), 2:448. [^38]: Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Ghalbūn, *al-Tadhkirah fī al-qirā*ʾ*āt*, ed. Sayyid Za*ʿ*īmah, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2001), 18. [^39]: Both al-Sulamī and Ibn Ḥubaysh read to ‘Alī and Ibn Masʿūd. [^40]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ*, 93. [^41]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ*, 93. [^42]: Ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa*, 76. [^43]: Ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa*, 76. [^44]: Ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa*, 1:261. [^45]: Ibn Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa*, 1:261. [^46]: Abdulfattāh al-Qādī, *Tārīkh al-qurrāʾ al-ʿasharah*, 1st ed. (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Azhariyyah lil-Turāth, 2002), 46. [^47]: Al-Qādī, *Tārīkh al-qurrāʾ al-ʿasharah*, 51. [^48]: Al-Qādī, *Tārīkh al-qurrāʾ al-ʿasharah*, 52. [^49]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār*, 1:73. [^50]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya*, 2:382–83. [^51]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār*, 1:75–76. [^52]: Shams al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Khallikān, *Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān*, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār Sādir, 1968), 6:391. [^53]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār*, 1:158. [^54]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār*, 1:209. [^55]: Al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār*, 1:209. [^56]: This *isnād* tree is based on Professor Muḥammad Jabal’s work in *Wathāqat naql al-naṣṣ al-Qur’anī min Rasūl Allah ilā ummatih* (Tanta: Dār al-Sahābah, 2001), 23–28. [^57]: ʿAbdul Fattāḥ al-Qāḍī, *al-Budūr al-zāhirah  fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr min ṭarīqai al-Shātibiyah wal-Durrah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 2010), 9–10. [^58]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī, *al-Badr al-ṭāliʿ fī ḥall jamʿ al-jawāmiʿ*, ​​ed. Murtaḍā al-Dāghistānī, 2 vols. (Beirut: Risala Foundation, 2012), 1:172–78. [^59]: ʿAlā al-Dīn ibn al-ʿAttār, *Fatāwā al-Nawawī: al-Masāʾil al-manthūrah*, ed. Muḥammad al-Hajjār, 6th ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Bashā*ʾ*ir al-Islāmiyyah, 1996), 197. [^60]: Al-ʿAttār, *Fatāwā al-Nawawī*. [^61]: Al-Ashmūnī, *Manār al-hudā*, 7. [^62]: Makkī b. Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibāna*. [^63]: Al-Sakhāwī, *Jamāl al-qurrāʾ*, 2:440. [^64]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya*, 2:86. [^65]: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿĀbidīn, *Radd al-muḥtār ʻalá al-durr al-mukhtār sharḥ Tanwīr al-Abṣār*, ed. ʿAlī Muʿawwad and ʿĀdil ʿAbd al-Mawjūd, 14 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2011), 1:541. [^66]: There are different narrations regarding Aḥmad’s preference for Nāfiʿ, ʿĀsim through Shuʿbah, Abū ʿAmr, or “the readings of Hijāz.” See Ibn Mufliḥ, *al-Furū*, ed. Ḥāzim al-Qāḍī and Usāma ʿAbd al-Majīd, 6 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1997), 1:370. [^67]: Ibn Mufliḥ, *al-Furū*, 1:370. [^68]: Ibn ʿĀbidīn, *Radd al-muḥtār*. [^69]: Ibn Mufliḥ, *al-Furū*, 1:370–71. [^70]: Muḥammad al-Tāhir Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 30 vols. (Tunisia: al-Dār al-Tūnusiyyah lil-Nashr, 1884), 1:61. For an English summary of Ibn ʿAshūr’s *qirāʾāt* introduction of his tafsīr, see Gibril Haddad, “Tropology and Inimitability: Ibn ʿAshūr’s Theory of *tafsīr* in the Ten Prolegomena to *al-Taḥrīr wal-Tanwīr*,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 21, no. 1 (2019): 69–71. [^71]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:62. [^72]: Al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:356. Similar opinions were reported from early and later scholars including Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā Thaʿlab (d. 291/904), Abū Jaʿfar al-Naḥḥās (338/950), Abū Shāmah (d. 665/1266), and al-Kawāshī (d. 680/1194). See al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:247. [^73]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:247. [^74]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:63. [^75]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 4:405–14. [^76]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 4:315–16. [^77]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya*, 1:265. [^78]: Alī al-Dabbā’, *al-Idāʾah fī bayān usūl al-qirāʾah* (Cairo: ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd Aḥmad Ḥanafī, 1938), 72. [^79]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya*, 1:265. [^80]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Ghāyat al-nihāya*, 1:265. [^81]: Geographical changes in some of these lands over different modern eras should be noted. Ibn Ashur also said, “I have heard that the reading of Abū ‘Amro is common in parts of Sudan on the border with Egypt.” Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:63. [^82]: These ten essentials are the following: (1) the definition of the discipline, (2) its subject matter, (3) its results, (4) the merits and virtues of learning it, (5) its relation to other disciplines, (6) the pioneers of the field, (7) the name by which the discipline is identified, (8) the sources that formed it, (9) the legal ruling (*ḥukm*) of learning and teaching it, and (10) its core topics and issues. [^83]: Aḥmad ibn Mustafā Taskoruzade, *A Treatise on Disputation and Argument: Risālat al-Ādāb Fī ʿIlm al-Baḥth waʾl-Munāẓara*, trans. Safaruk Chowdhury, 1st ed. (England: Dar al-Nicosia, 2020), 14. [^84]: Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Jazarī, *Munjid al-muqriʾīn wa-murshid al-ṭālibīn*, ed. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-ʿImrān (Mecca: Dār al-Fawāʾid, 1998), 49. [^85]: This work was originally part of al-Biqāʿī’s history book. Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Biqāʿī, *Iẓhār al-ʿasr li-asrār ahl al-ʿasr*, ed. Muḥammad al-ʿŪfī, 1st ed. (Cairo: Hajar, 1992), 1:271. [^86]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:360–80. [^87]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 2:381–422. [^88]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 2:490–519. [^89]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 2:520–41. [^90]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 2:542–88. [^91]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 2: 289–616. [^92]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 2:617–38. [^93]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:357. [^94]: Yousef Wahb, “*Farḍ Kifāyah*: The Principle of Communal Responsibility in Islam,” *Yaqeen*, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/yousef-wahb/fard-kifayah-the-principle-of-communal-responsibility-in-islam](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/yousef-wahb/fard-kifayah-the-principle-of-communal-responsibility-in-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649888637039441&usg=AOvVaw0vw6oOCJ8KOyJTBeZS4pjf). [^95]: Al-Qasṭalānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:357. [^96]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Munjid al-muqriʾīn*, 49. [^97]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *Munjid al-muqriʾīn*, 49. [^98]: Al-Qasṭallānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:356. [^99]: Al-Qasṭallānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:73. [^100]: Al-Qasṭallānī, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt*, 1:73. For more details on the meanings resulting from these two different readings, see ʿAbdulḥakīm ʿAbdullatīf, *Muʿjam al-qirāʾāt*, 1st ed, (Damascus: Dar Saʿd al-Dīn, 2002), 4:355-8. [^101]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:51–6. [^102]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:51–6. [^103]: Polysemy is the association of one word with multiple meanings. [^104]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:51–6. [^105]: Ibn ʿAshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr*, 1:56. [^106]: Abū Zakariyyā al-Farrāʾ, *Maʿānī l-Qur’an*, eds. Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Najjār and Aḥmad Najātī, 3 vols. (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1983), 1:292. [^107]: *Sunan Abū Dawūd*, no. 3674. See Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī, *Tafsīr al-baḥr al-muḥīṭ*, eds. ʿĀdil ʿAbd al-Mawjūd and ʿAlī Muʿawwaḍ, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1993), 2:157. [^108]: Al-Andalusī, *Tafsīr al-baḥr al-muḥīṭ*, 2:185. [^109]: Al-Farrāʾ, *Maʿānī l-Qur’an*, 2:293. [^110]: Badr al-Dīn Al-Zarkashī, *al-Baḥr al-muḥīt*, ed. ʿAbdullah al-ʿĀnī, 2nd ed. 6 vols. (Kuwait: Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, 1992), 1:466–70. [^111]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur'an*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī, 24 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2006), 4:74–76. [^112]: Abū Zurʿah ʿAbdulrahmān ibn Zanjalah, *Ḥujjat al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Saʿeed al-Afghāni, 5th ed. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1997), 558–9. [^113]: Zanjalah, *Ḥujjat al-qirāʾāt*, 558–9. ## Summary # The Multiple Readings of the Qur'an: Their Origins, Canonization, and Wisdom The question of how a single, unchanging Qur'an can be recited in multiple ways lies at the heart of the science of *qirāʾāt*. Far from being a marginal or purely technical subject, this discipline touches upon the very authenticity and preservation of the revealed text, its inimitability (*iʿjāz*), and its function as the primary source of Islamic law. Properly understood, knowledge of the *qirāʾāt* opens the believer to deeper layers of meaning within the Book of Allah and enriches one's lived experience with revelation. The foundation of this subject is the hadith of the seven *aḥruf*, transmitted at the level of mass-transmission (*tawātur*), in which the Prophet ﷺ said that Jibrīl first recited the Qur'an to him in one *ḥarf*, and the Prophet ﷺ continued to ask for more until it was recited in seven *aḥruf*. This was likewise affirmed when ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Hishām ibn Ḥakīm differed in their recitation of Sūrah al-Furqān, and the Prophet ﷺ declared of both, "It was revealed to be recited in this way," adding, "This Qur'an has been revealed to be recited in seven different *aḥruf*, so recite it whichever way is easier for you." The scholars of the tradition offered various explanations of the seven *aḥruf*—that they are seven dialects, seven modes of reading, or seven types of phrases—and while no single explanation may capture the whole, together they clarify the permitted range of pronunciation. There is scholarly consensus that the seven *aḥruf* yield different yet equally valid readings. Ibn al-Jazarī, commenting on the verse, "Do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction" (4:83), explained that the differences among the *aḥruf* are those of complementation and harmony, not contradiction, for contradiction cannot exist in the speech of Allah. The Prophet's request to ease recitation arose from the conditions of Medina, where the Muslim community had grown to include diverse tribes, dialects, and ethnicities amid widespread illiteracy. This created a need both for Qur'an teachers—the Prophet ﷺ publicly identified such teachers as ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, Sālim ibn Maʿqil, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb—and for cultural accommodation. The seven *aḥruf* thus represent, in part, a concession (*rukhṣah*) granted by Allah in response to a prophetic request, making recitation in any of them correct—not as variants of a fixed original, but as recitations of a singular yet multiform text. There is broad agreement that the *qirāʾāt* arose from this *rukhṣah*. Al-Ṭabarī narrated from Abū ʿĀliyah al-Riyāhī that various tribes recited to the Prophet ﷺ, each differing in language, and he approved all of them, with Banū Tamīm being the most eloquent. The *qirāʾāt* as known today are systematized reflections of this *rukhṣah*, not identical to the *aḥruf* themselves. Concern that the *rukhṣah* might be applied haphazardly prompted the companions, under ʿUthmān and with unanimous approval, to finalize the compilation of the Qur'an and regulate its dialectal scope; many scholars hold that some of the seven *aḥruf* were consequently not included in the ʿUthmānic codex. Preservation rested on both oral and written transmission—Abū Bakr's compilation required "two witnesses" for each verse—and the skeletal ʿUthmānic script itself accommodated multiple readings. Over the following centuries the discipline developed: the standardizing of readings through *ikhtiyār*, whereby a reciter systematized principles received from many teachers; the establishing of criteria for authentic readings, first stated explicitly by Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām; and the eventual formalization by Ibn al-Jazarī of three conditions for any reading to be Qur'an—a sound chain of transmission (*isnād*), conformity with the ʿUthmānic *rasm*, and conformity with Arabic grammar. A reading failing these becomes anomalous (*shādhdh*). Ibn Mujāhid was the first to limit the canonical readings to seven, naming his work *al-Sabʿah*, though this created some confusion by suggesting an erroneous link between the seven readings and the seven *aḥruf*; later scholars added three more, yielding the ten. These ten *qurrāʾ*—Nāfiʿ, Ibn Kathīr, Abū ʿAmr, Ibn ʿĀmir, ʿĀṣim, Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʾī, Abū Jaʿfar, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf—were the most advanced students of the companions and successors, distinguished by piety and mastery. Notably, only three were of pure Arab lineage, the rest being *mawālī*, reflecting the diversity of the scholarly community. Each is assigned two canonical transmitters (*rāwīs*), which is why we speak, for instance, of "Ḥafṣ from ʿĀṣim," distinguishing a reading (*qirāʾah*) from a narration (*riwāyah*), and further from the *ṭarīq* of the transmitters' students. On whether all are Qur'an, the number reaching *tawātur* was traditionally held to be seven, though later scholarship agreed to include the three additional readings, holding they too meet the conditions and are mass-transmitted; the discussion remains technical, bound to the definition of *tawātur* and the limits of legal certainty. The preponderant view distinguishes phonetic features bearing no impact on meaning—where each precise pronunciation need not be individually traced to the Prophet ﷺ—from variations affecting meaning. Al-Nawawī issued a *fatwa* that one who swore by divorce that Allah "spoke" the Qur'an in the seven *qirāʾāt* would not have his oath broken, and al-Ashmūnī added that the readings of Abū Jaʿfar, Yaʿqūb, and Khalaf complete the ten as *mutawātir*, recitable in and out of prayer. Preference among readings never stemmed from doubt about the text's preservation but from linguistic considerations of eloquence and dialect. Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib favored what ʿĀṣim and Nāfiʿ agreed upon; the founders of the schools showed preferences—Mālik regarded Nāfiʿ's reading as "Sunnah," al-Shāfiʿī called Ibn Kathīr's "our reading," and Ḥanafī practice aligned with ʿĀṣim and later Abū ʿAmr. Custom (*ʿurf*) also bears on jurists' rulings; Ibn Mufliḥ noted it is disliked in the Ḥanbalī school to recite in a manner unfamiliar to a locality lest it cause *fitnah*, though he did not deem it disliked to choose a reading with more letters for greater reward. Ibn ʿĀshūr affirmed that all ten are convergent variations, and that preponderances relate to eloquence and transmission, not to any deficiency in the Qur'an's inimitability, whose core lies in the conformity of the speech to its addressees. The geographical spread of the readings shifted over time: Warsh from Nāfiʿ prevailed in Egypt, then Dūrī from Abū ʿAmr dominated much of the Muslim world, as Ibn al-Jazarī attested. Today, per Ibn ʿĀshūr, the most common are Nāfiʿ (in the *riwāyahs* of Qālūn and Warsh across parts of North and West Africa) and ʿĀṣim (throughout the East). The reason for Ḥafṣ's present dominance remains historically undetermined; the common attribution to Ottoman policy is unverified and does not withstand scrutiny. The wisdom behind the *qirāʾāt* includes easing recitation, softening hearts toward Islam, honoring this *ummah* with a blessing given to no other, fulfilling Allah's promise to preserve His Book, multiplying reward, and demonstrating the Qur'an's eloquence in generating manifold meanings without contradiction. Ibn al-Jazarī categorized their differences into three: variation in wording without change of meaning, as in *ṣirāṭ*; variation in both with both meanings applicable, as in *mālik* and *malik* in al-Fātiḥah; and variation where only one meaning applies at a time yet harmoniously, as in *kudhibū* and *kudhdhibū* (12:110). As al-Qasṭalānī observed, scholars never ceased extracting from each reading meanings not found in others. Such variations enrich *tafsīr*—as in "great" versus "much" sin regarding wine (2:219)—and inform legal rulings, as in the active-passive forms bearing on *khulʿ* (2:229) and the conjugations concerning *ribā* (30:39). In the end, the *qirāʾāt* are how the Qur'an fulfills its promise to speak to all humanity until the trumpet is blown. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Qur’an was revealed in seven *aḥruf* (modes or forms), allowing for different ways of recitation to accommodate the diverse dialects and linguistic abilities of the early Muslim community. 2. The *qirā’āt* (canonical modes of Qur’anic recitation) are systemized traditions, each transmitted by reliable chains, reflecting the mercy and flexibility Allah granted to the ummah in worship and learning. 3. All authentic *qirā’āt* are considered valid and divinely sanctioned, with their differences seen as complementary and harmonious, deepening understanding and connection to the Qur’an’s message. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/10-acts-of-worship-when-you-cant-pray # 10 Acts of Worship When You Can't Pray **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan **Published:** April 11, 2022 **Updated:** September 12, 2025 Ramadan is a month of worship filled with fasting, prayer, and Qur’an. During this time, the Prophet ﷺ was known to be abundantly generous, engage in extra *dhikr*, and recite even more Qur’an. So as we continue to come closer to Allah throughout this month, let’s do our best to embody prophetic precedent and diversify our worship. And while the ritual act of *salah* is undoubtedly one of the best ways of connecting with Allah, the reality is that (especially for our sisters!), *salah* is not always an option. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have other opportunities to keep yourself engaged. Below are ten ways to increase and change up your worship! --- ## 1 - Renew your intentions for mundane acts. - The Prophet ﷺ said, “Deeds are by their intentions, and a person will be rewarded according to their intention” \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. Anything you do can be transformed into an act of worship with the simple intention of doing so for Allah’s sake. Getting some shut-eye to have energy throughout the day while fasting? Spending hours helping your family prepare and clean up after *iftar*? All of these routine activities can be spiritual tools that bring you closer to Allah. - So how do you renew your intentions? It’s as easy as verbalizing it in your mind. For example, when you’re setting up the dinner table for *iftar*, you can think, “O Allah, I am preparing this for your sake.” And no need to stop there. You can also intend to help prepare to make your family happy, serve your parents, give everyone the strength they need to stand in prayer, and so on and so forth–all to please Allah! --- ## 2 - Recite Qur’an. - The Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah, he will be credited with a good deed, and a good deed gets a ten-fold reward. I do not say that *Alif-Lam-Mim* is one letter, but *Alif* is a letter, *Lam* is a letter and *Mim* is a letter" \[Tirmidhi\]. Motivate yourself to read more Qur’an by visualizing the endless reward you’re gaining by reading even just one line! This is not to mention that your reward in Ramadan is further multiplied, so every letter is worth even more. - Do you find it difficult to recite Qur’an? The Prophet ﷺ said, "The one who is proficient in the recitation of the Qur'an will be with the honorable and obedient scribes \[i.e., angels\], while the one who recites the Qur'an and finds it difficult to recite, doing his best to recite it in the best way possible, will have double the reward" \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. - On your menstrual cycle? Download a Qur’an app on your phone or tablet to listen to or recite.[^1] --- ## 3 - Read Qur’anic commentary (tafsir). - Familiarizing yourself with the meanings and stories in the Qur’an allows you to more intimately connect with Allah’s words. It’ll give you the tools you need to engage in [reflection](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/tadabbur-the-hunt-for-quranic-treasures-infographic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602378729&usg=AOvVaw1RUQ3-9N8c_aIh3GaHTa-k) and understand the relevance of the Qur’an in your daily life. - Don’t know where to start? Check out our [list](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/best-islamic-tafsir-books-to-read-during-ramadan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602379102&usg=AOvVaw3Axk-OnOnKH5fv8md5ALxE) [of](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/best-islamic-tafsir-books-to-read-during-ramadan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602379287&usg=AOvVaw232P00rIrwFW76xWdPeSh7) *[tafsir](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/best-islamic-tafsir-books-to-read-during-ramadan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602379471&usg=AOvVaw1YlY_qKjH3N8uvEASbjytg)* [books](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/best-islamic-tafsir-books-to-read-during-ramadan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602379647&usg=AOvVaw2who5jk09t7xgIQa_TreFs) available in English. Not a fan of reading? Go ahead and follow along our [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/juz-1-with-dr-tesneem-alkiek-quran-30-for-30-season-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602380014&usg=AOvVaw2wN0SGJy-9gegAjypjT6To)[Qur’an 30for30 series.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/juz-1-with-dr-tesneem-alkiek-quran-30-for-30-season-3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602380185&usg=AOvVaw0xdcRtIQS6M0koUyqO2Z_U) --- ## 4 - Make du’a and talk to your Creator. - Take time to talk to Allah. Tell Him that you want to know Him better, that you want to be happy and successful in this life and the next. Ask Him to settle whatever troubles you may have and rest assured that whatever difficulty you are going through does not go unnoticed by the [One Who Always Listens](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-one-who-always-listens-allahs-name-al-sami&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602380864&usg=AOvVaw3MDCBUrWSU03tSKRZy-uq3). - The Prophet ﷺ said, “*Du’a* (itself) is worship” \[Abu Dawud\] and Allah commands us to make *du’a* to Him \[Qur’an, 40:60\]. Thinking of what to say to Allah can sometimes feel overwhelming. For inspiration, check out our free [ebook](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/a-dua-a-day-prophetic-prayers-for-ramadan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602381718&usg=AOvVaw1zrSze9iYrDYxCnNRFGn57) to get a list of Ramadan *du’a*s. - Make *du’a* for others. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The supplication of a Muslim for his brother in his absence will certainly be answered. Every time he makes a supplication for good for his brother, the angel appointed for this particular task says, ‘Ameen! May it be for you, too’” \[Muslim\]. --- ## 5 - Express gratitude. - Make a conscious effort to think about all the blessings Allah has bestowed on you from your physical appearance, your talent, and your intellect, to your family, friends, and material possessions. Thank Allah verbally by saying *Alhamdulilah* (Praise to Allah). Think of how being able to express gratefulness is a blessing in itself, feel the sincerity of your own gratefulness, and let your heart be moved by the words. - Say thank you to someone you have not thanked. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever does not thank the people has not thanked Allah” \[Tirmidhi\]. Show gratitude to your mother for every little thing she has done in your life. Or offer thanks to your spouse or sibling for the little things they do like preparing a meal or helping run errands. --- ## 6 - Practice mindfulness and hold yourself accountable (muhasabah). - Choose a time of day and get into a comfortable posture in a quiet and secluded place. Be aware of your natural breathing and then progressively relax the muscle tension throughout your body. Settle your state of heart and mind by feeling the life and energy Allah gave you throughout your body. Know and feel that Allah is watching you, and focus on being present with Him in that moment. - Take a healthy, critical look at yourself. What makes you disobey Allah? Self-accountability (*muhasabah*) is not about beating yourself up for your own shortcomings, but seeing yourself (*nafs*) for what it is, realizing the greatness of Allah in comparison, and working on positive change. - Make a list of things you need to work on, from character traits like anger or stubbornness, to habits like wasting time. Reflect on the gratitude list you made. Reflect on this new list. As you raise your hands for *du’a,* imagine them as mountains next to each other. What do they look like? What have you been given by Allah? What do you owe Him? --- ## 7 - Serve your parents/family members. - The Prophet ﷺ said, “He who desires an increase in sustenance and his life to be prolonged should maintain good ties with his blood relations” \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. Serving our parents and family members opens the floodgates to Allah’s mercy and blessings. And like every other good deed, caring for our family’s needs during the month of Ramadan in particular is multiplied many-fold. - Ask your family members if they need help running errands, setting up a doctor’s appointment, or watching their children. Not only will helping them gain Allah’s pleasure if done for His sake, but it will also strengthen your relationships. --- ## 8 - Give charity. - The Prophet ﷺ said, "Every day, charity is due from each joint in your body. Every utterance of Allah's glorification (i.e., *SubhanAllah*) is an act of charity, and every utterance of praise of Him (i.e., *Alhamdulillah*) is an act of charity, and every utterance of profession of Faith (i.e., *La ilaha illa Allah*) is an act of charity, and every utterance of His Greatness (i.e., *Allahu Akbar*) is an act of charity; and enjoining good is an act of charity and forbidding what is disreputable is an act of charity; and two *rakah*s of prayer which one offers in the forenoon (i.e., *Duha*) will suffice for all this" \[Muslim\]. - “The Prophet ﷺ was the most generous of men, and he was the most generous during the month of Ramadan when Jibril visited him every night and recited the Qur'an to him. During this period, the generosity of Messenger of Allah ﷺ waxed faster than the rain bearing wind” \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. - Make an effort to give locally to support your immediate community, in addition to donating to the wonderful relief causes globally. You can also give *sadaqah jaariyah*, continuous charity, to [Yaqeen Institute](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/donate&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1649720602386805&usg=AOvVaw3g7i4OpQk4mLqe2Sc_GTYX) as we strive to instill faith into the hearts of people. --- ## 9 - Feed a fasting person. - The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, he will have a reward like theirs, without that detracting from their reward in the slightest” \[Ibn Majah\]. So, invite your friends, neighbors, and family members, and if you don’t have the time to cook, go ahead and order takeout. --- ## 10 - Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah (dhikr). - The Prophet ﷺ said, "He who utters 100 times in a day these words, '*La ilaha illa Allah, wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-hamd, wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadeer* (There is no true god except Allah; He is One and He has no partner; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise, and He is Omnipotent),' he will have a reward equivalent to that of emancipating ten slaves, one hundred good deeds will be recorded to his credit, one hundred of his sins will be blotted out from his scroll, and he will be safeguarded against the devil on that day till the evening; and no one will exceed him in doing more excellent good deeds except someone who has recited these words more often than him" \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. - The Prophet ﷺ said, "He who utters, '*SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi* (Glory be to Allah and His is the praise)' 100 times a day, his sins will be obliterated even if they are equal to the extent of the foam of the ocean" \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. - The Prophet ﷺ said, "He who utters 10 times, *'La ilaha illa Allah, wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-hamd, wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadeer* (There is no true god except Allah; He is One and He has no partner; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise, and He is Omnipotent),' he will have a reward equal to that of freeing four slaves from the progeny of Prophet Ismail" \[Bukhari and Muslim\]. - Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (rA) reported: We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he asked, "Is anyone of you unable to earn a thousand good deeds?" One of those present asked, "How can one earn 1,000 good deeds in a day?" He ﷺ replied, "By saying *SubhanAllah* (praise be to Allah) 100 times, 1,000 good deeds will be recorded for him or 1,000 sins will be blotted out from his record" \[Muslim\]. - The Prophet ﷺ said, "I met Ibrahim (as) on the Night of Ascension (*Al-Isra*), and he said to me, 'O Muhammad, convey my greetings to your *ummah*, and tell them that Jannah has a vast plain of pure soil and sweet water. It is a plain leveled land. The plants grow there by uttering: *SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illa Allah* and *Allahu Akbar* (Allah is free from imperfection; praise be to Allah; there is no true god except Allah; and Allah is Greatest)" \[Tirmidhi\]. There are so many ways to worship Allah in addition to *salah*. So, what are you waiting for? Ramadan time is ticking. --- ## Notes [^1]: There is a difference of opinion regarding reading the Qur’an (even without touching a *mushaf*) when not in a state of *wudu*’. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/best-islamic-tafsir-books-to-read-during-ramadan # Best Qur'an resources to read in English this Ramadan **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Tags:** Blog, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** April 7, 2022 **Updated:** March 3, 2025 The Qur’an is an ocean of gems. Our predecessors knew this, which is why they authored a plethora of books that reflect on the profound meanings behind Allah’s speech. Compiled here is a list of books our Yaqeen scholars and fellows have enjoyed reading and referencing. We hope that you can find a deeper connection with the Qur’an by glimpsing at any one of these wonderful English resources (listed in no particular order). - ***Qur’an 30 for 30: Seerah Edition* by Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Ismail Kamdar** - Many chapters and verses of the Qur’an were revealed addressing specific events that occurred during the *seerah*. This book delves into select verses from each respective *juzʾ* and is [free to download here.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/quran-30-for-30-seerah) - ***Qur’an 30 for 30: The Companion Reader* by Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Ismail Kamdar** - This edition summarizes key ideas in each *juzʾ* with a focus on the divine arrangement of the Qur’an and is [free to download here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/quran-30for30-the-companion-reader). - ***Way to the Qur’an* by Khurram Murad** - A powerful short read about how the companions of the Prophet ﷺ approached the Qur’an: with their body, mind, and heart. The author shows us how to view the Qur’an, not as a written piece, but as a force that can drive our daily lives. - ***How to Approach the Qur’an* by Jamaal Al-Din Zarabozo** - Highlighting the virtues of reciting the Qur'an, this particular book comes highly recommended by converts, for converts. - ***114 Tips to Help You Finally Memorize the Qur’an* by Suleiman Hani** - A keepsake to motivate the young and the old to begin and continue memorizing the Qur’an. This book is great to reference and refresh our hearts with tips and techniques to become a *hafidh al-Qur’an*, memorizers of the Qur’an. - ***The Crowning Venture* by Saadia Mian** - A gem of relatable and inspiring stories from female memorizers of the Qur’an. - ***Meanings of Juz Amma* by Tajan Quran Institute** - A very easy, large print book that’s perfect for families to read together, covering *surah*s many of us already know by heart. - ***Tafseer As-Sadi* by Abdur Rahman Nasir As-Sadi** - This robust 10 volume series offers an uncomplicated, deep, and insightful explanation of the verses of the Qur’an. - ***Tafsir Ibn Kathir* by Ibn Kathir** - This is a famous work often referenced by scholars from all fields. - ***Safwat al-Tafasir* by Muhammad As-Sabuni** - A contemporary, simple and concise *tafsir* that combines multiple classical works. - ***Ma’ariful Quran* by Muhammad Shafi** - An eight volume series that employs an easy narrative style and examines thematic discussions on certain groups of verses. - ***Tafsir Surah Al-Fatihah* by Abu Rumaysah** - A concise and thorough explanation behind the most read chapter, Surah al-Fatihah*.* - ***The Heart of the Qur'an* by Asim Khan** - A short and wonderful *tafsir* of Surah Yasin with charts and diagrams for visual learners. - ***The Kingdom of God* by Asim Khan** - Another short read of Surah Mulk’s *tafsir* with images and diagrams to aid, as well as a foreword by Mufti Menk. - ***When the Stars Prostrated: Meditations on Surat Yusuf* by Mohammad Elshinawy and Rania Abuisnaineh** - A comforting read that captures the novel-reader inside you, this *tafsir* of Surah Yusuf offers deep insight into how each verse permeates into our current lives. - ***Lessons from Surah al-Kahf (Pearls from the Qur'an)* by Yasir Qadhi**  - These lessons offer incredible insights into verses from a  *surah* that was revealed to give strength to the Prophet ﷺ.\[See similarly: *Lessons from Surah Yusuf (Pearls from the Qur'an)* by Yasir Qadhi\]. - ***Pondering Over the Quran* by Amin Islahi (translated by Mohammed Sayeem Kayani)** - This commentary spans multiple books to cover multiple *surah*s in-depth, while maintaining a focus on the coherence of the Qur’an. - ***An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an* by Furhan Zubairi** - A primer to delve into the various branches of Qur’anic studies and a perfect addition to any teaching curriculum. If you’re interested in this topic as a whole, Yaqeen also has [multiple papers](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/faith/quran) about it, with more in the pipeline. **Translations of the Qur'an** - ***The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)* by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem** - A translation for a reader looking for just the plain, brief points, and an easy, natural reading of the Qur’an. - ***The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English* by Yahya Emerick** - A translation of the Qur’an in a modern, free-flowing English void of ‘ye’ and ‘nay’ with extensive footnotes to give commentary on the revelation of the verses, significant changes the early Muslims faced after it was sent down, and the author’s own personal affirmations of the one true God. - ***The Clear Quran* by Dr. Mustafa Khattab** - A timeless translation that gives context to each *surah*, especially for those who may still be unfamiliar with the *seerah* of the Prophet ﷺ. As with every book and author, there will be errors and controversies, because only Allah knows the real, full meaning behind His Holy Book. However, we hope that you can take what is good to deepen your connection with the Qur’an this Ramadan. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-introduction-to-ulum-al-quran-the-field-of-quranic-studies # An Introduction to 'Ulum-al-Qur'an: The Field of Qur'anic Studies **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 30, 2022 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Introduction “It does not become worn out by repetition and its wonders do not come to an end.”[^1] One of the marvels of the Qur’an, beyond its transcendent nature, is its vast scope which addresses numerous dimensions of human nature. Every individual approaches the Qur’an from a unique angle driven by an intellectual query or triggered by a spiritual experience. These queries and experiences shape our engagement with the words of the Creator. A primary cause of the Qur’an’s revelation is to foster a personal reflective connection with the Divine through *[tadabbur](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648656045296143&usg=AOvVaw24KaY21rLFlWVVKZMPKFDp)*.[^2]  Our pursuit of proper *tadabbur* prompts a multi-faceted examination of the Qur’an’s inimitable nature, textual history, linguistic styles, theological premises, ethical standards, and legal injunctions. *Tadabbur* subsumes well-established theological stances regarding the Qur’an’s message and spiritual aptitude for its spiritual guidance. Recipients of the same message vary in their receptive and responsive modes based on their belief and spiritual statuses.[^3] Unlocking the Qur’anic text was the main objective behind the development of diverse Islamic studies. Hence, *tadabbur* and other forms of Qur’anic engagement utilize different research methods belonging to a wide array of disciplines. The ongoing evolution of these disciplines necessitated that topics related to the Qur’an’s text and context be compiled under the designated field of Qur’anic Studies (*ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*). In this way, Qur’anic Studies emerged as a synthesis of  various disciplines rather than an independent area of study. The disciplinary diversity of the field naturally generated many sub-disciplines and sub-genres engaged with the vastness of the Book. *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* is therefore an umbrella term for various disciplines and areas of studies related to the Qur’an’s meaning, oral and written history, and rendition. One of the most famous disciplines among Muslims, Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*), is generally considered part, and one of the goals, of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*. *Tafsīr* is by far the most exhaustive intellectual enterprise given its critical object of uncovering the intended meanings behind Allah’s words. It relies on exegetical principles; lexical, grammatical, and rhetorical explanations; Prophetic traditions; circumstances and settings of revelation; variant readings; and abrogation. In addition, the field of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* is a prerequisite for undertaking a wider textual and contextual study of the meanings of the Qur’an while alerting us to the integrity and inimitability of the text. This article introduces the history and development of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, provides a mental map of its major disciplines, highlights its key classical contributions, and gives examples of how this field furnishes a deeper connection to the multi-layered nature of the Qur’anic text. First, we define the terms Qur’an and *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*. Second, we introduce some classical masterpieces in the field. Third, we introduce and elaborate on Imam al-Bulqīnī’s taxonomy of 50 Qur’anic sub-disciplines grouped in six categories: 1) circumstances of revelation, 2) transmission, 3) phonetics and elocution, 4) rhetorical devices, 5) interpretive principles, and 6) rhetorical styles. These technical disciplinary designations not only facilitate Qur’anic research and exegetical endeavours, but also strengthen our exercise of *tadabbur* by showcasing multiple approaches to engaging with the text and providing numerous tools of comprehension and reflection. This article’s survey of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* serves two purposes. First, it provides a roadmap for Muslims seeking an accessible overview of approaches to the Qur’an. Second, it offers a pedagogical resource for students of knowledge, introducing a brief review of the literature and outlining the disciplinary designations of the field. --- ## Definition of the Qur’an Although the term *Qurʾān* is the most frequently used in the Book to refer to itself, Allah describes it with several alternate names such as *al-Furqān* (the Criterion), *al-Dhikr* (the Reminder), and *al-Kitāb* (the Book). Many characteristics of the Qur’an are also mentioned within such as “glad tiding” (*bushrā*)[^4]; “knowledge” (*ʿilm*)[^5]; “trustworthy handhold” (*al-ʿurwah al-wuthqā*);[^6]  “the Truth” (*ḥaqq*);[^7] ‘the rope of Allah” (*ḥabl Allāh*);[^8] and “a clear statement for mankind” (*bayān li-l-nās*).[^9] Reflecting on these Qur’anic names increases our faith in the revelation, deepens our understanding of its message, and strengthens our connection with our Creator.[^10] Prior to exploring the different approaches of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, a brief discussion of the scholarly definition of the Qur’an itself will help guide our understanding of its genres and their disciplinary designations. Multi-disciplinary engagements with the Qur’an resulted in multi-dimensional definitions of the sacred text, with each definition highlighting a unique approach to the Book of Allah.[^11] Some linguists held that the word *Qurʾān* is a proper noun.[^12] Others held that the word is a verbal noun derived from the root-verb[^13] *qaraʾa* which means ‘read’ or ‘compile’ (*jamaʿa*).[^14] Although Qur’anic verses frequently use the word *qurʾān* to denote ‘recitation,’[^15] different derivations of *qaraʾa* also signify meanings of understanding, reflection, learning, worship, and following. *Jamaʿa* implies the compilation of the Book’s chapters and verses. The technical definition of the Qur’an aims to describe the words of Allah preserved by oral transmission and written codices. Being concerned with the canonicity and the authenticity of the text, most disciplines (including Qur’anic studies, law, theology and linguistics) demarcate the boundaries of Allah’s final message by focusing on a common set of textual characteristics including inimitability (*iʿjāz*), mass transmission (*tawātur*), and conformity with the ʿUthmānic orthography (*rasm*). Accordingly, a common interdisciplinary definition of the Qur’an is: The speech of Allah revealed upon His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Its recitation is used in acts of worship and its smallest chapter is miraculous in nature.[^16] --- ## The scope and significance of ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān The field of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* refers to groups of principles, rules, and characteristics that coherently relate to some aspect of the Qur’an.[^17] However, the field was not traditionally given a particular technical definition by even its most famous works such as *al-Burhān* *fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* by al-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392) and *al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* by al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505). The word *ʿUlūm* (s. *‘ilm*) denotes the multiplicity of disciplines concerning the Qur’an. Some scholars treat the term *ulūm* generally to mean what is known (*maʿlūm*), which encompasses any stated or implied information. Hence, any datum related to the Qur’an from any perspective can be included in the realm of Qur’anic sciences. For example, al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) reported the opinion of some scholars that the Qur’an contains 77,000 sciences which are then multiplied by four since every word in the Qur’an has an inward meaning, an outward meaning, an aspect (*ḥadd*), and a perspective (*maṭlaʿ* or *muṭṭalaʿ*).[^18][\[a\]](#cmnt1)[\[b\]](#cmnt2)[\[c\]](#cmnt3)[\[d\]](#cmnt4)[\[e\]](#cmnt5) Similarly, al-Qādī Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 544/1148) cited various scholarly opinions placing the number of the Qur’anic sciences in the range of 50 to 70,000.[^19] There is more to explore in the Qur’an that any human effort can encompass. It is the manifestation of endless marvels which believers are encouraged to ponder, identify, and reflect on in everyday life. Notwithstanding the classical tradition’s tremendous scholarship on the Qur’an, this framework invites us to engage creatively with Allah’s revelation. In this regard, al-Ghazālī’s suggestion can be taken to mean that human capabilities of knowledge have the potential to develop new areas of studies and research that never existed before.[^20] --- ## Brief history of the classical field of ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān We do not know of any scholarly works before the 4th/10th century that addressed *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* as an independent set of disciplines in the manner common today.[^21] Rather, *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* topics were addressed across *tafsīr* introductions, legal *tafsīr*s (*aḥkām al-Qurʾān*), topics of legal proofs (*mabāḥith al-adillah*) in books of legal theory, and specialized works on particular Qur’anic topics. These works focused on areas such as the Qur’an’s multiple readings (*qira’āt*), abrogation (*naskh*), semantic synonymity (*wujūh* and *nazāʾir*), ambiguous words or phrases (*mushkil al-Qurʾān*), and grammatical analysis (*i’rāb al-Qurʾān*)*.* Although some early books included the term *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* in their titles, such as *al-Ḥāwī fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* by Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Marzubān (d. 309/921) and *al-Burhān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*[^22] by ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥufī (d. 430/1038), the voluminous sizes of their manuscripts indicate that they were *tafsīr*s rather than books exclusively dedicated to *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*. An example of an extant book is Makkī ibn Abī Tālib’s (d. 437/951) *tafsīr* “*al-Hidāyah ilā Bulūgh al-Nihāya,*” in which he incorporated many of the earlier works on *tafsīr* and *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*. In the introduction, Makkī said that he relied on *al-Istighnā* by Abū Bakr al-Udfuwī (d. 388/998), which dedicated about 300 sections to *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*.[^23] Makkī added that he drew from more than 1000 works on *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, in addition to *tafsīr*s.[^24] *Fahm* *al-Qurʾān* by al-Muḥāsabī (d. 243/587) is arguably the earliest work on *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*,[^25] prior to the technical designation of the term, that is available today. Beginning from the 5th/11th century, tremendous scholarship was undertaken on *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* such as *al-Burhān fī Mushkilāt al-Qurʾān* by ʿAbdulmalik ibn Mansūr al-Jīlī, known as Shaidhalah, (d. 494/1100), *Funūn al-Afnān* by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1200), *Jamāl al-Qurrā* by al-Sakhāwī (d. 643/1245), and *al-Murshid al-Wajīz* by Abū Shāmah (d. 665/1266). Except for the first book, all of these works remain available in print today. Since designation and classification of disciplines were matters of individual reasoning (*ijtihād*), scholars continued to disagree over the number of Qur’anic sciences. Al-Zarkashī cited several scholars in *al-Burhān* who classified the Qur’an as having three main themes.[^26] For example, al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) said that Qur’anic themes include monotheism (*tawḥīd*), reports (*akhbār*), and rituals (*diyānāt*). ʿAlī ibn ʿEisā (d. 384/994) extended the list to include 30 themes (though according to al-Zarkashī, Shaidhalah considered all of *ʿ*Eisa’s themes to be encompassed in al-Ṭabarī’s three). Ibn al-*ʿ*Arabī divided the Qur’an’s topics into monotheism (*tawḥīd*), reminders (*tadhkīr*), and rulings (*aḥkām*). Abū al-Ḥakam ibn Barjān (d. 627/1229) said that the overall message of the Qur’an is covered by knowledge of Allah’s names and attributes, prophethood and its proofs, and moral responsibility (*taklīf*) and its tests. *Al-Burhān*, of Al-Zarkashī, is considered a hallmark of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* literature that set the tone for all subsequent scholarship. In this work, al-Zarkashī admitted that the Qur’anic sciences are uncountable and that the detailed synthesis of each science is an unattainable life-long endeavor. Hence, he limited his scope to the major principles of 47 sciences. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Bulqinī (d. 824/1316) authored *Mawāqi’ al-ʿUlūm fī Mawāqi’ al-Nujūm* in which he delineated 50 sciences. Al-Suyūṭī expanded on al-Bulqinī’s work in *al-Taḥbīr fī ʿUlūm al-Tafsīr*, where he extended the list to 101 sciences. The title of *al-Taḥbīr* is devoid of the term *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*; rather, it uses the term ‘exegetical sciences’ (*ʿUlūm al-Tafsīr*) to emphasize that the main objective of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, according to al-Suyūṭī, is assisting with the textual interpretation of the words of Allah. Afterward, al-Suyūṭī authored the field’s most cited work, *al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān.* He settled for the title of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* and limited the number of its sciences to 80.[^27] Every one of those sciences, according to al-Suyūṭī, is worthy of individual treatment[^28] and their amalgamation subsumes more than 300 sciences.[^29] Al-Suyūṭī added that most of these sciences attracted scholarship individually dedicated to a particular science and that he reviewed much of this literature.[^30] Expanding on *al-Itqān*, Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī (d. 1150/1737) authored *al-Ziādah wal Iḥsān fī* *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* and extended al-Suyūṭī’s list to 154 sciences. Al-Makkī devised new sciences and sub-disciplines, the total of which, according to him, may exceed 400 topics.[^31] Concomitant and subsequent works shifted to thematically covering *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* topics without much emphasis on the number of the sciences or the designation of areas of study. --- ## Al-Bulqīnī’s taxonomy of ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān Al-Bulqīnī’s taxonomy of the Qur’anic sciences captures the most common subjects in the field and encompasses the disciplines that al-Suyūṭī, al-Makkī, and other scholars added. It rests on six areas of study and includes a total of 50 disciplines organized as follows:[^32] 1. Places, Occasions, and Circumstances of Revelation (12 sub-disciplines) 2. Textual Transmission and Transmitters (6 sub-disciplines) 3. Phonetics and Elocution (6 sub-disciplines) 4. Linguistic Forms and Rhetorical Devices (7 sub-disciplines) 5. Meanings related to Rulings: Interpretive Principles (14 sub-disciplines) 6. Meanings related to Words: Rhetorical Devices (5 sub-disciplines) ![Chart of Qur'anic Studies (Ulum Al-Qur'an)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image7-645x1024.png) Below is a breakdown of each of the above areas of study alongside a layout of what they encompass, a review of the traditional literature related to each, and brief examples of their applications. --- ## Places, occasions, and circumstances of Revelation The Qur’an is not a philosophical text dedicated to a particular topic and a given audience. Rather, it was revealed over 23 years in response to various occasions, making its text “above all a text rooted in context.”[^33] This discipline employs a historical approach, examining the different circumstances that prompted the revelation which contributes to accounts of the Qur’an’s arrangement and collection. The final arrangement of *sūrahs*, as instructed by the Prophet ﷺ and applied to the compilation of ʿUthmān’s codex (*muṣḥaf*), does not follow the chronological order of revelation. Juxtaposing the two orders gives occasion for *tadabbur* and deepens understanding. The following twelve sub-disciplines were developed by extrapolating historical and Sunnah reports to highlight the setting in which a given verse or *sūrah* was revealed. They are also necessary to identify the different types of divine address that appear in the Qur’an and contour their intended prescriptions: 1. The Meccan revelation 2. The Medinan revelation \[Further classifications of the above two types include: what was revealed in the beginning, middle, or end of each period, what was revealed in Mecca but whose ruling is Medinan and the opposite, what was revealed in Mecca for the people of Medina and the opposite, Meccan *sūrahs* which resemble Medinan revelation and the opposite, Meccan verses in Medinan *sūrahs* and the opposite\]. 3. Verses revealed during travel 4. Verses revealed in the city \[The above two sub-disciplines documented places other than Mecca and Medina where the Prophet received Qur’anic revelation such Jerusalem, Juḥfa, Ḥudaybiyya, and al-Ṭāʾif\] 5. Verses revealed at night 6. Verses revealed during the day 7. Verses revealed in the summer 8. Verses revealed in the winter 9. Verses revealed in the Prophet’s bed or while he was asleep 10.  The occasions and  causes of revelation 11.  The first revealed verses 12.  The last revealed verses ![Chart - Places of Revelation - Ulum Al Quran](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image5-1024x382.png) One of the main themes of this discipline is the inner-Qur’anic chronology and the sequence of the Qur’an’s chapters and passages. The genre of the Meccan and Medinan settings provides a thorough analysis of the stages of revelation and the Qur’anic discourse-modes addressing a growing audience. Abū al-Qāsim al-Naisabūrī (d. 406/1016) asserted that the discipline of the Meccan and Medinan Qur’an comprises 25 sub-disciplines, knowledge of which is indispensable for an exegete of Allah’s book.[^34] Early independent works dedicated to the Meccan and Medinan Qur’an include the works of Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib and ʿAbdul ʿAzīz al-Dirīnī (d. 697/1297).[^35] However, scholars debated which of the three following aspects should form the basis of the Meccan and Medinan classification: 1) chronological distinction between before and after the immigration to Medina, 2) geographical location of a particular revelation, and 3) a verse’s intended audience. These features generated the various chronological, thematic, and literary characteristics of the categories of Meccan and Medinan revelation. Such characteristics set the stage for different hermeneutical techniques,[^36] such as ‘abrogation’ (*naskh*) and reconciliation between seemingly contradicting verses, and provide a critical account of the development of the Qur’anic discourse. Meccan revelation is more abstract, theologically focused, and spiritually intensive than its Medinan counterpart. It reflects a time when the Prophet ﷺ was struggling to build local support as most addressees opposed his message. Interestingly, many of the instances of prostration of recitation (*sujūd al-tilāwah*) are in the Meccan Qur’an to humble the arrogant nature of human beings. An example of the Qur’an’s literary style can be found in the frequent mention of word “Nay” (*kallā*\-كَلّا) in its latter half. The reason, probably, is that most of the second half comprises Meccan revelation, which addresses tyrants and oppressors who needed the threatening and rebuking tone. Although grouping Meccan and Medinan chapters or passages is primarily dependent on verified transmission from the Prophet’s companions, characteristics of both classifications may be independently utilized to determine the verses or *sūrahs* belonging to each group. For example, “O mankind” is a sign that the passage, or the *sūrah*, is Meccan while “O you have believed” is a sign of Medinan revelation. Many stories of previous prophets, Adam عليه السلام and Iblīs, and ancient peoples are mentioned in the Meccan revelation while legislation concerned with law and administration, and handling the hypocrites in society, are detailed in Medinan revelation. The latter themes paralleled the development of the Muslim community, the expanding role of the Prophet ﷺ (as a leader, judge, *muftī*, chief of the army, etc.), and the new Jewish-Christian context after the move to Medina. Tracing these historic, thematic, and literary characteristics in parallel with our study of the Prophet’s life (*sīrah*) brings the Qur’an to bear on real-life experiences, shapes our conceptions of how our faith principles evolved, and guides our engagement with *da*ʿ*wah* methodologies.[^37] In addition to the chronological schema of Meccan and Medinan Qur’an, the exploration of extra-scriptural traditions leads to setting out a diachronic order known as the ‘occasions of revelation’ (*asbāb al-nuzūl*) of particular verses and chapters. This framework views the Qur’an as “a dialogic text which engages the audience, rather than a linear narrative. It frequently uses *jumal inshāʾiyya* (affective sentences), in which it orders, persuades, prohibits, and questions its audience rather than introducing detached general instructions that might go over their head.”[^38] The merits of studying *asbāb al-nuzūl* include: 1) knowing the wisdom behind certain legislation, which helps dissect the different ramifications of a legal ruling, 2) reconciling between seemingly contradicting phrases according to certain exegetical and legal principles, 3) balancing the scope of application as determined by the generality of the phrase versus the specific occasion that causes its revelation, and 4) informing personal *tadabbur* through engaging with the life of the Prophet ﷺ and how the meanings of the verse might apply to oneself. Independent scholarship dedicated to *asbāb al-nuzūl* dates back to the early stages of the development of Islamic disciplines. Many *asbāb al-nuzūl* works lost or unpublished until today include those of Maymūn ibn Mahrān (d. 117/735) and ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī (d. 234/848). The works of *Asbāb al-Nuzūl* of al-Wāḥidī (d. 468/1075), *Asbāb al-nuzūl wa Qisās al-Furqāniyya* of Muḥammad ibn Asʿad al-ʿIrāqī (d. 566/1171), *al-ʿUjāb fī Bayān al-Asbāb* of Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqlānī (d. 852/1449) and *Lubāb al-Nuqūl fī asbāb al-Nuzūl* of al-Suyūṭī became the most referenced by subsequent works in the field. Additionally, *tafsīr* books as well as the margins of printed Qur’an (*muṣḥaf*s) included reports and discussions on *asbāb al-nuzūl*. From the perspective of *asbāb al-nuzūl*, the Qur’an can be divided into two categories: that which was revealed due to an incident or in response to a question, and that which was not. Al-Suyūṭī devised a third category of multiple verses that share one *sabab*.[^39] Examples in this category, according to Ibn ʿAqīlah, include the three verses (2:219; 4:43; and 5:91) that ruled on the prohibition of alcohol based on ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s question.[^40] On the other hand, a common phenomenon in the books of *tafsīr* is the mention of multiple occasions of revelation for one verse. In these situations, conflicting reports are reconciled through one of five mechanisms:[^41] 1. Adopting one as the original occasion (*sabab*) and considering the other to be its explanation (*tafsīr*).[^42]  2. Considering the earlier incident to be the original *sabab* and the later one an understanding of the application of the verse. This may be due to the possibility of a companion hearing the Prophet ﷺ reciting a previously-revealed verse following a particular situation and assuming it to be a new revelation.[^43] 3. Considering the two occasions as one *sabab* for the same verse.[^44] 4. Considering the verse to be revealed on two different occasions (that share the same Qur’anic ruling or objective).[^45]  5. Considering that the same verse was revealed more than once on different occasions.[^46] *Sūrah* *al-Ikhlās* is an example of the third or fourth mechanism—multiple occasions might have constituted a single *sabab*, or the *sūrah* may have been revealed multiple times. While the *sūrah* is known to have been revealed in response to theological questions raised to the Prophet ﷺ, multiple reports attribute these questions to different faith groups. One report narrates that a group of Meccan idolaters asked the Prophet ﷺ to “name the lineage of your Lord to us,” so Allah revealed the *sūrah*.[^47] Another report documents a Jewish group asking the Prophet ﷺ to “describe your Lord who sent you to us.” [^48] A third report references a Christian group from Najran coming to the Prophet ﷺ asking, “Describe your Lord to us. Is he made of aquamarine, ruby, gold, or silver?” The *sūrah* addresses these various questions by declaring the pure, uncompromising monotheism at the heart of Islam; this is why Al-Suyūṭī described *Sūrah al-Ikhlās* as a response to “\[the arguments of\] the Jews, Christians, pagans, idolaters, as well as anthropomorphism, incarnation, and pantheism advocates, and all false religions.” [^49] The debate over *Sūrah* *al-Layl*’s occasion of revelation presents another demonstration of the above mechanisms in action. While many scholars hold that the chapter’s theme of generosity captures Abū Bakr’s wise charity of freeing old and female slaves in Mecca, others held that it was revealed regarding Abū al-Daḥdāḥ al-Ansarī. He bought and donated a palm tree to a family in need in exchange for a palm tree in Jannah, as promised by the Prophet ﷺ. Since *asbāb al-nuzūl* also helps determine if the verse is Meccan or Medinan, the existence of these two reports has prompted a disagreement over whether *Sūrah* *al-Layl* was Meccan or Medinan. The majority opinion holds that it is Meccan and reconciles the incidents by extending the generosity theme to encompass both. However, if the conflicting reports cannot be reconciled, the authentic report is given precedence over the weak one. If all reports are authentic, various rules of verification and preponderance apply to select one report over the other. Finally, al-Suyūṭī added seven more sub-disciplines to the aforementioned ones, namely, that which was revealed at a known time of the day, exclusively to the Prophet ﷺ, to other prophets, more than once, multiple different times, or at once. He also dedicated a chapter to the different methods of revelation, from Jibrīl to the Prophet ﷺ or directly from Allah. These sub-disciplines, like the others, help develop a vibrant connection between the Muslim and the Qur’an by bringing the meanings of the verses to life. --- ## Textual transmission and transmitters Allah frequently commands the Prophet ﷺ in the Qur’an to ‘recite’ it to people, denoting the centrality of oral communication in the reception and delivery of the text. The Prophet ﷺ, in turn, ordered his companions, “Read as you were taught.”[^50] A common principle that Qur’an scholars often reference is that the “Qur’an’s reading is based on transmission,” a statement attributed to multiple companions including ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb[^51] and Zayd ibn Thābit, one of the Prophet’s scribes of the Qur’an.[^52] Al-Bayhaqī explained this statement to mean that following the reading styles of our predecessors is Sunnah, and that it is not permitted for a reading to contradict ʿUthmān’s *musḥaf* or the popular *qirā*ʾ*āt*, even if the rules of grammar allow or prefer it.[^53] Allah honored this *ummah* and privileged it over other nations with the unique chain of transmission (*isnād*) system. Since the Qur’an was preserved through an interwoven method of oral and written transmission, this genre scrutinizes the transmission process and investigates the reliability of the Qur’an’s transmitters and expert reciters. Although transmission studies are popularly known as a Hadith specialty, they were inevitably integrated within *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* given the communal obligation to preserve the Qur’an’s authenticity and the sensitivity of canonization in Muslim history. The genre is divided into five subdisciplines: 1. The *mutawātir*, readings narrated by mass transmission 2. The *āḥād*, readings narrated by solitary chains of transmission 3. The *shādh*, anomalous readings attributed to some of the companions’ successors (*tabiʾīn*) which did not meet the conditions of authentic readings 4. *Qirā*ʾ*āt al-Nabī*, different readings recited by the Prophet ﷺ 5. The memorizers (*ḥuffāz*) of the Qur’an 6. The transmitters (*ruwāt*) of the Qur’an ![Chart - Textual transmission - Ulum Al Quran](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image8-1024x436.png) Paralleling Hadith nomenclatures, scholars categorized the transmission of the Qur’an based on the status of its *isnād*. They demarcated its textual authenticity based on mass or popular transmission which signifies certainty (*yaqīn*) that the transmitted text consists of the words of Allah as conveyed by His Prophet ﷺ. This synthesis contributed to the preservation of the text by identifying *isnād*s that lack connectedness, credible transmitters, or profuse narration, all of which indicated anomalous or fabricated readings. *Isnād*s without popular recognition, or even unpopular variants with *isnād*s connected through a small number of credible transmitters, also fell into the same suspect category. None of the above are considered part of the Qur’an. Allah ordered the Prophet ﷺ to convey the Qur’an to people by reciting it to them. Conveyance through recitation subsumes verbal dictation, accurate articulation, and commitment to memory. The Prophet ﷺ did not read or write, nor did the majority of the initial recipients of the message. This made oral delivery the primary method of transmission, one that was immediately relevant to an established culture of oral transmission. It was this culture that preserved the Arabs’ history and literary heritage. Although the Prophet ﷺ also encouraged written documentation and appointed official Qur’anic scribes, he maintained verbal delivery as the principal method even after much of the Qur’an was written. Thus, the Qur’an was made accessible to all people through writing and personal codices, and the facilitation of recitation in private and public teaching. The Prophet ﷺ taught his companions the Qur’an in many ways (one-on-one teaching, group teaching, reciting in prayer, reciting in sermons, reciting in teaching circles, reciting to non-Muslims as a way of *daʿwah*, reciting the newest revelation that was revealed to him in the same setting, etc.). These various methods disseminated the Qur’an among companions in different proportions based on individual capacity. Examining the Qur’an’s transmission helps answer the following question: If the Prophet’s companions numbered in the tens of thousands, why did only a few of them read the entire Qur’an to the Prophet ﷺ or commit it to memory? The answer lies in the chief methods by which the companions learned the Qur’an from the Prophet: *iqrā*ʾ (the Prophet reciting to the companions) or *ʿard* (companions reciting what they memorized to the Prophet ﷺ). The terms can be used interchangeably to describe either method. *ʿArd* of the entire Qur’an required close companionship for a lengthy period of time, since the Qur’an was revealed in intervals over 23 years. Biographical works listed about 16 companions who did *ʿard* of all or most of the Qur’an and who became common links in the *isnād*s of the canonical *qirā*ʾ*āt*.[^54] Other biographies preserved the names of 21 companions who memorized the entirety of the Qur’an during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, including the aforementioned 16. Some biographies added to the list 13 companions who finished memorization after the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him).[^55] These numbers are considered conservative given the strict counting criteria applied by biographers. Nonetheless, the overall number of companions who practiced *iqrāʾ* or *ʿard* with the Prophet ﷺ surpasses the minimum number for *tawātur* (ranging from 4 to 70), according to the opinion that establishes *tawātur* based on the number of transmitters. The significance of this observation lies in proving that the Qur’an’s *isnād* was never interrupted nor subjected to solitary transmission (*āḥād*) since the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Hence, the classes of the Qur’an’s transmitters from the companions may be summarized as follows: 1. The companions who did *ʿard* of the entire or most of the Qur’an to the Prophet ﷺ (such as ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ubay, Zayd b. Thābit, Ibn Masʿūd, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, and Abū al-Dardāʾ). 2. The companions who received *iqrāʾ* from the Prophet, whether one-on-one or in groups. 3. The companions who memorized the entire Qur’an (*ḥuffāz*). 4. The companions who read the Qur’an to other companions (such as Abū Hurayrah and ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās). 5. The companions who were dedicated public Qur’an teachers (teaching the masses with no restrictions, such as Zayd ibn Thābit and ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿūd). 6. The companions who were private teachers (instructing dedicated students such as ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, and Ubay ibn Kaʿb). According to Abū al-Qāsim al-Hudhalī (d. 465/1073), the number of companions and their successors known to be the Qur’an’s transmitters is 229. The reason this number decreases in later biographical references is its later restriction to those who were better known for teaching the Qur’an than Hadith or law (*fiqh*) and whose students dispersed across the Muslim world.[^56] The companions’ (and the following generation’s) dedication to the transmission of the Qur’an is evident in the biographies of the early *qurrāʾ* and the *isnād*s of the canonical readings as we know them today. In his biographical work on the  Qur’an’s reciters, “*Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār,*” Imam al-Dhahabī classified 18 generations of reciters (up to the 8th/14th century), compiling a total of 734 reciters.[^57] Other resources expanded on al-Dhahabī’s work and included more biographies. Biographical literature contributed to the synthesis of *isnād* studies and to tracing the Qur’an’s transmission history. *Isnād*s of the ten *qirā*ʾ*āt* form an uninterrupted link between the ten readers and the Prophet ﷺ, and between them and us today. Some of the *qurrā*ʾ from the companions were dedicated Qur’an teachers who became the common link between hundreds of chains of narration. The transmission authority of those companions solidified the ordering of the variant *qirā*ʾ*āt* and synchronized the structure of subsequent system-readings (*ikhtiyār*) attributed to the ten eponymous *qurrā*ʾ.[^57] The ten canonical readings were systemized via intertwined chains of narration, all of which are associated with a group of *qurrāʾ* from the companions through proper *isnād* requirements. An *isnād*’s lack of credibility or conformity with *rasm* and proper grammar may de-canonize a reading, rendering it *shādh*. The identification of probable discrepancies in mass transmission was complemented by stipulating compliance with ʿUthmān’s codex and Arabic grammar. The categorization of *shādh* not only helps determine what is Qur’an and what is not, but also provides secondary sources for law and grammar. A manifestation of the *ummah*’s commitment to the Qur’an, and a reflection of Allah’s promise to preserve His Book, is the continuity of transmitting the Qur’an via uninterrupted *isnād* until today. This unique privilege favored the entire Muslim *ummah* with equal accessibility to every word of the Qur’an as initially delivered by the Prophet ﷺ to his companions. The above-mentioned fourth sub-discipline documents the different *qirāʾāt* reported from the Prophet ﷺ in a Hadith transmission style. Some Hadith collections dedicated chapters to this topic such as Abū Dawūd’s “*al-Ḥurūf wal-Qirāʾāt*” \[Individual Variants and Readings\] in which he compiled 39 narrations; al-Tirmidhī’s “*al-Qirāʾāt ʿan Rasūl Allah*” \[Readings Reported from the Prophet\] in which he complied 22 narrations; and al-Hākim’s “*Qirāʾāt al-Nabyy*” \[The Readings of the Prophet\] in which he compiled 110 narrations.[^58] The first work dedicated to this topic was written by Abū ʿAmr al-Dūrī (d. 264/877) *Juzʾ fīhi* *Qirāʾāt al-Nabyy,* in which he compiled the largest number of narrations: 130.[^59] Interestingly, this book is the only one that survived from al-Dūrī’s works and is from among the classical works on this topic. Among the lost works are the books of Ibn Mujāhid (d. 324/936) and Abū Nʿuaym al-ʾAṣbahānī (d. 430/947).[^60] Al-Suyūṭī added different queries to this catgeory’s list of sub-disciplines, such as the high and low *isnād*s and the methods of Qur’anic delivery. In addition to the credibility of transmitters, *isnād*s are classified in terms of their length (number of transmitters). Abū al-Faḍl ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī (d. 507/1113) and Abū ʿAmr ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245) as well as other scholars classified *isnād*s in terms of their proximity to the sources of reading into five categories such as the proximity to the Prophet ﷺ, proximity to one of the seven canonical readers, and proximity to one of the renowned books of *qirā*ʾ*āt*.[^61] Al-Suyūṭī also laid out the various styles of Qur’anic delivery, teaching, and learning. While Hadith sciences solicit nine styles of reception and narration, only two of them are afforded the recognition of authentic transmission of the Qur’an: reading to a master of Qur’anic recitation or listening to his/her recitation (within prescribed rules).[^62] The latter method was restricted by Qur’anic scholars as they differentiated between the companions and others in this regard. Only the companions were able to recite the Qur’an exactly as the Prophet ﷺ recited it, since the Qur’an was revealed in their native language and given their pure inner nature.[^63] Other Qur’an transmitters should be scrutinized according to the first method (reading to a master of Qur’anic recitation) since, unlike hadith transmission, not everyone is able to pronounce the words as articulately as their teacher. --- ## Phonetics and elocution In responding to the disbelievers’ preposterous inquiry, “Why was the Qur’an not revealed to him at once,” Allah explained the wisdom of gradually revealing it: “That We may thereby strengthen your heart,” and affirmed, “We have recited it in a distinct recitation” (*wa rattalnāhu tartīla*) (25:32). While *tartīl* in this context means distinct gradual revelation, it also implies a command to properly recite Allah’s words. This command was made clearer by the imperative to “recite the Qur’an with measured recitation” (73:4). Hence, as commonly known among Muslims, the proper pronunciation of Qur’anic words is an obligation. It glorifies Allah’s words and determines the validity of prayer, at least in reciting the opening chapter (*al-Fātiha*). As a unique form of performative hermeneutics, this genre focuses on the correct pronunciation of Qur’anic words, the accurate articulation of different dialectic phonetics, and the proper pausal and resuming modes of recitation. The significance of these sophisticated rules goes beyond ritualistic performances. They serve as tools of standardizing the Qur’anic text and eliminating any irregularities of speech that could have undermined its preservation. The following six sub-disciplines are commonly treated in the works of *tajwīd* and *qirāʾāt*. 1. *Waqf* (pause) identifies instances of pausal modes in recitation in coherence with *tafsīr* and accommodation of different teaching and learning methods. 2. *Ibtidā* (resume) describes how to resume the recitation after a pausal mode was adopted. 3. *Imāla* (inclination) is an Arabic dialectic phenome that shifts the long vowel *ā* to incline towards the long vowel *ī*, articulating a vowel’s sound between the two. *Imāla* also includes the inclination of one consonant towards another such as the *ṣ* toward the *s* which is known to be a type of *ishmām*. *Imāla* exists in most canonical *qiraʾāt* but is mostly present in certain readings such as Hamzah and Kisāʾī. The different styles of *imāla* showcase the Qur’an’s encompassment of distinct dialects, which accommodated the tribal diversity of the Arabs. 4. *Madd* (lengthening lone vowels) classifies vowels and delineates the grades or levels of their duration. In many instances, *madd* transcends phonetical performances to draw the reader’s attention towards certain words, lengthen the spiritual experience of their meanings, and beautify the intonation of syllables.       5. *Takhfīf al-Hamzah* (a lightened articulation form of the letter *hamzah*), an Arabic phoneme marking the devocalization of the *hamzah* for the sake of lightening the pronunciation of a word. In addition to accommodating dialectical diversity, *takhfīf al-hamzah* makes fluent one’s articulation of the Qur’anic words. Arabs used to lighten the articulation of *hamzah* in different styles such as lightening (*tashīl*), substituting (*ibdāl*), omitting (*isqāṭ*), and transferring the vowel to an unvocalized consonant preceding it (*naql*). *Takhfīf al-hamzah*, which was adopted by many Arabs including Quraysh and Hijaz tribes, was triggered by the fact that *hamzah* is the heaviest letter in pronunciation and the farthest point of articulation (*makhraj*) in the deep throat. 6. *Idghām* (assimilation), an Arabic phoneme indicating the assimilation of identical or similar consonants. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image1-1024x451.png) Multiple scholars examined the different modes of pronunciation and the spelling conventions in different Arab regions. Al-Suyūṭī noted that Abū Bark al-Wāsiṭī’s (d. 320/932) treatise *al-Irshād* enumerates 50 Arabic dialects used in the Qur’an,[^64] with Quraysh being the most frequent. Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889) in *Taʾwīl Muskhil al-Qurʾān* and Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002) in *al-Muḥtasib* discussed regional differences of dialects that influenced local readings, and Sībawayh (d. 180/796) in his *Kitāb* and al-Mubarrid (d. 286/899) in *al-Muqtaḍab* covered phonological conventions of spelling and pronunciation. In the final stages of compiling the Qur’an, the third caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35/565) formed a committee, the majority of whose members were from Quraysh. In case of disagreement over any phonetic articulation, ʿUthmān instructed the committee to follow the dialect of Quraysh because “the Qur’an was revealed according to their dialect.”[^65] Arguably, ʿUthmān’s instruction was based on an interpretation of 14:4, “We did not send any messenger except \[speaking\] in the language of his people” wherein the word ‘people’ referred to Quraysh. This interpretation may be supported by another verse (6:66) describing Quraysh as “your \[Muḥammad’s\] people.” However, the meaning of ‘Arabic’ in (43:3), “Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an,” is said to encompass all the dialects.[^66] Moreover, the Qur’an contains dialectical pronunciations that do not agree with the dialect of Quraysh. Thus, some scholars interpreted ʿUthmān’s statement to indicate that most of the Qur’an, rather than its entirety, was revealed in the dialect of Quraysh.[^67] In addition to the tremendous scholarship on *tajwīd*, *qira’āt*, and orthography of the *muṣḥaf*, the first two sub-disciplines of pausal (*al-waqf*) and resuming modes (*al-ibtidā*) were given significant attention by Qur’an scholars. Al-Hudhalī states, somewhat hyperbolically, that “there is no scholar except that he authored on *al-waqf* and *al-ibtidā*.”[^68] Indeed, the long list of these specialized works include that of al-Zajjāj (d. 311/923), Abū Jaʿfar al-Naḥḥās (338/950), ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328/940), al-Dānī (d. 444/1053) and al-Sajāwandī (d. 600/1204). The sub-discipline was established on the authority of a report by al-Ḥākim from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar in which he said, > We have lived a long period of time when one of us is taught faith (*imān*) before the Qur’an. The *sūrah* would be sent down upon Muhammad ﷺ so we learned its \[rulings of\] permissibility and prohibition, and where to pause upon reading it as you now learn the Qur’an. Today, we see men to whom the Qur’an is given before *imān* so that they recite it from beginning to end knowing nothing of its commands and prohibitions, nor where to pause when reading it.[^69] Al-Naḥḥas commented on this report saying, “This hadith indicates that they used to learn *waqf*s as they used to learn the \[meanings of the\] Qur’an.”[^70] Al-Suyūṭī added, “Ibn ʿUmar’s saying ‘a long period of our lives’ implies that this was an established consensus by the companions.”[^71] Imam Ibn al-Jazarī said that many late scholars stipulated that a *qārī* could not receive their license (*ijāzah*) until they knew how to practice *waqf* and *ibtidā* properly.[^72] The beauty of *waqf* and *ibtidā* manifests itself in the scholarly interpretations deduced from certain pausal positions. Such positions are determined by the particular perspective of each disciplinary designation. In al-Hudhalī’s works on *waqf* and *ibtidā*, he highlighted what he termed “the pauses of jurists, sufis, theologians, reciters, and rhetoricians.”[^73] This reflective and interactive approach categorizes optional pausal modes, as explained by *tajwīd* scholars, as complete (*tāmm*), sufficient (*kāfī*), good (*ḥasan*), or repulsive (*qabīḥ*), based on the soundness of the meaning signified upon pausing and the veneration shown to Allah’s words.[^74] Thus, pausal modes are determined by a reasonable *ijtihād* of analogizing positions to general principles established by Qur’anic scholars. This explains how our different printings of the Qur’an (*muṣḥaf*) today have different pausal signs preferred by the scholars who reviewed the printing process. *Waqf* and *ibtidā* require thorough knowledge of grammar, *tafsīr*, *qirāʾāt*, storytelling styles, and *fiqh*.[^75] Consider 3:7, “And no one knows its interpretation except Allah (and/but) those firm in knowledge say, ‘We believe in it. All \[of it\] is from our Lord.’” Pausing or resuming after pronouncing the word “Allah” will indicate a certain meaning of conjunction (“and”), or disjunction (“but”). In 5:26, “It is forbidden to them for forty years in which they will wander through the land,” the determination of whether the prohibition is for 40 years or permanent, and wandering through the land is for forty years, can be implied by where to pause in reading the verse. *Waqf* and *ibtidā* thus reflect our understanding of the Qur’an’s meaning, and our spiritual etiquettes in glorifying Allah’s words knowing that He is instantly hearing our recitation and is aware of our inner thoughts. --- ## Linguistic forms and rhetorical devices The subtle linguistic secrets of the Qur’an cannot be unearthed without the science of rhetoric (*balāgha*), especially its sub-disciplines on the science of meanings (*ʿilm al-maʿānī*) and the science of eloquence (*ʿilm al-bayān*).[^76] *ʿIlm al-maʿānī* analyzes the conformity of speech to the context of the situation (*mutā*̣*baqat al-kalām li-muqtaḍā al-ḥāl*), a crucial discovery by Arab rhetoricians that preceded modern European linguistics by over 1,000 years.[^77] Scholars upheld a nuanced balance of uncovering varying contexts of verses and maintaining consistent interpretation of multiple verses pertaining to one topic.[^78] The prominent rhetorician  al-Khatị̄b al-Qazwīnī (d. 793/1338) states: > The context (*maqām*) that demands the definition, generalisation, pre-positioning of part of a discourse, and inclusion (of particular words) differs from the context that demands the indefinite, specification, post-position and omission; the context of disjoining differs from that of joining; the situation that requires conciseness differs from that requiring expansiveness. Discourse with an intelligent person differs from discourse with an obtuse one. Each word with its companion is suited to a particular context. A high standard of beauty and acceptability of speech depends on its appropriateness to the situation and vice versa.[^79] This contextual analysis through *ʿilm al-maʿānī* rebuts much of the criticism against the Qur’an’s composition by centering the status of the addressees in its assessment and by engaging different styles, such as departure from what is normally expected in phrasing (*ikhrāj al-kalām ʿalā khilāf muqtaḍā al-ẓāhir*) or departure from the original norm (*ʿudūl ʿan al-asḷ*). For example, a seemingly straightforward question (*istifhām*) can in fact possess 24 different meanings.[^80] *ʿIlm al-maʿānī* further analyses the different parts of the sentence: the subject, predicate, and complementary parts. In terms of the subject, for instance, there is discussion as to whether it is stated or omitted, and why; whether it is definite or indefinite; its placement in the sentence; whether it is restricted by adjectives or other elements, or not—all in great detail and with purposes and justification.[^81] *ʿIlm al-bayān* “deals mainly with factual and figurative language, including simile, metaphor, and *kināya* (‘metonymy’).”[^83] This fourth genre (linguistic forms and rhetorical devices) explores, in an overlap with the sixth group discussed below, some rhetorical tropes and figurative features employed by the Qur’an to better understand its linguistic miracle**.** The genre provides meticulous analyses of the Qur’anic vocabulary as follows: 1. *al-Gharīb* (obscure words), a sub-genre of Qur’anic lexicology that examines uncommon or exceptional words, as well as idiomatic expressions. *Gharīb* works catalogue these words alphabetically or according to *sūrah* appearance. 2. *al-Mu*ʿ*rrab* (loan words), a sub-genre that investigates if the Qur’an contains originally non-Arabic words and examines their process of Arabization. 3. *al-Majāz* (non-literal or figurative expressions) 4. *al-Mushtarak* (homonym) 5. *al-Mutarādif* (synonym) 6. *al-Istiʿārah* (metaphor) 7. *al-Tashbīih* (simile) ![Chart - Linguistic Forms - Ulum Al Quran](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image6-1024x451.png) The earliest work on the topic of *Gharīb*, Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā’s (d. 209/824) *Majāz al-Qurʾān*, introduced *majāz* in a more general sense than ‘figurative speech.’ He treated examples of *Gharīb* as *majāz,* providing explanations for selected exceptional words. Later scholars dedicated writings to particular devices and styles. For example, Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghdādī (d. 485/1092) authored a book on the metonyms (*tashbīh*) in the Qur’an, *al-Jumān fī* *Tashbīhat al-Qurʾān*. *Tashbīh* is one of the most eloquent rhetorical devices which al-Mubarrid considered the most common in the Arabic language.[^83] Further developed writings on *majāz* and Qur’anic aesthetics came in the works of Ibn Abī al-Isbiʿ (d. 654/1256), in which he mentioned 100 different rhetorical devices.[^84] ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660/1262) authored one of the most extensive works on the topic, *al-Ishārah ilā al-Ijāz ilā Ba*ʿ*ḍ* *Anwā*ʿ *al-Majāz*. He discussed the rearrangement of word order, transpositions, inclusion, omission, substitutions of individual words or phrases, and other stylistic variations. This inspired al-Suyūṭī to summarize the text in an abridged version, *Majāz al-Fursān ilā Majāz al-Qurʾān*. Some of the aforementioned sub-disciplines, such as polysemy[^85] and synonymity, developed through scholarly disagreements over their very existence in the Qur’an or the Arabic language. One of the most contentious debates concerned *al-Mu*ʿ*rrab*. While many scholars denied that the Qur’an contains any non-native or Arabized words, some early and late scholars held that the Qur’an uses non-Arabic words that were converted into Arabic.[^86] The latter opinion referenced some words that exist in other languages, while the former considered these words cross-lingual. Al-Suyūṭī, who adopted the opinion that the Qur’an contains non-Arabic words converted into Arabic,[^87] wrote a book on the matter titled *al-Muhadhab fī mā waqa*ʿ*a fil-Qurʾān min al-Mu*ʿ*rrab*. Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī had versified 27 *Mu*ʿ*rrab* words in five lines of poetry, to which Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī added 24 words.[^88] Al-Suyūṭī added over 60 words to both lists, thus identifying more than 100 *Mu*ʿ*rrab* words in the Qur’an.[^89] The discussion on *al-Mu*ʿ*rrab* suggests the universality of the Qur’anic message—its ability to address both Arabs and non-Arabs—by highlighting its multilingual inclusivity.[^90] After all, both scholarly opinions agree that the Qur’an uses phrases relevant to its original audience—the Arabs during the time of the Prophet ﷺ—and their cultural engagements with other civilizations. Assuming that the Qur’an borrowed words originally belonging to other languages, its inimitable eloquence indicates that such words could not have been replaced with presumably “better” Arabic words. *Al-Majāz*, in its general sense as a language of metaphoricity, is one of the Qur’an’s most influential rhetorical styles. Muslim philologists and rhetoricians, in showcasing the linguistic inimitability of the Qur’an, theorized many native literary devices used in the revelation as well as early Arabic poetry: metaphors, similes, metonymies, allegories and beyond. This theorization went beyond identifying instances of literary devices in the Qur’an to formulating their structural roles in different contexts. Qur’anic imageries were viewed as networks of relationships within the same *sūrah* or across different *sūrahs*, with a focus on unique patterns that depart in their aesthetic effects from any conventional poetic forms. Due to theological disputes over whether Allah uses metaphor rather than literal phrases to communicate His message, a debate over whether *majāz* exists in the Qur’an or not arose in the tradition. The overwhelming majority of scholars adopted the opinion that *majāz* exists in the Qur’an to enhance its aesthetic appeal without detracting from its spiritual emphasis or its transcendent nature. Metaphor (*istiʿārah*) is just one example of the Qur’an’s figurative language. It typically layers words with additional meanings so as to clarify the ambiguous, stress particular meanings, or illustrate what is somewhat clear. An example of the last style can be found in 17:24, when Allah commands us to be humble in interacting with our parents: “And lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy.” The wisdom of this *istiʿārah* is making visible what is unseen. The spoken word “wing” implies the unspoken word ‘side’ (*jānib*) to animate the humble side of human beings.[^91] By painting the image of a bird lowering its “wing,” the metaphor emphasizes all meanings of respect and humility beyond merely lowering one’s ‘side.’ Any degree of leaning aside is not sufficient, rather, lowering the wing implies the closest proximity to the earth which is the highest level of humility. Another sub-discipline, not listed above, is semantic synonymity (*wujūh* and *nazā‘ir*), which highlights different facets of a word’s meaning. Recurrent words in the Qur’an, such as Allah’s names and attributes, have numerous meanings. This multiplicity of meanings necessitates a multiplicity of translations. For example, should the translation of *H*̣*akīm*, which occurs 97 times in the Qur’an, be derived from wisdom (*ḥikma*) or decision/judgment (*ḥukm*)?[^92] Should the translation of *Al-Raḥmān,* which occurs 57 times, be ‘the Merciful’ or ‘the All-Merciful’?[^93] Syntactical and lexicographical examination, as well as contextual reading, assist in attaining the most probable interpretation of a Qur’anic phrase. --- ## Meanings related to rulings: Interpretive principles The discipline of Qur’anic interpretive principles categorizes linguistic signs and indications and delineates the Qur’an and Sunnah’s overlapping authority over legal matters. Analyzing grammatical rules—articles, particles,  prepositions, and the like—helps identify the implications of various phrases and their native Arabic usages which, in turn, determine their applications. The following 14 sub-disciplines are essential in *tafsīr* and legal theory (*Uṣūl al-Fiqh*), especially in the process of deriving legal rulings: 1. The universal whose applicability is universal 2. The universal whose applicability is particular 3. The universal whose intended meaning is particular 4. The Qur’an that particularizes the Sunnah 5. The Sunnah that particularizes the Qur’an 6. The ambiguous, *mujmal*  7. The explicit, *mubayyan* 8. The interpreted, *muʾawwal* 9. The implied, *mafhūm* 10. The absolute, *muṭlaq* 11. The qualified, *muqayyad* 12. The abrogating, *nāsikh*  13.  The abrogated, *mansūkh*  14. Rulings which were temporarily applied by only one morally obligated individual. ![Chart - Meanings related to rulings - Ulum Al Quran ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image2-1024x325.png) Allah reveals His commands in various forms in the Qur’an and through His Prophet ﷺ. A command may be stated unequivocally or in general terms. Depending on whether the phrase is qualified or not, the deduced ruling may apply universally or only to particular scenarios. Identification of the universal and the specific is crucial to reconciling the presumed universality of Qur’anic utterances with their occasionally limited applicability to a particular situation, time, or place. Categorizing the intended addressees is especially relevant to this query. For example, the Qur’an may call unto ‘people,’ ‘those who have believed,’ ‘those who have not believed,’ or ‘people of the book.’ The Sunnah plays a critical role in determining the exact group of people intended at the time of revelation and until the Day of Judgment. Al-Suyūṭī listed 34 categories of addressees and discourse modes, directing the speech towards a particular person, object, or point.[^94] Applicability is determined by synthesizing the overlapping authority of the Qur’an and Sunnah, the context of the revelation, and human reason. This analysis results in several applications, including deriving legal rulings, understanding the chronology of historic events, reconciling different accounts of the unseen, and determining the exclusivity and inclusivity of addressees. For example, according to reports, *Sūrah al-Kāfirūn* was revealed when a group of Meccan polytheists proposed a deal to the Prophet ﷺ to alleviate ongoing tensions: that they worship the ‘Prophet’s God’ sometimes and that he, in return, worship their gods other times.[^96] So, Allah revealed the *sūrah* (109: 1-3) saying, “Say, O disbelievers. I do not worship what you worship. Nor are you worshippers of what I worship.” Rendering the universality of ‘disbelievers’ to mean all non-Muslims in this context (“I do not worship what you worship”) may contradict the fact that Jews and Christians worship Allah and that some of the idolaters may embrace Islam (“Nor are you worshippers of what I worship”). Two possible consistent interpretations are that these verses narrate a specific conversation with a specific group of individuals who never became Muslim (al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, al-ʿĀs ibn Wāʾil, and Umayyah ibn Khalaf), or that their universal meaning is subject to particularization by other textual and extratextual tools. Ambiguous words exist in the Qur’an resulting from such factors as homonymity,[^96] uncommon usages, indefinite pronouns, and modes of conjunction or disjunction. For example, in 35:10, “To Him ascends good speech, and righteous work raises it,” the pronoun ‘it’ may refer to the ‘good speech’ (righteous work raises the good speech, such as *duʿā*, to Allah) or to the ‘righteous work’ (Allah raises the righteous work of a person). Legal theorists asked, can the ambiguous remain unclarified? The preponderant opinion holds that if the ambiguous word or phrase entails a legal practice, it would have been clarified before the death of the Prophet ﷺ. Otherwise, it would be considered a delegation of duty beyond the capacity of individuals (*taklīf bimā lā yuṭāq*).[^97] Clarification may occur consecutively in the same context or separately in a different part of the text, as well as extra-textually in the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. Textual significations are rigorously treated across *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* and *Usūl al-fiqh*. A phrase’s meaning may be understood directly (*manṭūq*) or inferred (*mafhūm*) by way of implication. Inferences are based on the congruent or divergent meanings of the *manṭūq*. If the implication conforms with the obvious meaning of the phrase, it is a congruent implication (*mafhūm muawāfaqah*). For example, if ‘devouring the property of orphans’ is prohibited, then any other form of mismanagement or appropriation of their property is also forbidden. A divergent implication (*mafhūm mukhālafah*) indicates that the unpronounced ruling is opposite to the obvious meaning. In 2:287, “And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread \[of night\], then complete the fast until the sunset,” the *mafhūm* is that during Ramadan, eating and drinking are permissible from night until dawn. The divergent implication is that eating between dawn and sunset is forbidden. In legal theory, a much wider discussion exists on the scope of *mafhūm* and the different textual instruments that qualify to establish its congruent or divergent implications. Another area of Qur’anic interpretive principles that has a significant impact on deriving legal rulings is the absolute (*muṭlaq*) and the qualified (*muqayyad*). When a verse provides a ruling qualified with an adjective or conditional applicability (*muqayyad*) and another verse provides a similar ruling for a different scenario but in absolute manner without qualification (*muṭlaq*), the latter may be restricted with the same qualification as the former. For example, the Qur’an stipulates uprightness for the credibility of witnesses over marriage dissolution, re-marriage to the same spouse (65:2), and wills (5:106). However, in other verses that cover testimonies in sales (2:282) and paying the dowry to women (4:6), there is no mention of uprightness as a condition for the witnesses. By employing the *muṭlaq* and *muqayyad* intertextual interpretation of extending the qualification to the absolute, uprightness becomes required in all these different types of testimony. Abrogation (*naskh*) linguistically means ‘to efface’ or ‘to transfer.’ Technically, it is defined by Imam al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) as “a discourse \[*khiṭāb*\] indicating the subsequent repeal of a ruling established by a previous discourse, in such a way that without which the ruling would remain established.”[^98] *Naskh* provides a coherent reading of Qur’anic verses with no logical, legal, or historic contradictions. Many books dedicated to the topic were written by eminent scholars including Abu ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (224/838), al-Naḥḥās, Ibn al-Anbārī, Makkī, and Ibn al-‘Arabī. Al-Suyūṭī referenced some leading scholars who stated  that “it is not permissible for anyone to explain \[provide *tafsīr* of\] the Book of Allah before they know of its abrogating and abrogated \[verses\].”[^99] However, abrogation is not a matter of human intellectual reasoning (*ijtihād*). Rather, it is determined exclusively by the Prophet ﷺ per Allah’s commands, as explained in 2:106. Abrogation exists as an intra-Qur’anic phenomenon (a verse abrogates another verse) or in interaction with the Sunnah (an authentic hadith abrogates a verse). This categorization necessitates a careful investigation of transmission (of both Qur’an and Sunnah) and a thorough legal analysis of the given rulings. When a verse’s ruling is abrogated or no longer in effect, the verse may remain part of the canon and be recited as Qur’an. In other cases, both the canonicity and ruling of a verse may be abrogated, with the verse no longer considered part of the Qur’an. The graduality of revelation, as shown in the aforementioned first group of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, is contrasted with the final review of the last rendition (*al-ʿardah al-akhīrah*) of the Qur’an between Jibrīl and the Prophet ﷺ prior to his death. The wisdom of abrogation lies in its responsiveness to circumstantial changes, which in turn reflects the development of Islamic legislation.[^100] Allah, the Most Wise, said, “If We replace a verse in place of another verse, and Allah knows best what He reveals, they say: ‘Indeed, he has forged it!’ No, most of them do not know.” A verse may be replaced by the “revelation of another in the best interests of people.”[^101] Hence, “\[a\]brogation serves the welfare of people by bringing forth the rule most appropriate to their specific situation, making changes as necessary and building a more comprehensive legal and moral framework.”[^102] A well-known Qur’anic example of abrogation is the gradual prohibition of alcoholic drinks. --- ## Meanings related to phrases: Rhetorical styles While the linguistic forms (in the fourth group of disciplines) primarily deal with rhetorical devices and patterns of speech, the following sub-disciplines examine rhetorical styles with respect to the effective delivery of meanings and ideas. *ʿIlm al-Maʿānī*, as noted above, primarily focuses on the audience’s disposition. It engages with the permutations of words and sentence order allowed by the rules of grammar to provide the most appropriate style for the context, situation, and circumstances of speech. 1. The conjunction, *faṣl*; disjoining of parts of a sentence 2. The disjunction, *waṣl*; joining of parts of a sentence using conjunctions   3. The brevity, *ījāz* 4. The expansion, *iṭnāb* 5. The allocation and emphasis or restricting statements, *qaṣr* ![Chart - Meanings related to words - Ulum Al Quran](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image3-1024x451.png) *ʿIlm al-Maʿānī* treats a sentence as a composition of inner and outer networks with internal and external relationships. The internal relations are governed by grammar which regulates the speech patterns. The external relations are governed by rhetorical rules which regulate the arrangement of word structures and the relationships between sentences to efficiently communicate intended meanings. In the introduction of his *Tafsīr*, al-Ṭabarī listed 17 rhetorical styles that the Qur’an insuperably employs, including concision and brevity, deliberately ambiguous expression, extended expression, repetition of the same meaning, and inversion of logical order.[^103] Upon being asked, “What is rhetoric (*balāgha*)?,” Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī (d. 377/987) answered, “Knowing the joining (*waṣl*) and disjoining (*faṣl*) of sentences.”[^104] *ʿ*Abdulqāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078), the leading authority on the topic of the inimitability of the Qur’an, acknowledged that determining the proper modes of conjunction and disjunction is one of the meticulous secrets of *balāgha* that only native Arabs are able to perfectly use.[^105] The Qur’an remarkably employs many modes of concluding sentences, resuming new sentences, or joining two or more sentences together. *Balagha* achieves more than mere stylistic alterations. It constructs means of persuasion in such critical issues as Allah’s attributes and the description of the Day of Judgment. Moreover, the Qur’an may combine the two styles of *waṣl* and *faṣl* in one instance and strikingly alternate their uses in the same context. Examples of consecutive use of descriptive attributes are profoundly powerful. Think of *Sūrah* *Ghāfir* (40:1-4), a Meccan chapter revealed during an extremely difficult time, right after the death of the Prophet’s uncle Abū Ṭālib, to condemn the obstinacy of the Arabs, rebut their false arguments against the authenticity of the Qur’an and the Day of Judgment, and relate the story of the believer among Pharaoh’s people. Against this tense backdrop, the *sūrah* begins with the disjoined letters of *hā* and *mīm—*a stimulating style which, according to some linguists, was not known to the Arabs. It challenged them, the masters of eloquence, with seemingly simple alphabetical letters. Then the second verse states, “The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Knowing.” Against the listener’s expectation of the  conjunctive mode starting a new verse, the following verse continues in disjunctive mode, affirming another attribute of Allah—“the Forgiver of sins”—before suddenly adding the conjunction ‘and’ (*wā*), “Accepter of repentance.” It then returns to the disjunctive mode, adding two further attributes: “severe in punishment, Owner of abundance.” This alternation of styles and frequent mention of Allah’s attributes, in normal or emphatic forms, provokes thoughts of the manifestations of Allah’s will and power in our lives, filling our hearts with awe of Him. This prepares the recipient of the message for the next verse’s declaration: “No one disputes about the signs of Allah except those who disbelieve, so do not let their moving about in the lands delude you.” Brevity and expansion are important pairs that measure the continuum of words and sentences to denote conciseness, clarity, and emphasis. Al-Suyūṭī introduced his section on *ijāz* and *itnāb* with the statement, “Know that they \[*ijāz* and *iṭnāb*\] are among the most significant topics of *balāgha*. The author of *Sirr al-Fasāḥah* \[The Secret of Eloquence\] quoted a scholar to have said, ‘\[the entirety of\] language is *ijāz* and *iṭnāb.’*”[^106] What distinguishes an expert rhetorician is their accurate identification of the intended audience and determination of the relevance of either brevity or expansion to the purpose of their speech.[^107] Restrictive statements (*qaṣr*) emphasize certain qualities to convince different audiences that such qualities belong only to one entity. *Qaṣr* varies in styles based on the status of the addressee and applies different techniques such as negation, exception, retraction, and re-arrangement of the sentence order. If the addressee believes that multiple beings share the same quality, the style of restriction to oneness (*qaṣr ifrād*) may be used such as, “He is but one God” (6:19). Another addressee may believe that the quality belongs to another being. Restriction of reversal (*qaṣr* *qalb*) may then be used, such as Ibrahim’s counter-argument against Namroudh’s conviction that he can give life and cause death: “My Lord is the one who gives life and causes death” (2:258). A third situation is when the addressee is equally uncertain about two possibilities so restriction will sufficiently highlight the attribution of a quality to a being or an object (*qaṣr taʿīn*). The complexity of the Qur’an’s rhetorical styles should not deter a believer from engaging them. One of the unique features of Qur’anic rhetoric is that every reader can engage, at a certain level, with its beauty. As demonstrated by *Sūrah* *Ghāfir,* for instance, even a basic understanding of an intricate style may suffice to connect with its deeper dimensions. --- ## Conclusion *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* is a multi-faceted and diverse area of study. Its broad scope includes various sub-disciplines examining the Qur’an’s history (compilation and canonization), nature of its miraculous revelation and its underlying theology, circumstances and occasions of its descension, precise articulation of its verbal utterances, aspects of its inimitability, as well as its linguistic styles, devices, and literary theories, names of its chapters and order of its verses, virtues and etiquettes of recitation, rules of *tafsīr* and the qualifications of the one exercising it, and others. Understanding the role and utility of each discipline or subdiscipline accommodates our diverse intellectual interests, facilitates a proper disciplinary approach to the Qur’an, makes us appreciate the massive literature written about the text in our history, and, most prominently, strengthens our endeavors of *tadabbur* while exploring the infinite wisdom of the Book. The vastness of the Qur’an bridges numerous intellectual perspectives and disciplinary frameworks. The ultimate utility of such diversity is to identify what piques our individual interests in attempting to engage with the text. The occasions and circumstances of revelation showcase the context of human reception and engagement with Allah’s words, illuminating our understanding of their meanings and evaluating our receptiveness to their guidance. The subtle transmission process of the text affirms our belief in its preservation and manifests the Divine promise, “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.”[^108] The delicate rules of Qur’anic recitation constantly remind us that its words are not at all ordinary, but rather comprise the sacred words of Allah Himself who, out of His mercy, enables us to commune with Him through them. Meanwhile, by joining knowledge with practice, Qur’anic interpretive principles organize the revelatory commands and guide our commitment to the sacred law. Finally, the branches of *balāgha* help us better appreciate the Qur’an’s remarkable range of discursive modes, each designed to reach a different audience in a different context—and thus, ultimately, all of humanity. It adjusts the audience’s disposition through uncovering diverse networks of meanings, while providing the most effective rhetorical and aesthetic styles for any given context. The Qur’an’s timeless verses will continue to stimulate profound human and intellectual experiences through the shoreless field of*ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, confirming that the text “does not become worn out by repetition and its wonders do not come to an end.”[^109] --- ## Notes [^1]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhī*, bk. 42, hadith 2906. He ruled its *isnād* to be unknown. [^2]: For more on the topic of *tadabbur*, see Yousef Wahb and Mohammad Elshinawy, “Keys to *Tadabbur*: How to Reflect Deeply on the Quran” *Yaqeen*, April 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648656045385445&usg=AOvVaw2j263mRwIqUh2QvdppEaxb). [^3]: Qur’an 9:124–5. [^4]: Qur’an 2:97. [^5]: Qur’an 2:145. [^6]: Qur’an 2:256. [^7]: Qur’an 3:62. [^8]: Qur’an. 3:103. [^9]: Qur’an  3:138. [^10]: For introductory works on the Qur’an and how to approach it, see Muhammad Draz, *Introduction to the Qur’an*, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011); Muhammad Draz, *The Qur’an: An Eternal Challenge* \[*al-Nabaʾ al-ʿAzīm*\], trans. by Adil Salahi (UK: The Islamic Foundation, 2017). [^11]: For instance, theology focused on  its inimitability and legal theory scrutinized its practical meanings. To establish the authenticity of oral and written transmission, the field of multiple readings (*qirāʾāt*) sought to standardize the canonized readings. [^12]: In this case, it is a defective noun (*jāmid*) that does not have inflections (*mushtaqqāt*). [^13]: There are two opinions pertaining to the origin of words in Arabic etymology: the verbal noun (*masdar*) and the verb (*fiʿl*). [^14]: Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Manzūr, *Lisan al-Arab* (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1997), 1:128–33 [^15]: For example, Qur’an 7:204, 10:61, 16:98, and 17:106. [^16]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Itmām al-dirāyah li qurrā al-niqāyah* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, 1985), 21. [^17]: For more introductory works on Qur’anic sciences, see Mufti Taqi Uthmani, *An Approach to the Qur’anic Sciences: Uloom-ul-Qur’an* (Pakistan: Darul Isha’at, 2007) and Ahmad von Denffer, *Ulum al-Qur’an: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur’an* (UK: The Islamic Foundation, 2009). [^18]: Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī, *Ihyā ʿulūm al-dīn* (Cairo: al-Babi al-Halabi, 1998), 1:290. For an explanation of *hadd* and *matla’*, see Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān fī ulūm al-Qur’an* (Sharjah: Markaz al-Buhuth wal-Dirasat, 2006), 1:500-504. [^19]: Muhammad ibn al-ʿArabī, *Qānūn al-tawīl*, ed. by Muhammad al-Silimani (Jeddah: Dar al-Qiblah lil-Thaqafah al-Islamiyyah and Beirut: Mu’ssasat Ulum al-Qurʾān, 1986), 540. [^20]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Jawāhir al-Qur’an* (Beirut: Dar Ihya al-Ulum, 1990), 44–45. [^21]: Muhammad Abdulazīm al-Zurqānī, *Manāhil al-‘irfān fī ulūm al-Qur’an* (Cairo: Eisa al-Halabi, 1943), 1:26. [^22]: There is a disagreement on the exact title of al-Ḥufī’s book; some scholars held that it is titled *al-Burhān fī tafsīr al-Qur’an*. [^23]: Makkī ibn Abī Tālib, *al-Hidāyah ilā bulūgh al-nihāya* (Cairo: Dar al-Salam, 2014), 1:74. [^24]: Makkī ibn Abī Tālib, *al-Hidāyah*, 1:74. [^25]: There are eight different opinions on the determination of the first *Ulūm al-Qur’an*’s work due to the discussion on the definition of the term and the development of the field. See, Hazim Haydar, *Ulūm al-Qur’an bayn al-burhān wal-itqān* (Medina: Dar al-Zaman, 1999), 83–95. [^26]: Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an* (Cairo: Dar al-Turath, 1984), 1:16–21. [^27]: Parts of *al-Itqān* have been translated. See, for example, al-Suyūṭī, *The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur’an: al-Itqan fi 'ulum al-Qur'an*, trans. by Osman A. Al-Bili and Hamid Algar (UK: Garnet Publishing, 2012); Omar Husain, *Gateway to the Qur’anic Sciences: Based On Al-Itqan Fi Ulum Al-Qur’an* (London: Turath Publishing, 2017). [^28]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’an* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 1:40–41. [^29]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 44. [^30]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 44. [^31]: Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:90–1. [^32]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī, *Mawāqi’ al-ʿulūm fī mawāqi’ al-nujūm* (Tanta: Dar al-Sahabah, 2007), 28–29. [^33]: Muhammad A. Haleem, “Presenting the Qur’an Out of Context,” in *The* *Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies*, eds. Mustafa Shah and Muhammad A. Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 565. [^34]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:48 (citing al-Naisābūrī’s book *al-Tanbīh ʿalā Fadl ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, whose manuscript no longer exists). [^35]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:48. [^36]: Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of textual interpretation. [^37]: For more on the different characteristics of Meccan and Medinan revelation, see al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:73–75. [^38]: Haleem, “Presenting the Qur’an out of Context,” 566. For an extensive study on the Meccan and Medinan Qur’an, their identification, characteristics, and literature, see *ʾ*Abdulrāziq Ahmad, *al-Makkī wal-Madanī fī al-Qur’an al-Karīm*, 1st ed. (Cairo: Dar Ibn Affan, 1999). [^39]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:121–23. [^40]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:310. [^41]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:298. [^42]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*. [^43]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:299 [^44]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:300. [^45]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:302–303. [^46]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 1:303–305. [^47]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhī*, bk. 47, hadith 416. [^48]: Al-Bayhaqī in *al-Asmā wal-sifāt*, bk. 2, hadith 38. [^49]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Iklīl fī istinbāṭ al-tanzīl* (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, n.d.), 230. [^50]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsir̄ al-Qur’an*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī, 26 vols. (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 2001), 1:22. [^51]: Abū Bakr b. Mujāhid, *al-Sabʿa fī al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Shawqī Ḍayf (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1979), 51. [^52]: Al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrā*, ed. Muḥammad ʾAtā, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʾIlmiyyah, 2003), 2:539, hadith no. 3995. The same, or similar, statement, is also reported from numerous scholars throughout history. [^53]: Al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrā*, 2:539, hadith no. 3995. [^54]: Muhammad Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-nass al-Qur’anī min Rasul Allah ilā ummatih* (Tanta: Dar al-Sahabah, 2001), 49–51. [^55]: Jabal, *Wathāqat naql al-nass al-Qur’anī*, 86–90. [^56]: Abū al-Qāsim al-Hudhalī, *al-Kāmil  fi al- qirāʾāt* (Cairo: Mu’assasat Samā, 2007), 1:128. [^57]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār ʿalā al-ṭabaqāt wa-l-aʿṣār*, eds Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ et al., 2nd ed, 2 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla,1988). [^58]: Abū ‘Amr Ḥafs al-Dūrī, *Juz’ fihi* *qirāʾāt al-Nabyy* (Medina: Maktabat al-Dar, 1988), 7. [^59]: Al-Dūrī, *Juz’ fihi* *qirāʾāt al-Nabyy*, 7. [^60]: Al-Dūrī, *Juz’ fihi* *qirāʾāt al-Nabyy*, 8. [^61]: Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 3:88–107. [^62]: Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-ihsān*, 326–28. [^63]: Abū al-Abbās Ahmad b. Abū Bakr al-Qasṭalāni, *Laṭāʾif al-ishārā li funūn al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Markaz al-Dirasat al-Qur’aniyah, 10 vols. (Saudi Arabia: Wizarat al-Awqaf wa-al-Shuun al-Islamiyah, 2012), 1:378. [^64]: This number is commonly attributed by scholars, such as al-Suyūṭī and Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, to Abū Bark al-Wāsiṭī’s *al-Irshād*. However, the printed version of *al-Irshād* does quantify the dialects of the Qur’an. It is possible that al-Suyūṭī had access to a different version of *al-Irshād* or meant another Wāsiṭī. Al-Suyūṭī listed only forty-eight dialects. Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 2:101. [^65]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 3315. [^66]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *Nukat al-intiṣār li naql al-Qur’an*, ed. Muḥammad Zaghloul Sallam (Alexandria: Mansha’at Ma’arif, 1994), 385. [^67]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd*, (Morocco: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shu’un al-Islāmiyyah, 1980), 8:280. [^68]: Al-Hudhalī, *al-Kāmil*, 139. [^69]: Reported by al-Ḥākim and al-Bayhaqī. [^70]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:249. [^71]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:249. It should be noted that some scholars did not agree with this interpretation of the report. Rather they held that “where to pause upon reading” means abiding by the limits Islam sets for us and not violating them. See Ibn ‘Aqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyādah wal-Ihsān*, 3:412–13. [^72]: Abū al-Khayr b. al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr*, ed. Ali al-Dabbaʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), 1:225. [^73]: Al-Hudhalī, *al-Kāmil*, 140. [^74]: Scholars of *tajwīd* differed on whether the number of *waqf* categories is three, four, five, or eight. All categorizations are based on the soundness and coherence of meanings. [^75]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 1:258. [^76]: *Balāgha* is divided into three sciences: the science of meanings (*ʿilm al-maʿānī*), the science of eloquence (*ʿilm al-bayān*), and the science of embellishment (*ʿilm al-badīʿ*). [^77]: Muhammad A. Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices and Stylistic Features of Qur’anic Grammar,” in *The* *Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies*, eds. Mustafa Shah & Muhammad A. Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 332. [^78]: See Muhammad A. Haleem “Context and Internal Relationships: Keys to Qurʾānic Exegesis. A Study of Surat ‘lRahman (Qur’an chapter 55),” in *Approaches to the Qur’an*, ed. G. R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader Shareef  (London: Routledge, 1993), 71–99. [^79]: Al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī, *al-Īḍāḥ fī ʿulūm al-balāgha* (Cairo: Ṣubaiḥ, 1971), 7–8; translated by Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices,” 567. [^80]: Basil Hatim, *Arabic Rhetoric: The Pragmatics of Deviation from Linguistic Norms* (Munich: Lincom Europa, 2010), 151–68. [^81]: Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices,” 332–33. [^82]: Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices,” 332. [^83]: Abu al-Abbas al-Mubarrid, *al-Kāmil* (Beirut: Mu’ssasat al-Risalah, 2004), 2:996. [^84]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 3:211. [^85]: Polysemy is the association of one word with multiple meanings. [^86]: Al-Bulqīnī, *Mawāqiʿ al-ʿulūm*, 107; Muhammad ibn Idrīs al-Shafiʿī, *al-Risalāh* (Cairo: Mustafa al-Halabi, 1938), 41–46; Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *al-Taqrīb wal-irshād* (Beruit: Mu’ssassat al-Risalah, 1998), 1:399–408. [^87]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 2:431. [^88]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 2:443. [^89]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 2:444. [^90]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Taqrīb wal-irshād*, 1:407–408. [^91]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 3:114. [^92]: Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices,” 568–69. [^93]: Haleem, “Rhetorical Devices,” 569–70. [^94]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 3:86–90. [^95]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-saghīr*, no. 751; al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān* (Cairo: Dar Hajar, 2001), 24:703. [^96]: Homonyms are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings. [^97]: Zakariyyā al-Ansārī, *Ghāyat al-wsūl sharh Lubb al-Usūl* (Kuwait: Dar al-Diaa, 2019), 225. [^98]: Musa Furber, Sharh al-Waraqāt Al-Mahallī’s notes on Imām al-Juwaynī’s Islamic jurisprudence pamphlet, (Islamosiac, 2014), 36. [^99]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 3:53. [^100]: For more on the topic of *naskh*, see Justin Parrott, “Abrogated Rulings in the Quran: Discerning Their Divine Wisdom.” *Yaqeen*, April 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648656045383690&usg=AOvVaw3g6RRFLYwaVffgGGN_Qx26). [^101]: Al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn*, (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2001), 1:360. [^102]: Parrott, “Abrogated Rulings in the Quran.” [^103]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, 1:12–13. [^104]: Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ, *al-Bayān wal-tabīn* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1998), 1:88. [^105]: *ʿ*Abdulqāhir al-Jurjānī, *Dalāʾil al-iʿjāz* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji), 222. [^106]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 3:137, citing Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Sa’id al-Khafaji al-Halabi (466/1073). [^107]: Some rhetoricians discuss *ijāz* and iṭnāb in comparison to the standard expression used by an average speaker to express a thought (*al-musāwāh*). The debate over whether or not *musāwāh* exists as a rhetorical style in the Arabic language has left it under-examined by scholars of Qur’anic rhetorical styles. Al-Suyūṭī explained that he excluded *musāwāh* from the title of his section on *ijāz* and *iṭnāb* because, in addition to the disagreements over its extant function, it does not exist in the Qur’an. Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān*, 3:137–8. [^108]: Qur’an 15:9. [^109]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhī*, bk. 42, hadith 2906. ## Summary The marvels of the Qur'an are without end, for the Prophet ﷺ described it as that which "does not become worn out by repetition and its wonders do not come to an end." Among its wonders is the vastness of its scope, addressing the many dimensions of human nature, so that every soul approaches it from a distinct angle shaped by intellectual inquiry or spiritual experience. A primary purpose behind its revelation is to foster a personal, reflective connection with the Creator through *tadabbur*. This pursuit of proper reflection naturally invites examination of the Qur'an's inimitability, its textual history, its linguistic styles, its theological foundations, its ethical standards, and its legal injunctions. Recipients of the same message differ in how they receive and respond to it according to their belief and spiritual states. The task of unlocking the Qur'anic text was the driving motive behind the emergence of the various Islamic disciplines. Because engaging the Qur'an requires many methods drawn from a wide range of fields, the topics concerning the text and its context were gathered under the heading of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* (the Qur'anic Sciences). This field arose not as an independent domain but as a synthesis of many disciplines, and its diversity gave rise to numerous sub-disciplines. *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* thus serves as an umbrella term for the studies related to the Qur'an's meaning, its oral and written history, and its rendition. The most celebrated of these disciplines, exegesis (*tafsīr*), is considered part of *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* and among its goals, drawing upon exegetical principles, lexical and grammatical explanation, Prophetic traditions, circumstances of revelation, variant readings, and abrogation. As for the Qur'an itself, though this is its most frequent name for itself, Allah also describes it as *al-Furqān* (the Criterion), *al-Dhikr* (the Reminder), and *al-Kitāb* (the Book), and mentions among its qualities that it is glad tidings, knowledge, the trustworthy handhold, the Truth, the rope of Allah, and a clear statement for mankind. Linguists differed over the word *Qurʾān*: some held it a proper noun, while others derived it from *qaraʾa*, meaning "to read" or "to compile" (*jamaʿa*). A common interdisciplinary technical definition emerged, focusing on the shared characteristics of inimitability (*iʿjāz*), mass transmission (*tawātur*), and conformity with the ʿUthmānic orthography (*rasm*): the Qur'an is the speech of Allah revealed upon His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, whose recitation is an act of worship and whose smallest chapter is miraculous. The scholars did not settle upon a single figure for the number of the Qur'anic sciences, for this remained a matter of *ijtihād*. Al-Ghazālī (d. 505) reported the opinion of some that the Qur'an contains seventy-seven thousand sciences, multiplied fourfold since every word possesses an inward meaning, an outward meaning, a limit, and a perspective. Al-Qādī Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 544) cited opinions placing the number between fifty and seventy thousand. This reflects the reality that there is more in the Qur'an than any human effort can encompass. Al-Zarkashī (d. 794) himself admitted in *al-Burhān* that the Qur'anic sciences are uncountable and their full synthesis an unattainable lifelong task, limiting himself to the major principles of forty-seven sciences. Regarding the history of the field, we know of no work before the fourth century that addressed *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* as an independent set of disciplines in the manner familiar today. Rather, its topics were scattered across the introductions of *tafsīr* works, the legal exegeses (*aḥkām al-Qurʾān*), the discussions of legal proofs in works of legal theory, and specialized writings on particular subjects such as variant readings, abrogation, semantic facets (*wujūh* and *nazāʾir*), ambiguous phrasing, and grammatical analysis. Though some early titles bore the name *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, such as the works of al-Marzubān (d. 309) and al-Ḥufī (d. 430), their size indicates they were in fact *tafsīr* works. *Fahm al-Qurʾān* of al-Muḥāsabī (d. 243) is arguably the earliest surviving work of the genre before its technical designation. From the fifth century onward, tremendous scholarship followed, culminating in al-Zarkashī's *al-Burhān*, which set the tone for all later work. Al-Bulqīnī (d. 824) then delineated fifty sciences, al-Suyūṭī (d. 911) expanded these to one hundred and one in *al-Taḥbīr* and settled on eighty in his most cited work *al-Itqān*, and Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī (d. 1150) extended the list to one hundred and fifty-four. Al-Bulqīnī's taxonomy organizes the sciences into six areas. The first concerns the places, occasions, and circumstances of revelation, for the Qur'an was revealed over twenty-three years in response to varied situations, making it "above all a text rooted in context." This category comprises twelve sub-disciplines, chiefly the distinction between the Meccan and Medinan revelation. Abū al-Qāsim al-Naisabūrī (d. 406) held that knowledge of the Meccan and Medinan alone comprises twenty-five sub-disciplines indispensable to the exegete. The Meccan revelation is more abstract, theologically focused, and spiritually intense, addressing an opposing audience, while the Medinan details law, administration, and the handling of hypocrites, paralleling the growth of the community. Within this category falls the science of the occasions of revelation (*asbāb al-nuzūl*), whose merits include knowing the wisdom behind legislation, reconciling seemingly contradictory phrases, and balancing the scope of a ruling. When multiple occasions are reported for one verse, scholars reconcile them through five mechanisms. *Sūrah al-Ikhlāṣ* illustrates this, for it was reported as a reply to idolaters, to a Jewish group, and to a Christian delegation from Najrān; al-Suyūṭī described it as a response to all false religions. The debate over *Sūrah al-Layl*, whether revealed concerning Abū Bakr or Abū al-Daḥdāḥ, further shows that when reports cannot be reconciled, the authentic is preferred over the weak. The second area concerns transmission and its transmitters. The Prophet ﷺ instructed, "Read as you were taught," and it is established that "the Qur'an's reading is based on transmission," a principle attributed to ʿUmar and Zayd ibn Thābit. Al-Bayhaqī explained that following the readings of the predecessors is *Sunnah*, and no reading may contradict ʿUthmān's *muṣḥaf* even if grammar permits it. This genre categorizes readings as *mutawātir*, *āḥād*, and *shādh*, and distinguishes the memorizers and transmitters. Biographical works name about sixteen Companions who recited all or most of the Qur'an to the Prophet ﷺ, and about twenty-one who memorized it entirely in his lifetime. The number who practiced *ʿard* or *iqrāʾ* surpasses the threshold of *tawātur*, proving the isnād was never interrupted—a manifestation of Allah's promise to preserve His Book. The third area is phonetics and elocution. Allah declared, "We have recited it in a distinct recitation" (25:32) and commanded, "recite the Qur'an with measured recitation" (73:4). This genre treats six sub-disciplines: pausing (*waqf*), resuming (*ibtidāʾ*), inclination (*imāla*), lengthening (*madd*), lightening the *hamzah*, and assimilation (*idghām*). These rules standardize the text and remove irregularities. Ibn ʿUmar reported that the Companions learned where to pause as they learned the Qur'an itself, and al-Suyūṭī noted this implies an established consensus. The precision of *waqf* affects meaning, as in Allah's words "and no one knows its interpretation except Allah" (3:7), where pausing or continuing alters the sense entirely. The fourth and sixth areas concern rhetoric (*balāgha*), its sciences of meanings (*ʿilm al-maʿānī*) and eloquence (*ʿilm al-bayān*). Al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī (d. 793) explained that the beauty of speech lies in its appropriateness to the situation. This encompasses the study of obscure words, loan-words (*muʿarrab*)—over which scholars disagreed, al-Suyūṭī affirming their presence—figurative language, homonymy, synonymy, metaphor, and simile. The overwhelming majority affirmed that *majāz* exists in the Qur'an to enhance its beauty without diminishing its transcendence, as in Allah's command to "lower the wing of humility" (17:24). The fifth area concerns interpretive principles bearing on rulings, comprising fourteen sub-disciplines essential to *tafsīr* and legal theory: the universal and particular, the mutual particularization of Qur'an and *Sunnah*, the ambiguous and explicit, the absolute and qualified, and the abrogating and abrogated. Al-Juwaynī (d. 478) defined abrogation as a discourse indicating the subsequent repeal of an earlier ruling. Abrogation is not a matter of *ijtihād* but is determined by the Prophet ﷺ per Allah's command in 2:106, and its wisdom lies in bringing forth the ruling most suited to people's circumstances, as with the gradual prohibition of intoxicants. In sum, *ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān* is a vast and diverse field whose disciplines accommodate our varied intellectual interests, acquaint us with the immense scholarly heritage, and above all strengthen our *tadabbur*. The transmission of the text affirms the Divine promise, "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian." Its timeless verses will continue to stimulate profound experiences, confirming that the Book "does not become worn out by repetition and its wonders do not come to an end." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/mercy-and-might-on-judgment-day-allahs-name-maliki-yawn-al-din # Mercy and Might on Judgment Day: Allah's Name Maliki Yawm al-Din **Authors:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman, Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Afterlife, Faith **Tags:** Judgment Day, Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 29, 2022 **Updated:** March 1, 2026 *In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy* --- ## Living for the self and the absence of moral accountability Of all the things that occupy our thoughts on a daily basis, life after death is not one of them—at least not for most people. People deal with the temporary nature of this world in a multitude of ways, from nihilism and hedonism to more moral and humanistic philosophies. Because of the spread of scientism and materialism, even religious people de-emphasize the idea of a Day of Judgment.[^1] Due to global shifts towards materialism, and the supposed irreconcilability between a belief in the hereafter and modern understandings of science, the notion of a final reckoning has been largely abandoned as an almost embarrassing relic of old-fashioned belief systems. Yet materialists doubting the Day of Judgment is nothing new. Allah tells us in the Qur’an,[^2] \[QRN-19-66-67\] Even for those who believe in God or a higher power, God’s role is reduced to assisting us in this world without judgment, and without much thought given to accountability to Him.[^3] In fact, for the spiritually inclined, the idea that a “Universe” acts for us to fulfill our desires is becoming more pervasive. Indeed, spirituality itself becomes but a means to worldly enjoyment, or at the very least an arsenal of coping mechanisms for this transient life’s inevitable letdowns. And for the vast majority of people, day-to-day concerns are much more pressing than an abstract Day of Judgment. Even for some Muslims, and despite the Qur’an’s constant reminders, thinking about the Day of Judgment is uncomfortable. After all, considering a day in which mountains dissipate like clouds, flames engulf the oceans, the skies fold like the pages of a book, and all the humans, jinn, and animals that ever lived are in a single moment recreated and assembled in incomprehensibly massive crowds can, for some, be paralyzing. It may even cause despair. Yet this thought only has such an effect when one does not know who Allah is. Being acquainted with *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*—Owner of the Day of Retribution—who is the Most Merciful, the Most Just, and the Most Wise, can completely change the way we relate to the Day of Judgment. Our understanding of His beautiful names and attributes ultimately determines how we relate to the Day we will meet Him. This paper aims to help readers internalize the reality of the Day of Judgment in a way that aligns our purpose in life, heightens our awareness of our actions and hearts, grants us solace through life’s traumas, makes us long for meeting Allah, and provides us comfort—yes, comfort—in knowing that only Allah will be in control throughout that incredible Day. --- ## Māliki Yawm al-Dīn: Knowing the Owner of the Day of Retribution When someone tells you who they are, it is usually for a purpose. Allah reveals to us many of His Names, which means that each name teaches us something foundational about our relationship with Him and helps us connect with Him at different levels throughout our lives. By telling us that He is *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm* (the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful), for example, Allah assures us that we are recipients of His mercy, and that during our darkest times we can turn to Him, knowing He will receive us with His divine kindness and love. He is also *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* (Owner of the Day of Retribution). As Muslims, we have six foundational beliefs, and one of them is belief in the Last Day when “each person will come to Him individually.”[^4] Many of us may have learned about the Last Day as a purely horrific event, and a major reason for this is that the narrative we were taught is often divorced from “who” the Master of that Day is. Our pious predecessors largely did not suffer from this imbalanced oversimplification about the hereafter. In fact, we find reports of them perceiving resurrection after death as awakening from sleep to don festive attire for the Eid festival,[^5] after having observed virtuous restraint (fasting, in the wider sense) in this worldly life.[^6] Having been much closer to the Qur’an than those after them, early Muslims needed less refinement of their internal “God image” than many Muslims today. These next few pages attempt to recalibrate that image, for a fuller picture of what is entailed by Allah being *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*. The opening chapter (*al-Fātiḥah*) of the Qur’an begins with Allah introducing Himself. The reader immediately encounters the lofty yet intimate descriptions of the Divine Reality as it relates to the human condition, beginning from our creation to the fateful moment that will determine our eternal destiny:[^7] \[QRN-1-2-4\] In these earliest brief *āyāt* (verses), Allah first declares His absolute *ḥamd* (praiseworthiness) that permeates all of His beautiful Names and Attributes. He is the pinnacle of perfection, and therefore most worthy of absolute and unconditional praise. This axiom, established so early in Revelation, makes it the fundamental cognitive lens through which we understand every description we encounter thereafter about Him, including His dominion and sovereignty over the Day of Judgment. In fact, this assertion that He is eternally praiseworthy is not just echoed around the throne of Allah perpetually,[^8] but will be particularly emphasized once the final verdicts on the Last Day have been passed.[^9] \[QRN-39-75\] As Ibn al-Qayyim[^10] (d. 751 AH) astutely observes regarding the opening of *al-Fātiḥah,* the five Divine Names we find in these first three verses are far from random qualities of His perfection. Rather, they are particularly distinguished from all the other Names we find in the Qur’an and Sunnah, for they best introduce the reader to the comprehensive Divine Reality.[^11] He illustrates how from the word *Allah* itself every quality related to His glory (*jalāl*) and beauty (*jamāl*) is derived. Then, the attributes of omnipotence (unlimited power) are extensions of His being the *Rabb* of all, which is mentioned second in *al-Fātiḥah*. Thereafter, we are introduced to His matchless grace, generosity, affection, and love through the Names *al-Raḥmān* and *al-Raḥīm.* Finally, the phrase *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* describes His sublime justice and authority, which most perfectly manifests on the Day of Recompense, when none but Allah will claim supremacy, avenge the oppressed, and realize flawless retribution. Since the Qur’an first introduces the hereafter as part of a comprehensive introduction to Allah Himself, we can never fully realize our “belief in the Last Day” without understanding who He is. Until we recognize this day as a pure and perfect expression of Allah’s ownership, mercy, and justice, we have overlooked a profound wisdom in why Allah revealed Himself as *Allāh, al-Rabb, al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm,* and *al-Mālik* before making mention of the indeed daunting *Yawm al-Dīn*. In that very sequence is a powerful catalyst for not just hope, but the love that should exist between the creatures and the only One worthy of their submission and ultimate adoration. --- ## Allah is the Owner, and also the King One may notice that reciters sometimes invoke a variant *qirāʾah* (mode of recitation), pronouncing *Mālik* (long “ā”) as *Malik* (short “a”) when reading that verse of *al-Fātiḥah*. While they sound quite similar, and their linguistic roots are certainly related, differentiating between these two articulations gives rise to a beautiful complementarity in meaning. *Mālik* means owner, but unlike every other owner imaginable, who is “entitled” to only “some things” and without full authority to utilize them as they please. Consider the orphan child who has yet to acquire the fortunes they now “own” but are locked away in their parents’ estate until they reach the authorized age. Every created being is analogous to that orphan, incapable of vindicating their “right” to their finite “possessions” indefinitely, irrespective of their lifespans, mental stability, and monetary laws. As for the ownership of God, it is all-inclusive and perpetually unhindered. This brings us to the complementary name *Malik*, which means king, for His dominance and control is in perfect harmony with His ownership and entitlement. In other words, just as every last thing is owned by Allah by virtue of His power, every last individual and their deeds will be subject to His just verdict by virtue of Him “owning” every breath of the life He granted us. As Allah says, > And what can make you realize what *Yawm al-Dīn* truly is? Again, what can make you realize what *Yawm al-Dīn* truly is? It is the Day no soul will be of any benefit to another whatsoever, for all authority on that Day belongs entirely to Allah.[^12] This rhetorical question, repeated for emotive effect and then answered by underscoring the sovereignty of the Almighty on that Day, reflects the Qur’an’s incredible thematic consistency. Here, at the end of the Qur’an, we find a direct parallel to its first chapter, *al-Fātiḥah*. Another subtlety that Qur’anic exegetes highlight regarding this distinction is that kings are usually far removed from “all things little” whereas one should never infer from the greatness of God and His capacity as the Ultimate King that anything is too small for Him. Most people will only realize that on *Yawm al-Dīn*:[^13] \[QRN-18-49\] Similarly, an owner has direct access to his property, while kings are typically remote sovereigns dependent on their deputies. As for Allah, it will become evident to all on the Day of Judgment that His influence was never contingent on anyone’s compliance or assistance. Everyone will discover that none other than Allah will judge His servants that day, not the angels nor any other delegates.  That realization can inspire us to avoid sin. As Bilāl ibn Saʿd (d. 116 AH)[^14] would say, “Do not look at the smallness of the sin, but look at \[the greatness of\] the One whom you have sinned against.”[^15] However, it can also inspire great hope, as Ḥammād ibn Salamah[^16] (d. 167 AH) would say, “I swear by Allah, were I given the choice between Allah conducting my reckoning or my parents conducting my reckoning, I would choose the reckoning of Allah—for Allah is more merciful with me than my parents.”[^17] The believer should expect graciousness from *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*, because while He will not break His promises (such as granting paradise to those who believe and do righteous deeds), He is not obligated to execute His threats (such as punishing us for our sins). This is a fundamental characteristic of ownership and sovereignty, because while it would be unjust to forgive someone for something that is not yours to forgive, it would be generous to forgive someone for infringing upon your rights. In this vein, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī[^18] (d. 110 AH) said, “Allah will call the believers to account in light of His favor and grace on the Day of Judgment, just as He will punish the disbelievers in light of His justice and proofs \[against them\].” --- ## Expect Allah’s Mercy and Justice on that Day Allah’s mercy and justice do not compete with each other, but instead perfect each other. Consider a human judge who lightens the sentencing of a thief due to life conditions that “incentivized” stealing. Most people would consider this a just verdict. The Revelation regularly considers similar factors—for instance, granting those with less life experience greater leeway for their myopic decisions. We find this hinted at in the Qur’an, which sets “forty years of age” as a major milestone for introspection and making amends.[^19] We find it even clearer in the Sunnah, wherein it is authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has given enough excuses \[to be forgiven\] to every person whose death He has delayed until allowing him to reach sixty years of age.”[^20] Allah’s mercy and justice operating in perfect tandem is also evident in the fact He will ultimately punish *some* people on the Day of Judgment. This will only happen to those deserving punishment, making the justice obvious, so where then is the mercy in this equation? It is [multidimensional](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350167445&usg=AOvVaw0M5FH4V-8uWX3XGdfXhMg7), but keep in mind that many of those deserving punishment will be unconditionally pardoned without penalty. In addition to many being absolved, many others will be consoled by seeing their oppressors face retribution from *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*. Just as Allah reminded the Israelites of His favor upon them in drowning Pharaoh “while you watched,” He will also allow windows through which the people of Paradise can gaze upon the torment of their abusers in the Hellfire.[^21] They will observe firsthand how Allah exacted the *justice* that nobody else could offer these victims, and avenged them against those they were once powerless against as they pillaged their wealth, killed their loved ones, assassinated their character, and scorched their hearts beyond measure. In that will be incredible solace and *mercy* from Allah, afforded through the manifestation of His justice. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Revelation is clear that mercy and justice are not symmetrical. They complement each other, but mercy reigns supreme. As Allah (swt) says, “And My mercy encompassess all.”[^22] In an authentic hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, “When Allah finished the creation, He inscribed in His book that is with Him above His throne: My mercy prevails over My anger.”[^23] After Allah’s unique and perfect Oneness, there is no clearer nor more recurring theological fact in Islam than that Allah is unimaginably merciful and compassionate. Islam’s sacred texts remind us that He is more compassionate with His creation than their own mothers are with them, and we find throughout the Qur’an that one of His lofty attributes is *Arḥam al-Rāḥimīn* (the most merciful of those who show mercy). This remains true even on the Day of Retribution, as Ibn al-Qayyim argues, because His forgiveness is more beloved to Him than His punishment, and His kindness is more beloved to Him than His justice.[^24] This fascinating point reminds us that Allah’s qualities are timeless, which means that even when His anger manifests on the Day of Judgment, it will not be like the wrath of human beings that trumps their sense of justice and drives them into transgression. *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* will never exceed the bounds of justice in the least, and the oceans of His generosity on the Last Day will seem boundless. We are informed that even the animal kingdom will find just requital on the Day of Judgment. The Prophet ﷺ apprised us that *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* will ensure that “all will be given their due rights, to the degree that the hornless sheep will be recompensed by the horned ram \[that struck it\].”[^25] Dwelling on this single hadith should suffice to melt a believer’s heart. If Allah is this protective of subhuman victims, what then of the believer who was targeted for a lifetime by Satan, who happily embraced the fact that “this world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever”?[^26] This is precisely what the Prophet ﷺ assured us, namely that Allah has divided a single dose of His mercy among the entire world, by which all of its inhabitants show empathy for one another, and reserved 99 times as much for His believing servants on the Day of Resurrection.[^27] Witness the mercy all around us: the way nature is designed to ensure our survival and livelihood. The rain that pours from the heavens to provide life-sustaining substance. The perfect ecosystems that sustain plant and animal life without any need for human intervention and yet are used on a daily basis for our nourishment. The compassion mothers show their children, friends their companions, and the wealthy the poor. Behold the mercy that Allah directly shows all of creation, even those who profess disbelief in Him, antagonize His religion, and mock His prophets. All of this immense mercy we witness in the world is only one share of a hundred. The remaining 99 shares await the believers in the hands of *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*. For this reason, we find reports such as that of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (rA) when he said, “People will continue receiving mercy on the Day of Resurrection, to the point that even the heart of Iblīs (Satan) will quiver \[in hope\], due to what he sees of Allah’s mercy and the intercession of the intercessors.”[^28] For many (may Allah make us among them), it will be an overwhelming torrent of seemingly endless grace on that Day, from a man being forgiven for all his sins due to removing a dangerous thorn from the road,[^29] to a woman being forgiven for her prostitution due to retrieving water from a well for a parched dog.[^30] In fact, when a person who has undergone nothing but hardship in this world is dipped into Paradise for a moment, they will completely and instantly forget their trauma.[^31] All in all, though Allah is not limited by His mercy from upholding justice, He is also not limited by His justice from being more merciful than anything else, in this life and the next. --- ## Meeting Allah The hustle and bustle that characterizes modern living often distracts us from the fact that the transient pleasures of this world may be sabotaging our chances at what truly grants our hearts felicity. In the Paradise of the next life are not just the joys of its palaces, spouses, and gardens, but the utmost ecstasy in meeting with one’s greatest love, Allah (the Mighty and Majestic). As al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī once said, “When the people of Paradise finally set their gaze upon Allah, they will forget every other pleasure of Paradise.”[^32] This assertion is rooted in an authentically transmitted statement of the Prophet ﷺ himself: > When the people of Paradise enter Paradise, a caller will call out, “O people of Paradise, you all have a promise with Allah that He wishes to fulfill.” They will ask, “What could that be? Hasn’t He already brightened our faces, made our scales heavy, admitted us into Paradise, and saved us from the Hellfire?” Then, the veil will be removed, and they will gaze at Him. I swear by Allah, they will not be given anything more beloved to them than gazing upon Him, and nothing will bring greater delight to their eyes.[^33] Imagine your decades of toil and struggle in this world. You resisted the passions of your lower appetites, believing with conviction that Allah saw you, even if you could not see Him. You continued to pray five times a day no matter the circumstances. Whether it was in public or in private, on land or at sea or 31,000 feet above in an airplane, out in the blazing heat or blistering cold, in times of sickness or health, you answered the call and turned to the One you believed was always there for you. You persevered through the offenses hurled at your ears and heart by the unfaithful. You hovered over the flame of your faith, never allowing the raging winds of doubt to extinguish it. You fought to recall the One who gave your very existence meaning and purpose. You sacrificed your wealth, your time, your desires, your sweat, and your tears for this moment where you could finally meet the One you sought your entire life. He is the One you worshiped alongside no one else, the One who set tranquility in your heart in your most difficult times, the One who always protected you, the One who never let you down when you placed your trust in Him, the One that was too shy to leave you empty-handed when you raised your hands to Him, the One who was always there even when your faith in Him nearly crumbled. You turned away from Him and each time He rekindled in your heart the desire to change course. You took one step towards Him and He sped towards you. This is Allah, and there is nothing that can be greater in reward, nor generate purer joy, than finally meeting Him in Paradise and gazing upon His Magnificent Face. Should we not then long to meet Allah, and plead with Him to improve our longing for Him? Should we not realize that every time we stand for prayer, it is in anticipation of the Day when we will stand before Allah and actually see Him? Should we not pick up the pace in this marathon of life as we were instructed, racing to the forgiveness of our Lord and His gardens? All this stems from an increased love for Him, appreciation for His innumerable bounties, and recognition of His absolute greatness and most delicate grace. But before all, it stems from being invited into the blissful state of living in earnest for Him. As the Prophet ﷺ would often ask in his supplications, “I ask You the delight of gazing upon your Face and longing to meet You.”[^34] A flame of intense passion burned within the early Muslims for that moment when they would finally meet their most tender and forgiving Lord, who out of His mercy and love will smile at them, knowing all they had endured to reach this moment, and all the emotional pain they suppressed and physical burdens they carried en route to Him. It was such an acute longing that a man once came to al-Shiblī[^35] (d. 334 AH) and said: > “Which type of patience is the hardest for the patient to observe?” He replied, “Persevering \[in combat\] in the path to Allah.” The questioner said, “No.” He replied, “Then patience \[in living\] for the sake of Allah.” The questioner said, “No.” He replied, “Then patience in \[maintaining\] nearness to Allah.” The questioner said, “No.” He said, “Then what is it?!” The questioner said, “Patiently bearing to be away from Allah.” Upon hearing that, al-Shiblī wept so intensely that it was as if his soul was being shredded.[^36] --- ## Fruits of belief in the next life ### Purpose, meaning, and self-worth > Did you think that We had created you in vain, and that to Us you would not be returned?[^37] We are by definition lost if we do not have a destination towards which we are moving, or if the destination we are moving towards is incorrect. In that vein, imagine a world with no afterlife. The moment we took our last breath, all the suffering, pain, and toil in this world would have been for nothing. Our lives would have no consequence in the grand scheme of the universe. What then is the point of continuing to struggle, of striving for anything? The rational answer in this bleak worldview would be none at all. Belief in the next life is therefore a [necessary ingredient, among others](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350174640&usg=AOvVaw1kBpQI5IhE5pSepBlGbDFD), for the notion of purpose in life to have any real meaning. Belief in the next life endows every moment in your life with metaphysical weight as you realize the eternal consequences of your transient choices. This inspires people to the loftiest ambitions, and deters them from settling for a shallow moment’s thrill. It gives strength to those confronting hardship and trauma in their lives, and threatens the oppressors and tyrants of this world with the Day of Reckoning when they cannot escape the grip of *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*. Belief in the afterlife is therefore necessary for a life worth living. Our esteem as human beings should come primarily from our belief that Allah created us for a higher purpose. In a beautiful reflection on the worth of a believer’s life, Ibn al-Qayyim writes, > When Allah said He “purchased our souls,” we have to realize that the value of the commodity is correlated to both the status of the buyer and the price. You are the commodity, and you are so valuable that Allah Himself is the buyer, and the price is Jannah, which you receive along with seeing Allah and hearing His speech in the abode of complete peace and tranquility. Allah distinguished you—and He only distinguishes that which is honored and blessed—then built for you a dwelling place close to Him, then made the angels your personal servants, ensuring that you are taken care of in this world when you are awake and when you are sleeping, throughout your life and as you die.[^38] ### Loving Allah Of the fruits of belief in the next life is love for Allah. Interestingly, Saʿīd Nursī (d. 1960 CE), the Muslim Turkish Revivalist writes, “The Love of an admirer condemned to permanent separation will turn to hatred once the thought of separation takes hold. Admiration yields to an ill opinion and respect yields to contempt… This is a profound reason why unbelievers hate God.”[^39] The fulfillment of loving God in this world can only be realized in the next one. Without belief in the afterlife, a person is left with a disfigured image of God, which turns from contempt, as Nursī puts it, to disbelief. As Allah Himself tells us, “For those who don’t believe in the next life is an evil example, but to Allah belongs the highest example and He is the Almighty, the Wise.”[^40] Without the next life, it would appear that evil goes unpunished in this world, suffering unredeemed, and striving unrewarded. These are the very allegations leveled by atheists against God, but all these contentions are sufficiently addressed by factoring in the otherworldly dimension of our existence.[^41] Conversely, love for Allah (and subsequently His Messenger ﷺ) naturally blooms in every heart that is guided to proper beliefs about Allah and the meeting with Him in the next life. This love does not only blossom from the awe that stirs in us when the revelation acquaints us with the Almighty. It also crystallizes when our sacred knowledge of the Divine is complemented by our gradual discovery of the imperfection of everything else. Relationships form in our lives that turn out to be temporary, interrupted by separation. Every phase of our development arouses new appetites, and they too offer only a momentary fulfillment. For the rightly guided believers, these “passing positives” arouse their gratitude, sharpen their existential wisdom, and ultimately encourage them to love the Source of every favor more than the favor itself, and the Eternal more than his or her fellow creatures who rose from dust and will soon return to it. This blissful epiphany is not only a profound fruit of believing in the hereafter, but also functions as the greatest asset in preparation for the Day of Judgment: > A man once came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, when will the Hour commence?” He said, “What have you prepared for it?” The man said, “O Messenger of Allah, I have not prepared much prayer or fasting for it, but I truly love Allah and His Messenger.” So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “A person will be with those he loves, and you will be with whomever you love.” Anas (rA; the narrator) said, “Since the advent of Islam, I did not see that anything brought the Muslims greater joy than this \[hadith\].” In another narration, Anas (rA) said, “For I love the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr (rA) and ʿUmar (rA), and I am hopeful to be with them due to my love for them, even if I have not performed the likes of their deeds.”[^42] ### Loving His Messenger Of the fruits of belief in the next life is love for the Messenger as we learn of the expansive love he had for all of us despite never meeting us. It is reported that the Prophet once went out to the graveyard. After greeting its inhabitants, he remarked, > “I would have loved to have met our brothers.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, are we not your brothers?” He said, “Rather, you are my Companions. My brothers are those who have not yet come.” In another narration, “Those who will believe in me without having seen me.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, how will you know those of your *ummah* (nation) who come after you?” He said, “If a man had a horse with a white blaze and white feet, situated among horses that are all solid black, do you think he would be able to tell it apart?” They said, “Of course.” He said, “Likewise, they will come on the Day of Resurrection with radiant faces, and with radiant white hands and feet, from the traces of their *wuḍūʾ* (ablution). And I will reach the *ḥawḍ* (drinking basin) before them.”[^43] The Prophet ﷺ was the greatest human to walk on this earth, attaining moral, spiritual, and intellectual heights that no one could ever approach. His love for humanity was so intensely powerful it would consume his thoughts and prayers. It was a love not limited to those he knew nor the time in which he lived, but rather extended to the end of time. He called us his brothers and sisters, and thereby gave us a status distinct from that of his companions. For indeed we exist at a time so distant from his, in a land so far from his, brought up with a language and in a culture so foreign to his, yet we still unwaveringly profess our belief in his prophethood and follow his way. We rush to dispel misconceptions about him, defending his honor, teaching the world about his blessed example and loving him more intensely than anyone else in this world as our eyes swell with tears at the mention of these blessed words. Such love is reciprocated by an even greater love from the Prophet ﷺ toward us, as he will not take his place in Paradise until all of us make it there with him, even those believers who may have found their fate in Hellfire. He ﷺ said, “My intercession is for the people who committed the major sins in my *ummah*.”[^44] ### Loving humanity For most of humanity, the Day of Judgment will be a profoundly lonely nightmare in which every soul fends for its salvation alone. Yet for the believers, the reality of that fateful day strengthens their bonds to each other and to humanity in general. This happens in various ways. Firstly, the fact of the Final Judgment nullifies any conflicts caused by envy of wealth, wisdom, beauty, status, or anything else. When an eternity of opportunity awaits, it’s easy to transcend avarice and the dog-eat-dog mentality that abounds whenever we focus on this finite world. Secondly, the chance at being forgiven by Allah for our crimes provides an incredible incentive for forgiving those we may not otherwise want to forgive. As Allah, the Most Generous and Merciful, says, > …and let them pardon and overlook. Would you not like that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.[^45] When a person dwells on the day they will stand before Allah and realizes that they are actually not entitled to His forgiveness, and that *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* is the only One who “owns” the ability to forgive them, the emotional challenge involved in forgiving those who hurt them in this temporary life greatly diminishes. Thirdly, the Day of Reckoning rewards those who observe the “golden rule.” The Prophet ﷺ expressly linked these two factors in the famous hadith: “Whoever wishes to be distanced from the Hellfire and admitted into Paradise must encounter death while firmly believing in Allah and the Last Day, and while extending to people that which he would love to find extended towards him.”[^46] Finally, the looming approach of the Hour unites humanity through a common purpose. While the *dunya* may temporarily bring a few people together based on circumstantial variables (common relations, locations, or ideas), belief in being a single human family that shares an everlasting goal, and a universal duty to help each other towards reaching that goal, transforms the fraternity of humanity into an eternal relationship that only begins in this temporary world. How then could people not love one another, when we are each other’s spiritual remedies? ### Psychological fortitude Knowing that there is a Day of Judgment helps us better deal with the hardships that we all face in life. When we see unthinkable oppression and atrocities committed by human beings, for instance, we are able to make sense of them through the matchless justice of Allah that will leave no transgression unaccounted for. When we ourselves are enduring some personal [trauma](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/trauma&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350181829&usg=AOvVaw0xmvQEmL7Odw-Z6LOK5pq5) at the hands of abusers, we recall that on that day, *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* will mend our broken hearts and exhilarate our fatigued souls in such a way that will cause others to wish they faced our adversity. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When the people who faced great tribulations are given their reward on the Day of Judgment, the people who were spared \[of these hardships\] will wish that their skins had been sliced with shears during this worldly life.”[^47] One can understand why the condition of the world globally, and our troubles individually, would cause a person to despair if this world is all there is. It should be expected that people would give up, tune out, or become bitter and resentful if this existence is simply some corridor that they are passing through. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ advised, “Be in this world as if you were a stranger, or better yet, a traveler along a path.”[^48] A stranger is initially vigilant, aware of his inability to discern the dangers that surround him. However, he is susceptible to eventually developing an intimacy with this foreign land and considering it home. For this reason, he ﷺ said, “...or better yet, a traveler,” for the traveler en route is intentional about reaching his destination, and thus keeps a light load in order to maintain his swift pace and avoid ambush in the open wilderness. Thus is the believer: driven forward in his journey by faith in the Day of Judgment, and undeterred by the glitter or thorns on the path towards his actual destination. In  this vein, Sufyān al-Thawrī[^49] (d. 161 AH) said, “Once certainty takes root in the heart as it should, then \[nearly all\] merriment and grief fly away due to one’s longing for Paradise and fear from the Hellfire.”[^50] It is always marvelous and awe-inducing to recount the psychological resilience of the Prophet ﷺ despite his unparalleled pains and hardships. In one incident, the Companions noticed the Prophet ﷺ shedding tears due to the passing of his son, Ibrāhīm (rA). In this devastating moment, the death of the last of his three sons, he ﷺ watched this fragile toddler breathe his last before his very eyes. A Companion wondered about the appropriateness of weeping, saying, “Even you \[cry\], O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “O Ibn ʿAwf, this is an expression of mercy.” The Prophet ﷺ continued to weep, then added, “Indeed, the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but we do not say anything except that which pleases our Lord. Though we are certainly saddened by your departure, O Ibrāhīm!”[^51] In that prophetic balance is an indication that being moved by empathy for those who suffer is praiseworthy, but so is finding solace in conviction that the hereafter is a world of reunions. In another hadith, Abū Ḥassān asked Abū Hurayrah (rA), “I have two sons who have both died. Can you share with us something from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to uplift our spirits after experiencing their death?” Abū Hurayrah responded, “Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ told us that their young (i.e., children of bereaved parents) are roaming about in Paradise.” Nothing can soothe the wound of a parent who lost a child like certainty that they will be reunited with them in Paradise, and that their child will refuse to enter Paradise until their parents enter with them, and that Allah will grant them that.[^52] Everyone who chases happiness in life will forever find it eluding them, while those who accept *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* as their Lord, and their meeting with Him as sufficient consolation, stumble on happiness in the form of contentment with life. As the great scholar Ibn al-Jawzī[^53] (d. 597) explains, > There is nothing pleasurable in this world that is lasting except for the *ʿārif* (the person deeply acquainted with God) who busies himself with pleasing his Beloved, and gathering ample provisions for the journey toward Him. It is only this person who finds relief in this world due to his usage of it all as a means towards the hereafter.[^54] And as the Prophet ﷺ promised and cautioned, > Whoever makes this world his primary concern, Allah will confound his affairs and cause him to constantly fear poverty, and yet he will still not gain anything extra from this world other than that which was already decreed for him. And whoever makes the hereafter his primary concern, Allah will consolidate his affairs for him and keep him content at heart, and his worldly provisions will still reach him.[^55] ### Moral accountability Our moral integrity depends on our certainty about the Day of Judgment. One cannot believe that one will face God and still live heedlessly, selfishly, or unjustly—at least not regularly. Cognizance of Allah will necessitate holding oneself to the ethical standards He set in anticipation of meeting Him. This will keep us from entertaining the myriad of “justifications” for pursuing this world in deplorable ways. Therefore, belief in the Day of Judgment is a safety net that prevents us from falling into immorality, and emboldens us when living “by the Book” subjects us to great inconveniences. How not, when revelation has carved within us that the persevering will be given “a reward without measure”[^56] upon meeting *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*? We currently live in a world that emphasizes being accountable to yourself first and foremost, although we are in actuality holding ourselves accountable to the ever-fluctuating norms that society has impressed upon us. However, even when overlooking the epistemological layer of morality, which identifies what is morally acceptable and objectionable to begin with, morality (however defined) is doomed to being forever negotiable due to its dependence on the buy-in of the self. When no responsibility to a Divine Lawgiver and Judge exists, and no consequence to the individual for their moral failings is feared, then imbibing any moral framework is contingent on convenience. It is famously reported that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) would exhort people to align themselves with the laws of God, and to employ introspection and self-accountability to ensure that this is a embodied and not merely a theoretical alignment. He (rA) would say, > Hold yourself accountable before you are held to account \[by Allah\], and weigh your deeds before they are weighed against you—for the reckoning will be easier upon you tomorrow if you hold yourself accountable today. And adorn yourselves for the Great Presentation; “On that day, you will be presented, and no hidden matter of yours will remain hidden.”[^57], [^58] The Qur’an often reminds us that those who fail to be granted God’s grace will explain why from within the Hellfire.[^59] In other words, they were not oblivious to the corruption of their deeds and beliefs. All this reminds us that we have to guard ourselves against heedlessness. It is tempting to minimize our responsibilities, but understanding that the Day of Judgment is a reality should cause us to take everything we learn about this grave day seriously. In the biographies of the Prophet’s Companions and early Muslims is sufficient inspiration for this. Abū al-Dardāʾ (rA), for instance, would say, “What I fear most on the Day of Judgment is that it will be said to me, ‘O Abū al-Dardāʾ, you knew, so how did you act with the knowledge you had?’” This does not mean that they lived in a state of chronic anxiety and despair due to fear—far from it. It simply means that they gave  the Day of Judgment the weight it demands, and did not think their righteousness exempted them from accountability. Indeed, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb stated, “If a lost sheep under my care were to die on the banks of the Euphrates, I would expect Allah the Exalted to question me about it on the Day of Resurrection.”[^60] He felt the great responsibility he had as leader, and that sense of responsibility compelled his vigilance. In order to avoid a type of fear that results in despair, consider a person born with a genetic predisposition to serious heart problems, such that engaging in certain unhealthy behaviors would mean undergoing a dangerous and potentially life-threatening heart procedure. However, if they live in an overall healthy way, they can more or less guarantee that they will avoid any major heart issues. This person would do their best to be conscious of what they eat and how much they exercise. They would seek advice and knowledge regarding their condition. They would put in the necessary effort to follow the guidelines, and be aware of when they slip. And when they do slip—they are human, after all—they might feel worried about the consequences, and follow up with actions to counteract the effects of the unhealthy ones. The knowledge of their condition helps them to act in the best way. This is the type of accountability that we speak of—one that enables us to live with awareness and deliberation. Our heart should be in a balanced state, such that if fear overwhelms us, we remind ourselves of the mercy and grace of Allah, and if we find ourselves absorbed in this world and belittling the Hereafter, we recall its reality and graveness. Holding oneself accountable is therefore not about paralyzing fear or aimless self-flagellation. It is more about prosperity on a day when regret will be futile; a day when “they say, ‘If only I had taken the same path as the Messenger… Woe to me, I wish I had not taken so-and-so for a close friend!’”[^61] But while pursuing that prosperity, one can and should intentionally enjoy some of what has been permitted in this world, as this enables us to strike the right balance and avoid burn-out. We can and should spend time with friends and family, exercise, have hobbies, and enjoy going out. Our Prophet ﷺ once comforted one of the Companions, Ḥanẓalah (rA), when he expressed his anxiety over what he thought was “neglecting the hereafter.” He complained: > “O Messenger of Allah, when we are in your presence and you remind us of Hellfire and Paradise, it is as if we are seeing them with our own eyes. But when we leave you and attend to our wives, our children, and our properties,  we forget many things.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “By Him in whose hand is my soul, if you could always remain as mindful as you are in my presence, the angels would shake your hands on your couches and on your roads. Rather, there is a time for this and a time for that.” The Prophet ﷺ said it three times.[^62] It should go without saying that the first step necessary for holding ourselves to account is to seek beneficial Islamic knowledge, which educates us on the standards to which we will be held. Otherwise, we are impressionable creatures that will easily be manipulated by our feelings, cultural tastes, and personal inclinations. Many times, even with good intentions, we are kept from a greater good by an inferior one, and an individual obligation by a voluntary deed. Muslims who are consistent in their observance of good works, but negligent of their five time-sensitive daily prayers, are the clearest examples of this. Had they but known, or remembered, that the Prophet ﷺ said, > The first action for which a servant of Allah will be held accountable on the Day of Resurrection will be his prayers. If they are in order, he will have prospered and succeeded. If they are lacking, he will have failed and lost. If there is something defective in his obligatory prayers, then the Almighty Lord will say: See if My servant has any voluntary prayers that can complete what is insufficient in his obligatory prayers. The rest of his deeds will be judged the same way.[^63] Accountability for the Muslim begins there, then extends further to evaluate their observance of the other obligations, their avoidance of misusing their limbs and tongue in ways that displease Allah, and even reaching the point where a person’s mind and heart are guarded by introspection against polluted thoughts settling therein. But none of that is possible without seeing oneself as a life-long student of sacred knowledge and spiritual refinement. This knowledge should also orient us as to how wide the spectrum of “good” in Islam actually is. We should therefore always be scoping out opportunities, and never belittle any small deed. In fact, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Even if the Resurrection were about to commence upon one of you while he holds a sapling in his hand, he should certainly plant it if he can manage to plant it.”[^64] Sometimes we assume that it is too late or cumbersome to begin on the path towards something good, especially a long-term project, such as memorizing the Qur’an, starting a charity organization, or resolving a complex dispute between people. But this hadith teaches us to simply start, and that our sincere intention materializes on the Day of Judgment as a completed deed! It also teaches us that our most gracious Lord wishes for us to become “creative” through these “ideas” and never underestimate any breath we take in this world, realizing that it could afford us fortunes in our true lives in Paradise. --- ## Conclusion The necessary effect of avoiding the thought of the Day of Judgment is that we become estranged from our true purpose in this world. We forget that we are not in the world for its own sake, but rather to know and worship God sincerely, enter into His Paradise, and avoid the Hellfire. The time we have on this earth, even if our lifespan exceeds 100 years old, is extremely short; the hereafter is literally forever. But when we forget that there is a Day of Judgment and that we will stand before God individually, we end up living for this world and abiding by the values and mantras of the time. We assign imaginary value to the valueless because we do not adhere to the standards set by the Master of that Day, *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*, but rather to the vacuous standards of the façade of the “masters” of today. Ultimately, Allah wants us to have unwavering certainty on the Last Day in order to maximize our aspirations to work righteousness during our stay in this world, and in terms of the level we wish to attain in Paradise. As the Prophet ﷺ said, > Paradise has one hundred levels, and between each two levels is a distance like that between the heavens and earth. *Al-Firdaws* is its highest level, from which four rivers of Paradise flow, and above which is the Throne. So when you ask from Allah, ask for *Al-Firdaws.*[^65] He ﷺ  also reminded us, “When one of you calls upon Allah, be ambitious in your hopes, for absolutely nothing is too great for Allah.”[^66] For those whose faith has not yet ascended to those splendid heights, never losing hope in *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* is their “duty of the hour,” as is devoting themselves to learning the art of thinking well of Allah by understanding His names, connecting to His Words, and to the lives of our righteous predecessors. A man once asked al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (rA) about the verse, “Do not throw yourself to destruction by your own hands.”[^67] He said, “Is this referring to a man who meets the enemy in battle and fights until he is killed?” Al-Barāʾ said, “No, rather it is the man who commits a sin, then says, ‘Allah will not forgive me.’”[^68] Allow us to seal this paper with the priceless advice that our beloved ﷺ shared as he sealed his blessed life. Jābir (rA) narrates: I heard the Prophet ﷺ say three days before his death, “No one of you should ever die without assuming the best of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.”[^69] --- ## Notes [^1]: Peter Steinfels, “The Case for What ‘Comes as a Shock to Most Jews and Christians Alike,’” *New York Times*, September 30, 2006, U.S., [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30beliefs.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30beliefs.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350209886&usg=AOvVaw2QNV2RhuKVpFKEMhOS3_-Z). [^2]: Qur’an 19:66–67, *The Clear Quran*. [^3]: Tanya Luhrmann, “When God Becomes a Therapist,” *Psychology Today*, April 2, 2012, [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-god-talks-back/201204/when-god-becomes-therapist](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-god-talks-back/201204/when-god-becomes-therapist&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350207755&usg=AOvVaw3GPW_M-KI7FWw0GMlzC94j)[.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-god-talks-back/201204/when-god-becomes-therapist&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350208097&usg=AOvVaw2SIeXuwMR00U5CWx4qKr1G) [^4]: Qur’an 19:95, author’s loose translation. [^5]: An annual holiday Muslims celebrate following their ritual fasting of Ramadan and the ritual Hajj. [^6]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Ṣayd al-khāṭir* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 1992), 477. [^7]: Qur’an 1:2–4, *The Clear Quran*. [^8]: Qur’an 40:7. [^9]: Qur’an 39:75, *The Clear Quran*. [^10]: Shams ad-Dīn Abū Abdullah Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya was born in Damascus to a Ḥanbalī family. His father was the superintendent of the Jawziyya school, an institute dedicated to teaching the Islamic sciences and Ḥanbalī *fiqh*. He was heavily influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, one of the most revolutionary scholars and thinkers in Islamic history and carried many of his ideas forward into his own works. He wrote books in almost every field of Islam, and was a polymath who also studied medicine with doctors in Egypt. His quotes and aphorisms are widely shared in contemporary times through digital media, a testament to the lasting impact of his writings. [^11]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *Madārij al-Sālikīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-‘Arabī, 1996), 1/56-57. [^12]: Qur’an 82:17–19, *The Clear Quran* (with adaptation). [^13]: Qur’an 18:49, *The Clear Quran*. [^14]: Bilāl ibn Saʿd was an early transmitter of prophetic narrations (hadith) who narrated from multiple companions. He lived in Damascus and was the teacher of many of the early Syrian scholars, such as Al-Awzāʾī. He was also known for his piety, and it is said he would complete 100 units of prayer every day. [^15]: Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, *az-Zuhd wal-Raqā’iq* (Riyadh: Dār al-Mi‘rāj al-Dawliyyah, 1995), 1:150, #62. [^16]: Abu Salma Ḥammād ibn Salamah al-Baṣrī was a prolific narrator of hadith and a scholar of the Arabic language. As his appellation suggests, he was from Basra in modern day Iraq and his narrations are frequently quoted in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, the two most authoritative hadith compilations in Islam. [^17]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1985), 7/449. [^18]: Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was from the *tabi‘ūn* (successor) generation, which meant he had met with the companions of the Prophet *sallallahu ʿalayhī wa salam*. He was born in Medina during the caliphate of ʾUmar ibn al-Khattāb, and his family subsequently moved to Basra following the civil war. He grew up to be one of the most significant scholars of his generation. He was one of the earliest ascetics at a time when wealth was accumulating in the Islamic empire. Many spiritual masters trace their connection to the Prophet ﷺ through al-Ḥasan. [^19]: Qur’an 46:15. [^20]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 6419. [^21]: See: Qur’an 7:44. [^22]: Qur’an 7:156, *Saheeh International*. [^23]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 3194. [^24]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ḥadī al-arwāḥ ilā bilād al-afrāḥ* (Jeddah: Majmaʾ Fiqh al-Islāmī, 2007), 2:764. [^25]: *Jami’ at-Tirmidhi*, no. 2420. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2956. [^27]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2753. [^28]: Al-Qurtubi, *at-Tadhkira* (Riyadh: Maktaba Dār al-Minhāj, 1425 AH), 1:796. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2340; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1914. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2245. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2807. [^32]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawdat ul-muhibbeen* (Jeddah: Daar Aalim al-Fawaa’id, n.d.), 572. [^33]: *Sahih Muslim*, no. 181; some of the wording is from *Jami’ Tirmidhi* no. 2552 and *Sunan Ibn Majah* no. 187. [^34]: *Sunan al-Nasā'ī*, no. 1305, graded authentic by al-Albānī; *Sahih Ibn Hibban* no. 1971. [^35]: Abu Bakr ash-Shiblī was one of the most important early spiritual masters in Islamic history. He was born in Baghdad to a wealthy family in 247 AH. He became disillusioned with the world and went into self-imposed exile searching for a spiritual path. He became a disciple of the great master Junayd al-Baghdādī (d. 298 AH) and took up his mantle afterwards. He is frequently quoted in books of narrations pertaining to spiritual matters, as well as in the poems of spiritual writers. [^36]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawdat ul-muhibbeen*, 589. [^37]: Qur’an 23:115. [^38]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-Hijratayn* (Jeddah: Majmaʾa Fiqh al-Islāmī, 2008), 257. [^39]: Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, *The Words* (New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2010), 86. [^40]: Qur’an 16:60. [^41]: It is worth noting that the classic “Epicurean dilemma,” which argues that God cannot be merciful, capable, and knowing, and then still allow evil to exist, is fundamentally flawed even according to [prominent atheists](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1648568350209404&usg=AOvVaw1D3aGsK2k_10j-llo3XlPD) today. See [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil). [^42]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3688; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2639d. [^43]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 150. Declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Nasāʾī*, no. 150. [^44]: *Jami’ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 2435; *Sunan Abī Dawūd*, no. 4739. Al-Albani declared it authentic (*Ṣaḥīḥ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 2435; *Ṣaḥīḥ Abu Dawud*, no. 4739). [^45]: Qur’an 24:22, Saheeh International. [^46]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1844. [^47]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2402, graded *hasan* by al-Albani. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6416. [^49]: Sufyān ibn Saʾīd ath-Thawrī was one of the greatest scholars of hadith (narration) and *fiqh* (law) among the *salaf* (first three generations of Islam). He learned from over 600 teachers and was said to have had thousands of students. He founded his own *madhab* (legal school), but it did not survive beyond the next generation. He has also written one of the earliest *tafāsīr* we have available with us today, published partially until Sūrah at-Ṭūr (52). Aside from his scholarly achievements, he was also known for his piety and asceticism. [^50]: Abu Nu’aym, *Hilyat al-awliyaa* (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1996), 7:17. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1241. [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2635. [^53]: ʿAbdur-Rahmān ibn al-Jawzī, not to be confused with Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya quoted earlier, was another Ḥanbalī scholar who resided in Baghdad. He was a descendant of Abu Bakr as-Siddīq, the greatest companion of the Prophet *sallallahu ʿalayhi wa salam*. His eloquence was widely known, and it is said thousands would flock to his Friday sermons, such that it would require designated people to carry forward his speech to congregants who were seated far away. He was a prolific author, with some estimating that he wrote up to 700 works. [^54]: Ibn al-Jawzi, *Sayd al-khatir*, 317. [^55]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* no. 4105. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said that the hadith is confirmed (*thabit*) in *al-Tamhīd* (Morocco: Ministry of Endowments, 1967), 21:276, and it was graded authentic by al-Albānī. [^56]: Qur’an 39:10. [^57]: Qur’an 69:18. [^58]: Ibn al-Mubarak, *al-Zuhd war-raqā’iq*, the chapter on fleeing from mistakes and sins, hadith no. 307. [^59]: “What has landed you in Hell?” They will reply, “We were not of those who prayed, nor did we feed the poor. We used to indulge \[in falsehood\] along with others, and deny the Day of Judgment, until the inevitable came to us” (Qur’an 72:42–47). [^60]: Abu Nu‘aym al-Aṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’ wa Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣfiyā’* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1996), 1:53. [^61]: Qur’an 25:27–28. [^62]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2750. [^63]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no.  413. [^64]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 12902; al-Arnāʾūṭ said that it is authentic according to the criteria of Imam Muslim. [^65]: *Jami’ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 2531; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22738 and graded authentic by al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^66]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 896; al-Arnāʾūṭ said that it is authentic according to the criteria of Imam Muslim. [^67]: Qur’an 2:195. [^68]: *Shu‘ab al-Iman*, no. 6691. [^69]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2788a. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. Among the realities from which people distract themselves in the rush of worldly life, none is graver than the Day of Judgment. Whether through nihilism, hedonism, or seemingly humane philosophies, most people find ways to cope with the fleeting nature of this world without confronting the reality of a final reckoning. The spread of scientism and materialism has led many—even religious people—to treat the Day of Judgment as an embarrassing relic, imagining an irreconcilable clash between belief in the Hereafter and modern science. Yet this doubt is nothing new, for Allah relates the words of the deniers of old in His Book (Qur'an 19:66–67). Even those who profess belief in God often reduce Him to a helper in worldly affairs, stripped of judgment, while the spiritually inclined increasingly imagine a benevolent "Universe" catering to their desires, turning spirituality itself into a coping mechanism for life's disappointments. Even some Muslims, despite the Qur'an's repeated reminders, find contemplating the Day of Judgment paralyzing—overwhelmed by images of mountains scattering like clouds, oceans set ablaze, the sky folded like the pages of a book, and all of creation gathered in a single moment. Yet this dread arises only when one does not truly know Allah. Becoming acquainted with Him as *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*—the Owner of the Day of Retribution—who is the Most Merciful, Most Just, and Most Wise, transforms our relationship with that Day entirely. Indeed, how we understand His beautiful names and attributes determines how we relate to the Day we shall meet Him. The aim here is to internalize the reality of the Day of Judgment in a way that aligns our purpose, heightens our awareness, grants solace through trials, and instills in us a longing—and even comfort—in knowing that Allah alone will be in control on that momentous Day. When Allah reveals His Names to us, it is purposeful, each name teaching us something foundational about our bond with Him. By telling us He is *al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm*, He assures us of His mercy in our darkest hours. By telling us He is *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn*, He orients our belief in the Last Day, one of the six pillars of faith, when each person shall come to Him individually. Many learned of the Last Day as a purely horrific event because the narrative was divorced from *who* the Master of that Day is. Our pious predecessors, being closer to the Qur'an, did not suffer this imbalance; it is reported that they perceived resurrection as awakening from sleep to don festive garments for the Eid, after a lifetime of virtuous restraint. The opening chapter, *al-Fātiḥah*, begins with Allah introducing Himself (Qur'an 1:2–4), first declaring His absolute *ḥamd* (praiseworthiness), the cognitive lens through which we understand all else about Him—including His sovereignty over the Day of Judgment, a praiseworthiness that will be emphasized once the final verdicts are passed (Qur'an 39:75). Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) observed that the five Divine Names in these first verses are not random, but the most fitting introduction to the comprehensive Divine Reality: from *Allah* is derived every quality of glory and beauty; from *al-Rabb* extends His omnipotence; through *al-Raḥmān* and *al-Raḥīm* we learn His grace and love; and through *Māliki Yawm al-Dīn* we encounter His sublime justice and authority, most perfectly manifest on the Day of Recompense. Since the Qur'an first introduces the Hereafter as part of this introduction to Allah Himself, our belief in the Last Day is incomplete without knowing Him. In that very sequence lies a catalyst for hope and love. Reciters differ in a variant *qirāʾah*, pronouncing *Mālik* (Owner) or *Malik* (King), and the two meanings complement one another beautifully. *Mālik* means owner—but unlike any created owner, who is entitled to only some things and unable to use them freely, like the orphan whose inheritance is locked away until maturity, Allah's ownership is all-inclusive and unhindered. *Malik*, meaning King, conveys that His dominion is in perfect harmony with His ownership. As the Qur'an declares regarding *Yawm al-Dīn*, no soul shall benefit another, for all authority that Day belongs entirely to Allah. Exegetes note that while earthly kings are removed from small matters and dependent on deputies, nothing is too small for Allah, and His authority depends on no one—as the Qur'an describes the record that leaves nothing small or great uncounted (Qur'an 18:49). This inspires both restraint from sin, as Bilāl ibn Saʿd (d. 116 AH) said, "Do not look at the smallness of the sin, but look at the greatness of the One whom you have sinned against," and immense hope, as Ḥammād ibn Salamah (d. 167 AH) said he would sooner choose Allah's reckoning than his parents', for Allah is more merciful to him than they. The believer should expect graciousness, for while Allah never breaks His promises, He is not obligated to carry out His threats. As al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110 AH) said, He calls the believers to account by His grace, and punishes the disbelievers by His justice. Allah's mercy and justice do not compete but perfect one another. Just as a human judge may lighten a sentence due to mitigating circumstances, revelation considers such factors, setting forty years as a milestone for introspection (Qur'an 46:15), and the Prophet ﷺ said Allah leaves no excuse for one whose life He extends to sixty. His mercy is multidimensional: many deserving punishment will be pardoned, while the oppressed will be consoled by seeing their oppressors receive retribution—just as Allah reminded the Israelites of Pharaoh's drowning "while you watched," so the people of Paradise will gaze upon the torment of their abusers. Yet mercy reigns supreme, for Allah says, "My mercy encompasses all things," and in an authentic hadith the Prophet ﷺ related that Allah inscribed, "My mercy prevails over My anger." Ibn al-Qayyim argued that His forgiveness is more beloved to Him than His punishment. Even the animal kingdom will find justice, as the Prophet ﷺ said the hornless sheep will be requited against the horned ram. And the Prophet ﷺ informed us that Allah divided one part of His mercy among all creation and reserved ninety-nine parts for His believing servants on the Day of Resurrection. It is reported that Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said mercy will pour forth that Day until even Iblīs will feel a quiver of hope. Souls will be forgiven for the smallest deeds—removing a thorn from the road, or a prostitute giving water to a thirsty dog—and one dipped into Paradise will forget all his suffering. Among the fruits of this belief is longing to meet Allah. As al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said, when the people of Paradise gaze upon Allah they will forget every other pleasure—rooted in the authentic hadith describing the removal of the veil and their beholding of Him, than which nothing is more beloved. This longing burned in the early Muslims; when a man told al-Shiblī (d. 334 AH) that the hardest patience is bearing separation from Allah, al-Shiblī wept as though his soul were being torn. Belief in the Hereafter grants purpose and self-worth (Qur'an 23:115), for as Ibn al-Qayyim wrote, the value of a commodity reflects its buyer and price—and Allah Himself purchased our souls for Paradise and the vision of His Face. It nurtures love of Allah, for as Saʿīd Nursī (d. 1960 CE) noted, the thought of permanent separation turns love into hatred, which is a profound reason for the unbeliever's enmity toward God (Qur'an 16:60). It fosters love of His Messenger ﷺ, who called those who never met him his "brothers," and whose intercession is for those of his ummah who committed major sins. It deepens love of humanity by nullifying envy, encouraging forgiveness (Qur'an 24:22), and uniting people through the golden rule, which the Prophet ﷺ tied to belief in Allah and the Last Day. This belief also grants psychological fortitude. When the people of tribulation are rewarded, others will wish their skins had been cut with shears. The Prophet ﷺ counseled, "Be in this world as if you were a stranger, or a traveler." His own resilience shone when he wept over his son Ibrāhīm, saying, "The eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but we say only what pleases our Lord." Finally, belief in the Day of Judgment secures our moral accountability, for one cannot truly believe he will face Allah and live heedlessly. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) urged, "Hold yourself accountable before you are held to account." Yet this accountability is not paralyzing fear; the Prophet ﷺ reminded Ḥanẓalah that "there is a time for this and a time for that." The first deed reckoned will be the prayer, and even the smallest good deed—planting a sapling as the Hour arrives—carries weight. In conclusion, avoiding thought of that Day estranges us from our true purpose, whereas certainty in it maximizes our aspirations toward the highest levels of Paradise, *al-Firdaws*. As al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (may Allah be pleased with him) explained, self-destruction lies in despairing of Allah's forgiveness. And as the Prophet ﷺ said three days before his death, "No one of you should ever die without assuming the best of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-sami-the-one-who-always-listens # The Meaning of Allah's Name Al-Sami: The One Who Always Listens **Authors:** Dr. Tahir Wyatt, Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 22, 2022 **Updated:** September 2, 2026 بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيم --- ## Introduction We all have the need and desire to be heard. We feel close to those who truly listen to us. We know that they care. Conversely, when even the people who are supposed to be close to us, like siblings or parents, do not take the time to hear us, we feel distant from them. It can feel isolating to have no one to listen to us. But Allah, who tells us who He is and establishes the nature of our relationship with Him, invites us to talk to Him. He tells us that He is *al-Samīʿ* (the All-Hearing)—this name of His lets you know that He hears what is on your tongue and what is in your heart. That Allah listens to us is very reassuring. When Prophets Mūsā and Hārūn عليهما السلام were told to speak to the Pharaoh, they were understandably afraid. They said, “Our Lord, indeed we are afraid that he will hasten \[punishment\] against us or that he will transgress” (Qur'an 20:45). And Allah reassured them, “Fear not. Indeed, I am with you both; I hear and I see” (Qur'an 20:46). Just as Allah has taught us in the Qur’an that He is *al-Samīʿ*, the Prophet ﷺ also made sure to inculcate this teaching in his Companions. One day, they were with the Prophet ﷺ during a journey when people began to exalt Allah loudly. The Prophet ﷺ said, “O people, be gentle with yourselves. You are not calling upon One who is deaf or absent; rather, you are calling upon One who hears, sees, and is very near.”[^1] We do not have to shout in order for Allah to hear us. When you talk to God, it is a one-on-one conversation, even if you are in a crowded room full of people. --- ## The meaning of al-Samīʿ The Arabic root of *al-Samīʿ*, *sīn-mīm-ʿayn*, means ‘to hear, to listen, to pay attention to, and to accept.’ There are two main meanings to His name *al-Samīʿ*: the first is that He listens, and the second is that He responds to what He hears.[^2] We will examine both. --- ## Allah hears and listens Allah hears everything, even those things which are well beyond our ability to hear.[^3] More importantly, He hears our whispers and our silent pleas. For Allah, secret utterances are no different than those made publicly, and what is in the heart is the same as what is on the tongue. In discussing this name, al-Ghazālī explains that *al-Samīʿ* hears even that which is subtler than whispers or secrets.[^4] Allah even hears the thoughts that remain trapped in your mind, those which you have not even articulated. He says, “Surely Allah knows best what is hidden in the heart” (Qur’an 5:7). Ibn Al-Qayyim explains that Allah hears every single person, and one voice does not distract Him from another, nor does He get confused between them, and He hears and understands all languages and all needs.[^5] This is reassurance for those who worry whether Allah understands them and their struggles, or whether He only listens to the most pious. Moreover, Allah pairs His name *al-Samīʿ* with His Name *al-ʿAlīm* (The All-Knowing) in the Qur’an, again comforting us that He both hears and knows what we are going through. Truly, there is no greater therapeutic relationship that can ever be established than a servant who realizes the Lord of the Heavens hears, knows and understands their plight. --- ## He responds Within the meaning of His name *al-Samīʿ* is also acceptance and response. The Prophet Zakarīyā عليه السلام knew that Allah heard his quiet and seemingly impossible prayer when *“*he called to his Lord \[with\] a private supplication” (Qur'an 19:3). After expressing to Allah his worries of not having an heir who could continue to guide his people, His Lord responded, “O Zakarīyā, indeed We give you good tidings of a boy whose name will be Yaḥyā—a name We have not given to anyone before” (Qur'an 9:7). Allah both hears and responds to those who call upon Him. When we stand from *rukūʿ* (bowing) in prayer, we say, > سَمِعَ اللهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَه > > Allah hears those who praise Him. This does not mean that God does not hear those who do not praise Him. But ‘hearing’ in this context implies both awareness and action: He listens and responds. What is even more beautiful is that we are being *alerted* to the fact that Allah listens and responds to those who praise Him. Immediately after “Allah hears those who praise Him” we say, “Our Lord, to You is all praise.” We have entered into the realm of those who praise Him and, if our hearts are present, naturally want to ask Allah for our needs here. We are given the opportunity to do so immediately afterward when we prostrate to Him. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The servant is closest to his Lord during prostration, so increase your supplications therein.”[^6] It is as though we are being taught, through the physical act of prayer, that to have a Lord who hears and responds to us directly (encapsulated in the term ‘*samiʿa*’) should lead to praising Him (how could it not?) and then supplicating to Him when we are closest to Him. We also raise our hands to ask Him in *qunūt* directly after we say, “Our Lord, to You is all praise.” The natural reaction to internalizing that He is *al-Samīʿ* is praising Him and asking Him from our hearts. The great scholar of hadith, Abū Sulaymān al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 388 AH), has also mentioned that hearing (*samāʿ*) could signify acceptance and response, as in the statement of the Prophet ﷺ: اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ قَلْبٍ لاَ يَخْشَعُ، ومِنْ دُعَاءٍ لاَ يُسْمَعُ، وَمِنْ نَفْسٍ لاَ تَشْبَعُ، وَمِنْ عِلْمٍ لاَ يَنْفَعُ O Allah, I seek refuge in You from a heart that is not humble, from a prayer (*duʿāʾ*) that is not heard, from a soul that is never satisfied, and from knowledge that does not benefit.[^7] The Prophet ﷺ did not mean that he feared Allah would not hear the prayer itself, but rather that Allah would leave the prayer unanswered.[^8] To emphasize this point, Allah’s name *al-Samīʿ* is also paired in the Qur’an with His name *al-Qarīb* (the Near One). In the hadith cited earlier, the Prophet ﷺ reminded the Companions that they did not need to be loud when they called upon Allah because He is *al-Samīʿ* and *al-Qarīb*. Allah also tells us in the Qur’an, \[QRN-34-50\] Moreover, the Prophet Ibrāhīm عليه السلام said, “Praise to Allah, who has granted to me in old age Ismāʿīl and Isḥāq. Indeed, my Lord is the Hearer of supplication” (Qur'an 14:39). Sometimes, people may hear your words and not understand what you need, or be unable to help you. This is never the case with *al-Samīʿ*. When Prophet Yūnus عليه السلام was in the belly of the whale, “he cried out in the deep darkness, ‘There is no God but You, glory be to You, I was wrong’’’ (Qur’an 21:87). Allah heard him. Not only did He hear, but He also responded to what was never uttered:[^9] He saved him. We are told, “We answered him and saved him from distress: this is how We save the faithful” (Qur’an 21:88). This is because Allah is also *al-Karīm* (the Most Generous). When He hears the thoughts and hopes that remain trapped in our hearts, unable to find expression on our tongues, He still responds, without us even asking. How many of us have had unexpected gifts given to us—the exact gifts we were hoping for without asking for them—knowing that no one ever heard our hopes except Allah? So speak to Allah and tell Him what you feel—your troubles and worries, your hopes and dreams. This does not necessarily mean that you have to ask for something, even though that is also beloved to Him and an essential act of worship. You can just talk to Him, knowing that He hears and listens to you. --- ## If God knows what is in my heart, why should I ask? Some people mistakenly refrain from asking Allah since He already knows what is in their hearts. This, of course, is contrary to the way of the prophets we seek to emulate, and contrary to what Allah wants from us, as He explicitly says, “Call upon Me, I will respond to you” (Qur’an 40:60). The Prophet ﷺ said, “*Duʿāʾ* is the essence of worship.”[^10] Supplication to Allah is an expression of need and certainty that He is the true *Rabb*—the Lord, Sustainer, and Nurturer of the universe—and part of our worship of Him. Asking Him is also an acknowledgment of His other names and attributes. When you explicitly ask, you are recognizing that He is the All-Hearing, that He is the Most Merciful, that He responds, that He is the All-Powerful, and that He is the All-Aware. You are also allowing yourself to be vulnerable by verbalizing your needs to the only One who can truly grant you solace. The Prophet ﷺ told us, “Whoever is afflicted by a pressing need and complains to people, his need will never be satisfied. But whoever is afflicted by a pressing need and complains to Allah, Allah will provide for him sooner or later.”[^11] This reminds us to take our troubles to the One who will truly hear us and can actually help us. Convincing us that there is no need to ask is a trick of Satan, so that we never express our need to and for Allah, and never experience the sweetness of an answered supplication. It can also denote pride, where one does not want to ask Allah or show their weakness. [Furthermore, when we are given without asking, we can take the blessings for granted, and perhaps attribute them to someone other than Allah.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-art-of-gratitude-quranic-themes-on-shukr) But when we ask, and Allah responds, we know exactly who the response is from. We are also investing in our Hereafter, as the responses to some supplications are deferred to Paradise.[^12] --- ## Pairing of Allah’s name al-Samīʿ with other divine names Allah’s name *al-Samīʿ* is mentioned 45 times in the Qur’an; it is paired with the divine name *al-ʿAlīm* 32 times and with *al-Baṣīr* 10 times.[^13] These pairings give us a more holistic understanding of who Allah is, illustrating His perfection and the comprehensiveness of His names and attributes. Pairing also helps to overcome some of the limitations of language that may restrict our understanding of God. --- ## Al-Samīʿ and al-Baṣīr (paired ten times in the Qur’an) The names *al-Samīʿ* and *al-Baṣīr* (the All-Seeing) together indicate the comprehensiveness of Allah’s awareness, and that nothing escapes Him: Allah is *the* All-Hearing and All-Seeing. When Mūsā and Hārūn عليهما السلام were told to speak to Pharaoh, Allah emphasized the attributes that would be most reassuring to them, “I am with you both, hearing and seeing everything” (Qur’an 20:46). Imagine going to face the worst tyrant and knowing that Allah will witness and hear everything. Imagine the strength that comes from that knowledge. It does not mean that the task will be easy, nor that it will require little effort. It means having conviction that Allah is with you, and a heightened sense of reliance (*tawakkul*) upon Him. Indeed, it was this complete reliance and trust in Him that led Mūsā عليه السلام, when the Children of Israel thought they would be overtaken by Pharoah and his army, to say, “No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me” (Qur'an 26:62). These are the ultimate effects of knowing that Allah is with us, hearing and seeing: reassurance, strength, and conviction. God’s hearing is juxtaposed against the idols that were worshiped by people before Islam. Prophet Ibrāhīm عليه السلام asked his father, “O my father, why do you worship that which does not hear and does not see and will not benefit you at all?” (Qur’an 19:42). Ibrāhīm عليه السلام was incredulous; worship is the ultimate form of submission to the worshiped and the clearest method of exaltation. Why would anyone worship something that cannot even hear or see him or her? The prerequisite to responding is the ability to hear and know what a person needs. So how could this idol bring benefit in any way? Secondly, knowing that Allah is All-Hearing and All-Seeing should make *us* aware. There are certain things we would not say or do in front of someone we love and respect. Knowing that God hears and sees everything, at all times, should make us vigilant over our speech and actions. It should increase our sincerity and consistency in character so that our behavior behind closed doors and in public show the same reverence for God, simply because we are aware of *al-Samīʿ* *al-Baṣīr*. --- ## Al-Samīʿ al-ʿAlīm (paired 32 times in the Qur’an) When the wife of the minister and the women of the city plotted to commit indecent acts against Prophet Yūsuf عليه السلام, he said, “My Lord, prison is more to my liking than that to which they invite me. And if You do not avert from me their plan, I might incline toward them and \[thus\] be of the ignorant” (Qur’an 12:33). And this was the response from Allah, “So his Lord responded to him and averted from him their plan. Indeed, He is the Hearing (*al-Samīʿ*), the Knowing (*al-ʿAlīm*)” (Qur’an 12:34). Allah heard Yūsuf’s عليه السلام plea, and He tells us in the following verse that He averted their plan. God listens—He is *al-Samīʿ*—and responds. He is also *al-ʿAlīm*. He knew of Yūsuf’s عليه السلام desire to stay away from the women as well as their true intentions. But there is another meaning here that highlights the wisdom of pairing His names *al-Samīʿ* and *al-ʿAlīm*. Allah does not say, ‘We sent him to prison’—even though that is what happened—but rather He points out that He averted the plan of the women, focusing on the deeper purpose of Yūsuf’s عليه السلام imprisonment rather than its outward circumstances. Even so, one might wonder, ‘Was there no better way to keep the women away from him? Did he have to go to prison?’ One might be forgiven for thinking this way. Though Prophet Yūsuf عليه السلام had done nothing wrong (in fact he behaved in the most dignified manner befitting a prophet of God), he was still imprisoned, and this cast doubt upon his character in the eyes of his society (sometimes there *is* smoke without fire!). But had he not been sent to prison, he would not have interpreted the dream of his cellmates, which eventually led to his release, his exoneration, his attainment of authority, and finally his reunion with his family. Being sent to prison paved the way for all of this, even though it was not obvious as it was happening, and indeed appeared to be completely unfair. Thus, we need to know that Allah is *al-Samīʿ*, so He hears and responds, but He *also* knows what is best. You might be expressing your pain to Allah, and still face difficulty. Satan may try to make you doubt: ‘Is Allah really listening to me? Will He actually respond?’ But when you know that He is *al-Samīʿ* *al-ʿAlīm*, you can take comfort in knowing that this difficulty you are going through has a purpose, just like the difficulties Prophet Yūsuf عليه السلام went through eventually led to an opening.[^14] In fact, sometimes it is better for a person’s *duʿāʾ* *not* to be answered immediately, or exactly as they wanted. A delayed answer to your *duʿāʾ* does *not* mean that it is not answered. We often seek an immediate answer to our prayers—we want them answered now, on our terms. However, we do not always know what is best for us because we do not know the unseen. Imagine if you got exactly what you asked for as opposed to what Allah knew was best for you! Allah *al-ʿAlīm* knows that what He grants you is best for your future, both in this life and the next. He hears you, and gives what you did not know you needed. This is why the Prophet ﷺ encouraged us to believe that our *duʿāʾ*s will be answered, saying, “Call upon Allah while being certain that He will answer.”[^15] Consider the mother of Maryam عليها السلام: for much of her life she desired a pious son who would be able to serve Allah, yet she ultimately received something quite different. We are told, “Remember when the wife of ʿImrān said, ‘My Lord! I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to Your service, so accept it from me. You are truly the All-Hearing (*al-Samīʿ*), All-Knowing (*al-ʿAlīm*).’ But when she delivered Maryam, she said, ‘My Lord, I have delivered a female.’ And Allah was most knowing of what she delivered, and the male is not like the female. ‘And I have named her Maryam, and I seek refuge in You for her and her offspring from Satan, the expelled \[from Allah’s mercy\]’” (Qur’an 3:35-36). Aside from demonstrating that sometimes what we want is not what we need, this scene describes a person who is close to Allah, who talks to Him and expresses her desires, her hopes, her worries, and her fears to Him. She spoke to Allah because she knew that He was listening, and sometimes *that* is the point, and part of the reason why He informs us of this name: so that we know we always have Allah to listen to us. We should emulate this beautiful practice. --- ## The distinguished hearing of al-Samīʿ Allah tells us, “There is nothing like Him: He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (Qur’an 42:11). In other words, right after He teaches us that there is nothing like Him, He affirms His attributes of hearing and seeing—attributes that we ourselves possess. This is deliberate. Of all the names that Allah could have used here, He chose two that we appear to share in common. But in reality, the statement, “There is nothing like Him,” emphasizes that our hearing and seeing cannot be compared to His hearing and seeing. The great Shāfiʿī scholar, Abū al-Qāsim al-Isfahānī (d. 535 AH), said: “At the onset of creation, man does not hear. When he begins to hear, he does not understand what he hears, and only as he grows is he able to distinguish between good and evil speech. Man’s hearing is limited; beyond that limit, he fails to hear. If a number of people speak to him at one time, he is unable to hear, listen, and respond to them all at the same time. However, Allah is the All-Hearing (*al-Samīʿ*) of His creation’s invocation and of their utterances when they call unto Him, individually or all together in their different languages... The hearing of the created one ceases to exist once he dies, while Allah is eternal and infinite.”[^16] Allah’s hearing is distinguished by its comprehensiveness. Allah revealed the following verse when a woman named Khawlah bint Thaʿlabah went to the Prophet ﷺ to complain about her husband: “Allah has heard the words of the woman who disputed with you \[Prophet\] about her husband and complained to Allah: Allah has heard what you both had to say. Truly Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing” (Qur’an 58:1). When this verse was revealed, ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, was shocked and proclaimed, “Blessed is the One whose hearing encompasses all things! Khawlah came to Allah’s Messenger ﷺ complaining about her husband; I was in the house but I could not hear what she said. Then Allah revealed \[these verses\]!”[^17] Though ʿĀʾishah (rA) was in the same space—houses were not large at all, and were not made of concrete or materials that provide sound insulation—she did not hear what was being said. Yet Allah heard everything. The companion ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (rA) narrated that some men were gathered by the Kaaba discussing whether or not Allah heard them. One said, “He hears us if we are loud but does not hear us if we are quiet.” Another responded, “If Allah hears us when we are loud, then He also hears us when we are quiet.”[^18] Then, Allah Almighty revealed the verse, “You were not covering yourselves, lest your hearing, your sight, and your skins testify against you. Rather, you assumed that Allah does not know much of what you are doing” (Qur’an 41:22). Allah hears everyone. He hears the plotters, the slanderers, the gossip-mongers, and the foul-mouthed. Allah said with regard to those plotting against the Muslims, “Do they think We cannot hear their secret talk and their private counsel? Yes, we can: Our messengers are at their sides, recording everything” (Qur’an 43:80). Indeed, He hears what people say about Him and what they ascribe to Him. He says, “Allah has certainly heard the words of those who sneer, ‘So God is poor, while we are rich.’ We shall record everything they say” (Qur’an 3:180). Allah warns that He is not oblivious and hears all. Indeed, this should remind us that just because we do not immediately see the consequence of wrongful speech—speech that Allah condemns in the Qur’an—it does not mean that it will not be accounted for. Everything that is said is recorded and will testify on the Day of Judgment. Allah says, “When they reach it, their ears, eyes, and skins will testify against them for their misdeeds. They will say to their skins, ‘Why did you testify against us?’ and their skins will reply, ‘Allah, who gave speech to everything, has given us speech—it was He who created you the first time and to Him you have been returned—yet you did not try to hide yourselves from your ears, eyes, and skin to prevent them from testifying against you. You thought that Allah did not know about much of what you were doing’” (Qur’an 41:20-22). This should cause us to reflect on what we say, and ask ourselves whether we would be happy for our words to be repeated on the Day of Judgment. It should also reassure us that if we were verbally wronged by others, Allah heard it, and knows of our pain. The Mother of the Believers, ʿĀʾishah (rA), asked the Prophet ﷺ if he had encountered a day more difficult than the day of the Battle of Uḥud. The Prophet ﷺ replied in the affirmative, and mentioned that his most difficult day was when he went to invite Ibn ʿAbd Yālīl ibn ʿAbd Kulāl, one of the chiefs of Ṭāʾif, to Islam. When Ibn ʿAbd Yālīl did not respond to his call, the Prophet ﷺ departed in deep distress. He ﷺ said, “I did not recover until I arrived at Qarn ath-Thaʿālib. There, I raised my head and saw a cloud which had cast its shadow on me. I saw in it Jibrīl عليه السلام who called me and said, ‘Indeed, Allah, the Exalted, heard what your people said to you and the response they made to you. And He has sent you the angel in charge of the mountains to order him to do to them what you wish.’ Then the angel of the mountains called me, greeted me, and said, ‘O Muḥammad ﷺ, Allah listened to what your people said to you. I am the angel of the mountains, and my Lord has sent me to you so that you may give me your orders. If you wish, I will bring together the two mountains and crush them.’ But Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, ‘I rather hope that Allah will raise from among their descendants people who will worship Allah alone, and not ascribe any partners to Him.’”[^19] At a time when the Prophet ﷺ felt so unheard, when he was rejected, and when people actively tried to silence him, *al-Samīʿ* heard, responded to, and comforted him. Similarly, ʿĀʾishah herself and the companion Ṣafwān bin al-Muʿaṭṭal al-Sulamī (may Allah be pleased with them both) were subject to a horrible smear campaign in the incident known as *al-ifk*. Ṣafwān had helped ʿĀʾishah (rA) to return home safely after she was accidentally left behind at the end of a military expedition. When they returned to Madinah, some of the hypocrites spread a slanderous rumor about them. It circulated for almost a month, with the community—including many of the righteous among them—listening to, speaking about, and spreading allegations so detestable and untrue. The All-Hearing heard everything that was said. This ordeal taught the Muslim community the implications of how we use our hearing and our speech. Allah, who is also the Most Kind, spared ʿĀʾishah (rA) the pain of hearing what was said about her for most of that time. She stated that, “After we returned to Madinah, I became ill for a month. The people were propagating the forged statements of the slanderers while I was unaware of that.”[^20]. She only learned of this slander a few days before Allah revealed the verses in *Sūrah* *al-Nūr* vindicating her and admonishing the believers. Allah said, \[QRN-24-15\] If you are the object of slander, relief from Allah may come immediately, or it may come at a later stage due to His wisdom, but *al-Samīʿ* is surely aware. While a person might diminish your pain, or be unaware of the words that were said to you, *al-Samīʿ* hears all, and you can turn to Him for comfort. [And if you are one of those people spreading gossip and hearsay, diminishing its gravity, then take heed of the lessons contained in this trial.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework) --- ## Al-Samīʿ and our speech Allah hears everything, so train yourself to say what He loves: reciting the Qur’an, remembering Him, praising Him, and supplicating to Him. Guard yourself against evil speech. *Al-Samīʿ* tells us, “Not a word does he (or she) utter, but there is a watcher by him ready (to record it)” (Qur’an 50:18). Forgetting that Allah hears, and failing to cultivate good speech, leads to misuse of the tongue, and the Prophet ﷺ said, “The majority of man’s sins emanate from his tongue.”[^21] He ﷺ also instructed us to guard our speech and said, “Are the people tossed into the Fire upon their faces, or upon their noses, except because of what their tongues have wrought?”[^22] Allah has warned us in the Qur’an, “O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion, indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear God; verily, God is the one who accepts repentance, Most Merciful” (Qur’an 49:12). Notice that the first prohibition in this *āyah* is against suspicion. Our suspicion often leads us to spy on others because we want to validate our assumptions and prove that we were right. Once we pry into people’s business, we may find something that we can use (or misuse) to validate our suspicion. We then discuss it with others or post it on social media, which are forms of backbiting and gossiping. So not only should we guard our tongues from speech that is displeasing to Allah, but we should close the doors that lead to such speech. About the incident of *al-ifk,* Allah said, *“*If only the believing men and women had thought well of one another, when you heard this rumor, and said, ‘This is clearly an outrageous slander!’” (Qur’an 24:12). Wrongful speech does not come from nowhere. It is cultivated through suspicion in the mind first, and then expressed as gossip or backbiting on the tongue. This harmful speech, whether expressed verbally or written in texts or posts, is often uttered without much thought, but that does not lessen the severity of its danger. A person’s failure to give his speech serious consideration does not negate how seriously displeasing it may be to *al-Samīʿ*. The Prophet ﷺ said, “A person may utter a word (carelessly) which displeases Allah without thinking of its gravity and because of that he will be thrown into the Hell-Fire.”[^23] This is why it is important to think before speaking. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say that which is good or keep silent.”[^24] Saying what is good is better than being silent, but what if you do not know if what you are saying is good or not? In this case, remain silent. Embrace the ‘awkward silence’ and do not feel compelled to say something that would displease *al-Samīʿ*. Staying silent is often a virtue. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever remains silent has been saved.”[^25] This advice is ever so important in this era of hyperconnectivity, where the name of the game is staying relevant by posting frequently, commenting on others’ posts, and addressing the latest news. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever acts to be heard, Allah will make him heard. Whoever acts to show off, Allah will show him off.” [^26] Al-Nawawi said, “The scholars said it means whoever is ostentatious in his deeds and he publicizes it to people so that they honor him, aggrandize him, and believe he is virtuous, Allah will publicize it to people on the Day of Resurrection and disgrace him.”[^27] This is a nod to the sincerity (*ikhlāṣ*) that comes along with knowing that Allah is *al-Samīʿ*. In other words, do not speak to be famous, do not speak to be heard of, and do not speak seeking the pleasure of anyone other than Allah at the expense of His pleasure. Consider whether what you are saying will benefit people, or whether you are simply speaking to distract yourself or fill an emptiness by being heard. If you wish to be heard, then speak to *al-Samīʿ*. --- ## Al-Samīʿ and our hearing *Al-Samīʿ* has blessed us with the ability to hear. One of the ways to show gratitude to the All-Hearing is by using His gift in ways that are most pleasing to Him. Ibn al-Qayyim stated, > God loves His Names and Attributes, and He loves the consequences of His Attributes and their manifestations upon His servants. Just as He is beautiful, He loves beauty; as He is Most Forgiving, He loves forgiveness; as He is Most Generous, He loves generosity; as He is All-Knowing, he loves the people of knowledge … Since God loves those who emulate His Attributes, He is with them according to how much of these qualities they reflect, and this is a special and unique type of companionship.[^28] In the context of Allah being *al-Samīʿ,* Allah loves that we listen to that which is beneficial. Conversely, accustoming ourselves to seeing or listening to what is disliked by God affects our hearts on a subconscious level. Watching sexually explicit scenes in a movie without switching it off or at least turning away increases illicit desires and normalizes these types of relationships. Similarly, listening to improper speech slowly leads us to speak in the same way, if we are not conscious of it. Listening to backbiting and slander, for example, is prohibited, as the act of listening can signify tacit approval of what is said.[^29] In the Qur’an, Allah speaks about the famous incident of slander (*al-ifk*) mentioned previously, when people were gossiping falsely about ʿĀʾishah (rA), “And why did you not, when you heard it, say, ‘We should not repeat this—God forbid!—it is a monstrous slander’?” (Qur’an 24:16). Imam al-Nawawi concluded that, “It is an obligation for a person who hears someone backbiting another to prohibit him from doing so, as long as he doesn't fear obvious harm.”[^30] Allah also describes the successful believers as “...they who turn away from ill speech” (Qur’an 23:3). One of the ways to be grateful for the gift of hearing is by using this gift in positive ways. We should listen to speech that brings us close to Allah, that develops our mind, increases us in beneficial knowledge, and makes us see the best in people. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ prohibited gossip and did not want to hear negative things about others. He ﷺ said, “None of my Companions should tell me anything about another, for I like to come out to you with no ill-feelings.”[^31] Take a moment to ask yourself: What do you regularly listen to? Is it the type of speech that distracts you from God and your purpose, or is it enlightening and beneficial? Do you listen to backbiting (*ghībah*) and hearsay (*namīmah*), or other things that are impermissible? Do you hear people's pleas to you for help and respond within your ability? Allah reminds us, “... indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart—about all those \[one\] will be questioned” (Qur’an 17:36). --- ## The servants of al-Samīʿ The deeper one’s internalization of Allah’s name *al-Samīʿ*, the greater its impact on one’s interaction with Allah and with His creation. The following are but a few qualities that will necessarily manifest in a believer once this blessed divine name has crystallized in his or her heart. ### Hear and obey “O believers! Do not put yourselves ahead of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. And fear Allah. Surely Allah is All-Hearing (*Samīʿ*), All-Knowing (*ʿAlīm*)” (Qur’an 49:1). Allah reminds us of His name *al-Samīʿ* immediately after instructing us to give precedence to revelation over our opinions and desires. Ibn ʿAbbās, the great scholar of *tafsīr* and cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, said that this *āyah* means “do not say anything that is contrary to the Book and the Sunnah.”[^32] Allah also says of the believers, “They say, ‘We hear and obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord. To You we all return!’” (Qur’an 2:285). True believers listen to the commandments of Allah and try to obey them as much as they can, although we may slip up. This is precisely one of the reasons we ask for “forgiveness, our Lord” immediately after saying “we hear and obey.” Allah warns us against being like the hypocrites when He says, “Believers, obey Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and do not disregard him after having heard \[his commands\]. Do not be like those who say, ‘We heard,’ though in fact they were not listening—the worst creatures in the sight of Allah are those who are \[wilfully\] deaf and dumb, who do not reason” (Qur’an 8:20-22). Indeed, the worst of traits is to hear and then *choose* to disobey. Allah tells us about some of the Children of Israel in the following verse, “Remember when We took your pledge, making the mountain tower above you, and said, ‘Hold on firmly to what We have given you, and listen to \[what We say\].’ They said, ‘We hear and we disobey,’ and through their disbelief they were made to drink \[the love of\] the calf deep into their hearts” (Qur’an 2:93).. One of the consequences of willful disobedience is that our hearts become enamored with worldly ornaments, to the extent that one may become subjugated to them. The Children of Israel chose to turn away from being servants of Allah, and ended up being the servants of a calf. Of course, we will all make mistakes, and these verses do not deny that. But as long as we are sincerely *trying* to obey, we can, *inshāʾAllāh*, be of those who say ‘we listen and we obey.’ Even if we have found ourselves in a period of willful disobedience, and now wish to return, we can still be of those who listen and obey, by observing Allah’s commandment: “Ask forgiveness from your Lord, and return to Him” (Qur’an 11:52). ### Be a good listener Just as we love to be listened to and understood, we should afford that to those around us. Allah is infinitely more generous than we are, and He appreciates the smallest of good deeds that we do, so imagine how Allah will be there for you when you are there for someone else, hearing them out. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The most beloved deed to Allah is to make a Muslim happy, or remove one of his troubles, or forgive his debt, or relieve his hunger.”[^33] All of this requires us to know what people need, and the primary way to assess their needs is by listening to them. Lend an ear to a friend going through a rough time. The burden that can be lifted from someone by just listening without necessarily even providing any solutions is not to be underestimated. Just as we wish for Allah to accompany His hearing of us with His response, we should be quick to respond to those who ask for our help. The Prophet ﷺ was described as never saying no when someone asked him for anything.[^34] --- ## Supplicate with Allah’s name al-Samīʿ The Prophet ﷺ would invoke Allah by His beautiful name *al-Samīʿ* frequently—multiple times a day, in fact. The great *khalīfah*, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (may Allah be pleased with him), mentioned that he heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say, Whoever repeats, بِسْمِ اللهِ الَّذِي لَا يَضُرُّ مَعَ اسْمِهِ شَيْءٌ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ (ثَلَاثَ مَرَّاتٍ) “In the Name of Allah, with Whose Name nothing is harmed on earth nor in heaven, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” three times \[in the evening\] will not be stricken with a sudden affliction until he reaches the morning. And whoever repeats this three times in the morning will not be stricken with a sudden affliction until he reaches the evening.[^35] Another frequent *duʿāʾ* with the divine name *al-Samīʿ* is said in prayer before reciting the Qur’an: أَعُوذُ بِاَللَّهِ اَلسَّمِيعِ اَلْعَلِيمِ مِنَ اَلشَّيْطَانِ اَلرَّجِيم I seek refuge in Allah, *al-Samīʿ* *al-ʿAlīm*, from the cursed Shayṭān.[^36] Just as we invoke Allah’s name *al-Samīʿ* at the beginning of our prayers, we should also remember this divine name when rising from the bowing (*rukūʿ*) position, saying ‘Allah hears those who praise Him’ (*samiʿa Allāhu liman ḥamidah*). We shouldn’t just say these words mechanically—we should feel them in our *ṣalāh*. Every time we utter this phrase, we are reminded that Allah responds to those who praise and seek Him in prayer. Make the intention that He only hears good from you. Another example of invoking Allah by his name *al-Samīʿ* is in His mandating that we seek refuge in Him when the devils of humans and Jinns whisper evil suggestions. He said: \[QRN-7-200\] We are also told, “And if there comes to you from Satan an evil suggestion, then seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing” (Qur’an 41:36). We do not “hear” Satan’s suggestions, nor do we know the form that they take, but Allah does. So whenever we find ourselves tempted towards what is impermissible, we should seek refuge with Allah, *al-Samīʿ*. ### Choose the best words Allah warns us about the many tricks of Shayṭān, one of which is to use his whispers to sow discord between believers. When we are careless with our speech, we may offend people, hurt their feelings, or otherwise say something that damages relationships. Allah says, “Tell My servants to say what is best. Satan sows discord among them. Satan is to man an open enemy” (Qur’an 17:53). Not only should we say what is good, we should “say what is best.” This means that taking the time to figure out the best way to construct your words is actually an act of obedience that will be rewarded by Allah. In his explanation of this *āyah*, Shaykh ʿAbdur-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī (d. 1373 AH) says, “Speaking good words leads to developing good manners and doing righteous deeds, for the one who controls his tongue will be in control of all his affairs.”[^37] --- ## Conclusion [We are instructed to worship Allah with love, fear, and hope.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him) These three are often called the “essentials (*arkān*) of worship.”[^38] The divine name *al-Samīʿ* inspires each of these actions of the heart. Love, because listening shows a genuine concern, so we love those who listen to us; fear, because we do not want to say anything that displeases *al-Samīʿ*, and nothing we say escapes His hearing; and hope, because Allah will hear and accept our prayers. You may be in your room alone right now, or reading this article in a café. Wherever you are, take a few seconds right now to talk to Allah. Tell Him that you want to know Him better, that you want to be happy and successful in this life and the next. Ask Him to settle whatever troubles you may have, to ease whatever difficulty or pain you might be dealing with. Whisper in your lowest voice what is going through your mind. It is certain that no one around you will hear you, but Allah will. He is *al-Samīʿ*. So, when you are feeling lonely or in difficulty, call out to the One who hears everything. Talk to the One who revealed this attribute to you, so that you will know that He is there for you. He is The Close [One](https://www.virtualmosque.com/relationships/withthedivine/closer-to-you-than-yourself-allah-al-qareeb/) who listens to your words when they are spoken and when they are trapped in your heart. Rest assured that whatever difficulty you are going through has not gone unnoticed. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7386; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2704. [^2]: Along with these two primary meanings, Ibn al-Qayyim mentions that the trilateral root *sin*\-*mim*\-*ayn* has additional meanings, closely related to these two. See *Badā’i al-Fawā’id* (Makkah: Dār ‘Ālim al-Fawāid, 1425H), 2:507. [^3]: For example, we once assumed that giraffes could not make sounds, but later discovered that they murmur at a pitch humans cannot hear. “Animals Communicate in Frequencies that We Cannot Hear,” *Yliopisto*, August 2020, [https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/life-sciences/animals-communicate-frequencies-we-cannot-hear](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/life-sciences/animals-communicate-frequencies-we-cannot-hear&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1647985124048282&usg=AOvVaw1O8tgs3J9ilAa9t3yI7XMP). [^4]: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: Al-Maqṣad Al-Asnā Fi Sharḥ Asmā’ Allāh Al-Ḥusnā*, trans. David Burrell and Nazih Daher, The Ghazālī Series (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992), 83–84. See also Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi, *Sh’an ad-du’a*, 3rd ed. (Damascus: Dar al-Thaqafa al-Arabiyya, 1992), 59. [^5]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-ḥijratain* (Makkah: Dār ‘Ālim al-Fawāid, 1429 AH), 1:270. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 482. [^7]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3482. Another version of this hadith with similar wording is found in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2722. [^8]: See: al-Khattabi, *Sh’an ad-du’a*, 59. [^9]: Some may mistakenly reduce *du’ā* to mere incantations or wish lists, but it is much more profound than that. In fact, many of the most powerful *du’ā*s in the Qur’an do not even contain an explicit request to God. In the most trying circumstances, when there was nowhere to turn to, the prophets—Ibrahim, Yunus, Ayyub, and others (may peace be upon them)—all uttered humbling expressions of truth in response to trial and tribulation. See: Zohair Abdul-Rahman, “Islamic Spirituality and Mental Well-Being,” *Yaqeen*, March 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1647985124045006&usg=AOvVaw1Wz7qK1uxAd74aYIUxP3wj)[being](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1647985124045669&usg=AOvVaw1rItJ7iTQ9wynntbhmKZAZ). [^10]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1479; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2969, who graded it authentic. [^11]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1645; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2326; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 3969, graded authentic by Shaykh Aḥmad Shākir. [^12]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no Muslim who calls upon Allah, without sin or cutting family ties, but that Allah will give him one of three answers: He will quickly fulfill his supplication, He will store it for him in the Hereafter, or He will divert an evil from him similar to it.” *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 11133, graded authentic by al-Albani in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 547. [^13]: Mājid Āl Abdul-Jabbār, *al-Asmā al-Husnā* (Riyadh: 2018), p. 183. [^14]: Allah says, “...And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him a way out And will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah - then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a \[decreed\] extent.” \[65:2-3\] [^15]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 6655, graded authentic by Shaykh Aḥmad Shākir. A corroborating hadith is found in *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3479, and graded fair (*hasan*) by al-Albani. [^16]: Abul-Qasim Ismail ibn Muhammad al-Isfahani, *al-Ḥujjah fi bayān al-maḥajjah*, 2nd ed. (Riyadh: Dār al-Rāyah, 1999), 1:138. [^17]: *Sunan an-Nasā’i*, no. 3460; *Sunan Ibn Majah*, no. 1691, graded authentic by Ibn ‘Asākir in Mu‘jam as-Shuyūkh (Damascus: Dār al-Bashā’ir, 2000), 1:163 and al-Albani. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4539; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2775. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3231; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1795. [^20]: *Ṣahīh al-Bukhārī*, no. 4141. [^21]: At-Tabarani in *al-Mu'jam al-kabeer* (Cairo: Maktabah Ibn Taymiyyah, 1994), 10:24; al-Baihaqi in *Shu'ab al-iman* (Riyadh: Maktabah Ibn Rushd, 2003), 4:240. Graded authentic by al-Albani in *Ṣaḥīḥ at-targhīb* no. 2872. [^22]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2616, who graded it authentic; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3973. [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6478. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6136; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 47. [^25]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2501, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī said that its narrators are reliable; *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (n.p.: al-Maktabah as-Salafiyyah, n.d.), 11:315, and al-Albani graded it authentic. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6134; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2987. [^27]: *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2986. [^28]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat al-Sābirīn*, (Makkah: Dār ‘Ālim al-Fawāid, 7th ed.), p.85 [^29]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Adhkār* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1994), 339. [^30]: Al-Nawawi. Imam al-Nawawi stated, “Just as backbiting is impermissible for the one speaking, it is also prohibited to listen to and approve it. Hence, it is an obligation for a person who hears someone backbiting another to prohibit him from doing so. as long as he doesn't fear obvious harm. If he does fear harm, it is an obligation for him to hate that speech in his heart and for him to leave the company of that person, if at all possible. If he can speak out against it or change the subject, he must do so or he will be sinful.” [^31]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4860; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3896. There is some weakness in the chain of narrators due to al-Waleed ibn Abi Hisham (who is considered *majhool* by many scholars of hadith). However, the meaning is correct according to many scholars. See: Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, *Sharh Riyadh as-Saliheen* (n.p.: Dar al-Watan Riyadh, 1426 AH), 6:151. [^32]: Ibn Kathir, *Tafsir Ibn Kathir* (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2003), 9:184. [^33]: Al-Tabarani, *al-Muʻjam al-awsaṭ*, no. 6026, graded authentic by al-Albani in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-sahihah*, no. 906. [^34]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 6034. [^35]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5088; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3388; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3869, graded authentic by Ibn al-Qayyim in *Zād al-maʿād* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1994), 2:338. See [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1647985124039540&usg=AOvVaw3PO0Kt1KWFYqnSyeTcMWh3) for further explanation. [^36]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 775; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 242. It was graded authentic by al-Shawkānī in *ad-Darārī al-muḍiyyah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyyah, 1987), 1:87–88. [^37]: Abdur Rahman as-Sa’di, *Tafsir as-Sa’di* (Riyadh: IIPH, 2018), 5:295. [^38]: See: Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatawá* (Medina: King Fahd Complex, 1995), 10:81. ## Summary بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيم Among the beautiful names of Allah is al-Samīʿ, the All-Hearing, a name through which He tells us who He is and establishes the nature of our relationship with Him. Just as we naturally feel close to those who truly listen to us and feel distant from those who neglect us, Allah invites us to speak to Him, assuring us that He hears both what is on our tongues and what lies hidden in our hearts. This reassurance is evident in the story of Mūsā and Hārūn عليهما السلام, who feared confronting Pharaoh and pleaded, “Our Lord, indeed we are afraid that he will hasten [punishment] against us or that he will transgress” (Qur'an 20:45), to which Allah responded, “Fear not. Indeed, I am with you both; I hear and I see” (Qur'an 20:46). The Prophet ﷺ likewise instilled this teaching in his Companions when, during a journey, they raised their voices in exaltation, and he said, “O people, be gentle with yourselves. You are not calling upon One who is deaf or absent; rather, you are calling upon One who hears, sees, and is very near.” The Arabic root of al-Samīʿ, sīn-mīm-ʿayn, carries the meanings of hearing, listening, paying attention, and accepting. From this, two main meanings emerge: that Allah listens, and that He responds to what He hears. Regarding His listening, Allah hears everything, including our whispers and silent pleas, for secret utterances are no different to Him than public ones. Al-Ghazālī explains that al-Samīʿ hears even that which is subtler than whispers or secrets, and Allah affirms, “Surely Allah knows best what is hidden in the heart” (Qur'an 5:7). Ibn al-Qayyim explains that Allah hears every single person without one voice distracting Him from another, and He understands all languages and all needs—a source of reassurance for those who worry whether Allah understands their struggles or whether He only listens to the most pious. This is why al-Samīʿ is often paired with al-ʿAlīm (the All-Knowing), comforting us that He both hears and knows what we endure. The second meaning, acceptance and response, is illustrated by Zakarīyā عليه السلام, who “called to his Lord [with] a private supplication” (Qur'an 19:3), and Allah responded, giving him glad tidings of Yaḥyā. This meaning is embedded in our prayer, for when we rise from rukūʿ we say, “Allah hears those who praise Him,” which implies both awareness and action. We then declare, “Our Lord, to You is all praise,” entering the realm of those who praise Him, and are given the opportunity to supplicate in prostration, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “The servant is closest to his Lord during prostration, so increase your supplications therein.” The hadith scholar Abū Sulaymān al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 388 AH) noted that hearing can signify acceptance, as in the Prophet's ﷺ supplication seeking refuge “from a prayer that is not heard”—meaning a prayer left unanswered. This name is also paired with al-Qarīb (the Near One), and the generosity of al-Karīm means Allah may respond even to hopes never uttered, as He did for Yūnus عليه السلام, who cried out from the darkness of the whale's belly and was saved: “We answered him and saved him from distress” (Qur'an 21:88). Some mistakenly refrain from asking Allah because He already knows their hearts, yet this contradicts His command, “Call upon Me, I will respond to you” (Qur'an 40:60), and the words of the Prophet ﷺ, “Duʿāʾ is the essence of worship.” Supplication expresses need and acknowledges Allah's names and attributes, while withholding it may denote pride or fall into a trick of Satan. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is afflicted by a pressing need and complains to people, his need will never be satisfied. But whoever is afflicted by a pressing need and complains to Allah, Allah will provide for him sooner or later.” Asking also allows us to recognize the Giver, and some answers are deferred to Paradise. The name al-Samīʿ appears forty-five times in the Qur'an, paired with al-ʿAlīm thirty-two times and with al-Baṣīr ten times. Paired with al-Baṣīr, it indicates the comprehensiveness of Allah's awareness, as He reassured Mūsā and Hārūn عليهما السلام, “I am with you both, hearing and seeing everything” (Qur'an 20:46), and as Ibrāhīm عليه السلام rebuked idol-worship, asking his father, “why do you worship that which does not hear and does not see” (Qur'an 19:42). This awareness should also make us vigilant over our speech and actions. Paired with al-ʿAlīm, it teaches that Allah hears, responds, and knows what is best, as with Yūsuf عليه السلام, whose plea to be spared temptation was answered when Allah “averted from him their plan” (Qur'an 12:34), even though the path involved imprisonment that ultimately led to his elevation. Likewise, the wife of ʿImrān addressed Allah as “the All-Hearing, All-Knowing,” yet received a daughter rather than the son she desired, teaching that what we want is not always what we need. A delayed answer is not an unanswered one, and the Prophet ﷺ urged, “Call upon Allah while being certain that He will answer.” Allah's hearing is utterly distinguished, for “There is nothing like Him: He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (Qur'an 42:11). Abū al-Qāsim al-Isfahānī (d. 535 AH) contrasted the limited, temporary hearing of man with the eternal, comprehensive hearing of Allah, who hears all His creation simultaneously in every language. This comprehensiveness was demonstrated when Khawlah bint Thaʿlabah disputed with the Prophet ﷺ concerning her husband, and Allah revealed, “Allah has heard the words of the woman who disputed with you” (Qur'an 58:1); ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها, though present in the same house, could not hear what was said. Allah hears the plotters and slanderers, warning that everything is recorded and that ears, eyes, and skins will testify on the Day of Judgment (Qur'an 41:20-22). This name comforted the Prophet ﷺ after his rejection at Ṭāʾif, when the angel of the mountains conveyed that “Allah, the Exalted, heard what your people said to you,” and it consoled ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها during the slander of al-ifk, from which Allah exonerated her. Because Allah hears all, we must train our tongues toward what He loves and guard against evil speech, for “Not a word does he utter, but there is a watcher by him ready to record it” (Qur'an 50:18). The Prophet ﷺ warned that most sins emanate from the tongue and instructed, “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say that which is good or keep silent,” and “Whoever remains silent has been saved.” Allah forbids suspicion, spying, and backbiting (Qur'an 49:12), and warns against seeking to be heard for show. Likewise, we should use the gift of hearing well, avoiding backbiting and slander, for Imam al-Nawawi held that one who hears backbiting is obliged to forbid it where no harm is feared, and Allah praises those “who turn away from ill speech” (Qur'an 23:3). The servants of al-Samīʿ manifest certain qualities: they hear and obey, giving precedence to revelation, saying “We hear and obey” (Qur'an 2:285) rather than resembling those who said “We heard” without listening; they become good listeners toward others, for the Prophet ﷺ said the most beloved deed to Allah is making a Muslim happy or removing his trouble; and they supplicate using this name, as the Prophet ﷺ frequently invoked, “In the Name of Allah, with Whose Name nothing is harmed... and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing,” and as we seek refuge from Satan in “Allah, the Hearing, the Knowing” (Qur'an 41:36). We are also commanded to “say what is best” (Qur'an 17:53), and Shaykh ʿAbdur-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī (d. 1373 AH) explained that good speech leads to good manners and righteous deeds. Ultimately, the name al-Samīʿ inspires the three essentials of worship—love, fear, and hope—for we love the One who listens, fear displeasing the One from whom nothing is hidden, and hope in the One who hears and accepts our prayers. So wherever you are, speak to Him in your lowest voice, certain that no one hears but al-Samīʿ, the Near One, who has not left your difficulty unnoticed. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-prophets-marriage-to-zaynab-bint-jahsh # The Prophet's ﷺ Marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh: A Reexamination from a Historiographic Perspective **Author:** Dr. Hasan Ashraf **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 2, 2022 **Updated:** August 11, 2025 ## Abstract The Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA) stands unique among all of his marriages because of its explicit pronouncement in the Qur’an. Despite the stated theological, social, and legal goals the Qur’an posits as the reason for its contraction, the marriage has remained a topic of contention for centuries. This controversy emanates from a number bizarre traditions proposing instead that the Prophet’s ﷺ primary motivation in securing the marriage was his infatuation with Zaynab (rA). Muslim responses to the narrations have primarily focused on a few noteworthy inconsistencies in the narrative, as well as the weakness of the chains of transmissions of the hadiths reporting it. This article will examine the many internal and external contradictions that characterize the story, many of which render the lovestruck narrative logistically unfeasible. Additionally, it will underscore the evolution of the the account, detailing its development over a century after the Prophet’s ﷺ death as it gradually transformed into its final form as recognized today. It will detail its origins from inadvertent reactions to Byzantine fabrications advanced as anti-Islamic polemics that were historically the first to depict this marriage as one based on lust. It will then trace the story’s metamorphosis from that undeveloped prototype to its fully fleshed final variant replete with details that were drawn through a parallel with the Biblical narrative of the Bathsheba affair, which alleges an affair between David and Bathsheba, with that of the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA). The article will highlight the role that three specific Qur’an commentators—Qatādah, Ibn Jurayj, and Muqātil ibn Sulaymān—played in the development of the story with their commentary on Sūrat al-Aḥzāb. Finally, the article will provide an analysis of the pre-Islamic sociological context in which the Prophet’s marriage to Zaynab took place. It will illustrate that, far from a marriage of convenience based on passion, it was a necessary one to enact social and specifically marital reform in an attempt to eradicate unjust practices towards vulnerable individuals, and thereby overthrow and abolish an oppressive institution. --- ## Introduction The Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA) is distinguished from his other marriages in that it is directly referenced within the Qur’an, where it is not only endorsed but contracted. The underlying objectives of this marriage are also immediately explicated unequivocally after its contraction. The Qur’an offers a twofold raison d'être for the marriage. The first was to abolish the pre-Islamic practice of the ascription of one’s patronym to an adopted child. As Zaynab (rA) had previously been married to Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (rA), then recognized as the Prophet’s ﷺ adopted son and identified by his patronym, the Prophet’s ﷺ subsequent marriage to Zaynab (rA) nullified the pre-Islamic proscription of marriage with the spouse of one’s adopted child in the event of their divorce. This prohibition had been founded on the conflation of an adopted child with a biological one, and this marriage annulled any legal basis for such a conflation. Second, it established the nonexistence of any male offspring ascribable to the Prophet ﷺ, at that juncture and in the future, and as such the conclusion of prophethood with the death of the Prophet. After the death of the Prophet ﷺ, none of his progeny could lay a hereditary claim to his prophethood or indeed his political leadership. Instead, it was vested in Abū Bakr (rA), a man whose only political and spiritual authority stemmed from his personal qualities, as he was born of comparatively humble ancestry which only united with that of the Prophet’s seven generations before. The Qur’an’s declaration that the Prophet ﷺ was not, and would not be, the father of any male offspring was particularly prescient as none of the Prophet’s many biological sons lived to maturity despite the excellent health of all of his daughters. Indeed, one of his sons passed away during childhood after the revelation of this verse. Despite the stated sociological, legal, and theological aims that were consequently achieved by this marriage in one masterful stroke, it has nonetheless attracted significant notoriety and engaged the fascination of a multitude of critics of the Prophet ﷺ, particularly in the past few centuries. Almost all prominent Western biographies of the Prophet ﷺ, no matter how cursory their engagement of other critical issues, include the elaborate details of a variant of this event which does not even appear in most Muslim biographies.[^1] The full details of this peculiar variant differ quite a bit among various narrations, but the general theme is as follows: one day the Prophet ﷺ went searching for Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (rA), then married to Zaynab (rA) (who also happened to be the Prophet’s paternal cousin). Upon reaching Zayd’s house, he discovered that Zayd (rA) had stepped out, and only Zaynab (rA) remained to greet him. Zaynab (rA) invited the Prophet in, but something in her appearance stimulated a strong attraction to her in the Prophet ﷺ, and he immediately departed, uttering, “Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn!” Zaynab informed Zayd of his visit and statement, who recognized its implication, and immediately offered to divorce Zaynab for the Prophet’s benefit. The Prophet ﷺ, however, advised Zayd to uphold his marriage with Zaynab, though he concealed his inner desire that Zayd divorce her so that he could marry her instead. Zayd for one reason or another undertook his own initiative to divorce Zaynab. The Prophet ﷺ then received a timely revelation (preserved in the aforementioned *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*) that, though it censured the Prophet for concealing his desires, wed the Prophet ﷺ with Zaynab (rA) anyway and satisfied the Prophet’s deep desire. The full event chronicled above or even an abridged version of it is glaringly absent from the extant works of the earliest *maghāzī* and *sīrah* compilers, most notably such doyens as ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 94/712), Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/741), Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah (d. 141/758), Maʿmar ibn Rāshid (d. 153/770) and of course, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767).[^2] However, it is present in a handful of narrations found in some later and relatively obscure works of *tafsīr* and hadith. The argument forwarded by proponents of the historicity of what is termed in this paper “the lovestruck narrative” for succinctness is quite simple and invokes the “criterion of embarrassment.” That is, traditions that relate this version of events are found in exegetical and hadith works composed by Muslim authors and compilers, and it is improbable that Muslims would have been motivated to concoct multiple spurious narrations that portray the Prophet ﷺ in such an unflattering light. Therefore, the reports must be factual.[^3] Muslim responses and interpretations of this event, particularly modern ones, have largely rejected this account, though throughout multiple historical periods, some have accepted its veracity with surprising nonchalance. The standard repudiation undertaken by most modern Muslim biographers of the Prophet ﷺ as well as a number of medieval Qur’an and hadith commentators is represented quintessentially by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, who scathingly labeled those who deemed the lovestruck narrative veracious as “ignorant” claimants who “don’t esteem the Messenger of Allah as he deserves to be esteemed (*man lam yaqdir rasūl Allāhi h~~̣~~aqqa qadrihi*).”[^4] A number of Muslim scholars who ostensibly deemed the event baseless, eschewed altogether a detailed rejoinder or indeed any reference to the lovestruck narrative.[^5] This is exhibited in the summary affirmation of Ismaʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr that this narrative is “one that we would prefer to strike from the pages because of its dearth of authenticity.”[^6] The explanation of the verses in *al-Aḥzāb* by those who repudiated the lovestruck narrative, either explicitly or implicitly, chronicle instead a more straightforward narrative, advanced by Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ in his popular *Kitāb al-Shifā*ʾ as the “more sound view,” and extolled by Aḥmad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī as “a lucid, satisfactory narrative.”[^7] In this version, the Prophet ﷺ was informed in some manner of his impending marriage to Zaynab (rA) through divine revelation. Yet when Zayd (rA) came to him seeking a divorce with Zaynab (rA), the Prophet ﷺ—understandably wary of the calumniations of his many detractors for the marriage’s contravention of established marital mores as Ibn Ḥajar notes (*kāna yastaḥī*…*wa kāna yakhshā al-nāsa an ya*ʿ*ībū* ʿ*alayhi wa yaqūlū tazawwaja imra*ʾ*ata ibnihi*)—instead advised him to keep his marriage intact. As a result, Allah censured the Prophet ﷺ in the Qur’an for concerning himself with the animadversion of critics, and enacted the marriage Himself. Views giving credence to the lovestruck narrative are also present in Muslim literature, and appear most prevalent in a number of exegetical works and commentaries of *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, but also in a few modern works.[^8] Some contemporary clerics have also inclined to this view, citing the widespread prevalence of the narrations that allude to it.[^9] The latter do not find the lovestruck narrative problematic at all, and ignore the expressed aims of the marriage referred to in the Qur’an as well as the absence of any divine wisdom in the Qur’an ever needing to embarrass the Prophet ﷺ by publicly broadcasting such a storyline. Most importantly, they seem to not be conscious of the full theological implications of the prompt and opportune revelation of the Qur’anic verses that just happened to sanction the Prophet’s existing personal interests. Instead, they profess that it demonstrates the Prophet’s ﷺ human aspect and desires, of which he was at least outwardly, entirely in control. Yet another and somewhat bizarre explanation is posited by Muhammad Hamidullah, who accepted the veracity of the account. However, he attributes the Prophet’s ﷺ emotion after seeing Zaynab (rA) not to desire, but to astonishment at Zayd’s (rA) domestic discord, alluded to as an explanation for his eventual divorce in some narrations, with a wife who possessed such incredible beauty.[^10] Rebuttals of this event by medieval and contemporary Muslim biographers revolve primarily around three contentions. As Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī argues, not a single one of the narrations that mention this event is free of considerable narrative weaknesses.[^11] None has a chain of narrators (*isnād*) that actually extends continuously back *(muttaṣil*) to the Prophet ﷺ. Only one traces back to a Companion (*ṣaḥābī*), and that too a Companion who did not witness the event in question. Additionally, not one is devoid of at least one impugned narrator in the *isnād,* and many have no *isnād* at all. This would render all of the hadiths at best severely weak (*ḍa*ʿ*īf*) and inapt for cumulative validation (*taṣḥīḥ li-ghayrihi*), if not entirely fabricated (*mawḍū*ʿ).[^12] Second, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and Ibn al-ʿArabī both note that Zaynab (rA) was not a woman foreign to the Prophet ﷺ—she was his paternal cousin, and during a period when regulations on hijab had not been yet enacted, it is difficult to imagine that the Prophet ﷺ had not met Zaynab prior to the event at Zayd’s house. Some hadiths do in fact mention direct dealings between the two that would have preceded the lovestruck narrative.[^13] It seems unlikely that the Prophet ﷺ suddenly realized Zaynab’s beauty and became infatuated with her after a single glimpse near the end of his life (and that too when she was 38 years of age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet ﷺ, which would have made her the oldest of his wives at marriage other than Khadījah bint Khuwaylid).[^14] Last, the Prophet ﷺ himself had Zaynab (rA) married to Zayd (rA), and with considerable reluctance on the part of Zaynab and her brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh, both of whom had to be persuaded by the Prophet ﷺ and eventually the Qur’an until they relented.[^15]  Zaynab and ʿAbd Allāh’s unwillingness is attributed to Zayd’s prior status as a slave.[^16] Accordingly, if the Prophet ﷺ had desired to marry Zaynab at this juncture, he could easily have carried this out instead of persuading her to wed Zayd. The Jaḥsh family would have been only too enthusiastic with Zaynab’s marriage with the Prophet ﷺ, who not only had never been a slave, but originated from the Quraysh and that too from one of its most noble clans. Zaynab herself could not lay claim to the Prophet’s nobility, because even though her mother was Qurayshī, the majority of Arab tribes ascribed lineage based on an agnatic ancestry, and Jaḥsh ibn Riʾāb descended from Banū Asad ibn Khuzaymah, which did not command near the same prestige as the Quraysh. That the Jaḥsh family would have been enthusiastic to marry Zaynab to the Prophet ﷺ is not mere speculation, as ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī and Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī both relate that when the Prophet visited Zaynab to present a marriage proposal on Zayd’s behalf, she initially misconstrued the proposal as one from the Prophet himself and was thrilled. When it became clear that the Prophet ﷺ was only proposing for Zayd and not himself, she refused until the revelation of *al-Aḥzāb,* 36, which commanded obedience to the Prophet even in matters that related to marriage.[^17] Some of these contentions are individually circumstantial, but collectively they are reasonable and even compelling, and a number of Muslim historians have therefore deemed the lovestruck narrative highly improbable. Nevertheless, considerably more can be said about the event, which declines from mere improbability to complete absurdity based on a closer reading of the primary texts that deal with the event. This study analyzes those texts, including the Qur’an as the one preserved primary source that documents the marriage at the time of its occurrence, as well as the very hadiths that chronicle the lovestruck narrative. These provide a wealth of information that pose critical challenges to the lovestruck narrative. The study then goes on to assess the actual underlying motives for the Qur’anic enjoinment of the marriage with Zaynab (rA). The article will focus on the pre-Islamic sociological context in which the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab was implemented, and demonstrate that far from a marriage of convenience based on passion, it was a necessary one to enact social and specifically marital reform in an attempt to eradicate unjust practices towards vulnerable individuals. The study then analyzes the event from the perspective of the historiographic and hermeneutical underpinnings employed by the Qur’an commentators who reported the event, which inform when and how the views on this affair developed, and the etiologies for their development. Finally, the article examines Muslim historical responses and their evolution to the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA). --- ## The Qur’anic evidence The Qur’anic evidence lies in the few verses of *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb* that directly address the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA): > \[37\] And \[remember\] when you were saying to the one who was favored by Allah and favored by you, “Hold fast to your wife and fear Allah.” And you were concealing in your heart what Allah was going to reveal and you were fearing people, while Allah is more entitled to be feared by you. So when Zayd concluded his union with her, We married you to her, so that there may not be any hindrance for the Believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons when they have divorced them. And Allah’s mandate had to be carried out. > > \[38\] There is no harm for the Prophet in doing what Allah has obligated for him; \[that has been\] the way of Allah with those who have preceded him. And Allah’s command is an absolutely settled decree.[^18] > > \[39\] \[That is the way\] of those who convey the messages of Allah and fear him, fearing none other than Allah. And Allah is sufficient to take account. > > \[40\] Muhammad is not the father of any of your men; rather he is a Messenger of Allah and the Last of the Prophets. And Allah has full knowledge of all things. Several aspects of the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab (rA) become evident with these verses. First, the Prophet ﷺ instructed Zayd (rA) to maintain his marriage to Zaynab (rA). It is not apparent immediately why he instructed Zayd to do this based on the verses alone, but the Qur’an states that the Prophet *ﷺ* concealed something in his heart that he was fearful of the public becoming cognizant of. We also gather that, whatever the Prophet ﷺ concealed, Allah wanted him to divulge it, censured him for not doing so immediately, and promised the Prophet that He would reveal it anyway. The verses go on to indicate that after Zayd took it upon himself to separate from Zaynab, Allah then married the Prophet ﷺ to Zaynab Himself. The rationale for the Prophet’s marriage with Zaynab is immediately identified—to establish the precedent of the Prophet ﷺ marrying the ex-wife of an adopted son who took on the name of a non-biological father (*adʿīyāʾ*), so that the proscription on this practice could be forever abolished. The Qur’an then asserts in defense of the Prophet ﷺ, no doubt to ward off condemnation of the Prophet for his marriage to his adopted son’s ex-wife, that the Prophet ﷺ cannot be impugned for undertaking a practice that Allah had obligated him to do. It continues by stating that Allah’s command to the Prophet ﷺ is just one in a long chain of commandments that He had decreed to the prophets of old who also commendably conveyed His message despite the condemnation and scorn they were no doubt subject to. The verses conclude by delivering their coup de maître: the Prophet ﷺ was not the biological father of any son, and as such, could not be censured for the marriage on legal grounds. Concurrently, without a legal heir to his spiritual, political, and material inheritance, the Prophet ﷺ was the final amongst the long chain of prophets. The annulment of adoption and his lack of a biological heir removed any confusion with regards to his inheritance, for now no one could lay claim to prophethood or political authority based on hereditary succession. The precise wording of these verses immediately disqualifies the lovestruck narrative from any shred of plausibility. The first issue is regarding the nature of the Prophet’s ﷺ secret that Allah censured him for concealing. If the Prophet ﷺ were concealing temptation for Zaynab (rA), the Qur’an’s censure of the Prophet for failing to disclose his secret is tantamount to reprimanding him for not having made a public spectacle of his attraction to a married woman. This elementary idea seems to have been overlooked by the exegetes and chroniclers championing the lovestruck narrative. Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Ṣābūnī and Adil Salahi both identified this problem, and the latter sardonically poses, “Suppose that a man falls in love with another man’s wife—is he morally bound to speak of that love in public? Would God criticize a man who could not help his feelings if he suppressed such a love and kept it to himself? Would he be better rewarded if he were to write some love poems expressing his feeling?”[^19] The Qur’an also makes clear that the Prophet’s ﷺ concealment was because of his fear of the public’s response, and also expresses Allah’s promise that He would make what the Prophet concealed manifest to the general public. Yet, we hear of no criticism of the Prophet ﷺ for coveting Zaynab (rA) in any of the primary sources, nor is there any record of a single contemporary of the Prophet ever quoting anything that suggests that what the Prophet concealed was a desire to marry Zaynab. The lack of criticism on this point is all the more remarkable, since his secret needed to have become publicly exposed for it to reach us millennia later, and additionally because the Qur’an promised its disclosure. If the Prophet’s ﷺ desire for Zaynab (rA) became public without any backlash as is suggested by the primary record’s resounding silence, then it can be only because the Prophet ﷺ miscalculated and overestimated the degree of criticism that would be leveled upon him. It follows that either it was not taboo to desire a married woman (even though the Prophet ﷺ clearly was under that misunderstanding), or that the Prophet’s contemporary critics suddenly softened towards him and forfeited a golden opportunity to highlight what would be considered a moral failing in most societies. Instead of any reference to criticism of the Prophet’s ﷺ desire for Zaynab, the primary sources do mention excoriation by the Prophet’s critics for his marrying an adopted son’s ex-wife.[^20] For the lovestruck narrative to fit with the available data, it would necessarily entail extreme oversight by the Prophet ﷺ in his agonizing over the disclosure of his attraction to Zaynab (rA)—a trivial concern it seems based on the indifference that ensued—and overlooking the true scandal that his marriage with the ex-wife of his own adopted son would generate. If we do accept that the Prophet ﷺ concealed a desire for Zaynab (rA) which was eventually made public knowledge of (as is necessarily required for the narrative to have reached us), and frivolously put aside the problem of the lack of any historical record of the censure it would have entailed, there still remains the difficulty in explaining how this information was disseminated to the public. Clearly there is nothing in the Qur’an itself that divulges this. Was the Prophet ﷺ compelled to acknowledge his feelings publicly—and if so why is there no record of this? From where do the reports of the lovestruck narrative originate? We are also left asking how the Prophet ﷺ could explain away the convenient obligation to marry Zaynab (rA) that just so happened to accord with his desires. The Companions (*ṣaḥābah*) were not unthinking and uncritical devotees, and an event that pandered so much to the Prophet’s ﷺ personal interests would not have gone unnoticed by his astute and honorable deputies, some of whom expressed reservations at other occasions regarding much less problematic episodes in the Prophet’s life.[^21] Indeed, the Scottish Orientalist William Muir, having taken the incident’s veracity as granted, identifies the problem, and marvels that any of the Companions could maintain confidence in the Prophet’s ﷺ sincerity after this marriage. Rather than conceive that the lovestruck narrative could be spurious, however, he resorted to shaky conjecture that invoked generalizations about the Companions’ intellectual deficiencies (which he frequently did in his work using racial overtones) and a mysterious supernatural power the Prophet ﷺ held over them.[^22] In contrast, the interpretation of the event by medieval and modern Muslim exegetes and historians gainsaying the lovestruck narrative accords substantially better with the verses in *al-Aḥzāb.* According to this narrative, Allah indicated to the Prophet ﷺ his impending marriage with Zaynab (rA) as a means of effecting specific marital reforms. The Prophet ﷺ immediately grasped the confusion and turmoil his marriage with his adopted son’s ex-wife would provoke given that such a marriage would have been deemed not only unbecoming by pre-Islamic Arab standards but incestuous and tantamount to marrying one’s biological son’s wife. Quite separate from the practical matter of furnishing his opponents a convenient pretext to besmirch his character, the Prophet ﷺ himself, *the* paragon of modesty and discretion, would undoubtedly have felt a natural level of discomfiture with the prospect; and therefore when Zayd (rA) approached him of his own volition to ask for a divorce from Zaynab (rA) because of an ongoing domestic conflict, the Prophet ﷺ advised against it.[^23] In response to this, Allah censured him in the Qur’an for fearing the public’s reproach more than His, for concealment of His mandate when Allah Himself had promised to disclose it, and for postponing its observance by directing Zayd to preserve his marriage. The Qur’an itself then goes on to immediately disclose the cause for the Prophet’s ﷺ hesitation as per its promise—his marriage to Zaynab which Allah promptly contracted. The Prophet ﷺ, of course, complied. This interpretation is compelling in its simplicity and concordant with the Qur’anic verses in their entirety, lacking the need for fanciful tales found in obscure works to make sense of the verses, unlike the lovestruck narrative. It is independently robust and can be gleaned simply by a literal reading of the Qur’an. This likely explains why none of the Companions (rA) ever felt the need to provide context or exegesis on these verses of *al-Aḥzāb*, except for one comment of ʿĀʾishah’s (rA) that is also consonant with this interpretation, and will be discussed later. It also resolves all the inconsistencies that arise from the lovestruck narrative. First, it explains Allah’s censure of the Prophet ﷺ for failing to disclose some information, as it is far more reasonable if that undisclosed information which elicited divine command to be broadcast publicly were dispassionate knowledge of his impending marriage as opposed to his private infatuation. Second, it accounts for the Qur’an’s reproachful manner towards the Prophet ﷺ for instructing Zayd (rA) to retain his wife, which would on the contrary be laudable if he were advising it out of guilt for his attraction to Zaynab (rA). Third, it fulfills the Qur’anic promise to divulge the secret (the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab), whereas the lovestruck narrative is found nowhere in the Qur’an. Fourth, this reading also accounts for the next verse in *al-Aḥzāb,* 38 in which the Qur’an defends the Prophet ﷺ from his detractors for admirably fulfilling a divine obligation despite the personal cost it incurred. Those actions would not have been described as commendable and worth championing if the Prophet ﷺ were merely indulging in his carnal passions. Finally, it conforms with the historical record in that multiple hadiths reveal the indignation evinced by the Prophet’s ﷺ critics over his marriage to his adopted son’s ex-wife, also alluded to in *al-Aḥzāb,* 38, and the converse lack of any record of criticism for falling in love with a married woman. --- ## The hadiths that make reference to the lovestruck narrative We can now turn our attention to the hadiths that mention this event. To begin, a complete record of the reports that recount either the complete lovestruck narrative or some part of it are listed below. These reports will be analyzed from a textual standpoint, which will demonstrate a number of insurmountable internal and historical incongruities. The *isnād*s are provided here to assist with the *isnād* analysis that follows, but also because the identities of the transmitters will play a cardinal role in tracing the historiographic development of the narrative that will be undertaken later. 1\. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal from Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl from Ḥammād ibn Zayd from Thābit from Anas ibn Mālik:[^24] The Prophet ﷺ visited the house of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (rA) and he glimpsed his wife Zaynab (rA), and something entered into him (*fa kaʾannahu dakhalahu*).[^25] Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl states \[regarding the Prophet’s visiting Zayd’s house and something entering into the Prophet’s heart\]: “I do not know if this is the statement of Ḥammād or from the hadith.” Zayd approached him to complain about \[his wife\], but the Prophet ﷺ said, “Keep your wife and fear Allah.” Then it was revealed: “And you were concealing in your heart what Allah was going to reveal” (al-Aḥzāb, 37).[^26] 2\. Al-Ṭabarī, al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, and Ibn Saʿd all narrate from Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar (al-Wāqidī) from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Aslamī from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabbān: The Prophet ﷺ visited the house of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (rA). He came to his domicile searching for him but did not find him. Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA), his wife, rose to meet him garbed in a single garment (*wa taqūmu ilayhi Zaynab bint Jaḥsh zawjatuhu fuḍulan*). Therefore, the Prophet ﷺ turned from her, and she told him: “He is not here, Messenger of Allah, but enter, you who are dear to me as my father and mother!” Nevertheless, the Prophet ﷺ refused to enter. Zaynab had dressed hurriedly when she was told that the Messenger of Allah was at the door, and she had jumped up in haste which excited the admiration of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (*fawathabat* ʿ*ajlā fa a*ʿ*jabat Rasūl Allāh*). He turned away murmuring something that could barely be recognized except for “Glory be to Allah the Almighty! Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn!” When Zayd returned home, his wife informed him that the Prophet ﷺ had visited his house. Zayd said, “Why did you not invite him in?” She replied, “I did, but he refused.” “Did you hear anything \[from him\]?” he asked. She replied, “As he left, I heard him say some words, but I did not understand them: ‘Glory be to Allah the Almighty! Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn!’” So Zayd went to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, it reached me that you came to my house. Why did you not enter, you who are as dear to me as my father and mother? Messenger of Allah, perhaps Zaynab excited your admiration, and \[if you want\], I will separate from her.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Keep your wife and fear Allah.”[^27] 3\. Al-Ṭabarī from Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā from Ibn Wahb from Ibn Zayd: The Messenger of Allah *ﷺ* had married Zayd ibn Ḥārithah to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh, the daughter of his paternal aunt. One day the Prophet ﷺ set out, seeking Zayd. There was a haircloth that covered the doorway, but the wind lifted the covering so that the doorway exposed Zaynab \[who\] was in her chamber in dishabille \[*wa hiya fī ḥujratihā ḥasīratan*\]. The Prophet’s ﷺ heart was filled with admiration for her \[*fa waqa*ʿ*a i*ʿ*jābuhā fī qalb al-nabī*\], and when that occurred, she was made displeasing to the other \[man\]. So he came and said, “O Messenger of Allah, I want to separate myself from my wife.” Muḥammad asked: “What is wrong? Do you find anything on her part concerning?” “No, by Allah,” replied Zayd, “nothing on her part is disquieting, Messenger of Allah. I have seen nothing in her except excellence.” The Prophet ﷺ said to him, “Keep your wife, and fear Allah.”[^28] 4\. Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥaḍramī from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥilwānī from Muḥammad ibn Khālid ibn ʿAthmah from Mūsā ibn Yaʿqūb from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Munīb from Abū Bakr ibn Sulaymān ibn Abī Ḥathmah: The Prophet ﷺ went to the house of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and sought permission \[to enter\] and Zaynab bint Jaḥsh gave him permission. She was not wearing a headcovering (*la khimāra ʿalayhā*) so she threw a cloth on her head. The Prophet ﷺ asked her about Zayd, and she replied, “He left not long ago.” The Prophet ﷺ stood murmuring something. Zaynab states: I followed him and I overheard him saying, “Blessed is Allah, the One who causes hearts to turn!” [^29] And he did not cease saying that until he had left.[^30] 5\. Ibn ʿAdī from al-Sājī from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Wāsiṭī from ʿAlī ibn Nūḥ from Muḥammad ibn Kathīr from Sulaym, the client (*mawlā*) of al-Shaʿbī from al-Shaʿbī: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ caught sight of Zaynab bint Jaḥsh and said, “Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn!” So Zayd asked him, “Should I divorce her, O Messenger of Allah?” But he responded, “Keep your wife.” Yūnus ibn Bukayr also inserts an addendum (*ziyādah*) to his recension of Ibn Isḥāq’s *al-Maghāzī* with this transmission.[^31] 6\. Al-Ṭabarī from Bishr from Yazīd from Saʿīd from Qatādah, and ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī from Maʿmar ibn Rāshid from Qatādah regarding *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, 37: What he concealed in himself was a desire that \[Zayd\] divorce her. Qatādah said, “al-Ḥasan (al-Baṣrī) would say, “If the Prophet ﷺ would have hidden anything from the revelation, he would have hidden this.”[^32] \[Regarding the next verse in *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, 38—“There is no harm for the Prophet ﷺ in doing what Allah has obligated for him; \[that has been\] the way of Allah with those who have preceded him.”\]—Qatādah says: “Similar to how the Prophet Dāwūd desired the woman upon whom his gaze fell upon, so he married her. Likewise, Allah decreed that Muḥammad would marry Zaynab as was the practice (*sunnah*) of Dāwūd when he married that woman.”[^33] Note that apart from al-Ṭabarī and ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī additionally narrate this in their own compilations, and all include Qatādah’s citing of al-Ḥasan’s statement immediately after his own.[^34] 7\. Al-Ṭabarī and al-Ṭabarānī both from ʿAlī ibn al-Mubārak al-Ṣanʿānī from Zayd ibn al-Mubārak from Muḥammad ibn Thawr from Ibn Jurayj regarding *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, 37: What he concealed in himself was a desire that \[Zayd\] divorce her and that he marry her instead. So Allah denied him that. \[Regarding the next verse in *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, 38—“There is no blame on the Prophet ﷺ for \[doing\] what Allah has obligated for him. That has been the way of Allah with those who had gone before”\]—Ibn Jurayj states: “\[This refers\] to Dāwūd and the woman whom he married whose name was al-Yasʿiyah, and it was similarly the practice (*sunnah*) of Muḥammad ﷺ with Zaynab.[^35] 8\. Muqātil ibn Sulaymān narrates without any *isnād* (*muʿallaqan*): Not long after Zayd married Zaynab that he began to complain to the Prophet ﷺ about her. So the Prophet ﷺ went \[to Zaynab\] to persuade her. But when he conversed with her, he was captivated by her attractiveness, beauty, and charm (*fa lammā kallamahā aʿjabahu ḥusnahā wa* *jamālahā* *wa* *ẓarfahā*). But that was a matter decreed by Allah, the Mighty and Exalted. The Prophet ﷺ returned, but \[the thought of\] her remained in his heart (*wa fī nafsihi minhā*). The Prophet ﷺ would ask Zayd, “How is she with you?” And he would complain, but the Prophet ﷺ would say to him, “Fear Allah and keep your wife.” But in his heart was something other than that (*wa fī qalbihi ghayra dhālik*). The Prophet ﷺ came searching for Zayd one day, and he saw Zaynab who was standing, and she was fair, beautiful, shapely, and one of the most striking women of Quraysh (*wa kānat bayḍāʾa jamīlatan jasīmatan min atammi nisāʾi Quraysh*). So the Prophet ﷺ developed an intense desire for her (*fa hawiyahā*), and said, “Glory be to Allah, the one who causes hearts to turn!” Zaynab overheard him and mentioned it to Zayd who understood its implication. So Zayd said: “O Prophet, permit me to divorce her, for she is arrogant, deems herself superior to me, and she injures me with her tongue (*fa inna fīhā kibran, tu*ʿ*aẓẓimu* ʿ*alayya wa tuʾdhīnī bi lisānihā).* But the Prophet ﷺ told him \[again\], “Keep your wife and fear Allah.”[^36] 9. Al-Thaʿlabī al-Naysābūrī and Abū Muḥammad al-Baghawī relate from Ibn ʿAbbās without any *isnād*: \[Regarding *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, 37, What he concealed in himself was\] “love for \[Zaynab\] (*ḥubbuhā).*”[^37] 10\. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī relates without an *isnād* that ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir narrate on the authority of ʿIkrimah (likely ʿIkrimah al-Barbarī, the client of Ibn ʿAbbās): The Prophet ﷺ entered the house of Zayd one day and glimpsed Zaynab, and it was as if \[the thought\] of her overcame him (*fa kaʾannahā waqa*ʿ*at fī nafsihi*).[^38] A superficial analysis may lend credence to the belief that there are such a considerable number of reports of this event as to render it a compelling account, as some have indeed hastily concluded, but closer examination demonstrates several major difficulties. The single most important challenge is that the majority of these reports originated over a century after the putative event. Although the lengthy *isnād*s may obfuscate this, not a single of these reports traces back to the Prophet ﷺ through an eyewitness or even terminates with any Companion except for the first, which is purportedly through Anas ibn Mālik (rA). Additionally, the reports of Ibn ʿAbbās (rA), along with those of ʿIkrimah and Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (rA), are narrated without any *isnād* at all (*mu*ʿ*allaq*), and also mysteriously come into existence suddenly some hundred years later. Other than with Anas, the earliest narrator with which any of these *isnād*s terminates is Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah who died in 120/737. It is also interesting that several of these narrations are put forward as exegesis for the portion of *Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*, 38 which refers to the Prophet ﷺ fulfilling the normative practice of other ancient prophets, specifically identified as Dāwūd by the narrations. In juxtaposition are some hadiths about the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab (rA) which add some additional details. There are a number of these, but we will focus on just a few of these that are sound or provide some perspective from a historiographic standpoint. 11\. Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī relates in his *Ṣaḥīḥ* that ʿĀʾishah (rA) stated, as would later al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in hadith (6), “There was nothing that was revealed that was more severe to him than this. If the Prophet ﷺ would have hidden anything from the revelation, he would have hidden this.” This is also alleged to be a statement of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb by Muqātil ibn Sulaymān—who once again narrates as he did in hadith (8) without an *isnād*.[^39] 12\. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj narrates in his *Ṣaḥīḥ* that Anas (rA) said: After her waiting period expired, the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah to Zaynab with a marriage proposal. When Zayd entered upon her, she was fermenting dough. Zayd said, “When I saw her, I developed a sense of awe for her in my chest, so much so that I could not \[bear\] to see her because the Prophet had mentioned her. Therefore, I turned my back towards her and said, “Zaynab! The Prophet *ﷺ* has sent me to you and has mentioned you \[regarding marriage\].” She said, “I will make no decision until I solicit Allah’s guidance.” She then stood \[and began to pray\] in her place of prayer. The Qur’anic verse was revealed regarding this issue, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ entered upon her without taking permission.[^40] 13\. Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī from Aslam from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah from ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn \[Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn\] asked me, “What does al-Ḥasan \[al-Baṣrī\] state regarding \[the verse\], ‘You concealed in yourself what Allah was going to reveal?’” So I told him, but he responded, “No, rather Allah had informed his Prophet ﷺ that Zaynab was going to be one of his wives prior to his marriage to her. But when Zayd came to him complaining about her, he said, ‘Keep your wife and fear Allah.’ And so Allah revealed the verse.”[^41] Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī and al-Ṭabarī also narrate the same with their own *isnād*s, also through Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah. Note that Ibn Abī Ḥātim and al-Bayhaqī’s version contextualizes ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn’s statement by citing his probing of Ibn Zayd about al-Ḥasan’s interpretation followed by ʿAlī’s rebuttal. Al-Ṭabarī’s version only provides ʿAlī’s statement in isolation. Neither Ibn Abī Ḥātim nor al-Bayhaqī quotes al-Ḥasan’s interpretation of the verse, but only that ʿAlī disputed his interpretation.[^42] However, al-Thaʿlabī relates in his *tafsīr* the same incident in which al-Ḥasan’s interpretation is explicit: 14\. Al-Thaʿlabī from Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Fanjawayh from Ṭalḥah ibn Muḥammad and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb from Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid from Ibn Abī Mihrān from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā Abī ʿUmar al-ʿAdanī from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah from ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn \[Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn\] asked me, “What does al-Ḥasan \[al-Baṣrī\] state regarding \[the verse\], ‘You concealed in yourself what Allah was going to reveal?’” So I told him, “When Zayd went to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘O Prophet, I want to divorce Zaynab,’ that attracted him (*fa aʿjabahu dhālik*).” ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn said, “This is not so. Rather Allah had informed his Prophet ﷺ that Zaynab was going to be one of his wives prior to his marriage to her.” The rest of al-Thaʿlabī’s version is the same as al-Bayhaqī’s and Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s.[^43] 15\. Ibn Abī Ḥātim relates (without an *isnād*) that Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Suddī stated regarding what the Prophet ﷺ concealed in his heart: Allah informed his Prophet ﷺ after \[Zaynab’s marriage with Zayd\] that she would become his wife. But the Prophet ﷺ felt shame in instructing Zayd to divorce his wife… And he was apprehensive of the public’s reproach  for marrying his son’s ex-wife.”[^44] The last narration is particularly interesting because it submits further detail to ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn’s exegesis. Al-Suddī correctly identified the difficult course of action the Prophet ﷺ was confronted with: if he had not advised Zayd to maintain his marriage, the alternative would be either to *advise or* *command* Zayd to divorce his wife so that he could marry her instead. The Prophet ﷺ found this understandably awkward, which resulted in his response enshrined in the Qur’an. Al-Suddī’s narration otherwise concurs with ʿAlī’s and deviates from the lovestruck narrative in which attraction played a role, but this is an isolated report, and at best al-Suddī’s personal opinion which, without *isnād* tracing to a senior Companion, cannot be used as a primary resource. --- ## Textual analysis The first 10 reports that refer to the lovestruck narrative can be summarily dismissed because of the information contained within them, even before engaging in rigorous *isnād* analyses. For, if accurate, only three individuals would have been privy to the events: Zayd, Zaynab, and the Prophet ﷺ himself. No one of the three could have disseminated the information embodied within these hadiths. Obviously, the Prophet ﷺ would not have, given the embarrassing nature of the secret. Additionally, the Qur’an itself (and even the hadiths that recount the event explicitly) informs that the Prophet ﷺ concealed the secret—whatever the nature of said secret—which is the reason for the Qur’an’s censure in the first place. Zaynab also could not have been the source either. In most of the hadiths it is either implied or explicitly stated, as in hadith (2), that she did not comprehend the Prophet’s statement, “Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn,” and that it was Zayd who appreciated the implication. Her affirmations of superiority over the other wives of the Prophet ﷺ because, “You were married by your fathers and brothers, but I was married by Allah from above the seven heavens” leaves no doubt that she would have been unaware of the entire spectacle, and thus could not have publicized it.[^45] So that leaves Zayd, a man so intensely loyal to the Prophet ﷺ that we are to believe he relinquished all of his protective jealousy and honor (*ghīrah*) for his wife and offered to divorce her for the Prophet’s amorous sentiments, and yet despite such a demonstration of loyalty, went about and divulged the Prophet’s ﷺ most humiliating secret. It is also noteworthy that Zayd was killed just a few years later prior to the Prophet’s ﷺ own passing, and therefore did not have a throng of students to circulate his experiences as did the Companions who passed later. The same could be said of Zaynab, who coincidentally was the first of the Prophet’s ﷺ wives to die after him, which was just a few years after the Prophet’s death, and who also did not benefit from multiple students transmitting her sayings. Therefore, even if Zayd or Zaynab did disclose this story, it remains unanswered how their reports reached us miraculously without any direct link between the terminal transmitters of hadiths (1-10) to either of the two, and that too with minute details such as the clothing that Zaynab was or was not garbed in and her precise bodily movements that so attracted the admiration of the Prophet ﷺ. Also worth mentioning is that, except for the hadiths of Anas and Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, none of these hadiths endorsing the lovestruck narrative suggest any domestic disturbance between Zayd and Zaynab prior to the Prophet’s ﷺ visit to their house. And some such as hadiths (2) and (3), which are reproduced by al-Ṭabarī through Ibn Zayd and Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabbān, explicitly chronicle that Zayd offered to divorce Zaynab only for the Prophet’s ﷺ benefit when Zayd became cognizant of the Prophet’s desire for his wife rather than because of marital discord. This is in complete conflict with *al-Aḥzāb,* 37 which is explicit that Zayd no longer had any desire to remain wedded to Zaynab, and which could not have been the case if he were divorcing her for the Prophet ﷺ. Notably, a later variant—hadith (3)*—*appends the comment that, “she was made undesirable for \[Zayd\]” which appears to be an interpolation to confer some semblance of concordance with the Qur’an. An additional internal difficulty with these hadiths is the allegation that Zayd offered his wife to the Prophet ﷺ to wed in the first place, not because it contravened Arab (and Islamic) notions of honor (which it did), but *because* societal norms deemed it illicit and even incestuous. The hadiths mention that at the time of the event Zayd (rA) was addressed as Zayd ibn Muḥammad, and the Islamic proscription on identifying individuals by their adopted fathers had not been realized. It would be still fanciful to imagine any Companion offering his wife or daughter to the Prophet ﷺ when the propriety of the marriage was ambiguous to any degree based on existing customs—Abū Bakr’s (rA) hesitation in wedding ʿĀʾishah (rA) to the Prophet ﷺ because he considered himself his brother, despite the Prophet’s direct proposal is a prime example of this.[^46] There is absolutely no scope for Zayd (rA) to actively offer his wife to the Prophet ﷺ when he viewed himself as his son—a relationship far more compelling per prevailing mores than any speculative brotherhood Abū Bakr (rA) may have imagined. Zayd too would have deemed his wife unlawful for the Prophet ﷺ prior to the revelation of *al-Aḥzāb,* 36\. In effect, what the narrations suggest is that Zayd (rA) offered his wife to the Prophet ﷺ, *despite* believing that it would be an illicit relationship. Other minor issues lie with specific hadiths such as that of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabbān in hadith (2), which extends into a lengthier chronicle than is reproduced here, but attributes the conveyance of the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage proposal to Salmā (rA) when the authentic hadith of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* reports that the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd (rA) himself to propose on his behalf \[hadith (12)\].[^47] Additionally, the same hadith of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā alleges that the Prophet ﷺ laughed when the command to marry Zaynab (rA) was revealed, which at least is for once internally consistent with the hadith’s personification of a Prophet ﷺ driven by passions of the flesh. But it is entirely discordant with al-Bukhārī’s authentic depiction of the Prophet ﷺ as anxious upon the revelation of that verse of *al-Aḥzāb*, in multiple transmissions of hadith (11). The Prophet’s ﷺ disquiet is only sensible with the narrative in which Allah exposed his command to the Prophet ﷺ to marry Zaynab (rA), and in which the marriage could no longer be deferred. It is wholly incongruous with the dishonorable lovestruck narrative since the Qur’an fails to make any mention of it: it is inexplicable why the Prophet ﷺ would have been so self-conscious with those verses when they don’t divulge anything about the events surrounding his marriage. On the contrary, it is more sensible that he would have welcomed the verses since they served as a pretext to realize his corporal passions (and with nothing more than a ceremonial slap on the wrist in the form of an inconsequential rebuke which nonetheless appears to not have raised a single whisper of any reservation), and his satisfaction with the verses’ revelation is indeed reported in the full version of hadith (2). Moreover, the minor variations in the narrations which invoke various literary descriptions (did Zaynab (rA) come out to greet the Prophet ﷺ leaping in excitement, or did the wind blow the curtain and expose her?) do nothing to instill confidence in the account. Much more can be said about these relatively less critical discrepancies, but for the purpose of this paper, this much is sufficient. --- ## Isnād analysis Finally, we come to the *isnād* analysis, which at this point is only for academic purposes, given that we have already discredited the lovestruck narrative quite thoroughly. Hadith (1) includes Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl (d. 206/821), about whom al-Bukhārī stated, “he is rejected in hadith (*munkaru al-ḥadīth*),” and Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī said, “He is trustworthy, but makes excessive mistakes.” His mistakes were explained by the fact that he would narrate not from memory but by relying on his books as an aid, and that he lost his books and thereafter made errors in abundance.[^48] Muʾammal is the *only* one of Ḥammād ibn Zayd’s students who recounted this variant, and the same exact hadith is narrated by Ḥammād’s 7 other students without the lovestruck narrative mentioned (Figure 1).[^49] ### Figure 1 ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/8k09CZTxsSQaVK3T8Xi4z0lOA63WUYSZ2NAQBNLLde5GKe0UitbxL2fG2EYQI4Gy8RhoRtgeGHo2aa9IoI4Z0rluSZUFWgYInA28pDGMtsnyk1OEsiIXe3G3kgfSBQXEXFfGcVrBqThYY2GZ4JYvYFRn2Ec7esrntwdaI2lECVP-t9is2JOQaljlUS5FKlsas1tNiVB-rA) Hadith (2) includes both Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, who was considered a liar and fabricator despite his obvious mastery of the *maghāzī* literature.[^50] It additionally includes ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Aslamī (d. 150/767) who was considered “weak” (*ḍa*ʿ*īf*) in his hadith transmissions by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Nasāʾī, ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī, Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī; the latter’s eminent fellow Rayy hadith critic, Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī deemed ʿAbd Allāh “rejected (*matrūk*),” but Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn was the harshest in grading him, and said about him “he is nothing, he is weak (*laysa bi shay*ʾ*, ḍa*ʿ*īf*).” Al-Bukhārī also questioned the soundness of his memory which was expounded on by Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī, who explained that he would mix up *isnād*s and the texts of various hadiths*.* [^51] Hadith (3) includes Ibn Zayd who is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam (d. 182/798), who is also deemed weak (*da*ʿ*īf*) by Ibn Ḥanbal, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī; Ibn Ḥanbal specifically disliked that Ibn Zayd would relate unreliable hadith. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn also said of him, “his hadith are nothing (*laysa ḥadīthahu bi shay*ʾ),” and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī refused to narrate from him because of his unreliability.[^52] Hadith (4) includes Muḥammad ibn Khālid ibn ʿAthmah (d. 158/775) whom Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī noted, “He is truthful but errs (*sadūq, yukhṭiʾ*).”[^53] In the hadith*,* Muḥammad goes on to narrate from Mūsā ibn Yaʿqūb, whom some hadith critics such as Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and Ibn Ḥibbān deemed trustworthy (*thiqah*), though ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, al-Nasāʾī, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAdī considered him weak and rejected in hadith (*da*ʿ*īfu al-ḥadīth, munkaru al-ḥadīth*). Ibn Ḥanbal also did not hold a high opinion of him (*la yu*ʿ*jibunī ḥadīthuhu*), and al-Dāraquṭnī concurred. Abū Dāwūd specifically objected to his students being unknown.[^54] Ibn Ḥajar reconciled the disparate gradings and concluded by grading him as trustworthy, but of poor retention (*sayyiʾu al-hifdh*).[^55] Abū Dāwūd’s analysis comes to bear in this particular hadith, as the identity of the narrator Mūsā ibn Yaʿqūb relates from, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Munīb, is unknown and is not found in any of the well-known works of hadith narrator criticism.[^56] Hadith (5) contains Sulaym the client of al-Shaʿbī, about whom Ibn Maʿīn and Abū Jaʿfar al-ʿUqaylī both graded weak in his narrations, and about whom al-Nasāʾī said, “He is not reliable (*laysa bi thiqah*).” Ibn Muthannah noted that he had never heard Ibn Maʿīn or ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī ever narrate from him, exhibiting their extreme disapproval of his hadith*.* Additionally, ʿAlī ibn Nūḥ, another transmitter in this isnād, is also unknown.[^57] Indeed this hadith is found in, among other works, in *Al-Kāmil fī Ḍuʿafāʾ al-rijāl,* a compendium of weak and rejected narrators, and their hadiths by Ibn ʿAdī.[^58] Hadiths (6) and (7) are sound until they reach Qatādah and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Jurayj, but these are merely the opinions of these two later commentators who happened to live one century after the Prophet ﷺ, and whose sources will later be discussed in great detail. Hadiths (8), (9), and (10) about which much will also be said later, have no *isnād* and are therefore of no value from an evidentiary standpoint. Al-Thaʿlabī’s quoting of hadith (9), in which Ibn ʿAbbās is alleged without *isnād* to have interpreted *al-Aḥzāb*, 36 the same as Qatādah and Ibn Jurayj, would appear to be an egregious error, and Ibn ʿAbbās likely has been confused with Qatādah given the latter’s customary reliance on Ibn ʿAbbās’s opinions. Qatādah’s opinion on this matter had been widely transmitted by a number of narrators as reproduced in hadith (6), but Ibn ʿAbbās had never been credited with this opinion until some four centuries later by al-Thaʿlabī. All the earlier *tafsīr*s that quote Qatādah’s opinion such as those of al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and ʿAbd al-Razzāq, among others fail to make any mention of Ibn ʿAbbās. Including Qatādah’s opinion while neglecting that of Ibn ʿAbbās, the most celebrated Qur’an commentator in history, would have been a grave omission for any one of those authors let alone all of them. (Ibn Abī Ḥātim explicitly expounds on his exegetical methodology in the introduction to his *tafsīr*, which is quite informative: “When I come upon commentary from the Prophet ﷺ, I refrain from mentioning \[the opinion\] of any of the Companions... When I come upon \[a statement\] from the Companions, if there was consensus amongst them, I cited it from the loftiest of them in standing... If I did not find \[a statement\] from the Companions, and if I found it \[only\] from the Followers, I included what I found from them….And thus I did with regards to the next generation and thereafter.”[^59] Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s statement makes it clear that his quoting of Qatādah was only because he, along with the illustrious hadith masters of Rayy from whom he took his knowledge such as his father Abū Ḥātim and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī, were not cognizant of the commentary of a Companion such as Ibn ʿAbbās on this verse. The same can be said of al-Ṭabarī and ʿAbd al-Razzāq.) The omission of Ibn ʿAbbās by three of the greatest early *tafsīr* authorities is only explicable if Ibn ʿAbbās’s exegesis was not his at all and was not in circulation when those exegeses were authored. Al-Thaʿlabī ’s erroneous attribution of the lovestruck narrative to Ibn ʿAbbās later found its way into al-Baghawī’s own commentary, whose mentioning of Ibn ʿAbbās is drawn not from a distinct source, but from al-Thaʿlabī himself. This is easily recognizable as al-Baghawī duplicated al-Thaʿlabī’s entire discussion including the erroneous attribution to Ibn ʿAbbās as well as the preceding and subsequent paragraphs, into his own work, with all of al-Thaʿlabī’s errors freely incorporated verbatim. Hadith (10) is quoted by al-Suyūṭī, who ascribes it without *isnād* to Ibn al-Mundhir and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, but which is not found in any of their published works of hadith.[^60] Ibn al-Mundhir and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, even if they did narrate this hadith from ʿIkrimah, lived over a century after he did, and therefore had to have heard it from at least two transmitters in between. Nevertheless, it is unimaginable that none of ʿIkrimah’s multiple students recorded this hadith from him if this was indeed one of his opinions. This quote is also not found in any of the early *tafsīr* works such as that of al-Ṭabarī and the others mentioned earlier, all of whom very frequently quote ʿIkrimah’s other opinions given the latter’s prolific exegetical narrations. This is particularly remarkable as they all unreservedly quote from ʿIkrimah’s contemporaries, Qatādah and Ibn Jurayj, on this matter without any hesitation. We can therefore claim with confidence that this also is a spurious tradition. Regarding hadith (14), which is al-Thaʿlabī ’s variant of al-Ḥasan’s interpretation of the verse in *al-Aḥzāb*, the unique narrator from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah is Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿUmar (d. 243/857). Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā is the only transmitter from Sufyān who narrates that al-Ḥasan interpreted the verse in *al-Aḥzāb*, 37 to refer to the Prophet’s ﷺ love for Zaynab (rA), as the other variants from other transmitters from Sufyān remained silent about al-Ḥasan’s interpretation (Figure 2). About Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī stated, “He was a righteous man, but he was careless (*wa kāna bihi ghaflah*), and he would narrate fabricated hadiths attributed to Ibn ʿUyaynah. However, he was truthful.”[^61] There are additional issues with this *isnād* including the presence of Ṭalḥah ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Shāhid (d. 308/920) who was considered weak and poor in hadith narrations, as well as Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Fanjawayh who, despite his own reliability, was known for narrating anomalous hadiths from impugned transmitters (*kathīr al-riwāyah li al-manākīr*).[^62] ### Figure 2 ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/IiMAPaIwOK8u9shq7ySOf1BUfmFpoH0rR8M3ilBMZqRy_3IHVBJPrZ-gfvyWOeOmJ8J3f0L0ihb63sJVzbXZvxgXCSBkfZPlkEbKW-iIB7n_dXE_8eyi5d3miVw-OsNuoXxSo_oLNWLd26BNKrDb2JOqdqgT3MnRPDIuznniPZNSbbdl0WpYQiphkuN-nR5xTFgZxL3ZMA) --- ## The social background necessitating the Prophet’s ﷺ   marriage with Zaynab (rA) It may appear, despite the increasingly apparent fictional components of the lovestruck narrative, that the more benign narrative of the Prophet ﷺ marrying Zaynab (rA) reluctantly to abolish the ancient Arab proscription of marriage to one’s adopted sons’ ex-wives is contrived and at least somewhat convenient. (It should be noted, however, that suspicion of convenience can only emanate from the debunked lovestruck narrative without which there would be no convenience to be had). After all, why is this issue, among so many others that afflicted Arabia at that time, so noteworthy as to warrant not only a Qur’anic imperative for its abolition, but also that the Prophet ﷺ himself flouted the pre-Islamic rule so as to establish its precedent? These misgivings stem from a lack of recognition of the Prophet ﷺ as not solely a religious figure, but the head of a state as well as a social reformer who sought to upend the social malaise that had set into pre-Islamic Arabia—of which adoption and the subsequent regulations associated with it were just one critical aspect. It also originates from a failure to situate the attack against this one specific norm within the larger multi pronged attack that the Prophet ﷺ discharged against a myriad of communal and social practices that were seen as sacrosanct in Late Antique Arabia. These practices, which frequently dictated marital relationships, often infringed on the rights of vulnerable members of society such as women and orphans.[^63] Examples of this principle include the pre-Islamic sanctioning of the coercive marriage between a son and his step-mother on the death of his father, without consideration of the consent of the step-mother. In fact, not just the son but all of the deceased male’s heirs were given *carte blanche* to wed any female member of the deceased’s household, including wives and daughters.[^64] Prior revelation in *al-Nisāʾ* 19-23 had already inveighed against and proscribed this practice just a short while prior to the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA).[^65] Although the Qur’an addresses specifically the issue of in-laws taking advantage of female family members, the issue also extended in general where women were seen as the property of their guardians who could be married at whim. The Prophet ﷺ himself had occasion to restrict this when a woman approached him complaining that her father had strong-armed her into marrying her cousin, and the Prophet ﷺ voided the marriage.[^66] On a similar note, the Prophet ﷺ significantly circumscribed the payment of dowers to the family of the bride in lieu of the bride herself. Previous marriages allowed for the dower to be given to the father or guardian of the bride, and the Qur’an had already commanded that women directly be granted their dowries in *al-Nisāʾ*, 4. The Prophet ﷺ had also forbidden the practice of *shighār* where two males exchanged daughters or sisters for marriage, without any dowry, as this would benefit the family at the cost of the woman.[^67] Another prohibition that is more akin to the issue at hand regards the pre-Islamic practice of *ẓihār* in which a man would irrevocably divorce his wife by undertaking an oath that he regarded her as his mother. This was similarly condemned on the similar grounds that an artificial and fictitious relationship was contrived so as to violate the rights of another who had no means of redress. The verse in the Qur’an that prohibits *ẓihār* is the same verse that prohibits “adoption,” underscoring the shared injustice of both customs. The use of the word “adoption” however is inexact and does not do justice to the multitude of institutions that fell under that term that existed then. Although the full details of these complex practices fall outside the scope of this article, it does appear that at least two distinct but interconnected practices were in vogue: acknowledgment of genuine biological paternity that had not previously been established (*istilḥāq*) and ascribing one’s name to a non-relative (*tabannī*).[^68] The former occurred within the licentious backdrop of pre-Islamic Arabia wherein practices such as prostitution, temporary marriages, and divorce, along with the concomitant expected disputations over the lineage of newborns, had fostered an atmosphere of suspicion in which aspersion was cast upon even legitimate births.[^69] This is seen in the case of Zayd’s own son Usama, who being of a darker tone than Zayd, was accused of being illegitimate, until a specialist in family resemblances (*qāʾif*) confirmed their relationship.[^70] The Islamic solution to this problem was multifold, but relevant to the issue of adoption was the attempt to limit the prevalence of cases in which disputes over lineage could occur. Apart from the obvious prohibitions on prostitution and other extra-marital relationships, the Qur’an established a waiting period (ʿ*iddah*) after a woman’s divorce or the death of her husband, during which she could not remarry.[^71] This allowed for any pregnancy from the prior marriage to become manifest and ascribable to the rightful paternity. Moreover, any source of artificial lineages that could further complicate the situation, including the common practice of false genealogical claims or adoption whereby a non-biological “son” took on his adopted father’s patronym, was prohibited. Quite separate from the interconnectedness between the social reform the Prophet ﷺ effected and the need to restrict pre-Islamic adoptive practices is the evidence that *tabannī* was potentially inherently oppressive, even without its pernicious byproducts. The term used for adopted children, *ad*ʿ*iyāʾ*, does not invoke the meaning of adoption in vogue today at all, but rather involved the appropriation by coercion of someone else’s name.[^72] There was undoubtedly oppression of vulnerable groups under the guise of adoption which allowed for the attribution of usually beleaguered individuals to nonbiological “guardians” who could then forfeit their rights at whim as they could their own biological children. The latter is clear in the case of Khālid ibn Saʿīd whose biological father Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀs tortured him, and subsequently disowned and disinherited him after he refused to apostatize after accepting Islam.[^73] In the case of an “adopted” child, however, there would be no shared bloodline whatsoever to provide any protection to mitigate damages incurred. An illustration of this principle is provided by al-Miqdād ibn ʿAmr, who was adopted as well as taken on as a confederate (*ḥalīf*) by al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth of the Banū Zuhrah ibn Kilāb clan of Quraysh. Al-Miqdād, like Khālid, was compelled to migrate to Abyssinia to escape the persecution of his adopted father and clan.[^74] The power dynamic of a powerful individual taking on an adopted son is suggested by the Qur’an, where it instructs the adopted *fathers* not to address their adopted sons by their own names: “Call them by their \[real\] fathers,” immediately after stating, “\[Allah\] does not regard your adopted sons \[*adʿīyāʾukum*\] as your \[real\] sons.”[^75] The Qur’anic charge directed to the adopted fathers suggests that it was more prevalent that the appropriation occurred when an individual took on a “son” instead of a mutual decision that fostered common benefit. Although more emphasis has been traditionally given on the literal imperative to avoid naming adopted sons by their adopted fathers, the directive denounces the repressive institution of adoption, which it refers to by metonymy. This explains why the aforementioned al-Miqdād was known by his adopted patronym, al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad many years after this verse was revealed.[^76] The subsequent exhortation in the Qur’an, “That is more just in the sight of Allah,” renders this entire concept all the clearer, as it establishes the injustice that had been associated with adoptive practices. The well-known example of the Prophet’s ﷺ complete integration of Zayd (rA) in his own household may lead to the assumption that his upright conduct was the standard practice and that adopted children attained full integration and legal equality with biological sons, particularly based on anachronistic notions of modern-day adoption as a charitable institution. But closer examination reveals that far from being mainstream, few if any of the privileges of a biological son were conferred on adopted children whatsoever, whether by their adopted fathers or by society. The obvious example is Zaynab's (rA) initial refusal to marry Zayd (rA) because she estimated him to be of inferior stock, even though as the Prophet’s ﷺ son and a Hāshimī, he should have been regarded as having the superior pedigree. A similar example is found with al-Miqdād, whose marriage proposals were contemptuously repudiated by multiple Qurayshī families, and this despite the fact that he was additionally a *ḥalīf* of Banū Zuhrah, and *ḥalīf*s were married by Qurayshīs to their women. (As he did with Zayd (rA), the Prophet ﷺ, ever the social benefactor, assumed the responsibility personally by wedding al-Miqdād to his own paternal cousin, Ḍubāʿah bint al-Zubayr ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib).[^77] Additionally, the Prophet’s ﷺ detractors would heap abuse on him by referring to him as *al-abtar*, or someone with no male offspring to inherit from him and carry on his legacy, and the Qur’an responded in defense of him.[^78] Clearly, the Quraysh (and by extension, pre-Islamic Arabs) did not deem an adoptee to be an adequate substitute for a biological child, and this despite the Prophet’s ﷺ public address to the Quraysh when he took on Zayd (rA) as his own son, pronouncing “Zayd is now my son. I will inherit from him, and he will inherit from me.” Even the wording here suggests that inheritance was not the norm with adopted children, and therefore had to be spelled out.[^79] This is evident in the case of al-Miqdād, who predictably appears to not have inherited from al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth on the latter’s death. Similarly denied inheritance was Sufyān ibn Maʿmar who had been adopted by Maʿmar ibn Ḥabīb of Banū Jumaḥ ibn ʿAmr of Quraysh. Far from inheriting from his adopted father after the latter’s death, Sufyān could not even reside in Mecca and had to return to his biological tribe with his sons despite retaining Maʿmar’s patronym.[^80] All of this accounts for the lack of any historical record of litigation or conflict over inheritance between biological and adopted children, which would otherwise have inevitably been present. The fact that almost all adoptees were both confederates (*ḥulafāʾ*) and clients (*mawālī*) of their patronyms only further underscores the differences in societal estimation of biological versus adopted sons, as the former had no need to be confederates of their own biological parents.[^81] More importantly, it establishes the adoption of pre-Islamic Arabia as otiose and superfluous. Adoption provided no added social benefit to individuals who could realize far more gain by simply becoming confederates of tribal leaders without the associated social encumbrances.[^82] In this context, it was imperative to entirely abolish an institution that at best was inherently functionless and at worst fostered oppression, and for a practice that was as deeply entrenched in society, this could not have been successful without Prophetic precedent. --- ## A historiographic assessment of the evolution of the lovestruck narrative If the lovestruck narrative is entirely irreconcilable with Qur’anic and other textual evidence, then how can we explain the origins of the story and the handful of transmissions that allude to it? Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ, the late hadith expert and editor of Ibn Ḥanbal’s *Musnad*, suggested one possibility in his gloss on the hadith of Anas (rA). He speculated that the lovestruck narrative was conflated with the report of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah’s (rA) visit to Zaynab’s (rA) house after his divorce to propose for the Prophet ﷺ in hadith (12). Multiple sound accounts of this event allude to the awe and reverence Zayd experienced in the presence of Zaynab after the Prophet ﷺ proposed to her (interestingly, despite their own disagreements that had culminated in their divorce just a few months earlier), and that such was that awe present within him, that he could not bring himself to even look at Zaynab. Al-Arnaʾūṭ drew a parallel between the stories, and noted their resemblance: in one Zayd visits Zaynab and is filled with wonderment, and in the other, the Prophet ﷺ visits Zaynab and is in turn awestruck. Because the version of Zayd’s visit to Zaynab is sound and reported through Anas in multiple authentic works of hadith*,* he believed the narratives to have become confused.[^83] Although this explanation is somewhat plausible, there is no direct evidence that supports this conflation, and additionally it cannot entirely explain the widespread circulation of this narration, nor of the other narrators who also report the event, with entirely distinct chains of narration. The first hint as to its origin is the historical time period when it suddenly appeared in circulation, and that too among primarily raconteurs (*quṣṣāṣ*) known for exegesis rather than among the more rigorous hadith critics and transmitters. This occurred about a century or so after the time when the event is purported to have taken place. Additionally, it is also quite apparent that there was a gradual evolution of the story, first from a pithy observation that what the Prophet ﷺ concealed was a desire to wed Zaynab (rA), proffered in explanation to the reference of a secret in the verse of *al-Aḥzāb*, to a full-blown dramatization of the event with exhaustive details freely added. (In different narrations, Zaynab (rA) jumped with excitement upon knowledge that the Prophet ﷺ was visiting, or she rushed to him without properly covering herself, and hastily threw on a cloth that she used *ad hoc* to cover her hair, or even followed the Prophet ﷺ out to listen to his statement, among other vivid details). The third hint that we become aware of is the linking of the Prophet’s ﷺ story to a peculiar story of Dāwūd which is not found in Islamic sources but instead is rooted entirely in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is in fact the subsequent verse of *al-Aḥzāb* where that link was forged. The verse, which states, “There is no harm for the Prophet in doing what Allah has obligated for him; \[that has been\] the way of Allah with those who have preceded him” was first used to refer specifically to Dāwūd by Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, a senior Follower (*tābiʿī*) who was a Jewish convert from Banū Qurayẓah, and therefore quite familiar with the Judeo-Christian depiction of Dāwūd. Rather than understand the verse based on its apparent meaning—that there could be no impugning of the Prophet ﷺ, as was transpiring as per ʿĀʾishah’s (rA) report in *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, for fulfilling an obligation that Allah had commanded of him, and that his fulfilling of the command was similar to the fulfillment of their divine obligations by other prophets—Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb adumbrated instead that the verse alluded to the customary practice of prophets marrying multiple wives. Ibn Kaʿb even specifically furnished Dāwūd’s marriage to 100 women and Sulaymān’s marriage to 1000 as maintained in the Bible as an example of this practice.[^84] He therefore suggested that the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Zaynab (rA), despite his marriage to multiple other wives at that time, was merely the fulfillment of a prophetic practice that had existed from prior centuries.[^85] He made no further extrapolations, and nor did he provide a reference to a higher authority, such as a Companion, for his reading of the verse. It is noteworthy that Ibn Kaʿb lived during the Rāshidūn Caliphate and passed away in 108/726. No other commentators had previously ever interpreted the verse as Ibn Kaʿb did, and nor was the lovestruck narrative in circulation during his lifetime, except for an undeveloped prototype during the later years of his life. Why would Ibn Kaʿb interpret the verse in such a singular and unprecedented manner? The historical record does not provide any direct evidence for the motivation or source of his exegesis. However, we can still speculate, because of the concomitant development of anti-Islamic rhetoric that had begun to mature, of which the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA) played a pivotal role. With increasing interaction between Muslims and Christians, the latter undertook a spirited defense of their theological doctrines, which had directly been confronted head-on in the Qur’an. The quintessential apologist was John of Damascus (d. 143/749), who launched his own offensive against Arabs collectively (whom he contemptuously designated as “Ishmaelites”), Islamic tenets, and the Prophet ﷺ in particular. Central to his argument was his denunciation of the Prophet ﷺ as a philanderer and imposter who concocted revelations as a pretext to realize his carnal desires. He inveighed on the Islamic sanctioning of polygyny, lambasting the Prophet ﷺ as its most guilty perpetrator. John, however, went further, and specifically alluded to the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zayd’s (rA) wife. John did not name Zaynab explicitly, as he seems unaware of her identity, nor did he refer to the final version of the lovestruck narrative in which the Prophet ﷺ visited her dwelling only to become infatuated with her. His depiction of the event was simultaneously less developed but far more vitriolic, for in his canard, the Prophet ﷺ did not only fall in love with Zayd’s wife, but instructed Zayd to divorce her so that he could take his place. John entirely ignored the verses in the Qur’an in which the Prophet ﷺ is quoted as earnestly advising Zayd instead to keep his marriage intact.[^86] John’s chronicle, whether due to willful prevarication or ignorance, was instrumental in bolstering Christian apologetics in the face of Islamic theological objections, and was taken up by other Christian polemicists.[^87] Other Christian indictments of the Prophet’s ﷺ concupiscence, albeit less well-documented and developed, are referenced even earlier in the historical record. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101/720) is recorded to have corresponded with the Byzantine emperor Leo III (d. 124/741) who had accused the Prophet ﷺ of seducing a woman named Zeda.[^88] That this woman’s name was so like Zayd’s is too coincidental to be dismissed out of hand, and likely is a botched reference to Zayd himself. This suggests that the Christian narrative itself was undergoing its own evolution where early Christians who were not fully familiar with the Qur’anic text and whose knowledge of it was inchoate, were aware that Zayd had played some but yet imprecisely recognized role in one of the Prophet’s ﷺ marriages. John’s version, which was composed some decades later, appears to be a more evolved variant, where he identifies that the Prophet ﷺ married not Zayd, but his former wife, yet does not appear cognizant of the woman’s name. Regardless, it may be tempting to attribute the complete lovestruck narrative to these fabrications, especially since they seem to be the first known prototypes of it in the historical record. However, the lovestruck narrative found in Islamic texts is far more specific and detailed, and its presence in the Islamic exegetical and historical corpus needs to be further explored. This is especially true since devout Muslims would have been unlikely to incorporate such an unflattering depiction of the Prophet ﷺ in their own works. More likely than these narratives finding their way in Muslim works is that it may have led to certain Muslim rejoinders that indirectly inspired the very story they were attempting to disclaim. As an example, these accusations would be a plausible incentive for Ibn Kaʿb’s exegesis: his explanation of the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA) as analogous with Dāwūd and Sulaymān’s, could have been intended to draw attention to the fact that the Prophet’s ﷺ polygynous marriages were no different than the marriages depicted of Christianity’s own venerable patriarchs. I am not aware of any direct evidence establishing that Ibn Kaʿb was aware of either Leo III or John’s allegations, or that his exegesis was a direct response to him or other Christians. However, Ibn Kaʿb was keenly aware of contemporaneous Jewish and Christian theological claims, and as a welcome member within Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s court, he would have been all too cognizant of these polemics, and attempted to refute them as he was known to do with other Judeo-Christian allegations.[^89] Additionally, there is evidence that other early Muslims were aware of Christian claims against the Prophet ﷺ, and it would certainly explain the bizarre commentary of *al-Aḥzāb,* 38 that Ibn Kaʿb proffered. Regardless of the source of inspiration of Ibn Kaʿb’s exegesis, it did serve as the foundational substrate for the subsequent step in the hermeneutical evolution of *al-Aḥzāb,* 38 which is seen in both Qatādah’s and Ibn Jurayj’s exegeses. Both went considerably further than Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, as they understood the verse to refer to not just Dāwūd’s and Sulaymān’s marriages to multiple women, but specifically to the sordid affair that Dāwūd is accused of having in Judeo-Christian sources. The Biblical narration of Dāwūd’s affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, was already known to Muslims who had settled in Byzantine lands during the caliphate of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (rA), and it appears that proliferation of the account had led to some level of its acceptance among Muslims. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (rA) is reported to have become cognizant of the pervasive recounting of the tale, and attempted to curb its dissemination, warning that those involved in such transmission would be lashed  160 times—80 for the false accusation of adultery (*qadhf*) and 80 for vilifying a prophet of Allah.[^90] The full Biblical account is as follows: Dāwūd was once walking on the roof of his palace, and observed a beautiful woman bathing. Smitten by her, he enquired as to her identity and was informed that she was Bathsheba (or Bath-shua in another book within  the Bible), the wife of Uriah who was one of Dāwūd’s top lieutenants. Dāwūd had Bathsheba brought to his chambers and an affair ensued in which Bathsheba became pregnant. Fearful of Uriah’s discovery of the adulterous affair, Dāwūd summoned Uriah from the army, hoping that Uriah and his wife would have relations to which the pregnancy could be attributed. However, Uriah refused to leave his soldiers without a commander, despite repeated efforts by Dāwūd to convince him otherwise. Desperate, Dāwūd had Uriah placed on the front lines of a battle where Uriah would be killed. Uriah was slain during the campaign, and Dāwūd was able to avert discovery, and he subsequently married Bathsheba once news of Uriah’s death arrived.[^91] As exposure to this Judeo-Christian sequence of events expanded, a number of Qur’an commentators advanced it as the explanation for a far more unassuming event that is found in *Sūrat* *Ṣād:* in it two litigants suddenly appear in the chambers of Dāwūd, and present a case for him to arbitrate. One of the litigants possesses 99 ewes and the other possesses only one. The destitute one objects that his wealthier partner sought to take his single ewe, and had overwhelmed him with his speech. Dāwūd adjudicates in favor of the destitute litigant. For reasons unspecified in the Qur’an, Dāwūd realizes that Allah had tested him, and falls down in prostration, supplicating for Allah’s forgiveness for his failure. Muslim commentators on these verses applied the Bathsheba narrative to this event, as a similar parable existed in the Bible, in which the Biblical Prophet Nathan appeared before Dāwūd and presented a case for Dāwūd to judge. Nathan’s case was the same as the Qur’anic one in which a wealthier man with many ewes appropriates a poorer man’s single ewe. However, the Biblical narrative was more unequivocal in its reference to the Bathsheba affair, as when Dāwūd judged in favor of the poorer man, Nathan chastised Dāwūd for his hypocrisy and specifically mentioned the Bathsheba affair: “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it was I who saved you from the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives in your lap, and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that be too little, I would give you even as much again.’ Why did you despise the command of the Lord to do what is evil in His eyes? Uriah the Hittite you struck down with the sword, and his wife you took for yourself as wife, and him you have killed by the sword of the Ammonites?”[^92] Thus, some Muslim commentators expanded the Qur’anic parable with the additional details provided in the Biblical account, and they viewed the parable of the 99 ewes as representing Dāwūd’s 99 wives, despite which he sought the one wife of another man. The parallels between the tale of Dāwūd’s purported improprieties with Bathsheba and the final version of the tale of the Prophet’s ﷺ visit to Zaynab’s (rA) house are obvious (though at this stage, neither Qatādah nor Ibn Jurayj specifically quote the entire account of the Prophet’s ﷺ visit): both are married to multiple other wives, but despite that, are smitten with another woman. In both situations, that woman happens to be the wife of one of their trusted lieutenants. Likewise, the love affair is elicited by the inadvertent glimpsing of the woman who happens to be inadequately clothed—in Dāwūd’s case while observing Bathsheba taking a bath, and in the Prophet’s ﷺ case, when Zaynab (rA) rushes to welcome him without adequate covering. Even the hasty efforts of Bathsheba to cover herself when she became cognizant of Dāwūd’s gazing at her, noted in some narrations of the event, are mirrored in Zaynab’s (rA) analogous attempt to hurriedly cover her hair with an improvised veil, mentioned in hadith (4). The major difference is that in the lovestruck narrative, the Prophet ﷺ immediately leaves and maintains a display of absolute decorum, though he does internally covet Zaynab—as opposed to the Biblical Dāwūd who fully realizes the adultery, and then further has an innocent man murdered to cover up his crime. But even this difference is only limited to the Biblical narrative, for the Qur’an commentators who quoted this tale left out the adulterous aspect (for instance al-Ṭabarī who comments on *Sūrat* *Ṣād,* 24 by citing a report all the way back to Ibn ʿAbbās). In the moderated “Islamic” version of the commentators which had increasingly been introduced in the commentary of *Sūrat* *Ṣād* as knowledge of Judeo-Christian traditions expanded, Dāwūd is indeed depicted as someone who is infatuated with the woman, but rather than commit adultery with her, he first attempts to have her husband killed, and only then when his plan is successful, weds and has relations with her. Whether the absence of any mention of adultery was because these commentators were not cognizant of the accurate Biblical representation or if there was intentional whitewashing is irrelevant. What is important is that the version of the Bathsheba affair that was in circulation among the Qur’an commentators, without its mention of adultery, is almost entirely analogous to the lovestruck narrative that subsequently developed some years later. [^93] Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah were not the sources that al-Ṭabarī and the other commentators referred to when they recounted the Bathsheba affair. Nevertheless, it is obvious that this is the story Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah were referring to when commenting on *al-Aḥzāb,* 38 in that there was no blame on the Prophet ﷺ for doing what Allah had decreed, since the Prophet’s ﷺ conduct was similar to Dāwūd’s purported conduct, whose *sunnah* he was merely following. If there is any doubt that Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah envisaged this particular story, Qatādah’s statement that the Prophet’s ﷺ actions were “similar to the Prophet Dāwūd \[who\] desired the woman upon whom his gaze fell upon” leaves no doubt that it was Bathsheba he had in mind. Ibn Jurayj also named the woman—al-Yasyah—which may have been an Arabized version of Bath-shua or a scribal error by a copyist who was not familiar with the pronunciation: as the names essentially share the same consonantal skeleton, the differences can be accounted by the addition of a dot to the ب (*b*) into a ي (*y*).[^94] Regardless of the precise name given to the woman Dāwūd is captivated by, Ibn Jurayj clearly was referring to this specific Biblical account. It is interesting to note that once again, as in Muḥammad Ibn Kaʿb’s case, direct knowledge of Biblical accounts is a prevailing theme, this time with Ibn Jurayj who hailed from a Byzantine background—and even his father’s name Jurayj was the Arabic rendition of the Christian name Georgios.[^95] Ibn Jurayj’s reliability as a *transmitter* of hadith is undisputed and his hadiths are included in all six canonical Sunni hadith compilations, but his own opinions, of which this is an example, never received the same level of acclaim.[^96] This becomes particularly striking because both Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah studied with a multitude of senior Followers through which they often narrated with *isnād*s directly back to the Prophet ﷺ, but which they do not do here in their interpretation of *al-Aḥzāb*, 38: this exegesis of Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah’s is theirs and theirs alone, and both tendered their interpretation without attributing it to a higher authority. Interestingly, when they did provide exegesis on *al-Aḥzāb,* 38 by transmitting the commentary of a more senior figure, such as Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, this anomalous and explicit reference to love was absent in those transmissions.[^97] Of note, both are known to heavily rely on Judeo-Christian sources (known as *Isrāʾīliyyāt* in medieval Muslim texts) for their own positions, a fact long recognized by hadith specialists.[^98] Ibn Jurayj lived from 80-150/699-767, and therefore succeeded Muḥammad Ibn Kaʿb, as was true of Qatādah who died in 120/737, during which further development of the Zaynab account undoubtedly had taken place. Neither Qatādah nor Ibn Jurayj furnished all of the vivid details present in the full version of the lovestruck narrative, for they merely commented that the Prophet ﷺ had desired that Zayd (rA) divorce Zaynab (rA) so that he could marry her. Nevertheless, they do appear to be responsible for being the first to take the leap in expanding the interpretation for *al-Aḥzāb,* 38 by applying the Bathsheba narrative to it, and more importantly, applying the verse to the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA). The latter likely occurred because the reality of the Prophet’s ﷺ fear of people learning of his upcoming marriage with Zaynab (rA) was mistakenly conflated with an actual *desire* to marry her, and the fear of the public’s learning of said desire. And that error was rendered all the easier because of their mistaken ascription of *al-Aḥzāb*, 38 to the Bathsheba affair. The final development of the story was the brainchild of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān. Muqātil is an interesting historical personality, but it is his rank as a hadith teller that we are concerned with. He cannot be deemed a bona fide hadith narrator, because he didn’t reveal most of his sources in the form of *isnād*, but he was quite aware of a considerable number of circulating hadiths, which he merrily embellished. It was likely because of these embellishments that critics such as Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ, al-Nasāʾī, and al-Dāraquṭnī openly labeled him a liar, though a jurist of the caliber of Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī nonetheless, deemed his exegesis a formative work in the field.[^99] His sensationalization of stories not infrequently drew inspiration from the Judeo-Christian doctrine, a fact recognized and taken exception to by Ibn Ḥibbān, who also categorized him as a fabricator.[^100] Muqātil is the earliest Muslim relater of the complete version of the lovestruck narrative as we now know it, and indeed his version is by far more meticulously detailed and crass than any of the others that followed him. In the full account of his tale, we find details that are not found in the narrations of others as he built on Qatādah and Ibn Jurayj’s account and provided a highly dramatized tale which in fact begins earlier than the extract reproduced above in hadith (8).[^101] Muqātil provides a full chronology with the Prophet’s ﷺ supposed fascination with Zaynab (rA), which he maintains had in fact been blossoming earlier when he had visited Zaynab to provide counsel over her domestic disputes with Zayd. During that conversation, the Prophet ﷺ was enamored by her attractiveness (*ḥusnuhā*), beauty (*jamāluhā*), and charm (*ẓarfuhā*). It was only sometime later, when he inadvertently glimpsed a lightly clad Zaynab (rA), that his infatuation with her matured to completion, as her physical appearance stimulated within him a most potent and immediate attraction. In his version, Zaynab (rA) is uniquely described with a plethora of images regarding her beautiful, striking appearance, and even the fairness of her skin tone and shapely appearance of her figure. Muqātil was the first (and only narrator I am aware of) to explicitly state that the Prophet ﷺ lusted after her (*hawayahā*); other narrators who would later adopt this story would contrastingly use far more restrained terminology, stating instead that the Prophet ﷺ wished to wed her, or at most admired her. Zayd’s critique of Zaynab is also sharp and overstated, particularly when compared to the versions of other narrators in which he devoutly refrains from criticizing her and acknowledges her virtues. Muqātil’s source for this narrative was once again the Bathsheba narrative of which he was aware and to which he ascribed, and he confirms the connection in his exegesis on *al-Aḥzāb, 37*, where he drew the same disreputable parallel. Further, just as he developed the lovestruck narrative with meticulous details, he also adorned the Dāwūd and Bathsheba narrative far more than Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah’s relatively restrained version. Regarding the verse, “The way of Allah with those who have preceded him,” he commented, “This is the practice of those who came before Muḥammad, that is the Prophet Dāwūd when he coveted (*hawaya*) the woman with whom he was tempted (*futina*). She was the wife of Ūriyah ibn Ḥanān and Allah united Dāwūd with the woman whom he coveted similar to Allah’s uniting Muḥammad with Zaynab when he \[also\] coveted her.”[^102] A close comparison of Ibn ʿAbbās’s exegesis on *Ṣād,* 24 with Muqātil’s is quite instructive. Whereas Ibn ʿAbbās stated simply that Dāwūd glimpsed a woman bathing, Muqātil described, “He perceived a woman bathing, and he was attracted by her beauty. The woman saw his shadow, and she dropped her hair to cover her body with it. This only increased \[Dāwūd’s\] desire for her.”[^103] Although Muqātil cannot be held responsible for the creation of this story, which is Biblical in origin where the details are significantly more graphic than even in Muqātil’s, and which was in circulation among Muslims before him, his propensity for sensationalizing his reports is obvious.[^104] That tendency involved a heavy reliance on Judeo-Christian sources for his accounts, and it is because of this reliance that one has to question whether Muqātil borrowed, apart from Qatādah and Ibn Jurayj, also from Christian polemicists, embellishing his story based on the source material which they had manufactured, but also expunging material that he knew would never be acceptable to his Muslim readership and presenting it in a more palatable fashion. In his commentary on *al-Aḥzāb*, for instance, he then attempts to mitigate culpability of both prophets for their actions by attributing their infatuation to destiny which Allah essentially fulfilled by legalizing their marriages with the women they loved. Clearly Muqātil has overreached here, and forgotten his own application of the Bathsheba affair to *Ṣād*, 24 in which Allah upbraids Dāwūd for his oversight. Despite the widespread recognition of Muqātil’s unreliability within Muslim scholarship, Muqātil’s influence on this story and in *tafsīr* in general, cannot be understated. As just one example, no less an exegete and hadith expert than al-Baghawī, the author of the popular *tafsīr, Maʿālim al-tanzīl*, included Muqātil’s version of the lovestruck narrative with all its lurid details *verbatim* in his commentary on *al-Aḥzāb*. Al-Baghawī no doubt drew from al-Thaʿlabī, whose *tafsīr* al-Baghawī abridged, and who also quoted Muqātil’s account verbatim himself. Neither of the two cited the source of the quote as Muqātil, which obfuscates his fundamental role in the narrative’s transmission. And this is not the only one of Muqātil’s tales that found their way perniciously into otherwise reputable works.[^105] After Muqātil’s fabrication became popularized among the Qur’an commentators, it was a simple matter of innocent but inattentive hadith narrators interpolating this tale forgetfully into authentic narrations. It is not an accident that *every single one* of the other hadiths that relate the full story include transmitters that specifically were criticized for their memories, and that inevitably the forgetful transmitter in question came *after* Muqātil’s account went into circulation. It is also for this reason that we find hadiths that had been passed on for centuries by more authentic narrators in a benign form, but which in these variants have been muddled. A straightforward example of this is the variant of Anas in hadith (1), and in which Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl, the weak link in this chain, clearly stated that he had forgotten the details of who said precisely what in the hadith. Muʾammal, not coincidentally, died in 206/821, sometime after Muqātil, and also was known for poor retention, which led to his inadvertent interjecting of the questionable features in the hadith in question. It is not surprising that over seven other hadith narrators recount the same exact hadith from Muʾammal’s source, Ḥammād ibn Zayd, and not a single one so much as suggests Muʾammal’s account (see Figure 1). Tellingly, Muʾammal had acknowledged his poor memory to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, admitting that he did not remember whether the account was Ḥammād’s opinion or included in the body of the hadith. In reality, it was neither, as seven other august and retentive narrators all heard the same hadith without including the account as either Ḥammād’s opinion or within the body of the hadith from Anas. Another example is that of al-Thaʿlabī ’s report of ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn in which al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī also interprets the Qur’anic verse to mean that the Prophet ﷺ was concealing love for Zaynab (rA). However, we find that multiple hadith experts such as Ibn Abī Ḥātim and al-Bayhaqī had collected the hadith from different transmitters than al-Thaʿlabī did, and neither of the two other transmitters ever reported that al-Ḥasan had made such an interpretation. Al-Thaʿlabī also has questionable narrators known for forgetfulness and poor memories, and the narrator from where al-Thaʿlabī’s link diverges from the other sounder narrations is with Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿUmar, a narrator known for his carelessness, and who died in 243/857—once again after Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (Figure 2). The mistaken attribution to al-Ḥasan was probably made because immediately after every one of the multiple transmissions of hadith (6) (Qatādah’s statement that the Prophet ﷺ concealed in himself a desire that Zayd (rA) divorce Zaynab (rA) so that he could marry her), Qatādah immediately referred to al-Ḥasan’s statement that if the Prophet ﷺ were to have hidden a verse in the Qur’an, he would have that verse. (The immediate quoting of al-Ḥasan’s opinion by Qatādah is prolifically transmitted by ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Ṭabarānī; Qatādah ostensibly did this because he likely thought that al-Ḥasan’s statement—which was in fact ʿĀʾishah’s (rA)—supported his account of events, though ironically it gainsayed it). Because Qatādah always quoted al-Ḥasan’s innocuous statement after his own exegesis, al-Ḥasan’s commentary was confused with Qatādah’s by one inattentive narrator. To validate this principle, if we use the year of death of the impugned narrators of the hadiths as an inexact marker for the period when the hadith originated, the evolutionary process becomes more evident. We begin with Muḥammad Ibn Kaʿb, Qatādah, and Ibn Jurayj as the originators of the concept linking the Judeo-Christian story of Bathsheba with the Prophet ﷺ. They died in 108/726, 120/737, and 150/767 respectively. The list of the earliest weak or forgetful narrator in each *isnād* of hadiths available that mention the lovestruck narrative, along with the year of death is listed chronologically, along with a summarized version of the hadith. Muḥammad Ibn Kaʿb, Qatādah, and Ibn Jurayj are included for comparison because of their roles in the narrative’s historiographic development, though not considered weak or forgetful. Hadiths (9) and (10) have no *isnād* and are therefore excluded here. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/YSXhppVoBAd43SoDolywjp5tLCcnVWXpvqnwD3XRkNhoTCyRlzznCrxr7eTx5TIhpv8eB8ndDB7qCgvk3rcrxMQ06fbYEfGLzX3iSOslxJb-JmwZmxAB8LXvWFNUlJ2WJ9e3IUUpYd5g3HAFnmEKKaI_OVTQa5DHxOkB9uBqEtUBOLHM4FjUjGPb0tnLIcpoMRlOYU7zFw) The pivotal role of Qatādah, Ibn Jurayj, and Muqātil in the development of the lovestruck narrative is obvious from the above graphic, as *not a single narrator* preceded them in referring to or narrating the account for over a century after the Prophet’s ﷺ passing. It is hardly surprising that of the distinguished earliest compilers and doyens of the *sīrah* and *maghazī* literature who would have preceded the invention and dissemination of this story, such as ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 94/713), Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah (d. 141/758), Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/741), Maʿmar ibn Rāshid (d. 153/770), and most prominently Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767), none were cognizant of it, and all of their extant works fail to mention it. This is also true of early exegetes who preceded the narrative such as Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 104/722), and even exegetes who were recognized as lax transmitters who indiscriminately reported unsound exegetical material, such as al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn al-Muzāḥim (d. 105/724).[^106] These omissions are particularly stark since these compilers meticulously collected many other details of the Prophet’s ﷺ marital life, including the events surrounding his marriages with other wives.[^107] The narrative’s evolution can be studied, from an unassuming though critical reflection by Qatādah and Ibn Jurayj that the Prophet ﷺ concealed his desire to marry Zaynab (rA), grounded entirely in their understanding of the subsequent verse which they applied to Dāwūd, to Muqātil’s open forgery of the full version of the narrative. That he was the first narrator of the complete narrative provides *prima facie* evidence of his work, though his notoriety as a known fabricator of hadiths affords identification of his work all the easier. His account provided all subsequent narrators the foundational elements of the lovestruck narrative, which appears to have been in circulation thereafter. All other hadiths relating the tale were influenced by it, even if the complete narrative was not recounted by all of them. Muʾammal’s hadith for instance, does not include all the details, but does mention the Prophet’s ﷺ glimpse of Zaynab (rA) and his subsequent emotional angst, an obvious vestige of Muqātil’s tale. --- ## Muslim responses regarding the historicity of the lovestruck narrative Given this historical evolution of the narrative, a brief appraisal of the development of Muslim *responses* to the lovestruck narrative once it was popularized is merited, as it is often brought up in reference to the historicity of the event itself. This topic has featured prominently in works by academics such as Kecia Ali and Ze’ev Maghen.[^108] The latter suggests the opposite evolution to that suggested here: he takes the historicity of the event for granted, and then traces the evolution of Muslim historians’ responses by arguing that earlier Muslims accepted and indeed celebrated the Prophet’s ﷺ carnality—a fact which he uses to explain the prevalence of the casual quoting of the lovestruck narrative by the transmitters of the story. This, however, quickly metamorphosed into the depiction of *al-insān al-kāmil* “the perfect man” as one who was liberated from the temptations of the material world. It is not clear from reading Maghen’s work over what time frame he is suggesting this development and subsequent expurgation of the lovestruck narrative took place, but he does furnish examples in Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 751/1350), and Ismaʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) as leading exegetes who rejected the narrative. This would suggest that by the end of the 8th/14th centuries, the bowdlerization process had already taken place. It should be stated from the onset that even if such an evolution of the Muslim reaction took place, it would only inform Muslim constructions of the Prophet’s ﷺ human nature and infallibility as well as cultural sensibilities that shape the Muslim tradition–not the historicity of the event itself regarding which it bears no relevance. Second, implicit in studies that argue for the gradual development of a more prudish Muslim response to the lovestruck narrative is the assumption that earlier works that transmitted the narrative were more authentic than later works that refuted or did not reproduce it. However, this line of reasoning is flawed, first because as demonstrated previously, the earliest historical works did *not* include the details of this event (as the event had not been conceived at the time of the composition of those works). It is also faulty because the assumption that later works that had been refined by cumulative historical research were ahistorical is itself an ahistorical presupposition. Historical research by its very nature involves a process of revision, and indeed it was because of “early” hadith fabrications that hadith narrator criticism originated as a discipline.[^109] If there were a gradual evolution in which Muslim scholarship came to cull this narrative from their works, it is not necessary that this ensued from the development of prim sentiments anachronistically applied to the Prophet ﷺ. It could be contended instead to have resulted from the pervasive recognition of the ahistorical nature of the account. The question remains as to how Muslim scholarship could ever give credence to the lovestruck narrative. If there were a development in the outlook towards this event, it was specifically within the exegetical genre: it appears that once the narrative gained popularity, it was far more commonly referenced within the early exegetical literature as opposed to the more rigorous hadith compilations.[^110] Quite a few early exegetes were quite lax in the reports they drew on to interpret the Qur’an, and many were not well-versed in the hadith sciences. In fact hadith experts often differentiated between exegetical prowess and hadith transmission, despite the former’s reliance on the latter for interpretation (such as al-Shāfiʿī’s aforementioned acknowledgement of Muqātil’s skill in exegesis despite the latter’s well-known weakness in hadith).[^111] Ibn Ḥanbal is quoted to have claimed disapprovingly that the *tafsīr* genre had no basis (*uṣūl*), ostensibly because of the dubious reports transmitted within the genre during his time.[^112] As a result, later hadith masters would attempt to source-identify the many popular but weak (and even fabricated) reports included without proper referencing in popular Qur’anic commentaries, such as Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zaylaʿī’s and Ibn Ḥajar’s *takhrīj* works on Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī’s popular *al-Kashshāf.* As recognition of the critical role hadith played in Qur’anic hermeneutics heightened, later commentators gradually became more comfortable and familiar with technicalities of hadith criticism; by the medieval period, the most popular exegeses were penned by some of the greatest hadith masters in Islamic intellectual history. It is not surprising that the exegetes who *were* rigorously trained in hadith criticism often rejected the narrative, such as Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ibn al-Jawzī, Ibn Kathīr, and others. Thus, if there was a gradual rejection or expunging of the lovestruck narrative from exegetical works, claims that this was because of an evolution in the understanding of the Prophet’s ﷺ infallibility fail to account for the concomitant growth of hadith expertise in the genre as a confounding variable. Lack of familiarity with the hadith discipline still does not explain how early Qur’an commentators could accept the lovestruck narrative on theological grounds. However, it should be recalled that exegetes often brought forth every possible report available—often antithetical—for hermeneutical objectives. If a number of exegetes referred to the lovestruck narrative nonchalantly, it was simply because they were attempting to be encyclopedic in scope, and simply were in possession of a report available to explain *al-Aḥzāb.* In reality, they often presented ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn’s alternate to the lovestruck narrative, if they were in possession of the report, concomitantly with reports of the lovestruck narrative.[^113] In an era where Islamic thought reigned supreme, there was no need to defend the Prophet’s ﷺ honor or engage in academic discussions regarding the weaknesses of the narrative to ascertain the factual account. Even the rigorous hadith experts felt no need to engage in the meticulous hadith appraisals they were famed for. *Isnād* criticism provided only probabilistic certainty in most cases, whereas the argument based on the Prophet’s ﷺ incorrigibility was based on definitive certitude. With this epistemological worldview it was more sensible to dismiss the reports summarily based on their violation of the latter precept. This explains why even hadith masters such as Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Kathīr cast aspersions on the narrative with merely the laconic response that such conduct would be unbecoming for the station of a prophet. Additionally, as this event dealt with the pre-Islamic and abrogated norm of adoption, the event held no obvious legal, social, or linguistic import—matters that exegetes were far more concerned about. Some gifted jurists such as al-Shāfiʿī were still able to extract various legal rulings related to marriage and matters of emancipation from the pertinent verses in *al-Aḥzāb,* but to the exclusion of any commentary regarding the actual event chronicled within.[^114] So even though many exegetes would have recognized the shortcomings of the narrative, they failed to provide any commentary on it, to all appearances tacitly endorsing it.[^115] It is this lack of necessity and the relative lack of significance given to this specific event in the Prophet’s ﷺ life that led to the seemingly blasé transmission of the narrative—as opposed to a gradual evolution and recognition of the Prophet ﷺ as *al-insān al-kāmil.* Despite these caveats, the fact remains that no evolution is obvious in the historical record prior to the modern era in the wider Islamic intellectual tradition. Even if we ignore the fact that the earliest *sīrah* compilers fail to mention the lovestruck narrative, this account still remains glaringly absent in a large number of Muslim historical works even immediately after it was entered into circulation by Muqātil. In actuality, it was never even hinted at by a large number of Muslim historians, many of whom were cognizant of it.[^116] Examples of works that omit it include almost all of the early prominent historical works detailing the life of the Prophet ﷺ by illustrious authorities such as Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (d. 239/854), al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār (d. 256/870), Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah (d. 279/892), Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 284/897), Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī (d. 354/965), and Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī (d. 386/996).[^117]  Additionally, even some early exegetes, such as Abu Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944), rejected the lovestruck narrative based on a critical reading.[^118] While a small number of later *sīrah* and *tafsīr* authors did include and unabashedly accept the lovestruck narrative, these few references were transhistorical, present even after the narrative’s purported expurgation by Muslim historians and exegetes such as al-Qurṭubī and Ibn Kathīr in the 8th/14th century. For instance, it is presented as historical fact in the works of Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Bayḍāwī (d. 691/1319), Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī (d. 864/1460), Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505), Nūr al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī (d. 975/1568), Abū al-Suʿūd Efendi (d. 981/1574), and Martin Lings (d. 1425/2005).[^119] Given the difficulties in identifying the stance of all or even the preponderance of Muslim historians, exegetes, and theologians as well as their relative impact on Muslim thought, it is difficult to make any broad conclusions about the dominant Muslim scholarly outlook regarding the lovestruck narrative in any given era without substantial further research. Nevertheless, it can be said with confidence that Muslim intellectuals supporting and opposing the historicity of the lovestruck narrative were present throughout all periods spanning Islamic history, and this explains Ibn al-Qayyim’s cutting reference to “ignoramuses”–ostensibly contemporary–who failed to revere the Prophet as his station warranted.[^120] Moreover, although isolated examples such as Ibn al-Qayyim’s can be found during the medieval and pre-modern periods, there is no discernible evidence for the widespread defense of the Prophet’s ﷺ chastity and virtue specifically with regards to the lovestruck narrative until recent years. The frequency of refutations and apologetics has only increased drastically in recent times given the blistering opprobrium of multiple Western critics directed towards the Prophet ﷺ for this marriage. It is almost exclusively these contemporary defenses of the Prophet ﷺ that are advanced by Maghen and others to support the thesis of a homogenous Muslim front rising in defense of the Prophet’s ﷺ virtue. As such, they suffer from sampling bias in their limited and non-representative sampling of the entirety of the *sīrah* corpus of which modern works are hardly an adequate representation. And the erroneous conclusions that ensue are entirely predictable as a result of this bias. --- ## Conclusion It is unfortunate that this event has been so prolifically and irresponsibly narrated, particularly when the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage with Zaynab (rA) had its roots in specific sociological, legal, and theological concerns which were then successfully implemented. It is even more regrettable given that those aims are unambiguously laid out in the Qur’an. Those aims, including the theological confirmation of the culmination of prophethood without a hereditary mode of succession that could have been mistakenly borne from the hereditary succession of the prophets of old, as well as the abrogation of the unjust practices of pre-Islamic adoption that are detailed above, remain central to this marriage. With this context, it is the admission of other grounds for the marriage, such as the love and infatuation that feature in the lovestruck narrative, that lead to contrived and incongruous inferences that cannot be reconciled with the Qur’anic objectives. In the context of this incompatibility with the Qur’an’s stated objectives, the fictitious elements of the narrative are particularly glaring. The limitations of simplistic explanations that hinge on the axiom that prevalent tales must be authentic are particularly stark. Prevalence is historically relative, as this particular tale was entirely absent from the annals of history in the first century after the Prophet ﷺ. Its presence in “early” *tafsīr* works such as al-Ṭabarī’s is inconsequential since these early written works were composed three centuries after the Prophet ﷺ and the narrations chronicling the lovestruck narrative had already been disseminated by then. It is only by taking a more detailed historiographic approach by collecting all available chains of transmission and examining the subtle variants in each report that the narrative’s evolution is highlighted: from the Prophet ﷺ fearing censure for his marriage to Zaynab (rA) and doing so only after the Qur’anic imperative categorically performing the marriage, to his desiring the marriage, to his complete infatuation with Zaynab (rA) and joyous welcoming of the Qur’anic endorsement of the marriage—and all because of a single glimpse of Zaynab (rA), that so happened to be precisely analogous to Dāwūd’s glimpse of Bathsheba in the Bible. The account, already circulating amongst credulous raconteurs, was penned and permanently imprinted in the *tafsīr* literature by a handful of less selective Qur’an commentators. A tale of romance, preserved for eternity and masquerading as reality, was born. --- ## Notes [^1]: See, for instance, Washington Irving, *Mahomet and His Successors* (New York: The Cooperative Publishing Society, 1849), 141–42; William Muir, *The Life of Mahomet* (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1861), 3:231; David Margoliouth, *Mohammed and the Rise of Islam* (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), 320–21; William Tisdall, *The Religion of the Crescent or Islam: Its Strength, Its Weakness, Its Origin, Its Influence* (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1895), 177; Maxime Rodinson, *Muhammad* (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1971), 205–8; Nabia Abbott, *Aishah: The Beloved of Mohammed* (London: Saqi Books, 1998), 16–18; Karen Armstrong, *Muḥammad: A Prophet for Our Time* (New York: Harper Press, 2007), 167. The most renowned Western biographer of the Prophet who cast doubt on the historicity of the lovestruck narrative is Montgomery Watt, who situated the event in the full context of the social reforms that the Prophet was attempting to enact. Montgomery Watt, *Muhammad at Medina* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), 282–83. Recently, Wilferd Madelung has also cast doubt on this narrative. Wilferd Madelung, “Social Legislation in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb,” in *Islam and Globalization: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives* (Proceedings of the 25th Congress of L’Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants), Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 226 (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), 197–203. [^2]: David Powers intimates that as Ibn Isḥāq’s *Kitāb al-maghāzi* does not survive in its entirety and exists primarily in the recension of Abu Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Mālik ibn Hishām, who admittedly expurgated less savory portions of Ibn Isḥāq’s work, it is likely that Ibn Hishām also bowdlerized the lovestruck narrative. David Powers, *Zayd*, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 15. However, as Sean Anthony notes in his critical book review of Powers’ monograph, the lovestruck narrative is absent not just in Ibn Hishām’s abridgement of Ibn Isḥāq, but in all of the extant recensions of Ibn Isḥāq’s *Maghazī*: the Medinan recension of Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, the Kūfan recensions of Ziyād al-Bakkāʾī and, Yūnus ibn Bukayr, the Ḥarrānian recension of Muḥammad ibn Salamah al-Ḥarrānī, and the Rayy recension of Salamah ibn al-Faḍl. Therefore, the pithy reference that Ibn Hishām and the other three uniformly make regarding the Prophet’s marriage with Zaynab without any hint of the lovestruck narrative is a faithful representation of Ibn Isḥāq’s original. Sean Anthony, *Review of Qur’anic Research* 1 (2015): 1–5 (online pagination). [^3]: Tor Andrae, *Mohammed: Sein Leben und Glaube,* (Göttingen: Vanderhoek and Ruprecht, 1932), 124-125; Rodinson, *Muhammad*, 205–8. [^4]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *Zād al-ma*ʿ*ād fī hadī khayr al-*ʿ*ibād,* ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ and ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1998), 4:244–46; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *al-Dā*ʾ *wa al-dawā*ʾ (Mecca: Dār al-ʿĀlim al-Fawāʾid, 2008), 528, 554–55. See also, Abū Isḥāq al-Thaʿlabī, *al-Kashf wa al-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qur’ān* (Jeddah: Dār al-Tafsīr: 2015); Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmi*ʿ *li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2006), 17:153–58; Shiblī al-Nuʿmānī, *Siratun Nabi* (Lahore: Darul Ishaat, 2003), 2:351–54; Muḥammad Ḥusayn Haykal, *The Life of Muḥammad* (United States: American Trust Publications, 1976), 275–89; Idris Kandehlawi, *Siratul Muṣtafā* (Karachi: Zam Zam Publishers, 2015), 3:306–10; Abu al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī, *Tafhīm al-Qur’an* (Lahore: Tarjumān al-Qur’ān, n.d.), 4:99–101*;* Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Ṣābūnī, *Ṣafwat al-tafāsīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Qur’an al-Karīm, 1981), 2:527; Adil Salahi, *Muhammad: Man and Prophet* (Leicestershire: The Islamic Foundation, 2014), 487–94. [^5]: Among those who eschewed any reference to the narrative in modern times are Safiur-Raḥmān al-Mubarakpuri, *al-Raheeq al-Makhtum* (Saudi Arabia: Maktaba Darussalam, 1979); Abul Ḥasan ʿAlī Nadwi, *Prophet of Mercy* (London: Turāth Publishing, 2014); ʿAlī Muḥammad as-Sallaabee, *The Noble Life of the Prophet* (Saudi Arabia: Maktaba Darussalam, 2005). [^6]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm* (Riyadh: Dār Tayba lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 1997), 6:425, 8:48. [^7]: Al-Qāḍī ʿĪyāḍ, *al-Shifāʾ bi-taʿrīf ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā,* (Beirut: Dār al-kitāb al-ʿarabī, 1984), 876-879; Aḥmad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī bi sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ, (Beirut: al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamiyyah, 2013), 14:158-159. [^8]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: Jāmiʿ al-bayān* ʿ*an taʾwīl āy al-Qur’an*, ed. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Cairo: Hijr, 2001), 19:116; Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī, *Baḥr al-*ʿ*ulūm* (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 1993), 3:51–53; Martin Lings, *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources* (Rochester: Inner Traditions, 1983), 212–13. [^9]: Yasir Qadhi, “Seerah of Prophet Muḥammad 69 - The Prophet's Marriage to Zaynab,” Yasir Qadhi, YouTube video, November 18, 2013, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbaorsGGFio](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DkbaorsGGFio&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670635911316636&usg=AOvVaw1z9ZEooV16y-10mPCk8DWN); Yasir Qadhi, “Mothers of the Believers pt. 12 Zaynab bint Jaḥsh,” Memphis Islamic Center, YouTube video, August 5, 2019, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuguiuk](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DXuguiukqJCQ%26t%3D2892s&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670635911317004&usg=AOvVaw1UmClHZgyo95v8vN0ZOy7i)[qJCQ&t=2892s](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DXuguiukqJCQ%26t%3D2892s&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1670635911317227&usg=AOvVaw03bK-Mc-_0DrYKsq5Th7AH). Qadhi states that the reports of the lovestruck narrative are so widespread that they are *mutawātir* (i.e., mass transmitted so as to provide epistemological certainty of the event’s historicity). Also, ʿĀʾishah ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (commonly known by her pen name Bint al-Shāṭiʾ) claims as does Qadhi that the lovestruck narrative proves the Prophet’s human nature; ʿĀʾishah ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Bint al-Shāṭiʾ, *Nisāʾ al-nabī*, (Beirut: Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya, 1979), 161. [^10]: Muḥammad Hamidullah, *Le Prophète de l'Islam*: *Sa vie, son oeuvre* (Paris: El Falah, 1959), 454-455. [^11]: Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, Aḥkām al-Qur’an (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 2003), 3:576–78; Additionally the late contemporary ḥadīth expert Muḥammad Nāsir al-Dīn al-Albānī reviews a number of these transmissions, though not all of them, in his compendium of weak ḥadīths and grades them as “severely repudiated” (*munkar jiddan*) and entirely “spurious” (*mawḍuʿ*);  Muḥammad Nāsir al-Dīn al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah wa al-Mawḍūʿah*, (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2000), 7:402, entry 3390 and 14:799-801, entry 6848. [^12]: That is, fabricated, extremely weak reports and reports arising from the same source cannot be used to corroborate one another and raise the grading of a specific hadith, though mildly defective reports of a multiplicity of origins can be utilized in this manner. This is for obvious reasons, since two fabricated reports provide no incremental epistemological strength to a report even if they present the same information, particularly if they draw on the same fabricated parent report. This is underscored in the case of the lovestruck narrative, whose multiple variant transmissions share a common origin, as will be demonstrated later. This is the reason that *mutawātir* reports require a preponderance of transmitters at every every level in the *isnād*. All of the reports of the lovestruck narrative are devoid of a *single* eyewitness, and all but one are lacking even a narrator for the first century after the Prophet; thus, the unprecedented claim made in recent times that these reports collectively are *mutawātir* is ultimately baseless. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ al-Shahrazūri, *Muqaddimah*, ed. Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1986), 33–35; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalani, *Nuzhat al-naẓar,* ed. Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr (Karachi: *Maktabat al-Bushrā*, 2011), 60–61; Jalal al-Dīn al-Suyūṭi, *Tadrīb al-rāwī fī sharḥ Taqrīb al-Nawawī*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah (Jeddah and Medina: Dār al-Minhāj and Dār al-Yusr, 2016), 3:72–76. [^13]: The Prophet visited Zaynab’s house (*fa dakhala* ʿ*alā Zaynab bint Jaḥsh*) to propose to her on behalf of Zayd, but she refused. When he requested her again, she asked him, “Oh Messenger of Allah, are you commanding me regarding my own \[marriage\], and I am a member of my people and also your cousin?” Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:112–13. It should be noted that this report’s *isnād* includes impugned narrators who transmit it, but there are a number of other distinct supporting narrations that reveal interactions between the Prophet and Zaynab prior to her marriage with Zayd. See additionally, ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī, *Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī*, ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2004), 4:461–62, hadith 3796; Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *Sunan al-kabīr*, ed. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Cairo: Markaz li’l Buḥūth wa al-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabīyyah wa al-Islāmīyyah, 2011), 14:176–77, hadith 13896. [^14]: Muḥammad ibn Saʿd mentions that Zaynab was 53 years of age when she died in 20/652, and she married the Prophet in 5/637, when she would have been 38. Ibn Saʿd also reproduces a transmission from ʿUthman ibn ʿAbd Allah that she was 35 years at the time of her marriage. Muḥammad ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr,* ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar (Cairo: al-Nāshir Maktabat al-Khānji, 2001), 10:111. Also note that there are hadiths that refer to Khadījah being 28 years of age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet, though the dominant position has been that she was 40. If Khadījah were indeed 28, that would make Zaynab the oldest of the Prophet’s wives at the time of her marriage with him; Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr,* 10:18. [^15]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:112–15; Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyuṭi, *al-Dur al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr al-maʾthūr*, ed. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd-al Muḥsin (Cairo: Markaz li’l Buḥūth wa al-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabīyyah wa al-Islāmīyyah, 2003), 12:49. [^16]: Zaynab explained her initial refusal to marry Zayd to the Prophet explicitly, “I am of superior stock than he (*ana khayrun minhu ḥasaban*).” Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:113; al-Suyuṭi, *al-Dur al-manthūr*, 12:49. This narration’s *isnād* is also deficient and includes disparaged transmitters. [^17]: ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, *Tafsīr ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan*ʿ*ānī* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 1999), 3:40, hadith 2345; al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:113. [^18]: *Faraḍa Allāhū lah* can be understood in two ways as Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī explicates in his exegesis: that Allah commanded and obliged the marriage or that he legalized and permitted the marriage. The Arabic term *faraḍa* can encompass both of those meanings, though the vast majority of exegetes have interpreted the phrase as something permitted based on the lexical understanding. Ibn Kathīr appears to favor the interpretation that it encompasses both meanings (*fīmā aḥalla lahu wa amruhu bihi min tazwīj Zaynab*), as did Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī and others; Abu Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, *Taʾwīlat ahl al-sunnah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2005), 8:393; Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm*, 6:427; Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī, *Sharḥ al-Shifā li’l Qāḍī* ʿ*Iyaḍ,* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2001), 2:348. [^19]: Al-Ṣābūnī, *Ṣafwat al-tafāsīr*, 2:527; Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Ṣābūnī, *al-Nubuwwah wa al-anbiyāʾ* (Damascus: Maktabat al-Ghazali, 1985), 100; Salahi, *Muḥammad*, 489. [^20]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf (Beirut: Dar-al-Gharb al-Islami, 1996), 5:264–65, hadiths 3207, 3208. [^21]: For instance, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s well-known reluctance to endorse the Ḥudaybiyah treaty, or Ubay ibn Kaʿb’s misgivings regarding the Qur’anic variants (*aḥruf*). [^22]: “Our only matter of wonder is, that the revelations of Mahomet continued after this to be regarded by his people as inspired communications from the Almighty, when they were so palpably formed to secure his own objects, and pander even to his evil desires. We hear of no doubts or questionings; and we can only attribute the confiding and credulous spirit of his followers to the absolute ascendancy of his powerful mind over all who came within its influence.” William Muir, *The Life of Mahomet*, 3:231. [^23]: The nature of the Prophet’s precognition of his marriage with Zaynab remains undisclosed in any of the primary texts, and there are three modes of revelation that are possible. The Prophet’s advice to Zayd to preserve his marriage can be understood in different ways based on each of those contexts. One possibility is an indirect revelation in which Allah inspired the Prophet simply by making him conscious of his impending marriage to Zaynab when Zayd came to him requesting a divorce. A man as astute as the Prophet may have anticipated the obligation to marry Zaynab based on Allah’s practice of correcting misconceptions by having His prophets embody the correction of that social ill, and Allah’s inspiration need not have been through formal revelation but by steering the Prophet’s gifted intellect to this conclusion based on his own reasoning. In this case, the explicit divine obligation to marry Zaynab only came *after* the revelation of *al-Aḥzāb,* 37 which contracted the marriage. Thus, the Prophet’s advice to Zayd would have been his way of warding off the possibility of being obligated to marry her to avoid the turmoil that would ensue–a possibility that he would have predicted with his own foresight (albeit sparked by divine inspiration) rather than with direct revelation. [^24]: The chains of transmitters are represented as the individual links in the *isnād*, separated by the generic term “from.” Therefore, in the hadith of Anas, “Ḥammād ibn Zayd from Thābit from Anas ibn Mālik” means that Ḥammād ibn Zayd received a report from Thābit, who in turn received the report from Anas ibn Mālik, and so on. The original Arabic terminologies for transmission with their subtle variations (*ḥaddathanā,* *akhbaranā,* *ballaghanā,* ‘*an*, etc.), of great import to the *ḥadīṯh* expert, are not differentiated in the translation provided, for the sake of brevity. [^25]: The wording here is ambiguous and can be interpreted in other ways. However, the order of events in this narration—that the Prophet saw Zaynab, followed by the phrase, *fa ka*ʾ*annahu dakhalahu,* suggests that the Prophet experienced some emotion. This is also the understanding of other exegetes such as Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī, who refuted this *ḥadīṯh* for suggesting this. [^26]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal*, ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1995), 19:492, hadith 12512. [^27]: Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 10:98–101; al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Rasūl wa al-mulūk* (Cairo, Dār al Maʿārif, 1967), 2:562–64; al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak* ʿ*alā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn*, *Kitāb ma*ʿ*rifat al-ṣaḥābah* (Beirut: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2014), 7:50, hadith 6955. [^28]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Rasūl wa al-mulūk*, 2:562–64, 1/1461; al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:116. [^29]: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythami notes in his *Majma’ al-Zawāʾid* that although al-Ṭabarānī narrates that Zaynab followed the Prophet, in other versions it is reported that it was Umm Salamah bint Abī Umayyah who stated that she followed the Prophet and overheard him glorifying Allah, “the turner of hearts.” This is likely an error, as Umm Salamah is featured nowhere in the account. It is quite possible that Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythami was privy to other sources, but the other compilers of whom I am aware who cite this specific report with this *isnād* all have Zaynab making the statement (Ibn Abī ʿAṣim in *al-Ahād wa al-mathāni* and Abū Nuʿaym in his popular *Ma*ʿ*rifat al-ṣaḥābah*). Nevertheless, if the hadith were actually reported from Umm Salamah, it further adds to the absurdity of this narration. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythami, *Majma*ʿ *al-zawāʾid wa manba*ʿ*u al-fawāʾid* (Jeddah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2015), 18:709, hadith 15338. [^30]: Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, *Mu*ʿ*jam al-kabīr*, (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymiyyah, 1983), 24:44; it is also transmitted by Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī with the same *isnād* in his *Marifat al-ṣahābah.* Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī, *Ma*ʿ*rifat al-ṣahābah* (Riyadh: Dār al-Waṭan li al-Nashr, 1998), 3224, hadith 7423. [^31]: Ibn ʿAdī, *al-Kāmil fī al-ḍuʿafāʾ* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2013); 5:402, hadith 7816; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿUṭāridī, *Kitāb al-siyar wa al-maghāzī*, ed. Suhayl Zakkār (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1978), 262. Yunus ibn Bukayr added numerous additions to his recension of Ibn Isḥāq, which are known as *ziyādāt al-maghāzi*. The fact that Yūnus was forced to reach for reports of the lovestruck narrative circumventing Ibn Isḥāq establishes furthermore that Ibn Isḥāq would have been unaware of it. This explains why it was never transmitted by Yūnus or any of Ibn Ishāq’s other pupils (see Footnote 2). Additionally it was not transmitted by al-Ṭabarī from Ibn Isḥāq who would often transmit from Ibn Isḥāq via his own *isnād*s*.* For further information regarding the various recensions of Ibn Ishāq’s work, refer to Sean Anthony’s monograph on early Islamic historical sources. Sean Anthony, *Muḥammad and the Empires of Faith* (Oakland: University of California Press, 2020). [^32]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:116; al-Ṣanʿani, *Tafsīr ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī*, 3:41, hadith 2346. [^33]: Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm* (Riyadh: Maktabah Nizār Muṣtafā al-Bāz, 1997), 9:3136, hadith 17693. [^34]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *Muʿjam al-kabīr*, 24:42. [^35]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *Muʿjam al-kabīr*, 24:43. [^36]: Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, *Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān* (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth, 2002), 3:491–93; al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li ahkam al-Qur’an*, 17:156. [^37]: Al-Thaʿlabī, *al-Kashf*, 8:48. Unsurprisingly, Ibn ʿAbbās’s alleged exegesis is quoted additionally by al-Baghawī  also without an *isnād* in his more popular abridgment of al-Thaʿlabī’s exegesis, *Maʿālim al-Tanzīl*. Given this *tafsīr* work’s popularity, it is through reading al-Baghawī that the notion that Ibn ʿAbbās supported the lovestruck narrative likely originates. Al-Baghawī, *Tafsīr al-Baghawī: Maʿālim al-tanzīl* (Riyadh: Dār Tayba, 1989), 6:355. [^38]: Al-Suyuṭi, *al-Dur al-manthūr*, 12:60. [^39]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-tawḥīd* (Beirut: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2012), 9:337, hadith 7415; al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:264–65, hadiths 3207, 3208. [^40]: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2014), 4:45, hadith 1450. [^41]: Al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm*, 9:3137, hadith 17695. [^42]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 19:116; al-Bayhaqī, *Dalā’il al-nubuwwa* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 1988), 3:466. [^43]: Al-Thaʿlabī, *al-Kashf*, 21:458–60. [^44]: Al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm*, 9:3137, hadith 17696. [^45]: Other hadiths mention her account of her marriage with Zayd and subsequent divorce and also establish she was not cognizant of any emotion on the Prophet’s part: “I abused \[Zayd\] verbally, and so he complained about me to the Prophet. But the Prophet told him ‘Hold fast to your wife and fear Allah.’ Nevertheless, Zayd told him, ‘I have divorced her.’” This account attests to Zaynab’s understanding of the Prophet as merely playing the role of a mediator in his advice to Zayd and that she was not the least bit suspicious of any infatuation the Prophet may or may not have harbored. This report has deficiencies in its *isnād*, but it has multiple transmissions that extend directly to Zaynab with an unbroken chain of transmitters through her client, *Madhkūr*, unlike the transmissions of the lovestruck narrative that are reported regarding Zaynab from transmitters who lived a century after her death.  Al-Dāraquṭnī, *Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī*, 4:461–62, hadith 3796; al-Bayhaqī, *Sunan al-kabīr*, ed. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Cairo: Markaz li’l Buḥūth wa al-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabīyyah wa al-Islāmīyyah, 2011), 14:176–77, hadith 13896; Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā*ʾ *wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā*ʾ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al ʿIlmīyyah, 1988), 2:51–52; Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 10:99. [^46]: The Prophet asked for ʿĀʾisha’s hand in marriage, but Abu Bakr said, “\[Even though\] I am your brother?” \[The Prophet\] replied, “Rather, you are my brother in Allah’s religion and His book. She is lawful for me to marry.” Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, 7:14, hadith 5071. This condensed version of events by al-Bukhārī is further expanded in a report narrated by Ibn Ḥanbal in his *Musnad:* After Khadīja bint Khuwaylid died, Khawlah bint Ḥakīm suggested to the Prophet that he marry ʿĀʾisha, so he permitted her to inquire on his behalf. Khawlah proceeded to Abū Bakr’s domicile and exclaimed, “Umm Rumān! What excellence and blessings has Allah bestowed upon you!” So Umm Rumān asked, “And what is that?” Khawlah said, “The Messenger of Allah has sent me to propose on his behalf to ʿĀʾisha.” Umm Rumān replied, “Wait until Abū Bakr returns.” When Abū Bakr arrived, Khawlah informed him of the Prophet’s proposal. Abū Bakr asked, “Is she befitting for him (*wa hal taṣluhu lahu*)? For she is the daughter of his brother.” Khawla returned to the Prophet and mentioned what Abū Bakr had told her, to which he replied “Return to him and tell him, ‘I am indeed your brother as you are my brother, \[but\] in Islam. Your daughter is suitable for me (*wa ibnatuka taṣluhu lī*).’” Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal*, 42:501–4, hadith 25769. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī graded this more detailed hadith by Ibn Ḥanbal as sound (*ḥasan*); Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī*, 11:429. Similarly, the Prophet had to reassure Asmā’ bint ʿUmays that ʿAlī was legally permissible for his daughter Fāṭima for marriage, which Asmā’ questioned the legality of because ʿAlī was his “brother.” ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan’ānī, *Musạnnaf*, *Kitāb al-maghāzi* (Beirut: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2015), 5:114, hadith 10548. [^47]: Ibn al-Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:45, hadith 1450. [^48]: Yūsuf al-Mizzī, *Tahdhīb al-kamāl fī asmā al-rijāl*, ed. Bashshār ‛Awwād Ma‛rūf (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2002), 29:176–78. [^49]: Muʾammal narrates from Ḥammād ibn Zayd from Thabit from Anas in this variant. Other narrators apart from Muʾammal who relate the exact same hadith from Ḥammād ibn Zayd from Thabit from Anas but without the portion of the Prophet visiting Zayd, include Muʿalla ibn Manṣūr, Ahmad ibn ʿAbdah al-Ḍabbī, Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān, ʿAffān ibn Muslim, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Muqaddami, ‘Aram Abū al-Nuʿmān, and Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl by al-Bukhārī, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī (in *al-Kubrā*), Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Bayhaqī, al-Ṭabarānī, and ʿAbd ibn Humayd, respectively. Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-tafsīr*, 6:320, hadith 4769; al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:266, hadith 3212; al-Nasāʾī, *Sunan al-kubra,* ed. Bashshār ‛Awwād Ma‛rūf (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2001), 10:220, hadith 11343; Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān,* ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1988), 15:519, hadith 7045; al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kabīr, Kitāb al-nikāḥ,* ed. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Cairo: Hijr, 2011), 13:524, hadith 13491; al-Ṭabarānī, *Muʿjam al-kabīr*, 24:43; ʿAbd ibn Humayd, *al-Muntakhab min musnad ʿAbd ibn Humayd* (Riyadh: Dār Balnasiyyah, 2002), 2:234, hadith 1205. [^50]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-i’tidal fī naqd al-rijāl* (Beirut: Dār al-Ma’rifah, n.d), 3:662-666. Interestingly, al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, who included this narration in his *al-Mustadrak,* in which he intended to collate rigorously authenticated (*ṣaḥīḥ*) ḥadīths that had not been compiled by al-Bukhārī and Muslim in their *Ṣaḥīḥs* but fulfilled their rigorous criteria concedes in the introduction to the chapter *Kitāb maʿrifat al-ṣaḥābah* that he would be unable to attain those exacting standards in the chapter. Al-Ḥākim attributes that to the relative paucity of *ṣaḥīḥ* traditions regarding biographical information regarding the Companions, noting that he would have to rely on al-Wāqidī for a considerable amount of his biographical material instead–thus tacitly acknowledging the latter as a weak ḥadīth transmitter; al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, Kitāb maʿrifat al-ṣaḥābah*, 5:225. [^51]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Tahdhib al-tahdhib* (Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2014), 2:323–24. [^52]: Al-Mizzī, *Tahdhīb al-kamāl*, 17:114–17. [^53]: Al-Mizzī, *Tahdhīb al-kamāl*, 25:144. [^54]: Al-Mizzī, *Tahdhīb al-kamāl*, 29:171–73. [^55]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Taqrīb al-tahdhīb* (Riyadh: Dār al-‘Asamah, 2000), 987. [^56]: I was not able to find him with this name in al-Mizzi’s *Tahdhib al-kamal,* Ibn Ḥajar’s *Lisān al-mizān*, Ibn ʿAdī’s *al-Du’afāʾ,* al-’Ijlī’s *al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa al-matrūkún,* Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī’s *al-Jarḥ wa al-ta’dīl*, Ibn Ḥibbān’s *al-Thiqāt*, al-Dāraquṭnī’s *al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa al-matrūkūn,* al-Nasāʾī’s *al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa al-matrūkūn,* or in Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī’s *Tārīkh Baghdād.* The hadith in question is found in al-Ṭabarānī’s *Muʿjam al-kabīr,* and the editor of the work, Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Mājid al-Salafī, notes in his footnote to the work that he was also unable to locate the identity or credibility of the narrator. Nāsir al-Dīn al-Albānī also states that he is not aware of the identity of this narrator. Note that al-Bukhārī also alludes to this narrator by transmitting a very similar  hadith in his biographical encyclopedia *Tārīkh al-kabīr*. This has  the same *isnād* as al-Ṭabarānī’s, with the exception that he designates ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Munīb as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Musayyab . His report is also comparatively abridged. (“The Prophet went to the house of Zayd ibn Ḥāritha and sought permission \[to enter\] and Zaynab gave him permission, but the Prophet turned away. Zaynab states: I followed him and I overheard him saying, “Blessed is Allah, the One who causes hearts to turn!”) Noticeably, there is no mention of Zaynab’s hair being uncovered or other details that are found in al-Ṭabarānī’s version. It is not clear to me why al-Ṭabarānī, Abū Nu’aym al-Isbahānī, and Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī refer to him as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Munīb, whereas al-Bukhārī does not. Nevertheless, regardless of the precise name of this narrator, his credibility and status as a transmitter of hadith remains indeterminate; al-Bukhārī himself only mentions him and this hadith as an example of one of his transmissions in *Tārīkh al-kabīr*, and he does not comment on his reliability. Additionally, this transmitter remains absent in most of the biographical encyclopedias of the hadith critics, even with the name of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mussayyab. I was only able to find the latter name additionally in Ibn Ḥibbān’s *al-Thiqāt*, where he provides no reason to deem him reliable and only says about him, “He narrated from Abū Bakr ibn Sulaymān ibn Abī Ḥathmah who in turn narrated from Mūsa ibn Ya’qūb.” This laconic reference to a narrator certainly cannot overcome the fact that none of the other well-known hadith critics seem to have knowledge of his identity, and Ibn Ḥibbān appears to identify him only because of this specific hadith of Zaynab rather than through any personal cognizance. In any case, the weakness of this narration does not hinge on the identity of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Munīb but on the known acknowledged weaknesses of the other known transmitters, as Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī mentions in his *Majma’ al-zawāʾid.* Al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah wa al-Mawḍūʿah*, 7:402, entry 3390; Al-Bukhārī, *Tārīkh al-kabīr* (Hyderabad: Dā’irat al-Maʿārif al-Uthmāniyyah, 1958), 5:302, entry 986; al-Haythamī, *Majma’ al-zawāʾid*, 18:709, hadith 15338; Ibn Ḥibbān, *Kitāb al-thiqāt* (Hyderabad: Dā*ʾ*irat al-Maʿārif al-Uthmāniyyah, 1973), 7:82. [^57]: Al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah wa al-Mawḍūʿah*, 14:799, entry 6848. [^58]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Lisān al-Mizān,* ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah (Beirut: *Maktabat al-Matbū’āt al-Islāmīyyah*), 4:187, entry 3668; Ibn ʿAdī, *al-Kāmil fī ḍuʿafāʾ*, 5:402, hadith 7816. [^59]: Al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm*, 1:14. [^60]: ʿAbd ibn Humayd authored two works: his *musnad* and a *tafsīr* work. The former is contained entirely within Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalāni’s compendium of eight lesser known *musnad*s, entitled *al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliyah bi zawāʾid al-masānid al-thamāniya* in which ʿAbd ibn Humayd’s complete *musnad* is incorporated. The hadith of ʿIkrimah is not found within Ibn Ḥajar’s *al-Maṭālib,* however. That suggests that al-Suyuṭi found it within Ibn Humayd’s *tafsīr* work, and I am not aware of it being currently printed and available. Dr. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, the *tafsīr* expert and manuscript editor of multiple *tafsīr* works, including those of al-Ṭabarī and al-Qurṭubī and al-Suyuṭi’s *al-Dur al-manthūr* seems to not have been able to locate the source of this *muʿallaq* hadith either: his edition of *al-Dur* includes annotations with cross-references (*takhrīj*) of most the hadiths referred within that are not explicitly referenced to a specific work by al-Suyuṭi within the text of the work, yet he did not do so with this hadith. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalāni, *al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliyah bi zawāʾid al-masānid al-thamāniya* (Riyadh: Dār al-‘Asamah and Dār al-Ghayth, 1998); al-Suyuṭi, *al-Dur al-manthūr*, 12:60–61. [^61]: Al-Mizzī, *Tahdhīb al-kamāl*, 26:639–42. [^62]: Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, *Tārīkh madīnat al-salam,* ed. Bashshār ‛Awwād Ma‛rūf (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islami, 2001), 10:40; al-Thaʿlabī, *al-Kashf*, 21:460; Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabi, *Siyar a’lam al-nubala’*, ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1982), 17:383–84. [^63]: Watt, *Muḥammad at Medina*, 282–83. [^64]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-tafsīr*, 6:86–87 and 9:62, hadiths 4558, 6945; Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistāni, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut, Dār al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamiyyah, 2009), 3:431, hadith 2089. [^65]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ was likely revealed over a period of a few years ranging from 3/624 to 4/625, as is obvious from the various topics it addresses, which include instructions regarding the inheritance of the martyrs of Uhud which occurred in 3/624; instructions regarding prayer during war, which was revealed during the Expedition of *Dhāt al-Riqā’* which occurred in 4/625; and a warning given to the members of Banū Naḍīr, prior to their exile also in 4/625; see also, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Ḥusayn Aḥmad, *Al-makkī wa al-madanī fi al-Qurān al-karīm*, (Cairo: Dār Ibn ʿAffān, 1999), 55, 77, 150, and 174 [^66]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣahīh al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, 7:48, hadith 5128; al-Sijistāni, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, 3:436, hadith 2096; Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah, Kitāb al-nikāḥ* (Beirut: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2014), 286–87, hadiths 1860–63. [^67]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, 7:33, hadith 5102; Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah, Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, 3:290–91, hadiths 1871–73. [^68]: For a contemporary examination of pre-Islamic adoption, see Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, *Al-istilḥāq wa al-tabannī fī al-Sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah*, (Cairo: Maktab al-Wahbah, 2000). [^69]: ʿĀʾishah detailed the various forms of sexual relationships that were commonplace in Arabia during the pre-Islamic epoch. This included a man dispatching his wife to have relations with a nobleman so that she could become pregnant with a child of noble birth to which he could lay claim. Additionally, a woman would engage in sexual relations with up to ten men collectively and if she gave birth to a child, she would ascribe its lineage capriciously to any one of them. Lastly, a woman would prostitute herself and subsequently would select any of the men who called on her as her child’s father; al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-nikāḥ*, 7:41–43, hadith 5117. [^70]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *Kitāb al-farā*ʾ*iḍ*, 8:432–33, hadiths 6777–78; also in *Bāb al-manāqib,* 4:499, hadith 3551; Ibn al-Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:89–90, hadith 1481; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalāni, *Fath al-Bāri bi sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. Shuʿayb al-ʾArnaʾūṭ (Beirut: al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamiyyah, 2013), 21:402. [^71]: Qur’an 2:228. [^72]: The Arabic Language Academy defines “*da*ʿ*ī*” as “someone whose lineage is suspected, someone whose lineage is ascribed to someone other than his father.” Edward William Lane defines it as “one who makes a claim in respect of a relationship, one who claims as his father a person who is not his father; or one who is claimed as a son by a person who is not his father.” *Al-Muʿjam al-wasit* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Shurūq al-Dawliyah, 2004), 287; Edward William Lane, *Arabic-English Lexicon* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2003), 3:885. [^73]: Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 4:88–89. [^74]: Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 3:149. [^75]: Qur’an 33:4–5. [^76]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-ahkām al-Qur’an*, 17:58. [^77]: Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 3:149. [^78]: Qur’an 108:3. [^79]: Ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr*, 3:40. It is possible that the Prophet’s wording was a point of emphasis rather than to highlight an exception to the rule, but the lack of any other examples of inheritance bequeathed to adoptees suggests this not to be the case. [^80]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 22:471–72; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalāni, *al-Iṣābah fī tamyīz al-ṣahābah*, ed. Al-Turkī, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin (Cairo: Markaz li’l Buḥūth wa al-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabīyyah wa al-Islāmīyyah, 2008), 2:114–15. [^81]: Apart from al-Miqdād ibn ‘Amr, other examples of individuals who were both adopted and confederates or clients include ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿah, the adopted son and confederate of al-Khaṭṭāb ibn Nufayl (the father of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb); Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allah, the client and adopted son of al-Khaṭṭāb; and Sālim, the adopted son and client of Abū Ḥudhayfah ibn ʿUtbah. [^82]: It has been suggested by Ella Landau-Tasseron that adoption could assist in the procurement of confederacy for one’s family, as the children of adoptees were almost always confederates of the adopter. Regardless of whether this is true, the vast majority of confederates were not children of adoptees and had attained confederacy through other avenues, and this highlights the redundancy of *tabannī*. Ella Landau-Tasseron, “Adoption, Acknowledgement of Paternity and False Genealogical Claims in Arabian and Islamic Societies,” *School of Oriental and African Studies* 2 (2003): 169–92. [^83]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal*, 19:492, hadith 12512. [^84]: These numbers are provided by Muḥammad Ibn Kaʿb; in fact, the Bible attributes 700 wives and 300 concubines to Solomon and multiple but unnumbered wives to David. 1 Kings 11. [^85]: Al-Suyuṭi, *al-Dur al-manthūr,* 12:58. [^86]: In an account riddled with factual errors and contempt, John of Damascus writes “Muḥammad had a friend named Zayd; this man had a beautiful wife with whom Muḥammad fell in love. Once when they were sitting together, Muḥammad said: ‘Oh, by the way, God has given me the command that you divorce your wife.’ And \[Zayd\] did divorce her. Then several days later, \[he said to Zayd\]: ‘Now, God has commanded me to take her.’ Then after he had taken her and committed adultery, he \[invented\] laws” justifying his adultery. John, *Saint John of Damascus: Writings,* trans. Frederic H. Chase (Washington DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1958), 157. [^87]: John’s works do refer to quite a number of Qur’anic chapters, which he ostensibly derides and mocks. This suggests that he had read the Qur’an and his canard about the Prophet’s adultery was willful and malicious. However, some Byzantine scholars have raised doubts about whether John had indeed referenced the Qur’an, and suggest that it may have been interpolated by later Christians. Michael Bonner, *Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times* (New York: Routledge, 2017), 223. [^88]: Arthur Jeffery, “Ghevond’s Text of the Correspondence between ʿUmar II and Leo III,” *The Harvard Theological Review*, 37/4 (1944), 324. Leo III only appears to be partially familiar with *al-Aḥzāb*, 37 in this correspondence. [^89]: See for instance, al-Suyuṭi, *al-Dur al-manthūr*, 12:436. [^90]: The report of ʿAlī’s verdict on transmitters of the Bathsheba affair is advanced in multiple exegeses, including that of al-Zamakhsharī, al-Thaʿlabī, al-Qurtubī, and al-Alūsi. It is alleged that it was narrated through Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar from ʿAli, both of whom were august hadith transmitters. Yet Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zaylaʿī does not trace the original source of this report in his *takhrīj* (hadith sourcing) work on al-Zamakhshari’s *tafsīr*, though he does not deny knowledge of it either. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalani, however, states unequivocally in his abridgement of al-Zaylaʿī’s work that he had been unable to locate the original source of this report*.* Al-Zaylaʿī, *Takhrīj al-ahadīth wa al-athār* (Saudi Arabia: Wazarah al-Shu’un al-Islāmiyyah wa al-Awqāf wa al-Daʿwah wa al-Irshād, 2003), 3:188; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalāni, *al-Kāfi al-shāf* (Beirut: Dār Alim al-Ma’rifah, 2017), 142; al-Zamakhsharī, *Tafsīr al-kashshāf* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿārif, 2009), 922; al-Alūsi, *Rūh al-ma’āni* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 2014), 12:178. [^91]: 2 Samuel 23:34; 2 Samuel 12:1–6. [^92]: 2 Samuel 12:1–13. [^93]: The Bathsheba affair’s parallel with the lovestruck narrative is so compelling that it has not failed to attract the recognition and attention of a number of Western scholars such as Peter Jensen, Ze’ev Maghen, Andreas Görke, and David Powers. Jensen, “Das Leben Muhammeds und die David-Sage,” *Der Islam,* 12/1-2 (1922), 84-97; Maghen, “Intertwined Triangles: Remarks on the Relationship between two Prophetic Scandals,” *Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam,* 33 (2007), 17-92; Görke, Between History and Exegesis: the Origins and Transformation of the Story of Muḥammad and Zaynab bt Ǧaḥš, *Arabica,* 65(1-2), 31-63. David Powers, in particular, emphasizes the special appreciates the resemblance of Zayd with Uriah the Hittite as represented in the Bible. However, he goes significantly further than I argue for here and argues quite unconvincingly that Zayd’s *entire biography*, as depicted in Muslim historical sources, was concocted for various political and theological objectives. He provides a multitude of parallels and tropes from which Muslims drew—not just with Uriah but also with other Biblical figures such as Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph, and Dammesek Eliezer throughout various episodes in Zayd’s life. Though Powers does not concern himself with the *historical* Zayd (insofar as that can even be ascertained based on Powers’ revisionist approach), as he is concerned with the historiographic development of Zayd’s persona, his contentions merit some appraisal here. First, Powers does not provide any direct connection between the Biblical parallels that Muslim historians purportedly drew from. The Uriah parallel is compelling as a source of the lovestruck narrative because Ibn Jurayj, Qatādah, and Muqātil (on whom more later) unequivocally confirm the connection in their exegeses, a connection which is glaringly absent in Powers’ other parallels. Moreover, many of those connections are contrived and overstated. For instance, Powers likens Zayd’s rejection of his biological family in favor of the Prophet when his father discovers him in Mecca to the Biblical Joseph who was similarly sold into slavery but sought to and eventually reunited with his family. Is Zayd’s resolve to remain with his master not a fundamental distinction between his account and Joseph’s? On the other hand, Uriah and Bathsheba’s resemblance is indistinguishable with Zayd and Zaynab in the lovestruck narrative. Last, Powers spends considerable efforts postulating on the motives Muslim historians had for their fictional output. For a critical reading of these motives, the interested reader is referred to Walid Saleh’s and Sean Anthony’s reviews. David Powers, *Muḥammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men* (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009); Powers, *Zayd*; Walid Saleh, “Review Article: Muḥammad is Not the Father of Any of Your Men,” *Comparative Islamic Studies* 6, no. 6.1–6.2 (December 29, 2011); Anthony, *Review of Qur'anic Research*, 1–5. [^94]: The name of the woman varied in Muslim accounts—ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAsākir’s account which he traced back to Wahb ibn Munabbih, for instance, referred to her as Sābiʿ bint Ḥanānā; Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq*, 17:100. [^95]: Yūsuf al-Mizzī, *Tahdhīb al-kamāl*, 18:338. [^96]: For instance, his views on and practice of temporary marriage (*mutʿah*). See Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Tadhkirāt al-huffaẓ* (Hyderabad: Dā’irat al-Maʿārif al-Uthāaniyyah, 1954), 1:170–71. [^97]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī, *Ma*ʿ*rifat al-ṣahābah*, 3205, hadith 7368\. Abū Nuʿaym unfortunately bundles Saīd ibn al-Musayyab’s transmission from Qatādah with a potpourri of other narrators, and so it is difficult to tease out which part is his. Abū Nuʿaym does state, however, that the essential construction of the report (*ṣulb al-ḥadīth*) arises from the report of those two. In this report, Ibn al-Musayyab states that *al-Aḥzāb*, 38 was revealed because the Prophet kept some thought or emotion within himself, essentially paraphrasing the verse, as he does not explicitly state what it was that the Prophet concealed. In Qatādah’s report through Ibn al-Musayyab’s authority, there is no explicit reference to love having any role in the marriage, as with Qatādah’s transmission when he tendered his own exegesis. [^98]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-ʿAdhīm*, 1:360; Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Dhahabi, *al-Isra’iliyyat fī al-tafsīr wa al-hadith* (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1990), 87–88. [^99]: Al-Dāraquṭnī*, al-Ḍu‛afā’ wa al-matrūkūn* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1984), 371; Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-i’tidal fī naqd al-rijāl* (Beirut: Dār al-Ma’rifah, n.d), 4/173-174; Ibn Ḥibbān, *al-Majrūḥīn min al-Muḥaddithīn* (Riyadh: Dār al-Sami’i, 2000), 2:347–49. [^100]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *al-Majrūḥīn min al-muḥaddithīn*, 2:347–49. Ze’ev Maghen speculates that the widespread criticism of Muqātil as a hadith transmitter was *because* of his narrating the lovestruck narrative in the first place and, as such, could be characterized as unwarranted animus. Yet, Maghen provides no evidence to support this contention. He also fails to account for the authentic grading of other transmitters who also advocated for the Prophet’s infatuation with Zaynab, such as Qatādah and Ibn Jurayj, and that too by the consensus of hadith critics. Similarly, Ibn Ḥibbān graded the unknown hadith transmitter ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Musayyab as trustworthy despite his being a transmitter of the lovestruck narrative (see Footnote 56). Yet he labeled Muqātil a forger and liar. Why were these other hadith transmitters not similarly regarded with the cynicism afforded to Muqātil? After analyzing Muqātil’s oeuvre and comparing his narrations with those of other hadith transmitters, including those relevant to the lovestruck narrative as well as scores of others, it can be stated with confidence that those who attributed forgeries to him were entirely justified in doing so. Ze’ev Maghen, *Virtues of the Flesh: Passion and Purity in Early Islamic Jurisprudence* (London: Brill, 2005), 75–110. [^101]: Muqātil relates: Zayd ibn Ḥāritha requested, “Prophet of Allah, propose on my behalf.” The Prophet asked him, “Does any woman interest you?” He replied, “Zaynab bint Jaḥsh.” The Prophet warned him, “I do not imagine that she will accept because she is nobler than that (*lā arāhā taf*ʿ*alu* *annahā akramu min dhālika nafsan*).” Zayd insisted, “Prophet of Allah, perhaps if you speak to her and tell her that I am the one whom you cherish the most. She is such a beautiful woman that I fear she would decline my proposal, and that would weigh heavily on me!” Zayd then proceeded to ʿAlī and entreated him to also speak \[on his behalf\] to the Prophet. He appealed, “Please go to the Prophet, for I do not think he would ever refuse a request from you!” So ʿAlī went with Zayd to the Prophet, \[and the Prophet yielded, saying\]: “I will do \[what you ask\] and be your representative to her family, ʿAlī.” . . . He went to them and submitted, “Truly, it would please me that you marry Zayd, so \[accept him\] for marriage.” The Prophet then delivered to them \[a dowry proposal\] of ten gold coins, sixty silver coins, cloaks, bedding, coats of mail, shawls, fifty loads (*mudd*) of food, and ten loads of dates, which he sent with Zayd. Ibn Sulaymān, *Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān*, 3:491–93. [^102]: Ibn Sulaymān, *Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān*, 3:496. [^103]: Ibn Sulaymān, *Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān*, 3:639–40; al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 20:64–65. [^104]: Muqātil likely took his variant of the Bathsheba affair from al-Suddī who reports the story with the same details as Muqātil. Al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Rasūl wa al-mulūk*, 20:66-67. [^105]: Al-Baghawī, *Tafsīr al-Baghawī*, 6:355. There are multiple examples of Muqātil’s wording being reproduced by later historians and exegetes verbatim without attribution to him. See, for instance, al-Ḥalabī, *Insān al-‘uyun fī sīrat al-Amīn al-Maʾmūn* (Egypt: Muṣtafā al-Bābi al-Ḥalabī, 1964), 3:427. [^106]: Mujāhid ibn Jabr, *Tafsīr al-Imām Mujāhid ibn Jabr,* (Dār al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Ḥadīthah, 1989), 555; Al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn al-Muzāḥim, *Tafsīr al-Ḍaḥḥāk* (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 1999), 1:675. [^107]: In his promotion of the historicity of the lovestruck narrative, Yasir Qadhi does not address its glaring omission by early authorities such as Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī and Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, but he does explain away Ibn Isḥāq’s omission of it by accusing him of not devoting sufficient attention to women and by extension the Prophet’s marital life. This is a mischaracterization of Ibn Isḥāq by Qadhi, as Ibn Isḥāq actually does refer to the Prophet’s *marriage* with Zaynab but not the lovestruck narrative. Ibn Isḥāq (in multiple recensions in addition to that of Ibn Hishām’s) notes that the Prophet married Zaynab, who was previously wed to Zayd, and then refers to *al-Aḥzāb* as the verse in which the story is mentioned. His terse accounting of the marriage is telling because it confirms that early Muslims felt that *al-Aḥzāb* fully explained the circumstances surrounding the marriage without the need for additional details. Additionally, Ibn Isḥāq actually does pay scrupulous attention to other marital issues that affected the Prophet, including an *entire section* on the wives of the Prophet, as well as a detailed exposition of the incidents that led to the Prophet’s marriages with wives such as Khadīja bint Khuwaylid, Juwayriya bint al-Ḥārith, Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyay, and Maymūna bint al-Ḥārith. He also reproduces details regarding the slander against ʿĀʾisha, as well as specifics regarding his daughters, such as the migration of the Prophet’s daughter Zaynab to Medina and Banū ʿAbd al-Shams’s attempts to thwart her from doing so. These are just a few of the incidents Isḥāq furnishes, and many other incidents can be cited involving prominent women in the Prophet’s life. The allegation that Ibn Isḥāq eschews acknowledging the Prophet’s marriage with Zaynab and women in general lands far from its mark. Qadhi, “Mothers of the Believers pt. 12 Zaynab bint Jaḥsh”; ʿAbd al-Mālik Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2009), 661. [^108]: Maghen, *Virtues of the Flesh*, 75–110; Kecia Ali, *The Lives of Muḥammad* (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014), 124–44. This ahistorical development is also explicitly advocated by Yasir Qadhi in his lectures, in which his contention regarding the gradual development of a prudish Muslim response to the lovestruck narrative suffers from the same sampling bias as Maghen’s and Ali’s. Qadhi, “Mothers of the Believers: Zaynab bint Jaḥsh.” [^109]: I am indebted to Dr. Ovamir Anjum for drawing my attention to this point. [^110]: Andreas Görke divides early Islamic literature into three genres: sīrah/maghāzī, tafsīr, and ḥadīth. He employs this paradigm to the Prophet’s marriage with Zaynab as a case in point to study the origins of the Prophet’s biography, and how earlier genuine recollections of it can be differentiated from subsequent “tendentious shaping.” Though the broader concerns of Görke’s paper lie outside the scope of this piece, his conclusions regarding the lovestruck narrative specifically are similar to mine, and warrant a brief discussion here. [^111]: There are a number of such examples that can be furnished. Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, for instance, noted that one could take and write exegetical reports from individuals such as the aforementioned al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn al-Muzāḥim as well as al-Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, who were not the most reliable hadith transmitters but were known for exegesis. Al-Bayhaqī, *Dalā’il al-nubuwwa*, 1:36–37. [^112]: Ibn ʿAdī, *al-Kāmil fī al-du*ʿ*afa’*, 1:298. [^113]: This is true of al-Ṭabarī, for instance, who provided both alternative reports to the Prophet’s marriage with Zaynab and did not clarify his own preferred version, unlike other topics where he does. [^114]: Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, *Tafsīr al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī,* (Riyadh: Dār al-Tadmuriyyah, 2006), 1199. [^115]: This is not to say that no commentator gave credence to the lovestruck narrative. Some, as will be mentioned below, did endorse it categorically without mentioning the alternative narrative. [^116]: For instance, Ibn Hibbān provides an example of the lovestruck narrative as a transmission of the unknown narrator Abū Bakr ibn Sulaymān ibn Abī Ḥathmah, but he does not relate the account in his own *sīrah* work. See Footnote 56 for further details. Ibn Hibbān, *al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah wa akhbār al-khulafāʾ* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafīya, 1987). [^117]: Ibn Khayyāṭ, *Tārīkh Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ* (Riyadh: Dār Taybah, 1985); al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, ed. Akram Ḍiyā*ʾ* al-ʿUmarī, *al-Muntakhab min kitāb azwāj al-nabī,* (Medina: Maṭbaʿah al-Jāmiʿah al-Islāmiyyah, 1981); Ibn Abī Bakr al-Khaythamah, *al-Tārīkh al-kabīr,* (Cairo: al-Farụq al-Hadīthah li al-Tabāʿah wa al-Nashr, 2006); Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī, *Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī* (Beirut: Sharkah al-Aʿlamī li al-Matbuʿāt, 2010); al-Qayrawānī, *al-Jāmiʿ fī-l-sunan wa-l-ādāb wa-l-maghāzī* (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1990). [^118]: Al-Māturīdī, *Taʾwīlat Ahl al-Sunnah*, 8:393. [^119]: Notably, the preponderance of these authors are once again exegetes, but apart from al-Suyuṭi, they are not masters in the hadith disciplines. Al-Bayḍāwi, *Anwār al-tanzīl wa asrār al-ta’wīl* (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth, 1997), 4:232; al-Maḥallī and al-Suyuṭi, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn* (Riyadh: Madar al-Waṭni li al-Nashr, 2015), 423; al-Ḥalabī, *Insān al-*ʿ*uyun fī sīrat al-Amīn al-Maʾmūn*, 3:427; *Tafsīr Abī al-Su*ʿ*ud*, (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2010), 7:105; Lings, *Muhammad*, 212–13. [^120]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *Zād al-maʿād fī hadī khayr al-ʿibād*, 4:244–46. ## Summary The following presents the substance of the matter in a scholarly manner: **The Marriage of the Prophet ﷺ to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA): A Clarification** Among all the marriages of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his union with Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA) holds a distinct standing, for it alone was pronounced and contracted directly within the Qur'an. Allah declares in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb (37): *"So when Zayd concluded his union with her, We married you to her, so that there may not be any hindrance for the Believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons when they have divorced them."* The Qur'an itself articulates the twofold purpose of this marriage. First, it abolished the pre-Islamic practice of conflating an adopted child with a biological one, whereby marriage to the divorced wife of an adopted son was proscribed as though he were a true son. Since Zaynab (rA) had been married to Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (rA)—then known as the Prophet's adopted son—this marriage annulled that false prohibition. Second, it established that the Prophet ﷺ was father to no surviving male heir, as the same sūrah affirms (40): *"Muhammad is not the father of any of your men; rather he is a Messenger of Allah and the Last of the Prophets."* Thus prophethood could not be claimed through hereditary succession, and authority after him passed to Abū Bakr (rA) by virtue of merit alone. Despite these clear and noble aims, a troubling narrative has attached itself to this marriage, which may be termed "the lovestruck narrative." Its general theme holds that the Prophet ﷺ visited Zayd's home, glimpsed Zaynab (rA), became enamored of her, and departed uttering, "Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn!" It further alleges that Zayd offered to divorce her, that the Prophet ﷺ concealed an inner desire for the marriage, and that a timely revelation then wed him to her. It must be emphasized that this account is conspicuously absent from the extant works of the earliest compilers of maghāzī and sīrah, such as ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 94/712), Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/741), Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah (d. 141/758), Maʿmar ibn Rāshid (d. 153/770), and Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767). Proponents of its authenticity have relied chiefly upon the "criterion of embarrassment," reasoning that Muslims would not have fabricated so unflattering a portrayal. The scholars who repudiated this narrative include eminent authorities. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah scathingly labeled those who deemed it truthful as "ignorant" claimants who "do not esteem the Messenger of Allah as he deserves to be esteemed." Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr affirmed that this narrative is "one that we would prefer to strike from the pages because of its dearth of authenticity." Against the lovestruck account, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ in his Kitāb al-Shifāʾ advanced what he called the "more sound view," which Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī praised as "a lucid, satisfactory narrative": namely, that the Prophet ﷺ was informed by revelation of his impending marriage, but out of fear of the people's reproach—as Ibn Ḥajar notes, "he was shy… and feared that people would criticize him and say he married the wife of his son"—advised Zayd to retain his marriage, whereupon Allah censured him for fearing the people more than Him and contracted the marriage Himself. It should be noted, however, that some scholars across various periods did accept the narrative with surprising nonchalance, while Muhammad Hamidullah accepted it yet attributed the Prophet's emotion not to desire but to astonishment. The rebuttals of medieval and modern scholars rest upon several contentions. Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī argued that not one of these narrations possesses a chain (isnād) continuously connected (muttaṣil) to the Prophet ﷺ; only one traces to a Companion, and he did not witness the event, while none is free of an impugned narrator, rendering them severely weak (ḍaʿīf) or fabricated (mawḍūʿ). Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and Ibn al-ʿArabī both noted that Zaynab (rA) was the Prophet's paternal cousin, whom he would have known before the imposition of ḥijāb rulings, and that she was thirty-eight years of age at marriage. Further, the Prophet ﷺ had himself arranged her marriage to Zayd (rA) against her initial reluctance and that of her brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh; had he desired her, he could have married her directly. ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī and al-Ṭabarī both relate that when the Prophet proposed on Zayd's behalf, Zaynab initially rejoiced thinking the proposal was for himself, and refused Zayd until Sūrat al-Aḥzāb (36) commanded obedience. The Qur'anic wording itself dismantles the lovestruck narrative. If the Prophet ﷺ concealed an attraction to a married woman, then Allah's censure for concealment would amount to reproaching him for not publicizing such an attraction—an absurdity noted by Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Ṣābūnī and Adil Salahi, the latter asking pointedly whether a man is "morally bound to speak of that love in public." Moreover, no primary source records any criticism of the Prophet ﷺ for desiring Zaynab, though the promised disclosure would require such exposure; rather, the sources record reproach only for his marrying his adopted son's former wife, which accords precisely with the sound interpretation. That interpretation resolves every difficulty: it explains the divine censure, the reproach for advising Zayd to remain married, the fulfillment of the promise to disclose, the defense in verse 38, and the historical record of the critics' indignation. This reading is supported by ʿĀʾishah's (rA) statement in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, that "there was nothing revealed more severe to him than this; had the Prophet ﷺ concealed anything from the revelation, he would have concealed this"—a statement consonant with his anxiety upon its revelation, not the joy the false narrative would imply. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim likewise records through Anas (rA) that the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd himself to propose to Zaynab. Examining the ten reports that convey the lovestruck narrative, only three persons could have witnessed the event—Zayd, Zaynab, and the Prophet ﷺ—yet none could have transmitted it: the Prophet ﷺ concealed it, Zaynab did not comprehend his words, and Zayd was loyal and died shortly thereafter. From the standpoint of transmission, the report of Anas (rA) via Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl (d. 206/821)—whom al-Bukhārī deemed "rejected in hadith" and who confessed he did not know whether the addition belonged to the text—stands alone, while seven other students of Ḥammād ibn Zayd relate it without the offending detail. Other chains contain al-Wāqidī, deemed a liar; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Aslamī (d. 150/767), graded weak by Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī, al-Dāraquṭnī, Abū Dāwūd, and Abū Zurʿah; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam (d. 182/798), deemed weak by Aḥmad and others; and Sulaym the client of al-Shaʿbī, whom al-Nasāʾī called unreliable. The reports of Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿIkrimah, and Muqātil ibn Sulaymān bear no isnād at all (muʿallaq). The attribution to Ibn ʿAbbās by al-Thaʿlabī appears an egregious error, likely a confusion with Qatādah, for the earliest exegetes—al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and ʿAbd al-Razzāq—never ascribe it to him despite readily citing Qatādah. As to why this marriage was necessary, it must be situated within the Prophet's broader reform of oppressive marital customs that violated the rights of the vulnerable. The Qur'an in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (19–23) had already forbidden the coercive inheritance of women, and commanded in verse 4 that dowries be given directly to women. The Prophet ﷺ voided the marriage of a woman forced by her father, forbade shighār, and the Qur'an condemned ẓihār in the very verse that condemned false adoption, underscoring their shared injustice. The term for adopted children, adʿiyāʾ, denoted the coercive appropriation of another's name rather than benevolent care. The plight of Khālid ibn Saʿīd, tortured and disinherited by his own father, and of al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad, whose proposals were spurned and who inherited nothing, illustrate that adopted sons enjoyed few genuine rights. Even Zaynab (rA) initially refused Zayd for his former servile status, though as the Prophet's supposed son he should have ranked highest. The Prophet's critics reviled him as al-abtar, one without male progeny, and the Qur'an responded in his defense. Thus the institution was at best functionless and at worst oppressive, and abolishing it required Prophetic precedent. Concerning the origin of the false narrative, the earliest hostile prototypes emerged from anti-Islamic polemics. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101/720) corresponded with the Byzantine emperor Leo III (d. 124/741), who accused the Prophet ﷺ regarding a woman named "Zeda"—a garbled reference likely to Zayd. John of Damascus (d. 143/749) later alleged that the Prophet ﷺ commanded Zayd to divorce his wife, ignoring the Qur'anic verses in which he counselled Zayd to keep her. In apparent reaction, Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī—a convert from Banū Qurayẓah familiar with Judeo-Christian lore—interpreted al-Aḥzāb (38) as referring to the prophets' practice of polygamy, citing Dāwūd and Sulaymān. Qatādah (d. 120/737) and Ibn Jurayj (d. 150/767), the latter of Byzantine descent whose father's name Jurayj rendered the Christian Georgios, went further, linking the verse to the Biblical Bathsheba affair, which ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (rA) had warned should draw one hundred and sixty lashes—eighty for false accusation (qadhf) and eighty for vilifying a prophet. Finally, Muqātil ibn Sulaymān—labeled a liar by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Wakīʿ, al-Nasāʾī, and al-Dāraquṭnī, and a fabricator by Ibn Ḥibbān, though al-Shāfiʿī esteemed his exegetical skill—produced the complete, embellished narrative, explicitly stating that the Prophet ﷺ "lusted after her" (hawiyahā), and drawing the same disgraceful parallel to Dāwūd and the wife of "Ūriyah." His fabrication passed thereafter into the works of al-Thaʿlabī and al-Baghawī, often without attribution, and was then interpolated by forgetful narrators such as Muʾammal into otherwise sound reports. If the year of death of each weak narrator serves as an approximate marker, the pattern is clear: no narrator preceded Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, Qatādah, and Ibn Jurayj in mentioning this account for over a century after the Prophet's ﷺ passing. As for Muslim responses, contrary to the thesis of scholars such as Ze'ev Maghen—who supposes the historicity of the event and posits an evolution from Muslim celebration of the Prophet's carnality toward the ideal of al-insān al-kāmil—the reality is that the earliest works simply lacked the story because it had not yet been conceived. Many exegetes cited it merely from a desire to be encyclopedic, often placing alongside it the sound report of ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. Rigorously trained hadith masters such as Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ibn al-Jawzī, and Ibn Kathīr rejected it; al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) rejected it on critical grounds; and numerous historians—Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī, and others—omit it entirely. Proponents and opponents of the narrative existed throughout Islamic history, which explains Ibn al-Qayyim's rebuke of the "ignoramuses" of his own day. The intense apologetic defense of the Prophet ﷺ on this specific matter is largely a modern phenomenon, arising in response to Western critics, and the attempt to read from it a uniform Muslim front suffers from sampling bias. In sum, the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ to Zaynab (rA) was rooted in the clear sociological, legal, and theological aims declared in the Qur'an, and any admission of infatuation as its cause yields contradictions irreconcilable with the sacred text. The lovestruck narrative was absent from history for a full century, then evolved gradually—from fear of censure, to desire, to complete infatuation mirroring Dāwūd's glimpse of Bathsheba—until it was permanently imprinted by a handful of undiscerning exegetes. Thus a tale of romance, masquerading as reality, was born. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-a-good-person-is-not-enough-why-ethics-need-islam # Being a "Good Person" is Not Enough: Why Ethics Need Islam **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 27, 2022 **Updated:** April 28, 2025 In this essay, we present how: - *The Prophetic* ﷺ *declaration that he had been sent “****only to perfect noble traits of character”*** *confirms our empirical experience that although the ethical impulse—the love for what is good—is natural to all human beings, we need revelation to guide and perfect it.* - *Disagreement and confusion about the goal and nature of good character are rampant, and misguided ethical beliefs have inspired the most horrific evils in human history.* - *Secular modernity, which claims to provide ethics without revelation, has tried to “smuggle” in religious values, but has failed in providing meaning to individuals and restraint against exploitation. Today’s ecological crisis is an irrefutable judgment against modern hegemonic ethics of capitalism, secularism, and liberalism, and the Islamic alternative is urgently needed.* - *Divinely revealed norms are confirmed and enhanced by rational ethical reflection.* - *To fail to acknowledge and thank the Creator is a great ethical failure.* --- ## Introduction It is wrong to tell lies, torture animals, and kill or harm innocent people. It is good to be kind and charitable, grateful, courageous, patient, just, and wise. These principles are called ethics or morals and are referred to as *khuluq* (sing.) or *akhlāq* (pl.) in the Qur’an and the Prophetic teachings. All human cultures recognize good traits and virtues in some elementary form. Yet, both in real-life situations and upon further reflection, people begin to disagree about what is good. Some prioritize mercy over justice or vice versa. Some preach forgiveness and pacifism toward all, even (or specially) vis-a-vis the powerful. Others fight for equality even if it compromises freedom, or the other way around. Others prefer choice to life. Others swear by the principle of maximization of measurable happiness. Yet others believe only in instant gratification in an uncertain world. Rather than furnishing us with a solid edifice of ethical imperatives, the shared human ethical impulse melts in the heat of seemingly endless human diversity and disagreement. To complicate matters further, the world is not a museum or a seminar room for discussion, but a battleground between good and evil, and the champions of evil ever seek to convert, dominate, and hoodwink others, driven by greed, pride, and self-worship, thus corrupting our desires, perception, and even language by naming what is evil as good and good as evil. To be good, then, requires us not merely to make an intellectual choice, but a commitment to and struggle for what is true and good. --- ## Modern challenges: Epistemic and economic imperialism and climate change The question is endlessly asked in a secular world: Can we be ethical without religion? Surveys tell us that the answer to this question depends on who is being asked: for the majority of humankind, who are both poor and religious, the answer is overwhelmingly no; for the rich, secularized minority, or those brainwashed by aggressive secular regimes, the answer is usually yes.[^1] People’s ethical styles also vary. Wealthier people of the global North fare better in what we may call corporate morality: interpersonal skills necessary to function in man-made organizations such as being on time, truth-telling, and transparency (in accordance with the needs of a managerial society), just as traditional folk fare better in familial and communal virtues such as altruism, honoring of parental and family ties, and generosity. Furthermore, people inhabiting regions devastated by colonialism and failing political and economic orders are likely to have compromised ethical conduct due to low trust, cynicism, and need for survival. Such surveys about ethics hide crucial, structural truths, however. First, the secular overlords of the world have altered, and continue to alter, what counts as being good, and the perceptions of the masses are often shaped by propaganda. Just a century ago, for instance, serving one’s parents would have been universally deemed among the most important ethical virtues throughout the world from Europe and the Islamic world to China and India. Today, secular, liberal societies have dropped this virtue, if not turned it into a vice. Greed, similarly, had always been recognized as the greatest of evils, and its particular form, usury or interest, the most hated crime, in all cultures and all history, until modern capitalism began to consider it both a virtue and a necessity.[^2] This points to a deeper problem than economic exploitation and increasing inequality: it is our very sense of right and wrong that is mass manipulated by the elite. This I call *epistemic imperialism*—the colonization of knowledge-production, meaning, and values by certain key global institutions. Since the rise of globalism in the 1980s, these institutions are no longer merely “Western,” but have extended to include the ultra-rich “global” elite in the global South, joining hands against the majority of people everywhere. Debates about ethics and ideologies tend to be endless. Is there perhaps a scientific, empirical way to judge the conduct of the successful overlords of the world, the modern, secular, democratic, and wealthy global North? Do we just have to wait for the afterlife, when it is too late to change, to see who was right? Faith is part of the test, so, in a sense, yes, but God mercifully sends signals. It is not without irony that the greatest sign of the moral bankruptcy of the modern secular lifestyle is offered by modern empirical science itself: climate change. Consider this example. There are many styles of parenting: traditional and modern, authoritarian, lax, authoritative, attachment-leaning or discipline-heavy. But imagine if the parents sell off and consume the only house where their children could live, every brick and piece of furniture, deliberately and out of reckless greed, leaving their young children to starve, beg, and freeze on the streets as they voraciously consume everything. All parties can agree that this is a truly odious parenting style. The modern, secular, capitalist lifestyle, science tells us, has been precisely that kind of parent to the world. An endless barrage of scientific papers, books, and documentaries furnishes evidence of the coming environmental collapse. As a university professor who occasionally teaches environmental ethics, I start the course with three facts to help see the big picture: 1. Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, within 200 years, humans have consumed nearly all of the fossil fuels that it took natural processes 200 million years to deposit into the earth, and the indices of atmospheric carbon, deforestation, and species extinction all have taken an unsustainable “hockey-stick” shape within this period;[^3]  2. by a conservative estimate, nearly 5% of the world’s population consumes 35% of the world’s resources,[^4] which means if we all lived like modern Westerners, 80% of humans on earth would need a different planet, so secular modernity is the road to massive extermination of entire peoples, regions, and cultures; 3. and no, the main culprit is not population growth but lifestyle. To understand this, note that starting in 1890 the world population over a century multiplied by 4, but water use by 9, world economy by 14, and energy use by 16.[^5] All this to say that secular modernity—recall that the 19th century is precisely the time when Western populations began to embrace modern values—has killed the planet Earth. Even as the poor masses, including the majority of Muslims, of the world are being pressured to modernize and secularize, leading scientists and scholars are suggesting, in so many words, that the traditional, communal, and altruistic ethics they are leaving behind are necessary for humankind to survive. This is just the story of the material loss of this earth: we have not even broached the deeper problem of the loss of faith in God, the spiritual and psychological crises, the very meaning of life and goodness. As Allah Most High promised in the Qur’an, the two are connected: “Whoever turns away from My remembrance, his will be a straitened life; and We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection” (20:124). --- ## Ethical questions Deflating the claims of modern progress and the epistemic imperialism of the secular world allows us to appreciate the urgency of Islamic ethics. You do not have to be a believing Muslim to see the need for an alternative to the darkness of today’s hegemonic models. How can we determine what is right and what is wrong? Are ethical norms, such as ‘killing an innocent person is bad’ and ‘helping someone in need is good,’ simply conventional norms that make our lives easier (and hence, have no objective foundation), or based on the nature of things themselves (such that they can be known by reason alone), or assigned and revealed arbitrarily by God (and hence, known only through revelation)? These are called metaethical questions. Muslim scholars, as we shall see, have debated these questions and have adopted versions of each of these answers, but always centered around divine revelation. Then there are questions of how ethics are organized into a system of priorities. Which of the many desired behaviors and virtues are more important than others, and what do we do when they conflict with each other? Here, all Muslims agree on the right of God to define this system in the law, or Shariah. More flexible and varied are the answers to the questions of ethical pedagogy, what Muslims call *tarbiyya*. What is the right way to acquire or teach the desired virtues: love or fear? Upbringing by unconditionally loving parents, or hard discipline by discriminating wardens? Philosophical reflection of the sages, or advice of the most successful and powerful people? The heat of the battle or the quiet of the library? Most important of all, however, is the question of purpose or teleology. What is the end-goal of life, and hence of individual conduct and social life? Is the purpose to maximize pleasure and individual liberty, group power for the sake of domination, or to please God? Regardless of the answer to the big question, those who reflect on the nature of good and seek it are likely to be better humans and more likely to achieve what is true and good. By making us better, more beautiful human beings, ethical reflection has the power to cut through even the propaganda, sectarianism, and prejudice of our birth cultures. Those given to deep ethical reflection were the first to come to Islam and remained the best of Muslims. This introductory essay on Islamic ethics is a response to the aforementioned questions in three parts. First, I present the key Prophetic statement that forms the foundation of the approach adopted in this series. Next, I show how philosophical reflection on ethics has often led to its source, God Almighty, but also to the limits of rationality and the need for divine guidance. Finally, I show how Islam is not only in harmony with reason, but it also requires us to develop rational understanding of good conduct as part of its holistic guidance. This is how the Blessed Messenger of Allah ﷺ summed up his entire mission, as reported on the authority of Abū Hurayra, > I have been sent only to perfect noble traits of character***.***[^6] The Messenger of Allah ﷺ affirms in this remarkable statement that people already do recognize and possess noble traits; the revelation has come only to complete and perfect these traits. The exclusive particle “*innamā*” could be interpreted in  two ways, and both are correct: 1. “I have come not to invent but only to perfect good character.” 2. "I have come for no other purpose but to complete noble character traits." The first means that human beings are often in possession of knowledge and appreciation of good character, some more than others, even before access to direct revelation. This is confirmed by numerous other revealed texts, as well as rational evidence and empirical observation. This meaning is further confirmed by a report in which the Prophet ﷺ remarks upon meeting al-Ashajj of the tribe of ʿAbd al-Qays, who had come to embrace Islam, “You have two traits that God loves, forbearance (*ḥilm*) and gentleness (*anāt*).” Obviously intelligent, the man inquired, “O Messenger of God, are these traits that I practice or has God made them my nature?” The Messenger said, “Rather it is God who has given them to you by nature.” Al-Ashajj gratefully exclaimed, “Praise to God who bestowed on me traits that Allah and His Messenger love!”[^7] This tradition further explains that certain traits are naturally given by God to some more than others, and others may be acquired by nurture and training. Another hadith states, “Peoples are like metal ores, the best of them in pre-Islamic time are the best of them in Islam, so long as they acquire understanding.”[^8] Ibn Ḥajar, in his explanation, points to three dimensions of this hadith: noble character, which is the stable nature granted by God (hence the reference to metal ore), acceptance of Islam, upon which ultimate success lies, and the effort to acquire knowledge of religion. The best of humans are those who possess all three, but if someone rejects Islam, all other gifts become void. With faith, all natural gifts shine even further to the extent that one makes an effort to acquire knowledge and understanding of revelation.[^9] Nothing is of use to those who reject faith, no matter how high their character and how charitable their works otherwise: “A similitude of those who disbelieve in their Lord: Their \[good\] works are as ashes which the wind blows hard upon a stormy day; they have no control of anything that they have earned. That is the extreme failure” (14:18). The second meaning, too, is correct since the foremost purpose of the Prophet’s mission, the worship of the true Creator and Benefactor, is also the greatest virtue, as it is an expression of gratitude to the Creator and acknowledgment of truth, and there is no greater injustice than to reject God’s signs (6:21, 32:22). Thus, his ﷺ mission was nothing but to perfect all virtue. In sum, Islam perfects moral traits in three ways: 1. by giving these virtues the right purpose or teleology: Allah Most High;  2. by providing a higher and lasting level of motivation; and  3. by providing the right meaning and balance among competing values through the revealed Law, the Shariah. --- ## Philosophy and its limits The unexamined life is not worth living, said Socrates, who is believed by many to have been the first ethical philosopher. The good life is a life spent in knowing, loving, and seeking the moral good. Philosophically, universal ethics (that is, the idea that all humans have some rights) and monotheism (the belief that all humans have one supreme God) strongly entail each other. Consider the statement that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” It is itself merely a claim: is life not worth living for ferns, cockroaches, or butterflies? What makes this question about the nature and purpose of life possible and necessary is our very ability to reflect, evaluate, and judge. But where does this ability come from? Where does life itself come from? Socrates was not alone; much of human philosophizing across time and space points to the human quest to know the answers to these questions. But Socrates and his likes, despite their brilliance, could not proceed beyond their *thought* of one God to either the *worship* of one true God or to balanced, feasible ethics. Recall that it was Socrates who suggested, in Plato’s famous *Republic*, that all must be governed by one all-wise philosopher, and that women and children are to be communal property rather than individuals within their families, that children should be separated from their parents at birth and placed according to their natural capacities so as not to receive undeserved love, and so on, effectively proposing a plan for the most racist and loveless society imaginable.[^10] How could the man known to be the first and greatest philosopher of ethics come to a conclusion that, by all accounts, appears the most deplorable and unethical? Because the human mind, even at its best, cannot be trusted to play god; only God is above blind spots and errors. In fact, humans intuitively know of their imperfection and have an unquenchable thirst for seeking what is infinitely good and perfect. We all seek God even when we do not know it. A typical book on the history of ethics will teach you that the philosophical discipline of ethics was born in ancient Greece precisely to wrestle with the kinds of questions we have listed above. But this is merely a secular, Eurocentric narrative: humanity has never existed without divine guidance and hence ethics. Allah created the first human being with the ability to know right from wrong and the imperative to follow divine guidance when it is sent through divine messengers. The Almighty addressed our father Adam thus, “When guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance—there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve” (2:38). Divine guidance, we learn, was not sent haphazardly or post hoc when the human experiment went awry but was from the beginning part of the divine plan. Given this, humans never lived without the benefit of divine guidance. Humans can be divided into two kinds, however: those blessed like the *ummah* of the Final Prophet ﷺ who have clear access to it in unaltered form, and those for whom the guidance had been forgotten except in distorted and partial forms. The lynchpin of that guidance has always been to recognize the truth of one God, to worship Him alone, and to be good to one another. Logically, the Almighty could have limited His religion to worshiping Him alone, but out of His perfect mercy and wisdom, He has made goodness to the creation part of faith in Him, placed goodness to others and all creation in our nature, and reinforced it through His revealed guidance. But humans are forgetful, both as individuals and as communities. Human history is filled with cycles of human forgetfulness and divine reminder. Over time, that guidance would become dim, lost, or adulterated to the point that people would fall back into polytheism and mutual oppression. We must, therefore, reject the Eurocentric fiction that Greek philosophers of sixth to fourth century BCE invented ethical reflection, for it is possible that the pagan Greek philosophers or those who influenced them had access to some remnants of revelation in the same way that the pagan Arabs did. And just the same way that there were *ḥanīf*s—monotheists who searched for divine guidance—in pagan Arabia before Islam, some charitable interpreters classify the likes of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle as monotheists of sorts.[^11] Historical evidence suggests that without denouncing polylatry (worship of many gods) in practice, these philosophers’ search for truth led them to *conceptual monotheism*.[^12] Hindu philosophers of the Upanishads, similarly, while remaining polylatrous, had gestured toward conceptual monotheism in the same way that pre-Islamic Arabs attributed ultimate power to Allah while justifying idolatry.[^13] This means that either through remnants of divine guidance or their own virgin thinking, humans naturally come to believe in one Ultimate Reality, but often cannot advance beyond this point without the benefit of divine revelation, devolving into endless disagreement and confusion. We need revelation to arrive at the attributes of the One True God and the right way to live that is pleasing to God. To reiterate, then, although human reason may discover the truth of divine monotheism and ethical truths, it is likely to err; it is better equipped, in other words, to recognize the truth once it is presented than to know it outright. Imām Ibn Taymiyya makes this point by invoking Surah al-Mulk which tells us of the lamenting disbelievers who will declare in the afterlife, “If only we had listened (to prophets) or reasoned, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze” (67:10).[^14] But if human beings often fail to acknowledge and thank their Creator, how much more likely are they to neglect the rights of His creation? Our contemporary empirical experience confirms both of these observations: the existence of the natural ethical sense (*fiṭra*) and its weakness. Even in our hyper-secularized, artificially mechanized, distant-from-nature, and unreflective lives, human beings cannot easily avoid asking these ‘big’ questions.[^15] Human life is impossible without confronting these issues, and our choice is to respond to the truth, neglect it, or deny it. This becomes the foundational moral choice upon which all else depends. We also witness, however, that when led by the self-serving elite rather than divine revelation, human reason degenerates into either endless disagreement and cynicism, absurdities such as atheism, or obscurantist cults that mimic true religion. Against the cumulative judgment of all known human societies, including most human beings today in favor of theistic ethics, a tiny hegemonic global elite produces agnostic or atheistic philosophy and culture, rejecting the truth of God yet ready to believe in the most fantastic tales; like the characters in *Alice in Wonderland*, they practice believing six impossible things before breakfast. Without divine law, no line between good and evil is above philosophical contestation. Homosexual behavior had, until recently, been seen as the greatest immorality across cultures, but now the global elite have decided the opposite.[^16] Some have even taken to justifying incest. Not too long ago, eugenics and racist theories of human behavior justifying the dominance of some races and criminalization of others were mainstream science. Is killing animals (or even vegetables) for consumption really different from killing humans for consumption? Is killing unwanted babies really morally equivalent to murder? As the leading moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre of our time, a Christian, noted in his groundbreaking *After Ethics* (1984), > It is a distinctive feature of the social and cultural order that we inhabit that disagreements over central moral issues are peculiarly unsettleable.[^17] The reason, he contends, is the rejection by the Enlightenment thinkers of the monotheistic religious grounding of these values and its replacement with “secular morality” with which any rational person could agree. Originally religious concepts such as the sanctity of human life, fundamental equality of human beings before God, and so on, were now orphaned, because the warring philosophies could not agree on any basis for them. All values in such a secular culture depend on what feels good or bad, an ethical theory called *emotivism*.[^18] In an emotivist culture, ethical beliefs are merely based on manipulation of individuals by each other and of them all by the more powerful forces of political elites and capitalists. In the nobly phrased US Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson was telling only a half-truth when he wrote: “We hold these truths to be *self-evident*, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These truths were never self-evident, for the norm in human experience in every respect is difference and inequality; the idea of equality could only come from the belief in a soul given from on high. Whenever access to revelation was lost, humans often returned to beastly existence. How does post-Enlightenment Western society, defined by liberal philosophy, that MacIntyre labels emotivist, justify moral principles? An American constitutional scholar’s answer is particularly apt: a kind of intellectual smuggling. This has prompted some scholars to accuse them of smuggling ethical values from major religions because they do not have a valid justification for their own.[^19] This truth was expressed more poignantly and much earlier by Russian novelist Dostoyevsky, whose protagonist in *Crime and Punishment* (1866) observes the consequence of this emergent late-19th century belief thus: “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.”[^20] In German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s telling, who had himself experienced the consequences of losing his Christian faith, a madman observing the new Europe presciently proclaims what the loss of belief in God that was to overtake Europe entailed, > How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained this earth from its sun? … Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? … God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.[^21] With characteristic starkness, Nietzsche declares that when belief in God is shaken, nothing is comprehensible anymore; the moral world is shattered even though people will continue to shut their eyes to its consequences. “It is not the eyes,” says the Ever-living Lord, “but the hearts that are in their chests that become blind!” (22:46). God is Ever-living; what’s dead in truth is the culture that utters and celebrates such blasphemy. --- ## Modern secularism as a polytheism of values Another and far more mainstream contemporary of Nietzsche and the founder of modern social science, Max Weber foresaw the character of the coming age and, even as a secular person, could not resist worrying about modernity’s polytheism. “His vision of polytheistic reenchantment,” writes one scholar about Weber, “is rather that of an incommensurable value-fragmentation into a plurality of alternative metanarratives, each of which claims to answer the same metaphysical questions that religion and science strove to cope with in their own ways.”[^22] The so-called “death of God” has resulted both in a haunted universe but also the return of gods and demons who “strive to gain power over our lives and again ... resume their eternal struggle with one another.”[^23] Modern secularism, ostensibly atheistic or agnostic, is indeed a kind of polytheism in numerous palpable ways.[^24] As monotheism declines in modern society, humans tend to regress to old-fashioned superstitious obscurantism, as increasingly evident today.[^25] Human beings have been created to worship, and when they fail to acknowledge and worship God, they invariably fall into worshiping many gods, including the gods of desire and power. As the Almighty declares: > Have you seen he who has taken as his god his own desire: Allah has sent him astray knowingly, setting a seal upon his hearing and his heart, and putting over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah? Will, then, you not heed!? (45:23) --- ## Why must revelation guide our ethics? Hitler also had ethics! Muslim children are often taught how terrible the pre-Islamic Arabs were. They had no redeeming virtues. After all, burying baby girls alive was to them a normal practice! What could be worse? But this naive perspective blinds us to the fact that the murder of children was common in many societies under different guises; in some polytheistic societies, children were offered in ritual sacrifice to the gods.[^26] Let us set aside the fact for now that the murder and exploitation of non-Western peoples, far from being seen as an ethical flaw, is a feature of the current imperial world order. In modern liberal societies, where human rights are worshipped, many advocate similar rights to kill unborn babies in the name of sexual freedom, choice, or other reasons.[^27] The pre-Islamic Arabs were only different insofar as they were technologically behind and had to wait for the children to be born before killing them. Like any society, however, they did have many virtues: they practiced and valued generosity, chivalry, courage, and so on. Nevertheless, the poor among them would bury their daughters alive for “fear of starvation” (17:31). They may have individually felt this to be wrong, but they lacked belief in the God-given inviolability of life. Many tribal and pagan societies, for instance, did not accord sanctity to human life, and practices such as child sacrifices, the killing of widows upon the husband’s death, and of strangers who stepped into one’s territory were widespread.[^28] More generally, let us imagine a scientist, who is moved by nothing but rational argument, who has fitted the entire earth with nuclear devices, and you are the poor assistant on his spacecraft, horrified by the plan, with the urge to offer him some reason to dissuade him. You tell him that killing innocent humans feels utterly horrible, and he reminds you that you had no problem exterminating the entire cockroach population in your kitchen a year earlier. How is human life on earth different from the roach infestation? Such questions pertaining to the value of human life, or any other moral value, cannot be philosophically resolved. In the absence of a transcendent authority, human societies are left with mere opinion. Today’s modern Western ethical theories, as noted earlier, are based on beliefs and concepts “smuggled” from the Abrahamic tradition—ideas have been copied without acknowledging their foundations. In Islam, as in the revelations before, human rights were *ḥuqūq al-ʿibād*, literally, the rights of God’s servants. The danger of such groundless ethics, which float in the air like dry leaves on a windy day, is clear when one scrutinizes 20th-century atrocities. It is estimated that millions were killed by modern states, for the sake of modern ideologies such as progress, Marxism, and colonialism, in the two world wars and afterward. Contrary to popular belief, most horrific acts occur not due to a lack of morality, but rather in the name of some supposedly moral goal. Hitler, for example, rightly considered the epitome of evil in modernity, was driven to commit genocide by virtue of his strong commitment to his particular moral beliefs. Inspired by the ideology of Darwinism that had encouraged atheism, the eugenics movement was widely accepted among the intellectuals and scientists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Accordingly, Hitler sought only to take to their logical conclusion the moral-scientific beliefs that the queasy intellectuals and philosophers were too weak to.[^29] In fact, if it were not for outrage at the massacres committed by the Nazis as a direct result of such beliefs and the rise of religious ideas, such ideas could easily be in vogue today, and there are signs that they are on the rise once again not only in Europe and the US but have spread to newly “modernized” states such as China and India. The pursuit of a greater ethical good was also the justification behind Mao’s communist transformation in China in the 1950s. Tens of millions of people starved to death in the man-made famine of the Great Leap Forward, but such a tragedy was considered necessary to achieve a more economically equal society and future poverty reduction. Can one rationally argue that this mass murder was wrong? Doesn’t China’s global dominance and the current population of one billion justify it? Why do such ends not justify the means?[^30] “What about ISIS?” you might ask. This terrorist outfit, born out of two decades of war and sanctions by the United States, murdered some 33,000 people, mostly Muslims in Iraq and Syria, in fact helps us make our point clearer. Its actions were so horrible that even its mother organization, Alqaeda, condemned it.[^31] Nearly all Muslim authorities have agreed that this group’s actions were against the Shariah.[^32] No ethical system can determine human actions. What counts is that regardless of the actual reasons that motivate terrorist groups like ISIS, which include a combination of visceral revenge and modern ideologies, and most of all, the absence of a properly constituted Islamic *umma*tic authority like a caliph, what counts is that Muslims overwhelmingly recognized the un-Islamic nature of this group’s tactics. Compare this to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who, when asked about the death of half a million children as a direct result of US war and sanctions against Iraq, conditions that are directly responsible for creating ISIS, said with a proud, straight face on television: “We think the price is worth it!”[^33] Albright was confirmed as US secretary of state soon after this interview. The world’s oldest democracy and champion of human rights, in other words, believes that half a million innocent Muslim children could be legitimately killed to protect its strategic interests. This is the history of secular liberalism writ large. By saying that for those who do not acknowledge God or an ultimate reality, there is no sound basis for declaring a moral good, I, and the many philosophers who hold this view, do not mean that such people cannot have moral conduct or conjure some philosophy of morality. The moral sense, *fiṭra*, is God-given. The failure to acknowledge God does not eliminate it; it merely confounds and misleads it in myriad ways. The ethical impulse that we all have, in short, drives us all in wildly different ways, but if not guided by the truth of God and disciplined by God’s commands, has often led humans to commit greater atrocities than any beasts have ever committed. Who can say it better than the one given the most eloquent speech ﷺ: “I have been sent only to perfect noble traits of character.” --- ## Following right (fiṭrī) reason Let us now turn to reason once again, but this time to *right reason* that responds to, rather than rebels against, God and truth. The first thing we discover upon reflection, and must discover, is that only He who gave us life could give it value. If we entertain the absurdity that there is no such source and life is a mere blind accident, then there can be no value: no grounds for good or evil, no right and wrong. Put differently, if there is no God, there can be no ethics, for ethics is fundamentally an exercise of seeking God. The ultimate good then, is God. Divine revelation fills in the details in this natural line of reasoning. God being the Creator and Sustainer of all life, the only life worth living is one that seeks the Creator. The Creator, and this is the most central message of all revealed religions, is not a blind force. Far from a nameless energy or inert reality, He is a being with a will, who knows and loves His creation, and loves what is good. All good actions must seek God, or else they cannot be good. Life has value, and morality exists, because Allah Almighty honored the human being, and breathed His breath into the human being to create life (Qur’an, 15:29; 38:72; 32:9). If the soul is nothing but God’s breath, emanation, and gift, then what other than Him could make it happy? --- ## Is God’s command arbitrary or rational and ethical? Shariah commands goodness and justice The Qur’anic account of the Prophet’s message emphasizes its rational nature, insofar as God has commanded us to do what is known to human nature to be right and beneficial. God has the absolute right to command what He wishes, and He had indeed tested certain earlier communities with commandments that were merely a test rather than being good or desirable in themselves. Such commands were removed from the perfect Law given to the Prophet ﷺ, thus perfecting it: > He will enjoin on them that which is right and forbid them from that which is wrong, making lawful for them all good things and prohibiting for them only the foul; relieving them of their burden and the fetters that they used to wear. Then those who believe in him, and honor him, and help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him, they are the successful ones. (7:157) This verse makes the monumental declaration that the Shariah given to the Prophet ﷺ, the standard of what is right and what is wrong before God, is accessible to human nature, and that its norm is to remove arbitrary burdens and facilitate a good life. We remarked earlier that classical Muslim scholars have disagreed about whether ethical verities are accessible to human reason unaided by revelation. All scholars agree about the reasonable and beneficial nature of the divine command, but this theoretical disagreement is pertinent to reproduce here only to help us remember how profoundly and deeply our scholars debated ethical philosophy in service of God’s revelation. Of the four theological schools, three, the traditionalists, Māturīdiyya, and Muʿtazila, argued that ethical truths are indeed known to human reason, whereas one, the Ashāira, disagreed.[^34] The Ashāʿira did not deny that human reason can know what is beneficial or harmful, but they differentiate that from the knowledge of what is good or evil in the sense of incurring reward or punishment by Allah in the afterlife. To safeguard divine omnipotence, they hold that there exists no order of good or evil before and apart from God’s revelation, in which Allah Most High commands and prohibits freely as He desires. Others hold that the knowledge that Allah has placed in human nature and accessible to human reason is in agreement with the revealed norms, even though all agree that in case of perceived disagreement, the explicitly stated revealed norms have indisputable superiority. The difference, then, is consequential only in cases when the revelation is silent, and those details are beyond the scope of our essay here. Suffice here to state that the Ashāʿira, like Imām al-Ghazālī, do not question that the Islamic legal norms in the form of the Shariah are indeed beneficial and hence rational. All schools, then, are effectively in agreement that the law of Allah is both beneficial and rational in this life and the standard of success or failure in the afterlife. The traditionalist school is summed up powerfully by Imām Ibn al-Qayyim: > Verily, the Shariah is founded upon wisdom and welfare for the servants in this life and the afterlife. In its entirety it is justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom. Every matter which abandons justice for tyranny, mercy for cruelty, benefit for corruption, and wisdom for foolishness is not a part of the Shariah even if it was introduced therein through an interpretation.[^35] This means that even beyond the explicit commands and prohibitions of Allah, which capture the essence of all goodness and prohibit the essence of all that is evil, the *ʿulamāʾ* extend the rational meaning through analogy and by considering the purposes and objectives of the law. This is the realm of jurisprudence, *fiqh*. But even beyond *fiqh*, there is a need for training the intentions and habits through inner reflection, training (*tarbiyya*), and inner purification (*tazkiyya*), reforming habits, and rational evaluation of our actions in order to extend the charitable acts that are left in *fiqh* as merely recommended or neutral. Some 200 times, Allah commands us to “do good deeds” in the Qur’an without specifying a particular form or group of recipients. Allah does not restrict ‘good works’ to the carrying out of a set of specific commands or rituals of worship. The Qur’an and the Prophetic role-model leave no doubt that we are encouraged to be good to one and all in every way, to perform good works for God’s sake without expecting gratitude or worldly reward, as God says of the righteous, > We only feed you for the pleasure of Allah, wanting neither reward nor gratitude in return (76:9). Numerous verses make it clear that good works are not limited to Muslims, nor conditional upon someone accepting Islam; the Qur’an specifically speaks of the charity and kindness that is due to unbelieving parents, relatives, and the needy. Nor are good works in Islam limited to benefit others in the afterlife; we are asked to give comfort and show compassion to the simple earthly existence of humans and even animals. God is good and compassionate and loves benevolence and compassion and rewards us for every sincere action we do, so long as it accords with the Prophetic guidance. In other words, we must as believers seek to do, love, and make a habit of doing all that is good, starting with the duties but then going beyond what is explicitly stated in the divine revelation and beyond what is found in norms of *fiqh*. **This precisely is the realm of the science of *akhlāq* and the related disciplines of spiritual and ethical purification to which we turn in the remaining essays of this series.** --- ## Worship of One God as the first ethical imperative Returning to the concept with which we began, we reiterate that the bonanza of good deeds that Islam urges is built on one ineluctable foundation, without which the concept of good becomes incoherent, and without which the natural human love for righteousness, and the goodness God places in the character of all of His servants in different forms, all become corrupted. That foundation is the acknowledgment of and submission to the ultimate Truth, *al-Ḥaqq*, Allah. When not grounded in the ultimate truth, good deeds become mere dust and ashes (14:18). To understand this, we must recognize that Islam is nothing but the right thing to do vis-à-vis the Creator. As such, Islam is a quintessentially moral way of life—one that demands not merely the appeasement of a deity for the fulfillment of our secular needs, but a total response to the one true God, who, in the impending, eternal afterlife, rewards the good and punishes the wicked. **However, the association of religion and worship to morality has been lost on many peoples, past and present, who worship their deities and perform spiritual exercises or rituals not for moral reasons such as participation in truth and expression of gratitude, but to satisfy their secular needs, ranging from the ancient desire for children and good harvest, to modern concerns for stress relief, calm, and balance.** Secular scholars speculate how the terror of death, the great unknown, and the human desire to appease the tumultuous forces of nature, have been the main impulses for religiosity throughout history. In reality, these feelings are merely the signs and reminders that Allah has placed in this world and in our hearts in the form of a primordial urge for perfection and eternity, which in other words is the urge for God. The perversion of this urge is how Satan misguides humans, as he did with our father Adam: a promise of eternity and angelic perfection (e.g., 20:120; 7:20). The very first chapter of the Qur’an, *al-Fātiḥa*, tells us three primordial facts before addressing our instinct to worship and seek help: that Allah is deserving of praise because He is the most Merciful (*Raḥmān*, *Raḥīm*), the Sustainer of all things (*Rabb*); and the Master of the ultimate moral judgment. Only then are we taught to devote our worship to Him exclusively, and to turn to none but Him for help for He alone *deserves* to be worshipped and begged. The idea of *right* or *desert* (*ḥaqq*) is a fundamentally moral idea. The *surah* then ends with an earnest plea for guidance to the right path—again, a moral concept. As humans, we need protection and comfort, but the instinct to feel secure by securing the pleasure of the Ultimate Power is sandwiched in this *surah* between two equally primal *moral imperatives*. The first is to recognize the awesomeness and goodness of the Creator and Master (based on the virtues of open-minded observation, truthfulness, and gratitude), and the other to beg that Awesome Master for moral rectitude and guidance. Islam, therefore, is first and foremost concerned with the moral truth, with right and wrong: one ought to submit to and worship none but the one true God and follow God’s chosen Messenger. Unlike the secular worldview that has emptied the world of meaning and beauty today, Islam does not pry apart the *fact* of existence from the *purpose* of existence—these two questions must be asked and answered together. Separating the purpose and the fact of life is the essence of secularism, and once the two are separated, the secular interests inevitably take over and manipulate the moral purpose of existence. We cannot, in other words, take life for granted, deciding how to best live based on our desires and opinions, relegating the question of life’s purpose and meaning to the privacy of our homes and temples. Rather, we declare from the outset that the Creator created life with a purpose and that fulfilling that purpose is the foundation of all ethics and truths, public and private. Why, then, does God let those who deny Him, from the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the colonialist West to today’s endlessly exploitative global powers, to thrive and dominate the earth even as the believers who hold on to God’s truth suffer? Before modernity’s truly immoral nature became evident, in particular before the first world war, some naïve and frustrated Muslim authors attributed Europe’s military superiority to their moral superiority. This defeatist reasoning is patently false. The Qur’an speaks of many such struggles. The Israelites were the people of God who were repeatedly taken to task at the hands of the unbelieving powers when they failed to uphold God’s message, and rejected parts of the divine teachings that they found inconvenient (e.g., 2:85). God’s patience is incomparably greater than ours, and hence, God is far more patient with those who are unjust toward Him than with those who are unjust toward each other, even though the former is a greater sin than the latter. This is the meaning of the famous saying of the scholars that “God gives respite to the unbelievers who possess the virtue of justice but not to those who are believers but who are mutually unjust.” For it is fitting that those who possess God’s guidance be taken to account in this world to remind them to wake up to their duty to God and to humankind, and that those who do not have access to God’s message be given time until the message is brought to them. And Allah knows best. --- ## Looking ahead: The Yaqeen Ethics Series The struggle to ground our life choices in a profound sense of right and wrong, ethics or *akhlāq*, and to root those ethical standards in revealed guidance, has never been more urgent in a world dominated by secular consumerism and instant gratification. Our urgent questions about whether we need revelation to be good, whether the old *fiqh* rules are just outdated norms, and why we should not just follow what feels right by the contemporary standards all stem from the more general set of questions about the nature and purpose of life and how we define right and wrong in the first place. As believers in God’s promise of an incomparably more consequential afterlife, we know that the moral rhythms of our actions here echo in eternity. Correctly understanding the foundation and direction of our ethics is therefore fundamental to determining not only our behavior in this world, but also our destination in the next. What is equally important beyond understanding what is good is loving it and making it part of our character. The forthcoming essays in this series will offer a comprehensive explanation of Prophetic ethics or *akhlāq* as the proper framework for our lives as Muslims today. They tackle both practical questions such as how to develop Prophetic character and theoretical questions such as the relationship between law and ethics, the continued relevance of divine law (Shariah and *fiqh*) to modern life, and how to respond to situations where religious law might appear to be unethical, and how an *akhlāq*\-centered perspective helps us fulfill the divine command best by keeping our sense of right and wrong in accordance with revelation and reason both. Is Islam all about law, with love as only an afterthought, or all about love, with law being an obstruction? Finally, these essays will also explore the challenge of diversity of human cultures across time and space, and show how Islamic norms are characterized by flexibility that allows for, tolerates, and even celebrates the great human diversity. **Next article:** [“Prophetic ﷺ  Ethics as the Core of Islamic Character: ‘For those who seek God and the Hereafter’”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/prophetic-ethics-a-model-for-those-seeking-god-and-eternal-life) --- ## Notes [^1]: Christine Tamir, Aidan Connaughton, and Ariana Monique Salazar, “The Global God Divide: People’s Thoughts on whether Belief in God Is Necessary to Be Moral Vary by Economic Development, Education and Age,” Pew Research Center, July 20, 2020, [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486219881&usg=AOvVaw39RiUvmkVOg_wOKW-1L62j). Note that the data doesn’t support the authors’ claim that economy is the explanation for this divide: Turkey (75%), US (44%), Canada (26%), and Eastern European countries (ranging from 14–50%) suggest that the story is more complex. [^2]: David Graeber, *Debt: The First 5,000 Years* (New York: Melville House Publishing, 2011), 315, 344. [^3]: James G. Speth, *The Bridge at the Edge of the World* (Yale University Press, 2008), xx-xxi, 50. The author, former dean of Yale Forestry and a leading environmentalist, summarizes leading authorities on the subject and concludes that nothing short of a complete overhaul of the current Western lifestyle, capitalism, and even consciousness is needed, and recommends turning to a deeply community-centered and spiritual lifestyle (199). [^4]: There are many ways to bring these facts home. This figure is cited in John L Seitz, *Global Issues: An Introduction* (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2001). Another framing is given here: “Use It and Lose It: The Outsize Effect of U.S. Consumption on the Environment,” *Scientific American*, September 14, 2021,  [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-consumption-habits/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-consumption-habits/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486221471&usg=AOvVaw06Qy7raGAIqCVDOyKPjTsK). It states that “a child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil.” [^5]: Speth, *Bridge at the Edge*, 50. [^6]: The hadith *innamā buʿithtu li-utammim makārim al-akhlāq* (some versions replace *makārim* with *ḥusn* and others with *ṣālih*, without altering the meaning) is reported by Imam Mālik in his *Muwaṭṭa’* (Kitāb Ḥusn al-Khuluq) without an *isnād*, by Imam Aḥmad b. Hanbal in *Musnad* (no. 8952; ed. Shuʿayb al-Arna’ūṭ), by al-Bukharī in *al-Adab al-Mufrad* (no. 207), and was graded *ṣaḥīḥ* by numerous scholars including al-Albānī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and others. [^7]: *Sunan Abu Dawud*, no. 5225, graded *ṣaḥīḥ*; the first part of the hadith is also reported in *Sahih Muslim*, no. 17. [^8]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 3493. [^9]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1379), 6:529, in explanation of *Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 3493. [^10]: Stephen Halliwell, *Plato: Republic* *Book V* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 3–4, 16. [^11]: See for instance, Stephen Mitchell and Peter Van Nuffelen, eds., *One God: Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), in particular the contributions by Michael Frede and Alfons Fürst on pagan Greek and Roman monotheism without monolatry: that is, belief in one supreme deity along with the worship of many, lesser deities, a situation very similar to pre-Islamic *jahiliyyah*. Most of these philosophical monotheisms, however, entertained a deistic notion of God who has no power to intervene in the world, and that is compatible with idolatry, both of which notions Islam came to correct. [^12]: My point is not to establish that these philosophers were indeed monotheists, as it remains a disputed claim. Those like Frede in the last footnote who make this claim (persuasive to this author) state only that Plato and Aristotle philosophized their way to the ultimate supremacy of one God, but they did not oppose idol worship. [^13]: For a Western perspective on Hindu monotheism, see Gavin Flood, *Hindu Monotheism* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). [^14]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ Fatāwa* (Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahd, 1995), 3:295. [^15]: Robert Coles, *The Spiritual Life of Children* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990). [^16]: Darel E. Paul, *From Tolerance to Equality: How Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage* (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019), in which a leading historian argues how a small wealthy managerial class in the US has led the charge to alter America’s sexual morality. [^17]: Alasdair MacIntyre, “The Claims of *After Virtue*,” in *The MacIntyre Reader*, ed. Kelvin Knight (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998), 69. [^18]: MacIntyre, “Claims of *After Virtue*,” 69–71. [^19]: Steven D. Smith, *The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press: 2010), 38. I introduce the terms *liberal* and *secular* advisedly. The dominant ethical and political philosophy of our times is liberalism, which upholds the idea that individual freedoms and rights take precedence over any truth-claims. Secularism is the idea that religion should be removed from public life. Liberalism requires secularism but not the other way around, and there exist a number of nonliberal secularist societies like Russia, China, and some Middle Eastern dictatorships. Because of the hegemony of liberalism and secularism, these effectively atheistic attitudes toward ethical norms are often shared and championed by otherwise religious people. [^20]: The phenomenon is explored in Vanderbilt University professor William Franke’s “The Deaths of God in Hegel and Nietzsche and the Crisis of Values in Secular Modernity and Post-Secular Postmodernity,” *Religion and the Arts* 11 (2007), 215. [^21]: Friedrich Nietzsche, *The Gay Science* \[translation of the German original, *Die fröhliche Wissenschaft*\] (Leipzig: E. W. Fritzsch, 1887), 181. [^22]: Sung Ho Ku, “Max Weber,” in *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, August 24, 2007, updated November 27, 2017,  [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486226570&usg=AOvVaw3AoYdmlRRdEp5wJ6e_9Swj). [^23]: Max Weber, “*Science as a Vocation*” in *From Max Weber* (Oxford University Press, 1946 \[1919\]), 149. [^24]: Mirza Safwat, “Why Modern Atheists Are Mushriks,” Islam 21C, October 25, 2021,  [https://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/why-modern-atheists-are-mushriks/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/why-modern-atheists-are-mushriks/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486227815&usg=AOvVaw3ohvOPPmq75VnYO-njaWzs). [^25]: See: Biana Bosker, “Why Witchcraft Is On the Rise,” *The Atlantic*, March 2020, [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/witchcraft-juliet-diaz/605518/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/witchcraft-juliet-diaz/605518/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486228602&usg=AOvVaw1tGz3HLlG-tV-0Xp98_T38). But more generally, this has been the case since the rise of modern Enlightenment, as studied in Jason Storm, *The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017). [^26]: “Peru: Ancient Mass Grave of 140 Sacrificed Children Found,” Aljazeera, April 4, 2018, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/4/28/peru-ancient-mass-grave-of-140-sacrificed-children-found](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/4/28/peru-ancient-mass-grave-of-140-sacrificed-children-found&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486229824&usg=AOvVaw3gKZkFG0SAv0d9j_Fx1zZZ). [^27]: An exceptional case is documented here: Nat Hentoff, “A Professor Who Argues for Infanticide,” *Washington Post*, September 11, 1999, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1999/09/11/a-professor-who-argues-for-infanticide/cce7dc81-3775-4ef6-bfea-74cd795fc43f/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1999/09/11/a-professor-who-argues-for-infanticide/cce7dc81-3775-4ef6-bfea-74cd795fc43f/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486230587&usg=AOvVaw1BicUaXE8d7A_wXISYXcyN). A more typical justification is offered here: “Abortion is the cornerstone of women’s existential equality, an inalienable part of which is sexual freedom.” Judith Levine, “Hillary Clinton and the Unqualified Right to Abortion,” October 31, 2016,  [https://bostonreview.net/articles/judith-levine-hillary-clinton-abortion/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bostonreview.net/articles/judith-levine-hillary-clinton-abortion/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486231124&usg=AOvVaw2C_rluFDvI0yP-R9AV1OwW). [^28]: See Jared Diamond, *The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?* (New York: Penguin Books, 2013). [^29]: Richard Weikart, *Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress* (New York: Palgrave, 2009). See also, Michael Rosenwald, “Hitler Hated Judaism. But He Loathed Christianity, Too,” *Washington Post*, April 20, 2019, [www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/20/hitler-hated-judaism-he-loathed-christianity-too/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/20/hitler-hated-judaism-he-loathed-christianity-too/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486232124&usg=AOvVaw21kMDW8U4wbCUV8We9depf). [^30]: Jonathan Glover, *Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century* (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012). The estimates are that the Soviets killed sixty-two million people (237). In China, apart from the regime’s purges, famines caused by the “noble” idea of the Great Leap Forward killed between twenty and thirty million people (284), and for the Cultural Revolution, estimates vary between several hundred thousand and twenty million. [^31]: “Al-Qaeda Disavows ISIS Militants in Syria,” *BBC*, February 3, 2014, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26016318](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26016318&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486233373&usg=AOvVaw0bwYh8-LlZFX8nYk8L-x1R). [^32]: See, for instance, the various letters dispatched to the IS leader al-Baghdadi, “Scholars’ Open Letter Adds to Chorus of Muslim Leaders Condemning ISIS,” *Slate*, September 25, 2014, [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/09/muslims-scholars-open-letter-to-isis-baghdadi-caliphate-s-actions-against-qur-an-islam.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/09/muslims-scholars-open-letter-to-isis-baghdadi-caliphate-s-actions-against-qur-an-islam.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486234159&usg=AOvVaw19KX1EY2S-TxY9U7OgSr1i). [^33]: Rahul Mahajan, “We Think the Price Is Worth It,” *FAIR*, November 1, 2001, [https://fair.org/extra/we-think-the-price-is-worth-it/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fair.org/extra/we-think-the-price-is-worth-it/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1643304486234802&usg=AOvVaw08MZboyOELjg_-IiMFsqOO). [^34]: The four theological schools in Islam are explained brilliantly and evenhandedly in Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^35]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *I’lām al-muwaqqi’īn* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-\`Ilmiyya, 1991), 3:11. ## Summary The Blessed Messenger of Allah ﷺ summed up the whole purpose of his mission in the words reported on the authority of Abū Hurayra: "I have been sent only to perfect noble traits of character." This single declaration teaches us something profound about the human being: that the love of goodness is not foreign to us but woven into our very nature, yet it stands in need of divine guidance to be completed and perfected. All human cultures recognize, in some elementary form, that lying, cruelty to animals, and the harming of innocents are evil, and that kindness, gratitude, courage, patience, justice, and wisdom are good. These matters the Qur'an and the Prophetic teachings call khuluq and akhlāq. Yet the moment human beings begin to reflect and to act, this shared moral impulse dissolves into endless disagreement—some prioritize mercy over justice, others justice over mercy, some choice over life, some fleeting pleasure over all else. The world, moreover, is no lecture hall for calm discussion but a battleground between good and evil, in which the champions of falsehood, driven by greed, pride, and self-worship, corrupt our perception and even our language, calling evil good and good evil. To be truly good, then, requires not merely an intellectual choice but a struggle and commitment to what is true. The perennial question of the secular age—can we be ethical without religion?—receives different answers depending on who is asked, for the poor and religious majority of humankind answers no, while a wealthy, secularized minority answers yes. But such surveys conceal a deeper truth: that a global elite has altered, and continues to alter, the very definition of goodness itself, a phenomenon I call epistemic imperialism—the colonization of knowledge, meaning, and values by certain dominant global institutions. A century ago, serving one's parents was universally counted among the highest virtues from Europe to the Islamic world to China and India; today secular liberal society has abandoned it. Greed, and its particular form of usury, was once regarded as the greatest of evils across all cultures and all history, until modern capitalism declared it a virtue and even a necessity. This is not merely economic exploitation but the mass manipulation of our very sense of right and wrong. Is there, then, an empirical measure by which the conduct of the wealthy, secular global North might be judged? Ironically, modern science itself supplies it in the form of climate change. Consider parents who consume and sell off the very house in which their children must live, leaving them to starve in the streets—all would agree this is odious. Modern secular capitalism has been precisely such a parent to the earth. Within two hundred years since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has consumed nearly all the fossil fuels that natural processes took two hundred million years to deposit; roughly five percent of the world's population consumes thirty-five percent of its resources, so that if all lived as modern Westerners do, eighty percent of humanity would need another planet; and the chief culprit is not population but lifestyle, for while world population multiplied fourfold over a century from 1890, water use multiplied ninefold, the economy fourteenfold, and energy sixteenfold. The material ruin, however, is only part of the crisis; the deeper loss is that of faith and meaning, for Allah Most High has joined the two: "Whoever turns away from My remembrance, his will be a straitened life; and We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection" (Qur'an 20:124). The exclusive particle innamā in the Prophet's ﷺ statement bears two correct meanings: that he came not to invent but to perfect good character, and that his mission had no purpose but to complete noble traits. The first meaning affirms that people already possess knowledge of good character even before revelation, as confirmed when the Prophet ﷺ said to al-Ashajj of ʿAbd al-Qays, "You have two traits that God loves, forbearance (ḥilm) and gentleness (anāt)," and when al-Ashajj asked whether these were acquired or natural, the Prophet ﷺ replied, "Rather it is God who has given them to you by nature." Another hadith teaches, "Peoples are like metal ores, the best of them in pre-Islamic time are the best of them in Islam, so long as they acquire understanding," which Ibn Ḥajar explains as pointing to three dimensions: the noble nature granted by God, the acceptance of Islam upon which ultimate success rests, and the effort to acquire knowledge of religion. Yet no character, however noble, avails those who reject faith: "A similitude of those who disbelieve in their Lord: Their works are as ashes which the wind blows hard upon a stormy day" (14:18). Thus Islam perfects moral traits in three ways: by directing them to their proper end, Allah; by granting a higher and lasting motivation; and by ordering competing values through the revealed Law. Philosophical reflection has often led thinkers toward God, yet reason unaided by revelation reaches its limits. Socrates, held to be the first ethical philosopher, could conceive of one God yet could not proceed to His worship or to sound ethics, for in Plato's Republic he proposed communal ownership of women and children and the separation of children from parents at birth—a loveless and deplorable society. This shows that the human mind, even at its finest, cannot be trusted to play god. We must reject the Eurocentric fiction that the Greeks invented ethics, for humanity has never existed without divine guidance. Allah addressed our father Adam: "When guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance—there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve" (2:38). Just as there were ḥanīfs in pagan Arabia, so may figures like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have reached a conceptual monotheism, as did the Hindu philosophers of the Upanishads, through remnants of revelation or their own reflection—yet without revelation they could not advance to the attributes of the One True God or the right way of life. Imām Ibn Taymiyya invokes the lament of the disbelievers: "If only we had listened or reasoned, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze" (67:10). Reason, then, is better equipped to recognize truth once presented than to discover it outright. Our natural moral sense, the fiṭra, is real yet weak. Without divine law no line between good and evil stands above philosophical dispute, as seen in the modern reversals concerning homosexual behavior and even incest, and in the earlier respectability of eugenics and racial theory. The Christian philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre observed that our moral disagreements have become "peculiarly unsettleable," because the Enlightenment severed values from their religious grounding, leaving orphaned concepts sustained only by emotivism and manipulation. An American constitutional scholar likewise describes secular ethics as a kind of intellectual smuggling, borrowing from the Abrahamic tradition without acknowledging its source. Dostoyevsky's character warned, "If there is no God, then everything is permitted," and Nietzsche's madman declared, "God is dead… and we have killed him"—yet as the Ever-living Lord says, "It is not the eyes but the hearts that are in their chests that become blind" (22:46). Max Weber foresaw modern secularism as a polytheism of values, and indeed when humans fail to worship God they fall to worshipping desire and power: "Have you seen he who has taken as his god his own desire?" (45:23). The claim that the worst evils spring from a lack of morality is false; more often they are committed in the name of some supposed moral good. The pre-Islamic Arabs buried their daughters alive from "fear of starvation" (17:31), lacking belief in the God-given inviolability of life, yet modern liberal societies advocate the killing of the unborn in the name of freedom. Hitler was driven not by absence of ethics but by fervent commitment to eugenic and Darwinian beliefs then mainstream among intellectuals; Mao's famine killed tens of millions in pursuit of a supposedly more equal society. ISIS, born of two decades of war and sanctions, murdered some thirty-three thousand people, mostly Muslims, and was condemned by nearly all Muslim authorities as contrary to the Shariah—whereas Madeleine Albright declared the death of half a million Iraqi children "worth it" and was confirmed as Secretary of State soon after. The fiṭra is God-given, and its denial does not erase it but confounds and misleads it. Turning to right, fiṭrī reason that submits to God, we discover that only He who gave life can give it value, for life has worth because Allah honored the human being and breathed His breath into him (15:29; 38:72; 32:9). The Shariah given to the Prophet ﷺ is accessible to human nature and removes arbitrary burdens: "He will enjoin on them that which is right and forbid them from that which is wrong, making lawful for them all good things and prohibiting for them only the foul; relieving them of their burden and the fetters that they used to wear" (7:157). The classical schools disagreed on whether ethical truths are known by reason unaided: the traditionalists, Māturīdiyya, and Muʿtazila held that they are, while the Ashāʿira, to safeguard divine omnipotence, held that good and evil in the sense of reward and punishment are established only by revelation, though they too, as with Imām al-Ghazālī, affirm the beneficial and rational nature of the Law. Imām Ibn al-Qayyim summed up the traditionalist view: "The Shariah is founded upon wisdom and welfare… In its entirety it is justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom. Every matter which abandons justice for tyranny… is not a part of the Shariah even if it was introduced therein through an interpretation." Beyond fiqh lies the realm of tarbiyya and tazkiyya, and the Qur'an commands good deeds some two hundred times without restricting them, extending kindness even to unbelieving parents and to animals, as the righteous say, "We only feed you for the pleasure of Allah, wanting neither reward nor gratitude in return" (76:9). The foundation of all this good is the acknowledgment of and submission to al-Ḥaqq, Allah, without which good deeds become mere ashes (14:18). Sūrat al-Fātiḥa teaches us first that Allah is the Merciful (Raḥmān, Raḥīm), the Sustainer (Rabb), and Master of the moral judgment, before directing us to worship Him alone and to beg Him for guidance to the right path. Islam does not sever the fact of existence from its purpose, as secularism does. As for why deniers of God are permitted to dominate while believers suffer, the defeatist notion that Europe's military strength reflected moral superiority is patently false; rather, Allah is more patient with those unjust toward Him than with believers who are mutually unjust, for it is fitting that those who possess His guidance be called to account in this world. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/mawali-how-freed-slaves-and-non-arabs-contributed-to-islamic-scholarship # Mawālī: How Freed Slaves and Non-Arabs Contributed to Islamic Scholarship **Author:** Dr. Emad Hamdeh **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Featured - Read, Paper, Publication **Published:** September 9, 2021 **Updated:** October 6, 2026 ## The contributions of non-Arabs and slaves to early Islamic scholarship Those unfamiliar with Islamic intellectual history might assume that most early Muslim scholars were Arabs. And some might be surprised to hear that among these early scholars were many who had been slaves. However, as I will demonstrate, Islamic scholarship is tremendously indebted to the efforts of emancipated slaves and non-Arab scholars*.* In this brief article, I shed light on the term *mawālī* and explain how it referred to both freed slaves as well as non-Arabs in early Islam. Next, I highlight the importance of the tribal system in the Arabian Peninsula and how it resulted in the creation of the *mawālī* category*.* Finally, I explain who the *mawālī* were and their role in developing and preserving Islamic scholarly tradition. The primary purpose of shedding light on this issue is to demonstrate that Islam’s call for racial equality generated a meritocratic scholarly atmosphere that allowed scholars of all backgrounds to participate in the quest for and preservation of knowledge. Many have argued that non-Arabs scholars have exceedingly outnumbered Arab scholars. This assumption is not necessarily accurate. Non-Arabs certainly played a key role in Islamic scholarship, but it is important not to misunderstand this as Arabs not contributing or even lacking intelligence. A random sample of over one thousand scholars who died in or before the year of 400 AH/1010 CE, covering the five main branches of Islamic learning (*ḥadīth*, *tafsīr*, *qirāʾa*, *naḥw*, and *fiqh*) found that 51% of scholars were Arabs and 49% were non-Arabs. In the first century of Islam Arabs outnumbered non-Arabs 90% to 10%, but by the fourth century non-Arabs outnumbered Arabs 65% to 35%.[^1] Another study that used Abū Isḥāq al-Shirāzī’s (d. 476/1083) *Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ* to look at the first two centuries of Islam found that the ratios of Arab to non-Arab scholars were: 8:2 in Medina, 2:8 in Mecca, 7:3 in Syria and northern Iraq, 4:4 in Egypt, and 7:3 in Kufa and Basra.[^2] As we see, Arabs played an absolutely essential role in Islamic scholarship, particularly in the early period, when the vast majority of Muslims were Arab. With time, non-Arabs became the majority. The initial predominance of Arabs in Islam did not suppress the Islamic teaching that it is piety and knowledge that determine a scholar’s standing, not race or background. The early Muslim community allowed people from all societal backgrounds to contribute to Islamic knowledge. --- ## What did slavery look like in 7th-century Arabia? Today, many automatically view any historical phenomenon labeled as slavery through the lens of American chattel slavery. This complicates discussing slavery in the Islamic tradition, because the extreme oppressiveness, expansiveness, and racial basis of slavery in the Western European colonies of the New World is not representative of the many and varied forms slavery has taken throughout history. Looking at slavery only from the American prism conceals the tremendous diversity in the variety of relationships of dependent labor and exploitation that have appeared in human societies globally and throughout history. The concept of slavery and the difficulty in defining it has been discussed elsewhere in great detail.[^3] However, it is important to highlight a few differences between slavery in the Americas and the forms it took in Islamic history. Slavery in 7th\-century Arabia was not based on skin color or race. The primary way one became a slave was by being captured as a prisoner of war or on a raid. In modern times, when soldiers of an enemy army are captured, they are usually placed in a prison. However, premodern times did not have the institution of prisons housing hundreds or thousands of prisoners. Instead of being placed in jails, in the premodern world prisoners of war were either killed, ransomed, or taken as slaves into the homes of individuals. Because slavery was based on whom one captured in war and not race, slaves from all backgrounds existed, with the largest group of slaves in Pre-Islamic Arabia being other Arabs.[^4] Slaves in Arabia were not housed away from their owners, working apart in the fields. They were individuals who were part of their owners’ households. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized the importance and necessity of clothing, feeding, housing, and treating slaves humanely and treating them as brothers and sisters. He prohibited beating them, and the Qur’an and Sunnah strongly encouraged freeing them. In a hadith, the Companion Al-Maʿrūr ibn Suwayd (d. 82/701) رضي الله عنه narrates: > I saw Abū Dharr Al-Ghifārī wearing a cloak, and his slave, too, was wearing a cloak. We asked him about that (i.e., how both were wearing similar cloaks). He replied, “Once I abused a man and he complained of me to the Prophet. The Prophet asked me, ‘Did you abuse him by slighting his mother?’ He added, ‘Your slaves are your brethren upon whom Allah has given you authority. So, if one has one’s brethren under one’s control, one should feed them with the like of what one eats and clothe them with the like of what one wears. You should not overburden them with what they cannot bear, and if you do so, help them (in their difficult work).’”[^5] Until the age of abolition in the 1800s, slavery had been a mundane reality in every civilization. Although Islam did not prohibit slavery, it did come very close to it. This was due to the fact that the Qur’an strongly encouraged the emancipation of slaves and even mandated it as a requirement for forgiveness for certain categories of sins. Beyond requiring the freeing of slaves for sins, the Qur’an and Sunnah are full of examples strongly encouraging the freeing of slaves as a good deed. In fact, one of the earliest chapters revealed refers to freeing slaves as a sign of piety.[^6] Slaves were often emancipated by their owners as an act of righteousness. Slaves were also able to gain freedom by a contract of manumission (*mukātaba*) whereby the owner granted the slave freedom after a period of employment or an agreed set of money was paid. This meant that the owner had to allow the slave to earn money. A female slave who gave birth to her owner's child, known as *umm walad,* immediately became free when the owner died. The Prophet ﷺ also noted that a slave automatically became free if the owner declared him or her as such, even if the statement was an accident or a joke. Finally, if a Muslim committed certain sins, such as involuntary manslaughter, they were required to free a slave. In Islamic civilization, slaves were rarely slaves for life and most were eventually freed. What this meant was that there was never a consistent class of slaves in society, since so many were freed. Early Muslims took the Qur’anic exhortation to free slaves to a level of obsession, sometimes with disregard to their own wealth.[^7] For example, during his lifetime, the Prophet ﷺ was gifted dozens of slaves, and he freed all of them.[^8] This was done at a time when slavery was not considered immoral and almost every middle-class family had a slave. The fact that the Prophet ﷺ emancipated every slave that was gifted to him is a clear indication that he did not like the idea of owning a slave. The Qur’an’s requirement to emancipate a slave as a penalty for certain sins as well as the Prophet’s actions demonstrate that although Islam did not prohibit slavery, it certainly did not encourage it. This is not an apologetic point or a watering down of Islam, but a historical fact. --- ## Who were the mawālī? North of Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century did not have any states or formal government. Individuals had only their families and tribes to rely on for protection. Society at the time did not have police or courts. Rather, there was the tribal social structure. In order to enjoy security one had to be affiliated with a tribe. Although they are not identical, one can compare the function of tribes in Arabia to that of gangs in the modern world. People had absolute and blind loyalty to their tribe because they depended on it for their survival. That is why we find the famous statement of the Arabs “Support your brother whether he is oppressed or the oppressor.”[^9] Islam challenged the tribal system by insisting that all humans are equal before God and that one should stand for justice even if it is against one’s nearest kin. For example, the Qur’an 4:135 states, “O you who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives. Whether the person is rich or poor, God can best take care of both. Refrain from following your own desire, so that you can act justly. If you distort or neglect justice, God is fully aware of what you do.” Women, orphans, and slaves were the most vulnerable in 7th\-century Arabia. The Prophet Muhammad’s call to equality and justice was unprecedented. Justice and equality were central themes of his message.[^10] When he heard of an elderly woman who was treated violently in a neighboring land, he stated, “How would God sanctify a nation that does not protect its underprivileged from its powerful?”[^11] The Qur’an and Sunnah instituted an order in which justice and basic rights belonged to all, even non-Muslims, and were guaranteed by the government,[^12] which the Prophet ﷺ called “the guardian of those who have no guardian.”[^13] The shift from a tribal system that favored certain tribes over others to a universal Muslim community did not happen overnight, however. Instead, it was a gradual process that took place over several years. In Arabia of the 7th century, there was a way for outsiders to be integrated into the tribal system, and this would prove crucial for transitioning from the tribal system of *jāhiliyya* to the rule of law in Islam. Foreigners, Arabs who had moved from other areas, and other unattached individuals could become affiliates (*mawlā*, plural *mawālī*) of a tribe. This was also the status given to free slaves. When a member of an Arab tribe freed their slave, the slave would become an affiliate of the tribe. Freed slaves did not originally belong to the tribe but they still maintained an affiliation to it. In the early decades of Islam, the term *mawālī* could mean people outside the tribal system who had been integrated into it *or* freed slaves. As the Muslims expanded outside of Arabia, both meanings of the term *mawālī* found much greater use. When more people from outside the Arabian Peninsula began accepting Islam, the Ḥijāzī Arabs integrated them into the fabric of Arab Muslim society using the *mawālī* system. A patronage system was developed to manage the many new converts spread over a vast area. A non-Arab convert would become the *mawlā* of an Arab patron. As Muslims entered the civilized lands of the Mediterranean and Persian worlds, where slavery had long been an important part of the economy and the slave trade was robust, the Arab Muslim conquerors also found themselves with many captives, and they were also given slaves by allies as tribute. This was a much larger number of slaves than they had seen in Arabia. Following the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the early Muslims freed many of their slaves, especially those who had become Muslim, and so a large portion of the new *mawālī* class of Muslims were former slaves or their children. For example, Sulaymān ibn Yasār (d. 107/725), was of Persian origin and the freed slave of the Prophet’s last wife Maymūna bint al-Ḥārith رضي الله عنها. He eventually became one of the seven famous jurists of Medina, alongside the grandchildren of Arabs like Abū Bakr and Ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنهما. This *mawlā* policy was established by the Umayyad dynasty, and its initial form was controversial. It retained some of the prejudice of the old tribal system. Non-Arab converts to Islam were all referred to as *mawālī* and, though they were Muslims, they had a lower status than Arab Muslims.[^14] The Umayyad government’s preference for Arab Muslims caused contention because it went against the Qur’an’s affirmation that all Muslims are equal. Non-Muslims who lived in the Umayyad dynasty paid a tax called a *jizya,* which absolved them from any military obligations. If a non-Muslim converted to Islam this tax was no longer applicable to them. However, giving fiscal equality to new Muslims was not in the interest of the Umayyad state, and they required them to continue paying the *jizya.* The *ʿulamāʾ* and pious Muslims objected to this policy and argued that Arabs and non-Arabs were equal. The pious Umayyad caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101/720) ended laws discriminating against the *mawālī*. The early Umayyads had used tribalism as a tool of politics, and the *mawālī* posed a threat to the tribal system.[^15] But, by the middle of the Umayyad period, the tribal system had imploded as a tool for organizing the vast Muslim Umayyad empire. The later Umayyad caliphs turned to the *mawālī* as a new pillar of support. Some modern scholars have questioned whether the *jizya* was levied on the *mawālī.* Jamal Juda has argued that the idea that non-Arab converts to Islam still had to pay the *jizya* comes from that term being used at times for both the tax levied on non-Muslims and the land taxes imposed on everyone. This situation was simplified when the caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz issued a decree that taxes on land would remain the same regardless of the owner, Muslim or non-Muslim.[^16] Whatever the anxieties of the early Umayyad state, by the 720s CE the *mawālī* had mostly started speaking Arabic, intermarrying with Arabs, and becoming major figures in business, scholarship, and society. When the Abbasid family took over the caliphate, they soon eliminated all remaining policies that distinguished between Arabs and *mawālī*, and they were no longer considered an inferior class of society. They achieved social, educational, and economic equality with Arabs in several ways. First, the scholarly class spoke against the idea that Arabs are superior to non-Arabs. Additionally, children of enslaved mothers resolved their liminal positions by re-defining themselves as completely Arab in a similar way that children of immigrants will eventually identify as American rather than as from their country of origin.[^17] The *mawālī* needed to demonstrate that they were true Muslims who were loyal to the empire and Islamic scholarship. They used their mastery of Arabic language and scholarship to obtain political and religious positions. As the Abbasid period went on, Arab and non-Arab stopped mattering as ethnic or tribal distinctions. Islamic culture became the shared identity of all, with Arabic becoming the mother tongue of millions and the language of royal courts and scholarship alike. --- ## The contributions of mawālī to Islamic scholarship Even during the time of the first four caliphs, *mawālī* had begun playing important roles in government and Islamic education. The caliph ʿUmar once met the person in charge of Mecca during the Hajj. ʿUmar asked him, “Who did you leave in charge of the people of the valley (i.e., Mecca)?” The man responded, “Ibn Abzā.” ʿUmar asked: “Who is Ibn Abzā?” The man said, “He is one of the *mawālī.*” ʿUmar said: “So you put a *mawlā* in charge?” The man responded, “He recites God’s book and is knowledgeable about the obligations.” ʿUmar responded, “Indeed, I heard your Prophet ﷺ say, ‘God elevates \[some\] people with this religion and lowers others.’”[^18] The role of the *mawālī* increased even under the Umayyads. When Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742), a scholar of Arab stock who was close to the caliphs, returned from a journey, caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (d. 86/705) asked him about who the religious leaders were in different regions. Al-Zuhrī kept naming *mawālī.* The questioning continued until the caliph asked who was leading Kufa, to which al-Zuhrī finally mentioned an Arab, Ibrahīm al-Nakhaʿī (d. 96/717). The caliph seemed anxious about the fate of his Arab dynasty, and he remarked with worry, “By God, the *mawālī* will lead the Arabs until they give sermons from the pulpits while the Arabs sit under them.” Al-Zuhrī responded: “O leader of the believers, this is the affair of God and His religion; whoever preserves it prevails, and whoever loses it is degraded.”[^19] In just a short period of time, almost all major learning centers were led by *mawālī.* An examination of the biographical literature (*ṭabaqāt*) clearly illustrates that it was not a rare occurrence to see a *mawlā* in a position of religious leadership. The anecdote of al-Zuhrī is not a rarity, but rather representative evidence of systematic change that occurred all over the Muslim empire. The role of non-Arabs in all areas of life, however, truly blossomed under the Abbasids. Many of the scribes of the Abbasid government were Persian. Scribes, known as *kuttāb,* played an important role in society and had a substantial amount of political and social influence. The *mawālī* quickly became a significant majority of the Muslim scholarly and political class. In the later part of his life, al-Zuhrī admitted that, “Knowledge has been taken over by the *mawālī.*”[^20] Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406) made a similar observation: “An amazing fact is that those who carried knowledge in the Islamic tradition were mostly non-Arabs.”[^21] Similarly, the Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher stated “a statistical assessment of these matters (the role of *mawālī*) would certainly be to the disadvantage of the Arabs.”[^22] The idea that *mawālī* outnumbered Arab scholars has not gone unchallenged as previously noted.[^23] Whether or not they outnumbered Arab scholars, *mawālī* scholars were numerous and, more importantly, their impact was substantial. This is evident when we look at the great Sunnī hadith collections. All of the compilers of the six famous hadith books were non-Arab and almost half of the narrators in these canonical hadith compilations were *mawālī.* This demonstrates that being a former slave or a non-Arab did not prevent one from playing important roles in preserving the Sunnah, Islam’s second primary source. According to Ibn Khaldūn, one reason for this is because many of the converts to Islam came from places where the general population was trained to read and write. The early Arabs primarily learned Islam directly from the Prophet ﷺ and passed his teachings on to others. This is demonstrated by the fact that the early Arabs used to call those who read *qurrāʾ*. In other words, they had a title to describe those who could read as opposed to the unlettered. Furthermore, many of the Companions went out to other parts of the Muslim world to lead armies or hold political positions. Ultimately, it was the *mawālī* who stepped up and played a leading role in the formation of Islamic sciences.[^24] After the period of the Companions, the Qur’an required *tafsīr,* hadith needed to be compiled, dictionaries needed to be written, and new circumstances presented themselves that needed new *fiqh* rulings. The *mawālī* had an indisputable impact on Islamic scholarly tradition. They contributed to *fiqh,* hadith*, tafsīr*, theology, and Arabic grammar. Islamic scholarship remains indebted to the contribution of non-Arabs and slaves. It was primarily Islam’s call to equality that created an environment where everyone was able to contribute to knowledge, regardless of race or social status. --- ## A brief list of famous scholars who were mawālī from the second century: ʿIkrima Mawlā Ibn ʿAbbās (105/723): He was the former slave of the Prophet’s Companion Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما and of Berber origin. He was also a hadith narrator, jurist, and leading *tafsīr* scholar. Ṭāwūs ibn Kaysān (d. 106/723): He met over fifty of the Prophet’s Companions. He was one of the most famous students of Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما and was a teacher of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Azīz (d. 101/720). Sulaymān ibn Yasār (d. 107/725): was of Persian origin and the freed slave of the Prophet’s last wife Maymūna bint al-Ḥārith رضي الله عنها. He was one of the seven great jurists of Medina. Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728): is one of the most celebrated *tābiʿīn* known for his scholarship and piety. He particularly excelled in Qur’anic commentary and his name is often cited in *tafsīr* works. He was a passionate and eloquent preacher who became a towering figure in Sufi literature. Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn (d. 110/729): his father Sīrīn was the freed slave of the Prophet’s Companion Anas ibn Mālik رضي الله عنه. Ibn Sīrīn was a leading scholar in *tafsīr*, hadith, *fiqh,* and the explanation of dreams. ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ (d. 115/733): His mother was a basket weaver and his father was an African black man. ʿAṭāʾ was a hadith scholar, jurist, and served as the mufti of Mecca and taught in the great mosque, Islam’s holiest site. Nāfiʿ Mawlā ibn ʿUmar (d. 117/726): A *mawlā* of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar رضي الله عنهما who was Persian or Berber and a major narrator of hadith. He was the teacher of Imam Mālik. He was the freed slave of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar and had the shortest chain of transmission to the Prophet ﷺ. ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān (d. 180/796): better known as Sībawayhi, was a Persian and a leading grammarian in Basra and wrote the first book on Arabic grammar. His unnamed five-volume book, simply called “The Book” (*Al-Kitāb*), is a foundational text in Arabic grammar and considered unrivaled among grammar books. ʿAbdallāh ibn Mubārak (d. 181/797): his father Mubārak was from Khorasan and became a *mawlā.* ʿAbdallāh ibn Mubārak was known as the leader of the believers in hadith (*amīr al muʾminīn* *fī al-ḥadīth*). He travelled widely and studied with both Abū Ḥanīfa and Imām Mālik. Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/767): the founder of the Ḥanafī school which is followed by approximately one-third of the Muslim world today. He was of Persian descent and considered one of the greatest scholars in Islamic law. --- ## Notes [^1]: John Nawas, “The Contribution of Mawālī to the Six Sunnite Canonical Ḥadīth Collections,” in *Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam*, ed. Sebastian Günther (Boston: Brill, 2005), 141–52. [^2]: Harold Motzki, “The Role of Non-Arab Converts in the Development of Early Islamic Law,” *Islamic Law and Society* 6, no. 3 (1999): 293–317. [^3]: See Jonathan Brown, *Slavery and Islam* (London: Oneworld, 2019). Also see Jonathan Brown and Abdullah Hamid Ali, “Slavery and Islam: What is Slavery?,” *Yaqeen*, February 7, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/abdullah-hamid/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/abdullah-hamid/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1631203071582000&usg=AOvVaw3_Jjs8cyPHW__mNaqvi39b). [^4]: Jonathan Brown, *Slavery and Islam*, 114. [^5]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2545. [^6]: See Qur’an 90:12–13. [^7]: Jonathan Brown, *Slavery and Islam*, 263–64. [^8]: See *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2379. [^9]: This was a saying among the Arabs before Islam that meant to blindly support your brother or tribe, regardless of whether they were oppressed or oppressing. The Prophet ﷺ later used this same statement but explained that one supports his oppressive brother by preventing his oppression. On its usage before Islam, see Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Shiblī, *al-Madkhal fil taʿrīf bil-fiqh al-islāmī wa qawāʿid al-milkiyya wa al-ʿuqūd fīhi* (Cairo: Dār al-Ta’līf, 1962), 35–36. [^10]: See Nazir Khan, “Divine Duty: Islam and Social Justice,” *Yaqeen*, February 4, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/divine-duty-islam-and-social-justice#ftnt\_ref10](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/divine-duty-islam-and-social-justice%23ftnt_ref10&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1631203071583000&usg=AOvVaw3mjhqlo8XjxJhseGjJo7OO). [^11]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4010. [^12]: See Ovamir Anjum, “The ‘Constitution’ of Medina: Translation, Commentary, and Meaning Today,” *Yaqeen*, February 4, 2021, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ovamiranjum/the-constitution-of-medina-translation-commentary-and-meaning-today](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ovamiranjum/the-constitution-of-medina-translation-commentary-and-meaning-today&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1631203071584000&usg=AOvVaw34zwyQx_qrkdWHrxqX1_3k). [^13]: *Musnad al-Imam Ahmad*, no. 2260. [^14]: Elizabeth Urban, “The Early Islamic Mawālī: A Window onto Processes of Identity Construction and Social Change” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2012), 114–17. [^15]: Urban, “The Early Islamic Mawālī,” 103. [^16]: Jamal Juda, “The Economic Status of the Mawālī in Early Islam,” in *Patronate and Patronage in Early and Classical Islam*, ed. Monique Bernards and John Nawas (Boston: Brill, 2005), 271–73. [^17]: Elizabeth Urban, *Conquered Populations in Early Islam: Non-Arabs, Slaves and the Sons of Slave Mothers* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020), 2. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 3088. [^19]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *Maʿrifat ʿulūm al-ḥadīth* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Tijārī lil-Ṭibāʿa, 1935), 199. [^20]: Brown, *Slavery and Islam,* 211. [^21]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Ibn Khaldūn, *Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldūn* (Damascus: Dār Yaʿrib, 2004), 2:361. [^22]: Ignaz Goldziher, *Muslim Studies* (New York: Routledge, 2005), 1:109. Goldziher’s statement here seems in line with Zuhrī’s; however, it likely stems from his belief that the cultural capacities of Arabs were limited and his refusal to attribute the flowering of Islamic culture to Arabs. This idea that Arabs, and Muslims at large, borrowed everything from other cultures is a consistent theme found in the works of Orientalists. Adolf Grohmann even accused Muslims of borrowing the concept of a dot to separate the chapters of the Qur’an from other cultures. He states, “I have suggested, as far as sura separators are concerned, they were taken from Greek or Syriac manuscripts.” See Adolf Grohmann, “The Problem of Dating Early Qur’āns,” *Der Islam*, 1958, 228–29. Orientalists primarily rely on parallels between Islam and other religions/cultures to support the idea that Muslims borrowed ideas from other cultures. However, the presence of a parallel is not sufficient proof of borrowing because parallels can exist for a variety of reasons. For example, it could simply be that a legal matter, such as divorce or inheritance, presented itself similarly in two civilizations, and they both provided similar solutions. [^23]: See Harold Motzki, “The Role of Non-Arab Converts in the Development of Early Islamic Law” in *The Formation of Islamic Law*, ed. Wael B. Hallaq (Florence: Taylor and Francis Group, 2004), 153–78. Also see John Nawas, “The Contribution of Mawālī,” 141–52. [^24]: Ibn Khaldūn, *Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldūn*, 2:361. ## Summary Islamic scholarship owes an immense and often unrecognized debt to non-Arabs and freed slaves, a truth that may surprise those who assume the earliest Muslim scholars were predominantly Arab. Central to understanding this contribution is the term *mawālī*, which in the early Islamic period carried two related meanings: it referred both to freed slaves and to non-Arabs who had been integrated into the Arab tribal structure. To appreciate how this category arose and how it shaped the transmission of sacred knowledge, one must first understand the tribal system of the Arabian Peninsula and the reality of slavery in the seventh century. It is important not to overstate the numerical dominance of non-Arab scholars. A common claim holds that non-Arabs vastly outnumbered Arab scholars, yet this is not entirely accurate. A random sample of over one thousand scholars who died in or before 400 AH/1010 CE, spanning the five main branches of learning—*ḥadīth*, *tafsīr*, *qirāʾa*, *naḥw*, and *fiqh*—found that fifty-one percent were Arabs and forty-nine percent non-Arabs. In the first century of Islam, Arabs outnumbered non-Arabs ninety to ten, but by the fourth century the ratio had reversed to sixty-five percent non-Arab and thirty-five percent Arab. Another study, drawing on Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī's (d. 476/1083) *Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ*, found varying ratios across regions in the first two centuries. Arabs thus played an essential role, particularly early on when most Muslims were Arab. The point is not that Arabs contributed little, but rather that Islam's teaching that piety and knowledge, not race, determine a scholar's standing created an atmosphere in which all could participate. To understand slavery in seventh-century Arabia, one must resist reading it through the lens of American chattel slavery, whose racial basis, expansiveness, and oppressiveness are not representative of the varied forms slavery has taken across human history. Slaves in Arabia lived within their owners' households as members of the family rather than being housed apart and worked in fields. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized clothing, feeding, and housing slaves humanely and treating them as brothers and sisters. This is captured in the report of al-Maʿrūr ibn Suwayd (d. 82/701), who saw Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī wearing a cloak identical to his slave's. Abū Dharr related that when he had insulted a man by reproaching his mother, the Prophet ﷺ told him, "Your slaves are your brethren upon whom Allah has given you authority. So, if one has one's brethren under one's control, one should feed them with the like of what one eats and clothe them with the like of what one wears," and further instructed that they not be overburdened. Although Islam did not prohibit slavery, it came very close to doing so by strongly encouraging emancipation and mandating it as expiation for certain sins. One of the earliest chapters revealed refers to freeing slaves as a sign of piety. Slaves could gain freedom through a contract of manumission (*mukātaba*), whereby they earned their freedom over time or through an agreed sum, which required owners to allow them to earn. A female slave who bore her owner's child, known as *umm walad*, became free upon his death. The Prophet ﷺ also taught that a slave declared free became free, even if the statement were made in error or in jest. Involuntary manslaughter, among other sins, required freeing a slave. Consequently, slaves were rarely enslaved for life, and no consistent slave class persisted in society. The Prophet ﷺ himself was gifted dozens of slaves during his lifetime and freed every one of them—at a time when slavery was not deemed immoral and nearly every middle-class household owned a slave—demonstrating clearly that he did not favor the institution. This is presented not as apology but as historical fact. Islam challenged the tribal order by insisting on the equality of all human beings before God and demanding justice even against one's kin. The Qur'an declares, "O you who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives... If you distort or neglect justice, God is fully aware of what you do" (4:135). Women, orphans, and slaves were the most vulnerable, and the Prophet ﷺ, upon hearing of a violently treated elderly woman, said, "How would God sanctify a nation that does not protect its underprivileged from its powerful?" He also called the government "the guardian of those who have no guardian." This transformation from tribalism to a universal community was gradual, unfolding over years. The tribal system offered a mechanism for integrating outsiders: foreigners and unattached individuals could become affiliates (*mawlā*, plural *mawālī*) of a tribe, as could freed slaves, who retained affiliation without originally belonging. As Islam spread beyond Arabia, both meanings expanded through a patronage system attaching non-Arab converts to Arab patrons. Amid the extensive slavery of the conquered Mediterranean and Persian lands, early Muslims, following the Qur'an and Sunnah, freed many slaves, so that a large portion of the new *mawālī* were former slaves or their descendants. Sulaymān ibn Yasār (d. 107/725), of Persian origin and freed slave of the Prophet's wife Maymūna bint al-Ḥārith, became one of the seven famous jurists of Medina. This Umayyad-era *mawlā* policy was initially controversial, retaining tribal prejudice by ranking non-Arab Muslims below Arabs, contradicting the Qur'anic affirmation of equality. The state's fiscal interest led it to continue levying the *jizya* on converts, prompting objection from the *ʿulamāʾ* and pious Muslims. The caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101/720) ended discriminatory laws against the *mawālī*. Notably, Jamal Juda has argued that the notion converts still paid *jizya* stems from the term's dual use for both the poll tax and land taxes imposed on all, a matter ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz simplified by decreeing land taxes uniform regardless of the owner's faith. By the 720s the *mawālī* were largely Arabic-speaking, intermarrying, and prominent, and the Abbasids eliminated the remaining distinctions. The *mawālī* rose to leadership in scholarship. The caliph ʿUmar, learning that Ibn Abzā, a *mawlā*, had been placed over Mecca because "he recites God's book and is knowledgeable about the obligations," affirmed the Prophet's words: "God elevates [some] people with this religion and lowers others." When Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742) named the religious leaders of the regions to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (d. 86/705), nearly all were *mawālī* save Ibrahīm al-Nakhaʿī (d. 96/717) in Kufa; the caliph fretted that the *mawālī* would lead the Arabs from the pulpits, to which al-Zuhrī replied that religion belongs to whoever preserves it. Al-Zuhrī later admitted, "Knowledge has been taken over by the *mawālī*," and Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406) observed that those who carried Islamic knowledge were mostly non-Arabs, a point the Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher echoed. All six compilers of the famous hadith collections were non-Arab, and nearly half their narrators were *mawālī*. Ibn Khaldūn attributed this partly to the literacy of converted populations. The *mawālī* thus shaped *fiqh*, hadith, *tafsīr*, theology, and grammar—figures such as ʿIkrima, Ṭāwūs ibn Kaysān, Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Ibn Sīrīn, ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, Nāfiʿ, Sībawayhi, Ibn al-Mubārak, and Abū Ḥanīfa—leaving Islamic scholarship forever in their debt, an environment made possible chiefly by Islam's call to equality. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/spending-ethically-for-justice-a-muslim-response-to-the-uyghur-genocide # Spending Ethically for Justice: A Muslim Response to the Uyghur Genocide **Author:** Dr. Samir Sweida-Metwally **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Paper, Publication, Wealth & Finance **Published:** August 19, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract This paper is focused on highlighting the situation in occupied East Turkistan, explaining the persecution faced by the Uyghurs and other Muslim Turkic groups, and why it can legitimately be described as a genocide. Building on this, through scriptural analysis of the Qur’an and Sunnah, the paper argues that in the face of such injustice, it is incumbent on every Muslim to change their consumption habits to ensure they are not spending their *rizq* (sustenance) on perpetuating the suffering of Uyghurs and other Turkic people. Specifically, I show that social justice is at the heart of the Muslim faith, and that it is contrary to Islamic teaching to appraise the value of social action through its measure of effectiveness in this *dunya* (world) alone. --- ## I. Introduction This article discusses the Chinese genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim people currently taking place in East Turkistan, and sets out, through scriptural analysis of the Qur’an and Sunnah (Prophetic tradition as recorded in hadith), the Islamic imperative for social action, and what some of these actions might be in this specific context. Far from resigning to a defeatist mindset in the face of a Goliath where individual action might appear inconsequential, this paper re-affirms the Islamic imperative for Muslims to understand their actions as part of a broader spiritual framework rather than assessing action simply through a worldly consequentialist lens. The paper is structured in four parts. First, a brief background is provided to contextualize the conflict in East Turkistan. This includes a socio-demographic description of the region, as well as an outline of the economic, political, and geographic benefits the territory offers. Second, I discuss the evidence of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other Muslim Turkic people. Third, I explain why that treatment can indeed be qualified as genocide. Finally, before concluding, I highlight the centrality of social justice in Islam, and how this core tenet enjoins on Muslims an obligation to ensure their actions are geared towards alleviating injustice and abstaining from perpetuating the suffering of others, including through their consumption choices. --- ## II. Background ### a. Occupied East Turkistan In the 19th century, the Qing dynasty conquered East Turkistan and renamed it Xinjiang, which translates as ‘new territory’ or ‘new frontier.’ Since 1955, this area has been officially referred to as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. However, East Turkistan remains the preferred name among the region’s Turkic inhabitants,[^1] and, thus, in line with identifying people through their “mode of being” not their “mode of oppression,”[^2] this is the term adopted in this paper. Indeed, it was only in 1949, under Mao Zedong, after short-lived bouts of independence as the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkistan (1933-1934) and the East Turkistan Republic (1944-1949),[^3] that the People’s Republic of China officially annexed East Turkistan. Therefore, much like the Palestinians since 1948, the East Turkic people have been under occupation since 1949. This is an important historical fact because it undermines China’s narrative that Uyghurs are simply a ‘Muslim minority’ in Chinese territory, rather than an occupied group. It, therefore, challenges the “myth that animates Chinese nationalism” that China is a victim of colonialism,[^4] rather than also being its propagator, which the Tibetan case further underscores. In doing so, it highlights the problematic nature of describing the ethnic tensions in East Turkistan as an issue of “internal colonialism” rather than a situation “resulting from contemporary colonization.”[^5] East Turkistan boasts an ethnically diverse population, constituted of 13 ethnic groups, of which the Uyghurs, Hans (Chinese majority ethnic group), and Kazakhs are the largest in number.[^6] Hui, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars, and Tajiks comprise some of the smaller populations. According to official Chinese data—which are disputed by the World Uyghur Congress[^7]—of the 21.82 million population in 2010, 10.00 million are Uyghur, 8.83 million are Han Chinese, 1.42 million are Kazakh, and around 1.00 million are Hui.[^8] Turkic people identify as Central Asian, and are both culturally and religiously closer to other Central Asian ethnic groups than to Han Chinese. Their language is more similar to Turkish than it is to Mandarin, and the large majority of Turkic people identify as Muslim in stark contrast to the majority of Chinese people who have no religious affiliation.[^9] That said, although the majority of Uyghurs are adherents of Islam, there are a relatively small proportion of Uyghurs of other religions and no faith. Understanding this distinction is important to appreciate the mechanisms at play. Specifically, China’s motive for its genocidal campaign in East Turkistan is to get rid of Islam and Muslim identity under the guise of combatting ‘religious extremism,’ but also to perpetuate China’s territorial occupation by persecuting non-Muslim Turkic people too. Before discussing the evidence that indicates a genocide is indeed taking place, the next section outlines the strategic advantages driving Beijing’s appetite for hegemony over East Turkistan. ### b. East Turkistan: A prized asset There are several reasons why China benefits from maintaining control over East Turkistan. First, it is an area that is rich in natural resources. The region boasts “the largest reserves of oil, natural gas and coal” in China representing 30%, 34%, and 40% of the country’s total, respectively.[^10] With Beijing looking to reduce reliance on imports and establish energy security, dominance over East Turkistan offers clear benefits. In fact, reports suggest that “Chinese companies extract 15 percent of its \[China’s\] oil output and almost 25 percent of its natural gas in Xinjiang.”[^11] The region is also “China’s largest growing base of cotton, lavender, and hop.”[^12] In 2019, East Turkistan accounted for a fifth of the world’s cotton and 85% of China’s total production.[^13] Second, East Turkistan also offers Beijing sizable land mass making it “a major area for raising sheep and cattle and fine-wool production.”[^14] At three times the size of France,[^15] for the most populous country on earth, the region offers important food security advantages. Third, East Turkistan borders eight countries: Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Its geographic location therefore offers important trade links with Asia and Europe, vital for the success of China’s gargantuan Belt and Road initiative. Announced by Xi Jinping in 2013, this initiative seeks to revive the Silk Road trade network and vastly expand China’s economic and political influence on the world stage. The strategy plans to cover two-thirds of the world’s population and account for a third of global GDP.[^16] To achieve its objective, China plans to build six economic corridors (see Figure 1). East Turkistan plays a vital role in the success of three of these. First, the *China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor*, which will be mainly focused on the transfer of natural resources, relies on Urumqi (the region’s capital) as a key hub linking the corridor all the way to Turkey through Iran and Iraq.[^17] It also hosts vital gas pipelines covering Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.[^18] Second, the *China-Pakistan Economic Corridor* that starts in East Turkistan and stretches for 3,000 km to Gwadar port in Pakistan offers China access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, “a vital route for oil transportation between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Another advantage to China is that it will be able to bypass the Strait of Malacca. As of now, 60 percent of China's imported oil comes from the Middle East, and 80 percent of that is transported to China through this strait, the dangerous, piracy-rife maritime route through the South China, East China, and Yellow Seas.”[^19] The third, the *New Eurasian Land Bridge*, seeks to link China with Europe via rail, starting in Lianyungang and reaching Rotterdam.[^20] This rail land link will reduce the cost of transporting goods relative to air freight, and reduce the time of delivery relative to maritime transportation. The Lanxin (Lanzhou-Xinjiang) high-speed railway which links East Turkistan, through Urumqi, to central China (Lanzhou in Gansu) is an integral part of this corridor.[^21] Understanding the economic heft (and associated political clout) that China carries can shed light on why 50 countries—in response to a letter (A/HRC/41/G/11[^22]) to the President of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in July 2019, endorsed by 22 mostly ‘Western’ countries raising concerns about the treatment of Uyghurs—signed a letter in support of China. Importantly, not only does the first letter not include a signature from a single Muslim-majority country, the second letter, in defense of China, includes many, such as Algeria, Pakistan, Iran, the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.[^23] Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia stand out as notable exceptions, as does Qatar which withdrew its support after initially signing. New Zealand is also not immune from Beijing’s pressure as Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party refused to debate a parliamentary motion that described China’s actions in East Turkistan as genocide.[^24] The next section discusses the evidence of human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities alluded to in the first letter. **Figure 1.** The Six Economic Corridors Straddling Asia, Europe and Africa [^25] ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/image1-1024x549.jpg) *Source: HKTDC (2015)* --- ## III. China’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other Turkic people: A look at the evidence In December 2018, Scott Busby, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the US Department of State, estimated based on “intelligence community and open source reporting” that “\[s\]ince April 2017, Chinese authorities have detained at least 800,000, and possibly more than 2 million, Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities in internment camps for indefinite periods of time” in East Turkistan.[^26] Distinguishing between “those imprisoned and those who are attending part-time ‘re-education’ programs,” a more accurate estimate puts the number of interned people at 1.5 million in 2019.[^27] An official 137-page leaked Chinese government document (known as the Karakax List)[^28] shows that they are detained and interned in these camps for ‘crimes’ which include; (i) having worn ‘a veil many years ago,’ (ii) having grown ‘a long beard years ago,’[^29] (iii) because ‘wife wore a veil,’ (iv) having relatives abroad, or (v) for having ‘applied for a passport but never left.’ Another reason is simply for being categorized as ‘untrustworthy.’ Zenz defines the latter as “a general category of suspicion that is hard to grasp. It represents persons whom the state feels cannot be as easily understood or controlled as it wants them to be.”[^30] Other signs taken as indicative of ‘religious extremism’ in the literature include “praying regularly; inviting too many people to one’s wedding… reciting an Islamic verse at a funeral; washing bodies according to Islamic custom… teaching the Qur’an to one’s children; asking an imam to name one’s children; attending the mosque regularly; studying or teaching ‘unauthorized’ forms of Islam; praying at a mosque other than on a Friday… making the pilgrimage to Mecca.”[^31] For the Uyghurs and other Turkic people interned, evidence shows that the Chinese state has subjected them to forced labor, which multinational companies like Amazon and Apple benefit from.[^32] In 2018, 570 000 individuals were also forcibly sent to pick cotton.[^33] There is also substantial evidence of a state campaign to forcibly sterilize women in the most populous Uyghur regions, and reports of detained women being “given unknown drugs and injections that caused irregular bleeding and a loss of menstruation cycles.”[^34] In addition, there are also charges of “torture and inhuman treatment of detainees, the forced separation of children from their parents, the denial of the right to practice their religion or speak their language… forced organ harvesting, enforced disappearances and killings in detention.”[^35] More recently, an investigation by the BBC reported Uyghur detainees describing “systematic rape” inside these camps.[^36] In a BBC video report, Gulzira Auelkhan tells how she was ordered to “remove their \[Uyghur women’s\] clothes and handcuff them to their beds so they cannot move” so that Han men could rape them.[^37] Below is an account from one of the survivors: > “They don't only rape but also bite all over your body, you don't know if they are human or animal” > “They didn't spare any part of the body, they bit everywhere leaving horrible marks. It was disgusting to look at.” > “I've experienced that three times. And it is not just one person who torments you, not just one predator. Each time they were two or three men.”[^38] Outside these internment camps, the Muslim-majority ethnic minority are under mass surveillance by the Chinese state who use mobile apps, and AI facial recognition technology developed by start-ups and multinationals like Huawei, that can track down Turkic people and “send a ‘Uighur alarm’ to police if it detected a member of the minority group.”[^39] This campaign of extreme surveillance and “extrajudicial internment and compulsory indoctrination of Muslims” has been confirmed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists after their investigation into classified Chinese government documents leaked in November 2019 (China Cables).[^40] The Chinese state’s campaign of community-wide surveillance is not limited to public spaces. As part of the state’s strategy of ‘Terror Capitalism’ in colonized East Turkistan, it has recruited “more than a million Chinese civilians (most members of the Han ethnic majority) to aid the military and police in their campaign by occupying the homes of the region’s Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.”[^41] China posits that this ‘Become Family’ program, dating back to 2014, is a way to identify ‘religious extremism,’ signs of which are whether Uyghurs greet relatives and friends with the popular Muslim greeting, *salām ʿalaykum* (peace be upon you), and whether they have a copy of the Qur’an in their house.[^42] Alongside the increased militarization of East Turkistan, making it “one of the most heavily policed areas in the world,”[^43] this campaign of “state terror,” as Finely puts it, is manifested by “demographic securitization (accelerated Han in-migration, ethnic displacement), linguistic securitization (imposition of Chinese-medium education) and religious securitization (repression of Islamic practices).”[^44] To comprehend the process of ‘demographic securitization,’ consider that in 1949, Hans (China’s majority ethnic group) and Uyghurs accounted for 7% and 75% of the overall regional population, respectively. As of the 2010 Census, the proportions stood at 40% and 46% respectively.[^45] The state’s sponsored policy of Han migration to East Turkistan, through the Production and Construction Corps since the 1990s,[^46] as a means of accomplishing the Sinification of the region and extracting local natural resources shape what Adrian Zenz calls a policy of “Han settler colonialism.”[^47] While it has been argued that the Hans in East Turkistan should not be viewed as a homogenous group or simply as an extension of the state-apparatus,[^48] the evidence shows that they, on the whole, benefit disproportionately from the wealth generated in the region while Uyghurs suffer racism and discrimination on account of their ethnicity.[^49] Meanwhile, ‘linguistic securitization’ is enshrined in government policy that has banned the instruction of ethnic minority languages in, at minimum, schools in Yining city and Hotan prefecture (in East Turkistan) since 2017 and mandated that “Mandarin Chinese ‘must be resolutely and fully implemented’ for the three years of preschool, and ‘promoted’ from the first years of elementary and middle school.”[^50] Finally, ‘religious securitization’ can be understood as the repression Muslims face in not being allowed: (i) to name their newborns Muslim names like Muhammed;[^51] (ii) to travel to perform pilgrimage freely and requiring them “to prove that they are patriotic and law-abiding before they are allowed to undertake the hajj”;[^52] (iii) to fast or pray during Ramadan (monitored by the Han ‘relative’ living in their home).[^53] Muslims are also forced to eat pork and sell cigarettes and alcohol in their restaurants and shops (products Islam prohibits consumption of and profit from).[^54] Meanwhile, bar the elderly, men are prohibited from growing beards, and women from wearing the veil, and people are encouraged to report women who wear a face covering to the police.[^55] Estimates based on satellite imagery show that since 2017, 65% of mosques “have been destroyed or damaged as a result of government policies” and “30% of important Islamic sacred sites (shrines, cemeteries and pilgrimage routes, including many protected under Chinese law) have been demolished.”[^56] China justifies its approach in East Turkistan in terms of counter-terrorism and fighting Uyghur separatists,[^57] particularly in response to the 2009 Urumqi riots that left 197 people dead (which Chinese officials list as mostly Han),[^58] the Tiananmen square car attack in October 2013 that left five people dead,[^59] the March 2014 knife attack that killed 31 people and injured 141,[^60] and a knife attack that left eight people dead in February 2017.[^61] However, the application of a community-wide punishment, enshrined in the state’s ‘Strike Hard Against Terrorism’ policy in 2014  makes this campaign a racist and Islamophobic government-led effort. Moreover, labelling them as violent separatists conveniently ignores the fact that Uyghurs, like Tibetans, are an occupied people who have sustained decades of violent and repressive campaigns by the Chinese government trying to forcibly assimilate them and eradicate their ethnic identity, faith, culture, and way of life.[^62] --- ## IV. But is it really ‘genocide’? ### a. China breaching the Genocide Convention Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) (UN General Assembly 1948), to which China is party, states that: > genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: > > (a) Killing members of the group; > (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; > (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; > (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; > (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.[^63] Based on the evidence discussed above, including leaked government documents, it is apparent that each of these five conditions is met, some to a greater extent than others. In fact, in March 2021, an independent report published by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, produced by academics and experts in international law, genocide studies, and Chinese ethnic studies concluded, “the People’s Republic of China (China) bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) based on an extensive review of the available evidence and application of international law to the evidence of the facts on the ground.”[^64] The team reached their conclusion after reviewing more evidence than there is scope to discuss in this paper, including “evidence that could be collected and verified from public Chinese State communications, leaked Chinese State communications, eye-witness testimony, and open-source research methods such as public satellite-image analysis, analysis of information circulating on the Chinese internet, and any other available source.”[^65] The same month, four barristers at Essex Court Chambers, a UK-based law barristers chambers, in their legal opinion written after receiving instructions from the World Uyghur Congress and Global Legal Action Network, concluded that “there is a very credible case that acts carried out by the Chinese government against the Uyghur people in XUAR \[Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region\] amount to crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide.”[^66] In response, the Chinese government imposed sanctions on Essex Court Chambers, despite it not being a law firm and having “no collective or distinct legal identity of any kind.”[^67] China has often resorted to intimidation tactics harassing members of the Uyghur diaspora overseas,[^68] and has also sanctioned academics and human rights experts such as, Baroness Kennedy QC and Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, for their work investigating the Uyghur genocide. At a state level, the American, Canadian, Lithuanian, and Dutch governments have all described the treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities as genocide. While UK parliamentarians also declared China’s treatment a genocide,[^69] it is worth noting that members of the same parliament voted thrice against the ‘genocide amendment’ to Trade Bill 2019-21.[^70] In June 2021, the UK Government also rejected a set of proposals advanced by the Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Committee to stop UK companies from profiting from Uyghur slave labor. ### b. Claims disputing a genocide is taking place Despite the authoritative evidence that Beijing is undertaking a genocidal campaign against Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic people, some have resisted calls to describe what is happening in East Turkistan as a genocide. In this section, I address the two principal arguments relied on to advance that position. ***Claim 1: Beijing is indiscriminate in its repression, it does not only target Turkic people.*** Some might argue that the Chinese state’s repression extends across its territory and is applicable to all ethnic groups, not just Turkic people. Moreover, since these events have not been described as genocide on the global stage, it would be incorrect to describe what is happening now in East Turkistan as a genocide. For instance, China has a history of ‘reforming’ people for their political and religious beliefs by imprisoning them in labor camps (*láogǎi*) as exemplified by Beijing’s ‘re-education through labor’ strategy which was official state policy from 1957 to 2013.[^71] *Jiabiangou* labor camp is one of the earliest examples of this. Similarly, followers of Falun Gong in the 1990s were also subjected to ‘re-education’ and evidence suggests that they too were victims of organ harvesting.[^72] Moreover, Christian groups also face persecution in China with a plan to advance ‘Chinese Christianity’ which entails ‘retranslating and annotating’ the Bible to ensure the ‘correct understanding’ of the text.[^73] Additionally, there is evidence that China has authorized the practice of involuntary sterilization to enforce its one-child policy in other areas of the country as early as the 1970s.[^74] Furthermore, the use of AI mass surveillance is to control its entire population, not just the Turkic people.[^75] While this is all true, arguing that since some of these crimes are not described as a genocide invalidates the current situation in East Turkistan being described as such, might mean we need to re-evaluate the past, not whitewash the present. It also ignores previous efforts by Beijing to subvert any criticism of these past events. For instance, in 2014, after the Spanish High Court issued an arrest warrant for former Chinese government leaders in their connection with the persecution of Falun Gong members and genocide related to Tibet, China threatened economic repercussions which led the Spanish government at the time to change the law and “limit the judiciary’s powers to investigate human rights abuse cases in other countries.”[^76] That aside, it is worth noting that, in the case of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities, all the aforementioned state-led coercive tactics are being used simultaneously, making the community the target of an extraordinary level of sustained and multifaceted state violence. Another critical feature of the repression experienced by this community which supports the genocide argument is Beijing’s strategy of demographically engineering Uyghur and other Turkic communities. This is captured by the following. First, research shows that the government is, in some areas, targeting to sterilize up to 34% of married Uyghur women of childbearing age. The sterilization campaigns are not only politically but also financially supported by the state; “\[f\]or 2020, the Xinjiang Health Commission budget featured another $19.5 million (140 million RMB)” for such sterilization campaigns.[^77] Beijing’s Campaign of mass sterilization is corroborated by leaked government documents (the Karakax List) showing that “violations of birth control policies constituted the most commonly cited reason” for internment.[^78] Second, just one year after China launched the ‘Strike Hard Against Terrorism’ policy in East Turkistan, the region witnessed an exceptional fall in population growth. Specifically, “growth rates fell by 84 percent in the two largest Uyghur prefectures between 2015 and 2018, and declined further in several minority regions in 2019. \[Meanwhile\] \[f\]or 2020, one Uyghur region set an unprecedented near-zero birth rate target: a mere 1.05 per mille, compared to 19.66 per mille in 2018. This was intended to be achieved through ‘family planning work.’”[^79] Finally, the same research report finds that the proportion “of women aged 18 to 49 who were either widowed or in menopause have more than doubled since the onset of the internment campaign in one particular Uyghur region.”[^80] Importantly, Zenz shows how the drive to demographically engineer the landscape in East Turkistan by severely reducing the populations of ethnic minorities and increasing the number of Han Chinese is part of an explicit intention to eradicate (or drastically reduce) ethnic minority populations.[^81] Together, all the above provides convincing evidence that a genocide is taking place. Specifically, it shows a clear state strategy intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” by “imposing measures intended to prevent births” among Uyghurs and other Turkic people, in direct contravention of the Genocide Convention. It is noteworthy that China withheld the release of crucial population data in the latest *2020 Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook*, thereby limiting important future independent research into the trend and magnitude of the demographic change occurring in the region. ***Claim 2: Accusations of genocide are based on falsified evidence manufactured as part of a ‘Western’ plot to weaken China.*** A second reason for arguing this is not a genocide is far more sinister. The argument is advanced by some that the evidence from which the conclusions of a genocide are derived are fabricated. Proponents of this position go on to suggest that the Uyghur genocide is manufactured by the ‘West,’ mainly the US, to destabilize China. In particular, critics of Zenz have suggested the allegations of state-mandated birth control of the Uyghur population are based on doctored data.[^82] These criticisms are then relied upon to ridicule the charge of a genocide and promote the idea that accusations of Uyghur persecution are but a ‘Western’ ploy. Given the instrumental role Zenz’s work (cited in this paper) has played in bringing the scale of the abuse in East Turkistan to light and making the case for it being labelled as genocide, it is essential to make brief mention of these accusations. Much of the academic criticism, which Chinese state media has gone on to promulgate,[^83] comes from Lin Fangfei, Associate Professor at Xinjiang University. It’s easy to get lost in the *ad hominem* attacks, but for a focused discussion on the substance of the allegations, Zenz provides a comprehensive rebuttal to the accusations of data manipulation made by Fangfei.[^84] To the best of my knowledge, Fangfei did not follow up with a reply. It is also worth mentioning that where mistakes were made in the initial report, notably the title error on Figure 6,[^85] these are corrected in the subsequent updated March 2021 version. Other Zenz critics also rely on Fangfei’s work.[^86] Moreover, many of the critics’ sources for refuting Zenz’s work center on attacking Zenz’s person, and rely on official Chinese government sources and state-sanctioned news outlets such as Global Times who openly refer to Uyghur activists outside China as “scum.”[^87] The charge of a ‘Western’ plot to destabilize China appears particularly appealing when one considers the fact that Adrian Zenz is a Senior Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and that his report highlighting Beijing’s campaign of mass sterilization was published by Jamestown Foundation,[^88] both of which are right-wing conservative think tanks with US government links. Similarly, other foundational reports such as Xu et al. and Ruser et al.[^89] were published by Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank partly funded by the Australian Department of Defence. The former report was also financially supported by the UK Foreign Office. However, it is important to note that these affiliations are not something any of the report authors try to hide, and the institutions’ names and funders are clearly evident on the reports for readers to investigate. Indeed, while it would be naïve to think that the US would not be advantaged by, and actively work towards, an economically and politically weakened China, it is a grave intellectual leap to connect dots that are not supported by evidence and descend into conspiratorial thinking. Indeed, to conclude that the persecution of Uyghurs is an anti-Chinese conspiracy designed by Western powers would require an ominous alliance between governments and civil society, to which academics, politicians, think tanks, the Uyghur diaspora, lawyers, human rights activists, journalists, media outlets, from different countries and across multiple continents, are all committed. Such dedication to the oath of omerta is intellectually impossible to entertain by any serious academic, particularly in light of the lack of substantive evidence for such a charge other than prejudiced conjecture. Indeed, it would be to dismiss: 1. the multiplicity of sources used to reach this conclusion, including leaked Chinese government documents (e.g., China Cables, the Karakax List), official Chinese government statistical publications (e.g., Chinese Statistical Yearbooks), eye-witness testimony, video evidence from interned Uyghurs, satellite images, testimony from Uyghur diasporas around the world who have undergone harassment and whose family back in East Turkistan have disappeared, as well as evidence provided by a former Chinese police officer.[^90] Importantly, these independent sources have been found to corroborate each other. 2. that Adrian Zenz is not the only source of information, but that other academics and bodies have also conducted their own investigations. For example, the China Cables were analyzed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists who brought together “75 journalists from ICIJ and 17 media partner organizations in 14 countries… to report on the documents and their significance. They spoke with more than 40 Uighurs in 10 countries, including Kazakhstan, Turkey, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and the United States of America, and numerous experts.”[^91] Other contributors include (but are not limited to): the BBC, independent academics (e.g., David Byler, Stanley Toops), 16 UN independent experts (who are not UN staff) appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, The Uyghur Tribunal, and the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy whose panel comprised more than 30 experts including academics and lawyers across different continents. 3. the fact that when reports first surfaced of detention camps China vehemently denied that such camps existed for months. It was only in light of increasing evidence and global pressure that Beijing finally recognized the camps existed, thereafter changing their global strategy to one normalizing the camps as ‘vocational training.’[^92]  4. that through their campaign of mass surveillance, Beijing has a policy of controlling all information coming out of East Turkistan, by severely restricting reporting and assigning security officials to spy on and tail foreign journalists.[^93]  5. China’s attempts to shut down any criticism of the situation in East Turkistan by resorting to a campaign of intimidation, harassment, and sanctions towards those who highlight their abuses, be they members of the Uyghur community abroad,[^94] lawyers, human rights activists, Members of Parliament,[^95] or journalists.[^96] More recently, as stated above, China withheld the release of crucial population data in the latest *2020 Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook* that limits vital research into the demographic changes occurring in East Turkistan. More specifically, Zenz reports that the release includes: “no birth rates by region, no ethnic population breakdown, no total population breakdown by region, and no data on birth control.”[^97] In sum, there is conclusive evidence that China is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan, and any suggestions to the contrary can be soundly refuted. The next section highlights the centrality of social justice in Islam, and outlines the obligation on Muslims to re-evaluate their consumption habits in light of this suffering. --- ## V. The Islamic imperative to act Justice is in an integral constituent of Islam “rooted in God’s Divine nature” with God describing Himself as *al-ʿAdl* (The Utterly Just) and *al-Ḥakam* (The Impartial Judge).[^98] The centrality of social justice is captured in the Qur’an where God exhorts the believers to stand firm for justice *even if against themselves*: “You who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives.”[^99] So fundamental is social justice to Islam that, in the hadith *qudsī* recorded in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, God outlawed oppression upon Himself saying, “O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another.”[^100] Importantly, the prohibition of oppression in Islam extends not just to human beings but to all of God’s creations, including insects, plants, animals, and the environment.[^101] This is lucidly captured in Abū Bakr’s (may God be pleased with him)—the first Caliph after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)—famous command to his army as they set off on a military campaign: > Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place. Do not slaughter sheep or camels except for food. Do not burn bees and do not scatter them.[^102] In *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*,[^103] the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also reproaches a group of companions (may God be pleased with them) who burnt an ant-hill to clear an area to set up camp during an expedition. If Islamic military jurisprudence, derived from the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him), forbid Muslims from burning insects, killing animals indiscriminately, and cutting trees even during warfare, what then of the oppression of fellow human beings? In fact, a fundamental act for spiritual salvation in Islam is to free a slave. As God declares in His Qur’an, “What will explain to you what the steep path is? It is to free a slave, to feed at a time of hunger an orphaned relative or a poor person in distress, and to be one of those who believe and urge one another to steadfastness and compassion.”[^104] Following this command, while also speaking out against the ill-treatment of slaves, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also encouraged his followers to free slaves, be they Muslim or non-Muslim,[^105] asserting that “he who emancipates a slave, Allah will set free from Hell every limb (of his body) for every limb of his (slave's) body.”[^106] While the specific form of slavery God and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are exhorting mankind to fight against has been eradicated, forced Chinese labor camps, as discussed above, are still very much a reality. Through *qiyās* (analogy), it can be deduced, therefore, that every Muslim is religiously obliged not to contribute to, and to take active steps to alleviate, the oppression and suffering of interned Uyghurs and other Turkic people, be they Muslim or not. Indeed, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) declared “that the person who enslaves a free person would not have their prayers accepted by God … \[t\]he companions understood this as a universal principle affirming the freedom of all humankind from any kind of exploitation or abuse.”[^107] One might agree with the above but at the same time not recognize one’s personal responsibility in light of this. This is because, like racism is sometimes erroneously understood only as present when explicit physical or verbal assault takes place, oppression is often also only recognized in its extreme forms; that is, as actions that involve blatant acts of violence, torture, and mental and physical aggression which tyrants and those in power directly inflict on people. Framing oppression in this way allows us to distance ourselves from being the oppressor. However, Islam does not endorse such simplistic conceptualizations that absolve people from responsibility. Muslims are repeatedly reminded that people will be held to account for all the *rizq* (sustenance) they enjoyed throughout their lives. The centrality of ensuring Muslims do not perpetuate evil with the blessings God bestowed upon them is captured in the powerful hadith recorded in *Jāmiʿal-Tirmidhī* where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) declares, “the feet of the son of Adam shall not move from before his Lord on the Day of Judgment, until he is asked about five things: About his life and what he did with it, about his youth and what he wore it out in, about his wealth and how he earned it, and spent it upon, and what he did with what he knew \[i.e., about his knowledge and what he did with it\].”[^108] The obligation for Muslims to use their wealth for good and not evil forms the spiritual core of one of the five pillars of Islam, *zakat*. The latter is the obligation on all Muslims who can afford it to pay 2.5% of their excess wealth to the poor and destitute every year. While also serving as a mechanism for societal redistribution, on a spiritual front, the paying of *zakat* is a means to purify a Muslim’s wealth. It would, therefore, be paradoxical for a Muslim on the one hand to strive to purify their wealth as ordained by God, but then decide to spend their purified wealth on perpetuating injustice and the misery of others. Indeed, Islam is not a religion that divorces action from spiritual belief. As Muhammed Asad puts it in his seminal work, *The* *Road to Makkah*, when describing the message of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “*Action is part of faith*: for God is not merely concerned with a person’s belief but also with his or her doings—especially such doings as affect other people besides oneself.”[^109] The reality of Islam being a religion of action and standing up to social injustice is perfectly captured in the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), “He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue, and if he has not strength enough to do it, (even) then he should (abhor it) from his heart, and that is the least of faith.”[^110] In referencing this hadith, Khan explains that “\[i\]n this sense, Islam does not permit one to be a bystander to any form of injustice; one is morally obligated to do everything in one’s power to eradicate oppression. Of course, this duty is accompanied by the requirement for wisdom to ensure that one’s attempt to remove an evil does not backfire and lead to a greater evil.”[^111] The importance for Muslims to be vigilant of what they consume and expend their *rizq* (sustenance) on is repeated throughout the Qur’an. One such example is in Chapter 90 (*The City*), when in talking about mankind, God says “Does he think that no one will have power over him? ‘I have squandered great wealth,’ he says. Does he think no one has seen him?”[^112] This link between consumption and spiritual purity is further captured by this powerful narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* where the Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him) “made mention of a person who travels widely \[i.e., in the cause of God, such as in search of beneficial knowledge\], his hair disheveled and covered with dust \[i.e., he is visibly exhausted having put effort in his striving in the path of God\]. He lifts his hand towards the sky (and thus makes the supplication): ‘O Lord, O Lord,’ whereas his diet is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, and his clothes are unlawful, and his nourishment is unlawful. How then can his supplication be accepted?”[^113] The association between an act of worship as integral as *duʿāʾ* (supplication) to purity of consumption, even for someone striving in the path of God, is an important reminder when considering our consumption habits and choices in light of the suffering of Uyghurs and other Turkic people in East Turkistan. As a permanent member of the Security Council, China may veto any resolution that seeks to refer the situation in East Turkistan to the International Criminal Court. China has also made a reservation to Article IX of the Genocide Convention 1948 that provides for the referral of any dispute between State Parties to the International Court of Justice: *Reservation of the People’s Republic of China to Article IX, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Paris, 9 December 1948, 78 UNTS 277*. In light of Beijing’s powerful position within the United Nations, and its economic heft, it will be challenging for meaningful international steps to be taken to prevent this genocide and forced labor from continuing. As such, individual action centered around making more informed consumption choices and boycotting products made in China and companies that exploit forced Uyghur labor, presents one of the most important avenues through which to fight against the atrocities being committed against Turkic people and alleviate their suffering. That said, it is essential to remember that the effectiveness of actions is not the only prism through which Muslims should assess whether they should act or not. As previously discussed, the importance of acting against oppression is a Divine exhortation, making it authoritative in and of itself regardless of whether a person thinks their action will achieve its desired end or not. As such, the defeatist argument that individual action such as boycotting Chinese products and brands that support or profit from Uyghur misery are futile because they are inconsequential to the behemoth that is the Chinese economy or a multinational’s balance sheet, only serves to justify inaction and the satiation of egocentric material desires.[^114] Indeed, taking such a resigned approach is in sharp opposition to Islamic ethos. As the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) declared, ‘If the Final Hour comes while you have a shoot of a plant in your hands and it is possible to plant it before the Hour comes, you should plant it.’[^115] That means, that even if one knows that the end of times is *literally* about to occur, a believer should still strive to do what they can to complete a good deed. In saying this, we are reminded of the Qur’an recurrently stating (see for example Chapter 53, verses 38-42) that actions do not only have a worldly consequence;[^116] and if undertaken with the right *niyya* (intention), they will be of benefit in the *ākhira* (Hereafter). --- ## VI. Conclusion In this article I first provided a brief historical background of East Turkistan, thereby challenging the myth that China is only a victim of colonization, rather than also being its driver. I also outlined the economic and geographic advantages that make East Turkistan such a prized asset for Beijing. Thereafter, I reviewed the available evidence pointing to a Uyghur genocide. The evidence assessed relied on leaked official Chinese government documents (e.g., China Cables, the Karakax List), eye-witness testimony, and reports and research published by expert academics and practitioners in the areas of Chinese studies, human rights, international law, and social science. Based on this evidence, and the definition outlined in the Genocide Convention, I concluded that there is little doubt that the Chinese state is engaged in a genocidal campaign against the Uyghurs and other Muslim Turkic minorities in East Turkistan. This is executed through, (i) a state-wide policy of arbitrary internments of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in forced labor camps and cotton fields; (ii) forced sterilization and systematic rape of Uyghur women; (iii) mass surveillance through AI, employing Han civilians to spy on Turkic people in their homes, and the militarization of East Turkistan; and, (iv) what Finely calls ‘demographic securitization,’[^117] as seen in ‘the Hanification of Xinjiang,’[^118] ‘linguistic securitization,’ exemplified through the criminalization of ethnic languages, and ‘religious securitization,’ which involves denying Turkic Muslims the right to practice their faith. I also addressed two counterarguments to the claim that what is taking place is genocide. First, that Beijing applies its repression indiscriminately to all those who oppose its policy of forced assimilation, not just Turkic people. Second, that the evidence concluding that a genocide is taking place is fraudulent. The first was rebutted by highlighting that what is happening in East Turkistan is particularly sinister given that unique actions that previously might have been applied by Beijing against perceived enemies are now all applied in concert against one group. Moreover, the exceptional state-organized sterilization targets and population growth control make what is happening to Uyghurs and other Muslim Turkic groups a genocide. Equally, the allegations of manipulated statistics were shown to have been comprehensively rebuked. The allegations that the Uyghur genocide is a Western plot against China were also shown to rely on arguments that require a significant conspiratorial intellectual leap in logical thinking, particularly in light of the multiplicity of evidence (in type and source) to the contrary. Finally, through scriptural analysis of the Qur’an and Sunnah, I argued that Muslims have an obligation towards individual action to alleviate the suffering of fellow humans. This is particularly important in light of China’s economic and political heft on the global stage, which is likely to make international and state action sluggish. Importantly, it was argued that these actions should not be solely evaluated in terms of their effect in bringing about change, but that they are valuable in and of themselves as an act of *ʿibāda* (worship) decreed by God. Specifically, Muslims are commanded not to use their *rizq* (sustenance), in all its forms, to support, engage in, or profit from evil, but to stand firm against injustice and alleviate human suffering. And Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: Wang Lixiong, *Wo de Xiyu, ni de Dongtu* (*My West China, Your East Turkestan*) (Taipei: Lotus Publishing, 2007); Wang Lixiong, “Excerpts from My West China, Your East Turkestan: My View on the Kunming Incident,” China Change, March 3, 2014, [https://chinachange.org/2014/03/03/excerpts-from-my-west-china-your-east-turkestan-my-view-on-the-kunming-incident/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://chinachange.org/2014/03/03/excerpts-from-my-west-china-your-east-turkestan-my-view-on-the-kunming-incident/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844100000&usg=AOvVaw3tN3GFbh5wuIz8aHs6buwf). [^2]: Tariq Modood, *Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), 104. [^3]: Rémi Castets, “The Uyghurs in Xinjiang: The Malaise Grows,” China Perspectives, September-October 2003, [https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.648](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.648&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844100000&usg=AOvVaw0nh4354wgf46ywXKVIrixp). [^4]: Dibyesh Anand, “Colonization with Chinese Characteristics: Politics of (In)Security in Xinjiang and Tibet,” *Central Asian Survey* 38, no. 1 (2019): 129–47, [https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2018.1534801](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2018.1534801&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844101000&usg=AOvVaw3VZvdI1l-oDF7OqDSEY-xa). [^5]: Anand, “Colonization with Chinese Characteristics,” 131. [^6]: Amy H. Liu and Kevin Peters, “The Hanification of Xinjiang, China: The Economic Effects of the Great Leap West,” *Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism* 17, no. 2 (2017): 265–80, [https://doi.org/10.1111/sena.12233](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1111/sena.12233&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844101000&usg=AOvVaw0bVLB-olhO3S1Pwxvepo16). [^7]: For details, see the World Uyghur Congress website. Available at [https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/east-turkestan-2/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/east-turkestan-2/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844091000&usg=AOvVaw1c1RDaZjTOuoTYF68B0ZhI). [^8]: Stanley Toops, “Spatial Results of the 2010 Census in Xinjiang,” University of Nottingham’s Asia Research Institute, March 7, 2016, [https://theasiadialogue.com/2016/03/07/spatial-results-of-the-2010-census-in-xinjiang/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theasiadialogue.com/2016/03/07/spatial-results-of-the-2010-census-in-xinjiang/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844102000&usg=AOvVaw08bfMokzggTgt-ucgV9btG). [^9]: Pew Research Centre, “Religion in China on the Eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” May 2, 2008, [https://www.pewforum.org/2008/05/01/religion-in-china-on-the-eve-of-the-2008-beijing-olympics/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewforum.org/2008/05/01/religion-in-china-on-the-eve-of-the-2008-beijing-olympics/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844133000&usg=AOvVaw2MagUOgDAD0nJI0bDMbniZ). This does not deny China’s own native Muslim history dating back to the seventh century, with the first mosques constructed in China’s eastern coastal area, namely in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou. For details, see Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, “China’s Earliest Mosques,” *Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians* 67, no. 3 (2008): 330–61. [^10]: HKTDC (Hong Kong Trade Development Council), “Xinjiang: Market Profile,” July 15, 2021, [https://research.hktdc.com/en/data-and-profiles/mcpc/provinces/xinjiang](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://research.hktdc.com/en/data-and-profiles/mcpc/provinces/xinjiang&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844102000&usg=AOvVaw1wNDva0hOSQ7ZT7DYAU1WN). [^11]: Rémi Castets, “What’s Really Happening to Uighurs in Xinjiang?” *Nation*, March 19, 2019, [https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/china-xinjiang-uighur-oppression/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/china-xinjiang-uighur-oppression/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844104000&usg=AOvVaw3EOmOqmibXgEtU9TwkEUTl). [^12]: Liu and Peters, “The Hanification of Xinjiang, China,” 268. [^13]: Adrian Zenz, “Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton,” Centre for Global Policy, 2020, [https://newlinesinstitute.org/china/coercive-labor-in-xinjiang-labor-transfer-and-the-mobilization-of-ethnic-minorities-to-pick-cotton/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://newlinesinstitute.org/china/coercive-labor-in-xinjiang-labor-transfer-and-the-mobilization-of-ethnic-minorities-to-pick-cotton/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844104000&usg=AOvVaw0SCHFaNm3XZK05H8Sd2RPh). [^14]: Liu and Peters, “The Hanification of Xinjiang, China,” 268. [^15]: Castets, “What’s Really Happening?” [^16]: EIU (The Economist Intelligence Unit), “Prospects and Challenges on China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’: A Risk Assessment Report,” The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2015,  [https://www.eiu.com/public/topical\_report.aspx?campaignid=OneBeltOneRoad](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid%3DOneBeltOneRoad&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844103000&usg=AOvVaw0YAsPpy_ZUJ7PrCqwnbUdw). [^17]: Ben Derudder, Xingjian Liu, and Charles Kunaka, “Connectivity Along Overland Corridors of the Belt and Road Initiative,” MTI Discussion Paper no. 6, October 2018, The World Bank, [http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/264651538637972468/pdf/Connectivity-Along-Overland-Corridors-of-the-Belt-and-Road-Initiative.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/264651538637972468/pdf/Connectivity-Along-Overland-Corridors-of-the-Belt-and-Road-Initiative.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844103000&usg=AOvVaw3RDZ7AqdpSeqFya6ACYTv0). [^18]: Simon Pirani, “Central Asian Gas: Prospects for the 2020s,” The Oxford Institute For Energy Studies, 2019, [https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Central-Asian-Gas-NG-155.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Central-Asian-Gas-NG-155.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844103000&usg=AOvVaw2ppPdc1iAtXHyYf4aXQDsP). [^19]: Syed Fazl-e-Haider, “A Strategic Seaport: Is Pakistan Key to China's Energy Supremacy?,” *Foreign Affairs*, March 5, 2015, [https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2015-03-05/strategic-seaport](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2015-03-05/strategic-seaport&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844105000&usg=AOvVaw3qU1WZmXs1c6cN-xq-nl96). [^20]: Derudder, Liu, and Kunaka, “Connectivity Along Overland Corridors of the Belt and Road Initiative.” [^21]: Hou Qiang, “Lanxin High-Speed Railway Serves for Belt and Road Initiative,” Xinhuanet, September 5, 2017, [http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-05/09/c\_136268502.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-05/09/c_136268502.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844106000&usg=AOvVaw17EjGILByYWikp36mfPZn2). [^22]: The official letter can be accessed in Arabic, Mandarin, English, French, Russian, and Spanish at [https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F41%2FG%2F11&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol%3DA%252FHRC%252F41%252FG%252F11%26Language%3DE%26DeviceType%3DDesktop&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844091000&usg=AOvVaw04aok3eE9lpBMP-Uh4Zwj8). [^23]: Catherine Putz, “Which Countries Are For or Against China’s Xinjiang Policies?,” *Diplomat*, July 15, 2019, [https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/which-countries-are-for-or-against-chinas-xinjiang-policies/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/which-countries-are-for-or-against-chinas-xinjiang-policies/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844105000&usg=AOvVaw1FSvrV5XqBdTV7LT2mK_nL) [^24]: Tess McClure, “New Zealand Draws Back from Calling Chinese Abuses of Uyghurs Genocide,” *Guardian*, May, 4, 2021, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/04/new-zealand-draws-back-from-calling-chinese-abuses-of-uyghurs-genocide](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/04/new-zealand-draws-back-from-calling-chinese-abuses-of-uyghurs-genocide&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844106000&usg=AOvVaw2ouww3F2IYzmTIxEDR5yKg) [^25]: HKTDC (Hong Kong Trade Development Council), “An Overview of Central Asian Markets on the Silk Road Economic Belt,” November 19, 2015, [https://beltandroad.hktdc.com/en/insights/overview-central-asian-markets-silk-road-economic-belt](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://beltandroad.hktdc.com/en/insights/overview-central-asian-markets-silk-road-economic-belt&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844132000&usg=AOvVaw1kWABJVunTQui2yTATDpXj). [^26]: Scott Busby, “Testimony of Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, December 4, 2018, 18, [https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/120418\_Busby\_Testimony.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/120418_Busby_Testimony.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844107000&usg=AOvVaw1Al8qAURtfZbhRpjPzxbzw). [^27]: For a detailed explanation of how the estimated number of interned people are deduced, see Patrick deHahn, “More than 1 Million Muslims Are Detained in China—But How Did We Get That Number?,” *Quartz*, July 4, 2019, [https://qz.com/1599393/how-researchers-estimate-1-million-uyghurs-are-detained-in-xinjiang/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://qz.com/1599393/how-researchers-estimate-1-million-uyghurs-are-detained-in-xinjiang/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844108000&usg=AOvVaw2WlXg91eKJUecyHFeIENgo). [^28]: For the Chinese redacted version (first 12 rows only), see [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jpolrisk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PDF_Ch_3pg_fully-redacted.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844091000&usg=AOvVaw0ywnLEsaD6idDCido5sGZF)[https://www.jpolrisk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PDF\_Ch\_3pg\_fully-redacted.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jpolrisk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PDF_Ch_3pg_fully-redacted.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844092000&usg=AOvVaw02asf0eAydn2jM6aNp0kpz). For the English redacted version (first 12 rows only), see [https://www.jpolrisk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Karakax-List-English-rows-1-12-redacted.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jpolrisk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Karakax-List-English-rows-1-12-redacted.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844092000&usg=AOvVaw2_4mbe6i_tpR-fCq8dxWF5) [^29]: Adrian Zenz, “The Karakax List: Dissecting the Anatomy of Beijing’s Internment Drive in Xinjiang,” *Journal of Political Risk* 8, no. 2 (2020): 21, [https://www.jpolrisk.com/karakax/?\_\_cf\_chl\_jschl\_tk\_\_=e62e77ca434b3e61ea3dd7cdab0ad611ecb0430f-1582057337-0-Af7pJpRINQuB9Wsv1gadP5uL0JpD0x5ZDOfVUES8UMk8-S3JVV4c85B1EkC\_tY2lNie3K5WUUtxSxtYxDL4siEr2xOQbOo2khBhz99xU04xARkwOsrcj5BOkan8F\_k1izJN1lH\_wke0m9ipOTqktOpWqDNJY2B5Atk9XV1Eq0FKZMwSvxpZeYMHXs3ta1aChnH48diXRGisBgAE9wnhNrRUbz14SHdGDutHR7JoXY-SCqr-sDD6yzB4sveKYnAjD1NWCjmzXSOHeMMJx0CwsUFAiAMSQhwntbP-9iXmXDS\_F#\_ftn2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jpolrisk.com/karakax/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__%3De62e77ca434b3e61ea3dd7cdab0ad611ecb0430f-1582057337-0-Af7pJpRINQuB9Wsv1gadP5uL0JpD0x5ZDOfVUES8UMk8-S3JVV4c85B1EkC_tY2lNie3K5WUUtxSxtYxDL4siEr2xOQbOo2khBhz99xU04xARkwOsrcj5BOkan8F_k1izJN1lH_wke0m9ipOTqktOpWqDNJY2B5Atk9XV1Eq0FKZMwSvxpZeYMHXs3ta1aChnH48diXRGisBgAE9wnhNrRUbz14SHdGDutHR7JoXY-SCqr-sDD6yzB4sveKYnAjD1NWCjmzXSOHeMMJx0CwsUFAiAMSQhwntbP-9iXmXDS_F%23_ftn2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844132000&usg=AOvVaw1Z1Wo4e3Gy77koAx54gFO8). [^30]: Zenz, “The Karakax List,” 17. [^31]: Joanne Smith Finley, “Securitization, Insecurity and Conflict in Contemporary Xinjiang: Has PRC Counter-Terrorism Evolved into State Terror?” *Central Asian Survey* 38, no. 1 (2019): 1–26, [https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2019.1586348](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2019.1586348&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844110000&usg=AOvVaw0BUaycSl8VGJ81Lp26eXNY); China Law Translate, “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Regulation on De-Extremification,” March 30, 2017, [https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/xinjiang-uyghur-autonomous-region-regulation-on-de-extremification/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/xinjiang-uyghur-autonomous-region-regulation-on-de-extremification/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844110000&usg=AOvVaw0U9dgE4VpJbGRKARDxVsn8); Michael Clarke, “Colonialism and Cultural Erasure in Xinjiang,” The Lowy Institute, September 25, 2020, [https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/colonialism-and-cultural-erasure-xinjiang](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/colonialism-and-cultural-erasure-xinjiang&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844111000&usg=AOvVaw3_FLzBAyXYeGVf813GgyjC). [^32]: Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Danielle Cave, James Leibold, Kelsey Munro, and Nathan Ruser, “Uyghurs for Sale Report,” Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2020, [https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844110000&usg=AOvVaw0gcl_NjrKI2D_pnIjuvJ5H). [^33]: Adrian Zenz, “Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton,” Centre for Global Policy, 2020b, [https://newlinesinstitute.org/china/coercive-labor-in-xinjiang-labor-transfer-and-the-mobilization-of-ethnic-minorities-to-pick-cotton/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://newlinesinstitute.org/china/coercive-labor-in-xinjiang-labor-transfer-and-the-mobilization-of-ethnic-minorities-to-pick-cotton/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844109000&usg=AOvVaw1NWv0y6Vpz2cb4vOxPI-e1); see also John Sudworth, “China’s ‘Tainted’ Cotton,” BBC, December 2020, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/nz0g306v8c/china-tainted-cotton](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/nz0g306v8c/china-tainted-cotton&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844109000&usg=AOvVaw0f19ljvdmZXCpAxwFl80yF). For the video report, see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t28nnviKar4Sudworth 2020](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dt28nnviKar4Sudworth&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844109000&usg=AOvVaw3tTaBWu5hIRoSfxDQ3mDfZ). [^34]: Adrian Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang,” The Jamestown Foundation, June 2020, updated March 17, 2021, 1, [https://jamestown.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Zenz-Internment-Sterilizations-and-IUDs-REVISED-March-17-2021.pdf?x22698](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jamestown.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Zenz-Internment-Sterilizations-and-IUDs-REVISED-March-17-2021.pdf?x22698&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844108000&usg=AOvVaw12iXwyMNr5mAuq2k6bT84n). [^35]: BHRC (Bar Human Rights Committee), “Responsibility of States under International Law to Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, China,” briefing paper, 2020, 7, [https://www.barhumanrights.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-Responsibility-of-States-to-Uyghurs\_Final.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.barhumanrights.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-Responsibility-of-States-to-Uyghurs_Final.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844111000&usg=AOvVaw00CAAg-oAHMMvSfjE4fNI6); see also Matthew P. Robertson, “Organ Procurement and Extrajudicial Execution in China: A Review of the Evidence,” Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, 2020, 36–41, [https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/OrganProcurementandExtrajudicialExecutioninChina\_VOC2020.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/OrganProcurementandExtrajudicialExecutioninChina_VOC2020.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844112000&usg=AOvVaw3-2xJJA3dxiiRc1ew6Yxt_). [^36]: Matthew Hill, David Campanale, and Joel Gunter, “‘Their Goal Is to Destroy Everyone’: Uighur Camp Detainees Allege Systematic Rape,” BBC, February 2, 2021, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55794071](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55794071&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844112000&usg=AOvVaw2PEAOSzUCasVfdVyqljTYZ). [^37]: BBC, “China’s Uighur Camp Detainees Allege Systematic Rape,” February 3, 2021, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6bPGl10Cts](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3De6bPGl10Cts&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844114000&usg=AOvVaw2-cotyYVmQ0_GdhIjr12rW). [^38]: Hill, Campanale, and Gunter, “Their Goal Is to Destroy Everyone.” [^39]: Paul Mozur, “One Month, 500,000 Face Scans: How China Is Using A.I. to Profile a Minority,” *New York Times*, April, 14, 2019, [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844113000&usg=AOvVaw1ULUmvpmmGT0lH_IWEMRuV); Eva Dou and Drew Harwell, “Huawei Worked on Several Surveillance Systems Promoted to Identify Ethnicity, Documents Show,” *Washington Post*, December 12, 2020, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/12/huawei-uighurs-identify/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/12/huawei-uighurs-identify/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844113000&usg=AOvVaw3None2vBld0m3GpB3HSQBH). [^40]: For details, see Fergus Shiel, “About the China Cables Investigation,” International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, November 23, 2019, [https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/about-the-china-cables-investigation/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/about-the-china-cables-investigation/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844112000&usg=AOvVaw3UNkrXbCJ6uh0uw_jbnkMS). [^41]: Darren Byler, *Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City* (United States: Duke University Press, forthcoming 2021); Darren Byler, “China’s Nightmare Homestay,” *Foreign Policy*, October 26, 2018, [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/26/china-nightmare-homestay-xinjiang-uighur-monitor/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/26/china-nightmare-homestay-xinjiang-uighur-monitor/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844114000&usg=AOvVaw2O3OyU3ZypWjVkEFezRAbM). [^42]: Byler, “China’s Nightmare Homestay.” [^43]: Philip Wen, Olzhas Auyezov, Thomas Peter, Christian Inton, and Simon Scarr, “Tracking China’s Muslim Gulag,” Reuters, November 29, 2018, [https://graphics.reuters.com/MUSLIMS-CAMPS-CHINA/010081G52NH/index.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://graphics.reuters.com/MUSLIMS-CAMPS-CHINA/010081G52NH/index.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844114000&usg=AOvVaw0WcbJKit7CLD0K0JLiWdBv). [^44]: Finley, “Securitization, Insecurity and Conflict,” 2. [^45]: Liu and Peters, “The Hanification of Xinjiang, China,” 268. [^46]: James D. Seymour, “Xinjiang’s Production and Construction Corps, and the Sinification of Eastern Turkestan,” *Inner Asia* 2, no. 2 (2000): 171–93, [https://doi.org/10.1163/146481700793647805](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1163/146481700793647805&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844115000&usg=AOvVaw0uphvHSFYjhrrY9N8VvQkr). [^47]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control,” 3. [^48]: Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi, “Han Migration to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: Between State Schemes and Migrants’ Strategies,” *Zeitschrift Für Ethnologie* 138, no. 2 (2013): 155–74. [^49]: Castets, “What’s Really Happening?” [^50]: Joshua Lipes, “China Bans Uyghur Language in Schools in Key Xinjiang Prefecture,” Radio Free Asia, July 28, 2017, updated August 4, [https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/language-07282017143037.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/language-07282017143037.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844116000&usg=AOvVaw2LKO6oSRDbFc5OGYyHvfgA); see also Liusetta Mudie, “China Bans Use of Uyghur, Kazakh Textbooks, Materials in Xinjiang Schools,” Radio Free Asia, October 13, 2017, [https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/ethnic-textbooks-10132017135316.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/ethnic-textbooks-10132017135316.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844116000&usg=AOvVaw0H3QfjlPMDtYTaFPyUKQaE). [^51]: S. Richardson, “China Bans Many Muslim Baby Names in Xinjiang,” Human Rights Watch, April 24, 2017, [https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/25/china-bans-many-muslim-baby-names-xinjiang](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/25/china-bans-many-muslim-baby-names-xinjiang&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844119000&usg=AOvVaw25qBd4C5oWfBE5gY02FRe0). [^52]: IOHR (International Observatory Human Rights), “China Bans Private Hajj Pilgrimages in Latest Move to Suppress Its Muslim Population,” October 14, 2020, [https://observatoryihr.org/news/china-bans-private-hajj-pilgrimages-in-latest-move-to-suppress-its-muslim-population/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://observatoryihr.org/news/china-bans-private-hajj-pilgrimages-in-latest-move-to-suppress-its-muslim-population/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844120000&usg=AOvVaw0pXxZGuPRPRUDMj4eYDq8t). [^53]: Amnesty International, “‘Forgive My Children for Not Fasting’: Ramadan in Xinjiang,” May 3, 2019, [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/05/forgive-my-children-ramadan-in-xinjiang/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/05/forgive-my-children-ramadan-in-xinjiang/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844118000&usg=AOvVaw0fptN6pj0NKovYPnjffqf5); Al Jazeera, “China Bans Muslims from Fasting Ramadan in Xinjiang,” June 18, 2015, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/6/18/china-bans-muslims-from-fasting-ramadan-in-xinjiang](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/6/18/china-bans-muslims-from-fasting-ramadan-in-xinjiang&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844118000&usg=AOvVaw2gjNREq3iauZRurQlvSfbQ). [^54]: T. Regencia, “Uighurs Forced to Eat Pork as China Expands Xinjiang Pig Farms,” Al Jazeera, December 4, 2020, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/4/holduighurs-forced-to-eat-pork-as-hog-farming-in-xinjiang-expands](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/4/holduighurs-forced-to-eat-pork-as-hog-farming-in-xinjiang-expands&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844120000&usg=AOvVaw1vKQyaKL4J2iIzkaO--DrA); Simon Denyer, “China Orders Muslim Shopkeepers to Sell Alcohol, Cigarettes, to ‘Weaken’ Islam,” *Washington Post*, May 5, 2015, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/05/05/china-orders-muslim-shopkeepers-to-sell-alcohol-cigarettes-to-weaken-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/05/05/china-orders-muslim-shopkeepers-to-sell-alcohol-cigarettes-to-weaken-islam/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844121000&usg=AOvVaw3L486X6_KJYpPbMzNzgxoe). [^55]: BBC, “China Uighurs: Xinjiang Ban on Long Beards and Veils,” April 1, 2017, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-39460538](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-39460538&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844121000&usg=AOvVaw0c1O9dYgkD652S0_QTmvNT). [^56]: Nathan Ruser, James Leibold, Kelsey Munro, and Tilla Hoja, “Cultural Erasure: Tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiang,” Australian Strategic Policy Institute,Policy Brief Report no. 38, 2020, 3, [https://www.aspi.org.au/report/cultural-erasure](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aspi.org.au/report/cultural-erasure&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844119000&usg=AOvVaw3v0sH-G7_dUYE2OEdSLRGa); see also The Xinjiang Data Project, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, September 2020, [https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844119000&usg=AOvVaw3mw_NAt1fvWctGuSDErxjO). [^57]: Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Myunghee Lee, and Emir Yazici, “Understanding China’s ‘Preventive Repression’ in Xinjiang,” Brookings, March 2, 2020, [https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/04/understanding-chinas-preventive-repression-in-xinjiang/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/04/understanding-chinas-preventive-repression-in-xinjiang/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844116000&usg=AOvVaw10Nvti7A0MFaZ3ZicLaS_8). [^58]: Max Duncan, “China Says Police Shot Dead 12 Uighurs this Month,” Reuters, July 18, 2009, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang/china-says-police-shot-dead-12-uighurs-this-month-idUSTRE56H1LN20090718](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang/china-says-police-shot-dead-12-uighurs-this-month-idUSTRE56H1LN20090718&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844117000&usg=AOvVaw0OqPdAmRA-FeLbP-CPGxDf). [^59]: Reuters, “Five Killed as Car Ploughs into Crowd in Beijing's Tiananmen Square,” October 28, 2013, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tiananmen-idUSBRE99R05F20131028](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tiananmen-idUSBRE99R05F20131028&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844117000&usg=AOvVaw1TMQuIOCPmXlTgkxsa9wEV). [^60]: BBC, “Four Sentenced in China over Kunming Station Attack,” September 12, 2014, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-29170238](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-29170238&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844118000&usg=AOvVaw2eIujjYIXxYSXNYvx6_GPk). [^61]: BBC, “China Uighurs.” [^62]: Human Rights Watch, “‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses’: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims,” September 9, 2018, [https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/09/09/eradicating-ideological-viruses/chinas-campaign-repression-against-xinjiangs](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/09/09/eradicating-ideological-viruses/chinas-campaign-repression-against-xinjiangs&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844122000&usg=AOvVaw3eNU_i13tzGURRrMr3TNst). [^63]: UN General Assembly, “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” United Nations, Treaty Series, no. 78, December 9, 1948, 1–4, [https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1\_Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844133000&usg=AOvVaw0tLx2cJ8IpJnNqV8mnT-5y). [^64]: Newlines Institute For Strategy and Policy, “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention,” 2021, 3, [https://newlinesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Chinas-Breaches-of-the-GC3-2.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://newlinesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Chinas-Breaches-of-the-GC3-2.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844122000&usg=AOvVaw2W2ZVsnbOCpF8xO0Bh-38A). [^65]: Newlines Institute For Strategy and Policy, “The Uyghur Genocide,” 2. [^66]: Alison Macdonald, Jackie McArthur, Naomi Hart, and Lorraine Aboagye, “International Criminal Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide Against the Uyghur Population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” January 26, 2021, 1, [https://14ee1ae3-14ee-4012-91cf-a6a3b7dc3d8b.usrfiles.com/ugd/14ee1a\_3f31c56ca64a461592ffc2690c9bb737.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://14ee1ae3-14ee-4012-91cf-a6a3b7dc3d8b.usrfiles.com/ugd/14ee1a_3f31c56ca64a461592ffc2690c9bb737.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844122000&usg=AOvVaw1LBXbQZJe-A6ozmodMEyZ9). [^67]: Essex Court Chambers, “Essex Court Chambers Statement on Sanctions Imposed by Chinese Government,” March 26, 2021, [https://essexcourt.com/essex-court-chambers-statement-on-sanctions-imposed-by-chinese-government/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://essexcourt.com/essex-court-chambers-statement-on-sanctions-imposed-by-chinese-government/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844123000&usg=AOvVaw30bDuNjvbMCxnhO46EeGbG). [^68]: Amnesty International, “China: Uyghurs Living Abroad Tell of Campaign of Intimidation,” February 2, 2020, [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/02/china-uyghurs-living-abroad-tell-of-campaign-of-intimidation/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/02/china-uyghurs-living-abroad-tell-of-campaign-of-intimidation/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844123000&usg=AOvVaw25ackSXIulektb8cuxUKR-). [^69]: Details of the vote held on 22 March 2021 are available at [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-03-22/debates/BD70E5C2-9163-4FB8-9B9B-2D451586A01B/TradeBill&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844099000&usg=AOvVaw2GOZe7Snb0UmvCxxgYXJE9)[https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-03-22/debates/BD70E5C2-9163-4FB8-9B9B-2D451586A01B/TradeBill](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-03-22/debates/BD70E5C2-9163-4FB8-9B9B-2D451586A01B/TradeBill&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844099000&usg=AOvVaw2GOZe7Snb0UmvCxxgYXJE9). [^70]: Details of the Trade Bill 2019-21 are available at [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2729&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844092000&usg=AOvVaw1QSOx0mS2Fi2AM5JhUBG91)[https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2729](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2729&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844092000&usg=AOvVaw1QSOx0mS2Fi2AM5JhUBG91). [^71]: Human Rights Watch,“Reeducation Through Labor in China,” 1998, [https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/china-98/laojiao.htm](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/china-98/laojiao.htm&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844124000&usg=AOvVaw28wtAm53919xPDhHc20BUP); Amnesty International, “China’s ‘Re-Education Through Labour’ Camps: Replacing One System of Repression with Another?” December 17, 2013, [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/12/china-s-re-education-through-labour-camps-replacing-one-system-repression-another/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/12/china-s-re-education-through-labour-camps-replacing-one-system-repression-another/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844124000&usg=AOvVaw3cpCZeYdi2KuH8dOXlv8sh). [^72]: David Matas and David Kilgour, “Bloody Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” 2007, [https://organharvestinvestigation.net/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://organharvestinvestigation.net/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844125000&usg=AOvVaw2rKfkzX5i2MU8LZtPHGxVT); see also Robertson, “Organ Procurement and Extrajudicial Execution,” 35–36. [^73]: Lily Kuo, “In China, They’re Closing Churches, Jailing Pastors—and Even Rewriting Scripture,” *Guardian*, January 13, 2019, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/china-christians-religious-persecution-translation-bible](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/china-christians-religious-persecution-translation-bible&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844124000&usg=AOvVaw3F_ucTcs2hg84pmbkIFwm8). [^74]: Martin King Whyte, “Modifying China’s One-Child Policy,” E-International Relations, February 2, 2014, [https://www.e-ir.info/2014/02/02/modifying-chinas-one-child-policy/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.e-ir.info/2014/02/02/modifying-chinas-one-child-policy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844125000&usg=AOvVaw1T0Cgru_vq_C141DenEO4L). [^75]: Paul Mozur, “Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras,” *New York Times*, July 8, 2018, [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844125000&usg=AOvVaw3ZqechKlBnWj2HGGlx5qM4). [^76]: J. A. Romero, “Supreme Court Upholds Dismissal of Tibet Genocide Investigation,” *El País*, April 22, 2015, [https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2015/04/22/inenglish/1429711400\_446213.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2015/04/22/inenglish/1429711400_446213.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844126000&usg=AOvVaw0a_nxgafCYDTtB7lCamWDL). [^77]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control,” 17. [^78]: Zenz, “The Karakax List,” 22. [^79]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control,” 2. [^80]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control,” 3. [^81]: Adrian Zenz, “‘End the Dominance of the Uyghur Ethnic Group’: An Analysis of Beijing’s Population Optimization Strategy in Southern Xinjiang,” Central Asian Survey, 2021, [https://ssrn.com/abstract=3862512](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ssrn.com/abstract%3D3862512&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844134000&usg=AOvVaw3g-TbUuXI4RY8PYntPkoTl). [^82]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control”; for critics, see L. Fangfei, “Responding to Adrian Zenz’s Lies on Xinjiang’s Birth Control: A Survey on Fertility Willingness of Ethnic Minority Women in Xinjiang,” Xinjiang University, September 14, 2020, [https://archive.is/ZaWta](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.is/ZaWta&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844126000&usg=AOvVaw3q8xBphFBZomKtz8b1X3DW). [^83]: CGTN, “Six Lies in Adrian Zenz’s Xinjiang Report of ‘Genocide,’” September 14, 2020, [https://archive.is/jvGRs](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.is/jvGRs&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844127000&usg=AOvVaw2CxA4Ir0q5lbftQTTZrrrb). [^84]: Adrian Zenz, “A Response to the Report Compiled by Lin Fangfei, Associate Professor at Xinjiang University,” October 6, 2020, [https://adrianzenz.medium.com/a-response-to-the-report-compiled-by-lin-fangfei-associate-professor-at-xinjiang-university-bdad4bbb97f9](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://adrianzenz.medium.com/a-response-to-the-report-compiled-by-lin-fangfei-associate-professor-at-xinjiang-university-bdad4bbb97f9&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844127000&usg=AOvVaw0cBmazt-7PvIRcrrkzv-QX); Fangfei, “Responding to Adrian Zenz’s Lies.” [^85]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control,” 14. [^86]: See Gareth Porter and Max Blumenthal, “US State Department Accusation of China ‘Genocide’ Relied on Data Abuse and Baseless Claims by Far-Right Ideologue,” The Gray Zone, February 18, 2021, [https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/18/us-media-reports-chinese-genocide-relied-on-fraudulent-far-right-researcher/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/18/us-media-reports-chinese-genocide-relied-on-fraudulent-far-right-researcher/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844128000&usg=AOvVaw2i_VhyiiZ9XxVebGliJW8j). [^87]: Liu Xin and Fan Lingzhi, “Relatives of So-Called Uyghur Activists Slam Pompeo’s Detention Claim,” Global Times, November 17, 2019, [https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1170249.shtml](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1170249.shtml&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844128000&usg=AOvVaw1RfBA4kEX2sfkqq_vZysw3). [^88]: Zenz, “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control.” [^89]: Xu et al., “Uyghurs for Sale Report”; Ruser et al., “Cultural Erasure.” [^90]: “Former Xinjiang Police Officer Describes Torture in Uyghur Detention Centers,” Uyghur Tribunal, June 8, 2021, [https://uyghurtribunal.com/coda-story-uyghur-tribunal-coverage/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://uyghurtribunal.com/coda-story-uyghur-tribunal-coverage/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844135000&usg=AOvVaw0zvW56OZHDMbw865ygeJx8). [^91]: Shiel, “About the China Cables Investigation.” [^92]: Lily Kuo, “From Denial to Pride: How China Changed Its Language on Xinjiang’s Camps,” *Guardian*, October 22, 2018, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/22/from-denial-to-pride-how-china-changed-its-language-on-xinjiangs-camps](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/22/from-denial-to-pride-how-china-changed-its-language-on-xinjiangs-camps&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844129000&usg=AOvVaw2FdwkH_s70M3OZudofGXnN). [^93]: Andrew McCormick, “How Extensive Restrictions Have Shaped the Story in Xinjiang, China,” Columbia Journalism Review, October 16, 2018, [https://www.cjr.org/analysis/uighur-xinjiang.php](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cjr.org/analysis/uighur-xinjiang.php&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844130000&usg=AOvVaw2PvTD9iaHRLOK5E5mFoaXg). [^94]: Amnesty International, “China: Uyghurs Living Abroad.” [^95]: Sophia Yan, “Raab Says Chinese Government ‘Sanctions Its Critics’ as UK MPs Banned over Xinjiang,” *Telegraph*, March 26, 2021, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/25/iain-duncan-smith-among-sanctioned-china-criticism-xinjiang/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/25/iain-duncan-smith-among-sanctioned-china-criticism-xinjiang/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844130000&usg=AOvVaw1PAHrnqPpPUKekC-k_2PAP). [^96]: Emma Graham-Harrison, “BBC Journalist Leaves China after Beijing Criticises Uighurs Coverage,” *Guardian*, March 31, 2021, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/31/bbc-journalist-john-sudworth-leaves-china-amid-criticism-of-networks-coverage](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/31/bbc-journalist-john-sudworth-leaves-china-amid-criticism-of-networks-coverage&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844130000&usg=AOvVaw3j1iLW7cU9PbgVaPkV3Oth). [^97]: For details, see Adrian Zenz’s twitter post on April 14, 2021: [https://twitter.com/adrianzenz/status/1382397174684680197?ref\_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/adrianzenz/status/1382397174684680197?ref_src%3Dtwsrc%255Egoogle%257Ctwcamp%255Eserp%257Ctwgr%255Etweet&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844093000&usg=AOvVaw016CFOQ2Lh1qGFElqwrA5B). [^98]: For a detailed discussion, see Nazir Khan, “Divine Duty: Islam and Social Justice,” *Yaqeen*, February 4, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/divine-duty-islam-and-social-justice](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/divine-duty-islam-and-social-justice&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844131000&usg=AOvVaw2LTBJdmvoVrx3w427jmRWn). [^99]: Qur’an 4:135. Translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an: A New Translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). This translation is used throughout. [^100]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 2577a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:2577a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:2577a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844093000&usg=AOvVaw2tyVqlGg4ySoPIrUsDt2cf). [^101]: Each of these is a vast topic in and of itself, which cannot be discussed here due to space constraints. The reader is, however, encouraged to consult Sheikh Dr. Omar Suleiman’s series, 40 Hadith on Social Justice, which discusses this topic extensively (see lecture no. 37 and no. 38 in particular). The lecture series is available at [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/40-hadiths-on-social-justice](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/40-hadiths-on-social-justice&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844094000&usg=AOvVaw1jcgLdxl629IB4YHnXQ2ft). [^102]: *Muwattā Mālik*, bk. 21, hadith 971, [https://sunnah.com/malik/21](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/malik/21&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844094000&usg=AOvVaw3gH0niiPP1DMeX2iXtT2JJ). [^103]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 5268, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:5268](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:5268&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844095000&usg=AOvVaw1EkzTsrXufke7aovTK0Mtd). [^104]: Qur’an 90:12–17. [^105]: Khan, “Divine Duty.” [^106]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1509b, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:1509b](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:1509b&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844095000&usg=AOvVaw0i2CiW2khygMY3sR-t1i7a). [^107]: Khan, “Divine Duty.” [^108]: *Jāmiʿal-Tirmidhī*, no. 2416, [https://sunnah.com/urn/725960](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/725960&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844096000&usg=AOvVaw3faWdY9a27EdYqXOSrwLrk). [^109]: Muhammad Asad, *The Road to Makkah* (India: Islamic Book Service, 1954 \[2019\]), 290 (emphasis in original). [^110]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 49a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:49a](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim:49a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844096000&usg=AOvVaw1yoDprKyY6MyfrDYoaxpNj). [^111]: Khan, “Divine Duty.” [^112]: Qur’an 90:5–7. [^113]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1015, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/12/83&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844097000&usg=AOvVaw0WaEvrL4XD1mMzDnY2JZz2)[https://sunnah.com/muslim/12/83](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/12/83&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844097000&usg=AOvVaw0WaEvrL4XD1mMzDnY2JZz2). [^114]: Examples of companies to boycott would include the sponsors of the Beijing Winter Games 2022—Airbnb, Allianz, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung, Toyota, Snickers, and Visa—who are financially supporting the Chinese government and helping it “sportswash” the genocide (the full list of sponsors can be found here: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.beijing2022.cn/en/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844134000&usg=AOvVaw2DW82V9__Jn3KeUXQ4vIUH)[https://www.beijing2022.cn/en/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.beijing2022.cn/en/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844134000&usg=AOvVaw2DW82V9__Jn3KeUXQ4vIUH)). Similarly, the following companies have all been reported to have profited from the exploitation of forced Uyghur labor: Adidas, Amazon, Apple, Calvin Klein, Dell, Gap, General Motors, Nike, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Samsung, Sony, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Volkswagen, and Zara (for an exhaustive list, see Xu et al., “Uyghurs for Sale Report,” 5). [^115]: *Al-Albāni*, bk. 1, hadith 479, [https://sunnah.com/adab/27/4](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/adab/27/4&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844098000&usg=AOvVaw2hXsA3NlHxKMnX_VihAArG)**.** [^116]: For a more detailed discussion on social action in Islam, see Sheikh Abdullah Oduro’s 2018 khuṭba (sermon): “The Urgency of Civic Engagement,” [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/civic-engagement](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/civic-engagement&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629400844099000&usg=AOvVaw0bhgfWxBEikyoXCP4NdH2w). [^117]: Finley, “Securitization, Insecurity and Conflict.” [^118]: Liu and Peters, “The Hanification of Xinjiang, China.” ## Summary The situation in occupied East Turkistan represents one of the gravest injustices of our time, and it is a matter that demands the attention of every believer. The region, conquered by the Qing dynasty in the nineteenth century and renamed Xinjiang, meaning "new territory," was officially annexed by the People's Republic of China in 1949 under Mao Zedong, following brief periods of independence as the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkistan and the East Turkistan Republic. Much like the Palestinians since 1948, the Turkic peoples have thus existed under occupation since 1949. This historical reality is significant, for it undermines the Chinese narrative that the Uyghurs are merely a "Muslim minority" within Chinese borders, when in truth they are an occupied people whose land holds immense value to Beijing. That value is considerable. East Turkistan holds the largest reserves of oil, natural gas, and coal in China, representing thirty, thirty-four, and forty percent of the country's total respectively. In 2019 the region accounted for a fifth of the world's cotton and eighty-five percent of China's total production. Being three times the size of France and bordering eight countries, it offers vital agricultural and trade advantages, and it plays an essential role in three of the six economic corridors of China's Belt and Road initiative. Understanding this economic and political weight helps explain why, when twenty-two mostly Western nations raised concerns about the treatment of the Uyghurs in July 2019, fifty countries signed a letter in China's defence—among them many Muslim-majority states such as Algeria, Pakistan, Iran, the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, though Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia stood apart. The evidence of what is being inflicted upon the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples is harrowing. Estimates place the number of those interned at around 1.5 million in 2019. A leaked government document known as the Karakax List reveals that people are detained for "crimes" such as having worn a veil, having grown a long beard, having relatives abroad, or simply for being deemed "untrustworthy." Other markers of alleged "religious extremism" include praying regularly, teaching the Qur'an to one's children, attending the mosque, or making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Detainees are subjected to forced labour, from which multinational companies benefit, and there is substantial evidence of forced sterilisation of women, forced separation of children, forced organ harvesting, and killings in detention. A BBC investigation reported accounts of systematic rape within the camps, with survivors describing treatment so brutal that they questioned whether their tormentors were human or animal. Outside the camps, mass surveillance through AI facial recognition tracks the Turkic population, while over a million Han civilians have been sent into Uyghur homes under the "Become Family" programme, monitoring whether families greet one another with *salām ʿalaykum* or keep a copy of the Qur'an. Muslims are forbidden from fasting or praying during Ramadan, from naming their children Muhammad, and are forced to eat pork and sell alcohol; estimates from satellite imagery indicate that sixty-five percent of mosques have been destroyed or damaged. This treatment satisfies the definition of genocide under Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which China is party, encompassing the killing of members of a group, causing serious harm, inflicting destructive conditions, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children. Independent bodies confirm this: the Newlines Institute concluded in March 2021 that China bears state responsibility for genocide, and four barristers at Essex Court Chambers found a credible case for crimes against humanity and genocide. Two objections are addressed and refuted. The first, that China represses all groups indiscriminately, is answered by noting that the coercive tactics are now applied simultaneously against a single group, and that state-funded sterilisation campaigns targeting up to thirty-four percent of married Uyghur women, alongside a collapse in birth rates, reveal a deliberate demographic engineering. The second objection, that the evidence is a fabricated Western plot, is shown to rest on conspiratorial reasoning that would require an impossible alliance of academics, lawyers, journalists, and the Uyghur diaspora across many nations, when in fact the multiplicity of corroborating sources renders such a claim untenable. Upon this foundation rests the central argument: that justice is an integral part of Islam, rooted in the Divine nature, for God describes Himself as *al-ʿAdl* (The Utterly Just) and *al-Ḥakam* (The Impartial Judge). The Qur'an commands the believers, "You who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives." So central is this principle that in the hadith qudsī recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, God says, "O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another." This prohibition extends to all creation, as seen in Abū Bakr's command to his army—may God be pleased with him—not to kill women, children, or the aged, nor to cut fruit-bearing trees, nor to burn bees, and in the Prophet's reproach, recorded in Sunan Abū Dāwūd, of companions who burnt an ant-hill. If such restraint is required even in warfare, then how much greater is the prohibition against the oppression of fellow human beings? A fundamental act of spiritual salvation in Islam is the freeing of a slave, as God declares in describing the steep path: "It is to free a slave, to feed at a time of hunger an orphaned relative or a poor person in distress." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, taught that "he who emancipates a slave, Allah will set free from Hell every limb of his body for every limb of his slave's body." Though the specific slavery of that era has been abolished, the forced labour camps remain a present reality, and through *qiyās* (analogy) it may be deduced that every Muslim is obliged not to contribute to this oppression and to take active steps to alleviate it, whether the interned be Muslim or not. The companions understood the Prophet's teaching as a universal principle affirming the freedom of all humankind from exploitation. Oppression, however, is too often recognised only in its most blatant forms, allowing people to distance themselves from complicity. Islam does not permit such a simplistic view. Muslims will be held to account for their *rizq* (sustenance), as the Prophet said in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī: the servant's feet shall not move on the Day of Judgment until he is asked about his life, his youth, his wealth—how he earned and spent it—and his knowledge. The obligation to use wealth for good forms the spiritual core of *zakat*, which purifies a Muslim's wealth; it would be a contradiction to purify one's wealth and then spend it upon the misery of others. As Muhammad Asad observed in *The Road to Makkah*, "Action is part of faith." The Prophet declared, "He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue, and if he has not strength enough to do it, even then he should abhor it from his heart, and that is the least of faith." The link between consumption and spiritual purity is affirmed in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, where a traveller in God's cause raises his hands in supplication while his food, drink, and clothing are unlawful—"How then can his supplication be accepted?" Given China's position as a permanent member of the Security Council and its reservation to Article IX of the Genocide Convention, meaningful international action will be difficult. Individual action—making informed consumption choices and boycotting products made through forced Uyghur labour—therefore stands as one of the most important avenues available. Yet the worth of such action is not to be measured by its worldly effectiveness alone, for standing against oppression is a Divine command, authoritative in itself. The defeatist claim that individual boycotts are futile against so vast an economy serves only to justify inaction and the satisfaction of material desire. Such resignation opposes the Islamic ethos captured in the Prophet's saying, "If the Final Hour comes while you have a shoot of a plant in your hands and it is possible to plant it before the Hour comes, you should plant it." Deeds carry consequences not only in this world but, when undertaken with sincere *niyya*, in the *ākhira* as well. Muslims are thus commanded not to expend their *rizq* upon evil, but to stand firm against injustice and alleviate human suffering. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/hijab-gendered-islamophobia-and-the-lived-experiences-of-muslim-women # Hijab, Gendered Islamophobia, and the Lived Experiences of Muslim Women **Authors:** Dr. Naved Bakali, Nour Soubani **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Hijab, Paper, Publication, Women in Islam **Published:** August 17, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction As the world awaited the results of the 2020 US presidential election with mounting apprehension, Muslim women had ongoing conversations both online and in person, at individual and communal levels, about the consequences, not just of a second Trump presidency, but of the obvious masses of voters who supported him across the country. In particular, many Muslim women who wore the hijab shared newfound or heightened feelings of fear and anxiety about being visibly and identifably Muslim in public, even in their own hometowns and familiar local spaces. Although perhaps exacerbated, these conversations were not new, and have become more and more frequent with the rise of populist and nationalist sentiments in the US and across the world. Globally, current events like the renewed violence in France and subsequent crackdown by the French government on Muslims in the country, have once again brought to the fore the discrimination faced by Muslims in Western societies. And for Muslim women, a significant portion of the conversation revolves not only around religion but around gender and, in many cases, around the physical marker of their Islam: the hijab. Islamophobia is more than just a fear or hatred of Muslims. As Julianne Hammer put it, it is “an ideological construct produced and reproduced at the intersection of imperial ideology, political expediency, and the exploitation of nationalist, racial, and religious insecurities.”[^1] Therefore, when examining Islamophobia, there are many facets through which it can be understood. In our investigations of Islamophobia, a crucial dimension, which has helped us and others to better understand the lived realities of Muslims with this form of racism,[^2] is that of gender. Understanding gendered experiences of Islamophobia can help flesh out how the Muslim ‘Other’ is constructed in the eyes of a nationalist subject, or those from the majoritarian culture, as Muslim women’s and men’s experiences with Islamophobia are distinct.[^3] In mainstream narratives that objectify Muslim women—and that often use the image of the hijab to do so—the archetype most commonly associated with them is that of the oppressed and imperiled victim.[^4] At the same time, Muslim women are seen as a threat to liberal values, justifying violence against them and their communities. These representations stand in stark contrast to the actual lived experiences of Muslim women who wear the hijab, which are complex and extend well beyond a singular trope. This paper explores the experiences of Muslim women with race, racialization, and Islamophobia while wearing the hijab. Through a process of storytelling, we highlight the experiences of individual Muslim women as a way to connect them to the broader contexts of race, religion, and belonging in North American societies. Elsewhere, the notion of storytelling and how it is fundamental to understanding the realities of race and racism have been discussed in detail.[^5] Through storytelling, the voices of the marginalized and oppressed are heard in place of the narratives of dominant groups in society. In this way, this article will utilize the hijab, and the individual and collective experiences of Muslim women who wear it, as a lens through which to understand the workings of Islamophobia in the West. The stories included in this article have been drawn from a number of interviews exploring Muslim women’s experiences with Islamophobia in North America.[^6] --- ## Islamophobia as a gendered experience In 1989, Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality.” Crenshaw was trying to solve a problem she saw in feminist and anti-racist identity politics at the time: they often glossed over important intra-group differences for the sake of a unified political cause. In other words, the feminist movement often treated all women as if their experiences were one and the same, while the anti-racist movement treated all people of color as if their experiences were one and the same, with little understanding from either movement of the overlapping space where women of color existed. Intersectionality has since been utilized as a framework that encompasses the layering of multiple identities—including race, class, gender, and citizenship, among others—and how the combined effects of structural marginalization within and toward each of these social identity categories contributes to a unique and layered experience overall for those who identify with more than one marginalized group. Crenshaw argues that those within the same group—for example, women—may carry different identities that shape and intensify how they experience structural violence. As an example, she writes, > Many women of color ...are burdened by poverty, child-care responsibilities, and the lack of job skills. These burdens, largely the consequence of gender and class oppression, are then compounded by the racially discriminatory employment and housing practices women of color often face. Women of color are burdened as well by the disproportionately high unemployment among people of color that make battered women of color less able to depend on the support of friends and relatives for temporary shelter.[^7] Similarly, when it comes to Muslims, it should be recognized that not all Muslims experience Islamophobia in the same ways. Islamophobia operates on multiple levels, and is compounded by struggles of race, class, and gender among others. For Muslim women, then, Islamophobia is experienced not only with regards to religion, but also with regards to gender. With this lens in mind, we can examine  internalized, interpersonal, and structural interactions that Muslim women who wear the hijab face as forms of gendered Islamophobia. To understand the role that the hijab plays in the lived experiences of Islamophobia among Muslim women, in how they are seen, understood, and treated, we must first examine the broader ways the figure of the Muslim woman has been constructed in Western society. The “woman question,” as it has been called, has, throughout history, been used by colonial powers to justify expansion, invasion, and violence against Muslim societies. And in particular, the hijab has often been at the center of narratives that objectify Muslim women. In Egypt, “colonial feminism” took the form of extreme concern over the veiling of Egyptian women while issues of women’s education, employment, and suffrage in the colonizing society itself were ignored. In colonized Algeria, French generals staged a demonstration in which French women unveiled Algerian women publicly to symbolize the liberation brought to the country by France. Fast forward to the 21st century, the post 9/11 War on Terror narrative has relied heavily on the idea of “saving Muslim women” from their oppressive patriarchal societies. In the context of the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, images of Muslim women wearing the hijab were often used to symbolize a gender oppression that justified and in fact necessitated US military occupation, a framing that garnered the support of White American feminist groups as well.[^8] In contemporary French and broader European politics, the hijab has long been an issue of contention, with repeated attempts to ban it from the public space often sparking an increased vigor and commitment to the practice among Muslim women.[^9] As one Australian politician put it, the hijab “has become the icon, the symbol of a clash of cultures, and it runs much deeper than a piece of cloth.”[^10] These images and narratives about hijab have been produced and reproduced throughout popular media and political discourse, and impact the ways in which hijab is understood today. In turn, these same narratives play a role in shaping the lived experiences of Muslim women who wear the hijab, some of which we will examine in this paper. --- ## Experiences with Islamophobia in society The first story discussed in this article is from a young woman named Noor,[^11] who is a White convert to Islam. Noor described how her interactions with people in her community overall did not seem too negative. However, she still acknowledged that anti-Muslim sentiments existed. It is possible that Noor felt she had experienced less discrimination, because she was a member of the majoritarian culture and a convert to Islam. Still, what was interesting about Noor’s comments was that despite feeling that racism towards Muslims was not too bad, she had personally been targeted by people for her Muslim appearance, and shared a particular incident she faced while taking public transportation: > *Noor:* They would sometimes insult you and say *‘go back to your country’* and stuff like that. Like, I could have answered, I am in my country, but I didn’t used to answer anything when things like that happened. But it wasn’t nice. I didn’t like to take the subway but I used to take it all the time. And when pressed, Noor elaborated: > *Naved*: So in some places where you were living you felt that there was some kind of negative impression of Muslims? > *Noor*: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Once someone started throwing *eggs at me* from a window in an apartment building. Despite Noor being born and growing up within this community, as well as being a member of the majoritarian population, she had been verbally and physically abused, and taunted to “go back to your country,” which is indicative of how wearing a Muslim symbol like the hijab placed her outside of her culture of birth and signified her as ‘Other’ to some members of society. Noor had never experienced such treatment prior to wearing the hijab*.* Abo-Zena, Sahli, and Tobias-Nahi have noted that Muslim women who wear the hijab often “experience marginalization caused by hate speech such as being told to ‘go back to your country.’”[^12] In this instance, we can understand Noor’s aggressors as envisioning themselves in a position of power in which they possessed the right to determine what belonged within the norms of their society and what needed to be expelled. Islamic symbols such as the hijab in the case of Noor, despite her ethnic origins aligning with the racialized majority, brought about a situation in which she was marked as contaminating the nationalist space and was told to leave. Noor’s experiences indicated that her perceived belongingness to society was contingent upon her conformity to the majoritarian culture. Once she veered away from societal norms, she was told to “go back to \[her\] country,” casting her in the realm of ‘Otherness.’ To place Noor’s experience in context, it is helpful to examine the idea of the nation itself, its perceived borders, and the process of inclusion and exclusion that it necessitates. Zareena Grewal writes that the nation is more than just physical boundaries on a map: > \[it is\] a place both physical and also imagined, one that is produced and perpetually reproduced by a community of citizens who collectively imagine that they share a deep, horizontal kinship…The collectively imagined affiliations among citizens—and the corresponding imagined separation from people outside the nation’s borders (as well as outsiders within), the perpetually appealing notion of “us” versus “them” sustain the imagined community of the nation…[^13] But why would a social practice such as hijab, indicating an apparent change in *religion,* lead to a perceived change in *race*? After all, Islam is a social practice, and Muslims certainly exist along a diverse spectrum of nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures. Junaid Rana calls this the “race-ing” of Islam, a process by which Islam and Muslims have become racialized through the interconnected histories of imperialism, slavery, war, and conquest. As a result, the Muslim in contemporary America, as Rana argues, is multi-racial: primarily “Arab-American-Middle Eastern” but also Southeast Asian, White, Black, and Latino. As Rana puts it, “Arab, Black, Latino, South Asian, and white have been collapsed into this racial category of the Muslim…”[^14] It is important to note that Noor’s experience as a White convert contrasts with those of Arab, Black, Latino, and South Asian Muslim women. For them, the racialized figure of the Muslim overlaps with and is compounded by the racialized figures of the terrorist, the immigrant, the thug. --- ## Experiences in school In another instance, Ayesha discusses her story by reflecting on her high school experiences. Ayesha began wearing the hijab when she was in grade nine. Prior to this, she was able to pass as a member of the White majoritarian population, despite her Arab ethnic origins. Upon wearing the hijab*,* Ayesha experienced unintended consequences where she felt she had to become a spokesperson for Islam. In her words: > You know, when you’re a teenager you feel the world is always staring at you. And you know there were random things that happened here and there but overall it was smooth, except for the fact that I felt that I had to be a spokesperson for the *entire* Muslim *ummah* of the world. Like every time there would be a debate that would happen in class everyone would just sort of look to me and I was 14, I was supposed to justify everything! Wearing the hijab brought about some stares and other uncomfortable situations within Ayesha’s school setting, but the main issue which Ayesha seemed to be annoyed with was that she had to be the representative voice for Muslims whenever there were discussions about Islam or Muslims in her classes. As Ayesha was a high school student during the 9/11 attacks and the pursuant “War on Terror,” many of these classroom conversations Ayesha described naturally revolved around those events. Ayesha’s comments suggested how members of her school community assumed homogeneity amongst Muslims worldwide. This became apparent to her after she started wearing the hijab, because she became viewed as a cultural representative. The situation described by Ayesha is what some have termed “spotlighting,” which refers to the phenomenon of “students of minority religious, ethnic, or cultural groups…\[being\] spotlighted to speak for or otherwise justify what “their group” thinks or what members of their group do.”[^15] In subtle ways, spotlighting reproduces the myth that Islam and Muslims are monolithic[^16] and that there is not a diverse range of views within the Islamic faith regarding world affairs and conflicts. This is hardly surprising given that Ayesha could not even be identified as a Muslim until she visibly wore an Islamic symbol which has often been associated with notions of misogyny and the oppression of Muslim women. In essence, spotlighting asks Muslim students to explain why other Muslims engage in acts of terror, assuming that they understand the motivations of those who committed them, or that they could speak on their behalf.[^17] This may result in feelings of guilt by association, especially in the case of the 9/11 attacks, as spotlighting here assumes that the reasoning behind the attacks is somehow explained through the common faith shared by the students and the perpetrators. Ayesha felt a great sense of discomfort when class discussions and debates relating to Islam and Muslims would focus attention on her, because as an adolescent she felt she was being asked to “justify everything” (i.e., the actions of Muslim perpetrators) even though she did not agree with these actions. What is more, Ayesha’s experience, although it took place in a high school classroom, reflects a broader discourse on Islam that attempts to reduce world events and actions of Muslims to matters of culture, rather than historical, societal, and political processes. In other words, whatever Muslims do or do not do, anywhere in the world, must be a result of their inherent “Muslimness” alone. By this logic, Ayesha, as a Muslim, should have been able to explain the actions of the 9/11 hijackers, given that they ostensibly share the same religion. Following the same logic, in the aftermath of 9/11, there was a concerted attempt by authors, media personalities, researchers, and others to “understand Islam” as a way to explain the attacks. A significant portion of this new focus was on Muslim women in particular. Asking questions about Islam’s rules surrounding women, about the meaning of the hijab, about the belief systems of Muslim women, were meant to somehow explain or demystify an essential difference between Muslim cultures and Western ones, drawing on longstanding narratives about a “clash” between the two.[^18] The critical gap in this analysis, of course, is the ways that Muslim societies and Western societies are inextricably linked and tied up in one another’s fates through the latter’s role in the development of the former.[^19] Another young woman named Maryam discussed how her relationships at school changed once she started wearing the hijab: > I didn’t really have that many weird experiences in high school but after I started wearing hijab in secondary two, mostly people were still respectful but there were a lot of questions that were asked. So I think it was a very *big* shock for me… they would ask me a lot about all those stereotypical things in our religion. So they always needed clarifications. That happens even now. Like Ayesha, instead of just being a regular student, Maryam felt she had to become a spokesperson for the Islamic faith and for Muslims once she started wearing the hijab. Some studies suggest that often questions faced by Muslim women in educational settings are “in the context of epithets propagated by the media.”[^20] In other words, the assumption of ‘Otherness’ underlies these questions.[^21] This was the case with Maryam as she described the types of questions that she was asked as originating from stereotypes associated with Islam. These stereotypes, according to Maryam, included questions relating to beheadings, stoning, and forced marriages, all of which are tropes in the dominant Western discourse about Islam. A number of Maryam’s peers had biased and contrived notions of Muslims and Islam. Once Maryam began wearing the hijab she fit the description of the ‘imperiled Muslim woman,’ which clearly was not the case before when she was a regular hijabless student unqualified to answer questions. Wearing the hijab appeared to provide her with the credentials to discuss ‘Islam,’ or rather the students’ stereotypical views of Islam because she now fit the stereotypical mold. In addition to answering questions relating to stereotypes associated with Islam, Maryam also faced taunts and teasing about wearing the hijab: > Some of the students, I think back then they would call me—just to make fun of me…that was actually *pretty rough*, they would call me Saddam. So stupid things like that, like Kaddafi, so stupid things like that, but as a joke, I never took it seriously. Though Maryam says she did not take the taunts of other students very seriously, it is still indicative of how the hijab became a means to change how she was perceived by her peers. Upon donning the hijab she had the names of two violent tyrannical leaders of Muslim countries thrown at her. Maryam’s wearing of the hijab in the eyes of some students indicated affiliations to tyranny, oppression, and violence. These experiences also point to how supposed signifiers of oppression, like the hijab*,* have become entangled with imperialistic discourses, which in the context of the War on Terror, have become increasingly obsessed with the “liberation” of Muslim women. As such, Maryam’s wearing of the hijab was not interpreted as a manifestation of religious freedom or self expression, but rather it was symbolic of her ‘Otherness,’ which needed to be admonished and denigrated. Maryam’s classmates also connected her to Arab Muslim figures in particular. Hence, media discourses linking the hijab with violence and terror, and with the Middle East, resonated with perceptions held by students at Maryam’s secondary school. Amina, who was also a high school student during the 9/11 attacks and the onset of the War on Terror discussed how these events affected her relationship with a friend in secondary school: > There was one incident after 9/11 that I recall very strongly. There was this girl that I was pretty good friends with. We used to take the bus together and pretty much right after, the day after \[the 9/11 attacks\], she just completely stopped talking to me. She actually posted something *really* derogatory \[about Islam\] in her locker and a teacher had reprimanded her for that and had her remove it. And after that she never spoke to me, after 9/11. And before that we used to take the bus to and from the school together and we were pretty good friends. 9/11 changed the way Amina was perceived amongst her friends. Some have noted that events like 9/11 can cause “students who feel pain or threat, particularly over something out of their direct control… to experience frustration and resentment towards the social groups they blame for their feelings.[^22] As Amina described it, her friendship with a good friend effectively ended because of 9/11, as if the student was trying to punish Amina for these attacks. The assumptions embedded in this student’s response were that these actions committed by a fringe group of Muslims were representative of the religion of Islam as a whole. Amina being rejected by her friend in the aftermath of the terror attacks for no apparent reason was indicative that she believed sharing a common religion with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks in some way signaled her acceptance of these acts. Amina experienced a type of guilt by association which inevitably resulted from this friend’s monolithic understanding of Muslims and Islam. In the case of Amina, it was not clear if her hijab was what elicited views of guilt by association. However, Ayesha clearly did feel that the hijab was a symbol which was indicative of affiliation with terrorism and the 9/11 attacks: > One of my friends, she was the only *hijabi* in the grade, the only Arab besides me, so people just started surrounding her. And they weren’t trying to bully her, but they were just very curious, right, because they saw *her* people—she’s Lebanese—but they saw *hijabi*s on TV and they said, you know, did your people do the 9/11? And she’s like, those weren’t Arabs, those were Afghans. She was in grade seven so she just, she automatically, like swallowed what the news said as well but she like carefully pinpointed it to Afghans. She didn’t mention anything about it being Muslims or non-Muslims. Ayesha at this time was not wearing the hijab but her friend in grade seven was. Consequently, students immediately came to Ayesha’s friend to understand more about 9/11. As Ayesha’s friend wore the hijab and the news media was inundated with images of hijab*\-*clad Muslim women after the attacks—some of whom were being depicted as celebrating the attacks[^23]—students came to her wanting to understand the motivations of these acts. Logically, some of the students thought, if they (i.e., Muslims on the news after attacks) wore the hijab, and Ayesha’s friend wore the hijab, they must be the same people. Hence, the students questioned if it was “your people” behind these attacks. In other words, these students assumed Islam was a race. As discussed in the case of Noor earlier, this is another example where the racialization of Islam collapses ethnic, cultural, and racial boundaries into a racialized figure of the Muslim, which overlaps, not exclusively, with the figure of the terrorist. Ayesha’s friend’s response is noteworthy, and speaks to the common experience of internalized Islamophobia. She mistakenly believed it was Afghans and not Arabs who were behind the attacks on 9/11, and so she reinforced the ethnic boundaries that separated her from them. She understood, probably based on media narratives and the political rhetoric at the time, that Afghanis were in some way involved in these events and she identified the supposed terrorists according to ethnicity and not religion. This episode demonstrated how there was a clear distinction in how a Muslim student perceived these attacks and the supposed perpetrators and how non-Muslim students reacted to the same events. The Muslim student perceived the perpetrators according to ethnicity because she was a Muslim and her belief system was incompatible with the acts of terrorism on September 11. Hence she clarified that it was not ‘her people,’ which in her view referred to ethnic affiliation. The perception of the non-Muslim students was quite different. They saw certain Islamic symbols, like the hijab*,* and understood these symbols as representative of ideologies and actions related to the terrorists and the ‘Islamic race.’ Another student, Noor, described how her parents and those of some of her Muslim friends who wore the hijab had serious concerns for their daughters’ safety at school in the aftermath of these attacks: > *Noor*: I have a friend who stopped going to school for some time because her parents were scared for her safety when she took the bus going to school. So she stopped. A few of them stopped I think. But because they didn’t want to take off their hijab, so they just stayed home. My parents told me to take off my hijab right after 9/11 but as soon as I got out of the house I would wear it without them knowing. So I did wear it to school but I don’t remember anything that happened. > *Naved*: So there were a lot of concerns for safety? > *Noor*: Yeah, the parents, mostly the parents were scared for their kids. You did hear about things that happened in the subway. Some people had their hijab taken off by other people, stuff like that. According to Noor, parents of Muslim girls who wore the hijab had serious concerns for their daughters’ safety after 9/11. The concerns, as expressed by Noor, were specifically over their daughters wearing the hijab. It would seem that these parents understood that the hijab was an Islamic symbol in the eyes of the public that signified sympathies or affiliations with terrorism, and that would make their daughters targets of violence. By continuing to wear the hijab immediately after the 9/11 attacks, parents were concerned that their daughters would be perceived as the ‘bad Muslims.’ In the aftermath of 9/11, Muslim women of all ages who took the hijab off may have been attempting to distance themselves from a certain negative perception about Muslim women who worethe hijab. Likewise, in an effort to protect themselves, many Muslims took to adjusting their outward appearance to fit the image of a more palatable Muslim: beards were shaved, Mohammad became Mo, American flags were hung proudly from front doors. Often, these acts were rooted in a climate of fear caused by the advent of government policies that policed outward expressions of Islam like the hijab. Hijab quickly became a fast-tracked ticket to extra security screenings at the airport, and it was implicated, along with other markers of religiosity, as a possible indicator for potential radicalization in programs to combat domestic terrorism.[^24] In this way, hijab as a marker of a certain “type” of Muslim made it an important factor in the gendered effects of Islamophobia. While Noor said she did not experience any problems, parents’ safety concerns were not unfounded, as she pointed out some women were having their hijab pulled off while using public transportation on their way to school. The act of pulling off the hijab in the context of a supposedly multicultural nation and what it entails has been discussed at length by Hage.[^25] According to him, the nationalist subject expresses belonging to the nation in two different ways: ‘passive belonging’ and ‘governmental belonging.’ Passive belonging is the expectation of benefiting from the nation by virtue of being a part of it, whereas governmental belonging involves being in a position to manage the nation so that it remains uncorrupted. When people believe their nation is being contaminated by people who share a similar ideology as the perpetrators of terrorist acts (i.e., women wearing the hijab), nationalist subjects may take it upon themselves to enact their privilege of governmental belonging and purify the nationalist space by pulling off the hijab*.* And, as mentioned in the introduction to this paper, the act of unveiling Muslim women has its roots in the history of colonialism. --- ## Media representations Concerning stereotypes of Muslims perpetuated by the media, Tahir Abbas argues that “\[t\]he managed reality that is depicted by the media is transferred to society. When interacting with Muslims, Westerners will automatically perceive them as the stereotypes formulated by the media regardless of the way Muslim people actually are.”[^26] In other words, the media is instrumental in forming perceptions of Muslims, even if this contradicts the actual beliefs and actions of the vast majority of Muslims. Amina believed the impact of popular cultural mediums, such as TV and movies cannot be understated: > That’s something that young people are most exposed to; TV, movies, you know, these are the type of things that they watch. Especially like movies, that’s where, you know, a lot of kids spend a lot of their extra free time, watching movies and their ideas do come from this type of medium. It’s not just something they’re reading about, it’s something they’re seeing. It’s a visual clip. Kind of a snapshot of what Muslims are. Amina believed that the visual nature of film and television had a major impact on how Muslims were understood. Since Muslims are a minority in North America, members of the majoritarian culture may not have much exposure to Muslims and Islamic beliefs. As such, television and films could possibly be important sites of knowledge production for students with regards to how they understand Muslims,[^27] because according to Amina they provide a “snapshot of what Muslims are.” Stuart Hall has made similar claims through his examination of issues relating to race representation in the media. He believes that “media are especially important sites for the production, reproduction and transformation of ideologies.”[^28] Ideologies, according to Hall, refer to “images, concepts and premises which provide the frameworks through which we represent, interpret, understand, and ‘make sense’ of some aspect of social existence.”[^29] In other words, the media can influence how we construct our knowledge of various aspects of our lives. This is not to say that there is only one conception of race in the media which reproduces the dominant ruling class interpretation of the ‘Other.’ Rather, there are varying degrees of racist constructions that are reproduced through different mediums such as films, television shows, or news media. Racist portrayals in the media can be *overt* and at times more subtle through *inferential* racism. *Overt* racism in the media occurs when openly racist views are given legitimacy by people who are in the business of advocating a racist agenda. *Inferential* racism is a type of unconscious racism that stems from certain unquestioned assumptions embedded within the media.[^30] Both these types of racism are operational in representations of Muslims in the media.[^31] Media representations of Muslims according to Maryam tended to be one dimensional characterizations that revolved around the archetypes of the ‘imperilled Muslim woman’ and ‘dangerous Muslim man,’ as Maryam stated: > They’re pretty much typecast \[i.e., Muslims in the media\]. I don’t really see them in American media besides things like terrorist plots or movies about terrorism. So they’re represented very one-dimensionally. And I never see Muslim families in everyday life going to school or things like that. Maryam lamented how Muslims were rarely ever portrayed in the media as regular people doing normal activities in everyday life and being contributing members of society. This can be problematic as Hall argues that our understanding of race and the meanings that race carries are particularly constructed through the media. Hence, perpetuating these negative stereotypes could possibly impact how people in society and schools think of Muslims. Ironically, after 9/11, mainstream media outlets saw an increase in more-or-less sympathetic portrayals of Muslim characters. In the years following 2001, a show that had a Muslim terrorist or homeland security threat, also included a patriotic Muslim, or a Muslim who helped thwart the terrorist attack. Sometimes, Muslims were even portrayed as victims of hate crimes or other attacks. Seemingly Muslim countries were given fictional names and could only be discerned by the way their people dressed, or the language that was spoken, in an attempt to avoid offending a specific nationality or ethnicity. But, as Evelyn Alsultany points out in her article on media representations of Muslims post 9/11, these tactics and portrayals did not help reduce the number of hate crimes, incidents of discrimination, or overall violence against Muslims in society; in fact, these trends only increased. At the same time, government policies against Muslims treated them all as suspects, seriously restricting their civil liberties, and US empire continued to expand into Muslim countries justified by the War on Terror. Alsultany argues that these continued oppressions were possible in part because of the “simplified complex representations” of Muslims in the media that projected an “enlightened culture that can distinguish between the good and the bad ones,” but that ultimately perpetuated stereotypes just the same.[^32] Muslim women wearing the hijab often featured prominently in these narratives, and reinforced their objectification in society. --- ## Eroticizing the Muslim female subject Jennifer was also a convert to Islam from the majoritarian population. She was a mother of two and sometimes served as a volunteer at her children’s school for various events. Jennifer shared her story of an encounter with a grandparent of one of the students at these events. > I was at the kids’ school for Grandparents Day. That is when we invite all the grandparents of the kids from the school to come and experience a day in their grandchildren’s school. The kids put on performances and shows. I was in the music room and we were having a book fair. All the grandparents were waiting in line with their grandchildren to buy them books from the book fair. There \[were\] a lot of people, about 100 people in a long line out the door. One of the male grandparents was with his wife and approaches me and says, “Do you have hair under that thing?” I smiled and said, “Yes I do.” So he reaches behind me and grabs my scarf and my ponytail and yanks it. And he says, “Oh yeah, I can feel the ponytail back there.” Then he turns to his wife and says, “Oh yeah she has hair under there.” He says to me, “Why don’t you just take it off,” and motions with his hands, pointing up and down my body, “Why don’t you take it all off?” Jennifer’s experience, like that of Noor's at the beginning of this paper, points to how donning a visual signifier of her Muslimness subjected her to a form of racialization. Despite being a member of the majoritarian culture, she was verbally and physically harassed for her perceived “Otherness” because she wore a hijab*.* Furthermore, she was treated as a sexual object. This objectification of the Muslim female body draws from a historical legacy of Orientalist perceptions that have cast Muslim women as eroticized objects of desire in need of saving by the civilizing European.[^33] A similar incident was described by a young woman named Sana, who discussed her experiences with a male classmate at her school. > One day, a boy walked over to me in school and said, “Can I ask you a question?” and I said, “Sure.” At that point, he asked me to do something I’d rather not repeat. It was a sexual act. It was sexually explicit. He said it right in front of a teacher and the teacher did nothing at all. Sana’s story further highlights how the Muslim female subject’s experiences with Islamophobia entail the sexualization of Muslim women. Sana was very cognizant of being targeted for both her religion and gender, as she mentioned, > Muslim women are very sexualized to the rest of the world. Because of media outlets, there is this perception of Muslim women being oppressed with no one to help them. At the same time there is this overly sexualized perception of women. The boys who were harassing me really relied on these two stereotypes. They hurled a lot of verbal abuse at me, phrases like b\*\*\*\*\*, whore; she’s got a bomb; she’s a terrorist. One day, while I was walking down the hallway…the boys spread their legs across the hallway. I normally wear skirts and dresses with jeans underneath; one of the boys laid across the hallway and tried to look up my skirt. Overall, the types of physical attacks and aggression these Muslim women describe are, disturbingly, not unusual. Muslim women have been at the center of rising Islamphobic assaults—both verbal and physical—and these often include an aggression towards the hijab.[^34] What is more, the specific attacks Sana describes in the last interview fit into a broader discussion on the sexualization of the hijab and of the Muslim woman’s body more generally. From interpersonal acts of sexual assault and harassment like the ones in Sana’s story, to popular culture trends that fetishize Muslim women who wear the hijab and subvert it in messages about sex,[^35] these narratives are common. The contemporary obsession with the Muslim woman’s body is a historically consistent one. The psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon once described French colonizers’ frustration toward Algerian women who wore the headscarf: > ...there is also in the European the crystallization of an aggressiveness, the strain of a kind of violence before the Algerian woman. Unveiling this woman is revealing her beauty; it is baring her secret, breaking her resistance, making her available for adventure...In a confused way, the European experiences his relation with the Algerian woman at a highly complex level. There is in it the will to bring this woman within his reach, to make her a possible object of possession. This woman who sees without being seen frustrates the colonizer. There is no reciprocity. She does not yield herself, does not offer herself.[^36] Although published in 1959, Fanon’s words accurately reflect current discourses on hijab in the West, and, as a particular case study, in modern-day France. The ongoing debate on the hijab in France is a stark example of the sexualization of the veil and those who wear it. As Joan Wallach Scott describes, > Muslim modesty is taken to be sexually aberrant by French observers, who condemn it not only as different but as somehow excessive, even perverse...It was not the absence of sexuality but presence that was being remarked—a presence underlined by the girls’ refusal to engage in what were taken to be the ‘normal’ protocols of interaction with members of the opposite sex.[^37] Implied in French critiques of the hijab is a worldview that takes for granted that the visual appreciation of women’s bodies is a natural process. By refusing to participate in this world order, Muslim women wearing the hijab are committing an act of aggression against society. In this way, hijab itself is seen as a critique of dominant gender relations. --- ## Conclusion This article examined the gendered dimensions of Islamophobia through North American Muslim women’s lived experiences with Islamophobia while wearing the hijab*.* Through this ethnographic exploration, the emergent themes of: Islamophobia in societal interactions; within schooling contexts; in media representations; and through the sexualization of the Muslim female subject, helped to construct a nuanced and informed understanding of these lived realities. As this was a qualitative ethnographic study, our goal was not to interview a large number of participants to draw general conclusions about Muslim women’s experiences in North American society. Rather, the purpose of our analysis was to shed light on some of the lived experiences of our participants, and in doing so contribute to the study and literature of systemic and interpersonal racism experienced by racialized communities, particularly Muslim women who wear the hijab*.* The story of the hijab in Western societies today cannot be divorced from the realities of Islamophobia. Conversely, the story of Islamophobia cannot be told without a special emphasis on the gendered ways in which it impacts Muslim women, particularly hijab-wearing Muslim women. To understand this relationship, it is crucial that we deconstruct the historical narratives about Muslim women and the hijab to understand how they are repeated in today’s discourses. The stories in this paper analyze the experiences of Muslim women who wear the hijab in North America through various lenses. Through their stories, we can understand how the hijab is perceived as a racial construct, a sexualized construct, a cultural construct, and a national construct. --- ## Notes [^1]: Julianne Hammer, “(Muslim) Women’s Bodies, Islamophobia, and American Politics,” *Bulletin for the Study of Religion* 42, no. 1 (2013): 29–36. [^2]: Chris Allen, *Islamophobia* (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2010). [^3]: Ghassan Hage, *White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society* (New York: Routledge, 2000). [^4]: Sherene Razack, *Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics* (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). [^5]: Osman Umarji and Husain Lateef, “Being Black and Muslim in America: A Study on Identity and Well-Being,” *Yaqeen*, August 6, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-black-and-muslim-in-america](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-black-and-muslim-in-america). [^6]: Most of these interviews formed the basis for Naved Bakali’s PhD dissertation and were published in *Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Racism through the Lived Realities of Muslim Youth* (Brill/Sense, 2016)*.* Two interviews were taken from a joint book chapter that Naved Bakali worked on with Hadia Mubarak in Hadia Mubarak and Naved Bakali, “Experiences of a Muslim American Academic, Female, and Activist,” in *The Personal is Political: Body Politics in a Trump World*, ed. Christine Salkin Davis and Jonathan L. Crane (Boston: Brill/Sense, 2020), 97–119. [^7]: Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” *Stanford Law Review* 43, no. 6 (July 1991): 1241–99. [^8]: Razack, *Casting Out*. [^9]: Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others,” *American Anthropologist* 104, no. 3 (September 2002): 783–90 [^10]: Joan Wallach Scott, *The Politics of the Veil* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007). [^11]: All names of participants in this article are pseudonyms to protect their identities. [^12]: Mona M. Abo-Zena, Barbara Sahli, and Christina Safiya Tobias-Nahi, “Testing the Courage of Their Convictions: Muslim Youth Respond to Stereotyping, Hostility, and Discrimination,” in *Muslim Voices in School: Narratives of Identity and Pluralism*, ed. Özlem Sensoy and Christopher Darius (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2009), 3–26. [^13]: Zareena Grewal, *Islam Is a Foreign Country* (New York: New York University Press, 2014). See also Benedict Anderson, *Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism* (New York: Verso, 1991). [^14]: Junaid Rana, “The Story of Islamophobia,” *Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society* 9, no. 2 (2007): 148–61. [^15]: Abo-Zena, Sahli, and Tobias-Nahi, “Testing the Courage,” 8. [^16]: Edward Said, *Orientalism* (New York: Vintage Books, 1979). [^17]: Abo-Zena, Sahli, and Tobias-Nahi, “Testing the Courage.” [^18]: Bernard Lewis, *Islam and the West* (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). [^19]: Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Need Saving?” [^20]: Abo-Zena, Sahli, and Tobias-Nahi, “Testing the Courage,” 15. [^21]: Shaza Khan, “Integrating Identities: Muslim American Youth Confronting Challenges and Creating Change,” in *Muslim Voices in School: Narratives of Identity and Pluralism*, ed. Özlem Sensoy and Christopher Darius (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2009), 27–40. [^22]: J’Lein Liese, “The Subtleties of Prejudice: How Schools Unwittingly Facilitate Islamophobia and How to Remedy This,” in *Islamophobia in Educational Practice*, ed. Barry van Driel (Sterling, VA: Trentham, 2004), 57–69 (65). [^23]: Joe L. Kincheloe, “ Introduction,” in *The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and the Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World*, ed. Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 1–23. [^24]: Sarah Reichenbach, “CVE and Constitutionality in the Twin Cities: How Countering Violent Extremism Threatens the Equal Protection of Rights of American Muslims in Minneapolis-St. Paul,” *American University Law Review*, 69, 1989. [^25]: Hage, *White Nation*. [^26]: Tahir Abbas, “Islamophobia in the United Kingdom: Historical and Contemporary Political and Media Discourses in the Framing of 21st-Century Anti-Muslim Racism,” in *Islamophobia: The Challenges of Pluralism in the 21st Century*, ed. John L. Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 63–76 (71). [^27]: Jack G. Shaheen, *Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People* (New York: Olive Branch Press, 2001). [^28]: Stuart Hall, “The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media,” in *Gender, Race, and Class in the Media: A Critical Reader*, ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2011), 81–84 (82). [^29]: Stuart Hall, “Racist Ideologies and the Media,” in *Media Studies: A Reader*, 2nd edition, ed. Paul Marris and Sue Thornham (New York: New York University Press, 2004), 271–81 (271). [^30]: Hall, “The Whites of Their Eyes.” [^31]: Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, *Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy* (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 2008). [^32]: Evelyn Alsultany, “Arabs and Muslims in the Media after 9/11: Representational Strategies for a ‘Postrace’ Era,” *American Quarterly* 65, no. 1 (March 2013): 161–69. [^33]: Said, *Orientalism*. [^34]: See e.g., [https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/07/25/the-sexual-assault-epidemic-that-no-one-is-talking-about/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/07/25/the-sexual-assault-epidemic-that-no-one-is-talking-about/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629218746114000&usg=AOvVaw11kH97LPmH5GvPxgFVeZOU). [^35]: See e.g., rapper French Montana’s 2019 album cover featuring Muslim women in niqab and hijab: [https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191002-is-french-montana-sexualising-the-hijab-or-liberating-it/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191002-is-french-montana-sexualising-the-hijab-or-liberating-it/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629218746113000&usg=AOvVaw1Xzx9dI2CuoEC3Id6m3OAq). [^36]: Frantz Fanon, *A Dying Colonialism* (New York: Grove Press, 1967), 43–44. [^37]: Scott, *Politics of the Veil.* ## Summary The gendered dimensions of Islamophobia become especially clear when examined through the lived experiences of Muslim women in North America who wear the hijab. In the aftermath of political developments such as the 2020 US presidential election and renewed tensions in France, many visibly Muslim women reported heightened fear and anxiety about being identifiably Muslim in public spaces. These concerns, though intensified in recent years by the rise of populist and nationalist sentiments, are not new. Islamophobia, as Julianne Hammer describes it, is not merely a fear or hatred of Muslims but "an ideological construct produced and reproduced at the intersection of imperial ideology, political expediency, and the exploitation of nationalist, racial, and religious insecurities." Understanding this construct requires attention to gender, for the experiences of Muslim men and women differ. In dominant Western narratives, Muslim women are frequently cast either as oppressed and imperilled victims or as threats to liberal values—representations that stand in sharp contrast to the complexity of their actual lives. Through the method of storytelling, drawn from interviews with Muslim women, their voices are centered in place of dominant narratives, and the hijab itself serves as a lens through which the workings of Islamophobia may be understood. A useful framework here is intersectionality, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to address how feminist and anti-racist movements often obscured the distinct experiences of women of color. Crenshaw observed that women of color are "burdened by poverty, child-care responsibilities, and the lack of job skills," burdens "compounded by the racially discriminatory employment and housing practices women of color often face." Applied to Muslims, this framework reveals that Islamophobia is not experienced uniformly; it is compounded by race, class, and gender. For Muslim women, then, Islamophobia is lived through both religion and gender. To grasp the role of the hijab, one must first examine how the figure of the Muslim woman has been historically constructed in the West. The so-called "woman question" was used by colonial powers to justify expansion and violence. In Egypt, "colonial feminism" expressed extreme concern over the veiling of women while ignoring women's education and suffrage within the colonizing society itself. In Algeria, French generals staged the public unveiling of Algerian women to symbolize French "liberation." In the twenty-first century, the post-9/11 War on Terror relied heavily on the notion of "saving Muslim women," using images of the hijab to justify military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. As one Australian politician remarked, the hijab "has become the icon, the symbol of a clash of cultures, and it runs much deeper than a piece of cloth." These constructions shape lived experience. Noor, a White convert, felt her community was not overtly hostile, yet she was told to "go back to your country" and had eggs thrown at her from an apartment window while using public transport. Since she was born and raised within the majoritarian culture, these incidents show how wearing the hijab marked her as an outsider, her belonging made contingent upon conformity to majoritarian norms. Abo-Zena, Sahli, and Tobias-Nahi note that hijab-wearing women often "experience marginalization caused by hate speech such as being told to 'go back to your country.'" Zareena Grewal describes the nation as "a place both physical and also imagined," sustained by "the perpetually appealing notion of 'us' versus 'them.'" Junaid Rana explains this transformation of religion into race as the "race-ing" of Islam, whereby "Arab, Black, Latino, South Asian, and white have been collapsed into this racial category of the Muslim." Noor's experience as a White convert differs from those of Arab, Black, Latino, and South Asian Muslim women, for whom the racialized Muslim overlaps with the figures of the terrorist, the immigrant, and the thug. Schooling contexts reveal further dimensions. Ayesha, of Arab origin who had previously passed as White, began wearing the hijab in grade nine and felt she "had to be a spokesperson for the entire Muslim ummah of the world," expected as a fourteen-year-old to "justify everything." This is what has been termed "spotlighting," where minority students are made "to speak for or otherwise justify what 'their group' thinks." Such spotlighting reproduces the myth that Muslims are monolithic and reduces world events to matters of inherent "Muslimness" rather than historical and political processes. Maryam similarly found that after wearing the hijab, peers questioned her about "stereotypical things in our religion"—beheadings, stoning, and forced marriages—and taunted her with the names "Saddam" and "Kaddafi," linking her to tyranny and violence. Amina recounted how a close friend abruptly ended their friendship the day after 9/11 and posted derogatory material about Islam, reflecting a guilt-by-association rooted in a monolithic view of Muslims. Ayesha further described how a hijab-wearing friend in grade seven was asked whether "your people" carried out 9/11; the friend replied that the perpetrators "were Afghans," a response that reflects internalized Islamophobia and the reinforcing of ethnic boundaries, while the non-Muslim students perceived the hijab as a marker of an "Islamic race." Noor also recalled that after 9/11 some parents kept their daughters home rather than have them remove the hijab, and that some women had their hijabs pulled off on public transport. Ghassan Hage's distinction between "passive belonging" and "governmental belonging" illuminates how nationalist subjects may seek to "purify" the national space by forcibly unveiling women—an act rooted in colonial history. Media representations reinforce these perceptions. Tahir Abbas argues that "the managed reality that is depicted by the media is transferred to society," so that "Westerners will automatically perceive them as the stereotypes formulated by the media." Amina emphasized that television and film provide "a snapshot of what Muslims are," while Maryam lamented that Muslims are "typecast," appearing only in "terrorist plots or movies about terrorism," never as ordinary people. Stuart Hall similarly held that "media are especially important sites for the production, reproduction and transformation of ideologies," distinguishing overt racism from more subtle inferential racism, both operative in portrayals of Muslims. Evelyn Alsultany observes that even the more sympathetic portrayals after 9/11—"simplified complex representations" projecting an "enlightened culture that can distinguish between the good and the bad ones"—still perpetuated stereotypes, even as hate crimes and government policies against Muslims increased. Finally, the sexualization of the Muslim female subject emerges strongly. Jennifer, a convert and mother, recounted a grandparent at a school event grabbing her scarf and ponytail and urging her to "take it all off," while Sana described a boy publicly requesting a sexual act in front of an unresponsive teacher, and being subjected to verbal abuse—"b***, whore; she's got a bomb; she's a terrorist"—and boys attempting to look up her skirt. Sana noted that "Muslim women are very sexualized to the rest of the world," caught between perceptions of oppression and eroticization. This draws on an Orientalist legacy. Frantz Fanon, writing in 1959, described the colonizer's aggression toward the veiled Algerian woman, in whom there was "the will to bring this woman within his reach, to make her a possible object of possession," frustrated because "she does not yield herself." Joan Wallach Scott similarly notes that in France, "Muslim modesty is taken to be sexually aberrant," condemned as "excessive, even perverse." Through these stories—gathered in a qualitative ethnographic study that did not aim at broad generalization but at illuminating particular lived realities—the hijab is revealed to be perceived as a racial, sexualized, cultural, and national construct. The story of the hijab in Western societies cannot be separated from Islamophobia, nor can Islamophobia be understood without attention to its gendered impact on hijab-wearing Muslim women. Deconstructing the historical narratives surrounding the Muslim woman and the veil remains essential to recognizing how those narratives are repeated in the discourses of today. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why do Muslim women who wear hijab experience Islamophobia differently from Muslim men? Islamophobia does not fall equally on all Muslims. For Muslim women who wear hijab, religious identity is immediately visible in ways it often is not for Muslim men. This visibility means they navigate Islamophobia not only as a religious minority but also as women, with both dimensions compounding each other. Kimberle Crenshaw's framework of intersectionality helps explain this layering: Those who belong to more than one marginalized group experience structural violence in ways that cannot be reduced to any single identity. The result is a distinctly gendered form of Islamophobia in which the same woman may face xenophobic harassment, assumptions about terrorism, sexual objectification, and gendered stereotypes simultaneously. In mainstream narratives, hijab-wearing Muslim women are cast either as imperiled victims in need of saving or as threats to liberal values. Understanding Islamophobia without accounting for gender leaves out the lived reality of a significant portion of the Muslim community. ### Why does wearing hijab cause some people to treat a Muslim woman as a foreigner, even if she was born and raised here? Wearing a hijab can place a woman outside the boundaries of what some perceive as "normal" in the West, regardless of her actual citizenship or roots. This is not accidental. Through decades of media, political rhetoric, and colonial-era narratives, Islamic symbols like hijab have been racialized so that they signal "foreigner" to some observers. Some Muslim women, including converts with no ethnic ties to Muslim-majority countries, report being told to "go back to your country" or facing verbal and physical attacks they never experienced before wearing hijab. Their ethnicity did not shield them once they became visibly Muslim. This is how the racialization of Islam works: it collapses ethnic and cultural differences into a single perceived "Muslim race," and hijab becomes its most visible marker. Being perceived as belonging to a society becomes contingent on conformity to majoritarian norms; the moment a woman veers away, she is cast into the realm of Otherness. ### When Muslim women in hijab face harassment, is that just individual ignorance or part of something bigger? Both, and it is worth holding both realities at once. Some incidents genuinely stem from individual ignorance or bias, and people can and do act on prejudice without any awareness of the broader forces shaping their assumptions. At the same time, those assumptions do not form in a vacuum. Colonial powers used the image of the veiled woman to justify military occupation and cultural intervention. Post-9/11 media repeatedly linked hijab with terror, oppression, and civilizational "clash." These narratives, produced and reproduced across news, film, and political discourse, shape how people perceive Muslim women before they ever meet one. Recognizing these structural forces is not about adopting a posture of victimhood. Muslim women who wear hijab navigate these realities with resilience and agency every day. But understanding the ecosystem that fuels both casual ignorance and targeted hostility is essential to addressing either one effectively. ### Why do hijabi students often feel pressured to speak on behalf of all Muslims? This phenomenon has a name: "spotlighting." It refers to students from minority religious or cultural backgrounds being called upon—explicitly or implicitly—to represent and explain their entire community. Research on Muslim women's experiences in North American schools found that many who began wearing hijab as teenagers felt they went from being regular students to designated spokespeople overnight. Before hijab, they could sit through class discussions about Islam like anyone else; afterward, every question was directed at them. Spotlighting reproduces the myth that Islam and Muslims are monolithic—that one Muslim can account for the actions of all others. It also produces something particularly painful: guilt by association, where a teenager is implicitly expected to explain acts of violence she had no part in and did not support. ### How should Muslim women make sense of their identity when the world keeps projecting onto them? The dominant narratives about hijab-wearing Muslim women in the West offer two options: the imperiled victim in need of saving or the threat to liberal values. Neither reflects reality, and both deny Muslim women the complexity of their actual lives. In truth, Muslim women navigate family, school, community, faith, and belonging in ways that far exceed any single trope. The hijab is perceived through racial, sexual, cultural, and national lenses all at once—and the women who wear it know this better than anyone. Recognizing the layered nature of gendered Islamophobia, how it operates through race, history, media, and interpersonal violence simultaneously, is itself a form of clarity. It allows Muslim women to name what they experience accurately, to understand it as systemic rather than personal, and to stand in their identity without apology. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-anti-blackness-leaving-ignorance-behind # Islam and Anti-Blackness: Leaving Ignorance Behind **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication, Racism **Published:** August 12, 2021 **Updated:** June 9, 2026 *This essay is adapted from my forthcoming book* Islam & Anti-Blackness *(Oneworld, 2022), which will provide a comprehensive discussion of this important topic*. > The son of ʿImrān’s dark skin was of no matter, > since the Most Worthy of Worship chose him to speak to. > > Ibrāhīm bin Muḥammad al-Kānemī (d. 1212-13 CE), a scholar from Kanem who moved to Marrakesh, on the blackness of Moses[^1] --- ## Introduction Mālik bin Dīnār (d. *circa* 127/745) was a pious scholar of Basra. The son of a Persian slave, he lived off pennies made by copying the Qur’an.[^2] Yet Basra’s wealthiest man, whose daughter had been courted by elite Arabs, offered Mālik her hand in marriage (it was her idea). He refused, saying that he had long ago divorced the world. On a different occasion, it was Mālik bin Dīnār who was the seeker. When he realized that a black slave in Basra was actually the truest ‘friend of God’ in the city, Mālik bought the slave and freed him so that he—Mālik bin Dīnār—could follow that slave and serve *him* as a student.[^3] I am fortunate never to have suffered racial discrimination. But I have experienced what both the wealthy Basran family and Mālik bin Dīnār knew, what all those who have ever sought knowledge (*ʿilm*) or blessing (*baraka*) quickly discover: that once one gains a taste for knowledge, one pays little heed to the shape or color of the vessel that bears it. Yet our prejudices are stubborn. We must combat them with the contempt they deserve. When some of the Companions lapsed into tribal chauvinism, the Prophet ﷺ decried what they were doing as “putrid (*muntina*).”[^4] Of all the names and visages most recognized and beloved in West Africa, none is more so than Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba (d. 1346/1927). A Wolof scholar and Sufi master from Senegal, he knew that some Muslims from the Arab and Berber north looked down on him. In the opening of his famous work *Pathways to Paradise* (*Masālik al-jinān*) he wrote, “Do not turn down \[this book’s\] benefits because I am from among the blacks. The most honored servant with God is, without a doubt, the most reverent. And blackness of body signals neither weakness of mind nor lack of understanding.”[^5] This essay is an effort to answer many queries diverse in their details but all begging the same question: Is Islam anti-Black?[^6] Others have addressed this question before, including Sherman Jackson in his *Islam and the Black American*, Abdullah Hamid Ali in *The ‘Negro’ in Arab-Muslim Consciousness*, Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid in their *Centering Black Narrative*, Dawud Walid on his own in *Blackness and Islam,* AbdulHaq al-Ashanti in his *Defining Legends: An Analysis of Afrocentric Writings against Islam*, and Iskander Abbasi in an [essay for](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://themaydan.com/2020/10/anti-blackness-in-the-muslim-world-beyond-apologetics-and-orientalism/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975927000&usg=AOvVaw0yuzeUflb7KGB9KwkD8_kz) *[Maydan](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://themaydan.com/2020/10/anti-blackness-in-the-muslim-world-beyond-apologetics-and-orientalism/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975927000&usg=AOvVaw0yuzeUflb7KGB9KwkD8_kz)*. Here I hope to update and expand on these efforts, particularly in light of recent debates and specific accusations of anti-Black sentiment in Islamic law and scripture. Revelation takes the form of human language, and the tradition of scholarship and piety built on revelation is expressed and commemorated through the medium of language and text as well. In the language of the Prophet’s ﷺ Arabia, in the scripture of the Qur’an and Sunnah, and in the normative tradition of Islamic law and theology, we find numerous examples of the diverse ways in which ‘black’ and ‘blackness’ function literally and as metaphor. A central theme in this essay is that it is wrong to assume that everyone, everywhere, has conflated ‘blackness’ as a metaphor with ‘blackness’ as a descriptor of skin tone, aesthetic preference with judgments of human worth. (In this essay, I will use black/blackness for a color descriptor, ‘black’/’blackness’ when those colors are being racialized to describe people like Africans, and Black and Blackness for the global racial concept so often discussed today.) At the level of language, we find that anti-Blackness is extremely widespread, but not in the sense that one might expect. Looking at language globally, we find that the negative metaphor of blackness or darkness (and whiteness or light as its positive counterpart) is present in major languages the world over. But even in languages with a negative metaphor of blackness, this often does not apply when people describe their own or other’s appearances. Particularly in languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara, a person can be described as ‘black’ or dark-skinned without any negative connotation. By the other side of this token, sometimes we find that the metaphor of blackness as bad or inferior can bleed into physical descriptions *even though the person being described looks no different from others*. Finally, in some cases, the negative use of ‘black’ or related descriptors has nothing to do with a negative view of a racial or ethnic group. Instead, it comes from specific cultural idioms, customs, or aesthetic preferences. So, in language, anti-Blackness can be absent in talk of race and color but present everywhere else; it can be present in talk of race and color even though no one being discussed is actually ‘black’; and it can express taste and aesthetics without a greater judgment of value. There is no denying that anti-Black sentiment is rampant among many Muslims, as seen in Ahmadu Bamba’s introduction and in the deplorable habit of some Arabs to refer to Black people as *ʿabīd* (slaves). This is indefensible. But if this were a problem with Islam then it would be uniquely pronounced in Muslim communities. And it is manifestly not. Anti-Blackness is a global problem, just as present among Arab Christians as Arab Muslims, among Muslim and Hindu Indians alike. Anti-Black racism in Muslim communities is and must continue to be addressed. But here I am not addressing the prejudices of individuals or even communities. I am interested in the accusation that Islam *as a religion*, either in its founding scriptures or its normative law, is anti-Black. --- ## The easy answer For many Muslims, the answer to these accusations is simple. God tells humans that “the diversity of your colors and languages” is “one of His signs” (Qur’an 30:22), and His revelation clearly rejects ethnic and tribal chauvinism. God has created mankind “in peoples and nations so that you may come to know one another, and the most noble among you in God’s eyes is the most pious” (Qur’an 49:13). Indeed, this verse was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ in order to rebuke some recalcitrant Meccans who had mocked the Muslims for “having no one better” than Bilāl, “this black crow,” as they called him, to perform the call to prayer. This led the Prophet ﷺ to address the people of Mecca and tell them that God had driven from them the arrogance and pride in ancestry that was rampant in the *Jāhiliyya*, the Age of Ignorance before Islam. All people were the children of Adam, the Prophet announced, and “God created Adam from dust.”[^7] As the Prophet further explained, it was the varied colors of that dust that gave humans their different skin tones.[^8] The rejection of racism in the Prophet’s Sunnah is even more explicit. Abū Hurayra tells of a Black person who used to clean the mosque in Medina. When they died, no one told the Prophet ﷺ. When he asked how the person was and was told that they had died, the Prophet replied with sadness, “Would that you all had told me.” Abū Hurayra explains that some Companions had viewed the person with contempt, but the Prophet asked to be taken to their grave so he could pray over them.[^9] When an Arab family would not accept Bilāl’s proposal to marry their sister (their specific objection is not mentioned), the Prophet rebuked them and made them agree.[^10] The Prophet ﷺ told his followers, “By Him who sent down the book upon Muhammad, no one has any virtue over anyone else except by deeds.”[^11] And he reiterated this point during his farewell sermon, when he reaffirmed that all mankind descends from one ancestor and is beholden to one God, so no race or nation could be better than any other except through piety (*taqw*á**).[^12] Tajul Islam, an *ʿālim* and PhD student at the University of Leeds, offers [profound insight](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DwIlQ8AdB9wM&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975930000&usg=AOvVaw08K6WvjQGdxdXPyQgyjyu5) about how the Qur’an and Sunnah address the disease of racism. He notes how people often remark that there was no premodern word in Arabic for racism (incidentally, the word *racism* is novel in European languages too, appearing in the 1930s to describe Nazi ideology). But Tajul Islam points to a famous hadith that the Companion Abū Dharr recounted years after the Prophet ﷺ had died. When some Muslims find Abū Dharr sitting in his desert encampment beside his slave, both of them wearing the same simple clothes, they ask him why he didn’t take part of the slave’s clothing to make himself a more dignified outfit. Abū Dharr replies by telling them how he had once insulted a slave by bringing up how his mother was non-Arab. When the Prophet was told about this, he confronted Abū Dharr and told him, “You are a person with *jāhiliyya* in you.” He then instructed the Muslims that slaves “are your brothers. God put them in your charge. So whoever God has put in charge of his brother, let him feed him from what he eats, clothe him from what he wears, and let him not give him more work than he can bear. And if he gives them work that overwhelms him, then let him help him.”[^13] Tajul Islam explains that there was a word for racism in classical Arabic. There was a word for assigning certain people to a group because of something those in power had declared unchangeable about their body or being in order to subordinate or belittle them. That word was *jāhiliyya*. For all the long-standing and unacceptable anti-Blackness found in Muslim communities, we need to give credit to the many and renowned Muslim scholars who tackled the ‘Is Islam anti-Black’ question before it was ever formulated in its present sense. Indeed, pushing back against racism and prejudice in the Muslim world formed a veritable genre of scholarly writing. The first to address the issue was the famous Basran litterateur and overall man-about-town, al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/869) in his epistle on *The Pride of Blacks over Whites* (*Fakhr al-sūdān ʿālā al-bīḍān*). This was followed by the *Treatise on the Virtue of Blacks over Whites* (*Risāla fī tafḍīl al-sūd ʿalā al-bīḍ*) by the Baghdad intellectual ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad Ibn Shirshīr al-Nāshī (d. 293/906), the *Book on Blacks and their Virtue over Whites* (*Kitāb al-Sūdān wa faḍlihim ʿalā al-bīḍān*) by the Baghdad scholar Muḥammad b. Khalaf Ibn al-Marzubān (d. 309/919), the *Book on the Asceticism of Blacks (Kitāb Zuhd al-ṣūdān*) by Jaʿfar b. Aḥmad b. al-Sarrāj al-Muqrī (d. 500/1107), the huge *Illuminating the Darkness concerning the* *Virtue of Blacks and Ethiopians* (*Tanwīr al-ghabash fī faḍl al-sūdān wa’l-ḥabash*) by the famous Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201), the *Embroidered Brocade on the Virtues of Ethiopians* (*al-Ṭirāz al-manqūsh fī faḍāʾil al-ḥubūsh*) by the Meccan scholar Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī (d. *circa* 993/1585), the *Boast-Off between the White, Brown and Black Women* (*Mufākhara bayn al-bayḍāʾ wa’l-samrāʾ wa’l-sawdāʾ*) by the Damascene Muḥammad Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Bayṭār (d. 1328/1910), and no less than three treatises by the great Egyptian scholar al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505): *Raising the Standing of Ethiopians* (*Rafʿ shaʾn al-ḥubshān*), *The Trellised Flowers on Reports about Ethiopians* (*Azhār al-ʿurūsh fī akhbār al-ḥubūsh*), and *Life’s Promenade in Choosing Preference between the White, Black and Brown* (*Nuzhat al-ʿumr fī al-tafḍīl bayn al-bīḍ wa’l-sūd wa’l-sumr*).[^14] --- ## Defining some terms There are several ethnonyms (names for ethnic groups), phenonyms (names for people with a certain ‘look’) and toponyms (names based on geographical location) used in the normative tradition of Islamic thought to denote people mostly referred to historically and today as Black, some of which overlap with one another or which can serve in more than one of these functions. Exactly how these terms are used across the centuries would require another book-length study, but generally the terms are the following. **A*swad*** (black) means either very dark skinned or having a ‘classical’ sub-Saharan African phenotype. The plural, ***sūdān*** (‘blacks,’ with the term *sūd* replacing this in the twentieth-century in Arabic) means people with the generally dominant phenotype from Africa south of the Sahara. For Muslim scholars, including those living in these lands, the *bilād al-sūdān* is the Sahel and south into Africa’s forest zone. ***Zanj*** (a toponym as well as an ethnonym, with *zanjī* as a singular and *zunūj* as an occasional plural) refers to east Africa/Africans, the people coming roughly from the area between Mozambique until the Horn of Africa and extending inland and up into the upper Nile.[^15] *Zanj* can also be used more generally as a synonym for *sūdān*. ***Ḥabash*** are the people from the Horn of Africa (an area called *Ḥabasha*). From the ninth through the sixteenth centuries CE this was often used only for the region/inhabitants of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, but it has often included people from Somalia and even northern coastal Kenya. *Ḥabashī* (the adjective) is first and foremost defined by a certain ‘look’ well known among Ethiopians and Somalis, including cedar-colored skin and an aquiline nose.[^16] --- ## What about explicitly anti-Black hadiths? If matters were as simple as the Prophet’s clear teachings in his farewell sermon, there would be little debate. But there are some Hadiths attributed to the Prophet ﷺ that denigrate Black Africans (referred to as *zanj*), stating that they are lazy, stupid, beholden to their base appetites, and even disfigured. These supposed sayings of the Prophet, however, do not appear in mainstay Hadith collections. More importantly, leading Muslim Hadith critics have denied their authenticity. Since the 1300s CE it has been an uncontroversial point in manuals of Hadith criticism that any hadith belittling a race or ethnicity cannot come from the Prophet and must be a forgery or error.[^17] Though Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) was the first to articulate this as a rule, it can be seen even among earlier critics like Abū Dāwūd (d. 275/889). When asked about a narrator who had said that ʿĀʾisha had said, “Beware of Zanj \[people, i.e., east Africans\], for they were created disfigured (*mushawwah*),” Abū Dāwūd replied, “Whoever narrates this, accuse them \[of unreliability\].”[^18] We do find such alleged hadiths included in uncritical Hadith collections and histories, such as the *Muʿjam*s of al-Ṭabarānī (d. 360/971) or the works of Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī (d. 430/1038), both prominent Hadith scholars of Isfahan. But such authors made no pretense that they considered the material in their Hadith books to be reliable. Indeed, they were criticized by noted Muslim scholars for misleading people by including such dubious content.[^19] There are some instances when such racist ideas are attributed to major scholars like al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820), but such attributions are also unreliable.[^20] It is, of course, troubling that the scholars who made such attributions or repeated them found nothing objectionable about the ideas they were reporting. Sadly, anti-Black sentiment has a long history and has affected even respected Muslim scholars. Part of this essay will explain the widely held understandings of climate and culture that explain why such beliefs would have been accepted. --- ## Race and racialization One cannot respond to questions about anti-Blackness without first talking about race.[Race](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tif.ssrc.org/2020/05/15/race-gerbner/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975935000&usg=AOvVaw0gr47jIHrUFYuwNYR-JSty) is an immensely complex notion, with ongoing scholarly debates over whether it is a continuation of ancient categories like ‘nation’ and ‘people’ or if it arose only in early modern or modern Europe. One succinct understanding of race is that it is a system of categorizing people based on some common characteristic. It was long assumed that, with race, this characteristic must be tied to the body, biology, or descent.[^21] Observing how race functions, however, it is more accurate to think about this common characteristic as anything ascribed as essential to a person or a group and considered unalterable. Who defines that characteristic and endows it with importance is, of course, crucial, particularly when race is the basis of some form of discrimination or deprivation (i.e., racism). That race is defined by some and applied to others points to an intrinsic element of race and racism as lived concepts: racism is a framework created and maintained by the powerful and applied to those over whom they exercise power.[^22] Race is constructed by people, so it is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. But that does not mean it is not real. Indeed, since race is often a tool for the application of power and control in society, it is a very *real* thing in people’s lives. People are often confused by the established idea that race is socially constructed because, when they see a random person from Kenya and a random person from Norway, they can see undeniable and obvious differences in how the two look. This is what Michael Hardimon has termed **minimalist race**—the obvious differences in skin color, hair texture, and common facial features that correspond to ancestry and geographical origin.[^23] But race as something that has meaning—the decision about what physical characteristics matter—is a social construction. The person from Kenya may have earlobes while the person from Norway may not, but no one would notice because these physical distinctions have not been made racially meaningful by societies. In the modern world, it is skin color and hair texture that have been rendered significant. Race can be elaborated along all sorts of lines, from ancestry (Arabian tribal notions of *nasab* \[lineage\] and *ʿirq* \[bloodline\]), to [ethnicity](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/terms/race.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975936000&usg=AOvVaw1-YErykn1Luc-NO0ZRH7Jm) (Irish), to (though some might debate this) caste. Even religion can be racialized, as with the categorization of Muslims within the Russian Empire as the race/nation of Tatars, with early modern Europeans labeling all Muslims as Moors or Turks, and ‘Muslim’ becoming a[racialized identity](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2347-one-of-them-or-one-of-us-arun-kundnani-on-islamophobia-racism-and-terrorism&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975937000&usg=AOvVaw3aCaeXixPQrUwkD7Vjp3CX) in the modern West. In this last case, ‘Muslims’ are placed in that category, their acts and words are interpreted through the ways that Western society has defined it (e.g., terror, extremism, honor killing, etc.), and they are dealt with as such by the power structures of their societies. This kind of racialization erases what any given Muslim actually believes or thinks. Their ‘Muslimness’ already defines them.[^24] Sometimes a racialized identity might look no different from others. Serb nationalists, for example, carried out genocide against Bosnian Muslims who looked and spoke just like their Serbian and Croatian neighbors. But they had been demonized as ‘Turks.’[^25] Of course, phenotype—how one presents physically with hair, skin color, bone structure, etc.—is a convenient vector for defining race because it is immediately visible to everyone, and everyone can know your category. The way we look—the somatic realities of our bodies—may be part of nature. But our ‘color’ is still a social construct, often within the overarching construct of race. Linguists debate whether humans share a universal template for labeling colors at the basic level of language (e.g., do all societies see the same basic colors in the world, etc.).[^26] But there is no debate that societies differ in how they deploy colors to describe people’s appearance and, more importantly, to place them in social categories and hierarchies. The United States and Brazil provide useful contrasts. In the US, the racial categories of Black and White were developed by a society deeply invested in exploiting and controlling enslaved people from Africa. In 1656 a Virginia court issued a simple ruling that established what became known as the ‘One Drop Rule’ (technically known as hypodescent). This would define the two classes of Black and White, enslavable and free, rightless and possessing rights.[^27] [Brazilian society](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/opinion/is-neymar-black-brazil-and-the-painful-relativity-of-race.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975938000&usg=AOvVaw0E6arlUv7bS67nwF9HESTs) has construed color and race very differently, with many more color- and ethnic-based racial categories than in the US. In Brazil, there is much more weight given to how people identify themselves, and they can even choose to switch identifications. Alongside the longstanding social tradition of identifying oneself by an array of colors and ancestries, the last two decades have seen the Brazilian government introduce a parallel system that divides Brazilians into five official racial groups.[^28] --- ## Race and Blackness in Arabia in the time of the Prophet ﷺ Differences in how race and color function in other societies often present obstacles for Westerners, especially Americans. The latter in particular tend to impose American racial categories on other times and places, a mistake that distorts discussions about Islam and Blackness.[^29] Let us take ‘whiteness’ as an example. As Abdullah Hamid Ali has shown, white (*abyaḍ*) was not primarily used by Pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabs to describe phenotype (color) but rather as a metaphor to convey nobility and purity.[^30] It often functioned alongside black in a good/bad binary pair, as in the Qur’an’s use of the image of blackened and whitened faces. The holy book upbraids the Quraysh for their disappointment at having female children: if they are told of a female child “their face becomes black” (16:58). And the Qur’an distinguishes between the fates of those who believed during their earthly life and those who disbelieved “on the Day when faces will be whitened and faces will be blackened” (3:106). The metaphoric binary of white and black, however, was about value and morality. For many Muslim scholars of the Qur’an, the faces of the believers being whitened on the Day of Judgment and the faces of the disbelievers being blackened was strictly metaphorical, not literal. The blackening and whitening of the face expressed the desolation or joy of coming to terms with how one had lived one’s life on earth. Even for those scholars who held that people’s faces would literally become black or white on the Day of Judgment, there was no notion that this was connected to an African or ‘white’ phenotype. As Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) describes, the blackness of their faces on the Day of Judgment will be the darkness of the heart that results from ignorance and then manifests in the face. It will be totally unearthly, “a blackness differing from all other types of blackness.”[^31] Similarly, al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272) and others provide a report that those whose faces are whitened will have faces “white as ice,” not ‘white’ in the sense of some conventional ‘white’ phenotype.[^32] The black/white metaphorical binary did not have a parallel in early Arab descriptions of phenotype. Nor, in fact, was white even the term Arabs used to describe those with the lightest skin tones in early Islamic Arabia or the phenotypes closest to ‘White’ people today. In fact, when white was used in regards to skin color, it was not necessarily positive. It was often used to describe the loss of pigmentation caused by vitiligo (*baraṣ*).[^33] Otherwise**,** as the famous Damascene scholar al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) explains, when early Arabs described someone’s skin as white (*abyaḍ*), they meant “wheat colored (*al-ḥinṭī al-lawn*) with a darkish hue (*bi-ḥilya sawdāʾ*)”—a sort of dark olive tone in our terms. Arab-Islamic authors described the fairer and ruddier complexions seen in Syria and Anatolia as red (*aḥmar*) or fair and ruddy (*ashqar*). It is very important to note that when black (*aswad*) was used to describe the color of a person, it could mean either the range of browns associated with an African phenotype **as well as such a color for someone who had no link to Africa.**[^34] As Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid have shown, when early Arabs described someone as ‘black (*aswad*)’ or ‘very dark (*ādam*),’ this did not necessarily mean they were African or even that they had any African ancestry.[^35] It described skin color. These color descriptors did not automatically connote other features stereotyped as part of ‘Blackness’ today, such as tightly-coiled hair, a wide nose, or full lips. In the Hadith corpus, the chief color categories for describing humans are not white and black but either the bipartite ‘red and black’ or the tripartite ‘red, white, and black.’ When the Prophet ﷺ comes out of his quarters and finds his Companions reciting the Qur’an, he says, “Praise be to God! The Book of God is one, and among you there are red (*aḥmar*), white (*abyaḍ*) and black (*aswad*)….”[^36] In the case of the ‘red and black’ division, evidence suggests that the early Arabs considered themselves part of the ‘black’ group.[^37] And if among the Companions the Prophet ﷺ saw red, white, and black, and if the lightest skinned were Syrians or Greeks and the darkest were Africans, then the middle group, the ‘white,’ were average Arabs of the day. This supports what al-Dhahabī stated, that ‘white’ skin color in the context of early Islamic history was what we would today call an olive or wheatish tone. When confronted by what we call a ‘white’ phenotype today, namely that of northern or western Europeans, scholars and travelers of the early Arab-Islamic world were at the edge of their descriptive envelope. They had to categorize them either as fair and ruddy (*shuqr ḥumr*), as Ibn Faḍlān did when he encountered Rus (Scandinavians or Slavs) on the Volga River in 921-2 CE. Or they went so far as to describe them as verging on blue, as al-Masʿūdī (d. 345/956) described Slavs and Germanic peoples.[^38] One ninth-century Muslim scholar disparaged the complexions of Slavs and their ilk as “between light-skinned, ruddy, albino, and ugly white (*mughrab*).”[^39] --- ## Black crows: Why was Blackness bad in Arabia? Though the Qur’an may have clearly opposed discrimination on the basis of tribe or nation, and though the Prophet ﷺ may have rebuked the Arabs around him for looking down on Bilāl and others they felt were below them, there still seem to be clear expressions of anti-Black racism in authenticated Hadiths. For example, in one hadith, the Prophet instructs his followers to obey their commanders even if that commander is an African slave.[^40] It is inaccurate, however, to judge hadiths like this hastily. To assume that all negative references to ‘black’ skin are expressions of anti-Black sentiment is to fall into the American trap of assuming that everyone in history has understood race, color, and value like we do. In our records of early Islamic (and some pre-Islamic) history, we find instances of someone’s ‘blackness’ being referred to pejoratively, but we also find it referred to in a matter-of-fact way with no negative connotation at all. Authors of some of the earliest works in the Islamic tradition, like Ibn al-Kalbī (d. 204-6/819-20) and his student Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/245), often mentioned that an Arab of respected lineage was ‘black’ or that their mother was ‘black’ without any hint at negative signification.[^41] Often a report notes a person was ‘black’ while recounting some unrelated matter.[^42] The *Muwaṭṭaʾ* of Mālik (d. 179/795) contains a report of a man who brings “a black slave girl” to the Prophet ﷺ to see if she was Muslim because he needed to free a Muslim slave to expiate (*kaffāra*) a sin he had committed (for some sins, the Qur’an specifies freeing a Muslim slave).[^43] Her ‘blackness’ was irrelevant. But then why is someone’s ‘blackness’ invoked negatively in some instances, like the command to obey a commander even if he is a ‘black’ slave? In order to understand this, we must remember that tribe was everything in western Arabia, where the Prophet ﷺ lived and delivered his message. There was no government or formal mechanisms of law as we would recognize them. There was only the family and tribe to offer security and only the customs and the ways of the ancestors to distinguish right from wrong. To be part of a powerful or large family and, on a larger scale, tribe, was to be safe. Those who lacked such support lived precariously. Outsiders, whether people with no tribe or people from a distant place whose family was far away, were the most vulnerable and the least respected. And there was no greater outsider than the slave. In fact, many scholars of slavery in world history have argued that it is marginality in society that defines slavery.[^44] Arabia at the time of the Prophet ﷺ was not a society in which slaves played a crucial economic role, like the Roman Empire or the American South. Slaves were found throughout Arabia but not in huge numbers. Some were bought at markets like those near Mecca, and some were people captured on raids and then either kept as slaves or sold as slaves in the market. A study of Medina at the time of the Prophet shows that many slaves were from Ethiopia and some were from the Byzantine world of Syria. But the largest group was captives from other Arab tribes.[^45] These slaves were all marginal outsiders, regardless of their skin color or place of origin. When a delegation of noble Arabs comes to see the Prophet ﷺ in Medina they find him with Bilāl, Ṣuhayb, Khabbāb, and ʿAmmār, seated among “the weak of the believers.” These Arabs complain to the Prophet because they do not want other Arabs to see them “with these slaves.”[^46] The four Muslims named in the group were among the earliest and most committed converts to Islam. What joined them was not their skin color. Bilāl looked African and ʿAmmār’s mother may have been Ethiopian. But Ṣuhayb was “extremely reddish,” hailing from northern Syria. And Khabbāb was an Arab from the Tamīm tribe who had been captured and taken as a slave to Mecca.[^47] What joined them in the eyes of the Arab delegation was their marginality in Arab society, their “weakness.” Hence those Arabs erroneously calling them all slaves, the ultimate outsiders (most in the group had, in fact, been slaves who had converted to Islam and were then bought and freed by other Muslims). In this and other instances in which the Prophet ﷺ affirms that what God esteems is not wealth, family, or status but rather faith and good deeds, we see that what is in common among those Muslims he embraces is not color or slave status but marginality, their status as outsiders in a tribal society. Blackness or Africanness was not negative in and of itself in Arabia of the Prophet’s time. Blackness could provoke contempt or prejudice because it was a strong marker of being an outsider. We see over and over again in the life of the Prophet ﷺ that it is outsider status that is denigrated, not Blackness, even if Blackness is invoked. Bilāl, the “black crow,” had trouble finding a wife in Medina. But there are even more stories of Salmān the Persian being rebuffed for marriage.[^48] Salmān was not ‘black’ like Bilāl. But he had been a slave like Bilāl, and like Bilāl he was totally out of place in Arab society. When challenged about his ancestry, Salmān would respond that he was Salmān the son of Islam.[^49] Indeed, what being demeaned as ‘black’ was to Bilāl, being asked to state his ancestry was to Salmān: a cruel reminder of their outsider status in Arabian tribal society. In Arabia at the dawn of Islam, the worst situation to be in was to be an outsider, to be marginal, whether one was a captive taken from near Antioch or from Ethiopia. Blackness could thus be negative because it marked the outsider. But we should not confuse a possible indication of a cause with the cause itself. The famous Pre-Islamic poet-warrior ʿAntara bin Shaddād referred to his own Blackness—he was the son of a noble Arab of the ʿAbs tribe and his African slave woman—and the contempt with which he had been treated until he won the respect of his father and tribe through his deeds in battle. But ʿAntara was not treated with contempt because he was ‘black.’ He was treated with contempt because he was the son of a slave woman (and thus a slave himself) whose father had long refused to acknowledge him as his son.[^50] He was thus a marginal outsider. In fact, ‘blackness’ was insignificant when it did not indicate outsider status, as we see in cases of individuals ensconced in the tribal system. Noting that a noble Arab’s mother was ‘black’ meant nothing, since their belongingness, indeed their nobility, was assured by their father’s standing. Noble Arabs of Quraysh like Ṣafwān bin Umayya, ʿAmr bin al-ʿĀṣ and ʿUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb were either ‘black’ or of African descent. Ṣafwān’s mother was Ethiopian, while ʿAmr’s and ʿUmar’s mothers were Arab but black (*sawdāʾ*). ʿAmr was even described as “short and tinted with blackness (*sawād*),” and ʿUmar’s paternal grandmother was from Ethiopia as well.[^51] Blackness ceased to have meaning when a person’s standing in the tribal system was affirmed. Compare ʿAntara’s precarious situation with that of ʿArār, the son of another Arab poet, ʿAmr bin Shaʾs, from his ‘black’ slave woman. ʿAmr’s wife belittled the son her competitor bore him, so ʿAmr replied: > She sought to punish ʿArār, and those who seek > His punishment, by my life, they’ve wronged \[him\]. > For if ʿArār is not fair (*wāḍiḥ*), > I do love blackness (*jawn*) in one full in form (*dhā al-mankib al-ʿamam*). > And if ʿArār doesn't bridle himself, > I’ve taken this from him; I cannot conceal. > So, if you are with me or wish my company, > Be to him like butter, readied in its bowl. > Otherwise, depart! Like the rider > Rushing their thirsty mount \[to water\], on the road without ease.[^52] Another telling example of this appears in a set of questionable hadiths, which reveal much about the dynamics of early Arabic Islamic society even if they are not reliable. One hadith describes how the Prophet ﷺ supposedly delayed the departure of all the pilgrims from the plain of ʿArafa during Hajj so that his Companion Usāma bin Zayd could return from an errand. When he returned, the people there from Yemen saw that Usāma was “flat-nosed and black.” They complained to the Prophet ﷺ, “This is the reason you detained us from departing today?” The narrator, ʿUrwa bin al-Zubayr (d. 93/711-2), adds that the people of Yemen rebelled against Islam in the Ridda Wars because “they had contempt for the Prophet’s ﷺ command,” meaning, we are meant to understand, his command regarding Usāma bin Zayd.[^53] This Hadith suffers from a clear break in its chain of transmission, and it is an isolated report via one chain, so it is not historically reliable. Yet it was nevertheless circulated by at least some Muslims during the early Islamic period and seems to express real anti-Black sentiment. But to stop at this conclusion is to miss the real cause of tension and controversy that shaped this report. Once again, Blackness here is merely a proxy for being an outsider. Usāma’s father, Zayd bin Ḥāritha, was one of the first converts to Islam and one of the few individuals mentioned by name in the Qur’an. He was raised by the Prophet ﷺ and was beloved to him, as was his son, whom the Prophet adored. When Zayd grew to adulthood, the Prophet saw him as a capable leader and put him in charge of important campaigns. There was even some notion in the years after the Prophet’s death that, had Zayd outlived him, the Prophet ﷺ would have made him his successor.[^54] The Prophet’s affection and esteem for Usāma matched that for his father. Usāma was raised like a grandchild of the Prophet, who doted on him as a child and who saw him as an effective commander and leader as an adult.[^55] The “command of the Prophet ﷺ” that ʿUrwa bin al-Zubayr mentioned regarding Usāma, which angered some Muslims, was not him delaying leaving ʿArafa. It was the Prophet putting Usāma in charge of missions even when more senior Companions were present, including a mission that the Prophet ﷺ assigned to Usāma from his deathbed. After the Prophet’s ﷺ death, his successors continued to hold Usāma in high esteem. During the Ridda Wars, the caliph Abū Bakr left him in charge of Medina. Zayd and Usāma had high standing in Islam, but they were very much outsiders in the tribal society of the Hejaz that still dominated the early Muslim community. Not only was Zayd not from the Quraysh or from any major tribe, he had come to Mecca through its slave market. He had been enslaved in Yemen as a child and sold in Mecca, where the Prophet ﷺ had bought him and freed him. Authentic hadiths reveal how controversial it was for the Prophet ﷺ to put such an outsider in command over noble Arabs of Mecca and Medina, and the Prophet ﷺ had to face this outrage again when he granted Usāma bin Zayd the prominence he felt Usāma merited.[^56] We are not sure how Zayd looked, in part because it seems clear that claims about his appearance functioned to emphasize his outsider status. All available reports are that both Zayd’s parents were Arabs from Yemen, but there is an early report that he was short, extremely dark (*shadīd al-udma*) and had a flat nose. In contrast, Ibn Saʿd notes that it was also reported that Zayd was light skinned (*abyaḍ*), and scholars like al-Dhahabī consider this to be the most reliable position.[^57] On the other hand, scholars agreed that Usāma was dark skinned (*aswad*), like his Ethiopian mother. But while this was unremarkable in the case of noble Arabs like Ṣafwān bin Umayya, ʿAmr bin al-ʿĀṣ and ʿUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb, reports circulated in the early Islamic period that referenced Usāma’s color functioned to denigrate him.[^58] In this tension around Zayd and Usāma, Blackness stands in as a proxy for the resentment over the Prophet’s ﷺestimation for someone’s merit as opposed to their station in tribal society. --- ## The rise of anti-Blackness? The 700s and 800s CE saw an unusual phenomenon in Arabic literature: interest in a group of Pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabic poets who were dubbed ‘The Crows of the Arabs,’ three poets whose fathers were Arab but whose mothers were African slave women (or very dark-skinned Arabs) and whose appearance was ‘black’ (ʿAntara, Khaffāf bin Nadba, and Sulayk bin ʿUmayr, along with a few others sometimes mentioned as well). A theme that appeared in much of their poetry was contrasting what they seemed to admit as the ugliness and lowliness of their appearance and sometimes slave status with the nobility of their character. Though he has been criticized for many things, the Orientalist Bernard Lewis was quite right when he observed that the ‘Crows of the Arabs’ theme was a momentary fad in Arabic poetry. And he was even more correct when he explained that much of their poetry and the stories around them betray traces of later invention as opposed to being authentic expressions of Pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arab culture. As we have reiterated here, for Arabs of the time of the Prophet ﷺ, skin color and appearance were not important in and of themselves.[^59] And the Qur’an and the Prophet ﷺ had made clear that invoking someone’s lineage or color to draw attention to their status was unacceptable. When Meccans had mocked their former slave Bilāl, now conqueror, as a ‘black crow,’ the Prophet and the Qur’an had rebuked them. In the 800s, however, noted Muslim scholars wrote books on poetry that fetishized the Crows of the Arabs.’[^60] As al-Jāḥīẓ wrote, Africans were now wondering, “You \[Arabs\] saw us as matches for your women during the Age of Ignorance. But, now, when the justice of Islam has come, you decide that was wrong?”[^61] What had changed? For all his faults, Bernard Lewis offers a compelling and sound explanation. In Arabia of the Prophet’s time, Ethiopia was not seen as some primitive land of primitive people. It was a respected neighbor and refuge where the Muslims had sought safety and lived for years.[^62] The Old Ethiopian language and culture was familiar to Arabs in the Hejaz, who regularly referenced its vocabulary and customs.[^63] Many of the Ethiopians that Arabs in the Hejaz would have seen would have been slaves, captured in raids or bought in the market. But Ethiopians were present in places like Medina for other reasons as well, as visitors or delegations.[^64] Whatever their origin (the largest group seems to have been Arabs), slaves were present throughout Arabia of the Prophet’s time, though not in great numbers. They were the result of raids and small-scale trade in labor. When the Muslims conquered the greater Middle East, however, they found themselves right in the middle and in charge of a region in which slave labor had been a significant part of the economy and society for centuries and in which the international slave trade was a major commerce. Most of these slaves were not Black Africans—they were Berbers, Persians, Turkic peoples, Germanic folk, Slavs, etc. But the Muslims (still mostly Arab) began encountering Black Africans from faraway regions like the east African coast and the Upper Nile Valley, and they encountered them mainly as slaves.[^65] Even though most of the slaves brought into the central Islamic lands of the Middle East and North Africa were Slavic, Turkic, Greek or others, the association of Blackness with slavery grew stronger and stronger in the central Islamic lands of the Middle East and North Africa. It is not clear to me exactly why this happened. Why didn’t Muslims in the 700s and 800s CE start associating Turks, Indians or Slavs—all groups from whom slaves were drawn in massive numbers—with slavery? It’s possible that, because the Abbasid Empire abutted Turkic regions and had commercial links with India that Muslim interactions with these groups were too complex for simplistic stereotypes to form. But that does not explain why Slavs were not associated with slavery (like they would be in western Europe, where the name literally came to mean ‘slave’). Perhaps the phenotypes of Africans brought from south of the Sahara or the interior of the east African coast were distinct enough from how ‘average’ Muslims in Baghdad looked that an association of slavery formed. But such thinking makes a lot of assumptions about what ‘average’ Muslims in a city like Baghdad were used to seeing, and we already know that African or dark-skinned Arabs were not at all unknown. In the medieval Islamic world the most widely held ideas about cultures and their characteristics certainly were not very positive about Africans, as we have seen in the widespread reports about their unconstrained appetites, their disfigured forms, and their stupidity. But people held similarly negative views about the Slavic peoples and Turks. The geography and related climatic-based ethnology that predominated in Islamic civilization was based on the Greco-Roman medicine and geography of Galen (d. *circa* 216 CE) and Ptolemy (d. *circa* 170 CE), with its division of the world into different climatic zones and the theory that climates shaped bodies and temperament. A common Greco-Roman explanation for the dark skin of Africans was thus that the heat of the sun had burned their skin or caused their blood to boil up close to their skin’s surface. Greco-Roman authors certainly saw Black Africans as distinctive-looking and came up with theories to explain this and other phenomena of human phenotypes, but their view of Africans was not fundamentally negative. Black Africans were different but not any better or worse than others. The strong negative associations of blackness/Africaness only appeared in the early centuries of Christianity (commonly referred to by historians as the Late Antique period) in the Mediterranean. This was at least in part due to a blending of physical description with the metaphorical association of blackness with sin in Christian discourse. The Old Testament told of the infamous Curse of Ham, when Noah cursed the descendants of his son Ham, who were understood to have populated Africa, to slavery. This story transformed into Ham’s descendants being cursed with black skin as well as slavery, a version which first appears in the Talmud in the fourth and fifth centuries CE and in an early seventh-century Christian text.[^66] We can see the blending of this lore about the Curse of Ham to blackness and slavery with Greco-Roman ‘scientific’ theories about skin color and environment in the writings of influential Church Fathers like Augustine (d. 430 CE). He explains that Ham’s descendants, who had inherited the hot, southern parts of the world, still dwelled apart from the righteous, blazing with impatience and heresy.[^67] If blackness was cursed and sinful, then its opposite was pure and pious. A famous bishop from Cappadocia, Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395), thus claimed that Christ had come into the world to make ‘blacks’ ‘white’ and that in the kingdom of heaven Ethiopians would become ‘white.’[^68] When Muslims moved into the greater Mediterranean and Persian world and started mingling with its cultural heritage, it became common for medieval Muslim authors to claim that the middle zones containing the modern Middle East were the most temperate and thus produced people with the most balanced minds and bodies. The people who inhabited the extreme north (Slavs, Turks and others) and extreme south (Black Africans) were both characterized by stupidity and an inability to reason, though Slavs were of a cold disposition, while Black Africans were ‘hot’ and savage.[^69] Shams al-Dīn al-Dimashqī (d. 727/1327), whose geographical compendium cites Galen directly for its explanation of phenotype and character, and whose description of Black Africans is among the most negative, notes how the most distant Ethiopians share some customs with the Slavs.[^70] Ibn Khaldūn’s (d. 808/1406) Greco-Roman scientific description of why the Africans living in the extreme south were primitive of mind and never received revelation applied equally to Slavs, he notes.[^71] Ibn Mājid (fl. mid 1400s) in his navigational guide says that south of Kanem lived ‘whites’ who were such because of their distance from the sun, just as the Turks were.[^72] The Islamic scholarly and cultural heritage also absorbed the Curse of Ham, which became a regular part of their explanations for the African phenotype. But it was rejected by many Muslim scholars, including major ones. They saw that it contradicted reliable hadiths and was scientifically unfounded. Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Suyūṭī and other leading Hadith scholars noted that the Curse of Ham came from Biblical lore and had no sound *isnad* to the Qur’an or Sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ had explained in a sound hadith that the variety of human skin tones comes from the different colors of dust from which Adam was created.[^73] Scholars like Ibn Khaldūn rejected the Curse of Ham because they believed that skin color was conditioned by environment (which is actually correct!). Despite the objections of such Muslim scholars, it is clear that even in the 700s CE Muslims were being influenced by the belief that Noah cursed his son Ham’s descendants, Africans, to be both ‘black’ and slaves.[^74] Some have leveled the accusation that the negative views of Black Africans that became prevalent in the West were imported from the Muslim world along with Islamic sciences and philosophy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. But this claim hinges on the false assumption that such negative views were unknown to Western Christendom before its medieval encounter with Islamic civilization. As we have seen, long before any Western Christian read a page of Islamic scholarship, they would have come across the notion that an African phenotype connoted sin and immoderation in the works of pillars of Western Christianity like St. Augustine. --- ## Conclusion Writing his book on the virtues of Ethiopians, the Meccan scholar Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī was not shy in showing how enamored he was of women from the Horn of Africa (apparently he was not alone, considering how many of his peers he quotes). But he had no such esteem for women from further south along the east African coast and its interior. His book on the virtues of Ethiopians includes a warning against having children with these *zanjiyyāt*, parroting the worst stereotypes about Black Africans circulating at his time throughout the Eurasian world, inside and outside the Abode of Islam: they are lazy, base, and submissive, but also volatile and unreasonable. He cites unironically the forged hadiths of east Africans as disfigured, stealing when hungry, fornicating when full. But Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī then strikes a totally different note. Turning away from such stereotypes, he says, “Such talk is the convention of some sophisticated folk. But what is the truth (*ḥaqīqa*) and what is held by those on the path of guidance is that ‘The noblest among you in God’s eyes is the most pious (Qur’an 49:13).’” He then runs through a list of numerous sound hadiths in which the Prophet ﷺ praises Africans and enumerates pious exemplars among them.[^75] These few lines from this sixteenth-century book offer a concise answer to the question ‘Is Islam anti-Black?’ Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī was an educated Muslim scholar, esteemed enough to serve as a *khaṭīb* in Medina. But he had no problem repeating awful expressions of anti-Blackness rooted in Near Eastern traditions about climate and character erroneously justified by hadiths ascribed to the Prophet ﷺ. But Muslim scholars far more respected and influential than Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī had long before him exposed as forged those hadiths cited as evidence for demeaning Africans and had thoroughly rejected the ideas they supported. And even as his pen moved across the page, Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī turned away from his anti-Blackness and towards the clear guidance of God and His Prophet ﷺ. Those wondering if Islam is anti-Black need look no further than how this scholar was rescued from the anti-Black racism endemic in his society by the revelation of Islam itself. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Wa lam yubāli Ibn ʿImrān bi-udmatihi, ḥattā iṣṭafāhu kalīman khayr maʿbūd*. Ibn al-Abbār, *Tuḥfat al-qādim*, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1406/1986), 157. Thanks to Andrea Brigaglia for this citation. [^2]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā’*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ et al., 25 vols. (Beirut: Mu‘assasat al-Risāla, 1992–98), 5:363–4. [^3]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyā’*, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, and Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1996), 2:365, 10:173–4. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-birr wa’l-ṣila*, *bāb naṣr al-akh ẓāliman aw maẓlūman*. [^5]: Rudolph Ware, Zachary Wright, and Amir Syed, *Jihad of the Pen* (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2018), 140. See also Cheikh Anta Babou, *Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal* (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007), 61–2. [^6]: Anti-Blackness is generally defined as a particular kind of racism, discrimination, and denigration, which is directed at people deemed (i.e., racialized as) Black. This, of course, raises the question of who is Black, who defines this, whether it is defined by phenotypic features like skin color or along political or social lines, and whether this Blackness is a fixed category in every society. The knot these questions form is evident in the debate over capitalization. Is Black just a description of skin tone and/or phenotype, which can convey value, judgment, or nothing at all beyond merely noting the shade of someone’s skin? Or is Black more than just an adjective? Since “Black” skin isn’t actually black, clearly there is a process of cultural construction going on when the word *black* is used. What else is going into that construction besides an effort to note a color, for example, labeling people as “other,” as lower, etc.? Although it seems often to be used in discussions simply to mean pervasive anti-Blackness, Afropessimism is an influential and interesting perspective on this issue. Afropessimists hold that Black is a category almost hard-wired into human culture: it is the oppressed and exploited half in an omnipresent equation of power, defined by and thus defin*ing* the powerful, the real, the White. In the view of Afropessimism, Black is the slave, the rightless, the inhuman that makes the idea of the free, enfranchised, and human White possible. It is part of the structure of how society defines itself, the category that is excluded and pushed down so that “we” can talk about who “we” are. The argument for this view is compelling, especially in the West and particularly in the United States. But Blackness has not been a stable category throughout history, and [critics](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/index.php/articles/afro-pessimism-and-unlogic-anti-blackness&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628782975956000&usg=AOvVaw0ZyXZSlnRV0813rXbh-wQo) accuse Afropessimism of imposing a US-centric definition and experience of Blackness on others. See Moon-Kie Jung, João H. Costa Vargas, eds., *Antiblackness* (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2021). For an argument that the historical use of the word *black* to denigrate means that the word should be abandoned (as opposed to reclaimed), see Kewsi Tsri, *Africans Are Not Black* (London: Routledge, 2016). [^7]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān*, ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Ḥifnāwī and Maḥmūd Ḥamīd ʿUthmān, 20 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1994), 8:605. For an early report about Bilāl being called a black crow, see *Tafsīr Muqātil b. Sulaymān*, ed. Aḥmad Farīd, 3 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1424/2003), 3:263. For the report about the Prophet stating that Adam was created from dust, see *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *kitāb tafsīr al-Qur’ān*, *bāb min sūrat al-ḥujurāt*. [^8]: Al-Suyūṭī judges this hadith to be *ṣaḥīḥ* and the basis for understanding variations in human phenotypes. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Rafʿ sha’n al-ḥubshān*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Faḍl (self-pub., 1411/1991), 371. See also Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, 7 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1995–2002), 4:172, no. 1630. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-janā’iz*, *bāb al-ṣalāt ʿalā al-qabr baʿd mā dufina*; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-janā’iz*, *bāb al-ṣalāt ʿalā al-qabr*. [^10]: Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, *ʿĀriḍat al-aḥwadhī*, 13 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.), 12:158–9. The *isnād* given for this report by Ibn al-ʿArabī goes from Ibn Wahb Mālik *ʿan* Dāwūd b. Qays *ʿan* Zayd b. Aslam. [^11]: Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-īmān*, ed. Muḥammad Saʿīd Zaghlūl, 7 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1990), 4:288; Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq*, ed. ʿUmar ʿAmrawī, 80 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1995–1997), 10:464. [^12]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad* (Maymaniyya printing), 5:411. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-adab*, *bāb mā yunyā min al-sibāb wa’l-laʿn*. [^14]: Kātib Chelebī, *Kashf al-ẓunūn*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, 7 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1429/2008), 2:256; al-Suyūṭī, *Nuzhat al-ʿumr fī al-tafḍīl bayn al-bīḍ wa’l-sūd wa’l-sumr* (Damascus: al-Maktaba al-ʿArabiyya, 1346/1927), 2; al-Ziriklī, *Aʿlām* (Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm li’l-Malāyīn, 2005), 6:211. [^15]: See Marina Tolmacheva, “Toward a Definition of the Term Zanj,” *Azania* 26, no. 1 (1986): 105–113. [^16]: See Daniel Ayana, “Re-Mapping Africa: The Northern *Zanj*, *Damadim*, *Yamyam*, *Yam*/*Yamjam*, *Habasha*/*Ahabish*, *Zanj-Ahabish* and *Zanj ed-Damadam*: The Horn of Africa between the Ninth and Fifteenth Centuries,” *History in Africa* 46 (2019): 57–104. [^17]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, “The Rules of *Matn* Criticism,” *Islamic Law and Society* 19 (2012): 362–4. [^18]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb*, ed. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, 12 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1415/1994), 10:135. [^19]: Jonathan Brown, “Even If It’s Not True It’s True: Using Unreliable Hadiths in Sunni Islam,” *Islamic Law and Society* 18 (2011): 24. [^20]: See my forthcoming book *Is Islam Anti-Black*? [^21]: Bruce Hall, *A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600*–*1960* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 11. Miles and Brown see as key the way that racialization attributes “meaning to somatic characteristics,” but they insist that such characteristics are constructed through “signifying processes.” Robert Miles and Malcolm Brown, *Racism*, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2003), 88–92. [^22]: For an excellent review of the knot of questions around academic definitions of race, see Adam Hochman, “Is ‘Race’ Modern? Disambiguating the Question,” *Du Bois Review* 16, no. 2 (2019): 647–65. [^23]: See Michael O. Hardimon, *Rethinking Race* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017). [^24]: For more on this, see Arun Kundnani’s excellent *The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror* (New York: Verso, 2015); Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood, “The Racialisation of Muslims,” in *Thinking Through Islamophobia*, ed. Salman Sayyid and AbdoolKarim Vakil (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 78–9. Iskander Abbasi sees medieval/early modern European perceptions of Islam/Muslims and their relationship to it/them as laying the groundwork for early modern conceptions of race and the power structures built on them. Iskander Abbasi, “Muslims, and the Coloniality of Being: Reframing the Debate on Race and Religion in Modernity,” *Journal for the Study of Religion* 33, no. 2 (2020). [^25]: Meer and Modood, “Racialisation of Muslims,” 77. [^26]: Ida Raffaelli et al., “Introduction,” in *Lexicalization Patterns in Color Naming: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective*, ed. Ida Raffaelli et al. (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2019), 1–19. [^27]: Christine B. Hickman, “The Devil and the One Drop Rule: Racial Categories, African Americans, and the U.S. Census,” *Michigan Law Review* 95, no. 5 (1997): 1174. [^28]: Habeeb Azande, *Illuminating the Blackness: Blacks and African Muslims in Brazil* (London: Rabaah, 2016), 22–28. [^29]: See, for example, a noted historian insisting on applying American understanding of race and color to east Africans: Michael C. Mbabuike, “Wonders Shall Never Cease: Decoding Henry Louis Gates’s Ambiguous Adventure,” *Journal of Black Studies* 31, no. 2 (2000): 234. [^30]: Al-Jāḥiẓ, *Rasā’il al-Jāḥiẓ*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 4 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1384/1964), 1:207. [^31]: Al-Rāzī, *Mafātīḥ al-ghayb* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420/2000), 27:469. [^32]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān*, 2:524. [^33]: Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, *The ‘Negro’ in Arab-Muslim Consciousness* (Swansea, UK: Claritas, 2018), 39. Two hadith narrations are interesting in this regard, showing that “redness” was not somehow more praiseworthy than a darker tone. Ibn ʿUmar corrected another companion who quoted the Prophet describing Jesus as “red”; he was actually dark in tone (*ādam*). *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb aḥādīth al-anbiyā’*, *bāb wa’dhkur fī al-kitāb Maryam*. [^34]: Al-Dhahabī adds that, to denote the darker brown “color of Indians,” Arabs would use “brown (*asmar*)” and “dark brown (*ādam*).” “Black (*aswad*)” meant the color of sub-Saharan Africans or a similar color.” Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā’*, 2:168. [^35]: Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid, *Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles among the Early Pious Muslims* (USA: Itrah Press, 2016), 25–26. [^36]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan*, *kitāb al-ṣalāt*, *bāb mā yujzi’u al-ummī wa’l-ʿajamī min al-qirā’a*. See also Ibn Saʿd, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā*, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1968), 1:41. [^37]: Al-Jāḥiẓ insists that Arabs considered themselves among the “blacks,” not “red.” Al-Nawawī seems to favor this as well because “of the preponderance of brownness (*sumra*)” among Arabs, but he also notes opinions to the contrary. Al-Jāḥiẓ, *Rasā’il*, 1:216; al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 15 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 1987), 5:7–8. [^38]: Al-Masʿūdī, *Kitāb al-tanbīh wa’l-ashrāf*, ed. ʿAbdallāh Ismāʿīl al-Ṣāwī (Cairo: Dār al-Ṣāwī, 1357/1938), 22; Ibn Faḍlān, *Kitāb risālat Ibn Faḍlān* (Abu Dhabi: Dār al-Suwaydī, 2003), 101. [^39]: Quoted in Ibn al-Faqīh (d. circa 290/900), *Kitāb al-buldān*, ed. Yūsuf al-Hādī (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1416/1996), 199. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-aḥkām*, *bāb al-samʿ wa’l-ṭāʿa li’l-imām mā lam takun maʿṣiya*. For an in-depth discussion of this hadith, see my forthcoming book *Is Islam Anti-Black*? [^41]: Hishām ibn al-Kalbī, *Jamharat al-nasab*, ed. Nājī Ḥasan (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1407/1986), 52, 94; Ibn Saʿd, *al-Juz’ al-mutammam li-ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd al-ṭabaqa al-rābiʿa min al-ṣaḥāba*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ʿAbdallāh al-Sullūmī (Taif: Maktabat al-Ṣiddīq, 1416/1996), 282, 423; ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, *Muṣannaf*, ed. Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿẓamī, 11 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1403/1983), 7:72, 133. According to Ibn Saʿd, the mother of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya (d. 81/701) was either an Arab woman captured from the enemy Ḥanīf tribe at the Battle of Yamāma or a “black, Sindī woman” who was a slave of that tribe taken as a prize. Ibn Saʿd, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā*, 5:91. [^42]: Al-Ṣanʿānī, *Muṣannaf*, 4:57; Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, *Maghāzī*, ed. Marsden Jones (Beirut: Dār al-Aʿlamī, 1409/1989), 2:681. [^43]: *Muwaṭṭa’*, *kitāb al-ʿitq wa’l-walā’*, *bāb mā yajūzu min al-ʿitq fī al-riqāb al-wājiba*. [^44]: See, for example, Igor Kopytoff and Suzanne Miers, “African ‘Slavery’ as an Institution of Marginality,” in *Slavery in Africa*, ed. Miers and Kopytoff (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 8–84. [^45]: Hend Gilli-Elewy, “On the Provenance of Slaves in Mecca during the Time of the Prophet Muhammad,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 49, no. 1 (2017): 164–67; Noel Lenski, “Captivity and Slavery among the Saracens in Late Antiquity (Ca. 250–630 CE),” *AnTard* 19 (2011): 248, 259. [^46]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān li-āy al-Qur’ān*, ed. Aḥmad Shākir, 24 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1420/2000), 9:59. [^47]: Ṣuhayb (d. 38–9/658–9) was “very red,” a slave from northern Syria who was later freed. Khabbāb b. al-Aratt (d. 37/657–8) was an Arab of the Tamīm tribe who was a sword maker and had been captured and enslaved; Ibn Ḥajar, *al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba*, ed. ʿĀdil Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Mawjūd and ʿAlī Aḥmad Muʿawwaḍ, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1415/1994), 3:65, 2:221–2. Slaves made up the bulk of the first converts to Islam. As ʿAmmār recalled, “I saw the Messenger of God, and there was no one with him except five slaves, two women and Abū Bakr.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍā’il aṣḥāb al-nabī*, *bāb* 6. [^48]: Abū Nuʿaym, *Ḥilya*, 1:186–7, 200. [^49]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istīʿāb fī maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Bijāwī, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1412/1992), 2:134. [^50]: Ibn Qutayba, *al-Shiʿr wa’l-shuʿarā’*, 2 vols. (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1423/2002), 1:243. [^51]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, 3:56; al-Masʿūdī, *Murūj al-dhahab*, ed. Kamāl Ḥasan Marʿī, 4 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriyya, 1425/2005), 2:241; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istīʿāb fī maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb*, 3:1184; al-Suyūṭī, *Rafʿ sha’n al-ḥubshān*, 373. [^52]: Ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī, *Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarā’*, ed. Maḥmūd Shākir (\[Cairo?\]: Dār al-Madanī, n.d.), 1:199–200. [^53]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Tārīkh al-kabīr*, ed. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, 9 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1422/2001), 2:17. [^54]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar* 1:228; *Musnad Aḥmad*, 6:281. [^55]: In one famous hadith, the Prophet ﷺ doted on the young Usāma and said that, if he were a girl, he would dress her up, ornament her, and find her a husband. *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, *kitāb al-nikāh*, *bāb al-shifāʿa fī al-tazwīj*; *Musnad Aḥmad*, 6:222. [^56]: In a well-known hadith, the Prophet expresses his disapproval over people second-guessing his putting Zayd and Usāma in charge of campaigns when more senior companions were present. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-maghāzī*, *bāb ghazwat Zayd b. Ḥāritha*; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb faḍā’il al-ṣaḥāba*, *bāb faḍā’il Zayd b. Ḥāritha*. [^57]: Al-Dhahabī favors the report that Zayd was light-colored and his son dark, since there were reliable reports that the two looked nothing alike. Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, 1:222–3. See also Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan*, *kitāb al-ṭalāq*, *bāb fī al-qāfa*. [^58]: There is a unique version of the hadith mentioned above about the Prophet talking about marrying off Usāma. In this version, a black (*aswad*) son of Usāma enters in upon the Prophet ﷺ, and Umm Salama (allegedly) said that, if he were a girl, he would never get married. Al-Wāqidī, *Maghāzī*, 3:125. [^59]: Bernard Lewis, “The Crows of the Arabs,” *Critical Inquiry* 12, no. 1 (1985): 92, 96. [^60]: Interest in the “Crows of the Arabs” was part of this aesthetic of exoticizing Blackness. This appealed to some Muslim scholars of poetry and not others. Ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī (d. 232/846) and Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889) were both early Sunni scholars from non-Arab backgrounds who wrote histories of Arab poets. Ibn Qutayba was very interested in the “Crows of the Arabs” as a phenomenon and in their poetry playing on their color. Ibn Sallām, on the other hand, showed no interest in “the Crows” or Blackness in general. He doesn’t even mention ʿAntara’s appearance and mentions that Nuṣayb was black only offhand. Ibn Qutayba, *al-Shiʿr wa’l-shuʿarā’*, 1:244, 329, 353, 396; Ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī, *Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarā’*, 1:152, 2:675. [^61]: Al-Jāḥiẓ, *Rasā’il*, 1:197. [^62]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad*, 1:203, no. 1764. [^63]: See the Ethiopian words referenced in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-janā’iz*, *bāb binā’ al-masjid* *ʿalā al-qabr*; *kitāb al-fitan*, *bāb zuhūr al-fitan*; *kitāb al-tafsīr*, *bāb sūrat al-anbiyā’*; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-salām*, *bāb lā ʿadwā wa lā ṭiyara*; Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan*, *kitāb al-ashriba*, *bāb al-nahy ʿan al-muskir*. [^64]: See, for example, Ibn Ḥibbān’s narration of the hadith of the Ethiopians dancing in the mosque. Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 2:564. [^65]: Lewis, “Crows of the Arabs,” 92; Bernard Lewis, *Race and Slavery in the Middle East* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 50–6. Black African slaves started appearing in the slave markets of newly conquered Muslim north Africa at the end of the 600s CE. Elizabeth Savage, *A Gateway to Hell, a Gateway to Paradise: The North African Response to the Arab Conquest* (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997), 73–5. [^66]: David Goldenberg, *The Curse of Ham* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 172–74, 197; David M. Whitford, *The Curse of Ham in the Early Modern Era* (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009), 25–27. [^67]: Augustine, *City of God*, bk. XVI, ch. 2. [^68]: Frank M. Snowden, Jr., *Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience* (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1970), 198, 205. Incredibly, Snowden does not see these expressions as negative but rather as a continuity of the Greco-Roman idea of the Ethiopian as an extreme of difference (197–215). [^69]: J.T. Olsson, “The World in Arab Eyes: A Reassessment of the Climes in Medieval Islamic Scholarship,” *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 77, no. 3 (2014): 500–1. [^70]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dimashqī, *Nukhbat al-dahr fī ʿajā’ib al-barr wa’l-baḥr*, ed. M. A. F. Mehren (St. Petersburg: M. M. Eggers et Comp., 1866), 268, 273. [^71]: Ibn Khaldūn, *The Muqaddimah*, trans. Franz Rosenthal, ed. N.J. Dawood (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967) , 59. [^72]: J. F. P. Hopkins, trans., *Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History*, ed. N. Levtzion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 367. [^73]: Al-Suyūṭī judges this hadith to be *ṣaḥīḥ* and the basis for understanding variations in human phenotypes. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Rafʿ sha’n al-ḥubshān*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Faḍl (self-pub., 1411/1991), 371. See also Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, 7 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1995–2002), 4:172, no. 1630. [^74]: Chouki El Hamel, *Black Morocco* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 61–71. [^75]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī, *al-Ṭirāz al-manqūsh fī maḥāsin al-ḥubūsh*, ed. ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (Kuwait: Mu’assasat Fahd al-Marzūq al-Ṣaḥafiyya, 1995), 107–9. ## Summary In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. The question of whether Islam is, in its very foundations, opposed to Black people is one that demands careful examination, and the honest answer is that anti-Black prejudice, while sadly present among many Muslims, is not rooted in the religion itself. Consider the example of Mālik bin Dīnār (d. circa 127/745), the pious scholar of Basra and son of a Persian slave, who once discovered that a black slave in the city was in truth the greatest "friend of God" among its people. So Mālik purchased that slave and freed him, that he might serve him as a student. This story, alongside that of the celebrated Wolof scholar and Sufi master Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba (d. 1346/1927), teaches a foundational lesson. Bamba, knowing that some Muslims of the Arab and Berber north looked down upon him, wrote in the opening of his *Pathways to Paradise* (*Masālik al-jinān*): "Do not turn down [this book's] benefits because I am from among the blacks. The most honored servant with God is, without a doubt, the most reverent. And blackness of body signals neither weakness of mind nor lack of understanding." It is essential to distinguish between the prejudices of individuals and communities, which certainly exist, and the character of the religion itself. That some Arabs shamefully refer to Black people as *ʿabīd* (slaves) is indefensible, but such racism is a global human affliction, found equally among Arab Christians and Arab Muslims, among Muslim and Hindu Indians alike. Were anti-Blackness a genuine feature of Islam, it would be uniquely pronounced among Muslims, yet it manifestly is not. The proper inquiry, therefore, concerns Islam as a religion—its founding scriptures and its normative law—rather than the failings of its adherents. The clear teaching of revelation is decisive on this matter. God declares that "the diversity of your colors and languages" is "one of His signs" (Qur'an 30:22), and He states that mankind was created "in peoples and nations so that you may come to know one another, and the most noble among you in God's eyes is the most pious" (Qur'an 49:13). This very verse was revealed to rebuke certain Meccans who had mocked the Muslims for having none better than Bilāl, "this black crow," to give the call to prayer. The Prophet ﷺ then reminded the people of Mecca that God had removed from them the arrogance of the *Jāhiliyya*, that all people are the children of Adam, and that "God created Adam from dust"—the varied colors of that dust giving humans their different skin tones. The Sunnah is even more explicit. When a Black person who cleaned the mosque in Medina died and none informed him, the Prophet ﷺ, upon learning of it, was saddened and went to pray at their grave. He rebuked an Arab family for refusing Bilāl's marriage proposal, and declared, "By Him who sent down the book upon Muhammad, no one has any virtue over anyone else except by deeds." In his farewell sermon he reaffirmed that all mankind descends from one ancestor, so no race can be superior save through *taqwá* (piety). The scholar Tajul Islam of the University of Leeds offers a profound insight here. While many observe that premodern Arabic had no word for "racism"—the term itself being novel even in European languages, arising in the 1930s to describe Nazi ideology—he points to the hadith of Abū Dharr, who once insulted a slave by mentioning his non-Arab mother. The Prophet ﷺ confronted him, saying, "You are a person with *jāhiliyya* in you," and instructed the Muslims that slaves "are your brothers. God put them in your charge... let him feed him from what he eats, clothe him from what he wears." Thus, argues Tajul Islam, classical Arabic did possess a word for the subordination of people on account of some unchangeable feature declared by the powerful: that word was *jāhiliyya*. Moreover, confronting racism formed an entire genre of Muslim scholarship, beginning with al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/869) and his epistle *The Pride of Blacks over Whites*, followed by works from Ibn al-Marzubān (d. 309/919), the celebrated Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201) with his *Illuminating the Darkness concerning the Virtue of Blacks and Ethiopians*, and no fewer than three treatises by al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505). As for the hadiths that denigrate Black Africans (the *zanj*) as lazy, stupid, or disfigured, these do not appear in the mainstay collections, and the leading Muslim hadith critics have denied their authenticity. It has been an uncontroversial principle in the manuals of hadith criticism since the 1300s CE that any narration belittling a race or ethnicity cannot come from the Prophet ﷺ and must be a forgery. Though Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) was the first to articulate this as an explicit rule, the principle is visible even earlier in Abū Dāwūd (d. 275/889), who, when asked about a narrator reporting that ʿĀʾisha said, "Beware of Zanj, for they were created disfigured," responded, "Whoever narrates this, accuse them." Such reports appear only in uncritical compilations, such as those of al-Ṭabarānī (d. 360/971) and Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī (d. 430/1038), whose authors made no claim to the reliability of their material and were criticized for including it. A crucial error must be avoided: imposing modern American racial categories upon the world of the Prophet ﷺ. As Abdullah Hamid Ali has shown, "white" (*abyaḍ*) was used by early Arabs not chiefly to describe skin tone but as a metaphor for nobility and purity, paired with black in a moral binary, as in the Qur'anic imagery of faces "whitened" and "blackened" (Qur'an 3:106) and the disappointment at a female child whereby "their face becomes black" (16:58). Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) explained that the blackness of faces on the Day of Judgment would be an unearthly darkness of the heart, "a blackness differing from all other types of blackness," while al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272) reported that the whitened faces would be "white as ice"—neither connected to any earthly phenotype. Indeed, al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) explained that when early Arabs called someone "white," they meant "wheat colored with a darkish hue," an olive tone in our terms. In the Hadith corpus the color categories are "red, white, and black," and evidence suggests the Arabs counted themselves among the "black," with the "white" being the average Arab and the "red" being Syrians and Greeks. As Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid have demonstrated, calling a person "black" (*aswad*) did not imply African descent or the features stereotyped as "Blackness" today. Why, then, is blackness sometimes invoked negatively, as in the sound hadith commanding obedience to a commander "even if he is an African slave"? The answer lies in the tribal structure of Arabia, where security came only through family and tribe, and the greatest outsider was the slave. When noble Arabs complained about being seen with Bilāl, Ṣuhayb, Khabbāb, and ʿAmmār, calling them "these slaves," what joined these men was not skin color—for Ṣuhayb was "extremely reddish" from northern Syria and Khabbāb was an Arab of Tamīm—but their marginality. Blackness could provoke contempt because it marked one as an outsider, not because it was despised in itself. Thus noble Arabs of Quraysh such as ʿUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿAmr bin al-ʿĀṣ were black or of African descent without any dishonor, their standing secured by lineage. Similarly, the tensions surrounding Zayd bin Ḥāritha and his son Usāma—both beloved to the Prophet ﷺ and appointed to command—reveal that blackness served as a proxy for resentment against the Prophet's elevation of merit over tribal station. The stronger association of blackness with slavery arose only after the conquests, when Muslims entered a Mediterranean and Persian world where the international slave trade flourished. As al-Jāḥiẓ recorded Africans complaining, "You saw us as matches for your women during the Age of Ignorance. But now, when the justice of Islam has come, you decide that was wrong?" The negative theories about African character were inherited from Greco-Roman climatic science (Galen, d. circa 216 CE; Ptolemy, d. circa 170 CE) and from Late Antique Christian discourse, which fused the metaphor of blackness with sin. The Curse of Ham, appearing first in the Talmud of the fourth and fifth centuries and in a seventh-century Christian text, and echoed by Augustine (d. 430 CE) and Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395 CE), corrupted attitudes long before Western Christendom read any Islamic scholarship. Notably, major Muslim scholars—Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Suyūṭī, and Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406)—rejected the Curse of Ham, observing that it lacked any sound *isnad* and contradicted the sound hadith that human colors derive from the colors of the dust of Adam's creation. The most fitting conclusion lies in the example of Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī (d. circa 993/1585), the Meccan scholar and *khaṭīb* of Medina. In his book on the virtues of Ethiopians he repeated the worst stereotypes of his age and even cited the forged hadiths of Africans as disfigured. Yet he then turned entirely away, writing: "Such talk is the convention of some sophisticated folk. But what is the truth (*ḥaqīqa*) and what is held by those on the path of guidance is that 'The noblest among you in God's eyes is the most pious' (Qur'an 49:13)." He then enumerated the sound hadiths in which the Prophet ﷺ praised Africans. Herein lies the answer: even a scholar steeped in the anti-Black prejudice of his society was rescued from it by the clear guidance of God and His Messenger ﷺ. Those who wonder whether Islam is anti-Black need look no further than how the revelation itself delivered this man from the racism endemic to his surroundings. ## Key Takeaways 1. The accusation that Islam as a religion is anti-Black must be separated from the undeniable reality that anti-Black sentiment exists in many Muslim communities. Anti-Blackness is a global problem found across different religious and ethnic demographics, so its presence among Muslims does not point to Islam as its source. The Qur’an and Sunnah unambiguously reject racial and tribal chauvinism, with the Prophet ﷺ describing it as “putrid” (*muntina*) and the companion Abu Dharr being told he still had *jahiliyya* in him for insulting a slave’s non-Arab lineage. 2. Imposing modern racial categories on early Islamic history distorts the discussion. In the language of the Prophet’s Arabia, color descriptors functioned very differently from how they do today. “Black” (*aswad*) could describe an Arab with no African ancestry, “white” (*abyad*) referred to what we would now call a wheat or olive complexion, and the metaphoric pairing of black and white in scripture conveyed moral states rather than racial identity. Many references to a person’s “blackness” in early Islamic sources are simply matter-of-fact descriptions with no negative meaning. 3. Some hadiths that disparage Black Africans do circulate, but Muslim hadith scholars have long held that any narration belittling a race or ethnicity cannot be from the Prophet ﷺ and must be a forgery. This principle was articulated by scholars such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and was applied even earlier by critics like Abū Dāwūd. Alongside this critical tradition, Muslim scholars produced an entire genre of writing celebrating the virtues of Black people, from al-Jahiz in the ninth century to al-Suyuti in the fifteenth, demonstrating that pushback against anti-Black prejudice is itself a long-standing part of the Islamic intellectual tradition. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Islam condemns racism in its teachings, so why does anti-Black language still surface among some Muslims? The gap between Islamic teaching and Muslim behavior on this issue is real and indefensible. Some Arabs continue to use demeaning terms for Black people, and similar prejudices exist in other Muslim communities. None of this has any grounding in Islamic teaching. When Meccans mocked Bilal, an African companion and the first muezzin in Islam, by calling him a “black crow,” the Qur’an itself responded by declaring that the most noble among people in the sight of God is the most pious, regardless of nation or tribe. The Prophet ﷺ described tribal chauvinism as “putrid” and rejected it in unmistakable terms. He once asked after a Black person who used to clean the mosque, and upon learning the man had died and no one had told him, he expressed sadness. The companion narrating the story explains that some had held the man in contempt, but the Prophet ﷺ insisted on being taken to the grave so he could pray over him, publicly affirming the man’s worth and rebuking the contempt of others. He rebuked an Arab family for hesitating over Bilāl’s proposal and pressed them to accept it. The deeper question is why these attitudes have persisted in some Muslim communities despite such clear scriptural condemnation. The answer involves centuries of accumulated cultural influences, including the absorption of foreign ideas about race that contradicted Islamic teaching but were never thoroughly purged. Confronting this gap honestly means recognizing that the problem is cultural rather than religious, while refusing to use that distinction as an excuse to let the prejudice continue unchallenged. ### How did Muslim scholars push back against anti-Black attitudes in their own communities? Pushing back against anti-Black prejudice formed an entire genre of writing in Islamic scholarship spanning centuries, and the record is substantial and largely unknown to most Muslims today. The famous Basran writer al-Jahiz, in the ninth century, authored an epistle titled “The Pride of Blacks Over Whites.” Other works followed, including “The Virtue of Blacks Over Whites” by a Baghdad intellectual in the early tenth century, “On the Asceticism of Blacks” by an eleventh-century scholar, and the major work “Illuminating the Darkness Concerning the Virtue of Blacks and Ethiopians” by the renowned Ibn al-Jawzi in the twelfth century. The Egyptian scholar al-Suyuti wrote no less than three treatises on the subject, including “Raising the Standing of Ethiopians.” Even a Damascene scholar in the early twentieth century continued the tradition. These were not marginal or obscure figures. They were among the most respected scholars of their times. Their work demonstrates that the question of anti-Black prejudice was not invented in the modern era and that the Islamic scholarly tradition has long produced thoughtful responses to it. Many also pointed out that the very hadiths used to denigrate Africans were forgeries and that ideas like the Curse of Ham had no foundation in Islamic scripture. ### Did early Muslims treat people based on skin color the way modern societies do? No, and projecting modern American or European racial categories onto seventh-century Arabia distorts the picture. At the time of the Prophet ﷺ, what mattered most in Arabian society was tribal belonging, not skin color. Tribe determined a person’s safety, status, and access to resources. The greatest social vulnerability belonged to outsiders, especially slaves, regardless of where they came from. When some noble Arabs complained about sitting alongside Bilal and other companions seen as marginal, the group they wanted to be separated from included Bilal who looked African, but also Suhayb, who was described as very reddish and came from northern Syria, and Khabbab who was an Arab from the Tamim tribe. What they shared was not skin color but outsider status. Blackness could be invoked negatively in early Arabia when it served as a marker of being foreign or enslaved, but it carried no negative meaning in itself. Noble Arabs of Quraysh, including Umar ibn al-Khattab, Amr ibn al-As, and Safwan ibn Umayya, were either dark-skinned or of African descent without any stigma attaching to it, because their standing in the tribal system was secure. Reading modern racial categories into this society misunderstands how it actually functioned. ### If Islam clearly rejects racism, why is there still so much anti-Black sentiment in some Muslim communities? The honest answer is that culture and history have shaped attitudes in ways that contradict Islamic teaching, and this gap has gone unaddressed for too long. Anti-Black sentiment is a global problem, present among Arab Christians and Hindus as much as Arab Muslims, which already signals that it is not driven by Islam itself. But Muslims cannot use that as an excuse to avoid confronting it within their own communities. The roots of the problem in the Muslim world go back centuries. When early Muslims expanded into the broader Middle East and North Africa, they entered regions where slavery had long been an established institution and where the international slave trade was a major commerce. Over time, an association between Blackness and slavery began to form, even though many enslaved people in central Islamic lands were Slavic, Turkic, Greek, Berber, Persian, and others.. Muslims also absorbed Greco-Roman ideas dividing the world into climatic zones, which falsely claimed that climate shaped human intelligence and temperament. A further influence was the Curse of Ham story, imported from earlier Jewish and Christian sources, which falsely tied Blackness to slavery. None of this came from Islamic scripture, and major Muslim scholars rejected these ideas as unfounded and contrary to authenticated hadith. But the cumulative effect was the gradual entrenchment of attitudes that scripture and the Prophetic example had explicitly condemned. Recognizing the foreign origins of these attitudes is the first step toward dismantling them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/haya-more-than-just-modesty # Ḥayāʾ: More Than Just Modesty in Islam **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 5, 2021 **Updated:** March 1, 2025 ## Introduction In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy All praise be to Allah, and may His finest peace and blessings be upon His final prophet, Muhammad ﷺ, who said, “I have not been sent except to perfect noble character.”[^1] Cultivating good character and moral excellence—towards God and towards His creation—is therefore the primary objective of Islam. But in order to effectively develop this in people, Islam centralized certain moral qualities that serve a foundational role upon which all other virtues can be built. *Ḥayāʾ* (healthy shame) is without doubt from among these qualities, so much so that the Prophet ﷺ deemed it the very hallmark of Islam by saying, “Every religion has its signature character trait, and the signature character trait of Islam is *ḥayāʾ*.”[^2] This paper will primarily summarize a published study[^3] by Dr. Muhammad Ismail al-Muqaddim (an Islamic scholar and clinical psychiatrist) on *ḥayāʾ*, its value, and the domains in which it operates in our lives. --- ## What is ḥayāʾ? *Ḥayāʾ* carries the meanings of conscientiousness, shame, modesty, bashfulness, and all related feelings that deter a person from behaving indecently. It is derived from *ḥayāh* (life), because Arabs considered people’s “being alive” directly proportionate to their experiencing *ḥayāʾ*. To them, a person devoid of the *ḥayāʾ* that prevents them from violating their own moral code is less of a living human being, and more akin to a wild beast whose lower appetites drive it to unprincipled behavior. This is why, in pre-Islamic Arabia, their poetry often praised *ḥayāʾ* and valor in tandem; a warrior was expected to embrace a dignified death over the dishonor of fleeing the battlefield in order to survive. Shamelessness was a greater tragedy to them than the loss of life. They also held that those without *ḥayāʾ* are not truly alive in light of their numb conscience; they appear divorced from the pangs of guilt, and not sensing pain is an obvious characteristic of the deceased. The word *shame* immediately conjures a variety of negative connotations; this is no accident. The proliferation of individualism in the modern era has stripped concepts like shame from nearly all of their positive connotations. However, psychologists continue to emphasize the potency and indispensability of [healthy shame](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intimacy-path-toward-spirituality/201608/the-power-healthy-shame?amp&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1628187073404000&usg=AOvVaw3Ck42p4tuzKXh5V_ImP-Xx), as opposed to its toxic counterpart which can be paralyzing and destructive to our well-being. They illustrate how shame can serve as an internal alarm that helps us feel accountable for our wrongs while an opportunity remains to correct them. It catches our attention before we plow forward in irreparable ways. According to psychotherapist Dr. John Amodeo, people with an unhealthy repression of shame are more likely to experience personality disorders and unsuccessful relationships, since they will usually project blame on others and accept little themselves. The cruelty of sociopaths and the manipulation of pathological liars are both squarely predicated on their lack of shame. They are not “inconvenienced” by any guilt associated with their behavior. All these positive aspects of healthy shame were captured by the early scholars of Islam. Ibn al-Qayyim, for instance, writes: > *Ḥayāʾ* is of the most superior qualities, of the greatest in status, and of the most beneficial. Indeed, it is quintessential to humanness, for whoever carries no *ḥayāʾ* has no share of humanness other than flesh, blood, and outward appearance. Likewise, there is no potential for good in a person \[without it\]. Were it not for this quality, he would never be hospitable to a guest, keep a promise, fulfill a trust, take care of anyone’s needs, prefer what is pleasant, avoid the obscene, cover his private parts, or abstain from fornication. Were it not for *ḥayāʾ*, many people would not have fulfilled any of their obligations, nor acknowledged the rights of any being, nor kept the ties of kin, nor even shown kindness to parents. The driving element in these acts is either religious, namely hoping for its good outcome \[ultimately\], or it is worldly, which is the *ḥayāʾ* of its doer from the \[eyes of\] creation. Therefore, were it not for *ḥayāʾ* from either the Creator or the creation, one would not have engaged in these acts. The peculiarity of our age aside, the positive potential of shame is something universally appreciated across most civilizations. This paper, however, is intended to explore *ḥayāʾ* in Islamic ethics in particular, to revisit its lofty status in Islam’s sacred texts, and to identify its praiseworthy manifestations in day-to-day life. --- ## Instinctual ḥayāʾ According to the Qur’an, once Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ عليهما السلام ate from the forbidden tree, they rushed to cover their bodies with leaves, as they suddenly became aware and ashamed of their nakedness for the very first time.[^4] One may call this the birth of instinctual *ḥayāʾ*, or the inborn faculty in Ādam’s progeny to feel uneasy about their nakedness,[^5] and whatever else they consider disgraceful or unbefitting. Islam then called people to enhance this *ḥayāʾ* through faith, whereby they nurture their spirituality to become better acquainted with God, more cognizant of His nearness, more observant of His blessings, and more vigilant of His wrath. But in essence, *ḥayāʾ* is an innate quality. Al-Munāwī says, “*Ḥayāʾ* consists of two types. There is the natural type which is created within every soul, like that which is triggered by a private part becoming uncovered or having sexual relations in public. Then there is the faith-based, which is what prevents a Muslim from committing the forbidden out of fear of Allah.” Dhū al-Nūn al-Miṣri (d. 859) defines the latter as “finding an intimidation and sadness in the heart due to the acts you have done before your Lord.” Therefore, nurtured *ḥayāʾ* has both preventive and redemptive functions vis-a-vis righteousness, while *ḥayāʾ* at its core exists in the *fiṭrah* as the underpinning of every human’s nature irrespective of religion. But just as this heightened faith-based *ḥayāʾ* can grow to become as natural as the inborn *ḥayāʾ*, people can also become deconditioned by society to find all notions of *ḥayāʾ* foreign and oppressive. For this reason, Islam did not come with a system that assumed that the original *ḥayāʾ* remains intact; rather it recognizes that *ḥayāʾ* can be reinstated and/or rehabilitated when it has been compromised. --- ## The ten shades of ḥayāʾ In *Madārij al-Sālikīn*, Ibn al-Qayyim subdivided *ḥayāʾ* into ten categories: 1. The ***ḥayāʾ* of guilt**; this is like the *ḥayāʾ* of Ādam عليه السلام when he fled in Paradise after committing a sin. It is reported that Allah said to him, “Are you fleeing from Me, O Ādam?” He said, “No, my Lord! Rather, out of *ḥayāʾ* from You.” 2. The ***ḥayāʾ* of inaptitude**; this is like the *ḥayāʾ* of the angels who tirelessly glorify Allah by night and day. Then, once the Day of Resurrection begins, they say, “Glorified You are! We have not worshipped You as You deserve to be worshipped.” 3. The ***ḥayāʾ* of awe**; this is the *ḥayāʾ* of being deeply acquainted with the greatness of Allah. This *ḥayāʾ* intensifies in proportion to the slave’s knowledge of their Lord. 4. The ***ḥayāʾ* of generosity**; this is like the *ḥayāʾ* of the Prophet ﷺ from those he invited to Zaynab’s wedding dinner. They overstayed their welcome, but he ﷺ was too shy to tell them, so he simply stood and left. 5. The ***ḥayāʾ* of chastity**; this is like the *ḥayāʾ* of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنهwhich prevented him from asking the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about washing away pre-seminal fluid, as he was married to his daughter. 6. The ***ḥayāʾ* of humility**; this is like the *ḥayāʾ* of the slave from his Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, when he asks Him for his needs. This may stem from the asker belittling himself and realizing the enormity of his sins, or from grasping the greatness of the One being asked. 7. The ***ḥayāʾ* of love**; this is the *ḥayāʾ* of the lover of his beloved. It is so powerful that whenever his beloved, who is absent, simply comes to mind, an unexplainable *ḥayāʾ* may flare in his heart and heat his face. Most people do not realize why they tremble and become bashful upon suddenly seeing their beloved. This is caused by the heart sensing the beloved’s authority over it, and hence that thrill and fear overtakes it. 8. The ***ḥayāʾ* of servitude**; this *ḥayāʾ* is necessitated by a blend of love, fear, and recognizing that a person must serve Allah, but can never do so adequately due to His incomprehensible grandeur. 9. The ***ḥayāʾ* of dignity**; this is the *ḥayāʾ* of a noble soul when it feels that it acted towards others in a way that is beneath its standards of dignity, be it in sacrifice, generosity, or kindness. 10. The ***ḥayāʾ* from oneself**; this is the *ḥayāʾ* of a noble soul when it detects its own deficiency, or that it has settled for less. It is almost as if one has two souls, one ashamed of the other. This is the most complete *ḥayāʾ*, for if people were to be ashamed of themselves, then by greater virtue, they would become ashamed in front of others. --- ## Ḥayāʾ in Islam Islam calls us to revive our internal compass and protect our sense of self-respect, by accentuating our *ḥayāʾ* and amplifying it with *taqwá* (God consciousness). It validates the fear of feeling inadequate as an incentive that can begin us on the journey to piety. From there, one’s veneration and love for God are cultivated to immunize a person from all that could jeopardize their standing with Him. *Ḥayāʾ* therefore constitutes the first layer of moral insulation, that which garbs us against the elements of indecency around us. *Taqwá* is the second layer, an earned upgrade in *ḥayāʾ* which further reinforces it for the believer. With regards to Allah’s words, “The garment of *taqwá*—that is best,” Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah said, “*Ḥayāʾ* is the most elementary form of *taqwá*, and the servant does not fear \[Allah\] until he first experiences shame. How else did the pious reach piety except through *ḥayāʾ*?” The Qur’an esteems *ḥayāʾ* and those who possess it. For instance, Allah captures for us in the Qur’an how Mūsá عليه السلام assisted the disadvantaged women at the well of Madyan, and then immediately “walked away to the shade” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28: 24) without socializing with them or requesting payment for his service. Such behaviors were prevented by his *ḥayāʾ*, for the first is contrary to propriety and the second to chivalry. A few verses later, Allah says, “One of the two women then came to him walking with *ḥayāʾ*. She said, ‘My father invites you to reward you for having watered \[our animals\] for us.’” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28: 25) Many scholars of *tafsīr* explain that this verse was clearly structured to celebrate this woman’s multifaceted *ḥayāʾ*. To explain, based on a reciter’s choice of where to pause in this verse and from where to resume, the term *ḥayāʾ* could be describing her stride (walking with *ḥayāʾ*) or her voice (with *ḥayāʾ*, she said). Furthermore, she made sure to establish that she was not inviting him herself but rather only as an envoy of her father, whose old age prevented him from extending the invitation himself. *Ḥayāʾ* is so valued in the Sunnah that exceptions were made in some of its firmest laws out of consideration for it. Marital officiation, for instance, is treated with the utmost sensitivity in Islam. Due to there being no room for ambiguity in such a consequential agreement, jurists agree that only an immediate, explicit, verbal declaration of mutual approval is acceptable for a valid marriage to take effect. Yet, a concession was afforded to women whose *ḥayāʾ* overwhelms them due to not having expressed interest in a man before this. ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها, narrates that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed families to consult women before marrying them off, she said to him, “She (the virgin) would be too shy to speak.” He ﷺ said, “Then, her consent is her silence.”[^6] Elsewhere, the Prophet’s Sunnah authorized *ḥayāʾ* as a legitimate gauge by which a believer with a sound heart can discern between vice and virtue. He ﷺ told al-Nuwās b. Samʿān رضي الله عنه, “Righteousness is good manners, and sin is that which discomfits your chest, and that which you would hate for people to discover.”[^7] Muslim jurists have also devoted entire chapters to legal regulations designed to ensure that people are not taken advantage of because of their *ḥayāʾ*. They coined maxims such as “Whatever is taken by the sword of *ḥayāʾ* is unlawful,” which meant that guilting others into forgoing their rights is akin to usurping them by force. Imām Aḥmad applied this to a debtor harassing a creditor to reduce the amount owed, and many applied this to eating people’s food and staying at their homes. If a person knows that they only invited him out of being too timid or embarrassed to do otherwise, it would be prohibited to accept what they offered, and a person would be obligated to return it or repay its value if they had already consumed it. This was not just a rationally deduced safeguard to protect the office of *ḥayāʾ*, but taken directly from the Prophet’s ﷺ words, “A Muslim’s property is unlawful \[for consumption\] unless he *open-heartedly* allows that.”[^8] ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar رضي الله عنهما narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “*Ḥayāʾ* and faith have been paired together whereby if one is removed, the other is removed as well.”[^9] Hadith like this one—they are many—mean that *ḥayāʾ* is inseparable from Islam, and a fundamental driver behind being committed to living the faith. They do not mean that the inborn *ḥayāʾ* which even non-Muslims have qualifies them as believers eligible for salvation. This is also what ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz must have intended, when he heard people saying, “*Ḥayāʾ* is part of the religion,” and he responded, “Rather, it is the entire religion.” Abū Hurayrah رضي الله عنه narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “*Ḥayāʾ* is from faith, and faith is in Paradise. And vulgarity is from callousness, and callousness is in the Hellfire.”[^10] Hence, the faithful are those who are cautious of using vulgar expressions (*badhāʾah*), even when factually correct, while those with callous hearts (*jafāʾ*) do not abstain from obscene speech. For this reason, we find that the Prophet ﷺ also said, “*Ḥayāʾ* and speechlessness are two branches of faith, and vulgarity and eloquence are two branches of hypocrisy.”[^11] The Prophet ﷺ was the most eloquent speaker, and praised others for being articulate, so this must mean that it is sometimes the strength of faith that disables one’s tongue from speaking insolently, and one’s diseased heart that enables one to string together lies and lewdness. The earliest Muslims understood that their survival in the hereafter required maintaining a healthy heart that believes in the unseen and abhors the obscene. Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ would say, “Five signs of doom are hardness of the heart, dryness of the eyes, lack of *ḥayāʾ*, inclination to this world, and indulgence in false hope.” Mālik b. Dīnār would say, “Allah (the Glorified and Exalted) never punished a heart with anything more severe than plucking *ḥayāʾ* from it.” --- ## Ḥayāʾ is a quality of Allah The greatest virtue of *ḥayāʾ* is it being an inherent attribute of the Divine Himself. Several hadith(s) establish that Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) is *ḥayī*, meaning abundant in *ḥayāʾ*, meaning it is His ever-present characteristic. Salmān رضي الله عنه narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah is indeed *ḥayī* and generous; when a person raises their hands to Him \[in supplication\], He is too shy to send them back empty and disappointed.”[^12] Of course, Allah’s qualities exist perfectly in Him, unlike their counterparts in created beings. Al-Mubārakfūrī explains that “ascribing *ḥayāʾ* to Allah (the Most High) is understood in a fashion befitting of Him, just like the rest of His attributes which we must believe in without delving into the details of how they relate \[to Allah\].” Such is the framework set by the Qur’an: “There is nothing similar to Him, and He is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing” (al-Shūrá 42:11). Ibn al-Qayyim says, “As for the *ḥayāʾ* of the Lord (the Exalted) of His slave, this is a different type. Understandings cannot fathom it, nor can intelligence encompass it. It is a *ḥayāʾ* of nobility, kindness, generosity, and glory. He (the Blessed and Exalted) is *ḥayī* and generous; too shy to return His slave’s hands empty after he had raised them to Him, and too shy to punish the elderly whose hair has grown white in Islam.” Yaʿlá b. Umayyah رضي الله عنه narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah is indeed *ḥayī* and *sittīr*; He loves *ḥayāʾ* and *sitr*. Hence, when one of you bathes, he must conceal himself.’[^13] *Sittīr* is a superlative of *sitr* (concealment), meaning Allah treasures concealment, hates that people’s bodies be exposed unnecessarily, and loves those who observe *ḥayāʾ* and *sitr* from others. The only exception made by the Prophet ﷺ was for lawful partners, perhaps due to the visual elements enhancing their physical gratification. In fact, when he ﷺ was asked in that same context, “What about a man sitting naked while all alone?,” he said, “Allah is more deserving \[than anyone\] that *ḥayāʾ* be exhibited in front of Him.”[^14] All degrees of nakedness, such as revealing any body part or its shape, in a context prohibited by the Shariah—for men or women—would be contrary to this *ḥayāʾ* and *sitr* which is so dear to Allah that it is one of His qualities. Allah’s love for *ḥayāʾ* and *sitr* even extends to our sins. He hates that a person exposes himself, and loves to veil people from public disgrace. This may be unexpected, especially when Allah benefits nothing from this whatsoever, but His sublime nobility necessitates concealing us from being humiliated in the eyes of others, or being punished straightaway by Him. Yaḥyá b. Muʿādh said, “Exalted is the One whose slave sins, and yet He is the One who becomes shy.” He would also say, “Whoever has *ḥayāʾ* of Allah when obeying Him, Allah has *ḥayāʾ* of him when he sins.” Ibn al-Qayyim explains this: > Whoever exhibits *ḥayāʾ*, even during acts of obedience, wherein his heart is cast between his Lord’s hands in shame and intimidation… Were such a person to fall into sin, Allah (the Glorified and Exalted) is shy to look at him in this state, due to his significance in Allah’s eyes. He has *ḥayāʾ* to see His cherished slave, who is valuable to Him, in such a foul state… In everyday life, we see this. Were a man to come across someone very dear, beloved, and near to him—perhaps a child, companion, or another loved one—while they are betraying him, this discovery brings about a strange feeling of *ḥayā*, as if he were the criminal, and this is the peak of nobility. As for those who do not have *ḥayāʾ* and therefore continue to disobey Allah, Allah does not have *ḥayāʾ* from punishing them in this world and the next. These are people for whom the gates of redemption are blocked, or shut entirely, and they will have to pay for their crimes despite Allah’s vast mercy. The Prophet ﷺ said, “My entire nation is pardoned except for those who publicize \[their sins\]. And a form of publicizing is when a person commits \[a sin\] at night, then he says in the morning despite Allah having concealed it, ‘O so-and-so, I did such and such last night.’ He spent his night being concealed by Allah, and then tore Allah’s cover off himself in the morning.”[^15] --- ## Ḥayāʾ is the hallmark of the prophets *Ḥayāʾ* is the legacy of all the prophets. It has been protected by Allah from going extinct, despite the many distortions and abrogations their messages faced. Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī رضي الله عنه narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said about this, “Indeed, of what people have retained from the words of the first prophethood is: If you feel no *ḥayāʾ*, then do as you wish.”[^16] God’s prophets not only taught this virtue consistently throughout the generations, but they were also the best of those who embodied it from among God’s creation. In one hadith, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Mūsá was a man of intense *ḥayāʾ*. He was always keen to cover himself, and his shyness did not allow for anything to be visible from his body. A group of people from the Israelites harassed him, saying, ‘You do not cover up this way except due to some \[skin\] defect or scrotal hernia.’ Allah wished to clear his name, so on a day when he went off to bathe in seclusion and placed his clothes on a stone, the stone ran off with his clothing. Mūsā chased after it, calling out, “O stone, my clothes! O stone, my clothes!” Ultimately, he arrived at a place where the Israelites were gathered, and they saw him naked, having the best of forms that Allah had created. They said, ‘By Allah, there is no defect in Mūsá whatsoever.’ He grabbed his clothes, and began beating the stone. And by Allah, he left six or seven marks on the stone from his strikes.”[^17] In a famous hadith, we learn that the creation will desperately seek relief from the distress of the Last Day, rushing to each of the prophets to intercede for them before Allah so that the judgment may begin. They will approach Ādam, then Nūḥ, then Ibrāhīm, then ʿĪsá عليهم السلام and each of these mighty messengers will decline and feel unfit for this daunting task. But with Ādam, Nūḥ, and Ibrāhīm in particular, the hadith establishes that it was their feeling *ḥayāʾ* from their Lord that will prevent them, “due to remembering their sins.”[^18] As for our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Ibn Ḥajar states that he was endowed by God with the purest innate *ḥayāʾ*, and his acquired faith-based *ḥayāʾ* was of a supreme, unparalleled tier. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī رضي الله عنه said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was more bashful than a virgin in her *khiḍr*; when he would see something he disliked, we would know it from his face.”[^19] The *khiḍr* is the innermost corner of a house that is inaccessible to outsiders, where a young girl would find undisturbed privacy when visitors came. The sheltered virgin—as opposed to married women, or women who casually mingle with the public—has an even greater sense of *ḥayāʾ* than others. Hence, when the Prophet ﷺ would encounter something inappropriate, his profound *ḥayāʾ* would not allow him to hide his reaction; it was more obvious on his face than the reaction of a sheltered virgin who was intruded upon without notice in the most private quarters of her parents’ home. At times, it would cause his face to redden, and other times, it rendered him ﷺ unable to speak. As Abū Dahbal al-Jumaḥī, an Umayyad poet, said in a couplet of praise: > *Ḥayāʾ* kept his words ﷺ few, as if he were sick, > Though his body had not suffered the slightest prick. During the extraordinary night journey (*al-Miʿrāj*), the Prophet ﷺ went back and forth between his Lord and Mūsá عليه السلام, each time seeking another reduction in the number of daily prayers due from his nation. But after it was reduced from fifty prayers to five, and Mūsá عليه السلام still counseled the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to seek a further reduction, lest the people fail at upholding it, he ﷺ could not overcome his *ḥayāʾ* to do so. He ﷺ said to Mūsá عليه السلام, “I have asked my Lord until I have become ashamed. Instead, I will accept and submit.”[^20] ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها attests that the *ḥayāʾ* of the Prophet ﷺ not only had him transcend vulgarity, but also vengeance: “The Prophet ﷺ was never vulgar, nor lewd, nor loud and unruly in the markets, nor would he repay evil with evil. Instead, he would forgive and overlook it.”[^21] --- ## Ḥayāʾ among the Companions and early Muslims The Prophet’s Companions were all keen to emulate their perfect role model ﷺ in his every virtue, and the following are but some examples of the lofty states of *ḥayāʾ* they inherited and lived by. It was well-known that Allah distinguished ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān رضي الله عنه in particular with this quality. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ attested to this himself, saying, “The most genuine of my nation in *ḥayāʾ* is ʿUthmān.”[^22] It was so intense that it elicited the *hayā’* of the people and angels around him. In a long hadith, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها narrates that she said to the Prophet ﷺ, “Abū Bakr entered, but you did not move nor mind… Then ʿUmar entered, but you did not move nor mind… Then ʿUthmān entered, so you sat up and fixed your clothes (covering your legs).” In response, he said, “Should I not have *ḥayāʾ* of a man that the angels have *ḥayāʾ* of?”[^23] In another narration, “ʿUthmān is a bashful man. Were I to admit him while in this state, I fear that he would not mention his need to us.”[^24] ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها herself was known for her incredible *ḥayāʾ*, to the degree that she would be uncomfortable removing her hijab in the presence of the deceased. She says, “I used to enter the room without my veil where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and my father رضي الله عنه were buried, and would tell \[myself\] that it was only my husband and my father. But, by Allah, once ʿUmar رضي الله عنه was buried \[there\], I never entered it without my garbs pulled over me—out of *ḥayāʾ* of ʿUmar (RA)."[^25] Asmāʾ bt. Abī Bakr رضي الله عنها mentions that during the early years of her marriage to al-Zubayr, their poverty forced her into hard labor. One day, as she carried a heavy load of date pits on her head (for nearly 3 kilometers) to feed her husband’s horse, the Prophet ﷺ met her en route along with some of his Companions. He ﷺ offered her a ride on his camel, but she declined to travel with a group of unrelated men. Upon reaching al-Zubayr, she explained to him that he ﷺ “lowered \[his camel\] for me to ride, but I felt *ḥayāʾ* and thought of your jealousy.” He responded, “By Allah, you carrying the date pits is certainly more difficult for me to bear than you riding with him.”[^26] Fāṭimah رضي الله عنها, the daughter of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, once complained that she was appalled by the tight-fitted shrouds which are wrapped around a deceased woman, revealing the shape of her body. Umm Jaʿfar said: “O daughter of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, shall I show you something I saw in Abyssinia?” She called for moist palm-fibers, bent them, then threw a garment over them. Fāṭimah said, “How wonderful and excellent this is!... If I die, you and ‘Ali wash me, and do not allow anyone to enter upon me \[before dressing me in this\].” Her wish was fulfilled at her funeral, and her *ḥayāʾ* lives on to guide the believing women until the end of time. The biographies of our righteous predecessors, the earliest generations of Muslims, are also replete with exemplary *ḥayāʾ* of Allah and of the people: Abū Hudhayl said, “We have met people who would have *ḥayāʾ* of Allah, even in the darkness of the night.” Al-Thawrī said, “By that, he meant feeling ashamed that their bodies might become uncovered \[while sleeping\].” Muḥammad b. Sīrīn said, “I never once had relations with a woman, not while awake or asleep, except \[my wife\] Umm ʿAbd Allāh. I would even see a woman in my dream, then realizing that she is not permissible for me, I would avert my gaze.” Some have said, “I wish that I was as intelligent while awake as Ibn Sīrīn was while asleep.” Muʿāwiyah b. Aws said, “I saw Hishām b. ʿAmmār. When he would walk, his gaze would be lowered to the ground, and he would never lift his head to the sky out of *ḥayāʾ* of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.” Al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. Khusrū said, “Abū Bakr b. Maymūn once knocked on al-Ḥumaydī’s door. He assumed permission was granted, so he entered to find him with his thigh uncovered. This caused al-Ḥumaydī to weep and say, ‘By Allah, you have looked at a place that no person has ever seen since I reached maturity.’” Mihrān b. ‘Amr al-Asdi narrates that he witnessed al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ standing at the sacred site on the eve of ʿArafah, weeping so passionately that he could not even supplicate, and was saying, “Oh my shame! Oh my humiliation! Even if You forgive me!” Muḥammad b. Abī Ḥātim narrates that Muḥammad b. Salām would say to his attendees, after Imām al-Bukhārī left the gathering, “Have you ever seen a virgin girl that has more *ḥayāʾ* than this man?’” --- ## Where ḥayāʾ does not belong Since the Prophet ﷺ said that “*Ḥayāʾ* brings about nothing but good,”[^27] Muslim scholars were keen to identify that *ḥayāʾ* is qualified by its fruits, and condemnable when it results in violating God’s laws or usurping the rights of people. As al-Aḥnaf b. Qays once said, “Indeed, *ḥayāʾ* has a designated limit; whatever exceeds that, you may as well call it whatever you like.” For instance, a person may refuse to speak up when Islamically necessary, out of shyness, and another may refuse to speak up without knowledge, also out of shyness. At first glance, they both appear to be operating in light of *ḥayāʾ*, while Islam categorizes the first behavior as weakness and incompetence, and the second as dignity and piety. On this nuance, al-Qurṭubi writes, > The chosen one \[(Prophet Muhammad)\] ﷺ was certainly committed to *ḥayāʾ* himself, and would instruct others with it and encourage it. However, his *ḥayāʾ* would never prevent him from speaking the truth, nor fulfilling any religious injunction. This was in adherence to His words (the Most High), “...and Allah does not shy from the truth.” (33:53) That is the epitome of *ḥayāʾ* and its most perfect, beautiful, and balanced form. > As for someone who is overwhelmed by *ḥayāʾ* such that it deters him from truth, then such an individual has abandoned shyness before the Creator to be shy before the creation. Whoever is like this loses out on the benefits of *ḥayāʾ*, and becomes characterized with hypocrisy and showing off. The Islamic tradition is filled with cautionary statements against the two enemies of sacred knowledge: arrogance and embarrassment. These are both insecurities that can be misperceived as *ḥayāʾ*, or even called *ḥayāʾ* in the linguistic sense. In actuality, though, they are contrary to this virtue because of what they hinder, and are never a valid excuse to abort the pursuit of learning how to please God. It is fascinating to note that the Prophet ﷺ knew and sensed the *ḥayāʾ* he had instilled in the Companions, and how he would at times preface his more explicit instructions with words that mitigated their roughness. In one hadith, “I am to you but as a father is, teaching you. As you relieve yourselves, do not face the direction of prayer, nor turn your backs to it…”[^28] This is a Qur’anic methodology; it usually employs implicit language to avoid offending the *ḥayāʾ* of its readers, but is not constrained by this principle, since the nature of law sometimes necessitates at times language that makes people uneasy, in order to assert specific notions that would otherwise be lost in ambiguity. We find this wise method followed by the leading scholars of the Companions as well. ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها, for instance, was once approached by Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī, who said, “O Mother of the Believers, I wish to ask you about something, but I am shy of you.” She said, “Do not be shy to ask me something that you would ask your own mother who gave birth to you, for I am but your mother.” He said, “What makes a ritual bath mandatory?” She said, “You have arrived at the best acquainted person \[regarding this\]. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘If he sits between her four limbs, and the two points of circumcision meet, then a ritual bath has become mandatory.”[^29] She was surely not boasting by labeling herself an expert, but rather commending him for not being prevented by *ḥayāʾ* from asking a wife of the Prophet ﷺ about a private matter like this, especially when the validity of his prayers hinged on it. In another context, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها said, “So excellent are the Anṣārī women; their *ḥayāʾ* does not hinder them from gaining understanding of the religion.”[^30] It is also reported that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه would say, “Whoever does not know should never be stopped by *ḥayāʾ* from asking until he knows, and whoever is asked about something that he does not know should never be stopped by *ḥayāʾ* from saying ‘I do not know.’” Conforming to social pressure is another behavioral flaw that may come disguised as *ḥayāʾ*, but can actually be a cowardly act. This is why being a voice of reason in the face of widespread dogma and a voice of virtue in an environment of prevalent immorality are acts of devotion in Islam. The Qur’an captures for us how all the prophets were fearless reformers, who never shied away from challenging the unethical status quo with wisdom, and so too were their genuine followers. Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī رضي الله عنه narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “No one of you should humiliate himself.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, how does one of us humiliate himself?” He said, “By seeing a matter that he owes it to Allah to speak up about, and yet he does not speak up. As a result, Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) says to him on the Day of Resurrection, ‘What prevented you from saying such-and-such for My sake?’ He will say, ‘Fear of the people.’ He will say, ‘I was more deserving of being feared by you.’”[^31] Note how the Prophet ﷺ implied here that shyness in this context was shameful, and that defying it would have meant self-respect and avoidance of true humiliation. This principle (*ḥayāʾ* before Allah being paramount) can mend so many people’s relationships with their Lord and with each other. Consider the victim who finds the courage to accuse her rapist, defying her society’s backward victim-shaming culture to save future victims. Consider the relative who has the audacity to insist that the loan be documented as the Shariah recommends, despite the lack of trust that may suggest, to preserve family bonds in the long term. Consider the employee who is able to bring a colleague to embrace Islam by courageously praying in public or politely refusing to shake hands with the opposite gender. Biographers mention that whenever Shams al-Dīn al-Maqdisī heard anyone backbite—regardless of how notable—he would interrupt him, with a smile, by saying, “*Astaghfirullāh* (I seek God’s forgiveness).” --- ## How to cultivate ḥayāʾ The following “*ḥayāʾ* generators” are primary means to unearth the *ḥayāʾ* that may be buried within us, restore its sheen when it rusts, and increase its strength through authentic faith. **1. *Hāyā’* offers the love of God.** All people seek to connect with their Creator, and long from their depths for reassurance that He is pleased with them. This is what Islam came to offer humanity: an opportunity to discover God and enjoy the bliss of being a reflection of His light as best as a created being can. Ibn al-Qayyim said, “Whoever aligns with Allah in one of His attributes, it leads him to Allah with its reins, brings him to his Lord, brings him near to His mercy, and makes him beloved to Allah. He (the Exalted) is Merciful and loves the merciful, is Generous and loves the generous, is All-Knowing and loves the knowledgeable, is Strong and loves the strong believer more than He loves the weak believer, is *Ḥayī* and loves *ḥayāʾ*, beautiful and loves the people of beauty, and is *witr*  (uniquey one) and loves the people of *witr* \[prayer\].” **2\. Practice *ḥayāʾ* to experience it.** The inborn *ḥayāʾ* that dwells dormant in some people must first be revived through practice before it can be felt by our psycho-spiritual sensors. Acting contrary to *ḥayāʾ*, along with recurrent exposure to those devoid of it, is what desensitized us to it in the first place. Therefore, awaiting the feeling of healthy shame to return on its own accord, as opposed to reconditioning ourselves upon it, is fallacious thinking. Lowering our gaze in a world saturated with shameless images, and donning the hijab as defined by Islam, not fashion trends, are two of many pathways to resuscitate our sensitivity to *ḥayāʾ*. Just as we are told in the Qur’an that humanity’s parents felt shame and hastened to cover up, we are told that the devil’s target was to sedate their *ḥayāʾ* and make them comfortable with being unclothed. Allah says, “O children of Ādam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from Paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts” (al-Aʿrāf 7:27). Therefore, we must normalize the dictates of *ḥayāʾ* in our conduct, before we can expect to experience *ḥayāʾ* in our hearts. **3\. Reverential fear through sacred knowledge.** The pinnacle of *ḥayāʾ* is to be more watchful of Allah’s gaze than that of people, just as Islam’s pinnacle (i.e., *iḥsān*) is to “worship Allah as though you see Him, and if you cannot see Him, then know that He sees you.”[^32] This station is reached by reflecting on the omniscient nature of the Divine, *al-Raqīb* (the Observer), *al-Shahīd* (the Witness), *al-Samīʿ* (the All-Hearing), *al-Baṣīr* (the All-Seeing), *al-Muḥīṭ* (the All-Encompassing). Ḥātim al-Aṣamm said, “If a spy were sitting by you, you would be on guard from him, yet your words are displayed before Allah and you are not on guard?” Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما said, “O sinner who feels secure of awful consequences, be sure that what follows a sin is greater than the sin you commit. Your lack of *ḥayāʾ* from those \[angels\] on your right and left as you sin is greater than the sin you commit. Your laughter, despite not knowing what Allah will do with you, is greater than the sin. Your sadness when you missed the opportunity to sin, is greater than the sin, had you committed it. Your fear of the wind when it moves your door’s curtain as you sin, and your heart not shuddering from Allah’s gaze upon you, is greater than the sin, had you committed it.” Imām Aḥmad once heard Abu Ḥāmid al-Khalqāni recite these two couplets of poetry: > When my Lord says to me, > Had you no shame to disobey Me? > You hide the sins from My creation, > And with those sins you come to Me? ...At once, he instructed al-Khalqānī to repeat them to him, and he did. Having learned them, the Imām headed to his home, repeating them time and again as he wept, imagining himself on the receiving end of that chastisement. Once a person realizes that his Lord is looking at him, this certainty yields *ḥayāʾ* before Allah, which drives him to bear the burdens of obedience. It is similar to the one who joyfully serves his beloved; you find him energetic in his work and enduring its encumbrances, especially if his beloved is kind and benevolent towards him. In that vein, the gaze of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, is never absent from His slaves. But when the slaves become heedless of their Master looking at them, this spawns insolence and a lack of *ḥayāʾ* within them. **4.** **Recalling Allah’s immense favors.** *Ḥayāʾ* also arises from noticing the gracious treatment one endlessly enjoys from Allah, because dignified people cannot bear to be inconsiderate with those who are kind and courteous with them, so how can this not generate healthy shame before one’s Lord whose blessings are innumerable? Al-Junayd would say, “*Ḥayāʾ* is about seeing the favors and realizing one’s shortcomings. From between these two, a condition is born called *ḥayāʾ*, and its reality is a quality that drives one to leave indecency, and prevents one from failing to deliver the rights of each being.” It is also reported that Dhun-Nūn al-Miṣri said, “Belonging to Allah are slaves that left sinning out of *ḥayāʾ* of His generosity, after having left it out of fear of His punishment. If He said to you, ‘Do what you wish, and I will not hold you responsible for sinning,’ His generosity should increase your *ḥayāʾ* of Him, and your abstinence from disobeying Him—if you are truly a noble, free, grateful slave. How then should your *ḥayāʾ* be when He has in fact threatened you \[with punishment\]?” Ibn al-Sammāk said, “He (the Glorified) has tolerated you until it was almost as if He overlooked you. Will you not have *ḥayāʾ* from Allah in light of how long you have not had *ḥayāʾ*?” **5.** **Spiritual refinement through devotion.** Feeling near to Allah and feeling protective of that honored rank are cultivated by pure ritual devotion and sincere acts of service. When done diligently and regularly, they feed a person’s faith and become powerful deterrents against indecent behavior, as Allah says about the prayer, “Indeed, the prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing.” (al-ʿAnkabūt: 29: 45) It was once said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “So-and-so prays the entire night, then when the morning arrives, he steals!” He ﷺ said, “His prayer will \[eventually\] restrain him.”[^33] **6.** **Hover around *ḥayāʾ*.** Socialization is the most influential force in most people’s lives, and this can be a huge resource in inculcating *ḥayāʾ* in our personalities. In addition to rehearsing the virtues of *ḥayāʾ* and the dangers of disregarding it, immersing oneself in the biographies of the earliest generations of Islam is of paramount importance towards imbibing this quality. This should also be supplemented with good company, to visually absorb how restrained the pious are in their glances, how selective they are in their words, and how their self-respect makes them incapable of settling for the standards of others. Mujāhid b. Jabr used to say, “If a Muslim does not benefit anything from his brother, except that his *ḥayāʾ* from him keeps him from sinning, that is sufficient.” **7.** **Treasure honesty.** Many people are unfazed when lying to a child, due to considering the child (and the “fib”) to be trivial, but may find it difficult to lie to an elder, due to the reverence their seniority brings. Similarly, it is only people who hold themselves in high regard that *shy* away from dishonesty, be it with Allah, or with the people, or with themselves. For this reason, scholars advise people seeking redemption from a sinful life to begin with honesty, as that will reinstate in them a sense of self-worth, and thereby erect the fence of *ḥayāʾ* between them and their dark past. Perhaps this is among the reasons why the Prophet ﷺ said, “Adhere to truthfulness, for truthfulness certainly leads to righteousness, and righteousness certainly leads to Paradise. And a person will be truthful, and insist on remaining truthful, until he is written with Allah as a *ṣiddīq* (strong confirmer of the truth).”[^34] --- ## Conclusion We ask Allah to forgive us for whatever misplaced statements or intentions this paper may contain, for any statements that don’t match our actions, and for all we have showcased of knowledge regarding *ḥayāʾ* while being negligent in practicing it. May He make us act on our knowledge, seeking His Face, and not hold our shortcomings against us. Indeed, He is Most Gracious, Most Generous. --- ## Notes [^1]: Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), no. 8952; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^2]: Muḥammad b. Yazīd al-Qazwīni Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Cairo: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabīyah, 2011), no. 4181; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^3]: Muhammad Ismail al-Muqaddim, *Fiqh al-Hayaʾ: Understanding the Islamic Concept of Modesty* (IIPH, 2015). His references are in the book itself; only the Qur’an and hadith citations are footnoted in this paper. [^4]: “And so they ate from it; whereupon their bodies became visible to them, and they started covering themselves with the leaves of the Garden. Thus Adam disobeyed his Lord, and fell.” Qur’an 20:121. [^5]: “O Children of Adam! Do not let Satan seduce you, as he drove your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their garments, to show them their nakedness. He sees you, him and his clan, from where you cannot see them. We have made the devils friends of those who do not believe.” Qur’an 7:27. [^6]: Muḥammad b. Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī, *al-Jāmi‘ al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najāh, 2001), no. 6971; Muslim b. Ḥajjāj al-Naysābūri, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ* (Beirut: Dār Ihyā’ at-Turāth al-‘Arabi), no. 1420. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2553. [^8]: ʿAlī b. ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī, *Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2004), nos. 2885 and 2886; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^9]: Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, *al-Mustadrak ‘alá al-ṣaḥīḥayn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1990), no. 58; authenticated by al-Ḥākim according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and al-Dhahabī concurred. [^10]: Muḥammad b. ʿĪsá al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Egypt: Maṭbaʿat Musṭafá al-Ḥalabī, 1975), no. 2009; graded *ḥasan-ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Tirmidhī, and authenticated by al-Albānī. [^11]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2027; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^12]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3556; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^13]: Aḥmad b. Shuʿayb al-Nasāʾī, *Sunan al-Nasāʾī* (Aleppo: Maktabat al-Maṭbū‘āt al-Islāmiyyah, 1986), no. 406; authenticated by al-Albāni. [^14]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2769; graded *ḥasan* (acceptable) by al-Albānī. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5721*, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2990. [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3483. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 278; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 339. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4712; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 194. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6102. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7517; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 162. [^21]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2016; authenticated by al-Ḥākim according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and both al-Dhahabi and al-Albānī concurred. [^22]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3790; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 154; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2401. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2402. [^25]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 25660; authenticated by al-Ḥākim, al-Haythami, and al-Albāni. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5224; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2182. [^27]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6117; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 37. [^28]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 40; deemed *ḥasan-ṣaḥīḥ* by al-Albānī. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 349. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 38. [^31]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4008; authenticated by al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 50; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 8. [^33]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 9776; authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Wādiʿī. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6094. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. All praise belongs to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon His final Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who declared, "I have not been sent except to perfect noble character." Since the cultivation of moral excellence is the very purpose of Islam, certain virtues serve as foundations upon which all others are built. Among the foremost of these is *ḥayāʾ*—healthy shame—which the Prophet ﷺ described as the defining mark of this religion, saying, "Every religion has its signature character trait, and the signature character trait of Islam is *ḥayāʾ*." A study by Dr. Muhammad Ismail al-Muqaddim, an Islamic scholar and clinical psychiatrist, examines the meaning, value, and living dimensions of this quality, and what follows draws upon his exposition. The word *ḥayāʾ* encompasses conscientiousness, shame, modesty, and bashfulness—every feeling that restrains a person from indecency. Linguistically it derives from *ḥayāh* (life), for the Arabs measured a person's vitality by the presence of *ḥayāʾ*, deeming one who lacks it closer to a beast driven by appetite than to a living human being. Though the modern age, with its individualism, has stripped shame of positive meaning, psychologists still affirm the necessity of *healthy* shame as distinct from its toxic form. Dr. John Amodeo notes that those who unhealthily repress shame are more prone to personality disorders and broken relationships, projecting blame outward, while the cruelty of sociopaths and the deceit of pathological liars rest precisely upon an absence of shame. The early scholars grasped this well. Ibn al-Qayyim wrote that *ḥayāʾ* is "quintessential to humanness," and that were it not for shame before either the Creator or the creation, people would neither honor guests, keep promises, fulfill trusts, cover their nakedness, nor abstain from indecency. The Qur'an locates the origin of instinctual *ḥayāʾ* in the account of Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ, who upon eating from the forbidden tree hastened to cover themselves, suddenly ashamed of their nakedness. This inborn faculty exists in the *fiṭrah* of all humanity, regardless of faith. Al-Munāwī distinguished two types: the natural, created within every soul, and the faith-based, which restrains a Muslim from the forbidden out of fear of Allah. Dhū al-Nūn al-Miṣrī defined the latter as "finding an intimidation and sadness in the heart due to the acts you have done before your Lord." Yet just as faith-based shame can become second nature, society can also desensitize a person to *ḥayāʾ* entirely. For this reason Islam does not assume the original *ḥayāʾ* remains intact, but recognizes that it can be revived and rehabilitated when compromised. In *Madārij al-Sālikīn*, Ibn al-Qayyim divided *ḥayāʾ* into ten shades: the shame of guilt, as with Ādam fleeing in Paradise; the shame of inaptitude, as with the angels who confess they have not worshipped Allah as He deserves; the shame of awe before Allah's greatness; the shame of generosity, as when the Prophet ﷺ was too shy to dismiss the lingering guests at Zaynab's wedding; the shame of chastity, as with ʿAlī who was too shy to ask directly about pre-seminal fluid; the shame of humility in supplication; the shame of love; the shame of servitude; the shame of dignity; and finally, shame from oneself—which Ibn al-Qayyim called the most complete, for one ashamed before his own soul will surely be ashamed before others. Islam magnifies *ḥayāʾ* and reinforces it with *taqwá*. Regarding the verse, "The garment of *taqwá*—that is best," Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah observed, "*Ḥayāʾ* is the most elementary form of *taqwá*... How else did the pious reach piety except through *ḥayāʾ*?" The Qur'an honors those who possess it, portraying Mūsá عليه السلام withdrawing to the shade after helping the women of Madyan, and describing one of them approaching him "walking with *ḥayāʾ*" (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:25)—a verse scholars of *tafsīr* explain was deliberately structured to celebrate her modesty. The Sunnah so esteems this quality that concessions were made in firm rulings on its account: though marriage requires explicit verbal consent, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها reported that the Prophet ﷺ accepted a virgin's silence as consent, since "she would be too shy to speak." He ﷺ also authorized *ḥayāʾ* as a moral gauge, telling al-Nuwās b. Samʿān, "Sin is that which discomfits your chest, and that which you would hate for people to discover." Jurists devoted chapters to protecting people from being exploited through their shame, coining the maxim, "Whatever is taken by the sword of *ḥayāʾ* is unlawful," grounded in the Prophet's words that a Muslim's property is unlawful unless given open-heartedly. Numerous narrations bind *ḥayāʾ* to faith. Ibn ʿUmar reported that the two are paired such that if one is removed, so is the other; ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz went further, saying it is "the entire religion." Abū Hurayrah narrated, "*Ḥayāʾ* is from faith, and faith is in Paradise. And vulgarity is from callousness, and callousness is in the Hellfire." Thus strong faith may render the tongue unable to speak insolently, while a diseased heart strings together lies and lewdness. Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ counted lack of *ḥayāʾ* among five signs of doom, and Mālik b. Dīnār said Allah never punished a heart more severely than by plucking *ḥayāʾ* from it. The loftiest station of this virtue is that it is an attribute of Allah Himself. Salmān reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, "Allah is indeed *ḥayī* and generous; when a person raises their hands to Him, He is too shy to send them back empty." Al-Mubārakfūrī cautioned that this attribute must be affirmed in a manner befitting Allah, without inquiring into its nature, per the verse, "There is nothing similar to Him" (al-Shūrá 42:11). Yaʿlá b. Umayyah narrated that Allah is *ḥayī* and *sittīr*, loving concealment—so that the exposure of the body outside its lawful bounds contradicts what Allah loves. His love of concealment extends even to sins: Yaḥyá b. Muʿādh said, "Whoever has *ḥayāʾ* of Allah when obeying Him, Allah has *ḥayāʾ* of him when he sins." Yet those who cast off shame and publicize their sins forfeit this covering, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "My entire nation is pardoned except for those who publicize their sins." *Ḥayāʾ* is likewise the legacy of all prophets. Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī reported the Prophet ﷺ saying that among the retained words of earlier prophethood is, "If you feel no *ḥayāʾ*, then do as you wish." Mūsá عليه السلام was described as intensely modest, and on the Day of Judgment, Ādam, Nūḥ, and Ibrāhīm will decline intercession out of shame before their Lord. Ibn Ḥajar noted our Prophet ﷺ possessed the purest innate and acquired *ḥayāʾ*; Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said he was "more bashful than a virgin in her *khiḍr*." During the Miʿrāj, he ﷺ told Mūsá, "I have asked my Lord until I have become ashamed." ʿĀʾishah testified that his shame kept him from vulgarity and vengeance alike. The Companions inherited this: the Prophet ﷺ named ʿUthmān the most genuine of the nation in *ḥayāʾ*, one whom even the angels regarded with shame; ʿĀʾishah, Asmāʾ, and Fāṭimah displayed remarkable modesty, and the early Muslims like Ibn Sīrīn, al-Ḥumaydī, and al-Fuḍayl embodied it in their private lives. Yet *ḥayāʾ* has limits. Since the Prophet ﷺ said it "brings about nothing but good," scholars held that any so-called shame yielding harm is misnamed. Al-Aḥnaf b. Qays said it has a designated limit beyond which "you may as well call it whatever you like." Al-Qurṭubī explained that the Prophet's shame never prevented him from speaking truth, citing, "Allah does not shy from the truth" (33:53); one overwhelmed into abandoning truth has merely traded shame before the Creator for shame before creation. Arrogance and embarrassment, disguised as *ḥayāʾ*, are the two enemies of sacred knowledge. ʿĀʾishah praised the Anṣārī women whose shame did not hinder their understanding of religion, and ʿAlī urged that none be prevented by shame from asking or from saying "I do not know." Cowardly conformity, too, masquerades as modesty; the Prophet ﷺ warned that one who withholds necessary truth out of fear of people humiliates himself, for Allah "was more deserving of being feared." Finally, this quality can be cultivated: by aligning with Allah's attribute of *ḥayāʾ* to earn His love, since He is *Ḥayī* and loves *ḥayāʾ*; by practicing modest conduct until the feeling returns, lowering the gaze and observing the hijab, mindful that Satan sought to strip Ādam's progeny of their covering (al-Aʿrāf 7:27); by reverential awareness that Allah is *al-Raqīb* and *al-Shahīd*, reaching the station of *iḥsān*—"to worship Allah as though you see Him"; by recalling His endless favors, as al-Junayd defined *ḥayāʾ* as seeing His blessings alongside one's shortcomings; by devotion, for "the prayer prohibits immorality" (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:45); by keeping the company of the modest, as Mujāhid noted; and by treasuring honesty, for the Prophet ﷺ said truthfulness leads to righteousness and to Paradise. We ask Allah to make us act upon this knowledge, seeking His Face, and to overlook our shortcomings, for He is Most Gracious, Most Generous. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens # The Palestinian Struggle Through the Prophetic Lens **Authors:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum, Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Gaza, Palestine, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 31, 2021 **Updated:** February 13, 2026 ## Introduction Is Palestine a Muslim issue? What is the Islamic response to the Palestinian question? Put differently, “What would the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ do?” Rarely do we encounter political situations in our lifetime in which the prophetic way is as clear as it is in the case of the Palestinian struggle. Questions of policy are often complex, morally ambiguous, even at times unanswerable, because the moral conundrums we must confront are often very different from the Prophet’s time and context. Not so in this case. The question of whether the Muslims who take Allah’s Messenger as their role model should seek justice through resistance, or surrender, compromise, and accept the terms of their far more powerful and well-supported oppressor has more than one incontrovertibly normative and religious dimension; and for believing Muslims, on normative questions the Prophet ﷺ is the final authority. This is not to say that non-Muslims, who by definition do not follow the blessed Prophet ﷺ, could not find inspiration, strength, and truth in his model: the values and teachings that God Almighty revealed to him resonate deeply with human nature (*fiṭrah*), and are universal and accessible to all human beings. Islam is a religion that resonates with those striving for liberation precisely because it doesn’t promote surrender to and acceptance of tyranny as virtue. The Palestinian cause is no exception. The facts are indisputable. Palestinians live in an apartheid, colonial-settler state, one that has dispossessed them of their land for some seventy years, has forced them to live in dehumanizing conditions that are worse than an open-air prison (unlike Palestinians, inmates are not periodically bombed), persecutes them for their religious affiliation, devastates them economically, seeks to (and yet has failed to) break them psychologically, interminably terrorizes and periodically massacres them as a policy (some of Israel’s politicians speak of killing Palestinians as ‘mowing the grass’).[^1] The Israeli state strategically backs its right-wing settlers who often make no secret of their genocidal intentions. Access to Islam’s third holiest shrine, Masjid al-Aqsa, is increasingly restricted and effectively denied to most Muslims and Palestinians. The current escalation of Israeli aggression and Palestinian resistance began with the Israeli settlers occupying al-Aqsa, hoping to repeat the Israeli takeover of the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron.[^2] Much more could be said about it, but the Israeli public mood is captured today by the recent election of an even more extremist, right-wing government and the state-organized chants of “Death to Arabs” and “Muhammad is dead,” not to mention Israeli support of and inspiration to regimes such as India that have demonstrated genocidal intentions towards Muslims.[^3] That Palestine is an *especially* Islamic issue does not mean it is *exclusively* so. The target population is overwhelmingly Muslim, but not exclusively so: Israel also targets Palestinian Christians, depriving them of their basic human and religious rights, and its racist elite even discriminate against non-white Jews.[^4] Christian Zionism, that is as deeply anti-Semitic as it is hateful of Islam and Muslims, has been crucial to the creation and support of Israel, and continues to feed extremist, messianic fantasies.[^5] Nor is this a Muslims-vs-Jews issue: some of the leading advocates of Palestinians’ rights—scholars, historians, and activists—are of Jewish origin. Whereas an Israeli historian has called Israel’s acts “incremental genocide” of the Palestinians, the leaders of Arab-Muslim states have routinely betrayed their Islamic duty to help their brethren and protect one of the three holiest shrines of Islam—not to mention the Palestinians’ Islamic rights—for the sake of their own personal, political, and economic gain.[^6] The secular and colonizing roots of the idea that only political, nationalist, or human-rights interpretations of the conflict are acceptable, fertile for broad cooperation, and legible to the civilized world have been exposed in a brilliant essay by Muneeza Rizvi.[^7] Palestinian American scholar Steven Salaita (who is not Muslim, to the best of our knowledge) has similarly cautiously argued from a critical, decolonial perspective that it is indeed a Muslim issue.[^8] What we offer here confirms some of their insightful contentions, but seeks to remind us of some of the profoundly Islamic dimensions of this struggle. Let us briefly count some of the ways in which Islam and the Palestinian Question are inextricable. For believing Muslims, Palestinian or otherwise, the Israeli occupation of the holy mosque of al-Aqsa and its environs makes it an especially Islamic question, no different in principle than if a colonizer, God forbid, were to occupy Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, murdering and dispossessing its inhabitants and preventing the believers worldwide from making pilgrimage (*ziyārah*) to it. Regardless of what anyone else in the world thought, it would be the paramount duty of all Muslims to liberate Medina; the Aqsa Mosque is no different. But there is more. Life, human dignity, and freedom from coercion in faith are nowadays universally recognized rights, affirmed in Islam for all of God’s servants.[^9] Islam, nevertheless, has a particular way of ordering and securing these rights, especially if those violated are Muslims. The Palestinian issue checks this box. The sacred status of the Aqsa Mosque makes this even more poignant. For instance, accommodation of the five daily prayers and freedom from gratuitous insults against the Blessed Prophet ﷺ are especially Islamic issues. Even though many non-Muslims often support these, striving for these rights for all Muslims is a duty of all Muslims. The Palestinian question checks this box as well. But there is more. Allah declares the land surrounding al-Aqsa to be a blessed one in at least six verses—an honor that belongs to no other land—and in his miraculous prophecies about the end-times, the Beloved Prophet singled out those struggling to defend Masjid al-Aqsa as the last people on earth who will continue to stand for the truth even when others falter.[^10] This honor alone would make the defense of “Masjid al-Aqsa and its environs” a sacred religious honor and duty. All these are well-known teachings that are not new to any Muslim who is moderately literate in Islamic tradition. In this essay, rather than reiterating these teachings, we focus on an even deeper way in which the Palestinian cause is Islamic, though one that is often overlooked. And that is how the Palestinian struggle to protect al-Aqsa deeply resembles the Prophet’s own paradigmatic struggle against the Meccans. This most blessed of struggles was the occasion for a large portion of Qur’anic revelation and has been seen as a model by Muslims for their own struggles throughout history. In other words, few struggles today allow us to better appreciate and intimately experience the moral teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah. What makes this appreciation all the more urgent is the misuse of Prophetic teachings by the religious spokesmen of the opportunistic autocrats who are, ironically, proud pawns of the same type of Western elite that see themselves as, and sometimes act as, heirs to the crusaders of yore.[^11] What could be a worse fate for those who claim to be Muslim leaders than to sell the third holiest shrine of Islam, the Blessed Mosque of al-Aqsa for a short price, and normalize with an apartheid regime that is actively expanding the occupation in defiance of international law? The normalizers turn the lesson of the *sīrah* and in particular the blessed Treaty of Ḥudaybīyah on its head, insinuating that they are in fact modeling prophetic behavior by making peace with the enemies of justice. Setting aside the fact that those claiming to be negotiating with the occupiers are not the aggrieved party, but Westoxicated autocrats who have always abused and betrayed the Palestinians at every step, there is a deeper deception at play. That is the obfuscation of the lesson and meaning of the *sīrah* and the Treaty of Ḥudaybīyah that are stated in the Qur’an and the Sunnah in no unclear terms. After the Meccans persecuted the Prophet ﷺ and the believers for some thirteen years and drove them out of their homes, the Muslims migrated to Medina, establishing themselves as an independent political force. Where in Mecca they were but a group of individuals at the mercy of the Quraysh, in Medina Allah blessed them with the political agency required to properly counter the oppression they faced and preach their message. In a series of revelations, they were first permitted and then commanded to fight back against the Meccans. **What stands out in these verses for our present purpose is how closely the reasons named in these verses resemble those that drive the Palestinian struggle today: persecution, expulsion from homes, usurpation of property, and blocked access to a sacred mosque.** Specifically, the reasons for the Battle of Badr that occurred in the second year of the Prophet Muhammad’s migration to Medina bear an uncanny resemblance to the Palestinian situation today. That encounter on the 17th of Ramadan, 2 AH, in which a small army of three hundred and some Companions with a meager supply of arms and only two horses defeated a far better-supplied Meccan army some three times their number, became a turning point in the story of Islam. And what could be a more *Islamic* struggle: the Blessed Prophet ﷺ declared that the Companions who participated in it were specifically guaranteed paradise. The reasons for this battle are, fortunately, described at length by Allah Almighty in the verses that address the events leading up to the Battle of Badr. Furthermore, the agreed-upon contextual details allow us to date the divine commentary on the matter and relate it to the precise time period. Let us begin by reviewing the reasons that justified action against the Meccans. A few months after his arrival in Medina, Allah’s command was revealed: > Permission \[to fight\] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah has power to give them victory. \[They are\] those who have been evicted from their homes without right—only because they say, “Our Lord is Allah.” And were it not that Allah checks people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And Allah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might.[^12] Here, Allah Almighty not only commands the Muslims to begin to resist, He also gives reasons for this resistance—oppression, expulsion from homes, and persecution for faith—and goes on to speak of a general principle applicable to all situations. If God did not employ some believers to resist the oppression, tyranny would so engulf the land that not only mosques, but all other places where Allah is worshipped too would be destroyed. Clearly, there were no synagogues or monasteries under threat at that moment. In general, Muslim scholars agree that the particular, contextual account given for the revelation of a Qur’anic verse does not preclude its general applicability, but some verses, like this one, are emphatic in their general character.[^13] It highlights God’s general wisdom in commanding resistance, for acquiescence to injustice and tyranny anywhere leads to the destruction of all piety and religion. --- ## Economic boycott and the Prophet’s fight against tyranny: Justice before peace The Blessed Prophet ﷺ now begins to intercept the Quraysh’s caravans, and by the time Badr occurred a year and a half after the Hijrah, he had dispatched four minor expeditions (*sarīyah*, pl. *sarāyā*) and himself led another four relatively more significant ones (*ghazwah*, pl. *ghazawāt*). Rather than direct confrontation, the Prophet had chosen to pressure the Meccans economically. Being a commercial center, Mecca relied on these caravans for its prosperity. By threatening these routes, the Prophet was forcing them to take his demands seriously, right the wrongs they had committed, and stop harassing Muslims. On one of these *sarīyah* expeditions, the Prophet ﷺ dispatched some eight men under the leadership of Companion ʿAbdullāh b. Jaḥsh, Allah be pleased with him, to study the movement of the Quraysh’s caravan arriving from Yemen. In the prevailing Arab custom, there could be no war during the four sacred months, nor within the confines of the Meccan sanctuary (*ḥaram*); this ancient custom allowed trade and pilgrimage to flourish in Arabia. As the caravan hastened to reach Mecca before the end of the last day of Rajab, the Muslim expedition decided to attack and capture it, thereby violating the customary prohibition.[^14] This invited much negative publicity as the Arabs saw the Muslims as violating their vital customs. Confusion as to which of the pre-Islamic customs still applied was natural, for there had been no formal directive on whether the sacred months were to be honored in Islam. The Prophet ﷺ himself greatly disapproved of the attack, for he had intended to uphold the sanctity of the custom and had not ordered military action, and refused to accept the spoils until the following verse was revealed: > They ask about the Sacred Month, about fighting in it: Say, fighting in it is an enormity, yet, blocking (*sadd*) Allah’s path and its rejection (*kufr*) and \[blocking\] the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people from it, are greater enormities with God: And persecution (*fitnah*) is greater than killing… (Qur’an 2:217) This verse expands on the reasons in 22:40 quoted above as well as other verses for the retaliatory actions against the Quraysh and confiscation of its caravans. These are: (a) persecution for faith, and preventing people from it, (b) preventing the believers from visiting the Sacred Mosque, and (c) expulsion from homes and usurpation of property. Note that self-defense in the ordinary sense is not one of these, as there is no indication that at the time of Badr the Quraysh had actively declared war on Medina. Nor was the Prophet’s ultimate objective merely *secular* peace or justice. His mission was to preach his religion first and foremost and to do so in peace: “So that \[Allah’s *dīn*\] may prevail” (Qur’an 9:33; 48:28; 61:9). The Muslims, however, took up arms to oppose injustice and persecution (*fitnah*), to right the wrongs and pave the way for peaceful preaching. Put differently, the prophetic mission had a prescriptive and a preventive aspect. The preventive aspect was to remove external obstacles from the path of anyone who chose to believe and end tyranny and oppression that was directed against them as a result; armed struggle was employed for this purpose. The prescriptive aspect was to preach the message, and no coercion could be employed to this end. This is quite remarkable, for even in the Qur’an the greatest injustice humans can ever commit is that against God’s right to be worshipped and worshipped alone, yet that is an injustice that harms one’s own soul. The purpose of the armed struggle was not to force-convert anyone, for the same *sūrah* had clearly declared, “There is no compulsion in *dīn*” (Qur’an 2:256). Furthermore, the Muslims were instructed to be eager to put down arms if the enemy “inclined” toward a just, acceptable peace in which they could preach their religion without persecution (Qur’an 8:61-2). Simultaneously, however, against those who obstructed Islam’s open practice and preaching or committed treason, they were instructed to be disciplined, indomitable warriors, even when the odds were greatly against them. Another *sūrah* that was revealed around this time specifically prohibited making peace out of cowardice and a sense of impotence (Qur’an 47:35). The peace that the Prophet ﷺ sought, in other words, was not just any peace: it was peace *with* justice and freedom to preach his message. To reiterate, the Battle of Badr, which defined the conflict that was to develop over the following years, was not *defensive* in the strict sense of the word. Nor, for that matter, did it constitute unprovoked aggression. Nor was the reason for the armed struggle the Meccan’s rejection of the Prophet’s message per se. All this becomes clearer in the verses revealed slightly later in Surah al-Mumtaḥina: > Allah does not forbid you to deal kindly and justly with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes: Allah loves the just. Allah only forbids you to take as allies those who have fought against you for your faith, driven you out of your homes, and helped others to drive you out: any of you who take them as allies will truly be wrongdoers. (Qur’an 60:8) Peaceful unbelievers merited not only fairness (*qisṭ*), but courteousness and kindness (*birr*). And even when none of those virtues were shown to him, the Prophet never allowed the injustice he received to lead him to permit the killing of innocent civilians or persecution of others in return. The Prophet’s love for justice is expressed powerfully by another well-known incident. The Blessed Prophet ﷺ once reminisced, “I witnessed the Alliance of al-Muṭayyabin with my uncles as a boy, I would not like to break it for any number of red camels!”[^15] In another version, the Prophet says, “Were I called to it even in Islam, I would ratify it. They agree that they will return the surplus to whom it was due, and no one shall be permitted to oppress or wrong a weak party.”[^16] This alliance, which is better known as *Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl*, demonstrates the Prophet’s love for justice and shows his eagerness to enter into alliance even with the pagan Arabs, his biggest detractors, for the sake of helping the oppressed and fighting for justice. --- ## The Truce of Ḥudaybīyah: Dragging the tyrant to the negotiation table Classical exegetes and jurists agreed that jihad had been legislated in phases, and that the “middle” phase of jihad began with the Hijrah and lasted at least until the Conquest of Mecca in 8 AH.[^17] Badr had been part of an ongoing conflict with the Meccans, in which the Muslims had been commanded to seek justice for the Meccans’ past transgressions and ongoing hostility against both Islam and Muslims. What precisely was the Prophet’s strategic purpose, or end-game, in this struggle? This becomes even clearer if we follow the events leading up to the Truce of Ḥudaybīyah four years after Badr. The Quraysh had amassed their largest armies to lay a brutal siege to Medina in 5 AH and had been terribly frustrated when, instructed by the sagacious Persian convert Salman, the Muslims had dug a trench to protect the city. Without bloodshed, the Quraysh were frustrated in their greatest assault, and this broke their will. The following year, the Prophet set off for the Sacred Mosque of Mecca to perform ʿ*umrah* (minor pilgrimage), and when obstructed by the hostile intentions of the Meccans, camped at a place called Ḥudaybīyah, where this historic truce eventually transpired. By now, due to the Muslims’ fortitude in the three major and several minor battles, two of the main original reasons named in aforementioned verses had been mitigated: the message of Islam could no longer be obstructed, nor could the Medinan Muslims and anyone who joined them be persecuted for their religion. Even though the Muslims remained strained for resources—one report has it that the Prophet’s family did not taste two meals in one day until after 6 AH—some of their financial losses too had been recovered. This does not mean that all was well. An unknown number of Muslims in Mecca continued to be persecuted, as mentioned in Qur’an 48:25. The most glaring grievance, however, remained access to the Sacred Mosque. In the Treaty of Ḥudaybīyah, the Prophet ﷺ persuaded the Quraysh to agree to a ten-year truce and acknowledge the Muslims’ right to perform the lesser pilgrimage (*ʿumrah*, the right to which by custom was enjoyed by all Arab tribes) the following year. In exchange, he ﷺ granted the Quraysh the concession to continue to prevent any future Meccan Muslim converts from joining him in Medina, while freely allowing any Medinan Muslim who so wished to leave Islam and join the Meccans. The Muslims saw this concession to prevent Muslim converts from coming to Medina as incredibly painful and humiliating, but they had no choice but to obey. [^18] Make no mistake about it: the Prophet ﷺ had not relented or become weak at Ḥudaybīyah; the Qur’an left no doubt in that this was a decisive victory. How so? In a brilliant political move that the cornered Meccan leaders helplessly recognized, he had forced them to make peace and acknowledge him as an independent, legitimate entity with whom others too could now make peace without inciting the Quraysh’s ire. Furthermore, if the Meccans allowed the Muslims, with whom they had been at war for several years and largely lost, to proceed to make pilgrimage, they risked appearing weak, and if they obstructed a legitimate group of pilgrims from the Sacred Mosque, they would be perceived as violating their own vital custom. Predictably, the Meccans at first refused to negotiate with the Muslims, effectively denying that they were a legitimate party—a people who had rights like any other tribe. Sounds familiar, does it not? Have we not heard that Palestine was an empty plot of land for a people without a land, a land ready to be occupied, for Palestinians are not a people, a nation, or even fully human? This negotiation took an incredible show of the Muslims’ dedication to their Prophet and their cause. Only after the fourteen hundred companions of the Prophet ﷺ pledged to fight to death alongside the Prophet ﷺ were the Meccans cowed into making peace. This “pledge” Allah Almighty declared to be most pleasing to Him (Qur’an 48:18) and hence came to be known as the Pledge of Divine Pleasure (*Bayʿat Riḍwān*), and after Badr, this was the second occasion when those who participated in it were guaranteed paradise.[^19] All noble struggles require taking calculated risks. The message of the Prophet’s diplomacy for our day is clear. Tyrants, settler-colonialists, and oppressors do not make peace because they want to. They must be dragged to the negotiation table, and forced to keep their end of the bargain, or else they will go on oppressing, taking, and killing. True, in return for peace and access to the Sacred Mosque, and for incalculable strategic advantage, the Blessed Prophet ﷺ compromised strict reciprocity of rights for the Meccan Muslims. But this was the farthest possible thing from “peace without justice” that some Muslim autocrats and their pet spokespersons today are advocating, distorting God’s message for a small price. As a resourceful, brilliant leader, the Blessed Prophet had twisted the arms of a proud, spiteful enemy, after already having broken their will to fight in many a battle, to now make peace with him. It was the Prophet ﷺ who forced the Meccans to make this peace in the interest of his message and against their own interests. Today, the normalizers justify Israel’s policies that the entire world recognizes as unjust in order to secure their own self-serving interests, and to ensure the Western elite of their loyalty to them and treachery to Islam. By doing so, they have unleashed immeasurable harms against Muslims. --- ## Economic pressure: A neglected sunnah The Battle of Badr was directly a result of the Prophet’s policy to economically sanction the Meccans to penalize them and force them to relent. This economic diplomacy continued throughout, and the remarkable anecdote of Thumāma Ibn Uthāl demonstrates how deftly the Prophet ﷺ wielded this power. A powerful chief of the Quraysh’s great rivals, the Banū Ḥanīfah tribe from Yamāmah, Thumāma was an avowed enemy of the Prophet ﷺ. He plotted an attack on the Prophet in Madinah in the year 628 after managing to kill some of the Companions who had left the city. In a serendipitous encounter, the Companions captured him, not knowing his identity, and brought him to the Prophet ﷺ who tied him to a pillar of the Mosque, and treated him honorably, allowing him to observe the Muslims in prayer for three days, and then freed him.[^20] Moved by what he saw, he embraced Islam, and then set out to do ʿ*umrah* at the order of the Prophet as a Muslim where he would meet his former friends from the Quraysh. The news of his Islam predictably did not sit well, but their intentions to harm him were thwarted by his stature as a leader of Yamāmah, the Quraysh’s source of wheat and grain. He responded to their impudence by declaring a crushing economic boycott, and that no grain would reach them unless the Prophet ﷺ himself interceded for them. This led the defeated Meccans to plead with the Prophet ﷺ to lift the embargo. The Meccans pled for mercy in the spirit of the Treaty of Ḥudaybīyah, even though the Treaty mentioned no such concession. The Prophet ﷺ acted with characteristic mercy. Having secured for his community a position of strength, he demonstrated grace that had not been shown to him. --- ## Lessons for Palestine and other oppressed people Should the Palestinians (or Kashmiris, or Rohingya, or the Uyghurs) just give up, disappear, accept whatever the enemy wants? Why take the risk of resisting, fighting back, speaking up, defending their God-given rights, defending their religion or the Sacred Mosque? Why not accept, bow down, lay down, just disappear? Why not, some “masters” of realpolitik remind us, just normalize relations with Israel and let them take what they want? After much trial and error over the past century, Muslims are rediscovering the lesson the Prophet’s ﷺ diplomacy, guided by Allah’s eternal message, teaches us. As a prophet, he prophesied what was to afflict his *ummah* as well as the way out of it. One such miraculous hadith has it: > People will one day summon one another to attack you as those dining invite each other to share their serving dish. Someone asked, “Will that be because of our small numbers at that time?” He replied, “No, you will be a multitude, but you will be like scum carried by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the heart of your enemy and throw weakness into your hearts.” They asked, “What is the weakness?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “Love of the world and dislike of death.”[^21] The foregoing account shows what the Prophet ﷺ meant by this, for he embodied it. Through the incredible fortitude and willingness to sacrifice that Allah granted His Messenger and the believers around him against tyranny and oppression, be it through economic sanctions and, when necessary, military action, the bloodshed of both Muslims and their detractors was minimized. By one estimate, some two hundred Muslims (and a similar number of enemy combatants), which amounts to less than one percent of the number of Muslims in Medina, were killed in battle over these eight years in over a dozen encounters.[^22] Typically, many more times this number would have been killed in the endless tribal conflicts just among the people of Yathrib had Islam not blessed them with its just peace. By even secular standards, before we consider the incalculable value of the final revelation from God, the Prophet’s wise governance and willingness to take up arms had brought peace to Arabia. This is why Allah Almighty has declared, > Fighting has been prescribed upon you and it is hateful to you. Perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you, and you love a thing and it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know. (Qur’an 2:216) Compromise accompanied by weakness and appeasement only emboldens the enemy and aggravates his tyranny. Only unified, disciplined, and persistent action capped by fearlessness and utter trust in God brings an arrogant, unprincipled bully with far greater resources to the negotiation table. No matter how superior in comparative strength, the settler-colonizer can and must be isolated and broken, economically, militarily, and psychologically before he will agree to peace. What about the argument that today we—nearly two billion Muslims—are helpless, and should follow the prophetic conduct in Mecca rather than Medina, for any resistance is risky? Lack of faith and solidarity are hardly valid arguments. But recall that the Prophet’s strategy at Ḥudaybīyah was rather daring. The hypocrites in Medina, the Qur’an tells us, made precisely these arguments, “looking at \[the Prophet\] as if overcome by the fainting of death” (47:20). This was a calculated risk, and had the cooler heads not prevailed in Mecca by God’s grace (48:20-24), they could have recklessly attacked the Muslims and caused much bloodshed on both sides. Could it not be said that the Prophet ﷺ took such risks because Allah specifically told him that it would turn out fine, or that such daring strategy was only for him to venture? This doubt melts away the moment we reflect on the Qur’anic texts that speak of general, timeless principles and lessons reflected in the lives of earlier prophets and applicable until the Day of Judgment: that victory does not depend on size or strength, but on God’s backing. A second question might be: “Who decides what policy to adopt: whether, when, and how to resist?” In the absence of a unified *ummah* and a leader to organize our affairs and defend our weak—which itself is a great calamity—each part of the *ummah* must do what it can, and no one has greater right to decide that than our Palestinian sisters and brothers, those who have revived the weakening spirit of the *ummah* everywhere through their unbending will, who are protecting the Sacred Mosque, standing, smiling, and resisting by throwing little rocks at heartless tyrants, and whose faith and resolve have frustrated the most cunning colonizing powers. Today powerful media and global powers are bent on dehumanizing the Palestinians. However, the persistence of the Palestinians, with the help of the earnest support and prayers of the helpless Muslim masses and the growing voice of people of conscience worldwide, aided by the spread of social media, has miraculously begun to challenge the mainstream narrative. In fact, just as the Palestinian struggle has done more than anything else to show the world how to resist tyranny, so it has to keep the Muslim *ummah* alert to its need for unity. In the absence of the unified leadership of the *ummah*, only limited actual measures are possible. Even here, the Palestinians have found that the Prophetic policy of sustained economic pressure is the best place to begin. In 2005, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was launched seeking to use economic pressure to force Israel to comply with international law. The movement was inspired by the model of the peaceful struggle of oppressed black people in South Africa (the Anti-Apartheid Movement) against the racist government. The movement began to coordinate the boycott of the regime in 1959 and grew to be a global force and achieved its goals by 1993. At first, every Western nation opposed it, and yet the support it garnered among people of conscience worldwide proved decisive. The movement was not only successful, but it also changed the global narrative and inspired oppressed people everywhere. The participation of ordinary people at the global level, including universities and other elements of civil society, was crucial to its historic success, as it gave concerned people around the world an effective way to demonstrate solidarity. Economy matters; in fact, it can achieve what physical resistance alone cannot. This is why the Israeli state fears the BDS movement and pushes legislation, through lobbies and policymakers in North America and Europe, to punish all who dare support it. As numerous Jewish scholars have noted, Israel routinely weaponizes false anti-Semitism charges to try to stigmatize a movement for justice that includes Jews and people of all faiths.[^23] This, in fact, detracts from the real anti-Semitism that remains a virulent problem in the West, ultimately harming Jews everywhere. There is yet another thread to the Palestinian conflict whose tug only a believing heart can feel. To yearn to visit the “Farthest Mosque,” as it is named in the Qur’an, is part of faith. We are taught to long for it, to visit it, and to offer prayer in it. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ said that there will come a time where seeing the holy land would be more beloved to a believer than the world and everything in it.[^24] To those who cannot visit it, in one hadith the Prophet ﷺ advised that they should at least send some oil to light its lamps.[^25] And if it is an act of worship to send oil to the lamps of Al-Aqsa, then surely it is an act of worship to boycott the oil of the lamps of those who illegally occupy it. **In the moment of ultimate victory over the Meccans, the Prophetic model is ready with yet another, equally crucial, lesson for us. This being his conduct at the Conquest of Mecca in 8 AH, when he entered the city with his head bowed in utter humility, honoring and consoling the wounded enemy that had relentlessly persecuted and fought him.** This lesson was learned well and practiced by the Rightly Guided Caliphs and numerous Muslim commanders, God be pleased with them all. Most notable among the latter perhaps is Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī who would follow this *sunnah* six centuries later, when the Crusaders, whose ancestors had massacred Muslims, Jews, and even fellow Christians, were met with legendary forgiveness. Those, then, who wish to invoke religion to persuade Muslims that they must submit to a humiliating peace at any cost without resisting or demanding justice—this being effectively the magical solution and “only road to progress” being offered by the autocrats of the Middle East to their fed-up and restless Muslim populaces—must distort every message of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s blessed mission. For Allah and His Prophet ﷺ left no doubt that there can be no peace without justice. This is the message of the story told in Sūrat al-Baqarah of the God-fearing Israelite followers of Prophet Moses and his successor prophet: “And how many a small group has overcome a mighty one by Allah’s leave!” (Qur’an 2:249). --- ## Notes [^1]: See the *Washington Post*’s May, 14, 2021 article, “With Strikes Targeting Rockets and Tunnels, the Israeli Tactic of ‘Mowing the Grass’ Returns to Gaza,” and a detailed study, *Confronting Apartheid: A Personal History of South Africa, Namibia and Palestine* (2019) by John Dugard, distinguished South African legal scholar who was appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) chairman of a commission of inquiry on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. A 2016 survey found that half of Israeli Jews endorse ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and the public opinion has become more extreme since. See “Nearly Half of Israeli Jews Believe Arabs Should Be ‘Expelled’ from Israel, Survey Finds,” *Independent*, March 8, 2016, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world /middle-east/almost-half-of-israeli-jews-want-ethnic-cleansing-palestinians-wakeup-call-survey-finds-a6919271.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/almost-half-of-israeli-jews-want-ethnic-cleansing-palestinians-wakeup-call-survey-finds-a6919271.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191585000&usg=AOvVaw3HtMsOr4thHYO4fcM1qutT).  For the broader British and then American colonial policy in Israel, see Rashid Khalidi, *The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017* (2020). [^2]: “The Future of Ibrahimi Mosque in Danger,” *Daily Sabah*, September 6, 2021,  [https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/the-future-of-ibrahimi-mosque-in-danger](https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/the-future-of-ibrahimi-mosque-in-danger&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191585000&usg=AOvVaw3d_Jcy5FAnFcime3UE4oeg). [^3]: “Thousands of Israeli Youth Chant Muhammad Is Dead,” Real News Network, YouTube video, June 5, 2021, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNd-FPBNeig](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DHNd-FPBNeig&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191586000&usg=AOvVaw0WlMnd668G-OXMyvEjwgpH); “‘Death to Arabs’ What is happening in Palestine right now?,” The Islam Channel, YouTube video, June 16, 2021, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGO\_24WT3i0](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DFGO_24WT3i0&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191586000&usg=AOvVaw13rM99zNCwyZI7je9Gkamn). Reuters also reported a somewhat sanitized version of the state-supported right-wing march: “Israeli Nationalists March Raises Tensions in Jerusalem,” YouTube video, June 15, 2021, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAIozT4p5W8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DLAIozT4p5W8&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191586000&usg=AOvVaw3a9tt7o0yGVz0nifbbGDgo). Also: “Why Indian Hindutva Supporters Back Israel on Gaza Bombing: As Israel Faces Criticism for Its Bombing of Gaza, It Has Received Support from India’s Hindutva Supporters,” Aljazeera, May 18, 2021, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/bjp-expresses-solidarity-with-israel-as-gaza-bombing-continues](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/bjp-expresses-solidarity-with-israel-as-gaza-bombing-continues&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191587000&usg=AOvVaw2vQ-OFL8xJAPnLqAWhl7XW); Achin Vanaik, “How India Has Moved with Israel: A Timetable of Milestone Events,” *Wire*, May 26, 2021, [https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-israel-palestine-history-diplomatic-relations](https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-israel-palestine-history-diplomatic-relations&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191587000&usg=AOvVaw1Agdieyw86rvGqHlS8VwKq). [^4]: “Israel’s Relentless War on Christian Palestinians,” Inside Arabia, Jan 24, 2020, [https://insidearabia.com/israels-relentless-war-on-christian-palestinians/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://insidearabia.com/israels-relentless-war-on-christian-palestinians/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191587000&usg=AOvVaw12ch1P5DJM8rCt9dK6v96Y); Tani Goldstein, “Ethiopian-Israeli Community Has Hit Boiling Point, Leading Activist Says,” *Times of Israel*, July 8, 2019, [https://www.timesofisrael.com/ethiopian-israeli-community-has-reached-boiling-point-leading-activist-says/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ethiopian-israeli-community-has-reached-boiling-point-leading-activist-says/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191588000&usg=AOvVaw3pjJs90-XqY1ZqSDE-LWMX); Nadine Sayegh, “Racism: In Israel Some Jews Are More Equal Than Others,” TRT World, July 9, 2019, [https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/racism-in-israel-some-jews-are-more-equal-than-others-28109](https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/racism-in-israel-some-jews-are-more-equal-than-others-28109&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191588000&usg=AOvVaw1_JKNY6A1bLBu1RjrzRQ31). [^5]: Chrissy Stroop, “America’s Islamophobia Is Forged at the Pulpit: White Evangelicals’ Apocalyptic Fantasies Are Driving U.S. Policy,” *Foreign Policy*, March 26, 2019, [https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/26/americas-islamophobia-is-forged-in-the-pulpit/](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/26/americas-islamophobia-is-forged-in-the-pulpit/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191589000&usg=AOvVaw3AobQ3gkMfqdH2tkReHIc5). [^6]: See the courageous works of Ilan Pappé, *The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine* (2006), and Noam Chomsky, “Gaza’s Tormet, Israel’s Crimes, Our Responsibilities” (Z Commentaries, July 12, 2014, [https://zcomm.org/zcommentary/gazas-torment-israels-crimes-our-responsibilities/](https://zcomm.org/zcommentary/gazas-torment-israels-crimes-our-responsibilities/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191589000&usg=AOvVaw1DQILP9-QhO3Wis2SM5rH9)) and “Ceasefires in Which Violations Never Cease” (Open Democracy, September 4, 2014, [https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/ceasefires-in-which-violations-never-cease-whats-next-for-israel-hamas-/](https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/ceasefires-in-which-violations-never-cease-whats-next-for-israel-hamas-/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191589000&usg=AOvVaw2PzPKZJ1re27TSLQUs-yMJ)), Ilan Pappé, “A Brief History of Israel’s Incremental Genocide” in *On Palestine* (2015), and Norman Finkelstein, *Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom* (2018). Also: Jeremy Bowen, “Five Reasons Why Israel’s Peace Deals with the UAE and Bahrain Matter,” BBC, September 15, 2020 [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54151712](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54151712&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191590000&usg=AOvVaw3Mf8hyYHUjzVqW05St1CVl). [^7]: Muneeza Rizvi, “Palestine and the Question of Islam,” [https://www.criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/palestine-and-the-question-of-islam/](https://www.criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/palestine-and-the-question-of-islam/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191590000&usg=AOvVaw1RyIvxtFdjKqdSyZ_ncRfj). [^8]: Steven Salaita, “Is Palestine a Muslim Issue?,” June 7, 2021, [https://stevesalaita.com/is-palestine-a-muslim-issue/](https://stevesalaita.com/is-palestine-a-muslim-issue/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191590000&usg=AOvVaw1mhjhN89ps7LbyJI-JQxag). [^9]: The rights of God’s servants in Islam are to be distinguished from the Western “universal human rights” discourse, which has a secular origin and checkered, if not hypocritical, record of application. For penetrating analyses of the development and application of this modern concept, see Talal Asad, *Formations of the Secular* (Stanford University Press, 2003), 127-58, and *idem.*, “What do Human Rights Do?: An Anthropological Inquiry,” *Theory and Event* 4.4 (2000). [^10]: An excellent summary of these Qur’anic verses and prophetic hadiths is available at: Ammar Al Shukry, “The Glorious Virtues of Masjid al-Aqsa,” *Muslim Matters*, September 11, 2017, [https://muslimmatters.org/2017/09/11/the-glorious-virtues-of-al-masjid-al-aqsa/](https://muslimmatters.org/2017/09/11/the-glorious-virtues-of-al-masjid-al-aqsa/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191591000&usg=AOvVaw250lgH7t561Y9nBSwbgh8U). [^11]: See, for instance, Ola Salem and Hassan Hassan, “Arab Regimes are the World’s Most Powerful Islamophobes: Middle Eastern governments have forged alliances with right-wing groups in the West dedicated to anti-Islam bigotry,” *Foreign Policy* 3/29/19, [https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/29/arab-regimes-are-the-worlds-most-powerful-islamophobes/](//foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/29/arab-regimes-are-the-worlds-most-powerful-islamophobes/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191596000&usg=AOvVaw3bLc_VhaAx3MNgY7_ZQJdN) (Accessed 7/27/21). [^12]: Qur’an 22:39–40. A full itinerary of the verses of *qitāl* with a discussion of their context in the Qur’an (but without much historical context) is provided concisely by Shaykh al-Azhar Maḥmūd Shaltūt (d. 1383/1963) and available in translation in Rudolph Peters, *Jihad in Medieval and Modern Islam* (Leiden: Brill, 1977), 39–50. He notes, “This permission was motivated by the fact that the Moslems suffered injustices and were forced to emigrate and to leave their dwellings without justification” (42). For a classical discussion, see Abū Bakr al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 370 AH), *Aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1992), 1:319, under the *tafsir* of 2:190. [^13]: For this principle, which is widely agreed upon, see Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, *al-Ashbāh wa-al-naẓāʾir* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1991), 2:136. Al-Subkī notes that this principle of universal applicability of meaning addresses the case when there is no indicant suggesting universality; if, however, there is such an indicant, there can be no doubt in its general applicability. [^14]: In some traditions, the incident took place at the beginning of Rajab, but this makes no difference for our discussion. See Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, *ʿUyūn al-Athar* (Beirut: Dar al-Qalam, 1993), 1:264–65. [^15]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 567; also given by al-Ṭabarī in his exegesis of verse 3:33, graded authentic by al-Albānī. [^16]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Sīrah al-Nabawīyah*, excerpted from *al-Bidāyah wa-al-Nihāyah*, ed. Muṣṭafá ʿAbd al-Wāḥid (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1976), 1:258. [^17]: The explanation given so far requires taking no position in the debate among Muslim scholars on whether the so-called “sword verse” (Qur’an 9:29) abrogated all the earlier verses or whether all these verses remain valid in different contexts. Although the latter opinion seems far more persuasive, that discussion is beyond the scope of this essay. [^18]: For a detailed account of the protracted negotiations of al-Hudaybiyya and the historical sources on it, see Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī, *al-Sīrah al-nabawīyah al-ṣaḥīḥah* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-ʿUbaykān, 1996), 440–53; on the revelation of Sūrat al-Fatḥ about Ḥudaybīyah, see *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1786; on the guarantee of paradise for those who participated in Badr and Ḥudaybīyah, see *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2495; on ʿAli’s writing of the treaty (Allah be pleased with him and with the family of the Prophet), see *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no, 2698; on the Muslims’ reaction to the unequal terms, see *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1784 and generally al-ʿUmari, *al-Sīrah*, 443. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7206; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1856, 1860. One report has it that the pledge was “upon death” (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 7206; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1860); a differing report from Jābir suggests that the pledge was that they would not flee at any cost but was not until death (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1856). [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4372. [^21]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4297; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22460, grade: *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^22]: By the estimates given by most scholars, the total number of Muslims and pagans killed in all of these battles combined, totaling over two dozen confrontations over a period of ten years, was around four hundred at most, almost evenly spread between the two sides (Ahmed al-Dawoody, *The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations* \[New York: Palgrave, 2011\], 40). Dawoody’s study generally strikes an apologetic note and the claims it cites can be questioned. The total number of Muslims killed, nevertheless, remains a rather small fraction of their total number. If we accept the numbers historians give for the Muslim population of Medina by the Conquest of Mecca in 8 AH, the number of Muslim troops was ten thousand (which included Medina and its surroundings, and suggests a total Muslim population of up to fifty thousand); by the Battle of Tabūk in 9 AH, the number of Muslim troops (now inclusive of Meccans) is placed at thirty to forty thousand (about this many Muslims performed the Final Pilgrimage with the Prophet ﷺ). All this would put the total number of Muslims in Medina and Mecca upwards of two hundred thousand by 10 AH (al-ʿUmarī, *al-Sīra*, 474, 527, 549). [^23]: “Jewish Leaders Say: We Won’t Be Distracted, We Won’t Be Divided,” June 2, 2021, [https://jewishleadersletter.medium.com/jewish-leaders-fb839edb323](https://jewishleadersletter.medium.com/jewish-leaders-fb839edb323&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191594000&usg=AOvVaw03HqzoXbnYg6UVf5UTBMBx); “Jewish Voice for Peace Unequivocally Opposes the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism,” Jewish Voice for Peace, February 8, 2021, [https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2021/02/](https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2021/02/ihra/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191594000&usg=AOvVaw2wFZE_oSHpmlw7tZ7ncE7a)[ihra/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2021/02/ihra/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1627692191595000&usg=AOvVaw03FNU8ykYccapXO4VNhR-u). [^24]: Al-Ḥākim, *al-Mustadrak* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1990), 4:554. [^25]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 457. Most hadith critics declare this report to be weak. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. The question that presents itself is whether the plight of Palestine constitutes a distinctly Islamic concern, and if so, what response the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would have shown toward it. It is rare that a political situation of our age reveals the prophetic way as clearly as the Palestinian struggle does. Many matters of policy are morally ambiguous because they differ so greatly from the circumstances of the Prophet's time; yet in this case, the choice between seeking justice through resistance and surrendering to a far more powerful oppressor carries a plainly normative and religious dimension. For believing Muslims, on such normative questions the Prophet ﷺ is the final authority. This does not exclude non-Muslims from drawing inspiration from his model, for the values God revealed to him resonate with human nature (fiṭrah) and are accessible to all. Islam appeals to those striving for liberation precisely because it does not elevate submission to tyranny into a virtue. The plight of the Palestinians unfolds under a settler-colonial reality that has dispossessed them, restricted access to Masjid al-Aqsa—Islam's third holiest shrine—and subjected them to persecution and periodic violence. Yet to say Palestine is *especially* an Islamic issue is not to say it is *exclusively* so. Palestinian Christians are likewise oppressed, some of the foremost advocates for Palestinian rights are of Jewish origin, and Christian Zionism has been central to the harm inflicted. Meanwhile, the leaders of Arab-Muslim states have often betrayed their Islamic duty toward their brethren for personal and political gain. The secular and colonizing roots of the claim that only nationalist or human-rights framings are legitimate have been examined by Muneeza Rizvi, while the Palestinian American scholar Steven Salaita, who is not Muslim, has argued from a decolonial standpoint that it is indeed a Muslim issue. The Islamic dimensions of this matter are manifold. The occupation of Masjid al-Aqsa makes it an Islamic question in principle no different from the occupation of Madinah. Beyond this, Allah declares the land surrounding al-Aqsa blessed in at least six verses of the Qur'an—an honor granted to no other land—and the Prophet ﷺ, in his prophecies of the end-times, singled out those defending Masjid al-Aqsa as among the last people who will stand firm upon the truth. These teachings are familiar to any Muslim moderately versed in the tradition. Yet there is a deeper way in which the cause is Islamic, one often overlooked: the Palestinian struggle to protect al-Aqsa closely resembles the Prophet's own paradigmatic struggle against the Meccans, which was the occasion for much of Qur'anic revelation. This appreciation is made urgent by the misuse of prophetic teachings by the religious spokesmen of opportunistic autocrats, who invert the lesson of the *sīrah* and the Treaty of Ḥudaybīyah, insinuating that normalization with an apartheid regime models prophetic peacemaking—when in truth the negotiators are not the aggrieved party but rulers who have betrayed the Palestinians. After thirteen years of persecution in Mecca, the believers migrated to Madinah, where Allah granted them the political agency to counter oppression. The reasons named in the verses permitting fighting closely resemble the drivers of the Palestinian struggle: persecution, expulsion from homes, usurpation of property, and blocked access to a sacred mosque. Allah revealed: *"Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged... [They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right—only because they say, 'Our Lord is Allah.'... And were it not that Allah checks people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques"* (Qur'an 22:39-40). Scholars agree that a verse's particular occasion of revelation does not restrict its general application, and this verse is emphatic in its universal character: acquiescence to tyranny leads to the destruction of all piety. The Prophet ﷺ then chose to pressure Mecca economically by intercepting its caravans rather than through direct confrontation. When the expedition under ʿAbdullāh b. Jaḥsh attacked a caravan within the sacred month—which the Prophet ﷺ had not ordered and greatly disapproved of, refusing the spoils—Allah revealed: *"They ask about the Sacred Month, about fighting in it: Say, fighting in it is an enormity, yet, blocking Allah's path and its rejection and [blocking] the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people from it, are greater enormities with God: And persecution (fitnah) is greater than killing"* (Qur'an 2:217). The reasons for retaliation were thus persecution for faith, prevention from the Sacred Mosque, and expulsion from homes—not self-defense in the ordinary sense, for the Quraysh had not yet declared war at Badr. The prophetic mission was not merely secular peace. Its prescriptive aspect was to preach, upon which no coercion could be employed, for *"There is no compulsion in dīn"* (Qur'an 2:256); its preventive aspect was to remove obstacles and end tyranny through armed struggle. The Muslims were told to incline toward peace if the enemy did (Qur'an 8:61-62), yet were forbidden to seek peace out of cowardice (Qur'an 47:35). Allah further declared: *"Allah does not forbid you to deal kindly and justly with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes: Allah loves the just"* (Qur'an 60:8). The Prophet's love of justice is shown in his words concerning the alliance *Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl*: *"I witnessed the Alliance of al-Muṭayyabin with my uncles as a boy, I would not like to break it for any number of red camels,"* and in another version, that he would ratify it even in Islam, for it pledged to prevent the oppression of any weak party. Classical exegetes and jurists agreed that jihad was legislated in phases, with the middle phase lasting from the Hijrah until the Conquest of Mecca in 8 AH. By the time of the Truce of Ḥudaybīyah, four years after Badr, two of the original grievances had been mitigated, though access to the Sacred Mosque remained. In the treaty the Prophet ﷺ secured a ten-year truce and the right to perform ʿumrah the following year, conceding that Meccan converts be returned—a concession the Muslims found humiliating. Yet the Qur'an named it a decisive victory, for the Prophet ﷺ had forced the Meccans to recognize him as a legitimate, independent party. This recognition parallels the denial that the Palestinians are a people at all. Only after fourteen hundred Companions pledged to fight to the death—the Pledge of Divine Pleasure (*Bayʿat Riḍwān*), which Allah declared pleasing to Him (Qur'an 48:18)—were the Meccans brought to terms. The lesson is that oppressors do not make peace by choice; they must be compelled to the negotiation table and held to their bargain. This is the opposite of the "peace without justice" advocated today. Economic pressure emerges as a neglected sunnah. The account of Thumāma Ibn Uthāl, chief of Banū Ḥanīfah, illustrates this: captured, treated honorably, and freed, he embraced Islam and then imposed a grain embargo on Mecca until the Prophet ﷺ interceded—whereupon the Prophet ﷺ acted with mercy the Meccans had never shown him. The Prophet ﷺ foretold: *"People will one day summon one another to attack you... you will be a multitude, but you will be like scum carried by a torrent... Love of the world and dislike of death."* Yet through fortitude and willingness to sacrifice, bloodshed was minimized—by one estimate, some two hundred Muslims were killed over eight years, less than one percent of Madinah's Muslims. Hence Allah declares: *"Fighting has been prescribed upon you and it is hateful to you. Perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you"* (Qur'an 2:216). Compromise born of weakness only emboldens the tyrant. To the objection that Muslims today are helpless and should follow the Meccan rather than Madinan conduct, it must be recalled that Ḥudaybīyah was itself a daring risk, and that the hypocrites of Madinah made the same excuses, *"looking at [the Prophet] as if overcome by the fainting of death"* (47:20). The Qur'anic principle stands timeless: victory depends not on numbers but on God's backing. In the absence of a unified ummah and leader, each part must act as it can, and none has greater right to decide the course than the Palestinians themselves. The BDS movement, inspired by the peaceful anti-apartheid struggle of South Africa, revives the prophetic policy of sustained economic pressure. To send oil for the lamps of al-Aqsa is worship, as the Prophet ﷺ advised those unable to visit it; so too is boycotting the oil of those who occupy it. Finally, the Conquest of Mecca in 8 AH teaches mercy in victory, as the Prophet ﷺ entered with head bowed in humility, consoling his former persecutors—a sunnah followed by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī toward the Crusaders. Those who invoke religion to demand humiliating submission without justice must distort the entire message of the Qur'an and the Prophet's mission, for Allah and His Messenger ﷺ left no doubt that there can be no peace without justice: *"And how many a small group has overcome a mighty one by Allah's leave!"* (Qur'an 2:249). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/psychology-of-wealth-an-islamic-perspective-on-personal-finance # Psychology of Wealth: An Islamic Perspective on Personal Finance **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Wealth & Finance **Published:** July 1, 2021 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction > Truly, for every nation there is a trial, and the trial for my nation is wealth.[^1]  > > Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Long before the scientific enterprise of psychology, economics, and their ensuing marriage known as “behavioral economics,” the Qur’an and Sunnah introduced economic principles aimed at improving society and explicating the psychological mechanisms that influence economic behavior. The Islamic sources understood that human beings were not *Homo economicus*, meaning that they do not make purely rational economic decisions with unbounded rationality to maximize their satisfaction. Rather, the human being is prone to biases that lead to making suboptimal choices. Over the past few decades, behavioral economics and cognitive psychology have attempted to identify these biases and the cognitive and affective processes that influence economic choices, especially decisions involving risk and uncertainty. This paper aims to shed light on Islamic principles related to the psychology of wealth, with an emphasis on inculcating a philanthropic mindset and optimal decision-making. Rather than discuss *Homo economicus*, we focus on how Islam seeks to inculcate *Homo islamicus*, or the Muslim economic agent who thinks and behaves in accordance with the moral principles of Islam.[^2] *Watch Mufti Abdul Rahman talk about expanding and blesssing your wealth below:* https://youtu.be/19r0DidFNlY Islam holistically addresses the spiritual and economic needs of individuals and societies. Amongst the foremost objectives of Islamic law is the preservation and development of the wealth of society. Additionally, the obligation of *zakah* as an economic pillar of worship highlights how wealth and worship cannot be separated. Furthermore, numerous *aḥādiīh* and verses of the Qur’an address how wealth should be acquired, spent, and invested. Regarding the acquisition of wealth, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was reported to have said, “Seeking lawful \[wealth\] is an obligation upon every Muslim.”[^3] He also prophesized that “A time will come when one will not care how one gains one's money, lawfully or unlawfully.”[^4] Regarding investing wealth, ʿUmar ibn Khaṭṭāb advised, “Invest the wealth of orphans so that it will not be eaten away by *zakah*."[^5] Regarding spending one’s wealth, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah does not like for you to waste wealth, nor ask many unnecessary questions, nor spread gossip."[^6]  Thus, a cursory glance at the Sunnah clearly demonstrates that financial matters were given substantial attention by the Prophet ﷺ. However, the scope of financial guidance was not limited to legal directives about permissible and impermissible transactions. Rather, the Qur’an and Sunnah heavily focused on the psychology of wealth, which is a prerequisite to making appropriate economic choices. Additionally, through focusing on the psychology of wealth and reframing key economic concepts, Islamic guidance seeks to correct the cognitive and spiritual biases pertaining to wealth that lead to suboptimal and oftentimes harmful economic choices. However, before going into the Islamic perspective on wealth, we need to understand the economic culture that dominates our society today. --- ## The incompatibility of neoclassical economics and Islamic psychoeconomics Neoclassical economics has been the dominant economic worldview since the late 19th century and is the backbone of modern capitalism.[^7],[^8] It can be defined as an economic philosophy that broadly focuses on supply and demand as the primary forces behind the production, pricing, and consumption of goods and services.[^9] More importantly, neoclassical economics is methodologically individualistic, assuming that self-interest drives economic behavior and generally excludes the interests of others.[^10] Economic individualism rests on the primacy of the individual and the corollary principle of the sanctity of private property. These core economic values were derived from John Locke, Adam Smith, and other economic philosophers. Locke argued that ownership of property is grounded in ownership of the self, and since each individual owns himself, each individual has a natural right to his own labor and therefore has a right to the property received or produced in exchange for this labor. Smith posited that the best way to maximize a person’s happiness was to allow him to freely act in his own self-interest.[^11] Neoclassical economics should be seen as not merely an economic theory, but a value system and worldview. The core belief that underlies neoclassical economics is hedonic psychology,[^12] as one of the most influential neoclassical thinkers, William Stanley Jevons, stated that “Pleasure and pain are undoubtedly the ultimate objects of the Calculus of Economics. To satisfy our wants to the utmost with the least effort ... in other words, to *maximize pleasure*, is the problem of Economics.”[^13] Furthermore, he conceptualized that “utility \[arising from any commodity\] must be considered as measured by, or even as actually identical with, the addition made to a person’s happiness.”[^14] Is there a problem with the neoclassical philosophy of wealth? Is it a reflection of reality and compatible with Islamic values? Neoclassical economics rests on three unrealistic assumptions that human beings possess: (1) unbounded rationality; (2) unbounded willpower; (3) unbounded selfishness. Many of the leading secular leaders in decision-making sciences, including Herbert Simon and behavioral economists, have been quite critical of these assumptions, arguing that humans make decisions with “bounded rationality,” often make poor decisions due to a lack of self-control, and often make decisions that are selfless.[^15],[^16] Collectively, the foundations and assumptions underlying neoclassical economics are substantially different from and antithetical to Islamic psychoeconomics. I use the term psychoeconomics to emphasize the psychospiritual guidance that underlies the economic mindset of a Muslim. First, from the Islamic psychoeconomics perspective, satisfaction of needs and wants, or maximizing carnal pleasure, cannot be the ultimate goal driving economic activity. Even if we were to accept that maximizing pleasure is the ultimate goal driving economic activity, then we must redefine pleasure as being that which is pleasing to Allah. Second, the Islamic notion of ownership of the self is completely different, as Allah owns our souls and by extension our wealth. Allah says in Sūrat al-Tawbah, “Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties \[in exchange\] for Paradise….”[^17] Third, economic individualism is far from the Islamic notions of public welfare and communal rights.[^18] The fact that *zakah* gives others a right over a portion of our wealth and withholding charity is considered blameworthy and a cause of our destruction negates the compatibility between Islam and economic individualism. Allah says in Sūrat al-Baqarah, “And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw \[yourselves\] with your \[own\] hands into destruction \[by refraining from giving\]. And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of good.”[^19] Thus, through a detailed look at the Qur’an and Sunnah, we can extract and appreciate the psychospiritual underpinnings that optimize financial mindsets and behavior. The remainder of this paper highlights selected Islamic microeconomic principles that inculcate a psychoeconomically healthy mindset. I argue that these principles are intended to foster self-contentment, motivate philanthropic behavior, and lead to God-consciousness. The holistic nature of Islamic psychoeconomics guidance helps govern one’s relationship with oneself, with creation, and with the Creator. As capitalism, intellectually supported by neoclassical economics, is the economic worldview dominating public discourse, the need to reorient Muslims towards an Islamic worldview of wealth is essential for personal and societal well-being.[^20] --- ## Psychology of wealth in Islam Allah informs us in numerous places in the Qur’an that human beings have an intense love for wealth.[^21] The insatiable thirst for wealth is exemplified in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: “If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys."[^22] The Prophet further cautioned about the potential dangers of obsessively pursuing wealth, saying, “By Allah, it is not poverty I fear for you; rather, I fear you will be given the wealth of the world, just as it was given to those before you. You will compete for it just as they competed for it and it will ruin you just as it ruined them."[^23] One of the most vivid illustrations of this warning comes from the following narration, where the Prophet ﷺ said, “Two hungry wolves roaming freely among a flock of sheep are less destructive to them than the passion of a man for wealth and fame is to his religion."[^24] These *aḥādīth* attempt to nurture a vigilant mindset towards the pursuit of wealth, warning that such a pursuit may destroy a person. However, rather than merely warn the believers about the potential pitfalls of chasing money, Islamic guidance seeks to reframe our relationship with wealth so that we spend it appropriately in the service of Allah. ### Reframing ownership of wealth As previously stated, neoclassical economics and capitalism posit that the individual is the true owner of their wealth and possessions. However, in Islam, Allah is the true Owner of all wealth, and the individual is merely a trustee or executor whose role is to use the wealth and assets in a manner pleasing to Allah. The Qur’an says, “Believe in Allah and His Messenger and spend out of that of which He has made you trustees. For those who have believed among you and spent, there will be a great reward.”[^25] The Islamic notion that wealth ultimately belongs to Allah, and we are only trustees, has substantial ramifications for how wealth is spent and invested. Once the believer internalizes their role as a trustee, they become responsible for safeguarding the trust, understanding the terms of the trust to determine who has rights over the assets, and then distributing the assets to the deserving parties. The terms of the trust have been clearly articulated in the Qur’an and Sunnah, which include rules of inheritance, rules of *zakah*, discouraging miserliness and hoarding of wealth, encouraging generosity and circulating wealth in society, encouraging moderation in spending, and principles of investing. *Watch Mufti Abdul Rahman talk about tapping into Allah's treasure below:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKXNMdELZmU ### The paradox of pursuing wealth Understanding the gravitational pull of wealth on the hearts of people, the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly gave advice on how to detach ourselves from stressing over wealth and from making the pursuit of it a central concern of our lives. In a powerful narration, he said, “Whoever is focused only on this world, Allah will confound his affairs and make him fear poverty constantly, and he will not get anything of this world except that which has been decreed for him. \[However\], whoever is focused on the Hereafter, Allah will settle his affairs for him and make him feel content with his portion, and his provision and worldly gains will undoubtedly come to him.”[^26] This hadith establishes an essential psychological principle of wealth in Islam: chasing the supposed reward of this life (*dunyā)* leads to financial anxiety, whereas chasing the real reward of the afterlife (*ākhirah*) leads to financial contentment. He reiterated this point in another narration, saying, “Allah says, ‘O son of Adam, focus on worshipping Me and I will fill your heart with contentment and take care of your poverty; but if you do not do that, then I will fill your heart with worldly concerns and will not take care of your poverty.’”[^27] These narrations are meant to calibrate the believer away from the inherent bias of obsessively pursuing wealth and free them to pursue more noble pursuits. In fact, the Prophet ﷺ repeated this message over and over in numerous ways. In another example, Abū Dharr reported that the Prophet said to him, “O Abū Dharr, do you say an abundance of possessions is wealth?” I said yes. The Prophet said, “Do you say a lack of possessions is poverty?” I said yes. The Prophet repeated this three times, then he said, “Wealth is in the heart and poverty is in the heart. Whoever is wealthy in his heart will not be harmed no matter what happens in the world. Whoever is impoverished in his heart will not be satisfied no matter how much he has in the world. Verily, he will only be harmed by the greed of his own soul.”[^28] The Prophet ﷺ focused on liberating hearts from lusting over wealth so that his *ummah* became intrinsically motivated to spend and invest it in noble causes. ### Reframing spending and investing Islam aims to avoid extreme stinginess or excessive spending on oneself. In describing the righteous believers, Allah says in the Qur’an, “And \[they are\] those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, justly moderate.”[^29] The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Eat, drink, give in charity, and wear nice clothing, but without pride and extravagance. Verily, Allah loves for His blessings to be seen upon His servants.”[^30] These texts demonstrate that moderation in all forms of spending is optimal. However, as many of life’s expenditures pertain to one’s family, Islam reframes spending on family as a type of charity when done with the intention of pleasing Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If a Muslim spends on his family seeking reward from Allah, it is charity for him.”[^31] In addition to understanding how to spend money moderately, Islamic psychoeconomic guidance reframes the meaning of investing. Investing refers to a method of allocating wealth into assets that one expects to profit from. The objective of investing is to reap the rewards of one’s investments in the future. Ethical investing[^32] is encouraged in Islam, as the individual benefits by having their wealth grow and society benefits as the economy grows through successful investments. ʿUmar ibn Khaṭṭāb advised, “Invest the wealth of orphans so that it will not be eaten away by *zakah*."[^33] This statement establishes that money lying around will decrease due to the obligation of *zakah*. If a person had $10,000, it would become $9,750 after paying 2.5% in zakah ($250) at the end of the year. After 10 years, the original $10,000 would be worth just under $8,000. Thus, paying *zakah* should encourage investing, as money not being invested is effectively subject to a negative interest rate of -2.5% (this is only referring to interest from a purely financial perspective, not from an Islamic legal or spiritual perspective). Although there is great reward and *barakah* in *zakah*, the Prophet ﷺ nonetheless encouraged us to invest our wealth. Through putting our wealth in halal investments, we increase the likelihood of increasing our wealth and subsequently giving more. Although Islam encourages worldly investing in order to safeguard and grow wealth, it fundamentally reframes what types of investments are worth focusing on. The following *aḥādīth* demonstrate how the Prophet reframed investing. He said, “…The son of Ādam boasts, ‘My wealth! My wealth!’ O son of Adam, have you truly earned any wealth but that you ate and consumed, or put on and wore out, or spent in charity so it remained?”[^34] In this narration, from a religious perspective, the only wealth that one retains is that which is invested in charity. In another narration, he said, “Who among you considers the wealth of his heirs dearer to him than his own wealth?” They replied, “O Allah’s Messenger! There is none among us but loves his own wealth more.” The Prophet said, “So his wealth is whatever he puts forth \[in charity\] during his life, whereas the wealth of his heirs is whatever he leaves after his death.”[^35] Again, the Prophet is reframing what constitutes true wealth by encouraging investing in charity as a way to build one’s spiritual net worth and nest egg for the afterlife. In yet another narration, it was reported that ʿĀʾishah had a sheep slaughtered. When the Prophet found out, he inquired about it. He said to her, “What remains of it?” She said, “Nothing remains of it except its shoulder.” He said, “All of it remains except its shoulder.”[^36] Thus, the Prophet explicitly reframed ʿĀʾishah’s worldview of wealth. Rather than interpret what has been given away as ceasing to be in one’s possession, what has been given away should be seen as an investment that one retains. All of these narrations reinforce the same principle in different contexts, highlighting the consistency of this Prophetic investing principle. Therefore, if we return to the definition of investing as a method of allocating wealth into assets that one expects to profit from in the future, there can be no greater investment in one’s future, in this life and the afterlife (*ākhirah*), than philanthropy and charitable giving. Similarly, just as investing in our personal *dunyā* portfolio is important and has best practices, investing in our personal *ākhirah* portfolio also has best practices to be mindful of. Here are a few suggestions: 1. **Invest in your *ākhirah* portfolio as early as possible and consistently**. Charity grows at an exponential rate.[^37] Investing in one’s *ākhirah* from a young age disciplines the soul, builds trust in Allah, and the returns in the afterlife will be greater than if one began investing in their *ākhirah* portfolio later in life. Additionally, regularly contributing ensures that one’s *ākhirah* investment steadily grows over time. Set aside a percentage of your income or a fixed amount for weekly or monthly investments.  2. **Take calculated risks and invest when others are hesitant.** Just as risk tolerance is a consideration in worldly investments, it is recommended to  invest in projects that have tremendous potential. The Qur’an alludes to this when praising those who donated to Islam during its most vulnerable times before the conquest of Makkah as being superior to those who donated after the Islamic state was powerful and solidified.[^38] The reward is greater in the early phases of a righteous project.  3. **Diversify your *ākhirah* portfolio.** Building off the last recommendation, it is important to invest in a variety of causes. Although people have preferences for certain projects, they should still invest in a variety of righteous causes, including *masājid*, schools, poverty relief, education, social issues, and more. This ensures the person reaps a return on investment from each noble cause. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image4-1-1024x790.jpg) Figure 1. Hypothetical diversified *ākhirah* investment portfolio Despite the tremendous reward in investing in one’s *ākhirah*, there may be psychological barriers to committing to a life of philanthropic investing. We discuss a few of these in light of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and modern science. ### Spiritual biases related to wealth and giving Scarcity and poverty can be debilitating to one’s perspective on wealth. Scarcity is not only a lack of resources but also a mindset.[^39] A scarcity mindset is the subjective perception that there is not enough for everyone, leads to anxiety about not having enough, and impairs decision-making.[^40] A scarcity mindset is the opposite of an abundance mindset, where one perceives that there is enough for themselves and others. One of the consequences of having a scarcity mindset is feeling a sense of personal relative deprivation and diminished perceptions of financial well-being, which lead to making poor financial decisions, such as saving less, taking out high interest loans,[^41] and increased participation in lotteries.[^42],[^43] Personal relative deprivation refers to feelings of resentment and lack of financial contentment due to believing one is deprived of what they desire and deserve.[^44] Believing that one is deprived is related to lower levels of well-being,[^45] higher stress,[^46] worse physical health,[^47] higher levels of materialism,[^48] and donating less.[^49] In addition to these aforementioned detrimental outcomes, personal relative deprivation is also linked to maladaptive attitudes and behaviors, including delayed discounting tendencies and engaging in risky behaviors.[^50] Delayed discounting refers to the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards in the future. Thus, people who feel deprived compared to others are more likely to make irrationally risky decisions in the moment at the expense of better long-term decisions. For example, experiments have shown that inducing feelings of relative deprivation lead to delayed discounting tendencies, which lead to an increased likelihood of gambling.[^51] Thus, the person who feels deprived seeks an immediate reward that they irrationally believe can come about by gambling. Personal relative deprivation is thus a spiritual bias that influences economic behavior, including how willing one is to give their wealth in charity, to gamble, and to take out interest-bearing loans. Believing that one is deprived is thus viewed negatively in Islam. Although the believer is not accountable for fleeting thoughts, deep resentment of one’s financial situation is a door through which Satan enters. Allah refers to Himself as Generous (*al-Karīm*) and Vast (*al-Wāsiʿ*) in His bounty in the Qur’an. It is through understanding these names that the spiritual bias is meant to be removed from the heart of the believer. The Qur’an addresses this bias directly in Surat al-Baqarah, > الشَّيْطَانُ يَعِدُكُمُ الْفَقْرَ وَيَأْمُرُكُم بِالْفَحْشَاءِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُم مَّغْفِرَةً مِّنْهُ وَفَضْلًا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ > > Satan promises you deprivation and thus commands you to immorality, whereas Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.[^52] The Qur’an frames perceptions of scarcity and abundance as polar opposites stemming from opposing sources. Satan exploits people’s fear of **deprivation** as a motivator to engage in immoral financial behavior, whereas Allah promises forgiveness and to give from His **abundance** as a motivator to engage in moral financial behavior. In other words, Allah is informing us that Satan will be diligent in finding ways to make a person feel deprived, which include feeling deprived of a higher income, a bigger home, a nicer car, and even non-material things that a person desires. Once the feeling of deprivation is rooted in the heart, Satan will take advantage of the spiritual bias and encourage the individual to engage in detrimental economic behavior. He will push and prod the person to seek what they desire by any means possible. It may be through encouraging interest-bearing loans to purchase what they desire or gambling to gain quick access to wealth. On an even more subtle level, he will command the person to withhold giving their wealth to charitable causes, suggesting that it is detrimental to be charitable at this particular time in life.[^53] The aforementioned findings that feelings of deprivation lead to the religiously immoral behaviors of gambling and securing high interest loans are more interesting and insightful now in light of this verse. Modern social science has provided specific examples of the relation between feelings of deprivation and immorality that the Qur’an highlighted 1400 years ago. The Prophet ﷺ also gave a specific treatment to the spiritual bias of feeling deprived, saying, “Compare \[yourself\] to those who are lower than you \[in wealth\] and do not look at those who are above you \[in wealth\], for it is more suitable that you do not discount the blessings of Allah.”[^54] The Prophet is informing us that constant exposure to and comparison with the wealthy will lead a person to belittle the blessings that Allah has bestowed upon them, which again leads to feelings of deprivation. Thus, the psychological intervention that Islam recommends is for the believer to make downward social comparisons (i.e., to compare oneself with someone less wealthy) in order to feel blessed and grateful for the bounties one has been given. Using the wealthy as a reference point may lead to a scarcity mindset that leads to stinginess, whereas using the poor as a reference point should lead to an abundance mindset that leads to generosity. Although making downward comparisons is preferred, it is likely that people will be exposed to the wealthy and wish for what they have. The Qur’an recommends what to do in this situation in *Sūrat Tāhā*, > وَلَا تَمُدَّنَّ عَيْنَيْكَ إِلَىٰ مَا مَتَّعْنَا بِهِ أَزْوَاجًا مِّنْهُمْ زَهْرَةَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا لِنَفْتِنَهُمْ فِيهِ ۚ وَرِزْقُ رَبِّكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰ > > And do not extend your eyes toward that by which We have given enjoyment to \[some\] groups of them, \[its being but\] the splendor of worldly life by which We test them. And the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring.[^55] In addition to reiterating not to look to the wealthy as a reference point, the verse adds that their wealth and possessions are in reality nothing more than a test from God that one should not wish upon oneself. The test of possessing wealth includes being grateful for it, being humble, and spending it appropriately; therefore, many scholars considered the test of wealth to be more difficult than the test of poverty.[^56] The Qur’an is full of stories of those who struggled and failed the test of wealth.[^57] These stories are meant to warn us about having the wrong mindset towards wealth and to correct a theological misunderstanding that many hold about wealth. ### Theological myth: God rewards believers with wealth > فَأَمَّا الْإِنسَانُ إِذَا مَا ابْتَلَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعَّمَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَكْرَمَنِ > > وَأَمَّا إِذَا مَا ابْتَلَاهُ فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَهَانَنِ > > And as for man, when his Lord tests him and \[thus\] is generous to him and favors him, he says, “My Lord has honored me.” But when He tests him and restricts his provision, he says, “My Lord has humiliated me.”[^58] In these verses from Sūrat al Fajr, Allah is correcting a theological myth that people hold about wealth, which is the belief that Allah honors people when giving them substantial wealth and that Allah humiliates people by withholding wealth. The reality is that both wealth and lack of it are trials that have no bearing on a person’s value in the sight of Allah. The Qur’an highlights the story of Qarun as an example for us. Allah gave tremendous wealth to Qarun, who was an Israelite in the land of the Pharaoh. His people admonished him not to be arrogant and to seek the pleasure of Allah and Paradise through using his wealth to do good. He responded arrogantly saying, “I was only given it because of the knowledge I have”[^59] and would flaunt his wealth before the people. Some of the Israelites were enamored with his wealth and fell into the theological bias wishing, “Oh, would that we had like what was given to Qarun. Indeed, he is one of great fortune.”[^60] Then, Allah caused an enormous sinkhole to destroy Qarun and his palace, opening the eyes of the people to the reality of wealth and Allah’s favors. They said, “Oh, how Allah extends provision to whom He wills of His servants and restricts it! If Allah had not conferred His favor on us, He would have caused the earth to swallow us. Oh, how the disbelievers do not succeed!”[^61] Thus, we can take a reminder from Qarun’s story not to envy the wealthy amongst us nor consider them more honorable in the sight of Allah. Allah clearly states, “Indeed, the most honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.”[^62] The story is a reminder of the error of the capitalist mindset that “my money is mine because I earned it” and the myth that Allah honors people by giving them wealth. ### Allah’s wisdom in distributing wealth > وَلَوْ بَسَطَ اللَّهُ الرِّزْقَ لِعِبَادِهِ لَبَغَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَٰكِن يُنَزِّلُ بِقَدَرٍ مَّا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِنَّهُ بِعِبَادِهِ خَبِيرٌ بَصِيرٌ > > And if Allah had extended \[excessively\] provision for His servants, they would have committed tyranny throughout the earth. But He sends \[it\] down in an amount which He wills. Indeed He is, of His servants, Acquainted and Seeing.[^63] This verse is another important principle of wealth in Islam. The believer should internalize that not only does Allah distribute wealth or withhold it as a test, but that he distributes it with His infinite wisdom with people’s best interests in mind. Allah may withhold an abundance of wealth from someone out of His infinite knowledge that the person would become corrupted by it, as He knows His servant best. This concept can be found in numerous *aḥādith*, which despite the weakness in their transmission, support the meaning of the verse and the statements of numerous scholars. The Prophet ﷺ was reported to have said that Allah said, “Perhaps my righteous believer will ask me for wealth but I turn him from wealth towards poverty. Had I turned him towards wealth it would have been worse for him. Perhaps my righteous believer will ask me for poverty but I turn him from poverty towards wealth. Had I turned him towards poverty it would have been worse for him.”[^64] Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Kathīr both explained that poverty may be more beneficial for some people than wealth, whereas wealth may be more beneficial for others.[^65],[^66] However, this knowledge is only known to Allah, and the believer’s responsibility is to distribute wealth in the most appropriate fashion. Allah provides for people through various means, including through jobs, investments, inheritance, *zakah*, and through people’s generosity. Therefore, the believer should always look for opportunities to be the means by which Allah provides sustenance to others. ### The secret of barakah *Barakah* implies increase and growth, and it may apply to that which is tangible (e.g., wealth) or immaterial (e.g., time). *Barakah* connotes that something has received divine blessing and is therefore more productive, efficient, nourishing, or valuable. The Prophet ﷺ would invoke Allah for *barakah* often. When the Prophet was given the first fruit of the season, he would take it and say, “O Allah, give us *barakah* in our fruits, give us *barakah* in our city \[Medina\], and give us *barakah* in our our *mudd* \[a measure equal to two handfuls\] and in our *ṣāʿ* \[a measure equal to four *mudd*\]…”[^67] The Prophet ﷺ understood that something tangible would be more nourishing and valuable if Allah blessed it. That is why he taught the companions that “the food of one person is enough for two, the food of two is enough for four, and the food of four is enough for eight.”[^68] He further elaborated, “Gather together to eat and mention the name of Allah upon your food and Allah will put *barakah* in it.”[^69] Thus, we understand that the value of a commodity is not fixed and intrinsic to the commodity. Rather, the extent to which the commodity benefits is proportional to the *barakah* it has been given. The Prophet ﷺ explained this clearly when he said, “Both parties in a business transaction have the right to accept or reject the deal as long as they have not parted. If they tell the truth and make everything clear to each other \[e.g., describe the defects and qualities of the goods\], then their transaction is blessed. If they conceal anything and lie to each other, the blessing of their transaction will be eliminated.”[^70] This notion of *barakah* is the secret to the contentment of the believer. If the believer has conviction that Allah can bless their halal wealth and strip the *barakah* from *ḥarām* wealth, the motive to seek wealth using impermissible means should be eliminated. Furthermore, through awareness that things can have more value than what is apparent, the believer is comforted in spending their wealth in a manner pleasing to Allah, as He alone possesses the ability to increase it in value. ### Consequences of the Islamic worldview of wealth > أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ وَيَقْدِرُ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ. فَآتِ ذَا الْقُرْبَىٰ حَقَّهُ وَالْمِسْكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ. وَمَا آتَيْتُم مِّن رِّبًا لِّيَرْبُوَ فِي أَمْوَالِ النَّاسِ فَلَا يَرْبُو عِندَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَا آتَيْتُم مِّن زَكَاةٍ تُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَ اللَّهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُضْعِفُونَ > > Do they not see that Allah extends provision for whom He wills and restricts it? Indeed, in that are signs for people who believe. So, give the relative his right, as well as the needy and the traveler. That is best for those who desire the countenance of Allah, and it is they who will be successful. And whatever you give for interest to increase the wealth of people will not increase with Allah. But what you give in *zakah*, desiring the countenance of Allah, they shall have manifold increase.[^71] Developing the proper mindset and attitude towards wealth is optimal for both an individual’s well-being and that of society. Once the believer internalizes that wealth belongs to Allah, that they are merely trustees of what they have been given, and that what they do with their wealth is a test from Allah, they are now in position to spend and invest it properly. The above verses of Sūrat al-Rūm provide a formula for how beliefs about wealth transform into appropriate economic behavior. Rāzi mentions that the first verse orients the believer to *who* gives rather than *what* is given. If the attention is on the Giver, then one’s psychological state should not fluctuate if they are given a lot or a little, as the believer should have absolute trust in Allah and be content with their sustenance. Rāzi further states that when Allah declares that He alone extends and restricts \[wealth\], this implies that one should never hold back from giving freely, for if Allah gives then charity will not decrease one’s wealth, and if He restricts then holding onto one’s wealth will not increase it.[^72] This is the essence of the narration where the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the paradoxical nature of many faith-inspired actions. “Charity does not decrease wealth, no one forgives another person but Allah increases their honor, and no one humbles himself for the sake of Allah but that Allah raises their status.”[^73] Once these beliefs are firmly in the heart of a believer, we are commanded to give generously to our relatives, the poor, and travelers. There is an important connection between giving to those nearest to us and our psychological states. Recent neuroscience research has found that people who believe in the obligation to help family and kin find giving money to them to be just as personally rewarding and pleasurable as receiving money themselves.[^74] People from these interdependent backgrounds that value assisting others have increased mesolimbic reward system activation in the brain when contributing to their family compared to those who are more individualistic.[^75] This appears to be a neural manifestation of loving for others what one loves for themself. Finally, the notion of growth is reframed in the third verse. From a worldly perspective, fixed-income securities (e.g., bonds, money-market accounts, certificate of deposit) are low-risk safe investments that typically rely on interest for growth. Many investors feel a sense of security when dealing with such interest-based assets. However, Allah informs us that money invested in these interest-bearing assets do not grow from His perspective, which is the only perspective that truly matters. In fact, such investments are seen as repulsive, as the Qur’an states that “Allah destroys interest and gives increase for charities.”[^76] Allah reframes the notion of compound growth by saying that it is charitable (e.g., *zakah*) investments that are subject to compound growth. This juxtaposition of interest-based investments versus charitable investments as growth items is intrinsically tied to the notion of *barakah*. --- ## Final thoughts Central to the Prophet’s message was detaching our hearts from craving wealth and motivating charitable investments to purify the hearts and improve society. Through reframing conventional economic beliefs and practices, the Prophet ﷺ inculcated a new era of economic thought to nurture *Homo islamicus*. The fruits of the pristine Islamic worldview of wealth revolutionized subsequent generations. As Dr. Khalil Abdul Rashid so eloquently stated, “the institutionalization of charity in Islam became a defining factor that would exert dominating influence on urban planning and the development of cities and towns, social welfare, religious habits and practice, the production of art and the development of aesthetics, the structure and stability of markets and economic forces, political stability, as well as the production of Muslim culture in all its diverse representations.”[^77] We are in desperate need of an economic revolution in the world, as neoliberal economics and capitalism have impoverished much of the world and devastated the environment. Islamic psychological, spiritual, and economic principles are essential for creating the financial mindset so desperately needed in this self-indulgent world. The *ummah* must acknowledge that it has been infected with the disease of capitalism, and begin to rehabilitate itself through developing a Prophetic relationship with wealth. Through a renewed vigor in focusing on investing in our afterlife, we hope to make the life of this *dunyā* better for ourselves and all those around us. Let us find motivation in the words of the Prophet ﷺ, who said, “The generous one is near to Allah, near to Paradise, near to the people, and far from the Hellfire. The miserly one is far from Allah, far from Paradise, far from the people, and near to the Hellfire. An ignorant, generous person is more beloved to Allah Almighty than a stingy scholar.”[^78] ![Islamic Financial Mindset ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image2-1024x601.jpg) ![Capitalist Financial Mindset](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-1024x579.jpg) Figure 1. Islamic and Capitalist Financial Mindsets ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image3-1-1024x644.jpg) ![Capitalist Financial Behavior Tree](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image5-1-1024x918.jpg) Figure 2. Consequences of Islamic and Capitalist Financial Mindsets --- ## Notes [^1]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2336. [^2]: Murat Çokgezen, “Islamic Economics in Real Life: Do Muslims Give More Than the Others?,” 2016. [^3]: Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 9993. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2059. [^5]: Mālik, *Muwaṭṭaʾ*, no. 592. [^6]: *Musnad al-Bazzār*, no. 8463. [^7]: John F. Henry, *The Making of Neoclassical Economics* (Milton Park: Routledge, 2012). [^8]: Chandana Ghosh and Ambar Nath Ghosh, *An Introduction to Economics* (Singapore: Springer, 2019). [^9]: Lara Boerger and the Exploring Economics Team, “Neoclassical Economics,” December 18,  2016, [https://www.exploring-economics.org/en/orientation/neoclassical-economics/](https://www.exploring-economics.org/en/orientation/neoclassical-economics/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1625160497159000&usg=AOvVaw0P01HOGJ13SDzv9Lon193I). [^10]: John B. Davis, “Individualism,” in *The Elgar Companion to Classical Economics*, ed. Heinz Kurz and Neri Salvadori (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1998), 405–10. [^11]: Marjorie E. Kornhauser, “The Morality of Money: American Attitudes toward Wealth and the Income Tax,” *Indiana Law Journal* 70, no. 1 (1994): 119. [^12]: Erik Angner and George Loewenstein, “Behavioral Economics,” *Handbook of the Philosophy of Science: Philosophy of Economics* (2007): 641–90. [^13]: Williams Stanley Jevons, *The Theory of Political Economy* (London: Macmillan, 1879). [^14]: Jevons. [^15]: Herbert A. Simon, “A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice,” *The Quarterly Journal of Economics* 69, no. 1 (1955): 99–118. [^16]: Sendhil Mullainathan and Richard H. Thaler, *Behavioral Economics*, National Bureau of Economic Research, paper no. w7948, 2000. [^17]: Qur’an 9:111. [^18]: Mohammed Borhandden Musah, “The Culture of Individualism and Collectivism in Balancing Accountability and Innovation in Education: An Islamic Perspective,” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development 2, no. 8 (2011): 69–76. [^19]: Qur’an 2:195. [^20]: “Neoclassical economics extols the virtues of capitalism and suggests policies that help the capitalists increase their command over the goods and services produced. To be precise, it shows that a capitalist society, if left to itself, will automatically bring about full employment of all the workers and full utilization of the productive capacities of all the production units (i.e., the organizations that produce goods and services. These organizations are referred to as firms in economics). It also shows that a capitalist economy on its own will produce all the different goods and services in optimal quantities and distribute the produced goods and services among people in an optimal manner. Hence, it recommends the policy of free market or laissez-faire. Under this policy, the government should not interfere with the economic activities of individuals and firms and allow a capitalist economy to operate on its own.” See Ghosh and Ghosh, *Introduction to Economics*. [^21]: See Qur’an 89:20 and 100:8. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6439. [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6425; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2961. [^24]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2376. [^25]: Qur’an 57:7. [^26]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4105. [^27]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2466. [^28]: Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 1618. [^29]: Qur’an 25:67. [^30]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 6656. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5351; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1002. [^32]: By ethical investing, I refer to investments that are in accordance with Islamic law. For example, investments that are interest-based or involve the development and sale of forbidden products are to be avoided. [^33]: Mālik, *Muwaṭṭāʾ*, no. 592. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2958. [^35]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6442. [^36]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2470. [^37]: “The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed \[of grain\] which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies \[His reward\] for whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.” Qur’an 2:261. [^38]: “And why do you not spend in the cause of Allah while to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth? Not equal among you are those who spent before the conquest \[of Makkah\] and fought \[and those who did so after it\]. Those are greater in degree than those who spent afterwards and fought. But to all Allah has promised the best \[reward\]. And Allah, with what you do, is Acquainted.” Qur’an 57:10. [^39]: Aimee Fifarek,  “Thriving in the New Normal: Strategies for Managing the Scarcity Mindset,” *Library Leadership & Management* 29, no. 1 (2014). [^40]: Anuj K. Shah, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir, “Some Consequences of Having Too Little,” *Science* 338, no. 6107 (2012): 682–85. [^41]: Neil Bhutta, Jacob Goldin, and Tatiana Homonoff, “Consumer Borrowing after Payday Loan Bans,” *The Journal of Law and Economics* 59, no. 1 (2016): 225–59. [^42]: Garrick Blalock, David R. Just, Daniel H. Simon, “Hitting the Jackpot or Hitting the Skids: Entertainment, Poverty, and the Demand for State Lotteries,” *American Journal of Economics and Sociology* 66, no. 3 (2007): 545–70. [^43]: Taking out interest-bearing loans and participating in lotteries are forbidden in Islamic law. [^44]: Iain Walker and Heather J. Smith, eds., *Relative Deprivation: Specification, Development, and Integration* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). [^45]: Anne Ellaway, Laura McKay, Sally Macintyre, Ade Kearns, and Rosemary Hiscock, “Are Social Comparisons of Homes and Cars related to Psychosocial Health?” *International Journal of Epidemiology* 33, no. 5 (2004): 1065–71. [^46]: Lain Walker and Leon Mann, “Unemployment, Relative Deprivation, and Social Protest,” *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin* 13, no. 2 (1987): 275–83. [^47]: Christine Eibner and William N. Evans, “Relative Deprivation, Poor Health Habits, and Mortality,” *Journal of Human Resources* 40, no. 3 (2005): 591–620. [^48]: Hong Zhang, Yuan Tian, Boran Lei, Shuo Yu, and Man Liu, “Personal Relative Deprivation Boosts Materialism,” *Basic and Applied Social Psychology* 37, no. 5 (2015): 247–59. [^49]: Osman Umarji, “Charity Under Uncertainty: Ramadan Giving in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, April 8, 2021,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/charity-under-uncertainty-ramadan-giving-in-a-pandemic.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/charity-under-uncertainty-ramadan-giving-in-a-pandemic.) [^50]: Sandeep Mishra and Dallas Novakowski, ”Personal Relative Deprivation and Risk: An Examination of Individual Differences in Personality, Attitudes, and Behavioral Outcomes,” *Personality and Individual Differences* 90 (2016): 22–26. [^51]: Mitchell J. Callan, N. Will Shead, and James M. Olson, “Personal Relative Deprivation, Delay Discounting, and Gambling,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 101, no. 5 (2011): 955. [^52]: Qur’an 2:268. [^53]: Ibn ʿAbbās said that two things are from Satan: [^54]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6490; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2963. [^55]: Qur’an 20:131. [^56]: There is a difference of opinion on whether the test of wealth or poverty is more difficult and whether the grateful rich person is more praiseworthy than the patient poor person. One of the reasons why some consider wealth to be a greater test is that wealth opens the doors to many trials and the difficulty of parting with one’s wealth may be more difficult than being patient with less. [^57]: See the story of the people of the garden in Sūrat al-Qalam; they failed to share the wealth of their garden with the poor and thus Allah destroyed their garden. Also, see the story of the man with two gardens in Sūrat al-Kahf who thought his wealth was a sign that Allah honored him, to the extent he believed his wealth in this life was a sign of greater wealth in the afterlife. [^58]: Qur’an 89:15–16. [^59]: Qur’an 28:78. [^60]: Qur’an 28:79. [^61]: Qur’an 28:82. [^62]: Qur’an 49:13. [^63]: Qur’an 42:27. [^64]: Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 12719 (the hadith is classified as “weak,” but its meaning is acceptable). [^65]: Ibn Tamiyyah, *Majmuʿ Fatāwá*, vol. 11 (Mansura, Egypt: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 2005). [^66]: *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*. [^67]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1373. [^68]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2059. [^69]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 16078; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 3764; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3286. [^70]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2079; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1532. [^71]: Qur’an 30:37–39. [^72]: Al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr*. [^73]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2588. [^74]: Eva H. Telzer, Carrie L. Masten, Elliot T. Berkman, Matthew D. Lieberman, and Andrew J. Fuligni, “Gaining While Giving: An fMRI Study of the Rewards of Family Assistance among White and Latino Youth,” *Social Neuroscience* 5, no. 5–6 (2010): 508-18. [^75]: Telzer et al. [^76]: Qur’an 2:276. [^77]: Khalil Abdurrashid, “Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions (Waqfs),” *Yaqeen*, January 9, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1625160497172000&usg=AOvVaw3yFgWpWjJyRrBhGTMBIoHk). [^78]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1961. ## Summary The Prophet ﷺ warned, "Truly, for every nation there is a trial, and the trial for my nation is wealth." This warning frames an examination of how Islam approaches the psychology of wealth, long before the emergence of behavioral economics and cognitive psychology. The Qur'an and Sunnah recognized that human beings are not the purely rational "Homo economicus" imagined by economists, but are prone to biases that lead to suboptimal choices. The goal instead is to nurture "Homo islamicus"—the Muslim economic agent who thinks and behaves in accordance with the moral principles of Islam, fostering self-contentment, philanthropic behavior, and God-consciousness. Islam addresses spiritual and economic needs holistically, and among the foremost objectives of Islamic law is the preservation and development of the wealth of society. The obligation of zakah demonstrates that wealth and worship cannot be separated. The Sunnah gives substantial attention to financial matters across the domains of acquiring, spending, and investing wealth. Regarding acquisition, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Seeking lawful [wealth] is an obligation upon every Muslim," and he prophesied, "A time will come when one will not care how one gains one's money, lawfully or unlawfully." Regarding investment, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb advised, "Invest the wealth of orphans so that it will not be eaten away by zakah." Regarding spending, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Allah does not like for you to waste wealth, nor ask many unnecessary questions, nor spread gossip." Beyond legal directives, this guidance heavily focused on the psychology of wealth, seeking to correct cognitive and spiritual biases that lead to harmful economic choices. It is important to recognize the economic culture that dominates society today, namely neoclassical economics, which has been the dominant worldview since the late nineteenth century. This philosophy is methodologically individualistic, assuming that self-interest drives economic behavior. Its values derive from thinkers such as John Locke—who grounded ownership of property in ownership of the self—and Adam Smith—who held that a person's happiness is best maximized by acting freely in his own self-interest. Underlying this is a hedonic psychology, expressed by William Stanley Jevons, who claimed, "Pleasure and pain are undoubtedly the ultimate objects of the Calculus of Economics… to maximize pleasure, is the problem of Economics." Neoclassical economics rests on three unrealistic assumptions: unbounded rationality, unbounded willpower, and unbounded selfishness. Even secular scholars such as Herbert Simon have criticized these, noting that humans operate with "bounded rationality" and often make selfless choices. These foundations are antithetical to what may be termed Islamic psychoeconomics. First, maximizing carnal pleasure cannot be the ultimate goal; if pleasure is a goal at all, it must be redefined as that which pleases Allah. Second, the Islamic notion of ownership differs entirely, for Allah owns our souls and by extension our wealth, as He says, "Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for Paradise" (al-Tawbah). Third, economic individualism is far from Islamic notions of public welfare, for zakah grants others a right over our wealth, and withholding charity is blameworthy: "And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw [yourselves] with your [own] hands into destruction… And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of good" (al-Baqarah). The Qur'an repeatedly notes humanity's intense love of wealth. The Prophet ﷺ said, "If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys," and he cautioned, "By Allah, it is not poverty I fear for you; rather, I fear you will be given the wealth of the world… and it will ruin you just as it ruined those before you." He also warned, "Two hungry wolves roaming freely among a flock of sheep are less destructive to them than the passion of a man for wealth and fame is to his religion." Yet rather than merely warning, Islam reframes our relationship with wealth. Central to this is the reframing of ownership: Allah is the true Owner, and the individual is merely a trustee, as the Qur'an states, "Believe in Allah and His Messenger and spend out of that of which He has made you trustees" (al-Ḥadīd). This entails safeguarding the trust and distributing it according to its terms—the rules of inheritance and zakah, the discouragement of miserliness and hoarding, and the encouragement of moderate, generous spending. There is also a paradox in pursuing wealth. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever is focused only on this world, Allah will confound his affairs and make him fear poverty constantly… [but] whoever is focused on the Hereafter, Allah will settle his affairs for him and make him feel content." Likewise, Allah says, "O son of Adam, focus on worshipping Me and I will fill your heart with contentment and take care of your poverty." And in the narration of Abū Dharr, the Prophet ﷺ clarified, "Wealth is in the heart and poverty is in the heart… he will only be harmed by the greed of his own soul." Regarding spending, Allah praises those who are "between that, justly moderate" (al-Furqān), and the Prophet ﷺ encouraged both enjoyment and charity without extravagance. Spending on family is itself reframed as charity: "If a Muslim spends on his family seeking reward from Allah, it is charity for him." Investing is likewise reframed. ʿUmar's advice implies that uninvested wealth diminishes under zakah, effectively subject to a "negative interest rate" of -2.5% from a purely financial perspective. Yet the deepest reframing concerns what is truly worth investing in. The Prophet ﷺ said the only wealth one truly retains is "spent in charity so it remained," and he taught that "his wealth is whatever he puts forth [in charity] during his life, whereas the wealth of his heirs is whatever he leaves after his death." When ʿĀʾishah gave away a sheep save its shoulder, he said, "All of it remains except its shoulder." Thus charity is the greatest investment in one's ākhirah portfolio, which is best begun early and consistently, undertaken with calculated risk—as the Qur'an praises those who gave before the conquest of Makkah over those who gave afterward—and diversified across masājid, schools, poverty relief, and other causes. Certain spiritual biases obstruct giving. A scarcity mindset and personal relative deprivation—resentment at believing oneself deprived—are linked to lower well-being, materialism, giving less, and risky behaviors such as gambling and interest-bearing loans. The Qur'an addresses this directly: "Satan promises you deprivation and thus commands you to immorality, whereas Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing" (al-Baqarah). The Prophet ﷺ prescribed downward social comparison: "Compare [yourself] to those who are lower than you [in wealth]… so that you do not discount the blessings of Allah." And Allah warns, "Do not extend your eyes toward that by which We have given enjoyment to [some] groups of them… And the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring" (Ṭāhā). Islam also corrects a theological myth—that Allah honors people with wealth and humiliates them by withholding it (al-Fajr). Both are trials with no bearing on one's worth, as the story of Qārūn illustrates, and "Indeed, the most honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you" (al-Ḥujurāt). Allah distributes wealth with wisdom: "If Allah had extended [excessively] provision for His servants, they would have committed tyranny throughout the earth" (al-Shūrā). This meaning is supported by a narration—weak in transmission—that poverty or wealth may each be better for different servants, as Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Kathīr explained. Underlying all this is barakah, the divine blessing that makes wealth more valuable, which the Prophet ﷺ constantly invoked and tied to honest dealing and gratitude. The verses of Sūrat al-Rūm draw these threads together: charity given seeking Allah's countenance receives "manifold increase," whereas "Allah destroys interest and gives increase for charities" (al-Baqarah). As the Prophet ﷺ affirmed, "Charity does not decrease wealth," and "The generous one is near to Allah, near to Paradise… The miserly one is far from Allah." Detaching the heart from craving wealth while motivating charitable investment purifies both the individual and society, calling the ummah to rehabilitate itself through a Prophetic relationship with wealth. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/authenticating-hadith-and-the-history-of-hadith-criticism # Authenticating Hadith and the History of Hadith Criticism **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 24, 2021 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Preface *The following is (mostly) an extract from my book* [Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World *(Oneworld, 2017)*](https://oneworld-publications.com/hadith.html)*. I have taken this opportunity to add some material as well, especially in light of debates over hadith reliability that I have seen take place since this book was published.* --- ## Introduction: Reporters then and now Arabic and English textbooks introducing Islamic methods of hadith criticism begin with presenting the complex technical vocabulary (*muṣṭalaḥāt*) of hadith critics as it was formalized after the thirteenth century. These books assume that by learning this set of terms students will understand how hadith criticism operated in the early Islamic period when scholars like al-Bukhārī and Muslim were compiling their *Ṣaḥīḥ*s. In reality, however, the critical methods of early Muslim hadith scholars were diametrically opposed to this later, rigid description. Theirs was an intuitive and commonsense way of trying to determine whether a report could be reliably attributed to a source or not—a method not unlike those employed by modern investigative reporters. To set the stage for our study of how Muslims tried to sift reliable from unreliable ‘reports’ from the Prophet ﷺ, let us imagine a journalist working today. If our reporter tells her editor that she has a major story about a senior political figure, the editor will ask her two questions: who is your source, and is your source corroborated? How could our reporter reply? She knows that certain sources are reliable for certain information. If the president’s spokesperson announces that the president will make a visit to the UK, there is no need to double-check this information. Imagine, however, that the reporter has found a source who gives her rare and valuable information about an important issue but whom she as yet has no reason to trust. Our reporter is not going to stake her journalistic reputation on this one tip, but how does she determine the accuracy of her source’s information? Imagine that this source tells her that there has just been an earthquake in China. Our reporter would call her contacts in China to confirm. If these contacts tell her that indeed a quake had occurred, the source has been proven correct. If no one she spoke to had noticed anything, the source’s story would be uncorroborated and our reporter would conclude that the source was unreliable. Suppose that next the source tells our reporter valuable information about the condition of the country’s economy. Again, our reporter proceeds cautiously, so she conducts thorough research and finds that the source’s information was correct. The source provides tips on a few more stories, and after checking out the information, our reporter finds that these stories are true as well. Eventually our reporter concludes that this source is reliable, and if the source provides a tip on a hot story in the future, the reporter will feel comfortable writing her story based on the source’s testimony alone. Reporters understand that the reliability of a source is based upon the accuracy of the information they provide. The best way to confirm the accuracy of a source is to check with other sources who have access to the same information and see if they agree. Corroboration “is what turns a tip into a story.”[^1] These two pillars of modern journalism, the reliability of a source and determining the reliability of a source or story through corroboration, are familiar to us all in our daily lives. We all know people who pass on information reliably and others who tend to forget, lie, or exaggerate. We all instinctively seek out corroboration and know when it matters and when it does not. If a student is absent for a day of class in university and hears from a classmate that the professor has changed the date of the final exam, they will not be content to take the word of just one classmate; the student will ask other students who were also in that class. If no other students heard the professor make that announcement, they will have serious doubts about the information. Another fact is equally evident to us in our daily lives: the contents of reports we hear have a strong influence on our view of their reliability and our confidence in their transmitters. If our reporter met a source who swore that he had seen a herd of flying elephants downtown, she would probably both disbelieve him and consider him unreliable from that point on. There are generally accepted standards of what is possible and impossible. Furthermore, we all have a sense of what is important information and what is not, and we treat this information accordingly. If our reporter hears a rumor that the president is about to announce a major change in the government’s economic policy, she will want to verify this information before writing her story. If she hears that the president has changed his favorite dessert from ice cream to angel-food cake, she will probably be content to cite this information as is. We must remember, however, that such notions of what is possible or impossible, important or unimportant, are culturally determined, and as such they may differ with time and place. If, in 1990, a student had come to class holding a small device they claimed contained any piece of music, information, or published material one could think of, the professor would have called them delusional. Today professors compete daily for attention with such devices. If a professor in the US claimed to have eaten a great dog meat dinner at a specialized dog meat restaurant, students would think this was a disgusting joke. But if the professor had just flown in from China, where dog meat has long been “a minor but regular part of the diet” and where an annual dog meat festival is held, he might be telling the truth.[^2] While modern reporters are charged with determining the veracity of stories about what is happening in the world today on the basis of contemporary sources, the architects of the Islamic hadith tradition were faced with a more daunting task: they had to establish a system of distinguishing between true and false stories about a man who had lived over a century earlier and whose revered status cast a commanding shadow over the entire Islamic tradition. In this paper we discuss the origins, mechanics, and development of Sunni hadith criticism. We divide its history into two periods: early hadith criticism, roughly 720–1000 CE, and later hadith criticism, from roughly 1000 CE to today. This is a study of Muslim scholarship, so notions of ‘authenticity' and ‘forgery’ mentioned here refer to the judgment of Muslim scholars of hadith and not necessarily to the methods of modern Western historians (see [this paper](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/blind-spots-the-origins-of-the-western-method-of-critiquing-hadith) for more on the Western historical-critical method). --- ## The problem of hadith forgery The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the single most dominant figure in the Islamic religious and legal tradition. From the time of his emigration to Medina to debates over Islam today, to disobey directly his established teachings has been to place oneself outside the Muslim community. Because the Prophet possessed such eminent authority, early Muslims looked to his legacy to support or legitimize their different schools of thought, beliefs, or political agendas. It seems that even during the Prophet’s own lifetime he understood that people could misrepresent him. In one report, a man claiming to be the Prophet’s representative established himself as the mayor of a small town in Arabia until the Prophet uncovered his hoax and punished him.[^3] One of the first crises to afflict the Muslim community after the Prophet’s death—the question of who would succeed him as religious and political leader—revolved around competing claims about the Prophet’s words. The supporters of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib argued that the Prophet ﷺ had announced him as his successor, while those who affirmed the successive caliphates of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān did not. In this and many other Islamic sectarian and political disagreements, all sides agreed on what the Prophet had said but disagreed on its implications. Both Sunnis and Shiites, for example, agreed that the Prophet had said that ʿAlī was to him what Aaron was to Moses, but they disagreed on whether that meant that ʿAlī should succeed the Prophet politically. Actually forging reports about the Prophet ﷺ also quickly became a problem. When civil war broke out openly between ʿAlī, then the fourth caliph to succeed the Prophet, and the then governor of Syria and future founder of the Umayyad dynasty, Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, both sides waged a propaganda war using the Prophet’s words as ammunition. ʿAlī’s supporters falsely claimed that Muhammad ﷺ had said, “If you see Muʿāwiyah ascend my pulpit, then kill him,” while Muʿāwiyah’s side countered by forging hadiths such as “It is as if Muʿāwiyah were sent as a prophet because of his forbearance and his having been entrusted with God’s word” (Muʿāwiyah had served as one of the Prophet’s scribes).[^4] There are even reports from the early historian al-Madā’inī (d. 228/843) that Muʿāwiyah encouraged the systematic forging and circulation of hadiths affirming the virtues of the other caliphs and Companions at ʿAlī’s expense (then again, these reports about Mu‘āwiya might have been made up by *his* opponents).[^5] In light of how quickly the Prophet’s legacy became a tool to be manipulated by vying parties among Muslims, we should not be surprised at the veritable slogan of Muslim hadith criticism. It is the most widely transmitted hadith in all of Islam, with Muslim scholars counting between sixty and a hundred Companions transmitting it from the Prophet ﷺ: “Whoever mispresents me intentionally, let him prepare for himself a seat in Hellfire.” During the lifetime of leading Companions like ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, or Anas ibn Mālik, many of whom had been with the Prophet ﷺ since his early days in Mecca, it was difficult to attribute something untrue to the Prophet without a senior Companion noticing. In fact, there are many reports documenting the Companions’ vigilance against misrepresentations of the Prophet’s legacy. ʿAlī is quoted as requiring an oath from any Companion who told him a hadith from the Prophet that he himself had not heard.[^6] When the Companion Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī told ʿUmar that the Prophet had said that if you knocked on someone’s door three times and they did not answer you should depart, ʿUmar demanded that he find another Companion to corroborate the report.[^7] On a number of occasions after the Prophet’s death, his wife ʿĀʾishah objected to hadiths that other Companions related. She rejected Ibn ʿUmar’s statement that the Prophet ﷺ warned mourners that a dead relative would be punished for his family’s excessive mourning over him because she believed that it violated the Qur’anic principle that “No bearer of burdens bears the burdens of another” (Qur’an 53:38).[^8] Sometimes she corrected Companions who had misunderstood what the Prophet had said. Abū Hurayrah quoted the Prophet as saying that women, beasts, and houses could be bad omens. When Aisha heard this she “split in half in anger,” exclaiming that the Prophet had mentioned this, but only to explain that it was a pre-Islamic superstition condemned by the Qur’an.[^9] Abū Hurayrah’s extensive efforts at hadith collection in particular drew the ire and concern of some leading Companions. There is one report that ʿUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb told him, “Indeed, I say let the Prophet’s words alone or indeed I’ll send you back to the lands of \[your tribe\] Daws!”[^10] We should remember that anxiety over excessive or careless interest in collecting hadith in no way meant that the Companions did not consider the Sunnah of the Prophet authoritative (the Sunnah being the Prophet’s authoritative precedent as a whole, with individual hadiths being pieces of information telling us about that Sunnah). And they had no problem writing hadith down when necessary; as caliph, Abū Bakr sent Anas, then a regional governor, a document with the Prophet’s commands regarding Zakat collection. ʿUmar might ask for corroboration and Aisha might object that someone had misunderstood a hadith, but this was not skepticism about hadith in general. When ʿUmar warned other Companions to “Be frugal in narrating from the Prophet of God,” early Muslim scholars understood this meant not obsessing about collecting stories about his battles and campaigns. It was not an objection to collecting hadith on law, ethics, and belief.[^11] Hadith forgery emerged as a blatant problem when the generation of Muslims who had known the Prophet ﷺ well died off. With the death of the last major Companion, Anas ibn Mālik, in Basra in 93/711 (the last Companion to die was Abū al-Ṭufayl ʿĀmir ibn Wāthilah, who died between 100/718 and 110/728), lies about the Prophet  quickly multiplied. It is especially in the generation of the Successors that we begin seeing notebooks (*ṣaḥīfah*s) of hadiths, many supposedly narrated from Anas, filled with forged hadiths of a highly partisan or controversial nature.[^12] From that point onward, the forgery of hadiths would be a consistent problem in Islamic civilization. The heyday of hadith forgery was the first four hundred years of Islamic history, when major hadith collections were still being compiled. As compilation ended, by the late 1100s any alleged hadith that entered circulation that had not already been recorded in some existing book was automatically deemed a forgery. In the great urban centers of Mamluk Cairo or Ottoman Istanbul in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the masses might mistakenly think that a popular saying such as “The Muslim community is sinful but its Lord is most forgiving (*ummah mudhnibah wa-rabb ghafūr*)” was said by the Prophet ﷺ, but in general hadith forgery had run its course.[^13] Political and sectarian conflicts were a major engine for hadith forgery. All the major political conflicts in classical Islamic history were accompanied by hadiths forged for propagandistic purposes. The Prophet’s access to knowledge of the future provided endless possibilities in this realm. In one hadith, the Prophet ﷺ supposedly tells his uncle ʿAbbās, progenitor of the Abbasid dynasty, to look at the stars. The Prophet foretells, “From your descendents a number like the number of the Pleiades will rule the Muslim community.”[^14] In one forged pro-Shiite hadith, the Prophet predicts that “al-Ḥusayn will be killed sixty years after my emigration to Medina,” referring to the Umayyad caliph’s massacre of the Prophet’s grandson at Karbala in 61/680.[^15] In the twelfth century, an opponent of the Seljuq Turkish sultan Sanjar forged a hadith in which the Prophet predicted that, “Sanjar will be the last of the non-Arab kings; he will live eighty years and then die of hunger.”[^16] In fact, in the early 1990s one Arab scholar claimed that he had found an old manuscript with a hadith predicting that “A leader whose name is derived from the word ‘tree’ \[Bush, perhaps?\] will invade and liberate a small hill fort (in Arabic, ‘Kuwait’).”[^17] Many hadiths were also forged in legal and theological debates. Here the Sunni/Shiite schism once again has certainly produced the largest numbers of propagandistic hadiths. Less well-known conflicts have also yielded countless forgeries. In the first half of the ninth century, when the Abbasid caliphate was trying to impose its rationalist beliefs on Sunni scholars like Ibn Ḥanbal by torturing or imprisoning anyone who would not uphold the belief that the Qur’an was God’s created word and not an eternal part of His essence, pro-Sunni hadiths conveniently appeared in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever dies believing the Qur’an is created will meet God on Judgment Day with his head up his rear-end.” In eighth-century debates over whether Muslims could wear pants as opposed to robes, a hadith appeared in which the Prophet said, “O people, take pants as clothing, for indeed they are the most modest of clothes, especially for your women when they leave the house.”[^18] As legal schools solidified and competed with one another, forged hadiths appeared with statements such as “There will be in my community a man named Abū Ḥanīfah, and he will be its lamp... and there will be in my community a man named Muhammad ibn Idrīs \[al-Shāfiʿī\] whose strife is more harmful than that of Satan.”[^19] Hadiths were forged to give voice to all sorts of chauvinisms. Some were virulently racist, such as a forged hadith saying “The black African, when he eats his fill he fornicates, and when he gets hungry he steals (*al-zanjī* *idha shabiʿa zanā* *wa-idhā* *jāʿa saraqa*).”[^20] Others voiced civic pride, such as the hadith “\[The city of\] Askalon \[near modern-day Gaza\] is one of the two Brides, from there God will resurrect people on the Day of Judgment (*ʿAsqalān iḥdá* *al-ʿarūsayn ...*)” or a whole Forty Hadith collection that one Aḥmad ibn Muhammad al-Marwazī (d. 323/934–5) forged about the virtues of the Iranian city of Qazvin.[^21] Another major source of forged hadiths was the popular story-tellers (*qāṣṣ*, pl. *quṣṣāṣ*) who entertained crowds on the streets of metropolises like Baghdad. These storytellers would attribute Jewish, Christian, or ancient Persian lore to the Prophet ﷺ. In one fantastic story, someone named Isḥāq ibn Bishr al-Kāhilī from Kufa told of the Prophet meeting an old man in the desert. The man claimed to be named Hāma, the great-grandson of Satan, and to have been alive since the days of Cain and Abel. In an account resembling a Rolling Stones song, he proceeds to tell Muhammad how he had met all the great prophets, from Noah to Jacob and Joseph. Moses had taught him the Torah, and Jesus had told him to convey his greetings to Muhammad, the messenger to come.[^22] A surprisingly large number of hadiths were forged and circulated by pious but misguided Muslims in an effort to motivate those around them both religiously and morally. One Abū ʿIṣmah was asked by his contemporaries to explain how the hadiths he narrated from ʿIkrimah, the disciple of the Companion Ibn ʿAbbās, about the virtues of reading different chapters of the Qur’an, were not narrated by any of ʿIkrimah’s other students. He replied that he had seen the people becoming obsessed with the legal scholarship of Abū Ḥanīfah and the *Sīrah* of Ibn Isḥāq. He had forged these hadiths to try and steer people once again towards the Qur’an.[^23] Many of those who forged hadiths for these pious purposes were themselves revered saintly figures. The famous hadith critic Yaḥyá ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198/813) once said, “I have not witnessed lying \[about the Prophet\] in anyone more than I have seen it in those known for asceticism and piety.”[^24] A venerated saint of Baghdad, Ghulām Khalīl, was so beloved that on the day he died in 275/888-9 the markets of the city shut down. Yet when he was questioned about some dubious hadiths he narrated concerning righteous behavior, Ghulām Khalīl replied, “We forged these so that we could soften and improve the hearts of the populace.”[^25] Certainly pious figures such as Ghulām Khalīl or the scholars of religious law understood the enormity of the sin of lying about their Prophet ﷺ. How could they have contradicted their own mission of preserving his authentic teachings by doing so? Pious figures sometimes replied that the Prophet had forbidden the Muslims to lie *about* him, whereas they were lying *for* him. In the case of those early jurists who forged legal hadiths to support their school of law, it seems that they saw no contradiction between their actions and their commitment to preserving the Prophet’s teachings. After all, as one famous hadith put it, “The scholars are the inheritors of the prophets (*al-ʿulamāʾ* *warathat al-anbiyāʾ*).” It was the scholars who interpreted the message of Islam as it faced new challenges and circumstances. Phrasing their conclusions about proper acts or beliefs in the formula of ‘the Prophet said...’ was simply neatly packaging their authority as Muhammad’s representatives. As one early jurist explained, “When we arrived at an opinion through reasoning we made it into a hadith.”[^26] Hadith critics, of course, found such excuses reprehensible.[^27] Not all forgery of hadiths was a malicious act. Early transmitters sometimes confused the opinions or statements of Companions with Prophetic hadiths, such as  Ibn Masʿūd’s saying, “Whatever the Muslims see as good is good according to God,” which was sometimes wrongly attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. Sometimes the comments of one of the hadith’s transmitters could be accidentally written as part of the hadith, a phenomenon that Muslim critics called *idrāj* (interpolation). Ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 196/811) narrated a hadith that the Prophet would seek refuge with God from four things: unbearable hardship, encountering misfortune, an evil fate, and the triumph of enemies. But he noted that the original hadith had only listed three things, “but I added one, and I do not know which one it is.”[^28] Often the words of scholars or saintly figures or simply popular sayings could be accidentally elevated to the status of Prophetic hadiths. The saying “The love of the earthly life is the start of every sin (*ḥubb al-dunyā* *raʾs kull khaṭīʾah*)” was generally attributed to Jesus until it became confused with a Prophetic hadith.[^29] A legal principle used by Muslim jurists, “Necessities render the forbidden permissible (*al-ḍarūrīyāt tubīḥu al-maḥẓūrāt*)” was also accidentally attributed to Muhammad ﷺ.[^30] In the ninth century a hadith appeared saying “Beware of flowers growing in manure, namely a beautiful woman from a bad family (*iyyākum wa khaḍrāʾ al-diman* ...).” In this period another supposed hadith surfaced that “Whoever says something then sneezes, what he says is true (*man ḥaddatha hadīthan* *fa-ʿaṭasa ʿindahu fa-huwa ḥaqq*).” Neither report had any basis in Prophetic hadiths.[^31] --- ## Forgery of isnāds Hadith forgery was not limited to inventing Prophetic sayings or attributing existing maxims to Muhammad ﷺ. In light of the importance of the *isnād* to accessing authority in the Islamic tradition, *isnād* forgery was arguably more common than *matn* forgery. Equipping existing hadiths with one’s own *isnād*s or constructing entirely new chains of transmission was known as ‘stealing hadiths (*sariqat al-ḥadīth*)’ or ‘rigging *isnād*s (*tarkīb al-asānīd*).’ Today no one would look askance at someone who cited a hadith without mentioning its *isnād*. In the early Islamic period, however, *ahl al-ḥadīth* scholars or those who debated them could not cite a hadith without providing their own *isnād* for the report. A scholar who had heard about a hadith without a firm *isnād* or from a transmitter considered unreliable by the *ahl al-ḥadīth* critics could thus not credibly present his hadith in any discussion. Forging a new *isnād* offered a solution. ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd (d. 144/761), who belonged to the Muslim rationalist camp known as the Muʿtazilites, whom the *ahl al-ḥadīth* considered their mortal enemies, was thus attacked for lying in his narration of the hadith “He who carries weapons against us \[Muslims\] is not one of us (*man ḥamala ʿalaynā* *al-silāḥ fa-laysa minnā*)” from his teacher al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, from the Prophet ﷺ. This hadith was well known as authentic among the *ahl al-ḥadīth*. The problem was that al-Ḥasan had not actually transmitted this from the Prophet. ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd had heard of the report somewhere else and then tried to use it to support the Muʿtazilite position that committing grave sins assured Muslims a place in hell. But he did not have his own *isnād* for it. So he manufactured one from his teacher al-Hasan so that he could use it in debates.[^32] ![Types of Errors and Forgery in Hadiths](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/figure1-1024x843.png) The second major motivation to forge an *isnād* for an existing hadith was to bolster its reliability by increasing evidence of its transmission. According to the great hadith critic of Baghdad, al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385/995), a whole notebook of hadiths praising human reason (*ʿaql*) was forged by Maysarah ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi. This book was then taken by Dāwūd al-Muḥabbir, who equipped the reports with his own new *isnād*s. One ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rajāʾ then stole these hadiths and provided them a new set of *isnād*s. Sulaymān bin ʿĪsá al-Sinjarī then did the same. A person who came across the hadiths in this book therefore could find four different sets of *isnād*s leading to four different scholars for hadiths that were in fact total forgeries.[^33] Especially in the tenth century and afterwards, when rare and elevated *isnād*s assumed a particular value among hadith collectors, disingenuous scholars could forge *isnād*s with these characteristics. The famous—if totally uncritical—hadith collector al-Ṭabarānī (d. 360/971) narrated a hadith via the impossibly short *isnād* of three people to the Prophet: Jaʿfar ibn Hamīd al-Anṣārī, from ʿUmar ibn Abān, from Anas ibn Mālik, from the Prophet ﷺ. The fact that al-Ṭabarānī was the only hadith scholar to narrate from the transmitter Jaʿfar ibn Hamīd strongly suggests that this Jaʿfar might have been a purveyor of forged elevated *isnād*s, which a collector like al-Ṭabarānī would have found irresistible. --- ## The development of early Sunni hadith criticism: The three-tiered method As false attributions to the Prophet ﷺ multiplied in the late seventh century, how were those Muslims who sought to preserve his authentic legacy to distinguish between true and forged hadiths? While the *ahl al-raʾy* scholars in Iraqi cities like Kufa attempted to rise above the flood of forged hadiths by depending on the Qur’an, well-established hadiths, and their own legal reasoning, the school that would give birth to the Sunni tradition, the *ahl al-ḥadīth*, evolved the three-tiered approach to determining the authenticity of a hadith. The first tier was demanding a source (*isnād*) for the report, the second was evaluating the reliability of that source, and the third was seeking corroboration for the hadith. The processes of this three-tiered critical method did not emerge fully until the mid eighth century with critics like Mālik (d. 179/795) and Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 160/776). Certainly, Successors like al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742) and even Companions had examined critically material they heard attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. Moreover, the critical opinions of Successors would inform later hadith critics. A formalized system of requiring *isnād*s and investigating them according to agreed conventions and through a set of technical terms, however, did not appear until the time of Mālik. ### Step one: The isnād The *isnād*, or ‘support,’ was the essential building-block of the hadith critical method. So essential would the *isnād* be to the Sunni science of hadith criticism that it became the veritable symbol of the ‘cult of authenticity’ that is Sunni Islam. One of the most oft-repeated slogans among hadith critics comes from the famous scholar Ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181/797), who said, “The *isnād* is part of religion; if not for the *isnād*, whoever wanted could say whatever they wanted. But if you ask them, ‘Who told you this?’ they cannot reply.” Al-Shāfiʿī provided a similarly famous declaration, “The person who seeks knowledge without an *isnād*, not asking “Where is this from?,” indeed, he is like a person gathering wood at night. He carries on his back a bundle of wood when there may be a viper in it that could bite him.” Sunnis thus understood the *isnād* as the prime means of defending the true teachings of the Prophet ﷺ against heretics as well as protection from subtle deviations that might slip into Muslims’ beliefs and practice.[^34] The origins of the *isnād* were as commonsense as its function, beginning with the rise of hadith forgery. As the Successor Muhammad ibn Sīrīn (d. 110/729), a leading student of the Companion Anas ibn Mālik, explained: ![Generations of Sunni Hadith Critics ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Figure2-844x1024.png) > In the early period no one would ask about the *isnād*. But when the Strife \[most probably the Second Civil War, 680–692 CE\] began, they would say “Name for us your sources” so that the People of the Sunnah (*ahl al-sunnah*) could be identified and their hadiths accepted, and the People of Heresy (*ahl al-bidʿah*) could be identified and their hadiths ignored.[^35] In the milieu of the early Islamic period, simply demanding an *isnād* for reports attributed to the Prophet ﷺ was an excellent first line of defense against inauthentic material entering Muslim discourse. We can imagine the newly Muslim inhabitants of Kufa, still clinging to Christian or Zoroastrian lore, or even Bedouins eager to insinuate tribal Arab values into Islam, ascribing a saying to the Prophet as evidence for their ideas. If they provided no *isnād* at all, the reports would not enter the *musnad* collections of scholars like Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (d. 204/820). The formative critic Shuʿba is quoted as saying, “All religious knowledge (*ʿilm*) which does not feature ‘he narrated to me’ or ‘he reported to me’ \[the components of the *isnād*\] is just vinegar and sprouts.”[^36] ### Step two: Rating transmitters and establishing contiguous transmission On their own, however, *isnād*s could not deter a determined forger. As we saw with the hadiths on human reason, an *isnād* could be made up or inauthentic material could simply be equipped with an *isnād* and then circulated. Moreover, merely requiring someone to provide a source for a hadith they cited did not tell you if that source was reliable. The second tier of criticism thus involved identifying the individuals who constituted *isnād*s, evaluating their reliability, and then determining if there were any risks that someone unreliable might also have played some part in transmitting the report. #### 1) Transmitter evaluation A hadith transmitter was evaluated according to two criteria. First, his or her character, correct belief, and level of piety were scrutinized in order to determine if he or she was ‘upright’ (ʿ*adl*). Second, and much more importantly, the transmitter’s corpus of reports and narration practices were evaluated to decide if he or she was ‘accurate’ (*ḍābit*). Hadith transmitter criticism (known as *al-jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl*, ‘impugning and approving’) and *isnād* evaluation began in full with the first generation of renowned hadith critics, that of Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Mālik ibn Anas, Sufyān al-Thawrī, al-Layth ibn Saʿd, and Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, who flourished in the mid to late eighth century in the cities of Basra, Kufa, Fustat (modern-day Cairo), Mecca, and Medina (see Figure 2). These scholars began the process of collecting people’s hadith narrations and examining both their bodies of material and their characters to determine if the material they purveyed could be trusted. Mālik is the first scholar known to have used technical terms such as ‘*thiqah*’ (reliable) to describe these narrators, while Shuʿba’s evaluations did not utilize any specialized vocabulary.[^37] The evaluations of this first great generation were studied and added to by their students, especially the two great Basran critics ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī (d. 198/814) and Yahyá ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198/813). The later analyst Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī notes that “whoever they both criticize, by God, rarely do you find that criticism refuted \[by others\], and whoever they both agree on as trustworthy, he is accepted as proof.”[^38] The critical methods and opinions of Ibn Mahdī and al-Qaṭṭān passed on to their three most respected students, who can be seen as the beginning of the heyday of Sunni hadith criticism: Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855) and his friend Yahyá ibn Maʿīn (d. 233/848) in Baghdad and ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī in Basra (d. 234/849). Their students refined hadith criticism into its most exact and lasting form: the ‘Two Shaykhs’ al-Bukhārī and Muslim, the two senior critics of Rayy (modern Tehran), Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (d. 264/878) and his friend Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 277/890), as well as influential younger critics of that generation such as al-Nasāʾī (d. 303/916). The 900s saw several generations of critics who reviewed and reassessed the judgments of these earlier scholars and also continued to evaluate those involved in the ongoing transmission of hadiths: Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 327/938), Ibn ʿAdī (d. 365/975-6), Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī (d. 354/965), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385/995), and al-Hākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/1014). Although the apex and most active period of hadith transmitter criticism is usually considered to be the eighth to tenth centuries, subsequent generations of critics contributed to this science as well. Hadiths were still transmitted with full *isnād*s into the early 1200s, so it was possible until that time for previously unrated hadiths to be in circulation among transmitters. Master hadith scholars like al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463/1071) and Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1176) therefore continued to rate transmitters living in their times. Furthermore, they synthesized, reconciled, and reexamined existing opinions on earlier transmitters. This reconsideration of earlier transmitters’ standing has, in fact, never really ended. If we look at al-Dhahabī’s list of the expert critics whose opinions should be heeded, we find that it continues until al-Dhahabī ’s own time in the 1300s. One of the most commanding critics in the Sunni hadith tradition, ‘the Hadith Master (*al-ḥāfiẓ)*’ Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, died in 852/1449. Hadith transmitter criticism has continued until the modern day. This is possible because, as we shall see, determining if someone was reliable or not had little to do with any personal experience with their character, its flaws, or fine qualities. Ultimately, it was the analysis of the body of their transmissions for corroboration that determined their accuracy (*ḍabt*) and thus their station. How would a hadith critic such as Shuʿbah, al-Bukhārī, or Ibn ʿAdī actually evaluate a transmitter? First, it was essential to know who this transmitter was. If one was presented with a hadith transmitted from ‘someone,’ ‘Aḥmad,’ or ‘a group of people in Medina,’ how could one evaluate the strength of its *isnād*? By the mid 800s it had become accepted convention among hadith critics that a person needed two well-known transmitters to identify him sufficiently, prove that he existed, and narrate hadiths from him in order to qualify for rating. Otherwise, the transmitter would be dismissed as ‘unknown’ (*majhūl*) and the report automatically considered unreliable. Second, the critic would collect all the reports that the transmitter had narrated from various teachers and then analyze them for corroboration, a process known as ‘consideration' (*iʿtibār*). It was here that the *musnad* genre of hadith collection would be very useful, since they were organized not by subject matter but by narrators in the *isnād*s*.* But ultimately a critic would have to rely on a robust memory in order to recall all the different *isnād*s in which the transmitter in question played some part. For every hadith that the transmitter narrated from a certain teacher, the critic asks, “Did this teacher’s other students narrate this report too?” If the critic finds that, for all the teachers that the transmitter narrates from, his fellow students corroborated him for a very high percentage of his hadiths, then he is considered to be reliable in his transmissions. When asked what kind of transmitters should be abandoned as unreliable, Shuʿbah explained: > Someone who narrates excessively from well-known transmitters what these well-known transmitters do not recognize, his hadiths are cast aside. And if he makes a lot of mistakes, his hadiths are cast aside. And if he is accused of forgery (*kādhib*), his hadiths are cast aside. And if he narrates a hadith that is agreed upon as an error, and he does not hold himself accountable for that and reject the report, his hadiths are cast aside.[^39] Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj describes the telltale signs of a weak hadith transmitter as someone who, “when his narrations are compared with those of people known for preservation \[of hadith\] and uprightness of character, his narrations do not concur with their narrations, or do so only rarely. If the majority of his hadiths are like that then he is rejected and not used in hadith.”[^40] Early hadith critics understood very well that no one transmitter was immune from error. Below the level of master transmitters, Ibn Mahdī described a lesser type of narrator “who makes errors, but most of his hadiths are *ṣaḥīḥ*. This kind of person’s hadiths should not be abandoned, for if they were, all the people’s hadiths would disappear.”[^41] Finally, the critic would examine the transmitter’s character, religious beliefs, and piety in order to determine his ‘uprightness’ (ʿ*adālah*). Although later legal theorists would establish very formal requirements for someone to be declared ‘upright,’ such as the requirement widely accepted by Sunnis after the 1200s that the transmitter be “Muslim, of age, of sound mind, free of sinful behavior and defects in honor,” early hadith critics were actually very flexible with determining uprightness. This is most evident in the issue of transmitters who espoused beliefs that Sunnis considered heretical, such as Shiism, belonging to the Kharijite sect, or a belief in free will (*qadar*). Although al-Shāfiʿī had declared that one could accept hadiths from transmitters regardless of their sectarian affiliations as long as they did not belong to certain Shiite sects that allowed lying, by the mid 900s scholars like Ibn Ḥibbān had declared a consensus among Sunni hadith critics that one could accept hadiths from any heretical transmitter provided he was not an extremist and did not actively try to convert others to his beliefs. In theory, this meant that one could accept hadiths from Shiite transmitters as long as they did not engage in virulently anti-Sunni practices such as cursing Abū Bakr or ʿUmar or transmit hadiths that seemed to preach the Shiite message. In truth, however, early hadith critics did not follow these strictures. As the eighteenth-century Yemeni hadith analyst Ibn al-Amīr al-Ṣanʿānī (d. 1768) observed, later theorists had set up principles that did not apply to the realities of early hadith criticism. Al-Bukhārī, the most revered of all hadith critics, narrated two hadiths in his famous *Ṣaḥīḥ* through the extreme Kharijite ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān. In his *Sahīh*, Muslim narrated the hadith that “Only a believer loves ʿAlī, and only a hypocrite hates him” through the known Shiite transmitter ʿAdī ibn Thābit. As we can see, the two uncontested masters of Sunni hadith criticism could narrate hadiths that they considered authentic through extremists and heretics who proselytized for their cause. The explanation for this lies in the priorities of the early hadith critics. Simply put, if a transmitter consistently and accurately passed on hadiths he had heard from the previous generation, hadith critics had little interest in his beliefs or practice. Ibn Maʿīn described the Shiite transmitter ʿAbd al- Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ as “trustworthy, sincere, and Shiite, but who would rather fall from the sky than misrepresent half a word.”[^42] One prominent early hadith transmitter, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah (d. 193/809), became so shamefully intoxicated on one occasion that he had to be carried home on a donkey. Yet he was a reliable transmitter, so his hadiths were accepted.[^43] Although later theorists of the hadith tradition would talk of the two pillars of reliability as ‘uprightness (*ʿadālah*) and accuracy (*ḍabt*),’ al-Sanʿānī rightly pointed out that one should reorder them ‘accuracy and uprightness,’ since the former greatly outweighed the latter.[^44] Ultimately, Sunnis could not escape their dependency on the role of ‘non-Sunnis’ in hadith transmission. The early critic Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845) notes how one Khālid al-Qaṭwānī was a staunch Shiite but that hadith scholars “wrote down his hadiths out of necessity.”[^45] Without such ‘heretics,’ critics knew that few hadiths would ever have been transmitted. Guaranteeing the transmitter’s ‘uprightness’ (*ʿadālah*), however, did have an important function. Regardless of a transmitter’s accuracy, if they were known to have intentionally misrepresented the Prophet ﷺ or forged a hadith, then they could not be trusted. Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Shādhakūnī (d. 234/848-9), for example, was considered to have the most prodigious memory of hadiths in his time and one of the biggest hadith corpora. Yet he was known to have lied about hadiths and altered them to fit certain situations, so he was excluded from transmission. Al-Shādhakūnī was so untrustworthy that when he awed a gathering by claiming that he knew a hadith from Rayy that Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī did not know, people believed that he had just made it up on the spot to impress them.[^46] Although in the eighth and ninth centuries each hadith critic used slightly different and sometimes shifting terms to describe a transmitter’s level of reliability, by the early tenth century a conventional jargon had emerged. Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 327/938) lists the levels as: 1. ‘Reliable’ (*thiqah, mutqin, thabt*) transmitter’s hadiths can be used as proof in legal scholarship with no hesitation 2. ‘Sincere’ (*sadūq, lā baʾs bihi*) transmitter’s hadiths are recorded and can be taken as proof if bolstered or corroborated 3. ‘Venerable’ (*shaykh*) transmitter’s hadiths are used for identifying corroboration depending on strength 4. ‘Righteous’ (*ṣāliḥ*) transmitter’s hadiths are used for identifying corroboration depending on strength 5. ‘Lenient on hadith’ (*layyin al-ḥadīth*) transmitter’s hadiths can be used for identifying corroboration 6. ‘Not strong’ (*laysa bi-qawī*) transmitter’s hadiths can still be used for identifying corroboration 7. ‘Weak’ (*daʿīf*) transmitter’s hadiths can be used to corroborate but not on their own 8. 'Liar, abandoned’ (*matrūk al-ḥadīth, dhāhib al-ḥadīth, kadhdhāb*) transmitter’s hadiths are not used at all.[^47] #### Books of transmitter criticism Hadith transmitter criticism often took place in discussion sessions among critics or with their students, but its results were set down by master critics in dictionaries of transmitter evaluation (*kutub al-rijāl*). Early works include the *Ṭabaqāt al-kubrá* (The Great Book of Generations) of Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845), the *Aḥwāl al-rijāl* (Conditions of the Transmitters) of al-Jūzajānī (d. 259/873), the massive ‘Great History (*al-Tārīkh al-kabīr*)’ of al-Bukhārī, and the *Jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl* of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī. Some books focused specifically on discussing transmitters whom the author felt were reliable; these included al-ʿIjlī’s (d. 261/875) *Tārīkh al-thiqāt* and Ibn Ḥibbān’s *Kitāb al-thiqāt*. Voluminous books were devoted to listing and discussing weak transmitters as well. The most important are the *Kitāb al-duʿafāʾ al-kabīr* of al-Bukhārī (now lost), the *Kāmil fī duʿafāʾ al-rijāl* of Ibn ʿAdī and Ibn Hibbān’s *Kitāb al-majrūḥīn*. Such works presented critics’ opinions of a transmitter along with a selection of the unacceptable narrations that they transmitted. Because they consistently evaluated the reliability of personalities they mention, local histories like al-Khaṭīb’s *History of Baghdad* are also works of transmitter criticism. In the period of consolidation and analysis from the 1300s to the 1600s, later critics amalgamated and digested these earlier works of hadith criticism. ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī (d. 600/1203) wrote his *al-Kamāl fī maʿrifat asmāʾ al-rijāl* (The Perfection in Knowing the Names of Transmitters), presenting earlier descriptions and evaluations of all the transmitters in the Six Books. Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mizzī (d. 742/1341) added to this work and further analyzed the ratings of the transmitters within the Six Books in his *Tahdhīb al-kamāl* (The Refinement of Perfection), published today in thirty-five volumes. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī produced an abridgment of this work with his own comments entitled *Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb* (The Refinement of the Refinement). Scholars like the Egyptian Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804/1401) added the transmitters found in other hadith collections such as the *Musnad*s of Ibn Ḥanbal and al-Shāfiʿī as well as the *Ṣaḥīḥ* of Ibn Khuzaymah and the *Mustadrak* of al-Ḥākim to expanded versions of al-Mizzī’s book. The Ḥanafī scholar of Cairo, Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī (d. 855/1451), devoted a *rijāl* work to the transmitters in al-Ṭaḥāwī’s collections. Other later analysts focused on the subject of weak transmitters. Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī wrote his masterful *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl fī* *naqd* *al-rijāl* (The Fair Scale for Criticizing Transmitters), collecting all the information on any transmitter impugned by earlier figures. Ibn Ḥajar added his own comments in a revision of this work, *Lisān al-mīzān* (The Pointer of the Scale). As we saw in the last chapter, the *isnād*s *to* hadith books could affect the reliability of hadiths in them, especially during the ninth and tenth centuries. Scholars like Ibn Nuqṭah of Baghdad (d. 629/1231) therefore wrote books of transmitter criticism addressing the people who conveyed books from their authors. Ibn Nuqṭah’s *al-Taqyīd fī* *maʿrifat ruwāt al-sunan wa-al-masānīd* and Abū ʿAlāʾ al-Fāsī’s (d. 1770) addendum to that book are examples of this genre. #### Reconciling disagreements among critics With the plethora of transmitter critics from the eighth century on, how was a later critic or analyst supposed to know whose opinion to take on the reliability of a narrator or a hadith? Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767), for example, the author of the famous biography of the Prophet ﷺ, was a very controversial figure. Mālik, Ibn al-Qaṭṭān, Ibn Ḥanbal, and others considered him highly unreliable because he accepted hadiths from questionable narrators as well as Christians and Jews. But Shuʿbah felt he was impeccably reliable, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī named him one of the pivots of hadith transmission in his age, and all the Six Books relied on him as a narrator (though the *Ṣaḥīḥayn* of al-Bukhārī and Muslim only use him for rare backup narrations). Certainly, this created a great potential for disagreement over the reliability of transmitters and, hence, of hadiths themselves. To a certain extent, such disagreement was the inevitable result of the complicated careers of transmitters and the contrasting critical thresholds of the many individual analysts examining them and their reports. One critic could change his mind about a transmitter, as al-Bukhārī did when he reduced Muhammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī’s rating from ‘good’ to ‘weak.’ As the hadith scholar al-Ismāʿīlī (d. 371/981) noted, critics often rated transmitters in relation to certain of their teachers. So a critic might describe a transmitter positively in one place and negatively in another.[^48] In general, however, later analysts erred on the side of caution and operated on the principle that ‘criticism supersedes approval provided that the reason for the criticism is provided.’ There were limits to this, however. Scholars who had personal vendettas against one another—Mālik’s criticism of Ibn Isḥāq was the result of a well-documented personal feud between them—were not accepted as fair critics of one another.[^49] Later analysts were often aware of such issues and took earlier critics’ idiosyncrasies and personal leanings into consideration. Al-Jūzajānī was known to have a vehement dislike for Shiism, so any rejection by him of a transmitter as ‘a heretical Shiite’ was probably an overstatement. If he approved of a transmitter, however, it meant that he was certainly free of any Shiite tendencies. Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī was well known as a very stringent critic—even the seminal legal and hadith scholar al-Shāfiʿī had only merited a ‘sincere (*ṣadūq*)’ rating with him. Ibn Maʿīn was very harsh—once calling a narrator who criticized a Companion a… person who had improper relations with his own mother—so his approval carried great weight.[^50] Ibn ʿAdī was generally very objective. He would limit his evaluations to strict examinations of transmitters’ hadiths for corroboration or its absence. As a result, he would often overturn the disapproval of an earlier critic with a comment such as “I have not found uncorroborated reports among his hadiths.” #### The standing of the Companions The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ achieved a unique place in the worldview of Sunni hadith critics. Although some early historians and transmitters like al-Wāqidī (d. 207/822–3) only considered those who reached adulthood during the lifetime of the Prophet to be Companions, the definition that became accepted by Sunnis was much less strict.[^51] As al-Bukhārī notes in his *Ṣaḥīḥ*, a Companion is anyone who saw the Prophet, even for a moment, while a believer and who then died as a Muslim.[^52] This had tremendous consequences for hadith transmission, for by 900 CE Sunnis considered that all the Companions of the Prophet were automatically ‘upright (ʿ*adl*).’ This belief was based on Qur’anic verses such as “You are the best community brought out for humanity” (*kuntum khayr ummah ukhrijat lil-nās*) (Qur’an 3:110) and Prophetic hadiths such as “The best of generations is the one in which I was sent, then that which follows, then that which follows.” In effect, then, the first generation of hadith transmitters was beyond criticism. In fact, the famous ninth-century hadith critic Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī stated that anyone who criticized a Companion was a heretic.[^53] Later analysts would refine this understanding of the Companions’ uprightness. As Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) explained, the Companions were not perfect—Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah had lied, and Walīd ibn ʿUqbah was a known drunkard. But none had ever lied about the Prophet ﷺ.[^54] Many Sunni scholars have thus understood uprightness as meaning that the Companions’ exposure to the tremendous spiritual charisma of the Prophet prevented them from lying about him but did not prevent other sins.[^55] It is no surprise, then, that Sunni hadith scholars strove to identify who was a Companion. ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī (d. 234/838) wrote an early work (now lost) listing them, to be followed by Ibn Qāniʿ (d. 351/962), Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī, and others. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’s *Iṣābah fī* *maʿrifat al-ṣaḥābah* is the most widely cited biographical dictionary of the Companions. There was great disagreement over the actual number of Companions: al-Shāfiʿī estimated their number at sixty thousand, Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī at over a hundred thousand. In his biographical dictionary of Companions, Ibn Ḥajar listed approximately twelve thousand three hundred. On a practical level, the Companions who actually played a noticeable role in hadith transmission were far fewer: the Six Books include hadiths from only 962 Companions.[^56] The Sunni critics’ view of the Companions was both ideologically driven and practical. Islam was built on the idea that the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ had inherited his authority and passed on his teachings reliably. In that sense, as a group they were above reproach. In terms of hadith criticism, however, the critics’ reach did not extend far enough back to apply the rules of transmitter criticism to the Companions. The earliest critic, al-Zuhrī, had met only the youngest of the Companions, and his hadith criticism mostly addressed the reports he heard from other Successors. Al-Zuhrī, Mālik, and Shuʿbah had direct experience with the Successors, but they had no real way to evaluate the uprightness or accuracy of Companions. In a sense, reports such as Aisha’s aforementioned rejection of hadiths for content reasons represent vestiges of hadith criticism from the Companion generation. #### The chicken and the egg: Who made the early experts experts? The names of the early generations of master hadith critics (Figure 2) overlap to a large extent with those of major hadith transmitters. So did just transmitting a vast number of hadiths make a person a reliable hadith transmitter or an expert critic? The answer seems to be no—just because one was a major transmitter did not mean that one was reliable. Ibn Isḥāq was an essential pivot of hadith transmission in Medina, but it became clear to many critics even in his own lifetime that he was not at all discriminating in what he transmitted. Mālik, on the other hand, only transmitted from two people (ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abī al-Mukhāriq and ʿAtāʾ al-Khurāsānī) that he (and later critics) did not feel were reliable (*thiqah*). Later critics also distinguished between an early critic/transmitter’s own transmissions and his evaluations of others. Al-Zuhrī’s opinions carried great influence, but later critics all agreed that his *mursal* hadiths (see below for a discussion of this term) were too unreliable to use. The great critic Sufyān al-Thawrī regularly narrated hadiths that others considered unreliable, whereas when Shuʿbah transmitted a hadith, it was understood that he believed it was authentic. In a similar vein, in the formative period of Sunni Islam in the ninth century, did hadith scholars such as Ibn Ḥanbal decide which early transmitters to accept based on their Sunni beliefs? Was Sunni hadith criticism just a tool for excluding non-Sunnis? The answers to these questions are certainly ‘no,’ since, as we have seen, Sunni critics regularly accepted the hadiths of people whose beliefs they considered anathema. Beyond merely accepting non-Sunnis as transmitters of hadiths, Sunnis even accepted one as a hadith *critic*. Despite his fervent Shiism, Ibn ʿUqdah (d. 332/944) was listed by staunch Sunnis like al-Dhahabī as “the oceanic hadith scholar,” whose criticisms of transmitters and narrations carried great weight.[^57] #### 2) Contiguity of transmission (al-ittiṣāl) Evaluating the sources of a hadith was of little use, however, if a critic could not be sure who these sources were. If one transmitter had never actually met the person from whom they quoted the hadith, or if it was known that he had not heard *that* hadith from his teacher, then who was the intermediary? With no way to guarantee that intermediary’s reliability, there were endless possibilities for what sort of deviation or forgery could have occurred. Establishing that a hadith had been transmitted by a contiguous, unbroken *isnād* from the Prophet ﷺ was thus as crucial as transmitter reliability for determining the authenticity of a hadith. If it could not be established that the people in the *isnād* had heard from one another, then hadith critics considered the chain of transmission broken (*munqaṭi*ʿ) and thus unreliable. In order to determine if an *isnād* was ‘contiguous’ (*muttaṣil*), hadith critics attempted to identify all the people from whom a narrator had heard hadiths. If a transmitter was not a known liar, then one could infer this from his saying “So-and-so narrated to me” (*ḥaddathanī*), “So-and-so reported to us” (*akhbaranā*), or “I heard from so-and-so” (*samiʿtu min*...). Other phrases for transmission did not necessarily indicate direct transmission. “According to” (ʿ*an*) could mean that someone had heard a hadith directly from the person in question or not. In addition to looking at this terminology, a critic would compare the death date of the teacher with the age of the student and investigate the possibility that they were in the same place at the same time. Because establishing contiguous transmission was so important, by the mid 700s transmitters had become very serious about specifying exactly how hadith transmission occurred. The most accurate forms of direct transmission were either reading a teacher’s hadiths back to him (often indicated by the phrase “he reported to us” (*akhbaranā*’)) or listening to the teacher read his hadiths (often indicated by “he narrated to us” (*ḥaddathanā*’)). If a teacher gave a student his books of hadiths to copy, this was termed “handing over” (*munāwalah*). Although there was debate over whether reading hadiths to a teacher or hearing them read was more accurate, all scholars acknowledged that ‘handing over’ and liberal ‘permission to transmit’ were the most tenuous forms of transmission. Reading a book with no transmission from the teacher at all (“finding” (*wijādah*)) inspired no confidence at all. Transmitters fretted over these forms of narration and often debated the proper terminology. The Ḥanafī al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321/933) wrote a short treatise on how the technical terms ‘*akhbaranā*’ and ‘*ḥaddathanā’* actually meant the same thing (also the opinion of the majority of scholars). When al-Awzāʿī gave a book of hadiths to a student in an act of ‘handing over,’ the student asked, “About this book, do I say ‘*ḥaddathanī*’?” Al-Awzāʿī replied, :”If I narrated it directly to you, then say that.” The student inquired, “So do I say ‘*akhbaranī*’?” Al-Awzāʿī replied that no, he should say “al-Awzāʿī said” or “according to al-Awzāʿī.”[^58] Not all critics agreed on the requirements for a contiguous *isnād*. There was disagreement over whether the phrase “according to” (‘*an* ) should be interpreted as an indication of direct transmission or not. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj claimed that the great hadith critics had all accepted ʿ*an* as indicating direct transmission provided that the two people involved were contemporaries and that it was likely that they had met one another. Others, like Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1070) and al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, claimed that hadith critics had agreed that one needed proof that the two transmitters had actually met at least once. #### Obfuscation in transmission (tadlīs) Critics of the eighth, ninth, and early tenth centuries often attempted to be more exact than just establishing if two transmitters had met. They sought to determine exactly which hadiths certain transmitters had heard from their teachers. Shuʿba thus studied the hadiths of his teacher Qatādah until he found that he had only heard three from his teacher Abū al-ʿĀliyah.[^59] This was especially important in the case of *tadlīs*, or obfuscation in transmission. *Tadlīs* occurred when a transmitter cited an *isnād* in an ambiguous manner, such as saying “so-and-so said,” implying that he had heard the hadith directly from the person when in fact he was omitting his immediate source for the hadith. Transmitters might hide their immediate source because he or she was considered unreliable or espoused beliefs unacceptable in Sunni Islam. *Tadlīs* did not always occur for insidious reasons. If a student had to leave a dictation session to answer nature’s call, for example, he would hear the hadiths that he had missed from a classmate. When narrating those hadiths, however, he might leave out the classmate’s name and simply say “Teacher so-and-so said.” Because *tadlīs* was often innocuous, very few transmitters were totally innocent of it. Only Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj was known to never lapse into it. Identifying *tadlīs* was a primary concern of critics in the eighth century and beyond. By interrogating a transmitter a critic could determine whom he omitted from *isnād*s in instances of *tadlīs*. Transmitters like Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, who only omitted the names of reliable figures, could be trusted even when doing *tadlīs*. Others who often omitted the names of weak narrators, like Ibn Isḥāq, could not be relied upon unless they specified direct transmission.[^60] Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī and Ibn Ḥajar both wrote books discussing *tadlīs* and those accused of it. #### Mursal hadiths Similar to *tadlīs* was the phenomenon of *mursal* hadiths, or instances in which someone quoted the Prophet ﷺ without ever having met him. If a Successor or an early scholar like Mālik said “the Prophet said,” this was clearly an incomplete *isnād* since Mālik never met the Prophet ﷺ. *Mursal* hadiths occurred because, especially in the first few generations of Muslims, scholars were not obsessive about providing detailed *isnād*s for every report all the time. Al-Zuhrī, Mālik, or Abū Ḥanīfah might quote the Prophet while discussing a legal issue informally without bothering to provide an *isnād*. When such *mursal* hadiths were recorded in *muṣannaf* works like the *Muwaṭṭaʾ* or the legal responses of Abū Ḥanīfah, however, they presented a problem for later hadith critics. How should they be treated? Because *mursal* hadiths had incomplete *isnād*s and one could not be sure from whom a Successor was narrating, *mursal*s were almost always considered unreliable by hadith critics. After extensive research on the *mursal* reports of certain early transmitters, however, and attempts to find counterparts to them with full *isnād*s, critics approved of certain transmitters’ *mursal* hadiths. Al-Shāfiʿī concluded that the *mursal*s of the Successor Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab (d. 94/713) were reliable because the source he omitted, his father-in-law Abū Hurayrah, was the most knowledgeable Companion about hadiths. Critics debated the reliability of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī’s *mursal* hadiths—his contemporary Ibn Sīrīn said that al-Ḥasan was totally uncritical about his hadith sources, so his *mursal*s were useless. Yaḥyá al-Qaṭṭān said that he had studied all of al-Ḥasan’s *mursal*s and found versions with full *isnād*s for all but two of them.[^61] Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī composed a whole book entitled *Kitāb al-marāsīl* (The Book of Mursals) in an attempt to determine which Successors had heard hadiths from which Companions. ### Step three: Finding corroboration for the hadith Corroboration had played a central role in determining the reliability of a transmitter—if he narrated hadiths that other students of his source did not, then his reliability was questioned. But a forger could still simply take an *isnād* of a respected transmitter and attach it to a freshly concocted hadith. The third and final step in hadith criticism thus involved looking for corroboration for the hadith itself. Corroboration took two general forms (see Figure 3). Since a ‘hadith’ was generally associated with the Companion who narrated it, another version of the same Prophetic tradition transmitted by a second Companion or an instance of the Prophet ﷺ saying something similar on another occasion were both considered corroboration for a hadith. Such a report was termed a “witness” (*shāhid*). When one transmitter corroborated the report related by another transmitter that they had both heard from a common source, this was termed a “parallelism” (*mutābaʿah*). Hadith scholars described these two forms of corroboration with the aphorism “parallelism bolsters the narration; a witness bolsters the tradition.” A witness report need not be exactly the same tradition as the hadith it supports. Even a report with a different wording but the same meaning corroborated the fact that the Prophet ﷺ had expressed a certain idea or sentiment. Parallelisms solidified the reliability of a particular narration of a hadith. ![Corrobortion](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Figure3-1024x705.png) A famous tenth-century hadith critic, Ibn Hibbān, describes the process of searching for corroboration (called *iʿtibār*, ‘consideration’) thus: > Let us say we come across \[the transmitter\] Ḥammād ibn Salamah, and we see that he has narrated a report from Ayyūb \[al-Sakhtiyānī\], from Ibn Sīrīn, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, but we do not find that report from anyone else from the students of Ayyūb. What is required of us now is to refrain momentarily from criticizing Ḥammād, and to consider what his contemporaries narrated. So we must start by looking at this report: Did Ḥammād’s students in general narrate it from him, or just one of them? If it is the case that his students narrated it from him, then it has been established that Ḥammād really did narrate that report, even if that comes through a weak narrator from him, because that narration is added to the first narration from Ḥammād. So if it has been established correctly that Ḥammād narrated a report from Ayyūb that is not corroborated by others, again we must pause. For it does not follow automatically that there is some weakness here, but rather we must ask: Did any of the reliable transmitters (*thiqāt*) narrate this report from Ibn Sīrīn other than Ayyūb? If we find one, then it has been established that the report has some basis (*aṣl yarjiʿu* *ilayhi*). If not, then we must ask: Did anyone from among the reliable transmitters narrate this report from Abū Hurayrah other than Ibn Sīrīn? If such a narration is found, then it has been established that the report has a basis (*aṣl*). If not, we ask: Did anyone narrate this report from the Prophet ﷺ other than Abū Hurayrah? If so, then it has been established correctly that the report has some basis. But when that is not the case, and the report contradicts the compilations of these three \[people at three levels in the *isnād*\], then it is established without a doubt that the report is forged, and that the lone person who narrated it forged it.[^62] As Ibn Ḥibbān describes, if a report is not corroborated at any one level of the *isnād*, then the reliability of that transmitter’s narration from his source is dubious. If the report is uncorroborated at all levels of the *isnād*, then it is almost certainly totally baseless. If a report was not corroborated either at some level of the *isnād* or from the Prophet ﷺ in general, early hadith critics deemed it “unknown/unacceptable” (*munkar*). Here we see that Muslim critics worked backwards in time when authenticating hadiths. What probably first occurs to readers today is that an *isnād* ‘starts’ with the Prophet and ‘ends’ when the hadith is recorded in a book. But this assumes that the hadith actually existed in the time of the Prophet and that we are merely tracing how it came to us. For a Muslim hadith critic, a hadith was at first just an unverified claim; its *isnād* began with the person who told him the hadith. It only extended backward in time when the critic verified each link in the *isnād*, step by step, until it “reached” (*waṣl*) the Prophet ﷺ. Of course, this process of demanding corroboration took context into consideration. As Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj informs us, “If it has been established that your hadith corpus agrees with those of the other reliable narrators, then narrating some uncorroborated material is acceptable.”[^63] If a transmitter studied with a certain teacher for ten years, then it is not surprising that he might narrate a selection of hadiths from his teacher that students who only studied with him for six months did not recount. The great critic Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī was asked to criticize ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ, the secretary of Layth ibn Saʿd, for having narrated uncorroborated hadiths from Layth. Abū Ḥātim replied sarcastically, “You ask me this about the closest person to Layth, who was with him on voyages and at home and spent much time alone with him?”[^64] But, Muslim continues, if some lesser known transmitter narrated a hadith from a prolific hadith scholar like al-Zuhrī whose numerous and respected students did not recognize that hadith, then that report would be automatically declared “unacceptable” (*munkar*).[^65] Like our modern investigative reporter’s source, however, a transmitter could earn such a level of confidence in the eyes of critics that he could narrate uncorroborated reports without arousing concern. Critics like al-Bukhārī and Ibn ʿAdī had examined the hadiths of master transmitters like al-Zuhrī, Mālik, Ibn al-Mubārak or Qutaybah b. Saʿīd and found that they were corroborated to such a great extent that they could be relied upon for a number of uncorroborated hadiths as well. These figures were so central to hadith transmission in general that if anyone were to have heard a rare hadith, it would be them. An uncorroborated hadith narrated by an *isnād* of such pillars was known as “an authentic rare” (*ṣaḥīḥ gharīb*) hadith. The hadith of Mālik al-Zuhrī Anas that **t**he Prophet entered Mecca upon its conquest with a mail helmet on his head and ordered the killing of Ibn Khaṭal, an infamous enemy of Islam, was known only by this *isnād*. Because this hadith was narrated by transmitters whose collections of hadiths were vaster than almost any other people of their time, this hadith was considered authentic even though it was uncorroborated.[^66] Conversely, less stellar figures inspired no such confidence. As al-Tirmidhī explained, “Anyone from whom a hadith is narrated who is accused \[of poor performance in hadith\] or is criticized as weak in hadiths for his lack of carefulness and numerous mistakes, if that hadith is only known through that narration, it cannot be used as proof.” So the hadith narrated by the lone *isnād* of Nāṣiḥ al-ʿAjamī, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from Jābir ibn Samurah, from the Prophet ﷺ: “For a man to teach his child proper manners is better than to give a whole bushel in charity” (*laʾan yuʾaddiba al-rajul waladahu khayr min an* *yataṣaddaqa bi-ṣāʿ*) was considered unacceptable (*munkar*) because neither Nāṣiḥ nor Simāk were consistently reliable transmitters.[^67] --- ## Books of ʿIlal al-Ḥadīth Even when an *isnād* looked perfect, early hadith critics did not completely ignore the need for comparing it with other narrations of the report. As the eleventh-century critic al-Khalīlī (d. 446/1054) warned, “Even if a hadith is provided to you with an *isnād* from al-Zuhrī or another one of the masters, do not declare it authentic merely because of that *isnād*, for even a reliable transmitter (*thiqah*) can err.”[^68] By comparing different versions of the same hadith, critics could uncover flaws, known as ʿ*ilal*, which might have evaded the best transmitter. Such flaws included one narration of a hadith adding additional words into the text of the report that were not found in more reliable versions. A very common flaw was that one narrator would confuse a Companion’s or Successor’s statement with a Prophetic hadith. The great ʿ*ilal* critic of Baghdad, al-Dāraquṭnī, found such an error in Muslim’s famous *Ṣaḥīḥ*. By examining all the narrations of a report describing how God will grant the believers a vision of Himself on the Day of Judgment, al-Dāraquṭnī concluded that these were actually the words of the Successor ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn Abī Laylá (d. 82/701–2) and not of the Prophet ﷺ himself.[^69] To uncover these ʿ*ilal*, a critic would gather all the narrations of a hadith and attempt to determine which ones were the most reliable. If the majority of respected transmitters, for example, reported that a certain saying was the statement of a Companion, even one strong *isnād* tracing that report back to the Prophet ﷺ would be considered a mistake. This advanced level of seeking out corroboration and comparing narrations was set down in books of ʿ*ilal*, a genre that flourished in the ninth and tenth centuries. The ʿ*ilal* works of ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Ibn Ḥanbal, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī were very famous, but the massive ʿ*ilal* book of al-Dāraqutnī, published in eleven volumes, dwarfs them all. After the 1000s, ʿ*ilal* books became rare, and only unusually competent later critics like the Moroccan Ibn al-Qaṭṭān al-Fāsī (d. 628/1231) or Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201) produced them. ʿ*Ilal* criticism was only possible for critics in the early period when hadiths were still narrated by full *isnād*s and critics had access to reams of notes from dictation sessions holding versions of reports that may not have survived into later times.[^70] As al-Suyūṭī admitted, by the 1400s hadith critics did not have the vast array of *muṣannaf*s, hadith notebooks, and dictation sessions available to a scholar like al-Dāraquṭnī. Such later scholars could only judge hadiths based on material they received from earlier critics.[^71] --- ## Content criticism: The hidden component of early hadith criticism When we think of how one should evaluate the reliability of things we hear, we focus on their content as much as their source. Even the most trustworthy source would arouse suspicion if he announced that aliens had landed in his backyard. Yet when we thumb through books of transmitter criticism or ʿ*ilal*, one of the most obvious characteristics of early hadith criticism is that early scholars *almost never* discussed the contents of hadith, let alone explicitly rejected a hadith because its meaning was unacceptable. Why is this? Certainly, the esteem in which Muslims held Muhammad ﷺ and their belief that God spoke to him of the distant past and events to come affected their approach to criticizing hadiths. Unlike a modern person skeptically dismissing the sayings of a television psychic, a Muslim critic would not declare a report attributed to the Prophet ﷺ to be a forgery simply because it described something that average people could not know. Nonetheless, we know that early critics like al-Bukhārī and Muslim were willing and able to reject a hadith because they found its contents inherently flawed. In his entry on the transmitter ʿAwn ibn  ʿUmārah al-Qaysī in his ‘Great Book of Weak Transmitters,’ al-Bukhārī noted that one of the unacceptable hadiths he narrated was “The signs of the Day of Judgment are after the year 200/815.” Al-Bukhārī rejects the hadith because “these two hundred years have passed, and none of these signs have appeared.”[^72] In another work on transmitters, al-Bukhārī criticizes Muhammad ibn Fadāʾ because he narrated the hadith “The Prophet forbade breaking apart Muslim coins in circulation.” Al-Bukhārī notes that Muslims did not mint coins until early Umayyad times; “they did not exist at the time of the Prophet.”[^73] Muslim bin al-Ḥajjāj rejects a hadith saying that there are five chapters of the Qur’an that are the equivalent of one-fourth of the holy book—a total of five-fourths. He calls this logical contradiction “reprehensible, and it is not conceivable that its meaning is correct.”[^74] But why were such instances of content criticism so rare? To answer this question, we have to remember that Sunni hadith criticism emerged in the context of intense ideological struggle between the *ahl al-ḥadīth* and the school of early Muslim rationalists, known as the Muʿtazila. For the Muʿtazila, the only sources on which one could rely to interpret properly Islamic law and dogma were the Qur’an, reports from the Prophet ﷺ that were so well-known they could not possibly be forged, and human reason (ʿ*aql*). In order to know if any hadith was authentically from the Prophet, Muʿtazilite scholars like Abū al-Qāsim al-Balkhī (d. 319/931) believed that it had to agree with the Qur’an and reason. For Muʿtazilites, the idea that one could examine the *isnād* of the hadith to know if it was reliable or not was preposterous. The Muʿtazilite master Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (d. 303/915–16) was once asked to evaluate two hadiths narrated through the same *isnād*. He declared the first hadith authentic but rejected the second as false. When a surprised student asked al-Jubbāʾī, “Two hadiths with the same *isnād*, you authenticate one and reject the other?,” al-Jubbāʾī replied that the second one could not be the words of the Prophet ﷺ because “the Qur’an demonstrates its falsity, as does the consensus of the Muslims and the evidence of reason.”[^75] The *ahl al-ḥadīth*’s understanding of man’s relationship to religion was the converse. Only by submitting oneself completely to the uncorrupted ways of the Prophet ﷺ and early Muslim community as transmitted through the *isnād* could one truly obey God and His Messenger. Unlike the Muʿtazilah, whom they saw as arrogantly glorifying human reason, or the *ahl al-raʾy*, whom they viewed as rejecting or accepting hadiths arbitrarily when it suited their legal opinion, the *ahl al-ḥadīth* perceived themselves as “cultivating the ways of the Messenger, fending off heretical innovation and lies from revealed knowledge.”[^76] It was not man’s right to question the revealed religion that the Prophet ﷺ brought and that was preserved through the *isnād*. As al-Zuhrī expressed, “From God comes the message; upon the Messenger of God is its delivery; and upon us is submission.”[^77] We thus find the Companion ʿImrān ibn Ḥusayn (d. 52/672) instructing new Muslims that the Prophet ﷺ had said, “Whoever is grieved for excessively \[by his family\] will be punished \[for that\]” (*man yunāhu* *ʿalayhi yuʿadhdhab*). When a person questioned the reasonableness of this notion, ʿImrān replied, “The Messenger of God has spoken the truth, and you have disbelieved!”[^78] A defender of the *ahl al-ḥadīth* against the Muʿtazilah, Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889) states: > We do not resort except to that to which the Messenger of God resorted. And we do not reject what has been *transmitted authentically* from him because it does not accord with our conjectures or seem correct to reason... we hope that in this lies the path to salvation and escape from the baseless whims of heresy.[^79] But we know from the examples above that early Sunni hadith critics did note problems in the meanings of certain hadiths. Human reason cannot simply be switched off. Nor should it be, since Abraham had rejected idolatry and embraced the worship of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth by using reason to observe nature and ponder what God *must* be (Qur’an 6:76-9). In the context of their debate with the Mu‘tazila, however, it is clear why the *ahl al-ḥadīth* could not criticize the meaning of hadiths *openly*. The whole purpose of the *isnād* was to guarantee that the Prophet ﷺ said something without relying on man’s flawed reason. If hadith critics admitted that a hadith could have an authentic *isnād* but still be a forgery because its meaning was unacceptable, then they would be admitting that their rationalist opponents were correct. Hadith critics dealt with this by assuming that a problem in the meaning of a hadith was really a symptom of a flaw in the *isnād.* If you could not have a strong *isnād* with a forged report, then any problem in the meaning of a hadith *must* mean that there was a problem in the *isnād*. When *ahl al-ḥadīth* critics like al-Bukhārī came across a hadith whose meaning they found unacceptable, they examined the *isnād* to find how the error occurred and listed the hadith in the biography of that transmitter as evidence of his weakness. Ibn ʿAdī often states that the questionable hadiths that a certain transmitter narrates “demonstrate that he is unreliable.” --- ## The emergence of mawḍūʿāt books and open content criticism after 1100 CE Because early hadith criticism was so openly focused on the *isnād* as the primary means of authentication, it was very often difficult to tell when a critic was rejecting a whole Prophetic tradition or just one narration of that hadith. The term “unacceptable” (*munkar*) for a hadith could mean that this version of the hadith narrated through a certain *isnād* was unreliable but other authentic versions existed, or that the tradition was entirely forged. Another phrase used to reject a hadith, “it has no basis” (*laysa lahu aṣl*), could mean that the hadith had no basis from that transmitter (but was well established from others) or that that particular tradition was baseless in general. But even concluding that the terms *munkar* or *lā* *aṣl lahu* denoted ‘forged’ does not necessarily mean that the critic found the meaning of the hadith in question unacceptable. As Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463/1070) explained, “How many hadiths are there with a weak *isnād* but a correct meaning?”[^80] Al-Tirmidhī notes that Yaḥyá al-Qaṭṭān had declared the following hadith narrated by Anas to be *munkar*: “A man said, ‘O Messenger of God, should I tie up \[the camel\] and trust in God or leave it free and trust in God?’’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Tie it up and trust in God.’” Al-Tirmidhī adds that this report was totally baseless from Anas, “but its likes have been narrated from another Companion ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī, from the Prophet.”[^81] Starting in the late 1000s, however, as the Muʿtazilite rationalist threat faded from view and Sunni Islam emerged triumphant, hadith critics began writing books that rejected whole Prophetic traditions, often because their meanings were unacceptable. These books were known as works of *mawdūʿāt*, which listed ‘*mawdū*ʿ,’ or ‘forged’ hadiths. The earliest known *mawdū*ʿ*āt* book, unfortunately lost to us, was that of Abū Saʿīd al-Naqqāsh al-Iṣbahānī (d. 414/1023).[^82] The earliest surviving one is the *Tadhkirat al-mawḍūʿāt* of Muhammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī (d. 507/1113). Perhaps the most famous *mawḍūʿāt* work is the huge *Kitāb al-mawḍūʿāt* of Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201). *Mawḍūʿāt* books flourished in later Islamic times, with well-known works including the *Aḥādīth al-daʿīfah* of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328), the *al-Laʾālī* *al-masnūʿah* of al-Suyūtī, the *Asrār al-marfūʿah* of Mullā ʿAlī Qārī (d. 1014/1606), the *Fawāʾid al-majmūʿah* of the Yemeni Muhammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1834), and the *Kitāb al-āthār al-marfūʿa* of the Indian ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Laknawī (d. 1886-7). Some of these scholars wrote books on forged hadiths designed to be useful references for non-experts. ʿUmar ibn Badr al-Mawṣilī (d. 622/1225), for example, wrote the book *Sufficing One from Memorization and Books on Issues on* *which there are No Reliable Hadīths* (*al-Mughnī ʿan al-hifẓ wa-al-kitāb fīmā lam yaṣiḥḥa shayʾ fī al-bāb*). Early *mawḍūʿāt* books listed hadiths along with the *isnād* flaws that showed they were forged, relying on the criticisms of specific narrations made by the likes of al-Bukhārī and Ibn ʿAdī. This was highly problematic, since these books implied that any hadith with that wording was forged, while there might be other, sound narrations. In the mid twelfth century the genre began shifting to openly rejecting hadiths because of their meaning. The *mawdūʿāt* book of al-Jawzaqānī (d. 543/1148–9), for example, states “Every hadith that contradicts the Sunnah is cast away and the person who says it is rejected as a transmitter.”[^83] This process reached a plateau with the *al-Manār al-munīf fī al-ṣaḥīḥ wa-al-daʿīf* (The Lofty Lighthouse for Authentic and Weak Hadiths), the *mawḍūʿāt* book of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 751/1350), who devoted a large section of the work to listing all the features of a hadith’s contents that demonstrated it was forged. Of course, freely engaging in content criticism was opening a Pandora’s box. A critic might fall into exactly that trap that the early *ahl al-ḥadīth* claimed they were avoiding: making man’s flawed reason the arbiter of religious truth. Although later critics would maintain, as Ibn al-Jawzī states, that “any hadith that you see contradicting reason or fundamental principles \[of Islam\], know that it is forged,” they would also insist that one should not be too hasty in such judgments. After all, the critic might not have grasped the proper way of reconciling such contradictions.[^84] A few Sunni hadith critics in the later period, such as al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) and ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghumārī (d. 1993), seemed at ease openly rejecting hadiths based on their contents, sometimes even when their *isnād*s seemed sound. But the mainstream Sunni tradition is much better exemplified by scholars like al-Suyūṭī and Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī. The former warned that a hadith could be rejected due to its contents only after all efforts to reconcile its meaning with the Qur’an and established Sunnah had failed. And “the door of possible interpretation is definitely wide,” added al-Qārī. Prominent scholars declared a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ dreamt he saw God as a beardless youth to be a blatant forgery due to its anthropomorphism. Al-Qārī replied that dreams are merely symbolic, not reality. Thus, he argued, the hadith’s meaning was sound.[^85] This tension between submitting one’s reason to a transmitted text and using one’s reason to evaluate the text’s authenticity has furnished fertile ground for debate among Muslim scholars until today. --- ## Levels of hadith, their uses, and the priorities of the hadith tradition From the time of Mālik (d. 179/795) to the late ninth century, hadith critics conceived of hadiths as falling between two poles in terms of the strength of their *isnād*s: *ṣaḥīḥ* (‘sound,’ ‘authentic’) and *daʿīf*/*saqīm* (‘weak’ or ‘unsound,’ literally ‘sick’). In terms of their level of corroboration, critics described hadiths as being ‘well-known’ (*mashhūr*) or ‘unacceptable, unknown’ (*munkar*). A hadith that was declared *ṣaḥīḥ* or *mashhūr* represented the authenticated words of the Prophet ﷺ, while weak or *munkar* hadiths were those not fully established as emanating from him. It is difficult to know exactly how early hadith critics defined *ṣaḥīḥ* hadiths, since they were very laconic in their works. Ibn Khuzaymah defined the hadiths that he selected for his *ṣaḥīḥ* collection as those “that an upright (*ʿadl*) transmitter narrates from another upstanding transmitter continuously to \[the Prophet\] without any break in the *isnād* or any impugning of the transmitters.”[^86] Later analysts such as Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245) and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449) examined the methodologies of the early masters and defined a *ṣaḥīḥ* hadith as one narrated by an unbroken *isnād* of reliable (*thiqah*) transmitters, namely those who combined upstandingness and accuracy, all the way back to Prophet ﷺ without any concealed flaws (ʿ*ilal*) or contradicting a more reliable source.[^87] For hadith scholars of the eighth and ninth centuries, any hadith that did not reach the standard of *ṣaḥīḥ* was declared ‘weak.’ The category of ‘weak’ hadiths was thus very broad, ranging from hadiths whose *isnād*s suggested they were forged to those with relatively minor flaws (see Figure 1). This helps explain why *ahl al-ḥadīth* jurists like Ibn Ḥanbal were willing to employ hadiths they themselves described as ‘weak’ for deriving laws when no other evidence was available. The later scholar of Ibn Hanbal’s school of law, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328), explains that weak hadiths fell into one of two categories: 1) those that did not have a *ṣaḥīḥ isnād* but were still reliable enough that one could use them in law, 2) hadiths that were so unreliable that they had to be set aside.[^88] Beginning with the work of al-Bukhārī’s student Abū ʿĪsá al-Tirmidhī (d. 279/892), hadith scholars developed a new name to describe the hadiths that were not *ṣaḥīḥ* but still strong enough to use as proof in Islamic law: *ḥasan*, or ‘fair.’ Al-Tirmidhī describes a *ḥasan* hadith as one that “does not have in its *isnād* someone who is accused of lying or forgery, is not anomalous (*shādhdh*), and is narrated via more than one chain of transmission.”[^89] For al-Tirmidhī, a *ḥasan* hadith was thus a report whose *isnād* was not *seriously* flawed and enjoyed corroboration through other narrations, which mitigated the chances of a serious error creeping into the text of the report. The later jurist and hadith scholar al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 388/998) described *ḥasan* hadiths as those “with an established basis and whose transmitters were well-known.”[^90] All Sunni scholars have accepted both *ṣaḥīḥ* and *ḥasan* hadiths as compelling proofs in matters of law. The subject of theology was more contested, and there was prolonged debate over whether hadiths narrated through a handful of *isnād*s were reliable enough to inform Islamic dogma. Just as we do today, Muslim critics felt that certain topics required more strenuous efforts at authentication than others. From the times of early critics and *ahl al-ḥadīth* jurists like Ibn al-Mubārak and Ibn Ḥanbal, it was accepted that hadiths that were not reliable enough to be admitted in discussions of law could still be used for other purposes. When Ibn al-Mubārak was asked what to do with the hadiths of one weak narrator, he replied that they should not be used as proof in legal discussions. “It is still,” however, “possible to narrate from him what he has \[said\] on issues like good manners (*adab*), goodly preaching (*mawʿiẓah*), pious abstemiousness (*zuhd*), and such things.”[^91] Ibn Ḥanbal stated: > If we are told hadiths from the Messenger of God concerning what is permissible and forbidden, the *sunan* and laws, then we are strict with their *isnād*s. But if we are told hadiths from the Prophet about the virtues of certain acts (*faḍāʾil al-aʿmāl*), or what does not create a rule or remove one, then we are lax with the *isnād*s.[^92] In addition to moralizing or exhortatory preaching, the standards for hadith authenticity also dropped for genres outside what was considered the purview of *musnad* hadiths, or hadiths with full *isnād*s originating with the Prophet ﷺ and generally addressing legal issues. These included stories about the Prophet’s campaigns and the subsequent Islamic conquests (*maghāzī*), reports from Companions and Successors about the meanings of Qur’anic words or the contexts in which Qur’anic verses were revealed (*tafsīr*), and stories foretelling the end of days (*malāḥim*). As Ibn Ḥanbal stated, these three genres “had no basis” (*aṣl*)—namely, they often consisted of statements made by Companions or Successors. In other words, they were often not Prophetic hadiths at all.[^93] ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unnamed.png) Even when such reports were attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, the critics’ standards were lax. *Maghāzī*, along with what emerged as the genre of ‘history’ (*tārīkh*), demanded less rigor because scholars did not feel that they impacted the core of the Islamic tradition: law, dogma, and ritual. *Malāḥim* hadiths, like hadiths dealing with good manners or urging Muslims to do good deeds, were admitted for use in teaching even if their contents were not reliable, because they encouraged Muslims to fear God. Here we can note a remarkable feature of the way in which Sunni Muslims understood the boundaries of religion and prioritized the functions of scripture. Today we consider the stories that religious traditions tell about the apocalypse and the means by which they propagate a moral vision of the world to be essential dimensions of a faith. For Muslims in the classical period, however, they were merely tools by which scholars could purvey the true substance of Islam, which the hadith tradition was designed to preserve: law, ritual, and essential beliefs about God. --- ## Enter legal theory: Muslim legal theorists and their effect on hadith criticism *Ahl al-ḥadīth* jurists like al-Shāfiʿī, his student Ibn Ḥanbal, and *his* student al-Bukhārī understood well that one could not simply take every hadith that one heard from the Prophet ﷺ as the law. Even if a legal hadith was authentic, the Prophet could have said it in a specific circumstance, intended it for a specific person, or changed the ruling mentioned in the hadith later on. Senior scholars were thus venerated not only for their knowledge of hadiths, but also for their ability to understand how those hadiths related to one another, fit under, added to or modified Qur’anic rulings. Early expressions of the *ahl al-ḥadīth* legal theory appear in the chapter of al-Bukhārī’s *Ṣaḥīḥ* on holding fast to the Qur’an and Sunnah, and most eminently in al-Shāfiʿī’s works the *Umm* and the *Risālah*. Another tradition of legal theory developed parallel to that of the *ahl al-ḥadīth*. Ḥanafī jurists of the ninth century, many of whom subscribed to the Muʿtazilite rationalist outlook, derived this system partially from the Hellenistic tradition of philosophy prevalent in the Near East before Islam. In addition to the *ahl al-ḥadīth* division of hadiths into *ṣaḥīḥ*/*ḥasan*/*daʿīf* or *mashhūr*/*munkar*, the Ḥanafī/Muʿtazilite school of legal theory elaborated a gradated system based on the level of certainty that various forms of reports conveyed. Reports about the past, whether hadiths or simply historical accounts, that were so widespread that they could not have been forged by any one group were called *mutawātir* (massive parallel transmission) and yielded epistemologically certain knowledge (*ʿilm yaqīn*). One might not have ever actually gone to China, but the number of reports that one has heard about it convey utter certainty that the place actually exists. There was a wide range of opinions among Muʿtazilite scholars about how many transmissions of a report were required to make it *mutawātir*, with scholars asserting anywhere from four (the number of witnesses required in Islamic law to prove a case of adultery) to seventy (the number of people believed to have accompanied Moses up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments). This number was required at every stage of transmission. Any hadith that did not fulfill the requirements for a *mutawātir* hadith was known as *āḥād*, or a hadith of individual narrators. Unlike *mutawātir* hadiths, *āḥād* hadiths only yielded strong probability (*ẓann*) of what the report described. As we have seen, Muʿtazilites had no compunction about making content criticism the centerpiece of their method of hadith evaluation. The Ḥanafī judge ʿĪsá ibn Abān (d. 221/836) thus argued that the early Muslim community rejected *āḥād* reports that contradicted the Qur’an or established Sunnah, or that described an event that would have been more widely reported had it really occurred. He also makes the verdict of reason the ultimate arbiter for judging the veracity of a report, not the *isnād*.[^94] Although Sunnis considered Muʿtazilism to be a heresy, Muʿtazilite legal theory and its perspective on hadiths had a major impact on Sunni legal theory. A seminal figure in Sunni legal theory and theology, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/935–6), was a former Muʿtazilite who had embraced the Sunni theological worldview and then used Muʿtazilite rationalism to defend it. The major architects of what is known as the *Jumhūr* (Majority) school of Sunni legal theory followed in his footsteps, essentially tailoring Mu‘tazilite thought to the contours of Sunni belief. In the early 1000s, two of the most influential Shāfiʿī legal theorists, al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025) and his student Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī (d. 436/1044), were actually Muʿtazilites in their conception of knowledge and theology. Their works in this field greatly informed the scholars who defined Sunni legal theory after them, such as al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) and his student Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111). With the work of the hadith master al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463/1071), the Muʿtazilite-inspired thinking of Sunni legal theorists entered Sunni hadith criticism. Specifically, al-Khaṭīb and all the theorists of hadith criticism who followed him adopted the division of hadiths into *mutawātir* and *āḥād* along with the levels of certainty they yielded. *Mutawātir* hadiths yielded total certainty that the Prophet ﷺ had in fact said the report, while *āḥād* hadiths yielded only strong probability. This was, however, strong enough for them to be used in deriving law. Sunni legal theorists introduced a middle tier between *āḥād* and *mutawātir* dubbed ‘widespread’ (*mashhūr* or *mustafīḍ*). These hadiths were reports that started out as *āḥād*, being transmitted by only a few people in the first few generations, before spreading out and becoming *mutawātir*. But because these hadiths had been accepted as reliable by the community of scholars, they were known to be authentic. This was based on the Sunni belief, phrased in the Prophet’s words, that “God will not let my community agree on an error.” Hadith criticism also absorbed the principles of content criticism described by Ibn Abān. The result of this merging was a composite tradition that joined two perspectives on hadith criticism that were originally in opposition, if not antithetical, to one another. Since the eleventh century, Sunni hadith criticism has therefore produced many internal contradictions. The most prominent display of this has been theories of hadith criticism that do not correspond to the work of hadith critics. We have already seen how the Sunni legal theorist’s definition of upstanding character (*ʿadālah*) did not apply at all to the criteria that early hadith critics like al-Bukhārī used to determine the reliability of a narrator. In terms of content criticism, al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī affirms the principles derived from Ibn Abān. Not once, however, in the course of his criticism of the thousands of hadiths in his vast *History of Baghdad* does al-Khaṭīb openly reject a hadith because its contents were unacceptable! As mentioned earlier, it was not until the *mawḍūʿāt* work of al-Jawzaqānī (d. 543/1148-9) and those who followed him that Sunni hadith critics actually overtly applied rules of content criticism in the course of their hadith evaluations. Even then their use of content criticism was fraught with tension. Essentially every Sunni hadith scholar since al-Khaṭīb has upheld Ibn Abān’s rules of content criticism. But few have applied them.[^95] The categories of *mutawātir* and *āḥād* were similarly unsuitable for the hadith tradition, for essentially all hadiths were *āḥād*. As Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245), the most famous scholar of hadith criticism in the later period, explained, at most one hadith (“Whoever lies about me intentionally, let him prepare for himself a seat in Hellfire”) would meet the requirements for *mutawātir*.[^96] No hadiths could actually be described as being narrated by a large number of narrators at every stage of their transmission. In fact, when Muʿtazilites had insisted that hadiths be transmitted by a mere two people at every stage, the Sunni Ibn Ḥibbān accused them of trying to destroy the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ in its entirety.[^97] --- ## The ‘Big Tent’ of the late Sunni tradition: Increased acceptance and use of weak hadiths The absorption of Muʿtazilite legal theory into the Sunni hadith tradition in the 1000s is indicative of the major changes that occurred in the later period of hadith criticism. From the eleventh century onward, hadith criticism would be characterized by an increasing distance from the methods of early critics. Especially with the solidification of the Late Sunni Tradition (the four *madhhab*s, dominance of Ashʿarī/Māturīdī theology, and Sufism) in the 1300s, we can see a tendency towards authenticating more and more hadiths that had previously been considered outside the pale of usage. Partially explained by the broader perspective enjoyed by later critics and partially justified by manipulations of the methods of hadith critics, hadith criticism became an increasingly ‘Big Tent’ of inclusivity. We note the beginning of the critical laxity of the later period in the *Mustadrak* collection of al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/1014), in which the author claimed he had collected thousands of hadiths that met the authenticity requirements of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. In reality, however, al-Ḥākim’s methods of authentication fell far short of those of his two predecessors. He declared a hadith authentic if its *isnād* consisted of transmitters used in the *Ṣaḥīḥayn* or transmitters similar to them. The later analyst Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zaylaʿī (d. 762/1361), however, uncovered the weakness at the heart of al-Hākim’s strategy: he had relied on the same transmitters as al-Bukhārī and Muslim, but he did not examine the hadiths for corroboration or ensure contiguous transmission.[^98] According to al-Dhahabī, only half of the *Mustadrak*’s contents were actually authentic. The other half were of dubious reliability.[^99] Neglecting the need for corroboration has been a hallmark of later hadith criticism. Whereas a critic like al-Bukhārī would accept a hadith narrated by only one chain of transmission as long as it consisted of master scholars like al-Zuhrī and Mālik, later critics often authenticated hadiths based on only one chain regardless of the inferior standing of some transmitters. Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn ʿAdī, and other early critics had declared the hadith saying that “The most truthful speech is that said after sneezing” was weak or forged. In the thirteenth century, however, al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) argued for its reliability based on a solitary narration from the *Musnad* of Abū Yaʿlá al-Mawṣilī (d. 307/919) even though one of its transmitters had been severely impugned.[^100] Later critics did have one tangible advantage over earlier critics. A later scholar like Ibn Ḥajar or al-Suyūṭī had access to works that consolidated and synthesized the vast and diverse expanse of the hadith corpus as well as collections that might not have been within reach of an early critic. Where early critics like al-Bukhārī or al-Tirmidhī had access to only some narrations of a Prophetic tradition when they declared it weak, in the 1400s Ibn Ḥajar could take into consideration additional narrations that might raise that hadith to *ḥasan* or *ṣaḥīḥ* status. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ used the term ‘*ḥasan* due to other narrations’ (*ḥasan* *li-ghayrihi*) and ‘authentic due to other narrations’ (*ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrihi*) to describe this procedure. The twentieth-century Moroccan hadith scholar Aḥmad al-Ghumārī (d. 1960) exemplified later scholars’ access to material out of the reach of an early critic by writing a book entitled *Not So* (*Laysa kadhālik*), in which he used new evidence to rebut a series of statements that early critics like Ibn Ḥanbal made about transmitters and hadiths. Of course, while later critics could authenticate a hadith that had previously been considered unreliable, the opposite was theoretically very difficult. When al-Bukhārī judged a hadith to be *ṣaḥīḥ*, his decision was based on information about the hadith that may have been subsequently lost to history. As Ibn Taymiyyah explains, “whatever hadiths reached \[early scholars\] and that they deemed authentic may only have come down to us through unknown transmitters, broken *isnād*s or not at all.”[^101] How, then, could a later scholar question the authentication of an earlier master? Not all the previously inaccessible evidence to which later hadith critics had access, however, was reliable according to the hadith critical method. Scholars of the Late Sunni Tradition made large numbers of hadiths admissible in religious discourse by exploiting the tremendous range of questionable hadiths found in the late *musnad* collections of the tenth to twelfth centuries as well as the principle that weak hadiths were acceptable as proof on non-legal issues. Basing their argument on the above-mentioned stance of early masters like Ibn Ḥanbal, leading late Sunni scholars like al-Nawawī and al-Suyūṭī all agreed that as long as a hadith was not forged it could be used in any discussion not concerning theology or the prohibition and permissibility of an act.[^102] In order to raise a hadith to the level of admissibility in such cases, all a scholar had to do was prove that it was not forged—proving that it was merely ‘weak’ sufficed. This was the course of action that al-Suyūṭī admitted to taking when he presented hadiths supporting his argument that the Prophet’s parents were destined for Heaven even though they had never known Islam during their lives. In order to rehabilitate a hadith that critics had earlier declared a forgery, one had to provide evidence that it had some ‘basis’ (*aṣl*) in the early Islamic tradition. For example, even though there might not be enough evidence to trace a hadith authentically to the Prophet ﷺ, a weak hadith might be the result of a Companion’s statement or an early legal ruling that had accidentally been attributed to Muhammad. It was still a legitimate indicator of proper Islamic values. The most frequently cited sources for finding such an ‘*aṣl*’ for a hadith were the *Musnad al-Shihāb* of al-Quḍāʿī (d. 454/1062) and the *Musnad al-Firdaws* of al-Daylamī (d. 558/1163), both late works infamous for the unreliability of their contents. When Mullā ʿAlī Qārī argued for accepting the hadith “Wiping one’s neck \[during ablutions\] is protection against fetters \[on the Day of Judgment\]” (*masḥ al-raqabah amān min al-ghill*), which al-Nawawī had said was forged and which other critics had declared a Companion statement, he announced that a Prophetic version was found in the *Musnad al-Firdaws* and thus that the hadith was weak, not forged. “And weak hadiths,” he added, “are acted on by consensus for establishing the virtues of actions.”[^103] When attempting to raise a weak hadith to the status of ‘*ḥasan* due to other narrations,’ the evidence to which later critics often resorted were the narrations that earlier critics like Ibn ʿAdī or al-Bukhārī had listed in their weak transmitter collections to show a certain person’s flawed hadiths. Although the early masters Ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī , al-Tirmidhī, Ibn ʿAdī, al-Dāraquṭnī, and al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī all declared that various versions of the hadith “I am the city of knowledge and ʿAlī is its gate**”** were baseless, later critics such as al-ʿAlāʾī (d. 761/1359), Ibn Ḥajar, and al-Suyūṭī all agreed that, when taken together, these narrations made the hadith *ḥasan*.[^104] The final means by which hadiths achieved exaggerated authority in the Late Sunni Tradition was the exploitation of the concept of *mutawātir* reports. It was accepted by consensus among Sunni scholars that if a report had reached the level of *mutawātir* it was utterly certain that the Prophet ﷺ had said it. Although scholars like Ibn al-Salāh had declared that no such hadith existed in actuality, al-Suyūṭī composed a collection titled *al-Azhār al-mutanāthirah fī* *al-aḥādīth al-mutawātirah* (The Scattered Flowers of Massively Transmitted Hadiths) in which he included 111 hadiths he declared *mutawātir* because ten or more Companions had narrated them from the Prophet. But a *mutawātir* hadith had to have such a number of *isnād*s at every level of transmission, and not all the chains of transmission that al-Suyūṭī used as evidence were reliable to begin with. Because the concept of *mutawātir* was so ambiguous, later critics could abuse the label to argue for the undeniable authenticity of a hadith they were citing. How do we explain seemingly deceptive tactics like the exploitation of weak hadiths by late Sunni scholars? Were they not pious defenders of the hadith tradition, whose whole purpose was “to ward off lies from the Prophet of God”? Although we might note that the Late Sunni Tradition was very permissive with hadiths, scholars like al-Suyūṭī felt they were on firm ground. In the case of the Prophet’s parents going to heaven, after all, al-Suyūṭī did not just have hadiths in mind when attempting to prove his case. He had the whole heritage of Islamic thought at his disposal, such as Qur’anic verses saying that “No bearer of burdens will bear the burdens of another” and theological principles such as the Sunni tenet that people born in a community before its prophet arrives will not be held accountable for ignorance of God’s religion. In the early period of Islam, if the Muslim community’s practice agreed with a hadith, then that hadith was considered reliable even if its *isnād* was poor.[^105] This was the same approach taken by the Late Sunni Tradition; if centuries of Muslim scholars had agreed that the meaning of a hadith was accurate, then ascribing it to the Prophet ﷺ was acceptable as well. And, as Ibn al-Qayyim said, such a hadith, “even if it has not been established as reliable, the fact that it has been acted on in all regions and eras with no rejection is sufficient for us to act on it.”[^106] Of course, this assumes that those centuries of Muslim scholars were right. --- ## The miraculous and hadith criticism: Jinn, superannuated narrators, and authenticating hadiths by dreams or inspiration Islamic civilization has accorded great credence to dreams or inspired visions in which Muslims encounter the Prophet ﷺ. This is based on two *ṣaḥīḥ* hadiths: “Nothing of prophethood will remain after me except righteous nightly dreams,”[^107] and “Whoever has seen me in a dream has seen me while awake, for indeed Satan does not assume my form.”[^108] Seeing the Prophet in a dream is thus a reliable experience with probative value. Muslim jurists and legal theorists, however, have agreed unanimously that, while a vision of the Prophet may reveal truths to someone concerning personal matters, it cannot have any effect on law or formal relationships. It cannot excuse you from work or school.[^109] In the first few centuries of the hadith tradition, dreams and visions therefore played a colorful but ultimately superficial role in hadith authentication. Al-Ṭabarānī had a dream in which he asked the Prophet ﷺ about the status of the hadith, “The believers in their mercy towards one another are like a man part of whose body is in pain—the rest of his body feels the pain.” The Prophet replied “*Ṣaḥīḥ, ṣaḥīḥ, ṣaḥīḥ!*” This hadith, however, had already been authenticated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, so al-Ṭabarānī’s inspired vision effected no change in its standing.[^110] The Late Sunni Tradition was characterized by a more prominent and novel method of facilitating hadith authentication: illuminating inspiration, or ‘*kashf*’ (literally, ‘unveiling’). This method was developed by the influential and highly controversial Sufi systematizer Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240). For Ibn ʿArabī, receiving revelatory inspiration (*kashf*) from contact with God’s ultimate truth as reflected in the ‘Muhammadan reality,’ was one of the three means by which a human could acquire sound religious knowledge. Unlike the other two methods, rational investigation and prophetic revelation, however, *kashf* allowed the saint on whom God bestowed this power to place the knowledge attained by these other methods in their proper place.[^111] As Ibn ʿArabī explained, weak hadiths are not valid proofs because they lack a reliable *isnād*. But some of these reports might in fact be real sayings of the Prophet ﷺ that have gone unrecognized because of poor transmitters. If one could find a reliable *isnād* for such a hadith, then it could be acted on. A saint who receives direct, unveiling knowledge from God is like a Companion hearing this hadith from the Prophet, except that he hears it from the eternal Prophetic light. His inspiration can inform him that the Prophet actually said that hadith since, like a Companion, the saint is actually in the Prophet’s presence. Like other legal theorists, however, Ibn ʿArabī acknowledges that a hadith authenticated by *kashf* cannot be used in legal arguments. But he does contend that *kashf* can reveal to a saint that a certain hadith that had been authenticated by traditional hadith criticism was in fact forged.[^112] Hadith critics of the Late Sunni Tradition adopted Ibn ʿArabī’s belief that inspiration provided proof that a hadith was authentic provided that it did not affect law, although the technique has found little use outside the work of a few scholars like the North African Sufi ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh (d. 1719) (who claimed to have heard hadiths from the Prophet ﷺ via the sole intermediary of Khaḍir).[^113] Almost no critics have accepted that *kashf* could overrule a *ṣaḥīḥ* ruling arrived at by the traditional methods of hadith criticism. Some scholars have squarely rejected any allowance for *kashf* in hadith—the Egyptian Mālikī scholar Muhammad ʿIllaysh (d. 1882) stated, “There is no room for such laxity in the religion of God, and sainthood and miracles have no role in this issue \[of hadith authentication\]. Rather, recourse is to the hadith masters knowledgeable about this matter.”[^114] The same general rule applies to hadiths narrated via *jinn*, which begin appearing in books in the 900s CE. The issue of authenticating such narrations does not seem to have come up in the pre-modern period, probably because hadiths from *jinn* are rare and concern matters unrelated to law or belief. The Ottoman hadith master al-Kawtharī (d. 1952) and the Moroccan Sufi and traditionalist hadith scholar Aḥmad al-Ghumārī (d. 1960), however, both rejected the reliability of any narration via *jinn*. This was for the same reason that Ibn Abī Zayd (d. 386/996) prohibited charging money for *jinn* exorcisms: one could not verify whether someone had actually encountered a *jinn* or even if it existed.[^115] It was indeed possible to encounter the Prophet ﷺ in dreams, and the Qur’an leaves no doubt that *jinn* exist. But neither of these means could convey hadiths reliably because neither dreams nor an encounter with *jinn* had a transitive property of proof; they could not be verified by others. Narrating hadiths via superannuated (i.e., extremely long-lived, Arabic: *muʿammarūn*) transmitters was a different matter. Since the Qur’an describes Noah living at least 950 years (29:13-4) and because Sunni doctrine holds that God can break the normal functioning of nature and society (ʿ*ādah*), as in the case of the miracles of prophets and saints, a hadith transmitter *could* live a miraculously long time. Muslim hadith scholars, however, often rejected allegedly superannuated transmitters for reasons other than physical impossibility. Several narrations of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (i.e., the transmission of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* from al-Bukhārī to later generations) and other major works relied on superannuated narrators. These miraculous transmissions of the books were in no way important for preserving them; there were plenty of reliable, unremarkable *isnād*s to the *Ṣaḥīḥayn* and to the *Musnad* of Ibn Ḥanbal, and the books were too well known for any danger of alteration. Transmission via *muʿammarūn* was just an occasion for Muslim scholars to indulge the spirit of collectors and to feel closer to the Prophet’s blessing (*barakah*). As hadith scholars like the Moroccan ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī (d. 1963) observed, however, the superannuated chain for *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and other books “had problems, each one bigger than its sibling.” There were too many inconsistencies and errors in who narrated from whom when, and in particular about who and how old the famous—perhaps apocryphal—Bābā Yūsuf al-Harawī was (a.k.a, ‘Son of Three-Hundred Years’).[^116] Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentions that a figure named Ibn al-Dunyā (d. 327/937) arrived in Baghdad around 910 CE, claiming to have found the fountain of youth centuries earlier and to have heard  hadiths directly from the caliph ʿAlī. But “the scholars of transmission have not substantiated his claim and do not accept his hadiths as proof,” says al-Khaṭīb. Baghdad hadith scholars just did not trust him.[^117] Some transmitters were not just superannuated. They also claimed to have met the Prophet ﷺ, which would raise them to the level of Companion in Sunni Islam and meant that it was not possible for them to intentionally lie about the Prophet. The most famous case was Ratan al-Hindī (d. *circa* 632/1235), who appeared in India in the early 1200s claiming to be a Companion. This irked al-Dhahabī greatly, and he penned a small treatise entitled *Breaking the Idol of Ratan* (*Kasr wathan Ratan*). Ratan was an egregious liar, al-Dhahabī argued, since no one had heard of him for the six centuries prior to his ‘claim.’ This violated the *uṣūl* principle that a report could not be true if it described an event that, if it had actually happened, would have been more widely reported. Moreover, towards the end of his life, the Prophet had said in hadith agreed upon as authentic that none of his Companions would be alive a hundred years from then.[^118] Some Muslims wondered if seeing the Prophet ﷺ in a dream made them a Companion, since the Prophet had said, **“**Whoever sees me in a dream has seen something true.” But Ibn Ḥajar explained that this vision involved ‘spiritual matters,’ not the rulings of earthly life.[^119] --- ## Applying hadith criticism to the rest of Islamic civilization: Takhrīj and mushtahir books By the 1200s the collection of hadiths had come to an end, and hadith scholars devoted themselves to consolidation, commentary, and criticism. With the hadith canon firmly established, hadith critics turned their attention away from hadith collections and toward the manner in which other areas of Islamic scholarship used hadiths. In books of *takhrīj*, a rash of which appeared during the 1300s and 1400s, a hadith scholar took a book from another genre and discussed the status of the hadiths it contained. Since few books outside hadith collections featured *isnād*s when they quoted hadiths, *takhrīj* books first provided all the hadith collections that provided chains of transmission for a hadith and then sometimes discussed its reliability. The earliest known *takhrīj* book was the work that ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Mundhirī (d. 656/1258) devoted to the *Muhadhdhab*, a major work of Shāfi‘ī law written by Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī (d. 476/1083). Many *takhrīj* books devoted to works of Islamic law followed. The Ḥanafī al-Zaylaʿī produced his famous *Naṣb al-rāyah* (Erecting the Standard), a *takhrīj* of the hadiths in the *Hidāyah*, a formative Hanafī law book by al-Marghīnānī (d. 593/1196–7). Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804/1401) and Ibn Ḥajar wrote their *Badr al-munīr* and *Talkhīs al-ḥabīr* respectively, both devoted to the hadiths included in the major Shāfiʿī legal text of al-Rāfiʿī. Several *takhrīj* books dealt with the hadiths cited in prominent books of legal theory, such as Ibn Kathīr’s *Tuḥfat al-ṭālib*, which addressed the contents of Ibn al-Ḥājib’s abridged treatise on legal theory. Ibn Ḥajar also devoted a *takhrīj* work to the *Kashshāf*, the famous Qur’anic commentary by al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144). Renowned Sufi texts also attracted *takhrīj*s. Ibn Ḥajar’s teacher Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī (d. 806/1404) wrote a very critical *takhrīj* of the hadiths that al-Ghazālī had used as proof in his famous but controversial opus, the *Ihyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Revival of the Religious Sciences). Ibn Hajar’s student, Shams al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (d. 902/1497), wrote a *takhrīj* of al-Sulamī’s popular Forty Hadith collection on Sufism. Later hadith scholars also directed their hadith criticism towards Muslim society as a whole. A whole genre of books emerged that took *takhrīj* ‘to the streets,’ examining hadiths that were widespread in Muslim society. Ibn al-Jawzī, Ibn Taymiyyah, and al-ʿIrāqī each wrote a book analyzing and criticizing the often baseless hadiths recited by popular storytellers (*quṣṣās*). Books of ‘*mushtahir*,’ or ‘well-known,’ hadiths examined hadiths popular in everyday Muslim life in order to determine if they had any basis in the Prophet’s speech and judged their reliability. Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392) wrote the first known book in this genre. Al-Sakhāwī’s *al-Maqāṣid al-ḥasanah* and Ismāʿīl al-ʿAjlūnī’s (d. 1748-9) *Kashf al-khafāʾ* are the most famous books on *mushtahir* hadiths. --- ## Notes [^1]: Peter Benjaminson and David Anderson, *Investigative Reporting*, 2nd ed. (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990), 30. [^2]: “Pet Food: Too Posh to Eat Pooch,” *Economist*, June 20, 2015. [^3]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl fī naqd al-rijāl*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Bijāwī, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabīyah, n.d., reprint of the Cairo edition published by ʿĪsá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1963–4), 2:293. [^4]: Al-Dhahabī, 3:517. [^5]: Cited from al-Madāʾinī’s *Kitāb al-aḥdāth*; Ahmad b. Saʿd al-Dīn al-Miswarī, *al-Risālah al-munqidhah min al-ghiwāyah fī ṭuruq al-riwāyah*, ed. Hamūd al-Ahnūmī (Sana’a: Maktabat Badr, 1997), 51–55. [^6]: ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr al-Humaydī, *al-Musnad*, ed. Habīb al-Rahmān al-Aʿzamī (Karachi: al-Majlis al-‘Ilmī, 1963), 1:2. [^7]: ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Sanʿānī, *Muṣannaf*, ed. Habīb al-Rahmān al-Aʿzamī (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1983), 10, 381. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-janāʾiz*, *bāb al-mayyit yuʿadhdhabu bi-bukāʾ ahlihi ʿalayhi*. [^9]: *Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Maymaniyya printing), 6:246. [^10]: Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī, *Tārīkh Abī* *Zurʿa al-Dimashqī*, ed. Khālid Mansūr (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1996), 270. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-zakāt*, *bāb fī zakāt al-ghanam*; *Sunan al-Dārimī*, intro chapters, *bāb man hāba* *al-futyā*. [^12]: For an example, see al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 2:369. [^13]: Ismāʿīl b. Ahmad al-ʿAjlūnī, *Kashf al-khafāʾ*, ed. Aḥmad al-Qalāsh (Cairo: Dār al-Turāth, n.d.), 1:227. [^14]: “*Kuntu* *ʿind al-nabī* *dhāt laylah qāl: unẓur hal tará* *fī* *al-samāʾ min shayʾ*.” *Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Maymaniyya printing), 1:209. [^15]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Laʾālīʾ al-masnūʿah fī* *al-aḥādīth al-mawdūʿah*, ed. Ṣāliḥ Muḥammad ʿUwayda (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1996), 1:357. [^16]: Al-Rāfiʿī, *al-Tadwīn fī* *akhbār Qazwīn*, ed. ʿAzīz Allāh al-ʿUtāridī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1987), 1:452. [^17]: Osama al-Syed Mahmoud, personal communication, February, 2006. [^18]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Laʾāliʾ* *al-maṣnūʿah*, 1:16; 2:221. [^19]: Al-Khaṭīb, *Tārīkh Baghdād*, ed. Muṣṭafá ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAtāʾ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1997), 9:334, 2:379. [^20]: Mullā ʿAlī Qārī, *al-Asrār al-marfūʿah fī* *al-akhbār al-mawdūʿah*, ed. Muhammad Luṭfī Ṣabbāgh (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1986), 442. [^21]: Qārī, *al-Asrār al-marfūʿah*, 236; Ibn al-Jawzī, *Kitāb al-mawḍūʿāt*, ed. ʿAbd al-Rahmān ʿUthmān (Medina: al-Maktabah al-Salafīyah, 1966–1968), 1:41. [^22]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 1:187; Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, *Kitāb al-shifāʾ* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2002), 226. [^23]: Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *Kitāb al-madkhal ilá* *maʿrifat kitāb al-iklīl*, ed. Aḥmad b. Fāris al-Sulūm (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2003), 134–35. [^24]: Ibn ʿAdī, *al-Kāmil fī* *duʿafāʾ al-rijāl* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1985), 1:151. [^25]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 1:141. [^26]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Kitāb al-mawḍūʿāt*, 1:39. [^27]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-bārī*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Bāz and Ayman Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1997), 1:266. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-daʿawāt*, *bāb al-taʿawwudh min jahd al-balāʾ.* [^29]: Al-ʿAjlūnī, *Kashf al-khafāʾ*, 1:412–13. [^30]: Mullā ʿAlī Qārī, *al-Maṣnūʿ* *fī* *maʿrifat al-ḥadīth al-mawḍūʿ*, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāh Abū Ghuddah (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmīyah, 2005), 121. [^31]: Al-ʿAjlūnī, *Kashf al-khafāʾ*, 1:319–20; Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī, *ʿIlal* *al-ḥadīth* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1985), 2:342. [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *muqaddimah, bāb al-isnād min al-dīn*. [^33]: Al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-daʿīfah wa-al-mawdūʿah*, 2nd ed. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 2000), 1:53. [^34]: Jonathan Brown, “How We Know Early Hadīth Critics Did *Matn* Criticism and Why It’s So Hard to Find,” *Islamic Law and Society* 15 (2008): 170–71. [^35]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *muqaddimah*, *bāb al-isnād min al-dīn*. [^36]: Al-Ḥākim, *Kitāb al-madkhal*, 58. [^37]: Scott Lucas, *Constructive Critics:* Hadīth *Literature and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam* (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 143–56. [^38]: ʿAbd al-Faṭṭāḥ Abū Ghuddah, ed., *Arbaʿ rasāʾil fī ʿulūm al-ḥadīth*, 6th ed. (Beirut: Maktab al-Maṭbūʿāt al-Islāmīyah, 1999), 180. [^39]: Abū Jaʿfar al-ʿUqaylī, *Kitāb al-duʿafāʾ al-kabīr*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muʿtī Qalʿajī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1984), 1:13. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *muqaddimah* \[introduction\]. [^41]: Al-ʿUqaylī, *Kitāb al-duʿafāʾ al-kabīr*, 1:13. [^42]: Al-Khaṭīb, *Tārīkh Baghdād*, 10:260. [^43]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 1:218*ff*. [^44]: Muhammad Ibn al-Amīr al-Ṣanʿānī, “\[Question and Answer\],” Ms. *Majāmī‘* 1, Dār al-Awqāf, Sana’a, 38b. [^45]: Muhammad b. ʿAqīl, *al-ʿAtb al-jamīl* *ʿalá* *ahl al-jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl*, ed. Ḥasan al-Saqqāf (Amman: Dār al-Imām al-Nawawī, 2004), 92. [^46]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 2:205. [^47]: Ibn Abī Hātim, *al-Jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl* (Hyderabad: Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmānīyah, 1952–1953), 2:37. [^48]: Al-Mundhirī, *Jawāb al-ḥāfiẓ al-Mundhirī*, ed. ʾAbd al-Faṭṭāḥ Abū Ghuddah (Beirut: Maktabat al-Maṭbūʿāt al-Islāmīyah, 1990), 89. [^49]: Ibn ʿAdī, *Kāmil*, 1:68. As al-Dhahabī phrases it, “*kalām al-aqrān baʿḍuhum fī baʾd lā yuʿbaʾu bihi*.” Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 1:111. [^50]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 4:237. [^51]: Al-ʿIrāqī, *al-Taqyīd wa-al-īdāḥ*, ed. Muhammad ʿAbbās Shāhīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1999), 231. [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥābah*, *bāb* 1. [^53]: Al-Khaṭīb, *al-Kifāyah*, ed. Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Dimyāṭī (Cairo: Dār al-Hudá, 2003), 1:188. [^54]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿat al-fatāwá*, ed. Sayyid Ḥusayn al-ʿAffānī and Khayrī Saʿīd (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Tawfīqīyah, n.d.), 27:223. [^55]: ʿAlī Jumʿah, personal communication, August 27, 2003. [^56]: ʿAlī Jumʿah, *Qawl al-ṣaḥābī* *ʿind al-uṣūlīyīn* (Cairo: Dār al-Risālah, 2004), 34. [^57]: Abū Ghuddah, *Arbaʿ* *rasāʾil fī* *ʿulūm al-ḥadīth*, 111, 207; Jonathan Brown, “Man for All Seasons: Ibn ‘Uqda and Crossing Sectarian Boundaries in the Fourth/Tenth Century,” *Al-Usur al-Wuṣṭá* 24 (2016): 55–58. [^58]: Al-Dimashqī, *Tārīkh Abī* *Zurʿah al-Dimashqī*, 93. [^59]: Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī, *al-Taqdimah* (Hyderabad: Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmānīyah, 1952), 127. [^60]: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-ʿAlāʾī, *Jāmiʿ* *al-taḥṣīl fī* *aḥkām al-marāsīl*, ed. Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Majīd (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 2005), 80. [^61]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *kitāb al-ʿilal*, *bāb al-mursal*. [^62]: Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ and Ḥusayn Asad (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1984), 1:144–45. [^63]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *muqaddimah* \[introduction\]. [^64]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 2:440–41. [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *muqaddimah* \[introduction\]. [^66]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *kitāb al-jihād*, *bāb mā jāʾa fī al-mighfar*. [^67]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, kitāb al-ʿilal, kitāb al-birr wa-al-ṣilah, bāb mā jāʾa fī adab al-walad.* [^68]: Al-Khalīlī, *al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ʿulamāʾ al-ḥadīth*, ed. ʿĀmir Aḥmad Ḥaydar (Mecca: Dār al-Fikr, 1993), 21. [^69]: Jonathan Brown, “Critical Rigor versus Juridical Pragmatism,” *Islamic Law and Society* 14, no. 1 (2007): 21; ʿAlī b. ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī, *Kitāb al-ilzāmāt wa-al-tatabbuʿ,* ed. Muqbil al-Wādiʿī (Medina: al-Maktabah al-Salafīyah, \[1978\]), 266–67. [^70]: Brown, “Critical Rigor,” 38–41. [^71]: Badīʿ al-Sayyid al-Laḥḥām, *al-Imām al-ḥāfiz Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī* (Damascus: Dār Qutaybah, 1994), 460–63. [^72]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 3:306. [^73]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Tārīkh al-awsaṭ*, ed. Muhammad al-Luhaydān (Riyadh: Dār al-Sumayʿī, 1998), 2:109–110. [^74]: Muslim, *Kitāb al-tamyīz*, ed. Muhammad al-Aʿzamī (Riyadh: Matbaʿat Jāmiʿat Riyāḍ, \[1975\]), 147. [^75]: Ibn al-Murtaḍá, *Ṭabaqāt al-muʿtazilah*, ed. Suzanna Diwald-Wilzer (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāt, \[1980\]), 81. [^76]: This is attributed to ʿAlī b. al-Madīnī. Ibn ʿAdī, *Al-Kāmil*, 1:131. [^77]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-tawḥīd*, *bāb qawl Allāh taʿālá yā ayyuhā al-rasūl balligh mā unzila*. [^78]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī, kitāb al-janāʾiz, bāb al-niyāhah ʿalá al-mayyit.* [^79]: Ibn Qutayba, *Taʾwīl mukhtalif al-ḥadīth,* ed. Muhammad Zuhrī al-Najjār (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1973), 208. [^80]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *Kitāb al-tamhīd*, ed. Muṣṭafá al-ʿAlawī and Muhammad al-Bakrī (\[Rabat\]: Wizārat ʿUmūm al-Awqāf, 1982), 1:58. [^81]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *kitāb al-ʿilal*. [^82]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl*, 1:119. [^83]: Al-Ḥusayn b. Ibrāhīm al-Jawzaqānī, *al-Abāṭīl wa-al-manākīr*, ed. Muhammad Ḥasan Muhammad (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2001), 89–90. [^84]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Kitāb al-mawḍūʿāt*, 1:106. [^85]: Jonathan Brown, “The Rules of Matn Criticism: There Are No Rules,” *Islamic Law and Society* 19 (2012): 364, 376–80. [^86]: Ibn Khuzayma, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah*, ed. Muhammad Muṣṭafá al-Aʿzamī (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, \[1970\]), 1:3. [^87]: Ibn Ḥajar, *al-Nukat* *ʿalá* *kitāb Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ*, ed. Masʿūd al-ʿAdanī and Muhammad Fāris (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1994), 134. [^88]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿat al-fatāwá*, 18:23. [^89]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, kitāb al-ʿilal.* [^90]: Ḥamd al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan,* 2nd ed. (Beirut: al-Maktabah al-ʿIlmīyah, 1981), 1:6. [^91]: Ibn Abī Ḥātim, *al-Jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl*, 2:30–31. [^92]: Al-Khaṭīb, *al-Kifāyah fī* *maʿrifat uṣūl* *ʿilm al-riwāyah*, 1:399. [^93]: Al-Khaṭīb, *al-Jāmiʿ*, 2:195. [^94]: Abū Bakr al-Jaṣṣāṣ, *Uṣūl al-Jaṣṣāṣ*, ed. Muhammad Ṭāhir (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2000), 1:504*ff*., 2:3–6, 14. [^95]: Brown, “Rules of Matn Criticism,” 362–64. [^96]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Muqaddimah*, ed. ʿĀʾishah ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1990), 454. [^97]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, 1:145. [^98]: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zaylaʿī, *Naṣb al-rāyah li-aḥādīth al-Hidāyah*, ed. Muhammad ʿAwwāmah (Jeddah: Muʾassasat al-Rayyān, 1997), 1:342. [^99]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ et al. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1992–1998), 17:175. [^100]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Adhkār* (Cairo: Dār al-Manār, 1999), 214. [^101]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿat al-fatāwá*, 19:144. [^102]: Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 1987), 1:240; al-Suyūṭī, “al-Taʿẓīm wa al-mannah fī anna abawayh rasūl Allāh fī al-janna,” *Silsilat Maṭbūʿāt Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmānīyah* 50 (1915): 2. [^103]: Mullā ʿAlī Qārī, *al-Asrār al-marfūʿah*, 305. [^104]: Al-ʿAjlūnī, *Kashf al-khafāʾ*, 1:236–37. [^105]: This is most clearly articulated by the early Sufi Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī (d. 386/996), who said that hadiths circulating and accepted in the early generations of Islam were sound even if there were problems in their *isnād*s. Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī, *Qūt al-qulūb* (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Anwār al-Muhammadīyah, 1985), 1:177. [^106]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Kitāb al-rūḥ*, ed. ʿĀrif al-Hājj (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-ʿUlūm, 1988), 32. [^107]: Mālik, *al-Muwaṭṭaʾ*, *kitāb mā* *jāʾa fī* *al-ruʾā*. [^108]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, *kitāb taʿbīr al-ruʾā, bāb ruʾyat al-nabī*. [^109]: ʿAbd al-Rāʾūf al-Munāwī, *Fayḍ al-qadīr sharḥ al-Jāmi‘* *al-saghīr* (Mecca: Maktabat Nizār Mustafā al-Bāz, 1998), 11:5805–6. [^110]: Al-Rāfiʿī, *al-Tadwīn fī akhbār Qazwīn*, 1:309. [^111]: William Chittick, *Imaginal Worlds: Ibn ‘Arabī and the Problem of Religious Diversity* (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), 10. [^112]: Chittick, *The Sufi* *Path of Knowledge* (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), 251–52. [^113]: John Voll, “Two Biographies of Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760–1837),” *International Journal of African Historical Studies* 6, no. 3 (1973): 641. [^114]: Mullā ʿAlī Qārī, *Al-Maṣnūʿ*, 216. See also, al-Sakhāwī, *al-Maqāsid al-ḥasanah*, ed. Muhammad Khisht (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 2004), 424. See also Abū Ghuddah’s comments in his edition of al-Laknawī’s *Ẓafar al-amānī* (Aleppo: Maktab al-Matbūʿāt al-Islāmīyah, 1416/1996), 272–77. [^115]: Muhammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī, *al-Taḥrīr al-wajīz* (Cairo: Matbaʿat al-Anwār, 1941), 7; Aḥmad al-Ghumārī, *al-Mathnūnī al-battār* (Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Islāmiyya, 1352/\[1933\]), 27; Ibn Hajar al-Haytamī, *al-Fatāwā al-hadīthiyya*, ed. Muhammad al-Marʿashlī (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1998), 164. [^116]: ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī, *Fahras al-fahāris*, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1986), 2:948–61. [^117]: Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, *Tarīkh Baghdād*, 11:296–97. [^118]: Ibn Hajar, *al-Majmaʿ al-muʾassis*, ed. Yūsuf ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marʿashlī (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1992), 2:552. This argument had been made earlier by the famous Indian Hadith scholar al-Ṣāghānī (d. 650/1252); al-Ṣāghānī, *al-Mawḍūʿāt*, ed. ‘Abdallāh al-Qādī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1405/1985), 7. [^119]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-bārī*, 7:5. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Praise be to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ, his family, and his Companions. Know that the entire edifice of Islamic law, creed, and worship rests upon the person of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, for he is the most dominant figure in the tradition, and to knowingly disobey his established teaching is to place oneself outside the Muslim community. Because his authority was so commanding, the early Muslims turned to his legacy to legitimize their schools of thought, beliefs, and political aims. Yet this very eminence made him a target for misrepresentation, and it appears the Prophet ﷺ himself understood this danger during his lifetime, for it is reported that a man posed as his representative and installed himself as mayor of a small town until the Prophet uncovered and punished the hoax. It is fitting, then, that the slogan of the entire discipline of hadith criticism is the most widely transmitted report in all of Islam, narrated from the Prophet ﷺ by between sixty and a hundred Companions: "Whoever misrepresents me intentionally, let him prepare for himself a seat in Hellfire." The forging of reports arose quickly. When the question of succession divided the community, and later when open civil war erupted between ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, both sides waged war using the Prophet's ﷺ words as ammunition. ʿAlī's supporters falsely claimed he had said, "If you see Muʿāwiyah ascend my pulpit, then kill him," while Muʿāwiyah's side forged reports praising him. The early historian al-Madāʾinī (d. 228 AH) even relates that Muʿāwiyah encouraged systematic forgery, though the paper notes this report about him may itself have been fabricated by his opponents. It should be understood that while the Companions were vigilant, this was never skepticism toward the Sunnah itself. ʿAlī would require an oath from one who narrated a hadith he had not heard; ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb demanded that Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī produce a corroborating witness for the report on seeking permission at a door; and ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, corrected reports she deemed mistaken, as when she rejected Ibn ʿUmar's narration that the dead are punished for their family's weeping, holding it to conflict with the words of Allah, "No bearer of burdens bears the burdens of another" (Qur'an 53:38). She likewise clarified Abū Hurayrah's report on ill omens, explaining that the Prophet ﷺ was describing a pre-Islamic superstition condemned by the Qur'an, not affirming it. Such caution, as when ʿUmar warned the people to "be frugal in narrating," was understood by the early scholars as a warning against obsessive collection of battle-lore, not an objection to hadiths of law, ethics, and belief. Indeed, the Companions wrote hadith when needed, as when Abū Bakr sent Anas a document detailing the Prophet's ﷺ commands on Zakat. Forgery became a blatant problem once the generation that knew the Prophet ﷺ had passed, the last major Companion, Anas ibn Mālik, dying in Basra in 93 AH. From that point lies multiplied, driven by political and sectarian strife, by legal and theological disputes, by racial and civic chauvinism, and by the fabrications of street storytellers. Most striking is that a great number of forgeries came from pious but misguided men who sought to soften hearts, such that the critic Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198 AH) observed, "I have not witnessed lying more than I have seen it in those known for asceticism and piety." The venerated saint Ghulām Khalīl confessed, "We forged these so that we could soften the hearts of the populace." Some jurists excused themselves by saying they lied for the Prophet ﷺ, not against him, invoking the report "The scholars are the inheritors of the prophets"; but the hadith critics found such excuses reprehensible. Not all error was malicious, for sometimes the sayings of Companions such as Ibn Masʿūd, or the words of a transmitter, were accidentally raised to the rank of Prophetic speech, a phenomenon the critics termed idrāj (interpolation). Forgery extended also to chains of transmission, known as "stealing hadiths," whether by manufacturing an isnād for a report one lacked, as ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd the Muʿtazilite did, or by attaching new elevated chains to bolster fabricated reports, as al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385 AH) documented concerning a notebook on human reason. To sift the true from the false, the people of hadith (ahl al-ḥadīth) developed a three-tiered method, which did not fully mature until the age of Mālik (d. 179 AH) and Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 160 AH). The first tier was the demand for a source, the isnād, which Ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181 AH) called "part of religion," saying that without it "whoever wanted could say whatever they wanted." Muhammad ibn Sīrīn (d. 110 AH) explained that men only began asking, "Name for us your sources," after the Strife, so that the people of Sunnah might be known and the people of heresy ignored. The second tier was the evaluation of the transmitter according to two criteria: his uprightness (ʿadālah) of character and belief, and, far more importantly, his accuracy (ḍabt), established by comparing his reports against those of his peers. This science of "impugning and approving" (al-jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl) passed from the first great generation through masters such as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, then to Ibn Ḥanbal, Ibn Maʿīn, and Ibn al-Madīnī, and reached its perfection with al-Bukhārī and Muslim. A subtle and important truth emerges here: the early critics prized accuracy over sectarian conformity. Though later theorists required a transmitter to be free of heresy, the eighteenth-century Yemeni scholar Ibn al-Amīr al-Ṣanʿānī (d. 1768) rightly observed that this did not match early practice. Al-Bukhārī narrated in his Ṣaḥīḥ from the extreme Khārijite ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān, and Muslim narrated the report "Only a believer loves ʿAlī, and only a hypocrite hates him" through the Shīʿite ʿAdī ibn Thābit. Ibn Maʿīn described one Shīʿite transmitter as one who "would rather fall from the sky than misrepresent half a word." Thus al-Ṣanʿānī held that the two pillars should be reordered as "accuracy and uprightness," for the former far outweighs the latter. Uprightness mattered chiefly in one respect: a proven liar against the Prophet ﷺ could never be trusted, however prodigious his memory, as with al-Shādhakūnī (d. 234 AH). Alongside this, the critics required contiguity of transmission (al-ittiṣāl), scrutinizing whether narrators had truly met, examining terms such as "he narrated to me" against the ambiguous "according to," and detecting the concealment of sources (tadlīs) and the incomplete chains of the mursal. Regarding the Companions, the Sunnis affirmed their collective uprightness, based on the words of Allah, "You are the best community brought out for humanity" (Qur'an 3:110), and the Prophet's ﷺ saying that his generation was the best. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) refined this, noting the Companions were not sinless, but none had ever lied about the Prophet ﷺ. The third and final tier was seeking corroboration for the report itself, whether a supporting narration from another Companion, called a "witness" (shāhid), or a parallel chain, called a "parallelism" (mutābaʿah). Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354 AH) described this process of "consideration" (iʿtibār) as working backward through each level of the isnād until, if no support was found at any stage, the report was declared forged. It is crucial to grasp that the critic worked backward in time: a hadith began as an unverified claim, and its chain only "reached" the Prophet ﷺ once each link was confirmed. A trusted master such as al-Zuhrī or Mālik could narrate a rare report alone and be accepted, this being termed "an authentic rare" (ṣaḥīḥ gharīb), whereas an inferior narrator alone yielded only an "unacceptable" (munkar) report. Beyond this, the deepest critics detected hidden defects (ʿilal), as al-Dāraquṭnī found even in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, showing a report on the vision of Allah to be in truth the words of the Successor Ibn Abī Laylā rather than the Prophet ﷺ. One should note a remarkable feature: the early critics almost never openly rejected a hadith on account of its meaning, though they were able to, as when al-Bukhārī rejected the report that the signs of the Hour would come after the year 200 AH, since that time had passed with no such signs. The reason for their restraint lay in their struggle with the rationalist Muʿtazila, who, like Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (d. 303 AH), made reason and the Qur'an the arbiters and dismissed the isnād entirely. Since the whole purpose of the isnād was to guarantee the Prophet's ﷺ words without relying on fallible reason, the ahl al-ḥadīth treated any flaw in meaning as a symptom of a flaw in the chain. Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276 AH) captured their creed: "We do not reject what has been transmitted authentically from him because it does not accord with our conjectures." Only after the Muʿtazilite threat faded, from the late eleventh century, did open content criticism and the books of forgeries (mawḍūʿāt) emerge, such as those of Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH) and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 751 AH). Yet the mainstream, represented by al-Suyūṭī and Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1014 AH), insisted a report be rejected for its meaning only after every effort at reconciliation had failed, for as al-Qārī said, "the door of possible interpretation is definitely wide." The critics graded hadiths from ṣaḥīḥ down to weak (ḍaʿīf), and al-Tirmidhī (d. 279 AH) introduced the middle rank of ḥasan (fair). Both ṣaḥīḥ and ḥasan are accepted as proof in law by consensus. Yet the scholars, from Ibn al-Mubārak and Ibn Ḥanbal onward, permitted the use of weak reports in matters of virtuous deeds, exhortation, and abstemiousness, but were strict in law and creed. Ibn Ḥanbal even held that maghāzī, tafsīr, and tales of the end times "had no basis," meaning they were often merely the statements of Companions and Successors, not Prophetic hadith at all, and so were treated leniently, for they served only to convey the true substance of Islam: its law, ritual, and creed. In the later period, from the eleventh century, the discipline drifted from the exacting ways of the early masters, absorbing the Muʿtazilite-derived categories of mutawātir (mass-transmitted, yielding certainty) and āḥād (yielding strong probability) through al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 AH). This produced internal contradictions, for the theorists affirmed content criticism yet rarely applied it, and though they held mutawātir reports to be certain, Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) noted that at most the single hadith on lying against the Prophet ﷺ truly met its conditions. The later tradition became a "big tent," authenticating reports once set aside, as al-Ḥākim (d. 405 AH) did in his Mustadrak, of which al-Dhahabī judged only half authentic. Later scholars often neglected corroboration and exploited unreliable late collections, and the principle that a merely weak, not forged, report might be used for virtuous deeds. Al-Suyūṭī availed himself of this in arguing that the Prophet's ﷺ parents were destined for Paradise, resting also on the verse "No bearer of burdens will bear the burdens of another" and the Sunni tenet that those who die before a prophet reaches them are not held accountable. Their justification followed the early principle that a report accepted and acted upon across the ages by the community carries weight, upon the Prophet's ﷺ assurance that "God will not let my community agree upon an error," though this assumes, of course, that those generations of scholars were correct. Finally, the tradition weighed the place of the miraculous. Dreams of the Prophet ﷺ, affirmed by the ṣaḥīḥ report "Whoever has seen me in a dream has seen me truly, for Satan does not assume my form," were granted spiritual truth but, by the consensus of the jurists, no power over law. Al-Ṭabarānī (d. 360 AH) dreamt the Prophet ﷺ affirmed a hadith already authenticated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, so it changed nothing. The Sufi Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638 AH) advanced illuminative unveiling (kashf) as a means of recognizing a report's authenticity, yet he too barred it from law, and scholars such as the Mālikī Muhammad ʿIllaysh (d. 1882) rejected it outright, insisting that "recourse is to the hadith masters." Reports narrated through jinn were likewise rejected by al-Kawtharī (d. 1952) and Aḥmad al-Ghumārī (d. 1960), since such an encounter cannot be verified by others. As for the extremely long-lived (muʿammarūn), though the Qur'an affirms that Noah lived over nine hundred years (29:14) and Sunni creed permits the breaking of nature's custom, the scholars, such as al-Kattānī (d. 1963), still rejected specific claims riddled with inconsistency. Al-Dhahabī broke "the idol of Ratan al-Hindī," who falsely claimed Companionship, arguing that so great a matter would have been widely reported had it been true, and that the Prophet ﷺ had said in an agreed-upon report that none of his Companions would remain alive a hundred years hence. In the end, once the hadith canon was settled after the thirteenth century, the scholars turned to takhrīj works, tracing the hadiths cited in books of law, theology, Qur'anic exegesis such as al-Zamakhsharī's Kashshāf, and Sufism such as al-Ghazālī's Iḥyāʾ, and to books of "well-known" (mushtahir) reports circulating among the common folk, that the false might be distinguished from the true even upon the streets. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fard-kifayah-the-principle-of-communal-responsibility-in-islam # Fard Kifayah: The Principle of Communal Responsibility in Islam **Author:** Sh. Yousef Wahb **Topics:** Jurisprudence (fiqh), Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 10, 2021 **Updated:** June 10, 2026 ## Introduction In a world where the dominant culture is becoming increasingly individualistic and social isolation is on the rise, there is a need to revisit the factors necessary for Muslim communities to prosper. Muslim communities have obligations to not only perform acts of worship like establishing congregational prayers and funeral services, but also to provide a wide range of other essential social and financial services. As a community, we have a responsibility to look after the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of one another. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The relationship of the believer with another believer is like (the bricks of) a building: each strengthens the other,” and he ﷺ illustrated this by interlacing the fingers of both his hands.[^1] The dereliction of some collective responsibilities or the failure to prioritize duties appropriately can significantly jeopardize the future well-being of the community. This article highlights the role of the community in establishing and maintaining Islamic objectives and rulings through the concept of ‘communal obligation’ (*farḍ kifāyah*), particularly in the context of Muslim minorities living in a non-Muslim society. There is a paucity of Western academic literature that comprehensively treats the topic of *farḍ kifāyah* and its theological and legal frameworks.[^2] The term is only mentioned in relation to other substantive law topics, but does not have its own entry in most popular English encyclopedias on Islam.[^3] This article introduces *farḍ kifāyah* theory for the reader and showcases the vital role of the community in establishing Islamic principles. **Part I** introduces the definition of *farḍ kifāyah* in legal theory (*uṣūl al-fiqh*) and some of its applications in Islamic law (*fiqh*), and lays out its theological frame of priorities. **Part II** examines the scope of the term ‘community’ in relation to our current conception of the term in the West and provides insights on how to embark on traditional communal obligations relevant to our community today. ### I. Defining a communal obligation The concept of religious obligation (*wājib*) in Islamic law is multifaceted. First, independent of the identity of the person fulfilling the obligation and the time it is being fulfilled, obligations are categorized as: (1) a single specified act (*muʿayyan*) such as the five daily prayers; or (2) a choice within a set of obligatory options (*mukhayyar*) such as choosing one of the three ways to atone for breaking an oath.[^4] With respect to the time of performance, some obligations are time-limited (*muʾaqqat*). These are further divided into (*muwassaʿ*), when the time allocated is extended beyond what is needed for the performance such as prayers’ time-windows, and (*muḍayyaq*), when the time is only equal to the time needed for the performance such as the time of fasting. With respect to the person fulfilling the obligation, *wājib* is categorized into individual obligation (*farḍ* *ʿayn*) and communal obligation (*farḍ kifāyah*).[^5] It is essential to note that *farḍ* and *wājib* are used here synonymously, following the majority opinion of legal theorists.[^6] It is not within the scope of this paper to examine the implications of the nuanced distinctions between *farḍ* and *wājib*; rather, the focus will be on the definition of *farḍ kifāyah*, some traditional examples of it, and relevant applications of it to current community work and services. ![Categorizations of wajib](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/image1-1024x421.jpg) Jurists have cited multiple proofs for the religious mandate of *farḍ kifāyah*. These proofs include the following Qur’anic verses which reference the distribution of essential responsibilities among community members as well as the social obligation of enjoining good and forbidding evil: > And it is not for the believers to go forth \[to battle\] all at once. For there should separate from every division of them a group \[remaining\] to obtain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them that they might be cautious.[^7] > And let there be from you a nation inviting to \[all that is\] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be successful.[^8] The second verse provides a holistic frame for the Islamic communal responsibility that encompasses many instances of *farḍ kifāyah*. The expression “from you” can be understood as addressing either a part of, or the whole of, the Muslim community, indicating an overlap between personal and communal responsibilities. Other hadiths and rational arguments are also referenced by jurists to establish the legal base for *farḍ kifāyah* and what constitutes communal responsibilities. Among the several definitions of communal obligations coined by Muslim legal scholars, Imam Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī  described it as: > An important  essential  of existence, whether  religious or worldly in nature, which the Lawgiver demanded to be fulfilled without prescribing  the identity of its performer, but by prescribing it as an obligation, since the action necessarily requires an actor.[^9] The word “important” (*muhimm*) in *farḍ kifāyah* definitions is posited to imply the human motivation behind the prescribed acts and signify the paramount need for all of them.[^10] Prior to Imam al-Subkī, Imam Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd identified a maxim that characterizes *farḍ kifāyah* as an act that has the purpose of “attaining a benefit or preventing a harm, without being directed to specific individuals or meant to test them.”[^11] *Farḍ kifāyah* fosters a sense of shared responsibility among community members, irrespective of the performer’s identity, to bring about religious and worldly public interests. As is widely known by Muslims, shared responsibility means that if the obligation is fulfilled—by whatever number of moral agents (*mukallafīn*) it takes—all community members are free of the religious responsibility of that obligation. If no one fulfills the obligations, then all members of the particular community will be held accountable.[^12] Given the broad spectrum of *farḍ kifāyah* applications, some scholars categorized them based on their benefits or the recurrence of contexts requiring them. Al-Ghazālī, for instance, adopted a tripartite taxonomy, classifying *farḍ kifāyah* based on the benefits being purely religious, worldly, or both.[^13] On the other hand, al-Qarāfī, al-Subkī, and al-Zarkashī,[^14] adopted a distinction between: (1) what must be provided only once (e.g., rescuing a drowning person), and (2) what must be provided whenever needed (e.g., offering funeral and Islamic educational services).[^15] Notably, between these two sets of services, one can notice the difference in discharging the communal responsibility as an occasional ritual or service versus an ongoing shared interest. These taxonomies can help measure each *farḍ kifāyah*’s degree of importance relative to another. Indisputably, the communal obligation of responding to a Muslim’s greeting is unlike that owed to sustain lives or promote survival. The discussion of needs and importance is relevant to expanding or narrowing the breadth of *farḍ kifāyah*. As an example of expanding *farḍ kifāyah*, it could be argued that it is now a communal responsibility for Muslims to, medically or otherwise, combat the pandemic that is harming people across the globe and threatening one of the primary objectives of Islamic law: preserving human lives. As an example of potentially narrowing *farḍ kifāyah*, it could be argued that the virtual nature of community currently being experienced (due to most interactions with others being on-line during the pandemic) might change the parameters of accountability in terms of providing *farḍ kifāyah* services to the ‘community.’ Each of these examples also exemplifies the opposite. If *farḍ kifāyah* is narrowed for local communities, it is simultaneously expanded for distant communities. The circumstantial definition of a community depending on the sharing of resources is illustrated in reference to the discussion of efficient application of *farḍ kifāyah*. Some scholars broadly conceptualized the scope of communal responsibility to include both obligatory acts (*farḍ kifāyah*) as well as recommended acts (*sunnah kifāyah*). For example, Imam al-Qarāafī discussed the applicability of communal responsibility to *sunan* in his marvelous work *al-Furūq*.[^16] Shāfi’ī scholars provided the examples of invoking Allah’s mercy on the one who sneezes, saying “In the name of Allah” (*bi-ism Allāh*) prior to eating as a group, and offering *uḍḥiyah*/*qurbāni* on behalf of a household.[^17] --- ## Examples of communal obligations Instances of *farḍ kifāyah* can be found scattered across various legal topics within *fiqh* books or listed in treatises on legal maxims (*qawāʾid al-fiqhīyah*), such as al-Suyūṭī’s lengthy compilation in *al-Ashbāh wa-al-Naẓāʾir*.[^18] Below, I will thematically list examples of *farḍ kifāyah*, drawing from resources for different *maḏhab*s, based on the general objectives they aim to achieve. **Ritualistic acts include**: funeral services (washing, shrouding, praying, and burial), facilitating congregational prayers (i.e., the five daily prayers, Friday prayer, Ramadan night prayer, eclipse prayers) in each locality,[^19] establishing the call to prayer in a locality,[^20] learning the measurement of the direction of *qiblah*, and organizing Hajj annually. Building mosques, as needed, and maintaining them (the Qur’anic concept of *imārat al-masjid*)[^21] are *farḍ kifāyah*. Imam al-Baydāwī gave examples of building mosques, furnishing them, maintaining the establishment of worship in them, and protecting them from what they are not meant for.[^22] He added that this responsibility is best fulfilled by the most knowledgeable practitioners of the religion.[^23] **Social Services and Welfare include**: fostering orphans and foundlings, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry, relieving the distressed and miserable, providing skills required for basic necessities (such as business, farming, construction, weaving, etc), performing and facilitating marriage, basic medical services and medications, nursing (taking care of the sick, including visiting them)[^24] and childcare. Supporting the oppressed, uplifting the wrong that befalls them, and maintaining social security are *farḍ kifāyah*. In commenting on al-Bukhārī’s title “Helping the Oppressed,” Imam Ibn Hajar says, “It is a universal *farḍ kifāyah* that includes all the oppressed and all those helping them, on the basis that *farḍ kifāyah* addresses everyone (i.e., *mukallafīn*).”[^25] **Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil:** a vital role of the community that is centered in the Islamic tradition across its disciplines.[^26] While theology views it as a people’s duty to establish Allah’s commands in society, spirituality treats it as a collective effort to maintain introspection, transparency, and accountability. In *fiqh*, ‘enjoining good and forbidding evil’ is not characterized as a granted authority, but rather, a ritualistic imperative.[^27] It includes not only speaking against ‘evil,’ but also extends to preventing others from doing it and demanding them to do what is good. The obligation broadly transcends personal or social biases, as affirmed by the Qur’anic verse, “O you who believe! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives.”[^28] This crucial role is reflected in al-Juwaynī’s description of Islam “from beginning to end” to be about “enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil.”[^29] **Education and *Da’wah* involves**: acquiring knowledge of various disciplines to preserve religious knowledge, learning early Arabic poetry to preserve the language and properly understand the Qur’an and Sunnah,[^30] memorizing Qur’an (including learning advanced *tajwīd*[^31] and the variant readings, *qirāʾāt*)[^32] and Hadith,[^33] learning principles of legal theory and applying legal reasoning to new precedents, teaching and mentoring students of knowledge,[^34] facilitating credential education for graduating *muftī*s and *qāḍī*s (the two most important legal positions),[^35] publishing relevant religious scholarship,[^36] developing rational discourses to dismantle misconceptions and doubts of religion.[^37] Mathematics and politics (i.e., *siyāsah* in its general sense of maintaining human worldly welfare and happiness in the next world) are also *farḍ kifāyah*. Some scholars, such as al-Shahrastānī, included *ijtihād* as a communal obligation since it is necessary to ensure a sufficient number of *mujtahid*s are available in each era.[^38] Interestingly, Imam al-Bājī extended this argument to the availability of spiritual saints in each locality, thereby including self-discipline (*jihād al-nafs*) until reaching a high state of righteousness, as a communal obligation.[^39] This, however, does not negate the fact that self-discipline and striving against spiritual diseases are personal obligations on every single Muslim.[^40] Spirituality has a critical impact on the effective functionality of *farḍ kifāyah*. Notably, Imam al-Māwardī mentioned that although impious (*fāsiq*) individuals are addressed by *farḍ kifāyah* of seeking knowledge, their contributions would not, however, waive the communal  responsibility since their *fatwa*s are to be rejected.[^41] The reason these individuals were initially included in the obligation is the fact that they are always obligated to quit their sins and rectify their spiritual status.[^42] Spreading and teaching sacred knowledge are also *farḍ kifāyah* triggered by the Qur’anic prohibition of concealing knowledge.[^43] Hence, scholars regulated providing *iftāʾ* (access to scholarly verdicts) for each locality.[^44] The Prophet’s ﷺ command “Convey from me even a verse \[of the Qur’an\]”[^45] denotes a collective duty of inviting people, Muslims and non-Muslims, to Allah. Therefore, all means of facilitating *daʿwah*, be it through individuals or platforms, relevant multimedia aids, materials and publications, or translation of the meanings of Qur’an and Sunnah, shall take the same ruling of *farḍ kifāyah*.[^46] Acquiring knowledge and education, in this context, is not only limited to sacred knowledge. All sciences and disciplines necessary for providing all of the aforementioned services or fulfilling the core Islamic objectives (*maqāṣid*)[^47] of preserving religion, life, intellect, progeny, and wealth, are obligatory upon Muslims to study and implement as *farḍ kifāyah*. The discussion of education and the taxonomy of sciences from the perspectives of the different Defining Legal Rulings (*Ḥukm Taklīfī*) applicable to them are extensively discussed in al-Ghazālī’s profound work *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn*[^48] as well as many other books that are dedicated to educational curricula and pedagogy. **Civic duties include**: certain types of physical jihad[^49] (even the preparation of army and equipment, and protecting borders), freeing captives, establishing and enhancing proper Islamic polity, appointing qualified judges when no functioning judicial system is established, fulfilling testimonial duties in court, and assisting the judiciary in restoring people’s rights, and assuming (presidential or judicial) office. Imam Al-Juwaynī ranked “the establishment of judgeship among Muslims, redress for the oppressed from the oppressors, and the ending of a conflict between litigants” to be among the most important communal obligations.[^50] Muslim communities living under the governance of a non-Muslim legal system are guided by Islam's framework of communal responsibility. Specifically, in the absence of appointment processes for *Sharʿi* judges, Islamic law sets clear expectations for community leaders[^51] to appoint the most qualified judges available. This law of exception discourse was extended over time to involve the expansion of non-Muslim authorities over Muslim lands and the later diasporic Muslim population. The role of *farḍ kifāyah* was fundamental in governing and regulating issues resulting from the lack of Islamic authority over private law matters. For example, in the 15th century, al-Kamāl Ibn al-Humām stated that Muslim communities residing in Cordoba, Valencia, and some parts of Ethiopia, where non-Muslim authorities had taken over, should appoint a ruler and a judge to the best of their capabilities.[^52] Communally-appointed judges were also mentioned in the 16th century by al-Wansharīsī in his 12-volume book, which cites numerous Mālkī jurists’ opinions regarding how the community can independently function as a minority in the absence of Muslim judicial authorities.[^53] An early explicit mention of minority Muslims was made by the late 19th-century Ibn ʿĀbidīn: “in lands of non-Muslim authorities, it is permissible for Muslims to establish congregational prayers and Eids… and appointment of a judge will be legitimate by the Muslim communal approval.”[^54] He also added that Muslims should request the facilitation of this from the authorities of these lands. It should be noted that these circumstantial rulings do not aim to replace the existing legal system nor to create a parallel one. However, it informs the Muslim community on how to develop quasi-judicial avenues to adjudicate, or arbitrate, their personal matters without conflicting with the law of the land in which they are citizens. These legal trends concede the significant doctrinal and practical role of the community in Islamic law. On a doctrinal level, the community informs the development of legal theories of custom (*ʿurf*) and public interest (*maṣlaḥah*). On the ground, the community ensures the sound application of the law and can even substitute official authorities if they are absent or malfunctioning. --- ## Who are the intended addressees of the communal obligation? According to Sunni schools of thought, there is no difference between individual and communal obligations in terms of their requirement to be fulfilled.[^55] However, the difference is in terms of the number of *mukallafīn* addressed by the obligation.[^56] Legal theorists hold two different views on identifying the addressees of communal obligations. The majority state that all *mukallafīn* are initially addressed, since they are all held accountable if the obligation is not fulfilled. Some state that only some *mukallafīn* are addressed, since the performance of only some of them waives the obligation for all. The implication of the different views lies in how the divine accountability will be determined when the obligation is not fulfilled.[^57] In an intriguing query on this point, Imam al-Shīrāzī discussed whether angels or jinn establishing the communal obligation would waive the responsibility of humans.[^58] The hypothesis is valuable since Muslims’ belief in the unseen broadens their perception of ‘community’ to include other creatures. Such a scenario is not physically impossible, given the authentic story of Ḥanẓalah, the Prophet’s companion, who was washed after his martyrdom by the angels. Finally, Imam Ibn al-Ḥāj notes that when one establishes a *farḍ kifāyah*, they should include in their intention that they are performing it for themselves as well as on behalf of the rest of their fellow Muslims, by virtue of the hadith, “Allah is helping as long as the (His) slave is helping his brother.”[^59] --- ## Prioritizing individual and communal obligations A few legal theorists (*uṣūlī*s), including al-Juwaynī, his father, and Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyīnī, are commonly cited as holding the opinion that a communal obligation has a higher religious rank than an individual obligation. In his *al-Ghiyāthī*, al-Juwaynī argues that fulfilling or neglecting an individual obligation benefits or harms only the responsible person, while the consequences of a communal obligation affect all Muslims.[^60] On the other hand, the majority of *uṣūlī*s ranked individual obligations higher than communal ones. Some scholars attempted to reconcile the two views by limiting the cases of competing obligations to the scenario wherein the communal obligation is also individual:[^61] if an individual obligation, that was initially communal, conflicts with an obligation that was always individual, which takes precedence over the other? While most *uṣūlī*s did not adopt the opinion that a communal obligation is preferable to an individual one, the disagreement is often mischaracterized or inaccurately framed. The disagreement is not over ranking the Divine essence of all obligations, but rather, over the weight of establishing a communal cause compared to testing an individual with an obligation.[^62] This discussion alludes to connotations of priorities of private and public interests rather than preferring one ritual over the other. Although *wājib* has been categorized into individual obligation and communal obligation, it is possible for a communal obligation to transform into an individual obligation. Scholars agree that this happens if there is only one person available to perform a communal obligation. North American communities can readily relate to this. For example, if only a few Muslims  live in a remote small community, they need to fulfill a variety of communal obligations such as establishing congregational prayer (possibly including training imams and *khaṭīb*s), sighting the moon for related acts of worship, providing guidance on *zakah*, wills, estate planning, and medical or end-of-life decisions. Scholars also discussed whether a person who starts performing a communal obligation becomes individually obligated to complete it.[^63] For example if a Muslim student starts pursuing certain education which is needed for their community, does the communal obligation they are fulfilling become an individual one such that they are not allowed to withdraw from this career path? If so, this may trigger another communal responsibility to facilitate that individual’s completion of education. Scholars avoided responding with a universal theory and left it open to a case-by-case examination by measuring the need and assessing the practicality of fulfilling that need. With that, should we not proactively fulfill our community’s needs through *farḍ kifāyah* before they evolve into *farḍ ʿayn*? Counter-intuitively, Imam Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī stated that performing a *farḍ kifāyah* is better than performing its transformed *farḍ ʿayn*.[^64] This informs our ongoing discussions on prioritizing our religious obligations. ### II. North American Muslim community and embarking on farḍ kifāyah guidelines To bring the discussion closer to our reality, our vast literature informs us about  the boundaries of a ‘community’ and the sharing of responsibilities among  neighboring cities or suburbs. In both legal theory and applications, the definition of a local community is not universally identified, but instead, left to be circumstantially defined. However, jurists seem to frequently consider demographic municipalities and underserved rural communities, and to apply Islamic law’s measurement of distances (i.e., *masāfat al-qaṣr* and *masāfat al-‘adwā*) to the dissemination of *farḍ kifāyah*’s responsibilities.[^65] This distribution of obligations is not intended to distinctly divide communities, or to administratively monitor localities. Rather, it is intended to realistically consider individual and collective capabilities and to strengthen the social dynamics of a group of people sharing the resources of one place and striving to apply their faith objectives within its boundaries. This is evident in the opinion of some legal theorists that if the communal obligation is not established, the responsibility falls, not only on the rest of the community, but on everyone, irrespective of their geographical distance, who knows of the need and did not fulfill it while having the ability to do so. Even if an individual is not informed of the need, they can be held responsible if they were able to inquire about it. The extension of the circle of obligation may expand from a neighborhood, to a city, to a county, to a region, to a state, to a country, etc. However, determining whether the communal obligation was fulfilled or not is to be confirmed by high probability (*dhan*), and not certainty (*yaqīn*).[^66] This consideration of reasonable expectations means that to be waived of the responsibility, an individual needs not be certain that the obligation was performed, but must have a preponderant belief or strong supposition that it was. The communal obligation can extend to individuals as far as ‘all lands.’[^67] The definition of community can also transcend geographic boundaries as most recently illustrated by the virtual reality necessitated by the global pandemic. For example, what may have been previously a communal obligation resting on the shoulders of an individual in a location where there are no resources for Muslims may be shifted to the larger Muslim community if they are able to assist despite the geographic distance. While a majority of legal systems rely on law enforcement authorities to preserve societal stability and enhance public good, Islamic law tends to entrust Muslim society with a wide array of duties which, alternatively, provide public essential services, such as education, healthcare, childcare, religious services, and dispute-resolution mechanisms. In addition to the numerous examples mentioned previously, the examples of endowment institutions and quasi-governmental bodies functioning independently from executive or judicial interventions illustrate how Islamic tradition views a ‘community’ in contrast to the modern nation-state paradigm. Moreover, deficiencies of political or legal systems are to be compensated by the community which is mandated to facilitate a process of appointments for these authoritative positions. Admittedly, the state system in our history did occasionally infringe on this critical communal role. However, the point of this article is to highlight the wide scope of communal responsibility and its functionality irrespective of any circumstantial conditions, and to transcend the impositions of modernity. Our understanding of this responsibility influences the characterization of Muslims in the ‘West’ and helps better address the two-fold existential problem of living as a religious minority under a secular polity. Examining these outlined theological objectives and legal regulations contextually in our reality as North American Muslims frames the ongoing discussion over religious duties, civic engagement, and community work. It also helps answer some critical *fiqhī* issues regarding the responsibilities of a group of Muslims residing in small towns or rural areas that lack basic religious services. Scholars maintained *farḍ kifāyah*’s frame of priorities across the ages. For example, al-Ghazālī denounced jurists’ preoccupation with exhaustive tangential legal details, which is *farḍ kifāyah*, and their blameworthy passion for debates at the expense of establishing the *farḍ ‘ayn* of embodying and teaching spiritual obligations.[^68] He attributed this to a misprioritization of obligations giving another example of a community full of jurists, more than what is needed for the fulfillment of *farḍ kifāyah*, while lacking Muslim physicians who are needed for Islamic legal-medical matters.[^69] In the *daʿwah* realm,Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī criticized many jurists of his time for their preoccupation with fruitless legal polemics and fanatic sectarianism over giving *daʿwah* to the non-Muslims living among them and caring for the religious education of new Muslims.[^70] Furthermore, *farḍ kifāyah* shapes our conception of *daʿwah* to both Muslims and non-Muslims and identifies our goals and methods therein. Prioritizing *daʿwah* to non-Muslims over Muslims, or the other way around, requires wisdom and demands sincere objectives. The story of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm in Sūrat ʿAbasa \[He frowned and turned away\] says a lot about this. The discussion also highlights the importance of balancing between imparting knowledge and maintaining personal introspection. Imam Ibn ʿAjībah said that the communal obligation of spreading knowledge and *daʿwah* should not divert people of knowledge from their connection to *dhikr* or their witnessing of Allah in all of their matters. He cited Allah’s command to Mūsa and Harūn upon proceeding to Pharaoh to invite him to Allah, “and do not slacken in My remembrance,”[^71] meaning “do not be heedless of Me when you are guiding My servants.”[^72] --- ## Conclusion Examining priorities is a critical endeavor that is often a matter of disagreement among community leaders. *Fiqh* is a reflection of our theology that deepens our understanding of the Qur’an, allowing us to organize our competing obligations and guide our sacred missions of worship and cultivating the earth (*ʿimarat al-arḍ*). It is possible, if not common, that individuals’ priorities or personal interests might not correspond with what Islam prioritizes. Moreover, a common issue our community constantly faces is competition between institutions over duties, jurisdictions, and positions. It also adds to the conversation on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of large umbrella organizations versus smaller grassroots initiatives that address community issues often neglected by larger scale movements. Muslims championing different causes in the community often see themselves in competition with one another, with each group assuming their cause is the most urgent priority for the Muslim *ummah*, or assuming that because they are involved in one cause that they don’t have to worry about other causes. If some of us are occupied with fulfilling a *farḍ kifāyah*, does that relieve us of the responsibilities of others? What should we be doing first? Teaching Islam, giving *daʿwah*, combating Islamophobia, resisting dehumanization of Muslims, refuting atheism, fighting racism and discrimination, building mosques and Islamic schools, providing social services, developing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, supporting the oppressed, furthering international causes relevant to the global *ummah*, founding Islamic financial institutions, saving the environment, engaging in the political, social and legal sciences, fostering abandoned children, caring for neglected youth, supplying halal food, establishing halal loans and financial aid, or engaging in politics to represent Muslims and defend their rights? This article establishes that the concept of *farḍ kifāyah* is not about competing responsibilities; rather, it encourages cooperation in noble causes to ensure proper utilization of resources and avoid negligence of duties or redundancy of services. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 8, hadith 128. [^2]: Adnan Ahmad Zulfiqar, “Collective Duties (Fard Kifayah) in Islamic Law: The Moral Community, State Authority, and Ethical Speculation in the Premodern Period” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2018), 20–21. [^3]: *Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World* contains a very brief entry for the term. See A. Kevin Reinhart, “Farḍ al-Kifāyah,” *Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World*, ed. John L. Esposito (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^4]: The expiation for breaking one’s oath is mentioned in the Qur’an 5:89. [^5]: *Wājib* can be further categorized from other perspectives, such as being strictly or relatively measured in the case of some financial obligations. [^6]: The Ḥanafī school of law differentiates between *farḍ* and *wājib*, as the first is based on a textual definitive evidence while the latter is based on implicit orders, making it speculative (*ẓannī*). [^7]: Qur’an 9:122. [^8]: Qur’an 3:104. [^9]: Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, *al-Ashābh wa-al-naẓāʾir* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1991), 2:89. [^10]: Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār, *Ḥāshiyah ʿalá jamʿ al-jawāmiʿ* (Cairo: Dār al-Baṣāʾir, 2009), 1:236. [^11]: Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, *Sharḥ al-ilmām bi-aḥādīth al-aḥkām* (Damascus: Dār al-Nawādir, 2009), 2:45–46. [^12]: Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, *al-Risālah* (Cairo: Muṣṭafá al-Ḥalabī, 1940), 364–69. [^13]: Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī, *al-Wasīṭ fī al-madhhab* (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 1997), 7:6–7. [^14]: Al-Subkī, *al-Ashbāh wa-al-naẓāʾir*, 90; Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī, *Anwār al-burūq fī anwāʿ al-furūq* (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 2001), 1:234. [^15]: Al-Subkī, *al-Ashbāh wa-al-naẓāʾir*, 90. [^16]: Al-Qarāfī, *al-Furūq*, 1:234. [^17]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ashbāh wa-al-naẓāʾir*, 7th ed. (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 2018), 728–29. [^18]: Al-Suyūṭī, 718–24. [^19]: Providing congregational prayers is essential to communal religious integrity. Living as minorities during the pandemic highlighted the difficulties of handling the closure of public prayers, where Islamic institutions took different approaches to accommodate the situation. [^20]: This *farḍ kifāyah* is obligatory upon men. [^21]: Qur’an 9:18. [^22]: Al-Bayḍāwī, *Anwār al-tanzīl wa-asrār al-taʾwīl* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2003), 3:75. [^23]: Al-Bayḍāwī, 3:75. [^24]: Nursing, like taking care of the sick, is initially the responsibility of the patient’s close relatives, close friends, neighbors, and then the rest of the community. Some Ḥanbalī scholars considered visiting the sick a *farḍ kifāyah*. [^25]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī fī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Damascus: al-Risālah al-ʿAlamīyah, 1884), 8:12. [^26]: See Michael Cook, *Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). [^27]: For a full discussion about the concept of enjoining good and forbidding evil, see Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazāli, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Jeddah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2011), 4:535–663. [^28]: Qur’an 4:135. [^29]: ʿAbd al-Malik al-Juwaynī, *al-Ghiyāthī*, ed. ʿAbd al-Aẓīm al-Dīb (Jeddah: Dar al-Minhaj, 2011), 365. [^30]: Muḥammad Amīn ibn ʿUmar Ibn ʿĀbidīn, *Radd al-muḥtār ʿalá al-durr al-mukhtār sharḥ Tanwīr al-Abṣār* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2011), 1:136. [^31]: *Tajwīd* of *Surah al-Fātiha*, to the acceptable level of articulation of Qur’anic words, is *farḍ ‘ayn.* [^32]: Al-Suyūṭī mentioned in *al-Ḥāwī* that reading the Qur’an in its different *qirāʾāt* is a matter of consensus (*ijmaʿ*). Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ḥāwī lil-fatāwá* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2000), 2:103. [^33]: Al-Suyūṭī cited a scholarly discussion on memorizing Qur’an and Hadith, to a disputable extent, to be a communal obligation. [^34]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān fī а̄dāb ḥamalat al-Qurʾān*, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1996). [^35]: Although both address legal issues, a *muftī* issues a nonbinding juristic opinion (*fatwá*), while a judge issues an enforceable judgement (*ḥukm*). [^36]: Al-Zarkashī, *al-Manthūr fī al-qawāʾid*, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2000), 2:164. [^37]: Al-Khaṭīb al-Shirbīnī, *Mughnī al-muḥtāj ilà maʿrifat maʿānī alfāẓ al-minhāj*, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1997), 4:277. [^38]: Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī, *al-Millah wa-al-niḥal* (Cairo: Muʾassasat al-Ḥalabī, 1968), 2:10. [^39]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ashbāh wa-al-naẓāʾir*, 724–25. [^40]: Al-Suyūṭī, 724–25. [^41]: Abu al- Ḥasan al-Māwardī, *al-Ḥawī al-kabīr* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah 1994), 14:150–51. [^42]: Al-Māwardī, 14:150–51. [^43]: This references verse 2:159. [^44]: Al-Suyūṭī mentioned that, in some situations, one *mufti* is not enough for one locality. This provides ample opportunity for reflection in our time given the state of our imams and Islamic institutions, in terms of educational eligibility and institutional credibility. [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 60, hadith 128. [^46]: Muḥammad Abū Zahrah, *Zahrat al-tafāsīr* (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī, 2016), 2463. [^47]: Muslim legal theorists extrapolated these five basic values, which any rule of law has to be in accordance with, provided that it does not violate or contradict an existing definitive rule (i.e., derived from the Qur’an or the Sunnah). The objectives function in the framework of bringing good and preventing harms. See Ibrahim al-Laqqānī, *ʿUmdat al-murīd sharḥ Jawharat al-Tawḥīd*, 1st ed. (Amman: Dār al-Nūr al-Mubīn, 2016), 4:2002. [^48]: Al-Ghazāli, *Iḥyāʾ*, 4:62–109. [^49]: The topic of jihad is commonly misunderstood and is further elucidated in the following articles: Surkheel Sharif, “Is Islam a Conquest Ideology? On Jihad, War, and Peace,” *Yaqeen*, April 16, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/surkheel-sharif/is-islam-a-conquest-ideology-on-jihad-war-peace](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/surkheel-sharif/is-islam-a-conquest-ideology-on-jihad-war-peace&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1625084886339000&usg=AOvVaw2gBBU4nen6bjPenjiuAXHG); Justin Parrott, “Jihad in Islam: Just-War Theory in the Quran and Sunnah,” *Yaqeen*, May15, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/jihad-in-islam-just-war-theory-in-the-quran-and-sunnah](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/jihad-in-islam-just-war-theory-in-the-quran-and-sunnah) [^50]: ʿAbd al-Malik al-Juwaynī, *Nihāyat al-maṭlab fī dirāyat al-madhhab*, ed. ʿAbd al-Aẓīm al-Dīb (Beirut: Dār al-Minhāj, 2007), 18:458. [^51]: In Islamic political theory, they are called “*ahl al-ḥall wa-al-ʿaqd*”: the people with discretionary political and social power to enact or dissolve a pact. See Ibn al-Naqīb al-Maṣrī, *The Reliance of the Traveler*, trans. Nuh Keller (Maryland: Amana Publications, 2008), 629–30. [^52]: Al-Kamāl ibn al-Humām, *Sharḥ Fatḥ al-Qadīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2003), 7:246. [^53]: The full title is *al-Miʿyār al-muʿrib wa-al-jamiʿ al-mughrib ʿan fatāwá ʿulamāʾ Ifrīqiyah wa-al-Andalus wa-al-Maghrib* (The clear standard and the encyclopedic collection of  the legal opinions of the scholars of Tunisia, al-Andalus, and Morocco). [^54]: Ibn ʿĀbidīn, *Radd al-muḥtār*, 8:43. [^55]: Abū al-Ḥasan al-Āmidī, *al-Iḥkām fī uṣūl al-aḥkām*, 2nd ed. (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1981), 1:100. [^56]: Al-Zarkashī, *al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ*, 2nd ed. (Kuwait: Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, 1992), 1:242–45. [^57]: Al-Zarkashī, 1:242–45. [^58]: Al-Zarkashī, 249–50. [^59]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, bk. 48, hadith 48; Ibn al-Ḥāj, *al-Madkhal* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1995), 4:233. [^60]: Al-Juwaynī, *al-Ghiyāthī*, 137–38. [^61]: Al-Zarkashī, *al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ*, 252. [^62]: Al-ʿAṭṭār, *Ḥāshiyat ʿalá jamʿ al-jawāmiʿ*, 236–38. [^63]: Al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ashbāh wa-al-naẓāʾir*, 374–75. [^64]: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, *al-Fatḥ al-mubīn fī sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn* (Jeddah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2008), 545. [^65]: *Masāfat al-qaṣr* is the distance at which one is allowed to shorten a four-unit (*rak’ah*) prayer to two. *Masāfat* al-*‘adwā* is an estimated distance beyond those where one can expect a response upon a cry of help. Scholars applied both distances in multiple legal rulings. In *farḍ kifāyah* applications*,* Shāfi’ī scholars discussed the need for a muftī within *masāfat al-qaṣr* range and a judge *(qaḍī)* within *masāfat al-‘adwā*. [^66]: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Isnawī*, Nihāyat al-sūl Sharḥ Minhāj al-Wuṣūl ilá ʿIlm al-Uṣūl*, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1999), 99. [^67]: Abū al-Qāsim al-Rāfiʿī, *Fatḥ al-ʿaziz sharḥ al-Wajīz*, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1997), 11:253. [^68]: Al-Ghazalī, *Ihya*, 80–82. [^69]: Al-Ghazalī, 80–82. [^70]: Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, *Muʿīd al-niʿam wa-mubīd al-niqam* (Lebanon: Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfīyah, 1986), 62–63. [^71]: Qur’an 20:42. [^72]: Ibn ʿAjībah, *al-Baḥr al-madīd fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Majīd* (al-Hayʾah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʿĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 1999), 3:392. ## Summary # The Community's Trust: On the Meaning and Application of Communal Obligation (Farḍ Kifāyah) In an age marked by growing individualism and social isolation, it is fitting to revisit those foundational elements upon which the flourishing of Muslim communities depends. The Muslim community is not charged merely with acts of worship such as congregational prayer and funeral rites, but also bears responsibility for a wide range of social and financial services, tending to the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of its members. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "The relationship of the believer with another believer is like (the bricks of) a building: each strengthens the other," illustrating this by interlacing the fingers of his two hands. It follows that neglecting collective duties, or failing to order them by their proper priority, can gravely endanger the future welfare of the community. It is within this framework that the concept of communal obligation (farḍ kifāyah) deserves careful attention, particularly for Muslim minorities living within a non-Muslim society—a subject upon which comprehensive Western academic treatment remains scarce, the term often appearing only in passing rather than warranting its own dedicated study. To understand this obligation, one must first grasp the broader category of religious obligation (wājib) in Islamic law. Obligations may consist of a single specified act (muʿayyan), such as the five daily prayers, or a choice among prescribed options (mukhayyar), such as the modes of atonement for a broken oath. With respect to time, some are time-bound (muʾaqqat)—either expansive (muwassaʿ), as with the windows for prayer, or constrained (muḍayyaq), as with the time of fasting. With respect to the one fulfilling them, obligations divide into the individual (farḍ ʿayn) and the communal (farḍ kifāyah). Here the terms farḍ and wājib are used synonymously, following the majority of the legal theorists, and the nuanced distinctions between them fall outside our present concern. The jurists have adduced several proofs for the mandate of communal obligation. Among them is the verse commanding that not all believers march forth to battle, "For there should separate from every division of them a group [remaining] to obtain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them that they might be cautious." Likewise the verse, "And let there be from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be successful." This latter verse offers a comprehensive frame for communal responsibility, its phrase "from you" understood as addressing either part or the whole of the community, thereby indicating an overlap between the personal and the collective. Other hadiths and rational arguments have likewise been cited by the jurists to establish its legal basis. Among the definitions offered by the scholars, Imam Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī described farḍ kifāyah as "an important essential of existence, whether religious or worldly in nature, which the Lawgiver demanded to be fulfilled without prescribing the identity of its performer, but by prescribing it as an obligation, since the action necessarily requires an actor." The word "important" (muhimm) here signals the paramount need underlying such acts. Before him, Imam Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd characterized it as an act aiming "at attaining a benefit or preventing a harm, without being directed to specific individuals or meant to test them." Its essential meaning, well known among Muslims, is that once the obligation is fulfilled by however many moral agents (mukallafīn) are required, the whole community is discharged of it; yet if none undertake it, all are held accountable. The scholars further classified these obligations. Al-Ghazālī adopted a threefold division according to whether the benefit is purely religious, worldly, or both. Al-Qarāfī, al-Subkī, and al-Zarkashī distinguished between what need be provided only once—such as rescuing a drowning person—and what must be provided whenever needed, such as funeral and educational services. These taxonomies help gauge the relative weight of one obligation against another, for surely the duty of returning a greeting is not equal to that of sustaining human life. Such considerations bear upon whether the scope of an obligation expands or contracts; and notably, some scholars, including Imam al-Qarāfī in his al-Furūq, extended the notion of communal responsibility even to recommended acts (sunnah kifāyah), the Shāfiʿī scholars citing examples such as responding to one who sneezes, saying "In the name of Allah" (bism Allāh) before a communal meal, and offering the sacrifice (uḍḥiyah) on behalf of a household. Instances of farḍ kifāyah lie scattered across the works of fiqh and are gathered in treatises on legal maxims, such as al-Suyūṭī's al-Ashbāh wa-al-Naẓāʾir. They include ritual duties—funeral rites, the establishment of congregational prayers, the call to prayer, and the annual Hajj—as well as the building and maintenance of mosques, the Qur'anic concept of ʿimārat al-masjid. Imam al-Baydāwī noted that this last is best fulfilled by the most learned in religion. They also include social welfare: fostering orphans, feeding the hungry, tending the sick, and supporting the oppressed. Commenting on al-Bukhārī's chapter heading "Helping the Oppressed," Imam Ibn Ḥajar affirmed, "It is a universal farḍ kifāyah that includes all the oppressed and all those helping them." Under this falls the great duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil, which al-Juwaynī described as constituting Islam "from beginning to end," and which the Qur'an anchors in the command, "O you who believe! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives." The pursuit of knowledge and daʿwah likewise falls within this category: preserving the religious sciences, memorizing the Qur'an with its variant readings (qirāʾāt) and the Sunnah, training muftīs and judges, and dismantling doubts cast against the faith. Al-Shahrastānī counted ijtihād among these obligations to ensure a sufficiency of mujtahids in every age, and Imam al-Bājī extended the argument to the presence of righteous saints in each locality, including striving against the self (jihād al-nafs)—though this does not remove self-purification from being an individual duty upon every Muslim. Imam al-Māwardī observed that the sinful (fāsiq) are addressed by the obligation to seek knowledge, yet their contribution does not discharge it, for their verdicts are rejected; they remain included because they are ever obliged to abandon sin. The spreading of sacred knowledge is triggered by the Qur'anic prohibition against concealing it, and by the Prophet's ﷺ command, "Convey from me even a verse," so that all means of daʿwah—platforms, translations, and publications—take the same ruling. Beyond the sacred sciences, every discipline necessary to serve the higher objectives (maqāṣid) of preserving religion, life, intellect, progeny, and wealth is likewise obligatory upon the community, as al-Ghazālī set forth at length in his Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn. Civic duties are included as well: certain forms of jihad, the freeing of captives, the appointment of qualified judges, the giving of testimony, and the assumption of judicial or governing office. Al-Juwaynī ranked the establishment of judgeship, the redress of the oppressed, and the ending of disputes among the weightiest of communal obligations. Where Muslims live under non-Muslim governance and lack a Sharʿī appointment process, the tradition guides them to appoint the most qualified among themselves. Thus al-Kamāl Ibn al-Humām, in the fifteenth century, held that Muslims in Cordoba, Valencia, and parts of Ethiopia should appoint a ruler and judge as best they could; al-Wansharīsī in the sixteenth century compiled numerous Mālikī opinions on how a minority may function without Muslim judicial authority; and Ibn ʿĀbidīn in the late nineteenth century affirmed that in non-Muslim lands it is permissible for Muslims to establish congregational and Eid prayers, and that a judge's appointment becomes legitimate by communal approval, adding that Muslims should seek the authorities' facilitation of this. Such rulings do not aim to replace or rival the existing legal order, but to develop quasi-judicial means of settling private matters without conflicting with the law of the land. The jurists differed over the intended addressees of communal obligation: the majority hold that all mukallafīn are initially addressed, since all are accountable if it goes unfulfilled, while others hold that only some are addressed, since the action of a few suffices for all. Imam al-Shīrāzī even considered whether angels or jinn fulfilling such an obligation would discharge humankind—a question given weight by the authentic account of Ḥanẓalah, washed by the angels after his martyrdom. Imam Ibn al-Ḥāj counseled that one performing a farḍ kifāyah should intend it for himself and on behalf of his fellow Muslims, by the hadith, "Allah is helping as long as the slave is helping his brother." On the matter of priority, a few theorists—al-Juwaynī, his father, and Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyīnī—are cited as ranking communal obligations above individual ones, since the consequences of the former touch all Muslims. The majority, however, ranked individual obligations higher, and some reconciled the views by confining the dispute to cases where a communal obligation has itself become individual. Rightly understood, the disagreement concerns not the divine essence of the obligations but the weight of a communal cause against the testing of an individual. A communal obligation may transform into an individual one when only a single person is able to perform it—a reality familiar to small Muslim communities in North America who must establish prayer, sight the moon, and provide guidance on zakah, wills, and end-of-life matters. The scholars declined to lay down a universal rule as to whether one who begins such a task is bound to complete it, leaving it to case-by-case assessment of need and practicality. Remarkably, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī held that performing a farḍ kifāyah is superior to performing that same duty once it has become a farḍ ʿayn. As for the boundaries of "community," the tradition leaves them to be defined by circumstance, though the jurists often considered municipalities and rural areas, applying the law's measures of distance (masāfat al-qaṣr and masāfat al-ʿadwā). This aims not to divide communities but to weigh real capacities and strengthen the bonds of those sharing one place. Some theorists held that if an obligation goes unfulfilled, responsibility falls upon everyone aware of the need who could have met it, regardless of distance—and even upon one who could have inquired but did not. Yet the discharge of the obligation is confirmed by strong probability (ẓann), not certainty (yaqīn). The virtual reality of the recent global pandemic illustrates how community may transcend geography, shifting duties from an isolated individual to the wider ummah able to assist. The tradition thus entrusts the Muslim community with what many legal systems assign to state authority: education, healthcare, religious services, and dispute resolution, as seen in the endowment (waqf) institutions and quasi-governmental bodies of Islamic history. The scholars have long guarded the proper ordering of these duties. Al-Ghazālī censured jurists absorbed in tangential legal minutiae and fond of debate while neglecting the individual duty of spiritual cultivation, and he criticized a community overflowing with jurists yet lacking Muslim physicians. Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī rebuked jurists of his day for their sectarian polemics while neglecting daʿwah to the non-Muslims among them and the instruction of new Muslims. Concerning daʿwah, the story of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm in Sūrat ʿAbasa carries a weighty lesson on the ordering of priorities, and Imam Ibn ʿAjībah warned that spreading knowledge must not sever the scholar from his remembrance of Allah, citing the command to Mūsā and Hārūn as they approached Pharaoh, "and do not slacken in My remembrance." In the end, the examination of priorities remains among the most consequential and contested matters facing community leaders, for fiqh is a mirror of theology that orders our competing duties and directs the twin missions of worship and the cultivation of the earth (ʿimārat al-arḍ). Muslims championing different causes often perceive themselves in rivalry, each supposing its concern the most urgent, or imagining that engagement in one duty absolves them of the rest. The concept of farḍ kifāyah teaches otherwise: it is not a doctrine of competing responsibilities, but a call to cooperation in noble ends, that resources be properly used and neither duties neglected nor services needlessly duplicated. ## Key Takeaways 1. *Farḍ kifāyah*, or communal obligation, is a category of Islamic duty in which the entire community shares responsibility for ensuring essential needs are met. If a sufficient number of community members fulfill the obligation, the responsibility is lifted from everyone. If no one does, the entire community is held accountable before Allah. 2. The scope of *farḍ kifāyah* is broad and covers far more than ritual acts like funeral prayers and the call to prayer. It includes social services like fostering orphans, feeding the hungry, and caring for the sick, as well as education, *daʿwa*, mental and medical care, dispute resolution, and the preservation of Islamic scholarship. The Islamic tradition entrusts the community itself, rather than the state alone, with sustaining these essential functions. 3. For Muslim minorities in the West, *farḍ kifāyah* takes on heightened importance. In the absence of established Islamic institutions and authorities, the community must take initiative to appoint qualified leaders, establish religious and educational services, and develop quasi-judicial avenues for handling personal matters. A communal obligation can also transform into an individual one when only a few people are available to meet a critical need, making proactive engagement essential. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is fard kifayah and how is it different from an obligation like prayer? *Farḍ kifāya* is a communal obligation in Islamic law: a duty that the entire community is responsible for, but which is discharged once a sufficient number of capable and suitable Muslims fulfill it. *Farḍ ʿayn*, by contrast, is an individual obligation that every accountable Muslim must perform personally, such as the five daily prayers or fasting Ramadan. Classical scholars defined *farḍ kifāya* as an important essential of existence, religious or worldly in nature, that the Lawgiver demands be fulfilled without prescribing the identity of who performs it. The logic is that the action requires an actor, but not a specific one. Importantly, not every Muslim is equally addressed by every *farḍ kifāya*. The responsibility falls most directly on those qualified for the task: training muftis and judges falls on those capable of legal scholarship, medical care on those with the means to study and practice medicine, leading congregational prayer on those who can do so soundly, and maintaining the religious life of the masjid on those most knowledgeable in the religion. The community as a whole still bears collective accountability if the obligation goes unfulfilled, but the duty rests most immediately on those positioned to carry it out. ### If others in my community are handling something, am I really off the hook? Yes and no. Once a sufficient number of Muslims fulfill a communal obligation, the rest of the community is freed from its religious responsibility. However, if no one fulfills it, every accountable Muslim in that community shares the sin of its neglect. The threshold is not certainty but reasonable confidence that the obligation has been adequately met. There is also an important exception: When only one person is available to perform a needed task, the communal obligation transforms into an individual one binding on them specifically. This is highly relevant to smaller Muslim communities where only a handful of people may be capable of leading prayers, providing religious guidance, sighting the moon, or offering end-of-life support. The frame of *farḍ kifāya* is not designed to let individuals offload responsibility onto others, but to ensure that the community as a whole takes ownership of every essential duty without redundancy or neglect. ### Does fard kifayah only cover religious rituals, or also worldly matters like medicine and politics? It covers both, and the worldly category is far broader than many Muslims realize. Al-Ghazālī classified communal obligations into those with purely religious benefits, those with worldly benefits, and those with both. Ritual examples include funeral services, congregational prayers, the call to prayer, building and maintaining mosques, and organizing Hajj. Social and welfare obligations include fostering orphans, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, basic medical care, nursing, childcare, facilitating marriages, supporting the oppressed, and providing the skills needed for trades like farming, business, and construction. Education obligations include preserving sacred knowledge and the Arabic language, training muftis and judges, publishing scholarship, and addressing intellectual challenges to Islam. Civic duties extend to appointing qualified judges, fulfilling testimony in court, and establishing functional Islamic governance. Al-Ghazālī even criticized communities full of jurists but lacking Muslim physicians, since the medical need was being neglected. Mathematics, governance, and the sciences that preserve the higher objectives of religion, life, intellect, lineage, and wealth are all *farḍ kifāya* on the community. ### How does fard kifayah apply to Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim societies? The principle is especially important in minority contexts because so many essential services Muslims would normally rely on a state or larger institutional framework to provide must instead be organized by the community itself. Classical scholars across multiple centuries addressed this directly. Al-Kamāl ibn al-Humām in the fifteenth century stated that Muslims in places like Cordoba, Valencia, and parts of Ethiopia under non-Muslim authority should appoint their own leaders and judges to the best of their capacity. Al-Wansharīsī’s sixteenth-century compilation gathered Maliki opinions on how a minority community can function independently in the absence of Islamic judicial authority. The nineteenth-century Hanafi jurist Ibn ʿĀbidīn affirmed that in lands of non-Muslim authority, Muslims may establish congregational and Eid prayers and appoint a judge through communal approval. The aim is not to replace or rival the legal system of the land, but to develop quasi-judicial avenues for matters of religious life and to provide the essential services that sustain a functioning Muslim community. For Muslims in North America and similar contexts, *farḍ kifāya* is the framework that organizes religious services, education, dispute resolution, and care for the vulnerable. ### Why do Muslim organizations often duplicate each other’s work or fight over the same causes? This is exactly the kind of misprioritization the principle of *farḍ kifāya* is meant to address. Communities often see groups competing over the same cause while other essential duties go unattended, with each group assuming their work is the most urgent priority for the *umma*. Some assume that because they are deeply involved in one cause, they are absolved from worrying about others. *Farḍ kifāya* teaches the opposite. The wide range of needs facing Muslims today, from teaching Islam and giving *daʿwa*, to building mosques and schools, to providing social services, fostering orphans, supporting the oppressed, supplying halal food, engaging in politics, defending Muslims against Islamophobia, and refuting intellectual challenges to faith, are all communal obligations that the *umma* collectively must address. Al-Ghazālī warned about communities saturated with jurists but lacking physicians, and al-Subkī criticized scholars of his time who consumed themselves with sectarian polemics while neglecting *daʿwa* to non-Muslims and care for new Muslims. The principle is not about competing responsibilities but about cooperation in noble causes, ensuring proper use of resources, and avoiding both negligence and redundancy. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/justice-and-charity-a-study-of-zakat-work-in-canada # Justice and Charity: A Study of Zakat Work in Canada **Authors:** Dr. Katherine Bullock, Areeb Daimee **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Wealth & Finance, Zakat **Published:** June 3, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction The critical importance of *zakat* within Islam is one of the greatest reminders of Islam’s enduring commitment to economic justice. In *Destiny Disrupted*, Ansary points out that withholding *zakat* is the reason for which Abū Bakr, the first *khalīfah*, went to war. The tribespeople “still acknowledged the singleness of God and Muhammad’s authority. They would still pray, still fast, still try to keep the drinking and debauchery under control—but *zakat*? The charity tax payable to the treasury at Medina? No, that they could no longer tolerate. No more payments to Medina!”[^1] Abū Bakr’s decision to fight them until they continued to pay, of course, is well known, but Ansary makes the illuminating point: that by this Abū Bakr “even more definitively confirmed Islam as a social project and not just a belief system. A Muslim community was not just a kind of community, of which there could be any number, but a particular community, of which there could only be one.”[^2] Al-Qardawi suggests that this war was “the first time in the history of humanity, \[when\] a state… fought for the purpose of protecting the rights of the poor and weak sectors of society. Most states stand in support of the rich and strong.”[^3] This paper investigates how Muslims in Canada respond to this call for social justice and the Qur'anic demand for *zakat* as an essential element of belief. How do they view *zakat*? How do they operationalise *zakat*? How does *zakat* relate to secular Canadian endeavours at poverty alleviation? Our research is based on interviews with two employees/volunteers each from four (Sunnī) Canadian organisations whose primary activity is *zakat*, or whose work includes *zakat* collection and distribution. The interviews were conducted over Skype or Zoom in the summer of 2020; they lasted from 30 minutes to two hours. The audio transcripts were transcribed by a professional transcriber and then coded thematically. Organisation One is based in a mid-sized city. It was founded in the early 1990s as a food bank, growing to include youth and family social services. Organisation Two is a nation-wide association with offices in several large cities, founded in the late 1990s, with international and local social services as part of its programming. Organisation Three, founded in the early 2000s, is based in a large city and works at arms length from social services by pooling donations to give grants to other charities for their projects. Organisation Four is a nation-wide association with offices in several large cities, founded in 2013, with an emphasis on local *zakat* collection and distribution. A literature review reveals that our research into *zakat* practices in Canada is pioneering. While there is significant academic literature about *zakat* from various aspects, we were unable to find any studies of *zakat* in Canada. In fact we found only two studies focused on *zakat* in any Western country.[^4] Due to its more privatised nature, even in Muslim majority countries, much contemporary Muslim scholarship on *zakat* is mostly theoretical—how *zakat* could or should work as a normative tool for distributive justice.[^5] Some work from the point of view of jurisprudence, covering the theoretical basics of what *zakat* is, how it should be calculated, who should pay it, and who should receive it.[^6] Others investigate its application in contemporary Muslim-majority societies.[^7] Many of these studies lament that *zakat* is currently overlooked as a potential tool for poverty alleviation, so their scholarship also advocates for *zakat* as a new (revived) policy instrument.[^8]A few scholars conclude that where the state does administer *zakat* it is often marred by mismanagement, corruption, and dissension.[^9] This paper is divided into two sections. We begin with a section defining *zakat* and exploring how the interviewees understand it. We present their answers through the themes of how *zakat* relates to being Muslim, how working in the field of *zakat* distribution has changed their understanding of *zakat*, and what special touches they bring to their work with *zakat*. We finish with a brief section exploring their understanding of what *zakat* is for and the relationship between *zakat* and *waqf*, which was a predominant system of charitable endowments that helped the poor and needy in pre-modern Muslim majority societies. --- ## 1\. What is zakat? Very simply, *zakat* is one of the pillars of Islam,[^10] an obligatory annual charity for those whose income is above a minimum level required to sustain basic needs. It is calculated at 2.5% of income and assets maintained over that one year period above that level. Different percentages are applied to farming and businesses. If someone is below the minimum level, they do not pay *zakat*; rather, they receive it. But *zakat* is more profound than this seemingly simple mathematical calculation. As one interviewee smiled when asked what *zakat* is, “I should give you just one-hour lecture! \[sic\]” The Qur’an teaches that *zakat* is a means of purifying one’s own wealth (Q 9:103). Wealth is a trust from God, given to whom He pleases (Q 4: 37, 34:39). *Zakat* is described in the Qur’an as the right of the poor (Q 70: 24-5) and a means of circulating wealth in a community (Q 59: 7). Those who do not pay *zakat* are also warned of their punishment in the hereafter for ignoring the true owner of their wealth (God) and disregarding the plight of the poor (Q 9: 34). Scholars emphasise the normative multiple roles of *zakat*: - Spiritual component, purification of wealth for giver - Dignity for receiver - Circulation of wealth - Social solidarity/bonds of brotherhood/sisterhood - Removal of negative emotions in society such as envy, miserliness, narcissism, group exploitation[^11] - Economic productivity (since it is a tax on idle wealth and hoarding) - Tools of trade and lifting receiver out of poverty - Reducing extremes of wealth leading to a more just and more peaceful society In precolonial Muslim societies, *zakat* operated as part of an ecology of institutions addressing intergenerational wealth redistribution and poverty alleviation.[^12] Alongside *zakat*, there were other institutions that worked to address individuals’ basic needs, including the prohibition on usury, the laws of inheritance, and the *waqf*, or in today’s terminology, an endowment.[^13] *Waqf*s tended to be in the form of real estate that produced income. The property to be given as a *waqf* had to be removed from the marketplace in perpetuity, the principal sequestered, and the profit given to a named beneficiary.[^14] Abdurrashid observes that by the Mamluk period (648 AH/1250 CE), *awqaf* (plural of *waqf*) overtook *ṣadaqah* and *zakat* as the premier institution for Muslim philanthropy*.*[^15]*Awqāf* financed a dazzlingly broad array of institutions from *masājid* (plural of *masjid* or mosque), libraries and colleges, scientific research, arts and literature, handicrafts such as glass making and textiles, travellers’ inns, agricultural materials, animals and farm tools, to housing for single women, and protections for animals.[^16] Khan’s study of *waqf* compiled calculations from various sources cited by Timur Kuran,[^17] to show that by the early 1920s 75% of all arable land in Turkey, 12.5% of all cultivated soil in Egypt, and 14.29% of all cultivated soil in Iran, for example, was *waqf*\-controlled land.[^18] These were all eventually dismantled or confiscated by colonial rulers or native modernising elites. In addition, during colonial rule, *zakat* was abandoned too, and left to voluntary practice.[^19] And yet, *zakat* remains important to Muslims who are committed to observing it as one of the five pillars. The call for Islam’s “social project” endures. Anyone who studies the Qur’an, the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and the vast juristic and philosophical tradition of commentary and treatises, cannot but notice the emphasis on social justice and looking after the poor, needy, and vulnerable.[^20] Even non-Muslim scholars recognise this, as Adrii Krawchuk noted in his comparative study of Russian Orthodox and Islamic teachings on economic justice: “At a deeper level, the religious and spiritual dimension of Islamic economics is crucial. It firmly establishes the priority of social justice, dignity for the poor, and the responsibilities of the wealthy in a discourse that unites pragmatic economic concerns with theological and ethical values.”[^21] When asked the simple question “What is your understanding of *zakat*?,” our interviewees segued almost instantly from what is *zakat* to what *zakat* is for, tapping into the various concepts enumerated above. As one interviewee said, “there’s the short and there’s a long version.” All of our interviewees had an understanding of *zakat* that went beyond knowing simply the basic rule of annually calculating one’s net cash and assets. The main idea they pointed to was *zakat*’s communal role. They emphasized the importance of *zakat* in uplifting the poor and supporting the financial, economic, and social well-being of one’s own community. As one manager said, “…when we think about *zakat*, we think about the first and primary… responsibility of *zakat* is to the local community, that’s who it belongs to.” ### 1.1 Zakat and sadaqah A few interviewees pointed out the problems with translating the Arabic word “*zakat*” into English as “charity.” One manager said that *zakat* is the “the wealth of the poor,” and noted that some “conventional translations” of this idea into the English word “charity” are “highly problematic.” He felt that a proper translation changed how “we interact with” *zakat*: > it’s not charity if it isn’t your money, right? And it’s not a tax… if it’s there to purify and if it’s there to support you, right? And it’s not state… but it’s from… God, right? And so those terms are, those conventional terms… tax and charity are difficult… but seeing it simply as the wealth of the poor… or the wealth of those eight categories, right, is actually a very liberating… way of defining it. One of the drawbacks of the English word “charity” for Muslim philanthropic practice is that there are different kinds of “charity” in Islam, as many of our interviewees pointed out. There is *zakat*, the obligatory almsgiving, with very specific rules about when to give, who gives and who receives; there is *zakāt-al-fiṭr,* the almsgiving at the end of Ramadan to enable poor people to enjoy the Eid festivities; and there is *ṣadaqah*, a voluntary charity that can be given at any time, of any amount, and to whomever. In addition, as many of the interviewees pointed out “charity” in Islam is more than simply donating money. Businesses can pay their *zakat* with their trade goods and farmers with their animals or crops.[^22] One interviewee noted that *ṣadaqah* can even be as simple as kindness: “… *ṣadaqah* is at so many levels… it’s not just giving money, it could be kindness, it could be feeding a person, it could be providing a person somewhere to sleep, so *ṣadaqah* comes in many forms that you could give… me sharing my plate of food with you, it’s a form of *ṣadaqah*…” This non-monetary understanding of *ṣadaqah* is exemplified in two hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who said: - “Every joint of a person must perform a charity each day that the sun rises: to judge justly between two people is a charity. To help a man with his mount, lifting him onto it or hoisting up his belongings onto it, is a charity. And a good word is a charity. And every step that you take towards prayer is a charity and removing a harmful object from the road is a charity;”[^23] and - “Every Muslim must perform a charity. They asked, ‘Messenger of God, what if a person cannot find anything to give?’ He answered, ‘He should work with his hands to benefit himself and give in charity.’ ‘And what if he could not find that?’ they asked again. ‘He should assist an aggrieved person in need.’ ‘And what if he could not do that?’ ‘Then he should do good and refrain from evil—that would be his charity.’”[^24] Both these hadiths typify the views of the interviewees regarding charity. Hence, charity has a wide range of actions that a person can engage in and is not constrained just to money. As one manager put it: “generosity is not only financial, generosity of spirit as well, generosity… in terms of kindness to others.” Interviewees made it clear that charity was a means of instilling justice and doing right for oneself and their community. The Islamic concept of charity expands the conventional Western understanding, in which charity is usually defined as “donating resources to anonymous others.”[^25] Kymlicka suggests that rich people favour the view that charity is a praiseworthy voluntary gift, while poor people tend to see charity as an obligatory duty, and that the former view is rooted in older religious conceptions of ethical virtue, while the latter is rooted in modern secular conceptions of justice. He concludes that charity is giving resources to someone who is not really entitled to it, which is why it is praiseworthy, but that in the modern world the religious ethical perspective is outdated, because what is really required to address poverty is justice.[^26] This view overlooks not only the idea that charity can go beyond financial aspects and can have spiritual and social features to it, but also the relationship between charity and justice, as conceived by Islam (see section 1.3 below). One interviewee summarised charity neatly into three categories: 1. Spiritual empowerment: to purify our souls and for improving our connection with Allah *ﷻ* 2. Personal healing and psychological well-being: it ensures that when you give to someone, you feel good, right?  Even those who are financially poor can give charity, since giving a smile or good words is charity 3. Economic impact: money moves…\[leading to\] social equity, economic equity is ensured, so charity has all those aspects. We explore this more in Section Two below, but this interviewee pointed out the combination of these three helps the whole society, bringing about bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood, and benefiting both the recipient and giver of charity. ### 1.2 Charity and being Muslim All the interviewees felt that giving *zakat*/charity is essential to being a Muslim.  Many interviewees explained how *zakat* is the foundation of one’s connection with Allah *ﷻ*. As one of the five pillars, it is a way of showing one’s obedience to and love for Allah and His commands. As one interviewee put it: “So this understanding that we have within Islam that in order to achieve that eternal felicity, we have to fulfill certain acts of worship one of which is to serve people and to give of ourselves and to give of our wealth as well… to give of what you love.” Many of the interviewees made it clear that since this life is a test of deeds, it is a Muslim’s obligation to be involved in *zakat* and other means of uplifting the poor. Many interviewees noted the connection the Qur’an makes between prayer and charity (e.g., Q 2:43, 4:162, 5:55, 9:18, 21:73, 22:41, etc). Indeed, al-Qardawi points out that in the Qur’an *zakat* is associated with prayer twenty-seven times in the same sequence.[^27] One manager reasoned that prayer is a person’s “connection to Allah swt,” and *zakat* is a person’s “connection with the people.” Another said our “connection… with Allah is… 50% of religion, and the balance 50% is taking care of the… people.” Some interviewees used beautiful analogies to explain why the Qur’an emphasises charity so much: “It’s interesting when we hear *zakat* that it’s paired with *salah*, and I think those two are grounding. *Ṣalāh* is what aligns us with the celestial plane, and *zakat* is what aligns us with the terrestrial plane,   those are… you know, two balancing forces for the people of the middle path.” Because *zakat* has multiple dimensions beyond simply a money transfer between a well-off person and a poorer person, when talking about what *zakat* is, the answers of the interviewees frequently included what *zakat* is for. We explore this in more detail in section two below. But in this section on charity and being Muslim, it is useful to highlight those responses in which interviewees connected charity to other virtues, such as its role in promoting neighbourliness, controlling greed, emphasising empathy, and promoting justice. One manager said when asked why the Qur’an emphasises charity so much: > Because in the end, I feel like that’s all that is left… I drag my kids with me every time we go to… the food bank… just to show them that you know… you may have everything that you have, *al-ḥamdu lillāh*, but… things can change for you at any minute, and you can be on the receiving end of… of… you know, this whole story… we see \[people\] on a daily basis, where their entire lives are turned upside down and if we… as their brothers and sisters didn’t, you know, provide this charity, then they would have nothing… We have so many success stories that we see every day, and it is all because Muslim people are required to give charity. ### 1.3 Charity and justice In western philosophy, a distinction is often made between charity and justice, in which charity is seen as addressing an immediate need of poverty and justice is seen as addressing the root of what causes poverty. Some scholars are critical of religious charity, seeing it as simply alleviating poverty while ignoring its origins.[^28] We asked our interviewees what they see as the relationship between charity and justice, but learned quickly that these distinctions are not routinely part of Muslim moral vocabulary about *zakat*, as one interviewee said, “we don’t think of it in that way…” Because we asked them, they thought about the connection, and most interviewees felt that in the end, in the words of one interviewee, “justice… is charity.” They held the view that charity and justice go hand in hand.  Multiple interviewees explained that charity is a means of justice to take care of your community: - “I think in the process of community development, we are both doing… charity and justice, right? ‘Cos you can’t develop a… healthy community in an unjust way, and a healthy community, community development is essentially a charitable endeavour.”  - “Charity and justice. You know they are going to come back together because… what is justice? Being fair?… and not being superior or taking things away from people. Right?... *ṣadaqah* is again taking care of people… You’re being fair, you know…if you’re taking care of your neighbour… You don’t want to be living lavishly and they are living with nothing. You want to be fair and just to them.” - “…the path to *jannah* is difficult and there’s a lot of obstacles on it, and if you walk it alone, it will be a difficult path, where if we gather together as an *ummah*, as a community and we walk that together, and if somebody is stumbling behind, or lagging behind, we can bring them along, right. And that’s what charity does, it brings the people who are sort of lagging behind with the rest of the group…\[it’s like\] an expedition, it’s like a hundred people and… we’re gonna go a hundred miles… Now if somebody starts lagging behind, that person could be considered *zakat*\-eligible now, right, because maybe they ran out of provisions, or they didn’t manage their provisions well, or… they left some storage behind, or they messed up or didn’t pack efficiently, and things like that. Now we’re not going to leave that person behind, he’s part of the expedition, so what, what are they gonna do, are they gonna let him be hungry and be like… hey, you take care of yourself and we’re gonna go and leave you and the ninety-nine are off and you’re one separate… no! They are gonna say, okay who can share with this person so they can continue to come along with us? So they will sort of take from their portions and make him a new pack and that’s his ration, right, so they’ll bring him along.” - “If I’m not doing—giving—you know, someone else’s right to him or her \[referring to *zakat* as the right of the poor on the wealthy’s wealth\]… then I’m, I’m compromising that you know, I’m not you know, standing firm… for the justice.” Recalling the hadith quoted above, “…to judge justly between two people is a charity,” these quotations illustrate the Islamic perspective on the relationship between charity and justice that everyone is responsible for uplifting those in need of help and this help can include a wide variety of acts. One interviewee explained how he has found it difficult for largely immigrant Muslim communities to understand that there is local poverty amongst Muslims that Muslim organisations should address; there’s a tendency to focus on international relief. So although he approaches his work from a concept of “economic injustice,” when “I deal with the Muslim community I have to approach it from a charity angle because primarily we are asking people to give us funds right.” ### 1.4 Changed view of zakat We saw above how all the interviewees connected their charitable service to the larger question of justice. Immersion in the charitable sector has given the interviewees a more profound understanding of *zakat* as an institution. Six of the eight interviewees discussed how their idea of *zakat* had changed after they started working at their organisation. They commented that prior to that they had given their annual *zakat* in a routine way, such as writing a cheque to give to someone to distribute: > my understanding of *zakat* was… very rudimentary… yeah, it’s a pillar, you know, 2½%, and you basically help poor and needy people… Now I feel that, you know, *zakat* is much than just poverty alleviation, right?... it builds… its sole purpose is actually to build a community and to get it to a place where it’s self-sustainable… and that it actually has that growth and expansion… I learned about the different categories of *zakat* and how, how they’ve been used in the past and how they were understood…” What they had learnt from working in the *zakat* field falls into two broad categories: 1) a better understanding of the rules of collecting and distributing *zakat*; and 2) a deeper appreciation of the non-monetary benefits of *zakat*. Obviously to carry out their duties properly the staff and volunteers have to understand the rules of *zakat*. Their interactions with scholars in the field, plus training sessions, have given them the more specialised knowledge they need to do their jobs. But one interviewee talked about the personal impact this had had on her: She had always assumed that *zakat* was only to be paid on cash wealth, and though she has always given *ṣadaqah*, she never had enough cash to qualify for paying *zakat*, but through her work she learnt about the rules of *zakat* on gold, and realised that she should be paying *zakat* on her gold. This discovery made her happy because “\[she\] had gold so \[she\] wanted to be one that pays *zakat*.” Her story corroborates the lament of one the interviewees that while the Muslim community is generous with their *ṣadaqah*, they are not properly educated about *zakat*. He was the only interviewee who said his concept of *zakat* had not changed since he started working at his organisation, laughing “No. I’m there to change their understanding of *zakat*.” In his opinion, carefully put not to detract from the hard work people are doing, the “majority \[of\] people… do not understand… the virtue of… giving *zakat*,” and “no organisation is doing much work to make it simple.” He would like to see Canadian Muslim organisations do a better job of teaching and administering *zakat*. His comments are given another dimension by an interviewee who interacts with a lot of non-Muslim agencies with large numbers of Muslim clients, which has changed his understanding of *zakat*. He wishes that Muslims and Muslim organisations would be more open to giving their *zakat* to these non-Muslim agencies, instead of largely to Muslim international relief organisations or the mosque: > What I have come to appreciate is that for charitable giving you can use *zakat* to affect change in certain sectors of our city for instance… \[some of our projects are for\] almost exclusively Muslim groups although… the projects may be sponsored by a non-Muslim non profit, these are primarily Muslim groups. And there is an avenue here where *zakat* if it’s directed to some of these projects can help uplift some of these communities of Muslims who are being helped whose project is being proposed by a non-Muslim group. I think this is one dimension we need to investigate and, sort of be appreciative of as well, that we can help Muslim communities and Muslims by funding projects that are not, you know, proposed or started by a Muslim group. Seeing the concrete ways in which *zakat* helped their clients also led many interviewees to appreciate the non-monetary benefits of *zakat*, from something as simple as seeing how their assistance could “bring happiness and smile\[s\] on people’s faces.” This interviewee commented on how he had learnt the difference between giving with compassion and just giving: > I only knew \[*zakat*\] as a concept… \[it was\] an action… based on the requirement, you know… \[Once I began working here\] I could see the people… who were suffering, who needed the *zakat*, so that is the way the whole attitude changed. Now… it became a mission for me. As a matter of fact, I am working in \[this organisation\] only because of the passion for the job. It is not for the job… Otherwise it’s not for a financial reason that I’m working. Several noted, in the words of one interviewee, how their work had given them a “huge appreciation for the depth of our tradition.”  One commented how *zakat* > for me it wasn’t anymore about just giving the money, it was about where that money is going, how it’s being used… *zakat* on a completely different form than just kind of giving your month… yearly dues… You could see what it was doing to help people, you could see… people taking home extra food, or being fed or like everything else that is said… their rent can be paid, their… you know, bills can be paid, you can keep them from getting evicted, like there’s so many things that our *zakat* does. Some interviewees pointed to the dignity and psychological benefits of *zakat* as compared to Canadian welfare systems which are patronising and dehumanising.  One interviewee talked about even an obvious example of feeding someone who is hungry took on new dimensions after he began working: > So the same way a person whose belly is empty and their fridge is empty, he’s not gonna have a lot of *khushūʿ* \[focus\] in *ṣalāh* \[prayer\]… because he’s going to be thinking about, where am I gonna get my next meal, or how am I gonna pay my bills next month, right? That’s what he’s most likely going to be thinking about… But if he’s well fed and… the worries of his present day are… taken away then he’s gonna have the *khushūʿ* in *ṣalāh* inshallah, he’s going to be able to do ʿ*ibādah* \[worship\]… in a very good manner. So that’s what basically…what *zakat* does, is the ultimate goal is to, not just to, you know, which is the face value, not just to remove poverty, but to build people and build them to a place where they can worship Allah *subḥānahu wa-taʿālá*. This spiritual dimension can give dignity and psychological peace to recipients in ways that being stigmatised as a welfare recipient is unlikely to. ### 1.5  The personal touch It is well known in academic literature that ethnic-minorities “gravitate to their own for volunteering,”[^29] partly for the comfort of being with people who share the same language and culture, and partly as an alternative space from mainstream groups that either exclude them or feel unfamiliar. Azmi’s 1997 study of Muslim social service providers, while dated, made a pertinent observation that Canadian multiculturalism was founded around the concept of ethnicity, whereas many Muslims wished to prioritise their connections across ethnic groups as members of one religion. So rather than Arab Christians and Muslims being served by an Arab agency, and South Asian Muslim and Hindus by a South Asian agency, the Arab and South Asian Muslims joined under one confessional Muslim agency.[^30] The trust factor is crucial, he pointed out, as many Muslims felt they were being aggressively “acculturate\[ed\] to Canadian ways,”[^31] and preferred to receive services from fellow Muslims. Unfortunately, Muslims setting up their own organisations is often looked upon with suspicion by the wider society, as proof that Muslims do not want to integrate.[^32] Scholars who investigate Muslim volunteerism challenge this premise.[^33] May’s study of Muslim charities in the UK argues that Muslims establish charities, especially those related to *zakat*, due to the important religious obligation that these duties be carried out properly according to Islamic tenets. “Ultimately, the perceived need of specifically-Muslim charities does not stem from issues of self-segregation or suspicious intent but on religious injunction and “trust” in those given authorization to distribute funds according to the obligations and rights of both receiver and donor.”[^34] Several interviewees commented on the gaps in provincial social service delivery that they see their organisations filling. One manager talked about two illuminating research studies into poverty in his province that had highlighted the gaps in serving Muslim clients. One study found that > 70% of our food bank clients weren’t connected to other social services… \[which\] tells us about isolation awareness of our clients, but it also tells us about barriers, right? And so, we know that Muslims often face barriers accessing… social services. Those barriers might be… because of language, might be because of racism, might be because of awareness, might be because those services don’t address their cultural and spiritual needs. Knowing that, it behooves us to step in and fill that gap, right? And a second study found that the “top three languages” of the largest affordable housing provider in the province are Arabic, Urdu, and Somali: > \[What\] this indicates to us as a community is that Muslims are over-represented in poverty. Right? And this is something we’ll be accountable for, right, like why, you know, ’cos like people in Malaysia aren’t accountable for the people in our backyard, we are. Right? They’re our neighbours. They’re our brothers and sisters and so our responsibility is to them, and to the… larger, Canadian community… this is our responsibility as to them… as citizens. Our interviewees share a passion for helping their clients. They commit an admirable number of hours, overtime, and commitment to service. In addition to Muslim clientele, all the organisations also serve non-Muslim clients, albeit a small percentage. One case worker related how out of curiosity she had asked non-Muslim clients why they came to their Islamic organisation, and “they’re like, well, you smile at us, so, you know, you listen to us and I’m like, but it’s such a small thing, but it’s important for them. You say *salām* to us and… that’s why they’re here.” The personal touch thus is a crucial aspect of understanding Muslim *zakat* work in Canada, not only on a human-to-human level, but also for the trust and camaraderie that exists between Muslim organisations, donors and receivers—all with an understanding of the religious obligations around *zakat*. If we add to this sense of comfort and connection, the racism and exclusion experienced and the dehumanising, patronising, and impersonal character of mainstream social service systems,[^35] we can more fully appreciate the importance of Muslim organisations dealing with *zakat*. --- ## 2\. What is zakat for? As mentioned previously, when asked about *zakat*, rather than focusing on the basics of *zakat* as obligatory for Muslims, most interviewees focused on the functions of *zakat* and what effect it has on individuals and their community. From our interviewees’ point of view, to properly understand the institution of *zakat*, one must understand its purpose in rectifying economic and social injustices. As one interviewee put it: “Islam is about *zakat*… a distribution of the wealth… to the needy families and… to the people who are concerned.” Another emphasised the relationship between *zakat* as charity and the ultimate role of money in a community: > So… I mean… *zakat*, there’s a kind of technical answer, you know, it’s one of the five pillars, all of that… you know, it helps keep, it helps promote charity, all of this, but you know there is a deeper aspect to *zakat* which is, you know, you are not meant to hoard assets, and that’s why it’s a tax on assets, not revenue, or not income. And so you’re not supposed to hoard the asset in non-productive work, so *zakat* is supposed to be on your non-productive wealth… so the money circulates in the community. Right? To me that’s a good, a good goal for it, so I look at both the technical thing which is, you know, it’s an obligation, you have to do it, but, you know there is a reason why we do it and, and to me, the fact that it ends up helping the poor, helping alleviate, you know, poverty… that’s what, what kind of gives it value, as far as I’m concerned. Nearly all our interviewees believed that *zakat* can help in poverty alleviation, though there was a sense throughout many interviews that the resources coming in were not enough to meet the need. Khan notes that measuring Muslim charitable giving in dollar amounts is “unclear,”[^36] but quotes from a 2004 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimating it to fall between $250 billion and $1 trillion annually.[^37] Saad and Farouk quote a 2014 estimate that, globally speaking, *zakat* has the potential of generating US$600bn annually.[^38] *Globalgiving* estimates it would cost between $7 billion to $265 billion per year to end world hunger—a figure globally generated *zakat* easily meets.[^39] While obviously *zakat* collection is not at that level here, when asked if *zakat* organisations had a special role to play in the Muslim community, there was near unanimous agreement that their work was having a positive impact. When the interviewees reflected about the people they help, even if it is a small number of overall poor, there was a sense of having provided an “essential” service. As one interviewee commented: > Definitely \[*zakat* organisations\] have \[a special role to play\]…we always thought that… Canada is a rich country but… having worked in this organisation and having outreach and work with the various mainstream organisations… I am surprised that there is so much of… poverty...  in the country. There is so much of homelessness. Otherwise we would not have had… more than two to three thousand… mainstream food banks which are giving food to the community, you know? We wouldn’t have had so much. So there is a need… you know. Our contribution is… really helping the people in need, yeah. One manager argued that *zakat* organizations have a special role to play in unifying and uplifting the Muslim community in Canada: > I think *zakat* organisations can really bring the Muslim community together… we have the ability to bring different organisations together and work with each other… So I think *zakat* organisations in, in general have a very, very strong opportunity… ah… to work with a lot of different organisations and a lot of different community leaders… the work that they do, because we’re directly in the service of people… they can help, you know, facilitate the collection of… and distribution of *zakat* in that area, and they know best the challenges that their people are facing. One interviewee had a more critical perspective. Having pointed out that Muslims can do injustice with their charity, he argued that the lack of a proper analysis meant that *zakat* was not having the impact it should. He described how in Bangladesh Muslims can buy clothes in stores marked “*zakat* clothes,” which are “cheaper clothes—that you will never buy for you.”  If someone buys these clothes to donate to someone, they are “doing charity, for sure. But… he is doing injustice, through charity, to this recipient of charity, he is giving a kind of product to the poor people that he will never buy for his own, or his wife… mother… or daughter. This is great injustice taking place.” He explained further that he believes that people give to causes based on emotions and what was current in the media, rather than a proper needs and impact assessment: > I will give you one example, it’s Philippines. I never seen anyone who’s… you know, raising funds for Philippines and Muslims are suffering greatly there. I have seen in my own eyes. The reason we do not care much about Philippines because it is not in the media. Same thing, when Uighur is in the media and everyone is giving for Uighur and then Rohingya is still there but now people will not give money for Rohingya, right? And then people will not give money for Syria. So, so when you’re saying impact, this style cannot do much impact, because this style has fundamental problems in it. Another interviewee mentioned that he felt Muslims did not fully understand how *zakat* can be utilized for local programs that benefit Muslims besides directly providing funds for food, clothing, and water, with an emphasis on international relief. He made these comments when asked about the relationship between charity: > I think there’s a dimension here of *zakat* that can be used to support charitable projects that are not coming from primarily Muslim organizations but are serving the Muslims. Sometimes you miss this, right, within our… Muslim community you feel that the *zakat* has to be collected and distributed primarily by Muslims. You can be collecting *zakat* by Muslims, but it can be supporting a group of Muslims who are being helped whose project is being proposed by a non Muslim group. ### 2.1 Zakat and waqf This research project focused on *zakat* but given the historical pre-eminence of the *waqf* as the primary vehicle for Muslim charity, no conversation of *zakat* should exist without also talking about *waqf*. Regrettably, such has been the obliteration of the *waqf* as a system that two of the eight interviewees had never heard of it. Those interviewees at the higher levels of administration mentioned that there had been conversations about establishing *waqf*. It seems that the thought, resources, and focused energy required to establish *zakat* was strenuous enough, let alone another institution like a *waqf*. Some felt that this needed to be done at a higher level in dialogue with the Canadian government, others mentioned there had been in-house conversations around it, but the prospect of raising the high figures needed to set up an endowment seemed daunting. Organisation Three, which has set itself up as a *waqf* in Canada, is thus a pioneer in this field in Canada, only one of two such organisations of which we are aware. The focus on *zakat* to the exclusion of *waqf*, then, for the majority of those working in the anti-poverty field, means that poverty alleviation is looked at squarely through the lens of *zakat*. --- ## Concluding reflections This paper is a pioneering study of *zakat* work in Canada. As a study in a new field it has barely scratched the surface. We interviewed eight employees/volunteers from four Sunni Muslim organisations across Canada to learn what their understanding of *zakat* is. Our research has shown that *zakat* in Canada is still in its infancy. One of our interviewees worried that he knows many people who are very generous with their *ṣadaqah*, but think “it’s okay not to give *zakat*,” and that while our communities focus on teaching children Qur’an recitation, prayer, fasting and take them on Hajj, we are not properly teaching them the importance of, nor how to calculate and give *zakat*. It is evident that *zakat* plays a significant role for those who work in the *zakat* field, and in ensuring justice for those deprived of an adequate means of subsistence. This commitment to *zakat* as a pillar of Islam has led to the founding of organisations in Canada aiming to fulfil a dual goal: (i) to assist Muslims to fulfil the obligation of *zakat* and (ii) to assist poor and needy Muslims. Our interviews, although based on a small sample that cannot be generalised, provide some insight into how a handful of *zakat* workers conceive of *zakat* and its impact in their communities. The interviewees emphasised that *zakat* is clearly an essential tool for dealing with the injustices of society. They viewed Islamic organisations’ *zakat* work as working towards both the implementation of charity and justice: two virtues defined as solutions that go hand in hand with healing the wounds of social and economic injustice. Without the tool of charity, there is no way to address the foundational issues of justice. The “sacred rights of the poor,” as one interviewee described *zakat*, emphasised by both our interviewees and the Islamic scholarly literature we consulted, can be the foundation for understanding *zakat*’s functionality. *Zakat* can have a significant impact on a community and is largely a way to address the needs of those left behind socially and economically. Our interviewees also emphasised that the task of utilizing *zakat* to deal with injustices goes far beyond financial economic ideas.  Islamic principles emphasize the need for pure intentions when taking on the task of establishing justice through *zakat*. The state of the mind and soul is crucially important since addressing justice issues is also a test from Allah of our deeds and adhering to His commands. Utilizing *zakat* as a means of healing injustices, for Muslims, holds a significant spiritual responsibility that transcends material attachments to wealth. This is what makes *zakat* an effective institution as a form of charity to address injustices. --- ## Notes [^1]: Tamim Ansary, *Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes* (New York: Public Affairs, 2009), 39. [^2]: Ansary, *Destiny Disrupted*, 39. [^3]: Yusuf al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat: A Comparative Study, The Rules, Regulations and Philosophy of Zakat in the Light of the Qur’an and Sunna* (London: Dar Al Taqwa, 1999), 33. [^4]: Samantha May, “The Best of Deeds: The Practice of *Zakat* in the UK,” *Journal of Church and State* 61, no. 2 (Spring 2019): 1–30; Alioune Ndiaye, *Islamic Charities in Switzerland and the Practice of Zakat* (Geneva: Program for the Study of International Organisations, 2007). [^5]: A representative sample includes: Khaliq Ahmad and Arif Hassan, “Distributive Justice: The Islamic Perspective,” *Intellectual Discourse* 8, no. 2 (2000): 159–72; Abu Umar Faruq Ahmad, M. Kabir Hassan, Abul Kalam Muhammad Shahed, “Zakah and Re-Distributive Justice in Islam,” *Journal of Muamalat and Islamic Finance Research* 3, no. 1 (2006); Ziauddin Ahmad, *Islam, Poverty and Income Distribution* (Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, 1991); Abdullah Allheedan, “Poverty and Wealth in Islam’s Sacred Texts,” in *Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam*, ed. Nathan R. Kollar and Muhammad Shafiq (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); Zakiyuddin Baidhawy, “Distributive Principles of Economic Justice: An Islamic Perspective,” *Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies* 2, no. 2 (December 2012): 241–66; Muhammad Nijatullah Siddiqui, “The Guarantee of a Minimum Level of Living in an Islamic State,” in *Distributive Justice and Need Fulfillment in an Islamic Economy*, ed. Munawar Iqbal (Islamabad: International Institute of Islamic Economics, 1988). [^6]: Pranam Dhar, “Zakat as a Measure of Social Justice in Islamic Finance: An Accountant’s Overview,” *Journal of Emerging Economies and Islamic Research* 1, no. 1 (2013); al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat.* [^7]: Nancy J. Davis and Robert V. Robinson, “The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations,” *American Sociological Review* 71, no. 2 (April 2006): 167–90; Konstantinos Retsikas, “Reconceptualizing Zakat in Indonesia,” *Indonesia and the Malay World* 42, no. 124 (2014): 337–57; Russell Powell, “Drawing Insights for Legal Theory and Economic Policy from Islamic Jurisprudence,” *University of Pittsburgh Tax Review*, 2009, 96–99. [^8]: Ahmad and Hassan, “Distributive Justice,” 169; Ahmad, Hassan, and Shahed, “Zakah and Re-Distributive Justice,” 15; M. Umer Chapra, *Islam and the Economic Challenge* (Herndon, VA: The Islamic Foundation and The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1992), 270; al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat,* 709. [^9]: Bilal Ahmad Malik, “Philanthropy in Practice: Role of Zakat in the Realization of Justice and Economic Growth,” *International Journal of Zakat* 1, no. 1 (2016): 73; Powell, “Drawing Insights,” 73–79; Ram Al Jaffri Saad and Abubakar Umar Farouk, “A Comprehensive Review of Barriers to a Functional Zakat System In Nigeria: What Needs to Be Done?,” *International Journal of Ethics and Systems* 35, no. 1 (2019): 24–42. [^10]: The other pillars being the testament of faith, daily prayer, Ramadan fasting, and pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca. [^11]: Ahmad and Hassan, “Distributive Justice,” 168–69. [^12]: Ahmad, Hassan, and Shahed, “Zakah and Re-Distributive Justice,” 7; Allheedan, “Poverty and Wealth in Islam’s Sacred Texts,” 267–71. [^13]: Ahmad, Hassan, and Shahed, “Zakah and Re-Distributive Justice,” 14. [^14]: Khalil Abdurrashid, “Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise & Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions (Waqfs),” *Yaqeen,* January 9, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991549000&usg=AOvVaw2qKEgNqCarVQ48bHykV36A); Zara Khan, “Reviving the Waqf Tradition: Moral Imagination and the Structural Causes of Poverty,” *Yaqeen,* July 2, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zarakhan/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty/#ftnt2](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zarakhan/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty/%23ftnt2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991550000&usg=AOvVaw1riKwGodEhwvUY1sYJHi6E). [^15]: Khan, “Reviving the Waqf.” [^16]: Khan, “Reviving the Waqf.” [^17]: Timur Kuran, “The Provision of Public Goods under Islamic Law: Origins, Impact, and Limitations of the Waqf System,” *Law and Society Review* 35, no. 4 (2001): 841–98 [^18]: Khan, “Reviving the Waqf.” [^19]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 709; Malik, “Philanthropy in Practice,” 65. [^20]: Ahmad and Hassan, “Distributive Justice”; Amin Mohseni-Cheraghlou, “Socio-Economic Justice and Poverty in Nahj Al-Balagha,” *International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management* 8, no. 1 (2015): 20–35. Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 209; Siddiqui, “The Guarantee of a Minimum Level of Living.” [^21]: Adrii Krawchuk, “Orthodox Christianity and Islam on Economic Justice: Universal Ideals and Contextual Challenges in Russia,” in *Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam*, ed. Nathan R. Kollar and Muhammad Shafiq (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 141. See also Lynn Kunkle, “Ethics, Pro-Social Values in Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” [https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38930071/the-ethics-and-pro-social-values-in-judaism-christianity-and-islam-](https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38930071/the-ethics-and-pro-&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991552000&usg=AOvVaw2m7QaQBnlge_IesOn8EYDY). [^22]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 505. [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2989, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/56/198](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/56/198&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991541000&usg=AOvVaw2J4XEL4BmckrzOLMMGT4xc). See also commentary in Jamal Ahmed Badi, *Sharh Arba'een an-Nawawî: Commentary of Forty Hadiths of an-Nawawi*, 2002, 128, [https://docplayer.net/21354548-Sharh-arba-een-an-nawawi-commentary-of-forty-hadiths-of-an-nawawi-by-dr-jamal-ahmed-badi.html](https://docplayer.net/21354548-Sharh-arba-een-an-nawawi-commentary-of-forty-hadiths-of-an-nawawi-by-dr-jamal-ahmed-badi.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991542000&usg=AOvVaw2YsLZCU1WN1dC9W_T1Va72). [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, vol. 2, hadith 524, cited in [https://www.islamawareness.net/Hadith/htopic\_charity.html](https://www.islamawareness.net/Hadith/htopic_charity.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991542000&usg=AOvVaw3bmoa0QZ-XuA9JsE-sUq2L). [^25]: Will Kymlicka, “Altruism in Philosophical and Ethical Traditions: Two Views” in *Between State and Market: Essays on Charities Law and Policy in Canada*, ed. Jim Phillips, Bruce Chapman, and David Stevens (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001), 88. See also Robert E. Goodin, “Duties of Charity, Duties of Justice,” *Political Studies* 65, no. 2 (2017): 268–83. [^26]: Kymlicka, “Altruism,” 115. [^27]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, xlvii. [^28]: Kymlicka, “Altruism”; Goodin, “Duties of Charity.” [^29]: Mario Peucker, “Muslim Community Volunteering: The Civic-Religious ‘Culture of Benevolence’ and its Sociopolitical Implications,” *Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies* 46, no. 11 (2020): 2368. [^30]: Shaheen Azmi, “Canadian Social Service Provision and the Muslim Community in Metropolitan Toronto,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 17, no. 1 (1997), 165. [^31]: Azmi, “Canadian Social Service Provision,” 160. [^32]: Klas Borell and Arne Gerdner, “Hidden Voluntary Social Work: A Nationally Representative Survey of Muslim Congregations in Sweden,” *British Journal of Social Work* 41, 2011, 969; Peucker, “Muslim Community Volunteering.” [^33]: Borell and Gerdner, “Hidden Voluntary Social Work;” Peucker, “Muslim Community Volunteering.” [^34]: May, “The Best of Deeds,” 29. [^35]: Hugh Segal, *Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot Project for Ontario*, discussion paper, 2016. [^36]: Khan, “Reviving the Waqf Tradition.” [^37]: Khan, “Reviving the Waqf Tradition.” [^38]: Saad and Farouk, “A Comprehensive Review of Barriers,” 28. [^39]: “How Much Would It Cost To End World Hunger?,” Global Giving, September 2, 2020, [https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger/](https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622739991546000&usg=AOvVaw1s1MqU24ZnDL7N55sW8O7l). ## Summary Zakāt occupies a station of the highest importance within Islam, for it stands among the five pillars upon which the religion is built and serves as one of the greatest reminders of Islam's enduring concern for economic justice. The gravity of this obligation is illustrated by the decision of Abū Bakr, the first khalīfah, to wage war against those tribes who, while continuing to affirm the oneness of God and the authority of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, and while continuing to pray and fast, refused to render zakāt to Medina. As Ansary observes in Destiny Disrupted, Abū Bakr's stand confirmed Islam "as a social project and not just a belief system," establishing that the Muslim community is a particular community of which there can be only one. Al-Qardawi remarks that this may have been the first occasion in human history when a state fought for the express purpose of protecting the rights of the poor and weak, whereas most states have historically stood in support of the rich and strong. The present study is a pioneering investigation into how Muslims in Canada respond to this Qur'anic demand for zakāt as an essential element of faith. It is based upon interviews with eight employees and volunteers, two each from four Sunnī Canadian organisations whose work centres upon the collection and distribution of zakāt, conducted over Skype or Zoom in the summer of 2020. A review of the existing literature revealed that no prior study of zakāt in Canada existed, and only two studies could be found addressing zakāt in any Western country. Much contemporary scholarship on zakāt, owing to its largely privatised nature even in Muslim-majority lands, remains theoretical, treating how zakāt should function as a normative tool of distributive justice, while some scholars note that where the state does administer zakāt it is often marred by mismanagement, corruption, and dissension. At its simplest, zakāt is an obligatory annual charity calculated at 2.5% of income and assets held above a minimum threshold over the span of a year, with different percentages applied to farming and business, and one who falls below the threshold does not pay but rather receives it. Yet the interviewees consistently understood zakāt to be far more profound than a mere mathematical calculation. The Qur'an teaches that zakāt purifies one's wealth (Q 9:103), that wealth itself is a trust from God given to whom He pleases (Q 4:37; 34:39), that it is the acknowledged right of the poor (Q 70:24–25), and that it is a means of circulating wealth within a community (Q 59:7). Those who withhold it are warned of punishment in the Hereafter for disregarding the true Owner of their wealth and the plight of the poor (Q 9:34). Scholars emphasise the multiple roles of zakāt: the spiritual purification of the giver, the dignity afforded the receiver, the circulation of wealth, the strengthening of bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood, the removal of negative emotions such as envy and miserliness, the encouragement of economic productivity by taxing idle and hoarded wealth, and the reduction of extremes of wealth toward a more just and peaceful society. In precolonial Muslim societies, zakāt operated within a wider ecology of institutions addressing poverty and the redistribution of wealth, including the prohibition of usury, the laws of inheritance, and the waqf, or charitable endowment. Abdurrashid observes that by the Mamluk period (648 AH/1250 CE) awqāf had overtaken ṣadaqah and zakāt as the premier institution of Muslim philanthropy, financing mosques, libraries, colleges, scientific research, travellers' inns, housing for single women, and even protections for animals. These institutions were eventually dismantled or confiscated under colonial rule or by native modernising elites, and zakāt too was left to voluntary practice. Yet the call to Islam's social project endures, and even non-Muslim scholars have recognised it, as Andrii Krawchuk noted in observing that Islamic economics firmly establishes "the priority of social justice, dignity for the poor, and the responsibilities of the wealthy." Several interviewees drew attention to the inadequacy of rendering zakāt into English as "charity." One manager described zakāt as "the wealth of the poor," calling the conventional translation "highly problematic," for it is neither charity, since it is not one's own money, nor a tax, since it comes from God to purify and to support. The interviewees distinguished carefully between zakāt, the obligatory almsgiving with specific rules; zakāt al-fiṭr, given at the close of Ramadan; and ṣadaqah, voluntary charity given at any time, in any amount, to whomever one wishes. They noted too that charity in Islam extends beyond money, as one observed that ṣadaqah may be as simple as kindness, feeding a person, or sharing one's food. This understanding is exemplified in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that "every joint of a person must perform a charity each day," including judging justly between two people, a good word, and removing a harmful object from the road; and in his saying that one who finds nothing to give should work with his hands, or assist an aggrieved person, or "do good and refrain from evil—that would be his charity." All the interviewees affirmed that giving zakāt is essential to being a Muslim, forming the foundation of one's connection to Allah ﷻ as one of the five pillars and an expression of obedience and love. Many noted the frequent pairing of prayer and zakāt in the Qur'an (Q 2:43; 4:162; 5:55; 9:18; 21:73; 22:41), and al-Qardawi observes that the two are associated twenty-seven times in the same sequence. One interviewee reasoned beautifully that ṣalāh "aligns us with the celestial plane, and zakāt is what aligns us with the terrestrial plane," two balancing forces for the people of the middle path. Regarding the Western philosophical distinction between charity and justice, the interviewees found such categories foreign to their moral vocabulary, most concluding, in the words of one, that "justice is charity" and that the two go hand in hand. This reflects the position, as the study notes, that Kymlicka's conclusion—that charity is giving to one not truly entitled to it while genuine poverty demands justice—overlooks both the spiritual and social dimensions of charity and the relationship between charity and justice as conceived in Islam. Six of the eight interviewees related that immersion in the field had deepened their understanding of zakāt beyond a routine annual payment, granting them both a firmer grasp of its rules and a greater appreciation of its non-monetary benefits, including the dignity and psychological peace it affords recipients in contrast to welfare systems perceived as patronising and dehumanising. As one explained, the ultimate aim of zakāt is not merely to remove poverty but to build people to a place where they can worship Allah ﷻ with khushūʿ. The study further observes, drawing on May's research on Muslim charities in the United Kingdom, that the establishing of specifically Muslim charities stems not from self-segregation but from religious injunction and trust in those authorised to distribute funds according to the rights of both giver and receiver. Interviewees pointed to real gaps in provincial social services, citing studies showing that Muslims are over-represented in poverty and often face barriers of language, racism, and awareness. When asked what zakāt is for, most emphasised its function in rectifying economic and social injustice and in circulating non-productive wealth through the community. Some voiced concern that giving is too often driven by media attention rather than genuine assessment of need, and one warned that charity given without care can itself become an injustice to the recipient. Finally, given the historical pre-eminence of the waqf, the study laments that two of the eight interviewees had never heard of it, and that poverty alleviation is now viewed almost solely through the lens of zakāt. The interviewees affirmed that zakāt, described by one as the "sacred rights of the poor," carries a spiritual responsibility transcending material attachment, and that establishing justice through it is itself a test from Allah of one's deeds and adherence to His commands. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-preserved-practice-a-study-of-zakat-work-in-canada # The Preserved Practice: A Study of Zakat Work in Canada **Authors:** Dr. Katherine Bullock, Areeb Daimee **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Daily Reads, Paper, Publication, Wealth & Finance, Zakat **Published:** June 2, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Prelude Anyone who has looked with some depth at the Islamic institution of *zakat*[^1]  will be transformed by the profundity of its wisdom in addressing more than one important aspect of community building. Although many of us treat it perfunctorily, *zakat* is more than simply about wealthier people giving excess money to poorer people in need. *Zakat* acts on the giver by purifying their wealth, inducing humbleness, and curtailing avarice and greed; it acts on the receiver, as part of a dignified support system that prevents homelessness, hunger, destitution, and curtails longing, envy, and resentment. The sum of *zakat* is greater than each of its parts. It is a social safety net, a binding bond creating solidarity across class lines, a job support and training programme, and an economic stimulus package; it reduces pride and envy. *Zakat* is a spiritual practice with a temporal element. That is why al-Qardawi called it a “tax-worship or a worship-tax.”[^2] At least, this is what it can be/do in theory.[^3] Colonisation and modernisation programmes ravaged traditional Muslim institutions for poverty alleviation, including *zakat* and *waqf*, which were often administered by the state. Yet Muslim immigrants brought the practices of *zakat* with them. *Zakat* in Western countries is rarely covered in academic literature as a topic in its own right; in fact, we only found two such studies.[^4] In 2019, The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, based in the USA, released a pioneering comparative study of Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and non-affiliated Americans’ giving measured in dollar amounts. But they did not break the dollar amounts down into *zakat* money versus other monies.[^5] Studies of Muslim communities do highlight social service practices, such as soup kitchens or food banks; such analyses mention *zakat* in passing as an aspect of Muslim charity.[^6] These kinds of community-based studies are empirically focused and are mostly descriptive. They might use substitute concepts such as social work, social services, or volunteerism for *zakat*.[^7] We commend this kind of scholarship for it is crucial in addressing negative stereotypes of Muslims in the West as alienated or extremist. And yet to use volunteerism or a social service like a food bank as a synonym for *zakat* is to skim the surface of what *zakat* is and can be. The spiritual dimension of *zakat* changes our understanding of the word “charity”; the criterion for giving or receiving changes our understanding of how to address poverty and exclusion; and the economic impact implications of *zakat* change our understanding of social solidarity. This paper reports a qualitative study focused on organisations that collect and distribute *zakat* in Canada. We investigate what happens to the institution of *zakat* when Muslims live as minorities in a non-Muslim majority country ruled by secular-democratic laws with different systems of addressing poverty. How is *zakat* related to that, if at all? It is pioneering research and therefore very preliminary. --- ## Brief overview of the study Given the absence of sustained analysis of *zakat* in Canada, we started at the foundational institutional level. We interviewed two employees/volunteers each from four (Sunni) Canadian organisations whose primary activity is *zakat*, or whose work includes *zakat* collection and distribution. Organisation One is based in a mid-sized city. It was founded in the early 1990s as a food bank, growing to include youth and family social services. Organisation Two is a nation-wide association with offices in several large cities, founded in the late 1990s, with international and local social services as part of its programming. Organisation Three, founded in the early 2000s, is based in a large city and works at arm’s length from social services by pooling donations to give grants to other charities for their projects. Organisation Four is a nation-wide association with offices in several large cities, founded in 2013, with an emphasis on local *zakat* collection and distribution. The four organisations cover an incredibly wide range of services to the community: refugee support and sponsorship; assembling food baskets/collecting donations/running a foodbank; translation; special events functions; picking up and distributing furniture donations; preparing and serving meals to the homeless; counselling and casework for clients; a counselling helpline; client referrals to other services; assistance filling out government forms/understanding relevant laws; financial assistance, including emergency individual or disaster relief; collection and distribution of *zakat* and *zakāt al-fiṭr*;[^8]  seniors and youth programming; funeral fund assistance; fundraising for hospital equipment; matrimonial programmes; back-to-school backpack drives; combatting domestic violence; women’s shelters; and liaising with foster care organisations. This is likely not an exhaustive list, just the topics mentioned in the interviews. Organisation Three, as a granting foundation, is slightly different. It gives grants to other charities, Muslim and non-Muslim. Their focus is projects that will “uplift” people, especially ones that will lift them out of poverty, such as homework clubs to assist children without adequate support in the home; scholarship programmes; anti-racism projects; buying sewing machines for a women’s group to supplement their family’s income through sewing; and raising funds to buy the expensive equipment needed for a community kitchen to assist women from a low-income neighbourhood trying to start a catering business. There are many local and national organisations dealing with *zakat*. Absent a wider quantitative or qualitative study, we have no way of knowing how representative these organisations are of *zakat* work in Canada, and yet each organisation is well-established and well-known; they are central, not marginal, to the Muslim communities in which they work. We asked our interviewees very basic questions such as why do you work in this field, how do you calculate, collect, and distribute *zakat*, what role can *zakat* play in poverty alleviation, and the like. Interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 global pandemic of summer 2020 over Zoom or Skype, when coping with rising poverty due to the lockdown was uppermost on many people’s minds. The interviews lasted between 30 minutes and 2 hours. The audio files were transcribed by a professional transcriber, which we then coded thematically. We present the interview data in two sections. **Section one** looks at questions related to what it is like to work in the *zakat* field, including why they work in the charitable sector and the concept of *zakat* as a sacred trust. **Section two** explores the nuts and bolts of *zakat* calculation, collection, and distribution in Canada, covering subsections on how *zakat* is calculated; how it is collected; a national *zakat* organisation, local vs international distribution, methods of distribution, the eight categories of *zakat* eligibility, and *zakat* and welfare systems. --- ## 1 ) What does zakat work entail? Western scholarship on Muslim volunteerism often positions itself within a peculiar media-driven debate that suggests that while volunteering is known to be beneficial to the individual and larger society, there is something potentially threatening to Western societies when Muslims volunteer for Muslim-focused organisations.[^9] A Eurocentric bias considers Muslims’ motivations for volunteering in Muslim-focused organisations suspect, treating them as evidence of a Muslim desire to self-segregate and not integrate into the broader society. Yet scholars who fairly investigate Muslim volunteerism dispute such conclusions. They note similarities between Muslim volunteering and that of other faith groups.[^10] Peucker’s empirical quantitative and qualitative survey of 138 Muslims in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney found that volunteering in Muslim-focused organisations was actually linked to a strengthened sense of belonging to Australian society and increased political interest and public engagement.[^11] Our research resonates with these scholarly insights about identity and integration. In fact, there is a rich and reciprocal relationship between *zakat* organisations and other needs-based organisations in the wider society, including government agencies, other faith-based groups like Catholic or Mennonite, and secular organisations such as food banks. As one manager commented on how often his organisation interacts with other social welfare agencies, “Oh, daily, like our work wouldn’t happen without it.” The interactions take three main forms, common to all the organisations interviewed. First, the organisation refers clients to other agencies that have a specific resource they believe can help those clients. For example, assisting clients in rental distress connect with provincial welfare agencies; applying for government grants to cover funeral expenses; educating clients about relevant laws such as landlord/tenant acts; translation assistance for applications; and liaising with dental clinics and stores that can offer discounts to the clientele. One of the caseworkers talked about how she usually develops an action plan to help “connect the client to resources that would benefit them…whether it is settlement agencies…diabetes centres, anything from A to Z…” Thus, the assistance is not only financial. Her organisation always tries to make referrals to two agencies for every client. The second form involves other agencies contacting the organisation for assistance. The calls might be from social workers referring clients to them, or other government or social welfare agencies asking them for assistance in their own work with Muslim clients. For example, one interviewee facilitated a request for donations from a local women’s assault protection centre. He also collected donations to buy ventilators for a local hospital, and responded to a Senator’s office who had called requesting assistance after a Syrian refugee had passed away in another province to help finance bringing the body back to his mother for the funeral. One interviewee commented that because his organisation has funded non-Muslim agencies for projects with a majority of Muslim clients they have developed “quite a relationship and credibility with \[these kinds of\] agencies…\[So some\] of the faith groups come to us looking as a means of getting access within the Muslim community.” He notes how beneficial working with the non-Muslim agencies has been because “it helps us as well to see the need of the Muslim community.” This organisation also hosts networking events “so that organisations can get to know each other, can get to coordinate.” The third form involves a “complementary” approach whereby the organisation works together with another social welfare agency to deliver the service. One of the organisations has a “healthy families” programme that involves their agency and a Catholic agency, so the caseworkers will discuss the client’s needs with each other. This organisation has a robust relationship with a local secular foodbank—to prevent double-dipping, they share client lists; they refer clients to each other if that person lives closer to the other foodbank; and they pool resources for foodbank purchases which increases their buying power. This organisation mobilises about 70 volunteers to serve a quarterly lunch at a local homeless shelter. One interviewee discussed instances where his work complements what clients receive from other agencies. His organisation created a funeral fund. He first helps such families apply to the provincial funeral fund. If they “are not eligible to get it, and still they need the help, then we… give them funeral support.” He related how, on the Friday before the interview, he had received a call around 10:30 PM from a hospital seeking his assistance for a distraught mother whose seventeen-year-old daughter had just died. Her husband had died the year before, so he assisted the mother and the hospital until around midnight when a nephew arrived, and he offered him more advice on how to handle the funeral until around 1:00 AM. One manager discussed how his organisation has recently reached out to non-Muslim agencies to provide them feedback and work with them to improve their programmes’ ability to assist Muslim clients. His organisation had learned from their clients that some programmes they had referred them to, such as a job-readiness programme, had not been helpful. They realised that cross-cultural misunderstanding was hampering the agencies’ ability to reach their clients in useful ways. His organisation created a committee to do research on all kinds of programmes in specific categories including government and foundations funded. They then had meetings either over the phone or in person with these funders: > We sat down with them and said okay, this is what we’re looking for…Our clientele, the majority of them are from this part of the world, they speak this language, they struggle with English, they have… difficulty understanding certain… ah… aspects of the Canadian culture and these are things that are holding them back from gaining secure employment in Canada. So what can we do to help you get to a level where you can provide services to our clientele… and not just our clientele, but there’s so many other people from all kinds of communities that are here because Canada, *mā shāʾ Allāh*, is very multicultural. While indirect, this cultural sensitivity training is an important aspect of helping their clients if it helps other agencies improve their services to the multi-ethnic clientele. Hence, for all the organisations we interviewed, working with other agencies is a crucial aspect of attending to their Muslim clients’ needs. Their work is a decisive aspect of immigrant settlement and the integration of Muslims within the wider Canadian society. The desire and willingness of these charitable workers to partner with and improve social welfare for Muslims (and non-Muslims, as will be discussed later) contradicts notions of ghettoisation. The point of their work is to help Muslims become self-sufficient and contributing members of society. ### 1.2  Why work in the charitable sector? Although our interviewees came from all over the Muslim world (only one of our eight interviewees was born in Canada), a striking similarity between all of them was that whether they had come to this work by a purposeful route or by accident, whether they were an employee or a volunteer, or had worked in the field for two or fifteen years, they were all incredibly dedicated and passionate about their work. What connects them is a desire to help their community. As one interviewee said: “\[for me\] this is volunteer work, so I have always been interested in… volunteering, and making a difference in the community, whether through civil rights or through, you know, the charitable organisation.” Another who began as a volunteer and ended up as a full-time employee said: “I always knew that I wanted to be in a field where I could directly impact on the lives of people.” For the six employees interviewed, some came from other professional fields, such as marketing, economics, engineering or commerce; others had studied social work specifically. Some started as volunteers with a particular organisation, moving into employment after several years. Others were in the right place at the right time and were offered employment, learning about their new field on the job. None of that detracted from their passionate commitment. As one interviewee said he could be retired, sitting at home relaxing, but he is still enjoying his work at the charitable organisation: “you know, once…you get into this field…with compassion…and consider this as not as a job but as…a job plus something else, you’ll not feel tired. As a matter of fact I never got tired doing this job. And nineteen years, you know, I am expected to go to office every day \[sic\].” Several of the interviewees commented on the need to have the “right mindset” to do this kind of work. In the words of a case worker, it was not about doing overtime, but > you could still do… you go four or five hours but the right mindset is somebody who shows up to actually take care and do what the job requires. To step up. To…to feel it in your heart and know why you are doing this and to be grateful that actually you are a chosen employee to be in a position where you can help… somebody… basically you are—what is the word?—like er… you are a tool for Allah basically. You are a tool. You’re in this position… to do case work so that you’re… delivering… the need to the community. ### 1.3 Sacred trust The passion of our interviewees for *zakat* work is highlighted through the due due diligence with which they conduct their work. May’s study of *zakat* in Britain is nested within the post 9/11 debate about Muslim charities’ alleged funneling of funds to terrorist groups. Critical scholars point to unfair targeting of Muslim charities in many Western countries by their government’s regulatory apparatus.[^12] Given the alleged incompatibility between Islamic and Western law, by contrast, May highlights an overlap in concerns between *zakat* administrators and British charity law that applies equally to the *zakat* distributing organisations we interviewed in Canada: transparency and due diligence in collecting and distributing *zakat*.[^13] *Zakat* organisations aim for conscientiousness in accounting not just because the law requires precision in how money is collected  and distributed, but also because of similar Islamic requirements. As one manager argued, when giving charities a grant, the government requires segregation of funds, “\[the\] government says, treat this as a restricted fund. We want to know dollars in, dollars out. Right? And so for us it was a given that we should at the very least do the same with *zakat*.” Many interviewees mentioned the sense of responsibility they feel in fulfilling *zakat*, which is one of the pillars of Islam. One interviewee called it the “sacred trust,” others used the Arabic word “*amānah*,” which means “fulfilling a trust.” Since *zakat* is the right of the poor on the wealthy, and the wealthy intend to purify their wealth by giving *zakat* to the right people, as specified by the Qur’an, those in charge feel a dual responsibility: to the donor and to the recipient. For this reason, this sense of *amānah*, or “stewarding someone else’s money,” the organisations were careful with their accounting, in both collecting and distributing, some very carefully doing “funds-based accounting.” Organisation Three, as a granting foundation, is vigilant since *zakat* cannot be spent on investments. Each year, primarily during Ramadan, they send a letter encouraging people to donate a “portion of their *zakat* \[to us\] and that money that we collect are \[sic\] distributed during that year to projects… that worked well.” By the same token, the organisations are careful to distinguish between *zakat* and *ṣadaqah*.[^14] Organisation One and Four are careful to distribute *zakat* only to Muslims who qualify as needy and poor; Organisation One does not use *zakat* on counselling services, for instance. Organisation Two gives donors a drop-down menu in their system to choose from *zakat*\-domestic, *zakat*\-international, *ṣadaqah* (voluntary charity), *fiṭrah* (charity at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan), orphan sponsorship, or *dhabīḥah* (ritually slaughtered meat), for example. At the end of the year they know how much they have in each fund to distribute for that category, although there is intermingling of some funds for emergency relief. These distinctions are well-grounded in Islamic law. Ḥanafīs advised state funds to be divided into different treasuries, and that *zakat* must be “run independently.”[^15] One manager spoke of their due diligence in preventing fraudulent claims by having clients fill out certain forms to demonstrate they are below the level of *niṣāb*[^16]  and therefore eligible for *zakat*, as a “huge responsibility” to “protect… the *zakat*” and to “do justice to the pillar of *zakat*.” They had recently done a massive overhaul of their system, discovering people who had been on the client list for over 20 years. They reassessed everyone and closed 4700 files. People who were still eligible remained on the list. Some clients were angry at this, “…we made them realise that you know, that this is *zakat* money that we are using… it’s an *amanah* on us, we have to be fair and, and the thing is that we were stretched very, very thin… \[So we reminded them\] that… a lot of our items are coming from *zakat*, and… you know, there can’t be misuse of that… ah… so then people understand.” For another organisation’s case worker, justice means being fair and helping people where “right now” counts, not the future. She sometimes explains to people who do not meet the assessment criteria for *zakat* eligibility that, while she respects their sense of being deserving, there are others “who are a worse situation than you, and I want you to say *al-ḥamdu lillāh* for even 1000, 2000, *al-ḥamdu lillāh*, because there are people who are not able to feed their food \[sic\].” She lets them know that if things change in the future, they are welcome to come back. Some organisations distribute charity carefully to non-Muslims from *ṣadaqah* funds. Two case workers from different organisations mentioned that since *zakat* is an *amānah* and, from their organisations’ point of view, can only be spent on Muslims, they ask clients questions either directly or indirectly to find out if they are Muslim. One organisation developed a new oath to this effect for Muslim clients. All organisations (except Organisation Three) had systems where potential clients had to bring documents such as bank or welfare statements to establish income and expenses. Thus, we found that our interviewees were passionate about their work and approached it carefully, with concerns about helping their clients by connecting to other agencies whenever necessary, and adhering to policies of accountability and transparency. --- ## 2) The nuts and bolts of zakat calculation, collection, and distribution Al-Qardawi emphasises the institutional nature of *zakat* in several places in his *Fiqh az-Zakat*, arguing it “is part of the social structure of the Islamic state and not an individual practice.”[^17] But what if there is no Islamic state? Al-Qardawi points out that an individual should still pay their *zakat*, even if the government is not collecting/distributing it.[^18] In their survey of *zakat* in Nigeria, Saad and Farouk identify another method for the administration of *zakat*: non-governmental organizations.[^19] In Canada, there are five methods for *zakat* collection and distribution: private; mosque; international relief agencies; charities for local distribution; *zakat*\-only charities for local distribution. The latter is a recent development and speaks to a growing specialisation and professionalization of *zakat*. Before examining distribution more deeply, we mention a few aspects of calculation and collection. ### 2.1 Zakat calculation The four organisations we interviewed were extremely similar in that they left calculation to individuals. While there are differences in Islamic law around how to calculate *zakat* on items such as jewellery and modern devices like RRSPs, it was left to individuals to decide. Each organisation offered education, *zakat* guides, and access to scholars for those who sought assistance with questions related to calculating *zakat*. ### 2.2 Zakat collection Ndiaye’s study of *zakat* in Switzerland noted that in any mosque, donation boxes are usually separated into *zakat*/*zakāt-al-fiṭr* and *ṣadaqah*.[^20] This is also the case in Canada. Non-Muslims often find this peculiar, but this differentiation is a recognition on the part of administrators of the importance of intention in donation. We discussed in section 1.3 above how the organisations are careful to distinguish between *zakat* and *sadaqah* in their distribution, providing different donation slots allows donors to make the same distinction. All the organisations rely on similar methods of collection allowing individuals to drop by the office to give cash or cheque, mail in cheque, or secure online donations. Two of the organisations have gone a step further and are signing agreements with local mosques who pass the *zakat* collected onto them to distribute. #### 2.2.1 A national zakat organisation? In his survey of Canadian social services, Azmi argued that, in the absence of an Islamic state, every Muslim should belong to a *jamāʿah*, whose *amīr*/imām should adhere to the formal organisational and administrative rules of Islamic law, including the collection and distribution of *zakat*/*ṣadaqah*.[^21] With many mosques collecting and distributing *zakat* themselves, it appears that some associations are behaving in this manner. Not everyone is supportive of this approach, however. One interviewee expressed a concern that mosques were mismanaging *zakat*’s *fī sabīl Allāh*[^22] category  by using *zakat* for the upkeep of their building. He argued that there’s a great “potential for *zakat* \[in Canada\]… If it’s used properly and if we sort of collectively you know come together and… use the resources of *zakat* in… a much more focused way than we have been doing… over the past, you know, few decades.” Several interviewees commented that *zakat* in Canada would be more effective in helping people become self-sufficient if organisations worked together and combined *zakat* resources. One case worker expressed her wish for a central national *zakat* organisation in Canada. She believed that if all the monies were pooled in that way, they would be able to help more people than they can currently, with limited funds that do not meet the needs of recipients. A conversation about creating a national *zakat* organisation would brush up against the issue of territoriality, propriety and competition that currently exists between the multitude of *zakat*\-collecting bodies. One manager aptly noted that: > many Muslim organisations become dependent on *zakat…* \[for\]… fund raising, right? And I think that leads to a mindset of scarcity and competition, and that’s… not healthy for the individuals involved, the organisations or the community. And I think if we start to see… ah… ourselves merely as stewards and as pastors of *zakat*, that *zakat* isn’t there to grow our organisation, then that leads to a lot of, I think, unique and beautiful opportunities. One manager worried that the lack of cooperation and willingness to share resources led to competition between organisations. She felt that it was creating dependency amongst clients who would just go from one foodbank to the other, whereas her organisation tried to implement a plan that would lift people out of poverty. It is this lack of coordination and policy development that led one interviewee to exclaim that in general *zakat* in Canada was a “disaster.” He was careful that he did not mean to speak against the sincere efforts of those trying, but that he was concerned that each *masjid* had their own ways and there was no coordination, or “oversight for *zakat* collection and *zakat* spending.” He believed we are “lacking accountability, transparency in collection of *zakat* and how… and where we spend *zakat*.” He argued that *zakat*  “should be done in collaboration so the impact would be greater than individual organisation or local *masjid*, right?... This is one of the most neglected pillars of Islam in practice that… much more work is needed and I believe every organisation, especially Canadian Muslim organisation can do better about it \[sic\].” Another manager mentioned something similar. He pointed out that if everyone gave their *zakat* locally there would be so much more that could be done to help lift people out of poverty, including programmes for mental health, the elderly, children with disabilities, job readiness, and back-to-work or second careers. “But the fact of the matter is that we haven’t realised or even come close to realising the full potential of *zakat* in Canada…” ### 2.3 Zakat distribution The Qur’an very clearly lays out eight categories of people that are eligible to receive *zakat*: “Charities are for the poor, and the destitute, and those who administer them, and for reconciling hearts, and for freeing slaves, and for those in debt, and in the path of God, and for the traveler in need—an obligation from God. God is All-Knowing, Most Wise (9:60).” We will look at this in more detail below. #### 2.3.1 International vs. local First it is important to draw attention to one of the most remarked upon aspects of *zakat* distribution in all studies of Muslim charity in Western countries: the overwhelming tendency for people to send their *zakat* overseas to Muslim-majority countries.[^23] Two interrelated reasons are usually given: affluent western societies do not really have poverty, whereas Muslims overseas live in poverty, so they need *zakat*. In his interviews with Dutch-Turkish Muslims, Cebecioglu observed how this attitude has been slowly changing and *zakat* is being spent more locally out of a “wider sense of responsibility for human development in the world.”[^24] In Canada, a similar trend can be observed. The growth of giving *zakat* locally is based upon a dawning realisation that there are people here who fall through the cracks in the welfare system. All the organisations had decided to spend their *zakat* locally. Organisation Two has major international *zakat* programmes as well, but from the very beginning included local emergency *zakat* “based on the simple concept of charity begins at home.” They have food banks and a lifetime emergency relief payment up to $950. Many pointed out, as did one interviewee that, while comparatively speaking Muslims in Muslim-majority countries lived in deeper poverty, nevertheless, that did not mean that even if Canada is good in global standards, there were not Muslims living in poverty here. They come from many walks of life, including single parents, new immigrants, refugees, jobless, and the homeless. One case worker related the story of a young man here on a work permit with his young family who lost his job due to COVID but did not qualify for any government related income support. He needed *zakat*. In addition to noting that there is a plethora of organisations that do international relief work, Organisation Four had an Islamically-based rationale for collecting and distributing *zakat* locally based on the hadith of Muʿādh ibn Jabal, in which the Prophet ﷺ instructed that the *zakat* he collected in Yemen should be taken from their rich, and given to their poor:[^25] “the wording is very, very specific, that’s taken from their rich and given to their poor. Meaning he was not supposed to take the *zakat* and bring it back to Medina for example. He was supposed to take it there, collect it there, and distribute it there.” As the manager from another organisation said: “People in Malaysia aren’t accountable for the people in our backyard, we are. Right? They’re our neighbours. They’re our brothers and sisters and so our responsibility is to them…” Asked whether there was pushback from the local community on the decision to spend *zakat* locally, most interviewees commented, in the words of one interviewee, “People are more curious, they’re like, really? Like *zakat* in Canada? There’s poor people here?” The interviewees concluded this notion was based on lack of experience of seeing Muslim poverty in Canada. #### 2.3.2 Methods of processing zakat applications This section looks at how *zakat* applications are processed in the four organisations we studied. Amongst the interviewees there are similarities and differences to the approach in the UK, as reported in May’s study of *zakat*. She found that “most of the *zakat* funds collected in mosques are redistributed into the local community with decisions of distribution made on a case-by-case basis through a *zakat* committee,” who are usually volunteers, often women.[^26] Organisation Three stands apart because it does not give *zakat* to individuals, only to registered charities through a rigorous project-based grant application system decided by a committee. One organisation relied on a single staff member with support from an administrative assistant, while the other two relied on committees of caseworkers, most of whom had social service degrees or training, to make the determination. This demonstrates a growing specialisation and professionalization of the field. These two organisations recognised the potentially patronising, invasive, and dehumanising aspect of many due diligence requirements, criticisms often made of the modern welfare state. Recognising this, over the past year, one organisation has developed a new intake system that begins from a “place of care.” The first conversation between a caseworker and a client does not go into documentation. Our “number one thing is going to be hey, let’s have that human-to-human interaction, let’s have that phone conversation, let’s talk about what’s happening first, right? My name is XX, thank you so much for calling… you… \[have made\] an application for *zakat*, what can I do for you, tell me about what’s going on?” He added that the work they do is not simply writing a cheque and handing out money. While they do not do counselling per se, he suggests their work is “kind of like life coaching and social work,” resulting in multiple phone calls between a case worker and a client in an attempt to help connect them to life skills to lift themselves out of poverty permanently. This idea is echoed by the other organisation’s manager: “So the support worker isn’t just there to ensure that they meet this minimum criteria of desperation, to help them… but it’s instead looking at what are goals that might be transformational in their life, and it’s driven by them, it… gives them an opportunity to… break out of poverty, right?” #### 2.3.3 Eight categories of zakat eligibility The eight categories of *zakat* eligibility enunciated above are well-known since they are mentioned in the Qur’an. May’s study of *zakat* in the UK found that “the emphasis of individual giving was largely on the first two categories,”[^27] with differences of opinion over the categories “reconciling hearts,” and “spending in the path of God.” The same is true with organisations in our study. By and large, the organisations do not distribute to all eight categories, focusing on the top two: the poor and the destitute, with differences of opinion specifically over the appropriateness of the categories “reconciling hearts” and “spending in the path of God” for Canada. One argued that helping refugees could fit into the category of “traveler in need.” We mentioned above that two organisations give *ṣadaqah* to Muslims and non-Muslims but give *zakat* only to Muslims. The other two organisations take from the legal opinions that the category “*fī sabīl Allāh*” (spending in the way of God) and/or “reconciling hearts” allows them to spend *zakat* for the greater good, based upon a view that spending charitable money to support non-Muslim individuals is a Muslim contribution to the wider society.[^28] In the words of one interviewee: “our well-being is tied to the well-being of the general society. So by helping alleviate poverty in the wider society, we’re helping everyone.” Some saw this as an important part of *daʿwah*, the “reconciling the hearts” category of *zakat* eligibility; in the words of one interviewee, “to soften their heart to come closer to the community and to build bridges between Islam and… other religions.” While statistics are varied for each organisation, they estimated 10-30% of their clientele is non-Muslims. The non-Muslims find them through Google searches, friends, or social worker referrals. Two managers pointed to the difficulty of raising money in the community for administrative costs; in one interviewee’s words, there is  “a lot of reluctance \[to talk about this openly\] because nobody really wants to be that guy \[who points out that it costs money to deliver a donation to a recipient\]” and yet it is a crucial conversation because “it is very difficult to get an average… donor to give for the admin costs or the overhead.” Without administration, how could *zakat* or *ṣadaqah* be administered? Relying on volunteers does not bring consistency, nor the professionalism required in such a sensitive field. Some organisations took the permission to pay *zakat* collectors as authorisation to draw administrative expenses from the *zakat*. The interviewees were careful to point out their care in doing so, to ensure administrative costs were fair and a small percentage of overall expenditure (5-10%). One organisation, after consultation with some Islamic scholars, took a unique position that they were not *zakat* collectors, since they had not been appointed by an Islamic state; rather they saw themselves as “representatives of the poor.” They receive about 60% of their funding from government grants. #### 2.3.4 Zakat and welfare systems *Zakat* operates more like a negative income tax (an amount given to people without conditionalities to bring them up to a certain yearly income) than contemporary welfare systems, with their emphases on conditionalities and narrow eligibility. Traditionally, some Muslim scholars even allowed someone who is known to be poor, elderly, or disabled to have their claim for *zakat* accepted without evidence. The testimony of neighbours could count as evidence that a person was needy, though a person who claimed to have a family should show evidence.[^29] A minority of Shafi’is said an able-bodied claimant may be required to testify under oath; one hadith narrates that the Prophet ﷺ looked over some able-bodied claimants and told them that there is no *zakat* for the rich or strong who can earn, so other scholars determined an oath was not always necessary, since some are strong in body but unable to work for other reasons.[^30] Muslim scholars have long argued that it is the state’s responsibility to ensure everyone has their basic needs met; there are differences as to what will count as basic needs, usually some combination of food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and education.[^31] But this ideal is not meant to create lazy citizens relying on handouts. The Qur’anic verses and *aḥādīth* stress the importance of work for those who are able.[^32]  For instance, “No man earns anything better than that which he earns with his own hands; and what a man spends on himself, his wife, his child, and his servant, then it is charity;[^33]  and “It is better for any one of you to carry a bundle of wood on his back and sell it than to beg of someone whether he gives him or refuses.”[^34] According to Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī scholars, an able-bodied person who chose to be idle was not eligible for *zakat*.[^35] *Zakat*, then, is not meant to be administered to create a permanent underclass. It is the right of the poor on the wealthy; it is “not merely temporary relief of the immediate needs of the poor \[but aimed\] at eliminating poverty and making the poor at least self-sufficient.”[^36] So, although in Islamic schools of law there are differences of opinion as to who is and is not eligible, *zakat* is allowed to be given to people who would not qualify for welfare and to cover costs not allowed under welfare. Al-Qardawi recognises this—in advocating for *zakat* he criticizes contemporary authors who argue *zakat* is no longer needed because “contemporary social and economic systems must be based on work and production instead of charity, as if *zakat* was simply a charity for beggars or support for the idle.”[^37] For instance, if a breadwinner could not provide for the essential needs of the family, even if s/he owned property or trade goods, s/he would not be required to sell those in order to receive *zakat*.[^38] A person who owns real estate but whose income is below their needs is counted as poor.[^39] Able-bodied people who cannot find work in their field are eligible for *zakat*; they are not obliged to take any work whatsoever. Tools of trade are considered an essential need by some Hanafi scholars, so *zakat* can be used to purchase such items for someone who lacks them.[^40] *Zakat* work in Canada is not organised around dissenting politics. Anti-poverty advocates, labour, and Basic Income movements are all critical of welfare systems for being inefficient, with degrading and patronising means tests and work-related requirements, impersonal bureaucracy, and failure to lift people out of poverty.[^41]  While some interviewees appreciated the Canadian welfare system for its contrast with the poverty they observed in their countries of origin, because they see the needs of clients who are on welfare, they are able to see its inadequacies. Yet, by and large, they operate within the structures of the neo-liberal system.[^42] This has to do both with the Canadian Revenue Agency’s strictures imposed upon their organisations, as well as acculturation both for recipients and administrators with Canadian welfare systems, as noted by one interviewee. Although they are careful with their application forms for the sake of complying both with Islamic rules around *zakat* eligibility and CRA guidelines, in essence the application forms cover the same ground as traditional welfare forms; e.g., asking for proof of income, bank statements and expenses and the like. One interviewee had helped an applicant fill out his organisation’s form and commented it is “clearly a very exhausting process.” Having to fill out such long and detailed forms is always a reminder to a recipient that their life is not their own. It impinges on their dignity and autonomy, setting them apart from “normal” people who do not have to bother themselves with such time-consuming paperwork. Yet, because it does not have conditionalities nor narrow eligibilities attached to it, *zakat*, as the right of the poor, is not like welfare, as one interviewee perceptively noted: > It doesn’t carry the burdens the welfare state often imposes which is stigmatisation… the sense that one is less for receiving it… this emphasis on the poor needing to be controlled and cajoled, right? *Zakat* is… okay if you are in need… the general impetus is to say what can we do to support you, to put you in the driver’s seat to see that this is really your money and how can we help you use it? One manager who shared his organisation’s *zakat* policy document with one of the researchers pointed out that the guide is “from an Islamic perspective and does not include the policies that govern us from CRA. If we were to cross that with the CRA objects then the subsection within which we operate is much smaller than what you can find in this document.” All the interviewees understand the purpose of their organisation as helping people become self-sufficient. That is why they go to great lengths in assessing for eligibility, life-coaching, and helping alleviate the “root cause of the problems.” They recognise the need to free up resources for those who could not be self-sufficient thereby relying on *zakat* for a longer time. Although Organisation Three provides tools of trade through the projects they fund, the other organisations were less clear on whether that would be allowed under CRA guidelines. The most they seemed able to do was connect people to job training programmes. One of the few interviewees who distinguished his work as charity rather than justice felt that, due to CRA guidelines, they were forced to give relief money to those in need, instead of addressing “root” causes and helping them become self-sufficient, with say education and mental health programmes. This raises the question of the extent to which *zakat* in Canada is ultimately a band-aid. Whether or not Muslims can attach themselves to more profound opponents of this system, such as the Basic Income movement, remains to be seen. --- ## Concluding thoughts While there are naturally similarities and differences between our interviewees’ responses, one crucial research finding is that the practice of *zakat* as an institution has survived the immigration experience to a non-Muslim secular democracy such as Canada. If *zakat* had been privatised under colonialism, then Muslim immigrants brought that practice with them acclimatised to its voluntary nature.  Obviously as one of the pillars of Islam, *zakat* is meant to be a universal and timeless institution. Our interviews have shown that *zakat* is an important aspect of worship for those administrators who are responsible for institutionalising it in Canada. They are prepared to overcome the challenges they face in implementing it in a non-Muslim environment. Over time, *zakat* work is becoming more specialised—with general social service charities evolving into *zakat*\-focused charities, with a growing emphasis on local distribution. *Zakat* in Canada is a success story in-the-making. Not only has the practice of *zakat* survived migration but, after several decades of a slow buildup, it has rooted itself in Canada’s native soil and is heading in a direction of flourishing. It could  eventually make a huge difference to poverty alleviation and social solidarity for Muslims and non-Muslims together. *Zakat* is playing a remarkable role in integration and community improvement. As far as we have been able to discover, Muslims largely have yet to embrace the institution of *zakat* as a way to contribute to wider debates and policy development addressing poverty alleviation. They are disconnected not only from the depth of their own tradition of *zakat* itself, but also from the wider society. While the number of Muslim politicians and political engagement is on the rise, and Muslims are volunteering in Muslim-majority and non-Muslim not-for-profit organisations, we see little leadership offered to Canada as a whole as to what an Islamic tradition like *zakat* can contribute to the betterment of society. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Zakat* is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is an obligatory annual charity for those whose income is above a minimum level required to sustain basic needs. It is calculated as 2.5% of income and assets above that level. Different percentages are applied to farming and businesses. If someone is below that level, they do not pay *zakat*; rather, they receive it. [^2]: Yusuf al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat: A Comparative Study, The Rules, Regulations and Philosophy of Zakat in the Light of the Qur’an and Sunna* (London: Dar Al Taqwa, 1999), 502. [^3]: Khalil Abdurrashid, “Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions (Waqfs),” *Yaqeen*, January 9, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622664069146000&usg=AOvVaw1KMVb1Q4MdwY_YR39kgV4Q); Mohammad H. Fadel, “Islam, Inequality, Morality, and Justice,” in *Economic Inequality and Morality: Diverse Ethical Perspectives*, ed. William Sullivan and Richard Madsen (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2019); al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 19, 152; Zara Khan, “Reviving the Waqf Tradition: Moral Imagination and the Structural Causes of Poverty,” *Yaqeen*, July 2, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zarakhan/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty/#ftnt2](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zarakhan/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty/%23ftnt2&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622664069147000&usg=AOvVaw2wWzwGmwUUozhfH3StGPk4); Bilal Ahmad Malik, “Philanthropy in Practice: Role of Zakat in the Realization of Justice and Economic Growth,” *International Journal of Zakat* 1, no. 1 (2016): 65. [^4]: Samantha May, “The Best of Deeds: The Practice of *Zakat* in the UK,” *Journal of Church and State* 61, no. 2  (Spring 2019): 1–30; Alioune Ndiaye, *Islamic Charities in Switzerland and the Practice of Zakat* (Geneva: Program for the Study of International Organisations, 2007). [^5]: Faiqa Mahmood, *American Muslim Philanthropy: A Data-Driven Comparative Profile*, The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 2019. [^6]: A representative sample includes: Shaheen Azmi, “Canadian Social Service Provision and the Muslim Community in Metropolitan Toronto,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 17, no. 1 (1997); Marta Bolognani and Paul Statham, “The Changing Public Face of Muslim Associations in Britain: Coming Together for Common ‘Social’ Goals?,”  *Ethnicities* 13, no. 2 (2013), 229–49; Paul Bramadat and David Seljak, *Religion and Ethnicity in Canada* (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009); Charlotte Fridolfsson and Ingemar Elander, “Faith and Place: Constructing Muslim Identity in a Secular Lutheran Society,” *Cultural Geographies* 20, no.3 (2012): 319–37; Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, “U.S Muslim Philanthropy After 9/11,” *Journal of Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society,* 2017; Pamela Aneesah Nadir, “Muslim Social Services,” in *Encyclopedia of Social Work*, 2013; Mario Peucker, “Muslim Community Volunteering: The Civic-Religious ‘Culture of Benevolence’ and its Sociopolitical Implications,” *Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies* 46, no. 11 (2020): 2367–86; Mario Peucker and Merve Reyhan Kayikci, eds., *Muslim Volunteering in the West: Between Islamic Ethos and Citizenship* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020); Mahdi J. Qasqas and Tanvir Turin Chowdhury, *A Diverse Portrait of Islamic Religious Charities Across Canada: A Profile Analysis of Organizational Dynamics* (Toronto: The Tessellate Institute, 2017). [^7]: Klas Borell and Arne Gerdner, “Hidden Voluntary Social Work: A Nationally Representative Survey of Muslim Congregations in Sweden,” *British Journal of Social Work* 41 (2011): 968–79. [^8]: *Zakāt al-Fiṭr* is a small obligatory charity given just before the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, usually around five dollars per member of the household. [^9]: Borell and Gerdner, “Hidden Voluntary Social Work,” 969; Mario Peucker, “Muslim Community Volunteering,” 2368. [^10]: Borell and Gerdner, “Hidden Voluntary Social Work,” 973; Fridolfsson and Elander, “Faith and Place,” 319–37. [^11]: Peucker, “Muslim Community Volunteering,” 2381. [^12]: Sunaina Maira, “Muslim American Youth and Volunteerism: Neoliberal Citizenship in the War on Terror,” in *Muslim Volunteering in the West: Between Islamic Ethos and Citizenship,* ed. Mario Peucker and Merve Reyhan Kayikci (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). See also Anver Emon and Nadia Hasan, “Under Layered Suspicion: A Review of CRA Audits of Muslim-led Charities,” National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto. March 21, 2021. Available online at https://www.layeredsuspicion.ca/ [^13]: May, “The Best of Deeds,” 23. [^14]: *Ṣadaqah* is a general non-obligatory charity. [^15]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 480. [^16]: The *niṣāb* is the level below which someone is eligible to receive instead of paying *zakat*. The amount must be in one’s possession for an entire year and is defined as 87.5 g of pure gold or 625 g silver. In 2020 in Canada, this was $4,825 (gold) or $379 (silver). [^17]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 152, 366. [^18]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 36. [^19]: Ram Al Jaffri Saad and Abubakar Umar Farouk, “A Comprehensive Review of Barriers to a Functional Zakat System in Nigeria: What Needs to be Done?,” *International Journal of Ethics and Systems* 32, no. 1 (2019): 32. [^20]: Ndiaye, *Islamic Charities in Switzerland,* 6 [^21]: Azmi, “Canadian Social Service Provision,” 162. [^22]: *Fī sabīli Allāh* is defined as “spending in the path of God,” which is taken by some, such as al-Qardawi to mean the permissibility of spending it on non-Muslims for the sake of Islam, or supporting Muslim institutions like lobby groups, mosques, and schools where they live as minorities, as in Canada. [^23]: Yağiz Cebecioglu, “Charity as Civic Participation for Dutch–Turkish Muslims,” in *Muslim Volunteering in the West: Between Islamic Ethos and Citizenship*, ed. Mario Peucker and Merve Reyhan Kayikci (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020); Khan, *Reviving the Waqf Tradition*, 8; May, “The Best of Deeds”; Ndiaye, *Islamic Charities in Switzerland,* 6\. The recipient countries are usually in Asia or Africa, where there is widespread poverty or which have been devastated by war. [^24]: Cebecioglu, “Charity as Civic Participation,” 107. [^25]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1783. [^26]: May, “The Best of Deeds,” 26. [^27]: May, “The Best of Deeds,” 15. [^28]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 377, 428. [^29]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 369. [^30]: Sunan Abi Dawud 1663, Sunan al-Nasa’i 2598, Musnad Ahmad 4/224. See the discussion in Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 369. [^31]: Abu Umar Faruq Ahmad, M. Kabir Hassan, Abul Kalam Muhammad Shahed, “Zakah and Re-Distributive Justice in Islam,” *Journal of Muamalat and Islamic Finance Research* 3, no. 1 (2006): 15; Ziauddin Ahmad, *Islam, Poverty and Income Distribution* (Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, 1991), 28, 47; M. Umer Chapra, *Islam and the Economic Challenge* (Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1992), 274; al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 19; Muhammad Nijatullah Siddiqui, “The Guarantee of a Minimum Level of Living in an Islamic State,” in *Distributive Justice and Need Fulfillment in an Islamic Economy*, ed. Munawar Iqbal (Islamabad: International Institute of Islamic Economics, 1988), 267. [^32]: Ziauddin Ahmad, *Islam, Poverty and Income Distribution*. [^33]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 2137, [https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/12](https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/12&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622664069154000&usg=AOvVaw0AA2NPUu8t90cKdluojOml). [^34]: *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn,* no. 539, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:539](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:539&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622664069154000&usg=AOvVaw076MKpFvq20ccV78gRvcVy). [^35]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat,* 350. [^36]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 36–37. [^37]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, xxiii. [^38]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 348–50. [^39]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat,* 368. [^40]: Al-Qardawi, *Fiqh az-Zakat*, 87. [^41]: Hugh Segal, *Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot Project for Ontario*, discussion paper, 2016. [^42]: Maira, “Muslim American Youth and Volunteerism.” ## Summary Anyone who studies the institution of zakat with care comes to appreciate the depth of its wisdom, for it is far more than the transfer of surplus wealth from the rich to the poor. Zakat acts upon the giver by purifying wealth, instilling humility, and restraining greed, while it acts upon the receiver as part of a dignified support system that guards against hunger, homelessness, and the resentment born of destitution. Its total effect exceeds the sum of its parts: it is at once a social safety net, a bond of solidarity across classes, a form of job support, and an economic stimulus. It is a spiritual practice with a worldly dimension, which is why al-Qardawi described it as "a tax-worship or a worship-tax." This, at least, is what zakat can achieve in theory. In practice, colonisation and modernisation dismantled many traditional Muslim institutions of poverty alleviation, including zakat and waqf, which had often been administered by the state; yet Muslim immigrants carried the practice with them into new lands. The present study is a preliminary, qualitative investigation into what becomes of zakat when Muslims live as a minority in a non-Muslim, secular-democratic society such as Canada. Noting the near-total absence of academic literature on this specific question, interviews were conducted with two employees or volunteers from each of four Sunni Canadian organisations engaged in zakat collection and distribution. These organisations, though of unknown representativeness, are well-established and central to their communities. They provide an enormous range of services, from foodbanks and refugee sponsorship to counselling, funeral funds, and financial assistance. One of them, a granting foundation, works instead by funding other charities, both Muslim and non-Muslim, on projects designed to lift people out of poverty. It should be stressed that these organisations are central rather than marginal to the communities they serve. A recurring theme in Western scholarship on Muslim volunteerism, which this study contests, is a media-driven and Eurocentric suspicion that Muslims volunteering for Muslim-focused organisations are seeking to self-segregate rather than integrate. Fair-minded scholars have disputed this, and Peucker's survey of 138 Muslims in three Australian cities found that such volunteering was in fact linked to a strengthened sense of belonging and greater public engagement. The findings here resonate with that conclusion. The four organisations interact daily and reciprocally with government agencies, other faith-based groups such as Catholic and Mennonite bodies, and secular institutions like foodbanks. As one manager put it, "our work wouldn't happen without it." These interactions take three forms: referring clients to other agencies, receiving referrals and requests from others, and working in a complementary manner alongside another agency to deliver a service. One organisation even undertook to give cultural-sensitivity feedback to non-Muslim agencies so that their programmes might better serve a multi-ethnic clientele. This willingness to partner contradicts the notion of ghettoisation, for the aim of the work is to help Muslims become self-sufficient and contributing members of society. Though the interviewees came from across the Muslim world, with only one born in Canada, they shared a striking dedication rooted in a desire to serve their community. Several spoke of the need for the "right mindset," and one caseworker described herself as "a tool for Allah," positioned to deliver help to those in need. This passion is expressed through the diligence with which they conduct their work. May's study of zakat in Britain, situated within the post-9/11 debate over Muslim charities and terrorism financing, highlights an overlap between the concerns of British charity law and those of zakat administrators, namely transparency and due diligence. The same overlap appeared in Canada. Many interviewees spoke of zakat as a "sacred trust," an amanah, entailing a dual responsibility to both donor and recipient, since zakat is the right of the poor upon the wealthy and must reach the categories specified by the Qur'an. Accordingly, the organisations kept careful, funds-based accounting and distinguished scrupulously between zakat and sadaqah; the granting foundation was especially vigilant, since zakat may not be spent on investments. These distinctions were noted as being well-grounded in Islamic law, for the Ḥanafīs advised that state funds be divided into separate treasuries and that zakat "must be run independently." One organisation reassessed its client list and closed 4,700 files, reminding aggrieved clients that misuse of an amanah could not be tolerated. Some organisations serve non-Muslims from sadaqah funds while reserving zakat for Muslims, requiring documentary proof of eligibility below the niṣāb. On the practical mechanics, al-Qardawi is cited as holding that zakat "is part of the social structure of the Islamic state and not an individual practice," yet he affirms that where no such state exists, the individual must still pay it. Saad and Farouk, in their Nigerian study, identify non-governmental organisations as another means of administration. Five methods exist in Canada: private, mosque, international relief agencies, local charities, and the newer zakat-only charities, the last reflecting a growing professionalisation. Calculation was left to individuals, with education and access to scholars offered for contested matters such as jewellery and RRSPs. Collection followed familiar methods, and, as Ndiaye observed of Switzerland, donation boxes distinguish zakat from sadaqah, honouring the importance of intention. The question of a national zakat body drew mixed responses. Azmi had argued that, absent an Islamic state, every Muslim should belong to a jamāʿah whose amīr administers zakat according to Islamic law. Several interviewees wished for pooled, coordinated resources to help more people, while one warned that dependency on zakat breeds "a mindset of scarcity and competition." Another lamented that zakat in Canada was, in coordination terms, a "disaster," with each masjid acting alone and without oversight, calling it "one of the most neglected pillars of Islam in practice." Some feared mosques misusing the fī sabīl Allāh category for building upkeep. Regarding distribution, the Qur'an names eight eligible categories (9:60). A notable trend, remarked upon in all such studies, is the tendency to send zakat overseas; Cebecioglu observed this shifting among Dutch-Turkish Muslims. In Canada all four organisations distribute locally, one invoking the principle that "charity begins at home," and another grounding local distribution in the hadith of Muʿādh ibn Jabal, in which the Prophet ﷺ instructed that zakat be taken from the rich of a people and given to their poor. As one manager said, "they're our neighbours... our responsibility is to them." As May found in the UK, giving concentrates on the first two categories, the poor and the destitute, with disagreement over "reconciling hearts" and "spending in the path of God"; two organisations used these latter categories to justify aiding non-Muslims as daʿwah and as contribution to the wider society, non-Muslims forming an estimated 10–30% of clients. Administrative costs, drawn as 5–10% under the permission to pay zakat collectors, remained a delicate matter; one organisation, after consulting scholars, regarded itself not as zakat collectors but as "representatives of the poor." Zakat is likened to a negative income tax rather than to conditional welfare. Traditionally, some scholars accepted a known poor person's claim without evidence, while the testimony of neighbours could suffice; a minority of Shāfiʿīs required an oath from the able-bodied. Scholars long held the state responsible for basic needs, yet the Qur'an and aḥādīth stress work for the able, as in the report that earning with one's hands and spending on one's family is charity, and that carrying firewood to sell is better than begging. Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī scholars deemed the idle able-bodied ineligible. Yet zakat is not meant to create a permanent underclass but to make the poor self-sufficient, and al-Qardawi criticises those who dismiss it as mere alms for the idle. One interviewee observed that zakat, lacking the stigmatising conditionalities of welfare, treats the recipient's need with dignity, placing him "in the driver's seat." Still, the organisations largely operate within the neo-liberal system, constrained by Canada Revenue Agency rules whose forms mirror welfare paperwork, raising the open question of whether zakat here remains a "band-aid" rather than a remedy for root causes. The study concludes that zakat has survived the migration to a secular democracy, that it is becoming more specialised and locally focused, and that it is "a success story in-the-making" with potential to serve both Muslims and non-Muslims. Yet Muslims have largely not yet embraced zakat as a contribution to wider public debates on poverty, offering little leadership to Canada as to what this tradition might contribute to society. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/holistic-healing-islams-legacy-of-mental-health # Holistic Healing: Islam’s Legacy of Mental Health **Authors:** Dr. Rania Awaad, Danah Elsayed, Hosam Helal **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Daily Reads, Paper, Publication **Published:** May 27, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Islamic intellectual heritage has squarely recognized mental health and played an active role in cultivating mental wellbeing—starting from the Prophet ﷺ and his companions (RAA) and inspiring Muslim scholars who followed. So where did the concept of shame regarding mental health difficulties come from? Or the belief that a believer is invincible and that faith alone will prevent them from struggling with mental illness? How have these ideas impacted our *ummah*? What lies ahead? In this paper, we explore each of these questions from a historical and Islamic lens in an attempt to reconcile the rich Islamic intellectual heritage of the past with the mental health challenges of the present and the future. --- ## Suffering and resilience: How Prophet Muhammad ﷺ managed emotional difficulties It is not uncommon to hear some Muslims say: “A Muslim cannot be afflicted by depression” or “Depression is the result of weak faith; all you need to do is pray more.” To justify this stance, some people use *āyāt* such as the following: > إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ[^1] > > Indeed, those who believe, do good, establish prayer, and pay alms-tax will receive their reward from their Lord, *and there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve*. This *āyah*, however, was understood by the early Muslims to refer to the state of the  believer in the hereafter. For example, Imam al-Ṭabarī mentions that “there is no fear for the believers in the hereafter; God is pleased with them and He grants them salvation and grace, nor will they grieve over what they missed out on in this world.”[^2] Ibn Kathīr agrees with al-Ṭabarī; he says, “The believers are not scared of what is to come on the Day of Resurrection nor do they experience sorrow over what they left behind in the world.”[^3] This world, however, is a place of trials and tests,[^4] and the believers are told in the Qur’an to expect tribulations in their wealth and within themselves (i.e., their health),[^5] with some fear, famine, and loss of property, life, and crops.[^6] We are also told that we will be tested in the pleasures of life and through gains.[^7] These tests apply to all of humanity, including to the best of us (the prophets). In fact, the Prophet ﷺ taught us that God tests those He loves the most, to strengthen them and to cultivate tenacity, resilience, and gratitude within them. Sa‘d said that when the Prophet ﷺ was asked which people experienced the greatest trials he replied, “The prophets, then those who follow their path, then those who follow them. A human is afflicted in proportion to their faith; if they are firm in their faith, their trial is increased, but if there is weakness in their faith, their trial is made lighter for them, and this continues until they walk on the earth \[almost\] having no sin.”[^8] The prophets (whose faith and trust in Allah is unmatched) experienced and acknowledged intense emotional challenges.[^9] Part of the humanity of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is evidenced by the struggles he endured and how he overcame them. In the resilience he exhibited is a series of lessons for us should we undergo similar challenges. For example, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ experienced sadness so deep during a year-long episode of bereavement that chroniclers coined this period “the year of sadness.” His grief was exacerbated by the immense financial pressure on him and his followers from the Quraysh’s socio-economic boycott. He also felt the pain of the disbelievers’ denial of his message: > فَلَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ إِن لَّمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَٰذَا الْحَدِيثِ أَسَفًا[^10]  > > Perhaps, then, will you \[O Prophet\] grieve yourself to death over their denial, if they \[continue to\] disbelieve in this message. Importantly, Allah (SWT) urged him to take steps to manage this grief: > فَلَا تَذْهَبْ نَفْسُكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسَرَاتٍ[^11] > > So do not grieve yourself to death over them \[O Prophet\]. Part of managing the grief in his life involved embracing and acknowledging his emotions. While watching his son Ibrāhīm take his last breaths, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ demonstrated the importance of being careful with one’s words and focusing on coming to terms with reality and accepting the will of Allah (SWT) with contentment and healing. With tears flowing down his blessed checks, he said: > إن العين تدمع والقلب يحزن، ولا نقول إلا ما يرضي ربنا، وإنا لفراقك يا إبراهيم لمحزونون[^12] > > Indeed, the eyes shed tears and the heart feels sorrow. Yet, we do not say anything except that which is pleasing to our Lord. Your departure, O Ibrahim, surely leaves us all deeply saddened. He also taught a holistic approach to healing, including accessing spiritual remedies (such as mindful remembrance of Allah,[^13] cognitive reframing in light of Allah’s Divine Will,[^14] and special supplications for anxiety and sadness),[^15] regulating our emotions,[^16] and taking good care of our bodies.[^17] However, he did not stop there. When one of ʿĀʾishah’s (RAA) family members would pass away, she would gather her close relatives and friends and ask for a pot of *talbīnah* (a soup made by adding milk and honey to dried barley powder) and some *tharīd* (a dish made from meat and bread) to be cooked. She would then tell them, “Eat of it, for I heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ saying, ‘*Talbīnah* soothes the heart of the patient and relieves some of his sadness.’”[^18] In these instances, ʿĀʾishah (RAA) recognized that her loved ones were suffering from grief and offered them a physical, medical treatment for emotional distress. She was also known to use *talbīnah* to treat anxiety and grief-induced psychosis. It should be noted here that *talbīnah* was considered by the Prophet’s contemporaries to be a form of healing with some medicinal benefits to be used in conjunction with spiritual remedies—illustrating the holistic nature of Islamic healing. Describing *talbīnah*, the Prophet ﷺ said, “It strengthens the heart of the bereaved person, and removes \[some of\] the sorrow within the heart of the ill person, similar to how one of you removes dust from their face by washing their face with water.”[^19] Although *talbīnah* can be categorized as a form of naturopathic medicine, the Prophet ﷺ encouraged the companions to seek all forms of treatments available to them: > [^20]تَدَاوَوْا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ، فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمْ يَضَعْ دَاءً إِلَّا وَضَعَ مَعَهُ شِفَاءً إِلَّا الْهَرَمَ > > Seek cures, O servants of God, for God has placed a cure for every ailment that He has allowed, except for old-age/death. This Prophetic tradition, among others, is said to have encouraged early Muslim researchers to go out and look for medical solutions available to them, catalyzing the formation of Islamic medicine (which also included aspects of Galenic medicine) as well as *al-ṭibb al-nabawī* (Prophetic medicine, a distinct displine based on Prophetic sayings and remedies).[^21] In this way, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ laid the groundwork for what would become a rich Islamic tradition of caring for mental health in the generations that came after him.[^22] It is important to add here that Muslims often delay seeking medical treatments because they attribute mental health problems to different phenomena, including the evil eye (*ḥasad* or *nathlah*), possession by supernatural entities such as demons (*jinn*), and magic (*siḥr*).[^23] Many Muslim scholars (e.g., Ibn Taymiyyah) assert that these are real phenomena that can impact mental and spiritual health. However, “not all mental health problems are associated with supernatural causes.”[^24] As noted above, the Prophetic framing encourages Muslims to seek spiritual, psychological, and medicinal forms of healing that are available to them. --- ## The legacy of the Prophet ﷺ continues: Understanding and caring for mental health during the 7th-15th centuries CE For years after the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the tradition of recognizing and prioritizing mental wellbeing continued in the works of Muslim scholars who drew from the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ and from the civilizations before him.[^25] Muslim and non-Muslim scholars alike gathered in the Islamic knowledge capital Baghdad[^26] and worked collaboratively to preserve and produce knowledge related to the human psyche. In their pursuit to understand the self (*nafs*), soul (*rūḥ*), mind (ʿ*aql*) and the psyche more broadly, the scholars typically took one of two paths. Some would translate the works of the Greek, Persian, and Indian civilizations into Arabic,[^27] filter out what was not in accordance with Islamic theology, and then add to these translations by trying to consolidate them with Islamic teachings or by using other empirical or philosophical methods to build upon them. For example, Al-Kindī (d. 873 CE; known as “the philosopher of the Arabs”) was commissioned by the ʿAbbāsid caliphs al-Maʾmūn and al-Muʿtaṣim to oversee the translation of Greek works into Arabic in Baghdad’s great “House of Wisdom.”[^28] He tried to reconcile Greek and Islamic thought in his own work and constructed theories on perception, dreams, and repelling sorrows, drawing from both revelatory and Greek philosophical sources. For example, in his book describing cognitive strategies to fight depression (*al-Ḥīlah li-Dafʿ al-Aḥzān*/The Trick to Repelling Sorrows), Al-Kindi borrows the same five-word phrase from the Qur’an (57:23) used to describe grief over missing out on worldly pursuits: “ لِّكَيْلَا تَأْسَوْا عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ” (so that you do not grieve over what you have missed out on).[^29] This is but one small example of how the works of our early predecessors were directly inspired by the Qur’an and Sunnah. The other approach taken by some scholars was to ground themselves first in the study of revelatory sources, searching the Qur’an and Sunnah for inspiration about the inner workings of the psyche. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350 CE; a great Islamic scholar and a student of ibn Taymiyyah) was known to draw almost exclusively from revelatory sources, only taking from the sciences and philosophical works what could be backed by revelation.[^30] For example, he proposed a sequential stage-theory of cognition and behavior based on terms used in the Qur’an to describe thinking in the following stages: involuntary thoughts, emotional motivations to act, firm decisions to act, taking action, and finally, consistent actions forming habits.[^31] Importantly, he and others like him took mental health seriously. In his *Ighāthat al-Lahfān fī Maṣāyid al-Shayṭān* (Rescuing the Fool Caught in the Trap of Satan), he states: > The second category of diseases of the heart are based on emotional states such as anxiety, sadness, depression, and anger. This type of disease can be treated naturally by treating its \[root\] cause or with medicine that goes against the cause… and this is because the heart is harmed by what harms the body and vice versa.[^32] Another great scholar from Islamic history, al-Balkhī (d. 934 CE), drew mainly from medicine and revelation in the formulation of his ideas surrounding mental health and in his call to action. What is striking about al-Balkhi’s famous book, *Maṣāliḥ al-Abdān wa-al-Anfus* (Sustenance of the Body and Soul), as a premodern text is the urgency and seriousness with which he implores his readers to understand psychological illnesses, especially depression. He argues that psychological illnesses are just as, if not more, serious than physical illnesses because people are affected by their consequences far more frequently throughout their lives and because virtually everyone will face these symptoms at some point.[^33] Given this importance, al-Balkhī took great care in refining the definitions and understandings of several psychological illnesses, including depression, anxiety, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. For example, in his descriptions of the diagnostic criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder—which are a near-perfect match for the DSM-5, the internationally relied upon diagnostic manual for determining psychiatric disorders—he explains its causes as possibly the result of black bile (the dominant medical explanation of the time, likely taken from the Greeks) or as whispers from Shayṭān or a combination of both.[^34] Al-Balkhī urges his readers to seek treatment regardless of which cause they believe to have led to their symptoms of mental illness[^35] and asks them to remain optimistic, quoting the hadith, “for every illness God has created a cure.”[^36] Beyond the works of individual scholars, the Islamic legacy of prioritizing mental wellbeing can also be seen in the hospital systems built under Muslim governance. One of the unique trademarks of the Islamic hospital was the dedication of a psychiatric ward within the hospital system. It is incredible to note that wards dedicated to mental health conditions emerged in the Muslim world approximately 500 years before they did in Europe.[^37] The earliest evidence for institutional psychiatric care is a report that documents the care for psychiatric patients in the al-Fustat Hospital founded in Cairo in 872-3 CE.[^38] From the 10th century onward, healing centers, known as *dār al-shifāʾ* or *māristān*s*,* sprung up all throughout the Muslim world from North Africa to Anatolia. Muslim cities such as Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo were all homes to prominent hospitals that had specific treatments for psychiatric illnesses in specialized wings.[^39] These institutions were located centrally in the heart of the city to remain accessible to those who might need them, but also to encourage Muslims to fulfill the Sunnah’s recommendation of visiting the ill.[^40] Notably, the architects of these holistic healing institutions also took the air quality and proximity to natural water sources into consideration when choosing a location. They designed water drainage systems to maintain cleanliness and monitored the air quality constantly. For example, in the Mansuri Hospital in Cairo, giant fans called pankas were used for air circulation and the floors were covered with branches of henna, pomegranate, and mastic as makeshift Medieval air fresheners.[^41] In terms of treatment in these Muslim hospitals, or *māristān*s, individuals with mental illnesses were treated with a wide variety of methods, including both simple and compound drugs, such as stimulants, sedatives, and suppressants. For example,  early forms of antidepressants were used and referred to as *mufarriḥ al-nafs*, or a “gladdenor of the spirit.”[^42] Armed with the worldview of holistic healing and the understanding that humans are complex social and emotional beings, physicians in these *māristān*s employed multi-level approaches to healing. In addition to drugs and surgery, physicians also utilized alternative, holistic treatments that would minimize side effects. These treatments included auditory therapy (by employing Qur’anic recitation, musical tones, and nature sounds like water or birdsong), regular bathing, healthy balanced diets, blood-letting, cupping, massages with oils, immersion in nature (through the use of gardens on-site), and more.[^43] When patients completed their treatment and were discharged from Islamic hospitals, such as *Dār al-Māristān* in Baghdad for example, they would receive financial support in order to bridge their transition and reintegration into daily life.[^44] All of these very careful considerations evidence the importance that early Muslim scholars placed on integrating mental health treatment into holistic wellbeing. It is also these very well thought out considerations that led Islamic medicine to become known as “humanistic medicine.” --- ## A legacy interrupted: The influence of colonial and secular forces Today, studies suggest that despite experiencing elevated risk factors, Muslims tend to underutilize mental health services.[^45] In general, Muslim populations appear to distrust modern psychology (both as a discipline and as a clinical service).[^46] Many avoid using psychotropic medication because they are wary of falling prey to money-making schemes, side effects, or long-term dependence.[^47] Seeking therapy is often dismissed for fear that non-Muslim service providers will indoctrinate them or that Muslim service providers will judge or gossip about them.[^48] This means that countless Muslims suffer in silence, remaining undiagnosed or unwilling to access treatment. How did this happen? There are a multitude of reasons for this with only a few mentioned here. At the forefront was a general shift away from religion that had a downstream impact on Muslims losing touch with what was once a very integrated and holistic system of healing that included mental health. It is also important to note that the weakening of religious practice along with waning political power played a significant shift in attitudes towards mental illness witnessed in this era. It is also in this context that the emerging field of modern “Western” psychology of the 19th century was developing in a world that had largely forgotten the intellectual contributions of Islamic civilizations. Colonial and secular forces had not only taken hold of Muslim lands, but also Muslim minds.[^49] Colonialism divided the Muslim world along linguistic and nationalistic lines, which lessened their ability and motivation to collaborate. For example, when Mohamed Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, came into power, he aimed to transform the country so that it would be in line with colonial conceptions of modernity.[^50] To do this, he installed foreign (i.e., French-speaking) high-ranking teachers in the universities that taught modern sciences. In addition to inserting linguistic barriers between Egypt and the remainder of Arabic-speaking scholarship, this created a lack of confidence in combining rational and revelatory sources because unlike French and other colonial languages, the Arabic terms for scientific and revelatory concepts were enmeshed, instead of at odds with one another.[^51] As new colonial civilizations whose foundations were based on secularism formed, religion was pushed out of the academy. The secular roots of modern psychology, then, opposed the fundamentals of an Islamic worldview and thus, fostered mistrust in many Muslims.[^52] These historical forces excluded Muslims from mainstream psychology and caused them to turn inwards: they rejected non-revelatory sources and relied on cultural and familial networks for the resolution of mental health challenges.[^53] As the causes of mental illnesses came to be seen as inherently spiritual in nature, the stigma against seeking out care rose. What was once a robust, holistic understanding of wellness that firmly incorporated mental health faded. So too, did the formidable Islamic heritage of mental health promotion and care.[^54] --- ## Reclaiming our Islamic conceptions of mental health: The road ahead Islamic history has strongly nurtured mental health, from the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through countless succeeding generations of Muslim scholarship. The holistic outlook on life as a core foundation of the Islamic worldview led Muslim scholars from all disciplines to contribute to the field that became known as ʿ*ilm al-nafs* (the study of the self) and that was the precursor to the field of psychology. In an interdisciplinary effort, Muslim philosophers, theologians, and physician-scientists all contributed to this emerging field. For this reason, the study of the human psyche was never limited to focusing on the mind or to the field of science, as is common today. Rather, Islamic Psychology offered a holistic model (most famously described by Imam al-Ghazālī) that put the heart at the center, and connected to it the mind, body, soul, and emotions. Similarly, this interdisciplinary approach to understanding mental illnesses helped Muslim scholars conclude that their causes were multifactorial: they postulated that biology, heritable factors (today known as genetics), environment, and spirituality could all be implicated. It was for this reason that Muslim scholars did not attribute mental illness to simply a weakness of faith. As such, their treatment regimens were also varied and they did not prescribe prayer alone to combat mental illnesses. Along with the premodern medications, talk therapies and other forms of wellbeing previously discussed, they also gave spiritual remedies in line with their understanding of holistic wellbeing. It is clear, then, that our Muslim predecessors were able to carry on the noble tradition of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in balancing the mind, body, and soul in their attempts to treat psychological ailments. They acknowledged and affirmed the impact of spiritual forces on mental health but, at the same time, were open to (and, indeed, actively pursued) other explanations and treatments like medicine, cognitive training, and talking with a trusted, learned person (who today we would call a professional). In order to look forward, it is important that we learn from our past. In order to provide healing to our modern Muslim communities, we must understand our history. And in order to revive our great Islamic intellectual heritage, we must recognize it as one that was deeply committed to mental wellness via its holistic healing framework. We must also critically assess the mental health stigma that currently exists in our communities, including our reservations about receiving diagnoses and seeking treatment for psychological ailments. It is time that we not only acknowledge the scholarly giants that came before us, but that we actively stand on their shoulders to move this legacy forward. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 2:277. [^2]: *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, verse 10:62, [http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/tabary/sura10-aya62.html](http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/tabary/sura10-aya62.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140351998000&usg=AOvVaw2Niwj0J-q8bGPxneOU5CcE). [^3]: *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, verse 10:62, [http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/katheer/sura10-aya62.html](https://www.ghttp://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/katheer/sura10-aya62.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140351999000&usg=AOvVaw1g2vtSUDr6v4haycljW5CY). [^4]: Qur’an 67:2, 11:7, 6:165, 23:30, 21:35, 3:186, and 76:2. [^5]: Qur’an 2:186. [^6]: Qur’an 21:155. [^7]: Qur’an 6:156. [^8]: *Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ*, no. 1562, [https://sunnah.com/mishkat:1562](https://sunnah.com/mishkat:1562&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352001000&usg=AOvVaw1Whh5-uFgqsnCpPk-0mBhv). [^9]: Qur’an 12:84, 18:6, and 35:8. [^10]: Qur’an 18:6. [^11]: Qur’an 35:8. [^12]: *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn*, no. 927, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:927](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:927&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352003000&usg=AOvVaw0UB6dbIDHJ51rfeFQVOa9-). [^13]: Qur’an 13:28. [^14]: *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn*, no. 39, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:39](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:39&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352004000&usg=AOvVaw28Q_iLq-B55hvV9QXRbsDW). [^15]: *Hiṣn al-Muslim*, no. 137, [https://sunnah.com/hisn:137](https://sunnah.com/hisn:137&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352005000&usg=AOvVaw2r-ukUYnwSPXLBCebMQcXY). [^16]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 4782, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4782](http://=https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4782&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352005000&usg=AOvVaw3j14iXpKPd-pRJeJHY0Kpv); *Bulūgh al-Marām*, bk. 16, hadith 1524, [https://sunnah.com/urn/2117910](https://sunnah.com/urn/2117910&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352006000&usg=AOvVaw2i8IpTI7eODZsap7RA6zdz); *Bulūgh al-Marām*, bk. 16, hadith 1535, [https://sunnah.com/urn/2118020](https://sunnah.com/urn/2118020&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352006000&usg=AOvVaw1qMJAIWmQQvWmQK6dz6a-7). [^17]: *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn*, no. 149, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:149](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:149&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352007000&usg=AOvVaw2VXPsHDTxdZKHyh0qHmka4). [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5417, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5417](https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5417&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352008000&usg=AOvVaw3bqweA7rf4FuaxaY010d-_). [^19]: An explanation of *Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ*, no. 4162, al-Durar al-Sanīyah (website), [https://web.archive.org/web/20210428083335/https://www.dorar.net/hadith/sharh/92522](https://web.archive.org/web/20210428083335/https://www.dorar.net/hadith/sharh/92522&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352023000&usg=AOvVaw2kuirotQiW3cMFfFRfn5LY). [^20]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, vol. 4, bk. 2, hadith 2038, [https://sunnah.com/urn/721670](https://sunnah.com/urn/721670&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352008000&usg=AOvVaw2WY1BM3t8kCtkqouEdB5bR). [^21]: John K. Borchardt, “Arabic Pharmacy during the Age of the Caliphs,” *Drug News and Perspectives* 15, no. 6 (2002): 383–88, [https://doi.org/10.1358/dnp.2002.15.6.840036](https://doi.org/10.1358/dnp.2002.15.6.840036&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352023000&usg=AOvVaw2grvj1uNXc3p9SUxJLw0mK). [^22]: Rania Awaad, Danah Elsayed, Sara Ali, and Aneeqa Abid, “Islamic Psychology: A Portrait of Its Historical Origins and Contributions,” in *Applying Islamic Principles to Clinical Mental Health Care*, ed. Hooman Keshavarzi, Fahad Khan, Bilal Ali, and Rania Awaad (New York: Routledge, 2020), [^23]: G. Hussein Rassool, *Islamic Counselling: An Introduction to Theory and Practice* (Hove, East Sussex: Routledge, 2016), 54. [^24]: G. Hussein Rassool, *Evil Eye, Jinn Possession, and Mental Health Issues: An Islamic Perspective* (New York: Routledge, 2019), 58. [^25]: Rassool, *Evil Eye*. [^26]: Osman Bakar, “Science,” in *History of Islamic Philosophy*, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (London: Routledge, 2015), 1656-92. [^27]: Rania Awaad and Sara Ali, “Obsessional Disorders in al-Balkhī′s 9th Century Treatise: Sustenance of the Body and Soul,” *Journal of Affective Disorders* 180 (July 15, 2015): 185–89, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.03.003](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.03.003&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352011000&usg=AOvVaw2xIZ938U7ctlbyty065SYm). [^28]: Muḥammad ʻUthmān Najātī, *al-Dirāsāt al-nafsānīyah ʿinda al-ʿulamāʾ al-Muslimīn* (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 1993). [^29]: Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī and Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Hādī, *Rasāʾil al-Kindī al-falsafīyah* (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī, 1950). [^30]: Najātī, *al-Dirāsāt al-nafsānīyah*. [^31]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman, “The Lost Art of Contemplation,” *Yaqeen*, September 20, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/the-lost-art-of-contemplation-spiritual-psychology-series/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/the-lost-art-of-contemplation-spiritual-psychology-series). [^32]: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr  Ibn Qayyim, *Ighāthat al-laḥfān fī maṣāyid al-shayṭān*, ed. Muṣṭafá ibn Saʾīd Ītīm, Muḥammad ʿAzīz Shams, and Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh Bū Zayd, vol. 1 (Mecca: Dār 'Ālim al-Fawā'id, 2011), 26. [^33]: Abū Zayd al-Balkhī and Malik Badri, *Abu Zayd al-Balkhī’s Sustenance of the Soul: The Cognitive Behavior Therapy of a Ninth Century Physician* (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2013), 28–29. [^34]: Rania Awaad and Sara Ali, “A Modern Conceptualization of Phobia in al-Balkhī’s 9th Century Treatise: Sustenance of the Body and Soul,” *Journal of Anxiety Disorders* 37 (2016): 89–93, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.11.003](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.11.003&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352014000&usg=AOvVaw01i4wXsl8nxA451poMs0eg). [^35]: Abū Zayd al-Balkhī, *Maṣālih al-abdān wa-al-anfus*, ed. Maḥmūd al-Miṣrī and Muḥammad Haytham al-Khayyāṭ (Cairo: Maʻhad al-Makhṭūṭāt al-ʻArabīyah, 2005). [^36]: Awaad and Ali, “Obsessional Disorders,” 180, 185–89. [^37]: Michael W. Dols, *Majnūn: The Madman in the Medieval Islamic World* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). [^38]: Dols. [^39]: Gülşen Erdal and İlknur Erbaş, “Darüşşifas Where Music Therapy Was Practiced during Anatolian Seljuks and Ottomans/Selçuklu ve Osmanlı Darüşşifalarında müzikle tedavi,” *Journal of History Culture and Art Research* 2, no. 1 (2013): 1–19; Nina Ergin, “Healing by Design? An Experiential Approach to Early Modern Ottoman Hospital Architecture,” *Turkish Historical Review* 6, no. 1 (2015): 1–37; Enver Şengül, “Edirne Sultan Bayezid II Hospital,” *Turkish Neurosurgery* 25, no. 1 (2015): 1–8; Nurettin Heybeli, “Sultan Bayezid II Külliyesi: One of the Earliest Medical Schools—Founded in 1488,” *Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research* 467, no. 9 (2009): 2457–63. [^40]: Dols, *Majnūn*. [^41]: Dols. [^42]: Dols. [^43]: Dols. [^44]: Dols. [^45]: Sara Ali, Danah Elsayed, Saadia Elahi, Belal Zia, and Rania Awaad, “Predicting Rejection Attitudes Towards Utilizing Formal Mental Health Services in Muslim Women in the US,” *International Journal of Social Psychiatry*, March 14, 2021, [https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211001084](https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211001084&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352018000&usg=AOvVaw1kO7qE-W12FcQGGLIDgesP); Rania Awaad, Aaron J. Fisher, Sara Ali, and Natalie Rasgon, “Development and Validation of the Muslims’ Perceptions and Attitudes to Mental Health (M-PAMH) Scale with a Sample of American Muslim Women,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 13, no. 2 (2019): 119–35, [https://doi.org/10.3998/ jmmh.10381607.0013.205](https://doi.org/10.3998/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352018000&usg=AOvVaw1YNVJ4yjbtUg0yVP5bTwUS); L. P. Sheridan and A. C. North, “Perspective: Representations of Islam and Muslims in Psychological Publications,” *The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion* 14, no. 3 (2004), [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327582ijpr1403\_1](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327582ijpr1403_1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352019000&usg=AOvVaw02lNpwr56fWPkn8Qd12EBH); Belal Zia, Shahad Abdulrazaq, and Corey S. Mackenzie, “Mental Health Service Utilization and Psychological Help-Seeking Preferences among Canadian Muslims,” *Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health*, under review. [^46]: Saara Amri and Fred Bemak, “Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors of Muslim Immigrants in the United States: Overcoming Social Stigma and Cultural Mistrust,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 7, no. 1 (2012), [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jmmh/10381607.0007.104?view=text;rgn=main](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jmmh/10381607.0007.104?view%3Dtext;rgn%3Dmain&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352019000&usg=AOvVaw2tU-gjG8QeCb9TqFf30kq9);  M. M. Amer and A. Bagasra, “Psychological Research with Muslim Americans in the Age of Islamophobia: Trends, Challenges, and Recommendations,” *American Pyschologist* 68, no. 3 (2013): 134–44, [https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0032167](https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi%3D10.1037%252Fa0032167&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352020000&usg=AOvVaw0gBQWdgo3juk8GFUokFjur). [^47]: Amri and Bemak, “Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors.” [^48]: Dalal Alhomaizi, Sarah Alsaidi, Ali Moalie, Nawal Muradwij, Christina P. C. Borba, and Alisa K. Lincoln, “An Exploration of the Help-Seeking Behaviors of Arab-Muslims in the US: A Socio-Ecological Approach,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 12, no. 1 (Summer 2018), [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jmmh/10381607.0012.102?view=text;rgn=main](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jmmh/10381607.0012.102?view%3Dtext;rgn%3Dmain&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352020000&usg=AOvVaw1kHjVLojvV4OXmD8_PZUAY). [^49]: Awaad, Elsayed, Ali, and Abid, “Islamic Psychology.” [^50]: Muzaffar Iqbal, *Science and Islam* (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2007). [^51]: Iqbal. [^52]: Amri and Bemak, “Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors”; Amer and Bagasra, “Psychological Research with Muslim Americans.” [^53]: Hooman Keshavarzi and Amber Haque, “Outlining a Psychotherapy Model for Enhancing Muslim Mental Health within an Islamic Context,” *International Journal for the Psychology of Religion* 23, no. 3 (2013): 230–49, [https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2012.712000](https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2012.712000&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352021000&usg=AOvVaw3lZrN0RcnVJs4yHfbyDMzL); Nasser Aloud and Amena Rathur, “Factors Affecting Attitudes Toward Seeking and Using Formal Mental Health and Psychological Services Among Arab Muslim Populations,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 4, no. 2 (2009): 79–103, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15564900802487675](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15564900802487675&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352021000&usg=AOvVaw2Frmc2pwvYVNQvBCEmikK_). [^54]: Aloud and Rathur, ““Factors Affecting Attitudes”; Ayse Ciftci, Nev Jones, and Patrick W. Corrigan, “Mental Health Stigma in the Muslim Community,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 7, no. 1 (2013), [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jmmh/10381607.0007.102?view=text;rgn=main](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jmmh/10381607.0007.102?view%3Dtext;rgn%3Dmain&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352022000&usg=AOvVaw1up7UFg2nQFstItEiYUFGc); Wahiba Abu-Ras, “Cultural Beliefs and Service Utilization by Battered Arab Immigrant Women,” *Violence Against Women* 13, no. 10 (2007), [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801207306019](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801207306019&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352022000&usg=AOvVaw1Fk0-s7FKm-CzgEXhs8U6n); Asra Haque-Khan, “Muslim Women’s Voices: Generation, Acculturation, and Faith in the Perceptions of Mental Health and Psychological Help” (PhD diss., Texas Woman’s University, 1997), [https://twu-ir.tdl.org/handle/11274/7886](https://twu-ir.tdl.org/handle/11274/7886&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1622140352022000&usg=AOvVaw1EnEYeyp28GGyI6zMBVxtd). ## Summary Islamic intellectual heritage has, from its earliest days, recognized the reality of mental and emotional suffering and worked actively to cultivate wellbeing. This tradition begins with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions and extends through generations of Muslim scholars who followed. It is therefore worth asking where the notion arose that mental health difficulties are a source of shame, or that a true believer is somehow immune from psychological struggle and needs only to strengthen his faith to be cured. Some Muslims say, "A Muslim cannot be afflicted by depression," or, "Depression is the result of weak faith; all you need to do is pray more." To support this, they sometimes cite the verse, "Indeed, those who believe, do good, establish prayer, and pay alms-tax will receive their reward from their Lord, and there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve" (al-Baqarah 2:277). Yet the early Muslims understood this verse to describe the state of the believer in the Hereafter, not this world. Imam al-Ṭabarī explained that there is no fear for the believers in the Hereafter and no grief over what they missed in the world, and Ibn Kathīr agreed, saying the believers neither fear what is to come on the Day of Resurrection nor sorrow over what they left behind. This world, by contrast, is a place of trials. The believers are told to expect testing in their wealth and their own selves, with fear, famine, and loss, and also through pleasures and gains. These tests fall upon all people, including the best of them, the prophets. The Prophet ﷺ taught that Allah tests those He loves most, to strengthen them and cultivate resilience and gratitude. Sa'd reported that when the Prophet ﷺ was asked which people face the greatest trials, he replied, "The prophets, then those who follow their path, then those who follow them. A human is afflicted in proportion to their faith; if they are firm in their faith, their trial is increased, but if there is weakness in their faith, their trial is made lighter for them, and this continues until they walk on the earth almost having no sin." Thus greater faith invites greater trial, not exemption from it. The prophets themselves experienced intense emotional difficulty. Part of the humanity of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is seen in the struggles he endured and overcame. His grief during the "year of sadness" was so profound, compounded by the financial pressure of the Quraysh boycott and the pain of the disbelievers' rejection, that Allah addressed it directly: "Perhaps, then, will you grieve yourself to death over their denial, if they continue to disbelieve in this message" (al-Kahf 18:6), and "So do not grieve yourself to death over them" (Fāṭir 35:8). Importantly, Allah urged him to manage this grief rather than be consumed by it. When his son Ibrāhīm lay dying, the Prophet ﷺ wept and said, "Indeed, the eyes shed tears and the heart feels sorrow. Yet, we do not say anything except that which is pleasing to our Lord. Your departure, O Ibrahim, surely leaves us all deeply saddened." Here he modeled the acknowledgment of emotion together with acceptance of Allah's decree. The Prophet ﷺ taught a holistic path to healing that combined spiritual remedies, emotional regulation, and care of the body. ʿĀʾishah (RAA), when a relative died, would prepare talbīnah, a soup of barley, milk, and honey, and say, "Eat of it, for I heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ saying, 'Talbīnah soothes the heart of the patient and relieves some of his sadness.'" She used it to treat grief and its severe effects, recognizing a physical treatment for emotional distress. The Prophet ﷺ described talbīnah as strengthening the bereaved heart and removing sorrow "similar to how one of you removes dust from their face by washing their face with water." He further encouraged seeking every available remedy: "Seek cures, O servants of God, for God has placed a cure for every ailment that He has allowed, except for old-age/death." This encouragement is said to have catalyzed the development of Islamic medicine and the distinct discipline of al-ṭibb al-nabawī. It should be noted that while scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah affirmed that the evil eye, jinn possession, and magic are real phenomena that can affect health, not all mental health problems arise from supernatural causes; the Prophetic framing directs Muslims toward spiritual, psychological, and medicinal remedies alike. This legacy continued in the works of later scholars. In Baghdad, Muslim and non-Muslim scholars collaborated to preserve and produce knowledge of the human psyche, generally taking one of two approaches. Some translated Greek, Persian, and Indian works, filtered them against Islamic theology, and built upon them. Al-Kindī (d. 873 CE), commissioned to oversee translation in the House of Wisdom, sought to reconcile Greek and Islamic thought and, in his work on repelling sorrows, borrowed the Qur'anic phrase "so that you do not grieve over what you have missed out on" (al-Ḥadīd 57:23). Others grounded themselves first in revelation. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350 CE) drew almost exclusively from revelatory sources and proposed a stage-theory of cognition based on Qur'anic terms. In his Ighāthat al-Lahfān he affirmed that diseases of the heart include anxiety, sadness, depression, and anger, treatable by addressing their root cause or with medicine, "because the heart is harmed by what harms the body and vice versa." Al-Balkhī (d. 934 CE), in Maṣāliḥ al-Abdān wa-al-Anfus, urged readers with striking seriousness to treat psychological illness, arguing it is as grave as physical illness. His description of obsessive-compulsive disorder closely matches modern diagnostic criteria; he attributed its causes to black bile, to the whispers of Shayṭān, or to both, and urged treatment regardless of the presumed cause, quoting the hadith that for every illness Allah has created a cure. This heritage was also embodied in institutions. Psychiatric wards emerged in the Muslim world roughly five centuries before Europe, the earliest recorded care being at the al-Fusṭāṭ Hospital in Cairo (872–3 CE). From the tenth century, healing centers known as dār al-shifāʾ or māristāns arose across the Muslim world in Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo, sited centrally so that the sick could be reached and the Sunnah of visiting the ill fulfilled, with attention to clean air and water. Treatments were varied: simple and compound drugs, early antidepressants called mufarriḥ al-nafs, alongside Qur'anic recitation, soothing sounds, bathing, balanced diets, cupping, massage, and immersion in nature. Discharged patients even received financial support for reintegration, earning this tradition the name "humanistic medicine." This legacy was later interrupted. Studies suggest that Muslims today underutilize mental health services despite elevated risk, often distrusting modern psychology, avoiding medication, and fearing judgment or indoctrination. A general shift away from religion, weakening religious practice, and declining political power altered attitudes toward mental illness, while modern Western psychology developed in a world that had forgotten Islamic contributions. Colonial and secular forces divided the Muslim world and severed it from its holistic heritage; the example is given of Mohamed Ali installing French-speaking teachers, inserting linguistic barriers and eroding confidence in combining rational and revelatory sources. As religion was pushed from the academy and the causes of mental illness came to be seen as purely spiritual, stigma rose and the once-robust holistic understanding of wellness faded. Islamic history nurtured mental health from the time of the Prophet ﷺ through generations of scholarship, producing ʿilm al-nafs as a precursor to psychology through the joint efforts of philosophers, theologians, and physician-scientists. Its holistic model, most famously described by Imam al-Ghazālī, placed the heart at the center, connected to mind, body, soul, and emotions. Because these scholars regarded the causes of mental illness as multifactorial, involving biology, heritable factors, environment, and spirituality, they never reduced it to weakness of faith, nor did they prescribe prayer alone. To move forward, we must learn from this past, critically assess the stigma present in our communities, and stand upon the shoulders of the scholars who came before us to carry this legacy forward. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is it true that a good Muslim shouldn't struggle with depression or anxiety? This idea has no grounding in the Qur'an or Sunnah. The ayah sometimes cited to support it, "there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve" (2:277), was understood by early scholars to describe the state of believers in the hereafter, not in this life. This world, by its very nature, is a place of trials. The Prophet ﷺ himself experienced grief so deep during a period of bereavement that chroniclers coined it "the year of sadness." But it is important to distinguish between sadness, which is a normal human emotion, and clinical conditions like depression and anxiety, which can be chronic and debilitating. Muslim scholars recognized this distinction centuries ago. Ibn al-Qayyim categorized anxiety, sadness, depression, and anger as distinct diseases of the heart, each requiring its own form of treatment. Al-Balkhi went further, refining diagnostic criteria for depression, anxiety, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and urging his readers to seek treatment regardless of whether they attributed the cause to biological or spiritual factors. Far from dismissing mental illness, the Islamic tradition built hospitals with dedicated psychiatric wards and developed early forms of antidepressants. Strength of faith does not make a person immune to psychological illness, and seeking help for it has deep precedent in our tradition. ### How did the Prophet ﷺ deal with grief and sadness? He ﷺ did not suppress his emotions or pretend they were not there. While watching his son Ibrahim take his last breaths, tears streamed down his blessed face and he said: "Indeed, the eyes shed tears and the heart feels sorrow. Yet we do not say anything except that which is pleasing to our Lord. Your departure, O Ibrahim, surely leaves us all deeply saddened." He grieved openly and completely, while anchoring his words in contentment with Allah's will. Beyond personal loss, he ﷺ also carried the weight of people rejecting the message he was sent to deliver. That anguish ran so deep that Allah Himself intervened, telling him not to destroy himself in regret over their disbelief (35:8). In both cases, the response was never to stop feeling, but to find a way through. ### Does Islam encourage seeking professional help for mental health, or only spiritual remedies? The Prophetic approach was holistic. The Prophet ﷺ instructed the companions directly: "Seek cures, O servants of God, for God has placed a cure for every ailment that He has allowed." Early Muslim scholars took this seriously. By the ninth century, Muslim scholars were already writing about conditions we now recognize as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and encouraging those who suffered from them to seek treatment. Muslim hospitals built dedicated psychiatric wards and developed early forms of antidepressants centuries before comparable institutions existed in Europe. Spiritual remedies, physical care, diet, and social and emotional support were treated as interrelated dimensions of care. Seeking therapy or medication is not a departure from faith but an extension of the same Prophetic encouragement to pursue every available means of healing. ### Did Muslim scholars throughout history take mental health seriously, or is this a modern Western concept? Muslim scholars were writing about depression, anxiety, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder centuries before modern psychiatry gave these conditions their current names. Al-Balkhi (d. 934 CE), in his *Masalih al-abdan wa-l-anfus* (*Sustenance of the Soul*), described symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder so precisely that they closely match the diagnostic standards used by psychiatrists today. He argued that psychological illnesses are at least as serious as physical ones, because virtually everyone will face them at some point. Ibn al-Qayyim similarly devoted significant scholarship to what he called diseases of the heart—anxiety, sadness, depression, and anger—treating them as real conditions requiring real treatment. This is not a borrowed concept; it is a part of our tradition. ### Why do so many Muslims still avoid mental health treatment, even when they are clearly struggling? The stigma we see today is largely a product of history, not of Islam itself. Colonialism reshaped many Muslim societies and Muslim-majority societies in ways that severed communities from their own intellectual heritage. Colonial and postcolonial educational reforms often privileged Western-style secular institutions and helped institutionalize a sharper separation between religion and modern scientific knowledge. In some Muslim contexts, this contributed to ambivalence toward psychology and professional mental-health care, especially where these fields were perceived as secular. Alongside biomedical and psychological explanations, some Muslim communities have retained or revived spiritualized explanations of mental illness. Where these explanations become exclusive, professional help may be stigmatized and sufferers may think of therapy as an admission of weak faith. Add to that fears of being judged by Muslim providers or misunderstood by non-Muslim ones, and these factors have resulted in countless people suffering in silence. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-art-of-worship-how-to-make-the-most-of-ramadan-nights # The Art of Worship: How to Make the Most of Ramadan Nights **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App **Published:** April 29, 2021 **Updated:** September 2, 2026 ## Introduction Worship is an art. It is an art that every worshipper must master. Yet few ever do. Parents and preachers, shaykhs and masters, groups and spiritual orders, books and lessons all may play a role. But it is you who must learn to make your connection to Allah a thing of beauty. Without proper knowledge of Allah, worship is defective, or at least incomplete. Yet that knowledge must sink into your bones rather than be stored in the mind in order for it to bear fruit. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to teach worship, and the best of all teachers taught to perfection; he taught all that is pertinent to worship, leaving out nothing of value. The teaching of worship itself is an art. In His Book, Allah praises the *rabbānīyūn*—those devoted to teaching, who show the wisdom of their Lord in teaching, who have perfected the art of teaching. Ibn Abbas said in explaining the Qur’anic command, “Be *rabbānīyūn*,” (3:79) “*Rabbānīyūn* are the wise and sagacious, those who teach what is rudimentary before what is advanced.”[^1] In this spirit, the master seekers and worshippers of this *ummah* have sought to organize the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah pertaining to worship in order to facilitate progressive learning. Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī (for his lineage from the Anṣār) al-Harawī (from the great center of learning, Herat, Afghanistan) al-Ḥanbalī, author of the most popular Sufi manual of his time, *Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn*, divided the path of the worshipper into one hundred stations. Over time, as many lists of stations were offered as there were writers on the subject. Commenting on al-Harawī's stations, Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, considered excessive concern with numbers and ordering a form of *takalluf*, arbitrary affectation, but acknowledged its usefulness for teaching, and benefitted from the ordering proposed by Shaykh al-Harawī. Based on my reading of these various lists and, in particular, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim’s *Madārij al-Sālikīn*, I offer five simple steps toward mastering the art of worship. Shaykh al-Islām al-Harawī had written, in fact, that the worshipper of earlier, better generations had identified one thousand stations of worship, but in his time, people had no strength for that, so he had reduced them to a hundred. Our march toward the five stations, then, must be marked with appropriate humility. These five steps have the advantage, nevertheless, that they are readily visible in many of the supplications and practices taught by the Beloved Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself. These steps are: 1. Remembrance (*dhikr*) 2. Gratitude and patience (*shukr* and *ṣabr*) 3. Self-reckoning (*muḥāsabah*) 4. Repentance (*tawbah*) 5. Love (*maḥabbah*) Consider the greatest of all supplications, *Sūrat* *al-Fātiḥah* (the Opening Chapter). It opens with the praise and remembrance of Allah, then proceeds to the acknowledgment of servitude to Allah and reaffirming the pledge of worship and reliance on Him alone, and then finally asks for guidance and success. Another highly recommended supplication, honored as the “Master Supplication” by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, has a similar breakdown: remembrance and praise, acknowledgment of servitude, and then pleading for forgiveness. We will return to it in the Station of Repentance. The wisdom in this ordering—by no means final and exclusive—is that we praise Allah, acknowledging His Greatness before bringing ourselves into the picture. He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Hidden, whereas we are His creation, utterly obliged, dependent for our existence on Him. Remembering Him in praise and longing is not only the right response, it is an instinct, a need, and it fills a hole in our hearts that cannot be filled by anything else. Thankfully, however, He has only asked us to worship as much as we can, rather than as much as He deserves. Practically, then, in the span of the few hours we have at our disposal—until our stamina and focus run out—how to make the most of it? This is what I want to review here. ### 1\. Remembrance (dhikr) In this step, focus on praising Allah without thinking about the creation. In remembrance, the key is not only to think, but to feel, and ultimately feel overwhelmed by Allah, the ultimate goal. I. Begin with a litany of *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. This can be done in stages. Start with simply: لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ *Lā ilāha illā Allāhu* There is no god but Allah until your tongue and heart are at peace with it, and you have mastered the words and the meanings and the feelings evoked by them. This is the “good word” (*kalimah ṭayyibah*) upon which and for which all has been created, as mentioned in the Qur’an, “The likeness of a good word is a good tree, its root set firm, its branches reaching into the heaven” (14:24).[^2] Every time you say it, believe the roots and branches of this truth grow and bring new fruits of faith, beauty, and action. Once you have mastered this, you may proceed to: لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ *Lā ilāha illā Allāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu lahu al-mulk wa-lahu al-ḥamd, wa-huwa ʿalá kulli shayʾin qadīr* There is no god but Allah alone, Who has no partner, His is the dominion and His the praise, and He is able to do all things.[^3] II. Next, proceed to the set of words most frequently mentioned in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ: *Subḥān Allāh*, *al-Ḥamdu lillah*, and *Allāhu akbar*. But rather than doing so mindlessly, think of a specific blessing, a specific sign, and a specific point. Signs of Allah are infinite, the more aware we are of their presence around us and within us, the more alive we become as believers. أَحَبُّ الكَلامِ إلى اللهِ أرْبَعٌ: سُبْحانَ اللهِ، والْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، ولا إلَهَ إلَّا اللَّهُ، واللَّهُ أكْبَرُ The dearest words to Allah are *Subḥān Allāh* (Glory to Allah), *Alḥamdu lillah* (Praise to Allah), *lā ilāha illā Allāh* (There is no god but Allah), and *Allāhu akbar* (Allah is the Greatest).”[^4] III. At a more advanced stage of *dhikr*, memorize and recite parts of the Qur’an that mention the beautiful names and blessings of Allah. I recommend reciting as many times as possible the last seven verses of *Sūrat al-Ḥashr* (or the last three if that’s easier), for they contain the best explanation of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* (“There is no god but Allah”) that I have found anywhere, so think about their meanings. Reflecting on the names of Allah is the best way to remember Him in the deepest way. \[QRN-59-21-24\] This list is just a beginning. The entire Qur’an is a means of remembering Allah as are the supplications taught by the Messenger ﷺ. Having an established routine of your preferred supplications helps. As the Beloved of Allah ﷺ said, “The most beloved of actions to Allah is that which is most constant, even if it is little.”[^5] You may seek the help of a local teacher or mentor who prescribes the right level of litanies suitable to your ability and needs. However, until you master your favorite litanies, you may choose any one of the prayers in the Qur’an or recommended in the Sunnah whose meaning is appealing and beneficial to your heart and repeat it. ### 2\. Gratitude and patience (shukr and ṣabr) Allah says, “And if you should count the bounties of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is \[generally\] most unjust and ungrateful” (14:34). Therefore, we must express gratitude (*shukr*) to Allah and persevere (*ṣabr*) in worship. Since our intention here is to prepare for and excel in a few hours of worship, we will focus on what will help our endurance only in this short period of time. The worship of a believer is a model for the rest of her or his life. If we can attain it for a few hours, or even a few minutes in each of the hours, we can break the hold of habit, the desires of our *nafs* (the appetitive self), and the traps of Shayṭān in routine life. Start with what is easy. You are dealing with the Creator Who loves you and has more compassion for your weaknesses and needs than your own mother and father, Who if you go toward Him by an inch, comes to you by a foot, and if you walk to Him, comes to you running, despite having no need for you while you are utterly in need of Him.[^6] Saying *al-Ḥamdu lillāh* (praise to Allah) and *al-Shukru lillāh* (thanks to Allah) is easy; start with that. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best remembrance (*dhikr*) is ‘There is no god but Allah’ and the best prayer (*du*ʿ*āʾ*) is ‘Praise to Allah.’”[^7] Yet saying it is just the beginning. Being truly grateful is hard. Allah said to the family of Prophet David, upon him be peace, > “Work, O family of David, in gratitude.” And few of My servants are truly grateful. (34:13) Allah asks the family of David to *work* in gratitude, not merely to express it verbally. When the Beloved Messenger ﷺ prayed long prayers at night until his feet would swell, Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾishah, God be pleased with her, asked why he strove so hard when Allah had honored him by forgiving all his past and future sins, he said, “Shall I not be a most grateful slave (ʿ*abd shakūr*)?”[^8] Gratitude is the heart of worship. To master worship, we must master being thankful. Being thankful means being happy with what we have been given, starting with the greatest gift of faith. Gratefulness is not a particular act of worship, but the feeling of gratefulness is a prerequisite for any meaningful worship. Believer are by definition pleased with what Allah has given them, and this is an attitude that extends to all of life. Being an optimistic, easygoing, forgiving person to others is part of being a grateful servant. The Prophet ﷺ left no doubt, “He who does not thank people does not thank Allah.”[^9] If one truly thanked Allah for faith, for the mere privilege of thanking Allah, one would not have the occasion in one lifetime to proceed to thanking Allah for anything else. Al-Sari al-Saqati, the teacher and uncle of al-Junayd, said, “Thanking Allah for a blessing is itself a blessing.”[^10] Perhaps the best place to begin is with the low-hanging fruit, with what is easy. Those of us who have shelter and know that we will not go hungry today should thank Allah for that. Oddly, it is people who have little who give most thanks, and feel the happiest vis-à-vis their Lord, whereas those loaded with wealth and luxuries have their eyes set on more, ever resentful of the comparatively little that afflicts them. Wealth is a blessing if it is seen as God’s test and shared and kept outside of the heart, but a curse if it enters the heart and takes the space that properly belongs only to the love of the Creator. The price of wealth, for many of us, is too high. The feeling you should have when thinking of your wealth, unless you are in dire need, is that it is already enough, and the One who sustains birds and insects will sustain you. Our religion rejects poverty as a choice or as a form of piety per se, and seeks just distribution of wealth, but if one finds that Allah has limited one’s sustenance, know that such a person has a stronger rope to Allah, and a shorter path.[^11] The Prophet ﷺ said, “The poor of my *ummah* will enter Paradise before the rich by five hundred years”; not because Allah loves the rich less, but because they will have much more to account for.[^12] If in dire need, know that what you rely on Allah for is more assuredly yours than that for which you rely on your own means. If gratitude (*shukr*) is half of faith, patience (*ṣabr*) is the other half. *Shukr* is the faithful expression of gratitude toward what you enjoy of Allah’s blessings, and patience (*ṣabr*) is faithful perseverance against what you experience of your Lord’s tests. Since in real life at any given moment we all have both blessings and hardships, *shukr* and *ṣabr* are in fact two sides of the same coin, and are not possible without each other. You cannot be happy for any blessing in this world without forgetting things that could possibly make you sad, including the fact that all earthly blessings will surely end. The true believer makes his happiness real through gratitude, connecting his temporary enjoyment to the everlasting reward. Similarly, when you are overwhelmed with sadness and hardship that call for patience, there are surely things that could make you happy. A patient believer connects one’s grief to the unending reward for holding on to faith and trust in God. Furthermore, thankfulness requires persevering in faith (heedless joy is always a temptation), and persevering in faith is not possible without being grateful to Allah. To the wise servant who has been given insight (*baṣīrah*) by Allah, gratitude and patience are constant companions. This could not be said better than how Allah inspired His most grateful and patient servant ﷺ to express it: > Wonderful is the life of a believer. Everything is good for him, and this is for none but a believer. If good fortune comes to him, he is grateful, and that is good for him, and if a calamity strikes him, he is patient, and that is good for him.[^13] Practically, then, how do we move from the desire to be thankful and patient to the state (*ḥāl*) and then finally attain the permanent station (*maqām*) of gratitude and patience? Know that nothing that you possess is your due, there is nothing that you deserve, nothing is your right. Your life and its innumerable blessings were given to you by Allah freely for years and years since before your birth until you even acquired the ability to think about thanking Him. Know also that your desire to thank Allah and the faith that you have in Him, however meager and deficient, is worth more than the world and all its wealth. Know, further, that no matter what your state, even if you are hungry, homeless, and feel unloved, you still are blessed with life and the opportunity to have faith and an eternal life of bliss, and that is enough for you to thank Allah. Know that your Lord and Creator is Most Merciful and Loving, always ready to forgive and overlook, and has prepared for the faithful blessings beyond our wildest fantasies. How much more there is to be grateful for if you enjoy any or all of the blessings of food, shelter, health, family, friends, and luxury? To make this knowledge a reality and second nature to you, keep a mental list of Allah’s greatest blessings, including the virtues and character strengths Allah has blessed you with, and another list of your common sins, slips, temptations, and bad habits. The more you reflect on these two and feel them in your gut, the more you will be driven to gratitude and endurance in worship, God willing. Reflect on these realities in your prayers, supplications, and prophetic litanies (*awrād*), which revolve around these meanings (see the Master Supplication of Forgiveness below). ### 3\. Self-reckoning (muḥāsaba) In this step, you focus on yourself: your sins and shortcomings, character traits and tendencies, desires and habits, that make you disobey Allah. We tend to forget these things, and it may take a lot of time and effort and prayer to see your *nafs* for what it is. Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismāʿīl al-Harawī said that the essence of self-reckoning is that you contrast His blessings with your crimes, and this contrast is difficult for someone who lacks three things: the light of wisdom, an ill opinion of his *nafs*, and the ability to discriminate between blessing and punishment.[^14] The light of wisdom is not about being smart, intellectual, and articulate, as the people of this world often think, but about your realization of the reality of things, and the clarity and force with which you see the hand of Allah behind everything. The more you are seen as important, successful, articulate, or handsome in this world by its people, the more likely you are to be fooled by their praise and awe for you and actually think highly of yourself, which is a calamity that blinds you to how short you fall vis-a-vis Allah’s rights and the rights of Allah’s creation. Having an ill opinion of your *nafs* is a necessary requisite for attaining the state of self-reckoning and self-criticism. Imam Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal was praised by all the Muslims and even Jews and Christians who saw his perseverance against torture for the sake of his faith and sang his praises, saying that they saw the examples of Jesus and Moses in him. But Imam Aḥmad would cry upon hearing his praise, saying, “Men’s opinion is of no use to a man who knows his worth.”[^15] Finally, do not be fooled by worldly blessings and opportunities for they are trials and punishments unless they are being used in the service of Allah. Hold your *nafs* accountable as you would someone you suspect and dislike, not someone you are partial to and love. For it is better that you find yourself guilty in your own judgment and rush to correct yourself than be taken to account by Allah on the Day of Resurrection. Mother of the Believers Aʿisha, Allah be pleased with her, reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “No one is taken to account except that he is ruined.” She asked about the verse 84:8 that speaks of “an easy reckoning,” to which he said, “That is about being brought before \[Allah\]. But whoever is taken to account is ruined.” In another tradition, he said, “O Allah, give me an easy reckoning!”[^16] Practically, when standing for prayer or sitting for supplication with your hands raised, imagine yourself before an infinite ocean, that is the greatness of Allah, and your view of it is the extent of your remembrance and feeling of awe, and a mountain on each side. On the right is the mountain of Allah’s blessings, gifts, forgiveness, and second chances, and on the left is the mountain of your sins, errors, and open and hidden flaws. The clearer your view of the ocean and the taller the two mountains, the deeper your sense of awe of standing before Allah, and the clearer you will be about what you have been given and what you owe. ### 4\. Repentance (tawbah) In the fourth and penultimate step in our scheme, we come to the most important of the stations on the path to Allah. To repent to Allah is to return to Him, abandoning and repudiating all sins and acts and thoughts of disobedience. Repentance begins with turning away from sin, feeling regret for having fallen into it and even more toward having enjoyed it, acknowledging your error, admitting without excuses, and finally, reconciling and returning to Allah, with the commitment in your heart to never return. You feel resolved, instead, to do good works that please your Lord, and also feel the lightheartedness and joy that come with reconciliation with your Lord. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Repentance is regret (*al-nadam*).” In another narration, he said, “Repentance from sin is feeling regret and seeking forgiveness (*istighfār*).”[^17] The feelings of revulsion toward the sin and regret for having fallen into it both must exist for repentance to be valid. Sincere repentance is perfected by a final feeling: one of serene pleasure that overwhelms and outlasts the others, because Allah’s mercy is greater than any sins we could commit. Repentance is the greatest of stations on the path to Allah. Teachings of the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the sayings of the early scholars about it would fill volumes. Suffice the words of Allah, “Allah surely loves those who repent repeatedly and those who seek to purify themselves” (2:222). Repentance is not for the sinners alone, as some uninitiated in this knowledge might think, but equally for the highest of achievers, as the Prophet ﷺ himself was urged to repent at the end of his life after fulfilling his noble mission: “Exalt the praise of your Lord and seek forgiveness, for He is surely Oft-Returning” (110:3). What greater honor for an attribute that it is shared between the servant and the Lord: Allah loves his *tawwāb* servants, and He is *al-Tawwāb* Himself. He is eager to return to His slaves who are eager to return to Him. By way of practical tips, know that your repentance can be only as good as your mastery of the earlier stations. Repentance is an art, a lifestyle, not merely a formula. But start with a formula that helps you set your goals and organize your thoughts and feelings. There is no better formula than the Master Supplication of Forgiveness (*sayyid al-istighfār*). Master Supplication of Forgiveness اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ رَبِّي لا إِلَهَ إِلا أَنْتَ خَلَقْتَنِي وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ وَأَنَا عَلَى عَهْدِكَ وَوَعْدِكَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا صَنَعْتُ أَبُوءُ لَكَ بِنِعْمَتِكَ عَلَيَّ وَأَبُوءُ لَكَ بِذَنْبِي فَاغْفِرْ لِي فَإِنَّهُ لا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلا أَنْتَ Allāhumma anta Rabbī lā ilāha illā Anta khalaqtanī wa-anā ʿabduka, wa-anā ʿalá ʿahdika wa-waʿdika mā istaṭaʿtu, Aʿūdhu bika min sharri mā ṣanaʿtu, abūʾu laka bi-niʿmatika ʿalayya, wa-abūʾu laka bi-dhanbī fa-ighfir lī fa-innahu lā yaghfiru al-dhunūba illā anta O Allah, You are my Lord. There is no god but You. You have created me, and I am your servant—and I am upon Your covenant and promise as best I can. I seek refuge in You from the worst of what I have done. I fully admit to You Your blessings upon me, and I fully admit to You all my sins. So forgive me, for there is none to forgive sins but You. After teaching this supplication, the Blessed Prophet ﷺ remarked, “Anyone who says this in the day with conviction and dies before evening will be among the people of Paradise. Anyone who says this in the night with conviction and dies before morning will be among the people of Paradise.”[^18] You must repent generally from all sins. But this is not enough. There are deliberate, lifestyle sins that prevent you from ever sincerely repenting. > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ  mentioned a person who travels far , his hair disheveled, covered with dust, and he lifts his hand towards the sky and earnestly begs, “My Lord! My Lord!” Yet his food is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, his clothes are unlawful and his body is nourished on unlawfully acquired wealth: How then can his supplication be accepted![^19] These “defeaters” of repentance include oppression and injustice in which your power and status depends on killing, silencing, and imprisoning others or facilitating these crimes or merely letting this happen to others while having the power to stop them; stealing and embezzlement, interest and usury; the entertainment industry in which your life depends on spreading shamelessness and promiscuity; abuse of and disrespect toward parents, abuse of spouse and other family members; and most of all, facilitating the spread of unbelief in any form. You may perpetrate these sins or facilitate them, or simply let them happen enjoying their consequences. Such are lifestyle sins that give lie to your words of repentance. From such sins, you must seek specific and total repentance, by abandoning them and acknowledging the severity of what you do and will become if you do not desist. You must find a balance between the feeling of regret and the feeling of cheer and comfort from God’s forgiveness. Seeking repentance is not pleasant at first, it requires focusing on our shortcomings and character flaws, sins of commission and sins of inaction and indifference, and finally, on our ill intentions, unfitting thoughts toward God and His promises, and subconscious ideas and feelings that lurk under our radar. Each of these is an extremely uncomfortable part of ourselves, which is why we bury it under pleasant thoughts and a veneer of righteousness. Allah says of people’s record of actions, “Allah kept account of it, but they forgot!” (58:6). Uncovering these layers of ourselves is the hardest part of repentance. It is as if you are an archeologist with an entire city to dig out with only a garden trowel. This is the proper context to understand the generous promises of Allah and His Prophet ﷺ of forgiveness. Prayers, fasting, alms, charity, and other such acts all do their part in overcoming the harm caused by buried sins and evils. People who do not know how much is buried within them think that all the promises of forgiveness are unnecessary: why would one seek forgiveness if they think they do not have any sins to begin with. Only Allah can save us from our self-deception. The good news is that Allah forgives all sins, sometimes even those that are still buried, so long as the buried demons do not eat away at your faith. Excessive self-blame without remembering the mercy of Allah and studying the Beautiful Names and Attributes of Allah can be harmful. Yet, forgetting your sins can be equally harmful. Finding this balance is an art which, like any art, can only be completed with the help of love, our next station. ### 5\. Love (maḥabba) Imam Ibn al-Qayyim writes, > The heart in its journey towards God the Exalted is like a bird whose head is love, and hope and fear are its two wings. When the head and the two wings are sound, the bird flies well, but when the head is cut off, it immediately dies, and when either or both wings are absent, the bird is the victim of any hunter or snare. The Predecessors preferred to strengthen the wing of fear during times of good health, and to strengthen the wing of hope when departing this world.[^20] As we repeat the aforementioned four steps of remembrance—gratitude, patience, self-reckoning, and repentance—focusing one by one on different aspects of our lives and different domains of experience, we grow in something that is the ultimate fruit and essence of all true worship, and that is the love of Allah. Love is a station that is best felt in the heart and attested by the actions and commitments of life rather than discussed in books and preached in sermons. It is the secret of the true seekers and the nearest of slaves of Allah. When the Prophet of God ﷺ lay dying and his head rested in the lap of his blessed wife, Mother of the Believers Aʿisha, she heard him say, “But the Highest Companion!” and she knew that he was given a choice and he had chosen the company of his Creator, the ultimate source and the only true destination of all love.[^21] People worship Allah for various reasons and in different registers, and some reasons and registers are loftier than others, but no human being is free above needing them all. Worship Allah to save yourself from hopelessness, meaninglessness, and unhappiness in this life and Allah’s displeasure in the eternal abode, seeking to enter Allah’s promised gardens of bliss, but most of all, because you love Allah, because He is deserving of all praise and possession of all perfection and beauty, and He was deserving of it before you and all creation existed. That being said, the idea that one must worship Allah only for love and not for fear of hell or desire for paradise has often lured the immature theorizers of worship who depart from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Appearing among some Sufis some time in the third/ninth century and later attributed to the great worshipper and seeker Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah of Baṣrah (fl. second/eighth century), this was likely not the teaching of Rābiʿah (about whom we know only very little except her great virtue and a few, simple sayings). Nevertheless, this was a popular idea among those who denigrated the common believer and sought to identify as the elite.[^22] Anyone who knows his or her *nafs* should not entertain it, because in real life, not even prophets are free of temptations, and need reminders of God’s reward and punishment, and they are incomparably superior to all other mortals. True love of Allah as He deserves it is easy to claim but not possible to attain without following the footsteps of the Messenger ﷺ, which is why Allah declared, “Say \[O Prophet to the believers\], if you love Allah, follow me, Allah will forgive your sins.” The Prophet ﷺ feared hell and punishment, hoped for paradise and reward, and loved God and was loved by God more than anyone else. Allah bless him with the noblest blessing and most perfect salutation. --- ## Conclusion In conclusion, we list some practical steps that you should take when preparing to spend a night, or half a night, or even a couple of hours, in worship. 1. Purify yourself physically and mentally. Set aside a few hours for nothing but Allah’s worship. This means no social media, no social calls, no chatting. Do not even listen to religious lectures and sermons during this precious time—do that during the daytime before the special time of worship begins at night. Of course, make an exception to help anyone in need, all the more if it is your family. Barring such a need, dedicate yourself exclusively to worship. This exclusive devotion is called *tabattul* in the Qur’an, and is among the high stations (73:8). The most righteous of this *ummah* lived most of their lives in such devotion to Allah that they spent every night in worship. They loved winter because its nights were long. If you persevere, you may learn to taste its sweetness for a couple of hours, and these hours may change your eternity. 2. When you worship properly, you are not in a rush. You realize that time no longer exists, because you are doing what you were created to do, that if you died in that state you would have succeeded. You have nothing better to do. 3. Offer two or more *rakʿahs* of prayers with full attention. You begin with *Sūrat* *al-Fātiḥah*, which is the most comprehensive and measured worship, a perfect combination of praise, acknowledgment, and supplication. Reflect on it every time you read it. 4. Prefer quality over quantity. Even if you offer only two units of prayers but with attentiveness and presence of heart, that is better than a night of prayers without these qualities. Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Two moderate cycles of prayer in contemplation are better than praying the whole night with a neglectful heart.”[^23] 5. Offer and feel gratitude for each thing separately and all things at once. The sense of immense gratitude is what sets a believer apart from one deprived of faith. Think about Allah’s blessings on us, our families, our *ummah*, human beings, and all of creation.  6. Read a *sūrah* of the Qur’an that evokes gratitude; e.g., *Sūrat* *al-Raḥmān*. You may have other favorite *sūrah*s whose meanings you already understand. 7. Contemplating the Qur’an is a lifelong endeavor, and it has different aspects. This precious time of worship is not suitable for reading technical aspects of *tafsīr* or legal and intellectual discussions. The time of worship is best utilized to recall and benefit from the meanings you already possess. This requires reading the Qur’an primarily with the intention to respond in our hearts and minds to every verse. To a verse of reward, we respond by yearning and rejoicing; to a verse of punishment, by cultivating fear; to a verse of command, by resolving in our heart to carry it out; to a verse of prohibition, by desisting from the act; and to a verse of praise to the Almighty, by cultivating all the proper feelings of awe, adoration, and veneration. As you do so, let all the meanings you have previously acquired bear fruit by contemplating them over and over as you stand before Allah. 8. Make a mental list—or perhaps an actual one—of your personal blessings, talents, and gifts. Include all the people in your lives—parents, spouses, children, friends, strangers—who have been means of Allah’s gifts to you. In the next step (*muḥāsabah*), you will make another list, that of your shortcomings and sins. Focus on Allah’s gifts and attributes of perfection for now. 9. Adhering to a couple of hours of focused worship, if you are not already used to it, will require tremendous patience, all the more so because it is voluntary. You may start with less, but push yourself to stay in that state as long as you can. Even a few minutes of truly felt worship is a treasure, but Allah Almighty asked of the Beloved Messenger ﷺ and the earliest Muslims to pray a part of the night which He described as “little less than two thirds of the night, or a half, or a third” (73:20). These were ordinary nights, and their worship would increase during the last nights of Ramadan. Aim to work yourself up to that at least during the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan, because certain blessings and realizations are inspired in your heart only with prolonged worship and reflection. The special love of Allah and the status of *wilāyah* can be attained only through voluntary acts after perfecting the obligatory ones. 10. Barring any special conditions that prevent true attainment of mental presence and focus, worship is the greatest source of delight. Eventually you will feel immediate happiness and delight during and at the conclusion of your worship. There are conditions, however, when Allah tests His servants with illnesses and hardships beyond their control, but for those who try despite the hardship and yet fail to attain presence, the reward is, God willing, analogous to what the Prophet ﷺ described in this hadith for the Qur’an reciters: “He who excels in reciting the Qur’an is with noble and honorable scribes, and for the one who reads it with difficulty and stutters through it there is twice the reward.”[^24] And Allah knows best. 11. None of this will be easy at first, but the reward is worth an eternity with *al-Ḥaqq*, Exalted is He. --- ## Notes [^1]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2000), 6:542, no. 7316, verse 3:79. [^2]: This is Ibn ʿAbbās’s explanation of the “good word” in 14:24. See al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*. [^3]: Part of a longer supplication, recorded in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 6330, 6404. Hadith numbers throughout correspond to those found at sunnah.com. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2137. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6970; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2675. [^7]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3383. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1130; **Ṣaḥīḥ* Muslim*, no. 2820. [^9]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 4811; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1954, graded *ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ*, Ibn Ḥibbān and others declare it *sahih*. [^10]: Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), no. 4096. [^11]: This idea is confirmed in *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 23121, with gratitude to Br. Justin Parrott for drawing my attention to this hadith. See [https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2013/12/03/diet-from-dunya/](https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2013/12/03/diet-from-dunya/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1619722427502000&usg=AOvVaw0f0LlZlqTKANbSHG-mD9_W). [^12]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2353, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* by Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Albānī, Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, and others. In other versions, forty years are mentioned, and in yet another, half a day is mentioned. Half a day corresponds to five hundred years given that a day with Allah in some verses is said to be a thousand years (Qur’an 32:5). The version given by al-Suyūṭī adds the reason for this delay. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2999. [^14]: Ovamir Anjum, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers: A Parallel English-Arabic Text* (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1:386–88. [^15]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ* (N.p.: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1985), 11:211. [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2876; *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 103. [^17]: *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, no. 6627; *al-Silsila al-sahiha*, no. 1208. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6323. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1015. [^20]: Anjum, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, 2:170. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4435. [^22]: Anjum, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, “Translator’s Introduction,” 1:19–21. [^23]: ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, *Kitāb al-Zuhd wa-Yalīhi Kitāb al-Raqā’iq* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyah, 2010), no. 288. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 798; see also *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4937. ## Summary Worship is an art that every servant of Allah is called to master, yet few truly attain it. Though parents, teachers, shaykhs, spiritual orders, and books all play their part, in the end it is the worshipper alone who must render his connection to his Lord a thing of beauty. Without sound knowledge of Allah, worship remains defective or incomplete; yet such knowledge must settle into one's very bones rather than merely be stored in the mind, for only then does it bear fruit. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to teach worship, and being the best of teachers, he taught it to perfection, leaving out nothing of value. The teaching of worship is itself an art, and Allah praises in His Book the *rabbānīyūn*—those devoted to teaching who display the wisdom of their Lord. Ibn ʿAbbās explained the command "Be *rabbānīyūn*" (Qur'an 3:79) as referring to "the wise and sagacious, those who teach what is rudimentary before what is advanced." In this spirit, the master worshippers of this ummah organized the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunnah to facilitate progressive learning. Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī al-Harawī al-Ḥanbalī, author of the celebrated Sufi manual *Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn*, divided the worshipper's path into one hundred stations, noting that the pious of earlier generations had identified a thousand stations, which he reduced to a hundred because the people of his time lacked strength for more. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, in commenting upon these stations in his *Madārij al-Sālikīn*, regarded excessive preoccupation with numbers and ordering as a form of *takalluf* (arbitrary affectation), yet acknowledged its usefulness for teaching and benefited from al-Harawī's arrangement. Drawing upon these lists, and Ibn al-Qayyim's work in particular, five simple steps toward mastering the art of worship may be proposed—offered with humility and readily visible in the supplications the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself taught. These are: remembrance (*dhikr*), gratitude and patience (*shukr* and *ṣabr*), self-reckoning (*muḥāsabah*), repentance (*tawbah*), and love (*maḥabbah*). Consider Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, the greatest of supplications: it opens with the praise and remembrance of Allah, then proceeds to acknowledging servitude and reliance upon Him alone, and finally pleads for guidance. The Master Supplication of Forgiveness follows a similar pattern. The wisdom in this ordering is that we praise Allah and acknowledge His greatness before bringing ourselves into the picture, for He is the First and the Last, while we are His creation, wholly dependent upon Him. Yet mercifully He has asked us to worship only as much as we can, not as much as He deserves. The first station is remembrance (*dhikr*), in which one focuses upon praising Allah without regard to creation, seeking not merely to think but to feel—and ultimately to feel overwhelmed by Allah. One may begin with the litany *Lā ilāha illā Allāh* until tongue and heart are at peace with it, mastering its words, meanings, and the feelings it evokes. This is the "good word" of which Allah says, "The likeness of a good word is a good tree, its root set firm, its branches reaching into the heaven" (Qur'an 14:24). One may then progress to the fuller formula affirming Allah's oneness, dominion, and power. Next come the words dearest to Allah, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "The dearest words to Allah are *Subḥān Allāh*, *al-Ḥamdu lillāh*, *lā ilāha illā Allāh*, and *Allāhu akbar*"—though these should be uttered while reflecting on a specific blessing or sign. At a more advanced stage one recites portions of the Qur'an mentioning Allah's beautiful names and blessings, such as the closing verses of Sūrat al-Ḥashr (59:21–24), which offer among the finest explanations of *lā ilāha illā Allāh*. An established routine helps, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "The most beloved of actions to Allah is that which is most constant, even if it is little." The second station joins gratitude and patience. Allah says, "And if you should count the bounties of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is most unjust and ungrateful" (Qur'an 14:34). One begins with what is easy—saying *al-Ḥamdu lillāh* and *al-Shukru lillāh*—for the Prophet ﷺ said, "The best remembrance is 'There is no god but Allah' and the best prayer is 'Praise to Allah.'" Yet true gratitude is difficult, for Allah commanded the family of David to *work* in gratitude, adding, "And few of My servants are truly grateful" (Qur'an 34:13). When ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) asked why the Prophet ﷺ prayed until his feet swelled though his sins were forgiven, he answered, "Shall I not be a most grateful slave?" Gratitude is the heart of worship, extending to good character, for he ﷺ said, "He who does not thank people does not thank Allah." Al-Sarī al-Saqaṭī, teacher and uncle of al-Junayd, said, "Thanking Allah for a blessing is itself a blessing." Notably, those with little often give the most thanks, whereas the wealthy set their eyes on more; and the Prophet ﷺ said the poor of his ummah will enter Paradise five hundred years before the rich—not from lesser love, but because the rich have more to account for. If gratitude is half of faith, patience (*ṣabr*) is the other half, and the two are inseparable, as he ﷺ said: "Wonderful is the life of a believer. Everything is good for him... If good fortune comes to him, he is grateful... and if a calamity strikes him, he is patient." To attain these, one should know that nothing possessed is one's due, and keep a mental list of Allah's greatest blessings alongside one's sins. The third station is self-reckoning (*muḥāsabah*), in which one turns to examine one's own sins, shortcomings, and habits. Al-Harawī said its essence is to contrast His blessings with one's crimes, which is difficult for whoever lacks three things: the light of wisdom, an ill opinion of one's *nafs*, and the ability to discriminate between blessing and punishment. Imam Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, praised even by Jews and Christians for his steadfastness under torture, would weep at praise, saying, "Men's opinion is of no use to a man who knows his worth." One should hold the *nafs* accountable as one would a suspect, not a beloved, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "No one is taken to account except that he is ruined"; when ʿĀʾishah cited the verse concerning "an easy reckoning" (84:8), he explained that this refers to being merely presented before Allah, and he prayed, "O Allah, give me an easy reckoning!" The fourth and most important station is repentance (*tawbah*): to return to Allah, abandoning all sin. It begins with turning away, feeling regret, admitting one's error without excuse, and resolving never to return, culminating in the serene joy of reconciliation. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Repentance is regret," and in another narration, "Repentance from sin is feeling regret and seeking forgiveness." Allah says, "Allah surely loves those who repent repeatedly and those who seek to purify themselves" (Qur'an 2:222). Repentance is not for sinners alone but for the highest achievers, for the Prophet ﷺ himself was told, "Exalt the praise of your Lord and seek forgiveness, for He is surely Oft-Returning" (110:3). The best formula is the Master Supplication of Forgiveness (*sayyid al-istighfār*), of which he ﷺ said whoever recites it with conviction and dies that day or night will be among the people of Paradise. Yet one must beware "lifestyle sins" that defeat repentance—oppression, theft, usury, spreading shamelessness, abuse of family, and facilitating unbelief—and the Prophet ﷺ warned of the traveler who raises his hands crying "My Lord!" while his food, drink, and clothing are unlawful: "How then can his supplication be accepted!" One must balance regret with hope in Allah's mercy, for Allah says of people's deeds, "Allah kept account of it, but they forgot!" (Qur'an 58:6). The fifth station is love (*maḥabbah*), the ultimate fruit of all worship. Ibn al-Qayyim wrote that the heart journeying to Allah is like a bird whose head is love and whose two wings are hope and fear; if the head is severed the bird dies, and without a wing it falls prey to any snare. When the Prophet ﷺ lay dying in ʿĀʾishah's lap, she heard him say, "But the Highest Companion!"—choosing his Creator. One should worship Allah out of hope for Paradise, fear of the Fire, and above all love of Him, for He deserves all praise. Yet the notion—arising among some Sufis in the third/ninth century and dubiously attributed to Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah—that one must worship Allah *only* for love, disdaining fear and hope, departs from the Qur'an and Sunnah; even the prophets needed reminders of reward and punishment. True love requires following the Messenger ﷺ, for Allah declared, "Say, if you love Allah, follow me, Allah will forgive your sins." In practice, one should purify oneself, set aside a few hours for Allah's worship alone (the *tabattul* praised in Qur'an 73:8), free of distraction save the needs of others; pray with full attention beginning with al-Fātiḥah, preferring quality over quantity—as Ibn ʿAbbās said, "Two moderate cycles of prayer in contemplation are better than praying the whole night with a neglectful heart." One should respond in the heart to each verse—yearning at mention of reward, fearing at punishment—recite sūrahs evoking gratitude such as al-Raḥmān, and persevere in patience, working toward the portion of night described in Qur'an 73:20, especially in the last ten nights of Ramadan, for the special love of Allah and the rank of *wilāyah* are attained only through voluntary acts after perfecting the obligatory ones. Even those who struggle without attaining presence may hope for reward, as the Prophet ﷺ said of the one who reads the Qur'an with difficulty that he receives twice the reward. None of this is easy at first, but the reward is worth an eternity with al-Ḥaqq, Exalted is He. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/keys-to-tadabbur-how-to-reflect-deeply-on-the-quran # Keys to Tadabbur: How to Reflect Deeply on the Qur’an **Authors:** Sh. Yousef Wahb, Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Ramadan **Published:** April 22, 2021 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy --- ## Treasure is spelled tadabbur The Qur’an is the “rope of Allah”;[^1] whoever grabs onto it will be saved, and whoever loosens his grip will be destroyed. The Qur’an is also the “spirit He revealed.”[^2] Allah created our bodies from the earth and decreed that their nourishment would come from the earth. Similarly, He created our spirits from a higher world and decreed that they require nourishment from this higher realm. He sent down the Qur’an to quench our spirits so they do not dry up, crack, and wither away. The Qur’an is also “the light,”[^3] without which a person is unacquainted with His Creator, cannot discern between truth and falsehood, and does not realize the stark disparity between this world and the hereafter. However, all this remains dependent on deep regular reflection *(tadabbur)* on the Qur’an’s messages. The command to beautify our voice in recitation, the incentive of ten good deeds per letter recited, and that of being upgraded to a higher station in Paradise with each verse we commit to memory are all intended to bring us to that end.[^4] Only through such reflection can someone tap into the secrets of the Qur’an and unlock its most valuable treasures. The Most High said, > This is a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], that they might deeply reflect (do *tadabbur*) upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded.[^5] The causative letter *lām* in this verse, translated as “that they might,” informs  us of a primary wisdom behind the revelation of the Qur’an. Certainly, the mere reading and rehearsal of the Qur’an are among the most virtuous and rewarding acts of worship, but the transformative potential in Allah’s words lies at the nexus of our intellectual and spiritual engagement with the Qur’an. One who only reads or listens to the Qur’an without pondering its meanings may not receive guidance from it. Allah, the Exalted, said, “Do they not then deeply ponder over the Qur’an, or are there locks upon their hearts?”[^6] In fact, even an expert reciter or a Qur’an instructor, who does not reflect on its meaning for their own salvation, can plummet to become among the worst of God’s creation. The Prophet ﷺ told us that the first three people to be sentenced on the Day of Resurrection will be a philanthropist, a martyr, and an expert reciter. Regarding the reciter, he ﷺ said, > He will be brought, the blessings of Allah will be made known and he will acknowledge them. Allah will say: What did you do about them? The man will say: I learned religious knowledge, taught others, and I recited the Qur’an for your sake. Allah will say: You have lied, for you studied only so that it would be said you are a scholar and you recited the Qur’an only so that it would be said you are a reciter, and thus it was said. Then, Allah will order him to be dragged upon his face until he is cast into Hellfire.[^7] We plead to Allah, by the light of His glorious Face, to never subject us to such a disgraceful fate. *Tadabbur* is therefore the true differentiator between people who live self-serving lives, who tokenize the Qur’an on one level or another through their shallow relationship to it, and those fixated on their love of the Divine. The latter remain at the door of His words, knocking over and over again, certain that the Most Gracious will open and hand them from His treasures what this world a hundred times over can never offer them. They live to increase their intimacy with His divine messages, and in anticipation of meeting the Speaker, and they find themselves gravitating away from this transient world as a result. Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī would say, > The sign of loving Allah is loving the Qur’an; the sign of loving the Qur’an is loving the Prophet ﷺ and loving the Sunnah; the sign of loving the Sunnah is loving the hereafter; the sign of loving the hereafter is being averse to the worldly life; the sign of being averse to the worldly life is only consuming from it \[his\] needs and what will deliver \[him\] to the hereafter.[^8] Hence, a meaningful relationship with the Qur’an (namely, via *tadabbur*) marks how this love story began, and eternity with its Source is the grand finale, where He will host them in a place where “no eye has ever seen, no ear has heard, and what has never dawned upon the heart of any person.”[^9] Many scholars view that after fulfilling the obligations, no form of ritual devotion is superior to reciting the Qur’an, and that it surpasses *duʿāʾ* (supplication), *dhikr* (remembrance), and every other form of spiritual engagement that does not involve Qur’an.[^10] This preference for recitation, of course, does not apply to situations in which there is a superseding contemporaneous obligation such as *ṣalāh*. --- ## Sincerity with the Qur’an People who stand before Allah’s revealed guidance are of different classes in terms of their sincerity; some flee in aversion, wishing to remain in denial of the truth it contains, “as if they were frightened donkeys fleeing from a lion.”[^11] Others accept “its burden” for the sake of social status, bragging rights, polemics, and similar forms of selfishness, “like a donkey that carries a load of books.”[^12] A third class approaches it sincerely, thirsty for more faith and guidance, and these are the only ones who will be quenched and healed by it. Allah says, “And We send down of the Qur’an that which is healing and a mercy for the believers, but it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss.”[^13] This verse testifies, as Qatādah (rA) said, that “nobody rises from a sit-down with the Qur’an without having been elevated or demoted.”[^14] The outcome depends entirely on the soundness of their faith, their current spiritual health, and the attentiveness they bring to this session. Hence, being cognizant of the different states of our hearts will help us determine our degree of readiness to be spiritually uplifted by the Qur’an. But even if we cannot yet benefit from its full downpour, we should never underestimate what even a drizzle of it can bring into our lives. Elsewhere, Allah says, “Indeed in that is a profound reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present \[minded\].”[^15] Ibn al-Qayyim (rA) notes that this verse captures—in the most succinct way—the three factors necessary for being impacted by anything. It must have an intrinsic potency for impact, its “target” must be open to stimulation or impression, and any hindrances between the force and the impact must be removed. “In that is a profound reminder” refers to the intrinsic potency of the Qur’anic narrative. “For whoever has a heart” refers to the sincere heart that is alive and able to comprehend the implications of the message, as Allah said, “It is but a reminder and a clear recital—to warn whoever is alive.”[^16] Finally, “who listens while he is present \[minded\]” refers to mindfulness. One may wonder how to understand the word “or” in this verse.  The verse says that the Qur’an is a reminder for those with a heart “or” those who listen. It seems to imply that either spiritual life or attentiveness are required, but not both. Perhaps this means that a disbeliever whose heart is not yet alive may still benefit from the Qur’an through sincerely listening to its message, and that a believer may have a sincere heart but still not benefit until he or she purges the impediments between them and the Qur’an, such as distraction or sin.[^17] Being sincere in giving the Qur’an our undivided attention involves more than being disciplined and thoughtful. When ʿĀʾishah (rA) was asked about the character of the Prophet ﷺ, she said, “His character was the Qur’an; he was pleased by what it approved, and displeased by what it deemed reprehensible.”[^18] Notice, the Qur’an in his life was not limited to a frequent recitation on his pure tongue ﷺ or a reverent pause whenever it reached his blessed ears ﷺ. It was embodied in his ethical framework, his emotions, and his conduct. For the purposes of this paper, we will explore where all that is rooted: our approach to reading the Qur’an and some best practices to improve our *tadabbur*. --- ## Checklist for tadabbur[^19] ### 1\. Spiritual detoxification > Indeed, it is a noble Qur’an, in a Book well-protected; none touch it except the purified.[^20] Many exegetes consider this an allusion to the sinless angels who have access to *al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ*, a primordial tablet in the heavens where the Qur’an was first inscribed. The majority of jurists, even those who accept this interpretation, still cite this verse regarding the obligation of being in a state of full ritual purity (*ṭahārah*) before touching our copies of the Qur’an.[^21] Nonetheless, scholars like Imam al-Farrāʾ (rA) suggested another brilliant layer of meaning here, namely that the blessings and sweetness of the Qur’an can only be reached by the believers who are purified from faithlessness.[^22] Similarly, Ibn al-Qayyim reports Ibn Taymiyyah as saying, “If the angels—who are created beings—are prevented from entering a house by dogs and images, then how could knowing Allah, loving Him, the sweetness of remembering Him, and the comfort of being near to Him, enter a heart that is filled with the dogs of desires and images \[of worldly pursuits\]?”[^23] In another verse, Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) says, > I will turn away from My signs those who act unjustly with arrogance in the land. And even if they were to see every sign, they still would not believe in them. If they see the Right Path, they will not take it. But if they see a crooked path, they will follow it. This is because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them.[^24] The signs *(āyāt)* of Allah are not just observed and experienced, but also recited. Hence, we find Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (rA) explaining that a part of “turning them away from My signs” includes “removing from them the ability to understand the Qur’an.”[^25] In that vein, Ibn Qudāmah (rA) also said, > The reciter must clear himself of the deterrents of understanding, such as being insistent upon a sin, or harboring arrogance, or surrendering to his biases—for these all cause the heart to darken and corrode. The heart is like a mirror, desires are like corrosion, and Qur’anic concepts are like images that are reflected in the mirror. Spiritual training, through cleansing it of \[contrary\] desires, is analogous to polishing that mirror.[^26] Sins infect the heart just as diseases infect the body, and the diseased heart cannot benefit from the nourishment that its survival and well-being depend on. Hence, if we want to understand Allah’s messages, and benefit from them beyond intellectual discussions, we must be committed to purifying our hearts, which are the receptacles of the Qur’an. This is achieved by renewing our repentance on a regular basis, seeking His forgiveness for our past crimes, discontinuing the sins currently polluting our interior, and refreshing our resolve to compensate in the days ahead. Finally, we should incorporate in that detox humble pleas to Allah that express our desperation and earnestness to requalify for being guided by His word, and our acknowledgment of its power to inspire and transform a person in remarkable ways. Our Prophet ﷺ encouraged us all to learn a sacred prayer in this respect, the end of which states, > O Allah... make the Qur’an the spring of my heart, the illumination of my chest, the assuaging of my grief, and the departure of my anxiety (*Allāhumma... ij‘al al-Qurʾāna rabī‘a qalbī, wa-nūra ṣadrī, wa-jalā’a ḥuznī, wa dhahāba hammī*).[^27] ### 2\. A serious approach to the sacred In several Qur’anic passages, Allah recounts His commands to past nations and prophets to “take hold of the Scripture with strength,”[^28] meaning with the utmost seriousness. In a Meccan verse, prior to the permission of physical jihad, Allah commands His Prophet not to obey the unbelievers and to perform jihad with the Quran, “and strive against them with it a great striving.”[^29] The necessity of treating the sacred as such includes not handling it superficially, as one may handle the words of transient created beings. #### Hold fast to the Scripture! A part of this requires treating our sessions with the Qur’an, especially those designated for *tadabbur*, as semi-formal occasions by insulating them against every avoidable distraction. In our technological era that is engineered to distract in unprecedented ways, it has become necessary for a Muslim to erect formidable walls in their life around what they value, and constantly reinforce those walls against the catapults of device-intrusion. Al-Suyūṭī (rA) said, “It is disliked to interrupt the recitation in order to speak to someone. Al-Ḥalīmī said, ‘That is because the words of Allah should not be overcome by the words of others.’ Al-Bayhaqī supported this position with the following narration in *al-Ṣaḥīḥ*: ‘When Ibn ʿUmar used to recite the Qur’an, he would not speak at all until he had concluded.’”[^30] This undivided attention is among the pearls of wisdom for why reciting the Qur’an in the night prayers has a superior virtue; it is more distant from diversion and permits a greater chance for the tongue and heart to coincide in focus.[^31] As Allah (st) says, “Arise \[to pray\] at night... Indeed, the night hours are more conducive \[to worship\].”[^32] For those who feel that they do not memorize enough Qur’an to apply this, know that the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ were first instructed to perform the night prayers at a time when very little Qur’an had been revealed. This reinforces that repeating a few verses may actually provide far more benefit, by allowing for greater *tadabbur* than reading a greater number of verses a single time. Al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī (ra) said, “Those who were before you saw the Qur’an as messages from their Lord so they used to reflect on them at night and follow them during the day.”[^33] Finally, for those who cannot yet understand the few verses they have memorized, major scholars have deemed it permissible to hold a *muṣḥaf* in hand as you recite.[^34] Contemporary scholars have also extended this concession to translations as well, meaning they permitted that a reciter hold a translation and glance at it (not pronounce it) as they recite or hear the Arabic. Whether we recite in prayer or outside of it, this concept should always be front and center for us moving forward; it is inappropriate to recite Allah’s sacred words while fielding mobile notifications, while meandering with our eyes at every intriguing sight, or while being immersed in laughter and play. Scholars suggest that a reciter also be keen, when pursuing *tadabbur*, to avoid times when they are physically or mentally fatigued. In his commentary on the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ asking some of his Companions to recite the Qur’an for him and saying, “I like to hear it from others,”[^35] Imam Ibn Baṭṭāl (rA) extends the wisdom of doing that to other relevant situations we face upon reciting the Qur’an. He said that this may be to maximize the quality of *tadabbur*, since the reciter may at times be too consumed (due to fatigue, foggy memory, or otherwise) with the rendition of the verses to juggle that along with the superior task of reflecting on them.[^36] #### Etiquette of recitation Be keen to observe the proper etiquettes for reciting Qur’an that have been reported by our pious predecessors. These ceremonial-like practices include sitting reverently in a humble posture,[^37] being undisturbed by hunger or the call of nature, facing the *qiblah* (direction of prayer),[^38] maintaining ritual[^39] and physical purity,[^40] and refreshing one’s oral hygiene.[^41] Ibn Mājah narrates that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (rA) would say, “Your mouths are the passageways of the Qur’an, so refresh them with the *siwāk* (toothbrush).”[^42] #### Brief yourself on the meanings Familiarize yourself with the meanings of the verses you will now recite. Allah (st) condemned in the Qur’an those who neglected the meanings of their Scripture, settled for its recitation, and took their faith from speculation as a result, saying, “And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except \[indulgence in\] wishful thinking, but they are only assuming.”[^43] Since *tadabbur* involves deep reflection, and since reflection is a matter of deepening our understanding, developing a baseline understanding is necessary. This is easily done by consulting a reliable book of *tafsīr* (exegesis). Imam al-Ṭabarī (rA), a celebrated pioneer in *tafsīr* literature, used to say, “I marvel at how someone who does not know the *tafsīr* could enjoy the Qur’an.”[^44] He is reminding us that the tranquility found in the Qur’anic melody cannot compare with its truest treasure, which lies in savoring the meanings these verses carry. For beginners, a trustworthy Sunni translation should suffice in that regard. It should be noted that familiarizing oneself with the meanings in this manner will not suffice to qualify a person to delve into Qur’anic interpretation (*tafsīr*) or the extraction of legal rulings (*fiqh*) independently. But just as it would be impermissible for nonexperts to meddle in these sophisticated disciplines without adequate training, it would also be impermissible for the average Muslim to neglect *tadabbur* under the premise that they are not specialized in Qur’anic studies. A nonexpert is still capable of reflection, self-reckoning, and spiritual awakening through the Qur’an, and we must shun every whisper that suggests otherwise. Ibn Ḥubayrah (rA) said, “Among the deceptive schemes of Satan is his chasing the servants of God away from *tadabbur* of the Qur’an, due to his conviction that guidance occurs during *tadabbur*. So he says, ‘This \[practice of reflection\] is risky,’ until the person himself says, ‘I will not speak on the Qur’an out of pious caution.’”[^45] #### Tartīl As for the recitation itself, the Qur’an and Sunnah instruct us to recite at a measured pace (*tartīl*) that allows for the pronunciation of each letter, to beautify our voices into a melodious chant (*taghannī*), and to articulate the Qur’an accurately (*tajwīd*). These all contribute to the *tadabbur* project we are exploring in this paper, but it must be said that these components of proper recitation are (at a basic level) obligations on every Muslim to learn. It was understood among the earliest Muslims that there was a learning curve here, even for someone proficient in Arabic. That is why the Prophet ﷺ said, “The person who grapples with the Qur’an, and finds it difficult, is entitled to a double reward.”[^46] Reciting Qur’an is therefore a particular skill, not identical to fluency, and so we must all be invested in joining classes and pursuing teachers to educate ourselves on this. Ibn al-Jazarī (rA), a leading authority in Qur’anic sciences and *qirāʾāt*, summarizes that while some scholars believed that reciting more is superior, due to the famous “ten good deeds per letter”[^47] hadith and other texts, the correct position is that of the vast majority of the earlier and later generations: “reciting less but with *tartīl* and *tadabbur* is superior, because the objective is to comprehend the Qur’an and act upon it, while reciting and memorizing it are a means to realize that \[objective of\] comprehension.”[^48] Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (rA), after asserting that *tartīl* is an independently praiseworthy act even in the absence of comprehension, said, “The non-Arabic speaker who cannot understand the Qur’an should still recite in a calm and measured way, because that is more reverent and respectful, and has a greater impact on the heart compared to \[reciting in\] jabber and haste.”[^49] In other words, this is all an intrinsic part of our reverent approach to the sacred, en route to *tadabbur*. With regard to reciting the Qur’an in an audible (as the default) and melodious way, the Prophet ﷺ emphasized this by saying, “The person who does not recite the Qur’an melodiously is not of us.”[^50] Interestingly, scholars have cautioned against letting oneself become so captivated by reciters with extraordinary voices that this deters you from *tadabbur* on the Qur’an itself. Melodious *tartīl* is for facilitating *tadabbur*, not for diverting people’s attention away from it, which sadly is not uncommon. This pitfall, though, should never eclipse the importance of listening to the Qur’an on a regular basis. Al-Layth ibn Saʿd (rA) would say that “Allah’s mercy does not hasten to anyone as fast as it does to the listener of the Qur’an.”[^51] He would then cite as proof for this the noble verse, “So when the Qur’an is recited, then listen to it and be silent that you may receive mercy.”[^52] ### 3\. The right mindset What should I be thinking about as I recite the Qur’an? What should I be looking for as I journey through the Divine message? The following will be a roadmap for our *tadabbur* sessions, to help us retrieve new gems with each dive. **1\. Realize what it means to be uttering God’s words.** Have you ever thought about how it could be possible that a powerless, dependent, fleeting creature like the human being could be allowed to restate the words of the All-Powerful, Independent, Eternal Creator? The fact that Allah permitted this should be seen as a bounty from Him that we could never earn. Hence, Allah said, “And We have certainly made the Qur’an easy to remember. So is there anyone who will be mindful?”[^53] About this verse, Ibn ʿAbbās (rA) said, “Had Allah not facilitated it on the tongues of the children of Adam, none from the creation would have been able to speak the words of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.”[^54] Appreciating the fact that Allah Himself allowed you to connect with, and express, His inimitable speech is instrumental to *tadabbur*. When Mālik ibn Dīnār (rA) would have his students recite to him, he would remark after they concluded, “Listen to what the Most Truthful is saying from above His throne.”[^55] Let the weight of that reality be your starting thought. **2.** **Check behind each word.** It is interesting to note that *tadabbur* comes from the word *dubur*, which denotes the back of something. Allah, the Creator of our tongues and their eloquence, deliberately chose this word in particular to describe our ideal reading of His book. So as you recite, seek to explore what lies behind each word, and spend lengthy periods probing this. A wise person once said that the messages of the Qur’an are like our conversations with friends; the secrets are only exchanged with those most loyal after trust has been built. Nearly every practitioner of *tadabbur* can attest to this: the transformative experiences inspired by this Book are reserved for those dedicated to it, not necessarily those with more information about it. What surprises many people about the unique power of *tadabbur* is that it evokes epiphanies that seem so obvious after the fact. This is because *tadabbur* is not about unlocking some encrypted truth in the Qur’an, but rather becoming eligible for it. Remember that Allah called this Scripture “*ʿazīz*,” which has several implications, including it being a “proud” book, a book that refuses to disclose its secrets to those who allot it the leftovers of their time and attention. **3.** **Observe from** **a bird’s-eye view.** The Qur’an has many overarching themes and objectives that we should keep in mind whenever we reflect, such as the perfection of Allah’s qualities and actions, the blessing of knowing His perfect laws, the archetypes of good and evil behavior, and the descriptions of Paradise and Hellfire. These are some of the most recurrent themes of the Qur’an, all of which the reader needs to be mindful of. The reasons behind a *sūrah*’s revelation are another helpful component of grasping its overall context. Identifying whether a *sūrah* is Meccan (revealed before the migration) or Medinan (revealed after the migration) is pivotal to optimizing *tadabbur*.[^56] Meccan *sūrah*s, for instance, descended in an atmosphere of idolatry, persecution, and turmoil; hence, they infuse the reader with the purity of creed, optimism, and perseverance. Madinan *sūrah*s descended amidst the birth of a state and a model community; hence, they set the infrastructure for stability, brotherhood, and mitigating the ills of prosperity. The Qur’anic narrative often flows in a way that assumes its reader is apprised of the background story, which allows one to see past its literal meanings, without necessarily ignoring them. For instance, Ibn ʿAbbās (rA) recognized that *Sūrat al-Naṣr* foretold the forthcoming death of the Prophet ﷺ, though there is no direct reference to that in it. He inferred this from its tone and when it was revealed. Another high-level perspective that is sure to help *tadabbur* involves investigating the themes or central concepts of a particular *sūrah*. This grants you a deeper sense of context, which allows for connecting the dots. *Sūrat al-Kahf*, for instance, offers all four of its stories as an immunization against life’s various trials. The boys in the cave symbolize the trial of religious persecution; the owner of the two gardens symbolizes the trial of wealth; the voyage of Mūsá (as) and al-Khiḍr symbolizes the trial of knowledge; the mission of Dhū al-Qarnayn symbolizes the trial of power. And as a whole, this *sūrah* was identified by the Prophet ﷺ as a means of protection from the greatest trial in human history: *al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl* (the False Messiah). Realize that the word *sūrah* comes from *sūr* (fence or gate), which should call our attention to the fact that each *sūrah* is a distinct bundle of verses fused together. Getting into the habit of inquiring *why* these specific verses (*sūrah*) have been separated from others will open worlds of meanings for you, by Allah’s permission. For instance, consider that *Sūrat al-Raḥmān* begins with Allah’s name *al-Raḥmān* (the Most Merciful) and then ends with, “Blessed is the name of your Lord.”[^57] Noticing this will allow a person to return to reading everything between those two poles (even the mention of the Hellfire in this *sūrah*) in light of this newly discovered theme: Allah’s mercy. **4.** **Draw parallels.** Every quality in people, and every incident in history, that the Qur’an tells us about has counterparts in our lives and times. The function of *tadabbur* is to extract them. For instance, ask yourself why Allah (st) chose to illustrate that even His prophets were human beings who faced uphill climbs and struggles with emotion? Consider how the Qur’an first captures the fear of Mūsā (as) when he reaches the blessed valley and the staff becomes a snake; he flees and does not turn back until Allah tells him, “O Moses, fear not. Indeed, in My presence, the messengers do not fear.”[^58] Later, he stands before Pharaoh and fear creeps back into his heart, but this time he stands his ground.[^59] Later, the whole nation of Israelites is struck with fear when caught between the sea and the approaching army, but this time the fear of Mūsā is nowhere to be found. Instead, he says, “No! My Lord is certainly with me, \[and\] He will direct me.”[^60] Just as we must relate to the prophets in our *tadabbur*, we should also be contrasting ourselves with them. For instance, when Wuhayb ibn al-Ward would recite this verse, “And \[mention\] when Ibrāhīm was erecting the foundations of the House, along with Ismā‘īl, saying, ‘Our Lord! Accept from us’” he would weep and say, “This is the friend of Allah, building the \[greatest\] House of Allah, and yet he begs that it be accepted of him.”[^61] His reflection delivered him to the realization that we all too often have a premature sense of security about our meager deeds being worthy of acceptance. Similarly, when Ḥafṣ ibn Sulaymān once heard, “Have We not expanded for you \[O Muhammad\] your chest? And removed from you your sins that burdened your back? And We raised high for you your repute?,”[^62] he wept like a child and said, “O Ziyād, the Messenger of Allah’s sins[^63] weighed down his back,”[^64] meaning what should we expect of our own sins? Noting parallels that contrast the righteous and the wicked was also practiced by our righteous predecessors in their *tadabbur*. For instance, Allah (st) says, “Go \[O Mūsá and Hārūn\] to Pharaoh, for he has transgressed. And say to him a soft word, perhaps he may be reminded or fearful.”[^65] Yaḥyá b. Muʿādh (rA) wept upon hearing someone recite this, and said, “My God, this is Your gentleness with those who say ‘I am god,’ so how about us, who testify that You are the True God? This is Your gentleness with those who say ‘I am your lord, most high,’ so how about us, who say ‘Glorified is my Lord, Most High’ \[in every prostration\]?”[^66] Juxtaposing similar scenes from across the Qur’an, and comparing them with each other, is another form of drawing parallels. For instance, Ibrāhīm (as) is ready to slaughter his son without hesitation, while the Israelites are reluctant to slaughter a cow of their choice. *Tadabbur* around this parallel alone can restore in a reader what submission in Islam is all about: not the size of the command, but the Grandeur of the Commander. Every sacrifice is just details, and it is the surrender of the hearts (and consequently the limbs) that defines a servant of God. **5.** **Reflect on your personal needs.** The Qur’an speaks to its reader in different ways at different times. This is not due to the meanings of the Qur’an being arbitrary or subjective, but rather that through *tadabbur* the most pertinent implications of a passage will manifest to satisfy a particular issue or need in our personal lives. For instance, consider the oft-repeated statement in *Sūrat al-Fātiḥah*, “Owner of the Day of Resurrection.”[^67] This verse can serve to break one’s arrogance, chase away one’s cowardice, and heal one’s trauma. It is all the same verse but resonates within different people, or within a single person at different points in their life, in a way that is most therapeutic for their respective conditions. But the key here is introspection: being focused on one’s own flaws and needs, and then handing them over to the Qur’an to resolve them. Fight the desire to reflect for posting, collecting, and discussing. The early Muslims would often caution their students that when Allah gives someone  a glimpse of sacred knowledge, He examines whether they will be more concerned about implementing it *(riʿāyah)* than talking about it *(riwāyah)*. --- ## Interact with the Qur’an Finally, we must put forth effort before expecting the Qur’an to move us. Just as we are told that the Qur’an can move mountains, we are also told that some people have hearts that are harder than stone.[^68] Therefore, fruitful *tadabbur* requires that a conscious effort be exerted to tenderize that heart through interacting with the Qur’an. For instance, we are instructed to seek refuge before we recite. Allah (st) says, “So when you \[decide to\] recite the Qur’an, seek refuge with Allah from Satan the outcast.”[^69] Be sure to practice this, and realize that it invites you to actively confess your poverty before Allah, admitting that unless He empties your heart from distractions, even His Book will not benefit you. Similarly, as you recite, look for opportunities to pause and interact. There are the famous verses of *sujūd al-tilāwah* where a person is recommended to stop and fall prostrate if they come across them.[^70] There are also verses that induce weeping and some even openly call for it. Allah says, “Do you marvel at this recital? And you laugh and do not weep? While persisting in heedlessness?”[^71] We know that the blessed eyes of our Prophet ﷺ would often overflow with tears by the weight of the Qur’an, and Allah (st) described all His prophets as weeping in response to revelation: “When the verses of the Most Merciful were recited to them, they fell in prostration, weeping.”[^72] The scholars explain that it is commendable to assume a weeping attitude (in private) if one cannot weep, even if simply over their inability to sense the greatness of their duties, the weakness of their commitment, and the gravity of that.[^73] When ʿUmar (rA) read that prior verse and fell into prostration, but could not get himself to weep, he was heard saying to himself in reprimand, “That is the prostration, now where is the weeping?”[^74] There are also many verses that warrant supplication, which is another opportunity to interact and make your relationship with the Qur’an a lived experience. When Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān spent a long night praying with the Prophet ﷺ, he described his recitation in the following way: > His recitation was unhurried. And whenever he recited verses pertaining to the glory of Allah, he would glorify Him (saying the likes of ‘*Subḥān Allāh al-ʿAẓīm*’ which means: Glorified is Allah, the Most Great, above every imperfection). And whenever he recited verses \[involving grace\] that warranted supplication, he would supplicate. And whenever he recited verses \[involving fear\] that warranted seeking refuge, he sought refuge \[with Allah\].[^75] As a final example, and to conclude with a prayer for us and every reader, it was reported that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (rA), once recited, “And say: My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”[^76] Immediately interacting with this prompt, he stopped and said, “O Allah, increase me in knowledge, faith, and conviction.”[^77] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 3:103. [^2]: Qur’an 42:52, a reference to the Qur’an according to some exegetes. [^3]: Qur’an 64:8. [^4]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, bk. 45, hadith 3162. [^5]: Qur’an 38:29. [^6]: Qur’an 47:24. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1905. [^8]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazāli, *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn*, 1st ed. (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Dār al-Minhāj, 2011), 8:487. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3224; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2824. [^10]: The discussion revolves around reconciling between two *qudsī* hadiths, “Whoever is too busy with My remembrance to ask Me, then I shall give him more than what I give to those who ask,” and “Whoever is preoccupied by the Qur’an from remembering Me and asking Me, I shall give him more than what I give to those who ask. And the virtue of Allah’s Speech over the speech of others is like the virtue of Allah over His creation.” See Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab* *lil-Shīrāzī*, ed. Najīb al-Muṭī‘ī (Jeddah: Maktabat al-Irshad, 1980), 2:189. [^11]: Qur’an 74:50–51. [^12]: Qur’an 62:5. [^13]: Qur’an 17:82. [^14]: Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī, *Maʿālim al-Tanzīl* (Riyadh: Dār Tiba, 1990), 15:123. [^15]: Qur’an 50:37. [^16]: Qur’an 36:70. [^17]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Fawāʾid* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawā’id, 2008), 3–5. [^18]: Reported by al-Bayhaqī in *Dalāʾil al-nubūwah*. [^19]: Scholars wrote a lot on the topic of the manners of reciting the Qur’an, most of which revolve around attaining the highest possible levels of *tadabbur*. Some authored independent books on the matter, such as Imam al-Nawawī’s book *al-Tibyan* (translated by Musa Furber, *[Etiquette with the Quran](ps://musafurber.com/books/etiquette-with-the-quran/)*). Others dedicated chapters in their books to the topic, such as Imam al-Suyūṭī in *al-Itqān* (the thirty-fifth chapter on the manners of reading the Quran) (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 2:302–31; Imam al-Ghazālī in his *Iḥyāʾ* (the Manners of Reading the Quran), 2:257–339; Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī in *Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ Sharḥ Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ* (the Manners of Quran) 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2001), 5:70–88. [^20]: Qur’an 56:77–79. [^21]: This is the official position of the four *madhāhib* (schools) of Islamic law, but this would only apply to the Arabic Qur’an in print form, not an electronic version, a printed translation, nor a printed Arabic Qur’an commentary. [^22]: Yahyá ibn Ziyād al-Farrāʾ, *Maʿānī al-Qur’ān*, 1st ed. (Cairo: Dār al-Miṣrīyah lil-Taʾlīf wa-al-Tarjamah, 1983), 3:130. Imam al-Bukhārī held the same opinion in his *Ṣaḥīḥ* (Book of Tafsīr). [^23]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1973), 2:418. [^24]: Qur’an 7:146. [^25]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān* (*Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*), 1st ed. (Cairo: Hajar, 2001), 10:443. [^26]: Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī, *Mukhtasar Minhaj al-Qāsidīn* (Damascus: Dār al-Bayān, 1978), 53–54. [^27]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, from Ibn Masʿūd, no. 3704. [^28]: Qur’an 19:12. [^29]: Qur’an 25:52. [^30]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 2:319. [^31]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān fī а̄dāb ḥamalat al-Qur’ān*, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1996), 63–68. [^32]: Qur’an 73:2–6. The cited translation aligns more with the readings of Ibn ʿĀmir and Abū ʿAmr وِطَاءً. However, the meaning of the other reading, adopted by the rest of the ten *qurrā’*, وَطْئًا means “intense.” Both readings are authentic and both meanings are a valid understanding of the verse. [^33]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān*, 54. [^34]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 4:27–28. [^35]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 63, hadith 73. [^36]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī fī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Lebanon, Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1884), 9:94. [^37]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ*, 2:270. [^38]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān*, 79. [^39]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān*, 73–76. [^40]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān*, 77–79. [^41]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ*, 2:190. [^42]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 291; see also al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān*, 72. [^43]: Qur’an 2:78 [^44]: Yāqūt al-Hamawī, *Muʿjam al-udabāʾ*, ed. Ihsan Abbas, 1st ed. (Tunisia: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1993), 6:2453. [^45]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Dhayl ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah*, 1st ed. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-‘Ubaykān, 2005), 2:156. [^46]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* bk. 6, hadith 290. [^47]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2910. [^48]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr* (Beirut: al-Maṭbaʿat al-Tujārīyah al-Kubrá, n.d.), 1:208–209. [^49]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ*, 2:278. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 8, hadith 84. [^51]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jamiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, 1st ed. (Beirut: Muʾsassat al-Risālah, 2006), 1:18. [^52]: Qur’an 7:204. [^53]: Qur’an 54:1. [^54]: Ibn Kathir, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān*, ed. by Sami al-Salamah, 1st ed. (Riyadh: Dar Tiba, 1997), 7:478. [^55]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Marwazī, *Mukhtasar qiyām al-layl* (Riyadh: Hadith Academy, 1988), 176. [^56]: This is the most famous opinion out of three on the definition of Meccan and Medinan Qur’an. [^57]: Qur’an 55:78. [^58]: Qur’an 27:10. [^59]: Qur’an 20:67. [^60]: Qur’an 26:62. [^61]: Ibn Kathir, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān*, 1:427. [^62]: Qur’an 98:1–3. [^63]: Sunni scholars unanimously agree that the prophets are infallible in terms of disbelieving in God, committing major sins, and committing minor sins that discredit the message. As for lesser sins, some scholars held the possibility of prophets committing them, as part of their being human, and that they are forgiven for them. Other scholars held that they were not sins, but called such though they were automatically forgivable due to forgetfulness and the like—also a reflection of their human nature. [^64]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyaʾ*, 1st ed. (Lebanon: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1988), 4:197. [^65]: Qur’an 20:43–44. [^66]: Al-Baghawī, *Maʿālim al-tanzīl*, 5:275. [^67]: Qur’an 1:4. [^68]: Qur’an 59:21 and 2:74. [^69]: Qur’an 16:98. [^70]: Al-Ghazāli, *Iḥyāʾ*, 2:280. [^71]: Qur’an 53:59–61. [^72]: Qur’an 19:58. [^73]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Tibyān*, 86–88; Al-Ghazāli, *Iḥyāʾ*, 2:279. [^74]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 15:566–67. [^75]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 242. [^76]: Qur’an 20:114. [^77]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 8549. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. The Qur'an is described as "the rope of Allah," such that whoever holds fast to it will be saved and whoever loosens his grip will be ruined; it is likewise "the spirit He revealed" and "the light," without which a servant remains ignorant of his Creator, unable to distinguish truth from falsehood or to perceive the vast difference between this world and the Hereafter. Just as Allah created our bodies from the earth and made their sustenance come from the earth, He created our spirits from a higher realm and made their nourishment descend from that same lofty world, sending down the Qur'an to quench them lest they wither. Yet all of this remains contingent upon deep and regular reflection—*tadabbur*—upon its meanings. Allah, the Most High, said, "This is a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that they might deeply reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded," and the causative *lām* here discloses a primary wisdom behind the revelation. While mere recitation is among the most virtuous acts of worship, the transformative power of Allah's words lies at the meeting point of our intellectual and spiritual engagement with them. Allah warned, "Do they not then deeply ponder over the Qur'an, or are there locks upon their hearts?" The gravity of neglecting this reflection is severe. The Prophet ﷺ informed us that among the first three to be judged on the Day of Resurrection will be an expert reciter, who will claim he recited the Qur'an for Allah's sake, only to be told, "You have lied, for you recited the Qur'an only so that it would be said you are a reciter," and he will be dragged upon his face into the Fire. Thus *tadabbur* distinguishes those who merely tokenize the Qur'an from those who remain at the door of His words, knocking in longing. Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī said, "The sign of loving Allah is loving the Qur'an; the sign of loving the Qur'an is loving the Prophet ﷺ and the Sunnah; the sign of loving the Sunnah is loving the Hereafter... and the sign of being averse to the worldly life is only consuming from it one's needs." Many scholars hold that, after fulfilling obligations, no ritual devotion surpasses reciting the Qur'an—superior even to *duʿāʾ* and *dhikr*—though this does not apply where a superseding obligation such as *ṣalāh* is present. People differ in their sincerity before the revelation: some flee "as if they were frightened donkeys fleeing from a lion," others carry it for status "like a donkey that carries a load of books," and only a third group, thirsty for guidance, is truly quenched. Allah said, "And We send down of the Qur'an that which is healing and a mercy for the believers, but it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss." Qatādah observed that "nobody rises from a sit-down with the Qur'an without having been elevated or demoted." Ibn al-Qayyim explained the verse, "Indeed in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present [minded]," as identifying the three conditions of any impact: the intrinsic potency of the Qur'anic message, a living and receptive heart, and the removal of hindrances such as distraction and sin. When ʿĀʾishah was asked of the Prophet's character, she said, "His character was the Qur'an," showing that the Book was embodied in his conduct and emotions, not confined to his tongue. The path to *tadabbur* begins with spiritual detoxification. From the verse "none touch it except the purified," while the majority of jurists derive the ruling of ritual purity before touching the *muṣḥaf*, al-Farrāʾ suggested a further layer: that the sweetness of the Qur'an reaches only hearts purified of faithlessness. Ibn Taymiyyah, as reported by Ibn al-Qayyim, asked how the love of Allah could enter "a heart that is filled with the dogs of desires and images of worldly pursuits." Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said that Allah's turning the arrogant away from His signs includes "removing from them the ability to understand the Qur'an," and Ibn Qudāmah likened the heart to a mirror, desires to corrosion, and Qur'anic meanings to images reflected only once the mirror is polished. Hence sincere repentance and humble supplication are required, as in the Prophet's taught prayer, "O Allah, make the Qur'an the spring of my heart, the illumination of my chest, the assuaging of my grief, and the departure of my anxiety." A serious approach to the sacred follows. Allah commanded past nations to "take hold of the Scripture with strength," and ordered His Prophet to strive against the disbelievers with the Qur'an "a great striving." This entails shielding one's sessions from avoidable distraction; al-Suyūṭī, citing al-Ḥalīmī, noted the dislike of interrupting recitation to speak, "because the words of Allah should not be overcome by the words of others," and al-Bayhaqī reported that Ibn ʿUmar would not speak until he finished reciting. Night prayer holds special virtue here, for "the night hours are more conducive to worship," and repeating a few verses may yield more *tadabbur* than reciting many once. Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī said, "Those who were before you saw the Qur'an as messages from their Lord, so they used to reflect on them at night and follow them during the day." Scholars permitted holding the *muṣḥaf*, and contemporary scholars extended this to glancing at a translation. Among the etiquettes reported from the predecessors are sitting humbly, facing the *qiblah*, and refreshing the mouth; ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said, "Your mouths are the passageways of the Qur'an, so refresh them with the *siwāk*." One should also acquaint oneself with the meanings, for Allah censured "unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except wishful thinking." Al-Ṭabarī marveled "at how someone who does not know the *tafsīr* could enjoy the Qur'an." Yet familiarity with meanings does not qualify a layperson for independent *tafsīr* or *fiqh*, just as it does not excuse him from *tadabbur*; Ibn Hubayrah warned that among Satan's schemes is chasing servants from reflection by whispering that it is "risky." As for recitation itself, *tartīl*, *taghannī*, and *tajwīd* are basic obligations; the Prophet ﷺ said, "The person who grapples with the Qur'an, and finds it difficult, is entitled to a double reward." Ibn al-Jazarī held that the position of the vast majority is that "reciting less but with *tartīl* and *tadabbur* is superior," and al-Ghazālī counseled the non-Arabic speaker to recite calmly, for that "has a greater impact on the heart." The Prophet ﷺ said, "The person who does not recite the Qur'an melodiously is not of us," though scholars cautioned against being so captivated by beautiful voices that one is diverted from reflection. Finally, the right mindset is cultivated: realizing the immense bounty that Allah permitted a frail creature to utter His inimitable words—Ibn ʿAbbās said none could speak them had He not facilitated them; probing behind each word, since *tadabbur* derives from *dubur*, "the back" of a thing, and its treasures are reserved for the devoted, for the Book is *ʿazīz*, refusing its secrets to those who give it their leftovers; viewing each *sūrah* from a bird's-eye view, noting whether it is Meccan or Medinan and its unifying themes, as *Sūrat al-Kahf* immunizes against four trials and against the Dajjāl; drawing parallels between ourselves and the prophets, as when Wuhayb ibn al-Ward wept that Ibrāhīm still begged acceptance; and reflecting on one's personal needs with introspection rather than for display, since the early Muslims tested whether a servant favored *riʿāyah* (implementation) over *riwāyah* (mere narration). We must interact with the Qur'an, seeking refuge before reciting, pausing to prostrate, weeping or assuming a weeping demeanor as ʿUmar reproached himself, and supplicating as the Prophet ﷺ did through the night, and as Ibn Masʿūd, upon reciting "My Lord, increase me in knowledge," at once prayed, "O Allah, increase me in knowledge, faith, and conviction." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ebook-a-dua-a-day-prophetic-prayers-for-ramadan # eBook | A Du’a a Day: Prophetic Prayers for Ramadan **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Published:** April 19, 2021 **Updated:** July 25, 2024 One of the greatest acts of devotion that we can perform in the blessed month of Ramadan, and at any other time for that matter, is supplication (du’a). The Prophet ﷺ said, “Supplication is (the essence) of worship.” In this book you will find twenty-nine supplications from the Quran and Sunnah that revolve around four themes pertinent to the month of Ramadan: guidance, good habits, prayers for others, and supplications specific to the last ten nights. We recommend following the booklet in order, devoting each day to reading one du’a, its translation, context, overview, and notable benefits. We also recommend memorizing these supplications and adding them to your daily acts of worship. --- ## What’s in the book - 29 du’as - Meaning behind the du’as [Download here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/a-dua-a-day-prophetic-prayers-for-ramadan) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ebook-quran-30for30-the-companion-reader # eBook | Qur’an 30for30: The Companion Reader **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Published:** April 19, 2021 **Updated:** April 21, 2021 The Qur’an is brimming with lessons, stories, guidelines, and rulings for the believer. Every *surah* carefully placed, every section organized perfectly. So how are these Qur’anic chapters related to each other? What can we glean from the stories told within them? Explore key lessons from each *juz’* and learn about the significance of the Qur’an’s divine arrangement with this Qur’an 30for30 series companion book! Tip: To enhance your Qur’an 30for30 Season 2 viewing experience, read the eBook chapter corresponding with each day’s *juz’* before watching the episode! --- ## What’s in the book - Brief summaries from Season 1 of Qur’an 30for30 - Key themes and lessons from each *juz’* - Additional context from books of *tafsir* and author commentary [Download here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/quran-30for30-the-companion-reader) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-dua-a-day-prophetic-prayers-for-ramadan # A Du'a a Day: Prophetic Prayers for Ramadan **Authors:** Dr. Tahir Wyatt, Yousaf Jahangir, Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Daily Reads, Ramadan **Published:** April 12, 2021 **Updated:** September 28, 2026 بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيم In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Beneficent Download the digital version [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/books/a-dua-a-day-prophetic-prayers-for-ramadan). --- ## Table of Contents: ### Introduction ### Section 1: Prayers for guidance and forgiveness *Introductory paragrap*h - (1.1) Prayer for guidance and integrity - (1.2) Prayer for ease in following guidance  - (1.3) Prayer for *taqwá* and purification of the soul - (1.4) Best prayer for seeking forgiveness (*sayyid al-istighfār*) - (1.5) Prayer in *sujūd* for forgiveness of all sins  - (1.6) Seeking forgiveness to start and conclude the prayer  - (1.7) Prayer for steadfastness upon Islam  - (1.8) Prayer for steadfastness and determination - (1.9) Prayer for comprehensive light ### Section 2: Building good habits *Introductory paragraph* - (2.10) The most frequent prayer of the Prophet ﷺ - (2.11) Prayer at the beginning of your daily *ṣalāh* - (2.12) Prayer at the end of every *ṣalāh* - (2.13) Always seek refuge from these three - (2.14) Seek refuge from these four ### Section 3: Praying for others *Introductory paragraph* - (3.15) Prayers for the Prophet ﷺ and his family - (3.16) Prayer for our parents - (3.17) Prayer to make our spouses and children the delight of our eyes - (3.18) Prayer for Allah’s righteous servants - (3.19) Prayer for showing appreciation - (3.20) Prayer for those who have preceded us in faith ### Section 4: The last ten nights *Introductory paragraph* - (4.21) Prayer for *laylat al-qadr* - (4.22) Prayer for the beginning of *qiyām al-layl* - (4.23) Prayers made in *qiyām*  - (4.24) A comprehensive prayer - (4.25) A comprehensive prayer (Continued) - (4.26) Longing to meet Allah - (4.27) Prayer for a good ending - (4.28) Prayer for the correction of one’s affairs - (4.29) A comprehensive prayer to conclude the month --- ## Introduction All Praise is for Allah, Lord of the Universe, the Only One worthy of worship. Peace and blessings be upon the final messenger Muhammad ﷺ and all those who follow his way with righteousness until the end of time. He taught us how to worship our Lord and his teachings are sufficient for us, exemplifying the best manner of calling on Allah. One of the greatest acts of devotion that we can perform in the blessed month of Ramadan, and at any other time of the year for that matter, is supplication (*duʿāʾ*). The Prophet ﷺ said, “Supplication is (the essence) of worship.”[^1] Every act of worship carries an explicit *duʿāʾ* (such as prayer) or an implicit *duʿāʾ* by which we ask Allah to accept whatever good deed we are doing. The best supplications are taken verbatim from the Qur’an and Sunnah. Some of them are more powerful and concise than others, while some are more appropriate to a specific context. The Prophet ﷺ once passed by his wife Juwayrīyah who had been supplicating in her place from the time of *fajr* until after sunrise. He ﷺ said to her, “I said four statements after I left you, three times each. If these words were weighed against whatever you have said since this morning, it would surely outweigh them: Glory be to Allah and His praise by the number of His creation, by His pleasure, by the weight of His Throne, and by the vastness of His words.”[^2] We should strive to memorize prophetic supplications and utilize them often. If we are unable to do so, then understanding them and utilizing their translations can suffice. Prophetic words have a special impact on the heart, particularly because of the rich meaning of the original Arabic and the wisdom of the All-Wise Who revealed them to him. We must also strive to cleanse our hearts of arrogance, lowly desires, and other such spiritual flaws in order to maximize the positive impact *duʿāʾ* can have upon us. *Duʿāʾ* itself is a means of purification of the soul. While it is permissible to supplicate in our own wordings in any language, it is also possible to transgress in supplication. This can happen if we do not follow the proper etiquette or conform to the Qur’an and Sunnah. ʿAbdullāh ibn Mughaffal (ra) heard his son supplicating, “O Allah, I ask You for the white palace on the right side of paradise when I enter it.” ʿAbdullāh said, “O my son, ask Allah for paradise and seek refuge in Him from the hellfire, for I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say: There will come some people who will transgress in ritual purification and in *duʿāʾ*.”[^3] In this instance, going into such detail and asking for very specific things is frowned upon. ʿĀʾishah said, “Allah’s Messenger ﷺ used to like comprehensive *duʿāʾ* and would leave off other kinds.”[^4] This is why it is so important to adhere to the etiquette of *duʿāʾ*. --- ## How to use the book In total there are twenty-nine supplications in this small booklet. They revolve around four themes pertinent to the month of Ramadan: guidance, good habits, prayers for others, and supplications specific to the last ten nights. However, our goal is not simply that you *memorize* the *duʿāʾ*. We want you to *understand* the *duʿāʾ*. This is why we have added a brief overview of each *duʿāʾ* to help you better understand its meaning. We recommend following the booklet in order, devoting each day to reading one *duʿāʾ*, its translation, context, overview, and notable benefits. We also recommend memorizing these supplications and adding them to your daily acts of worship. If you dedicate just a few minutes daily, you will complete this booklet by the end of Ramadan *inshāʾAllāh*. --- ## I. Prayers for guidance and forgiveness All of us are in perpetual need of Allah’s guidance. This is why Allah prescribed for us to recite Sūrat al-Fātiḥah in each unit of the five daily prayers, containing the *duʿāʾ*, “Guide us to the straight path.”[^5] Without guidance from Allah, we could not worship or serve Him properly. Life would be very confusing and its purpose would be unclear. We are always in need of guidance: we need Allah to show us the right path, we need Him to help us walk that path, and we need Him to maintain that guidance for us until we reach our destination. **(1.1) Prayer for guidance and integrity** اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنِي وَسَدِّدْنِي *Allāhumma ihdinī wa-saddidnī*    O Allah, guide me and keep me upright. Muslim **Context**: This is a *duʿāʾ* that the Prophet ﷺ taught his younger cousin and great companion, ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him). Imam Muslim narrates that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said to ʿAlī: Say, “O Allah, guide me and keep me upright. When you mention guidance, visualize the straight path, and when you consider *sadād*, think of aiming an arrow straight at its target.”[^6] **Overview**: This is a truly wonderful *duʿāʾ* that is brief yet comprehensive. When we ask Allah for guidance we are really asking for knowledge of the truth and the ability to adhere to it. Guidance is essential for success in this life and the next. It is through this guidance that we set goals that are pleasing to Allah and follow a path that leads to Paradise. However, in order to achieve these goals, we need to remain upright on the straight path and not deviate from it. This is the meaning of *sadād*. Imām Al-Nawawī mentioned that the *sadād* of the arrow is aiming it straight. So when we ask Allah for *sadād* we are asking Him to grant us success by making us upright and straight in all of our affairs.[^7] This is the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan. Beginnings tend to be met with fervor and excitement. If we have fasted before, we may rely on our past experience and not realize how much we need Allah’s guidance. We may think that it is simply our willpower that will get us through the day of fasting. However, it will not happen without Allah’s guidance. The Prophet ﷺ himself said, “O Allah, had You not guided us, we would not have given charity or performed prayer.”[^8] Furthermore, embarking on the path is no guarantee that we will stay on the path or complete the task. The Prophet ﷺ was reminding ʿAlī of this when he said to him “think of aiming an arrow straight at its target.” A minor defect in the arrow, a gust of wind, or any other unexpected occurrence can cause an arrow to miss its target. A person might be in the right place at the right time (i.e., they have been *guided* to the right path), but it does not guarantee that the target will be hit (this is *sadād*). This is why we must ask Allah for both guidance and *sadād*. **Notable Benefits**: 1. ‘Alī was one of the greatest companions. He was one of the first to accept Islam. He was from the family of the Prophet ﷺ and married the Prophet’s ﷺ daughter. He was even one of the rightly-guided Caliphs (*al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidūn*). Despite this elevated status, the Prophet ﷺ taught him to ask Allah for guidance. This shows us how important it is for every believer to ask Allah for guidance, regardless of their status. 2. The Prophet ﷺ not only taught ʿAlī what to *say*, he taught him what to *think about* when he is asking Allah! This helps to ensure that one’s heart will be focused when invoking Allah and not preoccupied with something else. 3. Guidance is what we ask from Allah in every single *rakʿah* of every *ṣalāh*, “Guide us on the straight path.” Allah not only shows us the straight path, but He assists us in staying firm upon it until we reach our destination of paradise by His grace and mercy. *Asking for guidance is an essential part of our religion, but following that guidance is not always easy. Implementing what we know to be true often involves overcoming bad habits or controlling our base desires. Therefore, we should also ask Allah to make following the guidance easy for us.* --- ## (1.2) Prayer for the ease of following guidance  **رَبِّ اهْدِنِي وَيَسِّرِ الْهُدَى لِي** Rabbi ihdinī wa-yassir al-hudá lī “My Lord, guide me and make guidance easy for me.” al-Tirmidhī, Abū Dāwūd, and Ibn Mājah **Context**: This *duʿāʾ* is part of a longer yet powerful supplication, which is narrated to us by ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, a younger cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and one of the most notable youth around the Messenger ﷺ. He would later become an illustrious scholar of Islam. The full supplication is as follows: My Lord, help me and do not give help against me; grant me victory and do not grant victory over me; plan on my behalf and do not plan against me; guide me and make right guidance easy for me; and grant me victory over those who act wrongfully towards me. My Lord, make me grateful to You, mindful of You, full of fear of You, devoted to Your obedience, humble before You, earnest in supplication, and penitent. My Lord, accept my repentance, wash away my sin, answer my supplication, clearly establish my evidence, make true my tongue, guide my heart, and remove any malice from my breast.[^9] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ*, we learn the invaluable importance of Allah’s divine guidance. We learn this from the fact that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is the best of humankind and the most guided. The whole purpose of his prophethood was to explain Allah’s guidance to humanity, yet some of his most frequent supplications were to ask for Allah’s guidance. This demonstrates to us the utter necessity of Allah’s guidance in every aspect of our lives and how we must never take it for granted. “Make guidance easy for me” is a request that Allah make the means of doing good easily accessible to us, such that obedience to Him will not be abnormally difficult or burdensome. We are asking Allah to give us a positive attitude, the right environment, good companions, and everything else that makes the path of guidance easier for us to follow. **Notable Benefits**: 1. All believers are in need of divine guidance, even the prophets. 2. Acting upon Allah’s guidance requires sacrifice, struggle, courage, and commitment. Hence we ask Allah to make it easy for us. *One of the primary goals of guidance is the purification of our souls. When asking Allah for guidance, we must also ask him to purify our souls and grant us* taqwá*, which is the ultimate goal of fasting this blessed month of Ramadan.* **(1.3) Prayer for *taqwá* and purification of the soul**   اللَّهُمَّ آتِ نَفْسِي تَقْوَاهَا وَزَكِّهَا أَنْتَ خَيْرُ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا أَنْتَ وَلِيُّهَا وَمَوْلاَهَا Allāhumma āti nafsī taqwāhā wa-zakkihā anta khayru man zakkāhā anta walīyuhā wa-mawlāhā O Allah, give my soul (*nafs*) its God-fearing righteousness (*taqwá*) and purify it, for You are the best to purify it. You are its Protector and its Guardian. Muslim **Context**:  This *duʿāʾ* is part of a longer supplication as follows: O Allah, I seek refuge in You from disability, laziness, cowardice, miserliness, senility, and the punishment of the grave. O Allah, grant my soul a sense of righteousness and purify it, for You are the best to purify it. You are its Protector and its Guardian. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from knowledge that does not benefit, from a heart that is not reverent, from a soul that is not content, and from a supplication that is not answered.[^10] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ*, we learn about the importance of the heart, mind, and soul. We also learn about the importance of cleansing them of spiritual flaws (e.g., laziness) and tangible ailments (e.g., senility), as well as nurturing them upon faith and devotion to Allah. This can only be achieved with the help of Allah. Allah alone is the Creator of the human soul and ultimately He is the only One who can purify us. Hence our need to supplicate to Him. As we enter into this blessed month, we are reminded that the goal is not to simply deprive ourselves of our natural appetites. The ultimate goal of this exercise of restraint is to attain *taqwá*, which literally means to shield oneself from something undesirable and to be on guard. The purpose of a shield is to protect, so *taqwá* protects a person from the displeasure of Allah. Out of the fear of His displeasure, one avoids sins and seeks to perform good to save themselves from His punishment. This is why Allah refers to *taqwá* as ‘the best provision.’[^11] **Notable Benefits**: 1. Supplications such as these have powerful purifying effects upon the soul when said with conviction, persistence, and proper etiquette. In fact, no one can succeed in the hereafter unless they come to Allah with a “pure heart.”[^12] We need to attain a pure heart in this life, lest we suffer dire consequences on the Day of Resurrection. 2. This *duʿāʾ* is particularly relevant to Ramadan because the purpose of fasting is to achieve *taqwá*, which is what we are asking Allah for in this supplication. Without Allah’s aid, our fasting will not have the desired effect. *The primary method of purifying our souls and cleansing our hearts is to seek forgiveness for our shortcomings and sins. Therefore,* istighfār *should also be a part of our daily supplications.* **(1.4) Best prayer for seeking forgiveness (*sayyid al-istighfār*)** اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ رَبِّي لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ خَلَقْتَنِي وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ وَأَنَا عَلَى عَهْدِكَ وَوَعْدِكَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا صَنَعْتُ أَبُوءُ لَكَ بِنِعْمَتِكَ عَلَىَّ وَأَبُوءُ لَكَ بِذَنْبِي فَاغْفِرْ لِي فَإِنَّهُ لاَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ  Allāhumma anta rabbī lā ilāha illā anta khalaqtanī wa-anā ʿabduka wa-anā ʿalá ʿahdika wa-waʿdika mā’istaṭaʿtu aʿūdhu bika min sharri mā ṣanaʿtu abūʾu laka bi-niʿmatika ʿalayya wa-abūʾu laka bidhanbī fa’ighfir lī fa-innahu lā yaghfir al-dhunūba illā ant “O Allah, You are my Lord, there is no God but You. You created me and I am Your servant, and I abide by Your covenant and promise (to honor it) as best as I can. I seek refuge in You from the evil that I have committed. I acknowledge Your favor upon me, and I acknowledge my sin, so forgive me, for surely none can forgive sins but You.” al-Bukhārī **Context**: The Prophet ﷺ told us that this is the greatest way to ask forgiveness from Allah (*sayyid al-istighfār*). After teaching us the wording of this *duʿāʾ*, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever says this in the day with conviction and dies before evening, he will be among the people of Paradise. Whoever says this in the night with conviction and dies before morning, he will be among the people of Paradise.”[^13] This promise, of course, is predicated on meeting the conditions and etiquette of *duʿāʾ*. **Overview**: Among the reasons this *duʿāʾ* is so important is because of the themes and topics it contains. These themes include the Oneness of Allah, His Lordship over us, and the purpose of life. Allah created us and our purpose of existence is to surrender to His servitude. We must dedicate our lives to fulfill His covenant and promise to do the best we can. In addition, we recognize Allah’s many favors upon us and acknowledge our sins, shortcomings, and mistakes, confessing to Allah that we need His forgiveness. ‘Forgiveness’ (*maghfirah*) from Allah refers to Him concealing our sins and protecting us from their evil consequences. **Notable Benefits**: 1. This *duʿāʾ* is the best way to ask for Allah’s forgiveness. 2. Allah promises to forgive us if we sincerely repent to Him, as in the verse, “Whoever commits evil or wrongs himself, but then seeks forgiveness from Allah, will find Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”[^14] 3. Seeking forgiveness from Allah protects us from punishment, as He said, “Allah would not punish them while they seek His forgiveness.”[^15] Ibn ʿAbbās explained, “In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there were two divine protections against misfortune: the presence of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ and seeking forgiveness. The first has been taken away, but seeking forgiveness remains.”[^16] *Just as the Prophet ﷺ taught us to seek Allah’s forgiveness in the morning and the evening, he would often seek Allah’s forgiveness while in prayer. We should remember our major and minor sins and seek forgiveness for them, especially in prostration (*sujūd)*.* **(1.5) Prayer in *sujūd* for forgiveness of all sins**  اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لي ذَنْبِي كُلَّهُ دِقَّهُ وجِلَّهُ وأَوَّلَهُ وآخِرَهُ وعَلانِيَتَهُ وسِرَّهُ Allāhumma ighfir lī dhanbī kullahu diqqahu wa-jillahu wa-awwalahu wa-ākhirahu wa-ʿalāniyatahu wa-sirrahu O Allah, forgive all of my sins: the small and great, the first and the last, the public and the private. Muslim **Context**: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would say this *duʿāʾ* when he was in prostration (*sujūd*) in prayer.[^17] **Overview**: We learn from this *duʿāʾ* that we must take care of our faith by doing righteous deeds to offset our sins, shortcomings, and mistakes. We first ask Allah to forgive all of our sins, then we mention those sins in detail. This helps us to remember our wrongdoings, which makes us more submissive and humble in our request for forgiveness. The Prophet ﷺ would seek forgiveness for even the smallest of mistakes, which we would not consider a big deal! His Lord, indeed, held him to the highest standards as our greatest example. **Notable Benefits:** 1. One of the best times to supplicate is in the prostration part of the prayer, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “The servant is closest to his Lord during prostration, so increase your supplications therein.”[^18] 2. We learn not to belittle the seeming insignificance of our minor sins, but rather consider the Greatness of the One we have sinned against. Bilāl ibn Saʿīd used to say, “Look not at the smallness of the sin, but rather at the One Whom you have disobeyed.”[^19] 3. Not only must we be concerned about discontinuing habits involving minor sins, we should also not lose hope in being forgiven for our major sins if we sincerely fulfill all of the conditions of repentance. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “No sin is too enormous if forgiveness is sought, and no sin is too small if committed stubbornly.”[^20] *The Prophet ﷺ would frequently make this* duʿāʾ *while prostrating in prayer. He ﷺ  would also seek forgiveness at the beginning and end of prayer.* **(1.6) Seeking forgiveness to start and conclude the prayer** اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي مَا قَدَّمْتُ وَمَا أَخَّرْتُ وَمَا أَسْرَرْتُ وَمَا أَعْلَنْتُ أَنْتَ الْمُقَدِّمُ وَأَنْتَ الْمُؤَخِّرُ وَأَنْتَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ Allāhumma ighfir lī mā qaddamtu wa-mā akhkhartu wa-mā asrartu wa-mā aʿlantu anta al-muqaddimu wa-anta al-muʾakhkhiru wa-anta ʿalá kulli shayʾin qadīr “O Allah, forgive me for my past and future sins, what I have done secretly and what I have done openly. You are the One who brings forward (*al-Muqaddim*), and the One who delays (*al-Muʾakhkhir*), and You have power over all things.” al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ would say the following *duʿāʾ*: O Allah, forgive me my faults, my ignorance, my excess in all my affairs, and what You know better than me of these things. O Allah, forgive me for what is serious and trivial, mistaken and deliberate, for I am guilty of all of that. O Allah, forgive me for my past and future sins, what I have done secretly and what I have done openly. You are the One who brings forward (*al-Muqaddim*), and the One who delays (*al-Muʾakhkhir*), and You have power over all things.[^21] Abū Mūsá did not specify when the Prophet ﷺ would say this supplication. However, ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would say these words at the beginning of the night prayer, as well as at the end of prayer before pronouncing the final invocation of peace (*taslīm*).[^22] **Overview**: This *duʿāʾ* is similar to the previous one. It is part of human nature to fall into sins, but there is a method for the believer to escape the trap. We turn back to Allah and acknowledge our sins, shortcomings, and mistakes. We turn *away* from the sin and *to* Allah, begging for His forgiveness, for sins detract from Allah's pleasure with us and the blessings He has bestowed upon us. **Notable Benefits**: 1. This *duʿāʾ* has been narrated by a number of companions. Based on the combination of their reports, this *duʿāʾ* is best said to start the night prayer and can also be said before the final *taslīm* of daily prayers. 2. In line with this *duʿāʾ*, we should say “I seek forgiveness from Allah” (*astaghfirullāh*) three times after the prayer. Scholars have explained that the wisdom in this practice is that it reminds us that our worship of Allah is actually a favor He has bestowed upon us. Therefore, upon completion of any good deed, no matter how perfectly we think we have done it, we are always in need of Allah’s forgiveness for any shortcomings within it. *We have been asking Allah for His guidance and forgiveness. As we come to the conclusion of our first week of fasting and increasing in* duʿāʾ*, we should feel closer to Allah. It is important that we ask Allah to keep us steadfast upon guidance.* **(1.7) Prayer for steadfastness upon Islam** يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ *Yā muqallib al-qulūb thabbit qalbī ʿalá dīnik*  O Turner of hearts, set firm my heart upon Your religion. al-Tirmidhī **Context**: Umm Salamah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, was asked, “O Mother of the Believers, what was the supplication that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said most frequently when he was with you?” She said, “The supplication he said most frequently was: ‘O Turner of hearts, set my heart firm upon Your religion.’ So I said: O Messenger of Allah, why do you supplicate so frequently with, ‘O Turner of hearts, set my heart firm upon Your religion.’ He said, ‘O Umm Salamah! Verily, there is no human being but that his heart is between two fingers of the fingers of Allah, so whomever He wills He makes steadfast, and whomever He wills He causes to deviate.’”[^23] In another instance, Anas ibn Mālik reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say often, “O Turner of hearts, set my heart firm upon your religion.” So I said: O Messenger of Allah, we have faith in you and believe in everything you have been sent with, so are you afraid for us? He said, “Yes. Verily, the hearts are between two fingers from the fingers of Allah. He turns them however He wills.”[^24] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ*, we learn the importance of a sound believing heart and the great emphasis the Prophet ﷺ placed upon it, as it was among his most frequent supplications to ask Allah to guide his heart and establish it firmly upon the religion of Islam. **Notable Benefits:** 1. The heart is literally the center of our being and must be safeguarded from evil influences. If we allow the whisperings of Satan or the whims of the ego to overcome it, it could very well ruin our entire being. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, in the body is a piece of flesh which, if sound, the entire body is sound, but if corrupt, the entire body is corrupt. Truly, it is the heart.”[^25] 2. It is the nature of the heart to often change from state to state. In this regard, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The parable of the heart is that of a feather blown about by the wind of the desert.”[^26] The heart changes according to many different factors, including what we expose ourselves to, our inward and outward actions, and our emotional states. This *duʿāʾ* teaches us to stay focused and prioritize protecting our hearts by regularly asking Allah to keep them attached to Islam and to act accordingly. 3. We are not entitled to guidance, nor can we guarantee that we will remain guided or die as believers. Thus, we must continually ask Allah for guidance and to keep our hearts firm upon Islam. *When asking Allah for steadfastness, we can get more specific and ask for steadfastness in practicing the religion and following the guidance, as the next supplication demonstrates.* **(1.8) Prayer for steadfastness and determination** اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الثَّبَاتَ فِي الْأَمْرِ وَالْعَزِيمَةَ عَلَى الرُّشْدِ *Allāhumma innī asʾaluka al-thabāta fī-al-amri wa-al-ʿazīmata ʿalá al-rushd*     “O Allah, I ask You for steadfastness in the matter (of religion) and I ask You for determination upon guidance.” al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī **Context**: This *duʿāʾ* is part of a longer supplication which the companion Shaddād ibn Aws said that the Prophet ﷺ used to say in his *ṣalāh* and taught the companions to say as well. Shaddād would also teach this *duʿāʾ* to others: O Allah, I ask You for steadfastness in the matter (of religion) and I ask You for determination upon guidance, and I ask You to make me grateful for Your favor, and for excellence in worshipping You, and I ask You for a truthful tongue and a sound heart, and I seek refuge in You from the evil of what You know, and I ask You for the good of what You know, and I seek Your forgiveness for that which You know. Verily, You are the Knower of all that is hidden.[^27] **Overview**: This *duʿāʾ* is very similar to the first two supplications in this collection. They all touch upon similar themes such as the importance of Allah’s guidance, as well as understanding that guidance requires proper intention, determination, and sacrifice. As Muslims, we understand the light of faith is Allah’s greatest gift to us and we must never take it for granted. Rather, we always thank Allah for it and ask Him to increase our guidance and give us the discipline and courage to act in accordance with it. **Notable Benefits**: 1. The companions were enthusiastic to share the teachings of Islam with subsequent generations, which includes us! Shaddād ibn Aws taught this great supplication to a follower (*tābiʿī*, a student of a companion) from the tribe of Ḥanẓalah. 2. Nothing the Prophet ﷺ taught us is too insignificant to share, as he said, “Convey from me, even a single verse (*āyah*).”[^28] *All of these things that we ask Allah for related to guidance are part of the light of Allah in our lives. One of the best supplications we can make is to ask for light to illuminate every aspect of our lives.* **(1.9) Prayer for comprehensive light** اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ فِي قَلْبِي نُورًا وَفِي بَصَرِي نُورًا وَفِي سَمْعِي نُورًا وَعَنْ يَمِينِي نُورًا وَعَنْ يَسَارِي نُورًا وَفَوْقِي نُورًا وَتَحْتِي نُورًا وَأَمَامِي نُورًا وَخَلْفِي نُورًا وَاجْعَلْ لِي نُورًا Allāhumma ijʿal fī qalbī nūran wa-fī baṣarī nūran wa-fī samʿī nūran wa-ʿan yamīnī nūran wa-ʿan yasārī nūran wa-fawqī nūran wa-taḥtī nūran wa-amāmī nūran wa-khalfī nūran wa-ijʿal lī nūran O Allah, place light in my heart, and light in my seeing and light in my hearing, and light on my right and light on my left, and light above me and light below me, and light in front of me and light behind me. \[O Allah\], grant me light!   al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: Ibn ʿAbbās reported: I spent the night in the house of my mother's sister, Maymūna. The Prophet ﷺ got up and relieved himself, washed his face and hands, and then went to sleep. He again got up and went to a water-skin, opened the top, and performed *wuḍūʾ*. He did not use much water, yet he washed thoroughly and then stood up to pray… He prayed thirteen *rakʿah*s in all and then slept till he began to breathe heavily, which he used to do when he slept. Bilal then came and informed the Prophet ﷺ of the time for (*fajr*) prayer. The Prophet ﷺ stood for prayer, and his supplication included these words: “O Allah, place light in my heart, light in my hearing, light in my sight, light on my right, light on my left, light in front of me, light behind me, light above me, light below me, make light for me.”[^29] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ*, we learn a very important practice: this supplication is one of the ways to prepare ourselves for visiting the most beloved place to Allah, the *masjid*, the building whose purpose of existence is to facilitate the worship of Allah. We also learn how to prepare ourselves for the prayer, among which is to make the right supplications to put our minds in the right place before the prayer even begins. We are also acknowledging many of Allah’s blessings upon us, like the faculties of sight and hearing, and asking Allah to illuminate them, that we use them to do what is pleasing to Him and beneficial for ourselves. **Notable Benefits**: 1. Light is a frequent metaphor in the Qur’an and Sunnah. It could represent guidance, knowledge, life, religion, faith, divine revelation, the prophets, the Qur’an, or sound reasoning. Each of these manifestations of light build upon each other and reinforce each other, as in the famous Qur’anic parable, “Light upon light.”[^30] This *duʿāʾ* is a request for Allah to compound all of the light He has given us. 2. This *duʿāʾ* is one of the best supplications to say while walking to the *masjid*. 3. The companions like Ibn ʿAbbās were eager to watch the Prophet’s ﷺ every action, practice, and habit. All of our knowledge of the Sunnah is due to their keen observance of his behavior. 4. The Prophet ﷺ was likewise eager to educate even his youngest companions. Ibn ʿAbbās was an adolescent at the time, yet he would become one of the most prolific and authoritative Muslim scholars of his generation. *The supplications mentioned above all relate to guidance and steadfastness upon that guidance. A primary aspect of guidance is building good habits. Supplications related to this will be covered in the next chapter.* --- ## II. Building good habits ʿĀʾishah (ra) narrated that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “The most beloved deeds to Allah are those done most regularly and consistently, even if they are few.”[^31] One of the signs of an accepted Ramadan is an increase in piety. This manifests in noticeable changes to our lives such as new good habits. The development of good habits is part of our spiritual growth. There are many recommended supplications in which we ask Allah to give us the strength and guidance to build good habits. In this section, we will discuss some of these supplications and the good habits we can learn from them. All of the *duʿāʾ*s mentioned in this section are supplications that the Prophet ﷺ would make frequently, often in his *ṣalāh*. **(2.10) The most frequent prayer of the Prophet ﷺ** اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ Allāhumma rabbanā ātinā fī al-dunyā ḥasanatan wa-fī al-ākhirati ḥasanatan wa-qinā ʿadhāb al-nār O Allah, our Lord! Give to us in the world that which is good and in the hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the Fire. al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**:  Anas ibn Mālik, the servant of the Prophet ﷺ, noted that this *duʿāʾ* was the most frequent supplication of the Prophet ﷺ.[^32] **Overview**: This is a comprehensive *duʿāʾ*. A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “I don’t know how to hum like you and Muʿādh, but I ask Allah for paradise and I ask him to save me from the fire.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “It is about this that we are humming.”[^33] (When a person is constantly mentioning Allah and calling upon him, you might hear a humming sound.) The sum total of everything that you are asking Allah for—provisions, a good spouse, guidance, light, righteous offspring, etc.—is either from the good of this life or the next, or you’re seeking protection from the fire and those things that lead to it. **Notable Benefits**: 1\. Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah al-Sadūsī, one of Anas’s students, asked him about the most frequent *duʿāʾ* the Prophet ﷺ made. He replied by mentioning the above *duʿāʾ*. One of the narrators went on to say, “Whenever Anas would supplicate, he would say these exact words. If he wanted to say a different *duʿāʾ*, he would still include this very supplication \[in his other *duʿāʾ*\].”[^34] 2\. Notice that this *duʿāʾ* starts with *Allāhumma* and *Rabbanā*, combining the attributes of Allah’s divinity and lordship. We also see this in the *duʿāʾ* of Prophet ʿĪsá who said, “O Allah, our Lord, send down to us a table spread with food from heaven to be a festival for us.” \[al-Māʾidah (5):114\] This combination is quite rare. The majority of the *duʿāʾ*s from the Qur’an begin with ‘My Lord’ or ‘Our Lord’ (*rabbī* or *rabbanā*), while the majority of *duʿāʾ*s from the Sunnah begin with *Allāhumma*. 3\. This *duʿāʾ* is based upon a *duʿāʾ* mentioned in the Qur’an, making it a Qur’anic supplication.[^35] It is prohibited to recite the Qur’an in prostration (*sujūd*). However, you can recite this *duʿāʾ* in prostration, as the Prophet ﷺ did, because the intent is calling upon Allah, not recitation of the Qur’an. *Say this* duʿāʾ *the next time you make* sujūd*. Say it often and ponder over the importance of developing this good habit of asking Allah for the best of both worlds. Part of the good of this world is being consistent in prayer.* **(2.11) Prayer at the beginning of your daily *ṣalāh*** اللَّهُمَّ بَاعِدْ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَ خَطَايَاىَ كَمَا بَاعَدْتَ بَيْنَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ اللَّهُمَّ نَقِّنِي مِنَ الْخَطَايَا كَمَا يُنَقَّى الثَّوْبُ الأَبْيَضُ مِنَ الدَّنَسِ اللَّهُمَّ اغْسِلْ خَطَايَاىَ بِالْمَاءِ وَالثَّلْجِ وَالْبَرَدِ Allāhumma bāʿid baynī wa-bayna khaṭāyāya kamā bāʿadta bayna al-mashriqi wa-al-maghrib. Allāhumma naqqinī min khaṭāyāya kamā yunaqqá al-thawb al-abyaḍu min al-danas. Allāhumma ighsil khaṭāyāya bi-al-māʾi wa-al-thalji wa-al-barad O Allah, distance me from my sins as You have distanced the East from the West. O Allah, cleanse me of my transgressions as the white garment is cleansed of stains. O Allah, wash away my sins with water, snow, and hail. al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: We learn this *duʿāʾ* from the companion Abū Hurayrah, who noticed that the Prophet ﷺ would say something silently after the opening *takbīr* of prayer, but before reciting Sūrat al-Fātiḥah. Abū Hurayrah said: Allah’s Messenger ﷺ used to keep silent between the *takbīr* and the recitation of Qur’an. That interval of silence used to be short. I said to the Prophet ﷺ, “May my parents be sacrificed for you! What do you say in the pause between *takbīr* and recitation?” The Prophet ﷺ then mentioned the above *duʿāʾ*.[^36] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ* we again learn the importance of seeking Allah’s forgiveness for our sins, and the impact sins have upon the soul. In all three sentences of this *duʿāʾ*, we are acknowledging our sins and shortcomings and asking Allah to purify and forgive us. When we pray to Allah to distance us from our sins, we are asking Him to erase those sins from our account with Him, to completely remove the effects and evil consequences of those sins, and to distance us from the things that caused us to fall into the sins in the first place. **Notable Benefits**: 1. We gain a deeper appreciation of the attention and precision the companions had when learning every detail about the Prophet's ﷺ life.  2. There are many different *duʿāʾ*s that the Prophet ﷺ would recite at the beginning of *ṣalāh*. These supplications are known as *duʿāʾ* *al-istiftāḥ*. It is best to learn more than one and alternate between them.  3. This is the most authentic *duʿāʾ* to recite between the *takbīr* and Sūrat al-Fātiḥah.[^37] *Saying this* duʿāʾ *is a reminder at the* ***beginning*** *of every prayer that we need Allah’s help to distance us from bad habits. At the* ***end*** *of every prayer, there is another* duʿāʾ *we can say to help us build good habits.* **(2.12) Prayer at the end of every *ṣalāh***  اللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى ذِكْرِكَ وَشُكْرِكَ وَحُسْنِ عِبَادَتِكَ‏ *Allāhumma aʿinnī ʿalá dhikrika wa-shukrika wa-ḥusni ʿibādatik*   O Allah, aid me in remembering You, thanking You, and worshipping You properly. al-Nasāʾī and Abū Dāwūd **Context**: We learn this *duʿāʾ* from an amazing hadith in which Muʿādh ibn Jabal, one of the scholars among the companions, said that the Prophet ﷺ said, “By Allah, I love you, Muʿādh. By Allah, I love you! I advise you to never leave off saying this *duʿāʾ* at the end of every prayer. ‘O Allah, aid me in remembering You, thanking You, and worshipping You properly.’”[^38] **Overview**: There is no request better than asking Allah to aid you in pleasing Him. We are in need of Allah’s aid to remember Him with our hearts and praise Him with our tongues. This *dhikr* of Allah brings tranquility to the heart and peace of mind. Without it, we would truly be lost. Thanking Allah is not just something done with the tongue. We need Allah’s aid to be truly grateful for His blessings. This means that we recognize His countless favors, praise Him for them, and use them in a manner that is pleasing to Him. If Allah has blessed us with sight, using that faculty to look at something *harām* is a form of ingratitude. If Allah has blessed us with hearing, using that faculty to listen to something *harām* is a form of ingratitude. This is why we need Allah’s aid at all times to be truly grateful to Him. Worshipping Allah properly means that we do acts of obedience sincerely for Him, seeking only His pleasure. Additionally, those deeds must conform to the teachings of the Messenger ﷺ. In this *duʿāʾ*, we are implicitly asking Allah to grant us understanding of the religion, for there is no way to worship Him properly without knowledge. **Notable Benefits**: 1. Muʿādh ibn Jabal was a companion of great virtue. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ not only specifically chose him to impart this knowledge, but also informed Mu’adh that he loved him.  2. The teaching style of the Prophet ﷺ was very effective. By telling Muʿādh that he loves him before imparting his advice, the Prophet ﷺ is gaining Muʿādh’s full attention and letting him know that he wants good for him.  3. Muʿādh advised his student, al-Ṣunābiḥī, to say this *duʿāʾ* at the end of every prayer. Al-Ṣunābiḥī then advised his student, Abu Abdur-Rahman al-Ḥubulī, to say this *duʿāʾ* at the end of every prayer. This shows the importance of teaching others what Allah has blessed you to learn. *As we ask Allah for these good habits, we must also seek His Divine protection from harm. Here is another prophetic* duʿāʾ *that was frequently said at the end of prayer.* **(2.13)  Always seek refuge from these three**  اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْكُفْرِ وَالْفَقْرِ وَعَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ *Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika min al-kufri wa-al-faqri wa-ʿadhāb al-qabr*    O Allah I seek refuge in You from disbelief, poverty, and the torment of the grave. al-Nasāʾī **Context**: Muslim ibn Abī Bakrah, narrated that he heard his father say at the end of his *ṣalāh*, “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from disbelief (*kufr*), poverty, and the torment of the grave.” I started to recite them and he said: “O my son, where did you learn these words?” I said: “O my father, I heard you saying this supplication at the end of the prayer, and I learned it from you.” He said: “Continue to recite them, O my son, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say this supplication at the end of the prayer.”[^39] **Overview**: *Kufr* is the opposite of faith (*īmān*) and is also the opposite of gratitude (*shukr*). When we seek refuge in Allah from *kufr*, we are asking Him to save us from those things that harm our faith as well as those things that would lead to us being ungrateful for His blessings. Poverty refers to a deficiency in, or lack of, something. It often refers to a lack of wealth, which can lead people to be immoral, steal, or even kill, among other things. But it can also refer to the poverty of the soul and the ego’s insatiable need for external validation. Allah is *al-Ghanīy* (Self-Sufficient, Rich) and it is in Him that we seek refuge from poverty. We also seek refuge in Allah from the punishment of the grave, which is the first stage of the next life. A person will remain in the grave until the resurrection. The general causes of punishment in the grave are, “not knowing Allah, neglecting His commands, and disobeying Him,” as Ibn al-Qayyim mentions.[^40] So when we seek refuge from the punishment of the grave, we are also seeking refuge from those things that lead to punishment. Additionally, we are implicitly asking for the opposite qualities, for “Allah will not punish a soul that knows Him, loves Him, follows His commands, and avoids His prohibitions.”[^41] **Notable Benefits**: 1. Making *duʿāʾ* at the end of *ṣalāh* before the *taslīm* is a sunnah that we should be more keen on implementing.  2. When ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, one of the rightly-guided caliphs, would stand at a grave he would cry until his beard was soaked in tears. It was said to him: “Paradise and the fire were mentioned and you did not cry, yet you cry because of this?” So he said: “Indeed Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: ‘Verily, the grave is the first stage of the hereafter. Whoever is saved from it, whatever comes after will be easier for him. If he is not saved from it, whatever comes after will be worse for him.’ I have never seen anything more frightening than the grave.”[^42] *Besides the three sources of harm mentioned in this supplication, there are other sources of harm that we need to seek Allah’s protection from. The next supplication is also said at the end of prayer and covers some of these.* **(2.14) Seek refuge from these four**  اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابِ جَهَنَّمَ وَمِنْ عَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ وَمِنْ فِتْنَةِ الْمَحْيَا وَالْمَمَاتِ وَمِنْ شَرِّ فِتْنَةِ الْمَسِيحِ الدَّجَّالِ Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika min ʿadhābi jahannam wa-min ʿadhāb al-qabri wa-min fitnat al-maḥyā wa-al-mamāti wa-min sharri fitnat al-masīḥ al-dajjāl  O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of Hellfire, from the punishment of the grave, from the trials of life and death, and from the evil of the trial of the False Messiah. al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: Abū Hurayrah narrated that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: “When one of you finishes the (last) *tashahhud*, he should seek refuge in Allah from four things,” and then he mentioned this *duʿāʾ*.[^43] **Overview**:  Even though the grave is the first stage of the next life, the Prophet ﷺ begins this *duʿāʾ* by seeking refuge from the Fire. This is because of the severity of the Fire and its punishment. The punishment of the grave was discussed in the previous *duʿāʾ*. When seeking refuge from the ‘trials of life,’ we are asking for Allah’s protection from spiritual, emotional, and physical harm in this life. Seeking refuge from ‘the trials of death’ is a petition for divine protection from diabolical temptations at the time of death in addition to the trial in the grave that occurs after death. Every prophet has warned his people about the *Dajjal* and informed them of his deception.[^44] The trials that will result from his emergence in the world, which marks the end of time, will be among the worst of all trials. **Notable Benefits**: 1. The Prophet ﷺ put great emphasis on teaching his companions this *duʿāʾ*. In fact, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās said that the Prophet ﷺ would teach them this *duʿāʾ* like he would teach them a *sūrah* from the Qur’an.[^45]  2. Due to the importance the Prophet ﷺ placed on learning this *duʿāʾ*, all four schools of law (*madhhab*s) have stated that it is highly recommended to say this *duʿāʾ* before concluding the *ṣalāh*.[^46] *These supplications focus on giving us the strength to do good deeds and avoid evil habits. However, Muslims do not supplicate only for themselves. Part of Islamic brotherhood and sisterhood is making supplications for other believers too. Some of these supplications that we can make for others will be covered in the next section.* --- ## III. Prayers for others Praying and supplicating to Allah on behalf of others has tremendous benefits in this life and in the hereafter. We might ask what do we get out of supplicating for someone else? Very much, it turns out. For starters, many supplications in the Qur’an and Sunnah prescribe praying for the benefit of others, so these supplications are recorded as good deeds in our records. In addition, whenever we supplicate for another believer, an angel makes the same supplication for us; i.e., if we ask Allah to guide someone else, the angel asks Allah to guide us too![^47] For this reason, if our pious predecessors (*salaf*) wanted to pray for themselves, they would supplicate for their brothers and sisters to receive the benefits they themselves desired, anticipating the reciprocal response of the angel; they would pray for others just as they would pray for themselves.[^48] Scholars have further considered supplications for fellow believers to be their right (*ḥaqq*) in Islam; they are *entitled* to our supplications on their behalf.[^49] A great example of this is the companion Abū al-Dardāʾ (ra), who used to supplicate for seventy of his fellow believers by name in his prostrations.[^50] The practice of selfless supplication is an essential component of a healthy, functional Muslim community. Even when another Muslim sneezes, we have a prescribed supplication for their benefit. All of this produces mutual empathy, compassion, and the strengthening of fellowship (brotherhood and sisterhood) in Islam. **(3.15) Prayers for the Prophet ﷺ and his family** اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا صَلَّيْتَ عَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا بَارَكْتَ عَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ Allāhumma ṣalli ʿalá Muḥammad wa-ʿalá āli Muḥammad kamā ṣallayta ʿalá āli  Ibrāhīm innaka ḥamīdun majīd. Allāhumma bārik ʿalá Muḥammad wa-ʿalá āli Muḥammad kamā bārakta ʿalá āli Ibrāhīm innaka ḥamīdun majīd O Allah, send your grace upon Muḥammad and the family of Muhammad, as You have sent your grace upon the family of Abraham. Verily, You are Praiseworthy and Majestic. O Allah, bless Muḥammad and the family of Muḥammad, as You have blessed the family of Abraham. Verily, You are Praiseworthy and Majestic. al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: The Prophet ﷺ taught his companions to say this *duʿāʾ* in the final sitting of prayer, as well as at other times.[^51] **Overview**: *Ṣalāh*  means “prayer,” but to ask Allah to “pray” over the Prophet ﷺ means to ask Allah to give him special grace. *Bārik* means “to bless,” so we are asking Allah to bless the Prophet ﷺ. *Āl* means the family, household, followers, and supporters of the Prophet ﷺ. *Ḥamīd* is the perfect and eternal praiseworthy attribute of Allah, and *Majīd* is the perfect and eternal majestic attribute of Allah. **Notable Benefits**: 1. The divine reward for deeds is by *jins al-ʿamal*; i.e., the reward will “match” the deed being rewarded. For example, whoever relieves the difficulty of a believer in this life will have a difficulty removed in the next life. Hence, whoever “prays” upon the Prophet ﷺ once, Allah will “pray” upon him ten times.[^52] 2. Though we recite this in every *ṣalāh*, we often forget that we are actually praying for the Prophet ﷺ. Thinking of this as a *duʿāʾ* and contemplating what you are saying is one of the best ways to gain mindfulness and attentiveness (*khushūʿ*) and presence of heart in prayer. *The Prophet* ﷺ *has more right to the believer’s goodness than any other human being. After the Prophet* ﷺ*, it is our parents who have the most rights over us, which is why we should pray for them often.* **(3.16) Praying for your parents** رَبِّ ارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِي صَغِيرًا *Rabbi irḥamhumā kamā rabbayānī ṣaghīra*  My Lord, have mercy on them (my parents) as they raised me when I was young. Sūrat al-Isrāʾ 17:24 **Context**: In this passage, Allah decrees for us to be good to our parents. He mentions this command immediately after commanding us to worship Him alone, indicating its great importance. He commands us to speak kind words to our parents and to not even say “*uff*” (a mild word of annoyance) to them. He then commands us to “lower the wing of humility out of mercy for them,” and concludes the *āyah* by instructing us to say this *duʿāʾ*.[^53] **Overview**: *Rabbayānī* (i.e., “they raised me”) comes from the same root as the word *Rabb* (Lord) for Allah. Allah as *Rabb* means not only that He is All-Powerful and All-Sovereign, but the One who takes it upon Himself to rear His servants until they reach knowledge, maturity, and wisdom. Our parents are the primary means through which Allah rears us from being *ṣaghīr* (small, young) into adulthood. **Notable Benefits**: 1. Righteousness to parents (*birr al-wālidayn*) is a command repeated several times in the Qur’an and mentioned often in the Sunnah. The scholars would frequently begin their books of ethics on the right of parents to respect, kind treatment, and obedience (within reasonable limits).  2. This *duʿāʾ* said on a regular basis stimulates love for our parents, which further assists us in fulfilling our duties towards them. *After our parents, our most important relationships are with the people of our household. Just as we should pray for our parents often, we should pray for our spouses and children daily too.* **(3.17) Make our spouses and children the delight of our eyes** رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا Rabbanā hab lanā min azwājinā wa-dhurrīyātinā qurrata aʿyunin wa-ijʿalnā li-al-muttaqīna imāma  Our Lord, grant us comfort for our eyes among our spouses and offspring, and make us leaders among the righteous. Sūrat al-Furqān 25:74 **Context**: This *duʿāʾ* is included in a longer passage beginning with verse 25:63 that describes the characteristics of the “servants of the Most Merciful” (*ʿībād al-Raḥmān*). The believers who take on these characteristics are promised paradise and peace in the hereafter.[^54] **Overview**: This *duʿāʾ* is a request to Allah for our spouses, children—and even ourselves—to be virtuous. We ask Allah to make them the “coolness of our eyes,” which in this context means to see our family members having faith, obeying Allah, and behaving righteously so we can be together with them in Paradise. One of the greatest joys a parent can experience is to see their children grow up into God-fearing believers. We also ask Allah to make ourselves leaders of the righteous; i.e., who fear Allah, are mindful and conscious of Him, and avoid minor and major sins. This is not a request for political power or worldly status, but rather to be a moral example for our family, friends, and fellow Muslims to emulate. **Notable Benefits**: 1. This *duʿāʾ* reminds us of our responsibility to provide guidance and education to our families, especially to our children. We should wish the best for our families just as we want it for ourselves. We ought to be pleased and deeply grateful to Allah to see our family members following the way of Islam.  2. We should strive to be a moral example for our family and community members to emulate, without desiring to show off or gain worldly status. *The believer is not concerned only with his own family, but for the entire creation. Our supplications, therefore, should not only be for our families but for others too, starting with the righteous.* **(3.18) Prayer for Allah’s righteous servants** **السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْنَا وَعَلَى عِبَادِ اللَّهِ الصَّالِحِينَ** *Al-salāmu ʿalaynā wa-ʿalá ʿibād Allāhi al-ṣāliḥīn*  Peace be upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah. al-Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: This *duʿāʾ* is said as part of a longer supplication that is said during the sitting portion of prayer (*tashahhud*) as follows: “Greetings, prayers, and all good things are for Allah. Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Peace be upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah.”[^55] **Overview**: This *duʿāʾ* is a request for Allah to grant *salām*, meaning “peace” but also safety, security, and well-being upon ourselves and the righteous servants of Allah. It is prescribed in prayer to invoke peace upon ourselves and then upon the righteous servants of Allah, which includes all of the prophets (peace be upon them), their devoted followers, and all those who followed them throughout history. **Notable Benefits**: 1. The Prophet ﷺ mentioned that if we say this *duʿāʾ* “it will be for every righteous slave in the heavens and on earth.”[^56] Imagine the reward one gets for praying for that many people! When we say this *duʿāʾ* in our daily prayers, we should keep this in mind and allow it to stimulate feelings of love and solidarity with all believers who have ever lived.   2. We say this *duʿā*ʾ in the sitting position of every *ṣalāh*. Due to the frequency with which we say it, we may say it mechanically without being mindful that we are actually making a prayer for ourselves and the believers! It is important to remember that this is a *duʿāʾ* and to say it with full conviction and presence of heart. *Our relation with others is not limited to praying for them. We should also express gratitude to them whenever they do anything good for us.* **(3.19) Prayer for expressing appreciation to someone** جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا *Jazāk Allāhu khayran*  May Allah reward you with good. al-Tirmidhī **Context**: This is a very common phrase in Muslim cultures, asking Allah to reward someone who does a good deed. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever receives a good deed and says to its doer, ‘May Allah reward you with good,’ he has expressed his appreciation.”[^57] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ*, we ask Allah to grant someone *jazāʾ* (reward or recompense) with *khayr* (goodness in this life and in the hereafter). It is a way of thanking someone while simultaneously acknowledging that Allah is the true source from which the reward for good deeds should be sought. **Notable Benefits**: 1. This *duʿāʾ* is an easy way to express thanks and appreciation to someone who performs a good deed, as well as to ask Allah to reward it in the best manner, most importantly in the hereafter.  2. It is very important to complete the entire phrase. Some people say *jazāk Allah* without adding *khayr*, which means “May Allah reward you...” but a reward, by definition in both English and Arabic, could be good or bad! Instead, we need to say the whole phrase to complete the *duʿāʾ* for Allah to reward the person with good. *Beyond the living believers, our bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood extend to those who have preceded us in faith. They too should be remembered in our daily supplications.* **(3.20) Prayer for those who have preceded us in faith** رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ  Rabbanā ighfir lanā wa-li-ikhwāninā alladhīna sabaqūnā bi-al-īmāni wa-lā-tajʿal fī qulūbinā ghillan li-alladhīna āmanū rabbanā innaka raʾūfun raḥīm  Our Lord, forgive us our sins and the sins of our brothers who preceded us in faith, and leave no malice in our hearts towards those who believe. Lord, You are truly Compassionate and Merciful.  Sūrat al-Ḥashr 59:10 **Context**: This *duʿāʾ* comes after a passage praising the Anṣār (Muslims who initially resided in Medina) for helping the Muhājirūn (who were forced from their homes) when they migrated from Mecca to Medina. The Anṣār loved the Muhājirūn for the sake of Islam and even gave preference to them in food and supplies, despite their own hardship. Allah warns us that we must protect our souls from stinginess in order to succeed in the hereafter. Then, He gives us this *duʿāʾ* for all the believers to make for each other, including the Muslims who embraced Islam in its earliest phases and all believers from previous generations.[^58] **Overview**: This *duʿāʾ* is another supplication for forgiveness for ourselves and also for our believing brothers and sisters in Islam, including those who came before us in previous generations. We ask Allah to remove *ghill* (hatred, malice, envy) towards the believers from our hearts. Supplications of this nature, in fact, are the most effective way to purify our hearts from these harmful spiritual diseases. Moreover, we acknowledge the Kindness and Mercy of Allah and invoke these two Beautiful Names as it is proper etiquette to praise Allah by His appropriate names when asking Him for anything. **Notable Benefits**: 1. This *duʿāʾ* is important for fostering the love and compassion that should characterize the Muslim community.  2. As Muslims, we should ask Allah to forgive us all for our sins, and we ourselves should forgive each other.  3. We must ask Allah to remove any ill feelings in our hearts towards each other, such as malice (*ḥiqd*), hate (*bughḍ*), and envy (*ḥasad*), which are all implied by the word *ghill*. By repeating this *duʿāʾ*, especially in regard to Muslims we have bad relations with, we can purify our hearts of these spiritual diseases and perhaps open the way to reconciliation and renewal of the bonds of Islam. *Praying for our parents, spouses, children, the righteous, and the deceased are all important parts of our daily supplications. During the last ten nights of Ramadan, we should increase our supplication for all of the above in addition to other duʿāʾs.* --- ## IV. Prayers during the last ten nights The last ten nights of Ramadan are the most important nights of the year. The rest of Ramadan can be seen as a period of preparation for these last ten nights. It is during these ten nights that we push ourselves to do our very best. The Prophet ﷺ used to strive hard in worship in the last ten nights of Ramadan more than he did at any other time.[^59] Therefore, along with other acts of devotion, we should increase our supplication to Allah. **(4.21) Prayer for *laylat al-qadr***  اَللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ اَلْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي *Allāhumma innaka ʿafūwun tuḥibbu al-ʿafwa fa-ʿfu ʿannī*   O Allah, indeed You are all-Pardoning, You love pardoning, so pardon me. al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah **Context**: ʿĀʾishah narrated that she said: “O Messenger of Allah, if I know when the Night of Al-Qadr is, what should I say in it? He said: ‘Say: O Allah, indeed You are all-Pardoning, You love pardoning, so pardon me.’”[^60] **Overview**: There are three main elements in this *duʿāʾ*. The first is affirming one of Allah’s perfect names: *al-ʿAfūw* (the all-Pardoning). The second is affirming that Allah loves the quality of pardoning (ʿ*afw*), and the last is asking Allah for His *ʿafw*. One of the meanings of *ʿafw* (ʿ*ayn-fa-waw*) is the complete removal of something, such that even its traces do not remain. According to some scholars, ‘pardoning’ (ʿ*afw*) is slightly different from ‘forgiveness’ (*maghfirah*), which is when Allah covers up our sins and protects us from their evil consequences. When we ask for ‘pardoning,’ however, we are asking for complete erasure of the sin. This implies that you have a clean slate and will not be questioned about those sins on the Day of Reckoning.[^61] The implications of this *duʿāʾ* are simply amazing! Not only does Allah completely pardon us for our wrongdoings when we repent, turn to Him, and ask for His pardoning, He actually loves this act of pardoning! This is quite different from our dealings with many people who may ‘forgive but not forget,’ or who may ‘let it go’ but only begrudgingly. **Notable Benefits**: 1. It is profound that ʿĀʾishah asked the Prophet ﷺ what to *say* during *laylat al-qadr*, which indicates that the companions understood the importance and value of *duʿāʾ* at this time.  2. The Prophet ﷺ is instructing the most beloved person to him, his wife ʿĀʾishah, to ask for pardoning from Allah. This is after fasting for at least twenty days and striving in prayer, charity, and other forms of devotion to Allah. One takeaway from this is to know that Allah’s pardoning of our shortcomings is better for us than our own good deeds.  3. We should strive to do what Allah loves. Allah loves pardoning so we should do our best to pardon others, just as we want Allah to pardon us. Allah says, “Let them pardon, and let them overlook. Do you not love for Allah to forgive you? Allah is Forgiving, Beneficent.”[^62] This is the time of year to learn to forgive. Recent studies about people’s regrets at the end of life mention that not forgiving others is one of their greatest regrets.[^63]  4. Pardoning is not always the best option. If pardoning someone emboldens them to continue their wrongdoing, it is actually better not to pardon them. They should be held accountable and punished accordingly to prevent them from harming others.[^64] *This* duʿāʾ *should be said frequently throughout the last ten nights (and days) of Ramadan. It can be said in the* ṣalāh *(e.g., in* sujūd *or before* taslīm*) or outside of prayer (e.g., in between the* adhān *and the* iqāmah*). One of the best times to say this* duʿāʾ *is in the last third of the night. The night prayer is so important that the Prophet ﷺ would say a special* duʿāʾ *at its beginning.* **(4.22) Prayer for beginning *qiyām al-layl***  اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّ جِبْرَائِيلَ وَمِيكَائِيلَ وَإِسْرَافِيلَ فَاطِرَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ عَالِمَ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ أَنْتَ تَحْكُمُ بَيْنَ عِبَادِكَ فِيمَا كَانُوا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ اهْدِنِي لِمَا اخْتُلِفَ فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِكَ إِنَّكَ تَهْدِي مَنْ تَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ *Allāhumma rabba Jibrāʾīl wa-Mīkāʾīl wa-Isrāfīl fāṭir al-samāwāti wa-al-arḍi ʿālim al-ghaybi wa-al-shahādati anta taḥkumu bayna ʿibādika fīmā kānū fīhi yakhtalifūn ihdinī limā-khtulifa fīhi min al-ḥaqqi bi-idhnika innaka tahdī man tashāʾu ilá ṣirāṭin mustaqīm* O Allah, Lord of Jibrīl, Mīkāʾīl and Isrāfīl, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen, You judge between Your slaves concerning that wherein they differ. Guide me in those matters about which there is dispute regarding the truth by Your Leave, for You are the One Who guides to the straight path. Muslim **Context**: ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn ʿAwf, one of the ‘Ten Promised Paradise’ from the companions, asked ʿĀʾishah to tell him what the Prophet ﷺ would say when he got up to pray at night. ʿĀʾishah said, “He ﷺ would begin his prayer with these words …”, and then mentioned the above *duʿāʾ*.[^65] **Overview**: Prayer at night is called *qiyām al-layl* (standing at night) or, more specifically, *tahajjud* if it occurs after going to sleep. It is the most virtuous and important prayer after the five daily prayers. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best prayer one can perform apart from the obligatory prayers is one performed at night.”[^66] The night prayer is one of the primary ways that the Prophet ﷺ would bring life to the night during these last ten nights of Ramadan. ʿĀʾishah said, “When the last ten nights of Ramadan began, the Prophet ﷺ used to tighten his belt,[^67] stay awake throughout the night, and awaken his family (for prayer).”[^68] In this *duʿāʾ*, the Prophet ﷺ is asking for Allah’s guidance in matters about which people dispute. He begins by calling upon Allah as the Lord of three specific angels: Jibrīl, Mīkāʾīl, and Isrāfīl. Each of these angels has been assigned a critical function for the sustenance of life: Jibrīl is responsible for revelation, which nourishes the soul; Mīkāʾīl is responsible for rain, which is necessary for physical life; and Isrāfīl is responsible for blowing into the horn, which marks the resurrection and the beginning of one’s eternal life in the hereafter. The beginning of this *duʿāʾ* is directly related to the ‘ask’: we need guidance in every aspect of our existence. We need guidance for our spiritual well-being, for our physical health, and on the Day of Resurrection to make it successfully across the *ṣirāṭ* (the bridge over the hellfire). Ibn al-Qayyim said, “Guidance has yet another level, the last one, which is guidance on the Day of Resurrection on the way to the Garden. Whoever is guided in this earthly abode to the straight path of God, for which He sent messengers and revealed scriptures, will be guided there to the straight path to the Garden, the abode of His reward. Only to the extent that the servant had been steadfast on the straight path that God set forth in the earthly abode shall he be steadfast on the bridge spread across the breadth of Hell.”[^69] The Prophet ﷺ also mentions, before asking for guidance, that Allah is the Knower of what is seen and unseen. This is significant because we are implicitly acknowledging that our knowledge is limited, hence we cannot possibly guide ourselves when the path becomes unclear. We are asking Allah—Who knows everything—to give us the blessing of guidance and keep us firm on the path that pleases Him. It is by Allah’s permission alone that one is guided to the truth about matters of dispute. **Notable Benefits**: 1. Part of this *duʿāʾ* finds its root in the statement of Allah, “Then Allah, by His grace, has guided the believers to the truth regarding those disputes. And Allah guides whomever He wills to the Straight Path.”[^70] 2. ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn ʿAwf and the other companions of the Prophet ﷺ were very keen about learning about the fine details of how the Prophet ﷺ worshipped when he was out of the public eye. They would ask about things that they did not have the opportunity to observe so that they could emulate him and follow his footsteps. Consequently, this should serve as an encouragement for every Muslim to learn more about how the Prophet ﷺ worshipped Allah and attempt to emulate his way.  3. ًThe statement “You judge between your servants” reminds us to prepare for the day when the truth will be revealed and Allah will judge between us. Therefore, our intent should be to arrive at the truth in all issues of dispute and to accept the truth no matter who it comes from, even if it takes us out of our comfort zone. *Praying the night prayer was a habit the Prophet ﷺ practiced consistently. Just as ʿĀʾishah, the wife of the Prophet* ﷺ*, informs us of what he used to say at the beginning of* ṣalāh*, she has also narrated some of his other supplications at this very important time.* **(4.23) Prayers made in *qiyām***  اللَّهُمَّ أَعُوذُ بِرِضَاكَ مِنْ سَخَطِكَ وَبِمُعَافَاتِكَ مِنْ عُقُوبَتِكَ وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْكَ لاَ أُحْصِي ثَنَاءً عَلَيْكَ أَنْتَ كَمَا أَثْنَيْتَ عَلَى نَفْسِكَ Allāhumma aʿūdhu bi-riḍāka min sakhaṭika wa-bi-muʿāfātika min ʿuqūbatika wa-aʿūdhu bika minka lā uḥṣī thanāʾan ʿalayka anta kamā athnayta ʿalá nafsik  O Allah, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your wrath, and in Your forgiveness from Your punishment. I seek refuge in You from You. I cannot fully praise You. You are as You have praised Yourself. Muslim **Context**: ʿĀʾishah said: “I noticed Allah’s Messenger ﷺ was not in bed one night, so I searched for him. My hand then touched the soles of his feet while he was in prostration; they (feet) were raised and he was saying, ‘O Allah I seek refuge in Your pleasure…’”[^71] **Overview**: In this *duʿāʾ*, the Prophet ﷺ is seeking refuge in Allah’s pleasure and forgiveness from His wrath and punishment. This is similar in meaning to the hadith, “\[O Allah\] there is no shelter or escape from You except in You.”[^72] Ibn al-Qayyim said, “\[The Prophet ﷺ\] sought refuge in the divine attribute of pleasure from the divine attribute of anger, and in the act of forgiveness from the act of punishment. So he sought refuge in Him from Him based on both considerations, as if he was combining what he separated in the two previous statements.”[^73] The *duʿāʾ* concludes with “I cannot fully praise you. You are as You have praised Yourself.” This means that we cannot praise Allah as He deserves, no matter how much we try. Our praise of Allah will always be far less than the praise due to Him. **Notable Benefits**: 1. We should all have secret good deeds that even the people closest to us do not know about. These are sincere private acts of worship between us and Allah. 2. We can never praise Allah enough. His perfection is beyond our comprehension. This *duʿāʾ* teaches us how to call on Him while recognizing that. 3. *Qiyām al-Layl* is the one of the most important times to make *duʿāʾ*, and that is why many of the greatest supplications of the Prophet ﷺ were made during *qiyām*. *We learn this great* duʿāʾ *from ʿĀʾishah who heard the Prophet* ﷺ *saying it in* sujūd*. It is amazing how many* duʿāʾ *we learn from her, either because she heard the Prophet* ﷺ *saying them or because he taught her directly. The following* duʿāʾ *is one of those he specifically taught her and encouraged her to say.* **(4.24) A comprehensive, complete prayer** اَللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ مِنَ الْخَيْرِ كُلِّهِ عَاجِلِهِ وَآجِلِهِ مَا عَلِمْتُ مِنْهُ وَمَا لَمْ أَعْلَمْ وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الشَّرِّ كُلِّهِ عَاجِلِهِ وَآجِلِهِ مَا عَلِمْتُ مِنْهُ وَمَا لَمْ أَعْلَمْ اَللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ خَيْرِ مَا سَأَلَكَ عَبْدُكَ وَنَبِيُّكَ وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا عَاذَ بِهِ عَبْدُكَ وَنَبِيُّكَ Allāhumma innī asʾaluka min al-khayri kullihi ʿājilihi wa-ājilihi mā ʿalimtu minhu wa-mā lam aʿlam. Wa-aʿūdhu bika min al-sharri kullihi ʿājilihi wa-ājilihi mā ʿalimtu minhu wa-mā lam aʿlam. Allāhumma innī asʾaluka min khayri mā saʾalaka ʿabduka wa-nabīyuka wa-aʿūdhu bika min sharri mā ʿādha bihi ʿabduka wa-nabīyuk O Allah, I ask You from all that is good, in this world and in the hereafter, what I know and what I do not know. O Allah, I seek refuge with You from all evil, in this world and in the hereafter, what I know and what I do not know. O Allah, I ask You for the good that Your slave and Prophet has asked You for, and I seek refuge with You from the evil from which Your slave and Prophet sought refuge. Ibn Mājah **Context**: This is the first part of a *duʿāʾ* that the Prophet ﷺ described as being comprehensive and complete. He said to ʿĀʾishah, “Stick to these comprehensive, complete prayers” and then mentioned this *duʿāʾ*.[^74] **Overview**: This is a tremendous *duʿāʾ* that really leaves no stone unturned. It encompasses asking for every kind of good, tangible and intangible, related to worldly matters as well as matters of the next life. Your desire for health, a righteous spouse, financial stability, forgiveness, guidance, etc. is included in this *duʿāʾ*. We might be aware of some of what is good for us, but we do not know everything that can bring us benefit. Even that—the good that you are unaware of—is included in this *duʿāʾ*. Similarly we are seeking refuge in Allah from every type of evil, physical and metaphysical, related to this life and the next. Even some of the things that we internally desire could actually be harmful to us. This *duʿāʾ* is a protection against that. Furthermore, this *duʿāʾ* subsumes every other *duʿāʾ* that the Prophet ﷺ has made. By asking Allah for the good that our Prophet ﷺ asked for, and seeking refuge in Him from the evil that the Prophet ﷺ sought refuge from, we are covering every base. **Notable Benefits**: 1. This *duʿāʾ* is one of the most comprehensive prayers one can make.[^75] Al-Mullah ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1014H) called it “the most comprehensive supplication that has been narrated.” [^76] 2. It is important for those who have knowledge to teach others, especially when they are members of the same household. The Prophet ﷺ was keen on teaching these very powerful words to his beloved wife ʿĀʾishah and mentioned that they were “comprehensive” and “complete” as an incentive to say them frequently. 3. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (ra) used to say a *duʿāʾ* very similar to this one before exiting the prayer. He would also teach others to say this *duʿāʾ* before the *taslīm*.[^77] *Take some time to repeat this* duʿāʾ*. Contemplate its meanings. Think about the fact that the Prophet ﷺ taught this* duʿāʾ *to ʿĀʾishah, the most beloved person to him in the world. This* duʿāʾ *is special! Be grateful to Allah for guiding you to this special* duʿāʾ *during these special days and nights. After spending some time to familiarize yourself with the first part of this* duʿāʾ*, move on to the last part.* **(4.25) A comprehensive, complete prayer (continued)** اَللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ اَلْجَنَّةَ وَمَا قَرَّبَ إِلَيْهَا مِنْ قَوْلٍ أَوْ عَمَلٍ وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ النَّارِ وَمَا قَرَّبَ إِلَيْهَا مِنْ قَوْلٍ أَوْ عَمَلٍ وَأَسْأَلُكَ أَنْ تَجْعَلَ كُلَّ قَضَاءٍ قَضَيْتَهُ لِي خَيْرًا  Allāhumma innī asʾaluka al-jannata wa-mā qarraba ilayhā min qawlin aw ʿamalin wa-aʿūdhu bika min al-nāri wa-mā qarraba ilayhā min qawlin aw ʿamalin wa-asʾaluka an tajʿala kulla qaḍāʾin qaḍaytahu lī khayra O Allah, I ask You for Paradise and for that which brings one closer to it, in word and deed. And I seek refuge in You from Hell and from that which brings one closer to it, in word and deed. And I ask You to make every decree that You decree concerning me good. Ibn Mājah **Context**: This is the last part of the previous *duʿāʾ* that the Prophet ﷺ taught ʿĀʾishah.[^78] **Overview**: There are five major requests in this part of the *duʿāʾ*. The first is for Paradise, which is the permanent abode of unimaginable bliss that every believer seeks. The second request is for guidance and aid from Allah in performing the deeds that are pleasing to Him and lead to Paradise. The third is for protection from Hell. The fourth request is for protection from the statements and deeds that lead to Hell. The fifth and final request is for Allah to make everything that He decrees for us ‘good.’ This should be understood in light of other teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, such as his statement, How wonderful is the case of a believer! There is good for him in every situation, but this applies only to a believer. If something good happens to him, he thanks \[Allah\] and this is good for him. When he faces adversity, he endures it patiently and this too is good for him.[^79] Hence, the good that we are asking Allah for is our response to what has been decreed. If we are experiencing ease and prosperity, but are not showing gratitude to Allah for His blessings, or we use those blessings to disobey Allah, then this is not good for us, even though Allah has decreed ease for us. Similarly, if we are faced with hardship and difficulty, yet we patiently endure that trial and avoid anything that would displease Allah, this is actually good for us, even though Allah decreed an adverse situation. The Prophet ﷺ used to also say, “I ask You to make me pleased with that which You have decreed.”[^80] Perhaps this *duʿāʾ* lends clarity to what we are asking for when we say, “And I ask You to make every decree that You decree concerning me good.” **Notable Benefits**: 1. This part of the *duʿāʾ* focuses on the hereafter. Though we should ask Allah for things we need in our temporary existence on earth, our primary concern should be the place we will reside eternally. The Prophet ﷺ would often say when calling upon Allah, “And let not the world be our greatest worry.”[^81] We need Allah’s help to enter paradise and to be saved from the fire.  2. We should not belittle *any* good deed or *any* sin. Everything we do or say, or fail to do or fail to say, has the potential to take us closer to either Paradise or the Fire. In this *duʿāʾ*, we are asking Allah to help us say and do those things that will take us to Paradise and to protect us from anything that leads to the Fire. The Prophet ﷺ said, “A person may utter a word which pleases Allah without giving it much weight, and because of that Allah will raise him degrees. Another person may utter a word which displeases Allah without thinking of its gravity, and because of that he will be thrown into the Hellfire.”[^82] 3. Only Allah knows what is truly best for us. Allah says,  “Perhaps you dislike something that is good for you and like something that is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.”[^83] When we ask Allah to make every decree for us good for us, we are asking Him to aid us in being content and pleased with His decision for us. Ibn al-Qayyim describes being pleased with Allah and His decree as the paradise of this earth, the greatest of the doors to Allah, the bliss of the worshippers, and the joy of those who long to meet Allah.[^84] *As the month of Ramadan rapidly comes to an end, it should remind us that life too will one day come to an end. This is why it is important to make sure that we ask for good in the life to come.* **(4.26) Longing to meet Allah** اللهُمَّ إني أَسْأَلُكَ بَرْدَ الْعَيْشِ بَعْدَ الْمَوْتِ وَأَسْأَلُكَ لَذَّةَ النَّظَرِ إِلَى وَجْهِكَ وَالشَّوْقَ إِلَى لِقَائِكَ فِي غَيْرِ ضَرَّاءَ مُضِرَّةٍ وَلاَ فِتْنَةٍ مُضِلَّةٍ  Allāhumma innī asʾaluka bard al-ʿayshi baʿd al-mawti wa-asʾaluka ladhdhat al-naẓari ilá wajhika wa-al-shawqa ilá liqāʾika fī ghayri ḍarrāʾa muḍirratin wa-lā fitnatin muḍillah O Allah I ask You for a life of coolness after death. I ask You for the delight of gazing upon Your Face. \[And I ask You for\] the longing to meet You, but not due to a harmful adversity or fear of a misleading trial. al-Nasāʾī **Context**: ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, the companion of the Prophet ﷺ, once led the people in prayer and made it brief. It was as if they disliked that, so he said, “Did I not perform the *rukūʿ* and *sujūd* properly?” They replied in the affirmative. He then said, “And I also said a *duʿāʾ* that the Prophet ﷺ used to say: O Allah, by Your Knowledge of the unseen and by Your Power over creation, let me live as long as You know that life is good for me, and let me die when You know that death is better for me. O Allah, grant me fear of You in secret and in public. I ask You to make me true in speech in times of pleasure and of anger. I ask You to make me moderate in times of wealth and poverty. And I ask You for everlasting delight and joy that never ends. I ask You to make me pleased with that which You have decreed and for a life of coolness after death. I ask You for the delight of gazing upon Your Face. \[And I ask You for\] the longing to meet You, but not due to a harmful adversity or fear of a misleading trial. O Allah, beautify us with the adornment of faith, and make us guides who are rightly guided.[^85] ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir (ra) was telling the people he led in *ṣalāh* that he was able to say this prophetic *duʿāʾ* despite them feeling like his prayer was short. It is from this longer *duʿāʾ* that we extracted the *duʿāʾ* for today. **Overview**: There are three main requests in this *duʿāʾ*. The first is asking for a ‘life of coolness’ after death. This means asking for comfort and relief in every stage of the next life. The second request is asking for the delight of seeing Allah’s Face. This is the greatest bliss that one can experience in the hereafter. Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, When the people of Paradise enter Paradise, the Blessed and the Exalted will say to them, ‘Is there anything more that you wish for Me to give you?’ They will reply: ‘Have You not made our faces bright? Have You not brought us into Paradise and saved us from the Fire?’ Allah will then remove the Veil. They will feel that they have not been awarded anything dearer to them than looking at their Lord.[^86] The third request is for the sincere desire to meet Allah, “but not due to a harmful adversity or fear of a misleading trial.” In explaining this part of the *duʿāʾ*, Ibn Rajab says, “Longing to meet Allah necessitates looking forward to death.[^87] The wish for death often happens to people caught up in this worldly life when they are faced with harmful calamities, even though this is prohibited in Islam. Religious people may also wish for death for fear of misleading trials (*fitan muḍillah*). Hence, a person is asking for a death free of these two scenarios, such that it emanates strictly from loving Allah and wanting to meet Him. This lofty level was attained by many of the *salaf*.”[^88] Hence the believer wants his longing to meet Allah to be rooted in his love for Allah and hoping for His reward and grace. **Notable Benefits**: (1) Seeing Allah is the greatest joy of the people of paradise. “For those who do good, they will have *al-ḥusná* and even more.” *Al-ḥusná* refers to Paradise, and ‘even more’ is the blessing of seeing Allah’s Face.[^89] When a person is deprived of seeing their loved one for long periods of time, there is nothing more beloved to them than finally being able to see them. The joy it brings cannot be articulated through words. Now imagine the pleasure of seeing Allah after worshipping Him in this life, and loving Him with all our heart! (2) There is a direct connection between protecting the prayers and seeing Allah. When we are asking for the joy of seeing Allah’s Face, we are implicitly asking Allah to aid us in establishing the prayer on time, all the time. (3) Wanting to meet Allah does not necessitate that you love dying. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah also loves to meet him. Whoever hates to meet Allah, Allah also hates to meet him.” ʿĀʾishah said, “But we dislike death.” He replied, “This is not intended. What is meant is that when the death of a believer approaches, he receives the good news of Allah’s pleasure with him and His blessings upon him. So at that moment, nothing is dearer to him than what awaits him. He therefore loves the meeting with Allah, and Allah loves the meeting with him. But when the death of a disbeliever approaches, he receives the evil news of Allah’s torment and His Requital, whereupon nothing is more dreaded to him than what awaits him. Therefore, he hates the meeting with Allah, and Allah too, hates the meeting with him.”[^90] *Though it is not popular in our society to think about death, it is inevitable nonetheless. Part of our preparation for the inevitable is to ask Allah to die in a state that is pleasing to Him.* **(4.27) Prayer for a Good Ending** **رَبِّ تَوَفَّنِي مُسْلِمًا وَأَلْحِقْنِي بِالصَّالِحِينَ** *Rabbi tawaffanī musliman wa-alḥiqnī bi-al-ṣaliḥīn*  Allow me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous. Sūrat Yūsuf 12:101 **Context**:  This *duʿāʾ* is extracted from an *āyah* toward the end of Sūrat Yūsuf in which Allah mentions that the Prophet Yūsuf said, My Lord! You have surely granted me authority and taught me the interpretation of dreams. Originator of the heavens and the earth, You are my Guardian in this world and the hereafter. Allow me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous. \[Sūrat Yūsuf 12:101\] **Overview**: This *duʿāʾ* comes at the very end of Prophet Yūsuf’s story. After having gone through the twists and turns of life (e.g., an attempt on his life, unjust imprisonment, etc.), Allah raised him to a high position of power and reunited him with his family. Yūsuf expressed his gratitude to Allah for these blessings, then prayed to Allah to allow him to die as a Muslim and to join him with the righteous after his death. Wanting to die in a certain state means that we need to live in that state because death may come unexpectedly. Hence, when we make this *duʿāʾ*, we are actually asking Allah to make us steadfast adherents of Islam as long as we live. It is not a *duʿāʾ* seeking to hasten death; in fact, it is a request for a good ending to life. Furthermore, we are asking Allah to put us in the company of the prophets and His chosen servants in gardens of bliss in the hereafter. [^91] **Notable Benefits**: 1. Some might find it strange that Prophet Yūsuf would ask Allah to die as a ‘Muslim’ even though he preceded Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ by centuries. It is important to know that all of the prophets were Muslims: they worshipped Allah alone, submitted fully to Him, and rejected false idols. This is the ‘general’ Islam that all prophets taught their people. 2. Asking Allah to cause us to die as Muslims is similar to Allah’s command, “O you who believe, fear Allah as he ought to be feared and do not die unless you are Muslims.” \[Āli ʿImrān 3:102\] This *āyah* was frequently recited by the Prophet ﷺ prior to his sermons, and we still often hear it recited by the *khaṭīb* on Fridays. 3. Nothing in the above *duʿāʾ* indicates that we should be eager to die. In fact, this contradicts the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ, who said, “None of you should wish for death due to a calamity that has befallen him. If he must wish for death, then he should say, ‘O Allah! Let me live as long as life is better for me, and take my life if death is better for me.’”[^92] *The path towards a good ending begins with the rectification of our affairs. Therefore, asking Allah to rectify our affairs is as important as asking for a good ending.* **(4.28) Prayer for the correction of one’s affairs** اللَّهُمَّ أَصْلِحْ لِي دِينِيَ الَّذِي هُوَ عِصْمَةُ أَمْرِي وَأَصْلِحْ لِي دُنْيَاىَ الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَاشِي وَأَصْلِحْ لِي آخِرَتِي الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَادِي وَاجْعَلِ الْحَيَاةَ زِيَادَةً لِي فِي كُلِّ خَيْرٍ وَاجْعَلِ الْمَوْتَ رَاحَةً لِي مِنْ كُلِّ شَرٍّ Allāhumma aṣliḥ lī dīnī alladhī huwa ʿiṣmatu amrī wa-aṣliḥ lī dunyāya allatī fīhā maʿāshī wa-aṣliḥ lī ākhiratī allatī fīhā maʿādī wa-ijʿal al-ḥayāta ziyādatan lī fī kulli khayrin wa-ijʿal al-mawta rāḥatan lī min kulli sharr O Allah, set right for me my religion which is the safeguard of my affairs. And set right for me the affairs of my world in which is my livelihood. And set right for me my hereafter to which is my return. And make life for me a means of accumulating good, and make death for me a source of relief from every evil. Muslim **Context**: Abū Hurayrah reported that Allah's Messenger ﷺ used to invoke Allah with these words.[^93] **Overview:** This is an amazing *duʿāʾ* that we should commit to memory and say often. It includes asking for success in this life and the next. There are a total of five requests in this *duʿāʾ*. The first is asking Allah for rectification (*iṣlāḥ*) of our *dīn*. We ask for this first because our sincerity to Allah and our adherence to the teachings of His Messenger ﷺ serve as the basis for every other aspect of our lives. When Allah sets right our religious commitment, it makes Islam the guiding force of our lives. It also gives us the ability to interpret everything that happens to us in life through the proper lens. This is why the *dīn* is the safeguard of our affairs. If it is not set right, our decisions will not be guided in the right direction. **“Set right for me the affairs of my world”** refers to many important things. This includes asking Allah to provide us with that which suffices so that we will not be at the mercy of others. It also includes asking Allah to bless us with righteous families, comfortable homes, safety, and security. Allah says, “Whoever does good, whether male or female, and is a believer, We will surely bless them with a good life, and We will certainly reward them according to the best of their deeds.”[^94] The good life that we ask for includes contentment, peace of mind, halal provisions, and guidance to righteous deeds. **“Set right for me my hereafter to which is my return”** is a supplication for guidance towards righteous deeds that will weigh heavy on the Last Day. This includes a good ending which leads to Paradise. This reminder about the rectification of the hereafter reminds us that we need to prepare for the afterlife today. Paradise is our real home and our lives are simply a journey towards that destination. **“Make life for me (a source) of abundance of every good.”** In this part, we are asking Allah to make this life a means of attaining His pleasure. We ask Him to make each day one in which we increase in good deeds. The Prophet ﷺ was asked about the best people. He replied, “The one who lives a long life and whose actions are good.”[^95] **“Make my death a source of relief for me from every evil.”** In this part, we are reminded that life has its trials, tribulations, and difficulties. Death is a relief for the believer. A funeral procession once passed by Allah’s Messenger ﷺ and he said, “He is relieved or others are relieved from him.” The people asked, “O Allah’s Messenger! Who is the one relieved and the one from whom others are relieved?” He said, “A believer is relieved (by death) from the troubles and suffering of this world and departs to the Mercy of Allah, while (the death of) a wicked person relieves the people, land, trees, and the animals from him.”[^96] **Notable Benefits**: (1) Some of the scholars have mentioned how important it is to memorize this *duʿāʾ*. The great scholar of *fiqh* and hadith, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qurṭubī (d. 656), said, “This magnificent supplication combines the good of this world and the hereafter, and both religious affairs and worldly affairs. Everyone who hears it should memorize it and pray with it day and night. Perhaps he will say it at a time in which supplications are answered and gain the best of this world and the next because of it.”[^97] (2) This *duʿāʾ* teaches us not to neglect our worldly duties, but to prioritize the religion. Piety does not necessarily mean abandoning this world altogether. We can experience blessings and abundance in this world, but they should not distract us from worshipping Allah and prioritizing the afterlife. *As we strive to make every aspect of our existence pleasing to the One who created us, let us always remember the ultimate objective of fasting the month of Ramadan: to attain* taqwá*.* **(4.29) A comprehensive prayer to conclude the month**  اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الْهُدَى وَالتُّقَى وَالْعَفَافَ وَالْغِنَى *Allāhumma innī asʾaluka al-hudá wa-al-tuqá wa-al-ʿafāfa wa-al-ghiná*         O Allah, I ask you for guidance, piety, abstinence (from the unlawful), and contentment. Muslim **Context**: ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (ra) mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ used to supplicate with these words.[^98] **Overview**: The sum total of what we have been striving for in this month is guidance. This is the most important thing to ask Allah for. The next priority is *taqwá*, which is the objective of our fast. This beautiful *duʿāʾ* includes asking for both guidance and *taqwá*. These two concepts have already been explained earlier in this book. The supplication includes asking for the ability to abstain from sin and for contentment or richness of the heart. In general, abstinence means the practice of refraining from indulging an appetite or desire. Imam al-Nawawī mentioned that ‘abstinence’ (ʿ*afāf*) in this context refers to refraining from everything that is unlawful. Whereas ‘richness’ (*ghiná*) means being self-sufficient and content, not needing people or desiring their possessions.[^99] Those who are granted both abstinence and contentment will be independent of other people, their hearts will be tied to Allah alone, and they will be satisfied with Allah’s provisions for them. **Notable Benefits**: 1. Shaykh ʿAbdulraḥmān ibn Saʿdī (d. 1376 AH) said, “This *duʿāʾ* is one of the most comprehensive and beneficial *duʿāʾ*s. It comprises asking Allah for the good of both the *dīn* *and* the *dunya*. Hence, whoever is granted guidance, piety, abstinence and contentment has indeed achieved true success in this world and the next. They have acquired everything that could be possibly sought after, and have been saved from all that is dreadful and feared.”[^100] 2. Having a lot of possessions does not make a person rich. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Richness is not an abundance of worldly goods; rather, richness is contentment with one’s lot.”[^101] A person who has a lot of wealth but still craves more is often restless and not at peace. Even though he is rich, he is not happy due to his lack of contentment. Focusing on the hereafter is one of the best ways to reach the level of contentment. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever makes the hereafter his goal, Allah will bring his affairs together, place richness in his heart, and the world will come to him despite his lack of enthusiasm for it.[^102] *May Allah accept from us our striving in this month, grant us* taqwá*, and forgive us for our shortcomings.* --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3247. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2726. [^3]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 96, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^4]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1482, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^5]: Qur’an 1:5. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2725. [^7]: Yahyā b. Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj sharh Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, 1392 AH), 17:43. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2837. [^9]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3551; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1510; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3830. [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2722; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 5538. [^11]: Qur’an 2:197. [^12]: Qur’an 26:89. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6306. [^14]: Qur’an 4:110. [^15]: Qur’an 8:33. [^16]: Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm,* ed. Sāmī b. Muḥammad al-Salāmah, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār Al-Kutub Al-ʿIlmīyah, 1998), 4:43, verse 8:33. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 483; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 878. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 482. [^19]: Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad b. ʿAbd-Allāh al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ,* 10 vols.  (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Al-Saʿādah, 1974), 5:223. [^20]: Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān,* ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir, 24 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2000), 8:245, no. 9207. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6398; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2719. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 771; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1509. [^23]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2140, declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Tirmidhī; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3834. [^24]: *Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal*, no. 12107, authenticated as strong (*qawwī*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 52. [^26]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 88, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^27]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1304, authenticated by al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah*, 7 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat Al-Maʿārif, 1996), 7:696, no. 3228. See also *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3407. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3461. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6316; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 763. [^30]: Qur’an 24:35. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464. [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6389; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2690. The wording of Muslim does not include “*Allāhumma*” at the beginning. It starts at “*Rabbanā*” just like the *āyah* in Sūrat al-Baqarah, 2:201. [^33]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3847. [^34]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1519. [^35]: Qur’an 2:201. [^36]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 744; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 598. [^37]: Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. ʿAbdulʿazīz ibn Bāz, 13 vols. (Cairo: Al-Maktabah as-Salafīyah, n.d.), 2:230. [^38]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1522; *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1303. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī declared its chain of narrators strong in his work *Bulūgh al-marām*; see Ibn Ḥajar, *Bulūgh al-marām min adillat al-aḥkām*, ed. Samīr al-Zuhayrī (Riyadh: Dār Al-Falaq, 2003), 96. [^39]: *Sunan al-Nasā’ī*, no. 1347, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^40]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Kitāb al-rūḥ*, ed. Muḥammad al-Iṣlāḥī (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam Al-Fawāʾid, n.d.), 223. [^41]: Ibn al-Qayyim. [^42]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2308, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1377; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 588. [^44]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4402. [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 590. [^46]: Muwaffaq al-Dīn ibn Qudāmah, *Wabal al-ghamāmah fī sharḥ ʻUmdat al-Fiqh* (Riyadh: Madār al-Waṭan lil-Nashr, 2007), 1:292. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2732. [^48]: Muḥammad b. ʿIzz al-Dīn b. al-Malak, *Sharḥ Maṣābīḥ al-sunnah,* ed. Nūr al-Dīn Ṭālib, 6 vols. (Kuwait: Dār Al-Thaqāfah Al-Islāmīyah, 2012), 3:71. [^49]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’ ’ulūm al-dīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 2:186. [^50]: Al-Ghazālī, 2:186. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6357; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 406. [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 408. [^53]: Qur’an 17:23–24. [^54]: Qur’an 25:63–74. [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6230; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 402. [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6230; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 402. [^57]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2035. [^58]: Qur’an 59:8–10. [^59]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1767. [^60]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3513, authenticated by al-Tirmidhī; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3850. [^61]: Al-Ghazali mentions that pardoning is more intense than forgiveness. Forgiveness (*maghfira*) essentially means concealment, whereas pardoning is indicative of total erasure. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *al-Maqsad al-asná fī sharḥ maʿānī asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná,* ed. Bassām ʿAbdulwahhāb al-Jābī (Cyprus: al-Jaffān w’al-Jābī, 1987), 140. One example that a person might be forgiven for his sins but still questioned about them is found in the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar who said that the Prophet ﷺ said, “One of you will come close to his Lord till He will shelter him in His screen and say: Did you commit such-and-such sin? He will say, ‘Yes.’ Then Allah will say: Did you commit such and such sin? He will say, ‘Yes.’ So Allah will make him acknowledge (all his sins) and He will say, ‘I concealed them (your sins) for you in the world, and today I forgive them for you.’” See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6070; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2768. [^62]: Qur’an 24:22. [^63]: Tenzin Kiyosaki, *The Three Regrets: Inspirational Stories and Practical Advice for Love and Forgiveness at Life's End* (Scottsdale, AZ: Plata Publishing, 2021). [^64]: See Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Shinqīṭī, *Dafʿ īhām al-iḍṭirāb* (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymīyah, 1996), 33. [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 770. [^66]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1163. [^67]: The scholars have mentioned two possible interpretations for this phrase. The first is that it means to get more serious and prepare to work very hard, similar to the English phrase “roll up your sleeves.” The other is that it is a figurative expression used to indicate that he would avoid intimate relationships with his wives. [^68]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2024. [^69]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, trans. Ovamir Anjum, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1:86. [^70]: Qur’an 2:213. [^71]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 486. [^72]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6313. [^73]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*, ed. Muḥammad Ajmal al-Iṣlāḥī, 2 vols. (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam Al-Fawāʾid, n.d.), 1:626. [^74]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3846, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^75]: The Prophet ﷺ prefered *duʿāʾ*s that were comprehensive. ʿĀʾishah said, “Allah’s Messenger ﷺ used to like comprehensive *duʿāʾ* and would leave off other kinds.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1482, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^76]: ʿAlī b. Sulṭān Muḥammad al-Qārī al-Harawī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ sharḥ Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ,* 9 vols. (Beirut: Dār Al-Fikr, 2002), 5:1739, no. 2504. [^77]: *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*, no. 3025. See also Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī*, 2:321. [^78]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3846; see *duʿāʾ* (4.24) above. [^79]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2999. [^80]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1306, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^81]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3502. [^82]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 6478. [^83]: Qur’an 2:216. [^84]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, 2:528. [^85]: *Sunan al-Nasā'ī*, no. 1305, authenticated by al-Albānī. [^86]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 181. [^87]: There is a difference between this and loving the process of death, which often entails some degree of pain and loss. This refers primarily to optimism towards Allah and looking forward to meeting Allah and not having to experience the trials of this world ever again. This will be clarified further under the Notable Benefits section. [^88]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad b. Rajab, *Sharḥ ḥadīth labayka Allāhumma labbayk,* ed. al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1996), 95. [^89]: See Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr,* ed. Sāmī b. Muḥammad al-Salāmah, 8 vols. (Riyadh: Dār Ṭaybah, 1999), 4:262. [^90]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6507. [^91]: See ‘Abdur-Rahman Nasir as-Sa’di, *Tafseer as-Sa’di,* trans. Nasiruddin al-Khattab, 10 vols. (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2018), 5:47. [^92]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6351; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2680. [^93]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2720. [^94]: Qur’an 16:97. [^95]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2330, authenticated by al-Tirmidhī. [^96]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6512; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 950. [^97]: Aḥmad b. ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī, *al-Mufḥim limā ashkala min talkhīs kitāb Muslim*, ed. Muḥyi al-Dīn Dīb, et al., 7 vols. (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1996), 7:48–49. [^98]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2721. [^99]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj sharh Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj*, 17:41. [^100]: Abdur-Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di, *Bahjat qulūb al-abrār* (Riyadh: Maktaba al-Rushd, 2002), 203. [^101]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6446; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1051. [^102]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4105, authenticated by al-Albānī. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/charity-under-uncertainty-ramadan-giving-in-a-pandemic # Charity Under Uncertainty: Ramadan Giving in a Pandemic **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Wealth & Finance **Published:** April 8, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Charity is an important factor in balancing the allocation of resources in society.[^1],[^2] Charity is also an important factor in disciplining the *nafs* (soul) and spiritual growth. Due to its numerous benefits to the giver, recipient, and society, the importance of giving charity is highly emphasized in Islam.[^3] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ succinctly explained the status of charity in Islam when he said, “Charity is a proof \[of true faith\].”[^4] For Muslims worldwide, charity is essential to fighting poverty and developing Islamic institutions, such as *masjid*s and educational institutions. In the United States and Canada, over $410 billion dollars are donated annually, and religious causes are the largest recipients of charitable contributions.[^5] Although much has been written on religious giving in America, Muslim giving attitudes and behaviors have received very little attention.[^6] As the global pandemic has resulted in a substantial amount of economic and health uncertainty, the need for charity is incredibly high as people and nonprofits have been substantially affected. In this paper, I investigate Muslim giving during the pandemic, specifically in Ramadan 2020, as it presents an opportunity to deeply investigate the psychological and demographic factors related to Muslim giving during the most sacred time of year. Furthermore, the insights provide us with lessons for non-profits who are fundraising and an opportunity for introspection for prospective donors. --- ## Giving during the COVID-19 Pandemic People give for a variety of reasons, and their motivation to donate may vary with time, place, and the type of organization being donated to. Some of the well-known sociodemographic factors that influence giving include income, age, and education level.[^7] Additionally, psychological factors that relate to donations include altruism,[^8] social norms,[^9] perceptions about money,[^10] ingroup-outgroup perceptions,[^11] and empathy.[^12] Religion is another fundamental motivator of giving, which may be especially important during times of uncertainty. Donations have been found to decrease during times of economic uncertainty.[^13] Sudden shocks to income and wealth partially explain the drop-off, but there are important psychological attitudes towards giving that may also affect giving behavior. Furthermore, attitudes that develop during economic uncertainty may persist well after these times are over, making the consequences of economic uncertainty far longer lasting than simply the specific period of uncertainty.[^14] Non-profits are especially susceptible to shocks during times of recession, as reduced donations received from households, governments, and foundations cause non-profits to curtail their activities or shut down completely.[^15] Making the situation more precarious is that two-thirds of non-profits report possessing only two months of cash reserves.[^16] Sadly, as the demand for the services offered by many non-profits may increase during times of uncertainty and recession, their fundraising may decrease. A large survey by the *Chronicle of Philanthropy* during the COVID-19 pandemic reported that one in five donors “won’t be giving to charity until the economy is back up and running.”[^17] These are all serious concerns that limit the ability of *masjid*s, social service organizations, and educational instructions to serve their communities. How does all of this relate to Muslim giving as Ramadan nears? --- ## Giving during Ramadan Ramadan is a month of intense worship and giving. Ibn ʿAbbās reported, “The Messenger of Allah was the most generous of people and he was even more generous in Ramadan when Angel Jibrīl would meet him. He would meet him every night of Ramadan to study the Qur’an. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ would be more generous than a nourishing wind.”[^18] Imām al-Nawawī commented on this hadith saying, “Our scholars said that being generous and performing favors are highly recommended during Ramadan… This month is honored and good deeds performed in this month are more blessed than they are at any other time.”[^19] Thus, the month of Ramadan stands out as a time when increased prayers and Qur’an reading should cause the believer to be extra generous. It is not surprising that Muslims typically donate more in Ramadan than any other time of the year.[^20] Ramadan is also the month when Muslim organizations intensively fundraise, as they are aware of the theological importance of this sacred month to prospective donors. Believers are often motivated to give more during Ramadan for a number of reasons, including anticipation of greater reward from Allah,[^21] increased solicitations from Islamic organizations, and higher levels of optimism and well-being during the month.[^22] To demonstrate how Muslim economic behavior may change in Ramadan, a study of Muslim-majority countries and stock market returns found that returns were substantially higher during Ramadan, suggesting that higher returns in Ramadan could be explained by changes in investor psychology, such as increased optimism and life satisfaction.[^23] Similarly, in another study demonstrating increased giving behavior, Iranian Muslims reported a 154% increase in organ donation willingness in Ramadan.[^24] Ramadan in 2020 occurred in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to social isolation guidelines, nearly all mosques were closed for the duration of the lunar month (April 23-May 23), an unprecedented event in modern history. As in-person services were not offered, and solicitation was exclusively done online, over the telephone, or through mail campaigns, giving behavior was substantially different than in prior years. Additionally, the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic may also have impacted Muslims’ emotions, attitudes, and economic choices. --- ## The psychology of decision-making under uncertainty The pandemic has resulted in elevated levels of stress and anxiety, both of which influence decisions involving risk and uncertainty, such as increased preferences for low-risk, low-reward options.[^25] Financial anxiety due to worrying about losing employment or investments due to the stock market and economic uncertainty may influence giving behavior.[^26] For example, for some people, the small probability of losing one’s job or small probability of a stock market crash may cause them to withhold donating out of excessive fear. An Islamic understanding of the psychological antecedents and consequences of financial anxiety may help explain and change giving attitudes and behavior. In this paper, I investigate the antecedents and consequences of two psychological mechanisms related to giving (1) financial anxiety and (2) subjective financial well-being. ### Financial anxiety Uncertainty intolerance (UI) is hypothesized to cause employment and financial anxiety. Uncertainty intolerance can be defined as a cognitive bias that affects how a person perceives, interprets, and responds to uncertain situations cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally.[^27] Decades of research on the etiology of worrying have suggested that uncertainty intolerance is the root cause of worry and generalized anxiety disorder.[^28] Prior research has found that uncertainty intolerance predicts increased anxiety in Muslims, risk aversion in economic situations,[^29] and experimental research has found that individuals’ risk preferences also influence their giving behavior.[^30] Uncertainty intolerance has been linked to giving behavior at the national level. In a study of 79 countries, higher levels of uncertainty avoidance at the country level were associated with less charitable giving at the country level.[^31] In another study of 135 countries, countries high in uncertainty avoidance had lower donor frequencies.[^32] For any particular individual, we hypothesize that uncertainty intolerance during an uncertain time (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic) will induce some type of financial anxiety, which in turn is expected to diminish charitable giving. Real option theory suggests that financial stress influences economic behavior by incorporating the value of waiting before making a decision, thus allowing the uncertainty to be resolved before making a financial investment.[^33] In the case of giving during the pandemic, someone may elect to wait until after the pandemic has ended or they have more certainty in their financial situation before donating. Mindfulness is another psychological mechanism related to uncertainty intolerance and anxiety. From an Islamic perspective, mindfulness refers to the ability to live in the present moment in the presence of Allah with openness and acceptance.[^34] By definition, being mindful implies not dwelling on the past or obsessing over the future. Thus, mindfulness may prevent individuals from being paralyzed in the face of uncertainty, whereas uncertainty intolerance leads to delaying decisions or decision paralysis.[^35] Mindfulness may thus operate as a central mechanism in reducing uncertainty intolerance and improving decision-making. Mindfulness interventions have been found to reduce uncertainty intolerance and health anxiety,[^36] and we hypothesize the same relations to hold between mindfulness, uncertainty intolerance, and financial anxiety. ### Subjective financial well-being From both a psychological and economic perspective, one’s perception of their financial situation should relate to their economic choices. Subjective financial well-being refers to perceptions of financial strain, manageability of finances, and financial prospects.[^37] People derive a sense of economic security, or lack thereof, from both their current economic situation and perceptions of future economic well-being.[^38] Higher subjective financial well-being is associated with better life satisfaction, mood, and health.[^39] Studies have found a positive relation between subjective financial well-being and donations,[^40] even when accounting for actual income.[^41] Thus, subjective financial well-being is hypothesized to improve one’s mood, which may then predict philanthropic behavior.[^42] From an Islamic perspective, subjective perceptions of financial well-being are matters of spirituality. The Prophet ﷺ was keen to reframe perceptions of wealth and well-being in the hearts of the companions. In the following hadith narrated by Abū Dharr, he explains how the Prophet ﷺ wanted him to consider subjective well-being. > “O Abū Dharr, do you say an abundance of possessions is wealth?” I said yes. The Prophet said, “Do you say a lack of possessions is poverty?” I said yes. The Prophet repeated this three times, then he said, “Wealth is in the heart and poverty is in the heart. Whoever is wealthy in his heart will not be harmed no matter what happens in the world. Whoever is impoverished in his heart will not be satisfied no matter how much he has in the world. Verily, he will only be harmed by the greed of his own soul.”[^43] This hadith provides evidence that actual wealth and subjective perceptions of wealth are distinct. Actual wealth is related to the material world and subjective wealth is related to the spiritual world. Thus, understanding how an incongruence between actual and subjective wealth manifests is important for the believer. Prior research has found that the relation between income and subjective financial well-being depends on a person’s material desires.[^44] Thus, the discrepancy between what a person has and what a person desires reduces subjective perceptions of wealth; upward social comparisons have the same result. Further evidence suggests that financial anxiety is a strong factor that predicts subjective perceptions of financial well-being.[^45] Therefore, it appears that uncertainty intolerance and mindfulness relate to financial anxiety directly and to subjective financial well-being indirectly. We investigate these issues empirically in the study described below. --- ## Muslim giving in Ramadan 2020 The Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research conducted a survey at the end of Ramadan 2020 (Experiencing Ramadan in Social Isolation survey).[^46] The current study includes a sub-sample of 1,722 North American Muslims. The participants were 78% female,[^47] the average age category was 25-34 years old, the average annual income was $50,000 to $75,000, and the average education level was a bachelor’s degree. This study is focused on understanding the religious, demographic, and psychological factors that relate to the amount of money donated in Ramadan 2020. Our primary research questions were the following: 1. To what extent do mindfulness, uncertainty intolerance, and income predict financial anxiety? 2. To what extent do financial anxiety, income, age, and education predict subjective financial well-being? 3. To what extent do demographics (age, income, income), spiritual practice, financial anxiety, and subjective financial well-being predict Ramadan donations? ### Measures The following constructs were measured by our survey, with all questions using a Likert scale (e.g., bounded from 1 to 5). See Appendix A for a complete list of items used. **Mindfulness.** Three items from the mindful attention awareness scale[^48] were used to measure dispositional mindfulness (α = .86).[^49] **Uncertainty intolerance.** Two items from the intolerance of uncertainty scale[^50] were used to measure attitudes towards uncertainty (α = .80) **Financial anxiety.** Two items measured worry related to the individual’s employment and financial situation. “How worried are you about your financial situation?” & “How financially well-off (well-to-do) do you consider yourself?” (α = .82) **Spiritual practice.** Two items were created to measure spiritual practice. Reading the Qur’an and praying **tarāwīḥ** are two central aspects of spiritual practice during Ramadan.  Respondents were asked one question about Qur’an reading outside of Ramadan to get a measure of trait religiosity and one question about whether they prayed *tarāwīḥ* to get a measure of state religiosity. “Outside of Ramadan, how often do you read the Qur’an?” The variable was dichotomized to code for those who reported reading the Qur’an daily and those who did not. Respondents were also asked, “Did you pray *tarāwīḥ* at home this year?” The responses to the two items were added together to create a score for religiosity. **Demographic covariates.** Respondents were asked to report their annual income bracket, highest level of education completed, and age bracket. **Donations.** One item asked about total donations in Ramadan. “How much money did you donate this Ramadan in total?” Options ranged from 1 = $0 to 7 = $5000+. **Analyses** Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relations among mindfulness, uncertainty intolerance, financial anxiety, spiritual practice, demographics, and reported donation amount (see Figure 1 for a diagram of the hypothesized model).[^51] ![Chart: Charitable giving under uncertainty in Ramadan](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image3-2-1024x771.png) The hypothesized model conceptualized mindfulness, uncertainty intolerance, and income as predictors of financial anxiety, with uncertainty intolerance partially mediating the effect of mindfulness. Subjective financial well-being was predicted  by financial anxiety, income, education, and age. Finally, total donations in dollars were predicted by demographic variables, financial anxiety, subjective financial well-being, and spiritual practice. --- ## Results What did we learn about Muslim attitudes and giving behavior during the pandemic in Ramadan 2020? In general, Muslims in our sample were quite generous. The median Ramadan donation of our respondents was between $250-499, with nearly 30% donating more than $1000 (see Figure 2). We conservatively estimate that the total Ramadan donations of the 1,722 North American Muslims in our study equaled nearly **2 million dollars**.[^52] Here are a few descriptive findings related to financial anxiety and subjective well being: - Approximately one in four (24%) people agreed or strongly agreed that uncertainty made them stressed and unable to relax. - Three in ten people (30%) were at least somewhat worried about their financial situation. - Approximately one in four (23%) felt they were either hardly well-off or not well-off at all (see Figure 2). ![Graph: Amount of Donations in Ramadan 2020 from Survey](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image5-2-1024x770.png) ![Graph: Financial status of survey participants](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image2-2-1024x433.png) The results of the structural equation model are shown in Figure 4. See Table 1 for descriptive statistics and Table 2 for detailed results of the full model.[^53] ### Question 1: Predictors of Financial Anxiety? Uncertainty intolerance (*B=*.18) and mindfulness (*B=*\-.16) predicted financial anxiety. In other words, people with higher levels of uncertainty intolerance had more financial anxiety and people with higher levels of mindfulness had less financial anxiety. Additionally, uncertainty intolerance partially mediated the effect of mindfulness on financial anxiety, (*B=*\-.09). Income (*B=*\-.20) was negatively related to financial anxiety. ### Question 2: Predictors of Subjective Financial Well-Being? Financial anxiety (*B*\=-.24) was negatively associated with subjective financial well-being. Thus, people with less financial anxiety felt much more well-off than those with higher financial anxiety, even after accounting for the effect of income. Subjective financial well-being was positively associated with income (*B*\=.41). In other words, people with higher income generally reported higher levels of subjective financial well-being. However, many people with higher levels of income still reported moderate levels of financial anxiety, highlighting the subjective nature of financial well-being. ### Question 3: Predictors of Ramadan donations? All demographic variables were related to the amount of money donated. Income (*B=*.23), educational level (*B=*.30), and age (*B=*.28) all positively predicted donations. This means that older, more educated, and wealthier people donated more. Financial anxiety was negatively correlated with donations (*B=-.*06), meaning that more financial anxiety was related to giving less, even when accounting for the effects of income, education, and age on giving. Subjective financial well-being (*B=*.11) was positively associated with giving. Financial anxiety thus had a direct effect on giving and an indirect effect on giving through its relationship with subjective financial well-being (*B*\=-.05). Spiritual practice, defined as praying *tarāwīḥ* and reading Qur’an regularly, (*B=*.07) was positively correlated with donations. ![Chart: Results of the structural equation model regarding contributors of financial anxiety](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image6-1024x799.png) --- ## Reflections on the findings This study investigated a unique opportunity to understand real-life philanthropic decision-making during a time of personal and global uncertainty. The goal of the study was to understand the psychological, religious, and demographic predictors of Muslim giving during Ramadan. The primary concern was investigating the psychological and religious aspects of giving and their relevance to Muslim life. The results add to our understanding of Muslim philanthropy and decision-making. ### Islam and financial anxiety Financial anxiety was associated with a decrease in the amount of money donated, even when accounting for income. The antecedents to financial anxiety included uncertainty intolerance and lack of mindfulness. Both uncertainty intolerance and mindfulness relate to core psychological orientations towards life. Mindfulness may aid people in recognizing that the source of their unease may be due to perceived uncertainty, allow them to observe their thoughts non-judgmentally and detach from them, and subsequently reduce anxiety.[^54] People who struggle to stay focused on the present moment appear to be especially uncomfortable with the uncertainty of the future, which we have found leads to numerous maladaptive outcomes, including heightened anxiety, increased pessimism, and perceiving fewer blessings.[^55] These maladaptive psychological outcomes distort our perception of reality and lead to making suboptimal choices, including donating less money, which is of tremendous reward, especially in the month of Ramadan. Islam provides substantial guidance on tolerating (and embracing) uncertainty and living in the present moment in the presence of Allah, especially as it relates to financial anxiety and charitable giving. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Wealth does not decrease with charity.”[^56] This principle of Islamic philanthropy is meant to serve as a promise to the believer that their charitable contributions will never harm them. To reinforce this notion, the Qur’an repeats multiple times that donations are akin to loaning money to God. Allah says in Surah al-Hadid, مَّن ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ وَلَهُ أَجْرٌ كَرِيمٌ “Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan so He will multiply it for him and he will have a noble reward?”[^57] This is meant to put the heart of a believer at ease by having full confidence that God will pay back the loan generously. The Prophet ﷺ further taught us to turn to Allah for support during times of financial anxiety and to seek His assistance in being charitable. The Prophet ﷺ used to say, “O Allah! I seek refuge with You from anxiety and grief, from incapacity and laziness, from cowardice and stinginess, from being heavily in debt and from being overpowered by (other) men.”[^58] This hadith exemplifies the comprehensive nature of seeking support from Allah from anxiety, including financial anxiety, as a means to fueling wise economic decisions such as donating and avoiding debt. --- ## Islam and subjective financial well-being Another important finding was that financial anxiety was related to subjective financial well-being, which was in turn predictive of giving. We want  to reiterate that subjective financial well-being was predictive of donations, even after accounting for income, age, and education. Subjective financial well-being is closely related to relative deprivation theory (RDT), which states that income satisfaction is related to social comparisons, desire for a higher salary, and feelings of entitlement or deservingness.[^59] According to RDT and subjective financial well-being research, there is no monotonic function between the subjective feeling of deprivation and the objective situation. Rather, through maladaptive social comparisons and increased desire for material possessions, a person may consider themselves less well-off than they truly are. In fact, one novel study has found that experimentally manipulating relative deprivation beliefs increases the desire for immediate rewards, which relates to increased gambling tendencies.[^60] Thus, feeling financially deprived, which is often the result of making social comparisons with those wealthier than us, is maladaptive. It can lead to decisions that feel temporarily rewarding while forgoing long-term benefits. This is clearly seen through the detrimental impact that feelings of financial deprivation can have on giving behavior; it may feel temporarily safer to forgo donations, but Islamically it is clear that giving is highly beneficial in the long run. Islam provides a clear perspective to combat feelings of relative deprivation and low subjective financial well-being. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Compare \[yourself\] to those who are lower than you \[in wealth\] and do not look at those who are above you \[in wealth\], for it is more suitable that you do not discount the blessings of God.”[^61] Thus, based on prophetic guidance, downward social comparisons are an essential way to increase gratitude and combat feelings of low financial well-being. Thus, as the month of Ramadan nears, even during times of uncertainty, it behooves the believer to engage in a conscious process of counting their blessings by reflecting over their advantageous financial position relative to the vast majority of people in the world. --- ## Spiritual practices and giving Performing *tarāwīḥ* prayers in Ramadan and reading the Qur’an daily were associated with increased donations in Ramadan. These two practices are similar in that both involve recitation of and reflection upon the Qur’an. As numerous verses encourage giving charity, reframe the financial mindset of a believer, and inculcate an abundance mindset, daily exposure to these verses[^62] may serve to increase donations. These Qur’anic exhortations may have proved to be particularly important in a socially isolated Ramadan, as people did not receive in-person solicitations from the *masjid*. These findings also confirm the general finding that religiosity is related to donations. --- ## Limitations and conclusion The current study is one of the first empirical investigations into the determinants of Muslim giving in Ramadan, particularly by North American Muslims. Perfection only belongs to Allah, and thus there are always a number of limitations that must be considered in these studies. First, the study relied on cross-sectional data. Therefore, no strong causal claims can be made about the relations between psychological constructs. The study was also limited to Muslims in Ramadan, so whether these mechanisms generalize to giving outside of Ramadan is not known. For example, *tarāwīḥ* is an act of worship unique to Ramadan, so its effect on giving can only be realized in this month. Furthermore, the study was not based on a representative sample of Muslim Americans. However, it is not unreasonable to assume that the main psychological processes discussed should hold across time and across people when understanding philanthropic decision-making during times of uncertainty. The findings have implications for interventions aimed at reducing financial anxiety, subjective financial well-being, and ultimately giving attitudes and behavior. Invoking particular religious beliefs and practices may be useful tools to put the hearts of believers at ease and motivate optimal giving behavior during times of uncertainty. A follow-up paper to this study expands on the psychology of wealth and investing in Islam, which is necessary for Muslims to detach themselves from capitalist notions of wealth and investing and reorient themselves to Qur’anic and Prophetic principles of wealth acquisition, spending, and investment. ![Table 1: Means, Standard Deviations, Minimum, and Maximum for All Variables](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image1-2-1024x778.png) ![Table 2: Full Results of the Structural Equation Model](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image4-2-835x1024.png) **Appendix A** **Survey Items Used** What is your annual household income? (before taxes) - $49,999 or less   - Between $50,000 and $74,999   - Between $75,000 and $99,999    - Between $100,000-$149,999    - Between $150,000-$199,999  - Between $200,000-$249,999    - $250,000+ What is your age? - Under 18    - 18 - 24    - 25 - 34    - 35 - 44    - 45 - 54    - 55 - 64   - 65+ What is the highest level of education you have completed? - Less than high school degree - High school degree  - Some college   - College degree  - Masters, PhD, JD, MD Mindfulness (1 to 6) - I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in the present. - I find myself doing things without paying attention. - I rush through activities without being really attentive to them. Uncertainty intolerance (1-strongly disagree to 5- strongly agree) - My mind can’t be relaxed if I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. - Uncertainty makes me uneasy, anxious, or stressed. How financially well-off (well-to-do) do you consider yourself? (1 to 5) How worried are you about your financial situation?  (1-not at all worried to 5- extremely worried) How worried are you about your employment? (1-not at all worried to 5- extremely worried) Did you pray *tarāwīḥ* at home this year? (Yes/No) Outside of Ramadan, how often do you read the Qur’an? (1-Hardly ever to 5-daily) How much money did you donate this Ramadan in total? - $0  - $1-49   - $50-$99    - $100-$249    - $250-$499    - $500-$999    - $1000-$4999    - $5000+ --- ## Notes [^1]: Marlone D. Henderson, Szu-chi Huang, and Chiu-chi Angela Chang, “When Others Cross Psychological Distance to Help: Highlighting Prosocial Actions toward Outgroups Encourages Philanthropy,” *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology* 48, no. 1 (2012): 220–25. [^2]: Zara Khan, “Reviving the Waqf Tradition: Moral Imagination and the Structural Causes of Poverty”, Yaqeen, July 2, 2020, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zarakhan/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty [^3]: Khalil Abdurrashid, “Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions (Waqfs),” Yaqeen, January 9, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718264000&usg=AOvVaw27Mdgw41e9RCjxuvrTtxAq). [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 223. [^5]: “Giving USA 2018: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2017,” Giving USA, 2018;  “Research About Giving in Canada,” Imagine Canada, [http://sectorsource.ca/research-and-impact/giving-research](http://sectorsource.ca/research-and-impact/giving-research&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718240000&usg=AOvVaw0i_QeNmhobUEeQAZEuPQS4). [^6]: See [https://www.ispu.org/why-muslims-give/](https://www.ispu.org/why-muslims-give/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718241000&usg=AOvVaw1i2UqPjIU2vQIp-Wgk348e) for demographics of Muslim giving. [^7]: René Bekkers and Pamala Wiepking, “Who Gives? A Literature Review of Predictors of Charitable Giving Part One: Religion, Education, Age and Socialisation,” *Voluntary Sector Review* 2, no. 3 (2011): 337–65. [^8]: Karen Wright, “Generosity vs. Altruism: Philanthropy and Charity in the United States and United Kingdom,” *Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations* 12, no. 4 (2001): 399–416. [^9]: Joanne R. Smith and Andreè McSweeney, “Charitable Giving: The Effectiveness of a Revised Theory of Planned Behaviour Model in Predicting Donating Intentions and Behaviour,” *Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology* 17, no. 5 (2007): 363–86. [^10]: Pamala Wiepking and Beth Breeze, “Feeling Poor, Acting Stingy: The Effect of Money Perceptions on Charitable Giving,” *International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing* 17, no. 1 (2012): 13–24. [^11]: David John Hart and Andrew Robson, “Does Charity Begin at Home? National Identity and Donating to Domestic versus International Charities,” *Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations* 30, no. 4 (2019): 865–80. [^12]: Arjen De Wit and Rene Bekkers, “Exploring Gender Differences in Charitable Giving: The Dutch Case,” *Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly* 45, no. 4 (2016): 741–61. [^13]: H. Daniel Heist and Danielle Vance-McMullen, “Understanding Donor-Advised Funds: How Grants Flow During Recessions,” *Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly* 48, no. 5 (2019): 1066–93. [^14]: Jonathan Meer, David Miller, and Elisa Wulfsberg, “The Great Recession and Charitable Giving,” *Applied Economics Letters* 24, no. 21 (2017): 1542–49. [^15]: Kirsten A. GrØnbjerg and Anjali Bhatt, “Nonprofit Paid Employment in Social Assistance Update Report, Indiana 1995-2018” (PhD diss., Indiana University, 2020). [^16]: Laura Deitrick, Tessa Tinkler, Emily Young, Colton C. Strawser, Connelly Meschen, Nallely Manriques, and Bob Beatty, “Nonprofit Sector Response to COVID-19,” The Nonprofit Institute, University of San Diego, 2020. [^17]: M. Theis, “One in Five Donors Has Stopped Giving, Survey Says,” *The Chronicle of Philanthropy*, May 6, 2020, [https://www.philanthropy.com/article/one-in-five-donors-has-stopped-giving-survey-says/](https://www.philanthropy.com/article/one-in-five-donors-has-stopped-giving-survey-says/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718244000&usg=AOvVaw0UqpwdkczwCX4uUnfAqWcg). [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1803; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2308. [^19]: *Al-Majmū’ sharḥ al-muhadhdhab* (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 2000), 6:424. [^20]: Muhi Khwaja, “Harnessing the Power of Muslim Philanthropy,” *Philanthropy Journal*, August 12, 2019, [https://pj.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2019/08/12/harnessing-the-power-of-muslim-philanthropy/](https://pj.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2019/08/12/harnessing-the-power-of-muslim-philanthropy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718246000&usg=AOvVaw3XpeG2_yosXZl0Y_TtfleH). [^21]: Shadiya Mohamed Saleh Baqutayan, Magda Ismail A. Mohsin, Akbariah Mohd Mahdzir, and Aini Suzana Ariffin, “The Psychology of Giving Behavior in Islam,” *Sociology International Journal* 2, no. 2 (2018): 88–92. [^22]: Based on comparisons of data pre- and post-Ramadan 2020, collected by Yaqeen. [^23]: Jedrzej Pawel Bialkowski, Ahmad Etebari, and Tomasz Piotr Wisniewski, “Piety and Profits: Stock Market Anomaly during the Muslim Holy Month,” Finance and Corporate Governance Conference, 2010. [^24]: Katayoun Najafizadeh, Fariba Ghorbani, Sajjad Hamidinia, Mohammad Ali Emamhadi, Mohammad Ali Moinfar, Omid Ghobadi, and Shervin Assari, “Holy Month of Ramadan and Increase in Organ Donation Willingness,” *Saudi Journal of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation* 21, no. 3 (2010): 443. [^25]: George F. Loewenstein, Elke U. Weber, Christopher K. Hsee, and Ned Welch, “Risk as Feelings,” *Psychological Bulletin* 127, no. 2 (2001): 267;  Drazen Prelec, “The Probability Weighting Function,” *Econometrica* (1998): 497–527. [^26]: Jennifer S. Lerner and Dacher Keltner, “Beyond Valence: Toward a Model of Emotion-Specific Influences on Judgement and Choice,” *Cognition & Emotion* 14, no. 4 (2000): 473–93; Rajagopal Raghunathan and Michel Tuan Pham, “All Negative Moods Are Not Equal: Motivational Influences of Anxiety and Sadness on Decision Making,” *Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes* 79, no. 1 (1999): 56–77. [^27]: Kristine Buhr and Michael J. Dugas, “The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale: Psychometric Properties of the English Version,” *Behaviour Research and Therapy* 40, no. 8 (2002): 931–45. [^28]: Michel J. Dugas, Andrea Schwartz, and Kylie Francis, “Brief Report: Intolerance of Uncertainty, Worry, and Depression,” *Cognitive Therapy and Research* 28, no. 6 (2004): 835–42. [^29]: Tatiana V. Kornilova, Maria A. Chumakova, and Sergey A. Kornilov, “Tolerance and Intolerance for Uncertainty as Predictors of Decision Making and Risk Acceptance in Gaming Strategies of the Iowa Gambling Task,” *Psychology in Russia* 11, no. 3 (2018): 86; David Schröder and Gail Gilboa Freedman, “Decision Making Under Uncertainty: The Relation between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Traits,” *Theory and Decision*, 2020, 1–23. [^30]: Elena Cettolin, Arno Riedl, and Giang Tran, “Giving in the Face of Risk,” *Journal of Risk and Uncertainty* 55, no. 2 (2017): 95–118. [^31]: Ivana Stojcic, Lu Kewen, and Ren Xiaopeng, “Does Uncertainty Avoidance Keep Charity Away? Comparative Research between Charitable Behavior and 79 National Cultures,” *Culture and Brain* 4, no. 1 (2016): 1–20. [^32]: Peter B. Smith, “To Lend Helping Hands: In-Group Favoritism, Uncertainty Avoidance, and the National Frequency of Pro-Social Behaviors,” *Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology* 46, no. 6 (2015): 759–71. [^33]: Troy Davig and Craig Hakkio, “What Is the Effect of Financial Stress on Economic Activity?,” *Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Economic Review* 95, no. 2 (2010): 35–62. [^34]: Juston Parrott, “How to Be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation,” *Yaqeen*, November 21, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718250000&usg=AOvVaw0fucfl21ovH7g4esx7FA7n). [^35]: Howard Berenbaum, Keith Bredemeier, and Renee J. Thompson, “Intolerance of Uncertainty: Exploring Its Dimensionality and Associations with Need for Cognitive Closure, Psychopathology, and Personality,” *Journal of Anxiety Disorders* 22, no. 1 (2008): 117–25. [^36]: Kristen M. Kraemer, Emily M. O’Bryan, and Alison C. McLeish, “Intolerance of Uncertainty as a Mediator of the Relationship between Mindfulness and Health Anxiety,” *Mindfulness* 7, no. 4 (2016): 859–65; David A. Lovas and Arthur J. Barsky, “Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Hypochondriasis, or Severe Health Anxiety: A Pilot Study,” *Journal of Anxiety Disorders* 24, no. 8 (2010): 931–35. [^37]: Michael J. Zyphur, Wen-Dong Li, Zhen Zhang, Richard D. Arvey, and Adam P. Barsky, “Income, Personality, and Subjective Financial Well-Being: The Role of Gender in Their Genetic and Environmental Relationships,” *Frontiers in Psychology* 6 (2015): 1493. [^38]: Eileen Y. Chou, Bidhan L. Parmar, and Adam D. Galinsky, “Economic Insecurity Increases Physical Pain,” *Psychological Science* 27, no. 4 (2016): 443–54. [^39]: Richard G. Netemeyer, Dee Warmath, Daniel Fernandes, and John G. Lynch, Jr., “How Am I Doing? Perceived Financial Well-Being, Its Potential Antecedents, and Its Relation to Overall Well-Being,” *Journal of Consumer Research* 45, no. 1 (2018): 68–89; Soyeon Shim, Jing J. Xiao, Bonnie L. Barber, and Angela C. Lyons, “Pathways to Life Success: A Conceptual Model of Financial Well-Being for Young Adults,” *Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology* 30, no. 6 (2009): 708–23. [^40]: Roger Bennett and Rita Kottasz, “Emergency Fund‐Raising for Disaster Relief,” *Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal* 9, no. 5 (2000): 352–60. [^41]: Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Alix Love, and Adamantios Diamantopoulos, “Responses to Different Charity Appeals: The Impact of Donor Characteristics on the Amount of Donations,” *European Journal of Marketing* 31, no. 8 (1997): 548–60. [^42]: Leon Zolotoy, Don O’Sullivan, Myeong-Gu Seo, and Madhu Veeraraghavan, “Mood and Ethical Decision Making: Positive Affect and Corporate Philanthropy,” *Journal of Business Ethics*, 2020, 1–20;  Evelyne J. Dyck and Gary Coldevin, “Using Positive vs. Negative Photographs for Third-World Fund Raising,” *Journalism Quarterly* 69, no. 3 (1992): 572–79. [^43]: *Al-Muʿjam al-kabīr lil-Ṭabarānī*, no. 1618. [^44]: Emily Crawford Solberg, Ed Diener, Derrick Wirtz, Richard E. Lucas, and Shigehiro Oishi, “Wanting, Having, and Satisfaction: Examining the Role of Desire Discrepancies in Satisfaction with Income,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 83, no. 3 (2002): 725. [^45]: Agata Gasiorowska, “The Relationship between Objective and Subjective Wealth Is Moderated by Financial Control and Mediated by Money Anxiety,” *Journal of Economic Psychology* 43 (2014): 64–74. [^46]: ERSI was a cross-sectional online survey of Muslims worldwide and how they experienced Ramadan amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were recruited via email and social media. The full sample included 3,800 Muslims worldwide. [^47]: Although the number of women is very high, the difference in giving behavior between genders was not significantly different (*t*\=1.77) [^48]: Kirk Warren Brown and Richard M. Ryan, “The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 84, no. 4 (2003): 822. [^49]: We used confirmatory factor analysis to show that the three mindfulness items loaded on a common factor of trait mindfulness. See Table 3 for factor loadings. [^50]: Kristine Buhr and Michael J. Dugas, “The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale: Psychometric Properties of the English Version,” *Behaviour Research and Therapy* 40, no. 8 (2002): 931–45. [^51]: Stata 15 was used to estimate the complete path model. Model fit was first assessed using the chi-squared statistic (χ2), as it is the only inferential statistic in SEM for model fit. Additionally, we used two alternative fit indices, the root mean error of approximation (RMSEA) and the comparative fit index (CFI). RMSEA values below .08 and CFI values greater than .95 indicated good fit. There were cases of missing data across the survey items. Missing data on income was substantial (24%). On average, those with missing data on income were significantly higher educated (*t =* 5.6, *p* < .001) and donated less (*t =* 2.2, *p* < . 05). We accounted for the missing data by utilizing full-information maximum likelihood (FIML). [^52]: Estimated total donations by assuming each person gave the average value of the category they selected (e.g., $75 if in the $50–99 category and $375 if in the $250–499 category). Since our highest value was $5000+, we assumed no one in that group gave more than $5000, which is likely a severe underestimation. [^53]: The model fit the data well. See Table 2 for fit statistics. The measurement model of three mindfulness items represented a common factor. [^54]: Natalie Karelaia and Jochen Reb, “Improving Decision Making through Mindfulness,” *Mindfulness in Organizations: Foundations, Research, and Applications*, 2015, 256–84. [^55]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617896718253000&usg=AOvVaw2BlQ70UeqxpNgoswagiXv3). [^56]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2588. [^57]: Qur’an 57:11. [^58]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6369. [^59]: Paul D. Sweeney, Dean B. McFarlin, and Edward J. Inderrieden, “Using Relative Deprivation Theory to Explain Satisfaction with Income and Pay Level: A Multistudy Examination,” *Academy of Management Journal* 33, no. 2 (1990): 423–36. [^60]: Mitchell J. Callan, N. Will Shead, and James M. Olson, “Personal Relative Deprivation, Delay Discounting, and Gambling,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 101, no. 5 (2011): 955. [^61]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6125; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2963. [^62]: Here are a few verses that encourage donating in the Qur’an: ## Summary Charity occupies a lofty station in Islam, for it balances the distribution of wealth in society and refines the soul (*nafs*), aiding its spiritual growth. Its importance is emphasized greatly, as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, "Charity is a proof [of true faith]." For Muslims across the world, charity is essential in confronting poverty and in sustaining Islamic institutions such as *masjids* and educational bodies. In North America, more than $410 billion is donated annually, with religious causes receiving the largest share. Yet despite the abundance of research on religious giving in America, the attitudes and behaviors of Muslim donors have drawn scant attention. This study addresses that gap by examining Muslim giving during Ramadan 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—a season of profound economic and health uncertainty, when the need for charity was acute and the psychological and demographic factors shaping giving could be studied during the holiest time of the year. People give for many reasons, and their motivations shift with circumstance. Sociodemographic factors such as income, age, and education are known to influence giving, as are psychological factors like altruism, social norms, perceptions about money, in-group and out-group perceptions, and empathy. Religion remains a fundamental motivator, perhaps most of all during times of uncertainty. Research indicates that donations tend to fall during economic instability, partly due to sudden losses in income and wealth, but also because of attitudes that may persist long after the crisis has passed. Non-profit organizations are especially vulnerable; a survey by the *Chronicle of Philanthropy* during the pandemic found that one in five donors would not give until the economy recovered, and two-thirds of non-profits reported holding only two months of cash reserves. Such conditions threaten the ability of *masjids* and community institutions to serve. Ramadan, however, stands apart as a month of intensified worship and generosity. Ibn ʿAbbās reported, "The Messenger of Allah was the most generous of people and he was even more generous in Ramadan when Angel Jibrīl would meet him. He would meet him every night of Ramadan to study the Qur'an. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ would be more generous than a nourishing wind." Commenting on this, Imām al-Nawawī noted that his scholars held generosity and good works to be highly recommended in Ramadan, since the month is honored and its deeds more blessed than at any other time. Muslims typically give more in this month, motivated by anticipation of reward, increased solicitation from Islamic organizations, and heightened optimism and well-being. Studies illustrate how Muslim behavior shifts in Ramadan: stock market returns in Muslim-majority countries were found to be substantially higher, possibly reflecting increased optimism, and Iranian Muslims reported a 154% rise in willingness to donate organs during the month. Yet Ramadan 2020 was unprecedented, as nearly all mosques closed for the entire lunar month and solicitation moved online, by telephone, and through mail. The uncertainty of the pandemic elevated stress and anxiety, which affect decisions involving risk—often pushing people toward low-risk, low-reward choices. The study examines two psychological mechanisms tied to giving: financial anxiety and subjective financial well-being. Financial anxiety is hypothesized to stem from uncertainty intolerance, a cognitive bias shaping how one perceives and responds to uncertain situations. Decades of research identify uncertainty intolerance as a root of worry and generalized anxiety, and it has been shown to predict anxiety in Muslims and risk aversion in economic matters. Across nations, higher uncertainty avoidance has been associated with less charitable giving and lower donor frequency. Real option theory suggests that financial stress leads people to value waiting until uncertainty resolves before committing resources—so some may delay donating until the pandemic passes. Mindfulness, understood from an Islamic perspective as living in the present moment in the presence of Allah with openness and acceptance, is proposed as a counterforce, reducing uncertainty intolerance and anxiety. Subjective financial well-being—one's perception of financial strain, manageability, and prospects—also shapes giving. Higher subjective well-being correlates with better life satisfaction, mood, and health, and with greater donations even after accounting for actual income. From an Islamic standpoint, these perceptions are matters of spirituality. The Prophet ﷺ reframed wealth for his Companions, as narrated by Abū Dharr, when he asked whether abundance is wealth and lack is poverty, then declared: "Wealth is in the heart and poverty is in the heart. Whoever is wealthy in his heart will not be harmed no matter what happens in the world. Whoever is impoverished in his heart will not be satisfied no matter how much he has in the world. Verily, he will only be harmed by the greed of his own soul." This distinguishes actual wealth, belonging to the material world, from subjective wealth, belonging to the spiritual. Research affirms that the gap between what one has and what one desires—along with upward social comparisons—diminishes perceived wealth. The empirical study drew on the Yaqeen Institute's *Experiencing Ramadan in Social Isolation* survey, using a sub-sample of 1,722 North American Muslims (78% female, average age 25–34, average income $50,000–$75,000, average education a bachelor's degree). Respondents were, in general, quite generous: the median Ramadan donation fell between $250 and $499, nearly 30% gave more than $1,000, and the total was conservatively estimated near two million dollars. Roughly one in four reported that uncertainty left them stressed, three in ten were worried about their finances, and about a quarter felt they were hardly or not at all well-off. Structural equation modeling revealed that uncertainty intolerance increased financial anxiety while mindfulness decreased it, with uncertainty intolerance partially mediating mindfulness's effect; income was negatively related to anxiety. Financial anxiety in turn lowered subjective financial well-being even after accounting for income, though income raised it. Regarding donations, income, education, and age all positively predicted giving, financial anxiety negatively predicted it, and subjective financial well-being positively predicted it. Spiritual practice—praying *tarāwīḥ* and regularly reading the Qur'an—was also positively associated with giving. Islam offers extensive guidance for tolerating uncertainty and easing financial anxiety. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Wealth does not decrease with charity," a promise that giving never harms the believer. The Qur'an likens donations to loaning God, as Allah says in Sūrah al-Ḥadīd: "Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan so He will multiply it for him and he will have a noble reward?" The Prophet ﷺ also sought refuge from anxiety, saying, "O Allah! I seek refuge with You from anxiety and grief, from incapacity and laziness, from cowardice and stinginess, from being heavily in debt and from being overpowered by (other) men." Against feelings of relative deprivation, he ﷺ counseled downward comparison: "Compare [yourself] to those who are lower than you [in wealth] and do not look at those who are above you [in wealth], for it is more suitable that you do not discount the blessings of God." Daily engagement with the Qur'an through *tarāwīḥ* and recitation may reinforce an abundance mindset, especially valuable in an isolated Ramadan without in-person solicitation. The study acknowledges its limitations: it relied on cross-sectional data, so no strong causal claims can be drawn; it was confined to Ramadan, where practices like *tarāwīḥ* are unique; and its sample was not representative of Muslim Americans. Still, the psychological processes described may plausibly hold across contexts during times of uncertainty, and the findings suggest that invoking religious beliefs and practices could ease believers' hearts and encourage sound, generous giving. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-months-ordained-by-allah-reviving-the-islamic-calendar # The Months Ordained by Allah: Reviving the Islamic Calendar **Author:** Yaqeen Institute **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Ramadan **Published:** April 1, 2021 **Updated:** September 24, 2026 ## Abstract The Islamic (*Hijrī*) calendar is the standard measure of time in the Qur’an and Sunnah,[^1] and plays an integral role in the lives of Muslims. It is used for annual ritual worship such as paying the alms-tax (*zakāh*), fasting during the month of Ramadan, and performing the pilgrimage (*ḥajj*). While the Islamic calendar is actively used for religious purposes, its role as one of the cornerstones of Islamic identity has waned over time to the point that many Muslims are unaware of the current month, day, and year under the *Hijrī* system of dating. This paper aims to understand the historical development of the *Hijrī* calendar and to identify the factors that caused it to decline. The goals are to encourage reflection on the current state of the Muslim community (*ummah*), and to encourage the revival of the *Hijrī* calendar. --- ## Defining the Islamic Calendar Recently, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, chose to call his transformation plan for the country Vision 2030 rather than Vision 1451 (the corresponding Islamic year), which was surprising given the Kingdom’s long history of adhering to the Islamic calendar for both civil and religious matters. The Kingdom has used the Islamic calendar ever since the country was founded in 1932, but as part of Vision 2030 switched to the Gregorian calendar for determining the pay schedules of public sector employees in 2016, effectively increasing the workload by eleven days per year.[^2] Other countries have followed suit and have begun to relegate the Islamic calendar to religious matters, detaching it from civil life. How did the land where the Islamic calendar was first established and remained in use for more than fourteen centuries come to such a decision? Why have so many Muslims become unaware of the months and years of the Islamic calendar? The purpose of this article will be to examine the history of the Islamic calendar, and to understand how its role as a marker of Islamic identity has diminished. As we will see in more detail below, the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar that plays an important role in the sanctification of time for Muslims. In order to gain a better understanding, it is helpful to understand the structure of the calendar and what distinguishes it from other calendars in use throughout history. To that end, we note that the Islamic calendar has three integral elements. First, there are twelve lunar months in which every month is determined by the arrival of the new moon. These months are: Muḥarram (the first month of the year), Ṣafar, Rabīʿ al-Awwal, Rabīʿ al-Thānī, Jumādá al-Ūlá, Jumādá al-Thāniyah, Rajab, Shaʿbān, Ramaḍān, Shawwāl, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, and Dhū al-Ḥijjah. Allah says: > Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah is twelve since the day He created the heavens and the earth.[^3] In his exegesis of the Qur’an, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH) states that Allah decreed and determined the twelve months the day He created the heavens and the earth, established and named these months, and revealed them to prophets in their revealed books.[^4] The names and order of these months existed before Islam but were tampered with over time; however, it was according to Allah’s divine will that they would be recalibrated by the time the Prophet ﷺ gave his Farewell Sermon. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Time has come back to its original state which it had when Allah created the heavens and the earth.”[^5] In addition, the Islamic lunar calendar runs ten to eleven days behind the Gregorian solar calendar yearly and as a result does not synchronize with the seasons, a feature that distinguishes it from the lunisolar Hebrew (Jewish) calendar, which offsets the difference every two or three years by inserting a 13th leap month to synchronize the lunar months with the seasons.[^6] Second, the Islamic calendar contains four sacred months: Muḥarram, Rajab, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, and Dhū al-Ḥijjah. Allah says: > Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah is twelve since the day He created the heavens and the earth, of which four are sacred. That is the upright religion (*al-dīn al-qayyim*).[^7] Lastly, it is a marker of the migration (*hijrah*) of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, which marks the beginning of the Islamic era, and is a fixed point from which the first year of the calendar (1 AH) has been determined.[^8] Thus, another name given to it is the *Hijrī* calendar. Allah says: > He is the One Who has made the sun a radiant source and the moon a light, and precisely measured the lunar stations[^9] so that you may know the number of years and how to calculate time (*ḥisāb*). Allah did not create this except with a purpose (*ḥaqq*). He makes the signs clear for people of knowledge.[^10] Expounding on *ḥaqq*, al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH) states: “Allah did not intend to create the moon except with wisdom and accuracy, as a means to display His creation and wisdom, as evidence for His will and knowledge, and to reward all those who follow it.”[^11] Ibn ʿAṭīyah (d. 541 AH) defined *al-dīn al-qayyim* as “the law of God and following it.”[^12] Thus, the scholars did not view use of the Islamic calendar merely as a tool to measure time, but also as a form of worship. --- ## Sacred months The second characteristic of the Islamic calendar is that it contains four sacred months, as Allah says: > Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah is twelve since the day He created the heavens and the earth, of which four are sacred. That is the upright religion. So do not wrong yourselves during these months and fight the associators all together, as they fight you all together, and be sure that Allah is with the God-fearing.[^13] In addition, the Prophet ﷺ said in his Farewell Sermon: > Time has come back to its original state which it had when Allah created the Heavens and the Earth. The year is twelve months, four of which are sacred. Three of them are in succession: Dhū al-Qaʿdah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, Muḥarram, and \[the fourth being\] Rajab Muḍar[^14] which stands between Jumādá \[Thāniyah\] and Shaʿbān.[^15] Numerous approaches have attempted to uncover the wisdoms behind the sanctity of the four sacred months, but at its core, sanctity stems from God’s divine choosing. Qatāda (d. 22 AH) surmises: > Allah glorifies whatever He wills. Allah chose a select few from His creation, chose certain angels and humans to be messengers, chose certain words to be mentioned, chose specific lands to be places of worship, chose the month of Ramaḍān \[as the month to fast\] and chose the sacred months… So glorify what Allah has glorified for things are only glorified because Allah has glorified them, \[and this is understood\] by those with acumen and intellect.[^16] Understanding the wisdom behind what Allah has commanded helps the feeble human mind attain deeper appreciation; however, understanding the wisdom behind a particular command is not a prerequisite for the command to be obeyed. For example, there may be wisdoms for why we perform three *rakʿah* for the *maghrib* (sunset) prayer, but regardless of whether we understand those wisdoms, the responsibility of performing the prayer the way it has been mandated emanates from the command of the Prophet ﷺ, whom Allah ordered us to obey. Similarly, the sanctity of the sacred months comes from Allah’s divine choosing. A person may choose to express gratitude for this in different ways and extract various wisdoms as a means of motivation, but must be cautious not to claim these wisdoms as their reasons for obedience. Ultimately, glorifying the sacred months is part of obeying Allah’s commands, which is something we discuss in more detail below. Three of the four sacred months are successive, namely Dhū al-Qaʿdah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah (the month during which the annual Ḥajj pilgrimage takes place), and Muḥarram. For the pre-Islamic Arabs, the Ḥajj pilgrimage was the beating heart of society and the annual epicenter for trade and information. Preserving its sanctity was of the utmost importance. Ibn Kathīr mentions that these three sacred months were consecutive to ensure safe travel to and from the Ḥajj. He also asserts that Rajab was sacred because those who traveled from afar could come earlier in the year to set up for the pilgrimage, and then leave at a later time safely. Protecting travelers to and from the Ḥajj was a priority, and any strife or bad blood amongst tribes was to be put on hold and resumed at a later date, which may be one of the wisdoms behind the prohibition of fighting during these months.[^17] The exegete Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī (d. 850 AH) mentions that the prohibition of fighting during the sacred months originated from Abraham which the pre-Islamic Arabs adopted in their traditions.[^18] Whether there is evidence to prove this is unclear, but we can be certain that the prohibition against fighting during the sacred months existed before Islam, and was practiced by the pre-Islamic Arabs. The prohibition against fighting continued into the start of the Islamic era as Allah says: “Do not wrong yourselves during these months”[^19] and “They ask you about fighting in the sacred month. Say: ‘Fighting in it is a grave \[offense\].’”[^20] The majority of scholars are of the opinion that the prohibition of fighting in the sacred months was abrogated by the verse: “Fight the polytheists all together, as they fight you all together”[^21] and the Prophet’s siege of Ṭāʾif during the sacred month of Dhū al-Qaʿdah. Moreover, we know from historical accounts dating back as early as the first century after the *hijrah* that the pious predecessors went on numerous expeditions and battles after the Prophet’s death during the sacred months, demonstrating their attitude towards the prohibition of fighting during the sacred months. Part of the Battle of Ṣiffīn[^22] (37 AH) occurred in the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, the Battle of Karbalāʾ (61 AH) occurred in the month of Muḥarram, and the Battle of Ḥarrah (63 AH) occurred in the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah.[^23] Despite this, some have attempted to use the prohibition of fighting in the modern era for peace. For example, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, made an incorrect statement, most likely related to him by a Muslim who had little understanding of the sacred months, and perhaps innocently named Ramaḍān as one of the sacred months as part of a well-intentioned plea to end the fighting in Syria. > I have learned that the month of Ramaḍān is part of al-Ashhur al-Ḥurum, the four months during which wars are supposed to stop. For the sake of the Syrian people, therefore, I would like to call on all parties in Syria to respect this religious obligation for at least, at a minimum, one month.[^24] The sacred months are also a time for increasing good deeds, repenting, and avoiding sins. Sins committed in these months are weighed more heavily while good deeds are multiplied, an understanding that has played a role in Islamic jurisprudence. For example, the Shāfiʿī school of jurisprudence increases blood money (*diyah*) during the sacred months.[^25] In addition, Māwardī (d. 450 AH) mentions that the emphasis on good deeds and sins during these sacred months is meant to prepare one for the rest of the year.[^26]  In his *Laṭāʾif al-Maʿārif*, Ibn Rajab (d. 795 AH) mentions that it is encouraged to increase fasting during all of these months. In addition, he mentions unique benefits of each month, as detailed below: ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image2-1024x364.jpg) Glorification can be expressed in a myriad of ways, the Prophetic way being superior. However, what is most important is that a Muslim not treat the sacred months as the rest of the year. To distinguish specific acts of worship, their intensity, and intentionality is to recognize Allah’s glorification of the sacred months. As for the narrative that the sacred months are significant mainly because of the prohibition of fighting they are associated with, this has been overstated. We need to transition from understanding the sacred months from a historical perspective to a devotional one moving forward. --- ## Development of the Islamic Era The third important characteristic of the Islamic calendar is that it marks the establishment of the Islamic era. The importance of the Islamic calendar was inculcated in the Prophet’s companions, who strongly adhered to the order and number of months, and would implement it in a more formal manner after the passing of the Prophet ﷺ. As the Islamic empire grew, legal rulings, deeds, and other important documents depended heavily on dates as a means of communication and preserving order. While the months and days of the calendar were well established, the companions still faced challenges in chronicling events on a yearly basis as it was unknown which year they were referring to when deeds and documents arrived with no complete date. In his historical chronicle, *Tārīkh al-Rusūl wa-al-Mulūk*, Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH) states: > Maymūn b. Mihrān (d. 117 AH) narrates: A legal document for a deed was delivered to ʿUmar which had the month of Shaʿbān written on it. ʿUmar asked: Is this the Shaʿbān of last year or this coming year? Then he said to the companions: Let us determine an epoch for the people to use.[^30] Throughout human history, people have used memorable events as reference points for establishing epochs. In his book, *al-Muntaẓim fī Tārīkh al-Mulūk wa al-Umam*, Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH) references al-Shaʿbī (d. 103 AH) summarizing that mankind’s first epoch was the descent of Adam, then the rescue of Noah from the flood, and then the cooling of the fire into which Abraham was thrown.[^31] Moreover, the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus (d. 544 CE) introduced the *Anno Domini* (AD) dating system used for the Gregorian calendar. The name means “in the year of the Lord” which is based on counting years from the birth of Jesus as a starting point. Preceding that, the Romans would use the regnal years of emperors and the fifteen-year tax assessment cycle as their epochs.[^32] Epochs were also used by the pre-Islamic Arabs. For example, they used the death of Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy,[^33] the Year of the Elephant (*ʿĀm al-Fīl*),[^34] and Ḥarb al-Fijār[^35] as multiple epochs.[^36] Additionally, the polymath al-Bīrūnī (d. 440 AH) states that each of the ten years during the Medinan Period of the Prophet ﷺ was appointed a unique name as a reference point.[^37]         1st year: The Year of Permission (*Sanat al-Idhn*)         2nd year: The Year of the Command of Fighting (*Sanat al-Amr bi-al-Qitāl*)         3rd year: The Year of the Trial (*Sanat al-Tamḥīṣ*)         4th year: The Year of Felicitation to Newlyweds (*Sanat al-Tarfiʾah)*         5th year: The Year of the Earthquake (*Sanat al-Zalzalah*)         6th year: The Year of Inquiring (*Sanat al-Istiʾnās*)         7th year: The Year of Gaining Victory (*Sanat al-ʾIstighlāb*)         8th year: The Year of Equality (*Sanat al-Istiwāʾ*)         9th year: The Year of Exemption (*Sanat al-Barāʾah*)         10th year: The Year of Farewell (*Sanat al-Wadāʿ*) This system continued into the caliphate of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23 AH) until the companions came to a consensus on using the migration of the Prophet ﷺ as the starting point of the Islamic era. Ṭabarī mentions a few narrations that eventually led to the advent of the Islamic era: > Abū Mūsá ʿAbd Allāh b. Qays al-Ashʿarī (d. 50 AH) wrote to ʿUmar: Letters have come to us which have no date. ʿUmar then gathered his advisors. Some of them suggested using the revelation to the Prophet ﷺ as \[the starting point of\] the era. Others suggested basing it on the Prophet’s ﷺ migration. ʿUmar then replied: We will base it on the migration of the Prophet ﷺ, for the migration is what separated truth from falsehood.[^38] > A man came to ʿUmar and said: Chronicle \[events\]. ʿUmar said: \[How should we\] chronicle? He replied: The way the foreigners write “in this month of this year.” ‘Umar agreed and asked: Which year shall we start from? Some suggested revelation while others suggested from the death of the Prophet ﷺ. They eventually agreed to use the migration as \[the starting point of\] the era. They then discussed which month to begin with. Some suggested Ramaḍān while others suggested Muḥarram because it was the month people departed from Ḥajj and was a sacred month. The companions then unanimously agreed to start the year with Muḥarram.[^39] We know with certainty that these discussions occurred during the caliphate of ʿUmar. We also know that choosing the migration as the starting point of the Islamic era was a matter of informed judgment (*ijtihād*), and that the companions came to a consensus on the matter. Thus, following the Islamic calendar involves not only obeying ﷺ Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, but also relying on the consensus of the companions in preserving Islamic identity. Despite this consensus, at least one attempt has been made in the modern era to change the starting point of the Islamic era. In the mid-20th century, Muammar Gaddafi created the Libyan calendar and arbitrarily changed the established starting point of the Islamic era from the year of the Prophet’s migration to the year of the Prophet’s death, ten years later.[^40] American reporter Neil MacFarquhar reported on the chaos that ensued: “‘Why do we keep using different dates?’ bellowed a woman at the Popular Committee meeting. ‘Why can’t we be like every single other Muslim country and count from the time of the Prophet’s migration, not from his death? What is this?’ The unspoken answer was that Libya’s leader liked it that way.”[^41] By studying the migration as the starting point of the Islamic era—*Anno Hegirae* (AH) which means in the year of migration[^42]—we can begin to ponder the lessons that the companions left for posterity. For the companions, the Prophet’s migration was the spiritual and physical establishment of the first Muslim community as John Esposito succinctly states: > The importance of the *hijra* is reflected in its adoption at the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Muslims chose to date their history from neither Muhammad’s birth nor his reception of the first revelation in 610 AH, but from the creation of the Islamic community (*ummah*). The community, as much as the individual, was to be the vehicle for realizing God’s will on Earth.[^43] In brief, the Islamic calendar is not merely a twelve-month lunar calendar with four sacred months, but also a marker of Islamic identity by virtue of the institutionalization of the first Muslim community 1442 years ago. --- ## Nasīʾ As the Islamic calendar began to play a larger role in Muslim identity and worship, ensuring it remained unaltered was vital. Any altering or manipulation of the calendar would have involved altering the command of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and detaching Muslims from their unique identity. Allah explicitly mentions the loathsome nature of tampering with the order and number of months: > Reallocating (*nasīʾ*) the sanctity of \[these sacred\] months is an increase in disbelief, by which the disbelievers are led astray. They adjust the sanctity one year and uphold it in another, only to maintain the number of months sanctified by Allah, violating the very months Allah has made sacred. Their evil deeds have been made appealing to them. And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.[^44] *Nasīʾ* was the reallocation of sacred months for various motives. Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH), Abū Manṣūr al-Azharī (d. 370 AH), and others relate that the pre-Islamic Arabs would switch the month of Muḥarram with Ṣafar to avoid the perceived inconvenience of enduring three consecutive sacred months during which they were prohibited from fighting.[^45] Others suggest that they would rename Muḥarram Ṣafar, resulting in two Ṣafars. Mujāhid (d. ca. 102 AH) states they would perform Ḥajj in the same unique month for two years at a time. For example, they would perform Ḥajj in the month of Dhū al-Hijjah for two years, then in the month of Muḥarram for two years, et cetera. However, there seems to be little evidence supporting this. Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī states that every two years they would add a 13th leap month to the calendar[^46] while al-Bīrūnī (d. 440 AH) states that they would add a thirteenth leap month every three years to synchronize the lunar months with the seasons, also known as intercalation.[^47] Based on the above, Muslim scholars have interpreted *nasīʾ* in two main ways: 1) as an intentional reallocation of sacred months, which the pre-Islamic Arabs used for political influence, and 2) as an incidental reallocation of sacred months due to the insertion of leap months, known as intercalation. Below is an illustration of the different interpretations of *nasīʾ*. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/image1-3-853x1024.jpg) --- ## Nasīʿ used intentionally for political influence It is difficult to imagine a society in which dates are unknown to the masses or altered. Our lives have been carefully constructed and augmented by the modern calendar, and with globalization, any change would cause widespread pandemonium. However, it was commonplace for calendars to be used as a tool for power and manipulation throughout history. For example, the Roman calendar contained a list of *dies fasti*, sanctioned dates on which governing and societal organizations would conduct business. These dates were not available to the public; rather, they were controlled by Roman kings and the aristocratic patrician class. For the first few centuries during which records were kept, the priests and aristocrats kept the calendar a secret among themselves, which gave them an advantage over the commoners in conducting business and controlling the religious and social structure that governed Roman life.[^48] In the Arabian Peninsula, the Banū Kinānah were an influential Arab tribe responsible for the fair of Majanna, the worship of the idol ʿUzzá, and determining the reallocated months (*nasīʾ*).[^49] They would appoint a person with the title of *Qalammas* whose job it was to implement the reallocation of months during the Ḥajj season. As various tribes were departing from Miná during the rituals of Ḥajj, the *Qalammas* would say: “I am the one whose decision will not be overturned!” The Arabs would then approach him and say: “Postpone Muḥarram and replace it with Ṣafar!”[^50] He would then switch the months, and those who had come to Mecca for the Ḥajj would go back to their homes and inform their families of the change.[^51] This great responsibility the Banū Kinānah had inherited gave the tribe’s members political influence in conducting trade and fairs, and allowed them to control the cycle of pilgrimages and influence tribal wars. So great was their influence that any threat to their authority would result in retaliation. To illustrate this point, some historians go as far to suggest that Abrahah’s expedition to destroy the Kaʿbah during the Year of the Elephant (*ʿĀm al-Fīl*) was motivated by the inconvenience of the Ḥajj season coinciding with Easter due to intercalation, particularly because Abrahah had built the church to divert them from the Ḥajj in Mecca.[^52] Because the lunar calendar used by the Arabs was intercalated, however, the annual Ḥajj pilgrimage fell during the same time as Easter each year, effectively reducing the number of pilgrims to his church. He wrote of his intentions to destroy the Kaʿbah to the Negus, the Abyssinian king. A man from the tribe of Banū Kinānah intercepted the message and in response defiled the church. For the people of Banū Kinānah, Abrahah’s intentions were not only a threat to the Kaʿbah, but also a threat to their political influence over the calendar. The historian Hideyuki Ioh states: “Maintaining order among the Arab tribes in the pre-Islamic period depended on maintaining the cycle of pilgrimages, and Abrahah’s expedition was intended to change this traditional system unilaterally. The calendar adjuster’s reaction \[defiling the church\] can be understood as stemming from his role of controlling the cycle of pilgrimages all over the peninsula.”[^53] Thus, maintaining power over the calendar allowed certain tribes and individuals to hold political influence in the Arabian Peninsula. In the wake of this unstable political scene, Islam institutionalized systems of justice. One of these institutions involved computing the months through the sighting of the moon. The emphasis in today’s Muslim communities over the method of moon sighting versus calculation has been debated ad nauseam and to some degree reduced certain months such as Ramaḍān to a *cause célèbre*. While there is certainly merit in discussing the juristic details of moon sighting and its proper implementation, this can at times overshadow the greater wisdom of establishing justice. With Banū Kinānah holding a tight grasp over the calendar, the Islamic ruling of moon sighting redistributed the responsibility to the masses. It acted as a divine system of checks and balances, as the moon cannot be hidden from the masses, it is observed by all, and it prevents those in power from exploiting and monopolizing the calendar. As long as just, sane, adult Muslims bear witness that they have seen the moon, the ruler is to take their testimony into account. Islam does not forgo authority, but it brilliantly provides a natural checks and balances system that is often forgotten. In addition, physically sighting the moon (a tradition practiced by the pious predecessors) may have biological benefits, a possible wisdom that needs more study. Just as our bodies are biologically dependent on the sun for our circadian rhythm, the moon helps regulate the circalunar and circa semilunar rhythms, which has effects on sleep, mood, birth rates, and the reproductive cycles of certain species.[^54] The Islamic calendar is a complex system in which many wisdoms of God are embedded, some apparent and some hidden. As Qurṭubī said*:*“Allah did not intend to create the moon except with wisdom and accuracy.”[^55] Just as Allah created balance between the celestial bodies, the lunar calendar balances the scale in how we organize time, worship, and maintain justice in communities. --- ## Nasīʿ used incidentally as a means of imitation The lunar calendar falls ten to eleven days behind the solar calendar every year, which results in the seasons desynchronizing with the lunar months. To adjust for this, the pre-Islamic Arabs would add a thirteenth month to the calendar every two or three years, also known as intercalation. One reason to believe that the pre-Islamic Arabs were intercalating is shown by the names of the months. For example, the month of Ramaḍān was an epithet for scorching heat, and the month of Jumādā for water freezing.[^56] Thus, the fact that lunar months were named based on seasonal weather suggests that the practice of intercalation was being implemented before the months were first named. Another motivating factor for using intercalation was that it provided ease in scheduling of fairs and for harvesting crops. Hideyuki Ioh aptly states: “In pre-Islamic Arabia, a cycle of fairs going around the Peninsula clockwise had been established as being the most favorable for trade. Therefore, we may conclude that the 12-month lunar calendar was adjusted periodically by inserting a leap month to ensure the fairs occurred in the proper seasons.”[^57] One might wonder how the pre-Islamic Arabs learned to intercalate. Al-Bīrūnī states that “they learned intercalation from Jewish people in the area.”[^58] As the Jews migrated to the Arabian Peninsula, they brought along their calendar which employed a complex mechanism for intercalation by incorporating a thirteenth month into the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth years of a nineteen-year cycle. Observing the Jews, the Arabs attempted to reproduce this, but their efforts resulted in an unrefined intercalation. The addition of the thirteenth month incidentally altered the order of the sacred months, especially the month of Muḥarram, but was not necessarily an attempt to circumvent the prohibition against fighting. While intercalation provided ease to the pre-Islamic Arab lifestyle, at its core was an attempt to imitate the Jewish calendar. As we will soon see, Islam was averse to this type of imitation (*tashabbuh*). As described above, there are two main understandings of *nasīʾ*, which was practiced by the pre-Islamic Arabs for both political purposes and the use of intercalation which was motivated by convenience wrapped under imitation rather than political gain. While it is valuable to understand both types of *nasīʾ* in order to attain a more nuanced understanding of the Islamic calendar and its benefits to society, I would argue that the type of *nasīʾ* that is of more relevance to today’s Muslims is the *nasīʾ* that was practiced for convenience in imitation of the Jews. That is because if Muslims are unaware of the historical development of calendars, it could result in imitating other calendars unknowingly and the gradual loss of the Islamic calendar. Thus, any attempt to imitate other foreign calendrical elements, when identified, should be strongly condemned. Does this mean that using the Gregorian calendar alongside the Islamic calendar is prohibited? In order to understand this, we need to define the boundaries of impermissible imitation and its details. Islam came with a number of new practices that were distinct from those of the Jews. For example, the direction of prayer (*qiblah*) was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca, and Friday was designated as Islam’s holy day. Additionally, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever imitates (*tashabbah*) a people is from among them.”[^59] The Damascene scholar, Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī (1061 AH), categorizes imitation (*tashabbuh*) into two types. First, if an act of devotion is both legislated and active (non-abrogated) for both Muslims and the people of the Book (i.e., Jews and Christians), then the attributes (*waṣf*) of that act of devotion must differ. For example, both Muslims and Jews fast on the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, but the Prophet ﷺ told the Muslims to fast the day before as well so that their fasting would differ from that of the Jews. Second, if the act of devotion found with the people of the Book has been abrogated by Islam, then any participation in the act is considered to be impermissible imitation regardless of any changes in attributes (*waṣf*). An example of this would be praying toward Jerusalem despite following the procedures for Islamic prayer.[^60] The discussion surrounding the imitation of foreign calendrical elements falls under the first type of *tashabbuh* mentioned by al-Ghazzī.[^61] Currently, the months and religious holidays associated with the Islamic calendar have remained unaltered. Thus, as long as the Islamic calendar can be distinguished from other calendars without any type of change or alteration, then it is difficult to prove that using the Gregorian calendar adjacent to the Islamic calendar constitutes impermissible imitation. However, the heavy reliance on the Gregorian calendar in recent times has led Muslims to become less knowledgeable about the Islamic calendar resulting in the very consequences feared from impermissible imitation. Even the early scholars were well aware of any underlying precursors that detached the Islamic calendar from the focal point of Muslim life and would speak vociferously against it. For example, Ibn Taymiyyah states in *Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm*: “Regarding naming months with foreign names, Abū Muḥammad al-Kirmānī (280 AH)[^62] said: “I said to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (241 AH): ‘\[Did you know\] the Persians have days and months that they call by names that are not known?’ Aḥmad extremely despised this.”[^63] This degradation of the Islamic calendar is also no stranger to Muslim countries in the modern era. For example, the Ottoman Empire at its inception standardized the Islamic calendar, but by the seventeenth century the treasurer, Hasan Pasha, suggested implementing the Julian calendar for fiscal matters as a way to accommodate the surrounding countries. By the mid-nineteenth century, after the Tanzimat reforms,[^64] it became the official calendar for all civic matters. Following the empire’s defeat in World War I and the Treaty of Sèvres, the Islamic calendar lost its validity with the implementation of the “Changing the Inception of the Calendar” law on December 26, 1925, which is when the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted for use in the new Republic of Turkey.[^65] As mentioned earlier, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, chose to call his transformation plan for the country Vision 2030 which switched to the Gregorian calendar for paying public sector employees in 2016.  Relegating the Islamic calendar to religious purposes while using the Gregorian calendar for civil matters has been a popular approach by many Muslim-majority countries facing difficulties in balancing religious devotion and globalization. Is there a resemblance between the Muslim-majority countries and the Ottoman empire relegating the Islamic calendar to religious matters and detaching it from civil life? Does this forecast the demise of Muslim-majority countries just as the Ottoman empire faced in the early 20th century? A claim that broad would need extensive research. However, it is within reason to posit that the stability and preservation of Islamic identity within an Islamic empire or country, if one truly exists, is closely tied to the standardization of the Islamic calendar which regulates its affairs. Post-World War I, the Islamic calendar faced a severe casualty in the diaspora of the Muslim community, an unfortunate development that was espoused by Muslim politicians who were intimidated by colonizers imposing the Gregorian calendar on the countries they occupied. As Ibn Khaldūn states in his *Muqaddimah*: “The vanquished always want to imitate the victor in his distinctive mark(s), dress, occupation, and all his other conditions and customs.”[^66] By linking imitation as an underlying motive for *nasīʾ*, the average Muslim can begin to recognize the implications of any foreign elements influencing or weakening the Islamic calendar and its lived experience, as Allah attributed disbelief (*kufr*) to *nasīʾ*. Among other things, this understanding may help one provide a more clear response to Muslims who do not understand why the Islamic calendar should be used outside of Ramaḍān, Ḥajj, Zakāh, the Eid holidays, and other religious occasions with religious significance. Most importantly, it contextualizes a nuanced explanation to Muslims living in a post-colonized world unaware of its history. --- ## Conclusion The Gregorian calendar has become an integral part of global communication. Discarding and replacing it would prove to be a difficult challenge and could possibly cause more harm than good. Yet, the Muslim community still has the autonomy to consciously influence how to communicate within its own spheres of activity. Mosques in the United States and elsewhere may wish to date their newsletters with the Gregorian and Islamic (*Hijrī*) dates side-by-side. Beginning sermons with the Islamic date can quickly educate communities, while the presence of Islamic calendars in homes, offices, and schools can help remind people of the relevant date on a daily basis. In other words, any article of communication within the Muslim community should be standardized with the Islamic date as a stepping stone in reviving the Islamic calendar as a lived experience in the lives of Muslims. Lastly, organizing our lives around the Islamic calendar is not simply another way to schedule time, but also an expression of our worship of Allah. Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: The generally approved standard or practice introduced by the Prophet ﷺ. [^2]: Alexandra Sims, “Saudi Arabia Switches to ‘Western’ Gregorian Calendar So It can Pay Workers Less and Save Money,” *Independent*, December 17, 2016, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-calendar-gregorian-switches-pay-workers-less-save-money-a7342331.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-calendar-gregorian-switches-pay-workers-less-save-money-a7342331.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647075000&usg=AOvVaw27H7XpM_2W-lneyQuP07T9). [^3]: Qur’an 9:36. [^4]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīyah, 1964), 10:455. [^5]: F. C. De Blois, “Taʾrīkh”: I.1.iv. “Pre-Islamic and Agricultural Calendars of the Arabian Peninsula,” in *The Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1955–2005), 10:260. [^6]: The Islamic calendar was not the first lunar calendar. The Hebrew calendar, also called the Jewish calendar, was a lunisolar calendar that incorporated a thirteenth month into a nineteen-year cycle, at intervals oscillating between two and three years. See: Jere Bacharach, *A Middle East Studies Handbook* (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984) 9; also see: Hideyuki Ioh, “The Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca,” *Arabica* 61 (2014): 498–500. [^7]: Qur’an 9:36. Allah refers to the lunar calendar as purpose (*ḥaqq*) and the upright religion (*al-dīn al-qayyim*), words typically used in reference to the Qur’an, God (Allah), and belief, pointing to the calendar’s significance. See:  Qur’an 43:30, 10:32, and 12:40. [^8]: There is no Year Zero. [^9]: Lunar stations, also known as lunar mansions, are a segment of the ecliptic through which the moon passes in its orbit around the earth. The traditional Arab astrological system consisted of twenty-eight stations, and each station lasted approximately thirteen days. These stations were grouped together and associated with a specific constellation and zodiac sign. See: William Matthew O’Neil, *Time and the Calendars* (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), 53; also see: Amel Durakovic, “Celestial Lessons – Amel Durakovic – Session 1: Motion of the Heavenly Bodies,” Cambridge Muslim College, YouTube video, April 26, 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ-2zKMEFs8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DMZ-2zKMEFs8&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647070000&usg=AOvVaw1Y_Z03uM0ivHh8ctWse0xw). [^10]: Qur’an 10:5. Ibn Rajab (d. 795 AH) comments that the moon has been used to calculate the years, while the sun has been used to calculate the days and weeks, together completing the method of calculating time (*ḥisāb*). Ibn Rajab, *Laṭāʾif al-maʿārif* (Beirut and Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1999), 38. [^11]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān,* 10:455. [^12]: Al-Qurṭubī, 10:198. [^13]: Qur’an 9:36. [^14]: The scholars mention that the reason for the Prophet ﷺ saying “Rajab Muḍar, which stands between Jumādā \[Thāniya\] and Shaʿbān” was because Ramaḍān was known as Rajab Rabīʿa during the times of *jāhilīyah*. In order to avoid confusion, he ﷺ mentioned Rajab Muḍar, which is between Jumādā (Thāniya) and Shaʿbān, as opposed to Ramaḍān (Rajab Rabīʿa), which is between Shaʿbān and Shawwāl. In summary, there were two Rajabs: Rajab Muḍar (the current Rajab) and Rajab Rabīʿa (Ramaḍān). See: Jawād ʿAlī, *al-Mufaṣṣal fī tārīkh al-ʿArab qabl al-Islām* (Beirut: Dār al-Sāqī, 2001), 6:117. [^15]: Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb* *tafsīr al-Qurʾān*, 6:66, no. 4662. [^16]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 10:89. [^17]: Ibn Kathr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʼān al-ʿAẓīm* (Beirut: Dār al-Ṭayyiba lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 1999), 4:130. [^18]: Al-Nīsābūrī, *Gharāʾib al-Qurʾān wa-raghāʾib al-Furqān* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1996), 3:463 [^19]: Qur’an 9:36. Qatāda (d. 22 AH) interprets these months as being the sacred months, while Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH) understood the verse to be referring to all twelve months in general. Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-Masīr* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2002), 2:257. [^20]: Qur’an 2:217. [^21]: Qur’an  9:36. [^22]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-rusūl wa-al-mulūk* (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif bi Miṣr, 1967), 4:574*.* [^23]: Others argue that the Prophet ﷺ did not fight the people of Ṭāʾif in the month of Dhū al-Qaʿdah but just set up a post there during the month. Ibn Rajab, *Laṭāʾif al-Maʿārif* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1999), 224–25. [^24]: Ban Ki-moon, “Secretary-General’s Ramadan Appeal for the People of Syria,” United Nations, accessed March 18, 2021, [https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2013-07-08/secretary-generals-ramadan-appeal-](https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2013-07-08/secretary-generals-ramadan-appeal-people-syria&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647074000&usg=AOvVaw0YG5Ph8A1xD1_ka0nOXT6A)[people](https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2013-07-08/secretary-generals-ramadan-appeal-people-syria&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647074000&usg=AOvVaw0YG5Ph8A1xD1_ka0nOXT6A)[\-syria](https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2013-07-08/secretary-generals-ramadan-appeal-people-syria&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647074000&usg=AOvVaw0YG5Ph8A1xD1_ka0nOXT6A). [^25]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm*, 4:130. [^26]: Al-Māwardī, *al-Nukat wa-al-ʿuyūn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1999), 2:360. [^27]: The most excellent fast after \[fasting\] in the month of Ramaḍān is the fast in the month of Muḥarram. [^28]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Iqtiḍāʾ al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* (Riyāḍ: Dār al-Ishbīlyā, 1998), 2:134. "اللهم بارك لنا في رجب وشعبان وبلغنا رمضان" [^29]: *ʿAtīra* was an animal sacrifice in pre-Islamic Arabia, consisting of a sheep, a goat, or a camel. The *ʿatīra* sacrifice was performed during the first ten days of Rajab. The Shāfiʿī school views this as recommended, while the majority say it has been abrogated. Jan Retsö, “ʿAtīra,” in *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 3rd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2007). [^30]: Retsö, 388–89. [^31]: Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Muntaẓim fī Tārīkh al-Mulūk wa al-Umam* (n.p.: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1995), 4:226 [^32]: *Encyclopedia Britannica Online*, s.v. “History of Europe,” accessed March 18, 2021, [https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe](https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647064000&usg=AOvVaw0dyrHT5Bd_HtubbjuShA0M). [^33]: The eighth forefather of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. [^34]: The year in which Abraha al-Ashram was defeated in Makkah, which is the same year in which Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ was born. [^35]: The name of a war waged toward the end of the sixth century CE during the holy months that took place between the tribes of Quraysh and Banū Kināna on one side and the tribes of Qays-ʿAylān (without the Ghaṭafān) on the other. [^36]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Muntaẓim*, 4:227. [^37]: Al-Bīrūnī, *ʾĀthār al-Bāqiya* \[Vestiges of the past\] (London: W.H. Allen, Pub. for the Oriental translation fund of Great Britain & Ireland, 1879), 35. [^38]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-rusul wa-al-mulūk*, 2:390. [^39]: It is also mentioned that ʿUbayd b. ʿUmayr said: “Muḥarram is the month of Allah. It is the first month of the year. It is the month when the Kaʿba is garbed, the month in which dates are recorded, and taxes are enforced. It is the month which has a day when mankind repents to Allah and Allah accepts their repentance.” Al-Ṭabarī, 389–90. [^40]: Ross Marlay, “Qaddafi, Muammar,” in *The Encyclopedia of the Developing World* (London: Routledge, 2006), 1338. [^41]: Neil MacFarquhar, *The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East* (New York: PublicAffairs, 2009), 38. [^42]: Commonly mistaken as “After the *Hijrah*.” [^43]: John L. Esposito, *Islam: The Straight Path*, rev. 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 8. [^44]: Qur’an 9:37. [^45]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 8:137. [^46]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-rusūl wa-al-mulūk*, 14:249. [^47]: Hideyuki Ioh, “Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca,” 485. [^48]: David Ewing Duncan, *Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year* (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), 30. [^49]: Ioh, “Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca,” 487. [^50]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, 8:137. [^51]: This account also sheds light on why the month of Muḥarram, which is the first month on the Islamic calendar, is also the most tampered with. This is likely because Muḥarram provided a prime opportunity right after the Ḥajj pilgrimage to spread news of any changes to the calendar across the Arabian Peninsula as compared to other months. [^52]: Uri Rubin, “The Great Pilgrimage of Muḥammad: Some Notes on Sūra IX,” *Journal of Semitic Studies* 27, no. 2 (1982): 244. [^53]: Ioh, “Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca,” 485 [^54]: Studies on circalunar rhythms of conception or birth rates extend to humans, where the lunar cycle has been suggested to also affect sleep and mental health. While these reports remain controversial, factors like the increase in “light pollution” from artificial light might contribute to any discrepancies between studies (see: Florian Raible, Hiroki Takekata, and Kristin Tessmar-Raible, “An Overview of Monthly Rhythms and Clocks,” *Frontiers in Neurology* 8, May 2017, [https://](https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00189&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647066000&usg=AOvVaw0eVBpE5AcDQvAzYt9nZp_W)[doi](https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00189&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647066000&usg=AOvVaw0eVBpE5AcDQvAzYt9nZp_W)[.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00189](https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00189&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617257647066000&usg=AOvVaw0eVBpE5AcDQvAzYt9nZp_W)). We also find that the Prophet ﷺ recommended performing wet cupping therapy (*ḥijāma*) on either the seventeenth, nineteenth, or twenty-first of every lunar month. *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 3861. [^55]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān,* 10:198. [^56]: Edward William Lane states: “The two months to which it is applied being \[said to be\] so called because, when the months were named, these two fell in the season of the freezing of water: (ISd, L, Mṣb:) \[but this derivation seems to have been invented when the two months thus named had fallen back, into, or beyond, the winter; for when they received this appellation, the former of them evidently commenced in March, and the latter ended in May; therefore I hold the opinion of M. Caussin de Perceval, that they were thus called because falling in a period when the earth had become dry and hard by reason of paucity of rain, from *jamādun*, an epithet applied to land upon which rain has not fallen, or from *jumādā*, an epithet applied to an eye that sheds few tears.” See: Edward William Lane and Stanley Lane-Poole, “*Jumādā*,” in *Arabic-English Lexicon* (New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co, 1955); also see: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm*, 4:146–47. [^57]: Ioh, “Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca,” 477. [^58]: Ioh, 485. [^59]: Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, *Sunan Abū Dāwūd* (Cairo: al-Risālah al-ʿĀlimiyyah, 2009), 6:5144, no. 4031. [^60]: Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī, *Ḥusn al-tannabbuh li-mā warada fī al-tashabbuh* (Beirut: Dār al-Nawādir, 2011), 7:298. [^61]: I am assuming that the Gregorian calendar is associated with Christianity based on their epoch, which refers to the birth of Jesus. I am aware that the CE abbreviations have been used referring to the Common Era as a way to secularize the calendar; however, for the purpose of this argument, I made the assumption that the Gregorian calendar is the calendar of the Christians. [^62]: Also known as Ḥarb b. Ismāʿīl al-Kirmānī. He was a student of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. [^63]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Iqtiḍāʾ al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm*, 1:518. [^64]: The Tanzimat reforms promulgated in the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876 under the reigns of the sultans Abdulmecid I and Abdulaziz. These reforms, heavily influenced by European ideas, were intended to effectuate a fundamental change of the empire from the old system based on theocratic principles to that of a modern state. [^65]: Safiye Kıranlar, “Even the Calendar Changes in Modern Times: The Story of the Calendar from the Ottomans to the Republic 1840–1945,” *International Journal of Turcologia* 6 (2008): 39–60. [^66]: Ibn Khaldūn and Franz Rosenthal, *The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967), 196. ## Summary Verily, all praise belongs to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ, his family, and his companions. The Islamic (Hijrī) calendar stands as the standard measure of time in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and it plays an integral role in the life of every Muslim, for by it we mark the annual acts of worship such as the paying of zakāh, the fasting of Ramadan, and the performance of the Ḥajj pilgrimage. Yet while the calendar remains active for these devotional purposes, its role as a cornerstone of Islamic identity has waned to the point that many Muslims are unaware of the current month, day, and year of the Hijrī system. The aim here is to trace the historical development of this calendar, to identify the factors that led to its decline, and to encourage the ummah to reflect upon its present state and to revive this sacred marker of time. A telling illustration of this decline is found in recent events: the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, named his transformation plan Vision 2030 rather than Vision 1451, and in 2016 the Kingdom—which had used the Islamic calendar since its founding in 1932—switched to the Gregorian calendar for the pay schedules of public sector employees, effectively adding eleven days of labour per year. Other Muslim nations have similarly begun to relegate the Islamic calendar to religious matters alone, detaching it from civil life. The Islamic calendar rests upon three integral elements. The first is that it consists of twelve lunar months, each determined by the arrival of the new moon, beginning with Muḥarram and ending with Dhū al-Ḥijjah. Allah says, "Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah is twelve since the day He created the heavens and the earth." Al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH), in his exegesis al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, explains that Allah decreed these twelve months from the day He created the heavens and the earth, named them, and revealed them to His prophets in their scriptures. Though these names existed before Islam, they had been tampered with over time and were recalibrated by divine will by the time of the Prophet's Farewell Sermon, when he ﷺ declared, "Time has come back to its original state which it had when Allah created the heavens and the earth." A distinguishing feature of this lunar calendar is that it runs ten to eleven days behind the Gregorian solar calendar each year and therefore does not synchronise with the seasons, unlike the lunisolar Hebrew calendar which inserts a thirteenth month to offset the difference. The second element is that four of these months are sacred: Muḥarram, Rajab, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, and Dhū al-Ḥijjah. Allah says, "Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah is twelve... of which four are sacred. That is the upright religion (al-dīn al-qayyim). So do not wrong yourselves during these months." Ibn ʿAṭīyah (d. 541 AH) defined al-dīn al-qayyim as "the law of God and following it," so that the scholars viewed the use of the calendar not merely as a means of measuring time but as a form of worship. The Prophet ﷺ specified in his Farewell Sermon that three of these months are consecutive—Dhū al-Qaʿdah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, and Muḥarram—while the fourth is Rajab Muḍar, situated between Jumādā and Shaʿbān. As for the wisdom behind this sanctity, at its root it stems from Allah's divine choosing, as Qatāda (d. 22 AH) surmised: "Allah glorifies whatever He wills... So glorify what Allah has glorified, for things are only glorified because Allah has glorified them." Understanding the wisdom behind a command deepens appreciation, yet it is not a prerequisite for obedience; just as the maghrib prayer is performed in three rakʿah whether or not its wisdom is grasped, the sanctity of these months is honoured because Allah has honoured them. Regarding the prohibition of fighting during these months, Ibn Kathīr mentions that the three consecutive sacred months ensured safe travel to and from the Ḥajj, and that Rajab was made sacred so that distant travellers could arrive early and depart safely. Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī (d. 850 AH) traces this prohibition to the practice of Abraham which the pre-Islamic Arabs adopted, though whether firm evidence supports this is unclear; what is certain is that the prohibition existed and was practised before Islam. Allah revealed, "They ask you about fighting in the sacred month. Say: 'Fighting in it is a grave offense,'" yet the majority of scholars hold that this prohibition was abrogated by the verse "Fight the polytheists all together, as they fight you all together," and by the Prophet's siege of Ṭāʾif during Dhū al-Qaʿdah. Historical accounts confirm this understanding, for the pious predecessors undertook expeditions during the sacred months, such as part of the Battle of Ṣiffīn (37 AH) in Dhū al-Ḥijjah, the Battle of Karbalāʾ (61 AH) in Muḥarram, and the Battle of Ḥarrah (63 AH) in Dhū al-Ḥijjah. It should be noted that the significance of the sacred months is not confined to this prohibition; former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon erroneously counted Ramadan among the four sacred months in a plea to halt the fighting in Syria, a mistake likely conveyed to him by one of little knowledge. These months are foremost a time for increasing good deeds and avoiding sins, whose weight is magnified therein; the Shāfiʿī school even increases the blood money (diyah) during them, al-Māwardī (d. 450 AH) noted that emphasising righteousness in them prepares one for the year, and Ibn Rajab (d. 795 AH) in his Laṭāʾif al-Maʿārif encouraged increased fasting throughout them. The narrative that reduces the sacred months chiefly to the prohibition of fighting has been overstated, and understanding must move from a merely historical perspective to a devotional one. The third element is that the calendar marks the Islamic era, dated from the Prophet's migration (hijrah) from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, which is why it is called the Hijrī calendar. Allah says, "He is the One Who has made the sun a radiant source and the moon a light... so that you may know the number of years and how to calculate time (ḥisāb). Allah did not create this except with a purpose (ḥaqq)," and al-Qurṭubī explained that Allah created the moon only "with wisdom and accuracy." The establishment of the era occurred during the caliphate of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23 AH). Al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH) in his Tārīkh al-Rusūl wa-al-Mulūk relates through Maymūn b. Mihrān (d. 117 AH) that a document reached ʿUmar marked only with the month of Shaʿbān, prompting him to ask whether it referred to the past or coming year, after which he resolved to establish an epoch. Peoples throughout history had used memorable events as epochs; Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH), citing al-Shaʿbī (d. 103 AH), notes that mankind's early epochs were the descent of Adam, the rescue of Noah, and the cooling of Abraham's fire, while the monk Dionysius Exiguus (d. 544 CE) introduced the Anno Domini system from the birth of Jesus, and the Arabs used epochs such as the death of Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy, the Year of the Elephant, and Ḥarb al-Fijār. Al-Bīrūnī (d. 440 AH) records that each of the ten Medinan years bore a unique name, from the Year of Permission to the Year of Farewell. Al-Ṭabarī reports that when Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (d. 50 AH) wrote to ʿUmar about undated letters, ʿUmar consulted his advisors and chose the migration as the starting point, saying, "for the migration is what separated truth from falsehood," and the companions unanimously agreed to begin the year with Muḥarram because it was the month people departed from Ḥajj and was a sacred month. Thus the adoption of the era was a matter of ijtihād settled by the consensus of the companions, so that following the calendar involves obeying Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and upholding that consensus. Despite this consensus, Muammar Gaddafi in the mid-twentieth century arbitrarily changed the era's starting point to the year of the Prophet's death, causing the confusion reported by the journalist Neil MacFarquhar. As John Esposito observed, the Muslims dated their history not from the Prophet's birth nor the first revelation but from the creation of the ummah, making the calendar a marker of Islamic identity by virtue of the first Muslim community. Because the calendar became so bound to identity and worship, its preservation from alteration was vital, and Allah condemned tampering with it, saying, "Reallocating (nasīʾ) the sanctity of these months is an increase in disbelief, by which the disbelievers are led astray." Nasīʾ was the reallocation of the sacred months, understood in two principal ways. The first was intentional reallocation for political influence: Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH), Abū Manṣūr al-Azharī (d. 370 AH), and others relate that the Arabs would swap Muḥarram with Ṣafar to avoid three consecutive months without fighting, while Mujāhid (d. ca. 102 AH) held that they fixed the Ḥajj in one month for two years at a time, though little evidence supports this. Just as the Roman priests and patricians controlled the dies fasti in secret, the Banū Kinānah controlled the reallocation through a figure titled the Qalammas, who at Miná would proclaim, "I am the one whose decision will not be overturned," granting the tribe great political power; some historians, and Hideyuki Ioh, connect Abrahah's expedition in the Year of the Elephant to this control over the pilgrimage cycle. Against this Islam instituted moon sighting as a divine system of checks and balances, since the moon is visible to all and cannot be monopolised by the powerful, and the just testimony of sane adult Muslims is accepted. The second understanding was incidental reallocation through intercalation—adding a thirteenth month every two or three years, as Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī and al-Bīrūnī describe—to keep the months aligned with the seasons, evidenced by month-names tied to weather such as Ramadan (scorching heat) and Jumādā (freezing water). Al-Bīrūnī states the Arabs learned this imperfectly from the Jews, and since its core was imitation (tashabbuh), Islam was averse to it, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever imitates a people is from among them." Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī (d. 1061 AH) divided imitation into two types—where a devotion is legislated for both communities its attributes must differ, as the Prophet ﷺ commanded fasting the day before ʿĀshūrāʾ to differ from the Jews, and where a devotion has been abrogated any participation is forbidden regardless of attribute. Using the Gregorian calendar alongside the Islamic one falls under the first type, and so long as the Islamic calendar remains distinct and unaltered it is difficult to prove impermissibility; yet excessive reliance upon it has produced the very ignorance feared. Ibn Taymiyyah in Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm records that Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH) intensely disliked calling the months by foreign Persian names, and history shows the Ottoman decline of the calendar—Hasan Pasha's adoption of the Julian for fiscal matters, its official civic adoption after the Tanzimat, and its final replacement by the Gregorian in the Turkish Republic in 1925. Ibn Khaldūn observed in his Muqaddimah that "the vanquished always want to imitate the victor," which illuminates how colonised Muslim politicians came to impose the Gregorian calendar. In conclusion, while the Gregorian calendar is now embedded in global communication such that discarding it may cause more harm than good, the Muslim community retains the freedom to shape its own spheres of activity. Mosques may print both dates side by side, sermons may open with the Hijrī date, and calendars in homes, offices, and schools may keep it present in daily life, so that every article of communication within the community is standardised with the Islamic date as a step toward reviving it as a lived experience. For organising our lives around the Islamic calendar is not merely a way to schedule time but an expression of our worship of Allah. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/hijab-spotlighting-servitude-to-god # Hijab: Spotlighting Servitude to God **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Hijab, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 25, 2021 **Updated:** June 5, 2026 ###### This paper focuses on the spiritual dimensions of the hijab, to read more about the legal definition of hijab go here. --- ## Introduction One of the most contentious debates about Islam and Muslim women in society revolves around the religious construct of *ḥayāʾ* (modesty, shyness) and ironically, what has become its most discernible expression—the observance of *hijab*. The word *hijab* is linguistically derived from the meaning to be veiled, concealed, or protected[^1] and can be used both in its literal and metaphysical sense, as it appears in the Qur’an.[^2] However, the term has become synonymous today with the headscarf worn by Muslim women. The staggering level of scrutiny on *hijab*, particularly in the wake of 9/11, thrust it undeservedly into the limelight of controversy. Its mere mention evokes a spectrum of reaction. Before we redirect the discourse toward the true essence of *hijab* as an act of servitude to God, it is important to first identify and deconstruct the factors that have contributed to the prevalent misconceptions about *hijab*. Widespread Islamophobia, global political self-interest, and present-day feminist thought each propagate their own socio-political agendas, which often misconstrue *hijab* as misogynistic and oppressive, and use it to negatively stereotype those who wear it. A study of Muslim women in the US who observe *hijab* sheds some light on the factors leading to the misconceptions of *hijab* and those who wear it. > The image of the *hijab* as the symbol of oppression and violence against women by the hands of the uncivilized Muslim man became the rallying point not only for American politicians, but for contemporary Western feminists as well. The body of the veiled, Muslim woman became the entity on which Western liberal neo-Orientalists superimposed their values, and it was the exposed female body, active in the public sphere, which became the marketable image of women in free market capitalism. Although feminist efforts have long been used as a method to deconstruct patriarchal control over women, including their physical selves, many argue that such movements have found a strange bedfellow with capitalism that is reinforcing unfair expectations for women’s bodies. Feminist movements have evolved from “state feminism,” which advocated for policy change within the state, to “market feminism,” in which the same goals are achieved in the private sector in concert with market trends.[^3] With the rise of liberalism came the call for religious reform and the prevalence and power of consumerism and social-media images, which heavily influence social trends and behavior through the exploitation and commoditization of *hijab*. Researching the complex relationship between Muslim women and consumer capitalism, a collection of papers published in the *Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies*: > collectively show that contemporary Muslim femininities are increasingly mediated through the market forces of consumer capitalism, impacting Muslim women’s identities, lifestyles, and belonging in complex ways. What is meant to be a Muslim woman is constantly negotiated, defined and redefined through or in reaction to the images, narratives, and knowledges about Muslim womanhood constructed in the marketplace. As Muslim women stake out their own positions, they actively engage with given Islamic practice and knowledge as well as with modalities of capitalism… representations of self-determined, independent, and professional Muslim women conform to images of the ideal consumer. While the veiled images re-inscribe Islamic norms and identifications by emphasizing particular ways of being Muslim for women, they also transform the very content and contours of Islamic piety and femininity.[^4] Furthermore, it is as important to recognize the presence and impact of yet another factor—the cultural bias that has been passed down generation to generation in many societies, the Muslim world being no exception. This has further fueled misplaced criticism of *hijab* and Islam as being oppressive to women, when in fact, Islam and *hijab* honor and empower women, as will become evident when we discuss the true purpose of *hijab*. Through misinterpreting and misconstruing deep-rooted cultural ignorance for religion, a number of practices—ranging from insensitive to unjust and extreme—have contributed to the erroneous marginalization and even oppression of Muslim women.[^5] For example, practices such as denying women their God-given right to education, their own wealth and property, or their own voices still exist in plain view. Sadly, abuse of women remains prevalent today across many nations and societies, irrespective of culture and religion. Despite all of the above, vast numbers of Muslim women who wear *hijab* do so with purpose, as a badge of honor—one that is liberating, empowering, and brings solace because it is worn solely as a religious act of compliance to God. However, it should also come as no surprise that, for many Muslim women and young girls who must navigate the daily challenges of wearing it, *hijab* has become associated with struggle and doubt in terms of identity, spirituality, self-esteem, and body image. This struggle is only further complicated for those entering the fold of Islam with yet another dynamic—that of their own personal journey to the faith and acclimating to a new way of life, many times without the necessary support structure of family and community to get them through the spiritual and emotional challenges they often face. Unfortunately, the significance of *hijab* is itself in question, if not already lost, for those who have chosen to remove it, or who doubt or reject its validity and obligation. Hence, the discourse on the true essence and purpose of *hijab* is increasingly buried deeper under the crossfire of these contentious debates, while *hijab* itself remains caught in the spotlight of controversy and misinterpretation. The goal of this paper is to dispel some of the controversy and misinterpretation associated with the religious mandate of *hijab*. It is to empower the reader with the true purpose of *hijab*, in order to alleviate the many doubts and challenges Muslim women and girls face in this regard. The topic will be addressed in terms of its most foundational aspect—one that firmly anchors modesty, and specifically the *hijab*, as an act of servitude to God. Once the primary objective of servitude is placed in the forefront and becomes the answer to every *why* and the lens through which all acts of worship and obedience to God are approached, it serves as the sole, proper, and timeless basis and motivation for every believer to then inculcate modesty (*ḥayāʾ*). In Islam, *ḥayāʾ* is an internally and externally expressed cornerstone of faith, which demands one’s conscientiousness and accountability, first and foremost, in the sight of God, with oneself, and in one’s outward demeanor.[^6] It is a religious mandate which calls for the observance of *hijab* to the one who understands the responsibility and accountability of servitude placed upon them by God, All-Mighty and All-Wise. The believer inherently strives to attain a beloved and noble status in the sight of God, and the reward of the Hereafter. This can only be achieved with acts of worship and obedience that are in accordance with the Qur’an and Sunnah, and the practice of the pious predecessors, from whom we take the correct interpretation of the sacred texts and religious practice as a whole. The following introduces the theological foundation of *hijab* in the context of one’s servitude to God. While this paper is dedicated solely to this aspect of *hijab*, it is important to note that servitude to God is the foundation upon which the comprehensive framework of modesty in Islam is built. Hence, the topic of *hijab* in its entirety is best appreciated in light of accompanying literature on the various aspects of *ḥayā’* for both men and women, gender interaction, and the specific legal rulings of *hijab*. --- ## Know your purpose > O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous. \[2:21\] This is the first divine command to humanity, in the sequential arrangement of the Qur’an. When the renowned scholar of Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328), was asked to explain this verse, he wrote a comprehensive response about the reality of worship or servitude to God (*al-ʿubūdīyah*). He explained that it “comprises everything that Allah loves and approves of from the apparent and hidden sayings and deeds.”[^7] These sayings and deeds include all of the legislated ritual acts of worship the believer performs, as well as those actions within the prescribed moral code of sincerity, truthfulness, patience, gratitude, and good conduct in all aspects of life. Servitude is grounded in love and obedience to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ above all else.[^8] It is built upon hope in Allah’s mercy and fear of His displeasure and punishment—and in turning to Him in repentance. In fact, it is the very purpose of one’s existence, as He states: “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”[^9] Hence, servitude to Allah is a state of complete submission and humility toward Him. The true servant (*ʿabd*) or worshipper of Allah submits to Him out of love for their Creator and Master. As Ibn Taymiyyah summarized: > One who submits to someone with hatred is not worshipping him. And one who loves someone without submitting is likewise not worshipping him; this is like a man who loves his son and friends. Therefore, neither love nor submission alone are sufficient in worshipping Allah. Allah must be loved most by *al-ʿabd* and He must be the greatest of all in his sight. Nothing deserves complete love and submission except Allah. And whatever has been highly regarded without it being by the command of Allah, its glorification is rejected.[^10] The very essence of acknowledging the Oneness of Allah (*tawḥīd*) lies in recognizing and worshipping Him as the only One worthy of worship. > And We sent not before you any messenger except We revealed to him that, “There is no deity except Me, so worship Me \[alone\].” \[21:25\] Every prophet of Allah was sent with the mission of calling to this *tawḥīd*. They are the most noble and worthy role models for humanity, who personified and perfected the role and status of the *ʿabd* for us to emulate. The Prophet ﷺ himself is referred to by Allah with this most honorable and beloved title of *ʿabd*, emphasizing his closeness to Allah: “Exalted is He who took *His Servant* \[Prophet Muhammad\] by night from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām to al-Masjid al-Aqṣá, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”[^11] Likewise, all of creation, and therefore, each of us too is an *ʿabd* of Allah, as is stated throughout the Qur’an. Allah frequently calls upon us to reflect on our surroundings and reminds us that everything in the universe, all of nature, including the very makeup of our own bodies, down to the most microscopic level, fulfills its purpose in a state of perpetual submission to Allah.[^12]He is the Creator, Master, and Owner of the Day of Judgment, to Whom each and every one of us will return—whether we choose to completely submit our God-given free will and intellect to Him or not. As Ibn Taymiyyah points out, the *ʿabd* by definition is “one who is subdued, regardless of whether one admits that status or denies it, it is a meaning which refers to both the believer and the non-believer.”[^13] Hence, it is one’s willingness and sincere effort to submit oneself wholeheartedly in servitude to Allah that ennobles and separates the true *‘abd* from all others. Ibn Taymiyyah explains our fundamental need for obedience to Allah as the means to averting harm, likening it to our eating to avert hunger or our wearing extra clothing to protect ourselves from the cold.[^14] We can only then begin to appreciate the hope and potential for true servitude in every individual, and the love and mercy of Allah toward us in His addressing all of humanity as His *ʿibād* (pl of *ʿabd*): “*My servants* who have harmed yourselves by your own excess, do not despair of God’s mercy. God forgives all sins: He is truly the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.”[^15] Servitude to Allah is the pinnacle of human existence whereas servitude to any other (*shirk*) inevitably leads to oppression (*ẓulm*) of oneself or others.[^16] After all, who among the creation can be more just, merciful, and self-sufficient than the Creator? Hence, the servant of Allah (*ʿabd*) is not enslaved to any other, nor to their ideologies, standards, and values, nor to his or her own whims and desires. In striving to attain this noble status, one is blessed with a true, deeper and lasting sense of liberation and empowerment to live the best version of oneself, to realize dignity and status in the sight of Allah, and in turn respect from others, and to attain the success of this world and the Hereafter. This is a crucial realization in the context of *hijab*, and one which effectively dismantles doubts and misconceptions. Connecting *hijab* to one’s servitude to Allah not only makes crystal clear why it is to be observed, in the manner it is to be observed, and for Whom, but also strengthens one with the faith, purpose, and self-confidence with which to overcome any challenges and personal struggle one may encounter in this regard. What better example to look up to than that of Maryam (Mary), the mother of ʿĪsá (Jesus), who is recognized for her servitude and piety. She is the best among all women of all time,[^17] honored and admired the world over for the sincerity and strength of her faith in the face of tremendous challenge through her servitude to Allah—and its manifestation in her renowned modesty![^18] The very same foundation of servitude formed the core belief to be instilled in the first Muslims in Makkah. It is important to note that the earliest verses of the Qur’an revealed during these first thirteen years focused heavily on *tawḥīd*, on knowing Allah, and strengthening one’s faith and servitude, long before the majority of legislation, including the mandate of *hijab*, was revealed years later in Madinah.[^19] No doubt, of the apparent wisdom in this, which still holds true in our times, is the need to first nurture conviction and certainty in faith as the foundation upon which to build servitude and obedience to Allah—be it in the context of it facilitating sincerity, consistency, and ease in praying, fasting, giving in charity, or observing *hijab*. This will inculcate confidence and strength to overcome the challenges of any personal or societal pressure. Thus, in the context of *hijab*, it is in being grounded in servitude to Allah that one can successfully navigate through all the false propaganda, misconceptions, hardship, and fleeting societal standards and values in regard to the role of women, beauty, and self-image, by staying true to one’s purpose as an *ʿabd* of Allah. Only then will one discover one’s true inner beauty and contentment in reaching one’s full potential, far beyond all worldly standards. --- ## Seek the most noble status It is from our innate nature that we value dignity, honor, and respect. We are naturally drawn to admiration, praise, and the love of others. Status is often measured in worldly terms of wealth, beauty, and recognition. Life itself is a test and a constant struggle for the believer who is tasked with overcoming ego and desire in striving to perfect servitude to Allah, in order to attain something far greater and more satisfying than this fleeting world in which one is never satiated.[^20] However, it is the true servant of Allah who has, in reality, attained the highest honor and status given to humanity as we note in the examples of the prophets of Allah, and countless among the pious who followed in their footsteps.[^21] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is forever raised to the utmost pinnacle of dignity, respect, and nobility in the face of all that he endured of insult, injury, false accusation, and hatred. People of all walks of life, friend or foe, were drawn to his compelling character and demeanor. It is through servitude that one is blessed with the “sweetness of faith.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever possesses the following three qualities will taste the sweetness of faith: 1) the one to whom Allah and His \[Messenger\] become dearer than anything else; 2) who loves a person and he loves him only for Allah's sake; 3) who hates to revert to \[disbelief\] after Allah has brought (saved) him from it, as he hates to be thrown in fire.”[^22] Thus, the true servant of Allah is blessed with higher levels of faith (*imān*), piety and fear of Allah’s displeasure (*taqwá*), trust and reliance on Allah (*tawakkul*), certainty of faith (*yaqīn*), and patience and consistency (*ṣabr*) which serve to ease the way in perfecting one’s servitude and achieving lasting contentment. These are also the very characteristics of sound faith which naturally become a draw to others, in their beautiful outward manifestation of dignity, strength, and confidence. Putting one’s ego, desire, and limited perception of the temporary pleasures of this life aside are of the greatest tests and easier said than done for most of us. However, Allah gives us the example of the angels, who outperform humans in strength, size, number, and diligence in worship, yet never become too proud to humble themselves before Allah: “To Him belong all those in the heavens and the earth. And those nearest to Him are not too proud to worship Him, nor do they tire. They glorify \[Him\] day and night, never wavering.”[^23] This is humility—and there is a vast difference between humility and humiliation. One who expresses humility to Allah stands tall and beloved in the sight of Allah. It is for this reason that prostrating before Allah (*sujūd*) is the most humbling yet noble act of worship—one that brings the servant closest to their Lord, becoming one of the greatest means of attaining accepted supplication (*duʿāʾ*).[^24] > The \[true\] servants of the Most Compassionate are those who walk on the earth humbly, and when the foolish address them \[improperly\], they only respond with peace. \[25:63\] It is these true servants of Allah who will be protected from the ploys, distractions, and corruption of Shayṭān (Satan) for their belief and trust in Allah—and they will in turn be rewarded with eternal abundance in Paradise.[^25] Getting back to the topic of *hijab*, it is important to acknowledge those who struggle with being made to feel like the “other,” with negative self-image, and a lack of self-confidence in regard to observing *hijab* at a time when increasingly unregulated freedom of self-expression deems it liberating and even celebrated to remove it. It is important to acknowledge those who have felt humiliation when confronted by ignorance, hatred, and bigotry. All too often, these women are dismissed, stereotyped, blamed, and even misjudged as oppressed, or lacking sincerity, faith, and the fortitude to rise above it all. The tests are real, as are the struggles—and they are found in the narratives of real lives, in many forms and experiences, both physical and psychological in nature. Yet, every prophetic example teaches us that one need not fear humiliation because in reality, these true servants stand tall in the sight of Allah, for their sincerity, steadfastness, striving within their means, and their humility, despite the challenges they try to overcome. Turn to Him with certainty, for He is the most Merciful and most Loving, and the One most capable of protecting, healing, and placing respect and love for you in the hearts of the people.[^26] --- ## The practical role of the Qur’an and Sunnah > You \[alone\] we worship and You \[alone\] we ask for help. Guide us along the Straight Path \[1:5-6\] Once one’s connection to Allah is firmly established and becomes the focus of one’s existence, it follows that one understands one’s accountability before Him and that one acquires the necessary and fundamental knowledge that will enable them to strengthen their faith and practice it in accordance with the will and command of Allah.[^27] The profound verses above, from the opening chapter of the Qur’an, are frequently repeated throughout the day, as an integral part of the five obligatory daily prayers. They serve as a powerful reminder of our servitude and absolute dependence upon Allah. The entire Qur’an that follows this request is the light of divine guidance we pray for; it is a timeless and ever-relevant practical guidebook for life from the One who is our Creator and Master. These verses were revealed to the final Prophet and Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ who was sent by Allah to all of humanity to lead the way by example, and to instruct us as to how to implement the Qur’an in our lives.[^28] Thus, the framework and bounds for a successful life revolve around both knowledge and action, and are to be taken from these two primary sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah.[^29] While there is ample allowance and flexibility within the Sharīʿah to accommodate custom and cultural norms, it is important to note that these cannot supersede the bounds and principles defined and set by divine legislation.[^30] Who else can we entrust our lives to besides Allah, the All-Merciful, most Just and Loving, who knows us better than we know ourselves? He is the All-Knowing, Who sees all and hears all, and He is our Protector upon whose wisdom and capability we rely with utmost faith that His guidance and commands are by design good for us. They are aimed at our achieving excellence and true beauty in both moral character and outward appearance and behavior, and will never harm us or let us down. Rather, His is *the* Straight Path to success and lasting contentment. Contrast this with the unstable, man-made constructs of gender uniformity, beauty, freedom of expression, and fluctuating ideologies which aim to serve those who promote them, yet bring no sustainable benefit in this world or in the Hereafter. On the contrary, they often lead to harm. Hence, we must have faith and trust in Allah, with Whom we find the necessary holistic safeguards for the best life possible, though we are not always able to perceive them as such at all times. Within our discourse on *hijab*, the next step toward answering *how is one to observe hijab correctly?* is to then establish that *hijab* can only be defined, understood, and practiced in accordance with the authentic teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah, as with each and every mandate from Allah. The concept of modest shame is not new to Islam. It has been emphasized by Allah since the creation of man, and is central to the story of our parents, Adam and Eve. They were deceived by Shayṭān (Satan) into disobeying Allah, and found themselves uncovered and vulnerable, both in a literal and moral sense—firmly establishing the connection between servitude and *ḥayāʾ*.[^31] Hence, looking back through Judeo-Christian history, we see its presence in scripture pre-dating the Qur’an, which then established the final legal rulings in this regard as the last divine revelation to humanity.[^32] The *sūrah* (chapter) *Nūr*, in which we find one of the verses commanding the believing women to observe *hijab*, contains at its core, the magnificent verse connecting the light of guidance from Allah to the heart of the believer. The *sūrah* itself conveys a central theme to all the believers, men and women, prescribing protection and preservation of morality and modesty for society as a whole, once again emphasizing that faith, servitude, and *ḥayāʾ* go hand in hand.[^33] While humans are blessed with God-given intellect and agency to obey Allah, as part of the test of this worldly life, and hence to choose to observe *hijab*, this leaves no room for one to freely interpret *hijab* outside these divinely legislated bounds, or as optional. Rather, choosing to disregard its obligation logically falls into disobedience, sin, and disregard of one’s servitude to God, which in turn comes with its own accountability in the sight of Allah, just as it does for one who disregards any other religious obligation. Ultimately, the choice to observe *hijab* is indeed an individual choice—one that must be made consciously between obedience or disobedience to Allah. However, as importantly, that choice is not to be interpreted as all or nothing. For example, one may struggle to pray every daily obligatory prayer with consistency and focus, but one doesn’t give up praying altogether, nor is it a final judgment of one’s level of faith or love for Allah. Rather, the sincere servant keeps striving to the best of their ability to fulfill the obligations upon them, flawed in attempt as one may be at times, over abandoning them completely. It is from the limitless mercy and generosity of Allah that one never knows which of the smallest acts of sincerity, even just one prostration performed with humility, is so beloved to Allah that it becomes the means to forgiveness, guidance, abundant reward, and Paradise. Hence, the one struggling with *hijab* continues to strive to observe it consistently and correctly, despite any obstacles, human weakness, and imperfections, in accordance with the beautiful Prophetic instruction to us in all matters: “…if I forbid you to do something, then keep away from it. And if I order you to do something, then do as much of it as you can.”[^34] > Say, \[O Muhammad\], “If you should love Allah, then follow me, \[so\] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” \[3:31\] --- ## Whose interpretation to follow? Perhaps the greatest source of misconception and confusion in regard to the mandate of *hijab* is the erroneous interpretation of the sacred texts through which *hijab* has been legislated by God. As the Qur’an itself testifies, it was revealed to all of humanity in clear speech, in the Arabic language.[^35] To this day, the reader is moved to awe and wonder, whether Muslim or not, even when reading a mere translation of this miraculous divine speech. While the Qur’an is, in great part, easily understood in its literal wording and meaning, there are a number of verses which, at the time of revelation, required explanation, elaboration, and demonstration (such as the rituals of prayer) by the Prophet ﷺ to the Companions; indeed, on many occasions, they explicitly asked him ﷺ for such explanations. It is important to note that anything conveyed to us from the Sunnah, defined here as the speech, actions, and tacit approval of the Prophet ﷺ, is a form of divinely inspired revelation (*waḥy*) that must be taken along with the Qur’an as authoritative, as the Prophet ﷺ did not act on his own behalf in regard to any matter of the Sharīʿah.[^36] Ibn Al-Qayyim (d. 1350) summarized this as, “If Allah made it a necessary element of faith for the Companions to seek permission to go somewhere when they were with the Prophet ﷺ, then it is even more obvious that it is a necessary element of faith for them not to adopt a view in \[the\] Religion without first seeking his permission...”[^37] > And We have not revealed to you the Book, \[O Muḥammad\], except for you to make clear to them that wherein they have differed and as guidance and mercy for a people who believe. \[16:64\] The verses requiring further clarification may rely on a number of other factors such as the context and time of revelation, on grouping them in light of other verses related to the same matter, and in some cases, more specifically worded verses which must be taken into consideration. Additionally, attention is given to verses containing the evolution and abrogation of a particular ruling as ordained by Allah, and the language and practice of the people as it was understood and existed at the time, to name a few factors in determining the correct interpretation of the text.[^38] This is a mere glimpse into the vast knowledge and methodology comprising the Islamic sciences which scholars of Qur’anic exegesis and Islamic jurisprudence employ to this day. It is sufficient for the purpose of our discussion to note that one cannot, therefore, take on the charge of arbitrarily reinterpreting the intention of Allah behind a particular ruling.[^39] This holds true for every established ruling,[^40] once it has been legislated and has precedent as to how it is to be understood and acted upon, from the Prophet ﷺ and thereafter, his Companions, who witnessed firsthand and best understood it, and their noble successors among those the Prophet ﷺ instructed us to follow.[^41] While there is no denying the need for sensitivity, empathy, and emotional intelligence, from both male *and* female scholars when addressing this issue, it cannot be emphasized enough that *ḥayāʾ* is prescribed for every individual, both male and female, and is not intended to suppress or marginalize women. Once again, this objection indicates a disregard for the legislative authority of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, as well as the legacy of exemplary female Islamic scholarship, dating back to the female Companions who were among those first recipients of the revelation and rulings taught directly by the Prophet, peace be upon him.[^42] > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I have left two matters with you. As long as you hold to them, you will not go the wrong way. They are the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet.”[^43] Now that we have established that servitude to Allah can only be understood and practiced in the light of the Qur’an and Sunnah, the two primary sources of Islam which contain the religion in its entirety for all time,[^44] it is incumbent on the believer to recognize and understand the importance of adhering to the correct interpretation and practice of the text, as conveyed to us from the Prophet ﷺ to his Companions, who are the most noble generation of believers, and the following early generations known as the pious predecessors (*salaf*).[^45] Hence, in his explanation of the verse, “\[He\] Who created death and life to test you \[as to\] which of you is best in deed—and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving,”[^46] Al-Fuḍayl bin ‘Iyāḍ concluded that for any deed to be accepted by Allah, it must be done with sincerity in one’s heart and adherence to the Sunnah in one’s action. He said, “The best deed is that which is most devoted and most proper.” The people asked, “O Abū ʿAlī! How should it be most devoted and most proper?” He said, “For if the deed was devoted but was not proper it would not be accepted, and if it was proper but not devoted it would not be accepted; the devoted is to be for Allah Alone, and the proper is to be in compliance with \[the\] Sunnah.”[^47] > The only saying of the faithful believers, when they are called to Allah (His Words, the Qur’an) and His Messenger ﷺ, to judge between them, is that they say: “We hear and we obey.” And such are the prosperous ones (who will live forever in Paradise). And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, fears Allah, and keeps his duty \[to Him\], such are the successful ones. \[24:51-52\] In regard to the correct understanding of *hijab*, it is sufficient for the purpose of this paper to point out that both textual evidence and precedent exist to confirm that the proper observance of *hijab* is an obligation as commanded by Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and understood, and practiced by the Companions and those who followed them. Upon hearing the verses of *hijab* recited, the female Companions acted immediately, making it clear from their compliance that it was a mandate from Allah to henceforth modestly cover and veil themselves. These noble women who personally witnessed the time of revelation gave us accounts of how the verses were understood and acted upon, under the instruction and approval of the Prophet ﷺ. ʿĀʾishah, the beloved wife of the Prophet ﷺ, Mother of the Believers, and great scholar and teacher to the Companions, said, “May Allah have mercy on the foremost women of the *Muhājirūn*. When Allah revealed the verse, ‘Let them draw their cloaks over their bodies,’ (24:31) they cut their sheets and veiled themselves with them.”[^48] This and other such narrations, particularly taken collectively with the verses of Qur’an commanding *hijab* leave no room for speculation. Furthermore, Allah states about those who still choose to deny His command: > These are nothing but names you have invented yourselves, you and your forefathers. God has sent no authority for them. These people merely follow guesswork and the whims of their souls, even though guidance has come to them from their Lord. \[53:23\] Thus, divine revelation itself negates all false arguments made in favor of one who follows unqualified sources and reformist *fatwá*s which stray outside these bounds, regardless of how popular and widespread, or rational they may appear, just as it negates deriving one’s own interpretations and rulings based on one’s desires.[^49] Blind following and herd mentality, fueled to new heights in the digital era, are part and parcel of Shayṭān’s deception which is strictly warned against. Ibn Taymiyyah describes those who indulge in such innovation to the religion under the category of, “legalizing the forbidden and blindly following the forefathers.” He explains that: “The origin of the misguidance of anyone who went astray is in putting forward his rationale and not the text revealed by Allah, and putting forward the following of desire and not the following of Allah's Commandment.”[^50] The other side of the coin is that the digital era leaves no excuse for ignorance, particularly in light of the fact that humanity was commanded over fourteen hundred years ago with the following: “\[Prophet\], all the messengers We sent before you were simply men to whom We had given the Revelation: you \[people\] can ask those who have knowledge if you do not know.”[^51] > O Prophet, sufficient for you is Allah and for whoever follows you of the believers. \[8:64\] --- ## Hijab as a means of liberation and empowerment As mentioned earlier, there cannot exist a more just and beneficial system for life than the one prescribed by our Creator and Master. The entire religion serves to safeguard the fundamental needs of humanity for it to benefit and nurture healthy family and community life by way of an unsurpassed moral code.[^52] At an individual level, we have discussed the benefits of servitude to Allah, as the means to recognizing and living one’s true identity as a servant of Allah, a means to dignity, self-esteem, and confidence—and ultimately, contentment. This further enables one to contribute to society; and in the context of *hijab*, women are no exception. In fact, it is moral consciousness and modesty, and hence *hijab*, that allow women their own unique space in society, free from objectification and the burdensome expectations of societal standards of worth and beauty. Merely mentioning the contributions of Muslim women throughout history, dating back to the time of the Prophet ﷺ, is sufficient to debunk the false thinking that *hijab* is a means of oppression, or that it prevents women from having a voice or presence in society. Rather, it is within the safety and comfort of the boundaries of *haya’* and *hijab* that many women find themselves liberated and empowered to serve in many roles and capacities, free from superficial and untoward judgment. Maintaining proper *hijab* allows them to follow in the footsteps of the female Companions who were respected daughters, wives, mothers, students, scholars and teachers, at home and in the *masjid*, in the market and on the battlefield, decision-makers, entrepreneurs, and specialists in the sciences of their day; in servitude to Allah and in service to His creation.[^53] They were luminaries and trendsetters, not for their outward appearance or *hijab*, but rather for their servitude to Allah and their contribution to society which left a rich and noble legacy etched in history that continues to inspire us. They were indeed the hallmarks of real and timeless beauty. They were recognized for the beauty and voices which emanated from within, far beyond the limited notions of beauty linked to the shackles of fashion and social media. Theirs was a presence of admirable dignity and excellence (*iḥsān*) both in appearance and character—a demeanor empowered by the ultimate source of true beauty and all good. The Prophet ﷺ said, “He who has, in his heart, an ant’s weight of arrogance will not enter Jannah.” Someone said: “\[What if\] a man likes to wear beautiful clothes and shoes?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah is Beautiful, He loves beauty. Arrogance means ridiculing and rejecting the Truth and despising people."[^54] Sadly, there exist more barriers today within our own communities, families, and even mosques which often erroneously, albeit unintentionally, marginalize and demotivate women and girls from realizing their God-given potential. This misinformed messaging, at times, itself a result of superficial judgment, stereotyping people, and the lack of acknowledgment of the many personal and societal challenges Muslims are increasingly facing, has contributed further to the faith crisis we see today.[^55] In order to safeguard the faith of the present and future generations to come, it must be rectified with the proper knowledge, awareness, and empathy to effectively bring about change from within, and subsequently, to have a positive impact on the world around us. As the proverb goes, it takes a village to raise a child. Going back to the prophetic model, this begins with nurturing faith, conviction, and confidence in our children, as well as in our brothers and sisters alike—with the message of *tawḥīd*, of knowing Allah, and of servitude as the foundation of one’s existence and identity as a true *ʿabd* of Allah. Worship, obedience, and specifically *ḥayāʾ* in this case, will settle far more sincerely into practice once the hearts are inclined to Allah. > As for those who struggle in Our cause, We will surely guide them along Our Way. And Allah is certainly with the good-doers. \[29:69\] --- ## Conclusion To the sister who is thinking about embarking on the journey of wearing *hijab*, or struggling to keep it on: Know that at the core of every action of the believer is their connection to Allah. Working to strengthen it will keep one steadfast and bring ease on the path to servitude. The servant of Allah never gives up. Remind yourself of your purpose by remembering Allah by His names and attributes. He is the All-Merciful, All-Knowing, most Just, All-Wise, All-Forgiving, most Loving, *your* Creator and Master who is the source of guidance and legislation. Turn to Allah in prayer and supplication. He is with those who strive in His cause. Stay the course, and stay close to others doing the same.[^56] No challenge is successfully overcome without faith and conviction in one’s heart. To perfect one’s servitude is the ultimate test of life, and one that does not end until death. *Hijab* is a struggle, on different levels, for many women. There is no good in the condescending behavior that some may show towards those who do not wear it, nor the outright denial of its place in Islam. It’s a challenge, for some greater than others. But no challenge is without its due reward from the Lord of the Worlds. The safe harbor of servitude requires a deep trust in Allah and His promise.[^57] The oars that will get one to safe harbor are built upon reliance (*tawakkul*) on Allah to guide the way with safety and ease. Allah makes a connection in the Qur’an between servitude and complete reliance on Him: > So We have sent you \[Prophet\] to a community—other communities passed away long before them—to recite to them what We reveal to you. Yet they disbelieve in the Lord of Mercy. Say, “He is my Lord: there is no god but Him. I put my trust in Him and to Him is my return.” \[13:30\] Ibn Taymiyyah notes, in light of this and other verses that carry a similar meaning, that reliance on Allah is found in seeking His help, and that it is uniquely tied to servitude in that one cannot be a servant of Allah, nor worship Him without His help.[^58] Finally, Allah reminds us that with every endeavor along His path, the true *ʿabd* is conscientious and steadfast. While the world may have placed a spotlight on her *hijab*, her sight is unwaveringly set on the beacon of servitude. Good actions of worship and obedience, as diminished as they may seem in a world enslaved to man-made standards and values, are never lost with Allah, the One to Whom every sincere servant will return, to find everlasting reward for every effort made in this world. > …Indeed, he who is mindful of Allah and patient, then indeed, Allah does not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good. \[12:90\] --- ## Notes [^1]: Edward William Lane, *An Arabic-English Lexicon*, bk. 1, pt. 2, p. 515–16, [https://archive.org/details/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/02.ArabicEnglLex.v1p2.let.5.6.7..Jim.Cha.Kha.Lane1865./page/n149/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/02.ArabicEnglLex.v1p2.let.5.6.7..Jim.Cha.Kha.Lane1865./page/n149/mode/2up&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504747000&usg=AOvVaw1uxQz4UE9dnxg4n-c1vg5D). [^2]: See “When you ask his wives for something, do so from behind a *screen*: this is purer both for your hearts and for theirs.” Qur’an 33:53. And “And they say, ‘Our hearts are within coverings \[i.e., screened\] from that to which you invite us, and in our ears is deafness, and between us and you is a *partition*, so work; indeed, we are working.’” Qur’an 41:5. [^3]: Anderson Beckmann Al Wazni, “Muslim Women in America and hijab: A Study of Empowerment, Feminist Identity, and Body Image,” *Social Work* 60, no. 4 (2015): 325–33, [https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swv033](https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swv033&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504748000&usg=AOvVaw344FL30RNOMtOeJ_SXvHyF). [^4]: Banu Gökariksel and Ellen McLarney, “Muslim Women, Consumer Capitalism, and the Islamic Culture Industry,” *Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies* 6, no. 3 (2010): 2–3, [muse.jhu.edu/article/394242](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/394242&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504748000&usg=AOvVaw2h4rBwCjESon7zYO3y1Lub). [^5]: Mohammad Elshinawy, Roohi Tahir, and Omar Suleiman, “‘We Used to Have No Regard for Women’: Gender Equity & the Advent of Islam,” *Yaqeen*, July 17, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/we-used-to-have-no-regard-for-women-gender-equity-the-advent-of-islam](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/we-used-to-have-no-regard-for-women-gender-equity-the-advent-of-islam&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504749000&usg=AOvVaw1_KUbRciqA4Ay6BNP7tOF1). [^6]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “Understanding Haya,” *Yaqeen*, forthcoming. [^7]: Ibn Taymiyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah: Being a True Slave of Allah*, trans. Abdallah M. Mekkaoui (n.p.: n.p., 1987), 13, [archive.org/details/al-uboodiyahBeingATrueSlaveOfAllahswt--/mode/1up](http://archive.org/details/al-uboodiyahBeingATrueSlaveOfAllahswt--/mode/1up&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504770000&usg=AOvVaw3hst6RriMOsWws1dFZSyOu). [^8]: “Say, \[O Muhammad\], ‘If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allah and His Messenger and *jihad* \[i.e., striving\] in His cause, then wait until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people’” (Qur’an 9:24). [^9]: Qur’an 51:56. [^10]: Ibn Taymiyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah*, 22–23. [^11]: Qur’an 17:1. See also 53:10, 72:19, and 2:23. [^12]: “The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him. And there is not a thing except that it exalts \[Allah\] by His praise, but you do not understand their \[way of\] exalting. Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving.” Qur’an 17:44. See also 22:18 and 16:48–49. [^13]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah*, 33. [^14]: Ibn Taymiyyah, 45. [^15]: Qur’an 39:53. [^16]: “And \[mention, O Muḥammad\], when Luqmān said to his son while he was instructing him, ‘O my son, do not associate \[anything\] with Allah (*shirk*). Indeed, association \[with Him\] is great injustice (*ẓulm*).’” Qur’an 31:13. See also 39:29 and 16:75–76. [^17]: The majority of scholars use the following verse as proof that Maryam is the best woman ever created: “And \[mention\] when the angels said, ‘O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds.’” Qur’an 3:42. [^18]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The best woman (of her time) was Khadījah and the best woman (of her time) was Maryam.” *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 938, bk. 5, hadith 365. See also Qur’an 3:37, 3:42–43, and 19:16-33. [^19]: Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, *Usool at-Tafseer: The Methodology of Qur'anic Interpretation* (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2005), 102–103, 107–108, 153–64, [https://islamfuture.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/usool-at-tafseer-the-methodology-of-qur-anic-interpretation.pdf](https://islamfuture.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/usool-at-tafseer-the-methodology-of-qur-anic-interpretation.pdf%2520p%2520102-103&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504751000&usg=AOvVaw0XqyrWIsx524iqlfXDEYNg). [^20]: Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “If Adam’s son had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys, for nothing fills his mouth except dust. And Allah forgives him who repents to Him.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6439, bk. 81, hadith 28, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/28](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/28&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504752000&usg=AOvVaw1HA03_ohOPnOri31nrN2Mb). [^21]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah*, 80. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 21, bk. 2, hadith 14, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/2/14](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/2/14&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504752000&usg=AOvVaw2qSBMJo3FCnmgQ5_UMEQlf). [^23]: Qur’an 21:19. See also 7:205–206. [^24]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The closest that a person can be to his Lord, the Mighty and Sublime, is when he is prostrating, so increase in supplication then.” *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 1137, bk. 12, hadith 109, [https://sunnah.com/nasai/12/109](https://sunnah.com/nasai/12/109&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504753000&usg=AOvVaw2cG1qIO2hR1_3_DdFAWxhC). [^25]: See Qur’an 15:39–40, 16:99–100, and 76:5–6. [^26]: Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “If Allah loves a person, He calls Gabriel, saying, ‘Allah loves so and so, O Gabriel love him.’ So Gabriel would love him and then would make an announcement in the Heavens: ‘Allah has loved so and-so therefore you should love him also.’ So all the dwellers of the Heavens would love him, and then he is granted the pleasure of the people on the earth.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7485, bk. 97, hadith 111, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/111](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/111&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504754000&usg=AOvVaw0h4_CYf2D8OMeKi7rAaIRS). [^27]: Qur’an 39:11–15. [^28]: Qur’an 33:21. See also ʿĀʾishah said: “The conduct of the Prophet ﷺ was entirely according to the Qur'an.”  *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn*, no. 1847, bk. 18, hadith 40, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin/18/40](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin/18/40&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504754000&usg=AOvVaw1dBCMUldB4yqUbkPHlb8-b). [^29]: ʿUthaymīn Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, *Explanation of a Summary of Al-Aqeedatul-Hamawiyyah of Ibn Taymiyyah*, trans. Aboo az-Zubayr Abdur-Rahmaan Harrison (n.p.: Tarbiyyah Bookstore Publishing, 2004), 9–15. Also, “in the terminology of usul al-fiqh, adillah Shar’iyyah refer to four principal proofs, or sources of the Shari’ah, namely the Qur’an, Sunnah, consensus and analogy.” Mohammad Hashim Kamali, *Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence* (n.p.: Islamic Texts Society, 1991), 19. [^30]: Kamali, 27, 248–258. [^31]: Qur’an 20:115–23. [^32]: Zohreh Sadatmoosavi, W. Z. Kamaruddin W. Ali, and Mohammad Ali Shokouhi, “The Conceptions of Modesty and Modest Dress in the Scriptures of Abrahamic Religions,” *Afkar* 18 (2016): 229–70, [https://doi.org/10.22452/afkar.vol18no2.6](https://doi.org/10.22452/afkar.vol18no2.6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504756000&usg=AOvVaw1GiHL6Tk-Zay5EUR1X5p_w). [^33]: Qur’an 24:27–38. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7288, bk. 96, hadith 19,  [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/96/19](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/96/19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504756000&usg=AOvVaw1fTjb1JVsDHOQZLtAU3BuG). [^35]: Qur’an 26:192–95. [^36]: Muṣṭafá al-Sibāʿī, *The Sunnah and Its Role in Islamic Legislation*, trans. Faisal Shafeeq (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2009), 73–76, 77–89, 443–59. [^37]: As-Sibāʻī, 84. [^38]: Philips, *Usool at-Tafseer*, 19–29, 143–52, 165–86, 204–31. [^39]: “The mainstream understanding of Islam transmitted generation after generation throughout the history of this *ummah*, therefore, carries immense epistemological weight. It is illogical for someone to posit that fourteen hundred centuries of Muslim scholars have been blinded from the plain sense meaning of the Qur’an or the core teachings of the faith and that only in the modern era have we discovered what Islam ‘really’ means.” [Nazir Khan, “Difference of Opinion: Where Do We Draw the Line?,”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504759000&usg=AOvVaw2qr-0dJfywymAqt5aDKU3r) *[Yaq](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504758000&usg=AOvVaw1zNS1Hp-PjZUb0iGKJ_TdX)[e](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504758000&usg=AOvVaw1zNS1Hp-PjZUb0iGKJ_TdX)[en](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504758000&usg=AOvVaw1zNS1Hp-PjZUb0iGKJ_TdX)*[, December 10, 2019, updated June 22, 2020, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504759000&usg=AOvVaw2qr-0dJfywymAqt5aDKU3r). [^40]: “Many of the objections being made today are against non-negotiable rulings. The prohibition of usury and certain forms of financial transactions; the clear laws of marriage, divorce, and inheritance; the requirement of the *hijab*; all such rulings are *qaṭʿī.* They cannot be abandoned.” [Amir Aboguddah, “A Sober Second Thought: When and How Should Changes in Islamic Law be Made?,”](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/amir-aboguddah/a-sober-second-thought-when-and-how-should-changes-in-islamic-law-be-made&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504760000&usg=AOvVaw07quEQ1xkh-w4iNbtMmEpw) *[Yaqeen](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/amir-aboguddah/a-sober-second-thought-when-and-how-should-changes-in-islamic-law-be-made&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504761000&usg=AOvVaw32CmsRINpn4_Xh1PEWpduS)*[, July 30, 2020, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/amir-aboguddah/a-sober-second-thought-when-and-how-should-changes-in-islamic-law-be-made](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/amir-aboguddah/a-sober-second-thought-when-and-how-should-changes-in-islamic-law-be-made&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504761000&usg=AOvVaw32CmsRINpn4_Xh1PEWpduS). [^41]: “It is incumbent upon you (to follow) my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly‐Guided Successors after me. Hold fast to it and bite on to it with your molars. And beware of the newly‐invented matters, for every newly‐invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is misguidance.” *Jamiʿ al‐Tirmidhī*, no. 2676, and he said it is *ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ*. Also recorded by Abū Dāwūd (no. 4607), Ibn Mājah (no. 42), and Aḥmad (4/126). Ibn Ḥibbān and al‐Ḥākim declared it to be *ṣaḥīḥ*. Ṣāliḥ, *Explanation of a Summary of Al-Aqeedatul-Hamawiyyah*, 9–10, 24. [^42]: Additionally, the concept of scholarly consensus (*ijmāʿ*) plays a role in further establishing the boundaries of acceptable opinion within Islamic legislation. “In the terminology of *usul al-fiqh*, adillah Shar’iyyah refer to four principal proofs, or sources of the Shari’ah, namely the Qur’an, Sunnah, consensus and analogy.” Kamali, *Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence*, 19, 155–68. And also the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, “My community shall never agree on an error.” *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, II, no. 1303, hadith 3950. [^43]: *Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik*, bk. 46, hadith 3,[https://sunnah.com/urn/416890](https://sunnah.com/urn/416890&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504763000&usg=AOvVaw0d29UtsgJGjyFG_JkKmxV_). [^44]: Qur’an 5:3. [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6429, bk. 81, hadith 18, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/18](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/18&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504763000&usg=AOvVaw1_PD9_Ad1rLdn7UFxRHky7). The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best people are those of my generation, and then those who will come after them (the next generation), and then those who will come after them (i.e., the next generation), and then after them, there will come people whose witness will precede their oaths, and whose oaths will precede their witness.” [^46]: Qur’an 67:2. [^47]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah*, 63. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4481,[https://abuaminaelias.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/05/23/hijab-allah-reveals-ayat/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504764000&usg=AOvVaw0qHPW8qs814d4uTY9RaQJc)[com](https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/05/23/hijab-allah-reveals-ayat/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504764000&usg=AOvVaw0qHPW8qs814d4uTY9RaQJc)[/dailyhadithonline/2012/05/23/hijab-allah-reveals-ayat/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/05/23/hijab-allah-reveals-ayat/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504764000&usg=AOvVaw0qHPW8qs814d4uTY9RaQJc). [^49]: Heather Akou, “Interpreting Islam through the Internet: Making Sense of hijab,” *Contemporary Islam* 4 (2010): 331–46, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-010-0135-6](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-010-0135-6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504765000&usg=AOvVaw3czw9VgnS2bFv-4r7xednx). [^50]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah*, 52–54. [^51]: Qur’an 16:43. [^52]: “The Islamic law is all about wisdom and achieving people’s welfare in this life and the afterlife. It is all about justice, mercy, wisdom, and good. Thus, any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with mischief, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does not belong to the Islamic law, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretation.” Ibn Al-Qayyim, as quoted in Jasser Auda, *Maqasid Al-Shariah: An Introductory Guide*, (n.p.: IIIT, 2008), [24–25, https://www.](https://www.jasserauda.net/new/pdf/maqasid_guide-Feb_2008.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504766000&usg=AOvVaw3_ALxOiQaPUxZ1AqmXXNBk)[jasserauda](https://www.jasserauda.net/new/pdf/maqasid_guide-Feb_2008.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504766000&usg=AOvVaw3_ALxOiQaPUxZ1AqmXXNBk)[.net/new/pdf/maqasid\_guide-Feb\_2008.pdf](https://www.jasserauda.net/new/pdf/maqasid_guide-Feb_2008.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504766000&usg=AOvVaw3_ALxOiQaPUxZ1AqmXXNBk). [^53]: Elmira Akhmetova, “Women in Islamic Civilisation: Their Rights and Contributions,” *Islam and Civilisational Renewal* 7 (2016): 474–91,  [https://doi.org/10.12816/0035218](https://doi.org/10.12816/0035218&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504767000&usg=AOvVaw39mtnlEB61q5WZgdkN-KZF). [^54]: *Riyāḍ al-Ṣaliḥīn*, no. 611, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin/introduction/611](https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin/introduction/611&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504767000&usg=AOvVaw2Y7WobkOaToyeY6GlX0N_F). [^55]: Youssef Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis,” *Yaqeen*, February 18, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504768000&usg=AOvVaw3W-WuCBah0GEgBNopPfw84). [^56]: “And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you—when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.” Qur’an 3:103. [^57]: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange, so glad tidings to the strangers,” *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3986, bk. 36, hadith 61, [https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/36/61](https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/36/61&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616668504768000&usg=AOvVaw3xA08Vk3S20pCWuvq0Dayn). [^58]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *al-ʿUbūdīyah*, 59 and 70. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. All praise is due to Him, and may His peace and blessings be upon His noble Servant and Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ. The observance of *hijab* has become one of the most contested subjects concerning Islam and Muslim women in the modern world, though its true nature is best understood as a manifestation of *ḥayāʾ* (modesty, shyness) and, above all, as an act of servitude to Allah. Linguistically, the word *hijab* carries the meaning of being veiled, concealed, or protected, and it is used in both literal and metaphysical senses in the Qur’an, even though it has come today to signify the headscarf worn by Muslim women. Especially after the events of September 11th, the *hijab* was thrust into a spotlight of controversy that it did not deserve. Before its true essence can be recovered, it is necessary to identify the forces that have distorted its meaning: widespread Islamophobia, global political interests, and certain currents of contemporary feminist thought, each of which advances its own agenda and frequently misrepresents *hijab* as oppressive and misogynistic. The veiled Muslim woman became a canvas upon which Western liberal neo-Orientalists projected their own values, while the exposed female body became a marketable image within free-market capitalism. Though feminist movements arose to challenge patriarchal control, many argue that they have found an unlikely partner in capitalism, shifting from what is termed "state feminism" toward "market feminism." A collection of studies published in the *Journal of Middle East Women's Studies* observed that "contemporary Muslim femininities are increasingly mediated through the market forces of consumer capitalism," such that the meaning of being a Muslim woman is "constantly negotiated, defined and redefined through or in reaction to the images, narratives, and knowledges about Muslim womanhood constructed in the marketplace." Alongside these forces lies another distorting factor: inherited cultural bias, present in the Muslim world as elsewhere, whereby practices such as denying women education, wealth, property, or a voice have been wrongly attributed to religion, when in truth such abuses contradict the honor and empowerment that Islam and *hijab* confer upon women. Amid this confusion, vast numbers of Muslim women wear *hijab* with purpose, finding it a source of liberation and solace precisely because it is worn in obedience to Allah. Yet for many women and girls—including those newly entering Islam, often without the support of family and community—*hijab* has also become associated with struggle over identity, self-esteem, and body image. The aim here is to recover the true purpose of *hijab* by anchoring it in its most foundational aspect: servitude to Allah (*al-ʿubūdiyyah*). Once this purpose becomes the answer to every "why," it becomes the timeless motivation for cultivating *ḥayāʾ*, which in Islam is both an inward and outward cornerstone of faith. It should be noted that servitude is the foundation of the whole framework of modesty, and this treatment is confined to that dimension alone; the complete picture requires accompanying study of *ḥayāʾ* for both men and women, gender interaction, and the specific legal rulings of *hijab*. The first divine command to humanity, in the sequence of the Qur'an, is: *"O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous"* (2:21). When Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) was asked to explain this verse, he wrote that worship, or servitude, "comprises everything that Allah loves and approves of from the apparent and hidden sayings and deeds." This includes ritual acts of worship as well as sincerity, truthfulness, patience, gratitude, and good conduct, all grounded in love and obedience to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Servitude is the very purpose of human existence, for Allah says, *"And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me."* Ibn Taymiyyah clarified that neither love nor submission alone suffices: "Nothing deserves complete love and submission except Allah." This servitude is inseparable from *tawḥīd*, for every prophet was sent with the message, *"There is no deity except Me, so worship Me alone"* (21:25). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself is honored with the title of *ʿabd* (servant), as in *"Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā"* (17:1). Ibn Taymiyyah further noted that the *ʿabd* is, by definition, "one who is subdued," a status shared by believer and disbeliever alike; what ennobles the true servant is his willing and sincere submission. Allah, in His mercy, addresses even the sinful among His servants: *"My servants who have harmed yourselves by your own excess, do not despair of God's mercy"* (39:53). Servitude to Allah is the pinnacle of human existence, while servitude to any other (*shirk*) leads to oppression (*ẓulm*). The true *ʿabd* is enslaved neither to ideologies nor to whims, and therein lies genuine liberation and dignity. This realization dismantles doubts surrounding *hijab*, for it clarifies why it is observed, how, and for Whom. The finest example is Maryam, the mother of ʿĪsā, honored as the best of all women, admired for the strength of her faith and its manifestation in her renowned modesty. It is significant that the earliest Makkan revelations, over some thirteen years, focused upon *tawḥīd* and strengthening faith long before most legislation, including *hijab*, was revealed in Madinah—teaching that conviction must be nurtured before obedience can take firm root. Human beings naturally value dignity and honor, yet true and lasting status lies in servitude, as seen in the prophets and the pious who followed them. The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever possesses three qualities will "taste the sweetness of faith"—that Allah and His Messenger be dearer to him than all else, that he loves for Allah's sake, and that he hates disbelief as he hates to be cast into fire. Such faith produces *taqwā*, *tawakkul*, *yaqīn*, and *ṣabr*. Allah offers the angels as an example of humility, for those nearest to Him "are not too proud to worship Him, nor do they tire" (21:19–20). Humility is far removed from humiliation; the one who humbles himself before Allah stands tall and beloved, which is why prostration is the noblest act of worship. Thus the woman who faces ignorance or bigotry over her *hijab* need not fear humiliation, for in reality she stands honored before Allah for her sincerity and steadfastness. Once one's connection to Allah is established, one turns to the practical guidance embodied in the Qur'an and Sunnah. The repeated prayer, *"You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us along the Straight Path"* (1:5–6), affirms our dependence upon Allah. While the *Sharīʿah* accommodates custom, custom cannot override divine legislation. Modest shame is not new to Islam; it is central to the story of Adam and Eve, who, upon disobeying, found themselves uncovered—establishing the link between servitude and *ḥayāʾ*. The obligation of *hijab* leaves no room for treating it as optional or reinterpreting it outside its legislated bounds; to disregard it falls into disobedience, for which one is accountable. Yet the matter is not "all or nothing." Just as one who struggles in prayer does not abandon it, the one struggling with *hijab* keeps striving, in keeping with the Prophet's ﷺ instruction: "if I order you to do something, then do as much of it as you can." The greatest source of confusion lies in the mistaken interpretation of the sacred texts. The Sunnah is itself a form of revelation (*waḥy*) and must be taken as authoritative alongside the Qur'an, as Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) affirmed. Correct interpretation depends upon context, related verses, abrogation, and the practice of the Companions—a vast science that forbids arbitrary reinterpretation according to one's desires. *ʿĀʾishah* related that when the verse of covering was revealed, the foremost women of the Muhājirūn "cut their sheets and veiled themselves with them," demonstrating immediate compliance. Al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ explained that a deed is accepted only when it is sincere for Allah and in accordance with the Sunnah. Blind following of reformist verdicts that stray from these bounds is condemned, for Allah says of such invented notions, *"These are nothing but names you have invented"* (53:23), while the digital era leaves no excuse for ignorance, since *"you can ask those who have knowledge if you do not know."* Far from oppressing women, *hijab* liberates them from objectification and grants them their own dignified space. The female Companions were daughters, wives, mothers, scholars, teachers, entrepreneurs, and participants in the affairs of their society—luminaries not for their appearance but for their servitude and legacy. The Prophet ﷺ taught that "Allah is Beautiful, He loves beauty," while warning that arrogance means "rejecting the truth and despising people." Sadly, barriers within our own communities sometimes marginalize women; these must be corrected through knowledge and empathy, beginning by nurturing *tawḥīd* and servitude in the hearts of the young, for worship settles sincerely only once the heart inclines to Allah. *"As for those who struggle in Our cause, We will surely guide them along Our Way"* (29:69). To the sister contemplating *hijab* or struggling to maintain it: the servant of Allah never despairs. Strengthen your connection to Him, remember Him by His names and attributes, and turn to Him in prayer. No challenge is without its reward, and reliance (*tawakkul*) upon Allah is uniquely tied to servitude, for, as Ibn Taymiyyah noted, one cannot worship Allah without His help. Though the world may fix its gaze upon her *hijab*, the true *ʿabd* fixes her sight upon servitude, trusting the promise of her Lord: *"Indeed, he who is mindful of Allah and patient, then indeed, Allah does not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good"* (12:90). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why do Muslim women wear hijab? Is there a deeper reason beyond modesty? The most foundational answer is servitude to Allah. Hijab is, at its core, an act of *ʿubudiyya*: a conscious, willing submission to the One who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves. Allah’s first command to humanity in the sequential arrangement of the Qur’an is “O humankind, worship your Lord” (2:21). Hijab falls within that broad call to worship, just as prayer, fasting, and charity do. When hijab is understood this way, the question “why wear it?” answers itself. The servant of Allah does not need external validation to comply with His command, because their obedience flows from love for their Creator and trust in His wisdom. True servitude, as Ibn Taymiyya explained, is built on both love and submission together; neither alone is sufficient. Connecting hijab to that foundation is what gives it staying power against every social pressure, doubt, and challenge a woman might face. ### Isn’t hijab just a symbol of oppression? That’s what I keep hearing. That narrative has specific origins, and understanding them matters. In the wake of 9/11, hijab was thrust into the spotlight of controversy. Western liberal and feminist discourse framed it as a symbol of oppression by “the uncivilized Muslim man,” and the exposed female body became the marketable image of freedom in consumer capitalism. Political agendas, Islamophobia, and market feminism each had a stake in promoting that image. The veiled Muslim woman became the figure onto which others projected their own values. Many argue that these same feminist movements found a partnership with capitalism that simply replaced one set of expectations about women’s bodies with another. Hijab, rightly understood, frees a woman from precisely that cycle: from being measured by fluctuating beauty standards, from objectification, from the exhausting performance of worth through appearance. The female companions of the Prophet ﷺ wore hijab while serving as scholars, teachers, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers. ### I struggle to wear hijab consistently. Does that mean my faith is weak? Inconsistency in any act of worship does not define the ceiling of your faith or your love for Allah. A person may struggle to pray every obligatory prayer with full presence and consistency, but the answer is not to abandon prayer altogether. The same logic applies here. The Prophet ﷺ instructed: “If I order you to do something, then do as much of it as you can.” Sincere striving, even imperfect striving, is not the same as abandoning an obligation. It is from the limitless mercy of Allah that one never knows which small act of sincerity becomes the means to forgiveness and guidance. The servant of Allah keeps going, not because the path is easy, but because the One they are walking toward is al-Rahman, al-Ghafur—the Most Merciful, the Most Forgiving. Turn to Him in prayer and supplication. He is with those who strive in His cause, and no genuine effort made for His sake is ever lost. ### How is hijab supposed to be liberating when it honestly feels like the opposite sometimes? The real question is: liberation from what, and for whom? Servitude to Allah is the pinnacle of human existence, while servitude to anything other than Him leads inevitably to a form of oppression—whether to the shifting ideals of fashion, the commodification of the female body, or the relentless churn of social media standards. The servant of Allah is not enslaved to any of these, nor to their own whims and desires. In that freedom lies real dignity. The women who wore hijab with this understanding throughout Islamic history were not diminished by it. They were respected daughters, wives, scholars, teachers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Their presence in society commanded admiration not because of their appearance, but for the dignity and excellence that radiated from their character and their servitude to Allah. ### How do I build a genuine connection to hijab instead of wearing it out of habit or guilt? Start with knowing Allah. The earliest Qur’anic revelation in Mecca focused heavily on *tawhid* (the Oneness of Allah) and strengthening faith, long before the legal rulings of hijab were revealed in Medina. That sequence was deliberate. Conviction and certainty in the heart must come first; obedience flows naturally from it. Practically, this means returning to Allah’s names and attributes regularly. When you internalize that He is your Creator, your Master, your Protector—al-Hakim (the All-Wise), al-Wadud (the Most Loving)—the command to cover becomes an expression of trust rather than an imposition to endure. Surround yourself with a community doing the same, because no challenge is successfully overcome in isolation. And hold on to the Prophet’s promise: “Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange, so glad tidings to the strangers.” Standing firm in servitude, however countercultural it feels, is precisely where the reward lies. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-hijab-religious-or-cultural-how-islamic-rulings-are-formed # Is Hijab Religious or Cultural? How Islamic Rulings Are Formed **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** Methodology (usul), Sharia **Tags:** Hijab, Paper **Published:** March 25, 2021 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ###### This paper covers the legal definition of hijab, to read more about the servitude of hijab and its spiritual dimensions go here. --- ## Introduction When it comes to the obligation for a Muslim woman to cover her hair and body, many have expressed their confusion as to where this commandment is rooted. In order to address this topic, this paper will explore how rulings in Islamic law are generally formed, while adopting the commandment for women to cover as a case study. We will explore the handful of sources jurists are presented with, and how they go about evaluating different texts to arrive at a legal conclusion. In order to do so, we must first clarify the term *hijab*. In an attempt to understand the legal ruling on *hijab*, one often begins their search with this wording in mind. One will quickly recognize, however, that their search is futile. This is because our contemporary usage of the word “*hijab*” to refer to the legal ruling on covering is misleading. *Hijab* linguistically refers to a barrier past which one cannot see. The Qur’an uses this word in a number of contexts, including describing the physical barrier between the people of hellfire and paradise \[Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, 44-46\], as well as the metaphysical barrier that distinguishes between the hearts of the believers and the disbelievers \[Sūrat Fuṣṣilat, verse 5, Sūrat al-Isrāʾ, verse 45\]. Other references to *hijab* include the exclusive mandate upon the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to maintain a physical barrier between themselves and non-related men \[Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, verse 53\]. This is in addition to their obligation of covering themselves, and hence not illustrative of the word *hijab* as we know it today. Thus, while scriptural mentions of *hijab* refer to a partition, in this day and age, *hijab* is most commonly translated as merely “headscarf.” For the purposes of this paper, we will adopt the word *hijab* in reference to covering both the hair and body. Clothing that is loose and opaque is taken for granted in this understanding as well, since that is mandatory for both men and women when covering one’s body (*ʿawrah*). We reserve the discussion of what constitutes modesty and the *ʿawrah*, however, for another paper in this series.[^1] --- ## Qur’anic sources We begin where all jurists first turn to address a legal dilemma: the Qur’an. The Qur’an is the foremost primary source in Islamic law because it has been definitively established (*qaṭʿī al-thubūt*). Put differently, because the Qur’an has been massively transmitted (*mutawātir*), we can be certain that the text that we have today is the same text revealed to the Prophet ﷺ. In turn, because we believe the Qur’an to be direct revelation from God, rulings in the Qur’an are unquestionably upheld as divine commands. That being said, although a Qur’anic verse may give us a clear command, the *way* in which a command is applied may be open to interpretation (*ẓannī al-dalālah*). For example, Allah commands believers in verse 6 of Sūrat al-Māʾidah to wash when they rise for prayer: > O believers! When you rise up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles… \[5:6\] This verse clearly establishes that we must wash before prayer. Yet, at the same time, it does not provide the details of how to fulfill this command. At first glance, we may agree on which limbs need to be washed, but is *wuḍūʾ* limited to washing these limbs alone? And do we have to wash them in a particular way or sequence? These open-ended questions demonstrate how a verse in the Qur’an, although providing a clear command, may still need to be interpreted. Through various sources such as Qur’anic exegesis, Prophetic precedent, and other methods of legal analysis, jurists, nonetheless, were able to establish precisely the limbs and process for carrying out *wuḍūʾ*. Similarly, the Qur’an establishes the command for women to cover in a way that, on the face of it, seems to leave room for interpretation. Thus, in order to establish what exactly is divinely commanded, one must consult other source texts for a more definitive conclusion. There are a number of verses in the Qur’an that address the question of women’s clothing and/or modesty in general, one of which is of direct interest. This primary verse reads: > **And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment (*zīnah*) except that which \[necessarily\] appears thereof and to wrap their headcovers (*khumurihinna*) over their chests and not expose their adornment** except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women... \[24:31\] For the sake of this paper, we will focus on the first half of the verse that addresses the details regarding women’s dress. In addition to the command upon men to lower their gazes and guard their private parts that appears in the preceding verse \[24:30\], women are commanded to 1) “not expose their adornment except that which \[necessarily\] appears thereof” and 2) “wrap their ‘headcovers’ over their chests.” These two Qur’anic injunctions are clear commands that serve as the foundations for the legal obligation of “*hijab*.” Let us begin by addressing the first clause of the command, which many often skip, instead citing the second clause as the primary injunction for wearing *hijab*. However, when jurists address women’s covering in legal discussions, it is this first clause that serves as the central command, while the second condition primarily functions to provide further clarity. In this first clause, Allah informs the Prophet ﷺ to command the believing women to cover their *zīna*, which is often roughly translated as adornment or beauty. In order to properly understand the meaning of this instruction, we turn to the science of Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*). Early commentary on the Qur’an by the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ is critical in our understanding of the Qur’an. It not only relays to us the reasons and chronology in which a verse was revealed, but clarifies the meaning and implications of the original Arabic words used within a verse. It is also important to note that the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ had the most intimate knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah, as they witnessed its revelation and application, and learned directly from the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn ʿAbbās, a giant in Qur’anic exegesis and the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, for instance, explained that this clause meant that everything should be covered except the hands and face.[^2] It was also narrated from ʿĀʾishah (rA) that the intended meaning is “what appears from the hands and face.”[^3] Thus, “except that which appears thereof,” is understood to be an exception to the rule of fully covering wherein a woman can expose parts of her body that are required for daily activity, such as the face and hands. Jurists explain that these exceptions are granted because their exposure is necessary for the average woman to carry out the activities of her daily life.[^4] Showing her face may be required to legally complete a transaction, while her hands are required for taking and giving in the process. In line with the reasoning that exceptions are made based on necessity, the Ḥanafīs allowed a woman to expose her feet because they are among the body parts that involuntarily show when walking.[^5] Some Mālikīs also held this exception since covering the feet all the time may prove difficult.[^6] The second clause, which proceeds to command believing women to draw their *khumur* over their chests, further clarifies what must be covered. The word *khumur* here is translated as headcovers, but it is often rendered as simply “veils”—hence the confusion and ensuing debates about whether or not covering one’s hair is a commandment. A simple linguistic analysis, however, confirms the former meaning. *Khumur*, the plural word for *khimār*, is derived from the root letters *kh-m-r*, which at its most basic understanding means to hide or to conceal. These same root letters in the form “*khimār*” specifically take on the meaning of veiling one’s head and, in some denotations, the face as well. This understanding is reaffirmed in a number of ways. For starters, we can consider the meaning of *khimār* in light of other words with the same root letters. This is because, according to the general rules of Arabic grammar, words that contain the same root letters often share a common meaning. Wine in the Qur’an, for instance, is dubbed *khamr*. According to one of the most prominent classical Arabic dictionaries, *Lisān al-ʿarab*, it is labeled thusly since it conceals the intellect (*li-annahā khāmarat al-ʿaql*).[^7] In other words, wine shares the root letters for *khimār* since it literally “covers” (i.e., intoxicates) the mind. Hence, in both scenarios, *kh-m-r* is that which is related to covering the head in particular. In another example, the Companion Bilal (rA), when describing how the Prophet ﷺ once made *wuḍūʾ*, used the word *khimār* to illustrate the Prophet’s act of wiping over his turban.[^8] This verifies once more that the word “*khimār*” itself is used in reference to a head covering. Analyzing this verse hence leaves us with two primary conclusions. One, women are required to cover their entire body except that which must necessarily show. The exceptions to this rule, primarily the face and hands according to the majority, are delineated based on prophetic narrations and the precedent of the Companions as will be further detailed below. They are also permitted on the basis of necessity (*ḍarūra*), since these body parts are required to show when women engage in business sales and other transactions. Second, and *after* the clausal command on covering, this verse provides us with further clarification as to what covering entails—primarily, that one must continue the practice of covering the hair and extend that to include covering the chest. --- ## The Prophet and Companions’ precedent At this point, one may still argue for further room for interpretation based on the verse alone. In this case, we turn to our second primary source text in Islamic law: the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. The foremost way we understand a Qur’anic verse is through the authoritative precedent of the Prophet ﷺ, which includes his tacit approval of his Companions’ actions. In fact, countless verses in the Qur’an can only be understood by reference to the Sunnah. For instance, one of the most fundamental markers of our identity as Muslims is our obligation to pray five times a day. Yet, nowhere in the Qur’an is there an explicit commandment to pray this precise number of times, nor any explicit indication of when each prayer must be prayed. This information is provided to us by the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions. This did not pose a problem to Muslim scholars nor laymen throughout history since it was clear that multiple sources must be taken into consideration when clarifying the demands of the Shariah. This includes referring back to the Qur’an, Sunnah, and what scholars agreed upon (i.e., consensus). A case of this in action can be seen in the authentic hadith that illustrates how the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ reacted to the revelation of Qur’anic verses prohibiting alcohol. In one narration, Anas b. Mālik recalls serving a few of the Companions wine when someone approached them and announced that wine had become prohibited. Upon hearing this, Anas immediately poured the contents of the pitcher in his hand.[^9] All of the Companions followed suit, after which it was said that the streets of Medina were flowing with spilled liquor.[^10] These traditions, among others, affirm our apparent understanding of the Qur’anic prohibition and explicates that ruling in a way that leaves no room for disagreement. Likewise, when the Qur’anic command for women to cover was revealed, ʿĀʾishah narrated: > By Allah, I never saw any women better than the women of the Anṣār or stronger in their confirmation of Allah’s Book! When Sūrat al-Nūr was revealed, ‘and to draw their *khumur* over their chests’, they all tore up their waist-wraps and covered themselves with them.[^11] This narration is extremely powerful for a number of reasons. First, it is important to recognize and appreciate that—like the thousands of other hadith she narrated—this hadith is narrated by ʿĀʾishah (rA). She was not only the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, but one of the foremost juristic scholars in our religion. She was also a woman who never held back on protecting the rights of women nor on what she understood to be the truth. A common criticism of the obligation to cover is that this command is ostensibly one propagated by male scholars alone. Yet, one of the most powerful evidences for the command comes through this narration by none other than ʿĀʾishah. Moreover, in this narration, we learn how the women around the Prophet ﷺ responded to the verse. ʿĀʾishah praised them for their immediate response in fully covering their bodies and thus embodying the intended meaning of the command. If one rejects this tradition as insignificant, one simultaneously rejects the voice and agency of the female Companions in both interpreting and applying this verse. What often also goes unaddressed in discussions on dress is what seemingly unrelated traditions can tell us. By this, I am referring to narrations that indirectly describe the way female Companions embodied their obligation of covering. These traditions relay to us the natural result of how these women understood Qur’anic injunctions of modesty. One such example is the hadith narrated by Ḥafṣah b. Sirīn in which she noted that young, unmarried women and women who were menstruating were culturally required to stay at home. Once, a lady came to Ḥafṣah and told her about her sister who joined her husband in six battles to help care for the wounded. This sister had asked the Prophet ﷺ, “Is there any objection for a woman to stay at home if she doesn’t have an outer garment (*jilbāb*)?” In other words, some women were unable to come out in public to help because they did not have the means to cover themselves. In response, the Prophet ﷺ—rather than affirming the cultural practice at the time, or simply allowing women who could not cover themselves to stay at home and promise them good deeds for their intentions, or even encourage them to stay home for their privacy being better for them—said, “She should cover herself with her companion’s *jilbāb* \[i.e., borrow clothing\] and take part in the good deeds and in the religious gatherings of the believers.”[^12] This authentic narration elucidates a number of noteworthy implications. For one, we see how covering vis-a-vis *jilbāb*, or clothing that covers the entire body, was one taken for granted—so much so, that the female Companions recognized that they could not leave their homes without it. This once more confirms the interpretation of the Qur’anic verse as one in which the entire body must be covered with the identified exceptions. This hadith, moreover, is a powerful reminder as to the purpose of covering. It was not a means of shaming the female body, nor relegating women to the private sphere. Rather, it was a means of protecting and empowering women to actively engage in the community, to the extent that a customary practice at the time that could have been adopted by Islam was actively rejected in favor of women’s participation. --- ## Culture or law? Still, some hold that the obligation to “draw their *khumur* across their chest” does not indicate that one must cover their hair. They make this argument by positing that wearing the *khimār* itself was a cultural practice. Thus, in a society or culture wherein women do not cover their hair, one must merely cover their chest and this will constitute as sufficient grounds for embodying the obligation within this verse. There is no doubt that culture plays a role in the development and application of Islamic law. Nonetheless, when it came to the customs that the early Muslims inherited, Islam took one of three approaches: prohibitive, reformative, or affirmative.[^13] One, it would reject the cultural practice altogether, such as the custom of female infanticide. Two, it would identify the cultural practice and add restrictions, such as imposing limits on polygamous marriages. Or three, it would recognize and affirm the cultural practice at hand, such as the penalty of paying blood money (*diyah*) in predicaments of manslaughter. In our case, it was this latter approach that the Qur’an and Sunnah took in regard to women’s dress. The Qur’an recognized that women covered their heads,[^14] adopted that custom as part and parcel of the religion, and then extended that practice to include covering everything but the hands and face. In this way, the practice of women covering their heads is no longer a customary consideration alone; it transforms into a divine commandment that one should try their best to fulfill. That being said, culture continues to play a role in how—not *if*—the *hijab* is worn. Culture, for instance, can set normative standards for clothing colors and styles. The flexibility and practicality of culture, in turn, is bounded by the minimum requirements of the verse, which is to cover the body with the exceptions detailed above. Those who characterize the *hijab* as a non-binding cultural practice, moreover, bear the burden of proving their claim. That is because divine commands are presumed to be legal and binding in nature. Otherwise, one could assert that being dutiful to one’s parents or honoring one’s guests are simply cultural practices. Few will contest, however, that treating our parents with respect is a religious obligation. Similarly, the texts relating to the *hijab* come from the same sources (i.e., the Qur’an and Sunnah) and use the same binding language. As such, they should be treated as equally binding legal commandments unless one can point to evidence that shows otherwise. In the absence of such evidence (and it is indeed absent), the presumption remains that these texts are legally binding. --- ## Scholarly consensus and the legal method One of the strongest evidences for the legal obligation of covering the hair and dressing modestly is the fact that scholars have come to a consensus on the matter. When scholars all agree, implicitly or explicitly, on a legal ruling, the third primary source of Islamic law manifests: that of *ijmāʿ* or consensus. The legal authority of consensus is rooted chiefly in the reports of the Prophet ﷺ that state that the Muslim community will never agree on an error.[^15] In other words, if the community all agrees on a legal obligation, it is inconceivable that it is an erroneous interpretation. To better understand how this source of law comes into play, let us return to our  example of *wuḍūʾ*: > O believers! When you rise up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles… \[5:6\] An apparent reading of the text seems to command us to merely *wipe*, and not wash, our bare feet. Yet, no school of law within Sunni scholarship validates one’s ablution without fully washing the bare foot up to the ankle. This is because jurists pieced together other relevant hadiths—such as one in which the Prophet ﷺ warns the Companions against not washing their feet entirely—and then arrived at a consensus that “feet” in this verse ties back to the verb “wash” and not “wipe.”[^16] Based on this unanimous agreement,[^17] Muslims since the time of the Prophet ﷺ until today have washed their feet during ablution. A common model used for presenting this source of law (i.e., *ijmāʿ*) is by beginning an argument with this premise. In our case, it is to say that we know that the *hijab* is obligatory because every scholar has agreed that it is. We then often proceed to retroactively lay down the other source texts to corroborate the scholarly consensus. This, of course, is a dangerous method in making any legal argument because it presumes that our starting point is human interpretation rather than divine inspiration.[^18] Thus, unsurprisingly, many contest the obligation of *hijab* as one that has a cultural or gendered bias (e.g., “all men of the past in a certain part of the world agreed to this”). In reality, *ijmāʿ* operates almost exactly in the opposite manner. Scholarly consensus functions as the final step in the legal process by providing a “stamp” of approval in light of a number of source texts that may not be definitive in nature.[^19] That is to say, our starting point is always Qur’anic text and Prophetic precedent. In the event, for example, that we are working with a source that is not absolutely decisive in indication (*qaṭʿī al-dalālah*), meaning that it can be understood in more ways than one, our first step is to lay out other pieces of evidence on the matter that may clarify the intended ruling. In our case, it would be to identify every related verse and hadith on modesty and covering. After having compiled all of these texts and we establish that no text on its own is uncontestedly definitive, a ruling is derived from the *collective* authority of these sources.[^20] Let us use our case study as an example. Our first point of departure is always in reference to the Qur’an, which we recognize as the word of God, and thus most authoritative. We come across the verse in Sūrat al-Nūr that commands believing women to lower their gaze and cover their *zīnah* except that which necessarily shows. One may argue, for instance, that there is room for interpreting “what must necessarily show.” On the one hand, this could be understood as covering the entire body, including the face and hands, while on the other, it could imply revealing other parts of the body. We then continue to identify and assess other sources. We come across verse 59 in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb in which the Prophet ﷺ is commanded to tell the believing women to fully wrap themselves when going out. We identify hadith narrations such as the one describing the female Companions’ reaction to the Qur’anic verse and the precedent they established. We also come across the hadith wherein the Prophet ﷺ tells Asmāʾ b. Abī Bakr that a woman must cover all but her hands and face when she reaches the age of puberty.[^21] And so on and so forth. A scholar who is confronted with all of these sources may grade each of these sources independently as equivocal (*ẓannī*). Thus, whatever legal ruling they make after assessing these texts may be subject to disagreement. However, two steps remain in the legal process before a ruling can be established. First, the scholar must take all primary sources into consideration, and then scrutinize and hierarchize their degrees of veracity (e.g., grade the strength of the chain of narrators, cross-examine similar texts with unique chains, etc.) before making a legal determination. In tandem, these sources, albeit not decisive on their own, strengthen one another to collectively offer a more conclusive injunction. Only after taking all of these considerations into account does consensus come into play. When scholars are finally presented with this cumulative argument (i.e., all of the sources and interpretations of *hijab*) and then unanimously agree on a legal ruling, our cumulative argument which may have prior had some room for interpretation is elevated to the status of definitive and incontestable. In short, consensus is not a single-handed argument nor does it form the premise of an argument; rather, it functions as transforming a strong argument into a definitive proof. --- ## Conclusion In reading this, one may think that the methodologies applied by scholars are overly complicated; had this been a clear divine obligation, why was it not explicitly detailed in the Qur’an? To that, I would remind readers that one of the most fundamental acts as Muslims—the obligation to pray five times a day—is not explicitly elaborated upon in the Qur’an. However, there is no debate at any point in history within Sunni Islamic scholarship that praying five times a day is an obligation. Knowing this does not usually cause confusion and doubt among Muslims. Rather, it is a reflection of the various source texts a jurist must piece together. It also emphasizes the necessity of relying on the authoritative precedent set by the Prophet ﷺ and our rational faculties to derive law. No contestation, moreover, exists about the lack of explicit details over praying because our obligation to pray became very early on *maʿlūm min al-dīn bi-al-ḍarūrah*, or known within the religion by necessity. In other words, it became an obligation whose inclusion in the religion cannot possibly be doubted because of the overwhelming knowledge and precedent established by the prophetic community and those who inherited it. This is to say that some commands within Islamic law needed to be explicitly drawn out and their evidence made clear. Alternatively, other commands such as *ṣalāh* were so inherent and obvious to the essence of Islam that it became taken for granted that every Muslim would know of this obligation without clarifying the proofs. For this reason, most legal books often gloss over *why* we pray five times a day and focus instead on *how* our prayer is to be conducted. In the same way, the obligation for both men and women to dress modestly, and for women to cover their hair in particular, was a natural application of not simply these Qur’anic verses, but an obvious conclusion from prophetic precedent. --- ## Notes [^1]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “Understanding *Ḥayāʾ*,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research* (forthcoming). [^2]: *Al-Sunan al-kubrá lil-Bayhaqī*, *kitāb al-ṣalāh*, *bāb ʿawrat al-marʾah al-ḥurrah*, no. 3214, [https://al-maktaba.org/book/33024/3650#p](https://al-maktaba.org/book/33024/3650%23p). [^3]: *Al-Sunan al-kubrá lil-Bayhaqī*, *kitāb al-ṣalāh*, *bāb ʿawrat al-marʾah al-ḥurrah*, no. 3217, [https://al-maktaba.org/book/33024/3653#p1](https://al-maktaba.org/book/33024/3653%23p1). [^4]: Abū Bakr b. Masʿūd al-Kāsānī, *Badāʾiʿ al-ṣanāʾiʿ fī tartīb al-sharāʾīʿ*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad Muʿawwaḍ and ʿĀdil Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Mawjūd, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīya, 2003), 6:492. [^5]: Al-Kāsānī. [^6]: Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir b. ʿĀshūr, *Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wa-al-tanwīr,* 30 vols. (Tunis: Al-Dār Al-Tūnisīya Lil-Nashr, 1984), 18:207. It is worth noting here that a number of scholars argued that a woman’s face and hands must also be covered on the basis that they do not necessarily need to be shown. Ibn ʿĀshūr, nonetheless, points out that the majority of scholars considered the face and hands to be valid exceptions. Ibn ʿĀshūr, 18:207–08. [^7]: Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab,* s.v. “*Kh-M-R.*” [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-ṭahārah*, *bāb al-masḥ ʿalá al-nāṣīyah wa-al-ʿamāmah*, no. 275, [https://sunnah.com/muslim:275](https://sunnah.com/muslim:275). [^9]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-ashribah, bāb taḥrīm al-khamr wa-bayān annahā takūn min ʿaṣīr al-ʿinab wa-min al-tamr wa-al-busr wa-al-zabīb wa-ghayrihā mimmā yuskir*, no. 1980a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/36/5](https://sunnah.com/muslim/36/5). [^10]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-tafsīr*, *bāb “laysa ʿalá alladhīna āmanū wa-ʿamilū al-ṣāliḥāti junāḥun fī mā ṭaʿimū” ilá qawlihi “wallāhu yuḥibbu al-muḥsinīn*,*”* no. 4620, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/65/142](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/65/142). [^11]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-tafsīr*, *bāb “wal-yaḍribna bi-khumurihinna ʿalá juyūbihinna*”, no. 4758, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/65/280](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/65/280); *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, *kitāb al-libās*, *bāb fī qawlihi taʿālá “yudnīna ʿalayhinna min jalābībihinna*,” no. 4100, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/34/81](https://sunnah.com/abudawud/34/81). [^12]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-ḥajj*, *bāb taqḍī al-ḥāʾiḍ al-manāsik kullahā illā al-ṭawāf bi-al-bayt*, no. 1652, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/25/133](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/25/133); *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb ṣalāt al-ʿīdayn*, *bāb dhikr ibāḥat khurūj al-nisāʾ fī al-ʿīdayn*, no. 890c, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/8/12](https://sunnah.com/muslim/8/12). [^13]: Ayman Shabana, *Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts of* ʿUrf *and* ʿĀdah *in the Islamic Legal Tradition* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 56–7. [^14]: Arabs, centuries prior to Islamic injunctions on dress, had inherited the Near Eastern practice of covering the head out of modesty and respect. For more, see Yedida Kalfon Stillman, *Arab Dress: A Short History from the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times,* ed. Normal Stillman (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 16; “Hijab,” *The Islamic World: Past and Present*, ed. John L. Esposito, Oxford Islamic Studies Online, [http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t243/e131](http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t243/e131). [^15]: Ibn ʿUmar narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Indeed Allah will not gather my *ummah* upon misguidance.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī,* no. 2167. Though some of the scholars grade the chain of this hadith to be weak, they maintain that the meaning is sound. Ibn Kathīr says, “There are many authentic hadiths with this meaning (i.e., that the *ummah* will not unanimously agree on something incorrect). In fact, some of the scholars have said that this meaning has been established by diffusely congruent (*mutawātir*) reports.” For more, see Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿaẓīm,* ed. Sāmī b. Muḥammad al-Salāmah, 8 vols. (Riyadh: Dar Taybah, 1999), 2:412–13. [^16]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, *kitāb al-wuḍūʾ*, *bāb ghasl al-rijlayn wa-lā yamsaḥ ʿalá al-qadamayn*, no. 163, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/4/29](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/4/29). [^17]: Al-Nawawī has stated, “Muslims have unanimously agreed upon the obligation of washing the feet. Abū Ḥāmid \[al-Ghāzalī\] and others have mentioned that no scholar of merit has ever opposed this.” See Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *al-Majmū’* *sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab*, ed. Muḥammad Najīb al-Muṭīʿī, 23 vols. (Jeddah: Maktabat Al-Irshād, n.d.), 1:447. [^18]: For a thorough refutation on prioritizing consensus over the Qur’an and Sunnah, see Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Sulṭān, *al-Adillah al-ijtihādīyah bayn al-ghuluww wa-al-inkār* (Hillard: Sultan Publication, 2008), 200ff. [^19]: According to Aron Zysow, the primary purpose of *ijmāʿ* is “to confirm the results of legal procedures, analogy, interpretation, and the acceptance of unit-traditions that are not in themselves certain.” Aron Zysow, *The Economy of Certainty: An Introduction to the Typology of Islamic Legal Theory* (Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2013), 122. [^20]: Wael Hallaq, “On the Authoritativeness of Sunni Consensus,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 18, no. 4 (1986): 427–54. [^21]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, *kitāb al-libās*, *bāb fī mā tubdī al-marʾatu min zīnatihā*, no. 4104, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/34/85](https://sunnah.com/abudawud/34/85). ## Summary The question of why a Muslim woman is obligated to cover her hair and body has caused confusion for many, and clarifying its roots requires an understanding of how rulings in Islamic law are formed. Before examining the sources, it is necessary to correct a common misunderstanding regarding the term *hijab*. Linguistically, *hijab* refers to a barrier past which one cannot see. The Qur'an employs this word in several contexts: the physical barrier between the people of Paradise and Hellfire [Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, 44–46], the metaphysical barrier separating the hearts of believers from disbelievers [Sūrat Fuṣṣilat, 5; Sūrat al-Isrāʾ, 45], and the exclusive command upon the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to maintain a physical partition between themselves and unrelated men [Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, 53]. That last command was distinct from, and additional to, their obligation of covering, and is therefore not what is meant by *hijab* in contemporary usage. Since today the word is most commonly rendered simply as "headscarf," here *hijab* is taken to mean the covering of both the hair and the body, with the understanding that loose and opaque clothing is presumed, as this is required of both men and women when covering the ʿawrah. The first and foremost source jurists consult is the Qur'an, for it is definitively established (*qaṭʿī al-thubūt*): its massively transmitted (*mutawātir*) nature guarantees that the text we possess is precisely what was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ. Yet while a Qur'anic command may be certain in its authenticity, the manner of its application may remain open to interpretation (*ẓannī al-dalālah*). This is illustrated by Allah's command, "O believers! When you rise up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles…" [al-Māʾidah, 6]. The verse clearly establishes that washing is required before prayer, yet it does not, on its own, detail precisely how *wuḍūʾ* is to be performed. Through exegesis, Prophetic precedent, and legal analysis, jurists nonetheless determined the exact limbs and method. The command for women to cover likewise appears in a form that, on its surface, seems to leave room for interpretation, requiring recourse to other texts for a definitive conclusion. The central verse reads: "And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment (*zīnah*) except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap their headcovers (*khumurihinna*) over their chests…" [al-Nūr, 31]. This contains two clear commands. The first—not to expose adornment except what necessarily appears—serves as the central injunction, while the second functions to clarify. To grasp the meaning of *zīnah*, one turns to the exegesis of the Companions, who witnessed revelation and learned directly from the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn ʿAbbās, the Prophet's cousin and a giant of *tafsīr*, explained that everything is to be covered except the hands and face, and it was likewise narrated from ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the meaning is "what appears from the hands and face." Jurists explain this exception is granted out of necessity, since exposing the face and hands is required for daily activity such as completing transactions. Following this reasoning of necessity, the Ḥanafīs permitted a woman to expose her feet, since they involuntarily show when walking, and some Mālikīs held the same view given the difficulty of covering them at all times. The second clause, commanding believing women to draw their *khumur* over their chests, clarifies further. The word *khumur*, plural of *khimār*, derives from the root *kh-m-r*, whose basic sense is to hide or conceal, and which in this form specifically denotes covering the head. This is confirmed by related words sharing the root, since Arabic grammar holds that such words often share a common meaning. Wine is called *khamr*, and according to *Lisān al-ʿArab* it is so named because it "conceals the intellect" (*li-annahā khāmarat al-ʿaql*). Additionally, the Companion Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him), describing how the Prophet ﷺ once made *wuḍūʾ*, used the word *khimār* for the turban the Prophet wiped over. Thus the verse yields two conclusions: women must cover the entire body except what must necessarily appear—chiefly the face and hands according to the majority—and the covering of the hair is to be maintained and extended to include the chest. Where the verse alone might seem to leave interpretive room, one turns to the Sunnah, the foremost means by which the Qur'an is understood. Many Qur'anic commands can only be grasped through it; the obligation to pray five times daily, for instance, is nowhere explicitly detailed in the Qur'an but is established by the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions. The Companions' immediate obedience is exemplified in the authentic report of Anas ibn Mālik, who, upon hearing that wine had been prohibited, poured out what he was serving, after which the streets of Medina flowed with spilled liquor. Concerning covering, ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated: "I never saw any women better than the women of the Anṣār or stronger in their confirmation of Allah's Book! When Sūrat al-Nūr was revealed, 'and to draw their *khumur* over their chests', they all tore up their waist-wraps and covered themselves with them." This narration is significant not least because it comes from ʿĀʾishah herself—a foremost jurist who never withheld the truth or the rights of women—thereby refuting the notion that the command was propagated by men alone, and preserving the agency of the female Companions in interpreting and applying the verse. Even seemingly unrelated traditions reveal how the female Companions embodied this obligation. Ḥafṣah bint Sīrīn narrated that a woman came to her mentioning her sister, who had accompanied her husband on six battles to tend the wounded, and who asked the Prophet ﷺ whether a woman without an outer garment (*jilbāb*) might remain at home. The Prophet ﷺ replied that she should cover herself with her companion's *jilbāb* and take part in the good deeds and religious gatherings of the believers. This authentic narration shows that covering the whole body was taken for granted—so much so that women felt they could not leave home without it—and it reminds us that covering was not a means of shaming women or confining them, but of protecting and empowering their participation in the community, to the point that a prevailing custom was set aside in favor of it. Some argue that wearing the *khimār* was merely a cultural practice, such that covering the chest alone suffices in societies where women do not cover their hair. Yet, in dealing with inherited customs, Islam took one of three approaches: prohibition (as with female infanticide), reform with added restrictions (as with limits on polygamy), or affirmation (as with blood money, *diyah*, for manslaughter). With women's dress, the Qur'an and Sunnah affirmed the existing practice of covering the head, incorporated it into the religion, and extended it to cover all but the hands and face—transforming a custom into a divine command. Culture still governs *how* the *hijab* is worn, such as color and style, but bounded by the verse's minimum requirement. Those who claim it is non-binding bear the burden of proof, since divine commands are presumed binding; otherwise one might dismiss dutifulness to parents as mere custom. The texts on *hijab* issue from the same sources and use the same binding language, and in the absence of contrary evidence—which is indeed absent—they remain legally binding. A further strong proof is scholarly consensus (*ijmāʿ*), the third primary source, whose authority rests on the Prophetic reports that the Muslim community will never agree upon an error. Its proper function, however, is often misrepresented. To begin an argument by asserting that *hijab* is obligatory simply because scholars agreed, then working backward to the texts, is a dangerous method, for it presumes the starting point is human interpretation rather than divine revelation, inviting the charge of cultural or gendered bias. In truth, *ijmāʿ* operates in the reverse. The starting point is always the Qur'an and Prophetic precedent. When a source is not decisive in indication (*qaṭʿī al-dalālah*), one gathers every relevant text—the verse of al-Nūr, the command in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb [59] that believing women wrap themselves when going out, ʿĀʾishah's narration of the Anṣār women, and the report in which the Prophet ﷺ told Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr that a woman who reaches puberty must cover all but her hands and face. A scholar may grade each source independently as equivocal (*ẓannī*), yet these texts strengthen one another after their chains are scrutinized and hierarchized. Only then does consensus enter, elevating a strong cumulative argument to the level of definitive and incontestable proof. As with the verse of *wuḍūʾ*—where an apparent reading suggests merely wiping the feet, yet no Sunni school validates ablution without washing them to the ankle, the scholars having reached consensus on this after piecing together relevant hadiths including the Prophet's ﷺ warning against leaving the feet unwashed—consensus is the final stamp, not the premise. One may ask why, if this is a clear divine obligation, it was not explicitly detailed in the Qur'an. The answer lies in recognizing that even the obligation to pray five times daily is not explicitly elaborated in the Qur'an, yet no Sunni scholar throughout history has doubted it, for it became *maʿlūm min al-dīn bi-al-ḍarūrah*—known in the religion by necessity—through the overwhelming precedent of the Prophetic community and those who inherited it. Some commands required their proofs to be drawn out explicitly; others, like the prayer, were so inherent to Islam that legal works pass over *why* we pray and focus on *how*. In the same way, the obligation of both men and women to dress modestly, and of women to cover their hair in particular, was a natural application not merely of the Qur'anic verses but an obvious conclusion drawn from Prophetic precedent. ## Key Takeaways 1. The term hijab in the Qur’an linguistically means a barrier or partition, referring to both physical and metaphysical veils, such as the separation between Paradise and Hell or between belief and disbelief. Over time, the term came to signify covering the hair and body. Legal rulings surrounding hijab are derived from the Qur’an, the Prophetic Sunnah, linguistic evidence, and the consensus of scholars. 2. In Surah al-Nur (Q 24:31), Allah commands the believing women to “not expose their adornment except that which \[necessarily\] appears thereof” and to “draw their *khumur* over their chests”. The word *khimār*, from the root *kh-m-r* (to conceal), confirms that the command includes covering the hair and extending that cover to the chest. 3. The Prophet’s Sunnah and the actions of the companions serve as the lived explanation of this command. When the verse was revealed, the women of the Ansar immediately covered themselves with their garments, demonstrating obedience and understanding. Hadiths concerning the *jilbāb* (a loose outer garment) show that women were expected to wear it in public, ensuring dignity, modesty, and inclusion rather than restriction. 4. While head covering existed as a cultural practice before Islam, revelation affirmed and elevated it into a divine command as a symbol of modesty. Though styles and fabrics differ across cultures, the requirement itself remains constant. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is hijab mandatory in Islam? Hijab is a mandatory aspect of Islamic practice for Muslim women, as established through clear evidence in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The command to cover, including the head and body, is rooted in the divine directive for modesty, and has been affirmed by the consensus of classical Islamic scholars across centuries. ### What does wearing hijab actually entail? Wearing hijab requires covering the entire body—the *ʿawrah*—except what must necessarily show, namely the face and hands, with loose, opaque clothing. The *khimār* (headcover) is drawn over the chest so no adornment (*zīnah*) is revealed, thereby upholding modesty in both dress and demeanor. ### What does the Qur’an say about hijab? The Qur’an commands believing women to draw their *khimār* (head covering) over their bosoms and not to display their adornment except to specific *mahrams* (male relatives they cannot marry) (Qur’an 24:31), and instructs the Prophet’s wives—and by extension believing women—to draw their *jilbāb* (outer garment) over themselves for modesty and distinction (Qur’an 33:59). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/talking-to-teens-about-drugs-a-quranic-approach # Talking to Teens about Drugs and Alcohol: A Qur’anic Approach **Author:** Dr. Jibran Khokhar **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 5, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Drug and alcohol use in adolescence is often a popular topic in media stories and pop culture but, due to the stigma associated with substance use amongst Muslims, does not get the same attention in the Muslim community. Furthermore, this topic remains understudied due to under-reporting, as well as a perceived immunity from this issue due to the Islamic prohibition of alcohol and drug use, but can be a source of religious doubts, especially in youth. This paper hopes to outline the importance of this topic in terms of the impacts of such use, provide a primer to parents (and others) on using a gradual approach when discussing this topic with teens, and equipping teens with the ability to make the correct decisions. Adolescence is a critical developmental stage during which the body undergoes various physiological and behavioral changes. The brain is especially going through a period of remodeling, which contributes to some of the behavioral changes observed in teens such as increased impulsivity, risk-taking, as well as greater affiliation with peers, which is further accentuated by the societal norms associated with adolescence around independence from parents and identity development.[^1] All these factors combine to make substance use common in this population: adolescents are more likely to experiment with, and are especially vulnerable to, the effects of these drugs.[^2] In addition, adolescents are also known to use substances in order to cope with stress and bullying.[^3] The prevalence of alcohol and drug use among adolescents remains problematically high worldwide.[^4]  Furthermore, there have been recent increases in certain patterns of substance use such as vaping (use of hand-held e-cigarette devices) of nicotine and cannabis, as well as an opioid epidemic.[^5] This has also come in conjunction with changing landscapes around the legal status of drugs such as cannabis, with multiple western countries legalizing cannabis either for medicinal or recreational purposes.[^6] According to the latest “Monitoring the Future” survey, substance use in the American  population remains high, with more than 20% of grade 12 students reporting past 30-day use of alcohol, cannabis, nicotine vaping, and/or illicit drug use.[^7] Similar trends are also observed in Europe, with nearly 80% reporting having used alcohol in their lifetime; while there have been year-to-year reductions in overall use, worrisome trends related to risky cannabis use and vaping present concern as well.[^8] While the prevalence of substance use in Muslim youth in North America has not been studied extensively, we have some studies that provide us an indication of these rates being similar to the national average.[^9] For example, in a 2001 study based on the 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study database, 47% of American Muslim college students reported alcohol use in the past year.[^10] In Europe, where the issue has been studied in greater detail, the rates of use amongst Muslim adolescents are higher or lower depending on the drug: lower for alcohol, similar for cannabis, and higher for tobacco and sedative hypnotics.[^11] Others have reported an increase in normalization of cannabis use amongst Pakistani and Bangladeshi youth in the UK.[^12] Lastly, even though the data is scarce for substance use rates in the Arab world, The Arab Youth Survey recently reported that 57% of the youth surveyed thought that substance use amongst young Arabs was on the rise.[^13] These changing attitudes, combined with the recent trends in substance use and legalization make this an important topic warranting further discussion and concern for our community. --- ## Benefits of prevention There is immense wisdom in everything that Allah commands, as the shariah seeks to maximize benefit to humanity and minimize potential harm. Fitting with this theme, the prevention of substance use during adolescence is beneficial in many ways. Firstly, 90% of addictions to substances result from drug use before the age of 21, with earlier age of initiation being associated with a greater likelihood of developing a substance use disorder later in life.[^14] We should also remember that prevention could also mitigate some of the other more immediate risks associated with adolescent substance use: violence, risky driving (including speeding and driving under the influence), risky sexual behaviors, unintended pregnancies, infections, and mental health risks such as substance-induced psychosis.[^15]  Importantly, the Islamic legal maxim of “No Harm Shall Be Inflicted nor Reciprocated” promotes the prevention of harm in all its forms, including the short-and long-term harms of substance use during adolescence. Lastly, empirical research on the topic has suggested that adolescence is an opportune time for prevention-based interventions, and multiple avenues have been found to be efficacious in this regard.[^16] --- ## Role of parents Parents have an immense responsibility in Islam to nurture their children physically and emotionally, and to teach them to distinguish right from wrong. Allah commands us to play a protective role for our children: > O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones, overseen by formidable and severe angels, who never disobey whatever Allah orders—always doing as commanded.[^17] This is further emphasized by the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying: > Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock. The *amīr* (ruler) who is over the people is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock; a man is a shepherd in charge of the inhabitants of his household and he is responsible for his flock; a woman is a shepherdess in charge of her husband’s house and children and she is responsible for them; and a man’s slave is a shepherd in charge of his master’s property and he is responsible for it. So each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock.[^18] Building upon this guidance from the Qur’an and Sunnah, parents are an essential cornerstone of the Muslim community that ensure the transmission of Islamic values, while caring for and fostering faith in subsequent generations. Especially when it comes to substance use in adolescence, parents can play an important role in either permitting or preventing substance use. Parental permissiveness toward drug use was associated with young people being more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis,[^19] whereas parental monitoring had the opposite (preventative) effect.[^20] Secondly, in a systematic review of longitudinal studies, delayed alcohol initiation could be predicted by parental modeling, involvement, and the quality of the parent-child relationship.[^21] Relatedly, since parents are an important source of socialization for children (i.e., children learn to communicate as well as behave from their interactions with their parents), communication between the parents and adolescents about substance use in the media as well as anti-substance use messaging were related to adolescents espousing anti-drug use views as well as reduced recent drug and alcohol use.[^22] Lastly, a negative parent-child relationship is also associated with a greater risk for adolescent alcohol use.[^23] Modern social science also places considerable emphasis on parenting styles and the role they play in the development of adolescent behavior as well as the parent-adolescent relationship.[^24] The seminal typological division of parenting styles divides them into four types (outlined in Table 1 below) based on responsiveness and demandingness:[^25] Authoritative parenting is high in responsiveness and demandingness, providing warmth, support, and clearly defined rules and discipline; authoritarian parenting is low-responsiveness but high-demandingness with arbitrary harsh punishments to gain compliance with no give-and-take or explanation; indulgent parenting is low-demandingness but high-responsiveness, with high satisfaction of children’s needs, but no or minimal discipline; neglectful parenting is low in both responsiveness and demandingness, not providing warmth, nor setting rules for their children. As an example, an authoritative parent may ask for an explanation from a teen who wants to stay out late, and discuss how to be responsible, whereas an authoritarian parent may set rules without space for discussion or consideration for the teen’s need for agency; on the other side of the spectrum, an indulgent parent may not have any rules related to staying out late, and might choose to remind the teen to have fun instead, while a negligent parent may not be aware or concerned about their teen’s whereabouts at all. Highest levels of parent-adolescent cohesion are associated with authoritative parenting, whereas youth-parent conflict is highest with authoritarian and neglectful parents.[^26] Authoritative parenting was also the only style that was associated with reduced alcohol drinking after adjusting for proximal risk factors;[^27] moreover, authoritative parenting was associated with the least risk for substance use.[^28] ![responsiveness table ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/image1-1024x297.jpg) Table 1: Parenting styles (as a function of responsiveness and demandingness).[^29] The other reason parents are important in our modern Muslim context is due to the impacts of discrimination and Islamophobia, both of which are risk factors for the development of substance use. A recent study of Arab Muslim students from Israel showed that greater exposure to community violence victimization was related to an increase in the use of alcohol,[^30] consistent with a wealth of studies of other youth who face discrimination.[^31] However, one of the most important protective factors in the impact of Islamophobia and discrimination on substance use was positive parent-child communication,[^32] further emphasizing the importance of parental discussion of these topics with their adolescent children. Lastly, beyond the evidence outlined here, Islam’s emphasis on respect and obedience for parents such as the advice by Luqmān (And we have enjoined on man to be dutiful and good to his parents \[Qur’an 31:14\]) make the parents an appropriate vehicle for transmitting this message, as it might be more likely to be met with compliance compared to receiving this messaging from others. The Qur’an presents a model of a healthy parent-child relationship in outlining the advice of Luqmān (AS) to his son. Luqman was comprehensive in his advice, and focused on teaching his son who Allah was before telling him what Allah commanded. He understood that the best way to get his son to adhere to Allah’s commands was instilling the love and awe of Allah in his heart. The key lesson is that Luqman openly communicated with his son, which sets a Qur’anic example for parents to be willing to engage in difficult conversations about problematic beliefs and behaviors. This approach is central to the theme of this article: establishing a healthy parent-child relationship and fostering a healthy child-Allah relationship prior to encouraging them to follow the commandments of Allah, will help children abstain from transgressions against Allah’s commands. --- ## “Just Say No” is just not enough There have been a variety of approaches and messaging around substance use in adolescence that have been used to promote prevention. “Just say no,” which was a slogan promoted by Nancy Reagan in the 1980s as a part of a zero-tolerance drug education campaign revolving around saying no when offered drugs, has not necessarily worked well.[^33] D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education; another zero-tolerance drug education program from the “war on drugs” era) is another example of this type of messaging not having much efficacy, where youth in the program did not differ from their peers who were not a part of the program in their substance use rates.[^34] Contrary to these “Just Say No” approaches, the *sīrah* of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ provided an alternative gradual and context-dependent model for dealing with drugs, alcohol, and other vices. ʿĀʾishah (RA) mentioned that if a zero-tolerance order to abstain from alcohol was the first to be revealed, then people would not have followed the order, emphasizing the need for connection-building when discussing this topic and extolling the benefits of the Qur’an’s gradual approach to prohibition: > Yūsuf ibn Māhak reported: ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said, “Verily, the first verses to be revealed were from the shorter chapters at the end of the Qur’an. In them is mentioned Paradise and Hellfire, until people were firmly established upon Islam and verses of lawful and unlawful were revealed. If the first verse to be revealed was ‘do not drink wine,’ they would have said, ‘we will never stop drinking wine.’ And if the first verse to be revealed was ‘do not commit adultery,’ they would have said, ‘we will never stop committing adultery.’”[^35] There are two very important lessons that we can derive from this hadith as it relates to the topic of discussing substance use: ʿĀʾishah mentions that what preceded the prohibition were numerous short surahs from the end of the Qur’an, whose subject matter revolved around the foundational aspects of *imān*. These foundations included understanding who Allah is and the reality of accountability in the hereafter. This was intended to motivate people to seek His pleasure and the reward of paradise, and to be fearful of His punishment. Thus, the major takeaway is the need to first inculcate a healthy relationship with Allah (as well as a healthy relationship between the advisor and advisee) prior to simply prohibiting people from their alcohol drinking in a manner similar to the “just say no” campaign. Unfortunately, for most parents, the “talk” related to the two important topics mentioned in this hadith (i.e., alcohol and sexual intercourse) usually happens on the drive to a university campus, and can basically be summed up as “Don’t drink alcohol and don’t have sex!” The resultant adherence to this messaging is probably as effective as the scenario described by our mother, ʿĀʾishah (RA). Importantly, research on parenting styles suggests that authoritarian (high demandingness without responsiveness) styles of parenting contribute to the risk for substance use in adolescence.[^36] This hadith also alludes to the gradual nature of the prohibition in the Qur’an, which forms the basis of this article and the need for the messages to be developmentally appropriate. Similar approaches employing gradualism in the form of a spiritually adapted psycho-education program were effective in improving knowledge related to substance use, and increased willingness to seek medical help in a recent study in Muslim adults,[^37] suggesting that this approach may also prove beneficial in adolescents. --- ## Stage 1: Permissible blessings of Allah Part of forming a relationship with  Allah is recognizing the vast blessings He has bestowed upon us. The first step as it relates to drinks derived from fruits in the Qur’an is the initial permissibility of these drinks and their nutritional benefits: > And from the fruits of palm trees and grapevines you derive intoxicants as well as wholesome provision. Surely in this is a sign for those who understand.[^38] In fostering our children’s relationship with Allah and the shariah, an abundance mindset is useful so they can begin to appreciate the freedom and ease in Allah’s religion. This is where the Islamic maxim of “*al-aṣl fī al-ashyāʾ al-ibāḥah* (The default ruling of anything is permissibility)”[^39] is important and follows the first step of revelation as it pertains to intoxicant use. Oftentimes, our communication with our children focuses on what is impermissible in Islam, with doubts often arising related to the supposedly restrictive teachings of Islam. An important consideration here is that Allah (SWT) has made the vast majority of things permissible, and these should be recounted with  children from an early age, so they develop a relationship with Allah based on His mercy and acknowledgement of the blessings bestowed upon us as believers, starting with the blessing of faith. This by no means suggests that our messaging should center on permissibility of drugs and alcohol, which is no longer the case, but instead to focus on the numerous permissible blessings from Allah. --- ## Stage 2: Pros and cons Another important Islamic maxim is that “harm must be eliminated.” Building on the message of the abundance of permissible blessings, it is also important to convey to children that Allah (SWT) has only made harmful things prohibited and allowed everything else. Accordingly, the second step is to present the harms and benefits associated with alcohol and substance use. As Allah (SWT) states in the Qur’an: > They ask you \[O Prophet\] about intoxicants and gambling. Say, “There is great evil in both, as well as some benefit for people—but the evil outweighs the benefit.” They \[also\] ask you \[O Prophet\] what they should donate. Say, “Whatever you can spare.” This is how Allah makes His revelations clear to you \[believers˺\], so perhaps you may reflect.[^40] This is where we can lean on resources created by the [National Institute on Drug Abuse](https://teens.drugabuse.gov/parents/preventing-teen-drug-use&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762262000&usg=AOvVaw21Rp5_lTwn5LPtPrqPjIjk) as well as other [organizations](https://drugfree.org/article/connecting-with-your-teen/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762263000&usg=AOvVaw3vt6z_C1t5JgBB0ajspn1D) that have done a good job of laying out the pros and cons of alcohol and drug use. These resources include developmentally appropriate [lesson plans](http://headsup.scholastic.com/teachers/drugsandtheteenbrain&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762263000&usg=AOvVaw2VyxWGjAlw-bStHSI024xm) and [talk tool kits](https://www.drugfreekidscanada.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Cannabis-Talk-Kit_EN.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762263000&usg=AOvVaw0O_NrhbJlnZcT6NuORk4pV), and can be used by parents as background preparation for these important conversations. In accordance with the approach in the *ayah* above, these resources mention that although there might be some positive effects of alcohol or drug use, the risks and harms  outweigh any minor benefits (albeit most of these resources focus on the issue from a purely public health perspective). For example, one of the positive effects related to drugs and alcohol may be increased sociability. However, the harms from this use during adolescence can be many, including short-term risks like impaired driving or blacking out.[^41] Moreover, some of the research from my own research group has found that adolescent substance use is associated with long-term deficits, which can be summarized as fitting into increased risk of dysfunction in three major domains: cognitive deficits, future substance use, and psychopathology;[^42] importantly all these dysfunctions contravene one of the purposes of the shariah: the preservation of intellect. Depending on the drug, the cognitive deficits can range from impairments in attention and inhibitory control (cannabis) to increased impulsivity (alcohol). Most substances used during adolescence increased the risk of developing a use disorder (of that substance or others). Importantly, even those who reported using substances only for “self-medication” (the use of alcohol or drugs as a method of coping with a mental illness) were at heightened risk for developing new-onset drug dependence, and was associated with persistence of the mental illness.[^43] The risk of psychopathology varies with drugs, ranging from increased risk for psychosis with cannabis to depression and anxiety in the case of alcohol and tobacco.[^44] Even more importantly, a recent study showed that low levels of alcohol drinking (even as little as a sip) in children is associated with a two-fold increase in their odds of life-time suicidality compared to those with no alcohol drinking.[^45] Discussing these risks (especially the long-term effects) and benefits associated with substance use with teens helps them feel empowered in their ability to make decisions and promotes rational decision-making skills, which will benefit them beyond this discussion as well. --- ## Stage 3: Drug use and religion The next step in the prohibition of alcohol was related to prayer and involved a command to abstain from prayer while intoxicated: > O believers! Do not approach prayer while intoxicated until you are aware of what you say, nor in a state of “full” impurity—unless you merely pass through “the mosque”—until you have bathed. But if you are ill, on a journey, or have relieved yourselves, or been intimate with your wives and cannot find water, then purify yourselves with clean earth, wiping your faces and hands. And Allah is Ever-Pardoning, All-Forgiving.[^46] The third step in discussing this topic with teens revolves around the spiritual impacts of substance use as well as the role of spirituality as a protective factor against substance use. Islam places a lot of emphasis on cognitive presence in acts of worship and in life (as indicated above with the preservation of intellect), and no act requires this more than the daily prayers. Moreover, the importance of mindfulness in prayer relates back to it achieving its purpose of connecting with Allah. Due to the intoxicating effects of drugs and other psychoactive substances the ability to build and foster a spiritual connection with Allah (SWT) is hindered, especially in the formative years of adolescence when individuals are recognizing the sweetness of prayer, and making it a part of their daily routines. Moreover, as described above, the impact of substance use during adolescence can go beyond just the acute intoxication phases. Changes in cognitive capacity or increased psychopathology risk (e.g., anxiety or psychosis) could also impact the spiritual identity and practice of a person, and thereby result in long-term spiritual consequences (i.e., through reducing capacity for connecting with Allah), thereby depriving a person of spiritual fulfillment long after the use of the drugs or alcohol. Lastly, the relationship between substance use is also known to be bi-directional in that spirituality can serve as a protective factor against substance use. As an example, past year alcohol use was found to be lower among students with higher religiosity.[^47] Furthermore, living in a community with more Muslims, and having few people drinking in their social network were additional protective factors.[^48] Conversely, Muslim immigrants in Germany who scored high for problem drinking were most likely to report not being religious.[^49] Even in the broader population, religiosity has been shown to be a protective factor against alcohol and drug use.[^50] Some of the most popular recovery programs (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous) also attempt to leverage this relationship to foster successful abstinence. Considering the impact of peers on substance use in adolescence, combined with the protective effects of religiosity, this statement of the Prophet ﷺ becomes an important reminder in this context and a necessary part of these conversations: > The Prophet ﷺ said: A man follows the religion of his close friend; so each one should consider whom he makes his close friend.[^51] Relatedly, adolescents’ religious beliefs and behavior are significantly influenced by those of their friends: youth with religious friends are more likely to be religious (i.e., attend services, rate the importance of religion higher) than youth with non-religious friends.[^52] Conversely, lower peer religiosity increases likelihood of substance use amongst adolescents.[^53] While it might be difficult to disentangle the causal factors in the relationship between religiosity and substance use, the bidirectional relationship as well as strength of these associations make this an important point of discussion in the context of substance use and adolescents. --- ## Stage 4: Prohibition and contextualization The fourth step is the prohibition of alcohol (and intoxicating drug) use, and also the contextualization of the substance use. > O believers! Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and drawing lots for decisions are all evil of Satan’s handiwork. So shun them so you may be successful. Satan’s plan is to stir up hostility and hatred between you with intoxicants and gambling and to prevent you from remembering Allah and praying. Will you not then abstain?[^54] This is the most important step of these conversations when discussing drug and alcohol use in adolescence. Just as the earlier steps built up to this prohibition in the Qur’an, the discussion of prohibition requires preparation for it to have maximal uptake. If the youth understand the physical and spiritual consequences of substance use, as well as the abundance of blessings of Allah upon them, they will be more receptive to the prohibition. Just as important as the prohibition is the fact that Allah (SWT) places it in the context of other common practices of the time such as gambling and drawing lots for decisions, as well as describing the harm associated with them. This point is especially important in the context of legalization or decriminalization of substance use. Even though all the practices mentioned in the **āyah** were societally accepted at the time of revelation, Allah (SWT) still points to the harms associated with these practices, and commands abstinence. This is important to communicate to kids that even though a drug may have been legalized in our society, its legal status in the eyes of Allah (SWT) does not change. This question often arises in relation to cannabis legalization, but cannabis does not differ in that regard from other societally legal substances like alcohol and tobacco, that are still [impermissible](https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/food-slaughter/can-muslims-use-marijuana-recreational-medical-purposes/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762268000&usg=AOvVaw0QQPUtpHTIFBJv_Lt4fQls) Islamically. Furthermore, this verse also brings up the impacts on society associated with these impermissible actions. This becomes abundantly clear when we view the costs of substance use in society estimated at being almost 750 billion US dollars per year when considering lost productivity and health care costs.[^55] Beyond the economic costs, it is estimated that substance use beyond age 15 costs men approximately 1.4 years and women 0.7 years when it comes to life expectancy.[^56] Specifically, 45 percent of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related, and estimates suggest that 18 percent of 16-20 year old drivers drive under the influence of alcohol.[^57] It is also important for us to establish broader definitions of what falls under the “*khamr*” (intoxicant) category for Muslims at large. Interestingly, when looking at trends of substance use in immigrant populations in Europe, while Muslim immigrants usually show lower prevalence of alcohol drinking, this was not the case for tobacco and illicit drug use, further signifying that singling out alcohol in our talks with youth may be inadvertently contributing to the use of other substances.[^58] Moreover, focusing on the importance of minimizing the harms associated with drug and alcohol use would also impact drug use habits that are more common in the Muslim world compared to the rest of the global population such as cigarette smoking.[^59] Especially with cigarette smoking, it is important to ensure early prevention as it remains the single largest preventable cause of death worldwide: the Islamic maxim “harm must be eliminated” supports this preventative approach and warrants community-wide discussions related to the high prevalence of this behavior in our community. The second *āyah* above (i.e., Satan’s plan is to stir up hostility and hatred between you with intoxicants) emphasizes the importance of social connectivity and prevention of hostility between Muslims. Importantly, the most effective programs in preventing adolescent substance use based on existing evidence are those that promote life skills training and build social resistance skills in adolescents;[^60] these skills are important in the context of peer influence being a major motivator behind initiation of substance use by adolescents.[^61] Related to the earlier point around the protective effects of religiosity, here the emphasis on community building in the *ayah* further reinforces the importance of building stronger communities and equipping our youth with important social skills and agency as members of the community. Workshops and psycho-educational programming like the one organized and designed by Dr. Ahmed Hassan[^62] combined with community building exercises would be beneficial to be adapted for use with adolescent populations. --- ## Dealing with alcohol and drug use It might not always be possible to prevent the initiation of drug or alcohol use, especially in situations where this topic was never discussed, and the parents come to learn of it abruptly. It is likely that the reaction of the parents might be one of anger and severe disappointment, which might create further divisions in the relationship. This is especially important in light of the protective effects of a strong parent-child relationship emphasized above; the presence of warmth differentiates authoritative parenting from authoritarian parenting, even when both involve disciplining the child, but produce diametrically different substance use-related outcomes.[^63] Even after the final stage of the prohibition of alcohol, and the institution of punishment, we have multiple examples of the Prophet (SAW) dealing with compassion and mercy with companions who had struggled with drinking alcohol: > During the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ there was a man called ʿAbd Allāh whose nickname was Donkey, and he used to make Allah's Messenger ﷺ laugh. The Prophet ﷺ lashed him because of drinking \[alcohol\]. And one day he was brought to the Prophet ﷺ on the same charge and was lashed \[again\]. On that, a man among the people said, “O Allah, curse him! How frequently he has been brought \[to the Prophet ﷺ on this charge\]!” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not curse him, for by Allah, I know he loves Allah and His Apostle.”[^64] > Abū Hurayrah said, “A man who drank wine was brought to the Prophet. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Beat him!’ Abū Hurayrah added, “So some of us beat him with our hands, and some with their shoes, and some with their garments \[by twisting it\] like a lash, and then when we finished, someone said to him, ‘May Allah disgrace you!’ On that the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Do not say so, for you are helping Satan to overpower him.’”[^65] The first hadith is important in that it considers the chronic relapsing nature of alcohol and substance use disorders, while emphasizing the importance of religious connection and love for Allah and the Prophet ﷺ. Importantly, it also shows that the Prophet ﷺ had a meaningful relationship with this companion, and did not shun him. As a community, we can be meaningful partners in recovery, instead of contributing to additional risk by depriving those struggling with substance use of the protective benefits of community involvement and acculturation. Both *aḥādīth* emphasize the importance of not cursing these individuals, which further highlights the importance of remembering that even with these actions, these individuals are not deprived of the mercy of Allah (SWT). This is consistent with the Qur’anic message of mercy: > Say, \[O Prophet, that Allah says\], “O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” [^66] Especially in adolescence, the message of mercy and hope is beneficial when considering spiritual benefits as well as the physical, personal and economic impacts of achieving abstinence, as it relates to factors that are important to adolescents. In at-risk youth, abstinence for 12 months from all substance use was associated with positive long-term educational and economic outcomes compared to those that used any drugs during this time, suggesting that abstinence even after initiating use is sufficient in improving outcomes and reducing harm.[^67] Therefore, all attempts should be made to present a message of hope and trust in the mercy of Allah, instead of disparaging comments that might drive one further away from reconnecting with Allah. --- ## Conclusion This primer first highlights the importance of the problem of drug and alcohol use during adolescence, and then presents potential evidence-based solutions that are based on the gradual prohibition of alcohol in Islam. The importance of leaning on scriptural guidance combined with the scientific research currently available related to the effects of substance use during adolescence will help empower youth to make decisions related to their use of substances, and hopefully reduce the harm associated with this use. --- ## Notes [^1]: Linda Patia Spear, “Consequences of Adolescent Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs: Studies Using Rodent Models,” *Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews* 70 (2016): 228–243, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.026](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.026&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762275000&usg=AOvVaw2zvxY6Xx0wyvHD189Hoy-F); Laurence Steinberg, “A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking,” *Developmental Review* 28, no. 1 (2008): 78-106,  [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762276000&usg=AOvVaw300RBniZsKXhxqRri8Zlgr); Daniel Romer, “Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention,” *Developmental Psychobiology* 52, no. 3 (2010): 263-76,  [https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.20442](https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.20442&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762276000&usg=AOvVaw3zT2xEtOl6YeA1dBcgcA4J); National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, *The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth* (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2019),  [https://doi.org/10.17226/25388](https://doi.org/10.17226/25388&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762276000&usg=AOvVaw0MGXjcJDsLHi8GBTDH9R3W). [^2]: Laurie Chassin, Iris Beltran, Matthew Lee, Moira Haller, and Ian Villalta, “Vulnerability to Substance Use Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence,” in *Vulnerability to Psychopathology: Risk across the Lifespan*, ed. Rick E. Ingram and Joseph M. Price (New York: Guilford Press, 2010), 113–40. [^3]: Jorge Gaete, Bernardita Tornero, Daniela Valenzuela, Cristian Rojas-Barahona, Christina Salmivalli, Eduardo Valenzuela, and Ricardo Araya, “Substance Use among Adolescents Involved in Bullying: A Cross-Sectional Multilevel Study,” *Frontiers in Psychology* 8 (2017), 1056, [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01056](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01056&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762277000&usg=AOvVaw2tS5wrNVpiCNc9Ib0rpEjY); Angela A. Robertson, Xiaohe Xu, andAndrea Stripling, “Adverse Events and Substance Use among Female Adolescent Offenders: Effects of Coping and Family Support,” *Substance Use and Misuse* 45, no. 3 (2010): 451–72, [https://doi.org/10.3109/10826080903452512](https://doi.org/10.3109/10826080903452512&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1614884762278000&usg=AOvVaw3YFTbfu5NQfbFv_nrs1eZI). [^4]: Areej Hassan, Ladislav Csemy, Melissa A. Rappo, and John R. Knight, “Adolescent Substance Abuse around the World: An International Perspective, *Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews* 20, no. 3 (2009): 915–ix. [^5]: Shahnaza Hamidullah, Hayley H. A. Thorpe, Jude A. Frie, Richard D. Mccurdy, and Jibran Y. Khokhar, “Adolescent Substance Use and the Brain: Behavioral, Cognitive and Neural Correlates,” *Frontiers in Human Neuroscience*, August 4, 2020, [https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00298](https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00298). [^6]: Rosalie Liccardo Pacula and Rosanna Smart, “Medical Marijuana and Marijuana Legalization,” *Annual Review of Clinical Psychology* 13 (2017): 397–419, [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045128](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045128). [^7]: Lloyd D. Johnston, Richard A, Miech, Patrick M. O’Malley, Jerald G. Bachman, John E. Shulenberg, and Megan E. Patrick, “Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use 1975–2019: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use,” Institute for Social Research, 2020. [^8]: ESPAD Group, “ESPAD Report 2019: Results from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs,” EMCDDA Joint Publications, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020. [^9]: Cynthia L. Arfken, Sameera Ahmed, “Ten Years of Substance Use Research in Muslim Populations: Where Do We Go from Here?,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 10, no. 1 (2016): 13–24. [^10]: Wabiha Abu-Ras, Sameera Ahmed, and Cynthia Arfken, “Alcohol Use among U.S. Muslim College Students: Risk and Protective Factors,” *Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse* 9, no. 3 (2010): 206–20,  [https://doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2010.500921](https://doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2010.500921). [^11]: Melissa van Dorp, Albert Boon, Renske Spijkerman, and Leontien Los, “Substance Use Prevalence Rates among Migrant and Native Adolescents in Europe: A Systematic Review,” *Drug and Alcohol Review* 40, no. 2 (2021): 325–39, [https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13154](https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13154). [^12]: Lisa Williams, Rob Ralphs, and Paul Gray, “The Normalization of Cannabis Use Among Bangladeshi and Pakistani Youth: A New Frontier for the Normalization Thesis?,” *Substance Use and Misuse* 52, no. 4 (2017): 413–421, [https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2016.1233565](https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2016.1233565). [^13]: ASDA’A BCW, “A White Paper on the Findings of the 11th Annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey 2019,” 2019, [https://www.arabyouthsurvey.com/pdf/downloadwhitepaper/download-whitepaper.pdf](https://www.arabyouthsurvey.com/pdf/downloadwhitepaper/download-whitepaper.pdf). [^14]: Leah S. Richmond-Rakerd, Wendy S. Slutske, Phillip K. Wood, “Age of Initiation and Substance Use Progression: A Multivariate Latent Growth Analysis,” *Psychology of Addictive Behaviors* 31, no. 6 (2017): 664–75, [https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000304](https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000304). [^15]: Jai K. Das, Rehana A. Salam, Ahmed Arshad, Yaron Finkelstein, and Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, “Interventions for Adolescent Substance Abuse: An Overview of Systematic Reviews,” *Journal of Adolescent Health* 59, no. 4s (2016): S61–s75, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.021](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.021). [^16]: Das et al., “Interventions for Adolescent Substance Abuse.” [^17]: Qur’an 66:6. [^18]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2928. [^19]: Elisardo Becoña, Úrsula Martínez, Amador Calafat, José Ramón Fernández-Hermida, Montse Juan, Harry Sumnall, Fernando Mendes, and Roman Gabrhelík, “Parental Permissiveness, Control, and Affect and Drug Use among Adolescents,” *Psicothema* 25, no. 3 (2013): 292–98, [https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2012.294](https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2012.294). [^20]: Scott T. Yabiku, Flavio F. Marsiglia, Stephen Kulis, Monica B. Parsai, David Becerra, and Melissa Del-Colle, “Parental Monitoring and Changes in Substance Use among Latino/a and non-Latino/a Preadolescents in the Southwest,” *Substance Use and Misuse* 45, no. 14 (2010): 2524–50, [https://doi.org/10.3109/10826081003728256](https://doi.org/10.3109/10826081003728256). [^21]: Siobhan M. Ryan, Anthony F. Jorm, Dan I. Lubman, “Parenting Factors Associated with Reduced Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies,” *Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry* 44, no. 9 (2010): 774–83, [https://doi.org/10.1080/00048674.2010.501759](https://doi.org/10.1080/00048674.2010.501759). [^22]: YoungJu Shin and Michelle Miller-Day, “A Longitudinal Study of Parental Anti-Substance-Use Socialization for Early Adolescents' Substance-Use Behaviors,” *Communication Monographs* 84, no. 3 (2017): 277–97,  [https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2017.1300821](https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2017.1300821). [^23]: Leenke Visser, Andrea F. de Winter, and Sijmen A. Reijneveld, “The Parent-Child Relationship and Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies,” *BMC Public Health* 12 (2012): 886, [https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-886](https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-886). [^24]: Xinwen Bi, Yiqun Yang, Hailei Li, Meiping Wang, Wenxin Zhang, and Kirby Deater-Deckard, “Parenting Styles and Parent–Adolescent Relationships: The Mediating Roles of Behavioral Autonomy and Parental Authority,” *Frontiers in Psychology* 9, no. 2187 (2018), [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02187](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02187). [^25]: Diana Baumrind, “The Influence of Parenting Style on Adolescent Competence and Substance Use,” *The Journal of Early Adolescence* 11 (1991): 56-95. doi:10.1177/0272431691111004 [^26]: Bi et al., “Parenting Styles and Parent–Adolescent Relationships.” [^27]: Jonas Berge, Knut Sundell, Agneta Öjehagen, and Anders Håkansson, “Role of Parenting Styles in Adolescent Substance Use: Results from a Swedish Longitudinal Cohort Study,” *BMJ Open* 6, no. 1 (2016): e008979, [https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008979](https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008979). [^28]: Amador Calafat, Fernando García, Montse Juan, Elisardo Becoña, José Ramón Fernández-Hermida, “Which Parenting Style Is More Protective against Adolescent Substance Use? Evidence within the European Context,” *Drug and Alcohol Dependence* 138 (2014): 185–92, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.02.705](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.02.705). [^29]: Baumrind, “Influence of Parenting Style.” [^30]: Rana Eseed and Mona Khoury-Kassabri, “Alcohol Use among Arab Muslim Adolescents: A Mediation-Moderation Model of Family, Peer, and Community Factors,” *American Journal of Orthopsychiatry* 88, no. 1 (2018): 88–98, [https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000263](https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000263). [^31]: Jinni Su, Sally I.Chun Kuo, Chelsea L. Derlan, Nao Hagiwara, Mignonne C. Guy, and Danielle M. Dick, “Racial Discrimination and Alcohol Problems among African American Young Adults: Examining the Moderating Effects of Racial Socialization by Parents and Friends,” *Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology* 26, no. 2 (2020): 260–70, [https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000294](https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000294). [^32]: Eseed and Khoury-Kassabri, “Alcohol Use among Arab Muslim Adolescents.” [^33]: Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz, “Why ‘Just Say No’ Doesn’t Work,” *Scientific American*, January 1, 2014, [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-just-say-no-doesnt-work/](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-just-say-no-doesnt-work/). [^34]: Wei Pan and Haiyan Bai, “A Multivariate Approach to a Meta-Analytic Review of the Effectiveness of the D.A.R.E. Program,” *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health* 6, no. 1 (2009): 267–77, [https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph6010267](https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph6010267). [^35]: **Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4707.* [^36]: Calafat et al., “Which Parenting Style.” [^37]: Ahmed N. Hassan, Heba Ragheb, Arfeen Malick, Zainib Abdullah, Yusra Ahmad, Nadiya Sunderji, and Farah Islam, “Inspiring Muslim Minds: Evaluating a Spiritually Adapted Psycho-Educational Program on Addiction to Overcome Stigma in Canadian Muslim Communities,” *Community Mental Health Journal*, 2020, [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00699-0](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00699-0). [^38]: Qur’an 16:67. [^39]: Shahrul Hussain, *A Treasury of Sacred Maxims: A Commentary on Islamic Legal Principles* (Leicestershire: Kube Publishing, 2017). [^40]: Qur’an 2:219. [^41]: Das et al., “Interventions for Adolescent Substance Abuse.” [^42]: Hamidullah et al., “Adolescent Substance Use and the Brain.” [^43]: Samuel Lazareck, Jennifer A. Robinson, Rosa M. Crum, Ramin Mojtabai, Jitender Sareen, and James M. Bolton, “A Longitudinal Investigation of the Role of Self-Medication in the Development of Comorbid Mood and Drug Use Disorders: Findings from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC),” *The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry* 73, no. 5 (2012): e588–e593, [https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.11m07345](https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.11m07345).f [^44]: Hamidullah et al., “Adolescent Substance Use and the Brain.” [^45]: Laika D. Aguinaldo, Aimee Goldstone, Brant P. Hasler, David A. Brent, Clarisa Coronado, and Joanna Jacobus, “Preliminary Analysis of Low-Level Alcohol Use and Suicidality with Children in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Baseline Cohort,” *Psychiatry Research*, 2021, 113825. [^46]: Qur’an 4:43. [^47]: Abu-Ras, Ahmed, and Arfken, “Alcohol Use among U.S. Muslim College Students”; Cynthia L. Arfken, Sameera Ahmed, and Wahiba Abu-Ras, “Respondent-Driven Sampling of Muslim Undergraduate U.S. College Students and Alcohol Use: Pilot Study,” *Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology* 48, no. 6 (2013): 945–53,  [https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0588-4](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0588-4). [^48]: Arfken, Ahmed, and Abu-Ras, “Respondent-Driven Sampling.” [^49]: Christian Haasen, Mirweys Sinaa, and Jens Reimer, “Alcohol Use Disorders among Afghan Migrants in Germany,” *Substance Abuse* 29, no. 3 (2008): 65–70, [https://doi.org/10.1080/08897070802218828](https://doi.org/10.1080/08897070802218828). [^50]: Helene Raskin White, Barbara J. McMorris, Richard F. Catalano, Charles B. Fleming, Kevin P. Haggerty, and Robert D. 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[^55]: National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Costs of Substance Abuse,” 2021, [https://archives.drugabuse.gov/trends-statistics/costs-substance-abuse](https://archives.drugabuse.gov/trends-statistics/costs-substance-abuse). [^56]: Dana A. Glei and Samuel H. Preston, “Estimating the Impact of Drug Use on US Mortality, 1999–2016,” *PloS One* 15, no. 1 (2020): e0226732, [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226732](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226732). [^57]: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, “Substance Use Among Adolescents,” in *Treatment of Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders* (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 1999), [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64353/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64353/). [^58]: Van Dorp et al., “Substance Use Prevalence Rates.” [^59]: Nazim Ghouri, Mohammed Atcha, and Aziz Sheikh, “Influence of Islam on Smoking among Muslims,” *BMJ* 332, no. 7536 (2006): 291–94, [https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7536.291](https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7536.291). [^60]: Kenneth W. Griffin and Gilbert J. Botvin, “Evidence-Based Interventions for Preventing Substance Use Disorders in Adolescents,” *Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of  North America* 19, no. 3 (2010): 505–26, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2010.03.005](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2010.03.005). [^61]: Rachel Herold, Rachel Boykan, Allison Eliscu, Héctor E. Alcalá, and Maciej L. Goniewicz, “Association between Friends’ Use of Nicotine and Cannabis and Intake of Both Substances among Adolescents,” *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health* 18, no. 2 (2021): 695. [^62]: Hassan et al., “Inspiring Muslim Minds.” [^63]: Calafat et al., “Which Parenting Style.” [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6780. [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6777. [^66]: Qur’an 39:53. [^67]: Griffin and Botvin, “Evidence-Based Interventions.” ## Summary Substance use during adolescence, though often overlooked within Muslim communities due to the stigma surrounding it and a perceived immunity arising from the Islamic prohibition of intoxicants, remains a pressing concern that warrants serious attention. This subject is understudied because of under-reporting, yet it can become a genuine source of religious doubt, particularly among the youth. Adolescence itself is a critical developmental stage during which the brain undergoes remodeling, giving rise to increased impulsivity, risk-taking, and a heightened affiliation with peers. These natural tendencies, coupled with societal pressures around independence and identity, make experimentation with substances common. Some adolescents also turn to substances to cope with stress and bullying. Prevalence remains high worldwide: according to the "Monitoring the Future" survey, more than twenty percent of grade twelve students in America reported past thirty-day use of alcohol, cannabis, nicotine vaping, or illicit drugs, and in Europe nearly eighty percent reported lifetime alcohol use. Though data on Muslim youth is limited, a 2001 study found that forty-seven percent of American Muslim college students reported alcohol use in the past year, and in Europe rates vary by substance—lower for alcohol but higher for tobacco and sedatives. The Arab Youth Survey likewise reported that fifty-seven percent of youth surveyed believed substance use among young Arabs was rising. The prevention of substance use carries immense benefit, for there is wisdom in all that Allah commands, as the Sharī'ah seeks to secure benefit and repel harm. Ninety percent of substance addictions stem from use before the age of twenty-one, with earlier initiation predicting greater likelihood of a later disorder. Prevention also mitigates immediate risks such as violence, risky driving, unintended pregnancies, infections, and substance-induced psychosis. The Islamic legal maxim "No harm shall be inflicted nor reciprocated" underpins the prevention of harm in all its forms, and empirical research affirms that adolescence is an opportune time for effective intervention. Parents bear an immense responsibility in Islam to nurture their children and teach them right from wrong. Allah commands, "O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones" (Qur'an 66:6), and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock," describing the man as responsible for his household. Research reflects this responsibility: parental permissiveness was associated with greater use of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis, whereas parental monitoring, modeling, involvement, and a strong parent-child relationship exerted a protective and delaying effect. Modern social science divides parenting into four styles based on responsiveness and demandingness—authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful. Authoritative parenting, high in both warmth and clear discipline, was the only style associated with reduced drinking after adjustment for risk factors and carried the least risk for substance use, while authoritarian and neglectful styles produced the greatest youth-parent conflict. Parents matter also because discrimination and Islamophobia are risk factors for substance use; a study of Arab Muslim students in Israel linked community violence victimization to increased alcohol use, yet positive parent-child communication emerged as one of the most important protective factors. Islam's emphasis on honoring parents, as in the counsel of Luqmān, makes parents a fitting vehicle for this message. The Qur'an itself models a healthy parent-child relationship through Luqmān's advice to his son, in which he first taught his son who Allah is before instructing him in what Allah commands—instilling love and awe of Allah in the heart before enjoining obedience. Slogans such as "Just Say No," promoted in the 1980s, and the D.A.R.E. program did not prove effective, as youth in such programs did not differ from their peers in substance use rates. In contrast, the sīrah of the Prophet ﷺ offers a gradual, context-dependent model. 'Ā'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said that the first verses revealed were the shorter chapters mentioning Paradise and Hellfire, until people were firmly established upon Islam and the verses of lawful and unlawful came; had the first verse commanded abstention from wine, the people would have refused to stop. Two lessons follow: that a healthy relationship with Allah and with the one giving advice must precede prohibition, and that the message must be gradual and developmentally appropriate. A spiritually adapted psycho-education program employing this gradualism proved effective among Muslim adults, suggesting benefit for adolescents as well. The first stage mirrors the initial permissibility of fruit-derived drinks in the Qur'an: "And from the fruits of palm trees and grapevines you derive intoxicants as well as wholesome provision" (Qur'an 16:67). Under the maxim "the default ruling of anything is permissibility," children should be raised to appreciate the abundance of Allah's blessings and His mercy, rather than a message centered only on prohibition. This is not to center permissibility of intoxicants, which are now forbidden, but to foster gratitude for what is lawful. The second stage presents the pros and cons, following the verse, "They ask you about intoxicants and gambling. Say, 'There is great evil in both, as well as some benefit for people—but the evil outweighs the benefit'" (Qur'an 2:219). Resources from bodies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse can aid parents here. Though minor benefits such as sociability may exist, the harms far outweigh them: short-term risks like impaired driving and blacking out, and long-term deficits in cognition, future substance use, and psychopathology—all contravening the Sharī'ah's aim of preserving the intellect. Even use for "self-medication" heightened the risk of dependence, and even a sip of alcohol in children was linked to a twofold increase in lifetime suicidality. The third stage concerns religion, reflecting the command, "O believers! Do not approach prayer while intoxicated until you are aware of what you say" (Qur'an 4:43). Islam demands cognitive presence in worship, and intoxicants hinder the ability to build a spiritual connection with Allah, especially in the formative years, with consequences that may endure long after use ceases. The relationship is bidirectional, for religiosity serves as a protective factor: alcohol use was lower among more religious students, while Muslim immigrants in Germany with problem drinking most often reported being non-religious. The Prophet ﷺ said, "A man follows the religion of his close friend; so each one should consider whom he makes his close friend," and research confirms that peers strongly influence adolescents' religiosity and substance use. The fourth stage is prohibition and contextualization: "O believers! Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and drawing lots for decisions are all evil of Satan's handiwork. So shun them... Satan's plan is to stir up hostility and hatred between you" (Qur'an 5:90-91). This final step requires the groundwork of the earlier stages for its uptake. Notably, Allah forbids these things though they were socially accepted, teaching that a substance's legal status in society—such as legalized cannabis—does not alter its ruling before Allah, for it stands like alcohol and tobacco, which remain impermissible. The verse also notes societal harms, reflected in the enormous economic and life-expectancy costs of substance use. The definition of khamr must be understood broadly, for Muslim immigrants often show lower alcohol use but not lower tobacco or illicit drug use, and cigarette smoking—the largest preventable cause of death—is especially prevalent in the Muslim world; the maxim "harm must be eliminated" supports its prevention. The verse's emphasis on preventing hostility underscores social connectivity, and the most effective prevention programs are those building life skills and social resistance. When use cannot be prevented, parents must beware reactions of anger that damage the protective parent-child bond, for warmth distinguishes authoritative from authoritarian discipline. The Prophet ﷺ, even after the prohibition and its punishment, dealt mercifully with those who struggled with drink; of the man repeatedly punished he said, "Do not curse him, for by Allah, I know he loves Allah and His Apostle," and of another he said, "Do not say so, for you are helping Satan to overpower him." These reflect the chronic, relapsing nature of such struggles and the enduring mercy of Allah, who says, "O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah's mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins" (Qur'an 39:53). Abstinence even after initiation improves outcomes, so a message of hope and trust in Allah's mercy should always be presented rather than disparagement that drives one further from Him. In sum, leaning upon scriptural guidance alongside available scientific research empowers youth to make sound decisions and reduces the harm associated with substance use. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/coping-with-pandemics-psychological-and-spiritual-lessons-from-islamic-history # Coping with Pandemics: Psychological and Spiritual Lessons from Islamic History **Authors:** Dr. Rania Awaad, Yusif Salaam Conn, Meve Nursoy-Demir, Hosam Helal, Dr. Sara Maklad, Dr. Iman Farajallah **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper **Published:** February 4, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Though the COVID-19 pandemic may seem novel, pandemics are not new to the greater human experience. This paper highlights the psychological and spiritual coping mechanisms that early Muslims drew upon from Islamic teachings when they endured similar plagues. We analyze Muslim experiences of communicative diseases with a focus on their personal, communal, and public responses throughout history. This perspective provides valuable insights as to the role played by faith and spirituality in the responses of the Muslim community. By examining a selection of plague outbreaks between the 8th-19th centuries across the lands broadly defined as the Islamic Mediterranean, we highlight psychological and spiritual coping mechanisms that can serve as a model for dealing with similar contemporary challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By analyzing the responses of previous generations of Muslims, modern Muslims can construct adaptive responses guided by Islam’s rich resources of meaning-making to thrive in the face of the challenges of the current pandemic. --- ## Introduction With no clear end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, it is imperative that we shift our focus from discussing temporary coping mechanisms to developing long-term adaptive strategies. While the current pandemic may be unique in many ways, surviving a pandemic is not new to the human experience. In this paper we highlight the experiences of our noble Muslim predecessors—particularly their psychological and spiritual responses as they braved previous plagues. From the early caliphates to the late sultanates, we have uncovered numerous accounts of the difficulties, challenges, and responses to communicative diseases that occurred across the Muslim world. By discovering and adapting the psychological and spiritual coping mechanisms employed by early Muslims who endured some of the same trials we now face, we too can prosper despite the current atmosphere of uncertainty.[^1] In this paper, we examine the psychological responses in Muslim communities affected by the outbreaks of plague in the 8th-19th centuries across the lands broadly defined as the Islamic Mediterranean—from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to the Levant and Anatolia.[^2] We pay particular attention to highlighting the guidelines and coping mechanisms that Muslims extracted from traditional Islamic sources as models for facing similar contemporary challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the Islamic tradition efficiently provides a rich set of resources not only for meaning-making in the face of a deadly pandemic but also for responding in an ethical and adaptive way to various forms of  adversity. In this paper, we also explore three basic types of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first and most fundamental of which is the personal, psycho-spiritual response. As Muslims we believe that our Lord, Most High, will not change our condition until we change ourselves.[^3] As such, the personal response takes precedence for every one of us. Though it is the type of response that we have the most control over, it does not mean that it is the easiest to control. Many of us are now faced with numerous stressors and anxieties which, if left unchecked, will not only interfere with our psychological well-being but will also seep into our spiritual lives, challenging our faith as we try to make sense of everything happening around us. The second form of response is the communal response. A major part of many Muslims’ lived experience of Islam takes place in social settings. For example, the importance of keeping *ṣuḥbah ṣālihah*, righteous companionship, is a major principle found in the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ. The communal aspects of the Islamic faith deepen our experience and connection to it—whether by praying shoulder-to-shoulder in the *masjid*, learning from *khuṭbah*s delivered by our imams or simply by sharing an *ifṭār* with a fellow Muslim. As these communal aspects disappear from our lives during the pandemic, the question becomes how do we adapt our communal attitude to ensure the endurance of our social health as well as our communal religiosity? Another layer to the communal response is how Muslims view the pandemic. While some view the pandemic as a punishment for the deviations within our own community, others offer the promising view that this is a test of our patience for which we will be rewarded. Is there a definitive opinion on these different views within our tradition? How did Muslims before us handle this weighty issue of deciding God’s intention behind calamity? The final form of response is the public response to the pandemic shared by all—Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Especially as citizens in non-Muslim majority countries, many of us will be faced with executive orders and mandates from the government that outwardly contradict Islamic legal injunctions. From the closing of *masājid* to the cancellation of *tarāwīḥ* and Eid prayers, there is an apparent conflict between scientific advice and religious rulings. The way we reconcile these differences is essential for our identity as Muslim minorities. Another area of public response relates to our attitudes and opinions of others. As with any time of heightened anxiety, fear, and angst, many take to aggression and scapegoating. However, when critically analyzing the teachings of Islam and the precedent set by the Islamic tradition, does this align with the appropriate Islamic response? In each of these cases, it is important to realize we are not the first to endure such trials and tribulations. Our tradition is rich with accounts of similar and far graver situations that Muslims have emerged from without losing their faith or communal identity. To better make sense of our current state and develop effective attitudes and behaviors for the long haul ahead, we can learn from the successes and trials of our noble predecessors. In this way, we too will endure this adversity only to be bettered by our experience, if Allah wills. --- ## Issue One: Personal response God states in the Qur’an, “Verily Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.”[^4] If we set this to be the basis of our response, our highest priority is to turn our attention inward to the psychological and spiritual states we all experience. Even if in our personal lives we have been only barely affected by the pandemic, the deluge of negative news regarding the progression of this situation, the attitudes of others, and even our own inner thoughts regarding the circumstances may contribute to an atmosphere of despair and stress. For many of us, our lives will remain directly affected by the changes brought by the pandemic for the foreseeable future. Many have lost their jobs, while others must adjust to continue their occupation under nonideal circumstances at home. Many children will not be returning to school this year, leaving parents with another added stress to contend with. Many college students face this same issue along with the uncertainty of their ability to finish the education they set out to complete. Countless stressors have been introduced into our lives. That much has been made clear. What remains unclear for many is the best way to deal with these stressors. The first thought that should cross our minds in moments of stress and anxiety are the words of our Lord, “Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity.”[^5] While we are all susceptible to the trials of stress and anxiety, exegetes of the Qur’an took this verse as an indication that, out of God’s immense mercy and favor towards mankind, He would not take anyone to task for what they did not have power over nor the capacity to accomplish.[^6] Whatever tests we find ourselves in have only been placed upon us due to our Lord’s knowledge that we have the capacity to persevere through them with faith and religiosity intact. This is evidenced by those generations of our ancestors in the Islamic tradition who endured tragedies equal to and exceeding those we find ourselves facing today. For us all, we inevitably face intense stress in hardships as severe as a pandemic. We can benefit from viewing the conditions those before us experienced, how they persevered throughout them, and how they were able to emerge with the blessing of having shown patience and gratitude in the face of tribulation. ### Confronting the fear of death and loss during pandemics Many of the same concerns we are faced with today in our pandemic were faced by those before us. Psychologically, facing the plague for the first time or during an unpredicted interval brought uncomparable shock and fear to people.[^7] For instance, the plague that emerged in the winter of 832 H/1429 CE in Egypt was reported to be particularly severe because pestilence during winter was an unknown phenomenon as previous epidemics had taken place during spring (or fall), which made this tribulation especially unexpected for people.[^8] Vulnerable groups in the society, such as children, slaves, and women, were affected the most and fatality of the youth increased to the point that there were almost no children left in Cairo, even though the plague affected every layer of the society eventually, including the physicians, high-ranking officials, scholars, princes, and so on.[^9] The community was described to be immersed in horror and panic within this context. The number of the dead was so high that there were not enough resources to bury them;[^10] people were reported to bury the dead of their household inside their houses during the night because of the lack of ability, service, and space for burials. The prominent Egyptian historian al-Maqrīzī (d. 845 H/1442 CE) said that houses were turned into graveyards. Sources also indicate that survivors of the plague were preoccupied with taking care of the dead and people would spend almost all of their time washing, shrouding, and burying their lost ones.[^11] During this plague in Cairo, chroniclers residing in the region mentioned a severe epidemic in Bursa, Anatolia as well.[^12] Here, we see the communication of news regarding the outbreaks across different centers of the Islamic Mediterranean. Thus, news about the devastation of the disease and the high rates of death in distant territories of that time was circulating, partly similar to the observation of COVID-19 cases globally despite the fact that the nature and speed of communication differed considerably. Moreover, according to contemporary witnesses, communities would get easily alarmed solely by the hearing of plague such that even the youngest members of the society, children, would talk about the coming of the plague in the streets when such news was heard.[^13] So, even when plague was not existent, fear related to it was observable.[^14] Despair, catastrophe, and apprehension within the society because of the fear of getting sick which was believed to bring a quick death, bearing the loss of loved ones, separation from multiple significant family members (e.g., parents, siblings, offspring, spouse, etc.) sometimes all at the same time, and constant exposure to the dead as part of daily life (e.g., unburied bodies in the streets, numerous funerals at the mosque, etc.).[^15] Upon examination of the psychosocial impacts of plague outbreaks on Muslim communities across the Mediterranean world during the medieval and early modern period, a natural question emerges regarding the responses and ways of coping during such adversity. Exploration of responses to outbreaks reveals two intertwined dimensions of the subject: attitudes and responses of Muslim communities as well as ethical and religious standpoints of Muslim scholars. ### Attitudes of Muslims in the face of pandemics Traditional Islamic sources point out that the exact reason behind an incidence, including plague, cannot be determined by humans but is known only to God.[^16] Nevertheless, religious guidelines provide a number of wisdoms to reflect upon. Disease outbreaks could be understood as a blessing for the believers, which was clearly stated by the Prophet ﷺ in one hadith, as a sign from God to reflect upon the working system created by Him, or as a punishment for persecutors.[^17] Likewise, calamities such as the plague could be for advancement, cleansing, contemplation, or correction of people.[^18] Whether a divine punishment,[^19] or reward,[^20] or a natural calamity God created,[^21] we cannot know for sure; however, Muslims believe that God is the ultimate power over everything occurring in the universe and, as such, can remove any calamity at any time.[^22] In line with various wisdoms provided by Islamic tradition in understanding the plague, there was a spectrum of beliefs, explanations, attitudes, and ideas about the meaning and reasons behind the plague’s emergence in Muslim communities.[^23] Additionally, there was a dynamic process of change over the centuries as plague recurred in shorter intervals, which brought even more diversity to the accumulation of Islamic discourse regarding epidemics.[^24] In line with this, variation in responses to the epidemics was observed as well.[^25] One of the major issues individuals during these times had to cope with was that of corrupted morals due to opportunities posed by desperation. With 9 out of every 20 residents of rural areas dying from the outbreak in 15th century Cairo, the cost of burial skyrocketed as the demand grew, causing morticians and gravediggers to become lucrative careers that attracted other professionals who were struggling to find work. Some gravediggers took advantage of the situation and intentionally collaborated to boost the cost of their services. Al-Maqrīzī recounts the moral regression that followed.[^26] According to his account, corruption, manipulation, selfishness, and exploitation became rampant with the closure of mosques and the deaths of many spiritual and moral guides. With the large death toll, gravediggers rushed to complete as many burials as quickly as possible. The rush was often coupled with negligence, as many graves were not carefully sealed. Animals were often seen rummaging through graves and walking away with limbs and other body parts. The trauma and horror associated with these scenes contributed to growing superstitious tendencies as Damascene villagers flocked to astrologers, dream interpreters, psychics, and magicians who falsely claimed to predict the areas where outbreaks would hit, when they would end, and what could cure specific individuals. In an attempt to explain the prevailing sadness and anxiety, people feared the power of black magic and envy over them. For example, when a child named Manṣūr, the son of the deputy in Damascus, died from the outbreak in 909 H/1503 CE, many attributed his death to the evil eye, commenting that people were overly impressed with his “pleasant physique and demeanor” when they saw him praying with his father in the Umayyad mosque.[^27] This caused some to resort to superstitious habits in hopes of protection from harm. Others, however, found Islam to be a reliable basis for coping. Inspired by prophetic instruction, many Damascene residents saw the pandemic as an opportunity to serve the community and initiate philanthropic projects. For example, several religious scholars traveled to rural communities with the intention of educating their residents, despite the risk of contagion. In one chronicle, Shaykh Muhammad al-Husni returned to one of the rural villages in Damascus that he had left earlier with the intention of helping its locals overcome superstitions, grief, and fear.[^28] He dedicated his sermons to instilling them with positivity and encouraging them to remain hopeful in God’s capacity and mercy. Citing the hadith literature, others saw the pandemic as a blessing.  Expressing his view, Masrūq ibn al-Ajda‘ (d. 62 H/682 CE) wrote, “I see \[the pandemic\] as an opportunity to disconnect from everyone and reconnect with my Maker.”[^29] In his poetry, Ibn al-Wardī (d. 749 H/1349 CE) described his internal state a few days before his death during the pandemic of 749 H/1349 CE in Syria, “Unlike others, I do not fear the pandemic, for it affords me two possible outcomes, each better than the other. If I die, then I find rest away from the contagions \[of this world\]. If I live, I get to witness \[more of the world\] through the healing of my ears and eyes.”[^30] From these examples, we see two general types of response. One is the self-centered approach to try to ensure one’s security with whatever means present themselves first. This approach is not so easy to overcome. In moments of stress, it is natural to jump at the first opportunity we see that we think could be beneficial. This manifests itself through hoarding supplies one fears they will need, rationalizing breaking safety regulations for their own benefit, or other acts that are easy to categorize as selfish when we see them in others. When we allow this selfish nature to overcome our reason, we begin acting without thought. This leads to disregarding the Divine wisdom behind experiencing an adverse event such as an epidemic. The second type of response is that of deeper understanding. One recognizes the opportunity associated with tribulation. In contrast with the selfish, immediate response of the former approach, this approach often takes a great deal of energy to actualize in our lives. It involves carrying mindfulness of our core beliefs in every situation. We believe in an All-Powerful Provider (*al-Razzāq*), who will never give us less than what has been written for us to receive. As such, we can rationalize that trying to secure provisions to a point that others may not be able to find what they need is unnecessary and misaligned with our confidence in the provisions of our Lord. We believe that the Muslim is he from whom others are “safe from his hand and tongue.”[^31] As such, it violates our principles to disregard protocols placed to ensure the safety of others and act without due respect. With this second approach, we rationally match our actions to our principles. What is important to note here is that the opportunity for reward and blessings opens up as one establishes this reality in one’s heart. It does not matter the circumstances. As long as one is committed to seeking the good in any situation, they will, with the aid of their Lord, be given the providence to find it. ### Coping with psychosocial impacts of pandemics In his treatise on the plague, the prominent scholar Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 H/ 1449 CE) mentions some examples of positive coping and resilience during a severe outbreak, “*...*it prompted people to detach from \[false\] hopes, to improve their behaviors, to wake up from complacency, and prepare for their journey \[to the hereafter\].”[^32] He goes on and tells us about the socio-psychological impact of the epidemic. Some began rectifying their relationships with their enemies, becoming kinder and gentler with their neighbors, setting slaves free, improving their characters, reassessing their values, and forgiving those who had betrayed them. Also, a few indulged in hoarding out of fear for what was to come. In the long term, however, psychological degradation was visible, “and the \[epidemic\] persisted for a long time upon the *ummah*, leading to intense \[psychological\] pressures and anxiety… Moodiness and depression became prevalent, contributing to the demise of people and cities. This was a matter that is completely unprecedented… making every other preceding epidemic seem like a tiny drop.”[^33] Ibn Ḥajar also notes the relationship between the psychological state of individuals and social/spiritual order. Observing that the disturbed psychological state led some to commit sins as a coping mechanism, losing hope altogether; some began to indulge in lusts and break public possessions, opening up the door for further destruction.[^34] He adds, “and nothing stopped us from fleeing from it except the hadith \[of the Prophet ﷺ\]. So we got up to ask Allah SWT together \[each in his household\] and prayed for His aid*.*”[^35] One significant indication of the severe psychosocial effects of the plague is that characteristics of the disease itself were described in such a dramatic sense which could be read as the intensity of fear and agony it created in the minds of its witnesses.[^36] For instance, the Byzantine-Ottoman chronicler Kritovoulos provided a striking description of the bubonic plague and its effect on the human body based on his own experience during an outbreak in Istanbul in 1467.[^37] Examination of medical texts produced in Ottoman realms during the 14th and 15th centuries also provides insight about the psychological atmosphere, specifically the sense of confusion, uncertainty, and vulnerability regarding the pestilence outbreaks. While emphasizing the plague as the most threatening medical condition, writers of the Ottoman medical treatises generally discussed it unsystematically outside of the ordinary scientific classification of illnesses, provided a short mixture of medical and mystical information regarding the etiology, epidemiology, and treatment of the condition.[^38] Historians of plagues argue that this trend in Ottoman medical texts changed in the wake of the 16th century, when a transformation of medicalization was clearly observed thereafter.[^39] Taken together, historical writings illustrate the severe impact of plague outbreaks on Muslim communities for ages. Psychosocial effects of plague were deeply rooted in the context where people experienced constant fear of being caught up by a deadly disease with no cure, loss of multiple loved ones, famines, and other tragedies brought to their personal lives, a struggle to provide religiously appropriate burial services to the deceased, continuous exposure to the dead in large numbers within the community, and also spread of rumors and news of devastating outbreaks in different corners of the Islamic world or nearby.[^40] Correspondingly, there was a strong sense of helplessness, lack of control, anxiety regarding the unknown nature of the situation, and uncertainty of what was coming next, especially during early periods when the plague experience was more severe and recent.[^41] Some would interpret the situation as a sign of the end of time.[^42] Many believed that there was nothing they could do other than seek refuge in God as contemporary sources, including medical texts, mentioned spiritual remedies and help from Allah (and his servants, *awliyāʾ Allāh*) as the only ways out of the calamity.[^43] On the other hand, others urged to seek a cure for the disease wherever possible, emphasizing the causes as intermediaries of God’s creation.[^44] ### Coping with isolation For many individuals across the world, one major lasting effect of the pandemic is the isolation it has caused. The calls for “social distancing” and quarantining at the beginning of the pandemic are now a way of life for many. Many academic institutions and work locations have remained closed with their operations moved to a virtual format. With the threat of transferring the virus to those we love barring us from much of our social interaction, feelings of loneliness and isolation may become overwhelming. While these feelings may be intensified due to the length of isolation further elongated with the assistance of  modern technology, our Islamic tradition also offers supportive responses to this challenge. We do not deny the importance of social interaction and support in the lives of Muslims. The importance of the Muslim community in Islam is attested to throughout the Qur’an and the Sunnah, perhaps most strongly in the form of the love and concern the Prophet ﷺ had for his Companions and the Muslim generations to come. We see in the life of the Prophet ﷺ that much of his time was spent engaging with others, speaking to them, teaching them, and even joking with them. The Companions similarly encouraged one another to perform good acts  in order to strengthen their faith. Just as we can acknowledge the importance of social interactions for our spiritual health based on the practices of the righteous predecessors (the *salaf*), empirical evidence shows that social support can help protect individuals from many of the negative symptoms induced by stressful situations and trauma.[^45] While we can make attempts to establish safe social interactions until our situation allows for the fulfillment we need, many of us will still be left with these feelings of isolation and loneliness. Imām Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Sakandarī (d. 709 H/1310 CE), an Egyptian jurist and scholar of spirituality, wrote in his *Aphorisms*, “When \[God\] isolates you from His creation, know that He wants to open the door of intimacy with Him for you.”[^46] This reminds us to look for the true meaning behind our condition. While we hope that our isolation and loneliness is only a passing state, perhaps it is a unique opportunity to reconnect with God and focus on our devotion to Him. We have the chance to look at how we benefit from those around us and what harm we receive as well. We can see what might have been distracting us from having a personal relationship with God in our day-to-day life and how we can establish that more effectively. In this way, when we return to our social interactions with others, we will appreciate the good company we are blessed with more while maintaining our spiritual connection to God as well. --- ## Issue Two: Communal response As the current pandemic, quarantines, and isolation drag on, anxiety may arise for many of us regarding the future of our Muslim communities. The reality is that the Muslim experience is an inherently communal one. Our *dīn* puts heavy emphasis on the importance of the *ummah*, the greater Muslim community, as the Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith reported by Muslim, “The religion is sincerity… to God, His Book, His Messenger, and the leaders of the Muslims and the masses of the Muslims.”[^47] As we find ourselves in a situation where we are cut off from the rest of our communities most of the time, we may feel stress and anxiety resulting from this separation from an essential part of our lives. What is important to remember is that the Muslim community has endured far worse situations in our history. We learn from our history that this *ummah* has endured invasions, civil wars, drought, famine, crusades, and countless other life-threatening disasters. For those who lived through plague in the Muslim world, responses came in two forms: actions and beliefs. One could respond positively with their actions, showing resilience and determination to support their community either through communal service for the ill, dead or, at the very least, through observing public health directions such as social isolation and quarantine. ### Acts of communal service as a response to pandemics Historically, we see examples of Muslims benefiting their communities either with their wealth or with their efforts during similar times of need. During plague outbreaks in Samarkand (439 H/1047 CE), Muslims increased their charitable work, stepped back to reflect and repent, spent more time reading the Qur’an, and collectively rid their city of unlawful instruments and intoxicants.[^48] While confronting several epidemics between 784 H/1382 CE and 922 H/1516 CE, the residents of Mamluk-ruled Egypt and the Levant set a good example for healthy coping. Wealthy merchants and notables sponsored sections within the *bimaristan*s (hospitals) that specifically treated those affected by the outbreaks. These wards also cared for people psychologically and offered social services including covering the cost of washing, burials, and funeral services for the socioeconomically disadvantaged among the deceased.[^49] Volunteers in Jerusalem (863H/1459 CE) also took it upon themselves to go through the streets and honor the unattended bodies. These bodies were washed, shrouded, and given proper burials, with precautions taken to avoid contagion. With limited budgets, volunteers employed creativity as they used doors and ladders as stretchers to carry and transport the ill and the deceased.[^50] Announcements were made encouraging people to fast, offer vigil prayers at night, get rid of sins in their lives that were getting in the way of a genuine connection with God, and a call was made encouraging communal repentance to God. We see from our cited sources that Muslim communities were generally adherent to the practice of neither fleeing nor entering a plague-stricken land.[^51] There was a sense of shared responsibility to put the good of the community before the welfare of the individual.[^52] In his discussion about the response of the Ottoman community to the plague during 17th and 18th centuries, Ayalon refers to the writings of an English physician residing in Aleppo and provides examples of individuals, such as family members, servants, pupils, looking after close ones who fell sick and not leaving until the very end of the patients’ lives.[^53] Perhaps one of the greatest and simplest ways those before us served their communities during a pandemic was through preventing the spread of disease through quarantining. While it may seem as though many were not aware of the passing of communicable diseases, we see others that understood the importance of social isolation. Al-Sakhāwī (d. 902 H/1497 CE), for example, wrote about a notable man named Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Qārilūq who isolated himself from his people in a private garden, fearing contagion. He refused to break this voluntary distancing even when he heard the news of his wife’s death and refused to attend her funeral prayer.[^54] If we cannot serve our communities through providing care for those in need, we should serve one another through encouragement and setting a good example. Our tradition has been built upon righteous companionship between people, whether it be the upright encouraging the struggling to improve their ways through the example they set, or those of similar piety engaging in healthy competition to increase in good acts, as God says, “and in that let the competitors compete.”[^55] If we cannot physically meet for the community events we used to enjoy, we should create new ways to engage with one another for the sake of our communal psycho-spiritual health. While maintaining social isolation, we should encourage one another to fill the extra time we have due to the absence of commutes and social activities with acts that promote a healthy psychological and spiritual life. These can be in the form of virtual book clubs, sharing online lectures, or even the simple act of striking up a conversation with someone we used to see in person. These acts of community in times of isolation can bring immense reward for encouraging one another to increase our religiosity as well as for caring for the health of a fellow Muslim. ### Communal beliefs as a response to pandemics As for our beliefs regarding pandemics, there arose two general perceptions of the tribulation. The first of these was the view that plagues were sent as punishment from God for people who had not repented from their sins. Another view was that tribulations provide opportunities to display patience, submission, and gratitude. They saw these epidemics as tests of character and spirit that would give rise to heavenly rewards in the Hereafter. This follows in the spirit of the hadith recorded by Muslim, in which the Prophet ﷺ says, “How wondrous is the affair of the believer! Verily, all of his affairs have good in it, and that is not so for anyone but the believer. If he receives prosperity, he shows gratitude, and that is good for him. If he is afflicted by adversity, he shows patience, and that is good for him.”[^56] More specifically, Imām al-Bukhārī (d. 256 H/870 CE) records another hadith in which our mother ‘Ā’ishah, God be well pleased with her, asked the Prophet ﷺ about the plague and he responded, “It is a punishment God sends on whom He wills from His servants and it is that Allah makes it a mercy for the believers, as not one of them stays in his land during a plague, remaining patient, seeking reward from God, knowing that nothing can afflict him except what God has written for him, except that his is like the reward of the martyr.”[^57] From this hadith, we learn that the correct view of the plague is not solely as a punishment nor only a trial, but rather, it is both. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī comments that those who receive the plague as a punishment are the sinful and the non-believers. Evidence for this rests in the story of Mūsá and his people, as Allah used the plague to punish Pharaoh and his men for their disbelief and disobedience. Likewise, Allah sends the plague upon the sinful as a punishment for the grave sins they have committed. The mercy in the plague is designated for the believers, meaning the Muslims, as the hadith mentions. While there is seemingly a contradiction here for those Muslims engaged in these grave sins Allah is punishing, Ibn Ḥajar explains that it is from Allah’s mercy that a Muslim receives punishment for their sins in this life rather than in the hereafter.[^58] If one is leading a life of sin and then the plague comes and afflicts him, he is blessed with the mercy of having his sins expiated for enduring injury[^59] and, as the hadith mentions, the one who remains patient in the plague receives a reward like that of martyrdom, he was then given a special reward without having to choose it for himself. For all Muslims, then, the plague gives a chance for the expiation of sins and the attainment of a high station with their Lord. What must be critically analyzed is whether or not we are also enduring this condition as a punishment. What sins persist in our life that Allah has called us to abandon? While this analysis of the authentic hadith seems to give a straightforward view of the plague, this was by no means the uniform understanding of all Muslims. Scholars and authors documented their different views of the tribulations they experienced in their literature. Şeyyad Ḥamzah (d. circa 749 H/1348 CE), a Turkish Sufi from the 14th century whose children were claimed by the Black Death, produced verses that provide insight into the psychosocial atmosphere in the face of the famous pandemic: “O Muslims, as if this were the End Times/ Is this the Doomsday, what a sign this is/ … /What is death, it is the eternal judgment/What is plague, it is the decree of the heavens*.*”[^60] Varlık discusses the poem as a whole as a representative example of common plague perception in the Late Medieval period. Accordingly, the poet explained the plague as a divine order and a sign of the end of time, which required urgent repentance and correction of deeds. As part of a common line of thought observed among Muslim communities, the historian continues, Şeyyad Ḥamzah pointed to the political and moral corruption of his time as a possible reason for the outbreak.[^61] Examining historical writings shows that, regardless of the era and place of any plague, authority figures and community leaders tried to encourage a more optimistic mindset in the face of this great event rather than declaring the plague to be a punishment from God.[^62] A primary source of comfort for Muslims was the Prophetic assurance of martyrdom for those who died of plague.[^63] This knowledge was highlighted by Muslim scholars during outbreaks as well in the face of any highly infectious disease with no cure.[^64] In his historical chronicle, *History of the Prophets and Kings*, Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, (d. 310 H/923 CE) an influential Persian scholar, historian, and exegete of the Qur’an, narrated that when the Plague of ʿAmwās intensified in Syria, Muslims were suffering and started to despair. Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ (d. 18 H/639 CE), who was the leader of the Muslims in Syria at that time, spoke to the public to urge them to stay strong and be patient, reminding them that the plague was the result of the divine decree upon them and that, according to the Prophet Muhammed ﷺ, such a calamity is in fact a mercy to the believers.[^65] ### Promoting balanced attitudes and ethical responses through religion Throughout the writings of Muslim scholars on the plague, who were not only religious authorities but also front-line representatives of the Muslim community,[^66] we see a diversity of responses suggested as virtuous ethical conduct during the time of epidemics.[^67] Even though scholars disagreed on the particulars regarding life in a pandemic, they had the common principle of prioritizing the welfare of the *ummah*, the greater Muslim community, rather than health and safety of the individual.[^68] Furthermore, to the amazement of some,[^69]  they were always careful to stick to Prophetic narrations.[^70] Various accounts by Muslim scholars across the Islamic Mediterranean world highlighted the importance of communal responsibilities, mainly taking care of the sick and the dead which included “the burial of the dead, the praying of funeral prayers, and the consolation of the bereaved.”[^71] To help comfort those pained by losses in these trials, Islamic texts provided information about deceased children to alleviate the pain of the Muslims, stating that lost offspring would serve as intermediaries on behalf of their parents on the Day of Judgment and those who bore the pain of such heavy losses would be rewarded with paradise. Additionally, Muslim scholars further reminded the large number of progeny lost by the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ during earlier plague epidemics, highlighting the parallel experience of even the most pious group of people.[^72] This body of knowledge circulated among Muslims and provided a source of hope and tranquility during the severe losses due to the plague. As we now assess our own responses to the situation we find ourselves in, we must strike a balance between fear and hope, as we must do between taking the measures of the *asbāb* (the everyday means that we use to achieve our ends) and having firm *tawakkul* (complete reliance) in God’s power. It would be blamefully foolish for one to say that God will protect us no matter what and so there is no need to take the precautions God created for us to utilize (the *asbāb* we have recourse to). Similarly, it would be deviant to say one does not believe God has the power to protect us and put all their concern in these *asbāb* without also having *tawakkul* that Allah facilitates our protection. In a similar fashion, we must also find a middle ground between hope and fear. While fear and hope seem to contradict one another, a balance between the two is not only possible, but necessary. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī (d. 322 H/934 CE), a student of Imām al-Junayd (d. 298 H/830 CE), said, “Fear (*al-khawf*) and hope (*al-rajāʾ*) are like the two wings of a bird. If they are balanced, the bird will be balanced and fly well. If one is lacking, then it will have difficulty in its flight. Should both wings fail, however, then the bird will be in danger of dying.”[^73] Similarly, we should be aware of our own balance in this regard. Seeing the state we find ourselves in only as a punishment from God can lead to despair and spiritual ruin. Forgetting to examine what we should change about our lives may cause us to miss the opportunity for essential spiritual growth and correction of previous ills. If the pandemic we are in has been sent as a punishment for sins our community is committing, then we must take such a notion seriously and examine ourselves individually and what harmful acts, behaviors, and attitudes we might contribute to our community. We should remember that through changing our interactions with one another we can bring about change across the community. When we examine ourselves and find our faults, we should not despair and think we cannot overcome them. Rather, we should remember that God is not only merciful, but He is also always ready to accept the repentance of His servants. If we begin with a small, sincere effort to change, then we will be rewarded with greater success than we expect. As with every tribulation Muslims endure, we should hope for good and forgiveness as an outcome of what we face. The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith reported by Muslim (d. 261 H/837 CE) that “not the pricking of a thorn nor anything greater afflicts the believer except that by it Allah raises him in rank or removes from him a sin.”[^74] We do not know what outcome God has destined for us by the tribulations we face. Through maintaining patience and a good opinion of God, we can hope to receive the benefits the Prophet ﷺ mentioned are written for us. Through despair, however, we may stray from this way, so it is important to maintain good faith. Our response to hardship is having *ṣabr* (patience) with what we are enduring and realizing the *shukr* (gratitude) we owe for the blessings we enjoy in our lives. For now, many of us are having to do without many pillars of our daily life for which we were not accustomed to giving gratitude to God. We now see the special importance our social connections serve in a way we would otherwise never have seen. We see how the most basic of daily securities can vanish in an instant. How many of us gave second thought to touching a door handle, standing within six feet of another person, or just breathing without a face covering? These were all but a few of the countless blessings our Lord has favored us with. Many of us might have never considered the bounty we enjoyed had He not removed it from us. --- ## Issue Three: Public response When considering the responses from government agencies and public health officials elicited by the COVID-19 pandemic, apparent discrepancies between religious instruction and scientific attitudes are frequently perceived. As both local and national governments around the world began issuing orders for the closure of all non-essential businesses and services in March 2020, the *masājid* frequented by Muslims in both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority countries soon found their doors closed to their congregations. In many regions, especially in America, this remains their status under strict reopening guidelines. Even in places not under such restrictions, the scientific consensus advocates strongly for avoiding close gatherings of large people. This falls in apparent contradiction with the Islamic communal injunction to establish communal prayers for all five daily prayers, personal injunction of attending the Friday communal prayer, and the nature of the prayer involving rows of worshippers standing shoulder-to-shoulder. In a similar light, public health officials have issued warnings about travel and limits on social distancing that make the obligation of Hajj near-impossible. For the first time in many years, our Muslim community witnessed a restricted Hajj where no international believers could attend. When God’s word says to act and authorities say not to act, how does one reconcile the contradictory injunctions? ### Islamic guidance in formulating an adaptive public response As Muslims, our theology teaches us that all matters are under the power of God alone. From the Qur’anic stories of the Prophet Ibrahim being thrown into a blazing fire and emerging untouched by the flames to the countless miracles narrated authentically in our hadith tradition, affirming the omnipotence of God in every affair is an undeniable necessity. This affirmation of God’s power does not negate our understanding of natural processes nor does this deviate from our Sunnah. In a narration deemed authentic by both Bukhārī and Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said, “If you hear that there is plague in a land, do not enter it, and if it breaks out in a land you are in, do not leave it.”[^75] This is not because God cannot protect a people in the face of disease even if they were to directly confront it. We affirm that such protection is completely within the power of God. Following such guidance falls in line with our understanding of the nature God created in the world. If you are in the right environment for the transmission of disease, the natural order that God created suggests that you have a high chance of contracting the disease. It would be against the Sunnah to not take the means God provided for us to seek safety. In some cases, these means may not always be readily available. In those cases, we recall the state of *tawakkul*, or reliance on God alone. For doctors and nurses working to treat patients of these diseases, they cannot avoid contact with their patients completely. Seeking such an abandonment of their post would be a shirking of the responsibility given to them by God through their education and training. Instead, the means are taken: gloves, face masks, hand sanitizers, and caution are applied as the general means God has placed for us. The Muslim knows, however, each of these is nothing more than a precaution, while the ultimate decision of our health or ailment rests with God alone. In this we maintain our firm belief and trust in God over all else. While the theology of taking means to avoid transmission of disease and the scientific authorities’ recommendations align in values, the legal issue regarding religious injunctions remains. Multiple *fatāwá* (Islamic legal rulings) have been issued regarding these issues of contradiction and are analyzed in light of authentic narrations, verses from the Qur’an, and statements of experts in Islamic jurisprudence.[^76] The first principle these *fatāwá* establish is the necessity of following public health mandates and taking all possible measures to limit the transmission of disease. The obligation of obeying the command of the government is established in countless texts and elucidated by many scholars. The 19th-century Imām of al-Azhar, Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī (d. 1277 H/1860 CE), notes that the obligation to obey the political authorities stands in all matters, with the only exception being if a command contravenes an explicit Islamic ruling.[^77] This includes the necessity of obeying them in permissible acts that benefit Muslims. In our instance, these include mandates such as self-quarantining, social distancing, wearing facial masks, and other inconveniences mandated by the government.[^78] In this light, it is established in the *fatāwá* that all those having caught or at risk of infection must not visit any public spaces as ordained by the governments they are under. However, the issue of *masjid* attendance remains: can the government legitimately close the *masjid* during a pandemic? Many *fatāwá* have emerged saying that it is permissible to bar entrance to the *masjid* for this reason. Despite presenting a seemingly novel position, this ruling is by no means new to our tradition. The 11th-century Andalusian scholar of hadith and Islamic law and jurisprudence, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (463 H/1071 CE), arrived at a similar conclusion from an order given by the Caliph Umar. In a sermon one Friday, the Caliph warned the congregation about eating onions before coming to the *masjid*, saying that the Prophet ﷺ would have such attendees removed for the harm they caused others due to the odor coming from their mouths. If a relatively minor harm such as the odor of bad breath was enough to bar someone from attending the Friday congregational prayer, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr posited, then the harm of a communicable disease certainly meets such criteria for exemption from attending the *masjid*.[^79] ### Islamic guidance on vaccination With the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in much of the world, many Muslims may be wondering how to approach the decision of whether or not to take the vaccine. In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine, the World Health Organization declared hesitancy for vaccination as one of “the top ten threats to global health.”[^80] Misinformation about vaccines further complicates this issue, as social media groups and other non-authoritative sources of information spread false claims and rumors regarding vaccines.[^81] *Fatwá* councils around the world have deliberated on the balance between possible harms and benefits presented by vaccines, based on both Islamic legal rulings and scientific evidence, so that they may provide some guidance to the Muslim community regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. Before even addressing the vaccine itself, some jurists saw the need to address the spread of misinformation by non-authorities in the field. In one *fatwá*, it is stated that “practicing medicine without having qualified scholarship is as dangerous as meddling in religious sciences while lacking the necessary knowledge, thus leading to corruption in belief and religion.”[^82] In the same way as the untrained student will come to faulty conclusions based on religious texts and could then mislead others, “whoever intrudes upon medical sciences and upon every matter related to human safety as in medicine, pharmacy, and engineering jeopardizes human lives.”[^83] As such, Muslims should be careful to take medical advice only from certified professionals and not spread unverified claims others make. Regarding the vaccine itself, various *fiqh* councils and *fatwá* committees across North America and the rest of the world have released *fatwá*s establishing that taking the vaccine is at the very least permissible (*ḥalāl*), if not recommended (*mandūb*) or obligatory (*wājib*).[^84] These rulings are not based purely on modern convenience and compliance with authorities, but rather have their basis in the example of our tradition. One of the oft-cited hadiths in this regard is the statement recorded in many hadith collections, “Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, except for old age.”[^85] As with other matters of responsibility, Muslims must take the means God has provided to care for their own health and the safety of those around them. Having recourse to the vaccine provides this opportunity to protect Muslims and their neighbors from the harm of the pandemic. ### Public safety measures and intercommunal relations in plague history The decision to close the *masjid* was not a dominant practice in every case during plagues and pandemics in Muslim lands, perhaps due to a comparatively limited knowledge of the transmission of infections. However, certain modern regulations and methods were enforced and observed in Muslim lands during times of outbreak. In one eye-witness account by the famous chronicler Ibn Baṭṭūṭah (d. 779 H/1377 CE), we see an instance of how the religious and political authorities in the major urban center of Damascus took social measures to alleviate the affliction of their people. The first ordinance issued by the political officers was the closure of public eateries, which Ibn Baṭṭūṭah states were popular with the majority of people at the time.[^86] This is similar to modern concerns over dine-in restaurants, as they create ideal spaces for the disease to spread. While this first order (of closing restaurants) was designed to limit the transmission of disease, the second recognized the importance of *tawakkul* in Allah’s power to change the situation through prayer and *istighfār*. The king called on all people to fast and pray for three days. After this, the people relocated to the outskirts of the city, a scene remarkable not only for the display of piety and desperation but also for the unification of social classes including the Jewish, Christian, and, as Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 H/1373 CE) records, Samaritan minorities of the city.[^87] At the end of this event, Baṭṭūṭah records a statistical analysis of its effects, writing that the fatalities in a single day dropped down to 2,000, while in the metropolis of Cairo, the fatalities in a single day reached 24,000.[^88] Through both science-backed *asbāb* and sincere *tawakkul*, the people found mercy from God. The last scene within this story enforces another important point about our public response. At times of desperation and turmoil, we must not turn to scapegoating and division. During the Black Death in Europe, the Jewish minorities were harshly blamed as the evil for which the plague had descended. Countless communities of Jews were persecuted and burnt due to this hateful, baseless idea.[^89] This, however, was not the attitude of the Muslims. At the same time in Damascus, a major urban center in the Mamluk dynasty, the plague became a reason for Muslims, Jews, and Christians to come together for a common cause: praying to God for alleviation. Mamluk Damascus was not alone in this matter either. There is no historical evidence that minority populations were targeted or persecuted in the years of epidemics.[^90] On the contrary, Jewish physicians were held in high regard at the time of the plague.[^91] In our modern day, we see a similar, if milder, trend towards xenophobia and scapegoating due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian communities have been targeted by boycotts, threats, and violent attacks all over the world.[^92] Muslims should abstain from and condemn such lowly behavior. As the Prophet ﷺ said in the narration recorded by al-Nasā’ī (d. 303 H/915 CE), “The Muslim is the one who the people are safe from his tongue \[in speech\] and hand \[in actions\].”[^93] We believe only Allah knows the reason for an affliction. Any action taken without guidance, based only on our whims, should be rejected as satanic whispering. As the communities of Damascus came together in solidarity during their pandemic, our modern communities have similarly shown unity in prayer for relief. In April of 2020, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and other faith communities joined in Jerusalem to pray together. Similarly, virtual gatherings of various faith leaders addressing their communities together and joining in prayer became a common occurrence across the world.[^94] Many faith leaders took the opportunity to encourage their followers to increase cooperation with the other Abrahamic faiths.[^95] Just as those before us, we should work to build an atmosphere of unity in this time of distress. Despite the differences we might have in faith and practice, we are unified in our recognition of God’s power and our responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters in mankind. --- ## Conclusion As the months of COVID-19 dominating the news cycle, our consciousness, and our discussions carry on, it is important not to lose hope or despair. As with the many plagues and pandemics experienced by our ancestors, this pandemic is not the end. We have endured greater and longer disasters through our perseverance in *tawakkul* (reliance upon Allah), *ṣabr* (patience with Allah’s decree), and *rajāʾ* (hope for the best from Allah’s generosity). In the same way, we may endure yet another tribulation in our history. As with those before us, this situation will neither be the end of our way of life nor of our faith. Times of hardship and testing of mettle are opportunities to demonstrate the positive qualities and states our religion seeks to inculcate in the believer: *tawakkul*, reliance upon and trust in God; *ṣabr*, patience with the Decree of God; *shukr*, expression of sincere gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon us by God; *yaqīn*, certitude in the power and care of God; *rajāʾ*, expectant hope for the mercy and generosity of God; *khawf*, fear of the power of God against those who do not heed His warnings; *taqwá*, revering consciousness of the rights of God; and countless others. It is one blessing to learn about such states of the soul from the wisdom sent by God in the Qur’an and Sunnah and transmitted by our scholars; however, the true purpose of this knowledge is to manifest them in times of stress and dire need. Through examining the lives of those before us, we see the importance of upholding these qualities in the tribulation we now find ourselves in. It was through these characteristics that earlier generations of Muslims endured the hardships of their time, and it is through these traits that we will endure once more. We must understand our duty to the general public, in the form of following public health ordinances and presenting appropriate public responses to our community, through encouraging appropriate perceptions of our situation and proper acts to maintain our psycho-spiritual health, and finally, to ourselves, that we monitor our own psycho-spiritual response to the atmosphere we find ourselves in. Through focusing on our own states, we can ensure that we will have a stable foundation upon which we may benefit those around us. Learning from the experiences of those before us allows us to accomplish this in an informed and deliberate manner. As we continue to adapt to the new world we are entering, having the reference points of our religion and more than 1400 years of tradition prepares us to endure all trials ahead. --- ## Notes [^1]: Roy M. Anderson, Hans Heesterbeek, Don Klinkenberg, and T. Déirdre Hollingsworth, “How Will Country-Based Mitigation Measures Influence the Course of the COVID-19 Epidemic?,” *The Lancet* 395, no. 10228 (2020): 931–32; Sima Asadi, Nicole Bouvier, Anthony S. Wexler, and William D. Ristenpart, “The Coronavirus Pandemic and Aerosols: Does COVID-19 Transmit via Expiratory Particles?,” *Aerosol Science and Technology* 54, no. 6 (2020), 635–37; Yuvaraj Krishnamoorthy, Ramya Nagarajan, Ganesh Kumar Saya, and Vikas Menon, “Prevalence of Psychological Morbidities among General Population, Healthcare Workers and COVID-19 Patients amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” *Psychiatry Research* 293 (2020): 1–11; Jianyin Qiu, Min Zhao, Zhen Wang, Bin Xie, and Yifeng Xu, “A Nationwide Survey of Psychological Distress among Chinese People in the COVID-19 Epidemic: Implications and Policy Recommendations,” *General Psychiatry* 33, no. 2 (2020): 1–3; George Davey Smith, Michael Blastland, and Marcus Munafò, “Covid-19’s Known Unknowns,” British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 2020; Paul Starr, “Using Controlled Trials to Resolve Key Unknowns About Policy During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” *JAMA*, 2020, 2369–70. [^2]: Nükhet Varlik, *Plague and Contagion in the Islamic Mediterranean* (n.p.: ISD LLC, 2017), ix. [^3]: Qur’an 13:11. [^4]: Qur’an 13:11. [^5]: Qur’an 2:286. [^6]: ʿAbd Allāh al-Bayḍāwī, *Anwār al-tanzīl wa-asrār al-taʾwīl*, vol. 1 (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 166; Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm*, ed. Ḥikmat b. Bashīr b. Yāsīn, vol. 2 (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2010), 307. [^7]: Nükhet Varlik, *Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015). [^8]: A. al-Maqrīzī, *Kitāb al-sulūk li-maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk* (Cairo: Lajnat at-Taʾlīf wa-al-Tarjamah wa-al--Nashr, 1973), 821; İlyas Gökhan, “El-Eşref Barsbay Döneminde Memlûk Devleti’nde Salgın Hastalıklar ve İktisadî Buhranlar (1422–1438),” *Tarih İncelemeleri Dergisi* 23, no. 1 (2008): 110. [^9]: Gökhan, “Memlûklerde Salgın Hastalıklar.” [^10]: Ömer Tokuş, “Büveyhiler Döneminde Bağdat’ta Doğal Afetler, Gök Olayları, ve Garip Hadiseler (H. 333–447/M. 945–1055),” *Tarih Okulu Dergisi, Sayı* 25 (2016): 547–48. [^11]: Gökhan, “Memlûklerde Salgın Hastalıklar.” [^12]: Gökhan. [^13]: Gökhan. [^14]: Lawrence I. Conrad, “Tāʿūn and Wabāʾ Conceptions of Plague and Pestilence in Early Islam,” *Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient/Journal de l’histoire Economique et Sociale de l’Orient*, 1982, 281. [^15]: Gökhan, “Memlûklerde Salgın Hastalıklar.” [^16]: Hasib Noor, “Prophetic Guidance on Epidemic Disease: Coronavirus 2020,” The Legacy Institute, 2020, [https://legacy.institute/prophetic-guidance-on-epidemic-disease-coronavirus2020/](https://legacy.institute/prophetic-guidance-on-epidemic-disease-coronavirus2020/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355053000&usg=AOvVaw3AyWHSwKGgXt8d3SShhctt). [^17]: Anna Akasoy, “Islamic Attitudes to Disasters in the Middle Ages: A Comparison of Earthquakes and Plagues,” *The Medieval History Journal* 10, no. 1–2 (2006): 387–410; John J. Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease: Can Muslim Religious Works Offer Us Novel Insights on Plagues and Epidemics among the Medieval and Early Modern Ottomans?,” 2017; Gökhan, [“](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?7VCFBr&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355053000&usg=AOvVaw1bVmEYLZGPHCLAFYpItXcm)Memlûklerde Salgın Hastalıklar”; Russell Hopley, “Contagion in Islamic Lands: Responses from Medieval Andalusia and North Africa,” *Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies*, 2010, 45–64. [^18]: Hasib Noor, “Prophetic Guidance on Epidemic Disease.” [^19]: Justin Stearns, “New Directions in the Study of Religious Responses to the Black Death 1,” *History Compass* 7, no. 5 (2009): 1363–75. [^20]: Michael W. Dols, “The Comparative Communal Responses to the Black Death in Muslim and Christian Societies,” *Viator* 5 (1974): 269–88. [^21]: Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^22]: Hasib Noor, “Prophetic Guidance on Epidemic Disease.” [^23]: Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses”; Justin Stearns, “Contagion in Theology and Law: Ethical Considerations in the Writings of Two 14th Century Scholars of Nasrid Granada,” *Islamic Law and Society* 14, no. 1 (2007): 109–29; Stearns, “New Directions”; Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^24]: Stearns, “New Directions”; Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^25]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease”; Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses.” [^26]: Mubārak M. al-Ṭarāwanah, “al-Awbiʾah wa-atharuhā al-ijtimāʿīyah fī bilād al-shām fī ʿaṣr al-mamālīk al-jarākisah,” *al-Majallah al-Urdunīyah Lil-Tārīkh Wa-al-Āthār* 4, no. 3 (June 30, 2010): 54. [^27]: Ṭarāwanah, 55–56. [^28]: S. Abed-Kotob and M. Muṣṭafá, *Mufākahat al-khillān fī ḥawādith al-zamān: Tārīkh Miṣr wa-al-Shām* (Egypt: al-Muʾassasah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʿĀmmah lil-Taʾlīf wa-al-Tarjamah wa-al-Ṭibāʿah wa-al-Nashr, 1962). [^29]: Muḥammad ibn Saʿd, *Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kubrá*, vol. 6 (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1990), 81. [^30]: Zayn al-Dīn al-Wardī, *Qasīdat lāmiyat al-ʿArab wa-yalīhā aʿjab al-ʿujub fī sharḥ lāmiyat al-ʿArab wa-yalīhā ayḍan sharḥ al-maqṣūrah al-darīdīyah wa-yalīhā ayḍan dīwān al-Shaykh al-Imām al-ʿAllāmah al-Adīb al-Alma’ī Zayn al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Muẓfir ibn ʿUmar al-Wardī al-Shāfiʿī Wa-rasāʾiluh* (Maṭbaʿat al-Jawāʾib Qasṭanṭīnīyah, 1882), 341. [^31]: “The Muslim is he from whom the people are safe from his hand and his tongue.” Aḥmad al-Nasā’ī, *Kitāb al-mujtabá*, 1st ed., vol. 7 (Cairo: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2012), p. 527, bk. 48, hadith 5039. Commentators on this hadith mention that the meaning is that the perfection of one’s Islam comes with protecting others. Other narrations have “The Muslim is he who the Muslims are safe from his hand and his tongue.” Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyuṭī and Muḥammad al-Sindī, *Sunan al-Nasā’ī bi-sharḥ al-Ḥāfiẓ Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī wa-ḥāshiyat al-Imām al-Sindī*, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1991), 478–79. [^32]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Badhl al-Māʿūn fī faḍl al-ṭāʿūn*, ed. Aḥmad al-Kātib (Riyad: Dār al-ʿĀṣimah, n.d.), 378. [^33]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, 383. [^34]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, 383–84. [^35]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, 378. [^36]: Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^37]: Charles T. Riggs, *Kritovoulos: History of Mehmed the Conqueror* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954), 221. [^38]: Varlik, *Plague and Empire*, 208, 226. [^39]: Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^40]: Conrad, “Tāʿūn and Wabāʾ,” 302. [^41]: Riggs, *Kritovoulos*, 221; Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^42]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease,” 45; Gökhan, [“](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?7VCFBr&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355068000&usg=AOvVaw3tUDIHPcrJiM9CEc250hly)Memlûklerde Salgın Hastalıklar”; Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^43]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease”; Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^44]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease,” 53–54; Heath W. Lowry, “Pushing the Stone Uphill: The Impact of Bubonic Plague on Ottoman Urban Society in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries,” *Osmanlı Araştırmaları* 23, no. 23 (2003). [^45]: Leia Y. Saltzman, Tonya Cross Hansel, and Patrick S. Bordnick, “Loneliness, Isolation, and Social Support Factors in Post-COVID-19 Mental Health,” *Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy*, 2020, S55. [^46]: Aḥmad ibn ʿAjībah, *Īqāẓ al-himam fī sharḥ al-Ḥikam* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, n.d.), 209. [^47]: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1st ed. (Riyad: Dār al-Ṭaybah, 2007), p. 44, bk. 1, hadith 55. [^48]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, *Badhl al-māʿūn*, 365. [^49]: Ṭarāwanah, “al-Awbiʾah,” 46–47. [^50]: Ṭarāwanah, 51. [^51]: Yaron Ayalon, “Religion and Ottoman Society’s Responses to Epidemics in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” in *Plague and Contagion in the Islamic Mediterranean*, ed. Nükhet Varlık (n.p.: Arc Humanities Press, 2017), 188–89; Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses”; Lowry, “Pushing the Stone Uphill.” [^52]: Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses.” [^53]: Yaron Ayalon, “Plague, Psychology, and Religious Boundaries in Ottoman Anatolia,” *Turkish Historical Review* 9, no. 1 (2018): 1–17. [^54]: Al-Sakhāwī, *al-Ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ li-ahl al-qarn al-tāsiʿ* (Beirut: Dār al-Jabal, 1992), 156–57. [^55]: Qur’an: 83:26. Imām Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī mentions that this verse invites the believers to hasten to serve Allah so they will enjoy the bliss of Paradise. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Fakhr al-Rāzī*, vol. 31 (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 101. [^56]: Muslim ibn Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1st ed., vol. 7 (Cairo: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2012), p. 405, bk. 55, hadith 3116. [^57]: Muḥammad al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1st ed., vol. 7 (Cairo: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2012), p. 378, bk. 76, hadith 5734. [^58]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, vol. 17 (Beirut: al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamīyah, 2013), 535–37. [^59]: Ibn al-Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2007), p. 1197, bk. 45, hadith 2572. [^60]: Varlik, *Plague and Empire*. [^61]: Varlik, 211–12. [^62]: Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses.” [^63]: Noor, “Prophetic Guidance.” [^64]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease.” [^65]: Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-rusul wa-al-mulūk* (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif bi-Miṣr, n.d.). [^66]: Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses”; Michael Walters Dols, *The Black Death in the Middle East* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977). [^67]: Birsen Bulmuş, “Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Veba Kavramları Üzerine: Mistisizmden Sosyal Reforma,” *Motif Akademi Halkbilimi Dergisi* 3, no. 6 (2010): 45–51; Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease”; Stearns, “Contagion in Theology and Law.” [^68]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease”; Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses”; Stearns, “Contagion in Theology and Law.” [^69]: Hopley, “Contagion in Islamic Lands.” [^70]: Dols, *Black Death in the Middle East*, 93. [^71]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease,” 40; Hopley, “Contagion in Islamic Lands”; Stearns, “Contagion in Theology and Law.” [^72]: Curry, “Scholars, Sufis, and Disease,” 38. [^73]: Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī, *al-Risālah al-Qushayrīyah* (Beirut: Dār al-Minhāj, 2017), 360. [^74]: Ibn Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2007), p. 1197, bk. 45, hadith 2572. [^75]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 7:375, bk. 76, hadith 5728.[\[76\]](#ftnt_ref76) Some North American *fatawa* include: “AMJA Declaration Regarding Suspension of Friday Prayer,” Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, March 13, 2020, [https://www.amjaonline.org/amja-declaration-regarding-suspension-of-friday-prayer/](https://www.amjaonline.org/amja-declaration-regarding-suspension-of-friday-prayer/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355080000&usg=AOvVaw2FaklK98NZs3saFz_rw73J); Zulfiqar Ali Shah, “Rulings on Daily and Weekly Congregational Prayers during Coronavirus Pandemic | Fiqh Council,” The Fiqh Council of North America, March 16, 2020, [http://fiqhcouncil.org/rulings-on-daily-and-weekly-congregational-prayers-during-coronavirus-pandemic/](http://fiqhcouncil.org/rulings-on-daily-and-weekly-congregational-prayers-during-coronavirus-pandemic/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355081000&usg=AOvVaw2Wf2cSJR24HMwA8Zo3W8_l); Yasir Qadhi, “Prayer and Funeral Issues Pertaining to COVID-19,” The Fiqh Council of North America, March 24, 2020, [http://fiqhcouncil.org/prayer-and-funeral-issues-pertaining-to-covid-19/](http://fiqhcouncil.org/prayer-and-funeral-issues-pertaining-to-covid-19/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355082000&usg=AOvVaw2odvrfcdtmWde4CCwW_A4p)[.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?Kj4rkF&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355082000&usg=AOvVaw2eU-LXlRh8RXWtDfnE1jV4) Other *fatawa* from overseas include: Azhari Committee of Chief Scholars, “Al-Azhar, Cairo, Egypt (March 15, Arabic),” Corona Guidance: Religious Norms for Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 15, 2020, [http://web.colby.edu/coronaguidance/files/2020/03/Al-Azhar.pdf](http://web.colby.edu/coronaguidance/files/2020/03/Al-Azhar.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355082000&usg=AOvVaw12QNxaJoq__DlDuMlMe3OL); Aisha Mahmood, “Mufti Taqi Usmani Gives Fatwa about Jummah Prayers amid Coronavirus Crisis,” Brecorder, March 27, 2020, [http://www.brecorder.com/news/584043; Muhammad Yasif](http://www.brecorder.com/news/584043;&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355083000&usg=AOvVaw2EOgT6Ewu_J7Xid0eaqAsd), “Fatwa Closing All Mosques for Daily Prayers and Friday Prayers, but Maintaining the Adhan (March 16),” Corona Guidance: Religious Norms for Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 16, 2020, [http://web.colby.edu/coronaguidance/files/2020/03/Morocco-mosque-closure-March-16.pdf](http://web.colby.edu/coronaguidance/files/2020/03/Morocco-mosque-closure-March-16.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355083000&usg=AOvVaw14L6xqqCGs9AUROfGxZifU). [^77]: Ibrahim al-Bajuri and Salih Ahmed al-Ghursi, *Ḥāshiyat al-taḥrīr al-ḥamīd li-masāʾil ʿilm al-tawḥīd ʿalá tuḥfat al-murīd ʿalá jawharat al-tawḥīd* (Beirut: Maktabat Ṣaydah, 2013), 639. [^78]: See the previously mentioned *fatāwá* for specific guidance regarding observing guidelines. [^79]: Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd li-mā fī al-Muwuṭṭaʾ min al-maʿānī wa-al-asānīd* (n.p.: al-Fārūq al-Ḥadīthah, n.d.). [^80]: Sarah Geoghegan, Kevin P. O’Callaghan, and Paul A. Offit, “Vaccine Safety: Myths and Misinformation,” *Frontiers in Microbiology* 11 (2020): 372. [^81]: Geoghegan, O’Callaghan, and Offit. [^82]: “Fatawa - Non-Specialists Promoting Medical Remedies to Combat COVID-19,” Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, accessed January 26, 2021, [https://www.dar-alifta.org/Foreign/ViewFatwa.aspx?ID=15735](https://www.dar-alifta.org/Foreign/ViewFatwa.aspx?ID%3D15735&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355087000&usg=AOvVaw1mT7bZqfKy7e1u1so_mIN8). [^83]: “Fatawa - Non-Specialists Promoting Medical Remedies.” [^84]: Shawqi Ibrahim Alam, “al-Tat’im bi-laqah karuna,” accessed January 26, 2021, [https://www.dar-alifta.org/AR/ViewFatwa.aspx?sec=fatwa&ID=15762&%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%85\_%D8%A8%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AD\_%D9%83%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7](https://www.dar-alifta.org/AR/ViewFatwa.aspx?sec%3Dfatwa%26ID%3D15762%26%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25AA%25D8%25B7%25D8%25B9%25D9%258A%25D9%2585_%25D8%25A8%25D9%2584%25D9%2582%25D8%25A7%25D8%25AD_%25D9%2583%25D9%2588%25D8%25B1%25D9%2588%25D9%2586%25D8%25A7&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355087000&usg=AOvVaw0kDjYWo-y1JsIX_4oVMkEc); “In Egypt, Getting a Covid-19 Vaccine Is a Religious Duty,” Middle East Eye, accessed January 26, 2021, [http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-covid-vaccine-religious-duty-scholars](http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-covid-vaccine-religious-duty-scholars&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355088000&usg=AOvVaw2kJqdmTuRddwhw6QtWoO6-); “Indonesian Clerics Declare Sinovac’s COVID-19 Vaccine Halal,” *Reuters*, January 8, 2021, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-indonesia-vaccine-idUSKBN29D16U](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-indonesia-vaccine-idUSKBN29D16U&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355088000&usg=AOvVaw3BbIW5ptZnCysxoNEWzIsp); “Fatwa MUI No 02 Tahun 2021 Tentang Produk Vaksin Covid-19 Dari Sinovac Life Sciences, Co. Ltd China Dan PT Biofarma,” *Majelis Ulama Indonesia* (blog), January 20, 2021, [https://mui.or.id/produk/fatwa/29485/fatwa-mui-no-02-tahun-2021-tentang-produk-vaksin-covid-19-dari-sinovac-life-sciences-co-ltd-china-dan-pt-biofarma/](https://mui.or.id/produk/fatwa/29485/fatwa-mui-no-02-tahun-2021-tentang-produk-vaksin-covid-19-dari-sinovac-life-sciences-co-ltd-china-dan-pt-biofarma/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355089000&usg=AOvVaw0LkofudDuaQ1A5YnFGs2ty); “Part 11 - Religious Position on COVID-19 Vaccine (English),” accessed January 26, 2021, [https://www.muis.gov.sg/officeofthemufti/Irsyad/Part-11-Religious-position-on-COVID-19-vaccine-English](https://www.muis.gov.sg/officeofthemufti/Irsyad/Part-11-Religious-position-on-COVID-19-vaccine-English&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355089000&usg=AOvVaw2_bVFVXJ7V0TBAD5BjZgfw); “FCNA Statement about COVID Vaccines | Fiqh Council,” accessed January 26, 2021, [http://fiqhcouncil.org/fcna-statement-about-covid-vaccines/](http://fiqhcouncil.org/fcna-statement-about-covid-vaccines/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355089000&usg=AOvVaw2yaB93EsPh5lX2QH84rWMx); “The Ruling On Getting The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Vaccine | AMJA Online,” accessed January 26, 2021, [https://www.amjaonline.org/fatwa/en/87763/the-ruling-on-getting-the-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine](https://www.amjaonline.org/fatwa/en/87763/the-ruling-on-getting-the-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355089000&usg=AOvVaw16drwnzIseFUunxW7NrJe7). [^85]: “FCNA Statement about COVID Vaccines | Fiqh Council”; *Abū Dawūd*, no. 3855. [^86]: Ibn Baṭṭūṭah, *Kitāb riḥlat Ibn Baṭṭūṭah* (n.p.: Akādimīyat al-Mamlakah al-Maghribīyah, n.d.), 326. [^87]: Ibn Kathīr, *Kitāb al-bidāyah wa-al-nihāyah* (n.p.: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 261. [^88]: Ibn Baṭṭūṭah, *Kitāb riḥlat Ibn Baṭṭūṭah*, 326. [^89]: Samuel K. Cohn, “The Black Death and the Burning of Jews,” *Past and Present*, no. 196 (2007): 3–36. [^90]: Dols, “Comparative Communal Responses.” [^91]: J. J. Mark, “Religious Responses to the Black Death,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, April 2020, [https://www.ancient.eu/article/1541/religious-responses-to-the-black-death/](https://www.ancient.eu/article/1541/religious-responses-to-the-black-death/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355077000&usg=AOvVaw3QbyZh-S6Ck1l-swmGPSWN). [^92]: Jonathan A. Greenblatt, “Fighting Hate in the Era of Coronavirus,” *Horizons: Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development*, no. 17 (2020): 208–21. [^93]: Aḥmad al-Nasāʾī, *Kitāb al-mujtabá*, 1st ed., vol. 7 (Cairo: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2012), p. 527, bk. 48, hadith 5039. [^94]: Emily Judd, “Inspiring Interfaith Moments during the Coronavirus Pandemic,” Al Arabiya English, April 2, 2020, [https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/04/02/Inspiring-interfaith-moments-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic](https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/04/02/Inspiring-interfaith-moments-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355084000&usg=AOvVaw0uJnIcx7cOWlEpgczCIpUJ). [^95]: Mohamed Elsanousi, Burton L. Visotzky, and Bob Roberts, “Love Your Neighbour: Islam, Judaism and Christianity Come Together over COVID-19,” World Economic Forum, accessed December 30, 2020, [https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/religions-covid-19-coronavirus-collaboration/](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/religions-covid-19-coronavirus-collaboration/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612466355085000&usg=AOvVaw1ZWGtHsbALCfRDFnc7XP6w). ## Summary Pandemics, though they may appear unprecedented to those living through the age of COVID-19, are in truth a recurring feature of human experience, and the Muslim community has weathered them many times before. By examining plague outbreaks across the Islamic Mediterranean—from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to the Levant and Anatolia—between the eighth and nineteenth centuries, we may recover the psychological and spiritual coping mechanisms that our righteous predecessors drew from the wells of Islamic teaching. The Islamic tradition furnishes a rich reservoir of meaning-making and ethical guidance, enabling the believer not merely to survive adversity but to emerge from it strengthened in faith, if Allah wills. Three dimensions of response deserve consideration: the personal, the communal, and the public. The foundation of any response is the personal, psycho-spiritual one, for Allah, Most High, declares, "Verily Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." Amid job losses, disrupted schooling, and the relentless flow of distressing news, the believer's first recourse is the reassurance of the Qur'an: "Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity." The exegetes understood from this verse that, out of His immense mercy, Allah will not hold anyone accountable for what lies beyond their power, and that whatever trial He decrees is placed upon us with His knowledge that we possess the capacity to persevere through it. This truth is confirmed by earlier generations who endured tribulations equal to or greater than our own. The historical record makes plain the severity of these afflictions. During the plague that struck Egypt in the winter of 832 H/1429 CE—unexpected because pestilence had previously arrived in spring or autumn—the death toll grew so vast that al-Maqrīzī (d. 845 H/1442 CE) reported houses being turned into graveyards, with families burying their dead within their homes at night for lack of space and service. The young, the enslaved, and women suffered most grievously, yet every stratum of society was touched, including physicians, scholars, and princes. News of distant outbreaks, such as the epidemic in Bursa, circulated widely, and fear itself spread even where the plague had not, so that children spoke of its coming in the streets. Traditional Islamic sources affirm that the precise reason behind any calamity is known to Allah alone, yet the tradition offers several wisdoms upon which to reflect. A plague may be a blessing for the believers, as the Prophet ﷺ indicated, a sign to contemplate Allah's creation, or a punishment for wrongdoers—whether reward, chastisement, or a natural calamity of His creation, we cannot know with certainty, though we hold that Allah possesses ultimate power to remove any affliction. In practice, two broad responses emerged. Some fell into a self-centered posture, hoarding provisions and flouting protocols, or turned to superstition; al-Maqrīzī recorded that with mosques closed and moral guides deceased, corruption and exploitation spread, gravediggers profited, and Damascene villagers flocked to astrologers and magicians, attributing the death of the child Manṣūr in 909 H/1503 CE to the evil eye. Others found in Islam a firm basis for coping. Shaykh Muhammad al-Husni returned to a rural village near Damascus to dispel superstition and instill hope in Allah's mercy. Masrūq ibn al-Ajdaʿ (d. 62 H/682 CE) saw in the pandemic an occasion "to disconnect from everyone and reconnect with my Maker," and Ibn al-Wardī (d. 749 H/1349 CE), shortly before his own death in the plague of 749 H, wrote that he feared it not, for it promised either rest from worldly contagions or continued life. The deeper response requires mindfulness of our beliefs: trusting in al-Razzāq, the All-Provider, restrains us from hoarding, and knowing that "the Muslim is he from whom others are safe from his hand and tongue" restrains us from endangering others. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 H/1449 CE), in his treatise on the plague, recorded examples of resilience: people detaching from false hopes, mending relations with enemies, freeing slaves, and preparing for the Hereafter. Yet he did not conceal the darker side, noting that prolonged affliction bred intense anxiety, moodiness, and depression, and that some, losing hope, indulged in sin. He wrote that "nothing stopped us from fleeing from it except the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ," turning instead to supplication for Allah's aid. As for the isolation many now endure, its pain is real, for the community is central to Islamic life. Yet Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Sakandarī (d. 709 H/1310 CE) counseled, "When Allah isolates you from His creation, know that He wants to open the door of intimacy with Him for you," transforming solitude into an occasion for devotion. The communal response likewise draws upon prophetic guidance, for the Prophet ﷺ said, as reported by Muslim, "The religion is sincerity… to God, His Book, His Messenger, and the leaders of the Muslims and the masses of the Muslims." History records abundant communal service: in Samarkand (439 H/1047 CE) Muslims increased charity and repentance; the people of Mamluk Egypt and the Levant sponsored hospital wards for the afflicted and covered burial costs for the poor; and volunteers in Jerusalem (863 H/1459 CE) honored unattended bodies, using doors and ladders as stretchers. Muslim communities generally observed the prophetic injunction neither to flee nor to enter a plague-stricken land, placing communal welfare above individual safety. Al-Sakhāwī (d. 902 H/1497 CE) recorded that Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Qārilūq so committed to voluntary isolation that he did not attend even his own wife's funeral. Regarding beliefs, two general perceptions arose: that plagues were punishment for unrepented sin, and that they were tests affording reward for patience. The decisive guidance lies in the hadith recorded by al-Bukhārī, in which ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) asked the Prophet ﷺ about the plague, and he replied that it is "a punishment God sends on whom He wills," yet a mercy for the believer who remains patient in his land, seeking reward and knowing that nothing afflicts him save what Allah has written, so that his reward is that of a martyr. Ibn Ḥajar explained that the plague is thus both punishment—for the sinful and disbelievers, as with Pharaoh's people—and mercy, since a believer's suffering in this life expiates sin and elevates his rank. Not all shared this settled view; the Turkish Sufi Şeyyad Ḥamzah (d. c. 749 H/1348 CE), who lost his children to the Black Death, read the plague as a sign of the end of time and a summons to repentance, attributing it partly to the moral and political corruption of his age. Nevertheless, community leaders generally encouraged optimism, and the historian al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 H/923 CE) narrated that Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ (d. 18 H/639 CE), during the Plague of ʿAmwās, urged the Muslims to patience, reminding them it was a mercy for the believers. The believer must strike a balance between the taking of means (asbāb) and reliance upon Allah (tawakkul), and between fear (khawf) and hope (rajāʾ). Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī (d. 322 H/934 CE) likened fear and hope to a bird's two wings, which must be balanced for sound flight. To view the affliction only as punishment breeds despair, while to ignore self-examination forfeits spiritual growth. Yet the believer hopes for good, for the Prophet ﷺ said, as reported by Muslim, that "not the pricking of a thorn nor anything greater afflicts the believer except that by it Allah raises him in rank or removes from him a sin"—the response being ṣabr with hardship and shukr for blessings once taken for granted. The public response concerns matters shared by all, where apparent conflict arises between religious injunction and scientific counsel, as with the closure of masājid and the restriction of Hajj. Islamic theology affirms Allah's absolute power, yet also the taking of means, for the Prophet ﷺ said, in a narration deemed authentic by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, "If you hear that there is plague in a land, do not enter it, and if it breaks out in a land you are in, do not leave it." Numerous fatāwā, grounded in Qur'an, authentic narrations, and juristic principle, establish the necessity of obeying public health mandates; Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī (d. 1277 H/1860 CE) affirmed that obedience to authority is obligatory save where it contravenes an explicit Islamic ruling. The permissibility of barring entrance to the masjid is no innovation, for Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 H/1071 CE) reasoned from ʿUmar's censure of those eating onions before prayer that if a minor harm such as odor warranted exclusion, a communicable disease surely does. On vaccination, fatwā councils have ruled it at least permissible, if not recommended or obligatory, citing the hadith, "Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, except for old age," while warning that intruding upon medical science without qualification endangers lives just as unqualified meddling in religion corrupts belief. History also instructs our conduct toward others. Ibn Baṭṭūṭah (d. 779 H/1377 CE) recorded that in Damascus the authorities closed public eateries and called the people to fast and pray for three days, after which Muslims, Jews, Christians, and, as Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 H/1373 CE) notes, Samaritans, gathered together in supplication, and the daily deaths fell to two thousand, whereas in Cairo they reached twenty-four thousand. Unlike Europe, where Jewish communities were persecuted during the Black Death, there is no historical evidence that minorities were targeted in Muslim lands; rather, Jewish physicians were held in high regard. The Muslim must reject scapegoating, for the Prophet ﷺ said, as recorded by al-Nasāʾī (d. 303 H/915 CE), "The Muslim is the one who the people are safe from his tongue and hand." As those before us united in prayer, so may our communities today. In every trial we are to manifest the qualities our religion inculcates: tawakkul, ṣabr, shukr, yaqīn, rajāʾ, khawf, and taqwá. This pandemic is neither the end of our way of life nor of our faith. By learning from the experiences of those who came before—armed with more than fourteen centuries of tradition—we may endure whatever trials lie ahead. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is a pandemic a punishment from Allah, or is it a test? Neither a simple yes nor a wholesale dismissal is accurate. The Prophet ﷺ himself described the plague as simultaneously a punishment for those who persisted in sin and disbelief, and a mercy for the believers who remain patient. No human being can look at a specific epidemic and declare with certainty which of these it is for any given person or community. Scholars explain that even a Muslim living in sinfulness who is struck by the plague is shown mercy, because their sins are being expiated in this life rather than the next. The wiser posture, then, is to use a calamity as a mirror: examine what needs correcting in your own life, seek forgiveness sincerely, and hold on to hope rather than despair. A primary source of comfort for Muslims was the Prophetic assurance that the one who endures the plague with patience, seeking reward from God, receives a reward like that of the martyr. ### How do I know when to take precautions and when to just trust Allah? This is one of the most important clarifications our tradition offers: Taking precautions and trusting Allah are not opposites. They work together. The Prophet ﷺ himself said: "If you hear that there is plague in a land, do not enter it, and if it breaks out in a land you are in, do not leave it." This instruction is not a sign of doubting Allah's power; it is following the natural order Allah created. Taking the *asbab* (the everyday means He has placed at our disposal) is itself an act of obedience. A physician who puts on gloves and a mask does not love Allah any less than the one who refuses; in fact, abandoning one's post out of a misplaced sense of *tawakkul* (reliance on Allah) would be a dereliction of responsibility. What the Muslim heart holds on to, while using every available means, is the certainty that those means are precautions only, and that the ultimate outcome rests entirely with Allah. ### I've been so isolated lately and it's really affecting me. Is there any spiritual meaning in loneliness? Yes, and the tradition addresses this directly. Imam Ibn ʿAtaʾ Allah al-Sakandari wrote in his *Aphorisms*: "When God isolates you from His creation, know that He wants to open the door of intimacy with Him for you." Loneliness, as painful as it is, can reveal how dependent we had become on social life for things that only Allah can truly provide. Isolation strips away the noise and forces a kind of reckoning: What has been distracting me from a real personal relationship with my Lord? This does not mean the pain of loneliness should be minimized. The Prophet ﷺ himself spent much of his time with his companions, teaching them, joking with them, and caring for them. Social connection is deeply embedded in Islam. But when isolation is imposed on us, the tradition gives us a way to receive it as something other than pure loss. When that season of separation lifts, the believer often finds they appreciate righteous company with a gratitude they never had before—and they carry with them a stronger connection to Allah that the crowd had never allowed them to build. ### Is it wrong to feel afraid of getting sick or dying during a pandemic? Fear is not a shortcoming in one's faith. Even in the centuries of plague, communities across the Islamic world experienced genuine terror. Scholars recorded widespread panic: children talking in the streets about approaching disease, survivors so preoccupied with burying the dead they had little time for anything else. This fear was real and documented. No one was condemned for feeling it. What the tradition cautions against is allowing fear to consume you to the point of despair or to push you toward selfish and harmful behavior. Classical scholars captured this with a striking image: fear and hope are like the two wings of a bird; if they are balanced, the bird flies well, but if one wing fails, the bird is in danger. Fear of Allah's power, paired with genuine hope in His mercy, is not a spiritual defect. It is the posture of a heart that is taking both this life and the next seriously. The problem arises only when the wings fall entirely out of balance. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-constitution-of-medina-translation-commentary-and-meaning-today # The "Constitution" of Medina: Translation, Commentary, and Meaning Today **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** Publication **Published:** February 4, 2021 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 The great twentieth-century Indian scholar of *Sīrah*, Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah, declared it to be the first-ever written constitution in human history, and the label has stuck.[\[1\]](#f1) In the public sphere, it has become widespread as a rhetorical tool. Yet it is rarely studied and often poorly understood. The ‘Constitution of Medina,’ as it has been transmitted to us, refers to itself as a *kitāb* (writ, script) and a *ṣaḥīfa* (document, scroll). Since naming prejudices our understanding, the debate on what modern label this document should be given—constitution (*dustūr*), treaty (*ʿahd*), charter (*wathīqah*), truce (*muwādaʿah*), safe conduct (*amān*) or something else—can be resolved only after we have explored its substance and context. In modern Muslim imagination the *Kitāb* has assumed an oversized significance as a singular, self-standing document, often for entirely different and oddly contradictory reasons. Of course, as an instance of the speech, action, and aspiration of the Blessed Final Messenger of God, upon him be peace and blessing, and one that came at a turning point in his mission, it has been and should always be important to every student of Islam. Examining it now, however, is particularly relevant because of how frequently ‘The Constitution of Medina’ is invoked to  serve modern nationalist, secular, or even autocratic politics. A careful reading of the *Kitāb* by no means contradicts the Prophet’s commitment to peace, inter-religious coexistence, honoring treaties, and a preference for diplomacy over war. But a careful reading also makes it clear that these values were not the Prophet’s singular concern. That was his mission of preaching the truth and establishing the community that carries that truth on. Reducing the ‘Constitution of Medina’ to a single objective (typically pertaining to inter-religious co-existence or justifying a secular political community), reading parts of it out of context within the document, which is further deprived of any context within the *Sīrah* and the relevant Qur’anic verses, is to misuse it. This approach not only frees exponents of  such a decontextualized reading from having to deal with the scripture and scholarly tradition coherently, but also serves to neutralize, if not abrogate, central norms of the Qur’an and the Prophetic model. The common misrepresentations of the document rely on crucial omissions, favoring what is most convenient today over a commitment to an authentic grasp of the Sunnah. In this sense, even though the *Kitāb* itself is most likely historically authentic, it has been not unlike the biblical story in which Jesus, upon him be peace, declares to a mob about to stone an adulterous woman, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). Even Renaissance scholars knew this story was a later insertion not found in the earliest biblical manuscripts. But it was one that had gone on to become one of the most important teachings of Jesus known to the world. Despite the best intentions of its original popularizers like the erudite Muhammad Hamidullah, the popular representations of ‘the Constitution of Medina’ turn it into a myth that not only obscures but militates against its original significance. When undertaken with rigor and integrity—knowing that whatever Allah guided His messenger to accomplish is the most worthy and blessed example—the study of this document and its history is edifying beyond doubt. We ought to learn history not to fit it into some prefabricated agenda but to let it transform us and our understanding in unexpected ways. Our precommitments certainly influence our reading, but they need not determine it. I invite the reader to plunge into the blessed knowledge that is the *Sīrah* of the Final Messenger of Allah ﷺ, trusting that the *Truth*—one of the beautiful names of the Almighty—is worth seeking. In this article, I offer an introduction to and an annotated translation of this remarkable, informative, and complex document. Because of the significance of the Prophet’s ﷺ interactions with the three major Jewish tribes of Medina, interactions that ended in hostility, it has attracted sustained attention from Orientalists and has been translated into European languages, including English, numerous times. The three scholarly traditions explored here, classical Muslim scholarship and recent Muslim and non-Muslim academic scholarship, do not differ too much in their general conclusions, despite differences in their aims and methods. Modern Muslim and non-Muslim scholarship draw on classical Muslim scholarship and hover around similar disagreements concerning preservation, interpretation, and implication. Scholars are puzzled over such fundamental questions as exactly when this document was composed; whether it is one or two documents or many different treaties only later brought together by the compilers of *Sīrah* works; which Jewish groups exactly were parties to the treaty and which, if any, were excluded; and so on. In classical scholarship, the *Kitāb* was read and debated with great erudition within the context of early Medinan life, the Qur’anic revelation, and analysis of the preserved reports, as an early version of the *dhimmah* (protected legal status) that became the standard Islamic norm. It formed part of a large, complex picture. Deferring the discussion about its modern uses and abuses to the end, we proceed to the text of the *Kitāb*. --- ## Introduction to the Ṣaḥīfah or Kitāb of Medina Soon after arriving in Yathrib, the Messenger of Allah, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh, upon him be peace and blessing and upon all the prophets, contracted one or more agreements with its inhabitants, including the Jews. No scholar, classical or modern, has disputed this much. At some point, he also inscribed it in a document. The text has been reported in two main versions, that of famous historian of the *Sīrah* and hadith transmitter Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767)[\[2\]](#f2) (which we shall refer to below as II) and that of the famous scholar of language and scripture Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (d. 224/838) (hereafter AU).[\[3\]](#f3) Numerous sound hadith reports corroborate *parts* of this document. Its authenticity in its reported form *as a single document*, however, has been called into question, for we do not possess a single sound chain of authorities (*isnād*) for it. The modern Syrian historian Yūsuf al-ʿIshsh argued, for instance, that “It has not been recorded in any book of *fiqh* or sound hadith despite its legislative significance, and it is reported by Ibn Isḥāq without any *isnād*.”[\[4\]](#f4) This opinion, however, is an outlier, since most Muslim and non-Muslim scholars agree on its authenticity in some form. The contemporary historian and hadith scholar, Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī, argues that this pact as narrated in Ibn Isḥāq without *isnād* has some corroboration: a weak *isnād* from Ibn Abī Khaythamah (d. c. 279/892) and one truncated *isnād* stopping at al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742) that is found in the work of Abū ʿUbayd. Altogether, this does not raise it to the level of *ṣaḥīḥ* hadiths and hence, al-ʿUmarī concludes, it may not be fit for grounding Shariah norms without further corroboration. It is nevertheless acceptable on the standard of the historical method employed for *Sīrah* reports, which is less stringent than, or arguably simply different from, the requirements of evidence in matters of law or creed. In sum, the fact that numerous sound reports corroborate sections within the document even if the document in its entirety lacks a sound *isnād*, and the fact that strong evidence exists for one or more such treaties in that era, together make a good case for the *Kitāb*’s general reliability. The Pact of the Believers, the first half of the *Kitāb*, is far better attested than the latter half about the truce with the Jews. Al-Bukhari (no. 7300) records that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib once said from the pulpit that “By Allah, we \[that is, the family of the Messenger of Allah\] have no book (exclusive to us); we have Allah’s Book and whatever is in this document,” referring to a rolled-up document that hung from his sword. Then he unrolled it and in it were rulings about what sort of camels were to be given as blood money, that Medina is a sanctuary, that the pledge of protection (*dhimmah*) granted by any Muslim is one and the same, and the least of them in power or status can grant it, the prohibition of violating it and of entering a client relationship with an ally of another Believer. This hadith effectively reiterates the terms in § 12, 13, 15. In another tradition in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ʿAlī is asked if the Messenger of God singled his household out for any special teaching to which he responded in the negative, saying that the only distinction he had in this respect was his scroll which states that Allah has cursed anyone who slaughters in the name of anyone other than Allah, steals a signpost,[\[5\]](#f5) curses his own father, or protects a murderer. In yet another report, ʿAlī says that the scroll included the rulings of alms (*farāʾiḍ al-ṣadaqah*). This suggests that the scroll had numerous rulings pertaining to mundane, jurisprudential matters, including some that are not given in the *Kitāb* as reported by II and AU. Other traditions have it that a similar document was handed down by the family of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, and it is not unlikely that more than one copy existed.[\[6\]](#f6) It should be noted that all these reports that mention documents in possession of ʿAlī or ʿUmar mention only the first part of the *Kitāb*, the pact among the Believers, and make no mention of the Jews. The version of the document given by Abū ʿUbayd (AU) is shorter and missing some sections or phrases found in Ibn Isḥāq’s (II).[\[7\]](#f7) In the translation below, the sections found only in II will be enclosed in curly brackets{}. Any part found only in AU and not in II will be enclosed in angular brackets < >. Any explanatory note will be enclosed, as it is conventionally, in square brackets \[\]. Arabic transliterations and English translations of key terms or phrases are given in parentheses (). A close reading and historical explanation of every clause follows it immediately, and an historical analysis and contemporary implications are given at the end. Most scholars divide the document into two distinct parts: the first a *pact* of understanding among the followers of the Prophet ﷺ and the second a *truce* between the Muslims and the Jews. All early sources including Ibn Isḥāq (II) and al-Wāqidī refer to it as a *muwādaʿah*¸ which means cessation of hostilities. Following the German orientalist Julius Wellhausen, Hamidullah divides the first part into 23 sections or clauses and the second part into another 24, and this division is maintained here.[\[8\]](#f8) --- ## The Text\[9\] --- ## \[The Pact of the Believers\] --- ## Translation §1. This is a *kitāb* (writ, prescript) from Muḥammad  between the *muʾminūn* (Believers) and *muslimūn* (Muslims) of the Quraysh and Yathrib and those who join them,  and make *jihād* (armed struggle) alongside them. §2. They are one people to the exclusion of all other people (*innahum ummah wāḥidah min dūn al-nās*). --- *Ummah*. The opening clauses of the Pact of the Believers establish the *ummah* as a religious and political community. Hamidullah translates *ummah* here as a political community, but it is evident that not only political order but also active struggle for faith is a constituent of the community. Generally, *ummah* could mean, as it does in places in the Qur’an, (i) the community of the followers of all prophets since the beginning of time. On other occasions, (ii) it means the community that a prophet preaches to in any given era, and hence inclusive of his opponents (the more common term for which was *qawm*). For instance, in a hadith in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, the Messenger ﷺ said, “By Him who holds Muḥammad’s soul in His hand, anyone who hears of me from this *ummah*, a Jew or a Christian, then dies without believing in what I have brought will be among the people of Fire” (Muslim no. 153), which means that in one meaning the term *ummah* encompasses all human beings after his commission until the end of time. This is glossed by scholars as *ummat al-daʿwah*. However, (iii) in this document, the Prophet ﷺ defines the *ummah* in the way that becomes the primary meaning of the term for all time, in accordance with the Qur’anic verses that were revealed about this time: “O you who believe… You are the best *ummah*…” (3:102-110) and “Thus we have made you the middlemost/best *ummah*…” (2:143). In this context, *ummah* could only mean a community defined by belief in and support of the Prophet Muḥammad’s ﷺ mission. The law revealed in the ensuing years was addressed to this community and its posterity, and through it to all humankind until the end of time. This community is addressed in the Qur’an as *al-muʾminūn*, the Believers, or *yā ayyuhā alladhīna āmanū*: O ye who believe. *Muslim/muʾmin*. The Qur’an rarely employs the term *muslim*, which is why the distinction between *muʾminūn* and *muslimūn* in the first clause of this document is notable. Although their referents may overlap (*ʿaṭf al-ʿāmm ʿalá al-khāṣṣ*), it is more likely that the two words have slightly different connotations, and the best way to understand them is in concentric circles: all *muʾmin*s are *muslim*s but not the other way around. When used in an unqualified form, the term *muʾminūn* is reserved in the Qur’an, as in this document, for the true believers and followers of a prophet—be it Muhammad, or Moses, upon them be peace—in their time. Contrary to misconceptions in some Orientalist theories, it is never employed to mean generic believers or monotheists, but only the true followers of God’s prophets. Revealed about this time, Sūrat al-Nisāʾ declared those who disbelieve in some prophets while believing in God and selected prophets to be “the truly unbelieving” (4:150-1). In this sense, it is a term at times of identity (as it names a group) and at other times of description, approval, and praise, and at times both (as in 4:136). For instance, in 2:62 and numerous other places, the Qur’an refers to the Prophet Muhammad’s followers as ‘those who believed (*āmanū*)’ while contrasting them to the Jews and the Christians. Elsewhere, the righteous followers of Moses and other prophets who aided them in their prophetic mission are referred to as ‘believers’ or ‘those who believed’ (2:213; 2:249; 7:88). After they acquire their historical identity that takes them away from adherence to their prophet, rather than the ‘believers’ the Christians are always called *Naṣārá* (Nazarenes), and the Jews *Yahūd* (or *alladhīna hādū*) or, in historical references, *Banū Isrāʾīl*, and both more generally ‘the People of the Book.’ In one place, when reprimanding the Jews and the Christians for failing to follow Abraham’s true monotheism and thus joining the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ mission, the Qur’an declares that “The closest associates of Abraham are those who followed him, and *this* prophet and *those who have believed*” (3:57), which could only make sense if *those who have believed* are an identifiable group distinct from the Jews and the Christians. Only twice in the document (and once more in AU’s version) is the group *muslimūn* mentioned to refer to some followers of the Prophet ﷺ. This accords with the Qur’anic distinction as in 49:14 (“The bedouins say, We have become *muʾmin*. Say \[to them\], You have not yet become *mu’min*, but you have become *muslim*, for *īmān* has not yet entered your hearts”). Since 49:14 refers to a later incident (concerning the nomadic tribe of Banū Asad b. Khuzaymah whose deputation came to declare their faith in 9 AH) and the *Kitāb* was probably concluded during the third year of the Hijra or earlier, this would mean either that the Prophet ﷺ had already made this distinction between *muʾmin* and *muslim* from the outset, or else that the *Kitāb* was updated later to reflect this distinction. Yathrib. This was the name of the settlement to which the Prophet ﷺ migrated. The name *al-Madīnah* (Medina) is generally understood to have been coined after the Prophet’s migration, when it began to be called *Madīnat al-Nabī* (the city of the Prophet) and then shortened to *al-Madīnah*. Some historians suggest, however, that the name *al-Madīnah* is Aramaic in origin and had been one of this town’s ancient names.[\[10\]](#f10) §3. The Emigrants from the Quraysh keep to their tribal organization and leadership, cooperating with each other regarding blood money (*yataʿāqalūn*) and related matters and ransoming their captives (*yafdūn ʿāniyahum*) according to what is customary and equitable among the Believers. Here, the document reaffirms the tribal organization (II: *rabaʿatihim* AU: *rabāʿatihim*), but in a modified form. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās explains *rabaʿah* or *rabāʿah/ribāʿah* as “the state in which they were when Islam came to them,” namely, their tribal organization.[\[11\]](#f11) In contrast to the first two clauses that are concerned with faith, this one addresses what we may label political and administrative grouping, *ʿāqilah*. More precisely, the *ʿāqilah* is the blood-money group—the solidarity group that must pay compensation for a crime committed by one of their number. All the Emigrants together formed one such group, thus operating as a single clan, even though they had originally come from the various clans of the Quraysh and non-Quraysh in Mecca, including even some non-Arabs. Thus, although the *membership* of this new clan was defined by faith, its *structure* was pre-Islamic, for Islamic laws concerning blood relations, marriage, inheritance, and filial ties had yet to be revealed.[\[12\]](#f12) §4-§11. The Banū ʿAwf keep to their tribal organization and leadership, cooperating with each other regarding blood money and related matters and ransoming their captives according to what is customary and equitable among the Believers. The stipulation in §4 is now repeated word for word for each of the various clans of the Believers and *muslim*s of Yathrib. At this point, they are not called *al-Anṣār* as they would be later. These Arab clans of Yathrib include from al-Khazraj: (i) Banū ʿAwf, (ii) al-Ḥārith, (iii) Sāʿidah, (iv) Jusham, (v) al-Najjār; ![Clans of Khazraj Tribe](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image2-1024x521.png) and from al-Aws: (vi) ʿAmr b. ʿAwf, (vii) al-Nabīt, and (viii) al-Aws.[\[13\]](#f13) ![Clan of Aws tribe ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image4-1024x596.png) Whereas all the Emigrants in §3 form one *ʿāqilah* group, the Believers of Yathrib continue in the old clan relationships at this time. The phrase *yataʿāqalūn maʿāqilahum al-ūlá* (“they shall continue their prior clan arrangements”) is repeated in clauses 4 through 11. The same terms are affirmed for five clans of al-Khazraj and three clans of al-Aws; the Khazraj were both more numerous and slightly earlier in embracing Islam. At the time of this treaty, these clans inevitably included a few remaining *mushrik*s (polytheists) in their clans; we know this because of the one mention of polytheists in their midst later in the *Kitāb*. As the *mushrik*s are mentioned only once, and even that in passing, we can guess that their numbers must have been negligible. Sources mention that only one major clan of the Aws tribe[\[14\]](#f14)\> in its entirety refused to embrace Islam (none of its members became Muslim) until quite late, on the occasion of the Battle of Khandaq in 5 AH. This clan, Aws Allāh, as well as others, is not named in the treaty, which suggests that the treaty did not cover all the Arab inhabitants of Yathrib. Most of the rest of the clans of Yathribite Arabs, it would seem, contributed at least some converts. §12. The Believers shall not neglect to give aid to a debtor (*mufraḥ*) amongst them according to what is customary in matters of ransom (*fidāʾ*) or blood money (*ʿaql*). {And no Believer shall make an alliance with an ally (*mawlá*) of another Believer to the exclusion of the latter.} Hamidullah (p. 45) gives the following corroborating hadith from *Musnad Aḥmad* on the authority of Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh, “The Messenger of Allah prescribed for each clan its blood money, and then wrote, ‘Verily it is not permitted that a contract of clientage of a Muslim individual should be entered into without the permission of his patron (*walī*).’” §13. The God-fearing Believers are against whosoever of them acts wrongfully (*baghā*) or seeks an act (*dasīʿah*) of injustice, or promotes sin, transgression, or evil among the Believers. They shall all unite against him even if he is the son of one of them. Obligations and expectations of aiding in debt, ransom, and other financial obligations that would previously fall to the clan are extended to all Believers here, thus moving the young community toward a conception of solidarity beyond tribe, one in which the *ummah* becomes a supertribe. As the size of the community swelled beyond a face-to-face community, these obligations took the form of Islamic law that we are familiar with: familial obligations, free and fair commercial exchange, prohibition of usury, obligation of *zakāh*, and encouragement of charity and debt forgiveness, etc. §14. A Believer will not kill a Believer \[in retaliation\] for a non-Believer and will not aid a non-Believer against a Believer. This stipulation of the *Kitāb* is reported in numerous hadith traditions. This clause (viz., §14) has a general meaning, but also addresses an immediate problem. It is aimed at strengthening the ties among the Believers at the expense of their non-believing family members, but also at “stopping the vicious cycle of killings in Medinan society by assuring the participating parties that the old accounts were sealed: every new slaying would be the killing of a fellow Muʾmin for a *kāfir*, since those killed before Islam were of course *kuffār*.”[\[15\]](#f15) In its general sense, the dictum that a Believer cannot be killed in retaliation for a *kāfir* is understood in two ways. Whereas most jurists upheld its literal meaning that a Muslim cannot be given a capital punishment in retaliation for a non-believer, the Ḥanafī school, which in fact governed the conduct of the majority of historical Muslim regimes, effectively held that the dictum has a political connotation. This meaning is supported by one narration of the famous hadith in which ʿAlī says that the scroll declares that neither a Believer nor someone with a treaty (*ʿahd*) shall be killed \[in retaliation\] for an infidel (*al-Nasāʾī* no. 4760). This addition of “someone with a treaty” is a remarkable addition in al-Nasāʾī’s report, because in most versions it is absent, as in al-Bukhārī, when ʿAlī is asked about the scroll, he says that it has rulings about blood-money, ransom, and that a Muslim shall not be killed for an infidel (*kāfir*) (*al-Bukhārī* no. 3047). Al-Nasāʾī’s version may lend support to the Ḥanafī view that a Believer and a protected non-believer may not be killed in retaliation for a *ḥarbī*, an infidel with whom the community was at war. This disagreement in interpretation is significant in determining the rights of the protected non-Muslims and worthy of a dedicated treatment not attempted here.[\[16\]](#f16) §15. The protection (*dhimmah*) of Allah is one, the least of them \[i.e., the Believers\] is entitled to grant protection (*yujīr*) that is binding for all of them. The Believers are each other’s allies (*mawālī*) to the exclusion of other people. This clause reiterates what the rest of the document makes clear: affirming the solidarity of the Believers. This is the primary purpose and axis of the first part of the *Kitāb* that we have labeled the ‘Pact of the Believers.’ This clause adds a crucial dimension, the political equality of all Believers, regardless of their status, expressed as equality in granting protection. #### \[First mention of the Jews\] §16. The Jews who join us as clients (*man* *tabiʿanā min yahūd*) will receive aid and parity \[or favor\]; they will not be wronged, nor will their enemies be aided against them. This clause opens the door for the Jews to join the Believers as clients. Note that not only the Jews but also the *mushrik*s (the polytheists), as noted below, are party to this treaty. This suggests that at least parts of the document were later abrogated, for the polytheists were explicitly excluded with the declaration recorded in Sūrat al-Tawbah (9:1). This clause seems to be an initial accommodation of the Jews who lived among the Arabs of Yathrib; more detailed stipulations are added in the second part of the treaty. The term *tabiʿanā* invokes an established tribal practice whereby outsiders settled and joined up with a tribe.[\[17\]](#f17) §17. The peace of the Believers is one; no Believer will make peace to the exclusion of another Believer in fighting in the path of Allah. However, \[peace must be concluded\] on the basis of equality and equity between them. This clause re-emphasizes that the Believers are a political unity; their war and peace are one. This is clearly a step toward what sociologist Max Weber would call monopoly over violence as the defining feature of a state; Yathrib is being transformed through treaties like this from a spattering of disparate and warring neighborhoods and clans into a city-state—‘the City of the Prophet,’ *madīnat al-nabī*. The trailing exception seems to allow the possibility of peace concluded by some Believers without the explicit approval of the whole, provided it is not at the expense of any other Believers and does not violate equality and equity among the Believers. Notably, no mention is made here of the Believers in Mecca who have failed to emigrate; the Qur’an explains (e.g., 8:72) that they do not share the political and material advantages afforded by this new alliance, but they shall have the right to receive aid except against a party with whom the Believers of Yathrib have concluded a treaty. §18. In every expedition made with us the parties take turns with one another. Clause 18 continues to emphasize equality and fairness among the Believers. Each clan will bear the burden of battle fairly. §19. {The Believers exact full vengeance for the blood of one another that is shed in the way of Allah.} Concerning this clause, Serjeant explains, “The whole *ummah* confederation is responsible for avenging any of its members killed by parties outside it.” The particular need to emphasize this point is explained by Lecker: “The retaliation for one’s death was usually the duty of his *ʿāqilah*. The *Kitāb*  does not abolish the *ʿāqilah* and the *Muʾminūn* do not form one *ʿāqilah*. But some *Muʾminūn* whose *ʿāqilah* still included many polytheists needed to be assured that should their blood be shed in the cause of Allāh, full retaliation would be exacted by their fellow *Muʾminūn*.”[\[18\]](#f18) In other words, even though the pre-Islamic organization is maintained for the time being, *ummatic* solidarity is the overriding principle, and the life of a Believer is too important to be left even temporarily to the clan. §20. The God-fearing Believers guarantee the best and most upright fulfillment of this \[treaty\] (*ʿalá aḥsan hādhā wa-aqwamihi*). A *mushrik* (polytheist) will not grant protection to any property or to any person of the Quraysh, nor will he intervene between them (viz. their property or person) and a Believer. Another vocalization of the opening clause is: *ʿalá aḥsan hudá wa-aqwamihi*, which would mean “The God-fearing Believers are upon the best guidance and most upright guidance,” but this would seem out of place here.[\[19\]](#f19) This is the only mention of *mushrik*s, the remaining polytheists within the Medinan tribes, most of whose members had become Believers. This clause indicates a strict and disciplined policy against the Quraysh, and shows that, whereas the Believers are one *religious and* *political* party (*ummah*), the polytheists could not have the same relation to their co-religionists, the Meccan polytheists. This same principle is repeated with respect to the Jews (see below), who are required to support the Prophet ﷺ and his *ummah* against their own co-religionists, should any of them break this treaty. --- ## Translation §21. When evidence has been established that someone has wrongfully killed a Believer, then he is liable to be killed in retaliation unless the kin (*walī*) of the murdered is satisfied \[with blood money\]. All the Believers are united against him and it is not permissible for them not to act against him. §22. It is not permissible for a Believer who acknowledges what is in this document (*ṣaḥīfah*) and believes in Allah and the Last Day to support a murderer (*muḥdith*) or give him shelter. Upon whosoever supports him or gives him shelter is the curse of Allah and His wrath on the Day of Resurrection, and neither repentance nor ransom will be accepted from him. --- Some scholars have translated *muḥdith* in a general sense as “wrongdoer” or in a literal sense as religious “innovator,” but both are incorrect. Following Ibn Hishām, al-Balādhurī, and other early authorities, Hamidullah and Lecker render it in its proper context as “murderer.”[\[20\]](#f20) This clause is, therefore, a continuation of the last one. §23. Whatever you differ about shall be brought to Allah and Muḥammad. This clause and the last one closely resemble the verse 4:59: “O Believers, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you, and if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is best and most fitting,” which confirms the reports that Sūrat al-Nisāʾ was being revealed about this time, and that this *sūrah* provides the proper context for this document as well as commentary on the contemporary events and ethos.[\[21\]](#f21)  The next verse gives further context, “Have you not seen those who claim to have believed in what was revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], and what was revealed before you? They wish to go for judgment to *Ṭāghūt* (lit., a false god), while they were commanded to reject it; and Satan wishes to lead them far astray (4:60).” Exegetes agree that this was revealed when some Yathribite converts, hereby revealed as hypocrites, sought a Jewish leader for a prejudiced judgment, fearing the Prophet’s fair judgment, in a dispute with his Jewish neighbor. Some reports mention that this challenger to the Prophet’s authority was Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf, whom we shall meet again presently. ### \[The Truce with the Jews\] §24. The Jews bear expenses along with the Believers so long as they continue at war. We shall discuss below the question of when this truce with the Jews was concluded, and how it relates to the Pact of the Believers above. At a later stage in Medinan life, the non-Muslims will be incorporated into a centralized political entity through a treaty of peace and protection (*dhimmah*) and poll tax (*jizyah*), one built on the Believers’ role as the providers of security and hence their military domination. This treaty, however, does not assume a central government yet, and allows the Jews to enter a deal whereby they did not pay a poll tax but rather spent on a joint defense. It may be noteworthy that when addressing the Jews, the armed conflict is referred to as war (*ḥarb*) whereas in the first part of the document (i.e., the treaty among the Believers), it is called *jihād* in God’s path. §25. The Jews of Banū ʿAwf are {a community alongside}//\[secure from\] the Believers; the Jews have their religion (*dīn*) and the Muslims have theirs. This applies to their clients (*mawālīhim*) and themselves. But whoever does wrong or commits treachery brings evil only on himself and his household. This is a much-debated clause. Due perhaps to scribal error or the underdeterminacy of the Arabic script at the time, four variants of this clause are preserved. The standard version is Ibn Isḥāq’s: *ummah maʿa al-muʾminīn*: one community with the Believers. Abū ʿUbayd’s version: *ummah min al-muʾminīn*: one community from among the Believers. At least two other variants exist. One is: *amanah min al-muʾminīn*: secure from the believers, and finally, a different reading of Ibn Isḥāq: *lil-yahūd banī ʿawf* *dhimmah min al-muʾminīn*: the Jews have the *dhimmah* protection from/by the Believers.[\[22\]](#f22) The next clause goes on to specify that the Jews and the Muslims will have their separate religions. Of all these variants, AU’s is the least likely, and its meaning is misleading, as it contradicts nearly every other clause of the document, including the very next one.[\[23\]](#f23) Since the very first two clauses of the document define the *ummah* as consisting of the Believers (and *muslim*s) to the exclusion of all others, joined by faith and struggle (*jihād*) for it, and then the rest of the document goes on to detail the relationship of two distinct groups, the Believers and the Jews, accepting this reading renders the document illogical. We read, for instance, that “The Jews will bear the expenses with the Believers so long as they are at war” (§24, 38), and that the Jews, if called to some agreement by the Believers, should accept, and vice versa (§45). In all these cases, the Jews are a group distinct from the Believers not only in religion but also in political identity and status, some crucial reciprocal rights stated here notwithstanding. Lecker makes a strong case that the best reading is the last one, *amanah min al-muʾminīn* (Lecker, 141-147). --- ## Translation §26-§30. \[The clause in §28 for the Jews of Banū ʿAwf is extended to the Jews of Banū al-Najjār, Banū al-Ḥārith, Banū Sāʿidah, Banū Jusham, and Banū al-Aws.\] §31. {The Jews of Banū Thaʿlabah have the same terms as the Jews of Banū ʿAwf.} But whoever does wrong or commits treachery brings evil only on himself and his household. §32. {The Jafnah are a clan (*baṭn*[\[24\]](#f24) of Thaʿlabah and are on a par with them. §33. The Banū al-Shuṭaybah have the same rights as the Jews of Banū ʿAwf. Righteousness is easier than sin.[\[25\]](#f25) §34. The allies of the Thaʿlabah are on a par with them. §35. The nomadic allies (*biṭānah*) of the Jews are on a par with them.} --- Clauses §31 (first part) and §32-35 are, as indicated, found only in Ibn Isḥāq’s version, but Abū ʿUbayd’s version adds at a later point in the document that the Banū al-Shaṭbah are a *baṭn* from Jafnah. Read together, and assuming that *baṭn* means a subgroup in a tribe, it means that the Banū al-Shaṭbah are a subtribe of Jafnah, and Jafnah a subtribe of Banū Thaʿlabah. Since the Thaʿlaba were situated on the eastern outskirts of Medina, they were added later to the treaty. The term *biṭānah*, which generally means outsiders that are intimate with a group (e.g., 3:118), here refers to the Jews’ nomadic allies (Lecker, 150, 153; Hamidullah also agrees with this). §36. None of them \[viz. the Jews\] may *leave* without Muḥammad’s consent. {There is no refraining from retaliation for a wound. He who sheds blood (*fataka*) brings it upon himself and his household, except he who has been wronged, and Allah demands the most righteous fulfillment of this \[treaty\].} *Yakhruj* literally means *leave* or *exit*. Hamidullah takes this to mean leave on a military expedition, whereas Lecker argues that it means to leave, as in move out and relocate; the latter is more likely. --- ## Translation §37. {The Jews have their expenditure, and the Muslims theirs.} The \[parties to this treaty\] will aid each other against whosoever is at war with the people of this document. Between them is good will and sincerity. And righteousness is easier than sin.[\[26\]](#f26) A man will not act unjustly toward his client (*ḥalīf*), and anyone wronged will be helped. §38. The Jews bear expenses along with the Believers so long as they continue at war. \[Repetition of §24.\] §39. The valley of Yathrib  is a *ḥarām* (sanctuary) <*ḥaram*\> for the parties to this document. §40. {The protected neighbor (*jār*) is like one’s self so long as he does not harm or act treacherously. §41. No protection may be granted without the permission of the parties to this \[document\].} §42. Whenever there is a murder {or dispute} between the people of this document from which evil is feared, the matter is to be referred to Allah and Muḥammad {the Messenger of God, may the peace and blessings be upon him}. Allah demands the most pious and righteous fulfillment of this document. Contrast this clause (only those great crimes that could lead to civil war are to be referred to the Prophet) to §23 in the Believers’ Pact (all differences shall be referred to the Prophet). §43. {No protection will be granted to the Quraysh nor to whoever supports them. §44. They \[viz. the parties to this treaty\] undertake to aid each other against whosoever attacks Yathrib.} This prohibition of any deal with the Quraysh highlights an important feature of this document. The Jews or *mushrik*s who sought to make a deal with the Meccans instead of the Prophet could not do so. In other words, their freedom was limited, as they were barred from making a deal with their own co-religionists or the religion of their choice. §45. {If they \[the Jews\] are called to an agreement, they will accept it, and if they call for the same, it is incumbent upon the Believers to accept it,}  except if someone makes war on account of religion \[*ḥārabah fī al-dīn*\]. Every group is responsible for the part that faces them. The Jews could not aid the Meccans against the Believers, but nor could the Believers aid anyone seeking to wage war against the Jews. This principle becomes enshrined in Islamic law in the form of the *dhimmah* contract later. §46. The Jews of al-Aws, their allies and their persons, have the same standing as the parties to this document, with the truest fulfillment with regard to the parties to this document. Verily, righteousness is easier than sin, and he who violates it does so only against himself. Allah demands the truest and most righteous fulfillment of what is in this document. This is the second time the Jews of al-Aws are mentioned (assuming that the reference to the Jews of Banū al-Aws in §30 refers to the same group). If by “the Jews of al-Aws'' is meant Banū Qurayẓa, which is a strong likelihood (see analysis below), we may conclude from this repetition that they were added to the treaty twice. One possibility is that they were initially added along with the rest of the Jews living among the Arab neighborhoods, and after they violated or intended to violate it by siding with the Quraysh during or after Badr, they were forgiven and once again added. Note that both of the Jewish tribes of Banū Qaynuqāʿ and Banū al-Naḍīr had already been expelled at this point. §47. This *Kitāb* will not intervene to protect an unjust man or a violator of pledge. He who goes out is secure and who stays {in Medina} is safe, except he who acts unjustly or in violation of the pledge. {Allah is the Protector of him who is righteous and God-fearing, and so is Muḥammad, the Messenger of God.} --- ## Analysis ### Dedication Before I further analyze this text, a note of appreciation is in order. Dr. Muhammad Hamudillah (d. 2002), God have mercy on him, declared this *Kitāb* “the first written constitution in the world.” Even though, as I show below, this particular framing is not convincing, I want to take this opportunity to introduce this icon of true Islamic scholarship, adorned with the kind of piety and asceticism that reminds us of early Muslims and the masters of the classical age. An advocate of Islamic law and tradition in the late colonial and post-colonial period when, having lost the unifying symbol of the caliphate and political independence, Muslims worldwide felt overwhelmed by Western ideals, knowledge, and institutions, he set out to demonstrate through his pioneering historical research that Islam was fit to govern the new reality in which Muslims found themselves. In a world where the West’s naive self-confidence in its superiority and its fundamentalist belief in progress—the now-laughable view that whatever is new is by necessity superior—Muslim intellectuals felt the need to recast Islam’s knowledge in modern terms. Born in 1908 in Hyderabad (under British rule), he was educated at Hyderabad’s Osmania University and then at the University of Bonn in Germany, where he wrote on Islamic international law, and at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne), where he studied the Prophet’s ﷺ embassies. After teaching for a decade at Osmania University, he moved to France for research at Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and did so with marvelous concentration and productivity, residing, I am told, in a small apartment brimming with books—he never married—for a quarter of a century. He finally moved to the United States in 1996 to be cared for by his grandniece, meeting his Lord at the ripe age of 95 in 2002, and is buried in Jacksonville, Florida. His long life was singularly devoted to scholarship. His services were occasionally sought by Muslim rulers wrestling with colonialism or its aftermath. He was appointed by the Nizam of Hyderabad as part of the delegation sent to London and the United Nations in New York to seek support against the invasion of the Nizam’s territories by Indian forces. He was also sought to guide in the Islamization of the political life of the newly born Muslim nation-state of Pakistan, and was awarded Pakistan’s Hilal-e-Imtiyaz in 1985; the sum associated with the award he promptly donated to the Islamic University in Islamabad. His wide-ranging study of the *Sīrah* in many respects was unparalleled in modern times. He authored hundreds of works in English, Arabic, and Urdu. His scholarship and profound understanding of the issues involved in this *Kitāb* are evident in his careful translation and commentary. Not only did he explore the knowledge that was in circulation among Muslim and Western scholars at the time, he also scoured the world’s libraries, especially Europe where tens of thousands of unexplored manuscripts of Islamic texts had been taken a century earlier during the colonial period. Furthermore, in order to fully appreciate and evaluate the events described in the *Sīrah*, he visited the prominent sites mentioned in the Prophet’s life, and even traveled from Mecca to Medina on a camel, just as the Emigrants would have, following the footsteps of his spiritual forebear and one of the pioneers of the field, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī (d. 207 AH), who had undertaken similar adventures to study the Prophet’s life twelve centuries earlier. I dedicate this essay to Dr. Hamidullah’s memory, for his works inspired me at a very early age to a serious study of the *Sīrah*. Telling the story of the Prophet ﷺ is not new, but reading his writings may have been the first time I came across serious, dedicated scholarship about the blessed man who Allah chose as “mercy to all the worlds.” There was something about his “lust of knowing” that set his approach apart from the well-meaning but predetermined and even culturally self-centered mold in which the *Sīrah* is typically cast. I draw attention to him in hope that it inspires future Muslim scholars (and especially prospective doctoral students) to undertake an exploration of his life and writings (which are abundant and spread over English, Arabic, and Urdu writings) to advance his project, both in spirit and substance. One final thing. The great Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in his monumental *Madārij al-Sālikīn* prefaced his critique of the great Ḥanbalī Sufi master Abū Ismāʿīl al-Harawī with the following apology, “Shaykh al-Islām is beloved to us, but truth to us is more beloved.” I have the same trepidation, indebtedness, and sense of duty when expressing my disagreement, however minor, with Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah and other ʿ*ulamāʾ* of status in knowledge and piety far above mine. --- ## Medina at the time of the Blessed Hijra Our story begins in Yathrib, an oasis in a valley in the Hijāẓ mountains that was less a town than a patchwork of neighborhoods inhabited by two warring Arab tribes and their Jewish allies.[\[27\]](#f27) These were the Arab tribes of al-Aws—smaller but in possession of better land in eastern Yathrib—and al-Khazraj, in possession of less desirable lands in central and westerly Yathrib. Having been defeated in the devastating battle of Buʿāth against the Aws that had ended an era of long, bloody war some five years before the Hijra, the Khazraj appeared more eager to join the new prophet and his message. Two of the Jewish tribes, the Banū al-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah, dwelled alongside their fertile date-palm groves on the southeastern outskirts of town near their allies the Aws, whereas the Banū Qaynuqāʿ, the allies of the Khazraj, were goldsmiths and money-changers with dwellings near the center of Yathrib, in the neighborhood of Banū Najjār, where the Prophet would establish his mosque. The Arabs were more numerous. Each of the three main Jewish tribes comprised about 700 fighting men (the total population per tribe would have been some four or five times that), and the Arab fighting men from the two tribes were about twice that number, thus totalling four to five thousand.[\[28\]](#f28) The distinctive features of Jewish settlements included their fortresses (*uṭum*, pl. *āṭām*) the most prized of which sat on hills—there were some seventy such fortresses when the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Yathrib. Praising them as “the adornment of Medina,” he reportedly encouraged the building of new ones, and Medina boasted twice as many in the Islamic period.[\[29\]](#f29) A few of them survive as ruins until today. ![Fortess](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screen-Shot-2021-02-02-at-8.38.43-PM-1024x366.png) *Medinan fortresses would have looked like this fortress in Khaybar today* There were deep fractures but also interconnections among the Jewish tribes and between them and the Arabs. The Jews had been deeply involved in the war that had torn the town apart and were mutually divided along those lines. The two allies of the Aws, Banū al-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah, for instance, were allies but also rivals, as the wealthier Banū al-Naḍīr dominated and discriminated against the Banū Qurayẓah. For instance, Banū al-Naḍīr would kill a murderer from Banū Qurayẓah in retaliation but only offer blood money if one of theirs murdered a man from Banū Qurayẓah; under the Prophet’s rule, the Banū Qurayẓah demanded and received equal justice.[\[30\]](#f30) Many Arabs had become Jews, for they were impressed by the Jewish learning; some even sent their young to the Jewish schools. Childless mothers would pledge their desired firstborns to Judaism if their wish were granted. Such Judaized Arabs could continue to live with their Arab tribe while maintaining strong ties to their Jewish allies.[\[31\]](#f31) The Jews had been settled for centuries (there is no decisive evidence about exactly when and whence they had come; some reports point to Syria, others to Yemen) and had adopted Arabic as their second, and possibly first language, along with the Aramaic that Levantine Jews spoke. Knowledge of their scriptural language (Hebrew) was limited to the rabbis. The close resemblance between these Semitic languages, one could speculate, would have made them easy to translate between. Although the Arabs could not understand their language, they could learn it quickly, as one of the Companions did in only a few weeks at the Prophet’s behest[\[32\]](#f32) Some of the Jews too, perhaps the poorer ones, would have moved into the neighborhoods of their Arab allies. The exact strength and influence of the Jews vis-à-vis the Arabs is a point of dispute, and the stronger opinion seems to be that the Arabs already had the upper hand before Islam militarily, and the newfound unity in faith—so long as the faith was held strongly—would have further tilted the balance in the Arabs’ favor. Yathrib, as the Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾisha, Allah be pleased with her, remarked with characteristic insight, was conquered by the Qur’an.[\[33\]](#f33) Before the Hijra, the Yathribite Arabs had concluded two pledges with the Prophet ﷺ in two consecutive years leading to the Hijra. The First Pledge (known as *bayʿah al-ʿaqabah al-ūlá*) was contracted with twelve men from Khazraj in the secrecy of a narrow Meccan mountain pass (*al-ʿaqabah*) on the occasion of the Annual Pilgrimage. It became known as ‘the Pledge of Women’ as it involved no fighting and resembled the pledge of women mentioned in Qur’an 60:12, which included the declaration of faith and prohibition of well-known depravities such as stealing, fornication, killing of infants, and slander of chaste women, and a pledge of obedience to the Prophet ﷺ in all good things. Muṣʿab b. ʿUmayr, a fine-mannered, handsome young man of the Quraysh now persecuted for his faith by his own family, who embodied the Qur’an he preached, was sent to the Yathribites and proved spectacularly successful.[\[34\]](#f34) The Second Pledge (*bayʿah al-ʿaqabah al-thāniyah*), therefore, involved a total of seventy leading men, this time drawn from both tribes. The second pledge included full support of the Prophet’s mission, commanding of right and forbidding of wrong, and armed defense. The Prophet also appointed twelve leaders, nine drawn from Khazraj and three from Aws, as his deputies (*naqīb/nuqabāʾ*) over their respective clans, and one chief *naqīb*, Asʿad b. Zurārah, over them all.[\[35\]](#f35) Already in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ had begun organizing a governance structure. ![Map of Medina ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image3-824x1024.png) As soon as he arrived in Yathrib, the Prophet ﷺ established a mosque that doubled as his headquarters. He also established a marketplace and a system of brotherhood (*muʾākhāh*) in which some forty-five Emigrants were coupled with a Yathribite Believer each.[\[36\]](#f36) Finally, as soon as the Qur’an commanded to do so, he started sending out expeditions (that comprised only the Emigrants at this point) to intercept Meccan caravans, securing alliances or pledges of neutrality with tribes in key locations between Medina and Mecca. The justification of this policy was given in the Qur’an: “Permission \[to fight\] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged… evicted from their homes without right—only because they say,  ‘Our Lord is Allah’” (22:39-40). The Quraysh, furthermore, were guilty of “averting \[people\] from the way of Allah and disbelief in Him and \[preventing access to\] *al-Masjid al-Harām* and the expulsion of its people therefrom” (2:217). The strategy of intercepting caravans may also have emerged organically as a way to counter the Quraysh’s prevention of Muslims from visiting the Sacred Mosque, as suggested in a report in which the chief of al-Aws Saʿd b. Muʿādh, a friend of the Meccan Umayyah b. Khalaf, went to perform *ʿUmrah* and stayed with Umayyah. While performing the circling of the Kaʿba, trying not to be noticed, Saʿd was accosted by Abū Jahl. Perhaps not knowing that Saʿd too had embraced Islam, Abū Jahl challenged him, “I see you wandering about safely in Mecca while sheltering men who have changed their religion and have claimed that you will help and support them. By Allah, if you were not in the company of Abū Ṣafwān, you would not be able to return to your folk safely.” Saʿd retorted stoutly, “By Allah, if you should stop me from doing this, I will prevent you from something which is more valuable for you, that is, your passage through Medina.”[\[37\]](#f37) Given his exceptionally motivated and active leadership, it is little wonder that the Prophet ﷺ sought to immediately address the major challenge facing his authority in Yathrib, the Jewish allies of his Yathribite followers. Yathrib, it must be remembered, had been riven by a bloody war between al-Aws and al-Khazraj. For those not yet transformed by the new faith, blood, revenge, and suspicion were just below the surface and both the Arabs and the Jews could be easily consumed by infighting. The combined strength of combatants in the Arab tribes outnumbered their Jewish counterparts two to one, and with the newfound religion and unity, they had the definite upper hand. The Jews at first saw the Prophet’s coming to Yathrib with distant, even helpless, skepticism, but since the leading men of both tribes had converted to the new religion, could do little to intercept it. The only tool the Jews possessed to sway their old Arab allies was the knowledge of their great and ancient scriptural tradition, and in that they were outdone by the Qur’an. However, whereas the Emigrants had been well-prepared for this by the Qur’anic *sūrah*s that presented Israelite history at length already in Mecca such as al-Aʿrāf, al-Anbiyāʾ, and numerous others, the new Yathribite converts would have had little knowledge of it, and were vulnerable to the doubts sown by their old Jewish allies. Allah also reminded the Arabs and Jews of Yathrib of their long-standing debates in which the latter weaponized their tradition against the gentile Arabs, speaking frequently of a coming prophet, thus sensitizing the Arabs to the idea and unwittingly preparing them to embrace the new prophet, all the more since he happened to be a gentile Arab. This psychological cultivation, along with the fact that the war had claimed the elders of both tribes who would have dug in to preserve the ways of their forebears as the Meccans had done, rendered the Arabs of Yathrib unusually receptive to the rejuvenated monotheism of Abraham.[\[38\]](#f38) --- ## When was the Kitāb concluded, why, and with whom? Imām al-Shāfiʿī declared that he knew of no disagreement among the scholars of *Sīrah* that, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Medina, he made a truce (*dhimmah*) with the Jews without imposing *jizyah* (poll tax) on them.[\[39\]](#f39) For a master jurist like him who was looking back after the Shariah had been completed, this was the most apt description of the *Kitāb*: it was no different from the *dhimmah* that became the Qur’anic law except that, rather than a fixed poll tax, the Jews were to contribute troops and expenses to the common defense. Some scholars think that al-Shāfiʿī’s reference is to the *Kitāb* of Medina, and hold that the *Kitāb* was concluded soon after the Hijra and before the Battle of Badr. The other possibility is that the Prophet ﷺ had concluded a general, unwritten truce before Badr, and the actual *Kitāb* that has reached us was written after Badr. This second possibility is suggested by a set of sound hadith reports, which we shall reproduce below as they also help us understand the context of the treaty. Before the Prophet arrived, the Yathribites had already contemplated healing a war-torn region by appointing one of the last standing Khazrajite elders, the notorious ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy, as their king. The less numerous Aws may have reluctantly embraced this idea as the war had ended relatively in their favor and they perhaps wanted to appease the poor, wounded Khazrajites. Be that as it may, as the new faith transformed the views of important leaders in the ranks of both, even the reluctant had some reason to accept the Prophet ﷺ as a new leader. The Khazrajites had enthusiastically embraced the new faith, and the Aws had been only slightly slower to catch up. The main center of resistance consolidated, predictably, around the outstripped ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy and his Jewish allies. Finally, if it is accepted that the treaty took its final form shortly after Badr, it is easy to understand why the Pact of the Believers (the first part of the *Kitāb*) had to include so little about the pagans in the ranks of the Yathribites. The Muslims’ victory at Badr had been such a surprising upset, one that put the Believers on the map of Arabia overnight, that any reluctant pagans would have embraced the new religion at least outwardly. This had led to a different problem. The hypocrites, former pagans and Jews who superficially professed Islam, now become a major concern as reflected in the Qur’an (e.g., Sūrah 4, al-Nisa, and Sūrah 63, al-Munāfiqūn).[\[40\]](#f40) The document does not even allude to this problem of hypocrisy, however, perhaps because it was composed either before or, more likely, very soon after Badr, before hypocrites had found their bearings (see below on the debate about the date of the document). Why, however, would the Jews accept the Prophet’s authority as expressed in the *Kitāb*? Before the Prophet’s arrival, they may have felt protected by their greater financial power, fortresses (this the Qur’an mentions, 59:2), but most of all, by their alliances with the Arabs. The last of these quickly changed with the advent of Islam.[\[41\]](#f41) The remarkable achievement of the Prophet ﷺ as a leader frustrates any secular explanation. His message so deeply gripped the leading members of Yathrib’s Arabs that the myriad mutual grievances and antipathies cultivated over generations were set aside—within, of course, the limits of human capacity. Shortly after his arrival, not only did the Prophet unite the Arabs of Yathrib, establish their brotherhood with the Emigrants, and engage in highly daring and successful political and military action intercepting the Meccan caravans, culminating in the military triumph at Badr in 2 AH, but also neutralized the Jewish opposition intellectually through the Qur’an. To top it all off, he wished to seal the peace diplomatically through a written treaty. The obstacles that still threatened peace and preaching should not be underestimated. The Blessed Prophet’s psychological and charismatic authority doubtless played a major role in holding the mission and the peace together, but he did not have the military or administrative means to govern and discipline the Yathribites should they become unruly. It should be remembered that the Prophet’s control over the city was based primarily on the strength of the faith he instilled, not military dominance or established structures, traditions, and institutions. The staggering poverty, a war-torn past, external threats, and internal intrigues all made this situation extremely precarious. The Prophet’s party at Badr had been little over 300 men, whereas the combined strength of the Jewish tribes was over 2000 and, as explained earlier, the number of fighting men among the Medinan Arabs was twice that. Even though most Arabs had joined the Prophet, some were fence-sitters, or gullible even if sincere in faith, vulnerable to the influence of powerful anti-Islamic propaganda of which Allah speaks at length in the Qur’an, as well as the threat of attack by the Meccans and other Arabs. We can speculate that, were they to unite and rebel, the combined number of the hostiles and the non-committed would have been greater than the few hundred dedicated Believers around the Prophet ﷺ. Put differently, as of yet, the Prophet had no monopoly over violence. Allah Almighty speaks frequently of the insults, veiled threats, and hostility directed at the Prophet at this time, and enjoins him to patience and forgiveness. All of this becomes evident in the unfolding of the events that led to the writing of the *Kitāb*. How and why, then, was the *Kitāb* of Medina concluded? Based on numerous sound hadith reports, a number of recent Muslim scholars and historians have converged on a plausible timeline of events which I further develop here. This sequence of events is also suggested by the method I adopt: rather than trying to reconcile varying accounts in the early and late Islamic sources, which may be impossible, I start with the agreed-upon skeleton of dates and events and mutually reinforcing hadith reports with authentic *isnād*, and then explain the possible reasons for the varying opinions. The only authentic report that gives details of the writing of a *Kitāb* is one that is preserved on the authority of the son or grandson of the Companion Kaʿb b. Mālik, with several chains going through al-Zuhrī, preserved by Abū Dawūd, al-Ṭabarānī, al-Bayhaqī, and al-Wāqidī. This seems to be the likeliest version. ![Events after Hijrah ](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image5-1024x780.png) The story begins with one powerful leader of Yathrib, the charismatic Arab-Jewish poet Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf, whose father was Arab and mother Jewish from Banī al-Naḍīr. He had opposed the Prophet tooth and nail from the outset. Al-Wāqidī’s version reports that some Jewish leaders even became inclined to make peace with and join the Prophet after Badr, even contemplating joining his religion thinking that he was guaranteed victory from Allah. Ibn al-Ashraf violently rejected this option.[\[42\]](#f42) The fragile, unwritten truce between the Jews and the Believers was shattered when he went to the defeated Meccans to lament their dead and rouse them to attack the Prophet ﷺ, this time with the help of the Jewish tribes. As an accomplished poet, Ibn al-Ashraf composed poetry insulting the Prophet and the Muslims, especially their women, the surest way to denigrate any Arab and spread the propaganda far and wide through Arabia. Ibn al-Ashraf’s conduct after Badr not only violated the peace, it posed an existential threat to the new community. We can speculate that the unique combination of his dual lineage and personal gifts afforded him the ability to unite the Jewish tribes as well as the hypocrites and fence-sitters against the Believers. This struggle is clearly depicted in the following authentic report from al-Zuhrī on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd Allāh, the grandson of the Companion Kaʿb b. Mālik: > Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf the Jew was a poet who wrote poetry against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and incited the infidels of the Quraysh against him. When the Messenger of Allah came to Medina, he had found its people mixed, among them there were Muslims who were united by the mission of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, *mushrik*s who worshipped idols, Jews who possessed weapons and fortresses, and who were allies of both neighborhoods, al-Aws and al-Khazraj. \[The Prophet\] wished to make peace with them (*istiṣlāḥahum wa-muwādaʿatahum*). A man would be Muslim and his father or brother would be *mushrik*. The Jews and the *mushrik*s of Medina would mistreat and molest the Messenger of Allah and His Companions. Allah bade him to patiently endure this and overlook it, and revealed about them, “You shall be tested in your wealth and lives, and will hear from the People of the Book and the *mushrik*s much abuse, but if you are patient and pious, that will be the best course of affairs.” (3:186), and, “Many of the People of the Book would love to bring you back to unbelief after you have attained faith out of envy in their hearts even after the truth has become clear to them. Ignore and let them be until Allah issues His command, for Allah is Omnipotent” (2:109).[\[43\]](#f43) The victory of Muslims at Badr as well as the expectation that the Quraysh would soon return—as they had promised to do the following year—with much greater strength made the matter urgent. According to a weak but well-known report, the Prophet ﷺ gathered the Jews in the marketplace of Banū Qaynuqāʿ and asked them to submit in faith before they faced what the Quraysh had just seen, upon which they snubbed him saying, “O Muhammad, do not be deceived by your killing of a few men from the Quraysh who did not know how to fight, for if you fight us you will know that we are men.”[\[44\]](#f44) Whatever the intervening circumstances, we know from authentic reports that the Believers’ victory whipped Ibn al-Ashraf into action. Ibn ʿAbbās reports that when he approached the Meccans, they asked him, conscious that the Jews and the Believers shared faith in one God and the scriptures, whether they—the custodians of the Kaʿba and hosts of the Pilgrims—were better or “this weak childless man.” To this he replied that they were better, and Allah revealed the following verse: “Have you not seen those who have been given a portion of the Book and yet they believe in idols (*jibt*) and evil powers (*ṭāghūt*) saying of the disbelievers, ‘They are better guided than the Believers’” (4:51).[\[45\]](#f45) This exchange was not merely religious pettiness; it meant that the assumption of solidarity between the Believers and the People of the Book that would have deterred the Meccans no longer held. It emboldened the Meccans and the enemies of the new faith around Arabia. It is at this point that the Prophet ﷺ commanded Ibn al-Ashraf’s execution, which was carried out. To continue al-Zuhrī’s account, > When he was killed, the Jews and the Arabs who had been relying on him panicked and came the next morning to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ complaining that one of their leaders had been killed at night. The Prophet reminded them of what he had been up to and what he would say in poetry. Then he called them to write between him, them, and the Muslims a writing to which they can turn \[in case of dispute\]. The Prophet then wrote such a document under the shade of the house of the daughter of al-Ḥārith. That document after the Messenger of Allah passed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, God be pleased with him.[\[46\]](#f46) This leads us to another debate, which is whether all the Jews of Yathrib and its surroundings were party to this *Kitāb* or only those who had settled among the Arabs, or some other subset. What creates this puzzle is that none of the three major Jewish tribes, Banū Qaynuqāʿ, Banū al-Naḍīr, and Banū Qurayẓah, are mentioned by name in the *Kitāb*. As for the three major Jewish tribes, we learn about them in a different report on the authority of a son of the same Companion Kaʿb b. Mālik, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the uncle of the reporter of the previous hadith, also recorded by Abū Dāwūd with a sound chain. This long report begins before Badr when the leaders of the Quraysh tried to persuade the pagan Arabs and hypocrites led by ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy to defect to them against the Prophet ﷺ. They were swayed and began organizing when the Prophet confronted them and skillfully dashed their hopes by pointing out that they would have to fight and kill their own kin among the true Believers. After Badr, the Quraysh, now more desperate, reached out to the Jews of Medina, inciting them to fight the Prophet ﷺ. We came across earlier that it was Kaʿb who went to Mecca, but it is quite likely that the interest was mutual, and the only suspicion the Meccans would have had toward the People of the Book was resolved when Kaʿb swore to them that they were better than the Believers, who were now the common enemy. At this point, the account is worth quoting fully: > The Prophet ﷺ got wind of this letter. The Banū al-Naḍīr, on their part, all decided to act in treason (*ghadr*) and sent a message to the Prophet ﷺ inviting him to talk to them with thirty men from his companions and thirty of their rabbis. “If they testify to you and believe in you, we shall believe in you.” The narrator then narrated the whole story. The next day, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out armed and surrounded them, telling them, “I swear by Allah, you will have no peace from me until you conclude a treaty with me.” But they refused. He therefore fought them the same day. Next morning, he went to Banū Qurayẓah with an army, leaving Banū al-Naḍīr aside, and asked \[Banū Qurayẓah\] to sign a treaty which they did.[\[47\]](#f47) The report then describes the Prophet ﷺ returning to Banū al-Naḍīr and, given their stubborn refusal to ratify a treaty, sending them into exile. These events are further explained in the Qur’an in Sūrat al-Ḥashr, where we learn that some hypocrites (from among the Banū ʿAwf of al-Khazraj led by Ibn Ubayy) sent a message to Banū al-Naḍīr to resist the Prophet and promised aid. The aid, as Allah had foretold in the Qur’an, never came (59:12). Now we are in a position to shed light on questions about when this treaty was concluded and with whom. First, these reports, like every other text, speak of Banū al-Naḍīr acting in *ghadr*, which means treachery, perfidy, and disloyalty, and suggests breaking of a treaty. We learn in the classical commentaries on Sūrat al-Ḥashr in a report from Ibn ʿAbbas that “When the Prophet arrived in Medina, he made peace with them and gave them protection on terms that neither party would fight the other.”[\[48\]](#f48) In the Qur’an, Allah characterizes their act as hostility (*shiqāq*) to Allah and His Messenger” (59:4), just as the treachery of the other Jewish tribes, particular Banū Qurayẓa’s support of the Quraysh at Badr, is described as treachery, *khiyānah* (8:56), which indicates the existence of a prior deal. There can be no doubt that a treaty existed prior to Badr. But was this early treaty written down? Even though these reports do not specify whether the treaty they had violated had been written down or merely a verbal alliance, the latter possibility is suggested by the fact that the Prophet ﷺ insisted that they ratify a treaty (*ʿahd*) or leave. If they were breaking an already written treaty, the Prophet would not have wanted them to merely write another one, and rather would have asked them to uphold the existing one. Furthermore, the authorities that suggest an earlier date of the *Kitāb*, including Ibn Isḥāq, Abū ʿUbayda, and al-Balādhurī, are either vague or without *isnād* or both. Of the three early authorities who postulate an early date, only al-Balādhurī (who is a historian and not an authority in hadith) states that there was a written agreement between the Prophet and the Jews before Badr, whereas al-Ṭabarī suggests that there was a truce but does not specify its writing. Abū ʿUbayd only states that a truce was concluded in writing shortly after (*ḥidthān*) his arrival in Medina and before he gained strength and could impose *jizyah*, but does not specify whether it was before or after Badr. Ibn Isḥāq makes no explicit statement on these points. Some contemporary scholars have passionately opposed an early date.[\[49\]](#f49) A plausible argument for an early dating is provided by al-ʿUmarī, who acknowledges that the post-Badr report is much stronger in *isnād*, but suggests that the two dates can be reconciled by postulating that it was written twice, or written once and augmented later.[\[50\]](#f50) This would not be unusual. There is some internal evidence that supports the argument that it was written at an earlier date and augmented later, namely, the reappearance of the clause §30 about Yahūd Banī al-Aws in §46, which mentions Yahūd al-Aws. If we accept Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah’s statement that Yahūd (Banī) al-Aws is a reference to Banū Qurayẓah, just as Yahūd Banī ʿAwf signifies Banū Qaynuqāʿ,[\[51\]](#f51) then all the pieces fall in place, and their re-entry into the treaty makes sense.[\[52\]](#f52) The two traditions read alongside the Qur’an suggest the following solution to our riddle. The Prophet ﷺ had concluded a general truce with all the Jews upon his arrival, perhaps within the first few months, to which they reluctantly agreed on a wait-and-see basis. Whether it was written down at this point is a matter of dispute. His victory at Badr caused panic among them, leading to three confrontations with the Jews. First, a month after Badr, the Banū Qaynuqāʿ—the allies of Khazraj— overestimating their strength and support from their old Khazrajite allies, declared open hostility to the Prophet. The Prophet acted swiftly and decisively, expelling them from Medina after a short siege. Next, some four months after Badr, the Prophet intercepted communication from the Quraysh to the remaining two tribes of the Jews as well as the hypocrites in the Believers’ own ranks. Both of the two remaining Jewish tribes had violated the truce by conspiring with the Quraysh and the hypocrites to kill him and his prominent companions. Around the same time, the Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf episode occurred and the Jews who had contemplated violating the truce were now forced to ratify or re-enter the treaty. This Banū al-Naḍīr rejected, but Banū Qurayẓa accepted. This was the *Kitāb* of Medina that has reached us, in which the Prophet sought to bring all the Believers and the Jews under one treaty with distinct but similar conditions. --- ## What does the Kitāb of Medina mean today? Why and how has the *Kitāb* of Medina become significant today? One influential and typical modern Muslim deployment of the *Kitāb* is by the leader of Tunisia’s Ennahda party, Rachid al-Ghannouchi. He suggests that it included both a political and confessional conception of the *ummah* and uses this reading “to argue that non-Muslims had always enjoyed ‘citizenship rights’ in Islam” and that “Medina was a city of multiple religious communities in which citizenship was based on a shared possession of a territory, and not shared creed.”[\[53\]](#f53) Before the fateful 2011 uprisings, al-Ghannouchi had tried to reconcile Islam with instruments of secular-liberal democracy arguing on the basis of “the nature that God has created us with”—thus sidestepping the logical conflict that would arise if (or perhaps, when) the democratic process demanded contravention of even the unanimously agreed-upon Qur’anic norms (such as inheritance laws, as has indeed occurred in Tunisia).[\[54\]](#f54) Andrew March observes in a recent study that al-Ghannouchi’s reading of the *Kitāb* shifted further in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: > But the post-2011 writings go even further in stressing that the lesson of Medina for postrevolutionary Tunisia is that Islamic governance was founded originally in circumstances of radical pluralism, precisely where a shared will or purpose among “citizens” could not be assumed. al-Ghannouchi writes that the first written constitution in Islam (if not the world), the *ṣaḥīfah*, codified an essentially pluralistic political formation, and that “we \[Muslims\] are lucky that our first state was a pluralist state.” In a later essay, he reiterates that the founding of Medina provides Muslims with the authoritative example of founding a pluralistic political order, with citizenship (not religion) as the fundamental principle of rights and duties.[\[55\]](#f55) This secularist reading may have been driven by political expediency rather than any evidence-based reasoning, but it must be evaluated nonetheless on scholarly grounds. Not only does this reading bear no resemblance to fact, it flies in the face of the entirety of normative Islamic legal theory (*uṣūl al-fiqh*). We have provided here the text which needs little commentary to preclude the fanciful interpretation offered by al-Ghannouchi and his likes. The Prophet’s ﷺ authority was based primarily on his mission from God and not on the secular basis of “a pluralistic political order.” Those who denied his mission were offered protection and allowed to practice their religion; this tolerance is astounding for a prophet, founder, and lawgiver as absolutely committed to his mission as he ﷺ was. Yet, the Jews and the polytheists included in the *Kitāb* did not elect or want him as their leader, nor could they vote him out, change his mission, or even side with their own co-religionists against him. All the while, the divine revelation both invited them to join and threatened them with punishment in both worlds for failing to do so. Furthermore, the Medinan polity was never meant to be territorially constrained: by giving him protection as their leader and ultimate guide, the Medinan Believers had invited the inevitable ire of the Meccans, and this singular fact dictated all policy (including the writing of this *Kitāb*); concerning all this, the non-believing Medinans had no choice. If the *Kitāb* is to be taken as a coherent document, the community (*ummah*) on which the Medinan order is built must mean the community of the Believers, as we have amply documented earlier. Furthermore, the divine laws pertaining to sociality, tribe, family, and commerce that added to or modified the norms in the *Kitāb* were beginning to be revealed about the same time it was written. This means that if the *Kitāb* were the “essentially pluralist” constitution in any usual sense and all Medinans were its participating citizens (as part of its *ummah*), then every new public law of the Qur’an that was subsequently revealed should be deemed an amendment or violation of this “constitution.” If it is argued that those laws applied to only the Believers, this would create a hypothetical situation in which some of the presumably equal “citizens” of this “constitution” were accepting or creating new norms and policies pertaining to war and peace and fundamentals of economic and social life based on an authority (the divine revelation) that the other “equal” citizens simply did not accept. Wary of the liberal and secular undertones of such labels, some more careful readers of the *Kitāb* have argued effectively that, while not a pluralist constitution, the *Kitāb* founded a kind of confederation or commonwealth of the Medinan tribes that were separate religio-political communities (*ummah*s) in cooperation against a common enemy. Although far more plausible, this interpretation too is open to objections. The Meccans were simply not the common enemy; they were the enemies of Islam. No secular interpretation that ignores the Prophet’s divine mission can make sense of the *Kitāb* and how it was understood and subsequently applied. The interpretation we have offered here also explains the fact that, apart from a few occasional historical references discussed in certain jurisprudential and historical debates, we find little subsequent mention of the *Kitāb* in Islamic normative tradition. Modern interpreters often imply that the classical tradition has been deficient in its approach to the Qur’an and the Sunnah, having left out such a major document—the very “constitution” of Medina—from its legal and political thinking. “Constitutions,” after all, are a big deal. How could the Prophet’s “constitution” have been so neglected that there is not a single sound *isnād* of it, nor any notable mention in the tradition of law and governance? Aren’t constitutions preserved with the greatest care and made available to all affected by them? Why was it not passed down to every ruler, and memorized by heart by every scholar? Did Muslims really neglect the political teachings of their final Prophet ﷺ? Since, as we have shown, even the Companions who preserved this *Kitāb*, such as ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb and their families, did not make it a cornerstone of their teachings let alone “the constitution” of their governance, nor did the classical jurists consider this Prophetic “constitution” to be the foundation of all law, we are compelled to choose between two irreconcilable options. Its proponents insinuate, perhaps unwittingly, that we set aside the rich Islamic heritage, including a holistic engagement with the Qur’an and the Prophetic Sunnah, in favor of a convenient image provided by a single, decontextualized document, open to wildly contradicting interpretations. We have shown that this relative non-centrality of the *Kitāb* did not owe itself to neglect by the Companions and the subsequent scholarship, but because its parts became abrogated, updated, or incorporated piecemeal in the final form of the revealed law.[\[56\]](#f56) Even if an argument for a particular norm may be based on this *Kitāb*, any potentially contradictory norm that is better attested in the sources or is shown to have been revealed at a later stage may trump it. Even though this misreading of the *Kitāb* as “the first written constitution of the world” seems at first blush to bolster Muslim’s tottering self-confidence in a world of nation-states and democratic constitutions, understood in the way it is currently by many influential contemporary trends, it has the potential to inflict profound long-term damage. Apologists from all wounded civilizations trying to recover after the Western onslaught—the Chinese, the Indians, even the Mongols—have tried to take credit for all kinds of modern Western inventions and progress. Like all myths, as the foundation of our edifice of faith or civilization, this one makes us not only vulnerable to scholarly objection and ridicule but also antagonizes us to fact and rigorous scholarship. It belongs to a family of apologist myths whereby the worth of God’s ultimate truth and its ultimate manifestation is judged by its utility for our immediate psychological or political needs: Islam is good and worthwhile because it gave us science, technology, democracy, constitutions, law and order, civilization, and all other things that we earnestly desire. By anchoring our sense of what is truly valuable in this or that human invention, it not only makes us undervalue what God deemed the most valuable truths to teach humankind in His final revelation, but also shuts our minds to how God has guided humans before and outside of Islam to all kinds of valuable things and experiences that we can evaluate, accept, reject, and learn from. This mythification of fact sets us up for disappointment or obfuscation and deprives us of the opportunity to value the truth properly. Rather than confronting the challenge of drastic innovations in world history such as the rise of the nation-state, democracy, capitalism, constitutionalism, secularism, liberalism, and so on, such myths invite us to be intellectually lazy by accepting all seemingly impressive innovations as good—so good that God’s Prophet himself had taught them. This forecloses the possibility of critique: Good luck to any scholars now actually trying to evaluate whether an innovation is good and worthy. To what extent might it be called “the first ever written constitution in the world”? Proving such universal historical claims is rarely possible, for a single counterexample can falsify it. But we may reflect here on whether the *Kitāb* can even be called a “constitution.” One hadith tradition (mentioned earlier  describes the document (*saḥīfah*) as that to which they will turn in dispute (*ma yantahū ilayh*) and that which will unite the matters of the people (*jāmiʿ amr al-nās*); both of these attributes suggest that, at least in *some respects*, the document resembled a constitution or a charter. Constitutions, however, typically restrain the sovereign’s authority. Clearly, this was not the intention of this document. Nor should we see it as a “step toward constitutionalism,” for that falls into the trap of progressivist historical fallacy or “trajectory hermeneutics,” perspectives that see contemporary norms as universal, as the “end of history,” and perfected forms of institutions to which all earlier societies and moral authorities had aspired. Instead, we must see the perfection and completion of the *Kitāb* as materializing in the law that was elaborated over the following seven years by the Prophet ﷺ, as God declared in the Qur’an on the occasion of the Final Pilgrimage, “Today I have perfected your religion, and completed My blessing…” (5:3). Furthermore, typically, the meanings of constitutional norms that often originate in messy contexts are settled through institutionalization and commentary over time, a phase that this document did not experience. From the perspective of Islamic ethico-legal theory (*uṣūl al-fiqh*), it is like any other hadith report that needs to be placed in the context of the entire ecology of divine imperatives that unfolded chronologically during the length of the Prophet’s mission. Although most of its general clauses became eternalized in the final rendition of the divine law, it had a short life as a document. If the three main Jewish tribes had been party to it, all of them had violated it by 5 AH. The Believers’ Pact (Part I) remained in force a little longer until inheritance and other laws qualified many of its terms. Despite its significance, therefore, this document can be accepted neither as a constitution nor a self-standing font of Islamic political norms outside of the context in which it was written. The *Kitāb* continues to be significant, however, from conceptual, historical, and aspirational perspectives. It shows the willingness and eagerness of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to secure peace and order by making and honoring treaties. As evident in the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybīyah (6 AH) that he concluded with the Meccans (e.g., see 8:72), the *Kitāb* shows that the Prophet ﷺ preferred diplomacy to war whenever he could, and used force only to bring the opponents to negotiate and deter them from inflicting harm upon his community, his mission, and ultimately themselves. The *Kitāb* most certainly imagines a multi-religious Islamic polity and protects numerous rights for the non-Believers including the Jews and the polytheists. It also shows respect for graduality in dealing with the existing cultural structures. Not only were the non-Muslims free to maintain their communities, the Believers too were initially allowed to maintain their internal pre-Islamic communal norms and organization. Nor is it the case that the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah concerning the tolerance of the Jews, Christians, and even polytheists outside of Arabia outside the *Kitāb* are any less generous. Quite the contrary. The Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah contain far more specific commands pertaining to *dhimmah*, *jizyah*, and legal and religious protection of non-Muslim communities. They are given rights not only as individuals but—in a fashion that a modern nation-state cannot imagine—as communities with their own norms. Nor is the *Kitāb* the only source of our knowledge about the Prophet’s ﷺ cordial relations with the Jews as neighbors throughout his life, of which the Qur’an and Sunnah provide ample instances. The Prophet ﷺ declared on several occasions the inviolability of the life, property, and honor of the protected people, declaring on one occasion that “Whoever wrongs a *muʿāhad* (non-Muslim with *dhimmah* or other protected status), harms him, burdens him beyond his capacity, or forcefully takes his property, I will litigate against him on the Day of Resurrection.”[\[57\]](#f57) He exhorted about this frequently in the strongest terms, once declaring, “Whoever kills a *muʿāhad* shall not smell the scent of Paradise and its scent spreads to a distance of forty years.”[\[58\]](#f58) He engaged in business with them, treated them graciously as neighbors, visited them when one of them fell ill, and honored their dead. Once he stood in deference when a Jew’s funeral passed by, saying to those who seemed surprised, “Is he not a person (*alaysat nafsan*)”?[\[59\]](#f59) When a rabbi Zayd b. Saʿnah insulted the Prophet when asking for repayment of his loan, ʿUmar sought to discipline the man, upon which the Prophet stopped him saying, “We both deserved better from you. You should have advised me to repay more promptly, and him to ask more gently.”[\[60\]](#f60) His Companions followed in his footsteps. When a fancy meal was presented to ʿAbd Allāḥ b. ʿAmr, he would inquire, “Has some been sent to our Jewish neighbor?” citing the Prophet’s own teaching about kindness to neighbors.[\[61\]](#f61) When he ﷺ died, his shield was mortgaged to a Jew for thirty bags (*ṣāʿ*) of barley.[\[62\]](#f62) Perhaps the most important instance is found in the Qur’an itself. An Arab, Ṭaʿma b. Ubayriq, who had at least nominally embraced Islam, stole a shield from his neighbor, and when he feared getting caught, he implicated his Jewish friend. Basing his judgment on the available evidence, the Prophet sided with the Muslim, but Allah sent several verses recorded in Sūrat al-Nisā’ (4:105-113) declaring the innocence of the accused Jew and denouncing the Muslim, who as a result fled Medina and renounced Islam.[\[63\]](#f63) The Medinan polity was a prophetic one, in some ways sui generis: one in which a prophet of God called all humankind to the true religion by all means necessary, but without physical coercion; prioritizing the interests of that mission over all else, yet constrained by his treaties, which were nevertheless carefully crafted to facilitate the mission. Of course, this *Kitāb* does not contain any clause for constraining the ruler’s power or holding him accountable; he spoke for God, and no Muslim ruler after him could ever make that claim. The first act of the Prophet’s rightly guided successors (caliphs) was precisely the acknowledgment that the ruler could no longer claim to be infallible. Yet the community as a whole must continue the mission of the Prophet ﷺ. In this respect, the *Kitāb* imagines an uncompromisingly *perfectionist* polity, one that exists for a collective moral purpose that is balanced by individuals’ duty to God. The potential tensions between collective and individual duties to God are resolved through the norms embodied in Islamic law. This is the model of a polity we are familiar with in the classical Islamic ideal, with the obvious exception that the classical Sunni tradition does not take any ruler after the Blessed Prophet ﷺ to be an infallible voice of God. The most central concern of the *Kitāb* is the community of the Believers, the *ummah*, its mission, and its political, religious, and social unity, and its peaceful coexistence with its non-Muslim neighbors. **Acknowledgments** This article has benefited immensely from encouragement and extensive feedback by my dear friend Dr. Jonathan Brown, and thorough and insightful suggestions by Drs. Samuel Ross and Anse Tamara Gray that inspired me to rethink and rewrite many parts. I am grateful to them all. I also want to thank Dr. Omar Suleiman, Sh. Ismail Kamdar, Br. Bassam Zawadi, and numerous others for their important suggestions, Dr. Nameera Akhtar for her meticulous copyediting, and Sr. Saarah Khan for her work on the illustrations. ## Summary The Great Scholar Dr. Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh, may Allah have mercy upon him, gave the document of Medina the title of "the first written constitution in the world," and this label has since spread widely in public discourse, often wielded as a rhetorical instrument. Yet despite its fame, the document is rarely studied with care and frequently misunderstood. As it has reached us, it refers to itself as a *kitāb* (a writ or prescript) and a *ṣaḥīfa* (a document or scroll). Because the name we assign to a thing shapes how we understand it, the question of what modern label best suits it—whether constitution (*dustūr*), treaty (*ʿahd*), charter (*wathīqah*), truce (*muwādaʿah*), or safe conduct (*amān*)—cannot be settled until its substance and context have first been examined. What follows is an attempt to weigh the document honestly, giving it neither more nor less than its due. In the imagination of many Muslims today, this *Kitāb* has acquired an outsized significance as a single, self-standing text, invoked for reasons that are often contradictory. As an expression of the speech, action, and aspiration of the Final Messenger of Allah ﷺ, arriving at a decisive turning point in his mission, it has always deserved the attention of every student of Islam. Yet its study is especially pressing now because it is so often summoned to serve modern nationalist, secular, or even autocratic ends. A careful reading does not in the least contradict the Prophet's ﷺ commitment to peace, to coexistence between faith communities, to the honoring of treaties, and to a preference for diplomacy over war. But that same careful reading makes plain that these were not his singular concern. His overriding purpose was the preaching of the truth and the establishment of a community to carry that truth forward. To reduce the document to a single aim—typically inter-religious coexistence or the justification of a secular political order—while reading its clauses out of their internal context, and stripping it of its place within the *Sīrah* and the relevant Qur'anic revelation, is to misuse it. Such a decontextualized reading frees its proponents from engaging the scripture and scholarly tradition coherently and effectively neutralizes central norms of the Qur'an and the Prophetic model. The common misrepresentations rest upon crucial omissions, preferring what is convenient today over a faithful grasp of the Sunnah. In this respect, though the *Kitāb* is most likely authentic in origin, its popular treatment resembles the biblical account in which Jesus, upon him be peace, tells a mob poised to stone an adulterous woman, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone" (John 8:7)—a passage that even Renaissance scholars recognized as a later insertion absent from the earliest manuscripts, yet which became among the most celebrated of his teachings. Despite the sincere intentions of its popularizers, foremost among them the erudite Ḥamīdullāh, the prevailing representations turn the document into a myth that obscures and even works against its original significance. When studied instead with rigor and integrity—knowing that whatever Allah guided His Messenger ﷺ to accomplish is the most worthy and blessed example—its examination is edifying beyond doubt. We ought to study history not to press it into a prefabricated agenda but to let it transform us, trusting that al-Ḥaqq, the Truth, one of the beautiful names of the Almighty, is worth seeking. The document is known through two main versions: that of the celebrated historian and hadith transmitter Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767) and that of the eminent scholar of language and scripture Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (d. 224/838). No scholar, classical or modern, has denied that the Messenger ﷺ concluded one or more agreements with the people of Yathrib, including the Jews, soon after his arrival. Numerous sound hadith reports corroborate portions of it. Its authenticity as a single unified document, however, is open to question, for no sound chain (*isnād*) exists for it in its entirety. The modern Syrian historian Yūsuf al-ʿIshsh argued that it appears in no book of *fiqh* or sound hadith despite its supposed legislative weight, and that Ibn Isḥāq reports it without any *isnād*—though this remains an outlier view. The contemporary historian and hadith scholar Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī notes that it enjoys some corroboration through a weak *isnād* from Ibn Abī Khaythamah and a truncated one stopping at al-Zuhrī, but concludes that this does not raise it to the level of *ṣaḥīḥ* and that it may therefore be unfit to ground Shariah rulings without further support, while remaining acceptable by the somewhat different standards applied to *Sīrah* reports. In sum, the corroboration of individual sections by sound reports, together with the strong evidence for such treaties in that era, makes a good case for its general reliability. The first half, the Pact of the Believers, is far better attested than the latter portion concerning the truce with the Jews. Al-Bukhārī (no. 7300) records that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib declared from the pulpit that the family of the Messenger ﷺ possessed no book exclusive to them save the Book of Allah and what was in a document hung from his sword, containing rulings on blood money, the sanctuary of Medina, and the *dhimmah* that binds all Muslims and may be granted by the least of them in power. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim records ʿAlī denying any special teaching beyond his scroll, which cursed whoever slaughtered in other than Allah's name, stole a signpost, cursed his father, or sheltered a murderer; another report mentions rulings of alms within it. Traditions also mention a similar document held by the family of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Notably, all these reports mention only the first part, the pact among the Believers, and make no mention of the Jews. The document establishes the *ummah* as a community joined by faith and by struggle (*jihād*) in its cause. While the Qur'an sometimes uses *ummah* for the followers of all prophets, or for all whom a prophet addresses—as in the hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, "anyone who hears of me from this *ummah*, a Jew or a Christian, then dies without believing... will be among the people of Fire" (Muslim no. 153)—here it carries the meaning that became primary: the community defined by belief in and support of the Prophet's ﷺ mission, in accordance with the verses revealed about this time, "You are the best *ummah*" (3:110) and "Thus We have made you the middlemost *ummah*" (2:143). The distinction between *muʾminūn* and *muslimūn* in the opening clause is notable, best understood as concentric circles, as in the verse, "The bedouins say, We have become *muʾmin*. Say, You have not yet become *muʾmin*, but you have become *muslim*, for *īmān* has not yet entered your hearts" (49:14). The clause referring disputes to "Allah and Muḥammad" closely mirrors, "if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger" (4:59), confirming that Sūrat al-Nisāʾ was being revealed at this time. Imām al-Shāfiʿī declared that he knew of no disagreement among the scholars of *Sīrah* that the Messenger ﷺ, upon arriving in Medina, made a truce (*dhimmah*) with the Jews without imposing *jizyah*. Weighing the sound reports, the likeliest reconstruction is that the Prophet ﷺ concluded a general, largely unwritten truce upon arrival, and that the document we possess was written after Badr. Its victory alarmed the Jews and provoked confrontations, and the poet Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf, having incited the Quraysh and slandered the Muslims, was executed, after which the Prophet ﷺ committed the terms to writing. The Qur'an describes the treachery of the Jewish tribes as *ghadr* and *khiyānah* (8:56), confirming a prior pact. Ibn Taymiyyah held that "Yahūd al-Aws" designates Banū Qurayẓah and "Yahūd Banī ʿAwf" Banū Qaynuqāʿ, which explains the reappearance of certain clauses. As for its meaning today, the reading advanced by Rachid al-Ghannūshī—that Medina was founded as an "essentially pluralist" order in which citizenship rather than creed grounded rights—cannot withstand scrutiny. If all Medinans were equal citizens of this "constitution," then every subsequent public law of the Qur'an, binding only the Believers, would amount to an amendment imposed by some citizens upon others who did not accept its authority. The Prophet's ﷺ authority rested upon his mission from Allah, not upon a secular pluralism; the Jews and polytheists could not elect him, remove him, alter his mission, or side against him with their co-religionists, even as revelation invited them to faith and warned them of punishment. This also explains why the *Kitāb* receives little attention in the later normative tradition: not through neglect, but because its clauses were abrogated, updated, or absorbed piecemeal into the completed law, of which Allah said, "Today I have perfected your religion" (5:3). To call it "the first written constitution in the world" belongs to a family of apologist myths that measure God's truth by its usefulness to our psychological or political needs, leaving us unable to properly evaluate modern innovations. Constitutions typically restrain the sovereign; this document did no such thing. Nonetheless, the *Kitāb* retains conceptual, historical, and aspirational value. It displays the Messenger's ﷺ eagerness to secure peace through treaties he faithfully honored, as at al-Ḥudaybiyah, and his preference for diplomacy over war. It envisions a multi-religious polity protecting the rights of non-Believers, permitting them their own communal norms. Yet it is far from the only witness to his ﷺ generosity toward the Jews. The Qur'an and Sunnah offer richer provisions still: he ﷺ declared, "Whoever wrongs a *muʿāhad*... I will litigate against him on the Day of Resurrection," and "Whoever kills a *muʿāhad* shall not smell the scent of Paradise." He stood in deference for a Jewish funeral, asking, "Is he not a person?" When the rabbi Zayd ibn Saʿnah spoke harshly demanding repayment, he ﷺ restrained ʿUmar, saying they both deserved better counsel. When Ṭaʿma ibn Ubayriq stole a shield and implicated his Jewish neighbor, Allah revealed verses (4:105–113) vindicating the accused Jew and denouncing the Muslim. His shield was mortgaged to a Jew at his death. The Medinan polity was thus a prophetic one, *sui generis*: perfectionist in its collective moral purpose, balanced by the individual's duty to God, its most central concern being the *ummah* of the Believers, its mission, its unity, and its peaceful coexistence with its neighbors. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-pursuit-of-conviction-iii-do-you-really-believe-in-angels # Do You Really Believe in Angels? | In Pursuit of Conviction **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** Angels, Faith **Tags:** Daily Reads, Publication **Published:** January 22, 2021 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction The ‘[In Pursuit of Conviction](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/in-pursuit-of-conviction)’ series aims to instill confidence in the core pillars of the Islamic worldview. This article addresses the second pillar of faith: belief in angels. This belief is often misunderstood as being a superfluous concept that has no real significance in our day-to-day lives. Many believers may see it as just an abstract theoretical belief to be affirmed without appreciating its significance as one of the core pillars of faith, each of which is crucial for human beings to pursue the upward spiritual path in life. Hence, the angelic realm must be relevant and believing in angels must provide us with powerful sources of meaning in our lives. The goal of this paper is to uncover this hidden source of light by articulating the cosmological, spiritual, eschatological, and psychological relevance of angels to humankind. In addition to this, we preface the discussion by establishing the epistemological framework necessary for the study of angels and highlighting some of the fallacies underlying objections to their existence. With a more comprehensive understanding of the theology of angels, we can enhance our lives with the light of this article of faith. --- ## Answering skeptics - Why do we believe in angels? Belief in angels is a widespread phenomenon, existing both historically and presently in many cultures and religions. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) said, “All of humanity has generally affirmed the presence of \[both\] angels and demons except a few rare cases in different nations.”[\[1\]](#f1) Having said that, he admits that there are skeptics present within a culture that tend to deny their existence, “You would not find an entire culture deny them outright, only particular individuals or groups from amongst them.”[\[2\]](#f2) In our times, many scoff at the religious belief in angels and consider it just one of the many superstitious ideas humanity has developed in response to the uncertainty of the future. It is also viewed as an archaic way of explaining natural phenomena prior to the advent of the scientific revolution. Others have claimed that belief in angels merely arises from a human desire to seek non-human intelligence and beings. > Nothing has greater fascination for the human mind than manifestations, supposed or real, of something akin to human intelligence in non-human beings.[\[3\]](#f3) Thus, according to the skeptics, human beings must have ‘invented’ the concept of angels as a fulfillment of this fascination, as a superstitious way of dealing with existential angst and as a method of explaining what they couldn’t understand in nature. They argue that since human civilization has progressed, we no longer need to hold such primitive beliefs about the world. Such arguments against believing in angels commit the genetic fallacy, whereby a person attempts to dismiss a belief by ostensibly explaining how the belief arises. The truthfulness of the content of a belief is independent of how particular individuals come to that belief. This is the difference between ontology (reality) and epistemology (ways of knowing reality). For example, a person may believe that it will rain tomorrow due to a superstition that it must rain on the 13th of every month. While we would reject the epistemology as superstitious and irrational, we cannot negate the possibility that it will rain tomorrow purely on those grounds. Similarly, just because some people hold religious beliefs out of fear, emotion, or blind acceptance does not mean that the beliefs themselves can be challenged purely on that basis. Furthermore, many people claim that, since there is no empirical or logical proof for the existence of angels, they cannot exist. Such arguments are hardly new and Ibn Taymiyyah himself responds to this common trope among skeptics today, “Some who engage in philosophy, attempt to reject their (angels’) existence due to absence of knowledge, but not knowledge of their absence.”[\[4\]](#f4) As Ibn Taymiyyah demonstrates here, the response to such a claim is to turn it back to the one making the argument. There is no rational or empirical proof to suggest that angels cannot exist. Furthermore, as we will see in this paper, there are good reasons to suggest that scientific explanations of the world are ontologically incomplete without reference to metaphysical forces. ### Angels and epistemology Before delving into the various roles that angels play in our lives, it is important to discuss the nature of angelic beings from the Islamic perspective. Because of the ubiquity of this concept across cultures and religions, it is very easy for people to falsely equate the Islamic view of angels with that of Christianity, for example. This can become a source of doubt for Muslims as they wrongly assume that Muslims believe in angels as they are visually depicted in Western culture, often as winged humans. The Qur’an makes it a point to repudiate mythological conceptions of the angels: > And they have made the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned. (Qur’an 43:19) > Has your Lord favored you \[pagans\] with sons and taken angels as His daughters? You are truly making an outrageous claim.  (Qur’an 17:40) Unlike cultural mythologies, Islam provides a rationally coherent theology that can be taken seriously at face value and actually serves to provide a more meaningful and sensible understanding of reality. Islamic theology takes quite a grounded epistemological approach to ideas of the unseen world. The realm of the unseen is wholly unlike the realm of the material world. Nothing in human imagination can approximate it. Any descriptions or claims about the unseen must be derived from revelation. This guards the Islamic worldview from being tarnished by superstitions and irrational ideas regarding the unseen world. Furthermore, the concept of the finality of **nubūwah** (prophethood) with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ensures that no figure can emerge later and claim revelation so as to add dubious ideas to Islamic theology. It is important to also be cautious about those who attempt to rationalize and reduce the concept of angels to simply ‘forces of nature’ that correlate to scientific constructs from the physical sciences. The reality of the angelic realm and the nature of its interaction with the world we empirically sense are beyond the purview of the scientific enterprise and cannot be traversed in any certain way through reason beyond conjecture. Science is an epistemological method that is restrained by its focus on purely empirical data. Thus, it cannot comment on metaphysical ideas such as values, morality, beauty, let alone attempt to theorize the nature of angelic beings. Therefore, the traditional text-based approach to Islamic theology should not be seen as blind literalism and dogmatism. Rather, it is a sensible approach to questions that cannot be addressed by science, due to the fundamental limitations of empirical data. A person may object that since there are no empirical data, and angels cannot be studied by science, we should be able to simply dismiss the concept as unscientific. Here, a distinction needs to be made between something that is unscientific (violates science) and something that is supra-scientific (beyond science). Claiming that the earth is flat would be unscientific, but claiming that multiple unseen dimensions of spacetime form a Calabi–Yau manifold would be supra-scientific, albeit within the realm of mathematical theory. Similarly, the existence of angels in a realm we cannot empirically witness is a supra-scientific concept, not an unscientific one. ### What about the tooth fairy? Beyond mythology At this junction, a person may attempt to equate angels with mythological ideas. Does this mean that we have to accept the possibility of unicorns, the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, Russell's Teapot, or the skeptic’s favorite, the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Here, it is important to differentiate empirical and physical entities from metaphysical/spiritual entities.[\[5\]](#f5) The tooth fairy, unicorns, Santa Claus and other fictitious characters of this genre are physical entities that are claimed to exist or interact with our world. In such a situation, we can use science to evaluate the accuracy of this claim. For instance, a person can put a tooth under their pillow and place a camera to observe whether the tooth is removed by a fairy at night and replaced with money. This scientific experiment is sufficient to consider the notion of tooth fairies ‘unscientific,’ since it is claimed that they *physically* remove the tooth and replace it with coins. As for Russell’s Teapot,[\[6\]](#f6) the clever skeptic would rebut that it can be so tiny that it is unable to be seen by our observational instruments on earth. The Flying Spaghetti Monster[\[7\]](#f7) may be claimed to be from another dimension, empirically inaccessible just as we claim about the angels. However, there is a stark difference between imagining an entity or creature based on mundane objects encountered by humans in the physical world (like spaghetti or teapots) and discussing matters that transcend the physicality of this world entirely. Moreover, we must also differentiate between ideas that are products of an individual's imagination versus ideas that come from divine revelation. The phenomenon of revelation is a serious issue that requires appropriate academic appraisal, not reflexive skepticism and infantile mockery. To simply attribute all claims of revelation to forgeries before examining the person and product of revelation is intellectually lazy. The topic of revealed knowledge is beyond the scope of this article and will be dealt with in its own right in a future paper, God Willing. Suffice it to say, genuine claims to revelation should be treated differently than ideas known to be the product of individual imagination. Lastly, we must differentiate between what has actual relevance to our life and what is mere conjecture that has no bearing on our daily affairs. Pontificating about the existence of teapots in outer-space does not have any real consequences for, or bearing on, a person’s life. The existence of angels that record our deeds, for example, on the other hand is a very relevant idea that has ultimate significance in our lives. Their existence implies we are accountable in this life for the choices that we make and that we will see what they’ve recorded in the next life and be judged accordingly. --- ## What are angels from an Islamic perspective? From the outset we must keep in mind the general methodology Muslim theologians have employed when attempting to understand the unseen world. Among mainstream Muslim scholars there is a general consensus that we cannot anthropomorphize the unseen world based on the descriptions that are given to us in revelation. That is to say, the unseen world contains realities that we have never empirically seen, nor can our imaginations ever fully grasp them. Therefore, we must understand it with adjectives that convey some meaning but cannot entirely capture its unique essence. Allah tells us about this regarding the descriptions of paradise in the next world, > Every time they are provided with fruit from it, they say, “This is what we have been provided with before,” and it is given to them in likeness. (Qur’an 2:25) The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also informs us that Allah *ﷻ* said about paradise, > I have prepared for My righteous servants that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has ever imagined.[\[8\]](#f8) ### Angelic substance As mentioned, one of the reasons why many people may find it difficult to believe in angels is because of the way various religious and cultural traditions have depicted them. From the Islamic perspective, the reality of angels cannot be understood by imagining their descriptions based on our experience in this world. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told us that the angels are made from an entirely different substance than human beings and the rest of the organisms and animals on earth, “The angels were created from light.”[\[9\]](#f9) Life that is derived from light would be a very different reality to organic life that we interact with in this world. Therefore, when we find physical descriptions of angels in the Qur’an and Sunnah, we should not analogize to organisms we witness in the animal kingdom. Furthermore, just as we see the diversity of life within and between species in this world, we find the same pattern when looking at the description of the angels. There is not one prototypical angel, but rather a variety of angels with a diversity of features based on their roles. ### Angelic wings The Qur’an describes the diversity within the angelic species’ wings, > All praises and gratitude are due to Allah, Creator of the skies and the earth, Maker of angelic messengers having wings, two or three or four. He increases in creation what He wills. Certainly Allah has power over all things. (Qur’an 35:1) It should be emphasized that when the wings are described, we accept the description as the general idea of a ‘wing,’ but recognize that an angel’s wing is from the unseen, and therefore cannot be compared to the wings of birds or insects. Ibn Ḥajr al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 858 AH), the famous commentator of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* mentions, “The scholars have said regarding the wings of the angels that they are of an angelic nature and cannot be understood except in its meaning.”[\[10\]](#f10) Al-Suhaylī (d. 581 AH), best known for his commentary on Ibn Hishām’s Prophetic biography, also mentions this theological principle, > The people of knowledge have said regarding the wings of angels, they are not like what is imagined similar to the wings of birds... the reality of their qualities cannot be discerned rationally nor have they been explained through revelation… and there is no benefit in trying to understand their reality.[\[11\]](#f11) In terms of number, the angels are not limited to a maximum of four wings, as we have been told that the Angel Gabriel has 600 wings.[\[1\]](#f122) Furthermore, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described ‘rubies’ and ‘pearls’ emerging from these wings.[\[13\]](#f13) This further emphasizes the point that the reality of the angels and their physical descriptions are beyond anything we have ever experienced in this world. ### Quantity of angels The quantity of angels is such that their number cannot be fathomed. Allah mentions, > “And no one knows the (number of) soldiers of your Lord except Himself” (Qur’an 74:31). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > Indeed I see what you do not see, and I hear what you do not hear. The heavens squeak, and they have the right to squeak because there is no space within it wider than 4 fingers’ width except that there is an angel prostrating to Allah.[\[14\]](#f14) Furthermore, the following narration from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he ascended to the heavens with Jibrīl shows the sheer quantity of angels in existence, > Jibrīl said to me: This is *Bayt al-Maʿmūr*, 70,000 angels worship here every day and when they leave they never return.[\[15\]](#f15) ### Why does all this matter? The descriptions of the angels that are offered in the Qur’an and Sunnah are not just interesting facts to store in our brains. Rather, they can serve to inspire the heart with awe and wonder when contemplating the majestic nature of these entities. Imagine that the cosmos is filled with these sublime creatures that play an active role in our lives in a number of different capacities. Such a thought can turn the most mundane of activities into a spectacle when viewed through the prism of faith. Consider a young lad walking on a cold winter day on cracked concrete to an unsightly building that contains a small rental unit that functions as a *masjid* classroom. Though his quest for knowledge takes place in seemingly dull if not dreary surroundings in this physical realm, on another plane of reality an entirely different scene is encountered. With our faith in the angels, this walk becomes a grand and monumental parade, with angelic beings lowering their wings and giving this student a hero's welcome. As the Prophet ﷺ said, > He who follows a path in quest of knowledge, Allah will make the path of *jannah* easy to him. The angels lower their wings over the seeker of knowledge, being pleased with what he does.[\[16\]](#f16) Learning about the beautiful descriptions of angels serves to increase the impact narrations like the above have on our mind and soul when we strive for goodness in this world. --- ## What are the roles of the angels? The remainder of the article will be focused on the relevance of angels to human beings. This will be elucidated through a survey of the various roles angels have been given in relation to our existence. The Qur’an quotes the angels in proclaiming, “There is no one from among us except that they have a particular station” (Qur’an 37:164). Imām al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH)[\[17\]](#f17) and Imām al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH)[\[18\]](#f18) mention that the stations assigned to the angels are places for them to engage in worship of Allah ﷻ. Part of this worship, as Al-Bayḍāwī (d. 685 AH) comments, involves carrying out Allah's commands in the ordering of the world.[\[19\]](#f19) It should be emphasized that these angels are not independent demi-gods that act on their own accord. Rather, they are subordinate to the command of Allah ﷻ and do not disobey His orders. Thus, Allah ﷻ has created both the means and the effect in a perfect system of order out of His Wisdom. When we turn to the Qur’an and Sunnah we find a wide range of tasks that the angels have been assigned. We have broadly categorized these roles as: cosmological, psychological, spiritual, and eschatological. The cosmological function of the angels refers to the active role they play in the governance of the physical world, including shaping the development of the embryo, directing the clouds and winds, bringing forth rain and vegetation, and so on. The psychological function refers to the phenomenon of angelic inspiration into the minds of human beings, whispering positive thoughts. The spiritual role refers to the support, aid, and prayers that angels give to humanity. The eschatological role includes the recording of deeds in real time, the interrogation in the grave, the blowing of the trumpet, and serving as gatekeepers and custodians of hellfire and paradise in the next world. Hence, it is clear that the angelic realm plays a significant role in all aspects of our life, from before birth to the afterlife. ### Cosmological function This function of the angels is perhaps the most contentious that many believers of all traditions find difficulty grappling with. According to the Islamic tradition, angels do play a pivotal role in the governance of the natural world. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) states, “every movement in the universe is caused by angels.”[\[20\]](#f20) The clouds, the mountains, the wind, and the rain are all natural phenomena that depend on angelic activity for their existence. The Qur’an and Sunnah are quite explicit in describing this role of angels in various capacities. Before proceeding, it is important to understand the relationship between scientific understanding and belief in angels. ### Science and angels How do we reconcile our theological belief regarding the involvement of angels in the natural world with the scientific model of nature that doesn’t seem to require any angels for its explanation? The answer to this question lies in understanding the philosophy of science. #### Science and reality The relation between scientific theories and reality is central to the philosophy of science.[\[21\]](#f21) Do scientific theories provide approximations of ultimate reality? Or do they merely provide us with a *convenient* framework to make reliable predictions in reality? This is a philosophical question rather than a scientific one, and thus cannot be answered through empirical observation or experimentation. Philosophers advocating for scientific realism maintain that theoretical entities of science (such as gravity and quarks) are real objects.[\[22\]](#f22) The consequences of this philosophical outlook are that the world becomes ‘populated’ with these entities that come with their own ontological[\[23\]](#f23) baggage since they are ultimately metaphysical objects.[\[24\]](#f24) This poses a problem because it would mean that all scientific theories implicitly affirm the existence of a metaphysical layer of reality that determines the direction of nature. In other words, it seems to lend support to theological ideas regarding metaphysical involvement in the natural world. Said Nursi, the famous 20th-century Turkish thinker, explains the ontological baggage that scientific theories come with. > How can so-called natural laws have any influence upon creation? Being no more than nominal and imaginary principles, they cannot be the origin, nor even the cause, of any kind of existence, nature, identity and external reality if there are no angels to represent, manifest, and administer them.[\[25\]](#f25) Philosophers who advocate for scientific instrumentalism wish to dispense with the ontological responsibility that comes with affirming the real existence of theoretical entities.[\[26\]](#f26) Scientific instrumentalism means to redirect the goal of science away from arriving at objective truth or reality and toward arriving at convenient models that can make predictions and be used for the purpose of innovation and advancement.[\[27\]](#f27) Ernest Nigel, the famous 20th-century analytic philosopher defines scientific theories under an instrumentalist view as, > A rule or a principle for analyzing and symbolically representing certain materials of gross experience, and at the same time an instrument in a technique for inferring observation statements from other such statements.[\[28\]](#f28) P. K. Stanford, a philosopher of science, writes in his chapter on Instrumentalism in the *Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science*, > Our best scientific theories are not (as the scientific realist would have it) accurate descriptions of how things stand in otherwise inaccessible domains of nature but are instead simply powerful conceptual tools or instruments for engaging practically with the world around us.[\[29\]](#f29) If this is the goal of science, then the question of whether the theories are true or false in an objective sense becomes irrelevant. Scientists are then able to remain agnostic regarding the philosophical and theological issue of the nature of reality. #### Angels and nature The key take-away from this discussion is that, regardless of which view one takes, scientific theories do not replace or negate the involvement of metaphysical entities or determinants in the natural world. Therefore, the Islamic theological understanding of angelic entities being involved in natural processes cannot be considered an irrational belief. Beyond merely not being irrational, it has been argued that the world does not make sense without adopting such ontological commitments. G. K. Chesterton, an English philosopher, in 1903 observed that many of the young generation at the time had returned to a spiritual view of the world, despite major advancements in the sciences. He writes, > What this doctrine is may be right to state as baldly and as briefly as possible; it is the view that the world, closely examined, does point with an extreme suggestiveness to the existence of a spiritual world, of a world of agencies not apparently produced by matter, capable to some extent of controlling and inspiring, capable to some extent of being known. He then explains that, without having this metaphysical worldview, the natural world stops making sense, > We have not returned to the spiritual theory because of this or that triviality —because of a justification of the Fourth Gospel or a rap on the table. We have returned to it because, by rejection of rationalism, the world becomes suddenly rational.[\[30\]](#f30) #### The problem of agencies In a fascinating conversation entitled “Angels Without Wings,” Bruno Latour, a French philosopher and anthropologist, explains that our advancement in the scientific understanding of the world has not replaced the need for belief in angels, rather it has made us even more in need of an explanation of why things are the way they are.[\[31\]](#f31) > If animism is about things having agency, then one thing modernists have done has been to multiply the amount of agencies in the world to an extraordinary degree. But we have silenced it.[\[32\]](#f32) Central to the discussion is the problem of ‘agencies’ in nature. An agent is something that moves according to its own pattern or ‘will.’ According to Latour, scientists are surrounded by entities that demonstrate agency, > Atoms have agency, cells have agency, stars have agency, psyches have agency; and then you begin to look at the specificity and the specification of all these agencies, and you realize that you begin to jump from one field to the other.[\[33\]](#f33) The idea of agency being present in nature stems from the notion that the natural world seems to behave in an ordered and intelligible way, as if it possesses agency or is controlled by an agent. As long as we produce scientific theories that elegantly describe natural phenomena as an orchestra of interconnected patterns and order, it will beg the unanswered question of how? How do objects in nature seem to interact with a sense of agency if the popular scientific view is that matter is inanimate? Latour asserts that the belief that the world is made up of inanimate objects is far more difficult to rationalize than the idea that agencies exist in nature, > What has to be explained in my view is the belief in ‘inanimates.’ It is an odd belief, because of course, again, it never worked. So it is this belief in the inanimate that is the big mystery—animism is very easy to explain, but inanimism is very strange. Especially when it’s inanimates speaking by themselves, so they are inanimated but speak, able to close an argument, because they are undisputable. So when you add up all these things that inanimate things do, they are quite full of interesting agencies and animation as well.[\[34\]](#f34) Paul Davies, a contemporary cosmologist, recognizes an aspect of this issue in an article entitled ‘Taking Science on Faith’: > Science has its own faith-based belief system. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. You couldn’t be a scientist if you thought the universe was a meaningless jumble of odds and ends haphazardly juxtaposed. When physicists probe to a deeper level of subatomic structure, or astronomers extend the reach of their instruments, they expect to encounter additional elegant mathematical order. And so far this faith has been justified.[\[35\]](#f35) When a person looks to the world, they must have faith that it is intelligible before proceeding to try and understand it. This not only precludes randomness as the origin of the universe but implies the need of a metaphysical explanation for the order and intelligibility of nature. #### The problem of causality The problem of agency extends to the concept of causality. Why do objects cause effects in other objects? The causal relation between two phenomena is often thought to be some sort of rational or empirical axiom or necessity, but this is not the case.[\[36\]](#f36) There is no rational or empirical principle that dictates how causal relationships should be determined. Consider the simple example of movement, force, and energy. When billiard balls collide, or when a glass falls to the ground, we can predict what the outcome will be based on measurements of different properties of those objects. Phil Dowe, a contemporary philosopher of science, explains the challenge in understanding the nature of these properties that are measured: > But what sort of thing is the quantity, energy, which is possessed by an object, yet has an identity through time?...In fact, the notion of identity over time suggests that energy is not a property at all, but a thing, a substance, separate from the object, but standing in some relation.[\[37\]](#f37) Furthermore, we are unable to account for the nature of the interaction between these metaphysical properties during a causal event: > Once such quantities are ascribed to objects an ‘accounting’ problem arises when bodies interact in that we wish to know what happens to them before, during, and after interaction takes place.[\[38\]](#f38) Therefore, the concept of causal relation seems to be a metaphysical property that describes how two physical bodies interact in the natural world. > The world contains not only causes and effects, but also causal relations holding between causes and effects.[\[39\]](#f39) The metaphysical entities embedded within the notion of causality once again come with ontological baggage that indicates a metaphysical layer of influence to the natural phenomena we observe in the world. The nature of this metaphysical layer of reality is something beyond the grasp of scientific and rational inquiry. Rather, scientific and rational inquiry depend on its existence. Believing in the unseen realm is a crucial idea that enables us to see the world as meaningful. According to Latour, this is why there is ontological space for the belief in angelic entities influencing the natural world: > They have room in ontology, yes; not only those, but lots of other entities that were always there. It’s not that they are new; they are always there, with very, very different types of specifications.[\[40\]](#f40) ### Angels and reality Muslims should not feel that the angelic realm described in the Qur’an and the Sunnah go against a rational and intelligent understanding of the world. On the contrary, as has been demonstrated through the course of this article, belief in metaphysical entities is completely justified when we examine the nature of the world carefully. The metaphysical concepts of causality, agency, and theoretical entities demonstrate the need for metaphysical commitments for a reasonable ontology. We should not see scientific advancement as a threat to our theological worldview because it simply is unable to examine the metaphysical realm of reality. In fact, scientific advancement actually testifies to order and intelligibility in the world, which serves to support the Islamic picture of reality. With this discussion in mind, we are ready to understand the cosmological functions of the angels from an Islamic perspective. We will explore the main functions that have been described by the Qur’an and Sunnah and clarify any potential doubts that may arise. #### Clouds, thunder, and lightning The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was asked by the Jews in Madīnah, “‘O Abū al-Qāsim![\[41\]](#f41) Inform us about the thunder, what is it?’ He said, ‘An angel among the angels, who is responsible for the clouds. He has a piece of fire (*makhārīq min nār*) with which he drives the clouds wherever Allah ﷻ Wills.’ They then asked, ‘And what is the sound that we hear?’ He replied, ‘It is \[the angel\] directing the clouds (*zajruhu bi-al-saḥāb*) until they reach where they have been ordered to go.’ They responded, ‘You have told the truth.’”[\[42\]](#f42) Modern science informs us that lightning is formed from a strong polarization of positively charged particles at the top of a cloud and negatively charged particles at the base of that cloud. When the polarization is strong enough to overcome the resistance of air, the negative particles at the bottom of the cloud will follow a path to the opposite charge on the ground. This results in the visual spectacle of lightning.[\[43\]](#f43) The term *makhārīq min nār* is an interesting phrase that may refer to an unseen phenomenon that correlates with that process in the natural world. The skeptic may object that this is not an accurate description of lightning formation. It is important to understand that this hadith is describing a metaphysical process that underlies this physical phenomenon. Hence, narrations such as these should not be cause for doubt or confusion as they are not descriptions of empirical phenomena. #### Rain and vegetation The Archangel Mikāʾīl (Michael) has a role that has been specifically associated with rainfall and vegetation. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have asked Jibrīl about Mikāʾīl’s responsibilities and Jibrīl responded, “It is over the vegetation and the rain.”[\[44\]](#f44) There is also a narration attributed to the Prophet ﷺ that explains the roles of the four main angels, Jibrīl, Mikāʾīl, Isrāfīl, and the Angel of Death as follows: > As for Jibrīl, he is in charge of war and sending revelation, as for Mikāʾīl he is in charge of every rain that falls, every leaf that grows, and every leaf that falls…[\[45\]](#f45) However, this narration is *mursal* to ʿIkrimah ibn Khālid ibn al-ʿĀṣ (d. 114 AH), which means it is missing the narrator(s) between the second-generation scholar and the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ was once asked by some of the Jews in Madinah who his ally was among the angels; he responded with “Jibrīl.” They replied, “Jibrīl comes with war and fighting, if only it was Mikāʾīl who comes with mercy, rain, and vegetation, we would follow you.”[\[46\]](#f46) There are also narrations going back to scholars from the second generation, such as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ (d. 118 AH)[\[47\]](#f47), and later scholars such as Ibn Kathīr[\[48\]](#f48) that also mention Mikāʾīl’s role regarding the rain and vegetation. #### Mountains There is mention of an angel responsible for the movement and formation of mountains. In a longer hadith, Bukhārī and Muslim record that the angel of the mountains came to the Prophet ﷺ and said to him, “‘O Muhammad, Allah ﷻ has heard what your people have said to you. I am the angel of the mountains. Your Lord has sent me to you so that you may give me orders. What do you want? If you wish I can crush them between the two mountains.’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Rather I hope that Allah ﷻ will bring forth from their loins people who will worship Allah ﷻ alone, not associating any partner with Him.’”[\[49\]](#f49) This shows the compassion, forgiveness, and grace of the Prophet ﷺ who never took personal revenge and always saw the best in people. #### Life It is also mentioned that there are angels that are sent to fashion the embryo in the womb as it develops. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When forty-two nights have passed, Allah ﷻ sends an angel to the embryo and he gives it shape, forming its hearing, sight, its skin, flesh, and bones. Then he says: ‘O Lord, male or female?’ Then your Lord decrees whatever He Wills and the angel writes it down.”[\[50\]](#f50) Based on current findings, sex differentiation takes place around 6 weeks gestation.[\[51\]](#f51) This would mean around 42 days, which is remarkably congruent with the timeline mentioned in the narrations. One contention that a person may have is regarding sex *determination* at 42 days. Our current understanding of embryology is that sex is really determined at the moment of conception based on whether the fertilizing sperm carries two X chromosomes or an XY pairing. At around 42 days, we merely start to see the biological manifestation of what was already determined at conception. Firstly, it is important to note that this narration does not say that the decision of Allah ﷻ or His determination occurs at 42 days. From the Islamic perspective, this determination occurred even prior to conception. Allah has written everything that will occur before this universe was even created,[\[52\]](#f52) let alone the fetus in the womb. What this narration tells us is that the angels ask the gender because they do not know what Allah has decided. The decree of Allah mentioned in the narration is referring to the immediate decree at this moment, and does not negate the pre-eternal decree that existed long before. That is to say, Allah has decided everything before everything was created, and when the time comes for something to come into existence, He makes another decree at that moment to bring it into existence. As Allah says, “Every day He is involved in the affair” (Qur’an 55:29). #### Death There is a lengthy narration that describes the journey of the soul from the moment of death to the grave. Given that this section is dedicated to describing the physical functions of the angels, we will focus on the moment of death that is empirically witnessed by human beings in this world. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When a Muslim is about to go into the afterlife and leave this world, the angel of death comes and sits at his head. Then angels descend from the sky with faces like the sun, bringing a shroud from the shrouds of paradise, and perfume from the perfumes of paradise. They all sit with the angel of death as far as the eye can see. So the angel of death says ‘O tranquil soul, come out to forgiveness from Allah ﷻ and His pleasure.’ So he removes the soul, which seeps out like water seeps out from a waterskin.”[\[53\]](#f53) He also describes how death occurs for the evil criminals. “The angel of death says, ‘O filthy soul, come out to anger from Allah ﷻ.’ The soul sinks deep into the body, so when it is pulled out it breaks vessels and nerves just like a stick with branches being pulled from a heap of wool.”[\[54\]](#f54) The description of the soul breaking through vessels and nerves does not refer to physical damage to vessels and nerves, but to a spiritual reality that we are unaware of. Once again, these narrations do not contradict our view of the process of death simply because we do not have access to measure qualitative conscious experiences after the soul has left this world. ### Psychological function From the Islamic tradition we learn that angels have been given the responsibility of providing positive mental energy through inspiring good thoughts in our minds. This lends support against demonic whispering into our minds. > The Prophet ﷺ said, “Satan has a portion over the son of Adam and the angel has a share over him. The devil directs man to commit evil actions and deny the truth and the angel encourages man to do good actions and believe in the truth.”[\[55\]](#f55) > The Prophet ﷺ said, “When a man enters his house or goes to bed, an angel and a devil hasten to him. The angel says, ‘End it off good!” and the devil says, ‘End it off with bad!’[\[56\]](#f56) There is a profound benefit to be taken from these narrations when it comes to our mental health. While there are many factors that contribute to our overall mental well-being, cognitions (thoughts) are some of the most relevant to mental health professionals. Cognitive therapy involves challenging and replacing negative thoughts about ourselves and the world. Mindfulness aims to nurture a non-judgmental approach to negative thought patterns, enabling us to de-identify with them, thereby allowing the passive removal of those thoughts from our minds. From these narrations, we learn about the psychological support available to us by way of the angels to counteract negative thinking. Therefore, from an Islamic perspective, adopting a lifestyle that invites the presence of angels is a crucial aspect of good mental hygiene. Increasing the angelic support around us is about restraining from what repels angels and committing to what attracts them. A subsequent section will inform us of the attractive forces at our disposal. In the following section, we focus on repellent factors so we can avoid them. #### Home environment The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave us advice on how to avoid a home that repels angels, “Angels do not enter a house wherein there is a *s*ū*rah* (image) or a dog.”[\[57\]](#f57) There has been much commentary regarding what is meant by *s*ū*rah* in the classical commentaries as well as in the contemporary period with the advent of photography. It is agreed that images here refer to those depicting human beings and animals, however there is disagreement over what the prohibited forms of the images are. A very small minority of scholars including Makkī ibn Abī Tālib (d. 427 AH)[\[58\]](#f58), AAl-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH)[\[59\]](#f59) and Ibn al-Faras (d. 597 AH)[\[60\]](#f60) have said this only applies to images that are constructed for the purposes of worship, such as idols.[\[61\]](#f61) The default position of the Māliki school of thought is that the image is any human or animal that is constructed in three dimensions, regardless of whether it is for worship or not.[\[62\]](#f62) The majority position of the Ḥanafīs, Shāfiʿīs, and Ḥanbalīs is that this applies to both three- and two-dimensional images of humans or animals.[\[63\]](#f63) Dispensation is given to education, children’s toys, as well as garments. Clothing has been made an exception by some scholars due to a narration that suggests the Prophet ﷺ made an exception for embroidery on garments.[\[64\]](#f64) The important benefit to take from this discussion is that homes will be designed and decorated according to the values of their inhabitants. The home represents the state of a person’s heart. Even if one does not intend worship, displaying images or statues of people is usually done to revere those individuals and is a means of remembering them. This culture still exists today where people hang images of celebrities, athletes, or images of relatives. This repels the angels as it is an environment that has not been emptied for the remembrance of Allah. Muslims seek to purify their hearts of revering anything other than Allah. Removing images of people that are revered helps one empty one’s own heart from aggrandizing anyone other than Allah. #### Physical hygiene The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever eats garlic, onions, or leeks, let him not come near our mosque, for the angels are offended by that which offends the son of Adam.”[\[65\]](#f65) This hadith informs us of an important axiom in regards to repelling angels from one’s self. Physical hygiene is something that also affects angels in a way we do not understand. Therefore, ensuring that one’s body and environment are clean is very important to ensure that we are manifesting a lifestyle that invites the angelic presence. From this we can make an association between physical hygiene and mental hygiene from an Islamic perspective. Taking care of one’s home environment, personal hygiene, and purity can have an impact on our minds, since it attracts angels who engage in positive whisperings. Therefore, from an Islamic perspective, good mental hygiene involves good physical hygiene. The value of *ṭahārah* (physical purity) cannot be overstated in Islam, since it is the very first chapter in every manual of Islamic law. This is a unique characteristic of the religion of Islam. This was particularly apparent at a time when hygiene and purity were seen as unnecessary and superfluous in other parts of the world, such as Europe. The late British anthropologist, Jack Goody wrote extensively on the impact of Islam on Europe and mentions, > But there was also a considerable influence on the domestic scene, especially in terms of hygiene and the use of water, about which the Christians had a lot to learn.[\[66\]](#f66) ### Spiritual function There are a number of spiritual functions that angels fulfill that range from prayers, protection, love, and also testing humanity. We experience the various ways that angels interact with us on a spiritual level in our daily lives. #### Testing The Qur’an describes two angels called Harūt and Marūt that were sent to the Children of Israel as a test. They taught them the dark art of black magic[\[67\]](#f67) that was used to sow hatred between spouses, break up families, and cause harm to others.[\[68\]](#f68) In the Sunnah, we find a long tradition that states an angel took the form of a beggar, a sick person, and a poor man and went to three different households to see how they would treat their unexpected visitor.[\[69\]](#f69) Oftentimes people look at vulnerable populations in society with an eye of judgment. Our belief in the angels should restrain us from casting judgment and focus us on what we can do to help them. We do not know whether Allah has sent them as a test, and whether they may, in fact, be angels. **Prayers** One of the most profound and empowering ways that angels affect us on a spiritual level are the prayers they offer for us. Understanding that these noble and majestic creatures are a support for the believers helps those going through difficulties in isolation and calamity. Knowing that there are heavenly beings that are praying for one’s success helps one deal with loneliness. > The heavens almost break from above them, and the angels exalt their Lord with praise and ask forgiveness for those on earth. Unquestionably, it is Allah who is the Forgiving, the Merciful. (Qur’an 42:5) > Those \[angels\] who carry the Throne and those around it exalt their Lord with praise and believe in Him and ask forgiveness for those who have believed, “Our Lord, You have encompassed all things in mercy and knowledge, so forgive those who have repented and followed Your way and protect them from the punishment of Hellfire. Our Lord, and admit them to gardens of perpetual residence which You have promised them and whoever was righteous among their fathers, their spouses, and their offspring. Indeed, it is You who is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. And protect them from evil. And he whom You protect from evil on that day has received mercy from You, and that is the great attainment.” (Qur’an 40:7-9) There are also particular actions that have been linked to the prayers of the angels. > The Prophet ﷺ said, “The angels send prayers on a person so long as he stays in his place of prayer. They say, ‘O Allah, honor him, O Allah, have mercy on him,’ And you are in a state of **ṣalāh** as long as you are waiting for **ṣalāh**.”[\[70\]](#f70) Other examples include being among those in the first row for **ṣalāh**[\[71\]](#f71) and filling in a gap to ensure the line is complete for prayer.[\[72\]](#f72) One of the most powerful deeds is visiting the sick, which results in 70,000 angels praying for your forgiveness.[\[73\]](#f73) There is also a narration that describes angels whose daily task is to make a special prayer for or against a person depending on their actions that day, > The Prophet ﷺ said, “Every day two angels come down from the sky and one of them says, ‘O Allah! Give to the one who spends in Your Cause, and the other angel says, ‘O Allah! Destroy the one who withholds.’”[\[74\]](#f74) #### Protection There are guardian angels from an Islamic perspective that protect a person from physical and spiritual danger, > For each one are successive (angels) before and behind him who protect him by the decree of Allah. (Qur’an 13:11) > Yes, if you hold on to patience and piety, and the enemy comes rushing at you, your Lord will help you with five thousand angels having marks \[of distinction\]. (Qur’an 3:125) As for spiritual danger, we are told that reciting the Verse of the *Kursi* before going to bed results in an angel coming to protect you from demonic forces until morning: > Abū Hurayrah said, “Allah's Messenger ﷺ put me in charge of the **Zakāh** of Ramadan (i.e., **Zakāt l-Fiṭr**). Someone came to me and started scooping up some of the foodstuff \[of **zakāh**\] with both hands. I caught him and told him that I would take him to Allah's Messenger ﷺ.” Then Abū Hurayrah told the whole narration and added “He (i.e., the thief) said, ‘Whenever you go to your bed, recite the Verse of **Al-Kursī** (2:255) for then a guardian from Allah will be guarding you, and Satan will not approach you till dawn.’” On that the Prophet ﷺ said, “He told you the truth, though he is a liar, and he (the thief) himself was Satan.”[\[75\]](#f75) Believing in the angels allows us to have courage in the face of danger and hardship. There is great comfort and security in knowing that Allah sends angels to protect you from hardships that have not been written for you. #### Support Angels support believers when they do good by helping them sustain their activity through praying for them, protecting them, or instilling positive thoughts. A narration specifically states what brings about the support of Jibrīl, the greatest of all angels: > The Prophet ﷺ said, “The Holy Spirit (Jibrīl) will continue to aid you as long as you put up a defense on behalf of Allah and His messenger.”[\[76\]](#f76) #### Love Not only do the angels pray for us, protect us, and support us, but they also can feel genuine love for the believers. This forges a connection between the angels and the individual, resulting in further support, protection, and prayers. Such a person lives in this world with the angels on his or her side. The Prophet ﷺ said, > When Allah loves a person, He calls Jibrīl and tells him, “Allah loves so-and-so, so love him.” Then Jibrīl loves him and calls out to the inhabitants of the heavens, “Allah loves so-and-so, so love him.” So the inhabitants of the heavens love him, and he will find acceptance on earth. [\[77\]](#f77) #### Teaching Qur’an in the masjid The Prophet ﷺ said, > No people gather in one of the houses of Allah to recite the Book of Allah and teach it to one another, but tranquility descends upon them, mercy encompasses them, and the angels surround them, and Allah mentions them to those who are with Him.[\[78\]](#f78) #### Gatherings of dhikr The Prophet ﷺ said, > Allah has angels who go around the highways and byways, seeking out the people of *dhikr*. If they find some people who are remembering Allah, they call out, “Come to what you are looking for!” And they encompass them with their wings up to the first heaven.[\[79\]](#f79) #### Saying Āmīn to prayers of believers The Prophet ﷺ said, > Do not pray for anything but good for yourselves, for the angels say *****āmīn***** to whatever you say.[\[80\]](#f80) The Prophet ﷺ said, > The *duā* of a person for his Muslim brother in his absence will be answered. At his head there is an angel, and every time he prays for him something good, the angel who has been appointed to be with him says, “**Āmīn**, and may you have likewise.”[\[81\]](#f81) #### Conveying salām to the Prophetﷺ The Prophet ﷺ said, > Allah has angels travelling about the earth to convey to me the *salām* of my *ummah*.[\[82\]](#f82) #### Praying in a deserted land The Prophet ﷺ said, > If a man is in a deserted land and the time of **ṣalāh** comes, he should make **wuḍūʾ**. If he does not find water, then he can perform *tayammum* (dry ablution). If he proclaims the *iqāmah*, then two angels pray with him. If he proclaims the *adhān*, then an army from Allah is behind him that stretches until one cannot see in the horizon.[\[83\]](#f83) As we can see from this short exploration, there are many actions and situations that bring about the angelic presence. One may ask why does the presence of the angels matter? It is important to recognize that when the angels are present, they bring their love, support, protection, positive inspiration, and prayers. This becomes an invaluable source of strength in a person’s life that leads them to success in whatever they embark upon. The one who is depressed sees light at the end of the tunnel from the positive whisperings of the angels. The one who is seeking redemption finds comfort in the prayers of the angels as he or she endeavors to do good. The one who is vulnerable finds courage when they know Allah has sent angels to protect them from the misfortunes of life. The one who is lonely finds companionship in the love of the angels, praying with a quantity that extends to the horizon. The one working for the cause of Allah finds creativity, capacity, and competency in the support and aid of the angels. The presence of the angels adds tremendous value and blessings to our lives. All of this of course is ultimately coming from Allah, and Allah alone. However, Allah, out of His Wisdom, has made the *means* of His Love, Support, Protection and Aid in these noble beings for the believers. Imagine the Mercy of your Lord who has created creatures for the sole purpose of asking Him for your forgiveness. The positive activity of the angels is a crucial source of support we must actively seek for our success in this world and the next. We have narrations that tell us of stories of the companions receiving such support when engaged in good deeds. For instance, the great poet Hassān ibn Thābit stood up to defend the Prophet ﷺ with his poetry and he was told, “The Holy Spirit (Jibrīl) is with you as long as you are engaged in this poetry”[\[84\]](#f84) This story tells us that it is possible that angels will be present and inspire us when we are defending the honor of the Prophet ﷺ. While the above narration specifically mentions poetry, another narration is kept general to include any form of defending Islam, “Verily the Holy Spirit (Jibrīl) will continue to aid you as long as you put up any defense on behalf of Allah ﷻ and His Messenger.”[\[85\]](#f85) Therefore we hope that any form of responding to misconceptions, allegations, and accusations against Islam in our times can bring the support of the angels. In another story, Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr, a companion of The Prophet ﷺ, was reciting Sūrat al-Baqarah from the Qur’an and his horse became unsettled. When he stopped reciting, the horse would settle. But when he would continue, the horse would become agitated. He looked up to the sky and saw a cloud with what appeared to be lamps within. The Prophet informed him that this was an angel that was listening to his recitation.[\[86\]](#f86) ### Eschatology The last function of the angels we will explore regards their role in the afterlife. Understanding this role inspires us to be accountable for our actions in this life and to be motivated to pursue the eternal life of paradise in the next. Faith in the hereafter will be dealt with in future articles in this series, God willing. Here we focus more on the angelic component rather than the actual events of the hereafter. #### Recording of deeds In this world, there are angels that are tasked with writing down our actions, from the seemingly trivial to the very significant. The book of deeds will be on display in the next life, and many people will be surprised by how much was taken into account: > And the record will be placed and you will see the criminals fearful of that within it, and they will say, “Oh, woe to us! What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?” And they will find what they did present before them. And your Lord does injustice to no one. (Qur’an 18:49) There are also angels that are tasked with recording specific deeds. The Prophet ﷺ said, > When Friday comes, the angels stand at the door of the mosque and write down who comes chronologically. When the *imām* comes out, they close their records and get to listen to the *dhikr*.[\[87\]](#f87) > A man said “**Rabbanā wa-laka al-ḥamd, ḥamdan kathīran ṭayyiban mubārakan fīh*”* (Our Lord, to You belongs all praise and thanks in abundance, purity, and blessings). When he finished the prayer, the Prophet ﷺ asked “Who was the one who spoke?” The man said, “Me.” He said, “I saw 30-odd angels rushing to see which of them would write it down first.”[\[88\]](#f88) #### Angels at time of death There will be angels that will arrive as a delegation when the soul departs from the body into the next world. The attitude and behavior of the angels toward the soul depends on its purity. > Indeed, those who have said “Our Lord is Allah” and then remained on a right course, the angels will descend upon them saying, “Do not fear and do not grieve but receive good tidings of Paradise, which you were promised.” (Qur’an 41:30) > And if you could but see when the angels take the souls of those who disbelieved, striking their faces and their backs and saying, “Taste the punishment of the Burning Fire.” (Qur’an 8:50) #### Interrogation in the grave There are two angels that will interrogate the person in the grave with three questions. The answer given will be in accordance with how a person truly lived their life. Therefore, these questions are the three most important things in a person’s life. The Prophet ﷺ said: > When the deceased—or he said when one of you—is buried, two angels—black and blue—come to him. One of them is called al-Munkar, and the other al-Nakīr. They say: “What did you used to say about this man?” So he says what he was saying (before death): “He is Allah's slave and His Messenger. I testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.” So they say: “We knew that you would say this.” Then his grave is expanded to seventy by seventy cubits, then it is illuminated for him. Then it is said to him: “Sleep.” So he said: “Can I return to my family to inform them?” They say: “Sleep as a newlywed, whom none awakens but the dearest of his family.” Until Allah resurrects him from his resting place. If he was a hypocrite he would say: “I heard people saying something, so I said the same; I do not know.” So they said: “We knew you would say that.” So the earth is told: “Constrict him.” So it constricts around him, squeezing his ribs together. He continues being punished like that until Allah resurrects him from his resting place.[\[89\]](#f89) #### Blowing of the horn The moment that will usher in the day of judgment is the blowing of the horn. The closeness of this moment and the attitude of the angel is described in the following narration: > The Prophet ﷺ said, “How could I relax when the bearer of the Horn has put the Horn to his lips and tilted his forehead, and is listening, waiting for the command to blow the Horn?” The companions asked, “What should we say, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Say**ḥasbunā Aallāhu wa-niʿma al-wakīl, ʿalá Allāhi tawakkalnā**(Allah is sufficient for us and the best disposer of affairs, we rely upon Him, our Lord).”[\[90\]](#f90) #### Paradise and hellfire Lastly, the eternal abodes of humankind are populated with angels that work to bring about what Allah intends. For the people of Hellfire, the angels are its gatekeepers, and they constantly remind its inhabitants of the reasons for their downfall. For the people of paradise, the angels greet and serve them, congratulating them on the life that they lived. > And those who rejected faith will be driven to Hell in groups until, when they reach it, its gates are opened and its keepers will say, “Did there not come to you messengers from yourselves, reciting to you the verses of your Lord and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours?” They will say, “Yes, but the word of punishment has come into effect upon the disbelievers.” (Qur’an 39:71) > Gardens of perpetual residence; they will enter them with whoever were righteous among their fathers, their spouses, and their descendants. And the angels will enter upon them from every gate, “Peace be upon you for what you have patiently endured.” And excellent is the final home. (Qur’an 13:23-24) --- ## Conclusion This article has explored the various roles that the angels play in the cosmos. Faith in angels provides the believer with immense psychological and spiritual support that enables them to strive for excellence on their journey to Allah in this world. Our belief and understanding of the angels stem from revelation, without which we would not have known of their existence or roles. Their description in revelation is not irrational by any means, nor do they violate any empirical or scientific principles. Angels are beyond science and perception, because their existence is in a dimension inaccessible to us. Since we cannot rationally or empirically challenge the existence of angels, we must return to their epistemological source to evaluate its claims. That is revelation. The next article in the '[In Pursuit of Conviction](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/in-pursuit-of-conviction)' series will deal with the topic of faith in revelation, God Willing. ## Summary Belief in angels stands as the second pillar of faith, yet it is often mistaken for a peripheral doctrine bearing little weight upon daily life. In truth, this article of faith carries profound cosmological, spiritual, eschatological, and psychological significance for humankind, and appreciating its relevance transforms one's understanding of reality. Before exploring the roles of angels, however, it is necessary to establish the epistemological framework proper to their study and to expose the fallacies underlying objections to their existence. Belief in angels is a phenomenon spread across cultures and epochs. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) observed, "All of humanity has generally affirmed the presence of [both] angels and demons except a few rare cases in different nations," noting that entire cultures do not deny them outright, only isolated individuals or groups. Modern skeptics, however, dismiss belief in angels as superstition, an archaic attempt to explain natural phenomena, or a projection of humanity's fascination with non-human intelligence. Such arguments commit the genetic fallacy, wherein a belief is dismissed merely by explaining how it arose. The truth of a belief's content is independent of the manner in which a person came to hold it, for there is a distinction between ontology and epistemology. A superstitious basis for expecting rain tomorrow does not itself negate the possibility of rain. Likewise, others claim that since there is no empirical or logical proof for angels, they cannot exist. Ibn Taymiyyah answered this very objection: "Some who engage in philosophy attempt to reject their existence due to absence of knowledge, but not knowledge of their absence." There exists no rational or empirical proof that angels cannot exist. It is crucial that the Islamic conception of angels not be conflated with the mythological depictions found in other cultures, such as winged human figures. The Qur'an explicitly repudiates such distortions, condemning those who named the angels as females: "And they have made the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, females. Did they witness their creation?" (Qur'an 43:19), and rebuking those who claimed angels as God's daughters (Qur'an 17:40). Islamic theology adopts a grounded epistemology regarding the unseen: the realm of the unseen is wholly unlike the material world, and nothing in human imagination can approximate it. Therefore, all knowledge of it must be derived from revelation, which guards the worldview from superstition, while the finality of prophethood with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ensures no later figure may introduce dubious ideas. One must also beware of reducing angels to mere "forces of nature," for their reality lies beyond the purview of science, which is confined to empirical data and cannot pronounce upon metaphysical matters. A distinction must be drawn between what is unscientific, meaning it violates science, and what is supra-scientific, meaning it lies beyond science's reach. The existence of angels is the latter. Angels must also be distinguished from mythological inventions such as the tooth fairy or Russell's Teapot. Such fictional entities are claimed to be physical and interactive within our world, and thus subject to empirical testing, whereas angels are metaphysical realities transcending physicality entirely. Furthermore, ideas arising from an individual's imagination differ fundamentally from those grounded in divine revelation, which demands serious academic appraisal rather than reflexive mockery. Finally, unlike idle conjecture about teapots in space, belief in angels bears directly upon human life, for the angels who record our deeds imply our accountability before Allah. Muslim theologians hold that the unseen cannot be anthropomorphized based upon the descriptions revelation provides. Just as Allah describes the fruits of Paradise as given "in likeness" (Qur'an 2:25), and the Prophet ﷺ related that Allah has prepared "that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has ever imagined," so too the angels defy earthly comparison. The Prophet ﷺ informed us, "The angels were created from light," a substance entirely distinct from the organic life we know. The Qur'an describes their wings as "two or three or four" (Qur'an 35:1), yet Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (d. 858 AH) noted that these wings "are of an angelic nature and cannot be understood except in their meaning," and al-Suhayli (d. 581 AH) affirmed that their reality "cannot be discerned rationally nor have they been explained through revelation." Gabriel possesses six hundred wings, and their number is beyond reckoning, for Allah says, "no one knows the soldiers of your Lord except Himself" (Qur'an 74:31). The Prophet ﷺ described the heavens squeaking under the weight of prostrating angels, and the Bayt al-Ma'mur where seventy thousand angels worship daily, never to return. These descriptions are meant to fill the heart with awe, so that even a student's walk to a humble classroom becomes a procession in which, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "the angels lower their wings over the seeker of knowledge." The angels each occupy an appointed station, for the Qur'an quotes them: "There is no one from among us except that they have a particular station" (Qur'an 37:164). Al-Tabari (d. 310 AH) and al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH) explained these as places of worship, and al-Baydawi (d. 685 AH) noted that this worship includes executing Allah's commands in ordering the world. The angels are not independent demi-gods but wholly subordinate to Allah. Their roles may be grouped as cosmological, psychological, spiritual, and eschatological. Regarding the cosmological function, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) stated that "every movement in the universe is caused by angels." This need not conflict with science, for the philosophy of science shows that scientific theories, whether understood through realism or instrumentalism, do not negate metaphysical involvement in nature. Said Nursi argued that so-called natural laws, being merely nominal, cannot originate existence "if there are no angels to represent, manifest, and administer them." Bruno Latour observed that modern science has multiplied the agencies in the world rather than eliminating them, remarking that "the belief in inanimates" is itself the true mystery. Paul Davies acknowledged that science rests upon a "faith-based belief system," presuming nature to be rationally ordered. As G.K. Chesterton observed, by rejecting rationalism "the world becomes suddenly rational." The problems of agency and causality alike point to a metaphysical layer of reality that science depends upon yet cannot examine, leaving ample ontological room for belief in angels. Among their cosmological duties, the Prophet ﷺ explained that thunder is an angel charged with the clouds, driving them with "a piece of fire," and the sound is his directing them. Such narrations describe a metaphysical reality underlying the physical phenomenon and thus occasion no doubt. The angel Mika'il is associated with rain and vegetation, though the narration detailing the four chief angels is mursal to 'Ikrimah ibn Khalid (d. 114 AH), missing the link to the Prophet ﷺ. An angel governs the mountains, offering to crush the people of Ta'if, yet the Prophet ﷺ hoped instead for their righteous progeny, displaying his mercy. An angel fashions the embryo after forty-two nights, forming its features and asking its sex, a timeline remarkably congruent with the biological differentiation of sex around six weeks; this does not contradict that Allah's decree preceded creation, for "Every day He is involved in the affair" (Qur'an 55:29). The angel of death extracts the tranquil soul gently "like water from a waterskin," and the wicked soul harshly. Psychologically, the angels inspire good thoughts, countering the whispers of Satan, for the Prophet ﷺ described the angel who "encourages man to do good." This support may be cultivated by avoiding what repels angels, who "do not enter a house wherein there is an image or a dog," and by maintaining physical purity, for the Prophet ﷺ warned that the angels are offended by what offends the son of Adam. Regarding images there is scholarly disagreement, a small minority restricting the prohibition to objects of worship, the Malikis to three-dimensional forms, and the majority of Hanafis, Shafi'is, and Hanbalis extending it to two dimensions, with dispensations for education, toys, and garments. Spiritually, angels test humanity, as with Harut and Marut, and the angel who visited three men in the guise of the needy, teaching us to withhold judgment of the vulnerable. They pray for the believers and "ask forgiveness for those on earth" (Qur'an 42:5; 40:7-9), especially for the one awaiting prayer or visiting the sick, for whom seventy thousand angels seek forgiveness. They protect by Allah's decree (Qur'an 13:11), as with the guardian who wards off Satan for the reciter of Ayat al-Kursi at night. They aid the defender of Islam, for "the Holy Spirit will continue to aid you as long as you put up a defense on behalf of Allah and His Messenger," and they love the believer whom Allah loves, proclaiming that love throughout the heavens. They surround gatherings of Qur'an and dhikr, say amin to the believer's supplication, convey the ummah's salam to the Prophet ﷺ, and stand in ranks behind the one who calls the adhan in a deserted land. Hassan ibn Thabit was aided by Gabriel in his poetry, and Usayd ibn Hudayr witnessed the angels descend as a cloud of lamps to hear his recitation of Surat al-Baqarah. Concerning the hereafter, angels record every deed, so that the criminals will cry, "What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?" (Qur'an 18:49). They record the Friday attendees and rush to inscribe words of beautiful praise. At death they descend with glad tidings for the believer (Qur'an 41:30) or with punishment for the disbeliever (Qur'an 8:50). In the grave, Munkar and Nakir interrogate the deceased upon the three matters most central to his life. The angel of the Horn stands poised, forehead tilted, awaiting the command to blow, at which the Prophet ﷺ counseled reliance upon Allah. Finally, the angels serve as gatekeepers of Hell, rebuking its inhabitants (Qur'an 39:71), and as greeters of Paradise, entering upon its people "from every gate, 'Peace be upon you for what you have patiently endured'" (Qur'an 13:23-24). Thus faith in angels furnishes the believer with immense psychological and spiritual strength. All of this ultimately proceeds from Allah alone, who out of His wisdom appointed these noble beings as means of His love, support, protection, and aid. Our knowledge of them derives entirely from revelation, without which their existence and roles would be unknown. Their reality is neither irrational nor contrary to any empirical principle, for they exist in a dimension inaccessible to us, beyond science and perception. Since they cannot be challenged rationally or empirically, one must return to their epistemological source, which is revelation, to evaluate their reality. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-a-madhhab-exploring-the-role-of-islamic-schools-of-law # What is a Madhhab? Exploring the Role of Islamic Schools of Law **Author:** Dr. Emad Hamdeh **Topics:** Jurisprudence (fiqh), Sharia **Published:** December 31, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Earlier this year, a debate between the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb and Mohamed Othman al-Khosht, President of Cairo University went viral.[\[1\]](#f1) Khosht argued that Islam needs renewal by returning to the Qur’an and authentic Sunnah. He blamed tradition for preventing advancement in the modern Muslim world. He argued that Islamic tradition had become stagnant and that if Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820) was alive today he would have also sought to renew Islamic law. Tayyeb responded with a passionate rebuttal and defense of Islamic tradition. He noted that even the idea of religious renewal is from the tradition itself, not from outside. He compared Khosht to someone who seeks to renovate his father’s home but opts to buy a new one instead.[\[2\]](#f2) Khosht is not alone; many modern Muslims view the Islamic legal tradition as needing a complete overhaul. A consistent theme among several reformers of the 18th\-20th centuries has been a call to bypass the *madhhab*s and approach the Qur’an and Sunnah anew. These reformers and intellectuals portray Islamic law to be inferior to Western law and this generates a lack of confidence in the Islamic legal tradition. To the uninitiated, the topic of Islamic law may appear to be limited to scholarly circles, but in fact debates about the place of the *madhhab*s and their relationship to the Qur’an and Sunnah take place in mosques, online, and at dinner tables. The doctrines of *ijtihād* and *taqlīd* touch a particularly sensitive nerve in Muslim circles because they are tied to religious authority. Where one stands on the issue is often an indication of their larger approach toward scripture and Islamic legal tradition. All Muslims seek to follow the Qur’an and Sunnah. But the larger question is how does this actually occur? Average Muslims understandably feel overwhelmed by the complexity of Islamic law and prefer an easier and straightforward explanation of Islam. In the age of instant gratification, modern sensibilities are often consumed with a flagrant sense of certainty where people want to Google the facts and quickly find answers for themselves. There is a yearning for a legal system that is spelled out in an incontestable manner, but law is naturally complex and this is why lawyers are usually hired to interpret the law. In the modern context, or “post-truth” era, there is a tendency to bypass experts and seek answers oneself. The internet allows people to mimic intellectual accomplishments by indulging in an illusion of expertise supported by an unlimited number of facts[\[3\]](#f3). In the religious context, these facts or *dalīl*s are often used by competing groups of Muslims to represent the “true” and “authentic” meaning of Islam*.* This often results in confusion and increased doubt concerning Islamic legal tradition. The *madhhab*s are sometimes misunderstood to not be based on scripture. It is not uncommon for some Muslims to state that they don’t follow a *madhhab*, but rather follow the Qur’an and Sunnah. This approach to the Islamic legal schools is based on the incorrect assumption that they are simply the guesswork or opinions of a few jurists that are not based on evidence but based on the simple personal opinion of jurists. This misunderstanding creates a disconnect between the Muslim and *fiqh.* I will attempt to show that the *madhhab*s always base their legal opinions on scripture. The main purpose of this article is to help the reader understand what the *madhhab*s are and their function in Islamic law. First, I will provide a brief overview of what the *madhhab*s are and how they emerged. Next, I will discuss the nature of the Qur’an and Sunnah and the need for legal expertise. Then I will shed light on why there might appear to be some tensions between legal opinions of the *madhhab*s and the apparent meaning of scripture. Finally, I conclude by returning to the idea of reform and Islamic law. This will hopefully provide the reader with an appreciation of the nature, complexity, and importance of the *madhhab*s and their relationship with the Qur’an and Sunnah. --- ## What is a madhhab? Since Islam does not have an ecclesiastic body that has the authority to declare the correct meaning of scripture, the interpretation of scripture largely became the collective role of scholars. Throughout Islamic history, the overwhelming majority of Muslim scholars followed what is called a *madhhab.* A *madhhab*, simply put, is a school of law. Although the term “school” is useful, it does not do full justice to the definition of a *madhhab.* Schools usually speak of people whereas a *madhhab* is primarily about a shared interpretational methodology. A *madhhab* linguistically means “a way” and therefore it is a method of interpreting scripture that binds a group or school of scholars together. Furthermore, the *madhhab*s are not theological schools or sects. Nevertheless, in modern times, following a *madhhab* has sometimes become an identity marker. It has sometimes become a description people give themselves to express a particular method of practicing Islam that is in opposition to “non-traditional” Islamic movements. However, the *madhhab*s were never intended to be identity markers; rather they are methodologies of understanding and applying scripture. It is important to stress that the *madhhab*s do not differ on the foundations of the religion such as God being One, the Qur’an being the book of God, and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ being the Messenger of God. While most Muslims would agree that division concerning the foundational beliefs of Islam as well as some foundational legal aspects is objected to, the same is not said for secondary issues in law which allow for a plurality of opinions. There is a difference between division and difference of opinion. In the legal context, it is not division that is meant to take place, but differences of opinion. Division that results in partisanship and conflict is certainly condemned by the Qur’an and Sunnah. In Sunni Islam, there are four main *madhhab*s named after the founder of each school: the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī schools of law. A common misconception is that following a *madhhab* means following the opinion of the eponym of a legal school. A *madhhab* is not the opinion of one person, but rather it is the following of the methodology laid down by the founder. The *madhhab*s are a continuation of scholarly discourse over many centuries, which in turn formed a scholarly tradition. Although the *madhhab*s are named after their founders, scholars of the *madhhab* may hold legal positions that contrast with those of the founder. In the Ḥanafī school one commonly finds the dominant opinion belonging to Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī (d. 182/798), better known as Abū Yūsuf, and Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (d. 189/805). This was not limited to scholars who lived at the time of the founder of the legal school; later scholars also differed with the imam of their *madhhab.* For example, in the Shāfiʿī *madhhab,* it is common to see Yaḥyá b. Sharaf al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) and Abū Qāsim al-Rāfiʿī (d. 623/1226), often referred to as the two shaykhs (*al-shaykhān*), differ with Imam al-Shāfiʿī[\[4\]](#f4). All of the opinions within a particular *madhhab* remain part of that *madhhab* as long as they adhere to the methodology established by the founder of the school. However, not every single opinion found in a school can be said to represent the *madhhab,* but it is often the *muʿtamad* (relied on or established) position that holds the most legal weight. --- ## A brief overview of the madhhabs in Islamic history It is important to provide a brief summary of the development of the *madhhab*s and the role they played in Islamic history. ### Fiqh before the madhhabs The emergence of the *madhhab*s was a gradual process. There is not a specific date on which the *madhhab*s were formed. No one woke up one morning and decided to form a *madhhab*, but rather it was a natural development that took place from the time of the Companions. The Meccan period was primarily, but not exclusively, focused on the foundations of faith; however, it still had some laws such as prayer and dietary restrictions. The Medinan period is when the majority of laws were revealed.[\[5\]](#f5) In this period, the primary sources of law were the Qur’an and Sunnah. One might wonder where the other sources of law such as *ijmāʿ* (consensus) and *qiyās* (analogical deduction) come from. *Ijmāʿ* and *qiyās* are not sources of law per se, but tools used to extract rulings from the sources of law. These tools were not made up by scholars, but rather found in scripture. Difference of opinion during the time of the Prophet ﷺ was limited because if the Companions differed they would refer to the Prophet ﷺ and he would resolve any differences. However, when the Companions were away from the Prophet ﷺ, they differed. Even during the Prophet’s life, some Companions gave *fatwa*s and some of the Companions were known for their expertise in Islamic law. In the absence of the Prophet ﷺ, how did the Companions find solutions to questions that the Qur’an and Sunnah were silent about? The simple answer is that they performed *ijtihād. Ijtihād* is when a jurist reaches into his legal toolbox to find answers not spelled out in scripture. This box would include tools such as exhaustive knowledge of scripture, expertise in Arabic, the opinions of the Companions, analogical reasoning (*qiyās*), consensus (*ijmāʿ*), and subsidiary principles like juristic preference (*istiḥsān*) and public interest (*maṣlaḥah*). *Ijtihād* in the time of the Prophet ﷺ took place in a limited capacity because the Prophet ﷺ was alive. His presence meant that scripture was still being revealed and oftentimes the Companions were given direct answers to their questions. However, when the Companions traveled, they encountered new issues that scripture did not address. For example, ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ was traveling and only had extremely cold water with no means of warming it to perform ablution. He therefore performed *ijtihād* and made *tayammum* instead. When he returned, the Prophet ﷺ confirmed that what he did was permitted.[\[6\]](#f6) ### Fiqh after the Prophet ﷺ After the Prophet ﷺ, direct revelation stopped and any religious declaration needed to be established based on the words of God or the Prophet ﷺ. Islamic law did not end with the Prophet’s death. Not all of the Companions and Successors (*tābiʿīn*) were jurists or involved in Islamic law, so naturally they looked to follow those who were. There were several Companions known for their expertise in Islamic law such as ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr, Ibn Masʿūd, Zayd b. Thābit, and Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهم. Each of these Companions had students who would write and follow their teachings in Islamic law. After the Prophet ﷺ, Islam quickly spread to new lands such as the Levant, Egypt, and most of North Africa. These regions had diverse customs, cultures, and circumstances that were vastly different from the culture of Mecca and Medina in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Some of the Companions moved to these regions and served as judges or governors in the quickly expanding Muslim empire. People naturally asked them questions about new issues that arose to which they exercised their best judgment in understanding the Qur’an and Sunnah. These new issues necessitated that the scholars among the Companions and their dedicated students use their expertise in the legal teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah to perform *ijtihād* and understand how they applied in these new environments. The legal results of divine law changed based on new circumstances.[\[7\]](#f7) For instance, the Qur’an states that those whose hearts are inclined toward accepting Islam are eligible for *zakāh*: “Prescribed charity is only meant for the poor, the needy, those who administer them, those whose hearts need winning over, to free slaves and help those in debt, for God’s cause, and for travelers in need. This is ordained by God; God is All-Knowing and Wise” (Qur’an 9:60). The category of “those whose hearts need winning over” or *muʿallafati qulūbuhum,* refers to non-Muslims who are attracted to Islam or Muslims who may need charity to strengthen their faith. However, when ʿUmar رضي الله عنه was caliph, he suspended this rule and argued that it only applied in circumstances when Muslims were few in number and there was a need to increase the population of Muslims. He reasoned that the verse no longer applied due to the change in circumstances. During his time, Islam quickly spread throughout the region and the numbers of Muslims increased to the extent that they no longer needed to spend money to increase the Muslim population.[\[8\]](#f8) To the novice, this may appear to be an example of explicit indifference to God’s law. However, when a law is not applied due to the absence of its effective cause (its *ʿillah*) it is not considered an act of disregarding the law, but rather an application of it. This is due to the fact that the law requires the ruling only be applied in the presence of its effective cause (*ʿillah*). A simple example is the prohibition of recreational marijuana. While marijuana is not mentioned in the Qur’an, one can look at the effective cause for the prohibition of intoxicants which is the diminishment of human rationality. Scripture does not speak of every event or circumstance that may occur, whereas the number of circumstances people find themselves in are never-ending. The number of laws explicitly mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah are finite but they speak to a constantly changing and evolving set of circumstances. This necessitates that the application of the law must change in order to provide solutions in different contexts. As a result, the Companions and jurists did their best to understand new circumstances that were not spelled out in scripture. They exerted their best effort (*ijtihād*) to try to apply the broad maxims of the Qur’an and Sunnah to the new issues they encountered. However, most Muslims are not scholars and therefore do not know the historical, linguistic, contextual, and legal implications of scripture. In fact, most of the Prophet’s Companions were not legal experts. Hence, whenever a new issue arose, we find that certain Companions such as ʿUmar, ʿĀʾishah, ʿAlī, Zayd b. Thābit, and ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd were asked for guidance and clarification. The concept of following an expert (sometimes referred to as *taqlīd*) existed even among the Companions. The students of these Companions went on to become teachers and several methods of understanding scripture (*madhhab*s) emerged. The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and the early generations were not monolithic and did not share a single methodology. They had different understandings and interpretations of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī رضي الله عنه reported that two men went out for travel when the time of prayer arrived and they did not have water with them. They performed dry ablution with clean earth and prayed, then they later found water. One of them repeated his ablution and prayer, while the other did not repeat them. They came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and mentioned that to him. The Prophet ﷺ said to the one who did not repeat his prayer, “You have followed the Sunnah correctly and you will be rewarded for your prayer,” and the Prophet ﷺ said to the one who repeated his prayer, “You will have a double reward.”[\[9\]](#f9) These Companions had many students and this is how early *madhhab*s or “ways of understanding” developed. Although these different understandings may not have been called *madhhab*s, the concept of following the understanding of a particular person existed during the time of the Companions.[\[10\]](#f10) There was not a normative number of *madhhab*s, rather a plethora of scholars at the time developed *madhhab*s or methods of interpreting scripture. The generation after the Companions furthered Islamic legal theory and many *madhhab*s existed but did not survive because a teacher may not have had enough dedicated students to carry on his teachings or method. Today it is the four previously mentioned *madhhab*s that have survived and spread throughout the entire Muslim world. --- ## The growth of the madhhabs After the Prophet ﷺ, several Companions started teaching people what is prohibited and allowed. Ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه moved to Kufa and started teaching there. Naturally people started attending his classes and following his teachings. Ibn Masʿūd used to give *fatwa*s and his students used to write his teachings. Zayd b. Thābit and Ibn ʿUmar had a similar group of followers in Medina. Ibn ʿAbbās had similar classes and dedicated students in Mecca. People naturally came to those most knowledgeable in Islamic law when they had a question. These Companions had dedicated students who continued to teach what they learned.[\[11\]](#f11) This chart below illustrates how the *madhhab*s grew as natural extensions of the teachings of the Companions. The chart is not all-encompassing or comprehensive because there were dozens of scholars who studied with each Companion and their Successors. However, it highlights some of the most prominent figures in these learning circles and how the *madhhab*s naturally branched from the teachings of the Companions. The chart also shows how these four schools were all influenced by each other. For example, Imam al-Shāfiʿī studied with Imam Mālik. He also studied with Abū Ḥanīfah’s main students. Imam Aḥmad also studied with al-Shāfiʿī, and al-Shaybānī studied with Imam Mālik. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Madhhab_Chart_F-01-882x1024.jpg) It is important to highlight that these *madhhab*s were not simply one person offering his opinion and others writing it down. Rather, they involved a collective process of arriving at conclusions. For example, when examining an issue, Abū Ḥanīfah would present it to his students, who were scholars in their own rights, and they would collectively examine, debate, and revise it. His circle consisted of experts in language, hadith, judges, and jurists. This meant that any opinion went through rigorous “peer review” before being finalized as the opinion of the *madhhab.* The findings and legal opinions of these scholars were compiled in books and thousands of scholars continued to study, reexamine, and revise these opinions for centuries. In this sense, the *madhhab*s were a communal preservation of Islamic law. The Qur’an was not compiled in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but the Companions and Successors took gradual steps to further preserve it. Similarly, the science of hadith did not exist in the time of the Prophet ﷺ in its mature form. The Companions and Successors and those after them gradually developed the sciences of hadith and Islamic law in order to preserve the authenticity of hadith. The *madhhab*s constitute a science whose formative stages existed in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but developed over time in order to preserve knowledge of what is lawful and prohibited. Similar to the science of the Qur’an and the science of hadith, the *madhhab*s gradually emerged based on the need and time of the Muslims. When the Prophet ﷺ was alive, there was no need for an advanced methodology to the study of scripture. If one had a question, they simply asked him ﷺ and received the correct interpretation. Or if one doubted the authenticity of a Prophetic saying, they could have just gone to confirm it with him. When the Prophet ﷺ was no longer alive, there was a need to establish systematic methods of authenticating hadith and interpreting scripture. For example, if there are small populations of people living in a very large countryside, it would be absurd to have highly sophisticated traffic lights and signs throughout the area when people live so far from each other and use so few cars. However, as time goes on and the population increases, the traffic system will also naturally develop accordingly.[\[12\]](#f12) Similarly, in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there was no need for an official method of interpretation or legal school, science of hadith, or compilation of the Qur’an. These developed after the Prophet ﷺ as the needs of the community grew. The Qur’an and Sunnah were best understood by the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ because they lived with him and witnessed the revelation of the Qur’an and growth of Islam. The *madhhab*s are an attempt to understand scripture in a similar manner to the Companions. Al-Shafiʿī was the first scholar to write a book on the principles of Islamic law (*uṣūl al-fiqh*) in an attempt to provide a methodology of scriptural interpretation. Because al-Shāfiʿī was the first to write or explicitly lay out the methodology of scriptural interpretation does not mean that no such methodology existed. The Companions did not explicate their methodology, but this does not mean that they did not have one. In fact, al-Shāfiʿī extracted the principles of Islamic law based on his study of how the Companions interpreted scripture. In other words, al-Shāfiʿī wrote about *uṣūl al-fiqh* to provide a “blind man’s stick” to guide jurists who did not have the experience of the Companions or the expertise to extract their methodology. The development of the *madhhab*s and the study of Islamic law were not simply academic or intellectual exercises. Once the *madhhab*s were formulated, they served practical legal purposes.One who became an expert in Islamic law usually found a government job as a lawyer, judge, administrator, or educator. Prior to the rise of secular states, the primary function of Islamic legal education was to prepare scholars for legal careers. Over time, Islamic law was officially replaced with secular or Western law. The notion that Muslim jurists were merely “religious” professionals is a new and modern concept. Additionally, a central theme of reform movements over the past several centuries has been a call to return to the Qur’an and Sunnah while bypassing tradition. This approach has further sidelined the *madhhab*s with the purported goal of rediscovering the “true” meaning of Islam.[\[13\]](#a13) --- ## Do the Qur’an and Sunnah need interpreters? Everything in today’s world requires experts. Each field has a methodology established by the experts that is expected to be followed. Experts agree on the need for methodology in order to produce consistency in their field. Non-experts recognize the need for expertise; otherwise there would be chaos. Similarly, Islamic law needs interpreters just like all other legal systems. People sometimes pay legal fees and refer to lawyers for the simplest of legal items such as a speeding ticket. Law is often inaccessible to laypeople and they cannot understand its history or language. Even if they do, they often lack the skill to stand before a judge and frame a legal argument. On the surface, some legal issues may appear to be very simple, but they are usually much more complicated. In the American context, the Constitution serves as a source of law. Later jurists attempt to understand what the founding fathers meant when writing the Constitution. The Constitution is not always as clear as it may appear, especially as times and circumstances change. The modern debate surrounding the second amendment is a prime example of how a source of law can often lead to stark differences. The second amendment states that “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The intended scope of this statement has caused considerable disagreement among American jurists. The Constitution in this case is not the law, but a source of law. It requires that scholars try to understand what the founders meant, and whether this still applies to everyone and all weapons. In this case, trying to follow “only the Constitution” is not so simple because the Constitution lends itself to different interpretations. One must take many things outside of the Constitution into consideration. Is this amendment to be taken at face value regardless of intent, time, and place? Or was the underlying concern that inspired the second amendment a fear, that some argue no longer exists, of an abusive federal government? Should this change how the amendment is interpreted? Does the second amendment include the right to bear weapons that would be used by a militia today such as rockets and grenades? In regards to Islamic law, is it a body of rules given by God ready-made? Or did God provide the sources of law (Qur’an and Sunnah) and then required Muslims to use these sources to construct law and determine its underlying rationale? If law is understood as a body of facts that are independent of the mind, then the interpreter simply finds or discovers these laws. However, if law is understood to be connected to historical and institutional context, then it allows for constructive engagement within the boundaries of the legal tradition.[\[14\]](#f14) In the Islamic context, it is necessary to understand the difference between law and the sources of law. The Qur’an and Sunnah are the main sources from which Muslims extract legal rulings. They are part of what are called the sources or principles of jurisprudence (*uṣūl al-fiqh*). The laws in the Qur’an and Sunnah require a process of interpretation. Muslims are in agreement concerning the necessity of following the Qur’an and Sunnah, but Muslim jurists acknowledged that the Qur’an and the Sunnah always have an interpreter. That interpreter can be the individual or it could be a collective body of scholars (i.e., the *madhhab*s). The purpose of a *madhhab* is to provide scholars a methodology for understanding the sources of law. With the exception of a few issues for which there is consensus (*ijmāʿ*), Islamic law is one that requires scholars to put in effort (*ijtihād*) to extract the law. The Prophet ﷺ noted that a judge must strive and put in immense effort (*ijtahada*) to give a legal ruling and he will be rewarded double if he is correct and once if he is mistaken.[\[15\]](#f15) Therefore, law is the result of juristic interpretation and stands at the end of the interpretive process, not the beginning. When one reads a text, there is always context and a method of interpretation that takes place. In the beginning of the process, every jurist seeks out certainty, but certainty is not always possible. Even when one does arrive at certainty, one must go through a process of using probable evidence to build a case for certainty. Both the Qur’an and Sunnah make a distinction between scholars and non-scholars. The purpose of scholars, or *mujtahid*s in the case of law, is to use the principles derived from scripture to study and analyze texts. The Qur’an’s recognition of scholars is an acknowledgment that the Qur’an is not always definitive and requires study and analysis. Had everything been clear without any room for interpretation (*qaṭʿī*), then there would be no need for scholars and the Qur’an would not make a distinction between scholars and non-scholars. Because texts do not speak for themselves, a process of interpretation is essential in understanding the intent and underlying rationale of scripture. Trying to understand the direct meaning of the Qur’an and Sunnah, or any text, without a process of interpretation is not possible. Every text that is read and every understanding obtained is achieved through the human agent of interpretation who is impacted by modern and historical scholarship and the current context. Concerning the *madhhab*s, they are a continuation and expansion of previous scholarship. This in turn forms what we can call a legal tradition. Sherman Jackson explains that tradition is not the result of simply handing ideas down from one generation to the next, but “it is a process of evaluation, amplification, suppression, refinement, and assessing the polarity between would-be tradition and contemporary, indigenous innovations or nonindigenous ideas and practices.”[\[16\]](#f16) The Syrian hadith scholar ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah (d. 1997) said that what makes the *madhhab*s unparalleled is the fact that they have been examined, reviewed, and refined thousands of times.[\[17\]](#f17) In other words, the *madhhab*s are not the interpretation of one person, but they are an uninterrupted chain of scholarly analysis and commentary on legal issues. The *madhhab*s are not the *ijtihād* of only the four imams, but the *ijtihād* of almost the entire body of Islamic legal scholarship. That is why almost every scholar in Islamic history affiliated himself with a *madhhab.* If everyone were to become their own *mujtahid* and independently interpret the Qur’an and Sunnah anew, it would result in legal chaos and endless interpretations. Muslim jurists tried to curb this by placing high standards and requirements for one to become an independent *mujtahid* (*mujtahid muṭlaq*)*.* Therefore, performing *taqlīd* of a *madhhab* became the norm. *Taqlīd* is often translated as blind following or imitation. While that may be an accurate translation for the lexical meaning of the word, it does not represent its meaning and usage in the *madhhab*s. A more accurate translation would be “deference to precedent” because it better represents the utilization and capacity of *taqlīd* in Islamic law.[\[18\]](#f18) *Taqlīd* is not a commitment to unthinking imitation, but it is rather a commitment to the continued development of law.[\[19\]](#f19) It is ultimately what kept Islamic law “Islamic” in the face of a potentially unending stream of originality and innovativeness on the part of individual jurists.[\[20\]](#f20) *Taqlīd* is therefore necessary for the stability of the Islamic legal system. It does not negate or end *ijtihād,* but it ensures that it takes place within the framework of the *madhhab.* If one completely disregards the *madhhab*s and starts anew, then there are no preexisting rules or boundaries on their *ijtihād.*[\[21\]](#f21) --- ## Why didn’t God just make everything clear in the Qur’an? God delivered His message to mankind using the medium of language. What does one do when such language is purposefully ambiguous? Is it possible to be completely literalist in the absolute sense? If one reads the word “stop” on an empty piece of paper it can have endless meanings. However, when one sees the word “stop” on a stop sign, it provides some context and the reader can eliminate other possible meanings. Does everyone need to stop everything they are doing? Or is there a specific context and group of people the stop sign is addressing? We go through an interpretive process to determine that a stop sign is addressing drivers and perhaps pedestrians, but not someone who is mowing their lawn or drinking coffee. Taking the word “stop” and stripping it of all context can lead to many bizarre conclusions. The meaning of the word “stop” on a stop sign is something we all agree has one particular and absolute meaning (*qaṭʿī*). The Qur’an and Sunnah contain several examples of *qaṭʿī* texts. For example, the Qur’an states that fornicators, both male and female, are to be lashed one hundred times. The number is clear, it is one hundred, not more or less. It is also clear that both of them are to be lashed one hundred, it is not only one of the fornicators. However, how does one determine who a fornicator is? Is it someone who only looks with lust or is it the complete act of fornication? This is not as clear from the verse and requires other scriptural and contextual evidence to determine it. Scholars have determined this punishable form of fornication to be the actual act of penetration. In the absence of clear texts, any understanding of such a text would then be conjectural (*ẓannī*), but nonetheless ample enough to be applied as law. Decisive knowledge (*qaṭʿī*) is equated with certainty, to be unable to entertain any doubt concerning it (e.g., the meaning of a stop sign, or that lying is prohibited etc.). On the other hand, juristic opinion or *ẓann* means that it is probable, but not certain. In other words, knowledge is correlated with certainty and opinion is correlated with probability. The vast majority of legal issues in Islam are *ẓannī* and not *qaṭʿī,* therefore allowing room for legal pluralism and flexibility. Conjecture, opinion, and probabilistic here do not mean a scholar’s guess, personal likes or dislikes, but it refers to them using their expertise to exercise their absolute best effort to properly interpret scripture. Muḥammad ʿAwwāma notes that if a scholar is a *mujtahid* and recognized as such by other scholars, then following him is the layperson’s method of following scripture because a scholar’s opinion is not based on personal preferences, but a careful study of scripture.[\[22\]](#f22) This does not mean that scholars are infallible, but it highlights that a scholar's expertise is primarily based on methodological considerations, not the interpretive result. Methodology matters in the determination of what constitutes a valid interpretation. What makes an opinion valid is the quality of the *ijtihād* that takes place to arrive at a legal conclusion. Accordingly, the question of whether an opinion is correct misses the point. Because most legal opinions are based on *ẓannī* texts, there is no way of determining their meanings with absolute certainty even if one believes that there is only one correct interpretation. The layperson is not completely absolved of responsibility in this process. They should have some premise on which they can distinguish between an actual researcher and an impostor. In this regard, the untrained must have a basis on which they can trust the *mujtahid*. This trust is based on a relationship in which the layperson understands that the *mujtahid* will act in the questioner’s best interest. It is similar to how one follows their doctor, the medical opinion is not based on his personal guess, but on trust in the doctor’s expert medical analysis. God knows His words best. If God wished He could have revealed a book in which there was absolutely no ambiguity. The Qur’an explicates that parts of it are not clear: > It is He who has sent this Scripture down to you \[Prophet\]. Some of its verses are definite in meaning—these are the cornerstone of the scripture—and others are not entirely clear (Qur’an 3:7). As previously noted, parts of the Qur’an are absolutely clear-cut or decisive (*qaṭʿī*). These verses often consist of the core elements of faith. There is no doubt, or difference of opinion, about the fact that the Qur’an requires belief in only one God, a belief in all Messengers, a hereafter, prohibition of intoxication, adultery etc. These elements are often referred to as the foundations (*uṣūl*) of the religion. The Shāfiʿī scholar Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) explains that the foundational parts of religion are not open to interpretation because they comprise the core teachings of Islam in which differences of opinion are not allowed. Otherwise, Islam itself would not exist.[\[23\]](#f23) It is for this reason that the *fiqh* principle states that there is no room for *ijtihād* in the presence of a definitive text (*lā masāgh lil ijtihād fī mawrid al-naṣṣ*).[\[24\]](#f24) If all laws were self-evident, there would be no need for interpretation because there would be nothing to interpret.[\[25\]](#f25) The sources of law would need to be known with certainty. It is essential to know without a doubt that the Qur’an and Sunnah are authentic, but the legal conclusions drawn from them need not be more than probable, or more likely true than not. This is what is called preponderance of an opinion (*ghalabat al-ẓann* or *al-ẓann al-rājiḥ*) or, put simply, that which is most likely true.[\[26\]](#f26) The Andalusian scholar Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388) explains that rulings being based on probability is the norm in law.[\[27\]](#f27) To give a simple example, if you enter your home and see that your spouse’s car is outside, their shoes are there, and there is noise in the house, you can come to the logical conclusion that they are home. This conclusion is *ghalabat al-ẓann* in the sense that one uses evidence to come to a reasonable conclusion, but one that is still not certain beyond a shadow of a doubt because the family member has not been seen. In actuality a margin of error exists and there are other possibilities. A principle of Islamic jurisprudence states that “certainty is not removed by doubt” (*al-yaqīn lā yazūl bi-al-shakk*). In the context of subsidiary law, all scholars agreed on the permissibility of acting on probability (*ẓann*), without requiring certainty (*yaqīn*) if the latter cannot be achieved. In most cases, *yaqīn* cannot be achieved. When a jurist uses a *dalīl*, it indicates that a clear ruling (*ḥukm*) is not present. The ruling is missing and a *dalīl* points the jurist in the direction of the ruling. The jurist can be pointed in the right direction or make a mistake. When a jurist studies scripture, he studies the evidence (*dalīl*) to come to a conclusion. A *dalīl* is not proof, but it is evidence, indication, or pointing to a direction. Confusing evidence (a *dalīl*) with proof (*ḥujjah*) can often result in confusion. In law, evidence is used to build a case for proof. A lawyer may try to prove someone is guilty by compiling and examining evidence (witnesses, a glove at the crime scene, etc.). Oftentimes, one piece of evidence on its own is insufficient to establish a matter beyond doubt. When evidence is overwhelming, then the lawyer’s opinion is considered valid. The process of extracting laws from the Qur’an and Sunnah is not as simple as reading one piece of evidence (*dalīl*). Rather it requires that one take all evidence from the vast landscape of Qur’an and hadith into consideration. Similar to the immense effort of a farmer, a *mujtahid* literally means one who toils or puts forth  immense effort to extract (*istikhrāj*) the crop (in this case the legal ruling). As noted earlier, the Qur’an mentions that some of its verses are ambiguous. In other words, God intentionally did not clarify these verses. These *ẓannī* texts result in differences of opinion which are related to the branches or secondary elements (*furūʿ*) of Islam. The Qur’an is a book that is meant to be applied in different times and circumstances. *Ẓannī* texts allow legal flexibility that would otherwise not be possible had everything been spelled out in absolute detail with only one interpretation. This flexibility is completely necessary if a text is to be applied in different times, places, and cultures. Since the majority of scripture in legal matters are *ẓannī,* it means that God has deliberately employed words that can be interpreted in more than one way, even though He could have used other words that would make the significance of the text unequivocal (*qaṭʿī*). This illustrates that disagreement among scholars is not only inevitable but ordained by divine will. In other words, differences of opinion are an intentional and inherent part of Islamic law. Yet, these differences were not intended to cause division, but to help remove hardship. For instance, difference of opinion (*ikhtilāf*) can be utilized to accommodate different societal and individual needs.[\[28\]](#f28) Ultimately, the Qur’an’s ambiguity in language is not an imperfection, but it rather enhances its value as a means of communication. The fact that it delivers multiple meanings in a single word or phrase allows Islamic law to adapt to different times and circumstances. However, as will be discussed later, there are boundaries to the validity of different interpretations. --- ## Why don’t the madhhabs just follow authentic hadith? At first glance, this seems like an easy and simple solution. If everyone just follows authentic hadith, then there will be no difference of opinion. Even the founders of the *madhhab*s are noted to have said “If the hadith is authentic, it is my *madhhab*” (*idhā ṣaḥḥa al-ḥadīth fa-huwa madhhabī*). However, as we shall see from the case study below, no amount of insistence on following authentic hadith will remove differences of opinion. When one reads *fiqh* books one may even notice that they are often devoid of hadith. This can give the impression that the *madhhab*s were not concerned with hadith. However, these books were written by scholars for scholars, therefore they assume that the reader has studied the relevant hadith separately. The statement of following an authentic hadith vs. the *madhhab* might imply that one should compare the opinions of scholars against authentic hadith. If one finds that the hadith is authentic, then it should take precedence over the *ijtihād* of the scholar. As with any statement, it is important to understand who it was directed to. Several modern and classical scholars have argued that this statement does not mean that every person who encounters an authentic hadith could declare that their understanding of the hadith is the *madhhab* of the founder of the school. Rather, these statements were directed toward other *mujtahid*s. Imam al-Nawawī explains: > *A*l-Shāfiʿī’s statement does not mean that anyone who encounters an authentic hadith could then say that this is the *madhhab* of al-Shāfiʿī and act according to its superficial meaning. Instead, this statement is directed toward the one who has attained the level of *ijtihād* in the *madhhab* according to what was previously mentioned of the *mujtahid*ʾs attributes, or something close to it. The condition is that he be most certain that al-Shāfiʿī, may God’s mercy be upon him, did not encounter that hadith or was unaware of its authenticity. This can only be determined after reviewing all of al-Shāfiʿīʾs books as well as the books of those who learned from him and so on. This condition is difficult and those who meet it are few. This condition was placed because al-Shāfiʿī abandoned acting on the superficial meaning of many hadith which he saw and knew. However, the evidence he had led him to criticize it, or consider it abrogated, specific, or he interpreted it, etc.[\[29\]](#f29) --- ## The case of physical contact with the opposite gender To further explain how and why scholars can differ and still be following the text, we will briefly examine the case of whether touching someone of the opposite gender invalidates one’s ablution. The Qur’an mentions “contact with women” as one of the nullifiers of ablution:  “If any of you is sick or on a journey, or has just relieved himself, or had contact with women.”[\[30\]](#f30) The word used for contact with women is *lāmastum* which literally means to touch. The Shāfiʿī *madhhab* understands this to be physical contact, meaning that any skin-to-skin contact between a man and woman invalidates both of their ablution. However, the word *lāmastum* can also mean intercourse and this is the opinion of the Ḥanafīs. Therefore, *lāmastum* can have two meanings; physical touch or intercourse. The Shāfiʿīs adhere to the literal meaning of *lāmastum* and in most cases one should not abandon the literal meaning in favor of a symbolic one without evidence. However, the Ḥanafīs depart from the literal meaning based on a hadith in which ʿĀʾishah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, said: > I used to stretch my legs towards the *qiblah* in front of the Prophet while he was praying; he touched me whenever he prostrated and I would move my legs, and when he stood up, I would stretch my legs again.[\[31\]](#f31) It is important to note that the issue is not simply about finding authentic hadith. The differences on this issue stem from a verse in the Qur’an and an authentic hadith in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. Therefore, the Ḥanafīs use the hadith to interpret the verse. The Shāfiʿīs interpret the hadith in light of the verse by noting that the Prophet ﷺ did not touch ʿĀʾishah’s skin in this hadith, but her clothing. Other scholars understand the word *lāmastum* to refer to physical contact that is accompanied by lust. Meaning if there is no lust it does not nullify the ablution. (It is important to clarify that they do not say physical contact is permissible between non-*maḥram*s, but that it does not nullify the ablution.) So, both groups are using a *dalīl* and when one follows either of these schools, they are still following the Qur’an and Sunnah. There is no way of avoiding this difference of opinion because neither side can claim that their understanding of the verse and hadith are absolutely correct without the possibility of being mistaken. The verse and hadith have a degree of ambiguity so scholars must engage in a process of interpreting them to the best of their ability. Maintaining that one should abandon the *madhhab*s and just follow the Qur’an and Sunnah instead of these interpretations is an oversimplification of the Qur’an and Sunnah. One who chooses to not follow a *madhhab* will still have to engage in a process of interpretation when encountering these verses and hadith. All legal opinions in the *madhhab*s are based on the Qur’an and Sunnah. There are cases in which each *madhhab* may have a few issues in which their interpretation may not be the most convincing or based on weak evidence. However, these are very few cases in light of the thousands of legal issues the *madhhab*s examine. Furthermore, the weakness of evidence does not necessitate that the opinion or scholarly conclusion is weak. What often happens is that the novice dismisses the opinion of a *madhhab* after encountering a general *fiqh* book that mentions a few pieces of evidence that summarizes a legal opinion. In many cases, there are tens or hundreds of pieces of evidence supporting a legal opinion. --- ## Is every interpretation valid? As previously noted, the *madhhab*s play an important role in restricting differences of opinion. Instead of millions of individual scholars interpreting scripture according to their own methodology, the *madhhab*s are a collective scholarly effort over centuries to understand texts that are not unambiguous. Most jurists believe the truth to be one and there is only one correct rule on particular actions. Therefore, when jurists disagree on an issue, they cannot all be right. However, because all of these opinions are based on *ẓannī* texts there is no way of knowing which opinion is unquestionably correct. At the same time, this does not mean that all interpretations are equally valid because if all interpretations are equal, then there is no purpose to having a legal system. The Qur’an and Sunnah have meanings that are to be discovered and are not simply vessels to which each person imposes their own interpretation. If that were the case the Qur’an would be empty words without meaning and God would have spoken but intended nothing. After all, the purpose of speech is to convey the intention of the speaker. The fact that the legal teachings in scripture do not apply themselves, but must be applied by people engaging in an interpretive exercise, does not entail that the text of the law itself does not have meaning, but quite the opposite. Although jurists recognized the validity of differences of opinion when there is no consensus (*ijmāʿ*) or a clear text, they simultaneously understood the dangers that extreme legal pluralism posed to scripture. Extreme legal pluralism can easily result in individuals manipulating the meaning of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Therefore, the *madhhab*s placed boundaries on what can be considered a valid opinion by making interpretive methodology, not the interpretive result, the primary factor in determining the validity of an opinion. What a jurist says is not authoritative because he says it, but because his authority rests on the validity of his methodology. The question is whether the jurist has properly or validly performed *ijtihād*. Put differently, it is the ability of the jurist to use proper tools and methodology that determines the validity of an opinion. --- ## Reform and Islamic legal tradition The *madhhab*s have at times been portrayed as outdated and irrelevant to the modern world. The topic of reform or change in Islamic law is beyond the scope of this paper, and has been treated elsewhere.[\[32\]](#f32) However, it is important to shed some light on it before I conclude. Does Islamic legal tradition need reform? If so, what does this reform look like and who gets to engage in it? Over the past century, there have been a plethora of calls to reform Islam from various individuals, movements, and governments. Although the term reform is used by Muslims, Islamophobes, governments, and the press, they all use it in a variety of ways. This results in confusion about what reform means and oftentimes those agendas of reform speak past each other. At times, the demand for reform is rooted in a desire to completely abandon the Islamic legal tradition. In a strict sense, the vast majority of Muslims would reject the idea that Islam has something inherently wrong with it and therefore needs to be changed. This rejection especially stands when the call for reform comes from those outside the faith or from governments. There are often calls for Muslim Martin Luthers based on the idea that Islam is in need of a revolution or enlightenment similar to Christianity. At the core of these calls for reform is an abandonment of Islamic law. In the Western mind the idea of reforming religion is often influenced by the Protestant revolution and its breaking away from the Church. In this historical analogy, it is usually secular Muslims who want to adopt a Western understanding of religion who are painted as Protestants. Muslims who seek to adhere to Islamic laws and teachings that may not conform with Western cultural norms are therefore compared to the medieval Church. These Muslims are sometimes referred to as fundamentalists, another term that is rarely clearly defined. Fundamentalism is usually understood to denote a belief in the literal word of God. However, all Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the literal word of God, but this does not mean that they always interpret God’s words literally. When the terms “literalists” or “fundamentalists” are used, they are often equated with political activism, extremism, terrorism, and anti-American sentiments. In fact, the term fundamentalism is full of Christian suppositions and Western stereotypes. Very few Muslim organizations and individuals fit this stereotype.[\[33\]](#f33) Nevertheless, Islamic law allows reforming the application of certain laws to adapt to different contexts. In the last several centuries, the world has witnessed tremendous and swift changes. Industrialization, colonization, and technological changes have made the world very different than it was in the past. With the rise of technology and globalization, the world has changed drastically over the past hundred years in a way that humans have never witnessed before. Some Muslims and academics claim that the *madhhab*s became stagnant after their maturity. This is inaccurate for several reasons, but it is important to note that the world changed at a very slow rate before the modern period. The changes that took place from one century to another were minimal. However, we find that the world has been experiencing unprecedentedly drastic and swift changes over the last several centuries due to industrialization, technology, and globalization. For instance, the printing press, which was introduced in the Muslim world and used for Arabic books in the 1700s, had a tremendous impact on Islamic education and religious authority. Prior to the printing press, if a student wanted a copy of a book he would have had to borrow it and handwrite the copy, a process that would take months. For example, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (d. 489/1095), better known as Ibn al-Khāḍibah, copied *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* seven times in one year.[\[34\]](#f34) The process of handwriting a copy of a book is a form of learning in and of itself that is more impactful than simply reading a book. To build a library, the student would copy dozens of texts by hand. Compare this to the current information age where students have access to thousands of books in their physical or digital library.[\[35\]](#f35) Educational, economic, technological, and communication changes have dramatically changed the world we live in. While Islamic law allows room for new opinions and the reexamination of older ones, there have also been calls to reform the principles of Islamic law (*uṣūl al-fiqh*). This is problematic because changing one principle of Islamic law has widespread repercussions. For example, a legal maxim states that a command necessitates obligation (*al-amr yaqtaḍī al-wujūb*); if this is reformed, then it will impact many obligations of Islam such as the daily prayers and fasting of Ramadan. Further, the already established legal principles are diverse and flexible enough that scholars can utilize them to provide solutions to new issues. In the context of new issues, there is sometimes a tension between the opinions of the *madhhab*s and the world we live in today. It may be the case that the circumstances we live in have changed drastically and a new opinion might be formed that goes against the *madhhab*s. There is a difference between proposing new solutions to meet practical needs in the modern world and completely reforming the *madhhab*s. To return to the example of the home used by Ṭayyib, he implied that if the home is missing a brick or is rusty in some places, there is no need to demolish it. It is nevertheless necessary to reconsider Islamic legal rulings in light of the changing times and circumstances to provide realistic and practical solutions for Muslims in the modern world. How is this to be done in a way that is loyal to legal precedent and practical at the same time? Are valid legal opinions limited to the four legal schools or is it possible that they extend beyond that? How can this be done in a way that protects people from the chaos of unregulated **fatwá**s? If the issue at hand is a modern one that was never addressed by the *madhhab*s, then contemporary jurists can formulate new opinions. A jurist may be able to draw from an opinion or circumstance of the past to deduce a ruling based on the *madhhab,* but this is not binding. If it has been previously addressed by the *madhhab*s and a new opinion must be formulated then, as noted by Muṣṭafá al-Zarqāʾ (d. 1999), collective *ijtihād* is the best option.[\[36\]](#f36) Collective *ijtihād* by a qualified body of scholars will serve to ensure a “reform” of a legal opinion is loyal to Islamic tradition while simultaneously using their expertise to provide the most practical legal opinions for their daily lives. Further, it will help curb the chaos that ensues from unregulated *fatwá*s from often unqualified individuals. In this sense, Muslim jurists are open to reform of legal opinions provided they are done in a systematic and methodologically sound manner. What both jurists and many lay Muslims find problematic are calls to discard Islamic legal tradition and start anew based on the idea that it is inherently problematic or inferior to other legal systems. --- ## Conclusion The Qur’an and Sunnah function as sources of law rather than law themselves. Because sources of law require interpretation, Muslim scholars since the time of the Companions developed a dynamic and sophisticated interpretational methodology known as *uṣūl al-fiqh.* Therefore, the *madhhab*s are not different Islamic sects, but they consist of scholars who abide by the interpretive methodology of the school*.* Because the nature of most texts is probabilistic (*zannī*)*,* the methodologies established by each *madhhab* seek to produce what is most probably the correct interpretation but can never be known with absolute certainty. Additionally, having a shared interpretive methodology provides stability and predictability in order to prevent interpretative chaos or a free-for-all in interpreting texts. At the same time, the *madhhab*s allow flexibility and can adapt to change based on different times, locations, and circumstances. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Among the most pressing questions faced by Muslims today is the relationship between the Islamic legal schools (madhhabs) and the two primary sources of the religion: the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This tension surfaced vividly in a widely circulated exchange between Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, and Mohamed Othman al-Khosht, President of Cairo University. Khosht argued that Islam requires renewal by returning directly to the Qur'an and authentic Sunnah, blaming tradition for the stagnation of the Muslim world, and suggesting that even Imam al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820) would have sought renewal were he alive today. Tayyeb responded by defending the tradition, noting that the very concept of religious renewal arises from within the tradition itself, not from outside it. He likened Khosht to a man who, rather than repairing his father's house, chooses to abandon it and purchase a new one. This debate reflects a broader current among certain reformers of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries who have called for bypassing the madhhabs altogether, a stance that often stems from a perceived inferiority of Islamic law compared to Western legal systems. A common misunderstanding must be corrected at the outset: many suppose that the madhhabs are merely the personal opinions of a few jurists, disconnected from scripture, and thus declare that they follow "the Qur'an and Sunnah" rather than a madhhab. This assumption is mistaken, for the legal schools always ground their rulings in scripture. A madhhab is not a theological sect but a shared methodology of interpretation; the word itself linguistically means "a way." The four surviving Sunni schools—the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī—do not differ in the foundations of faith such as the Oneness of God, the truth of the Qur'an, or the messengership of the Prophet ﷺ. Rather, they permit a plurality of opinion in secondary matters. This difference of opinion must be distinguished from division, for the partisanship and conflict that split a community are condemned by the Qur'an and Sunnah, whereas measured juristic difference is not. Moreover, following a madhhab does not mean following only the opinion of its eponym; scholars such as Abū Yūsuf (d. 182/798) and al-Shaybānī (d. 189/805) among the Ḥanafīs, and al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) and al-Rāfiʿī (d. 623/1226) among the Shāfiʿīs, differed with the founders of their own schools while remaining within their methodology. What carries the greatest legal weight in a school is the muʿtamad, or relied-upon position. The emergence of the madhhabs was gradual and natural, tracing back to the Companions. During the Prophet's lifetime, differences were resolved by referring to him ﷺ, yet even then some Companions gave fatwas and were recognized for their legal expertise. When faced with matters not addressed by revelation, they exercised ijtihād—drawing upon knowledge of scripture, mastery of Arabic, analogical reasoning (qiyās), consensus (ijmāʿ), and subsidiary principles such as istiḥsān and maṣlaḥah. An example is ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ, who, finding only bitterly cold water while travelling, performed tayammum, and upon returning had his judgment confirmed by the Prophet ﷺ. After the Prophet's passing, revelation ceased, and Companions renowned in law such as ʿĀʾishah, Ibn Masʿūd, Zayd b. Thābit, and Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) instructed students who carried forward their teachings. As Islam spread to lands with differing customs, the application of the law adapted to new circumstances. Thus when ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) suspended the share of zakāh allotted to "those whose hearts need winning over" (Qur'an 9:60), reasoning that the effective cause (ʿillah)—the need to strengthen a small Muslim population—no longer existed, he was not disregarding the law but applying it, for a ruling operates only in the presence of its cause. That legitimate difference of opinion is woven into the fabric of the religion is illustrated by the report of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him), in which two men prayed with tayammum for lack of water; one later repeated his prayer upon finding water and one did not. The Prophet ﷺ told the one who did not repeat, "You have followed the Sunnah correctly and your prayer will be rewarded," and told the other, "You will have a double reward." The concept of following a qualified expert, sometimes termed taqlīd, thus existed among the Companions themselves. Their students became teachers, and numerous schools of interpretation arose, most of which did not survive for want of dedicated students to preserve them, until the four well-known schools spread throughout the Muslim world. These schools were never the product of a single mind; Abū Ḥanīfah, for instance, would present issues to his circle of scholars—experts in language, hadith, and judgeship—who debated and refined each ruling before it was adopted. In this sense, the madhhabs represent a communal preservation of the law, developing gradually just as the compilation of the Qur'an and the sciences of hadith developed after the Prophet's time as the community's needs grew. Imam al-Shāfiʿī was the first to compose a work on the principles of jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), not by inventing a method but by extracting it from the way the Companions interpreted scripture, providing, as it were, a guiding stick for those who lacked their direct experience. The necessity of interpretation is not unique to Islam; every legal system requires qualified interpreters, for texts do not speak for themselves. Muslims agree upon the obligation of following the Qur'an and Sunnah, yet these are the sources of law, not the finished body of law itself. Extracting rulings requires ijtihād, and the Prophet ﷺ indicated that a judge who strives to reach a ruling receives a double reward if correct and a single reward if mistaken. The Qur'an itself distinguishes between scholars and non-scholars, an acknowledgment that its verses require study and analysis, for had everything been decisive (qaṭʿī), no such distinction would be needed. Sherman Jackson notes that tradition is not the mere passing down of ideas but a process of evaluation, refinement, and assessment, while the Syrian scholar ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah (d. 1997) observed that what makes the madhhabs unparalleled is that they have been examined and refined thousands of times, representing the collective ijtihād of nearly the entire body of Islamic scholarship rather than the view of four individuals alone. Taqlīd, better rendered as "deference to precedent" than "blind following," safeguards the stability of the legal system and ensures that ijtihād proceeds within established boundaries rather than in chaos. One may ask why God did not make everything explicit. The answer lies in the nature of language and divine wisdom. The Qur'an declares: "It is He who has sent this Scripture down to you [Prophet]. Some of its verses are definite in meaning—these are the cornerstone of the scripture—and others are not entirely clear" (Qur'an 3:7). The decisive verses concern the foundations of faith, and as al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) explains, these are not open to interpretation, for the principle holds that "there is no scope for ijtihād in the presence of a definitive text." Yet most legal matters rest upon probabilistic (ẓannī) texts, and al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388) explains that basing rulings upon preponderant probability (ghalabat al-ẓann) is the norm in law. A jurist works with a dalīl—an indication pointing toward a ruling—not a definitive proof, and as Muḥammad ʿAwwāma notes, following a recognized mujtahid is the layperson's means of following scripture, since the scholar's opinion rests upon careful study rather than personal preference, much as one trusts a physician's expertise. This deliberate ambiguity is not a defect but a mercy, for it allows the law to accommodate different times, places, and needs, and thereby to remove hardship rather than cause division. It might be proposed that the schools should simply follow authentic hadith, and indeed the founders are reported to have said, "If the hadith is authentic, it is my madhhab." Yet Imam al-Nawawī clarified that this statement was directed to those who have attained the rank of ijtihād within the school, and only after ascertaining that the imam was unaware of the hadith or its authenticity—a condition met by very few, since the imams often set aside the apparent meaning of hadith they knew due to abrogation, specification, or interpretation. The question of whether physical contact with the opposite gender nullifies ablution illustrates this well. The Qur'an mentions those who have had "contact with women" (lāmastum), a word bearing both the meaning of physical touch and of intercourse. The Shāfiʿīs held to the literal sense, while the Ḥanafīs, relying upon the authentic report of ʿĀʾishah in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī that the Prophet ﷺ touched her foot during prayer, understood it as intercourse; the Shāfiʿīs answered that he touched her clothing, not her skin. Both parties reason from a verse and an authentic hadith, so the disagreement cannot be resolved merely by appealing to authenticity. Not every interpretation, however, is valid. Since most jurists hold the truth to be singular, they cannot all be correct, yet certainty is unattainable; therefore the schools made sound methodology, not the result, the measure of a valid opinion, lest the Qur'an be treated as empty words into which anyone may pour his own meaning. Concerning reform, the vast majority of Muslims reject the notion that Islam is inherently flawed and in need of overhaul, particularly when such calls issue from outside the faith or from governments, and the analogy of a Muslim "Martin Luther" imports Christian and Western assumptions foreign to Islam. Islamic law does, however, permit adapting the application of rulings to changed circumstances, and the world has transformed with unprecedented speed through industrialization, technology, and globalization—the printing press alone reshaped religious learning, replacing the laborious hand-copying by which Ibn al-Khāḍibah (d. 489/1095) transcribed Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim seven times in a single year. Reforming the very principles of jurisprudence is dangerous, for altering a single maxim such as "a command necessitates obligation" would unravel established obligations like prayer and fasting. For genuinely new issues, Muṣṭafá al-Zarqāʾ (d. 1999) held that collective ijtihād by qualified scholars is the best course, ensuring fidelity to tradition while curbing the chaos of unregulated fatwas. As Tayyeb's parable conveys, a house missing a brick or grown rusty is repaired, not demolished. In sum, the Qur'an and Sunnah are the sources of law rather than the law itself; because most texts are probabilistic, the madhhabs offer a disciplined methodology that yields the most likely correct interpretation, providing both the stability that prevents interpretive anarchy and the flexibility to meet the changing conditions of Muslim life. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/understanding-the-usul-the-foundation-of-islamic-sciences # Understanding the Uṣūl: The Foundation of Islamic Sciences **Authors:** Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb, Dr. Omar Husain **Topics:** Methodology (usul), Sharia **Tags:** Daily Reads, Ijtihad **Published:** December 25, 2020 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 *The following is a modified version of a lecture recorded by Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb and Sh. Omar Husain for Yaqeen’s* [*Conviction Circles*](https://convictioncircles.yaqeeninstitute.org/).*™ You may watch the video* [*here*](https://vimeo.com/489495362/386b49f6d8)*.* --- ## Introduction Many of us are exposed to the Islamic sciences[\[1\]](#f1) through brief intensives, conferences, short online videos, weekend schools, and other similar venues. Each of these modes of learning has an important role to play in our education. However, there remains the real and pressing challenge of institutionalizing systematic learning true to the Islamic intellectual tradition and relevant to the modern context. Many Muslims memorize only a few short *sūrah*s of the Qur’an, seemingly satisfied with a surface-level understanding for the entirety of their adult lives and thus only experience most of the Qur’an vicariously through the commentary of others. Many miss an opportunity to build their own relationship with the text and lack a holistic view of its message. Many also lack a broad appreciation of the Prophet ﷺ or who he really was, relegated to knowing only an assortment of anecdotes without their corresponding context in his life, historical condition, or noble character. Without this foundational knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah, one is left vulnerable, particularly as one matriculates through higher levels of secular education without congruent maturity in understanding the Islamic worldview. This Islamic illiteracy results from these disjointed, disparate educational pursuits, often “more edutainment than education, \[doing\] little to rebuild the original Islamic culture of constant religious study throughout one’s life. This has led to a generation of young Muslims who are highly educated in almost every other field but possess a fifth-grade level of Islamic education.”[\[2\]](#f2) In this paper, we introduce how the bases of the Islamic sciences—the *uṣūl*—serve not only as a source of academic regulation for scholars, but also as a gateway and a map for the everyday Muslim to understand the fabric of Islamic thought. The *uṣūl* afford the ability to see the world through an Islamic lens and to compare and contrast worldviews. Familiarity with the *uṣūl* offers a person a grounding to understand the big picture, to appreciate that the Islamic worldview forms a cohesive and interconnected whole. This is one important reason why the *uṣūl* may be more critical to our pursuits today than at any point in human history, given the unprecedented volume of information and pace of change experienced in the modern world. As much of contemporary Islamic pedagogy, andragogy, and discourse is preoccupied with *what* to think, we assert that Muslims must ground themselves in *how* to think, anchored by the *uṣūl* sciences. --- ## What are the uṣūl? At the outset of discourse on a topic, scholars of the Islamic sciences would often begin by defining terms. This helps establish a common terminology and identify the concepts necessary for the discussion at hand. Two complementary views on the usage of a term are commonly described. The first is the lexical definition: the meaning of the term in the classical Arabic language, outside of a technical Islamic paradigm. Classical poetry, prose, and the norms of speech originally formed these references. In following generations, dictionaries were compiled from these sources to record this knowledge. The same term can be used with more than one meaning, and usage context is critical to understanding the intended meaning of a word in any language. For example, consider the English term “surf”: without contextualizing information, we can not be certain if the speaker means surfing the waves on a beach or surfing the Internet. The second dimension is the technical definition: the term’s usage by the scholars of a particular field of the Islamic sciences. The technical definition of a term is typically linked to the lexical meaning, as a related concept is applied to a new usage within the Islamic sciences. The *uṣūl* are a good example of these two complementary views of terminology. The lexical definition of the term *uṣūl* is bases, essentials, or fundamentals: the foundations of something. *Uṣūl* is the plural Arabic term for the singular *aṣl*, meaning one basis or foundation. The technical definition when used within the Islamic sciences includes the rules and methodology governing a particular discipline as practiced by its scholars. Put differently, the term *uṣūl* is linked to a particular discipline that it is describing. For example, *uṣūl al-fiqh* means the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, while *uṣūl al-tafsīr* means the foundations of Qur’anic interpretation. And when it’s used in this way, i.e., “*uṣūl*\-something,” then it means the rules and methodology followed by the practitioners of that discipline: the process of regulation that helps govern the manner of research and reasoning within that discipline. Historically, some scholars have classified the *uṣūl* sciences as entirely separate sciences in their own right, due to their breadth and importance. Others considered them to be sub-disciplines or a part of the associated research discipline (e.g., jurisprudence). This is a technical difference in classification, helpful in observing the foundational place of the *uṣūl* in the Islamic sciences. Now, let us explore some examples of *uṣūl* sciences in the Islamic tradition. *Uṣūl al-tafsīr*, the methodology of Qur’anic interpretation, guides how the Qur’an is engaged, how interpretations are arrived at, and the overall rules and methodology that govern research and scholarly opinions in this discipline. A second example is *uṣūl al-ḥadīth*, sometimes called *muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth*, the methodology of hadith source criticism and evaluation. A hadith is a report attributed to the Prophet ﷺ regarding his statements, behaviors, and description. How do we evaluate the source of that claim, its chain of narration, the honesty and memory and details of every member in that chain of narration, and how do specialists ultimately arrive at an evaluation of the likelihood of the authenticity of this report? Is it a *ṣaḥīḥ* hadith, one that is highly authenticated, meaning that the Prophet ﷺ said it with a very high degree of likelihood? Is it *ḍaʿīf* (weak)? Is it *ḥasan* (good)? Is it *mawḍūʿ* (fabricated)? All of these matters and their associated details are part of the science of *uṣūl al-ḥadīth*. A third important example is *uṣūl al-fiqh*, the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence, also known as Islamic legal theory. It encompasses not the rulings themselves, but how rulings are arrived at. There is a helpful analogy derived from the world of sports, worthy of careful consideration for its simplicity yet profound implications.[\[3\]](#f3) An understanding of this analogy can deepen one’s appreciation of how the respective *uṣūl* complement and relate to all of the Islamic sciences. Imagine any competitive sport, say soccer or football. In this game, there are athletes participating and ultimately the winner is decided by the score, even if many other statistics are tracked. In this analogy, we consider the athletes as the practitioners of the scholarly discipline, such as *fiqh.* (No analogy is intended comprehensively, and in this analogy the competitive aspect does not apply to the scholars, nor is the enterprise of scholarship a game). The athletes who are trying to score a goal are the specialists of *fiqh* who are seeking to offer a valid contribution that adds a new opinion, a helpful perspective, or a helpful analysis to the field. The players, in other words, are the jurists (*fuqahāʾ*): that is, the practitioners and specialists of *fiqh*. So who is the *uṣūlī* (i.e., the one practicing *uṣūl al-fiqh*) in this example? The *uṣūlī* in this analogy is the referee, who is not concerned with “scoring,” but is concerned with the proper application of the rules. In soccer, for example, you can’t grab the ball and score with your hand. That’s not a legitimate way to score; it violates the rules of the game. Similarly, in basketball, you can’t just run around without dribbling. It doesn’t matter if the ball goes through the hoop, as the play would not be considered legitimate—a traveling violation would be called and the basket would not count. Analogously, in our Islamic disciplines, rules help govern what makes an appropriate contribution and the parameters for how to think. This protects these disciplines from otherwise becoming prone to anyone’s whims, desires, or baseless opinions that are introduced in the name of the religion. Ideally, it helps that a body of scholarship self-governs while being open to criticism and evaluation in a scholarly way. There is a balance between academic freedom and introducing new thought, while being tied to a consistent methodology of thinking. Without this methodology, Islam becomes anything to anyone. Any whim, thought, or opinion can be associated with the religion without a process of scholarly exchange, and a person can make a claim to the authority of the Qur’an or Islamic law or hadith without evidence. This is why the *uṣūl* are so important: when Islam becomes anything to anyone, then it becomes nothing at all. Thus, the *uṣūl* regulate the methodology of research and scholarship so that these bodies of Islamic sciences can be well-governed. --- ## Were the uṣūl practiced at the time of the Prophet ﷺ? Now we move to ask: were the *uṣūl* practiced at the time of the Prophet ﷺ? The answer for all of the *uṣūl* disciplines is yes. As long as there were rulings and scholarly opinions being offered, there were necessarily rules and methodologies regulating how those rulings came about. Let’s examine an example in the field of *fiqh*, or Islamic law and jurisprudence. At the time of the Prophet ﷺ, during his life and in his presence, there was no need for anyone to offer a scholarly ruling, because the Prophet ﷺ did not speak based on whims, but through revelation from God. Allah said, **وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَىٰ إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَىٰ** > Nor does he speak from \[his own\] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed.[\[4\]](#f4) However, the Companions did make Islamic legal rulings during his lifetime, for one of two reasons. Either the Companions would be physically outside of the Prophet’s ﷺ presence such as on travel or in a different part of the city, and a situation would arise where they had to make a ruling; or the Prophet ﷺ would give them permission in his presence to offer their opinion on the matter. When this was presented to him, the Prophet ﷺ would either approve of the ruling, in which case it would become part of the Sunnah, and therefore part of the primary sources of our religion; or he would disapprove of it and correct it, and in that case that would also become part of his Sunnah ﷺ. So in that way, discerning the Prophetic methodology through primary source texts and through the rulings of the Companions, the science of *uṣūl al-fiqh* is derived. The codification of these disciplines and the writing of books came after the generation of the Companions. This is not true just of Islamic disciplines, but is generally true of the fields of human enterprise, research, and scholarship. Writing down the rules of a field in books is not a prerequisite to the existence of a field—it’s part of the growth and maturity of that field. So, for example, in Arabic grammar and language, the Arabs during the time of the Prophet ﷺ didn’t learn Arabic like we do, from reading books and taking classes. They were masters of the Arabic language, able to gather in the city square and recite novel lines of advanced poetry extemporaneously. The language was learned as a living language through observation and osmosis. Their proficiency is unmatched by the overwhelming majority of people alive today; yet, they did not ever read a book on Arabic grammar nor sit in an Arabic language class. Similarly, the *uṣūl* were part of that consciousness, but the fields were not codified and written down until later generations. As Islam spread to other lands, it started to become increasingly important to record and standardize discourse on these disciplines. There were many reasons for this. One reason is because Islam spread to more Arab and non-Arab lands, and with that naturally came a weakening of the Arabic language for both native Arabic speakers and for new Muslims coming into the religion who were not native Arabic speakers. Thus, it became very important to standardize and facilitate learning the language because later generations did not have the same sense of lexical meanings present in the Qur’an or in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. Similarly, as more and more people came into the religion, there were new situations and behaviors that arose that were never presented to the Prophet ﷺ or practiced by the Companions, so having the rules and regulations of *uṣūl* became more and more important. Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), the famous historian considered by many to be the father of modern sociology, writes in his masterpiece *al-Muqaddimah* that as these factors became more prominent and these enterprises (e.g., *fiqh*) became crafts of their own, the jurists of later generations came to need these rules and methodology in order to arrive at their rulings. It was then that the various disciplines started to glean and extract these timeless principles of the various *uṣūl* from the original sources. --- ## The foundations of the Islamic religion There is one *uṣūl* science that is a notable exception in its usage of terminology. It uses the term *uṣūl* in its lexical meaning, literally meaning foundation, rather than its technical meaning discussed earlier. That science is the field of *uṣūl al-dīn*, the foundations of the Islamic religion. This discipline has been defined as “a science that enables a person to prove religious beliefs by stating appropriate evidence and by warding off misconceptions.”[\[5\]](#f5) There are important components of this discipline of *uṣūl al-dīn*, such as basic knowledge of the *shahādah*, the testimony of faith in Islam, and the *ʿibādāt*, the acts of worship. There’s also a component of this definition whose practical manifestation shifts with time: the part related to proving religious beliefs and warding off misconceptions, to avoid doubts (*shubuhāt*) and navigate these turbulent waters. As the surrounding context changes with time and place, the requisite knowledge considered part of *uṣūl al-dīn* changes as well. Let us examine some concrete examples. An average person in our time has the potential to be exposed to more information in a single day than a person may have encountered in an entire year a few centuries ago, between social media, TV, globalized information exchange, and other sources. Many have experienced this information overload. As a consequence, a 21st-century Muslim in a globalized, interconnected world may need to know more about the foundations of their religion than a 17th-century farmer who knew and was comfortable with the essentials of Islam, since he was exposed to far less information. On the other hand, a graduate student, particularly in the liberal arts, may be in much greater need of the rationale behind sociological or legal rulings in Islam than an average Muslim, for whom these detailed rulings are not going to affect his daily life. Knowing these rulings will not inherently make him a better person: he will not make more ethical business decisions or grow in morality, and in case of need he could consult with a specialist. In contrast, a graduate student may have a vastly different experience because they may encounter this information day in and day out in academic discourse, and without knowledge of these disciplines, may become prone to misinformation or incorrect conclusions. Another example is a Muslim living as a minority in the West. There are certain rare circumstances or historical details that outside these circumstances, nobody but a specialist would need to know; yet, they are frequent targets of Islamophobic discourse. Examples are historical legal regulations on social constructs that no longer exist in society such as decisions on peace and war in pre-modern societies. Thus, it becomes important for Muslims to have basic knowledge of this, so they can ward off misconceptions that otherwise would have never intersected with their lives. While this discipline may seem basic at first glance, mastery of it requires a very broad exposure to and deep understanding of the Holy Qur’an and the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, in addition to a broad grasp of how Islam forms a cohesive, interconnected worldview. For this reason, major Islamic universities across the world house entire programs and colleges have been dedicated to the study of this one field for hundreds of years. We often see them called *Kulliyat Uṣūl al-Dīn*, or the College of the Foundations of the Religion. That is how important a mastery of this particular field of *uṣūl* continues to be to our day, both for individuals and for society as a whole. --- ## Ijtihād, reasoning, and evidence We move now to a discussion of several important cornerstones of the *uṣūl* disciplines and particularly *ijtihād*, or legal reasoning. We begin with a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, in which he spoke to Muʿādh ibn Jabal, the noble Companion he sent as an emissary to Yemen. In the absence of the Prophet ﷺ, Muʿādh would have to judge among people and issue rulings. This hadith gives us both the permission and the basic methodology of issuing Islamic legal rulings for qualified individuals. Al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAmr reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Muʿādh to Yemen and he said, “**How will you judge?**” Muʿādh said, “I will judge according to the Book of Allah.” The Prophet said, “**What if it is not in the Book of Allah?**” Muʿādh said, “Then, with the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet said, “**What if it is not in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah?**” Mu’adh said, “Then, I will strive to form an opinion \[lit. perform *ijtihād*\].” The Prophet said, “**All praise is due to Allah, who has made suitable the messenger of the Messenger of Allah.**”[\[6\]](#f6) This *ijtihād*, or scholarly effort and judgment, is part of what makes the religion suitable for different times, places, and contexts. The Qur’an contains broad, overarching values that are timeless and not restricted to a particular nation, gender, ethnicity, or time. Appropriate, bounded flexibility enables these values to guide human beings, whether riding a camel in 7th-century Arabia or a car in 21st-century America. This flexibility allows the jurist to engage the cultures and customs of people of different places and contexts under the common umbrella of timeless ethics, morals, and behaviors, while pursuing a holistic connection with Allah. Although these timeless principles are being interpreted by humans who are fallible, the field seeks to curtail errors or biases by governing scholarly efforts through an established methodology and ensuring that well-qualified people practice it. Moreover, the Prophet ﷺ taught us that his community, or *ummah*,  will not come to consensus upon misguidance. So if there is something that all of the scholars and all of the *ummah* of the Prophet ﷺ agree upon in scholarship, then it cannot be in error.[\[7\]](#f7) However, there remain differences of opinions in certain derivative areas of the faith which must be navigated with class and decorum. One of the ways that this field was regulated was by outlining a set of requirements for a specialist in the field. This may be familiar to many who are familiar with modern regulations concerning the practice of medicine, law, counseling, or other specialties. These fields are governed by regulations and requirements without which you cannot legally or ethically practice in that field, due to concern of harm that could befall the patient or client. In fact, much malpractice or unlicensed practice carries fines and punishments before an enforcement or government body. The scholars of the Islamic tradition have outlined various formulations of what it takes to be a *mujtahid,* or a practitioner and master of Islamic law. Today, many Islamic universities or training programs have captured this through prerequisites and degree requirements. For example, one such formulation outlines eight areas a person must master in order to be a *mujtahid*: 1) the holy Qur’an and its sciences; 2) the Sunnah; 3) the Arabic language; 4) the areas of scholarly consensus (*ijmāʿ*); 5) the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence (*uṣūlal-fiqh*); 6) the objectives of Islamic law (*maqāṣid al-sharīʿah*); 7) a familiarity with the conditions of people and the affairs of daily life (i.e., a person cannot rule on a situation they don’t understand or are not connected to); and 8) fairness and piety, being just in their rulings and of virtuous character and conduct.[\[8\]](#f8) All of these categories subdivide into further detail, as manifested in the academic departments and universities across the world. In short, these requirements represent a modern application of the Prophet ﷺ checking in with his emissary, the Companion, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, to help ensure that his application of the religion and its rulings would be appropriate. --- ## Towards a classification of the Islamic disciplines of knowledge: How the uṣūl fit in with other Islamic sciences As we’ve developed a basic understanding of the *uṣūl* disciplines and begun to understand their foundations, we move to ask how they fit in with the other disciplines of the Islamic sciences. Note that an understanding and appreciation of the *uṣūl* builds intellectual maturity and tolerance, as demonstrated throughout the history of Islamic scholarship. At the same time, history is messy. Intolerance or hurtful words may appear in the intellectual tradition, but so do truly awe-inspiring examples of tolerance and acceptance of other opinions. Such scholars do not equate religiosity with an adoption of their individual opinions, nor do they view their own scholarship as infallible. For example, among many other such examples, the famous Imām Sufyān al-Thawrī said, > “If you see someone doing an action upon which there is disagreement, and you have a different opinion than them, do not prevent them from what they are doing.”[\[9\]](#f9) He states that when one sees something and is aware there is a difference of opinion on it, even if one thinks it’s wrong, he should not stop others or prevent them from their acts. Similarly, Imām Mālik ibn Anas, who was living in Medina and teaching in the Prophet’s ﷺ mosque, said that every one of us (i.e., all scholars) can refute and be refuted except for the occupant of this grave, at which point he pointed at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ. In other words, we can respect and hold our scholars in high esteem, but no one can claim infallibility or claim to speak on behalf of Allah except for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Everyone else, while according them due respect, is open to having their opinions challenged or being asked for evidence. This focus on evidentiary proof resulted in something remarkable for the Islamic intellectual tradition: it helped maintain cohesiveness of the religion and build upon the contributions of other scholars by contextualizing new opinions in an overall framework. To put it simply, a scholar should understand the tradition and build upon the contributions of earlier scholars, but he or she is neither trapped by the tradition, nor free to attribute any unregulated whim or opinion to Allah’s religion when it’s just coming from himself or herself without evidence. The power of evidence here is really hard to overstate. To examine the interconnectedness of the Islamic sciences, it is helpful to look at how scholars have classified these sciences in outlining their interdependence and relationships (i.e., how all of the sciences fit together). Many scholars have contributed to this across generations, and we offer a simplified summary of a common classification influenced by several works, including Ibn Khaldūn’s *al-Muqaddimah*. We examine a summary below to increase our appreciation of the *uṣūl*. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/VBy9ellu3WsHOQlrNrwXA4Iii3J3RlAJ71UpkzdTSfbxfSbpAAPXqrIvqx_Gr17rL1KlAn8-WeQZOZNUMvGVQW4yICJMtYin-B4fWQ0G-qWYobcBUDBgn76qvW_osrwDFtBt29ad) Consider the conceptual diagram above, in which a pyramid is split into three horizontal segments—a base, a middle, and a peak. At the base of the pyramid is the first classification of the Islamic sciences, called *ʿulūm al-maṣādir,* the source sciences. These disciplines are very clear in our religion: the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. This knowledge is to swim in their oceans, to understand what’s there and what’s not there, what is emphasized and what is de-emphasized, and to have a broad exposure to the Qur’an and the words of the Prophet ﷺ. In fact, the notable tradition of many students of knowledge memorizing the entire Qur’an is indicative of this approach—not that memorization is an objective in and of itself, but it is a means to intimacy, closeness, and understanding the Qur’an that also sharpens and contextualizes subsequent studies. The scholar Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz states, > “The more fundamental and more needed by humanity a particular knowledge is, the more evident its proofs are—as a mercy from Allah to His creation.”[\[10\]](#f10) In short, it is to know what is there and what is not. Many of us lack even this basic familiarity of the base of the pyramid. The second is *ʿulūm al-wasāʾil*, the gateway or tool sciences. These are the subclasses of disciplines that help a person understand the other disciplines of study. Notable among them is the Arabic language and its subcategories (e.g., syntax, morphology, rhetoric). Also within this middle category is what we’ve discussed here: the *uṣūl* disciplines (e.g., *uṣūl al-tafsīr, uṣūl al-fiqh, uṣūl al-ḥadīth*). This middle category helps us understand the others and understand what is a legitimate scholarly opinion and what is not, what follows a methodology and what does not, what builds on what has come before and makes a new contribution, and what ignores what has come before as if it doesn’t exist and merely asks a person to follow their independent platform and ignore others. These are all only possible through these *uṣūl* disciplines in the middle of the pyramid. At the peak of the pyramid are *ʿulūm al-maqāṣid,* or the objective sciences. This involves the application of what is beneath it. These disciplines include Islamic jurisprudence (*fiqh*), the interpretation of hadith, Qur’anic interpretation (*tafsīr*), behavior, character—all of these are applications and they are classified at the peak of the pyramid under the objective sciences. Finally, the wrapping around this pyramid represents the fourth and final category: *ʿulūm al-mutammimāt*, or the completing sciences. This is like the icing on the cake—the things that beautify and embellish what you understand beneath them, such as the characteristics (*shamāʾil*) of the Prophet ﷺ (i.e., his physical and character description), the biographies of the Companions, the biographies of previous scholars, and so on. These beautiful stories of our tradition help settle these concepts in the heart and add beauty to these spiritual and intellectual pursuits. Let us ask an uncomfortable, yet transformative question: how do our individual journeys of learning Islam map on to these categories?  Many of us are exposed to the Islamic sciences through short intensives, conferences, online reminders or short videos, well-intended but poorly organized weekend schools, and other similar venues. This is not to minimize the value of these pursuits, but to identify the real and pressing challenge of institutionalizing systematic learning true to the Islamic intellectual tradition and relevant to the modern context. Reflecting on their faith journeys in hindsight, many Muslims today find that instead of these brief touchpoints serving their intended purpose of reinforcement and reinvigoration of one’s faith, they actually form the spiritual and intellectual backbone of faith identity. Each of these modes of learning has an important role to play in our education. However, if we reflect on our journey in relation to this classification, we may realize that most of us began learning Islam exactly *backwards* with respect to this classification. We start with the short heart-softeners, those stories that package well in short 5-minute bursts and they’re beautiful, yet we don’t know what’s in the Qur’an. We’re stuck on auto-repeat on certain chapters; we don’t really know what's there—we’ve just heard others quote the Qur’an and talk about it. Many of us also don’t have a broad appreciation of the Prophet ﷺ or who he really was. Without this foundational knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah, we are left vulnerable, particularly as we progress through higher levels of worldly education. The *uṣūl*, therefore, are not only a source of regulation for scholars but they’re also a gateway and a map for the everyday Muslim to understand the fabric of Islamic thought: how to think Islamically and to compare and contrast worldviews. Familiarity with the *uṣūl* offers a person a grounding to understand the big picture, even if they don’t know a specific answer; when there is a question they don’t know the answer to, they retain knowledge of the system and structure that gave rise to other answers that they are more familiar and comfortable with. Contrary to many traditional programs of Islamic studies that emphasize this—especially for scholars, and including a basic and broad exposure for the everyday Muslim—it is not uncommon to find a Ph.D. student in Islamic studies, particularly in a Western university, who has had no exposure to the *uṣūl* disciplines whatsoever. This is at a time when perhaps the *uṣūl* are more important to our pursuits than at any point in human history. To deepen our appreciation of the *uṣūl* disciplines, we move to a specific examination of *uṣūl al-fiqh* at an introductory level in the next section. --- ## The primary sources ### Part 1: The Qur’an We mentioned previously that *uṣūl al-fiqh* is the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence, also known as Islamic legal theory. It encompasses not the rulings themselves, but how the scholars deduce rulings. As one may assume, the first and most important source according to all scholars is the Qur’an, which contains many different types of verses. These include verses related to pondering the creation, devotional acts, dietary laws, social justice, family law, and many other topics. It is an all-encompassing Book. Along with these themes, we can further categorize verses to help us understand the difference between how an average Muslim versus a scholar of the religion approaches the Qur’an. #### Creed One category of verses are those related to creed. For example, Allah says in Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, **قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ** > Say, 'Allah is One (Qur’an 112:1) Any Muslim who reads this verse can understand the basic concept. Allah is One, and He has no partners. There is no dispute or difference of opinion on this idea. We also read the verse, for example, at the end of Surah Al-Baqarah: **آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚكُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ** > The Messenger has believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and the believers as well. All have believed in Allah and His angels and His Books and His Messengers. (Qur’an 2:285) As Muslims, we are required to believe in the angels, the books, and the messengers. Any Muslim who reads this verse is going to understand this basic concept. When the scholar reads the two aforementioned verses, however, their educational background will allow them to explore the verses in more depth. For instance, the scholar can refute the arguments of those who say there is more than one God. They can tell us what exactly angels are as a creation. They can answer questions such as how many angels are there? Who are they, and what are their responsibilities? What were the books of the previous nations that we are required to believe in? How many messengers were there? What exactly constitutes a messenger? The scholar will thus provide us with a thorough analysis regarding these verses. #### Character Another category of verses are those related to character. For example, Allah says,  **وَقَضَىٰ رَبُّكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا** > Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and be the best to your parents. (Qur’an 17:23) The average Muslim will read this verse and understand that they should worship Allah and treat their parents with exemplary character. The scholar will extract further meaning from the verse. They can tell us what  it means to worship Allah. What exactly are the rights that parents have over their children? When do children have to obey their parents, and when should they not obey their parents? These are matters of *fiqh* that require depth and proper training to understand. #### Ritual worship The Qur’an also contains verses related to ritual worship, such as prayer, fasting, *zakāh*, and *ḥajj*. The average Muslim will understand these obligations at a basic level. The scholar will analyze these verses and answer questions such as: What is necessary to read in terms of the integrals of the prayer? What invalidates the prayer? What does *not* invalidate the prayer? What are the virtues of the prayer? What are the different narrations from the Prophet ﷺ on how he used to pray? Which of these narrations is the most authentic? This is the role of the scholar. What about the obligation to pay *zakāh*? Who knows how much to pay when we take into consideration something complicated such as stock markets? The scholar will explain and simplify some of the complex issues in *zakāh* for the average Muslim to understand. #### Transactions The Qur’an is replete with verses related to transactions, such as marriage and divorce. The average Muslim can read these verses and develop some  understanding of marriage and divorce. The scholars will be able to research and understand the various issues surrounding marriage and divorce. These include questions such as what are the requirements of a valid marriage contract? What are the conditions for a dowry? What is considered a divorce? What are the prerequisites for a divorce to be valid? The scholars will assist in clarifying these often complex and life-altering decisions. ### Part 2: The Sunnah Why is the Sunnah a proof? This question is crucial to understand, because in our times there are people who want to deny the Sunnah. There are numerous verses in the Qur’an that talk about obeying the Prophet ﷺ. For example, Allah says, **قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ** > Say, ‘Obey Allah and the Messenger.’ (Qur’an 24:54) This is a direct command. How are we to obey the Messenger ﷺ? Through following his Sunnah. We also observe that in the lifetime of the Companions, they used to follow what the Prophet ﷺ ordered them to follow. They did not simply follow what they desired. While the Qur’an mentions certain obligations, it often does not provide the details pertaining to those obligations. If we are not following the Sunnah, then where are those details going to come from? It is important for us to understand that the Sunnah is part and parcel of our belief as well as a crucial source of *uṣūl al-fiqh.* The Sunnah has been defined in various ways, depending on which Islamic science is being referenced. To keep it simple for our purposes, the Sunnah encompasses everything the Prophet ﷺ said, did, and approved of. #### Sayings An example of how the Prophet’s ﷺ sayings can play an authoritative role in defining law pertains to the permissibility of seafood. When asked about sea water, the Prophet ﷺ informed us that it is pure and its dead animals are permissible to eat.[\[11\]](#f11) This is different than, for example, if you find a dead animal on the side of the road. You cannot eat it because it is prohibited. Seafood, however, is different because the Prophet ﷺ explicitly allowed it. #### Actions The next source consists of the actions of the Prophet ﷺ. This includes the obligations of prayer and *ḥajj*. Despite the fact that the Qur’an explicitly commands us to pray and perform *ḥajj*, it does not offer minute details on how they should be performed. This is where the actions of the Prophet ﷺ provide the legal precedents for *ṣalah* and *ḥajj*. #### Approval Finally, there is the tacit approval of the Prophet ﷺ. For example, once two Companions came to the Prophet ﷺ for his advice on what had transpired between them. Earlier, they had been looking for water to make *wuḍūʾ*, and they could not find any, so they made dry ablution (*tayammum*).[\[12\]](#f12) Later on after finding water, one of the Companions repeated his prayer, while the other did not. The Prophet ﷺ gave his approval to both by not rebuking either of them. In other words, both were correct in the actions that they took. Thus, even in indirect ways, the Prophet established legal precedent. Recall the hadith mentioned earlier when the Prophet ﷺ asked Muʿādh what he would judge by, to which he said the Qur’an, and if he could not find it in the Qur’an, he would judge by the Sunnah. Imām al-Shāfiʿī mentioned that the Sunnah embodies one of three categories[\[13\]](#f13): 1. The Sunnah emphasizes a Qur’anic demand. For example, Allah mentions prayer and *ḥajj* in the Qur’an. The Sunnah, in turn, emphasizes their rewards and importance. 2. The Sunnah explains a Qur’anic concept. For example, how do we pray? The Qur’an commands us to pray, but does not mention all of the rituals, conditions, or integrals of the prayer. Similarly, the Qur’an commands us to fast. But what exactly does it mean to fast? What breaks the fast, what does not break the fast? We must turn to the Sunnah for many of these details. The same reasoning applies to *zakāh* and *hajj*. 3. The Sunnah contains commands that are not mentioned in the Qur’an. An example of this is the prohibition of men wearing gold and silk.[\[14\]](#f14) This prohibition is not mentioned in the Qur’an; however, the Prophet ﷺ expressly forbade this in his Sunnah. These are some of the ways that the Sunnah works in conjunction with the Qur’an. The Sunnah is a foundational concept in our faith, and cannot be dismissed. --- ## The secondary sources ### Part 3: Ijmāʿ We turn now from the primary sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah, to the secondary sources of *uṣūl al-fiqh.* The first secondary source is *ijmāʿ*. *Ijmāʿ* is the consensus of all *mujtahid* jurists in the same era on a particular ruling.[\[15\]](#f15) There is no difference of opinion that *ijmāʿ* is a part of *uṣūl al-fiqh*, but there are some differences as to its scope and possibility in later times. Some scholars maintain that it is more accurate to limit *ijmāʿ* to the Companions (*ṣaḥābah*), since knowing their opinions on issues was relatively easy. For example, we know that the Companions unanimously agreed to fight those who refused to pay the *zakāh*, and that they deemed it an obligation to settle the debts of the deceased before executing their will*.* An *ijmāʿ* was thus formed on these issues and they became legally binding. However, after the era of the Companions, the Muslim scholars were scattered in different lands, and their consensus was difficult to confirm. Nonetheless, the majority of scholars hold that *ijmāʿ* is binding and possible after the time of the Companions.[\[16\]](#f16) What is the proof for *ijmāʿ*? There are many hadiths where the Prophet ﷺ indicates that the *ummah* will not gather upon misguidance.[\[17\]](#f17) Additionally, Allah states the following: **وَمَنْ يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّى وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا** > Whoever breaks away from the Messenger after the right path has become clear to him, and follows what is not the way of the believers, We shall let him have what he chose, and We shall admit him to the hellfire, which is an evil place to return. (Qur’an 4:115) The great exegete Ibn Kathīr mentions that this *ayah* was the proof that, after much thought and due consideration, Imam al-Shāfiʿī relied on to establish that *ijmāʿ* is a proof that cannot be opposed. He then mentions this is the best and strongest derivative deduction that *ijmāʿ* is legally binding.[\[18\]](#f18) These are just some of the many texts that highlight the validity of *ijmāʿ* as a source of Islamic law. It is important to remember and clarify that *ijmāʿ* is not an independent source of law; it is dependent upon the fundamental sources. However, it is absolutely necessary in order to keep scholars from making erroneous or gross misinterpretations of certain core values and beliefs in the religion. Therefore, it serves as a protection of the religion. *Ijmāʿ* is particularly important in our times, because too often we have individuals making very bold claims that go against what has been unanimously agreed upon by the scholars of Islam. ### Part 4: Al-qiyās Another secondary source in *uṣūl al-fiqh is* known as *al-qiyās. Al-qiyās* is defined as “the deduction of legal prescriptions from the Qur’an or Sunnah by analogic reasoning.”[\[19\]](#f19) What is the proof for *qiyās*? In the hadith of Muʿādh mentioned earlier, the third source he said he would rule by if he could not find the answer in the Qur’an or Sunnah was *ijtihād*, which means to strive or struggle to find out something. *Al-qiyās* falls under the process of *ijtihād*. In another hadith[\[20\]](#f20), a woman came to the Prophet ﷺ and said “My mother vowed to go for *ḥajj*, but she died before she did so. Can I perform *ḥajj* on her behalf?” He ﷺ said: “Yes, perform *ḥajj* on her behalf. Do you not think if your mother owed a debt that you would pay it off for her? Fulfill her debt to Allah; for Allah is more deserving that what is owed to Him should be paid.” Put differently, the Prophet ﷺ analogized debt to *ḥajj*, and thus deduced a ruling on *ḥajj*. Just as she would be able to pay a debt for her mother, she could make *ḥajj* on her behalf.[\[21\]](#f21) There are rules and regulations concerning *qiyās*, which consists of four essential elements: 1. The Fundamental Issue (*aṣl*): One must first identify the fundamental issue. The example we will use is wine or alcohol.  2. The Secondary Issue (*farʿ*): Next, we identify a secondary issue that is not directly addressed in the Qur’an and Sunnah, but we need to determine its ruling. This secondary issue is known as the *farʿ*, which literally means branch. In our example, let us attempt to determine the ruling on heroin or cocaine, which is now our secondary issue. 3. The Ruling on the Fundamental Issue: In order to determine the ruling on heroin or cocaine, we need to establish the ruling on the fundamental issue. When it comes to wine or alcohol, the ruling is that it is *ḥarām* or forbidden based on a clear Qur’anic commandment. 4. The Effective Cause (*ʿillah*): Finally, the fourth prerequisite requires us to determine the effective cause, or the *ʿillah*, between our fundamental issue and the secondary issue. We can establish that both heroin and wine are detrimental to our state of mind. The reasoning behind prohibiting wine is because of its intoxicating effects. Thus, based on the original ruling that wine is *ḥarām* because of the *ʿillah* of intoxication, scholars rule that heroin and other mind-altering drugs are also *ḥarām* because of their intoxicating effects. One of the beauties of *qiyās* is that it shows us how universal our religion is. People may argue that there is no clear hadith that states that heroin is *ḥarām*, and is thus permissible. We can acknowledge that there is in fact no hadith that explicitly mentions heroin, but that is simply because this substance was not available at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Thus, the ultimate purpose of *uṣūl al-fiqh* is to help preserve the religion and allow it to be relevant at all times. Therefore, when a new issue arises, we can use *qiyās* and make an analogical deduction to determine the ruling for a new issue. This holds true whether it is today, ten years ago, or far into the future. ### Part 5: What about differences of opinion? It is important to recognize that even the best of generations, the Companions of the Prophetﷺ, differed on some issues. The scholars have recorded many differences amongst the most illustrious Companions. One example is when two groups of the Companions were traveling to Banī Qurayẓah.[\[22\]](#f22) The Prophet ﷺ told them, “No one among you should pray *ʿAsr* except at Banu Qurayzah.” So, the companions set out, and the time for the *ʿAsr* prayer  commenced while they were still on the road. Some of the companions understood the Prophet’s ﷺ command to pray *ʿAsr* to emphasize they hasten to their destination of Banī Qurayẓah. Since they had been taught to pray every prayer during a fixed time, this group stopped and prayed on the road. The other group said, “We will not pray ʿ*Asr* it until we reach Banī Qurayẓah.” This group understood the Prophet’s ﷺ statement literally, and did not stop to pray since that would be a direct contradiction of his explicit command, which is forbidden. Neither of the two groups were rebuked for what they did. When the Prophet ﷺ was informed of what happened, he did not say that either group was incorrect. They both made their judgment to the best of their abilities based on what they had learned from the Prophet ﷺ. It is also important to recognize that there are valid differences and invalid differences of opinion. The differences must remain within the *uṣūl* of Islam. To better understand this concept, let us take the example of two physicians. They both have the same training, but they may have different approaches as to how to treat a particular disease. That doesn’t necessarily mean that one is wrong or one is more correct—they simply have unique approaches. If one were to open a medical practice having just read some books or watched some videos on medicine, they would be prosecuted for medical fraud. Only after proper training and credentials will differences in their approaches be valid. Similarly, there have to be legitimate differences of opinion in the Islamic sciences. There are no differences in fundamental beliefs. No scholar, for example, will disagree that it is obligatory to believe in Heaven and Hell. An example of a valid difference regards wiping the head in *wuḍūʾ*. The command to do so is based on the following Qur’anic verse, **يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ إِلَى الْمَرَافِقِ وَامْسَحُوا بِرُءُوسِكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ** > O you who have believed, when you rise to \[perform\] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. (Qur’an 5:6) This verse uses the Arabic letter *bāʾ*, which can imply wiping some of the head or all of the head. For this reason, some scholars deemed it obligatory to wipe only some of the head during *wuḍūʾ*, while others held that one must wipe the entire head. This is a legitimate difference of opinion based on the Qur’anic verse. In this case, it was the difference of a linguistic implication. Oftentimes, we view differences of opinions as contentious and perplexing. Many of these differences, however, add a level of richness, depth, and tolerance to our historic tradition, which is truly a blessing from Allah. To summarize the discussion on legitimate differences of opinion, we conclude with the following quote from Dr. Nazir Khan: > It is important, of course, to remember that our yardstick in addressing benefit or harm is not the yardstick handed to us by secular humanism, hedonistic materialism, or western liberalism. Rather, benefit and harm must be assessed according to the hierarchical value structure inherent in Islam, which situates human beings on a spiritual journey towards God as custodians upon His earth. With this, we have discussed some sources in *uṣūl al-fiqh*, and *in shāʾ Allāh* it is now clearer why we have differences of opinion and what room exists for valid differences of opinion in Islam.[\[23\]](#f23) ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Many Muslims today encounter the Islamic sciences only through scattered means: brief intensives, conferences, weekend schools, and short videos online. While each of these has its place, they often amount to "more edutainment than education," leaving behind a generation highly accomplished in worldly fields yet possessing scarcely a fifth-grade grasp of their own religion. Countless believers memorize only a handful of short sūrahs and remain content to experience the Qur'an vicariously through others, never building a direct relationship with the Book of Allah nor forming a holistic view of its message. Likewise, many know the Prophet ﷺ only through scattered anecdotes, without their proper context in his life and noble character. This illiteracy leaves a person vulnerable, especially as they advance through secular education without a corresponding maturity in the Islamic worldview. The remedy proposed here is a return to the uṣūl—the foundational sciences—not merely as tools for scholars, but as a gateway and a map for the everyday Muslim to grasp the fabric of Islamic thought. The uṣūl equip a person to see the world through an Islamic lens and to appreciate the religion as a cohesive, interconnected whole. In an age of unprecedented information and rapid change, learning how to think Islamically, anchored by the uṣūl, is arguably more critical than at any point in human history—more so than merely learning what to think. To understand terminology, the scholars distinguished two dimensions of a word's meaning: the lexical, its meaning in classical Arabic drawn from poetry and prose, and the technical, its usage within a particular Islamic discipline. Lexically, uṣūl (plural of aṣl) means bases, essentials, or foundations. Technically, when paired with a discipline—as in uṣūl al-fiqh (the foundations of jurisprudence), uṣūl al-tafsīr (the foundations of Qur'anic interpretation), or uṣūl al-ḥadīth (the methodology of hadith criticism)—it denotes the rules and methodology governing research and reasoning in that field. Through uṣūl al-ḥadīth, for instance, specialists evaluate a report's chain of narration and the integrity of its narrators to determine whether it is ṣaḥīḥ (highly authenticated), ḥasan (good), ḍaʿīf (weak), or mawḍūʿ (fabricated). A helpful analogy compares the jurist (faqīh) to an athlete striving to score, while the uṣūlī is the referee who ensures the rules are honored. Without such governance, "when Islam becomes anything to anyone, then it becomes nothing at all." Were the uṣūl practiced in the time of the Prophet ﷺ? Indeed they were, for wherever rulings were issued, a methodology necessarily governed them. During his life, none needed to offer a ruling in his presence, for he ﷺ spoke only by revelation, as Allah says, "Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed" (Qur'an 53:3–4). Yet the Companions issued rulings when away from him or with his permission, and his approval or correction of these became part of the Sunnah. The codification of these disciplines came only after the generation of the Companions. This is no defect, but the natural maturing of any field—just as the Arabs of that era mastered their language and recited advanced poetry extemporaneously without ever reading a book of grammar. As Islam spread among Arabs and non-Arabs, the Arabic language weakened and new situations arose, making it necessary to record and standardize these sciences. Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), whom many regard as the father of modern sociology, notes in his al-Muqaddimah that as these disciplines became crafts of their own, later jurists came to need these principles, which they then extracted from the original sources. One science stands apart in employing uṣūl in its lexical sense: uṣūl al-dīn, the foundations of the religion, defined as "a science that enables a person to prove religious beliefs by stating appropriate evidence and by warding off misconceptions." Part of it is fixed—knowledge of the shahādah and the ʿibādāt—while part shifts with time and place, namely the warding off of doubts (shubuhāt). A 21st-century Muslim, deluged with information, may need to know more of his foundations than a 17th-century farmer content with the essentials. A graduate student in the liberal arts, or a Muslim minority in the West facing Islamophobic discourse over pre-modern rulings on war and peace, may require knowledge that others would never need. Its mastery demands deep immersion in the Qur'an and Sunnah, which is why major universities house entire colleges named Kulliyat Uṣūl al-Dīn. Central to the uṣūl is ijtihād, legal reasoning. When the Prophet ﷺ sent Muʿādh ibn Jabal to Yemen, he asked how he would judge; Muʿādh replied by the Book of Allah, then the Sunnah, and then, "I will strive to form an opinion," at which the Prophet ﷺ praised Allah. This flexibility allows the timeless values of the Qur'an to guide people across all times and places. Though fallible humans perform it, error is curtailed by methodology, by qualified practitioners, and by the Prophet's ﷺ teaching that his ummah will not unite upon misguidance. The scholars outlined requirements for a mujtahid—among them mastery of the Qur'an and its sciences, the Sunnah, the Arabic language, the areas of consensus (ijmāʿ), uṣūl al-fiqh, the objectives of the law (maqāṣid al-sharīʿah), awareness of people's conditions, and fairness and piety. This tradition cultivated intellectual maturity and tolerance. Sufyān al-Thawrī advised that one should not prevent another from an action upon which scholars differ, even if one holds a contrary view. Mālik ibn Anas, teaching in the Prophet's ﷺ mosque, declared that everyone may be refuted save the occupant of that grave, pointing to the Prophet ﷺ—for none may claim infallibility except the Messenger of Allah. This reliance on evidence preserved the religion's cohesion. The Islamic sciences may be pictured as a pyramid. At its base lie the source sciences (ʿulūm al-maṣādir): the Qur'an and Sunnah. In the middle are the tool sciences (ʿulūm al-wasāʾil), including Arabic and the uṣūl disciplines, which enable one to distinguish a legitimate scholarly opinion from an illegitimate one. At the peak sit the objective sciences (ʿulūm al-maqāṣid)—fiqh, tafsīr, and the interpretation of hadith—which apply what lies beneath. Wrapping the whole are the completing sciences (ʿulūm al-mutammimāt), such as the shamāʾil of the Prophet ﷺ and the biographies of the Companions, which beautify and settle these concepts in the heart. Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz observed that the more fundamental and needed a knowledge is, the more evident its proofs, as a mercy from Allah. Regrettably, many begin their learning exactly backwards—starting with heart-softeners while remaining ignorant of the Qur'an's contents. Within uṣūl al-fiqh, the first and greatest source by unanimous agreement is the Qur'an, whose verses span creed, character, ritual worship, and transactions. Where the layman grasps the basic meaning of "Say, Allah is One" (Qur'an 112:1) or the command to worship Allah and honor one's parents (Qur'an 17:23), the scholar draws out the deeper legal and theological detail. The second source is the Sunnah, whose authority rests upon commands such as "Say: Obey Allah and the Messenger" (Qur'an 24:54). The Sunnah comprises the Prophet's ﷺ sayings—such as his ruling that seawater is pure and its dead permissible—his actions, which detail prayer and ḥajj, and his tacit approvals, as when he did not rebuke either of the two Companions who differed over repeating a prayer after finding water. Imām al-Shāfiʿī noted that the Sunnah either emphasizes a Qur'anic demand, explains a Qur'anic concept, or introduces a command not found in the Qur'an, such as the prohibition of gold and silk for men. Among the secondary sources is ijmāʿ, the consensus of the mujtahid jurists of an era. Its evidentiary basis includes the hadiths that the ummah will not gather upon misguidance, and the verse warning against following other than "the way of the believers" (Qur'an 4:115)—which Ibn Kathīr reports Imām al-Shāfiʿī relied upon as the strongest proof for its binding nature. Some scholars limit ijmāʿ to the Companions, whose views were easily known, while the majority hold it binding and possible thereafter. The second is al-qiyās, analogical deduction, which falls under ijtihād and is illustrated by the Prophet's ﷺ likening an unfulfilled ḥajj to an unpaid debt. Its four pillars—the fundamental issue, the secondary issue, the ruling on the fundamental, and the effective cause (ʿillah)—allow scholars to rule, for instance, that heroin is forbidden by analogy to wine through the shared cause of intoxication, demonstrating the religion's relevance to every age. Finally, differences of opinion are a recognized reality, present even among the Companions, as when they differed over praying ʿAsr en route to Banī Qurayẓah, and neither party was rebuked. Yet valid differences must remain within the uṣūl of Islam, just as two trained physicians may differ in approach while an untrained pretender commits fraud. The permissible scope of wiping the head in wuḍūʾ, arising from the letter bāʾ in the verse of ablution (Qur'an 5:6), is such a legitimate, linguistically rooted disagreement that enriches the tradition. As Dr. Nazir Khan reminds us, benefit and harm must be measured not by secular humanism or western liberalism, but by the value structure inherent in Islam, which situates the human being upon a spiritual journey toward God as a custodian upon His earth. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-american-response-to-covid-19-and-the-moral-dilemma # The American Response to COVID-19 and the Moral Dilemma **Author:** Dr. Edward Omar Moad **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Published:** December 10, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Preface The times call for Muslims not only to ‘find a place’ in the society and culture we live in, but to proactively participate in the effort to understand and respond to its crises. We can neither insulate ourselves, nor be drawn passively and blindly into the social fray, but must be positive agents in shaping and influencing it toward justice. The more aware we are of the dynamics that shape the culture, the more capable we will be of participating in society with clarity and agency. This requires, among other things in the current moment, recognizing and helping others to recognize the irreducibly collective and moral nature of the disagreements over our response to COVID-19, which is but one manifestation of a deeper crisis threatening the future of American society, and thus inevitably that of the American Muslim community, not to mention the world at large. I call this a crisis of public moral reality, and in this article I will explain what I mean by this, why I believe it is at the root of the social conflict that has erupted in American society in the wake of COVID-19. This conflict began to surface in the form of a [debate](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-industry-idUSKBN21B2SJ&sa=D&ust=1607635811392000&usg=AOvVaw2U3qsrgPpoVvpFwDqBDjbD) over what activities are to be considered ‘essential.’ What is ‘essential’ vs. ‘non-essential’ activity? Our current circumstances have forced us to answer this question collectively, for the standard response to the threat of COVID-19 in most societies [worldwid](https://ourworldindata.org/policy-responses-covid&sa=D&ust=1607635811393000&usg=AOvVaw3tlPXBYXeB-suYKHC8d2VS)[e](https://ourworldindata.org/policy-responses-covid&sa=D&ust=1607635811393000&usg=AOvVaw3tlPXBYXeB-suYKHC8d2VS) has been to close down all ‘non-essential’ public activity while leaving open the ‘essential.’ Explicitly or implicitly, this has been the underlying question driving public discussion, debate, and divisive politics ever since. The purpose of this article is not to criticize or support any set of public health measures, but instead to examine the nature of this question and the moral dynamics the COVID threat has revealed by imposing the question on society. I believe that a keen awareness here can give American Muslims insight into the nature of our social and cultural context and the prospect of a deeper engagement with and positive influence over the process of its development. --- ## The collective and moral nature of the question: ‘What is essential’? We must first appreciate that the question at hand, of ‘what is essential,’ is unavoidably both collective and moral. That is, it forces us to decide, as a group, that some things are more important or valuable than others. Consider it first in the context of the Muslim community, in isolation from the rest of society. Of course, as a community we do not exist in isolation from the rest of society (which is crucial, though sometimes difficult to acknowledge and appreciate), but we consider it here simply for the sake of analysis. The decision whether to close the *masājid* as a precaution against the spread of COVID was an unavoidably collective one affecting the entire community. Logically, there is no way to leave this up to the individual. For to leave the *masājid* open, supposedly so that everyone can decide for herself whether it is ‘worth the risk,’ is essentially to decide for the whole community that leaving them open is worth the risk. Whatever decision we make affects the community as a whole. Secondly, such a decision unavoidably involves a value judgment. That is, it is a judgment about what is valuable (good, bad, more important, less important, etc.). For even though a great many empirical facts have to be taken into account (regarding the nature of the virus, the manner of its spread, etc.) to assess the likely results of any course of action, in the final analysis one must weigh one value against another. Is it more important to keep the *masjid* open, or to mitigate the risk to life and health? This latter judgment is within the scope of *uṣūl al-fiqh*, whose practitioners draw from the Qur’an and Sunnah methods for prioritizing the values and objectives of Shari’ah.[^1] In doing so, they take account of the empirical knowledge drawn from sciences related to the matter. Whether keeping the *masjid* open will pose a clear and present risk to life and health is a matter for epidemiology and related sciences. The question of whether mitigating that risk is a higher priority than keeping the *masjid* open, calls for a value judgment we should make based on revelation. In our new COVID-language, that is the question of whether opening the *masjid* is ‘essential.’ Is it worth the risk posed by the virus? The Islamic position is eminently rational. The dead cannot attend the *masjid*. Saving life thus takes priority over keeping it open. The only room for difference here is over the empirical question of whether it really does pose such a risk. There is no place in that discussion for scriptural citations and pious posturing.[^2] It is solely a matter of assessing the empirical evidence, an important topic treated [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/arnold-yasin-mol/fake-news-is-nothing-new-misinformation-and-islamic-critical-epistemology/&sa=D&ust=1607635811397000&usg=AOvVaw1QKtzy3gP2kVGjE0U0E6Yq) and [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-behind-the-scenes/&sa=D&ust=1607635811397000&usg=AOvVaw36u2ybgyR9MrxPZRlBPU-Y). The primary point is that we cannot base our decision that something is or is not essential simply on the empirical ‘scientific’ facts, for it involves a value judgment that is not reducible to such facts. Secondly, it is to notice that while certainly not simple, the issue is relatively less complicated in the context of the Muslim community considered in isolation (at least for those who take the tradition seriously) than in the wider society. For we understand and acknowledge that Allah’s message provides us with means by which to make these value judgments systematically (albeit fallibly, as we are human after all). That means we as a community have the means of a shared public moral reality, and thus a framework for the legitimacy of a public moral authority. This does not mean we have unanimity, any more than a God-given means of systematic value judgment makes us infallible. Why point this out? For the reason that, as just mentioned, our community does not exist in isolation but in the context of a wider society. For this reason, the matter can become more complicated. For whether we like it or not, the effective decision on ‘what is essential’ is not up to the Muslim community alone but the wider society of which we are a part, and which in the wake of COVID has demonstrated a certain [fragility](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-us-masks-trump-covid-19-washington-a9473711.html&sa=D&ust=1607635811399000&usg=AOvVaw1epZ3hKqaByJ5rvFmGDjMV), the ramifications of which affect all. We may describe this as a crisis of public moral authority; that is, a social gridlock over whether Americans should trust President Trump and ‘Jesus’ or Dr. Fauci and the ‘experts.’ A closer analysis, I suggest, warrants describing it rather as a crisis of public moral reality. The crisis is the manifestation of a bug in the ‘operating system’ of American public life, revealed by COVID forcing on us, as a collective, the question ‘What is essential?’ For as we mentioned it is unavoidably a moral question calling for a value judgment. It thus seems incompatible (so to speak) with the American ‘operating system,’ according to which individual freedom is the [single public value](https://medium.com/@neilanbradley/american-values-546a13a7d21b&sa=D&ust=1607635811399000&usg=AOvVaw08Sel1sR8zdNsTpsSfS1Mo) and we secure it by leaving all other moral values and judgments entirely to the private sphere. --- ## Facts, values, and public policy This system rests on a familiar distinction between ‘facts’ and ‘values.’ Facts are universal, objective, discoverable by natural science, and susceptible to rational evaluation. Values are supposedly particular, subjective, beyond the scope of natural science, and immune to rational evaluation.[^3] Only [facts then, and not values](https://patimes.org/case-neutrality-public-administration/&sa=D&ust=1607635811401000&usg=AOvVaw1rJ7tRnbqj7pSGQ8lBZaI8), are said to be appropriate factors on which to base public policy and by which to set limits on personal freedom. So goes the formula. Sometimes, however, real life gets in the way and presents [anomalies](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00451/full&sa=D&ust=1607635811401000&usg=AOvVaw35dFMBbpZDyz0PwMEbVdAz) to this paradigm, as when a computer crash reveals bugs in the system. Since human beings are not computers, we do not always respond by sending a report for another program to diagnose and solve the problem in an update. Often we attempt to avoid recognizing the problem. Avoidance sometimes gives rise to irrational habits. For example, it is a common habit of certain intellectuals to conflate values with behavior; that is, to reduce questions about what is morally good or right and why, to questions of what people think is morally good or right and what makes them think that.[^4] By observing and attempting to explain actual human behavior, they create the *appearance* of answering moral questions via the methods of the social sciences, psychology, or evolutionary biology (and debate each other as to which field can do it), but without actually doing so. For questions about what and why we value are not questions about what and why we *ought* to value.[^5] A psychologist, for example, may explain why a sociopathic criminal values what he does, but if an explanation of why we actually value something were the same as an explanation of why we ought to value it, then the psychologist’s explanation would be proof that the criminal *ought* to be a criminal. For the same reason, an explanation of why we average ‘non-criminal’ types value what we value has nothing to do with whether or why we *ought* to. What motivates this conflation is the fact that public policy decisions turn on questions about what we ought to value, not what we actually value. Thus, when deciding whether we should require wearing masks at the grocery store, I have to consider not only what the likely outcome of not requiring masks would be, but also whether the value of avoiding that risk outweighs the value of our personal freedom not to wear it. This is a question of values and (assuming our modern distinction) not facts. If it were simply a question of what we actually value, then it seems I would not be able to arrive at an answer other than through statistics. If more people value safety over the freedom to go out unmasked, then perhaps that is the fact about what we actually value. If we consider this from the view of a democratic public policymaker, whom we may suppose should simply represent the ‘will of the people’ it may seem that this fact is adequate to make the decision. However, if we consider it from the view of a participant in this democratic process of ‘discovering the fact about what we actually value,’ then things change. For each such participant is confronted at the outset with the question, ‘What do I think we ought to value?’ and this is a question each must answer before there can be any fact about ‘what we actually value.’ Thus I cannot base my answer to the question what we ought to value on any fact about what we actually value, much less reduce the first question to the second. That would be like waiting to see who actually wins the election and then voting for her. This leads us to a deeper question that we cannot avoid here. When I go to cast my ‘vote,’ am I really confronted with a question of what I think we ought to value, or simply a question of what I actually value? Some of our fellow citizens will deny that the former is even a meaningful question. For, they argue, we do not decide on our values based on reasoning over ideas about what we ought to value. We simply want what we want, without rhyme or reason. From this point of view, reason and deliberation, whether individual or collective, is only ever about how to get what we want. What we ought to want is not even something we can reflect on or decide. It is just a brute fact. It may change, but not through any choice on our part. In that case, public policy debates are only about *how* best to get what we want, rather than what we ought to pursue. This view follows directly from the distinction between values and facts described above.[^6] That would make things simple, if in fact we all actually wanted the same things. If not, however, then there would be no reasonable way to arrive at a collective decision. For, if the basic values guiding our choices cannot themselves ever be determined by any decision on our part, then differences between them can not be resolved through rational means. We may vote, but any discussion about how to vote would ultimately prove futile. We would simply want different things, and according to this view, there is no point trying to reason over it, for there are never reasons why we want what we want; we just do and in the final analysis, that is all the reason we can ever give for what we think ought or ought not to be. The buck stops with our desires, according to this prevalent view. Meanwhile according to what we see on the news, we do not all have the same desires. To be clear, this is not a critique of democracy as a procedure, but instead of a commonly assumed moral epistemology which, if true, would render any such process futile. --- ## Natural science and values Since natural sciences seem to have been astoundingly successful in the last few centuries at answering questions about what actually is the case (just look at all our gadgets), some naturally have hoped they might have the same success answering questions about what we ought to value.[^7] The problem is that our last few centuries of natural scientific success are associated with the same metaphysical paradigm in which is enshrined the distinction between facts and values that virtually defines the modern sciences. That is, that there are no facts about what ought or ought not to be. There are only human choices about what ought to be. In whatever sense we might want to claim these choices are ‘informed,’ they are certainly not informed by or about the facts of what ought to be, for again there are no such facts. There are other sorts of facts. There are facts about what is likely to result in something we think ought or ought not to be, or again facts about what we think ought to be and why. However, these are not facts about what ought to be, and therefore they leave open the question of what we ought to decide regarding what ought to be; that is, what we ought to value. The closest that modern science can come, on its own terms, to an account of what we ought to value, is to offer an account of what human beings *actually* value. Crucially, a distinctive feature of ideas about what ought to be the case, is that they usually, perhaps inevitably, differ from observations of what is the case. If you always thought everything actually is as it ought to be, you would never think about what ought to be. Likewise, modern accounts about what humans actually value also often differ from our prima facie observations about what we actually value. Otherwise, they would be uninformative. A scientific theory that tells us what we already thought we knew is not very interesting. Consider on the other hand a theory saying, for example, that despite your belief that you want to provide for and raise your children, what you actually want is for your genome to survive the grand contest for survival.[^8] That is interesting because it purports to reveal something about what you actually value as quite different from what you may have initially thought. Another theory may claim that what you believe to be your values are actually self-imposed means to avoid your alleged unconscious sexual impulses,[^9] or to avoid facing your social class alienation and economic exploitation.[^10] These otherwise very different but well-known modern theories have two things in common. First, they all purport to explain human values as very different from what we believe our values to be. Second, in spite of their differences, they all operate under the paradigm we mentioned above, that there are no facts about what ought to be. In place of that, they offer supposed facts about what we *actually* value, very different from what we *think* we value. Yet for all that, there is one idea about what ought to be that modern science leaves in place, and in fact cannot remove: that is, how we think things are, ought to match how they actually are. Otherwise, what is the point of science? Therefore, if what drives us actually is sex or the pursuit of economic self-interest, or the grand contest over which genomes are ‘naturally selected,’ then we *ought* to think that is the case. Otherwise, we are in a state of denial of science or ‘bad faith.’ Thus, though these modern theories do not give us any account of what we ought to value, they give us something closely resembling that: accounts of what we ought to think we value. That is, effectively, a back-door moral narrative. First, in accord with the ontological presumptions of modern forms of [naturalism](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism/%23MorFac&sa=D&ust=1607635811407000&usg=AOvVaw0VzpnzjIP6rluu-AfW9j3Q), we are told that there are no facts about what we ought to value, and thus any efforts to intellectually pursue and discover reasonable answers to such questions are futile. Then, various theories constructed under that paradigm tell us what we ought to believe about what we actually value. There is a difference between, on one hand, what we think we ought to believe about what we actually value, and on the other, what we think we ought to value. They nevertheless have one effect in common. That is that they eventually determine what we actually value. In the purported absence of discoverable moral facts, there is nevertheless a method here, or typology of methods, for using modern science to effect moral persuasion and shape human values, without reasoning directly over the matter. That is by constructing models of what we supposedly actually value, which we thus ought to believe (since they are scientific) and thus conform to (since otherwise we are in denial of what we know ‘scientifically’ to be true). --- ## The medicalization of public moral authority These processes have given rise to a range of moral outlooks (e.g., Darwinist, Marxist, and Freudian) that exercise powerful (though not hegemonic) influence on the culture of the societies in which we unavoidably participate. These paradigms factor in the cultural conflict currently raging over the response to COVID-19, partly explaining a phenomena we might call the ‘medicalization of public moral authority.’ For reasons just explained, we might as well call it the ‘medicalization of public moral reality.’ That is the treatment of what are in fact irreducibly public moral questions as if they were medical or epidemiological questions, and consequently the treatment of medical professionals as moral authorities. Hence, in response to resistance to prescribed ‘lockdown’ measures, we so often hear the refrain, ‘Listen to the scientists!’ Resistance to these measures is, likewise, often dressed up as a kind of ‘second medical opinion.’ We witnessed the absurdity of ‘[America’s Frontline Doctors](https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/28/tech/facebook-youtube-coronavirus/index.html&sa=D&ust=1607635811408000&usg=AOvVaw3APw10xbBOn2QISEzmjQ4P)’ (including the infamous ‘demon-sperm’ doctor) not only making unfounded counterclaims about how to treat COVID-19, but also asserting that the economic harms of lockdown measures outweigh their benefit in slowing its spread. This is of course not within the scope of medical expertise, and not simply because it pertains to economics. Whether the epidemiological benefits of lockdown outweigh its economic costs is neither medical nor economic but ultimately a value judgment. Yet both sides in the debate seem to have no mode of argument other than to wheel out competing medical ‘experts’ as authorities for reference on the issue. The fact that one side’s doctors are qualified and the others are quacks is beside the point. The bottom line differences are not over questions of medicine or epidemiology but of values. Those are the questions all sides are avoiding by attempting to medicalize the issue. This is probably because the harms of either locking down the economy or opening will inevitably be suffered by the poorest and [most disenfranchised members of our society](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html&sa=D&ust=1607635811409000&usg=AOvVaw0o0B3rsVFSVWe3PJUdhb1S). This is the moral question which the most empowered and thus most vocal are intent on avoiding. For that entails calling into question not only the morality of the structure of our socio-economic system, but even the standard by which this irreducibly collective public moral judgment must be made. The cultural conflict happening across society as a whole over COVID-19 is therefore just one symptom of the core problem emerging in other aspects of life, including the renewed assertion of white supremacy and public mistrust of the political process and legal system, among others. It will be impossible to resolve this conflict without a genuine public deliberation that recognizes the central issues involved as the irreducibly moral questions that they are, which must be raised and treated collectively and not outsourced to some vicarious moral authorities, whether they be medical doctors, televangelists, populist politicians, or sheikhs of any sort. A critical mass of individuals must be willing to face the questions and the moral responsibility they carry, and must also be capable of arriving at a negotiated consensus with others. For American Muslims to focus solely on finding ‘a place’ in American society at this time is like demanding a ticket to board a sinking ship that you are already on. Drawing on the rich resources of our faith and ethical tradition, do we have the ability instead to find the leaks, repair, and possibly redesign the boat itself, side by side with others who may or may not share our *deen*? That is what the current moment in our country’s history requires. --- ## Notes [^1]: Muhammad Hashim Kamali, *Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence* (Kuala Lumpur: Ilmiah, 1998). [^2]: Sherman Jackson, “Islamic Law, Muslims, and American Politics,” *Islamic Law and Society* 22 (2015): 253–91. [^3]: More precisely, this is rooted in hedonistic utilitarian moral ontology that reduces moral reason to prudential calculus, as I explain [here](https://www.taseelcommons.com/philosophy/empire-of-desire-technology-capitalism-and-perennial-moral-challenge&sa=D&ust=1607635811410000&usg=AOvVaw2I4IOUa6usmeunXsd2hPQ_). [^4]: Robert Prentice, “Teaching Behavioral Ethics,” *Journal of Legal Studies Education* 31, no. 2 (2014): 325–65. [^5]: Christine M. Korsgaard, “Morality and the Distinctiveness of Human Action,” in Frans de Waal, *Primates and Philosophers*, ed. Stephen Macedo and Josiah Ober (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), 98–119. [^6]: For an in-depth study of the historical development of this idea and its effects on contemporary Western society, see Alasdair MacIntyre, *After Virtue* (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981). [^7]: Sam Harris, *The Moral Landscape* (New York: Free Press, 2010). [^8]: Richard Dawkins, *The Selfish Gene* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976). [^9]: Sigmund Freud, *The Interpretation of Dreams* (Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1899). [^10]: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The German Ideology* (New York: International Publishers, 1947). ## Summary The COVID-19 pandemic, when it descended upon societies across the world, compelled communities to answer a pressing collective question: what activities are truly "essential" and what may be set aside? The response in most lands was to close all non-essential public life while preserving what was deemed necessary. Reflecting upon this, one observes that the resulting conflict in American society is not merely a dispute over public health policy but a symptom of a far deeper malady, which may rightly be named a crisis of public moral reality. Muslims living in such a society are neither able to insulate themselves from these dynamics nor should they be drawn blindly into them; rather, they are called to be positive agents striving toward justice and clarity. The purpose here is not to endorse or condemn any particular set of health measures, but to examine the very nature of this question and the moral realities it has exposed. The question of what is "essential" is, upon careful reflection, unavoidably both collective and moral. Consider the case of the masājid: the decision whether to close them as a precaution against the spread of the virus was not one that could be left to the individual, for to leave them open so that each person might weigh the risk for herself is in truth to decide for the entire community that keeping them open is worth the risk. Whatever course is chosen touches the whole community. Moreover, such a decision requires a value judgment, for after weighing all the empirical facts concerning the virus and its spread, one must still ask whether preserving the opening of the masjid outweighs the risk to life and health. This latter judgment falls within the scope of uṣūl al-fiqh, whose practitioners derive from the Qur'an and Sunnah the methods for prioritizing the values and objectives of the Sharī'ah, taking into account the relevant empirical sciences. Herein lies a clear distinction. Whether the masjid poses a genuine risk to life is a matter for epidemiology and its allied sciences; whether mitigating that risk takes priority over keeping the masjid open is a value judgment grounded in revelation. The Islamic position on this is eminently rational: the dead cannot attend the masjid, and thus the saving of life takes precedence over keeping it open. The only room for legitimate difference lies in the empirical question of whether such a risk truly exists, and in that discussion there is no place for scriptural citations or pious posturing, for it is solely a matter of weighing the evidence. What must be grasped is that a decision about what is essential cannot rest upon empirical facts alone, since it involves a value judgment not reducible to such facts. Within the Muslim community, taken in isolation, this matter is comparatively less complicated for those who take the tradition seriously. For we acknowledge that Allah's message furnishes us with the means to make these value judgments systematically, albeit fallibly, since we remain human. This grants the community a shared public moral reality and a framework for the legitimacy of a public moral authority, though this does not entail unanimity any more than a God-given means of judgment renders us infallible. Yet the Muslim community does not exist in isolation. It dwells within a wider society whose fragility the pandemic has laid bare, and the effective decision on what is essential rests not with Muslims alone but with that broader society. This wider crisis may at first appear to be a mere crisis of public moral authority: a gridlock over whether to trust one set of leaders or another. A closer examination, however, reveals it to be a crisis of public moral reality, a flaw in the very operating system of American public life. For the American system rests upon the notion that individual freedom is the single public value, while all other moral values are relegated entirely to the private sphere. This rests upon a familiar distinction between facts and values: facts being universal, objective, discoverable by science, and open to rational evaluation, while values are held to be particular, subjective, beyond science, and immune to reason. Only facts, so the formula goes, may serve as the basis of public policy. Yet real life presents anomalies to this paradigm, much as a crash reveals bugs in a system. One such irrational habit is the conflation of values with behavior, whereby certain intellectuals reduce questions of what is morally right to questions of what people happen to think is right and what causes them to think so. Through psychology, social science, or evolutionary biology, they create the appearance of answering moral questions without truly doing so. But the question of why we do value something is not the question of why we ought to value it. A psychologist may explain why a sociopathic criminal values what he does, yet if such an explanation were the same as showing what one ought to value, it would prove that the criminal ought to be a criminal. Public policy, however, turns precisely upon what we ought to value, not merely upon what we happen to value. This leads to a deeper matter that cannot be avoided. When one casts a vote, is one confronted with a question of what we ought to value, or merely what we happen to want? Some deny that the former is even meaningful, holding that we simply want what we want without reason, and that reason serves only to secure our desires. This view follows directly from the fact-value distinction. Were it true, and were our desires to differ, there would be no rational means of resolving our disagreements, and any deliberation over how to vote would prove futile. This is not a critique of democracy as a procedure, but of a moral epistemology which, if accepted, would render such a process meaningless. Because the natural sciences have proven so remarkably successful at discovering what is the case, some have hoped they might likewise answer what we ought to value. But the success of these sciences is bound to the very paradigm that denies there are any facts about what ought to be. The most that such science can offer is an account of what human beings actually value, and such accounts, to be interesting, usually differ from what we believe about ourselves. One theory claims that beneath your wish to raise your children lies a drive for your genome's survival; another that your values mask unconscious impulses or economic alienation. These differing theories share two features: each portrays human values as other than we believe them to be, and each operates under the assumption that there are no facts about what ought to be. Yet one ideal remains that science cannot remove: that our beliefs ought to match reality. Thus if such theories tell us what we truly value, we ought to believe them or stand accused of denial. In this way these theories, while offering no account of what we ought to value, smuggle in a back-door moral narrative, telling us what we ought to believe we value and thereby shaping what we come to value. From this emerged outlooks Darwinist, Marxist, and Freudian that exert powerful influence upon the surrounding culture and feed into the present conflict. This helps explain what may be called the medicalization of public moral authority, or better, of public moral reality: the treatment of irreducibly moral questions as though they were medical ones, and of physicians as moral authorities. Hence the refrain "Listen to the scientists," and resistance dressed up as a competing medical opinion. Whether the benefits of lockdown outweigh its economic costs is neither a medical nor an economic question but a value judgment, yet both sides merely parade competing experts. That one side's doctors are qualified and the other's are quacks is beside the point, for the true differences concern values, and these are avoided precisely because the harms of either course fall upon the poorest and most disenfranchised. The empowered avoid this moral question because it would call into question the very structure of the socio-economic order and the standard by which such collective judgments must be made. The conflict over the pandemic is therefore but one symptom of a deeper problem manifesting elsewhere, including the resurgence of white supremacy and mistrust of the political and legal systems. It cannot be resolved without genuine public deliberation that recognizes these central issues as the irreducibly moral questions they are, to be treated collectively rather than outsourced to vicarious authorities, be they physicians, televangelists, populist politicians, or shaykhs of any sort. A critical mass of individuals must be willing to shoulder this moral responsibility and to reach a negotiated consensus with others. For American Muslims to seek merely a place in this society at such a time is like demanding a ticket to board a sinking ship one is already upon. Drawing upon the rich resources of our faith and ethical tradition, the task instead is to find the leaks, to repair, and perhaps to redesign the vessel itself, alongside others whether or not they share our dīn. This is what the present moment demands. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/does-that-apply-to-non-muslims-too # Does That Apply to Non-Muslims, Too? **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Jurisprudence (fiqh), Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** November 24, 2020 **Updated:** June 18, 2026 ## Introduction A common question Muslims have when reading the Qur’an and Sunnah is whether or not the lessons found therein apply to non-Muslims. Sometimes a text will refer to “Muslims” or “believers,” but does that mean it *only* applies to Muslims? Some religious rules are certainly limited to Muslims, such as funeral rites, marriage, and dietary laws, but these differences are clearly defined in Islamic legal tradition. This research will show that other general exhortations to charity, kindness, and benevolence apply to both Muslims and non-Muslims, as Muslims should be respectful and well-mannered towards fellow human beings as a whole. There are plenty of indications in the Qur’an and Sunnah that much of our moral paradigm applies to the bulk of humanity, with exceptions made for the worst offenders of justice. This article aims to highlight the status of both Muslim and non-Muslim family members and neighbors in Islam. It will explain the various covenants of protection for non-Muslims that existed in classical Islam, how these covenants granted legal protections to non-Muslims that were equivalent to those protecting Muslims, and how these covenants are analogous to the concept of ‘citizenship’ today. Finally, it will analyze some of the Prophet’s ﷺ discourse in which he used exclusive language for Muslims, but which scholars have understood for various reasons to be inclusive of non-Muslims. --- ## Non-Muslim family members in Islam Concern for blood relations is one of the most important moral priorities a Muslim should have, especially their own parents. This is true whether or not our relatives are Muslims. Our family members have the right to be treated well simply by virtue of their proximity to us, regardless of their personal religious beliefs. This is especially true for our parents. Allah has commanded us repeatedly in the Qur’an to be good to our parents, with a special emphasis on our mothers. Allah said: > We have enjoined upon humankind to be good to his parents. His mother carried him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents, for unto Me is the final destination. If they strive to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them but accompany them kindly in the world.[^1] This verse specifically discusses the case when one’s parents do not accept Islam. We are still obligated to treat them well even if they “strive” (*jāhadā*) against us for being Muslims! We must obey their reasonable requests as long as they do not involve anything sinful. Obviously, this duty does not negate the rights of children to self-defense from violent parental attacks, but anything less than that must be tolerated. Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) notes that parents’ non-violent opposition to Islam “does not prevent you from accompanying them kindly in the world, meaning, to treat them both in the best manner.”[^2] Allah’s command to be good to parents applies in a very broad sense to Muslim and non-Muslim parents, only making exceptions for extreme cases of violence and persecution. Islamic tradition refers to family relations as *ṣilat al-raḥim*, which literally means “connecting the womb.” The womb has great symbolic and cosmic significance as the uniting entity that binds families together. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Verily, Allah made the creation and when He finished, the womb said, ‘In this place, I seek refuge in you from those who sever me.’ Allah said, ‘Are you not pleased that I keep good relations with those who are good to you and I will cut off whoever severs relations with you? The womb said, ‘Yes, my Lord.’ Allah said, ‘Thus, you will have it.’[^3] The womb (*al-raḥim*) is also an expression of Allah’s mercy (*raḥmah*), being derived from the same linguistic root. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The womb derives its name from the Most Merciful. Whoever keeps its relations, Allah will keep his relations. Whoever severs its relations, Allah will sever his relations.”[^4] That is, Allah will continue to guide and reward Muslims who fulfill their duties towards their families and treat them well, but He will abandon those who abandon their families. Family relations are the focal point of mercy in the lives of believers, as implied by the word’s etymology, mercy that when consolidated towards one’s closest inner circle will radiate outward to positively affect the community and humanity at large. As always, there is no better example of this teaching in practice than the Prophet ﷺ himself. We know from his biography that many of his Qurayshī relatives opposed him, sometimes violently, while other members of his family accepted Islam. He defended himself, his community, and their right to practice Islam, of course, yet he upheld the rights of his unbelieving relatives even as they hurt him. Allah said, “Say: I do not ask you anything for (this message), except for the affection of relatives.”[^5] The Prophet ﷺ did not want any monetary or worldly payment for preaching Islam to them, but he still expected them to show him familial affection. As recorded by al-Ṭabarī (d. 923), some of the early Muslims interpreted this verse to mean that the Prophet ﷺ wanted nothing from them in return for Islam “except for you to show me affection in my relations with you and to uphold our family ties between us.”[^6] Even as they committed unbelief and idolatry, affection between them was to be expected. This demonstrates that religious difference by itself in no way precludes a Muslim from showing their natural love to their non-Muslim family members. When the Quraysh solidified their stubborn opposition to Islam, going as far as boycotting, torturing, or driving out the most vulnerable Muslims, the Prophet ﷺ still acknowledged their rights as family members. The Prophet ﷺ declared openly, “The relatives of my father are not my allies. Verily, only Allah and the righteous believers are my allies. Yet, they have the bonds of kinship and I will uphold their family ties.”[^7] On one occasion in Medina, the Prophet ﷺ presented ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (*rḍa*) with a silk garment[^8] as a gift, which ʿUmar then gave to his half-brother in Mecca who was an idolater at the time.[^9] Al-Nawawī (d. 1277) mentioned several narrations of this tradition and he concludes, “All of it is evidence for the permissibility of maintaining relations with relatives who are unbelievers and being good to them, as well as giving gifts to the unbelievers.”[^10] Hence, even non-Muslim relatives who happen to reside in hostile lands, as Mecca was at the time, should be treated well. A verse about family and love is frequently mistranslated or misquoted to make Islam look like a hateful or anti-family religion. Allah said: > You will not find people who have faith in Allah and the Last Day showing affection to those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred.[^11] Apologists against Islam translate “affection” as “love” and then constrast this verse with the “love your enemies” passage of the New Testament. This is misleading because the verb *wadd* means “affection,” not love in the sense of loving good for others or treating people as you want to be treated.[^12] It would be difficult for anyone to argue that showing warmth or affection to a violent oppressor is praiseworthy. Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah al-Sadūsī (d. 735), the great scholar from the second generation of Islam, explains that “those who oppose Allah and His Messenger” here means “those who show enmity.”[^13] These were members of the Quraysh who had persecuted the Prophet ﷺ and his companions until they had no choice but to flee to Medina. Showing affection to them while they committed such heinous evil deeds would only embolden them. Nevertheless, the Prophet ﷺ held out hope for reconciliation and, in the end, he famously forgave them all and many of them eventually freely converted to Islam.[^14] --- ## Non-Muslim neighbors in Islam Islam strongly encourages good behavior towards neighbors, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims. After family members, neighbors are the next relationship in importance to Muslims. In fact, many classical Muslim scholars like al-Mundhirī (d. 1258) would include chapters of their works devoted to the “rights” of neighbors and their good treatment.[^15] Allah said: > Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and be good to parents, relatives, orphans, the needy, the near neighbor, the far neighbor, the companion at your side, the traveler, and those under custodianship of your right hands. Verily, Allah does not love those who are self-deluding and boastful.[^16] In this verse, Allah orders benevolent treatment (*iḥsān*) in general towards practically every type of person in society, including family members alongside the “near neighbor” and “far neighbor.” Some scholars understood that this distinction between neighbors does not refer to physical distance, but to differences in religion. The near neighbor is a Muslim, while the far neighbor is a non-Muslim. al-Qurṭubī (d. 1273) explains the implications of the verse, writing: > I say: On the basis of this instruction in regards to the neighbor, it is commanded by way of recommendation whether to a Muslim or an unbeliever. This is the correct opinion. Benevolence comes with the meaning of sympathy and comes with the meaning of good companionship, refraining from harm, and defending from others.[^17] The companions and righteous predecessors understood that the Prophet’s ﷺ many commandments to be good to neighbors applied to both Muslims and non-Muslims. Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 722) reported that he was with the companion ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr (*rḍa*) as his servant was preparing a roasted sheep. ʿAbd Allāh said, “Have you given some to our Jewish neighbor? I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘Gabriel continued to instruct me in regards to neighbors that I thought he would make them my heirs.’”[^18] Al-Tirmidhī, who narrated this tradition, further notes that similar sentiments were reported from other companions including ʿĀʾishah, Ibn ʿAbbās, Anas, Abū Ḥurayrah, ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmir, and Abū Umāmah, may Allah be pleased with them.[^19] As such, the general rule is that anyone who lives with us as neighbors—that is, who agrees to live peacefully in proximity to us—must at the very least be safe from our harm, if not shown kindness and charity. The only exception to this rule is the prohibition of showing kindness to an oppressor or wrongdoer because, as al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) correctly noted, “Kindness to the oppressor is evil to the oppressed.”[^20] Charity cannot come at the expense of justice. We should be kind to everyone we meet in our lives, Muslims and non-Muslims, as long as that kindness does not embolden some wrongdoing on their part or otherwise infringe on someone else’s rights. Indeed, Allah might afflict us with evil neighbors in order to test our patience and mercy. Their bad character ought to be tolerated as much as possible, but retaliation as permitted by law is an option when the legal rights of individuals with regard to their lives, property, and safety have been violated by their neighbors. In legal terms, classical Muslim scholars developed and codified the rules of neighborliness in a way that explicitly gave the same protective rights to Muslims and their non-Muslim neighbors. --- ## Non-Muslim covenant of protection Harming a person who is not harming anyone else is a serious offense to Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “He will not enter Paradise whose neighbor is not secure from his evil.”[^21] Muslims are threatened here with banishment from Paradise if they harm their neighbors without a just cause for doing so. Not only is it inherently immoral to hurt innocent people for no good reason, but it also disrupts the peaceful relations their communities might otherwise have with the Muslim community. In addition, harming a peaceful non-Muslim indirectly harms the safety and stability enjoyed by Muslims when it provokes retaliation. On this basis, scholars have divided non-Muslims into three legally protected classes: 1. *Dhimmī* - a non-Muslim who lives in a Muslim land and pays taxes to a Muslim authority. 2. *Muʿāhid* - a non-Muslim who lives in a country upholding a peace treaty with Muslims. 3. *Mustaʾmin* - a non-Muslim from outside Muslim lands granted permission to enter.[^22] In each of these cases, a non-Muslim enters a mutual agreement with the Muslim community not to harm each other, whether they are living as citizens of a Muslim country, citizens of a foreign country, or as guests entering a Muslim country with a visa. They become neighbors by law, so to speak. These peaceful non-Muslims are entitled to certain legal and moral protections analogous to those of Muslim citizens. The exception to these protected categories are enemy combatants (*ḥarbī*). The Prophet ﷺ warned Muslims in the strongest terms not to violate this sacred pact, saying, “Whoever kills a person protected by a treaty (*muʿāhid*) will not smell the fragrance of Paradise. Verily, its fragrance can be found from a distance of forty years of travel.”[^23] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever kills a person protected by a treaty, without a just cause, Allah has forbidden Paradise for him.”[^24]And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever wrongs a person protected by a treaty, violates his rights, burdens him with more work than he is able to do, or takes something from him without his consent, I will be his prosecutor on the Day of Resurrection.”[^25] There are many authentic narrations from the Prophet ﷺ that convey this meaning, so much so that scholars considered them to be mass transmitted (*mutawātir*), meaning indisputably true. According to the Mālikī scholar Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Mawwāq (d. 1492), “The prophetic traditions that prohibit wronging them \[i.e., those protected by a treaty\] have been unanimously reported.”[^26] It is not necessarily required for a non-Muslim to be granted formal legal protections by state authorities. Harming anyone who is otherwise harmless, especially by deceptive means, is a forbidden act in Islam. Ibn Taymīyah (d. 1328) states the operative principle, “The default rule (*aṣl*) is that the blood of the human being (*Ādamī*) is inviolable except by right of justice.”[^27] Ibn Qudāmah (d. 1223) concurs, writing “for a human being who is wrongly killed, it is obligatory to provide expiation for his killing as if he was a Muslim.”[^28] Al-Miswar ibn Makhramah (*rḍa*) reported that during the period of ignorance, al-Mughīrah (*rḍa*) accompanied some people, killed them, and took their wealth. Then, he later embraced Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said, “As for your Islam, we have accepted it. As for the property, it is the wealth of treachery and we have no need for it.”[^29] Al-ʿAẓīmābādī (d. 1911) commented on this tradition, writing, “A point of benefit is that it is not lawful to seize the wealth of an unbeliever deceptively in a condition of safety. Indeed, it is only lawful to do so against a warrior or combatant.”[^30] Al-Mughīrah’s transgression against idolaters occurred before the Islamic legal system developed, yet the Prophet ﷺ condemned his deed. One might wonder why al-Mughīrah was not punished. To be sure, he had fully repented from his misdeed. Commentators note from other sources that the crime took place on the road to Egypt, far from the jurisdiction of Medina. It had also happened long ago in the past so, for practical reasons, legal prosecution may have been impossible. In any case, the key point here is that Muslims should not imagine they can kill or hurt ordinary people on the streets if their Islamic legal status is unclear. All human beings have the default protected status of immunity that is only nullified by law if they are convicted of a crime. --- ## Exclusive language, inclusive meaning There are several traditions of the Prophet ﷺ in which he mentions “Muslims” or “believers” as worthy of protection or good behavior. Some Muslims might mistake his words as limiting the scope of his instructions, but a deeper analysis of his discourse reveals that his use of exclusive language often implied inclusive meanings. After all, the Prophet ﷺ spent much of his time preaching to an entirely Muslim audience, so his wording often reflected their specific needs. The most obvious and widely-accepted examples of implied inclusiveness are texts that mention “men” or that use plurals in a grammatically male form. These texts also apply to women by default, unless there is evidence to the contrary.[^31] In one tradition, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (*rḍa*) reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A Muslim man does not perform ablution in an excellent manner and then performs prayer, but that Allah will forgive him for what occurred between his prayer and the next.”[^32] Through a different chain of narrators, ‘Uthmān reports a similar tradition with this wording, “Whoever performs ablution like this ablution of mine and offers two cycles of prayer, without allowing his thoughts to stray, his previous sins will be forgiven.”[^33] Although the first narration states the reward is for a “Muslim man,” the second says it applies to “whoever” does it. It is possible that, in the first instance, the Prophet ﷺ was speaking exclusively to a group of men and tailored his language accordingly. Nevertheless, scholars understood that when the Prophet ﷺ spoke about men, it usually included women. Ḥamd ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 998) comments, “If the address is conveyed in the male grammatical form, it is also addressed to women, except for specific topics whose specification is established by evidence.”[^34] In other words, when the Prophet ﷺ is speaking about men, it always includes women unless there is evidence that it does not apply to them. A similar dynamic can be detected when analyzing texts that appear exclusive to Muslims but that actually imply protected categories of non-Muslims are included as well. As a comprehensive ethical principle, Muslims should love good for non-Muslims the same as they love it for themselves; that is, Muslims should have goodwill in general towards non-Muslims. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”[^35] While this tradition uses the word “brother,” commonly interpreted as a Muslim brother or sister, other versions use broader language, “None of you have faith until he loves for people what he loves for himself, and until he loves a person only for the sake of Allah Almighty.”[^36] Another narration uses the word “neighbor,” which includes Muslims and non-Muslims.[^37] The word “brother” could be a stand-in for “neighbor” or “people” in general, or even the brotherhood of humanity, since every person has a common bond to every other person in the world by virtue of Adam and Eve. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 1566) put forward this interpretation, writing, “It is apparent that the expression ‘brother’ here is used in a general sense, as every Muslim should love for unbelievers to receive Islam and the virtues derived from it.”[^38] There is more evidence that the Prophet ﷺ used “brother” and “people” synonymously. On one occasion, the Prophet ﷺ was asked, “Whose practice of Islam is best?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “One from whose tongue and hand Muslims are safe.”[^39] Another companion recalls that the Prophet ﷺ answered the same question, saying, “One from whose tongue and hand people are safe.”[^40] As we can see, the word “Muslims” is used in the first tradition with the implication that it applies to people in general; i.e., neighbors of Muslims and people with whom Muslims peacefully interact. The Prophet ﷺ likely varied his discourse based on the situation, sometimes speaking exclusively to a group of Muslims and other times speaking publicly in front of a mixed group. In fact, the Prophet ﷺ was asked the same question many times for which he gave slightly different answers. One scholarly explanation for this phenomenon, as recorded by al-Nawawī, is that “the answers were given as appropriate according to the variety of circumstances and individuals.”[^41] Keeping this in mind, when we read expressions like “Muslims” and “believers” and “brothers” being used in prophetic discourse, it is possible that he only happened to be speaking to a group of Muslims at the time; even so, the general moral lesson contained in these traditions often applies similarly to non-Muslims who are peacefully living with Muslims as neighbors. One issue for which the scholars explicitly included protected non-Muslims is the prohibition of backbiting. Allah said, “Do not spy on each other or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it, so fear Allah. Verily, Allah is Relenting and Merciful.”[^42] The verse says “brother” but the principle extended beyond Muslim circles. If a non-Muslim had peaceful relations with Muslims, their lives, property, and reputations were considered as sacred as those of Muslims. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī writes, “As for the *Dhimmī*, he is like the Muslim in regards to the prohibition of harm, as the divine law has made his reputation, life, and property inviolable… The correct opinion is that it is forbidden to backbite a *Dhimmī*.”[^43] Instead of backbiting such non-Muslims, Zakarīyā al-Anṣārī (d. 1520) considered it an obligation to show them goodwill, “Backbiting an unbeliever is forbidden if he is under protection… Rather, it is an obligation to offer sincere advice to others and to warn them from evil.”[^44] Ibn al-Humām (d. 1457) even chastises troublemakers among the Muslims who, in his time, would break these rules, “It is established in the rulings of a *Dhimmī* and his rights… that it is obligatory to refrain from harming him and it is forbidden to backbite him, just as it is forbidden to backbite a Muslim, unlike what is done by fools who unjustly and with hostility slap him or insult him in the marketplace.”[^45] Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1836), commenting on the words of al-Ḥaṣkafī, likewise affirms this principle: > If one becomes a *Dhimmī*… it is obligatory to refrain from harming him and it is forbidden to backbite him, as it is for a Muslim, because of the covenant of protection. He is entitled to our wealth \[in charity or welfare\] and if it is forbidden to backbite a Muslim, it is also forbidden to backbite him. Rather, some scholars said that wronging a *Dhimmī* is even worse.[^46] Cursing a protected non-Muslim is also considered a sin, even liable for punishment by authorities. Al-Buhūtī (d. 1051) writes, “Whoever curses a *Dhimmī* by name should be disciplined, as his reputation is inviolable and forbidden (to harm).”[^47] According to a legal opinion recorded by al-Ḥaṣkafī, addressing non-Muslims with names they find insulting is unwarranted and could be punishable as well, “A Muslim who insults a *Dhimmī* is given discretionary punishment, as he has committed a sin.”[^48] Berating non-Muslims, even when apparently justified, may turn them away from guidance and prove counterproductive. Rather, Allah commanded us to share Islam with non-Muslims in the best manner, “Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching.”[^49] Another important point of consideration is that violating the Muslims’ peace with non-Muslims is actually an indirect attack on Muslims, since it invites reciprocation, as Allah said, “Do not insult those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge.”[^50] Some scholars extended the protection of non-Muslims to their economic activity, such that it is impermissible to undercut them as it is for Muslims. The Prophet ﷺ said, “A man may not undermine the transactions of his brother.”[^51] Again, the word “brother” here is used as a stand-in for neighbors as well as protected non-Muslims. The Azharī scholar Sulaymān ibn ʿUmar al-Jamal (d. 1790) commented on this tradition, writing, “The non-Muslim citizen (*dhimmī*), the non-Muslim in a peace treaty (*mu’āhid*), and the non-Muslim granted immunity (*musta’min*) are all like the Muslim in this regard, excluding the combatant and renegade apostate.”[^52] Only dangerous groups of non-Muslims, like enemy soldiers or traitorous rebels, are not entitled to this basic protection on account of their violent activities. The covenant of protection for a non-Muslim was not simply a negative right to be unharmed, but also included a positive right to welfare. The Prophet ﷺ said, “He is not a believer whose stomach is filled while the neighbor to his side goes hungry.”[^53] Al-Ghazālī asserts that it is a duty upon us to help our non-Muslim neighbors who are in need, “One must be gentle, charitable, and behave with good conduct… al-Ḥasan saw no harm in feeding Jewish and Christian neighbors from your slaughtered animals.”[^54] As implied by al-Kharāʾiṭī, who recorded the original statement of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728), seeing nothing wrong with giving to non-Muslim neighbors indicates a positive command to adhere to good neighborliness (*ḥusn al-mujāwaratihi*).[^55] In one incident to illustrate this point, the second righteous Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (*rḍa*) found an elderly Jewish man begging for charity so that he could pay his taxes. ʿUmar said, “By Allah, we have not been fair to him that we have eaten ourselves and then abandoned him in old age! ‘Verily, charity is only for the poor and the needy.’[^56] The poor are the Muslims and this man is among the needy from the people of the Book.” ʿUmar then exempted the man from paying taxes and gave him charity out of the public treasury.[^57] This story demonstrates that Muslims should have basic compassion and empathy with non-Muslims on a human level, regardless of their personal religious beliefs, as the Prophet ﷺ commanded us, “Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.”[^58] --- ## Conclusion The Prophet ﷺ spoke to diverse groups of people throughout his life, using general and specific terms synonymously to articulate his message for the present audience. Sometimes he would speak to and for Muslims, while other times to mixed groups or to humanity as a whole. If a statement authentically attributed to the Prophet ﷺ uses exclusive language such as “brother” or “Muslim,” this does not necessitate limiting the rule to Muslims only. On the contrary, protected non-Muslims are morally and legally equal to Muslims in many important ways. The real differences that do exist between us, such as in religious funeral rites, marriage, dietary laws, and so on, are confirmed on the basis of explicit evidence from the Qur’an and Sunnah. Furthermore, Islam's teachings of kindness and benevolence were never restricted to Muslims, as is affirmed in the Prophet's ﷺ Sunnah, the lives of his companions, and the writings of our great scholars. Taking care not to harm innocent people and encouraging the good treatment of neighbors, regardless of their religion, are other well-established Qur'anic mandates. Similar to the protections provided to Muslims, Islam also provides protection by law and morality for peaceful non-Muslims in regards to their person, property, and reputation. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 31:14–15. [^2]: Ismāʾīl ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 6:301, verse 31:15. [^3]: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Beirut\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:1980, no. 2554. [^4]: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsá al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1998), 3:388, no. 1924; declared (*ṣaḥīḥ*) authentic by al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^5]: Qur’an 42:23. [^6]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2000), 21:525, verse 42:23. [^7]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najāh, 2002), 8:6, no. 5990. [^8]: Al-Nawawi clarifies that, although it is not allowed in Islam for men to wear silk, it was nonetheless a beneficial material that could be worn by women, used for other purposes, and/or sold. [^9]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1638, no. 2068. [^10]: Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1972), 14:39. [^11]: Qur’an 58:22. [^12]: For a more detailed explanation of loving good for others in Islam, see Justin Parrott, “The Golden Rule in Islam: Ethics of Reciprocity in Islamic Traditions” (master’s thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2018), [https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/43458](https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/43458&sa=D&ust=1606243267377000&usg=AOvVaw1Esa6iIpez2Ggy-U6rzlQr). [^13]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-Bayān*, 23:258, verse 58:22. [^14]: For more information on this topic, see Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, “How the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Rose above Enmity and Insult,” *Yaqeen*, January 13, 2017, [yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/how-the-prophet-muhammad-rose-above-enmity-and-insult](http://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/how-the-prophet-muhammad-rose-above-en&sa=D&ust=1606243267379000&usg=AOvVaw1Ab4g_Vc6rF8i81sbg381M). [^15]: ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Mundhirī, *al-Targhīb wa-al-Tarhīb* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1996), 3:352. [^16]: Qur’an 4:36. [^17]: Al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾan* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutūb al-Miṣrīyah, 1964), 5:174, verse 4:36. [^18]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:397, no. 1943; declared (*ḥasan*) fair by Al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^19]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:397, no. 1943. [^20]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1980), 2:167. [^21]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:68, no. 46. [^22]: Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿUthaymīn, *Sharḥ Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn* (Riyadh: Dār al-Waṭan lil-Nashr, 2005), 2:534. Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn writes, “These are the four types of sacred blood: the blood of a Muslim, the blood of a *dhimmī*, the blood of a *muʿāhid*, and the blood of a *mustaʾmin*.” [^23]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:99, no. 3166. [^24]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Sidon, Lebanon: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 3:83, no. 2760; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^25]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 3:170, no. 3052; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^26]: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Mawwāq, *al-Tāj wa-al-iklīl li-mukhtaṣar Khalīl* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1994), 4:601. [^27]: Taqī al-Dīn ibn Taymīyah, *al-Ṣārim al-maslūl ʿalá shātim al-Rasūl* (KSA: al-Ḥaras al-Waṭanī al-Saʿūdī, 1983), 1:104. [^28]: Muwaffaq al-Dīn ibn Qudāmah, *al-Mughnī li-Ibn Qudāmah* (Egypt: Maktabat al-Qāhirah, 1968), 8:513. [^29]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 3:85, no. 2765; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^30]: Muḥammad Shams al-Ḥaqq al-’Aẓīmābādī, *‘Awn al-Ma’būd: Sharḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 2009), 7:318, no. 2765. [^31]: Jonathan Brown, "Do the Qur’an and Sunnah Speak More Often to Men than Women?" *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. November 20, 2020. [^32]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* 1:205, no. 227. [^33]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* 1:204, no. 226. [^34]: Ḥamd ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʻālim al-sunan: Sharḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ḥalab: al-Maṭbaʿah al-ʿIlmīyah, 1932), 1:79. [^35]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:12, no. 13. [^36]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), 12:353, no. 13875; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^37]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* 1:67, no. 45. [^38]: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, *al-Fatḥ al-mubīn bi-sharḥ al-arbaʾīn* (Jeddah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2008), 1:305. [^39]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:11, no. 11. [^40]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 11:366, no. 6754; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^41]: Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:77. [^42]: Qur’an 49:12. [^43]: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, *al-Zawājir ʿan iqtirāf al-kabāʾir* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1987), 2:27. [^44]: Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, *Asná al-maṭālib fī sharḥ Rawḍ al-Ṭālib* (Egypt: al-Maṭbaʿah al-Maymanīyah, 1895), 3:117. [^45]: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Humām, *Fatḥ al-Qadīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1991), 6:24. [^46]: Ibn ʿĀbidīn, *al-Durr al-mukhtār ḥāshiyat Ibn ʿĀbidīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1992), 4:169–71. [^47]: Manṣūr ibn Yūnus al-Buhūtī, *Kashshāf al-qināʿ ʿan matn al-Iqnāʿ* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1983), 6:125–26. [^48]: Ibn ʿĀbidīn, *al-Durr al-mukhtār ḥāshiyat Ibn ʿĀbidīn*, 4:76. [^49]: Qur’an 16:125. [^50]: Qur’an 6:108. [^51]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:1029, no. 1408. [^52]: Sulaymān ibn ʿUmar al-Jamal, *Ḥāshiyat al-Jamal ʿalá sharḥ al-Manhaj* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1990), 3:90. [^53]: Al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrá* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2003), 10:5, no. 19668; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ*, 2:949, no. 5382. [^54]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn*, 2:213–14. [^55]: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Kharāʾiṭī, *Makārim al-akhlāq* (Cairo: Dār al-Āfāq al-ʿArabīyah, 1999), 1:87. [^56]: Qur’an 9:60. [^57]: Yaʿqūb Abū Yūsuf, *Kitāb al-kharāj* (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Azharīyah lil-Turāth, 1999), 1:139. [^58]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:388, no. 1924; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Tirmidhī in the comments. ## Summary The question of whether the moral teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah extend to non-Muslims, or whether they are confined to the believers alone, is one that deserves careful attention. While certain rulings are indeed particular to Muslims—such as funeral rites, marriage, and dietary laws, which are clearly delineated in the legal tradition—the broader exhortations to charity, kindness, and benevolence encompass Muslims and non-Muslims alike. A Muslim is called to be respectful and well-mannered toward humanity as a whole, for the Qur'an and Sunnah contain abundant indications that our moral paradigm applies to the bulk of mankind, with exceptions reserved only for the worst offenders against justice. Among the foremost of moral priorities is the good treatment of blood relations, especially one's parents, whether or not they embrace Islam. Allah says: "We have enjoined upon humankind to be good to his parents… If they strive to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them but accompany them kindly in the world." This verse concerns the very case in which parents oppose Islam, yet the obligation of kind treatment remains, disobedience being restricted to sinful demands alone. Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) observes that their non-violent opposition "does not prevent you from accompanying them kindly in the world, meaning, to treat them both in the best manner." The tradition names this bond ṣilat al-raḥim, "connecting the womb," and the womb carries great significance. The Prophet ﷺ related that Allah told the womb, "Are you not pleased that I keep good relations with those who are good to you and I will cut off whoever severs relations with you?" He ﷺ also said, "The womb derives its name from the Most Merciful. Whoever keeps its relations, Allah will keep his relations. Whoever severs its relations, Allah will sever his relations." The Prophet ﷺ himself embodied this teaching, for many of his Qurayshī relatives opposed him, sometimes violently, while others believed. Allah says, "Say: I do not ask you anything for (this message), except for the affection of relatives." As al-Ṭabarī (d. 923) records, some of the early Muslims understood this to mean that he ﷺ sought no worldly payment, "except for you to show me affection in my relations with you and to uphold our family ties between us"—and this even while they persisted in idolatry. He ﷺ declared openly, "The relatives of my father are not my allies. Verily, only Allah and the righteous believers are my allies. Yet, they have the bonds of kinship and I will uphold their family ties." When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (rḍa) gave a silk garment gifted to him by the Prophet ﷺ to his idolatrous half-brother in Mecca, al-Nawawī (d. 1277) concluded that this constitutes "evidence for the permissibility of maintaining relations with relatives who are unbelievers and being good to them, as well as giving gifts to the unbelievers"—even those residing in hostile lands. A verse frequently misused against Islam is Allah's saying: "You will not find people who have faith in Allah and the Last Day showing affection to those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred." This is misread when the word wadd, meaning "affection" or warmth, is rendered as "love" in the sense of desiring good for others. Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah al-Sadūsī (d. 735) explains that "those who oppose Allah and His Messenger" here refers to "those who show enmity"—namely those of Quraysh who persecuted the believers until they fled to Medina. To show warmth to such active oppressors would only embolden them; yet the Prophet ﷺ held out hope for reconciliation and ultimately forgave them, many freely entering Islam. After family, neighbors hold the next place of importance, and Islam urges good conduct toward them regardless of religion. Allah says: "Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and be good to parents, relatives… the near neighbor, the far neighbor, the companion at your side…" Some scholars understood the "near" and "far" neighbor to signify a difference in religion rather than distance—the near being the Muslim and the far being the non-Muslim. Al-Qurṭubī (d. 1273) affirmed this as the correct opinion, holding benevolence commanded toward the neighbor "whether to a Muslim or an unbeliever." Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 722) reported that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr (rḍa) instructed that his Jewish neighbor be given a portion of a roasted sheep, citing the Prophet ﷺ: "Gabriel continued to instruct me in regards to neighbors that I thought he would make them my heirs." Al-Tirmidhī noted similar reports from ʿĀʾishah, Ibn ʿAbbās, Anas, Abū Hurayrah, ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir, and Abū Umāmah (rḍa). The sole exception is kindness that aids an oppressor, for al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) rightly said, "Kindness to the oppressor is evil to the oppressed"; charity may not come at the expense of justice. The classical scholars codified these protections in law, dividing peaceful non-Muslims into three protected classes: the dhimmī who lives under Muslim authority and pays taxes, the muʿāhid who lives under a peace treaty, and the mustaʾmin who enters with granted safety—the sole exception being the enemy combatant (ḥarbī). The Prophet ﷺ warned severely, "He will not enter Paradise whose neighbor is not secure from his evil," and, "Whoever kills a person protected by a treaty (muʿāhid) will not smell the fragrance of Paradise. Verily, its fragrance can be found from a distance of forty years of travel." He ﷺ further said that he would be the prosecutor on the Day of Resurrection against whoever wrongs such a person. So numerous are these narrations that al-Mawwāq (d. 1492) noted they "have been unanimously reported." Formal state protection is not strictly required for a person's inviolability, for Ibn Taymīyah (d. 1328) stated the governing principle: "The default rule (aṣl) is that the blood of the human being (Ādamī) is inviolable except by right of justice." Ibn Qudāmah (d. 1223) concurred that expiation is due for one wrongly killed "as if he was a Muslim." When al-Mughīrah (rḍa) killed and robbed men before Islam and then converted, the Prophet ﷺ accepted his Islam but rejected the wealth, saying, "it is the wealth of treachery and we have no need for it"; al-ʿAẓīmābādī (d. 1911) drew from this that seizing an unbeliever's wealth deceptively in a state of safety is unlawful. Some prophetic words appear to address only "Muslims" or "believers," yet scholars understood exclusive language often to carry inclusive meaning, since he ﷺ frequently spoke to Muslim audiences whose needs shaped his wording. Just as male grammatical forms include women—al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 998) noting that "if the address is conveyed in the male grammatical form, it is also addressed to women, except for specific topics"—so too may "brother" stand for neighbor or humanity. He ﷺ said, "None of you have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself," while another version reads "loves for people," and another uses "neighbor." Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 1566) held that "brother" here is "used in a general sense." Likewise, when asked whose Islam is best, he ﷺ answered in one narration, "One from whose tongue and hand Muslims are safe," and in another, "people are safe." Al-Nawawī explained that varied answers "were given as appropriate according to the variety of circumstances and individuals." On this basis, scholars explicitly extended protection to non-Muslims in matters such as backbiting. Concerning the verse, "Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?", Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī held the correct opinion to be that "it is forbidden to backbite a dhimmī," his reputation, life, and property being inviolable. Zakarīyā al-Anṣārī (d. 1520), Ibn al-Humām (d. 1457)—who rebuked those who insulted the dhimmī in the marketplace—and Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1836), who noted some scholars deemed wronging a dhimmī even worse, all affirmed this. Al-Buhūtī (d. 1051) ruled that cursing a dhimmī by name warrants discipline, and al-Ḥaṣkafī recorded that insulting one is a punishable sin. The protection extended even to commerce, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "A man may not undermine the transactions of his brother," which al-Jamal (d. 1790) applied to the dhimmī, muʿāhid, and mustaʾmin alike, excluding only the combatant and apostate. Moreover, the covenant included a positive right to welfare: "He is not a believer whose stomach is filled while the neighbor to his side goes hungry." Al-Ghazālī cited al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728), who saw no harm in feeding Jewish and Christian neighbors. When ʿUmar (rḍa) found an aged Jewish man begging to pay his tax, he exempted him and provided for him from the treasury, saying, "we have not been fair to him," for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you." In sum, the Prophet ﷺ addressed diverse audiences, employing general and specific terms interchangeably; his use of "brother" or "Muslim" does not necessarily confine a ruling to Muslims alone. Protected non-Muslims are morally and legally equal to Muslims in many important respects, the genuine distinctions between them—in funeral rites, marriage, and dietary law—resting upon explicit evidence. The teachings of kindness were never restricted to the believers, as affirmed in the Sunnah, the practice of the Companions, and the writings of the scholars; and Islam safeguards the person, property, and reputation of the peaceful non-Muslim as it does that of the Muslim. Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/do-the-quran-and-sunnah-speak-more-often-to-men-than-women # Do the Qur'an and Sunnah Speak More Often to Men than Women? **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** November 20, 2020 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Prelude Why does God always seem to be talking to men and not to women? This question occurs to many Muslims today, though they might at times hesitate to voice it out of fear that they have fallen under the influence of some politically correct fad. But this is, in fact, one of the oldest questions in Islamic history. It goes back to the revelation of the Qur’an itself and it lies behind one of the longest and most remarkable verses in the holy book. --- ## An inclusive audience The Prophet’s wife Umm Salamah رضي الله عنها asked him ﷺ once, “Why is it that we are not mentioned in the Qur’an as men are?” Not a day later Umm Salamah heard the Prophet ﷺ announce on the *minbar* that, “Indeed God Most High says, ‘For men submitting to God and women submitting to God, believing men and believing women, devout men and devout women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, charitable men and charitable women, men who fast and women who fast, men who guard their private parts and women who guard their private parts, men who remember God often and women who remember God often, \[for them\] God has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.’” (Qur’an 33:35).[^1] This was not the only time that Umm Salamah made it clear that she considered herself as much a part of the conversation as the men around her. One day when her maid was brushing her hair in her room, which was attached to the mosque, she heard the Prophet ﷺ call out “O people!” and begin instructing the congregation. She was rising to join them when her maid held her back, explaining that the Prophet “had called the men, not the women.” “Indeed, I am among the people,” replied Umm Salamah [^2] رضي الله عنها. --- ## Assumptions of inclusion in law and theology As the great Mālikī Shaykh al-Islam of Tunisia Muḥammad Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1973) wrote about the verse that came in response to Umm Salamah’s question, it illustrates how “the presumption in the Shariah of Islam is that its commands include both men and women except what is specified as applying to one of the two sexes.”[^3] Ibn ʿĀshūr was a giant of a scholar, bestriding the Ottoman era and French colonialism, the premodern and the modern. He is sometimes called the last ‘traditional’ *tafsīr* scholar. So isn’t there a possibility that he was sensitive to modern concerns around gender equity and that his reading of the Qur’an and his vision of Islam was affected by it? Certainly not in this case. As far back as the time of the Successors, Muslim scholars began synthesizing the teachings of the Qur’an, the Prophet’s precedent and the insights of his Companions into interpretive maxims (*qawāʿid*) that would guide Muslims in their understanding of the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the traditions of law and theology built on top of them, and how they should be applied to changing realities. Sometimes these maxims came directly from the Qur’an: “No bearer of burdens bears the burden of another” (Qur’an 35:18). Sometimes they were directly from Hadith: “The claimant must provide direct evidence, while one denying a claim need only swear.”[^4] These maxims became, in the words of another late Ottoman scholar, Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī (d. 1952), “the intermediary between the rulings \[of the Shariah\] and its sources.”[^5] For one of the earliest scholars to self-consciously articulate such maxims, the great Shāfiʿī jurist and theologian al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 388/998), the presumption of commonality for male and female came from the recipient of revelation himself. While the Prophet ﷺ was teaching his followers a rule about ritual purity after sexual excitement, Umm Sulaym, a woman among the Anṣār, asked if this applied to women too. “Yes,” answered the Prophet, “Women are the counterparts (*shaqā’iq*) of men.” Al-Khaṭṭābī, who wrote the earliest known commentaries on *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and the *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd, sees this as illustrating the maxim that a legal ruling revealed for one sex applies equally to the other unless there is evidence (*adillah*) specifying otherwise.[^6] The remarkably well-traveled Mālikī scholar Qāḍī Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1145) concurred in his commentary on the *Muwaṭṭa’*: “the created nature of men and women is one, and the Shariah ruling on them is the same.”[^7] Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 751/1370) affirmed this principle, and Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1449) would repeat it over and over in his famous *Fatḥ al-Bārī* commentary, “as it applies consistently in all rulings which apply to women as they do to men, except what is specified by some evidence.”[^8] Such evidence can come from reason or obvious realities—a ruling on menstruation obviously does not apply to men (although, in an interesting turn, the license allowing men and women suffering from urinary incontinence \[*salas al-bawl*\] to just perform ablutions before their prayers regardless of any leaks is based on the hadiths allowing this for women who experience ongoing vaginal bleeding \[*mustaḥāḍah*\]).[^9] Or such evidence could come from other rulings established by the Qur’an or Sunnah—for men, rulings about leading group prayers apply to mixed-gender congregations; for women, rulings about leading group prayers only apply to leading other women in congregation.[^10] --- ## Grammar and convenience Beyond the methodology of legal interpretation, the inclusion of male and female in words like ‘men’ or pronouns like ‘he’ is a feature of Arabic grammar recognized as far back as the first known book on the subject, by the famous Sībawayh (d. circa 180/796). Because the feminine versions of nouns and verbs in Arabic are often longer and more cumbersome in poetry, in usage masculine words often subsumed (*taghlīb*) their feminine counterparts.[^11] So *hum* (they) can mean a group of men or a mixed-gender group. *Hunna* (they feminine) can only be a group of females (or a group of things that are grammatically feminine). But that a hadith or Qur’anic verse that refers to a ‘he’ or ‘any man’ should also be understood to mean ‘she’ and ‘any woman’ as well, unless evidence shows otherwise, has been more a matter of convention used for the purpose of convenience. It is an ancient answer to the debate over using *he/she* or *they* in speech today. --- ## Notes [^1]: For this hadith, see Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Maymaniyya printing), 6:301, 305; Aḥmad b. Shuʿayb al-Nasāʾī, *Sunan al-Nasāʾī al-kubrá*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ et al., 12 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), 10:219. This was deemed *ṣaḥīḥ* by the editors of the Arnāʾūṭ edition of the *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ et al., 50 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1995–), 44:199. There is also a less common narration that this question came from Umm ʿUmārah of the Anṣār; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *kitāb tafsīr*, *bāb min Sūrat al-Aḥzāb*. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *kitāb al-faḍāʾil*, *bāb ithbāt ḥawḍ nabīyinā* ﷺ. [^3]: Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-al-tanwīr*, 30 vols. (Tunis: al-Dār al-Tūnisīyah lil-Nashr, 1984), 22:20. [^4]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, *kitāb al-aḥkām*, *bāb mā jāʾa fī anna al-bayyinah ʿalá al-muddaʿī wa-al-yamīn ʿalá al-muddaʿá ʿalayhi*. [^5]: Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī, *Maqālāt al-Kawtharī* (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Azharīyah, 1414/1994), 185. [^6]: *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd, *kitāb al-ṭahārah*, *bāb fī al-rajul yajidu al-billah fī manāmihi*; al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan*, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya, 1981), 1:79. [^7]: *Yaʿnī an al-khilqah fīhim wāḥidah wa-al-ḥukm ʿalayhim bi-al-sharīʿah siwā’*. Al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī, *al-Qabas fī sharḥ al-Muwaṭṭa’*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Wald Karīm (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1992), 174. [^8]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn*, ed. Muḥammad ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1422/2001), 1:95; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Bin Bāz and Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 16 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1997), 1:255. See also 2:187; 2:454; 2:745; 3:102; 5:190. [^9]: Al-Sarakhsī, *al-Mabsūṭ*, 30 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1414/1994), 2:139; Muwaffaq al-Dīn Ibn Qudāmah, *al-Mughnī*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ḥuluw, 12 vols. (Cairo: Hujr, 1986), 1:161; al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab*, 20 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), 2:541–42; al-Shaybānī, *al-Aṣl*, ed. Mehmet Boynukalin, 12 vols. (Doha: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1433/2012), 1:51. [^10]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 2:187. [^11]: Sībwayh, *al-Kitāb*, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 5 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1408/1988), 1:22. ## Summary # For Men and Women Alike: The Presumption of Inclusion in the Divine Address A question that unsettles many believers in our age, though some are hesitant to voice it lest they be accused of following passing fashions, is this: why does the divine speech so often appear to address men rather than women? Yet this is no novel concern born of modern sensibilities. It is among the oldest questions in the history of Islam, reaching back to the very descent of revelation, and it lies behind one of the longest and most remarkable verses of the Book of Allah. The mother of the believers, Umm Salamah رضي الله عنها, once asked the Prophet ﷺ, "Why is it that we are not mentioned in the Qur'an as men are?" Before a day had passed, she heard him ﷺ proclaim from the pulpit the words of Allah Most High: "For men submitting to God and women submitting to God, believing men and believing women, devout men and devout women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, charitable men and charitable women, men who fast and women who fast, men who guard their private parts and women who guard their private parts, men who remember God often and women who remember God often, [for them] God has prepared forgiveness and a great reward" (Qur'an 33:35). Umm Salamah's conviction that she belonged fully to the address of revelation appears again in another incident: while her maid was brushing her hair in her room adjoining the mosque, she heard the Prophet ﷺ call out, "O people!" and begin to teach the congregation. As she rose to join, her maid held her back, saying that he had called the men and not the women. She replied, "Indeed, I am among the people." The great Mālikī Shaykh al-Islam of Tunisia, Muḥammad Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1973), commenting on the verse revealed in answer to Umm Salamah, drew from it the principle that "the presumption in the Shariah of Islam is that its commands include both men and women except what is specified as applying to one of the two sexes." Though Ibn ʿĀshūr straddled the premodern and modern worlds—living through the Ottoman era and French colonialism, and often called the last of the traditional scholars of tafsīr—it would be mistaken to suppose that this reading reflects an accommodation of modern concerns about gender. For this principle is far older than the questions of our day. From the time of the Successors, Muslim scholars synthesized the teachings of the Qur'an, the precedent of the Prophet ﷺ, and the insights of his Companions into interpretive maxims (qawāʿid) to guide the understanding and application of revelation. Some of these maxims were drawn directly from the Qur'an, such as "No bearer of burdens bears the burden of another" (Qur'an 35:18). Others came from the Sunnah, such as "The claimant must provide direct evidence, while one denying a claim need only swear." As the late Ottoman scholar Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī (d. 1952) observed, such maxims became "the intermediary between the rulings [of the Shariah] and its sources." One of the earliest scholars to articulate the maxim of inclusion was the Shāfiʿī jurist and theologian al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 388/998), who traced its foundation to the Prophet ﷺ himself. When he was teaching a ruling concerning ritual purity, Umm Sulaym, a woman of the Anṣār, asked whether it applied to women as well. He answered, "Yes. Women are the counterparts (shaqāʾiq) of men." Al-Khaṭṭābī—author of the earliest known commentaries on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd—understood this to mean that a ruling revealed for one sex applies equally to the other unless evidence (adillah) specifies otherwise. The widely traveled Mālikī scholar Qāḍī Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1145) affirmed the same in his commentary on the Muwaṭṭaʾ: "the created nature of men and women is one, and the Shariah ruling on them is the same." Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 751/1370) upheld this principle likewise, and Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1449) repeated it throughout his celebrated Fatḥ al-Bārī, noting that "it applies consistently in all rulings which apply to women as they do to men, except what is specified by some evidence." Such specifying evidence may arise from reason or plain reality—a ruling concerning menstruation obviously cannot apply to men. Yet the workings of this principle can run in unexpected directions: the license permitting a man suffering from urinary incontinence (salas al-bawl) to simply perform ablution before prayer despite ongoing leakage is derived from the hadiths granting this allowance to the woman experiencing continuous vaginal bleeding (mustaḥāḍah). The specifying evidence may also come from other rulings established in the Qur'an or Sunnah. Thus for men, the rulings on leading congregational prayer extend to mixed-gender congregations, whereas for women, the rulings on leading prayer apply only to their leading other women. Beyond the science of legal interpretation, the inclusion of both sexes within masculine terms such as "men," or pronouns such as "he," is a recognized feature of the Arabic language, attested as far back as the first known work on grammar by the celebrated Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796). Because the feminine forms of nouns and verbs are often longer and more cumbersome, particularly in poetry, masculine forms frequently subsume (taghlīb) their feminine counterparts in usage. So *hum* ("they") may denote a group of men or a mixed group, while *hunna* ("they," feminine) can only denote a group of females or grammatically feminine things. That a verse or hadith referring to "he" or "any man" should also be understood to include "she" and "any woman," unless evidence indicates otherwise, has thus rested upon convention adopted for the sake of convenience—an ancient counterpart to the debates of our own time over the use of "he," "she," or "they." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/its-okay-not-to-know-gods-plan # It’s Okay Not to Know God’s Plan **Author:** Dr. Edward Omar Moad **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Published:** November 5, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction It is okay not to know why God does what He does. In fact, it is not our business. Our business is to know what God asks us to do, and then to do it. How do we know what God wants us to do? Certainly not by figuring out why He does what He does, and then calculating from that baseless speculation. God has sent His Messenger and His Message to convey to us in clear terms what to do. For example, He has said that we will be questioned, but He will not (Qur’an 21:23). Thus, we can understand that we should act under the awareness that we will be questioned, and should not expect from God an account of what He does. Then of course, do not pretend as if God has informed us of why He does what He does. For instance, do not claim that God has sent the pandemic (or the earthquake, or the tsunami, etc.) to punish such and such people for such and such sin. For this is not something we know. Indeed, Allah says “And whatever strikes you of disaster, it is for what your hands have earned—but He pardons much” (Qur’an 42:30). This, however, does not warrant me to think I know what is truly a disaster and what is a blessing. What I think is a disaster among the acts of God may actually be a blessing, and vice versa. In the final analysis this depends on what it means for my final destination in the Hereafter, and after God’s Mercy, whether I respond with submission and patience or with sin and rebellion. Submission is a blessing and sin is the disaster. Observing the worldly fortunes, which we deem ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ is not the way to know what are the sins and who are the sinners. Notice that people who talk this way display their lack of principles and consistency. For when a disaster strikes them, they usually say it is because God tests the righteous. That is not having a good opinion of God, but just a good opinion of one’s self and a bad opinion of others. Gratefulness, and *not* wealth, is the sign of God’s favor. Impatience, and *not* worldly misfortune, is the sign of God’s disfavor. May Allah test our gratefulness and not our patience. Whenever we think we know why God does what He does, we are only putting our own desires and delusions in the empty space of our ignorance. We are putting our ego in the place of God. It is just as wrong if you think God is punishing you. Who are you to decide how God should deal with your sins? Do not try to do God’s job.  Do your own job. Try to be just, even when it is against yourself. Be merciful to all, including yourself. Yet we will never be as just and merciful as The Just and The Merciful, so we are better off to leave His job to Him. Once you lay aside the need to know why God does what He does, you will relieve yourself of many unnecessary burdens on your faith, which can lead to unbelief. If your faith in God is conditional on your being able to explain His actions, your inability to meet that condition will undermine your faith. The pandemic has amplified certain theological pseudo-problems in the public sphere of our internet-connected world. They seem to be traps laid by Satan. On another level, they are acts of God, just as the pandemic; the fact that the sun rises every morning, and that the universe operates according to a fixed order, are all acts of God. For nothing escapes God’s plan, including Satan’s plots. I do not know what role Satan plays in God’s plan, but I do not need to know. Thus, I am relieved of this impossible burden. God, however, has informed us that Satan’s plan is to lead us away from Him, and has told us what we need to know and do to avoid that (Qur’an 36:60–61). --- ## God is in control, but not at your service The specific satanic trap I have in mind was usually hushed under the ‘polite’ skeptical silence about God that used to pervade our ‘secular’ liberal culture. Now, it emerges loudly in the conflict between two misguided factions. One faction is a group of religious charlatans and lunatics who profit by making claims about why God does what He does. The problem is not just the reason they think God has. It is simply their claim to know *why*. What they attribute to God is, of course, revealing of their own motives. One of their leaders, some years ago, claimed that God sent an earthquake to Haiti to punish Haitians because their ancestors revolted against their white slave drivers. The nature of the ‘god’ he claims to speak for is clear. On the other hand, a well-known ‘secular’ politician recently decided to weigh in on theology in an uncharacteristically explicit way. God did not bring the numbers of coronavirus infections down, he announced. Only the efforts of his government did so. This of course is a declaration of atheism. The fact is that God brings the numbers down, and when they go up it is God Who brings them up (Qur’an 4:78). We know this, and we know that regardless of this, we should make every just effort that we have reasonable grounds for believing will lead to good, which in this case is to prevent the spread of disease. Furthermore, we are able to have reasonable, scientific grounds for calculating what measures will bring about the good, precisely because God in His Mercy and Wisdom directs the course of nature according to an order. This order is constant, and thus to an extent discoverable by science. It is also so vast and complex that our knowledge of it can never be complete or infallible. Apparently, it is just enough in our grasp to enable us to act reasonably (if not perfectly), and yet just enough beyond us that our utter dependence on Him is evident to the reasonable. How unreasonable, then, to deny God’s role in the number of coronavirus infections, or anything else. Yet this madness gets the appearance of sanity in juxtaposition to the cacophony of phony claims by ‘religious’ people about why God does this or that; claims that are always transparent expressions of the myopic desires of deluded and arrogant people. Yet even for the reasonable believer, it is possible to fall into the trap of thinking that their faith in God’s providence and governance of all affairs is not justified unless they can give an account of why God does what He does. So when disaster strikes, Satan demands, through the voices of an apparent legion of atheists: where is your God now? Why did He not cure you? Why did He not protect you? --- ## Don’t gamble with the devil over your faith This is quite a reasonable challenge posed to the one who presumes to know the plan of their ‘god,’ and why their ‘god’ does this or allows that, and that their ‘god’ is on their side. Of course, such people are always on their own ‘side’ (or think they are). They always think that what they want to be is what should be. Yet all this has nothing to do with God. Asking from, hoping for, and depending on God is not the same as presuming He is on your side. Why should God be on my side rather than the other side? Why should God want me to get the job rather than the other guy with kids to feed? Why should He prefer my football team over the other? If it’s a matter of justice, then what if I am in the wrong? God is Just and hears the prayer of the oppressed. Should I seek out oppression so that He will be on ‘my side’? Justice does not take ‘sides.’ When it comes to God, the question is not whether He is on my side, for there is just no sense debating over whose side God is on. The question is only whether I am truly on my own side (in relation to the Truth), or whether I only think I am on my own side (by making a ‘god’ of my own ego). Those who keep that clear will not gamble with Satan over their faith. For when God turns out not to bring things about in the way someone decrees their ‘god’ will, it is not God Who is refuted, but only that person’s own ‘god.’ Thus, in a sense, these atheist arguments are only relevant to a certain kind of hidden *shirk*. In that case, God may be sending a message through the atheist, to correct a false understanding of Him. Only God knows, not me. Many seem to become atheists by rejecting a childish idol they once mistook for God. The final judgment is God’s, and we are all in a process of growing and clarifying our relationship to God. That is a constant struggle of pushing back against my ego in disguise—trying to deceive me into taking it as my ‘god’—when it tries to get in between God and me. Even as I am writing this, it is there. At this moment it seems to me important to remember that everything that happens is God’s will, but that I do not know why He does what He does, and that is okay. May He forgive us, have mercy on us, and give us the best in this life and the Hereafter. ## Summary Knowing why God does what He does is not something entrusted to human beings, nor is it required of us. Our duty is to know what God has commanded and to act upon it. God has sent His Messenger with a clear Message so that we may understand our obligations, and He has told us plainly that He will not be questioned about what He does, while we ourselves will be questioned: "He cannot be questioned as to what He does, while they will be questioned" (Qur’an 21:23). From this we learn that we should live in awareness of our own accountability and should never demand from God an accounting of His actions, nor pretend that He has disclosed to us the reasons behind them. For this reason, it is not permissible to claim that God has sent a pandemic, an earthquake, or a tsunami to punish a particular people for a particular sin, for this is knowledge we do not possess. Though God says, "And whatever strikes you of disaster, it is for what your hands have earned—but He pardons much" (Qur’an 42:30), this does not grant us the right to assume we know what is truly a disaster and what is truly a blessing. What appears to us as a calamity may in reality be a mercy, and what appears as a blessing may be otherwise. In the end, the true measure is what a thing means for our destination in the Hereafter, and whether—after God's Mercy—we respond with submission and patience or with sin and rebellion. Submission is the real blessing, and sin is the real disaster. Worldly fortunes, which we hastily label 'good' or 'bad,' are not a reliable way to identify sins or sinners. Those who speak in this manner reveal their own inconsistency, for when calamity befalls them, they say that God is testing the righteous, but when it befalls others, they say it is punishment. This is not thinking well of God, but rather thinking well of oneself and ill of others. The true sign of God's favor is gratitude, not wealth, and the true sign of His displeasure is impatience, not worldly misfortune. Whenever we imagine we know why God acts as He does, we merely fill the empty space of our ignorance with our own desires and delusions, placing our ego where God should be. It is equally mistaken to assume that God is punishing you, for who are we to decide how God should deal with our sins? Our task is to be just, even against ourselves, and merciful to all, including ourselves—yet knowing we will never be as Just or as Merciful as He is, we are better off leaving His affair to Him. Once a person sets aside the need to know why God acts, they are relieved of heavy and unnecessary burdens upon their faith, for a faith made conditional upon explaining God's actions will collapse when that condition cannot be met. The pandemic has amplified certain theological pseudo-problems in our connected world, which appear as traps laid by Satan. Yet on another level these too are acts of God, just as the pandemic is, and just as the rising of the sun and the fixed order of the universe are acts of God, for nothing escapes His plan, not even the plots of Satan. We need not know what role Satan plays in God's plan, and in this we are relieved of an impossible burden. What God has informed us is that Satan seeks to lead us away from Him, and He has told us what we need to do to avoid this: "Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you not worship Satan—indeed, he is to you a clear enemy—and that you worship Me? This is a straight path" (Qur’an 36:60–61). This particular satanic trap now emerges loudly in a conflict between two misguided factions. The first consists of religious charlatans who profit by claiming to know why God does what He does. The problem is not merely the reasons they invent, but their very claim to know, and what they attribute to God exposes their own motives—as when one such leader claimed that God sent an earthquake to Haiti to punish its people for their ancestors' revolt against those who enslaved them. The second faction is represented by a secular politician who declared that God did not bring down the numbers of infection, but that only his government's efforts did so. This is, in truth, a declaration of disbelief, for it is God Who brings the numbers down and God Who raises them: "Say, all things are from Allah" (Qur’an 4:78). Alongside this we are still commanded to make every just effort we have reasonable grounds to believe will lead to good, such as preventing the spread of disease. We are able to reason and to calculate by science precisely because God, in His Mercy and Wisdom, directs nature according to a constant order. This order is discoverable enough for us to act reasonably, yet so vast and complex that our knowledge can never be complete, making our utter dependence upon Him evident to the reasonable person. It is therefore unreasonable to deny God's role in anything. Yet even the sincere believer may fall into the trap of thinking their faith is unjustified unless they can explain why God acts. So when disaster strikes, Satan asks through the voices of many: where is your God now? Why did He not cure you or protect you? Such a challenge is fitting only for one who presumes to know their 'god's' plan and imagines that their 'god' is on their side. But such people are only ever on their own side, taking what they desire to be what ought to be. Depending on God is not the same as presuming He favors you. Why should God prefer me over another who also has needs? If the matter is one of justice, then what if I am the one in the wrong? Justice takes no sides. The real question is not whose side God is on, but whether I am truly on the side of Truth, or whether I have made a 'god' of my own ego. Those who keep this clear will not gamble with Satan over their faith, for when events do not unfold as someone decreed their 'god' would act, it is not God Who is refuted, but only that person's false 'god.' In this sense, such atheist arguments touch only a hidden form of shirk, and God may be sending a message through them to correct a false understanding of Him—only God knows. Many become atheists merely by rejecting a childish idol they had mistaken for God. The final judgment belongs to God alone, and we remain in a constant struggle to push back against the ego that disguises itself as a 'god' between us and Him. It remains important to remember that all that happens is God's will, that we do not know why He does what He does, and that this is acceptable. May He forgive us, have mercy upon us, and grant us the best in this life and the Hereafter. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/taking-account-of-tech-fulfilling-our-personhood-in-the-smartphone-era # Taking Account of Tech: Fulfilling Our Personhood in the Smartphone Era **Author:** Dr. Zara Khan **Topics:** Nature & Science, Technology **Published:** October 29, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Preface > But random reflections on the human condition need, like beads, to be strung on a connecting thread…this thread should be the Islamic concept of Man as God’s Viceroy on this beautiful but transient earth… Are we or are we not fully responsible for everything that we do, regardless of whether we are obeying orders or constrained by fear? > > \- Gai Eaton[^1] > The products indoctrinate and manipulate; they promote a false consciousness which is immune against its falsehood.  And as these beneficial products become available to more individuals in more social classes, the indoctrination they carry ceases to be publicity; it becomes a way of life… it militates against qualitative change.  Thus emerges a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior in which ideas, aspirations, and objectives that, by their content, transcend the established universe of discourse and action are either repelled or reduced to terms of this universe. > > \- Herbert Marcuse[^2] In 2019 I presented an earlier version of this paper to an audience of mostly Arab and South Asian Muslims residing in New Jersey.[^3] I wrote the paper after years of pushing back against what I saw to be the avalanche of technologization, or automation, in homes, schools, businesses, services, and workplaces.[^4] The impressive array of conveniences notwithstanding, I saw danger in how our increasing over-reliance on technological tools systematically under-develops the equivalent skills within ourselves. As a society we are externalizing our knowledge, becoming abstracted from it, and creating more false needs for the substitute tools. This phenomenon is also concretely exacerbating poverty at the extraction and production end of the global supply chain. Universal use of the US government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS), for example, transforms our travel protocol from map-literacy, route-fluency and an observant landmark-competency to blindly following directives that are uttered piecemeal. In schools, one finds ever more demand for Smartboard-centered, technology-assisted, and web-based instruction. Even among family and friends, I often find resistance to or ridicule of suggestions to abstain from elective social media or smartphone use. So how did the New Jersey Muslims react to my claim that over-reliance on the internet and social media is problematizing our personhood and moral accountability in fundamental ways? Surprisingly well. Parents and community youth mentors resonated with my analysis of how youth are impacted. Others I could tell were reflecting on their own social media addictions. A prominent scholar of *fiqh* rightly commented that our framing of the issue must be cautious, so as not to invoke widespread anxiety and guilt over the responsible use of these tools. --- ## Introduction In the year since I publicly shared the first version of this paper, much has happened to force a societal reorientation toward and questioning of our technological culture. The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted more of our personal, educational and professional activities online. Remote schooling is seating our children, including the youngest of students (four- and five-year olds), in front of Zoom screens for hours daily. Director Jeff Orlowski’s original documentary *The Social Dilemma* was released in which former designers and engineers from the biggest tech companies implicate social media as an existential threat to human life. And yet, despite the questions more and more people are asking about our health and well-being in light of social media and smart technology, it seems we are not reconfiguring modalities or services for human good. For example, we are not thinking outside the box of Common Core standards to imagine 2020-21 as a year when grade school can take the form of outdoor, socially distanced land regeneration, national parks cleanup, or habitat construction for zero-income and low-income families. We are not finding government interest in localizing production to offset unemployment. Instead, we are seeking the solutions to the problems created by technology, in greater quantities and more advanced forms of the same. It is with these historical trends in mind that I’m updating and publishing the paper. The main impetus for this paper is that we can no longer afford to avoid looking critically at something that’s become second nature to us all: smart technology and social media. Culturally, the mere mention of criticizing our relationships to our phones and social media can invoke apprehension. But despite that feeling, and indeed *because* of it, we must as a community take account of smart technology and what the internet enables. Allah the Exalted says in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ[^5] to speak the truth even if it is against our own selves. In this spirit let us keep an open mind as we examine and contemplate a set of questions, or problems, that our digital habits and addictions are sowing within ourselves.  ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, would say, “Judge yourselves before you are judged, and weigh your deeds before they are weighed out for you, and adorn yourselves for the Great Day of Presentation”—then recite, “On that day, you will be presented—nothing about you will be hidden” (Qur’an 69:18).[^6] A note on scope: this paper does not intend to enumerate the benefits and costs of social media and smart technology. The mighty currents of continuous automation and public opinion flow in technological favor. This paper presents an outlying opinion: that smart technology, the internet, and social media are harmful to the full exercise of our God-given personhood and concomitant moral accountability. When it comes to technology, we can imagine a spectrum of opinions between extreme conservative and extreme liberal (see Figure 1). Between the two extremes we can plot two additional points: conservative and liberal. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Personhood_and_Tech-01-1024x508.jpg) *Figure 1: Range of attitudes toward smart technology consumption, from extreme conservative to extreme liberal* - The **extreme conservative** position holds that there is no good in modern technology, only harm. - The **conservative** position holds that there are both good and harm in modern technology, but the harm outweighs the good. - The **liberal** position holds that there are both good and harm in modern technology, but the good outweighs the harm. - The **extreme liberal** position holds that there is no harm in modern technology, only good. This paper espouses a conservative position toward modern technology: it accepts that there are both good and harm in modern technology but finds that the harm currently outweighs the good. While unpopular, the position is nonetheless within the center range, distinct from extreme views in the spectrum. We have indeed reached a time of harvest, such that the flowers of our technology and our social media have come to fruition. The internet went live in 1991 on a mass scale—that’s 29 years ago. At that time its reason for being was networked communication. Web 2.0 developed right after the turn of the millennium, offering online services of a more interactive, two-way substance, aiming at networked *sociality*.[^7] By the time 2003 and 2004 witnessed the advent of Myspace and Facebook, we were already in the throes of a complete shift, something that will be discussed later. To take account of our smart technology and social media consumption, the main factor I consider is full personhood, and specifically moral accountability. In light of our smartphones and social media, what does it mean for us to possess *full* personhood, and in what ways ought we to hold ourselves and each other morally accountable vis-a-vis our usage? --- ## Personhood and moral accountability Every civilization, every philosophy, has a theory of the human being.[^8] No theory of the human being can be as complete and perfect as the one Islam offers, since its author is the Creator of human beings and of all things. Our theory of the human being is more truthful and nuanced than competing iterations that do not acknowledge our creation by Allah. Full personhood in the Islamic conception begins with our creation by Divine hands, contrary to the secular guesswork that proposes that we emerged through matter and movement alone: we understand that we have a special and exalted position in creation, such that Allah the Exalted tells us in Sūrat al-Baqarah that the angels were told to bow down to us.[^9] Adam, upon him be peace, and his posterity have been taught the *names of things*, grounding our intellective and linguistic faculties. We were given the gift of “the articulation of linguistic symbols into meaningful patterns… the outward, visible and audible expression of the inner, unseen reality which we call the intellect (*al-ʿaql*).”[^10] In our full personhood we human beings are the possessors of *the trust*. Allah the Exalted says in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb that He offered the *amānah* to the mountains but they trembled in fear.[^11] It was human beings who took it on, foolish as we are. So the human being is *primarily*—not by arguments for common cause or some other societal good—a morally accountable creature. And this moral trust is so tremendous that it made the mountains tremble in fear; it’s no small matter. With great power, as the saying goes, comes great responsibility, and this is the source of our *khilāfah*, or vicegerency. We have the moral imperative to be just and order life on earth harmoniously, so that each segment of creation is fulfilled in the rights Allah has allotted to it. In this way can we participate in the fulfillment of Allah’s command and glorification of His name. Our personhood comprises various active, conscious facets that are different aspects of a single reality. These are the *ʿaql*, *qalb*, *rūḥ,* and *nafs*—terms that don’t exactly correspond to English terms intellect, heart, spirit, and appetite. This is because our terms are nurtured by the soil of the Qur’anic worldview writ large. Toshihiko Izutsu’s semantic study of the Qur’an demonstrates how the key terms of Qur’anic language lead one to arrive at the overall worldview.[^12] By noting the semantic fields—or webs of interdependent meaning—and seeing how the focus-words at the centers of these webs relate to one another, Izutsu demonstrates how concepts do not stand alone but derive meaning through entire systems of relation. So *ʿaql*, *qalb*, *rūḥ* and *nafs* are terms for articulating our creatureliness—our *fiṭrah* or innate, involuntary nature of servitude, ʿ*ubūdīyah*—in relation to Allah in a manner that is consistent with the *dīn*. For example, the focus-word *īmān* (belief) is related, positively or negatively, to a number of other terms (see Figure 2). The words around the focus-word comprise its principle of differentiation, and the focus-word itself is their principle of unification. Izutsu finds that the word “Allah” is “the highest focus-word in the Qur’anic vocabulary, reigning over the entire domain.”[^13] ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Personhood_and_Tech-02-1024x504.jpg) *Figure 2: The focus-word “īmān” in the Qur’an* The linguistic itself is simply the other side of the conceptual within the same network. The linguistic aspect is the terminology and the conceptual aspect is the worldview; *tawḥīd* determines the taxonomy. Thus even if the *jāhilī* Arabs and the first Muslims both used the word *Allah*, their meanings were completely different based on their different cosmological orientations and relative degrees of distance from *al-Ḥaq* (Allah’s name *The Real*). The two groups held different *worldviews*. By full personhood and moral accountability I refer to the Qur’anic theory of the human being as: - a creation and slave of Allah the Exalted; - the one who has been given knowledge of Allah, the cosmos, the terrestrial realm, and the self *by* Allah; and - the possessor of the sacred trust, trusted to do Allah’s work on earth before returning back to Him for judgment. This paper investigates five specific aspects of our personhood and accountability in relation to our increasing dependence on smartphones and social media. The first factor is sight, or vision. Here sight refers not only to our eyes but is a metaphor for discernment, good judgment, and knowledge. Allah the Exalted speaks in Sūrat al-Ḥajj of a blindness that afflicts the heart whilst the eyes may be functioning.[^14] In Sūrat al-Baqarah, He speaks of those who have become deaf, dumb, and blind such that they can’t think or understand.[^15] There are ways in which smartphones and social media blind our judgment by how they frame reality and exclude critical components from those frames. The second aspect of personhood and moral accountability affected by smartphones and social media is freedom from addiction. Our use of these tools often devolves into abuse, producing some degree of addictive behavior in the majority of users. For this we are morally answerable, because addiction subverts the rightful guardianship of the *nafs* (lower appetites) by the *qalb* (spiritual heart of intuitive knowledge that, when polished, can know Allah). It puts the *nafs* in charge, which makes us less than full persons and deficient in our ʿ*ubūdīyah*, or servanthood, to Allah. It also has negative health implications and interferes in our fulfillment of our bodies’ rights over us. The third aspect is the mutual rights we have over one another and how these must be upheld in order for justice to reign. There are both concrete and abstract ways that smartphones and social media interfere in the fulfillment of our obligations to one another. The concrete factors include the global supply chain, by which the production infrastructure wreaks havoc and destruction upon some in order to deliver high tech goods to others. The abstract factors include our degraded sociability and disappearing connectivity with one another. The fourth aspect of personhood and moral accountability is our obligation to care for the natural environment. Apart from the concrete injunctions that come to us from the resplendent *sunnah* of the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, telling us to feed and water animals, not distress mother animals on account of their young, plant trees even if the Day of Judgment is upon us, and not throw stones at trees, the earth is our mother and we are a nation that honors our mothers. The proliferation of personal smart technology and the server farms that tether a largely intangible internet are disastrous to the environment. The fifth aspect of full personhood and moral accountability that is problematized by smartphones and social media is the sanctity of our interior space, specifically in our God-given right to privacy and the conditions necessary to experience *khushūʿ* and *ṭumaʾnīnah* , or stillness of the heart. --- ## Eyes with which to see The gift of sight enables us to see and understand. Human beings are capable, through the exercise of our will, of either cleaning the instruments of our understanding through worship and remembrance of Allah, or inflicting blinders upon ourselves through *ghaflah*, heedlessness. The sound heart is one that has been cleansed of worldly attachments that can distract from ʿ*ubūdīyah.* In the faculty of our physical and moral sight, what is framing? Framing is the act of imposing parameters on some aspect of reality so that a portion of it is front and center and sharply focused, while other parts are systematically excluded. Movies, news media, social media and personal electronic devices all frame. Consider the following example of the power of framing. Figure 3 shows a large outdoor gathering of men and boys in the nineteenth century. They are dressed in formal attire and appear well-to-do. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Reframed_lynching-of-Frank-McManus-scaled-e1646868880366-1024x612.jpg) *Figure 3: The framed image* However, the framing of this picture excludes a horrific reality (see Figure 4). ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/shutterstock_242301130-1024x990.jpg) *Figure 4: The entire image* This photograph shows the lynching of African American Frank McManus in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1882.[^16] It is also a large outdoor gathering of formally dressed well-to-do men and boys. But in Figure 3, the frame *only* reveals the gathering, excluding the lynching. By altering the context, our framing of this picture changes its meaning completely. The way we consume social media today also frames reality in a way that changes its meaning, making our sight deficient. To be sure, all media necessarily frame reality by choosing which content to expose at any given time. This paper frames the research question in a particular way and therefore excludes other relevant issues. Social media framing becomes particularly harmful due to our increasing embeddedness in the virtual world and subsequent abstraction from the real one. Each of us has experienced or heard of examples of harmful social media framing. Ever since the last presidential election, the idea of the “echo chamber” resounded, ironically enough, on social media itself. In 2015, researchers at Facebook studied 10.1 million users to assess how many news stories in their feeds were cross-cutting, meaning of a perspective other than their own self-identified political position.[^17] They found that despite open access to different sources, users will surround themselves with like-minded contacts and follow and click only on stories that confirm their preexisting positions. Some of this is ‘motivated reasoning’ when, in devotion to our political affiliations, we dismiss alternative conceptions.[^18] However online platforms can cause harm on a substantial scale beyond just moving in our own circles—fostering confirmation bias, segregation, and polarization. According to Pew Research in 2015, 61% of millennials get their political news from Facebook.[^19] One may ask: what’s wrong with that? How does getting one’s news from Facebook affect one’s sight or make one susceptible to the peripheral blindness caused by framing? Facebook is a corporation valued at $575 billion US dollars,[^20] with most revenue coming from advertisements that appear on screen or in users’ news feeds.[^21] While this is the case with all corporate media,[^22] they nonetheless operate under the auspices of agreed-upon standards of journalistic ethics, supervising the proliferation of information to greater or lesser degrees. That’s not the case with social media. According to an MIT study in 2018 that looked at rumor cascades on Twitter between 2006 and 2017, about 126,000 rumors were spread by roughly three million people, and these falsehoods were tweeted more than 4.5 million times.[^23] According to the study: > False news reached more people than the truth; the top 1% of false news cascades diffused to between 1000 and 100,000 people, whereas the truth rarely diffused to more than 1000 people. Falsehood also diffused faster than the truth. The degree of novelty and the emotional reactions of recipients may be responsible for the differences observed… Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information, and the effects were more pronounced for false political news…[^24] While more and more people, particularly millennials and youth, get their news from social media, the dissemination of true and accurate information is not a top priority for social media conglomerates like Facebook or Twitter. Connecting people into networks and followings, and facilitating shares is the priority—whether that share is true or false. The spiritual implications cannot be overlooked. Speaking on information literacy in Islam, Justin Parrott states that while tools in our information age have their benefits, we have to be wary of their negative consequences and dangers.[^25] Parrott reminds us that: “As Muslims, the verification of truth, source methodology, and the proper management of knowledge are essential components of our religion, which is why scholars, for example, went to great lengths to authenticate what the Prophet *sallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam* really said.” In this regard, we must distinguish credible sources from less credible or false ones. As Muslims, we face a moral obligation to investigate the source of information before believing it, let alone reacting to it or forwarding it. But is that how social media works? Is that how we use it? The sheer pace at which we consume social media *cannot* allow time for due diligence towards knowledge and its sources. Additionally there are other factors by which social media affects our ‘sight.’  Troll factories are workplaces of low-paid workers whose job is to proliferate web content—hundreds of thousands of posts—that influence people’s opinions and flood web searches by topic. The story of the Russian troll factory that professionally produced pro-Kremlin propaganda during the last American presidential election became well known.[^26] In this factory, dozens of workers worked twelve-hour shifts writing posts, replaced at the end of their shift by another set of workers. Their labor inundated social media with propaganda—false information and opinions—around the clock. On the American side, British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica used data science to sway undecided voters toward a Ted Cruz victory in Iowa and Donald Trump’s national victory.[^27] They did so through massive Facebook advertising campaigns. To illustrate the concept that targeted advertising causes mindset shift and behavioral change, let us consider a hypothetical user’s typical scroll on their social media of choice. Let’s suppose this user prefers Facebook, as she is older than most Twitter and Instagram users. Her typical scroll down the feed will include: - **Mundane caveats** from friend’s lives, such as vacations, meals, and hilarious parenting memes; - Reports of **deadly violence** in the form either of news reports or actual footage of war, protests, or police brutality;  - **Retail advertisements** specific to this user’s  preferences; and - **Environmental justice** content, including scientific or agricultural photos, scholarly articles, and editorials. This content comprises our user’s echo chamber. And if she were to scroll endlessly in either direction, older posts or newer posts, the scroll would never end—itself alarming. What the endless scroll enables is limitless possibilities for distraction and entertainment. What it disables is seeing reality outside her preferences, as well as quietude of the mind without which deep contemplation of our souls and remembrance of Allah the Exalted are not possible. In reality, deadly unjust violence is nowhere near the same degree, qualitatively, as shopping or the cultural production of parenting-related comedy. Allah the Exalted says that whoever unjustly kills a soul, it’s as if he killed all mankind.[^28] To receive news that someone was unjustly murdered, or worse to *see footage* of a murder, should affect us spiritually with the severity as if someone had killed all mankind. Quite the opposite occurs for most users: the constant exposure to visuals of bodily violence—in movies, series, news, video games, etc.—desensitizes us to actual bodily violence.[^29] Returning to our hypothetical user, let us delineate the relative values of the various parts of her social media consumption. - Deadly unjust violence ought to command one’s action with particular urgency, and ought to call to action; - Environmental justice—and the miscarriage thereof—ought to move one’s heart, command attention, and call to particularly urgent types of action; - The buying and selling of goods and their advertisement comprise business, and represent good *ḥalāl* income that is necessary for human flourishing; and  - Mundane caveats are a beautiful and necessary part of life, culture, and embellishments. Allah the Exalted wants us to enjoy our share of this life in a permissible and beautiful way. But murder and environmental crisis on the one hand, and mundane caveats and retail advertisements on the other, cannot be equated. Social media distort this gap by placing all topics and events in a democratic horizontality. In the endless scroll, we consume them in the same way. What occurs in our endless scroll—and turns our universe of values upside down—is that values get flattened out, and the natural hierarchy of good and evil becomes democratized. Computers and the internet are often credited with the democratization of information; but the dark side of that accomplishment is that hierarchical values become co-equals. Our user may “react” with a laughing emoji at a hilarious parenting meme; with an angry emoji at footage of an unarmed young Black man shot dead at close range by a police officer; and with a crying emoji at an article about how three billion North American birds have disappeared since 1970 (that’s 29% of all birds on this continent!).[^30] But the only ‘reacting’ our user is actually doing is clicking a button. She is neither laughing nor crying nor feeling indignant with another person. Moreover, users quickly and constantly switch between “feelings”—the events that occasioned those feelings have to be forgotten right away to make space for the next batch within the endless scroll. Looking at the screen is not actually looking at the world. And this is the gravest misguidance that our screens afford us: we consider ourselves well-informed when in reality we don’t even know who or what is right next to us. Digitally performing personhood is an affront to both our full personhood *and* our moral accountability. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/moby6-1024x640.jpg) *Figure 5.*  Still photograph from Moby and the Void Pacific Choir, “Are You Lost in the World Like Me?,” October 2016. --- ## Addiction Internet addiction can be defined as “a compulsive behavior characterized by obsessive thoughts, tolerance, craving, and withdrawal that creates psychological, social, marital, and/or academic difficulties.”[^31] Environmentalist author Brian Clark Howard assembled various research findings on internet addiction in answering the question: are Facebook and internet addiction affecting our minds?[^32] Howard shows MIT Media’s Judith Donath’s findings on “notification abuse” among users, insofar as every “ding” represents social, sexual, or professional opportunity.[^33] Answering the ding of a notification results in a hit of dopamine, and each hit recharges our addictive compulsion in a manner similar to crack, heroin, methamphetamines, and other abusive substances. “Cumulatively,” she states, “the effect is potent and hard to resist.” According to the Recovery Village, a network of rehabilitation facilities in Florida, internet addiction can be of various types, pertaining to: sexual activity, information-seeking, social and romantic relationships, gaming, and net compulsions.[^34] All of us may know people who are addicted to shopping or gambling online. Similarly we all have probably observed some of the signs and symptoms of internet addiction in ourselves or in our families: online activity eclipsing the importance of other activities; reaching for the internet to improve our mood; having to spend more time online to achieve the same pleasure; withdrawal; experiencing inner and outer conflict as a result of online activity; and relapsing back to our internet addiction after keeping away for some time. The negative effects of internet addiction can reach the point where we are violating the rights our bodies have over us: weight gain; stiff or numb limbs; back and shoulder pain; blurry or strained vision; carpal tunnel syndrome; etc. Sleep apnea, as NPR reported in 2019, can result from electronic device usage, particularly in the evening and late night.[^35] The LED lights in our phones, tablets and laptops mimic the afternoon sun wavelength, thereby sending a message to our brains that several hours of wakefulness remain before we can go to sleep. Using devices at night leads therefore to trouble sleeping. This affects adults, but the deleterious effects of screen addiction are compounded in our children. The American Academy of Pediatrics published a technical report in 2016 evaluating the effects of digital media consumption in children and adolescents, comparing it to the effects of television and radio media on youth in previous decades.[^36] The report details several benefits and risks of digital media on children and adolescents. Benefits include: early learning, exposure to new ideas and knowledge; increased opportunities for social contact and support; and new opportunities to access health promotion messages and information. Risks include: negative health effects on sleep, attention, and learning; a higher incidence of obesity and depression; exposure to inaccurate, inappropriate, or unsafe content and contacts; and compromised privacy and confidentiality. Parents, teachers and caretakers must weigh the positive and negative effects of digital media and create responsible usage plans accordingly, taking full account of the alarming aspects. Whereas traditional media were externally produced—in a film studio, TV network, or editorial staff—and broadcast to an audience for passive viewing, listening or reading, new digital media create social and interactive spaces in which users actively consume and create content. This evolving integration is blurring the boundaries between the external and internal environment, allowing children to “inhabit” digital media in increasingly pervasive ways, as in multiplayer online games. Over time, such changes have led to exponential increases in screen time for children and adolescents, and at younger ages: in 1970, children typically began watching television at four years of age. Today, children begin interacting with digital media at four *months*. In 2011, 52% of children aged 0-8 had access to a mobile device. By 2013, this number had increased to 75%.[^37] Another study in 2015 showed that 96.6% of 0-4 year-olds had used mobile devices, and 75% owned their own device.[^38] The study also showed that most two-year olds used mobile devices on a *daily basis* and that 92% of one-year olds had already used one. In 2016, about 75% of teenagers owned a smartphone, 24% of adolescents described themselves as “constantly connected,” and 50% reported feeling “addicted” to their phones. One study finds that 91% of American teenagers are nearly *constantly connected* to the internet via their smartphones.[^39] Earlier Pew data in 2012 reported that teenagers between 14 and 17 sent an average of 100 texts each day, a number that did not include WhatsApp or Messenger communication.[^40] In addition to phones, there are gaming devices. An estimated 4 out of 5 households own a video game device. But what are the effects of gamification on a developing psyche? How do games in which you shoot to kill an “enemy” whose actual identity and status is unknown and irrelevant, and in which you are instantly reincarnated after *being killed*, affect a young person’s understanding of life, death, war, the ‘other,’ and moral obligation? Children are also targeted by advertisements, often without adult supervision (as mentioned earlier, social media is consumer-focused). Making conscious efforts to abstain from the overconsumption of digital media—as individuals, families and communities, through various norm-altering initiatives—can help pave the way for more authentic fulfillment of our full personhood and moral accountability vis-à-vis digital technologies. --- ## Our mutual rights Two aspects of smartphones and social media that relate to our mutual rights over one another as human beings are social alienation and the global supply chain. When the internet first started in 2000, web platforms provided the exchange of communication for community-bound initiatives.[^41] In 2020, however, we have ample evidence that online platforms don’t just *facilitate* networked activities, they *constitute* social practices. In other words, social media and the internet don’t just provide a neutral tool for communication and connectivity; they actually transform *how* people interact. Of course, technologies and media have *always and everywhere* followed broader developments in human societies and economies of meaning, transforming those same forces. That is not the research question at hand. The problem we must grapple with is this: what is the intellectual ethic of our smart technology and social media? I borrow the term “intellectual ethic” from Nicholas Carr, who acknowledges that while every technology is an expression of human will, nonetheless our technologies can be divided into four categories based on how they supplement or amplify our innate capacities.[^42] These are: those technologies that extend our physical strength, dexterity or resilience, such as the plow, needle, and fighter jet; those that increase the sensitivity of our senses, such as the microscope, amplifier, and stethoscope; those that modify nature to suit our needs or wants, such as the reservoir, birth control pill, and genetically modified corn; and those that extend our capacity to generate and share knowledge, such as the map, clock, abacus, and typewriter. This last category, of intellectual technology, is the one that presently concerns us. Carr says that every intellectual technology embodies an intellectual ethic, a set of assumptions about how the human mind works or should work.[^43] While neither the inventor of the technology nor its users may be aware of this ethic—they are more concerned with the technology’s practical benefit—it is ultimately the intellectual ethic that has the most profound effect on us. Carr’s thesis, argued compellingly and with ample evidence from neuroscientific studies pertaining to the plasticity of our brains as well as historical evidence, is that the internet is reducing and making more shallow our capacity for deep reading and deep reflection. Our brains are being rewired to take information in short bursts and constantly shift from piece to piece. Harvard historian Abby Smith Rumsey similarly cautions that digital memory is drowning us in *a data deluge*, thereby disabling us from learning or developing strong reusable memories.[^44] “We fail to build the vast vital repertoire of knowledge and experience that may be of use to us in the future,” she states.[^45] After all, data is not knowledge, and data storage is not memory.[^46] For the purpose of this paper, I focus attention on how excessive device time not only depletes our ability to think deeply and form a critical repertoire of memory, but also prevents us from enjoying solitude and experiencing empathy toward others. MIT Professor Sherry Turkle has argued that our technological devices are changing who we are so that we can no longer relate to one another or to ourselves.[^47] Our capacity for self-reflection has been severely injured.  Increasingly we are cleaning up the messy reality of real relationships with the distance and control that technology affords: she states, “we get to present the self we want to be, edit, retouch, delete.”[^48] We pretend empathy as we expect more from technology and less from one another, since technology provides the illusion of companionship, without the demands of a real friendship. Turkle states: > These days, those phones in our pockets are changing our minds and hearts because they offer us three gratifying fantasies. One, that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; two, that we will always be heard; and three, that we will never have to be alone. And that third idea, that we will never have to be alone, is central to changing our psyches. Because the moment that people are alone, even for a few seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device. Just think of people at a checkout line or at a red light. Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved. And so people try to solve it by connecting. But here, connection is more like a symptom than a cure. It expresses, but it doesn't solve, an underlying problem. But more than a symptom, constant connection is changing the way people think of themselves. It's shaping a new way of being.[^49] Smartphones and social media diminish our capacity to be at peace whilst alone, something that detracts from the stillness of the heart (to be discussed below). The other major problem that smart technology and social media pose for our fulfillment of mutual rights lies in the global supply chain. At every stage in the life cycle of electronic devices, the hardware each of us need to consume the internet, we find miscarriage in the fulfillment of our mutual rights. In the extraction phase, when natural resources are mined and extracted for cell phones, documentation reveals forced labor in squalid conditions in the mine shafts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Washington, DC-based NGO *Free the Slaves* documented 866 cases of slavery in South Kivu province in 2013; 23% of these were children.[^50] Sadly there is forced labor in other mineral reserves around the world as well. The DRC is specifically linked to technology as in 2008, it alone supplied *21%* of the world’s coltan, which fulfills the global demand for iPads, Samsungs, and HP laptops. Congolese children and adults in the mine shafts are sometimes put to work at gunpoint. George Monbiot of *The Guardian* asks: “Are the components (of my next phone) soaked in the blood of people from the eastern DRC?” In the production phase of the products economy the situation is as grim, if not more. Foxconn is a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, the largest in the world. Since 2001, Foxconn has been producing Apple products. Within a decade of the arrangement, 60-70% of Foxconn’s revenue came from producing for Apple. With a revenue in 2017 of $4.706 trillion and a workforce of 803,000, Foxconn has colluded with local municipal governments, recruiting agencies, and vocational schools to create abnormal market conditions, limiting labor choices and funneling workers into their factories. Foxconn’s labor concentrates in South China. Migrating from the rural hinterlands, workers are cut off from families and social support networks.[^51] Investigation by a Chinese labor NGO revealed that “During a survey of 1,736 Foxconn workers conducted in nine cities and twelve facilities during summer 2010, 16.4 percent reported being subject to physical penalty by guards, or managers using guards to threaten them; 38.1 percent had experiences of being detained by guards or managers; 54.6 percent felt angry about the way they were managed.”[^52] In 2014, the BBC investigated Foxconn and Pegatron (another Taiwanese manufacturer of Apple products) and found that workers are forced to work exhaustingly long hours. The labor NGO found that “\[i\]n the busy season of 2014, assembly-line workers were found to have performed 140 hours of overtime work each month, several months in a row, sometimes up to 152 hours in the most hectic month,” a number four times the legal cap.[^53] It was also in the first decade of Foxconn’s contract with Apple that fifteen young workers aged 17-28 jumped or fell to their death.[^54] If a Foxconn worker dials the police, her call is directed instead to Foxconn security. Local governments don’t exercise jurisdiction in Foxconn factories.[^55] The question is: what is our moral obligation here? Gai Eaton states: > Of all the changes that have taken place in the human condition over the past hundred years none is more significant than the increasing difficulty we now have in tracing acts to their owners… The State, the society or the organization acts. ‘They’ act. But ‘they’ cannot be loved or blamed or touched. The need to attribute acts to men or women like ourselves finds no satisfaction. It has become essential to redefine the idea of human responsibility in relation to a society of jobholders and civil servants, a world in which the majority of men are absorbed into vast collectivities and appear to have as little personal stake in their own actions as the slaves and bondmen of other times.[^56] How ought we to qualify or limit our social media and smartphone consumption within what David Harvey calls *the web of life*?[^57] This term refers to how different groups embed their sociality within an evolving socio-ecological system amidst processes of capital accumulation, social struggle, and environmental transformation. According to Harvey it is incorrect to consider forces (i.e., ‘capital’) in the abstract ‘outside’ of daily life when such forces are concretely destructive to the environment and workers. Despite neo-liberal and globalization promises, convergence in well-being has not occurred. Geographical and social inequalities have only increased in recent decades, with environmental degradations and social dislocations distributing unevenly. Let us consider our moral obligation here by analogy to Islamic maxims concerning animal slaughter: if our meat isn’t *halal* for consumption if the animal was taunted, terrified, or tortured prior to slaughter, how immoral is our ownership of technological gadgets if the human workers are terrified and tortured during extraction and production? Are we complicit in the conditions of Congolese mine shafts and South Chinese factories and, if so, to what extent? *What ought we to do?* --- ## Responsibility to the Earth and her creatures Do you have a drawer or box at home full of obsolete power cords and chargers? Have you ever thrown away a computer monitor, laptop, or cell phone? A 2013 CNN report highlights United Nations intel identifying China as the largest e-waste dumping site in the world, receiving about 70% of global electronic waste.[^58] Much of this arrives illegally, circumventing UN conventions prohibiting the export of e-waste from the developed world. Guiyu is a city in China’s main manufacturing zone whose entire economy consists in sifting through and dismantling electronic garbage to collect reusable parts. The cost to human dignity is obvious, but e-waste recycling in Guiyu also costs the environment. The UN has called it an environmental calamity. Watson reports: > \[M\]uch of the toxic pollution comes from burning circuit boards, plastic and copper wires, or washing them with hydrochloric acid to recover valuable metals like copper and steel. In doing so, workshops contaminate workers and the environment with toxic heavy metals like lead, beryllium and cadmium, while also releasing hydrocarbon ashes into the air, water and soil.[^59] Unsurprisingly Giuyu’s children have above-average lead levels in their blood, which can stunt neuro-development.[^60] A Greenpeace report indicated that the dismantling of flat screens releases mercury (a highly toxic metal), and that incinerating and landfilling may release mercury in a way that leads to bioaccumulation and biomagnification up the food chain, as in fish. According to the *Story of Electronics*, electronics designers make them hard to upgrade, easy to break, and impractical to repair, resulting in 25 million tons of e-waste annually.[^61] Closer to home, the environmental costs of our internet addictions are somewhat better disguised. Most people turn to online shopping for convenience. It saves time and affords more variety at one’s fingertips than a brick-and-mortar store. Samanth Subramanian points out that the home delivery of goods has soared in the past decade.[^62] In New York City there were fewer than 360,000 daily deliveries in 2009, and in 2019 that number exceeded 1.5 million. However, this convenience has a terrible hidden cost. The packaging of home-delivered products now makes up 30% of annual solid garbage. The cardboard alone costs 1 billion trees, and it’s only growing. The $2.9 trillion in global online sales is predicted to more than double in the next five years. Environmental and human costs are always inextricably linked. As stores let workers go to keep pace with online revenue, the amount of ‘flexible labor’ that can be coerced into poor working conditions can also be expected to increase. Another major environmental impact of digitization is found in the myth of the intangible cloud. In his work on the intersections of film, apocalyptic themes, and the digital era, Hunter Vaughan states: “We increasingly exist ‘on the cloud,’ shelving our thoughts, memories, art, and records (musical, historical, and personal) in a web of virtual archives that is immediately accessible but simultaneously has the illusion of intangibility… server farms and similar technologies that are at once seemingly virtual and remote but in actuality are very much real and material and hold our information at the cost of vast natural resource use and environmental disruption.”[^63] To give a rather ironic concrete example, the 2009 James Cameron film *Avatar* seems to champion environmental justice as well as anti-colonial movements. But despite the film’s eco-friendly message, there is an insidious backdrop. In real life, as Mark Bartlett states: “each minute of Avatar’s 162 minutes occupies 17.28 gigabytes of storage and required a 10,000 square foot render farm with 4000 servers using one of the most powerful supercomputers in existence and 900 people to produce.”[^64] In the last month of the movie’s production, 40,000 processors were handling 7-8 gigabytes of data per second, running 24 hours per day![^65] Our screen time and internet usage, whether in its hardware or its virtual storage dimensions, is neither free nor affordable. It only appears thus because the costs are externalized and framed out of our view. --- ## Conclusion: The interior space in each of us Thus far I have suggested that over-reliance and addictive behavior toward social media and smartphones triggers moral contradictions within ourselves. Some of these dilemmas are easily observable, such as the physical side-effects of internet addiction. Others are hidden costs, such as environmental costs exported across the globe, gross violations inflicted on the underclass of workers who mine and factory-produce our gadgets, and the social alienation, psychological distortions and tunnel-vision (or echo chamber) produced by internet and social media addiction. These moral dilemmas problematize and injure the full exercise of our personhood, where personhood here refers to our *ʿubūdīyah* before Allah and possession of the sacred trust. This is an ethical discussion of good and harm, not a jurisprudential one of lawful and prohibited. By enumerating the harms to our moral accountability entrenched in intimacy with social media and smartphones, my hope is to shift the reader’s perspective on *how* to approach these tools. I don’t want us all to become paralyzed with guilt or cast our phones into a modern-day bonfire of the vanities; I want us to fall out of love with these things. The final aspect to be examined of full personhood and moral accountability in relation to smartphones and social media is the interior space in each of us. Particularly two dimensions: privacy and stillness. Many do not experience privacy concerns, as witnessed by low levels of caution and discretion in bringing smart tvs, laptops, smartphones, and Apple watches into our homes and families, often allowing them a literal seat at the table. We have no reason to believe that our devices don’t transmit windows of personal information from our homes and relationships to some outside agent—whether state, market, or both. Already our locations, photographs, financial transactions, emotional bonds, preferences of every type, and searches are archived in some unknown location, the data used—or not—for some unknown purpose. We should not add to the massive data-collection by increasingly humanizing our technology and becoming more intimate with it. Reports in the past two years claim that Alexa spies on consumers,[^66] cell phones send and receive data throughout the night to various third parties,[^67] and Mac users grow susceptible to their microphones and cameras being hijacked via the Zoom app.[^68] We ask Allah the Exalted to protect us from invasions of our God-given right to privacy. But let us also remember to tie our camels. With regard to stillness, in order for us to fill ourselves with the testimony that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His slave and messenger, we have to empty ourselves of what may block it. A pond of water is the perfect medium for reflecting and containing a resplendent moon, but only when it is perfectly still and undisturbed. In this analogy, the pond is one’s heart and the resplendent moon is the light of Allah’s guidance and nearness, the sweet result of *dhikr* Allah. *Khushūʿ*, or *ṭumaʾnīnah* is that stillness you experience when you stop searching and wandering. Of Allah’s signs is that you see the earth in a state of *khushūʿ* and then the rainfall descends upon it causing it to stir and sprout. *Khushūʿ* in ritual prayer and in the remembrance of Allah is a goal sought by all believers. This is a faculty that must be cultivated, and our spiritual teachers are able to guide us in the process. What I hope to have imparted in this paper is that there are concrete and abstract ways—structural as well as psychological—that technological and social media addictions, the framing of the world that renders our sight decontextualized and our understanding atrophied, and our contribution to murderous global production cycles through our preferences and purchases of what Abdal Hakim Murad calls the modern world’s *brilliant series of distractions*[^69]—that all these habits associated with our digital consumption strip away vital pieces of our personhood and affront our moral accountability. As Gai Eaton stated, to live in: > … the kind of environment in which a large part of humanity lives today—the environment created by technology at the service of immediate, short-term needs… an entirely man-made environment, in the midst of a clutter of our own products, is to be isolated in a narrow world which gives no play to the capacity we have for reaching out to what lies beyond the human realm as such… It offers only a setting in which ceaseless and, for the most part, aimless activity can take place. There is nothing in common between, on the one hand, the stupor produced by an environment which offers no nourishment and, on the other, that ‘sleep of the senses’ induced by a beauty which melts the barriers between one world and another—or by such concentration of attention upon what lies beyond the immediate grasp of the senses that perceived reality becomes, not blurred, but transparent. For beauty to penetrate or for concentration to become stabilized, time and stillness are necessary.[^70] Caution and wariness should be our approach to social media and smartphones. We must restrain these technologies in order to improve our physical and spiritual sight, liberate ourselves from internet addiction, improve the fulfillment of our mutual rights on one another and to the Earth, and quiet the ripples that smart technology sends through the water in our hearts, disturbing its stillness. God willing, that can lead us to cultivate *khushūʿ* within our hearts so that we can hope to be rightly guided. And Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: Gai Eaton, *King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1990), 4. [^2]: Herbert Marcuse, *One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society* (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), 12. [^3]: Zara Khan, “The Wheat and the Tares: Moral Accountability and Full Personhood in the Smartphone Era,” (lecture, New Jersey Dawah 7th Annual Conference, November 29, 2019). [^4]: See David F. Noble, *Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation* (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984). Noble shows that while labor-saving automation devices have lessened the drudgery of working conditions, they have also led to the elimination of workers themselves. [^5]: Qur’an 4:135 (trans. Muhammad Asad). [^6]: Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, *al-Zuhd* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1999), 99, report no. 633.  I’m indebted to Shaykh Mohammad Elshinawy for sharing this insight. [^7]: See Jose van Dijck, *The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). [^8]: There are different theories of the human being that emanate from different traditions. Some examples include Plato’s theory of our mixed-metal composition and tripartite soul; Aristotle’s political animal; the Enlightenment’s rational, history-making champion; Nietzche’s superman; etc. Without true concepts of the Creator and the human soul, however, any theory of life is incomplete. Subsequent sciences, arts, and humanities will reflect, as we find today, a conceptual schizophrenia with no overarching evaluative criterion other than positivism and, in the ethical domain, a crippling relativism. [^9]: Qur’an 2:34. [^10]: Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, *Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam: An Exposition of the Fundamental Elements of the Worldview of Islam* (Kuala Lumpur: National Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2001), 122. [^11]: Qur’an 33:72. [^12]: Toshihiko Izutsu, *God and Man in the Qur’an: Semantics of the Qur’anic Weltanschauung* (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2002). [^13]: Izutsu, 24. [^14]: Qur’an 22:46. [^15]: Qur’an 2:17–18 and 171. [^16]: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC, [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print](http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print&sa=D&ust=1603988842843000&usg=AOvVaw1Pixa5mmXnFOEQ9Fp4Cd-j). [^17]: Eytan Bakshy, Solomon Messing, and Lada A. Adamic, “Exposure to Ideologically Diverse News and Opinion on Facebook,” *Science* 348, no. 6239 (June 2015): 1130–32. [^18]: Rune Slothuus and Claes H. deVreese, “Political Parties, Motivated Reasoning, and Issue Framing Effects,” *Journal of Politics* 72, no. 3 (July 2010): 630–45. [^19]: Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, and Katerina Eva Matsa, “Facebook Top Source for Political News Among Millennials,” *Pew Research Center*, June 1, 2015. [^20]: See “Facebook Net Worth 2009–2020,” Macrotrends,  [https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/FB/facebook/net-worth](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/FB/facebook/net-worth&sa=D&ust=1603988842827000&usg=AOvVaw32m_rZVU6DiTCkoVG4-Ilo). [^21]: See Wikipedia, s.v. “Facebook,” last modified October 19, 2020, 15:49 UTC, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook&sa=D&ust=1603988842827000&usg=AOvVaw1cLUak03dNflIEfozMC1J4). [^22]: This is one reason why we ought to patronize independent, noncorporate news outlets like National Public Radio or the Pacifica News Network. [^23]: Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral, “The Spread of True and False News Online,” *Science* 359, no. 6380 (March 2018): 1146–51. [^24]: Vosoughi, Roy, and Aral, 1146–51. [^25]: Justin Parrott, “Finding Truth in the Age of Fake News: Information Literacy in Islam,” *Yaqeen*, December 12, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam/&sa=D&ust=1603988842829000&usg=AOvVaw0FhQokJRfq_jAVG6LroO8q). [^26]: Jolie Myers and Monika Evstatieva, “Meet the Activist Who Uncovered the Russian Troll Factory Named in the Mueller Probe,” All Things Considered, NPR, March 15, 2015, [https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/03/15/594062887/some-russians-see-u-s-investigation-into-russian-election-meddling-as-a-soap-ope](https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/03/15/594062887/some-russians-see-u-s-investigation-into-russian-election-meddling-as-a-soap-ope&sa=D&ust=1603988842843000&usg=AOvVaw2EK6CXznrsMcOssbo0lZvw). [^27]: See Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim’s 2019 documentary *The Great Hack*. [^28]: Qur’an 5:32. [^29]: Brad J. Bushman and Craig A. Anderson, “Comfortably Numb: Desensitizing Effects of Violent Media on Helping Others,” *Psychological Science* 20, no. 3 (2009). See also Nicholas L. Carnageya, Craig A. Anderson, and Brad J. Bushman, “The Effect of Video Game Violence on Physiological Desensitization to Real-Life Violence,” *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology* 43, no. 3 (2006): 489–96. [^30]: Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Adriaan M. Dokter, Peter J. Blancher, John R. Sauer, Adam C. Smith, Paul A. Smith, Jessica C. Stanton, Arvind Panjabi, Laura Helft, Michael Parr, and Peter P. Marra, “Decline of the North American Avifauna,” *Science* 366, no. 6461 (October 4, 2019): 120–24. [^31]: Chiungjung Huang, “Internet Addiction: Stability and Change,” *European Journal of Psychology of Education* 25, no. 3 (2010): 345–61. Drawing on literature from Nichols and Nicki, 2004; Widyanto and McMurran, 2004; and Young, 2004. [^32]: Brian Clark Howard, “Are Facebook and Internet Addictions Affecting Our Minds?” *National Geographic Society Newsroom*, November 2, 2012, [https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012/11/02/are-facebook-and-internet-addictions-affecting-our-minds/](https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012/11/02/are-facebook-and-internet-addictions-affecting-our-minds/&sa=D&ust=1603988842830000&usg=AOvVaw2e9jYgQvULCVDRw29WKzau). [^33]: Howard. [^34]: Camille Renzoni, “Internet Addiction,” The Recovery Village, October 28, 2019, [https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/internet-addiction/#gref](https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/internet-addiction/%23gref&sa=D&ust=1603988842831000&usg=AOvVaw3VxYDqR_UwzdJfJ77LNWql). [^35]: Joe Palca, “TV and Smart Phones May Hamper a Good Night’s Sleep,” Talk of the Nation, NPR, March 11, 2011, [https://www.npr.org/2011/03/11/134459354/TV-And-Smart-Phones-May-Hamper-A-Good-Nights-Sleep](https://www.npr.org/2011/03/11/134459354/TV-And-Smart-Phones-May-Hamper-A-Good-Nights-Sleep&sa=D&ust=1603988842831000&usg=AOvVaw14q8HS-M--0D9QFKbY5Vh7). [^36]: Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos, Jenny Radesky, Dimitri Christakis, Megan A. Moreno, Corinn Cross, and Council on Communications and Media, “Children and Adolescents and Digital Media,” *American Academy of Pediatrics* 138, no. 5 (November 2016). [^37]: Chassiakos et al. [^38]: Council on Communications and Media, “Media and Young Minds: A Policy Statement,” American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016. [^39]: Pew research in 2015 reported that 71% of 13–17 year olds were Facebook users. Furthermore, 52% used Instagram, 41% used Snapchat, 33% used Twitter, 33% used Google+, 24% used Vine, 14% used Tumblr, and 11% used other social media. See Amanda Lenhart, “Mobile Access Shifts Social Media Use and Other Online Activities,” Pew Research Center, April 9, 2015, [https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/04/09/mobile-access-shifts-social-media-use-and-other-online-activities/](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/04/09/mobile-access-shifts-social-media-use-and-other-online-activities/&sa=D&ust=1603988842832000&usg=AOvVaw2NVVa11pnFgURKm7OvhoQv). [^40]: “What Teens Do with Their Phones,” Pew Research Center, March 19, 2012, [https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/03/19/what-teens-do-with-their-phones/](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/03/19/what-teens-do-with-their-phones/&sa=D&ust=1603988842833000&usg=AOvVaw16Ga8VK--Jhed2Zt9H7iC6). [^41]: Van Dijck, *The Culture of Connectivity*. [^42]: Nicholas Carr, *The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains* (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010). I especially thank Imam Zaid Shakir for recommending this book to me. [^43]: Carr, 44–45. [^44]: Abby Smith Rumsey, *When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future* (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2016). [^45]: Rumsey. [^46]: Rumsey, 12. [^47]: Sherry Turkle, *Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other* (New York: Basic Books, 2011). [^48]: Sherry Turkle, “Connected but Alone?,” TED talk, February 2012, [https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry\_turkle\_connected\_but\_alone?language=en](https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_connected_but_alone?language%3Den&sa=D&ust=1603988842835000&usg=AOvVaw1r_e2nNiCwUSzfMZSO3evm). [^49]: Turkle, “Connected but Alone?” [^50]: Jack Linchuan Qiu, *Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition* (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2016), 21–22. [^51]: Qiu, 22–26. Making historical comparison across various iterations of human slavery, Qiu looks at sugar during the transatlantic slave trade and the global demand for technological devices today, and finds that social atomization and the deliberate shaping of wants were necessary conditions for the enslavement of both the workers and the consumers. Just as sugar consumption in Britain increased exponentially between the 1600s and 1900s, and sugar vendors succeeded in creating the demand for sugar by persuading consumers to maximize personal choice through “desocialized eating” (i.e., eating in private), so too has screen time consumption increased exponentially in the last two decades, and electronics vendors have succeeded in creating the demand for personal electronic devices by persuading consumers to maximize personal choice through “desocialized” connections and activities. [^52]: Qiu, 61. [^53]: Qiu 58. [^54]: Qiu, 55–57. This was in the first five months of 2010. [^55]: Qiu, 61. [^56]: Eaton, *King of the Castle*, 24. [^57]: David Harvey, *Spaces of Neoliberalization: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development* (Heidelberg: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005), 60–68. [^58]: Ivan Watson, “China: The Electronic Wastebasket of the World,” CNN, May 30, 2013, [https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/30/world/asia/china-electronic-waste-e-waste/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/30/world/asia/china-electronic-waste-e-waste/index.html&sa=D&ust=1603988842836000&usg=AOvVaw1AGKnKMzz-VLFbQSD5Oqee). [^59]: Watson. [^60]: Watson. [^61]: See “The Story of Electronics,” The Story of Stuff Project, [https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-electronics/](https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-electronics/&sa=D&ust=1603988842837000&usg=AOvVaw3HRvGjMgEVOQfsEVkRRMoD). [^62]: Samanth Subramanian, “How Our Home Delivery Habit Reshaped the World,” *Guardian*, November 21, 2019, [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/21/how-our-home-delivery-habit-reshaped-the-world](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/21/how-our-home-delivery-habit-reshaped-the-world&sa=D&ust=1603988842838000&usg=AOvVaw2NByyQQvzCiPuVTtq-HS_e). [^63]: Hunter Vaughan, *Apocalypse Tomorrow: The Myth of Earth’s End in the Digital Era* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019), 126. [^64]: Quoted in Vaughan, 156. [^65]: Vaughan, 161. [^66]: Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Alexa Has Been Eavesdropping on You This Whole Time,” *Washington Post*, May 6, 2019. [^67]: Geoffrey A. Fowler, “It’s the Middle of the Night. Do You Know Who Your iPhone is Talking To?,” *Washington Post*, May 28, 2019. [^68]: Katie O’Flaherty, “Zoom Users Beware: Here’s How a Flaw Allows Attackers to Take Over Your Mac Microphone and Webcam,” *Forbes*, April 1, 2020. This is in addition to the privacy that users already voluntarily give up by irrecoverably uploading versions of their lives to the internet. This is what Valkenburg and Piotrowski refer to as the “privacy paradox.” Social media leads to decreased informational privacy for users, but increased *psychological privacy*: users control when, why, how, and what they express about themselves, and to whom. See Patti M. Valkenburg and Jessica Taylor Piotrowski, *Plugged In: How Media Attract and Affect Youth* (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 223. [^69]: Abdal Hakim Murad, “Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad – Crisis of Modern Consciousness,” A Karim Omar, YouTube video, January 20, 2012, [](http://youtu.be/RWOKaOb33K4&sa=D&ust=1603988842840000&usg=AOvVaw0r8T5mnJqdkGW-ENXC-0C3)http://youtu.be/RWOKaOb33K4. [^70]: Eaton, *King of the Castle*, 26–27. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. All praise belongs to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and companions. The subject of concern is the relationship between the believer and the smart technologies that have come to dominate our age—the smartphone, the internet, and social media—and how our over-reliance upon them wounds the fullness of our God-given personhood and our moral accountability before Allah. This discussion is not one of the lawful and the prohibited, but rather an ethical reflection upon good and harm. Among the range of possible stances toward modern technology—from the extreme conservative who sees only harm, to the extreme liberal who sees only good—the position taken here is a conservative one: that there is both good and harm in these tools, but that in our present condition the harm outweighs the good. This is admittedly an outlying view, running against the currents of continuous automation and prevailing public opinion, yet it remains within the moderate range of the spectrum. And in the spirit of the command of Allah in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ to speak the truth even against our own selves, and the counsel of ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him—"Judge yourselves before you are judged, and weigh your deeds before they are weighed out for you, and adorn yourselves for the Great Day of Presentation"—we are obliged to examine honestly that which has become second nature to us all. The foundation of this examination is the Islamic conception of the human being, which no worldly philosophy can rival in truthfulness, for its Author is the Creator of humankind Himself. Our full personhood begins with our creation by the Divine hand, and our exalted rank among creation is affirmed where Allah commanded the angels in Sūrat al-Baqarah to prostrate to Adam, upon him be peace, who was taught the names of all things—the grounding of our intellective and linguistic faculties. We are the bearers of the sacred trust, the amānah, which Allah offered, as He tells us in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, to the mountains, and they trembled and declined to bear it, while foolish man took it up. The human being is therefore primarily a morally accountable creature, and this trust is the very source of our khilāfah, our vicegerency upon the earth. Our personhood is composed of interrelated realities—the ʿaql, qalb, rūḥ, and nafs—terms that draw their meaning from the whole worldview of the Qur'an. As the scholar Toshihiko Izutsu demonstrated in his semantic study, the key terms of Qur'anic language derive their meaning through entire webs of relation, with the word "Allah" reigning as the highest focus-word over the entire domain, so that tawḥīd itself determines the very taxonomy of our understanding. The first faculty examined is that of sight, understood not merely as the vision of the eyes but as discernment, judgment, and knowledge. Allah speaks in Sūrat al-Ḥajj of the blindness that afflicts the heart though the eyes may see, and in Sūrat al-Baqarah of those rendered deaf, dumb, and blind so that they cannot understand. The danger of these technologies lies in framing—the imposition of parameters upon reality so that a portion is made central while the rest is excluded. As a photograph cropped to show only a well-dressed gathering may conceal the lynching of Frank McManus in Minneapolis in 1882 that lay within the fuller image, so too does social media frame reality in ways that distort its meaning and render our sight deficient. The researchers at Facebook, studying 10.1 million users in 2015, found that people surround themselves with the like-minded and follow only what confirms their existing views, fostering the "echo chamber," confirmation bias, and polarization. A study from MIT in 2018 examining rumor cascades on Twitter found that falsehood "diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth," reaching far more people than accurate reports. Given that Pew Research found in 2015 that sixty-one percent of millennials receive their political news from Facebook—a corporation whose priority is connection and sharing, not the truth of what is shared—this bears grave spiritual consequence. Justin Parrott reminds us that "the verification of truth, source methodology, and the proper management of knowledge are essential components of our religion, which is why scholars… went to great lengths to authenticate what the Prophet, ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam, really said." Yet the very pace of our consumption forbids such verification. Moreover, these platforms flatten the hierarchy of values, placing the report of an unjust murder—of which Allah says that whoever kills a soul unjustly, it is as though he killed all mankind—upon the same horizontal plane as a trivial advertisement or an amusing meme, so that we react to each with a mere tap of an emoji, feeling nothing, and forgetting at once to make room for the next. The second faculty is freedom from addiction. Our use of these tools often devolves into abuse, producing addictive behavior in most users, for which we are morally answerable, since addiction subverts the rightful guardianship of the qalb over the nafs, placing the lower appetites in command and diminishing our servanthood, our ʿubūdīyah, before Allah. It also violates the rights our bodies hold over us, producing weight gain, strained vision, and disturbed sleep, since the LED light of our devices mimics the afternoon sun and deceives the brain into wakefulness. The harm compounds in children: whereas in 1970 a child typically began watching television at four years of age, today children begin interacting with digital media at four months. A study in 2015 found that 96.6 percent of children aged zero to four had used mobile devices, and among teenagers, half describe themselves as "addicted" to their phones. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in its technical report of 2016, weighed both benefits and risks, cautioning of harm to sleep, attention, and learning, and heightened rates of obesity and depression. Conscious abstention, undertaken by individuals, families, and communities, can restore the fuller exercise of our personhood. The third concern is our mutual rights over one another. These technologies not only facilitate but constitute social practices, transforming how people relate. Borrowing the term of Nicholas Carr, every intellectual technology carries an "intellectual ethic," and Carr argues that the internet is making shallow our capacity for deep reading and reflection, rewiring the brain to receive information in fragmented bursts. Abby Smith Rumsey warns that the data deluge disables us from forming lasting memory, for "data is not knowledge, and data storage is not memory." Sherry Turkle observes that our devices offer three fantasies—that we may place our attention where we wish, that we shall always be heard, and that we shall never be alone—so that solitude itself comes to feel like a problem to be solved, and we pretend empathy while expecting more from technology and less from one another. Graver still is the global supply chain. In the extraction of minerals, the organization Free the Slaves documented 866 cases of slavery in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013, of which twenty-three percent were children, in a land that supplied twenty-one percent of the world's coltan. In production, investigation of Foxconn found workers physically penalized, detained, and forced into overtime four times the legal cap, and in one decade fifteen young workers took their own lives. As Gai Eaton laments, the difficulty of our age is "the increasing difficulty we now have in tracing acts to their owners." By analogy to the Islamic ruling that meat is not lawful if the animal was taunted or tortured before slaughter, we are left to ask: how grave is our ownership of gadgets whose makers are terrified and tortured in extraction and production, and to what extent are we complicit? The fourth concern is our duty to the earth and her creatures, for the sunnah of the Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, commands us to feed and water animals, not to distress a mother for her young, to plant trees even as the Hour approaches, and not to cast stones at them. Yet a CNN report of 2013 identified China as receiving some seventy percent of the world's electronic waste; in the city of Guiyu, the burning and acid-washing of circuit boards contaminates workers and children with lead and mercury, a matter the United Nations called an environmental calamity. Online shopping too exacts a hidden toll—packaging comprising thirty percent of annual solid waste, its cardboard costing a billion trees. Even the "intangible cloud" is an illusion, as Hunter Vaughan notes, for the server farms are real and material; the film Avatar, for all its ecological message, required a render farm of four thousand servers running day and night. Finally, there is the interior space within us—our privacy and our stillness. Our devices transmit our locations, images, and intimacies to unknown agents, and we are told that Alexa listens and cameras may be hijacked. We ask Allah to protect our God-given right to privacy, yet we must also tie our camels. As for stillness, the heart is like a pond that reflects the resplendent moon only when undisturbed, the moon being the light of Allah's nearness attained through dhikr. Khushūʿ and ṭumaʾnīnah are the stillness that comes when wandering ceases; among Allah's signs is that you see the earth in khushūʿ, and then the rain descends and it stirs and sprouts. These technologies, with their framing that atrophies our understanding, their addictions, and their brilliant series of distractions—as Abdal Hakim Murad names them—strip away vital pieces of our personhood. Caution and wariness must therefore be our approach, not that we cast our phones into a bonfire nor drown in guilt, but that we fall out of love with these things, restraining them so as to clear our sight, free ourselves from addiction, honor our mutual rights and our duty to the earth, and quiet the ripples upon the water of our hearts, that we may cultivate khushūʿ and hope to be rightly guided. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-path-straightened-out-perspectives-on-human-nature-in-the-quran # A Path Straightened Out: Perspectives on Human Nature in the Qur’an **Author:** Dr. Shabbir Akhtar **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Published:** October 22, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Preface The Qur’an stimulated inquiry into external physical nature, one of the four loci of the divine signs—human nature, history, and society being the rest of the quartet.[^1] For billions, the Qur’an has proved a catalyst for sparking curiosity about the divinely ordained resources of human nature and especially of our spiritual nature—as we are instructed to look inwards towards our own existential reality. Who are we by nature? What is the divine verdict on our essence and the purpose of our existence? Do we find this purpose through a spiritual quest or do we assign ourselves our own purpose and nature? In Muslim reflection inspired by the Qur’an, human beings are considered the apex of God’s creation (*ashraf al-makhlūqāt*). This is not a Qur’anic expression but is implicit in the scripture’s elevation of the status of the Children of Adam. The scripture both exalts humanity as being congenitally created in the best form but also notes its degradation to the lowest of the low (Qur’an 95:4-5). This high estimate is dismissed by secular humanists—for whom it is self-congratulatory hubris, a ‘speciesism’ that disowns our real and unflattering lineage in the animal kingdom. Believers retort that secularists deny the true nobility of our nature and thus our potential for achieving moral excellence. This essay provides a panoramic view of the Qur’anic perspective on the resources of human nature. Exploring this strategic theme assists the intelligent inquirer to locate the root of the tensions between several related but rival—and, in some cases, totally opposed—views of the true image of our humanity. How do we orient our societies towards receiving the mercy and grace of God? How do we best strive in His path? We survey the Qur’an’s outlook on the nature, scope, ambitions, unique qualities, and limits of our nature. Most broadly, this essay prepares the thoughtful, conscientiously puzzled reader to consider carefully the major competing offers of human flourishing, the good life, and the collective good for any society committed to justice, equality, and other ingredients of social moral health and communal integrity. In sections I and II below, I describe the high status of humankind, as represented by Adam, in the divine scheme of creation. I assess the human-divine relationship and the related question of the purpose of creating human beings. In sections III-V, I discern the problematic nature of humanity by noting how the ambivalence of our nature is a divinely ordained feature, not an accident or unintended tragedy. Are we essentially good, essentially evil, or both simultaneously? How then do we become virtuous? In the hiatus of section VI, I pause to take stock of these issues as we prepare to examine, in the next two sections (VII-VIII), the practical, legal, and political implications of Adam’s nature and that of his descendants. A pair of sections (IX-X) scrutinizes the Islamic portrait in the context of an influential rival portrait of the true nature of our humanity, namely, the Christian offer of salvation from sin. The final Section (XI) examines synoptically the contours of the entire terrain while casting a bifocal glance at future research conducted within the environment of our secular and pluralist liberal societies. --- ## I. Adam, the crown of creation God has given human beings all they ask for (Qur’an 14:34) and has blessed and honored them. This high regard for humankind is no incidental emphasis. We see it notably in Qur’an 17:70, where the verbs *karramnā* (we conferred special favors upon) and *faḍḍalnā* (we preferred) indicate high regard for humanity in the divine perspective. Everything has been subjugated to *al-insān*, the Qur’an’s most inclusive word for humankind in general, including when displaying characteristically human and deplorable tendencies. Thus, in some contexts, *al-insān* means the human creature as arch-disbeliever and disputant, morally wayward and skeptical (e.g,. Qur’an 19:66-7; 36:77-78; 75:3-6). Created physical nature, particularly the aquatic and animal kingdoms, has been made serviceable and subservient to us human beings (e.g., Qur’an 14:32-3; 16:5-18; 36:33-42, 71-73; 43:12-13; 45:4, 12-13; 67:15). We are appointed, indeed anointed, by our unique Creator to be beings of a higher order of creation. Even the angels had to bow down to Adam though this does not imply that humans are created to be of a higher order of beings than angels. Arguably, *righteous* human beings may become superior to angels. Our humanity, originating from a single source (Qur’an 4:1; 3:195; 49:13), is praised in Islamic doctrine as the crown of creation, a description similar to that the biblical Psalmist: “You made him \[man\] lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet.”[^2] Human beings are morally the zenith of creation: “Surely we have created humankind in the best shape” (*aḥsan taqwīm*; Qur’an 95:4). The verse is part of a triple dialectic: creation in optimal form, reduction to depravity, and a final rescue of only the virtuous believers from our shared human potential for vice and evil. As we shall explore below, humanity is created, to translate literally, “in the nature framed of God” (*fiṭrat Allāh*; Qur’an 30:30). The Islamic scripture occasionally tempers the divine exaltation of our species: the creation of humanity is a marvel but the creation of the heavens and the earth is a greater one (Qur’an 40:57; 79:27). We humans alone are, however, appointed as imperialists with the mandate for dominion over nature—but only on condition that we serve God. On the way home from the laboratory, we must stop by at the mosque. Thus we can temper our hubris—as knowers—with our humility as worshippers, lest we forget that “above every knowledgeable one is One All-Knowing” (Qur’an 12:76). An especially exalted view of humankind is contained in the divine affirmation: “I have breathed into him \[Adam\] of my spirit” (*ruhi*; Qur’an 15:29; 32:9; 38:72)—a phrase that exegetes take great pains to dissociate from any notion of divine presence understood as incarnation in the Christian dogmatic sense. All orthodox commentaries on this verse stress that the phrase does not imply divine incarnation—or the closely related idea of God indwelling his creation (*ḥulūl*), a Christian belief about the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third being of the Trinity, living in a righteous human being. Indeed, Islamic orthodoxy typically maintains that the spirit or soul breathed into the human creature is, properly speaking, merely attributed to God in the sense of divine ownership: ‘my spirit’ means ‘a spirit that belongs to me.’ However, this image of God blowing His spirit into the human frame indicates the divine influence on the supernatural dimension of our total human endowment. This Islamic motif is one of a few that are genuinely in common with Islam’s rival faiths, the complex of Abrahamic monotheisms, ethnic, ethical and juridical, respectively, if we describe each faith by its single dominant quality. More broadly, God has strengthened the elect “party of God” (*hizb Allāh*) “by a spirit from himself” (*bi-rūḥin minhu;* Qur’an 58:22). Jesus (PBUH) is analogously fortified by “a holy spirit” from God (*rūḥ al-qudus*; Qur’an 2:87, 253). Some orthodox Muslims may feel uncomfortable with the Judeo–Christian dogma that human beings were created in God’s image or likeness[^3] since traffic with images, even abstract ones, is deemed idolatrous. In what follows, I speculate about this notion. My views are conjectural and move beyond but not against the resources of Islamic orthodoxy (in any case, itself not entirely unified), but I find the idea here a useful stimulus to further philosophical research. I discuss this notion as though it were a scientific hypothesis. It guides a thought-experiment and is thus a useful heuristic principle for conceptual analysis. So what could this resourceful metaphor picturing humanity in God’s image mean—and does it demean humans? It distinguishes the Greek idea of human dignity as being intrinsic to our true nature from the monotheistic notion that human worth is derivative from humanity’s relationship to their unique and gracious Creator. Greek idealism identified the human essence with *nous* (theoretical reason), which was immortal. Human beings are essentially rational and moral—and that fulfills them. In Greek idealistic reflection, they are not religious creatures who need to worship God in order to fulfill themselves and attain ultimate peace and tranquility. An image, like a shadow, necessarily lacks intrinsic reality since it derives its existence wholly, and its character partly, from the reality of which it is the image. Our humanity is constituted by our potential for relationship to God: our status is contained in our actual relation to our divine Creator. This implies that human dignity does not inhere in us by virtue of our remarkable capacities and qualities. For monotheists, human dignity derives from a derivative albeit vital relationship to God. This connection is part of our essence. This does not mean that we have no nature of our own: our distinctive capacities and qualities depend on our relationship to God while also existing, by divine permission, in their own right and thus belonging equally to our essence. An image derives from the reality that projects it but it still exists apart from that original reality once it has been cast. Unlike an optical illusion, it is real. This existential or ontological debate—one about what truly exists—is vital to a correct understanding of *religious* humanism, a worldview that secular humanists claim is inauthentic, incoherent, and degrading, since it derives the dignity and sanctity of human life from an extrinsic and moreover non-existent reality, namely, God and our submissive relationship to him. Monotheism does stress that it is not our nature alone but rather our special relationship to God that distinguishes us from the rest of creation. This human exceptionalism is no cause for pride—for it is a divine endowment, an election courtesy of God’s grace, not a unilateral achievement of human initiative and ingenuity. The Qur’an condemns as arrogance the presumption of human self-sufficiency (75:36; 96:7), the chief feature of the Hellenic (classical Greek) outlook. Humanists insist that monotheists have no right to call their faith ‘the noblest humanism’ when they preach an anti-humanist manifesto. Monotheists retort that secularism has no monopoly on humanism![^4] Neither the Qur’an nor the Bible commits itself to a view concerning the precise respects in which human beings reflect the image of their Creator. “There is nothing like him \[God\]” (Qur’an 42:11), no one is worthy of the same name as God (Qur’an 19:65) and “nothing could attain parity (*kufuw*) with him” (Qur’an 112:4). For Muslims, asserting the affinity of the human to the divine is sustainable if conjectural but precarious and, beyond a certain point, blasphemous: to affirm that nothing wholly resembles God is not to say that nothing at all resembles Him in any respect. The unique and infinite and metaphysically perfect God may in principle share some qualities, in limited measure, with His finite and imperfect human (and angelic) creatures. Some moral values, qualities, attributes, and qualities such as goodness and justice, found in humans, are actualized and realized perfectly only in God. The Qur’an rejects only the idea of a robust divinity immanent in our humanity. God cannot become incarnate inside our humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. The Qur’an repudiates that claim as blasphemous mythology, a libel against God’s true nature.[^5] --- ## II. Why did God create one who may rebel? Human beings are intelligent and curious, harboring an ambiguous potential for both good and evil and therefore are held accountable for their choices (Qur’an 17:36). The Qur’an encourages us to actively use our faculty of reason *(‘aql*) in order to achieve success in the life of faith. Those who neglect to use their reason on earth will regret it bitterly as they enter Hell (Qur’an 67:10). God taught Adam the names, presumably of animals and plants in the Garden, a hint that he can categorize items, a skill vital for the empirical study of nature (Qur’an 2:31-33; note also Qur’an 96:4-5). But, by the same token, human beings are, unfortunately, more than anything rebellious and quarrelsome (Qur’an 18:54). Why create such a contentious creature given to wrangling? The Qur’an stresses the *moral* seriousness of the decision to create human beings (Qur’an 6:70; 7:51; 21:16-17; 38:27; 44:38-9; 45:22; 67:2). We are obligated to God who created us for only two purposes: to worship him (Qur’an 51:56-7), a revelation affirmed naturally by all believers but taken to heart particularly by apolitical and quietist sects, and to show God “which among them is the best in conduct” (Qur’an 18:7). We are therefore put to the test to try our moral mettle (Qur’an 21:35; 67:2; 76:2). Against pagans, the Qur’an denies that the creation was pointless or created for amusement (Qur’an 21:16-17; 44:38). The world was not made “without \[moral\] purpose” (*bāṭilan*; Qur’an 3:191; 38:27) or “frivolously” (*‘abathan*; Qur’an 23:115). Despite humankind’s significant status in creation and the divinely guaranteed integrity of the moral foundations of life in this lower world in which we are on probation (Qur’an 21:35), the Qur’an eulogizes those who believe and do good as “the best of created beings” (98:7). The context is an attack on the disbelievers among the People of the Book, those who reject Islam, described here as the worst of creatures. We need God but He does not need us (Qur’an 35:15). He remains independent of us while caring for us and indeed loving the believers, even taking close friends from among them, a kind of fellowship with His pious servants (see Qur’an 3:31; 4:125). The claim that God is perfect and therefore not in need of His creatures remains, however, no isolated reference but rather a clear and consistently repeated Qur’anic emphasis. Perhaps it aims to shatter human complacency and thus enable us to cultivate the disposition to be humble before God. --- ## III. Human nature as the site of internal struggle and conflict We introduce the problematic nature of humankind through an enigmatic Qur’anic affirmation, plastic to interpretation. The Qur’an notes the agonizing condition of being mortal and human: “We have surely created humankind in toil and struggle” (*fī kabad;* Qur’an 90:4). The previous verse—an oath, “by the father and what he produces”—alludes obliquely to the triple nexus of sex, procreation and birth, a frequent Qur’anic motif that is present in the inaugural revelation (Qur’an 96:1-5). If the consonants are vocalized as *fī kabid*, the phrase literally means ‘into the liver.’ Suggestively, in Arabic culture and poetry, as in Farsi and Urdu literature, the liver is a seat of emotional travail.[^6] The associated verb *ka/ba/da* in modern Arabic, whose augmented form is made by lengthening the initial consonant, means ‘to suffer, to endure.’ The Qur’anic phrase suggests endurance in the face of persistent adversity. For that is the human condition, the condition of being human. In English, though not in Arabic, a welcome ambiguity attends ‘condition,’ neutrally meaning a state but also a medical ailment. We were created in a state of physical weakness (*du‘f*), followed by the strength of youth which terminates in the infirmity of old age (Qur’an 30:54). Moral weakness is also essential to our nature: God wants to lighten our difficulties “for humanity was created weak” (*wa-khuliqa al-insānu da*ʿ*ifan*; Qur’an 4:28). This was deliberate as the use of the theological (past) passive (*khuliqa*) indicates: the creation of humankind is according to the decree of God, the unstated subject. The Qur’an also uses the active voice, with emphasis, as in the earlier quotation: *laqad khalaqnā* (“We have surely created”; Qur’an 90:4). Thus, God has intentionally created humankind with a restricted capacity to resist evil. We sin and we repent—and God forgives. Moral self-perfection and realization or actualization of our essential nature must be pursued in the context of human weaknesses. When aided decisively by the supplement of divine grace, however, complete self-mastery is in practice achievable, as witnessed in God’s chosen servants, such as the Prophet ﷺ (Qur’an 4:113; 33:21) and the mother of Jesus (Qur’an 3:42) This limitation is partly caused by an unspecified weakness in the human frame (Qur’an 4:28) and furthermore by an innate capacity for (and dynamic proclivity toward) evil. Our natural structure conceals “the soul that strongly urges \[us\] to do evil” (*al-nafs* *al-ammārah bi-al-sūʾ*; Qur’an 12:53). Mentioned uniquely here, the intensive form of *a/ma/ra* (to command) is used to convey the force of this evil impulse. God decrees the evil impulse; it is no unintended tragic by-product of human design or error. Being part of the divine design, this inclination towards injustice is integral to our God-given nature. Obedience to the evil soul distorts and fragments our original higher nature (*al-fiṭrah*; lit., the creation; Qur’an 30:30). We possess the constructive force of the self-accusing soul (*al-nafs al-lawwāmah*; Qur’an 75:2) which counteracts the evil soul’s destructive power in the human personality. The intensive form of *la/wa/ma* indicates severe self-incrimination by this innate, rather tyrannical, inner disposition.[^7] A human being is “created of haste” (*khuliqa min ʿajal*; Qur’an 21:37). And haste is, as we say in English, from the devil. The context is the Arab pagans’ repeated demand for details of the time and hour of judgment (Qur’an 34:29); many request that the judgment be hastened (Qur’an 29:53-4) and some request an immediate and complete display of God’s signs. Human beings are typically impatient and ignorant: “Man prays for evil as fervently as he prays for good—for man is given to haste” (*ʿajūlan*; hyperbolic form; Qur’an 17:11). Such hasty and impulsive behavior is, however, a characteristic rather than a constitutional liability. We are foolish and short-sighted and therefore quickly despair of divine mercy; we are impetuous and weak-willed, thus incapable of constancy (Qur’an 30:36). We even undertook foolishly the burden of ‘the trust’ when the rest of creation, perhaps wisely, declined it (Qur’an 33:72). To take stock of the various, sometimes opposed, facets of our nature, we may conclude thus far that we are created with certain weaknesses but, to compensate for these limitations, the Qur’an pledges that “God does not burden anyone beyond their capacity” (Qur’an 2:286). Despite the liabilities instilled in our nature, what God demands of us remains commensurate with our capacity to carry it out—to the best of our abilities. And that is the most that a just and merciful God expects of His human creatures (Qur’an 64:16). --- ## IV. Congenital de jure qualities vs. acquired de facto defects “And we had already taken the covenant from Adam but he forgot; and we did not find firm resolve (*ʿazm*) in him” (Qur’an 20:115). This Adamic deficit, already present in the character of the first man, refers to the pre-existential covenant taken from the whole of the Children of Adam, as a single species, before their history commenced (Qur’an 7:172-3). What is true of Adam is characteristically true presumably of most, if not all, of his descendants (see Qur’an 7:102). Thus, as a Prophetic tradition has it: “Adam denied, so his offspring denied, and Adam forgot and his offspring forgot, and Adam sinned, so his offspring sinned.”[^8] To deepen our insights here, we must distinguish Qur’anic claims that ‘Man *is/was* (*kāna*) x y z’ from ‘Man was *created* (*khuliqa*) with a, b, c traits or tendencies’ where *khuliqa* is a theological past passive, the unstated agent or subject being God. If we human beings are ungrateful, quarrelsome, stingy, and so on, these could be merely accidental, albeit admittedly blameworthy, attributes that can be eradicated through our determined efforts over time. If, however, we are made to be anxious, weak, and so on, then these are divinely ordained constitutional limitations in our essence; indeed, they are what make us human and prevent us from becoming or being angelic or divine. All human limitations, both essential and accidental, can be overcome with divine permission and assistance. The essential limitations, however, are naturally harder to overcome entirely—unless God Himself by fiat or preference chooses to cure us of some radical weakness. If so, the debate enters into the intractably puzzling territory of human free will versus divine predestination and determinism. Let me take a striking example. The Qur’an uses three unusual words to sketch a sharp portrait of human beings as impatient, anxious, and mean. Our natures conceal a permanent emotional imbalance redressed only in the remembrance of God: “Certainly man was created (*khuliqa*) extremely impatient (*halūʿan*). When misfortune befalls him, he is fretful (*jazūʿan*); when prosperity is his lot, he is  begrudging and stingy (*manūʿan*)” (Qur’an 70:19-21). He was *created* by God as x and, as a result, he *is* also y and z. The conjugation *ka/na* to indicate *is/was* is unstated here. All three traits are negative but the first is willed by God. The resulting pair of negative characteristics is caused by the original trait which is congenital in virtue of being a divine endowment. Neither the congenital limitation nor its two humanly derivative consequences are in practice constitutionally permanent since the very next verse exempts the worshipers (Qur’an 70:22), the truly faithful who follow the rituals of their faith in an attempt not to impress others but rather to cultivate the right moral dispositions of Islamic ethics (*akhlāq*). The Qur’an eulogizes the Prophet’s character (Qur’an 68:4) and the Prophet ﷺ himself affirmed that he was sent to perfect character.[^9] Worship is intended to form, indeed transform, a Muslim’s conduct. Through pious effort aided by the grace of God, the believer overcomes these negative traits which include cognate dispositions such as being prematurely despairing (Qur’an 41:49) and being grossly ungrateful (*kāfir*; *kanūd*; Qur’an 17:67; 100:6 respectively). These are dispositions, not irresistible impulses or biologically instinctive drives and needs such as hunger and thirst and, arguably, sexual desire. The negative proclivities are, however, inertial though not strong enough to determine our nature against our conscious will and effort. Nonetheless, such undesirable tendencies do persist in the absence of any faith-motivated and emotionally sustained attempt to sublimate and re-direct and dissipate if not altogether eliminate or transcend them. Unsurprisingly, most human beings remain uncorrected in these aspects of their de facto congenital endowment. Intrinsic deficiencies in human nature differ from merely typical limitations such as those found in a strained military situation. The Qur’an reassures the Messenger ﷺ that a hundred patient believers will defeat a thousand disbelievers (Qur’an 8:65). The next verse revises this ten-to-one ratio to a two-to-one ratio since God notes a temporary weakness (*daʿf;* Qur’an 8:66) among the Muslims. If a human characteristic cannot be remedied, through unassisted effort of will coupled with a change of circumstance, it is residually human—constitutional and congenital. What is primary or innate to our constitution is correctly identified with only those features of our nature that form part of the divine design. The rest are secondary qualities that may be prevalent and hard to eliminate but are no part of our divine endowment. Thus for example, our tendency to forget, to be typically and routinely negligent (*ghāfil)* of our true condition as God-dependent creatures, remains a secondary attribute. Notwithstanding its prevalence as the chief blight of our spiritual lives, human beings were not created in a state of *ghaflah*. However, this admittedly remediable defect is traceable back to Adam, the prototypical man who forgot his covenant with God (Qur’an 20:115). --- ## V. Further liabilities and weaknesses of our nature: We wrong ourselves We are often unfaithful to our higher nature; our actions are treasonable to the cause of piety. Heedless and obstinate, we refuse to discipline the God-given faculties and facilities of hearing, sight, and the heart, the seat of discernment and reasoning (see Qur’an 23:78; 67:23), the place where divine revelation descends in the case of the Prophet ﷺ (Qur’an 26:193-4). We use such God-given gifts of perception instead to heedlessly translate wicked intention into wicked conduct (Qur’an 42:20). On the Day of Judgment, a seal shall be set on the mouths of sinners while their limbs (and skin), which were used as instruments to extend the range of sin, will bear verbal witness to their misuse (Qur’an 24:24; 36:65-7; 42:21-3). God knows the secrets of the hearts (*ṣudūr*; lit. chests; Qur’an 5:7). In Qur’anic pleas for the remembrance of God, the mechanism of treachery towards Him is linked with infidelity towards our own selves. The Qur’an advises believers to fear and remember God. If they forget Him, He will cause them to forget themselves (Qur’an 59:18-20). The generic human defect is *ẓulm al-nafs* (injustice to one’s own soul), mentioned often. For example, Sheba, when she converts to monotheism in Solomon’s court, confesses that, as a former sun worshipper, *she* had wronged her own soul (Qur’an 27:44), not God. The verb *ẓa/la/ma*, used with the preposition *min* (from), neutrally indicates a deficiency in what is expected of something or someone, a failure to realize an intended purpose, what the Greeks called a person or thing’s *telos*. We note this linguistically subtle usage in the parable of the garden (Qur’an 18:32-44) where two men, one humble and penitent, the other proud and boastful, engage in a didactic dialogue. The proud man is tested with the gift of two gardens producing luxuriant growth and “not failing in any respect” (*lam taẓlim minhu shayʾan*; Qur’an 18:33) to produce the expected and requisite fruits, the intended purpose of the gardens. It is subtly hinted that the human owner fails to achieve his purpose, namely, the pure worship of the real owner of the gardens. This self-wronging is committed through treachery to our higher nature. We forget God when we commit the partly intellectual error of associating false deities with the one true deity—the unforgivable sin of idolatry (*shirk*, lit., partnering). Once the mental crime of *shirk* is placed on the level of volition, the practical result is conduct treasonable to our higher nature. Acknowledging our capacity for such perfidy is to acknowledge the actual conduct of Adam’s progeny, especially as we survey the long and colorful catalog of evils caused by a persistent recalcitrance concerning God’s laws. This ominous aspect of human nature is implicit from the very beginning of our historical saga, as shown by the Qur’an’s account of the first murder (5:27-32). This dimension of darkness deepens the account intellectually and morally. However, unlike the biblical testaments,[^10] the Qur’an never affirms or implies any irreversible tragedy in the divine decision to create humankind. The innate knowledge of God that we possess acts as a heavenly counterpoise to our God-ordained potential for waywardness. When we acknowledge the sovereignty of God by recognizing His signs, we allow the celestial side of our nature to dominate. We yearn for the higher world and God takes up our case and makes us rise above the angels. However, when we wantonly deny the divine portents and prefer our folly to divine wisdom, we become like the man “to whom We \[God\] sent our signs but he let them pass him by until the Devil took up his case and thus he became one of the misguided people” (Qur’an 7:175). God could have elevated him through His signs but the fool “gravitated heavily towards the ground” and followed his vain and base desires (Qur’an 7:176). Not all moral evil is intrinsic to human nature or caused by mortal weakness. The Devil, known variously as Iblīs,[^11] al-Shayṭān, and al-Ṭāghūṭ (the rebel), has sworn, by the majesty of God, ironically, that he will mislead Adam and his progeny and seduce them away from the remembrance and worship of God. Armed with a limited warrant for autonomous action until the day of judgment, he seconds and abets the self-destructive tendencies in our nature (Qur’an 7:11-28). The Qur’an warns us about this arch-deceiver (Qur’an 34:5) and advises us that he is an enemy: “therefore, treat him like an enemy” (Qur’an 34:6). Humankind is stretched like two outposts of an empire; one is godly, the other is a sub-human, potentially diabolical, frontier—and the intervening territory is human. This Qur’anic portrait is shrewdly ambivalent, nuanced, and fruitfully tense. It concedes to the secular dimension of our humanity by granting some demands of our nature while emphasizing equally our transcendent endowment. It permits optimism[^12] since men and women are inclined to accept surrender of their will to God. Al-Islam is for humanity, as framed of God (...*lil-dīn ḥanīfan fiṭrat Allāh*; Qur’an 30:30), and therefore the religion of divinely created and thus upright human nature, a faith to which the repentant sinner reverts rather than converts. --- ## VI. Hiatus: The path straightened out for us Despite certain permanent innate as well as temporally and contextually conditioned restrictions, God enables us to please Him by achieving “the wholesome peace of submission” (*salām al-islām*), the fruit of active and continuous submission to His will. The Qur’an approves of “the tranquil soul” (*al-nafs al-muṭmaʾinnah*; 89:27-30), our final end, achieved after a lifelong struggle between the evil-commanding and self-accusing souls (Qur’an 12:53; 75:2). It is, after a long journey, a return to our first abode, a return to our original nature, our divinely willed constitution. The tranquil soul finally reaches equilibrium and achieves enduring equanimity—but it is still human, not divine. Compare here the antique and realistic wisdom of Plato’s tripartite division of the soul: the spirit and the appetites were like two wild untamed horses that needed to be controlled by reason, the third part. This control was to be exercised individually and socially; hence Plato’s preference for authoritarian rule. Similarly, in the Torah, the evil impulse (*yetzer ha-ra*)[^13] in the human creature competes incessantly with the opposed good force (*yetzer ha-tov)*. The Messiah, when he eventually arrives, will eliminate the evil impulse and thus transform humanity and end history. Jews believe that Jesus did not succeed in eradicating our evil nature and thus the world remains unredeemed. One has only to look, Jews contend, at the reality of our world during the duration of Christianity for the past two millennia to recognize this fact. The Qur’an does not promise the eradication of evil from our nature, only its defeat by the forces of divinely aided goodness, as witnessed in the lives of God’s chosen. Famously, as in the case of Joseph, God’s elect servants retain the latent potential for evil while being divinely safeguarded from its actualization (Qur’an 12:24, 32). The contending forces of the evil-commanding spirit and the self-accusing spirit (*nafs*; see Qur’an 12:53 and 75:2, respectively), mentioned above in section III, find a rough parallel in the opposed powers of the flesh and spirit[^14] in Christian terminology. These fight ferociously in the tense theater of actively competitive human dispositions. The attainment of virtue, even conspicuous virtue, remains highly probable. The race requires athletic aptitude and training. The Qur’an tempers its optimistic assessment by its emphasis on practical realism. It affirms that establishing a virtuous lifestyle requires relentless patience and constant struggle (*jihād*) against our lower nature. Rarely do we humans welcome the steep moral climb (*al-ʿaqabah*; Qur’an 90:11). While we have the potential and capacity to lead God-fearing lives, most of us prefer the easier option of disobeying God’s orders. Our notoriously all-too-human ability to oppose the divinely endorsed cause of justice and purity is ubiquitous in the Qur’an’s numerous rejection narratives that portray the unheeded prophets as men rejected by or expelled from their native cities (e.g., Qur’an 21:15; 53:53; 69:9, etc.). We possess dual but not complementary capacities; these make us crave earnestly for the ideals of piety that lie dormant in our nature. In the heat of life’s struggles, however, we also wish to disown those very ideals. This arrangement generates religious success and failure. Few people achieve conspicuous virtue although many achieve some degree of moral excellence and self-restraint. The path straightened out (*al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm*; Qur’an 1:5; cf. *ṣirāṭin mustaqāmin*; a path straightened out; Qur’an 6:39, 87) for us is straightforward only in that we must turn right and go straight—to paradise! A form of the simple verb *qa/wa/ma* appears in the augmented form of *istaqāma*, meaning ‘to straighten out’: a hint of struggle and recalcitrance reside in its formation and meaning. The active voice describes believers as those who “remain straightened out” (*istaqāmū*) after acknowledging that God is their Lord (Qur’an 41:6, 30; 46:13). --- ## VII. The Shariah is a consequence of optimism about our nature The Qur’an’s perspective on the faculties of reason and conscience (which essentially constitute human nature) impressed Muslims who laid the moral and philosophical foundations of the central discipline of jurisprudence. Muslim jurists confidently claimed that applied Islam, based on Qur’anic doctrine about human nature and its resources, provides practical and spiritual knowledge that satisfies the canons of reason, a reason unaffected by our capacity for sin. The sacred law (*sharīʿah*; a path; Qur’an 45:18) was derived from the Qur’an and supplemented with the Prophet’s authoritative example which specified in meticulous detail the correct exercise of the will in our imperfect attempt to attain purity of heart and intention. The details of the holy law, as the comprehensive enactment of the sovereign divine will for humankind, could be worked out by using the divinely bestowed gift of human reason (*ʿaql*). The notion of a revealed law, however, as opposed to its detailed exposition and subsequent implementation, is antecedent to society since it creates society—just as divine revelation predates the faithful community it engenders and fosters. Think of the Prophet’s city-state. Revelation led to revolution—understood as profound, irreversible, and comprehensive societal transformation at all levels and in varied dimensions ranging from the political, legal, communal, and economic to the personal and spiritual. The sacred law teaches us to attain the felicity of faith while it aims at achieving both our individual happiness (*saʿādah*) and the common good (*al-maṣlaḥah*). We are *innately*, that is, *independently of any particular social context*, equipped to attain the highest good by acting rationally for the sake of the good. That is why Islam could create countless law-abiding communities all over the world, from Morocco to Indonesia. We need to do more than merely recollect our abstract knowledge of our true status as law-bound creatures subject to divine sovereignty, a truth we acknowledged before we were embodied in actualized history (Qur’an 7:172-3). Islamic legislation is paternalistic: it presupposes continuous reinforcement of the law, a realistic confession that we are not naturally wholly virtuous or law-abiding. The recalcitrance of human nature often has the last word and explains the widespread failure of human societies to fulfill God’s laws perfectly. --- ## VIII. The appointment of Adam as ‘successor in the earth’ “And \[recall the time\] when your Lord said to the angels, ‘I will appoint in the earth a successor (*khalīfah*),’[^15] and they retorted: ‘Are you going to place in the earth one who will create disorder in it and shed blood while we celebrate your praises and glorify your holiness?’ God replied: ‘I know things of which you have no knowledge’” (Qur’an 2:30). The angels initially inquire about God’s declaration since they believe that Adam and his seed shall shed blood and cause corruption in God’s good earth. God offered ‘the trust’ (*al-amānah*) of moral responsibility to the heavens and the earth and the mountains but they all refused to undertake it and were afraid of it. “But man undertook it; he is extremely unjust and foolish” (Qur’an 33:72). The context of this passage is the intrigues of hypocrites and secret agitators in Medina as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ struggles to create an ideal theocracy. Here it seems that it is our decision to be vicegerents of God; we voluntarily and ignorantly undertook the trust, the stewardship of the earth, and the commitment to serve God and thus refute the satanic scepticism about our potential for godliness. Human beings are morally ambitious but also foolhardy. The purely religious doctrines of the Qur’an—beliefs about God, His angels, revealed books and prophets—simultaneously sustain certain social and political entailments. Compared to normative Christianity’s low estimate of *Homo politicus*—the heavenly city is not on earth—the Qur’an’s optimistic anthropology implies the political perfectibility of human nature, an assumption that explains the scripture’s repeated insistence on the constant struggle to establish a just and righteous order on earth. Muslims see Islam as providing a habitat for the cultivation of what were known to the Greeks as the political virtues. The excellences of civic life were to be developed and nurtured during participation in the political, including imperial, life. These demands enlarged the sphere of religious duty, thus providing another arena for the service of God. The sea of faith found a specifically political estuary. Despite fearing the awesome and imminent day of resurrection (Qur’an 7:187; 21:1; 22:1-2; 47:18, etc), the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ calmly and systematically built a civil community in Medina and remained at the helm of its political destiny literally until death, euphemistically called “the certainty” (*al-yaqīn*; Qur’an 15:99). Zeal for a better world yet to come did not prevent him from founding the heavenly city in this imperfect world. Admittedly, Medina does not fully correspond to Augustine’s *The City of God* since Medina was a *ḥaram*—a sanctuary. It was never heavenly since its citizens were not sin-free or perfectly virtuous people guaranteed salvation simply by virtue of being its residents. The Qur’an and the Prophet’s ﷺ teachings are both apocalyptic in mood. Both proclaim imminent divine judgment, perhaps in part to indicate the moral urgency of “The Hour” (Qur’an 20:15) rather than only its temporal proximity. This is done to motivate piety here and now. Be that as it may, this practical and applied moral attitude of living life despite the possibility of debacle close at hand sounds unremarkable only in a secular age where large-scale planning for the future is commonplace, notwithstanding current risks. Consider, however, the feverish apocalyptic anticipation of the end of the world and the imminence of judgment found in first-century Palestinian sectarian Judaism and in the earliest authentic Pauline epistle (1 Thessalonians), dated to 50 CE. The New Testament contains only an interim politics and ethics since Christians were awaiting the end of history. Paul and Jesus’ religious enthusiasm, as recorded in the Gospels, precluded the possibility of founding a socio-political order during their own lifetimes.[^16] --- ## IX. Does our human nature need a savior to redeem us or only a warner to guide us? Muslims see human beings as subject to both good and evil proclivities but often weak-willed in respect of following through with their good intentions. In any case, they are apt to forget the truth about God’s right to guide their lives, a truth they confessed, as disembodied souls awaiting the commencement of actual history (Qur’an 7:172). At this prehistoric primordial assembly, convened outside historical time but in some sacred space, all human beings acknowledged the lordship of their only Creator: God. This tradition, unique to the Qur’an, contrasts with the overall Christian picture of an original human situation tainted by inveterate sinfulness and a radical alienation from God. For Muslims, the essential element in human nature is an intellect (*ʿaql*) that can acquire knowledge and appropriate a revealed truth that informs practical religious conduct. For Christians, the human will and intellect are defiled and, especially for Protestants, disabled by sin. Human nature is corrupted by the fall, a contingent event with ineluctable consequences. Having fallen into sin separates us from God. Therefore, the intellect, no longer enlightened by divine truth, holds false opinions; the will, no longer guided by divine love, makes evil choices. The fall, according to most Christian theologians, was a unique disaster which fully determined and denatured the total nature of humankind. Adam’s lapse from grace disfigured his original nature and, hence, that of his descendants: human beings are fallen creatures with corrupted wills and irreparably damaged reasoning faculties.[^17] Christian theologians isolate the crisis of sin as the deepest crisis in the human personality. We are being sucked in by the quicksand of sin and cannot save ourselves; only someone standing on firm ground can offer us the hand of help. Men and women know themselves only as sin-infected creatures; we do not know human nature in its integrity. Only God can save us and redeem us from our own evil nature (John 3:16).[^18] In fear and trembling, Paul worked out the details of this offer of salvation (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Muslims reject any such permanent crisis in the human personality caused by a single act of sinful disobedience to the divine will. Adam’s disobedience in paradise was a consequential but contained act of rebellion to God’s will, a transgression with no larger implications for human nature or even Adam’s nature. The Qur’an frequently emphasizes that “no laden one shall bear another’s load” (e.g., 53:38), thus disowning the harmful and despair-inducing idea that Adam’s sin was inherited by his children. Typically, the sinful act is caused jointly by the extrinsic factors of ignorance and weakness of will. If men and women are determined to follow divine tuition, they can still rise above the angels. The expulsion from heaven is an opportunity to dispel the devil’s doubts about our ability to please God (Qur’an 4:117-121). Adam asked God for forgiveness for his disobedience—and God forgave him. God is most forgiving and merciful, a constant refrain in the Qur’an (e.g., 2:35-37). --- ## X. What is the purpose of the Islamic holy law? The law is, for Muslims, as for other followers of the Abrahamic tradition, a catalyst for good deeds. Paul saw it as merely our temporary tutor, awaiting the gift of the Messiah’s grace that would finally render it redundant. Paul argued that the Law of Moses frustrates its internal intentions because it identifies the scope of sin without enabling us to escape from sin or its consequences (Romans 2:12-7:25). Christians believe that all human beings are fallen—sinners who crave redemption from their sins followed by reconciliation with a holy God. We need grace to transform us, not only revelation to guide us: what we are by nature can only be rectified by what we may become by grace. The purpose of the Shariah, however, is not to eradicate sin or its freely willed consequences since sinful action is an essential human proclivity. Rather, the law reveals humanity’s full potential for avoiding sin as much as possible while doing works of virtue. This is a dimension of our nature that would otherwise remain dormant, its latent potential wasted as in an intelligent teenager who plays truant. Virtue is not beyond the law but rather through the law. This is why Islamic teachings oppose any wholly supernatural, therefore radically external, rescue, via grace alone, from the human plight and blight of sin and disobedience. Though not innately deviant or crooked or unsound, the Children of Adam are easily misled into temptation. To face and resist temptation, divine warning and education jointly suffice: all we need are rightly guided mentors who can guide us out of our heedlessness. The Prophet of Islam is not a savior or even an advocate (*wakīl*; Qur’an 10:108; 17:54; 39:41). We must manage our own affairs: if we do well, we do well for ourselves and if we do evil, we do it only to our own souls’s detriment (Qur’an 17:7). Divine grace is, nonetheless, indispensable since good actions cannot achieve salvation for anyone, not even for the Holy Prophet himself ﷺ! The Qur’an rejects the resigned and tragic view that human beings are radically incorrigible. Muslim historians have therefore reasoned that, given the Prophet Muhammad’s success in establishing a virtuous city in Medina, we too can create a God-centered culture in any time and place. The original and perfect political providence of God can be recreated, if only in a fragmentary and imperfect form. The exacting prescriptive demands of Islamic law emerge naturally from the Qur’an’s optimistic account of human spiritual potential—the uniquely Islamic doctrine of our original capacity for goodness, a doctrine opposed to the blight and stigma of original sin. Moreover, beyond merely ritualistic demands (as in Jewish law, *halakhah*), the Shariah focuses on moral and intention-oriented nomistic demands. Many human beings worship God despite the distractions of the world. Countless human beings remember God in formal daily prayer and in informal petition and supplication (Qur’an 22:18). Unlike angelic worship, however, human devotion is, inevitably, imperfect and infrequent. Angels ceaselessly worship God, as they proclaim when He decided to create humankind (Qur’an 2:30); they do so, however, without the need to resist temptation. Indeed, a not negligible number of human beings are conspicuously virtuous. “The friends of God” (*awliyāʾ Allāh*; Qur’an 10:62), successfully live in the active heat of pious emotion. Devout believers love God with greater intensity than the idolaters love their idols (Qur’an 2:165). Many of the faithful respond enthusiastically to the divine summons; the ones devoted to their Lord (*al-ribbīyūn*; Qur’an 3:146) worship God in times of persecution and, despite being outnumbered, ceaselessly battle against their disbelieving oppressors. “The determined prophets” (*ulū al-ʿazm min* *al-rusul*; Qur’an 46:35) are commended for their outstanding patience.[^19] Over God’s party, the devil has no authority (Qur’an 16:98-9). God’s judgment about true believers is in principle always bound to be—and in practice always found to be—true (Qur’an 95:4-8). --- ## XI. Humanity as a work in progress? A philosophical farewell The Qur’an eulogizes the earliest generation of Muslims as the best community (3:110). This verse may arguably refer to all Muslims at all times, but the earlier generations of Muslims were definitely better than the latter. In any case, a famous hadith[^20] warns the early believers that if they neglect merely a tenth of the law, they might be condemned to Hell while the Prophet goes on to inform them of a time when obeying even a tenth of the law would suffice to save the sinners. Are we that conspicuously sinful generation? And will subsequent generations continue getting even worse? How do we, in secular cultures, balance the commitment to human rights and dignity, including the intellectual right to inquire and doubt, with orthodoxy’s right to safeguard divine honor and prerogatives? Does a dualism in our congenital apparatus fragment our personality—robbing us of our integrity and wholeness, making us morally schizophrenic regarding good and evil, diluting or even contaminating our primordial design as creatures destined to please God, though not seek ultimate communion with Him? Can we ever transcend altogether the struggle between good and evil within our natures and thus move beyond good and evil? God’s nature is finely balanced between mercy and justice. But what can we say about our own nature? What a work of art is man! The same poetic lament ranges from Shakespeare in the west to Iqbal in the east. In the divine design of humanity is contained an indefinite though not infinite potential for goodness. But we are not *finite* forms of an *infinite* God. That is a logically incoherent thought. Admittedly, such subversive thoughts arise only when we turn mysteries into mere problems, as if we were doing secular social science. ‘*Why* are human beings created weak?’ remains a mystery because it asks about the motives of a deity whose intentions, like His nature, are by definition irreducibly mysterious (see Qur’an 6:103). One should not therefore expect any wholly naturalistic answer to be fully satisfactory. The de facto deficiencies and deficits in human nature make us human and fallible. They do not denature us from some imagined de jure nature. To think the latter is to imply a divine regret concerning the tragedy of humanity, a thought foreign to the Qur’an. Our weakness is willed by God. It enables the capacity and motivation for struggle—to overcome such liabilities, to improve ourselves and thus attain finally, by grace, the kind of perfection appropriate for a weak and fallible creature, victimized by temptation. Striving and strife occur as we encounter our lower nature, the evil-commanding soul which is an integral part of our constitution as human beings. The Socratic-Platonic view contains an undue optimism that reason and knowledge recollected are all we need in order to subdue the recalcitrant will in the service and cause of virtue. Paul rejects this in favor of hyperbolic and hubristic pessimism, as he boasts of his weakness, his utter need for divine intervention and Christ’s all-sufficient grace. The Qur’an‘s characteristic moderation, resembling what philosophers call pragmatic realism, provides a third way here. The narrative of Adam’s creation and appointment releases, under pressure of disciplined challenge, certain axiomatic insights about our foundational moral and metaphysical location and status in the world. It can never be outdated: it is perennially relevant as it guides our conduct inside history for different generations. The Qur’an still speaks to us today since its account of Adam portrays human nature as raw material rather than some static draft of a mechanical design that must culminate in only one finished product. Our nature is designed to be elastic and indeed plastic—to our own free will and consciously dynamic effort and action. We are neither animals guided simply by biological needs and instincts nor pre-programmed angelic ‘robots’ who involuntarily obey God just as all creation does through the governing laws of nature. Only the Last Day will decide our nature as ultimately good or evil when we are commanded to read the book of our own actions (Qur’an 17:14). Thus, our destiny is finally determined only *in virtue of the virtue* we attain, not some fixed or pre-determined nature which is neither good nor bad absolutely. We are and become what we do habitually. --- ## Notes [^1]: On the signs of God, see my “Can an Islamic Natural Theology Explain God’s Silence Today?” *Renovatio* 3, no. 2 (Fall 2019): 23–36. All references to the Qur’an are given in the body of the text. Thus, Qur’an 2:1 means the opening verse of the second surah. [^2]: Psalms 8:6. [^3]: Hebrew, *tzelem Elohim;* Latin, *imago Dei*; Genesis 1:27. [^4]: Buddhists accuse secular humanists and monotheists alike of ignoring *animal* suffering and welfare. [^5]: Islamic *theology* is a mistranslation of *kalam* since it is not permitted for Muslims to know God’s *nature* in itself but rather only those divine attributes that bear on His revealed moral and legal *will* for us. God’s nature remains an eternal mystery. Christian theologians seek to know God’s nature since Christians seek to establish a deeper relationship of actual identity and mutual love involving God. For the Qur’an’s repudiation of key Christian ecclesial beliefs, including divine anthropomorphism and incarnation, see especially sharp rebukes in Qur’an 4:171, 5:72–3, 5:116, 6:101. [^6]: Hence the anguished Arab poetic cry of “O my liver!” (*ya kabadi*), not “O my heart!” One suspects alcohol abuse by secular Arab poets, hence their exaggerated concern for this vital organ. The liver (*jigar*, Farsi; *kalayjah*, Urdu) is seen as one seat of a person’s deepest emotions. It is a common metaphor in Persia and the cultures of the northern Indian peninsula. [^7]: “Conscience (alone) is a thousand witnesses (against the wrong-doer)” is a famous Latin wisdom proverb (*Conscientia mille testes*). Paul argues that even the Gentiles (pagans, disbelievers) possess it (Romans 2.14–15). Modern Arabic and Islamic languages have *damir*, a word not found in the Qur’an. [^8]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, bk. 47, no. 3356, [https://sunnah.com/urn/640820](https://sunnah.com/urn/640820&sa=D&ust=1603390749759000&usg=AOvVaw12jJpMkfNAgeASgZ6Azyef). [^9]: Imam Malik, *al-Muwatta’*, no. 1614, graded as authentic by Ibn Abdul Barr in *al-Tamheed* (Morocco: Ministry of Religious Endowments, 1967), 24:333. [^10]: Yahweh regrets creating humankind (Genesis 6.6–7). [^11]: *Iblīs* is a fallen jinn, not a fallen angel. The jinn are a class of elemental beings created out of fire. Like humankind, but unlike angels, the jinn are free to accept or reject God (Qur’an 15:26; 37:71). Iblis was a jinn (Qur’an 18:50) who disobeyed God and was therefore expelled from God’s presence. Angels are not free to disobey God and hence, unlike in Christian angelology, cannot fall from grace through disobedience. [^12]: The Qur’an’s optimistic view resembles the Mahayana Buddhist belief that our original nature is potentially *buddha*: once self-awakened, we will spontaneously avoid evil and pursue good. Buddhism is classified as an eastern faith but is a potentially universal faith, perhaps a semireligious humanism. It may be dubbed “the Christianity of the East” while Christianity is “the Buddhism of the West.” [^13]: Genesis 6.5. [^14]: See my *The New Testament in Muslim Eyes* (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018) and my commentary on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Read chapter 6, commentary on Galatians 4.21–5.1 and 5.13–26. [^15]: Only Adam is appointed and, to the chagrin of secular feminist readers, not his unnamed spouse Eve. The masculine noun *khalifah* (Qur’an 30:2, 38:26 \[or *khalif*, caliph\]) has no accepted grammatically feminine form although, ironically, it already contains the feminine ending -*ah*. [^16]: I argue for this thesis in my *Islam as Political Religion* (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), chapters 3 to 7. [^17]: Catholic theologians have mitigated this harsh view and inadvertently aligned it partly with Islamic teachings: traces of the *semen religionis* (seed of religion) survive the fall, and, therefore, all men and women, unless they are congenitally or invincibly ignorant of God’s existence, retain the *sensus divinitatis* (sense of divinity) that is their birthright. [^18]: For my analysis of the Hebrew redeemer (*go’el*) and its radical transformation into the Christian ideal of the anointed savior (Greek, *Christos*), see my “Prophet Warning: Justification, Retribution and Salvation in Islam—A Comparative Study” in *The Anxiety of End-Time*, ed. Peter Koslowski (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2012), 1–18. I explain why Islam rejects as ineffective the sanguine system of Jewish sacrifice. Though unnecessary for redemption and salvation—submission (*islām*) to God’s will suffices—it remains acceptable as charitable piety (see Qur’an 22:37). Tellingly, despite relating the Moses story countless times, the Qur’an nowhere mentions the many blood sacrifices that surrounded the covenant with Moses as portrayed in the Torah. [^19]: The prophets of resolve and resilience are thought to be Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. All except Noah received scriptures. Enigmatically called “the former scrolls” (*al-ṣuḥuf* *al-ūlá*, Qur’an 87:18–19) of Abraham and Moses, and mentioned again, with the names of the two Hebrew prophets reversed (see Qur’an 53:36–7), this Abrahamic revelation was perhaps similar in language, though not legal content, to the Torah. It is no longer extant, even in fragmentary form. [^20]: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsá al-Tirmidhī, *Jāmiʿ*, vol. 4, bk. 7, no. 2267, graded as *ḥasan* (good). ## Summary The Qur'an directs the seeker toward reflection upon the divine signs, among which our own human nature holds a place alongside the external world, history, and society. In this light, human beings are regarded in Muslim reflection as the apex of creation (ashraf al-makhlūqāt), a phrase not found literally in the scripture yet implicit in its exaltation of the Children of Adam. The scripture affirms that humankind was fashioned "in the best of forms" (aḥsan taqwīm) yet may be reduced "to the lowest of the low" (Qur'an 95:4-5). Secular humanists dismiss this lofty estimate as arrogant "speciesism," while believers reply that it is secularism which denies the true nobility of our nature and our potential for moral excellence. The purpose here is to survey the Qur'anic view of the nature, scope, and limits of our humanity, so that the reader may weigh the competing conceptions of human flourishing. That God honored humankind is no incidental theme. The verbs karramnā (We conferred favor upon) and faḍḍalnā (We preferred) in Qur'an 17:70 express this high regard, and the created world of animals and seas has been made subservient to us (Qur'an 16:5-18; 45:12-13). Even the angels were made to bow to Adam, though this does not establish that humans are of a higher order than angels; rather, it is argued that righteous human beings may become superior to them. Our origin from a single source is affirmed (Qur'an 4:1; 49:13). Yet the scripture tempers this exaltation, noting that "the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of humankind" (Qur'an 40:57), and warning that "above every knowledgeable one is One All-Knowing" (Qur'an 12:76), lest our pride as knowers overwhelm our humility as worshippers. The affirmation that God "breathed into him of My spirit" (Qur'an 15:29; 38:72) is unanimously understood by orthodox commentators not as incarnation (ḥulūl) but as an honorific attribution of ownership—"a spirit that belongs to Me." Concerning the notion that humanity was created in God's image, the author proceeds conjecturally, as a heuristic thought-experiment moving beyond orthodoxy without opposing it, since the scripture insists "there is nothing like Him" (Qur'an 42:11) and "nothing could attain parity with Him" (Qur'an 112:4). The Qur'an condemns the presumption of human self-sufficiency as arrogance (Qur'an 75:36; 96:7). Why did God create a creature capable of rebellion? The Qur'an stresses the moral seriousness of this creation and denies that the world was made frivolously (ʿabathan; Qur'an 23:115) or without purpose (bāṭilan; Qur'an 3:191). We were created to worship God (Qur'an 51:56-57) and to be tested as to "which of them is best in conduct" (Qur'an 18:7). God does not need us, for He is independent while we depend upon Him (Qur'an 35:15), yet He loves the believers and takes intimate friends among them (Qur'an 3:31). Human nature is presented as the site of internal struggle: "We have surely created humankind in toil" (fī kabad; Qur'an 90:4). We were created weak (Qur'an 4:28), and our nature conceals "the soul that strongly urges to evil" (al-nafs al-ammārah bi-al-sūʾ; Qur'an 12:53), which is countered by "the self-accusing soul" (al-nafs al-lawwāmah; Qur'an 75:2). This inclination is part of the divine design, not an accident. Yet God "does not burden any soul beyond its capacity" (Qur'an 2:286). A careful distinction is drawn between what humanity is (kāna) and what it was created (khuliqa) to be. Congenital traits ordained by God—such as being created "extremely impatient" (halūʿan; Qur'an 70:19)—differ from acquired defects that determined effort may erase, though both may be overcome by divine permission. Even the divinely willed impatience is exempted in the case of the worshippers (Qur'an 70:22), for worship transforms conduct; the Prophet ﷺ, whose character the Qur'an praises (Qur'an 68:4), affirmed that he was sent to perfect character. Heedlessness (ghaflah) is not part of our created constitution but a remediable defect, traceable to Adam who forgot his covenant, for "We had taken a covenant from Adam, but he forgot, and We did not find in him firm resolve" (Qur'an 20:115). A Prophetic tradition relates: "Adam forgot, so his offspring forgot; Adam sinned, so his offspring sinned." The generic human failing is ẓulm al-nafs, wronging one's own soul, as Sheba confessed she had wronged herself, not God (Qur'an 27:44). This self-treachery reaches its gravest form in shirk, associating false deities with the one God. On the Day of Judgment the very limbs of sinners will testify against them (Qur'an 36:65). God's chosen servants, such as Joseph, retain the latent potential for evil while being divinely safeguarded from acting upon it (Qur'an 12:24). Not all evil is intrinsic, for the Devil—Iblīs, al-Shayṭān—has sworn to mislead Adam's progeny and abets our weaknesses, and we are commanded to treat him as the enemy he is (Qur'an 34:6). Humankind is thus stretched between a godly frontier and a diabolical one, with the human territory between. The final goal is "the tranquil soul" (al-nafs al-muṭmaʾinnah; Qur'an 89:27), reached after lifelong struggle—a return to our original nature (fiṭrat Allāh; Qur'an 30:30), to which the repentant sinner reverts rather than converts. The Qur'an does not promise the eradication of evil from our nature, only its defeat through divinely aided goodness. Rarely do we welcome "the steep ascent" (al-ʿaqabah; Qur'an 90:11). This optimism about our reason (ʿaql) and conscience underlies the jurists' confidence in the sacred law (sharīʿah; Qur'an 45:18), derived from the Qur'an and the Prophet's ﷺ example. The law is paternalistic, presupposing continual reinforcement because we are not naturally wholly virtuous. Adam's appointment as "successor in the earth" (khalīfah), which the angels questioned fearing bloodshed (Qur'an 2:30), and humanity's undertaking of "the trust" (al-amānah) refused by the heavens and mountains (Qur'an 33:72), reveal both our moral ambition and our foolhardiness. This optimistic anthropology implies a political vocation, and the Prophet ﷺ established a civil community in Medina—though Medina was a sanctuary (ḥaram), not a sin-free heavenly city. This is contrasted with the interim politics of the early Christian expectation of an imminent end. Here the sharpest contrast with Christian doctrine emerges. For Muslims the essential human faculty is an intellect able to receive revealed truth; for Christians, especially Protestants, the will and intellect are corrupted by the fall. Muslims reject any permanent crisis in the personality from a single act, for "no laden one shall bear another's load" (Qur'an 53:38). Adam sought forgiveness and God forgave him (Qur'an 2:37). Accordingly, the purpose of the Shariah is not to eradicate sin but to draw out humanity's dormant potential for virtue; the Prophet ﷺ is a warner, not a savior or advocate (wakīl; Qur'an 17:54). Yet divine grace remains indispensable, for good works alone cannot secure salvation, not even for the Prophet ﷺ himself. Many worship God devotedly—"the friends of God" (awliyāʾ Allāh; Qur'an 10:62) and "the determined prophets" (ulū al-ʿazm; Qur'an 46:35)—and over God's party the devil has no authority (Qur'an 16:99). In closing, the author leaves certain questions deliberately open, treating "Why were human beings created weak?" as a mystery concerning divine intention rather than a problem for naturalistic solution (Qur'an 6:103). Our weaknesses make us human and fallible; they do not denature us, nor imply any divine regret. Our nature is raw material, elastic to our own free effort—neither animals bound by instinct nor angels bound to obey. Only the Last Day will disclose whether we are ultimately good or evil, when we are told, "Read your own record" (Qur'an 17:14). We become what we habitually do, and our destiny is decided by the virtue we attain, not by any fixed nature. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/perspectives-on-islamic-psychology-healing-of-emotions-in-the-quran # Perspectives on Islamic Psychology: al-Raghib al-Isfahani on the Healing of Emotions in the Qur'an **Author:** Dr. Yasien Mohamed **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Publication **Published:** October 1, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction It took modern psychology a century to realize that human behavior is not only determined by physiological instincts but that human consciousness also plays an important role. Hence the emergence of cognitive psychology and the acknowledgment that thought can be modified and can serve as a source of therapy for the immoderate emotions of fear, anger, and sorrow, to name a few. This is not a new discovery; reason and its intimate connection with human emotions were central to both Hellenistic and classical Islamic psychology. If it is shown that one’s thinking is factually false, then it will reveal that one’s emotions that are linked to it are inappropriate. Thus, emotions could be rational or irrational, depending on whether they are true or false. Goleman’s *Emotional Intelligence* states that this is not a new perspective, “as the virtue of withstanding the emotional storms that the buffeting of Fortune brings has been praised as a virtue since the time of Plato.”[^1] Emotions are feelings about or towards something. They have cognitive and affective aspects that drive one to action, which depend in part on one’s beliefs and perceptions.[^2] Emotions are therefore not blind, animalistic forces but intelligent and discriminating parts of the personality, closely related to certain beliefs and therefore susceptible to cognitive modification. All major Greek thinkers from Plato onward agree that belief is a *necessary condition* of emotion in each case. These beliefs could be good or bad. To believe that something has great value is to respond with great joy when it is present, with great fear when it is threatened, with great grief when it is lost, with great anger when willfully damaged, and with great pity when lost due to no fault of one’s own.[^3] The positive appreciation of emotions by Aristotle and their amenability to reason are echoed in the writings of the Islamic philosophers of the eleventh century, including Miskawayh (d. 1030), al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1040) and al-Ghazālī (d. 1111).[^4] Both the Greek and Islamic philosophers share the paradigm of the tripartite division of the soul, into the rational (reason), concupiscent (desire), and irascible (anger) faculties. The rational faculty enables humans to control the two lower faculties of desire and anger, leading to the four cardinal virtues of the soul: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. The Islamic philosophers of the eleventh century adopted the rider-horse-dog metaphor from Galen and Aristotle. This imagery, with the dog leading the way in hunting, vividly explains the dynamic relationship between the three faculties of the soul. The rider is the metaphor for reason, the horse the metaphor for desire, and the dog the metaphor for anger (or emotions). A person guided by reason coordinates these three faculties in the right proportion. The dog is an apt metaphor for emotions. Just as the dog obeys the rider, the emotions obey reason.[^5] When the rational faculty has control over the two lower faculties of the soul, the soul will be balanced, and the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice will emerge. But if the soul is not in balance, the vices of the soul will emerge. For example, the irascible faculty represents the human emotions, particularly anger. The positive quality that arises out of the control of the irascible faculty is courage. But when the emotions are not in control, the negative qualities of cowardice and rashness emerge. Courage is therefore the mean between these two extremes. However, the focus of my essay is not on the positive virtues that arise from the emotions, but on the vices that arise due to immoderate emotions. Although the Islamic philosophers borrowed the psychology of the soul from the Hellenistic philosophers, they integrated it into an Islamic worldview that has its own original concepts. I shall deal with the Qur’anic perspective on emotions as interpreted mainly by Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1040). He is known for his Qur’anic lexicon *Alfāẓ Mufradāt al-Qurʾān*. But less is known about his *Kitāb* *al-Dharīʿah* *ilá makārim al-sharīʿah*  (Book of Means to the Noble Virtues of the Sacred Law).[^6] *Means to the Noble Virtues* in turn inspired al-Ghazālī’s (d. 1111) *Mīzān al-ʿAmal* (The Scale of Action).[^7] I used the word ‘healing’ in the title as al-Iṣfahānī’s focus is on self-healing rather than therapy. A professional therapist is needed when one cannot use the cognitive and spiritual tools oneself but requires a second person’s intervention. The Qur’an’s approach is primarily self-reorientation through ethical and spiritual transformation. Western models do not teach about spiritual well being. The Islamic treatment of irrational emotions applies concepts such as patience, forbearance, remembrance of God, and repentance. These are not intervention-based therapeutic tools but, if need be, they can be used by professional Islamic psychologists. However, cognition is not the only force that drives emotion as emotion itself can guide human action. The typical classical view is that emotions have an intelligent element and are amenable to control by the intellect. However, there are also atypical cases of emotions that are not directed by reason at all. Nussbaum states: “There are feelings without rich intentionality or cognitive content, let us say, feelings of fatigue, of extra energy, of boiling, of trembling and so forth.”[^8] There is the nonconscious fear of death in the background, for example. But it is a specific circumstance, such as severe illness, that makes us conscious of our fear of death. The ongoing fear of death is a hidden psychological reality, but it is only in certain circumstances that we notice the fear.[^9] There are also emotional states that are not guided by reason at all, nor by our conscious will. The Qur’an states: “God contracts and expands and to Him you shall return” (2:245). In Sufism, *baṣt* (spiritual expansion) is a profound involuntary spiritual state that overtakes a spiritual seeker, as a result of which they feel the presence of God. It is accompanied by feelings of joy, hope, and compassion. The person is free of all spiritual blockages. The opposite state is *qabḍ* (contraction of the soul); here the link between the individual and God is cut, causing distress and spiritual blockages. Ironically, contraction is more beneficial as it is by trials and tribulations that one is purified. There is no intentionality nor intelligence in these emotions. They are  outside human volition and completely in the Invisible Hand of God, Who directs all things from the heavens to the hearts. We are reminded of this in the Prophetic saying: “The heart is between the two fingers of the All-Merciful. He turns it from state to state and gives it whatever form He wishes.”[^10] Contraction is caused by God’s Majesty, and expansion is by His Grace. The former is accompanied by fear and anxiety and the latter is accompanied by joy and rapture.[^11] Thus, these emotional states of fear and joy, of contraction and expansion, are spiritual states of the heart, controlled by God, not by human reason and volition. These emotions are spiritual states, not rational. They are advanced stages of the human soul. The advanced stages cannot be reached without the earlier conscious struggle of the soul against bodily desires and worldly distractions. According to Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 1350), it is important to overcome condemnable habits and mechanical ways of worship, and this can only be done through knowledge and removal of all worldly obstacles to the spiritual path. After all these preliminary modes of conscious action, the spiritual seeker will then tread the path of contraction and expansion, and it is at this level that they will transcend the station of Islam and rise to the station of faith (*īmān*) and, from the station of faith, rise to the level of excellence (*iḥsān*). It is at the level of excellence that worship no longer becomes a burden or a mechanical exercise,  but will emerge spontaneously from the heart. The worshipper at this level will fluctuate between contraction and expansion, between fear and hope. In fear he or she turns to God for forgiveness and in hope he or she remains vigilant to avoid complacency.[^12] As mentioned, the early stage is important for the believer’s struggle with their  painful past and the dark side of the psyche. As soon as one weans oneself of the temporal and sensible, one achieves a remarkable independence, and one’s soul is made happy by the Grace of God. It is important to have a realistic appraisal of oneself and not a fictitious self-perception that will impede self-knowledge. When we do not acknowledge the truth of our emotions, we are guilty of spiritual bypassing. Spiritual ascent must take place within the context of our humanity and not by escaping from it. It is only when we come to terms with the painful reality of our emotions that we are able to spiritually transcend our psyche. Reason alone is not enough to manage the extreme emotions; we also need to turn to the Qur’an as a source of guidance. Believers try to remember God in all of their struggles. The Qur’an is the best form of remembrance of God and its curative properties are mentioned in a few verses: “And We send down the Qur’an as a cure and a mercy for believers” (17:82). Also, the exhortation brought to the Prophet ﷺ is described as, “A cure for that which lies within breasts” (10:57). Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) describes the Qur’an as a healing for all diseases of the soul: > The Qur’an is a cure for all \[ailments\] of the heart, including the ailments of doubt and passions. It explains how falsehood can be removed from truth, and how the diseases of corrupting doubt can be removed from knowledge, imagination, and apprehension, whereby \[the believer\] can see things as they really are. The Qur’an’s wisdom and kind preaching instill desire and hope. Desire for that which benefits the heart, and aversion for that which harms it. The heart that used to desire vice and abhor virtue will now desire virtue and abhor vice. The Qur’an removes the diseases \[of the heart\] that are directed at the corrupted will. It reforms the heart and restores the will \[towards what is right\], and returns the heart to its original state of *fiṭrah* (primordial purity) just as the body would return to its original state \[of health\]. Just as the body is strengthened with nourishing food, the heart is purified with nourishing faith and the \[guidance of the\] Qur’an. Thus, the increasing purification of the heart is comparable to the increasing maturation of the body.[^13] --- ## The emotion of anger ### The nature of anger Anger is not just directed at a particular person but it is determined by how one views that person or how one believes that person to be. Thus, if it can be shown that the anger is based on false perception, then the anger will subside. Let us take the example of the man who bumped into a lady at a supermarket. The tomato sauce and eggs were strewn on the floor, staining her skirt and shoes. In a rage, she took her umbrella and hit him on the head, saying: “Are you blind! Can’t you see where you are walking?” As the man tried to get up, with blood dripping, she realized that he was indeed blind, and said: “I’m so sorry, can I help?” This is a simple example of how perception can change from seeing people as vicious to seeing them as mistaken. If one can adopt this attitude to people in general, it will help to calm one’s irascible temperament. Anger is a necessary motivation for defending things that are loved, or deemed to be important, if those things have deliberately been damaged. If you care for someone, you will fear if he or she is threatened, grieve when he or she suffers, and become angry when he or she is harmed.[^14] Moderate anger can lead to justice and courage; immoderate anger can lead to extreme violence or cowardice. According to al-Iṣfahānī, the disposition of anger varies in different people. > Human anger is like fire. Some people are like grass \[*Cladium mariscus*\]: quick to burn and slow to extinguish. Others are like leaves \[black saxaul\], slow to burn and slow to extinguish. Differences in anger align with differences in human nature: a person with a hot, dry temperament has a fiery temper, while one with a cold, humid temperament has a mild temper. Differences in anger also depend on dispositions: some people are quiet and calm, having a gentle, modest temperament; while others are noisy and idly furious over small things like the dog who barks at a stranger. Young boys and women are prone to be quick-tempered, whereas the elderly are likely to be merely irritated.[^15] Al-Iṣfahānī explains how anger manifests itself in three situations: > When the irascible faculty, the faculty of anger \[*al-ḥamīyah*\], is triggered, it alters the circulation of blood. This happens in three situations: when a person is angry with his superior, or angry with his inferior, or angry with his equal. If he is angry with his superior and cannot express his anger, the muscles of his heart contract, his blood flows more slowly, and his anger turns to sorrow \[*al-ghamm*\]. If he is angry with his inferior, and can express his anger, his blood circulates quickly, and he is ready for revenge. This is real anger \[*al-ghaḍab*\]. If he is angry with his equal and is uncertain whether he can express his anger at them, his circulation fluctuates between slowing down and speeding up, his nerves are agitated, and his hostility intensifies. Sorrow and anger are therefore related: they are derived from the same faculty but are different emotions.[^16] Thus, the emotion of anger manifests itself in different forms: with one’s inferior the anger is direct and blunt, whereas with one’s superior it is turned inward into sorrow. According to al-Iṣfahānī, the nature of anger is such that it makes the blood boil, filling the veins and brain with thick black smoke so that the brain is unable to take wise action. He gives the analogy of a blazing fire. Just as the blazing fire in a small cave makes it difficult for one to come close enough to extinguish it, so too is the fire of ferocious indignation difficult to extinguish because the angry soul is impervious to guidance and religious exhortations.[^17] Al-Iṣfahānī regards anger as positive or negative, depending on whether it is guided by reason. It is not the obliteration of anger that is virtuous, but how it is managed through reason. One of the positive expressions of anger is ‘jealous wrath’ \[*al-ghῑrah*\], which is to stand for what is just and to protect the sacred, especially women. This is a God-given faculty. It enables one to protect one’s dignity, one’s household and family, and one’s farm and city.[^18] ### The healing of anger Anger arises when certain human drives are stifled, including the religious drive. When the companions of the Prophet ﷺ were oppressed by the Quraysh, they adopted a harsh attitude in accordance with divine instruction: “Muḥammad is the messenger of God. Those who are with him are harsh against the unbelievers, merciful to one another” (Qur’an 48:29). However, believers are generally composed in adversity. When the Quraysh prevented them from entering Mecca to perform the pilgrimage, they responded as the Qur’an states: “When those who disbelieve set zealotry in their hearts, the zealotry of the Age of Ignorance, God sent down His tranquility upon his Messenger and the believers, enjoining the word of reverence upon them” (48:26). The zealotry in their hearts (*ḥamīyat al-jāhilīyah*) refers to the haughty way the Quraysh dictated the Treaty of Ḥudaybīyah, enforcing the prohibition of Muslims from entering Mecca. The Prophet ﷺ and his companions accepted the unfavorable treaty with patience and composure. Al-Iṣfahānī commends those who control their anger, stating: > Those who control their anger are truly courageous and powerful. God loves the beneficent: those who curb their anger, and who pardon their fellow men (Qur’an 3:134). The Prophet ﷺ said to some young men lifting a heavy rock, “Shall I tell you who is the strongest? It is not he who conquers others with physical strength, but he who can control his anger.”[^19] When the Prophet ﷺ and his companions conquered Mecca, the Quraysh were afraid that he would take revenge, but he pardoned his enemies and said: “Whoever enters the house of Abū Sufyān shall be secure; whoever remains in his own house shall also be secure; and whoever enters the Mosque shall be secure.”[^20] This is the way of peace, not violence. Blind anger is not justified, but anger based on sound judgment is. Although justice is a valid option, it is better to forgive according to chapter 2, verse 237.[^21] ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzῑz (d. 101), the righteous Umayyad Caliph, instructed his slave to whip a man. When the man recited the verse, “Those who restrain their anger” (Qur’an 3:134), ʿUmar said to his slave, “Leave him.”[^22] Al-Iṣfahānī explains the causes of anger, and how to manage it, stating: > It is said that anger is temporary insanity. This insanity may disturb the natural heat of the heart, leading to serious illness or damage. The causes of anger are conceit, boasting, quarrelsomeness, obstinacy, teasing, haughtiness, mockery, injustice, competitiveness, envy, and vengeance. A person overtaken by anger should pause and reflect: if he has power over the person who has enraged him, there is no point to his rage, because he is able to take appropriate action. If he is angry with his superior but is not able to express his anger directly, he should not torment himself but rather have patience until he has the power to act with anger. A sage was asked, “How shall I prevent anger?” He replied, “Remember to obey and not only be obeyed, to serve and not only be served, to endure and not only be endured, and know that God watches you constantly. This will curb anger, and if you feel angry nevertheless, it will not be fierce.” [^23] An angry master should be patient and delay the punishment of his servant; and the angry servant should be patient and delay expressing anger towards his master. Fierce anger can be healed through humility, forbearance (*ḥilm*), and forgiveness (*ʿafw*).[^24] If provoked, you naturally feel angry but you should control it; otherwise, it will lead to bitter feelings and enmity which can be toxic and self-defeating. Thus, restraining one’s anger is a form of forgiveness. *Ḥilm* \[forbearance\] means self-restraint in times of anger. It is accomplished by restraining the hands from harming others, the tongue from foul speech, the ears from eavesdropping, and the eyes from lustful looks. Forbearance implies emotional intelligence. Those who lack the quality of forbearance lack intellect; as God states: “Is it their intellects that commanded them to do this, or are they a rebellious nation?” (Qur’an 52:32). The disbelievers accused the Prophet ﷺ of being a poet and soothsayer. Their accusations were irrational, based on misguidance and recalcitrance.[^25] *ʿAfw* \[pardon\] and *ṣafḥ* (forgiveness; overlooking a person’s faults\]) are forms of forbearance. To pardon is to withhold punishment; to forgive is to overlook someone’s wrongdoing. Forgiveness is praiseworthy if practiced properly*:* “so forgive with a most gracious forgiveness \[without grudge\]” (Qur’an 15:85). God draws attention to the benefits of pardon to the pardoner: > Those who curb their anger and those who pardon their fellow men: God loves those who do good (Qur’an 3:134). > Yet, pardon them and forgive: God surely loves those who do good to others (Qur’an 5:13). > He who pardons and makes peace, his reward is with God (Qur’an 42:40). [^26] Pardon is sweeter than revenge. Pardon leads to gratitude while revenge leads to regret.[^27] This is a divine quality to be emulated, albeit at the human level.[^28] Forbearance is to bear the wrongs of others with patience, as God states: “O you who believe! Seek help in patience and prayer. Truly God is with the patient” (Qur’an 2:153; cf. 90:17; 10:33). That is, God is with those patient ones who are content in times of affliction.[^29] --- ## The emotion of sorrow (ghamm)[^30] ### Description of sorrow Anger, fear, and sorrow are emotions of the irascible faculty of the soul. If guided by reason, they become moderate emotions; otherwise, they are expressed in extreme and irrational ways. Sorrow is connected to one’s belief that one has lost something valuable; if one is made to realize that that something is not as valuable as one thought, the sorrow will be removed. Sorrow can also be the result of shame for a defect in one’s ability or morality. Sorrow is transmuted into pity if it pertains to the misfortune of another; it becomes envy if it concerns the success of one’s competitor. Sorrow as a result of a sin can become regret. Al-Iṣfahānī uses the term *ghamm* for sorrow, which means to cover up happiness and forbearance. *Ghamm* in the heart “veils or precludes happiness: it may therefore be rendered gloominess of mind.” It is synonymous with *ḥuzn* (sadness).[^31] Another related term is *hamm*, which pertains to anxiety connected to perceived danger of future events. And *ḥuzn*/*ghamm* (sadness) relates more to sorrow connected to past events. According to Abū Zayd al-Balkhῑ (born 235/849), author of *Maṣāliḥ al-Abdān wa-al-Anfus* (Sustenance for Bodies and Souls), a pioneer in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: “If the sadness or grief increases in intensity, it then becomes outright depression and melancholy. A person who suffers from this extreme state will succumb to hopelessness and impatience, described by the Arabic word *jaza*ʿ.”[^32] Stress and anxiety were to al-Balkhῑ the main causes of psychological illness of the soul, while joy and happiness are the main causes of the health of the soul.[^33] Webster’s Dictionary defines sorrow as a general term, ‘“implying a sense of loss or guilt.” Synonyms that express the same idea of ‘distress of mind’ include grief, anguish, and regret. Grief denotes intense emotional suffering; anguish denotes distress of mind that is excruciating or torturing beyond bearing, and regret connotes deep disappointment or spiritual anguish.[^34] Extreme sorrow is called ‘depression’ in modern psychology, which is a despondent condition. One significant variety is endogenous depression, which has the following symptoms: “groundless, deeply-felt sadness (melancholia), anxiety or excitement, and typical, sometimes imaginary, ideas of impoverishment; self-accusation, convictions of sinfulness, depersonalization with a tormenting loss of emotional life… pathognomonic somatic disorders in the form of insomnia, periodical fluctuations of emotional condition with a morning low, loss of appetite and weight, and vegetative disorders… There is an essential danger of suicide in endogenous depressions.”[^35]According to Professor Badri, endogenous depression requires medication and hospitalization as the patient is psychotic, with symptoms of severe guilt, depressive moods, and false perceptions. But reactive depression is caused by environmental factors and involves morbid feelings about real or anticipated loss or a stressful life event. This is a neurotically depressed person who does not suffer from psychotic symptoms of hallucinations and who has not lost touch with reality. Such a person can respond to cognitive therapy.[^36] Abū Zayd al-Balkhῑ made this distinction between endogenous depression and exogenous depression in the ninth century. He states: > *Ḥuzn*, sadness or depression, is of two kinds, The (environmental) causes for one of them is \[sic\] clearly known, such as the loss of a loved relative, bankruptcy or loss of something the depressed person values greatly. The other type has no known reasons. It is a sudden affliction of sorrow and distress *ghummah*, which persists all the time preventing the afflicted person from physical activity or from showing any happiness, or enjoying any of the pleasures of *shahwah* (food and sex). The patient does not know any clear reasons for his lack of activity and distress. This type of *ḥuzn* or depression with known reasons is caused by bodily symptoms such as impurity of the blood and other changes in it. Its treatment is a physical medical one which aims at purifying the blood.[^37] Such a person who suffers from reactive depression requires counseling or healing through natural ethical and spiritual concepts and perspectives. Al-Iṣfahānī’s therapeutic counselling is intended for such persons. Our sorrow, grief, or anguish is a result of the stories we tell ourselves, about how we, or the world, are fundamentally flawed. This could be based on mental fabrication, perception, or an interpretation of one’s experience. We may perceive something as right or wrong, and only through applying our reason can we distinguish between them. Sorrow is a natural emotion when we experience loss of life, illness, or some moral failure. Sorrow takes on different forms and names. Sorrow due to the discovery of some defect of ability is shame. It is the apprehension of something dishonorable in oneself. Sorrow over the calamity of someone else is pity and may arise out of the feeling that such a condition might also befall oneself. Sorrow over the success of a competitor may lead to emulation insofar as one wants to equal or exceed that person in ability, but if it is to hinder the progress of the competitor, then it is called envy. Sorrow in modern medical terms is called ‘depression,’ which implies treatment through medication. But if the cause of this sorrow is circumstantial, such as in losing a job or a dear one, then medication might only provide temporary relief. It cannot treat the root cause of the problem, which is psychological. We prefer the terms ‘sorrow,’ ‘grief,’ or ‘melancholy’ as they do not imply an unredeemable malady, but are natural human emotions that aid the healing process. ### The healing of sorrow (ghamm)[^38] In a previous article I discussed the concept of happiness[^39] and the importance of detachment from the material world. We are often disturbed by the loss of material things because we place great value on those things of a transient nature. God states: “Wealth and children are the adornments of the life of this world, but that which endures, \[such as\] righteous deeds, is better in reward with thy Lord, and better \[as a source\] of hope” (Qur’an 18:46). The Qur’an reminds us to adopt an attitude of detachment to this world as the material world will not avail us in the hereafter. The pursuit of virtue will lead to enduring happiness. Wise believers are aware of the impermanence of this world. They are satisfied with little, knowing that real wealth awaits them in the hereafter. They say, “Praise be to Allah who lifted our sorrow. Our Lord is indeed All-Forgiving, All-Appreciative” (Qur’an 35:34-35). Such a person is content with God’s gifts. The rational faculty is key to the attainment of a balanced soul. Through sober reflection we can work through the troubles of the soul and overcome feelings of misery and sorrow. We also need to understand our emotions. We should be open to reflection and insight into our emotional states. Every situation is different, and every person is faced with a different challenge, but we are not concerned here with specifics, but with a general cognitive Islamic attitude towards emotional distress. If we are engrossed in emotion and cannot step back and reflect on it in an objective manner, then we may need professional therapy to help us understand our experience in light of our own worldview, whether religious or secular.[^40] The Muslim therapist will consider the Qur’anic worldview of a Muslim patient and use it as a framework for making sense of their emotional experiences and help them move forward in a manner that does not conflict with Islamic values. Needless to say, the Muslim therapist who is trained in Western psychology, should be able to make the distinction between the Western approach and the Islamic approach to dealing with the psyche. While they are both concerned with the psyche, Islamic psychology goes beyond the psyche, as its main reference point is not the self but God. That is why the spiritual growth of the individual starts with purification of the heart and transcends the psyche spiritually towards God. Once the inner state of the heart is changed, the outward aspect of human behavior changes accordingly. Victor Frankl is open to spiritual values that help us find meaning in our  psychological suffering. Sometimes suffering is unchangeable; we cannot escape illness or death but we can change our attitude towards them. He calls these values “attitudinal values.”[^41]  He acknowledges the central importance of belief in divine providence in psychotherapy, stating: “It is self-evident that belief in a super-meaning—whether as a metaphysical concept or in the religious sense of Providence—is of the foremost psychotherapeutic or psychohygienic importance.”[^42] We can also benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is the mainstream practice in psychology today, provided it is combined with Islamic guidance. I have alluded to the classical philosophical view on reason’s role in moderating emotions. But this is only a first step in  transforming the soul. It is important to work on the psyche, but the person requires a proper regimen for the purification of the soul. Faith in divine providence enables us to see the bigger picture. We will not be depressed over small harms if we can see the overall good of God’s bounties. This is optimism in the face of misfortune, and involves recognition that what appears evil may be good for a person, as God states: “But it may be that you hate a thing though it be good for you, and it may be that you love a thing though it be evil for you” (Qur’an 2: 216). Believers should be patient in times of misfortune. By accepting divine destiny, they will be able to cope with sorrow. However, a *cognitive* acceptance of divine destiny is not enough and does not necessarily cure sorrow, which can only come about through accepting divine destiny from the heart, as exemplified by Prophet Jacob عليه السلام. Prophet Jacob was separated from his son and wept. However, he accepted this loss as part of divine destiny and bore his suffering with forbearance. Jacob عليه السلام exemplifies the Qur’anic attitude towards calamities: > We will indeed test you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth, souls, and fruits; and give glad tidings to the patient—those who when affliction befalls them, say; “Truly we are God’s and unto Him we return.” They are those upon whom come the blessings from their Lord, and compassion, and they are those who are rightly guided. (Qur’an 2: 155-157) Jacob عليه السلام was tested with the loss of friends and relatives; the loss of ‘fruits’ could mean the death of children.[^43] In his case, he lost his son, and became so  melancholic that he became blind because of his tears. Nevertheless, he had complete trust in Divine Providence; acknowledging from the heart that our return is eventually to God. Al-Iṣfahānī reflects on what is possible and impossible with respect to the causes of sorrow, and reminds the reader that Divine Providence prevails in all matters, including old age and death. He states: > There is anxiety/sorrow \[*ghamm*\] over the future in response to three things: the impossible, the necessary and the possible. The impossible is of no concern to the intelligent man. The necessary includes death and the possible is old age. These are all unavoidable. Only the ignorant are anxious about them. If sorrow can be prevented, one should act quickly. If it cannot be avoided, one should have forbearance and be aware of what God has decreed: “No calamity can befall the earth, nor your own selves, unless it be \[laid down\] in Our decree before we bring it into existence. Verily, all this is easy for God. \[Know this\] so that you may not despair over whatever \[good\] has escaped you, for God does not not love any of those who, out of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner” (Qur’an 57:22-23).[^44] If we know with certainty in the heart that everything happens by Divine decree, we will cope with affliction with patience and acceptance. We should appreciate the fact that we cannot change our birth, our aging, and our death, but we can change our attitude towards them. So that which we can change we must. If we are distressed because we fail to accomplish a particular sound action, then why do we not persist in the action rather than yield to the distress? And it is no use being distressed over that which we cannot change. And that which we cannot change we must learn to accept. We cannot alter the fact that we grow old, but we can  gracefully learn to embrace it, as Ulysses counsels his elderly companions, stating: > Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ > > We are not now that strength in old days moved earth and heaven > > That which we are, we are; > > One equal temper of heroic hearts, > > made weak by time and fate, but strong in will > > To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.[^45] Ulysses exhorts his companions to accept their fate; although weak with time, they should continue to strive and fill the time allotted to them to the brim with action and with thought. They should do their duty, avoid useless sorrow, and patiently acquiesce to the inevitable. In a similar vein, al-Iṣfahānī counsels us to use our reason, and to come to the realization that nothing remains the same, even our age. He cites a passage from a sage: > Sages have said: Sorrow is caused either by the loss of a beloved or by an unfulfilled desire. Nobody is free of such sorrows, because this is a world of change, instability, and impermanence. He who thinks that he can live forever with his family and dear ones is not using his mind. He wishes to own what is not his. The intelligent person is aware that his fortunes will ultimately return to the owner, and those who are attached to these fortunes will inevitably suffer calamities at some stage.[^46] Thus, there can be no permanence in this material world. Our possessions are not enduring, and our attachment to them will lead to sorrow. If we turn our gaze to the heavens, away from the material world, we will not suffer that much. We can enjoy the material goods of the world, but should not be so attached to them, lest we suffer grief because of their loss. If we realize that our happiness does not depend on the ephemeral things of this world, we will learn to cope with their loss without feeling depressed. These things should be in our hands, but not in our hearts. But if we hanker after these material goods, we will suffer great disappointment, as al-Iṣfahānī states: > It is good for a person to possess fewer of those things that he would be sad to lose. When a sage was once asked why he was not sad, he replied, “Because I do not acquire those things that I would be unhappy to lose.” \[Another sage was asked whether we can live peacefully\], and he said: “Yes, indeed, provided a person avoids wrong, is content with wealth, and does not grieve over his fate.”[^47] Why is it that although we know cognitively that God is Wise and All-Knowing, we still find it difficult to cope with the misfortunes that befall us? That is  because we either lack conviction in God’s knowledge and power, or we lack insight into the momentary nature of calamities. If we know that afflictions are not a permanent reality, we will have hope that they will go away. And if we are free of afflictions, then we can be happy, but not be too complacent, as the afflictions may strike us, sooner or later. Thus, we should prepare ourselves for tragedies through faith in Divine Providence. This is how we can learn to cope, not only with the losses of the past but also the losses of the future. Trust in God and resign yourself to His will, irrespective of the outcome. Matters of a transient nature will not avail us on the Day of Judgment, as God states: “Disgrace me not on the day they are resurrected, the Day when neither wealth nor children avail, save for him who comes to God with a sound heart” (Qur’an 26: 87-89). The ‘sound heart’ refers to knowing that God is real, that the hereafter will come, and that God will resurrect those in the graves. The sound heart is free of polytheism, free of worldly attachments, and free of forgetfulness.[^48] Al-Ghazālī felt that his heart needed to be purified. He used to impart knowledge for the sake of fame, not for the sake of God. He questioned his intentions and felt guilty. This led to his psycho-spiritual crisis, which  manifested in physiological symptoms, such as loss of appetite, speech, and sleep. In his autobiography, al-Ghazālī states: > I also perceived that I could not hope for eternal happiness unless I feared God and rejected all the passions; that is to say, I should begin by breaking my heart’s attachment to the world. I needed to abandon the illusions of life on earth in order to direct my attention towards my eternal home with the most intense desire for God, the Almighty. This entailed avoiding all honors and health, and escaping from everything that usually occupies a person and ties him down. Turning to look inward, I perceived that I was bound by attachments from all sides. I meditated on all that I had done, teaching and instructing being my proudest achievements, and I perceived that all my studies were futile, since they were of no value for the Way to the Hereafter. Moreover, what was my purpose in teaching? My intention had not been pure, for it had not been directed towards God the Almighty alone. Had I not preferred to seek glory and renown?  I was teetering on the edge of a precipice, and if I did not step back I would plunge into the Fire.[^49] The physician could not cure him, as his ailment was not physical, but spiritual. So he sought the counsel of a Sufi Shaykh, who told him: “The way is to detach yourself from the material world to such an extent that your heart does not turn even to family, wealth, country, knowledge, or power.”[^50] I am not sure if the average Muslim can make such a sacrifice but somehow al-Ghazālī felt compelled to make such a radical move. He did, however, make financial provision for his family before his departure from Baghdad. As seen in the above passage, he was overwhelmed by guilt and thought that he was on the brink of hellfire. This guilt became a redemptive force in his life, inspiring him to break away from worldly attachments and work on the purification of his soul. People who are unable to forgive themselves for past mistakes by allowing God’s forgiveness to enter into their heart will remain forever tied to their damaging effects, creating for themselves the enormous psychological burdens of guilt, shame, and resentment. For people to change, they must recognize their wrongdoing and that their lives are out of alignment with their deep values and primordial nature. We sometimes escape from the painful reality of our own wrongdoing, resorting to denial, repression, and projection. Awareness of our wrong is the first step to change, but it is not enough. We need to feel a deep sense of remorse, turn to God in repentance, followed by the decision to change our inner state. According to al-Muḥāsibῑ (d. 857), the first step on the spiritual path of return to God is *tawbah* (repentance), and he defined it as “regret for past sins and the resolution not to return to those sins.”[^51] This is not a new idea but is based on the Qur’anic verse to this effect: “And those who when they do an evil thing or wrong themselves remember God and implore forgiveness for their sins, and who forgives sins but God? And they do not knowingly persist in what they did” (Qur’an 3:135). However, al-Muhasibi developed a theory of repentance as the first step on the spiritual path that will rescue one from the inner anguish of guilt and hopelessness. In traditional societies, if a person has committed a crime, they are banished from society; in modern societies, the person is put in prison. These are both external forms of punishment, but they do not always reform the individual from within. In Dostoevsky’s *Crime and Punishment*, Raskolnikov, a poor law student, murders an elderly woman and steals her money. He is remorseful and confesses to his crime. His moral conscience rehabilitates him, not the external punishment of the law. This is the ethic of self-imposed accusation (*al-nafs al-lawwāmah*). This is often more effective than the court’s sentence of incarceration. Prisons tend to be crime factories, but this is not to say that people cannot be reformed in prison. Some people find God in prison. Islam does not shun external forms of punishment, as it is important for maintaining order in society. In psychoanalysis, catharsis is a purging or release of repressed emotions associated with unacknowledged trauma. The technique of free association allows the patient to express himself freely until repressed material is brought to light.[^52] We have no issue with it if it is going to cure the patient of certain fears, such as a phobia of snakes. Psychoanalysis has the merit of helping the client develop an emotional understanding of his or her past and allows the client to express himself or herself freely without having to be judged for past mistakes. However, a demerit of psychoanalysis is that it leaves the impression that certain repressions of past sins are dangerous. While there is nothing wrong in retrieving past sins from the unconscious, the point is that religious patients may be ashamed of their sins. From a religious perspective, the sense of shame for sins committed is virtuous, but in psychoanalysis it is considered problematic. When a believer commits a wrong, they feel guilt and experience a mild form of anxiety, which is quite normal and appropriate as it produces a feeling of shame which acts as a restraint against repeating the wrong. This sense of shame is borne out of the self-accusing soul (*al-nafs al-lawwāmah*), which is basically the human conscience. When one feels such guilt, it is prudent to consult a wise elderly person, not necessarily a professional therapist, in order to relieve oneself of the anxiety, as well as to seek advice and guidance. Some people conceal their sense of guilt, and in the process torture themselves, a punishment dealt with by the subconscious. They are always in a state of agitation. The correct way is to confess one’s mistake and to find a way to compensate for it. It is this sense of shame that prevents a believer from committing immoral acts, or if they do commit sins, it is this sense of shame that drives them to correct their immoral conduct. Religion must strongly disagree with psychoanalysis in this respect for, in trying to extirpate shame it has broken down one of the pillars of morality. Thus, psychoanalysis, like other Western forms of psychotherapy, has serious limitations. It cannot address the problem of sin and when the client has to make a moral choice, it can do nothing for the client and religion has to take over. Frankl states: > But true human melancholia with its characteristic guilt feelings, self-reproaches, and self-accusations would be inconceivable in an animal. The ‘symptom’ of conscientious anxiety in the melancholic is not the product of melancholia as a physical illness, but represents an ‘accomplishment’ of the human being as a spiritual person.[^53] The guilt of the client cannot be washed away by catharsis, which only helps to retrieve the emotions from the unconscious. The problem of sin is psychospiritual, not merely psychological. Psychoanalysis as a technique can only help the client recollect the sins but cannot deal with the problem of sin, which can only be overcome through repentance. *Tawbah* (repentance) comes from the verb *tāba*, which literally means: “He repented; or repented towards God; originally, he returned unto God from sin, or from his sin, or from disobedience to obedience… Hence, the noun *tawbah* signifies the repenting from sin; i.e., the grieving for it, or regretting it, with the confession of having no excuse for the commission thereof.”[^54] The verb is also used for God’s response to the repentant one, as in: *fa-tāba ʿalayhi* (He accepted his repentance). In turning away from sin, we return towards our *fiṭrah* (primordial nature). And we turn to God because He is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful (Qur’an 4:17-18), and because He instructs us to turn to Him sincerely: “O You who believe, turn to God in true, sincere repentance” (Qur’an 66:8). This sincere repentance depends on three things: an acknowledgment of one’s sin, remorse for the sin committed, and a firm resolution to give up the sin in the future.[^55] Repentance involves a process of recollection of one’s sins but it also requires self-examination (*muḥāsabah*). It is not a matter of just remembering the past but of consciously trying to recollect sinful movements, thoughts, spending, and unjust actions towards others. If believers do not consider their actions in this world, they will be subject to God’s judgment in the next world.[^56] In this way, they can retrieve from their memory repressed sins from their unconscious. They should have no defense mechanisms or justifications for their moral failings but should strive to rectify themselves firstly through contrition, then turning to God for forgiveness, and finally resolving not to repeat their sins.[^57] People who become addicted to sin due to its repetition and are enveloped in the darkness of sinfulness do not feel that they are doing something evil. They continue to advance on the path of sinfulness until the agony of death seizes them. Repentance at the moment of death is not accepted. I know a Muslim professor who became an existentialist atheist. After rejection from family, failed marriages, an immoral life, and a humiliating academic career, he suffered from depression and committed suicide. His diary before he died reveals his regret for his past actions. He had no family to turn to for solace, and no God to turn to for forgiveness. His deep anguish and depression compelled him to take his own life. As an atheist, repentance was not an option for him. He had no recourse to repentance (*tawbah*), which could have saved him from despair. Repentance is a process of  psycho-spiritual catharsis. It purges one of repressed emotions and liberates one from anxiety and guilt. The believer is saved through faith in a Merciful God. Faith in God, like a relief valve, helps regulate psychic urges which are themselves the mainspring of our spiritual afflictions. Faith in God gives a visage of perfect beauty to life because when one has the conviction that everything does not come to an end with this life, it creates an inner peace and makes one traverse the entire course of life with steadiness and moderation. --- ## The healing of fear (khawf) ### Description of fear Fear is based on the perception of impending danger. Often fear grows over the most ordinary things, is highly exaggerated, and mostly not based on reality. Fear is often a reaction to an external situation that one anticipates resulting in harm. Fear is mostly disconnected from reality, as it is said: “Most of the terror comes from the anticipation of the terror.” Al-Balkhī states: “Some of the scholars have likened it to the things that frighten people to a thick ground fog in a cold country. An uninformed person (like an Arab Bedouin living in a hot desert) would think it to be a solid (black) object without any outlets and that it can trap people inside it. However, if daring to enter he would find it to be simply moist air that he can breathe.”[^58] A synonym for fear is ‘dread,’ which implies apprehension and anxiety, but it frequently also suggests a loss of courage, amounting to cowardice. Anxiety is an internal response to this fearful external stimulus. Anxiety, depending on its source, could be acute or chronic, while fear tends to be episodic. In modern psychology, anxiety is defined as “the autonomic response pattern characteristic of a particular individual organism, after the administration of a noxious stimulus.”[^59] Whether the noxious stimulus comes from within or without depends on the agent. Fear and anxiety are related but require differentiation; fear is a result of a perceived external threat, whereas anxiety is triggered by cognitively-perceived impending fear. Anxiety is a more inward, subjective feeling. Anxiety is a naturally inbuilt survival tool that helps us sense real and impending danger, or where alertness is required. A chronic state of anxiety can pervade one’s normal behavior and causes a person to think or behave in an irrational manner. The degree of anxiety also depends on one’s degree of tolerance for uncertainty, which in turn relates to the extent of our faith in divine destiny.  Research on the etiology of worry suggested that uncertainty is the root cause of worry and anxiety disorder, which in turn leads to fear. Increased anxiety also leads to a sense of hopelessness and pessimism about the future, which is antithetical to the Islamic perspective of hope in divine destiny.[^60] As already indicated, Islam does not promote the stoic attitude of the extirpation of emotions. Emotions do have a positive role to play, provided they are properly controlled and shape the virtues that are important for happiness in this world and the hereafter. If the emotion of fear is extreme, it can be psychologically unhealthy, but if it is moderated and properly in tune with the fear of divine justice, then it is a fear that is healthy and spiritually rewarding. Believers also experience fear; it is a natural condition of human nature, but their fear is handled differently. Many Prophets experienced fear as a natural emotion. Chapter 12 in the Qur’an describes the fear of Prophet Jacob عليه السلام, when his sons took little Joseph into the forest. Prophet Abraham عليه السلام feared something bad, as his visitors did not accept his hospitality. But they brought good news as God states: “Then he \[Abraham\] conceived a fear of them. They said, ‘Fear not!’ and gave him glad tidings of a knowing son” (Qur’an 51:28). Abraham had fear because he offered his visitors food but they did not accept it. In Arab culture, not accepting food being offered is a sign of hostility. But they were not hostile and they consoled him with glad tidings of a son. The majority of commentators maintain that the son was Isaac.[^61] The Qur’an describes human nature as constantly tending towards anxiety and fear, whether due to misfortune or fortune. For example, one may fear the coronavirus as a real, external threat, but may have feelings of anxiety about it as it can cause us our illness or death. The fear is natural, but those who do not believe in God or the hereafter will be terrified; partly because they see death as the end of their existence. This is not to say that believers are free of death anxiety; but their anxiety is attenuated because of their faith in an eternal otherworldly existence. As for the devout believers, those who perform their prayers, they are less fretful when they experience misfortune, as God states, “Truly, man was created anxious; when evil befalls him, fretful; when good befalls him, begrudging, save those who perform prayer” (Qur’an 70:19-22). The evil in this context can be understood as illness and poverty, and the good refers to health and wealth. The word ‘fretful’ \[*jazūʿ*\] indicates both distress over one’s misfortune and a lack of forbearance. According to al-Rāzῑ, to overcome such fret and fear, one must realize that the circumstances that give rise to them are from God and so one should be content because they are a part of divine destiny.[^62] God described the hypocrites who refused to participate in battle alongside the Muslims as greedy for the spoils of war. When they saw that the Muslims were victorious, they looked towards the Prophet ﷺ in fear, as if death would overtake them. When their fear abated, they turned viciously against the Prophet and his companions. Although they benefited from the spoils of war, because they claimed that they had been supportive of the Prophet ﷺ, they were not sincere. Therefore, their deeds provided no reward in the next life. Thus, God states: “But when fear (*khawf*) comes, you see them \[O Messenger\] looking to you \[for help\], their eyes rolling \[in terror\] like the eyes of one who swoons to death. But once fear departs, they assail you with sharp tongues, being avaricious in the goods thereof. Those have \[never\] truly believed, and therefore God has caused their deeds to come to nothing” (Qur’an 33:19). Al-Iṣfahānī describes four reasons why people are anxious of death, not because of death itself, but because of distress concerning their losses in this world or because of the consequences they have to face should they die. Al-Iṣfahānī states: > In regards to distress \[or anxiety\] over death, it does not cease to tighten from all four directions: as for the epicure and the lustful that one will miss out, or that one’s wealth will be left behind, or because of ignorance about destiny after death, or that one is fearful of the outcome due to one’s past sins.[^63] One ought to know that this is a disease that only leads to another disease similar to it because, for example, a person starving oneself in order to enjoy food is a disease, which only compounds the desire for hunger in order to eat more. That is a cyclical/never-ending disease, and is analogous to someone who sits in the sun to enjoy the free heat only to get into the shade assuming that he can return into the sun because it is endless. This is foolish.[^64] The passage identifies four reasons for the distress and anxiety that people experience in anticipation of death. We shall comment on the remedy for these anxieties, especially anxiety concerning the loss of wealth and one’s past sins. ### Fear of death One of the central meanings and experiences of aging is the sense of approaching death, although one can be any age and become aware of one’s mortality and feel genuine dread and fear. Death is an essential ingredient of living. It marks the end of life, of change and impermanence, and the start of a new life on a higher plane of consciousness. Humans naturally fear death and this particular fear is common among the elderly. It is no fantasy for we all must die as Thomas Gray says: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”[^65] Yet people pursue these worldly paths and desire immortality. They have no real faith in the immortality of the soul after death and the ultimate felicity in the hereafter. The Qur’an describes such people in the following verse: > If the abode of the hereafter with God is yours alone, to the exclusion of other people, then long for death if you are truthful. But they will never long for it because of what their hands have sent forth, and God knows the wrongdoers. You will find them the most covetous of people for life, \[even\] more than those who are idolaters. Each one of them would wish to live a thousand years, although that will not remove him from punishment. God sees whatever they do (Qur’an 2: 94-96). The Islamic tradition does not encourage longing for death but rather to ask God for a long life if it is good for oneself or a short life if it is good for oneself. The Qur’an challenges those who claim that salvation belongs to them alone. If that is the case, why not hasten towards it? Because of their sins, they do not long for death but wish to live long, perhaps for a thousand years. They have a death-complex and want to flee from death; but they cannot, as God states: “Truly, the death from which you flee will surely meet you” (Qur’an 62:8). In commenting on this verse, al-Ghazālī mentions three kinds of people. The first are those who are so engrossed (*munhamik)* in this world; they abhor death and do not want to remember it. If they do remember it, it makes them grow distant from God. Should they die while attached to the material world, they are in real danger. This is too late. Change takes place through the limbs and after death the limbs stop functioning. The second type are those who are penitent (*tāʾib*); they only want to increase their remembrance of death as it will inspire fear and awe of God. They only fear death because it will put an end to their *tawbah*. They feel they need more time to repent, as they feel accountable to God for their sins. The third type are the gnostics (*ʿārif*). This is the highest level. They are the ones who always remember death because they cannot wait to meet their Beloved. They entrust all their affairs to God and yearn neither for life nor for death but only for that which pleases God.[^66] The first group of people that al-Ghazālī alludes to are engrossed in the material world, and they have an eternal-worldly-life-complex (*ʿuqdah ḥubb al-khulūd*). No medication will prolong their life as death is decreed by God, which is something we cannot alter.[^67] Immortality is in spirit, not flesh, as the Qur’an states: “Deem not those who are slain in the way of God to be dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, provided for, exulting in what God has given them of His Bounty, and rejoicing in those who have not joined them from among those who remain behind—that no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve” (Qur’an 3:169-170). ### The remedy for the fear of death It is not death itself that people really fear; they have anxieties about the consequences of death, including the material fortune that they will leave behind and concern about their past sins. If they fear death because of the fortune they will leave behind, then it means they are unaware of the triviality of material existence. And they are also unaware of the transience of worldly glory compared to the eternal bliss of otherworldly existence. If one is anxious about life after death, then one must seek knowledge about it. Al-Ḥārith \[ibn Mālik al-Anṣārī\] reported a statement attributed to the Prophet ﷺ: “I have turned away from this world, keeping vigil at night, suffering thirst by day, and can almost see the Throne of my Lord, with people of the Garden of Paradise visiting each other, and I can almost see the people of the Fire wailing at each other.”[^68] If people are distressed about their disobedience to God, then they can remedy their distress through the healing power of repentance. Their greed for material things and lust for sensual indulgences will not avail them. But if they sincerely repent and seek God’s forgiveness, they will obtain the divine reward that God has promised them.[^69] As noted, al-Ghazālī was remorseful of his pride and excessive awareness of his intellectual excellence and imagined himself to be on the brink of hell-fire.[^70] According to al-Muḥāsibī, if a person commits fornication or adultery, they should rectify themselves by arranging marriages for the poor and assisting with their livelihoods. As for major crimes like murder, they should rectify themselves by purchasing slaves and setting them free.[^71] If sinners fail to repent before they die, they are subject to being cleansed through the fires of the infernal realms. It therefore behooves them to cleanse themselves of the impurities of their souls before they die, to avoid experiencing a painful purification through the fires of hell in the next world. Thus, al-Muḥāsibī states: > If he finds a sin within him that requires repentance, he is not prepared to meet his Lord when he continues to abide in what angers God. …Death will come to him without question. The fearful ones, on account of their fear of encountering God with what displeases Him, rush to repentance before death overtakes their spirits and before they are unable to repent to their Lord and feel a remorse that is no longer accepted.[^72] Al-Iṣfahānī identifies three categories of people regarding their attitude to this world and to death.[^73] The first category is the sage who is aware that worldly life enslaves him and that death will liberate him. Worldly life is temporary, like a flash of lightning, which quickly disappears. He also knows that he is like an envoy safeguarding a seaport to protect his country. He is happy to return to his Lord and not sad to leave this world except for the lost opportunities to serve God and to be near to Him. His only anxiety is the uncertainty after death, where he will meet his Lord for the first time, not knowing what he will say to Him, or what will be said to him.[^74] This is a justifiable anxiety. Al-Ghazālī experienced such anxiety and feared the result of his sins in the hereafter. Believers such as al-Ghazālī, who suffer anguish on account of their sins take recourse to *tawbah* (repentance) for the purification of their sins. People who feel guilty may become depressed or suicidal. This is a pathological guilt. But spiritual guilt requires that one be remorseful for sins committed. Those experiencing this type of guilt are troubled by their self-reproaching soul (*al-nafs al-lawwāmah*). This is their human conscience that blames itself for the sins of the past. If the feelings of guilt are spiritual, not pathological, the person will be morally transformed. A spiritually guilty person is not only conscious of God’s wrath but also of His Mercy. But a pathologically guilty person will suffer perpetual guilt and despair. Najātī supports this view and states that irrational fear of divine punishment can lead to despair unless accompanied by hope in divine mercy.[^75] The saints and prophets combined fear and hope in a balanced way, as the Qur’an states: “Truly they vied in good deeds. They called upon Us with desire and with fear, and they were humble before Us” (Qur’an 21:90). The Prophets were also distressed in times of crises. But they always had a good opinion of God and never blamed Him for their difficulties. Al-Muḥāsibī states that the repentant ones should think of death, remember their sins, fear God’s wrath, and turn to Him for forgiveness. Their anxiety about divine punishment should set in motion a process of inner conversion until they are purged of all selfish inclinations.[^76] The second category that al-Iṣfahānī mentions are the persons who are delighted by this world and are reluctant to leave it. They are like people who are habituated to living in a murky, dirty house. And when it is time to leave, they are reluctant to do so. But those who are content will never complain of their poverty. They know that God has prepared for them unimaginable bounties and permanent residence in the hereafter. Such people are not afraid of death and are happy to depart from the woes of this world (Qur’an 35:34-35).[^77] The third category of people are blind to the stains on their souls. They are delighted and amused by this worldly life. They fear the hereafter and feel that they will be adversely affected, like the fragrance of the rose that is marred by the presence of the dung beetle. Their souls are defiled, and so they will not be well-received by prophets, saints, and angels. “Such people are blind in this world and the next world” (Qur’an 17:72). The Prophet ﷺ states: “The world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the unbeliever.”[^78] By contrast, the righteous ones will nourish their souls with knowledge and good deeds. They do not long for this world, and will not loathe leaving it, like the baby leaving his mother’s womb crying in pain.[^79] According to al-Iṣfahānī, if a virtuous person dies, he is relieved of the world, but if a vicious person dies, the world is relieved of him. Death is the exit leading to human perfection and whoever is averse to it has lost his soul. The rational person is aware of death and has nothing to fear as long as he is content, repentant, and devout in devotion.[^80] The believers, according to al-Iṣfahānī, are not fearful of death but only uncertain when they should face God and be held accountable to Him. Their anxiety about death is related to their uncertainty as to whether God will be pleased with them on the Day of Judgment. --- ## Conclusion The Qur’an recognizes the importance of emotions and the need for them to be disciplined through faith and sound reason. Immoderate emotions are inescapable, but we need to temper them so that they do not negatively affect our psyche or block our spiritual development. The Qur’an provides many stories of Prophets who faced trials and tribulations but managed to bear them with forbearance and trust in God’s Mercy. Through the insights of Qur’anic psychology we learn to locate ourselves within a larger metaphysical worldview. We can open the doors to the sacred dimension where our lives become pregnant with meaning and we become living embodiments of the Qur’anic message. We come to experience our lives as resonant with a much greater matrix of meaning and we come to accept God’s unchanging plan. We are now more motivated to see our personal struggles as mirroring a sacred process that occurs on all levels of creation. This essay has demonstrated that, for al-Iṣfahānī, emotions are not impervious to reason but can become a powerful resource for character building. Islamic psycho-spiritual healing is not only concerned with restoring the psyche to a state of balance, or helping a person become socially-well-adjusted, but will help the psyche transcend itself and enter the higher spiritual domain that aligns with innate human nature (*fiṭrah*). We have shown that the irrational emotions of anger, fear, and sorrow can be healed by changing one’s perspective. Since these emotional states are connected to the way we perceive the world, we should readjust our thinking and be reminded that we have wrongly accorded too much importance to matters of the world and neglected the virtues that will bring us not only happiness in this world but everlasting happiness in the hereafter. This is only a first step, which has some resemblance to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, except that the readjustment of thought should be guided by the ethical worldview of the Qur’an. But this is only a step in the process of healing. The Islamic model of change also requires a change in the heart. We start with cognition but that should lead to the illumination and transformation of the heart. This purification of the heart requires struggle (*mujāhadah*) through ethical purification and spiritual edification. Al-Iṣfahānī combines the wisdom of the sages with the religious guidance of the Sacred Law to heal the soul of immoderate emotions. However, the Sacred Law is not used like a psychology manual but appeals to the heart of the believer whose very faith becomes a source of solace and transformation. By reviving the teachings of the classical Islamic ethicists we can learn much about the potential of human emotions in the nurturing of moral character and the healing of the soul. --- ## Notes [^1]: Daniel Goleman, *Emotional Intelligence* (New York: Bantam Book, 1997), 62. [^2]: Linda Trinkaus Zagzebki, *Divine Motivation Theory* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 60–72. [^3]: Martha Nussbaum, *The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 79–80, 369–70. [^4]: For the development of the philosophical ethics of these three Muslim thinkers, see Yasien Mohamed, “The Evolution of Early Islamic Ethics: A Conspectus,” *American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences* 18, no. 4 (2002): 89–131. [^5]: Yasien Mohamed, “The Irascibility of the Soul: The Management of Emotions in the Ethics of Aristotle and al-Isfahani,” *Philosophia Islamica*, *The Journal of the International Society for Islamic Philosophy* 1 (2010): 79–101; Yasien Mohamed, “The Metaphor of the Dog in Arabic Literature,” *Tydskrif vir Letterkunde* 45, no. 1 (2008): 75–86. [^6]: For more details, see Yasien Mohamed, “The Ethical Philosophy of al-Raghib al-Iṣfahānī,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 6, no. 1 (1996): 51–75; Yasien Mohamed, *The Path to Virtue: The Ethical Philosophy of al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī* (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 2006). [^7]: Yasien Mohamed, “The Ethics of Education: al-Isfahani’s al-Dhari’ah ila Makarim al-Shari’ah as a Source of Inspiration for al-Ghazali’s Mizan al-Amal,” *The Muslim World* 101, no. 4 (2011): 633–57; cf. Yasien Mohamed, “Duties of the Teacher: Isfahani’s al-Dharīʿah as a Source of Inspiration for al-Ghazali’s Mizan al-Amal,” in *Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazali*, Papers Collected on His 900th Anniversary, vol. 1, ed. Georges Tamer (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 186–206. [^8]: Nussbaum, *Therapy of Desire*, 60. [^9]: Nussbaum, *Therapy of Desire*, 70. [^10]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad,* vol. 2, no. 17; cited in M. Fethullah Gulen, *Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism*, vol. 1 (New Jersey: Fountain, 2004): 167–69. [^11]: Gulen, *Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism*, 167–69. [^12]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Tahdhῑb madārij al-sālikῑn*, ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ṣāliḥ al-ʿAlī al-ʿIzzī (Jeddah: Maktabat al-Ma’mum, 1997), 395–96. [^13]: Muḥammad ʿUthmān Najātῑ, *al-Ḥadῑth al-Nabawῑ wa-ʿilm al-nafs* (Cairo: Dar al-Shurūq, 2013), 285. [^14]: Nussbaum, *Therapy of Desire*, 96–99. [^15]: Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, *Kitāb* *al-dharīʿah* *ilá makārim al-sharīʿah*, ed. Abū al-Yazῑd al-ʿAjamī (Cairo: Dar al-Wafa’, 1987), 345. [^16]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 342. [^17]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 345–46. [^18]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 346. [^19]: Al-Bukhārī, *kitāb al-adab*, no. 6114; slightly shortened in al-Iṣfahānī, no. 345; see for advice on anger, al-Nawawī, *Forty Hadith*, trans. E. Ibrahim and D. Johnson-Davies (Lahore: n.p., 1979), 62–63. *Laysa al-shadīd bi-al-ṣuraʿah innamā al-shadīd alladhī yamliku nafsahu ʿind al-ghaḍab.* [^20]: Muḥammad Husayn Haykal, *The Life of Muhammad*, trans. Isma’ῑI Rāgi al- Fārūqῑ (n.p.: North American Trust Publications, 1976), 403. [^21]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dhariʿah*, 356. [^22]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālῑ, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dῑn,* vol. 3, corrected by Abdul Aziz al-Sirwan (Beirut: Dar al-Qalam, n.d.), 192. [^23]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 346. [^24]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 342–46. [^25]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 342. [^26]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 342. [^27]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 343. [^28]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 58. [^29]: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, *The Study Quran* (New York: Harper One, 2015), 67. [^30]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 332–34. [^31]: Edward W. Lane, *Arabic-English Lexicon*, vols. 1–2 (Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, 1984), 2290. [^32]: Malik Badri, *Abū Zayd al-Balhkῑ’s Sustenance of the Soul* (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2012), 38. [^33]: Badri, 37. [^34]: *Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms* (Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1984). [^35]: Hans Jurgen Eysenck, Wilhelm Arnold, and Richard Meili, eds., *Encyclopedia of Psychology*, vol. 1 (Suffolk: Chaucer Press, 1972), 259. [^36]: Badri, *Sustenance of the Soul,* 20. [^37]: Badri, *Sustenance of the Soul,* 21. [^38]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 332–34. [^39]: Yasien Mohamed, “The Idea of Happiness in the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen*, December 9, 2019. [^40]: John Welwood, *Toward a Psychology of Emotion* (Boston: Shambala, 2002), 107–8. [^41]: Frankl, *The Doctor and the Soul* (New York: Vintage Books, 1973), iv-XX. [^42]: Frankl, 20. [^43]: Al-Qurṭubī attributes this *tafsīr* to al-Imām as-Shāfi'ī. Al-Qurṭubī, *Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī: al-Jāmi li aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2006), 2:463. [^44]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 333. [^45]: Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses,” Poetry Foundation, 2018. [^46]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 332. [^47]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 333. [^48]: Nasr, *Study Quran*, 915. [^49]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Munqiẓ min al-ḍalāl*, trans. Muhammad Abu Layla (Washington: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2001), 92. [^50]: Al-Ghazālῑ, *Mῑzān al-ʿamal*, ed. Sulaymān Dunya (Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif, 1964), 197. [^51]: Al-Muḥāsibi, *al-Waṣāyā* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1986), 222–23; Atif Khalil, *Repentance and the Return to God*: *Tawbah in Early Sufism* (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2018), 128. [^52]: Eysenck, *Encyclopedia of Psychology,* 127. [^53]: Frankl, *Doctor and the Soul*, 201. [^54]: Lane, *Arabic-English Lexicon*, 321. [^55]: Al-Ghazālῑ, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dῑn,* 4:586; cf. Hamilton A. Gibb and J. H. Kramer, *Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam* (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991). [^56]: Al-Ghazālῑ, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dῑn,* 4:362. [^57]: Aḥmad Maḥmūd Subḥῑ, *al-Falsafah al-akhlāqīyah fī al-fikr al-Islāmῑ* (Cairo: Dār al-Ma’ārif, 1983), 260–61. [^58]: Badri, *Sustenance of the Soul,* 45–46. [^59]: Eysenck, *Encyclopedia of Psychology*, 68–69. [^60]: See Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/&sa=D&ust=1601588176464000&usg=AOvVaw2o9XCIbJbSnB-meI-mj3oW). [^61]: Al-Qurṭubī, *Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī: al-Jāmi li aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2006) 19:494; cf. Nasr, *Study Quran*, 1276. [^62]: Nasr, *Study Quran*, 1418. [^63]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 334. [^64]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 334; cf. Mohamed, *Path to Virtue*, 286; cf. Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad Miskawayh, *Tahdhῑb al-akhlāq*, ed. Constantine Zurayk (Beirut: American University of Beirut,  1966), 211; cf. Constantine Zurayk, trans., *The Refinement of Character* (Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1968), 187. [^65]: Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Poetry Foundation, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44299/elegy-written-in-a-country-churchyard](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44299/elegy-written-in-a-country-churchyard&sa=D&ust=1601588176463000&usg=AOvVaw3IIFvzD_JZKo7VPu0r3Mn-). [^66]: Al-Ghazālῑ, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dῑn,* 4:411. [^67]: ʿAdnān al-Sharῑf, *Min ʿilm al-nafs al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm al-Malāyῑn, 1995), 83. [^68]: Al-ʿUqaylī, *al-Ḍuʿafāʾ*, ed. Māzin ibn Muḥammad al-Sirsāwī (Cairo: Maktabat Dār Ibn ʿAbbās, 2008), 6:442 (see biography of Yūsuf ibn ʿAṭīyah Abū Sahl al-Ṣaffār). Tradition cited in al-Ghazālī, *Mīzān;* al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 334; Miskawayh, *Tahdhῑb*, 214; Zurayk, *Refinement*, 190. [^69]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah,* 334. [^70]: Al-Ghazālī, *al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl*; Montgomery Watt, trans., *Imam al-Ghāzālī’s Deliverance from Error and the Beginnings of Guidance* (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2005). [^71]: Khalil, *Repentance and the Return to God*, 129. [^72]: Khalil, *Repentance and the Return to God*, 130. [^73]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 335. [^74]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 335. [^75]: Najātῑ, *al-Ḥadῑth al-Nabawῑ wa ʿilm al-nafs,* 83. [^76]: Khalil, *Repentance and the Return to God,* 127–28. [^77]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 335. [^78]: Saḥīḥ Muslim, *kitāb al-zuhd*, no. 2957; al-Iṣfahānī, *Path to Virtue*, 336. [^79]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 336 [^80]: Al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 337–38 ## Summary # The Healing of Immoderate Emotions: Anger, Sorrow, and Fear in the Light of Qur'anic Psychology Modern psychology required nearly a century to grasp that human behavior is shaped not only by physiological instincts but also by consciousness and thought, giving rise to cognitive approaches that treat immoderate emotions such as fear, anger, and sorrow. Yet this insight is not new. The intimate bond between reason and emotion was already central to Hellenistic and classical Islamic psychology. Goleman's *Emotional Intelligence* notes that withstanding emotional storms "has been praised as a virtue since the time of Plato." Emotions, on this view, are not blind animalistic forces but intelligent parts of the personality, tied to beliefs and thus open to correction. If a belief is shown to be false, the emotion attached to it is revealed as inappropriate; emotions may therefore be rational or irrational according to whether their underlying perceptions are true. This appreciation of emotion was echoed by the eleventh-century Muslim philosophers Miskawayh (d. 1030), al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1040), and al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), who inherited from the Greeks the tripartite division of the soul into the rational, concupiscent (desire), and irascible (anger) faculties. When reason governs the two lower faculties, the soul attains balance and the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice emerge; when it fails, the vices appear. They adopted from Galen and Aristotle the metaphor of rider, horse, and dog—reason as rider, desire as horse, and anger as dog—to depict how the emotions ought to obey reason. Courage, for instance, is the mean between the extremes of cowardice and rashness. Though borrowing this framework, the Muslim thinkers integrated it into an Islamic worldview, and it is al-Iṣfahānī's *Kitāb al-Dharīʿah ilá makārim al-sharīʿah*, which in turn inspired al-Ghazālī's *Mīzān al-ʿAmal*, that furnishes the central perspective here. The word "healing" is chosen deliberately, for al-Iṣfahānī's focus is self-healing rather than intervention-based therapy. The Qur'anic approach is one of self-reorientation through ethical and spiritual transformation, employing patience, forbearance, remembrance of God, and repentance—tools that Western models, lacking any concern for spiritual well-being, do not offer. Yet cognition is not the sole force at work. Following Nussbaum, there are feelings without rich cognitive content, and there are spiritual states wholly outside human volition. In Sufism, *basṭ* (expansion) is an involuntary state of joy and nearness to God, while *qabḍ* (contraction) severs the felt link with God, causing distress—yet contraction is ultimately more beneficial, since purification comes through trial. As the Qur'an states, "God contracts and expands and to Him you shall return" (2:245), and the Prophet ﷺ said, "The heart is between the two fingers of the All-Merciful. He turns it from state to state." According to Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 1350), such advanced states are reached only after conscious struggle against desire, whereby the seeker ascends from Islam to *īmān* to *iḥsān*, oscillating between fear and hope. Honest self-appraisal is essential, for denying the truth of our emotions is a form of "spiritual bypassing." Reason alone is insufficient; one must turn to the Qur'an, which is "a cure and a mercy for believers" (17:82) and "a cure for that which lies within breasts" (10:57). Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) describes it as a healing that removes doubt and passion and restores the heart to its *fiṭrah*. On anger, al-Iṣfahānī holds that it is directed not at a person as such but at how one perceives that person; correcting a false perception dissolves the anger—as illustrated by the woman who struck a man she assumed was careless, only to discover he was blind. Anger is a necessary motivation for defending what one loves when it is deliberately harmed; moderate anger yields justice and courage, while immoderate anger produces violence or cowardice. Temperaments differ: some, like grass, ignite quickly, others, like heavier wood, slowly. Anger manifests differently toward superiors, inferiors, and equals—turning inward into sorrow (*ghamm*) when it cannot be expressed against a superior. It makes the blood boil and clouds the mind like fire in a cave. Its positive form is *ghῑrah*, jealous protective wrath for what is sacred. Its healing lies in *ḥilm* (forbearance) and *ʿafw* (pardon), grounded in the Qur'an: "those who curb their anger, and who pardon their fellow men" (3:134). The Prophet ﷺ taught that the strong man is he who controls his anger, and at the conquest of Mecca he pardoned his enemies. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101) freed a man who recited 3:134. Forbearance is emotional intelligence and restraint of hand, tongue, ear, and eye; pardon is sweeter than revenge. On sorrow (*ghamm*), it arises from believing one has lost something valuable, and diminishes when that thing's value is reconsidered. It takes forms such as shame, pity, envy, and regret. The essay distinguishes *hamm* (anxiety over future events) from *ḥuzn/ghamm* (sorrow over the past), noting that Abū Zayd al-Balkhī (b. 235/849), a pioneer of cognitive approaches, distinguished endogenous depression—rooted in bodily causes and requiring medical treatment—from reactive depression caused by circumstance, which responds to counseling. Al-Iṣfahānī's therapy addresses the latter. Its remedy is detachment from the transient world, for "wealth and children are the adornments of the life of this world, but that which endures... is better" (18:46). Reason enables sober reflection, and faith in divine providence allows one to see the larger good: "it may be that you hate a thing though it be good for you" (2:216). Yet cognitive acceptance alone does not cure sorrow; it must be accepted from the heart, as exemplified by Prophet Jacob عليه السلام, who wept until blind yet trusted wholly in God (2:155–157). Al-Iṣfahānī counsels that sorrow over the impossible, the necessary (death), and the possible (old age) is folly, since all are decreed (57:22–23). We can change our attitude even when we cannot change our fate. Guilt and repentance form a central theme. Al-Ghazālī's own crisis arose from teaching for fame rather than God, producing physical symptoms his physician could not cure until a Sufi guide directed him toward detachment. True change requires acknowledging wrongdoing, feeling remorse, and turning to God—*tawbah*, which al-Muḥāsibī (d. 857) defined as "regret for past sins and the resolution not to return," rooted in Qur'an 3:135 and 66:8, and requiring self-examination (*muḥāsabah*). Here the essay contrasts the Islamic view with psychoanalysis: while catharsis can retrieve repressed material, it treats shame as problematic, whereas religion regards the shame of the self-accusing soul (*al-nafs al-lawwāmah*) as a pillar of morality. Psychoanalysis "cannot address the problem of sin," which only repentance resolves. The atheist professor who committed suicide, having no recourse to *tawbah*, illustrates the despair that faith averts. On fear (*khawf*), it rests on the perception of impending danger, often exaggerated and disconnected from reality; al-Balkhī likened it to ground fog that seems solid but proves to be mere moist air. Fear is episodic and external, anxiety inward and cognitive, its degree tied to one's tolerance of uncertainty and thus to faith in divine destiny. Islam does not extirpate fear but moderates it; even Prophets like Jacob and Abraham عليه السلام felt fear (51:28). Believers created "anxious" and "fretful" are excepted if they pray (70:19–22), while the hypocrites' terror is condemned (33:19). Al-Iṣfahānī names four causes of death-anxiety: fear of missing pleasures, of losing wealth, ignorance of the afterlife, and dread of past sins. Al-Ghazālī distinguishes the worldly engrossed, the penitent, and the gnostics who long to meet their Beloved. The remedy is knowledge of the hereafter, detachment, and sincere repentance, for the martyrs are "alive with their Lord" (3:169–170) and "the death from which you flee will surely meet you" (62:8). Al-Iṣfahānī's three categories culminate in the truth that the righteous fear not death itself but the uncertainty of their standing before God. In sum, the essay demonstrates that for al-Iṣfahānī emotions are not impervious to reason but a resource for character building. Readjusting perception is a first step resembling cognitive therapy, yet guided by the Qur'anic ethical worldview and completed only through struggle (*mujāhadah*) and purification of the heart, that the psyche may transcend itself toward the *fiṭrah*. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/women-in-the-quran-appreciating-female-faith-wisdom-and-knowledge # Women in the Qur'an: Appreciating Female Faith, Wisdom, and Knowledge **Author:** Celene Ibrahim **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Women in Islam **Published:** September 24, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction *In Qur’anic stories, more often than not we find depictions of women possessing notable wisdom, resolve, piety, and strength of character. Though the majority of Qur’anic narratives involve men, well over a dozen women figures are also featured in Qur’anic sacred history. This article highlights certain nuances in God’s depictions of women figures. Moreover, consideration of Qur’anic women figures invites a fresh perspective on the legacies of our female teachers and religious scholars.* > > أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ أَمْ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبٍ أَقْفَالُهَا > > **A-fa-lā yatadabbarūna al-qurʾāna am ʿalā qulūbin aqfāluhā** > > Do they not contemplate the Qur’an? Or do hearts have their locks upon them? From cosmic to mundane affairs, the Qur’an is a scripture (*kitāb*) containing a “clarification of all things, and a guidance and a mercy and glad tidings for those who submit” (Qur’an 16:89). The Qur’an is held to be God’s speech transmitted to humankind through an angelic and prophetic channel—it is “the most beautiful discourse” (*aḥsan al-ḥadīth*) whereat quivers the skin of those who fear their Lord” (Qur’an 39:23). As Muslims, many of us seek to experience the Qur’an as speech “from the Lord of the worlds” (Qur’an 10:47) in order to gain guidance and other spiritual, emotional, psychological, and intellectual benefits: the Qur’an is replete with sacred possibility.[^1] Much of Muslim writing on women in the Qur’an expounds upon the rules and regulations for women from the Qur’anic worldview. This helps us address questions like: How many wives can my husband have? How should I dress and behave? How long should my baby be nursed? Who is fiscally responsible for my child? However, if we limit the Qur’an to a book that divvies out responsibilities according to gendered social norms—and stop there with regard to thinking about the Qur’an’s guidance, we miss opportunities for other kinds of insights about women. Further insights become accessible through contemplation of the subtleties of the Qur’anic *āyāt* and their implications, a modality of engaging the Qur’an commonly known as *tadabbur* (e.g., Qur’an 4:82, 23:68, 38:29, 47:24). One avenue for deeper engagement with the theme of womanhood, for instance, is to consider personalities in Qur’anic stories. For several years, I have spent much time studying and contemplating the more than three hundred verses that mention a specific female figure or a group of women. “How does God speak *about* women, and how does God speak *to* women?” I asked with sincerity. I found that women figures appear in narratives of conquest, filial devotion, romantic attraction, and more; there is no single standard, no archetypal female figure. Considered as a cohort, Qur’anic women are pious and impious, insightful and ignorant, commanding and timid, old and young, famous and obscure, married and single, ruling and ruled over, fertile and childless, and so forth: there is no archetypal woman. In places, God praises particular women figures, and in other places, God rebukes others for their comportment. Though no woman figure in the Qur’an is explicitly named as a prophet or messenger, the Qur’an depicts women’s characters, wit, and spiritual excellence. In numerous instances the needs and desires of women or girls are heard by God in Qur’anic stories. Women converse with God’s angelic messengers, women pray to God frequently, and one woman, in particular, is the conduit for bringing God’s “Word” into the world. In one verse, Maryam (upon her peace) poignantly articulates the pains of her labor: “Would that I had died before this and were a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!” (Qur’an 19:23) This verse poignantly expresses the discomfort and pain women often experience during childbirth, but it also captures her embodied struggle to bear a “Word” (*kalimah*) from God (Qur’an 3:45).[^2] In probing stories of the trials and triumphs of female figures in this way, we can note many correspondences between female and male figures. Several female figures, in fact, are highlighted for qualities such as their discernment, the sincerity of their worship, their conviction and courage, or their degree of closeness to God. They are singled out for special mention and serve as exemplars (positive and negative). Their stories help us inculcate virtues. Meditating on the birth experience of Maryam عليها السلام, for instance, could potentially bring about an increase in empathy toward women facing this exceptionally wondrous but also physically and emotionally demanding task of birthing. The embodied experience of childbirth is necessarily and uniquely a female experience, but even male Qur’anic reciters articulate the distressed cries of a woman in labor through the reenactment of Maryam’s speech. Such potentially affective dimensions of Qur’anic stories are key. Qur’anic scholar Karen Bauer compares Maryam’s birth pangs and the anguish that the mother of Moses experiences when having to cast her child away to save him from Pharaoh’s forces. Bauer observes how both narratives contain affective potential for the Qur’anic audience: > God is there to relieve emotional and physical suffering, bringing these exemplary women into a state of hope, relief, and, ultimately, knowledge of God’s justice and mercy. They both prove their subservience to God and willingness to put aside all worldly emotional attachments to do His bidding. The listener is brought along on the emotional journey, and is able to empathise with the comfort they receive.[^3] In these stories, the extreme trials that pious women experience are assuaged by God’s intervention. Pious women still must endure hardships, but their suffering is met with God’s awareness and succor.[^4] Qur’anic stories like these illustrate God’s attributes and constitute a form of assurance to the Qur’anic audience that they too can be privy to this care. Ultimately, the act of regularly revisiting these female figures in the context of a devotional, ritual practice may transform a conscientious individual. Qur’anic verses engender effects on readers, reciters, and listeners: for instance, the empathy generated when contemplating a narrative about the emotional struggle of a mother being forcibly separated from her child. Such a narrative in the Qur’an could prompt us to act, for instance, when governments displace children from their families. On another level, God’s revelation to the mother of Moses عليهما السلام assures her to have faith and trust that the promise of God will come to pass (Qur’an 28:7). This is a general lesson about the efficacy of patient perseverance. Women personalities, on the whole, are exceptionally pious and morally upright. For instance, multiple Qur’anic verses contain female supplications to God. Until the story of the wife of the Egyptian viceroy is mentioned, more than a fourth of the way into a recitation of the Qur’an from the beginning, every instance in which a female figure speaks is a supplication or pertains in some way to God’s benevolence. Many female figures speak pious words and make supplications to God with the exact same words as do prophetic figures. For example, the wife of Pharaoh عليها السلام prays in the exact same idiom as does her foster son Moses عليه السلام upon his flight from Egypt. They both pray, “My Lord! Deliver me from the wrongdoing people!” (see Qur’an 28:21 and 66:11). Maryam and the Queen of Sheba also speak in a way that is similar to—or even the same as—the speech of male figures who are designated as prophets. For instance, the Queen of Sheba ends her speech by addressing God, seeking forgiveness, and professing her submission (Qur’an 27:44)—in the same words as does the prophet Moses in the subsequent *sūrah* (Qur’an 28:16). Likewise, when Maryam عليها السلام is confronted by a “well-proportioned” man in her private chambers, she immediately exclaims: “I seek refuge from you in the Compassionate, if you are reverent!” (Qur’an 19:18). Similarly, when the prophet Joseph عليه السلام is hemmed in by the wife of the viceroy, he appeals: “God be my refuge!” (Qur’an 12:23). The Qur’an calls Maryam a “woman of truth” (Qur’an 5:75) and Joseph a “man of truth” (Qur’an 12:46). Maryam’s speech and the prophet Zachariah’s speech are thematically juxtaposed in several places in the Qur’an. For instance, Maryam, who is otherwise depicted as conversing with angels and crying out with birth pangs, is silent in relation to defending her honor against charges of licentiousness; her vow of silence is a thematic echo of the silence of her guardian Zachariah عليهما السلام. Both figures are expressive before God but must resort to gesturing before their people. Aside from the issue of public preaching, I have not noticed any distinctive features of female speech in the Qur’an that distinguish it from male speech. In general, women in the Qur’an often speak with authority, insight, and wit; on much rarer occasions, female speech has nefarious aims. The wife of the viceroy and the Queen of Sheba—both aristocratic women who are depicted in their respective journeys from falsehood toward truth—are the two most loquacious Qur’anic female figures. On the whole, speech by women does not seem to be more nor less poignant or emotionally composed than that of men. Several female figures articulate their thoughts clearly and effectively in difficult situations; Moses’s sister, Moses’s foster mother, and the Queen of Sheba all speak nobly in trying circumstances. On occasion, women figures fumble for words when they are caught off guard. The wife of Abraham عليهما السلام expresses her astonishment at the prospect of bearing a child in her old age with the dramatic expression “Oh, woe unto me!” (*yā waylatā*) (Qur’an 11:72). In response to receiving a divine message informing her of the pregnancy, she cries out while striking her face (Qur’an 51:29). Similarly, another woman figure is caught off-guard: when confronted by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for divulging a secret, one of his wives رضي الله عنها rejoins, “Who informed you of this?” (Qur’an 66:3). In narrating this incident, Sūrat al-Taḥrīm (Qur’an 66) begins with emphatic addresses to the Prophet ﷺ and two of his wives. God gives a substantial threat of retaliation should the wives of the Prophet conspire against him (Qur’an 66:4–5). The two wives of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ are implicitly positioned as having the agency to choose which of two extremes (righteous or unrighteous) they will follow. Despite its strong warning to the two wives, there is an aspect of gender balance in the husband and wife figures that are mentioned by God in Sūrat al-Taḥrīm. The *sūrah* begins with a husband (the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ) in need of God’s intervention but then also references a righteous woman (the wife of Pharaoh) who seeks God’s succor against her husband (Qur’an 66:11). It even concludes by extolling a righteous woman with no husband at all. Sūrat al-Taḥrīm unambiguously depicts the wives of Noah and Lot as negative examples for believers: “They \[the spouses of Noah and Lot\] were under two of Our righteous servants (*taḥtaʿabdayni min ʿibādinā ṣāliḥayn*); then they \[the wives\] betrayed them \[Noah and Lot\], and they \[Noah and Lot\] availed them \[their wives\] naught against God.” (Qur’an 66:10). The wives of Noah and Lot receive a divine decree in the Qur’an, but, in contrast to the women addressed by God or angels, the divine decree to the treacherous wives of Noah and Lot is in the passive voice without a known speaker: “And it was said to both, ‘Enter the fire with those who enter’” (Qur’an 66:10). The otherworldly speech directed toward these two wives stands in contrast to the many other women who receive guidance and encouragement. The passive dismissal of these two figures also underscores their detestable nature for “betraying” God’s “righteous servants.” These two female figures do not just evoke wretchedness on an individual level; rather, their characters parallel the widespread iniquities of their respective people. No other people are so frequently condemned in the Qur’an as the peoples of the prophets Noah and Lot.[^5] The wife of the Egyptian viceroy is the only temptress figure in the Qur’an. She serves as a clear example of sexual misconduct against the backdrop of other women figures who are chaste. Nonetheless, one verse containing her speech can be seen as affirming of her quick wit. The climactic moment is narrated as follows: > And they \[Joseph and the Egyptian viceroy’s wife\] raced to the door, while she tore his shirt from behind. And they encountered her husband (*sayyidahā*) at the door. She said, “What is the recompense for one who desires ill toward your wife (*ahlika*), save that he be imprisoned, or \[face\] a painful punishment?” (Qur’an 12:25) In this example, the viceroy’s wife refers to herself using the euphemism *ahl*, a term that can mean the wife of a given figure but that can also signify the family or household more broadly. In this way, her question, “What is the recompense for one who desires ill toward your wife?” carries the significance, “What is the recompense for one who desires ill toward your family?” With these words, the speech of the viceroy’s wife calls attention to the ways in which a man’s social capital in a paternalistic social order is linked to his ability to protect and ensure the sexual integrity and dignity of the women in his charge. Thus, she not only deceitfully blames the affair on Joseph عليه السلام, but she does so by employing an idiom that would best achieve her nefarious purpose. She is not the only female in the Qur’an to use her quick wit, but she is the only female to use it with explicitly nefarious aims. Her speech could prompt the Qur’anic reader, reciter, or listener to reflect upon the truthfulness of their own speech. Many stories in the Qur’an involve female figures and offer moments of introspection for believers. Focusing on the stories of women in the Qur’an can provide spiritual nourishment and can help connect Muslims to our sacred history. This is particularly true when we sometimes have difficulty finding other women in positions of religious authority from whom we can directly study. In my early studies of Islam, I was captivated by the many social reforms that the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instituted to the benefit of women and girls. I had high expectations for how these principles would influence the character and spirit of the religion as it developed throughout the centuries. I was intrigued by the abundance of women teachers, by their essential role in transmitting religious knowledge, and by the many stories of prominent women who financially supported and spiritually grounded the early Muslim community. Reading about the likes of Khadījah bt. Khuwaylid, Umm al-Faḍl (Lubāba bt. al-Ḥārith), ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr, Umm Salamah (Hind bt. Abī Umayyah), and the biographies of other early women figures kindled in me the desire to somehow also find a way to contribute in a small way to sustaining and supporting a vibrant community of spiritual learning and growth. As a lover of books, I wanted to read the writings of prominent women throughout Islamic history. I hoped to find a woman at whose feet I could study the inner essences of the religion. Where were such works? Where was such a teacher? The shelf was meager, and the possibilities for such an apprenticeship somewhat constrained. In recent years, women scholars have begun to play a slightly less marginal role in the production of works of Islamic knowledge, and instantaneous connections now make Islamic learning possible over distances. Still, I regularly meet young women who are struggling to find themselves reflected in the Islamic intellectual tradition and struggling to find points at which to access the living tradition of Islamic scholarship. To be sure, since the earliest Muslim community, Muslims have benefited from women scholars who helped found, sustain, and transmit a scholarly tradition. Women scholars articulating and transmitting religious knowledge is not a feature of western-styled modernity that Muslims adopted in a moment of enlightenment and as a response to modern women’s rights discourses. At the same time, Muslim women scholars tended to specialize in disciplines of Islamic knowledge focused on transmission (such as hadith studies) and not on disciplines that invite authorial creation.[^6] Hence, contemporary women scholars aside, it is hard to fill a shelf with works of women religious scholars. Historians can attest to a clear legacy of Muslim women scholars, a facet of Islamic culture and society that can be celebrated, but their (our) legacy has been marginal compared to the sheer number of works authored by men. Institutions supporting Islamic learning were directly impeded by social and political struggles in the wake of European colonialism, and undoubtedly women’s teaching and transmission suffered accordingly. Still, the dynamics curtailing women’s participation in the scholarly enterprise cannot be attributed to colonialism alone. Even before the arrival of European-styled modernity, women were rarely authors of scholarly works even if they were learned and occasionally even prominent teachers. For instance, how many works of Qur’anic exegesis can you name? How many of those were authored by women? A similar phenomenon can be observed in other disciplines of Islamic knowledge production. As a young student of Islamic knowledge, this situation regarding a lack of access to women’s scholarly output led me to probe further: Could the relative marginalization of women scholars be rightfully attributed to social factors, such as gendered norms for accessing Islamic learning and gender-based expectations for women’s comportment and livelihood, or could the dearth of women’s voices among the ranks of influential authors and exegetes be convincingly attributed to intrinsic factors related to women’s divinely determined capacity for religious knowledge and insight? Do God’s depictions of female figures in the Qur’an generally diminish their spiritual or intellectual aptitude? It was a question I had to ask and answer with sincerity. After engaging with the Qur’anic depictions of women in depth over several years, and also probing women’s contributions to Islamic intellectual history, I see the many sociocultural factors that have constrained women’s scholarship. In contrast, when I examined the Qur’an in detail over these same years in order to discern how God, the Most Knowing, describes women’s intellectual and spiritual potentials, I continued to find the Qur’an quite affirming—not demeaning or discrediting. I found not only a validation of women’s intellect and spiritual aptitude, but so too did I find women teachers. In the course of this exploration, it was as if the women personalities in the Qur’an became, in some direct way, the female teachers that I longed to find in my own quest for Islamic learning. Some women I “met” for the first time; somehow their stories had not reached me in all of the lectures I had attended. Others showed me a side of themselves that I had not seen in previous cursory glances. Even the few irrevocably corrupt women figures in the Qur’an had cautionary lessons to impart. Engaging with the speech of Allah about these women opened up a possibility for me to ask more existential questions about womanhood, female worth, and women’s dignity. For instance, “Does the Qur’an affirm female faith, wisdom, and knowledge in ways that have not yet been fully appreciated?” The answers to this central question, I think, have implications for contemporary scholarship on the Qur’an and also for conceptions of gender in Muslim communal contexts. Most importantly perhaps, the women’s stories in the Qur’an can impact the way we, as women, view ourselves and our own intellectual and spiritual capacities. Through these unexpected teachers, the Qur’anic figures, I have come to see and appreciate nuances about the depictions of women in the Qur’an. I have come to see that the Qur’an often engages with affairs of direct importance for women in a female-centric manner, even when certain figures (like the wife of the viceroy, for instance) have pronounced character flaws. In their breaches, whether slight or grave, and in their magnanimity, women figures serve as reminders for how to navigate human struggles and develop moral character. Qur’anic depictions of female figures in moments of struggle have deepened my appreciation for the ways in which the speech of God, the Most Wise and Subtle, can comfort the hearts of seekers of knowledge and piety. Reading and re-reading the stories of women figures strengthens my own desire to draw nearer to the One who is Most Merciful, Mighty, Wise, and Generous. Renewed attention to women in Qur’anic stories can help us, as Muslim communities, better appreciate women in Islamic sacred history. But valuing these women figures can, in turn, provide an impetus for better recognizing the integral contributions that women regularly make as teachers, mentors, and religious scholars in our contemporary communities too. *In shāʾ Allāh*. --- ## Notes [^1]: In the initial version of this article, I wrote “pregnant with sacred possibility,” (pregnant in the sense of being full of meaning and significance). In response to editorial feedback, I adjusted the description in order to mitigate the discomfort raised by the concept of “pregnant” being used to describe the Qur’an’s meanings. Notably, the Arabic triliteral root **q-r-ʾ** can signify becoming pregnant in classical usage, as pointed out by Samuel J. Ross. See *Lisān al-ʿArab* of Ibn Manẓūr, *al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ* of Fairūzābādī, and *Tāj al-ʿArūs* of al-Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī. In English, Edward William Lane translates *qaraʾat* as “she became pregnant” in his *An Arabic-English Lexicon* (London: Williams and Norgate, 1864), 2502 citing the latter two sources. According to some linguists, the connection between the word for Islam’s sacred scripture and pregnancy is the idea of gathering (*jamʿ*). The Qur’an gathers together surahs, verses, wisdom, and admonition. A mother gathers together the fetus in her womb. See the discussion of  Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī in *Mafātīh al-ghayb* (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 H), 5:253-254, s.v. Qur’an 2:185. [^2]: See Kecia Ali, “Destabilizing Gender, Reproducing Maternity: Mary in the Qurʾān,” *Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association* 2 (2017), 90. See also Aisha Geissinger, “Mary in the Qur’an: Rereading Subversive Births,” in *Sacred Tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, and Qur’an*, ed. Roberta Sterman Sabbath (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 379–92; and Daniel A. Madigan, “[Mary and Muhammad: Bearers of the Word](http://explore.georgetown.edu/publications/index.cfm?Action%3DView%26DocumentID%3D34998&sa=D&ust=1600884233077000&usg=AOvVaw0UFaBVw7UhtPX9CST9mYEE),” *Australasian Catholic Record* 80 (2003): 417–27. [^3]: Karen Bauer, “Emotion in the Qur’an: An Overview,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 19, no. 2 (2017): 1–30. [^4]: For another discussion of women in the Qur’an with a focus on women’s spiritual struggle in the way of God, see Rawand Osman, *Female Personalities in the Qur’an and Sunna: Examining the Major Sources of Shi’i Islam* (New York: Routledge, 2014). [^5]: As pointed out in John Kaltner and Younus Mirza, *The Bible and the Qur’an: Biblical Figures in the Islamic Tradition* (London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2018), 107. [^6]: For a detailed account, see Asma Sayeed, *Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013). ## Summary Contemplation of the Qur'an (*tadabbur*), to which God invites us when He asks, "Do they not contemplate the Qur'an? Or do hearts have their locks upon them?" (Qur'an 47:24), opens for the believer insights that a purely legalistic reading may overlook. Much of what has been written about women in the Qur'an concentrates upon rulings and regulations—how many wives a husband may take, how a woman should dress, how long a child should be nursed, and who bears financial responsibility for a child. These are worthy questions, yet to confine the Qur'an to the apportioning of gendered responsibilities is to miss deeper insights about womanhood that become accessible only through reflection upon the subtleties of the *āyāt*, a mode of engagement the Qur'an itself commends in several places (see Qur'an 4:82, 23:68, 38:29, 47:24). Among the more than three hundred verses that mention a specific female figure or a group of women, one finds no single archetype. Considered together, the women of the Qur'an are pious and impious, insightful and ignorant, commanding and timid, old and young, famous and obscure, married and single, ruling and ruled over, fertile and childless. In places God praises particular women, and in others He rebukes them for their conduct. Though no woman figure is explicitly named a prophet or messenger, the Qur'an depicts women's character, wit, and spiritual excellence: their needs are heard by God, they converse with His angelic messengers, they supplicate frequently, and one woman in particular becomes the conduit through which God's "Word" enters the world. Maryam (upon her be peace) gives voice to the anguish of her labor when she cries, "Would that I had died before this and were a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!" (Qur'an 19:23)—an expression that captures both the physical pain of childbirth and her embodied struggle to bear a "Word" (*kalimah*) from God (Qur'an 3:45). Such stories carry an affective dimension that is central to their purpose. The scholar Karen Bauer, comparing Maryam's birth pangs to the anguish of the mother of Moses when she must cast her child away to save him from Pharaoh's forces, observes that in both narratives "God is there to relieve emotional and physical suffering, bringing these exemplary women into a state of hope, relief, and, ultimately, knowledge of God's justice and mercy," while "the listener is brought along on the emotional journey, and is able to empathise with the comfort they receive." The trials of these pious women are not spared them, but their suffering is met with God's awareness and His succor. God's revelation to the mother of Moses, assuring her that His promise would come to pass (Qur'an 28:7), teaches a general lesson in the efficacy of patient perseverance. These narratives illustrate God's attributes and assure the listener that they too may be included in this care. Many women in the Qur'an supplicate to God in the very same idiom as the prophets. The wife of Pharaoh (upon her be peace) and her foster son Moses (upon him be peace) both pray, "My Lord! Deliver me from the wrongdoing people!" (Qur'an 28:21 and 66:11). The Queen of Sheba concludes her speech by seeking forgiveness and professing submission (Qur'an 27:44) in the same words as Moses in the following *sūrah* (Qur'an 28:16). When Maryam is confronted by a "well-proportioned" man in her chambers she exclaims, "I seek refuge from you in the Compassionate, if you are reverent!" (Qur'an 19:18), just as Joseph (upon him be peace), hemmed in by the viceroy's wife, appeals, "God be my refuge!" (Qur'an 12:23). Fittingly, the Qur'an calls Maryam a "woman of truth" (Qur'an 5:75) and Joseph a "man of truth" (Qur'an 12:46). The speech of Maryam and the prophet Zachariah is likewise juxtaposed: both are expressive before God yet must resort to gesturing before their people, Maryam's vow of silence echoing the silence of her guardian (upon them both be peace). Apart from the matter of public preaching, no distinctive feature marks women's speech as different from men's. Women often speak with authority, insight, and wit; on rarer occasions their speech carries nefarious aims. The two most talkative female figures, the wife of the viceroy and the Queen of Sheba, are aristocratic women depicted in their journeys from falsehood toward truth. Some women speak nobly under trying circumstances—Moses's sister, his foster mother, and the Queen of Sheba among them—while others fumble when caught off guard, as the wife of Abraham (upon them be peace) does when she cries, "Oh, woe unto me!" (*yā waylatā*) at the tidings of a child in her old age (Qur'an 11:72), striking her face in astonishment (Qur'an 51:29). Likewise, when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ confronted one of his wives (may God be pleased with her) for disclosing a secret, she replied, "Who informed you of this?" (Qur'an 66:3). In *Sūrat al-Taḥrīm*, which narrates this incident, God addresses the Prophet ﷺ and two of his wives emphatically and issues a substantial warning should they conspire against him (Qur'an 66:4–5), positioning them as agents free to choose between righteousness and its opposite. Yet the *sūrah* also displays a balance between male and female figures: it opens with a husband, the Prophet ﷺ, in need of God's intervention, then invokes the wife of Pharaoh who sought God's protection against her husband (Qur'an 66:11), and closes by extolling a righteous woman with no husband at all. The same *sūrah* presents the wives of Noah and Lot as negative exemplars: "They were under two of Our righteous servants; then they betrayed them, and they availed them naught against God" (Qur'an 66:10). To these two the divine decree comes in the passive voice, without a named speaker—"And it was said to both, 'Enter the fire with those who enter'" (Qur'an 66:10)—a dismissal that stands in stark contrast to the encouragement other women receive, and whose treachery parallels the iniquity of their peoples, whom the Qur'an condemns more frequently than any others. The wife of the Egyptian viceroy is the sole temptress figure in the Qur'an, a clear example of sexual misconduct set against the chastity of other women. Yet her speech reveals a quick wit: when she and Joseph raced to the door and met her husband, she said, "What is the recompense for one who desires ill toward your wife (*ahlika*), save that he be imprisoned, or face a painful punishment?" (Qur'an 12:25). By the term *ahl*, which may signify a wife or the household more broadly, she deceitfully cast blame upon Joseph (upon him be peace) while invoking the way a man's standing in a paternalistic order is bound to his ability to protect the women in his charge. She is not the only woman in the Qur'an to use her wit, but she alone uses it for nefarious ends—an occasion for the reader to reflect upon the truthfulness of their own speech. These stories offer moments of introspection and spiritual nourishment, and they connect the believer to sacred history, which is of particular value when women in positions of religious authority are difficult to find. A survey of Muslim intellectual history shows that, since the earliest community, Muslims benefited from women who founded, sustained, and transmitted the scholarly tradition—the likes of Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, Umm al-Faḍl (Lubāba bint al-Ḥārith), ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr, and Umm Salamah (Hind bint Abī Umayyah). This was no borrowing from Western modernity. Yet women tended to specialize in disciplines of transmission, such as hadith, rather than in those that invite authorial composition, so that few works of scholarship—one may ask how many works of Qur'anic exegesis were authored by women—bear their names. European colonialism impeded institutions of Islamic learning and harmed women's teaching, but the constraints upon women's scholarship cannot be attributed to colonialism alone, for even before modernity women were rarely authors, however learned they may have been. This state of affairs raises a searching question: is the marginalization of women's scholarship owed to social factors—gendered norms of access and expectations of comportment and livelihood—or to some intrinsic limitation in women's divinely determined capacity for religious knowledge? Does God's portrayal of women in the Qur'an diminish their spiritual or intellectual aptitude? Sustained study of the Qur'an alongside women's contributions to intellectual history yields the conclusion that the constraints have been sociocultural, while the Qur'an itself, in describing women's intellectual and spiritual potential, is affirming rather than demeaning. Indeed, the women of the Qur'an become, in a direct way, the very teachers a seeker may long to find—some encountered for the first time, others revealing sides unnoticed before, and even the corrupt among them imparting cautionary lessons. Renewed attention to these figures can help Muslim communities better appreciate women in sacred history, and in turn better recognize the contributions of women as teachers, mentors, and scholars in the present. *In shāʾ Allāh.* --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/gender-uniqueness-in-islam-and-the-significance-of-fatherhood # Gender Uniqueness in Islam and the Significance of Fatherhood **Authors:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, Dr. Tahir Khwaja **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Gender and Islam **Published:** September 24, 2020 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. --- ## Prelude During the Prophet’s ﷺ era, it was revolutionary when the Qur’an and Sunnah demanded that men recognize women as their equals in human dignity,[^1] inviolability,[^2] eligibility for salvation,[^3] the pursuit of God’s pleasure,[^4] and opportunities for societal contribution.[^5] As his most influential companion ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) attested, “In *Jāhilīyah* (the era of pre-Islamic ignorance), we used to have no regard for women whatsoever. But when Islam came and Allah made mention of them, this caused us to realize that they have rights upon us…”[^6] This paradigm shift that ‘Umar and the early Muslims experienced eventually spread around the globe, though for many societies outside of the Islamic civilization this shift took well over a thousand more years. However, these days it sometimes seems difficult to reconcile the understanding of women’s rights with the distinctive qualities of each gender.[^7] The widespread assumption that males and females are essentially identical, with no consequential differences between them, has posed a major hindrance to achieving gender equity in our times. This paper evaluates that assumption and some of its perilous ramifications not just for women but also for the father-child relationship. --- ## Gender differences The notion of gender differences may be repugnant to some in these times but Islam demands that we recognize them as an important reality. Allah has said, “And the male is not like the female” (Qur’an 3:36). Refusal to acknowledge the differences that Allah created in the universe, including gender differences, is not only contrary to sacred revealed truths, it also strikes at the very foundation of family and society. Any discussion of gender differences in Islam should be prefaced by the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ words, “Women are the full siblings of men.”[^8] Al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 998, Allah bestow mercy on him) explains that among the intended meanings here is that any legal ruling in Islam applies to both males and females by default unless textual evidence exists to establish a difference.[^9] Some of these established differences fall within the ritual realm, such as women being exempted from prayer and fasting during their menses and postnatal period. Other differences fall within the social realm, such as interactions between men and women in society. Many Muslims and non-Muslims agree—explicitly or implicitly—that there are inherent differences between males and females, though they may disagree and experience intense anxiety over where those differences may fall, what they may mean, and how to establish justice in light of them. For Muslims, whose ultimate reference point is the Creator of males and females (not the subjectivity of secular humanism), the Most Just who tasked humanity with upholding justice, it should be expected that certain elementary truths about existence, our human natures, and our respective rights and responsibilities be clearly defined just as they are in the Qur’an and authentic Sunnah (prophetic tradition). Perhaps the single greatest challenge to acknowledging gender differences today is the tendency in modern societies to measure the worth of women by comparing them to men, rather than to the best possible versions of themselves (their own maximum potential). The negative social, psychological, and emotional impacts of this misguided comparison are grim. Encouraging women to assess their self-worth in comparison to men is a tremendous disservice to women and society because it is based on the belief that men's work is more valuable than women’s work. What such thinking has actually done is set the male as the ideal towards which men and women should both aspire. A woman who aspires to be like men, as her ideal, not only erodes her feminine strengths but, in a tragic irony, makes her chase after  goals often set by and for men. Whether it be a woman toiling to become a US Marine[^10] or other attempts that try to deny any differences between the sexes, these strivings involve living in another’s shadow. Islam offers a far more meaningful liberation to women by insisting that women are inherently valuable and make uniquely feminine contributions without which a healthy society could not thrive. When pre-Islamic Arabs used to bury their infant girls alive, considering them a shameful liability (in comparison to boys who could fight and earn), the Prophet ﷺ did not defend the cause of women by validating the faulty metric used by society at the time. He ﷺ did not argue that women should be honored because they were just as able-bodied as men in battle or because they could bring about just as much economic benefit for the tribe as men. Instead, he insisted that they be valued for their distinct nature. He ﷺ reminded us of kindness towards our mothers thrice before our fathers, and the Qur’an highlights how celebrating mothers is justified by virtue of the work they do carrying, delivering, nursing, and weaning their children (Qur’an 31:14, 46:15). He ﷺ taught that raising two daughters diligently would grant a person nearness to God’s greatest prophet in Paradise[^11] and that a man’s value with Allah is inextricably linked to how he treats his wife behind closed doors[^12] and to how selflessly he protects his family from peril.[^13] Sadly, many women’s rights discussions in modern times echo the same archaic materialistic mindset that Islam came to cure. In this worldview, chasing after a financially profitable career is the only worthy ambition, while choices such as specializing in motherhood or homemaking are devalued. Hence we find that a life dedicated to motherhood and its heroics is now perceived by many as an utter waste because it does not lead to economic growth. This constant burdening and simultaneous devaluing of women are described by the Mayo Clinic in a recent article entitled “Depression in Women: Understanding the Gender Gap.” The article states that “about twice as many women as men experience depression. Several factors may increase a woman’s risk of depression… often women work outside the home and still handle home responsibilities. Many women deal with the challenges of single parenthood, such as working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Also, women may be caring for their children while also caring for sick or older family members.”[^14] The article also suggests that hormonal changes at various phases of a woman’s life (pregnancy, post-natal, menopause, etc.), coupled with such stressors, may contribute to the higher incidence of depression in women than in men. Certainly, a woman’s value is not bound to conception and motherhood. Many pious women bore no children, including our mother ʿĀʾishah (Allah be pleased with her) on whose lap our beloved Prophet ﷺ breathed his last breath and to whose massive intellectual contributions all Muslims remain indebted. It is also not reduced to her ability to solicit the best suitors for marriage, lest we slight some of history’s most pious women who never married, or those who had corrupt husbands, like Āsiyah (Allah be pleased with her), the wife of Pharaoh. But, similarly, making one’s ultimate purpose any materialistic achievement is something that all people—men and women—were created to transcend. “And I did not create the jinn or human except to devote themselves to Me \[alone\]” (Qur’an 51:56). The torrent of messages echoed by a materialistic society not only causes some women to disdain motherhood but also causes some men to feel devalued when they are ‘only’ providing for their family through whatever job they are able to obtain. Just as women find themselves dissatisfied when comparing themselves to men in terms of work outside the home and earning power, many men are exasperated when pitted against each other in the rat-race for higher-paying jobs and more glamorous positions. This predicament illustrates another liberating facet of Islam: material wealth should never be accepted as a determining factor of value in an equitable society. All humans are valuable and honored by virtue of their humanity, then further distinguished in light of their devotion to God and how each of them fulfills their unique God-given potential. --- ## The fatherlessness experiment Unfolding before us today is a terrifying fatherlessness experiment in which some view fathers as mere biological contributors who abandon their children or are, at best, uninvolved financiers. According to a Pew study on [The American Family Today](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/17/1-the-american-family-today/&sa=D&ust=1601422282910000&usg=AOvVaw36iegW47M0yxKL3pY7BACU), the two-parent household is facing a rapid decline in the United States and children born out of wedlock now account for 1/3 of all births since the year 2000. This radical shift from the traditional family model is [no harmless rearrangement](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://fathers.com/statistics-and-research/the-consequences-of-fatherlessness/&sa=D&ust=1601422282911000&usg=AOvVaw3j3SlCrWkr4DTW3pPx3MDq): fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality. A staggering 80% of adolescents in psychiatric institutes stem from fatherless homes[^15] and children are twice as likely to be sexually abused (especially girls) in a home devoid of the biological father.[^16] In terms of youth violence, “the percentage of single-parent households with children between the ages of 12 and 20 is significantly associated with rates of violent crime and burglary.”[^17] According to a US Department of Justice Special Report published in 1988, 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions had absent fathers.[^18] Research conducted at Harvard University captures how some of these developmental crises are partially mitigated—but not entirely—in African-American families because other male figures from the extended family will often remain involved, especially when the father figure is removed from the picture for various reasons. This happens less often in Caucasian families and is associated with worse outcomes for those fatherless children.[^19] However, according to Jennifer Schwartz’s doctoral thesis, even the presence of a multigenerational household, or higher male capital (a greater number of males) in the community, still did not fully attenuate the effects of fatherlessness. “Deleterious effects of father absence on violence persist for females and males, even after controlling for indicators of structural disadvantage and community social control mechanisms. Though male capital and collective caregiving can make up for some of the community deficits associated with widespread father absence, father absence continues to exert significant, destructive effects on gender-disaggregated violence rates.”[^20] It was similarly reported in *The European Journal of Population* in 2017 that the presence of grandparents in a multigenerational home did not fully mitigate the negative relation between fatherlessness and academic performance, especially in mathematics.[^21] While these statistics may very well stem from married but absent (in some way) fathers, divorced or never married fathers, or other types of extramarital relations, we must not underestimate the harmful effects of diminishing fathers’ roles in society. The current fatherlessness epidemic also reminds Muslims of what they should already know, because our Creator often calls our attention to the dynamic interplay between opposites in His universe: “By the night as it covers, and by the day as it brightens, and by the creation of the male and the female; your strivings are immensely diverse” (Qur’an 92:1-4). The complementary existence of night and day, male and female, even good and evil, are all necessary components of balance in the universe. Extending this to parenting, *just as fathers can never fully offer their children what mothers can, mothers can never fully offer their children what fathers can.* --- ## The necessity of divine revelation Such basic truths may be challenged today by modern secular thought, where the “open mind” and “objective human intellect” are accepted by many as the ultimate authorities. Embracing human intellect is not wrong, so long as its limitations and biases are recognized.[^22] Consider the gender debate, for instance; non-bias is near impossible since the disputing parties themselves are the judges. Is it a coincidence that women rarely scream injustice when hearing the “kindness to your mother thrice” hadith? Is it a coincidence that men rarely scream injustice when hearing the “husband’s leadership” verses? When a negative reaction to these texts arises, it is usually from the opposite corner, whose bias generates a misperception of injustice in that flawless sacred text. Even among those who nobly try to escape their biases, some stumble into the opposite bias. Excessive focus on one’s inherent bias can lead to the opposite extreme. Consider how in some women’s attempts to escape their default pro-woman bias, they are dismissive of some very legitimate feminist grievances. Or in some men’s attempts to escape their gender bias, they charge with toxicity at some noble masculine ideals. As the famous adage reads, “When the axe fell in the forest, the trees cried out, ‘But the handle is one of us!’” In truth, only God can assess fairly, with full wisdom and neutrality, for only God transcends bias and the blindspots of human intellect. “Transcendent is He who created all the pairs; of what the earth sprouts, and of your own selves, and of things you do not know” (Qur’an 36:42). Cultural conditioning also biases us. Our sensibilities and evaluative criteria were not developed in a vacuum. Take our contemporary perception of fatherhood, for instance; it was not constructed independently of the[foolish sitcom dads](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4501_3&sa=D&ust=1601422282913000&usg=AOvVaw0UeWUWsEMDfNBv37OOvUyR) we grew up watching. Homer Simpson is a certified buffoon. The father figure in *Family Guy* is a lowlife. In *Everybody Loves Raymond*, the father evades all duties to play golf. In *Stranger Things*, the Wheelers’ dad is oblivious to those who live under his roof. In the *Fresh Prince of Bel-Air*, Will’s father returns only to traumatize his son one last time. This narrative has even crafted men’s perception of themselves, for art and literature have always been prescriptive of a culture and not just descriptive of it. Some men have internalized this narrative, becoming runaway and video-game dads. Many others have decided that they would rather shun fatherhood than be poor at it. Supplemented by the venom of endless hookup apps in the smartphone era, we now face the devastating effects of normalized fornication detailed by Mark Regnerus in his book, *Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy*. There has been a historical U-shaped curve as far as the severity of the media’s portrayal of the father as being ignorant or doltish between the 1940s and now.[^23] We seem to be at the top of that curve at present and though the deleterious effects of these shifting norms on the family won’t be fully grasped for another generation, the downward spiral of social disintegration clearly continues unabated. We already see how sexual freedoms have spawned loneliness and lack of care for the elderly, increased predation, decreased social accountability and, most importantly, have resulted in a lack of concern for God’s perspective. Only by submitting to God’s wisdom and authority (Islam) can we escape this chaos. “Does He not know what He created, and He is *al-Laṭīf* (the Most Subtle), *al-Khabīr* (the Best Acquainted)?” (Sūrat al-Mulk: 14). It is only the guidance of Allah that can prevent the role confusion and identity dysphoria that begets family crisis and social chaos. Also, the finite nature of this world and particularly that of modern consumerist discourse lends itself to greed[^24] and a dog-eat-dog mentality, which is why only through reorienting our pursuits towards God’s infinite mercy can there be plenty for every seeker. Only then can human beings escape the crippling power struggles between the rich and poor, strong and weak, man and woman. In summary, the primary roles of men and women in family are distinct, and so it should not be about who can outdo the other in the same task, but who can fulfill their God-ordained duties in a superior way. Given the distinctive characteristics and features of men and women, men are tasked with being the primary earners and leaders[^25] while women are tasked with being the primary nurturers and educators. These are major and significant exceptions, due to individual qualities or greater need, as we cite in this paper, even at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, however these are the wisest arrangements for this world set by the Most Just, Most Merciful, Most Wise Creator. From Allah’s wisdom and mercy is that He created men and women with *interdependent* natures, through which they find relevance in each other, a relevance that can actualize balance and tranquility in their relationship, for their children, and in society at large. And to ensure this equilibrium, Allah’s justice equitably delineates for each partner their rights and responsibilities. As Dr. Hatem al-Haj writes, Once you disturb the delicate balance between rights and responsibilities, you will not be able to predict the results, let alone control them. I hope our young preachers realize this while they are rightfully trying to make Islam more appealing to the dominant modern culture. For example, when you void the *qiwāmah* (the husband’s position as the head of the household) from its meaning and make it only about responsibilities without the corresponding rights, you will sound ‘moderate’ and culturally competent. However, you will be disturbing the fine balance established by the All-Knowing and All-Wise. The whole community will suffer, but our sisters will be the ones to suffer the most.[^26] --- ## What do fathers offer? An ideal parenting model requires that each parent have a primary role, even if they may inevitably wear other hats on specific occasions. Building on that premise, we turn now to exploring the benefits children receive from their relationship with their father that are notably different from those derived from their relationship with their mother. **I - Paternal** **Authority** A father being present, cooperative, collaborative and involved in family life infuses the home with an aura of order and discipline. Fathers play an instrumental role in preventing the misconduct and sometimes even the psychopathology of their children. This is according to Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (d. 1980 and 1972, respectively) who were astute criminologists who studied juvenile delinquency. They developed “social prediction tables” that predicted the likelihood of delinquent behavior in youth and described the developmental need of children to experience both appropriate discipline and loving nurturance. This is of course not to suggest that fathers are always the best disciplinarians, or that fathers may never serve as the primary caretaker. Ideally, both mother and father will collaborate to provide the appropriate mix of discipline and nurturance. Since our children are a reflection of us, what helps ensure that they benefit from paternal authority is seeing their mother respect their father’s leadership in the family. Otherwise, children will begin to use one parent to undermine the other, and then the father may eventually gravitate away from family involvement due to alienation or simply to avoid conflict. While some men become uninvolved with the family because they are irresponsible or unskilled in effective communication and conflict resolution, [maternal gatekeeping](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2005.00323.x&sa=D&ust=1601422282916000&usg=AOvVaw0JMFyarZKRUPZknhcc3LDG) is also another factor. Unless this is also taken into account, paternal authority is lost with his withdrawal, and that could set the stage for a lifetime of suffering for his children. Cynthia Harper and Sara McLanahan conducted a two-decade-long longitudinal study of 6,403 fatherless boys who were aged between 14 and 22 in 1979. They found that fatherlessness led to a predictable and significantly higher chance of incarceration later in life.[^27] Indeed, boys growing up in single-mother households were twice as likely as boys in mother-father households to be incarcerated in young adulthood. This was true for all families, regardless of race. Since Islam’s paradigm of “male leadership in the household” is often misunderstood, let us attempt to clarify this concept here: - A multitude of texts in the Qur’an and Sunnah establish beyond question that it is Allah who designated this, not “patriarchal traditionalists” nor smug revisionists. Since Allah transcends gender and fallibility, we would do ourselves a service to explore the wisdom of such a designation. Perhaps the wisdom lies in men having a greater capacity for leadership, or women having a greater capacity for nurturance; perhaps both and more. Ultimately, *taslīm* (surrender) is the essence of Islam. While this does not require the suspension of the intellect, it does mean that if a person only accepts what “makes sense” to them, then their god is not God The Creator. As Allah says, “Have you seen the one who takes his own *hawá* (whims/biases) as his god? Would you then be an agent for \[defending\] him?” (Qur’an 25:43). - Authority here is not authoritarianism. It is incontrovertible that the stereotypical caricature of wives as powerless sex-slaves not entitled to an opinion has no basis in Islam (abuse of authority is addressed later in this paper). Allah frames marriage in the Qur’an as a union of tranquility, mercy, affection (30:21), and mutual respect (2:148). Traditional Muslim jurists have explained how even children are accorded considerable degrees of autonomy, and spouses have even more freedom to express their individuality. Muslim jurists have further upheld for fourteen centuries that a wife’s duty towards her husband is contingent upon his fulfilling his own duties towards her (in light of 2:228) and hence she can have him penalized, or the marriage annulled, if he fails to maintain them. In Islam, absolute authority belongs only to God but, for the sake of social order, God allotted some a degree of authority over others and demands compliance for the collective good. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is questioned about his flock. The leader of people is a guardian and is questioned about his subjects. A man is the guardian of his family and is questioned about them. A woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and his children and she is questioned about them.”[^28] Shepherding requires responsibility and leadership, for it would be inequity to hold anyone liable for anything over which they have no control. - Marriage is much like any other joint enterprise; it requires an effective means for preventing endless debate and decision paralysis. In the Sunnah, we find that “if three people set out on a journey, they should appoint one of them as the leader,”[^29] so how much more necessary would a leadership mechanism be for preventing such problems in the lifelong marital journey? Imagine a presidential debate not ending with the people’s ultimate decision, but rather when one party concedes to the other. Hence, the Prophet ﷺ who taught men by his example to seek counsel from their wives,[^30] also taught us that Allah has authorized the husband to make the final decision, and accordingly be more answerable to Allah because of it. Just as being the leader among travelers does not entail any lesser virtue of the rest, being the tiebreaker as the husband does not entail insult to the wife. Finally, an entire genre of prophetic hadith(s) emphasizes fleeing from leadership[^31] and establishes that those coveting it are unqualified for it.[^32] When leadership is imposed on anyone, men in this case, they should be fearful of not fulfilling it, certain that their interrogation will be unlike everyone else’s and sincere in pleasing Allah and then his family. “That home of the hereafter We grant to those who do not seek exaltedness upon the earth nor corruption” (Qur’an 28:32). While abuse of authority is a pervasive reality in our world, Islam teaches us that it is not the presence of authority (without which there is chaos) that is problematic. Rather, what is problematic is the absence of the greatest safeguards against human transgression; i.e., the fear of God, the cultivation of conscience, the sincerity of wanting to do the right thing, and the identification of God’s boundaries which must be honored and protected in the public and private domain. These are rare in an age when Islam is a mere cultural identity for many, and thus our mothers, sisters, and daughters are oppressed in many Muslim homes before our very eyes. But whenever and wherever Islam is embraced authentically, we find shining examples that embody the Prophet’s ﷺ words, “The best of you are those \[who are\] best to their wives.”[^33] Ultimately, if a child does not experience a clear power structure at home to which he must conform, he will struggle to respect rules, and sometimes to even recognize God’s authority in his life. Developing a sense of accountability and self-restraint are necessary for children to avoid unwanted consequences. Seventy percent of adolescents in US juvenile correctional facilities come from fatherless homes and nine times as many high school dropouts stem from fatherless homes (see:[infographic](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://fathers.com/wp39/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fatherlessInfographic.pdf&sa=D&ust=1601422282918000&usg=AOvVaw3HUkj7PT890VRzBEWAIPEY)). These were children who did not have someone to instill in them frustration tolerance and accustom them to hearing a non-negotiable “no” at times. This is a priceless developmental contribution, a cornerstone of emotional regulation and resilience, and often it is the father figure who provides this. **II - Paternal** **Affection** Expressions of warmth and endearment from the father enhance his capacity to fulfill his primary role; they offer a constant non-verbal reassurance that dad is not disciplining children out of hatred but rather from genuine concern. Paternal affection also has [intrinsic benefit](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1069397103253710&sa=D&ust=1601422282919000&usg=AOvVaw3cbaY1dazmE2i0NR10_nAa) for a child, since children crave different kinds of loving care, both paternal and maternal. Alfred Messer describes how “father hunger” often afflicts boys aged one and two whose fathers are suddenly and permanently absent. Sleep disturbances, such as trouble falling asleep, nightmares, and night terrors frequently begin within one to three months after the father’s disappearance from the home.[^34] Absentee fathers create an emotional void that also leaves youth particularly susceptible to myopic decision-making. For instance, two-thirds of teen pregnancies happen among girls from fatherless homes;[^35] many of these girls sought masculine protective love, while the men who fathered the babies had entirely other motives. Similarly, 90% of homeless and runaway children come from fatherless homes.[^36] For many young men, their transition into adulthood is obstructed by the absence of a model of manliness in the home. This is often associated with feelings of alienation that generate a sense of inadequacy which spawns a lifetime of estrangement and rebellion, as captured by the likes of Randy Hix in his book, *The Affirmation Crisis: Healing the Wounds of a Fatherless Generation*. But these are not the only victims; others who felt unaccepted by their present fathers suffer a heightened propensity for attempting to compensate by turning to gangs and obsessive video-gaming, seeking through them the acceptance that they were missing and which they needed and craved. In a paper on street gangs published by the *International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology*, researcher Stanley Taylor writes, “Only 1 out of the 8 members in this study had a father that lived at home. Given that the participants were from completely different gangs from varying areas of Los Angeles, it showed a surprising consistency in the members’ lack of fathers’ participation in their lives as children.”[^37] The author goes on to establish that the participants almost all said that they found greater acceptance in the gang and were complimented more than they ever were at home. **III - Financial Security** In 2011, the US Census Bureau reported that “12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.”[^38] One may ask whether or not the remaining 54% who escaped poverty were unscathed. Far from it; a sizable portion of financially secure fatherless homes still suffer from emotional hunger. After realizing just how consequential paternal affection is, one can imagine the dire necessity of a mother’s unparalleled mercy. For too many children, securing the finances happens at the expense of the mother’s physical presence in the home. This emotional starvation may be reflected in the fact that 69% of suicide deaths occur in fatherless families. Muslim judges from every school of Islamic law have historically recognized that mothers were afforded a greater capacity for child-rearing and nurturance. Jurists unanimously agree that “the mother is most entitled to the physical custody of the youngster”[^39] in the case of divorce because the Prophet ﷺ established this verdict himself.[^40] The wisdom behind this should be evident. As some psychologists frame it, women’s personalities are consistently more agreeable (think: willing to sacrifice for the child)[^41] while men are generally more conscientious (think: task-oriented). Hence, perceiving the mother’s and father’s roles as being interchangeable is a reckless notion that should not go unchallenged. As for when life-circumstances force either parent to assume a dual role, this is when it would be warranted to remember exceptional orphans in world history, some of whom were prophets of Allah, and how Allah may sometimes intervene to compensate, and that only God is truly irreplaceable. --- ## Where men must man up         **I - Reviving prophetic leadership** Men must own the task of controlling their own egos. Allah entrusted men with leadership for the betterment of the family, not for selfish interests. Even if hearts may be in the right place, people rebel when they don't have breathing room and are constrained. We must remember that the same man ﷺ who told us that men are heads of their families showed us that being the head means  to serve, protect, and be a source of support—duties and obligations for which a man will be questioned by God. ʿĀʾishah (Allah be pleased with her) described him ﷺ as being someone who mended his own clothes, milked his own sheep, and served himself.[^42] In *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, under the heading *How a Man Should Be With His Family,* we find ʿĀʾishah attesting that he ﷺ would be found “in the service of his family” at home.[^43] He ﷺ would outperform everyone in forgiving any infringement on his rights and outdo everyone in restraining his anger.  Upon being informed that no food was available in the house, he ﷺ would simply say, “Then I am fasting.”[^44] Those mentored by the Prophet ﷺ also left shining examples of how true leaders pave, with their exemplary character, a pathway into people’s hearts. The strictness of ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (Allah be pleased with him) was known to all, yet people seemed to have been persuaded more by his righteousness than his rigidity. They felt that standing before them was someone truly genuine, a person who was tougher on himself than he was on them. Embedded in his example is the formula for every man who seeks the cooperation of his family. We sometimes unwittingly encourage rebellion in our homes through our own blatant non-conformity with Allah’s authority. When a husband is notorious in his household for missing prayers, uttering profanity, watching inappropriate shows, or behaving violently, it diminishes his chances of being taken seriously when he instructs his family or selectively enjoins a Qur’anic verse or prophetic hadith. Leaders lead by example. Another unfortunate phenomenon in this regard is when the *wali* (male guardian) obstructs the marriage of his daughters to compatible suitors. The Qur’an expressly forbids[^45] such men from exploiting their authority to drive away decent and honorable men from asking for the hand of women under their care (usually their daughters). This obstinance is contrary to the actual role of a *walī*, which is to facilitate marriage to compatible suitors, not impede it. Shaykh al-ʿUthaymīn, a senior Saudi jurist, said, “And the jurists—Allah bestow mercy on them—mentioned that when a *walī* repeatedly rejects a compatible suitor, that makes him a *fāsiq* (flagrant sinner), and his credibility (in testimony) and guardianship are dismissed. In fact, he becomes disqualified as an *imām* according to the well-known position of the Ḥanbalī school, whereby he cannot lead the Muslims as their *imām* in a congregational prayer, and that is a grave matter.”[^46]         **II - Restoring male affection** Though Allah made receiving His mercy contingent upon extending mercy to all,[^47] this was especially emphasized in the case of youngsters for obvious reasons. Withholding expressions of love and affection from children, or leaving this to the mother alone, can be devastating. When al-Aqraʿ b. Ḥābis (Allah be pleased with him) witnessed the Prophet ﷺ kissing his grandson, he boasted of never kissing any of his ten sons, to which the Prophet ﷺ said, “What can I possibly offer you if Allah has plucked mercy from your heart? Whoever does not show mercy will not receive mercy.”[^48] In the United States alone, twenty million kids have no physical father present to bolster them and wipe away their tears, and millions more have a physically present father yet find him emotionally insensitive or absent. Even in Muslim communities, we sometimes find bizarre notions of aloof masculinity that are in stark contradistinction to the prophetic ideal. These are usually due to cultural notions that preclude boys from being hugged or require them to suppress their emotions. But when consulting the prophetic model, we find in the Sunnah that the manliest man of all time taught men to soften their hearts by caressing an orphan’s head[^49] and that he would playfully carry Usāmah and al-Ḥasan (Allah be pleased with them) and say, “O Allah, I love these two, so love these two.”[^50] Thus was the Prophet ﷺ; a marvelous mixture of gentleness at home and fearlessness on the battlefield. In fact, Saʿd b. ʿUbādah (Allah be pleased with him) once struggled to understand how the Prophet ﷺ, who taught them to accept God’s fate, had tears streaming down his face as he watched his infant grandson dying. Turning even this moment into a teachable one, the Prophet ﷺ said, “These \[tears\] are a mercy that Allah places in the hearts of whomever He wishes, and whoever does not exhibit mercy will not experience mercy.”[^51] Fathers sometimes employ cruelty with their sons thinking it is necessary to “toughen them up.” Islam does encourage boys to develop physical strength and overall toughness and does not teach that male courage and protective proclivities are mere social constructs. However, its balanced roadmap to these virtues is what ensures they are actualized but kept from becoming toxic masculinity. Stressing paternal affection is a component of that divine balance. Excessive roughness can actually lead to the same lack of resilience and tenacity they fear for their sons, for it inculcates a lack of self-respect and conditions them to succumb to meekness, bullying, and humiliation. This is even more likely during childhood when the malleability of personality is at its prime. Another negative outcome of callous treatment is that when children are stripped of their inborn empathy, this can turn them into transgressing menaces. Albert Bandura, Stanford University author of *Adolescent Aggression*, observed that delinquents usually suffer from an absence of paternal affection.         **III - The sacred financial duty** Given that no one wants to have to choose between fulfilling the emotional versus financial needs of their children, we must assume that some women have had to assume the role of the primary breadwinner after their husbands neglected this duty. A myriad of reasons may play a role in men’s financial abandonment of their families, of which we will tackle two: - Many men stipulate appreciation in return for service, by corollary, ingratitude leads to the cessation of that service. Certainly, the Prophet ﷺ severely cautioned women against being ungrateful to their husbands, but from the perspective of male duties, this is where the consistency of sincerely working for Allah’s pleasure manifests. Men should not be providing for their families because the family is thankful, rather because we are bankrupt and in need of Allah’s pleasure. We should remember that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Out of the dinar (gold-currency) that you spend in Allah’s path, that with which you free a slave, that which you donate to the needy, and that which you spend on your family, the one yielding the greatest reward is that which you spend on your family.”[^52] One may wonder why spending on our own family is such a highly rewarded act in Islam. For the stability of the home, Allah is telling the providers that *I know your work behind closed doors may not be appreciated, but do not let up; I appreciate you.* - Some men simply exploit their wives, emotionally guilting them for “staying home all day” and “not helping the family with anything.” Such men have bought into the materialistic hype which sees only money as valuable and its accumulation as being admirable. They were duped into perceiving housewives and stay-at-home mothers as lazy people who live for gossip and soap operas. No dignified Muslim should tolerate such sweeping stereotypes, let alone utter them, especially after his wife has undertaken the *jihad* (struggle) of motherhood. “Working mother” certainly is a redundant statement. The mother is the child’s first teacher, who educates through her seemingly mundane yet profound daily interactions with the child, and through the earliest conversations with that child, when they are discovering, under mom’s wings, what it really means to be human. Expecting mothers to earn wages outside as the norm while caring for the children is unfair to them and to the children, just as asking fathers to stay home as the norm being the primary caretaker, warming up stockpiles of breastmilk is unfair to them and to the children.  Once again we mention that exceptions, during times of need, are excluded here.  One must not imagine that the biological and economic responsibilities of women and men can ever be fully interchangeable. We should not demand that women be required to go out and work, just like it would be silly to demand that men bear the children. Again, this is not arguing that a mother should never contribute outside the home, but rather that men should never expect her to, just as she should not *choose* to at the expense of her children. --- ## A parting word The incontrovertible rights and truths which were specifically accorded to women with the advent of Islam were elucidated in another Yaqeen publication, *“We Used to Have No Regard for Women: Gender Equity & the Advent of Islam,”*[^53] to make evident that the Islamic civilization came upon this guidance more than one thousand years before western civilizations did. For example, it was only during World War II that women in the United States were able to enter the workforce, whereas the second ruler after the Prophet ﷺ appointed two women to manage and organize the marketplace during the 7th century. Muslim women at that time were also known to publically correct the same ruler and head of state, where he accepted that correction. Women’s opinions were actively sought out, along with those of men, when choosing the successor to the head of state, over a millennium before they were constitutionally given the right to vote in the US, without having to fight for this basic “inalienable” right.  Baffling! Such is the position and respect given to women by Islam, regarding which none of the Muslim female Companions of the Prophet ﷺ were ever known to have complained about Islam, the revelation or the way in which the Prophet ﷺ implemented it. The opposite is in fact true: they felt supported and liberated by it more than they would have imagined for their own selves. Once these compelling principles, gender uniqueness but equity, are acknowledged, the discussion can then open up to the most basic unit of a society, the family.  The importance of the two-parent household, giving to each his or her due rights and responsibilities, cannot be overstated. Two fully-functional parents will likely struggle in order to equip their children to be able to weather the looming storms they will face in their lives. A Muslim believes that only with God’s aid are these odds surmountable and appeals to God first by appreciating and embracing the definitive guidance with which He graced us. A Muslim recognizes that even greater than the threat of poverty, drugs, homelessness, and suicide is the threat of losing one’s faith. This is not just because [authoritative studies reveal that a religious upbringing is better for children’s health and well-being](https://stream.org/new-study-reveals-religious-upbringing-better-kids-health-well/&sa=D&ust=1601422282924000&usg=AOvVaw0wEgAgM26nIvin6Ax2HUWQ), but because providing for them in this world is secondary to providing them with safety and wellbeing in the next life, which is greater and more lasting. “Allah extends provisions for whom He will and restricts \[them\]. And they are deluded by the worldly life, while the worldly life is naught—compared to the hereafter—except a \[brief\] enjoyment” (Qur’an 13:26). A Muslim is therefore certain that Allah does not disappoint, and that the Qur’an is His confirmed rope which He extends to save whoever grabs on to it. A Muslim trusts that guidance is best found by looking upward to the heavens, and absolutely not by looking around to those experimenting in the darkness. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 49:13 and 17:70. [^2]: Qur’an 81:8–9, 6:151, and 24:4. [^3]: Qur’an 9:72, 57:12, and 48:5. [^4]: Qur’an 4:124, 16:97, and 40:40. [^5]: Qur’an 9:71. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, kitāb al-maẓālim, bāb al-ghurfah wa-al-ʿullīyah*, no. 5505. [^7]: Bruce Goldman, “Two Minds: The Cognitive Differences between Men and Women,” *Stanford Medicine*, Spring 2017, [https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html](https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html&sa=D&ust=1601422282927000&usg=AOvVaw1PafgPXttr6QTccE85SIgF). [^8]: *Musnad* *Aḥmad*, no. 5869; *Sunan* *al-Tirmidhī*, no. 105; *Sunan* *Abī Dāwūd*, no. 204, authenticated by al-Albānī in *al-Silsilah al-Ṣaḥīḥah* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma‘ārif, 1996), 6:860, no. 2862. [^9]: Al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-Sunan*, vol. 1 (Aleppo: al-Maṭbaʿah al-ʿIlmīyah, 1932), 79. [^10]: Ryan Browne, “Female Marine Drops Out of Infantry Course,” *CNN News*, August 16, 2016, [https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/15/politics/female-marine-infantry-course/](https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/15/politics/female-marine-infantry-course/&sa=D&ust=1601422282927000&usg=AOvVaw14_2kk4xuNwsj6PBVg4ymY). [^11]: Anas ibn Malik (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever cares for two young girls until they come of age, he and I will be in Paradise like this,” and he gestured by bringing two fingers together. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2631 and elsewhere. [^12]: ʿĀʾishah (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of you \[in the sight of God\] are those best to their family (wives), and I am the best to my family.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3895; authenticated by al-Albānī. [^13]: This passage was adapted from a social media comment that I found intriguing, so I hastily saved it without ascertaining its author to give him due credit here. I ask Allah that its author be pleased to find this passage in his scale of good deeds. [^14]: Mayo Clinic, “Depression in Women: Understanding the Gender Gap,” Mayo Clinic, January 29, 2019, [https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression/art-20047725](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression/art-20047725&sa=D&ust=1601422282935000&usg=AOvVaw2iBLUuxigtnm0u-Qjf9PBr). [^15]: Jack Block, Jeanne H. Block, and Per F. Gjerde, “Parental Functioning and the Home Environment in Families of Divorce,” *Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry* 27, no. 2 (1988): 207–13. [^16]: Beverly Gomes-Schwartz, Jonathan Horowitz, and Albert P. Cardarelli, *Child Sexual Abuse Victims and Their Treatment* (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1988). [^17]: Bryan J. Grapes, ed., *Violent Children* (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2000), [http://www.demes.teimes.gr/spoudastirio/E-NOTES/V/Violent\_Children\_Viewpoints.pdf](http://www.demes.teimes.gr/spoudastirio/E-NOTES/V/Violent_Children_Viewpoints.pdf&sa=D&ust=1601422282936000&usg=AOvVaw12POAtn1xaID-rAqr1XacN). [^18]: Steve Blake, memo to the members of the Legislative Study Committee on Child Placement and Support, September 24, 2018, [https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lc/study/2018/1785/020\_september\_25\_2018\_meeting\_10\_00\_a\_m\_room\_412\_east\_state\_capitol/sept25blake\_dadsofwi](https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lc/study/2018/1785/020_september_25_2018_meeting_10_00_a_m_room_412_east_state_capitol/sept25blake_dadsofwi&sa=D&ust=1601422282936000&usg=AOvVaw3TNYH9-tDGCCVBNSc7VH79). [^19]: Christine Cross, “The Myth of the Two-Parent Home,” *New York Times*, December 9, 2019, [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/opinion/two-parent-family.html?fbclid=IwAR3aWlfH-VOJ\_RpT2a4k3CLKzBvbaXOXkujkVr5pltXmQgImGlaZ9eazQJs#click=https://t.co/oPJQGTCrsB](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/opinion/two-parent-family.html?fbclid%3DIwAR3aWlfH-VOJ_RpT2a4k3CLKzBvbaXOXkujkVr5pltXmQgImGlaZ9eazQJs%23click%3Dhttps://t.co/oPJQGTCrsB&sa=D&ust=1601422282934000&usg=AOvVaw1PuCGK4EhhJpj0Fq1gOUWi). [^20]: Jennifer Schwartz, “The Effect of Father Absence and Father Alternatives on Female and Male Rates of [^21]: Jonas Radl, Leire Salazar, and Héctor Cebolla-Boado, “Does Living in a Fatherless Household Compromise Educational Success? A Comparative Study of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills,” *European Journal of Population* 33, no. 2 (May 2017): 217–42, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5400797/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5400797/&sa=D&ust=1601422282935000&usg=AOvVaw2iqxdBURqk-YVOr9HLYDJi). [^22]: See Omar Edward Moad, “Honored Since Adam: Islam and the Value of Human Freedom,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, October 23, 2017, [^23]: Ralph LaRossa, Charles Jaret, Malati Gadgil, and G. Robert Wynn, “The Changing Culture of Fatherhood in Comic‐Strip Families: A Six‐Decade Analysis,” *Journal of Marriage and Family* 62, no. 2 (May 2000): 375–87, [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00375.x](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00375.x&sa=D&ust=1601422282933000&usg=AOvVaw0HmoFY-ovydQJiorrrwcyD). [^24]: See Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, “Crisis of Modern Consciousness,” lecture at Masjid Negara, Kuala Lumpur, March 28, 2010,[https://youtu.be/RWOKaOb33K4](https://youtu.be/RWOKaOb33K4&sa=D&ust=1601422282932000&usg=AOvVaw0oPPefZC-vB2EYUKMRgPLa). [^25]: Qur’an 4:34 and 65:6. [^26]: Hatem al-Haj, “Once you disturb the delicate balance between rights and responsibilities, you will not be able to predict the results, let alone control them,” Facebook, January 4, 2017. [^27]: Cynthia C. Harper and Sara S. McLanahan, “Father Absence and Youth Incarceration,” *Journal of Research on Adolescence* 14, no. 3 (September 2004): 369–97, [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2004.00079.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2004.00079.x&sa=D&ust=1601422282933000&usg=AOvVaw2wX3mbs9UJH2xqzv0KEQGl). [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6719; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1829. [^29]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 8:960. [^30]: It is widely established in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and elsewhere that when the Prophet ﷺ finalized a peace treaty with Quraysh, he ordered his companions to discontinue their *ʿumrah*. When they did not, he entered upon his wife, Umm Salamah (rA), and complained of their reluctance. She said, “O Prophet of Allah, do you want them to do that? Exit and do not speak to any of them until you have sacrificed your camel and summoned the barber to shave your head.” When he did that, they realized that the matter was irreversible, and so all 1,400 of them followed suit. See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 2731, 2732. [^31]: Abū Hurayrah (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “You will certainly be keen on leadership, but it will be a source of great regret on the Day of Resurrection.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6729. [^32]: Abū Musá al-Ashʿarī (rA) narrated: “I entered upon the Prophet ﷺ with two of my cousins. One of them said, ‘Appoint us to a position of leadership, O Messenger of Allah,’ and the other said the same. The Prophet ﷺ responded, ‘We do not appoint this work to anyone who asks for it or is eager for it.’” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 463; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1733. [^33]: See footnote 13. [^34]: Alfred Messer, “Boys’ Father Hunger: The Missing Father Syndrome,” *Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality* 23 (January 1989): 44–47. [^35]: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, press release, March 26, 1999. [^36]: Edward Kruk, “Father Absence, Father Deficit, Father Hunger,” *Psychology Today*, May 23, 2012, [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/co-parenting-after-divorce/201205/father-absence-father-deficit-father-hunger](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/co-parenting-after-divorce/201205/father-absence-father-deficit-father-hunger&sa=D&ust=1601422282929000&usg=AOvVaw2PSYl4CeEgRH7NKP9AlAKC); Normer Adams, “Why Dads Matter,” Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Kennesaw State University, June 20, 2010, [https://jjie.org/2010/06/20/why-dads-matter/](https://jjie.org/2010/06/20/why-dads-matter/&sa=D&ust=1601422282929000&usg=AOvVaw1BAIJAV3N8Sp_V--sMUwK5). [^37]: Stanley S. Taylor, “Why American Boys Join Street Gangs,” *International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology* 5, no. 8 (December 2013): 339–49, [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.429.2209&rep=rep1&type=pdf](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi%3D10.1.1.429.2209%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&sa=D&ust=1601422282934000&usg=AOvVaw1W8SIJvWhCFEgHQQNpCdtq). [^38]: *Children’s Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2011* (Washington, DC: US Census Bureau, 2011), Table C8. [^39]: Salah al-Sawy, “Family Code for Muslim Communities in North America,” presented at The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America’s 8th Annual Conference, Kuwait, March 2012, [https://www.amjaonline.org/declaration-articles/the-assemblys-family-code-for-muslim-communities-in-north-america/](https://www.amjaonline.org/declaration-articles/the-assemblys-family-code-for-muslim-communities-in-north-america/&sa=D&ust=1601422282937000&usg=AOvVaw2rnCVF5njdST2XRjvWRsMI). [^40]: ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr (rA) narrates that a woman said, “O Messenger of Allah, my womb was a vessel for this son of mine, my breasts were a water-skin for him, and my lap was a guard for him. Now his father has divorced me, and wants to take him away from me.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “You have more right to him, as long as you do not marry.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2269; authenticated by al-Albāni in *Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl*, no. 2187. [^41]: Alan Feingold, “Gender Differences in Personality: A Meta-Analysis,” *Psychological Bulletin* 116, no. 3 (November 1994): 429–56. [^42]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, nos. 24903, 26194; authenticated by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi*ʿ, no. 4937. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6039. [^44]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1154. [^45]: Qur’an 2:232 and 4:19. [^46]: Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Musnad, *Fatāwá Islāmīyah* (Riyadh: Dār al-Waṭan, 1995), 3:148. [^47]: Anas (rA) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “I swear by the One in whose hand is my soul, Allah does not send down His mercy except upon the merciful.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, we all exhibit mercy.” He ﷺ said, “This is not the mercy a person extends to his companion. Rather, it is extending mercy to people at large.” *Musnad Abī Yaʿlaá*, no. 4258, graded *ḥasan* by al-Albāni in *al-Silsilah al-Ṣaḥīḥah*, no. 167. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5998, 5651; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2318. [^49]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, 2:263; see *al-Silsilah asl-Ṣaḥīḥa*, no. 854 and *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ,* no. 1410 for its authenticity. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3747 and elsewhere. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1284; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 923. [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 995. [^53]: Maryam Al-Dabbagh, “We Used to Have No Regard for Women: Gender Equity and the Advent of Islam,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, July 17, 2019,[https://yaqeeninstitute.org/maryam-al-dabbagh/we-used-to-have-no-regard-for-women-gender-equity-the-advent-of-islam/#ftnt2](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/maryam-al-dabbagh/we-used-to-have-no-regard-for-women-gender-equity-the-advent-of-islam/#ftnt2) ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. At the coming of Islam, a profound transformation occurred in how women were regarded, for the Qur'an and Sunnah insisted that women be recognized as the equals of men in human dignity, inviolability, eligibility for salvation, the pursuit of God's pleasure, and the opportunity to contribute to society. This shift was so tangible that the noble Companion 'Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) testified, "In Jāhilīyah, we used to have no regard for women whatsoever. But when Islam came and Allah made mention of them, this caused us to realize that they have rights upon us." Yet in our own age, a widespread assumption has taken root that men and women are essentially identical, with no consequential differences between them, and this assumption has become a serious obstacle to genuine gender equity, with troubling consequences not only for women but also for the father-child bond. Islam requires that we acknowledge gender differences as a real and meaningful part of creation, for Allah says, "And the male is not like the female" (Qur'an 3:36). To deny such distinctions is not only contrary to revealed truth but also strikes at the foundation of family and society. At the same time, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Women are the full siblings of men," and al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 998, may Allah have mercy on him) explained that this means every legal ruling applies by default to both men and women unless a text establishes a difference. Some of these established differences lie in the ritual sphere, such as the exemption of women from prayer and fasting during menses and postnatal bleeding, and others lie in the social sphere. For the Muslim, whose ultimate reference is the Creator and not the shifting standards of secular thought, it is to be expected that fundamental truths concerning human nature, rights, and responsibilities be clearly defined as they are in the Qur'an and authentic Sunnah. Perhaps the greatest obstacle today is the tendency to measure a woman's worth by comparing her to men rather than to the fullest realization of her own potential. This comparison inflicts serious social, psychological, and emotional harm, for it rests on the assumption that men's work is more valuable than women's, thereby setting the male as the ideal toward which all should aspire. A woman who takes man as her standard erodes her own feminine strengths and, in tragic irony, chases goals often set by and for men. Islam offers a far more meaningful liberation by insisting that women possess inherent value and offer uniquely feminine contributions without which no healthy society can flourish. When the pre-Islamic Arabs buried their infant girls alive, considering them a liability, the Prophet ﷺ did not defend women by claiming they could fight or earn like men; rather, he insisted they be valued for their distinct nature. He ﷺ mentioned kindness to the mother three times before the father, and the Qur'an celebrates mothers by virtue of the labor of carrying, delivering, nursing, and weaning their children (Qur'an 31:14, 46:15). He ﷺ taught that raising two daughters diligently draws one near to him in Paradise, and that a man's standing with Allah is bound to how he treats his wife privately and how selflessly he protects his family. Sadly, much modern discourse on women's rights echoes the very materialism that Islam came to cure, treating the pursuit of a profitable career as the only worthy ambition while devaluing motherhood and homemaking. A life devoted to motherhood is now perceived by many as a waste because it yields no economic growth. The Mayo Clinic, in an article entitled "Depression in Women: Understanding the Gender Gap," notes that roughly twice as many women as men experience depression, and that this is linked to women working outside the home while still bearing home responsibilities, single parenthood, and caregiving for both children and elders, compounded by hormonal changes across the phases of a woman's life. Yet a woman's worth is not confined to bearing children, as seen in our mother ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), who bore no children yet remains one to whom all Muslims are intellectually indebted, and on whose lap the Prophet ﷺ breathed his last, and in Āsiyah (may Allah be pleased with her), the righteous wife of Pharaoh. Nor is any material achievement the ultimate purpose of any human being, for Allah says, "And I did not create the jinn or human except to devote themselves to Me alone" (Qur'an 51:56). This same materialism also wounds men, who feel devalued when merely providing, and Islam liberates all by teaching that wealth is never the true measure of worth; rather, all people are honored by their humanity and then distinguished by their devotion to God. A frightening experiment in fatherlessness is unfolding today. A Pew study, The American Family Today, reports the rapid decline of the two-parent household, with children born out of wedlock accounting for a third of all births since the year 2000. Fatherless children face dramatically higher risks of substance abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor education, teen pregnancy, and criminality; eighty percent of adolescents in psychiatric institutions come from fatherless homes, and children are twice as likely to be sexually abused in a home lacking the biological father. A 1988 US Department of Justice report found seventy percent of juveniles in state institutions had absent fathers. Research at Harvard shows the presence of extended male relatives partially mitigates these effects, especially in African-American families, yet Jennifer Schwartz's doctoral thesis found that even higher "male capital" or multigenerational households do not fully offset the destructive effects on violence rates for both sexes, and The European Journal of Population (2017) similarly found grandparents did not fully offset the harm to academic performance. This reality reminds Muslims of the interplay of opposites in creation: "By the night as it covers, and by the day as it brightens, and by the creation of the male and the female; your strivings are immensely diverse" (Qur'an 92:1-4). Just as fathers can never fully offer what mothers do, mothers can never fully offer what fathers do. These truths are challenged by modern secular thought, which enthrones the human intellect as ultimate authority, though intellect must be used while recognizing its limits and biases, for in the gender debate the disputing parties are themselves the judges. Only Allah judges with full neutrality: "Transcendent is He who created all the pairs; of what the earth sprouts, and of your own selves, and of things you do not know" (Qur'an 36:42). Cultural conditioning likewise biases us, as seen in the buffoonish sitcom fathers of modern media, and Mark Regnerus, in Cheap Sex, details the ruin wrought by normalized fornication. Only submission to God delivers us: "Does He not know what He created, and He is al-Laṭīf, al-Khabīr?" (Qur'an 67:14). Thus the roles of men and women in the family are distinct—men tasked primarily as earners and leaders, women as nurturers and educators—though significant exceptions existed even in the Prophet's ﷺ time. Their natures are interdependent, and Allah's justice equitably delineates the rights and duties of each. Dr. Hatem al-Haj warns that voiding qiwāmah of its rights while keeping its responsibilities may sound moderate but disturbs the delicate balance set by the All-Wise, and "the whole community will suffer, but our sisters will be the ones to suffer the most." Fathers offer their children distinctive benefits. First is paternal authority: the criminologists Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (d. 1980 and 1972) developed "social prediction tables" showing children's developmental need for both discipline and loving nurturance, this being ideally a collaboration of both parents. Cynthia Harper and Sara McLanahan's two-decade study of 6,403 boys found those raised by single mothers were twice as likely to be incarcerated, regardless of race. Islam's principle of male household leadership was designated by Allah, not by "patriarchal traditionalists" nor "revisionists," and demands surrender (taslīm), for Allah says, "Have you seen the one who takes his own hawá as his god?" (Qur'an 25:43). Yet this authority is not authoritarianism: marriage is framed as tranquility, mercy, and affection (Qur'an 30:21), a wife's duties are contingent upon her husband fulfilling his (Qur'an 2:228), and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Every one of you is a shepherd and is questioned about his flock," making leadership a heavy accountability rather than a privilege, since the Sunnah teaches that "if three set out on a journey, they should appoint one as leader" and that those who covet leadership are unfit for it. Second is paternal affection: Alfred Messer describes the "father hunger" and sleep disturbances afflicting young boys after a father's departure, and Stanley Taylor's study of gang members in the International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology found nearly all lacked involved fathers and sought acceptance in the gang. Third is financial security: the US Census Bureau (2011) reported twelve percent of children in married-couple families lived in poverty against forty-four percent in mother-only families, yet financial provision alone does not remove emotional hunger, and sixty-nine percent of suicide deaths occur in fatherless families. Muslim jurists of every school agree the mother is most entitled to custody of a young child, as the Prophet ﷺ himself ruled, reflecting her greater capacity for nurturance; roles are not interchangeable, though in cases of need one recalls the orphans of history, including prophets, whom Allah compensated, for only God is truly irreplaceable. Men must therefore man up in three respects. They must revive prophetic leadership by controlling their egos and leading through service, for ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported that the Prophet ﷺ mended his own clothes, milked his sheep, and was "in the service of his family," and when told there was no food, he would say, "Then I am fasting." A man who neglects prayer or behaves sinfully cannot expect to be heeded, and the walī who obstructs his daughter's marriage to a compatible suitor is condemned, Shaykh al-ʿUthaymīn noting such a man becomes a fāsiq who loses his guardianship and even his eligibility to lead prayer in the Ḥanbalī school. They must restore male affection, for when al-Aqraʿ b. Ḥābis boasted of never kissing his ten sons, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever does not show mercy will not receive mercy," and he ﷺ carried al-Ḥasan and Usāmah saying, "O Allah, I love these two, so love these two," and wept over his dying grandson, explaining these tears were a mercy Allah places in whom He wills; Albert Bandura of Stanford, in Adolescent Aggression, observed that delinquents typically lack paternal affection, and harshness meant to "toughen" boys often breeds the opposite. Finally, they must uphold the sacred financial duty, providing not for the sake of gratitude but for the sake of Allah, for the Prophet ﷺ said the most rewarded dinar is that spent upon one's family, and men must never belittle the mother's labor, for the "working mother" is a redundancy—she is the child's first teacher—and while exceptions of need are excluded, the responsibilities of men and women are not fully interchangeable. In closing, the rights Islam accorded women preceded Western recognition by more than a thousand years, as detailed in the related work "We Used to Have No Regard for Women"; while American women entered the workforce only during World War II, the second ruler after the Prophet ﷺ appointed women to oversee the marketplace, women publicly corrected the head of state and were accepted, and their counsel was sought in selecting his successor centuries before women gained the vote elsewhere. None of the female Companions is known to have complained of Islam; rather, they felt supported and liberated by it. Once gender uniqueness within equity is grasped, the family—society's basic unit—comes into focus, and the two-parent household, with each granted their due, cannot be overstated in importance. A Muslim knows the gravest threat is not poverty or ruin but the loss of faith, and that provision in this world is secondary to safety in the next: "And they are deluded by the worldly life, while the worldly life is naught—compared to the hereafter—except a brief enjoyment" (Qur'an 13:26). Guidance is found by looking upward to the heavens, not by looking around at those experimenting in the darkness. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does Islam teach that men and women are equal or not? Islam insists on both things at once, and that is precisely where the confusion often lies. Men and women are fully equal in human dignity, eligibility for salvation, and the pursuit of Allah’s pleasure—the Qur’an and Sunnah established this at a time when most of the world had not yet arrived at that conclusion. What Islam does not claim is that men and women are identical. Allah says, “And the male is not like the female” (3:36), while the Prophet ﷺ said, “Women are the full siblings of men”—a statement the scholar al-Khattabi explained to mean that any legal ruling applies equally to both genders unless specific textual evidence establishes a difference. The confusion often comes from a modern tendency to measure a woman’s worth by comparing her to a man. Islam rejects that measuring stick entirely. A woman is inherently valuable and makes uniquely feminine contributions without which no healthy society could thrive. Equity, in the Islamic framework, means each person fulfills their God-ordained potential—not that everyone performs the same roles. ### What actually happens to kids who grow up without a father? The data is difficult to look away from. Children from fatherless homes are twice as likely to be incarcerated in young adulthood. Two-thirds of teen pregnancies occur among girls who grew up without a father, many of whom were seeking the protective love they never received. Eighty percent of adolescents in psychiatric institutions come from fatherless homes, and children are twice as likely to be sexually abused in a home without a biological father present. Even when other male figures remain involved—grandfathers, uncles, and mentors—research found they could only partially compensate; the destructive effects of father absence persisted regardless of race or community support. The Qur’an gestures toward this when it pairs the creation of male and female with the declaration, “Your strivings are immensely diverse” (92:1–4)—a reminder that what each parent provides is irreplaceable precisely because it is distinct. None of this is a verdict against mothers holding families together under difficult circumstances. It is a warning to society: When fatherhood is trivialized, mocked in the media, or reduced to a paycheck, the people who pay the highest price are the children. ### My husband barely shows affection to our kids and says that is just how men are. Is that true in Islam? It is not. When al-Aqraʿ ibn Habis told the Prophet ﷺ that he had never kissed any of his ten sons, the Prophet ﷺ responded: “What can I possibly offer you if Allah has plucked mercy from your heart? Whoever does not show mercy will not receive mercy.” The notion that aloofness is a masculine virtue has no Prophetic foundation; it is a cultural import. The Prophet ﷺ would playfully carry his grandsons Usama and al-Hasan and say, “O Allah, I love these two, so love these two.” He wept openly as his infant grandson was dying. A father who withholds warmth thinking he is toughening his child may in fact be producing the opposite: Research strongly suggests that “father hunger” leaves children vulnerable to poor decisions, gang involvement, and lifelong estrangement—the very fragility a loving, present father is meant to prevent. ### What if I am a single mom raising kids alone? Is Islam saying my children are doomed without a father? The data on fatherlessness is sobering, and looking away from it does not protect anyone. But data does not seal anyone’s fate. Allah’s mercy is vast, and history’s greatest orphans—among them prophets of Allah—stand as testimony to how Allah can intervene and compensate in extraordinary ways when circumstances are beyond a person’s control. What matters most is that the single mother does not carry this weight while also feeling spiritually abandoned. Islam affirms her sacrifice, expects extended family and community to remain genuinely involved, and reminds every believer that Allah is al-Wakil, the Guardian—fully capable of providing children with what their circumstances cannot. The concern raised about fatherlessness is a call to society to stop normalizing the dismantling of the family; it is not a verdict against the mothers who are holding families together against difficult odds. ### How do I actually become the kind of father Islam wants me to be? Start with Umar ibn al-Khattab. His strictness was known to all, yet people followed him because they sensed he was harder on himself than on anyone else. A father earns his family’s cooperation through his own sincerity, not his position. When a husband is known at home for missing prayers, losing his temper, or selectively invoking religious texts for his own convenience, his credibility collapses—and with it, the spiritual influence he could have had on his children. Be physically present and emotionally available, kiss your children and tell them you love them, seek your wife’s counsel and honor it openly, and spend on your family knowing that the Prophet ﷺ said this spending is the most rewardable. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/introduction-to-ijaz-al-quran-the-role-of-muhammad # Introduction to I’jāz al-Qur’ān: The Role of Muhammad ﷺ **Author:** Sh. Suleiman Hani **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 17, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *This paper is Part 2 of the [I'jaz al-Qur'an](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/ijaz-al-quran/) publication series. Read [Part 1](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/suleiman-hani/introduction-to-ijaz-al-quran-part-1-the-miraculous-nature-of-the-quran/) here*. > Say, “Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce the equivalent of this Qur’an, they could not produce its equal, however much they helped each other.”[^1] --- ## Introduction Among the most foundational and significant beliefs of Muslims is absolute conviction in the Qur’an as the Speech (*kalām)* of God, divine and preserved, unparalleled and unmatched by any human speech, and inimitable by any individual or group. What follows is the second essay in a series on the miraculous nature of the Qur’an, addressing the role of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the inimitability of the Qur’an, and a review of various imitation attempts over time. By the end of this series, the evidence will clearly demonstrate that the Qur’an’s authorship cannot reasonably be attributed to anyone but God. --- ## The final Messenger of God ﷺ The claims regarding the origins of the Qur’an generally fall under one of two categories: 1. The Qur’an is from God conveyed through Prophet Muhammad ﷺ 2. The Qur’an is not from God but from Prophet Muhammad ﷺ or other human beings As this is an introduction to the topic, the primary focus in this segment will revolve around Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his character and trustworthiness, since he conveyed the Qur’an to the world. The segment that follows serves as a rational basis for disproving the claim that the Qur’an was authored by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and/or other human beings. --- ## Context of the claim Oftentimes, those who claim that the Qur’an was authored by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself suggest various worldly motives (e.g., material gain or power), claims that can be rationally eliminated by utilizing historical evidence, reasoning, and objectivity. Other researchers, such as William Montgomery Watt, mistakenly assume that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was an unrivaled genius who authored the Qur’an in his subconscious mind (via “intellectual locution”) and mistook it as revelation from God.[^2] This modern orientalist claim, however, contradicts his own and other orientalists’ views about the Prophet’s established sincerity,[^3] his illiteracy (“ \[he\] was not... taught to read and write”),[^4] his lack of exposure to scripture (“it seems certain that he had not read any scripture”),[^5] and their inability to properly and coherently explain the concept of *waḥy*  (revelation) via a secular or materialist psychological lens.[^6] The primary objective of including a section on the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the introductory article of this series is so that readers may keep in mind his exalted moral character, his inability to read or write, and his experience as a medium of the Qur’an’s delivery to the very society in which he was raised. As Muhammad ﷺ is one of the most documented humans in history,[^7] it is easy to examine these claims and compare them with the historical evidence. As with orientalists of recent centuries (e.g., Muir, Margoliouth, Bell), the Arabs of Quraysh initially accused the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ of being the author of the Qur’an. But eventually, this accusation was completely discontinued: > When Our clear revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet with Us say, “Bring \[us\] a different Qur’an, or change it.” Say \[O Prophet\]: “It is not for me to change it of my own accord; I only follow what is revealed to me, for I fear the torment of a tremendous Day if I were to disobey my Lord.” Say \[O Prophet\], “If God had so willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I lived a whole lifetime among you before it \[revelation\] came to me. How can you not use your reason?”[^8] These two verses of the Qur’an were revealed as instructions to the Prophet (“Say \[O Prophet\]”) to respond to the initial claim of Quraysh, who were advised to reflect rationally and reasonably on their claim. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had lived amongst them for forty years, was known to be trustworthy and honest (*aṣ-ṣādiq al-amīn*), had never been witnessed learning language or poetry from anyone, never sought any power or authority, and—seemingly abruptly—he was commanded to convey an unrivaled and inimitable revelation from God which he could not have conjured or controlled of his own accord. His righteousness was known to the people even before prophethood and many Western scholars of Islam acknowledge his integrity, as seen in Watt’s scholarly testimony: > His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement—all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.[^9] As Professor M. Mohar Ali writes: > It must be pointed out that the Qur’an is not considered a book of poetry by any knowledgeable person. Nor did the Prophet ever indulge in versifying. It was indeed an allegation of the unbelieving Quraysh at the initial stage of their opposition to the revelation that Muhammad ﷺ had turned a poet; but soon enough they found their allegation beside the mark and changed their lines of criticism in view of the undeniable fact of the Prophet’s being unlettered and completely unaccustomed to the art of poetry, saying that he had been tutored by others, that he had got the ‘old-worst stories’ written for him by others and read out to him in the morning and evening.[^10] Thus, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not considered a person who had learned or engaged in the craft and mastery of poetry and rhetoric. Therefore, the claim that he somehow managed to produce, seemingly out of thin air, an *inimitable*  work of linguistic and literary perfection and mesmerizing rhetoric—with knowledge of the unseen—in the desert of Arabia after living among his people for 40 years, is far from rational thought. The scholar Taqi Usmani contends: > …such a proclamation was no ordinary thing. It came from a person who had never learned anything from the renowned poets and scholars of the time, had never recited even a single piece of poetry in their poetic congregations, and had never attended the company of soothsayers.[^11] Although Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the medium (i.e., the messenger) by which the Qur’an was conveyed to mankind over twenty-three years, there are many clear signs highlighting that the Qur’an was not his speech. The types of evidence for “separation” between the Speech of the Qur’an and the speech of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ include the following: 1. Stylometric analyses of the Qur’an compared to the hadith of Muhammad ﷺ 2. The Prophet’s lack of control over revelation 3. The separation between the emotional experiences of Prophet Muhammad and the speech of the Qur’an 4. The Qur’an’s rebuking of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ  5. The limited references to Prophet Muhammad’s name in the Qur’an 6. The *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an ### Stylometric analysis of the Qur’an compared to the hadith A strong rational basis for eliminating the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as the author of the Qur’an involves stylometry, the statistical analysis of a text’s linguistic style, oftentimes for the purpose of attributing or eliminating an author.[^12] A number of scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries began examining religious texts, such as the Bible, through the lens of stylistic analysis. For example, the nineteenth-century Christian scholar Schleiermacher disputed the authorship of Paul’s First Epistle to Timothy, while Ferdinand Baur and Heinrich Holtzmann conducted similar studies of the New Testament.[^13] Although it is generally known amongst fluent Arabs who are familiar with both the Qur’an and hadith that the two could not be attributed to the same author, a statistical study was conducted to support this claim with objective data.[^14] The conclusion of the study, which included sixteen total experiments, was that the Qur’an and the hadith compilation of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhāri* must have two completely different authors.[^15] Although the study’s conclusions were lengthy, one of the important findings was that 62% of the words from the hadith in *Bukhārī* are not found in the Qur’an, and 83% of the words of the Qur’an are not found in the *Bukhārī* hadith*,* also referred to as “discriminant words”—found in one text and not the other.[^16] Other findings included significant differences in the uses of singular and plural forms, differences in the frequency of word lengths in the two texts (e.g., monograms, trigrams, tetragrams, etc.), and the different results in stylometric classifiers (Canberra distance, Manhattan distance,[^17] RN cross entropy, cosine distance, Kullback Leibler,[^18] LDA analysis, Naïve Bayes classifier,[^19] and others).[^20] The conclusion of the study was that the two examined texts (the Qur’an and *Bukhārī* hadith) must have had two different authors and that the statistical results reject attributing the Qur’an to Muhammad (peace be upon him).[^21] When Muslims encounter the claim that the Qur’an was authored by Muhammad ﷺ, one typical response is the following question: If the Qur’an was revealed over the span of twenty-three years, then how did Prophet Muhammad maintain such distinct speech for so long and in so many places and circumstances? The more remarkable point of observation that should be highlighted is that the Qur’an’s verses were revealed instantaneously at times after unplanned events or historical incidents, or in response to questions and challenges posed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ; thus, there was no time to carefully plan what was being conveyed in order to maintain such strongly distinct styles and personalities. It is unreasonable to assume that a trustworthy human being, untrained in poetry and rhetoric, would have or could have maintained such an otherworldly feat for twenty-three years. On this point, Dr. Muhammad Draz writes: > When we consider the Qur’anic style we find it the same throughout, while the Prophet’s own style is totally different. It does not run alongside the Qur’an except like high flying birds which cannot be reached by man but which may ‘run’ alongside him. When we look at human styles we find them all of a type that remains on the surface of the Earth. Some of them crawl while others run fast. But when you compare the fastest running among them to the Qur’an you feel that they are no more than moving cars compared to planets speeding through their orbits.[^22] ### Revelation being beyond the Prophet’s control Another form of evidence that  the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not the author of the Qur’an is his lack of control over revelation, as illustrated in the following prophetic narration: According to the exegesis of al-Ṭabarī,[^23] the Quraysh sent al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿīṭ to the Jewish rabbis in Madīnah and told them: “Ask them (the rabbis) about Muhammad, and describe him to them, and tell them what he is saying. They are the people of the first Book, and they have more knowledge of the Prophets than we do.” So they set out and when they reached Madīnah, they asked the Jewish rabbis about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. They described him to them and told them some of what he had said. They said, “You are the people of the Tawrāh and we have come to you so that you can tell us about this companion of ours.” They (the rabbis) said, “Ask him about three things which we will tell you to ask, and if he answers them, then he is a Prophet who has been sent (by God); if he does not, then he is saying things that are not true, in which case how you deal with him will be up to you. Ask him about some young men in ancient times, what was their story for theirs is a strange and wondrous tale. Ask him about a man who traveled a great deal and reached the east and the west of the earth; what was his story? Ask him as well about the *Rūḥ* (soul or spirit)—what is it? If he tells you about these things, then he is a prophet, so follow him, but if he does not tell you, then he is a man who is making things up, so deal with him as you see fit.” So al-Naḍr and ʿUqbah left and came back to the Quraysh, and said: “O people of Quraysh, we have come to you with a decisive solution that will put an end to the problem between you and Muhammad. The Jewish rabbis told us to ask him about some matters,” and they told the Quraysh what they were. Then they came to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and said, “O Muhammad, tell us,” and they asked him about the things they had been told to ask. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “I will tell you tomorrow about what you have asked me,” but he did not say “If Allah wills.” So they went away, and fifteen days passed without any revelation from Allah concerning that, and the Angel Jibrīl did not come to the prophet ﷺ during that time. The people of Makkah started to doubt him, and said, “Muhammad promised to tell us the next day, and now fifteen days have gone by and he has not told us anything in response to the questions we asked.” The Messenger of Allah felt sad because of the delay in revelation and was grieved by what the people of Makkah were saying about him. Then Jibrīl (Angel Gabriel) came to him from Allah with the *sūrah* about the companions of al-Kahf (The Cave),[^24] which also contained a rebuke for feeling sad about the idolaters.[^25] The *sūrah* also informed him about the matters they had asked him about, the young men and the traveler, as well as the verse about the soul. In addition, as was reported from Ibn ‘Abbās, were the two verses: > And never say, “Indeed, I will do that tomorrow,” without \[adding\], “If Allah wills.” And remember your Lord when you forget \[it\] and say, “Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct.”[^26] Ultimately, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had no control over the revelation and was, in fact, grieved and saddened at the lack of revelation when questioned by people. Had the Prophet had control over the speech of the Qur’an, he would have not placed himself in such a difficult position in front of his opponents, one in which he promised revelation the next day and then had no response for fifteen days. It is absurd to assume that anyone in such a position would accept such a dilemma if it were avoidable. ### The separation between the emotional experiences of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the speech of the Qur’an A third disconnect between the speech of the Qur’an and the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ regards his emotional experiences over the course of twenty-three years of prophethood; none of this emotional turmoil is observed in the Qur’an except as a distinct and differentiated voice. When he first received revelation in the cave of Hirāʾ, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had a genuine human reaction, one of fear, and he ran home to his wife Khadījah rather than going to the town center and making some bold proclamation.[^27] Furthermore, the Prophet’s children died, his wife Khadījah passed away, he and his community were completely boycotted and cut off, his close companions were harassed and murdered, he was stoned by the people of Ṭāʾif, he engaged in military campaigns, and yet throughout the entirety of his human experiences as a prophet, the Qur’an’s linguistic style and eloquent voice remain consistently distinct and divine in perspective, assertions, style, and character.[^28] ### The Qur’an’s rebuking of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ The fourth facet of separation between the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ requires the reader to reflect on the responses of rulers and leaders throughout history to being criticized. If, as some critics claimed, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ wanted authority and power over the world, then it would be reasonable to assume that he would want his image and reputation to remain excellent and this is the common reality seen today amongst rulers and politicians. However, the Qur’an does not hesitate to rebuke the Prophet ﷺ in examples such as the following: > He \[the Prophet\] frowned and turned away. Because there came to him the blind man, \[interrupting\]. But what would make you perceive, \[O Muhammad\], that perhaps he might be purified? Or be reminded and the remembrance would benefit him?[^29] These verses highlight the incident in which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was speaking with the elite of Quraysh and a blind man came to him to ask about Islam. The Prophet ﷺ turned away from him as he was busy with delivering the message of Islam to the elite of Quraysh, hoping their leaders would accept the faith.[^30] Thereafter, revelation was sent down admonishing him for his treatment of the blind man. Thus, one can see clearly that there is a significant level of disconnect between the Qur’an’s voice and character and the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ was threatened with punishment if he did not convey the Qur’an or if he tampered with its verses, and the author of the Qur’an made it clear that nobody would be able to defend him if he were to do such a thing: > And if he \[Muhammad\] had made up about Us some \[false\] speech, We would have seized him by the right hand. Then We would have cut \[his\] aorta. And there is no one of you who could prevent \[Us\] from \[doing that\]. And indeed, the Qur’an is a reminder for the righteous. And indeed, We know that among you are deniers. And indeed, it will be \[a cause of\] regret for the disbelievers. And indeed, it is the truth of certainty. So exalt the name of your Lord, the Most Great.[^31]  > > And if We had not strengthened you, you would have almost inclined to them a little. Then \[if you had\], We would have made you taste double \[punishment in\] life and double \[after\] death. Then you would not find for yourself against Us a helper.[^32] If the Qur’an were authored by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, it would be extremely strange to threaten, harshly criticize, and admonish himself in a scripture recited by the entire nation of believers, and expected to be recited until the end of time. People—particularly rulers and leaders—are generally resentful of harsh criticism, and especially a form of criticism that is preserved, public, and ongoing. Other significant examples of reproaching verses of the Qur’an include: > But \[Prophet\] are you going to worry yourself to death over them if they do not believe in this message?[^33] > > O Prophet, why do you prohibit \[yourself from\] what Allah has made lawful for you…?[^34] > > We know well that what they say grieves you \[Prophet\]. It is not your honesty they question—it is Allah’s signs \[i.e., revelation\] that the wrongdoers deny.[^35] The fact that these aforementioned verses and others were not removed from the Qur’an highlights the divine authorship of the Qur’an, the authenticity of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in conveying it as it was revealed, and the promise of God to preserve it against any corruption or modification.[^36] It is important to note that the verses that reproach the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ are not insults to him; rather, they indicate his keenness in spreading the message, which sometimes caused him grief, whilst reminding him of his role and mission. As for the claim that the Qur’an was authored by Muhammad ﷺ for power or wealth, it is well established in the prophetic narrations and biographies that the Prophet’s behavior exemplified the exact opposite—his material wealth actually decreased after he began conveying the Qur’an, and he declined all worldly offers in exchange for discontinuing the preaching of Islam. One example of this is seen in the following report: One day some of the Quraysh chiefs were sitting in their assembly, while in another corner of the Mosque there was the Prophet sitting by himself. This was the time when Ḥamzah ****ر****ضي الله عنه had already embraced Islam and the elite of the Quraysh were upset at the growing numbers of Muslims. On this occasion, ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah said to the Quraysh chiefs: “Gentlemen, if you like I will go and speak to Muhammad and put before him some proposals; maybe he will accept one of them, to which we may also agree, and so he may stop opposing us \[by conveying the message of Islam\].” They all agreed to this, and ‘Utbah went and sat by the Prophet ﷺ. When the Prophet ﷺ turned to him, he said: “Muhammad, you are, as you know, a noble from your tribe and your lineage assures you a place of honor but now you have brought to your people a matter of grave concern, whereby you have split their community, declared their way of life to be foolish, spoken shamefully of their gods and religion, and referred to their forefathers as disbelievers. Listen to what I propose and see if any of it is acceptable to you. If it is wealth that you seek, we will gather our wealth and make you the richest amongst us. If you seek honor, we will make you our overlord and we will make no decision without your consent. If you seek kingship, then we will make you our king. And if you cannot get rid of this demon that appears to you, we will find you a physician and spend all our money until you are cured.” ʿUtbah went on speaking in this strain and the Prophet ﷺ went on listening to him quietly until he finished speaking. He ﷺ then asked, “Have you finished, O Abū al-Walīd (the honorific nickname of ʿUtbah)?” When he replied in the affirmative, the Prophet said, “Then listen to me: > In the name of Allah, the Ever-Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. *Haa Meem*. A revelation from Allah, the Ever-Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. \[This is\] a book whose verses are explained in detail—a Qur’an in Arabic, for people who reflect. Giving glad tidings and warning \[of a severe punishment\]. But most of them turn away, so they listen not...[^37] The Prophet continued to recite until he finished the *sūrah*. ʿUtbah sat quietly, entranced by what he was hearing. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, “You have heard what you have heard, so do as you please.” When ʿUtbah returned to his people, they said to themselves, “I swear by the Lord of the Kaʿbah, this ʿUtbah is not the same as the ʿUtbah that left us!” He said, “O people! I have heard a speech the likes of which I have never heard before. I swear by Allah, it is not magic, nor is it poetry, nor is it sorcery. O gathering of Quraysh, listen to me. Leave this man alone, for I swear by Allah, the speech that I have heard from him \[i.e., the Qur’an\] will soon be news (among the other tribes)...”[^38] This narration highlights the Prophet’s genuine and consistent character whenever he was offered power, glory, and wealth. Anyone with a rudimentary study of the biography of Muhammad ﷺ would never claim that he sought power, glory, or wealth, as his character exemplified the opposite. Additionally, this narration highlights that even to the proficient and high-ranking ʿUtbah, the Speech of the Qur’an was unlike anything he had ever heard—a testimony carrying significant weight in light of the role of rhetoric and poetry among the Arabs of the time. Furthermore, ʿUtbah acknowledged that the Qur’an would spread and become news to other people—which manifested shortly thereafter—an additional indicator of the powerful eloquence and otherworldliness of the Qur’an. --- ## Prophet Muhammad’s integrity The fifth facet of separation is the integrity and sincerity of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and this is a crucial point from multiple angles. For instance, the name of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the Qur’an is mentioned explicitly only five times.[^39] In comparison, the commonly known prophets and messengers, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus عليهم السلام, are mentioned significantly more frequently.[^40] If Muhammad ﷺ were the author of the Qur’an, it would seem highly unreasonable that his name be referenced so few times in comparison to figures respected and esteemed by other religious communities, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. His character, integrity, and the message of the Qur’an were all consistent in pointing to his genuine prophethood. When orientalists began publishing their attacks against the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the religion of Islam, they did so hastily and, as a result, produced weak arguments against the Prophet ﷺ. For instance, Theodore Noldeke (d. 1930), author of *Geschichte des Qorans* (History of the Qur’an),[^41] drew on various Islamic sources considered extremely weak, fabricated, or unreliable by scholars—particularly when these sources served his preconceived conclusions about the Qur’an, and formulated his own ideas about the chronological revelation and literary facets of the Qur’an. Later in life, Noldeke refuted his own bizarre views[^42] after continued study of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Similarly, German Orientalist Joseph Schacht falsely claimed in his writings that the Qur’an was essentially “ignored” as a source of Islamic jurisprudence in the first century, a claim rejected and refuted by both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars as untenable.[^43] Schacht, when citing numerous texts and authoritative figures, “took many arguments out of context, has misunderstood or misinterpreted the texts, and has otherwise advanced conclusions not substantiated by the authorities he has adduced in their support.”[^44] Noel J. Coulson, a professor of Islamic Law and Oriental Studies from London, systematically examines Schacht's thesis and exposes its obvious flaws from a historical and practical standpoint.[^45] Regarding Schacht's erroneous thesis, Montgomery Watt wrote: “What in fact Western biographers \[of the Prophet\] have done is to assume the truth of the broad outlines of the picture ... given by the *sirah*, and to use this as the framework into which to fit as much Qur’anic material as possible. The sounder methodology is to regard the Qur’an and the early traditional accounts as complementary sources.”[^46] In *The Qur’an and the Orientalists,* Muhammad Mohar Ali examines the history of the Qur’an and effectively deals with these types of explicit errors of Orientalist writers.[^47] Other Orientalist claims were that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ sought power, glory, or wealth, or that he had epilepsy, or that he desired to control Arabia. As subsequent non-Muslim (and Muslim) scholars began studying the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ more carefully and objectively, many of them began refuting their predecessors’ false claims about Islam as they were not based on strong evidence. As Norman Daniel (d. 1992) wrote, “All \[Western\] writers tended, more or less, to cling to fantastic tales about Islam and its Prophet… The use of false evidence to attack Islam was all but universal.”[^48] William Montgomery Watt, who also studied previous Orientalist works on Muhammad’s biography, wrote that “not merely must we credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity of purpose, if we are to understand him at all; if we are to correct the errors we have inherited from the past…”[^49] Watt as well corrected in his numerous works many of his predecessors’ false notions about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, particularly those concerning his integrity and honesty. Although lengthy, the following passage from Dr. Muhammad Draz aptly and objectively summarizes the rational and reasonable viewpoints about this claim: > When we consider carefully the timing of the revelation of the Qur’anic passages and surahs and their arrangement, we are profoundly astonished. We almost belie what we see and hear. We then begin to ask ourselves for an explanation of this highly improbable phenomenon: is it not true that this new passage of revelation has just been heard as new, addressing a particular event which is its only concern? Yet it sounds as though it is neither new nor separate from the rest. It seems as if it has been, along with the rest of the Qur’an, perfectly impressed on this man’s mind long before he has recited it to us... It has been fully engraved on his heart before its composition in the words he recites. How else can it unite so perfectly and harmoniously parts and pieces that do not naturally come together? Is it a result of an experiment that follows a spontaneous thought? That could not be the case. When each part was put in its position, the one who placed them never had a new thought or introduced any modification or re-arrangement. > > How then could he have determined his plan? And how could he have made his intention so clear in advance?... When we consider such detailed instructions on the arrangement of passages and surahs we are bound to conclude that there is a complete and detailed plan assigning the position of each passage before they are all revealed. Indeed the arrangement is made before the reasons leading to the revelation of any passage occur, and even before the start of the preliminary causes of such events… Such are the plain facts about the arrangement of the Qur’an as it was revealed in separate verses, passages and surahs over a period of 23 years. What does that tell us about its source?[^50] --- ## The iʿjāz of the Qur’an More importantly than the five aforementioned points is that the Qur’an’s *iʿjāz* (miraculousness) itself—the object of this series—adequately demonstrates that its authorship cannot be attributed to any human being, prophet or otherwise. In other words, the miraculous facets of the Qur’an, such as its literary inimitability, then-undiscovered knowledge of the natural world (e.g., the detailed description of the embryo’s development), knowledge of the future (e.g., the Romans, Abu Lahab, the Conquest of Makkah, the victory (*al-Naṣr*) and spread of Islam, the preservation of the Qur’an), lost knowledge of the past (e.g., Prophet Yūsuf (Joseph), the Sleepers of the Cave, the correct historical usage of ‘pharaoh’ v. ‘king’), and other corrections to the Old and New Testaments), universal maxims and moral laws, its impact on hearts and souls, etc., are standalone arguments against any claim of human authorship. The Qur’an’s miraculous facets must be considered collectively as well in order to fully appreciate the argument for *iʿjāz,* as one can deny individual dimensions of *iʿjāz* for only so long before realizing how unreasonable those denials are. A justified, rational belief does not necessitate that a seeker of Truth believes in the Qur’an only after all facets of Qur’anic *iʿjāz* are examined, but any number of proofs of *iʿjāz* would suffice. From a literary perspective, the Qur’an is unrivaled and its original language is inimitable and unique even from the perspective of non-Muslim scholars.[^51] For instance, Dr. Alfred Guillaume writes, “\[I\]ndeed it may be affirmed that within the literature of the Arabs, wide and fecund as it is both in poetry and in elevated prose, there is nothing to compare with it.”[^52] Alan Jones writes in an attempted translation of the Qur’an, “Its outstanding literary merit should also be noted: it is by far, the finest work of Arabic prose in existence.”[^53] Therefore, the claim that the Qur’an was authored by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is unreasonable based on the reasons elucidated above. Furthermore, every literary masterpiece in history has required at least one attempt at revision and improvement, and yet the Qur’an was never “edited” and remained unchanged over the span of twenty-three years (and since). It is common knowledge that any literary excellence requires an entire process of editing and revision and any sophisticated masterpiece is not simply produced all at once by someone with no knowledge of rhetoric. However, this is the case with the Qur’an, which was revealed over a period of twenty-three years in different locations, during different historical moments, in front of countless mixed audiences, at times during direct questioning and challenges, and yet once the verses were recited by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, he could not ask for them back to make changes and improvements.[^54] These points alone provide strong evidence that the Qur’an, due to its clear inimitability and mode of transmission and revelation, could not have been the product of a human being, especially Prophet Muhammad ﷺ—the trustworthy, the honest. When this evidence is taken into consideration, alongside what was stated previously, the rational and reasonable conclusion is that the Qur’an was not authored by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ or any other human being. Based on the above-mentioned points, it is only reasonable to assume that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ could not have been the author of the Qur’an. Nor was it possible for him to have escaped the eyes of both believers and disbelievers for 63 years in gaining the highest level of inimitable mastery that has ever been observed by the Arab world, particularly the greatest Arab poets, nor was he shadowed or seen by any individual teaching him the words of the Qur’an throughout his proclamation of prophethood from Makkah, to Madīnah, and back again. Finally, it is reasonable to assume that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ  would have eventually accepted worldly offers for power, dominion, wealth, or glory had he not been a messenger, or that he would have discontinued his mission as a preacher when he was physically attacked, his followers murdered, and his community constantly harassed. He remained consistent upon prophethood, conveying the speech of God until it was decreed for him to return to Him. --- ## History of the challenge Over the past fourteen centuries, many Arabs and non-Arabs have attempted to meet the challenge of the Qur’an, but no attempt has succeeded, as will be demonstrated in this series. Oftentimes, the questions raised pertaining to this subject matter are, “How did the elite poets of Quraysh react to the recitation of the Qur'an? Furthermore, how do we know that the Qur'anic challenge was not met?” Although it remains active, the Qur’anic challenge was posed to the greatest Arabic linguists of history: the seventh-century Arabs who were present at the time of its revelation. Ibn Khaldūn, the famous historian and scholar, writes about poetry in the Arab culture: “One should acknowledge the fact that Arabs thought greatly of poetry as a form of speech. Thus, they made poetry the primary form of documenting their history, the evidence for what they considered correct and incorrect, and the foremost basis of reference for most of their disciplines and wisdom.”[^55] Essentially, poetry was the “life” of the Arabs of Quraysh;[^56] through it, they would document history, settle their disputes, distinguish morality from vice, and they utilized it as a foundation to study other existing disciplines. Despite their status as the greatest of Arab poets and the most capable of potentially meeting the Qur’anic challenge, the seventh-century Arabs failed to do so. In fact, while the language itself might be difficult to appreciate for some non-Arab readers at first, the reader can look to famous examples of noteworthy Arab poets and their testimony to the Qur’an’s otherworldly language. ### al-Walīd b. al-Mughīrah Another famous story on this subject is that of al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah.[^57] al-Walīd was one of the most eloquent and highly esteemed poets of Makkah at the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He once passed by the Prophet ﷺ and heard him reciting the Qur’an. This had a visible effect on him and he went away shaken and startled by what he had heard. The news of this incident spread throughout Makkah. Abū Jahl, afraid that the people of Makkah might be affected by this news and convert to Islam, rushed to al-Walīd, and told him, “O my uncle! Say something (against Muhammad) so that the people will know that you are against him and hate (his message).” Al-Walīd replied, “And what can I say? For I swear by Allah, there is none amongst you who knows poetry as well as I do, nor can anyone compete with me in composition or rhetoric—not even in the poetry of *jinn*s. And yet, I swear by Allah, Muhammad’s recitation \[of the Qur’an\] does not bear any similarity to anything I know and I swear by Allah, the speech that he says is very sweet and is adorned with beauty and charm. Its first part is fruitful and its last part is abundant \[i.e., full of deep meanings\]. It dominates and cannot be dominated, and it will certainly crush all that is beneath it.” Abū Jahl responded, “Your people will not be satisfied until you speak *against*  him!” Al-Walīd therefore requested Abū Jahl to, “Leave me for a few days, so that I may think of an appropriate response to give to Quraysh.” After a few days, Abu Jahl came back to him and asked him what he had prepared. al-Walīd, during this time, could not think of any explanation to give except, “This \[the Qur’an\] must be a type of magic that has an effect on its listeners.” In response to this, Allah revealed, > Nay! Verily he \[i.e., al-Walīd\] has been stubborn in opposing our verses and signs... Verily, he thought and plotted; So let him be cursed, how he plotted! And once more let him be cursed; how he plotted! Then he thought! Then he frowned and was irritated; then he turned back and was arrogant! Then he said, “This is nothing but magic from old; this is nothing but the word of a mortal!”[^58] This narration of al-Walīd illustrates the powerful eloquence of the Qur’an even to someone as skilled in poetry and as proficient as al-Walīd, despite his agenda-driven stubbornness to accept it as the Speech of God; al-Walīd finds no other possible excuse to give to the public except that perhaps it is a powerful form of magic that impacts its listeners. Additionally, al-Walīd had wished for the Qur’an to be revealed upon him instead of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ since al-Walīd  saw himself in a lofty and superior position among over others; this desire of al-Walīd points to his recognition of the Qur’an as a lofty and superior speech. Interestingly, one of the dilemmas of atheists using al-Walīd’s story is their inability to explain his claim of “magic” as the source of the Qur’an, since that would indicate that they accept that magic does in fact exist and does not reasonably explain the authorship of the Qur’an. Furthermore, the previously mentioned story of ʿUtbah highlights that even ʿUtbah acknowledged—after swearing by God—that the Qur’an was not magic or sorcery, nor was it like any speech he had ever heard before. ### Unays al-Ghifārī Unays al-Ghifārī was also one of the many people who clearly recognized the linguistic magnificence of the Qur’an. Unays was one of the famous poets of Arabia. He once went to Makkah to do some trading, happened to come across the Prophet ﷺ, and listened to his recitation of the Qur’an. So attracted was Unays to this recitation that he was delayed from returning to his caravan. When he finally arrived, he was asked the reason for his delay. Unays responded, “I have met a person in Makkah who claims to be sent by Allah. The people claim that he is a poet, a sorcerer, or a magician. Yet, I have heard the words of sorcerers, and these words in no way resemble those uttered by a sorcerer. And I also compared his words to the verses of a poet, but such words cannot be uttered by a poet. By Allah, he is the truthful, and *they* are the liars!”[^59] These three examples of ʿUtbah, al-Walīd, and Unays illustrate that even the greatest masters of poetry and eloquence—the Arabs of Quraysh in the seventh century—were captivated and mesmerized by the Speech of the Qur’an. Had any similar speech been heard before, the poets would have not just pinpointed its sources and teachers, but they themselves would not have been so moved or astonished. Additionally, consider the testimony of experts in a field, or sports players of the greatest ranks, bearing witness to the magnificence of something or someone new to the landscape; the testimony carries significantly more weight than if it were to originate from an average individual. In addition to their amazement, the Arabs of Quraysh—and across the region during the era—were incapable of meeting the Qur’anic challenge, and this fact is well-affirmed by eastern and western scholarship. al-Zamakhsharī writes, “If they (the Arabs of Quraysh) actually met the challenge of the Qur’an, then it would have immediately spread amongst the people just as other news spreads quickly; in fact, hiding such a remarkable occurrence (i.e., that of meeting the Qur’an’s challenge) would have been impossible due to the fact that its opponents were greater in number than its defenders (i.e., the Muslims).”[^60] In a famous statement on the subject, Professor H. Palmer, a specialist in Arabic and Qur’anic language, asserts: “That the best of Arab writers has never succeeded in producing anything equal in merit to the Qur’an itself is not surprising.”[^61] Dr. Hamilton Gibb: “Like all Arabs, they were connoisseurs of language and rhetoric. Well, then if the Koran were his own composition, other men could rival it. Let them produce ten verses like it. If they could not (and it is obvious that they could not), then let them accept the Koran as an outstanding evidential miracle.”[^62] As was known about Arabia in that era, news of such great significance would have spread throughout the region, leaving no doubt whatsoever if the Qur’an’s challenge had been met. Additionally, when considering the epistemic weight of mass corroboration and testimony, it becomes irrational and absurd to reject the fact that the Arabs failed to produce anything like the Qur’an, especially in light of the social and political dynamics of the era. ### Objection On this topic, suppose the following objection is raised: How much do we really know about the failure of the Arabs to meet the Qur’anic challenge if history is ‘written by the victors?’ This objection was quoted by al-Khaṭṭābī as well more than a millennium ago:[^63] Suppose an attempted imitation was not transmitted but concealed by Muslim scholars, and when Islam expanded, they—those who attempted imitations of the Qur’an—were afraid for their lives, and thus the imitations were suppressed and their traces effaced.[^64] This objection does not hold for at least two obvious reasons. First, the religious history surrounding the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Qur’an, and the various tribes of Arabia are not mysterious or undocumented like that of other civilizations. In fact, many non-Muslim academics and historians assert, regardless of their personal religious beliefs, that Islamic history in Arabia is well-known and well-nigh impossible to completely modify and change under the adage that “history is written by the victors.” The famous Orientalist, Professor Bernard Lewis, writes, “Unlike other religions which were cradled in mystery, Islam was born in the full light of history. Its roots are at surface level, the life of its founder is as well-known to us today as those of the reformers of the 16th century.”[^65] Furthermore, the argument that “history is written by the victors” is a superficial argument that requires evidence for each and every subject matter discussed. Many historians, researchers, academics, and scholars of the east and west, Muslim and non-Muslim, held the view that the history of Islam, even via Islamic sources, is not shaded in mystery and vagueness. This is further strengthened by the fact that the Muslims of Arabia were, even at the time of the Prophet’s demise, a tiny minority even with the massive surge of delegations entering Islam. In other words, any claim that “history is written by the victors” regarding Islamic history must carry the burden of proof to modify the views of the vast majority of scholars and historians. Furthermore, not only is evidence required to establish a new possible explanation, but inference and other forms of epistemology must be used methodically and properly in order to establish an alternative best explanation to the current views. Second, as al-Khaṭṭābī writes:[^66] > How could such a serious matter that would have disturbed human hearts and would have been known in the East and the West be conceivable? If that was conceivable regarding such an important and momentous matter, it would be conceivable too that another prophet or numerous other prophets could have appeared to whom scriptures were revealed from Heaven and who could have come with laws different from this Sharīʿah, and the news of all that was suppressed. This is something that cannot be suspected \[to have happened\], because it is contrary to human nature and current customs, and likewise is what they object to.[^67] Dr. Taqi Usmani writes: “None of them was able to compose even a few sentences to match the Qur’anic verses. Just think that they were a people who… could never resist ridiculing the idea in their poetry if they heard that there was someone at the other end of the globe who prided himself on his eloquence and rhetorical speech. It is unthinkable that they could keep quiet even after such repeated challenges and dare not come forward… They had left no stone unturned for persecuting the Messenger ﷺ. They tortured him, called him insane, a sorcerer, a poet, and a soothsayer, but failed utterly in composing even a few sentences like the Qur’anic verses.”[^68] --- ## Earliest imitation attempts The earliest imitation attempts were considered futile even to the non-Muslim Arabs of the time. Musaylimah (d. 632)—a false prophet also known as *al-Kadhdhab* (“the Liar”)—presented amateurish imitation attempts (e.g., the frog, the elephant, and the pregnant woman) which contained deficiency in meanings, patchwork pilfering of parts of the Qur’an, and weakness in word usages, aside from other obvious literary deficiencies. He claimed to receive revelation from God and then requested “half of the earth” from Prophet Muhammad for his tribe,[^69] who responded with the verse of the Qur’an: “Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah \[alone\]. He grants it to whomever He chooses of His servants. The ultimate outcome belongs \[only\] to the righteous.”[^70] Musaylimah later married another false prophet(ess), Sajah bint al-Ḥārith, an Arab Christian, who gave up her public claims to prophethood after marrying Musaylimah.[^71] Musaylimah’s few fabrications can still be found with commentaries from the earliest Muslim scholars. One of them is as follows: “O frog, croak. Much as you croak, neither the water will you render muddled, nor will the drinker drive you away.”[^72] As al-Khaṭṭābī stated, Musaylimah’s fabrication is known to have no benefit at all, nor does it fulfill the three conditions that constitute the basic elements of rhetorical eloquence.[^73] al-Bāqillānī also quoted Musaylimah’s frog poetry in order to demonstrate the clear ignorance and foolishness of Musaylimah, the absurdity of his imitation attempt, and how any honest individual should praise God for common sense.[^74] al-Khaṭṭābī added, “A composer of rhymed prose makes it a custom of his to subordinate his ideas to his rhymed prose (i.e., dependent on the rhyme), and he does not care what he says so long as his prose rhymes and flows without interruption.”[^75] Musaylimah’s own tribesmen and contemporaries heard his frog poetry and said to him, “By God, *you* know that *we* know that you are a liar.”[^76] An imitation attempt cannot merely steal from the language of its opponent, such as the language of the Qur’an, or imitate some of its linguistic constructions while replacing one or two words—as Musaylimah did with the Elephant poem (“The elephant. What is the elephant? And what shall make you know what the elephant is?”).[^77] As al-Khaṭṭābī wrote, “One who wants to imitate another in poetry or oration must compose a new discourse with original meanings, and to emulate (him) in its wording and rival him in its meaning, seeking to outweigh him when the two discourses are compared.”[^78] Musaylimah, like other human beings who attempted imitations of the Qur’an, failed to fulfill the basic objective conditions of rhetorical eloquence, failed to intertwine meanings, words, composition and sound, and he demonstrated weakness in his lack of understanding of what he pilfered. Although there are numerous examples to demonstrate this point, one clear example is that the phrase used in the Qur’an, *wa mā adrāka* (“And what will make you know”), is consistently reserved to “introduce a matter of great importance and elusive description, whose meaning is exceedingly deep.”[^79] Examples from the Qur’an include *al-Ḥāqqah* (The Inevitable Reality) and *al-Qāriʿah* (The Striking Calamity), both of which are opening preambles (“What will make you know what *al-Ḥāqqah* is?”) followed by alarming descriptions pertaining to the Day of Resurrection.[^80] Musaylimah, demonstrating his weakness with this one attempt, associated this powerful introduction (“And what will make you know?”) with an elephant. His imitations, lack of religious following (then and today), and disappearance from history as a “prophet of God” are all reflections of his false prophethood. Similarly, others’ efforts to imitate the Qur’an then and today will be viewed in hindsight as feeble attempts in light of the Qur’an’s clear magnificence. Attention is given later in this series, *in shāʾ Allah*, to detailed analyses of historical and modern imitation attempts, objections and responses, and clarity about the objective criteria of the Challenge. Ultimately, the Qur’an is unlike any man-made text. A common question of individuals who don’t fully grasp the literary magnificence of the Qur’an—or the English language—is, “What about the inimitability of the works of human beings, such as Shakespeare?” In short, the response to this question is that no human texts are considered by linguists to be inimitable, including the works of Shakespeare. In fact, while Shakespeare’s writings are literary masterpieces, the view of many academics and researchers is that Shakespeare’s work is not just imitable but surpassed by other authors, such as the famous Spanish writer, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.[^81] Unsurprisingly, Professor Hugh Craig of Newcastle University ranked Shakespeare as the seventh greatest English-speaking playwright, behind Webster, Dekker, Peele, Marlowe, Jonson, and Greene.[^82] Moreover, Shakespeare was taught and known to have teachers in Greek and Latin, whereas Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had no teachers. Shakespeare was a known playwright who continued to refine his skills with each production, while Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had never written anything in his life. Shakespeare had the opportunity to edit, modify, and proofread his works, whereas Prophet Muhammad ﷺ could never retract the verses of the Qur’an for “quality control” once conveyed to Muslim and non-Muslim audiences. Shakespeare's writing style was precedented and paralleled, whereas the Qur’an’s unique composition was unprecedented and remains unparalleled. Shakespeare's works were developed and published based on his charted plans, whereas the Qur’an’s verses and chapters were revealed non-chronologically over the course of 23 years, revealed at times instantaneously to various audiences (“They ask you \[O Muhammad\] about... Say:..”).[^83] Most importantly, Shakespeare's writings are limited in scope to a few target audiences, whereas the Qur’an is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional divine book of guidance addressing all audiences, the intellectual and the spiritual, the individual and the collective, the societies of the north, south, east, and west, and contains knowledge of the unseen, conveyed through a morally upright man who lived among his people for forty years before reciting the Qur’an and who was consistently known as The Honest, the Trustworthy.[^84] Furthermore, the effect of the Qur’an on human hearts and souls cannot be rivaled by any man-made text—a point which will be elaborated on later in the series—such as Allah’s saying: > > Allah has sent down the best message—a Book of perfect consistency and repeated lessons—which causes the skin \[and hearts\] of those who fear their Lord to tremble, then their skin and hearts soften at the mention of Allah. That is the guidance of Allah, through which He guides whoever He wills. But whoever Allah leaves astray will be left with no guide.[^85] To summarize the above-mentioned points, the Qur’an’s challenge to mankind was presented to the greatest of Arab poets and rhetoricians. The challenge was never met and remains unmet to the present day, demonstrating once again to the objective reader that the Qur’an cannot be reasonably attributed to anyone but God. --- ## Conclusion The following question—and the crux of this series—is, “What makes the Qur’an miraculous?” This second essay addressed the role of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in conveying the Qur’an, the inimitability of the Qur’an, and various plagiarism attempts throughout history. Ultimately, this series demonstrates the claim—that the Qur’an is from God—is not only the “best explanation” by the process of elimination but that the Qur’an’s miraculous nature adequately and clearly points to Allah as its source. Undoubtedly, this series carries extensive implications not only for Muslims who are interested in studying and preserving their own faith but also for sincere non-Muslims who seek Truth and wish to better understand the nature of the Qur’an, the final revelation of God. > Is it not enough for them that We have sent down to you the Book, \[which is\] recited to them. Surely in this Qur’an is a mercy and reminder for people who believe.[^86] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 17:88. [^2]: William Montgomery Watt, *Mohammad at Mecca* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953), 52. [^3]: Watt. [^4]: See David Samuel Margoliouth, *Mohammed and the Rise of Islam* (London: Putnam, 1905), 59. [^5]: Watt, *Mohammad at Mecca*, 52. [^6]: See Muhammad Ali’s rebuttal of Watt’s intellectual locution: Muhammad Mohar Ali, *The Qur’an and the Orientalists* (Ipswich: Jam’iyat Iḥyaa’ Minhaaj Al-Sunnah, 2002), 172–93. [^7]: For instance, Chase Robinson writes: “No historian familiar with the relevant evidence doubts that in the early seventh century many Arabs acknowledged a man named Muhammad as a law-giving prophet in a line of monotheist prophets, that he formed and led a community of some kind in Arabia, and, finally, that this community-building functioned, in one way or another, to trigger conquests that established Islamic rule across much of the Mediterranean and Near East in the middle third of the seventh century.” See Chase F. Robinson, “History and Heilsgeschichte in Early Islam: Some Observations on Prophetic History and Biography,” *History and Religion: Narrating a Religious Past* 68 (2015): 122. [^8]: Qur’an 10:15–16. [^9]: Watt, *Mohammad at Mecca*, 52. [^10]: Ali, *Qur’an and the Orientalists*, 14. [^11]: Mufti Taqi Usmani, *An Approach to the Quranic Science*s (Karachi: Darul Isha’at, 2000), 261. [^12]: Donna Eudora Mills, “Authorship Attribution Applied to the Bible” (master’s thesis, Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University, 2003). [^13]: Mills. [^14]: Halim Sayoud, “Author Discrimination between the Holy Quran and Prophet’s Statements,” *Literary and Linguistic Computing* 27, no. 4 (2012): 427–44. [^15]: Sayoud, 432. [^16]: Sayoud, 432. [^17]: Canberra and Manhattan distance refer to “measures of the distance between points in multidimensional space.” See: Graham Upton and Ian Cook, “Canberra Distance,” *A Dictionary of Statistics* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). [^18]: Kullback Leibler is a measure of the difference between two probability density functions. See: Graham Upton and Ian Cook, “Kullback–Leibler Information,” *A Dictionary of Statistics* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). [^19]: Naïve Bayes classifiers are used to examine and classify documents and word frequencies as belonging to one category or another, such as spam or legal documents. See: Jason D. Rennie, Lawrence Shih, Jaime Teevan, and David Karger, “Tackling the Poor Assumptions of Naive Bayes Text Classifiers,” *International Conference on Machine Learning* (ICML-03) 3 (2003): 616–23. [^20]: Sayoud, “Author Discrimination,” 441. [^21]: Sayoud, “Author Discrimination,” 442. [^22]: Muhammad Abdullah Draz, *The Qur'an: An Eternal Challenge* (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 2001), 83. [^23]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dār Ḥajr, 2001), 17:592. See also: ʿAbd al-Mālik Ibn Hishām, *Sīrat Ibn Hishām* (Egypt: Maktabat Musṭafaá al-Bābi, 1955), 1:302. [^24]: Sūrah 18 of the Qur’an. [^25]: al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr at-Ṭabarī*, 17:592. See also: Ibn Hishām, *Sīrat Ibn Hishām*, 1:302. [^26]: Qur’an 18:23–24. [^27]: ʿĀʾishah reports: “The beginning of the Revelation that came to the Messenger of Allah was good dreams; he never saw a dream but it came true like bright daylight. Then seclusion was made dear to him, and he used to go to the cave of Hirāʾ and worship there, which means that he went and devoted himself to worship for a number of nights before coming back to his family to collect more provisions, then he would go back again. Then he would go back to Khadījah to collect more provisions. \[This went on\] until the truth came to him suddenly when he was in the cave of Hirāʾ. The angel came and said, ‘Read!’ The Messenger of Allah said, ‘I am not a reader.’ He said, Then he took hold of me and squeezed me until I could not bear it any more then he released me and said, ‘Read!’ I said, ‘I am not a reader.’ He took hold of me and squeezed me a second time until I could not bear it any more, then he released me and said, ‘Read!’ I said, ‘I am not a reader.’ He took hold of me and squeezed me a third time until I could not bear it any more, then he released me and said, ‘Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has created (all that exists). He has created man from a clot . Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous. Who has taught \[ writing\] by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not.’(96:1-5) [^28]: Martin Lings, *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources*, 2nd rev. ed. (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1983), 53–79. [^29]: Qur’an 80:1–4. [^30]: See: al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 80:1–10. [^31]: Qur’an 69:44–52. [^32]: Qur’an 17:74–75. [^33]: Qur’an 18:6. [^34]: Qur’an 66:1. [^35]: Qur’an 6:33. [^36]: Qur’an 15:9. [^37]: Qur’an 41:1-4. [^38]: Summarized from a report in Ibn Abī Shaybah, no. 37715; Abū Yaʿlá, no. 1818; Ibn Hishām; and al-Ḥākim, no. 3002 and declared authentic by al-Dhahabī. See Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīrah al-nabawīyah* (Beirut: DKI, 1990), 1:322–23; al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿal´ā al-ṣaḥīḥayn* (Beirut: DKI, 2002). [^39]: The name Muhammad appears in Qur’an 2:144, 33:40, 47:2, 48:29, and Ahmad appears in Qur’an 61:6. [^40]: Musa (Moses), for example, is referenced in the Qur’an in 136 verses across 34 *suwar.* ʿĪsá (Jesus) is referenced 25 times across 11 *suwar.* [^41]: Originally published in 1860 and later edited and expanded upon by Schwally, Pretzl, and Bergstrasser in a republished set of three volumes between 1909 and 1938. [^42]: Noldeke modified his previous claims decades later; for his updated writings, see: *Encyclopedia Britannica*, 9th ed. (1891), 16:597. [^43]: See Muhammad Mustafa A’zami, *Studies in Early Hadith Literature* (Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1978). [^44]: Ali, *Quran and Orientalists*, 246. [^45]: Noel J. Coulson, *A History of Islamic Law* (London: Edinburgh University Press, 1964), 64–65. See also his “European Criticism of Hadith Literature,” in *The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Arabic Literature to the end of the Umayyad Period* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 317–21. [^46]: Cited in Ali, *Qur’an and Orientalists*, 246. See also Watt, *Mohammad at Mecca*, XV. [^47]: Ali, *Quran and Orientalists*. [^48]: Norman Daniel, *Islam and the West* (London: One World Publications, 1993), 267. [^49]: Watt, *Mohammad at Mecca*, 52. [^50]: Draz, *Qur'an: An Eternal Challenge*, 126–27. [^51]: See, for instance: Arthur J. Arberry, *The Koran Interpreted: A Translation* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996). Arberry writes in his preface to the English translation of the Qur'an: “The Book is here rendered almost literally and every effort has been made to choose befitting language. But the result is not the Glorious Koran, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy. It is only an attempt to present the meaning of the Koran—and peradventure something of the charm—in English. It can never take the place of the Koran in Arabic, nor is it meant to do so.” [^52]: Alfred Guillaume, *Islam* (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), 73–74. [^53]: Alan Jones, *The Koran* (London: Phoenix, 1994), i. [^54]: A relevant counterargument is raised here regarding the scribes of the Qur’an and if their role invalidates the claim in the paper; however, the new revelation was recited to numerous Muslim and non-Muslim audiences at times, confirmed by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when the scribes wrote it down, recited by the Prophet in public prayers, and taught to various companions as the Prophet Muhammad received it (rather than only by means of the scribes’ record of it). Therefore, the point about the mode of delivery and context of revelation stands. [^55]: Ibn Khaldun, *The Muqaddimah,* trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), chap. 6, sec. 58. [^56]: Usmani, *Approach to the Quranic Sciences,* 260. [^57]: *Sīrat Ibn Hishām*, vol.1, 270. al-Ḥākim stated, “The *isnād* (chain of narration) is *ṣaḥīḥ* according to the conditions of al-Bukhārī,” and al-Dhahabī affirmed the same. al-Ḥākim Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1990), 2:550. [^58]: Qur’an 74:16–26. [^59]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2473. [^60]: Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī, *al-Kashshāf ʿan haqāʾiq al-tanzīl* (Beirut: Dar al-Ma’refah, 2009), 1:107. [^61]: Edward Henry Palmer, *The Qur’an* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900), 4. [^62]: Hamilton Gibb, *Islam: A Historical Survey* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 28. [^63]: al-Khaṭṭābī died in 388/998. [^64]: al-Khaṭṭābī, Abū Sulaymān Ḥamd ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, in *Thalāth rasāʾil fī iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, ed. Muḥammad Khalaf Allāh and Muḥammad Zaghlūl Sallām (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1976), 55. [^65]: Bernard Lewis, *The Arabs in History*, 6th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 32. [^66]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, 55. [^67]: Translation by Issa J. Ballouta. [^68]: Usmani, *Approach to the Quranic Sciences*, 262. [^69]: Ismāʿīl Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿaẓīm*, ed. Mustafā al-Sayyid Muḥammad et al., vol. 3 (Giza: Mu’assasat Qurṭuba, 2000). See also: al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī,* 2:277. [^70]: Qur’an 7:128. [^71]: al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī,* 3:272. [^72]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, 55. See also: al-Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī*, 2:276. [^73]: al-Khaṭṭābī, 2:276. [^74]: al-Bāqillānī, *Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qur’ān* (Egypt: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1997), 156. [^75]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, 55. [^76]: al-Khaṭṭābī, 55. This statement is attributed to ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ. [^77]: al-Khaṭṭābī, 55. [^78]: al-Khaṭṭābī, 58. [^79]: al-Khaṭṭābī, 66. [^80]: Surah 69 and Surah 101. [^81]: Clara Calvo, “Shakespeare and Cervantes in 1916” in *Shifting the Scene: Shakespeare in European Culture* (Delaware: Delaware University Press, 2004), 78. [^82]: Hugh Craig, “Shakespeare’s Vocabulary: Myth and Reality,” *Shakespeare Quarterly* 62, no. 1 (2011): 53–74. [^83]: Qur’an 2:189, 2:215, 2:217, 2:219, 2:220, 2:222, 4:153, 5:4, 7:187, 8:1, 17:85, 18:83, 20:105, and 79:42. [^84]: For more on a comparison between Shakespeare’s writings and the Qur’an, see: Mohamed Elshinawy, “The Inimitable Qur’an: The Revelation to Prophet Muhammad,” *Yaqeen*, May 5, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-inimitable-quran-the-revelation-to-prophet-muhammad/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-inimitable-quran-the-revelation-to-prophet-muhammad/). [^85]: Qur’an 39:23. [^86]: Qur’an 29:51. ## Summary Among the most foundational convictions of the believers is that the Qur'an is the Speech (*kalām*) of God—divine, preserved, and inimitable, unmatched by any human speech whether produced by an individual or a group. Allah Himself issues this challenge: "Say, 'Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce the equivalent of this Qur'an, they could not produce its equal, however much they helped each other.'" The purpose here is to examine the role of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in conveying the Qur'an, to establish rationally that its authorship cannot be attributed to him or any human being, and to review various imitation attempts across the centuries. The claims regarding the Qur'an's origin fall broadly into two categories: either it is from God conveyed through the Prophet ﷺ, or it is not from God but authored by him or other human beings. Those who advance the latter view often attribute worldly motives such as wealth or power, claims that may be dismissed through historical evidence and sound reasoning. The orientalist William Montgomery Watt, by contrast, supposed that the Prophet ﷺ was an unrivalled genius who produced the Qur'an subconsciously and mistook it for revelation—yet this contradicts his own acknowledgment of the Prophet's sincerity, his being unlettered ("[he] was not... taught to read and write"), his lack of exposure to scripture ("it seems certain that he had not read any scripture"), and the inability of orientalists to explain *waḥy* through a secular lens. Since the Prophet ﷺ is among the most documented figures in history, these claims are open to examination. The Quraysh initially accused the Prophet ﷺ of authoring the Qur'an, but abandoned this charge. To their demand for a different Qur'an, Allah instructed him to respond: "It is not for me to change it of my own accord; I only follow what is revealed to me... I lived a whole lifetime among you before it came to me. How can you not use your reason?" He had dwelt among them forty years, known as *aṣ-ṣādiq al-amīn* (the truthful, the trustworthy), never learning poetry from anyone, never seeking authority. Watt himself testified: "To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves... none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad." Professor M. Mohar Ali noted that although the Quraysh first alleged he had "turned a poet," they abandoned this once they found it beside the mark, since he was unlettered and unaccustomed to the art of poetry. Taqi Usmani observed that this came from one who "had never learned anything from the renowned poets... had never recited even a single piece of poetry in their poetic congregations." Several signs establish the separation between the Speech of the Qur'an and the speech of the Prophet ﷺ. The first is stylometric analysis. Following the manner in which nineteenth-century scholars such as Schleiermacher, Baur, and Holtzmann examined biblical texts, a statistical study of sixteen experiments compared the Qur'an with *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and concluded that the two texts must have different authors. Among its findings: 62% of the words in *Bukhārī* are absent from the Qur'an, and 83% of the Qur'an's words are absent from *Bukhārī*, alongside marked differences in singular and plural usage, word-length frequency, and various stylometric classifiers. This is remarkable given that the Qur'an was often revealed instantaneously in response to unplanned events and challenges, leaving no room to deliberately maintain distinct styles over twenty-three years. Dr. Muhammad Draz likened the Qur'anic style to "high flying birds which cannot be reached by man," while human styles "remain on the surface of the Earth." The second sign is the Prophet's lack of control over revelation. According to al-Ṭabarī's exegesis, when the Quraysh sent al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿīṭ to the Jewish rabbis of Madīnah, they were told to ask the Prophet ﷺ about certain young men, a far-travelling man, and the *Rūḥ*. The Prophet ﷺ said, "I will tell you tomorrow," without saying "If Allah wills," and revelation was withheld for fifteen days, during which he grieved and the people of Makkah doubted him. Then Jibrīl came with Sūrat al-Kahf, which answered their questions and rebuked his sadness, along with the verse: "And never say, 'Indeed, I will do that tomorrow,' without [adding], 'If Allah wills.'" Had he controlled the revelation, he would never have placed himself in such a predicament. The third sign is the separation between the Prophet's emotional experiences and the Qur'an's voice. When first receiving revelation in the cave of Ḥirāʾ, he reacted with human fear and ran home to Khadījah. Throughout the deaths of his children and his wife, the boycott, the persecution of his companions, his stoning at Ṭāʾif, and his military campaigns, the Qur'an's style remained consistently distinct and divine in perspective. The fourth sign is the Qur'an's rebuking of the Prophet ﷺ, contrary to the behaviour of rulers seeking to protect their reputation. Concerning the blind man whom he turned from while addressing the Quraysh elite, Allah revealed: "He frowned and turned away. Because there came to him the blind man." He was likewise warned: "And if he had made up about Us some [false] speech, We would have seized him by the right hand. Then We would have cut [his] aorta." Other reproaching verses include: "Are you going to worry yourself to death over them...?" and "O Prophet, why do you prohibit [yourself from] what Allah has made lawful for you...?" These verses were not insults but signs of his keenness in conveying the message, and their preservation testifies to divine authorship and the promise of preservation. That he sought neither wealth nor power is illustrated in the account of ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, who offered him wealth, honour, and kingship; the Prophet ﷺ responded by reciting Sūrat Fuṣṣilat, after which ʿUtbah declared, "I swear by Allah, it is not magic, nor is it poetry, nor is it sorcery." The fifth sign is the Prophet's integrity, reflected also in his name being mentioned explicitly only five times in the Qur'an—far fewer than Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (peace be upon them)—which would be inexplicable had he been its author. Orientalists such as Theodore Noldeke drew on weak and fabricated sources, though Noldeke later refuted his own views. Joseph Schacht falsely claimed the Qur'an was ignored as a source of jurisprudence in the first century, a thesis exposed by Noel Coulson and criticized as taking arguments "out of context." Norman Daniel observed that Western writers clung to "fantastic tales," and Watt affirmed that "we must credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity of purpose." Dr. Draz further reflected on the astonishing coherence of the revelation's arrangement, concluding it bespeaks "a complete and detailed plan" preceding the very events that occasioned it. Above these five points stands the *iʿjāz* of the Qur'an itself—its literary inimitability, its knowledge of the natural world, of the future, and of the past, its moral laws, and its effect on hearts. Any one of these facets suffices as proof against human authorship. Dr. Alfred Guillaume affirmed that "within the literature of the Arabs... there is nothing to compare with it," and Alan Jones called it "by far, the finest work of Arabic prose in existence." Unlike every literary masterpiece requiring revision, the Qur'an was never edited, yet was revealed over twenty-three years in varied circumstances. The challenge was posed to the greatest Arabic linguists of the seventh century, for whom, as Ibn Khaldūn noted, poetry was the very foundation of their culture. Yet they failed. Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, the most eloquent poet of Makkah, said of it: "It dominates and cannot be dominated," finding no excuse but to call it "magic," for which Allah cursed his plotting. Unays al-Ghifārī declared, "By Allah, he is the truthful, and they are the liars." Al-Zamakhsharī argued that had the challenge been met, the news would have spread; al-Khaṭṭābī answered the objection that such attempts were suppressed, noting this is "contrary to human nature." Bernard Lewis observed that "Islam was born in the full light of history." The earliest attempt, by Musaylimah *al-Kadhdhāb* with his poems of the frog and elephant, was recognized as feeble even by his own tribesmen: "you know that we know that you are a liar." Unlike Shakespeare—who had teachers, edited his work, and was even ranked seventh among English playwrights by Hugh Craig—the Prophet ﷺ had no teacher, could not retract what he recited, and conveyed an unparalleled book. The Qur'an's effect remains unmatched: "Allah has sent down the best message... which causes the skin of those who fear their Lord to tremble." The challenge remains unmet, and the reasonable conclusion is that the Qur'an cannot be attributed to anyone but God: "Is it not enough for them that We have sent down to you the Book, [which is] recited to them." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-latif-the-most-subtle # The Meaning of Allah's Name Al-Latif: The Most Subtle **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** September 3, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. --- ## Prelude At every turn, subtle dangers lurk that people may never notice, let alone protect themselves against. Little did he know, that particular doubt might have ravaged his faith had he heard it, and that particular temptation might have hijacked his religion. Little did she realize as she stepped outside, that there was an accident looming that would end her life, a gust of cold air that would make her sick, a lewd person that would ruin her day, a dishonest trader about to cheat her, or an envious eye ready to hack away at her happiness.[^1] Other dangers are the very opposite; they are so intrusive and entangled that only a surgically subtle fix could carve them out of our lives. These may be the complexity of family problems, the innumerable relapses into sin that evoke shame, the intensity of heartbreak, or otherwise. Both these categories (potential threats stealthily en route to ambush us, and the dead-ends currently confronting us) offer us one opportunity after another to learn how internalizing Allah’s name *al-Laṭīf* brings incalculable benefit into our lives. --- ## The meaning of al-Laṭīf > Does He who created not know, while He is *al-Laṭīf* (the Subtle), *al-Khabīr* (the Acquainted)? (Qur’an 67:14) *Al-Laṭīf* is from Allah’s names of beauty and grace, which feeds the souls who contemplate it with a heightened recognition of His omniscience and sublime compassion. Stemming from the trilateral verb *la-ṭa-fa* which means to be subtle or undetectable, *al-Laṭīf* is one of the Divine’s names that reflects His subtle nature in two respects: a) His extensive knowledge, namely Him being fully aware of the most hidden secrets, and the most elusive intricacies. b) His delicate finesse in dispensing mercy to His creation, delivering to them His kindness in the most gentle ways.[^2] al-Ghazāli (d. 505 AH, Allah grant him mercy) writes, “None deserves this name but the One who can identify the ultra-fine, indistinct, unapparent interests \[of a creature\]. And then can deliver them in a gentle, unaggressive way to those who would benefit from them. Hence, it is only when gentleness in action and nuance in knowledge come together that the concept of *al-Laṭīf* is realized. It is unimaginable for such perfection in knowledge and actions to exist except with Allah, the Glorified and Exalted.”[^3] In most places where the Qur’an mentions Allah’s name *al-Laṭīf*, it does so in conjunction with His name *al-Khabīr* (the Acquainted). This pairing is a profound catalyst for generating awe of God in a believer’s heart. It stimulates a lifetime of reflections on how the closest people to us do not know what Allah knows about our struggles and pain. It also armors us against forgetting the many who thought they knew the help we needed, yet harmed us inadvertently by offering or imposing that help. It reminds us that people are all very much like that friendly grizzly bear in the children’s fable; the one who killed its dear owner as he slept, by swatting the mosquito on his nose with its lethal claws. Only Allah is both *Laṭīf*  (Most Subtle) and *Khabīr* (Best Acquainted); only He knows our dark past and how to guarantee it will not impact our future; only He is privy to both the diagnosis and how to provide relief upon those ‘unreachable’ sectors within us; only He transcends our hasty tendency to dismiss significant details as irrelevant minutiae, and only He does not fall into oversimplifying solutions in the many reckless ways that we do. Even those inconspicuous anxieties murmuring deep within the chambers of your heart, which you do not understand, nor are you able to properly express them—your Lord, *al-Laṭīf,* is fully aware of them. In fact, it is He who tucked them in there, for wonderful wisdoms you may soon discover. al-Saʿdī (d. 1376 AH, Allah grant him mercy) writes, “*Al-Laṭīf* is the One whose knowledge is so subtle that it perceives the indiscernible and the hidden, and every \[secret\] the heart contains, and all that hides underground of grains. He \[also\] acts with *luṭf* towards His allies and distinguished \[servants\], easing them towards ease and distancing them from difficulty; He eased for them every path leading to His pleasure and honorable reward and guarded them against every path leading to His wrath—in ways they realize, and in ways they do not realize. He decreed on them what they dislike, in order to grant them what they love. He exhibited *luṭf* towards them in their personal lives, by regularizing for them His beautiful favors and gracious offerings, and exhibited *luṭf* towards them through external factors that facilitate for them every form of good, welfare, and prosperity. Hence, *al-Laṭīf* is adjacent in meaning to the implications of *al-Khabīr* (the Acquainted), *al-Raʾūf* (the Affectionate), and *al-Karīm* (the Generous).”[^4] --- ## Al-Laṭīf and our existence > Sights cannot encompass Him, though He encompasses \[all\] sights; and He is *al-Laṭīf* (the Subtle), *al-Khabīr* (the Acquainted). (Qur’an 6:103) In this verse, Allah teaches us that due to His supreme *luṭf* in knowledge, His transcendence does not hinder Him from being fully acquainted (*khabīr)* with all that exists. Down to the quickest glances of His creatures, and the silent debates within every last child’s heart, *al-Laṭīf* witnesses the faintest details with His pervasive vision, and accounts for every dimension with His omnipresent knowledge. As Allah says, “And We have indeed created man, and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than \[his\] jugular vein” (Qur’an 50:16). Pondering over these sacred truths rehabilitates a believer’s worldview, and neutralizes heart-wrenching worries about the Creator disowning His creation. When asked, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?,” the Qur’anically enlightened respond, “No *leaf* falls except that He knows it. And no *grain* is there within the darknesses of the earth, nor a single moist or dry \[thing\], except that it is \[written\] in a clear record” (Qur’an 6:59). Similarly, *al-Laṭīf* sees and acknowledges every tear that falls and every silent supplication you make. Major exegetes of the Qur’an[^5] suggest another possibility for why *al-Laṭīf* appears at the conclusion of this verse: to denote the supreme *luṭf* of Allah in His very existence. In other words, He cannot be seen due to Him being *Laṭīf*, just as He can see everything due to being *Khabīr*. But does it not intrigue you how *al-ʿAẓīm* (the Greatest) could also be *al-Laṭīf*—the most discreet being? It is seldom appreciated that Allah veiling Himself from creation in this life is an act of kindness and endearment towards them. By doing so, He protects our fragile nature from being overwhelmed by His magnificence. The Qur’an tells us that when the Lord of Might spoke to Moses (peace be upon him), he said, “My Lord, allow me to look at You.” Allah said, “You will not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it should remain in its place, then you will see Me.” But when his Lord appeared to the mountain, it was instantly reduced to rubble, and Moses fell unconscious (Qur’an 7:143). Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ said, “His veil is light. Were He to remove it, the glory of His Face would incinerate everything that His sight reaches.”[^6] And since something not being visible, and overlooked acts of kindness, are both meanings of the term *laṭīf* in Arabic, one marvels at the succinct eloquence of Allah identifying Himself as *al-Laṭīf* in this particular context, calling our attention to both His discreteness and kindness simultaneously. The *laṭīf* nature of Allah does not only shield us from seeing Him, which would annihilate us were we to experience it in our earthly forms. It also insulates us from the coexistent phenomena that surround us, which would render life unbearable for us to experience. It is *al-Laṭīf* who causes them to seem *subtle* in relation to us, when in reality their existence could be inseparable from ours, or could totally eclipse ours. Consider the vast spectrum of sounds, for instance. What if *al-Laṭīf* had not made our breathing and heartbeats largely unheard by us? What if *al-Laṭīf* had not made the sounds of roaring plane engines above us, or the deafening sound of planets orbiting above them, beyond the range of our hearing? What if *al-Laṭīf* had not spared us from being able to hear the insects chewing, or the enemies plotting, or the wicked among the dead screaming? As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Were it not for \[fear\] that you would no longer bury one another, I would have asked Allah to enable you to hear from the torment of the grave what I hear.”[^7] Consider the vast unseen world or just those sentinel angels who document our deeds around the clock. What if *al-Laṭīf* had not limited your awareness of their presence to a conviction at heart? We often hear that celebrities are suffocated by the necessity of personal bodyguards that dictate strict protocols on them at every turn. In all of these examples, it is the *luṭf* of Allah in action that relegates them as less evident phenomena in our perception, as if our existences are primary and most entitled to not being crowded or infringed upon. --- ## Al-Laṭīf and our achievements The grandest events often start with imperceptible beginnings, just as *al-Laṭīf* hid for Yūsuf (as) the glory of kingdom in the garbs of captivity. With every new scene in the story, his childhood dream appears to become increasingly distant but then suddenly and without warning, all these scattered pieces reveal their role and incredibly assume their place in seamless fashion. From the moment this story begins, a multitude of factors compound the unlikelihood of Yūsuf (as) being prostrated to by his parents and brothers; they are his parents, one of them is a prophet, his brothers are older than him, they despise him, they threw him down a well, and they had him abducted to remote lands as a slave. From there, the plot only thickened; he is framed by lustful women as a treacherous miscreant, which demoted him from a palace servant to a dungeon prisoner, making the dream even more of an impossibility. Eventually, the decades of difficulty begin to subside, Yūsuf (as) finds himself in the audience of the king, is entrusted with the most sensitive state office during the drought, and this sends his family to his feet in utter desperation. “This is the outcome of my dream from before; my Lord has certainly made it a reality” he proclaimed to his father, then signed his testimony by saying, “Indeed, my Lord is *Laṭīf* towards whomever He wishes. Indeed, He truly is the All-Knowing, the Most Wise” (Qur’an 12:100). Imagine the flood of memories that must have raced to Yūsuf (as), sending him into deep reflection over how any small step missing from this journey would have prevented it from culminating as it did and from Yūsuf (as) being shaped into the hero he became. He must have replayed all those scenes in his head, but now with the hidden hand of *al-Laṭīf* in mind, who was actually using every single rock Yūsuf stumbled on as a building block towards his unpredictable finale: - What if *al-Laṭīf* had not inspired my brother to suggest casting me into the well, to dissuade them from murdering me or deserting me in the killer sun? - What if *al-Laṭīf* had not relocated me to Egypt, to protect me from what my parents could not, and to protect the world from the ensuing famine? - What if *al-Laṭīf* had not allowed for a scandal that sent me to prison, to meet the king’s butler, exhibit my forte in dream-interpretation, and win his favor? - What if *al-Laṭīf* had not caused the butler to forget me once he left prison, to ensure that the king only heard of me at his moment of greatest need for me, so I could demand that my innocence surface from the highest authority? Dr ‘Ali al-Fīfi writes, “When Allah wished to extract Yūsuf from prison, He did not make the prison walls collapse, nor did He send an angel to pluck the souls of the tyrants, nor a lightning bolt from the sky to explode the iron locks off the cage. He simply caused the king to see a dream as he slept, and deemed that *laṭīf* event sufficient to rescue Yūsuf al-Ṣiddīq from the shackles of oppression.”[^8] Every achievement we enjoy is choreographed by His *luṭf*. There were thousands of invisible strands that converged to produce that picturesque conclusion. *Al-Laṭīf* only disclosed a few of these strands to us, thereby allowing us to feel accomplished as weavers of our own success story when it was purely His tapestry throughout. And for a privileged group, *al-Laṭīf* discloses some additional details, thereby allowing them to notice that nothing short of a miracle has just fallen into their laps, one that their power and might are for certain unable to bring to fruition. So their hearts melt, their gazes rise to the sky, and they find themselves whispering, “Allah is *laṭīf* with His servants; He extends provisions to whomever He wills. And He is the Powerful, the Exalted in Might” (Qur’an 42:19). Or they may just smile, lower their eyes in humility as they well up with tears, and think, “He is so amazing; He works in such mysterious ways.” --- ## Al-Laṭīf and our guidance Within every human being, Allah instilled an instinctive propensity for faith which Islam calls the *fiṭrah*. To facilitate people’s guidance, without compromising the test of faith in the unseen, al-Laṭīf hardwired in us all a vague but irresistible conviction in a higher power, and a burning passion to discover Him and somehow connect with Him. Even people whose fiṭrah has been corrupted by socialization or otherwise, remain incapable of fully denying the unseen world, since a part of their very nature is unseen—the rūḥ (spirit/soul). Every honest person accepts that there is an enigmatic difference between a living person and a corpse which the physical sciences cannot explain. It was none other than al-Laṭīf who curated that mystery, to serve as a stealthy wedge preventing the door of metaphysical possibilities from being shut in our minds, and a nexus between us and the major existential truths that al-Ḥaqq (the Ultimate Reality) wants us to perceive. This represents the subtle beginning of our guidance, and life represents the chance to enhance that perception through reflection on the natural world and refinement of the spiritual inner-self until the insight of our hearts becomes sharper than the sight of our eyes. The aid of *al-Laṭīf* towards our guidance does not end there, leaving the rest entirely up to our efforts. He will sometimes kindle lamps in the distance to help us see through the fog; a line our eyes fall on, a verse we needed to hear, a dream we needed to see, or a simple realization that swooped in for the rescue. Other times, He erects invisible rails along our path to keep us from swerving: a fearless scholar who reminds us of unpopular truths, a friend who refuses to let us succumb to our demons, a critic that unearths our unrecognized flaws, or a hiccup in our piety that deflates our swelling sense of conceit. Other times, He causes the greatest gifts to await us in the smallest packages; fortunes that we would never imagine can carry us the length of the journey. As the Prophet ﷺ  said, “While a man was walking along a path, he found upon it a thorny branch so he set it aside. Allah appreciated this of him, so He forgave him \[of his sins\].”[^9] Think of the hadith of the prostitute at the well; a woman whose harm on people’s hearts and homes was beyond measure—forgiven for simply descending into the well once more, filling her shoe with water, then climbing out with it between her teeth to quench that parched dog’s thirst.[^10] While appreciating her kindness is a given, we must consider: Who sent that dog there at that moment? Just like the examples before it, and everything the spiritually blindfolded may consider a mere coincidence, this is but *al-Laṭīf* reminding us when we forget, rinsing us when we slip back into the mud, and writing the story of our guidance when our pens falter. Another way that *al-Laṭīf* guides us aright is by surrounding us with supports that are disguised as struggles. At face value, we may see our inability to improve, while in reality memories are being forged to help us cherish the straight path once it is gifted to us. At face value, they are our loved ones dying or our friends disappointing us, but behind the scenes, the [problem of evil](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil/) is stoking the flames of longing for Allah and Paradise like nothing else can. Just like with the plants that shoot up from the ground each spring, endless intricacies need to first occur “underground” for the trees of faith to bloom within us. In both cases, we are oblivious to what is happening beneath the surface, while *al-Laṭīf* knows and engineers it all. Allah invites us to better appreciate this, saying, “Do you not see that Allah has sent down rain from the sky and the earth becomes green? Indeed, Allah is *Laṭīf* and *Khabīr* (Acquainted)” (Qur’an 22:63). A third way that *al-Laṭīf* guides us aright is by infusing us with increased faith at times of adversity, to mitigate its painful brunt and shift our focus to the reward of this suffering. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751H, Allah grant him mercy) writes, “...for his perception and anticipation \[of the relief\] lightens the weight of the burden. Especially when the hope \[in Allah\] intensifies, and he is positive of the relief, he detects the comfort and breeze of the \[impending\] relief while still in the midst of the distress. This is from the hidden forms of *luṭf* (kindness), and a \[dose of\] solace that is bestowed in advance, and through it and otherwise can the meaning of His name *al-Laṭīf* be understood.”[^11] --- ## Al-Laṭīf and our safety In a desperate attempt to save her baby from slaughter, the mother of Mūsā (peace be upon him) cast him into the river. Her heart was then unable to bear the anguish of separation, and this nearly drove her to disclose to people his true identity, which would have meant a death sentence for the infant. Had *al-Laṭīf* not seen her heart about to crack, none else would have been able to preempt that disaster. Allah says, “And the heart of Mūsā’s mother became empty \[of all else\]. She was about to disclose \[his identity\] had We not fastened her heart that she would be of the believers” (Qur’an 28:10). And when Allah wished to return Mūsā to his mother, to ease her distress and fortify his faith at her hands, He did not cause a national uprising against the tyranny of Pharaoh to free the oppressed. He simply caused the tongue of baby Mūsá to find the milk of every wet nurse distasteful, until his own mother was hired and paid a royal salary, to breastfeed the child she passionately longed for—all compliments of *al-Laṭīf*, glory be to Him. Allah says, “And We had prevented from him \[all\] wet nurses before, so \[his sister\] said, ‘Shall I direct you to a household that will be responsible for him for you while they are to him \[for his upbringing\] sincere?’ So We restored him to his mother that she might be content and not grieve, and that she would know that the promise of Allah is true. But most of the people do not know” (Qur’an 28:12-13). Dangers constantly scale the walls of our lives, and *al-Laṭīf* constantly averts their raid while we are entirely oblivious. Nobody else knew—not even you—that an eruption was brewing inside you, and that your jokative friend calling you at this random hour was just the destresser you needed. Nobody else knew that you were about to quit on yourself or others, and that a traffic jam was necessary for you to linger on that car’s inspiring bumper sticker. Nobody else knew that your speeding vehicle was about to skid off the mountain, pulverizing you inside it, and that stopping to photograph the baby deer is what thwarted the deadly momentum from building. We usually do not recognize the perils facing us, let alone how to escape them, but *al-Laṭīf* certainly does recognize them and reroutes us to safety each time. As individuals, modern medical research has enhanced our ability to reflect on our anatomical vulnerabilities; an exclusive opportunity to realize the extent to which *al-Laṭīf* actively protects us physically each and every millisecond. Humans have approximately 10 billion capillaries in their bodies, and each of these microvessels must be guarded against clogging. There are nearly 120 million rods in the human retina, and each rod must be maintained to be a functional photoreceptor. There are an estimated 100 trillion bacterial cells in the human microbiome, and keeping the fine balance that allows for robust immunity and not cancer is unending work. Thus is the meticulous grace of *al-Laṭīf* in action. --- ## The benefits of al-Latif The deeper one’s internalization of Allah’s name *al-Laṭīf* becomes, the greater its impact on one’s interaction with Allah and with His creation. The following are but a few qualities that will necessarily manifest in a believer once this blessed divine name has crystallized in his or her heart. ###         1) Receptiveness to Divine Messages Due to the certainty that the knowledge and gentleness of *al-Laṭīf* permeate every atom, and accompany every moment, believers live with a heightened sensitivity to Allah and His messages. They see that scientists are correct in that the scenes of nature uplift our spirits, but see through that as well; it was Allah who beautified the universe with stars and breezes and sunsets—a subtlety and kindness we often take for granted.[^12] They see that rain does indeed follow the patterns of the water cycle, but see through that as well; it was Allah Who first started it, and Who redirects the clouds each time, and Who recreates every raindrop for His servants whose well-being He cherishes. Anas b. Mālik (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that during a rainfall, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ uncovered some of his body for the rain to reach it, and said, “It has just recently come from its Lord.”[^13] They see that it was a strong urge to drink at an unusual hour that awakened them from sleep, but they also see through that; it was Allah who wished for them to rise and stand before Him, so they spend moments of intimate conversation on the prayer mat, before returning to bed feeling privileged that He chose to wake them.[^14] This perceptiveness of the believer does not just allow for understanding *al-Laṭīf* in some austere conceptual way, but delivers us beyond that to instinctually loving Him. After all, human beings irresistibly love those who treat them kindly, [so it’s only natural to love *al-Laṭīf* most upon realizing that nobody has actually ever been kind to us but Him.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-wadud-seeking-the-love-of-allah) Everyone else, in reality, was but a conduit of His affection and grace. The believer never conflates the source with the medium, and hence Allah says, “And among humanity are those who take others as equals to Allah, loving them as they should love Allah. But those who believe have more intense love for Allah \[than anything\]” (Qur’an 2:165). ###         2) Unbreakable Optimism The servants of *al-Laṭīf* find that as their knowledge of Him increases, the vault on their negative thoughts is gradually welded shut. This knowledge then unleashes many dormant memories, opening their eyes to the shade of *luṭf* that has and will continue to canopy their life story. They realize it was Him who sent them into that room moments before the child was hurt, so it will be Him who protects this child when they cannot. They realize it was Him who alerted them to the outlet sparking before the smoke got thick, so it will be Him who exposes the smokescreens that could divert them from His path. They realize that in all these instances in their past, a few seconds later would have been too late, so they welcome their future certain that *al-Laṭīf* will never be late—no matter what tomorrow may bring. With the meaning of *al-Laṭīf* carved into their souls, His servants carry hopes that others consider naive, but they understand that no dreams are impossible for Him to retrieve. As Luqmān the Wise said, “O my dear son, if something were \[even\] the weight of a mustard seed and within a rock or \[anywhere\] in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth. Indeed, Allah is *Laṭīf* (subtle) and *Khabīr* (Acquainted)” (Qur’an 31:16). Picture a speck of dust in the next room, the next house, the next street, the next neighborhood, the next city, the next country, the next continent, the next planet, the next galaxy—and be certain if Allah wishes, He will extract it at once. Thus is the confidence of the servants of *al-Laṭīf*; it is not grounded in material means, or morning words of self-affirmation, but in the fact that He Who can capture a tiny seed from the lost corners of a massive universe can direct every treasure their way, even if the factors on hand do not appear to allow for it, if they but knock on His door.[^15] When Umm Salamah’s (Allah be pleased with her) husband passed away, she felt happiness was irretrievable after her loss. The Prophet ﷺ counseled her by saying, “Nobody is struck by a calamity, then says as Allah instructed him—‘We belong to Allah, and we are certainly returning to Him. O Allah, reward me for my calamity, and grant me better than that \[which I lost\]’—except that Allah will surely do so.” She admits that although she said these words, she could not overcome a question that lingered inside her: “Who could possibly be better than Abū Salamah?” But the days would soon unfold and reveal to Umm Salamah that *al-Laṭīf* had secured for her the finest husband the sun has ever risen upon: the Prophet ﷺ himself.[^16] ###         3) A Gentle Demeanor In contrast to human relationships, which are often high maintenance, unfulfilling, and erosive of a person’s softheartedness, [a believer’s acquaintance with Allah moistens their spirit and affords them a magnanimous demeanor with His creation.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness) For instance, a believer feels obliged to be a source of gentleness for others, not in light of their treatment of them, but in proportion to their recognition of *al-Laṭīf’s* gentleness towards them. It was the Prophet ﷺ who called our attention to this correlation, saying, “Allah is Gentle and loves \[seeing\] gentleness.”[^17] Nobody was ever more observant of Allah’s kind treatment than the Prophet ﷺ, and hence his kindness with Allah’s creation was unparalleled. Never once did he avenge himself, nor chastise the ignorant for their blunders, nor had two choices without choosing the option less burdensome on others. He ﷺ would hear an infant crying during the prayer and shorten it,[^18] empathizing with its mother’s distress, and on another occasion question his army for startling a bird by seizing its hatchlings.[^19] He ﷺ positioned being gentle as an overarching virtue that belongs everywhere, saying, “Gentleness is not found in anything except that it beautifies it, and is not plucked from anything except that it defiles it.”[^20] Believers being *laṭīf* in their charity is a fundamental concept in Quranic ethics, as Allah says, “O you who have believed, do not invalidate your charities with reminders or injury” (Qur’an 2:264). This means that being modest about one’s charity is required even after distributing it (no reminder), to not shame the recipient, as is not leveraging that charity to offend or exploit the recipient (no injury). The earliest Muslims exhibited incredible *luṭf* in their philanthropy, being as discreet as they could, even concealing it from their families when possible. Only upon the death of Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (Allah be pleased with him), the great-grandson of the Prophet ﷺ, did many homes in Madinah realize that it was him who secretly delivered sacks of flour to their doors by night. And when his family disrobed him for the pre-burial washing, they discovered dark calluses on his back from the heavy loads.[^21] Others would overpay particular sellers in the marketplace so that for the onlooker it would appear purely transactional, while in reality it was creatively hidden financial assistance. In our times, a brother mentioned that his thoughtful mother would ask her poor neighbor for salt, while she had plenty, simply to keep the latter feeling comfortable to ask the former for her frequent needs. Such ‘givers’ are in reality the greatest recipients, because their *luṭf* places them at the receiving end of Allah’s love, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah certainly loves the servant who is *taqī* (pious), *ghanī* (independent), and *khafī* (discreet).”[^22] When seeking to better people’s profile before Allah, having a gentle demeanor is necessary to help maneuver around their defensiveness, and avoid falling into behavior that would be counterproductive towards our objective. Allah says, “So by mercy from Allah, you \[O Muhammad\] were lenient with them. And if you had been rude \[in speech\] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from around you” (Qur’an 3:159). Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ taught us that “Allah is Gentle, loves gentleness, and grants in light of gentleness what He does not in light of roughness, or anything else.”[^23] This may entail amplifying good more than one combats evil, not being forceful with criticism, or aggressive in tone, or impatient with people’s pace to guidance, or otherwise. But in general, exhibiting *luṭf* in the form of due consideration, and surgical care to not kill the patient, is the common denominator here. Thus is the believer, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “The example of the believer is that of the honey bee; it only consumes that which is good and pure, only produces that which is good and pure, and lands without breaking or ruining \[anything\].”[^24] May we be people who land gently on the subjects of God, extract the best in them, instill the best in them, and never break a single one of them by failing to be *laṭīf* in how we approach them. ###         4) Undeterred by Fears Nothing can be as empowering as knowing that your guardian is *al-Laṭīf*, who knows your every fear, and how to render it as harmless as a summer breeze. [It suffices to rely on Him for impeding these fears from reaching us, or commanding “their flames” which engulfed us to be cool and safe](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-hardship-and-in-ease-how-to-rely-on-god), just as they were on Ibrahīm (peace be upon him). While some criminals are so crafty that hardly anyone can discover their schemes, the servant of *al-Laṭīf* sleeps well knowing that his Lord already has. While some tyrants are so powerful that it’s difficult to imagine something stealthy enough to breach their defenses, the servants of *al-Laṭīf* contain their fears and do not cower before them. They remember that Allah said, “And if you are patient and fear Allah, their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do” (Qur’an 3:120). They remember that when Allah wanted to remove the Prophet ﷺ and his supporters from the ravines of Abū Ṭālib, where they had been driven by persecutors and boycotted for three agonizing years, He did not smite the Qurashites with a punishment from the sky. Instead, *al-Laṭīf* simply sent termites to gnaw away at the pact that was in their possession;[^25] a nearly invisible insect disintegrating every oppressive clause in that agreement. During the infamous Mutazilite inquisition under the Abbasids, Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855 CE, Allah grant him mercy) was sent to the dungeons for refusing to accept their claim that the eternal Quran is God’s *created* word. His brittle age of seventy years old was irrelevant to those who lashed him mercilessly. One of the floggers said, “An elephant would have crumbled from the intensity of the blows I dealt to Ibn Hanbal. With each strike, I would say the whip would emerge from his mouth this time, due to how severely the flesh on his back was falling apart.” Ibn Hanbal’s situation was absolutely deadlocked; it was a matter of time before he caved to their demands or through martyrdom escaped their hands. But *al-Laṭīf* injected His relief into the ordeal with two splendid, subtle gifts. Beyond the prison walls, the Mutazilite judges overlooked a man named ʿAbd Allāh al-Adhrumī (unbeknownst to them, a fearless erudite scholar) and debated him in front of the caliph, not realizing that this would herald the beginning of their end. Within the dungeon, the prison guards overlooked a man named Abū al-Haytham (a thief) who would replenish the Imam’s heroic spirit whenever it was flagging. Thereafter, Imam Ahmad’s son asked his father why he would constantly pray for the forgiveness of this thief. He said, “He bolstered me. He would say, ‘O Imam, the state records document that I endured being flogged eighteen thousand times—separately—while being upon falsehood, so stand firm upon the truth. O Imam, persevere, for if you live—you will live glorified and if you die, you will die martyred.”[^26] Neither al-Adhrumī nor Abū al-Haytham were expected factors in this grand ordeal, but *al-Laṭīf* employed them as the special forces necessary to ‘infiltrate sensitive areas’ and help Imam Ahmad complete his valiant mission. --- ## Conclusion Upon learning these meanings of the Divine Name *al-Laṭīf*, a believer should periodically avail themselves long hours with this blessed name, identifying its manifestations in the past, anticipating its involvement in the future, invoking Allah using it, and allowing their tears to wash away the heart’s rust in light of it. O Allah, we testify that you are indeed *al-Laṭīf*; we implore You by Your mastery of every subtlety, and by Your sublime gentleness—to direct our steps every time the road splits, to guide us through every darkness that blankets us, and to soothe us through our nightmares and our pain. --- ## Notes [^1]: ʿAlī b. Jābir al-Fīfī, *Li-Annak Allāh: Riḥlah ilā al-samāʾ al-sābiʿah* (Beirut: Dār al-Ḥaḍārah, 2016), 101 (with adaptation). [^2]: See: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Matn al-qaṣīdah al-nūnīyah* (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymiyyah, 1417 AH), 1:207. [^3]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *al-Maqṣad al-asná fiī sharḥ maʿānī asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná* (Cyprus: al-Jaffān wal-Jābi, 1987), 1:101. [^4]: ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, *Tawḍīḥ* *al-kāfiyah al-shāfiyah* (Riyadh: Maktabat Aḍwā’ as-Salaf, 2000), 191 (with slight adaptation). [^5]: Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Maṣriyyah, 1964), 7:54. [^6]: Muslim Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabi, 1955), 1:161, no. 179. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2199, no. 2867. [^8]: Al-Fīfi, *Li-Annak Allāh*, 55–56. [^9]: Muḥammad Ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhāri, *Ṣaḥīḥ* *al-Bukhāri* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq an-Najāh, 1422 AH), 1:132, no. 652. [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1761, no. 2245. [^11]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn fī manāzil iyyāka naʿbudu wa-iyyāka nasta‘īn* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, 1996), 2:166. [^12]: Jinan Yousef, “With the Divine: Al-Lateef,” Virtual Mosque, September 11, 2012, [http://www.virtualmosque.com/relationships/withthedivine/al-lateef/](http://www.virtualmosque.com/relationships/withthedivine/al-lateef/). [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:615, no. 898. [^14]: Al-Fīfi, *Li-Annak Allāh*, 57 (with adaptation). [^15]: Al-Fīfi, *Li-Annak Allāh*, 61 (with adaptation). [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:631–33, nos. 918–19. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2003, no. 2593. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:342, no. 470. [^19]: Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, *Sunan Abū Dāwūd* (Beirut: al-Maktabah al-ʿAṣrīyah, n.d.), 3:55, no. 2675. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2004, no. 2594. [^21]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabi, *Siyar a‘lām al-nubalāʾ* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1985), 4:393. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2277, no. 2965. [^23]: See footnote 17. [^24]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), 11:458. [^25]: ʿAbd al-Mālik Ibn Hishām, *Sīrat Ibn Hishām* (Egypt: Maktabat Musṭafaá al-Bābi, 1955), 1:376. [^26]: Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn al-Jawzī, *Manāqib al-Imām Aḥmad* (Riyadh: Dār Hajr, 1409 AH), 450. ## Summary # Al-Laṭīf: The Subtle, The Most Gentle In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. Among the beautiful names of Allah is *al-Laṭīf*, a name of grace that nourishes the heart with awareness of His all-encompassing knowledge and His tender compassion. The name derives from the trilateral root *la-ṭa-fa*, denoting that which is subtle and undetectable, and it carries two intertwined meanings: first, His knowledge so fine that it perceives the most hidden secrets and elusive intricacies; and second, His delicate finesse in dispensing mercy, delivering His kindness to His servants in the gentlest of ways. Allah asks, "Does He who created not know, while He is al-Laṭīf (the Subtle), al-Khabīr (the Acquainted)?" (Qur'an 67:14). Imam al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH) explained that none deserves this name except the One who can both identify the ultra-fine, unapparent interests of a creature and then deliver them gently to whoever would benefit, for the concept of *al-Laṭīf* is realized only when gentleness in action and nuance in knowledge come together—a perfection unimaginable except in Allah. It is significant that the Qur'an usually pairs *al-Laṭīf* with *al-Khabīr* (the Acquainted), a coupling that stirs awe in the believer's heart. This reminds us that even those closest to us do not know what Allah knows of our struggles, and that people—however well-meaning—may harm us inadvertently while trying to help. Only Allah is both perfectly acquainted with our condition and perfectly gentle in His remedy; He alone knows the diagnosis and can reach the unreachable places within us without oversimplifying, as we so often do. Even the inconspicuous anxieties we cannot articulate are fully known to Him, for it is He who placed them there for wisdoms we may yet discover. Imam al-Saʿdī (d. 1376 AH) described *al-Laṭīf* as the One whose knowledge perceives the hidden and the concealed, and who acts with *luṭf* toward His allies—easing them toward good, guarding them from harm in ways they perceive and ways they do not, decreeing what they dislike in order to grant them what they love. Thus *al-Laṭīf* is close in meaning to *al-Khabīr*, *al-Raʾūf* (the Affectionate), and *al-Karīm* (the Generous). Regarding our very existence, Allah says, "Sights cannot encompass Him, though He encompasses all sights; and He is al-Laṭīf, al-Khabīr" (Qur'an 6:103). His transcendence does not prevent Him from being acquainted with all that exists, down to the fleeting glances and silent debates within every heart, for "We have indeed created man, and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than his jugular vein" (Qur'an 50:16). No leaf falls but that He knows it, and no grain lies in the darkness of the earth but that it is recorded in a clear book (Qur'an 6:59). Major exegetes such as al-Qurṭubī note a further meaning: that Allah cannot be seen precisely because He is *Laṭīf*, and His veiling Himself is itself an act of kindness that protects our fragile nature from being overwhelmed. When Mūsā (peace be upon him) asked to behold Him, the mountain crumbled to dust and Mūsā fell unconscious (Qur'an 7:143), and the Prophet ﷺ said, as recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, "His veil is light. Were He to remove it, the glory of His Face would incinerate everything that His sight reaches." His *luṭf* likewise shields us from the surrounding phenomena that would render life unbearable—the sounds of our own heartbeats, of engines and orbits, of insects and the punished among the dead. The Prophet ﷺ said, again in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, "Were it not that you would cease to bury one another, I would ask Allah to let you hear the torment of the grave that I hear." His *luṭf* also choreographs our achievements from imperceptible beginnings. Consider Yūsuf (peace be upon him), for whom Allah concealed the glory of kingship within the garb of captivity—thrown in a well, sold as a slave, falsely accused, imprisoned—until every scattered piece assumed its place, and he declared, "Indeed, my Lord is Laṭīf toward whomever He wishes. Indeed, He is the All-Knowing, the Most Wise" (Qur'an 12:100). Dr. ʿAlī al-Fīfī observed that when Allah wished to free Yūsuf, He did not collapse the prison walls nor send a lightning bolt; He simply caused the king to see a dream, deeming that subtle event sufficient to rescue Yūsuf al-Ṣiddīq. Indeed, "Allah is Laṭīf with His servants; He extends provisions to whomever He wills" (Qur'an 42:19). In guidance, *al-Laṭīf* instilled within us the *fiṭrah*—an irresistible inclination toward faith—and placed the *rūḥ* within us as a mystery the physical sciences cannot explain, keeping the door of metaphysical possibility ajar. He kindles lamps of guidance, erects invisible rails to keep us from swerving, and places great gifts in small packages, as in the hadith of the man who removed a thorn from the path and was forgiven, and the prostitute forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog (both in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim). He guides too through supports disguised as struggles, for as He says, "Do you not see that Allah sends down rain from the sky and the earth becomes green? Indeed, Allah is Laṭīf and Khabīr" (Qur'an 22:63). And He infuses faith in adversity; Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) wrote that the hopeful servant detects the breeze of relief while still in distress, and this is among the hidden forms of *luṭf*. In our safety, He fastened the heart of Mūsā's mother lest she disclose him (Qur'an 28:10), and returned her son to her by making him refuse every wet nurse but her (Qur'an 28:12–13). He averts dangers we never perceive. Luqmān counseled his son that even a mustard seed within a rock, or in the heavens or earth, Allah will bring forth, "Indeed, Allah is Laṭīf, Khabīr" (Qur'an 31:16). Internalizing this name yields receptiveness to divine messages—as when the Prophet ﷺ let the rain touch him, saying it had "recently come from its Lord" (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)—and unbreakable optimism, as with Umm Salamah, who received the Prophet ﷺ himself after mourning Abū Salamah. It yields a gentle demeanor, for "Allah is Gentle and loves gentleness" and "grants for gentleness what He does not grant for harshness" (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), and it inspires discreet charity, as Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn secretly carried flour to the poor of Madīnah, revealed only by the calluses on his back. Finally, it leaves the believer undeterred by fears, remembering that Allah undid the oppressive pact of Quraysh by mere termites (Sīrat Ibn Hishām), and that He sustained Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in prison through unexpected means. O Allah, we testify that You are indeed *al-Laṭīf*; guide our steps whenever the road divides, and soothe us through our pain. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-did-i-do-to-deserve-this-conquering-the-assumptions-that-hold-you-back # “What Did I Do to Deserve This?” Conquering the Assumptions that Hold You Back **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Publication **Published:** August 20, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 > Sometimes when you're in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've actually been planted.[^1] --- ## Introduction *It all started in college. Ahmed couldn’t remember the exact turning point but, little by little, anxiety, anger, and negativity began to overtake his daily life. He struggled to sleep due to his racing heart and mind and also started to feel like getting out of bed each morning was a monumental task. Studying for exams became difficult after his first failing grade and his constant worries about further failures. Nearly every day was filled with dread and anger. He couldn’t understand where all of these feelings were coming from.* *Ahmed had looked forward to a career as a pharmacist but, as he continued to struggle in his classes, he gave up on this ambition. He had looked forward to getting married but marriage apps increased his anxiety and frustration levels. Slowly, his goals and dreams began to disappear. Friendships began to deteriorate as his struggles amplified and he complained about everything going on in his life each time he hung out with someone. He found himself getting angry over small things and noticed his friends stopped spending time with him, making him feel even more resentful. He began to miss prayers as he began to feel angry toward Allah for everything he was going through. He had done everything “right”—he had worked hard, prayed, been a good person and a good student—but he was still struggling with uncontrollable emotions. He thought to himself, “It doesn’t matter what I do; I tried my best and I’m still suffering. What did I do to deserve this?”* --- ## What is happening to me? When life takes a turn in a direction we did not anticipate, we suddenly have to reassess our lives and accept a new reality. The dreams we had so tenderly nurtured are suddenly burned to the ground only to be replaced by the scary realization that our lives are not at all what we had pictured. Coming to terms with a new reality involves the loss of a great deal in our lives. Every trauma involves some sort of loss—the loss of something tangible, such as a loved one, a job, a marriage, or one’s health or the loss of something intangible, such as the dream we had once envisioned our lives would look like. No one expects that their pregnancy will end in miscarriage, that a dream job won’t be nearly as fulfilling as anticipated, or that a marriage will end. Once reality hits, it can be difficult to cope. When difficult situations befall us, it is natural to experience pain and a sense of disappointment, shock, and anger. After all, you likely spent hours imagining what your life would look like only to realize it didn’t pan out in the way you envisioned. This can bring up a variety of difficult thoughts and questions including, “Why do I keep getting hurt?” and “What did I do to deserve this?” and “Is God angry with me?” When these thoughts take hold, they can sometimes result in negative feelings toward Allah (swt). We can never say it is “ok” or “permissible” to internalize anger or ill will toward Allah; however, it is important to know that it is a lot more common than you may think. > Abū Hurayrah narrates that a companion came to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and asked: “We have thoughts which we cannot dare talk about and we do not like that we have them.” The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “Do you really experience this? Yes, they replied. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “They \[those concerns\] are clear signs of faith.”[^2] We see in this hadith that even some of the best people to walk this earth, our righteous predecessors, struggled with these fearful, confusing thoughts of feeling inadequate in their relationship with Allah (swt). With regards to these difficult thoughts, the Prophet ﷺ told us, “Verily, Allah has pardoned my nation for what occurs within themselves, as long as they do not speak of it or act upon it.”[^3] These passing thoughts say nothing about your faith in Allah; rather, the discomfort you feel in experiencing these thoughts is indicative of how important your relationship with Allah (swt) is to you. --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions Our minds often behave as though we possess a crystal ball, magic mirror, or telepathy (mind-reading) ability. Of course, none of these are real or possible yet our minds can trick us into believing that our thoughts are accurate despite it being impossible to ascertain the future or what others are really thinking. ### Jumping to conclusions This “magical” ability we act as though our minds have is called *jumping to conclusions.* This type of cognitive distortion (negative thought pattern) is defined as creating a negative interpretation of something even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support that conclusion. Jumping to conclusions can occur in two ways: mind-reading and fortune-telling. “Mind-reading” involves a person thinking that others are negatively evaluating them or have bad intentions for them. When a person is “fortune-telling,” they are predicting a negative future outcome or deciding that situations will turn out badly before the situation has even occurred. As human beings, our minds and our hearts search for meaning. When someone you care about hurts you or when a tragedy strikes, your brain makes assumptions about why this has happened. We tend to pick interpretations that fit with our existing view of the world. The problem with this is that traumatic experiences change our view of the world from one that is realistic to one that is fear-based and pessimistic. Every conclusion we come to and every perception will be based on something inaccurate—pain, fear, and anger. What started as one difficulty becomes something insurmountable because our minds perceive it to be so. Your mind begins to jump to conclusions to make sense of the situation but these conclusions are often negative and painful. Consider these examples: You’ve lost your job and so you begin to think, “I must be a fool, that’s why I was fired. There’s no way I’ll ever be employed again.” Your engagement has not come to fruition and you think to yourself, “She must have found someone better. I’m not worthy of being a husband. No one will find me worthwhile or worthy of love.” You have miscarried during your pregnancy and you think, “Allah must think that I’ll be a bad mother so He’ll never bless me with a child.” **The way we think is incredibly powerful and it can either help us to move forward or break us during difficulties.** ### The impact of anger when we’re going through hard times Although we know of so many examples from our Islamic tradition that teach us that, spiritually, trials are good for us, they definitely don’t always *feel* good in the moment. Difficult emotions naturally arise during times of struggle including pain, disappointment, sadness, and anxiety. Every emotion serves the function of signaling to us that something is happening. Another emotion that may arise during times of struggle is that of anger. Anger is a natural part of life as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ describes, “Verily, anger is a burning ember in the heart of the son of Adam.”[^4] Although this is a human emotion, it can be detrimental to us in many circumstances. Anger can feel overwhelming and sometimes terrifying if it seems uncontrollable; it can be helpful to understand how anger moves through your brain and body before we discuss ways to regain a sense of control over this emotion. ### The angry brain **Stress Response**: When something happens (a trigger), anger activates the amygdala in your brain before you’re even aware that it’s happening. The amygdala is the brain area responsible for emotional processing, particularly fear, anxiety, and aggression. When anger surges, the amygdala turns on the stress response system in your brain and body to prepare your body to respond to a threat. The adrenal glands secrete stress hormones (i.e., cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline), which impact your brain and body quickly. **Judgment Reduction and Pain Amplification:** The brain regions that are responsible for good judgment and making new memories (prefrontal cortex and hippocampus) start to experience a loss of neurons[^5] in this situation. That’s why you might struggle to make good decisions or remember what you wanted to say during an argument when you are struggling with anger. Along with neuron loss, too much cortisol also decreases serotonin, which is the hormone that makes you feel happy. With less serotonin, anger is amplified, as are physical and emotional pain.[^6] **Jumping to Conclusions and Assuming the Worst:** Furthermore, researchers have found that when something negative happens and you’re not 100% sure what caused it to happen, you are more likely to jump to negative conclusions and to quickly associate two things together that may not actually be linked.[^7] When there is a lack of clarity, it’s very easy for our brains to choose the worst possible explanation despite it being highly unlikely. When your spouse is late and not answering his phone, do you immediately start to wonder if he has been in a car accident? Our minds often jump to negative conclusions despite rationally knowing that the likelihood is much less than a simpler conclusion (i.e., your husband’s phone ran out of charge). Consider the way jumping to conclusions might progress after something like a miscarriage: “I’ve been hoping for a child for so long and now the chance has been snatched away from me.” ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1.png) “What did I do to deserve this? Allah must think I’m unworthy of being a mother.” (Mind-reading) ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1.png) “If I’m unworthy of being a mother, I’ll never have a child and my husband will hate me.” (Fortune-telling and Mind-reading) ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1.png) “My husband will divorce me and I’ll be alone forever. ” (Fortune-telling) Now that we understand the impact that *jumping to conclusions* can have on your life and thought process, let’s explore how to change these thoughts. ### Changing your thoughts Jumping to conclusions depends on false evidence, fear, and distrust. People often have the misconception that “expecting the worst” will save them from disappointment. However, in reality, setting our sights on the worst possible outcome only sets us up for anxiety and depression. When we expect that people will mistreat us, our fear prevents us from nurturing healthy relationships. When we expect to fail at something, we are much less likely to try our best due to our fears. Allah says, “**Indeed, those who have believed** \[in Prophet Muhammad\] and those \[before Him\] who were Jews or Sabeans or Christians—those \[among them\] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness—**no fear will there be for them**, nor will they grieve.”[^8] Jumping to conclusions can also impact your faith and can leave you feeling shaken. Consider how an initial thought might lead down this path: “I’ve always worked hard and been a good Muslim but I still lost my job. Why does Allah allow bad things to happen to good people?” ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1.png) “Allah didn’t save my job, so He must not care about me.” (Mind-reading) ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1.png) “I can’t believe Allah would do this to me. I do everything right and get nothing in return. Nothing is going to change so there’s no point in trying.” (Fortune-telling) Our thoughts can drastically impact our emotions and behaviors. When anger floods our minds and hearts, it’s easy for our thoughts to follow suit as well. However, as we see in the example above, allowing our angry thoughts to take root can be detrimental to our relationship with Allah (swt) and can negatively impact our desire to connect with Him. --- ## Changing your thoughts: Choose the conclusion you want It’s inevitable to jump to some sort of conclusion when something happens. We naturally try to make sense of life by interpreting events and predicting what seems logical in the moment. However, we can **choose** which conclusion or interpretation we want. We may not be able to control the emotions we immediately feel upon receiving devastating news or witnessing a tragedy. We may not even be able to control the immediate passing thoughts that come to our minds in such a situation. However, we all have a choice: We can choose to dwell on thoughts that bring us closer to Allah or that push us further away from Him. And we can choose actions that either increase the strength of our connection with Allah or decrease it. Consider the example of Mūsá عليه السلام when he was trapped with the army of Pharoah on one side and the Red Sea on the other. In these verses see the example of two different thought processes: One that would strengthen your relationship with Allah (swt) and one that would diminish it. > When the two groups came face to face, the companions of Moses cried out, “We are overtaken for sure.” Moses reassured \[them\], “Absolutely not! My Lord is certainly with me—He will guide me.” So We inspired Moses: “Strike the sea with your staff,” and the sea was split, each part was like a huge mountain.[^9] During a difficult situation, the people of Mūsá jumped to the conclusion that they were doomed, which brought about feelings of fear and devastation. We see a very different response in Mūsá (as) when he assumed the opposite. He expected good from Allah (swt) and received a miracle that we still reflect on today. **We find the evidence we search for, so search for the good and watch your thoughts and emotions transform.** Our lives do not always follow the trajectory that we hope for. The standards we often set for ourselves in order to be happy and content may not always be realistic. Likewise, the expectations that we have for Allah (swt)—namely to decree everything we deem best for ourselves or that we have decided should be a part of our life plan—create a very narrow view of our lives and, more importantly, our perception of Allah (swt). When our perception of Allah (swt) is based on this inaccurate perception, we tend to fall prey to a variety of misconceptions about our lives, our struggles and why these things are happening. Addressing these misconceptions can be a beneficial step for our mental and spiritual health. --- ## Jumping to conclusions: Misconception #1 ### Why is my life so hard? It wasn’t supposed to be this way Life is filled with uncertainty. Change and unknowns are always imminent but we tend to imagine we are immune to unpredictability. The tests we endure serve as a reminder that we're not. Although in reality even a week ago we didn’t know if we’d be alive right now, our daily lives lull us into a false sense of certainty. Allah (swt) reminds us, “Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe’ and they will not be tried? We certainly tested those before them. And \[in this way\] Allah will clearly distinguish between those who are truthful and those who are liars.”[^10] Although our lives are filled with uncertainty, we know one thing for sure: That we will be tested. The sooner we accept this reality, the better we will be able to cope in difficult situations. Every struggle that comes our way gives us the opportunity to teach ourselves to cope with distress, sit with discomfort, and accept circumstances that we can’t control while simultaneously working on what can be changed. **Action Point:** Channel your energy in a positive direction rather than fighting against the inevitable. Acceptance of reality gives you the opportunity to take action. Although you may imagine that your life should have looked different, the reality is that you are precisely where you are meant to be at this point in your life. Asking why is not as important as asking “Now what?” Rather than asking why this is happening, ask yourself: “This is happening. So now what?” Our responses, not the circumstances themselves, dictate how we live our lives. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you are perfectly equipped to deal with everything you’re facing because you were meant to face it. Allah reminds us, “Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear…”[^11] This doesn’t mean that it won’t be hard but it does mean that you have the tools to overcome it. Remember, if Allah has chosen you to face these tests, then you are guaranteed to have the ability to succeed through them. --- ## Jumping to conclusions: Misconception #2 ### I must have done something to deserve this pain As human beings, we pass judgment based on the good and bad that we can directly see. Suddenly thoughts like, “I must be a bad person to be enduring so much pain” come up. When things don't turn out as we would like them to, it is very tempting to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. We have a need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a clear cause for every effect, and a reason that we can grasp for everything that happens. These thoughts are a form of severe self-criticism and can amplify the pain you’re already enduring. The antidote to self-criticism is self-compassion and is something provided to us by Allah (swt). We tend to operate under the assumption that Allah gives good things and allows good to befall those whom He loves. But in reality, Allah tells us that He tests those who He loves. And in reality, both times of ease and times of hardship are tests as well as blessings. > And as for man, when his Lord tries him and \[thus\] is generous to him and favors him, he says, “My Lord has honored me.” But when He tries him and restricts his provision, he says, “My Lord has humiliated me.”[^12] The verse that immediately follows this begins with the word *kallā*, meaning “But no!” Here we see that Allah (swt) denies this thought process and that He gives to those He loves as well as those whom He does not love; and that He withholds from those He loves as well as those He does not love. Blessings and difficulties are not an indication of the love of Allah. We imagine that hardships indicate that Allah is punishing us, that Allah wants ill for us; that we’ve worshipped Him for years and instead of blessings, we have been dealt hardships. However, consider other times in your life where pain literally yielded gain. The pain of exercise led to fitness and better physical and mental health. The pain of studying for a huge exam led to feeling prepared and doing well. The pain of working on better communication with your spouse led to a healthier relationship. Hardships differentiate us—they allow us to progress and grow. Sometimes this growth is seen in this *dunyā* and sometimes it’s saved for the *ākhirah*. Regardless, ask yourself: If Allah truly wanted to harm you, why would there be such a tremendous reward guaranteed for you in the *ākhirah* for what you’re enduring? > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Allah, the Exalted, says: ‘I have no reward except *Jannah* for a believing slave of Mine who shows patience and anticipates My reward when I take away his favorite one from the inhabitants of the world.’”[^13] > The supplications of three persons are never turned away: a fasting person until he breaks his fast, a just ruler, and the supplication of the oppressed which is raised by Allah above the clouds, the gates of heaven are opened for it, and the Lord says: “By my might, I will help you in due time.”[^14] > The Prophet ﷺ said, “No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that.”[^15] These don’t sound like punishments, do they? **Action Point:** Thoughts that you are deserving of pain and a life filled with negativity are a symptom of self-criticism. The antidote is self-compassion. Acknowledge the tremendous pain you’re enduring for a moment without trying to push it away. Once you have sat with this emotion for a few moments, consider how you would speak to a friend who is struggling with the same situation. What words would you use? Write out some kind, supportive, and gentle words that you would share with a friend and read them out to yourself. How does it feel to receive compassion during this difficult moment? --- ## Jumping to conclusions: Misconception #3 ### Allah is capable of anything so He should have protected me from this Rather than expecting that Allah (swt) will grant us everything we *want* in the way we want it, shifting our understanding to realize that He (swt) provides us with everything we *need* can improve both our mental and spiritual health. When we jump to conclusions about why certain tests were sent our way or why they shouldn’t have been sent our way, we imagine, unwittingly, that we are capable of knowing what Allah is thinking. However, consider the Name of Allah, *al-Ḥakīm*: the One who is Most Knowing, Most Wise; the One who acts with perfect knowledge, wisdom and comprehension of everything; the One who does the proper thing in the proper way in the proper place at the proper time. Abū Bakr (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) used to say: “O Allah! You know me more than I know myself.”[^16] When we cannot even master baking a cake to perfection each time (with a recipe in hand), how can we expect to master an understanding of every facet of the universe or even every facet of our own lives? The difference between Allah’s knowledge and human knowledge is that we must acquire our knowledge by what we see and experience around us. On the other hand, Allah’s knowledge has no beginning or end and is not based on trial and error. Allah (swt) tells us in the Qur’an: > And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there within the darknesses of the earth and no moist or dry \[thing\] but that it is \[written\] in a clear record.[^17] While we focus on the single thread we imagine is perfectly needed in our lives, Allah (swt) sees the entire, beautiful tapestry that every single thread will eventually become. When Allah, the All-Knowing, The Mighty, The Wise tells us that both times of ease and times of hardship are tests and each has its blessings, we can confidently embrace this despite not always being able to see how this tapestry is being weaved. Consider this statement by Ibn al-Qayyim, > Evil, as an independent phenomenon whereby no dimension of good is involved, has no existence in this world. There is nothing in our existence that can be called pure evil, because every evil in this world is good from one angle or another. For instance, sickness harms the body from one angle, while from other angles tests patience, evokes resilience, and may even strengthen immunity. Most disliked things are usually this way; never void of some benefit or another for the human being.[^18] Feelings of sadness and distress can lead to a pessimistic view of life and the world. Often it takes humility to truly be able to embrace Allah’s Wisdom. When our emotions tell us one thing, but the Word of Allah tells us another, it takes humility to say, “I know I can’t understand the full wisdom of Allah’s decrees but I can accept that they exist even if I don’t see them right now.” **Action Item:** Remember that Allah (swt) gives us everything we need but not everything that we want. Have you ever thought you desperately needed something, were disappointed that it didn’t come to fruition and, after some time, you learned something that made you realize that it wasn’t right for you? Write about that experience and notice what thoughts and emotions come up. --- ## Jumping to conclusions: Misconception #4 ### Allah doesn’t care if I suffer When bad things happen, it doesn’t mean Allah likes it. For example, does Allah like it when people do not worship Him? Of course not since Allah says, “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”[^19] When we assume that everyone, including Allah, is out to get us or don’t care about us, we fall into the cognitive distortion of mind-reading. We assume ill intentions of Allah because our emotions overtake our thoughts. However, consider the statement of the Prophet ﷺ, > Allah says: “I am just as My slave thinks I am, (i.e., I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.”[^20] Does Allah truly wish you ill if He promises to come nearer to you if you take even the tiniest step toward Him? In reality, our thought processes regarding Allah have much more to do with us than they have to do with Allah. Therefore, it makes sense that Allah is as we expect Him to be—if we expect good of Allah, we will find good in every situation; if we expect bad from Allah, we will perceive that. When we have been through something traumatic, our mind tricks us into misconceptions about Allah rather than thinking of Him as He deserves to be thought of. This can be particularly true when we have been hurt by someone in our lives. When a person hurts you, it doesn’t mean that Allah (swt) doesn’t care that you are suffering. Allah (swt) has granted each of us free will. Through this free will, He allows things to happen but holds each of us accountable for whatever is done. Allowing something to happen is not the same as allowing it to slide. Ibn al-Qayyim states, > When the slave commits an ugly prohibited act, what he did is certainly evil and sinful, and the Lord is the One who enabled him to be the ‘doer’ of that \[deed\]. This enablement from God is justice, mercy, and correctness, for Him making someone capable of acting \[freely\] is good, while its manifestation \[in this case\] was evil and ugly. By enabling, God has placed things where they belong, for that \[granting free will\] contains profound wisdom for which He should be praised. Therefore, this is actually good and wise and beneficial, even if what the slave does is a flaw, a defect, and evil.[^21] While free will is a blessing, it also means that sometimes this free will is used for evil. Allah is not the direct cause of this evil, nor does He like it, however He permits free will to remain for a higher purpose and the greater good. Allowing people to commit evil does not indicate that Allah doesn’t love us or care for us since it was a part of his love and care to provide us with the freedom to begin with. If you are unsure of Allah’s love, consider this hadith: > It was narrated that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “Some prisoners were brought to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and there was a woman among the prisoners who was searching (for her child). When she found her child she embraced him and put him to her breast. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to us, ‘Do you think that this woman would throw her child in the fire?’ We said, ‘No, by Allah, not if she is able not to.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, ‘Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this woman is to her child.’”[^22] **Action Item:** Our emotions can be very powerful but so can our thoughts and actions. When you notice yourself feeling unloved and doubting that Allah (swt) cares about you, consider ways that He has shown you love and care throughout your life. To work on your difficult emotions through changing your thoughts, create a list of the different ways Allah has protected you, shown you mercy, and given you what you need. To work on your difficult emotions through changing your actions, create a list of ways you can choose to nurture your relationship with Allah (swt) and pick one to focus on today. ### Winning the mental fight against “jumping to conclusions” Consider the following steps as antidotes to jumping to negative conclusions about Allah (swt) during times of hardship: 1. *Pay Attention to Your Self-Talk*: Remember, just because you think something doesn’t make it true. Ask yourself: What is going through my mind right now? When you feel yourself getting angry, what thoughts are going through your mind at that moment? 2. *Focus on the Facts*: Search for observable and tangible facts and events. These anchor us to reality and help us to be more objective. Once we look at the facts, we can determine if reality matches our negative perception, which it often doesn’t. 3. *Consider Other Possibilities*: Part of focusing on the facts includes ensuring that you check all the facts. Some of the facts you consider will increase the likelihood of a positive outcome; however, we typically choose to focus on evidence that supports the belief that we already hold. In this step, also remind yourself of past positive outcomes. This serves as a reminder that good is possible since you have already experienced positive outcomes in the past. It can also cause you to question your “negative mind” because the more proofs you find of how your mind was wrong in the past when you anticipated a negative outcome, the more flexible you can be in concluding that things can turn out just fine even when you assume the worst. 4. *Accept Uncertainty and Focus on the Present Moment*: We may never know for certain what people are thinking or what will happen in the future so worrying about something that is impossible to ascertain can be never-ending. In order to resist unnecessary predictions about others’ thoughts or the future, focus on what is certain—the present moment. Ibn al-Qayyim (*rahimahullah*) said, “Your attention must be directed to your life in the present —the time between two times. If you waste it, then you have wasted the opportunity to be of the fortunate and saved ones. If you look after it… then you will be successful and achieve rest, delight, and ever-lasting bliss.”[^23] Focusing on the present moment can ground us and alleviate the anxiety we may be feeling about the future and shift our focus away from what others are thinking. --- ## Inspirational ayaat & hadiths for reflection > And He has granted you all that you asked Him for. If you tried to count Allah’s blessings, you would never be able to enumerate them…[^24] > Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.[^25] > And will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah—then He is sufficient for him.[^26] > The Prophet ﷺ advised his daughter, Fatima *radi Allahu \`anha*, to say in the morning and in the evening: “O Allah, I have hope in Your Mercy, so do not leave me in charge of my affairs even for a blink of an eye, and rectify for me all of my affairs. None has the right to be worshipped except You.”[^27] > ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would supplicate saying, “O Allah, I seek refuge in you from a decline in your blessings, the transformation of the wellness You have provided, Your sudden retribution, and all things displeasing to you.”[^28] --- ## Practical Exercises ### Acceptance of Reality Channel your energy in a positive direction rather than fighting against the inevitable. Acceptance of reality allows you to take action. Rather than asking why this is happening, ask yourself: “This is happening. So now what?” *What small step can you take to move forward once you have accepted the reality of the struggle you’re enduring?* *Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you are perfectly equipped to deal with everything you’re facing because you were meant to face it. What skills/capabilities/strengths/blessings have you been equipped with?* ### Self-compassion *Notice self-critical thoughts that are going through your mind. Write them down*. *The antidote to self-criticism is self-compassion. Consider how you would speak to a friend who is struggling with the same situation. What words would you use? Write out some kind, supportive, and gentle words that you would share with a friend and read them out to yourself.* *How does it feel to receive compassion during this difficult moment?* ### What we need vs. what we want Remember that Allah (swt) gives us everything we need but not everything that we want. Have you ever thought you desperately needed something, were disappointed that it didn’t come to fruition and, after some time, you learned something that made you realize that it wasn’t right for you? Write about that experience and notice what thoughts and emotions come up. ### Remind yourself of Allah’s love and care Our emotions can be very powerful but so can our thoughts and actions. When you notice yourself feeling unloved and doubting that Allah (swt) cares about you, consider ways that He has shown you love and care throughout your life. To work on your difficult emotions through changing your thoughts, create a list of the different ways Allah has protected you, shown you mercy, and given you what you need. To work on your difficult emotions through changing your actions, create a list of ways you can choose to nurture your relationship with Allah (swt) and pick one to focus on today. ### Winning the mental fight against “jumping to conclusions” *Be Aware of Your Thoughts:* When you are experiencing a negative emotion, ask yourself: What is going through your mind right now? What conclusion is your mind jumping to? *Focus on the Facts*: What are some observable and tangible facts about this situation? Do these facts match the thought you wrote above? *Consider Other Possibilities*: What are some other possible results in this situation other than the one you fear will happen? Or what are some other possible things that this person may be thinking? What are some times in the past when you have had positive outcomes in a similar situation? *Accept Uncertainty and Focus on the Present Moment*: What is something that is certain right at this moment? What is something you can say to yourself to help you to accept that some of what you are dealing with right now is beyond your control? --- ## Follow-up: Ahmed’s case example *After realizing that his friends all hung out at their favorite spot without him over the weekend, Ahmed felt his anger bubble over once again. After he cooled down a bit, he started to wonder about the impact he might be having on his relationships with people. He began to think back to his interactions with friends and realized that over the past few months, he hadn’t asked any of them how* ***they*** *were doing. Each time he spoke to someone, he complained about his own struggles. He started going through his friends’ Instagram accounts and realized that at least two of them had been dealing with their own difficulties during this time. This was the starting point that led Ahmed to reflect on the cycle that had led him to this point and to begin to gain a greater sense of control over his unhealthy responses to difficult situations.* *Ahmed began to pick up on patterns of behavior in his life as well as the thoughts that would go through his mind that kept him feeling hurt, angry, and hopeless and that impacted his relationships with Allah and others. As Ahmed began to identify his fortune-telling and mind-reading thought patterns, he began to work on them. Instead of thinking, “What’s the point of studying since it’s pretty impossible to get my grades up,” he began to think, “I can’t change the past but I can do my best to put in effort for the future.” Instead of thinking, “My friends must hate me and that’s why they aren’t hanging out with me anymore,” he began to think, “I’ve been really focused on my own struggles lately and haven’t been as kind to my friends so that’s something I’d like to work on.”* *As he worked on these negative thought patterns, his behaviors changed as he began to identify the things that triggered his angry outbursts and began to practice healthier ways of responding to them. He began to exercise daily to release the adrenaline that was building up in his body. He felt a greater sense of calmness and began to feel proud of the way he was able to communicate with other people. He made it a point to ask his friends how they were doing and to journal about his own struggles to offer himself the release he needed.* *Ahmed applied the same awareness to his thoughts about Allah and the impact this had on his relationship with Him. He realized that he had been thinking that Allah didn’t care for him due to all of the struggles he was enduring. When he realized that this was an example of mind-reading, Ahmed began to remind himself, “Allah tests those He loves and I have to do my part to change my life as well.” Ahmed reflected on the ways Allah had shown love and care to him in the past and present to alleviate these negative thoughts. As his thoughts toward Allah improved, his connection through acts of worship also improved. As he began to feel deserving of good, he began to take the initiative to increase the good in his life.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Christine Caine, “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place,” Facebook, January 9, 2016, [https://www.facebook.com/theChristineCaine](https://www.facebook.com/theChristineCaine). [^2]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5111. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6287; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 127. [^4]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2191. [^5]: Wayne C. Drevets, Joseph L. Price, Joseph R. Simpson, Richard D. Todd, Theodore Reich, Michael Vannier, and Marcus E. Raichle, “Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex Abnormalities in Mood Disorders,” *Nature* 386 (1997): 824–27. [^6]: “How Anger Affects the Brain and Body,” The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, accessed July 10, 2020, [https://www.nicabm.com/how-anger-affects-the-brain-and-body-infographic/](https://www.nicabm.com/how-anger-affects-the-brain-and-body-infographic/). [^7]: Sang Wan Lee, John P. O’Doherty, and Shinsuke Shimojo, “Neural Computations Mediating One-Shot Learning in the Human Brain,” *PLoS Biology* 13, no. 4 (2015), art. no. e1002137, ISSN 1544-9173. [^8]: Qur’an 5:69*.* [^9]: Qur’an 26:61–63. [^10]: Qur’an 29:2–3. [^11]: Qur’an 2:286. [^12]: Qur’an 89:15–16. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6424. [^14]: *Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3598. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, nos. 5641, 5642. [^16]: Rida M. Ibn Atheer, *Abu Bakr al-Seddeq: The First Caliph* (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah, 2008), 18. [^17]: Qur’an 6:59. [^18]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl fī masāʾil al-qaḍāʾ wa-al-qadar wa-al-ḥikmah wa-al-ta‘līl* (Cairo: Dār at-Turāth, 1978), 380–413. [^19]: Qur’an 51:56. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7405. [^21]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifāʾ al-‘alīl*, 361. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5653; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 6921. [^23]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *al-Fawāʾid* (n.p.: Dār al-Salām, 2019), 151–2. [^24]: Qur’an 14:34. [^25]: Qur’an 2:268. [^26]: Qur’an 65:3. [^27]: *Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3524. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2739. ## Summary When we find ourselves in a dark and difficult place, we may believe we have been buried by our trials, when in reality we have been planted so that we may grow. This truth is illustrated in the story of Ahmed, a college student whose life was slowly overtaken by anxiety, anger, and negativity. Sleepless nights, failing grades, abandoned dreams of becoming a pharmacist, deteriorating friendships, and missed prayers all led him to feel resentment—even toward Allah—as he wondered, "I tried my best and I'm still suffering. What did I do to deserve this?" His story reflects a universal reality: when life takes an unexpected turn, we are forced to grieve the loss of something tangible, such as a loved one, a job, or one's health, or something intangible, such as the dream we once envisioned for our lives. It is natural during hardship for painful thoughts to arise, and sometimes these thoughts turn into feelings of anger or ill will toward Allah. While we can never say that internalizing such anger is permissible, it is far more common than one might imagine. Indeed, the righteous predecessors experienced troubling thoughts as well. Abū Hurayrah narrates that a companion came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "We have thoughts which we cannot dare talk about," to which the Prophet ﷺ responded, "They are clear signs of faith." Likewise, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Verily, Allah has pardoned my nation for what occurs within themselves, as long as they do not speak of it or act upon it." The very discomfort a person feels at these passing thoughts is itself a sign of how deeply he values his relationship with his Lord. A key source of spiritual and emotional distress is a cognitive distortion known as "jumping to conclusions," in which a person forms a negative interpretation of events without any definite facts to support it. This occurs in two forms: "mind-reading," assuming others harbor bad intentions, and "fortune-telling," predicting a negative outcome before it happens. Because trauma reshapes our view of the world from a realistic one to a fearful and pessimistic one, our conclusions become rooted in pain and fear rather than truth. A person who loses a job may conclude he will never be employed again; one whose engagement fails may conclude he is unworthy of love; a woman who miscarries may conclude that Allah deems her unfit to be a mother. Alongside these thoughts, difficult emotions arise, including anger, which the Prophet ﷺ described by saying, "Verily, anger is a burning ember in the heart of the son of Adam." Understanding how anger moves through the body can help us regain control. When triggered, anger activates the amygdala, the region responsible for processing fear and aggression, which then sets off the body's stress response and floods it with hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. This weakens the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus—the areas responsible for good judgment and memory—and lowers serotonin, thereby amplifying both anger and pain. Researchers have found that when the cause of a negative event is unclear, the mind is more likely to leap to the worst possible explanation, even when a simpler one is far more likely. The good news is that we can change our thoughts. Jumping to conclusions rests on false evidence, fear, and distrust. Though many believe that expecting the worst protects them from disappointment, in reality it only breeds anxiety and depression, prevents healthy relationships, and discourages effort. Allah reassures the believers: "Indeed, those who have believed... and did righteousness—no fear will there be for them, nor will they grieve." While it is inevitable that we form some interpretation of events, we retain the power to choose which conclusion to dwell upon—one that draws us closer to Allah or one that pushes us away. The example of Mūsā عليه السلام is instructive. Trapped between Pharaoh's army and the sea, his people cried, "We are overtaken for sure," but Mūsā answered, "Absolutely not! My Lord is certainly with me—He will guide me," and the sea was split for him. We find the evidence we search for, so we should search for good. Several misconceptions commonly arise from jumping to conclusions. The first is, "Why is my life so hard? It wasn't supposed to be this way." Yet Allah reminds us, "Do the people think that they will be left to say, 'We believe' and they will not be tried?" Testing is a certainty of this life, and accepting this allows us to shift from asking "why" to asking "now what?" Allah assures us, "Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear," which means we are equipped for whatever we face. The second misconception is, "I must have done something to deserve this pain." This is a form of severe self-criticism, and its antidote is self-compassion. In truth, both ease and hardship are tests and blessings alike. Allah rejects the notion that provision indicates honor and its restriction indicates humiliation, following such a claim with the word kallā—"But no!" Hardships differentiate and elevate us, and their reward is immense: the Prophet ﷺ conveyed that Allah says, "I have no reward except Jannah for a believing slave of Mine who shows patience... when I take away his favorite one." He ﷺ also said that no fatigue, disease, sorrow, or even the prick of a thorn befalls a Muslim except that Allah expiates some of his sins. Such things are not the marks of punishment. The third misconception is, "Allah is capable of anything, so He should have protected me from this." Here we must recall the name al-Ḥakīm, the All-Wise, who acts with perfect knowledge and places all things in their proper time and place. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه would say, "O Allah! You know me more than I know myself." Allah declares, "And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him." Ibn al-Qayyim explained that pure evil does not exist in this world, for every apparent evil carries some good—as sickness harms the body yet evokes patience and resilience. Embracing this requires humility to trust Allah's wisdom even when we cannot perceive it. The fourth misconception is, "Allah doesn't care if I suffer." This too is a form of mind-reading. The Prophet ﷺ conveyed that Allah says, "I am just as My slave thinks I am... if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running." Allah has granted human beings free will, and though He permits evil for a higher wisdom, permitting is not the same as approving. Ibn al-Qayyim clarified that Allah's enabling of a person to act freely is itself justice, mercy, and wisdom, even when the person misuses it. And of Allah's mercy the Prophet ﷺ taught, upon seeing a captive woman embrace her child, "Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this woman is to her child." To win this mental struggle, we should pay attention to our self-talk, focus on observable facts, consider other possibilities, and accept uncertainty by grounding ourselves in the present moment. Ibn al-Qayyim advised directing our attention to "your life in the present—the time between two times." Returning to Ahmed, once he identified his patterns of fortune-telling and mind-reading, he began replacing them with healthier thoughts, resumed exercise, showed kindness to his friends, and reflected on how Allah had shown him love and mercy. As his thoughts toward Allah improved, so did his worship, and as he began to feel deserving of good, he took the initiative to increase the good in his life. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-as-salam-the-source-of-peace # The Meaning of Allah's Name As-Salam: The Source of Peace **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** August 13, 2020 **Updated:** March 1, 2026 ## Introduction > Verily, Peace (*al-Salām*) is among the Names of Allah He has placed on the earth, so spread it between yourselves.[^1] We all gravitate towards peace or what appears to give us tranquility and calm, even without realizing it. Some may do the obvious things, such as walk in a park or by the sea. Some may attempt to seek a state of inner peace through meditative practices or physical activities such as exercise or yoga. Others, however, seek a state of inner peace through prayer and their spiritual connection with God. And others still may gravitate towards destructive behavior in order to forget about or escape the lack of internal peace. While the external practices may vary, in essence, we are all seeking the same thing. Though this is a state that most of us desire to be in, it may be hard to understand what it is exactly (a feeling? a state of mind? a journey?). This is part of the reason we seek peace in so many different ways and may, at times, get disappointed. We may work towards something in order to gain internal peace but once we get it, that peace is fleeting and temporary. True peace can only come from its source. We seek peace because something in our soul recognizes the divine nature of this attribute. As Allah knows us better than we know ourselves and is intimately aware of our needs as our Creator, He tells us that He is *al-Salām*; the Flawless, the Source of Peace. So when we seek peace, we should know exactly where we need to turn. The word ‘flawless’ is important. The reason why the things of this world disturb our peace is precisely because they are not perfect: they contain flaws and defects and blemishes. When we seek peace, we sometimes try to seek that ‘flawlessness’ in what contains many flaws. And so, peace becomes elusive. But Allah, *al-Salām*, shows us where to look and what to seek: He is the Flawless Source of Peace, teaching us where to turn when we are faced with both internal and external stressors in this world, and He guides us to the abode of peace in the next world. Allah tells us: > …And peace (*salām*) will be upon whoever follows the guidance.[^2] --- ## The Meaning of al-Salām ### Al-Salām in the Qur’an and Hadith This name of Allah is mentioned once in the Qur’an, in Sūrat al-Ḥashr: > He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security, Guardian over all, the Mighty, the Supreme, the Possessor of every greatness. Glory be to Allah from what they set up (with Him).[^3] In addition to the hadith mentioned at the start of this article, the Prophet ﷺ affirmed this name when he corrected the companions (ra) who would say, “*Salām* upon Allah.” He said to them, “Allah is *al-Salām*,”[^4] meaning we do not say *salām* upon Allah because He is *al-Salām* and from Him is *salām*. Other than these direct references to His name, the Qur’an and Hadith are replete with references to spreading peace—*salām*—as well as the Home of Peace: Paradise.[^5] Therefore, for all of us seeking to connect to Allah and worship Him by knowing His names, it is important to understand the many dimensions of this beautiful name. ### Flawless Peace The word *salām* comes from the three-letter root *sīn-lām-mīm*, which means to be faultless, safe, and secure.[^6] *Salām* in particular means peace, soundness, safety, and security.[^7] *Salāmah* means to be free from impairment and harm.[^8] What do faultlessness and safety have to do with peace as we understand it? In *Muʿjam al-Ghanī*, it is stated that Allah *al-Salām* is free of any deficiency and defect and, therefore, the one who is with Him experiences tranquility and reassurance.[^9] Indeed, when we feel safe and secure with the Only One who can grant complete safety and security, we feel a sense of internal peace. And Allah is *al-Salām* since He is truly free of all the impairments and defects that affect His creation.[^10] Thus, we can say that *al-Salām* gives rise to the following meanings and implications: 1- Perfection, free from fault: His essence, His attributes, and His actions are all free of any deficiency.[^11] 2- Remembering *al-Salām* and living in His way brings peace, and He gives safety and reassurance from worry and anxiety to everyone who turns to Him.[^12] 3- *Al-Salām* has made His Paradise the true Abode of Peace for His servants, where He greets them with the greeting of peace.[^13] 4- *Al-Salām* wants peace for His servants and in the relationships between them.[^14] --- ## The manifestations of salām ### Allah, the Source of Perfection and Peace Understanding the flawless nature of Allah should strengthen the conviction we feel in our hearts as well as imbue us with a sense of peace. This is because Allah is free from any defect in His essence, His attributes, and His actions.[^15] When we think of Allah’s essence and attributes, we understand that His mercy, His justice, His punishment, His love and all His other names and attributes are perfect, without defect. There are no extremes. This is reassuring when it comes to His names of majesty, such as *al-Qahhār* (the Dominator), for example, because we understand them holistically. Allah is the Dominator, but He dominates based on His justice, wisdom, as well as mercy. But what does it mean that His attributes of beauty are also free of fault? Is that not self-evident, or can beauty also have failings? We can examine a human being’s seemingly positive characteristics that sometimes result in unfairness, to understand Allah’s flawlessness in His names and attributes. For example, in a well-known and horrifying case, a man who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was let off lightly—six months in prison, of which he only served three months. For that man and his family, this leniency from the judge was an act of mercy. Indeed, the judge mentioned one of the reasons for the light sentence was that a harsher sentence would have had a detrimental impact on the perpetrator’s life. But this ‘mercy’ was wholly unjust—and indeed, cruel—to the victim, to other victims of sexual violence, and to the general well-being of society. Allah *as-Salām*’s attributes are far from being tarnished by injustice, extremity, or defect. Regarding justice, Allah tells us in the Qur’an, “Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, \[even\] as much as an atom's weight; while if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward.”[^16] This verse illustrates to us the balance between His justice and His generosity—there is never injustice under Him, while for those who do good, their rewards are multiplied. Moreover, His mercy is the most perfect form of mercy that encompasses those who make mistakes, those who slip up, and those who try and falter; it is not, however, mercy that perpetuates transgressions against others. Human love may be tarnished by the ego or the selfish needs of a person, but His love is free from need or want or personal gain; thus, it is the purest form of love for His people. Indeed, this name shows us how all His names are interrelated; we understand His names *al-Wadūd* (the Most Affectionate), *al-Raḥmān* (the Entirely Merciful), *al-Raḥīm* (the Especially Merciful), *al-Ḥakam* (the Judge), and so on, through this lens of perfection and lack of deficiency. His creation is also flawless and exactly as it should be, and reflecting on the creation of God can only lead us to *al-Salām*, the Flawless. This includes, for example, the way that we as human beings were created—Allah says, “We have certainly created man in the best of stature”[^17]—the natural world around us, the beauty of the skies, and so much more. Just reflecting on a single cell in our body, or the composition of one eye, is enough to demonstrate God’s perfection in His creation. Additionally, there is an abundance of research as well as personal anecdotes on the effects of just being in nature without distractions. People go on nature retreats for that tranquility. The Creator of the natural world that is designed to inherently have this effect on people—and even more so when we reflect upon it—endows this sense of peace through the natural beauty of the world He has created. Indeed, He is *al-Salām*, Whose creation leads to peace and Who is ultimately the source of that peace. His actions are also free from fault. This is a crucial point to understand. When things happen in this world that we do not understand or regard as unfair, we need to remember that Allah is *al-Salām*, and His actions are flawless. We are told in a *ḥadīth qudsī* that Allah says, “O my servants, I have forbidden oppression for myself.”[^18] What might appear to be bad or evil or unjust on the outside has a wisdom that He knows. In Sūrat al-Kahf, we are told of two incidents where ‘bad things happen to good people.’ The people who helped the Prophet Moses عليه السلام and al-Khaḍir had their boat damaged. For people who were poor and relied on their boat for their sustenance, this was no minor incident. Then, an even more devastating thing occurs. Two righteous parents lose their child. One who does not know Allah might ask, “Why? They did not deserve this. They were good people!” But Allah explains through al-Khaḍir that the minor damage to the boat—which can be fixed, even though it causes harm in the short-term—helped to avert the greater calamity of having their boat completely and permanently confiscated by a tyrant king. Similarly, with the parents, the child was going to grow to be a transgressor, which would have caused more pain for the parents, as the impact of their child’s actions would extend to the next life. While the parents went through the most difficult thing any parent can go through, ultimately it saved them from future pain and gave them ultimate bliss and peace in Paradise, where they will be reunited with their child. Allah’s actions are free of any malice, haste, or injustice; on the contrary, all His actions are from His mercy, His wisdom, His justice, and His knowledge of the seen and the unseen. Acceptance does not mean complacency. Indeed, as Muslims, we are commanded to stand for justice as an act of devotion to God. We are told,[^19] \[QRN-5-8\] However, knowing Allah’s perfection and freedom from fault in His actions should help us internally to accept the things that have happened and not get stuck in questions of ‘why’ and ‘if only.’ We can look forward and not backward, focusing on the things that we *can* do, rather than the things that have already happened and cannot be changed. Moreover, knowing that Allah is *al-Salām* also enables us to think well of Allah. Thinking well of Allah is an act of worship of the heart. The Prophet ﷺ told us, “Verily, thinking well about Allah is a part of the excellent worship of Allah.”[^20] Indeed, he ﷺ also said, > How wonderful is the case of a believer! There is good for him in every situation and this applies only to a believer. If something good happens to him, he thanks \[Allah\] and this is good for him. When he faces adversity, he endures it patiently and this too is good for him.[^21] When a calamity befalls us or when we face a difficulty, understanding that God is the Flawless Source of Peace should be enough to know that there are wisdom and benefit decreed in the situation, even if it is not immediately apparent. It also means that we should derive lessons from the matter at hand. Some things may be outside of our control, and this should cause us to turn to Allah sincerely in supplication. Other things may have been caused by our own actions, whether materially or spiritually, and our hearts, while pained initially, should eventually be filled with tranquility knowing that we are meant to learn from the situation, seek forgiveness and help from Allah, and be able to move on. When we understand that everything is purposeful—because it is coming from a source free of defect—this should help us to search for the wisdom in everything and take the lessons that we can. And Allah’s peace—peace for our hearts and minds—is granted in this way. Indeed, when one lives one’s life thinking well of Allah, viewing hardships and difficulties as purposeful, and using them to return to Allah, one can only hope for good from Him after death. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you should court death but only hoping good from Allah.”[^22] ### The Giver of Safety and Peace Since Allah is Flawless, the Source and Giver of Peace, we should turn to Him whenever we feel overburdened with the stresses of this world. [We will not find true safety or peace outside of Him, and whatever gives discomfort to our hearts is a reason for us to go back to Him.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ed/in-hardship-and-in-ease-how-to-rely-on-god) Much of our heartache lies in the disappointment that comes with expecting more from the things of this world than they can realistically give and the uncertainty that accompanies placing our hopes on what is essentially the unstable and temporary nature of this world. If we believe that having a lot of money, for example, will give us ultimate security, we set ourselves up for constant anxiety when we do not have ‘a lot.’ Even if we get what we regard as much, the worry may not disappear because there is always fear of losing what we have, since our hopes of security are placed on that money. If we believe that one person can fulfill all our happiness, we end up burdening that person and potentially failing to take responsibility to change our own shortcomings. No relationship can be truly satisfying because no one person can give the perfection we expect of them—they, too, are human with their own flaws. Recognizing that He is *al-Salām*, the Source and Giver of Peace, reminds us where to seek ultimate peace and safety: in He who will always remain. This enables us to be at peace with people and with things because our expectations are measured. When we understand that security lies with God, wealth becomes a means to us, and not an end. Knowing that money can come and go pushes us to work hard, be grateful for what we have, and at the same time understand that there are things far beyond material wealth. As the Prophet ﷺ taught us: “Whoever among you wakes up secure in his property, healthy in his body, and he has his provisions for the day, it is as if he were given the entire world.”[^23] Our relationship with people can be more at ease as well because we do not burden others with the unrealistic expectation of tending to our every need. We can recognize the good in others and take comfort in that, and also realize that it is natural for people to have shortcomings. Instead of relying on others to make up for our deficiencies or to fill whatever emptiness we feel inside, we can take responsibility and work on ourselves. **The peace we receive is proportionate to that in which we seek peace. When we seek peace in its source—in *al-Salām*—we will find it infinite.** This point is crucial. It means that we *can* utilize the methods of peace that work for us, such as being with friends and family, exercise, a vacation, and so on. God has placed in His creation means of peace and this should lead us to gratitude that He has provided us with them. But it also means that we recognize that these are not *replacements* for the actual source of peace: God Almighty Himself. Nor can they be considered true means of peace if they go against the commandments of God. We cannot substitute prayer with a different form of meditative practice, even if it makes us feel good, for instance, nor can we engage in an illicit relationship outside of marriage because it fills a void in our heart. While we all know that taking a pain reliever does not address the root cause of an illness, and simply suppresses its symptoms, imagine taking cocaine for heart disease. It might make us ecstatic in the moment, such that we forget about our illness, but it will only worsen the disease we already have and indeed will create other problems. Similarly, the Source of Peace would never put the solution in what He has deemed reprehensible. There is no peace in what has been prohibited; simply an illusion and temporary pleasure that, over time, deepens the hollowness in our hearts. We have to realize that the modern world influences us to incline towards quick fixes to fill the void in our hearts that can only be filled by *al-Salām*. We might post something on social media that Allah does *not* like, in order to get likes from people and obtain momentary joy. But the void remains. Ibn al-Qayyim famously stated, > In the heart are disorders that cannot be remedied except by responding to Allah. In it is a desolate feeling that cannot be removed except by intimacy with Him. In it is sadness which will not leave except by happiness with knowing Him and truthfulness in its dealings. In it is anxiety that is not made tranquil except by gathering for His sake and fleeing to Him from His punishment. In it is a fire of regret which cannot be extinguished except by satisfaction with His commands, prohibitions, and decrees, and embracing patience with that until the time he meets Him. In it is a strong desire that will not cease until He is the only One who is sought. In it is a void that cannot be filled except by His love, turning to Him, always remembering Him, and being sincere to Him. Were a person to be given the entire world and everything in it, that would never fill the void.[^24] The treatment and the cure for these disturbances of the soul are all with Allah; but this does not mean we will never feel stressed or even overwhelmed by the trials and tribulations of this life. It does not mean we will not or cannot be sad when faced with loss, anxious when faced with uncertainty, heartbroken when dealing with betrayal, or afraid when confronted with danger. The Prophet ﷺ went through the Year of Sorrow due to the loss of both his beloved wife Khadījah (ra), and his uncle Abū Ṭālib. He wept and was deeply pained when his infant son, Ibrahim, died. Similarly, when Mūsá عليه السلام, to whom Allah spoke directly, was initially told to face Pharoah, he and his brother Hārūn عليه السلام said,  “Our Lord, indeed *we are afraid* that he will hasten \[punishment\] against us or that he will transgress.”[^25] When Mūsá عليه السلام was first confronted with the tricks of the magicians, the Qur’an tells us, “And he *sensed within himself apprehension*, did Mūsá.”[^26] This medley of emotions is part of being human and of being in this world. Having faith in Allah helps, no doubt. The same Mūsá, when he was cornered by Pharaoh and his army, said with full conviction to his followers, who thought there was no escape, “No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me.”[^27] Just like Mūsá عليه السلام, our hearts can become strengthened through our reliance upon and closeness to Allah, and this usually happens over time. However, tests in this life are guaranteed. Part of the reason is so that we do not become too attached to this worldly life, and instead find peace in God and His promise. Allah tells us, “Peace be upon the servants He has chosen,”[^28] “Peace be upon Noah in all the worlds,”[^29] “Peace be upon Abraham,”[^30] “Peace be upon Moses and Aaron,”[^31] “Peace be upon Elias,”[^32] and “Peace be upon the Messengers.”[^33] Allah shows us through the above verses that despite all of the prophets facing hardship and tribulation, His bestowing of peace upon them meant that their hearts were filled with contentment and certainty and that they were safeguarded in the next life. Allah bestowed His peace upon them and granted them the strength to face the tribulations of this world.[^34] And this is not just for the prophets; it is also for those who emulate them. God tells us, “Peace be upon those who follow guidance.”[^35] Another way that *al-Salām* gives peace to His servants is through those very acts of worship that He has prescribed upon us. #### Prayer, the Qur’an, and Peace The prayer—*al-ṣalāh*—as we know it today was decreed during the Prophet’s ﷺ miraculous journey from Makkah to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem to the Heavens. This event took place during one of the most difficult periods of the Prophet’s ﷺ life, after he had just lost his wife and his uncle. It is almost as if to say when we are facing trials and tribulations the best thing that we can do is turn to God in prayer. Indeed, when it was time for the call to prayer to be given, the Prophet ﷺ used to say, “O Bilal, give the call to establish the prayer and comfort us with it.”[^36] It was something that the Prophet ﷺ looked forward to, and something he took comfort and rest in. He ﷺ also said, “The delight of my eyes is in prayer.”[^37] The ritual prayer is our direct communication with God, without barrier. Essentially, in prayer, we leave this world behind and enter into an intimate conversation with Allah. And it behooves us to understand our prayer in order that we can be in a true state of remembrance. During the prayer, in the *tashahhud*, we say, “*Salām* upon you, O Prophet,” “*Salām* upon us,” and “*Salām* upon God’s righteous servants,” invoking God’s peace upon our beloved Prophet ﷺ, ourselves, and all the righteous. This is a moment for pause. We are praying for *salām*—protection, well-being, safety, and care—for our beloved ﷺ, for ourselves, and for every single righteous servant of God—humans, Jinn, and Angels—past and present. This is a supplication, a sincere request we make, which should truly come from the heart. There is something else that we seldom pay attention to when it comes to *salām* upon the Prophet ﷺ. He said, “No one sends me *salām* except that Allah has returned my soul to me so that I can return his *salām*.”[^38] Imagine that when you are supplicating for *salām* upon the beloved ﷺ, he returns that supplication for peace and well-being for you. That in itself is a source of tranquility for everyone who loves Allah and His Messenger. Many people wait to go to Madina to pray in the *Rawḍah*, or ask someone who is going there, to give their *salām* to the Prophet ﷺ in his grave, but we do not realize that we already give *salām* to him— and he returns this *salām*—every day in prayer. We end the prayer by giving *salām* to our right and our left. The intention is to exit the prayer, and give *salām* to the persons sitting on our right and left (when we are praying in congregation) as well as the angels to our right and left.[^39] Finally, after we conclude the prayer, we say, “O Allah, You are Peace and from You is peace. Blessed are You, the Majestic and the Noble.”[^40] The end of prayer is all peace, for ourselves and others, and this should be the effect of prayer upon our hearts. Furthermore, Allah tells Mūsá عليه السلام in the Qur’an, “…establish prayer for My remembrance.”[^41] And what does the remembrance of Allah do? “Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured.”[^42] The whole of prayer is a remembrance that brings assurance to the hearts. If we find it difficult to connect during our prayer, the solution is to never give up on it and find something else to replace it that appears to give us rest. We may not realize it but if we do this, we are essentially replacing the worship of Allah with worship of the self, because we have deemed a ‘feel-good’ activity better than what Allah Himself has prescribed as a healing for our souls. The things of true value in life may require effort, but the end result is truly immeasurable: worldly and otherworldly peace with and through the Source of Peace. [Additionally, part of the secret of the remembrances of the morning and the evening are that they remind us of Allah, of His power, of His being with us and His protection over us, which ultimately gives rest to our hearts.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ed/the-spiritual-psychology-of-worship) Another form of remembrance that *al-Salām* has given is the Qur’an for us to ponder over for guidance. He tells us, > …There has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book through which Allah guides those who pursue His pleasure to the ways of peace (*subul al-salām*), brings them out from darknesses into the light by His permission, and guides them to a straight path.[^43] Allah guides through His Book those who pursue His pleasure to the ways of peace. And this should cause us to ask ourselves how much of the Qur’an we have contemplated and followed, and what the effect of the Qur’an is upon our hearts. These are some of the ways in which God guides us to His peace. Whenever we face any difficulty or stress in this world, our immediate reaction should be to go to the Source who can truly soothe the agitation in our hearts. And even if some difficulties of this word may try us, He has given us something to look forward to. ### Peace and Paradise Through both its beauty and its harshness, this world is designed to turn us to Allah. When the world seems a bit too much for us to bear, Allah reminds us where true eternal peace is to be found. He says, > …We have detailed the verses for a people who remember. For them will be the Home of Peace (*dār al-salām*) with their Lord. And He will be their Protecting Friend because of \[the good\] they used to do.[^44] For those who remember God, and try their best for Him, He has prepared for them the ultimate Home of Peace—Paradise, where there is no sadness nor pain nor grief. Indeed, it is called *Dār al-Salām,* first, because Allah is *al-Salām*, and Paradise is His home.[^45] Moreover, it is the home of peace because whoever enters it is safe—completely and eternally—from misfortunes and calamities.[^46] Furthermore, all of its different parts and stages are coupled with *salām*: it is said in the beginning, “Enter it in peace, safe \[and secure\],”[^47] the angels enter from every door saying “*salām*,”[^48] the people in it only hear words of peace,[^49] and their greeting there is peace.[^50] True and all-encompassing peace can only be found there. In this world, Allah appreciates our struggles. He appreciates our turning to Him, the Source and Giver of Peace, because we are demonstrating our desire to find the solution with Him. And though the hardships of this world might test us, there is something beyond. We are told: > Those will be awarded the Chamber[^51] for what they patiently endured, and they will be received therein with greetings and \[words of\] peace.[^52] Allah tells us in numerous verses that the people of Paradise will be greeted with words of peace.[^53] And we should pause to ask ‘Why peace?’ out of all the things we could be greeted with. We can be granted a measure of internal peace in this world with Allah. But externally, there will be tribulations. In the Abode of Peace, there is true, undisturbed internal and external peace—perfection and flawlessness. Finally, a place where those who dwell in it “will not hear therein ill speech or commission of sin—Only a saying: ‘Peace, peace.’”[^54] Whenever we feel trepidation in our hearts due to the stresses of this world, we should turn to Allah *al-Salām* and ask to be of the people who are with Him in the Abode of *Salām*. --- ## Devotion to al-Salām ### Remember al-Salām Remembrance of Him is one of those things that can give us rest and tranquility. With Him, we can be in a state of stillness and serenity. And remembrance is not just about remembering with the tongue, though that is important. The definition of internal peace is possessing that internal calm despite the stressors around us. Therefore, we need to cultivate a relationship with the Flawless, the Source and Giver of Peace. We do so by understanding His names and the manifestations of His names in our lives, by connecting to Him in our ritual prayers and supplications, by pondering over the Qur’an, and by turning to Him during times of both ease and difficulty. Some of the companions and *tābiʿīn* would, upon seeing the Kaʿbah, say, “O Allah, you are Peace and from You is peace, so grant us life, our Lord, with peace.”[^55] This supplication was not recorded from the Prophet ﷺ, but it was reportedly what some of the companions and *tābiʿīn* themselves said when they saw the Kaʿbah—they remembered Allah by His name *al-Salām*. One can imagine that when they saw the purity and magnificence of the House of God, they could only be in awe of His Flawlessness, their hearts overcome by His Peace and His Security. Indeed, it is *al-Bayt al-Ḥarām*—the Sacred House—and whoever enters it is given safety and security.[^56] Being in that sacred space reminds us truly that peace is from Him, and hence the supplication to allow us to live in a state of peace and security. After understanding this name, what reminds you of *al-Salām*? Is it being in solitude, reflecting upon the beauty that He has created? Is it in the middle of hardship, unexpectedly feeling reassurance from Him? Is it after completing the prayer, being reminded that true tranquility is only with Him? One way to remind ourselves of *al-Salām* daily is by memorizing and truly understanding the aforementioned supplication that the Prophet ﷺ would make after prayer: > O Allah, You are Peace and from You is peace. Blessed are you, the Majestic and the Noble.[^57] The question to ask ourselves here is: When I say these words, am I actually connecting to them? Do I feel a sense of peace with the conclusion of prayer, this direct conversation between me and Allah? And if the answer is no, this does not mean that we should give up and despair. The One who has named Himself *al-Salām* is inviting us to turn to Him for peace, and not to turn away in distress. Our shortcomings in prayer are an opportunity to connect to Allah’s name *al-Salām* by learning how to be truly devoted in our prayers and gain peace and strength through them. And every effort that we put into finding peace through prayer is rewarded in a multitude of ways through *al-Salām* Himself. ### Cultivate peace in your heart Another way to live with this name is to try and cultivate a sound heart. Much of our internal disconcertment and how we behave subsequently is directly correlated with the diseases we allow to seep into and spread in our hearts. Have we ever met a person who is greedy and peaceful? Or hateful and peaceful? These are natural opposites. No one whose heart is overwhelmed by spiritual diseases can be at peace. We have to remember that from the flawlessness of *al-Salām*, and the fact that He is the Giver of peace, all of His commands are also perfect and by their very nature lead to both internal and external peace.[^58] So, when Allah and His Messenger ﷺ tell us to free our hearts of arrogance and envy, for example, it is because that is the path to *salām* and *al-Salām*. He grants peace to those who work on the state of their hearts and those who strive to cleanse their hearts of these flaws. We are told in the Qur’an: > The Day when there will not benefit \[anyone\] wealth or children, but only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart *(qalbin salīm)*.[^59] And what is a sound heart? Many of the Qur’anic exegetes specified that, among other things, it is a heart free of associating anything with Allah. al-Qurṭubī, reviewing the different statements and interpretations of this phrase, stated that it is the heart that is free from blameworthy traits and that is characterized by praiseworthy traits.[^60] Imam al-Ghazālī similarly stated, “Every servant whose heart is free from deceit, hatred, envy and evil intent, and whose limbs are unblemished by sins and forbidden actions, and whose attributes are not affected by inversion and reversal,[^61] will be one who comes to God the Most High with a flawless heart.”[^62] The Prophet ﷺ also emphasized the importance of the state of our hearts. He ﷺ was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, who is the best of people?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “One with a heart swept clean and truthful in speech.” The companion inquired further about “a heart swept clean.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “One that is mindful of Allah and pure, in which there is no sin, nor aggression, nor envy.”[^63] There are numerous sayings of the Prophet ﷺ instructing us to cleanse our hearts of various diseases, such as ostentation,[^64] arrogance,[^65] rancor,[^66] envy,[^67] greed,[^68] miserliness, bad character,[^69] and heedlessness.[^70] Part of attaining internal peace is to reflect upon the state of our hearts to know to what degree we have these diseases and work on freeing our hearts from them.[^71] Moreover, the Qur’an describes to us someone who had such a heart: “…Ibrāhīm, when he came to his Lord with a sound heart.”[^72] It is almost like Allah is telling us that if we want to achieve this sound heart, we need to look to the story and character of the Prophet Ibrāhīm عليه السلام. What we find is that his heart was completely free of anything other than Allah. When his father threatened to stone him for calling to God’s way, he said, “Peace be on you, I will pray to my Lord to forgive you; surely He is ever Affectionate to me.”[^73] When he was catapulted into a raging fire, he was in a state of complete calm and trust. As Ibn ʿAbbās narrates, his last words were, “Sufficient is Allah for me, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs.”[^74] Another equally important way to purify our hearts is through seeking forgiveness. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > Verily, when the servant commits a sin, a black mark appears upon his heart. If he abandons the sin, seeks forgiveness, and repents, then his heart will be polished. If he returns to the sin, the blackness will be increased until it overcomes his heart. It is the covering that Allah has mentioned \[in the *ayah*\]:[^75] No, rather a covering is over their hearts from what they have earned.[^76] The steps described in this hadith are important for anyone who is serious about becoming close to God and attaining peace. Sin and disobedience to Allah naturally affect the state of our hearts. The effect need not be permanent because when we stop the sin, ask forgiveness from Allah, and pledge to never return to it, the negative effect will vanish; not only will it vanish, we can become even better than we ever were before. The link with seeking forgiveness is important. The Prophet ﷺ taught us, > Whoever increases his prayers for forgiveness, Allah will grant him relief from every worry, a way out from every hardship, and provide for him in ways he does not expect.[^77] Why would seeking forgiveness have this effect? We need to remember that seeking forgiveness does not simply mean uttering the words “*astaghfirullāh*” (I seek forgiveness from Allah) or “*Rabbī ighfir lī*” (My Lord, forgive me). Truly seeking forgiveness means we are reflecting upon our actions and our hearts, identifying our mistakes and sins, and then seeking forgiveness. At a spiritual level, Allah is guaranteeing that a person who does this will be granted relief. At the material level, because it is easy to get stuck on a problem or a difficulty, the reflection that leads to seeking forgiveness enables us to get ‘unstuck’ because we are focusing on what we have control over—our actions. We take responsibility for our mistake, seek forgiveness from Allah, try to do better and move on. ### Spread peace and keep people safe from harm [The Prophet ﷺ instructed us to spread peace.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ed/is-islam-a-conquest-ideology-on-jihad-war-peace) Famously, the first thing the Prophet ﷺ said to the people of Madīnah was, “O people, spread peace, feed the hungry, and pray at night when people are sleeping and you will enter Paradise in peace.”[^78] He ﷺ also said, “Spread peace and you will receive peace.”[^79] Indeed, one of the ways to be guaranteed forgiveness is to spread peace, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, among the deeds that must result in forgiveness are offering peace and good words.”[^80] As Muslims, our greeting to each other is one of peace. When one says “*al-salām ʿalaykum*” or “Peace be upon you,” part of the meaning is that you are praying for the person to be protected from every harm, such as physical and mental illness, the evil acts of people, from sin and spiritual diseases, and the hellfire.[^81] Moreover, it is also a declaration to the person you are greeting that you will not harm them; i.e., you are guaranteeing them safety from you and peace.[^82] Furthermore, because *al-Salām* is one of the names of Allah, this greeting has another meaning: we are saying, “I place you in the security of God’s name *al-Salām*.”[^83] Since we are with *al-Salām* and we are the servants of *al-Salām*, then we are at peace with others, and this peace comes from God Himself. Indeed, this is directly related to the Prophet’s ﷺ statement that, “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe (*man* *salima al-nās min yadihi wa lisānihi*).”[^84] When you truly submit to *al-Salām*, you become a conduit for peace and safety. This point is related to the previous one regarding purifying our hearts of various diseases. We cannot truly keep people safe from our harm and be in a relationship of peace with them if we are prisoners of our lower selves.[^85] In this sense, well-being and peace in society are dependent upon our individual efforts to purify our hearts.[^86] ### Strive for excellence As servants of *al-Salām*, the Flawless, we should strive for excellence in all our deeds and ‘flawlessness’ to the degree that is humanly possible. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When one of you does something, Allah loves that you do it with proficiency.”[^87] We should strive for excellence and for good because we are servants of the Perfect One, and realize that all and any good comes from Him. --- ## Conclusion We are all affected by internal and external stressors and it can feel overwhelming at times. While there are things of this world that we can do in order to mitigate these stressors, Allah teaches us that He is *al-Salām*—the Flawless, the Source and Giver of Safety and Peace. *Salām* means to be free from any fault or deficiency, to be safe, and peaceful. These are all interconnected, as true peace and safety can only be found in the One who is free of all flaws. When we feel overwhelmed by the tribulations and stresses of this world, *al-Salām* leads us to Him and to true peace by giving us the tools we need: understanding the nature of His names and attributes, how to deal with hardships through knowing Him, finding peace through prayer, remembrance of Him, and the Qur’an. He reminds us that the true Home of Peace is Paradise, which He has prepared for His righteous servants, who will be greeted there with words of peace. One of the ways of being true servants of *al-Salām* and true Muslims is to cleanse our hearts of defects and diseases—thus, achieving a heart that is sound or *salīm*—and spreading peace to others. The Muslim is the one who is in a state of *salām*, and greets others with *salām*, hoping to meet *al-Salām*, in the Home of *Salām*.[^88] Indeed, this is what awaits the righteous:[^89] \[QRN-36-55-58\] Eternal, unadulterated, pure peace, from The Flawless, The Source of Peace Himself. --- ## Notes [^1]: Collected by al-Bukhārī in *al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 989, declared authentic by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīh* a*l-jāmiʿ*, no. 1638. [^2]: Qur’an 20:47. [^3]: Qur’an 59:23. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 831. [^5]: Qur’an 6:126–27. [^6]: Hans Wehr, *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic* (New York: Spoken Language Services, 1976), 442. [^7]: Wehr, 443. [^8]: Aḥmad ibn Fāris al-Rāzī, *Maqāyīs al-lughah* (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1979), 3:90. [^9]: Abdel-Ghanī Abu al-‘Azm, *Mu’jam al-Ghanī al-zāhir*, entry no. 14932. [^10]: Ibn Fāris, *Maqāyīs al-Lughah,* 3:90. [^11]: ʿUmar Sulaymān al-Ashqar, *Sharḥ Ibn al-Qayyim li-asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná* (Amman: Dār al-Nafāʾis, 2008), 54–58. [^12]: Ṣafwān Maḥmūd Ḥanūf, *al-Ism al-Rabbānī wa atharuhū fī al-sulūk al-insānī*, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 2004), 89; Salmān al-ʿAwdah, *In the Company of God: Closeness to Allah through the Beauty of His Names and Attributes*, 2nd ed. (n.p: Islam Today, 2011), 40. [^13]: ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Badr, *Fiqh al-asmāʾ al-ḥusná*, 3rd ed. (Riyadh: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1441 AH), 233. [^14]: Ḥanūf, *al-Ism al-Rabbānī*, 90. [^15]: al-Ashqar, *Sharḥ Ibn al-Qayyim li-asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná*, 56. [^16]: Qur’an 4:40. [^17]: Qur’an 95:4. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2577. [^19]: Qur’an 5:8. [^20]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3970. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2999. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* no. 2877, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/53/98](https://sunnah.com/muslim/53/98). [^23]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2346. [^24]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayn manāzil iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn*, trans. Justin Parrott (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-’Arabī, 1996), 3:156, [https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/08/28/ibn-qayyim-void-heart/](https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/08/28/ibn-qayyim-void-heart/). [^25]: Qur’an 20:45. [^26]: Qur’an 20:67. [^27]: Qur’an 26:62. [^28]: Qur’an 27:59. [^29]: Qur’an 37:79. [^30]: Qur’an 37:109. [^31]: Qur’an 37:120. [^32]: Qur’an 37:130. [^33]: Qur’an 37:181. [^34]: al-ʿAwdah, *In the Company of God*, 40. [^35]: Qur’an 21:47. [^36]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4986 and graded authentic by al-Albānī. [^37]: *Sunan al-Nasā’ī*, no. 3939 and graded authentic by Ibn al-Qayyim in *Zād al-Maʿād* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1994), 1:45. [^38]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd,* no. 2041 and graded fair by al-Albānī. [^39]: The companions would make hand gestures when saying the *salām* at the end of prayer, so the Prophet ﷺ corrected them and said, “One should place one’s hand on one’s thigh and then pronounce salutation upon one's brother on the right side and then on the left*.*” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 431. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 592. [^41]: Qur’an 20:14. [^42]: Qur’an 13:28. [^43]: Qur’an 5:15–16. [^44]: Qur’an 6:126–27. [^45]: al-Husayn ibn Masʿūd al-Baghawī, *Maʿālim al-Tafsīr (Tafsīr al-Baghawī)*, accessed July 17, 2020, [http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/baghawy/sura6-aya127.html](http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/baghawy/sura6-aya127.html). [^46]: al-Baghawi. [^47]: Qur’an 15:46. [^48]: Qur’an 13:23–24. [^49]: Qur’an 56:26. [^50]: Qur’an 10:10. [^51]: An elevated station from the stations of Paradise, or the highest chamber in Paradise. [^52]: Qur’an 25:75. [^53]: Qur’an 10:10, 14:23, 33:44, 39:73, 56:90–91. [^54]: Qur’an 56:25–26. [^55]: It was reported in different narrations that ʿUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb would say this, as well as the *tābiʿī* Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib. See: Ibn Abī Shaybah, *al-Kitāb al-muṣannaf fī al-aḥādīth wa-al-āthār* (*Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*), nos. 18787, 18789. [^56]: Allah says in the Qur’an, “And \[mention\] when We made the House a place of return for the people and \[a place of\] security.” Qur’an 2:125. [^57]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 592. [^58]: On the concepts of war and peace in Islam, see: Justin Parrott, “​Jihad in Islam: Just-War Theory in the Qur’an and Sunnah,” *Yaqeen*, May 15, 2020, particularly p. 17 for the relationship with Allah’s name *al-Salām*. [^59]: Qur’an 26:88–89. [^60]: al-Qurtubi, *Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī: al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2006), 16:44. [^61]: In this context, al-Ghazālī explains that “inversion of attributes” means that one’s reason is subjugated to his passion and anger, instead of the other way around. [^62]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: Al-Maqṣad al-Asná Fī Sharḥ Asmā’ Allāh al-Ḥusná*, trans. David Burrell and Nazih Daher, The Ghazali Series (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992), 61. [^63]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, no. 4216, [https://sunnah.com/urn/1343550](https://sunnah.com/urn/1343550), graded authentic by al-ʿIrāqī in *Takhrīj al-iḥyāʾ* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2006), 1575, and al-Albānī. [^64]: The Prophet ﷺ said that what he feared most for his *ummah* was “hidden idolatry, that a man stands for prayer and beautifies his prayer when he sees another man looking at him.” *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4204. [^65]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “No one who has the weight of a seed of arrogance in his heart will enter Paradise.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 91. [^66]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “If you are able every morning and evening to remove any rancor from your heart towards anyone, do so.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2678. [^67]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Faith and envy are never combined in the heart of a servant.” *Sunan al-Nasaʾī*, no. 3109. [^68]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Greed and faith are never combined in the heart of a servant.” *Sunan al-Nasaʾī*, no. 3110. [^69]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Two qualities are never combined in a believer: miserliness and bad character.” *Sunan at-Tirmidhī*, no. 1962. [^70]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not speak too much without remembering Allah. Verily, too much talking without remembering Allah hardens the heart.” *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2411. [^71]: A good book in this regard is: Hamza Yusuf, *Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart*, 5th ed. (Chicago: Starlatch, 2004). [^72]: Qur’an 37:83–84. [^73]: Qur’an 19:47. [^74]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4564. [^75]: Qur’an 83:14. [^76]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*,  no. 3334, graded fair by al-Albānī. [^77]: *Sunan Abū Dāwūd*, no. 1518; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3819; al-Ḥākim, *al-Mustadrak* (Cairo: Dār al-Taʾṣīl, 2014), 7:479, who graded it authentic, though there is some dispute among the scholars of hadith about its authenticity. [^78]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2485. [^79]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 18509; al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, no. 787, [https://sunnah.com/adab/33/34](https://sunnah.com/adab/33/34), and graded fair by al-Albānī. [^80]: *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, no. 17950, and graded fair by al-Iraqi, *Takhrīj al-iḥyāʾ* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Hazm, 2006), 656. [^81]: Maḥmūd al-Maṣrī, *Laylah fī bayt al-nabī* (n.p: KTAB, 2011), 514. [^82]: Ṣafwān ibn Aḥmad al-Azdī, *al-Imām al-Nawawī wa-manhajuhu fī asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná min khilāl sharḥihi li-Ṣaḥīh Muslim* (Alexandria: Dar al-Eman, 2005), 224. [^83]: Joe Bradford, “Praise, Glory, and Peace, Prayer as the Path to Knowing Allah: Finding Greater Meaning,” accessed June 28, 2020,  [https://www.subscribepage.com/prayerpath](https://www.subscribepage.com/prayerpath). [^84]: *Sunan al-Nasaʾī*, no. 4998. [^85]: al-Ghazālī, *Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God*, 62. [^86]: Ḥanūf, *al-Ism al-Rabbānī*, 90. [^87]: al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, 24:306; graded fair by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ*, no. 1880. [^88]: Bradford, *Praise, Glory, and Peace*. [^89]: Qur’an 36:55–58. ## Summary Verily, among the beautiful Names of Allah is *al-Salām*—the Flawless, the Source of Peace—and it is by understanding this Name that the servant learns where to turn amidst the burdens of this world. Every soul, whether it realizes it or not, gravitates towards peace: some through the natural world, some through prayer and spiritual connection, and others, tragically, through destructive behavior that only deepens their emptiness. Yet however varied these pursuits, all are in truth seeking one and the same thing. The difficulty is that peace remains elusive when sought in the wrong place, for the things of this world disturb our tranquility precisely because they are imperfect, containing flaws and defects. Allah, who knows us better than we know ourselves, has revealed that He is *al-Salām*, and thus He directs us to the true Source. As He says, "…And peace (*salām*) will be upon whoever follows the guidance." This Name appears once in the Qur'an, in *Sūrat al-Ḥashr*: "He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security…" The Prophet ﷺ affirmed this Name when he corrected the companions who would say "*Salām* upon Allah," teaching them, "Allah is *al-Salām*," meaning that peace is not invoked upon Him, for He is Himself Peace and from Him is all peace. Linguistically, *salām* derives from the root *sīn-lām-mīm*, denoting faultlessness, safety, and security. As stated in *Muʿjam al-Ghanī*, Allah *al-Salām* is free of any deficiency and defect, and therefore the one who is with Him experiences tranquility and reassurance. From this Name flow several meanings: that Allah is perfect and free from fault in His essence, attributes, and actions; that remembering Him and living by His way brings peace and reassurance; that He has made Paradise the true Abode of Peace; and that He desires peace for His servants and in their relationships. The flawlessness of Allah pertains firstly to His essence and attributes, all of which are perfect and without extremes. His mercy, justice, love, and even His Names of majesty such as *al-Qahhār* (the Dominator) are understood holistically, for His dominance is coupled with justice, wisdom, and mercy. His attributes of beauty are likewise free of any defect. Consider how human qualities that seem positive can produce injustice: in one troubling case, a man who assaulted an unconscious woman received a lenient sentence out of "mercy" for the perpetrator—a mercy that was in reality a cruelty to the victim and to society. Allah's attributes are never so tarnished. He declares, "Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, [even] as much as an atom's weight; while if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward," showing the balance of His justice and generosity. His mercy encompasses those who err yet never perpetuates transgression, and His love, unlike human love, is free of ego, need, or self-interest. Through this lens of perfection we come to understand His Names *al-Wadūd*, *al-Raḥmān*, *al-Raḥīm*, and *al-Ḥakam*, and how they are interrelated. His creation, too, is flawless and exactly as it should be. Allah says, "We have certainly created man in the best of stature," and reflection upon the human body, the eye, the skies, and the tranquility people find in nature all point back to *al-Salām*, whose creation gives rise to peace. His actions are likewise free from fault, and this is crucial when we encounter what appears unjust. In the *ḥadīth qudsī*, Allah says, "O my servants, I have forbidden oppression for myself." The story of Mūsá عليه السلام and al-Khaḍir in *Sūrat al-Kahf* illustrates this: the damaging of the poor men's boat averted its seizure by a tyrant king, and the loss of the child saved the righteous parents from future grief and ultimately brought them bliss in Paradise. Thus, all His actions arise from mercy, wisdom, justice, and knowledge of the unseen. This acceptance, however, is not complacency, for Muslims are commanded to stand for justice as an act of devotion. Knowing Allah's flawlessness enables us to think well of Him, which the Prophet ﷺ described as "part of the excellent worship of Allah," and to recognize, as he ﷺ taught, that the believer's affair is wholly good—gratitude in ease and patience in hardship. Since Allah is the Source of Peace, we must turn to Him amidst the world's stresses, for true safety is found in Him alone. Much heartache springs from expecting more from this world than it can give—whether from wealth, which breeds anxiety, or from a person burdened with impossible expectations. Recognizing Him as *al-Salām* measures our expectations rightly; wealth becomes a means, and relationships grow easier. As the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever among you wakes up secure in his property, healthy in his body, and he has his provisions for the day, it is as if he were given the entire world." Permissible means of peace—family, exercise, rest—are gifts to be grateful for, but they can never replace the Source, nor can peace ever be sought in what Allah has prohibited, for such things offer only illusion and deepen the hollowness within. Ibn al-Qayyim beautifully described the disorders of the heart that cannot be cured except by responding to Allah, intimacy with Him, and His love, concluding that were a person given the entire world, it would never fill the void. This does not mean the believer is spared sorrow. The Prophet ﷺ endured the Year of Sorrow and wept at the death of his son Ibrahim; Mūsá and Hārūn عليهما السلام expressed fear before Pharaoh, and Mūsá "sensed within himself apprehension." Yet faith strengthens the heart, as when Mūsá declared, "No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me." Allah bestowed His peace upon the prophets—Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsá, Hārūn, Ilyās, and the Messengers—and also upon "those who follow guidance." Among the greatest means of this peace is prayer, decreed during the Night Journey in one of the Prophet's ﷺ hardest periods. He ﷺ said, "O Bilal… comfort us with it," and "The delight of my eyes is in prayer." In the *tashahhud* we invoke *salām* upon the Prophet ﷺ, ourselves, and the righteous, and he ﷺ said that Allah returns his soul so he may answer the *salām* of each one who greets him. We conclude the prayer greeting those beside us and the angels, then say, "O Allah, You are Peace and from You is peace." Allah commanded, "…establish prayer for My remembrance," and "by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." Likewise the Qur'an guides "to the ways of peace (*subul al-salām*)." Ultimately, *al-Salām* directs us to the eternal Home of Peace, *Dār al-Salām*—Paradise—so named because it is His home and because whoever enters is forever safe from all calamity. Its people are greeted, "Enter it in peace," the angels enter upon them with *salām*, and they hear only, "Peace, peace." Those who patiently endured "will be received therein with greetings and [words of] peace." To live by this Name, we must remember Him constantly, cultivate a sound heart (*qalbin salīm*)—which al-Qurṭubī described as free of blameworthy traits and adorned with praiseworthy ones, and al-Ghazālī as free of deceit, hatred, and envy—following the example of Ibrāhīm عليه السلام, who met his Lord with such a heart and answered even his threatening father with peace. We purify our hearts through seeking forgiveness, for sin marks the heart until repentance polishes it, and the Prophet ﷺ promised relief and provision to whoever increases in seeking forgiveness. We are further commanded to spread peace—"Spread peace and you will receive peace"—for the greeting of *salām* is a prayer for another's protection, a pledge of safety, and a placing of them in the security of Allah's Name. As the Prophet ﷺ said, "The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe." Finally, as servants of the Flawless, we strive for excellence, for "Allah loves that you do it with proficiency." Thus the Muslim lives in *salām*, greets with *salām*, purifies the heart for *salām*, hoping to meet *al-Salām* in *Dār al-Salām*—eternal, pure peace from the Source of Peace Himself. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/being-black-and-muslim-in-america # Being Black and Muslim in America: A Study on Identity and Well-Being **Authors:** Dr. Osman Umarji, Dr. Husain Lateef **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** August 6, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 To download the Racial and Muslim Identity Survey dataset, click [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/data/datasets/racial-and-muslim-identity-survey). --- ## Introduction The first Muslims in America were Black. Brought from the western and central coast of Africa, enslaved Black Muslims account for more than a third of the ancestors of Black Americans.[^1] Today, Black Muslims still account for the largest racial group of Muslims in America, constituting more than a fifth of all Muslim Americans.[^2] However, racial ideology, which has played a substantial role in the American sociocultural and political landscape, has continuously disadvantaged Black American communities and individuals in ways not experienced by other ethnic minority populations.[^3] The enduring legacy of racialized oppression faced by Black Americans has translated into an unavoidable concern for racial identity among this population. Black Americans, including Muslims, are raced, like it or not.[^4] As the systematic oppression of Black people in America continues, and as people of conscience continue to shed light on the innumerable acts of injustice they face, understanding what it *means* to be Black and Muslim is of utmost importance to the broader American Muslim community as a whole.[^5] This research study is an empirical investigation into the identity and well-being of Black Muslims in America. --- ## Black Muslim Lives Matter Black Muslims have been an integral part of the Islamic legacy. From the time of the Prophet ﷺ until today, Black Muslims have played an important role in the *ummah*. As racism existed at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, he frequently placed Black Muslims in important positions due to their virtues and to systematically empower them. He appointed Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ as the *muaʾdhdhin* of the *masjid* in Medina, Usāmah ibn Zayd as the commander of an army as a teenager, and proclaimed that Umm Ayman (Barakah bint Thaʿlabah) was like a mother to him after his birth mother. His love for Black companions was special as his adopted son and second mother were both Black. They gave birth to Usāmah ibn Zayd, who was known as “the beloved, son of the beloved,” due to the Prophet’s love for them. It was said that no child’s birth was as joyful to the community than the birth of Usāmah. The environment created by the Prophet ﷺ allowed young Black Muslims to have numerous role models they could identify with and “possible selves” that they could aspire to emulate.[^6] A young boy could dream of being the next Bilāl, Zayd, or ʿUbādah, and a young girl could dream of being like Umm Ayman. Their blackness was not an impediment to success. The racial climate that the Prophet ﷺ created allowed for healthy identity development, where a companion could be proud to be Black and witness Blacks being honored in society. Black and Muslim identity could blend together in harmony, where one could cherish their racial background and their faith. Although racism still existed, as the infamous incident between Bilāl and Abū Dharr attests, it had been substantially reduced.[^7] The following generations saw the rise of many Black scholars and leaders throughout the Islamic empire.[^8] In recent Muslim American history, the most respected and influential personalities include Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali (may Allah have mercy on their blessed souls). They are role models for everyone, especially for Blacks and Muslims in America. They championed the importance of having a strong Black and Muslim identity. Malcolm X said, “One of the things that made the Black Muslim movement grow was its emphasis upon things African. This was the secret to the growth of the Black Muslim movement. African blood, African origin, African culture, African ties. And you’d be surprised—we discovered that deep within the subconscious of the black man in this country, he is still more African than he is American.”[^9] Similarly, Muhammad Ali proudly proclaimed, “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me—black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”[^10] Both of these giants illustrated how Black identity and Muslim identity could be fused together in the most beautiful manner, even when facing huge obstacles and blatant discrimination from the racist society they lived in. --- ## Black Muslim American identity The Black Muslim American identity is inseparable from the extant literature on being Black and American. W. E. B. Du Bois, in his seminal sociological masterpiece, *The Souls of Black Folk*, highlights the psychological challenges of being Black and American. He eloquently writes, > It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.[^11] For the Black Muslim American, a “triple consciousness” may exist, where one may ever feel their threeness—an American, a Black, a Muslim.[^12] The Black American Muslim identity is therefore incredibly complex and includes a racial and religious dimension.[^13] It has been suggested that African American Muslims have inherited a “triple heritage” consisting of (1) *Westernization*, (2) *re-Africanization*, and (3) *re-Islamization*.[^14] Racial identity refers to the significance that people place on race in defining their self-concept. Self-concept is a person’s belief about who and what they are.  Research on Black identity has identified multiple dimensions of racial identity, including racial salience, centrality, private regard, and public regard.[^15] The Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI) has synthesized numerous psychological theories of identity to capture the complexities of Black identity. Racial salience refers to how much a person's race is a relevant part of their self-concept at a particular moment in time. It may be considered state-like, where one’s racial identity is activated when made salient. Racial centrality refers to how much a person normatively defines themself with regard to race; it is a measure of whether race is a core part of an individual's self-concept.[^16] Racial regard refers to a person's affective and evaluative judgment of their race and may be further broken down into private regard and public regard. Private regard refers to how much an individual feels positively or negatively towards their race in general and as a member of that race. Private regard is thus similar to the idea of belonging to one’s race and having racial pride. Public regard refers to how much an individual feels that other people view their race positively or negatively. Public regard may be especially important, as Du Bois highlighted “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others.” Similar to racial identity, religious identity may be conceptualized by the dimensions of salience, centrality, and regard. From a religious perspective, Islam should be salient in the life of a believer, central to who they are as a person, and they should be proud of their faith. This dimension of religious pride is mentioned in the verse, “And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah, does righteous deeds, and says, ‘Indeed, I am of the Muslims.’”[^17] Unfortunately, as Islamophobia has been on the rise, religious public regard is also a fundamental concern to the well-being of Muslims. This may be an additional challenge for Black Muslims who also have to cope with low racial public regard. Theories of identity posit that the importance of a particular identity (e.g., racial and religious) within a person’s self-concept should be accompanied by behaviors that are associated with that identity.[^18] Racial and religious centrality and regard are expected to influence psychological functioning and behavior. For example, those who believe Islam is a core part of their self-concept and who are proud to be Muslim are likely to engage in more religious behavior than those who do not consider Islam central to their self-concept. Many studies have investigated the relations between identity and discrimination and how they relate to mental health and self-esteem. --- ## Identity, discrimination, and mental health Racial discrimination is a pervasive phenomenon in society. The majority of Americans (56%) believe being Black hurts people’s ability to get ahead, and 59% believe being White helps people’s ability to get ahead.[^19] 60% or more of Black adults report encountering racial discrimination in their lives.[^20] Although these statistics are incredibly disturbing, the consequences of discrimination are much more alarming. Racial discrimination, whether it be blatant or subtle, negatively affects mental health and well-being.[^21] Furthermore, discrimination not only prevents the pursuit of opportunities, but also has the potential to decrease motivation in educational, professional, and religious settings.[^22] For Black Muslims, the consequences of discrimination are doubly concerning. As members of two marginalized groups, they are discriminated against from every angle imaginable. Whereas immigrant Muslims have witnessed increases in discrimination since September 11th, 2001, Black Muslims have been systematically targeted due to the color of their skin since they were forcefully brought to America hundreds of years ago (and stripped of their culture, language, and religion), in addition to dealing with additional discrimination due to their faith. The rise in Islamophobia and discrimination has had many deleterious effects on Muslims in the past decade, including decreased self-esteem and increased psychological distress.[^23] If we consider the seriousness of the trauma induced by the various types of discrimination against Muslims in just the past decade, one can only imagine the impact of trauma and centuries-long discrimination on the well-being, physical health, and life outcomes of Black Muslims in America. Cultural resources, such as racial identity, religious support, and religious coping, relate to experiences of discrimination and psychological well-being. Substantial research has investigated the role of religiosity and its impact on the psychological health and well-being of Black Americans. Beyond merely identifying with one’s faith, religiosity may be better understood as adherence to prescribed practices associated with the worship of God.[^24] For Black Americans, acknowledgment of the ultimate sacredness of God may be reflected in one’s *commitment* to attending organized faith communities, scriptural reading, ritual practices (e.g., *Ṣalāh*), and outreach activities.[^25] Black Americans who regularly attend religious services report fewer work, family, and financial stressors.[^26] Collectively, these studies demonstrate that religiosity among Black Americans is inversely related to psychological distress—that is, as religiosity increases, psychological distress decreases.[^27] Overall, people with more cultural resources report having better mental health.[^28] However, some cultural resources (e.g., stronger racial identity) have also been found to relate to increased sensitivity to experiencing discrimination, which in turn causes psychological distress.[^29] Therefore, the relation between identity and psychological functioning is complex. In studies of Black Americans, believing that others held negative attitudes towards Blacks (i.e., low public regard) was related to perceiving more discrimination but these same beliefs buffered against the impact of discrimination on mental health. Black Americans have had to deal with abusive tactics and barbaric policies from the first day of their arrival in this country until today. From slavery to Jim Crow laws,[^30] from COINTELPRO[^31] to the school-to-prison pipeline (SPP),[^32] from the destruction of Black Wall Street[^33] to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment,\[34\] this country has turned a blind eye to the plight of the most oppressed.\[35\] One consequence of this systemic racism\[36\] is that many Black Americans, as a coping mechanism, have internalized the need to work harder than non-Black Americans in order to succeed. This psychological process has been coined “John Henryism.”[^37] However, coping through exerting more effort to overcome racial discrimination has been linked with various negative outcomes, including burnout and hopelessness.[^38] Although human beings can be incredibly resilient and overcome challenges when faced with acute discrimination, exposure to chronic discrimination exacerbates stress and its negative consequences. Believing that one has to work harder than others to succeed is psychologically devastating. Feeling agentic, believing that one’s behavior can influence outcomes, is a fundamental motivator. As Alberta Bandura said, “Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Whatever other factors serve as guides and motivators, they are rooted in the core belief that one has the power to effect changes by one’s actions.”[^39] Therefore, it is of utmost concern that environmental conditions allow people to feel agentic. In order to feel agentic, people must feel both a sense of personal efficacy and believe that their behavior will lead to certain outcomes.[^40] Attitudes regarding uncertainty influence both self-perceptions and mental health.[^41] Therefore, as Black Muslims face racism and discrimination in nearly every environment, their attitudes regarding uncertainty likely influence their well-being, as uncertainty intolerance causes worry and stress.[^42] Self-esteem is another important aspect of psychological well-being. Global self-esteem refers to a person's positive or negative attitude toward themself as a totality.[^43] Private racial regard can be considered similar to racial self-esteem, which should positively relate to one’s global self-esteem.[^44] Public racial regard may also relate to self-esteem, but only if a person values the opinions of others regarding their race and believes the opinions of others apply to them. Therefore, low public racial regard may not necessarily translate to low self-esteem. However, although low public regard may not directly influence self-esteem, low public regard may negatively affect mental health, which in turn may relate to self-esteem.[^45] --- ## The present study Research on Black Muslims is vital to understanding Islam in America. More research is needed to understand Black Muslim identity and how it relates to well-being. The present study seeks to expand on our understanding of these issues. In this study, we specifically want to understand racial and religious identity in Black Muslims and how these identities relate to their mental health and self-esteem. In order to investigate these questions, we utilize data from a national study of Muslims administered by Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. The two broad research questions we seek to answer are the following: 1) What clusters of Black and Muslim centrality and public regard co-occur as part of the identity of Black Muslims in America? How do these clusters relate to self-esteem and mental health? 2) How do racial and religious factors relate to Black Muslim mental health and self-esteem? More specifically, to what extent do racial centrality, racial public regard, Islamic resources, Black resources, perceptions of discrimination, and uncertainty beliefs relate to mental health and self-esteem? --- ## Method The data utilized in this study comes from the Racial and Muslim Identity Survey (RMIS). RMIS is a cross-sectional study of Muslims in America administered by Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research in June 2020. Muslims were sampled using email and social media. The total sample included 1880 American Muslims. The sample was approximately 10% White (*n*\=183), 26% Black (*n*\=499), 33% South Asian (Pakistani/Indian; *n=*620), and 14% Arab (*n*\=258). 55% of the sample was born in the US and 75% reported that at least one parent was born outside of the US. Approximately 27% reported having less than a college degree, 36% reported having a bachelor's degree, and 36% reported having a Master’s degree or higher. The sample was 72% female and 28% male. 80% reported praying five times a day. Our study focuses on the 499 Black Muslims. 65% of the Black Muslims in our sample held college degrees, with 33% holding bachelor’s degrees, 25% Master’s degrees, and 7% doctoral or professional degrees. 45% reported making less than $60,000 a year in household income, 28% reported making between $60,000-$99,000, and 27% reported making over $100,00. 71% of the sample was female. --- ## Measures ### Predictors **Racial centrality**. Two items from the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI)[^46] were used to measure racial centrality (α=.92). See Appendix A for a list of all items used in the study. **Racial public regard.** Two items from the MIBI were used to measure racial public regard (α=.81). **Racial private regard**. Two items from the MIBI were used to measure racial private regard (α=.82). **Muslim centrality.** The same two items used to measure racial centrality were adapted to measure religious centrality (α=.88). **Muslim public regard.** The same two items used to measure racial public regard were adapted to measure Muslim public regard (α=.76). **Perceived job discrimination.** One item measured perceptions of job discrimination. Respondents were asked, “How much do you think that racial discrimination might keep you from getting the job you want?” **Uncertainty Intolerance.** Two items from the intolerance of uncertainty scale were used to measure uncertainty intolerance (α=.80).[^47] **Black Resources.** Three constructs were used to create a latent measure of Black resources. Respondents were asked (1) how much they know about famous Black American personalities, (2) how much they know about Black American socio-political-historical issues, and (3) how regularly they studied Black history. A separate score was given for self-reported knowledge of Black American personalities and issues, whereas a single item asked respondents, “How often do you study the traditions or history of your racial background” We felt these three components captured various types of race-related resources that one could draw from. **Religiosity.** Four items were used to create a measure of reported religiosity (α=.67). Respondents were asked about their level of religiosity, intimate relationship with Allah, how often they read the Qur’an, and how much they knew about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. ### Outcome variables **John Henryism.** One item measured John Henryism. Respondents were asked, “How much do you believe, because of your race, that you will always have to work harder than others to prove yourself?” **Mental health.** Three items were used to capture a latent measure of mental health over the past month. Respondents were asked about their anxiety, ability to focus, and well-being (α=.77). Higher scores indicated worse mental health. **Self-esteem.** One item was used to measure global self-esteem. Respondents were asked, “When you think about yourself, how do you feel?” --- ## Analytic approach To answer our first research question (RQ1) about Black Muslim identity, we used cluster analyses to understand the holistic pattern of identity-related beliefs that people had about being Black and Muslim.[^48] To answer our second research question (RQ2) about Black Muslim mental health and self-esteem, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the data. SEM allows for simultaneously estimating the direct and indirect effects of multiple predictors and outcomes. This method allowed us to see the interdependencies amongst predictors in order to explain the relations between constructs of interest. SEM provides advantages over regression analysis by allowing for simultaneously testing multiple relationships amongst variables. Figure 1 depicts the hypothesized model of the predictors of mental health and self-esteem.[^49] ![Figure 1: Theorized Model of Black Muslim Mental Health and Self-Esteem](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image7-1-1024x964.jpg) --- ## Results The Black Muslims in our study generally reported high levels of Black and Muslim centrality. 73% reported being Black as very or extremely important to their self-image, and 84% reported being Muslim as very or extremely important to their self-image. In contrast, levels of Black and Muslim public regard were incredibly low. Less than half a percent (0.4%) felt that society respected Blacks quite a bit or a lot. Slightly over one percent (1.1%) felt that society respected Muslims quite a bit or a lot. In addition to high levels of identification with Islam, 83% reported praying five times a day, 33% reported reading the Qur’an daily, 79% considered their relationship with Allah to be quite or very intimate, and 50% reported knowing quite a bit or a lot about Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. 66% were born in the US and 43% were converts to Islam. See Table 1 and 2 in Appendix A for descriptive statistics and correlations. ### Profiles of Black Muslim identity The results of the cluster analysis revealed five profiles of Black and Muslim identities.[^50] See Figure 2 for a visual depiction of the profiles. Being Muslim was central to every identity profile, whereas Black centrality differed between profiles. The first profile was characterized by medium Black centrality, high Muslim centrality, medium Black public regard, and medium Muslim public regard. We labeled this group *Muslim more central than Black/medium regard* (*n*\=78, 16.5%). The second profile, *Muslim more central than Black/low regard*  (*n*\=111, 23.5%), was similar to the first, but had substantially lower perceptions of Black and Muslim public regard. The third profile, *Dual centrality*/*medium regard* (*n*\=130, 27.5%), exhibited high levels of both Black and Muslim centrality and medium levels of Black and Muslim public regard. The fourth profile, *Muslim central only/medium regard* (*n*\=40, 8.5%), had the fewest people and was characterized by low Black centrality, high Muslim centrality, and medium regard. The fifth cluster, *Dual centrality*/*low regard* (*n*\=114, 24%) was similar to the third cluster, except that public regard was substantially lower. ![Figure 2: Profiles of Black Muslim identity](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image6-1-1024x677.jpg) We investigated how these identity profiles related to mental health and self-esteem. Although the overall ANOVA was not significant (*p* > 0.05), we performed pairwise means to see how the profiles differed. Profiles with low regard (*Muslim more central than Black/low regard* (2) and *Dual centrality*/*low regard* (5) had significantly worse mental health than the other profiles. Thus, any differences in mental health between identity profiles were primarily related to perceiving others as not valuing Blacks and Muslims in society. As for self-esteem differences, the *Dual centrality*/*medium regard* profile (3) was associated with higher self-esteem than the *Muslim more central than Black/medium regard* (3) and *Muslim more central than Black/low regard* (2) profiles. In general, profiles with high Black and Muslim centrality (profiles 3 and 5) had higher self-esteem than profiles with only high Muslim centrality (profiles 1 and 2). The exception to the overall findings was the *Muslim central only/medium regard* profile. People in this profile reported significantly lower levels of perceived job discrimination than the other profiles.[^51] ### Predictors of mental health and self-esteem Before presenting the results of our empirical model predicting Black Muslim mental health and self-esteem, we want to briefly share how Black Muslims differed from non-Black Muslims on key constructs of interest to better situate our results. Black Muslims had higher levels of perceived job discrimination, John Henryism, and self-esteem, whereas there were no significant differences in mental health between them and non-Black Muslims (Figure 3).[^52] We will explain our results in a piecemeal fashion, starting with the predictors of John Henryism (i.e., the internalized belief of needing to work harder than non-Black Americans to succeed), followed by the predictors of mental health, and concluding with the predictors of self-esteem. See Figure 4 for a visual summary and Table 3 in Appendix A for the full results of the structural equation model.[^53] ![Figure 3: Difference between Black Muslims and Non-Black Muslims](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image4-2-1024x725.jpg) ![Figure 4: Black Muslim Mental Health and Self Esteem](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1-1-1024x1024.jpg) John Henryism was predicted by racial public regard (*B*\=-.22), perceived job discrimination (*B*\=.45), uncertainty intolerance (*B*\=.11), and Black resources (*B*\=.14).[^54] An increase in perceiving society as valuing and respecting Blacks was related to a decrease in believing one would have to work harder because of their race. An increase in anticipating job discrimination due to one’s race was related to an increase in believing one would have to work harder because of their race. An increase in Black resources, which included knowledge of famous Black American personalities, historical issues, and studying Black traditions and history was also associated with increased John Henryism. The largest predictor of John Henryism was perceived job discrimination, which had an effect nearly three times greater than any other predictor. Mental health was predicted by John Henryism (*B*\=.16), uncertainty intolerance  (*B*\=.38), being female (*B*\=.17), gratitude (*B*\=.-.13), and religiosity (*B*\=-.21). In other words, increases in John Henryism, uncertainty intolerance, and being female were associated with worse mental health. Increases in gratitude and religiosity were associated with better mental health. Racial public regard did not predict mental health directly. Rather, it had an indirect effect on mental health by increasing John Henryism, which was related to worse mental health.[^55] Self-esteem was predicted by mental health (*B*\=-.37), racial private regard (*B*\=.15), gratitude (*B*\=.12), and religiosity (*B*\=.16) Higher levels of racial private regard, gratitude, and religiosity were associated with higher self-esteem, whereas poor mental health was the biggest predictor of lower self-esteem. --- ## Discussion The present study sheds light on the religious and racial identities of Black American Muslims. Drawing from prominent theories of Black identity, we find that Black American Muslims differ in how they incorporate race and Islam into their identities. In addition to having to deal with negative appraisals of others regarding their religion, Black Muslims have to additionally deal with negative appraisals of others regarding their race. This “triple consciousness” with which Black Muslims have to navigate life has an effect on their well-being. The following two quotes from two of our participants capture the complexity and challenges that many Black Muslims in America face. > I'm a Black, immigrant, Muslim woman. The intersections in my identity make it impossible for me to ever rest. I'm always worried about some form of my identity and I feel a duty to always help. > > Being a black Muslim can sometimes be a confusing feeling. Both demographics are very often disliked and have countless negative stereotypes associated with them. I've experienced racism from other Muslims and I've experienced Islamophobia. Below, we provide a discussion of some of the key findings and how they relate to prior work centered around Black identity, religiosity, and discrimination. We conclude with implications for future research and Muslim communities. ### Religiosity is a protective factor for Black Muslims A key finding of our study is that religiosity plays a major role in navigating racial discrimination and improving overall well-being. This finding aligns with prior research over the past five decades that has  examined the role of religiosity in the lives of Black Americans.[^56] Far from superfluous, religiosity plays a key component in the mental health of Black Americans, including Black Muslims. We found that intimacy with Allah, knowledge of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and frequent engagement with the Qur’an were related to better mental health and higher self-esteem. The Qur’an states, “Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured.”[^57] Thus, through engaging with the Qur’an and connecting to Allah, Muslims are able to find peace of mind despite the challenges they face. The life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ exemplifies this as during his most difficult experiences with religious discrimination and being subjected to abuse, he would find solace with the revelation and through intimate conversation with Allah. This confirms the general finding that Black Americans who habitually engage in their religious practices have been found to be more prepared and better able to endure and cope with mundane and also extraordinary events of adversity.[^58] As previously noted in this paper, racial discrimination is a common experience for Black Americans of all ages.[^59] Evidence supports that religiosity in this population plays a significant buffering role against the detrimental mental health outcomes brought on by daily and historical racial oppression.[^60] In a study that may partially help explain why, Black men who engaged in more religious coping were found to forgive race-related transgressions at higher rates.[^61] Our findings on religiosity and self-esteem are also supported by prior literature that has found religiosity among Black Americans positively impacts their self-concept and therefore self-esteem. Black American adults who reported higher scores of salient everyday religious practices have been found to report higher levels of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and perceived self-control than those who were lower in daily religious adherence.[^62] Indeed, Black American culture is deeply ingrained with belief in God and religious practice. Faith has been referenced as “how we got over”—a statement derived from the rich religious traditions of *Negro Spirituals* within Black American culture.[^63] Moreover, progress for Black Americans historically has always been connected to a belief in a divine sanction to fight for social and racial justice.[^64] ### Ambiguous racial discrimination may play a central role in Black Muslim mental health outcomes Racial identity beliefs play an important role in promoting resiliency against racialized discrimination.[^65] Centrality, public regard, and private regard operate in meaningfully different ways in Black mental health and self-esteem. High private regard was found to predict higher self-esteem. Similarly, profiles with higher Black and Muslim centrality reported higher self-esteem. This indicates that positive attitudes towards Blacks are associated with higher self-esteem, even when considering the impact of discrimination and low public regard.[^66] Thus,  private regard seems to function as a means of preventing the internalization of other people’s negative appraisals about one’s race. Low public regard, holding perceptions that others do not view Blacks in a positive way, was found to influence mental health and self-esteem in different ways. Low public regard was not directly related to either outcome, but seemed to indirectly relate to both. The structural equation model found that public regard influenced John Henryism, which then related to mental health. Thus, low public regard appears to have a trickle-down effect on increased psychological distress. The results of the profiles support this, as any differences in mental health between identity profiles were found to relate to public regard beliefs. Racial public regard did not appear related to self-esteem, suggesting that Black Muslims are not internalizing the negative appraisals of others into their self-esteem. The relationship between public regard and discrimination is quite nuanced. Although Black Americans with low public regard beliefs are less bothered by experiences of racial discrimination than those with high regard,[^67] Black Americans with low public regard display protective factors against *blatant* forms of racial discrimination but are *more vulnerable to ambiguous conditions* of racial discrimination.[^68] Hoggard and colleagues propose that ambiguous conditions of racial discrimination (e.g., subtle interpersonal mistreatment) may not provide Blacks with low public regard with sufficient cues and thus may cause them to become “caught off guard” and therefore less prepared to cope with the experience.[^69] Taking the results altogether, we found that Black Muslims with low public regard had worse mental health. There are several possible explanations for this. It is possible that Black Muslims with low public regard and who have higher levels of psychological distress are experiencing high levels of *ambiguous forms of discrimination* inside and outside of the Muslim community. Given that most of our sample reported extremely high levels of Muslim centrality, it is plausible that a meaningful portion of discrimination is in fact occurring in Muslim community spaces. The quote shared at the beginning of the discussion lends some support to this hypothesis. Future research should investigate this further. ### Impact of economic discrimination on Black Muslims Among the many detrimental impacts of structural racism in the lives of Black Americans is its impact on Black economic mobility.[^70] Our findings suggest that a primary cause for John Henryism among Black Muslims is anticipating job discrimination. The idea of never being able to rest is what John Henryism is at its core. Our empirical results indeed show that Black Muslims have substantially higher rates of perceiving job discrimination and John Henryism, both of which are damaging both psychologically and physiologically. Numerous studies have shown how John Henryism takes a toll on cardiovascular and mental health. The pressure of having to work harder than others due to anticipating discrimination literally increases blood pressure.[^71] Our findings also align with a large body of research examining the role of economic inequality facing the Black American community. The causal factors of economic inequality are strongly linked to an enduring legacy of chattel slavery, lynching, racial terrorism, Jim crow racism, and state and federally sponsored institutional discriminations.[^72] Consequently, Black Americans experience the highest levels of wealth inequality, second only to Indigenous Americans. As of 2016, the typical middle-class Black household had $13,024 in wealth versus $149,703 for the median White household. In other words, you would have to combine the net worth of 11.5 Black households to get the net worth of a typical White U.S. household.[^73] The difference also demonstrates that no progress has been made in reducing income and wealth inequalities between the majority of White and Black households since the 1970s after the passage of major federal policies addressing equality.[^74] A common assumption is that wealth gaps are primarily due to a lack of education among Blacks, yet data continue to show the opposite. In our sample, the difference in education between Blacks and non-Blacks was minimal but differences in wealth were substantial.[^75] Despite stereotypes, Black Americans have an enduring legacy of pursuing higher education.[^76] Moreover, even when comparing equal educational backgrounds, Black American women working full-time make only 61 cents for each dollar made by White American men, and 19 cents less than White American women.[^77] The Samuel Du Bois Cook Center on Social Equity emphatically states, > Blacks cannot close the racial wealth gap by changing their individual behavior—i.e., by assuming more “personal responsibility” or acquiring the portfolio management insights associated with “financially literacy”—if the structural sources of racial inequality remain unchanged. There are no actions that Black Americans can take unilaterally that will have much of an effect on reducing the racial wealth gap. For the gap to be closed, America must undergo a vast social transformation produced by the adoption of bold national policies, policies that will forge a way forward by addressing, finally, the long-standing consequences of slavery, the Jim Crow years that followed, and ongoing racism and discrimination that exist in our society today.[^78] Our results also confirm what decades of research have found. Black Americans are primarily concerned not whether other groups like them, but their potential to express self-determination in their own lives. ### Black women are disproportionately impacted Malcolm X in 1965 said that Black women are the most disrespected persons in America—the same rings true in 2020. Our findings that being female, among a sample of Black Muslims, is predictive of increased mental distress also aligns with a large body of literature about the experiences of discrimination and oppression faced by Black women in America. Black women are more likely than any other group to experience domestic violence by an intimate partner, regardless of income, and the least likely to benefit economically from their educational qualifications.[^79] In Muslim communities, where the majority congregation is not Black, Black women commonly report that non-Black Muslims do not speak to them or stand close to them in the prayer lines.[^80] Black American Muslim women thus have an expansive range of discrimination experiences compounded by being Black, Muslim, female, and ethnically, Black American. Our study adds to understanding multidimensional contributors to the discrimination experienced by Black Muslim with gender as a significant factor. As a community, we are far from the days where a Black woman of African ancestry could be praised like Umm Ayman was for being a motherly figure to the Prophet or like Umm Zafar, a Black woman, of whom the Prophet said to the companions, “Would you like me to show you a woman from the people of paradise?”[^81] Instead, we are living in a time where Black women are seen at *best*, the *least* of us. Efforts must be taken to (1) better understand the experiences of Black women in the Muslim community and (2) to assist our communities in assuring that Black women, in addition to all women of all backgrounds, are being provided their due rights of honor and supported as members of the Muslim community. --- ## Implications for Muslim communities We believe the results of this study have implications for the Muslim community. First, it is a religious imperative to empathize and understand the plight of the *ummah*, of which Black Muslims constitute the largest group in America. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”[^82] Black Muslims in this country face more discrimination than any other group and our findings confirm that their perceptions of discrimination affect their lives in various ways. Thus, all Muslims in America need to be aware of Black American history, as well as present realities, in order to understand the challenges and trauma that our brothers and sisters have to deal with, as well as the assets and strengths that Black Muslims have to offer. Therefore, non-Black *masjid*s and Islamic organizations must invest in educating their communities in order to motivate the collective Muslim American *ummah* to care about and fight for the rights of the oppressed and benefit from their knowledge.[^83] This form of education should not be limited to an annual program during Black History Month but through continuous respect for Black perspectives, knowledge, and experiences.[^84] Furthermore, through incorporating Black educational programming in non-Black communities,[^85] Black Muslims will feel an increased sense of relatedness and belonging to the community.[^86] Additionally, such efforts will support the development of healthy Black and Muslim identities that should promote better mental health and self-esteem. The Muslim community must also explore ways to reduce feelings of John Henryism and discrimination within our religious spaces.[^87] Increasing Black Muslim representation in important community roles is an essential step to reducing John Henryism and discrimination. Just as the Prophet ﷺ had the foresight and wisdom to place Black companions in numerous positions of leadership, increasing the number of Black Muslims in positions of power is likely to have numerous positive outcomes. The community as a whole stands to benefit from the wealth of knowledge that Black Muslims have about America and Islam. ### The struggle for social justice must be championed with an Islamic ritualistic foundation An important takeaway from our study is the importance of maintaining a healthy Black and religious identity along with a strong foundation of religious practices. The Muslim community can learn from the Black American community, which less than 150 years post slavery, was able to establish institutes of higher learning across the southeast (i.e., Historically Black Colleges and Universities). These institutions continue to produce leaders in all disciplines, and their achievements include spearheading the civil rights movement.[^88] At the core of those movements and achievements has been a firm grounding in religiosity, which historically assisted Black Americans to achieve what previously seemed impossible.[^89] Therefore, we believe it is essential for all Muslims in America to support institutions where Black Muslims can develop a sound understanding of their race and religion. The ability to maintain a strong religious commitment in the pursuit of success is vital, as striving for success outside of a divine epistemology is perhaps no more than striving to run into a “burning house,” as Dr. Martin Luther King explained. Ignoring Islam leads to a situation where the potential for success is slim and the end of oppression unknown, given the current treatment of persons who are not only Black but also Muslim.[^90] For Muslims, our epistemologies must be grounded in the book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. --- ## Conclusion The present study is one of the first to empirically investigate Black Muslim identity and well-being in a large sample of American Muslims. Understanding the racial and religious identities and lived experiences of Black Muslims is critically important in understanding the Muslim American community*.* The Prophet said, “None of you will have \[complete\] faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”[^91] Every Muslim wishes for good mental health and for a discrimination-free life. If one wants this for themselves, they should want it for their Black Muslim brothers and sisters. It is important to note that this study relied on correlational data and therefore the relations between constructs do not constitute evidence of strong causality. Rather, our results support and contribute to a vast body of prior literature and provide evidence that race plays a key component in well-being. We encourage researchers and community-based organizations to engage in more research on the largest and most marginalized community of Muslims in America. We hope that these research endeavors lead to investments and interventions that support the healthy development of Black Muslims and the general Muslim community. --- ## Appendix A Survey Questions Used in the Study Asked on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 **Racial/Religious Centrality** 1. How important is being Black/Muslim a part of your self-image? 2. How important is being Black/Muslim a reflection of who you are? **Racial/Religious Private Regard** 1. How good do you feel about Black people? 2. How happy are you to be Black? **Racial/Religious Public Regard** 1. How much does society view Blacks/Muslims people as valuable contributors? 2. In general, how much do others respect Black/Muslim people? **Perceived Work Discrimination** 1. How much do you think racial discrimination might keep you from getting the job you want? **John Henryism** 1. How much do you believe, because of your race, that you will always have to work harder than others to prove yourself? **Uncertainty Intolerance** 1. My mind can’t be relaxed if I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. 2. Uncertainty makes me uneasy, anxious, or stressed. **Religiosity** 1. How intimate do you consider your relationship with Allah? 2. How much do you know about Prophet Muhammad? 3. How religious do you consider yourself? 4. How often do you read the Qur’an? **Black Resources** 1. How often do you study the traditions or history of your racial background? 2. Knowledge of Black American Issues (Asked on a Likert scale of 1 to 4) How much do you know about: - Prison Industrial Complex - COINTEL PRO - School-to-Prison Pipeline - Black Wall Street - Nation of Islam - Tuskegee syphilis experiment - Jim Crow laws 3\. Knowledge of Black American Personalities (Asked on a Likert scale of 1 to 4) How much do you know about: - Malcolm X - Marcus Garvey - H. Rap Brown (Jamil Al-Amin) - Warrithuddin Muhammad   - Martin Luther King - Rosa Parks ### Tables ![Descriptive Statistics for Study Variables](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image3-1024x856.jpg) ![Correlations of Study Variables](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image2-1024x535.jpg) ![Full Results of the Structural Equation Model](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image5-823x1024.jpg) --- ## Notes [^1]: Sylviane A. Diouf, *Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas* (New York: NYU Press, 2013). [^2]: Basheer Mohamed and Jeff Diamant, “Black Muslims Account for a Fifth of All U.S. Muslims, and About Half Are Converts to Islam,” Pew Research Center, January 17, 2019, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/black-muslims-account-for-a-fifth-of-all-u-s-muslims-and-about-half-are-converts-to-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/black-muslims-account-for-a-fifth-of-all-u-s-muslims-and-about-half-are-converts-to-islam/&sa=D&ust=1596733081622000&usg=AOvVaw0bTARM3L1KeWfyUxo-LEEq). [^3]: Kevin Cokley, Brittany Hall-Clark, and Dana Hicks, “Ethnic Minority-Majority Status and Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Perceived Discrimination,” *Journal of Mental Health Counseling* 33, no. 3 (2011): 243–63. [^4]: Robert M. Sellers, Mia A. Smith, J. Nicole Shelton, Stephanie A. J. Rowley, and Tabbye M. Chavous, “Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity: A Reconceptualization of African American Racial Identity,” *Personality and Social Psychology Review* 2, no. 1 (1998): 18–39. [^5]: For a broad overview of the subject, see Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). [^6]: Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, “Possible Selves,” *American Psychologist* 41, no. 9 (1986): 954. [^7]: A powerful example of the change in beliefs was when the companions traveled to Egypt and the ruler of Egypt mocked them for being led by ʿUbādah ibn Ṣāmit, a Black companion. They responded to his racist comments saying, “Even though he is black, as you can see, he is the best in status among us. . . . Blackness is not something bad among us.” Details of the encounter can be found here: Omar Suleiman, “When the Sahaba Met a Racist King | Virtual Khutbah,” YouTube, June 5, 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiWMVOjkoLk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiWMVOjkoLk). [^8]: This subject is beyond the scope of this paper. It has been well-documented that many of the centers of learning in the Islamic empire were led by freed slaves of color. For example, ʿAtāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, a Black scholar, was the intellectual leader of Mecca. [^9]: Quoted in William Safire, ed., *Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History* (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1997). [^10]: Charles C. Haynes, “‘I Am America,’” Freedom Forum Institute, June 8, 2016, [https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/2016/06/08/i-am-america/](https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/2016/06/08/i-am-america/). [^11]: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, *The Souls of Black Folk* (London: Oxford University Press, 2008). [^12]: Many scholars since the civil rights era have theorized that oppression is intersectional. Race, class, gender, religion, and other aspects of identity may overlap in discrimination. [^13]: Nisa Muhammad, “Black and Muslim: How Chaplains Can Empower Marginalized Students,” *Yaqeen*, February 22, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nisa-muhammad/black-and-muslim-how-chaplains-can-empower-marginalized-students/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nisa-muhammad/black-and-muslim-how-chaplains-can-empower-marginalized-students/). [^14]: Yusuf Nuruddin, “African-American Muslims and the Question of Identity: Between Traditional Islam, African Heritage, and the American Way,” in *Muslims on the Americanization Path*, ed. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and John L. Esposito (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 215–62. [^15]: Sellers et al., “Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity,” 18–39. [^16]: Sellers et al., 18–39. [^17]: Qur’an 41:33. [^18]: Sheldon Stryker and Peter J. Burke, “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory,” *Social Psychology Quarterly* 63, no. 4 (2000): 284–97; Osman Umarji, “Will My Children Be Muslim? The Development of Religious Identity in Young People,” *Yaqeen*, January 16, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/will-my-children-be-muslim-the-development-of-religious-identity-in-young-people/#ftnt12](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/will-my-children-be-muslim-the-development-of-religious-identity-in-young-people/#ftnt12). [^19]: Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Anna Brown, and Kiana Cox, “Race in America 2019,” *Pew Research Center*, April 9, 2019, [https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/](https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/). [^20]: Ronald C. Kessler, Kristin D. Mickelson, and David R. Williams, “The Prevalence, Distribution, and Mental Health Correlates of Perceived Discrimination in the United States,” *Journal of Health and Social Behavior* 40, no. 3 (1999): 208–30. [^21]: Tony N. Brown, David R. Williams, James S. Jackson, Harold W. Neighbors, Myriam Torres, Sherrill L. Sellers, and Kendrick T. Brown, “‘Being Black and Feeling Blue’: The Mental Health Consequences of Racial Discrimination,” *Race and Society* 2, no. 2 (2000): 117–31; Kessler, Mickelson, and Williams, “Perceived Discrimination,” 208–30; Racial discrimination was associated with lower levels of psychological functioning as measured by perceived stress, depressive symptomatology, and psychological well-being. [^22]: Edna C. Alfaro, Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Melinda A. Gonzales-Backen, Mayra Y. Bámaca, and Katharine H. Zeiders, “Latino Adolescents’ Academic Success: The Role of Discrimination, Academic Motivation, and Gender,” *Journal of Adolescence* 32, no. 4 (2009): 941–62. [^23]: Sawssan R. Ahmed, Maryam Kia-Keating, and Katherine H. Tsai, “A Structural Model of Racial Discrimination, Acculturative Stress, and Cultural Resources among Arab American Adolescents,” *American Journal of Community Psychology* 48, no. 3–4 (2011): 181–92; Bonnie Moradi and Nadia Talal Hasan, “Arab American Persons’ Reported Experiences of Discrimination and Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Personal Control,” *Journal of Counseling Psychology* 51, no. 4 (2004): 418. [^24]: Jacqueline S. Mattis and Carolyn R. Watson, “Religion and Spirituality,” in *Handbook of African American Psychology*, ed. Helen A. Neville, Brendesha M. Tynes, and Shawn O. Utsey (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009), 91–102. [^25]: Mattis and Watson, 91–102. [^26]: Christopher G. Ellison, Jason D. Boardman, David R. Williams, and James S. Jackson, “Religious Involvement, Stress, and Mental Health: Findings from the 1995 Detroit Area Study,” *Social Forces* 80, no. 1 (2001): 215–49. [^27]: Jeffrey S. Levin and Robert Joseph Taylor, “Panel Analyses of Religious Involvement and Well-Being in African Americans: Contemporaneous vs. Longitudinal Effects,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 37, no. 4 (1998): 695–709; Ellison, Boardman, Williams, and Jackson, “Religious Involvement, Stress, and Mental Health,” 215–49; Sung Joon Jang and Byron R. Johnson, “Explaining Religious Effects on Distress among African Americans,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 43, no. 2 (2004): 239–60. [^28]: Ahmed, Kia-Keating, and Tsai, “Structural Model of Racial Discrimination,” 181–92. [^29]: Nyla R. Branscombe, Michael T. Schmitt, and Richard D. Harvey, “Perceiving Pervasive Discrimination among African Americans: Implications for Group Identification and Well-Being,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 77, no. 1 (1999): 135. [^30]: “Jim Crow Era,” A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States, Georgetown Law Library, [https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4172697](https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4172697). [^31]: Nadine Frederique, *Encyclopaedia Britannica Online*, s.v. “COINTELPRO,” [https://www.britannica.com/topic/COINTELPRO](https://www.britannica.com/topic/COINTELPRO). [^32]: Libby Nelson and Dara Lind, “The School to Prison Pipeline, Explained,” Justice Policy Institute, February 24, 2015, [http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/8775](http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/8775). [^33]: Kimberly Fain, “The Devastation of Black Wall Street,” JSTOR Daily, July 5, 2017, [https://daily.jstor.org/the-devastation-of-black-wall-street/](https://daily.jstor.org/the-devastation-of-black-wall-street/). [^34]: Elizabeth Nix, “Tuskegee Experiment: The Infamous Syphilis Study,” History, May 16, 2017, updated July 29, 2019, [https://www.history.com/news/the-infamous-40-year-tuskegee-study](https://www.history.com/news/the-infamous-40-year-tuskegee-study). [^35]: Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, “Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity,” Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019, [https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472910/systematic-inequality-economic-opportunity/](https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472910/systematic-inequality-economic-opportunity/). [^36]: Husain Lateef, “Insights for Muslim American Youth Development,” *Yaqeen*, February 25, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/husain-lateef/insights-for-muslim-american-youth-development/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/husain-lateef/insights-for-muslim-american-youth-development/). [^37]: According to legend, John Henry's skill as a steel driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered rock drilling machine. He won the race by working nonstop, only to die in victory with a hammer in hand as his heart gave out from stress; Sherman A James, “John Henryism and the Health of African-Americans,” *Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry* 18 (1994): 163–82. [^38]: Mary O. Odafe, Temilola K. Salami, and Rheeda L. Walker, “Race-Related Stress and Hopelessness in Community-Based African American Adults: Moderating Role of Social Support,” *Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology* 23, no. 4 (2017): 561. [^39]: Albert Bandura, “Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change,” *Psychological Review* 84, no. 2 (1977): 191. [^40]: Bandura, 191. [^41]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/). [^42]: Michel J. Dugas, Andrea Schwartz, and Kylie Francis, “Brief Report: Intolerance of Uncertainty, Worry, and Depression,” *Cognitive Therapy and Researc*h 28, no. 6 (2004): 835–42. [^43]: Morris Rosenberg, Carmi Schooler, Carrie Schoenbach, and Florence Rosenberg, “Global Self-Esteem and Specific Self-Esteem: Different Concepts, Different Outcomes,” *American Sociological Review* (1995): 141–56. [^44]: Stephanie J. Rowley, Robert M. Sellers, Tabbye M. Chavous, and Mia A. Smith, “The Relationship between Racial Identity and Self-Esteem in African American College and High School Students,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 74, no. 3 (1998): 715. [^45]: Monique Bolognini, Bernard Plancherel, Walter Bettschart, and Olivier Halfon, “Self-Esteem and Mental Health in Early Adolescence: Development and Gender Differences,” *Journal of Adolescence* 19, no. 3 (1996): 233–45. [^46]: Robert M. Sellers, Stephanie A. J. Rowley, Tabbye M. Chavous, J. Nicole Shelton, and Mia A. Smith, “Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity: A Preliminary Investigation of Reliability and Construct Validity,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 73, no. 4 (1997): 805. [^47]: Kristine Buhr and Michael J. Dugas, “The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale: Psychometric Properties of the English Version,” *Behaviour Research and Therapy* 40, no. 8 (2002): 931–45. [^48]: We first ran a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm (Ward’s method) to determine the best cluster solution. K-means clustering was subsequently performed to fine-tune cluster homogeneity by reassigning cases to the optimal cluster. [^49]: Ovals represent latent variables that have been modeled using factor analysis. Rectangles are observed variables. [^50]: The five-cluster solution explained 57% of the variance. [^51]: The average perceived job discrimination for the *Muslim central only/medium regard* profile was 2.52 compared to 3.39 for all other groups (out of five). This difference of .88 was statistically significant (*t* \= 4.1, *p* < 0.001). [^52]: Differences in perceived job discrimination, John Henryism, and self-esteem were statistically significant across the five profiles. T-tests were used to measure statistically significant differences (p < 0.001). Mental health was not significantly different across profiles. [^53]: Stata 15 was used to run the model. The model was estimated using full-information maximum-likelihood estimation (FIML). The model fit the data well. χ2 (101) = 231.98, RMSEA =.051, CFI =.93. [^54]: Standardized betas (*B*) are interpreted as follows: a one standard deviation increase in Black centrality was associated with a .12 standard deviation increase in John Henryism, while controlling for all other variables in the model (i.e., holding the value of other variables at the average \[mean\] level). All significant coefficients meet the threshold of *p* < 0.05. [^55]: Black public regard had a statistically significant indirect effect on mental health. John Henryism fully mediated its effect on mental health. [^56]: Edward Franklin Frazier and C. Eric Lincoln, *The Negro Church in America* (New York: Schocken Books, 1974); Benjamin E. Mays, “The American Negro and the Christian Religion,” *Journal of Negro Education* (1939): 530–38. [^57]: Qur’an 13:28. [^58]: Jacqueline S. Mattis, N'jeri Mitchell, Nyasha A. Grayman, Alix Zapata, Robert Joseph Taylor, Linda M. Chatters, and Harold W. Neighbors, “Uses of Ministerial Support by African Americans: A Focus Group Study,” *American Journal of Orthopsychiatry* 77, no. 2 (2007): 249–58; Harold W. Neighbors, James S. Jackson, Phillip J. Bowman, and Gerald Gurin, “Stress, Coping, and Black Mental Health: Preliminary Findings from a National Study,” *Prevention in Human Services* 2, no. 3 (1983): 5–29. [^59]: We investigated differences in perceptions of job discrimination and John Henryism as a function of age and did not find any differences. [^60]: Alex Bierman, “Does Religion Buffer the Effects of Discrimination on Mental Health? Differing Effects by Race,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 45, no. 4 (2006): 551–65. [^61]: Wizdom Powell Hammond, Kira Hudson Banks, and Jacqueline S. Mattis, “Masculinity Ideology and Forgiveness of Racial Discrimination among African American Men: Direct and Interactive Relationships,” *Sex Roles* 55, nos. 9–10 (2006): 679–92. [^62]: Bruce Blaine and Jennifer Crocker, “Religiousness, Race, and Psychological Well-Being: Exploring Social Psychological Mediators,” *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin* 21, no. 10 (1995): 1031–41. [^63]: Jack L. Daniel and Geneva Smitherman, “How I Got Over: Communication Dynamics in the Black Community,” *Quarterly Journal of Speech* 62, no. 1 (1976): 26–39; James H. Cone, *The Spirituals and the Blues* (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991). [^64]: Albert J. Raboteau, *Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans* (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). [^65]: Carol A. Wong, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and Arnold Sameroff, “The Influence of Ethnic Discrimination and Ethnic Identification on African American Adolescents’ School and Socioemotional Adjustment,” *Journal of Personality* 71, no. 6 (2003): 1197–232; David H. Chae, Karen D. Lincoln, and James S. Jackson, “Discrimination, Attribution, and Racial Group Identification: Implications for Psychological Distress among Black Americans in the National Survey of American Life (2001–2003),” *American Journal of Orthopsychiatry* 81, no. 4 (2011): 498. [^66]: Rowley et al., “Racial Identity and Self-Esteem,” 715; Camara Phyllis Jones, “Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale,” *American Journal of Public Health* 90, no. 8 (2000): 1212. [^67]: Robert M. Sellers and J. Nicole Shelton, “The Role of Racial Identity in Perceived Racial Discrimination,” *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* 84, no. 5 (2003): 1079. [^68]: Lori S. Hoggard, Shawn C. T. Jones, and Robert M. Sellers, “Racial Cues and Racial Identity: Implications for How African Americans Experience and Respond to Racial Discrimination,” *Journal of Black Psychology* 43, no. 4 (2017): 409–32. [^69]: Hoggard, Jones, and Sellers, 409–32. [^70]: Vicki A. Bogan and William Darity Jr., “Culture and Entrepreneurship? African American and Immigrant Self-Employment in the United States,” *Journal of Socio-Economics* 37, no. 5 (2008): 1999–2019; John Sibley Butler, *Entrepreneurship and Self-Help among Black Americans: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics* (New York: SUNY Press, 2012); William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, *The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study*, Series in Political Economy and Public Law, No. 14 (Boston: University of Pennsylvania, 1899). [^71]: James, “John Henryism and Health,” 163–82; Umarji and Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty.” [^72]: Asia Bento and Tony N. Brown, “Belief in Systemic Racism and Self-Employment among Working Blacks,” *Ethnic and Racial Studies*, 2020, 1–18. [^73]: Heather Long and Andrew Van Dam, “The Black-White Economic Divide Is as Wide as It Was in 1968,” *Washington Post*, June 4, 2020, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/). [^74]: Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick, and Ulrike Steins, “Wealth and Income Inequality in America, 1949–2016,” *Journal of Political Economy*, 2019. [^75]: The difference in education was 3.9 vs. 4.1 (with 4 representing a bachelor’s degree), whereas wealth was 4.1 vs. 5.1 (with 4 representing an income of $60–79K and 5 representing an income of $80–99K). [^76]: Ibram H. Rogers, *The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965–1972* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); James D. Anderson, *The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935* (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988); Marybeth Gasman and Roger L. Geiger, “Introduction: Higher Education for African-Americans before the Civil Rights Era, 1900–1964,” in *Higher Education for African Americans Before the Civil Rights Era, 1900–1964* (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2012), 7–22. [^77]: National Women’s Law Center, “The Wage Gap for Black Women: Working Longer and Making Less,” August 19, 2019, [https://nwlc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-for-black-women-working-longer-and-making-less/](https://nwlc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-for-black-women-working-longer-and-making-less/). [^78]: William Darity, Darrick Hamilton, Mark Paul, Alan Aja, Anne Price, Antonio Moore, and Caterina Chiopris, “What We Get Wrong about Closing the Racial Wealth Gap,” Samuel Du Bois Cook Center on Social Equity, April 2018, [https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/what-we-get-wrong.pdf](https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/what-we-get-wrong.pdf). [^79]: Krim K. Lacey, Tina Jiwatram-Negron, and Karen Powell Sears, “Help-Seeking Behaviors and Barriers among Black Women Exposed to Severe Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from a Nationally Representative Sample,” *Violence Against Women*, June 2020,  [https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801220917464](https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801220917464); Samantha M. Sbrocchi, “Gender Pay Gap: The Time to Speak Up Is Now,” *Touro Law Review* 35, no. 2 (2019): 839. [^80]: Jamilah A. Karim, “To Be Black, Female, and Muslim: A Candid Conversation about Race in the American Umma,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs*, 2006, 225–33. [^81]: Ibn al-Jawzī, “Illuminating the Darkness: The Virtues of Blacks and Abyssinians,” *Dār al-Arqam*, 2019. [^82]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5665; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2586. [^83]: Muhammad Khalifa, Omar Suleiman, James Wright, and Nimo M. Abdi, “Ancestral Knowledge and American Muslims: Rooting Cultural Resistance in Islam,” *Yaqeen*, February 21, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muhammad-khalifa/ancestral-knowledge-and-american-muslims-rooting-cultural-resistance-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muhammad-khalifa/ancestral-knowledge-and-american-muslims-rooting-cultural-resistance-in-islam/). [^84]: Muhammad Khalifa and Omar Suleiman, “Black History, American Muslims, and Conversations about Race,” *Yaqeen*, February 14, 2020,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muhammad-khalifa/black-history-american-muslims-and-conversations-about-race/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muhammad-khalifa/black-history-american-muslims-and-conversations-about-race/). [^85]: Muhammad, “Black and Muslim.” [^86]: Lateef, “Insights for Muslim American Youth Development.” [^87]: See Richard J. Reddick, “We Can’t Breathe at Work, Either: John Henryism and the Health Impact of Racism,” *Fortune*, June 19, 2020,  [https://fortune.com/2020/06/19/john-henryism-black-racism-workplace/](https://fortune.com/2020/06/19/john-henryism-black-racism-workplace/) for workplace-related examples. [^88]: Martha S. Jones, *Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018); Henry N. Drewy and H. Doermann, *Stand and Prosper: Private Black Colleges and their Students* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011). [^89]: Diane J. Chandler, “African American Spirituality: Through Another Lens,” *Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care* 10, no. 2 (2017): 159–81. [^90]: Martin Luther King Jr., *Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?*, vol. 2 (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010); Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^91]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 13; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 45. ## Summary The first Muslims to set foot in America were Black, brought in chains from the western and central coasts of Africa, and today Black Muslims remain the single largest racial group among American Muslims, constituting more than a fifth of the community. Yet the legacy of racialized oppression in America has continuously disadvantaged Black communities in ways not shared by other minorities. A study conducted by Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, drawing on the Racial and Muslim Identity Survey administered in June 2020 with a sample of 1,880 American Muslims, of whom 499 were Black, sought to empirically investigate the racial and religious identity of Black Muslims and how these identities relate to their mental health and self-esteem. Black Muslims have long been integral to the Islamic legacy. From the time of the Prophet ﷺ, who lived in an age where racism existed, he deliberately elevated Black Muslims to honored positions, appointing Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ as the muʾadhdhin of the masjid in Medina and Usāmah ibn Zayd as a commander of an army while still a youth, and declaring Umm Ayman (Barakah bint Thaʿlabah) to be like a mother to him. This environment allowed young Black Muslims to see role models they could aspire to emulate, so that a companion could be proud to be both Black and Muslim in harmony. Racism was not wholly eliminated, as the incident between Bilāl and Abū Dharr attests, but it was substantially reduced. In more recent American history, figures such as Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali (may Allah have mercy upon them) embodied the fusion of a strong Black and Muslim identity even amid blatant discrimination. To frame this identity, the study draws upon W. E. B. Du Bois’ concept of “double-consciousness” in *The Souls of Black Folk*, the sense of always viewing oneself through the eyes of a contemptuous world. For the Black Muslim, this may become a “triple consciousness”—an American, a Black, a Muslim—inheriting what has been described as a “triple heritage” of Westernization, re-Africanization, and re-Islamization. The Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity distinguishes several dimensions: racial salience, centrality (how much one defines oneself by race), private regard (one’s own positive feelings and pride toward one’s race), and public regard (how one believes others view one’s race). These dimensions apply to religious identity as well. That a believer should be proud of their faith is affirmed in the words of Allah: *“And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah, does righteous deeds, and says, ‘Indeed, I am of the Muslims’”* (Qur’an 41:33). With rising Islamophobia, low religious public regard becomes an added burden for Black Muslims who already contend with low racial public regard. Racial discrimination is pervasive and damaging: cited findings indicate that 60% or more of Black adults report encountering it, and that it harms mental health, motivation, and well-being. Black Muslims, as members of two marginalized groups, face discrimination from every angle. Cultural resources such as racial identity, religious support, and religious coping relate in complex ways to discrimination and well-being; while religiosity generally lowers psychological distress among Black Americans, a stronger racial identity can heighten sensitivity to discrimination. One documented coping mechanism, termed “John Henryism,” is the internalized belief that one must work harder than others to succeed—linked to burnout, hopelessness, and even elevated blood pressure. As Albert Bandura observed, human motivation is rooted in the belief that one can effect change through one’s actions, so it is troubling when conditions strip people of this sense of agency. The results showed that the Black Muslims sampled reported high levels of both Black centrality (73%) and Muslim centrality (84%), alongside strikingly low public regard: only 0.4% felt society respected Blacks and only 1.1% felt it respected Muslims. Levels of religious practice were high, with 83% praying five times daily. A cluster analysis revealed five identity profiles, in all of which being Muslim was central while Black centrality varied. Profiles marked by low public regard had significantly worse mental health, while those with high dual centrality tended toward higher self-esteem. The structural equation modeling yielded several findings. John Henryism was most strongly predicted by perceived job discrimination—an effect nearly three times greater than any other—and also by low racial public regard, uncertainty intolerance, and, notably, greater Black resources. Mental health was worsened by John Henryism, uncertainty intolerance, and being female, and improved by gratitude and religiosity. Public regard did not affect mental health directly but did so indirectly through John Henryism. Self-esteem was raised by racial private regard, gratitude, and religiosity, and lowered chiefly by poor mental health. Compared to non-Black Muslims, Black Muslims reported higher perceived job discrimination, higher John Henryism, and higher self-esteem, with no significant difference in mental health. A central conclusion is that religiosity serves as a protective factor. Intimacy with Allah, knowledge of the Prophet ﷺ, and frequent engagement with the Qur’an related to better mental health and higher self-esteem, consistent with the verse: *“Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured”* (Qur’an 13:28). The Prophet ﷺ himself found solace in revelation during his most difficult trials. Regarding discrimination, private regard appears to guard against internalizing others’ negative appraisals, while low public regard leaves Black Muslims more vulnerable to ambiguous, subtle forms of discrimination that may catch them off guard—possibly including mistreatment within Muslim spaces themselves. The study further situates its findings within the enduring racial wealth gap, noting that as of 2016 the median Black household held $13,024 in wealth against $149,703 for White households, and citing the Samuel Du Bois Cook Center’s argument that this gap cannot be closed by individual behavior alone but requires structural transformation. Black women were found to be disproportionately affected, being female predicting greater mental distress, echoing Malcolm X’s statement that Black women are the most disrespected in America; the study contrasts this with the honor once given to figures like Umm Ayman and Umm Zafar, of whom the Prophet ﷺ said, “Would you like me to show you a woman from the people of paradise?” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī no. 5665; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim no. 2586). For the Muslim community, it is presented as a religious imperative to understand and support Black Muslims, invoking the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” The study urges ongoing education beyond a single Black History Month, greater Black representation in leadership as the Prophet ﷺ practiced, and grounding the struggle for justice in Islamic ritual and epistemology rooted in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah, warning with Dr. Martin Luther King’s image that pursuing success without a divine framework is like running into a “burning house.” The authors caution that the data are correlational and do not establish strong causality, and close with the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “None of you will have complete faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī no. 13; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim no. 45). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/facing-our-fear-reflecting-on-modern-societys-death-anxiety # Facing Our Fear: Reflecting on Modern Society's Death Anxiety **Author:** Dr. Tarek Younis **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 23, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Note *Many will be touched by death in this pandemic; thus, it is important to emphasize that this piece is not intended for those grieving. Rather, it shares some reflections for those whose hearts are unburdened by immediate loss, but who feel a particular dread around death nonetheless.* --- ## Introduction Unquestionably, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc across much of the Global North. Though many long for ‘normality,’ there is much meaning to be gleaned in the throes of this pandemic. This paper will begin by reflecting on death anxiety and what that means for Muslims before considering the modern world’s relationship with death more broadly. Both individual and social reflections are necessary; ‘outer’ chaos inevitably produces ‘inner’ chaos as well. In particular, I will suggest that some of the therapeutic techniques circulating during the COVID-19 pandemic—relaxation, mental hygiene, etc—may not only overlook the fear of death but, in fact, play a role in its maintenance. I will refer to this unique fear of death as ‘death anxiety’ but this does not necessarily mean it is a diagnosable condition, and most certainly not one that can be reduced to psychological or psychiatric frameworks. I mean rather a very real—and as I’ll explain, utterly modern—dread that is embodied in anticipation of our own mortality. This article thus serves as an extension to the fantastic [infographic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/najwa-awad/coping-with-the-coronavirus-infographic/) of general reminders outlined by Yaqeen Institute, by delineating why death is a particular fear we need to address in this day and age. Though death’s spectacular moral significance is frequently invoked in the Qur’an, it cannot simply be assumed that Muslims are unaffected by modern structures and technologies (including therapeutic practices) that erase, abstract, or otherwise promise to overcome fear of death altogether. What follows then is a reminder that it is ever more necessary to reflect on our own mortality and not presume that ‘being Muslim’ settles the issue. Please note that this is a *short* reflection piece. Given how comprehensive a subject death is, do not expect great depth here—the purpose is simply to spur some reflections. --- ## An age of death anxiety For many, proximity to death is disturbing and often traumatizing. Today, psychologists are already preparing themselves for a ‘wave of mental health issues,’ while some have rightly criticized this rhetoric for medicalizing a natural reaction to crisis.[^1] As the prominent psychiatrist Irvin Yalom explains, death anxiety is overt and easily recognizable for some and for others very subtle, only to be found through introspection.[^2] We are increasingly given opportunities to distract ourselves from our own mortality. Modern urban life and its technologies keep us eternally distracted from existential realities. Postman called this ‘amusing ourselves to death,’ likening entertainment’s effects to those of an existential drug.[^3] Our aversion to death can also be observed in its depiction in popular culture: horror and war movies have distorted, glamorized, and dehumanized death beyond recognition—making it lose all meaning. Modern Muslims are just as much products of their era as anyone else. For urban Muslims across the Western world, modernity has re-shaped our relationship with death, despite its spiritual significance in the Qur’an and Sunnah. In fact, the theme of death is persistent in the Qur’an, serving to ‘ground’ the reality of our earthly presence, while acknowledging our trepidation with it. For example, Allah (swt) says, “The death that you are running from will inevitably come to you’’ (62:8). He also says, “And worship your Lord until there comes to you the certainty (death)” (15:99). So, we can already affirm an existential aversion to death; in some individuals more than others and, as I will describe later, in some eras more than others. But death constitutes our most solemn certainty in this life. These two Qur’anic themes of angst and (un)certainty will serve as ideal lenses to understand the impact ‘death’ can have on an individual. Clinically, it is not difficult to conceive how death anxiety translates into individual pathology. For example, death anxiety has been found to be related to anxiety disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders.[^4] Some psychologists thus argue that the subject of death supports a transdiagnostic approach; i.e., the need for a paradigm that replaces ‘syndromes’ (e.g., depression, anxiety, etc) with particular features common to many—fear of death being one such feature. Considering the significance of death, let’s take the example of a Muslim young adult who (for the sake of reducing complexity) is neither grieving nor experiencing any significant financial or social pressures. This young adult admits to me a vague anxiety that has spiked since the corona pandemic and, upon further discussion, we broach the subject of death. The young adult also admits feeling trapped, unable to help the community like they usually would—their ability to be ‘the helper’ is severely frustrated. How can we make sense of this anxiety and how might it relate to their community activism? Here are several reflections to be had. The first draws upon an understanding of anxiety which sees the ‘intolerance of uncertainty’ as central to its experience. In other words, the inability to tolerate the uncertainty of a situation—e.g., will I pass my exam?—is directly associated with confronting one’s lack of control. As a result, people who cannot tolerate uncertainty may compensate by trying to exert a higher degree of control (perfectionism) or by avoiding the situation altogether (procrastination). If all this is the case, then surely death is the ultimate symbol of uncertainty and loss of control. This Muslim young adult would then be incredibly averse to being isolated and confined against their will as is now the case due to the pandemic. Incidentally, Yalom discusses exactly such a case: he describes a client who sought therapy for anxiety but who increasingly felt apprehensive when not given immediate tools to overcome his anxiety, which quickly revealed itself to be related to his thoughts about mortality.[^5] Eventually, this client dropped Yalom and sought a muscle-relaxation technique instead—to relieve the symptoms. While symptoms are important, the ultimate symbol of uncertainty, death, was simply unbearable for Yalom’s patient. The space to discuss death anxiety requires both the therapist and client to engage in a certain degree of depth and if the conditions don’t allow this (institutionally, or if the client only wants to alleviate their symptoms), this is what occurs. Similarly, I have seen Muslims engage in self-help, which promises to help you shed your old, anxious skin and become something and someone much better—all under their own control. In psychodynamic therapy, we might explore the defense mechanisms that help an individual avoid attending to their death anxiety. Let me give an example that comes up often enough among Muslims: altruism. It is well-recognized that altruism, or acting in the service of others, is a very effective (as well as socially laudable) means of ‘forgetting about oneself.’ When someone’s ability to serve the community is thwarted—as it may be during this crisis—they begin to feel antsy sitting at home. The challenge then becomes to provide the space for the client to re-think their relationship with altruism but, more deeply, to consider how it might serve as an escape from death itself. This might lead us down a road, paved most prominently in the modern age by Viktor Frankl, of providing space to consider the meaning of life and death itself.[^6] As Yalom reminds us again, “although the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death saves us.”[^7] Herein lies the need to centralize death as a key symbol in our approach to suffering, especially during these times. It is very possible for Muslims to develop a (largely intellectual) relationship with Allah, without a recognition of their own mortality. And if the pandemic should serve as a reminder of Allah, as articulated by my colleagues in a recent [article](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/a-punishment-or-a-mercy-what-we-can-learn-from-the-coronavirus/), they might remember Allah but avoid their own deaths. This is a sign of modernity. --- ## The modern world and the erasure of death Is death anxiety a uniquely human dilemma, similar across culture and time? Most likely not. It is not clear if earlier populations—for whom death was a central symbolic feature of their lives—experienced ‘death anxiety’ the same way, and transcultural research has come back to this claim.[^8] Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (rA) for example, in observing a Muslim’s fear of death, relates it to being in a “state without repentance.”[^9] But then he immediately explains how this fear—associated with sin—ought to be followed by an experience of regret and, ultimately, repentance. I would argue, however, that Ibn Qayyim’s “fear of death” is not the same as the death anxiety I am speaking of here, where death serves as a particularly disturbing reality without its moral significance (“I may die a sinner”). It is the fear of fear, where fear itself is the problem.[^10] Arguably such death anxiety is perhaps very particular to our times, and so its clinical understanding is baseless without briefly addressing death in the modern world. To begin, the modern Western world is established upon a principle: ‘history is progress.’ This principle suggests that history moves continuously towards technological, social, and moral improvements. According to Hallaq, this ideology has inculcated a common sense that celebrates the present and shuns the past—discarding centuries of traditions.[^11] But the technological present has very little to say about death whatsoever.[^12] This has been reflected even in Freud’s own thoughts on death, which he described as a state of “non-thinking,” reflecting his inability to give any meaning to it.[^13] This has led some prominent atheist philosophers such as Alain de Botton to reflect on the need to preserve European Christian rituals in matters of death—even without God.[^14] Furthermore, the technological and hyper-medicalized present also underscores a view of life as one that ought to be painless. As the process of dying is often associated with suffering, this intensifies the meaninglessness of death altogether. The meaninglessness of death and its impression on Muslims cannot be disassociated from European colonization either. As Pandolfo relates, speaking on the spiritual impact of French colonization of Morocco, the consequence was ‘soul choking’; “when life shrinks, death is generalized to a banality that makes it unthinkable, and the divine message is no longer heard in the heart.”[^15] Furthermore, as the sociologist Bauman argues, the forces of globalization and capitalism have eroded social infrastructures across the Global North.[^16] We are no longer a ‘community’ but a ‘network of individuals’—there is no moral bind that holds us responsible for one another. It is important to underline the cosmic significance of this observation. As we can see during this pandemic, there is no moral glue binding us together besides charity work (which is often almost entirely reactive) and a stubborn reliance on our governments to make the ‘right decisions’ for us all. --- ## Moving forward: Reflect upon death and our community The Prophet ﷺ encouraged the visitation of graves, stating, “Visit graves, for it reminds one of one’s death.”[^17] But even while standing by a grave it is important to distinguish between recognizing the idea of death and confronting one’s own mortality. While the former is strictly intellectual, the latter bears heavily upon our fulfilled or wasted potential on this earth. To end on a forward-looking note, it is important to emphasize that it is never too late to contemplate our own death or to discuss it with our loved ones—as difficult as this might be. If the thought of death causes you dread, then know you’re not alone. I would argue this anxiety serves an existential purpose: as you confront death and all its dimensions—its earthly finality, its uncertainty—the ill-feeling serves as an embodied signal to return back to Allah. In other words, it is only by confronting the uncertainty of death that one can truly recognize that Allah is *al-Bāṭin*, the Knower of the Hidden, the One in Whom certainty is sought. Anxiety can thus serve as a spiritual compass towards Allah, but only if one faces it and recognizes its meanings. If the thought of death remains difficult, I urge you to find someone to talk to about it, and I say this knowing full well how awkward and stigmatizing it may be for a Muslim to admit their fear of death. Surely, some might think the fear of death reflects a deficiency in faith. One might, for example, be recommended to read the Qur’an. However, it is important to raise a point of caution with such a recommendation: telling someone to ‘read the Qur’an’ may backfire, for if they remain anxious, then their relationship with the Qur’an might change for the worse. Rather, it is important to recognize the *meaning* of one’s anxiety—which in our discussion is death—and relate *that* to Allah *through* the Qur’an. In most cases then, it helps to seek support for the purposes of self-reflection on one’s anxiety, though the associated stigma of admitting one’s fear of death to others can be especially overwhelming. I hope, as I’ve made clear above, death anxiety is also very much a sign of our times, so if the thought of death is a cause of despair, this is not only normal, it is to be expected. In learning to reflect more upon our own death—not death as an abstract concept—we develop the greatest insights into the nature of this world. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Remember often the destroyer of pleasures”—by which he meant death. Our reflections on death must also lead us to challenge the imagined status of Western Muslims as ‘middle-class’ with large and accessible family networks and stable incomes. In reality, many Muslims across the Global North are migrants and refugees, whose families and livelihoods are not blessed and privileged with the same sense of stability and security as others. For them, the fear of death poses very immediate concerns: what will happen to their children if they die? In the UK, for example, there is a lack of Muslim foster parents and many children often just go through the system. Perhaps then death anxiety should not only be understood as a personal trial, but also as a reflection of a community whose social fabric has weakened. We need to reinvigorate a sense of communion around death. No one should have to fear death out of the very legitimate fears they have regarding what will happen with their children. Death is a communal responsibility—the personal only brings this to light. --- ## Notes [^1]: Denis Campell, “UK Lockdown Causing ‘Serious Mental Illness in First-Time Patients,” *Guardian*, May 15, 2020,  [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/16/uk-lockdown-causing-serious-mental-illness-in-first-time-patients](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/16/uk-lockdown-causing-serious-mental-illness-in-first-time-patients); Miranda Levy, “We Are a Sedated Society: The Rise in Antidepressants During Lockdown,” *Telegraph*, May 17, 2020, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/sedated-society-rise-antidepressants-lockdown/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/sedated-society-rise-antidepressants-lockdown/). [^2]: Irvin D. Yalom, *Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Dread of Death* (London: Piatkus, 2012). [^3]: Neil Postman, *Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business* (London: Penguin, 2006). [^4]: Lisa Iverach, Ross G. Menzies, and Rachel E. Menzies, “Death Anxiety and Its Role in Psychopathology: Reviewing the Status of a Transdiagnostic Construct,” *Clinical Psychology Review* *34*, no. 7 (2014): 580–93, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2014.09.002](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2014.09.002). [^5]: Irvin D. Yalom, *Existential Psychotherapy* (New York: Basic Books, 1980). [^6]: Viktor E. Frankl, *Man’s Search for Meaning: The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust* (London: Rider, 2008). [^7]: Yalom, *Staring at the Sun*, 30. [^8]: Pittu Laungani and William Young, eds., *Death and Bereavement Across Cultures* (London: Routledge, 1997). [^9]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers*, trans. Ovamir Anjum (Leiden: Brill, 2020), [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004413412](https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004413412). [^10]: Frank Furedi, *Culture of Fear Revisited: Risk-Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation* (London: Continuum International Publishing, 2007). [^11]: Wael Hallaq, *The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014). [^12]: Laungani and Young, *Death and Bereavement*. [^13]: Raymond L. M. Lee, “Eternity Calling: Modernity and the Revival of Death and the Afterlife,” in *Death Across Cultures: Death and Dying in Non-Western Cultures*, ed. Helaine Selin and Robert M. Rakoff (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019), 369–84, [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18826-9\_22](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18826-9_22). [^14]: Alain de Botton, *Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion* (London: Penguin, 2013). [^15]: Stefania Pandolfo, *Knot of the Soul: Madness, Psychoanalysis, Islam* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018), 8. [^16]: Zygmunt Bauman, *Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty*  (Cambridge: Polity, 2013). [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 976. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. All praise is due to Him who has decreed death upon His creation as a certainty none can escape, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who counselled us to remember often the destroyer of pleasures. These reflections are offered not to those bearing the immediate weight of grief, but to those whose hearts, though unburdened by recent loss, nonetheless carry a peculiar dread of death during this pandemic. While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought devastation across much of the Global North, and while many yearn for a return to what they consider normal, there is meaning to be gleaned even amid such trials. The aim here is to reflect upon what may be called "death anxiety"—not as a diagnosable illness reducible to psychological or psychiatric frameworks, but as a very real and distinctly modern dread embodied in the anticipation of one's own mortality. It cannot simply be assumed that being Muslim settles this matter, for Muslims are as much shaped by the structures and technologies of their age as anyone else. The Qur'an speaks persistently of death, grounding the reality of our earthly presence while acknowledging our trepidation toward it. Allah, Exalted is He, says, "The death that you are running from will inevitably come to you" (62:8), and He says, "And worship your Lord until there comes to you the certainty," meaning death (15:99). From these two verses we may affirm two truths: that there exists a genuine human aversion to death, and that death remains our most solemn certainty in this life. These twin themes—angst and certainty—serve as lenses through which to understand death's impact upon the individual. The modern condition offers endless means of distraction from mortality. Urban life and its technologies keep us perpetually diverted from existential realities—what Postman described as "amusing ourselves to death," likening entertainment to an existential drug. Death is further distorted and dehumanized in popular culture through horror and war films, until it loses all meaning. The psychiatrist Irvin Yalom observed that death anxiety is overt in some and, in others, so subtle that it can only be uncovered through introspection. Clinically, death anxiety has been linked to anxiety disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders, leading some psychologists to argue that death supports a transdiagnostic approach, identifying fear of death as a feature common across many conditions. Consider the example of a Muslim young adult, neither grieving nor under significant financial or social pressure, who confesses a vague anxiety heightened by the pandemic and who feels trapped, unable to serve the community as before. One understanding of anxiety places the "intolerance of uncertainty" at its centre; if this holds, then death is the ultimate symbol of uncertainty and loss of control. Yalom recounted a client whose anxiety proved bound up with thoughts of mortality, yet who abandoned therapy in favour of a muscle-relaxation technique that merely relieved symptoms, for the reality of death was too unbearable to confront. Likewise, some Muslims turn to self-help promising mastery over the self. Here altruism deserves particular attention: service to others, though socially praiseworthy, can become an effective means of "forgetting about oneself," and when such service is thwarted, the underlying anxiety surfaces. The task, then, is to consider how altruism might serve as an escape from death itself. As Yalom reminds us, "although the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death saves us." A Muslim may develop a largely intellectual relationship with Allah while never truly reckoning with his own mortality—and even should the pandemic remind him of Allah, he may remember his Lord yet still avoid his own death. This, it is argued, is a sign of modernity. It is unlikely that death anxiety is a uniform human experience across all cultures and times; those earlier peoples for whom death was a central symbol may not have experienced it as we do. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, may Allah have mercy upon him, in observing a Muslim's fear of death, related it to being in a "state without repentance," and explained that such fear ought to be followed by regret and ultimately repentance. Yet the fear he described is not the same as the death anxiety spoken of here, for his fear carries moral significance—"I may die a sinner"—whereas modern death anxiety is a "fear of fear," where fear itself becomes the problem, stripped of moral meaning. Such anxiety appears peculiar to our times, and so must be understood against the backdrop of death in the modern world. The modern Western world rests upon the principle that "history is progress," celebrating the present and, as Hallaq observed, shunning the past and discarding centuries of tradition. Yet the technological present has little to say about death. This emptiness is reflected even in Freud's description of death as a state of "non-thinking," an admission of his inability to grant it meaning, and it has led atheist philosophers such as Alain de Botton to argue for preserving European Christian rituals surrounding death even without God. The hyper-medicalized present further insists that life ought to be painless, so that the suffering associated with dying only deepens death's apparent meaninglessness. This meaninglessness cannot be separated from European colonization either; as Pandolfo related concerning the French colonization of Morocco, the result was a "soul choking," wherein "when life shrinks, death is generalized to a banality that makes it unthinkable, and the divine message is no longer heard in the heart." The sociologist Bauman argued that globalization and capitalism have eroded the social fabric of the Global North, transforming communities into mere "networks of individuals" bound by no moral obligation to one another—a condition laid bare during this pandemic. The Prophet ﷺ encouraged the visitation of graves, saying, "Visit graves, for it reminds one of one's death." Yet even at the graveside one must distinguish between merely recognizing the idea of death and confronting one's own mortality; the former is intellectual, while the latter weighs heavily upon our fulfilled or wasted potential. It is never too late to contemplate death or to speak of it with loved ones. If its thought causes dread, one is not alone, for this anxiety serves an existential purpose: in confronting death's finality and uncertainty, the ill-feeling becomes an embodied signal to return to Allah. It is only through facing the uncertainty of death that one truly recognizes Allah as al-Bāṭin, the Knower of the Hidden, in whom certainty is sought—so that anxiety itself may become a spiritual compass, but only if faced and understood. Should the thought of death remain difficult, seeking someone to speak with is urged, with full awareness of how stigmatizing it may feel for a Muslim to admit such fear, as some suppose it reflects a deficiency in faith. A note of caution is offered here regarding the common recommendation to simply "read the Qur'an": if one remains anxious afterward, their relationship with the Qur'an may worsen. Rather, one should recognize the meaning of one's anxiety—which is death—and relate that meaning to Allah through the Qur'an. Since death anxiety is a sign of our times, despair at the thought of death is not only normal but to be expected, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Remember often the destroyer of pleasures," meaning death. Finally, these reflections must challenge the imagined image of Western Muslims as comfortably middle-class with stable incomes and accessible family networks. Many are migrants and refugees whose lives lack such security, for whom the fear of death poses immediate concerns: what will become of their children? In the United Kingdom, for instance, there is a shortage of Muslim foster parents, and many children pass through the system. Death anxiety, then, should be understood not only as a personal trial but as a reflection of a community whose social fabric has weakened. There is a need to reinvigorate a sense of communion around death, for death is a communal responsibility, and the personal only brings this truth to light. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-defense-of-faith-principles-and-guidelines-for-islamic-apologetics # In Defense of Faith: Principles and Guidelines for Islamic Apologetics **Author:** Dr. Hatem al-Haj **Topics:** Methodology (usul), Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, The Straight Path - Finding Guidance in an Age of Confusion **Published:** July 16, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *This essay has been summarized based on an intensive course delivered by Dr. Hatem Al-Haj entitled Islamic apologetics in December 2019 and presented in essay format by Dr. Nazir Khan with additions and final essay verified, edited, and approved by Dr. Hatem al-Haj.* --- ## Introduction The principles governing Islamic apologetics constitute a field of knowledge that is in need of greater attention from Muslim scholars. Indeed, the term itself is unfamiliar to most Muslims. Typically, Muslims dealing with allegations against Islamic doctrines or practices speak of “*Radd al-shubuhāt*,” or refutation of misconceptions. However, apologetics is not limited to the refutation of misconceptions. It involves establishing a science that is much broader than that; it includes also the rational explication and defense of doctrines and practices. There is a general principle mentioned by Muslim scholars that states that there is flexibility in using different terminology so long as the meaning and understanding being conveyed are correct.[^1] Should we use the term apologetics? First, we must clarify that apologetics is *not* about apologizing. Islam does not need any apology on its behalf. Rather, apologetics refers to intellectual *defense*—it is a systematic discourse in defense of doctrine. The word comes from the Greek term *Apologia*, used by Plato for his account of the speech Socrates made at his trial. The closest word in our tradition is the term *kalām,*[^2] which has been used to refer to the rational defense of religious doctrines. So the notion exists in our tradition; however, its use was largely limited to the defense of creedal doctrines, not laws and practices. Borrowing terminology and developing new terms is a natural consequence of the interface between Islam and other languages, like English, in recent centuries that have not been part of its historical heritage like Arabic and Persian. As Islamic thought encounters languages that were previously not part of its history, it leads to choices over the best terms to convey concepts and meanings. There are certainly potential downsides to using the term apologetics. For one, it has long been associated with Christian apologetics. The goals and objectives of a rational defense of Islamic orthodoxy will differ considerably even though there may be some areas of overlap in responding to secularism and atheism. Christian apologetics may be seen as having gone too far in reconciling Christianity with prevalent thought and norms throughout the ages. However, Islamic apologetics need not follow the same path. In fact, Islam has intrinsic qualities that make it largely immune to that. The other potential downside to using the term apologetics is that people may get stuck on the misinterpretation of apologetics entailing “apologizing” for the faith and that will make them apprehensive of the discourse. Consequently, some may elect not to use the term apologetics altogether because of these perceived negative connotations and legitimate considerations, which is entirely their prerogative. If one is not comfortable with the term, they do not need to use it. My choice to use the term is on account of a number of important reasons. First, it is a recognized term so it spares the speaker having to restate a lengthy definition every time they refer to this discipline. Second, using a formal term *Islamic apologetics* that designates a field of study leads one to recognize the complexity of the topic, the academic nature of the science, and the need for one to approach the subject with humility. --- ## Importance of apologetics Islamic apologetics is critically important because losing faith is not uncommon.[^3] And a rational explication of the faith can often facilitate the path to certainty and conviction for many. Moreover, Islamic apologetics highlights that there are principles in knowing what answer is most appropriate for which audience. We see the Prophet’s ﷺ wisdom in customizing his approach based on his audience in an incident that occurred when the Muslims were traveling to perform *ʿumrah*  (lesser pilgrimage) during 6 AH. The Quraysh prevented the Prophet ﷺ and his companions from making pilgrimage and the situation was on the verge of armed conflict. When the Quraysh sent as a representative al-Ḥulays ibn ʿAlqamah al-Kinānī to parlay, the Prophet ﷺ saw him coming and instructed his companions to send forth the decorated sacrificial animals and to recite loudly the pilgrimage chant (*talbiyah*). The Prophet ﷺ explained this was because al-Ḥulays was from a tribe that highly valued the charitable sacrifice of animals (*al-hady*); so when he witnessed these symbols of ritual pilgrimage he was so overwhelmed with emotion that he immediately turned around and went back to the Quraysh and rebuked them for preventing the Prophet ﷺ from making pilgrimage.[^4] People from diverse backgrounds will need answers sensitive to their understanding and customized to their context. Modifying one’s rhetorical style and argument based on one’s audience is in fact an established concept in Islam. The illustrious companion ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه said, “Speak to people in a manner that they comprehend, and do not speak to them in a manner they find objectionable. Do you want people to reject Allah and His Messenger?”[^5] Indeed, if you speak to people in a manner that disregards their categories of understanding, you may push them into disbelief. Moreover, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه said, “You will not address the people with a speech that they cannot comprehend except that it will be a trial (i.e., a cause of misguidance)[^6] for some of them.”[^7] Imam Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790 AH) notes that two things could happen: they will either completely ignore the message or, worse, they will misunderstand it and it will lead them to a trial in their faith.[^8] Al-Shāṭibī رحمه الله also devoted considerable discussion to this topic in his work *al-Muwāfaqāt* where he wrote: > And further evidence of this nature indicates that not every piece of knowledge is to be disseminated and spread, even if it were true. In fact, Imam Mālik reported concerning himself that he possessed some *aḥādīth* and information that he never disclosed or narrated.[^9] He used to dislike any speech that was not actionable, and reported that those who preceded him used to dislike this as well, so be vigilant about this concept. > > And its governing principle (*ḍābiṭ*) is that you measure your issue against the shari’ah; if it conforms to its metrics, then consider its consequences with regards to the conditions of that era and its people. If its mention will not result in \[greater\] harm (*mafsadah*), then test it with your intellect. If \[the faculty of reason\] deems it acceptable, then you can speak about it—either publicly if it is an issue that the minds of the masses can grasp, or selectively if it is unsuitable for mass consumption. And if your issue is intolerable \[to both\], then silence regarding it is warranted in accordance with the shari’ah and sound intellect.[^10] Someone might say, “If we speak to people according only to what is agreeable, then what *daʿwah* are we doing? Is *daʿwah* not about changing and challenging people’s perceptions in order to lead people to betterment?” The response is that we are not talking about changing the *dīn* (religion) but rather adapting one’s explanation, articulation, presentation, and prioritization based on one’s audience. We can invite people to change and to understand new ideas while still presenting them in a manner that is least objectionable. Wisdom requires selecting the right means of conveying the message with the best choice of words and arguments. Wisdom also requires factoring your audience’s intellectual and educational background into your manner of presentation—speaking to a group of philosophers requires a different manner of presentation than speaking to a group of high school students. As an example, consider the way the Prophet ﷺ conveyed the immorality of *zina* (fornication) to a young man: > A young man came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked, “O Messenger of Allah, give me permission to commit *ziná* (fornication).” People began to rebuke the young man but the Prophet told him to come close and sit down. He then asked him, “Would you approve of that for your mother?” The young man replied “No, by Allah!” The Prophet replied, “In the same way, people do not approve of it for their mothers.”  > > \[The Prophet ﷺ then proceeded to ask the same question regarding whether he would approve of such a thing for his daughter, sister, or aunts.\] > > Then the Prophet ﷺ prayed for the young man saying, “O Allah, forgive his sin, purify his heart and guard his chastity.” After that, the young man never turned his attention to anything of that sort again.[^11] This manner of expression and explanation is culturally dependent. In another society, a different means of explaining may be necessary. Consider another society where a young man may respond to these questions by saying “Yes, I would approve of that for my mother or sister.” In such a scenario, the same line of questioning would not work and would require a shift in focus because the normal *fiṭrah* (natural human inclination) has been corrupted. Cultures may deviate from their natural disposition, since the *fiṭrah* is corruptible, and Islam seeks to rehabilitate the *fiṭrah*. What the culturally aware caller to Islam is doing is ascertaining what aspects of the *fiṭrah* are still intact, in order to build upon them. It is often stated that people resemble their epochs more than their parents (*al-nās bi-zamānihim ashbahu minhum bi-ābāʾihim*),[^12] alluding to the fact that people’s thoughts are tremendously influenced by the time period in which they live. As a dynamic discipline, Islamic apologetics is important because for every audience one needs to modify the presentation of the message depending on who one is speaking to. Again, it is mainly the presentation of the message and the manner in which it is defended that needs to be modified and customized, not the content of the message itself. It is still important, though, for the apologist to be aware of the current discourse regarding the content to be presented. Islam is reasonably adaptable to all people, societies, cultures, and eras. The fundamental content and substance of the message itself is not in need of modification, even though within the content there are some secondary issues subject to some latitude and a spectrum of opinions. Thus, wisdom is also required in selecting how one conveys Islam’s position on a particular issue subject to different opinions, which will be elucidated below. Furthermore, there is also considerable discussion within Islamic jurisprudence (*fiqh*) and Islamic legal theory (*uṣūl al-fiqh*) with respect to the possibility of some rules undergoing change based on changes with respect to time and place, and how historical context is necessary to understand legal verdicts issued by scholars of the past on those particular issues (refer to the article “[Shariʿah in Today’s World: Renewing Islamic Discourse](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/hatem-elhaj/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse/)”).[^13] It is, therefore, important for one engaged in Islamic apologetics to defer such matters to their respective experts in the field of jurisprudence. Even if the apologist is an expert in this field, they may want to consult with others who are not as acutely concerned with the apologetical approach; they may either keep them from caving in to pressure or alleviate their fear of presenting certain controversial positions. One must exercise caution in ensuring that one’s defense of the faith does not become a narrowly-confined argument in favor of a particular legal position; one should not lose sight of the objective, which is to defend Islam as a whole and instill faith in its teachings in the hearts and minds of the audience with whom one is engaged. --- ## Concerns and pitfalls When explaining Islam within different paradigms and engaging with discourses foreign to Islam, there are a number of important pitfalls of which one should be aware, and there are associated measures that can be taken to mitigate the harms associated with those pitfalls. In general, it is from the principles of the Islamic legal maxims that minor harms are tolerated in order to secure major benefits, as mentioned by many jurists including Imam al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660 AH) and others.[^14] Thus, the mere presence of pitfalls itself will not preclude the importance and benefit of work in Islamic apologetics. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The believer who mixes with the people and endures their harm has a greater reward than one who does not mix with the people nor endures their harm.”[^15] With that in mind, below are some of the key pitfalls to consider. ### Reinforcing the centrality of the human perspective When one seeks to customize and modify one’s discourse in order to suit one’s audience, there is inevitably the risk of confirming the problematic paradigm of one’s audience. The dominant philosophical discourse that one may be inadvertently reinforcing is one that privileges the human perspective above all else and takes human reason as the ultimate reference on matters of truth and falsehood.[^16] Islam by definition means submission to Allah and that means by necessity that the human being must recognize his or her own limitations and yield to the authority of the Divine legislation. Submission to God is perfectly rational; it is, in fact, *irrational* to exaggerate the office of intellect to the point where you are arguing with God, the Omniscient Creator of the universe. The ultimate reality of matters is known only to God. Allah Most High possesses infinite wisdom and knows all things, while we as human beings are only capable of discerning those truths that He has disclosed to us, be it through the revelation of scripture or through the intellectual or sensory faculties He has endowed us with. Moreover, people differ in their capacities in comprehending matters in different disciplines based on age, education, cultural background, intellectual abilities, and so forth. The attitude that Islam seeks to cultivate in the hearts of the faithful is thus to recognize one’s limitations and follow the Divine guidance that God has revealed. It does not undermine the office of reason but rather accords it its most reasonable weight. Once a person has arrived at the logical conclusion that Islam is from God, the Qur’an is Divine revelation, and the Prophet ﷺ is God’s messenger, from that point onward the only logical conclusion is to submit. Rather than representing the capitulation of reason, it is the only true fulfillment of reason. Divine revelation requires no external confirmation; rather, through it, one’s reasoning develops to see matters as they really are. Many times, in the interest of answering people’s questions about why a particular text or ruling doesn’t make sense to someone, we fail to address an underlying issue of concern which is the presumption that the human intellect is the arbiter of truth to which religion should be subservient. In rejecting everything that is beyond our capacity to comprehend, we fallaciously assert the centrality of the human perspective and the human intellect. Many people look for human motivations behind God’s actions or evaluate the benefit of God’s instructions according to the limited lens of personal profit and materialistic gain. Religion will never make sense to such a mindset unwilling to challenge its own preconceived assumptions and vaunted sense of self-importance and self-aggrandization. It is true that there is always Divine wisdom in what Allah has commanded and that Allah is Most Compassionate and Most Loving towards His Creation; however, our limited human capacity to discern the wisdom behind Divine instructions will be commensurate with the degree to which we humble ourselves and seek nearness to Him. While it is important for one engaged in Islamic apologetics to address and explain misconceptions about texts and rulings, it is vital to not lose sight of the importance of cultivating the ethos of submission and a love for following the path of Allah’s Prophets and Messengers عليهم السلام. After all, a person may be committed to following the path that they love, knowing the beauty of its fundamental message and the teachings of the Messenger ﷺ, even if they may not know the answer to every single question or doubt they encounter. That’s because for the average Muslim to experience certainty and fulfillment in their faith does not require encyclopedic knowledge of every single scholarly response to every contention; it requires an understanding of the fundamental message of the faith and a spiritual connection through worship of their Creator. Much of this also relates to the ability to embrace uncertainty about secondary issues, which is a recognized psychological predictor of positive mental health outcomes.[^17] It is important that those in Islamic apologetics develop a two-step system, where we establish our doctrines independent of the dominant philosophical discourse, using the hermeneutical self-sufficiency of the Islamic discourse. In other words, we utilize the timeless scriptural texts and foundational principles (*uṣūl*) to establish the Islamic teachings in the first step. In the second step, we consider how best to convey the message and advance its objectives within the framework of the dominant discourse. However, we need to have a safety valve that prevents our involvement in the external discourse, which is necessarily characterized by some degree of adaptability and modification, from flowing back and affecting one’s own conception of the message of Islam (see **Figure 1 below**). Of course, no matter how diligent one is in this regard, it remains possible for one’s perception of the message, and what it means, to be affected by one’s continued involvement in a foreign discourse and for this reason, it is important to remain humble, recognize the limits of one’s knowledge, introspect, and be open to correction. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/image1-2.png) ### Causing an ideological shift in the community Another concern about the discourse of Islamic apologetics is that there is a potential risk of producing an ideological shift in the community, where certain positions become more widely accepted because they are more convenient to cite when defending the Islamic tradition. It is important that orthodoxy is not sacrificed in the process of developing the discourse of apologetics. This leads to the initial question of what constitutes ‘Islamic orthodoxy’? Islamic orthodoxy refers to the established mainstream scholarly understanding of Islam based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. But is Islamic orthodoxy a spectrum or a point? One may say that, from the human perspective, there is a spectrum whereas, from the Divine perspective, it is a point because Allah always knows precisely the right answer. This means that there may be a legitimate spectrum of different opinions among Muslim scholars on a particular topic, while the true opinion in the sight of God is singular. However, Allah has permitted and indeed rewarded scholars for expressing their conclusions within that spectrum of opinions. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If a judge makes a ruling, striving to apply his reasoning and he is correct, he will have two rewards. If a judge makes a ruling, striving to apply his reasoning and he is mistaken, he will have one reward.”[^18] Therefore, when it comes to matters of legitimate difference of opinion, there are multiple opinions that can be considered valid within Islamic orthodoxy. On the other hand, when it comes to matters on which there is no scope for different opinions, there will be only one orthodox answer (see also [Difference of Opinion - Where do we draw the line?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/difference-of-opinion-where-do-we-draw-the-line/)). Within Islamic orthodoxy, there will be some positions that are culturally on the “left” and some positions on the “right.” On a particular issue, some scholars may view something as *ḥarām* (forbidden) or *makrūh* (disliked), while others view it as *mubāḥ* (permissible) and both sides may be valid, based on sound scriptural support, and upheld by *Mujtahid* Imāms (i.e., those leading scholars of Islamic jurisprudence who reached the highest level in their capacity for independent evaluation of the sacred texts). For instance, the majority of scholars may view drawings of living things as *ḥarām* while those in the Mālikī school apply the emphatic prohibition of images to three-dimensional statues and not to drawings (two-dimensional images).[^19] Most of the time, the more permissive position is the left-leaning position, while the more restrictive position (which views a greater number of things as *ḥarām*) is the more right-leaning position. If we imagine Islamic orthodoxy as a circle (**Figure 2**), those inside the circle may be situated to the left (i.e., more culturally liberal) of the center or they may be situated to the right (i.e., more culturally conservative). If the audience they are seeking to connect with outside of the circle is closer to the right, then those scholars to the right within the circle are better situated to reach them. On the other hand, if the audience they are seeking to reach is to the left, then those scholars within the circle who are left of center are closer to them. By way of analogy, if you want to reach out to save someone to your left, you will extend your left hand to them, and to someone on your right, you will extend your right hand. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/image3.png) Examining the dominant culture around us, one may ask whether it is generally to the left or to the right with respect to Islamic orthodoxy. On the majority of social issues, one can observe that the dominant culture is to the left of the circle of Islamic orthodoxy.[^20] These people to the left of the orthodoxy circle will find greater affinity with those scholars who are to the left of the center *within the circle*. Sometimes there is overlap between the dominant discourse on a particular issue and a portion of the spectrum of opinions within Islamic orthodoxy, and sometimes there is no overlap. Sometimes the people you are seeking to reach will be so far to the left they are on a cliff, ready to abandon the faith altogether, and those inside the circle on the left are best able to reach them. The goal is to reach such people to bring them back to a secure attachment with their faith and gradually expand the scope of their acceptance.[^21] It will thus be natural that a team dedicated to Islamic apologetics in this type of society would comprise mostly a team of scholars, preachers, researchers, and academics who are situated to the left of the *center of the orthodoxy circle* although still within that circle. The positions of the faith that they defend and promote are generally to the left. However, the line that defines the boundary of the circle may sometimes be unclear and one undoubtedly runs the risk of researchers at the perimeter of the circle overstepping that line and sometimes falling into something beyond the realm of orthodoxy. Moreover, the constant output of left-leaning positions by an influential organization will influence the trend in the community, producing a gradual drift towards the left. We can term this a *left-shift* of the community. Sometimes also, there is a counter-reaction amongst Muslims to the prevailing trends in society where everything that seems ‘liberal’ or ‘Western’ is rejected as antithetical to Islam, without any critical evaluation or sound scholarship. We can term this a *right-shift*. Those proponents of a right-shift promote the most conservative views and denounce positions that they fail to realize are actually within the spectrum of legitimate opinions in Islamic orthodoxy. In their rush to counteract “leftist” influences, they may actually negate authentic teachings within the Islamic tradition.[^22] Moreover, the reductionist attitude that regards everything ‘Western’ as un-Islamic is rejected. The Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ utilized the experiential knowledge of the Romans and Persians in deciding not to forbid his followers from intercourse during breastfeeding.[^23] The noble companion ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ رضي الله عنه was able to testify to the positive traits of Byzantine (Eastern Roman) civilization when he said, “They are the most forbearing of people at the time of turmoil, the most resilient of people at the time of calamity, the quickest to attack after flight, the kindest  concerning the destitute, the orphan, and the weak, and the most resistant to oppression by their kings.”[^24] What is a balanced institute or organization to do in the midst of such trends? Simultaneously releasing both left-leaning and right-leaning positions may just confuse the audience. Although most of the output may be more left-leaning within the circle of orthodoxy to bring people back into it and afford them an incubatory period after their return, a suitable compromise is often to give a platform to healthy intellectual conversations taking place within Islamic scholarship; it shows people the spectrum of left-leaning and right-leaning positions within orthodoxy and also shows people the proper manners and etiquette of debating and disagreeing. There are two steps to mitigate the risk of inducing an ideological shift. First, a strong culture and awareness of Islamic orthodoxy must be fostered within the organization in order to avoid excessive laxity or rigidity and reemphasize the need for scholarly rigor in grounding the positions one promotes. One must not invalidate positions either on the left or the right because that will distort the circle of orthodoxy. Being stationed within the left of the circle should not mean that one skews the circle by rejecting the validity of those situated to the right. Criticizing the error of capitulating to the dominant culture should not entail rejecting valid positions within Islamic orthodoxy simply because they align with the dominant culture. It is also important for one to benefit from outside critique particularly when it observes the due *adab al-ikhtilāf* (etiquettes of disagreement) and helps to build, correct, and improve efforts of Islamic organizations rather than denigrate and discredit them. Constructive criticism complements and enhances one’s work in Islamic apologetics. ### Damaging people’s respect for the tradition and its bearers It is one thing to offer people a more lenient position that is valid, but it is another thing altogether to denigrate or marginalize the equally-valid stricter position. If one continually trivializes or negates something established within the tradition, it brings about a sense of distrust for the bearers of the tradition. If one seeks to connect with people by selecting a position to the left, one should not omit mentioning the positions of those at the center or to the right and contextualizing those positions as necessary. For instance, someone may promote only the position of the Mālikī authorities who do not consider the saliva of dogs to be impure (*najas*) and they may claim that there is no problem in having dogs in the household, without acknowledging that the majority of schools (Ḥanafī, Shāfiʿī, Ḥanbalī) disagree with that position.[^25] It is fine to promote one position so long as one acknowledges the existence and validity of others. People need to know the spectrum of valid opinions in Islam. While customization of one’s presentation for one’s audience is important, when dealing with apologetics, people should be given an honest and accurate representation of the tradition. If one is not balanced in one’s presentation, one will shake people’s confidence in their tradition. People will begin to think, “Why would so many scholars of Islam convey such strict and unacceptable positions? I cannot trust the Islamic tradition to convey the truth.” Similarly, if one dismisses valid Islamic opinions simply because they seem more “left-leaning” or “liberal” and denigrates the scholars who issue such opinions, they will also shake people’s confidence in the bearers of the Islamic tradition. Once the status of the tradition or Muslim scholars in the collective consciousness of Muslims is sabotaged, one will have done permanent damage and nothing can replace that authority. Once the tradition falls, or qualified scholarship falls, what replaces it is nothing more than a version of ‘Islam’ in which every person comes up with their own understanding, which will largely be based on the dominant social paradigm rather than knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah. ### Damaging people’s perception of Islam’s relevance in our times by overstating the historical nature of fiqh Often in the realm of Islamic apologetics, it is common for people to discuss how legal verdicts have changed, how certain discussions in classical works of Islamic jurisprudence are related to a particular historical context that no longer applies, or how certain rulings are contingent on circumstantial variables, and so forth. While this discussion has scholarly merit and validity, and relates to a well-established principle (i.e., *taghayyur al-fatwá*) discussed by scholars like Imams al-Qarāfī, Ibn al-Qayyim, and others, the result of overemphasizing these points leads to the erroneous perception that Islamic law is not really relevant for modern times or that it has no fixed constants. This opens the door for people to dismiss whatever they wish from classical jurisprudence by saying, “Times have changed!” On the other hand, if one is too rigid in one’s conceptualization of Islamic law and dismisses the well-established concept of *taghayyur al-fatwá* as ‘modernist notions,’ one will damage the capacity of Islamic legal thought to accommodate and adapt to new developments. So how, then, do you balance the flexibility of the legal framework of Islam with the timeless continuity and permanency of the Divine instruction (*al-khiṭāb al-ilāhī*)? The answer is that you explain to people that there is a clearly developed science within Islamic legal theory that accounts for when and how subsidiary rulings undergo change, and that this is a science practiced by the greatest qualified jurists and committees of scholars. Therefore, for scholars explaining to people that a particular ruling is historically contextualized, it is not adequate to simply state that times have changed; rather, scholars must specify the legal mechanism that accounts for that change so people know exactly why this change is one that can be accommodated within Islamic law. This is something that must be undertaken by those with the requisite expertise in Islamic law and such scholars should therefore maintain a presence in the field of Islamic apologetics, to ensure that scholarly rigor is maintained and hollow claims do not become the basis of *daʿwah*. Similarly, if one explains Islamic law only with reference to *Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah* (Objectives of Islamic law), this is not sufficient since one would find that the principles can be easily interpreted to accommodate any ideology.  After all, all people agree on these objectives just as they agree on the platonic triad of truth, beauty, and goodness/justice, or the motto of the French Revolution: liberté, egalité, fraternité. However, it is critical to emphasize that Islamic law did not merely establish abstract objectives but also specified concrete means of achieving these objectives. The fundamental means specified by Islamic law are timeless and unchanging while some areas of rulings are subject to change and accommodation. ### Conclusion on pitfalls Being aware of the pitfalls of Islamic apologetics is vital for anyone engaged in this discipline. But we must not let fear of the pitfalls paralyze us and prevent us from involvement, given the critical importance of this work for spreading the message of Islam, defending its doctrines, and strengthening the Muslim community. Therefore, we must be cognizant of these pitfalls, we must be ever-vigilant of their presence, and we must pay attention to strategies to minimize and mitigate them while continuing the essential work of apologetics. --- ## Limitations of apologetics Islamic apologetics is not without its limitations. For one, most people do not listen with the intent of seeking to understand or seeking truth. This is why people rarely convert simply from listening to a debate or being debated with. Simply overwhelming someone with your intelligence and proof does not open them up to contemplating your message. In fact, it may make them feel defeated, more defensive, and sometimes even more adamant in their position. The second limitation is that people frequently disguise their emotional discontentment with an intellectual objection. The over-emphasis on rational arguments and ‘reasoning’ neglects the fact that human choices are frequently driven by social and emotional factors, and often a rational argument is constructed to support a judgment that one has already made.[^26] A person may follow a path based on social attachment such as bonds of friendship, or emotional experiences such as a positive or negative experience within the religious community. The Qur’an recognizes this as a matter of fact: “And \[Abraham\] said, ‘You have taken idols \[for worship\] instead of Allah, only to keep \[the bond of\] harmony among yourselves in this worldly life’” (29:25). For instance, a person may go to a church, mosque, or synagogue to meet friends or to have a good time. However, when one feels disconnected from the community or is mistreated by members in the community and decides they wish to leave, they may feel the need to make an intellectual argument to justify what they are doing. Thus, it is important to not exaggerate the importance of apologetics for conveying the message and inviting people to the truth. Apologetics is not the ultimate goal in and of itself. The goal is to maintain the community upon divine guidance. The brother or sister volunteering in the soup kitchen or helping the homeless or visiting the sick, or the family volunteering at the *masjid* and greeting people may actually be influencing more people than the one engaged in research in apologetics. This doesn’t undermine the  importance of apologetics, it simply means that one must diversify one’s approach—or diversify the approaches in the community towards inviting others to the truth. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs reminds us that one of the most fundamental needs is a sense of belonging.[^27] The work of the Muslim community should emphasize the importance of these social aspects in the cultivation of faith. This does not in any way negate the fact that convincing intellectual arguments should be provided; it just means that a comprehensive approach should not neglect focusing on the determinants of social discontentment that divert people from the truth. The third limitation is that apologetics is usually slanted towards defense, while building certainty will always be superior to answering doubts. Of course, Islamic apologetics should be much larger in scope and much more sophisticated than simply refuting misconceptions. It articulates the Islamic hierarchy of values; it articulates evidence for the truth of principles that Islam advocates. It involves constructing an entire intellectual discourse that advances rational explanations in favor of the doctrines and rulings of Islam. However, intellectual conviction is not the only factor in the attainment of faith and one must not lose sight of that. Divine guidance is a gift bestowed by Allah upon those who seek His pleasure: > There has come to you from Allah a Light and a clear Book by which Allah guides those who pursue His pleasure to the ways of peace and brings them out from darknesses into the light, by His permission, and guides them to a straight path. (Qur’an 5:15-16) Knowledge becomes a means of guidance when it is accompanied by a sincere pursuit of Divine pleasure. That pursuit is not a matter of mere theoretical abstract arguments; it is about fostering a deep emotional attachment to the faith and developing one’s love for Allah and His Messenger. This is what ultimately motivates a person to strive to follow the faith in all aspects of one’s life. Nurturing certainty will always be superior to answering doubts because it provides one with the spiritual foundations to contextualize problematic issues and to see the bigger picture behind each individual issue. --- ## A general scheme for apologetics What kind of work does Islamic apologetics entail? How does one structure an answer to a particular question? A classification can help us understand the different components that make up a satisfactory answer, although we must remember that classifications are flexible and not set in stone. The following are three elements that constitute answers in Islamic apologetics: clarification, justification, and application. ### 1\. Clarification - What does Islam say about this issue? The Muslim apologist seeks to gather information related to the substance of the issue. For instance, if the question pertains to Islamic law, they will consult the relevant manuals of Islamic jurisprudence to research the spectrum of opinions that exist in the Islamic tradition, while privileging the opinions that are the ‘relied upon’ views of the four schools, also noting other opinions that existed amongst the Prophet’s companions رضي الله عنهم and the relevant evidences from the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah on the subject. A person researching a particular verse of the Qur’an has the vast tradition of *tafsīr* available to study its explanation. If the question pertains to an issue that requires knowledge of a foreign discourse or novel topic (e.g., What Islamic teachings pertain to cognitive-behavioral therapy? What is the Islamic position on stem cell therapy or bitcoin investments?), this will require integrating novel research with traditional Islamic learning and will require consultation with experts. People may be misinformed about the spectrum of valid opinions on a particular issue such as what Islam teaches about military conquest, for example. So the first segment of the response relates to providing the relevant content from the scriptural sources and the Islamic tradition. ### 2\. Justification - Why does Islam say this? Why is this the best view? This is really the heart of Islamic apologetics, which is systematic argumentative discourse in defense of doctrine. This is where one must take into consideration the aspects of one’s audience including knowledge of culture, background of listener, trends, etc. The goal is to justify those positions outlined during clarification. In other words, the aim is to justify positions within Islamic orthodoxy. Furthermore, one should not present a skewed perception of orthodoxy in the minds of recipients by giving unequal weight to different positions. In this step, one is focused on explaining a teaching in its original context. Why did this particular ruling occur during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? What was the context back then? Why did Muslim scholars talk about this issue or that issue? What were the arguments they used to support their conclusion? For instance, how did the political situation at that time relate to rulings concerning military conquest? This often requires a team with sound scholarship in multiple domains and appropriate analogies to situations familiar to modern audiences. Bear in mind that in today’s era, audiences are somewhat merged. There is no longer a complete partition between the content that is provided for Muslim students and the general public. The material that is used to address misconceptions and refute allegations against Islam may also have a pedagogical function in teaching the next generation of Muslim students, whether directly or indirectly. At the same time, the material used to teach Muslim students may also often be available online for the general public to access and learn from. Therefore, when eccentric opinions are not only mentioned in apologetics but disproportionately emphasized and promoted, this will trickle down and influence what Muslims understand to be mainstream Islam. ### 3\. Application - How do these rulings apply to us today? Once you have clarified the Islamic position(s), and provided rational arguments to defend those positions while analyzing the philosophical background of your target audience, the third step is to talk about how it applies today. How do you cross the bridge between “antiquity” and “modernity”? Although we want to avoid the pitfall mentioned earlier about “damaging people’s perception of Islam’s relevance in our times by overstating the historical nature of *fiqh*,” we do recognize that there are major differences between cultures today and historical cultures. There is a huge gap between peoples’ lifestyles today and what they were like historically. This will have relevance in many areas, particularly rulings related to sociocultural norms, societal, and political issues. **Note on sequence:** these three steps will not always occur in the same order. For some issues, the major concern is the application today, and one should first provide disclaimers about application before proceeding to clarifying the original context of the ruling. This needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case scenario. For instance, on the subject of slavery, the Muslim apologist needs to first stress the emphatic rejection of reinstating slavery in the world today by contemporary Islamic scholarship. After that, one can proceed to clarification, by examining the history of Islamic teachings in response to slavery, the importance of freeing slaves in the early Muslim community,[^28] the elimination of many sources of slavery, and the Prophet Muhammad’s condemnation of selling a free person as a slave.[^29] Some would also note the vast difference between what was tolerated in the Muslim world and what comprises our collective memory of slavery such that some scholars even refuse to translate “*riqq*” as “slavery”; for instance, ‘slaves’ were leading scholars and army generals, and the path to ascending the social ladder, earning freedom, and even becoming rulers was open. As well, Islam condemned racism (even if some Muslims didn't always live up to its teachings) and historically slaves in the Muslim world came from all ethnic backgrounds. One would also clarify how Islam provided rulings that curtailed slavery and how it vigorously promoted, and at times mandated, the emancipation of slaves. Then, one can provide justification that explains the original historical context and how this gradual approach was the optimal method for addressing slavery in the pre-modern world. --- ## Guidelines for the apologist At this juncture, it is important to reiterate key guidelines for those engaged in Islamic apologetics to keep in mind. Of course, being ‘engaged in Islamic apologetics’ is not limited to those writing academic research papers or participating in online debates. In fact, even a friendly chat with your neighbors, co-workers, or family members could revolve around questions that are addressed by Islamic apologetics. In an era in which so many people are confronted by doubts about religion and social forces that look down upon religious belief, it is not uncommon to be asked questions about why Muslims pray or fast, what Islam teaches about human rights, what do shariʿah and jihad really mean, and so on. Sometimes people need to be persuaded with a rational explanation in support of what Islam teaches; if they are experiencing a crisis of faith, it can help them rediscover the beauty of Islam and renew their conviction in the faith. So a certain level of familiarity with Islamic apologetics and its guidelines is essential for all of us. ### Intentions and prayer The first guideline involves renewing your intentions, as with all endeavors in Islam. But for those involved in Islamic apologetics, this is particularly critical for another reason, which is that one must recognize one’s own vulnerability. No one’s faith is guaranteed, and some of those involved in apologetics may themselves fall into a state of doubt and question their own faith. The Qur’an contains the supplication, “Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us and grant us from Yourself mercy. Indeed, You are the Bestower” (Qur’an 3:8). No one should consider themselves immune; rather, one should recognize that guidance is in the Hands of Allah, and one must constantly turn to Him in prayer. One’s work in Islamic apologetics must be accompanied by an increase in prayer with sincerity and devout spirituality and reverence, recognizing one’s dire need for Allah and one’s brokenness before Him. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “By Allah, without Allah we would not have been guided, neither would we have fasted, nor would we have prayed.”[^30] Without Allah’s guidance, a person will not be able to find truth or obtain certainty in it, no matter how intelligent they are and how many intellectual arguments they examine. Intentions and prayer are therefore indispensable. ### Cultivating respect for scholarship If one’s objective is to invite people to the path of Allah, then this must be based upon sound knowledge of the religion. The Qur’an states: “Say, ‘This is my way; I invite to Allah *with insight* (*baṣīrah*), I and those who follow me. And Exalted is Allah; and I am not of those who associate others with Him’” (Qur’an 12:108). The meaning of inviting to Allah with insight is that one invites with clear knowledge of the religion.[^31] And if knowledge of the religion is important, then one should recognize one’s own limitations and the expertise possessed by those who have devoted their lives to the study of Islamic theology, jurisprudence, hadith, and Qur’anic sciences. One of the most dangerous matters in apologetics is to become so comfortable answering questions that one inflates one’s own authority to a point where they casually dismiss the opinions of senior scholars as too strict, too lax, or irrelevant, and instead advance their own personal opinions. Another danger is some apologists focus their efforts on pointing out the errors of other scholars and apologists rather than substantively advancing the case for Islam through their own work. Their time and efforts are completely consumed by combing the work of their rivals for factual errors instead of addressing the avalanche of anti-Islamic propaganda attacking belief in God, the integrity of the Qur’an and Sunnah, the morality of the Prophet ﷺ, and so on. While all humans are fallible and should be corrected and advised appropriately, social media has created a hyper-critical environment where scholars from all directions and orientations are routinely denigrated for their errors and their positive contributions are dismissed. The net result is that the layperson witnessing all this loses respect for Islamic scholarship altogether and turns instead to the interpretations of Islam offered by those who are unqualified and unschooled in the methodology of understanding the sacred texts. One must learn to defer to the senior people of knowledge with respect to clarifying the Islamic understanding of matters. Scholars of Islam are indeed the inheritors of the prophets عليهم السلام and play a critical role in spreading the prophetic inheritance, which is sound knowledge of the faith. When it comes to the general scheme for apologetics, one must therefore take very seriously the discussions of scholars in the initial step of clarification; when it comes to justification, the apologist will need to use analogies and language that suit the audience. Indeed, the majority of those engaged in Islamic apologetics should come from the ranks of the scholars in order to provide sufficient grounding in the field and to develop the discourse appropriately. Those involved in apologetics will become more adept at providing persuasive justifications and interpretations than those who are not. ### Good listening and wise steering of the discussion The third guideline involves practicing good listening. All too often a person presents a certain objection against Islam that is actually not the root cause of their underlying dissatisfaction and spiritual consternation. If you give them a chance to share their concerns and you listen attentively, you will be in a better position to discover the real root cause of their concerns. Sometimes it is not so much an objection against Islam per se, but rather the unwelcoming image of Islam that has been projected by certain individuals or groups in their life. Practicing good listening also allows one to see the entirety of what concerns the questioner, or the entirety of an opponent’s objections, and then respond with what is best suited to the conversation. We see this in the example of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself: > The Quraysh selected ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah as the most learned amongst them to go and speak with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So ʿUtbah went to the Prophet and said: “O Muhammad, are you better than \[your father\] ʿAbdullah?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained silent. ʿUtbah said: “Are you better than \[your grandfather\] ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained silent.  > > ʿUtbah said: “If you concede that they are better than you, they have worshipped the gods who you reject. And if you claim that you are better than them, speak until we hear your opinion, for I swear by Allah we have not seen someone who was a greater cause of misfortune for his people than you. You divided our people, dispersed our authority, and found fault in our religion, and disgraced us amongst the Arabs until they began to say that amongst Quraysh there is a sorcerer, or amongst Quraysh there is a soothsayer. We are on the brink of falling into a civil war that will eradicate us (lit. we await only a cry like that of the pregnant woman before swords are drawn upon one another). > > If you seek leadership, we will select you as our ruler to reign over us as long as you live. If you desire wealth, then we will gather our wealth until you are the richest man among Quraysh. If you desire intimacy, then choose any of the women of Quraysh, and we will marry you to ten.” Then the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said to him: “Are you finished, O Abū al-Walīd?” He said: “Yes.” Then the Prophet ﷺ began to recite Sūrat Fuṣṣilat.[^32] In this example, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ waited patiently for ʿUtbah to finish before responding to him. Moreover, not every objection is worth addressing directly; sometimes there is an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. ʿUtbah had made a variety of offers premised on the assumption that the Prophet ﷺ was a man seeking materialistic gain. He had also posed certain questions about whether the Prophet ﷺ was better than his ancestors who worshipped idols—questions that the Prophet wisely did not engage with and remained silent. Why didn’t the Prophet ﷺ simply affirm that he was better than ʿAbd Allāh and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib since we know that to be the case? ʿAbd Allah and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib were highly regarded amongst the Quraysh and in their tribalistic society all honor and authority came from one’s lineage. Had the Prophet ﷺ repudiated the virtue of his ancestors, it would have taken the conversation in a very different direction, focused on his rejection of everything the Quraysh upheld as sacred, whereas he instead turned to Sūrat al-Fuṣṣilat in order to focus the conversation on what was of far greater importance, the Quraysh’s rejection of their Creator. Today there are also topics that may evoke strong negative emotions from one’s listeners which will turn them away from one’s message before one has even had the opportunity to raise the message of Islam itself; sometimes unpacking those misconceptions requires a great deal of contextualization and paradigm-shifting that the average person may not be prepared for in the span of a short conversation. This requires wisdom in knowing which topic is most worthy of time and attention. The Prophet ﷺ listened to ʿUtbah without interrupting him in spite of all the things he mentioned that were worthy of being repudiated. This is wisdom: rather than focusing on everything wrong with what the person is saying, guide them to something that is better. Sometimes a person is so focused on refuting what another person is saying that they don’t pay attention to the root cause of that person’s condition in the first place. ### Intellectual humility Francis Bacon said, “A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”[^33] The famous British philosopher and leading advocate of atheism in his time, Antony  Flew, later changed his opinion and embraced belief in God after some sixty years of repudiating it.[^34] Many people, prematurely impressed by their own rationality, make grandiose claims without spending time gaining proficiency in the relevant intellectual discourses, learning from the experts, and pondering over the matter in depth. A sure sign of failure in any intellectual endeavor is to fall prey to arrogance and the harms of the ego. In order to have a beneficial conversation, what is required is humbleness. The importance of humbleness applies to both the listener and the presenter. The apologist should exemplify humbleness and invite their audience to it as well, in the interest of a fruitful conversation. The impact of personal ego on a discourse is detrimental and will render it futile. Anyone engaged in apologetics should seek to develop more conversations that occur in situations in which each person is seeking to listen and consider the points shared by the other person, rather than in situations of hostility and animosity which lack the same benefit and utility. Personal pride and ego are not the only threats to humbleness. Humbleness also entails being cognizant of what our minds are capable of, the natural limitations of the human faculties, and recognizing that there are matters that transcend them. Some people may feel that science provides answers for everything but, in fact, the majority of people’s most valuable beliefs are not ones that can be verified in a scientific experiment or by direct empirical observation. One finds the philosopher David Hume arguing that one cannot even prove the relationship between cause and effect; they are merely repetitive impressions that are vivacious enough to produce belief. People think that they witness cause and effect in the natural world, like a fire burning wood, but all they really witness is that two processes coincide temporally and they infer a connection between them. Although I affirm natural secondary causes based on the potency that Allah constantly creates in them, I use this example only to illustrate the limitations of rationality. Something as integral to our reasoning as cause and effect cannot itself be demonstrated empirically. Many concepts in science itself are useful to explain phenomena but are not themselves observable—have you directly observed electricity itself or have you observed phenomena accounted for by electricity? Moreover, much of what we believe about the natural laws has been conveyed to us on the authority of other experts and we are content accepting their testimony rather than attempting to repeat the scientific experiments ourselves. Additionally, many of our thoughts are merely the product of the dominant culture in which we were raised. A person presenting an objection to a religious concept, teaching, or text will not be successful in finding a satisfying answer until they come to terms with their own ideological and cultural presumptions and move to a stance of neutrality and intellectual humility. Take, for example, the penal code in Islam; much of the reaction towards it is emotionally driven and based on imagery consumed in popular media and news reports. For someone to objectively contest the efficacy of the system, instead of basing their objections on their feelings, they should provide academically sound and statistically significant studies that prove its cost-benefit ratio for the society to be unfavorable and inferior to other legal systems. When we talk about matters of the unseen, matters of theology, we have to recognize the limits of the human mind. In the Western philosophical tradition, since the time of Plato and Aristotle, it was always essentially assumed that the mind could answer these questions and construct answers to metaphysics; hence, we have Aristotelian metaphysics, Neoplatonic metaphysics, etc. Arguably one of the most influential philosophers in the Western world in the last 200 years, Immanuel Kant, turned this entire paradigm on its head. In his *Critique of Pure Reason*, Kant explored the question of what the mind is really capable of, and he argued that the *synthetic a priori*[^35] propositions that characterize metaphysics are not really possible independent of subjective human experience. All that we know is filtered through the structures and concepts inherent in the human mind and/or those largely or entirely determined by human experience (depending on one’s position on the rationalist-empiricist spectrum). Since we can never get beyond that, we can never know about the reality of things in themselves. Metaphysics that transcends our experience is therefore impossible.[^36] The human mind cannot empirically examine the unseen and does not possess *a priori* knowledge to make assumptions about the unseen. This led Kant to state, “I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge, in order to make room for faith.”[^37] As Muslims, we take a balanced position on the role of the intellect. We recognize it has fundamental limitations and therefore needs divine guidance, and yet we do not negate its capacity to provide basic indications of truth and to assist in the journey to faith. The intellect (*ʿaql*) is able to grasp universal categories abstracted from particulars in the external world, issue judgments concerning particulars, and draw inferences and comparisons.[^38] The potency of the intellect works in tandem with sensory perception to utilize experiential data so as to form judgments about particular existents. When it comes to perception, Muslim scholars also recognized the epistemic role of internal sensations and emotions and thus described knowledge of God as being something that is reinforced by both intellect (*ʿaql*) and perception (*ḥiss*), and rooted in primordial nature (*fiṭrah*).[^39] Therefore, aside from inferring from the universe about the existence of God and the perfection of His essential attributes, the mind cannot, independent of Divine Revelation, issue declarations about the unseen. Therefore, in matters of Islamic apologetics, it is important that we do not irrationally exaggerate the role of rationality. We should recognize that so long as the fundamental message of Islam is evident to us, that is sufficient for us to follow it dutifully. We do not need to derive rational explanations for every matter of the afterlife, angels, *jinn*, questions about the nature of the Divine, and so forth. When the Prophet ﷺ told his companions that the deceased will be questioned in the grave and be made to sit up (which seems physically impossible in the grave), his companions did not feel the need to ask how that would be possible since they recognized that it pertains to a reality that completely transcends that which is accessible to the human mind.[^40] Indeed, to subject such matters of the unseen to the human faculty of rationality would itself be irrational. ### Invoking the power of Qur’anic arguments Another general guideline for apologists is to ground their work in Qur’anic discourse and to enrich their discussions by referring back to the Qur’an as much as possible. The eloquent words and message of the Qur’an are proofs in and of themselves and a soul constantly exposed to its beautiful verses will be able to reawaken its *fiṭrah*. For instance, prior to accepting Islam, Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim رضي الله عنه heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting the following verses of Surah al-Ṭūr: > Were they created by nothing? Or were they themselves the creators? Or did they create the Heavens and the Earth? Nay, but they have no firm belief! Or do they own the treasures of Your Lord? Or have they been given the authority to do as they like? (Qur’an 52:35-37) Jubayr said, “I felt as though my heart would fly (from my chest)!”[^41] In other words, the profundity of the questions posed in these verses recited melodiously by the Prophet ﷺ struck Jubayr on a deep level and planted the spiritual seeds that would eventually lead to him embracing Islam. The power and perfection of this Qur’anic argument are seen in how it progresses from an ontological impossibility (being created by nothing) to an even greater ontological impossibility (creating oneself), to yet an even greater ontological impossibility (creating the universe that predates one’s existence and that one inhabits). The Qur’an provides a level of discourse that is persuasive and sound on multiple levels: rhetorical, dialectical, and philosophical. It appeals to individual human emotions and phenomenology (the way in which a person consciously reflects from the first-person perspective) as well as sophisticated intellectual discourse in metaphysics. A similar ontological procedure is seen in the Qur’anic fashion of negating multiple deities and affirming monotheism. There are two passages in the Qur’an that explicitly discuss this, one in Sūrat al-Isrāʾ and the other in Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ. Let us consider the reasoning in the first passage: > Say, ‘If there were other gods with Him, as they claim, they would have sought a way to the Lord of the Throne.’ (Qur’an 17:42) This passage in Sūrat al-Isrāʾ invalidates the possibility of multiple unequal gods. If they are unequal, then the lesser gods would have sought the pleasure of the Lord of the Throne, and if they are in fact dependent on the Lord of the Throne, then they are not truly divine omnipotent beings and cannot be described as gods. It would be more logically sound to conceive of them as angels rather than deities. > Had there been within the heavens and earth gods besides Allah, they would have been ruined. So Exalted is Allah, Lord of the Throne, above what they describe. (Qur’an 21:22) This passage in Sūrat al-Anbiyā’ discusses the possibility of gods of equal power, equal jurisdiction, and equal authority. If they had disagreed, this would result in conflict between their forces and would entail chaos in their commands. If someone were to argue that they always agree, there are two options: either their agreement is necessary or it is merely possible. If it is necessary, then they do not in fact possess two distinct minds since their will is one, and they are in that case one conscious being. If it is possible for them to disagree, then the very possibility of their disagreeing would invalidate this proposition since it would entail an existential self-contradiction. The Qur’anic discourse is readily comprehensible to the average human being who reflects on it. It does not require knowledge of any of the complex jargon or abstruse terminological distinctions found in philosophical theology, such as the famous arguments relating to the origination of accidents and bodies, or the createdness of entities that are characterized by composition (*tarkīb*).[^42] The power of the Qur’anic discourse is that it engages the human mind directly, asking questions for the sincere human being to contemplate and ponder. It does not present complicated dialectical arguments that are beyond the capacity of the average human being to understand, but rather it presents vivid examples (*amthāl*) and signs (*āyāt*) that powerfully provoke the soul to contemplate the very nature of existence. The Qur’an and Sunnah also teach human beings what are the questions most worthy of our attention in the first place. All too often we are focused on asking the questions posed in the dominant culture around us while neglecting other questions that are more beneficial for our learning and self-development. If one is lost and searching for directions, it will not avail them to ask what the weather is like at their destination. In a job interview, the relevant question to ask is “What are your qualifications?” not “Where are you from?” If a ship is sinking, the question to ask is where are the lifeboats, not who installed them in the first place. Thus we see the wisdom in the Prophet’s response when he was asked by a man “When is the hour?,” he ﷺ replied by directing him to the more useful question, “And what have you prepared for it?”[^43] In modern culture, we have largely been conditioned to ask irrelevant questions, to pursue pedantry and triviality that will not benefit us in the long run. The Qur’an rescues us from this and directs us to pursue beneficial knowledge that will lead to the purification of our souls. It is therefore important for the apologist to not be hostage to the questions posed by an external agenda, leaving the conversation forever circulating around issues that will not lead people to an appreciation of the need for turning back to Allah.  Rather, the questions to discuss and the matters of importance are those set by the agenda of the Divine revelation, questions that awaken humans to the reality of their journey toward Allah *subḥānahu wa-taʿālá*. Those involved in Islamic apologetics must bear in mind that their primary goal is not to convince their audience of a particular viewpoint on matters of contemporary events or politics; the *primary* goal is to call to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. If even one person is led to Islam through these efforts, it will be a greater reward than possessing fine red camels.[^44] One’s entire strategy in Islamic apologetics must be appropriately structured toward this goal, as will be noted in the subsequent section. ### How to reconcile science and scripture Muslims involved in the field of Islamic apologetics will inevitably encounter instances where there is a perceived conflict between certain statements in scripture and the empirical sciences. Some may unnecessarily interpret scripture in ways that affirm contradictions with science when there are other equally plausible routes of interpretation. Meanwhile some reject the apparent meaning of a scriptural text when presented with even the slightest tension with claims in the empirical sciences. It is essential that one is equipped with the principles to evaluate the strength of different pieces of evidence appropriately to understand how to reconcile presumed contradictions. To this end, Muslim scholars and theologians discussed this subject extensively and arrived at various positions. The universal law (*al-qānūn al-kullī*) addresses the possibility of conflict between reason and revelation. It was first suggested by Imām al-Ghazālī (rA), and later developed by Imām al-Rāzī (rA) in Asās al-Taqdīs[^45] where he said that if the outward meaning of the revealed texts and the definitive conclusions of rational thought are in conflict, then we must give precedence to reason and either make figurative interpretation of scripture (*ta’wīl*) accord with reason or refrain from assigning meaning to it (*tafwīḍ*). To do otherwise would amount to a rejection of both reason and revelation since revelation is grounded in reason. Imām Ibn Taymiyyah (rA) critiqued Imam al-Rāzī’s universal law, and provided in *Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql*[^46] his alternative, which could safely be described as the Modified Universal Law. Ibn Taymiyyah argued that there is no simple binary of ‘reason versus revelation’ and that reason is not one undifferentiated category of conclusive (*qaṭʿī*) rational output. He argued that instead most rational propositions are speculative (*ẓannī*). Similarly, revelation is also not a homogenous category, but rather contains some scriptural texts that are clear and definition alongside other scriptural texts that are subject to varying interpretation, and also includes hadith of varying levels of authenticity. Therefore, what is required is to give precedence to what is conclusive, regardless of whether it is rational or scriptural. When both scriptural texts and empirical data on a matter are *ẓanni*, then one must look for the more probative (*rājiḥ*) proofs. While al-Rāzī may have been addressing the conflict with the conclusive indicants of reason, Ibn Taymiyyah denied that they ever conflicted with the obvious implications of revelation. This disagreement defined the borders of orthodoxy. These luminaries agreed that conclusive (*qaṭʿī*) rational knowledge cannot be dismissed. They agreed that the truths of revelation accord with the truths of sound reason. An attack on reason’s conclusive output is in fact an attack on revelation as well. Moreover, Ibn Taymiyyah who had a more pro-Athari approach here also concluded that when *ẓanni* conclusions conflict, we look for the more probative (*râjiḥ*) proofs. While this framework was discussed by Muslim theologians with reference to conflicts between reason (*ʿaql*) and scripture (*naql*), a similar framework can be implemented for conflicts between scripture and empirical knowledge from the senses (*ḥiss*), which may have the same weight as rational knowledge. From the foregoing discussion we learn that when we are confronted with a potential conflict between the scriptures and reason or the empirical findings of science, we should think of the quaternary division of conclusive scriptural, conclusive scientific, speculative scriptural, and speculative scientific proofs. Then, we should determine the value of the different proofs and seek to reconcile between them. If the conclusive proofs appear to contradict, we need more research because they would never contradict in actual fact. If we ascertained that the conclusive proofs of science conflict with the speculative proofs of the scriptures, we should re-examine our interpretation of the scriptures  and seek a better understanding, or provide an explanation for the conflict. For example, it is known that the shortest duration of pregnancy is less than six months (24 weeks gestation). How do we explain the consensus reported by many scholars to the contrary?[^47] This would require us to visit the different wordings of this consensus, and how it was derived from the Qur’anic verses, as well as the strength of what is known as ‘tacit consensus’ (*ijmāʿ al-sukūtī*). One potential reconciliation of the perceived conflict is through qualifying the original understanding with caveats that take into consideration our new empirical knowledge, as follows: What is meant by the minimum duration of pregnancy is the period in which the newborn usually lives without external medical assistance, and this does not conflict with the pregnancy that was born in less than this period and lived, because this type of birth survived thanks to Allah’s Will because of external medical care, and this in not a normal case like all other newborn children. Those who live in our age of these children—who are rarely born in a period of less than six months—is not due to the fact that the minimum duration of pregnancy is less than six months but it is due to the development of medicine and ways of rescuing these premature babies from death, by Allah’s Will.[^48] This is supported by certain reports of the consensus that speak of the possibility of a fetus being born alive at less than six months, but not surviving afterwards. While this may be an adequate reconciliation for some, it is not for others. It seems from the language of some reports of consensus that the scholars understood from the subtle scriptural inferences the impossibility of their survival at less than six months. For those uncontent with this reconciliation, the next question would be the definitive nature of tacit consensus. The answer is clear: they are not definitive. Therefore, we do not have an irresolvable conflict between two definitive conclusions of the scriptures and science. In summary then, the definitive conclusions of the scriptures should never be challenged by the speculative proofs of reason or science, nor should the definitive conclusions of the latter be dismissed in favor of a speculative interpretation of the scripture—no matter how popular it is. When there is a conflict between speculative *ẓanni* conclusions of the scriptures and reason, we look for the more probative (*râjiḥ*) proofs. --- ## Latitude in apologetics Earlier we learned that it was the way of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions to speak to people according to their level of understanding; therefore, in Islamic apologetics, we need to take into account the target audience in the language and framing used to discuss Islamic teachings. We should also understand that there is greater leniency, latitude, and flexibility in how matters are presented in Islamic apologetics compared to how they are presented in the framework of traditional Islamic studies in jurisprudence or theology. ### Who is your audience? If you have five minutes to explain Islam’s rulings on a subject to someone who is unfamiliar with Islam or someone who has an antagonistic view towards Islam, how will that differ from having one hour to explain it to someone who has already studied Islam? Undoubtedly, there will be differences in the style of the response, the choice of content emphasized, and the take-home points. When one has acquired a basic understanding of Islam and has committed to study the Islamic tradition as part of a curriculum, they will study and encounter rulings and teachings in a particular format that is conducive to their ability to understand that tradition. The methodical and systematic way in which they study various opinions in such a curriculum may be totally different from how an opinion is presented by a Muslim apologist during the course of dialogues with those of other faiths or debates with Islamophobes. Both the student of the tradition and the Muslim apologist are interested in an accurate representation of the truth but they are addressing different questions. For instance, the former may have the scope to study in detail the range of views on military intervention and conquest in classical discourse on jihad, while the latter is focused specifically on repudiating the misconception that Islam is a violent religion. The former will be interested in the classical juristic difference of opinion over the maximum duration of peace treaties with foreign nations, while the latter will be interested in emphasizing the prophetic prohibition of killing civilians, women, children, the elderly, and anyone who is not fighting you.[^49] We should consider, therefore, a number of different domains, each of which will have its own discourse: *iftāʾ* (giving edicts), *taʿlīm* (teaching), *naẓar* (research), *munāẓarah* (debate) and *daʿwah* (invitation to embrace Islam). In the case of *iftāʾ*, the scholar will generally provide one answer to the questioner based on what they believe is the strongest interpretation of the evidence and most applicable to the scenario of the questioner, or the ruling most suitable based on the methodology they follow in *fatwá*. In the case of teaching Islam, the student will be exposed to what they should be taught at their level of learning, which could sometimes be limited to one *madhhab*. In the course of conducting research, one may present and discuss viewpoints even outside of orthodoxy on certain topics. In the course of debate, one will specifically present those viewpoints that best illustrate the fallacy of one’s opponent’s antagonism towards Islam. In the course of *daʿwah*, one will deliberately aim to simplify the message, avoid confusing or contentious matters, and focus on what will best guide the heart and mind of the recipient. The degree of latitude differs depending on the scenario and context. It would be frivolous for a *mufti* to critique a researcher or one engaged in a debate and say, “This is not the relied-upon position for *fatwá*” since that was never the aim of those in research or debate. It would be absurd for a religious teacher to critique a *dāʿī* and say, “You did not explain the positions of scholars proportionately or the way these matters of Islamic law are understood by the experts.” The audience and context are critical. Of course, with the advent of the age of global communication and social media, a statement in the context of explaining the nuances of Islamic law for students of knowledge can be misrepresented to non-Muslim audiences on the internet and, likewise, a statement to an audience of non-Muslims countering anti-Islamic allegations may seem overly simplistic to scholarly audiences. This certainly presents greater challenges as a Muslim apologist must keep in mind not only the level of understanding of the immediate audience being addressed in the present moment but also the audience viewing the message later on the internet. It also means that Muslims should keep in mind the original audience the speaker was addressing before jumping to criticize perceived inadequacies in language or presentation. With this in mind, it will be possible for Islamic apologetics to continue to tailor the discussion to the target audience at hand. ### Does your answer change depending on the audience? On some matters in Islam subject to differing opinions, some opinions are unpalatable to some audiences because of their cultural or ideological backgrounds. Would we rather such people reject the message of Islam altogether and meet their Lord in the afterlife in a state of disbelief or would we rather they follow Islam even if they adopt a weaker position on a subsidiary issue? The goal is to call people to Islam, not to a particular school of thought or particular opinion. The guidance of the person is the prime objective. Is it not better for the person to be guided to Allah, even if they hold a weak or mistaken viewpoint on a certain secondary matter? The ultimate goal is to receive the card of faith on the Day of resurrection: Narrated ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > “Indeed Allah will distinguish a man from my *ummah* before all of creation on the Day of Judgment. Ninety-nine scrolls will be laid out for him, each scroll is as far as the eye can see, then He will say: ‘Do you deny any of this? Have those who recorded this wronged you?’ He will say: ‘No, O Lord!’ He will say: ‘Do you have an excuse?’ He will say: ‘No, O Lord!’ So He will say: ‘Rather you have a good deed with us, so you shall not be wronged today.’ Then He will bring out a card (*biṭāqah*); on it will be: ‘I testify to *Lā Ilāha Illā Allāh*, and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.’ He will say: ‘Bring your scales.’ He will say: ‘O Lord! What good is this card next to these scrolls?’ He will say: ‘You shall not be wronged.’ He said: ‘The scrolls will be put on a pan (of the scale), and the card on (the other) pan: the scrolls will be light, and the card will be heavy;, nothing is heavier than the Name of Allah.’”[^50] Is it not better that a person follows the truth in the greatest matters of faith, even if they are mistaken on lesser issues, than to lose out on faith altogether? Certainly, one must always be truthful in speech and never present something that is false or erroneous about Islam. And yet, it would be tremendously unfortunate if someone turned away from Islam because the one speaking to them was more interested in correcting them on a secondary matter or a matter that is a legitimate difference of opinion among scholars. Building on an example used earlier, let’s say that a dog-owner wants to embrace Islam and their local imam insists that they must get rid of their dog or they are living in sin, and the dog-owner says, “I love my dog like family, how can I follow a faith that tells me to part from him?” If this is an obstacle to such a person embracing the faith, should they not be informed that there are eminent Mālikī scholars who considered it permissible? Would that not better serve the interest of guiding another soul to Islam? Would it not be a major failure of prioritization to focus one’s attention and effort on convincing this man that keeping his dog is impermissible instead of focusing on guiding his heart and mind to His Creator? Imam Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله devoted considerable effort to demonstrating the invalidity of Hellenistic philosophical methods in establishing the truths of religious doctrine, such as using syllogistic arguments to prove the existence of God. However, in spite of this, he took into account the personality and background of the questioner when he wrote: > And there are some people for whom, the more obscure, prolonged, and abstruse the method and the more numerous its premises, the more it benefits him. This is because his mind has become habituated to prolonged investigation into subtle matters, so when the proof contains fewer premises, or is self-evident, his soul does not rejoice with it. So for such a person, one could utilize philosophical *kalāmī* methods due to its suitability for what he is accustomed to, not because the desired knowledge is actually contingent upon such a method.[^51] In other words, despite the numerous problems he raises about Hellenistic philosophical discourse and its ramifications, this did not prevent him from adopting a pragmatic approach in *daʿwah* and acknowledging that a complicated philosophical argument may be useful for some select audiences. This leads to a very important question: when a Muslim apologist is asked ‘What does Islam say about X?’ by someone who doubts the veracity of Islam, is it possible for them to give a different answer than they would give to an observant Muslim or student of knowledge? In other words, is it allowed for someone in Islamic apologetics to mention a minority position or even an eccentric viewpoint with respect to the Islamic tradition? In order to answer these questions, we need to first discuss what constitutes a minor position or an eccentric position. We will also consider examples in Islamic jurisprudence where the rulings may vary and the answers may be different for different people; because if this is the case in matters of *fatwá* and legal rulings, it is more certainly the case for matters of Islamic apologetics and guiding others to the faith. ### What is an eccentric (shādhdh) position? The correct understanding of Islam is based upon the divinely revealed speech of Allah (the Qur’an) and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (the Sunnah). This understanding was taken up by the companions of the Prophet ﷺ and taught to subsequent generations. The four major schools of thought (Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, Ḥanbalī) represent the dominant approaches to understanding and interpreting the scripture on matters of Islamic law. There were also many notable *mujtahid* imams in every generation; some were as great as the founders of the four schools, like al-Layth, al-Awzāʿī, Sufyān al-Thawrī,  رحمهم الله etc. This background is important to understand the scope for valid differences of opinion. There are some positions that are clearly strong because they are well-grounded in the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah and they enjoy a wide range of support from notable *mujtahid* imams. An invalid (*bāṭil*) position is one that contradicts the explicit texts of the Qur’an or the definitively transmitted Sunnah or the uncontested consensus of scholars. A minority position would be a view that is advocated by only one of the schools or some scholars in some of the schools or some *mujtahid* imams outside the four schools. Somewhere between a minority position and an invalid position lies the eccentric (*shādhdh*)[^52] position.[^53] It is a position that meets the following two criteria: (1) it has been advocated by very few scholars;[^54] and (2) it has weak or very weak evidence to support it and may even have evidence against it. At the same time, however, it is not definitively ruled out by explicit texts of the Qur’an, Sunnah, or uncontested consensus.[^55] We cannot say with certainty that it is false, like the invalid position, however it seems significantly less plausible. Of course, there is still some degree of subjectivity in what people consider weak evidence and, therefore, what they consider to be eccentric. It is also worth noting here that some may consider any position that is counter to the agreement of the four schools of law to be eccentric by definition or even invalid (within the context of *fatwá*). While it may be rare, to claim that it is altogether impossible for the truth to exist outside of the four *madhāhib* would be to add something to the religion that Allah and His Messenger ﷺ did not. For more details, refer to the discussion “Can there be truth outside the four *madhāhib*?” in the article, [Shari’ah in Today’s World: Renewing Islamic Discourse](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/hatem-elhaj/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011491000&usg=AOvVaw1aKksJJCwZ94SzHZpUJGA5).[^56] Although an eccentric position was defined earlier as a viewpoint that has weak evidence and is espoused by a very small minority of scholars, remember that some people may label any small minority viewpoint as eccentric regardless of the strength of evidence in its favor. As a result, sometimes viewpoints that seem “eccentric” at some point in history thereafter become mainstream due to widespread acceptance. A seemingly “eccentric” position may even become mainstreamed by scholars when it is founded in acceptable evidence from the Qur’an and Sunnah, when there is precedence for it among the early Muslim community (*ṣaḥābah* and *tabiʿīn*), and when it has been upheld by a *mujtahid* imam. An example is Ibn Taymiyyah’s رحمه الله view that triple pronouncement of divorce on a single occasion constitutes only one divorce. This is not the position of the four *madhāhib*; however, it has become mainstream today, supported by vast numbers of scholars around the world, and has become the law in many Muslim-majority countries (e.g., Egypt, Jordan, Syria, etc). This position enjoys strong evidence in its favor as well as overwhelming considerations for the benefit (*maṣlaḥah*) of families. Not only is this the most rationally defensible position, it has already been incorporated into orthodoxy on the strength of evidence in its favor. It is vital to remember that the goal of apologetics differs from the goal of edicts (*fatwá*). The apologist is focused on calling people to faith in Allah and helping them embrace the message of Islam. It is far better for a person to believe in Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and follow an eccentric view on some secondary or tertiary matter of the religion than for them to reject Islam altogether. In the area of apologetics, one’s aim is to defend the mainstream positions but simultaneously keep an eye on the people on the fringes and seek to gradually bring them back from the cliff. This means that the mention of some eccentric positions may be deemed necessary. Let’s consider, for instance, the concept of eternal torment in Hell. This is a difficult concept with which Muslims and non-Muslims have to grapple. The mainstream position among Muslim theologians is that the punishment of Hell is ever-lasting, except for sinful believers who will eventually emerge from it. The question Muslim apologists and others frequently encounter is why would the Most Merciful God create a creation knowing that He will send most of them to eternal torment? A defense of the mainstream position must rely on people’s established faith in the justice and wisdom of God and their comfort in delegating the whole matter to Him. However, such an approach may not work for those who find intractable difficulty with the concept, and it may be a stumbling block for someone who is still considering Islam. It is natural that the apologist may scan the tradition for possible solutions. Among the heterodox views, they will find that amongst the Muʿtazilah, some maintained that the people of Hell will turn into motionless entities that do not feel anything, and some Sufi scholars maintained that they will turn into creatures of fire that will find pleasure in the Fire.[^57] These positions may be mentioned, but they are too difficult to reconcile with the normative discourse. Another position was presented as a possibility by Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله and (arguably) his shaykh, Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله. It maintains that Hell and its dwellers will cease to exist at some point. Ibn al-Qayyim supported this position using reports from the companions and other scriptural and rational arguments. He wrote extensively on this topic in his works *Ḥādī al-Arwāḥ*, *Shifāʾ al-ʿAlīl*, and finally in *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Mursalah*.[^58] He used an orthodox methodology to build his case and did not argue this position on the basis of scarce proof or weak evidence. However, this position is not mainstream; it does not enjoy wide acceptance amongst Sunni imams. Until today, it remains a minority position (whether or not one would call it an eccentric position depends on how persuasive one finds the evidence). Yet, there are countless people who can find comfort only in this position.[^59] We can justify the mainstream position as much as we can. However, a fair mention of this position in any eschatological or theodical discussion is important out of concern for people who will have intractable difficulty with the mainstream position. We should not neglect the mainstream position and we should provide rational arguments in its defense.[^60] Yet, at the same time, one must recognize the potency of some eccentric positions in Islamic apologetics. Consider the controversy over the age of ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها at the time of her marriage to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. We have a text in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* where ʿĀʾishah herself states that she was 9 years old when she consummated the marriage with the Prophet. Most apologists defending this position cite extensive historical evidence concerning the cultural norm of early marriage in pre-modern society, the fact that ʿĀʾishah was actually engaged to Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim before marrying the Prophet ﷺ, the data concerning early physical maturation prior to the industrial revolution, other physiological and psychological data, and so on. Naturally, these justifications require some time and effort, as well as educational background on the part of one’s audience to comprehend. Some apologists instead have relied on extrapolations and inferences from other evidence (including other hadith as well as biographical *sīrah* works) to build a case for an older age at the time of marriage, saying she was 18 years old. Is this an invalid (*bāṭil*) position or an eccentric (*shādhdh)* one that may be still mentioned in the course of our apologetics? Here, methodology is critical; how you arrived at your conclusion is more important than simply looking at the conclusion itself while disregarding methodology. If someone rejects the hadith in *Bukhārī* because they do not believe that the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ or the Sunnah have a role to play in Islam, their opinion will be considered void and invalid (*bāṭil*), since their approach does not align with orthodox methodology and accepting such a viewpoint entails nullifying the scriptural sources upon which Islamic teachings are built. On the other hand, however, if a scholar argues that the collective weight of inferences from other reports raises the possibility of a subtle flaw (*ʿillah*) or discrepancy (*shudhūdh*) in the particular report mentioning the age of 9, their argument may be speculative and deemed less probable but it does not rely on methods foreign to Islam.[^61] While there are some who have advocated this view, like the contemporary Hadith scholar Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Idlibī[^62] and others, this position, while being alluded to by some imams, has not been explicitly upheld by any of them in Islamic history. How one interprets the various hadith on this topic does not impact one’s theology nor does it have a real impact on Islamic law (since any rulings derived from this hadith are also established by other evidences in Islam).[^63] So it’s important to ask what is truly at stake here. While the view that ʿĀʾishah is 18 years old may be an eccentric view, the speculative inferences from other reports in combination with the historical evidence drawn upon make it a possibility that could still be mentioned to leave a crack open and not shut the door completely in the face of an audience that will be unable to comprehend the justification of the mainstream position. **If we take the route of mentioning the eccentric position to facilitate an easy answer to a problem many find otherwise intractable, we must also ensure that the majority of energy in one’s apologetics is focused on justifying the mainstream position.** Eccentric positions are not all of equal weight. Some may be closer to invalid positions than minority positions, while others may be plausible interpretations. It is important that the mention of those positions for the sake of debate is done in a way that will guard against their promotion as viable alternatives to the mainstream ones. As well, it is important to note that in an academic discussion of a subject, the mere mention of an extremely *shādhdh* or even *bāṭil* position, for the sake of comprehensiveness and thoroughness in one’s treatment of the subject, does not constitute endorsing or promoting such positions. This is well known in Islamic scholarship. In fact, scholars in almost every Islamic discipline frequently enumerate long lists of opinions on a particular matter, some of which are so far-fetched that they do not even warrant a rebuttal.[^64] Indeed, when dialoguing with audiences that are familiar with heterodox views, it may compromise the credibility and persuasiveness of one’s approach to omit such positions and thereby appear less familiar with the breadth of views expressed on the subject. The main objective of an apologist is to show the rationality and beauty of the creed and practices of the religion to bring people into the faith (or to maintain and support people within the faith). Our certainty in a particular *fiqhī* (juristic) position will never come close to our certainty in Allah, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and Islam. The good thing is that these are the first three questions we have to answer when we enter *al-barzakh* (the period of the soul’s journey between death and the resurrection). In Islamic apologetics, we try to help people answer those very same questions as well. A goal of mentioning eccentric positions is to bypass many of the unnecessary debates which serve as distractions from the important core matters of faith. If effective strategies are applied, the mere mention of the eccentric positions will not necessarily entail mainstreaming them. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/image2.png) ### Examples of answers changing depending on the questioner It is important to remember that even in matters of *fatwá* and legal rulings, the answer may differ depending on changes in time and place since these are circumstantial variables that can affect rulings. Moreover, there are cases where the *fatwá* itself may be different depending on the questioner. For instance, Imam al-Ghazālī رحمه الله tells us in *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn* how the Prophet ﷺ gave ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, a rich man, a *fatwá* to avoid a game animal from which a hunting dog had eaten, out of fear that the dog may have caught it for himself[^65] but in a different hadith,[^66] he allowed Abū Thaʿlabah, a poor man, to eat such an animal.[^67] In Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah, it is reported that Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما was asked about whether the repentance of the murderer would be accepted and he looked at the questioner before answering in the negative. His students, thereafter, pointed out to him that his *fatwá* was counter to what he had taught them before, and he said that the enquirer looked angry, like someone who was about to commit murder.[^68] In *al-Maslak al-ʿAdl*, al-Kurdī رحمه الله reports from ʿUmar al-Baṣrī that he said about the different views supported by different scholars of the latter Shāfiʿīs: > If the enquirers are those with strong religious commitment who uphold that which is stricter and more cautious, he would answer them according to the stricter view. However, if they are weak and under the captivity of their self-interests, that he fears they may neglect the stricter position and fall in the abyss of disobedience of the rulings of the Sharia, then he should relay to them the lighter view.[^69] By way of example, let us consider the difference of opinion concerning the *niqāb* (face veil). The authorized (*muʿtamad*) position in the Ḥanbalī *madhhab* is that the face of a woman is part of the *ʿawrah* that should be covered in front of non-*maḥram* men. While acknowledging that, we find the erudite Ḥanbalī scholar al-Mardāwī (d. 885 AH) رحمه الله saying about the counter position allowing her to uncover the face, “And this position is the only one that suits the people, particularly among the neighbors and non-*maḥram* family members,” and he then goes on to say that this lighter position is the one held by al-Shafiʿī.[^70] ### Precedent for mentioning eccentric views in Islamic apologetics What precedent can we look towards in mentioning eccentric positions in Islamic apologetics? When we cite examples from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, we have to remember that we cannot draw a direct comparison between his situation and ours since he was infallible in conveying the message of Islam, so there was nothing coming from him that could be considered an “eccentric” position. The idea of a position being “strong,” “weak,” or “eccentric” only arises because of our epistemic limitations in trying to determine the intended instructions of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. So while we have a spectrum of possible views, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had a unique vantage point in knowing precisely the intent of the Law-Giver; for the Prophet ﷺ, the spectrum was a point. While a direct comparison with the example of the Prophet ﷺ concerning eccentric positions is not possible, we can still see the extent to which he went in order to bring people into the fold of Islam. We see his example in accepting the Islam of someone who would only submit on condition that he pray two prayers out of five as in the hadith of Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim.[^71] The same could be said for the Prophet ﷺ accepting Islam from *Thaqīf* who would only submit without fulfilling the obligation of *zakāt* or jihad. The Prophet ﷺ taught us that people’s faith grows with practice when he said, “They will \[eventually\] give charity and perform jihad.”[^72] **The Prophet ﷺ did not change Islam for them but accommodated the weakness of their faith**. Ḥanbalīs have referred to this as “the validity of Islam despite an invalid condition.” While the other *madhāhib* may not use such terms, the hadiths are established and the general principle is clear that someone’s Islam would not be negated by the mere failure to perform such actions. The statement of Imam Aḥmad on the subject drives the message home in reminding *dāʿī*s (callers to Islam) to not lose sight of their focus. When someone is outside of Islam, the focus is to show them how to enter the gate of Islam. Imagine someone is lost in the perilous wilderness and your intention is to direct them on how to find the nearest city for safe refuge and enter its gate, and you focus instead on debating with them over where they should stay within the city. Perhaps their desire is to spend the night at a less reputable accommodation that they think is better; debating over such details may put them off entering the city altogether. For people outside the city and for those seeking to leave the city, the focus is simply on entering the city and endearing it to them. With those who are established city-dwellers within Islam, the focus may be directed to specific details about in which parts of the city they should conduct their affairs. It must be noticed, however, that there is no way, in our times, to build complete partitions between teaching the masses and apologetics. Therefore, a fine balance must be struck to alleviate those tensions some have with certain issues in the religion without promoting eccentric positions and mainstreaming them when they do not meet the criteria for being mainstreamed. This can be done by giving enough space and focus to defending the mainstream positions without failing to mention the eccentric ones and giving them their due right, whatever that may be. Staying within these limits is our advice for individual researchers. The question that may arise is whether this balance has to be struck in every publication of a given organization or platform? The difficulty here is that when you assemble a group of distinguished scholars and researchers, strict policing of their output may actually be counterproductive. People naturally have some measure of disagreement over what is eccentric and whether the situation is dire enough to merit advancing particular positions. Some otherwise mainstream scholars may themselves hold some eccentric positions. The best option seems to be to allow the evidence to stand on its own merit and allow intellectual conversations to guide people to the strongest positions by the strength of persuasion and evidence. Attempting to tightly control people’s intellectual choices could backfire and people may feel they are not being given the capacity to discuss matters with the aim of arriving at the truth. The additional danger of being too rigid and hostile towards eccentric positions is that we undermine our own capacity to reflect and examine matters that are worthy of further study, in addition to neglecting the positive contributions of others. Therefore, a certain degree of latitude must be maintained for the mention and discussion of eccentric positions in Islamic apologetics. While clearly defined lines may not be possible, the least an organization should do, in addition to demanding factuality and respect of the mainstream position(s), is to require reference within works that seem to promote, not only mention, eccentric positions to others that defend the mainstream ones. --- ## Methods in conversations When one seeks to engage with others in conversation, there are many important guidelines that the Muslim apologist should take into consideration in addition to the aforementioned general guidelines about apologetics. ### Be a role model in your conduct and connect with your audience Sometimes the most important messages we communicate are not expressed by our words at all but by our character and conduct. It is imperative for those involved in Islamic apologetics to place their greatest focus on improving themselves spiritually and morally and striving to exemplify the very best manners in their behavior and speech. When engaging with others, one is serving as an ambassador of Islam. For the general Muslim community, as well as for non-Muslims, scholars and preachers are often the “face” of Islamic scholarship, and they will invariably be influenced by those individuals’ actions and behavior. Just as parents must model good conduct to their children and teachers must model good conduct to their students, scholars and public speakers must model good conduct to the community. What does this mean practically? It means that someone engaged in Islamic apologetics should never underestimate the importance of their moral qualities. Foul speech and rude behavior are simply incompatible with the Islamic message and totally unbecoming of a public *dāʿī*. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The believer is not one who insults (*ṭaʿʿān*), one who curses (*laʿʿān*), one who speaks obscenely (*fāḥish*), or speaks rudely (*badhīʾ*).”[^73] The Muslim apologist who engages in such unbecoming conduct in debates damages not only their own image but also the image of Islam in the minds of their audience. Muslims should manifest the teachings of Islam in their character since this is part and parcel of the Islamic message to which they are in inviting other people. The Prophet ﷺ said, “I was sent to perfect good character.”[^74] Expressing respect, kindness, grace, affability, dignity, and even humor when appropriate, can have a very positive effect on the reception of one’s message. Different audiences may connect better with different styles in language, tone, and even voice. Formal discourse may better appeal to a group of academics while a casual style may better appeal to youth. We see instances where the Prophet ﷺ demonstrated this; for instance, when a Bedouin called out to him roughly, “O Muhammad!,” we read that “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ responded to him with a similar voice and said, ‘Come!’”[^75] Matching one’s audience is integral to ensuring one speaks with people in a manner that they can relate to. ### Language and civility Language is something that must be carefully crafted in one’s conversation and tailored to address one’s audience effectively. The Qur’an states: > Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is Most Knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is Most Knowing of who is \[rightly\] guided. (Qur’an 16:125) Civility is a characteristic of the Islamic approach towards *da’wah*. In general, the style to adopt with those sincerely seeking the truth is an open and inviting style avoiding condescension that may turn away one’s listener. In an interesting passage, the Qur’an instructs Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to say to the *mushrikīn* (idolaters): > Say, “You will not be asked about the sins we have committed, and we will not be asked about what you do.” (Qur’an 34:25) This shows the greatest level of courtesy and deference to one’s opponent. The first part of the verse speaks of our sins, but the second part speaks of their actions instead of saying, “We will not be asked about your sins.” This illustrates the dialectical wisdom of taking one’s opponent’s perspective and reasoning with them from their own assumptions as a starting point. However, this is also contingent on having confidence that one’s opponent will respond positively to the gesture and open up to examine the matter further and consider your perspective. For others, if you give them an inch they will take a mile and will not reciprocate the courtesy. Thus, one must not forget that the Qur’an also instructs one to say: > Say: “If I have fabricated it, upon me be my crimes, but I am innocent of (all) those crimes which you commit.” (Qur’an 11:35) This style reflects parity and does not give the same level of deference to one’s opponent found in the other verse. The style that is selected, therefore, depends on the audience. The Prophet ﷺ spoke to everyone according to the style appropriate for them. Not all those who disbelieve are the same, just as the Prophet’s opponents from amongst Quraysh differed. Abū Jahl was not the same as ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, nor were either of them the same as Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, who eventually embraced Islam. With those who are belligerent and hostile, a firmer course of speech is required. Of course, one’s style should never involve obscenity; with those who are particularly vulgar in their discourse, engaging them directly may give them more attention and publicity than they deserve. With those who are open for dialogue and courteous, one should be appropriately welcoming and inviting. ### Don’t be afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ It is said that half of knowledge involves saying, “I don’t know.” Unfortunately, many of those engaged in Islamic apologetics find themselves unwilling to defer to those with greater knowledge and may propose answers to questions that are factually incorrect or misguided. It is never a shortcoming to tell your audience that you are not aware or not sure of the answer but will take the effort to find out from those who know. If anything, it shows maturity and intellectual integrity when one admits the need to refer to those with expertise in a field. On one occasion, a man traveled for six months in order to ask questions of Imam Mālik on behalf of the people of his locality. For the majority of the questions he asked, Imam Mālik replied, “I do not have a good answer.” The man was stunned and asked what he should tell his people when he returned to them. Imam Mālik said, “Tell them that Imam Mālik says, ‘I don’t have a good answer.’”[^76] --- ## Build certainty The overall goal of apologetics is to build certainty in faith and build one’s connection with Allah. How does one go about that? There are two ways of acquiring faith, there is natural faith and probabilistic faith. The British empiricist John Locke is famous for his notion that assent has degrees (you can believe some propositions more strongly than others), and that one’s assent to a proposition should be proportionate to the degree of evidence in favor of that proposition.[^77] In other words, the more evidence you have for a proposition, the more likely you should consider it to be true. This is the presumption underlying much of the apologetics geared towards probabilistic faith. As a result of this attitude, many Christian apologists attempted to amass a large number of arguments and evidence in order to substantiate probabilistic faith. However, other Christian apologists like Alvin Plantinga argued for natural faith: in essence, the idea that belief in God emerges as a natural result of belief-forming mechanisms. In Islam, we have the understanding of the *fiṭrah*. Natural faith does not reduce belief in God to a proposition that one must evaluate on the basis of probability. Scholars of Islam spoke of an interior sense of knowing that allows one to recognize and know their Creator, as well as exploring the signs of Allah. As Allah says: > We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness? (Qur’an 41:53) While the one engaged in Islamic apologetics will be interested in intellectual arguments, they must also realize that, in an important sense, the ‘answer’ has to come from within during a soul’s journey towards Allah. They have to appreciate the important role of inviting others to sincerely take the time to reflect, consider the message, examine and research further, and to ask questions with the intent of seeking to understand and benefit from the answers rather than seeking to augment one’s preconceived notions. People need to be reminded that there is an internal drive to find God and find purpose in their lives, and they need to reflect seriously on that. Building certainty happens through association, persuasion, and actualization. One’s faith receives spiritual, social, and emotional input in addition to intellectual input. While apologetics is naturally focused on persuasion (systematic argument in defense of doctrine), the key to unshakeable faith is actually to achieve experiential faith. Faith is fully actualized when you *taste* it.[^78] Spiritual labor is required for your faith to be actualized. When you savor the sweetness of supplicating to Allah and you savor the taste of Allah’s promises, you feel the comfort of Allah’s closeness in your prayers; when you feel the reality of the transience of this life and the inevitability of the next, these are matters that render one’s faith securely attached to the core of one’s being. When faith reaches this level, it can never be shaken. So it is important to produce output that guides people towards the actualization of faith. Actualization can happen in different ways for different people (see “[Souls Assorted: An Islamic Theory of Spiritual Personality](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/souls-assorted-an-islamic-theory-of-spiritual-personality/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011527000&usg=AOvVaw303VS8dAa-AOGOvAVzcvpA)”).[^79] Reflecting on the signs of Allah in the Qur’an and in the life of the Prophet ﷺ is one source, and reflecting on signs in the universe and the features of creation around us is another. Acts of charity and service to others can also be an important part of actualizing one’s faith. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If you wish for your heart to soften, then feed the needy and pat the orphan’s head.”[^80] Association with others striving to actualize their faith is also very important for building certainty. It helps those in the faith to stay within it and receive support from those around them. The Prophet ﷺ mentioned that a lone rider is (accompanied) by Satan.[^81] There is a wisdom behind the prescription of congregational acts of worship in Islam. The community dimensions of faith and social connectedness play an important role as discussed earlier. So it is important to emphasize work within the community that reaches people and brings them together, to develop close ties within the community, and help people feel their hearts attached to their community. The Qur’an describes the community of the faithful as follows: “As a plant that produces its offshoots and strengthens them so they grow firm and stand upon their stalks” (Qur’an 48:29). The importance of community in the development of faith is thus a central message in Islamic teachings, so it is important to produce output that guides people towards community building. ### Don’t magnify doubt There are some methods of conversation that apologists use that actually serve to magnify doubts rather than addressing them effectively. The first mistake is failing to recognize the appropriate audience with whom to address the doubt. The doubts encountered by high school students facing peer pressure to engage in alcohol and drug consumption, for instance, will differ from the type of doubts against religion raised by atheist philosophers, and these also will differ from the doubts against specific hadith texts raised on social media by those actively militating against Islam. Sometimes a doubt is only known to a small circle of students of knowledge engaged with academic polemics of orientalists; it would not help the goal of building certainty for such a doubt to be brought into discussion with the masses in the *masjid*. Secondly, when an apologist speaks about a doubt, they have the option of trivializing it to their audience or magnifying it. If they feel that people do not take the issue seriously, they may be tempted to emphasize the magnitude of the doubt and how significant it is. But this method again does not help garner certainty and conviction, and many people may leave the gathering remembering only the significance of the doubt without learning a satisfying answer. A doubt should only be discussed if the speaker is planning to devote greater attention and emphasis to the answer to that doubt. Thirdly, some speakers go to great lengths to accumulate a large number of arguments in support of their position in order to impress their audience with the sheer quantity of their proofs or because they have excessive faith in the probabilistic approach. However, sometimes these arguments take different positions on issues and end up being mutually contradictory. Or the speaker inadvertently will mention weak arguments alongside the strong ones, which creates an opportunity for an opponent to dismantle the weak arguments and leaves the audience assuming that the remaining arguments are similarly fragile. Another harm of mentioning too many proofs is that the audience gets the impression that the doubt is so significant that it requires a great deal of proof in order to successfully address it. ### Resisting doubts and making a reasonable wager The first important thing to remember is that not all thoughts that occur to the human mind are alike. Some thoughts are merely questions and points of contemplation for further learning; they do not threaten one’s relationship with Allah. Some thoughts are fleeting impressions in the mind that one does not entertain, while some are more persistent and nagging, and though the latter may be more distressing, one remains a believer regardless. It is reported that a group of the companions came to the Prophet ﷺ and complained to him that they found thoughts passing through their minds, which they felt embarrassed to even mention. The Prophet ﷺ then said: Do you really find that to be the case? They said yes. He ﷺ said: “That is pure *īmān*.”[^82] These noble companions of the Prophet ﷺ exemplified the reality of faith in being aware of these thoughts and concerned about them. Doubts can demonstrate your true faith because they show that you’re distressed about something concerning your belief. Don’t seek out doubts, and don’t overexpose yourself to doubts. If a doubt enters your mind, seek clarification regarding it so that it does not settle and fester. If you encounter a doubt, examine it objectively. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله wrote, > After I began to present to him one allegation after another, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah be pleased with him, advised me as follows: “Do not allow your heart to be a sponge for every doubt and allegation so that it absorbs them and is saturated with nothing else. Instead, make your heart like solid glass; doubts pass over its surface but do not settle on the inside. Thus, the doubts are seen through the clearness of the glass but are repelled by its firmness. Otherwise, if you allow your heart to drink every doubt you encounter, it will end up affirming them.” Or he said something to that effect. I do not know of any advice that has brought me greater benefit in fending off doubts than this one.[^83] For one who recognizes within himself a natural proclivity towards skepticism, there is an antidote in taking the appropriate course of examining faith. Indeed, if properly channeled towards seeking knowledge, someone inclined to investigate matters thoroughly and extensively may acquire even stronger faith than one who accepts something passively. While explaining the different reasons why some may have stronger faith than others, Imam Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله writes: > One who bases their belief and love on many evidences that bring about certainty and reveal the invalidity of the passing misgivings is not like one who bases their belief on factors inferior to that. Moreover, the one who was granted some knowledge that compels them to believe is not like one who is exposed to misgivings and willingly seeks to remove them through contemplation and research. No sane person would doubt that knowledge that is based on a multiplicity of strong evidence—as well as proofs of the invalidity of the counter misgivings and the invalidity of the opponents’ arguments—is not like that which is based on one proof without knowing the counter-arguments.[^84] Some people suffering from doubts feel a sense of overwhelming anxiety and urgency about their unanswered questions. A spiritual crisis can be a debilitating experience that sometimes can even precipitate a mental health crisis.[^85] What should a person do when their crisis of faith reaches a breaking point? They should be reminded that there is no reason to rush to renounce the faith, or feel a pressing urgency to become an atheist. They need to take their time in seeking people of knowledge, studying, reflecting, and finding the answers, and also turning back to Allah with sincere devotion and prayer. Deliberation is a part of faith and hastiness is from Shaytan. If they carefully weigh the consequences of their decision, they will realize that they are better off taking the path of faith than the path of disbelief. There is no loss in being wrong about believing in God but there is a severe loss in wrongly choosing the path of disbelief and being resurrected and brought before God as a disbeliever. The Qur’an alludes to the consideration of consequences, “Say: Have you not considered, what if this revelation really is from Allah and yet you reject it?” (Qur’an 41:52).[^86] This comparison between the consequences of believing in God and the consequences of disbelieving in God and choosing to side with the less riskier option is famously known today as Pascal’s wager after the French mathematician and Catholic theologian Blaise Pascal (d. 1662 CE). In fact, it was a notion that was widely familiar to Muslim theologians long before Pascal. It has been captured in the following poetic couplet: > قال المنجم والطبيب كلاهما لا تُحشر الأجساد قلت إليكما > > إن صح قولكما فلست بخاسر أو صح قولي فالخسار عليكما > > The astrologer and physician both claimed that bodies will not be resurrected; I said, go away > > If what you say is true, I lose nothing, but if it is true what I say, the loss is all yours[^87] Put another way, if the afterlife is real, then the consequences of believing in God are infinitely good and the consequences of disbelieving in Him are infinitely bad, while if the afterlife isn’t real, there is only finite pleasure and pain in this life of which both believers and disbelievers partake. Up until recently, Pascal’s wager was treated with universal derision by philosophers, but the counter-arguments they developed seem to miss the point entirely or fail to be substantive.[^88] The point of the ‘wager’ is not to provide a philosophical justification for faith in God but to provide a practical heuristic for a person to seriously evaluate the spiritual consequences of his or her actions. If there’s even a 1% chance of being wrong about a matter of eternal salvation, it behooves a rational mind to give the matter due deliberation, humble reflection, and careful examination. The wager is thus not about fictitious philosophical scenarios one can invent of alternative imagined outcomes (e.g., a blissful atheist afterlife[^89] or a religion that provides eternal salvation only to those who wear purple slippers),[^90] it is only about the real-life decisions of a person confronted with a serious choice about embracing or rejecting faith.[^91] Holding on to faith by this wager is undoubtedly a flimsy form of faith, as faith should be based on certainty and not mere caution. Nonetheless, people still need to be reminded of the principle of caution because it allows people to take stock of the potential consequences of their actions. One common objection to the wager argues that since there are multiple religions with different deities, then a believer could potentially be worshipping the wrong deity; however, this falsely assumes that one has no means of distinguishing between religious belief systems, identifying those with greater credence and coherence, and factoring that consideration into one’s decision-making. Moreover, the objection is also theologically confused in that it fails to appreciate that God is the Most Just and the Most Perfect. Choosing God is not about gambling between names of deities but rather it entails following the only path that describes God with the Perfection that befits His Majesty. If one’s goal is to worship the sole Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the One who is Most Just and Most Kind, then there is every reason to believe He will sincerely reward the one who strives towards Him by blessing them with true guidance.[^92] The Qur’an states, “And those who strive for Us, We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good” (Qur’an 29:69). The other common objection to the wager is one that presumes that the faithful may miss out on the opportunity to live life without fear or inhibitions. This, however, has been debunked by multitudes of studies showing that, overall, religious people tend to live healthier and happier lives: > Study after study has found that religious people tend to be less depressed and less anxious than nonbelievers, better able to handle the vicissitudes of life than nonbelievers. A 2015 survey by researchers at the London School of Economics and the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that participating in a religious organization was the only social activity associated with sustained happiness—even more than volunteering for a charity, taking educational courses or participating in a political or community organization. It’s as if a sense of spirituality and an active, social religious practice were an effective vaccine against the virus of unhappiness.[^93] The reality of the matter is that without a worldview that grounds one’s purpose in life, it is far more likely that one regards life as pointless pain and suffering rather than finding it to be limitless pleasure. The atheist existentialist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer believed that life intrinsically was characterized by suffering and that it would be better if we did not exist at all.[^94] Similarly, anti-natalists are of the view that it is morally wrong to have children and thus inflict upon them the suffering of existence. If anything, it is the rejection of faith that renders existence ultimately pointless and thus forfeits true happiness, both in this life and the next. Meanwhile, it is in the worship of God that the faithful find true bliss and happiness. Thus, Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله writes in his work *al-Wābil al-Ṣayyib*: > Hastening towards Allah and turning to Him, finding contentment through Him, filling the heart with His love, remembering Him continuously, experiencing happiness and joy with knowing Him—all of this constitutes a hastened reward, a paradise in the present world, and a life to which the lives of kings cannot even compare. I heard Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allāh sanctify his soul) say: “Indeed, there is a paradise (*jannah*) in this world. Whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter.”[^95] Thus, the one who pursues the path of closeness to Allah in reality loses nothing, and only gains in this life and the next. If one seriously reflects on one’s spiritual condition and what brings one meaning and purpose in life and sincerely turns towards Allah, they will undoubtedly find true guidance and happiness. --- ## Conclusion We live in a world today where innumerable forces are gathered against religion in general and Islam in particular. There is a well-funded Islamophobia industry that operates continuously with the aim of disparaging and dismantling the faith of Islam. Confronted by a variety of irreligious ideologies, it is the stark reality today that many Muslims experience considerable confusion and doubts on critical questions of faith, and some have even abandoned the faith altogether. On a daily basis, arguments are disseminated on the internet aimed at casting Islamic teachings in a negative light, attacking the character of the Prophet ﷺ, or undermining the Qur’an. Many people do try to find satisfactory answers to their questions; however, much of the knowledge to address such doubts has not been made accessible in the English language or articulated appropriately. It is of paramount importance for Muslim scholarship, therefore, to pay attention to the nascent field of Islamic apologetics and work together to develop the resources that will provide assistance to those experiencing a crisis of faith, provide strong intellectual responses in defense of the faith, and show people the true beauty of Islam unmarred by the distortions others project upon it. This will require patiently listening to those with concerns, developing community resources, taking a balanced approach that is mindful of pitfalls, engaging in sound academic research, collaborative efforts across many disciplines, and cooperation between scholars and students of knowledge, recognizing the urgent need for this work. This is one of the most important endeavors one can take up as the Qur’an states, “And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah and does righteousness and says, ‘Indeed, I am of the Muslims’” (Qur’an 41:33). --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayna manāzil īyyāka naʿbudu wa īyyāka nastaʿīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1973), 3:306. [^2]: “*Kalām*” is used here simply to refer to rational arguments in theological discourse, not necessarily all the doctrines that were traditionally ascribed to it. For a more detailed explanation of the author’s position concerning the place of *kalām* in defending the scriptural creed, you may refer to Hatem al-Haj, *Between the God of the Prophets and the God of the Philosophers: Reflections of an Athari on the Divine Attributes* (self-pub., 2020). [^3]: Besheer Mohamed and Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, “The Share of Americans Who Leave Islam Is Offset by Those Who Become Muslim,” Pew Research Center, January 26, 2018, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011585000&usg=AOvVaw2kEJF2SGI4TjQXxK3bRDu4); Youssef Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis,” *Yaqeen*, February 13, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011585000&usg=AOvVaw1k09MGm3l-nvE8AQdzhI_X). [^4]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 18812, with a *ḥasan* (fair) chain of transmission according to the editors. See also comments on the grading in Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, *Fiqh al-Sīrah* (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1427 AH), 328. [^5]: The abbreviated form without the middle phrase is found in *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī* in *muʿallaq* form: *kitāb al-ʿilm*, *bāb man khassa bi-al-ʿilm qawman dūna qawm karāhiyyata an lā yafhamū* (chapter on one teaching knowledge to some rather than others out of dislike that the latter may not understand it), [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/3/69](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/3/69&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011542000&usg=AOvVaw1WvB2EwlXQ2dXq5oh_Gp38). Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī رحمه الله mentions the report with the full phrase citing Abū Nuʿaym in *al-Mustakhraj*; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Beirut: al-Risalah al-ʿAlamiyyah, 2013), 1:471. [^6]: As explained in the commentary, see Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qurtubī (d. 656 AH), *al-Mufhim* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1996), 1:118. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, *muqaddimah*, no. 14, [http://sunnah.com/muslim/introduction/13](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://sunnah.com/muslim/introduction/13&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011543000&usg=AOvVaw1P0KyzY-02FfnSWw1CxGaH). [^8]: al-Shāṭibī, *al-Iʿtiṣām* (Dammam: Dār ibn al-Jawzī, 2008), 2:311. [^9]: This doesn’t mean that he possessed knowledge that no one else had but that he demonstrated discretion in what he taught to the public. A similar principle is seen in the discretion shown by Abū Hurayrah رضي الله عنه regarding dissemination of knowledge related to tribulations (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 120); see ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ṣāliḥ al-ʿIzzī, *Difāʿ ʿan Abī Hurayrah* (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 1981), 79. [^10]: al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt* (Khobar: Dār ibn ʿAffān, 1997), 5:171–72. [^11]: Summarized from *Musnad Aḥmad* (no. 22265), with an authentic chain according to al-Haythamī and al-Albānī. [^12]: This is reported sometimes as a statement of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb or ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله, for instance, expresses the statement to highlight the need for consideration of differences in time and place in the assessment of who can provide legal verdicts. Ibn al-Qayyim, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn* (Dammam: Dār ibn al-Jawzī, 1423 AH), 6:139. [^13]: Hatem Al-Haj, “Sharīʿah in Today’s World: Renewing Islamic Discourse,” *Yaqeen*, December 13, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/hatem-elhaj/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/hatem-elhaj/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011577000&usg=AOvVaw2zT2VA9ACCVbrQx5L44XB8). [^14]: Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, *Qawāʿid al-aḥkām fī maṣāliḥ al-anām* (Cairo: Maktabat Kulliyyat al-Azharīyah, 1991), 1:98; see also ʿAbd al-Majīd Jumʿah al-Jazāʾirī, *al-Qawāʿid al-fiqhīyah al-mustakhrajah min iʿlam al-muwaqqiʿīn* (Riyadh: Dār ibn al-Qayyim, 1421 AH), 333. [^15]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 22588. [^16]: Some postmodern philosophies do not even accept the idea that absolute truth exists or is attainable. [^17]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011564000&usg=AOvVaw16WzJ5en8ldLCBgbsLKvnH). [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 6919\. In another narration on this topic, it is mentioned that two men went out for travel when the time of prayer arrived, and they did not have water with them. They performed dry ablution with clean earth and prayed, then they later found water. One of them repeated his ablution and prayer, while the other did not repeat them. They came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and mentioned that to him. The Prophet ﷺsaid to the one who did not repeat his prayer, “You have followed the Sunnah correctly and you will be rewarded for your prayer,” and the Prophet ﷺ said to the one who repeated his prayer, “You will have a double reward.” *Sunan Abī Dawūd*, no. 388. [^19]: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Kharashī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Kharashī ʿalá al-mukhtaṣar Sidi Khalīl wa maʿahu ḥāshiyat al-ʿAdawī* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1997), 4:395. [^20]: There may be some exceptions such as the rural versus urban divide with the former tending towards conservatism. [^21]: A similar principle is seen in the statement of Imam Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161 AH), who said, “Verily, *fiqh* according to us is when a trustworthy scholar provides a legitimate concession (*rukhṣah*); as for being strict (*tashdīd*), then anyone can do that well.” See Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *Jāmiʿ bayān al-ʿilm wa faḍlihī* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1994) p. 784, no. 1467. [^22]: Consider for instance the hadith of Umm Salamah where she asked the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, “O Messenger of Allah, why are we \[i.e., women\] not mentioned in the Qur’an as the men are?” So Allah revealed verse 33:35, “Verily, Muslim men and Muslim women, believing men and believing women . . . ” Reported in *Sunan al-Kubrā* of al-Nasāʾī, no. 11405; *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 26575; *Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhi*, no. 3295 and graded fair by Ibn Ḥajar and authentic by al-Albānī. Many conservative preachers today would have one think that any such line of questioning regarding gender equality is the result of capitulating to Western feminism, but Allah Himself validated her question by revealing verses in response, emphasizing equal rewards for both genders. However, this would not mean challenging an established ruling after the cessation of revelation. Allah revealed in response to her inquiry about the inheritance, “And do not wish for that by which Allah has made some of you exceed others. For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned. And ask Allah of His bounty. Indeed Allah is ever, of all things, Knowing.” Qur’an 4:32. [^23]: The Prophet ﷺ stated “I intended to prohibit intercourse with a breastfeeding woman until I considered that the Romans and the Persians do it without any defect being caused to their children thereby.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1442a. See also ʿAbd Allāh al-Fawzān, *Minḥat al-ʿallām fī sharḥ Bulūgh al-Marām* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1428 AH), 7:361. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2898a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/54/45](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/54/45&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011563000&usg=AOvVaw0wJYjWG37Sg_t_50DAKxrE). [^25]: Kuwait Ministry of Awqāf and Islamic Affairs, *al-Mawsūʿah al-fiqhīyah* (Kuwait: Dar al-Safwah, 1995), 35:129. [^26]: In fact, in moral choices, the rationale is often a post hoc construction after a judgment has already been reached. J. Haidt, “The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment,” *Psychological Review* 108, no. 4 (2001): 814–34, [https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011547000&usg=AOvVaw1VlJ9f91iNH34fmjPW_QvD). [^27]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Dr. Nazir Khan, “In Pursuit of Conviction II: Humanity Needs God,” *Yaqeen*, October 11, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011588000&usg=AOvVaw2CX9CE6GkoXM3rf9Cl1pyz). [^28]: “The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself personally freed 63 slaves during his life, his wife Aisha freed 69 slaves, and his companions freed numerous slaves, most notably his companion ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf who freed an astounding thirty-thousand.” Nazir Khan, “Divine Duty: Islam and Social Justice,” *Yaqeen*, February 4, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/divine-duty-islam-and-social-justice/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/divine-duty-islam-and-social-justice/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011591000&usg=AOvVaw0Tbu8lotXgrQQ2XiQVe_sE). [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*, no. 2227, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/34/174](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/34/174&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011549000&usg=AOvVaw2s6IwP4dAc_sVxlAjTv_ak). [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*, no. 6620, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/82/26](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/82/26&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011548000&usg=AOvVaw17nbZ_lggDZNwmkWjcIyVc). [^31]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dār Ḥajr, 2001), 3:378. [^32]: Summarized from a report in Ibn Abī Shaybah (no. 37715), Abū Yaʿlá (no. 1818), ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd (no. 1121), Ibn Hishām, and al-Ḥākim (no. 3002) and declared authentic by al-Dhahabī. See Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīrah al-nabawīyah* (Beirut: DKI, 1990), 1:322–23; al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalá al-ṣaḥīḥayn* (Beirut: DKI, 2002), 2:278; al-Bayḥaqī, *Dalāʾil al-nubuwwah* (Beirut: DKI, 1988), 2:204–6. [^33]: “Francis Bacon,” in *Oxford Essential Quotations*, ed. Susan Ratcliffe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00000644](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00000644&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011556000&usg=AOvVaw3N3kVImOHDGMXiueAbtkhB). [^34]: For his story, refer to Antony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese, *There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind* (New York: HarperCollins, 2007). [^35]: Two pairs of terms in Kant’s terminology are important to understand in this regard. Knowledge that is known without reliance on the senses is *a priori* (before experience), while empirical knowledge based on the senses is *a posteriori* (after experience). Knowledge that is true by virtue of its definition is analytic (e.g., triangles have three sides), while knowledge that yields new concepts is synthetic. While traditionally, philosophers before Kant had regarded all *a priori* knowledge as analytic and all empirical knowledge as synthetic, Kant argued that some knowledge could be synthetic and *a priori* (e.g., mathematics). [^36]: Sebastian Gardner, *Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason* (Abingdon: Routledge, 1999), 33; Michael Rohlf, “Immanuel Kant,” in *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, Spring 2020 ed., ed. Edward N. Zalta, [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/kant/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/kant/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011553000&usg=AOvVaw1wQosypaGwjTNlE5WhCtPQ). [^37]: Yirmiyahu Yovel, *Kant's Philosophical Revolution: A Short Guide to the Critique of Pure Reason* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018), 103. In other words, according to Kant, belief in God and immortality is not knowledge that can be demonstrated by pure reason but something that is psychologically necessary to postulate in order for our moral striving to not be in vain; see Will Dudley and Kristina Engelhard, *Immanuel Kant: Key Concepts* (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), 208. This is a limited conception of what knowledge entails, however; the Qur’an states, “So have knowledge that there is none worthy of worship except Allah” (Qur’an 47:19). [^38]: Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, *Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation: A Study of Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql* (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 253; see also 244–45, 271. [^39]: El-Tobgui, 230–31, discussing the concept of “internal sensation” (*ḥiss bāṭin*). [^40]: “When the servant is placed in his grave, his companions retrace their steps, and he hears the noise of their footsteps, two angels come to him and make him sit and say to him: What you have to say about this person (the Prophet)? . . .” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2870. [^41]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 4854. [^42]: “This theory proposes that accidents such as stillness and movement cannot simultaneously subsist in one entity, so they happen in succession, and thus must be originated, not eternal... Bodies (*ajsām*) cannot exist without certain accidents (*aʿrāḍ*) such as movement and stillness, for instance. If so, and we have established that accidents are temporal not eternal, then all bodies are temporal as well, thus, the world originated at some point. This would then lead us to ask who originated it, and through *sabr* and *taqsīm* (enumeration and division, or the process of elimination) we can establish that God is the one who created it. To the Mutakallimīn, this was their strongest rational proof regarding the creation of the universe by God.” Hatem Al-Haj, *God of the Prophets*, 108. See also Al-Haj, 53 and 115. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6171. [^44]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Even if a single man is led on the right path (of Islam) by Allah through you, then that will be better for you than the fine red camels.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4210. [^45]: Fakhr al-Deen al-Râzi, *Asâs al-Taqdees*, ed. Ahmad Hijâzi al-Saqâ (Cairo: Maktabat al-Kulliyyât al-Azhariyyah, 1406/1986), 220. Translation adapted from El-Tobgui, *Reason, Revelation & the Reconstitution of Rationality,* 133-134. [^46]: Ibn Taymiyyah, Taqi al-Deen Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Ḥaleem, *Dar’ Ta‘âruḍ al-‘Aql wa al-Naql*, 2nd ed., ed. Muhammad Rashâd Sâlim (Riyadh: Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, 1411/1991), 1:79. [^47]: According to Muslim jurists, the minimum duration of pregnancy is 6 months; Ibn Qudāmah, *al-Mughnī*, ed. A. al-Turki and A. Al-Hilu (al-Riyad: Dar ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1417/1997), 11:231. This corresponds to approximately 176-177 days, or 25 weeks 1-2 days. They calculate this based on conceptional age, not gestational age, which would instead be 27 weeks 1-2 days. With modern medicine however, the minimum gestational age is between 22-24 weeks, or a conceptional age of 20-22 weeks, approximately 140-154 days. If the sacred texts are interpreted to imply the logical impossibility of a fetus surviving birth at less than 27 weeks gestation, this would contradict the empirical reality of babies surviving as early as 22 weeks gestation (albeit with frequently poor outcomes despite the advances of modern medicine); [https://www.bbc.com/news/health-5014474](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-5014474&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011593000&usg=AOvVaw3vkO4IeDsAunxz3mepvt5V)1. [^48]: [https://www.islamweb.org/en/fatwa/400039/a-child-born-in-less-than-six-months-pregnancy-rarely-lives](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.islamweb.org/en/fatwa/400039/a-child-born-in-less-than-six-months-pregnancy-rarely-lives&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011594000&usg=AOvVaw0fOyTPs6G5RmfUq1W8jhMv) [^49]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 3:291. [^50]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2639; *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 1937 and authenticated by al-Dhahabī. [^51]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqiyyīn* (Lahore: Idārat Turjumān al-Sunnah, 1976), 1:255. See Nazir Khan, “Atheism and Radical Skepticism: Ibn Taymiyyah’s Epistemic Critique,” *Yaqeen*, July 7, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/atheism-and-radical-skepticism-ibn-taymiyyahs-epistemic-critique/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/atheism-and-radical-skepticism-ibn-taymiyyahs-epistemic-critique/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011576000&usg=AOvVaw2y7ZnT_7aBP_wz38lwzWWX). [^52]: Also sometimes translated as “anomalous” or “irregular,” the linguistic meaning relates to something being an outlier from the rest of the group. Note that the technical meaning of *shādhdh* differs depending on which discipline of Islamic studies one is discussing. Its technical meaning discussed here differs from its technical meaning in hadith sciences or in *qirāʾāt* for instance. [^53]: Note that some scholars used the term *shādhdh* to refer to that which is invalid and contradicts clear texts or consensus, in which case it becomes synonymous with *bāṭil*. [^54]: See, for example, Ibn Taymiyyah’s characterization of the permission of praying while reclining without a need. Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad Ibn Muṣliḥ (d. 1362), *al-Nukat wa-al-fawāʾid al-sanīyah ʿalá mushkil al-muḥarrar li-Majd al-Dīn Ibn Taymīyah*, 2 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1983), 1:151. [^55]: After reviewing the various definitions, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Namlah prefers the following definition for a *shādhdh* opinion: “A position upheld by a small number of *mujtahid* scholars without any acceptable evidence” (*qawl infarada bihi qillat min al-mujtahidīn min ghayri dalīl mu’tabar*). See ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Namlah, *al-Ārāʾ al-shādhdhah fī uṣūl al-fiqh* (Riyadh: Dār al-Tadmurīyah, 2009), 1:89. [^56]: Hatem al-Haj, “Shari’ah in Today’s World.” [^57]: al-Safārīnī, *Lawāmiʿ al-anwār al-bahīyah* (Beirut: DKI, 2008), 2:250–51. [^58]: For an overview see Jon Hoover, “A Muslim Conflict over Universal Salvation,” in *Alternative Salvations: Engaging the Sacred and the Secular*, ed. Hannah Bacon, Wendy Dossett, and Steve Knowles (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 160–71. [^59]: For many people it will be direly needed as they simply cannot wrap their minds around the concept of a benevolent God sentencing people to eternal torment no matter how extensive the rational justifications are, as this requires a degree of faith and trust in Divine Justice that some simply do not yet possess. To appreciate how compelling some of these objections to eternal torment are, one need look no further than the fact that some of these very same objections were persuasive enough for scholars as great as Ibn al-Qayyim to include them in support of eventual vanishing of hellfire. [^60]: See Mohammad Elshinawy, “The Infinitely Merciful and the Question of Hellfire,” *Yaqeen*, July 10, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011574000&usg=AOvVaw3w_HG7NKNhtQtKQOKje0AE). [^61]: “Criticism of the ʿĀisha-age ḥadith has been mounted on this basis by the traditionalist Syrian scholar of ḥadith, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Idlibī. He determines the content of the ʿĀisha-age ḥadith to be discrepant (*shādhdh*) and defective (*maʿlūl*) on the basis of numerous evidences which collectively suggest that ʿĀisha was born four years prior to the start of the Prophetic mission, betrothed to the Prophet ﷺ in the tenth year of prophethood at age fourteen, and married to him one year after the migration at the age of almost 18.” Arnold Yasin Mol, “Aisha (ra): The Case for an Older Age in Sunni Hadith Scholarship,” *Yaqeen*, October 3, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/arnold-yasin-mol/aisha-ra-the-case-for-an-older-age-in-sunni-hadith-scholarship/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/arnold-yasin-mol/aisha-ra-the-case-for-an-older-age-in-sunni-hadith-scholarship/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011579000&usg=AOvVaw2-jbYhS0iFDcZaVi0KYl5N). [^62]: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Idlibī, “Ḥadīth miqdār ʿumr al-Sayyidah ʿĀʾishah yawm al-zawāj,” Idlbi.net, March, 19, 2020, [http://idlbi.net/marriageage/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://idlbi.net/marriageage/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011582000&usg=AOvVaw0W2fQdLqgkoiKBjtZG5UgJ). [^63]: This is a critically important condition since matters of Islamic theology and Islamic law that are agreed upon cannot be opened for such reevaluation. [^64]: For example, Ibn al-Jawzī’s work of *tafsīr* entitled *Zād al-masīr* is entirely written in this manner. Similarly, this can be seen with many works of comparative *fiqh*, as well as commentaries on hadith. For instance Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 14:303. *Wa min al-taʾwīl al-baʿīd qawl man qāl al-murād bi-al-qadam qadamu iblīs* . . . *wa ẓuhūr buʿd hādhā yughnī ʿan takalluf al-radd ʿalayhi*. [^65]: “If the hound eats of the game, then you must not eat of it, for I am afraid that the hound caught it for itself.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 5487. [^66]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 2857, with an authentic chain of narrators according to Ibn Mulaqqin in *Badr al-munīr* (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀṣimah, 2009), 23:13. The Prophet ﷺ said: “If you have trained dogs, then eat what they catch for you.” Abū Thaʿlabah asked: “Whether it is slaughtered or not?” He replied: “Yes.” He asked: “Does it apply even if it eats any of it?” He replied: “Even if it eats any of it.” [^67]: al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā ʿulūm al-dīn* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2005), 543. [^68]: Ibn Abī Shaybah, *Kitāb al-musannaf fī al-aḥādīth wa-al-āthār*, ed. Kamal Yūsuf Hūt (Beirut: Dar al-Taj, 1989), 5:435. Ibn Ḥajar said “Its narrators are reliable.” Ibn Ḥajar, *Talkhīṣ al-ḥabīr* (Cairo: Muʾassasat Qurṭubah, 1995), 4:343. [^69]: al-Baghawī, *al-Tahdhīb fī fiqh al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī* (Beirut: DKI, 1997), 1:51. [^70]: al-Mardāwī, *al-Inṣāf fī maʿrifat al-rājiḥ min al-khilāf* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 1:452. [^71]: The hadith states, “A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and accepted Islam upon the condition that he only perform two prayers, so the Prophet accepted that from him.” Reported in *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 23079 with a reliable chain according to al-Būṣīrī in *Itḥaf al-khīrah al-maharah* (Riyadh: Dār al-Waṭan lil-Nashr, 1999), 1:132. Imam Aḥmad used this narration to establish that a person’s acceptance of Islam is valid even with such unacceptable preconditions, and such a person is later required to fulfill the rulings of Islam. See Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm wa-al-ḥikam* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathir, 2008), 208; Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Medina: Maktabat Ghurabāʾ al-Atharīyah, 1996), 4:199–200. [^72]: Wahb said: “I asked Jābir about the condition of Thaqīf when they took the oath of allegiance. He said: ‘They stipulated to the Prophet ﷺ that there would be no *sadaqah* (i.e., *zakat*) on them nor jihad (striving in the way of Allah).’ He then heard the Prophet ﷺ say: ‘Later on they will give *sadaqah* (*zakāt*) and will strive in the way of Allah when they embrace Islam.’” *Sunan Abī Dawūd*, no. 3025, graded authentic by Ibn al-Wazīr and al-Albānī. [^73]: *Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 1977. Graded authentic by al-ʿIrāqī and by al-Albānī. [^74]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 8939 and *al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 273. Graded authentic by al-Zarqānī and al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ Adab al-Mufrad*. [^75]: *Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī*, no. 3536, [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/167](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/167&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011581000&usg=AOvVaw0eERF3fqUzWcr6QP9B0ja8). al-Tirmidhī graded it *ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ*. [^76]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *Jāmiʿ bayān al-ʿilm wa-faḍlihi*, 838. [^77]: For more information, see William Uzgalis, “John Locke,” in *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, Spring 2020 ed., ed. Edward N. Zalta, [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/locke/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/locke/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011564000&usg=AOvVaw3g8iCT0qUZKU_iGCOX38Rt). [^78]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “He has tasted faith (*īmān*) one who is content with Allah as his Lord, with Islam as his religion and with Muhammad ﷺ as his Prophet.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 34. See the discussion on the station of spiritual taste (*dhawq*) in Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 3:90. [^79]: Zohair Abdul Rahman and Nazir Khan, “Souls Assorted: An Islamic Theory of Spiritual Personality,” *Yaqeen*, October 18, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/souls-assorted-an-islamic-theory-of-spiritual-personality/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/souls-assorted-an-islamic-theory-of-spiritual-personality/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011567000&usg=AOvVaw2F2bGC3EvkYuGVm7DYFy7P). [^80]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 7576, and graded fair by Ibn Ḥajar and al-Albānī. [^81]: *Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1674\. al-Nawawī declared it authentic in *Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1998), 299, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/7/4](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/7/4&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011566000&usg=AOvVaw2rztEP1V5kVtYAthbCopn0). [^82]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 132a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/247](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/247&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011589000&usg=AOvVaw1GgJp6TX87l7Qdw6f8QLvb). The phrase means that the fact that they regard such matters as grave is an indication of pure faith (*ṣarīḥ al-īmān*). al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim bin Ḥajjāj* (Cairo: Muʾassasat Qurṭubah, 1994), 2:205. [^83]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftāḥ Dār al-Saʿādah* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2010), 1:395. [^84]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá* (Medina: Wizārat, 2004), 7:565–66. [^85]: Research examining the relation between religious doubts and negative mental health outcomes has found that “religious doubt is associated with depression, general anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoia, hostility, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. To start, religious doubt undermines a potentially important spiritual resource—a cohesive religious worldview via which individuals can interpret and make sense of their daily affairs, as well as major chronic stressors and personal traumas.” Kathleen Galek, Neal Krause, Christopher G. Ellison, Taryn Kudler, and Kevin J. Flannelly, “Religious Doubt and Mental Health Across the Lifespan,” *Journal of Adult Development* 14 (2007): 16–25. [^86]: The Qur’an also presents the case of a fallacious wager in the story of the man with two gardens. Justifying his ingratitude, the man states that the afterlife is unlikely to come and even if it were to come, God would grant him a better reward (Qur’an 18:36). This is an example of a foolish wager based upon false presumptions as the Qur’an illustrates. [^87]: Cited in Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Rāzī* (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1981), 17:25, under the eighth argument proving the reality of resurrection, under the commentary of the Qur’anic verse 10:4, “Indeed, He begins the \[process of\] creation and then repeats it that He may reward those who have believed and done righteous deeds, in justice.” This should be considered a point of reflection for the person to probe further, but can this argument in and of itself provide a basis for belief? After citing this couplet, Ibn al-Qayyim argues that one is to base their faith on certainty and not mere caution, which is the way of the “people of doubt and suspicion.” See Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:463 under his discussion of the station of holding fast (*al-iʿtiṣām*). Evidently, this wager is not what ultimately grounds one’s faith but is useful in considering the consequences of one’s choice. [^88]: It has been noted that “many objections to Pascal’s Wager can actually be incorporated into the wagerer’s decision matrix, and thus do not provide reason to refrain from wagering altogether.” Elizabeth Jackson and Andrew Rogers, “Salvaging Pascal’s Wager,” *Philosophia Christi* 21, no. 1 (2019): 59–84. [^89]: A counterexample to Pascal’s wager proposes that “after they die, splendid things happen to atheists and horrible things happen to theists.” Gregory Mougin and Elliott Sober, “Betting against Pascal’s Wager,” *Noûs* 28 (1994): 385. [^90]: Lawrence Pasternack, “The Many Gods Objection to Pascal’s Wager,” *Philo* 15, no. 2 (2012): 158–78. The author writes,“So long as the classic ‘philosophers’ fictions’ are understood as stipulating something that appears to us to be of trivial value is rather of profound intrinsic value properly suited to being the requirement for what happens to us in our afterlives, we have grounds internal to the Wager for rejecting this category of hypotheses. Such hypotheses imply that we cannot trust an important aspect of our cognitive activity; and without such trust, we cannot consider ourselves fit to engage in wagering.” [^91]: James Franklin, “Pascal’s Wager and the Origins of Decision Theory: Decision-Making by Real Decision-Makers,” in *Pascal's Wager*, ed. Paul Bartha and Lawrence Pasternack (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 27–44. [^92]: In Islam, we are also told that one may receive guidance right before the departure of their soul. The Prophet ﷺ said, “So a man may do deeds characteristic of the people of the (Hell) Fire, so much so that there is only the distance of a cubit between him and it, and then what has been written overtakes him, so he starts doing deeds characteristic of the people of Paradise and enters Paradise. Similarly, a person may do deeds characteristic of the people of Paradise, so much so that there is only the distance of a cubit between him and it, and then what has been written overtakes him, and he starts doing deeds of the people of the Fire and enters the Fire.” *Ṣaḥiḥ Bukhārī*, no. 3332. [^93]: Bryan Walsh, “Does Spirituality Make You Happy?,” *Time*, June 10, 2016, [https://time.com/collection/guide-to-happiness/4856978/spirituality-religion-happiness/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://time.com/collection/guide-to-happiness/4856978/spirituality-religion-happiness/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011571000&usg=AOvVaw0Fs9J-1q0W7l4hm_Ciq7Xj). See also “Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the World,” Pew Research Center, January 31, 2019, [https://www.pewforum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2019/01/Wellbeing-report-1-25-19-FULL-REPORT-FOR-WEB.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewforum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2019/01/Wellbeing-report-1-25-19-FULL-REPORT-FOR-WEB.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1635788011571000&usg=AOvVaw11z-v1HjjYNeMA713Ow92V). [^94]: Arthur Schopenhaur, “On the Sufferings of the Word,” in *Life, Death, & Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions*, ed. David Benatar (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2010), 433. [^95]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Wābil al-ṣayyib*, ed. Bakr Abū Zayd (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1425 AH), 108–9. ## Summary # Islamic Apologetics: Principles for Defending the Faith The discipline of intellectually defending Islamic doctrines and practices is one deserving far greater attention from scholars, though the very term "apologetics" is foreign to most Muslims, who tend to speak of *radd al-shubuhāt* (refuting misconceptions). Yet apologetics is broader than mere refutation; it encompasses the rational explication and defense of both creed and practice. Scholars have long affirmed a principle permitting flexibility in terminology so long as the intended meaning is sound. The term does not imply "apologizing," for Islam requires no apology; rather, it signifies systematic intellectual defense, the closest classical counterpart being *kalām*, which was historically confined largely to defending creed rather than law. Borrowing and coining terms is a natural result of Islam encountering languages like English. There are risks: association with Christian apologetics, which is seen as having gone too far in reconciling itself with prevailing norms—a path Islam need not follow given its intrinsic qualities. One who dislikes the term is free not to use it, though it is retained here for convenience and because it signals the academic complexity of the science and the humility it demands. Apologetics matters because losing faith is not uncommon, and rational explication can guide many toward conviction. It also teaches that answers must suit their audience. When the Quraysh sent al-Ḥulays ibn ʿAlqamah al-Kinānī during the events of 6 AH, the Prophet ﷺ ordered the sacrificial animals sent forth and the *talbiyah* raised aloud, knowing al-Ḥulays came from a tribe that revered such offerings; he was so moved that he returned to rebuke the Quraysh. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه said, "Speak to people in a manner that they comprehend… Do you want people to reject Allah and His Messenger?" and Ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه warned that addressing people beyond their comprehension becomes a trial for some. Imam al-Shāṭibī (d. 790 AH) elaborated in *al-Muwāfaqāt* that not every truth is to be broadcast—noting that Imam Mālik withheld certain narrations—and laid down a governing principle (*ḍābiṭ*) of weighing an issue against the Sharia, then its consequences, then the intellect's acceptance, before deciding whether to speak publicly, selectively, or remain silent. This is not altering the *dīn* but adapting its articulation and prioritization. The Prophet ﷺ demonstrated this with the young man who sought permission for *ziná*, asking whether he would approve it for his mother, sister, and aunts, then praying for his chastity. Yet this approach is culturally dependent, for in a society where the *fiṭrah* is corrupted such questioning may fail; the caller must discern which aspects of the *fiṭrah* remain intact. As is said, "people resemble their epochs more than their parents." The message's substance does not change—only its presentation—though within the content certain secondary matters admit a spectrum of opinion, and one should defer questions of *taghayyur al-fatwā* to jurists. Several pitfalls attend this work, and the maxim, cited by al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660 AH) and others, that minor harms are tolerated for major benefits, reminds us that pitfalls do not negate the enterprise—indeed the Prophet ﷺ said the believer who mixes with people and endures their harm is greater in reward than one who does not. The first pitfall is **reinforcing the centrality of the human perspective**, wherein human reason is treated as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Islam means submission, and it is in fact irrational to argue with the Omniscient Creator; once reason concludes that Islam is from God, submission is reason's true fulfillment, not its capitulation. A two-step system is advised: establish doctrine independently through the self-sufficient Islamic sources, then consider how best to convey it within the dominant discourse—while maintaining a "safety valve" so the external discourse does not flow back and distort one's conception of the message. The second pitfall is **causing an ideological shift in the community**. Orthodoxy, from the human vantage, is a spectrum, though from the Divine vantage a single point, since Allah knows the correct answer; yet scholars are rewarded for their reasoning, as the Prophet ﷺ said the judge who strives and errs receives one reward, and the one who is correct, two. Within orthodoxy lie "left-leaning" (permissive) and "right-leaning" (restrictive) valid positions—for instance the Mālikī view permitting two-dimensional drawings against the majority's prohibition. Scholars nearer a given audience's orientation are best placed to reach them, but the constant output of one orientation can produce a "left-shift" or "right-shift" in the community. The reductive rejection of everything "Western" is refuted: the Prophet ﷺ drew on Roman and Persian experiential knowledge regarding intercourse during breastfeeding, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ رضي الله عنه praised the Byzantines' forbearance and resistance to their kings' oppression. Mitigation requires fostering a strong culture of orthodoxy and benefiting from constructive critique observing *adab al-ikhtilāf*. The third pitfall is **damaging respect for the tradition and its bearers**. Offering a lenient valid position is legitimate, but denigrating the equally valid stricter one—as when someone promotes only the Mālikī view on the purity of dogs' saliva while ignoring the Ḥanafī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī disagreement—breeds distrust. People must receive an honest representation of the tradition's spectrum, lest they conclude that neither the tradition nor its scholars can be trusted, whereupon what replaces qualified scholarship is merely individual whim shaped by the dominant paradigm. The fourth pitfall is **overstating the historical nature of *fiqh***, which, though grounded in the genuine principle of *taghayyur al-fatwā* discussed by al-Qarāfī, Ibn al-Qayyim, and others, can create the impression that Islamic law is irrelevant today or lacks constants. Scholars must specify the precise legal mechanism accounting for any change rather than merely saying "times have changed," and must remember that Islamic law specified not only objectives (*Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah*)—which, like abstract slogans, can be bent to any ideology—but concrete, timeless means of achieving them. Awareness of these pitfalls should breed vigilance, not paralysis. Apologetics has limitations. Most people do not listen to seek truth, so few convert through debate; overwhelming someone with proofs may only harden them. People frequently disguise emotional discontent as intellectual objection—the Qur'an notes that idols were taken "only to keep harmony among yourselves in this worldly life" (29:25)—so a person alienated from a community may construct arguments to justify leaving. Thus apologetics is not the ultimate goal; the one serving in a soup kitchen or greeting people at the *masjid* may influence more than the researcher, and Maslow's hierarchy reminds us that belonging is a fundamental need. Furthermore, building certainty is superior to answering doubts, for divine guidance is a gift: "There has come to you from Allah a Light and a clear Book by which Allah guides those who pursue His pleasure" (5:15–16). Knowledge guides when joined to sincere pursuit of Allah's pleasure and love of Him and His Messenger ﷺ. A general scheme for answers comprises three flexible elements: **clarification** (what Islam says, drawing on the relied-upon views of the four schools, the *tafsīr* tradition, and expert consultation for novel topics); **justification** (why Islam holds this, the heart of apologetics, explaining teachings in their original context); and **application** (how rulings apply today). These need not follow a fixed order—on slavery, for instance, one first stresses contemporary scholarship's emphatic rejection of reinstating it before clarifying Islam's curtailment of its sources, its condemnation of enslaving a free person, its promotion of emancipation, and the reality that *riqq* differed vastly from the collective memory of slavery, before justifying the gradual approach as optimal for its era. Key guidelines follow. **Intention and prayer** are indispensable, for no one's faith is guaranteed—hence "Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us" (3:8)—and the Prophet ﷺ said, "By Allah, without Allah we would not have been guided." **Respect for scholarship** is essential, for one invites to Allah "with insight (*baṣīrah*)" (12:108); scholars are the inheritors of the prophets, and the hyper-critical social-media environment that denigrates scholars ultimately drives laypeople toward the unqualified. **Good listening** allows one to discern the real root of an objection, as the Prophet ﷺ patiently heard ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah's offers of leadership, wealth, and women, and his provocative questions about the Prophet's ancestors, before wisely responding not to those questions but by reciting Sūrat Fuṣṣilat to redirect the conversation to the Quraysh's rejection of their Creator. **Intellectual humility** is required: Francis Bacon observed that shallow philosophy inclines toward atheism but depth returns the mind to religion, and Antony Flew embraced belief after decades of atheism. Even cause and effect cannot be empirically demonstrated—as Hume argued, though the author affirms secondary causes by the potency Allah creates in them—and Kant, in his *Critique of Pure Reason*, showed that metaphysics transcending experience is impossible, concluding, "I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge, in order to make room for faith." Muslims take a balanced position: the intellect (*ʿaql*), working with perception (*ḥiss*) and rooted in *fiṭrah*, can infer God's existence and attributes but cannot, independent of revelation, pronounce upon the unseen—hence the companions did not ask how the deceased would sit up in the grave. The apologist should **ground his work in Qur'anic discourse**. Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim رضي الله عنه, hearing the Prophet ﷺ recite "Were they created by nothing? Or were they themselves the creators?" (52:35–37), felt his heart would fly from his chest—an argument progressing through escalating ontological impossibilities. Likewise, Sūrat al-Isrāʾ (17:42) refutes unequal deities and Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ (21:22) refutes equal ones, all in language the ordinary reflective person grasps without technical jargon. The Qur'an also teaches which questions are worth asking, as when the Prophet ﷺ answered "When is the Hour?" with "What have you prepared for it?" On **reconciling science and scripture**, the "universal law" was first suggested by al-Ghazālī and developed by al-Rāzī in *Asās al-Taqdīs*, giving precedence to definitive reason over the outward text via *taʾwīl* or *tafwīḍ*. Ibn Taymiyyah, in *Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql*, offered a modified law: reason is not uniformly conclusive (*qaṭʿī*) but mostly speculative (*ẓannī*), as is revelation, which contains texts of varying clarity and hadith of varying authenticity; precedence goes to whatever is conclusive, and where both are *ẓannī*, to the more probative (*rājiḥ*). Both agreed the conclusive cannot be dismissed and that sound reason never truly contradicts revelation. This yields a fourfold division—conclusive/speculative, scriptural/scientific—applied also to sensory knowledge. The example of pregnancy's minimum duration (medically under six months) against reported consensus is reconciled by qualifying the older understanding with caveats regarding modern medical intervention, noting that tacit consensus (*ijmāʿ al-sukūtī*) is not definitive, so no irresolvable conflict of two definitive proofs arises. There is greater **latitude** in apologetics than in *fatwā* or teaching, since the domains of *iftāʾ*, *taʿlīm*, *naẓar*, *munāẓarah*, and *daʿwah* each have distinct discourses. The goal is to call to Islam, not to a particular school. The Prophet ﷺ said the judge who errs still earns one reward, and the "card" (*biṭāqah*) of *lā ilāha illā Allāh* outweighs ninety-nine scrolls of sins, for nothing is heavier than the Name of Allah. Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله, despite refuting Hellenistic methods, acknowledged that a complex philosophical argument may benefit one accustomed to such reasoning. This raises the question of mentioning a minority or **eccentric (*shādhdh*)** position—one advocated by very few scholars, resting on weak evidence yet not definitively ruled out by explicit text or uncontested consensus. Methodology is decisive: rejecting the *Bukhārī* hadith on ʿĀʾishah's age رضي الها عنها because one denies the Sunnah's authority is *bāṭil*, but arguing from the collective weight of other reports that the narration may bear a subtle flaw (*ʿillah*) uses an acceptable method, even if less probable—a view held by the contemporary hadith scholar Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Idlibī, though not explicitly upheld by past imams and impacting neither theology nor law. On eternal punishment, some Muʿtazilah held the people of Hell become insensate, some Sufis that they find pleasure in the Fire, while Ibn al-Qayyim (and arguably Ibn Taymiyyah) رحمهما الله argued in *Ḥādī al-Arwāḥ*, *Shifāʾ al-ʿAlīl*, and *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Mursalah*, using an orthodox methodology and companion reports, that Hell may cease—a minority view offering comfort to those who find the mainstream position intractable. Such positions may be fairly mentioned while the majority of one's energy defends the mainstream, and their mere mention for comprehensiveness does not constitute endorsement. Even in *fatwā* the answer may vary by questioner: al-Ghazālī relates in *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn* that the Prophet ﷺ told the wealthy ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim to avoid the game his dog had eaten from, yet permitted the poor Abū Thaʿlabah; Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما denied that a murderer's repentance would be accepted because the questioner looked as though he intended to kill; and al-Kurdī in *al-Maslak al-ʿAdl* reports that the religiously committed are given the stricter view and the weak the lighter. On *niqāb*, the authorized Ḥanbalī view holds the face part of the *ʿawrah*, yet al-Mardāwī (d. 885 AH) noted the counter-view "is the only one that suits the people." As for the Prophet's ﷺ example, no direct comparison holds, since for him the spectrum was a point, yet he accepted the Islam of one who would pray only two of five prayers, and of Thaqīf who refused *zakāt* and jihad, saying, "They will [eventually] give charity and perform jihad"—which the Ḥanbalīs term "the validity of Islam despite an invalid condition." The focus for those outside is entering the gate; details of residence come later. In conversation, one must **model good conduct**, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "The believer is not one who insults, curses, speaks obscenely, or speaks rudely," and "I was sent to perfect good character"; he matched a Bedouin's rough call with a like tone. **Language** must be tailored: the Qur'an commands inviting "with wisdom and good instruction" and arguing "in a way that is best" (16:125), and instructs the Prophet ﷺ with the courteous "You will not be asked about the sins we have committed" (34:25) as well as the firmer "upon me be my crimes" (11:35), for audiences differ—Abū Jahl was not ʿUtbah, nor either like Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, who embraced Islam. One should not fear saying **"I don't know,"** as Imam Mālik repeatedly told a man who traveled six months, "I do not have a good answer." Above all, one must **build certainty**. Against Locke's probabilistic model of proportioned assent, Plantinga argued for natural faith, paralleling the Islamic *fiṭrah*: "We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth" (41:53). Certainty grows through association, persuasion, and actualization—faith fully realized when it is *tasted*; the Prophet ﷺ said, "If you wish for your heart to soften, then feed the needy and pat the orphan's head," and warned that "a lone rider is with Satan," underscoring community, described as "a plant that produces its offshoots… so they grow firm and stand upon their stalks" (48:29). One must **not magnify doubt**: doubts should be raised only before the appropriate audience and only when the answer receives greater emphasis than the doubt, and amassing many proofs—some weak or mutually contradictory—may suggest the doubt is graver than it is. Not all thoughts are alike; when companions confessed distressing intrusive thoughts, the Prophet ﷺ said, "That is pure *īmān*." Ibn Taymiyyah advised Ibn al-Qayyim رحمهما الله not to let the heart be a sponge absorbing every doubt but like solid glass, through which doubts pass without settling—counsel Ibn al-Qayyim found the most beneficial he ever received. Faith built on many strong evidences, Ibn Taymiyyah noted, is stronger than faith resting on one proof in ignorance of counter-arguments. Those in crisis should not rush to disbelief, for deliberation is of faith and haste is of Shaytan: "Say: Have you not considered, what if this revelation really is from Allah and yet you reject it?" (41:52). This reasoning—familiar to Muslim theologians long before Pascal, as captured in the couplet, "If what you say is true, I lose nothing, but if it is true what I say, the loss is all yours"—is a practical heuristic, not a proof, and faith held merely by it is flimsy. The objection of multiple deities fails, for choosing God means following the only path describing Him with perfection befitting His Majesty, and "those who strive for Us, We will surely guide them to Our ways" (29:69). The objection that faith forfeits freedom is refuted by studies showing believers healthier and happier, whereas Schopenhauer and the anti-natalists show that rejecting faith renders existence pointless; Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله relates in *al-Wābil al-Ṣayyib* Ibn Taymiyyah's words: "Indeed, there is a paradise (*jannah*) in this world. Whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter." In a world of well-funded hostility toward Islam, where many experience doubt and some abandon faith, and where sound answers remain largely inaccessible in English, developing this nascent field is a paramount duty—requiring patient listening, community resources, balance, sound research, and cooperation between scholars and students. For "who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah and does righteousness and says, 'Indeed, I am of the Muslims'" (41:33). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-al-wadud-seeking-the-love-of-allah # The Meaning of Allah's Name Al-Wadūd: Seeking The Love of Allah **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 9, 2020 **Updated:** October 6, 2025 ## Introduction Most theistic religions, including Islam, affirm love as one of the divine attributes of God, our Creator. It is considered a virtue by many people to selflessly love others for God’s sake, or to love others as oneself. However, a common criticism we hear against Islam today is that Muslims allegedly worship an angry, vengeful, cold, distant, and unloving god who teaches them to hate all non-Muslims (we seek refuge in Allah from this misguided claim). In response to this accusation, we as Muslim believers must answer the following question: What is the proper understanding of Allah’s love in Islam? And how does Allah’s love inform the behavior of Muslim believers? This article will elaborate on Allah’s name *al-Wadūd* (The Affectionate) as mentioned in the Qur’an. Allah’s love will be looked at from the following angles: Allah’s general love for His creation, Allah’s specific love for the believers, the believers’ love for Allah, and the believers’ love for His creation. Then, the meaning of ‘hatred for the sake of Allah’ will be explained in the context of Allah’s love. --- ## Allah’s Beautiful Name al-Wadūd (The Affectionate) Love is part of the essence of Allah as expressed in the Beautiful Name *al-Wadūd*, which is often translated as ‘The Most Loving.’ It can also be rendered as ‘The Affectionate,’ as it is related to the word *wudd* or *widd*, meaning affection or amity.[^1] This is a specific type of friendly love that is distinguished from the more general Arabic words for love, *ḥubb* or *maḥabbah*, although both root words are often used synonymously.[^2] Many early Muslims connected the name *al-Wadūd* to similar Beautiful Names denoting Allah’s mercy, such as *al-Raḥīm* (the Merciful) and *al-Ghafūr* (the Forgiving). *al-Wadūd* appears in two verses of the Qur’an, both times in connection to the forgiving and merciful nature of Allah. Allah said: > He is the Forgiving, the Loving.[^3] And Allah said, speaking through the Prophet Shuʿayb عليه السلام: > Ask forgiveness from your Lord and repent to Him. Verily, my Lord is Merciful and Loving.[^4] This name is mentioned in a long hadith enumerating the ninety-nine Beautiful Names of Allah, although the chain of authorities is weak according to al-Tirmidhī who recorded it.[^5] In another narration, also recorded and considered weak by al-Tirmidhī, the Prophet ﷺ reportedly supplicated in his prayer, “Verily, You are Merciful and Loving.”[^6] Although the name *al-Wadūd* is not widely used in the hadith corpus, its appearance in two verses of the Qur’an is sufficient to establish it as one of Allah’s names. The early Muslims had two perspectives on the meaning of this name: from the perspective of Allah as the granter of love or Allah as the object of love. al-Bukharī cites Abū al-ʿĀliyah as saying *al-Wadūd* means *al-Ḥabīb* (the Beloved).[^7] That is, Allah is the One Who is beloved by His servants and creatures. According to al-Bayhaqī, *al-Wadūd* is “He Who intends the best for His allies.”[^8]al-Ghazālī elaborates this view, writing, “*al-Wadūd* is He Who loves good for all of creation, and treats them in the best manner, and commends them. It is close in meaning to *al-Raḥmān* (the Merciful).”[^9] Al-Bayhaqī also recorded the interpretation of Ibn ‘Abbas (ra) that *al-Wadūd* means both ‘the Merciful’ and ‘the Beloved,’ which seems to encapsulate both views.[^10] Ibn al-Qayyim summarizes these two different perspectives: > *al-Wadūd* is among the names of the Almighty Lord. In this regard there are two opinions: First, it means One Who receives affection. al-Bukharī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his authentic work that *al-Wadūd* means the Beloved. Second, it means One Who is affectionate to His servants, that is, One Who loves them.[^11] These two interpretations are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are complementary. They are both true. Allah is the ultimate receiver of love through the worship and gratitude of His creatures and, at the same time, He is constantly bestowing His love and mercy upon His creation. Ibn al-Qayyim also notes how the two verses of the Qur’an connect this name to Allah’s forgiveness, “It is linked with His name ‘the Forgiving’ to indicate that He forgives sins and He loves those who repent to Him.”[^12] Any person can embrace the love of Allah through sincere repentance, no matter how much they have sinned in the past. Everyone has the opportunity to turn to Allah and receive His love until they reach their deathbed or the world ends, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah accepts the repentance of his servants, as long as they are not on their deathbed.”[^13] No one denies themselves the love of Allah unless they choose to live and die as an unfaithful sinner. Even though a portion of Allah’s love and mercy reaches all people, even sinners, His love is a blessing we should not take for granted, lest we fail to give Allah the love that He deserves from us. --- ## Allah’s mercy for His creation The love of Allah reaches all people and all creatures through His innumerable acts of mercy to His creation. Every day we are the recipients of some blessings, whether it is in our health, our wealth, our family, our sustenance, our answered prayers, or even hidden favors we cannot perceive. We are also given a lifetime of opportunity to sincerely repent for our sins and become faithful believers in Him. It is truly impossible for us to know the full extent to which Allah has treated us well in this life and blessed us with the priceless gift of life. Allah said: > He has given you all that you asked of Him. If you were to count the favors of Allah, you would never be able to number them. Verily, humankind is most unjust and ungrateful.[^14] The blessings of health, wealth, and provision are obvious, but other divine favors are more subtle. How has Allah given us everything we have asked of Him? Al-Suyūṭī explains that all of our supplications have been answered “in accordance with \[our\] best interests.”[^15] Allah says that sometimes in your life “you may like something that is bad for you and you may hate something that is good for you.”[^16] We might ask Allah for fabulous wealth but He does not give it to us because He knows it would mislead us into sin or we would misappropriate it. Wealth would be bad for us in this case, so Allah ‘answers’ the prayer by not granting the request. The Prophet ﷺ said: > There is no Muslim who supplicates to Allah, wherein there is no sin or cutting of family ties, but that Allah will give him one of three answers: He will hasten fulfillment of his supplication, He will store it for him in the Hereafter, or He will divert an evil from him similar to it.[^17] As parents know, we can never give our children everything they want because we know it would not be good for them. Similarly, Allah does not give us everything we ask for in this life, as an act of love for us and not deprivation, although He may hold onto our supplications until the Day of Judgment to answer them when we need them most. These are the hidden blessings on top of the many blessings we already know about. All of this is the manifestation of Allah’s love in its most general sense. Yet, despite His generosity, humankind has a tendency to be ungrateful to Him because they commit “acts of disobedience” and “deny the favors of their Lord.”[^18] People have a natural inclination to follow their whims, seek instant gratification, and be ungrateful for their blessings. We all know how painful it is when stubborn people do not acknowledge our acts of kindness to them. Behaving in this disrespectful manner towards Allah is so evil that the Qur’an uses the word ‘unbelief’ (*kufr*) as a synonym for ingratitude.[^19] Even so, Allah continues to bless such people, provide for them, and keep the door of repentance open for them during their whole lives, despite their thanklessness. But this general benevolence of Allah for His creatures does not preclude the possibility that He will punish them for their sins. Allah said: > As for My punishment, I bring it upon whomever I will, yet My mercy encompasses all things. I will decree it for those who were righteous and gave in charity, those who had faith in Our signs.[^20] According to al-Suyūṭī, the mercy of Allah is “general for all things in the world” but is specific for the believers “in the Hereafter.”[^21] Allah’s mercy is qualified by His complementary name *al-’Adl* (the Just). While Allah bestows an abundance of blessings upon His servants, the righteous and sinful alike, His justice necessitates that those who do not reciprocate His love in this world will be denied it in the Hereafter, as Allah said, “Thus did Our signs come to you and you forgot them, so thus will you be forgotten on this Day.”[^22] The dual aspect of Allah’s mercy is contained in the *basmalah* (‘in the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful’), the short prayer that Muslims say before reciting the Qur’an or doing any good deed. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, a distinguished scholar from Saudi Arabia, writes about these two names of Allah, the Gracious and the Merciful: > These are two names indicating that the Exalted is characterized by vast and great mercy, which encompasses all things and is general for every living being. He has decreed it for the righteous followers of His Prophets and Messengers. They will have His unconditional mercy. As for those who are hostile to Him, they still have a portion of it.[^23] [The mercy of Allah is vast](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/mercy-and-might-on-judgment-day-allahs-name-maliki-yawn-al-din), as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah is more merciful to His servants than a mother is to her child,”[^24] but the mercy of Allah should not be taken for granted while ignoring His imperative to enact justice. Keeping this in mind, believers should worship Allah in a balanced manner, hoping in the special mercy of Allah reserved for the believers, while also fearing His punishment awaiting the sinners, as Allah said, “Their sides forsake their beds to call upon Him in fear and hope.”[^25] Ibn al-Qayyim provides a helpful illustration as to why true love for Allah must be accompanied by fear and hope: > The heart on its journey towards Allah the Exalted is like that of a bird. Love is its head and fear and hope are its two wings. When the head is healthy, then the two wings will fly well. When the head is cut off, the bird will die. When either of two wings is damaged, the bird becomes vulnerable to every hunter and predator.[^26] Love should be the driving force that motivates us to obey Allah, while our love is also pushed along by a healthy combination of fear and hope. We fear displeasing Allah because we truly love Him since genuine love requires doing everything we can to satisfy our Beloved. People who depend solely upon the general mercy (or love) of Allah, but have no fear of His justice, become vulnerable to the satanic impulses inside them and behave as if their sins were insignificant. Likewise, the ‘hellfire-and-brimstone’ style of preaching, which offers little hope to believers, leads to a dysfunctional practice of religion as well. Too much fear or too much hope, without enough love, is like a bird trying to fly with only one wing. Hence, it is dangerous to only speak about the love of Allah in unqualified or unconditional terms, as is common in the popular ‘feel-good’ and ‘prosperity’ forms of religion today. This one-sided message deludes people into the false notion that the love of Allah can be taken for granted, that Allah ‘loves’ them even when they unrepentantly insist on disobeying Him and denying His favors. Rather, it is incumbent upon the believers to take on the characteristics of those whom Allah described in the Qur’an as worthy of His love. --- ## Allah’s love for the believers The believers benefit from the general mercy of Allah in the same manner as all of His creatures, but they are further rewarded with His special love in this life and in the Hereafter on account of their faith, good deeds, and pure hearts. Allah sent Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as the Final Messenger to humanity, with the Qur'an and authentic Sunnah, by which anyone can draw close to Allah and experience the fullest extent of His love. Allah said: > Say (O Muhammad): If you love Allah, then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive your sins, for Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.[^27] The Qur’an describes the broad character traits of those who are worthy of Allah’s love, which is a special reward reserved in the Hereafter for those who have faith in Him. Allah loves those who follow the Prophet (peace be on him),[^28] those who are mindful of Him and fear Him,[^29] those who rely upon Him,[^30] those who behave in the best manner,[^31] those who are just,[^32] those who repent and purify their hearts,[^33] and those who are patient.[^34] In contrast, Allah does not love those who disbelieve in Him,[^35] those who are ungrateful to Him,[^36] those who spread corruption,[^37] those who transgress the limits,[^38] those who are treacherous,[^39] those who are arrogant,[^40] those who are proud and boastful,[^41] those who are extravagant,[^42] and those who wrong others.[^43] Allah loves the believers and rewards them in the Hereafter to the extent that they behave righteously, while at the same time He hates their sins and He reserves the right to punish them accordingly. As for the unbelievers who had no honest excuse for their disbelief, they will receive no love from Allah in the next life if they die without faith. If they never bothered to reciprocate Allah’s mercy for them in this world by genuinely loving Him, why should they be rewarded in the Hereafter? ### Signs of Allah’s love We can never really know whom Allah loves other than the Prophets or those specifically named by the Prophets, as the final judgment of everyone else is in the Unseen and will only be revealed in the Hereafter. However, there are signs in this life that Allah loves a particular believer or that He loves us. Al-Ghazālī outlines the most important characteristics of the believers whom Allah loves: > Allah’s love for a servant is in bringing him close to Himself by repelling distractions and sinful acts of disobedience from him, purifying his inner-self from the cloudiness of the world, and lifting the veil over his heart until he bears witness to Him, as if he can see Him with his own heart.[^44] The love of the believers for Allah is not simply a *feeling*; it involves *action*. When the believers are inspired by Allah to perform acts of worship, to give in charity, or behave with good character, all of these are signs that Allah loves them for their faith in Him and, at the same time, are expressions of their love for Him. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If Allah intends goodness for a servant, He puts him into action.” It was said, “How is he put into action, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “He is guided to righteous deeds before death.”[^45] As such, Allah guides the believers whom He loves to good deeds, beginning most importantly with the obligatory acts of worship and building upon these to include all sorts of voluntary virtues. As the believer grows closer to Allah in this manner, Allah loves him (or her) more and more until His guidance permeates their lives. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Allah Almighty said: My servant does not grow closer to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the duties I have imposed upon him. My servant continues to grow closer to Me with extra good works until I love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask something from Me, I would surely give it to him. Were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant it to him.[^46] In describing this spiritual state of being loved by Allah, al-Ghazālī writes: > Allah takes charge of (the believer’s) outward and inward affairs, in private and in public. He refers to Him to arrange his affairs and beautify his character, to enable his limbs, and to direct him outwardly and inwardly. (The believer) makes his concern a single concern (for the Hereafter), and Allah makes worldliness hateful to him in his heart. Allah detaches him from those besides Him. He puts him at ease with private conversation in seclusion with Him. He lifts the veil between him and gnosis of Him. These and the like are signs that Allah loves a servant.[^47] Simply having the opportunity to practice Islam is a sign that Allah loves us. The love of Allah for the believers further manifests itself in their own actions, in their character, worship, and good deeds. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The most beloved people to Allah are those with the best character.”[^48] When we see believers exhibiting good behavior with respect to Allah and others, this is a sign that Allah loves them. When we find these good qualities within our own selves, this is a sign that Allah loves us; it is a blessing for which we should be grateful and praise Allah, not something to be arrogant about. Beautiful character traits are among the hallmarks of the righteous believers, another sign of His love for them and their love for Him. Gentleness (*al-rifq*) is one such divine quality found in Allah and which He loves to find in the behavior of the believers. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is Gentle and He loves gentleness in every matter.”[^49] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “Gentleness is not found in anything but that it beautifies it, and it is not removed from anything but that it disgraces it.”[^50] The Prophet ﷺ once said to his companion Al-Ashajj ʿAbd al-Qays, “Verily, you have two qualities beloved to Allah. They are forbearance and patience.”[^51] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is Generous. He loves generosity and exalted character and He detests pettiness.”[^52] Allah loves for His servants to interact with people using such beautiful manners, so it is another sign of His love upon them when He facilitates them to behave well. The best religious habits to Allah are the ones that are consistent, as the Prophet  ﷺsaid, “The most beloved deeds to Allah are those performed regularly.”[^53] Allah loves for the believers to build up beneficial routines, even if they are small deeds. This could be something as simple as reciting *Āyat al-Kursī* every night before going to bed, or something more involved like performing the night prayers (*qiyām al-layl*). To earn Allah’s love, we should pick a good deed that we can do on a regular basis. The Prophet ﷺ was often asked by his companions what the most beloved deed was to Allah, or what they personally should focus on and, in his prophetic wisdom, he gave them different answers based on their individual situations. The best deeds for us to do are those the Prophet ﷺ praised but also what we can realistically do day after day without falling off the train, so to speak. Once we consolidate our routine, we can add more and more to it in a manner of systematic spiritual improvement. As mentioned earlier, the believers grow closer to Allah through voluntary deeds (in addition to the obligations) until Allah loves them and becomes their Ally. Whatever we choose to do, we should do it as best as we can. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah Almighty is Excellent and He loves excellence.”[^54] This is true for anything we do in life, whether it is worship, school, work, and so on. Allah loves for us to put in our best effort and make things as perfect as possible. Another important sign of Allah’s love is the hardships that He, in His infinite wisdom, imposes upon the believers to purify their sins and bring out the best in them. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If Allah loves people, He afflicts them with trials.”[^55] This might seem counterintuitive if we only view it from the perspective of the world. However, the world is only half of the story. The ending of the story occurs in the Hereafter on the Day of Judgment, when the ultimate fate of people is decided. What appears ‘bad’ in this life is actually good for the believers, as the Prophet ﷺ informed us, “The bitterness of the world is sweetness in the Hereafter.”[^56] Perhaps we lost a good job that we loved or suffered a serious health crisis. It certainly seems bad on the surface, and it is to the extent that these trials are not desirable in themselves, but Allah knows this particular trial is good for our spiritual development. We might love something very dear to us in the world, yet Allah takes it away from us because He loves us. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah Almighty will put his faithful servant on a diet from the world when He loves him, just as you put your ill on a diet from food and drink, fearing for him.”[^57] We cannot see how the bigger picture plays out in the Hereafter, so part of true faith is to trust in Allah to decree the best for us. Hardship in this life functions as the believer’s atonement for the sins he or she commits. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Nothing afflicts a Muslim of hardship, nor illness, nor anxiety, nor sorrow, nor harm, nor distress, nor even the pricking of a thorn, but that Allah will expiate his sins by it.”[^58] In this way, every difficult matter that troubles us in the world is good for us as long as we have faith and endure it patiently. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Wondrous is the affair of a believer, as there is good for him in every matter; this is not the case for anyone but a believer. If he experiences pleasure, he thanks Allah and it is good for him. If he experiences harm, he shows patience and it is good for him.[^59] Thus, when a believer is afflicted by pain, suffering, or distress, he or she has faith that Allah has decreed this hardship in their best interests, that it is expunging their sins “just as leaves fall from a tree.”[^60] This is a sign of Allah’s love, not His wrath. In the optimistic spirit of faith, a trial is viewed as an opportunity to be rewarded for patience. Indeed, hardship often brings out the best in people. One of the Qur’anic words for ‘trial’ is *fitnah*, which is related to a metalworking term that means “he put it into the fire, namely gold and silver, in order to separate or distinguish the bad from the good.”[^61] Just as a blacksmith puts raw gold ore into a fire to extract the pure gold from within the rock, Allah imposes trials upon the believers to compel them towards their best behavior. The best examples, of course, are the Prophet ﷺ and his companions, whose faith was refined by the persecution they endured at the hands of their enemies. We know Allah loved them very much and, for this reason, He tested them severely; every subsequent generation of Muslims has benefited from the lessons they learned. Even so, we should not rush into trials or seek out hardship because we cannot know if it is a test we will pass. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Blessed is the one kept away from trials.”[^62] Ease is an immense blessing from Allah, one for which we should be thankful and reciprocate by obeying Him. Another important sign of Allah’s love is the love of believers for other believers. If a believer is beloved to the people in his or her community, that is an indication that Allah loves them and is pleased with them. Allah said: > Verily, those who have faith and perform righteous deeds, the Merciful will appoint affection for them.[^63] The Prophet ﷺ further explained how this works in the Unseen: > When Allah loves a servant, He calls Gabriel and He says: Verily, I love this person so you should love him. Then Gabriel loves him and makes an announcement in the heavens, saying: Allah loves this person so you should love him. Thus, the dwellers of the heavens love him and he is honored on the earth.[^64] Therefore, the good reputation of a believer is a sign of Allah’s love for them. This is particularly true in the context of the funeral prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whenever four persons testify to the goodness of a Muslim, he will enter Paradise.” The companions said, “And three?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Even three.” They said, “And two?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Even two.”[^65] If a Muslim leaves behind a good impression upon even two believers (which is consistent with their true state), they will enter Paradise as a reward. Sometimes the signs of Allah’s love for a believer are so overwhelming that they are nearly impossible to deny. It is reported that as many as two and a half million Muslims prayed for Imām Aḥmad at his funeral.[^66] Aḥmad’s works are still beloved and beneficial to countless Muslims even today. Similar accolades have been earned by great imams, scholars, and righteous believers throughout Islamic history, which strongly suggests that Allah loved them and was pleased with them. We cannot say with absolute certainty whom Allah loves or does not love unless it is mentioned in divine revelation, nor should we exaggerate the status of any particular believer as the Prophet ﷺ told us, “If one of you inevitably praises his companion, let him say: ‘I consider him to be good and Allah will hold him accountable. I cannot testify to anyone’s purity before Allah, but I consider him good as far as is known.’”[^67] Nevertheless, the signs of Allah’s love for a believer can provide us with a high degree of confidence with regard to who we should learn Islam from and spend our time with. --- ## The believers’ love for Allah Since Allah’s love for the believers is clearly conveyed in the Qur’an and Sunnah, [it is a duty upon them to respond to this love by loving Allah in return](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/why-our-perception-of-god-matters). The good deeds that Allah facilitates for those whom He loves are the same deeds by which believers show their love for Allah. The distinguishing feature of a monotheist’s love for Allah, as opposed to an idolater, is its principled consistency. Allah said: > Among people are those who take rivals besides Allah, loving them with love only due to Allah, but the believers are even stronger in their love of Allah.[^68] According to Al-Suyūṭī, the believers are stronger in their love for Allah than the idolaters because “they do not turn away from Him regardless of the situation, whereas the unbelievers only turn to Allah in times of hardship.”[^69] In other words, the idolaters share their love with their idols and only show Allah the love He deserves from them when they are in a dangerous situation, like being lost in a storm at sea. Conversely, the believers are constant in their love of Allah through acts of obedience, worship, and good deeds, whether at times of ease or difficulty. As the Prophet ﷺ would say, “All praise is due to Allah in every circumstance.”[^70] In fact, the Prophet ﷺ told us, “No one loves to be praised more than Allah.”[^71] As such, we should make it a habit to praise Allah at all times. al-Ghazālī includes the believer’s love for Allah as one of the ‘salvific virtues’ (*munjiyāt*) that can take one to Paradise. In his view, Allah should be the only true object of love for the believers or, rather, Allah is the source of all love: > Allah alone is deserving of love. Whoever loves something besides Allah and not with regard to his relationship with Allah, that is from his ignorance and deficiency in knowing Allah Almighty. Love for the Messenger ﷺ is praiseworthy, as it proceeds from the love of Allah Almighty. Likewise is the love of the scholars and the righteous, as those loved by the Beloved should be loved… None is beloved in reality, for those with insight, except Allah Almighty. None deserves love besides Him.[^72] Every love that we have for a person, object, or idea in the world should be related to our love for Allah. We love the believers and the righteous because we know Allah loves them in a general sense. We love our parents because, not only has Allah made this natural to us, He has commanded us to uphold our family ties. Even if our parents strive against our faith, we are still obligated to “accompany them with good conduct.”[^73] In this way, everything we love is simply an outgrowth of our original love for Allah. The clearest example of our derivative love is our obligatory love for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and, indeed, all of the Prophets. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you have faith until I am more beloved to him than his children, his father, and all of the people.”[^74] This also includes love for the companions, as the Prophet said, “None loves the *Anṣār* but a believer and none hates them but a hypocrite. Whoever loves them, Allah will love him. Whoever hates them, Allah will hate him.”[^75] Despite our love for things in this world, our relationship to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companions is the most important because our guidance and salvation depend upon it. If our family and friends contradict the teachings of Islam, we are called to follow the dictates of our religion instead of them. Again, love for the Messenger ﷺ is not merely a feeling; it requires action. On one occasion, ‘Umar said to the Prophet, “O Messenger of Allah, you are more beloved to me than everything but myself.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “No, by the one in whose hand is my soul, until I am more beloved to you than yourself.” ʿUmar said, “Indeed, I swear by Allah that you are more beloved to me now than myself.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Now (you are right), O ʿUmar.”[^76] ‘Umar did not instantly change the feelings in his heart after the Prophet ﷺ said this; instead, he became determined to change his intention. He now pledged to give preference to his love for the Messenger ﷺ over his love for anyone else, including himself. Ibn al-Qayyim, who was skilled at making concise lists, provides us with the top ten ways the believers can acquire the love of Allah:[^77] 1. Reciting the Qur’an, reflecting upon it, and understanding its intended meanings. 2. Performing extra, voluntary good deeds and acts of worship in addition to the religious obligations. 3. Constantly remembering Allah in every situation by words, heart, and deeds. 4. Giving precedence to the love of Allah over one’s desires and whims. 5. Studying the names and attributes of Allah, bearing witness to them, and recognizing them. 6. Bearing witness to His benevolence, kind treatment, and blessings, whether apparent or hidden. 7. Presenting one’s ‘broken heart’ before Allah (by this he meant to be humble in front of Allah). 8. Seeking seclusion and private conversation with Allah in worship. 9. Keeping company with righteous believers whom He loves and benefiting from the ‘fruits’ of their words. 10.  Keeping away from anything that might come between one’s heart and Allah Almighty. Ibn al-Qayyim concludes his list with the following, “From these ten means, those who show love to Allah will arrive at the (spiritual) station of true love and will enter upon the Beloved. The foundation of all that is in two affairs: preparing the soul for this matter and opening the eye of insight.”[^78] Love of this nature is a very deliberate intention and act, not just a feeling we turn on and off like a switch. Authentic love for Allah takes preparation, study, and effort, learning from the wisdom of our heritage, and activating new levels of perception gleaned from sincerely traversing the religious journey. That said, love as an intention to do good is praiseworthy itself even if one cannot perform all the deeds on this list. Abū Dharr once said, “O Messenger of Allah, a man loves a people but he cannot do good deeds as they do.” The Prophet ﷺ answered, “You, O Abū Dharr, will be with those you love.” Abū Dharr said, “I love Allah and His Messenger.” The Prophet said, “Verily, you will be with those you love.”[^79] So although some may have difficulty doing good deeds out of their love for Allah, whether because of weakness or sickness or some other reason, the longing in their hearts to grow closer to Allah by these deeds can be enough to join them with the righteous in the Hereafter. At the same time, we must be cautious of where we place our love because what we love in this life will be with us in the next life. --- ## The believers’ love for Allah’s creation [Since Allah loves good for His creation in a general sense, the believers should reflect this goodwill in their interactions with His creatures](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-alchemy-of-divine-love-how-our-view-of-god-affects-our-faith-and-happiness). In this way, the believers can let the divine quality of love shine through them in their behavior towards others, a practice known as ‘taking on character traits by the names of Allah’ (*al-takhalluq bi-asmāʾ Allāh*). al-Ghazālī explains the implications of *al-Wadūd* for our behavior: > Loving-kindness among the servants of Allah involves desiring for the creation of Allah what he desires for himself, and the highest part of that is to prefer them over himself. As if one of them said: I wish I could be a bridge over Hellfire so that the creation would cross over me and not be harmed by it. The perfection of this is that anger, malice, and what he endures of harm will not prevent him from altruism and excellent behavior.[^80] al-Bayḍāwī similarly agrees in his explanation of the Affectionate, writing, “The portion of it with the servant is that he desires for the creation of Allah Almighty what he desires for himself, not that he desires for the creation what he does not desire for himself. Rather, he must often show loving-kindness to people and visit them in the legislated manner.”[^81] If a servant of Allah truly loves Allah, then he or she should love those who already believe in Allah and also love guidance for those who do not yet believe. The highest level, according to al-Ghazālī, is to endure harm from the unbelievers while still showing them altruistic intentions (*al-īthār*) and benevolence (*al-iḥsān*). It can be summarized as the ethics of reciprocity: treat people as you want to be treated. The Prophet ﷺ said: > None of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.[^82] Part of the perfection of faith is to show goodwill to people and to love that which benefits them in this life and in the Hereafter. The term ‘brother’ in this tradition, when interpreted in combination with several variant wordings, has been understood by scholars to be the brotherhood of humanity; all human beings are the children of Adam and are therefore ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ in this sense. The version in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* says “until he loves for his brother—or he said his neighbor—what he loves for himself.”[^83] And Ibn Ḥibbān’s version says “until he loves for the people...”[^84] Based upon this evidence, al-Nawawī expanded the meaning of brotherhood to include non-Muslims: > Firstly, that \[tradition\] is interpreted as a general brotherhood, such that it includes the unbeliever and the Muslim. Thus, he loves for his brother—the unbeliever—what he loves for himself of entering into Islam, as he would love for his brother Muslim to remain always upon Islam. For this reason, to pray for guidance for the unbeliever is recommended.[^85] The same broader interpretation of brotherhood by al-Nawawī was repeated nearly word for word by Ibn ʿAllān, which he attributes to Ibn ʿImād al-Aqfahsī.[^86] Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī likewise agreed with them, “It is apparent that the expression ‘brother’ here is based upon the general sense, as it is befitting for every Muslim to love Islam for the unbelievers and what arises from it of perfections.”[^87] Moreover, commenting upon the word “neighbor” as it appears in the version of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, al-Ṣanʿānī concludes: > The narration of the neighbor is general for the Muslim, the unbeliever, and the sinner, the friend and the enemy, the relative and the foreigner, the near neighbor and the far neighbor. Whoever accumulates in this regard the obligatory attributes of the love of good for him, he is at the highest of levels.[^88] Hence, believers should love for others what they love for themselves, whether people are Muslims or not. If they are Muslims, believers love for them to remain and improve in Islam. If they are not Muslims, the believers love for them to be guided to Islam. Even if they are enemies, the believers should love for them to stop sinning and repent of their ways. In the same spirit of mercy for creation, the believers love good for animals and all creatures. The Prophet ﷺ told the story of a man who had intense thirst while he was walking on a journey. When he found a well, he climbed down into it and drank from it. Then he came out and saw a dog lolling its tongue from thirst and licking the ground. The man said, “This dog has suffered thirst just as I have suffered from it.” He climbed down into the well, filled his shoe with water, and held it in his mouth as he climbed up. Then, he gave the dog a drink. God appreciated this deed, so he forgave him. Upon this, the companions said, “O Messenger of God, we will have a reward in these beasts?” The Prophet said, “In every moist liver is a reward.”[^89] The man was forgiven by Allah for having mercy upon a stray dog; the man even applied the ethics of reciprocity to the dog, treating the dog as he wanted to be treated! Ibn al-Qayyim then coaxes us to come to the logical conclusion, “If Allah Almighty had forgiven one who gave water to a dog suffering from extreme thirst, then how about one who relieves the thirst, satisfies the hunger, and clothes the naked among the Muslims?”[^90] --- ## The believers’ love for each other The culmination of this spirit is the fellowship of faith, the mutual love between believers as brothers and sisters in Islam. While believers should love good for all people, a special love is reserved for those who are brought together by faith. The believers reciprocate each other’s love within the context of their religious precepts, unlike unbelievers who may not reciprocate their love or who may only love for them to benefit in the world instead of the Hereafter. The Prophet ﷺ described the unity of the believers as if they were a single body whose parts affect each other. The Prophet ﷺ said: > The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.[^91] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Muslims are like a single man. If the eye is afflicted, the whole body is afflicted. If the head is afflicted, the whole body is afflicted.”[^92] Implied in this imagery is that the believers love for each other what they love for themselves. The early scholar al-Ḥalīmī commented on this tradition, saying: > It is befitting for them to be like that. As one hand would not love but what the other loves and one eye or one leg or one ear would not love but what the other loves. Likewise, he should not love for his Muslim brother except what he loves for himself.[^93] The most beloved servant to Allah is the one who loves the believers the most; as the Prophet ﷺ said, “No two persons love each other for the sake of Allah but that the better of the two is the one with the strongest love for his companion.”[^94] By loving each other for the sake of Allah, we grow closer to Allah and to one another at the same time. The unifying power of Islam should inspire love among the believers regardless of where they live or what their ethnicity is. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib used to say, “Verily, the believers are people with goodwill and love for each other, even if their lands and countries are far apart.”[^95] The true love of the believers for each other transcends national and political boundaries. It is what motivates Muslims to care deeply about what is happening to other Muslims in the world, despite having no familial or ethnic connection to them. This type of sincere, selfless love for the sake of Allah is highly rewarded in the Hereafter, to the extent that those who loved each other for His sake will be admired by the prophets themselves. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Verily, Allah will say on the Day of Resurrection: Where are those who love each other for the sake of My Glory? Today, I will shelter them in My shade on a day when there is no shade but Mine.[^96] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > Allah Almighty said: Those who love each other for the sake of My Glory will be upon pulpits of light, admired by the prophets and the martyrs.[^97] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > Allah Almighty said: My love is a right upon those who love each other for My sake. My love is a right upon those who visit each other for My sake. My love is a right upon those who sit together for My sake. My love is a right upon those who maintain relations for My sake.[^98] ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb once heard the Prophet ﷺ say, “Verily, among the servants of Allah are people who are neither prophets nor martyrs, yet the prophets and martyrs will admire them on the Day of Resurrection due to their position before Allah Almighty.” The companions said, “O Messenger of Allah, tell us who they are.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “They are people who love each other with the spirit of Allah, despite having no shared family relations or wealth. By Allah, there will be light on their faces and they will be upon light. They will not fear when people are afraid and they will not be sad when people are grieved.”[^99] In fact, the reward of believers for loving each other is not only in the Hereafter but in this life as well. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever would love to taste the flavor of faith, let him love a person only for the sake of Allah Almighty.”[^100] The love between believers in this world is only a small preview of the joy they will experience together in the next life. In sum, the believers act upon the divine name *al-Wadūd* by loving good for all creatures, as an extension of the principle to be merciful to the creation. They treat people the way they want to be treated, as their consciences and Islamic teachings dictate to them. Muslims love for unbelievers to be guided to Islam, and they love for Muslims to remain and improve in Islam. This general love applies even to enemies of Islam, although it may not be appropriate to show them affection or warmth when they are committing major sins. The specific love of the believers is found in the fellowship of Islam, which transcends familial, ethnic, political, and national boundaries. --- ## Hatred for the sake of Allah? When discussing the love of Allah, it is important to clarify its inverse: hatred for the sake of Allah. People might shy away from discussing what, at first glance, appears to be a negative concept opposed to the love of Allah. However, as properly understood, love for Allah cannot exist without hatred as well. If someone really loves Allah, they should hate sin and evil, but this does not mean one should hate sinners in the sense of wanting to harm them. Allah said: > Allah has made faith beloved to you and beautified it in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you unbelief, wickedness, and sinful disobedience. Those are the rightly guided.[^101] The focus of our hatred in this verse is on the abstract concepts of unbelief and their concrete sinful deeds, not the identities of people. Muslim believers love faith and they hate acts of unbelief, wickedness, and sin, but they do not harbor malice towards unbelievers and sinners themselves. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of faith is to love for the sake of Allah, to hate for the sake of Allah, and to work your tongue in remembrance of Allah.” Muʿādh ibn Anas said, “How is it, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “That you love for people what you love for yourself, and you hate for them what you hate for yourself, and you speak goodness or remain silent.”[^102] The prominent Indian Muslim scholar, Muḥammad Shams al-Ḥaqq al-ʿAẓīmābādi, took the Prophet’s ﷺ saying that “hatred for the sake of Allah” is part of faith to mean “not to harm the one he hates but rather (hatred) for his unbelief and sinful disobedience.”[^103] And Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī cites Shams al-Dīn al-Kirmānī as saying “it is also part of faith to hate for his brother what he hates for himself of evil.”[^104] Thus, believers hate evil to come to people just as they love good to come to them. It is simply impossible to love good without also hating evil. People today use the slogan: *love the sinner, hate the sin*. This is not a new concept at all, but rather it was understood by the earliest Muslims. Ibrāhīm ibn Ad´ham رحمه الله was passing through some cities and he saw two ascetics on a journey. One of them said to the other, “O brother, what do the people who love Allah inherit from their beloved?” The other said, “They inherit insight from the light of Allah Almighty and compassion for those who disobey Allah.” Ibrāhīm said, “How can he have compassion for people who contradict their Beloved?” The man looked at him and said, “They abhor their sinful deeds and have compassion for them that by their admonition they might leave their deeds, and they feel sympathy that their bodies might be burned in Hellfire. The believer is not truly a believer until he is pleased for people to have what he is pleased for himself.”[^105] Ibn Rajab seemingly references this story and attributes it as an opinion among the righteous predecessors: > The people who love Allah look by the light of Allah and they are compassionate with those who disobey Allah. They hate their actions but show mercy to them so that through their warnings (sinners) might leave their actions. They are afraid that the Hellfire will consume their bodies. The believer will not truly be a believer until he is pleased for people to have what he is pleased for himself.[^106] Therefore, believers hate the unbelief of the unbelievers while still showing them compassion, hoping for their guidance and repentance. We may even experience natural hatred for people, which is beyond our control. Certainly, it is not unusual to hate someone who wrongs us, but personal emotions of love or hatred should never cross the line into acts of transgression. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb رضي الله عنه said, “Let not your love be infatuation and let not your hatred be destruction.” It was said, “How is this?” ʿUmar said, “When you love someone, you become infatuated like a child. When you hate someone, you want him to be destroyed.”[^107] Hatred, when it leads to a desire to harm and destroy, is a spiritual disease that has consumed and ruined entire nations. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Creeping towards you are the diseases of the nations before you. Envy and hatred are razors. I do not say they shave hair, but rather they shave the religion. By the one in whose hand is my soul, you will not enter Paradise until you have faith and you will not have faith until you love each other. Shall I tell you what can affirm that for you? Spread peace amongst yourselves.[^108] In brief, hatred for the sake of Allah means to hate evil, sin, and unbelief. It does not mean to hate unbelievers and sinners in the sense of desiring to harm them. Hatred at an extreme magnitude is a dangerous spiritual disease that must be resisted, even if it is a natural response to injustice. --- ## Conclusion Love is part of the essence of Allah, *al-Wadūd*, and as such, it should permeate the lives of the believers. We should love Allah more than anything else, and as a result, love everything and everyone whom Allah loves: His Messengers, the believers, faith, and righteousness. Inversely, love for Allah is not complete until a believer hates everything that Allah hates: unbelief, wickedness, and sin. This teaching is encapsulated in the Prophet’s ﷺ saying: > Whoever has three traits within himself will find the sweetness of faith: one who loves Allah and His Messenger more than anything else, one who loves a servant only for the sake of Allah, and one who hates to turn back to unbelief after Allah has saved him, just as he hates to be thrown into the fire.[^109] Hating unbelief, of course, does not mean we should hate unbelievers or want to hurt them. It means hating evil actions and the sins by which they wrong their own souls. If we truly love someone, we hate to see them follow a path to their own destruction in this life and in the Hereafter. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Hans Wehr and J. M. Cowan, *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic* (Urbana, IL: Spoken Languages Services, 2002), 1240. [^2]: Wehr and Cowan, 179. [^3]: Qur’an 85:14. [^4]: Qur’an 11:90. [^5]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Beirut: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 5:411, no. 3507. A weak (*ḍaʿīf*) ḥadīth is a narration from the Prophet ﷺ in which scholars have found deficiencies in its chain of authorities or its content. Scholars disagree on the role of weak ḥadīth, with some allowing their use as supporting evidence whereas others discourage their use completely. [^6]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:358, no. 3419. [^7]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 9:124. [^8]: al-Bayhaqī, *Kitāb al-asmāʾ wa-al-ṣifāt* (Jeddah: Maktabat al-Suwādī, 1993), 1:349. [^9]: al-Ghazālī, *Al-Maqṣad al-asná fī sharḥ Asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná* (Cyprus: al-Jaffān wal-Jābī, 1987), 122; for an alternative translation, see Abū Ḥāmid Ghazzālī, David B. Burrell, and Nazih Daher, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2011), 118–19. [^10]: al-Bayhaqī, *Kitāb al-asmāʾ wa-al-ṣifāt*, 1:198, no. 133. [^11]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn bayna manāzil īyyāka naʿbudu wa-īyyāka nastaʿīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, 1996), 3:29. [^12]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, 3:29–30. [^13]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:438, no. 3537; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^14]: Qur’an 14:34. [^15]: al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2001), 1:335, verse 14:34. [^16]: Qur’an 2:216. [^17]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 17:213, no. 11133; declared very good (*jayyid*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^18]: al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn*, 1:335, verse 14:34. [^19]: Qur’an 2:152. [^20]: Qur’an 7:156. [^21]: al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn*, 1:216, verse 7:156. [^22]: Qur’an 20:126. [^23]: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Saʿdī, *Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī tafsīr kalām al-Mannān* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 1:39, verse 1:1. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:8, no. 5999. [^25]: Qur’an 32:16. [^26]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:513. [^27]: Qur’an 3:31. [^28]: Qur’an 3:31. [^29]: Qur’an 3:76. [^30]: Qur’an 3:159. [^31]: Qur’an 2:195. [^32]: Qur’an 60:8. [^33]: Qur’an 2:222. [^34]: Qur’an 3:146. [^35]: Qur’an 3:32. [^36]: Qur’an 2:276. [^37]: Qur’an 5:64. [^38]: Qur’an 2:190. [^39]: Qur’an 8:58. [^40]: Qur’an 16:23. [^41]: Qur’an 4:36. [^42]: Qur’an 7:31. [^43]: Qur’an 3:140. [^44]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 4:329; for an alternative translation, see al-Ghazālī and Eric L. Ormsby (trans.), *Al-Ghazali: Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2011), 104. [^45]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī,* 4:18, no. 2142; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Tirmidhī in comments. [^46]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:105, no. 6502. [^47]: al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn*, 4:329; for an alternative translation, see al-Ghazālī and Ormsby (trans.), *al-Ghazali: Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment*, 105–6. [^48]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1993), 2:236, no. 486; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^49]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:16, no. 6927. [^50]: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Beirut?\]: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabīyah, 1955), 4:2004, no. 2594. [^51]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:48, no. 17. [^52]: al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrá* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2003), 10:322, no. 20781; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmi’ al-ṣaghīr wa ziyādātihi* (\[Damascus?\]: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 1:370, no. 1801. [^53]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:542, no. 785. [^54]: al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-awsaṭ* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1995), 6:40, no. 5735; declared very good (*jayyid*) by al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif, 1996), 1:840, no. 469. [^55]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 39:48, no. 23641; declared very good (*jayyid*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^56]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 37:533, no. 22897; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr*, 1:603, no. 3155. [^57]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 39:37, no. 23626; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^58]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 7:114, no. 5641. [^59]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2295, no. 2999. [^60]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 7:115, no. 5648. [^61]: Edward W. Lane and Stanley Lane-Poole, *An Arabic-English Lexicon* (London: Williams and Norgate, 1863), 2334. [^62]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Saida, Lebanon: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:102, no. 4263; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^63]: Qur’an 19:96. [^64]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:146, no. 6485. [^65]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:97, no. 1368. [^66]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāyah wa-al-nihāyah* (Cairo: Dār Hajr, 1997), 14:424. [^67]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:176, no. 2662. [^68]: Qur’an 2:165. [^69]: al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn*, 1:33, verse 2:165. [^70]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1975), 2:1250, no. 3803; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^71]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 7:35, no. 5220. [^72]: al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn*, 4:301; for an alternative translation, see al-Ghazālī and Ormsby (trans.), *al-Ghazali: Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment*, 23. [^73]: Qur’an 31:15. [^74]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:12, no. 14. [^75]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 5:32, no. 3783. [^76]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:129, no. 6632. [^77]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 3:18. [^78]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, 3:19. [^79]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:333, no. 5162; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^80]: al-Ghazālī, *Al-Maqṣad al-asná fī sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná*, 122; for an alternative translation, see Abū Ḥāmid Ghazālī et al., *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God*, 118–19. [^81]: al-Baydạ̄wī, *Sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 2015), 272. [^82]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:12, no. 13. [^83]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:67, no. 45. [^84]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, 1:471, no. 235. [^85]: al-Nawawī, *Kitāb al-arbaʿīn al-Nawawīyah wa sharḥuh* (\[Cairo?\]: Dār Ḥarā’ lil-Kitāb, 1987), 38. [^86]: Ibn ʿAllān, *Dalīl al-fāliḥīn li-ṭuruq Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Ma’rifah, 2004), 3:26. [^87]: Ibn Ḥajar Haytamī, *al-Fatḥ al-mubīn bi-sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn* (Jeddah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2008), 305. [^88]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl Ṣanʿānī, *Subul al-salām: Sharḥ Bulūgh al-Marām min adillat al-aḥkām* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2007), 2:633. [^89]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:132, no. 2466. [^90]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *ʿUddat al-ṣābirīn wa-dhakhīrat al-shākirīn* (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1989), 1:253. [^91]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:10, no. 6011. [^92]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2000, no. 2586. [^93]: al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-īmān* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2003), 13:467, no. 10627. [^94]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, 2:325, no. 566; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^95]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 23:465. [^96]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1988, no. 2566. [^97]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī,* 4:175, no. 2390; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^98]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 32:327, no. 22002; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^99]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 3:288, no. 3527; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^100]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 13:347, no. 7967; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^101]: Qur’an 49:7. [^102]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 36:446, no. 22132; declared authentic due to external evidence (*ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrihi*) by al-Arnāʾūṭ in the comments. [^103]: Muḥammad Shams al-Ḥaqq al-ʿAẓīmābādī, *‘Awn al-ma’būd: Sharḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2009), 12:285. [^104]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-sharḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1959), 1:74. [^105]: Abū Nuʿaym, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ* (Egypt: Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿādah, 1974), 8:25. [^106]: Ibn Rajab, *Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm wa-al-ḥikam* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), 1:308. [^107]: al-Bukhārī, *Kitāb al-adab al-mufrad* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 1998), 1:744, no. 644; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the comments. [^108]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:245, no. 2510; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Suyūṭī as cited by al-Ṣanʿānī in *al-Tanwīr: Sharḥ al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr* (Riyadh: Muḥammad Isḥāq Muḥammad Ibrāhīm, 2011), 6:72, no. 4154. [^109]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:12, no. 16. ## Summary Love in Islam and the Divine Name al-Wadūd Among the beautiful names of Allah is al-Wadūd, often rendered "The Most Loving" or "The Affectionate," derived from the word wudd, meaning affection or amity. This is a specific type of friendly love distinguished from the more general Arabic words ḥubb and maḥabbah, though the roots are often used synonymously. Many of the early Muslims connected al-Wadūd to names denoting Allah's mercy, such as al-Raḥīm (the Merciful) and al-Ghafūr (the Forgiving). The name appears twice in the Qur'an, both times joined to Allah's forgiving and merciful nature: "He is the Forgiving, the Loving" (Qur'an 85:14), and the words of the Prophet Shuʿayb عليه السلام, "Ask forgiveness from your Lord and repent to Him. Verily, my Lord is Merciful and Loving" (Qur'an 11:90). Although al-Wadūd also appears in a long ḥadīth enumerating the ninety-nine names, that narration was graded weak (ḍaʿīf) by al-Tirmidhī, as was a related narration of the Prophet's supplication ﷺ. Yet its presence in two Qur'anic verses is sufficient to establish it as one of Allah's names. The early Muslims understood this name from two complementary angles: Allah as the object of love and Allah as the granter of love. Al-Bukhārī cited Abū al-ʿĀliyah that al-Wadūd means al-Ḥabīb (the Beloved), while al-Bayhaqī explained it as "He Who intends the best for His allies," and al-Ghazālī wrote that it is "He Who loves good for all of creation." Al-Bayhaqī also recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās that it carries both meanings. Ibn al-Qayyim summarized these two views and noted they are not mutually exclusive but complementary: Allah is both the recipient of love through the worship of His creatures and the constant bestower of love and mercy upon them. He further observed that the name is linked in both verses with forgiveness, indicating "that He forgives sins and He loves those who repent to Him." Repentance remains open until one's dying breath, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "Verily, Allah accepts the repentance of His servants, as long as they are not on their deathbed." Allah's love reaches all creation through His innumerable acts of mercy. Allah said, "If you were to count the favors of Allah, you would never be able to number them" (Qur'an 14:34). Al-Suyūṭī explained that Allah answers all supplications "in accordance with [our] best interests," for as Allah said, "you may like something that is bad for you and you may hate something that is good for you" (Qur'an 2:216). The Prophet ﷺ taught that a supplication free of sin is answered in one of three ways: hastened fulfillment, storage of reward in the Hereafter, or the diversion of an equivalent evil. Withholding a request, then, may itself be an act of love. Yet human beings tend toward ingratitude, so much so that the Qur'an uses "unbelief" (kufr) as a synonym for it. Allah's general benevolence does not preclude His punishment, for He said, "As for My punishment, I bring it upon whomever I will, yet My mercy encompasses all things" (Qur'an 7:156). Al-Suyūṭī noted that His mercy is general for all in this world but specific for the believers in the Hereafter. Allah's mercy is thus qualified by His name al-ʿAdl (the Just), and those who do not reciprocate His love in this world will be denied it in the next: "so thus will you be forgotten on this Day" (Qur'an 45:34, cf. 20:126). This dual aspect is present in the basmalah. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī explained that al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm indicate a vast mercy encompassing all beings, decreed unconditionally for the righteous followers of the Prophets, while even those hostile to Him retain a portion of it. Allah's mercy is immense, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "Allah is more merciful to His servants than a mother is to her child." Yet believers must worship in balance, combining hope with fear, "to call upon Him in fear and hope" (Qur'an 32:16). Ibn al-Qayyim likened the heart journeying to Allah to a bird: love is its head, while fear and hope are its two wings. Relying solely on Allah's love while ignoring His justice, or preaching only fear without hope, both produce a dysfunctional faith. It is therefore dangerous to speak of Allah's love in unconditional terms, as though it may be taken for granted while one persists in disobedience. Believers share in Allah's general mercy but are further granted His special love in this life and the next on account of their faith and deeds. Allah said, "If you love Allah, then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive your sins" (Qur'an 3:31). The Qur'an describes those whom Allah loves: those who follow the Prophet ﷺ, who are mindful of Him, who rely upon Him, who excel in conduct, who are just, who repent and purify themselves, and who are patient. Conversely, Allah does not love the disbelievers, the ungrateful, the corrupt, the transgressors, the treacherous, the arrogant, the boastful, the extravagant, and the wrongdoers. We cannot know with certainty whom Allah loves except those named in revelation, yet there are signs. Al-Ghazālī described Allah's love as drawing a servant near by repelling distractions and purifying his heart. The Prophet ﷺ said, "If Allah intends goodness for a servant, He puts him into action," guiding him to righteous deeds. In the sacred ḥadīth, Allah declares that His servant draws near through obligatory then voluntary works "until I love him," after which Allah becomes his hearing, seeing, and support. Good character is a hallmark of His love, for "the most beloved people to Allah are those with the best character," and He loves gentleness, forbearance, patience, generosity, excellence, and deeds performed regularly. Among the signs of Allah's love are the trials He imposes, for "if Allah loves people, He afflicts them with trials," and "the bitterness of the world is sweetness in the Hereafter." Hardship expiates sins, as the Prophet ﷺ said that no affliction befalls a Muslim "but that Allah will expiate his sins by it." The believer's affair is wholly good: gratitude in ease and patience in harm. The word fitnah relates to refining gold in fire, for trials draw out the best in people. Yet one should not seek hardship, since "blessed is the one kept away from trials." Another sign is being beloved to others, for Allah said He appoints affection for the faithful (Qur'an 19:96), and the Prophet ﷺ described how Allah announces His love for a servant through Gabriel until the dwellers of heaven love him and he is honored on earth. Thus a good reputation, and the testimony of even two believers at one's funeral, are signs of Allah's pleasure, as illustrated by the vast crowds who prayed over Imām Aḥmad. Still, we must not exaggerate anyone's status beyond what is known. Since Allah's love is conveyed in revelation, believers owe Him love in return, distinguished from the idolater's by its consistency: "the believers are even stronger in their love of Allah" (Qur'an 2:165), because, as al-Suyūṭī noted, they do not turn from Him in any circumstance. Al-Ghazālī held that Allah alone truly deserves love, and love for the Messenger ﷺ, the scholars, and the righteous flows from love of Him. This derivative love is clearest in loving the Prophet ﷺ above one's own self, as ʿUmar came to affirm, showing that love is an intention and action, not merely a feeling. Ibn al-Qayyim listed ten means of attaining Allah's love, beginning with reciting and reflecting upon the Qur'an and voluntary worship. Yet even the sincere longing to do good suffices to join one with the beloved, for the Prophet ﷺ told Abū Dharr, "You will be with those you love." Believers extend goodwill to all creation, taking on the trait of al-Wadūd. Al-Ghazālī and al-Bayḍāwī explained this as desiring for others what one desires for oneself, the highest level being to endure harm while still showing benevolence. The Prophet ﷺ said, "None of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself," which al-Nawawī, Ibn ʿAllān, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, and al-Ṣanʿānī understood, given variant wordings mentioning "neighbor" and "the people," to include even non-Muslims: loving guidance for them and steadfastness for Muslims. This mercy extends to animals, as in the man forgiven for watering a thirsty dog. The fellowship of faith is the culmination of this love, transcending ethnicity and borders, for the believers are like one body. Those who love one another for Allah's sake will be sheltered in His shade and admired by prophets and martyrs. Finally, hatred for the sake of Allah means hating unbelief, wickedness, and sin, not desiring harm to sinners, as al-ʿAẓīmābādī and al-Kirmānī clarified. As the predecessors said, the people who love Allah show compassion to the disobedient, hating their deeds while hoping for their repentance. And Allah knows best. ## Key Takeaways 1. Allah’s name *al-Wadūd*, meaning “The Affectionate” or “The Most Loving,” is mentioned twice in the Qur’an and expresses a special type of divine love rooted in affection (*wudd*)—distinct from general love, and closely linked to mercy and forgiveness. 2. Early scholars explained *al-Wadūd* as both “the Beloved” (*al-Ḥabīb*) and “the One who loves,” meaning Allah is loved by His creation and also bestows love upon them, wanting good for them and treating them with kindness. 3. Believers demonstrate their love for Allah through consistent worship, good character, and treating others with the same kindness they desire for themselves, reflecting the divine attribute of love in their daily interactions. 4. True love for Allah requires both loving what He loves and hating what He hates—specifically, hating sin and evil while showing compassion for sinners, hoping for their guidance and repentance. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/atheism-and-radical-skepticism-ibn-taymiyyahs-epistemic-critique # Atheism and Radical Skepticism: Ibn Taymiyyah’s Epistemic Critique **Author:** Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Atheism, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 7, 2020 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 ## Introduction[^1] Epistemology is the academic discipline that addresses the question, “How do I know what I know?” In other words, it studies how knowledge is established, what makes a belief justified, what constitutes proof, and so on. Often surface-level polemics are in fact representative of deeper epistemological issues. This is certainly the case with debates over the existence of God. Before answering the demand, “Prove to me that God exists,” one must first examine what actually constitutes proof, what needs to be proven, and whether the one requesting proof has a coherent notion of proof to begin with. The present essay extracts and analyzes the common epistemological thread that runs through three seemingly disparate discussions: the problems of philosophical skepticism in the Hellenic and Hellenistic periods in Ancient Greece,[^2] the critique of *safsaṭah* (sophistry) as it relates to philosophical proofs for the existence of God in the writings of the Muslim theologian Ibn Taymīyyah (d. 728 AH/1328 CE), and the core epistemic area of contention in contemporary debates between theists and atheists. Living in what has been described as an era of doubt or the ‘Age of Atheists,’[^3] people are far more skeptical towards religion and view faith derisively as ‘belief without evidence,’ or beliefs lacking justification. Faith’s ultimate justification, however, is encountered through the meaningfulness of its own message and not through the pursuit of philosophical argumentation. The essential idea at the core of this essay is the following: **philosophical proof is not required in order to believe in God**, nor to justify one’s belief in God.[^4] That doesn’t mean that people are not to be persuaded by some sort of explanation or justification, only that the justification offered must primarily focus on Islam’s theocentric message regarding the purpose and meaning of life rather than on syllogistic cosmological, teleological, or ontological arguments. People can entertain doubts about all sorts of things; just as a person does not need philosophical proof to rescue them from the idea that ‘the physical world does not exist’ or that ‘moral values do not exist,’ they do not need philosophical proof to escape atheism. There is a fallacy, then, in thinking that we must necessarily doubt and demand proof for something before it can be established as veritable truth—a fallacy one can term the ‘Pyrrhonian fallacy’ after the radical skepticism of the Ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrho of Elis (d. 270 BCE), who is discussed in detail later in the essay. The use of philosophical proofs to substantiate doctrines of faith was common in the discipline of *kalām*,[^5] becoming a central feature of the discourse.[^6] However, the eminent Ashʿarī theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH) explained that it was not the means of securing certitude for many people since this was not its original aim. Rather, according to him, *kalām* was intended as a discourse for the rational defense of doctrine that demonstrated the logical contradictions of heterodox groups.[^7] In his spiritual autobiography, *al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl*, al-Ghazālī describes how he overcame his own struggle with Pyrrhonian doubt through spiritual experience and enlightenment rather than philosophical argumentation.[^8] The most voluminous and vociferous intellectual opposition to the use of philosophical argumentation to establish religious doctrine was to come in the writings of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah. As numerous academics have noted, Ibn Taymīyyah’s writings demonstrate that he is not an unthinking anti-rational literalist, but rather a deeply analytical and systematic rationalist, intimately familiar with the vast philosophical tradition drawn upon by his opponents.[^9] He advocated for a logically coherent epistemology that gave scripture its due reverence rather than what he perceived to be rendering it subservient to fallible man-made ideologies.[^10] Perhaps Ibn Taymīyyah’s most salient contribution has been to refocus debates over the interpretation of scripture back to their epistemological roots, namely, the presumption that theological doctrines must be substantiated by philosophical argumentation in order to be regarded as true. According to the Qur’anic epistemology elaborated by Ibn Taymīyyah and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 751 AH), a person’s faith in God is fully justified and meaningfully grounded without need for logical deductive argumentation.[^11] It is instead justified because it is the only meaningful outlook that emerges naturally from a person’s *fiṭrah* (innate disposition)—just like belief in the existence of good and evil, causality, numbers, truth, existence itself, and so on.[^12] To deny a core pillar of one's *fiṭrah* leaves a person without a coherent system of interpreting existence in a meaningful way and, if taken to its logical conclusion, one’s beliefs dissolve into endless doubt as in *safsaṭah*—a term used in the Islamic tradition to designate radical (Pyrrhonian) skepticism. These terms will be further unpacked and explored in the course of this essay. Three works of Ibn Taymīyyah are of particular significance in noting his views on philosophical justification: the gargantuan ten-volume work entitled *Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa al-naql* (Repudiating the Conflict between Reason and Revelation), his work on Aristotelian epistemology entitled *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn* (Refutation of the \[Greek\] Logicians), and his work entitled *Naqḍ al-manṭiq* (Nullifying \[Greek\] Logic).[^13] Over the course of a sustained epistemological critique, Ibn Taymīyyah traces his interlocutors’ methodology of argumentation back to a philosophy prone to radical skepticism and doubt, in order to advance the case for scripturalist (*atharī*) theology.[^14] He argues that those who took up the path of philosophical argumentation to attain certainty were often the ones most afflicted by uncertainty, confusion, and doubts, and in many cases, they ended up acknowledging a stalemate on arguments.[^15] --- ## Dubiously demanding proof In order to appreciate the importance of skepticism in epistemology, one may consider a hypothetical debate with a solipsist.[^16] The solipsist would argue that the world around them is not real but merely an illusion conjured by their own mind. Thus, instead of saying “Prove to me that God exists,” the solipsist demands “Prove to me that *you* exist.” And undoubtedly, no philosophical proof would be sufficient to persuade the solipsist to abandon this viewpoint. If one were to argue based on physical sensations of the external world, the solipsist would point out that these sensations may be conjured in the mind. As the infamous ‘brain-in-a-vat’ thought experiment illustrates, there is no proof that your brain is not sitting in a jar connected to wires that feed you the precise physicochemical stimulations to create a fully vivid experience of living in a ‘real’ world.[^17] Popular culture has featured the doubts of solipsism in different ways, whether in the notion that real life may be indistinguishable from a dream (as in the 2010 film *Inception*), the idea that one’s memories may have been replaced with false memories about who they are (as in the 2012 film *Total Recall*), or the notion that human beings are living inside a computer simulation (as in the 1999 film *The Matrix*). In each of these cases, it would be impossible to demonstrate either by logical deductive argument or by empirical evidence that external reality is as one perceives it or remembers it. The Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom argued that, given the possibility for a technologically mature civilization to create billions of computer simulations of other minds and, therefore, the relative scarcity of non-simulated minds to simulated minds, it is far more probable that you are living in a computer simulation constructed by a technologically mature civilization than living as a physical being in nature.[^18] A similar view has been promoted by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.[^19] Solipsism is philosophically irrefutable but does it merit serious consideration by the average person, let alone an intellectual response? Most people do not take seriously those doubts that undermine the epistemological foundations for a meaningful understanding of reality. Just as the degree to which our logical reasoning or perceptions correspond to reality can be doubted, there can be an endless number of doubts that occur to the human mind concerning even the most objectively well-grounded structures of one’s epistemology. Ibn Taymīyyah writes: > Indeed, empirical matters witnessed by the senses, as well as the rational sciences constructed upon them, have been subject to numerous rational doubts that oppose what is known by perception or intellect. And much of this is of a sophistic nature which many or most people find difficult to solve or to clarify its unsoundness. Instead, to refute it, they rely on the fact that this doubt undermines that which is known by perception or necessity, so it does not merit a response. So their response to it would \[simply\] be that it contradicts that which is indubitably known. On that basis, \[one\] recognizes it as false in principle, even if he does not address its incorrectness in a detailed fashion. > > And if one were to say, “These matters of indubitable knowledge cannot be confirmed \[as truth\] without rebutting whatever sophistic arguments challenge them,” then no person would be able to confirm any knowledge about anything, since there is no end to what occurs in the minds of some people of sophistic arguments (*al-ḥujaj al-sūfisṭaʾīyah*).[^20] He goes on to explain that the believer’s certitude in the truth of what God’s infallible messenger has communicated, in general, is in fact even greater than their certitude in any individual piece of information relayed by their fallible empirical or rational faculties.[^21] This can be readily understood when one recognizes that all meaningful conceptualizations of reality are ultimately secured and anchored in the ontological foundation provided by the Islamic worldview. --- ## Skepticism beyond solipsism The solipsist practices a form of radical skepticism, entertaining doubt concerning the existence of physical reality, whereas the vast majority of people are perfectly content to affirm that the world around them is real without any need for proof. But there is, in fact, no shortage of matters that can be subjected to doubt, suspicion, and distrust. Someone can doubt events in history like the existence of dinosaurs or the moon landing, or doubt empirical knowledge (like the flat-earth theorists), or doubt the veracity of contemporary events and believe in conspiracy theories (like those who affirm that the world is controlled by ‘lizard people’).[^22] One can become extremely distrustful in all of their relationships, believing that everyone is attempting to deceive them. One can doubt morality and contend that the categories of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are nothing more than mere mental constructions without any external reality. As the contemporary philosopher Richard Garner writes: > Just as atheists claim that the beliefs of theists about the objective existence of a god are in error, moral error theorists claim that the beliefs of moral realists about the objective existence of moral rules, prohibitions, virtues, vices, values, rights, and duties are also in error, and for the same reason— what they are talking about doesn’t exist.[^23] Even logic itself can be subjected to doubt, for no logical proposition can establish the truth of logic itself without circularity; the same is true of every cherished mathematical axiom.[^24] The notion of causality—that the world is organized and ordered in such a manner that there are causes and effects—is also something that we take for granted. Certainly, there is no philosophical proof that can establish the existence of causality itself, and yet it is a necessary conceptual foundation in order to construe the world around us in a meaningful manner.[^25] If one were to attempt to eradicate all notions of causality, logical entailment, numerical order, and magnitude from one’s mind, one would be unable to make sense of anything, let alone arrive at a meaningful construal of reality as a whole. Ludwig Wittgenstein spoke of such concepts as serving as metaphorical ‘scaffolding of our thoughts,’ or the ‘hinge’ upon which our epistemic ‘door’ must turn, and he described the futility of endless doubt thus: > If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.[^26] The futility of radical skepticism is thus readily evident. The meanings of thoughts that occur in one’s mind can also be doubted, for what proves that one’s thoughts carry the meanings with which one associates them? Why should electrochemical impulses be imbued with meaning at all? Viewing one’s own thoughts as meaningless entails dilapidation of any fruitful cognitive activity. Denying firmly grounded realities with rhetoric and specious argumentation is the essence of radical skepticism for Ibn Taymīyyah, who states that rejecting God is the worst form of *safsaṭah* (radical skepticism), albeit less common. This term is explained in greater detail below (see ‘the meaning of *safsaṭah’*). Ibn Taymīyyah notes that most people do not embrace *safsaṭah* with regard to all matters (as Pyrrhonian skeptics do), but rather it presents itself to some people, or to many people in only some aspects.[^27] Thus, we find that people are able to compartmentalize their radical skepticism—the moral abolitionist[^28] may not be a conspiracy theorist, the anti-vaxxer may not be a flat-earth theorist, and the atheist may not be a solipsist. Scientism, which denies the reality of that which lies beyond our empirical perception, is but one form of radical skepticism. As Ibn Taymīyyah explains,[^29] it is irrational to claim that nothing exists beyond what one perceives since there is no person who does not rely on receiving information from others, nor is there anyone who does not rely on logical reasoning for knowledge beyond what is directly perceptible. And there is no civilization except that it must know of its history through reports rather than direct perception. Hence, according to Ibn Taymīyyah, scientism would be yet another form of *safsaṭah*. --- ## The spectrum of skepticism Many of the aforementioned approaches that cast doubt on that which others consider matters of certitude are collectively lumped together under the umbrella term ‘skepticism.’ The above attitudes can be considered examples of ‘radical skepticism’; however, one must first clarify the usage of the term ‘skepticism’ as it is often used ambiguously and even within academic literature has a variety of definitions. For instance, the term *scientific skepticism* is used to refer to doubting any claims or assertions that lack empirical evidence. On the other hand, the term *philosophical skepticism* is used to refer to the view that it is impossible to have certain knowledge about something; it is impossible for us to know the truth of the matter. Sometimes skepticism may be used to describe a *subjectivism* and/or *anti-realism* that denies that there is any objective truth to be known in the first place.[^30] This can be seen as an extension of the doubt of thinking it is impossible to know whether something is good or bad, to wondering whether there is even a right answer to the question in the first place; it is simply doubt carried one level up from the metaphysical to the *meta-metaphysical* question. The varieties of skepticism are so numerous that some have identified six dimensions by which they may be classified: **domain** (general or limited), **character** (theoretical, prescriptive, or practicing), **object**  (epistemological or conceptual), **origin** (antecedent or consequent), **degree** (mitigated or unmitigated), and **persistence** (constant or variable).[^31] These are outlined in Table 1 along with examples. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/image1-1-1024x912.png) The domain of skepticism embodied by the atheist is limited (to the proposition ‘God exists’ or that religious beliefs are true). For some atheists, the object of their skepticism is epistemological rather than conceptual; that is, they challenge the existence of God without challenging the concept itself as unintelligible. Indeed, some of the most vocal representatives of the New Atheist movement[^32] even view the concept of God to be a hypothesis amenable to scientific falsification[^33] (which would make the *origin* of the skepticism *consequent* to scientific inquiry according to the above classification). The distinction between atheism and agnosticism is that the former is an ontological position (“There is no God”) while the latter is an epistemological position (“I don’t know if there is a God” or “It is impossible for us to know if there is a God”). However, owing to the ambiguity of the prefix ‘a-’ in ‘atheism’ with the potential for denoting either *negation* or *absence*, many have attempted to define atheism in a manner that conflates the boundaries between atheism and agnosticism, such as defining it as a ‘lack of belief in the existence of God,’ thus resulting in what has been termed a *semantic fusion* between atheism and agnosticism.[^34] However, the motivation behind this expansion of the definition is that both the atheist and the agnostic share a common pathway in their arrival at their conclusion.[^35] Skeptical of the theist’s case for God’s existence, they fall back on what is held to be the default commitment—for the agnostic, it is to suspend judgment, while for the atheist the default presumption is negation while the burden of proof is on the theist. Note that if the same “burden of proof” presumption were extended to other categories, the logically consistent atheist would also attempt to be a solipsist, moral error theorist, and so forth, and similarly one would expect the logically consistent agnostic to suspend judgment on such matters as well. Thus, both the agnostic and the atheist practice skepticism limited to the domain of belief in God. The important difference between the two is in the degree of skepticism, the former being mitigated and the latter being unmitigated. As Ibn Taymīyyah explains, someone may be a radical skeptic in denying a known truth in one domain even as they affirm the truth of other matters.[^36] Skepticism applied to a limited domain will always be accused of being inconsistent in failing to apply the same evidentiary standards to other matters. But there are few skeptics who apply skepticism globally, doubting everything, termed *Cartesian skepticism*; “So those who work hard to refute Cartesian skepticism are attacking an empty castle.”[^37] What we have earlier encountered as ‘solipsism’ is a limited manifestation of *Cartesian skepticism*, which doubts all knowledge, including the existence of the external world. This is a type of skepticism that Rene Descartes articulated and opposed[^38] by arguing that, even if an evil demon has manipulated one’s senses, the one thing one cannot doubt is that one has a mind that is thinking. He thus expressed perhaps the most famous philosophical statement, *Cogito ergo sum*, in essence, “I think, therefore, I must exist.” After all, it would seem that the very fact that I am doubting that the world exists, must prove that I have a mind that is able to doubt.[^39] However, even this conclusion can be doubted. The same evil demon that manipulates the senses could easily manipulate the mind into thinking it is doubting or engaging in mental states that it is in fact not engaged in (mental state skepticism). For instance, what if the thoughts in one’s mind are merely echoes or shadows of the thoughts occurring in the demon’s mind, and one’s mind possesses no autonomous thought of its own? Herein one encounters an infinite regress of skeptical thoughts. The philosopher Jessica Wilson writes: > Given that I might be dreaming, hallucinating or sadly deceived into thinking that I am skeptical about the external world, then again by parallel reasoning, I should be skeptical about whether I really am in the state at issue—that is, I should be skeptical about whether I am skeptical about whether the external world exists. Now there’s no stopping. For I might similarly be dreaming, hallucinating or sadly deceived into thinking that I am skeptical about whether I am skeptical about whether the external world exists, so that I should now be skeptical about whether I am skeptical about whether I am skeptical about whether the external world exists. And so on.[^40] Such skepticism “leads to a vicious regress, whose only principled and unproblematic resolution requires going back to and rejecting the very first skeptical step.”[^41] The chain of skepticism undermines any attempt at knowledge. Perhaps the Cartesian slogan would more aptly have been *Dubito ergo sum stultus*—I doubt, therefore I remain foolish. --- ## Proof and the Pyrrhonian precipice As a philosophical methodology, skepticism has had a vast and variegated history since the ancient Greeks, recurring as a theme in debates from ethics to metaphysics, being championed since the Hellenistic period by the Pyrrhonists and the Academic skeptics[^42] but being utilized in some shape or form by almost every major group including the dogmatists.[^43] Philosophical skepticism is often traced back to the ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrho of Elis (d. 270 BCE). His extreme skepticism became the fodder of a variety of amusing fables and legends. Pyrrho is said to have been so distrustful of his own senses that his students had to prevent him from walking into dogs or walking off cliffs.[^44] Given that no belief could escape doubts concerning its justification, Pyrrho believed that the only way to live was to suspend judgment in its entirety. That Pyrrhonian skepticism taken to its ultimate conclusion results in absurdity did not go unnoticed. Galen (d. 210 CE) mockingly asked “whether the Pyrrhonist expects us to stay in bed when the sun is up for lack of certainty about whether it is day or night, or to sit on board our ship when everyone else is disembarking, wondering whether what appears to be land really is land.”[^45] Evidently, it would be impossible even to structure one’s thoughts coherently under the constant self-infliction of such Pyrrhonian doubts without devolving into an abyss of meaninglessness. Arcesilaus, one of the skeptics of Plato’s academy (also known as the ‘Academic skeptics’) possibly influenced by Pyrrho, adopted skepticism as a methodology, seeking to cast doubt upon any arguments in favor of a particular philosophical stance.[^46] However, the Academic skeptics were criticized by the most influential Pyrrhonian skeptic, Sextus Empiricus (d. ca. 210 CE), as being not skeptical enough since they demonstrated a commitment to the fundamental unknowability of propositions.[^47] Thus, Arcesilaus can be seen as having many beliefs about what it means to know or not know something, whether a particular proposition is known or unknown, and what constitutes sufficient reason to believe in a proposition.[^48] The dutiful Pyrrhonist must strip away even these notions in the quest to suspend all judgment entirely. Although it sounds extreme, Pyrrhonian skepticism is but the logical ramification and practical consequence of the skeptical frame of thought under which most of the schools of Hellenistic philosophy labored.[^49] Groarke writes: > Scepticism is best understood as the product of a community of individuals within a particular intellectual milieu, and not as a perspective invented by individuals (say, Pyrrho or Arcesilaus). Indeed, the differences between sceptics and competing schools of thought are fewer than we think and Greek scepticism can be profitably viewed as a natural (one may say, inevitable) response to problems that are the focus of discussion in all of Greek epistemology.[^50] Hellenistic philosophy is deeply entrenched in the skeptical sentiment that if one cannot defeat one’s philosophical interlocutor via recourse to indubitable proof or unshakable empirical fact, then one has no justification for believing what he or she holds to be true. Socrates was seen by many as the archetypal skeptic; the most famous quote attributed to him (paraphrased from Plato’s *Apology*) is the statement, “The only thing I truly know is that I know nothing.”[^51] Moreover, he was skeptical towards non-definitional knowledge; true knowledge was about having the right philosophical definitions and if you could not define something, you did not really have knowledge of it.[^52] Prefiguring ideas of solipsism, Aristippus (d. 356 BCE) and the Cyrenaics were criticized for an epistemology that could not prove whether one’s own teacher existed.[^53] Aristotle and the peripatetics were skeptical of claims that were not substantiated by syllogistic argumentation, while Epicureans and Stoics argued that the empirical senses were the basis of true knowledge.[^54] Each group of Hellenistic philosophers drew for themselves an arbitrary and unsubstantiated standard of what they considered to be acceptable proof and they applied radical skepticism towards anything that fell short of that standard. It was Pyrrho who presumably saw through the arbitrary standards and subjected them to the very same epistemic skepticism. In that sense, Pyrrho was only being consistent in attempting to take doubt to its natural conclusion. Ibn Taymīyyah was familiar with the ideas of the Pyrrhonists and the Sophists,[^55] and he leveraged their skepticism to demonstrate the failure of philosophical argumentation to secure certitude, as well as to illustrate the ultimate outcome of his opponents’ epistemology, and the need for recourse to a firmer foundation rooted in the Qur’an. Those who chose the path of philosophical argumentation to establish matters of faith had to grapple with the phenomenon of radical skepticism. While the Muʿtazilah broadly endorsed the notion that the first obligation upon a human being is rational examination of evidences (*naẓar*), some like Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321 AH) stated that the first obligation is, in fact, to doubt (*awwal al-wājibāt al-shakk*).[^56] Yet, as witnessed by al-Ghazālī, the path of doubt did not secure certitude but rather only fueled further doubts, epistemically leading to the point of Pyrrhonian skepticism. This was the link that was to form a central focus in Ibn Taymīyyah’s extensive epistemological analysis. --- ## The meaning of safsaṭah Radical skepticism was universally repudiated by Muslim theologians of all trends. Yet, Ibn Taymīyyah identifies radical skepticism as the ultimate outcome of the methods of his interlocutors who were entrenched in the pursuit of philosophical arguments for God, arguing that their methodology leads not to certitude but to doubt (*shakk*) and confusion (*ḥayrah*).[^57] Muslim theologians discussed radical skepticism with the terms *safsaṭah, sūfisṭāʾīyah*, and *musafsiṭīn* (Arabicizations of the Greek terms sophistry, sophisticism, and sophists respectively), terms that are discussed frequently in Ibn Taymīyyah’s writings. Where does the term ‘sophist’ originate? Though perhaps initially signifying nothing more than ‘wise teachers’ in Athenian society, it became a designation for those individuals who engaged in clever rhetoric at the expense of sound logic, capable of making a weak argument appear stronger, investing in winning debates over discovering the truth, and expressing skepticism towards objective knowledge.[^58] Indeed, ‘Sophist’ was the label Plato used to describe Socrates’ foremost adversaries, men like Protagoras (d. 420 BCE), Antiphon (d. 411 BCE), Gorgias (d. 390 BCE), Prodicus (d. 395 BCE), and Thrasymachus (d. 399 BCE), although there existed no clear line to prevent Socrates himself from being derided as a Sophist in the words of Aristophanes (d. ca. 386 BCE) and Aeschines (d. 314 BCE).[^59] Protagoras captured a form of relativism or anti-realism in his famous, albeit much-misunderstood, statement “Man is the measure of all things.” He expressed skepticism of knowledge of the Divine saying, “Where the gods are concerned, I am not in a position to ascertain that they exist, or that they do not exist.”[^60] While Protagoras’ relativism led him to conclude that all things are equally true, for Gorgias it led to seeing all things as equally false.[^61] Both, however, embraced a skepticism that endorsed a form of nihilism and solipsism: > Gorgias’s position, as well as Protagoras’s, exemplified **nihilism** because it stated that there can be no objective way of determining knowledge of truth. The Sophist position also exemplifies **solipsism** because the self can be aware of nothing except its own experiences and mental states. Thus, Gorgias reached his three celebrated conclusions: Nothing exists; if it did exist, it could not be comprehended; and if it could be comprehended, it could not be communicated to another person.[^62] The trend of skepticism that was certainly exemplified by the Sophists also manifested throughout many strands of Hellenistic philosophy, from the Cyrenaics to the Peripatetics, and most dramatically in the Pyrrhonian skeptics and the Academic skeptics.[^63] The interwoven themes of sophistry and skepticism are vital in order to understand how they relate to the usage of the term *safsaṭah* or *sūfisṭāʾiyyah*. Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333 AH), the eponymous founder of the Māturīdī school of *kalām,* devotes a section in his *Kitāb al-Tawḥīd* to clarifying the error of the *Sūfisṭāʾīyah*, those who claim that the human being’s rational and sensorial faculties are unreliable and consequently that there is no knowledge, only opinions and beliefs.[^64] He mentions the early Muʿtazilī Ibn Shabīb’s (d. 230 AH) attempts to dispute with them by demonstrating the inherent contradiction in their claim to *know* that there is nothing to *know*, before expressing his own view regarding the futility of disputation with this group. The early Ashʿarī theologian and heresiologist ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī (d. 429 AH) explains that *sūfisṭāʾīyah* entails denying knowledge, or denying the reality of all things; there are some who have doubt about the existence of real entities (*alladhīna shakkū fī wujūd al-ḥaqāʾiq*), while others believe that the reality of matters is contingent upon one’s beliefs about them and that all beliefs are correct despite being mutually contradictory.[^65] One can readily see how this definition is inclusive of Pyrrhonian skeptics as well as the subjectivists and anti-realists from the Athenian Sophists. Similarly, Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī (d. 478 AH) distinguishes between four separate groups of Sophists—those who deny the possibility of knowledge, those who deny the demonstrability of knowledge, those who deny the human capacity to attain knowledge, and those who affirm that mutually contradictory beliefs all constitute veritable knowledge.[^66] Thus, it is important to recognize that the term *safsaṭah* in the writings of Muslim theologians is not specifically limited to those particular Athenian thinkers labeled ‘sophists,’ although it is inclusive of many important epistemic trends that emerged from their group. This will become increasingly evident as we consider the responses to *safsaṭah* in the writings of Ibn Taymīyyah. --- ## Atheism and safsaṭah For Ibn Taymīyyah, *safsaṭah* involves a spectrum, and those who deny God—belief in Whom he explains is the most firmly established of matters in the *fiṭrah*—are engaging in worse skepticism than those *musafsiṭūn* who oppose the dictates of empirical perception and rationality, or oppose massively attested (*tawātur*) reports about the existence of cities and events which they have personally not witnessed (such as a person denying the existence of Toronto or the occurrence of World War II).[^67] Speaking on the impossibility of the *fiṭrah* violating the law of non-contradiction by affirming the truth and falsehood of something simultaneously, Ibn Taymīyyah states that it would “strike at the foundations of all knowledge in its entirety” (*mabādiʾ al-ʿulūm kullihā*) and “there would remain no knowledge by which truth is recognized from falsehood, and this is inclusive of all *safsaṭah*.” [^68] Here we find the understanding that *safsaṭah* cripples the epistemological structures that undergird and anchor all coherent knowledge of reality.[^69] Ibn Taymīyyah states that even though atheism (*inkār al-Ṣāniʿ*) was never a popular viewpoint adopted by an entire nation of the known civilizations, it is upheld by some people to varying degrees, whether outwardly as in the case of Pharaoh (*Firʿawn*) who deep down recognized but refused to acknowledge the truth of God, or both outwardly and inwardly as in the case of the ruler who disputed with Prophet Ibrāhīm.[^70] However, Ibn Taymīyyah says this does not negate that recognition (*maʿrifah*) of God is firmly ingrained in the *fiṭrah*, established by necessity. For indeed, Ibn Taymīyyah says, atheism is a type of *safsaṭah* or radical skepticism, which is a general condition many people fall into whether intentionally or unintentionally by contesting foundations known intuitively (*qaḍāyā* *badīhīyah*) or matters recognized by the *fiṭrah* (*al-maʿārif al-fiṭrīyah*) in empirical and mathematical matters, as well as in theology.[^71] Ibn Taymīyyah notes that *safsaṭah* involves opposing necessary knowledge (*ʿilm ḍarūrī*), like opposing the idea that knowledge is distinct from the knower.[^72] At its extreme, it may entail rejection of logical or empirical fundamentals such as regarding one as equal to two or regarding sweetness and bitterness as identical.[^73] When the falsity of a claim is recognized by the most primordial cognitive instincts in one’s consciousness (*badīhah*), it is not possible to establish evidence in favor of that claim because doing such would entail violating necessary (*ḍarūri*) knowledge, which entails *safsaṭah*.[^74] The point of God’s sending a divine scripture is not to engage in the futile debates of sophistry, but rather to guide humanity to the pinnacle of virtue in their spiritual and moral affairs.[^75] The objections of sophists are upon scrutiny revealed to be mere delusions (*wahm*) and imagination (*khayāl*), or rooted in nothing other than unsubstantiated opinions of philosophers blindly imitated by later generations, despite contradicting the natural rational faculty ingrained in the human *fiṭrah*  (*ʿuqūl banī Ādam allatī faṭarahum Allāhu ʿalayhā*).[^76] In his work *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, Ibn Taymīyyah notes that to make all knowledge contingent upon philosophical definition would result in the impossibility of knowledge itself since all definitions can be problematized; and to invalidate all knowledge is the greatest manifestation of *safsaṭah*.[^77] Ibn Taymīyyah often parallels the irrationality of *safsaṭah* with respect to rational matters with the irrationality of the esoteric Qarāmiṭah in their approach to scripture—both groups deny realities that are self-evident, whether in the world around them or in the words in front of them (*safsaṭah fī al-ʿaqlīyāt, qarmaṭah fī al-samʿīyāt*).[^78] In other words, the degree of *safsaṭah* and *qarmaṭah* manifested by a heterodox group is directly proportional to the degree to which it departs from the Prophetic guidance (*sunnah*). As the last verse of the Qur’an’s opening chapter indicates, the root of every misguidance is either obstinance or ignorance, the former being the quality of one who deliberately persists in radical skepticism.[^79] --- ## The epistemology of primordiality The antidote to the aforementioned radical skepticism, per Ibn Taymīyyah, is recourse to the commonsense recognition that there are foundational structural elements in the conceptual architecture of the human mind that are innate (*fiṭrī*), intuitive (*badīhī*), and necessary (*ḍarūrī*) and upon which the acquisition of further knowledge is dependent. Ibn Taymīyyah frequently uses these three terms as overlapping and interconnected concepts, for instance deploying the compound phrase ‘primordial necessary innate knowledge’ (*al-ʿulūm al-badīhīyah al-ḍarūrīyah al-fiṭrīyah*) to describe the basic intuition of causality.[^80] However, the subtle distinctions among these terms are worth continued academic study and further research because of their epistemological ramifications. *Badīhī* refers to that which arises spontaneously in the mind as a result of the completeness of one’s conceptualizations; the deeper one’s level of contemplation, the more expansive and comprehensive one’s primordial consciousness becomes.[^81] Thus, a matter may emerge in the primordial consciousness of one person but not another, and the more extensive one’s ability to conceptualize all aspects of a matter, the greater the number of matters that arise immediately within one’s consciousness.[^82]  Thus, *badīhī* does not merely refer to *a priori* logical axioms (although it is certainly inclusive of them) but relates more to the spontaneity and immediacy with which concepts emerge in the mind, which in turn are reflective of the depth of one’s contemplation, the fortitude of one’s capacity for abstraction and conceptualization, and one’s intellectual and educational attainment. Whether something is *badīhī* or *naẓarī* (inferential) is not an inherent property of the proposition, but a description of the origin of a thought’s emergence within the human psyche as a consequence of its encounter with reality; Ibn Taymīyyah illustrates this with reference to the various ways in which people were able to recognize Musaylimah as a false prophet.[^83] *Fiṭrī* (the adjective derived from *fiṭrah*) entails the natural state predisposition upon which God created the human being, with a yearning to love Him and recognize Him,[^84] even though the *fiṭrah* can become corrupted and perverted.[^85] In addition to the spiritual inclination towards God, the *fiṭrah* also provides the basis for all other values and conceptualization in the human mind including compassion, justice, and honesty, as well as metaphysical and logical notions like change, temporality, and causality.[^86] *Fiṭrī* knowledge of moral judgments pertaining to particulars in the world actually precedes universal abstractions about categories.[^87] The *fiṭrah* contains the conceptual architecture (such as individuation and counting) that allows us to interpret our sensory encounters with the world in a manner that is meaningful.[^88] Ibn Taymīyyah acknowledges the fallibility of sensorial perception but argues that perceptual errors are detectable and the basic rule is to regard our senses as trustworthy given that they are rooted in the *fiṭrah* upon which we have been created.[^89] The *fiṭrah* even directs us to recognize the need to follow the guidance of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, who were the direct recipients of the message of Islam and his teachings.[^90] Ibn Taymīyyah writes that what is necessitated by the *fiṭrah* “requires no proof because it is the most firmly rooted of recognized truths (*maʿārif*), the most established of all forms of knowledge, and the foundation of all foundations (*aṣl al-uṣūl*).”[^91] This also demonstrates the mistake in labeling Ibn Taymīyyah’s usage of the *fiṭrah* as a form of circular reasoning because this charge erroneously assumes that Ibn Taymīyyah is attempting to advance a syllogism based on the *fiṭrah* (e.g., God exists because the *fiṭrah* tells us He does, and we know the *fiṭrah* exists and is reliable because God tells us so).[^92] In reality, Ibn Taymīyyah is not advancing a syllogism at all because he is negating the entire Aristotelian/*kalām*  paradigm which presupposes the epistemic requirement of syllogistic reasoning. He is instead noting that the very concepts of proof, truth, reason, purpose, and existence only surface in the mind as a result of a natural human primordial consciousness and that to deny this is simply to render reality unintelligible. Ibn Taymīyyah writes that when something is established in the *fiṭrah*, it becomes “embedded in the nature (*jibillah*) and imprinted in the minds \[of people\] (*nufūs*), such that one cannot restrain oneself from its dictates, nor is it even possible to discard it from oneself.”[^93] *Ḍarūrī* is that knowledge that is not acquired from other human beings but rather is ingrained in their minds, even though one’s psychological fixations and misapprehensions may prevent one from affirming it as such.[^94] Carl Sharif El-Tobgui summarizes Ibn Taymīyyah’s epistemological outlook thus: > On the basis of the empirical knowledge provided to it by the senses, the mind abstracts universal concepts that it holds as mental representations of external reality. As the knowledge of the mind is purely cognitional (ʿ*ilmī* ) and notional (*i*ʿ*tibārī* ), the rational faculty is unable to establish the factual existence of any externally existent entity (although it can, once more, affirm the existence of God on the basis of an innate, internal *sensus divinitatis*). Reason nevertheless comes embedded with the innate (*fiṭrī* ) and necessary (*ḍarūrī*) knowledge of certain fundamental axioms (*badīhiyyāt*), on the basis of which we are able to confer rational assent (*taṣdīq*) or form logical judgements (*aḥkām*) with respect to existing entities. The mind possesses necessary knowledge of the external reality mediated to it by the senses, of its own innate logical principles, and of whatever information has reached it by way of reports (*akhbār*) that have been passed down through recurrent mass transmission (*tawātur*) (such as, most importantly, the Qurʾānic text and a limited number of *mutawātir ḥadīth* reports). The principle of *tawātur*, however, is not limited to guaranteeing the authenticity of verbal reports. It also serves as the ultimate guarantor of the necessary knowledge mediated to the mind by the senses, as well as of the axiomatic principles of reason and of the *fiṭra* more generally, in the event that any of these sources of widely-shared, necessary knowledge should come to be undermined, impugned, or subjected to systematic doubt. Such doubt is typically the result of doctrines that have been derived through discursive reasoning (*naẓar*) on the basis of dubious premises that, Ibn Taymiyya contends, unambiguously contradict the necessary knowledge attested to by any of the sources mentioned above.[^95] While epistemic skepticism is ultimately futile and only serves to dismantle one’s conceptualizations and cause one to spiral into endless doubt,[^96] the Qur’anic epistemology allows for the acquisition of meaningful conceptions through the synergy of the human *fiṭrah* with the rational and empirical faculties. --- ## Is there any epistemic merit to philosophical proofs? In a famous passage in the Qur’an, God states: > Were they created by nothing, or were they themselves the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they do not possess certitude (Qur’an 52:35-6). While proponents of *kalām* took this as an allusion to a cosmological argument, Ibn Taymīyyah saw it differently. The very fact that the Qur’an expresses this in the form of a rhetorical question (*bi-ṣīghat istifhām al-inkār*) demonstrates that this is a matter that is already a primordial conclusion firmly established in one’s *fiṭrah* that one cannot genuinely deny (*fiṭrīyah badīhīyah mustaqirrah fī al-nufūs lā yumkinu aḥadan inkāruhā*).[^97] Thus, the Qur’an is not engaged in propounding a syllogism to substantiate belief in God but rather it is invoking rational contemplation (*tafakkur*) to awaken spiritually quiescent souls to a reality they already recognize deep within. The role of rational contemplation in the soul’s recognition of God is one of re-discovering a reality deeply embedded in one’s *fiṭrah* (*innamā huwa lil-tanbīh ʿalá mā fī al-fiṭrah*).[^98] Ibn Taymīyyah cites approvingly the following words of the Persian Ashʿarī theologian al-Shahrastānī (d. 548 AH): > Sound human nature attests by the necessity of its nature and the primordiality of its thought that there is a Wise, All-Knowing, and All-Powerful Maker; “Is there any doubt concerning God, the Originator of the Heavens and Earth?” (Qur’an 14:10).[^99] In a subsequent passage, al-Shahrastānī also states that as a soul journeys in its nearness towards God, it acquires greater recognition of its existential need for Him, and increases in its spiritual perception of the Divine signs in the horizons and in its own psyche, and thus God is the source by which it witnesses the phenomenal world and not vice versa; “I came to know of entities through God, rather than knowing God through other entities” (*ʿaraftu al-ashyāʾ bi-rabbī wa mā ʿaraftu rabbī bi al-ashyāʾ*).[^100] In a similar vein, Ibn Taymīyyah approvingly quotes at great length the writings of the Ḥanafī scholar Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdik al-Baṣrī (d. 347 AH),[^101] who taught that God Himself is to be considered the *dalīl* (proof) rather than the *madlūl* (that which is being proven),[^102] that Prophet Ibrāhīm’s discourse with his people about the celestial bodies was not intended as a philosophical argument but as a contemplation to awaken the *fiṭrah* and remind them of the primordial covenant (*al-mīthāq*),[^103] and that knowledge of His Lordship (*rubūbīyah*) is more foundational (*ḍarūrī*) than a person’s knowledge of their own existence (a subtle parallel between atheism and solipsism).[^104] Similarly, Ibn al-Qayyim wrote that the Creator’s existence is more self-evident and manifest than the inference of any proof used to establish it.[^105] Not only does Ibn Taymīyyah believe that syllogistic reasoning is not required to justify belief in God, but he argues that it does not yield the epistemic fruits its proponents claim. This is true because the syllogism depends on a major premise that is, in fact, a universal abstraction that exists only as a category in the mind.[^106] On the other hand, the external world is comprised only of particulars. Consequently, a conclusion based on a universal premise can only rightfully apply to another universal category (e.g., the genus of ‘unmoved mover’) rather than to a particular entity.[^107] So philosophical proofs for God’s existence ultimately fall short of pointing particularly towards God Himself rather than a generic category. Moreover, with the passage of time, syllogisms grew longer with more premises to prove premises that were earlier taken for granted,[^108] because people continued to raise more doubts as *safsaṭah* entails a bottomless pit.[^109] What is actually happening when people engage in syllogistic reasoning (*qiyās al-shumūl*) is that the real source of their epistemic growth in knowledge is analogical reasoning (*qiyās al-tamthīl*) which allows them to transfer their knowledge about known particulars to the new case in question.[^110] Ibn Taymīyyah is certainly prescient in his repeated emphasis on analogy as the most important element in cognition and knowledge construction.[^111] In a work entitled *Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking*, American cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter and French psychologist Emmanuel Sander engage in a lengthy discussion in support of a strikingly similar thesis: > A central thesis of this book is that analogy-making defines each instant of thought, and is in fact the driving force behind all thought. Each mental category we have is the outcome of a long series of analogies that build bridges between entities (objects, actions, situations) distant from each other in both time and space.[^112] The authors argue that knowledge growth occurs when one identifies the most relevant *surface-level* features of a novel concept, in order to construct an analogy based on inferred deeper *essence-level* similarities with a familiar concept. For Ibn Taymīyyah, analogies (*amthāl*) and signs (*āyāt*) are the two key elements in the Qur’anic epistemological repertoire (a full exposition of which would warrant its own dedicated essay).[^113] The Qur’an utilizes *āyāt* and *amthāl* as rational instruments (*maqāyīs ʿaqlīyah*) and certain proofs (*barāhīn yaqīnīyah*) that guide the heart and direct the mind to recognize the reality of God in a manner far superior to the methods of the philosophers.[^114] Ibn Taymīyyah draws an interesting analogy with the way that words involve a relationship between a concept and a particular string of phonemes or graphemes. Learning the signs of God is not a matter of learning proofs for an entity of which one has no knowledge, but rather is akin to learning new vocabulary to designate a meaning of which one is already innately cognizant; these signs serve as a source of spiritual perception (*tabṣirah*) to secure and deepen one’s conviction in that which one already knew via the *fiṭrah*, in case one is confronted with doubts.[^115] Thus, they reacquaint the individual with the source of meaningfulness. Scriptural signs arise from God’s speech while natural signs manifest in God’s creation witnessed in the natural world or within human beings themselves.[^116] Note that the Qur’anic epistemology comprises not only intellectual growth but also spiritual and moral growth, for the more a person strives to attain virtue and purify their heart, the more perceptive of the Divine signs they become.[^117] While historically some groups have emphasized either worship or rationality to reach truth, Ibn Taymīyyah argues that both are necessary pillars of an Islamic epistemology.[^118] Ibn Taymīyyah acknowledges that syllogisms that express a cosmological argument for the existence of God may contain a kernel of truth, such as the basic intuition of causality (i.e., that everything that begins to exist must have a cause). However, this intuition, while embedded in the syllogism, does not result from it.  Moreover, the syllogism takes a circuitous path to prove something that is usually self-evident and straightforward.[^119] Using syllogisms to prove God’s existence is like the comical example of a man reaching around his head with the opposite arm to indicate the location of his ear,[^120] or it is like lean camel meat placed on the top of a mountain—too arduous a climb to reach, and not particularly desirable to begin with.[^121] If anything, learning about the inadequacy of these philosophical approaches only increases one’s conviction in the way of the Prophet, peace be upon him.[^122] Nonetheless, Ibn Taymīyyah acknowledges that some people may be so accustomed to such circuitous and abstruse philosophical approaches that they are unsatisfied with anything simple in appearance; therefore, with such a person, one could engage in philosophical *kalāmī* methods (*al-ṭarīq al-kalāmīyah al-manṭiqīyah*) due to such a person’s inclination, not because the desired knowledge is actually contingent upon such a method.[^123] Lengthy and complicated methods may sometimes have benefit for the person engaged in *safsaṭah*.[^124] He also explains that philosophical argumentation may be useful in deconstructing the false religious beliefs or ideologies one may have grown up with or blindly followed out of ignorance; it can move them away from the falsehood of others even if it may not help them attain conviction in the truth.[^125] The ways in which people may arrive at conviction in the truth and come to know God and believe in Him are numerous (*fa-ṭuruq al-maʿārif mutanawwiʿah fī nafsihā*); they may attain faith through witnessing signs all around them in creation and in their own lives.[^126] The *fiṭrah* perfected by revelation, however, is sufficient for the epistemic justification of faith.[^127] While the *fiṭrah* can become corrupted by spiritual disease just as the body is susceptible to physical disease, the remedy can be found in the Qur’anic discourse,[^128] familiarity with the prophetic guidance,[^129] and in scrutinizing the deficiencies of one’s own epistemology (such as reliance on unsubstantiated man-made ideologies).[^130] Ibn Taymīyyah’s writings allude to a distinction between the *psychological processes* by which a person attains faith and the *epistemic justification* that establishes the veracity of their faith.[^131] There are various factors that influence a person’s psychological constitution (culture, parenting, societal influences, personality, previous life experiences, etc.) and can either facilitate or serve as potential impediments in one’s journey towards God, as well as a person’s own degree of spiritual preparedness which will determine their capacity to identify and accept the truth. Thus for some people, additional factors (*asbāb*) are required to augment their *fiṭrah* in the discovery of truth.[^132] Ibn al-Qayyim, for instance, contrasts the faith of the first believers—the Prophet’s close friend Abū Bakr and his wife Khadīja—with others whose faith did not reach their level; the former accepted Islam on the basis of the perfection, beauty, and purity of its message and the integrity and moral character of the Messenger, while the latter embraced the faith only after they witnessed miracles, or because they witnessed the Prophet ﷺ vanquish his enemies; and those with lesser faith adopt it initially because they were born to parents who were already believers.[^133] Those with the strongest level of faith are least likely to abandon it and are more secure in their faith. Yet, irrespective of how a believer arrives at faith, it is the *fiṭrah* that provides epistemic justification for that faith. Once a believer has attained certitude in God, the degree to which this belief accords with their *fiṭrah* provides all the epistemic justification needed in order to know that anything contrary to that faith is baseless even without possessing the means to rationally demonstrate or articulate it;[^134] the believer does not need to know the specifics of philosophical terminology to know that Islam is the truth.[^135] The problem with considering the existence of God to be a theoretical proposition in need of justification, demonstration, and substantiation is that it commits a fundamental epistemological fallacy. It uses that which is less evident to prove that which is more evident.[^136] It places the epistemic weight of God lower than the epistemic weight of those features of creation being cited as proof. But as a matter of fact, the Divine is the most assured of certainties, and His existence forms the ontological basis upon which all other existence is rendered intelligible and meaningful. Knowledge of God is thus the basis of having an intelligible epistemology; it serves as the basis for all other knowledge (*wa-al-ʿilm bihi aṣl li-kulli ʿilm*).[^137] Rather than being a mere theoretical proposition, it is the very axis of one’s epistemology. Thus, knowledge of the Divine is that very illuminating “light upon light” described in the Qur’ānic passage (24:35) which, Ibn Taymīyyah explains, refers to the light of revelation combined with the light of natural disposition (*fiṭrah*) and rationality (*ʿaql*).[^138] Ibn Taymīyyah has an interesting exposition of the dialogue between Prophet Mūsā and Pharaoh.[^139] The question posed by Pharaoh, “What is the Lord of Universe?” is not a serious inquiry concerning the nature of the Divine, but rather a rhetorical expression of his denial of faith, “What is this entity which you call the Lord of the Universe?” Prophet Mūsā’s reply is “The Lord of the Heavens and the Earth, if you are of those with certainty” which, as Ibn Taymīyyah observes, connects faith in God with certainty in general: > He did not say those with certainty in this or that, but rather left it unqualified, so whatever it is that you have certainty in, the first certainty is certainty in this Lord, as the Messengers have said ‘Is there any doubt concerning God?’ And if you were to say that we have no certainty in anything and we negate all knowledge, then this is the claim of universal skepticism (*al-safsaṭah al-ʿāmmah*) and it is manifest falsehood for indeed every human being necessarily possesses knowledge.[^140] As Ibn Taymīyyah explains, it was Pharaoh’s desire for earthly ascendancy and his corruption that veiled him from this reality. Expounding on the Qur’anic phrase, “They forgot God so He caused them to forget themselves” (Qur’an 59:19), Ibn Taymīyyah explains the link between the loss of self-knowledge and neglecting God and, conversely, the link between knowledge of the self and rediscovery of one’s inner recognition and love of the Creator.[^141] --- ## Ibn Taymīyyah, the fiṭrah, and Agrippa’s trilemma[^142] The intellect is one of the fundamental human faculties. Human beings naturally develop a sophisticated cognitive apparatus that allows them to process ideas, thoughts, and sensory experiences in order to arrive at coherent and meaningful internal representations of reality. Ibn Taymīyyah notes that every human being would invariably prefer to have their mind populated with true beliefs and beneficial desires rather than false beliefs and harmful desires.[^143] So how then do human beings justify their beliefs as true representations of reality? Can they provide justifications for their beliefs that are impervious to doubt? The ancient Pyrrhonian skeptic Agrippa (d. c. 2nd century CE) is reported to have articulated five modes, or ways of thinking, that induce doubt and skepticism. How can anyone claim certain knowledge when, as the first mode observes, people disagree over matters, and as the third mode observes, everyone’s judgment is relative?[^144] Supposing that someone does try to provide a rational justification for their view, we then arrive at the well-known epistemological problem posed by the remaining three modes, which present three options (hence, referred to as Agrippa’s trilemma.)[^145] The three options can be summarized as follows:[^146] **Option 1**: Any belief offered as a justification must itself be justified, and hence an infinite regress of proofs is required (*regressive mode*). **Option 2**: One’s belief is justified by a foundational assumption that itself does not require further justification (*hypothetical mode*). **Option 3**: One’s beliefs justify one another in a circular or reciprocal fashion (*reciprocal mode*). The challenge posed by these three modes thus aims to annihilate all knowledge because one cannot possibly provide a justification for any belief without succumbing to the trilemma. Indeed, the Agrippan modes, representing “the most powerful weapons of the Pyrrhonian argumentative arsenal,”[^147] have confounded contemporary epistemologists no less than their ancient Hellenistic predecessors. In order to be justified in one’s belief, one must believe either in an infinite series of proofs (infinitism),[^148] or in a set of fundamental premises one accepts without justification (foundationalism), or one must embrace a type of circular reasoning (coherentism).[^149] Whichever dissatisfying option one selects leads only to Agrippa’s first mode of disagreement rearing its head again and asking the foundationalists why they are not coherentists and vice versa, thus revealing their selection to be arbitrary and unjustified. It would thus seem that the Pyrrhonist has constructed an epistemological impasse from which no human can possess certain knowledge about anything. Yet, a number of fascinating lines of potential response emerge either directly from Ibn Taymīyyah’s writings or from his epistemological framework. First, he makes a phenomenological case; the person who argues for the need to have philosophical justification for knowledge about universals “has not examined the states of his mind” (*lam yamtaḥin aḥwāla nafsihi*) for if he had, he would have discovered (in his mind) knowledge about universals as well as conceptualizations that are not dependent on syllogistic argumentation.[^150] Second, as Ibn Taymīyyah notes, certainty (*yaqīn*) is not pursued through the accumulation of philosophical justifications but rather is anchored internally through spiritual recognition[^151] and the dictates of the *fiṭrah*.[^152]After all, Agrippa’s trilemma presupposes a notion of truth (there must be true and false beliefs for the trilemma to work in the first place) just as it presupposes the ability to distinguish concepts and ascertain rational justifications, the ability of human mental states to carry meaning, and so forth, all of which are rooted in the human *fiṭrah*’s construals of reality.  Thus, even in the process of attempting to cast doubt on knowledge, the trilemma inevitably betrays a commitment to fundamental beliefs rooted in the *fiṭrah*. One cannot pursue skepticism towards knowledge without undermining one’s skepticism in that very process. Third, the Qur’anic narrative provides the most powerful epistemological rescue from Agrippa’s trilemma, arising from its conceptualization of truth. The Qur’anic term for truth, *ḥaqq*, is used to signify that which has a *purpose*; likewise, the term *bāṭil*, which is the antonym of *ḥaqq,* signifies that which is not only false but also devoid of purpose.[^153] Thus, in the Qur’anic paradigm, there is a **teleological dimension to truth** that serves the function of rendering reality meaningful. These truths are not mere trivial theoretical statements about physical reality that are subject to empirical verification, like affirming that Venus is the second planet from the sun, or that Antarctica is fourteen million square kilometers in area. Rather, the truths of revelation serve as ontological foundations that form the basis of all meaningful notions of value, virtue, purpose, worth, guidance, and so forth. The philosopher John Whittaker makes the following distinction: > \[T\]he point of presenting religious beliefs as revelations is to present them as conceptual truths—as practical axioms of life, as ruling principles that frame new conceptions of worth, happiness, and selfhood—and this puts them into a different logical category than the basket that holds hypothetical claims.[^154] Conceptual truths that frame meaningful representations of reality are rooted in the *fiṭrah* and serve as ontological building blocks that are indispensable for the mind. As Ibn Taymīyyah astutely observes in a direct allusion to Agrippa’s trilemma: > This is something that \[*ahl al-kalām*\] and all human beings recognize—that there are some mental conceptualizations and affirmations that are primordial concepts (*badīhī*) and not themselves in need of proof by definition or syllogism, or else it would entail circularity or an infinite regress.[^155] Ibn Taymīyyah thus demonstrates that there is a category of concepts that serve as epistemological anchors for any meaningful construal of reality. Indeed, proponents of *kalām* and all classical foundationalists also uphold the viewpoint that necessary knowledge (*ʿilm ḍarūrī*) provides the basis for acquired knowledge (*ʿilm muktasab*); there are self-evident truths that serve as foundations through which other truths are known. However, classical foundationalists who set reason as the basis for all knowledge cannot falsify the doctrine of solipsism or similar manifestations of radical skepticism.[^156] Other foundationalists who include sensory perception alongside reason as the basis for knowledge cannot establish the existence of moral truths or any sort of valuation for that matter. Such foundations are not impervious to the doubts that lead to epistemological nihilism. This failing of classical foundationalism is precisely what precipitated the Pyrrhonian doubts that al-Ghazālī described at the beginning of *al-Munqidh*. As we have seen, Ibn Taymīyyah argued there is no truth more evident than the truth of the Divine, a truth that does not require any empirical or rational substantiation because it serves as the anchor by which these faculties are meaningful in the first place. Ibn Taymīyyah is also explicit in his rejection of epistemic *internalism*  (the view that one must be aware of one’s justification for a belief in order to possess knowledge). In keeping with *externalism*, he explains that one may know something without being aware of knowing it; however, with contemplation, one may uncover such knowledge, depending on the soundness of one’s insight.[^157] In his analysis of Ibn Taymīyyah, Jamie Turner draws upon Alvin Plantinga’s concept of *proper functionalism*, where a belief can truly be considered a foundation—that is, a *properly basic* belief—if it has warrant which occurs when a belief is formed by properly functioning cognitive faculties that are aimed at the production of true belief in congenial environments. Turner notes that for Ibn Taymīyyah the proper functioning of the sound *fiṭrah* confers warrant on foundational beliefs and allows it to apprehend the signs (*āyāt*) of God: > According to the Taymiyyan model, upon the proper function of the heart in conjunction with the *fiṭra*, both of which have been designed to successfully acquire true beliefs about God when placed in suitable environments for this to occur, they will produce basic belief in Islam which can be said to be *warranted* in a *properly basic* way. As outlined above, it is specifically upon contact with the ‘signs of God’ that basic belief in Him, and subsequently His religion, can be *warranted* in accordance with Plantinga’s account of proper functionalism.[^158] Ibn Taymīyyah relates his ruminations on the *fiṭrah* to his observations on developmental psychology. He notes that a human infant when perceiving a movement or sound is naturally compelled to look for its source (a causal expectation); similarly, it is from the *fiṭrah* of the human being to expect a builder behind the emergence of a building.[^159] This expectation is indicative of a necessary and fundamental ontological truth—things do not exist *reasonlessly*. He also notes that children know that God is in the Heavens[^160] and it is from the *fiṭrah* to know that He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing.[^161] Ibn Taymīyyah’s empirical observations appear to have stood the test of time. In the contemporary discipline known as cognitive science of religion, there is a wealth of knowledge from experimental studies describing the natural human tendency to perceive causal relations,[^162] to seek purpose behind occurrences including life events,[^163] to perceive agency in the world around us (referred to as the Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device), and so on.[^164] There is a natural tendency to believe in God, while atheism “requires some hard cognitive work to reject or override the intuitions that nourish religious beliefs.”[^165] Experimental psychologist Justin Barrett writes: > That belief in gods begins in childhood and typically continues into adulthood places it in the same class as believing in gravity, the permanence of solid objects, the continuity of time, the predictability of natural laws, that causes precede effects, that animals bear young similar to themselves, that people have thoughts and wants that motivate and guide their actions, that some things are morally right or wrong, that their mothers love them, and numerous other ideas about the world… I favor the approach that regards our minds as basically trustworthy to deliver true beliefs and that our naturally arising “childish” beliefs should be regarded as true until we have good reason to suspect them as being problematic. It is not clear to me that we can do otherwise and still function as normal, sane human beings.[^166] Modern developmental psychology recapitulates the Islamic tradition’s elaboration of the epistemic role of the *fiṭrah*. One can even reconstruct the ‘natural religion’ that emerges in childhood as comprising belief that the natural world has been purposely designed and belief in invisible and immortal supernatural beings[^167] that possess emotions, thoughts, and perspectives.[^168] These positive inclinations are rooted in human nature.[^169] Human infants naturally develop notions of causality, numerical quantity, morality, purpose, and so forth and any attempt to discard these epistemological building blocks would entail the deterioration of coherent and meaningful representations of reality. If we are naturally compelled to believe something in order to have any meaningful representation of reality, then casting doubt upon that leads to epistemological nihilism. Adopting a paradigm of skepticism and demanding proof for the foundations themselves only results in the collapse of the entire intellectual enterprise of meaning. Ibn Taymīyyah writes: > The proof that leads to knowledge via rational investigation must be one that goes back to foundations known necessarily from the *fiṭrah* (*muqaddimāt ḍarūrīyah fiṭrīyah*). For verily all knowledge that is not necessary (*ḍarūrī*) must ultimately go back to knowledge that is necessary (*ḍarūrī*). > > This is because if rationally inferred (*naẓarī*) knowledge is always established on the basis of other rationally inferred (*naẓarī*) knowledge, this would lead to temporal circularity or an infinite regress of causal effects on a thing that has a beginning \[i.e., the human being\]. And both options are known to be false by necessity and the agreement of the intellectuals through several ways… So there must be primordial *a priori* knowledge (*ʿulūm badīhīyah awwalīyah*) that God initiates in one’s heart and the point of all proofs is to go back to that. > > Furthermore, this necessary knowledge can be subjected to *shubuhāt* (specious objections) and whisperings such as the *shubuhāt* of the *sūfisṭāʾīyah* (Sophists) in empirical matters or primordial matters... *Shubuhāt* in this foundational knowledge cannot be responded to with proofs since the whole point of proofs is to go back to them. So if *shakk* (doubt) occurs in them, the path to rational inference and investigation has been severed. > > This is why it is not possible to debate one who denies sensory or necessary knowledge. Rather, if he is simply recalcitrant and obstinate, he is penalized until he recognizes the truth. But if he is mistaken due to a corruption that his senses or mind have encountered due to his inability to understand such foundations or something similar, then he is to be treated with that \[epistemology\] that satisfies the conditions of knowledge for him and eliminates its obstacles. And if he is incapable of that due to a corruption in his natural physiology, he is treated with natural medications, or *duʿāʾ*, or *ruqyah,* or spiritual reorientation (*tawajjuh*), or something similar. Otherwise, he is abandoned.[^170] Here, Ibn Taymīyyah lays out a clear explanation for the need for epistemological foundations. But rather than offering an arbitrary form of foundationalism that the Agrippan trilemma undermines, he explains that the axiomatic knowledge of reality is structured according to the concepts God initiates in the mind via the *fiṭrah*, concepts with which one cannot dispense while still hoping to have a meaningful construal of reality.[^171] To depart from meaningful conceptualizations by negating necessary knowledge entails *safsaṭah*. The antidote to Pyrrhonian doubt is not to entertain it with verbose philosophical argumentation but to consider its underlying psychospiritual etiology—willful blindness and recalcitrance, corrupted epistemic foundations, or a physiological explanation. Through reorienting oneself to one’s own existential condition, pursuing a meaningful outlook on life, and seeking God with true spiritual yearning, a person is able to acquire the firmest foundations of conviction. The human being needs a paradigm that offers a meaningful conception of the fundamental aspects of life. As Ibn Taymīyyah explains, the starting point of knowledge is for human beings to sincerely and genuinely search for answers and guidance from their Creator.[^172] The Qur’an states, “These are the signs of God that We recite to you in truth (*bi-al-ḥaqq*). So in what narrative after God and His signs will you believe?” (Qur’an 45:6). The Qur’anic exegete al-Ālūsī (d. 1270 AH) said, “And this indicates that there is no meaningful explanation (*bayān*) more meaningful than this explanation \[i.e., the Islamic paradigm\], nor sign (*āyah*) stronger as a proof than this sign \[i.e., the Qur’ānic discourse\].”[^173] The most powerful epistemology of proof is one that furnishes an understanding of reality that yields the greatest meaning. --- ## Pyrrhonian skepticism and the epistemology of disagreement The nature of skepticism has been further elucidated through recent academic interest in the epistemology of disagreement. As Markus Lammenranta notes, the connection between skepticism and disagreement is captured in the first and most important of the five modes of Agrippa.[^174] The impetus for suspending judgment arises precisely because one encounters a disagreement that is undecidable. Lammenranta also notes that in his *Rules for the Direction of the Mind*, René Descartes echoed the same Pyrrhonian reasoning: > Whenever two persons make opposite judgments about the same thing, it is certain that at least one of them is mistaken, and neither, it seems, has knowledge. For if the reasoning of one of them were certain and evident, he would be able to lay it before the other in such a way as eventually to convince his intellect as well.[^175] According to Lammenranta, the argument from disagreement leads to skepticism because of an underlying *dialectical conception of justification*: “*S* is justified in believing that *p* if and only if *S* can defend *p* against appropriate challenges.”[^176] > According to this kind of theory, to be justified in my belief, I must be able to defend my belief to someone else. I can do this only if I have reasons or evidence that would convince the other party.[^177] In other words, what is at the heart of skepticism is the notion that one is *not* justified in believing in something if one cannot provide enough arguments and evidence to convince one’s opponent and defeat any possible objections. These objections need not even be based upon any tangible fact but may simply emerge in one’s imagination of an alternate scenario that can equally account for the evidence invoked to justify a belief. Thus, imaginative scenarios in which human beings are part of a computer simulation of an advanced alien species suddenly become real objections to be contended with in order to have a rational justified belief that we exist in a physical world. For even the most assured matters of certainty, there can always be an imaginable objection lurking around the corner of the doubter’s mind. Indeed, Ibn Taymīyyah affirmed that part of radical skepticism (*safsaṭah*) is to consider the mere possibility of something in one’s imagination as evidence for its possibility in external reality.[^178] Seeing disagreement as a source of doubt has been described in the literature on the epistemology of disagreement as *conciliationism* (“upon learning that a peer disagrees with me about whether *p*, I cannot rationally continue to believe that *p* or to hold it to the same degree or with the same confidence”).[^179] Moreover, Diego Machuca writes: > In order to resolve a peer disagreement over a given issue, the disputants must appeal to reasons which are independent of both their beliefs about the disputed issue and the reasoning on the basis of which such beliefs are formed. > > ...There is clearly a close connection between skepticism and disagreement since skepticism is always latent as a possible stance to adopt in any discussion of disagreement. For instance, on the dialectical conception of justification, the very existence of a dispute triggers a demand for justification: a competent and responsible cognizer should be able to defend his beliefs when these are challenged by his epistemic rivals.[^180] Invoking disagreement was used by moral error theorists who denied the existence of objective moral values based on widespread disputes about morality.[^181] Furthermore, invoking the existence of disagreement as an impetus for doubt has been described by contemporary atheist philosophers as the ‘*strongest reason*’ to argue that belief in God is irrational.[^182] The fact that such a viewpoint entails general skepticism about all ordinary beliefs is hastily dismissed because (1) people generally agree on those beliefs and (2) those other beliefs are highly justified so we can justifiably dismiss others’ disagreement on them “even if we can’t initially see exactly why.”[^183] That such an answer is utterly unsatisfactory in escaping Pyrrhonian skepticism, solipsism, moral abolitionism, and so forth, seems to completely escape those who proffer it. --- ## UFOs, leprechauns, unicorns, the Tooth Fairy, and Flying Spaghetti Monsters: When is skepticism reasonable? Most individuals readily recognize that it would be absurd to be so skeptical of everything and anything that, for instance, one could never eat without suspicion that one’s food had been poisoned nor enter a building without experiencing a paralyzing fear at the possibility of its collapse. Moreover, most individuals generally regard solipsism as fanciful and imaginative and unworthy of being seriously entertained. But surely, there must be a middle ground wherein some matters merit skepticism? After all, why is it that theists are so convinced of the non-existence of leprechauns, unicorns, and the Tooth Fairy? The truth is that there are a great many claims and notions that the human being encounters on a daily basis, that one rightfully regards with skepticism and for which one demands proof. A meaningful picture of reality arises in the human mind as a result of the continuous influx of sensory perceptions (*ḥiss*) filtered by the constraints of the rational mind (*ʿaql*) drawing upon primordial conceptions (*badīhīyāt*)—like causality, teleology, magnitude, spatial relations—ultimately rooted in human nature (*fiṭrah*). When this mind subsequently encounters something that ‘doesn’t quite make sense,’ an experience of cognitive dissonance arises because there is a conflict between the picture of reality that one possesses and the new piece of information one has received. In order to accept that new piece of information as valid and reconfigure one’s existing worldview to accommodate it, one needs to have very good reason to believe it to be true. When something conflicts with basic notions of causality, or doesn’t seem consonant with established empirical and rational notions about the world, or appears contrary to basic moral sensibilities, such notions are rightly regarded with suspicion and distrust and viewed with a high degree of reasonable skepticism until overwhelming evidence has been established in their favor. So why does it make sense to be skeptical about the existence of unicorns, UFOs, gnomes, goblins, and a host of other fictional entities? And how does this skepticism differ from being skeptical about the existence of God? Well, to start with, these are physical entities posited within the material world that conflict with our experience and observation. If however, a leading group of scientists announced that they had discovered the remains of several equine or horse-like creatures that displayed a bony projection surrounded by keratin arising from the head, consistent with a horn—our skepticism towards the historical existence of unicorns would reasonably diminish. On the other hand, it does not make sense to be skeptical about the existence of good and evil (morality), cause and effect (causality), truth and falsehood, logic, nor does it make sense to be skeptical about the Divine. These are not physical entities, but rather ontological and phenomenological foundations upon which our very notions of existence and purpose are constructed and rendered meaningful. Take away any element and we no longer have a picture of the universe that makes sense; we no longer have a sensible conception about who we are and why we are meant to be. We have instead a pointless sea of particles that exist reasonlessly and whose configuration into the present world around us is as meaningless as if the particles happened to be configured in a disorganized array. There are certain cognitive structures embedded in our human nature (*fiṭrah*) that we use to filter our sensory experiences into meaningful chunks of knowledge that can aid us in our conceptualization of reality. It makes sense to doubt something that conflicts with the foundations of our ontology but it doesn’t make sense to doubt the ontological foundations themselves. There is a tremendous logical fallacy in juxtaposing, on the one hand, fictional physical entities posited in the observable natural world that violate commonsense notions about reality like unicorns and leprechauns and, on the other hand, those conceptual foundations and ontological anchors that underpin any meaningful construal of reality—like God, causality, logic, numerical order, temporal sequence, morality, etc. The concept of a unicorn is that of a fictional physical beast whose existence or non-existence has no bearing on the foundational structure of our world, while the concept of causality is that of an ontological foundation without which no meaningful picture of reality can be construed. Similarly, without a Divine anchorage for all meaningful conceptualizations, all notions collapse into meaninglessness. --- ## The meaning of meaningfulness Every human being pursues an outlook, value hierarchy, or belief system that can render life meaningful. But what do we mean when we ask about the *meaning* of life? Philosopher Harry Gene Blocker writes: > We have already distinguished four main senses of meaning: (1) the place of X in a system, (2) human intention, (3) linguistic or symbolic (identity or translation) meaning, and (4) being-as. > > …Interestingly, “the meaning of life” also falls into all four of these categories with a slightly different result in each case. We have emphasized the meaning of life as the interrelatedness of one’s actions in a total integrated pattern having a place in the larger life of the community. There is also the meaning of life as something which has taken on a recognizable shape, or at least negatively, the loss of which shape is experienced as meaninglessness. And there is also the meaning of life in the sense of the purpose for one’s life or for mankind as a whole which we found in Sartre, and this can lead to a sense of the meaning of life like that of translation meaning in which one expects the same kind of answer to the question “what is the meaning of life?” as to the question “what does *‘ja’* mean?” > > …Thus, the logical root of meaning can be traced to the sense of purpose and a system of purposeful relations. When people speak of the meaningfulness of things, they are usually talking either about (a) the purposive way things seem to hang together or (b) the purpose which this system has as a whole. Correspondingly, meaninglessness can mean either (a) the breakdown of this system or (b) the realization that the purpose for the system as a whole is a human projection having no foundation in reality.[^184] Despite the centrality of the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ to human pursuits, “it is only in the last few decades that analytic philosophers, in particular, have begun to pay any serious attention to the topic.”[^185] Joshua Lewis Thomas observes that just as meaning in linguistics conveys the *sense* of a word, thus meaningfulness is a matter of having answers that *make sense* in addressing the salient questions of something’s origin, impact, purpose, and story. A meaning-framework is what allows one to process the constant stream of sensory information that flows into one’s consciousness in order to interpret and understand existence and the world.[^186] The big questions of life tend to aggregate into three clusters—intellectual, moral, and spiritual. No matter what culture or ideology one is raised in, one seeks to answer questions such as ‘What makes my life worth living?’ (*spiritual*), ‘How do I live a good life?’ (*moral*), and ‘What is worth knowing?’ (*intellectual*). Pursuing truth means to search for the answers that serve a purpose in making sense of these fundamental questions. Every human being intuitively prefers a system of belief and value that is able to yield meaningful answers to questions in these three domains rather than answers that are incoherent and meaningless. Ultimately, the human being is confronted with a basic choice, between meaningfulness or meaninglessness.[^187] For the one who adopts materialism, existence in its entirety is nothing more than interactions of a vast soup of purposeless particles. Moral values, thoughts, and ideas must be nothing more than the delusions of collections of particles, which presume their own consciousness and individuated existence. Everything in existence that is conceived to have meaning is—at its very root and essence—ultimately, meaningless. But even the declaration that existence is meaningless is itself intended as a meaningful claim, and hence meaning is inescapable. In Islam, the three domains—spiritual, moral, and intellectual—are perfectly aligned and connected. As Ibn Taymīyyah explains, the way of the Muslims combines beneficial knowledge and righteous deeds and combines spiritual purity (*zakāʾ*) and intellectual perspicuity (*dhakāʾ*); this is the meaning of Islam being the path of truth and guidance.[^188] Moral excellence, intellectual clarity, and spiritual purity are all unified in the Islamic journey towards God (much of this has been explored in a [previous essay](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/)).[^189] The paradigm of *tawḥīd* (Divine Oneness) presented by Islam successfully incorporates all of these three domains into an understanding that renders life meaningful, and thus it serves as an ontological anchor—a necessary grounding for all meaningful conceptions about life.[^190] To subject ontological anchors to skepticism results only in the combustion of the very framework that renders meaningful those notions of truth and falsehood upon which the skeptical endeavor itself is predicated. --- ## Conclusion Far from being antiquated, the Islamic scholarly tradition contains an immense wealth of intellectual insights that have tremendous bearing on the conversations taking place today. This is particularly true with respect to conversations surrounding atheism and demands for philosophical or empirical proof of God’s existence. The underlying fallacy behind such conversations is one shared by the ancient Pyrrhonian skeptics of Greece and stems from an incoherent epistemology about what constitutes proof, what yields certitude, and what distinguishes concepts requiring substantiation from those concepts without which no meaningful construal of reality is possible. Ibn Taymīyyah argues that, with a coherent epistemology, belief in God requires no philosophical proof. Yet, it is commonplace today to find attempts to address atheism by offering ‘philosophical proofs’ for the existence of God, perhaps inadvertently reinforcing the Pyrrhonian fallacy behind atheism—namely, that belief in God is something uncertain, to begin with, and in need of argumentation for substantiation. Instead, one need only present and explain the Islamic message, which automatically concords with the human *fiṭrah*. If one is open to the message and contemplates it, one’s *fiṭrah* will guide one to embrace it; if not, no amount of evidence, argumentation, or justification will be of benefit. When we understand the Qur’anic approach, which presents faith as an ontological foundation, and the purposive nature of truth (*ḥaqq*), then it becomes clear that no meaningful construal of reality is possible without faith in the Divine as articulated in the Islamic paradigm. Faith in the Divine is the bedrock for everything else to be rendered meaningful. Rather than requiring substantiation, it substantiates all else. --- ## Notes [^1]: Author’s acknowledgments: The following scholars and intellectuals provided valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this essay: Dr. Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, Dr. Ovamir Anjum, Dr. Yasien Mohamed, Dr. Tahir Wyatt, Dr. Zara Khan, Dr. Tallal Zeni, Dr. Shoaib Ahmed Malik, Dr. Yasir Qadhi, Dr. Hatem al-Haj, Sh. Mohamed Elshinawy, Dr. Shabbir Akhtar, Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman, Sh. Muntasir Zaman, Jamie Turner, Hamza Tzortzis, and Dr. Edward Moad. [^2]: The Hellenic period typically refers to 507–323 BCE and the Hellenistic period refers to 323–31 BCE. [^3]: Peter Watson, *The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God*, 2nd ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014). The phrase appears only in the title, but trends in belief are discussed on pp. 17–29. For the particularly brutal fashion in which the attempted erasure of God from human consciousness has occurred during the “Bolshevik crusade for scientific atheism,” refer to pp. 200–219. [^4]: Amongst Christian philosophers, most notably Alvin Plantinga, the idea that proof is not necessary is often termed *reformed epistemology*. Kelly James Clark, “Reformed Epistemology,” in *The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization*, ed. George Kurian (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), [https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc1149](https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc1149). See also Alvin Plantinga, *Warranted Christian Belief* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). [^5]: *Kalām* is defined as the discourse using philosophical proofs to establish and defend religious doctrine; see ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī, *al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām* (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, n.d.), 7. There have been ample academic discussions over how this discourse came to acquire the appellation of “*kalām*” (which literally means “speech”). See, for example, Harry Wolfson, *The Philosophy of the Kalam* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), 63 and Alexander Treiger, “Origins of Kalam,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology*, ed. Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: University of Oxford Press, 2016), 33. [^6]: Rodrigo Adem describes this as “\[*kalām*’s\] most central thesis: that religion, and in particular belief in God and the prophets, must be established on the basis of purely rational proofs in order to be valid.” Rodrigo Adem, “The Intellectual Genealogy of Ibn Taymīya” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2015), 62. [^7]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1988), 33. al-Ghazālī acknowledges that some people may have found certainty through *kalām* but explains what was true regarding his situation and the situation of many others. [^8]: He explains that he sought to obtain certitude by going back to the foundations of knowledge—sensorial perception and rationality—only to find that he was able to cast doubt on these as well, resulting in him experiencing two months in which his mental state was that of a radical skeptic though he did not verbalize it or affirm it creedally (*wa dāma qarīban min shahrayn ana fīhimā ʿalá madhab al-safsaṭah bi-ḥukm al-ḥāl lā bi-ḥukm al-nuṭq wa-al-maqāl*). Al-Ghazālī, *al-Munqidh*, 29. An analysis of his doctrine of *kashf* (spiritual unveiling) is beyond the scope of this article. [^9]: In fact, due to the extensive and intricate nature of the rational arguments Ibn Taymīyyah uses in his critiques of *kalām*, some have labeled his discourse a *kalām* of its own, although this ignores the epistemological differences between him and his interlocutors. [^10]: See, for instance, Adem, “Intellectual Genealogy,” 541 and Jon Hoover, *Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism* (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 20. See also Nicholas Heer, “The Priority of Reason in the Interpretation of Scripture: Ibn Taymīyyah and the Mutakallimūn,” in *Literary Heritage of Classical Islam: Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of James A. Bellamy*, ed. Mustansir Mir (in collab. with J. E. Fossum) (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1993). [^11]: The most extensive studies undertaken so far of Ibn Taymīyyah’s epistemological framework include Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, *Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation: A Study of Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql* (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 253–76 and, particularly on his conceptualization of the *fiṭrah*, Yasir Kazi \[Qadhi\], “Reconciling Reason and Revelation in the Writings of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328): An Analytical Study of Ibn Taymiyya’s *Darʾ al-taʿāruḍ* ” (PhD diss., Yale University, 2013), 232–92. In addition, the significance of Ibn Taymīyyah’s ideas within epistemological debates on belief in God has been discussed in Jamie B. Turner, “An Islamic Account of Reformed Epistemology,” *Philosophy East and West*, December 13, 2019, [http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pew.0.0193](http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pew.0.0193) and, previously, in Wael Hallaq, “Ibn Taymiyya on the Existence of God,” *Acta Orientalia* 52 (1991): 66. However, the present essay offers a detailed examination of Ibn Taymīyyah’s epistemic approach to atheism with reference to his writings on radical skepticism, which has not been hitherto undertaken. [^12]: For a review of the range of perspectives and writings on the *fiṭrah* by Muslim scholars throughout history, see Yasien Mohamed, *Fitrah: The Islamic Concept of Human Nature* (London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1996), 35–69. [^13]: This is the title with which the work was originally published; however, the editor of its most recent edition, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Ḥasan Qāʾid, suggests that Ibn Taymīyyah’s smaller work on Greek logic did not survive and that this unnamed work is a separate one that has been referred to as *al-Intiṣār li-ahl al-athar* (Supporting the people of narration). See Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Intiṣār li-ahl al-athar, al-maṭbūʿ bi-ism naqḍ al-manṭiq*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Ḥasan Qaʾid (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1435/2014), 24 (editor’s introduction). For simplicity and clarity, this work will be referred to in this essay by its conventional title *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*; all citations are in reference to the edition cited here. [^14]: The longstanding scripturalist trend in theology has been referred to variously as *atharī* (an adjective referring to *āthār*, or narrated statements from early Muslim scholars), *Ḥanbalī* (an ascription to the theology championed by Imam Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal), *aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth* (companions of hadith or hadith folk), and *salafī* (an ascription to the *salaf al-ṣāliḥ*, or pious predecessors in the early Muslim community). In *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, Ibn Taymīyyah affirms ascribing to the methodology of the *salaf* (213) and explains that the relative scarcity of theological dispute amongst the Ḥanbalīs was due to the abundance of clear statements from Imam Aḥmad on creedal matters (235). For further discussion on these labels, see Adem, “Intellectual Genealogy.” See also Christopher Melchert, “The Piety of the Hadith Folk,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 34, no. 3 (2002): 425–39 and H. Lauzière, “The Construction of Salafiyya: Reconsidering Salafism from the Perspective of Conceptual History,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 42, no. 3 (2010): 369–89. [^15]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 41–43. This “stalemate” is termed *takāfuʾ al-adillah*, meaning equipollence or the equal weight of evidence on both sides. Referred to as *isostheneia* in Greek, it was an important concept used by the ancient skeptics. [^16]: Clive Borst writes, “Doctrines and threats of solipsism are much older than the introduction of the term ‘solipsism’ to mark them. The term derives from the Latin *solus ipse*. This means literally ‘self alone,’ and less literally either ‘I alone exist’ or else ‘I alone am conscious,’ yielding, in the first case, a more idealist form of solipsism querying the existence of an independent material world and, in the second case, a more materialist form allowing for the (possible) existence of a material world but again not countenancing the existence of other minds or centers of consciousness.” Clive Borst, “Solipsism,” in *A Companion to Epistemology* (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 747. [^17]: For a more detailed discussion of its implications, see Gary Ebbs, “Skepticism, Objectivity, and Brains in Vats,” in *Debating Self-Knowledge*, Anthony Brueckner and Gary Ebbs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 28–54. [^18]: Nick Bostrom, “Do We Live in a Computer Simulation?” *New Scientist* 192, no. 2579 (November 19, 2006), 38–39. [^19]: Mike Wall, “ ‘We’re Probably Living in a Simulation,’ Elon Musk Says,” Space.com, September 7, 2018, [https://www.space.com/41749-elon-musk-living-in-simulation-rogan-podcast.html](https://www.space.com/41749-elon-musk-living-in-simulation-rogan-podcast.html). [^20]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-al-naql*, 10 vols., 2nd ed., ed. Muḥammad Rashād Sālim (Riyadh: Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad b. Saʿūd al-Islāmiyyah, 1411/1991), 5:254. [^21]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 5:255–56. [^22]: Olga Oksman, “Conspiracy Craze: Why Twelve Million Americans Believe Alien Lizards Rule Us,” *Guardian* April 2016,  [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/07/conspiracy-theory-paranoia-aliens-illuminati-beyonce-‌vaccines-cliven-bundy-jfk](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/07/conspiracy-theory-paranoia-aliens-illuminati-beyonce-vaccines-cliven-bundy-jfk). [^23]: Richard Garner, “Morality: The Final Delusion?,” *Philosophy Now* 82 (2011): 18–20. If one believes in moral error theory, what is one to do about moral discourse? While moral fictionalism espouses pretending moral values exist, Garner himself advocates moral abolitionism, arguing that we should attempt to eliminate the discourse of morality altogether. [^24]: Indeed, Hartry Field argues that a “default entitlement” to such axioms is the only philosophical justification that can be proffered. He writes, “Many of our beliefs and inferential rules in mathematics, logic, and methodology can be argued for from more basic beliefs and rules, without any circularity. But this is not so for the most basic beliefs and rules: we must be, in a sense, entitled to them by default.” Hartry Field, “Recent Debates about the A Priori,” in *Oxford Studies in Epistemology*, ed. Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1:81. [^25]: Skepticism towards causality has been a major focus of scholarly discussion surrounding the views of David Hume, who pointed out the lack of rational justification for causal inference in spite of its necessity for the sound operation of our minds. As James Hill explains, “Our belief systems are saturated with causal inference and we would be prisoners of our own minds if we doubted all causal relations.” James Hill, “Hume’s Theory of Causation: Is There More Than One?” *Teorie Vědy / Theory of Science* 33, no. 2 (2011): 233–49. See also Graciela De Pierris, “Hume’s Pyrrhonian Skepticism and the Belief in Causal Laws,” *Journal of the History of Philosophy* 39, no. 3 (2001): 351–83. [^26]: Ludwig Wittgenstein, *On Certainty*, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright, trans. D. Paul and G.E. M. Anscombe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1969), §115. See also Duncan Pritchard, “Faith and Reason,” *Philosophy* 81 (2017): 101–18. Pritchard writes: [^27]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:133. In addition to explicit denial of God’s existence, he discusses the broader notion of supposing one does not need God (*al-istighnāʾ ʿan al-Ṣāniʿ*). [^28]: Some moral abolitionists believe that people should be actively dissuaded from believing in moral values. Joel Marks writes, “Finally I reached a point where I felt that, far from needing to hide my amorality from the world, I should share it with the world. It would be a gift. At the very least, it was important—perhaps the most important thing in the world! I also saw the humor in my situation: it was not lost on me that I was becoming an unbelieving proselytizer.” Joel Marks, *Ethics Without Morals: In Defence of Amorality* (New York: Routledge, 2013), 14. Other moral abolitionists believe that one should not only abolish asserting moral judgments but also abolish asserting the truth of moral error theory and the desirability of moral abolitionism; “the main reason for the strong \[non-assertive moral abolitionist\] approach is to obtain something like Pyrrhonian impassivity with respect to morality, a therapeutic release from belief in and concern with as much normativity as possible.” Jason Dockstader, “Nonassertive Moral Abolitionism,” *Metaphilosophy* 50, no. 4 (2019): 481–502. [^29]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ Taʻāruḍ*, 5:130–1. Note that while he repudiates the view that all that exists must be perceptible to us in this world, he affirms instead the view that all that exists is *in principle perceptible*, even if it be only in the afterlife (*al-mawjūd huwa mā yumkin al-iḥsās bihi wa law fī al-ākhirah*). See also, Ibn Taymīyyah, *Bayān talbīs al-jahmīyah* (Medina: Maktabah Malik Fahd al-Wataniyyah, 2005), 2:341. [^30]: In this vein, Leo Groarke writes, “Sceptical arguments are put forward as an attack on realist truth, countering the notion that we can transcend our subjective outlook by arguing that our beliefs are necessarily relative to human nature and perception, the culture that we live in, philosophical commitments, and so on. This reasoning culminates in the decision to suspend judgment on the truth of any claim, but here as elsewhere the concern is truth in the realist sense.” Leo Groarke, *Greek Scepticism: Anti-Realist Trends in Ancient Thought* (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1990), 20. [^31]: Don Garrett, “ ‘A Small Tincture of Pyrrhonism’: Skepticism and Naturalism in Hume’s Science of Man,” in *Pyrrhonian Skepticism*, ed. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 68–98. [^32]: For a helpful overview, see Whitley Kaufman, “New Atheism and Its Critics,” *Philosophy Compass* 14, no. 1 (2018). [^33]: For instance, Richard Dawkins writes, “God’s existence or non‐existence is a scientific fact about the universe, discoverable in principle if not in practice.” Richard Dawkins, *The God Delusion* (New York: Mariner Books, 2008), 72–73. Victor Stenger writes, “By this moment in time science has advanced sufficiently to make a definitive statement on the existence or nonexistence of a God.” Victor Stenger, *God: The Failed Hypothesis* (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 11. [^34]: Shoaib Ahmed Malik, “Defining Atheism and the Burden of Proof,” *Philosophy* 93, no. 2 (2018): 279–301. [^35]: This is likely the most common subconscious motivation. Shoaib Malik also comments on other more deliberate motivations: “Moreover, as I have already demonstrated, lack of belief in God and the denial of God’s existence are two separate positions (the first being a neutral standpoint). Why is it, then, that some atheists are so insistent on incorporating the epistemological ‘lack of belief’ under the term ‘atheism’? It seems there is an advantageous gain in widening the net of atheism as a more inclusive position because it could help gain social and political currency” (Malik, “Defining Atheism,” 299). He notes that the census numbers for “atheism” effectively double based on definitions. [^36]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Bayān talbīs al-jahmīyah*, 2:341. [^37]: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, “Introduction to Pyrrhonian Skepticism,” in *Pyrrhonian Skepticism*, ed. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 4. [^38]: “Descartes himself was not a Cartesian skeptic. He was an antiskeptic. Nevertheless, there is good reason to speak of ‘Cartesian skepticism,’ since Descartes clarified and struggled against the stance we have called ‘Cartesian skepticism.’ ” Steven Luper, “Cartesian Skepticism,” in *The Routledge Companion to Epistemology*, ed. Duncan Pritchard and Sven Bernecker (New York: Routledge, 2011), 416. [^39]: While Descartes regarded the subjective inner experience as indubitable, Immanuel Kant believed that this inner experience necessarily depended on the existence of an outer experience. Barry Stroud, “Kant's ‘Transcendental Deduction’” in *Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: A Critical Guide*, ed. James R. O'Shea (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 114–15. [^40]: Jessica Wilson, “The Regress Argument against Cartesian Skepticism,” *Analysis* 72, no. 4 (2012): 668–73, [http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/‌analys/‌ans117](https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/ans117). [^41]: Wilson, “Regress Argument,” 672. [^42]: D. E. Machuca, “Ancient Skepticism: Overview,” *Philosophy Compass* 6, no. 4 (2011): 234–45. [^43]: Groarke, *Greek Scepticism*, 31–32. For an overview of the subject of skepticism, see Allan Hazlett, *A Critical Introduction to Skepticism* (London: Bloomsbury, 2014). [^44]: Bett writes, “Diogenes (9.62) reports Antigonus as saying that Pyrrho’s lack of trust in his senses led him to ignore precipices, oncoming wagons and dangerous dogs, and that his friends had to follow him around to protect him from these various everyday hazards.” Richard Bett, “Pyrrho,” in *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, Winter 2018, ed. Edward N. Zalta,  [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/pyrrho/](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/pyrrho/). [^45]: M. F. Burnyeat, *Can the Sceptic Live His Scepticism? Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 205–35. [^46]: Numenius writes, “Arcesilaus persisted in refuting everything, just like a Pyrrhonian except for the name.” Cited in Christopher Craig Dupuis, “The Influence of Pyrrho of Elis and the Pyrrhonian Praxis of Aporetic Language” (master’s thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2014), 69. [^47]: This is called the “dogmatic interpretation” of the Academic skeptics. “The fundamental issue regarding Arcesilaus’ skepticism is whether it should be understood as a philosophical position or as a strictly dialectical practice with no doctrinal content.” Harald Thorsrud, “Arcesilaus: Socratic Skepticism in Plato’s Academy,” *Lexicon Philosophicum: Hellenistic Theories of Knowledge*, special issue (2018): 195–220. [^48]: See Casey Perin, “Making Sense of Arcesilaus,” in *Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy*, vol. 45, ed. Brad Inwood (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 326. [^49]: Jacques Brunschwig and Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd, eds., *Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 938. [^50]: Groarke, *Greek Scepticism*, 29. [^51]: In this regard, he was an influence on Arcesilaus (d. 241 BCE), under whose direction the academy of Plato became overtly skeptical in its approach. Known as the “Academic skeptics” or “skeptics of Plato’s academy,” Arcesilaus and his followers directed their efforts towards simply refuting all claims made by any of their opponents. According to Cicero (d. 43 BCE): [^52]: Socrates, as seen throughout Plato’s dialogues, challenges any knowledge that is not grounded in a clear definition by asking questions of the form “What is X?” [^53]: Groarke, *Greek Scepticism*, 74n26. [^54]: Robert Sharples, *Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy* (London and New York: Psychology Press, 1996), 11–12. [^55]: Georges Tamer, “The Curse of Philosophy: Ibn Taymiyya as a Philosopher in Contemporary Islamic Thought,” in *Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya*, ed. Birgit Krawietz and Georges Tamer (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), 336. [^56]: al-Taftāzānī, *Sharḥ al-maqāṣid* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1971), 1:121. [^57]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 1:164. [^58]: Patricia O’Grady writes, “A very simple definition of sophists, and one that is devoid of Plato’s dogmatism and malevolence, is this: sophists were freelance, mostly non-Athenian independent teachers who traveled throughout Ancient Greece from city to city making their living out of the new demand for education.” She also writes, “Antagonism towards the Sophists developed when their skills were put to winning, rather than to discovering truth. . . . The once complimentary term came to be applied in a derogatory way, a usage which it retains to a considerable extent to this day.” Patricia F. O’Grady, *The Sophists: An Introduction* (Bristol: Classical Press, 2008), 12, 15. [^59]: W. K. C. Guthrie, *A History of Greek Philosophy*, vol. 3, part 1, *The Sophists* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 33–34. [^60]: Robin Waterfield, *The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists*, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 211. [^61]: Baldwin R. Hergenhahn, *An Introduction to the History of Psychology*, 6th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2008), 42. [^62]: Hergenhahn, *Introduction to the History of Psychology*. [^63]: On the influence of the Sophists on Pyrrhonian skepticism, see Groarke, *Greek Scepticism*, 49–52. [^64]: Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, *Kitāb al-tawḥīd*, ed. Bekir Topaloğlu and Muhammed Aruçi (Beirut: Dār Ṣadr, 2010), 222–25. See also Ulrich Rudolph, *Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand*, trans. Rodrigo Adem (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 151. [^65]: ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī, *al-Farq bayn al-firaq* (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Sīnā), 280. [^66]: Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī, *al-Burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2011), 20. [^67]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:38 (“*aʿẓam safsaṭah min ghayrihī min anwāʿ al-safsaṭah*”). See also his discussion in *Darʾ*, 3:133, cited earlier. [^68]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 6:15. [^69]: Although there are some similar observations to this point made some six centuries after Ibn Taymīyyah by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ibn Taymīyyah provides the epistemic alternative through the *fiṭrah* and revelation. On the other hand, “Given the elusive nature of Wittgenstein’s remarks on skepticism, there is still little to no consensus on how they should be interpreted or, more generally, whether Wittgenstein’s remarks alone can represent a valid response to radical skepticism.” Nicola Claudio Salvatore, “Wittgenstein: Epistemology” in *The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, [https://www.iep.utm.edu/witt-epi/](https://www.iep.utm.edu/witt-epi/). [^70]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:403. In this regard, he also labels Pharaoh and his followers as radical skeptics (Ibn Taymīyyah, *Bayān talbīs al-jahmīyah*, 2:341). [^71]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:404. [^72]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 10:241. [^73]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:39–40. [^74]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 6:11. [^75]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:90. [^76]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:37–38. [^77]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn* (Lahore: Idārat Turjumān al-Sunnah, 1976), 1:8. [^78]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:59. He also mentions the fact that dialogue using evidence is futile with the follower of *safsaṭah* or *qarmaṭah* because such a person denies manifest realities in the natural and scriptural realms respectively. See *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 159. [^79]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:323. [^80]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:288. [^81]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 1:30–31. See also *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 332. [^82]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:363–64 and 1:416–17. [^83]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:363–64. [^84]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:426. [^85]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 6:67. Ibn Taymīyyah also states, “and this love of God intensifies according to one’s knowledge of Him and the soundness of one’s *fiṭrah*. And it diminishes with diminished knowledge and the pollution of one’s *fiṭrah* with corruptive vain desires” (*Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:73). [^86]: For instance, in *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, Ibn Taymīyyah mentions that “souls are innately compelled to love justice and its supporters, and to despise injustice and its supporters, and this love located in the *fiṭrah* is what is meant by it (justice) being good, and this detestation is what is meant by it (injustice) being evil” (*al-Radd*, 1:429). See also the commentary on this provided by Ovamir Anjum, *Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 224. [^87]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:316. [^88]: Ibn Taymīyyah, for instance, mentions that the knowledge of counting is primordial intuitive sensorial knowledge (*min awāʾil al-ʿulūm al-badīhīyah al-ḥissīyah*); Ibn Taymīyyah, *Bayān talbīs al-jahmīyah*, 4:126–27. For the connection between sensory perception and *fiṭrah* see also El-Tobgui, *Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation*, 264. [^89]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 45. [^90]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 202. [^91]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá* (Mansoura: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 2001), 2:50. [^92]: See, for instance, Wael Hallaq, “Ibn Taymiyya on the Existence of God,” 66 and Kazi, “Reconciling Reason and Revelation,” 312. [^93]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 6:105. [^94]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:422. [^95]: El-Tobgui, *Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation*, 275–6. [^96]: A useful analogy, offered by Wittgenstein, is that of a student who constantly interrupts the teacher by questioning the existence of things, questioning the truth of every event in history, and questioning the meaning of words so that the teacher is unable to make any progress in teaching anything. This is akin to someone looking for an object in a room and continually opening the same drawer. “He has not learned to look for things. And in the same way, this pupil has not learned how to ask questions.” Wittgenstein, *On Certainty*, § 310–16. [^97]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:253. [^98]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:126. [^99]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:129. See also Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī, *Kitāb Nihāyat al-iqdām fī ʿilm al-kalām* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqāfah al-Dīniyyah, 2009), 119. [^100]: al-Shahrastāni, *Nihāyat al-iqdām*, 121. [^101]: The text only mentions “Abū Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Baṣrī”; however, the editor, Muḥammad Rashād Sālim, surmises that the figure in question could be Abū Muḥammad b. ʿAbdik al-Baṣrī (d. 347 AH), as no other biographical entry can be found for a similar name. See *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:494, n. 1. [^102]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:507. [^103]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:516, referring to Qur’an verses 6:76–80. [^104]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:525. [^105]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿādah* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2010), 2:796. [^106]: For a more detailed discussion of Ibn Taymīyyah’s critique of the extramental existence of the universal, see Wael Hallaq, *Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), xxii–xxiv. [^107]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:344–45. [^108]: On the evolution of philosophical proofs in response to doubts, see for instance Hannah C. Erlwein, *Arguments for God’s Existence in Classical Islamic Thought: A Reappraisal of the Discourse* (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019). One aspect that evolved, for instance, is the relationship between proving the createdness of accidents and the createdness of the world as a whole, which has been examined in Ayman Shihadeh, “Mereology in *Kalām*: A New Reading of the Proof from Accidents for Creation,” *Oriens* 48 (2020), 5–39. [^109]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:286–88. [^110]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:211–12 and *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 337. [^111]: See also Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 282 where he mentions that the majority of human knowledge is the result of analogical reasoning. [^112]: Douglas R. Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander, *Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking* (New York: Basic Books, 2013), 135. They also write: “What we mean by this thesis is that each concept in our mind owes its existence to a long succession of analogies made unconsciously over many years, initially giving birth to the concept and continuing to enrich it over the course of our lifetime” (3). [^113]: For more information on Ibn Taymīyyah’s theory of signs, see Turner, “Islamic Account of Reformed Epistemology,” 18–23. [^114]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:351. [^115]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:531. [^116]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:533–34. [^117]: See for instance Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ* 8:518, quoting Abū Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Baṣrī. [^118]: “This is why many of the leaders in worship and *taṣawwuf* instructed adherence to a practice of *dhikr* (remembrance of God), and they made that a gateway for arriving at truth, and this is good if they accompany it with *tadabbur* (contemplation) of the Qur’an and Sunnah and following that (i.e., avoiding innovations).” Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 60. [^119]: In general, he characterizes it as “wasting time, abundant delirium, and fatiguing of minds.” Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:362. [^120]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:72. There is also a colloquial expression in Arabic that rhetorically asks one who is taking a circuitous and cumbersome approach to a simple matter, “Where is your ear, O Juḥā?” The character Juḥā (who may have been a real person named Abū al-Ghuṣn Dujayn al-Fizārī) is the subject of a variety of amusing tales and folklore; “Mullah Nasruddin” is the corresponding figure in the Persianate and South Asian Muslim world. [^121]: This is the description used by Ibn Taymīyyah’s student Ibn al-Qayyim in *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursalah* (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀṣimah, 1408 AH), 1:335. The phrase itself is borrowed from a wife’s description of her husband in the famous hadith describing the story of Umm Zarʿ (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2448a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/44/135](https://sunnah.com/muslim/44/135)). [^122]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 2:206. [^123]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:255. He also mentions that familiarity with some abstruse sciences that are intrinsically sound, such as mathematical disciplines, is actually a religiously desirable goal according to the scholars of the Sunnah since it strengthens the mind akin to exercising for the body. See also Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:105. [^124]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:197. “*Fa-mithlu hadhā al-taṭwīl wa-al-taʿqīd qad yakūnu fīhi manfaʿah li-man yusafsiṭ wa yuʿānid*.” [^125]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 286–287: “*fa-awrathahum al-manṭiq tark mā ʿalayhi ulāʾika min tilka al-ʿaqāʾid*.” In a similar vein, Toni Vogel Carey argues that philosophy progresses only by destroying old arguments, doubting current knowledge, or clarifying concepts. Toni Vogel Carey, “Is Philosophy Progressive?,” *Philosophy Now*, 59 (2007): 19–21. [^126]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:46. [^127]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:238. [^128]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:306. On the corruption of the *fiṭrah*, see also Kazi, “Reconciling Reason and Revelation,” 277. [^129]: Ibn Taymīyyah explains that one of the causes of corruption of the *fiṭrah* is a lack of familiarity with the Sunnah and with hadith. *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 202. [^130]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:37–38. [^131]: This is akin to the distinction between *production by reason*, *epistemic merit*, and *rational support* as discussed by Don Garrett, “ ‘A Small Tincture of Pyrrhonism,’ ” 80. Ibn Taymīyyah draws an interesting connection between theology and epistemology by discussing the angelic and satanic sources of belief production; see *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 47–57. [^132]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:460: “*bal yaḥtāju kathīr minhum fī huṣūli dhālika ilá sabab muʿīn lil-fiṭrah*.” [^133]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿādah*, 2:889–91. [^134]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 5:299. [^135]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:300. [^136]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 9:161: “*wa-hiya ṭarīqah athbatū bihā al-jalī bi-al-khafī wa-arādū bihā īḍāḥ al-wāḍiḥ*.” [^137]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:131. [^138]: See Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:284, where he says that it is the light of clear reason (*ṣarīḥ al-maʿqūl*) combined with the light of authentic scripture (*ṣaḥīḥ al-manqūl*). Similarly, Ibn al-Qayyim writes that it is the light of revelation (*waḥy*) combined with the *fiṭrah* or the intellect (*ʿaql*), or the light of religion (*sharīʿah*) combined with the *fiṭrah*. See Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursalah*, 3:851–52 and Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Wābil al-ṣayyib* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1999), 1:53. [^139]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá*, 16:191–93. [^140]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá*, 16:199. [^141]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá*, 16:199. [^142]: This section parallels an abbreviated discussion on Münchausen’s trilemma in an earlier article. Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Nazir Khan, “In Pursuit of Conviction II: Humanity Needs God,” *Yaqeen*, October 11, 2019, [https://‌yaqeeninstitute‌.org/‌zohair/‌in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/). [^143]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:458. [^144]: These initial two modes thus represent the skeptic’s rejection of the viewpoint being advanced by his opponent, hence sometimes termed the “material modes” or the “challenging modes,” while the remaining modes, which comprise the trilemma, entail the skeptic’s inquiry into the justification of the opponent’s viewpoint and are hence termed the “formal modes” or the “dialectical modes.” See J. B. Bullock, “The Challenges of the Modes of Agrippa,” *Apeiron* 49, no. 4 (2016): 5. [^145]: Also commonly known as Münchhausen’s trilemma. [^146]: There are also some permutations that combine these options but do not significantly impact the trilemma. See, for instance, P. Tramel, “Haack’s Foundherentism is a Foundationalism,” *Synthese* 160, no. 2 (2008): 215–28. [^147]: Diego E. Machuca, “Agrippan Pyrrhonism and the Challenge of Disagreement,” *Journal of Philosophical Research* 40 (2015): 23–39. [^148]: And no finite mind can possess an infinite series of justifications for belief or even justify the existence of an infinite series. A detailed response is offered in Stephen Wright, “Does Klein’s Infinitism Offer a Response to Agrippa’s Trilemma?,” *Synthese* 190 (2013), 1113–30. [^149]: For a discussion of the problematic nature of these options identified by Hellenistic philosophers, see P. D. Klein, “Epistemic Justification and the Limits of Pyrrhonism,” in *Pyrrhonism in Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary Philosophy*, ed. D. Machuca, The New Synthese Historical Library, vol. 70 (Dordrecht: Springer, 2012). [^150]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 339. [^151]: Ibn Taymīyyah frequently cites an anecdote of al-Rāzī and a Muʿtazilī theologian presenting their intractable disagreement before Najm al-Dīn Kubrá (d. 618 AH), who told them that through spiritual insights (*wāridāt*), he was able to attain the certainty that eluded them in their philosophical debates. Ibn Taymīyyah, *Bayān talbīs al-Jahmīyah*, 2:184–86; *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 64–65; and *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 7:430–32. See also El-Tobgui, *Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation*, 295–96. [^152]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 49. [^153]: See, for instance, Qur’an 16:3 and 38:27. On this issue, Ibn al-Qayyim writes, “*Bāṭil* refers either to something false that does not exist or to something that exists but has no benefit.” Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Ighāthat al-lahfān* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2011), 429. See also Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 274. This can be taken further by arguing that both usages are actually fundamentally linked conceptually. [^154]: John Whittaker, “The Logic of Authoritative Revelations,” *International Journal for Philosophy of Religion* 68, no. 1–3 (2010): 167–81. [^155]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 339; *al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn*, 1:13–14. [^156]: While foundationalism is the view that basic beliefs justify nonbasic beliefs, classical foundationalism adds two requirements. First, nonbasic beliefs have to be logically deduced from basic beliefs. Second, the basic beliefs must be infallible, that is, it must be logically impossible for them to be erroneous. The second requirement falls subject to solipsism and other varieties of radical skepticism examined earlier. The problem with classical foundationalism is that the vast majority of seemingly self-evident beliefs are deemed unjustified. See Noah Mercelino Lemos, *An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 51–55. [^157]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá*, 16:195. [^158]: Jamie Turner, “Islamic Account of Reformed Epistemology,” 25. [^159]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:114. See also *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:305, where he mentions that a child hit on the head knows by the *fiṭrah* that someone is responsible for this and does not need a philosophical argument. [^160]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 2:59. [^161]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 10:76. [^162]: For instance, preschool-age children act according to an assumption of deterministic causal relations, accepting stochastic causal inferences only when the former do not match occurrences. Laura E. Schulz and Jessica Sommerville, “God Does Not Play Dice: Causal Determinism and Preschoolers’ Causal Inferences,” *Child Development* 77, no. 2 (2006): 427–42. [^163]: Konika Banerjee and Paul Bloom, “Why Did This Happen to Me? Religious Believers’ and Non-Believers’ Teleological Reasoning about Life Events,” *Cognition* 133, no. 1 (2014): 277–303. [^164]: Justin L. Barrett and Jonathan A. Lanman, “The Science of Religious Beliefs,” *Religion* 38, no. 2 (2008), 109–124; Deborah Kelemen and Cara DiYanni, “Intuitions about Origins: Purpose and Intelligent Design in Children’s Reasoning about Nature,” *Journal of Cognition and Development* 6, no. 1 (2005): 3–31. For a demonstration in a primarily atheistic culture, see Elisa Järnefelt, Liqi Zhu, Caitlin F. Canfield, Marian Chen, and Deborah Kelemen, “Reasoning about Nature’s Agency and Design in the Cultural Context of China,” *Religion, Brain and Behavior* 9, no. 2 (2019): 156–78. [^165]: Ara Norenzayan and Will M. Gervais, “The Origins of Religious Disbelief,” *Trends in Cognitive Sciences* 17, no. 1 (2013): 20–25. [^166]: Justin Barrett, *Born Believers: The Science of Children's Religious Belief* (New York: Atria Books, 2012), 172–73. [^167]: This is how Barrett identifies a childhood inclination for belief in “gods,” but the psychological findings can just as easily be identified with belief in angels and devils under a monotheistic tradition. [^168]: Barrett, *Born Believers*, 137. Barrett also notes that he received emails from Muslims notifying him that this thesis is standard teaching in Islam; however, he dismisses this by stating that the psychological research does not suggest that “children are born to believe in orthodox Muslim, Jewish, or Christian theology” (151). However, the dominant understanding in the Islamic tradition is actually quite explicit that the *fiṭrah* is only a natural inclination towards God, not the idea that a person is aware from birth of the theological doctrines of Islam. See Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:460–61. [^169]: It may be argued that there are also many undesirable behaviors that come naturally to children, such as bullying, selfishness, and temper tantrums. However, this misses a crucial distinction. There is a *childlike* way of construing reality and providing a moral conscience of what is right and what is wrong, and this is termed the *fiṭrah*. Then there are *childish behaviors* and impulsive urges, which are termed the *nafs* and are recognized to be wrong by the *fiṭrah*. [^170]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:309–10. [^171]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 10:74. [^172]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Naqḍ al-manṭiq*, 58. [^173]: Nuʿmān Khayr al-Dīn al-Ālūsī, *Rūḥ al-maʿānī fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm wa-al-Sabʿ al-Mathānī* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 25:141–42. [^174]: See Markus Lammenranta, “The Role of Disagreement in Pyrrhonian and Cartesian Skepticism,” in *Disagreement and Skepticism*, ed. Diego E. Machuca (New York: Routledge, 2013), 46–65. [^175]: René Descartes, *The Philosophical Writings of Descartes*, vol. 1, trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 11. [^176]: Lammenranta, “Role of Disagreement,” 61. [^177]: Lammenranta,  “Role of Disagreement,” 52. [^178]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 3:365. [^179]: Diego E. Machuca, ed., *Disagreement and Skepticism* (New York: Routledge, 2013), 3 (editor’s introduction). [^180]: Machuca, *Disagreement and Skepticism*, 4, 7. [^181]: Machuca writes: “The most prominent example of the use of disagreement to undermine ethical realism is no doubt John Mackie, who based his “moral error theory” on two arguments: the argument from queerness and the argument from relativity, which is actually an argument from disagreement. Ethical skeptics usually conceive of this argument as an inference to the best explanation: they claim that the best explanation of the existence of persistent and widespread disputes about moral issues is that moral beliefs do not reflect an objective moral reality, but merely the perspectives of those holding such beliefs” (10). [^182]: Ali Hasan, “Is Theism Rational?” in *Theism and Atheism: Opposing Viewpoints in Philosophy*, ed. Koterski and Oppy (Michigan: ​Macmillan Reference, 2019), 126. [^183]: Hasan, “Is Theism Rational?” [^184]: H. G. Blocker, *The Meaning of Meaninglessness* (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1974), 33–40. [^185]: Joshua Lewis Thomas, “Meaningfulness as Sensefulness,” *Philosophia* 47 (2019): 1555–77. [^186]: Thomas, “Meaningfulness as Sensefulness.” [^187]: Refusing to follow the truth is an outcome of this choice as reflected in the fact that Ibn Taymīyyah pairs the term *musafsiṭ* (radical skeptic) alongside *muʿānid* (stubborn). See Ibn Taymīyyah, *Darʾ taʿāruḍ*, 8:323; *Bayān talbīs al-jahmīyah*, 2:341. [^188]: Ibn Taymīyyah, *al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ li-man baddala dīn al-Masīḥ* (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀṣimah, 1999), 3:102–3. [^189]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Nazir Khan, “In Pursuit of Conviction II,” *Yaqeen*, October 11, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/). [^190]: A full exposition of how the paradigm of *tawḥīd* addresses the spiritual, intellectual, and moral questions of ## Summary Faith in God is not a claim standing in need of philosophical proof; it is the very foundation upon which all meaningful knowledge rests. The question so often posed today—"Prove to me that God exists"—rests upon a deeper and mistaken assumption about what proof is, what requires proving, and whether the one demanding proof possesses any coherent notion of proof at all. Before one hastens to construct syllogisms, one must examine the hidden epistemological confusion that lies beneath the surface of such demands. We live in what has been called an "Age of Atheists," where faith is derided as "belief without evidence." Yet the true justification of faith is found in the meaningfulness of its own message, not in the pursuit of philosophical argumentation. It is a fallacy to suppose that one must first doubt something and demand proof for it before it can be affirmed as truth. This may be termed the "Pyrrhonian fallacy," named after Pyrrho of Elis (d. 270 BCE), whose radical skepticism led him, according to the fables told of him, to distrust even his own senses so completely that his students had to prevent him from walking off cliffs. Just as a sane person needs no philosophical proof to rescue him from the notion that the physical world does not exist, or that moral values are illusory, he needs no philosophical proof to escape atheism. The use of philosophical arguments to establish articles of faith became a central feature of the discipline of kalām. Yet the eminent Ashʿarī theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH) explained that this was never truly the means by which most people attained certitude, nor was it its original aim; rather, kalām was intended as a rational defense of doctrine and a demonstration of the logical contradictions of heterodox groups. In his spiritual autobiography, al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, al-Ghazālī relates how he overcame his own affliction with Pyrrhonian doubt not through philosophical argument but through spiritual experience and divine enlightenment. The most extensive opposition to establishing religious doctrine upon philosophical argumentation came from Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah (d. 728 AH). Far from being an unthinking literalist, he was a deeply analytical and systematic thinker, intimately familiar with the philosophical tradition of his opponents. His most significant contribution was to return debates over scripture to their epistemological roots—namely, the false presumption that theological truths must be substantiated by philosophical argument to be accepted as true. In his great works Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa al-naql, al-Radd ʿalá al-manṭiqīyīn, and Naqḍ al-manṭiq, he traced the methodology of his interlocutors back to a philosophy prone to radical skepticism, arguing that those who pursued philosophical argumentation to attain certainty were often the ones most afflicted by uncertainty, confusion, and doubt, frequently conceding a stalemate in the end. According to the Qur'anic epistemology elaborated by Ibn Taymīyyah and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (d. 751 AH), faith in God is fully justified and meaningfully grounded without any need for logical deductive argumentation. It is justified because it emerges naturally from the human fiṭrah, the innate disposition upon which God created mankind—just as does belief in good and evil, causality, number, truth, and existence itself. To deny a core pillar of one's fiṭrah leaves a person unable to interpret existence coherently, and carried to its logical end, such denial dissolves into the endless doubt of safsaṭah, the term the Islamic tradition uses for radical skepticism. The futility of such radical skepticism is readily apparent. One may doubt the existence of the external world, as the solipsist does, entertaining fancies such as the "brain-in-a-vat" scenario or, as Nick Bostrom and others have argued, the notion that we may be living within a computer simulation. One may doubt history, empirical knowledge, morality, or even logic and causality themselves, for no logical proposition can establish the truth of logic without circularity. Ludwig Wittgenstein observed that "if you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty." Ibn Taymīyyah made the same point centuries earlier, noting that if indubitable knowledge could not be affirmed until every sophistic argument against it were refuted, "then no person would be able to confirm any knowledge about anything, since there is no end to what occurs in the minds of some people of sophistic arguments." He further explained that the believer's certitude in what God's infallible Messenger conveyed is in fact greater than his certitude in any single report of his fallible senses or reason. Ibn Taymīyyah identified atheism (inkār al-Ṣāniʿ) as the worst form of safsaṭah, though it is less common than other forms. He noted that most people do not embrace skepticism universally, as the Pyrrhonists did, but compartmentalize it—the moral abolitionist need not be a conspiracy theorist, nor the atheist a solipsist. Even scientism, which denies the reality of what lies beyond sensory perception, is a form of safsaṭah, for no one lives without relying upon reports from others and upon reasoning about what he cannot directly perceive; every civilization knows its own history only through transmitted reports. Regarding the atheist, Ibn Taymīyyah observed that although no entire nation ever adopted atheism, some individuals denied God outwardly while inwardly recognizing Him, as with Pharaoh, and others denied Him both outwardly and inwardly, as with the ruler who disputed with the Prophet Ibrāhīm. This does not negate that recognition (maʿrifah) of God is firmly ingrained in the fiṭrah by necessity. The term safsaṭah, along with sūfisṭāʾīyah, derives from the Greek Sophists. Muslim theologians engaged this phenomenon carefully. Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333 AH) devoted a section of his Kitāb al-Tawḥīd to refuting the Sūfisṭāʾīyah, mentioning the early Muʿtazilī Ibn Shabīb's (d. 230 AH) attempt to expose their self-contradiction in claiming to know that there is nothing to know. ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī (d. 429 AH) explained that safsaṭah entails denying knowledge or the reality of things, whether by doubting the existence of real entities or by holding that all contradictory beliefs are simultaneously true. Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī (d. 478 AH) distinguished four groups among them. Thus the term is broader than the historical Athenian Sophists, encompassing many kindred trends of skepticism. The antidote, according to Ibn Taymīyyah, is a return to the foundational structures of knowledge that are innate (fiṭrī), intuitive (badīhī), and necessary (ḍarūrī). What the fiṭrah necessitates "requires no proof because it is the most firmly rooted of recognized truths, the most established of all forms of knowledge, and the foundation of all foundations." To charge him with circular reasoning misunderstands his purpose, for he is not advancing a syllogism at all, but rather rejecting the entire assumption that syllogistic reasoning is the precondition of valid knowledge. The very concepts of proof, truth, and existence surface in the mind only through this natural primordial consciousness, and to deny it is simply to render reality unintelligible. When the Qur'an asks, "Were they created by nothing, or were they themselves the creators?" (Qur'an 52:35-36), Ibn Taymīyyah understood this not as a cosmological syllogism but as a rhetorical question awakening what the fiṭrah already affirms. The Qur'an invokes contemplation (tafakkur) to rediscover a reality embedded within the soul. He cited al-Shahrastānī (d. 548 AH), who declared: "I came to know of entities through God, rather than knowing God through other entities." He likewise quoted Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdik al-Baṣrī (d. 347 AH), who taught that God Himself is the dalīl (proof) rather than the madlūl (that which is proven), and Ibn al-Qayyim, who held that the Creator's existence is more manifest than any proof adduced for it. Ibn Taymīyyah further argued that syllogistic reasoning does not yield the certainty its proponents claim, since its universal major premise exists only as a mental abstraction, while the external world consists only of particulars; thus its conclusion can point only to a generic category, not to God Himself. He held analogy (qiyās al-tamthīl) and the signs (āyāt) of God to be the true instruments of knowledge—a view strikingly echoed by modern cognitive scientists who regard analogy as the engine of all thought. Nonetheless, he conceded that philosophical methods may benefit certain individuals accustomed to them, or serve to dismantle false beliefs one inherited through blind imitation, "even if it may not help them attain conviction in the truth." Against Agrippa's ancient trilemma—that any justification leads to infinite regress, arbitrary foundation, or circularity—Ibn Taymīyyah responds that there must exist "primordial a priori knowledge that God initiates in one's heart," to which all proofs ultimately return. Doubts (shubuhāt) raised against such foundations cannot be answered by proofs, "since the whole point of proofs is to go back to them." Modern developmental psychology and the cognitive science of religion have confirmed his observations that children naturally perceive causality, purpose, and agency, and naturally incline toward belief in God, such that atheism "requires some hard cognitive work to override the intuitions that nourish religious beliefs." The fundamental error, then, is to treat God's existence as a theoretical proposition needing substantiation, thereby using what is less evident to prove what is more evident. Knowledge of God "is the basis of all knowledge" (wa-al-ʿilm bihi aṣl li-kulli ʿilm). When Pharaoh asked Mūsā, "What is the Lord of the Universe?" and Mūsā replied, "The Lord of the Heavens and the Earth, if you are of those with certainty," Ibn Taymīyyah observed that faith in God is here bound to certainty as such; to deny all certainty is "universal skepticism, manifest falsehood, for every human being necessarily possesses knowledge." God says, "They forgot God so He caused them to forget themselves" (Qur'an 59:19), linking the loss of self-knowledge to the neglect of the Creator. It is entirely reasonable to doubt fictional physical entities like unicorns or leprechauns, which conflict with our experience of the material world, but it is not reasonable to doubt the ontological foundations—God, causality, logic, morality—upon which any meaningful picture of reality is built. To conflate the two is a grave fallacy. Every human being seeks answers that render life meaningful across the intellectual, moral, and spiritual domains, and in Islam these three are perfectly unified, combining "spiritual purity (zakāʾ) and intellectual perspicuity (dhakāʾ)." The paradigm of tawḥīd serves as the ontological anchor grounding all meaningful conception, and to subject it to skepticism is to consume the very framework upon which the skeptic's own reasoning depends. In conclusion, belief in God requires no philosophical proof when one possesses a coherent epistemology. To answer atheism by offering "philosophical proofs" may inadvertently reinforce the very Pyrrhonian fallacy underlying it—that faith is uncertain to begin with. One need only present the Islamic message, which accords with the fiṭrah: if a person contemplates it with an open heart, his innate disposition will guide him to embrace it; if not, no argument will avail him. As al-Ālūsī (d. 1270 AH) said of the Qur'anic discourse, "there is no explanation more meaningful than this explanation, nor any sign stronger as a proof than this sign." Faith in the Divine does not require substantiation—it substantiates all else. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/reviving-the-waqf-tradition-moral-imagination-and-the-structural-causes-of-poverty # Reviving the Waqf Tradition: Moral Imagination and the Structural Causes of Poverty **Author:** Dr. Zara Khan **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Waqf, Wealth & Finance **Published:** July 2, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract This paper builds on recent research classifying Islamic charitable endowments—the institution of the *waqf*—into distinct stages of historical and institutional development. It aims to imagine how the *waqf* might look today.  Throughout Islamic history, the *waqf* institution changed in form as the community’s material and historical circumstances changed while retaining the substance of its spiritual imperative. What are some of the root causes of poverty in today’s world, and how might the *waqf* be resuscitated to acknowledge and remedy those causes? --- ## Introduction This paper builds on the insights found in Khalil Abdurrashid’s *Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions* (Waqfs)[^1] and asks how the Islamic civilizational heritage of *awqāf*, charitable endowments, might be revitalized today. The institution originated with the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and is rooted in Islam’s spiritual obligation to charitable giving. Parting with one’s wealth does not only fulfill a religious obligation (*zakāh*) but also resounds at the deeper level of the soul’s salvation by enabling the purification of the heart and the beautification of one’s character. Kind words, helping another across the road, removing litter from the street, showing affection towards one’s spouse, feeding the poor, and even remembering God are among the numerous actions that are considered charitable in Islam. According to God’s promise, the interchange of material blessings increases the flow of spiritual blessings. The companions of the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, took this very seriously. After consultation and guidance from the Prophet, they established practices that later scholars would identify as *waqf* endowment, beginning with Abu Talha and his wife’s donation of their date grove with over 600 palms in the service of Medina’s poor. The spiritual worldview at the heart of charitable endowments in Islam (or their *ontological ground*) provokes one’s desire to seek God’s pleasure through service to His creatures and purify one’s inner self of greed and other vices. While *awqāf* have historically served educational, health, and other social needs, this paper focuses specifically on sites for alleviating structural causes of poverty. Two examples include the plight of global farmworkers in light of the global agricultural production line and the racialized wealth gap in the United States in its social and historical dimensions. I propose that certain institutional solutions to the poverty caused by these problems can be financed through *waqf* charitable endowments. In this way, Muslims can revive *awqāf* to address the specific needs of our day. Even where structural causes of poverty are caused by complex networks of global capital, local foundations can have transformative effects with far-reaching impacts. ### Historical background As recent scholarship has shown, the history of the *waqf* institution can be usefully understood in five stages.[^2] These are the formation, post-formation, maturation, transformation, and deterioration periods. This genealogy reveals that the *waqf* institution became central to Islamic civilization and grew vastly diversified in the services it offered. It also reveals that the colonization of Muslim lands along with post-colonial nationalization projects came to obliterate the institution. At its height, the *waqf* presented a “credible commitment device to give property owners economic security in return for social services” and was thus an integral tool for providing public goods through local trusts.[^3]  A *waqf* is a charitable endowment that must fulfill the following requirements: 1) that the person endowing it, or the subsequent maintainer, sequester the principal and devote the proceeds to charity; 2) that the endowment be specifically and legally removed from commodification (i.e., that it is no longer ‘on the market’); and 3) that its sole purpose be charitable, with the beneficiary group explicitly named. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, the first *waqf* consisted of a grove of 600 date palms, the proceeds of which fed Medina’s poor. During the Crusades, *awqāf* dealt with the ravages of war, such as feeding, housing, and nursing the poor, injured, and displaced.[^4] In sixteenth-century Jerusalem, the Haseki Sultan charitable complex founded by the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent serviced 26 villages and included shops, a covered bazaar, two soap plants, eleven flour mills, and two bathhouses (in Palestine and Lebanon). For hundreds of years, income generated by these businesses provided for the maintenance of a mosque, a sizable soup kitchen, and two traveler and pilgrim inns.[^5] In Aleppo during the eighteenth century, a *waqf* established by Hajj Musa Amiri included ten houses, sixty-seven shops, four traveler inns, two storerooms, several dyeing plants and baths, three bakeries, eight orchards, three gardens, and agricultural land.[^6] However, from the paragon of a morally accountable social ethos, in which property- and asset-owners felt spiritually and financially invested in uplifting the less fortunate, the *waqf* took a dismal turn during what Abdurrashid terms the institution's *deterioration period* (from the middle of the nineteenth century through World War I; notably immediately following the normalization of interest-based lending). Indeed this deterioration was due to the direct involvement of colonial powers. European colonizer states generally failed to comprehend the *waqf* system and through economic restructuring disrupted the practice of the endowments beyond recognition. For example, in Zanzibar, *awqāf* traditionally helped to foster bonds of interdependence between wealthy patron families and their less well-to-do clientele. The local elite families who endowed the public trusts maintained mosques (and were socially esteemed for doing so) and provided for clients and enslaved persons who had no means of their own. By contrast, British economic norms pertaining to social welfare and order meant different patterns of rights, responsibilities, and the distribution of political power and economic resources. The British colonial administration insisted that wealth instead function as a private business resource (as opposed to a publicly endowed charitable fund), while mosque upkeep was to become governmentalized. The former *waqf* clientele became a “working class entirely dependent on wage labor.”[^7] In their mission to codify and fix interpretations, colonial administrators often undermined traditional female trusteeship in favor of exclusively male trusteeship (the *mutawallī* of the *waqf*). While colonial outposts farther removed from the metropoles, such as Tanganyika (which later became Tanzania), saw relative longevity for *awqāf* and female trusteeship, centers of colonial rule experienced an interrupted and uprooted history of the traditional institution.[^8] The other cause of deterioration was the *waqf* becoming nationalized and, over time, bankrupted and without any operational funding. Postcolonial Muslim governments were unable to meet social service needs at levels previously handled through *awqāf*, leading to increasing impoverishment and general neglect. For example, at the end of the eighteenth century, the estimated “combined income of the roughly 20,000 Ottoman *waqf*s in operation equaled one-third of the Ottoman state's total revenue, including the yield from tax farms in the Balkans, Turkey, and the Arab world.”[^9] Both in geographic terms when accounting for the Ottoman territory, and fiscally in terms of the total percentage of revenue, such income represents a gargantuan quantity. When we look at the figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, and Greece, we see that *significant percentages* of all arable land, cultivated soil, or total land area were *awqāf*  (see Table 1). Country Year % *Waqf* Turkey 1923 75% all arable land Egypt 1920s 12.5% all cultivated soil Iran 1920s 14.29% all cultivated soil Algeria 1850s 50% agricultural land Tunisia 1883 33% agricultural land Greece 1829 (after breaking from Ottoman Empire) 30% total land area (confiscated by new government) *Table 1:* Waqf*\-controlled land in the Twentieth Century*[^10] --- ## Muslim charitable giving today[^11] In the twenty-first century, we find that globally, there is no single paradigm of *Islamic economics* that Muslim-majority states employ. Islamic principles pertaining to wealth, property, labor, etc. are contextualized and appropriated in a variety of ways given the specific material conditions and cultural histories of the various locales.[^12] Political scrutiny, institutional frameworks, and policy choices all shape Islamic financial legal application today without necessarily upsetting the sacred textual decrees. As such, the channeling and administration of the Muslim requirement of charity, *zakāh*, is administered in numerous different ways.[^13] Based on the major factors of resource endowments, demography, economic history, and politics, Muslim-majority countries arrive at unique national infrastructure for distribution of the wealth tax. As for philanthropic giving in Muslim communities, the magnitude is unclear, but a 2004 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates it to fall between $250 billion and $1 trillion annually.[^14] In the North American context, this charitable giving mostly takes the form of relief efforts and remittances sent “back home.” After September 11th, 2001, our giving has seen a shift to domestic causes, guided by the scrutinizing of our assets during the so-called *war on terror*.[^15] We have also seen the opening up of new non-profit spaces such as the Pillars Fund and the American Muslim Fund. The 2019 report jointly issued by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving entitled “American Muslim Philanthropy: A Data-Driven Comparative Profile” sheds light on the specific trends of our charitable giving today.[^16] Nearly 89% of respondents reported that they contributed to their house of worship. Another important cause is overseas relief (54%). One issue that Muslims invest in more than our counterparts from other faiths is civil rights protection for community members (48%). Additionally, “for Muslims, among the issues facing those outside their faith community, domestic poverty is the most important charitable cause (81%), followed by overseas relief (58%) and educational causes (54%).”[^17] What has not yet emerged are efforts to centralize the giving at a national level along the lines of the United Way, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, or the Jewish Federation, for example. Arguably, our classically trained scholars of Islamic sciences, in collaboration with our political economists, sociologists, and historians of the American context, ought to determine if such centralization is a desirable goal, and if so, how and why. We know that our Muslim civilizational history provides a robust charitable endowment institution in the *awqāf*. We also know that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, colonial and postcolonial national forces motivated by political and economic interests systematically and structurally dismantled the *waqf* to the point that it is no longer part of the living history of Muslim civilization but is a deracination. Looking ahead to a possible future I ask: how can the *waqf* be revitalized today in a way that is relevant to our society’s structural poverty and authentic to the ethical impetus of Islamic giving? I provide two concrete examples of pressing need and propose these as sites for establishing modern-day *awqāf*. --- ## Two cases of pressing structural poverty in today’s world It is imperative to understand poverty in relational terms, or multi-dimensionally, as a set of experiences.\[18\] Poverty is best understood through the patterns of human relationships that undergird it and the social institutions that organize these relationships.[^19] This is where the *waqf* institution can be instrumental insofar as it defines a specific socially organized set of relations. Globally, at the beginning of the twenty-first century more than one-third of the human population (three billion out of a total 7.8 billion people) live in poverty, on less than $2 USD/day. Two billion around the world suffer a mineral deficiency, one billion have no access to potable water, and 840 million are undernourished and hungry. Poverty and food insecurity seasonally lead to incidents like drought, war, inclement weather, and famine. Ironically enough, *three-fourths* of the world’s undernourished people live in rural areas and are the producers and sellers of the food we all eat.[^20] In our own nation, poverty refracts along racial lines. White households average wealth in the amount of $656,000, Latino households average $98,000, and Black households average just $85,000. Average Black and Latino households don’t even *combine* to equal *half* of average White wealth. Compounding this stark reality, it would “take the average black family 228 years to accrue the same amount of wealth that white families have today.”[^21] Median wealth provides a more representative picture of typical households than average wealth since it prevents the highest incomes at the top (small in number that they are) from skewing the midpoint. But whether you look at median or mean wealth, White households are significantly wealthier than Black and Latino households. *Average* White wealth is three-four times greater than Black, Latino, and other minority wealth, while *median* White wealth is five-seven times greater than median minority wealth.[^22] But what are the root causes of poverty today, as in the two examples provided? This question can be approached in at least three ways: 1) spiritual impoverishment; 2) structural exploitation; and 3) cultural norms (e.g., consumerism or wastefulness). Focusing on the relation between spiritual impoverishment and structural exploitation, I propose two pathways through which Muslims can revitalize the *waqf* and address the structural causes of poverty identified above. --- ## Revitalizing the waqf and alleviating the plight of farmworkers *Permaculture design* can provide an answer to address the global plight of farmworkers. Permaculture design, theorized by Bill Mollison, is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It involves the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.[^23] There are several successful ecosystem restoration camps worldwide where permaculture design principles have been instituted to produce improved agricultural and biodiversity outcomes. For example, Camp Contour Lines in the Tatin Village of the Guatemalan rainforest has pushed back against the ravages of slash-and-burn deforestation and corn monoculture to produce diverse, locally-owned agroforestry. Similarly, Camp Via Organica in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is leading the regional effort to educate and form interventionist and regenerative ways of producing food to challenge the desertification Mexico is experiencing. Camp Paradise in Butte County, California was set up as a direct result of the 2018 wildfires that destroyed over 110,000 acres of forest. It is successfully mobilizing local community residents and schools to join the restoration project. Camp Uthai in Thailand, Camp Habiba in Sinai, Egypt and Camp Virsoleil in Ajat, France are other successful examples of the implementation of permaculture design principles into restorative projects that are good for the earth and good for local economic sustainability.[^24] One of the assumptions behind permaculture design is that local ecosystems are capable of providing for the needs of the living things comprising them and relying upon them. But that is far from how the current global agricultural system operates. The process that brings food from farm to table proceeds as follows: wilderness is biologically cleansed; most arable land is converted to subsistence agriculture farms that specialize in only specific species of a small number of crops or animals; these species are selected based on their resistance to diseases and toxic pesticides; postcolonial states in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa were assigned their crops based on the Europeans’ vision of a single global supply chain (what are called *cash crop economies*, or the various *banana republics* in Latin America). Countries that survive through cash crop economies are extremely vulnerable to devastation and even starvation, as they are susceptible to fluctuations in global supply and demand as well as bad harvest seasons. The species that are exclusively selected—i.e., of preferred or favored varieties of livestock—become extremely immune-deficient over time as there is no more of the cross-breeding found in nature to keep genetic pools robust. They are also vulnerable to plague, which would wipe out the supply of millions, and for this reason, farmers over-medicate their domesticated animals—all of which enters our own bodies and even those of our babies through breastmilk. In addition to the physiological and ecological costs, the global food production system carries subsistence and livelihood costs. Internationally, farmworkers get paid pennies per hour of labor producing the world’s food supply. For example, certain groups of Mexican farmers, while earning twice or three times more than the minimum wage, make $9/day.[^25] American farms don’t fare significantly better than their international counterparts and are disappearing at an ever-increasing rate. The current global agribusiness arrangement is directly forcing vast majorities of the world’s agricultural population into extreme poverty and hunger, often to the brink of death.\[26\] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate is higher among farmers as a group than any other occupation.[^27] In addition to rising suicide rates among American dairy farmers, farmer suicides have significantly increased across the globe. Research findings released by France’s public health institute in 2016 indicate that “985 farmers killed themselves from 2007 to 2011—a suicide rate 22 percent higher than that of the general population.”[^28] In India, where 49% of the population works in agricultural food production, over 290,000 farmers have committed suicide between 1995 and 2014.[^29] Even the globalization model case and international breadbasket Australia suffers this phenomenon. Studies find that, in Queensland, “farmers are more than twice as likely as the general population to take their own lives. In remote parts of the state, the suicide rate for farmers was up to five times that of nonfarmers.”[^30] The racist politics of agribusiness also lead to food deserts in urban centers, in which fresh, healthy produce is simply unavailable to working-class city-dwellers.[^31] This dismal trajectory follows the broader logic of capitalist accumulation and monopolization that governs international trade. Transportation costs are lowered (thanks to war against oil-rich countries followed by what David Harvey calls *accumulation by dispossession*[^32]) and agricultural trade is *liberalized*, meaning forcibly opened up into more global ‘free markets.’ In reality, supposedly ‘free trade’ involves one set of exchangers enjoying the full protection of the State’s military power and market regulatory mechanisms and the other set of exchangers having no security or say in the terms of trade whatsoever. For example, upon dissolution of the political colonial administrations, colonized countries were lent money (with conditions) by the same powers who had been colonizing them. Referring to the fiscal revenue enjoyed by colonial powers in their *honorable exit* toward *welfare colonialism*, Crawford Young states: “The essence of terminal colonial politics was the implanting of fragile graftings of a constitutional polity onto the robust trunk of colonial autocracy.”[^33] This is why much literature on colonialism prefers the term *neocolonialism* over *postcolonialism,*  the former implying a mere change in the form of exploitation and plunder while the latter implies its end. Much like the infamous Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) required by International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans, loans from former colonial powers create situations of unpayable debt: punitive and vindictive financial situations that some call *revenge capitalism.*[^34] The ‘free market’ does not involve contracts among equals but slave contracts.[^35] While some think of new and improved technology and the globalization of the world as necessarily good things, on the ground these devices benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Motorization and mechanization of farm equipment are too costly and can never be universally accomplished; they also produce widespread unemployment, destroying people’s ability to sustain themselves and their families, communities, and nations.[^36] The underequipped peasantry has to “compete” with overseas commodities—like bananas, lettuce, carrots, meat, or milk—that come from that 10% of fully mechanized, successful factory farms that can afford to offer their produce at very low prices. The farmworkers fall, one by one. Recall that during the maturation period of the *waqf* in Islamic history, as the community’s needs changed so did the services offered by the *awqāf*. Today our needs are deeply entangled in the global economic system. This capitalist system is a life-sucking force for global farmworkers in the manner in which Thom Hartmann uses the Algonquian word *wetiko*. *Wetiko* means a sickness of complete lack of concern for others and Hartmann uses it to describe our modern warmongering and consumerist way of life.[^37] Given this reality, the question becomes: How can Islam inspire Muslims to challenge and block the ravages of global capitalism? Specifically, how can we revive *awqāf* to redress the deadly ravages inflicted upon global farmworkers? Investing in permaculture design would produce several concrete solutions to the crisis of global agriculture. The permaculture *statement of ethics* includes the following provisions: - No further disturbance of natural forests - Vigorous rehabilitation of wasted systems - Minimal land use for cultivation of plant systems - Creation of refuge sanctuaries for endangered species of plants and animals - Creation of our own non-invasive systems based on these ethical principles Designing local agricultural systems based on these principles would: localize food production and farm labor; wrestle control over the food supply away from big business and invest communities with greater accountability for how we live and what we eat; rewild tracts of agricultural land (meaning the return of land back to the wilderness) to increase biodiversity, healthy ecosystem function and soil resilience; and interrupt the global supply chain that thrives on the pauperization of most of the world’s farmworkers. The success of ecosystem restoration camps (mentioned above) and smaller-scale community garden and local food co-op projects provide evidence as well as hope for thinking outside the global supply chain box. They also provide concrete sites for tethering local *waqf* infrastructure that spiritually washes our wealth while addressing a real historical problem. As Mollison and others acknowledge, it is not the lack of creative alternatives to the current agricultural production system that is the problem: it is the lack of political will to put those alternatives into action.[^38] --- ## Revitalizing the waqf and diminishing the racial wealth chasm The other example of structural poverty in our world, which I propose can be a space for revitalizing *awqāf* today, is the racial wealth divide in the United States. Over the past three decades, racial wealth discrepancies have only grown. After adjusting for inflation, we find that, between 1983 and 2016, median wealth of White families has increased from $110,000 to $147,000; median wealth of Black families has decreased by half from $7,000 to $3,500; and median wealth of Latino families has increased slightly from $4,000 to $6,500.[^39] The wealth gap also creates and exacerbates other gaps: the achievement gap—the difference between the educational attainment levels of two groups, including standardized test performance across the groups—the gap in economic mobility, the standard of living gap, and racial health disparities. The anti-racism organization Muslim ARC is a beautiful example of Muslims working in research, curriculum, and community partnerships to combat institutionalized racism. Islah LA is another organization working to provide quality social services that restore and renew faith, education, unity, family, civic engagement, and economic empowerment in Southern Los Angeles, California. The vehicle of the *waqf* can specifically target the racial wealth gap by financing community centers, artist collectives, think tanks, media outlets, and advocacy institutions that work specifically toward bridging the racial wealth gap. In addition, Muslims can find concrete recommendations for creating target-specific *waqf* endowments in the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Ohio State University, Institute for Policy Studies, and Inequality.org, who in 2019 issued a joint report titled “Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide.” The report makes policy recommendations at the federal level but several of these can be blueprints for private *waqf* programs. For example, we can create baby bonds which are managed accounts set up at birth for children endowed at a level based on the financial position of that child’s family. Each year thereafter, money is added to the account, again, inversely proportional to the child’s poverty level. When the child reaches adulthood, the bond can be used toward education, purchasing a home, or opening up a business. The hope is to begin to redress the ravages of unfair race-based inherited advantage that systematically under-develops opportunities for the majority of Black and Latino families. Recent research at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy has shown that, properly instated, baby bonds could reduce the racial wealth divide by more than tenfold.[^40] Guaranteed employment is another potential *waqf* site. Research shows that simply increasing workforce participation is not sufficient for allowing families to lift themselves out of poverty. Most working-class families—what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls the ‘working poor’—work several jobs simultaneously all their lives and still pass zero wealth on to their children. More *good* jobs that pay *living* wages are needed for all those able to work. Guaranteed employment would take a certain form at the federal level, but in the private sector at the *awqāf* level, Muslims can create job banks in their locales—a register of necessary tasks—and employ low-income Black and Latino adult workers at minimum wage, which is an annual $24,600 for full-time work and includes a standard benefits package. After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage has not only failed to keep up, it has actually *gone down* since 1968.[^41] For many Americans, it is nearly impossible to survive on today’s minimum wage. Building toward guaranteed employment would begin to redress this. Another potential *waqf* site is investment in affordable housing. One can scarcely find locales in the United States today where a worker earning the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr) can afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment. For this reason, several states set minimum wage rates higher than the federal minimum in order to better approximate living wage requirements. Muslims can endow trusts, like the Housing Trust Fund proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren. The trust would provide homes for low-income families and down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers. The trust can specifically assist families at risk of losing their homes due to gentrification. It would also be a site to advocate for shifting the present tax incentives that privilege wealthy homeowners over renters and first-time buyers. Another potential *waqf* site for redressing the racial wealth divide is free medical clinics. The American Muslim community is blessed with an abundance of medical doctors. If wealth- and property-owning Muslims collectively endow the establishment and staffing of clinics in neighboring low-income areas, and if each Muslim doctor gives one day weekly or monthly to provide medical check-ups and treatment free of charge, it would immensely impact the overall health, well-being, and economic stability of Muslims and non-Muslims across low-income communities. Scores of Americans go into poverty each year due to medical bills; *awqāf* establishing free medical clinics could alleviate this phenomenon. Other potential and easy-to-implement *waqf* programs include interest-free lending and fee-less check cashing, which would help to rectify the unequal and unfair race-based distribution of inherited advantage in the United States. --- ## Conclusion The Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The hand above is better than the hand below,” meaning the hand that gives is better than the hand that receives. In elaborating on this hadith, Ubaydullah Evans suggests that African American Muslim communities and their allies ought to have collaborative sessions to map out mechanisms by which certain African American Muslim communities can become hands that give, thereby partaking in the blessing promised in the hadith.[^42] In addition to revitalizing the *waqf* as the central mechanism in Muslim society uniting the spiritual ground of giving with the concrete imperatives of social welfarism, such measures would also renew a lost *sunnah*. Economic partnerships across American Muslim communities through *waqf* funds could potentially resuscitate that beautiful and necessary *anṣār-muhājirūn* kinship set up by the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, when he saw his community in Medina divided in their stability and resource base. In our ethnically and racially diverse Muslim community here in the United States, we are notably missing these types of relationships. What would happen to the racial wealth divide in America if each migrant family was tied to an indigenous family among African American, Latino American, and Native American communities, with an added layer of mutual rights and concern? *Awqāf* are not limited to exclusively benefitting Muslims, so it stands to reason that such potential *waqf* sites for redressing the racial wealth divide would help dignify and advance non-Muslim people of color in the United States as well. There are countless points of intervention where Muslims can identify structural causes of poverty and develop *waqf* institutes to redress them. For example, animal sanctuaries have been secured through *waqf* endowments in Muslim history. How can *awqāf* be revitalized today to address the ecological devastation that includes depletion of freshwater sources and species extinction? The possibilities are endless if we employ what John Paul Lederach calls *the moral imagination*, “the one thing uniquely gifted to our species, but which we have only on rare occasions understood or mobilized” that alone can orient us toward a more human horizon “to constructively impact the fundamental well-being of the human community.”[^43] We ought to hasten to clear the obstructions of time and abandonment from the rich civilizational well of the *waqf*, and through it employ our moral imagination for solving the specific structural causes of poverty in our world. That is, after all, the legacy of the Muslim *waqf* institution. And Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: See Khalil Abdurrashid, “Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions (Waqfs),” *Yaqeen*, January 9, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs/). [^2]: Abdurrashid. [^3]: Timur Kuran, “The Provision of Public Goods under Islamic Law: Origins, Impact, and Limitations of the Waqf System,” *Law and Society Review* 35, no. 4 (2001): 841–98. [^4]: Abdurrashid. [^5]: Kuran, “Provision of Public Goods,” 849. [^6]: Kuran, 850. [^7]: Norbert Oberauer, “‘Fantastic Charities’: The Transformation of ‘Waqf’ Practice in Colonial Zanzibar,” *Islamic Law and Society* 15, no. 3 (2008): 315–70. [^8]: Chau Johnsen Kelly, “Asha binti Awadh’s ‘Awqaf’: Muslim Endurance Despite Colonial Law in Mikindani, Tanganyika,” *The International Journal of African Historical Studies* 47, no. 1 (2014): 1–20. [^9]: Kuran, “Provision of Public Goods,” 849. [^10]: Compiled from various sources in Kuran. [^11]: I’m grateful to Altaf Husain of Howard University and Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research for his contribution to my understanding of Muslim charitable giving today. [^12]: Rodney Wilson, *Islam and Economic Policy: An Introduction* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015). [^13]: Wilson. [^14]: Jon B. Alterman and Shireen Hunter, “The Idea of Philanthropy in Muslim Contexts,” (Washington, DC: CSIS, 2004), [http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/188C31.pdf](http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/188C31.pdf). [^15]: Barnett F. Baron, “The Treasury Guidelines Have Had Little Impact Overall on U.S. International Philanthropy, But They Have Had a Chilling Impact on US-based Muslim Charities,” *Pace Law Review* 25, no. 2 (2005): 307–20. [^16]: Faiqa Mahmood, *American Muslim Philanthropy: A Data-Driven Comparative Profile*, The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, July 2019. [^17]: Mahmood, 8. [^18]: Paul Spicker, *The Poverty of Nations: A Relational Perspective* (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2020). [^19]: Frances Fox Piven, *Relational Poverty Politics*, ed. Victoria Lawson and Sarah Elwood (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2018), ix. [^20]: Marcel Mazoyer and Laurence Roudart, *A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis*, trans. James Membrez (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006). [^21]: Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins, “America’s Racial Wealth Divide Is Nothing Short of Shocking,” Other Words, August 10, 2016, [https://otherwords.org/americas-racial-wealth-divide-is-nothing-short-of-shocking/](https://otherwords.org/americas-racial-wealth-divide-is-nothing-short-of-shocking/). [^22]: Brendan O’Flaherty, *The Economics of Race in the United States* (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015): 399–402. [^23]: Bill Mollison, *Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual* (Tyalgum, NSW: Tagari Publications, 1988). [^24]: See [https://ecosystemrestorationcamps.org/](https://ecosystemrestorationcamps.org/). [^25]: See Agustín Escobar Latapí, Philip Martin, and Omar Stabridis, “Farm Labor and Mexico's Export Produce Industry,” Wilson Center, 2019, [https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/farm-labor-and-mexicos-export-produce-industry](https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/farm-labor-and-mexicos-export-produce-industry). [^26]: Mazoyer and Roudart, *History of World Agriculture*, 10–15. [^27]: Tovia Smith, “As Milk Prices Decline, Worries About Dairy Farmer Suicides Rise,” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, February 27, 2018, [https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/586586267/as-milk-prices-decline-worries-about-dairy-farmer-suicides-rise](https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/586586267/as-milk-prices-decline-worries-about-dairy-farmer-suicides-rise). [^28]: Paméla Rougerie, “Quiet Epidemic of Suicide Claims France’s Farmers,” *New York Times*, August 20, 2017, [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/world/europe/france-farm-suicide.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/world/europe/france-farm-suicide.html). [^29]: Ellen Barry, “After Farmers Commit Suicide, Debts Fall on Families in India,” *New York Times*, February 22, 2014, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/world/asia/after-farmers-commit-suicide-debts-fall-on-families-in-india.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/world/asia/after-farmers-commit-suicide-debts-fall-on-families-in-india.html). [^30]: Jacqueline Williams, “A Booming Economy with a Tragic Price,” *New York Times*, May 20, 2018, [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/20/world/australia/rural-suicides-farmers-globalization.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/20/world/australia/rural-suicides-farmers-globalization.html). [^31]: See Illene Pevec, *Growing a Life: Teen Gardeners Harvest Food, Health, and Joy* (New York: New York University Press, 2016), 225–37; Amanda Whelan, Neil Wrigley, Daniel Warm, and Elizabeth Cannings, “Life in a ‘Food Desert,’” *Urban Studies* 39, no. 11 (October 2002): 2083–2100. [^32]: David Harvey, “The ‘New’ Imperialism: Accumulation by Dispossession,” *Socialist Register*, 2004, 63–87. [^33]: Crawford Young, *The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective* (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 217. [^34]: Max Haiven, *Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts* (London: Pluto Press, 2020), 48–51. [^35]: See for example, Andrew Ross, “Mr. Reggae DJ, Meet the International Monetary Fund” in *Real Love: In Pursuit of Cultural Justice* (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 35–69; *Life and Debt*, directed by Stephanie Black, written by Jamaica Kincaid, 2001. [^36]: Mazoyer and Roudart, *History of World Agriculture*, 15. [^37]: Thom Hartmann, “Columbus Day Celebration? Think Again!,” Common Dreams, October 10, 2004, [https://www.commondreams.org/views04/1011-27.htm](https://www.commondreams.org/views04/1011-27.htm). [^38]: Mollison states: “The real difference between a cultivated (designed) ecosystem, and a natural system is that the great majority of species (and biomass) in the *cultivated* ecology is intended for the use of humans or their livestock. We are only a small part of the total primeval or natural species assembly, and only a small part of its yields are directly available to us. . . . This is a valid aim for *settlement design*, but we also need a nature-centered ethic for wilderness conservation. We cannot, however, do much for nature if we do not govern our greed, and if we do not supply our needs from our existing settlements. If we can achieve this aim, we can withdraw from much of the agricultural landscape, and allow natural systems to flourish.” Mollison, *Permaculture*, 7. [^39]: Chuck Collins, Darrick Hamilton, Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, and Josh Hoxie, “Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide,” Institute for Policy Studies, April 2019, [https://ips-dc.org/report-racial-wealth-divide-solutions/](https://ips-dc.org/report-racial-wealth-divide-solutions/). [^40]: Collins, Hamilton, Asante-Muhammad, and Hoxie. [^41]: Collins, Hamilton, Asante-Muhammad, and Hoxie. [^42]: Ubaydullah Evans, “The Hand That Gives Is Better than One That Receives: Blackamerican Islam, the Promise of Upward Mobility, and *Zakat al-Mal*,” Symposium on Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University, November 4–5, 2019. [^43]: John Paul Lederach, *The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 23. I am especially thankful to Scott C. Alexander of the Catholic Theological Union, who, in reflecting on a previous draft of this paper presented at the Symposium on Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society, commented that the present suggestions for revitalizing the *waqf* are a work of what Lederach calls *the moral imagination.* ## Summary The institution of the *waqf*, the Islamic charitable endowment, traces its origins to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, and is rooted in Islam's spiritual obligation toward charitable giving. Parting with one's wealth is not merely the discharge of a religious duty such as *zakāh*; it reaches into the deeper matter of the soul's salvation, enabling the purification of the heart and the beautification of one's character. Charity in Islam encompasses a great many acts: kind words, helping another across the road, removing litter from a path, showing affection to one's spouse, feeding the poor, and even the remembrance of God. According to God's promise, the giving of material blessings increases the flow of spiritual blessings. The Companions of the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, understood this deeply. After consulting the Prophet, they established practices that later scholars would identify as *waqf*, beginning with Abū Talha and his wife's donation of their date grove of over six hundred palms in the service of Medina's poor. The spiritual worldview at the heart of endowments—their ontological ground—stirs the desire to seek God's pleasure through service to His creatures and to cleanse the inner self of greed and other vices. Building upon the research of Khalil Abdurrashid, who classified the history of the *waqf* into five stages—formation, post-formation, maturation, transformation, and deterioration—one may observe that the institution became central to Islamic civilization and grew vastly diversified in the services it offered. Timur Kuran described the *waqf* at its height as a "credible commitment device to give property owners economic security in return for social services," an integral tool for providing public goods through local trusts. A valid *waqf* must fulfill three conditions: that the endower sequester the principal and devote the proceeds to charity; that the endowment be legally removed from commodification, no longer subject to the market; and that its sole purpose be charitable, with the beneficiary group explicitly named. During the Crusades, *awqāf* dealt with the ravages of war, feeding, housing, and nursing the poor, injured, and displaced. In sixteenth-century Jerusalem, the Haseki Sultan complex, founded by the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent, served twenty-six villages and included shops, a bazaar, soap plants, flour mills, and bathhouses, sustaining a mosque, a soup kitchen, and inns for travelers. In eighteenth-century Aleppo, the endowment of Hajj Musa Amiri comprised houses, shops, inns, dyeing plants, bakeries, orchards, and agricultural land. Yet from this paragon of a morally accountable social ethos, the *waqf* fell into what Abdurrashid terms its deterioration period, from the mid-nineteenth century through World War I—notably following the normalization of interest-based lending. This decline was largely the direct result of colonial intervention. European colonizing states generally failed to comprehend the *waqf* and disrupted it through economic restructuring. Norbert Oberauer's study of colonial Zanzibar shows how *awqāf* had traditionally fostered bonds of interdependence between wealthy patron families and less fortunate clients; British norms instead insisted that wealth function as private business, governmentalizing mosque upkeep and reducing the former clientele to "a working class entirely dependent on wage labor." Colonial administrators also often undermined traditional female trusteeship in favor of exclusively male *mutawallīs*, though Chau Johnsen Kelly notes that regions farther from colonial centers, such as Tanganyika, saw greater longevity for *awqāf* and female trusteeship. A second cause of decline was nationalization, which left the *waqf* bankrupt and without operating funds, so that postcolonial governments could not meet the social needs once served by endowments. Kuran records that at the close of the eighteenth century, the combined income of roughly twenty thousand Ottoman *waqfs* equaled one-third of the state's total revenue, and that significant portions of arable land in Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, and Greece were held as *awqāf*. Today there is no single paradigm of Islamic economics among Muslim-majority states; principles concerning wealth, property, and labor are applied variously according to local conditions, and *zakāh* is administered in many ways. A 2004 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated Muslim philanthropic giving between $250 billion and $1 trillion annually. In North America, such giving has historically taken the form of relief and remittances, shifting toward domestic causes after September 11th, 2001, amid the scrutiny of Muslim assets during the so-called war on terror. New nonprofit spaces such as the Pillars Fund and the American Muslim Fund have emerged. A 2019 report by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that nearly 89% of Muslim respondents gave to their house of worship, 54% to overseas relief, and 48% to civil rights protection, while domestic poverty was named the most important cause concerning those outside the faith community (81%). What has not emerged is centralized giving on the scale of the United Way or Catholic Charities, and it is proposed that trained scholars, together with political economists, sociologists, and historians, ought to consider whether such centralization is desirable. Understanding poverty relationally, as a set of experiences shaped by human relationships and social institutions, reveals how the *waqf* may address structural causes rather than symptoms alone. Two cases are proposed as sites for revival. The first is the plight of global farmworkers. Though more than a third of humanity lives on less than two dollars a day, three-fourths of the world's undernourished live in rural areas and are themselves the producers of food. Permaculture design, theorized by Bill Mollison, offers an answer through the conscious cultivation of productive ecosystems that integrate landscape and people sustainably. Successful ecosystem restoration camps in Guatemala, Mexico, California, Thailand, Egypt, and France demonstrate its promise. The current global agribusiness system, by contrast, forces farmworkers into extreme poverty—Mexican farmers earning some nine dollars a day—and is associated with rising suicide rates in France, India, Australia, and the United States. This trajectory follows the logic of what David Harvey calls accumulation by dispossession and what others term neocolonialism or revenge capitalism, in which so-called free trade functions as "slave contracts." As the *waqf* once adapted to changing communal needs, endowing local permaculture systems could localize food production, wrest control from large business, and interrupt an exploitative supply chain. The second case is the racial wealth divide in the United States, where average White household wealth of $656,000 far exceeds Latino ($98,000) and Black ($85,000) households, and where it is said it would take the average Black family 228 years to accrue present White wealth. Organizations such as Muslim ARC and Islah LA already labor against institutionalized racism. Drawing on the 2019 report "Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide," *awqāf* could finance baby bonds—which Columbia University research suggests could reduce the divide more than tenfold—guaranteed employment, affordable housing trusts, and free medical clinics staffed by the community's abundant Muslim physicians. The Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, said, "The hand above is better than the hand below," meaning the giving hand surpasses the receiving one. Ubaydullah Evans suggests African American Muslim communities and their allies collaborate so that they may become hands that give. Such partnerships could renew the *anṣār-muhājirūn* kinship the Prophet established in Medina, a bond notably absent among America's diverse Muslims. Since *awqāf* need not benefit Muslims alone, these efforts would dignify non-Muslim people of color as well. Employing what John Paul Lederach calls the moral imagination, we ought to clear away the obstructions of time and abandonment from the rich well of the *waqf* and revive it for the structural poverty of our age. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-systematic-rohingya-genocide-and-the-muslim-moral-imperative # The Systematic Rohingya Genocide and the Muslim Moral Imperative **Authors:** Dr. Naved Bakali, Hassam Munir **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** June 25, 2020 **Updated:** September 30, 2026 ## Introduction The Rohingya refugee crisis is one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of our generation. As of July 2025, over 1.1 million Rohingya have been expelled from their homes in Rakhine state, Myanmar, since August 2017.[^1] Between January 2024 and mid-2025 alone, over 150,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh—marking the largest influx since the mass 2017 crisis.[^2] Thousands are routinely attacked and murdered in the most horrific and brutal ways. The victims have been men, women, and children who were targeted simply because they belonged to a Muslim minority ethnic group. The crisis has been described by UN officials as ethnic cleansing.[^3] However, a more apt term for what has happened to the Rohingya is [genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide). In September 2018, Canada recognized the crimes committed against the Rohingya at the hands of the Myanmar military as constituting genocide and urged the UN Security Council to take action.[^4] In November 2019, Gambia filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Myanmar of genocide.[^5] In November 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested an arrest warrant against Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing, citing crimes against humanity tied to the 2017 operations resulting in the displacement of over 730,000 Rohingya.[^6] This article outlines some of the key issues and events that have laid the foundation for this horrific tragedy and discusses the Muslim moral imperative to work for necessary change in response to this crisis. There are a number of instances in history where Muslim leadership has intervened to alleviate the suffering of Muslim communities in various parts of the Muslim world. From as early as the first century of the *hijra*, during the Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn[^7] (rightly-guided caliphs) period, to as recent as Ottoman rule in the mid-19th century, our history is replete with examples of Muslim leadership taking decisive action to preserve the sanctity of Muslim lives in the face of devastation. These examples demonstrate how Muslims have traditionally responded to crises afflicting Muslim communities and they form the basis of our discussion for a Muslim moral imperative towards positive and productive action. The Rohingya genocide and the subsequent refugee crisis did not occur in a vacuum or without warning. Like all genocides, it was systematic, procedural, and many years in the making. As described in previous articles published by Yaqeen Institute,[^8] a number of the processes that brought about the Rohingya genocide can be described as Structural Islamophobia—a situation where Islamophobic actions and treatment become normalized in society through targeted legislation aimed at oppressing and marginalizing Muslims. The tragic case of the Rohingya genocide demonstrates the most horrific consequences of unchallenged structural Islamophobia. Historians and scholars in the fields of ethnic conflict and violence have described genocide as a process that typically takes place in eight stages.[^9] These stages are classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. Below we outline how these stages have culminated in the Rohingya genocide and subsequent refugee crisis. --- ## The Rohingya crisis and the case of genocide Classification and symbolization are common processes experienced by minority communities around the world. They involve simply classifying and categorizing ethnic, religious, or cultural groups as “other” within a society. This is experienced by many groups considered to be “non-normative” within the society they identify with. The stages of dehumanization and organization involve stripping away the humanity of a group, as well as informal or state-sanctioned groups forming and organizing to confront, attack, or murder groups of marginalized people. In the case of the Rohingya, they have been vilified and dehumanized through political discourse, radio programming, and other forms of state propaganda, particularly throughout the period of military rule in the 1960s and onwards.[^10] Polarization of the Rohingya has occurred in many forms, the most overt examples are laws that prohibited Buddhist women from marrying Muslim men,[^11] as well as laws that limited the number of children that the Rohingya could have.[^12] These are clear instances of how Structural Islamophobia was operationalized to oppress and marginalize the Muslim Rohingya population. Through this legislation, the Rohingya were limited to having two children, a measure that effectively curtailed the natural population growth of this ethnic community. With regard to the stage of preparation, prior to the violence in 2017, many Rohingya were relegated to internal camps along the Sittwe Coast of Myanmar as a form of ghettoizing and separating them from the rest of Burmese society. Through this process, the Rohingya were denied access to health care, mobility, education, and economic opportunities to earn a livelihood.[^13] Further indications of this stage can be inferred by the massive number of deaths from August 2017 to September 2017, when over 9,000 Rohingya were murdered.[^14] This vast number of casualties cannot logically be understood or explained without there being some form of organized and coordinated militaristic and Buddhist extremist mob mobilization. Extermination is the most apparent stage of a genocide, which involves the mass killing of a group that has gone through the above-mentioned phases. There is no denying that this has occurred in the case of the Rohingya since August 2017. With regards to the stage of denial, we are still in the early phases; however, there are indications that this will likely occur. Prior to the August 2017 violence and in its aftermath, state rhetoric promoted by the military, as well as by the then State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, claimed that the Rohingya did not exist as a distinct ethnic group. Rather, the Rohingya were consistently referred to as Bengalis or Muslims. As such, prior to the genocide, the Rohingyas’ history and collective identities have been denied by the state of Myanmar.[^15] Aung San Suu Kyi has also claimed, with regards to the outbreak of violence in 2017, that violence was being committed by both sides. Furthermore, she has staunchly defended the Myanmar military in voluntary testimony to the International Court of Justice against charges of genocide.[^16] --- ## History of the Rohingya The Rohingya are a distinct Muslim ethnic group, native to the area of Arakan, which is in current-day Rakhine state in Myanmar. They are one of the many ethnically and linguistically diverse groups residing in Myanmar who are distinct from the Burmese majority. It is unknown exactly when the Rohingya migrated to Arakan. Some historians believe that they are descendants of Indo-Arian ethnic groups that migrated to the region over three millennia ago.[^17] Others have argued that their ancestors consist of a combination of various ruling dynasties that historically ruled over the region throughout the 16th to 18th centuries. What can be said definitively about the Rohingya is that during British colonial rule over present-day Myanmar, census information indicated the presence of an indigenous Muslim minority group called the ‘Rooinga’ who were native to that land prior to British rule in the 1820s.[^18] As such, there is strong evidence suggesting that the Rohingya have been indigenous to the Arakan region for centuries. Some may question why the Rohingya differ from the majority of inhabitants of Arakan and Myanmar if they are indigenous to that land. One key point to understand when investigating the history of the Rohingya is that current-day Rakhine state, which is at the western edge of Myanmar bordering Bangladesh, was not historically a part of what constituted the dominion of ethnically Burmese communities. At various points in history, the geographic area of Arakan had fallen into the hands of various rulers from Burma proper, as well as the Mughals and ruling dynasties from Bengal.[^19] Some time around 1000 AD there was a mass migration of a Burmese ethnic group to Arakan called the Rakhine. Arakan was home to various ethnic and religious groups; however, with this mass migration, the Rakhine over time came to dominate the region, which eventually became known as Rakhine state. It was through the creation of the nation-state in the colonial and post-colonial era that the area currently referred to as Rakhine state formally became a part of Burma proper, which ultimately became current-day Myanmar. This backstory of the Rohingya is vital, as the rhetoric being used by the military and Buddhist extremist mobs who were at the forefront of the Rohingya exodus and genocide repeatedly reinforce the narrative that the Rohingya are foreigners who were brought in by the British during the colonial period. Though the British did bring in labor migrants from India to work in various agricultural sectors of the colony, they were mostly Hindu.[^20] There is ample evidence suggesting that the Rohingya’s existence in Myanmar predates the colonial occupation by centuries, as they were considered one of the many indigenous groups living in the region prior to the arrival of the Hindu labor migrants from India. However, the distinction between Rohingya and these labor migrants began to fade during military rule in Burma in the 1960s, which was a key turning point leading to heightened tensions with the Rohingya. --- ## Origins of the conflict As indicated, prior to the colonial period, the Rohingya were one of many indigenous minorities in the region of Arakan. While there were instances of strife and discord between these various religious and ethnic groups, they generally lived in relative calm and peace. This began to change during the period of British colonization. During British rule over the region, as was a common practice in many colonized areas, colonizers gave preference with regards to social mobility and administration of the colony to Muslim minorities over the Buddhist majority. This became the starting point of tensions between these religious and ethnic communities. During the period of World War Two, Myanmar was invaded by the Japanese. The Burmese Buddhist majority had aligned with the Japanese, while the Rohingya had stayed loyal to the British. The British had made promises to the Rohingya with regards to land and autonomy because of their loyalty during this conflict; however, after the war ended, the promises were not honored. In the aftermath of World War Two, tensions between the Burmese majority and the Rohingya became intensified due to what the Burmese viewed as conflicting loyalties on the part of the Rohingya. These tensions were exacerbated when the Rohingya petitioned for parts of Rakhine state to be annexed by East Pakistan during the 1947 partition between India and Pakistan.[^21] When this annexation did not take place, the Buddhist majority began to seriously doubt the Rohingya’s allegiance. In the 1947 Burmese Constitution, the Rohingya along with other minority ethnic groups in Rakhine were not granted citizenship but were granted National Registration Certificates, which gave them full legal and voting rights. The Rohingya were informed that they did not need to apply for citizenship certificates because they were recognized as one of the indigenous races of the Union of Burma.[^22] From this it can be inferred that, despite existing tensions between various ethnic groups in Burma, the Rohingya were treated like any other minority ethnic group and that eventually there would have been a naturalization process. Unfortunately, this would never come to pass, as military rule drastically changed the political landscape of Burma. In 1962, Burma came under the military rule of Ne Win in a coup d’etat. The Rohingya were steadily losing their rights under the military regime and experienced a major shift in 1974 as a result of the Emergency Immigration Act. This law instituted ethnicity-based identity cards called National Registration Certificates, which identified Burmese nationals. The Rohingya were issued Foreign Registration Cards, designating them non-nationals. Furthermore, the 1974 constitution, Article 145 stated that “All persons born of parents both of whom are nationals of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma are citizens of the Union.”[^23] Article 145 along with the Emergency Immigration Act de facto made the Rohingya stateless, as they were considered foreigners in lands they had been indigenous to for centuries. These severe citizenship laws were politically expedient when the military was facing an economic crisis. They believed that unity could be achieved through nativist laws and propaganda that targeted minority groups and reinforced the notion of Buddhist identity as a basis of citizenship. The increasingly stringent laws targeting Rohingya from the 1970s through the 1990s led to mass violence against and abuse of this minority group at the hands of the Burmese Buddhist majority. The state’s open targeting of the Rohingya eventually led to 200,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh in 1978, and another wave of 250,000 between 1991 and 1992. In both instances, the Bangladeshi government sent most of the fleeing Rohingya back to Myanmar only to return to lands that had been confiscated and re-appropriated, forcing many to become laborers on lands they had once owned.[^24] Ultimately, the targeting of the Rohingya was a by-product of an economic crisis sparked by a disastrous period of military rule. The regime felt it necessary to find internal enemies to detract from the economic crisis that embroiled the nation. This was accomplished by targeting the Rohingya “Other,” as well as by promoting nativism through a Burmese-Buddhist national identity. The Rohingya were an easy and safe target as they were different ethnically, religiously, and linguistically from the Burmese Buddhist majority. Furthermore, they were less militarized than other minority groups in the Rakhine region. --- ## The current crisis There were a number of unsuccessful attempts to democratize Burma during military rule. Things began to slowly change in the aftermath of a natural disaster in 2008 called Cyclone Nargis. Cyclone Nargis had devastating impacts on Myanmar, destroying 65 percent of the country’s rice fields and 95 percent of buildings in the delta region.[^25] The ferocious cyclone was believed to have left an estimated 138,000 dead. Under military rule, there was a gross mismanagement of the disaster response by the state, which led to mass discontent in the nation. To ease some of these tensions, the military was forced to allow new elections in 2010. Through a continual process of political parties boycotting elections and growing public discontent, a democratic government was finally able to come to power in Myanmar in 2015. The National League for Democracy’s (NLD) victory, led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was hailed by the world as a sign of democratic progress and the potential for a glowing bright future for the nation. A key factor enabling Aung San Suu Kyi to win the election was her ability to gain support from various Buddhist groups. Through the forging of this alliance, the NLD was able to gain popular support from the masses. However, despite the façade of a democratically elected government in Myanmar, the military had placed checks and balances to ensure its economic dominance and influence within the government. The former military regime allowed for Myanmar to transition into a democracy by retaining 25% of the parliament through the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a political party that serves as a front for the military to maintain significant control over the affairs of the nation.[^26] As the military held key positions in the parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi needed to straddle a fine line between acquiescing to the demands of the military and pandering to the Buddhist extremist elites to maintain her base of popular support. In essence, her “democratically” elected government was steeped in complex power dynamics, which required the NLD to submissively turn a blind eye to the brutal military and Buddhist extremist oppression and violence towards the Rohingya to maintain the semblance of a progressive democratically elected government in Myanmar. Consequently, after the 2015 election, oppression and abuse of the Rohingya further intensified. The repression was sanitized through the auspices of a democratically elected government that represented progress into modernity for Myanmar. Through this government, the military and Buddhist mobs have had free rein to target and attack Rohingya. This renewed violence and repression in post-democratic Myanmar led to new waves of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh, as well as Malaysia. The exodus of the Rohingya culminated on August 25, 2017 when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant Rohingya group, attacked police outposts, killing twelve officers in retaliation for violence and repression aimed at the Rohingya. These killings sparked an enormous and disproportionate response, resulting in a military and Buddhist extremist scorched-earth response that involved the torching of entire Rohingya villages, mass rapes of women and girls, and the brutal massacre of civilians including men, women, and children. According to a survey by Médecins Sans Frontières, approximately 9,400 Rohingya died in Myanmar, Rakhine state between August 25 and September 24, 2017, with at least 730 of the victims being children.[^27] This catastrophic loss of life took place within a month of the most recent outbreak of violence. To date, the exact numbers of Rohingya deaths from this genocidal campaign are unknown. A true and accurate number of deaths will not be definitively known until a formal international investigation into the genocide has taken place. However, estimates vary from the tens of thousands and beyond. There has been a steady flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia since severe government crackdowns in Rakhine state in 2012. In the aftermath of the August 2017 genocide, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees fled to Cox Bazaar, Bangladesh. According to UNHCR, over 1.1 million Rohingya refugees “are hosted in 33 highly congested camps in Cox’s Bazar District. Since 2021, some 35,000 refugees have relocated to Bhasan Char, an island in Noakhali district, as part of a project designed by the Government of Bangladesh to decongest the camps.”[^28] One of us (Bakali) had the opportunity to visit these camps in January 2018 and again in October 2019. During the first massive wave of refugee arrivals in 2017, aid organizations prioritized basic necessities for the refugees. These included food, shelter, and basic medical facilities. Though some progress has been made with regards to infrastructure in the camps and services offered to the Rohingya, their situation remains troubling and unsettling. They are forced to live in squalid conditions with no resolution to their situation in sight. My primary aim in visiting the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh was to better understand the educational realities of Rohingya refugee children and the potential for social mobility through educational programming. The daunting reality is that the educational programming in place for Rohingya refugee children is woefully underdeveloped, administered by underqualified teachers, and highly politicized, resulting in a sense of instability for the Rohingya population. In light of this dismal reality, these questions arise: 1) Have there been similar instances in Islamic history where Muslims collectively came to the aid of oppressed communities like the Rohingya to try to improve or alleviate their situation?; 2) What can we do as Muslims in light of the crisis?; and 3) Are there examples from Islamic history that can guide our thinking? --- ## Lessons from Muslim interventions in history One of the most salient questions raised regarding the Rohingya refugee crisis is why Muslims, and Muslim-majority states in particular, have not supported a Muslim group that has been described by the United Nations as “the world’s most persecuted minority.”[^29] Several parallel situations can be identified in history, in which influential Muslims actively mobilized support for a persecuted Muslim minority. Before discussing some examples, there are three important points to keep in mind. Firstly, comparisons can be both illustrative and blurring; they must be used carefully and anchored by the context of each situation. Secondly, principled and visionary “humanitarian” support is often enmeshed with political interests. While this is important to keep in mind, a question to consider is this: to what extent does the different intentions behind the support matter to those who actually rely upon it for their immediate survival? Finally, these comparisons are not prescriptive. For example, military intervention may have been considered an appropriate response in 9th-century Anatolia, and alluding to that event may provide moral inspiration for strong action today, but this does not necessarily imply that military intervention is an appropriate response in present-day Myanmar. Interventions to help persecuted or, more broadly, suffering Muslims have taken different forms in history. In some instances, Muslim leadership not only took concrete actions to show solidarity with the plight of suffering Muslims but also arranged a redistribution of state resources to aid refugees. The year 639, during the era of the second Rāshidūn caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, is known as *ʿĀm al-Ramādah* (lit. “Year of the Ashes”). This refers to a major drought and resulting famine that affected large parts of Arabia that year. Though Medina itself was significantly affected by the famine, groups of refugees streamed into the city seeking help; a refugee camp established on the outskirts of the city held up to 60,000 people.[^30] ʿUmar made it a policy to not turn any refugees away, and to distribute the city’s limited resources as equitably as possible, even going so far as to consider pairing up all of the refugees with families in the city until the famine was over. He also suspended the prescribed punishment for stealing for the duration of the famine, considering the difficulty that both locals and refugees were experiencing.[^31] To express his solidarity and act upon his commitment to justice, ʿUmar himself chose to eat nothing better than the food available to everyone until the famine was over. History offers many examples where such a crisis at the center of the empire was used by those at the periphery to assert their independence and pursue self-interest. However, in this case, the provinces of Syria and Egypt responded immediately by sending relief, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in Egypt even had a Byzantine-era canal running between Bāb al-Yūn and the Bitter Lakes revitalized so aid could be sent more quickly.[^32] On his way to see the life-saving ships arriving at the port of al-Jār, ʿUmar announced, “Come along with us to see the ships that Allah has sent us from the land of Pharaoh.”[^33] The crisis soon came to an end. Other interventions came as responses to calls for retribution, justice, and coming to the aid of Muslims who were being oppressed. In the late 830s, news reached the ʿAbbasid court in Baghdad that the Byzantine emperor Theophilos had begun a campaign of harassment against Muslim garrison towns in Anatolia. Though the ʿAbbasid emperor Muʿtaṣim was preoccupied with putting down the Khurramite Rebellion, it is said (and this must be taken with a grain of salt) that one particular story from the town of Zibatra (present-day Doğanşehir) forced his hand. A Muslim woman who was being taken captive by the Byzantines had yelled “*Wā Muʿtaṣimāh*” (“O Muʿtaṣim”), as if she was calling on the Abbasid ruler for his protection. Her action prompted mockery from her captors about whether she thought the caliph in Baghdad could hear her. Hearing this, Muʿtaṣim reportedly replied, “*Labbayki, yā ukhta*” (“Here I am at your service, my sister”) and immediately ordered a campaign, and “forwent the pleasures of marriage-bed \[...\] and of sleep to answer the appeal of the Zibatrian woman.”[^34] He personally led the campaign and sacked the city of Amorium, the birthplace of the Byzantine dynasty and one of the most important cities in their empire. In another example, Muslim leaders were inspired to set aside their petty differences for the greater good. The jurist ʿAlī ibn Ṭāhir al-Sulamī (d. 1106) in his *Kitāb al-Jihād* (Book of Struggle) published soon after the occupation of Jerusalem in the First Crusade in 1099, inspired Nūr al-Dīn Zangī, the ruler of Damascus. Sulamī called on Muslims to recognize the crusade as more than a temporary Byzantine raid but a large-scale and far-reaching occupation carried out by “Franks.” He urged Muslim leaders to set aside “old hatreds and secret hostilities” and unite their petty local kingdoms, even suggesting that Sunnī and Ismāʿīlī Shīʿī Muslims co-operate for the collective interests of the larger Muslim community.[^35] Zangī adopted much of this vision and in 1168, long before Jerusalem was liberated, he had a *mimbar* (pulpit) crafted to be placed in Masjid al-Aqsa, which was used there until 1969. More importantly, Zangī passed on this vision to his protégé, Salāḥ al-Dīn Ayyūbī, who liberated Jerusalem in 1187.[^36] One of the most powerful examples of Muslim interventions in history is that of the Ottomans’ role in facilitating the survival of the Circassians and their culture during and after the Circassian Genocide (1864). In this instance, we learn how Muslim leadership supported the resettlement of refugees without forcing them to assimilate or lose their culture. A thorough analysis of this largely forgotten event in Islamic history is not possible here, but it is remarkably similar to the experience of the Rohingya in our time. The Circassians (also known as the Adyghe) are one of the oldest indigenous people of the Caucasus, thought to have lived along the eastern coast of the Black Sea for the past 4,000 years. Beginning in the 17th century, large numbers of Circassians embraced Islam, likely due to the strong influence of the nearby Ottoman Empire. Many aspects of the Circassians’ unique culture made them an obstacle to the expanding Russian Empire, as did their perceived loyalty to the Ottomans, the Russians’ arch-rivals. In the 1860s, after defeating the famed Imam Shamil in Chechnya and Dagestan, the Russians turned their attention to eliminating the Circassians from the Caucasus. The Russians’ scorched-earth campaign focused on starving the Circassians into submission. By the winter of 1863, thousands had been driven to the shore of the Black Sea, where many died from starvation, disease, exposure, and attacks by wolves and bears. According to a conservative estimate, at least 650,000 people, or approximately half of all Circassians, were killed in the Russian campaign.[^37] It was left to the Ottomans to come to save the Circassians from the shore. The Ottomans petitioned the Russians to stop the campaign on humanitarian grounds, initially allowed large numbers of Circassians into Ottoman lands on the pretense that they were pilgrims on their way to Mecca and Medina, and in June 1864, issued a declaration encouraging the Circassians to come to the Ottoman lands in order to save their lives.[^38] The Ottoman response, from the beginning, was driven by more than just humanitarian concerns and possibly added to the suffering of many Circassians. However, the intervention likely saved thousands of Circassians, as well as their culture and identity. Given the Ottomans’ unpreparedness to handle the refugee crisis, the Circassians faced many challenges in trying to build new lives for themselves in Ottoman lands. Some were settled in the Balkans, where they again faced persecution by the Russophile regimes as the Ottomans gradually lost control of that region. This led to a refugee crisis that continued for decades; in 1878, there were 180,000 refugees in Istanbul, nearly one-third of them Circassian, and the Ottoman government was “laying out a huge sum every day in order to feed these people and had to call upon charitable organizations to help supply food and clothing.”[^39] Thousands of Circassians were resettled in the Ottoman-ruled Levant. Though they often faced discrimination due to being perceived as a burden on a region already struggling economically, there were also more hopeful signs, such as the creation of a new tax in Damascus to help resettle the refugees, and the permission given to them to operate their own courts as a way of preserving their identity and traditions.[^40] In the 1870s, Circassian villages were established in Palestine and shortly afterward in the Golan Heights. In the Golan Heights, which had long been in ruins, the Circassians had an opportunity to show the Ottomans—and the world—their own tenacity. By 1900, the land was filled with orchards, and the city of Quneitra had become a thriving trading center. In 1907, many Circassians also found employment as part of the cavalry force guarding the Hejaz Railway line running between Damascus and Medina, which they defended during the First World War.[^41] The Ottomans also tried to accommodate the Circassians in the army by allowing exclusively Circassian units to be formed, led by Circassian officers. By the early 1910s, they and other Caucasian groups formed more than a quarter of the Ottoman army officers, despite being only two percent of the empire’s population.[^42] They also found the opportunity to excel in other fields. Ahmed Mithat, known as the founding father of modern Turkish novelists and playwrights, was one such Circassian, and he created a Circassian alphabet based on the Arabic script to help ensure the survival of the language. In 1899, the Society for Circassian Unity was formed in Ottoman (though British-controlled) Cairo and documented the Circassians’ experiences. In 1908, the Circassian Solidarity Association was born in Istanbul, which was able to create a Roman-based script for the Circassian language, publish the first Circassian periodical, and open schools where Circassian history and culture were taught—the period between 1908 and 1913 in the Ottoman Empire has thus been called the “Circassian Renaissance.”[^43] The events noted in this section provide some examples of the Muslim imperative to act in such situations and give us some sense of hope that collective action in the face of oppression of Muslim communities is possible. --- ## Conclusion There are over 1.1 million Rohingya settled in refugee camps. There are countless harrowing stories of torture and torment that haunt the inhabitants of the camps. By all reasonable estimates, what began in Rakhine state in 2017 was an organized extermination of an ethnic minority, and to call it anything short of genocide is willful ignorance. The systematic murder of men, women, and children solely based on their ethnicity deserves no euphemistic characterization. The extermination and genocide of the Rohingya represent the extreme consequences of years of Structural Islamophobia going unchallenged. However, instead of recounting the horrors of this tragedy, we would like to impart a message of hope. This hope glimmered past the squalor and misery of the camps. Yes, there was pain; it was brutal, raw, and unimaginable. But behind the visible and invisible scars of the survivors, there was hope beaming on the faces of the children in these camps. That hope shone brighter than any shade that could be cast by a vile military intent on destroying a people, mobs that inhumanly murder infants in front of their parents, and a government that has been complicit to these acts of barbarism and brutality. The hope on the faces of the children in those camps was the hope of the human spirit. It demonstrated that humanity, love, strength, and dignity can endure and thrive despite the despicable actions of others. When we entered the camps, children would immediately rush to greet us, shake our hands, and welcome us with smiles on their faces. These children had no expectations of us, they were just happy to see people visiting them, who presumably had some semblance of caring for them and their plight. They did not have their hands stretched out looking for handouts. They were dignified and gracious hosts, welcoming outsiders to their—for lack of a better word—home. They shared with us. Not their material possessions, as there was not much to share. Most of the children were running around barefoot, with some barely having enough clothing to cover their bodies. Yet, they shared with us invaluable things that nobody could take away from them: their resilience, dignity, and humanity. The Rohingya crisis represents such a wide-scale disaster that attempts to alleviate the misery of these people can seem daunting and out of reach. However, there are small steps we can take that may have a meaningful impact. Our first recourse to action in the face of disaster should be prayer. Ultimately, Allah has power over all things and it is He Who can alleviate all pain, suffering, and hardships. Praying for our Rohingya brothers and sisters is a duty upon all of us and it is the most fundamental and basic thing we can do for them. Secondly, we should try to assist in the humanitarian efforts for the Rohingya refugees. There are numerous aid organizations that are doing amazing work on the ground in these camps. Without financial support, these organizations will not be able to provide basic necessities to the Rohingya refugees. Please find an organization that you trust and donate generously. Finally, awareness about this crisis is fundamental for any kind of meaningful change. Learn as much as you can about what is happening. By doing so you will have a stronger sense and understanding of how you can help in more meaningful ways. Knowledge is light, and it is only with light that we can extinguish the darkness of our ignorance and indifference. --- ## Notes [^1]: “Refugee Response in Bangladesh,” UNHCR Operational Portal Refugee Situations, updated June 30, 2025, [https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar\_refugees](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar_refugees&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243330885&usg=AOvVaw2epEeJ9TDvKc-OatjQ_ov7). [^2]: United Nations, “150,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh amid renewed Myanmar violence”, July 11, 2025, [https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/07/108377/150000-rohingya-flee-bangladesh-amid-renewed-myanmar-violence](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/07/108377/150000-rohingya-flee-bangladesh-amid-renewed-myanmar-violence?utm_source%3Dchatgpt.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243338946&usg=AOvVaw0fxfZxRZNUmQEUUgnS6jr-). [^3]: “‘No Other Conclusion,’ Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingyas in Myanmar Continues – Senior UN Rights Official,” UN News, March 6, 2018, [https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/03/1004232](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/03/1004232&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243331303&usg=AOvVaw0Da-yKKfxsGz9u2Ndg5Q_w). [^4]: “Canada Accuses Myanmar of Genocide against Rohingya,” *The* *Guardian*, September 20, 2018, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/canada-accuses-myanmar-of-genocide-against-rohingya](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/canada-accuses-myanmar-of-genocide-against-rohingya&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243331711&usg=AOvVaw2s3LezbpyA3xboKUg1rSHf). [^5]: Marlise Simons, “Myanmar Genocide Lawsuit Is Filed at United Nations Court,” *The* *New York Times*, November 11, 2019, updated January 23, 2020, [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-genocide.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-genocide.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243332158&usg=AOvVaw2pn1ZDXNaDbkG8_11L-ecO). [^6]: Stephanie van den Berg and Shoon Naing, “ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader over Rohingya campaign,” *Reuters*, November 28, 2024, [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/international-criminal-court-prosecutor-seeks-arrest-warrant-myanmar-military-2024-11-27/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/international-criminal-court-prosecutor-seeks-arrest-warrant-myanmar-military-2024-11-27/?utm_source%3Dchatgpt.com&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243411587&usg=AOvVaw1LIn6b4i6YV3Dh_y8kQ4tT). [^7]: A term commonly used within Islamic scholarship to refer to the first four caliphs of Islam: Abū Bakr, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. [^8]: Naved Bakali, “Islamophobia and the Law: Unpacking Structural Islamophobia,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, November 14, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamophobia-and-the-law-unpacking-structural-islamophobia](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamophobia-and-the-law-unpacking-structural-islamophobia&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243332634&usg=AOvVaw1tQqdLZp3RVJKCgIxQk4ol). [^9]: “Refugee Response in Bangladesh.” [^10]: Francis Wade, *Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ‘Other’* (London: Zed Books, 2017). [^11]: Azeem Ibrahim, *The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Genocide* (London: Hurst & Company, 2018). [^12]: “Burma: Revoke ‘Two-Child Policy’ for Rohingya,” Human Rights Watch, May 28, 2013, [https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/28/burma-revoke-two-child-policy-rohingya](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/28/burma-revoke-two-child-policy-rohingya&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243333389&usg=AOvVaw2aKnHhfD6x23JGdgwRsS4v). [^13]: Wade, *Myanmar’s Enemy Within*. [^14]: “ ‘No One Was Left’: Death and Violence Against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar,” Médecins Sans Frontières, March 2018, [https://msf.or.ke/sites/default/files/msfpublications/no-one-was-left.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://msf.or.ke/sites/default/files/msfpublications/no-one-was-left.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243333853&usg=AOvVaw0DOtuLnkwSGcBHva6-kJQM). [^15]: The Guardian, “Aung San Suu Kyi tells UN that the term 'Rohingya' will be avoided,” June 21, 2016, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/21/aung-san-suu-kyi-tells-un-that-the-term-rohingya-will-be-avoided.](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/21/aung-san-suu-kyi-tells-un-that-the-term-rohingya-will-be-avoided.) [^16]: Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, “Did the World Get Aung San Suu Kyi Wrong?,” *New York Times*, October 31, 2017, [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/world/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-myanmar.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/world/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-myanmar.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243334237&usg=AOvVaw3yaqWQ3x0KB9xzM1WNATUu). [^17]: Ibrahim, *Rohingyas*. [^18]: Ibrahim, *Rohingyas*. [^19]: Anthony Ware and Costas Laoutides, *Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ Conflict* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). [^20]: Ibrahim, *Rohingyas*. [^21]: Wade, *Myanmar’s Enemy Within*. [^22]: Ibrahim, *Rohingyas*. [^23]: Ibrahim, *Rohingyas*. [^24]: Ware and Laoutides, *Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ Conflict*. [^25]: Donald M. Seekins, “The Social, Political and Humanitarian Impact of Burma’s Cyclone Nargis,” *Asia-Pacific Journal* 6, no. 5 (May 3, 2018). [^26]: Muhammad Abdul Bari, *The Rohingya Crisis: A People Facing Extinction* (Leicestershire, UK: Kube Publishing, 2018). [^27]: “No one was left - Death and Violence Against the Rohingya,” Médecins Sans Frontières, March 9, 2018, [https://www.msf.org/myanmarbangladesh-%E2%80%98no-one-was-left%E2%80%99-death-and-violence-against-rohingya](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.msf.org/myanmarbangladesh-%25E2%2580%2598no-one-was-left%25E2%2580%2599-death-and-violence-against-rohingya&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243335836&usg=AOvVaw2XILyfKR7y4WuGGChg9DJm)/. [^28]: “Refugee Response in Bangladesh,” UNHCR Operational Portal Refugee Situations, updated June 2025, [https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar\_refugees](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar_refugees&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243412574&usg=AOvVaw2lQhTwUYa4tgOBItCJHJ9L). [^29]: “Rohingya Refugee Crisis Explained,” UNHCR, August 22, 2024, [https://www.unrefugees.org/news/rohingya-refugee-crisis-explained/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unrefugees.org/news/rohingya-refugee-crisis-explained/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243413020&usg=AOvVaw38MPkoOgi9KNlOS461DbAG). [^30]: Ali Muhammad as-Sallabi, *Umar ibn al-Khattâb: His Life and Times*, trans. Nasiruddin al-Khattab, vol. 1 (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2007), 412. [^31]: Istihan Saim Kayadibi, *The Doctrine of Juristic Preference in Islamic Law* (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2010), 120; see also Abu Amina Elias, “Umar on Hudud: Punishment of Theft Suspended During Famine,” Daily Hadith Online, [https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/09/18/umar-hudud-suspended-famine/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/09/18/umar-hudud-suspended-famine/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1755025243336538&usg=AOvVaw0cii59nsqq4WsGTxC4t32Q). [^32]: Gautier H. A. Juynboll, trans., *The History of al-Tabari*, vol. 13, *The Conquest of Iraq, Southwestern Persia, and Egypt: The Middle Years of ‘Umar’s Caliphate, A.D. 636–642/A.H. 15–21* (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 158. [^33]: Jo Van Steenbergen, *Caliphate and Kingship in a Fifteenth-Century Literary History of Muslim Leadership and Pilgrimage* (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 209. [^34]: M. M. Badawi, “The Function of Rhetoric in Medieval Arabic Poetry: Abū Tammām’s Ode on Amorium,” *Journal of Arabic Literature* 9 (1978): 54–55; see also Abdul Malik Mujahid, *Golden Stories of Accepted Prayers* (Riyadh: Darussalam Publishers, 2013), 205. [^35]: Abdul Rahman Azzam, *Saladin: The Triumph of the Sunni Revival* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2014), 40–41. [^36]: Azzam, *Saladin*, 42. [^37]: Walter Richmond, “Circassia: A Small Nation Lost to the Great Game,” in *Hidden Genocides: Power, Knowledge, Memory*, eds. Alexander Laban Hinton, Thomas La Pointe, and Douglas Irvin-Erickson (London: Rutgers University Press, 2014), 110. [^38]: Walter Richmond, *The Circassian Genocide* (London: Rutgers University Press, 2013), 90. [^39]: Richmond, *Circassian Genocide*, 110. [^40]: Richmond, *Circassian Genocide*, 118. [^41]: Richmond, *Circassian Genocide*, 124. [^42]: Zeynel Abidin Besleney, *The Circassian Diaspora in Turkey: A Political History* (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014), 55. [^43]: Besleney, *Circassian Diaspora*, 56–58. ## Summary The Rohingya refugee crisis stands as one of the most severe humanitarian catastrophes of our age. As of July 2025, more than 1.1 million Rohingya have been driven from their homeland in Rakhine state, Myanmar, since August 2017, with over 150,000 fleeing to Bangladesh between January 2024 and mid-2025 alone—the largest influx since the mass exodus of 2017. Men, women, and children have been targeted, brutalized, and murdered for no reason other than their belonging to a Muslim minority. While United Nations officials described this atrocity as ethnic cleansing, a more accurate designation is genocide. This recognition has grown internationally: Canada declared these crimes to be genocide in September 2018, Gambia filed suit against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in November 2019, and in November 2024 the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant against Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity tied to the displacement of over 730,000 Rohingya. This tragedy did not unfold suddenly or without warning. Like all genocides, it was systematic and prolonged, developing over many years. A significant part of what enabled it can be understood as Structural Islamophobia—the normalization of anti-Muslim treatment through targeted legislation designed to oppress and marginalize Muslims. Drawing on the framework describing genocide as unfolding through eight stages—classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial—one can trace how each of these applied to the Rohingya. They were classified as "other," dehumanized through state propaganda and radio programming particularly during military rule from the 1960s onward, and polarized through laws forbidding Buddhist women from marrying Muslim men and restricting Rohingya families to only two children. In the preparation stage, they were confined to internal camps along the Sittwe Coast, denied healthcare, education, mobility, and livelihood. The extermination stage manifested in the killing of over 9,000 Rohingya between August and September 2017, a scale impossible without coordinated militaristic and mob mobilization. As for denial, its early signs appear in the state's insistence—including by the then State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi—that the Rohingya do not exist as a distinct people but are merely "Bengalis," and in her defense of the military before the International Court of Justice. The historical roots of this people confirm their belonging to the land. The Rohingya are a distinct Muslim ethnic group indigenous to Arakan, in present-day Rakhine state. Though the precise time of their arrival is unknown, British colonial census records from before 1820 recorded an indigenous Muslim minority called the "Rooinga," offering strong evidence that they have inhabited Arakan for centuries. The region of Arakan was historically distinct from Burmese lands, having fallen under various rulers, including the Mughals and dynasties of Bengal, before it was formally absorbed into Burma through the creation of the colonial and post-colonial nation-state. This history directly refutes the false narrative promoted by the military and extremist mobs that the Rohingya are foreigners brought in by the British—for the laborers the British imported from India were largely Hindu, and the Rohingya presence predated colonial rule by centuries. The seeds of conflict were sown under British occupation, when colonizers favored Muslim minorities over the Buddhist majority, and were deepened during the Second World War, when the Buddhist majority sided with the Japanese while the Rohingya remained loyal to the British. British promises of land and autonomy went unfulfilled after the war, and Rohingya petitions during the 1947 partition for parts of Rakhine to join East Pakistan caused the Buddhist majority to doubt their loyalty. Though the 1947 Burmese Constitution granted the Rohingya legal and voting rights as one of the indigenous races, the military coup of Ne Win in 1962 reversed this course. The 1974 Emergency Immigration Act and Article 145 of the 1974 constitution rendered the Rohingya effectively stateless, treating them as foreigners in their ancestral land. Increasingly harsh laws provoked mass violence, driving 200,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh in 1978 and another 250,000 between 1991 and 1992—many of whom were returned only to find their lands confiscated. This persecution was, in essence, a tool used by a failing regime to deflect from economic crisis by scapegoating a religiously, ethnically, and linguistically distinct minority. The transition toward democracy, hastened by the mismanagement of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, culminated in the 2015 electoral victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. Yet this democracy was a façade, for the military retained a quarter of parliament and effective control, forcing the government to turn a blind eye to the oppression of the Rohingya in order to retain Buddhist support. Persecution intensified after 2015, sanitized under the appearance of democratic progress. The exodus reached its horrifying peak on August 25, 2017, when the killing of twelve officers by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army triggered a scorched-earth response of burned villages, mass rapes, and slaughter. According to a survey by Médecins Sans Frontières, roughly 9,400 Rohingya perished between August 25 and September 24, 2017, including at least 730 children. Today over 1.1 million refugees, per UNHCR, live in thirty-three congested camps in Cox's Bazar, where educational provision for children remains woefully inadequate. In seeking guidance, one may look to instances in Islamic history where Muslim leadership acted to relieve the suffering of oppressed communities—though such comparisons must be made carefully, for they are illustrative rather than prescriptive, and humanitarian aid has often been intertwined with political interest. In the year 639, during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the famine known as ʿĀm al-Ramādah struck Arabia, and a refugee camp near Medina held up to 60,000 people. ʿUmar refused to turn any refugee away, distributed resources equitably, suspended the punishment for theft during the hardship, and refused to eat better than his people until relief came. The provinces of Syria and Egypt sent aid, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ revived a canal in Egypt to hasten it, prompting ʿUmar to declare, "Come along with us to see the ships that Allah has sent us from the land of Pharaoh." In the late 830s, the ʿAbbasid caliph Muʿtaṣim, hearing of a captive Muslim woman crying "Wā Muʿtaṣimāh," reportedly answered "Labbayki, yā ukhta" and marched to sack Amorium—though it is noted that this account must be taken with a grain of salt. Further, the jurist ʿAlī ibn Ṭāhir al-Sulamī (d. 1106), in his Kitāb al-Jihād written after the First Crusade's occupation of Jerusalem in 1099, called upon Muslims to abandon "old hatreds and secret hostilities" and unite—a vision embraced by Nūr al-Dīn Zangī and passed to Salāḥ al-Dīn, who liberated Jerusalem in 1187. Perhaps most resonant with the Rohingya's plight is the Ottoman response to the Circassian Genocide of 1864, in which a Russian scorched-earth campaign killed at least 650,000 Circassians, roughly half their number. The Ottomans, though unprepared and driven by mixed motives that may have added to the suffering, saved thousands and helped preserve their culture, permitting them their own courts in Damascus and enabling a "Circassian Renaissance" between 1908 and 1913. In conclusion, what befell the Rohingya from 2017 was an organized extermination that no euphemism can soften—the extreme fruit of unchallenged Structural Islamophobia. Yet amid the squalor of the camps shone the hope on the faces of children who greeted visitors with dignity, sharing their resilience and humanity rather than begging. Our first recourse must be prayer, for Allah has power over all things and can relieve every hardship; praying for the Rohingya is a duty upon all. Second, we should support trustworthy humanitarian organizations with generous giving. Finally, we must spread awareness, for knowledge is light, and only with light can we dispel the darkness of ignorance and indifference. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who are the Rohingya and why are they being targeted? The Rohingya are a distinct Muslim ethnic group indigenous to the Arakan region of present-day Myanmar. Census records from the period of British colonial rule document the presence of a Muslim minority called the "Rooinga" in that land before the 1820s, suggesting centuries of established presence. Yet from the 1960s onward, successive military regimes systematically stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship, confined them to internal camps, limited them to having two children, and barred them from health care, education, and economic opportunity. The regime portrayed them as foreign Bengali migrants to manufacture a pretext for persecution. This targeting was driven not by evidence but by political expediency: As Myanmar's economy collapsed under disastrous military rule, the regime needed an internal "Other" to blame. The Rohingya were an easy target—different ethnically, religiously, and linguistically from the Burmese Buddhist majority, and less able to mount armed resistance than other minorities in the region. ### Is what happened to the Rohingya really a genocide? Genocide is a precise term, and the evidence in the case of the Rohingya meets its criteria. Scholars describe genocide as a process unfolding in eight stages: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. Each of these stages is identifiable in Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya over several decades. The stage of extermination became undeniable in August 2017, when over 9,000 Rohingya were killed in a single month, entire villages were torched, and mass rapes of women and girls were carried out. The scale and coordination of that violence cannot be explained without organized military and extremist mob mobilization. Canada formally recognized it as genocide in 2018, Gambia filed suit at the International Court of Justice in 2019, and in 2024 the International Criminal Court prosecutor sought an arrest warrant against Myanmar's military chief for crimes against humanity. ### Why did the international community fail to intervene in the Rohingya genocide? Part of the answer lies in how the crisis was framed. Myanmar's 2015 democratic transition, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was celebrated worldwide as a sign of progress. That narrative made it difficult for the international community to reconcile its image of a democratizing nation with the reality of organized mass atrocities. The violence was further sanitized by the appearance of civilian governance, even though the military retained control of 25% of parliament and key security ministries. Suu Kyi herself defended the military before the International Court of Justice. The result was that the systematic extermination of the Rohingya unfolded behind a veneer of democratic legitimacy that the world was reluctant to look past. International recognition of the genocide has come slowly: Canada recognized it in 2018, Gambia filed a case at the ICJ in 2019, and the ICC prosecutor did not seek an arrest warrant against Myanmar's military leader until November 2024. ### Does Islamic history offer models for responding to crises like the Rohingya genocide? This is one of the most painful questions surrounding the crisis, and the collective response has been inadequate. However, Islamic history offers instructive precedents. During the famine of 639 CE, Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab refused to turn away a single refugee, shared the city's resources equitably, and paired all the refugees with families in the city until the famine was over. When Muslim women were taken captive by the Byzantines in the ninth century, the Abbasid Caliph Muʿtasim personally led a campaign in response. When the Circassians faced genocide at the hands of Czarist Russia in 1864, the Ottomans negotiated with Russia on humanitarian grounds, opened their lands to survivors, and over decades enabled a full Circassian cultural renaissance. Decisive, costly, and sustained solidarity with persecuted Muslims has deep roots in our tradition—and indifference was never the norm. ### I feel overwhelmed by the Rohingya genocide crisis. What can I actually do? That feeling is understandable when confronting a catastrophe of this scale. Over 1.1 million Rohingya currently live in densely packed refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, with no resolution in sight. But feeling small in the face of something enormous is not a reason for inaction; it is a reason to start with what is within your reach. The first and most fundamental act is *dua*. Allah has power over all things, and praying sincerely for our Rohingya brothers and sisters is not a passive act—it is a duty. After that, financial support to reputable aid organizations working inside the camps provides food, shelter, and medical care to people surviving on the barest necessities. And learning about this crisis and sharing what you learn breaks the silence that allows these tragedies to be forgotten. Knowledge, after all, is light—and it is only with light that we can extinguish the darkness of our ignorance and indifference. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-green-scare-islamophobia-foreign-policy-and-the-making-of-american-identity # The Green Scare: Islamophobia, Foreign Policy, and the Making of American Identity **Author:** Akan Malici **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** June 23, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Governments have an incentive to exaggerate foreign danger or even manufacture it. Doing so strengthens the state’s identity and facilitates the government’s social control over its people. Toward these ends, after 9/11, the US government cast not only al-Qaeda but also Islam as America’s enemy. This manufactured foreign policy of fear comes at a significant cost; not only does it adversely impact Muslims in the US and around the world, it also compels dangerous US interventionism, squanders the lives of American service members, depletes the American treasury, and it alienates the US from the values for which it claims to stand. Exposing the US’s manufacturing of an “Islamic” enemy is, therefore, essential for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. For Muslims specifically, it is imperative to understand the various agendas that motivate Islamophobia. This will not only allow them to distinguish Islam from misrepresentations of their faith, thus instilling confidence in their tradition, but will also provide them with a clearer understanding of the drivers of Islamophobia and how to best direct their efforts to counter it. --- ## Introduction On September 11, 2001, Islam became a threat to the United States, or so it seemed. That night, President George W. Bush declared from the Oval Office, “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts...Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.” By fundamentally linking American identity to danger, the president invoked the theme of this article: A state’s identity is affirmed by the representation of danger through its foreign policy.[^1] This argument is provocative and somewhat counterintuitive and thus it requires some immediate elaboration. How could danger *affirm* or *define* a state’s identity? Usually, a danger is seen as something that is *threatening* to a state. However, when considered from the perspective of a state’s very essence, that is, its national identity, a danger is not a threat to it. The opposite is the case. The danger, whether it is real or just propagated, serves to reproduce and strengthen that identity. It follows, paradoxically, that a government has an intrinsic interest in articulating and representing danger to its citizens through its foreign policy. With the tragic events of 9/11, but also before, Islam came to fulfill this function for the United States in particular, and for the West in general. The horrific acts on that day were perpetrated by al-Qaeda. With an already existing fertile ground of aversion to Muslims, the actions of al-Qaeda were subsequently easily projected on Islam in general. Not since the Red Scare of communism during the Cold War was there such a commonly perceived danger. The Red Scare was now replaced by the ‘Green Scare’ of Islam, and it too would serve to secure America’s identity.[^2] --- ## Contribution and importance Beginning with the foundational literature of the 1970s, scholars have done considerable work in the area of defining Islamophobia, tracing its historical roots, analyzing its societal manifestations, and discussing how it is shaping and is being shaped by the domestic and foreign policies of Western states.[^3] Within the realm of foreign policy, there have been studies on how Islamophobia facilitates an imperial project that involves controlling areas of strategic interest to Western states. A more specific discussion here is how an Islamophobic foreign policy serves the purpose of building and securing a state’s identity. This latter discussion, arguably, was launched by Edward Said’s famous 1978 book *Orientalism* and his work continues to influence scholarly analyses into the present.[^4] With this article, I aim to contribute to this scholarship. A central element will be the systematic presentation of rhetorical strategies that are used by the government to cast Islam as the US’s enemy. This article is important for both Muslims and non-Muslims, for it is not only the former that are affected. When a government exaggerates or manufactures danger, it comes with considerable costs for everyone. Abroad, it contributes to unjustified wars, substantial civilian casualties, as well as the loss of American soldiers and the squandering of the country’s treasury. At home, it leads to hate crimes and discrimination, the tearing of the American social fabric, programs of mass surveillance, and biased policing.[^5] The effort to contribute to a cherished American identity of freedom and liberty through fear politics, in the end, alienates the country and its people from that very identity. There is special relevance for Muslims in this article. They have found themselves facing a continuous onslaught of suspicions, accusations, and vilifications. Islamophobia creates feelings of degradation and humiliation among Muslims. In the worst cases, Muslims lose the ability or the will to differentiate between the public portrayal of their faith and its actual essence. They thus begin a process of alienation from their faith and their communities.[^6] For Muslims, it is imperative to understand all the various agendas that promote Islamophobia. Only then will they be able to distinguish their faith from the mal-intended smearing of it and remain resilient and faithful. Specifically, it is important to recognize that Islamophobia is not merely the result of people disliking the Islamic faith (e.g., due to personal ignorance). Beyond this, Islamophobia, as argued in this article, involves a government-driven strategy with the intent to affirm the state’s identity.[^7] In order to demonstrate this argument from the bottom up, it is beneficial to begin in the field of social psychology. It is here where we can learn about the fundamentals of how national identities come to be. To sustain these identities, I argue in a subsequent section, governments may well choose to engage in the exaggeration or even the manufacturing of danger. From there, I briefly sketch the historically fertile ground from which Islamophobia could be instrumentalized in US foreign policy and when the Green Scare of Islam came to replace the Red Scare of communism. In a subsequent section, I argue that as 9/11 caused the tragic loss of innocent lives, it also reified America’s sense of national identity. I then lay out the fundamentals of an Islamophobic foreign policy rhetoric and conclude by discussing the continuation of this foreign policy into the present and the implications that follow, especially for Muslims. --- ## The making of national identities The making of national identities is rooted in the psychology of the individual. Theories in social psychology teach us that people innately and actively seek identification with groups. As William Bloom explains, “Every individual possesses an inherent drive to internalize—to identify with—the behavior, mores, and attitudes of significant figures in his or her social environment.”[^8] This drive is grounded in an individual’s inherent need for social relations, the need for well-being, as well as a need for security. These needs can be satisfied only in the presence of others, that is, in groups.[^9] Historically, belonging to clans, tribes, and other groupings has provided these functions. In more recent centuries, however, a shift toward *national* identities emerged in Europe.[^10] Compelling factors were the emergence of large-scale war, the developments of urbanization and mass communication, and the gradual onset of industrialization. Also of crucial importance was that religious belief was significantly decreasing as the Enlightenment and the French Revolution delegitimized structures of divinely-appointed authority and demanded rationalist secularism. The creation of the nation-state answered to the spirit of the time and its accompanying nationalism provided a grand and mythical identity around which a large population could coalesce and pledge allegiance. Ever since, the identities of the nation-state have been reinforced through processes of socialization in which governments, schools, universities, and the media were primary agents. As is the case for any group identity, the identity of a state is not defined in a vacuum. Rather, its identity is defined with an awareness of other states and their identities. “No nation imagines itself as coterminous with mankind,” Benedict Anderson explains, and thus there is a necessary juxtaposition of one’s own national identity to that of others.[^11] This somewhat difficult argument is illustrated, for example, by reference to European identity. Scholars have shown how, historically, the construction of the “Turkish other” played an important role in defining European identity, or at least what it was not. [^12] American identity can be illustrated in a similar way. If Americans who came of age during the Cold War were asked what it meant to be American, one would hear, rather prominently, among their answers, “It meant not to be communist.” Again, one defines one’s own group in juxtaposition to another group. It is also in this relational quality of national identities that the desire for a positive national identity unfolds as well as the emotional attachment to one’s national identity.[^13] Through its foreign policy, the government can play a central role in producing citizens’ emotional attachments to their nation-state. --- ## The production of danger A national identity is the most fundamental dimension of any state’s existence and no state could exist without it. Its identity is its ideational foundation and it is also inherently functional. Giving a population a sufficient level of “we” and “us” feelings enables a government to govern the population. In other words, a collective identity facilitates social control and, therewith, a host of government functions. These include basic functions such as the collection of taxes, compelling citizens to adhere to the law, and also declaring war. A state’s identity is not fixed, however. Rather, as we have seen, a state’s identity is a social construct and it is, by necessity, continuously constituted and reconstituted in relation to other identities*.*[^14] When narrated in threatening terms, in terms of securitization, it produces a reinforcing effect on the ‘we’ feeling of the people and the state’s identity.[^15] As David Campbell explains, “the boundaries of a state’s identity are secured by the representation of danger integral to foreign policy” with “a notion of what ‘we’ are … intrinsic to an understanding of what ’we’ fear.”[^16] The identification of an enemy, in other words, serves a fundamental socio-political process within a society, namely the stabilization of its identity—“it is a way of ‘writing identity.’”[^17] Again, these arguments are well illustrated by reference to American identity. Scholars have argued that American national identity was strong when a danger presented itself during the Cold War when the government was securitizing the Red Scare of communism. With the conclusion of the Cold War beginning in 1989, however, Americans’ sense of their ‘Americanness’ declined.[^18] In the field of international relations, securitization is the process by which state actors transform a broad range of issues or actors into subjects of security.[^19] The concern is less on whether the securitized targets actually pose a danger, but rather how they become socially constructed as such. As summarized by Michael Williams: > In securitization theory, “security” is not treated as an objective condition but as the outcome of a specific social process: the social construction of security issues (who or what is being secured, and from what) is analyzed by examining the “securitizing speech acts” through which threats become represented and recognized. Issues become “securitized,” treated as security issues, through these speech acts which do not simply describe an existing security situation, but bring it into being as a security situation by successfully representing it as such.[^20] The language employed by the US government after 9/11 exemplified this phenomenon. It was not simply a reflection of objective reality. Instead, it was and remains a deliberate rhetorical strategy composed of labels, mischaracterizations, and conflations. It was, in other words, a deliberately constructed representation that was designed to achieve a number of political goals. Among them were the rationalization and legitimization of the government’s ensuing foreign policy but, crucially, also the reification of America’s national identity.[^21] Toward these ends, it was not only the perpetrators of terroristic violence who came to be understood as a danger to America but also the broader group they were cast as being a part of—the Muslim community and Islam more generally. --- ## The foundation for securitizing Islam The securitization of Islam became most manifest in the aftermath of 9/11 but its origins, in fact, go back to the very beginnings of the country. It was in the 1630s that the Puritans came to the ‘New World’ and settled the Massachusetts Bay colony with the ambition to build “God’s American Israel.” They carried a “passionate fascination” for Palestine and the Middle East, but also had a “profound ambivalence about the ‘infidels’ … who lived there.”[^22] Carried by much zeal, in the centuries to come, their descendants helped shape American identity, culture, and politics. Meanwhile, the American experience with Islam occurred on two fronts: at home through the transatlantic slave trade (it is estimated that at least ten percent of all Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas were Muslim)[^23] and abroad through journeys to the Holy Land and the Middle East for missionary purposes, in addition to tourism and trade. At home, slave owners were intent on eradicating the Muslim identity of slaves, which had lent the latter dignity and a command of resistance to oppression.[^24] Abroad, American travelers came away with much amazement from biblical sites but they also returned with considerable amounts of apprehension and disgust about the land’s native residents who were often seen as primitive, superstitious, and warlike vagabonds.[^25] These impressions were translated into magazines, books, and art and they became the dominant imagery through which American diplomats and policymakers would look at supposedly backward Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, as the distinguished historian Douglas Little, wrote, “for statesmen from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt, the Muslim world constituted the very antithesis of John Winthrop’s ‘city upon a hill…’”[^26] “It is impossible to expect moral, intellectual, and material well-being where Mohammedanism is supreme,” President Theodore Roosevelt remarked in a private correspondence in 1907.[^27] Thus, just as Europe had done for centuries, America defined itself apart from, and in juxtaposition to, Muslim identity. Among scholars of history and religion, the fundamental impact that Muslims historically had on the development of Western civilization is well known. Of particular significance are, of course, Muslim contributions to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.[^28] Yet, these tended to be purposefully ignored or else rendered as largely irrelevant. As the political scientist and later president Woodrow Wilson was pondering the lineage of western governments, he tellingly left out the Muslim impact, writing: > In order to trace the lineage of European and American governments which have constituted the order of social life for those stronger and nobler races which have made the most notable progress in civilization, it is essential to know the political history of the Greeks, the Latins, the Teutons, and the Celts principally…[^29] Notably, during the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations and for the two and a half decades that followed, the US was not involved in the Middle East. But despite the absence of noteworthy direct contact, Arab Muslims were often seen as dangerous as illustrated, for example, by the missionary Literature Secretary in the World’s Alliance of YMCAs. In his 1926 book *Young Islam on Trek: A Study in the Clash of Civilizations*, he writes: > The system \[i.e., Islam\] is, indeed, in essence, military. The creed is a war cry. The reward of a Paradise of maidens for those who die in battle, and loot for those who live, and the joy of battle and domination thrills the tribal Arabs. The discipline of prayer five times a day is a drill. The *muezzin* cry from the minaret is a bugle-call. The equality of the Brotherhood gives the equality and esprit de corps of the rank and file of the army. The Koran is army orders. It is all clear, decisive, ordained—men fused and welded by the fire and discipline into a single sword of conquest.[^30] With the end of the Second World War, the Middle East took on strategic importance for the US, and Washington leaders sought to shape it according to their economic and geopolitical interests. Simultaneously, the US continued to hone its identity as distinct from Islam and define itself increasingly as a Judeo-Christian nation. Contrary to popular imagination, the notion of a Judeo-Christian nation is a relatively recent creation that gained popularity in the US during the Second World War.[^31] In the face of the Holocaust, it allowed the US to assume a stance of morality in the fight against Nazism and fascism, and in the Cold War that followed, it allowed the US to differentiate itself from the godless communism of the Soviet Union. By defining the nation’s identity as Judeo-Christian, Islam became explicitly otherized. This happened despite the theological fact that Islam is as much kin to either faith, if not more, as they are to each other. For example, whereas Jesus is revered as a God-sent prophet in Islam, he is rejected in Judaism. The Judeo-Christian alliance also happened despite the historical fact that, for centuries, it was decidedly Christians who persecuted Jews in Europe. This persecution, of course, culminated in terrible pogroms at the turn of the 20th century and ultimately in the catastrophe of the Holocaust in the 1940s.[^32] Casting aside fundamental theological and historical discrepancies, America’s self-ascribed identity as a Judeo-Christian nation had far-reaching political ramifications. In the beginning, of course, it facilitated the strong lobbying in America for the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine. Since then, continuous pronouncements by American leaders that the country is rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition, were, expectedly, very welcomed by Jewish leaders. Moreover, since the 1967 War, Israel could count not only on American solidarity but also on political and military cover in the face of Israel’s continued violation of international law and illegal expansion onto Palestinian lands. In the US, however, it was Israel that was continuously portrayed as a victim, whereas Muslim Arabs were depicted as aggressors and villains by politicians, and this same stereotype filtered into film, literature, and pop culture.[^33] The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has thus continued to perpetuate anti-Muslim sentiment in America as well as the clash-of-civilizations narrative. --- ## The Green Scare replaces the Red Scare Although in America there has been a long history of ill-disposition towards Muslims and Islam, during the Cold War, American leaders were not shy to instrumentalize Islam and collaborate with so-called “Islamists” when it suited their needs. Early on in the Cold War, Washington leaders believed an “Islam strategy” would allow a bulwark against atheistic communism to be built. This, in turn, would ensure the US’s geostrategic dominance in the Middle East as well as uninterrupted access to oil.[^34] Thus, in 1953, the first year of the Eisenhower Administration, the US Information Agency invited more than three dozen Muslim scholars and civic leaders from mostly Muslim-majority countries to the US. The goal was the promotion of anti-communist agendas. Among the invitees was Said Ramadan, the son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder. A few years later, in January 1957, as Nathan Citino explains, the National Security Council “established a working committee on Islamic organizations that compiled a list of Middle Eastern and North African social, cultural, and religious groups such as Sufi brotherhoods,” which the US Information Agency could target with propaganda.[^35] Not surprisingly, the Egyptian pan-nationalist Gamal Abdel Nasser’s leanings toward Moscow were more than a thorn in the side of US leaders. Thus, they aimed at positioning the King of Saudi Arabia as an “Islamic pole of attraction,” perhaps even an “Islamic pope” in opposition to Nasser.[^36] Communism didn’t take hold in Egypt, but later, in the 1970s, it did in Afghanistan and it was there that the most prominent collaboration between the US and “Islamists” occurred, namely with the *mujahedeen* who were instrumental in repelling the Soviet Union and who contributed to the communist superpower’s downfall a few years later. Throughout the Cold War, it was communism that was the US’s enemy. It helped define what it meant to be American and contributed to the government’s authority and social control. Then, however, as the Cold War ended, and as the Soviet Union collapsed, a vacuum of fear emerged. It is illustrated well in a *Los Angeles Times* headline from September 30, 1991: “Cold War’s End Brings Enemy Gap.”[^37] “For decades, opposition to the Red Menace has bound a fractious nation in common purpose,” the abstract of the article read. It continued, asking, “With that guiding principle gone, how will the US define its mission?” The new enemy would come to be Islam, and the new mission for America would be to lead in a supposedly intensifying clash of civilizations. Throughout American history, the ground had been laid for viewing Islam as the enemy. And when about a decade before the end of the Cold War, Iranian revolutionaries labeled America the “Great Satan,” such seemingly irrational hatred was now easily projected onto broader segments of the Muslim population, particularly in the Middle East. The task was taken up by the country’s intellectual elite. Foremost among them was the Princeton University professor of Near East Studies Bernard Lewis. In his famous 1990 article, *The Roots of Muslim Rage,* he argued: > It should by now be clear that we are facing a movement far transcending the level of issues and policies and the governments that pursue them. This is no less than a clash of civilizations – the perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and the worldwide expansion of both.[^38] The idea of a ‘clash of civilizations,’ as we have seen, has a long history, but it was through Bernard Lewis and like-minded elite figures that it became a paradigm in Washington’s policy-making circles. Islam, as articulated by Lewis and others, is “irrational” and an “ancient” rival. It is pitted against “*our* Judeo-Christian heritage” (italics added). Lewis briefly engages a list of possible causes that could have contributed to anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries. These include US imperialism, support for authoritarian regimes, and US support for Israel. For Lewis, however, they did not explain the roots of “Muslim rage.” For him, the explanation lay in the religion of Islam itself. At Harvard University, Samuel Huntington built further on the arguments made by Bernard Lewis. In a 1993 edition of *Foreign Affairs*, an influential journal in Washington’s foreign policy establishment, he argued: > The great division among humankind and the dominant source of conflict will be cultural. Nation-states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.[^39] The most significant source of conflict, Huntington argued, would be between Western civilization and the Islamic civilization. Islam is prone to violence, Huntington said, and this was evidenced by Muslims being in violent conflict with a host of other peoples. This is the case especially “along the boundaries of the crescent-shaped Islamic bloc of nations from the bulge of Africa to Central Asia.” It is also true for “Muslims, on the one hand, and Orthodox Serbs in the Balkans, Jews in Israel, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Burma, and Catholics in the Philippines.” “Islam has bloody borders,” Huntington concluded.[^40] Expectedly, both the content and the rhetoric of arguments like Lewis’s and Huntington’s resonated with Washington policymakers. This intellectual elite was casting Islam as a danger, and they did so in seemingly scholarly and thus compelling ways. They were laying the foundation for filling the enemy gap that the government desired to fill. Moreover, Islam could fill the enemy role in even more formidable ways than communism did.  The new enemy was not an ideology that was tied to a state, the Soviet Union, which could be subdued or just collapse, as indeed happened. The new enemy was a religion. It was here to stay. Various events, chiefly in the Middle East and Africa, seemed to confirm the prophecies of Lewis, Huntington, and others. In 1998, for example, al-Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 2000, the terrorist organization attacked the US warship *USS* *Cole* in the harbor of Aden, Yemen. In Palestine, the second Intifada was erupting. All the while, anti-American sentiment across the region was growing. And then came 9/11, seemingly the ultimate confirmation that Islam was at war with America. The Green Scare had replaced the Red Scare. As Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz declared shortly after the attack: > The American people breathed a sigh of relief when the Cold War ended a decade ago. \[…\] And there was a temptation to believe that this favorable circumstance was a permanent condition. On September 11th, America learned that it was not. The September 11th attacks have awakened us to a fundamental reality: \[…\] This threat is as great as any we faced during the Cold War.[^41] The US would now embark on the global war on terror, and President Bush also likened it to the Cold War, stating, “Because the war on terror will require resolve and patience, it will also require firm moral purpose. In this way, our struggle is similar to the Cold War.”[^42] It was a “civilization’s fight,” the president said, and as “as long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror.” Instead, it will be “an age of liberty, here and across the world.”[^43] Thus, as the president said, rather than endangering America, the now seemingly manifest clash of civilizations, like the Cold War, was to reaffirm America’s moral purpose; it was also to bind the American people and reify the American national identity. --- ## 9/11 and American identity On the evening of the horrific events of 9/11, President Bush gave a somber address to the nation. It was brief but it laid the foundation for his future rhetoric. According to the president, the very reason for the attack was to target American values. “Our very freedom came under attack… America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon of freedom and opportunity in the world,” he said.[^44] A day later, surrounded by his national security team, the president declared similarly, “Freedom and democracy are under attack.”[^45] In a speech to a Joint Session of Congress on September 20th, President Bush elaborated on the terrorists’ supposed motivations. “Why do they hate us?” he asked rhetorically and he answered, “They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”[^46] Within a matter of days after 9/11, the Bush Administration had provided the country, its people, but also most of the national press and punditry, with an interpretative framework in which the acts of 9/11 were to be understood. It was simple and straightforward: The terrorists were “enemies of freedom” and they hated the American “way of life.” Such language was not fortuitous. The terrorists’ supposed hatred for America’s identity echoed American leaders’ rhetoric in regards to the Red Scare throughout the Cold War.[^47] However, it was precisely this identity that was left unharmed during the Cold War and also now. On the night of the attack, President Bush explained to the American people: > Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining. While the foundations of America’s “biggest buildings” were shaken, the “foundation of America” was left unharmed. Inadvertently and tacitly, the president would also acknowledge that the danger that presented itself was not only something that left American identity unharmed but, in fact, that it was something that was “making America.” In his speech to the Joint Session of Congress, the president declared: > I ask you to uphold the values of America and remember why so many have come here… Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger, we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. After the Cold War, in the 1990s, the feeling of a common national identity had declined among the American people.[^48] Now, however, through a new danger, America found its mission again, as argued by the president. The “making of America” through danger was also well illustrated by the president’s speech on October 17th in California, as he was preparing Americans for the coming global war on terrorism: > Our people are united; our government is determined … I applaud the American people for your courage in a time of trial. We’re living through a unique moment in American history. This is a time of rediscovery of heroism and sacrifice and duty and patriotism. These are core values of our country, and they’re being renewed… Our forefathers would be proud, really proud of what they see in America today.[^49] Again, it is through danger that the country was coming to “rediscover” its most fundamental values, its heroism and readiness for sacrifice, its sense of duty and patriotism. Through danger, these aspects of American identity are “renewed,” in fact so much so that even the founding fathers “would be proud.” Indeed, what followed after 9/11 was a tremendous surge in patriotism. It became manifest in members of a previously divided Congress being united and singing “God Bless America” on the stairs of the Capitol building, seemingly every government official and countless figures in public life wearing American flag lapel pins, flag sales soaring, ongoing chants of “USA” at sporting events and in so many other places and ways.[^50] --- ## An Islamophobic foreign policy Patriotism was at a high. For the government, there was thus an inherent interest in sustaining the perception of danger, and it would occur through the securitization of Islam. This happened through many thousands of speeches, interviews, press conferences, and press releases by an array of government officials and agencies. It is not the place here to engage in a comprehensive analysis of these materials; rather, the purpose is to identify key strategies of the government’s rhetoric. Toward this end, I will focus largely on President Bush. Contrary to what is often assumed about him, and in contrast to much of the national media and punditry, he was not openly or directly hostile against Muslims and Islam. In fact, the opposite was the case. At least initially, President Bush engaged in much differentiation as he disassociated Islam and Muslims from the “evildoers” of 9/11. The enemy, so President Bush stated repeatedly, were the terrorists, not Islam. In his September 20th speech to the Joint Session of Congress, for example, the president stated: > I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. Similarly, in an early October radio address, the President declared, “Our enemy is not Islam, a good and peace-loving faith that brings direction and comfort to over 1 billion people, including millions of Americans … Our enemy is the terrorists themselves and the regimes that shelter and sustain them.”[^51] In November, the White House hosted a Ramadan Iftar Dinner and at the occasion, President Bush remarked, “The terrorists have no home in any faith. Evil has no holy days.”[^52] There are further examples in which President Bush drew a distinction between the terrorists and Islam. How then did the securitization of Islam occur? To begin with, the government could lean on the media. *The* *New York Times*, as the nation’s most prominent newspaper, for example, published headlines such as: “Yes, this is about Islam,” “This is a religious war,” “A head-on collision of alien cultures,” among plenty of others.[^53]  Given the media’s driving of a clash-of-civilizations narrative, coupled with the country’s historical negative disposition toward Islam, the government could rely on more indirect and implicit rhetoric for representing Islam as the enemy through its foreign policy. Three related strategies were employed: labeling, depoliticization, and conflation. In the following sections, I briefly discuss and illustrate each one. --- ## The strategy of labeling Labeling is an act of identifying and classifying a target group, for example, as friendly or hostile. Along with the label often comes the assignment of motives, characteristics, and values to the target group. Labels thus help the audience order and interpret who did what and why. As the target group is described in ways incompatible with the characteristics and values of the audience, labels also function to delineate an in-group from an out-group, securitize the out-group, and thereby affirm the identity of the in-group.[^54] While President Bush initially distinguished between the terrorists specifically and Muslims generally, at the same time, he also engaged in language that nullified this delineation and solidified Islam as the enemy image. It was in “*Islamic* countries” (italics added), said the president, that there was “vitriolic hate for America.”[^55] Over time, the president started to use the label “Islamic” even more, as in “Islamic radicalism” or “Islamic extremists.”[^56] On one occasion, on August 10th, 2006, the President went so far as to state, “This nation is at war with Islamic fascists”—a term that had been popular for a while among Washington’s influential neo-conservatives.[^57] It was an utterly nonsensical term as there is no historical nor ideological connection between fascism and Islam. The label did, however, have a strong impact on the psyche of the American people as it reminded them of totalitarian Second World War enemies and their own country’s virtuous fight. Now it was al-Qaeda, according to President Bush, that sought a “totalitarian *Islamic* empire” (italics added).[^58] The label “Islamic” was consequential indeed. In effect, President Bush and his administration now ascribed and confined the enmity not only to a terrorist group but projected it onto Islam in general. As the Middle East historian Juan Cole explains, “Putting ‘Islamic’ in front of another word implies that it is intrinsic to or characteristic of the Islamic religion…”[^59] The term “Islamic,” as Cole explains further would be “analogous to the term ‘Judaic.’”[^60] One would, however, not speak of “Judaic extremists” when talking about militant setters in the Palestinian territories but rather about “Jewish extremists.” Similar were the terms “Islamists” or “Islamism” which now have become ubiquitous. A sober definition of these terms explains that Islamists are carried by the ambition for Islam to matter in the making of public policy.[^61] This ambition is certainly not unique to Muslims but also held by Christians, for example. This ambition is considered to be legitimate for Christians and others; however, coming from Muslims, it is all too often considered not only illegitimate but akin to extremism or even terrorism. The 9/11 Commission, which was established to examine the origins of the attacks and give future recommendations, for example, stated in its final report, “Islamist terrorism is an immediate derivative of Islamism.” [^62] Indeed, terms like “Islamists,” “Islamism,” “Islamic fundamentalism,” “Islamic radicalism,” “jihadism” and others became part of the everyday political lexicon. In effect, all these terms are in the public perception more or less equal to Islam and, as Edward Said had written, they were also equal to “everything-we-must-now-fight-against, as we did with communism during the Cold War.”[^63] Politicians thus used these labels tactically, knowing their negative charge and that they invoked an immediate sense of threat and danger.[^64] With these terms, the identity and motivation of groups like al-Qaeda were projected on to Islam. --- ## The strategy of depoliticization The strategy of depoliticization builds on the strategy of labeling. Whereas labeling identifies the target group and assigns a set of characteristics to it, the strategy of depoliticization aims at denying that group any political and historical context for its doings. Whatever violence “Islamists” were engaging in is not to be seen as related to the history of Western imperialism in Muslim lands, for example, or to the ongoing Western support for repressive regimes in Muslim countries. Instead, the motivation for ‘Islamist’ violence are to be sought in the target group’s identity, culture, and ideology.[^65] The strategy of depoliticization is thus, at times, also described as a strategy of ideologization. The Bush Administration’s strategy of depoliticization is best illustrated by the president’s famous question after 9/11, “Why do they hate us?” This question can be understood as a forensic one, demanding a historical and political investigation into the motivations of al-Qaeda. For Bush, however, it was a rhetorical question and the answer was a given: al-Qaeda attacked America because of the latter’s virtues, because of the American way of life, and because America epitomized freedom and liberty. As the president explained, terrorists “have a common ideology, and that is they hate freedom and they hate freedom-loving people.”[^66] The terrorists hate America, according to the president. “It must bother them greatly to know we’re such a free and wonderful place,” he said.[^67] On many occasions, government officials linked the terrorists’ supposed ideology with the evil ideologies of the 20th century. “We have seen their kind before,” the president said. “They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century… \[T\]hey follow the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism…”[^68] These analogies and ascriptions of ideology had emotionally potent effects on the American people, but they distracted from the specific *political* context that al-Qaeda was operating from. Precisely this distraction was the Bush Administration’s ongoing goal. The government’s depoliticization and ideologization campaign misled the American people. As horrendous as al-Qaeda’s acts were, according to the group’s senior leadership, it wasn’t American culture and identity they were at war with; rather it was US foreign policy that they took issue with. In contrast to the government’s proclamations, some critical scholars and journalists did argue this point. Among the most notable was Peter Bergen, one of the US’s leading terrorism specialists. Having studied al-Qaeda intensely and also having interviewed Osama bin Laden, Bergen, like President Bush, was interested in the question, “Why do they hate us?” In a 2006 *MSNBC* news broadcast, he summarized his findings: > \[Osama bin Laden\] never talks about our freedoms, Hollywood, Madonna. You know feminism, homosexuality, the drug and alcohol culture in the West. He never talks about our culture as a reason for attacking us. And in fact, in one of the most recent statements he made, he said, look, I didn‘t attack Sweden, meaning that it is not—I‘m not attacking liberal permissive societies. I‘m attacking the United States for its foreign policies, and obviously when I say that, I‘m not saying that he is in any way justified, but that that is his rationale.[^69] Some of the foreign policies that Osama Bin Laden had condemned the US for included the continued American military deployment in Saudi Arabia, the support for the Saudi, Egyptian, and other regimes, the support for Israel to the detriment of the Palestinian people, and the US’s continued bombing of Iraq.[^70] None of these complaints represent ideological or religious motivations. Instead, they represent political grievances. America was attacked not because al-Qaeda was opposed to the American way of life as the president and his administration tirelessly claimed, but because of opposition to American foreign policy toward Muslim-majority countries. Notable here is also the work of the 9/11 Commission, chartered with the preparation of a “full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.” It would be reasonable to expect that the Commission would engage in a comprehensive and thorough forensic investigation of the attack’s causes. It did not, however. The eminent historian Ernest May worked with the 9/11 Commission and he acknowledged later on that its report “skirts the question of whether American policies and actions fed the anger that manifested itself on September 11…The commissioners believed that American foreign policy was too controversial to be discussed… \[W\]e compromised our commitment to set forth the full story.”[^71] The depoliticization of so-called Islamist actors is, of course, not limited to 9/11 and al-Qaeda. Indeed, 9/11 made it easier to continue the ideologization of an array of other militant-Islamist actors, including the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah. According to President Bush, Hamas and Hezbollah hate America and Israel because America and Israel are “ardent defenders of liberty.”[^72] While it is true that both Hamas and Hezbollah have a military wing that has committed acts of terrorism, it is false to claim that these acts were rooted in some fanatical anti-freedom ideology. Both Hamas and Hezbollah emerged in reaction to continued Israeli expansionism and aggression.[^73] Any such political context, however, tends to be denied or depicted as baseless. As the government is providing false narratives about unreasoned hate of “Islamist” actors, these are richly complemented by the nation’s mainstream media. For both, what is to be blamed is an ideology that originates somewhere in Islam.  In the influential *Wall Street Journal*, for example, one could read that “barbaric culture had declared war not because of our policies but for what we stood—democracy and freedom.”[^74] While there is an enemy image established for the American people, and while the government profits from the fostered patriotism, the American people are, in fact, severely misled. There is a political and a historical context that can help explain the violence that is committed, and without giving it due consideration, American foreign policy risks continuing to generate extremism rather than abate it. --- ## The strategy of conflation The strategy of conflation builds on the strategies of labeling and depoliticization. Whereas the latter two strategies identify the target group, ascribe it a set of characteristics, and ensure that the group’s motivations are seen as unfounded hatred as opposed to having any political or historical context, the strategy of conflation seeks to link individuals who share similar characteristics with the object of concern.  In concrete terms, whereas labeling and depoliticization are geared toward ensuring that the danger is associated with Islam, conflation aims to present actors as a “monolithic threat,” regardless of their distinct political motivations.[^75] On 9/11, the US was attacked by a single group, al-Qaeda. What followed afterward, however, was not a war only on al-Qaeda, but a *global* war on terror. As President Bush emphasized in his September 20, 2001 speech to Congress and the American people, “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.” The President went on to explain that “there are thousands of these terrorists in more than sixty countries.” These terrorists, the president said, were housed in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; that is chiefly in Muslim-majority countries, and now he was about to launch a “crusade” in those countries. The threat that was posed by al-Qaeda, in other words, was projected across the regions in which the majority of Muslims reside. Terrorists were conflated with governments, and various terrorist groups were conflated with each other. As President Bush explained in a graduation speech he gave on June 1, 2002 at West Point Academy, the enemy now consisted of “shadowy terrorist networks” and “dictators with weapons of mass destruction \[who\] can deliver those weapons on missiles or secretly provide them to terrorist allies.”[^76] The message that the American people received was simple enough: There were a lot of terrorists and a lot of dictators in Muslim-majority countries and what they all had in common was that they hated America. One of the most consequential conflations the government manufactured was linking al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, the American people did not see any association between the two. When asked who was responsible for the attack only 3% of Americans mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein. By 2003, however, this had changed. Now 69% said they thought it at least likely that Hussein was involved in the attacks.[^77] The Administration knew very well that there was no connection between the two, but it had worked continuously on establishing this association in the perception of the American people.[^78] Most illustrative here was perhaps President Bush’s September 2002 assertion that “you can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.”[^79] The Bush Administration also conflated different “Islamist” groups with each other, most notably al-Qaeda with Hamas and Hezbollah. In a speech to the Israeli Knesset on May 15, 2008, President Bush declared, “Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause.”[^80] Earlier he had explained how these various groups were supposedly linked: “The Shiite and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. Whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East, and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale.”[^81] While al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah have all engaged in violent acts to promote their causes, they are also very different from each other, both in scope and in political motivation. For example, while al-Qaeda has a transnational strategy, Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s engagement has been territorially very restricted, and they came into being in response to continued Israeli expansion. It is by ignoring such differences that the US came to conflate all armed struggle as terrorism, even when it was a reaction to brutal foreign occupation. The Bush Administration was continuing to build a monolithic Islamic enemy and the representatives of this enemy, Bush explained further in his Knesset speech, > … accept no god before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis. And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the “elimination” of Israel. And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant “Death to Israel, Death to America!” That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that “the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties.” And that is why the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.[^82] Whatever effort President Bush had made initially to distinguish al-Qaeda from the religion of Islam, he also engaged in so much conflation that, in effect, the distinction was rendered futile. Inevitably, the American people’s perception that al-Qaeda had many like-minded Muslim actors across the Muslim world was confirmed, as was their clash-of-civilization worldview. “Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred,” the president said further in his speech.[^83] Muslims were the makers of these “consequences.” --- ## From Bush to Obama to Trump After 9/11, Islamophobia became embedded deeper and more pervasively in America’s foreign policy institutions, its legal institutions, and its media organizations than ever before. Islamophobia in the US became institutionalized and normalized. For the government, the representation of Islam as the enemy served a continuous reification of the American identity and it facilitated the continuation of the deeply entrenched bipartisan imperialistic agenda. Nevertheless, when Barack Obama succeeded George Bush, many Muslims placed much hope in the new president. The hope resulted from Obama’s personal background and the promise of change in his campaign. It was strengthened further by his much-noted speech in Cairo, Egypt, just a few months after he assumed the presidency. His aim, he said there, was, “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world… one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive.” Instead, Obama emphasized the “overlapping” history between the East and the West, that America and Islam share “common principles” and “common aspirations.”[^84] With the Obama Administration, the language in the war on terror indeed became more cautious. His actual foreign policy, however, turned out to be more of the same. In fact, in some ways, it was even worse as the American people could see the US escalating the war in various Muslim majority countries. The US was “still threatened by terrorists,” Obama explained and these arise from “a common ideology,” he explained further, “a belief by some extremists that Islam is in conflict with the United States and the West, and that violence against Western targets, including civilians, is justified in pursuit of a larger cause.” “Of course, this ideology is based on a lie, for the United States is not at war with Islam.”[^85] The fact, however, was that America *was* in a conflict with Muslims and had been for many decades. A few years prior to Obama’s Cairo speech, in 2005, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, also gave a speech in Cairo and she acknowledged, “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East—and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.”[^86] The US had indeed been stoking authoritarianism across the Middle East for decades, but for the US Secretary of State to acknowledge it publicly was remarkable. Indeed, since the mid-20th century, the US aggressively manipulated Muslim-majority countries to serve its geostrategic and economic interests.  It overthrew the democratic government in Iran. It supported repressive and authoritarian regimes across the region. It exploited the differences between Middle Eastern countries against each other. It also engaged in harsh sanctioning policies towards various Muslim-majority countries and brought tremendous suffering to the people of those countries. It supported Israel’s expansionism to the detriment of the Palestinian people and it did so much more that was and continues to be harmful to Muslims. Contrary to what Rice promised in Cairo in 2005, the US did not take a different course in President Bush’s final years. Also, the presidency of Barack Obama brought no fundamental change. With the accession of Donald Trump to the White House, the representation of Islam as the enemy reached a new low point. Even during his presidential candidacy, Trump called “for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.”[^87] A few months later, he stated, “I think Islam hates us. There’s something there that—there’s a tremendous hatred there… There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.”[^88] Upon assuming the presidency, Trump issued by executive order what came to be known as the “Muslim Ban,” temporarily suspending entry into the US of all people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. There was no danger emanating from any of these countries. In response to Trump’s executive order, the CATO Institute tallied up the numbers from 1975 to 2015 and found that not a single American on US soil has been killed by a citizen of any of the countries featured in the ban.[^89] Facts did not matter, however. Islam continued to be the enemy. --- ## Conclusion and implications It is indeed a simple fact that no American had been killed by a citizen from any of the countries featured in the Muslim Ban. Yet, all too often this is not known to the American people. What is also very often not known is the fact that al-Qaeda and ISIS have killed far more Muslims than Christians or Jews. Finally, there is a fundamental lack of knowledge about the US’s history in the Middle East and the decades-long adversity and havoc it has brought to the people of the region. This ignorance is among the reasons why it is so easy for the government to engage in fear politics and depict Islam as the enemy. Regrettably, as Nazia Kazi writes, “A public that has been taught not history but nationalism can accept simplistic explanations about *them* hating our freedoms….”[^90] An accompanying illiteracy in current international politics combined with superficial mainstream media that also profits from fear politics makes the task even easier for the government. This is a rather discouraging conclusion and the question of where to go from here remains. While the explicit Islamophobia of the Trump Administration may dissipate with a new president, the deeply entrenched Islamic enemy image among the American people will persist. Political actors will thus continue to cast Islam as a danger to America with the ongoing fundamental goal of leveraging the nation’s identity. It is also important to understand that another central goal of their Islamophobia is to prevent Muslims from acquiring political and societal influence. Current political elites fear that this influence would interfere with the imperialistic US foreign policy in the Middle East. Toward this end, therefore, the rhetorical strategies of labeling, depoliticization, and conflation will continue. Understanding what is driving the US’s Islamophobic foreign policy signals the road ahead for Muslims. Most importantly, those Muslims who have felt a sense of alienation from their faith because of the continuous onslaught against it must recognize that Islam is not the problem. Islam stands for justice and beauty, as it always has and always will. For all Muslims, furthermore, it is important to recognize that the othering of Muslims and Islam in the service of national identity formation is at the center of Islamophobic efforts within the national and foreign policy arena. To tackle this problem at its core, Muslims must acquire increased political and societal influence. It is imperative to vie for a more prominent role in the public square and to seek positions of political decision-making and leadership, locally as well as nationally. Alongside efforts to restrain misguided and Islamophobic foreign and domestic policies, there must be efforts to rectify the clash-of-civilizations narrative. Muslims must seek stronger representation in the capital’s influential think tanks. Muslims should also aspire to stronger representation in the social sciences and humanities of academia, and in primary and secondary education institutions across the country. Additionally, Muslims should strive for more presence in the country’s media, film, and art industries. Muslims, in other words, must increasingly assume the role of authorship in our political, social, and cultural worlds. These efforts are underway and must continue with vigor. It is in these ways that Muslims will be able to discharge their divine duty to bring rectitude to the societies they live in. --- ## Notes [^1]: David Campbell, *Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity* (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998). [^2]: Douglas Little, *Us versus Them: The United States, Radical Islam, and the Rise of the Green Threat* (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016). [^3]: There are too many books and articles to cite, but an excellent overview, with annotations, is given in Rhonda Itaoui and Elsadig Elsheikh, *Islamophobia in the United States: A Reading Resource Pack* (Berkeley, CA: Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley, 2018),  [https://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/islamophobia\_reading\_pack\_publish.pdf](https://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/islamophobia_reading_pack_publish.pdf). [^4]: Edward Said, *Orientalism* (New York: Vintage Books, 1978). Two exemplary recent studies are Deepa Kumar, *Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire* (Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012) and Nazia Kazi, *Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics* (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2019). [^5]: Heidi Beireich, “The Year in Hate: Rage Against Change,” *Intelligence Report*, February 20, 2019, [https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2019/year-hate-rage-against-change](https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2019/year-hate-rage-against-change); Arun Kundnani, *The Muslims are Coming* (New York: Verso, 2014). [^6]: Omar Suleiman, “Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth/). [^7]: Similarly, Khaled Beydoun draws a distinction between “private Islamophobia” and “structural Islamophobia,” with the latter being driven by the government. See Khaled Beydoun, *American Islamophobia* (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018), 23–44. [^8]: William Bloom, *Personal Identity, National Identity, and International Relations* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 2. [^9]: Paul Kowert, “National Identity: Inside and Out,” *Security Studies* 8, nos. 2–3 (1998/99): 1–34. [^10]: Ernest Gellner, *Nations and Nationalism* (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983); Eric Hobsbawm, *Nations and Nationalism Since 1780* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). [^11]: Benedict Anderson, *Imagined Communities* (New York: Verso, 1983), 9–12. [^12]: Ivar Neumann, *Uses of the Other: The East in European Identity Formation* (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999). [^13]: Lee Jussim, Richard Ashmore, and David Wilder, “Introduction: Social Identity and Conflict Resolution,” in *Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict, and Conflict Reduction*, eds. Lee Jussim, Richard Ashmore, and David Wilder (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 6; Henri Tajfel, *Human Groups and Social Categories* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 251. [^14]: Campbell, *Writing Security*, 9; Philip Schlesinger, “On National Identity: Some Conceptions and Misconceptions Criticized,” *Social Science Information* 26, no. 2 (1987): 219–64; Edward Shils, “Nation, Nationality and Civil Society,” *Nations and Nationalism* 1, no. 1 (1995): 93–118. [^15]: Roberta Coles, “War and the Contest over National Identity,” *The* *Sociological Review* 50, no. 4 (2002): 589. [^16]: Campbell, *Writing Security*, 3, 73. [^17]: Richard Jackson, *Writing the War on Terrorism* (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), 61; William Connolly, preface to the third edition of *The Terms of Political Discourse*, ed. William Connolly (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), xi. [^18]: Samuel Huntington, *Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004). [^19]: Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, and Jaap de Wilde, *Security: A New Framework for Analysis* (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998). [^20]: Michael Williams, “Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics,” *International Studies Quarterly* 47, no. 4 (2003): 513. [^21]: Jackson, *Writing the War*, 2. [^22]: Douglas Little, *American Orientalism* (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press), 9. [^23]: Sylviane Diouf, “African Muslims and the Slave Trade,” Historic London Town and Gardens, June 18, 2019, [https://www.historiclondontown.org/single-post/2019/06/18/African-Muslims-and-the-Slave-Trade](https://www.historiclondontown.org/single-post/2019/06/18/African-Muslims-and-the-Slave-Trade). [^24]: Sylviane Diouf, *Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas* (New York: New York University Press, 1998). [^25]: Little, *Us versus Them*, 217. [^26]: Little, 217. [^27]: Elting Morison, ed., *The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt*, vol. 5 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952–1955), 698–99. [^28]: Jonathan Lyons, *The House of Wisdom: How Arabs Transformed Western Civilization* (London: Bloomsbury, 2009); Asadullah Ali, “The Structure of Scientific Productivity in Islamic Civilization: Orientalists’ Fables,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, May 1, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/asadullah/the-structure-of-scientific-productivity-in-islamic-civilization-orientalists-fables/#ftnt\_ref17](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/asadullah/the-structure-of-scientific-productivity-in-islamic-civilization-orientalists-fables/#ftnt_ref17). [^29]: Woodrow Wilson, *The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics* (Boston, MA: D. C. Heath, 1897), 2. [^30]: Basil Matthews, *Young Islam on Trek: A Study in the Clash of Civilizations* (New York: Friendship Press, 1926), 41. [^31]: K. Healan Gaston, *Reimagining Judeo-Christian America: Religion, Secularism, and the Redefinition of Democracy* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020). [^32]: Richard Bulliet, *The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004). [^33]: Edward Said, *The Question of Palestine* (New York, Vintage Books, 1992); Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, *Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Sentiment* (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2019). [^34]: Robert Dreyfuss, *Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam* (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2005), 123. [^35]: Nathan Citino, *From Arab Nationalism to OPEC: Eisenhower, King Saud, and the Making of U.S.-Saudi Relations* (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002), 126. [^36]: Deepa Kumar, *Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire* (Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012), 65–66. [^37]: Paul Richter, “Cold War’s End Brings Enemy Gap,” *Los Angeles Times*, September 30, 1991, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-30-mn-2212-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-30-mn-2212-story.html). [^38]: Bernard Lewis, “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” *Atlantic* 266, no. 3 (1990): 60. [^39]: Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?,” *Foreign Affairs* 72, no. 3 (1993): 22. [^40]: Huntington, 35. [^41]: Paul Wolfowitz, “Building a Military for the 21st Century,” (prepared statement, “September 11, 2001: Attack on America,” House and Senate Armed Services Committees, October 3–4, 2001), [https://avalon.law.yale.edu/sept11/testimony\_002.asp](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/sept11/testimony_002.asp). [^42]: George W. Bush, graduation speech at United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, June 1, 2002, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html). [^43]: George W. Bush, address to a joint session of Congress and the nation, September 20, 2001, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress\_092001.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html). [^44]: George W. Bush, address to the nation, Oval Office, Washington, DC, September 11, 2001, [https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911addresstothenation.htm](https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911addresstothenation.htm). [^45]: George W. Bush, address from Cabinet following Cabinet meeting, September 12, 2001, [https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911cabinetroomaddress.htm](https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911cabinetroomaddress.htm). [^46]: Bush, address to a joint session of Congress and the nation, September 20, 2001. [^47]: Jackson, *Writing the War*, 47, 99. [^48]: Huntington, *Who Are We?* [^49]: George W. Bush, remarks at California Business Association Breakfast, Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, California, October 17, 2001, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011017-15.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011017-15.html). [^50]: Carol Winkler, *In the Name of Terrorism* (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006), 2. [^51]: George W. Bush, weekly radio address, October 6, 2001,  [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress\_100601.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_100601.html). [^52]: George W. Bush, remarks at iftaar, State Dining Room, November 19, 2001, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/11/text/20011119-14.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/11/text/20011119-14.html). [^53]: Ervand Abrahamian, “The US Media, Huntington, and September 11,” *Third World Quarterly* 24, no. 3 (2003): 529–44. [^54]: Kenneth Burke, *A Grammar of Motives* (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1969), xv; Winkler, *Name of Terrorism*, 8; Michael Bhatia, “Fighting Words: Naming Terrorists, Bandits, Rebels and Other Violent Actors,” *Third World Quarterly* 26, no. 1 (2005): 8. [^55]: George W. Bush, news conference on the state of war, October 11, 2001, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bush\_text101101.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bush_text101101.html). [^56]: See, for example, George W. Bush, remarks at the National Endowment for Democracy, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC, October 6, 2005, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051006-3.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051006-3.html). [^57]: George W. Bush, remarks upon arrival in Wisconsin, Austin Straubel International Airport, Green Bay, Wisconsin, August 10, 2006,    [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060810-3.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060810-3.html). [^58]: George W. Bush, speech, Capital Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC, September 4, 2006, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060905-4.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060905-4.html). [^59]: Juan Cole, “Islamophobia and American Foreign Policy Rhetoric: The Bush Years and After,” in *Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century*, eds. John Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 130. [^60]: Cole, 130. [^61]: Mohammed Ayoob, *The Many Faces of Political Islam* (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press 2011), 2; Guilian Denoux, “The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam,” *Middle East Policy* 9, no. 2 (2002): 61. [^62]: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, *The 9/11 Commission Report* (New York: Cosimo Reports, 2010), 562. [^63]: Edward Said, *Covering Islam* (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), xix. [^64]: Stephen Beale, Oliver Sterck, Thibaut Slingeyer, and Gregoire Lits, “What Does the ‘Terrorist’ Label Really Do?,” *Studies in Conflict and Terrorism* 42, no. 5 (2019): 520–40. [^65]: Mahmood Mamdani, “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency,” *London Review of Books* 29, no. 5 (2007): 5–8; James Der Derian, “In Terrorem: Before and after 9/11,” in *Worlds in Collision: Terror and the Future of Global Order*, eds. Kenneth Booth and Tim Dunne (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 102. [^66]: George W. Bush, press conference with Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri, September 19, 2001, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushtext1\_091901.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushtext1_091901.html). [^67]: George W. Bush, speech to US attorneys, November 29, 2001, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bush\_text112901.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bush_text112901.html). [^68]: Bush, address to a joint session of Congress and the nation, September 20, 2001. [^69]: Peter Bergen, interview by Chris Matthews, *Hardball with Chris Matthews*, MSNBC, December 1, 2006, [http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10819762/ns/msnbc-hardball\_with\_chris\_matthews/t/hardball-chris-matthews-jan-th/#.XelHCehKjcs](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10819762/ns/msnbc-hardball_with_chris_matthews/t/hardball-chris-matthews-jan-th/%23.XelHCehKjcs). [^70]: Peter Bergen, *Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden* (London: Weinfeld and Nicholson, 2001), 242. [^71]: Ernest May, “When Government Writes History,” *New Republic*, May 23, 2005, [https://newrepublic.com/article/64332/when-government-writes-history](https://newrepublic.com/article/64332/when-government-writes-history). [^72]: George W. Bush, address to members of the Knesset, the Knesset, Jerusalem, May 15, 2008), [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html). [^73]: Ayoob, *Many Faces*, 19; Robert Pape, *Dying to Win* (New York: Random House, 2005). [^74]: Norman Podhoretz, “Israel Is not the Issue,” *Wall Street Journal*, September 20, 2001. [^75]: Abdeselam Maghraoui, “American Foreign Policy and Islamic Renewal,” *United States Institute of Peace,* Special Report 164, July 2006, 4, [https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/sr164.pdf](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/sr164.pdf). [^76]: Bush, graduation speech at United States Military Academy. [^77]: Dana Milbank and Claudia Deane, “Hussein Link to 9/11 Lingers in Many Minds,” *Washington Post*, September 6, 2003, 1; Linda Feldmann, “The Impact of Bush Linking 9/11 and Iraq,” *Christian Science Monitor*, March 14, 2003, [https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html](https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html). [^78]: Joe Wilson, *The Politics of Truth* (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2004). [^79]: George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, September 25, 2002, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-4.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-4.html). [^80]: Bush, address to members of the Knesset. [^81]: George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 23, 2007, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html) [^82]: Bush, address to members of the Knesset. [^83]: Bush, address to members of the Knesset. [^84]: Barack H. Obama, “A New Beginning,” June 4, 2009, [https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/foreign- policy/presidents-speech-cairo-a-new-beginning](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/foreign-%2520policy/presidents-speech-cairo-a-new-beginning). [^85]: Barack H. Obama, remarks at the National Defense University (National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, DC, May 23, 2013), [https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university). [^86]: Condoleezza Rice, remarks at the American University in Cairo, June 20, 2005, [https://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/48328.htm](https://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/48328.htm). [^87]: Jenna Johnson and Abigail Hauslohner, “ ‘I Think Islam Hates Us’: A Timeline of Trump’s Comments about Islam and Muslims,” *Washington Post*, May 20, 2017, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/). [^88]: Johnson and Hauslohner, “I Think Islam Hates Us.” [^89]: Alex Nowraseth, “Little National Security Benefit to Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration,” The Cato Institute, January 25, 2017, [https://www.cato.org/blog/little-national-security-benefit-trumps-executive-order-immigration](https://www.cato.org/blog/little-national-security-benefit-trumps-executive-order-immigration). [^90]: Nazia Kazi, *Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics* (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2019), 114. ## Summary A state's very identity is affirmed and reproduced not in the absence of danger but through the representation of danger, and it is upon this provocative premise that the argument rests. Drawing upon the work of David Campbell, who wrote that "the boundaries of a state's identity are secured by the representation of danger integral to foreign policy," the claim is that a government possesses an intrinsic interest in articulating and even manufacturing threats to its citizens. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, when President George W. Bush declared that "our very freedom came under attack," Islam came to fulfill this function for the United States. The "Green Scare" of Islam replaced the "Red Scare" of communism, and this manufactured foreign policy of fear was shown to exact a heavy cost—harming Muslims at home and abroad, driving unjustified wars, squandering the lives of American service members, depleting the treasury, and alienating America from the very values it claims to uphold. The formation of national identity is traced to the psychology of the individual. As William Bloom observed, "Every individual possesses an inherent drive to internalize—to identify with—the behavior, mores, and attitudes of significant figures in his or her social environment." Historically, clans and tribes fulfilled this need for belonging, security, and well-being, but in recent centuries a shift toward *national* identities emerged in Europe, driven by large-scale war, urbanization, mass communication, industrialization, and the Enlightenment's delegitimizing of divinely-appointed authority. Crucially, no identity is formed in a vacuum. As Benedict Anderson noted, "No nation imagines itself as coterminous with mankind," and thus identities are defined in juxtaposition to others—the "Turkish other" helped define what Europe was not, just as being American during the Cold War "meant not to be communist." Since a collective identity facilitates social control—enabling the collection of taxes, adherence to law, and the declaration of war—a government has reason to sustain that identity through securitization. Securitization, as Michael Williams explained, treats security "not as an objective condition but as the outcome of a specific social process," whereby threats are brought "into being as a security situation by successfully representing it as such." The rhetoric employed after 9/11 was therefore not a reflection of objective reality but a deliberate construction of labels, mischaracterizations, and conflations, designed to legitimize foreign policy and to reify American identity. The groundwork for casting Islam as this enemy was long in the making. From the Puritans of the 1630s who carried "profound ambivalence about the 'infidels,'" to the enslavement of African Muslims, to American travelers who returned from the Holy Land with disgust for its inhabitants, a negative disposition took root. Douglas Little noted that for statesmen "from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt, the Muslim world constituted the very antithesis" of the ideal America imagined for itself, and Roosevelt privately remarked in 1907 that "it is impossible to expect moral, intellectual, and material well-being where Mohammedanism is supreme." Woodrow Wilson, tracing the lineage of Western government, omitted Muslim contributions altogether. During the Second World War, the notion of a "Judeo-Christian" nation—a relatively recent creation—gained currency, explicitly othering Islam despite the theological kinship of the three faiths and despite the historical reality of Christian persecution of Jews in Europe. Yet during the Cold War, American leaders did not hesitate to instrumentalize Islam against "atheistic communism." In 1953 the US Information Agency invited Muslim scholars, including Said Ramadan, to promote anti-communist agendas; in 1957 the National Security Council, as Nathan Citino recounts, compiled lists of religious groups to target with propaganda; and in the 1970s the US collaborated with the *mujahedeen* in Afghanistan. When the Cold War ended, however, a "vacuum of fear" emerged, captured by a 1991 *Los Angeles Times* headline: "Cold War's End Brings Enemy Gap." Into this gap stepped intellectuals such as Bernard Lewis, who in 1990 spoke of "a clash of civilizations—the perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage," and Samuel Huntington, who in 1993 concluded that "Islam has bloody borders." A religion, unlike a state, could not simply collapse; it was "here to stay," making it a more formidable and durable enemy. The events of 9/11 seemed to confirm these prophecies, and the Bush Administration swiftly furnished an interpretive framework: the terrorists were "enemies of freedom" who hated the American "way of life." Yet, notably, President Bush initially distinguished the terrorists from Islam, telling Congress that Islam's "teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah," and declaring at a Ramadan iftar that "the terrorists have no home in any faith." How, then, was Islam nonetheless securitized? Three interrelated rhetorical strategies were identified: labeling, depoliticization, and conflation. Through *labeling*, Bush increasingly spoke of "Islamic radicalism," "Islamic extremists," and even, in 2006, "Islamic fascists"—a term without any historical basis, since there is no connection between fascism and Islam, but one that evoked the totalitarian enemies of the Second World War. As Juan Cole explained, prefixing a word with "Islamic" implies the trait is "intrinsic to or characteristic of the Islamic religion." Through *depoliticization*, the motivations of militant actors were divorced from any political or historical context and attributed instead to ideology and hatred of freedom. Bush's rhetorical question "Why do they hate us?" was answered by asserting that "they hate freedom." Yet the terrorism specialist Peter Bergen, having studied and interviewed Osama bin Laden, found that bin Laden "never talks about our freedoms" but rather objected to US foreign policy—the military presence in Saudi Arabia, support for authoritarian regimes and Israel, and the bombing of Iraq. Even the historian Ernest May, who worked with the 9/11 Commission, admitted its report "skirts the question of whether American policies and actions fed the anger" and that "we compromised our commitment to set forth the full story." Through *conflation*, distinct actors were merged into a single monolithic threat. What began as an attack by al-Qaeda became a *global* war on terror against "thousands of these terrorists in more than sixty countries." Most consequentially, al-Qaeda was linked with Saddam Hussein—so that whereas only 3% of Americans initially named Iraq, by 2003 some 69% thought Hussein likely involved—and al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah were conflated despite their differing scopes and motivations, the latter two having emerged in response to Israeli expansion. This Islamophobia became institutionalized and outlasted its architect. Barack Obama, despite promising in Cairo "a new beginning," escalated wars in Muslim-majority lands, and Condoleezza Rice had already conceded in 2005 that for sixty years America "pursued stability at the expense of democracy." Donald Trump reached a new low, declaring "Islam hates us" and imposing the "Muslim Ban," though the CATO Institute found that from 1975 to 2015 not a single American on US soil had been killed by a citizen of the banned countries. A public "taught not history but nationalism," as Nazia Kazi wrote, readily accepts that *they* hate *our* freedoms. The path forward for Muslims lies in recognizing that Islam is not the problem—it "stands for justice and beauty"—and in acquiring genuine political, academic, media, and cultural influence, thereby discharging their divine duty to bring rectitude to the societies in which they live. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/introduction-to-ijaz-al-quran-the-miraculous-nature-of-the-quran # Introduction to I’jāz al-Qur’ān: The Miraculous Nature of the Qur'an **Author:** Sh. Suleiman Hani **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 18, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Note *This article serves as the first essay in* [*a series on the topic of* iʿjāz al-Qur’ān](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/ijaz-al-quran/)*, the miraculous nature of the Qur’an, and addresses the foundations of* iʿjāz*, its history, scope, and facets, as well as an introduction to the literary miracle of the Qur’an. The subsequent essay addresses the inimitability of the Qur’an, various plagiarism attempts throughout history, and the role of the [Prophet Muhammad](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/suleiman-hani/introduction-to-ijaz-al-quran-the-role-of-muhammad/)* ﷺ*.* > Say, “Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce the equivalent of this Qur’an, they could not produce its equal, however much they helped each other.”[^1] --- ## Introduction Among the most foundational and significant beliefs of Muslims is the absolute conviction in the Qur’an as the Speech (*kalām)* of God, divine and preserved, unparalleled and unmatched by any human speech, and inimitable by any individual or group. What follows is a survey of the foundational components of the study of *iʿjaz al-Qur’ān,* or the miraculous nature of the Qur’an, answering the crucial question of the Qur’an’s authorship. With respect to the Qur’an’s authorship, one must logically fall into one of the following two categories: 1. Those who claim that the Qur’an is the Speech of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through Angel Jibrīl (Gabriel); or 2. Those who claim that the Qur’an is not from God but was authored by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ or other human beings. By the end of this series, the evidence will clearly demonstrate that the Qur’an’s authorship cannot reasonably be attributed to anyone but God. --- ## What is the Qur’an? The Qur’an is the Arabic *kalām* (Speech) of Allah, which He revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in wording and meaning, which has been preserved in the *muṣḥaf* (physical written copy), has reached us by means of authentic transmissions, and is a challenge to mankind to produce something similar to it.[^2] Muslims believe that the Qur’an was revealed from God, the One Creator of the universe and all that it contains, through His Angel Gabriel to Muhammad, the last messenger and prophet of God to mankind, in a long line of messengers before him, including Noah, Abraham, David, Moses, and Jesus, peace be upon them. The Qur’an is comprised of many *āyāt* (singular: *āyah*), or “verses,” and in the Qur’anic context an *āyah* refers to a “sign” of God in this world, such as signs of His Being and Power, signs in nature,[^3] signs from history,[^4] or divine revelation as a sign (“when our signs are recited…”[^5]).[^6] Thus, to Muslims, the Qur’an is not only the Speech of God, but it is a *sign* that is perfect, preserved, memorized on an unmatched scale, miraculous in its nature, impossible to imitate, universally beneficial for all societies, impactful on the heart and soul, contains no errors or contradictions, contains knowledge of the unseen world, predicted matters of the future, described undiscovered matters of the natural world, and is the final miracle and message of God to mankind until the Day of Resurrection. --- ## The iʿjāz of the Qur’an Amongst the beliefs of Muslims is that the Qur’an has the characteristic of *iʿjāz*; that is, a miraculous nature. The Arabic word relates to *ʿajaza* (incapability), meaning that it is beyond the capability of human beings. Mankind’s inability (*ʿajz*) to imitate the Qur’an is thus considered a sign of its divine origin. Thus, it is an ongoing *muʿjizah* (miracle)—that which “breaks the custom” (*kharq al-ʿādah)*[^7] or natural order—until the Day of Resurrection; and it is a clear proof given to the final messenger as an authentication of his prophethood.[^8] When applied to the Qur’an, the word *iʿjāz* refers to the unique and inimitable quality of the Qur’an in that it is superior to all other books and speech and cannot be imitated or rivaled. The basis for the agreed-upon doctrine of Qur’anic *iʿjāz* is found in the Qur’an itself on six different occasions,[^9] such as when the adversaries of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ denied his prophethood and declared the Qur’an to be fabricated; the Qur’an itself challenged those who denied it to “produce something like it … if you are truthful \[in your claim\].”[^10] These verses pose what is known as the eternal *taḥaddī* (challenge), or collectively as the Verses of the Challenge (*āyāt at-taḥaddī)*; thus, anyone who denies the Qur’an’s divine origins is challenged to produce something like it if they believe it to be man-made (i.e., not originating from God). The famous historian Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) opined that the initial challenge was to produce something similar to the entire Qur’an; the next challenge was then reduced to ten *suwar* (singular: *sūrah*), or “chapters,” then finally to one *sūrah*.[^11] Although this challenge was presented to the greatest Arab poets who were known for their eloquence and mastery of the Arabic language, the challenge remains open and active until the end of time. The famous scholar as-Suyūtī (d. 911/1505) summarizes the history of the challenge as follows: > … when the Prophet brought \[the challenge\] to them, they were the most eloquent rhetoricians so he challenged them to produce the \[entire\] likes \[of the Qur’an\] and many years passed and they were unable to do so, as God says, “Let them then produce a recitation similar to it if indeed they are truthful.” Then, \[the Prophet\] challenged them to produce ten chapters like it where God says, “Say, bring then ten chapters like it and call upon whomever you can besides God if you are truthful.” Then, he challenged them to produce a single \[chapter\] where God says, “Or do they say he \[i.e., the Prophet\] has forged it? Say, bring a chapter like it and call upon whomever you can besides God, if you are truthful…” When the \[Arabs\] were unable to produce a single chapter like \[the Qur’an\] despite there being the most eloquent rhetoricians amongst them, \[the Prophet\] openly announced the failure and inability \[to meet the challenge\] and declared the inimitability of the Qur’an. Then God said, “Say: if all of humankind and the jinn gathered together to produce the like of the Qur’an, they could not produce it—even if they helped one another...”[^12] The eternal challenge, thus, is a bold call for the experts of any era to produce something similar to the Qur’an in all of its divine facets. Although there are many miracles that Muslims believe occurred during the time of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the impact of these miracles was undoubtedly greater on those who witnessed them than later generations who merely read about them. Additionally, the miracles of previous prophets and messengers were visibly undeniable and also related to their own interests. For example, Mūsá (Moses) عليه السلام was sent to a society known for its interest in sorcery and illusions so the miracles he was given were related to such illusions—such as his staff’s transformation into an actual snake and consuming the false “snakes” of the sorcerers.[^13] Īsá (Jesus) عليه السلام was sent with miracles relevant to his society, such as the miracle of healing the ill, resurrection of the dead, and giving life to a bird made out of its clay—by the permission of God.[^14] These miracles, however, were limited in time and space and are no longer epistemologically accessible except by means of testimony (e.g., revelation). Islamic doctrine asserts that the *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an removes the constraints of time and place upon the *muʿjizah* (miracle) itself—the Qur’an—and thus the Qur’an remains a permanent, ongoing miracle for all generations after the final prophet, regardless of time and place. Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406), the famous Muslim historian, stated in his *Muqaddimah:* > Know that the greatest of all miracles, and the most sacred and blessed, and the clearest in proof, is the Qur’an that was revealed to the Prophet \[Muhammad\] ﷺ. This is because all other miracles, in general, were brought forth separate from the actual inspiration (that the Prophet received), as a means of proving the truthfulness of the inspiration. As for the Qur’an, it is the inspiration and the miracle in one, and is therefore not in need of any external miracles (to prove itself), unlike all the previous inspirations. It is, therefore, the clearest and most powerful miracle, since it combines the boast and the proof into one. This is the meaning of the Prophet's statement, “...I hope, therefore, that I will have the largest number of followers on the Day of Judgment.” This shows that a miracle as clear and powerful as this one—for it is the inspiration in its essence—must have the greatest number of believers and followers...[^15] Ibn Khaldūn’s argument for the miraculous nature of the Qur’an touches upon an important point in epistemology, and that is that the Qur’an does not require external miracles (*muʿjizāt*) to prove itself to be miraculous. In fact, miracles themselves are seen as proofs of prophets’ truthfulness to their respective nations. What this implies is that the evidence for the Qur’an’s divine origins can be found by objectively and sincerely studying *iʿjāz al-Qur’an* and studying and reciting the Qur’an itself. --- ## History of the doctrine of iʿjāz al-Qur’ān During the first centuries after the Prophet Muhammad’s passing, a number of scholars wrote on the topic of *muʿjizāt* (miracles) that occurred during Muhammad’s ﷺ life as proofs of his prophethood. This theological doctrine of *aʿlām an-nubuwwah* (signs of prophethood) or *ithbāt al-nubuwwah* (establishment of prophethood) gradually increased within the scholarly discourse on prophecy,[^16] such as through al-Jāḥiẓ’s (d. 255/868) *Ḥujaj al-Nubuwwah* (Proofs of Prophethood).[^17],[^18] Furthermore, this doctrine suggests that the miracles of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ—like those of Moses and Jesus—could only be accessed by means of testimony or revelation since the events had passed. The exception, however, was the Qur’an itself since its miraculous nature (*iʿjāz*) is still accessible to all people. Thus, the development of the concept of *iʿjāz al-Qur’ān* was initiated by numerous scholars, such as al-Jāḥiẓ,[^19] in part as a theological defense and primary proof of Muhammad’s prophethood ﷺ. Although none of the second- and third-century texts on the topic of *aʿlām al-nubuwwah* are fully preserved and extant today,[^20] references are made to the earliest contributions on the subject; e.g., by al-Jāḥiẓ’s teacher, the Mu’tazilite scholar Ibrāhīm al-Naẓẓām (d. 221/836). Additionally, two other factors expedited the development of *iʿjāz* doctrine during this era. First, scholars who commented on the *tafsīr* (exegesis) of the verses of *taḥaddī* (the Challenge) [^21] discussed the miraculous nature of the Qur’an, such as Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923).[^22] During this same era, another major catalyst in the development of *iʿjāz* doctrine seemed to stem from disputes about whether the Qur’an was created or uncreated, with the Mu’tazilites designating the Qur’an as “created” and—through political power[^23]—launching a severe inquisition (*miḥnah*) against the numerous scholars who disagreed, most notably Imām Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal (d. 241/855).[^24] Ibn Ḥanbal’s famous defense of the Qur’an’s “uncreatedness,” as the eternal *kalām* (Speech) of Allah, is significant as it was utilized by early Ash’arite scholars and others in their contributions to *iʿjāz* doctrine.[^25] Thus, the varying theories on *iʿjāz* doctrine in its early stages were developed through particular theological paradigms. For instance, the (theological) Ḥanbalite scholars had prohibited discussing the issue of whether the expression (*lafẓ)* of the Qur’an was created or not, while other scholars attempted to distinguish between the Qur’an that was revealed, recorded, recited, and/or memorized. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/936), the eponymous founder of the Ashʿarite theological strand of Islam, followed partially in the footsteps of Ibn Ḥanbal[^26] and refrained from speaking about the *lafẓ* of the Qur’an. Less than a century later, however, Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013) further developed Ash’arite theology when he delved into *al-lafẓ* and distinguished between the recited speech and the eternal uncreated Speech.[^27] Prior to al-Bāqillānī, scholars including Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād (d. 228/843), Hishām ibn ʿAmmār (d. 245/859), Muḥammad al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870), and al-Muzanī (d. 264/877) opined that one could believe that the pronunciation of the Qur’an was created (as a *fi’l/*action), but that the Qur’an itself was eternal.[^28] Due to the theological and philosophical debates of the third and fourth centuries, as well as the writings on proofs of prophethood, the early fourth century saw inevitable progress in *iʿjāz* doctrine, as seen in Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī’s (d. 306/918) *Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān fī naẓmihi wa-taʾlīfihi.*[^29] However, the more lucid and cogent arguments for *iʿjāz al-Qur’an* seem to have matured in three particular texts within the span of two decades (384-403 AH/994-1013 CE): ʿAlī al-Rummānī's (d. 384/994) *al-Nukat fī Iʿjāz al-Qur’ān,* Ḥamd bin Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī’s (d. 388/998) *Bayān Iʿjāz al-Qur’ān,* and Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī’s (d. 403/1013) *Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qur’ān,*[^30] a classical treatise elucidating the literary inimitability of the Qur’an. Later scholars expounded on these texts and contributed to *iʿjāz* doctrine, such as ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078),[^31] al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111),[^32] Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728/1328),[^33] Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392),[^34] and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūtī (d. 911/1505).[^35] --- ## The scope of iʿjāz al-Qur’ān Throughout the early centuries of Islam, scholars deliberated what exactly the *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an encompasses, such as its literary miracle, its impact on the hearts, knowledge of the unseen, predictions of the future, universal moral laws, and so forth. Many of the earlier authors on the subject of *iʿjāz* doctrine argued that the inimitability of the Qur’an is due to its literary miracle, primarily including the harmonious intertwining of the Qur’an’s composition (*naẓm*), its arrangement and structure of words and verses (*taʾlīf*),[^36] and its words (*lafẓ)* and meanings (*maʿná*). The earliest examples of the literary argument for *iʿjāz* include al-Khaṭṭābī’s *Bayān Iʿjāz al-Qur’ān,*[^37] as well as al-Bāqillānī's *Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, while other scholars contended that the miracle of the Qur’an was multifarious, including the contents and effects of the Qur’an in addition to its literary *iʿjāz*. Of the earliest scholars who held the view that the Qur’an was miraculous and inimitable in multiple ways was al-Qādī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025), who argued that the Qur’an was inimitable due to its otherworldly eloquence (*faṣāḥah*),[^38] its description of hidden matters (*ikhbār ʿan al-ghuyūb*),[^39] and the absence of any errors or contradictions in it (“Had it been from other than God, they would have certainly found within it much discrepancy”[^40]).[^41] He was followed shortly thereafter by ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078), who espoused a similar view in *Dalāʾil al-Iʿjāz*.[^42] Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (d. 430/1038), likewise, looked beyond only the literary *iʿjāz* and contended that the Qur’an’s impact on the hearts of people was an additional proof of its divine origins; he warranted his claim by pointing to the many reports of conversions to Islam caused by listening to a recitation of the Qur’an.[^43] al-Bāqillānī similarly points to the amazement and awe of disbelievers—particularly the master poets—who were moved and mesmerized when listening to the Qur’an for the first time; but, he argues, not every listener of truth will convert when encountering this miracle as there are many forces working against them.[^44] Subsequently, the famous polymath Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728/1328) opined that the Qur’an is miraculous not only because of its language, its organization, its approach, and teachings, nor only due to its elucidation on matters of the unseen world, but rather it is miraculous from all perspectives.[^45] On that matter, he concluded that “everything that has been cited as part of the Qur’an’s *iʿjāz* is an additional proof that it is miraculous, and there is no contradiction in that matter.”[^46] Similarly, Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī wrote about the many aspects of *iʿjāz* and then concluded: “The statement of those who have examined the issue thoroughly is that the *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an is due to all of the previous factors simultaneously and not by any one of them alone; the *iʿjāz* is in combining all of these facets…”[^47] As the Qur’an itself does not limit the *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an to one facet, nor does any authentic hadith or consensus of the companions or scholars, the author of this essay also agrees with the widely held view that the miraculous nature of the Qur’an is observed by considering all facets of *iʿjāz* simultaneously. It should be noted that scholars such as al-Khaṭṭābī opined that *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an must be found in every verse, but not every verse of the Qur’an includes prophecies of the future, or lost knowledge of the past, or knowledge of the natural world; therefore, *iʿjāz* cannot be confined to these facets. al-Khaṭṭābī opines that the primary *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an is its literary facet as it is found throughout the Qur’an, blended magnificently and entwined with miraculous content. He summarizes these points in his famous treatise:[^48] > The Qur’an is miraculously inimitable because it has come forth with the most eloquent words compounded in the most beautiful composition containing the most valid ideas such as believing in the unity of God, declaring Him to be Transcendent in His qualities, calling (humanity) to His obedience, elucidating the way of worshipping Him, as well as prescribing what is permitted and what is prohibited, what is forbidden and what is allowed, in addition to admonishing and correcting, commanding what is good and forbidding what is evil, and guiding to good qualities and restraining from bad ones. In all this, it has put every one of these things in its place which cannot be substituted by a more appropriate one, and nothing can be imagined that is more suitable than it.[^49] However, al-Khaṭṭābī also emphasizes in his treatise another facet of the Qur’an’s *iʿjāz*—one that is less emphasized than the literary miracle in *iʿjāz* discourse—and that is the Qur’an’s effects on the hearts and souls of people.[^50] Thus, by suggesting another facet of *iʿjāz* found in every verse of the Qur’an (i.e., the effects of the Qur’an), al-Khaṭṭābī seemed to also believe that *iʿjāz* was not *truly* limited to only one type of miraculous characteristic. --- ## The facets of iʿjāz al-Qur’ān As for the facets of Qur’anic *iʿjāz*, the scholar Muḥammad ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī (d. 741/1340) divided the *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an into ten categories,[^51] while other scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah wrote at length about more than fifty individual proofs of the Qur’an’s miraculous nature.[^52] Thus, the classifications used in this study are an amalgamation of numerous different dimensions of *iʿjāz* from dozens of scholars, many grouped together for the sake of succinctness. Among the facets of *iʿjāz* are the following: 1. The inimitability of the Qur’an 2. The literary miracle of the Qur’an 3. The preservation of the Qur’an 4. Predictions about the future 5. Lost knowledge of the past 6. Knowledge about the natural world 7. Elucidations about the origins of life 8. The existence of God, His Names, and His Attributes 9. Universal laws, objective morals, and guidance 10. The ease by which the Qur’an is memorized 11. The lack of errors and contradictions within it 12. Personal experiences related to the Qur’an As the series progresses and various facets of *iʿjāz* are addressed, it becomes clear to the objective reader that the only epistemologically sound belief is that the Qur’an’s authorship can be attributed only to God. --- ## The inimitability of the Qur’an Inimitability within the study of Qur’anic *iʿjāz* suggests that, because it is the Speech of God, the Qur’an cannot possibly be rivaled or imitated by the speech of God’s creation, for the skillfulness possessed by the creator of discourse essentially determines the degree of eloquence *(faṣāḥah)* of the final product.[^53] Additionally, if each of the facets of *iʿjāz* is considered carefully, it becomes clear that imitating them simultaneously in one text is an impossible feat for human beings. An attempt to imitate the Qur’an, it seems, must at least be an Arabic text reflecting unparalleled literary mastery; containing yet-undiscovered knowledge of the past, predictions of the future, and undiscovered knowledge of the natural world; impactful on society and on individual hearts; universal and objective in its moral laws; containing no errors or contradictions, and so forth. *Imitability*, therefore, would imply that a human being is capable of producing discourse “like it” *(mithlihī)* in the aforementioned facets of Qur’anic *iʿjāz.* In his treatise,[^54] al-Khaṭṭābī writes that it has been impossible for human beings to imitate the Qur’an for a number of reasons, some of which include the following: first, their knowledge is not sufficiently comprehensive to include all the terms of the Arabic language and all its words which are the vehicles and conveyors of ideas. Second, their minds are unable to understand the meanings of the things conveyed by those words. Third, their knowledge is imperfect and cannot apprehend all the ways these words can be harmoniously combined. For all these reasons, human beings will never be able to produce speech like the Qur’an. Indeed, speech consists of these three things: 1. words conveying meanings; 2. ideas in passages; 3. composition organizing those words and ideas. If you contemplate the Qur’an, you will not discover anything more eloquent or more harmonious than its words, nor will you discover any composition more beautiful, more concordant, or more appropriate than its composition. As for the ideas in it, it is clear to any intelligent person that they are what minds will testify to having precedence in their subject matter and to rising up to the highest ranks of refinement in their qualities. These three virtues may exist separately in a variety of types of speech. But one will only find all of them in the Speech of the All-Knowing, the Almighty, Whose knowledge comprehends everything in essence and number.[^55] --- ## The literary miracle of the Qur’an To demonstrate one summarized claim of *iʿjāz*, readers may look to the literary style and eloquent language of the Qur’an. To critique this claim, one must first grasp what the literary *iʿjāz* entails according to a number of scholars. The following lists various claims of literary *iʿjāz* from diverse scholars and educational institutions:[^56] 1. The placement of a particular word over its synonyms. The connotations of the chosen word are better than those of its synonyms. 2. The sentence structure and syntax, which does not follow any one pattern but varies throughout the Qur’an. Each style is unique and its rhythm is clear and resounding. 3. The use of different tenses (past vs. present; plural vs. singular, etc.) to illustrate deeper meanings of a passage. 4. The pronunciation of words matching their meanings. In other words, when discussing topics that are encouraging and bearing glad tidings, it uses words that are easy to pronounce and melodious to hear, whereas harsh topics tend to be associated with harsher phonemes. 5. The perfect combination of concision and detail. When the subject requires elaboration, the Qur’an discusses the topic in detail, and when a short phrase will get the message across, it remains brief. The sentences are constructed in an elegant manner that uses the smallest number of words, without sounding too brief, to express rich ideas. 6. The rhythms of the syllables are more sustained than in prose and less patterned than in poetry. The pauses come neither in prose form nor in the manner of poetry but with a harmonious and melodic flow. 7. The Qur’an’s words are neither mundane nor completely unfamiliar but are recognized as completely balanced and noble. 8. The conciseness of expression attains such striking clarity that the least learned Arabic-speaking person can understand the Qur’an without too much difficulty. At the same time, there is such profundity, flexibility, inspiration, and radiance in the Qur’an that it serves as the basis for the principles and rules of Islamic sciences and arts for theology and juridical schools. Thus, it is almost impossible to express the ideas of the text by only one interpretation, either in Arabic or in any other language even with the greatest care. 9. There is a perfect blend between the two antagonistic powers of reason and emotion, intellect, and feeling. In the narrations, arguments, doctrines, laws, and moral principles, the words have both persuasive teaching and emotive force. Throughout the whole Qur’an, the speech maintains its surprising solemnity, power, and majesty which nothing can disturb.[^57]  10. The combination of word choice, word order, grammatical shifts, subtleties, figurative and literal language, storytelling structures, and symmetry, in not one verse, but throughout the entirety of the Qur’an, regardless of the subject matter. Historically, many Muslim and non-Muslim scholars opined that the literary *iʿjāz* is the strongest and most clear aspect of the Qur’an’s divine nature, but it is also the most difficult aspect to elucidate in non-Arabic research. Thus, generally, a deep understanding of the Arabic language is essential to understand any objective discussion on the aforementioned facets of literary *iʿjāz*. In fact, if every facet of language were documented in this research and evaluated, it would demand several dissertations, since the Qur’an contains a wide range of rhetorical features. To simplify and properly frame the arguments of literary *iʿjāz* in non-Arabic research, one may consider the following points: 1. The perfection of the Qur’an and the context of its delivery; 2. The non-chronological revelation of the Qur’an; and 3. The question of the Qur’an’s origins. The Qur’an was revealed and conveyed over the course of 23 lunar years (610-632 CE) at various times and places, and this point must be kept in mind whilst reflecting on all aspects of literary and non-literary categories of *iʿjāz*. The method of delivery was verbal—and oftentimes it was conveyed after a question was posed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The oral delivery of the Qur’an is significant for two primary reasons. First, a high-quality product in its final form is oftentimes researched and revised a number of times before its dissemination to the masses. A professor’s request to a university student to stand and present on a random topic for ten minutes would produce a final product of significantly inferior quality than a professor requesting a student to submit a research paper due after a month. Although this example is not completely analogous to the point at hand, the Qur’an’s oral delivery is important to note because no error can be found in a scripture claiming to be from God, perfect without error, harmoniously flowing and intertwining the verse’s meanings, rhythm, rhetorical features, and precise word choice, and being conveyed not only to its followers but also to those who challenged its origins. Any infinitesimal literary error would have invited the Qur’an’s opponents to take advantage and gain the upper hand, thus ending any claim that the Qur’an could withstand any challenge by Quraysh. Had the challenge been fulfilled—or any error occurred—it could not have been retracted or ignored by the masters of Arabic poetry and the opponents of Prophet Muhammad or even his many Muslim followers. Some examples of direct questions to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with immediate responses include the following: > And they ask you \[O Muhammad\] about the soul. Say, “The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind has not been given knowledge except a little.”[^58] > They ask you \[O Muhammad\] about wine and gambling. Say, “In them is great sin and \[yet, some\] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you what they should spend. Say, “The excess \[beyond needs\].” Thus Allah makes clear to you the verses \[of revelation\] that you might give thought.[^59] The second important point to note regarding the oral delivery of the Qur’an is that the final product—the complete Qur’an with more than six thousand verses—manifests the highest order of perfection and unparalleled eloquence in its composition and organization. With many forms of literature, a beginning, middle, and end are formulated somewhat cohesively and chronologically in development or dissemination. With the Qur’an, however, verses and chapters were revealed non-chronologically throughout the 23 years of revelation in different regions and to different audiences, and those who memorized it would be instructed by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ on where to place each new revealed passage or verse. For example, the final verse of revelation according to many scholars is verse 281 of chapter 2,[^60] a chapter of 286 verses spanning a gradual revelation of two decades. However, the recitation of the verse fits in perfectly in this chapter as though it had been divinely planned and orchestrated before the entirety of the revelation was complete. Thus, as each literary facet of the Qur’an is examined in this series, one must consider the non-chronological delivery of these verses and how they came about with complete, harmonious perfection in the final product after twenty-three years. While the above serves as a highly condensed introduction to the Qur’an’s literary *iʿjāz*, the topic will be addressed at length in a future article. Ultimately, the literary *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an demonstrates that its authorship cannot be attributed to a human being. --- ## Conclusion The following question—and the crux of this series—is, “What makes the Qur’an miraculous?” This introductory article aimed to present the various facets of Qur’anic *iʿjāz*, the history of the doctrine of *i’jaz,* and a brief introduction to linguistic *iʿjāz*. The next essay in this series will address the inimitability of the Qur’an and the role of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in conveying the Qur’an. Ultimately, this series demonstrates the claim—that the Qur’an is from God—is not only the “best explanation” by means of the process of elimination but that the Qur’an’s miraculous nature adequately and clearly points to Allah as its source. Undoubtedly, this series carries extensive implications not only for Muslims who are interested in studying and preserving their own faith but also for sincere non-Muslims who seek Truth and wish to better understand the nature of the Qur’an, the final revelation of God. > Is it not enough for them that We have sent down to you the Book \[which is\] recited to them? Surely in this Qur’an is a mercy and reminder for people who believe.[^61] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 17:88. [^2]: For a slightly different definition, see: Muhammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil* *al-ʿirfān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān* (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr, 1943), 21. [^3]: See: Qur'an 76:6–16, 77:25–27, 79:27–32. [^4]: See: Qur'an 51:34–46, 79:15–26. [^5]: See: Qur’an 83:13. [^6]: For detailed descriptions of the terms *āyah and āyāt,* see Angelika Neuwirth, “Verse(s),” in *Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān*, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, accessed December 2, 2019, [http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922\_q3\_EQCOM\_00211](http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00211). [^7]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *Kitāb al-bayān ʿan al-farq bayna al-muʿjizāt wa-al-karamāt wa-al-ḥiyal wa-al-kahānah wa-al-siḥr wa-al-nārinjāt*, trans. by Richard Joseph McCarthy as *Miracle and Magic: A Treatise on the Nature of the Apologetic Miracle and Its Differentiation from Charisms, Trickery, Divination, Magic and Spells* (Beirut: Librairie Orientale, 1958), 45–49. [^8]: For historical elucidations on terminology related to *iʿjāz*, see G. E. Von Grunebaum, *A Tenth-Century Document of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950), introduction. [^9]: See: Qur’an 2:23–24, 10:38, 17:88, 52:33–34. [^10]: Qur’an 11:13. [^11]: See: Qur’an 10:38 in Ismāʿīl Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿaẓīm*, ed. Muṣtafá al-Sayyid Muḥammad et al., vol. 3 (Giza: Muʾassasat Qurṭuba, 2000). [^12]: Jalāl al-Din al-Suyūti, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān* (Medina: Majmaʿ Malik Fahad, 2005), 1875. [^13]: Qur’an 7:107. [^14]: See: Qur’an 3:49 and Infancy of Thomas 2. [^15]: Ḥasan Diyāʾ al-Dīn, *al-Muʿjizah al-khālidah* (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmīyah, 1994), 113. [^16]: Sarah Stroumsa, “The Signs of Prophecy: The Emergence and Early Development of a Theme in Arabic Theological Literature,” *Harvard Theological Review* 78, nos. 1/2 (January–April 1985): 101–3. [^17]: See: Amr b. Bahr al-Jāḥiẓ, *Ḥujaj al-nubuwwah*, in *Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ*, ed. 'A. S. M. Harun, 4 vols. (Cairo: n.p., 1399/1979). [^18]: The term *hujjah* (proof) was utilized more frequently in the writings of al-Jāḥiẓ, such as on the topic of proofs of prophethood, but he also referred to other similar terms, such as *āyah, burhān,* and *‘ajz* (the root of *muʿjizah).* See: al-Jahiz, *Rasā’il al-Jāhiẓ,* ed. Ḥasan al-Sandubī (Cairo: Al-Maktabah at-Tijaariyyah, 1933). [^19]: See: ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ, *Kitāb al-hayawān*, ed. A. S. Hārūn, 7 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1954). [^20]: Stroumsa, “The Signs of Prophecy,” 106. [^21]: Qur’an 2:23–24, 10:38, 11:13, 17:88, and 52:33–34. [^22]: Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir, ed., *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan ta’wīl āy al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymīyah, 2008). [^23]: The Mu’tazilite inquisition began during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Maʾmūn (d. 833). [^24]: See: Abū Zahrah, *Ibn Ḥanbal* (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī, 1997). [^25]: See: Walter Melville Patton, *Ahmed ibn Ḥanbal and the Mihna* (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1897). [^26]: See: Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, *al-Ibānah ʿan uṣūl al-diyānah* (Cairo: Idārat al-Ṭibāʿah al-Munīrīyah, 1970). [^27]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *Tamhīd al-awāʾil wa-talkhīṣ al-dalāʾil,* ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad al-Khuḍayrī and Muḥammad Abū Rīda (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī, 1989), 251. [^28]: Christopher Melchert, “The Adversaries of Ahmad ibn Hanbal,” *Arabica* 44 (1997): 234–53, at 241–2. [^29]: Abū Sulaymān Ḥamd ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, in *Thalāth rasāʾil fī iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, ed. Muḥammad Khalaf Allāh and Muḥammad Zaghlūl Sallām (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1976), 21–71. [^30]: See: al-Bāqillānī, *Kitab iʿjāz al-Qur’an* and Von Grunebaum, *A Tenth-Century Document*. [^31]: ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī, *Dalāʾil al-iʿjāz*, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1995). [^32]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazāli, *al-Iqtisād fī al-iʿtiqād* \[The middle path in theology\], ed. L. A. Cubukcu and H. Atay (Ankara: Nur Matbaasi, 1962). [^33]: Abū al-ʿAbbās Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad Ibn Taymīyah, *al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ li-man baddala dīn al-masīḥ* (Dār al-ʿᾹsimah, 1999). [^34]: Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: Maktabah al-ʿAsrīyah, 1972). [^35]: al-Suyūtī, *al-Itqān*, 1875. [^36]: The terms *naẓm* and *ta’līf* are sometimes used interchangeably. [^37]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*. [^38]: al-Qaḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, *al-Mughnī,* ed. Amīn al-Khūlī (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub, 1960), 197. [^39]: ʿAbd al-Jabbār, 330. [^40]: Qur’an 4:82. [^41]: ʿAbd al-Jabbār, *al-Mughnī*, 328. [^42]: ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī, *Dalāʾil al-iʿjāz*, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1995). See also: Margaret Mary Larkin, *The Theology of Meaning: ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī's Theory of Discourse* (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1995). [^43]: See Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, *Dalāʾil al-nubuwwah* (Hyderabad: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmānīyah, 1950), 183. [^44]: al-Bāqillānī, *Kitāb iʿjāz al-Qur’ān,* 51. [^45]: Ibn Taymīyah, *al-Jawāb,* 428. [^46]: Ibn Taymīyah, *al-Jawāb,* 429. [^47]: Al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān*, 106. [^48]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*. [^49]: Translated by Issa J. Boullata. [^50]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, 70. [^51]: See: ʿAbd al-Munʿim Faraj Darwish, *Luluʾ wa-al-marjān fī tanbīh ʿalá iʿjāz al-Qur’ān* (Dubai: Markaz al-Daʿwah wa al-Irshād, n.d.), 56. [^52]: Ibn Taymīyah, *al-Jawāb.* [^53]: Jurjānī, *Dalāʾil al-iʿjāz*, 57–65. [^54]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Bayān iʿjāz al-Qurʾān*, 26–28. The following two paragraphs from al-Khaṭṭābī’s treatise are translated by Issa J. Boullata. [^55]: al-Khaṭṭābī, 27. [^56]: Manna Qattaan, *Mabāḥith fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālat, 1983), 264–69. [^57]: Mohammad Khalifa, *The Sublime Qur’an and Orientalism* (New York: Longman, 1981), 24. [^58]: Qur’an 17:85. [^59]: Qur’an 2:219. [^60]: See: al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, 2:281. [^61]: Qur’an 29:51. ## Summary The Qur’an stands at the very heart of Muslim belief as the Speech (*kalām*) of Allah, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through the Angel Jibrīl, preserved in the *muṣḥaf*, transmitted to us through authentic chains, and standing as an open challenge to all of mankind to produce anything resembling it. The central question concerning the Qur’an is that of its authorship, and here only two possibilities present themselves: either it is the Speech of God revealed to His Prophet ﷺ, or it is the composition of the Prophet ﷺ or some other human being. The considered conclusion is that, upon careful and sincere examination, its authorship cannot reasonably be ascribed to anyone but Allah. The Qur’an is composed of *āyāt*, a word which in its Qur’anic usage means “sign”—whether signs of God’s Being and Power, signs within nature, signs drawn from history, or the very revelation itself as a sign (as in Allah’s words, “when Our signs are recited…”). Thus the Qur’an is understood not merely as divine Speech but as a perfect, preserved sign: memorized on an unmatched scale, impossible to imitate, free of error or contradiction, containing knowledge of the unseen, and standing as the final message of God until the Day of Resurrection. The term *iʿjāz* derives from *ʿajaza*, meaning incapability, and it points to mankind’s inability (*ʿajz*) to imitate the Qur’an, which is itself taken as a sign of its divine origin. The Qur’an is therefore an ongoing *muʿjizah*, that which “breaks the custom” (*kharq al-ʿādah*) or natural order, and remains a standing proof authenticating the Prophet’s ﷺ mission. The foundation for this doctrine lies within the Qur’an itself, appearing on six occasions, wherein the adversaries of the Prophet ﷺ who declared the Qur’an fabricated were challenged to “produce something like it… if you are truthful.” These are known collectively as the Verses of the Challenge (*āyāt at-taḥaddī*). Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) held that the challenge came in stages: first to produce the likeness of the entire Qur’an, then reduced to ten *sūwar*, and finally to a single *sūrah*. As-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) recounts this same sequence, noting that when the most eloquent of the Arabs proved unable to meet even the smallest form of the challenge, the Prophet ﷺ openly declared their inability, and Allah revealed that even if all mankind and jinn gathered to produce its like, they could not do so. A significant point raised is that the miracles of earlier prophets were tied to their own times and to the concerns of their peoples—as with Mūsā عليه السلام, sent to a society devoted to sorcery, whose staff became a true serpent that devoured the sorcerers’ illusions (Qur’an 7:107), and with ʿĪsā عليه السلام, sent with the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, and the giving of life to a bird of clay by God’s permission (Qur’an 3:49). Such miracles were bounded by time and place, accessible to later generations only through testimony. The *iʿjāz* of the Qur’an, by contrast, removes these constraints, so that the miracle itself remains permanently accessible. Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406) captured this in his *Muqaddimah*, observing that whereas other miracles came separate from the revelation as proofs of its truth, the Qur’an is at once the revelation and the miracle combined, requiring no external proof, and this is why the Prophet ﷺ said he hoped to have the greatest number of followers on the Day of Judgment. The doctrine developed over the early centuries. Scholars first wrote on the signs of prophethood (*aʿlām an-nubuwwah*), as with al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/868) and his teacher an-Naẓẓām (d. 221/836), though these earliest works are no longer fully extant. The exegesis of the challenge verses by scholars such as al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), and the theological disputes over whether the Qur’an was created or uncreated—during which Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855) endured the *miḥnah* for defending its uncreatedness as the eternal *kalām* of Allah—further shaped the discussion. Positions differed: the Ḥanbalites forbade discussion of whether the utterance (*lafẓ*) was created, al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/936) likewise refrained, while al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013) later distinguished the recited speech from the eternal uncreated Speech. Earlier figures such as al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870) held that the pronunciation could be regarded as a created act while the Qur’an itself remained eternal. The most mature early treatises appeared within two decades: those of ar-Rummānī (d. 384/994), al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 388/998), and al-Bāqillānī, with later contributions from al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078), al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328), az-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392), and as-Suyūṭī. Concerning the scope of *iʿjāz*, scholars differed. Many earlier authors located the inimitability chiefly in the Qur’an’s literary miracle—its composition (*naẓm*), arrangement (*taʾlīf*), and the union of its wording (*lafẓ*) and meaning (*maʿnā*)—as with al-Khaṭṭābī and al-Bāqillānī. Others held it to be multifaceted: al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025) cited its eloquence, its disclosure of the unseen, and its freedom from contradiction, invoking Allah’s words, “Had it been from other than God, they would have found within it much discrepancy” (Qur’an 4:82). Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (d. 430/1038) pointed to its effect upon hearts, evidenced by conversions upon hearing it, while al-Bāqillānī noted the awe of the master poets, adding that not every listener converts, since many forces work against them. Ibn Taymiyyah held the Qur’an miraculous from every perspective, and az-Zarkashī concluded that its *iʿjāz* lies in the combination of all facets together. Since neither the Qur’an nor any authentic hadith nor consensus limits *iʿjāz* to a single facet, the position favored is that its miraculous nature is grasped by considering all facets simultaneously. Al-Khaṭṭābī, notably, argued that *iʿjāz* must be present in every verse and therefore cannot be confined to prophecy or knowledge of the unseen, which are not in every verse; he identified the literary facet as primary, yet also affirmed the Qur’an’s effect upon hearts as a facet present throughout. The facets enumerated include the Qur’an’s inimitability, its literary miracle, its preservation, its predictions and lost knowledge of the past, its knowledge of the natural world and origins of life, its teaching on God’s Names and Attributes, its universal morals, the ease of its memorization, its freedom from contradiction, and personal experiences with it. On inimitability, al-Khaṭṭābī explained that humans cannot imitate the Qur’an because their command of the language, their grasp of meanings, and their knowledge of harmonious composition are all imperfect, whereas these three virtues—words conveying meaning, ideas in passages, and composition uniting them—are found perfected only in the Speech of the All-Knowing, the Almighty. The literary miracle encompasses word choice, syntax, tense, the matching of sound to meaning, the balance of concision and detail, rhythm between prose and poetry, and clarity joined with depth. Two points frame this: the Qur’an was delivered orally over twenty-three years (610–632 CE), often in immediate answer to questions posed to the Prophet ﷺ (as in Qur’an 17:85 and 2:219), leaving no room to revise or retract any error; and it was revealed non-chronologically, yet the final arrangement—with a verse such as 2:281, held by many to be among the last revealed, fitting perfectly within its *sūrah*—manifests complete harmony. This introductory treatment thus points toward the conclusion, to be developed further, that the Qur’an’s authorship belongs to none but Allah, who says, “Is it not enough for them that We have sent down to you the Book which is recited to them?” (Qur’an 29:51). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/fake-news-is-nothing-new-misinformation-and-islamic-critical-epistemology # There Has Always Been Fake News: Misinformation and Islamic Critical Epistemology **Authors:** Arnold Yasin Mol, Jeroen Vlug **Topics:** Epistemology, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Fake News, Palestine, Paper, Publication **Published:** June 11, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## There has always been Fake News World crises are not new to us. In our short lifespans, there have been multiple genocides, such as in Bosnia and Rwanda, and immense droughts and mass starvation, as in Somalia. We have experienced multiple economic recessions and violence and injustice continues against our brothers and sisters in [East Turkestan](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/spending-ethically-for-justice-a-muslim-response-to-the-uyghur-genocide), [Kashmir](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-forgotten-muslims-how-kashmiris-breathe-islam-under-occupation), [Palestine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-palestinian-struggle-through-the-prophetic-lens), and beyond. Along with its impact on our lives, it also shapes our thinking. And with the increase of that impact, we also see an increasing awareness of intentional lies and conspiracy theories.[^1],[^2] Islamic anthropology, the way Islam conceptualizes the human, is one of optimism as opposed to pessimism, as seen in its rejection of the concept of original sin.[^3] But Islam also promotes realism; it is not naïve. People hurt others and can be truly evil. And one of these harms is that a lot of people lie. But as a prophetic tradition states, this behavior should not become natural for a believer: > The believer has a nature with a multitude of dispositions and lying and being traitorous are not among them.[^4] Lying has always been seen as an evil within the intellectual history of mankind. Only in certain exceptional circumstances has it been viewed as acceptable or even necessary, such as to ward off an immense harm like the loss of life.[^5] Within the Islamic ethical tradition (*akhlāq*), lying (*kadhib*) is described thus: > It is an evil (*sharr*) composed of empty speech, for it communicates a conviction without any truthfulness and possibly causes harm. So to mention \[any form of lying\] makes one responsible for blame and is devoid of usefulness and is just frivolous behavior.[^6] The famous Ottoman scholar Ṭāshkuprī’zāda (d. 968 AH) comments on this by making a comparison between prophethood and civilization: If truthfulness (*ṣidq*) was not the foundation of prophethood, then revelation and the Shariah would become void. So, similarly, truthfulness is the foundation of civilization; no society can uplift itself without humans being truthful to another.[^7] It has always been a concern how lies, false information, and fake news affect personal character, relationships, and society as a whole. With the rise of social media and the associated ease of creating, receiving, and sharing information, this concern has increased as well. The basic definition of misinformation is “wrong information,” whereas disinformation is explained as “false information spread in order to deceive people.”[^8] Misinformation can be created unintentionally, or based on badly informed approaches to science,[^9] but disinformation is meant to distort our view on the truth of the matters involved. It involves a deliberate lie. We see this spectrum of misinformation and disinformation with information on the coronavirus. During crises, people often turn to blaming the cultural and religious Other among them. During medieval plagues, Jews were seen by the dominant Christian community as the cause of the pandemic.[^10] In several countries, Muslim minorities were blamed for coronavirus outbreaks.[^11] This cultural and religious othering is underpinned by the psychological mechanisms of xenophobia and, more recently, Islamophobia.[^12] Some types of misinformation may seem harmless,[^13] much of which is also meant to scam people,[^14] but there is also misinformation that kills people.[^15] Although untruth and lies should be against the nature of a believer, Muslims also are both victims and perpetrators when it comes to misinformation. The amount of misinformation going around among Muslims is no different to that of non-Muslims and can include world politics, health and medicine, and even financial scams, some of which are especially targeted at Muslims.[^16] The Prophet Muḥammad ‎ﷺ‎‬‎‬ warned us about uncritically forwarding information: > It is enough falsehood for a person to relate everything they hear.[^17] The Qur’an also warns us against accepting information uncritically: > O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful. (Qur’an 49:6) Some fake news might kill people. One of the central maxims of Islamic law and ethics, as within the medical community, is to avoid and remove harm.[^18] We, therefore, have a strong obligation to understand how we are informed, and how we can be informed correctly to avoid harm to ourselves and to others (i.e., [information literacy](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam)). This shows that Muslims (and non-Muslims as well) must adopt a critical engagement with information.[^19] Thankfully this knowledge has been taught for centuries by the Islamic tradition. --- ## Islamic critical epistemology as a solution Epistemology is the technical term for the theory of human knowledge, its nature, origin, and limits.[^20] It is in a sense the first science of all other sciences. What is knowing, and how do we know? Greek philosophy understood it to be part of the discussion on psychology, the human mind, and this is also how it came to be studied within Islamic philosophy and its wider intellectual history.[^21] The question of how we can know things has a deep significance for theology as well. How can we know God, that He exists, what He wants from us, and that He communicates to us? Classical epistemology is therefore discussed both in works on dogma and philosophical theology (*ʿaqīdah* and *ʿilm al-kalām*) and philosophy of law (*uṣūl al-fiqh*), wherein they were labeled “causes of knowledge” (*asbāb al-ʿilm*) or “sources of knowing” (*maṣādir al-maʿrifa*). These causes are summarized in the famous 13th\-century Māturīdī creedal tract *ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafī* as: (1) sound sense perception (*al-ḥawāss al-salīmah*), (2) reliable reports (*al-khabar al-ṣādiq*), (3) intellect/reasoning (*al-ʿaql*).[^22] These debates on sources of knowledge were discussed in early works of *kalām* on the topic of both ethics and prophethood, as why would we need “revelation” as a source of knowledge?[^23] Can humans attain full truth about the world on their own? So, theologians started to divide up different forms and causes of knowledge. The physical world and its physical workings are observable with the senses (*ḥiss*), understandable through the intellect (*ʿaql*) which is aided by the imagination, the heart, and the primordial nature (*fiṭrah*),[^24] which all together can direct us towards truth and goodness.[^25] These constitute empirical, rational, and deductive knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-naẓarī wa-al-istidlālī*). Humans also create knowledge, customs, and technology; i.e., cultural knowledge. Some natural and cultural knowledge is continually generated anew (“innovation”), other forms are lost but, in general, there is a form of knowledge accumulation within cultures that is shared through “reports,” i.e., related or transmitted knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-naqlī*).[^26] Some reports are doubtful, others trustworthy. So, there are grades of trustworthiness of related knowledge, in the same way prophetic traditions (*ḥadīth*) were graded[^27] and the people relating them were judged on reliability (the science of *ʿilm al-rijāl*), whereby unknown and lying persons were not accepted.[^28] You can have general reports which generate speculative or possible knowledge (*ẓannī*), and undeniable or certain knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-ḍarūrī*)—for example, knowledge of the existence of a major city like London or a major historical figure such as Alexander the Great.[^29] So, we have constant newly generated knowledge about the world around us and shared accumulated knowledge, both of which provide us several possibilities for how to explain the world. But does this provide us with a total explanation of the world? Is there existence beyond the physical? How do we attain certain knowledge about the non-physical world? Is there a purpose to the world and can we know its end? *Kalām* theologians[^30] believed a certain ‘minimal’ theology and ethics were knowable to humans through senses, intellect, and shared knowledge without the assistance of revelation.[^31] But to fully know our ethical responsibility, what God expects from us, how to be in this world, we need help. We need prophets![^32] But how do we know what information is truly from God? Many people claim prophethood. There are many religions. To know who is sent by God, to know his information is truly from God, we need signs of authenticity only God could generate. Miracles, supernatural events, could only be generated by the Controller of the World.[^33] How do we recognize them and know about these signs? We end up again with our human limitations of senses (observe miracles), intellect (recognize true from false and think about their meaning), and shared knowledge (we tell others about them). Also, prophets bring information, i.e., revelation, which we need to maximize our theology. So, we also then need to distinguish possible from certain knowledge in relation to the shared knowledge going around about prophets and their revelations. We need to check if they fit with our minimal theology and we need to grade the shared reports. The shared reports need to be graded from unreliable to possible to certain knowledge as different aspects of our lives demand different levels of certainty. If a certain act must be punished with the death penalty, we want to have maximum certainty God said this and meant this. So, the level of certainty required of the attained knowledge is equal to the impact it has on our lives. So minimal theology is dependent on empiricism, historicity, reason, and logic,[^34] and maximal theology also depends on them. We therefore need to use these three sources of knowledge in all things and use them critically as we are responsible for what we accept as knowledge, especially knowledge that is the basis of our acts. We therefore also need to know how we can critically examine the contents of both the shared knowledge and the reasoning applied to it. Here again, the Islamic tradition has provided us with a lifeline. --- ## Thinking straight: The centrality of logic in Islamic learning Islamic civilization from its inception had systematic ways of correct reasoning that were indigenous to the Islamic intellectual tradition; however, from the 11th century onwards, the formalized system of Arabic logic (*ʿilm al-manṭiq*) became the dominant intellectual tool for reasoning and critical analysis.[^35] As the Islamic scholar Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī famously proposed in his influential treatise on Islamic legal philosophy, *Distillation of the Principles of Jurisprudence* (*al-Mustaṣfá min ʿilm al-uṣūl*), Islamic logic is not merely a tool for correct reasoning. He says about logic: > \[Logic\] is an introduction to *all the sciences*, and he who does not comprehend it is not ever to be trusted in his scholarship.[^36] Logic in the Islamic intellectual tradition serves as a principal tool for scientific discourse and discovery, which guarantees a certain precision in scientific reasoning and a safeguard against hidden assumptions and logical fallacies.[^37] As a system of rules and guidelines regarding correct thinking, logic covers such topics as how to make proper definitions (*al-ḥadd*) and propositions (*al-qaḍīyah*) and how to construct correct arguments in the form of syllogisms (*al-qiyās*).[^38] What are the underlying premises of a provided argument—how is it conceptualized (*taṣawwur*)? We also need to verify (*taṣdīq*) this conceptualization—are correct definitions and propositions being used? Do we know exactly what we mean when we speak of a term? Are we speaking about the same thing?[^39] Logic as a system for proper reasoning and eliminating unwarranted beliefs, hasty conjectures, or fallacious arguments can provide rational guidance in our modern world of fake news and misinformation.[^40] Logic is, in fact, part of a larger toolkit in the Islamic tradition for “thinking straight” (i.e., proper reasoning) in all intellectual endeavors. This toolkit includes, besides logic, the sciences of dialectics (*ʿilm al-baḥth wa-al-munāẓarah*), rhetoric (*ʿilm al-balāghah*), and semantics (*ʿilm al-waḍʿ*). Together, these are called the “instrumental sciences” (*ʿulūm al-ālah*), which were fundamental prerequisite studies for the student of sacred knowledge (*ṭālib al-ʿilm*) to master before moving on to the so-called “higher sciences” (*ʿulūm al-ʿāliyah*), such as Islamic law (*fiqh*), legal philosophy (*uṣūl al-fiqh*), Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsīr*), or philosophical theology (*kalām*).[^41] Logic became part of an Islamic *Organon* of sorts, that was to take center stage in the classical Muslim *madrasah* educational curriculum.[^42] Notwithstanding Orientalist claims that logic in the Islamic world stopped flourishing after the 14th century, recent academic scholarship has shown that logic, in fact, continued to develop and flourish well into our modern times.[^43] Current research is thus slowly, but steadily, catching up to the fact that logic and other intellectual ancillary sciences are being taught in Muslim theological seminaries today throughout the Muslim world as part of a *lived* intellectual tradition.[^44] We, as Muslims, would do well to cherish this tradition and learn it, especially in times in which misinformation, faulty reasoning, and conspiracy thinking reign supreme. --- ## Conclusion: An adāb of forwarding And now we return to where we started. False information can have an immense negative impact on our lives. It therefore requires high reliability before any information is accepted, applied, and shared around with others. *Uṣūl al-fiqh*, the fundamentals of Islamic jurisprudence, only accept a certain scope of sources, tools of interpretation (hermeneutics), and expertise to determine Islamic law.[^45] The science of medicine has its own *uṣūl* as well, which is why Islamic *fiqh* councils across the world have involved medical experts to create opinions on modern bioethical issues such as cloning and organ donation.[^46] We need to respect the domain of each science. We have to trust and follow (*taqlīd*) the experts who are qualified to deal with these subjects (Qur’an 21:7). But like Muslim scholars, members of the scientific community also differ with one another, so it is strongly recommended in the same spirit to follow the majority (*jamhūr*) and consensus (*ijmāʿ*) opinions, and avoid outlying (*shādhdh*) ones. We have both the right and obligation to be informed, to understand what is going on, and to know how to act in the best fashion so we can avoid harm. This requires a critical engagement with information as has been taught by our intellectual tradition for centuries. The Islamic tradition has provided us with powerful tools to assess the information coming to us at multiple levels of analysis. We observe them through our senses almost unwillingly, so we need to judge them critically. Where is this information from, what is its source, and what is its chain of transmission (*isnād*)? How did it reach me? Who said it, and are they reliable and qualified to discuss these matters? What is the background of this information? Is it reasonable, logical, and can it be confirmed and corroborated by other information out there? What is the majority opinion or consensus on this? Does it have sound premises? Does this information help me avoid harm to myself and others? A case study we can all learn from, were the many false claims circulated in the early days of the COVID pandemic. When it was claimed, for example, that 5G technology was related to the coronavirus outbreak, we should have asked where this claim originated from. Was it claimed by scientists who had the necessary knowledge to question and research such a connection, or was it a claim of non-specialists? It turns out it was the latter.[^47] We always need to investigate if non-specialists are utilizing sound definitions and premises. For example, did they use valid data and arguments to make the claim for a causal relationship between 5G electromagnetic radiation and a transmittable biological disease? It turns out they did not.[^48] When we dig deeper, we see that there had been earlier public concerns about 5G technology, and this concern was then falsely connected to the coronavirus outbreak. Not only was it a claim of non-specialists, but it also lacked a sound *isnād*. It could therefore be dismissed as unreliable knowledge. Fake news. ![Etiquette for forwarding information - Fake news in nothing new](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Adab-or-etiquette-for-forwarding-information-1024x402.png) When a fellow believer shares information, we are obliged to have a good opinion (*ḥusn al-ẓann*) about that person. But there is a scope to *ḥusn al-ẓann*. Trust your fellow human, especially your brother or sister in faith. But don’t assume they have checked the sources. Ask them where they got their information from and why they think it is reliable. Be critical together. In the spirit of the critical apparatus of our intellectual tradition, we need to apply an *adāb*, an ethical conduct, of forwarding and sharing information. --- ## Notes [^1]: There is a certain psychology of conspiracy thinking that is abused during a crisis: Joe Pierre, “Understanding the Psychology of Conspiracy Theories: Part 1,” *Psychology Today*, January 14, 2020, [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202001/understanding-the-psychology-conspiracy-theories-part-1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202001/understanding-the-psychology-conspiracy-theories-part-1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241577001&usg=AOvVaw3DoNdxyrjQioeoHMqiUZh_). [^2]: “Conspiracy theories are a symptom of a larger issue where people don’t trust politics and feel left behind ... when world-changing events happen we want them to have meaning. ... The idea that this could happen randomly is just not enough for many people.” Lizzie Dearden, “Coronavirus: Almost Half of Britons Believe Virus is ‘Man-Made’ as Conspiracy Theories Spread,” *Independent*, April 25, 2020, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theories-man-made-uk-poll-bleach-a9484066.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theories-man-made-uk-poll-bleach-a9484066.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241577269&usg=AOvVaw3xG9Dj_xhKTdw0qHPzhRyt). [^3]: What we mean here by optimism is that, in Islam, sin is not a necessary nature of a human in the way the Christian concept of original sin views the human. In Islam, sin is a chosen act by the accountable person (*mukallaf*, i.e., a sane and mature human); therefore, sin is self-imposed. Technically, we can choose not to sin (i.e., anthropological optimism). In Christian thought, sin is an unavoidable state of man (i.e., anthropological pessimism). It can even be stated that the Islamic concept of *fiṭrah* is the opposite of the concept of original sin. For a discussion on *fiṭrah*, see below. For a discussion on original sin in relation to Islam, see Yasien Mohamed, *Fitrah: The Islamic Concept Of Human Nature* (London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1996), 25–32. [^4]: (“يطبع المؤمن على الخلال كلها إلا الخيانة والكذب”) Related in multiple collections, such as in al-Bayhaqī’s *Sunan al-kubrá* (Mecca: Maktabat Dār al-Bāz, 1414 AH), 10:197. See for its use and an overview of sources: al-Birgivī, *al-Ṭarīqat al-Muḥammadīyah* (Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 2011), 352n1. [^5]: This is why the Qur’an allows in verse 16:106 lying about one’s faith to protect one’s own life, as the protection of life is a fundamental principle of the Shariah. Within the literature on the objectives of the Shariah (*maqāṣid al-sharīʿah*), the dominant order is the preservation of religion, and then life, mind, progeny, and wealth. But there is of course a holistic element between these objectives, as without life and mind there is no religion. We see this also with scholars like al-Bayḍāwī, Ibn Taymīyah, and al-Qarāfī who place the preservation of life as the first and dominant of the objectives. See: Gamal Eldin Attia, *Towards Realization of the Higher Intents of Islamic Law: Maqasid al-Shariah: A Functional Approach* (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought \[IIIT\], 2008), 16–36. [^6]: ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 756 AH), *Risālat al-akhlāq* (Kuwait: Dār al-Ḍiyāʾ, 2018), 45. Translation by A. Y. Mol. [^7]: Ṭāshkuprī’zādah’s (d. 968 AH) supercommentary (*sharḥ*) on al-Ījī’s *Risālat al-akhlāq*, 142–43. [^8]: *Cambridge Dictionary*, s.v. “misinformation,” [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/misinformation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/misinformation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241578007&usg=AOvVaw1IgBIX06mpHgseGZ2ANmVi); *Cambridge Dictionary*, s.v. “disinformation,” [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disinformation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disinformation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241578238&usg=AOvVaw1EQDJflOzpokck9JTSVM_R). [^9]: We would place the Flat Earth Movement within this category: Natalie Wolchover, “Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious?,” May 30, 2017, [https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241578465&usg=AOvVaw0QzRUSZLr4axBCXHRRHkLf). [^10]: “From the Black Death to Coronavirus: What We Haven't Learned from History,” World Economic Forum, March 12, 2020, [https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-and-the-black-death-spread-of-misinformation-and-xenophobia-shows-we-haven-t-learned-from-our-past/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-and-the-black-death-spread-of-misinformation-and-xenophobia-shows-we-haven-t-learned-from-our-past/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241578711&usg=AOvVaw0XIcZApO6cHFqblh-xfBH1). [^11]: MEE, “US and Rights Groups Warn Religious Minorities Being Blamed for Coronavirus,” Middle East Eye, April 4, 2020, [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-religious-minorities-being-blamed-outbreaks](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-religious-minorities-being-blamed-outbreaks&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241578881&usg=AOvVaw3HjBQ_htUDT-vnxED93_la); Rowaida Abdelaziz, “Anti-Muslim Propaganda Is Seeping into Online Discourse about the Coronavirus,” HuffPost, April 10, 2020, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-muslim-propaganda-is-seeping-into-coronavirus-coverage\_n\_5e90b721c5b624efd9a27fab](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-muslim-propaganda-is-seeping-into-coronavirus-coverage_n_5e90b721c5b624efd9a27fab&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241579069&usg=AOvVaw3qLb5WzXKArsI4VPmiHl_D); Lizzie Dearden, “Coronavirus: ‘Dangerous’ Conspiracy Theories Could Spark Wave of Islamophobic Attacks When Lockdown Lifts, Report Warns,” *Independent*, April 19, 2020, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-muslim-lockdown-conspiracy-theories-tommy-robinson-katie-hopkins-a9471516.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-muslim-lockdown-conspiracy-theories-tommy-robinson-katie-hopkins-a9471516.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241579364&usg=AOvVaw31wPvdYslw2KvJGTfNisg2). [^12]: For more on the psychological workings of xenophobia, see Lene Auestad, ed., *Nationalism and the Body Politic: Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia* (London: Karnac, 2014). For an excellent volume on the various dimensions of Islamophobia, see Nazanin Massoumi, ed., *What Is Islamophobia? Racism, Social Movements and the State* (London: Pluto Press, 2017). [^13]: Janosch Delcker, Zosia Wanat, and Mark Scott, “The Coronavirus Fake News Pandemic Sweeping WhatsApp,” *Politico*, March 16, 2020, [https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/coronavirus-fake-news-pandemic-133447](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/coronavirus-fake-news-pandemic-133447&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241579766&usg=AOvVaw20GuIH5y-ZH3i6WOwXhEo1). [^14]: Scott Zamost, “Coronavirus Fraudsters Prey on Fear and Confusion with Fake Products, Email Scams,” CNBC, March 24, 2020, [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/coronavirus-fraudsters-prey-on-fear-with-fake-products-email-scams.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/coronavirus-fraudsters-prey-on-fear-with-fake-products-email-scams.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241579930&usg=AOvVaw25nptydvPhJ5XiD-sQWtel); Jane Lytvynenko, “Here's a Running List of the Latest Hoaxes Spreading about the Coronavirus,” BuzzFeed News, March 16, 2020, updated March 20, 2020, [https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/coronavirus-fake-news-disinformation-rumors-hoaxes](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/coronavirus-fake-news-disinformation-rumors-hoaxes&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241580069&usg=AOvVaw2NnUNXPC4cW0g4sEhsz3xq). [^15]: Bel Trew, “Coronavirus: Hundreds Dead in Iran from Drinking Methanol amid Fake Reports It Cures Disease,” *Independent*, March 27, 2020, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-coronavirus-methanol-drink-cure-deaths-fake-a9429956.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-coronavirus-methanol-drink-cure-deaths-fake-a9429956.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241580270&usg=AOvVaw2CefdEpzY--QbmKjpqcQ_M). [^16]: Jamie Bartlett, “How the World’s Biggest Crypto-Scam Targeted British Muslims,” *Spectator*, October 20, 2019, [https://www.irtis.org.uk/activities/the-spectator-fatwa-by-mufti-amjad-mohammed-exposes-onecoin-scam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.irtis.org.uk/activities/the-spectator-fatwa-by-mufti-amjad-mohammed-exposes-onecoin-scam/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241580457&usg=AOvVaw2FlEb36Se77nCmJTz8LAXh). [^17]: (“كَفَى بِالْمَرْءِ إِثْمًا أَنْ يُحَدِّثَ بِكُلِّ مَا سَمِعَ”) Related in the collections of Muslim (introduction) and Abu Dawūd (*kitāb al-adāb*). [^18]: There are multiple maxims of Islamic jurisprudence (*al-qawāʿid al-fiqhīyah*) concerning removing, avoiding, and balancing competing harms. These all center around the famous prophetic tradition: “There is no causing harm or reciprocating harm (لا ضرر ولا ضرار)”, which has been related in many collections such as Ibn Mājah. Islamic law is understood by the majority of scholars as revolving around two main concerns: removing harm and securing benefit. Removing harm is therefore seen as half the law, but also takes precedence over securing benefit. See: Shahrul Hussain, *A Treasury of Sacred Maxims: A Commentary on Islamic Legal Principles* (Leicestershire: Kube, 2016), 48–58, 76–77. [^19]: Tara Haelle, “Why It’s Important to Push Back on ‘Plandemic’—And How to Do It,” *Forbes*, May 8, 2020, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2020/05/08/why-its-important-to-push-back-on-plandemic-and-how-to-do-it/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2020/05/08/why-its-important-to-push-back-on-plandemic-and-how-to-do-it/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241586902&usg=AOvVaw3CgC6KD7RArecXkGGoowVH). [^20]: *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, s.v. “epistemology,” December 14, 2005, [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241580727&usg=AOvVaw3-Y3NiTvVEJ8mA79koHDo3). [^21]: *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, s.v. “al-Farabi’s Psychology and Epistemology,” February 11, 2016, revised April 26, 2020, [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-farabi-psych/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-farabi-psych/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241580902&usg=AOvVaw2ZPpg6CRs5ag8R43aI8PkM); Osman Bakar, *Classification of Knowledge in Islam* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1998). [^22]: Al-Nasafī’s text (*matn*) with al-Taftāzānī’s supercommentary (*sharḥ*) in Aḥmad Farīd al-Mazīdī, ed., *Shurūḥ wa ḥawāshī al-ʿaqā’id al-Nasafīyah li-ahl al-sunna wa-al-jamāʿah al-Ashāʿirah wa-al-Māturīdīyah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-*ʿ*ilmiyyah, 2013), 1:87–95, 2:219–605; English translation: Earl Edgar Elder, *A Commentary on the Creed of Islam* (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), 16. [^23]: Bakar, *Classification of Knowledge in Islam*, 69–73; Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333 AH), *Kitāb al-tawḥīd* (Beirut: Dār al-Ṣādr, 2010), 69–72. [^24]: There are multiple approaches toward *fiṭrah* within Islamic theology that revolve around the issues of it being coercive (i.e., pushing towards certain knowledge/acts) or only receptive (i.e., confirming or subtly urging towards certain knowledge/acts) in relation to the concept of the existence of God, good ethics, and norms. According to Yasien Mohamed, these approaches can be categorized into: (1) predestinarian, each person is born with a *fiṭrah* of faith (*īmān*) or unbelief (*kufr*) that correlates with the predestined place in either heaven or hell; (2) neutral, the *fiṭrah* is a blank state at birth which attains the state of faith or unbelief through the person’s own choice; and (3) positive, the *fiṭrah* is a state of goodness that naturally responds to truth and good acts, and therefore responds best to Islam. This last approach is the dominant approach and is adhered to by important scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya, Sahl al-Tustarī, and al-Raghib al-Iṣfahanī. Yasien Mohamed, *Fitrah*, 35–55. See also: Frank Griffel, “Al-Ghazālī’s Use of ‘Original Human Disposition’ (*fiṭra*) and Its Background in the Teachings of Al-Fārābī and Avicenna,” *The Muslim World* 102 (2012); Muḥī al-Dīn Mustawa and Muṣtafā al-Khin, *al-ʿAqīdat al-Islāmīyah* (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 2011), 126–36. [^25]: Mustawa and al-Khin, *al-ʿAqīdat al-Islāmīyah*, 59–61; Bakar, *Classification of Knowledge in Islam*. [^26]: Mustawa and al-Khin, *al-ʿAqīdat al-Islāmīyah*, 63. [^27]: A *mutawātir* report is a hadith or saying (*khabar*) that is transmitted in every stage of the stages of the transmission-chain (*sanad*) by multiple transmitters (the generally agreed-upon requirement is ten transmitters), whereby it can be rationally concluded that these transmitters could not have agreed upon a fabrication (*ikhtilāq*). It also provides necessary knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-ḍarūrī*). Any *ṣaḥīḥ* tradition that doesn’t conform to these criteria, but has an authentic *isnād*, is of the status of *āḥād* (singular transmission), and thus only provides conditional knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-mutawaqqif*), and therefore needs further investigation. Maḥmūd al-Ṭaḥḥān, *Taysīr muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth* (Riyadh, 1425/2004), 23–25, 27; See also Mustawa and al-Khin, *al-ʿAqīdat al-Islāmīyah*, 67–79. [^28]: See the Yaqeen series on the science of hadith: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/hadith-series/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/hadith-series/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241582180&usg=AOvVaw1UEems28atAJoTyAS3fcyv). [^29]: Al-Nasafī with al-Taftāzānī, *al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafīyah*, 1:90–91; Elder, *Commentary on the Creed of Islam*, 20–21. [^30]: There are three main schools of Sunnī theology: the two schools of philosophical theology (*Kalām*), the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī (which are dominant among the Shāfiʿī, Mālikī, and Ḥanafī), and the narration-based theology school of the Atharī (which is dominant among the Ḥanbalī). This paper applies the perspective of the philosophical theology schools. [^31]: “But our scholars \[of the Ḥanafī\] follow the opinion that good and evil are known by reason as established by the Most Wise, who is God the Exalted. ... And this is the opinion of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah in that anyone to whom revelation has not reached, and who does not believe in the existence of God and His Oneness, then that person will be in the hellfire forever as this is a fact known by reason.” ʿIṣām al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, *Ḥāshiyat al-Qūnawī ʿalá tafsīr al-imām al-Bayḍāwī* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2001), 11: 463. Translation by A. Y. Mol. See the concept of “minimal theology” discussed here: Arnold Yasin Mol, “Divine Respite in the Ottoman *Tafsīr* Tradition: Reconciling Exegetical Approaches to Q.11:117” in *Osmanli‘da ilm-i tefsir*, ed. M. T. Boyalik and H. Abaci (Istanbul: ISAR, 2019), 543–52, [https://www.academia.edu/36916673/\_Divine\_respite\_in\_the\_Ottoman\_tafsīr\_tradition\_Reconciling\_exegetical\_approaches\_to\_Q.11\_117\_Osmanli\_da\_ilm-i\_tefsir\_ed.\_M.T.\_Boyalik\_and\_H.\_Abaci.\_Istanbul\_ISAR\_2019\_539-592](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.academia.edu/36916673/_Divine_respite_in_the_Ottoman_tafs%25C4%25ABr_tradition_Reconciling_exegetical_approaches_to_Q.11_117_Osmanli_da_ilm-i_tefsir_ed._M.T._Boyalik_and_H._Abaci._Istanbul_ISAR_2019_539-592&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241582772&usg=AOvVaw32IisGRP1gl5U_FQQVF_EX) [^32]: Ibn Kamāl Pāshā discusses in his work on dogma al-Māturīdī’s position behind the wisdom of the sending of messengers by emphasizing, from a philosophical perspective, religion as the basis for civilization: [^33]: Al-Nasafī with al-Taftāzānī, *al-ʿAqā’id al-Nasafīyah*, 1:91; Elder, *Commentary on the Creed of Islam*, 21–22. [^34]: Logic (*manṭiq*) is a classical tool to “protect the mind from mistakes in thinking” and has pervaded the totality of Islamic sciences since early Islam. See: *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, s.v. “Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic,” July 23, 2008, revised November 11, 2013, [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-language/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-language/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241583537&usg=AOvVaw0aeYC89nISt1_hkYxX3ENe). [^35]: While Arabic logic was ultimately based on the earlier Greek tradition of Aristotelian logic, through Syriac intermediaries, it was never uncritically adopted. In fact, a long critical process took place of selection, digestion, and assimilation into the intellectual world of Islamic orthodoxy. Arabic logic hence became an independent and mature logical tradition fully harmonized with Islamic law and theology. For an excellent overview of this process of integration, see Tony Street, “Arabic Logic,” in *Handbook of the History of Logic*, eds. Dov. M. Gabbay and John Woods, vol. 1, *Greek, Indian and Arabic Logic* (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004), 523–96. [^36]: “هي مقدمة العلوم كلها، ومن لا يحيط بها، فلا ثقة له بعلمه أصلاً”, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, *al-Mustaṣfá min ʿilm al-uṣūl*, 2 vols. (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Amīriyya, 1324/1906), 10.15–17. Slightly adjusted translation by T. Street (emphasis by the authors). al-Ghazālī is seen as the Islamic scholar who was most instrumental in integrating logic into the Islamic sciences. See Wael B. Hallaq, *A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunnī* Uṣūl al-Fiqh (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 39–40; Khaled El-Rouayheb, “Theology and Logic”, in *The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology*, ed. Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 411–14. [^37]: Jon McGinnis provides an excellent outline of logic, especially with regards to its relationship to scientific inquiry; see his *Avicenna* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 27–52. [^38]: Logic as a science is a vast subject that extends beyond the scope of this article. However, the basics of logical thinking are easy to grasp. For an accessible introduction to logic in the English language, see Peter Kreeft, *Socratic Logic* (South Bend, IN: St Augustine’s Press, 2010). For an extensive treatment of Avicenna’s syllogistics, see Tony Street, “An Outline of Avicenna’s Syllogistic,” in *Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie* 84 (2002): 129–60. [^39]: Terms are notoriously ambiguous and making sound definitions helps us to clarify our terms. Hence, definitions are of utmost importance if we really want to understand each other (“coming to terms”). For a helpful guide to understanding definitions in a logically sound way, see Kreeft, *Socratic Logic*, 123–37. [^40]: While logic as a system of rules for correct reasoning has been adopted by the vast majority of Muslim scholars in traditional Islam, the authors are well aware that an important minority of scholars have rejected the use of logic for various reasons, most notably the Shāfiʿī jurist Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245) and the Ḥanbalī scholar Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728/1328). It is beyond the scope of this article to explore the scholarly positions for and against logic (we hope to dedicate a full article to this topic in the future), but for more details on this debate see Khaled El-Rouayheb’s excellent overview: “Sunni Muslim Scholars on the Status of Logic, 1500–1800,” *Islamic Law and Society* 11, no. 2 (2004): 213–32. [^41]: From early Islamic history, Islamic scholars and encyclopedists have put great effort into systematizing and categorizing the different fields of knowledge. As a result, different scholars have used different sets of criteria to construct categorizations. The two-fold distinction of “instrumental” and “higher” sciences used here reflects the Ottoman *madrasa* tradition. Another well-known and much more comprehensive categorization is found in the famous encyclopedic work of Ṭāshkuprī’zādah, *Miftāḥ al-saʿādah wa miṣbāḥ al-sayādah* \[The Key to Happiness and the Lamp of Lordship\] (Beirut: Dār ibn Ḥazm, 1431/2010). For more on the classification of the sciences in Islam, see Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt, “Medieval Arabic Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy,” in *The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy*, ed. Steven Harvey (Dordrecht: Springer, 2000), 77–98; Bakar, *Classification of Knowledge in Islam*. [^42]: *Organon* (lit. “instrument” or “tool”) is the ancient Greek term that came to be used for the standard collection of Aristotelian logical writings that were part of the scientific-philosophical curriculum of the Hellenistic world. For more on the Islamic *madrasa* curriculum and its importance, see Hamza Karamali, *The Madrasa Curriculum in Context* (Abu Dhabi, UAE: Kalam Research & Media, 2017) and John Walbridge, *God and Logic in Islam: The Caliphate of Reason* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011). [^43]: For a classical Orientalist expression of the “decline theory” in Arabic logic, see Nicholas Rescher, *Studies in the History of Arabic Logic* (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1963). For an important corrective of this paradigm, see: Khaled El-Rouayheb, *Relational Syllogisms and the History of Arabic Logic 900–1900* (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2010). [^44]: Fortunately, we can witness what seems to be the beginnings of a revival of this intellectual tradition throughout the Muslim world, for example in the reopening of the famous Suleymaniye Madrasa in Istanbul, which served as the top theological seminary of the Ottoman empire for centuries, see: “Süleymaniye Campus Opened with Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony,” Ibn Haldun University, October 3, 2018, [https://www.ihu.edu.tr/en/suleymaniye-campus-opened-with-ribbon-cutting-ceremony/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ihu.edu.tr/en/suleymaniye-campus-opened-with-ribbon-cutting-ceremony/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241584835&usg=AOvVaw245b-HanTHVR5XQt6dBFs3). [^45]: See this discussed in Amjad M. Mohammed, *Muslims in Non-Muslim Lands: A Legal Study with Applications* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2013), 60–70. [^46]: See this discussed in Mohammed Ghaly, “Biomedical Scientists as Co-Muftis: Their Contribution to Contemporary Islamic Bioethics,” *Welt des Islams* 55, nos. 3–4 (2015): 286–311, [https://doi.org/10.1163/15700607-05534p03](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://doi.org/10.1163/15700607-05534p03&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241585267&usg=AOvVaw0--v6vr7HOQypC9qqy9rgI). [^47]: Rebecca Heilweil, “How the 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Went from Fringe to Mainstream,” Vox, April 24, 2020, [https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/24/21231085/coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory-covid-facebook-youtube](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/24/21231085/coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory-covid-facebook-youtube&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241585464&usg=AOvVaw1lIQLIwSlx25I7JbOCy72r). [^48]: Stanley Shanapinda, “No, 5G Radiation Doesn’t Cause or Spread the Coronavirus. Saying It Does Is Destructive,” The Conversation, April 7, 2020, [https://theconversation.com/no-5g-radiation-doesnt-cause-or-spread-the-coronavirus-saying-it-does-is-destructive-135695](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theconversation.com/no-5g-radiation-doesnt-cause-or-spread-the-coronavirus-saying-it-does-is-destructive-135695&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1698681241585646&usg=AOvVaw29gz1BNkf6NqIfItebo9KI). ## Summary There has always been falsehood in the world, and the crises of our age—genocides, famines, recessions, and the ongoing oppression of Muslims in places such as East Turkestan, Kashmir, and Palestine—have only sharpened our awareness of intentional lies and conspiracy theories. Islam approaches the human being with optimism rather than pessimism, as reflected in its rejection of the notion of original sin, yet it remains realistic and does not imagine human beings to be free of evil. Among the harms people cause is lying, but this must never become second nature to a believer. As the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, "The believer has a nature with a multitude of dispositions and lying and being traitorous are not among them." Throughout human intellectual history, lying has been regarded as an evil, permitted only in exceptional circumstances such as warding off a grave harm like the loss of life. In the Islamic ethical tradition (akhlāq), lying (kadhib) is described as an evil (sharr) composed of empty speech, communicating a conviction without truthfulness and possibly causing harm, so that mentioning any form of it makes one liable to blame and is devoid of usefulness. The Ottoman scholar Ṭāshkuprī'zāda (d. 968 AH) drew a striking comparison: just as revelation and the Sharī'ah would collapse were truthfulness (ṣidq) not the foundation of prophethood, so too truthfulness is the foundation of civilization, for no society can uplift itself without human beings being truthful to one another. The rise of social media has intensified an old concern about how lies and false reports damage character, relationships, and society. A distinction is drawn here between misinformation, which is simply "wrong information" and may be spread unintentionally or through poorly informed approaches to science, and disinformation, which is "false information spread in order to deceive people" and involves a deliberate lie. Both were visible in the flood of claims about the coronavirus. During crises, people often blame the cultural and religious Other: in medieval plagues Jews were blamed by the dominant Christian community, and in several countries Muslim minorities were blamed for coronavirus outbreaks, a pattern underpinned by xenophobia and Islamophobia. Some misinformation appears harmless or is designed to scam, but some of it kills. Muslims are not exempt; they are both victims and perpetrators of misinformation concerning world politics, health, and financial scams, some of which specifically target them. The Prophet ﷺ warned against careless transmission: "It is enough falsehood for a person to relate everything they hear." The Qur'an likewise commands verification: "O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful" (Qur'an 49:6). Since a central maxim of Islamic law and ethics, shared with the medical community, is to avoid and remove harm, believers carry a strong obligation to understand how they are informed and to attain what may be called information literacy—a critical engagement with information that the Islamic tradition has taught for centuries. The tradition offers this through its epistemology, the theory of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. Since knowing God and knowing what He wants from us are at stake, epistemology was treated both in works of creed and theology ('aqīdah and 'ilm al-kalām) and in legal philosophy (uṣūl al-fiqh), where the "causes of knowledge" (asbāb al-'ilm) or "sources of knowing" (maṣādir al-ma'rifa) were discussed. The thirteenth-century Māturīdī creed 'Aqā'id al-Nasafī summarizes them as three: sound sense perception (al-ḥawāss al-salīmah), reliable reports (al-khabar al-ṣādiq), and intellect or reasoning (al-'aql). The physical world is grasped through the senses (ḥiss) and understood through the intellect ('aql), aided by imagination, the heart, and the primordial nature (fiṭrah), yielding empirical, rational, and deductive knowledge. Alongside this stands transmitted knowledge (al-'ilm al-naqlī), which accumulates and is shared through reports of varying trustworthiness. Just as prophetic traditions (ḥadīth) were graded and their transmitters assessed for reliability in the science of 'ilm al-rijāl—where unknown and lying narrators were rejected—so reports range from the speculative (ẓannī) to the certain and necessary (al-'ilm al-ḍarūrī), such as our knowledge that a great city like London or a figure like Alexander the Great exists. The kalām theologians held that a certain minimal theology and ethics is attainable through the senses, intellect, and shared knowledge without revelation, but that to know fully what God expects of us we require prophets. Recognizing a true prophet in turn depends on signs of authenticity that only the Controller of the World could produce, namely miracles, which we again perceive through the senses, judge through the intellect, and transmit as shared knowledge. Because different matters demand different degrees of certainty, the level of certainty required rises with the impact of the matter upon our lives; where an act carries the death penalty, we demand maximum certainty that God said and intended it. Thus both minimal and maximal theology rest upon empiricism, historicity, reason, and logic, and we are responsible before God for what we accept as knowledge, especially when it forms the basis of our actions. To examine both the content of shared knowledge and the reasoning applied to it, the tradition supplies the tools of logic. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, in his al-Mustaṣfá min 'ilm al-uṣūl, held that logic is not merely a tool but "an introduction to all the sciences, and he who does not comprehend it is not ever to be trusted in his scholarship." Logic guards against hidden assumptions and fallacies, teaching proper definitions (al-ḥadd), propositions (al-qaḍīyah), and syllogisms (al-qiyās), and requiring us to examine how a claim is conceptualized (taṣawwur) and verified (taṣdīq). It belongs to a wider set of "instrumental sciences" ('ulūm al-ālah)—alongside dialectics ('ilm al-baḥth wa-al-munāẓarah), rhetoric ('ilm al-balāghah), and semantics ('ilm al-waḍ')—which students of sacred knowledge mastered before the higher sciences such as fiqh, uṣūl al-fiqh, tafsīr, and kalām. Contrary to Orientalist claims that logic ceased to flourish after the fourteenth century, research increasingly confirms that these sciences remain a living tradition taught in Muslim seminaries today. This leads to what may be called an adāb of forwarding. Just as uṣūl al-fiqh accepts only certain sources, interpretive tools, and qualified experts, and just as medicine has its own foundations—which is why fiqh councils consult medical experts on issues like cloning and organ donation—we must respect the domain of each science and follow (taqlīd) those qualified in it (Qur'an 21:7), preferring the majority (jamhūr) and consensus (ijmā') positions over outlying (shādhdh) ones. Before accepting and sharing information we should ask its source and chain of transmission (isnād), whether its speaker is reliable and qualified, whether it is reasonable and corroborated, and whether it helps avert harm. The claim that 5G technology caused the coronavirus outbreak illustrates the point: it came not from qualified scientists but from non-specialists, rested on no valid data linking electromagnetic radiation to a biological disease, and lacked a sound isnād, so it could be dismissed as unreliable—fake news. When a fellow believer shares information we owe them a good opinion (ḥusn al-ẓann), yet this has a scope: trust your brother or sister in faith, but do not assume they have checked their sources. Ask where they obtained their information and why they consider it reliable, and be critical together. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-forbearance-in-islam-allahs-name-al-halim # The Meaning of Forbearance in Islam: Allah's Name al-Halim (99 Names of Allah) **Author:** Jinan Yousef **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** June 4, 2020 **Updated:** September 3, 2026 ## Note لا إله إلا اللهُ العظيمُ الحليمُ ، لا إله إلا الله رَبُّ العرش العظيم ، لا إله إلا الله رَبُّ السماوات وربُّ الأرضِ ، لا إله إلا الله رَبُّ الْعَرشِ الكريم Lā ilāha illā Allāh al-ʿaẓīm al-ḥalīm. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-ʿarsh al-ʿaẓīm. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-samāwāt wa rabb al-arḍ. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-ʿarsh al-karīm. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Majestic, the Most Forbearing, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Lord of the Tremendous Throne. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Lord of the Heavens and the Lord of the Honorable Throne.[^1] --- ## Introduction No one likes to be with a harsh, unforgiving person who is quick to judge and punish. When we make a mistake—particularly when it is out of heedlessness or weakness rather than bad intentions—all we desire is forbearance. We want to be treated with a gentle patience that will give us the chance to realize our mistakes and take the steps to mend our actions before we are held accountable for it. We appreciate the person who sees our mistake and does not shame us for it. More so, we appreciate the person who gives us a second chance even when—or especially when—we know we do not deserve it. It is particularly humbling to be treated gently when we do something knowing it is wrong; in this case, we appreciate the forbearance even more. The best of us are those who recognize this forbearance and take the opportunity to mend our actions and our hearts. Understanding how forbearance makes us feel and its effect on us should encourage us to extend it to others when they make mistakes. We appreciate this characteristic in its human form, even though human forbearance is, by its very nature, flawed. A person can be forbearing because they have to be in a given situation, or because they want to avoid confrontation, or perhaps they only appear to be forbearing because they are weak or unable to react to the situation. The seemingly forbearing actions can lack wisdom or may be unfairly applied. So, what would perfect forbearance, or *ḥilm*, look like? *Ḥilm* is forbearance that is coupled with wisdom, purpose, and knowledge of who we are and what we need. Only God has this perfect *ḥilm*; when He is forbearing with us, He knows that that is what is best for us in that given moment. This is why He is *al-Ḥalīm*—The Forbearing. Only He Who truly understands us and Who is the ultimate guide to all that is truly good in this life and the hereafter employs this forbearance in a way that, if we heed the signs, is designed for us to remember and to return to Him. Understanding this name and attribute should remind us of the beauty of being forbearing with others, as Allah loves for His servants to embody His attributes of beauty. So, what does this name truly mean and what are its dimensions? --- ## The meaning of Allah's name al-Ḥalīm The root of the word *ḥalīm* is *ḥ-l-m* which has many meanings—to attain puberty, a dream, clemency, discernment—including patience and reason.[^2] Allah says in the Qur’an, “Or do their minds \[*aḥlāmuhum*\] command them to this, or are they a transgressing people?”[^3] From this (reason—the mind) comes the meaning that *ḥilm* is related to not being overcome by anger; i.e., being able to still use one’s reason when a situation gives rise to anger. The scholar and linguist al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī stated that “*ḥilm* is self-control and tempering the rampage of anger.”[^4] Thus, most regard this characteristic as meaning to be measured in one’s reactions and not hasty. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ reminds us that, “Deliberation is from Allah, and recklessness is from Satan.”[^5] As a characteristic, one who has *ḥilm* is forbearing and gentle. Al-Ghazālī defines Allah’s name *al-Ḥalīm* (also spelled *al-Haleem*) as the One Who does not react out of anger to disobedience, nor is He hasty in punishing, even though He is capable of punishing then and there.[^6] Ibn al-Qayyim similarly states that *al-Ḥalīm* is the One Who grants a grace period to the wrongdoer and does not punish him or her immediately, even though He is capable of that.[^7] These scholars emphasize two points: God’s lack of haste, which reminds us that anything that comes from Allah is measured and from a place of wisdom; and His capability, which should humble us. At the essence, Allah is calm, unperturbed, and gentle with His servants when they commit wrongful acts. This is a moment to pause. We are often oblivious to the fact that we do things that are against what Allah has commanded us to do. It may be in the things we do not notice, such as using vulgar language or not turning away from an inappropriate scene, or things that are more severe, such as mistreating family or employees, or acting upon racist assumptions, or engaging in illicit sexual relations. The reason why we have not faced the consequences of these actions is quite simply because of Allah’s forbearance: He is not hasty to punish us. On the contrary, He sees all, and is not overcome by anger; He is *al-Ḥalīm*. To truly understand this beautiful attribute, we should take a step back and think: why would someone who has the power to execute a punishment that is deserved show forbearance? As we have seen, forbearance is related to employing reason, particularly in a situation that would normally give rise to anger or condemnation. This means that forbearance is not simply for forbearance’s sake, but rather is purposeful, made within the context of Allah’s infinite wisdom, mercy, and knowledge. Not punishing may be the best path in a particular circumstance. But what is it best for? Allah gives us the opportunity to return, as well as to learn from our mistakes, to learn about others, and the world around us. He does not punish us for any given wrongdoing in order to give us the chance to reflect and come back to Him. In a beautiful hadith, the Prophet ﷺ tells us that, “Allah stretches out his hand by night to accept the repentance of those who sin by day, and he stretches out his hand by day to accept the repentance of those who sin by night, until the sun rises from the west.”[^8] Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ also tells us that, “The Scribe on the left delays registering the sin of a Muslim for six hours. If he repents (within these six hours), and seeks God’s forgiveness, they do not register the sin. If he does not, they write it down as a single sin.”[^9] Allah does not simply delay a potential punishment or consequence, He even delays writing down the deed if one returns to Him. And not only does Allah *accept* those who return to Him, He “*loves* those who constantly return.”[^10] This is a point worth emphasizing: Allah loves—loves!—the sinner *if* he returns. He is opening the door for us to be of those whom He loves and are special to Him, not because we are perfect but precisely because we are not and still maintain hope in Him. Moreover, it would be more than many of us could bear if we were constantly and immediately punished for any and all sins. We would be tired, and would likely give up because all we would anticipate is punishment. What would that do to our relationship with the Most Merciful? Allah does not want that for us. He is forbearing with us because we *need* His forbearance and gentleness. And Allah bestows upon us this forbearance so that we never despair of His mercy and grace. It is important to recognize here that we should be forbearing with others. Just as we love when Allah treats us with forbearance, we should exhibit this beautiful characteristic in our treatment of others. The following section explores the various ways this name is mentioned in the Qur’an. ### Al-Ḥalīm in the Qur’an This name is mentioned in various places in the Qur’an.[^11] For example, we are told: > Allah does not impose blame upon you for what is unintentional in your oaths, but He imposes blame upon you for what your hearts have earned. And Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing.[^12] The meaning is also alluded to in different verses, such as the following verse: > And if Allah were to impose blame on the people for what they have earned, He would not leave upon the earth any creature. But He defers them for a specified term. And when their time comes, then indeed Allah has ever been, of His servants, Seeing.[^13] Some of us may isolate His names from one another, giving an incomplete idea about Allah. This is one reason why Allah often pairs His names in the Qur'an, giving us a more nuanced understanding of the various dimensions of each name. This name—*al-Ḥalīm*—is most often paired with His name *al-Ghafūr*, the Forgiving. Allah says in the Qur’an: > Indeed, those of you who turned back on the day the two armies met, it was Satan who caused them to slip because of some \[blame\] they had earned. But Allah has already forgiven them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing.[^14] Anyone who is a recipient of Allah’s *ḥilm* (we all are) may wonder, “If I messed up, and Allah is delaying His punishment, will He accept me in the meanwhile? Is the delay just a temporary delay, or will seeking forgiveness remove the blame and potential punishment?” And the answer Allah gives to the last question is “Yes”; the purpose of the delay is so that you can return to God sincerely and, God willing, you will be accepted and forgiven because He forgives those who return to Him. The Prophet Yūnus (Jonah) became frustrated with his people when they rejected his message. So he left them, and from this point in the story we tend to focus on when he is swallowed by the whale and the lessons we learn from that. However, another important event occurs. In Prophet Yūnus’s (as) absence, Allah continues to send his people signs, rather than punish them—and they actually take heed. The Qur’an tells us, “And We sent him to \[his people of\] a hundred thousand or more. And they believed, so We gave them enjoyment \[of life\] for a time.”[^15] Allah did not punish them for their initial rejection and the bad deeds they had committed. He was forbearing, delayed the potential punishment, and continued to send them signs. This allowed them time to think, reflect, and change their beliefs and behaviors. And they returned to Him. There was no punishment because they understood the lessons and the signs. And that is the point of the delay. What happens, though, if we do not immediately return? What if we forget or do not realize our mistakes, and then Allah teaches us the lesson with something that may, in the moment, hurt us? Even then, He is the Forgiving. Both the delay in punishment, and the punishment itself, are for the purpose of waking us up so that we can return. In either case, when we return to Allah, He forgives us, and He reminds us of this by pairing His name *al-Ḥalīm* with His name *al-Ghafūr*. A human being may exhibit *ḥilm*, but after a period of time of showing forbearance, they may not forgive because of their frustration and anger;[^16] their eventual punishment is coupled with the rejection of forgiveness. With Allah, as long as we still have life in us, a delay in punishment is an opportunity to reflect, return, and be accepted by Him. This name is also paired with His names *al-ʿAlīm*,[^17] *al-Ghanī*,[^18] and *al-Shakūr*.[^19] These are all reminders of how His attributes are interconnected. When Allah pairs His name *al-Ḥalīm* with His name *al-ʿAlīm* (The All-Knowing), He is reminding us that His forbearance is not because He is ignorant of our bad deeds. Rather He knows and is still forbearing. Similarly, He reminds us that He is *al-Ghanī*—free of need—so His forbearance is not because He needs anything from us. A human being might delay certain consequences because they need a personal favor or even the right circumstances to be able to punish; Allah is far above that, as He is free of need. Rather His forbearance only benefits us; so, when we return to Him, and try to do good to make up for the bad, He does not gain anything by it. Only we do. Finally, one might think, “If I am deserving of punishment, does that mean that my good deeds don’t matter?” and the answer to that is a resounding “No!” This is why Allah reminds us that He is *al-Shakūr*, which means He appreciates even the tiniest good deed and the smallest step taken towards Him, and He rewards multiple times for any small or large action. It does not mean that our good deeds are ‘canceled out’ because we are struggling with other obligations or we are making mistakes in other areas. We need to remember the Prophet’s ﷺ words when he said, “All the children of Adam err and the best of those who err are those who constantly return.”[^20] *al-tawwābūn*—those who constantly return—are those who recognize their mistakes, regret committing the sin, and seek forgiveness from Allah verbally and in action, by trying never to repeat it. It is a process of self-improvement. The appreciation, forgiveness, and forbearance of Allah are all so that we can return to the path to Him. It is not so that we engage in self-loathing or self-flagellation; rather, it is so that we seek strength and hope from Allah, knowing that even one step taken towards Him is met by Him rushing to us.[^21] Some of us, however, may feel that we are mostly good. We may even resent being told that we are recipients of God’s *ḥilm* because we feel that we do not do anything that warrants a wake-up call. Indeed, the *nafs—*the lower self—is comfortable when it considers itself beyond reproach. The next section will address this. ### Why do we need forbearance? The answer to this question—indeed, the question itself—may appear unnecessary and obvious to some. But it is only obvious if we conceptualize our relationship to God in a certain way—that Allah is the Lord, the Creator, and the Nurturer, and we have a beautiful and intimate relationship with Him that includes responsibilities; indeed, our main purpose is worshipping Him. However, we live in an era of elevating the self or the *nafs* or the lower self. Oft-repeated mantras include “Do you,” “Be your ‘authentic self’” (without a definition of what that is, whether it is subject to change, whether that “self” contains harmful aspects that need rectifying rather than obeying, and even if being this undefined authentic self means going against what Allah has told us), and the idea that “the universe” does what you want or will it to do. The underlying message may be a positive one on the surface or may have positive aspects that aim to combat self-loathing, particularly in the face of social media messaging, childhood trauma, or societal pressures that make people feel as though they are not enough, particularly in the material realm. **However, we end up elevating the *nafs* and its whims to fight against feelings of unworthiness, instead of attaching our self-worth to being created and honored by God, and through cultivating a beautiful relationship with Him**. And thus, anything that causes us to question the self and its desires is met with resistance. And if we believe in these aforementioned mantras, the idea of *ḥilm* may be difficult to grasp, and can only include Allah having forbearance because we deserve it or because He is gently guiding us to the earthly fulfillment of some worldly goals, and not because we were heedless or did something wrong that needs to be pointed out and rectified. It becomes about us and this world solely, rather than about Allah and the hereafter. And we must shift this focus from a “me-centered” life to a “God-centered” life. Indeed, recognizing and appreciating Allah’s characteristic of *ḥilm* can only help us to grow spiritually because we are always seeking to improve and work on our shortcomings. It is actually empowering because we have been given the opportunity to change for the better. If we take a moment to truly reflect, we remember that we will be meeting with Allah. In His wisdom, He has ordained a certain way of living and being, recognizing that we will all fall short. And falling short is fine (‘fine’ in the context of it being a human trait, and what elevates us is the recognition of the mistake and then seeking forgiveness from God) because Allah’s gentleness and *ḥilm* are so that we can return to Him. We mess up in life and God gives us signs to return. He is not hasty in punishment because the purpose of punishment is not the punishment in and of itself. Rather, He is gentle with us because in His all-encompassing wisdom, He knows that what we need is *ḥilm*. Punishment has its purpose, its time, and its place but so does *ḥilm*. And His *ḥilm* is tailored to our situation because He knows us deeply; indeed, He is closer to ourselves than even our own selves. ### Do ‘bad people’ deserve forbearance? It may sometimes appear that certain people who are ‘bad’ or do evil things are left to their ways without any visible consequences, while those who appear to be good cannot catch a break. We may wonder: are ‘bad’ people recipients of Allah’s forbearance, while those who are good suffer through hardship that some may interpret as punishment? Allah’s names must be understood holistically. We do not partition His attributes. His forbearance, for example, is not separate from His mercy, and it is also not separate from His justice. Additionally, it is intertwined with His wisdom and His knowledge. The Qur’an clarifies for us what we see on the surface, and what is happening in the unseen. In Surat al-Kahf,[^22] the Prophet Mūsá (as) and al-Khiḍr—whom Mūsa (as) went to learn from—visit a village where the inhabitants are inhospitable to them. al-Khiḍr then proceeds to mend a wall that is breaking down—keep in mind that this comes after he damages the boat of some poor persons who had helped them, and after a young boy was killed. On the surface, this is completely illogical and seems at odds with Allah’s attributes of justice and mercy. This is unfortunately how we view things when superficially they appear not to make sense. It seems that the inhospitable villagers are recipients of God’s forbearance even as they mistreat their guests, but the good poor people with the boat were victims of damage to their boat, which they relied on for their sustenance. Were they being punished for something? But we then learn that al-Khiḍr fixed the wall because “it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and there was beneath it a treasure for them, and their father had been righteous.”[^23] The people of the village also benefited from the fixing of the wall in this world, despite their unbecoming actions, because of Allah’s reward to a righteous father—they were not punished at that time and were shown forbearance. We also learn that damaging the boat ended up being a good thing because there “was after them a king who seized every \[good\] ship by force”\[24\] and the poor people were spared that fate. So, we do not interpret every seemingly good thing as a reflection of God’s pleasure with someone, nor every bad thing as a punishment, and should have certainty that Allah appreciates all good deeds, and that we still have the opportunity to return to Him whatever the case is. Hardships are not necessarily punishments but are also for the purpose of raising our rank, teaching us, and even avoiding a greater calamity that could have befallen us. We never know which is the case because that is from the unseen; the important thing is how we behave during and after the hardship and whether we use the circumstances to reflect on our states and turn to Allah. We must understand nuance. There are the Pharaohs of the world, certainly. In the story of Mūsá (as), we know Pharaoh was a cruel tyrant. After all, it was Pharoah who commanded the murder of newborn boys from Bani Israel. It was Pharaoh who proclaimed, “I am your lord, the most high.”[^25] But God gives him many chances to return. He does so by commanding Mūsa (as) to speak to him gently. He does so by using logic when Mūsá (as) is able to defeat the magicians he is supposed to compete with. Allah finally does so by sending down punishments and hardships.[^26] After Pharoah turns away from all of those signs and persists in his tyranny, Allah finally causes him to drown. That was the final worldly punishment. The punishment in the Hereafter is so much worse, so Allah gives multiple opportunities—even to the worst of us—to rectify our wrongs and return to Him. On the other hand, in another story in the Qur’an, we are told of a situation where Allah sends his worldly punishment almost immediately. In Sūrat al-Qalam,[^27] the garden of the three brothers is destroyed before they have the opportunity to harvest it. They were intending to leave nothing for the poor, who were allowed to pick the fruits when their father was alive. Even before they could execute their plans, a blazing fire engulfed the garden. Where was God’s forbearance? Why were they punished the first time (that we know of) they intended to do something wrong? We understand that the father raised his children correctly since he allowed the poor to pick from the fruits of the garden, and his children were witness to this as they grew up. The three brothers knew that they should not have attempted to deny the poor the chance to take some of the harvest but we can assume that greed overshadowed what they knew in their hearts to be the most moral and God-conscious way. If Allah had allowed them to harvest the garden and deny the poor people that chance, it perhaps could have meant that they would continue on that path. They may have been so thrilled with the wealth of the harvest that they would have committed even more wrongful acts to increase their share, causing further injustice on the way. Spiritually, this would have been so much worse for them, and the consequences in the Hereafter would be much more severe. And here we return to the purpose of forbearance. If a person is forbearing to the degree that their forbearance causes the wrongdoer to forget or become heedless, then that forbearance actually harms its recipient. In Surat al-Qalam, the fire engulfing the garden was a cause for the brothers to return to God. They changed their ways as a result. Allah tells us, > They said, “O woe to us; indeed, we were transgressors. Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us \[one\] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous.”[^28] This also means that the punishment itself was measured. It was a signal that forced them to think about their actions. As human beings, we may take for granted that we do not see the consequences of our actions immediately. When we do not see an obvious negative reaction to our actions, we may assume that what we are doing is good or correct or not a major bad deed, even if there is a clear commandment telling us the opposite. In these cases, we need to be woken up and alerted. A punishment should not cause us to lose heart; rather we should take it as an act of mercy in order that we return. Just like a student failing a midterm or an applicant being denied a job because of a poor or rushed application, the initial rejection hurts. Yet, we can either be the person who wallows in it or the person who wakes up and realizes that they must do something different. This is a crucial point. The word “punishment” often conjures up images of harshness and lack of mercy and is perceived as being wholly negative—almost as though it is the final judgment from which there is no return. However, we have to stop and remember that this “punishment” is from Allah: the Most Forbearing, the Most Merciful, and the Most Wise. Therefore, this punishment is measured and teaches us discipline. It is purposeful, and Allah wants to guide us to what is best for us in this world and the next. Wallowing is a trick of Satan so that we completely miss the point, and either turn away from Allah because we have misunderstood the purpose of the hardship, or continue doing what we always do without paying heed to the lessons we are supposed to take. So, if we feel that something bad has happened as a result of our actions, it should be a moment for us to reflect and even appreciate the wake-up call. We should seek forgiveness from God, increase our good deeds, and learn from our mistakes. We should seek to be like the brothers with the garden, rather than the inhospitable people of the village, or even—God forbid—Pharaoh himself. --- ## How to connect to Allah's name al-Ḥalīm ### Reflect on Allah's forbearance in our daily lives An important step towards connecting to Allah through His name *al-Ḥalīm* is to recognize the manifestation of His *ḥilm* in our lives. It is one of those heart-softening exercises when we realize that Allah sees and is aware of everything, and still we receive His forbearance and His kindness. For example, for myself, I know that I am lacking in devotion during my prayers. I should be much more present, and we know that prayer is the pillar of our faith. The fact that I have the opportunity to make up for this at every prayer is truly a blessing from the forbearance of God. Similarly, when we reflect on both the seemingly small and bigger things, we realize how much God has blessed us with His Grace. Another aspect of this reflection is to be aware of God’s signals. The brothers in the story in Sūrat al-Qalam immediately recognized the error of their ways and returned to God. Similarly, when something outwardly bad happens, we should reflect on our actions and try to mend our deeds because that tribulation might be a sign from Allah for us to return to Him. ### Appreciate the hilm of Allah Recognizing the many manifestations of forbearance in our lives should compel us to express gratitude. Gratitude increases us in good and what is in our best interest, as Allah tells us, “And if you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor.”[^29] We are already subjects of Allah’s forbearance; now imagine when we recognize and thank Him for His forbearance. Not only will this soften and expand our hearts, increase our love for and closeness to Him, and encourage us to rectify our actions and become better overall, it may also mean that we will be in constant reception of His gentle forbearance, God Willing, if that is good for us. This does not mean that nothing that is outwardly bad will ever happen. Tests*—*in both their manifestations as ease and difficulty—are a part of life. But tests also have a purpose, as they elevate our rank and bring us closer to our Lord. They are, as mentioned previously, also a signal and sign to bring us back to Him when we have strayed too far. ### Return to Allah As mentioned, one of the purposes of forbearance is for us to return. If we consider the previous example of lacking devotion in prayer, recognizing God’s forbearance should not simply cause us to be grateful, though that is, of course, important. It should also alert us to the fact that we need to change. And if it is something we are struggling with, any small step taken to fix the mistake is a step taken towards Allah. Difficulty should not cause us to despair. Rather, it just means we need to break up the issue into smaller parts, seeking help from God, expressing our struggles, and still working our way through them. ### Be forbearing with people The Prophet ﷺ made a beautiful statement to one of the Companions. He said to him, “You have two characteristics that Allah loves: Forbearance and patience.”[^30] Indeed, Allah describes the Prophet Ibrahim ﷺ, His “*khalīl*”—i.e., His intimate friend—as “compassionate and *ḥalīm*.”[^31] Ibrahim was described as being *ḥalīm* because he exhibited forbearance in response to harm and ill-treatment. For example, when his father threatened that he would stone him if he did not desist in calling to Allah, Ibrāhīm responded with, “Peace will be upon you. I will ask forgiveness for you from my Lord. Indeed, He is ever gracious to me.”[^32] There are certain attributes of God that cannot have a human ‘face’ to them and are exclusive to Him, such as Him being the Creator (i.e., creating something from nothing) or being completely free of need. But other attributes are used to describe and praise human beings when they embody them. Allah is the Most Merciful, and He wants us to practice mercifulness towards one another, as the Prophet ﷺ teaches us: “The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you”[^33] (reflect upon this equation: imperfect and flawed mercy is met with absolute and complete mercy). *al-Ḥalīm* is also one of these names. Not only is Allah the ultimate manifestation of *ḥilm*, but He also loves for His servants to beautify themselves with this attribute. Imagine being told—by the Prophet ﷺ, no less—that God *loves* something in you. Would you not work to cultivate this characteristic?  Would you not try to perfect it as far as is humanly possible? Thus, *ḥilm* in our context involves avoiding being reactionary and reacting to people in a state of anger. This is the sign of true strength, as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ reminds us, “The strong man is not one who is good at wrestling, but the strong man is one who controls himself in a fit of rage.”[^34] It was reported that when the Caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz had to punish someone for a crime, he would detain him three times before executing the punishment, fearing to execute a punishment out of anger (rather than because it was deserved or necessary).[^35] While Allah’s Mercy is the most perfect and human mercy cannot even compare, we are still encouraged to embody and practice mercy at the human level. Indeed, it is precisely because we are imperfect that we should be forbearing; it allows us to take a step back and reflect, lest we make a mistake. Forbearance also means letting go when others make mistakes, as well as helping them to rectify their wrongs. It particularly means avoiding negative reactions to slights to our ego. This requires work. The Companion Abū al-Dardāʾ (ra) said, “Verily, knowledge only comes by learning and forbearance only comes by cultivating forbearance. Whoever aims for goodwill receive goodness and whoever seeks to evade evil will be protected from it.”[^36] Thus, cultivating this characteristic takes practice. But we do so, hoping ultimately for God’s forbearance with us. Of course, in order to embody this characteristic, we have to try to understand what it means for us in different situations. It does not necessarily have to mean that we do not react to multiple acts of, for example, abuse or mistreatment. This is not only unhealthy, it may encourage the other party to continue in the wrongful actions. We need to remember that the root of *ḥilm* is the employment of reason, so forbearance must come from a place of wisdom and must be tailored to the situation. Most of us deserve to be given a chance the first time, perhaps even a second or a third. But would it be wise in a particular context to avoid attaching consequences to certain actions? Allah might delay punishment for a character like Pharaoh, but that is because Allah can eventually punish him—and does. Thus, while we should embody characteristics of mercy and forbearance, especially in our personal capacities, it should be done so with measured wisdom within the context, without perpetuating injustice. --- ## Dua for difficult situations: Calling upon al-Halim When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ went through difficulty, he would make the following supplication: لا إله إلا اللهُ العظيمُ الحليمُ ، لا إله إلا الله رَبُّ العرش العظيم ، لا إله إلا الله رَبُّ السماوات وربُّ الأرضِ ، لا إله إلا الله رَبُّ الْعَرشِ الكريم Lā ilāha illā Allāh al-ʿaẓīm al-ḥalīm. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-ʿarsh al-ʿaẓīm. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-samāwāt wa rabb al-arḍ. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-ʿarsh al-karīm. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Majestic, the Most Forbearing, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Lord of the Tremendous Throne. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Lord of the Heavens and the Lord of the Honorable Throne.[^37] This is a beautiful and special *duʿāʾ*. The entire supplication is a reminder of Allah’s names and attributes; that there is no god but Him, so who can we turn to besides Him? We remind ourselves that He is the Majestic, the Lord of the heavens and of the Throne, and therefore He is far greater than any problem we are facing. We emphasize that He is the Most Forbearing because we recognize our shortcomings and His mercy with us in delaying the consequences of our actions. Perhaps this difficulty is as a result of our wrongful actions, so we beseech Him by His name *al-Ḥalīm* to ask for His forbearance. ![Dua for Difficult Situations: Lā ilāha illā Allāh al-ʿaẓīm al-ḥalīm. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-ʿarsh al-ʿaẓīm. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-samāwāt wa rabb al-arḍ. Lā ilāha illā Allāh rabb al-ʿarsh al-karīm. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Majestic, the Most Forbearing, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Lord of the Tremendous Throne. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Lord of the Heavens and the Lord of the Honorable Throne.](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dua-for-Difficulty-Al-Halim-1024x1024.jpg) *Save this du'a for difficult situations.* This supplication should also remind us to be forbearing when we are in difficulty because those situations are the ones that may cause us to react in negative ways. We can recite the Prophet’s ﷺ supplication to remind us who is in control, to ask Allah for help, and to appreciate His forbearance with us. Nothing that befalls us is wholly negative, as we are rewarded for exhibiting this lofty attribute. --- ## Conclusion Forbearance essentially involves delaying the consequences of our wrongful actions and not reacting with haste, and *al-Ḥalīm* manifests His forbearance with us in a multitude of ways. All of us are daily recipients of His *ḥilm*, and this becomes apparent when we reflect upon our heedlessness that seldom results in major worldly consequences. Reflecting upon this name should remind us of God’s kindness in His treatment of us, as He is never hasty in punishing, giving us the opportunity to return. Indeed, one of the purposes of this forbearance is so that we reflect and immediately, or at least eventually, return to Him. Knowing that Allah is *al-Ḥalīm* should also shift the way we view hardships and punishments. These come from Allah, the Most Forbearing and the Most Wise. He sends signs—sometimes in the form of punishments and difficulties—our way so that we may learn from them and rectify our deeds, all so that we can become close to Him. Finally, forbearance is one of those attributes with which we should beautify our characters. Since the essence of forbearance involves patience and reason, we must be reasonable and measured in reacting to perceived or actual slights and wrongs by others, challenging our ego and whims by forgiving others, knowing that Allah loves when His servants manifest this attribute. --- ## Notes [^1]: The Prophet’s ﷺ supplication during difficulty; al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 8:75, no. 6346. [^2]: Hans Wehr, *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic* (New York: Spoken Language Services, 1976), 202. [^3]: Qur’an 52:32. [^4]: In Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī al-Qaḥṭānī, *Muqawwimāt al-dāʿiya al-nājiḥ* (n.p.: Ktab Inc, 1996), 107. [^5]: al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrá* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2003), 10:178, no. 20270; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-targhīb wa-al-tarhīb* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 2:242, no. 1572. [^6]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: al-Maqṣad al-Asnā Fī Sharḥ Asmā’ Allāh al-Ḥusnā*, trans. David Burrell and Nazih Daher, The Ghazali Series (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992), 99. [^7]: In Omar Suleiman al-Ashqar, *Sharḥ Ibn al-Qayyim li-Asmāʾ Allāh al-Ḥusnā* (Amman: Dar al-Nafa’is, 2008), 89. Another name of Allah that is similar is *al-Ṣabūr*, the Most Patient. Ibn al-Qayyim differentiates between the two names by stating that forbearance is wider in meaning and encompasses patience. Moreover, patience is the fruit of forbearance. Al-Ashqar, 91. [^8]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Beirut?\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:2113, no. 2759. [^9]: al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Mu’jam al-kabīr* (Cairo, Riyadh: Maktabat Ibn Taymīyah, Dār al-Ṣumayʻī, 1983), 8:185, no. 7765; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr wa ziyādātihi* (\[Damascus?\]: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 1:422, no. 2097. [^10]: Qur’an 2:222. [^11]: According to Abū Shādī and Āl ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Allah’s name *al-Ḥalīm* has been mentioned eleven times in the Qur’an. See: Khalid Abū Shādī, *Hanī’an li-man ‘arafa rabbah (Asmāʾ al-jamāl)* (Cairo: Tayba Publishing, 2015), 264; Majid bin Abdullah Āl ʿAbd al-Jabbār, *al-Asmā al-ḥusnā: Taṣnīfan wa maʿnan*, 2nd ed. (self-pub., 2018), 486. [^12]: Qur’an 2:225. [^13]: Qur’an 35:45. [^14]: Qur’an 3:155. [^15]: Qur’an 37:147–48. [^16]: al-Biqāʿī, *Naẓm al-durar* (Cairo: Dār al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1984), 16:72. [^17]: Qur’an 22:59. [^18]: Qur’an 2:263. [^19]: Qur’an 64:17. [^20]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Beirut: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:240, no. 2499; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-targhīb*, 3:216, no. 3139. [^21]: Part of a longer hadith, where the Prophet ﷺ tells us that Allah says, “Whoever comes to me walking, I will come to him running.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2061, no. 2675. [^22]: See verses 65–82 of Sūrat al-Kahf (Chapter 18). [^23]: Qur’an 18:82. [^24]: Qur’an 18:79. [^25]: Qur’an 79:24. [^26]: Floods, locusts, frogs, and so on—see Surat al-Aʿrāf, 7:133. [^27]: See *ayaat* 17–33 of Sūrat al-Qalam (Chapter 68). [^28]: Qur’an 68:31–32. [^29]: Qur’an 14:7. [^30]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:48, no. 17. [^31]: Qur’an 9:114. [^32]: Qur’an 19:47. [^33]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:388, no. 1924; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^34]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:28, no. 6114. [^35]: From “Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ,” in Abū Shādī, *Hanīʾan Li-man ‘Arafa Rabbah*, 272. [^36]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *Rawḍat al-ʿuqalāʾ wa nuzhat al-fuḍalāʾ* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1975), 1:210. [^37]: The Prophet’s ﷺ supplication during difficulty; al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:75, no. 6346. ## Summary Allah, Exalted and Majestic, is *al-Ḥalīm*—the Most Forbearing—and reflecting upon this beautiful name reveals to us a dimension of our relationship with our Lord that softens the heart and instills hope. Every human being longs to be treated gently when they err, especially when the mistake arises from heedlessness or weakness rather than malice. We yearn for a patient forbearance that grants us the opportunity to recognize our fault and mend our ways before we are called to account. Yet human forbearance, however admirable, is inherently flawed: a person may withhold reaction out of weakness, avoidance of confrontation, or an inability to respond, and such forbearance may lack wisdom or be applied unjustly. Perfect forbearance, *ḥilm*, belongs to Allah alone, for it is forbearance coupled with wisdom, purpose, and complete knowledge of who we are and what we need. When Allah is forbearing with us, He knows this is precisely what is best for us in that moment. Linguistically, the root *ḥ-l-m* carries several meanings, including attaining puberty, dreaming, clemency, discernment, and—most relevant here—patience and reason. Allah refers to the faculty of reason in His words, "Or do their minds [*aḥlāmuhum*] command them to this, or are they a transgressing people?" From this connection to reason arises the meaning that *ḥilm* is the ability to remain unconquered by anger and to still employ one's intellect when a situation would ordinarily provoke rage. The linguist al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī defined *ḥilm* as "self-control and tempering the rampage of anger." The Prophet ﷺ reinforced this quality of deliberateness when he said, "Deliberation is from Allah, and recklessness is from Satan." Building upon this, al-Ghazālī described *al-Ḥalīm* as the One who does not react out of anger to disobedience, nor hastens to punish, despite being fully capable of punishing immediately. Ibn al-Qayyim similarly explained that *al-Ḥalīm* grants the wrongdoer a period of respite rather than punishing at once, even while being able to do so. These scholars highlight two essential points: Allah's lack of haste, which reminds us that everything from Him is measured and rooted in wisdom; and His full capability, which ought to humble us profoundly. This should give us pause. We are often unaware of the wrongs we commit, whether small acts like vulgar speech or failing to avert our gaze from the impermissible, or graver matters like mistreating family and employees, acting upon prejudice, or engaging in unlawful relations. That we have not faced immediate consequences is due to Allah's forbearance, for He sees all yet is not overtaken by anger. His forbearance is never for its own sake but is purposeful, situated within His infinite wisdom, mercy, and knowledge, granting us the opportunity to return, to reflect, and to learn. The Prophet ﷺ conveyed this beautifully: "Allah stretches out his hand by night to accept the repentance of those who sin by day, and he stretches out his hand by day to accept the repentance of those who sin by night, until the sun rises from the west." He ﷺ also informed us that "the Scribe on the left delays registering the sin of a Muslim for six hours. If he repents within these six hours and seeks God's forgiveness, they do not register the sin." Moreover, Allah does not merely accept those who return—He "loves those who constantly return." Were we punished immediately for every sin, we would be overwhelmed and driven to despair; instead, His forbearance ensures we never lose hope in His mercy. This name appears in various places in the Qur'an. Allah says, "Allah does not impose blame upon you for what is unintentional in your oaths, but He imposes blame upon you for what your hearts have earned. And Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing." The meaning is also alluded to in His words, "And if Allah were to impose blame on the people for what they have earned, He would not leave upon the earth any creature. But He defers them for a specified term." Because we may isolate His names and thereby form an incomplete picture of Him, Allah frequently pairs them. *Al-Ḥalīm* is most often paired with *al-Ghafūr*, the Forgiving, as in His words concerning those who turned back on the day the two armies met: "But Allah has already forgiven them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing." This pairing answers the anxious question of whether the delay in punishment is merely temporary: seeking forgiveness truly removes the blame. The story of the Prophet Yūnus (as) illustrates this, for in his absence Allah continued to send his people signs rather than punishment, and "they believed, so We gave them enjoyment [of life] for a time." *Al-Ḥalīm* is likewise paired with *al-ʿAlīm* (reminding us His forbearance is not from ignorance), *al-Ghanī* (His forbearance is not from need), and *al-Shakūr* (He appreciates even the smallest good deed). The Prophet ﷺ said, "All the children of Adam err, and the best of those who err are those who constantly return." Some may resent being described as recipients of Allah's *ḥilm*, feeling themselves beyond reproach, for the *nafs* is comfortable when it deems itself faultless. In an age that elevates the self through slogans urging one to "be your authentic self," we risk anchoring our worth in our whims rather than in being created and honored by Allah. We must shift from a "me-centered" to a "God-centered" life, recognizing that appreciating His *ḥilm* is empowering, for it grants us the opportunity to change. His names must be understood holistically; His forbearance is inseparable from His mercy, justice, wisdom, and knowledge. The story of Mūsá (as) and al-Khiḍr in Sūrat al-Kahf teaches us not to interpret every apparent good as divine pleasure nor every hardship as punishment, for the wall was mended because "there was beneath it a treasure" for two orphans of a righteous father, and the boat was damaged to spare its owners from a tyrannical king. Pharaoh, despite his tyranny and his claim "I am your lord, the most high," was granted many chances before his final drowning. Conversely, in Sūrat al-Qalam, the three brothers' garden was destroyed swiftly, for immediate consequence awakened them to repentance: "O woe to us; indeed, we were transgressors." Punishment from *al-Ḥalīm* is measured, purposeful, and merciful. To connect with this name, we should reflect upon Allah's forbearance in our daily lives, remaining alert to His signs. We should appreciate His *ḥilm* with gratitude, for Allah says, "And if you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor." We should return to Him, taking even small steps toward rectification without despair. And we should be forbearing with others, for the Prophet ﷺ said to a Companion, "You have two characteristics that Allah loves: forbearance and patience," and Allah described Ibrāhīm (as) as "compassionate and *ḥalīm*," one who answered his father's threat with, "Peace will be upon you. I will ask forgiveness for you from my Lord." The Prophet ﷺ taught, "The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful," and "the strong man is one who controls himself in a fit of rage." It was reported that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz would detain a wrongdoer three times before administering punishment, fearing to act out of anger. Abū al-Dardāʾ (ra) said, "Knowledge only comes by learning and forbearance only comes by cultivating forbearance." Yet forbearance must issue from reason and wisdom, tailored to the situation, without perpetuating injustice or enabling abuse. In times of difficulty, the Prophet ﷺ would supplicate: *Lā ilāha illā Allāh al-ʿaẓīm al-ḥalīm...*—affirming that Allah, the Majestic and Most Forbearing, is greater than any trial we face. In sum, all of us are daily recipients of His *ḥilm*; He is never hasty to punish, and His forbearance—along with the signs and hardships He sends—serves to draw us back to Him and to inspire us to beautify our own characters with this beloved attribute. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ebook-prophetic-prayers-for-relief-and-protection # eBook | Prophetic Prayers for Relief and Protection **Author:** Dr. Tahir Wyatt **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Dua, Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** May 20, 2020 **Updated:** September 6, 2025 ## Introduction The Coronavirus pandemic has left many feeling anxious, uncertain, and afraid. One of the best ways to manage these feelings is through the power of prayer. Not only does *du'a* keep us strong spiritually - it is a [powerful method of psychotherapy](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being/) as well. This eBook, based on a [recent publication](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tahirwyatt/duas-for-relief-and-protection/), provides a collection of supplications for relief and protection through which we can find meaning and strengthen our faith as a means of coping with the current situation. --- ## Downloads - [Digital Version](https://4713562.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4713562/Books/Yaqeen-Duas-for-Relief-and-Protection-DIGITAL.pdf) - [Printable Version](https://4713562.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4713562/Books/Yaqeen-Duas-for-Relief-and-Protection-PRINTABLE.pdf) - [Extended Version (Digital)](https://4713562.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4713562/Books/Yaqeen-Duas-for-Relief-and-Protection-EXTENDED-DIGITAL.pdf) - [Extended Version (Printable)](https://4713562.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4713562/Books/Yaqeen-Duas-for-Relief-and-Protection-EXTENDED-PRINTABLE.pdf) - [Transliterated Version](https://4713562.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4713562/Books/Yaqeen-Duas-for-Relief-and-Protection-TRANSLITERATION.pdf) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tahajjud-fuel-for-the-self-and-society # Tahajjud: Fuel for the Self and Society **Author:** Dr. Tamara Gray **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Ramadan Publication, Tahajjud **Published:** May 19, 2020 **Updated:** March 27, 2026 ## Introduction Damascus is a beautiful city. Jasmine vines and bright purple bougainvillea flowers grow on balconies all over the city and jacaranda trees sneak up in the small spaces between blocks and buildings. I used to live in a twelve-story cement block building that stood in a row of at least ten other buildings almost exactly like it. At *maghrib* time, the sun would go down and the buildings’ windows would light up with crystal chandeliers and fluorescent lights. People would go about the evening work of children’s homework, supper, and soap operas all up and down the floors. It was a beautiful sight to see these buildings’ eyes open and fluttering with life. Then, as the evening waned, the buildings would grow dark with sleep. About an hour before *fajr*, my light, and my neighbor’s light would turn back on. I could see her window across the little garden that separated our buildings. And I would look at the other darkened windows, closed eyes, and grow sad for the Muslim *ummah*. I often thought on these nights of the saying of Kaʿb al-Aḥbār who said, “The angels look down from heaven upon those who pray *tahajjud* as you look at the stars of the sky,”[^1] and thought how very dark the earth must look to the angels. --- ## Light of the earth Time and again, God calls on Muslims to be of those who invite to goodness and push back against what is ugly and evil. “You are the best community that has been raised up for humanity: You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah…”[^2] and “Those who repent, who worship, who praise, who fast, who bow down, who prostrate, who enjoin good and forbid evil, and who observe the limits set by Allah”[^3] and “The believing men and women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give *zakāh* and obey Allah and His Messenger,”[^4] for example, all call upon us to take on the enormous task of being light cast upon the earth. The job of setting a standard and actively working to make the world a better place is not easy. It is hard work. Like the work of a gardener who plants flowers and vegetables and then spends weeks and months weeding, hoeing, pruning, and all sorts of other things in order to harvest, this work needs strength. The strength to build, uplift, and make positive change must come from somewhere. It is tiring work and often thankless. It is not work fueled by anger. It is slow and patient work. It needs a fuel that is an unlimited resource and one that does not burn, but rather grows. Like solar energy, the fuel of positive cultural change needs to be warming and energizing, but gentle and healthy. This fuel is worship, and especially, *tahajjud*. --- ## Tahajjud defined The prayer at night is termed in Arabic either *qiyām al-layl* (standing at night) or, if occurring after any amount of sleep, *tahajjud*, and is the most important prayer after the *farḍ* (obligatory) prayers. This is based on the Prophet’s ﷺ clear words, “The best prayer one can perform apart from the obligatory prayers is one performed at night.”[^5] He ﷺ emphasized its importance when he said, “Every believer should pray at night, even if only as long as it would take to milk an ewe, and what is after the ʿ*ishāʾ* prayer is of the night.”[^6] Milking an ewe generally takes anywhere between one and five minutes for an experienced milker.[^7] The prayer consists of any number of *rakʿah*s that can be long or short in their recitation and movements. They can be done in a group or alone. The words *tahajjud* and *qiyām* are often used interchangeably, but *tahajjud* specifically refers to a prayer that is prayed after rising from sleep and *qiyām al-layl* means to stand at night regardless of whether one has slept or not yet. *How do you pray tahajjud? Watch Dr. Tamara Gray’s series “Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society":* https://youtu.be/K5hHMZr7xdA --- ## Tahajjud effects ### Social status The Qur’an draws a connection between *tahajjud* and great accomplishments. Allah (swt) says to the Prophet ﷺ, “And rise from sleep during the night as well—this is an additional prayer for you. Perhaps your Lord will raise you to an honored position.”[^8] Here the translation struggles to convey the image of movement at night. The Arabic draws a clear visual of one rising from bed to prayer. The verse then connects our status—whether earthly or heavenly—to our ability to wake and pray at night. The Muslim *ummah* today is suffering under the weight of Islamophobia, stereotypes, and cultural challenges that place our worldy status on a low rung. We need to pray *tahajjud* for our own spiritual status and for the social and political status of our *ummah*. We need to seek “an honored position.” Our spiritual status is so dependent on *tahajjud* that early ʿ*ulamāʾ* would say that a person becomes a friend of God only in relationship to their *tahajjud*—or their night prayers, meaning night prayers are required to attain this status. ### The ability to carry great responsibility In the very beginning of the revelation, Allah (swt) revealed to our Beloved Prophet ﷺ the famous verses, “O you wrapped in a garment! Arise (to pray) the night, except for a little—half of it—or subtract from it a little—or add to it and recite the Qur’an with measured recitation.”[^9] Here the Prophet ﷺ is called upon to spend more of his night in prayer than in sleep because he is about to receive weighty words. Those weighty words are the Glorious Qur’an—words we need to use in praying at night in order to truly taste them and enjoy them. The companions would also follow the instructions in this verse until the final verse of the same chapter was revealed, “Indeed, your Lord knows, that you stand almost two-thirds of the night or half of it or a third of it, and (so do) a group of those with you. And Allah determines the night and the day. He has known that you will not be able to do it and has turned to you in forgiveness, so recite what is easy for you of the Qur’an…”[^10] The verse goes on to recognize that sometimes we may be sick or traveling or involved in war and so Allah makes easier for us the injunction to spend most of the night in prayer. We are still encouraged to pray as much of the night as we can but the call to this prayer became more flexible in this last verse. ### Become the best of people In Surat al Furqan Allah (swt) describes the “Servants of the Merciful” as those who “walk gently on the earth” and those who “when the ignorant address them they respond with peace.”[^11] These qualities are difficult to manifest in ourselves. How do we respond when a flight attendant is rude to us? Or the hundredth person who asks us, while wearing hijab in the dead of summer, “Aren’t you hot?” A couple of years ago, I was at the Minnesota State Fair sitting on a plastic chair attending an event in support of my sister. She spotted me in the audience and said (into the microphone) “Hi sister!” The woman sitting next to me gave me a long look and blurted out, “Sister?” I smiled and said, “Yes, we are sisters.” She said, “But…how? Look at you. How?” She was struggling to express her shock and—if I am honest—disgust. I had some background about this particular woman, and I knew that she was deeply racist, and I became slightly nervous as I looked around to be sure that I was safe. I took a deep breath and grounded myself in being a servant of the Merciful and responded gently saying, “Yes, we are sisters. We were raised Lutheran. She is still a Lutheran, but I became a Muslim many years ago. We love each other and we are still sisters even though we are different religions.” I didn’t convert anyone to love and acceptance on that day but I also did not give her any fuel to complain about the manners of Muslims. The ability to answer out of our comfort zones comes from nightly prayers that calm the heart and make us the people we are supposed to be. God says in the next verse, after admonishing us to be good and kind even to the ignorant and still describing the servants of the Merciful as “those who spend the night in worship of their Lord, prostrate and standing.”[^12] The phrasing of this verse gives me pause every time I read it. Though we pray by standing first and then prostrating, here the verse begins with the prostration. It gives me the feeling of drawing strength from long prostrations so that we can stand strong with the good qualities that Allah (swt) calls upon us to carry forth into the world as His servants. In Sūrat al-Insān, God again calls on us to prostrate and praise God for a long period of time at night: “And during the night, prostate yourself to Him; and glorify Him a long (part of the) night.”[^13] This verse falls after an exhortation of patience and steadfastness in the work of the guidance of humanity. Here the term “glorify Him” refers to praying *tahajjud*—to glorify Allah in the long hours of the night. These three verses, along with numerous others in the Qur’an, connect standing in nightly prayers with the power and strength needed to do the work of prophethood and, by default, the work of the inheritors of the Prophet ﷺ—the work of real change and guidance for humanity. --- ## The Prophetic practice The Prophet ﷺ, whose very character was the Qur’an, would pray at night for long hours. Ḥudhayfah (ra), tells us his personal experience with the intensity of the beloved Prophet’s prayer, “I prayed with the Prophet ﷺ one night and he began with al-Baqarah, and I said to myself, ‘He will do *rukū*ʿ after one hundred verses, but he continued,’ Then I said to myself, ‘He will pray this *rakʿah* with it (the *sūrah*).’ But then he began al-Nisā*ʾ* and read it, and then he began Āl ʿImrān and read it, too. He read slowly, and if he came upon a verse of praise, he praised, and if he came upon a (verse calling on us to) request, he would request (from Allah), and if he came upon a point of seeking refuge, he sought refuge, then he bowed in *rukūʿ* and began to say ‘*subḥān Allāh al-ʿaẓīm’*; and his *rukūʿ* was as his standing. Then he said ‘*samiʿa Allāhu li-man ḥamidah rabbanā laka al-ḥamd*’ and then stood as his *rukūʿ*, he then went into *sujūd* and said ‘*subḥāna rabbī al-aʿlā’* and his *sujūd* was as his standing.”[^14] When we read this account of the Prophet’s ﷺ prayer, we have a better understanding of ʿĀʾishah’s (ra) words, “The Prophet ﷺ would stand at night until his feet swelled.”[^15] The prayer described by Hudhaifa opens a window into a *tahajjud* prayer that few of us could even hope to aspire to. On that night, he ﷺ recited a little over six sections, or 105 pages, in his ﷺ first *rakʿah* of prayer. On the night before Badr, when the nascent Muslim community was facing possible annihilation, the Prophet ﷺ spent the entire night in prayer. ʿAlī (r) said, “Every single one of us slept except for the Messenger of Allah who, under a tree, was praying and weeping until morning…”[^16] He sought strength and help in his *tahajjud* and Allah (swt) sent thousands of angels to the battlefield to help them. --- ## The prayer of the companions The companions also spent their nights in prayer. Sometimes we can see the direct connection between a night of prayer and a day of success, like at Badr, and other times we see a lifetime of worship and miraculous cultural change as a result. Bilal, for example, was a man who prayed *tahajjud*. It is said that while he waited for the light of *fajr* to come in so that he could call the *adhān*, he would pray and ask Allah to guide Quraish. A woman of Banī Najjār said, “By God, I have never known him to miss this supplication even once.”[^17] Bilāl was abused by Quraysh and they were not his tribe or his relatives. Yet the light of Islam and the love of the Prophet ﷺ gave him the heart to pray for, and not against, the Quraysh. His hope for their guidance was certainly his hope for the heart of the Messenger to be pleased. But how many of us would have a heart large enough to contain and pray for a people who have harmed us? *Tahajjud* was one of the keys to that strength of heart. Tamīm b. Aws was a convert from Christianity. He came to Medina in the ninth year after the *hijrah*. Tamim was a man of worship and would regularly read the entire Qur’an in seven nights and pray a long *tahajjud* that included long hours of *duʿāʾ*. We understand his commitment to his night prayers when, on one occasion, he slept through the night and missed *tahajjud*, and then, as a way of repentance and recommitment, he prayed all night every night for an entire year. This man, with his commitment to *tahajjud*, had insight and vision. He was the first to light up the *masjid* with lanterns and oil, which he did on his own. Imagine the pleasure and surprise when, after setting up the lanterns during the day, he lit them at night! The Prophet ﷺ said, “You have lit up Islam. May Allah enlighten you in this world and in the hereafter. If I had a daughter, I would have presented her to you in marriage.”[^18] We see that *tahajjud* gave him creativity and initiative to do good deeds as well as a character that had the potential to earn him the status of son-in-law to the Prophet ﷺ, a status granted sparingly and only to those with the best qualities. Another companion whose *tahajjud* is memorable and a lesson for us was Usaid ibn Hudair. His recitation at night was so beautiful that the angels would descend to listen. On one memorable night, it is said that he rose to pray and began reciting from Surat al-Baqara and his horse began acting spooked, so he stopped. His horse calmed down and he started again. The horse started acting spooked again and Usaid looked up and saw a sky like he had never seen before that seemed to be lit with lamps. He told the Prophet ﷺ about his experience and he said, “Those were angels who came near to you for your voice and if you had kept on reciting till dawn, it would have remained there till morning when people would have seen it as it would not have disappeared.”[^19] Usayd (r) taught us that spiritual states are the fuel we need for a lifetime of cultural change. His worship gave him a pleasant character and he was known to be lighthearted and easygoing. He was also devoted and strong, participating in battles and contributing to the political strength of the nascent community. Umm Waraqah (ra) was also known for her long nights in prayer[^20] and her moving Qur’anic recitation. It is said that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb would pause at her house on his nightly walks through the city and listen to her recitation.[^21] al-Shifāʾ also was known for her worship at night. On one occasion ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb visited al-Shifāʾ, and she narrates the story, “ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb entered my home and saw two men sleeping, my husband and son. He asked, ‘What is the matter with these two men who did not pray with us?’ I replied, ‘O Amīr al-Muʾminīn, they prayed with the people and they continued to pray until it became morning. Then they prayed the morning prayer and went to sleep.’” Umar was upset they had not attended *fajr* at the mosque, but I recognize in this narration that the entire family had spent the night in prayer.[^22] Anas ibn Mālik reports that the Prophet ﷺ once came into the mosque and saw a rope tied between two pillars. Upon inquiring why it was there he was told, “It is for Zaynab. When she feels drowsy. She holds on to it.”[^23] The hadith goes on to advise us all in how to manage sleepy prayers, but the point is not lost on those wondering about the commitment to prayer of the early Muslims. Zaynab was praying so much and to such a degree that she had made herself something to hold on to in case she felt she might fall from exhaustion. What kind of devotion to *tahajjud* was this? This was the early community of women and men. They were people of *tahajjud*. And as a result they changed the face of the earth as our first and best community. ### The habit of tahajjud stays alive The habit of *tahajjud* continued in the lives of the *tābiʿīn* (those who came after the companions—the followers), our later *ʿulamāʾ* (scholars) and *awliyāʾ* (people of God). Imām Abū Ḥanīfah was nicknamed “the Pillar” because he spent so much time standing in prayer. He was also known to pray the *fajr* prayer with the same *wuḍūʾ* that he had prayed the ʿ*ishāʾ* prayer with (meaning he was in constant prayer all night).[^24] Imām al-Shāfiʿī would devote one third of the night to sleep, one third to study, and one third to prayer.[^25] And Imām al-Bukhārī is said to have prayed thirty (long) *rakʿah*s during the last part of the night.[^26] When we read about the stories of early people, we are rarely let into their personal struggles, and could mistakenly think that they reached such levels of spirituality and commitment with ease. Thābit al-Bunānī, however, gave us a glimpse into his own personal struggle when he said, “I struggled against my self for *qiyām al-layl* for twenty years, and then I savored it for twenty.”[^27] Twenty years! How many of us would have given up after only a few months? Or weeks? If *tahajjud* feels to you like nothing but a struggle to stay awake, take comfort in knowing that persistence will bring you a sweet reward. For some, the heart yearned for *tahajjud* from an early age. Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al Tustarī began praying *tahajjud* when he was three years old at the encouragement of his uncle. Abū Yazīd al Busṭāmī was a young child when he woke and saw his father praying. He asked him to teach him how to wash and pray with him, and his father said, “But you are still young,” to which he responded, “When the day of judgment comes, I will say I asked you to teach me but you refused.” So, his father taught him, and he began a lifelong habit of *tahajjud*.[^28] The real blessing of *qiyām al-layl* is seen in the response of Junayd when he was seen in a dream after his death and asked, “What did your Lord do with you?” He replied, “The signs and expressions and metaphors and knowledge which we once had all left and all that proved of value to us was the prayers we would pray before dawn.”[^29] All of these leaders and builders of Muslim society were regular prayers of *tahajjud*. If we are, in our modern times, to take on the role of calling to what is right and good, and pushing back on what is ugly and evil, we must seek help from our night prayers. --- ## Pandemic The pandemic of the winter of 2020 has turned the world upside down. People of faith have been forced to see and practice their religious occasions (Easter, Passover, Ramadan) differently. Jobs have been lost, schools closed, stock markets tanked, and people across languages and cultures have been asked to stay at home. The stay-at-home orders have affected funerals and grieving, graduations and celebrating, and companies and working. The pandemic has stopped society as we know it and we are all standing at a precipice and holding our breath to see what it will look like post-covid. Instead of waiting, however, we have an opportunity to fulfill our intended responsibility. We have the opportunity to promote goodness, light, and beauty. We can be part of an enormous cultural change that encourages all types of positivity. There has been much speculation about how the world will be post-Covid19. History tells us that epidemics and pandemics do change society. The 1901 plague of Cape Town drove society into a segregated quarantine that was a precursor to the apartheid of 1948.[^30] The end of the Spanish flu of 1918 coincided with the end of World War I so it is difficult to parse out the effects of  the flu from the effects of the war. Kenneth Davis, in his 2018 book, *More Deadly than War: Hidden history of the Spanish Flu and the First World War,* postulates that “After the twin horrors of world war and the Spanish Flu many Americans longed for a return to normalcy—a word used by President Warren G. Harding in his successful bid for presidency.”[^31] The desire for “normalcy” actually brought much change. The decade after the trauma of the flu and the war brought the roaring twenties, suffrage for women, and the temperance movement. In 1922, the Health section of the League of Nations was founded, the forerunner to the World Health Organization. Then the world fell back into war in 1939. Finally, in 1948, a flu vaccine was invented.[^32] What will post-Covid19 society look like? What changes will be made and what role will Muslims have in this change? And can we be proactive about what will become the new normal? As the early Muslims entered Medina, they found themselves sick with the local illness. Medina had been known for its plague and many Meccan companions contracted it. They were so sick they began to pray sitting and when the Prophet ﷺ saw them doing so, he said, “Know you that the prayer of one sitting is half the reward of one standing...”[^33] And they struggled to their feet in hope of reward. During this time, ʿĀʾishah (r) visited her father Abū Bakr, ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah and Bilāl, who were convalescing in one house, and she reported back that they were delirious in fever, reciting poetry about death and homesickness. The Prophet ﷺ prayed and asked Allah to remove the disease from Medina. He wanted them to love the city so that they could carry the message of Islam within and without. He said, “O God, make Medina beloved to us as You made Mecca beloved to us, or more so. O God, bless it for us in its weights and measures, and make it healthy for us, and transfer its plague to Mahyaʿah (a place far away).” [^34] The pandemic calls on us all to be our best selves. As Muslims, we must struggle to our feet in the depths of the night and call upon our Lord to remove the virus, and to help us all love each other, and the world that He has provided for us. We must light up the earth for the angels and for humanity. --- ## Keystone habit I am often asked “If I’m not even praying my five obligatory prayers, why are you encouraging me to pray *tahajjud*?” and—though it may seem counterintuitive—I do encourage us all to try and become of those who pray *tahajjud*, even if we are missing our *farḍ* prayers. *Tahajjud* is a keystone habit. “Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything.”[^35] These habits are the ones that make transformational change in a whole life, or institution, even though they are just one habit. So, someone who has been dieting for a lifetime unsuccessfully might change her morning routine to include exercise and suddenly find herself losing weight. It is the habit that changed the other habits and created a healthier body. *Tahajjud* is the habit that influences the rest of our day and how we focus our lives. If you are waking up for *tahajjud*, your chances of missing *fajr* are reduced, and if you have prayed *tahajjud* and *fajr*, you will push yourself to pray the other daily prayers in order to preserve the beauty of that day. As you get used to praying *tahajjud*, the strength of spirit, courage, faith, goodness and light will begin to well up within you and then *tahajjud* will become your dear friend. --- ## Exhaustion We live in a time when the prevailing global connection between people is exhaustion. Struggling to make ends meet, to raise children in the age of technology, and the impact of constant bad news has worn out our hearts and our bones. We see tweets and facebook posts about violence, injustice, racism, sexism, oppression, immorality, and seemingly every ugliness that could be imagined. We also live in a time where we are told to sleep eight hours a night, to drink plenty of water, and to take our vitamins. We see images of supposedly rested people smiling on Instagram, laughing, and indulging in fun! Food! And perfect family poses! Then we ask ourselves why we can not get enough rest, why we are sleep deprived, and why we are cranky. We hope for a time in the “future” when we will have a perpetually tidy house, clean and peaceful babies, and smooth, well-hydrated skin. It is time to examine our expectations of sleep as a source of energy. While there is no doubt that the human body needs sleep, there is also no doubt that the human soul needs fasting and praying in order to stay energized, healthy, and hopeful. The Prophet ﷺ, in an extraordinary response to ʿĀʾishah’s question, “Do you sleep before observing *witr*?” said, “ʿĀʾishah, my eyes sleep, but my heart does not sleep.”[^36]  There is a lightness of sleep implied here. A heart that is awake even when the body is asleep. Our modern sleep is often very heavy. Heavy with the weight of sins, darkness, and worldly desires that hold us in our bed past sunrise, and when we wake up, the body is still tired. When the soul *and* the body are exhausted, as they are for most people today, it can feel like no amount of rest will ever be enough. Allah (swt) has prescribed Ramadan for His servants. This is a month of certain physical exhaustion—yet a month of healing and energy for the soul. God’s call to get up at night to pray *tahajjud* is similar. While at first we may find it difficult and feel sleep deprived during the day, soon the prayer will begin to strengthen our spirit and give us energy. We will stop wondering how the early companions accomplished so very much, and begin to accomplish more ourselves. We will stop struggling with inner conflict and begin spreading joy to the people around us with our increased patience and contentment. Allah (swt) describes the believers thus: “They arise from (their) beds; they supplicate their Lord in fear and aspiration, and from what We have provided them, they give.”[^37] The habit of *tahajjud* is what fueled the first community and what we need to thrive in today’s world. *Tahajjud* is the rest we need. --- ## How to struggle to your feet at night In order to develop the habit of *tahajjud*, there are specific tips handed down to us by our early scholars as well as recommendations about the state of our inner selves as we strive to wake up our hearts and minds to the joy of *tahajjud*. ### Tips and Tricks 1. Don’t overeat before bed. Many early *murshid*s (guides for others on a path of spirituality) would stand at the dining table of their students and say, “Do not overeat! Drink up!” reminding their students that a heavy stomach produces a heavy body in bed. But a full bladder can get them out of bed to make *wuḍūʾ* at the right time of night. Wahb ibn Munabbih said, “There is nothing of the children of Ādam more beloved to Shayṭān than food and sleep.”[^38]  2. Don’t spend the day in that which overworks the nerves because this will cause heavier sleep. One of my teachers, Shaykhah Samira Zayid, said to me, “The work of the day determines the prayer at night” and she would encourage me to work hard, but to stay calm in the face of frustration or any little daily problem of *dunyá*. Losing my temper was exhausting. She gently encouraged me to be more empathetic and understanding of others so that I would have less of a struggle to wake up at night. 3. Take a short nap during the day. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Support your fast in the day with food in the wee hours before *fajr*, and your prayers at night with a short nap in the day.”[^39] 4. Stay away from sin. A man said to Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, “O Abū Saʿīd, I am healthy and I love to pray at night so why do I not wake up?” he answered, “Your sins stop you.” And Imām al-Thawrī said, “I was prevented from *qiyām al-layl* for five months because of a sin I committed.” He was asked, “What was that sin?” he said, “I saw a man crying and I criticized him to myself.”[^40] In the beginning, when we are establishing the habit of *tahajjud*, it will be too early to say if a particular sin is blocking the prayer or not. But once you have developed a habit, and then suddenly find yourself struggling to wake up, it is a good time to ask yourself what is standing in your way. 5. Put into practice the *sunnah* aspects of sleep: to remember Allah before you sleep, sleep on your right side, etc. ### Inner strength to wake up There are three inner aspects of the heart that affect our ability to jump out of bed and onto the prayer carpet. 1. To have a healthy heart: a heart full of grudges, bitterness, and envy will struggle to wake up for prayers. These feelings are the whispers of Shayṭān. Try to replace them with forgiveness, love, and gratefulness and you will find yourself lighter in your bed at night. 2. To know the great status of the *tahajjud* prayer: We have all developed systems for finding the things in life that are the most efficient for success and in this case, the Prophet ﷺ gave us the system of *tahajjud*. He said, “Upon you is the prayer at night for it was the practice of the righteous before you, it is nearness to your Lord, a forgiveness of sin, and a protection from error.”[^41]  3. To have the love of God and *iman* in your heart, so that you are rising to meet your Beloved and converse intimately and beautifully as you stand in prayer. Imām al-Ghazālī, giving advice to his student, said, “Sufyān al-Thawrī (the mercy of God the Exalted be upon him ) said, “At the start of the night a crier calls from beneath the Throne, ‘Let the worshippers get up!’ So they get up and they pray as God wills. Then a crier calls at midnight, ‘Let those who stand at length in prayer get up!’ So they get up and they pray until before daybreak. And when it is before daybreak, a crier calls, ‘Let those seeking forgiveness get up!’ So, they get up and seek forgiveness. And when the dawn breaks a crier calls, ‘Let the heedless get up!’ So they get out of their beds like the dead rising from their graves.”[^42] Imām al-Ghazālī was encouraging, or actually warning, his student to pay attention to *tahajjud*. He was scoffing at knowledge that was not backed up with deep and long nightly prayers. In this text, “A Letter to a Disciple,” al-Ghazālī lays it on the line—if this young man wants to be successful, he must be a person of worship, and *tahajjud* was the first and most important step. This advice should be taken to our own hearts so that we can become as the poet described, “He who has a perceiving heart will have only ‘Allah,’ ‘Allah’ spring to his lips.”[^43] ### What to pray when you wake up *Tahajjud* prayer is not specific. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar said, “A man asked, ‘O Messenger of God, How is the prayer at night (performed)?’ He answered, ‘Two and then two and when you apprehend the approach of dawn, pray one *rakʿah* as *witr*.’”[^44] We can pray as many or as few sets of two *rakʿahs* as we please. They can be a few long *rakʿahs*, two short ones, or many short ones. Books of *fiqh* remind us to plead with Allah at night and encourage us to pray the prayer of need during this very special time of night. But the entire night lies open for us to pray as little or as much as we need. Starting out this new habit with two *rakʿahs* of *tahajjud* is a manageable keystone habit. It means waking only about 15 minutes before *fajr* in order to wash and pray in time before the *adhān*. Just this small change will begin to change us individually and as a community. --- ## Ramadan is the perfect time to practice The month of Ramadan is the month of spiritual growth. Allah (swt) says, “Oh you who believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may attain *taqwá*.”[^45] Sayyid Quṭb says the phrase “‘Have *taqwá* of God as is His right to *taqwá’*[^46] means there is no limit to the *taqwá* a person can achieve. Let the heart constantly strive to reach that state for as the heart itself is absorbed in the pursuit of this *taqwá* it will discover new horizons and experience new longings. And the closer it gets through its *taqwá* of God, the more this longing awakens to a higher station or rank, higher than where it was previously, and to a rank beyond where it was already elevated, and it looks forward to the station in which he/she awakens and thereafter never sleeps.”[^47] *Taqwá*, then, is a process. It takes work to grow. Every Ramadan we fast, pray *taraweeh*, read Qur’an, give in charity, and hope to grow our *taqwá* and our closeness to Allah (swt). The Prophet ﷺ encouraged us to pray *qiyām al-layl* or *tahajjud* in Ramadan as well when he ﷺ said, “Whoever spends its nights in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward, he will be forgiven his previous sins.”[^48] And he ﷺ explicitly connected *taqwá* to the forgiveness of sins, “He is the One deserving of *taqwá*, and He is the One Who forgives. Allah, Blessed is He and Most High, said, ‘I am the most worthy of *taqwá*, so whoever has *taqwá* of Me, not having any god besides Me, then I am \[the One\] Who can and will forgive him.’” The path, then, to success has been laid out in front of us. An increase in *taqwá* is an increase in forgiveness, and praying at night in Ramadan brings us to the place of forgiveness of sins, therefore increasing our *taqwá*. In Ramadan we are already getting up to eat *suḥūr,* so we have a golden opportunity to create and carve out this new habit. Pray while the coffee is brewing, while the tea is steeping, while the dishes are drying. Pray after you have stopped eating and you are waiting for *fajr* to come in—slip in two *rakʿahs* and a special *duʿāʾ*. You prayed *tarāwīḥ* in the beginning of the night, now pray *tahajjud* in the end of the night and ask Allah to make it a habit for your family. Children will see you praying while they sleepily eat their late night *suḥūr*, and you will be building solid memories of prayer in their minds and hearts. Let this Ramadan be the beginning of an *ummah*\-wide movement toward becoming people of *tahajjud*. Then we will be ready, when the pandemic crisis wanes, to lead the world in all that needs to be done. We will have the strength and vision we need from our new habit of *tahajjud*. --- ## Intentional positive change Today I live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. Here the thick trees and ample space between homes makes it impossible to look and wonder at the nighttime praying habits of my neighbors. But I can see the stars. And on those nights that I poke my head out of the window and look up, I pray that this *ummah* will once again be like this beautiful night sky to the angels. I pray that every Muslim home will be a place of the burning warmth and light of *tahajjud* and that we will take that newfound energy and go forth sprinkling goodness and uplifting action on every corner of the earth. When we start to pray at night, our homes will begin to light up for the angels and our hearts and minds will light up for humanity. We can become the community that was brought forth to do every good thing and to prevent every ugly thing. We can fulfill our responsibility to the world when we have the strength we need from our late night/early morning prayers. We can become of the people of *tahajjud* in imitation of the Prophet ﷺ, his companions, those who followed them, our great scholars, and every Muslim, known and unknown, who has made a long-term positive change in society. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Rajab, *Majmūʿ Rasāʾil al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī*, v. 4, p. 51, [https://ia800706.us.archive.org/34/items/FP63449/mrir4.pdf](https://ia800706.us.archive.org/34/items/FP63449/mrir4.pdf). [^2]: Qur’an 3:110. [^3]: Qur’an 9:112. [^4]: Qur’an 9:71. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1993. [^6]: Zakī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm ibn ʿAbd al-Qawī al-Mundhir, *al-Targhīb wa-al-Tarhīb min al-hadīth al-sharīf* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2002), 1:962, [https://ia800508.us.archive.org/35/items/FP153161/01\_153161.pdf](https://ia800508.us.archive.org/35/items/FP153161/01_153161.pdf). [^7]: Jema, “How to Milk a Sheep 101: 12 Steps to Sheep Milking Success,” Half the Clothes, [ttps://halftheclothes.com/how-to-milk-a-sheep-101-12-steps-to-sheep-milking-success/](https://halftheclothes.com/how-to-milk-a-sheep-101-12-steps-to-sheep-milking-success/). [^8]: Qur’an 17:79. [^9]: Qur’an 73:1–4. [^10]: Qur’an 73:20. [^11]: Qur’an 25:63. [^12]: Qur’an 25:64. [^13]: Qur’an 76:26. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 772. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* 8:449; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2819. [^16]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, 2:44, no. 1023, graded authentic by Shaykh Aḥmad Shākir. [^17]: Asma Tabaa, *Nujūm fī falak al-nubuwwah* \[Stars in the Prophet’s Orbit\] (Damascus: Dār al-Salām, 2004), 83. [^18]: al-Imām al-Ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥajr al-ʿAsqlānī, *al-Iṣābah fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥābah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1995), 488. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ alBukhārī*, no. 5018. [^20]: Tabaa, *Stars in the Prophet’s Orbit.* [^21]: Tabaa. [^22]: Tabaa, 147. [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 212. [^24]: Gibril Fouad Haddad, *The Four Imams and Their Schools* (London: Muslim Academic Trust, 2007). [^25]: Hajjah Durriah al-Aytah, *Fiqh al Ibadat According to the Shafi’ School of Thought* (Damascus: Sabah, 1989). [^26]: Al-Aytah. [^27]: Maḥmūd al-Maṣrī, *Laylah fī bayt al-nabī* (Cairo: Maktaba Safa, 2011). [^28]: Al-Masri, 73. [^29]: al-Maṣrī, 74. [^30]: Alexandre White, “Xenophobia in the Time of Quarantines,” Johns Hopkins Medicine: News and Publications, April, 10, 2020, [https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/xenophobia-in-the-time-of-quarantines](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/xenophobia-in-the-time-of-quarantines). [^31]: Kenneth C. Davis, *More Deadly than War: Hidden History of the Spanish Flu* (New York: Henry Holt, 2018), 208. [^32]: Laura Spinney, *Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World* (New York: Hachette, 2017). [^33]: *Muwatta al-Imām Mālik*, bk. 8, hadith 309. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6372. [^35]: Charles Duhigg, *The Power of Habit* (New York: Random House, 2014), 231. [^36]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1341. [^37]: Qur’an 32:16. [^38]: Yūsuf Khaṭṭār Muḥammad, *Qiyām al-layl wa-asrārih* (Damascus: Nadr Publishing, 2001), 48. [^39]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 540. [^40]: Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Zubaydī, *Itḥāf al-sādah al-muttaqīn bi-sharḥ iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Beirut: Mu’asa al-Tarikh al-’Arabi, n.d.), 5:537, [https://ia801302.us.archive.org/28/items/FP78871/ithafsm05.pdf](https://ia801302.us.archive.org/28/items/FP78871/ithafsm05.pdf). [^41]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3549; *al-Mustadrak*, vol. 1, no. 308. [^42]: Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, *Al-Ghazali* *Letter to a Disciple/Ayyuha’l-Walad: Bilingual English-Arabic Edition*, trans. and introduced with notes by Tobias Mayer (UK: Islamic Texts Society, 2005), 20. [^43]: Mohammad Zia Ullah, *Islamic Concept of God* (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), 31. [^44]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1137. [^45]: Qur’an 2:183. [^46]: Qur’an 3:102. [^47]: Sayyid Quṭb, *Tafsīr fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān* (Egypt: Dār al-Shurūq, 1972), 442. [^48]: *Sunan al-Nasaʾī*, no. 2191. ## Summary The believers have been called to a weighty task: to be a light upon the earth, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil. Allah the Exalted describes this community in His words, "You are the best community that has been raised up for humanity: You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah," and He describes the believing men and women as "allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakāh and obey Allah and His Messenger." This work of building, uplifting, and mending the world is difficult and often thankless labor, likened to the toil of a gardener who plants and then patiently weeds, prunes, and tends until the harvest. Such effort requires a source of strength that does not burn out but rather grows, and that fuel is worship—and especially the night prayer. The night prayer is known in Arabic as qiyām al-layl, or, when performed after some sleep, as tahajjud. It stands as the most important prayer after the obligatory ones, as the Prophet ﷺ declared, "The best prayer one can perform apart from the obligatory prayers is one performed at night." He ﷺ further emphasized its worth when he said, "Every believer should pray at night, even if only as long as it would take to milk an ewe, and what is after the ʿishāʾ prayer is of the night." The prayer has no fixed number of rakʿahs; they may be long or short, performed alone or in a group. The distinction between the two terms is that tahajjud is prayed after rising from sleep, while qiyām al-layl refers to standing at night whether one has slept or not. The Qur'an ties this prayer to elevation of status. Allah says to His Prophet ﷺ, "And rise from sleep during the night as well—this is an additional prayer for you. Perhaps your Lord will raise you to an honored position." The Arabic conveys the image of one rising from bed to prayer, linking our standing—earthly and heavenly—to our wakefulness at night. So central is this prayer to spiritual rank that the early scholars would say a person becomes a friend of God only in proportion to their night prayers. In the very dawn of revelation, Allah commanded, "O you wrapped in a garment! Arise (to pray) the night, except for a little—half of it—or subtract from it a little—or add to it and recite the Qur'an with measured recitation," for the Prophet ﷺ was about to receive weighty words, the Glorious Qur'an. The companions followed this until the final verse of the same chapter brought ease, for Allah said, "Indeed, your Lord knows, that you stand almost two-thirds of the night... He has known that you will not be able to do it and has turned to you in forgiveness, so recite what is easy for you of the Qur'an," recognizing sickness, travel, and struggle, and making the call more flexible while still encouraging as much prayer as one can offer. The night prayer also cultivates the noblest character. In Sūrat al-Furqān, Allah describes the Servants of the Merciful as those who "walk gently on the earth" and who, "when the ignorant address them, they respond with peace," and then, tellingly, as "those who spend the night in worship of their Lord, prostrate and standing." That this verse begins with prostration before standing suggests that the strength to stand firm with good character in the world is drawn from the long prostrations of the night. Likewise in Sūrat al-Insān He commands, "And during the night, prostrate yourself to Him; and glorify Him a long part of the night," a verse following an exhortation to patience in the work of guiding humanity. These verses join the night prayer to the power needed for the labor of prophethood and, by extension, for the inheritors of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ, whose very character was the Qur'an, prayed at length in the night. Ḥudhayfah رضي الله عنه related how the Prophet ﷺ recited al-Baqarah, then al-Nisāʾ, then Āl ʿImrān in a single standing, pausing to praise at verses of praise and to seek refuge at verses of refuge, with his bowing and prostration as long as his standing. From this we grasp the words of ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها that "the Prophet ﷺ would stand at night until his feet swelled." On the night before Badr, when the young community faced annihilation, ʿAlī رضي الله عنه said that everyone slept save the Messenger of Allah, who prayed and wept beneath a tree until morning, seeking strength that Allah answered with the aid of angels. The companions inherited this devotion. Bilāl رضي الله عنه would pray while awaiting fajr and supplicate for the guidance of Quraysh—the very people who had abused him—and a woman of Banī Najjār testified she never once knew him to omit this supplication. Tamīm b. Aws, a convert from Christianity, would complete the Qur'an in seven nights, and once, having slept through tahajjud, prayed every night for a whole year in repentance; he was the first to light the masjid with lanterns, prompting the Prophet ﷺ to say, "You have lit up Islam. May Allah enlighten you in this world and in the hereafter." Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr recited so beautifully that the angels descended to listen, as the Prophet ﷺ confirmed. Umm Waraqah رضي الله عنها was known for her long nights and moving recitation, at which ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb would pause to listen; al-Shifāʾ's household would pray through the night; and Zaynab kept a rope tied between two pillars to hold when drowsiness overtook her in prayer. This habit endured among the tābiʿīn and later scholars. Imām Abū Ḥanīfah was nicknamed "the Pillar" for his long standing, and would pray fajr with the wuḍūʾ of ʿishāʾ. Imām al-Shāfiʿī divided his night into thirds for sleep, study, and prayer. Yet the path was not always easy: Thābit al-Bunānī said, "I struggled against my self for qiyām al-layl for twenty years, and then I savored it for twenty," a comfort to any who find the prayer a struggle. Some yearned for it young, as Sahl al-Tustarī began at three, and Abū Yazīd al-Busṭāmī insisted his father teach him despite his youth. And when Junayd was seen in a dream and asked what his Lord had done with him, he replied that all his knowledge and expressions departed, and nothing availed him save the prayers he prayed before dawn. In light of the upheaval of the pandemic of 2020, this is an occasion to take up our intended responsibility rather than merely await what comes. When the early Muslims fell ill in Medina and prayed sitting, the Prophet ﷺ told them, "The prayer of one sitting is half the reward of one standing," and they struggled to their feet; he then prayed, "O God, make Medina beloved to us... and make it healthy for us, and transfer its plague to Mahyaʿah." So too are we called to struggle to our feet at night, asking our Lord to lift affliction and to join our hearts in love. The night prayer is, in truth, a keystone habit—the one practice that reorders the rest of life. One who rises for tahajjud is unlikely to miss fajr, and having prayed both, will guard the remaining prayers to preserve the beauty of the day. For this reason it is worth cultivating even for one who struggles with the obligatory prayers, for it awakens strength, courage, faith, and light within. In an age worn down by exhaustion, we ought to reconsider our reliance on sleep alone, for the soul is nourished by prayer and fasting. The Prophet ﷺ said, when ʿĀʾishah asked whether he slept before witr, "ʿĀʾishah, my eyes sleep, but my heart does not sleep." Allah describes the believers: "They arise from their beds; they supplicate their Lord in fear and aspiration, and from what We have provided them, they give." There are means to attaining this prayer. One should avoid overeating, for Wahb ibn Munabbih said, "There is nothing of the children of Ādam more beloved to Shayṭān than food and sleep." One should take a daytime nap, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Support your prayers at night with a short nap in the day," and should keep away from sin—Ḥasan al-Baṣrī told a man that his sins prevented him from waking, and al-Thawrī was barred from qiyām for five months over having inwardly criticized a weeping man. One should observe the sunnah of sleep, remembering Allah and lying on the right side. Inwardly, one needs a heart free of grudges, knowledge of the prayer's great status—the Prophet ﷺ said it "was the practice of the righteous before you, it is nearness to your Lord, a forgiveness of sin, and a protection from error"—and love of Allah drawing one to converse with the Beloved. As for its performance, when a man asked the Prophet ﷺ how the night prayer is performed, he answered, "Two and then two, and when you apprehend the approach of dawn, pray one rakʿah as witr." One may pray as few or as many pairs as one wishes, long or short. Beginning with two rakʿahs, waking merely fifteen minutes before fajr, is a manageable start. Ramadan is the ideal season, for its aim is taqwā, as Allah says, "decreed upon you is fasting... that you may attain taqwā," and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever spends its nights in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward, he will be forgiven his previous sins." Since we already rise for suḥūr, we may slip in two rakʿahs and a supplication, and let our children witness it, planting memories of prayer. Let this be the beginning of a community-wide return to becoming people of tahajjud, so that our homes light up for the angels and our hearts for humanity, and we go forth with the strength and vision to lead in every good work, in imitation of the Prophet ﷺ, his companions, and the righteous who came after them. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What are the virtues of tahajjud? *Tahajjud* is a means of nearness to Allah, spiritual purification, and answered prayers. It elevates the believer’s rank, earns Allah’s praise, and distinguishes the sincere. Strengthening the soul, softening the heart, and increasing inner tranquility, it was a consistent practice of the Prophet ﷺ and the righteous. ### How do you pray tahajjud? *Tahajjud* is prayed after waking from sleep in the last third of the night, in units of two rak‘ahs. There is no set limit, but the Prophet ﷺ commonly prayed eleven rak‘ahs. It is recommended to conclude with Witr prayer, and one may recite long portions of the Qur’an and make heartfelt supplications. ### What are the hadiths about tahajjud? Among the hadiths concerning *tahajjud*, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The best prayer one can perform apart from the obligatory prayers is one performed at night” (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 1993). He ﷺ also said, “Upon you is the prayer at night for it was the practice of the righteous before you, it is nearness to your Lord, a forgiveness of sin, and a protection from error.” (*Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3549; *al-Mustadrak*, vol. 1, no. 308.) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/coping-with-grief-a-spiritual-and-psychological-guide # Coping with Grief: A Spiritual and Psychological Guide **Authors:** Sarah Sultan, Najwa Awad **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Mental Health, Paper, Publication, Staff Pick **Published:** May 12, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Grief ### What is grief? Grief is a natural and emotional reaction to the loss of someone or something important to you. The loss can be a person, an object, or even a way of life. During a time of loss, emotions can be intensely painful, affecting all aspects of life and relationships. In the midst of this struggle, it is important to realize that grief is normal; it is not an illness and it is not something negative. Grief shows that you cared deeply for whatever it is that you lost. For some people, grief might be felt in spikes throughout the day, for others it may suddenly come up every few days. Some have compared it to feeling as though they are drowning due to the tidal waves of emotion that affect them at times. Others might say that it feels like it’s an extra weight on their heart or shoulders that they carry around with them wherever they go. Everyone experiences grief differently and on a different timeline; your emotional response to grief may be very different from what you’ve seen or how you anticipate you may react. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ experienced many losses throughout his life and taught us that grief is a real and natural emotional response. The Prophet ﷺmanifested his grief on different occasions and demonstrated the permissibility of showing our feelings of sadness when we lose something precious: > The Messenger of Allah ﷺ visited Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah during his illness. He was accompanied by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with them). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ began to weep. When his Companions saw this, their tears also started flowing. He ﷺ said, “Do you not hear, Allah does not punish for the shedding of tears or the grief of the heart but punishes or bestows mercy for the utterances of this (and he pointed to his tongue).”[^1] Consider some of the losses the Prophet ﷺ endured: - The loss of both his wife Khadījah (ra) and his uncle Abū Ṭālib in one year, called “The Year of Sorrow” - The death of 6 out of 7 of his children during his lifetime - The deaths of numerous companions and friends - Watching his entire tribe go hungry as Banū Hāshim was boycotted by the Makkans due to the Prophet ﷺ refusing to stop spreading the message of Islam - Losing his status and many relationships in Makkan society once he began to publicly proclaim the Words of Allah (swt) ### What losses are people experiencing now? During the current coronavirus crisis, a grief response is completely normal. COVID-19 has been a sudden life-altering experience for the entire globe. In just a few months, the disease has gone from being a novel virus affecting a few people in one city to the entire world on lock-down. There is an overall feeling that the world has changed, which is a tremendous loss. We have lost our routines, a sense of consistency and predictability, a loss of normalcy, economic stability, and connection. Everyone’s life has been affected in one way or another—interpersonally, spiritually, economically, emotionally, and physically. > And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.” Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the \[rightly\] guided.[^2] #### Loss of a way of life One of the most profound losses during this time has been freedom. Freedom to go out without anxiety about getting sick, freedom to go out and socialize, freedom to go to work, freedom to engage in public recreational activities/facilities, and overall freedom to experience whatever level of functioning we had before. Suddenly the most mundane, normal tasks can be anxiety-provoking. Even the simple task of going to the grocery store can be filled with changes, worries, and discomfort. Seeing everyone wearing masks and gloves, minimizing interactions, being unable to see others' smiles, and struggling with worries about sanitizing can be a profound reminder of the loss of some of the freedoms and ease we never realized we had. #### Loss of control The tumultuous changes that have overtaken the world over the past several weeks have led many of us to experience a lack of control in very profound ways. During a time of so much uncertainty, many people may experience feelings of fear and anxiety. You may even feel frozen and hesitant to make decisions or take a step in any direction. The predictability of our lives is something that is sorely missed. #### Loss of life itself Without a doubt, the hardest of losses has been the loss of life. As numbers of people around the world with COVID-19 have been rising, so have been the death tolls. Beloved spouses, children, parents, community members, and friends have been dying around the world. Everyone knows someone who either has the disease or has passed away from the disease, even if it hasn’t directly affected their inner circle. #### Loss of social gathering Physical distancing has created barriers between family members and friends causing a sense of loss in social life and connection with others. Although physical distancing is not synonymous with social isolation many people miss seeing their friends and extended family members. This is particularly impactful during this year’s unique Ramadan. Weddings, graduations, and many celebrations have been canceled; these important milestones mean a lot for people and earlier this year it was unfathomable that these events would not take place. Realize that in following quarantine rules during this unprecedented time, you are following the prescription provided by the Prophet ﷺwhen asked about the plague. He said, “That was a means of torture which Allah used to send upon whomsoever He wished, but He made it a source of mercy for the believers, for anyone who is residing in a town in which this disease is present, and remains there and does not leave that town, but has patience and hopes for Allah's reward, and knows that nothing will befall him except what Allah has written for him, then he will get such reward as that of a martyr.”[^3] #### Loss of spiritual connection For Muslims around the world, it has been very difficult watching spiritual practices curtailed because of the need to socially distance. The Kaʿbah has been temporarily closed and Hajj may even be canceled this year. Friday prayer has been stopped, a weekly ritual and source of spiritual nourishment for Muslims globally. Celebrations of life (*aqīqah*s) and funerals (*janāzah*s) have also been diminished in size. Spiritual traditions this Ramadan look very different and it’s a big adjustment for the community as a whole. #### Loss of economic security Due to COVID-19, many people have either lost their jobs completely or have had their hours reduced, which of course has financial implications for families and businesses. When individuals are making less money, they are not able to provide for their basic needs like paying for housing, food, and cannot maintain the same quality of life as before. When people are not able to pay for basic necessities, businesses also suffer thereby increasing layoffs and financial implications across communities and nations. Economic insecurity causes anxiety, sadness, fear, and sometimes even panic. #### Loss of structure Safety measures to protect the virus from spreading have led to schools being closed and keeping children at home. Although most university and grade school students are now participating in school online, there has certainly been a loss of structure and routine. Parents, especially working mothers, now have to manage working outside the home (or in the home) while simultaneously taking care of their children. These parents now have two jobs—their regular job plus the job of their daycare provider or school. It can be very difficult to manage both roles at the same time along with traditional 9 AM to 5 PM schedules, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. #### Loss of roles and identity Many of the losses and changes we experience alter parts of who we are and the roles we fulfill. The loss of a parent may mean that you no longer have the role of son or daughter. The loss of a job may mean that you are unsure whether you can provide for your family, a role you were likely proud of and in which you found a sense of fulfillment. If you were someone particularly active in your community, being unable to do the tasks that you enjoyed may leave you feeling a lack of purpose. All of these losses play an important role in our emotional struggles and the way we perceive ourselves as we cope through this pandemic. ### What to expect during times of grief ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image3-1-1024x402.jpg) Grief involves a struggle to re-establish equilibrium in your life. Creating a new balance involves external, internal, and spiritual adjustments. Some of these adjustments include: accepting the way the loss you’ve experienced impacts your daily life and everyday functioning in the world; confronting the impact this loss has on your sense of self; and processing the effect this loss has on your beliefs, values, and your connection with Allah (swt) as well as others in your life. William Worden\* calls these tasks of mourning[^4] and while your grief experience will be unique, exploring ways to process and cope with these changes can be helpful in the healing process. [\*See infographic on the 4 tasks of mourning](#tasks-of-mourning-infographic) #### Denial and shock When the entire world is changing around you and life looks like you’re walking through a movie script rather than reality, experiencing a sense of shock is a normal response. Experiencing a feeling of denial of reality is a confusing state of mind that occurs before we fully grasp the gravity of what is happening and can be accompanied by feelings of disbelief or disregard for the reality of the situation. #### Sadness Sadness is usually associated with loss. You might feel down and cry more often than you usually do. It may also feel like you have less motivation and find less enjoyment in activities you used to love. #### Anxiety and/or fear Loss causes sadness but it can also cause a great deal of anxiety as the world feels unpredictable. Your anxiousness may be experienced as general nervousness, heart palpitations, restlessness, irritability, and/or difficulty breathing. #### Emotional paralysis The entire world is undergoing collective trauma with the experience of COVID-19. When we experience trauma individually, we tend to go into one of three modes: fight, flight, or freeze. Freezing up may lead you to feel like you can’t get up and do anything. You might also feel like you can’t make decisions or know what the next step is. #### Guilt There are many reasons why someone might feel guilty during this time. There might be spiritual guilt that collective sins led to this happening or not being appreciative of how life was before (seeing that it’s so much more difficult now). Those who are privileged with financial security may feel guilty that others are struggling economically. Those privileged with larger homes may feel guilty that others are enduring quarantine in tiny living spaces. Those with limited resources may feel guilty that they can not provide sustenance for their family members. #### Anger Anger is a normal emotional reaction during times of loss. Anger is the body’s natural reaction to threat and, oftentimes, there is no greater threat than the loss of someone you love or the loss of the way you envisioned life would be. Anger can also feel powerful during times when we feel powerless. You may find yourself experiencing thoughts like, “Why is this happening?” If you have loved ones who are not taking precautions against contracting COVID-19, you may experience anger toward them. Those who have lost their jobs may feel anger at being unable to care for their families financially. Anger toward God may also come up during various losses wondering, “I’ve done everything right so why me?” ### What is traumatic grief? A traumatic event is an incident (or series of incidents) that causes a tremendous amount of stress and overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. Psychological trauma usually sends individuals into a fight, flight, or freeze response that can manifest itself in aggression (fight), avoidance or running away (flight), or not being able to do anything at all (freeze). When a person experiences Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) they may experience flashbacks, nightmares, and uncontrollable thoughts about what happened. Traumatic grief can be defined in many ways but is usually looked at as an abrupt or extremely difficult loss followed by feeling destabilized and unable to cope. While it is anticipated that everyone will be grieving as a result of COVID-19, there are individuals who will be more susceptible to traumatic grief: - Children who lose one or both of their parents - Medical professionals who lose coworkers - Medical professionals who are pushed to work under inhumane work conditions out of necessity to cope with hospital demands - Families who lose their homes due to economic insecurity ### Stages of grief from a psycho-spiritual perspective While the different theories and models of grief can never fully convey what a person goes through during times of loss, the stages-of-grief model continues to be one that is useful for many reasons. It normalizes the emotions many of us experience and helps us to grasp them, cope with them, and work toward healing. While the stages of grief below are explored in the “typical” order (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and finding meaning), it’s important to realize that the stages aren’t linear and may not happen in this order for many of us. #### Stage 1: Denial The denial stage involves feelings of resistance, shock, and avoidance. When a tragedy first hits, an automatic response is often disbelief and attempts to deny the reality of it. The numbness that we often feel during this stage is a survival mechanism- a way to cope when things feel too overwhelming to face. Even the most righteous have experienced this emotional response during times of grief. When the Prophet ﷺ died, ʿUmar (ra) struggled with denial: ʿUmar stood up and said, “By Allah! Allah’s Messenger ﷺ is not dead!” ʿUmar (later on) said, “By Allah! Nothing occurred to my mind except that.” He said, “Verily! Allah will resurrect him and he will cut the hands and legs of some men.”[^5] Some examples of *denial* in our current situation include: - Calling the situation a hoax - Blatant disregard for social distancing or quarantine protocol - Making jokes that administrations are overreacting and taking away civil liberties for no reason - Thinking, “This virus won’t affect me or my daily life.” Denial can be especially difficult because it’s filled with uncertainty and unknowns. There is usually a lot to process, but not much action to take because the future is uncharted territory. Once you start to ask questions like the ones below, it shows that you are beginning to accept the reality of the situation and are moving forward in the healing process: - “Will the coronavirus have a direct impact on me?” - “What kind of effect will this have on my family, friends, and community members?” - “How much is the right amount of preparation?” - “Am I overreacting or underreacting?” In this phase, it’s most helpful to acknowledge that nobody has all the answers and that most people are trying to do the best they can with the information they are able to comprehend. Sitting with uncertainty might not feel very good, but it is completely a normal and anticipated human reaction to the unknown. As you begin to come to terms with the reality of the situation, denial begins to fade and difficult feelings may begin to surface. #### Stage 2: Anger Anger often arises to protect us from the more painful emotions we feel during times of grief and loss. Anger allows us to feel powerful when we feel helpless in the face of what we have lost. Underneath our anger other deep emotions are brewing—anxiety, abandonment, loneliness, confusion, and pain. You may be feeling angry at everyone around you, at the news you hear every day, and at the changes that you have no control over. Your anger gives you something to focus on during a time when you may feel as though you are floating in an overwhelming sea of nothingness. Anger is such a powerful and common emotion that there are a great number of hadiths and *ayāt* that discuss it. In each of these, the emotion itself is not dismissed or criticized. Rather, the approach to deal with anger is emphasized. Allah (swt) characterizes the believers, *al-muḥsinīn* (the doers of good), as those “who restrain their anger.”[^6] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ reminded us of one of the most profound benefits of this trait when he said, “Whoever controls his anger at the time when he has the means to act upon it, Allah will fill his heart with contentment on the Day of Resurrection.”[^7] Some examples of *anger* in our current situation: - “People are being completely irresponsible and deserve to get sick.” - “I didn’t deserve to lose my job; this is completely unfair and shouldn’t be happening to me.” - Inadvertently, this anger may extend to Allah (swt). You may find yourself asking, “Why would Allah allow this to happen?” - “My uncle can’t even have the *janāzah* he deserves. How is this right?” In this stage, one thing that can be particularly helpful is to recognize that you are not yourself right now. When we go through abnormal events, we tend to think abnormally. Thoughts that never would have gone through your mind are now a struggle; reactions you’ve never experienced are suddenly spilling out full force. Remember that feelings move through us. If you are experiencing anger right now, it doesn’t mean you’ll feel angry forever. Allow yourself to *acknowledge* that you are feeling angry but don’t *react* in anger. We can do this by: - **Saying aloud how you’re feeling** (to yourself, someone else, or Allah) - **Seeking refuge in Allah:** Two people insulted each other in the presence of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and the eyes of one of them became red like embers and the veins of his neck were swelling. The Prophet said, “Verily, I know a word he could say to calm himself: I seek refuge in Allah from the cursed Satan.”[^8] - **Grounding:** When your mind is in overdrive, grounding brings your focus to what is happening to you physically instead of being trapped in the emotions and thoughts that are maintaining your anger. The Prophet ﷺ described anger and prescribed grounding as a coping mechanism: “Anger is an ember in the heart of the son of Adām. Do you not see the redness of the eyes and bulging of the jugular vein \[when a person becomes enraged\]. Anyone who \[goes into a fit of rage like this\] should cling to the ground \[until the anger subsides\].”[^9] Other grounding techniques based on the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ include: - ***W******uḍūʾ*:** The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Verily, anger comes from Satan, and Satan was created from fire. Fire is extinguished with water so if you become angry, then perform ablution with water.”[^10] - **Changing your posture:** The Prophet ﷺ taught us, “If one of you is angry while he is standing, let him sit down so his anger will leave him; otherwise, let him lie down.”[^11] - **Pause and breathe:** The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When one of you is angry, he should remain silent.”[^12] When feelings of anger become overwhelming, pause rather than react. Allow yourself time to breathe, reaffirm the fact that it is ok to feel angry and your choice not to react in anger. #### Stage 3: Bargaining A lot of people interpret the COVID-19 pandemic as a personal punishment from Allah (swt) for their shortcomings. While holding ourselves accountable for our mistakes is an important step toward growth and repentance, viewing your personal shortcomings as the reason why so many are suffering can lead to an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame. Guilt often goes hand-in-hand with the bargaining stage. This stage often includes “If only…” statements due to the feelings of regret that come up with loss. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ advised us against these thoughts that inevitably bring up more pain. He said, “If anything befalls you, do not say, ‘If only I had done such and such.” Rather say ‘*Qaddara Allāhu wa-mā shāʾa faʿala* (Allah has decreed and whatever He wills, He does).’ For (saying) ‘If’ opens (the door) to the deeds of Satan.”[^13] Examples of the bargaining stage might look like: - “If only we had been more cautious, she wouldn’t have gotten the virus.” - “If only I had prayed more, this wouldn’t have happened.” - “If only we had gone to the hospital sooner, he would still be alive.” This stage is characterized by an overwhelming desire for life to return to the way it was. With all of the changes that the spread of COVID-19 has wrought on the world, people are missing aspects of their lives that were not even a second thought. As we go through this stage, we may find ourselves focused on the past—a time when we weren’t as overwhelmed or experiencing such intense hurt. Bargaining is an attempt to regain control during uncontrollable situations. Focusing on the factors within your control, rather than on regrets and a desire to return to the less painful past, can help you to get through this stage. - **Control Your Thoughts Through Reframing**: Although this current struggle may feel like a punishment from Allah (swt) due to the overwhelming emotions you’re experiencing right now, keep in mind the response of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when his wife Aisha asked him about the plague.[^14] He said, “It is a punishment that Allah sends upon whomever He wills, but Allah has made it a mercy for the believers. Any servant who resides in a land afflicted by plague, remaining patient and hoping for reward from Allah, knowing that nothing will befall him except what Allah has decreed, will be given the reward of a martyr.”[^15] - **Control Your Goals:** Focusing on turning to Allah (swt) during these difficulties can be a means of coping with difficult emotions. When the wind would blow strongly, the Prophet would ask Allah, “O Allah, I ask You for its goodness and I take refuge with You from its evil.”[^16] Rather than focusing on factors outside of his control (i.e., whether something was sent as a punishment or a blessing), he would focus on turning to Allah in hopes of the best outcome. - **Rein in Regrets:** Hindsight is always 20/20. We can look back at every circumstance in our lives and consider multiple alternatives in the hopes that things would have been different but, in actuality, the only reality is the present moment we are faced with. This moment will only be more difficult if we choose to focus on “what ifs.” Instead, consider what ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit said to his son: “Son! You will not get the taste of the reality of faith until you know that what has come to you could not miss you and that what has missed you could not come to you. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: The first thing Allah created was the pen. He said to it: Write. It asked: What should I write, my Lord? He said: Write what was decreed about everything till the Last Hour comes...”\[17\] Changing the past is not feasible so channeling our energy into something unchangeable is a recipe for intense pain. - Instead of “What if…” Focus on “What is…”: The one thing we consistently have within our locus of control is what we choose to do with the present moment. Shifting our focus away from regrets of the past and worries about the future allows us to take advantage of the present moment. Ibn al-Qayyim beautifully reflects on this, “But then your attention must be directed to your life in the present—the time between two times. If you waste it, then you have wasted the opportunity to be of the fortunate and saved ones. If you look after it, having rectified the two times—what is before and after it, as we have said—then you will be successful and achieve rest, delight, and everlasting bliss.”[^18] #### Stage 4: Depression[^19] Once our attention shifts away from the past and into the present, the depression stage can hit hard. We truly begin to feel the loss(es) we’ve experienced, which can yield intense feelings of sadness, loneliness and emptiness. This stage can feel as though it’ll stretch on interminably. These feelings even impacted the best of humanity—the Prophets of Allah عليهم السلام. We see the intensity of these emotions in the Prophet Yaʿqūb عليه السلام when he was separated from his son Yūsuf and he grieved so deeply that his eyes turned white due to the extent to which he cried. His intense grief is expressed in the Qur’an, “And he (Yaʿqūb  عليه السلام) said, ‘Oh, my sorrow over Yūsuf,’ and his eyes became white from grief because of the sorrow that he suppressed.”[^20] When we fully realize that the loss we’re dealing with is real, feelings of hopelessness and overwhelming sadness come up. Realize that experiencing depression in a situation like this is a normal and appropriate response—the loss of someone we care about or the life we thought we’d have is an intensely depressing situation. Examples of thoughts that may arise in the depression stage of grief include: - “This situation is never going to end.” - “What’s the point of getting up every day if my mom is no longer here?” - “I can’t imagine living my life without a job. It’s hopeless.” - “I never even got to say a real goodbye because I couldn’t be with him when he died.” The earlier stages discussed involve some “running away” from emotions. The depression stage hits when you’re no longer running away and have resolved to feel the loss. Things that can help in this stage include: - Remind yourself that feeling intensely sad is normal, appropriate, and healthy when grieving. When the Prophet ﷺ witnessed his young son, Ibrahim, taking his final breaths, he began to cry and was questioned about this. In response to being questioned about his tears and clear sadness, the Prophet ﷺ said, “This is mercy.” Then he wept more and said, “The eyes are shedding tears and the heart is grieved, and we will not say except what pleases our Lord, O Ibrāhīm! Indeed we are grieved by your separation.”[^21] - This stage, just like the other stages, will not last forever. Remember the promise of Allah (swt), “For indeed, with hardship \[will be\] ease. Indeed, with hardship \[will be\] ease.”[^22] The depression stage is part of the process of moving forward after a loss. Remember that every moment of sadness and pain, no matter how overwhelming, is a part of the process of healing. - Grief and bereavement support groups can be very helpful at this time as talking with others who have experienced similar losses to you can be cathartic and validating. - Focus on small steps to take each moment. Instead of focusing on the stretch of days ahead of you with this loss feeling like a looming storm cloud over your future, focus on the one step you can take today to get through the day. When experiencing feelings of depression, putting one foot in front of the other can make a huge difference. - Visualize the promise of Allah: There is nothing in this life that can ever replace the loss of a loved one. Visualizing the life you have yet to experience with your loved one in Paradise and what those eternal moments will be like can provide some peace during this difficult time. Allah (swt) describes this beautiful scene, “They will enter perpetual Gardens, along with their righteous ancestors, spouses, and descendants; the angels will go into them from every gate, ‘Peace be with you, because you have remained steadfast. What an excellent reward is this home of yours!’”[^23] - Make *duʿāʾ* for the reunion you dream of and find comfort in the promise of Allah, “We unite the believers with their offspring who followed them in faith…”[^24] Also remember the statement of the Prophet ﷺ: “There is no Muslim who is stricken with a calamity and reacts by saying as Allah has commanded: ‘*Innā lillāhi, wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn. Allāhumma ʿindaka iḥtasabtu muṣībatī, faʾjurni fīha, wa ‘iḍnī minhā* (Truly, to Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return. O Allah, with You I seek reward for my calamity, so reward me for it and compensate me),’ but Allah will reward him for that and compensate him with something better than it.”[^25] Although nothing can replace the loss of someone you love, living an eternal life of happiness and peace with them in *jannah* is the best compensation we can pray for. #### Stage 5: Acceptance The acceptance stage of grief can manifest at different levels throughout the COVID-19 crisis. For those simply quarantining and dealing with the new reality of life with physical distancing, increased personal hygiene precautions, and the changes in everyday life, acceptance of this reality still allows for the knowledge that this new norm is temporary. For those who have lost a job, acceptance may entail recognizing this new reality with the hope that alternative means of income exist on the horizon insha’Allah. For those who have lost a loved one, this stage is different. It involves accepting the reality that this person is physically gone and that this new reality is the permanent reality. Acceptance does not mean that you’re “ok” with what happened. The loss of someone you love will likely never feel ok. The goal in this stage is to learn how to live with this loss and create a new normal despite the huge piece that is missing. At first, you may find yourself trying to live life exactly as you did before a loved one died. Moving forward in this stage can look like this: - Reorganizing roles to others or deciding to take them upon yourself (e.g., paying bills when your late spouse used to take care of that; caring for your late father’s pet; etc.) - Accepting and asking yourself: “This is really happening. How can I adjust?” - Addressing your needs in this new stage in life. - Reaching out to others for help and support Although the acceptance stage is a huge step forward in living a life that honors your loss while still allowing you to find purpose and fulfillment amidst this void, it can still feel really hard. Some things to consider to help you during this stage include: - There will still be ups and downs even once you’ve reached the point of accepting the reality of your loss. This is normal. - On the difficult days that come up, name the emotion you’re experiencing and remind yourself that this is simply a manifestation of the love you have that can’t be shared physically or verbally with the person you have lost. Use *duʿāʾ* to channel that love forward. - Finding meaning and creating new relationships is not a betrayal of your loved one. Those we love and those who love us want the best for us. You are honoring your loved one’s memory and honoring the gift of continued life that Allah (swt) gave you by finding new meaning in your day-to-day. It was narrated that Abū Hurayrah said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, although both are good. Strive for that which will benefit you, seek the help of Allah, and do not feel helpless…’”[^26] #### Stage 6: Finding Meaning Accepting the reality of a loss in our lives—whether that be loss through death, job layoffs, or divorce—is an essential step in healing. However, sometimes acceptance doesn’t feel like enough. Particularly after the loss of a loved one, many people experience the thought, “There has to be more.” Grief expert, David Kessler describes this next stage as “finding meaning.” He says, “meaning comes through finding a way to sustain your love for the person after their death while you’re moving forward with your life. Loss is simply what happens to you in life. Meaning is what *you* make happen.”[^27] Finding meaning cannot erase your grief; pain is a natural reaction to intense loss. However, it can help ease the anguish and help you move forward. As we see in the different stages of grief, our minds can often lead us down negative spirals that increase our torment—finding meaning can help to mitigate this. This stage looks different for everyone. Here are some ways you might consider finding meaning after the loss of a loved one: - **Remember Paradise:** Imagine your deceased loved one in the highest levels of Paradise, at peace and surrounded by everything that brings them joy. Imagine reuniting with them in a place of eternal peace and the feelings that will arise. Picture the scene Allah (swt) sets forth of your loved one in Paradise, “They will have Gardens of lasting bliss graced with flowing streams. There they will be adorned with bracelets of gold. There they will wear green garments of fine silk and brocade. There they will be comfortably seated on soft chairs. What a blessed reward! What a pleasant resting place!”[^28] - **Memories:** Recall your favorite memories of your loved one and share them in some way (tell them to your children, write them in a journal, create a memory box). - **Create Changes in Your Life:** The loss of someone or something dear to you can often lead to reevaluating your priorities in life. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was asked which of the believers is best, he replied: “The one who remembers death the most and is best in preparing for it. Those are the wisest.”[^29] Allowing this loss to push you toward positive changes in your life is one of the most profound ways of creating meaning. - ***Ṣadaqah Jāriyah*:** This type of charity is something you do one time but yields continuous good deeds because it has ongoing benefits for those you assisted. Support a cause that was meaningful to your loved one like building a school or water well in an impoverished area; plant a tree in your loved one’s honor; care for others with the intent of your loved one sharing in the reward. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of what a man leaves behind are three: a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity, the reward of which reaches him, and knowledge that is acted upon after him.”[^30] - **Continue the Legacy:** Was there something your loved one was particularly passionate about? Did they volunteer anywhere or talk about how they wished they could do something to support a particular cause? Consider something your loved one would have loved to see you continue doing as they did and consider ways to do that. - **Support Others**: Be a support for others in their time of loss. After the intense sadness of losing someone you care for deeply, you have the unique ability to empathize with the struggles others face in similar circumstances. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image5-1.jpg) ![Steps on how to work through grief and pain](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image7-1.jpg) ![Steps on how to adjust to life without the deceased](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image1-1.jpg) ![Steps on how to find connection with the deceased while moving on with life](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image2-1.jpg) --- ## Grief in children ### Talking to children about their fears and anxieties surrounding the coronavirus Speaking with children about heavy subjects can be challenging because it brings up some of our own fears and anxieties about the topic itself, but it can also be difficult to figure out *how* to best explain it in a way that is age-appropriate. If you feel like talking about coronavirus gives you feelings of dread or that you want to avoid this topic altogether, that is completely normal. Here are some tips on how to discuss coronavirus, or any other heavy topics, with your children: 1\. **Take care of yourself first**. This is akin to putting on your oxygen mask before helping anyone else. Allah (swt) commands us, “O you who have believed, protect yourselves and your families…” showing us the importance of caring for ourselves as well as our families.[^31] It’s difficult to help your child manage his/her anxiety when you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed. Here are some things to keep in mind: - Be aware of your own emotional reaction to all of this. - Exercise self-compassion when feeling overwhelmed, fearful, or worried. It's completely normal to be worried about coronavirus when you see so much change around you. - Notice that if you're obsessed with coronavirus media updates, it's an attempt to find certainty, but that's a losing strategy because there is no certainty. It makes you feel worse. - Choose only responsible media sources to influence your thinking (and social media is not a responsible news source). - Notice what thoughts and emotions you have in response to what you read, see, and hear. - Turn off the TV and set aside a certain time each day to stay informed rather than being constantly inundated with information. - Practice managing your anxiety and your mood by managing your thoughts. \- Remind yourself that Allah is the Almighty, The Most Powerful and The Protector. “No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah,He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things.”[^32] He is the One Who created the coronavirus and is more powerful than it. We rely on Allah's protection in every moment—from the air in our lungs to the beating of our hearts. Our health is always in the Hands of Allah (swt) but the coronavirus is an intense reminder of this. Allah reminds us of this when He says, “Who has fed them, \[saving them\] from hunger and made them safe, \[saving them\] from fear.”[^33] \- Focus on the things in your control and what you can do in this situation. 2\. **Keep in mind the child’s age and their comprehension level.** Ask your child what they already know about what’s happening to gauge how much you need to tell them. - If the child is too young to understand, is not bringing up the subject, and is clearly not affected by what is happening, then there is no need to address it. - If the child brings up the subject, discuss it in the context of how they understand it and are experiencing it. For example, if your 8-year-old is upset that they are not able to see their friends, then address their concerns. There is no need to bring up extraneous information that would unnecessarily cause anxiety. - Adolescents are able to process information and discuss far more complex topics, but it’s also better to avoid issues that have nothing to do with them—like you being able to pay next month’s rent on time or the death toll around the world. - Do not be upset with your child or teen if they seem immature about the severity of the situation, as brains continue maturing into their mid-twenties. **3\. Discuss thoughts and feelings presented to you openly while validating the child’s concerns.** Let your child know that it’s normal to be worried and scared when so much is changing right now. A child can sense when an adult is hiding information and minimizing your child’s feelings can exacerbate their concerns. **4\. Children’s anxieties often surface indirectly through behavior changes.** If you notice that your child seems particularly moody or is melting down more often, this may be anxiety presenting itself. Children may develop a fear of being alone in a room or may begin to regress in wetting the bed after being potty-trained. Addressing these changes through compassion, extra hugs, and addressing worries can be helpful. **5\. Coping Techniques for Children:** — Tell your children stories of the Prophets that demonstrate how Allah (swt) cares for us, protects us and how we can rely on His strength at all times. - Mūsá (as) was a tiny baby when he was placed in a basket and floated away yet Allah kept him safe. - Firʿawn had an entire army at his back and was a powerful, feared ruler yet the same sea that protected Mūsá drowned him at the command of Allah. - Yūnus (as) was in the depths of the belly of a whale and was released by Allah (swt) from this impossible situation. — Help children to focus on what they can do rather than on things outside of their control. - Try to frame concerns in relation to action items. Anas ibn Malik reported: A man said, “O Messenger of Allah, should I tie my camel and trust in Allah, or should I leave her untied and trust in Allah?” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Tie her and trust in Allah.”[^34] This can help explore feelings, but direct the conversation in a productive manner. \- For example if your child is discussing angst about germs, you can discuss the importance of washing hands and social distancing. \- If your child is missing an extended family member, validate his or her feelings but then identify action items like doing FaceTime with the person or writing them a letter. — Practice things your child can do when they feel nervous: - Deep breathing - Talking to someone about how they’re feeling - ”Name it to tame it” technique: When you notice your child is experiencing a strong emotional reaction, help them describe or “name” the feeling you’re seeing. This helps to calm them down and feel validated. - Set small daily goals to keep them feeling proactive. Some ideas: \- Say 3 nice things to family members today \- Practice a sports skill for 30 minutes \- Learn to fly an awesome paper airplane \- Read a certain number of chapters in a book \- Try a new recipe - Empower your child spiritually: \- Teach your child to recite the final three surahs in the Qur’an as a form of protection based on this hadith: “Say: *Qul huwa Allāhu Aḥad* and *al-Muʿawwidhatayn* in the evening and in the morning three times and they will suffice you against all things.”[^35] \- Pick a *duʿāʾ* to teach your children from the morning and evening *adhkār* and tell them the benefits of the *duʿāʾ*. \- Teach your children a few of the Names of Allah to help them to get to know Him so they can turn to Him during times of worry. ### Talking to children about loss Communication is imperative when talking with children about loss. The child may feel sad, anxious, angry, guilty, or restless both before the loss (anticipatory grief) as well as after. Some children may appear numb, in shock, or denial and this is not unusual either. When the child is experiencing grief, it’s helpful to converse based not only on the age of the child but their disposition as well. Talkative children may want to process and talk about their grief, whereas some children need time or privacy—and this is ok. Do not assume that your child will grieve in the same way you do just because they are your child. Here are some tips for addressing loss with children: - Let the child guide you in the discussion. Explore topics and questions they want to talk about. - Reflect back feelings and content brought up by your child so they feel heard. - If they cry, let them. It may be difficult for you to see this, but telling them to stop or minimizing their feelings can make them feel worse. - Do not fib or make up information about unclear matters; it’s ok to say “I don’t know” or “I can get back to you on that.” - If a child is not very talkative allow them to draw how they are feeling or write it out if they prefer those mediums of communication. Allow your child to be creative in expressing their grief if that is something they would like to do. - Offer resources like who your child can talk to, books, or any other materials that may be of benefit to your child. - Ask your child how they would like you to support them. - If there is important medical, funeral, or logistical information your child needs to know, explain it to them so they know what is to come and feel included. For example, if there is a *janāzah*, explain the process and what to expect. - Tie the loss into your faith and Islamic values. If appropriate you can discuss the hope of seeing the deceased in *jannah* or talk about concepts of life and death from a spiritual perspective. Discuss doing deeds on behalf of the person as a means of staying close to them. Model making *duʿāʾ* for them. ### Manifestations of grief in children As mentioned earlier grief can look very different from adult to adult and this is also the same for children and adolescents. There are additional behaviors to consider for children as well since their communication skills are not fully developed yet. Some children may display more traditional signs of grief like sadness, being withdrawn, crying, poor or increased appetite, while others may be aggressive by yelling, hitting, or being combative. It’s not uncommon for children to also appear more clingy, whine, wake up at night, or wet their beds. Any persistent behavior that deviates from the normal behavioral baseline of the child could be a manifestation of their grief. ### Helping children to cope with grief - Patience can be hard to come by during times of grief because it doesn’t just affect your child but the loss also likely affects you as well. But exhibiting frustration toward your child can make things more difficult for both of you. The best way to increase patience is to take care of yourself by eating healthily, sleeping the recommended amount, and finding time to decompress. When you are in a better state of mind it’s easier to cope with a child’s challenging behavior. - Remind yourself that this is a small snippet in time. If your child is bedwetting or waking up at night this is likely temporary and will subside. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking this will last forever, which is easy to do, because it will likely increase your levels of frustration. - Stick to routine and structure. It’s tempting to let children stay up late during times of chaos or when everything feels out of control anyway, but children need structure and stability. A consistent but flexible schedule can help your child feel more safe and secure. Note: Do not let your children forgo important tasks like prayer or school (beyond a few days in the case of a deceased loved one), because it could be challenging getting them back on track. - Compassion and mercy go a long way as recommended by our Prophetic tradition.  This advice can be especially useful during times of grief. > Narrated ʿĀʾishah, *Umm al-Muʾminīn*, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me: “Aisha! show gentleness, for if gentleness is found in anything, it beautifies it and when it is taken out from anything it damages it.”[^36] > ʿĀʾishah, the wife of Allah's Apostle ﷺ, reported that Allah's Messenger ﷺ said: “A'isha, verily Allah is kind and He loves kindness and confers upon kindness which he does not confer upon severity and does not confer upon anything else besides it (kindness).”[^37] > It was narrated that Aisha said: “Some Bedouin people came to the Prophetﷺ and said: ‘Do you kiss your children?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘But we, by Allah, never kiss (our children).’ The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘What can I do if Allah has taken away mercy from you?’”[^38] --- ## Coping with grief and loss The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever among you wakes up in the morning secured in his dwelling, healthy in his body, and having his food for the day, then it is as if the world has been gathered for him.”[^39] ### 1\. Coping as an individual ![Steps on how to cope with grief and loss as an individual ](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image8-1.jpg) ### 2\. Coping as a family ![Steps on how to cope with grief and loss as a family](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image4-1.jpg) ### 3\. Coping as a community ![Steps on how to cope with grief and loss as a community](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image6-1.jpg) --- ## How to help someone who is grieving In addition to grieving yourself, you may find that you also need to be there for others in your life. Providing support to others can be tricky at times since everyone grieves differently. While there is no formula to help someone in their grief there are some basic tips when you find yourself in that situation. ### 1\. Supporting vs. comforting When we see loved ones crying, in pain or suffering our initial inclination is to help remove whatever is distressing them. That is because we care about our loved ones and want what is best for them. However, with death and some other kinds of loss is that there is nothing to fix or do that can bring back what was lost. Additionally, when people are in the midst of grief the last thing they want is for someone to minimize how they are feeling by being told that “everything will be ok” or that “what happened was for the best.” While these statements may be true, many grieving people report they can not stand hearing cliche statements and that it causes them to feel resentment and want to further isolate themselves. One helpful tip in trying to be there for others is to be supportive instead of comforting. These terms sound the same, but they are different; comforting someone implies you are trying to rescue them from their pain, whereas supporting someone is helping by however they need help. When you support someone you are meeting them emotionally wherever they are, recognizing what they need and helping them meet those needs if possible. ### 2\. General things to say or not say A list of things to say or not say can be overwhelming for those trying to help, however, there are a few things to keep in mind when talking to the bereaved: - Be genuine and don’t talk unnecessarily, especially using cliche statements, to pass the time. If the person cries, it’s ok to sit there in silence. - If you feel like you want to hold the person’s hand or hug them, ask first. Some people are very sensitive to others touching them without permission and the gesture can be disturbing to them. - If the person who is grieving wants to talk about the dead, follow their lead and participate in the conversation however they want to engage. If the person wants to talk about everything except the dead, this is ok too and should be respected. ### 3\. Ways you can support others You can determine how to support others by asking them directly. Don’t make assumptions or try to impose yourself based on what you think they want. Here are some things you can do for grieving families if they express interest: - Spend time with them. If it’s safe and appropriate, you can do this in person. If there is a health hazard, you can do this on the phone or by Zoom. Please note that bereaved family members are in a lot of pain and have lots of things to do. If they ask you to spend prolonged time with them, then do so; otherwise, don’t take up their time unnecessarily. Also under no circumstances should you impose yourself as a guest and expect them to host you with food and drink. Keep in mind that this type of imposition is not from the Prophet's ﷺ sunnah.[^40] - Offer to help by buying groceries, doing household chores, or watching their children. Make sure not to insinuate that they have a messy home or need your help as this may make them feel self-conscious or guilty. The Prophet ﷺ said, when the news of the death of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib came, “Prepare food for the family of Jaʿfar, for there has come to them what has preoccupied them.”[^41] - Ask if they would like you to check on them from time to time, and follow up with that frequency. Many times people stop asking about mourners’ well-being shortly after the funeral. - Make *duʿāʾ* for them. If they are sensitive about this (and some people are), you don’t need to remind them that you are making *duʿāʾ* for them—you can do this in private. ### How to be there for others when you are grieving Being there for others is a social responsibility and can be a great source of *ajr*: > Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them) reported: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor. Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs; whoever brought his (Muslim) brother out of a discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of Resurrection, and whoever screened a Muslim, Allah will screen him on the Day of Resurrection.”[^42] It is important, however, when taking care of other people’s needs to not neglect one’s own family or self. Finding a balance will help prevent from feeling burned out, fatigued, and depressed over time. Tips for taking care of yourself while you take care of others include: - Get adequate sleep and eat healthily - Make sure that your basic needs are met like going to work on time, paying bills, and spending time with your own family - Find time to decompress, however that might work for you. For some people this may include praying, making *duʿāʾ*, reading, art, working out, or engaging in a hobby. - If you are feeling depressed or fatigued, take time off. Your body and well-being are an *amānah* from Allah that you need to take care of. Taking time off doesn’t mean that you are lazy or neglecting others. --- ## When to seek professional support During the coronavirus pandemic it is expected that most, if not all, people will have some difficulties adjusting. Difficult feelings like anxiety, sadness, and anger do not mean that the person is mentally ill, unstable, or that there is something wrong with them. If a person is experiencing really intense emotions for a prolonged period of time, however, it would be useful for them to check in with a mental health professional. One major indicator that someone needs professional help is if they demonstrate an impaired ability to function in their day-to-day life with their family, at work, socially, emotionally, and sometimes spiritually. Again, this doesn’t mean that the person is mentally ill, but that they would likely benefit from talking to someone with expertise in the field of mental health. Signs that someone might be struggling include: - Not getting enough sleep when the person needs rest or sleeping too much - Feeling immobilized and unable to get basic daily tasks done - Anger, irritability, and frustration with those around them - Feelings of hopelessness - Desire for death or being preoccupied with thoughts about death - Hearing or seeing things that are not there - Substance abuse - Impaired concentration and focus (beyond what the average person in the pandemic might be experiencing) - For children, tantrums beyond what is expected for the age of the child - For children, aggressive behavior towards others including hitting, throwing objects, damaging property, or biting If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of self-harm, it’s imperative to get help right away. Don’t worry about hurting the person’s feelings or them feeling betrayed by you, as saving life is the most important goal and the person will likely be glad about what you did later. You can get immediate help by taking the person to the local emergency room or calling the police. In the US, many states/counties have hotlines you can call 24/7. Some counties also have a Mobile Crisis service that will send out mental health help directly to the person’s home. --- ## Summary Grief is one of the most raw and vulnerable emotional states a person can experience. Although loss is a normal part of life, grief and loss during a pandemic pose unique challenges due to uncertainty and social distancing. While some of us are mourning a loved one’s passing, some of us may be grieving the loss of economic security or a way of life. Grief looks different from person to person, and can also vary greatly from adult to child. Normalizing grief and understanding how it works can help lessen the pain, and assist us in better navigating anxiety and sadness during this unprecedented time. It’s also important to know that while grief can pose challenges to our faith, it doesn’t contradict our faith. We know from the Prophets that grief is a natural and acceptable way to cope when we are faced with loss, and that grief can even bring us closer to Allah. By using the individual, family, and community psychospiritual coping skills outlined in this guide we pray the *ummah* can find some solace during this pandemic and move towards collectively healing inshaAllah. --- ## Spiritual Resources > Exalted are You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise.[^43] > But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not.[^44] > No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowledgeable of all things.[^45] Ibn Kathir said about this verse: “Whoever suffered an affliction and he knew that it occurred by Allah’s Judgment and Decree, and he patiently abides, awaiting Allah’s reward, then Allah guides his heart, and will compensate him for his loss in this life by granting guidance to his heart and certainty in faith. Allah will replace whatever he lost for Him with the same or what is better. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah reported from Ibn ʿAbbās: ‘… and whosoever believes in Allah, He guides his heart.’ Allah will guide his heart to certainty. Therefore, he will know that what reached him would not have missed him and what missed him would not have reached him.” > ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd reported: I entered the home of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, while he was suffering from fever. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, you are suffering from a strong fever.” The Prophet said, “Yes, for I am afflicted with fever like two men among you.” I said, “Is it that you have a double reward?” The Prophet said, “Yes, it is so. Likewise, there is no Muslim who is afflicted with pain as much as the prick of a thorn or more but that Allah will expiate his sins just as leaves fall from a tree.”[^46] > It was narrated from Abū Hurayrah that: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Allah says, ‘I am as My slave thinks I am, and I am with him when he mentions Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws to Me a hand-span length, I draw near to him a forearm's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him in a hurry.”[^47] > On the authority of Abū ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: One day I was behind the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) \[riding on the same mount\] and he said, “O young man, I shall teach you some words \[of advice\]: Be mindful of Allah and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, then ask Allah \[alone\]; and if you seek help, then seek help from Allah \[alone\]. And know that if the nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had already prescribed for you. And if they were to gather together to harm you with anything, they would not harm you except with what Allah had already prescribed against you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.”[^48] > Narrated Abū Hurayrah: Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “The example of a believer is that of a fresh tender plant; from whatever direction the wind comes, it bends it, but when the wind becomes quiet, it becomes straight again. Similarly, a believer is afflicted with calamities (but he remains patient till Allah removes his difficulties.) And an impious wicked person is like a pine tree which keeps hard and straight till Allah cuts (breaks) it down when He wishes.”[^49] > Narrated Abū ʿUthmān: Usāmah ibn Zayd said that while he, Saʿd and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb were with the Prophet (peace be upon him) a daughter of the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent a message to him, saying. “My daughter is dying; please come to us.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) sent her his greetings and added “It is for Allah what He takes, and what He gives; and everything before His sight has a limited period. So she should hope for Allah’s reward and remain patient.” She again sent a message, beseeching him by Allah, to come. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) got up and so did we (and went there). The child was placed on his lap while his breath was irregular. Tears flowed from the eyes of the Prophet. Saʿd said to him, “What is this, O Allah’s Apostle?” He said, “This is Mercy which Allah has embedded in the hearts of whomever He wished of His slaves. And Allah does not bestow His Mercy, except on the merciful among His slaves.”[^50] ## Summary Grief is a natural and God-given response to loss, whether that loss be a beloved person, a cherished object, or an entire way of life. It is not an illness, nor is it something blameworthy; rather, it is a sign of the depth of one's attachment and love for what has been lost. Emotions during such times can be intensely painful, touching every aspect of one's life and relationships, yet it must be understood that this is normal. People experience grief differently and along different timelines—some feel it in sudden waves throughout the day, others describe it as a heavy weight carried upon the heart or shoulders. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself experienced many losses and taught that grief is a real and acceptable emotional response. When he ﷺ visited Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah during his illness, accompanied by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, he began to weep, and his Companions wept with him. He ﷺ then said, "Do you not hear, Allah does not punish for the shedding of tears or the grief of the heart but punishes or bestows mercy for the utterances of this," pointing to his tongue. Among the losses the Prophet ﷺ endured were the deaths of both his wife Khadījah and his uncle Abū Ṭālib in what came to be called "The Year of Sorrow," the death of six of his seven children in his lifetime, the deaths of numerous companions, the hunger of Banū Hāshim during the boycott, and the loss of his social standing in Makkah when he proclaimed the message. During the coronavirus crisis, a grief response is entirely normal, for the disease altered the entire world in a matter of months. Many have suffered the loss of routine, predictability, normalcy, economic stability, and human connection. Allah ﷻ reminds us of the reality of such trials: "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, who, when disaster strikes them, say, 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.' Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy." The losses experienced during this time are many: the loss of a familiar way of life, the loss of a sense of control, the loss of life itself as death tolls rose, the loss of social gatherings and milestones, the loss of spiritual connection as the Kaʿbah was temporarily closed and Friday prayers were suspended, the loss of economic security, the loss of structure, and even the loss of roles and identity. Regarding the plague, the Prophet ﷺ offered profound consolation when he said that it "was a means of torture which Allah used to send upon whomsoever He wished, but He made it a source of mercy for the believers," such that whoever stays in an afflicted town patiently, hoping for reward and knowing that nothing befalls him except what Allah has written, receives the reward of a martyr. During grief, one struggles to re-establish balance through external, internal, and spiritual adjustments—what William Worden calls the tasks of mourning. A person may experience denial and shock, sadness, anxiety and fear, emotional paralysis, guilt, and anger. Each of these is a normal reaction. Traumatic grief, in particular, arises from an abrupt or extremely difficult loss that overwhelms one's ability to cope, and certain individuals—such as children who lose parents, medical professionals who lose colleagues or work under inhumane conditions, and families who lose their homes—are more susceptible to it. The stages of grief, though not linear and not necessarily experienced in order, offer a useful framework for understanding and healing. The first stage is denial, a survival mechanism of shock and disbelief. Even the righteous experienced this, as when the Prophet ﷺ died and ʿUmar stood and declared that the Messenger ﷺ was not dead. The second stage is anger, which often shields us from deeper pain. Islam does not condemn the emotion itself but emphasizes its proper management. Allah ﷻ praises the doers of good as those "who restrain their anger," and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever controls his anger at the time when he has the means to act upon it, Allah will fill his heart with contentment on the Day of Resurrection." The Prophet ﷺ prescribed practical remedies: seeking refuge in Allah from Satan, performing wuḍūʾ, changing one's posture from standing to sitting or lying down, and remaining silent. The third stage is bargaining, often accompanied by guilt and "if only" statements. The Prophet ﷺ warned against these, saying, "If anything befalls you, do not say, 'If only I had done such and such.' Rather say, 'Qaddara Allāhu wa-mā shāʾa faʿala,'" for "if" opens the door to the deeds of Satan. He ﷺ also reframed the plague as a mercy for the believer who remains patient. Ibn al-Qayyim beautifully counseled directing one's attention to the present moment, "the time between two times." The fourth stage is depression, in which the reality of loss is truly felt. Even the Prophet Yaʿqūb عليه السلام grieved so intensely over Yūsuf that his eyes turned white, as the Qur'an records. When the Prophet's ﷺ infant son Ibrāhīm was dying, he wept and said, "This is mercy… The eyes are shedding tears and the heart is grieved, and we will not say except what pleases our Lord." Allah ﷻ promises, "For indeed, with hardship will be ease. Indeed, with hardship will be ease." The fifth stage is acceptance, which does not mean being "ok" with the loss but learning to live with it and create a new normal. The believer is encouraged to be strong, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, although both are good." The sixth stage, described by David Kessler, is finding meaning—sustaining love for the departed while moving forward. This may include remembering Paradise, cherishing memories, making positive life changes, giving ṣadaqah jāriyah, continuing the loved one's legacy, and supporting others. The Prophet ﷺ said the best of what a person leaves behind includes "a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity… and knowledge that is acted upon after him." Children also grieve, though often through indirect behavioral changes. Parents are advised to care for themselves first, mindful of Allah's command, "O you who have believed, protect yourselves and your families," and to remember that "no disaster strikes except by permission of Allah." Discussions should suit the child's age and comprehension, validate their feelings, and empower them spiritually—teaching them the last three surahs as protection and introducing them to the Names of Allah. When helping the grieving, one should support rather than merely comfort, avoid clichés, and offer practical help, as the Prophet ﷺ instructed when Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib died, "Prepare food for the family of Jaʿfar." In caring for others, one must not neglect oneself, for the body is an amānah from Allah. In sum, grief is among the most raw and vulnerable of human states, and though it may challenge one's faith, it does not contradict it. The Prophets themselves show us that grief is natural and acceptable and can even draw us nearer to Allah. Through patience, remembrance, and reliance upon Him—recalling that "I am as My slave thinks I am"—the ummah may find solace and move toward collective healing, if Allah wills. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How is grief dealt with in Islam? Grief meets with *sabr* (patience), *duʿa* (supplication) and *dhikr* (remembrance of Allah). Tears and sorrow are permitted while seeking solace through prayer, reliance on Allah (*tawakkul*) and support from family, community or professionals to address emotional, practical and spiritual needs. ### What are the stages of grief in Islam? Emotions typically flow through six overlapping phases—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance and finding meaning—each illuminated by Prophetic examples and guided by the phrase ***aaddara Allah wa-ma shaʾa faʿala*** (Allah has decreed and what He wills, He does). While the different theories and models of grief can never fully convey what a person goes through during times of loss, the stages-of-grief model continues to be one that is useful for many reasons. It normalizes the emotions many of us experience and helps us to grasp them, cope with them, and work toward healing. ### Which hadiths address the death of loved ones? “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ visited Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah during his illness. He was accompanied by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd. The Messenger ﷺ began to weep. When his Companions saw this, their tears also started flowing. He said, ‘Do you not hear, Allah does not punish for the shedding of tears or the grief of the heart but punishes or bestows mercy for the utterances of this’ —and he pointed to his tongue.” (*Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 1304) When the Prophet ﷺ witnessed his young son, Ibrahim, taking his final breaths, he began to cry and was questioned about this. In response to being questioned about his tears and clear sadness, the Prophet ﷺ said, “This is mercy.” Then he wept more and said, “The eyes are shedding tears and the heart is grieved, and we will not say except what pleases our Lord, O Ibrāhīm! Indeed we are grieved by your separation.” (*Sahih al-Bukhari*, no. 1303) --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/closer-in-quarantine-a-study-of-successful-marriage-in-social-isolation # Closer in Quarantine: A Study of Successful Marriage in Social Isolation **Authors:** Menahal Begawala, Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Data, Family & Community, Marriage, Reports **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication, Staff Pick **Published:** May 7, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction We are living in unprecedented times with stressors that span social isolation to job uncertainty and everything in between. During this time, there may be added pressure on marriages. Issues that may have been previously dormant within marriages can rise to the surface. While difficult, if approached correctly, the current situation can present an opportunity to make a positive shift that is likely overdue. All relationships require intentional and active effort to thrive. If a marriage has been neglected, the consequences  will hit harder now than at times when we could have escaped or distracted ourselves from the painful experience of disconnect from our spouses. The ways to improve a marriage during social isolation will be similar to what is prescribed to couples during more typical times. However, as the areas of stress become more visible and feel more acute, the remedies may also need to be amplified. Oftentimes, seemingly complex issues can be remedied by going back to the basics. The verse in the Qur’an that is printed on almost all wedding invitations reminds us of the core components of a thriving marriage: وَمِنۡ ءَايَٰتِهِۦٓ أَنۡ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنۡ أَنفُسِكُمۡ أَزۡوَٰجٗا لِّتَسۡكُنُوٓاْ إِلَيۡهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيۡنَكُم مَّوَدَّةٗ وَرَحۡمَةًۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَأٓيَٰتٖ لِّقَوۡمٖ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ > And of His signs is that He created for you, from yourselves, spouses so that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you love and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for people who reflect.[^1] There are three components of marriage that are referenced in this verse that give us a comprehensive framework upon which marriages are built and can also be rebuilt: *sakīnah* (tranquility), *mawaddah* (love), and *raḥmah* (mercy). ### Sakīnah (tranquility) Allah describes the primary purpose of the union of a husband and wife as finding peace, contentment, and tranquility in one another. *Sakan* implies that the hearts of the couple turn toward one another.[^2] The term *sakan* also connotes a sense of stillness and being in a place of safety and refuge. Our relational capacity as humans requires trust and safety within a marriage in order to connect through curiosity and receptivity toward one another. In other words, safety is a prerequisite to developing intimacy and tranquility. From the foremost of human needs is the need for safety, including physical and psychological safety.[^3] At a time when our physical safety may feel threatened due to the coronavirus, it is even more important that we find safety in our spouses and those closest to us. Just as we are rushing to figure out how to strengthen our physical immunity, we need to be just as—if not more—intentional about ensuring the immunity of our relationships against the stressors of this time. When safety is truly established, love and belonging can blossom. ### Mawaddah (love) Often translated as love, the term *mawaddah* goes beyond the initial stages of dopamine-filled passion that is often present in the early stages of a marriage. Allah has created us to connect to Him and to others, and *mawaddah* is the love between spouses that meets this innate need. As spouses grow together in marriage, they will learn about the many things that they do not see eye to eye on. The beautiful part of mature love in healthy relationships is that it can be offered, received, and experienced despite spouses not being on the same page about every single thing. Research on more than 700 couples over time has found that 69% of marital conflicts cannot be completely resolved.[^4] This is the natural result of marriage being the union of two different people with different histories. *Mawaddah* is the love that connects a couple with all their individual differences. ### Raḥmah (mercy) Often translated as mercy, *raḥmah* is both a natural byproduct of, and a contributor to, both of the previously mentioned characteristics of a healthy marriage. This encompasses the ability to show grace, empathy, and compassion. It is something that should be visited and revisited frequently within a marriage, especially when external stressors increase and may cause either or both partners an inability to show up at their best in the relationship. Love and mercy are necessary ingredients to achieve tranquility and satisfaction in marriage. Love and mercy are multifaceted and include many actions including being helpful, supportive, and creating a safe environment where spouses can speak openly with each other. Another dimension of love is gratitude. Appreciating one’s spouse is a central component of healthy marriages and should be practiced regularly. Couples who regularly express gratitude report more satisfaction in their marriages.[^5] --- ## Attaching to Allah to attach to our spouses Having a secure attachment style is important in maintaining a healthy relationship with one’s spouse. A secure attachment requires maintaining proximity with the attachment figure, seeing the attachment figure as a secure base for exploration, considering the attachment figure as providing a haven of safety, and experiencing separation anxiety when separated from the attachment figure.[^6] Research on attachment theory has found that our relationship with God may also be described as an attachment bond. Our perception of Allah may be influenced by how we attached to our parents or our attachment to Him may compensate for a deficient bond with our parents.[^7] Regardless, the importance of developing a secure attachment with Allah may be important in how we connect to our spouses. Establishing a secure relationship with Allah can provide an internal sense of stability and resilience in the face of hardship. Additionally, it can impact how we relate to our spouses. For example, the more we connect to Allah and understand His attributes of being Loving (*al-Wadūd*), Merciful (*al-Raḥīm*), Forgiving (*al-Ghafūr*), and Appreciative (*al-Shakūr*), the more we can then manifest those beautiful attributes in interactions with our spouse. Thus, from an Islamic perspective, working on creating a secure and intimate relationship with Allah may be an important part of creating a secure and intimate relationship with our spouse. --- ## A study of Muslim marriages The Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research surveyed 169 Muslims about the quality of their marriages.[^8] We asked about overall marital satisfaction and how their relationship had changed over the past month (since people have been socially isolated at home all day). We wanted to understand the correlates of successful marriages and the specific factors that related to improved marriages during social isolation. The sample was 74% female, 72% were college graduates, and 69% were between the ages of 25 and 44. The sample was 14% White, 5% Black, 49% South Asian, and 22% Arab. We addressed the following two research questions: 1. To what extent are family cohesion and expressiveness, relationship with Allah, and gratitude received from one’s spouse related to marital satisfaction? 2. To what extent are the number of children at home, reading Qur’an, gratitude from one’s spouse, and seeing blessings during social isolation related to changes in relationship quality during social isolation? ### Measures We asked respondents numerous questions about their religiosity, marriage, and demographic information. See Appendix A for the survey questions. Family cohesion and expressiveness were measured using a scale of four items.[^9]  All other constructs were assessed by single items. ### Results The sample generally reported being satisfied with their marriages. Less than 20% reported being neutral or dissatisfied, whereas 25% reported being somewhat satisfied, and 55% reported being extremely satisfied. As for changes in relationship quality over the past month, 47% reported that their relationship was about the same, 11% reported that it got worse, and 41% reported that it improved. #### FIGURE 1. MARITAL SATISFACTION ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image3-1024x430.jpg) #### FIGURE 2. CHANGES IN MARITAL QUALITY OVER THE PAST MONTH ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image5-1024x475.jpg) To answer our first research question, we ran a logistic regression to understand the factors that differentiated extremely satisfactory marriages from all others.[^10] An increase in family cohesion and expressiveness increased the odds of having an extremely satisfying marriage by 50%. An increase in considering one’s relationship with Allah to be intimate increased the odds by 51%. An increase in how often one’s spouse expressed thanks increased the odds by 45%. Age and education did not relate to marital satisfaction. To answer our second research question, we used multiple linear regression to understand the factors related to relationship changes over the past month (e.g., during social isolation).[^11] Reading the Qur’an daily (*B*\=.21), the frequency of receiving thanks (*B=*.27), and seeing more blessings since the spread of the coronavirus (*B*\=.15) were predictors of better relationship quality over the last 30 days.\[12\] Age, education, and number of children did not predict relationship changes. See Appendix A, Table 3, and Table 4 for the detailed results of the models. #### FIGURE 3. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image1-1024x524.jpg) #### FIGURE 4. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image7-1024x570.jpg) --- ## Discussion This study surveyed 169 Muslims to investigate the correlates of marital satisfaction and improvements in marriage during social isolation. Although marriages are susceptible to being shaken when major life stressors arise, they can also grow and thrive during times of difficulty with the proper mindset and behaviors. Our findings reinforce the Qur’anic prescriptions of safety, love, and mercy as requirements for tranquil and peaceful marriages. In the context of our study, acts of love included feeling appreciated by one’s spouse and reporting one’s family as helping and supportive. Safety and mercy were manifested in the facilitation of open communication that allowed for discussing personal problems. Allowing one’s spouse the opportunity to express whatever concerns are in their heart is part of empathy and compassion. The other component of successful marriages that our study highlighted was the importance of having a strong attachment to Allah. People who reported reading the Qur’an daily reported improvements in their marriage during social isolation and those who reported having an intimate relationship with Allah were more likely to have extremely satisfying marriages. Additionally, the ability to see blessings during difficult times, which has been found to be correlated with reading the Qur’an more often,[^13] was related to improvements in marriage during social isolation. Thus, maintaining a close relationship with Allah appears to be a central ingredient in perceiving one’s marriage as successful. Based on our findings and current research on marriage, we suggest the following practices to enrich an already healthy relationship or to rebuild a troubled relationship due to heightened stress or feelings of disconnection. ### Know yourself Each one of us comes into marriage with an attachment style, a way of relating that is grounded in our upbringing. When we are under stress, it is likely that we will default to our old ways of coping. For some, this might mean intuitively pulling away and distancing from others. Those who are more anxious may be more sensitive to their spouse’s availability and may be prone to feeling abandoned. Individuals who have a secure attachment will likely engage in more problem-solving behaviors when under stress. Irrespective of attachment style, as we near our threshold for stress, we need to engage in introspection and be aware of how we relate to those closest to us during this time. We have to be aware of when we go from being calm and capable of communication to reactive and agitated or shutting down. This switch can happen within a fraction of a second and impacts our perception of our spouse as well as our ability to properly take in information. Being mindful and aware of when and how one may switch from a calm to angry state is important in preventing further problems. Furthermore, having a repertoire of self-regulation strategies that one can go to when on the verge of losing their cool is vital. Self-regulation strategies can include, but are not limited to: 1. Deep breathing and mindfulness practices[^14] 2. Progressive muscle relaxation 3. Exercise 4. Looking at nature 5. A hands-on activity that produces something, such as knitting or gardening. ### Have a conversation to understand each other’s needs. Each one of us has a particular way in which we handle stress. What works for you may not work for your spouse. For example, you might seek connection and want to engage in conversation when you experience stress, whereas your spouse may dive into work mode and avoid the conversations that you are desperately looking to have. Discuss current life events and pay attention to how this pandemic is impacting each of you differently, while recognizing that both of you are coping with difficult changes and may be feeling unsettled. Come to the conversation with curiosity, openness, and a desire to understand your spouse. The attitude with which you approach the conversation will determine the level of safety that is felt by your spouse. Questions that spouses can ask each other during these conversations include: 1. How can I support you during this time? 2. How can we manage this reality together? 3. What routines and expectations can we establish that will allow both of our needs to be met? 4. How much alone time does each of us need? If your goal is to work on your marriage, you’ll have to spend some time learning how to calm the storm that makes effective communication and intimacy difficult. You’ll have to take a deeper look at your own baseline of anxiety, whether that means attending to older wounds or understanding the part of yourself that yearns for connection and fears its loss. When we can move into a space of mindfulness and curiosity (both towards ourselves as well as our partners), it turns on the parts of our brain that allow for rational thinking and intimate contact. The two steps above are meant to create a sense of safety, love, and mercy within the relationship. They will require diligence and a willingness to shift our mindset and behaviors. How you feel about your partner will manifest not in what you say but how you say it. Most of our communication lies in the body-to-body connection. What is going on beyond the words? The tone of voice, the facial expression, the tension in the throat, the furrowed brow, or the glazed look in the eyes might be enough of a trigger to switch you or your spouse from being receptive to reactive. If you can become more aware of these nonverbal behaviors, both in your display of them as well as how you’re impacted by your spouse’s nonverbal communication, you become more capable of naming and regulating them. This will allow for more intimate contact and receptivity within the relationship that can lead to growth. There’s more to a marriage than knowing your problems and working through them. With the increased time that spouses are spending together, the question to ask is: How can we each give to, and receive nourishment from, one another? When the Prophet ﷺ described his relationship with his wife Khadījah رضي الله عنها, he said, “I was nourished by her love.”[^15] This statement demonstrates just how fulfilling a healthy marriage can be. Here are some ways to nurture that love. ### Infuse the relationship with gratitude. Lots of it. > Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah.[^16] As simple as this sounds, many couples who are struggling in their marriages will find that expressing gratitude to each other is rare to nonexistent. It may be especially difficult to show gratitude if resentment has been building over time. Try to begin and end each day by looking for things to thank your spouse for. Keep count and try to thank your spouse for at least ten things each day. Even if they are small, mundane things that you feel they “should” be doing, expressing appreciation can never hurt. Appreciation makes a person feel genuinely seen and acknowledged. As we shift from our fast-paced lifestyles and are forced to slow down, take the opportunity to pay more attention to what your partner is doing right. ### Schedule times for connection If you are juggling work, children, and household responsibilities, your marriage may default to being last on the list. That’s all the more reason to intentionally fulfill its rights upon you. The Prophet ﷺ is known to have visited each of his wives on a schedule despite his role as prophet, leader, friend, to name a few. He would block off times after *ʿAṣr* and after *ʿIshāʾ* prayer to spend quality time with them.[^17] Regardless of how busy he was, he not only set aside specific times to visit them, but was astute in recognizing how they were doing emotionally. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all that’s happening. To ensure that your relationship doesn’t get lost in the process, sit together and decide when and how you’ll make time for connection. Doing so will allow each of you to set appropriate expectations. Some things to schedule include: 1. Intimacy. 2. A “date” in whatever way is available to you in the current circumstances, whether it's having a cup of tea together, working on a project together, or sharing a meal. 3. Conversations: Perhaps the larger more difficult conversations can be set aside for now, and time and space can be made for conversations that will contribute to growth. Topics of conversation can include: 1. Your pasts: As mentioned previously, our personal history becomes more relevant in times of stress. Be mindful of your assumptions and default responses so that you can approach a conversation with curiosity. Look at how your past may impact your current choices. How have past struggles shaped how each of you navigates crisis situations? How did your family of origin respond to difficulties? 2. Your patterns: Couples often get stuck in negative patterns that prevent them from being able to connect.[^18] Check in with your partner if the pattern that you both engage in entails blaming, criticizing, pushing away, or withdrawing. If you’re able to sit down and look at the exchange of words and emotions that typically takes place (without engaging in criticism or blaming), you will be able to notice the repetitive nature of the arguments and intentionally choose to stop the pattern when it arises in the future. 3. Your vision for the future: Where would you like to see your relationship once this time has passed? What is your vision for your emotional, financial, and spiritual future? How do you hope to develop more resilience as a couple? Look at the difficulties that you have already successfully gotten through and pinpoint the strengths that made that possible. 4. What you’re currently stressed about (outside of your relationship): Research has found that “the stress-reducing conversation” is the defining part of relationships that are resilient and thrive against the odds.[^19] This practice includes each partner listening to his/her spouse with genuine interest, empathizing with his/her emotions, and steering clear of unsolicited advice. Once the first person finishes sharing whatever is on his/her mind, the roles are reversed and the speaker then becomes the listener. *Raḥmah* is an essential component in all of these conversations. During these stressful times, it’s likely that most of us won’t be showing up at our best in our relationships, especially if there has already been strain in the marriage leading up to this. Recognize that you and your spouse are both doing the best that you can. Be aware of speaking to your spouse in ways that will further chip away at him/her and therefore at your marriage. Dr. Gottman outlines what he terms as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” which his research has shown are frequently present in relationships that do not last. These are: - Criticism: Putting down your partner’s character rather than confining your feedback to a particular behavior (“You are lazy” vs. “I wish you would have taken out the garbage”). - Defensiveness: Playing the victim or blaming your partner rather than acknowledging your partner’s upset and taking some responsibility for it. - Contempt: Approaching your partner in a belittling and demeaning manner from a position of superiority. This can show up as sarcasm, mocking, eye-rolling, or name-calling. - Stonewalling: Tuning out so that it appears not only as a disconnect but a lack of caring altogether. These behaviors undoubtedly hurt the recipient but, over time, cause the relationship to deteriorate. When the relationship becomes riddled with these horsemen, safety is inevitably lost. Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,”Who is the most excellent among the Muslims?” He said, “One from whose tongue and hands the other Muslims are secure.”[^20] ### Building an attachment to Allah During the Prophet’s marriage sermon, he would recite the verses in the Qur’an about having *taqwá* (God-consciousness). Thus, he established the importance of God-consciousness in a marriage. There are many ways to build an intimate relationship with Allah, which our study has shown is related to marital satisfaction. The first step is to have the proper God-image, which means to see Allah how He describes Himself. He describes Himself as Near, Loving, Forgiving, Kind, and Merciful. If you feel that Allah dislikes you or has abandoned you, this is likely due to internal turmoil.[^21] Three practices to build a stronger secure attachment with Allah include the following: - Reading the Qur’an - Regularly reading the Qur’an in a language you understand is essential in getting closer to Allah. It is through the Qur’an that Allah has elaborated His majestic names and attributes. Additionally, through repeated engagement with the Qur’an, one is able to see Allah’s wisdom in the different events that occur in life and connect them to one’s own lived experiences. - Having an intimate conversation with Allah (*munājāh)* \- In addition to regularly making *duʿāʾ* and seeking forgiveness, having an intimate conversation with Allah about your life builds a personal bond with Allah. Take your concerns, fears, and joys to Allah and discuss them with Him. Allow yourself to be vulnerable with Allah to get closer and more intimate with Him. - *Ṣalāh* \- Prayer is the consistent connection that keeps Allah near to our hearts. In addition to the five daily prayers, meeting Allah for additional *sunnah* prayers continues to strengthen our attachment to Him. --- ## Conclusion Marriage is meant to be an institution of safety and refuge. Tranquility in a marriage is meant to be nurtured over time and protects it from the elements. Each partner has the responsibility to show up as their best self within the marriage, which can only happen with self-awareness. Although we may be currently experiencing a completely new challenge, couples have an opportunity to build their refuge intentionally. Turning towards each other and going back to the basics of safety, love, and mercy may enable partners to embrace one another and find the peace and tranquility that Allah has intended in our marriages. --- ## Appendix A ### Survey Questions used in the analysis Family Cohesion and Expressiveness \[Not at all true (1) to very true (5)\] - In our family there is a feeling of togetherness. - In our family we really help and support each other. - In our family we can talk openly in our home. - In our family we sometimes tell each other about our personal problems. How satisfied are you in your marriage? \[Extremely dissatisfied (1) to Extremely satisfied (5)\] How has your relationship with your spouse changed over the past month? \[much worse (1) to much better (5)\] How often does your spouse thank you? \[rarely (1) to many times a day (5)\] How many children live with you? How intimate is your relationship with Allah? \[not at all intimate (1) to very intimate (5)\] How many blessings do you see since the Coronavirus spread? \[none at all (1) to a great deal (5)\] ###  TABLE 1. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image6-1024x465.jpg) ### TABLE 2. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image2-1024x483.jpg) ### TABLE 3. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image8-1024x561.jpg) ### TABLE 4. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image4-1024x695.jpg) --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 30:21. [^2]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1971). [^3]: Joseph E. Gawel, “Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” *Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation* 5, no. 1 (1996): 11. [^4]: John Mordechai Gottman, “Gottman Method Couple Therapy,” *Clinical Handbook of Couple Therapy* 4, no. 8 (2008): 138–64. [^5]: Cameron L. Gordon, Robyn A. M. Arnette, and Rachel E. Smith, “Have You Thanked Your Spouse Today? Felt and Expressed Gratitude among Married Couples,” *Personality and Individual Differences* 50, no. 3 (2011): 339–43. [^6]: Gordon, Arnette, and Smith. [^7]: Richard Beck and Angie McDonald, “Attachment to God: The Attachment to God Inventory, Tests of Working Model Correspondence, and an Exploration of Faith Group Differences,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 32, no. 2 (2004): 92–103. [^8]: The survey was administered between April 16 and April 26, 2020. The survey was about attitudes and behaviors pertaining to social isolation and Ramadan. Of the 605 total respondents, this study utilized a subsample of married respondents. Respondents primarily came from North America and Britain, but the survey included participants from all over the world. [^9]: Two items measured family cohesion, and two items measured family expressiveness. Cronbach’s alpha was .89 for the aggregated scale. [^10]: Logistic regression is a statistical method that attempts to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between one dichotomous outcome variable (extremely satisfied in marriage or not) and a series of other predictor variables. [^11]: Multiple linear regression is a statistical method that attempts to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between one continuous outcome variable (change in relationship quality from much worse to much better) and a series of other predictor variables. [^12]: A more technical explanation is that reading the Qur’an daily was associated with a fifth of a standard deviation increase in relationship quality, whereas a standard deviation increase in receiving thanks was associated with more than a fourth of a standard deviation increase in relationship quality. [^13]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/). [^14]: Justin Parrott, “How to Be a Mindful Muslim,” *Yaqeen*, November 21, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/). [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2435. [^16]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4811. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5268. [^18]: Sue Johnson, *Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love* (New York: Little, Brown, 2008). [^19]: John Mordechai Gottman and Nan Silver, *The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work* (New York: Harmony Books, 2015). [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* no. 10; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 42. [^21]: Najwa Awad and Sarah Sultan, “Why Does Allah Hate Me? Rescripting Negative Self-Talk,” *Yaqeen*, September 5, 2019, ## Summary Marriage in Islam is founded upon a divine framework, and among the signs of Allah is the union He has created between spouses. He, the Most High, says: "And of His signs is that He created for you, from yourselves, spouses so that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you love and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for people who reflect" (Qur'an 30:21). From this noble verse, three foundational components of a thriving marriage may be drawn: *sakīnah* (tranquility), *mawaddah* (love), and *raḥmah* (mercy). In times of difficulty and stress—such as those brought on by social isolation—these dormant issues within marriages may rise to the surface, yet such circumstances also present an opportunity to return to these basics and rebuild what may have been neglected. *Sakīnah* refers to the peace, contentment, and stillness that Allah has described as the primary purpose of the marital union. As Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī notes in his *al-Tafsīr al-kabīr*, the term *sakan* implies that the hearts of the couple turn toward one another and find a place of safety and refuge. Safety, both physical and psychological, is a prerequisite to developing intimacy, for the human being requires trust and security in order to connect with another through curiosity and receptivity. At a time when physical safety may feel threatened, finding safety in one's spouse becomes all the more essential, for only when safety is truly established can love and belonging blossom. *Mawaddah*, often translated as love, extends beyond the initial passion present in the early stages of marriage. Allah has created us to connect to Him and to others, and *mawaddah* is the love between spouses that fulfills this innate need. As spouses grow together, they inevitably discover matters upon which they do not agree; indeed, research on more than seven hundred couples has found that sixty-nine percent of marital conflicts cannot be completely resolved, this being the natural result of the union of two different people with differing histories. The beauty of mature love is that it can be offered and received despite such differences. *Raḥmah*, or mercy, is both a natural byproduct of, and a contributor to, tranquility and love. It encompasses grace, empathy, and compassion, and it should be revisited frequently within a marriage, especially when external stressors cause one or both partners to fall short of showing up at their best. Among the dimensions of love and mercy is gratitude, for appreciating one's spouse is a central component of healthy marriages, and couples who regularly express gratitude report more satisfaction. This aligns with the prophetic teaching, "Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah" (Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 4811). A significant insight is that our attachment to Allah bears upon our attachment to our spouses. Research on attachment theory, as noted by Beck and McDonald, has found that one's relationship with God may itself be described as an attachment bond. Establishing a secure relationship with Allah provides an internal sense of stability and resilience in hardship, and shapes how we relate to those closest to us. The more we come to know Allah through His attributes—as the Loving (al-Wadūd), the Merciful (al-Raḥīm), the Forgiving (al-Ghafūr), and the Appreciative (al-Shakūr)—the more we may manifest these qualities toward our spouse. Thus, working toward an intimate relationship with Allah may be an integral part of building an intimate relationship with one's spouse. These principles were examined through a survey of 169 Muslims conducted by the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, administered between the sixteenth and twenty-sixth of April, 2020, concerning marital satisfaction and how relationships had changed during social isolation. The findings revealed that most respondents were satisfied in their marriages, with fifty-five percent extremely satisfied, while forty-one percent reported that their relationship had improved over the past month. An increase in family cohesion and expressiveness raised the odds of an extremely satisfying marriage by fifty percent, considering one's relationship with Allah intimate raised it by fifty-one percent, and how often one's spouse expressed thanks raised it by forty-five percent. As for improvement during social isolation, reading the Qur'an daily, the frequency of receiving thanks, and seeing more blessings since the spread of the coronavirus were all predictors of better relationship quality. These findings reinforce the Qur'anic prescriptions of safety, love, and mercy, and highlight that a strong attachment to Allah appears central to perceiving one's marriage as successful. Building upon these findings and current research, several practices are suggested to enrich or rebuild a marriage. The first is to know oneself, for each person enters marriage with an attachment style grounded in their upbringing, and under stress will default to old ways of coping. Introspection and self-regulation—through practices such as deep breathing, mindfulness, exercise, or hands-on activities—are vital in preventing further harm. The second is to have conversations to understand one another's needs, approaching them with curiosity, openness, and a desire to understand, for the attitude one brings determines the level of safety the other feels. Much of our communication lies beyond words in tone, expression, and the body-to-body connection, and awareness of these nonverbal signals allows for greater intimacy. The Prophet ﷺ described the fulfillment of a healthy marriage when speaking of his wife Khadījah رضي الله عنها, saying, "I was nourished by her love." Among the further recommendations is to infuse the relationship with abundant gratitude, thanking one's spouse for even small things, striving for at least ten expressions of thanks each day. Scheduling times for connection is also encouraged, following the example of the Prophet ﷺ, who despite his many roles set aside times after ʿAṣr and ʿIshāʾ to visit his wives and remained attentive to their emotional states (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 5268). Such scheduled connection may include intimacy, shared meals or activities, and meaningful conversations about one's past, patterns, vision for the future, and current stresses. *Raḥmah* must remain central throughout, and Dr. Gottman's research identifies four destructive behaviors—criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling—that erode safety over time. This resonates with the words of the Prophet ﷺ when Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī رضي الله عنه asked who is most excellent among the Muslims, and he replied, "One from whose tongue and hands the other Muslims are secure" (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 10; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 42). Finally, building an attachment to Allah is emphasized, for the Prophet ﷺ would recite verses concerning *taqwá* in his marriage sermon, establishing God-consciousness as foundational to marriage. Three practices are recommended: regularly reading the Qur'an in a language one understands, through which Allah elaborates His names and attributes; having intimate conversation with Allah (*munājāh*), taking one's fears and joys to Him with vulnerability; and *ṣalāh*, including the additional *sunnah* prayers that keep Allah near the heart. Marriage is meant to be an institution of safety and refuge, and by turning toward one another and returning to the basics of safety, love, and mercy, couples may find the tranquility that Allah has intended for them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-spiritual-psychology-of-worship # The Spiritual Psychology of Worship **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Ramadan Publication, Staff Pick **Published:** April 30, 2020 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction Many young Muslims have grown up dreading acts of worship, viewing them as cumbersome tasks devoid of any meaning or fulfillment. 58% of respondents to a Yaqeen Institute survey of Muslims from the United States admitted that religious beliefs and practices not making sense to them contributed to feelings of doubt.[^1] Even those who are certain in their Islam may feel empty in their five daily prayers *(ṣalāh*), recitation of scripture (*tilāwah*), or engaging in remembrance (*dhikr*). While the Qur’an describes worship as the meaning of life,[^2] many still see it as a dry chore that they would rather not engage in. These attitudes and feelings are behind common questions like, “Why does God ask us to worship him?” This question was dealt with systematically by Shaykh M. Elshinawy in a [previously published article from Yaqeen Institute.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him/)[^3] One of the main conclusions of the article was that we are the ones in need of, and stand to benefit from, worshiping God, not the other way around. Therefore, God asks us to worship Him out of mercy to us, knowing that we are in need of it for our welfare in this world and the next. To Allah belongs the highest example, but this would be akin to a doctor who asks her patients to follow her prescription purely for their benefit, not hers. She asks that the patient obey her not out of narcissism but compassion. We aim to explore this idea in more detail and demonstrate why worshiping Allah is so beneficial to the human being and how it is, in reality, the greatest experience of life. --- ## What is ʿibādah? Before we begin discussing the greatness of worship, we must state what we mean by the term itself. In this article, we are particularly examining the Islamic concept of worship, called *ʿibādah*. We will use the terms *worship* and *ʿibādah* interchangeably throughout the article. However, the word *worship* in English may carry negative connotations for some that are not necessarily part of the concept of *ʿibādah* in Islam. It is imperative for the reader to discard any preconceived notions, biases, and feelings with respect to the word *worship* and approach the concept with a clear mind. ### Linguistic definition *‘Ibādah* comes from the root (*ʿayn bāʾ dāl*), which means to serve, worship, adore, venerate, and deify.[^4] It also carries the meaning of humbly submitting one’s self.[^5] *Ṭāʿah* which carries the meanings of loyalty, commitment, and obedience is another important concept within the definition of *ʿibādah*.[^6] al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 502 AH) defines *ʿibādah* as “the pinnacle and purest form of humility.”[^7] In his treatise on love,  Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) describes worship as the pinnacle of love and humility: “So the love found in worship is the purest form of love, and thus by Divine Right only due to God.”[^8] While we often look to the outward expressions of worship, all the meanings that *ʿibādah* carries are tied to the inward states underlying those physical expressions. Love, humility, veneration, and adoration are actions of the heart that form the basis of worship. ### Technical definition The technical definition refers to what *ʿibādah* specifically entails within an Islamic context. So, in addition to the linguistic meanings that inform us of the core aspects of worship, there are additional ideas and concepts from the Islamic tradition that mold the term into its uniquely Islamic form. In the Islamic theological tradition, *ʿibādah* is defined in different ways. Many have defined it as submission to Allah with love and reverence, seeking nearness to Him by doing what He has commanded.[^9] Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728 AH) defines *ʿibādah* as “a term that encompasses everything that Allah loves and is pleased with from inward and outward actions and words.”[^10] Ibn ʿUthaymīn (d. 1421 AH) said ʿ*ibādah* is “to submit to Allah with love and veneration by fulfilling His commands and refraining from His prohibitions.”[^11] Ibn al-Qayyim said, “One can only call themselves a worshipper (of God) when they do not despair in His mercy and when they turn to Him repentantly, following the best of what has been revealed to them from their Lord. Only then do they become truly loyal and obedient worshippers of the Divine.”[^12] There are a few key common ideas that are embedded within each of these definitions: 1. Worship is the ultimate expression of love 2. Worship involves a combination of veneration, adoration, submission, and humility 3. Worship is used to draw near to Allah ﷻ 4. Worship involves loyalty, commitment, and obedience regarding commands and prohibitions. --- ## The neuroscience of worship Worship is often misconstrued as being exclusively within the purview of religious ideology and practice. People think that not ascribing to organized religion or not believing in God necessarily implies not worshipping anything. However, modern neuroscience and psychology tell us that worship is a human universal and seems to be hardwired into our biology. There has been a growing body of literature that supports the notion that the brain seems to have unique areas associated with spiritual seeking of the Divine. Rhawn Joseph, a neuropsychologist, argues that the structure and function of the brain predispose us to believe in God.[^13] He describes ‘God neurons’ and ‘God neurotransmitters’ that are dispersed throughout the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain.[^14] Leading neuroscientist Andrew Newberg states, “The human brain is uniquely constructed to perceive and generate spiritual entities.”[^15] Hence, according to this research, just as human beings are driven by their biology to speak, eat, and procreate, they are also driven to engage in the spiritual pursuit of worship. This is consistent with the Islamic concept of the *fiṭrah*, the natural disposition that Allah ﷻ has placed in human beings. > So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. \[Adhere to\] the *fiṭrah* of Allah upon which He has created \[all\] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct way of life, but most of the people do not know. (Qur’an 30:30) One may find such conclusions troubling given the growing population of atheists and agnostics. The fallacy in this rebuttal lies in a misunderstanding of the term *worship*. While many assume worship exists solely in relation to supernatural entities, the Qur’an provides a more functional view of this basic human motivation: “Have you not seen the one who takes his own desires as a god?*”* (Qur’an 25:43). While hardly anyone would claim their desires as divine from a theological perspective, they can functionally operate as divine from a phenomenological perspective. To borrow terminology from developmental psychologist Erik Erikson, a person’s ‘ultimate existential concern’ represents their true deity.[^16] An individual's ultimate concern is what an individual loves the most, their highest ambition in life. Everyone, even an atheist, must have something that they love most, which is, in fact, their ‘god’ that is worshipped. While we often think of worship as purely associated with rituals, we must recognize that, from an Islamic perspective, worship penetrates deep into the heart of the human being and encompasses everything about one’s ultimate concern including beliefs, feelings, and actions. Therefore, worship represents the entire journey toward one’s ultimate concern in life. Defining worship as such broadens it from the domain of ritual into the domain of living. --- ## The psychology of worship Ibn al-Qayyim dissects the idea that humans are hardwired for worship to its first principles, enabling us to understand the cognitive mechanism behind the genesis of deity in the mind of a human being.[^17] The first point he explains is that human beings are by nature dependent creatures and must find what will bring them benefit so they can actively pursue it and what will bring them harm so they can actively avoid it. He asserts that pleasure and pain are the motivating factors that drive human beings toward benefit and away from harm. The second point he explains follows from the first. Since human beings are fundamentally motivated to find benefit and avoid harm, they must construct a belief system that informs them of the sources of benefit and harm. It is not enough that a person populates their mind with a multitude of possible sources. Some sources are dependent on others. For example, food is a source of benefit but it is dependent on all the work put in from the farm to the kitchen and everything in between. As a person follows the chain of benefit or, conversely, the chain of harm they will inevitably arrive at the ultimate source of all benefit and harm. While the source should be God Almighty, the Owner of Might, the One who determines all things and the One who has power over everything, people may insert other ideas. For instance, a person could internalize that wealth is the ultimate source of benefit and harm. Another person may think it is fame, status, or gratifying one’s desires. Whatever a person conceptualizes as the Ultimate Source of Benefit and Harm becomes their deity. For its sake they live and for its sake they strive. They submit to whatever needs to be done to accomplish their goals. Hence, the dilemma of humanity is not whether to worship or not worship. Everyone necessarily is engaged in worship by virtue of their natural state of dependency. They must submit to whatever they perceive has the power to harm or benefit them or else they face the consequences. The true existential dilemma that faces every human being is what is *worthy* of their worship. What exactly can and will fulfill their needs? A common motif in the Qur’an is the description of the worthiness of divinity in terms of real power to benefit and harm. It is a way of challenging those that deify other than Him, > Say: Do you worship other than Allah what cannot benefit you at all and what cannot harm you? (Qur’an 21:66) > And they worship beside Allah what cannot harm them nor benefit them (Qur’an 10:18) > And they worship what does not benefit them or harm them (Qur’an 25:55). The Qur’anic message to humanity is to align their ultimate concern with whatever is in charge of their ultimate destiny, which is Allah alone. Thus, there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah. --- ## The will to worship While Nietzsche conceptualized all of reality as ‘Will to Power,’[^18] the Islamic alternative could be characterized as ‘Will to Worship.’ People are driven by their deepest desires, which are determined by what they love most in life. The movement toward a person’s ultimate concern is the impulse of life that is actualized throughout the cosmos. That is the will to worship. The Qur’an asserts that, in fact, everything in existence is engaged in worship. > Do you not see that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the animals and most of humanity prostrate to Allah? (Qur’an 22:18) > The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them glorify Him. And there is not a thing that exists except that it exalts \[Allah\] with His praise, but you do not understand their way of exaltation. (Qur’an 17:44) Every human being has an underlying value system that propels them on their journey of life to that which they value most. This represents their god, functionally at least. It is that for which a person is willing to bear the pain of existence. It is what a person submits to, sacrificing their time, energy, and resources. This is the attitude of worship. It drives people to submit to the ups and downs of the road that leads to what they seek in life. It consumes a person’s thoughts, emotions, and actions as they relentlessly pursue what they think will bring them happiness and save them from misery. As we can see, pursuing one’s ultimate concern includes the same four elements found in the definition of *ʿibādah*: love, submission, seeking nearness, and obedience. The all-encompassing nature of worship is why, in Islam, the mundane can be transformed into *ʿibādah* if done for the intention of reaching a Muslim’s Ultimate Concern, Allah. Eating, drinking, and procreating are experiences that are elevated to worship when done with the attitude of seeking the pleasure of Allah. > The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is pleased with a servant who praises him when he eats, or praises him when he drinks.”[^19] In another narration, we learn how encompassing charity can be, > Some of the companions came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and they said, “O Messenger of Allah, the rich have taken all the rewards. They pray as we pray, they fast as we fast, and they give charity from their extra wealth.” The Prophet said, “Has not Allah made for you ways to give charity? In every glorification of Allah is charity, in every declaration of His greatness is charity, in every praise of Him is charity, in every declaration of His Oneness is charity, enjoining good is charity and forbidding evil is charity, and in a man’s intimate relations with his wife is charity.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, is there a reward for one who satisfies his passions?” The Prophet said, “You see that if he were to satisfy his passions with the unlawful, it would be a burden of sin upon him? Likewise, if he were to satisfy himself with the lawful, he will have a reward.”[^20] Enjoying the simplest of blessings with gratitude and bearing even the lightest hardships with patience transforms the banal into the sacred. Even the slightest thorn prick can be a spiritual experience as taught to us by the Prophet ﷺ.[^21] As evidenced through the vast compilations of invocations[^22] in the Islamic tradition, there is a prayer to be uttered for all occasions in life including relieving oneself[^23] and being intimate with one’s spouse.[^24] This is what makes Islamic spirituality so unique and universal in its appeal. While other spiritual traditions are often life-negating, Islam is explicitly life-affirming. Devoting oneself to Allah in worship does not mean being celibate or shunning the pleasures of the world. Rather it means one lives life to its fullest, elevating the seemingly trivial to the most ultimate of concerns. ʿAllāmah Iqbāl describes this feature of Islam in distinction to Christianity, > Both demand the affirmation of the spiritual self in man, with this difference only that Islam, recognizing the contact of the ideal with the real, says ‘yes’ to the world of matter and points the way to master it with a view to discover a basis for a realistic regulation of life.[^25] Controlling one’s lowly desires is indeed a crucial part of the Islamic way of life: > As for the one who feared the position of his Lord and restrains his desires, then indeed paradise will be his refuge. (Qur’an 79:40) However, the method by which this is done is not by repressing these urges, but by directing them toward productive pursuits. For example, we are not meant to repress sexual urges, but to express them within lawful relationships, which produces life, love, and compassion. Similarly, while the aggressive instinct can lead us to oppress others for our self-interest, it can be used for the sake of standing for justice and resistance to oppression. --- ## The theology of worship A distinction needs to be made here between two conceptual categories of divinity. Islamic theology describes two aspects of *tawḥīd* (Islamic monotheism) that operate on different levels of the human experience. The first is in the domain of the objective, *tawḥīd ʿilmī* (monotheism of knowledge), and the second is in the domain of the subjective, *tawḥīd ʿamalī* (monotheism of action). The first category refers to what a person believes about the Divine, in an objective sense. So for instance, believing the Divine is One, Eternal, The Most Merciful, The Creator of all would fall under *tawḥīd ʿilmī*. The second category refers to how a person relates to God subjectively in terms of their actions, both inward and outward. For instance, It describes whether a person worships God alone or alongside other partners. These partners in worship can be explicit (which would fall under *tawḥīd ʿilmī*) or implicit in one’s actions and only fall under *tawḥīd ʿamalī*. In other words, while many may theologically profess belief in Allah as the Creator of all, and the only One deserving of worship, psychologically their ultimate concern may actually be something else. This paradox is referred to as *shirk khafī* (hidden idolatry). This form of *shirk* has been described as more subtle than the crawling of an ant.[^26] Perhaps, a person’s ultimate concern is their wealth, status, fame, or personal pleasure and they use religion as a means to reach these gods. They do not engage in religious piety out of genuine love, veneration, and reverence for God but rather to achieve worldly benefits. There is a spectrum of how explicit this *nifāq* (hypocrisy) is, ranging from minor to major. The more minor forms mean the more subtle the hidden agenda to the point that a person may not even be consciously aware of their ulterior motives. This is why Islam places a heavy emphasis on engaging in *murāqabah* (being aware of God’s presence) and *muḥāsabah* (taking oneself to account).[^27] On the other end of the spectrum are true hypocrites who hold no love, reverence, or respect in their hearts at all for Allah and His Messenger. The Qur’an describes their state, > Verily the hypocrites try to deceive Allah but He is the One that deceives them. When they stand to pray *ṣalāh*, they stand with laziness so that people can see them and they do not remember Allah except a little. (Qur’an 4:142) --- ## The experience of worship In this section, we explore the sacred emotions that illuminate the experience of worship and provide worshippers with an endless source of meaning and fulfillment. The Qur’an alludes to three core emotions that fuel the light of worship in the heart of believers. > They are the ones that call out, searching for the nearest path to their Guardian Lord, hoping in His Mercy and fearing His punishment. No doubt the punishment of your Guardian Lord is something to seriously dread. (Qur’an 17:57) In this verse: 1) seeking nearness to God, 2) hoping in His Mercy, and 3) fearing His punishment are connected together. We can label these emotions 1) love, 2) hope, and 3) fear, respectively. Ibn al-Qayyim gives a beautiful analogy of how these three emotions come together in the heart of a worshipper. > The heart in its journey to Allah is like a bird. Love is the head while fear and hope are the two wings. When the head and both wings are sound, then the bird can take flight. If the head is removed, the bird is dead. If one of the wings is missing, then it is easy prey for every predator.[^28] The experience of *ʿibādah* emerges from a heart that possesses these three essential sacred emotions. It is an experience described as nothing short of paradise in this word. Ibn al-Qayyim said, “For certainly, there is no true blessing, pleasure, joy, or wholeness without knowing Allah and loving Him, finding peace in His remembrance, rejoicing in being close to Him, longing to meet Him. This is the paradise of this world.”[^29] Ibn al-Qayyim also said, > The lover is in the ocean of happiness and is never separated from it until the point he is drowning in this ocean. And just as a person who has drowned cannot be separated from the water, the lover cannot be separated from his happiness...The delight of love in this world is a small preview of the pleasures of paradise in the next world, and it is the paradise of this world. The happiness of the lover is continuous even if he is struck with waves of pain from time to time. If those preoccupied with other than God knew what the people of love possessed, their hearts would break with regret.[^30] Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH) reported: Ibrāhīm ibn Ad´ham (d. 165 AH), may Allah have mercy on him, said, “If the kings and their sons knew what we experience of spiritual pleasure and happiness, they would fight us for it with their swords.”[^31] These descriptions convey the depth and expansion that true *ʿibādah* brings to the heart of a Muslim. The intensity of this experience is determined by the strength of the foundational sacred emotions found in a person’s heart. Love, hope, and fear are the drivers of worship and so the experience will only be as meaningful as the emotions underneath. We will briefly explore each of these elemental spiritual states of *ʿibādah*, so we can appreciate how we can excel in our worship. ### Love We start with the most important and necessary but also the most difficult to express and understand. Love is one of the mysteries of human existence and has inspired art, wisdom, and poetry throughout the ages. Since the dawn of civilization, human beings have attempted to portray and express the bewildering and yet inescapable feeling that is love. Contained within this feeling is a dormant energy of immense power, capable of driving human beings to overcome insurmountable odds. When true love is felt, nothing can stand between a person and their beloved. It is the source of enduring strength that is necessary to bear the pain of existence. As Ibn al-Qayyim aptly explained, > No one can define love with a definition more clear than itself...And no one can describe love with a description more clear than love itself. Humanity is only capable of speaking about its causes, means, signs, indicators, consequences, and rulings. Their definitions only revolve around the above six.[^32] Essentially, Ibn al-Qayyim is saying that when people attempt to define love, they end up merely describing different aspects related to it, such as what causes it or what are the signs that a person is in love. Love itself is never able to be linguistically defined. Love, as Ibn al-Qayyim explained, is the head of a person’s spiritual pursuit. Love is to the heart what blood is to the body. It is this emotion that provides fuel for every act of the soul, just as blood is the fuel for every organ in the body. A person’s ultimate beloved defines them as a person. The true purpose and meaning of a person’s life is their beloved. Love determines the intensity and context of all other emotional experiences. In other words, all other emotions are defined by love. As Ibn Taymīyah points out this even extends to hatred, > Love and desire are the root of hatred and anger, and its cause...The act of hatred in the world is only done when something opposes the beloved. If there was not something that was loved, there would be no hatred. Hatred and anger of human beings is from what opposes and goes against the beloved.[^33] Love is the organizing principle of all other emotional experiences. It determines their quality, intensity, and context. Ibn Taymīyah explains that even hatred cannot exist without the context of love. Why else would someone feel so strongly against something, unless it threatened what they loved? As for the other emotions, they are also intimately connected. A person fears losing their beloved, hopes to be close to their beloved, longs for their beloved, is grieved over what they have missed from their beloved, and happy about experiencing their beloved. Love determines other love as well. A person will love anything that their beloved loves and anything that brings them closer to their beloved. As we can see, love is the foundational feeling and all other emotions are branches of its tree. This is why the objective of a believer is to empty their heart of ultimate love for anything other than Allah. > And from among humankind are those who take partners beside Allah, loving them with a love that is only due to Allah. And those who believe have even stronger love for Allah*.* (Qur’an 2:165) Love for others besides Allah becomes a seed that plants another tree in the heart. Negative emotional experiences, insecurities, pathological grief, and crippling anxiety are the consequence of love for other than Allah. Every negative emotion can be traced back to a root source, which is a foundational love for something else. This can be love of other people, which means a person has overinvested and developed an insecure maladaptive attachment. It could also be love of one’s own comfort and pleasure, which means a person’s ego is in control of their heart, not their spirit. Whatever it is, anything besides Allah will ultimately bring us pain and suffering in this world and the next. Ibn Ḥazm explains that attachment to anything in this world inevitably ends in grief, > This is because at the end of all your aspirations in this world is the eventuality of grief—either your ambitions are taken away from you or you are forced to give up your goals. There is no escape from these two ends except in striving towards God.[^34] When we attach our hearts to anything that is temporary, then it naturally produces insecurity, unhealthy fear, and anxiety as we cannot escape the reality that our beloved will leave us. Since our love determines the meaning of our life, this can become an existential crisis. The Prophet ﷺ warned us of becoming worshippers of the dollar, > Wretched is the slave of gold, silver, fine clothes, and garments. If he is given he is pleased, but if he is not given he is displeased.[^35] When we only have the tree of pure love for Allah, our emotional experiences are all positive. The branches tower to the sky and the roots remain firm and secure. > Have you not seen that Allah has made an example of the good word like a good tree? Its roots are firmly grounded and its branches tower to the sky. (Qur’an 14:24) While the believer still experiences fear and grief, it is in relation to Allah, which turns them into positive and productive feelings. All misdeeds and circumstances are redeemable and reconcilable. If a person fears distance from God, it pushes them to turn to Him. If a person is grieved over their sins, it pushes them to repent to Him. If a person is angry for His Sake, it pushes them to courageously bring about positive change in their surroundings. If a person loves, they are able to do so purely without the taint of self-interest which characterizes all relationships that don’t extend from a love for Allah. They are able to love a person for who they are, a creation of Allah ﷻ, rather than what needs they fulfill. All of this is contrasted with a person fearing losing wealth or a loved one—neither of which is under their control. Grief over losing something or someone can never bring them back. Anger due to pride or ego can never be contended with except maladaptively. This type of love can never fill the hole in a person’s heart without feelings of disappointment, hurt, and betrayal. Love is the foundation of worship as it is the feeling that connects a person to their ultimate concern in life. It is the binding force that breaks through the thickest of walls and pierces through the hardest of steel to reach the thing they love most. From the seed of love all other emotions are felt. Without it there is no human being, only an empty vessel. ### Hope We now turn to one of the wings of worship, hope. Love is the head that directs the heart in the direction of what it desires most. Hope is what carries a person to that destination. Without hope, a person would not have the strength to tread the path to their beloved. They would stay stranded, afraid to set sail for fear of the uncertainty of the horizon. For the believer, the heart is oriented toward Allah beyond the heavens. How daring an objective for a creature full of flaws, weaknesses, and limitations? What is it about the believer that makes him believe he can possibly be in the presence of *al-Quddūs* (The Pure), while his heart is covered with impurities? How can he reach *al-ʿAlī* (The Most High), while he is in the lowest of abodes? How can he reach *al-Nūr* (The Light), when he can barely take the heat and illumination of the sun? How is he worthy to be in the presence of *al-Ḥamīd* (The Praiseworthy), while he is engulfed in sin and heedlessness? The only answer is hope. Hope in the vastness of Allah’s Mercy is the propeller that drives a person on the path toward Him. It would take a miracle for a human being to even imagine being in the presence of Allah. And yet, this miracle is witnessed every day through only Allah’s Grace. Simple acts of prayer and remembrance can elevate the spirit to the Throne of God, as it lies in prostration before *al-Raḥmān* (the Most Merciful). This hope in Allah extends to all domains of our life. The sinner hopes in Allah’s Mercy. The poor person hopes in Allah’s Providence. The sick person hopes in Allah’s Cure. The oppressed person hopes in Allah’s Justice. The broken person hopes in Allah’s Strength. The lonely person hopes in Allah’s Love. The confused person hopes in Allah’s Guidance. The depressed and anxious hope in Allah’s Plan. Whatever our need in life, we hope that Allah will fulfill it. “The future will be better for you than your past” (Qur’an 93:4) if you continue on your journey toward your beloved Allah and most ultimate of concerns. Hope carries a person into the future with an unshakeable confidence, rooted in their faith in Allah’s Grace and Might. His immense Mercy means He wants good for us, and His Might means there is no barrier to Him providing from His endless treasures. At this point, we must clarify the important difference between hope, the wing of worship, and wishful thinking, an impulse from the devil. Hope inspires action, whereas wishful thinking is passive, inspiring only laziness and complacency. When a person believes they can reach their goal, they will increase in their efforts to reach it. Hope in Allah alone doesn’t mean a person dismisses the means Allah has placed in the world. This important clarification occurred in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. > Anas bin Mālik narrates that a man said, “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ shall I tie it (the camel) and rely upon Allah ﷻ or should I leave it loose and rely upon Allah ﷻ?” He said, “Tie it and rely upon Allah.”[^36] > ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb narrates, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying: “If you all depend on Allah with due reliance, He would certainly give you provision as He gives it to birds who go forth hungry in the morning and return with full bellies at dusk.”[^37] If a person doesn’t think they are smart enough or capable enough to accomplish a task, they are less likely to even attempt it. But if a person believes they can do it, they will approach the means to the objective with zeal and enthusiasm. This is how hope in Allah inspires action. When you believe that the outcome of whatever you are undertaking is in the Hands of Allah, you trust that your efforts will be fruitful and so you expend even more energy. In contrast, wishful thinking is not rooted in any sincere hope in Allah. Rather, it comes from laziness and a wish for things to come to a person without having to put in effort. This ignores the means Allah has ordained for things in this world and opposes the prophetic example of proactive reliance on Allah. Another important distinction to be made is the difference between hope in Allah and hope in oneself. Hope in Allah allows us to open ourselves up to new possibilities and to be comfortable with the uncertainty of the future. > Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī narrates that The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no Muslim that calls out to Allah ﷻ with a prayer that does not contain any wrong or breaking of familial ties except Allah ﷻ gives him one of three. Either what he asked for is hastened to him, or it is saved for the hereafter, or a calamity of similar magnitude is diverted from him.”[^38] > Abū Hurayrah narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷻ said, “Call upon Allah ﷻ while being certain of being answered, and know that Allah ﷻ does not respond to a supplication from the heart of one heedless and occupied.”[^39] The certainty of Allah’s response and the strength of a person’s hope does not replace the uncertainty of the future. The future remains uncertain, but the believer has internalized that it is solely determined by Allah, and prefers His decision. While a person may want something in particular, hope in Allah enables them to be open to their fears and know that whatever the outcome, it was best for them. The power of hope is what grounds us and makes us believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how bleak a person’s situation, the wing of hope tells them that the ultimate end will be theirs if they only have faith. A person who is inspired by hope in Allah raises his head from the dark abyss that lies beneath him and to the rising sun on the horizon. The pain and misery of this world is only temporary; the believer hopes for felicity and everlasting pleasure in the next. The believer hopes only in the Mercy of God and never lets go of that rope. In contrast, popular psychology and mainstream self-help cliches encourage people to ‘believe in themselves’ and go through life with an attitude of self-sufficiency. These platitudes are dangerous as they instill false hope and confidence in a person who has no tangible reason to believe he or she is capable of changing their condition. Allah ﷻ warns the human being, “But Alas, humanity has certainly transgressed, that he sees himself as self-sufficient” (Quran, 96:6-7) He also informs us of our fundamental reality of dependency and destitution, “O humankind, you are all impoverished before Allahﷻ, and He is the Self-Sufficient, Full of Praise”(Quran, 35:15). True independence is only achieved with absolute dependence on the One who is truly Self-Sufficient, *al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm* (The Perfectly Living, The Sustainer of All). Only through hope and reliance upon Allah ﷻ can a person be justifiably confident and have good reason to believe in an optimistic future. ### Fear Fear is one of the most powerful human emotions and is the driving force behind so many of our thoughts, worries, and behaviors. Ibn Ḥazm said, > I searched for a common goal amongst humankind, to which all would agree to strive for excellence. I have not found anything other than the vanquishing of anxiety.[^40] Many view fear as a negative emotion and are often turned off from religious preaching that inspires fear through reminders of death and the hellfire. However, it must be realized that fear is a positive emotion if it motivates us to stay away from harm and to pursue what is beneficial. Fear is only harmful if it is taken to an extreme and results in a crippling paralysis. Otherwise, fear is a necessary wing of *ʿibādah* that sustains the flight of the heart in this world toward Allah. Fear of Allah is one of the greatest assets to a believer that gives them the strength to refrain from temptation and desire. Fear of Allah gives a person strength to maintain their values in the face of incredible resistance in this world. It enables a person to live for what they believe in and stand up for what’s right despite external pressures that may force them into hiding. If a person doesn’t fear Allah, then they will fear the people and things of this world. Fear of poverty, failure, people’s judgment, or the aggression of others can shackle a person’s heart and drive them wherever the fear goes. The shackles stop the heart from pursuing what it truly loves and wants in life. But when the light of *taqwá* (fearing Allah) comes to a person’s heart, the flame burns all other fears to a crisp. The shackles are broken, and the heart becomes free to pursue whatever it truly desires. These are desires from the spirit, not from the ego. The key to only fearing Allah is to only love Allah. Love determines our fears. We fear being separated from what we want and love in life. When we love Allah, we fear being separated from Him. For a lover of Allah, the worst of punishments is being veiled from Him in the next life (Qur’an 83:15). Separation from Allah is also feared as it brings about punishment of our bodies and souls in this life and the next. A believer knows that those close to Allah will experience His Mercy and those far from Him will be left with His Justice. Pure Justice means punishment and destruction for us all. > And if Allah ﷻ were to take humanity to account based on their oppression, He would not leave upon the earth a single creature. (Qur’an 16:61) The verse states that if we are delivered pure justice, then we will be met with the Wrath of God. While many find this image negative, it is actually quite positive. The Wrath of God is perfect, unlike the flawed anger of human beings that leads them to transgress. The Anger of God is pure justice. We can love and hope for closeness to Allah but the motivation of human beings fluctuates. What will push through the resistance within ourselves due to laziness and weakness? And what will overcome the resistance outside in the forms of aggression and tyranny? Fear is the most basic of instincts that activates the strongest mechanism for survival in human beings. Fear of Allah can activate within us a strength that can keep us soaring to the sky on the journey to Allah. Thus, fear of Allah ﷻ means we run *to* Him, not away from Him. ### Balancing love, hope, and fear The head turns to what it loves most, with a strong desire to reach what may seem impossible. The wing of hope endows the lover with the belief that what is sought is attainable. The wing of fear pushes the lover away from what the beloved despises and toward what is loved. In times of failure, hope carries the lover. In times of ease, fear keeps the lover from being complacent and indulgent. This is the heart of true worship that encompasses a person’s entire life’s journey. And for a creature as lofty and noble as the human being, endowed with intellect, consciousness, conscience, and a spirit, there is none worthy of this pursuit except Allah. --- ## The structure of worship As we have continuously pointed out throughout this article, *ʿibādah* engages all faculties and encompasses all domains of human life. The scholars of Islam categorize the activities of worship as it pertains to the various faculties of the human being. Worship can manifest on the tongue, limbs, and heart through the expression of language or movement. Ibn al-Qayyim explained that this results in four distinct dimensions of worship: 1) language of the heart; 2) movement of the heart; 3) language of the tongue; and 4) movement of the body.[^41] The language of the heart refers to its beliefs. The movement of the heart refers to sacred emotions such as love, reliance (*tawakkul*), fear, and hope. The language of the tongue refers to communicating the message of Islam to others, declaring God’s praise. The movement of the body includes active processes that range from the *ṣalāh, ṭawāf, saʿy, ḥajj* to the simple act of removing something harmful from the road. Any movement of the limbs is worship when the heart behind it is oriented toward Allah. Worship involves a body and a spirit. Both are necessary. The body has been molded by the *sharīʿah* and is found in the commands and prohibitions of Allah that dictate how we should worship Him. The spirit is the inward essence that brings life to the outward structure found in the *sharīʿah*. Without an outward structure, there is no body to bring to life. Without a spirit, there is nothing to bring the body to life. Both are necessary for true and authentic worship. The scholars describe these two conditions as 1) sincerity (spirit) and 2) following the *sunnah* (prophetic tradition) (body). > Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ (d. 187 AH) said, “Indeed, if deeds are sincere and incorrect, they will not be accepted. If deeds are correct and insincere, they will not be accepted, but rather they are only accepted if they are both sincere and correct. Sincere means they are done for Allah alone and correct means they are done according to the Sunnah.”[^42] --- ## The five pillars of living your best life *ʿIbādah* encompasses one’s entire life’s journey. All of the seemingly separate parts of our lives are actually being mobilized to a central concern that is the god we choose to worship. The quality and value of a person’s life is only as strong as their ultimate concern. Therefore, living your best life is about choosing the right god to worship. The testimony of faith is a declaration that a person has chosen to worship Allah above all other false gods who have no power to benefit or harm. In the pursuit of the divine, a person opens their spirit to the endless potential of growth and illumination. The path to God is filled with wondrous marvels of the heavenly realm that reveal themselves to the seeker. The movement on this path only occurs with growth of character and spirit. Abū Ismāʿīl al-Harawī (d. 481 AH), one of the spiritual masters of Islam, outlines 100 stations on the journey to God that fill a person’s life with meaning, fulfillment, and joy. Humility, love, compassion, altruism, joy, contentment, gratitude, and hope are some of the stations a person traverses as they commit to the worship of Allah. These qualities, when genuinely reached, come with spiritual states that bring immeasurable pleasure and delight to the soul. The seeker on the path is unconcerned by the petty nuisances that make up the banality of the worldly life. They are filled with love for Allah so their worship of Him overpowers any insignificant worries and concerns that plague the minds of so many attached to the world. When we look to the five pillars of Islam, we see that they are all acts of worship that represent the different domains of our life. The pillars serve as the foundation that are meant to extend until our entire life is defined by *lā ilāha illā Allāh* (There is none worthy of worship except Allah). The *shahādah* is the root and foundation of all knowledge. Only through a belief in one God is the world rendered meaningful and comprehensible.[^43] Hence, our entire pursuit of knowledge in this world is meant to be an extension of the strength of our *shahādah*. The *ṣalāh* is the foundational practice that defines how we relate to Allah. It serves as the bedrock upon which all other acts of remembrance and connection with God are built. The *ṣalāh* expands our spirituality. While the *ṣalāh* is about relating to the Creator, *zakāh* is about relating to the creation. Generosity and altruism are the ways we are taught to deal with others. *Zakāh* serves as the foundation and can expand to charity of all kinds. Any benefit a person can confer to any of the creation of God, whether human, animal, or plant, is an act of charity. > Abū Dharr narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷻ said, “Your smiling in the face of your brother is charity, commanding good and forbidding evil is charity, your giving directions to a man lost in the land is charity for you. Your seeing for a man with bad sight is a charity for you, your removal of a rock, a thorn, or a bone from the road is charity for you. Your pouring what remains from your bucket into the bucket of your brother is charity for you.”[^44] *Ṣawm* is how we relate to our ego. It teaches us to discipline our cravings and desires to ensure they are in line with our values. It is an act of spiritual training that we are meant to extend outside of Ramadan into the entire year. The purification and refinement of character is rooted in this foundational practice of *ṣawm*. Lastly, the *ḥajj* is a culmination of everything and a symbol of life and death itself. It represents the entire individual and collective pursuit toward the pleasure of Allah.[^45] Taken together, the five pillars of Islam are the foundations of our knowledge (*shahādah*), relationship with Allah (*ṣalāh*), relationship with the creation (*zakāh*), relationship with our *nafs* (*ṣawm*) and life and death (*ḥajj*). As a person increases in their love for Allah, their desire to reach him increases. This expands these domains so that they encompass all aspects of a person’s life, from their careers, to family, even to recreation. A person’s wealth is earned as worship to Allah, extending from the *zakāh*. A person’s recreation is done as a means of rest to fortify the gains from discipling the soul, extending from the *ṣawm*. A person does not require music or meditation to achieve spiritual awakening, as their *ṣalāh* and remembering Allah ﷻ leaves no room for anything else in the heart. A person witnesses Allah ﷻ in every sign they encounter in creation and all knowledge they attain, extending from their *shahādah*. Their worship defines their entire life until they are able to say, > Say: My prayers, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are all for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, He has no partners, and that is what I have been commanded to and I am the first of those who submit. (Qur’an 6:162) --- ## Notes [^1]: Youssef Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis,” *Yaqeen*, February 13, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/). [^2]: Qur’an 51:56. [^3]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “Why Does God Ask People to Worship Him?,” *Yaqeen*, December 26, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him/). [^4]: Hans Wehr, *Arabic to English Dictionary*, 4th ed. (Urbana: Spoken Language Services, 1994), 685. [^5]: Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab* (Beirut: Dar as-Sadr, 1993), 2776. [^6]: Ibn Manẓūr, 2776. [^7]: al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, *Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān* (Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 2009), 542. [^8]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn* (Jeddah: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2010), 83. [^9]: K. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, *Manhaj ahl al-sunnah* (Taz, Yemen: Maktaba al-Ghurābāʾ al-Atharīyah, 1995), 55. [^10]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá* (Mansoura, Egypt: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 2005), 10:91. [^11]: ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, *Manhaj ahl al-sunnah*, 58. [^12]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Beirut: Dar Kitab al-Arabi, 2003), 1:127. [^13]: René J. Muller, “Neurotheology: Are We Hardwired for God?,” *Psychiatric Times* 25, no. 6 (2008), 24. [^14]: Muller, “Neurotheology.” [^15]: Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, *How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist* (New York: Ballantine Books, 2009), 4. [^16]: Hetty Zock and T. H. Zock, *A Psychology of Ultimate Concern: Erik H. Erikson's Contribution to the Psychology of Religion*, vol. 1 (New York: Rodopi, 2004), 15. [^17]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ighāthat al-lahfān* (Jeddah: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawā’id, 2011), 39. [^18]: Ciano Aydin, “Nietzsche on Reality as Will to Power: Toward an ‘Organization—Struggle’ Model,” *Journal of Nietzsche Studies* 33 (2007): 25–48. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2734. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1006. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2572. [^22]: The interested reader can refer to *al-Adhkār* by Imām al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH), al-*Kalim al-Ṭayyib* by Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728 AH), or the recent *Ḥiṣn al-Muslim* (Fortress of a Muslim) by Saʿīd al-Qahṭānī (d. 1439 AH). [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6322. [^24]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5156. [^25]: Muhammad Iqbal, *Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam* (New Delhi: Kitab Bahvan, 2000), 16. [^26]: *al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 715. al-Albānī (d. 1420 AH) has classified this narration as *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) (*Ṣaḥīḥ Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 551). [^27]: The interested reader should refer to: Justin Parrott, “How to be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation,” *Yaqeen*, November 21, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/). [^28]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Mansoura, Egypt: Maktabat Fayyāḍ, 2013), 426. [^29]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Mansoura, Egypt: Maktabat Fayyāḍ, 2013), 372. [^30]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Mansoura, Egypt: Maktabat Fayyāḍ, 2013), 1105. [^31]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 4475. [^32]: Ibn ʿAsākir, *Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq*, 861. [^33]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Qāʿidah fī al-maḥabbah* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Turāth al-Islāmī, 1987), 8. [^34]: Ibn Ḥazm, al-*Akhlāq wa al-siyar* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1990), 76. [^35]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6071. [^36]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2517. [^37]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2344. [^38]: *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, no. 10749; al-Mundhirī, *al-Targhīb wa at-tarhīb* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 2003), 2:389; Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ, *Takhrīj al-Musnad* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1999), 17:214; others have declared the chain to be authentic. [^39]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī,* no. 3479; Imām Nawawī, *al-Adhkār* (Cairo: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1990), 492; others have pointed out a slight weakness in the chain. It contains Ṣāliḥ ibn Bashīr, who was one of the ascetics of Baṣrah, but was known to be weak in hadith. However, contemporary hadith scholars such as al-Mubārakpūrī (*Tuḥfat al-Aḥwadhī* \[Cairo: Dār al-Hadīth, 2001\], 8:477) and al-Albānī (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb* \[Riyaadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 2000\], 1653) have said it has corroborating evidence that makes it a fair hadith due to corroboration (*ḥasan li-ghayrihi*). [^40]: Ibn Ḥazm, al-*Akhlāq wa al-siyar* (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1990), 76. [^41]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn* (Mansoura, Egypt: Maktabat al-Fayyāḍ, 2013), 95. [^42]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwá* (Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahd, 2004), 28:177. [^43]: For a detailed explanation of this idea, refer to Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Nazir Khan, “In Pursuit of Conviction II: Humanity Needs God,” *Yaqeen*, October 11, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-humanity-needs-god/). [^44]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 1956. [^45]: For a detailed explanation behind the significance of the rituals of hajj, refer to Ibrahim Hindy and Nazir Khan, “Living Abraham’s Legacy: Relevance of Rites and Rituals in the Modern Age,” *Yaqeen*, August 13, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ibrahim-hindy/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ibrahim-hindy/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age/). ## Summary Many young Muslims today grow up regarding acts of worship as burdensome duties emptied of meaning. According to a Yaqeen Institute survey of American Muslims, fifty-eight percent of respondents cited religious beliefs and practices "not making sense" as a source of their doubt. Even sincere believers can feel a hollowness in their five daily prayers (ṣalāh), their recitation of Scripture (tilāwah), and their remembrance of God (dhikr), and this often lies behind the recurring question, "Why does God ask us to worship Him?" Building upon an earlier treatment by Shaykh M. Elshinawy, the central argument advanced here is that God commands worship out of mercy, because it is we who are in need of it and stand to benefit from it, not He. The analogy offered is that of a physician who prescribes treatment for the patient's welfare alone; God's command to worship flows from compassion, not from any need on His part. The Qur'an itself frames worship as the very purpose of life: "I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me" (Qur'an 51:56). What follows is an attempt to show that worship is, in reality, the greatest and most fulfilling experience of human life. The term under examination is the Islamic concept of ʿibādah, which carries connotations quite distinct from the English word "worship." Linguistically, the root conveys serving, venerating, and humbly submitting oneself, along with the notion of ṭāʿah, meaning loyalty and obedience. Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 502 AH) defined ʿibādah as "the pinnacle and purest form of humility," while Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) described it as the highest form of love and humility, saying, "the love found in worship is the purest form of love, and thus by Divine Right only due to God." Technically, scholars defined ʿibādah as submission to Allah with love and reverence while seeking nearness to Him. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) described it as "a term that encompasses everything that Allah loves and is pleased with from inward and outward actions and words," and Ibn ʿUthaymīn (d. 1421 AH) as submission "with love and veneration by fulfilling His commands and refraining from His prohibitions." Common to these definitions are four ideas: worship is the ultimate expression of love; it combines veneration, submission, and humility; it draws one near to Allah; and it involves obedience regarding commands and prohibitions. Worship is not confined to organized religion but appears to be a human universal. Modern neuroscience is cited in support of this: the neuropsychologist Rhawn Joseph argues that the brain predisposes us to belief in God, and Andrew Newberg states that "the human brain is uniquely constructed to perceive and generate spiritual entities." This resonates with the Islamic concept of the fiṭrah, the innate disposition upon which Allah created mankind: "So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. Adhere to the fiṭrah of Allah upon which He has created all people" (Qur'an 30:30). The apparent existence of atheists poses no genuine objection, for the Qur'an offers a functional view of worship: "Have you not seen the one who takes his own desires as a god?" (Qur'an 25:43). Drawing on Erik Erikson's notion of an "ultimate existential concern," everyone loves something most, and that beloved functions as their deity. Worship thus extends beyond ritual into the whole of living. Ibn al-Qayyim traces this to first principles: human beings are dependent creatures who pursue benefit and flee harm, guided by pleasure and pain, and must therefore construct a belief system identifying the ultimate source of benefit and harm. Whatever a person conceives as that source, whether wealth, fame, or desire, becomes their deity. The true dilemma, then, is not whether to worship but what is worthy of worship. The Qur'an repeatedly challenges false objects of devotion by their powerlessness: "Do you worship other than Allah what cannot benefit you at all and what cannot harm you?" (Qur'an 21:66), and similarly in Qur'an 10:18 and 25:55. The message is to align one's ultimate concern with the One who governs one's ultimate destiny, Allah alone. Whereas Nietzsche conceived reality as "Will to Power," the alternative offered here is a "Will to Worship." The Qur'an affirms that all creation worships: "Do you not see that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth… prostrate to Allah?" (Qur'an 22:18) and "there is not a thing that exists except that it exalts Him with His praise" (Qur'an 17:44). Because worship is all-encompassing, the mundane becomes ʿibādah when done seeking Allah's pleasure. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Verily, Allah is pleased with a servant who praises Him when he eats" (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), and taught that even intimacy with one's spouse is charity (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim). Islam is therefore life-affirming rather than life-negating; as Iqbāl noted, it says "yes" to the world of matter. Desires are not to be repressed but directed lawfully: "As for the one who feared the position of his Lord and restrains his desires, then indeed paradise will be his refuge" (Qur'an 79:40). Two aspects of tawḥīd are distinguished: tawḥīd ʿilmī, concerning what one believes about God, and tawḥīd ʿamalī, concerning how one relates to Him in action. A person may profess belief in Allah yet make something else their ultimate concern, a paradox called shirk khafī (hidden idolatry), described as subtler than the crawling of an ant. This spans a spectrum of nifāq (hypocrisy), from motives one is barely aware of, warranting murāqabah and muḥāsabah, to the outright hypocrites whom the Qur'an condemns: "When they stand to pray, they stand with laziness so that people can see them" (Qur'an 4:142). The experience of worship rests on three sacred emotions drawn from the verse, "They call out… hoping in His Mercy and fearing His punishment" (Qur'an 17:57), namely love, hope, and fear. Ibn al-Qayyim likened the heart's journey to a bird: love is its head, hope and fear its two wings; without the head it dies, without a wing it falls prey. He described nearness to Allah as "the paradise of this world," and Ibrāhīm ibn Adham (d. 165 AH) said that if kings knew the pleasure the devout experience, "they would fight us for it with their swords." Love is foundational and, as Ibn al-Qayyim noted, cannot be defined but only described. Ibn Taymiyyah observed that even hatred stems from love, since one hates only what opposes the beloved. The believer empties the heart of ultimate love for any but Allah, for "those who believe have even stronger love for Allah" (Qur'an 2:165). Ibn Ḥazm warned that attachment to the transient ends in grief, and the Prophet ﷺ called the slave of wealth "wretched" (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī). The good word is likened to "a good tree" with firm roots and lofty branches (Qur'an 14:24). Hope is the wing that carries one to the Beloved, and it is distinct from wishful thinking, which breeds laziness. The Prophet ﷺ instructed, "Tie it and rely upon Allah" (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), and taught that God provides as He provides for the birds (Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī). Supplication is answered in one of three ways (Musnad Aḥmad, authenticated), and one must call upon God "while being certain of being answered" (Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, graded ḥasan li-ghayrihi due to a weakness in its chain). True confidence rests not in self-sufficiency, which the Qur'an rebukes (96:6–7), but in dependence upon Him: "you are all impoverished before Allah" (Qur'an 35:15). Fear, the other wing, is a positive force when it drives one from harm; Ibn Ḥazm noted that all people strive to vanquish anxiety. Fear of Allah frees the heart from fear of creation, and its worst dread is being veiled from Him (Qur'an 83:15), for if pure justice were rendered, none would be spared (Qur'an 16:61). Love, hope, and fear must be balanced, hope sustaining in hardship and fear restraining in ease. Ibn al-Qayyim identified four dimensions of worship: the language and movement of the heart, the language of the tongue, and the movement of the body, all requiring both a body (the sharīʿah) and a spirit (sincerity). Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ (d. 187 AH) held that deeds are accepted only when both sincere and correct according to the Sunnah. Finally, the five pillars ground one's entire life: the shahādah is the root of knowledge; ṣalāh, one's relationship with the Creator; zakāh, with creation, extending to every act of charity as the Prophet ﷺ enumerated (Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī); ṣawm, the disciplining of the ego; and ḥajj, symbolizing life and death. Together they expand until one's whole existence declares, "My prayers, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are all for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds" (Qur'an 6:162). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-muslims-feel-about-ramadan-2020-a-report # How Muslims Feel About Ramadan 2020: A Report **Authors:** Dr. Osman Umarji, Hajer Nakua **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication, Ramadan Publication **Published:** April 28, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction As we begin an unprecedented [Ramadan](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ramadan/), Muslims are trying to figure out how to approach this blessed month while being isolated at home and without access to the *masjid*. How do they anticipate their experience this Ramadan to be compared to prior years? Are people optimistic? If so, what predicts their optimism? This brief report is meant to describe the attitudes and behavioral intentions of Muslims for this Ramadan and provide recommendations based on our findings. Yaqeen Institute released a survey earlier this week that was completed by 450 Muslims from all over the world. This survey was meant to understand the attitudes of Muslims regarding this Ramadan compared to previous years. The sample of Muslims were diverse in their ethnicity, education level, and age.[^1] Most participants reported praying five times a day (77%) and considered their relationship with Allah to be quite intimate (55%). ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image1.png) **Figure 1. Map of survey respondents worldwide** --- ## An optimistic ummah Muslims are encouraged to remain optimistic even during challenging and unprecedented times. The Prophet ﷺ said, “I am amazed by optimism, the good word, the kind word**.**”[^2] Fortunately, results from this survey indicate that many Muslims around the world have internalized this message and are generally optimistic about this Ramadan despite the current global situation. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image3.png) ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image2.png) Although many Muslims will not have access to the *masjid*, nearly two in three believe this Ramadan will be better than last year. As Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an, much of the optimism appears related to people’s expectations that they will have more time to engage with the Qur’an this Ramadan compared to previous years. More than 80% of respondents expect to read more Qur’an than last Ramadan. Here are a few quotes that captured the general sentiment of optimism and having more time to focus on worship. > “This Ramadan will be, *in shāʾ Allāh*, a chance to improve ourselves and really just focus on our relationship with Allah. It's just Allah and you, and actually that's a great opportunity. We will eventually focus more on our behavior and reflect on our inward state.” > “Ramadan at home this year will bring us to the first Ramadan of seclusion, reflection, and remembrance of Allah.” > “This Ramadan is something different. Those who could not spend Ramadan productively in the past, this year they can do so much that makes them a better Muslim.” --- ## A generous ummah The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most generous of people, and he was even more generous in the month of Ramadan when Jibreel would meet him to teach him the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ would be more generous than a nourishing wind.[^3] Despite the financial constraints that people are facing due to the COVID-19-related economic downturn, our sample believed that being charitable during uncertain times can only lead to good (81% strongly agreed, 15% somewhat agreed). We asked about their intentions to donate to relief organizations, educational organizations, and *masjid*s this Ramadan compared to last Ramadan. - 57% intended to donate more to relief organizations. - 35% intended to donate more to educational organizations. - 39% intended to donate more to the *masjid*. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image4.png) --- ## Who is optimistic this Ramadan? We investigated the predictors of optimism for this Ramadan. Optimism was defined by responses of “somewhat better” or “much better” to the question “How do you think your Ramadan will be this year compared to last year?” We found that those who read the Qur’an regularly, consider their relationship with Allah to be intimate, and who see many blessings since COVID-19 spread were more optimistic.[^4] However, those who reported feeling they need a community to thrive this Ramadan were generally less optimistic. How can we use this information to benefit us? --- ## Ramadan tips Based on our research findings, we recommend the following practices to increase positive thoughts that will help us thrive during this blessed month. ### Tip 1: Reflect on the Qur’an regularly مَا أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْقُرْآنَ لِتَشْقَىٰ > We have not revealed the Qur’an to cause you distress.[^5] We found that people who reported reading the Qur’an regularly were more optimistic about Ramadan and saw more blessings in life. This relationship is expressed in the verse, “We have sent down to you the Book to clarify all things and as guidance, mercy, and glad tidings for the Muslims.”[^6] The Qur’an is intended to be a source of peace and comfort for the believer in both this life and the next. Find solace in the Qur’an this Ramadan by reading and reflecting on passages of personal interest. Reflect on Sūrat Yūsuf (Chapter 12) to discover and understand Allah’s wisdom in the events that Yūsuf عليه السلام went through. Try and connect his life to your own. Ponder over the life of Prophet Mūsá عليه السلام in Sūrat al-Qaşaş (Chapter 28), and empathize with how Musa felt when he had to flee his homeland. Immerse yourself in the stories, metaphors, and parables of the Qur’an. ### Tip 2: Have an intimate conversation with Allah وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ > And when My servants ask you \[O Muhammad\] about Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me \[in obedience\] and believe in Me so that they may be guided.[^7] We found that people who consider their relationship with Allah to be intimate expressed more optimism about this Ramadan and plan to be more generous with their donations. While we are currently isolated from people, we are never isolated from Allah. Allah tells us, “I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he mentions Me. If he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in a group, I mention him in a better group \[of angels\]. And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go running to him.”[^8] Set aside a few moments each day (e.g, after *Fajr* or before *Maghrib*) to have an intimate conversation with Allah. No matter what you are feeling or thinking about, Allah’s door is always open. ### Tip 3: Practice gratitude journaling and letter writing وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ > And remember when your Lord proclaimed, “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor.”[^9] We found that people who see many blessings in life are more optimistic about this Ramadan and plan to be more generous. Gratitude has been shown to improve life satisfaction, sleep quality, mental health, prosocial behavior, and increase optimism.[^10] There are two gratitude practices that we suggest for this Ramadan. The first is to start a gratitude journal today and write down five things each day that you are grateful for. These blessings can be big or small, from the roof over your head to the smell of a rose in your backyard. The second practice is to write a gratitude letter (or email) to someone who you deeply appreciate but never had a chance to properly thank. This practice is in line with the Prophet’s statement, “Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah.”[^11] ### Tip 4: Create a virtual community to feel connected We found that people who reported feeling they needed a community to thrive were less optimistic about this Ramadan. Feeling socially connected is a basic human need and has always been an important part of Ramadan. We recognize that not being in the *masjid* with friends and family will be difficult this year. However, you can still create a sense of community by regularly having video conferences. Try to set up video conferencing for reading Qur’an with friends, hosting a virtual *ifṭār* party, or hosting a party for a *tafsīr* lecture. We may be apart from family and friends in *physical distance*, but never in *heart*. Remind yourself as you stand alone in prayer at home that millions of people around the world are simultaneously facing Makkah in worship. --- ## Notes [^1]: Most participants were between 25 and 44 (56%), South Asian (49%), and held bachelor’s degrees (40%). [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5422. [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1803; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2308. [^4]: We used multiple regression to examine the correlates of optimism for this Ramadan. All reported findings were significant at *p* = .01 or less. [^5]: Qur’an 20:2. [^6]: Qur’an 16:89. [^7]: Qur’an 2:186. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7405. [^9]: Qur’an 14:7. [^10]: Leah R. Dickens, “Using Gratitude to Promote Positive Change: A Series of Meta-Analyses Investigating the Effectiveness of Gratitude Interventions,” *Basic and Applied Social Psychology* 39, no. 4 (2017): 193–208. [^11]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4811. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. As the ummah entered an unprecedented Ramadan amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many Muslims found themselves observing the blessed month in isolation, separated from their beloved houses of worship and the communal gatherings that have long defined this season. To understand how believers were approaching this unique circumstance, Yaqeen Institute conducted a survey of 450 Muslims from across the world, diverse in ethnicity, education, and age. Most respondents reported praying five times daily (77%), and a majority (55%) described their relationship with Allah as intimate. The aim was to gauge the attitudes and behavioral intentions of Muslims for this Ramadan compared to previous years and to offer recommendations rooted in the findings. A central finding was that Muslims remained remarkably optimistic. This aligns with the encouragement of our Prophet ﷺ, who said, “I am amazed by optimism, the good word, the kind word.” Despite lacking access to the masjid, nearly two out of three respondents believed this Ramadan would be better than the previous year. Much of this hope was connected to the expectation of engaging more deeply with the Book of Allah, for Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an. Indeed, more than 80% of respondents anticipated reading more Qur’an than in the prior Ramadan. Respondents expressed sentiments of seclusion, reflection, and remembrance, viewing the confinement as an opportunity to focus on their relationship with Allah, to reflect upon their inward state, and to become better Muslims. The findings also revealed a generous ummah. This generosity echoes the example of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who was the most generous of people, and even more so in Ramadan when Jibreel would meet him to teach him the Qur’an, such that he was more generous than a nourishing wind. Despite the financial strain brought by the pandemic’s economic downturn, respondents overwhelmingly believed that charity during uncertain times could only lead to good (81% strongly agreed, 15% somewhat agreed). Regarding their intentions, 57% intended to donate more to relief organizations, 35% more to educational organizations, and 39% more to the masjid. An investigation into the predictors of optimism, defined as answering “somewhat better” or “much better” when comparing this Ramadan to the last, yielded instructive results. Those who read the Qur’an regularly, who considered their relationship with Allah intimate, and who perceived many blessings since the spread of COVID-19 were found to be more optimistic. Conversely, those who felt they needed a community to thrive were generally less optimistic. From these findings, several practical recommendations were drawn to help believers flourish during the blessed month. The first recommendation is to reflect on the Qur’an regularly, for those who did so were more optimistic and perceived more blessings. Allah says, “We have not revealed the Qur’an to cause you distress,” and He describes His Book as sent down “to clarify all things and as guidance, mercy, and glad tidings for the Muslims.” The Qur’an is meant to be a source of peace and comfort in this life and the next. Believers are encouraged to find solace by reading and pondering passages of personal interest—reflecting, for example, on Sūrat Yūsuf (Chapter 12) to grasp Allah’s wisdom in the trials of Yūsuf عليه السلام, or on Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ (Chapter 28) to empathize with Mūsá عليه السلام as he fled his homeland—immersing oneself in the stories, metaphors, and parables of the revelation. The second recommendation is to have an intimate conversation with Allah, for those who considered their bond with Him intimate expressed more optimism and greater intentions toward charity. Allah says, “And when My servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me.” Though isolated from people, the believer is never isolated from his Lord. In a sacred narration, Allah says, “I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he mentions Me… And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go running to him.” Believers are urged to set aside moments each day, such as after Fajr or before Maghrib, to converse with Allah, whose door is always open. The third recommendation is to practice gratitude through journaling and letter writing, since those who perceived many blessings were more optimistic and inclined toward generosity. Allah proclaims, “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor.” Gratitude has been shown to improve life satisfaction, sleep quality, mental health, prosocial behavior, and to increase optimism. Two practices are suggested: first, keeping a gratitude journal in which one records five blessings each day, whether great or small; and second, writing a letter of thanks to someone deeply appreciated but never properly thanked. This latter practice reflects the words of the Prophet ﷺ, “Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah.” The fourth recommendation addresses those who felt they needed community to thrive and were consequently less optimistic. Recognizing that social connection is a basic human need and a cherished part of Ramadan, believers are encouraged to create a sense of virtual community—arranging video gatherings to read Qur’an together, hosting virtual ifṭār gatherings, or attending tafsīr lectures online. Though separated in physical distance, believers need never be separated in heart. As one stands alone in prayer at home, it is a comfort to remember that millions of Muslims around the world are simultaneously facing Makkah in worship, bound together in devotion to the One who hears and answers all. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/reframing-ramadan-how-to-flourish-while-the-masjids-are-closed # Reframing Ramadan: How to Flourish While the Masjids are Closed **Authors:** Dr. Omar Husain, Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication, Ramadan Publication **Published:** April 23, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction On Friday, March 12, 2020, religious leaders and board members at *masjids* across the country made the excruciating decision to suspend the Friday (*Jumuʿah*) prayer due to the spread of COVID-19. This decision was not taken lightly but, after consultation with scholars and medical professionals, it was seen as absolutely necessary. The community had to face the reality that there would be no *Jumuʿah* prayer for some time. Now, nearly six weeks after the decision, *Jumuʿah* prayer continues to be suspended at the *masjid*, in addition to daily prayers, weekend schools, and Friday night programs. Additionally, there is no hanging out, drinking tea together, or youth activities. Essentially, the *masjid*s are closed as we enter into Ramadan. Given that almost half of the Muslims in the US attend the *masjid* at least once a week (43%),[^1] these closures have left many feeling sad and some in a state of despair. Many are wondering how communities will survive this difficult time, and it seems people have more questions than answers. --- ## Sadness at masjid closure: A sign of īmān If one feels distraught over the closure of the *masjid*, stop and thank Allah. On the surface, this may seem strange. Why would a Muslim thank Allah when the *masjid* is closed? The answer lies in analyzing the thinking behind the sadness. Missing the *masjid* is a great sign of *īmān*. It would be far more problematic if a believer was indifferent to the suspension of activities in the *masjid*. Not everyone experiences the feeling of missing the *masjid*. The fact that you miss it shows concern and that is a gift from Allah. In the famous hadith that mentions seven categories of people who will be in the shade of Allah on the Day of Judgment, one of the categories is people whose hearts are attached to the *masjid*.[^2] The wording used in the hadith literally means “whose heart is hanging in the *masjid*.” Commenting on this hadith, Imam Nawawī mentions that a person in this category is not one who remains constantly in the *masjid*, but rather one who has a strong love for the *masjid*.[^3] Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar also mentions the meaning of this category is to have a love for the *masjid* even though one may not be physically present in it.[^4] Given the current situation, it is a blessing that so many Muslims fall into this category. They are unable to attend the *masjid* at this time, but they have a longing to return to it. Their hearts are metaphorically “hanging” in the *masjid* even when they are physically detached from it. Let the believer rejoice in this sign of *iman* and look forward to the shade of Allah on the day there will be no other shade. --- ## Channeling energy to other outlets Imam Ibn al-Qayyim is reported to have said, “Allah does not close a door on a servant with His Wisdom except that He opens two doors for him with His Mercy.”[^5] It is adaptive to think about the benefits one can attain when the *masjid* doors are closed. One of the ways to explore other avenues is to utilize a concept called reframing. Reframing is a counseling technique that facilitates a different way of viewing a situation by changing its meaning.[^6] Instead of focusing on what one cannot change, one focuses on what one can change. We identify benefits given the circumstances, instead of focusing on the negative. We view the situation through a positive lens by exploring what is stressing us. The following is a chart utilizing the concept of reframing regarding *masjid* closures. **Stressful/Anxious Thought** **Things I Can Do** I am depressed that I cannot pray *Jumuʿah* at the *masjid*. I will gather my family and listen to one of the many reminders online on Friday during the standard *Jumuʿah* time. Afterward, we will pray *ẓuhr* in congregation. I am sad that I cannot pray any of the daily prayers at the *masjid*. I will strive to pray all 5 prayers on time with my household members. I miss the weekly *halaqa*. I will ask my local imam or scholar to continue their classes online. If the technology is not available, I will initiate fundraising or technological expertise to allow our *masjid* to conduct online programming. I'm afraid the *masjid* will permanently shut down due to a lack of funds. I will continue my regular donations and start an online fundraising campaign to raise awareness of the situation. I don't know when we will be able to go back to the *masjid*s. When the *masjid*s open, I will recommit myself to their services utilizing my talents. The pandemic has destroyed my relationship with the *masjid*. The pandemic has allowed me opportunities to accomplish good deeds that I did not think of previously. Now create a similar chart by yourself or with family members. Reframe some of the negative thoughts you may have been harboring. Reframing allows us to channel our energies to engage in productive tasks. Allah says, “And whoever has *taqwá* (consciousness) of Allah, He will make for him a way out and will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a decreed extent.”[^7] These verses remind us to stay positive, as ultimately Allah will remove us from our difficult situation. However, this is conditional on having *taqwá*. Thus, it is the one who is truly aware of Allah who will find the way out and provisions that Allah has created. The Muslim community has certainly demonstrated the potential for spiritual growth during these difficult times. In a recent survey of American Muslims who were generally religious and did not believe the *masjid* should be open during the current pandemic, over 58% of people said their relationship with Allah had improved since social isolation policies went into effect.[^8] Thus, it appears that many in the Muslim community have channeled their energy into productive outlets. --- ## What about Ramadan? Although many Muslims have been able to reframe their attitudes towards the closure of the *masjid* for *Jumuʿah* and daily prayers, nothing looms over the hearts of the believers more than thinking about the *masjid* being closed in Ramadan. When asking Muslims what they would miss the most due to social isolation a month before Ramadan, the *masjid* being closed for *tarāwīḥ* and *ifṭār* was what the majority of people had at the top of their lists.[^9] Attendance in the *masjid* greatly increases during Ramadan. Many *masjid*s host *ifṭār*s daily or weekly, attracting hundreds of worshippers to break fast together. In Ramadan, the *masjid* is on full display as a house of worship, community center, and much more. The *masjid* becomes the center of life for many Muslims during this month. Interestingly, despite the concern for the *masjid* being closed this Ramadan, in a more recent survey of Muslims administered a week before Ramadan, the majority of people expressed feeling that this year’s Ramadan would be better than last year’s.[^10] The overwhelming majority (80%) said they planned to read more Qur’an this year than last year. It appears that many Muslims are successfully reframing Ramadan without the *masjid*. Although they will greatly miss the experience of *ifṭār* with friends and extended family and standing shoulder to shoulder with community members listening to the melodious recitation of the Qur’an in the *masjid*, many people are embracing new opportunities. As one person stated, “This will be a different Ramadan, but I don't think that’s necessarily bad. It’s a new experience I look forward to exploring.” Another person commented, “This Ramadan will be a new experience because we won’t have access to the mosques, but *in-shāʾ-Allah* we benefit from it in ways that we can’t even expect as individuals and communities.” Many others commented that this Ramadan may be a special opportunity (one individual called it “a once in a lifetime opportunity”) to get intimately closer to Allah due to solitude. This form of reframing is similar to what Ibn Taymīyah mentioned to his student, Ibn al-Qayyim, when he said, “What can my enemies do to me? My paradise is in my heart wherever I go and never separated from me. If I am imprisoned, then it is seclusion for worship. If I am killed, then it is martyrdom. If they expel me from my land, then it is tourism.”[^11] However, there were also people who were fearful and scared of the upcoming Ramadan due to being alone and separated from the *masjid*. Don’t push away these feelings but rather allow them to propel you forward in connecting with Allah (swt). Whether optimistic or a little anxious about Ramadan without the *masjid*, what can we do to make the most of the situation? --- ## The Prophet’s Ramadan No one benefited more from Ramadan than the Prophet ﷺ. ʿĀishah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to strive more in worship during Ramadan than he strove in any other time of the year and he would devote himself more (in the worship of Allah) in the last ten nights of Ramadan than he did in the earlier part of the month.[^12] Given the dedication of the Prophet ﷺ in Ramadan, it is hard to believe that *tarāwīḥ* in nightly congregation was almost non-existent during his and most of the companions’ lifetimes. The Prophet ﷺ prayed the *tarāwīḥ* prayer in congregation and individually at home. It is related from Zayd ibn Thābit, that, “The Prophet created a room out of date palm leaf mats in the mosque. Allah's Messenger prayed in it for a few nights till the people gathered \[to pray the *tarāwīḥ* prayer behind him\]. Then on the fourth night, the people did not hear his voice and they thought he had slept, so some of them started humming in order that he might come out. The Prophet then said, ‘You continued doing what I saw you doing till I was afraid that this \[*tarāwīḥ* prayer\] might be enjoined on you, and if it were enjoined on you, you would not continue performing it. Therefore, O people! Perform your prayers at your homes, for the best prayer of a person is what is performed at his home, except the compulsory congregational prayer.’”[^13] The Prophet ﷺ continued to pray the *tarāwīḥ* prayer at home and the companions continued to pray individually. This continued during the caliphate of Abū Bakr and the beginning of ʿUmar’s caliphate. Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, sub-narrating on a hadith from Abū Hurayrah, said, “Allah's Messenger ﷺ passed away and the people continued observing \[the *tarāwīḥ* prayer individually\]. It remained that way during the Caliphate of Abū Bakr and in the early days of ʿUmar's Caliphate.”[^14] Though congregational *tarāwīḥ* was not a staple of their month of Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ and the companions still maximized the spiritual benefit of this blessed month. The focus was more on attaining the two major objectives Allah mentioned in the Qur’an regarding fasting, namely, to attain God-consciousness (*taqwá*), and to experience gratitude. Allah says, “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become God-conscious”[^15] and “The month of Ramadan \[is that\] in which was revealed the Qur'an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights \[the new moon of\] the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey, then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and \[wants\] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that \[to\] which He has guided you, and perhaps you will be grateful.”[^16] Therefore, our focus should be on the ultimate goals of attaining God-consciousness and being thankful, regardless of the specific actions by which we achieve them. --- ## Recommended activities for this Ramadan Here are some activities that may be beneficial spiritually and in maintaining social connections. - **Prepare together**. Make a list of goals you want to accomplish as a family. Solicit everyone’s opinions. Hang the goals on the refrigerator to increase motivation before the month starts. Decorate the house together. Put up banners and decorations so everyone in the household feels this month is truly special. As a group, make it a goal to reduce or eliminate behavior such as overeating at *ifṭār* or watching movies several hours a day. - **Praying together**. Many of us do not have many opportunities to pray in congregation with our family. We can now take the time to perfect our prayers together. We can dedicate time to teach our children how to call the *adhān*, how to properly pray, and how to make *wuḍūʾ*. If we are unaware of the fundamentals of worship, this is a great time to learn. - **Making *du******ʿā*** **together**. Spend a few minutes asking your children what they want to ask Allah. Make the morning *duʿāʾ*s together as well as the evening *duʿāʾ*s, and make *duʿāʾ*s a few minutes before breaking fast. - **Be grateful together.** Sit together as a family (or independently if needed) daily and each person in the household should list three to five things they are appreciative of that day. - **Exercise together.** Take a short walk and connect with nature while maintaining social distancing. Reflect over the beauty of Allah’s creation. - **Eat together**. Another rare opportunity is to have *suḥūr* and *ifṭār* together. Leave all phones, tablets, and other devices in another room to avoid distractions. Give time to each family member to talk about their day. If you are a family that has trouble communicating, use an activity to facilitate conversation. Make rounds and ask everyone to mention their “sunshine” (a positive thought or event) and “cloud” (a negative thought or event) for the day. - **Read Qur’an** **together**. Read and reflect on what was read. Focus on verses everyone will understand like the reality of the Day of Judgment, Muslim character, and lessons from the stories of the Prophets عليهم السلام. - **Learn together**. Watch a daily reminder from your local *masjid* and discuss it. For those who are single, converts, or living alone, you can perform many of the above-listed activities (except prayer) together virtually. It is crucial to stay connected with family and friends so consider some ways to maximize this Ramadan in quarantine. For converts who do not have Muslim family members, reach out to friends from the *masjid*. Similarly, if you know of converts in your community who may not have the same support as you, make an effort to connect with them. In this process, you are also creating opportunities for others to make the most of Ramadan, which is a source of blessings and good deeds for you as well. 1\. Virtual resources are an excellent option to stay connected with family and friends: - Have virtual *ifṭār*s together - Take FaceTime walks together - Initiate Zoom *duʿāʾ* and Qur’an sessions together 2\. Reach out to someone to become your Ramadan goal buddy and discuss goals and hold one another accountable. 3\. Each day, set aside time to watch a short lecture with someone and reflect on it together. --- ## Livestreaming this Ramadan: A note of caution *Masjid*s and Islamic institutes are working hard to organize virtual programs for their communities. On the slate of programs are livestreams for after-*suḥūr* reflections, weekly classes, and *tarāwīḥ* *tafsīr* reminders. It is truly astounding how quickly *masjid*s have been able to put information technology systems in place to facilitate the spiritual development of their communities, especially as many of those *masjids* may not even have had a functional website prior to a month ago. There is no doubt that having access to spiritual reflections, motivational speeches, and classes this Ramadan will be a valuable service to many Muslims. However, like anything else in life, moderation is essential. **Be mindful of not binge-watching anything in Ramadan, even religious content. Try not to be a passive consumer of content. Rather, make use of valuable video content to motivate yourself to be an active worshipper.** Ramadan is a month to actively engage in personal worship, including extra prayers, Qur’an reading, and *duʿā*. Actively praying *tarāwīḥ* or reciting Qur’an is better than listening to someone else pray and recite online. If you struggle to recite Qur’an, or you recite slowly, do not be discouraged. The Prophet ﷺ said, “A person who recites the Qur’an and masters it by heart will be with the noble upright recording Angels (in Heaven). And a person who exerts himself to learn the Qur’an and recites it with great difficulty will have a double reward.”[^17] This inspirational hadith should encourage us to be active reciters of the Qur’an in Ramadan as we pray *tarāwīḥ* in our homes. --- ## The end result: What truly matters During the current crisis, we may ask ourselves why this is happening.[^18] Only Allah knows the answer to this question, but the better question to ask is what will be the end result for us when this crisis is over. Allah says “Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what man's hands have done, that He may make them taste a part of what they have done, in order that they may return.”[^19] The end of this verse may be the most important lesson in the current crisis. Regardless of whether this is a punishment or a test, the ultimate goal is to return to Allah. If we do not make any changes and waste our time in frivolous deeds, then we will have failed. If we are able to better connect with family, learn something new, make more *duʿāʾ*, and ultimately draw closer to Allah, then we will have succeeded. May Allah make us successful. --- ## Notes [^1]: Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, “U.S. Muslims Are Religiously Observant, but Open to Multiple Interpretations of Islam,” Pew Research Center, August 28, 2017, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/28/u-s-muslims-are-religiously-observant-but-open-to-multiple-interpretations-of-islam/](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/28/u-s-muslims-are-religiously-observant-but-open-to-multiple-interpretations-of-islam/). [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 10, hadith 54; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, bk. 12, hadith 117. [^3]: Nawawī, *al-Minhāj fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: al-Maktaba-al-Assrya, 2009). [^4]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Barī fī sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Riyadh: Dar al-Tayyibah, 2011). [^5]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *al-Fawāʾid* (Jeddah: Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī, 2013). [^6]: Nancy L. Murdock, *Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy*: *A Case Approach*, 3rd ed. (New Jersey: Pearson, 2013). [^7]: Qur’an 65:2–3. [^8]: Osman Umarji and Hassan Elwan, “Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic,” *Yaqeen*, March 30, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic/). [^9]: Fifty-five percent said it would be the most missed or second most-missed activity, more than socializing with friends, school, sports, and other things. [^10]: Sixty-six percent said it would be somewhat better or much better than last year’s Ramadan. [^11]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Y. Slitine, and Michael Abdurrahman Fitzgerald, *al-Wābil al-ṣayyib min al-kalim al-ṭayyib* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2000). [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, bk. 9, hadith 1194. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 96, hadith 21. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 31, hadith 2. [^15]: Qur’an 2:183. [^16]: Qur’an 2:185. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 65, hadith 4937; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, bk. 6, hadith 290. [^18]: Osman Umarji, Hassan Elwan, and Mustafa Umar, “A Punishment or a Mercy? What We Can Learn from the Coronavirus,” *Yaqeen*, April 14, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/a-punishment-or-a-mercy-what-we-can-learn-from-the-coronavirus/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/osman-umarji/a-punishment-or-a-mercy-what-we-can-learn-from-the-coronavirus/). [^19]: Qur’an 30:41. ## Summary When the masjids across the country closed their doors on Friday, March 12, 2020, in response to the spread of COVID-19, religious leaders and board members faced a painful and unprecedented decision. This step, taken only after consulting scholars and medical professionals, meant the suspension of Jumuʿah, daily congregational prayers, weekend schools, and the many gatherings that bind a community together. As Ramadan approached, the masjids remained shut. Since nearly half of Muslims in the United States (43%) attend the masjid at least weekly, these closures left many grieving, anxious, and uncertain about how their communities would endure such a trial. Yet the sorrow felt at the closure of the masjid is itself a sign of faith. A believer who feels distress at being kept from the house of Allah should pause and thank Him, for indifference would be the graver matter. In the well-known hadith mentioning seven categories of people who will be shaded by Allah on the Day of Judgment, one such category is described with wording that literally means a person "whose heart is hanging in the masjid." Imam al-Nawawī explained that this refers not to one who remains constantly within the masjid, but to one who possesses a deep love for it. Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar likewise noted that the meaning is to love the masjid even while absent from it. In this light, the very longing so many Muslims feel today places them, by Allah's grace, within this blessed category, their hearts metaphorically hanging in the masjid though their bodies are kept away. It is reported that Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said, "Allah does not close a door on a servant with His Wisdom except that He opens two doors for him with His Mercy." Guided by this outlook, one may employ what counselors call reframing, a technique that shifts the meaning of a difficult situation by focusing on what can be changed rather than what cannot. Rather than dwelling on the inability to pray Jumuʿah at the masjid, a family may gather to listen to a reminder online and then pray ẓuhr together in congregation. Rather than despairing over a suspended weekly halaqa, one may encourage local scholars to teach online or help fund the means to do so. Such reframing channels energy toward productive worship and connection. Allah says, "And whoever has taqwá of Allah, He will make for him a way out and will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a decreed extent." These verses promise relief, yet that promise is tied to genuine God-consciousness. Encouragingly, in a survey of religious American Muslims who did not believe the masjid should be open during the pandemic, over 58% reported that their relationship with Allah had improved since isolation began. Nothing weighed more heavily on hearts than the prospect of Ramadan without the masjid, its nightly tarāwīḥ, and its communal ifṭārs. When asked a month before Ramadan what they would miss most, most named the closure of the masjid for these very gatherings. Yet in a later survey conducted a week before Ramadan, the majority expressed that this Ramadan would be better than the last, and fully 80% planned to read more Qur'an than in the previous year. Many embraced the change as a fresh opportunity; one described it as "a once in a lifetime opportunity" to draw intimately closer to Allah through solitude. This attitude echoes what Ibn Taymiyyah said to his student Ibn al-Qayyim: "What can my enemies do to me? My paradise is in my heart wherever I go and never separated from me. If I am imprisoned, then it is seclusion for worship. If I am killed, then it is martyrdom. If they expel me from my land, then it is tourism." For those who felt fear rather than optimism, these feelings need not be pushed away but may instead propel one toward a deeper connection with Allah. There is profound reassurance in the practice of the Prophet ﷺ himself. ʿĀishah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to strive more in worship during Ramadan than at any other time, devoting himself still more in the last ten nights. Remarkably, nightly congregational tarāwīḥ was almost non-existent during his lifetime and that of most of the companions; he prayed it both in congregation and individually at home. Zayd ibn Thābit related that the Prophet ﷺ prayed in a room he had made of date-palm mats in the mosque for several nights until people gathered behind him, but on the fourth night he did not come out, saying, "You continued doing what I saw you doing till I was afraid that this might be enjoined on you, and if it were enjoined on you, you would not continue performing it. Therefore, O people! Perform your prayers at your homes, for the best prayer of a person is what is performed at his home, except the compulsory congregational prayer." Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, sub-narrating from Abū Hurayrah, noted that people continued praying it individually through the caliphate of Abū Bakr and the early days of ʿUmar. Thus the companions maximized the month's blessings while focusing on the two great aims Allah mentions regarding fasting: attaining God-consciousness and gratitude. Allah says, "O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become God-conscious," and He mentions completing the fast "to glorify Allah for that to which He has guided you, and perhaps you will be grateful." Our focus, then, should remain on these ultimate goals regardless of the particular means. To that end, families may prepare together by setting shared goals, decorating the home, and curbing habits like overeating at ifṭār. They may pray together, teaching children the adhān, prayer, and wuḍūʾ; make duʿāʾ together at morning, evening, and before breaking the fast; express gratitude by naming daily blessings; walk together while reflecting on Allah's creation; share suḥūr and ifṭār free of distracting devices; and read and reflect on the Qur'an together, focusing on accessible themes such as the Day of Judgment, good character, and the stories of the Prophets عليهم السلام. Those who are single, converts, or living alone may perform many of these activities virtually and are encouraged to reach out to one another, especially to converts lacking Muslim family, thereby earning blessings through supporting others. Virtual ifṭārs, video walks, and online duʿāʾ and Qur'an sessions can preserve connection, and finding a "Ramadan goal buddy" can foster accountability. A word of caution is warranted regarding the livestreamed programs that masjids have rapidly organized. While access to reflections, lectures, and classes is a genuine blessing, moderation is essential; one should avoid binge-watching even religious content and refrain from becoming a passive consumer. Ramadan is a month of active personal worship, and praying tarāwīḥ or reciting the Qur'an oneself is superior to merely listening to another do so online. Those who recite slowly should not be discouraged, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "A person who recites the Qur'an and masters it by heart will be with the noble upright recording Angels. And a person who exerts himself to learn the Qur'an and recites it with great difficulty will have a double reward." Finally, rather than asking why this crisis has befallen us, a question known only to Allah, the better question concerns its outcome for us. Allah says, "Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what man's hands have done, that He may make them taste a part of what they have done, in order that they may return." Whether this is a punishment or a test, its ultimate purpose is our return to Allah. If we squander this time in frivolity, we will have failed; but if we draw nearer to family, learn, supplicate more, and above all draw closer to Allah, we will have succeeded. May Allah make us among the successful. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/barred-from-that-which-you-love-lessons-from-the-life-of-umm-salamah # Barred From That Which You Love: Lessons From the Life of Umm Salamah **Author:** Nuriddeen Knight **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 21, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction In the wake of COVID-19, we’ve all had to deal with the sudden reality that we may not be able to perform acts of worship that are most beloved to us, acts of worship that we feel bring us closest to Allah. In this time it’s easy to fall into despair and wonder how we will feel that presence while being unable to perform certain acts of worship. Yes, we know Allah is All-Hearing and All-Seeing but there are times when we feel His presence more closely than others. Perhaps it is when you go to *Jumuʿah* and see the smiling faces of fellow believers, or when you go to the *masjid* for *ifṭār* in Ramadan and share a meal with your community, or maybe you planned to travel overseas to spend your Ramadan in a Muslim country and now the sudden pandemic of COVID-19 makes that all impossible. Being unable to perform various acts of worship for reasons beyond one’s control is not a new phenomenon. And not being able to perform these devotions can be one of the greatest difficulties a believer faces—to set out to please God only to be turned away. But how do we deal with this loss while not losing its underlying reality (connection to Allah)? While it is natural to feel a sense of loss it is crucial to remember the true nature of worship. *Ṣalāh*, *dhikr*, *Jumuʿah*, fasting, etc. are all forms of worship but their significance lies in their underlying intention and the faith of the one engaging in them. Just as someone who has no belief in their heart won’t be rewarded for the outward act of fasting, a person of faith will not be punished for not performing an outward act of worship due to circumstances outside of their control. A Muslim is rewarded for their intention to worship God by not doing a particular act; for example, staying away from the *masjid* to avoid the larger harm of spreading illness. A devout servant is one who obeys God; not one who prays when God has told them not to pray (e.g., someone in the state of ritual impurity), or one who fasts when it is best not to fast (e.g., someone who is ill) nor one who gathers for *Jumuʿah* when it is forbidden (by both secular law and religious authorities). A Muslim is one who worships God and that form of worship can differ for different groups, individuals, and various time periods. When a menstruating woman doesn’t pray, a sick person doesn’t fast, and Muslims don’t gather in the time of a pandemic, refraining from worship is actually an act of worship and devotion to God because it involves obeying God. In these times our faith is deeply tested and our conviction either secured or weakened. We must ask ourselves: are we attached to God Himself or to our ‘acts’ of devotion? Are we attached to the outward performance of worship or to its inward reality? And when we are turned away from those acts, do we turn towards or away from God? In this matter, we can learn a lot from Umm Salamah رضي الله عنها, a devout worshipper of God who faced many barriers in her path of devotion. In these moments she always had the choice to either deepen her conviction or to turn to despair. In choosing conviction at even the most difficult points in her life she shows us that conviction and connection are always possible even as we face obstacles. Three incidents showcase this lesson best: when she was prevented from making *hijrah* to Medina, when her husband died, and when the Muslims were barred from making ʿ*umrah* after the treaty of Hudaybiyah. --- ## Hijrah Umm Salamah’s first *hijrah* was to Ethiopia with her husband Abū Salamah رضي الله عنه where the King, who would later convert to Islam, accepted Muslims seeking asylum from Meccan persecution. While the Muslims lived comfortably in Ethiopia, some still longed to return home. Once Ḥamzah and ʿUmar رضي الله عنهم—both powerful men in Meccan society—converted to Islam, some Muslims assumed Mecca would be more hospitable and returned home. But they were wrong. After facing continued persecution, a welcoming invitation from a neighboring clan, and God's permission, the Muslims left Mecca once again—this time in larger numbers—and migrated to Medina. The ease of this journey varied greatly. Some left boldly while others were held back by their relatives. Umm Salamah, her husband, and her son were of those stopped as they attempted to leave. She says in her own words: > When Abū Salamah decided to leave \[for\] Madīnah, he equipped a camel and carried me along with my son Salamah. He then led his camel out. When men of Banū Al Mughīrah (Umm Salamah’s clan) saw him, then went to him and told him, ‘There is nothing we can do to prevent you from going wherever you want; but as for this sister of ours, we cannot leave you roaming about in the land with her.’ They then seized the bridle of the camel from him and took me away from him. > > When Banū ‘Abdul-Asad (Abū Salamah’s clan) heard of that, they got angry and aimed for Salamah \[her son\] saying, ‘By Allah! We are not going to leave our son with her since they have snatched her away from our brother.’ > > Then they took my son Salamah away from me.[^1] Umm Salamah would cry daily, longing to be reunited with her husband, the Muslims, and the Messenger of God ﷺ. If you’ve ever intended to pray only to realize your menstruation has come, or set out to fast and then fell ill, or decided to go to the *masjid* for *Jumuʿah* but couldn’t because of a national crisis, then maybe you can understand one-tenth of what Umm Salamah faced. Abū Salamah had no choice but to leave his wife and son behind. She remained in Mecca, while constantly begging and reasoning with them to let her go. Finally, her pleas were accepted and she, along with her young son, set out for Medina. Along the way, a man named ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah رضي الله عنه inquired about her journey. Since she was alone with a child and a long journey ahead, he decided to accompany her as protection. Umm Salamah said about ʿUthmān, “I have, by Allah, never met an Arab more generous and noble than he.”[^2] He stayed with her until they came close to where the Muslims had settled. Abū Salamah and Umm Salamah were finally reunited and able to continue their blissful union. Abū Salamah and Umm Salamah shared a deep bond and their marriage was one of mutual love and kindness. Lesson: Umm Salamah longed to be with her husband and with the Muslims in Medina but when the time came, she was prevented from doing so. This incident did not make her lose faith. Though she cried over her loss, she did not lose her conviction. God says in the Qur’an, “Whoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out of every difficulty.”[^3] When one door was closed, another soon opened. Allah changed the hearts of her family members and allowed them to let her go and she, in her conviction, left her affairs in the hands of Allah and trusted in Him to protect her and her baby while alone on her journey. She persisted in her good intention and Allah sent her help in the person of ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with them both. The lesson we can learn from this story is to persist in good deeds even in less than ideal circumstances. --- ## Abū Salamah dies Once when Umm Salamah and Abū Salamah sat together in their home, Umm Salamah remembered that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is married on earth will be married in paradise.”  So she said to her husband, "Let’s make a pact not to remarry after death so we can be in paradise together.”[^4] Upon hearing this Abū Salamah, in his mercy, love, and foresight, responded, “No, when I die, marry someone else.” He then directed his words to God and prayed, “After I’m gone, bless her with someone who is better and will not make her sad or do her harm.”[^5] Abū Salamah would later die from a battle wound, leaving this earth as a martyr. On his deathbed, the Prophet ﷺ prayed over his body and closed his eyes, stating, “When the soul is taken away, the sight follows it.” As Abū Salamah’s family wept, the Prophet ﷺ advised them, “Do not supplicate for yourselves anything but good, for angels say, ‘Amīn’ to what you say. He then said: Oh Allah, forgive Abū Salamah, raise his degree among those who are rightly guided, grant him a successor in his descendants. Forgive us and him, O Lord of the Universe, and make his grave spacious, and grant him light in it.”[^6] Umm Salamah was overcome with grief at the loss of her beloved husband, a man who she loved and suffered alongside as an early believer. They emigrated together in the first *hijrah* (Ethiopia) and were torn away from each other when they attempted the second. She struggled in desperation to return to him, and now they were separated once again by the permanency of death. What could overcome such a loss but turning to God? She held onto the words of the messenger of God who said to those in pain, “If any servant (of Allah) who suffers a calamity says ‘We belong to Allah and to Him shall we return; O Allah, reward me for my affliction and give me something better than it in exchange for it,’ Allah will give him reward for affliction and will give him something better than it in exchange.”[^7] Umm Salamah would repeat these words continuously. She would also think of Abū Salamah’s *dua* and wonder, “Who could be better than Abū Salamah?”[^8] Umm Salamah was known to be beautiful and intelligent as well as an exceptional poet; thus, many suitors came seeking her hand in marriage. This was also done as a way to honor her husband by taking care of his widow and orphaned children. Both ʿUmar and Abū Bakr رضي الله عنهم proposed marriage but she declined them both. The Prophet ﷺ then came and also proposed. This time she did not decline, but she hesitated when she considered her age, that she had children, and her jealousy (the Prophet ﷺ had other wives). But he ﷺ was not concerned with any of these factors, he put her doubts to rest, assuring her that her age was not an issue, that he would happily take care of her children, and that he would pray for her concerning her jealousy. She accepted his proposal, becoming one of the mothers of the believers. Lesson: Few things are worse than the loss of a loved one and it’s easy to lose hope, go into a state of depression, and wonder if life has anything left to offer.  Umm Salamah sincerely loved Abū Salamah and his loss was deeply painful for her. She sincerely believed there could be no better man than him. But instead of despair, she became more devout, holding even tighter to the rope of Allah to relieve her pain. And how did Allah reward her for her patience and love? With marriage to the best of men and the status of mother of the believers. We as believers cannot despair; no matter what we lose, we have to hope for the best and utilize our relationship with Allah to strengthen us in difficult times. --- ## Ḥudaybīyah When the Prophet ﷺ received the verse, “Surely We have given to you a clear victory,”[^9] he knew he would soon be victorious over the Quraysh and that the Kaʿbah would be returned to the believers. But it did not happen immediately. After the truce of Ḥudaybīyah, in which many Muslims felt the Quraysh were favored, the believers were prevented from visiting the Kaʿbah and had to turn back. Despite this, the Prophet ﷺ commanded them to execute the ritual act of cutting their hair—but they refused. Umm Salamah was there on this trip with the Prophet ﷺ and she saw his anguish when he returned to their dwelling. When he told her what had transpired, she advised him to cut his hair first. This turned out to be wise advice; the moment of discord passed and the companions eagerly complied with the order once the Prophet ﷺ cut his hair.[^10] Lesson: Through her trials, Umm Salamah had developed the aptitude to always find a way out of a difficult situation. She saw one door closed and decided to open another and that pathway turned out to be the superior path. To reiterate the main points briefly: When Umm Salamah was barred from going to Medina, she waited patiently; then when the opportunity came to leave, she trusted in Allah and left despite the difficulties. When her husband died, she mourned his loss but turned her sorrow into deeper religious devotion. And when she saw the difficulties the Prophet ﷺ faced with the companions, she did not despair but found an alternative way to accomplish the same goal. In this time of crisis, Umm Salamah’s example calls on us to bear with patience, to hold fast to the rope of Allah, and to persevere. And she does this while also experiencing the sadness, hurt, and pain of her difficulties. Experiencing pain and bearing it patiently are not mutually exclusive. The COVID-19 crisis is painful; for some, it has taken away opportunities and for others, it has taken away loved ones. As believers, we do not deny the pain of these events. But as we cry, mourn, and experience loss, we utilize our faith as a means to get through this crisis. Umm Salamah shows us that we are never truly barred from that which we love. Because the believer’s true love is Allah. And He will always make a path forward to draw near to Him, “...So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, so that they may be guided.”[^11] --- ## Notes [^1]: Muhammad A. Qutb, *Women Around the Messenger*, trans. ‘Abdur-Rafi’ Adewale Imam (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2007), 110–11. [^2]: “Umm Salamah,” SunnahOnline.com, [https://sunnahonline.com/library/history-of-islam/356-umm-salamah](https://sunnahonline.com/library/history-of-islam/356-umm-salamah). [^3]: Qur’an 65:2–3. [^4]: Qutb, *Women Around the Messenger*, 116. [^5]: Qutb, *Women Around the Messenger*, 117. [^6]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 920. [^7]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 918. [^8]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 919. [^9]: Qur’an 48:1. [^10]: Qutb, *Women Around the Messenger*, 120–21. [^11]: Qur’an 2:186. ## Summary During the trial of the COVID-19 pandemic, many believers have grieved the loss of acts of worship most beloved to them—the gathering for Jumuʿah, the shared iftār in the masjid during Ramadan, and journeys to the lands of Islam. It is natural for the heart to feel this loss deeply, for these outward devotions are often the moments in which a servant feels nearest to his Lord. Yet the true reality of worship must not be forgotten. Ṣalāh, dhikr, Jumuʿah, and fasting are all forms of worship, but their worth rests upon the intention behind them and the faith of the one who performs them. Just as one who has no belief in his heart earns no reward for the outward act of fasting, so too the person of faith is not punished for abandoning an outward act of worship due to circumstances beyond his control. Indeed, a Muslim may be rewarded for his very intention to worship God by refraining from an act—as when one stays away from the masjid to prevent the greater harm of spreading illness. The essence of servanthood is obedience to God, not the mere performance of ritual. A true servant is not one who prays when God has commanded him not to pray, such as one in a state of ritual impurity; nor one who fasts when it is better not to, such as one who is ill; nor one who gathers for Jumuʿah when both religious authorities and secular law forbid it. Worship differs according to peoples, individuals, and circumstances. Thus when a menstruating woman does not pray, when a sick person does not fast, and when the Muslims do not gather during a pandemic, this refraining is itself an act of worship and devotion, for it is obedience to God. In such trials our faith is tested, and our conviction is either strengthened or weakened. We must therefore ask ourselves whether we are attached to God Himself or merely to our acts of devotion, to the outward form of worship or to its inward reality—and whether, when turned away from those acts, we turn toward God or away from Him. In this matter there is much to learn from the example of Umm Salamah, may God be pleased with her, a devout worshipper who faced many obstacles in her path of devotion, and who in each of them chose conviction over despair. Three incidents illustrate this most clearly: when she was prevented from making hijrah to Medina, when her husband died, and when the Muslims were barred from ʿumrah after the treaty of Ḥudaybiyah. When her husband Abū Salamah, may God be pleased with him, prepared to migrate to Medina, he set her upon a camel with their son. But the men of her clan, Banū al-Mughīrah, seized the camel's bridle and took her from him, and the clan of Abū Salamah, Banū ʿAbd al-Asad, in turn took away her son. She was left in Mecca, weeping daily and longing to be reunited with her husband, the Muslims, and the Messenger of God ﷺ. After continually pleading with her family, she was at last permitted to leave with her young son. Along the way she was accompanied and protected by ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah, may God be pleased with him, of whom she said, "I have, by Allah, never met an Arab more generous and noble than he." She was then reunited with Abū Salamah, with whom she shared a bond of deep mutual love. From this we learn that though she wept over her loss, she did not lose her conviction, for God says: "Whoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out of every difficulty." When one door closed, another opened; she entrusted her affairs to God, persisted in her good intention, and He sent her help. The lesson is to persevere in good deeds even in less than ideal circumstances. The second trial was the death of her beloved husband. Once, remembering the words of the Prophet ﷺ, "Whoever is married on earth will be married in paradise," she proposed to Abū Salamah that they pledge never to remarry so they might be together in paradise. But he refused, telling her to marry after his death, and he prayed that God would grant her, after him, someone better who would not grieve or harm her. Abū Salamah then died as a martyr from a battle wound. The Prophet ﷺ closed his eyes, saying, "When the soul is taken away, the sight follows it," and cautioned his grieving family, "Do not supplicate for yourselves anything but good, for angels say, 'Amīn' to what you say," before praying for Abū Salamah's forgiveness, the raising of his rank, and light within his grave. Overcome with grief, Umm Salamah held fast to the counsel of the Messenger ﷺ: "If any servant who suffers a calamity says, 'We belong to Allah and to Him shall we return; O Allah, reward me for my affliction and give me something better than it in exchange,' Allah will give him reward for his affliction and something better in exchange." She repeated these words continually, wondering who could possibly be better than Abū Salamah. Though sought in marriage by ʿUmar and Abū Bakr, may God be pleased with them, she declined them both. When the Prophet ﷺ himself proposed, she hesitated on account of her age, her children, and her jealousy, but he put each of her doubts to rest, and she accepted, becoming one of the Mothers of the Believers. Thus she did not surrender to despair but grew more devout, and God rewarded her patience with marriage to the best of men and an honored station. The third trial came at Ḥudaybiyah. When the Prophet ﷺ received the verse, "Surely We have given to you a clear victory," he knew triumph over Quraysh would come, yet not immediately. Under the truce many Muslims felt Quraysh had been favored, and the believers were turned back from visiting the Kaʿbah. When the Prophet ﷺ commanded them to cut their hair to complete the ritual, they hesitated. Umm Salamah, present on that journey, witnessed his anguish and advised him to cut his own hair first. He did so, and the moment of discord passed as the companions eagerly complied. Through her trials she had gained the wisdom to find a way out of difficulty—seeing one door closed, she opened another, and that path proved superior. In sum, when barred from Medina she waited patiently, then trusted in God and departed despite the hardship; when her husband died she mourned yet turned her sorrow into deeper devotion; and when she saw the Prophet's difficulty with the companions she did not despair but found an alternative means to the same goal. Her example calls us in this time of crisis to bear with patience, to hold fast to the rope of God, and to persevere—while still feeling the genuine sadness and pain of our trials, for experiencing pain and bearing it patiently are not mutually exclusive. The believer does not deny the pain of loss, but uses his faith as a means to endure it. Umm Salamah teaches that we are never truly barred from that which we love, for the believer's true love is God, who will always open a path to draw near to Him: "...So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, so that they may be guided." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/weve-been-here-before-plague-and-pestilence-in-pre-modern-islamic-history # We’ve Been Here Before: Plague and Pestilence in Pre-Modern Islamic History **Author:** Abdul Rahman Latif **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 17, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction *In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful* On the 27th of Rajab, Muslims traditionally gathered in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus to commemorate the *Miʿrāj*, the Ascension of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Kathīr writes that on that day in the year 749 AH, during the Black Death, “People did not gather as usual because many had died from among them, and many were busy with taking care of their sick and their dead.”[^1] This year of 1441 AH, on the 27th of Rajab, most community gatherings at *masjid*s were once again not taking place. We’ve been here before, though the mortality rate is far lower this time and advances in hygiene practices, medical care, and public awareness give us much to be grateful for. Allah’s Greatness has not diminished, nor has our *ummah*’s resilience. In this short paper, I take a quick look at a few incidents of and reactions to plague and pestilence in pre-modern Islamic history.[^2] The goal of this paper is not to accumulate historical census information nor to create any single comprehensive account, but rather to draw a few lessons from the experiences of Muslims before us. Everything that Muslims did in the past is not sacred, but it is profoundly human, and like us they were grappling with Islam, the will of God, and a developing tradition that we too have inherited even if their understandings and interpretations of events were not always the same as ours. --- ## Early perceptions of the origins of plagues Plague and pestilence,  *ṭāʿūn* and *wabāʾ*—though the exact understandings of the terms are more complex than those translations credit—commonly occurred throughout Islamic history.[^3] Just as we grapple to understand the causes of such illnesses, Muslims of the past similarly attributed the emergence of widespread disease to medical and/or spiritual factors. In the pre-modern period, Muslims believed that an imbalance in the body’s humors caused by bad air/miasma sparked plagues and pestilence. At times, they even attributed the emergence of such diseases to pricks from evil Jinn. The science may have been wrong (or at least different from today), but ultimately many minds worked to make sense of the phenomena, even as the belief that it was contingent on the will of Allah prevailed. Finding an etiology and accepting the power of Allah are not mutually exclusive. Nor are taking precautions and trusting in Allah—at that time, taking precautions may have meant spending time in open spaces with better air; today it means isolation and following the consensus of medical professionals. The Prophet ﷺ described plagues as mercy and martyrdom for the believers and possible punishment for others. In a hadith now oft-quoted for its alignment with scientific advice, the Prophet ﷺ said the following with regards to plagues, “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”[^4] When the plague struck Syria during the *khilāfah* of ʿUmar (RA), the companions debated the meaning of the above hadith and sought to determine how best to protect the army stationed there.[^5] They collectively demonstrated the difference between caution and fear; they accepted what was happening as the decree of Allah; they were not worried about dying but did their best to prevent it. --- ## A few visceral ‘human’ responses to disease in late antiquity Just as difficult times such as ours often spur very human reactions, those who came before us, including our pious predecessors similarly demonstrated and/or witnessed very human responses to plagues. Probably the first recorded epidemic that the early community directly encountered was the sickness of Medina. Many of the *muhājir*s, when they emigrated to Medina, were not accustomed to the local climate and fell grievously ill. A hadith in *Bukhārī*, which is found in several historical accounts, states that Abū Bakr (RA) and Bilāl (RA) both contracted the disease.[^6] The narration states the following: > When Abū Bakr's fever got worse, he would recite (this poetic verse): “Everybody is staying alive with his people, yet death is nearer to him than His laces.” And Bilāl, when his fever deserted him, would recite: “Would that I could stay overnight in a valley wherein I would be surrounded by *idhkhir* and *jalil* (kinds of good-smelling grass). Would that one day I could drink the water of the Majanna, and would that \[the two mountains\] Shāmah and Tafil would appear to me!” Their reaction was to use poetry to describe their situation or their desires. As a classical mode of expression, both in pre-Islamic Arabia and throughout Islamic history, the use of poetry to express one’s deepest emotions is hardly surprising. Aesthetic responses help us process and make meaning of our situations. Abū Bakr (RA) used his sickness to contemplate death, and we too should take this as an opportunity to remember our mortality and the grave. Bilāl (RA) missed his home, Mecca, and was not reluctant to say so. He wasn’t complaining about being in Medina but he also was not the picture of stoicism. We can be human in the face of difficulty, we can and should feel loss, grief, and nostalgia—we just have to keep turning towards Allah. During the same plague that hit Syria mentioned above, several companions died, including Muʿādh b. Jabal, Abū ʿUbaydah, Faḍl b. ʿAbbās, and Abū Jandal.[^7] The plague ultimately claimed thousands of lives. al-Yaʿqūbī writes that prices soared and people began to hoard wealth.[^8] ʿUmar RA responded by prohibiting hoarding. The grocery store shortages of today, due to all the panic buying, are not entirely unique to the present, though aggressive capitalism and individualism have undoubtedly amplified the trend. Hoarding was wrong then and it is wrong now. In a widespread account, an early Abbasid official visited Damascus. Damascus had been repeatedly struck by plague and pestilence in the Umayyad and pre-Islamic periods. Now, under Abbasid rule, there were no epidemics. The official saw this as a blessing of Abbasid rule and told the people to be grateful for it. One person remarked, “God is too just to give you power over us and plague at the same time!”[^9]  The person meant that God in his infinite justice would never cause the people of Damascus to suffer both a plague and an implied disastrous rule by the Abbasids at the same time. This anecdote suggests that there was a decline in epidemics and tells us about real or imagined local resentment to the Abbasids in former Umayyad strongholds. But the main reason the account was so often cited, is probably because of its comic resonance. Muslim scholars loved a good literary riposte, and this certainly qualifies. As with memes today, there is some light-heartedness to be found in these situations—an indication of human resilience in the face of difficulty. --- ## A 14th-century discussion of plague: The treatise of Ibn al-Wardī Discussions of the Black Death in most historical accounts—and in much of our Western education—focus almost exclusively on Europe. Even the dating of the peak of the pandemic, 1347 to 1351, focuses on its spread in Europe. Muslims were by no means immune from the tragic plague—Stuart Borsch estimates that almost half of Egypt’s population had perished from the disease or its societal effects by the late 15th century.[^10] Ibn al-Wardī experienced it firsthand in Mamluk lands and eventually died of it himself. He wrote a poetic treatise on the plague that is worth briefly examining on its own. He believed that the plague was a punishment from Allah but, rather than focus on that punishment, he sought refuge and hoped for a chance at moral and spiritual improvement. He remarked, “We ask God’s forgiveness for our souls’ bad inclination; the plague is surely part of His punishment. We take refuge from His wrath in His pleasure and from His chastisement in His restoring.”[^11] When describing the causes of plague, he wrote, referencing the belief in bad air at the time, “They said: the air’s corruption kills. I said: the love of corruption kills.”[^12] Whether today’s pandemic is deemed a punishment or not, Ibn al-Wardī’s statement is not wrong. We see that corruption today—greed especially—is a reason why this pandemic is not being dealt with as it should be and why so many people are endangered. The hoarding of medical materials, the lack of investment in healthcare, insistence on keeping the economy open for the sake of large corporations, price gouging—the examples of this obsession with accumulation go on and on. Corruption literally kills. Ibn al-Wardī, like the companions before him, accepted what was happening as the decree of Allah and even found reasons for optimism in a painful situation. He wrote, “I fear not the plague like others do. It’s just one of two ‘happy’ fates: If I die, then I rest from foes; if I live, my ears’ and eyes’ illness abates.”[^13] Ibn al-Wardī demonstrates the crucial difference between acceptance of Allah’s decree and fatalism. By writing about the plague, by continuing to write amidst the devastation it wrought, he wasn’t succumbing to a tragic situation but recording what was happening and continuing to try to make sense of it. Acceptance does not mean a failure to act. He wrote that “When the Muslim endures misfortune, then patience is his worship.”[^14] The Islamic notion of patience is not passive. --- ## Devout medieval reactions to sicknesses and disasters When the Black Death and later recurring plagues struck Cairo in the 14th and 15th centuries, the dead were so many that funeral processions looked like camel caravans.[^15] Sometimes bodies were left in the street or dumped in the river. But despite the terror of the time, Muslims did their best to maintain ritual purity and continue burials. Normalcy was disrupted, but their consistency in acts of faith continued and so did the fulfillment of their obligations to each other. We cannot do *jumuʿah* these days but we can keep up our prayers and our fasts and discover the spiritual benefits of retreat. We can use technology to give *salām*s to people we haven’t spoken to in a while, and people we would otherwise see regularly. When the Black Death struck, many people thought, rightfully so, that it might be the end of the world. Yet, for the most part, they were not paralyzed by apocalyptic fear. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If the Resurrection were established upon one of you while he has in his hand a sapling, then let him plant it.”[^16] Even when the world is ending, we are to persist in what good deeds we can, to finish what efforts we are able to. When plague and pestilence struck, pre-modern Muslims would often respond with an abundance of worship, not just an abundance of caution. In 449 AH, pestilence overcame Ahwāz. Ibn al-Jawzī describes the people’s reaction as turning back to Allah, increasing in good, and abandoning all sinful behavior stating, “All repented. And they spent in charity the majority of their wealth, they dumped their alcohol…”[^17] In the face of the Black Death in Cairo, a prayer for reprieve similar to that done when calling for rain in the midst of drought was conducted on the desert outskirts of the city.[^18] Extra fasts were also done. Recitations of the entire *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* commenced. Such readings, in addition to the recitation of the Qur’an, were traditional responses to pestilence and devastation more generally. The *Qāḍī* of Damascus had a dream in 749 AH when the plague was striking nearby Anatolia.[^19] In the dream, he saw the Prophet ﷺ, who said that the people should recite Sūrat Nūḥ three thousand three hundred and sixty times and ask Allah for relief from the present situation. The *sūrah*, unsurprisingly, involves asking for protection and is a reminder of human survival in the face of calamity. The people conducted the recitation. They asked forgiveness for their sins and they slaughtered many animals to give meat to the poor. Regardless of whether plague is a mercy, a punishment, or neither, our reaction today should not be despair, regret, and selfish cruelty but rather devotion, repentance, and selfless charity. --- ## Incidents of masjid closures due to pestilence One of the most trying experiences for Muslims today in the present crisis involves grappling with the closure of *masjid*s. However, this is by no means the first time *masjid*s have closed due to illness, though the scale of current closures is unprecedented. In 395 AH, due to pestilence and plague, Qayrawān’s *masjid*s in modern-day Tunisia were empty.[^20] Qayrawān has historically been renowned as a center of learning and religiosity so this was undoubtedly a notable situation. In 448 AH, *masjid*s in al-Andalus closed due to pestilence and famine.[^21] And during the Black Death in Egypt, many *masjid*s and shrines were shut.[^22] In these incidences, the closures were probably not due to prevention like today, because their understanding of the disease was different. They likely happened because so many people were sick, so many had died, and so many were taking care of the sick. In either case, both then and now, preoccupation with the preservation of life was a valid reason for closure. --- ## Concluding remarks In his medieval chronicle focusing primarily on Egypt, Ibn Taghrībirdī (d. 874 AH) mentions over and over again the occurrence of plague in the 8th and 9th centuries. When discussing notable figures, a common refrain he uses is that the individual in question died of the plague.[^23] He sometimes compares different plagues in terms of how devastating they were to the population.[^24] His references to plague make for a very depressing read, but the silver lining is that his history always moves on; the plague subsides, he recognizes the existence of a curve and its peak, or another particular event draws his attention away from and past the disease. Ibn Taghrībirdī lived through recurrent instances of plague, but this is not all his history is about; it is something that happened to his subjects but was not his sole focus. Our current situation will pass *inshāAllah* someday soon. It will be a line of history, an element in a chronicle. There will be a peak and there will be a decline. May Allah protect us, there may even be a recurrence. People we know may succumb to the disease, people we know of may pass away. The world may change, but history will move on. We are going through something significant but, as with Ibn Taghrībirdī’s chronicle, it is not all that is happening and it is not all that is important—e.g., we still have the spiritual blessings of Ramadan to think about, there are still oppressed Muslims in the world we should be working for. Historical accounts teach us that we should react with caution, patience, and increased worship and care for each other. They also teach us that we have moved past this before. As Allah says in the Qur’an in Sūrah Raḥmān, verses 26-27, “All on earth perishes. And the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor, persists.” --- ## Recommendations for further reading If you are interested in learning more about the plague and pestilence in Islamic history, al-Suyūṭī has a work listing various accounts [here](https://archive.org/details/alwaaoun/mode/2up). Michael Dols, who I’ve cited extensively, has many works on the subject in English. Dr. Elaine van Dalen recently compiled an excellent list of English and Arabic sources [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oKHXtyXU7dQaDT6U8qn3mS5-XabZt-ior0Vn13stQSQ/edit?fbclid%3DIwAR309p3ABmDYrRXOcAdk6SAYF8Pzwxt6oLtQVWWx8CSaWIr5IUILG816fzs) on epidemics in Islamic history. Finally, the Ottoman History Podcast produced [an episode](http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/03/plague-ottoman-empire.html) on plague in early modern and modern times that adds additional valuable information to our discussion. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāyah wa-al-nihāyah* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1988), 14:263. [^2]: I want to say briefly that the authenticity or accuracy of many early historical accounts is difficult to confirm—not that plague or sickness occurred, but that specific people actually said the statements attributed to them. We should keep in mind though that for Muslim historians, accuracy was not the only or even the most important thing they were concerned with. They made arguments about their own times through these histories, they edified, they critiqued, and they did so much more. We cannot always glean exactly what happened, but we can get an idea of how people of the historian’s time or the time they wrote about may have understood what was happening. [^3]: See Lawrence I. Conrad, “Tāūn and Wabā,” *Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient* 25, no. 3 (1982): 268–307. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5728. [^5]: Michael W. Dols, “Plague in Early Islamic History,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society* 94, no. 3 (1974): 376–77. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1889. [^7]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāyah wa-al-nihāyah*, 6:226. [^8]: Many thanks to Shabir Agha Abbas for this reference. Al-Yaʿqūbī, *Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī* (Beirut: Dār ṣādir, n.d.), 2:150. [^9]: Dols, “Plague in Early Islamic History,” 380. [^10]: Stuart J. Borsch, *The Black Death in Egypt and England: A Comparative Study*, 1st ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), 15. [^11]: Ibn al-Wardī, “Account of Reports on the Pestilence (Risala an-naba' 'an al-waba'),” *Near Eastern Numismatics, Iconography, Epigraphy and History: Studies in Honor of George C. Miles*, ed. Dickran K. Kouymjian, trans. Michael Dols (Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1974), 454. [^12]: Ibn al-Wardī, 454. [^13]: This couplet was translated and shared on social media by Kevin Blankenship. With thanks to Daanish Faruqi. [^14]: Ibn al-Wardī, 454. [^15]: Michael W. Dols, *The Black Death in the Middle East* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019), 240, 245, ACLS Humanities E-Book. [^16]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 12491. [^17]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Muntaẓam fī tārīkh al-mulūk wa-al-umam* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1992), 16:17. [^18]: Dols, *Black Death in the Middle East*, 247–48. [^19]: Ibn Taghrībirdī*, al-Nujūm al-zāhirah fī mulūk Miṣr wa-al-Qāhirah* (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub), 10:203. [^20]: Ibn Idhārī, *Kitāb al-bayān al-mughrib fī akhbār mulūk al-Andalus wa-al-Maghrib* (Beirut: Dār al-Thiqāfah, 1983), 1:257. [^21]: al-Dhahabī, *Tārīkh al-Islām al-kabīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī , 1993), 30:25. [^22]: Dols, *Black Death in the Middle East*, 246. [^23]: Ibn Taghrībirdī*, al-Nujūm,* 15:218. [^24]: Ibn Taghrībirdī, 15:156. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. It is fitting that we look to the experiences of the Muslims who came before us as we ourselves grapple with plague and pestilence, not to compile an exhaustive record, but to draw a few lessons from their trials. Everything our predecessors did was not sacred, yet it was profoundly human, for they too wrestled with the meaning of Islam, the will of Allah, and a developing tradition that we have inherited, even where their understandings differed from our own. In the pre-modern period, Muslims sought to explain the emergence of widespread disease through both medical and spiritual causes. They commonly believed that an imbalance in the body's humors, brought about by corrupted air or miasma, sparked ṭāʿūn and wabāʾ—terms whose meanings are, in truth, more complex than the simple translations of "plague" and "pestilence" suggest, as Lawrence Conrad has discussed. At times they even attributed such illnesses to the pricks of evil jinn. Whatever the accuracy of their science, their conviction that all such things occur by the will of Allah prevailed. Seeking an explanation for illness and affirming the power of Allah are not mutually exclusive, nor are taking precautions and placing trust in Him. In their day, precaution might have meant seeking open spaces with cleaner air; in ours, it means isolation and heeding the consensus of medical professionals. The Prophet ﷺ described plagues as a mercy and a means of martyrdom for the believers, and a possible punishment for others. In a well-known hadith recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, he ﷺ said, "If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place." When plague struck Syria during the caliphate of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him), the Companions debated the meaning of this hadith and sought how best to protect the army stationed there. In doing so they demonstrated the difference between caution and fear: they accepted what befell them as the decree of Allah, yet still strove to prevent death rather than surrender to it. The Muslims of the past, including our pious predecessors, likewise expressed very human reactions to affliction. Perhaps the first epidemic the early community faced directly was the sickness of Medina, when many of the muhājirūn, unaccustomed to the local climate, fell gravely ill. A hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī relates that both Abū Bakr and Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with them) contracted the disease and each turned to poetry to voice his condition, Abū Bakr recalling the nearness of death and Bilāl longing for his home in Mecca. Their example shows that we may be human in the face of hardship—feeling loss, grief, and nostalgia—so long as we keep turning toward Allah. During the same plague in Syria, several Companions perished, among them Muʿādh b. Jabal, Abū ʿUbaydah, Faḍl b. ʿAbbās, and Abū Jandal, and thousands died in all. Al-Yaʿqūbī records that prices soared and people began to hoard, whereupon ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) prohibited hoarding. Hoarding was wrong then, and it remains wrong now. A widely cited account tells of an early Abbasid official visiting Damascus, a city long struck by plague in the Umayyad and pre-Islamic periods, who observed that under Abbasid rule no epidemics had occurred and urged the people to be grateful. One person replied, "God is too just to give you power over us and plague at the same time!" Beyond hinting at a real decline in epidemics and at local resentment of the Abbasids in former Umayyad strongholds, the account was likely preserved so often for its comic resonance—an indication of human resilience in the face of difficulty. In the fourteenth century, Ibn al-Wardī, who himself experienced the Black Death in Mamluk lands and eventually died of it, composed a poetic treatise on the pestilence. He believed the plague to be a punishment from Allah, yet rather than dwell on that punishment he sought refuge and hoped for moral and spiritual improvement, writing, "We ask God's forgiveness for our souls' bad inclination; the plague is surely part of His punishment. We take refuge from His wrath in His pleasure and from His chastisement in His restoring." Referencing the belief in corrupted air, he remarked, "They said: the air's corruption kills. I said: the love of corruption kills." He accepted the decree of Allah while refusing fatalism, declaring, "I fear not the plague like others do," and affirming that "When the Muslim endures misfortune, then patience is his worship." His act of continuing to write amid devastation shows that acceptance of Allah's decree does not mean a failure to act, for the Islamic notion of patience is not passive. When the Black Death and later recurring plagues struck Cairo in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the dead were so numerous that funeral processions resembled camel caravans, and bodies were sometimes left in the streets or cast into the river. Stuart Borsch estimates that nearly half of Egypt's population perished from the disease and its effects by the late fifteenth century. Yet the Muslims strove to maintain ritual purity and to continue burials, persisting in their acts of faith and their obligations to one another. Though many rightly feared it might be the end of the world, they were not paralyzed by apocalyptic dread, for the Prophet ﷺ said, as narrated in Musnad Aḥmad, "If the Resurrection were established upon one of you while he has in his hand a sapling, then let him plant it." Pre-modern Muslims often responded to affliction with an abundance of worship as well as caution. Ibn al-Jawzī records that when pestilence overcame Ahwāz in 449 AH, the people turned back to Allah, repented, gave much of their wealth in charity, and poured out their alcohol. In Cairo a prayer for reprieve resembling that offered for rain in drought was performed on the desert outskirts, extra fasts were kept, and recitations of the entire Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and of the Qur'an were undertaken. Dols relates that in 749 AH the qāḍī of Damascus dreamt of the Prophet ﷺ instructing the people to recite Sūrat Nūḥ—a sūrah concerning protection and survival—thousands of times and to beseech Allah for relief, whereupon they did so, sought forgiveness, and slaughtered animals to feed the poor. The closure of masjids, one of the most trying features of our present crisis, is not without precedent, though its current scale is unmatched. The masjids of Qayrawān stood empty in 395 AH, those of al-Andalus closed in 448 AH amid pestilence and famine, and during the Black Death many masjids and shrines in Egypt were shut. In those earlier cases the closures likely arose because so many had fallen sick, died, or were tending the ill, rather than from prevention as understood today; yet in both eras the preservation of life was a valid reason. In his chronicle centered on Egypt, Ibn Taghrībirdī (d. 874 AH) mentions plague again and again, often noting that a given figure died of it and comparing the severity of different outbreaks. His history makes for grim reading, yet it always moves on: the plague subsides, its curve reaches a peak and declines, and other events draw his attention onward. So too shall our situation pass, in shāʾ Allah. People we know may succumb, and there may even be recurrence, but history will move forward, and this is neither all that is happening nor all that matters. Historical accounts teach us to respond with caution, patience, and increased worship and care for one another, and they remind us that we have moved past such trials before. As Allah says in Sūrat al-Raḥmān, verses 26–27, "All on earth perishes. And the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor, persists." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-contagion-real-giving-context-to-prophetic-wisdom # Is Contagion Real? Giving Context to Prophetic Wisdom **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, No-Tag, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 16, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Could it be that God’s message that is so conscious of human welfare that it relaxes the duty to offer congregational prayers due to rain, to fast the otherwise obligatory days of Ramadan while traveling, to perform the Hajj pilgrimage in case of the insecurity of the journey, and permits shortening of prayers during travel or due to fear of attack, refuses to make an allowance in the case of a pandemic? In a pandemic in which what is at stake is not convenience but lives, and lives not only of the few who worship but of the innumerable many who may come in contact with them? Could it be that the divine message that emphatically encourages the practice of medicine and quest for cure by declaring that God has created a cure for every disease would deny the empirically established fact that germs spread disease, that contagion is real? Allegedly, the answer to this rhetorical question is not obvious to some because of a statement of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ denying contagion that appears in the canonical collections of hadith. Admittedly, Muslim authorities who would deny the fact of contagion today are exceedingly rare—I haven’t come across any even in the wonderland of social media. Nearly all the *ulama* and religious authorities accepted it well before its deadly spread became self-evident. There were exceptions, such as the large Muslim religious gatherings in Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and elsewhere against the general recommendation that led to unfortunate spread. These were, by and large, exceptions to the rule. Much of this destructive behavior was underpinned not by a religious objection to contagion but disinformation, conspiracy theories, general religious and scientific ignorance, all of which feed a general attitude of carelessness. Our concern here is only with a proper understanding of the Prophetic guidance on the matter, the lingering doubts about which both prevent a proper understanding and celebration of faith and properly motivated, positive, and proactive action of the kind that could save lives and alleviate suffering. How could contagion be true if God’s Prophet ﷺ said otherwise? The only way for many to hold on to faith under such conditions is by alienating it from their actual life—marked as it is by modern science and technology and their presumptive reliance on natural causality. Incidentally, the modern, secular mind often welcomes this kind of charming religiosity that could not possibly challenge a naturalist, materialist understanding of the world. It is not only compatible with but even longs for an enchanted world when people, in their spare time, worshipped sacred trees or animals and sought aid from the spirits of their ancestors. The nostalgia for a bygone world of fairy tales serves as an opiate for the harsh realities of a meaningless, unjust world. Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic we confront today serve as reminders of the deeper and ubiquitous danger this alienation poses even to worldly life and ethics. The threat it poses to faith and eternal things is greater. To return to the dilemma at hand, how ought we respond to the words of the Prophet ﷺ that are, if soundly received and understood, the infallible foundation of faith? The million-dollar question here, as always with interpreting words spoken in a world vastly separated from our own, is: What exactly did God’s Messenger ﷺ say and mean? Did he mean to recommend or obligate a course of action—that one should treat claims or observation of spreading illness, as in the spread of diseases caused by germs as false or impious? Does believing in or taking caution according to this recommendation, let alone engaging in medical research, therefore, constitute impiety? This cannot be the case. One has only to consider the hadith report itself and the surrounding texts to conclude this much. Let us consider the tradition in question. The Messenger of God ﷺ declared in a sound report, on the authority of Anas b. Mālik, that > “There is no *ʿadwā* and no *ṭiyarah*, but I like *al-fa’l*.” They asked, “What is *al-fa’l*?” He replied, “A good word.” The term *ʿadwā* has come to be rendered in English as ‘contagion’ and *ṭiyarah* can be rendered as omen-seeking (the details of how pagan Arabs did so, while fascinating, are not immediately relevant). Another version of the report gives a more helpful explanation of *fa’l*: “It is a good word that one of you may (over)hear” (Muslim #2223)—that is, one may hear something good being said and feel optimistic as a result. In modern Arabic, the related term *tafā’ul* has come to mean optimism. So, there it is. The Prophet ﷺ said that contagion is not real. Or did he? Anyone who has a modicum of expertise in hadith or Islamic jurisprudence knows never to arrive at a conclusion based on a single hadith. Hadiths are anecdotes picked out from an entire ecology of Prophetic commands, practices, policies, and actions that are singled out for authentication but must be put back into their context for understanding. This means at minimum that one must consider all (or most) of the versions of any given hadith and all the other surrounding hadiths on the subject. Hadith experts know that hadiths always exist in multiple versions and one has to collect and evaluate all of them. No small amount of damage has been done to the message of Islam and hence to humankind by the proliferation of unsound or uninvestigated hadith reports by pious, well-meaning preachers. This turns out to be true for the case at hand. A more complete version of the hadith given by Abu Hurayra, as recorded in al-Bukhārī (and Muslim #2220), > There is no *ʿadwā*, no *ṭiyarah*, no *hāmah*, and no *ṣafar*, and run from the leper like you would from a lion. The additions are revealing of the nature of the general import of the statement: *hāmah* (seeking omens in birds) and *ṣafar* (the belief that the month of Ṣafar is a bad omen for marriages, etc.). This tradition not only adds two more practices to the forbidden list, it alters the original impression altogether. Why run from the leper if there is no possibility of infection of disease from one person to another? What does contagion have to do with fortune-telling and omens? Contagion is, therefore, real and the duty to act accordingly is emphasized in a far stronger and more general command, also reported both in al-Bukhārī and Muslim on the authority of Usāma b. Zayd, > If you hear of the plague in a land, do not enter it, and if it occurs while you are there, do not leave it. Effectively, the Prophet’s words can be understood to mean quarantine in response to contagious diseases such as the plague (*ṭāʿūn*) and leprosy (*judhām*). The nature of the Prophet’s concern becomes even more clear as the anecdote unfolds in the report of Abū Hurayra in a longer version also reported in al-Bukhārī and Muslim: > \[Upon hearing that there is no *ʿadwā*,\] a Bedouin said, “O Allah's Messenger, What about the camels which, when in the desert run strong like deer, but when a mangy camel mixes with them they all get infected with mange?” To that Allah’s Apostle replied, “Who, then, conveyed it to the first (mangy) camel?” > > (Bukhārī #5770) In yet another version of the tradition, possibly of the same incident, Abu Hurayra continues that the Prophet ﷺ  added, > Do not place the healthy camels with the sick ones. > > (Muslim #2221) From these reports, it becomes abundantly clear here that the Prophet ﷺ did not deny that people and camels do get infected. His original statement could only mean, then, that the cause of disease is not the transference of the spirits—sick camels do indeed infect the healthy ones, so do not yoke them together. But still, the illness ultimately starts somewhere. That ultimate source of this occurrence, like that of all things, is God, not spirits or omens. Perhaps the most startling evidence of the Prophet’s attitude toward contagion appears in the following report. When a man of Thaqīf afflicted with leprosy came to pledge allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ  and declare his Islam, the Prophet told him to stay away and sent a message to him saying, “We have accepted your allegiance, so now go back.” (Muslim). Guided no doubt by God, he acted unequivocally in accordance with the best guidelines of “social distancing” today! This leaves the puzzle of the phrase that raised the original concern: “no contagion.” To parse it further, the form *lā X* could mean “there is no X” as in “X is not real, so do not believe in it or act accordingly.” It could perhaps mean that “X is not real, but act as if it is.” Put differently, this grammatical form could mean do not believe that X or do not practice X, and the immediate meaning is inclusive of both. Since the Prophet ﷺ decidedly acted as if X, we seem to have a contradiction. But this contradiction cannot be real given that neither the Prophet ﷺ nor his audience, who otherwise questioned him about any incomprehensible words or perceived contradictions, sensed any. We must conclude that the negation of *ʿadwā* did not mean the negation of contagion in the Prophet’s or his audience’s mind. It seems, therefore, that he only negated a certain understanding of contagion. Recent historians have uncovered fascinating details about the social and religious imagination in pre-Islamic societies of the Near East (referred to in scholarship as Late Antiquity). It helps us conclude with confidence that *ʿadwā* was not an ancient version of the germ theory of infectious diseases, but a kind of superstition about how people (or animals) get sick as a result of something that can be best expressed in English as ‘transferable evil spirits.’ The Prophet ﷺ denied that superstition while acting in accordance with the general medical knowledge of the time. Rather than implying that belief in God’s total power requires abandoning caution and medicine, he stated emphatically that proper belief in God requires respecting natural causation that, no doubt, God has instituted. What is the significance of his denying a certain understanding of contagion while embracing its effective truth? The operative distinction here is between natural causes attributable to worldly things and supernatural causes that were attributed willy-nilly to “divine” beings, sacred forces, and spirits. This way of classifying things may sound strange to modern ears in a world where even God’s existence is disputed, but the heavens in medieval imagination—be it Christian, Jewish, or pagan—were populated by a whole slew of invisible beings, both “divine” and demonic, that intervened between God and men. The theory that illness is a result of such spirits, therefore, was not only an Arab belief, it was quite widespread. The Prophet ﷺ, it would seem, meant to reject that belief. But lest we read too much into it, the theory of quarantine took centuries to develop, and there is no indication that the Final Apostle of God ﷺ was sent to instruct humanity in germ theory. It is tempting to read our modern understanding into the Prophetic words for his recommendation is the perfectly reasonable course of action—even by the standards of our contemporary scientific knowledge—for the actual response to contagious diseases. The reductive mind that dismisses all non-sensible realities as nonsensical, however, should find no comfort in this explanation. Both the student of Islamic knowledge and the believing Muslim should rest assured that the Prophet’s rejection of these pre-Islamic beliefs and practices did not amount to a total disenchantment, or what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has called the emergence of the “buffered self” in the modern West—a self that feels self-sufficient and subject to nothing but the natural, sensible causes. In contrast, the medieval (Taylor has in mind primarily Christian) self was *porous*, constantly aware of its vulnerability to innumerable invisible things: demons, spirits, saints, angels, even pagan gods, and so on. The Prophet ﷺ, in contrast, sought refuge incessantly in Allah alone—he would frequently say “O Allah do not leave me to myself (*nafs*) for a moment”—and denied all powers, demi-gods, demons, saints, and “supernatural” actors that, in other religious worldviews including that of the Arab pagans, littered the heavens and the earth. *Jinn*, devils, and angels do exist, but with their agency so truncated as to become less than that of humans, and for the purpose of worship and fulfillment of needs, irrelevant. The Islamic philosophy of self, so to speak, leaves the human self always and utterly open to God’s power—no thought can occur, nor harm nor benefit, nor happiness nor grief, nor inspiration nor motivation, without God’s leave. Natural causes, however, are different: they are real enough, and they do not pose any threat to God’s omnipotence. They are to be believed in and sought after in one’s practice. The Prophet ﷺ, similarly, spoke approvingly of *al-fa’l*, the feeling of optimism upon hearing a good word. In one tradition in al-Bukhārī, he said, “There is no truth in omens \[*lā ṭiyarah*\] and the best of it is *al-fa’l*,” which means that he may have considered optimism based on accidents of speech as falling in the same category of omens, but there was no harm in feeling good based on them. It did not threaten the exclusiveness of divine omnipotence, perhaps because it could be easily explained within the paradigm of exclusive divine omnipotence. When someone praises you or says something like, “I am sure you can do it,” no harm is being done in the feeling of pleasure, hope, and inspiration you may have as a result. Sports coaches’ locker room speeches, in other words, are mostly okay if not for all the swearing. On other occasions, the Prophet ﷺ spoke frequently (as did the Qur’an) of dreams and how they are the last remaining vestige of inspiration after the end of prophethood through which God may continue to inspire His righteous servants. The Prophet’s intense concern with agency and causality—namely, power attributed to beings and things other than God—is evident in another well-known incident. When his son Ibrāhīm died and he was stricken with grief and his doting Companions fell into mourning, it so happened that the sun eclipsed that day and they quite naturally associated the two things: the sun too was grieving the death of the Prophet’s son. But the Prophet ﷺ would not have it: > The sun and the moon do not eclipse for anyone’s death or life. They are, rather, two of the signs of Allah. When you see them, offer prayers. > > (Bukhārī #3201) What the Prophet ﷺ rejects in the aforementioned hadiths is the supernatural causality attributed to either the false gods or things or rituals or times and places themselves. It is not the number 13, nor the black cat crossing your path, nor the bird droppings, nor the direction in which the bird flew, nor the eclipse of the sun or the moon, nor the location of the stars that have any effect on your fate. It could be, of course, that God will show you signs in different ways: perhaps the beauty of the bird in your window is a sign that you should take that new job offer? There is no harm in such inspiration so long as you understand the utter subjectivity of such a feeling—that God showed this to you alone. But when attached to a schema of supernatural effects and superstitious beliefs, these innocent occurrences become symbols and reminders of beings and powers other than Allah. So long as we understand the causality and are not in danger of attributing it to a false god, there is no danger that we will worship that thing as God. But if we do: if we worship natural causes effectively by pitting them against God’s power in any way, or by denying God’s power behind, and above, all natural causes, then we have fallen into another form of polytheism. This meaning is conveyed best by him to whom God had given the most eloquent and comprehensive expression. Answering his beloved wife, the Mother of the Believers Aisha, the Prophet ﷺ said, about the plague, > The plague is a punishment that Allah sends on whom He wishes, yet for those among the afflicted who believe, it is a blessing. None remains patient in a land in which plague has broken out and believes that nothing will befall him except what Allah has ordained but that Allah grants him a reward similar to that of a martyr. > > (Bukhārī #5734) ## Summary There is no contagion and no evil omen, yet flee from the leper as you would flee from a lion. In these two statements, spoken by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, lies a difficulty that has troubled some hearts, especially in times of widespread affliction such as the pandemic the world has recently endured. How can the truthful Prophet ﷺ, whose words are for the believer an infallible foundation of faith, deny contagion when the spread of disease through germs is an established reality, plainly witnessed and acted upon in our daily lives? It is fitting to pause and reflect: is it conceivable that the divine message, which is so mindful of human welfare that it relaxes the congregational prayer in rain, permits breaking the fast while traveling, allows shortening the prayer in travel and fear, and lifts the obligation of Hajj when the journey is unsafe, would refuse an allowance in a plague where lives themselves—not mere convenience—are at stake? And could the religion that praises the seeking of cures, teaching that Allah has sent down no disease without also sending down its remedy, deny the empirical truth that illness spreads? Before rushing to a hasty conclusion, one must first recall a principle known to every student of hadith and jurisprudence: no ruling is soundly reached from a single narration considered in isolation. Hadith reports are, as it were, individual utterances drawn from a vast living context of the Prophet’s commands, practices, and policies. To understand any one of them, one must gather its various narrations and set it beside the related reports on the same subject. Much harm has come to the community through the spreading of unexamined or unsound reports by well-meaning but unqualified preachers. So it is with the matter at hand. The narration that raises the initial concern is that of Anas ibn Mālik, in which the Prophet ﷺ said, "There is no ʿadwā and no ṭiyarah, but I like al-fa'l." When asked what al-fa'l was, he replied, "A good word." Another version in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (no. 2223) explains it as "a good word that one of you may overhear," meaning that one hears something pleasant and feels hopeful thereby. The word ʿadwā is commonly rendered as "contagion," and ṭiyarah as the seeking of omens as the pagan Arabs practiced. Taken alone, this report might seem to be a plain denial of contagion. Yet a fuller version, narrated by Abū Hurayra in al-Bukhārī and Muslim (no. 2220), adds: "There is no ʿadwā, no ṭiyarah, no hāmah, and no ṣafar, and run from the leper like you would from a lion." The additions of hāmah, the seeking of omens in birds, and ṣafar, the belief that the month of Ṣafar is inauspicious, reveal the true import of the statement, for they group ʿadwā together with superstitions. And the command to flee from the leper transforms the picture entirely: why flee if there is no possibility of one person infecting another? That contagion is real, and that acting upon it is a duty, is affirmed even more strongly in the report of Usāma ibn Zayd in al-Bukhārī and Muslim: "If you hear of the plague in a land, do not enter it, and if it occurs while you are there, do not leave it." This is nothing less than the principle of quarantine in response to contagious diseases such as the plague (ṭāʿūn) and leprosy (judhām). Further clarity comes in another version of Abū Hurayra's narration in al-Bukhārī (no. 5770), in which a Bedouin, hearing that there is no ʿadwā, objected: "O Messenger of Allah, what about the camels which run strong like deer in the desert, but when a mangy camel mixes with them they all get infected with mange?" The Prophet ﷺ replied, "Who, then, conveyed it to the first camel?" And in Muslim (no. 2221) he added, "Do not place the healthy camels with the sick ones." It is thus abundantly clear that the Prophet ﷺ did not deny that people and camels become infected. His words could only mean that the ultimate cause of disease is not the transference of spirits; the sick do indeed infect the healthy, so they must be kept apart. Yet the illness must begin somewhere, and its ultimate source, like that of all things, is Allah alone—not spirits nor omens. Among the most striking evidences of the Prophet's attitude is the report in Muslim concerning the man of Thaqīf afflicted with leprosy, who came to pledge his allegiance and declare his Islam. The Prophet ﷺ told him to stay away and sent word to him: "We have accepted your allegiance, so now go back." Guided by his Lord, he acted in perfect accord with what today is called social distancing. What, then, of the puzzling phrase "no ʿadwā"? The Arabic form lā X may mean "X is not real, so do not believe in it," or it may mean "do not practice X." Since the Prophet ﷺ decidedly acted as though contagion were real, and since neither he nor his Companions—who were quick to question anything they found obscure—sensed any contradiction, we must conclude that the negation of ʿadwā was never understood to be a negation of contagion itself. Rather, he negated a particular understanding of it. The pre-Islamic notion of ʿadwā was not an early form of germ theory, but a superstition that people and animals fell sick through what may be called transferable evil spirits—a belief widespread not only among the Arabs but throughout the societies of the time, whose heavens were imagined to be filled with intervening beings, divine and demonic. It was this belief the Prophet ﷺ rejected, while affirming the natural causation that Allah Himself has instituted. Proper belief in Allah does not require the abandonment of caution or medicine, but rather the respecting of the causes He has ordained. At the same time, one should not read too much into his words, for the theory of quarantine developed only over centuries, and there is no indication that the Final Messenger ﷺ was sent to teach humanity germ theory as such. Yet the reductive mind that dismisses all unseen realities as nonsense should find no comfort here. The Prophet's rejection of pagan superstition did not amount to a total emptying of the world of the unseen. He sought refuge in Allah alone, frequently saying, "O Allah, do not leave me to myself for a moment." The jinn, devils, and angels do exist, but with their agency so restricted that, for the purposes of worship and the seeking of needs, they are irrelevant. The self of the believer stands ever open to the power of Allah, for no thought, harm, benefit, joy, grief, or inspiration comes to pass without His leave. Natural causes, by contrast, are real and pose no threat to His omnipotence; they are to be believed in and pursued in practice. In this same light one understands his approval of al-fa'l, the optimism felt upon hearing a good word, for in al-Bukhārī he said, "There is no truth in omens, and the best of it is al-fa'l." Such hopefulness does no harm, for it is easily explained within belief in Allah's exclusive power. So too did he speak, as does the Qur'an, of dreams as a remaining trace of inspiration after prophethood. His intense concern for correct attribution of causality appears again when his son Ibrāhīm died and the sun eclipsed, and the Companions supposed the two were connected. He ﷺ corrected them, saying, "The sun and the moon do not eclipse for anyone's death or life. They are, rather, two of the signs of Allah. When you see them, offer prayers" (al-Bukhārī no. 3201). What he rejected in all of this was the false attribution of power to things, times, and places other than Allah. So long as one recognizes the true nature of causation and does not pit the causes against the power of their Creator, there is no danger; but to worship the causes, or to deny the power of Allah behind them, is itself a form of associating partners with Him. The most complete expression of this understanding is his answer to the Mother of the Believers Aisha regarding the plague: "The plague is a punishment that Allah sends on whom He wishes, yet for those among the afflicted who believe, it is a blessing. None remains patient in a land in which plague has broken out, believing that nothing will befall him except what Allah has ordained, but that Allah grants him a reward similar to that of a martyr" (al-Bukhārī no. 5734). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-prophetic-promises-for-martyrs-and-medina-is-covid-19-a-plague # The Prophetic Promises for Martyrs and Medina: Is COVID-19 a Plague? **Authors:** Mufti Muntasir Zaman, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, No-Tag, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 15, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction The number of people dying from COVID-19 is increasing at an alarming rate and Muslim communities are no exception to this reality.[^1] In fact, Muslim doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are at the forefront of tackling this pandemic. In the United Kingdom, the first doctors to have died from the pandemic were Muslim.[^2] The frightening nature of this pandemic has led many to draw parallels to ancient plagues. The comparison of COVID-19 to a plague needs to be assessed based on the definition of the latter provided in Islamic literature. Studying the validity of this comparison is important because there are legal and theological implications. In this paper, we will analyze this comparison to make sense of two issues. First, the Prophet ﷺ said that plagues will not enter Medina.[^3] Yet, we know that many people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Medina.[^4] Second, the Prophet ﷺ said that those who die from the plague are martyrs.[^5] Does this glad tiding apply to those who have lost their lives to the virus? --- ## What is a plague? Plague is an infectious disease that has afflicted humanity for millennia, with plague pandemics[^6] massively overshadowing casualties of any other infectious disease (the Black Death[^7] in Europe, for example, resulted in estimates of up to 200 million deaths).[^8] Medically, the disease is known to be caused by the bacterium *Yersinia pestis*, which is carried in the gut of fleas, which in turn live as parasites on rats; when an infected flea bites a human, the bacterium enters the tissue and, when disseminated through the lymph system, accumulates within lymph nodes in the groin and armpits which become swollen and subsequently may hemorrhage and necrose. These massively enlarged, inflamed, and discolored lymph nodes were termed buboes, hence the term Bubonic plague, which is the most common form of the disease. Less commonly, the bacterium is disseminated in the blood resulting in a septicemic plague. When the plague is passed on directly from person-to-person it infects the lungs, resulting in pneumonic plague.[^9] However, the modern medical definition of plague should not be conflated with the historical usage of the term ‘plague’ which would not have distinguished specific pathogens but rather applied the term to a variety of infectious epidemics.[^10] In fact, for Galen (d. c. 210 CE), the term ‘plague’ did not refer exclusively to a particular disease but to a disease event, an infectious epidemic.[^11] Similarly, the *Mishnah*, a compilation of Jewish oral law written during the first and second centuries CE, defines plague by mortality rate: 3 deaths in 3 days, in a city with a population of five-hundred fighting men.[^12] In general, the classification of infectious diseases based on a specific pathogen (e.g., a bacterium, virus, or parasite) is characteristic of modern medicine, and thus historical disease entities are often redefined. While attempts to retrospectively assign modern medical diagnoses to historical diseases are fraught with difficulty (despite the advances of bioarchaeology, paleopathology, etc), sometimes the historical descriptions are sufficient to render a ‘highly probable’ diagnosis.[^13] Descriptions of plague symptoms are found in such early writings as Thucydides (d. 400 BCE) and Sophocles (d. 406 BCE);[^14] however, the plagues to which they referred may have been caused by smallpox[^15] and brucellosis[^16] respectively, among other potential pathogens. The plague that Galen endured, known as the Antonine plague, was a viral epidemic, while the Biblical plague of the Philistines may have involved the bacterial infection tularemia.[^17] Having no knowledge of modern germ theory, the Ancient Greeks instead employed miasmatic theory, the notion that disease was caused by polluted air (the remnants of which are still seen in names like ‘malaria’, lit. bad air). This theory was later drawn upon by physicians and scholars in the Arab world. From the foregoing discussion, it should be clear that the fact that the word ‘plague’ was used by an ancient or classical text does not necessitate that it be taken as referring exclusively to Bubonic plague and *Yersinia pestis* infection, although historical descriptions often do point in that direction. --- ## What is a ṭāʿūn? The Arabic word *ṭāʿūn* (translated as plague) comes from *ṭaʿana*, meaning to pierce, perhaps an allusion to the excruciating pain of the disease.[^18] In the writings of Arab and Persian physicians in the Islamicate world, including al-Rāzī (d. 311 AH), al-Majūsī (d. 384 AH), and Ibn Sīnā (d. 428 AH), this term was identified with swelling of the lymph nodes, characteristic of the buboes described earlier.[^19] The writings of hadith commentators like al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) similarly described gangrenous pustules with darkening (necrosis) and painful swelling in the axillae, also suggestive of bubonic plague.[^20] An attempt can be made to infer the meaning of *ṭāʿūn* directly from the Hadith literature, however.[^21] In one hadith, a *ṭāʿūn* is compared to the *ghuddah* of a camel;[^22] i.e., a deadly disease characterized by swelling of the lymph glands.[^23] In another hadith, we learn that the wounds of those who died from a *ṭāʿūn* will resemble the wounds of the martyrs and will smell of musk.[^24] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) writes that the term *ṭāʿūn* can refer to the active cause of the plague, the symptoms associated with it, or the resulting death.[^25] A related term is *wabāʾ*, which linguistically refers to a general epidemic. Therefore, every *ṭāʿūn* is a *wabāʾ* but the opposite is not true.[^26] In the *Muwaṭṭaʿ*, the plague of Emmaus is described as a *wabāʾ*.[^27] --- ## Is COVID-19 a plague? COVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus formally designated SARS-CoV-2 (previously called 2019-nCoV).[^28] The viral infection involves the lungs, with pneumonia being the most frequent clinical manifestation,[^29] although the large number of infected individuals with mild or no symptoms has resulted in the rapidity of disease transmission. The most serious complication of infection with SARS-CoV-2 is in the name—*severe acute respiratory syndrome*, which entails rapid accumulation of fluid in the lungs as a result of the inflammation. While other viral respiratory infections share similar clinical symptoms (fever, cough, fatigue), there are other features that set SARS-CoV-2 apart. For instance, COVID-19 differs from influenza in that the former is far more contagious[^30] and more likely to result in hospitalization and death.[^31] It is evident however that COVID-19 does not fall under the biological definition of plague, as it is not a bacterial infection caused by *Yersinia pestis*. Moreover, it does not manifest any of the historically described symptoms associated with *ṭāʿūn* (most importantly, swollen lymph nodes and wounds). A comparison between the two reveals a clear distinction. At most, the COVID-19 pandemic can be classified as a *wabāʾ*, which is often linguistically used interchangeably with *ṭāʿūn*.[^32] However, based on a strict reading of the term *ṭāʿūn*—as explained in several hadiths and the majority of scholarly commentary as referring exclusively to biological plague—it does not include COVID-19. We will now proceed to examine the implications of this comparison vis-a-vis two issues. --- ## The plague will not enter Medina The city of Medina is sacrosanct and it is understandably dear to Muslims. It was the center of the epic migration during the Meccan persecution and it is the resting place of our beloved Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ praised and supplicated for Medina on many occasions. He prophesied that faith will ultimately return to Medina, and he asked Allah to shower His blessings on the city and its provisions.[^33] In one hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, “There are angels on the roads leading to Medina. Neither the plague nor the Antichrist will enter it.”[^34]Given that some residents of Medina have tested positive for COVID-19,[^35] how are we meant to understand this hadith? A number of scholars have pointed out that ‘plague’ here refers to the specific disease described earlier.[^36] As such, the spread of other epidemics, which have historically affected Medina, does not conflict with this hadith.[^37] Furthermore, the leading Hadith scholar of the subcontinent, Anwar Shāh al-Kashmīrī (d. 1933 CE), explains that some routes of this hadith have the addition of “*in shāʾ Allāh*, or God-willing,” which is connected to the words “the plague will not enter”; i.e., if God wills, then hopefully the plague will not enter Medina, which is not a definitive negation.[^38] As noted earlier, there is a clear difference between COVID-19 and the plague. Hence, cases of COVID-19 in Medina do not undermine this hadith. It is a sign of divine providence that there exists no historical account of Medina being afflicted by the plague. In the 19th century, European travelers marveled at how plagues never reached Medina. The Swiss Orientalist Johann Burckhardt (d. 1817 CE) observed that in 1815 CE a plague broke out in the Hijaz. Although it spread to Mecca, the Prophet’s city remained untouched.[^39] It should be noted that a version of this hadith adds Mecca to this divine protection: “Mecca and Medina are guarded. There is an angel on every road that leads to them. Neither the Antichrist nor the plague will enter them.”[^40] Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804 AH) points out that the chain of transmission is weak.[^41] Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) writes, “This is an extremely isolated report (*gharīb jiddan*). The mention of Mecca is not preserved (*maḥfūẓ*).”[^42] --- ## Are those who die of COVID-19 martyrs? Those who have experienced the passing of close friends and loved ones are often reassured that their deceased are martyrs (*shuhadāʾ*)—a term applied to one who has heroically sacrificed their life for the sake of God. The loss of life is a sensitive matter and one is advised to be encouraging with a grieving family. This raises the interesting question of whether those who have lost their lives to the novel virus can be classified as martyrs. Martyrdom (*shahādah*)—which etymologically, in both English and Arabic, denotes ‘bearing witness’—is a lofty rank, and its reward is unparalleled. The Qur’an informs us that martyrs “are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.”[^43] Making the ultimate sacrifice by giving up one’s life for a noble cause is a primordial ideal not unique to Islam. Even in the current secular age, “death for one’s country, family, or a just cause is deemed its own reward.”[^44] From the Islamic perspective, the scope of martyrdom is not limited to the battlefield. The Prophet ﷺ once asked his companions, “Who do you consider a martyr among you?” They replied, “The one who is killed in the path of Allah is a martyr.” He said, “In that case, the martyrs of my community are few!” He then explained that people who die from other tragedies, such as a stomach illness or drowning, will get the reward of a martyr.[^45] Muslim scholars have, therefore, divided martyrs into two categories: those considered martyrs in both this life and the next (i.e., those who die in war) and those who have the status of a martyr only in the hereafter (i.e., those whose deaths are unrelated to war). While both categories enjoy a special reward in the hereafter, the burial process for one who dies on the battlefield differs from the conventional rituals—the body is neither washed nor shrouded, for instance.[^46] We learn from a number of hadiths that someone who dies from a plague (*ṭāʿūn*) will receive the reward of a martyr. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever dies from a plague is a martyr”[^47] and “Whoever remains in a plague-ridden land patiently and hopeful of reward, knowing that only what Allah decrees will reach him, will get the reward of a martyr.”[^48] It is worth noting that those who die from a plague will only receive the reward of martyrdom, as Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) explains, if they were patient and trusted Allah’s decree. Moreover, they will receive the reward of martyrdom *even if they survived the plague*, so long as they manifested those qualities.[^49] Al-Haytamī (d. 974 AH) emphasizes the exclusivity of the reward mentioned in the hadith to the plague as a specific disease and not a general epidemic.[^50] The analogy with a plague may be tenuous but there are other factors that allow us to classify COVID-19 related deaths as martyrdom. Anwar Shāh al-Kashmīrī, mentions that more than thirty categories of people deserve the rank of martyrdom in the hereafter, as enumerated by the Mālikī scholar Nūr al-Dīn al-Ajhūrī (d. 1066 AH).[^51] Instead of focusing on specific categories, al-Kashmīrī opines that an examination of all the hadiths on the subject leads us to derive general causes of death that result in someone acquiring the rank of martyrdom; these are exemplified by those people explicitly mentioned in the hadith. These include: (1) a prolonged and painful ailment, e.g., a stomach illness (*mabṭūn*);[^52] (2) an acute harrowing illness (*maraḍ hāʾil*), e.g., a plague (*maṭʿūn*); or (3) a sudden tragedy, e.g., drowning (*gharīq*).[^53] As such, despite the distinction made between *ṭāʿūn* (*Yersinia pestis* infection with swelling of the lymph nodes) and *wabāʾ* (a general epidemic),[^54] those who die from COVID-19 can be classified as martyrs in the hereafter even if they did not die from an actual plague. Bearing in mind the higher objectives of the hadith, such a person can fall under the first or second scenario mentioned above. The message of the Prophet ﷺ is not that martyrdom relates only to death by a particular bacterium named *X* but rather that human suffering and sacrifice endured patiently for the sake of God carries tremendous reward in the afterlife. There are two other categories of martyrs that are relevant for our purposes. First, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, “Whoever dies of an illness is a martyr.”[^55] At face value, this hadith would suffice to consider death caused by any form of illness as martyrdom. However, Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH) dismissed the various routes of this hadith as unreliable.[^56] The Moroccan polymath, ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghumārī (d. 1993 CE), further argues that even if it were authentic, in light of other evidence, this hadith refers to an illness resulting from the plague.[^57] Second, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The one who dies from ‘pleurisy’ (*dhāt al-janb*) is a martyr.”[^58] The term ‘pleurisy’ historically appears to have initially referred to a symptom (‘pleuritis’ in Greek meaning ‘affliction in one’s side’), rather than a specific anatomical or pathological entity (although an association with empyema was recognized). It is likely that the equally non-specific Arabic term ‘*dhāt al-janb*’ (lit. affliction of one’s side) is no different in this regard, and has been described with symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath, sharp pain (i.e., pleuritic chest pain), and palpitations.[^59] Based on the objectives of the prophetic saying identified by Hadith scholars above, a case can readily be made for hermeneutic flexibility to extend this conception to those who die from other respiratory complications, including COVID-19. The reward of martyrdom in the hereafter is a matter of the unseen with no legal bearing, as opposed to legal and theological issues like entering and exiting plague-ridden lands.[^60] No human being can determine the status of a particular person in the afterlife; everything is ultimately bound by divine judgment. The recognition that a person passed away in circumstances matching those described of martyrs is meant to instill hope in God’s mercy and reward for the deceased’s suffering. It does not impact any worldly rituals. Allah’s mercy is limitless and all-encompassing. Hence, there is scope to refer to those who die from COVID-19 as martyrs in the hereafter. A charitable application of ‘martyrdom in the hereafter’ can be gleaned from a sound report that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib said, “Every type of death that a Muslim experiences will grant them the status of martyrdom. However, the stations of martyrdom vary.”[^61] It is true that a martyr in the hereafter is not equal to a martyr in both worlds. But even the lowest station of martyrdom yields great rewards and serves as a source of comfort for a grieving family that suffers the loss of a loved one. --- ## Closing reflection There is perhaps no hadith more suitable to describe the present global predicament than the Prophet’s parable of those on board a ship: those on the lower deck think that drilling a hole in the side of the boat would be a clever shortcut to avoid requesting water from those in the upper deck. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If those in the upper deck leave them to do as they please, they will all be destroyed together. If they restrain them, they will all be saved together.”[^62] There is no greater illustration of the devastating global impact that the actions of a few can have than the case of a viral pandemic that ensues from an index case alongside super spreaders.[^63] It is therefore of paramount significance that every individual take seriously the impact their actions can have and do their part to limit disease transmission. As the pandemic continues to intensify, it can be quite distressing for Muslims to witness their beloved family members and community members passing away from COVID-19 while alone in isolation, and without the customary washing, shrouding, congregational funeral prayers, and other acts of worship invoking God to confer honor, dignity, and forgiveness upon the deceased. Even more harrowing is the prospect that one could be placed against their wishes—God forbid—in a mass grave or cremated. But as the living bid farewell to the departing soul, one can take comfort in knowing that they have returned to Allah, the Most Merciful, Who will most assuredly recompense the faithful for every moment of suffering in this life and, by His divine will, elevate them to the status of martyrs to enjoy the companionship of the prophets and the righteous. Whatever may be missing in their farewell from the living, rest assured that they shall have an honorable reception at the Throne of the Ever-Living. From the foregoing analysis, we learn that although COVID-19 does not constitute biological plague, a holistic understanding of the hadith about martyrs in the hereafter allows us to refer to those who lost their lives to the virus as martyrs. Moreover, the current pandemic reaching Medina does not undermine the divine protection conferred upon the city; thus Muslims should take due precautions and follow the Prophetic teachings regarding avoiding spreading infectious diseases. We pray that Allah keeps everyone safe and healthy and that He raises the ranks of those who have passed away. Āmīn. --- ## Notes [^1]: For COVID-19 related statistics, see [https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). [^2]: Aina Khan, “Muslim Minority Doctors First to Die on Front Line of UK Pandemic,” *Al Jazeera*, April 1, 2020, [www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/muslim-minority-doctors-die-front-line-uk-pandemic-200401082454308.html](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/muslim-minority-doctors-die-front-line-uk-pandemic-200401082454308.html). [^3]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1880. [^4]: Bernd Debusmann Jr., “Saudi Arabia Confirms 6 Deaths, 157 New Cases of Coronavirus,” *Arabian Business*, April 2, 2020, [https://amp.arabianbusiness.com/amp/article\_listing/aben/healthcare/444237-saudi-arabia-confirms-6-deaths-157-new-cases-of-coronavirus](https://amp.arabianbusiness.com/amp/article_listing/aben/healthcare/444237-saudi-arabia-confirms-6-deaths-157-new-cases-of-coronavirus). [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5733. [^6]: Epidemic refers to a regional excess of disease cases in a population, while a pandemic affects a larger scale, crossing international boundaries. Miquel Porta, ed., *A Dictionary of Epidemiology*, 6th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 93, 209. [^7]: There has been considerable debate over the cause of the Black Death with molecular genetic analysis of skeletal remains at a mass burial site of victims confirming infection with the *Yersinia pestis* variant. (See, for instance, Verena J. Schuenemann, Kirsten Bos, Sharon DeWitte, Sarah Schmedes, Joslyn Jamieson, Alissa Mittnik, Stephen Forrest, Brian K. Coombes, James W. Wood, David J. D. Earn, William White, Johannes Krause, and Hendrik N. Poinar, “Targeted Enrichment of Ancient Pathogens Yielding the pPCP1 Plasmid of *Yersinia pestis* from Victims of the Black Death,” *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America*  108, no. 38 (2011): E746–52. Nevertheless, there remain significant epidemiologic puzzles related to the transmission and mortality rate still open to further investigation. See Sharon N. DeWitte, “Setting the Stage for Medieval Plague: Pre-Black Death Trends in Survival and Mortality,” *American Journal of Physical Anthropol*o*gy* 158, no. 3 (2015): 441–51. [^8]: Michael S. Rosenwald, “History’s Deadliest Pandemics, from Ancient Rome to Modern America,” *The* *Washington Post*, April 7, 2020, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/retropolis/coronavirus-deadliest-pandemics/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/retropolis/coronavirus-deadliest-pandemics/). [^9]: For references on the medical science of plague refer to the following resources: Jerome Goddard, *Infectious Diseases and Arthropods* (Cham: Humana Press, 2018), 151–55; Didier Raoult, Nadjet Mouffok, Idir Bitam, Renaud Piarroux, and Michel Drancourt, “Plague: History and Contemporary Analysis,” *Journal of Infection* 66, no. 1 (2013): 18–26; Richard W. Titball and Sophie E. C. Leary, “Plague,” *British Medical Bulletin* 54, no. 3 (1998): 625–33; Michael B. Prentice and Lila Rahalison, “Plague,” *The Lancet* 369, no. 9568 (2007): 1196–207. [^10]: Alfani and Murphy write: [^11]: Rebecca Flemming, “Galen and the Plague,” in *Galen and the Plague* (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2018), [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004383302\_011](https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004383302_011). [^12]: Mishnah Taanit 3:4:3, [https://www.sefaria.org/English\_Explanation\_of\_Mishnah\_Taanit.3.4.3?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en](https://www.sefaria.org/English_Explanation_of_Mishnah_Taanit.3.4.3?lang%3Dbi%26with%3Dall%26lang2%3Den); see also  S. Sabbatani, S. Fiorino, “The Plague of the Philistines and Other Pestilences in the Ancient World: Exploring Relations Between the Religious-Literary Tradition, Artistic Evidence and Scientific Proof,” *Le Infezioni in Medicina* 18, no. 3 (2010): 199–207. [^13]: John Mulhall, “Plague before the Pandemics: The Greek Medical Evidence for Bubonic Plague before the Sixth Century,” *Bulletin of the History of Medicine* 93, no. 2 (2019): 151–179. The author reasonably suggests that a diagnosis of plague is highly probable in the presence of an outbreak of (1) buboes; (2) fever; (3) headaches/achiness in the general context; (4) high mortality; and (5) a primary wound at the site of the flea bite. [^14]: Rachel Finnegan, “Plagues in Classical Literature,” *Classics Ireland* 6 (1999): 23–42. [^15]: Robert J. Littman, “The Plague of Athens: Epidemiology and Paleopathology,” *Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine* 76 (2009): 456–67. [^16]: Antonis A. Kousoulis, Konstantinos P. Economopoulos, Effie Poulakou-Rebelakou, George Androutsos, Sotirios Tsiodras, “The Plague of Thebes: A Historical Epidemic in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex,” *Emerging Infectious Diseases* 18, no. 1 (2012): 153–57, [https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1801.ad1801](https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1801.ad1801). [^17]: Siro Igino Trevisanato, “The Biblical Plague of the Philistines Now Has a Name, Tularemia,” *Medical Hypotheses* 69, no. 5 (2007): 1144–46. [^18]: Lawrence Conrad, “Tāʿūn and Wabāʾ: Conceptions of Plague and Pestilence in Early Islam,” *Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient* 25, no. 3 (1982): 292. [^19]: Conrad, 293–95. [^20]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj* (Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1972), 14:204. [^21]: The Prophet ﷺ described plagues as “the stinging of your enemies from the Jinn.” See *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 19528. Numerous scholars including al-Mundhirī (d. 656 AH), al-Haythamī (d. 807 AH), and Ibn Ḥajar have authenticated this hadith. For Ibn Ḥajar’s extensive treatment of this hadith, see *Badhl al-māʿūn* (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀṣima, n.d.), 109ff. Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935) argues that the term “Jinn” can refer to what is hidden; therefore, this hadith means plagues are caused by microbes (some have said fleas), which are hidden to the naked eye. See Riḍā, *Tafsīr al-manār* (Cairo: Dār al-Manār, 1947), 3:96. After studying all the routes and explanations of this hadith, Dr. Jamīl Farīd concludes that this description of a plague is possibly a statement of one of the narrators that was incorrectly attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. For his detailed discussion, see Jamīl Farīd, *Athar al-ʿilm al-tajrībī* (Beirut: Markaz al-Namāʾ, 2015), 195–203; Lawrence Conrad, “Epidemic Disease in Central Syria in the Late Sixth Century,” *Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies* 18 (1994): 12–58, 17ff. [^22]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, ed. al-Arnaʿūṭ et al., no. 25118. See editors’ comments on the grading of the hadith. [^23]: Al-Munāwī, *Fayḍ al-Qadīr* (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tijāriyya al-Kubrā, 1937), no. 5333; cf. Conrad, “Tāʿūn and Wabāʾ,” 298. [^24]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 17651; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa,1960), 10:194. [^25]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿād* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1994), 4:36. [^26]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Badhl al-māʿūn*, 102–108. [^27]: *Al-Muwaṭṭa*ʾ, no. 1594; cf. al-Kāndhlawī, *Awjaz al-masālik* (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 2003), 3:675. [^28]: A. E. Gorbalenya, S. C. Baker, R. S. Baric, et al., “The Species Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Related Coronavirus: Classifying 2019-nCoV and Naming It SARS-CoV-2,” *Nature Microbiology* 5, no. 4 (2020): 536–44, [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0695-z](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0695-z). [^29]: In rare instances, gastrointestinal or neurological complications of the disease are the initial manifestation. [^30]: Shi Zhao, Qianyin Lin, Jinjun Ran, Salihu S. Musa, Guangpu Yang, Weiming Wang, Yijun Lou, Daozhou Gao, Lin Yang, Daihai He, and Maggie H. Wang, “Preliminary Estimation of the Basic Reproduction Number of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China, from 2019 to 2020: A Data-Driven Analysis in the Early Phase of the Outbreak,” *International Journal of Infectious Diseases* 92 (2020): 30053–59. [^31]: Note that case fatality rate calculations depend tremendously on the number of people who are tested in a population; hence the variation in reported rates. D. D. Rajgor, M. H. Lee, S. Archuleta, N. Bagdasarian, S. C. Quek, “The Many Estimates of the COVID-19 Case Fatality Rate,” *Lancet Infectious Diseases*, March 27, 2020, pii: S1473-3099(20)30244-9, [https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30244-9](https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099\(20\)30244-9). [^32]: For a list of scholars who described *ṭāʿūn* in the general sense of *wabāʾ*, see Haytham al-Jifrī, *al-Aḥkām al-mutaʿalliqa bi al-wabāʾ wa al-ṭāʿūn*, 3–8. The author concludes that defining *ṭāʿūn* as a specific disease is most sound. [^33]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1876; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1374. [^34]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1880. [^35]: Debusmann, “Saudi Arabia Confirms 6 Deaths.” [^36]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:191; cf. Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, *Ikmāl al-muʿlim* (Cairo: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1998), 7:132. [^37]: Ibn ʿAllān, *al-Futūḥāt al-rabbāniyyah* (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004), 4:110–11. [^38]: The positioning of the words “God willing” differs in the various routes of this hadith. In some routes, it comes as “There will not enter therein the plague nor the Antichrist, God willing” while others state “There will not enter therein the Antichrist or the plague, God willing.” Al-Kashmīrī believes that the latter version is the most reliable, and other versions are the result of paraphrased transmission. Hence, it is most valid to connect “God willing” only to the appearance of a plague and not the Antichrist. Al-Kashmīrī, *Fayḍ al-Bārī* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2005), 3:316, 6:585. [^39]: Conrad, “Taʿūn and Wabāʿ,” 287. [^40]: The words “will not enter them (*lā yadkhuluhumā*)” are recorded by al-Bukhārī in *al-Tārīkh al-kābīr* and ʿUmar b. Shabba in *Tārīkh Makkah*; see al-Bukhārī, *al-Tārīkh al-kābīr* (Hyderabad: Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, n.d.), no. 2099; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:191. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal relates another version of this hadith in his *Musnad* with the words “will not enter it (*lā yadkhuluhā*),” in which case the protection from the plague is specific to Medina. See *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 10265; al-Samhūdī, *Khulāṣat al-wafā* (Medina: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya, 1972), 42. [^41]: Ibn al-Mulaqqin, *al-Tawḍīḥ* (Qatar: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa al-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 2008), 27:473. [^42]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya wa al-nihāya* (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 1997), 19:189. On the other hand, Ibn Ḥajar mentions—or quotes Ibn Shabba—that the transmitters are reliable. See Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:191. Ibn Kathīr’s observation that the mention of Mecca is extremely isolated is supported by a study of the various routes of these hadiths. There are at least seven companions (viz. Abū Hurayra, Anas, Jābir, Abū ʿAsīb, Saʿd, Usāma, and ʿUmar) who narrated that Medina is protected from plagues. Abū Hurayra’s hadith is transmitted from four routes, and only the route of Fulayḥ, from ʿUmar b. al-ʿAlāʾ, from his father, from Abū Hurayra explicitly mentions Mecca, and this chain is not free of criticism. See Muḥammad Zāhid, *Dirāsa li al-aḥādīth al-wārida fī al-ṭāʿūn*, 123; also see the editors’ comments in *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 10264. [^43]: Qurʾan 3:169. [^44]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy* (London: Oneworld Publications, 2014), 240; cf. Meir Hatina, *Martyrdom in Modern Islam: Piety, Power, and Politics* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 9–11. [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1915. [^46]: *Al-Mawsūʿah al-fiqhīyah al-Kuwaytīyah* (Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1983), 26:272–78. A third type of martyr is someone who sacrifices his life on the battlefield for a wrong cause. Such a person will be treated as a martyr in this life but will not receive any reward in the hereafter. See *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1915. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5733. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3474 and 6619. Imām Aḥmad narrates this hadith from ʿAbd al-Ṣamad from Dāwūd b. Abī al-Furāt with the words “and remains in his house (*baytihi*).” See *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 26139. However, the majority of transmitters from Dāwūd mention “his land (*baladihī*).” See, for instance, al-Mizzī, *Tuḥfat al-ashrāf* (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1999), no. 17685. [^49]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:194. [^50]: Al-Haytamī, *al-Fatāwá al-fiqhīyah al-kubrá*, 1:141.To avoid confusion, we have retained the *nisba* of Ibn Ḥajar al-Makkī as al-Haytamī (with a *tāʾ*) and not al-Haythamī (with a *thāʾ*) even though a compelling case can be made that the correct spelling of his *nisba* is with a *thāʾ*.  See Shaykh Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī’s *Rimiyy al-bāḥith al-ẓamiyy bi-tarjīḥ al-thāʾ fī nisbat Ibn Ḥajar al-Makkī al-Haythamī*. [^51]: Al-Kashmīrī, *Fayḍ al-Bārī*, 2:248; cf. al-Bijnorī, *Anwār al-Bārī* (Multan: Idāra-e Tāʾlīfāt Ashrafiyya, 2004), 15:236. The printed editions of *Fayḍ al-Bārī*, al-Majlis al-ʿIlmī and DKI, relate the number sixty from al-Ajhūrī. In *al-ʿArf al-shadhī*, he states that al-Ajhūrī mentioned up to forty. Al-Kashmīrī, *al-ʿArf al-shadhī* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2004), 2:346. It should be noted that both books are al-Kashmīrī’s lecture notes transcribed by his students; he did not write them himself. In his versification of the martyrs, al-Ajhūrī enumerates only around thirty. See al-Ajhūrī, *Taʿlīq laṭīf ʿalā manẓūmat al-shuhadāʾ wa marātibihim*, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Library, 1429-4, fol. 1r. Other examples of martyrs in the hereafter include death from a collapsing building, labor pains, and protecting one’s family and wealth. Ibn ʿĀbidīn mentions that some have counted over fifty types of martyrs. See Ibn ʿĀbidīn, *Radd al-muḥtār* (Riyadh: Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 2003), 3:165; al-Kāndhlawī, *Awjaz al-masālik*, 4:544–49. [^52]: Dr. Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Bār writes that the *mabṭun* (stomach illness) is best understood as someone who suffered from cholera. See al-Bār, *al-ʿAdwā bayn al-ṭib wa ḥadīth al-Muṣṭafá* (Amman: Dār al-Fatḥ, 2011), 68. [^53]: In other words, categories 1 and 2 are both disease-related but 1 involves prolonged suffering and 2 involves a terrifying rapid deterioration, while category 3 is unrelated to disease. [^54]: On the terms *ṭāʿūn* and *wabāʾ*, see Conrad, “Tāʿūn and Wabāʾ,” 279–302. [^55]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1615. [^56]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Mawḍūʿāt* (Medina: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1968), 3:216; cf. Ibn ʿIrāq, *Tanzīh al-sharīʿa al-marfūʿa* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1978), 2:393 and al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ḍaʿīfah wa al-mawḍūʿah*, no. 4661. [^57]: Al-Ghumārī, *Itḥāf al-nubalāʾ* (Palestine: Jamʿiyyat Āl al-Bayt, 2007), 24. [^58]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 3111. [^59]: On the definition of *dhāt al-janb*, see Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿād*, 4:74–75 and al-Mubārakfūrī, *Mirʿāt al-mafātīḥ* (Varanasi: Idārat al-Buḥūth al-ʿIlmiyya, 1984), 5:255. On the shifting usage of the term pleurisy, see Adrian Wilson, “On the History of Disease-Concepts: The Case of Pleurisy,” *History of Science* 38, no. 121 (2000): 282ff. [^60]: For instance, scholars distinguish between entering and exiting lands that are afflicted with a *ṭāʿūn* and those afflicted with other epidemics. See al-Haytamī, *al-Fatāwá al-fiqhīya al-kubrá*, 4:11. [^61]: See Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd* (Morocco: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1992), 19:209 and Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:44. [^62]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2493, 2686. [^63]: Gary Wong, Wenjun Liu, Yingxia Liu, Boping Zhou, Yuhai Bi, and George F. Gao, “MERS, SARS, and Ebola: The Role of Super-Spreaders in Infectious Disease,” *Cell Host & Microbe* 18, no. 4 (2015): 398– ## Summary All praise is due to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ, his family, and his companions. The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the mounting loss of life has led many to liken this affliction to the plagues of old, a comparison that carries both legal and theological weight in our tradition. Two questions in particular deserve careful examination. The first arises from the words of the Prophet ﷺ that the plague shall not enter Medina, even though many in that blessed city have contracted the virus. The second concerns his glad tiding ﷺ that those who die of the plague are martyrs, and whether this bounty extends to those who have perished from this disease. To resolve both matters, one must first ascertain what is meant by "plague" in our sacred sources. Medically, plague is understood today as an infectious disease caused by the bacterium *Yersinia pestis*, carried by fleas that live upon rats, whose bite causes the bacterium to accumulate in the lymph nodes of the groin and armpits, producing the swollen, inflamed masses known as buboes—hence "bubonic plague." Historically, however, the term was not tied to a specific pathogen. For Galen (d. c. 210 CE), "plague" denoted an infectious epidemic event rather than a single disease, and the Jewish *Mishnah* defined it by mortality rate—three deaths in three days within a city of five hundred fighting men. Ancient descriptions attributed to Thucydides and Sophocles may have referred to smallpox or brucellosis, and the plague endured by Galen, the Antonine plague, was viral in nature. Lacking knowledge of germ theory, the ancients relied upon miasmatic theory, the notion that disease arose from polluted air, a theory later inherited by physicians of the Islamicate world. Thus the mere appearance of the word "plague" in an old text does not compel us to read it as bubonic plague, though historical descriptions often point in that direction. As for the Arabic term *ṭāʿūn*, it derives from *ṭaʿana*, meaning to pierce, perhaps alluding to the excruciating pain of the disease. Physicians of the Muslim world such as al-Rāzī (d. 311 AH), al-Majūsī (d. 384 AH), and Ibn Sīnā (d. 428 AH) identified it with swelling of the lymph nodes, and hadith commentators such as al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) described gangrenous pustules with darkening and painful swelling in the armpits—all suggestive of bubonic plague. The hadith literature itself supports this understanding: in one report a *ṭāʿūn* is likened to the *ghuddah* of a camel, a deadly disease marked by swollen glands, and in another we learn that the wounds of those who die from it will resemble the wounds of martyrs and carry the fragrance of musk. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) notes that the term may refer to the active cause of the plague, its symptoms, or the death it brings. A related word, *wabāʾ*, refers linguistically to a general epidemic; hence every *ṭāʿūn* is a *wabāʾ*, but not every *wabāʾ* is a *ṭāʿūn*. In the *Muwaṭṭaʾ*, the plague of Emmaus is described as a *wabāʾ*. When these definitions are applied to COVID-19—the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, which afflicts the lungs and most commonly manifests as pneumonia—it becomes evident that it does not fall under the biological definition of plague, for it is not a bacterial infection caused by *Yersinia pestis*, nor does it produce the swollen lymph nodes and wounds historically associated with *ṭāʿūn*. At most it may be classified as a *wabāʾ*, a general epidemic, a term often used interchangeably with *ṭāʿūn* in language. But upon a strict reading of *ṭāʿūn* as understood in the hadiths and by the majority of scholarly commentary, referring to biological plague, COVID-19 is not included among it. This distinction resolves the first question. The Prophet ﷺ said, "There are angels on the roads leading to Medina. Neither the plague nor the Antichrist will enter it." A number of scholars have clarified that "plague" here refers to the specific disease described above, so that the spread of other epidemics—which have historically reached Medina—does not contradict the hadith. The eminent hadith scholar Anwar Shāh al-Kashmīrī (d. 1933 CE) further notes that some narrations contain the addition "in shāʾ Allāh," connected to the words "the plague will not enter," rendering it a hopeful rather than an absolute negation. It is a sign of divine providence that no historical account records Medina being afflicted by the plague. A version of this hadith adds Mecca to this protection, yet Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) judged it "extremely isolated" (*gharīb jiddan*) and held that the mention of Mecca is "not preserved" (*maḥfūẓ*). As for the second question, martyrdom (*shahādah*), which in both Arabic and English carries the sense of "bearing witness," is a lofty rank of unparalleled reward. The Qur'an declares that martyrs "are alive with their Lord, receiving provision." Its scope is not confined to the battlefield. The Prophet ﷺ asked his companions whom they considered a martyr, and when they named only the one slain in Allah's path, he said, "In that case, the martyrs of my community are few," then explained that those who die of a stomach illness or by drowning receive the reward of a martyr. Scholars accordingly divide martyrs into two categories: those who are martyrs in both this world and the next, such as those slain in war, whose bodies are neither washed nor shrouded; and those who bear the status of martyr only in the hereafter. Regarding the plague, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever dies from a plague is a martyr," and that whoever remains patiently in a plague-stricken land, hopeful of reward and trusting Allah's decree, attains the reward of a martyr. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) explains that this reward is granted only to those who bear it with patience and trust, and that they attain it even if they survive the plague, so long as they possess these qualities. Al-Haytamī (d. 974 AH) stressed that this reward is specific to the plague as a particular disease and not a general epidemic. Though the analogy with plague is tenuous, other considerations allow COVID-19 deaths to be classed as martyrdom in the hereafter. Al-Kashmīrī notes that the Mālikī scholar Nūr al-Dīn al-Ajhūrī (d. 1066 AH) enumerated more than thirty categories deserving this rank, but al-Kashmīrī preferred to derive from all the relevant hadiths general causes of death that confer martyrdom: a prolonged and painful ailment such as a stomach illness (*mabṭūn*); an acute, harrowing illness such as plague (*maṭʿūn*); or a sudden tragedy such as drowning (*gharīq*). By this reasoning, despite the distinction between *ṭāʿūn* and *wabāʾ*, one who dies of COVID-19 may be counted a martyr in the hereafter under the first or second category, for the Prophet's message ﷺ is not that martyrdom attaches to a particular named bacterium, but that suffering and sacrifice endured patiently for Allah's sake carries tremendous reward. Two further categories bear mention. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, "Whoever dies of an illness is a martyr," but Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH) deemed its chains unreliable, and ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghumārī (d. 1993 CE) argued that even if authentic it refers to illness resulting from the plague. He ﷺ also said, "The one who dies from pleurisy (*dhāt al-janb*) is a martyr"—a term that historically denoted a non-specific affliction of the side marked by fever, cough, shortness of breath, and sharp pain, and which, in light of the objectives identified by the scholars, may reasonably extend to those who die of respiratory complications such as COVID-19. It must be stressed that the reward of martyrdom in the hereafter is a matter of the unseen carrying no legal ruling, unlike questions of entering or leaving plague-stricken lands. No human being can decree the fate of another in the afterlife, for all is bound by divine judgment; recognizing that one died in circumstances resembling those of the martyrs is meant only to instill hope in Allah's mercy and affects no worldly rites. There is thus scope to call those who die of COVID-19 martyrs of the hereafter, in keeping with the sound report from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib that "every type of death a Muslim experiences grants them the status of martyrdom, though the stations of martyrdom vary." Even the lowest station yields great reward and consolation for the grieving. Perhaps no hadith better captures our present condition than the Prophet's parable ﷺ of those aboard a ship, where those on the lower deck sought to bore a hole to draw water: "If those in the upper deck leave them to do as they please, they will all be destroyed together. If they restrain them, they will all be saved together." So too does a pandemic spread from a single case, that every soul might grasp the weight of its actions and strive to limit the disease. And though it grieves the believers to see their loved ones depart in isolation, deprived of the washing, shrouding, and funeral prayers, let them take comfort that these souls have returned to the Most Merciful, Who recompenses every moment of suffering and, by His will, raises them to the rank of martyrs in the company of the prophets and the righteous. Whatever is lacking in their farewell from the living, they shall have an honorable reception at the Throne of the Ever-Living. In sum, though COVID-19 is not biological plague, a holistic reading of the hadiths on martyrdom permits us to call its victims martyrs of the hereafter, and the pandemic's reaching Medina does not undermine the divine protection granted that city. We ask Allah to keep all safe and to elevate the ranks of the departed. *Āmīn.* --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-punishment-or-a-mercy-what-we-can-learn-from-the-coronavirus # A Punishment or a Mercy? What We Can Learn from COVID-19 **Authors:** Dr. Osman Umarji, Dr. Hassan Elwan, Mustafa Umar **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 14, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction “Is the coronavirus a punishment from Allah?” “Is Allah angry at us?” “Is the coronavirus a blessing, test, or punishment?” These theological questions are in the hearts and minds of many Muslims since the coronavirus spread worldwide, infecting over two million and taking the life of over 100,000 people thus far.[^1] Answering these questions requires a discussion of core theological concepts, including a thorough understanding of the concept of punishment. In this paper, we seek to answer these questions, describe what American Muslims actually report believing about the topic, and provide practical solutions to the questions. --- ## The concept of punishment Punishment is the imposition of an undesirable outcome upon a group or individual in response to an offense.[^2] The motivation behind punishment and its manifestations vary substantially. From an Islamic theological perspective, the word punishment is used to denote various types of trials, rebukes, reprimands, penalties, and disciplinary actions that may be manifested in this life or the afterlife. Regarding the afterlife, the hellfire is mentioned as the most serious punishment. This form of punishment only occurs after one has been taken to account by Allah on the Day of Judgment, with His infinite justice and mercy.[^3] Punishment in the afterlife is not singular, but varies in severity and duration depending on the extent of one’s injustice against oneself and others.[^4] Similarly, rewards in the afterlife also vary based on the extent of one’s righteousness. The believer should always be cognizant of both rewards and punishments, as they motivate righteous conduct and discourage behavior that is unbefitting of a believer. Ibn al-Qayyim elaborated, “The Hellfire was created to frighten the believers and to purify the sinners and criminals. It serves as a means of purification from the filth that the soul contracted in this world. Had it purified itself here through genuine repentance, good deeds which erase \[sins\], and calamities which atone \[for sins\], it would not have needed to be purified there.”[^5] As for punishments in this life, the Qur’an separates them into two types. The first type is a retributive punishment that constitutes a decisive judgment from Allah, one that includes no path to redemption. Allah says, “Rather, it will come to them unexpectedly and bewilder them, and they will not be able to repel it, nor will they be reprieved.”[^6] The intent behind retributive punishment includes ending oppression, supporting a prophet, demonstrating Allah’s attributes of majesty  towards a nation that rebelled against their prophet, and teaching future generations. This type of punishment has a number of conditions before Allah executes it, including the sending of a prophet, the society's rejection of the prophet, persistence in corruption, and the rejection of multiple warnings. Allah mentions retributive punishment being executed in various ways that destroyed prior rebelling nations, “So each \[nation\] We seized for their sin; and among them were those upon whom We sent a storm of stones, and among them were those who were seized by the blast \[from the sky\], and among them were those whom We caused the earth to swallow, and among them were those whom We drowned. And Allah would not have wronged them, but it was they who were wronging themselves.”[^7] The second type of punishment in this life is not meant to be a decisive judgment, but a deterrent that aims to bring people back to Allah and to reform society. Allah mentions this type of punishment in the Qur’an immediately after mentioning the punishment of hellfire. وَلَنُذِيقَنَّهُم مِّنَ الْعَذَابِ الْأَدْنَىٰ دُونَ الْعَذَابِ الْأَ كْبَرِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ “And We will surely let them taste the nearer (الأدنى) punishment short of the greater (الأكبر) punishment so that **perhaps they will return**.”[^8] Numerous companions of the Prophet ﷺ and early scholars have interpreted the “nearer punishment” as the difficulties, ailments, and general tribulations of this life that Allah subjects His servants to with the purpose of encouraging them to repent and turn back to Him.[^9] **Thus, the intention of the “nearer punishment” is to literally bring people nearer to Allah**. In another verse that reiterates Allah’s justification in permitting worldly tribulations, He mentions, “Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea because of what the hands of people have earned, so He may let them taste some of the consequences of what they have done so that **perhaps they will return**.”[^10] Once again, we see the intent of Allah in allowing people to taste difficulties is to cause them to turn to Allah. Therefore, the various afflictions that constitute “the nearer punishments” in this life should be seen as **compassionate reprimands** from Allah for the betterment of humanity. Although it may seem counterintuitive that punishments can arise from compassion, recent research on compassion suggests this may be the case based on intentions. When the intention of the punishment is to alleviate the suffering of others and increase societal harmony, this may be considered compassionate or altruistic punishment. This may include providing negative feedback to the wrongdoer so that they change their behavior in the future, although the punisher does not benefit.[^11] Therefore, we need to rethink our understanding of punishment, especially when it comes from the One who is more merciful to us than our own mothers.[^12] These compassionate reprimands are akin to treating a patient with bitter medication that, despite being undesirable and possibly painful, may be necessary to achieve health and well-being. Ibn al-Qayyim put this analogy beautifully when discussing compassionate punishments, “The wisdom of Allah necessitated that He appoint an appropriate remedy for every disease, and remedying the misguided requires the most difficult remedies \[to endure\]. A compassionate doctor may cauterize the sick person, searing him with fire over and over again, in order to remove from him the foul elements that sabotaged his natural state of health. And if \[this doctor\] sees that amputating the limb is better for the sick person, he severs it, causing him by that the most severe pain.”[^13] Psychology has discussed the role of reward and punishment in behavior modification. The theory of operant conditioning in behaviorism suggests that both reinforcements and punishments may influence behavior.[^14] From an Islamic standpoint, positive reinforcements include offering rewards for righteous conduct, including generous giving of *ḥasanāt* (good deeds) and attaining the pleasure of Allah. Similarly, negative reinforcements include removing *sayyiʾāt* (bad deeds) to encourage righteous conduct*.*[^15] Both types of reinforcements may be simultaneously given as there are individual differences in what motivates behavior.[^16] However, in the situation where people are neither intrinsically motivated by their love of Allah nor extrinsically motivated through reinforcements, positive and negative punishments can be used to make undesirable behaviors less likely to continue or reoccur. Positive punishments involve adding undesirable consequences in order to discourage behaviors, whereas negative punishments involve removing something pleasant to discourage behaviors. From the Islamic standpoint, positive punishment may include the introduction of tribulations to a society to decrease unjust human behavior or negative punishment such as the loss of life and wealth. The purpose of both types is to bring people back to Allah. The concept of influencing behavior through blessings and hardships is clearly articulated in the verse, “...And We tested them with good and bad so **that perhaps they would return**.”[^17] A profound example of compassionate punishment can be found in the story of the people of the garden (*aṣḥāb al-jannah*) in *Sūrat al-Qalam*. Despite full awareness of the precedent set before them to share a portion of the garden’s harvest with the poor, they conspired to deny the poor their share the night before. Then, in the early hours preceding the harvest, they agreed with one another to deny any needy person access to the garden. When they reached the garden in the morning, they saw that Allah had punished them by completely destroying their garden during the night. After initially blaming each other, they collectively took responsibility, acknowledged their mistake, and sought Allah’s forgiveness saying, “Perhaps our Lord will exchange for us something better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous.”[^18] This story beautifully illustrates how compassionate reprimand, which Allah explicitly mentioned as both a test and a punishment, can be a mercy to people. Had Allah not subjected them to this “nearer punishment,” they may have never turned sincerely to Allah and may have been held accountable for their crime in the afterlife. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image4-1-1024x762.jpg) **Table 1. Differences Between Greater and Nearer Punishments** --- ## Benefits vary at the individual level The great scholar of Islam, al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, said, “In tribulations, trials, misfortunes, and calamities lie a number of benefits; these benefits have differing degrees of relevance, differing in accordance to the various ranks of people.”[^19] Compassionate reprimands at the societal level and other types of afflictions[^20] can end up being either blessings or further punishment at the individual level. The benefits or harms achieved are proportionate to the attitude and behavior of each person. Those who feel pain during a test but endure it with patience may have their sins expiated.[^21] Those who are content with Allah's divine decree may be elevated in rank. The “nearer punishment” only becomes a further punishment for those who object to Allah’s decree and engage in displeasing behavior. --- ## A cautionary note about qadar (fate) Although the Islamic sources confirm that afflictions, including plague-like epidemics, may constitute “nearer punishments” from Allah, it is beyond human perception to pinpoint the exact causes behind specific afflictions. It is pure conjecture and speculation for anyone to claim that the coronavirus is a punishment to a specific nation (e.g., China) or for a specific reason. The fact that the coronavirus is a global pandemic means that it is not an affliction to any particular nation. Allah warns us about speaking on His behalf without knowledge, saying, “Or do you speak about Allah that which you do not know?”[^22] --- ## So is the coronavirus a punishment? The closest precedent to this question may be when ʿĀishah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, asked him about the plague. He responded, “It is a punishment that Allah sends upon whomever He wills, but Allah has made it a mercy for the believers. Any servant who resides in a land afflicted by plague, remaining patient and hoping for reward from Allah, knowing that nothing will befall him except what Allah has decreed, will be given the reward of a martyr.”[^23] Although the coronavirus is not technically the plague, they share in being infectious diseases with painful symptoms that may be fatal. Therefore, it is reasonable to use the Prophet’s explanation about the plague to understand the coronavirus. What does the Prophet’s answer teach us? First, we learn that the plague *can* be a punishment or a mercy. In light of our previous conversation, it may be considered a compassionate reprimand intended to return people to the path of righteousness. This is supported by Ibn Ḥajar, who explains that the punishment mentioned in the aforementioned hadith has been expedited in this world before the afterlife. He argues that the plague is the direct result of widespread moral corruption in society.[^24] However, at both the societal and individual level, it may end up being a further punishment or a mercy. How can this be? When the Prophet ﷺ clarified that Allah made it a mercy for the believer, the plague becomes an individual punishment conditional on one not having *īmān* or responding inappropriately. Thus, the coronavirus (or the plague) may be a great mercy and blessing for the believer who exercises patience, appropriately quarantines him or herself, hopes in reward from Allah, and accepts that whatever happens is from Allah’s divine decree. Such a believer may be rewarded with the gift of martyrdom. Thus, the test of this affliction may be a means of forgiveness, elevation of rank, and the reward of martyrdom for the believer. ![Is the Coronavirus a Mercy or Punishment for Me? Diagram.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mercy_or_Punishment_diagrams_3-02-1024x1024.jpg) **Figure 1. Pathways to Mercy and Punishment** --- ## Muslim beliefs about the coronavirus as punishment In order to best provide practical solutions around the question of the coronavirus being a punishment and a test, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research surveyed over 1800 American Muslims who were diverse with respect to age, education, and race. The sample was generally religious in practice.[^25] **We asked respondents how much they believed the coronavirus was a punishment.** 27% responded that it was not a punishment at all, 26% said a moderate amount, and 12% said a great deal. **When asked if the coronavirus was a test from Allah**, 84% said they believed that it was a major test from Allah. **We also asked how many blessings they had seen as a consequence of the pandemic**. 53% said they had witnessed many blessings from Allah since the spread of the coronavirus, whereas 20% reported seeing either few or no blessings at all. ![Is the Coronavirus a Punishment from Allah?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image2-1024x381.jpg) ![Is the Coronavirus a Test From Allah?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image5-1024x381.jpg) **Figure 2. Muslim Beliefs about the Coronavirus as a Punishment and Test** We were most interested in investigating how people’s beliefs about the coronavirus as a punishment, test, or blessings co-occurred. In order to do this, we used cluster analysis to group people into different patterns of beliefs.[^26] We found the following five patterns of beliefs, and we summarize the results of each group below. ![Figure 2. Patterns of Beliefs about Punishment, Test, and Blessings](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image3-1024x449.jpg) **Figure 3. Patterns of Beliefs about Punishment, Test, and Blessings** - The “Not much of anything” group did not see the coronavirus as a punishment, only slightly as a test, and saw a moderate number of blessings in it. This group comprised 18% of the sample and generally did not engage in religious acts as a way of coping. - The “Test & Punishment, but Few Blessings” group saw the coronavirus as a test and punishment but saw few blessings in it. This group comprised 18% of the sample and generally included more people who reported high anxiety and nervousness. - The “Test & Punishment, but Many Blessings” group was high in all three questions, seeing many blessings, and believing the coronavirus is both a test and punishment. This group comprised 28% of the sample and reported reading the Qur’an more often in general and specifically engaging in more religious acts as a way of coping. Men were more likely than women to be in this group. - The “Only a Test” group was the smallest of the groups (9%). They did not see any blessings or the coronavirus as a punishment, rather it was only a test to them. This group was associated with engaging in fewer religious acts as a way of coping.   - The “Blessing and a Test” group saw many blessings and the coronavirus as a big test, but did not consider it a punishment at all. This group comprised 27% of the sample and was associated with reading the Qur’an more often in general and specifically engaging in more religious acts as a way of coping. Women were more likely than men to be in this group. American Muslims have different patterns of beliefs regarding the coronavirus as a test, a punishment, and whether they have witnessed any blessings as a result of it. The overwhelming majority believe it is a serious test from Allah and many consider it a punishment. We learn from the results that those who read the Qur’an regularly were more likely to see blessings in this hardship, even if they also see the coronavirus as a nearer punishment. The results also show that it may be unhealthy to see the coronavirus as only a punishment and test, as people who felt this way reported higher anxiety and nervousness. --- ## Responding to the coronavirus: Practical steps Pinpointing exactly what the coronavirus is (a test, a punishment, or both) may not be possible. However, we can ask ourselves, “How have we responded?” “Are we good with our Creator?” This line of questioning is what the Prophet ﷺ directed us to focus on. When a Bedouin came to him asking when the final hour (i.e., the day of Judgment) would be, the Prophet responded with his own question. He asked the Bedouin, “And what have you prepared for it?”[^27] What we learn from the Prophet’s response is that we should not worry about matters of the unseen that are out of our control. Such matters are the domain of Allah’s Lordship and our focus should be on what we will be asked about: our response. This is why when the wind would blow strongly, the Prophet ﷺ would not dwell on whether it was being sent as a “nearer punishment” or as a blessing. He would simply raise his hands in *du’a*, saying, “O Allah, I ask You for its goodness and I take refuge with You from its evil.”[^28] The Prophet took both possibilities into account and focused on turning to Allah for the best outcome regardless of what Allah’s true intent was. Regardless of whether the coronavirus is a specific punishment, a wake-up call, or a general test, we begin by asking Allah for any good that may result from it and we seek refuge in Him from its evil. If it’s a punishment, we seek Allah’s forgiveness. If it’s a wake-up call, we should wake up from our heedlessness and focus on pleasing Allah. If it’s a test, we remain patient, engage in righteous deeds, hope for Allah’s reward, and are content with whatever He decrees. Because we cannot be sure, we need to engage in all the above actions to the best of our ability. This way, we guarantee ourselves that it turns out to be a blessing and a mercy. Thus, the way we react will determine the answer for each one of us. --- ## Protecting ourselves from punishment If the coronavirus is indeed a compassionate reprimand to humanity to return to Allah, the believers have a responsibility at both the individual and societal level. At the individual level, each person has to focus on their performance in this test by “being mindful of Allah so that Allah is mindful of them.”[^29] At the societal level, a believer is an agent for social welfare, which reduces the likelihood of societal afflictions. Allah specifically mentions in the Qur’an that the presence of reformers is something that prevents the destruction of societies.[^30] In addition, the following practices have been mentioned by Allah as specifically related to minimizing harm (e.g., punishment) and maximizing benefits. ### Faithful gratitude > What would Allah benefit from punishing you if you are grateful and faithful? And ever is Allah Appreciative and Knowing.[^31] Practicing gratitude regularly is one of the best ways to cope with hardships and please Allah. It also leads to better mental and physical health.[^32] Take time out of every day to count your blessings and genuinely thank Allah for them. Writing down five blessings daily and writing gratitude letters to people who have helped you in life are both effective ways to practice gratitude.[^33] ### Seeking forgiveness > And Allah was not to punish them while you are amongst them, and Allah would not punish them while they continue to ask for forgiveness.[^34] Allah promises to protect His servants who seek His forgiveness. Regardless of what mistakes we have made, big or small, Allah can easily forgive them all. “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”[^35] The Prophet further said, “If anyone constantly seeks forgiveness, Allah will create a path out of every distress and relief from every anxiety. He will provide sustenance from where they don’t expect.”[^36] ### Charitable giving >  Charity extinguishes the anger of God.[^37] As the coronavirus has placed many people in financial hardship, giving charity during this time is incredibly helpful. Charity is a proof of faith.[^38] There are many non-profits, such as *masājid* and relief agencies, that really need our support. Our charity will additionally shade us on the Day of Judgment, as the Prophet ﷺ said, Every person will be shaded by their charity \[on the Day of Judgment\] until judgment between people has been completed.”[^39] ### Social distancing > Plague is like fire and you are its fuel. Therefore, disperse so the plague finds no fuel and gets extinguished.[^40] This statement by ʿAmr Ibn al-’Āṣ highlights the importance of taking the worldly means to protect ourselves from harm. His advice saved the lives of many during the plague of ʿAmwās that afflicted many companions and the people of Syria.[^41]  Appropriate social distancing constitutes a part of patience during these times. ### Steadfastness > Who rescues you from the darknesses of the land and sea when you call upon Him aloud and in private, “If He should save us from this crisis, we will surely be among the thankful.”[^42] Many people invoke the name of Allah during times of difficulty and promise to change their ways. However, once the relief of Allah comes, they forget about the promises they made to Allah. We know that Allah will lift the hardships caused by the coronavirus in due time. Whatever positive changes we make to our lives during these times, including praying regularly or helping others, let’s do our best to continue them when the situation changes for the better. Similarly, whatever bad habits we have been able to abandon during these times, let’s continue to refrain from them when life returns to normal. --- ## Conclusion The coronavirus may be a difficult test,  a compassionate reprimand from Allah to humanity, or both. Despite the challenges we are all facing, Allah intends good for His servants and wants to bring them near to Him. We should find comfort in knowing that “Allah is more merciful to His servants than a mother is to her child.”[^43] Part of His mercy is allowing us the opportunity to grow stronger through trials and hardships. The believers should be introspective during these times and look deeply into their situation. How we react determines whether it's a punishment or blessing. Are we passing the test and coming closer to Allah? Although we are not in complete control of the consequences of the coronavirus, we are in control of our reactions. Whether our trial relates to physical, mental, or financial health, through patience, hope in Allah’s reward, and contentment with His decree, we should find comfort knowing He may grant us the status of martyrdom. As the Prophet ﷺ said to Allah after his ordeal in Ṭāif, “As long as you are not displeased with me, I do not care \[what I face\]. I would, however, be much happier with Your mercy.”[^44] --- ## Notes [^1]: “COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic,” Worldometer, last updated April 9, 2020, [https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). [^2]: Julian P. Alexander, “Philosophy of Punishment,” *Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology* 13 (1922): 235. [^3]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “The Infinitely Merciful and the Question of Hellfire,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, July 10, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire/). [^4]: For example, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, the most lightly punished of the people of Hellfire on the Day of Resurrection is a man under whose feet are two hot coals that cause his brain to boil.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* the book on heart softeners, the chapter on descriptions of paradise and hellfire. [^5]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Hādī al-arwāḥ ilá bilād al-afrāḥ* (Amman: Dar al-Fikr, 1987). [^6]: Qur’an 21:40. [^7]: Qur’an 29:40. [^8]: Qur’an 32:21. [^9]: This has been attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, ʿAlqamah, Mujāhid, Qatādah, and many others. The other interpretation is that the nearer punishment refers to punishment in the grave. [^10]: Qur’an 30:41. [^11]: Helen Y. Weng, Andrew S. Fox, Heather C. Hessenthaler, Diane E. Stodola, and Richard J. Davidson, “The Role of Compassion in Altruistic Helping and Punishment Behavior,” *PloS One* 10, no. 12 (2015); Ernst Fehr and Simon Gächter, “Altruistic Punishment in Humans,” *Nature* 415, no. 6868 (2002): 137–40. [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, the book of character, the chapter on mercy and affection to children. [^13]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Hādī al-arwāḥ*. [^14]: Burrhus F. Skinner, “Operant Behavior,” *American Psychologist* 18, no. 8 (1963): 503. [^15]: Negative reinforcement occurs when something present (e.g., bad deeds in our record) is removed as a result of a person's behavior, creating a desirable outcome for that person. [^16]: An example of this is the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, “Whoever purifies himself in his house, then walks to one of the houses of Allah to perform one of the duties enjoined by Allah, for every two steps he takes, one will erase a sin and the other will raise him one degree in status.” *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, the book on *masjid*s and places of prayer, the chapter on walking to the *masjid* erasing sins and elevating one’s rank. [^17]: Qur’an 7:168. [^18]: Qur’an 68:32. [^19]: Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, *Trials and Tribulations* (Birmingham, UK: Dar al-Sunnah, 2004). [^20]: Not all afflictions are compassionate reprimands. They may also simply be tests meant to elevate the rank of an already righteous individual and to demonstrate how to deal with difficulties. The afflictions that Prophet Ayūb dealt with are an example of nonreprimanding afflictions. [^21]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “No hardship, illness, anxiety, grief, harm, or distress—not even the pricking of a thorn—afflicts a Muslim but that Allah will expiate some of his sins by it.” *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, the book of drinks, the chapter on what has come pertaining to expiation of sickness. [^22]: Qur’an 2:80. [^23]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, the book of medicine, the chapter on reward for patience during the plague. [^24]: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh: Maktaba Al-Salafiyah, 2008). [^25]: The largest categories of respondents were 25–34 (34%), held bachelor’s degrees (39%), and were South Asian (56%). Females comprised 73% of the sample, and 69% of the sample reported praying five times a day. [^26]: We first ran a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm (Ward’s method) to determine the best cluster solution. K-means clustering was subsequently performed to fine-tune cluster homogeneity by reassigning cases to the optimal cluster. [^27]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, the book of virtues of the companions, the chapter on the merits of Omar. [^28]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5097. [^29]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, the book and chapter on descriptions of the day of judgment, heart softeners, and cautiousness. [^30]: Qur’an 11:117. [^31]: Qur’an 4:147. [^32]: Don E. Davis, Elise Choe, Joel Meyers, Nathaniel G. Wade, Kristen Varjas, Allison Gifford, Amy Quinn, Joshua Hook, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Brandon J. Griffin, and Everett L. Worthington, “Thankful for the Little Things: A Meta-Analysis of Gratitude Interventions,” *Journal of Counseling Psychology* 63, no. 1 (2016): 20. [^33]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, the book of character, the chapter on being grateful for goodness. [^34]: Qur’an 8:33. [^35]: Qur’an 39:53. [^36]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, the book of seeking forgiveness. [^37]: S*unan al-Tirmidhī*, the book of zakāt, hadīth 664. [^38]: *Saḥīḥ Muslim*, the book of purification, the chapter on the virtues of ablution. [^39]: Ibn Ḥibbān, no. 653. [^40]: Ibn al-Athīr, *Usud al-ghābah fī maʿrifat al-ṣaḥābah* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2012). [^41]: The historian, Ibn ‘Asākir, wrote these lines of poetry about the plague of ʿAmwās. “How many brave horsemen and beautiful, chaste women were killed in the valley of ʿAmwās. They had encountered the Lord, but He was not unjust to them. When they died, they were among the non-aggrieved people in Paradise. We endure the plague as the Lord knows, and we were consoled in the hour of death.” Michael W. Dols, “Plague in Early Islamic History,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society*, 1974, 371–83. [^42]: Qur’an 6:63. [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5653. [^44]: Al-Ṭabarānī, the book of *du’a*. See the complete *du’a* [here](https://theidealmuslimman.com/2016/11/20/1219/). ## Summary Since the coronavirus spread across the world—infecting more than two million and taking over a hundred thousand lives—many Muslims have wrestled with pressing questions of the heart: Is this pandemic a punishment from Allah? Is He angry with us? Or could it be a blessing, a test, or a punishment all at once? These questions cannot be answered responsibly without first grasping what punishment means within Islamic theology, for the term carries many meanings—trials, rebukes, reprimands, penalties, and disciplinary actions that may manifest either in this world or the Hereafter. In the Hereafter, the gravest punishment is the Hellfire, and it is meted out only after Allah brings His servants to account on the Day of Judgment with His perfect justice and mercy. Such punishment varies in severity and duration according to the extent of one's wrongdoing against oneself and others, just as reward varies according to one's righteousness. Ibn al-Qayyim described the Fire as a means of purification, saying, "The Hellfire was created to frighten the believers and to purify the sinners and criminals... Had it purified itself here through genuine repentance, good deeds which erase [sins], and calamities which atone [for sins], it would not have needed to be purified there." Thus the believer keeps both reward and punishment before his eyes, for they spur him toward righteousness and away from what does not befit faith. As for worldly punishment, the Qur'an distinguishes two kinds. The first is retributive—a decisive judgment leaving no path to redemption. Allah says, "Rather, it will come to them unexpectedly and bewilder them, and they will not be able to repel it, nor will they be reprieved." This form comes only after specific conditions are met: the sending of a prophet, the society's rejection of him, persistence in corruption, and the spurning of repeated warnings. Its purposes include ending oppression, supporting a prophet, manifesting Allah's attributes of majesty against a rebellious nation, and teaching later generations. Allah describes how such punishment destroyed earlier nations: "So each [nation] We seized for their sin; and among them were those upon whom We sent a storm of stones... and among them were those whom We drowned. And Allah would not have wronged them, but it was they who were wronging themselves." The second kind is not a final verdict but a deterrent meant to bring people back to Allah and reform society. Allah says, "And We will surely let them taste the nearer punishment short of the greater punishment so that perhaps they will return." Many of the Prophet's companions ﷺ and early scholars understood the "nearer punishment" as the hardships, ailments, and tribulations of this life through which Allah encourages His servants to repent—so that its very purpose is to draw them near to Him. This is reinforced by His words, "Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea because of what the hands of people have earned, so He may let them taste some of the consequences of what they have done so that perhaps they will return." These afflictions are therefore best understood as compassionate reprimands for humanity's betterment. Though it may seem strange that punishment can flow from compassion, it becomes clear when the aim is to relieve suffering and restore harmony—like bitter medicine that heals despite its pain, and this comes from the One who is more merciful to us than our own mothers. Ibn al-Qayyim captured this beautifully: "A compassionate doctor may cauterize the sick person, searing him with fire over and over again, in order to remove from him the foul elements that sabotaged his natural state of health. And if [this doctor] sees that amputating the limb is better for the sick person, he severs it, causing him by that the most severe pain." Reward and hardship both shape behavior, as Allah says, "And We tested them with good and bad so that perhaps they would return." A striking illustration is the people of the garden (aṣḥāb al-jannah) in Sūrat al-Qalam, who conspired to deny the poor their customary share of the harvest, only to find their garden destroyed by morning. After blaming one another, they took responsibility, sought forgiveness, and said, "Perhaps our Lord will exchange for us something better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." Had Allah not subjected them to this "nearer punishment," they might never have turned sincerely to Him and might have faced accountability in the Hereafter instead. The benefit or harm of such trials differs from person to person. Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām said, "In tribulations, trials, misfortunes, and calamities lie a number of benefits; these benefits have differing degrees of relevance, differing in accordance to the various ranks of people." One who endures pain with patience may have his sins expiated, and one content with Allah's decree may be raised in rank; the "nearer punishment" only becomes a further punishment for those who object to the decree and act in ways displeasing to Allah. A word of caution regarding qadar is necessary: though the sources confirm that afflictions, including plague-like epidemics, may be "nearer punishments," it lies beyond human perception to identify the precise cause of any specific affliction. To claim the coronavirus is a punishment upon a particular nation such as China, or for a particular reason, is mere conjecture—and its global spread shows it is not aimed at one people. Allah warns, "Or do you speak about Allah that which you do not know?" The nearest precedent is ʿĀishah's question to the Prophet ﷺ about the plague, to which he replied, "It is a punishment that Allah sends upon whomever He wills, but Allah has made it a mercy for the believers. Any servant who resides in a land afflicted by plague, remaining patient and hoping for reward from Allah, knowing that nothing will befall him except what Allah has decreed, will be given the reward of a martyr." Though the coronavirus is not technically the plague, both are painful, potentially fatal infectious diseases, so it is reasonable to apply this teaching. Ibn Ḥajar explains that the punishment in this hadith is hastened in the world before the Hereafter and results from widespread moral corruption—yet, at both the societal and individual level, it may become either a further punishment or a mercy. For the believer who is patient, quarantines appropriately, hopes for reward, and accepts the divine decree, it may be a great mercy, even carrying the reward of martyrdom. To ground these matters, Yaqeen Institute surveyed over 1,800 American Muslims, diverse in age, education, and race, and generally religious. When asked whether the coronavirus was a punishment, 27% said not at all, 26% a moderate amount, and 12% a great deal; 84% believed it a major test from Allah; and 53% reported witnessing many blessings, while 20% saw few or none. Cluster analysis revealed five patterns of belief: "Not much of anything" (18%), who did little religiously; "Test & Punishment, but Few Blessings" (18%), with more reported anxiety; "Test & Punishment, but Many Blessings" (28%), who read Qur'an and coped religiously more, mostly men; "Only a Test" (9%), the smallest, with less religious coping; and "Blessing and a Test" (27%), who read Qur'an and coped religiously more, mostly women. Those who read the Qur'an regularly were more likely to perceive blessings even while seeing a nearer punishment, and viewing the crisis solely as punishment and test appeared linked to greater anxiety. Since pinpointing the true nature of the coronavirus may be impossible, the better question is how we have responded. When a Bedouin asked the Prophet ﷺ about the Hour, he replied, "And what have you prepared for it?"—teaching us to turn from the unseen toward our own response. Likewise, when the wind blew strongly, he would raise his hands saying, "O Allah, I ask You for its goodness and I take refuge with You from its evil," accounting for every possibility. So whether it is a punishment, a wake-up call, or a test, we ask Allah for its good and seek refuge from its evil; we seek forgiveness, rouse ourselves from heedlessness, and remain patient—thereby ensuring it becomes a blessing. To guard against punishment, the believer works at both individual and societal levels—being "mindful of Allah so that Allah is mindful of" him, and serving as an agent of social welfare, for Allah mentions that the presence of reformers prevents the destruction of societies. Several practices are highlighted: faithful gratitude, for Allah says, "What would Allah benefit from punishing you if you are grateful and faithful?"; seeking forgiveness, for "Allah would not punish them while they continue to ask for forgiveness," and the Prophet said that constant seeking of forgiveness brings relief and unexpected provision; charitable giving, since "Charity extinguishes the anger of God" and will shade a person on the Day of Judgment; social distancing, echoing ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ's words during the plague of ʿAmwās, "Plague is like fire and you are its fuel. Therefore, disperse"; and steadfastness in maintaining good changes after relief comes, lest we forget our promises to Allah as He describes of those saved from crisis. In conclusion, the coronavirus may be a difficult test, a compassionate reprimand, or both, yet Allah intends good for His servants and desires to draw them near, being "more merciful to His servants than a mother is to her child." The believer should be introspective, knowing that his reaction determines whether it becomes punishment or blessing, and that through patience, hope in reward, and contentment he may attain the rank of martyr—finding solace in the Prophet's words after Ṭāif, "As long as you are not displeased with me, I do not care [what I face]." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/between-tension-and-compassion-reflections-on-family-time-during-covid-19 # Between Tension and Compassion: Reflections on Family Time During Covid-19 **Author:** Faatimah Knight **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, No-Tag, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 13, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Sometimes in a relationship, egos prevail over hearts and minds. When this happens, the part of us that desires to be right acts as our mouthpiece and drives our actions. Prophet Yūsuf’s brothers operated out of envy when they cast Yūsuf into the well. Instead of admiring how Allah had showered his blessings on Yūsuf, they overflowed with rage and jealousy. Families are likely to learn more about each other as we shutter indoors during this pandemic. We may learn some unsavory things that need attention and healing, but we may also learn that someone in the family has advanced or excelled in some area of their academic, professional, or personal life. We live so much of our lives outside of the house that a lot can transpire in a family member’s life before others catch up. When we do catch up, our response may not always be the most reasonable. Siblings, especially, have a habit of devouring each other like wolves, as Prophet Yaʿqūb alluded to in his cryptic warning to his sons. In some cases, it is those closest to us whom we deem undeserving of their blessings. We think, perhaps, that if others knew them as we do, they would not be so quick to praise them and grant them opportunities. And yet, rarely when we are praised, given opportunities, and generally blessed by Allah do we find our own selves undeserving. There is no one in this world whose shortcomings we are more aware of than our own. Let us remember the principle of reciprocity: if it would pain you for someone to assess you as undeserving of your blessings, don’t inflict the same judgment on others. As well as we might know our loved ones, we do not know them as Allah knows them. It’s best to stay unassuming—trying to understand how God distributes His mercy, to whom, and why is a losing game. Allah’s provisions are vast and His wisdom in distributing them is more refined than ours. Knowing this, we should try to be understanding of Allah’s decree, hopeful in Him, and prayerful at all times. > All bounty is in the hand of Allah. He grants it to whom He wills. And Allah is All-Encompassing, Wise. He selects for His mercy whom He wills. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty. (Qur’an 3:73-74) We should be wary of bungling our interactions with family members through lackluster responses. We must also mind the daily annoyances that get under our skin and eat away at the affection we have for each other. We often think someone knows that what they’re doing upsets us—they may not. We think that a certain glance of the eye, a furrow of the brow, or sigh is a subtle clue of someone’s disfavor. We surmise that a small action or *lack* of action is an intentional dig at us. But these are double standards. For we’ve all felt the sting that burns when someone accuses us of harmful intent though we are innocent. As Rūmī once said, “If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror ever be polished?” In Rūmī’s statement, mirror is a metaphor for the heart. He’s cautioning us that if we are constantly bothered by what’s happening around us, our hearts will struggle to be purified and pleasing to Allah. Be aware of the improbability of your assumptions about other people. It is unlikely that everything you take offense to has malintent behind it. Whenever possible, give others the benefit of the doubt and have a good opinion before indulging in negative thoughts. > Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales; and do not look for the faults of others and do not spy, and do not be jealous of one another, and do not desert one another, and do not have enmity for one another. O servants of Allah, be brothers. (*Bukhārī*) Someone once said that the greatest of the *liberal arts* is the art of learning to live together. When you live with someone long enough, you tend to build up between yourselves habits of mutual annoyance. No amount of self-work in the world will make you adore all the habits and quirks of another person. Perhaps that’s a good thing. If you let it, it can act as a reminder that only Allah is perfect. The Prophet ﷺ cautioned us against holding others to the standard of perfection. He gave counsel that if a husband dislikes one of his wife’s characteristics, he should focus on another aspect he finds pleasing.[^1] And the same advice can be given to wives. Allah wants us to be good to each other, which means that it's imperative to improve our relationships. That might mean having a better opinion so that our hearts can soften toward each other. It may also mean that all parties agree to make small changes for the greater good of achieving tranquility in the home. Since this is a transitional time for everyone, the needs of the whole family, from the children to the adults ought to be taken into consideration. > Whoever does not show mercy to our young ones, or acknowledge the rights of our elders, is not one of us. (*Musnad Aḥmad*) We sometimes have the urge to turn inward, crawl into our caves and disengage so as to not make the wounds in our relationships fester. Knowing that our relationships matter, we might resort to praying for the other as a way of mending the fractures when we find it challenging to be physically together. But prayers for others ought not to become a means for the ego or Shaytan to get their portion. In other words, you might find yourself praying that the object of your frustration overturns a habit that you find bothersome. Reconsider. A prayer like this could reinforce in your mind the things about them that get under your skin and reignite all the negative feelings you harbor. Assess whether the thing you’re praying the person stops engaging in is objectively harmful like smoking, lying, abandonment of responsibilities, etc. If the action is not objectively harmful, you might consider beseeching Allah for a resolution to tension and a resurgence of compassion in the relationship, in whatever way Allah deems it best to achieve that end. Just be careful of praying that they change without recognizing that *they* may not be the only problem. And don’t forget to pray for the things that may be causing them harm and hardship, like a sickness, heartbreak, financial difficulty, or feeling burdened by their responsibilities. > The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you. (*Tirmidhī*) Many of us are not accustomed to spending so much time at home. To some extent, you might even feel like a stranger in your own home. Try to treat your home as you would a guest, show your gratitude for having shelter by honoring your home in how you care for its upkeep and in how you perceive it. For those of us who have busy, bustling homes we might benefit from establishing a cleanliness minimum. Lower your expectations so as to avoid unnecessary frustration but not so low that it makes being home tougher. When it comes to how you perceive your home, try to look at it with the eye of gratitude by focusing on what you have instead of what you don’t. If you have the blessing of a bed, you might consider going to sleep a little earlier. If, through the power of our orientation, we can see beyond the mere materiality of our homes, and instead treat our homes with care and bring them to life with worship, we may breathe life into our space and feel it expand. Arabs have a proverb, “*Dayyiq fī al-qalb*,” which means that sometimes constriction is a product of your perception, not reality. Perhaps we can all take inventory of the aspects of being at home that make us feel constricted and see if we cannot make them more expansive, either by changing our attitude or adjusting our conditions. Appreciate your space and family by calling to mind, humorously or seriously, how things could be worse. Consider how the house could be smaller, the water could never run warm, the internet could be cut off, and a whole host of other unpalatable but possible alternatives. Then return to your situation, appreciating all that you have and how easily things could be otherwise. Don’t make your circumstances a wedge between yourself and Allah when they could be a bridge to Allah. --- ## Notes [^1]: The Messenger of Allah (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “A believer must not hate a believing woman \[his wife\]; if he dislikes one of her characteristics he will be pleased with another characteristic.” *Ṣaḥiḥ Muslim*, bk. 1, hadith 275. ## Summary During times of hardship and confinement, families are drawn closer together and may discover things about one another that had previously gone unnoticed. Such discoveries can be a source of joy, as when we learn that a relative has excelled in some worldly or personal endeavor, but they can also stir up the darker inclinations of the soul. The story of Prophet Yūsuf, upon him be peace, offers a sobering example: his brothers, rather than rejoicing in the blessings Allah had bestowed upon him, were consumed by envy and cast him into the well. Prophet Yaʿqūb, upon him be peace, had perceived this danger and warned his sons in his cryptic caution against their consuming one another. This teaches us that envy often finds its most fertile ground among those closest to us, for we imagine that our familiarity with a person's faults renders them undeserving of the favors Allah has granted them. Yet a moment of honest reflection exposes the injustice of such thinking. When we ourselves are praised, given opportunities, or blessed, we rarely pause to declare ourselves unworthy—even though no one is more aware of our shortcomings than we are. The principle of reciprocity should therefore govern our hearts: if it would wound us to be judged undeserving of our blessings, we must not visit such judgment upon others. However well we know our loved ones, we do not know them as Allah knows them. To pry into how and to whom Allah apportions His mercy is a losing endeavor, for His provision is vast and His wisdom in its distribution is finer than our own. Allah, Most High, declares, "All bounty is in the hand of Allah. He grants it to whom He wills. And Allah is All-Encompassing, Wise. He selects for His mercy whom He wills. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty" (Qur'an 3:73–74). Knowing this, our posture should be one of contentment with Allah's decree, hope in Him, and constant supplication. Alongside envy, we must guard against the daily irritations that quietly erode the affection between family members. We often assume that others know their conduct upsets us, and we read hidden hostility into a glance, a furrowed brow, or a sigh, imagining that some small act or omission is a deliberate slight against us. But this is a double standard, for each of us has felt the sting of being accused of ill intent while wholly innocent. Rūmī reminds us of this when he said, "If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror ever be polished?"—the mirror here standing for the heart, which cannot be purified and made pleasing to Allah so long as it is perpetually disturbed by its surroundings. We ought therefore to recognize how improbable our suspicions usually are, and to extend to others the benefit of the doubt and a good opinion before surrendering to negative thoughts. The Messenger ﷺ warned us plainly: "Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales; and do not look for the faults of others and do not spy, and do not be jealous of one another, and do not desert one another, and do not have enmity for one another. O servants of Allah, be brothers" (Bukhārī). Living together well is itself a discipline, and it has been said that the greatest of the arts is the art of learning to live together. When we share a home for long enough, habits of mutual annoyance inevitably accumulate, and no amount of inner work will make us cherish every quirk of another person. Rather than despairing at this, we may take it as a reminder that perfection belongs to Allah alone. The Prophet ﷺ cautioned against holding others to an impossible standard, counselling a husband who dislikes one trait in his wife to turn his attention instead to another quality that pleases him—counsel that applies equally to wives. Since Allah calls us to be good to one another, mending our relationships becomes a duty, whether by cultivating a better opinion so that our hearts soften, or by all parties consenting to small changes for the sake of tranquility in the home. In a time of transition, the needs of every member of the household, young and old alike, deserve consideration, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever does not show mercy to our young ones, or acknowledge the rights of our elders, is not one of us" (Musnad Aḥmad). When physical closeness becomes strained, we may be tempted to withdraw into ourselves and to turn to prayer as a means of repair. This is commendable, but our supplications must not become an instrument for the ego or for Shayṭān to claim their share. If we find ourselves praying merely that another person abandon some habit we find irritating, we should reconsider, for such a prayer may only rehearse their faults in our minds and rekindle our resentment. We should ask whether the behavior is objectively harmful—such as smoking, lying, or the neglect of responsibilities—or whether it is simply a source of friction. If it is not truly harmful, it is better to beseech Allah for the easing of tension and the renewal of compassion in whatever manner He knows to be best, while remembering that the other person may not be the sole cause of the difficulty. Nor should we neglect to pray for the burdens that may be weighing upon them, whether sickness, heartbreak, financial hardship, or the strain of their duties. In this the words of the Prophet ﷺ guide us: "The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you" (Tirmidhī). Finally, we may find ourselves unaccustomed to spending so much time within our homes, feeling almost like strangers within our own walls. We would do well to treat our home as we would an honored guest, showing gratitude for the shelter Allah has given us through the care we take of it and the way we perceive it. In busy households it may help to set a modest standard of cleanliness—low enough to spare us needless frustration, yet not so low that dwelling there becomes harder. Above all, we should look upon our home with the eye of gratitude, dwelling upon what we possess rather than what we lack, and enlivening our space with worship so that it feels expansive rather than confining. The Arabs have a proverb, "Dayyiq fī al-qalb," meaning that constriction is often a product of perception rather than reality. Let us then take stock of whatever makes us feel confined, whether by adjusting our circumstances or our attitude, and remind ourselves—whether in earnest or in jest—how easily things could be worse: the house smaller, the water never warm, the internet severed. Returning to our situation with such awareness, we come to appreciate all that we have and how readily it might have been otherwise. Let us never allow our circumstances to become a wedge between ourselves and Allah when they might instead serve as a bridge to Him. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/return-to-the-maskan-rediscovering-the-treasure-of-home # Return to the Maskan: Rediscovering the Treasure of Home **Author:** Dr. Zara Khan **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19 **Published:** April 8, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *This reflection series was launched in April 2020 by the Yaqeen Institute in an effort to provide timely, thoughtful, and Islamically grounded perspectives by its Research Fellows surrounding the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Contributors to both the research papers and the reflection series in the [Coronavirus Collection](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/faith-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/) are committed to answering the tough spiritual questions raised by this pandemic, as well as providing practical solutions and resources in the hopes of bringing clarity and certainty in Allah in an otherwise uncertain time.* Award-winning Jewish American children’s author Uri Shulevitz tells in *The Treasure* the tale of a poor man named Isaac who often goes to bed hungry. (Spoiler alert!) Isaac dreams of a voice instructing him to travel to the capital city and look for a treasure under the bridge by the royal palace but he dismisses it. When the voice comes to him for the third time, Isaac sets off on his journey.  Through forests and across mountains he travels until he reaches the capital city and the bridge by the royal palace. A guard questions him for lurking around day after day so Isaac tells him of his dream. Laughing, the guard reveals that he, too, once had a dream instructing him to go to Isaac’s city and seek a treasure under the stove of a man named Isaac. Isaac returns to his home, digs under his stove and finds a priceless treasure. As Shulevitz says: > In thanksgiving, he built a house of prayer, and in one of its corners he put an inscription: *Sometimes one must travel far to discover what is near*.[^1] Many families right now are currently finding themselves in unfamiliar terrain. We have become accustomed, due to mass education and the demands of a modern wage-labor economy, to spending more of our waking hours in schools and workplaces than at home with our families. Numerous resources are emerging on social media to help families adjust to spending most of their time together, often for the first time. Educators and consultants are graciously providing routine guides, home schedules, advice for working remotely and other templates to help families transition to our changed circumstances in light of the current pandemic. But one unique opportunity we ought to consider is how this new situation can allow us to discover what is near and priceless, after our far travels into the complexity of modern workplaces and schooling. The Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, spent his early childhood amidst a desert education in which the natural wonders all around him (the seemingly endless desert, rock formations, clear skies, the night with its brilliant firmament of stars, etc.) imprinted Allah’s majesty upon his heart and soul. During his subsequent upbringing in Mecca’s city life, he learned moral lessons and higher truths by observing the best of teachers, his role models in his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and uncle Abū Ṭālib. So did Allah guide him to become the most respected and trustworthy man, *al-Amīn*, in his society, as well as *ḥanīf* (monotheist) in his nature. Shaykh Muhammad Zāhid Abū Ghuddah’s translation of his father Shaykh ‘Abd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah’s work *Al-Rasūl al-Muʿallim* (*Prophet Muhammad: The Teacher*) provides a brilliant array of examples from the Prophet’s life, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, in which he helped reshape people’s lives and hearts through a multitude of teaching methods. These include repetition, allowing time for instruction to be grasped, memorization, rhetorical questions, detailed commentary, imagery, humor, seriousness, coaching participation from those he was instructing, addressing the whole community, addressing small focus groups, formal, informal, covering every subject area of human life from family life to battle; etc. As the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, taught the believers, we ought also to employ a wide array of methods to compassionately and intelligently teach our family members and neighbors what is good and necessary for attaining Allah’s pleasure. As we find ourselves forced into forms of disconnect from school and work, let us recall that it is our home dwelling, where family life resides, that Allah refers to as *maskan*[^2] (from *sakana* which refers to peace and tranquility). Both our earthly homes (past and present, human and animal) and the joyous dwellings of paradise are referred to as *maskan.* The home and family life should comprise the seat of tranquility in a human being’s earthly journey. By contrast, most of us nowadays have come to regard work or school as our *home away from home*, often to the point where we feel *more* at home outside than we do with our own families! In that sense, and as is the habit of Allah that there is good even in what is calamitous, the present challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic is like an arduous journey of an impoverished man, through forests and across mountains, to arrive at the key to understanding the treasure that has always awaited his uncovering in the hearth of his own home. As we take precautions, improve our practice to face the present challenge and implement some of the helpful strategies that are circulating on social media, let us take time to unplug and wonder at the natural beauty that surrounds each of us wherever we may live. Let us worry less about teaching common core standards to our children and spend more time teaching them appropriate occasions for laughter and grief and modeling beautiful interactions among siblings, parents, etc. As we aim to preserve life, let us not shy away from teaching them what death is. Let’s begin or increase our daily Qur’an regimens as families, study the Prophet’s teaching methods (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him), read (print) books, take walks, cook together, check on neighbors, care for the wildlife in our neighborhoods, weed the small or large patches of grass (as the case may be) in our vicinity, plant trees, and study the stars. The Prophet himself, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, appreciated the *maskan* by serving his family, leaving everything to stand for *salah* at the appointed time, and playing and joking with children.[^3] Those who are working from home ought to gift groceries to those whose jobs are not providing continued compensation for remote work (*masājid* can help coordinate efforts). For those whose occupations are manual, now is a great time for edification through reading. For those whose jobs are discursive and desk-bound, now is the time to break open the stagnant channels of energy by exerting the body. One thing is certain for all: if you are finding yourself forced to spend more time with your family, it’s an excellent opportunity to beautify and strengthen those primordial bonds. Of course, not every family is in the same situation in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Countless people in the underclass, working-class and health professionals of our economy are among the vulnerable groups outside providing essential services to others. May Allah preserve them. Let us also keep in our *duʿāʾs* those brothers and sisters whose homes, far from being places of tranquility, are places of trauma or abuse. May Allah fortify them to ask their rights of one another in his name, as is told to us in the opening verse of Surat Al-Nisāʾ.[^4] Many other families don’t usually have enough time to connect with one another, share their problems and seek one another’s counsel. What better way to spend newfound time together than sharing our experiences across generational divides and working through relationship issues to arrive at caring, reciprocity, and *sakīnah* (tranquility). As the great scholar of the Qur’an Imam Fode Drame, may Allah preserve him, states, the purpose of education is to preserve the *fiṭrah* (primordial God-consciousness). May this crisis be for us, after all, a teachable moment. [\[1\]](#ftnt_ref1) Uri Shulevitz, *The Treasure* (New York: Square Fish, 1978). [\[2\]](#ftnt_ref1) For example, Qur’an 20:128, 27:18, 34:15, and 61:12. The form I verb *sakana* is also used several times to mean *dwell,* as in 2:35 and 7:161. The noun *sakan* also appears, indicating *rest* and *reassurance*, in 6:96 and 9:103. [\[3\]](#ftnt_ref3) For example, Aswad bin Yazīd narrated: “I said: ‘O 'Aishah! What would the Prophet ﷺ do when he entered his house?’ She said: ‘He would busy himself with serving his family, then when (the time for) *salāt* was due he would stand (to go) for it.’ ” *Jami at-Tirmidhī*, vol. 4, bk. 11, hadith 2489. And also narrated by Mahmūd bin Rabi\`a: “When I was a boy of five, I remember, the Prophet ﷺ took water from a bucket (used for getting water out of a well) with his mouth and threw it on my face.” *Saḥīh al-Bukhārī*, bk. 3, hadith 77. [\[4\]](#ftnt_ref4) Allah says in verse 1 of Sūrat An-Nisāʾ: “O mankind!  Be conscious of your Sustainer, who has created you out of one living entity, and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude of men and women. And remain conscious of God, in whose name you demand \[your rights\] from one another, and of these ties of kinship. Verily, God is ever watchful over you!” ***Disclaimer:*** *The views, opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in these papers and articles are strictly those of the authors. Furthermore, Yaqeen does not endorse any of the personal views of the authors on any platform. Our team is diverse on all fronts, allowing for constant, enriching dialogue that helps us produce high-quality research.* Copyright © 2020. Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research ## Summary In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when families found themselves confined together in ways they had not experienced before, a valuable spiritual opportunity presented itself: the chance to rediscover the treasure that lies close at hand within the home. This reflection opens with the tale recounted by the Jewish American author Uri Shulevitz in *The Treasure*, in which a poor man named Isaac dreams repeatedly of a treasure buried beneath a distant bridge by the royal palace. After a long and arduous journey through forests and mountains, he learns from a guard that the treasure he seeks lies beneath his own stove back home. Returning, he digs and finds it, and builds a house of prayer bearing the inscription: "Sometimes one must travel far to discover what is near." This parable frames the central lesson — that the modern demands of schooling and wage-labor have accustomed us to spending our waking hours away from home, and that the pandemic, for all its difficulty, offers a journey back to the priceless value that has always resided in the family and the household. It is fitting to recall how Allah educated His Prophet Muhammad, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him. In his early childhood amidst the desert, the natural wonders around him — the endless expanse of sand, the rock formations, the clear skies, and the brilliant firmament of stars — imprinted the majesty of Allah upon his heart. Then, in the life of Mecca, he learned moral lessons and higher truths by observing the finest of role models in his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his uncle Abū Ṭālib. Thus did Allah guide him to become the most trusted man in his society, *al-Amīn*, and a *ḥanīf* by his very nature. This upbringing reminds us that education flows not only through formal instruction but through the environment, character, and companionship that surround a person. The work of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah, *Al-Rasūl al-Muʿallim* (Prophet Muhammad: The Teacher), translated by his son Shaykh Muhammad Zāhid Abū Ghuddah, offers a rich array of examples of how the Prophet ﷺ reshaped the hearts and lives of people through many teaching methods. Among these were repetition, allowing time for lessons to be grasped, memorization, rhetorical questions, detailed commentary, vivid imagery, humor, seriousness, encouraging participation from learners, addressing both the whole community and small focus groups, teaching formally and informally, and covering every subject of human life from family matters to warfare. Just as the Prophet ﷺ taught the believers in this manner, we too ought to employ a wide range of compassionate and intelligent methods to teach our families and neighbors what is good and necessary for attaining the pleasure of Allah. There is deep wisdom in reflecting on how Allah describes the home. The dwelling of family life is called *maskan*, from the root *sakana*, which carries the meaning of peace and tranquility. Both our earthly homes and the joyous dwellings of Paradise are referred to by this term (as in Qur'an 20:128, 27:18, 34:15, and 61:12), while the verb *sakana* is used to mean "dwell" (as in 2:35 and 7:161), and the noun *sakan* appears indicating rest and reassurance (as in 6:96 and 9:103). The home is meant to be the seat of tranquility in a human being's earthly journey. Yet many of us today have come to treat work or school as our home away from home, at times feeling more at ease outside than within our own families. In this light — and consistent with the way of Allah that there is good even within calamity — the trial of the pandemic resembles the poor man's arduous journey to uncover the treasure that had always awaited him within his own hearth. While taking proper precautions and adopting helpful strategies, we are encouraged to unplug and marvel at the natural beauty surrounding us. Rather than fixating solely on academic standards, we should spend more time teaching our children the fitting occasions for laughter and for grief, and modeling beautiful conduct between siblings and parents. In striving to preserve life, we should not shy away from teaching them the reality of death. Families are encouraged to begin or increase a daily regimen of Qur'an together, to study the Prophet's teaching methods ﷺ, to read printed books, take walks, cook together, check on neighbors, care for the wildlife nearby, tend to grass, plant trees, and study the stars. The Prophet ﷺ himself cherished the *maskan*: ʿĀ'ishah reported that when he entered his house he would busy himself serving his family and then rise for the prayer when its time came (*Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*), and Maḥmūd bin Rabīʿ recalled that as a boy of five the Prophet ﷺ playfully threw water from a bucket onto his face (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*). Thus he served his family, stood for prayer at its appointed time, and joked with children. Concern for others must accompany this reflection. Those able to work from home ought to gift groceries to those whose livelihoods have been interrupted, and the masājid can help coordinate such efforts. Those whose work is physical may find this a time for edification through reading, while those whose work is desk-bound may benefit from exerting the body. For all, the extended time with family is an opportunity to beautify and strengthen these primordial bonds. Yet not every household is alike: many among the working class, the underclass, and health professionals remain outside providing essential services and are vulnerable. May Allah preserve them. We must also keep in our supplications those whose homes are places not of tranquility but of trauma and abuse, praying that Allah fortify them to demand their rights from one another in His name, as Allah commands in the opening verse of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ: "O mankind! Be conscious of your Sustainer... and remain conscious of God, in whose name you demand [your rights] from one another, and of these ties of kinship. Verily, God is ever watchful over you." Sharing experiences across generations and working through relationship difficulties can bring about caring, reciprocity, and *sakīnah*. As the scholar of the Qur'an Imam Fode Drame, may Allah preserve him, states, the purpose of education is to preserve the *fiṭrah*, the primordial God-consciousness. May this crisis prove, in the end, to be a teachable moment. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-loan-of-love-appreciating-the-blessing-of-family-in-difficult-times # A Loan of Love: Appreciating the Blessing of Family in Difficult Times **Author:** Hanif Fouse **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 6, 2020 **Updated:** September 6, 2026 ## Introduction One of the greatest factors that increases one’s faith is seeing revelation come alive. It is one thing to read the Qur’an and prophetic traditions without seeing their practical applications and manifestations. It is another thing altogether to experience the truth of revelation firsthand in one’s own life. In the present circumstances, we are able to experience this in the hadith collected by al-Bukhārī and reported by Ibn ʿAbbās in which the Prophet ﷺ stated, “There are two blessings which most people are cheated out of: good health and free time.”[^1] The point here is not to talk about the blessing of good health; people are obviously very concerned about that blessing right now. The larger takeaway is that there are blessings very near to us that are easy to overlook, perhaps because we are so concerned with getting other things or because we have grown accustomed to them and take them for granted. For those of us who live near *masjid*s, the temporary closure of many houses of worship and the inability to attend Friday congregational prayer and congregational prayers in general has awakened in our hearts a newfound love for the houses of Allah. This rekindled yearning and desire to be in the *masjid*, especially so close to Ramadan, is a blessing that brings alive for the Muslim the statement of Allah, the Exalted: > مَا أَصَابَ مِن مُّصِيبَةٍ إِلاَّ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَمَن يُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ > > No affliction happens except by the will of Allah. And Allah will guide the heart of whoever has *īmān* in Him.[^2] ʿAlqama bin Qays (d. 62 AH), a scholar of Kufa and student of ʿAbdullāh bin Mas‘ūd, commented on the preceding verse, “This refers to a person afflicted by a trial but knows it is from Allah and so is pleased with Allah and submits to Allah’s will.”[^3] An integral part of that submission involves being blessed to search for indications and representations of Allah’s perfection in a trial as opposed to being preoccupied with the trial itself. A person who is able to do so is able to praise and thank Allah in moments of tribulation and difficulty as opposed to complaining about the affliction itself. One is able to practice an act of worship that is often confused with being connected to one’s limb and tongue more than it is connected with the heart: gratitude. If Muslims benefited nothing more from this pandemic than a greater appreciation, reverence, and love for the *masjid*, it would suffice them as a blessing. In order to better appreciate this blessing, consider that when people are resurrected from their graves, they will be wading in various levels of perspiration, commensurate with the sins they have committed. To this point, the Mālikī scholar  Abū Bakr bin al-ʿArabī (d. 543 AH) commented, “In this book, we have clarified that each individual will be drowning in his perspiration in accordance with his sins. The location is the same, yet the perspiration of each individual will rise with him without affecting the person standing next to him in the same location, contrary to what occurs with water on earth.”[^4] Among those who will experience some relief on that day is a person whose heart is attached to the *masjid*. In the hadith collected by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim and reported by Abū Hurayrah, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stated, “There are seven people whom Allah will shade on a day there is no shade but His shade…a person whose heart is tied to the *masjid*.” In the narration collected by Muslim, a version of the hadith reads, “A person tied to the *masjid* from the time he leaves it until he returns.” This attachment, though caused by painful realities in this life, will reap huge rewards in the hereafter for the person whose heart is truly connected to the *masjid*. To this end, the great scholar of al-Andalus, Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf bin ʿAbdul Barr (d. 463 AH), mentions in his commentary on Imam Mālik’s *al-Muwaṭṭāʾ*, “Whoever is in Allah’s shade on a day when there is no shade but His shade has escaped the horrors of circumstance *inshaʾAllah*, and Allah knows best. May Allah make us among them. *Ameen*.”[^7] Consider all of the people at this very moment who long to be in Allah’s houses all over the country; then consider that Allah created the painful circumstances by which that longing would be developed in their hearts. A painful experience in this life may be what will save them from the horrors of that most awesome day. Realize that this is but one of numerous manifestations of Allah’s unmatched wisdom and the subtle ways by which He guides His servants to that which they need the most. Another blessing of this pandemic and a clear indication of Allah’s wisdom is that through it Allah has brought family members together who have grown accustomed to living apart, each in his own orbit, often between a material world and a virtual one. Similar to health, free time, and the *masjid*, family is a blessing that many are cheated out of. Allah indicates the blessing of family clearly in Surah an-Naḥl when He states: > Allah gave you spouses from yourselves and gave you children and grandchildren from your spouses and provided you with good and wholesome things. Do they believe  in falsehood and show ingratitude for the favors of Allah?[^8] Their closeness is similarly implied in the following statement of Allah, the Exalted: > When the deafening blast (of the horn) occurs, the day when a person will run away and leave behind his brother, his mother, and his father, his companion (i.e., his wife), and his children. Each one of them on that day will be preoccupied with his own concern.[^9] The great Yemeni scholar of the thirteenth *hijrī* century Muḥammad ʿAlī ash-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH) commented in his exegesis, *Fatḥ ul-qadīr*, “These individuals were mentioned specifically because they are one’s closest relatives, to whom one is expected to show the most affection and compassion. Running away from them and leaving them behind would only occur due to unimaginable horror and a tragic situation.”[^10] The scene that Allah depicts with our closest family members fleeing from us indicates how close families should be. As ash-Shawkānī himself mentioned, these relatives are “expected to show the most affection and compassion.” Unfortunately, though the terrors of the Day of Judgment have not been realized, many family members are already distant from one another; and this has become our norm. Life is set up in such a way that family members spend as little time together as possible. Many of us begin our days heading to work and school, rushing to our rooms in order to wind down from having to deal with people all day or to fulfill family duties of preparing or purchasing dinner. Once dinner is prepared or presented, it is not uncommon for family members to go their own separate ways and busy themselves with a screen of some sort. Many of us take it for granted that we even have family. Even more saddening is that, even with the present pandemic, families are frustrated having to spend extended time together, many for the first time in a long time. There is a longing to get away, back to “better times” when family members spent hours apart. This seems counterintuitive as the widespread fear of a serious, life-threatening virus would seem to be just the impetus required to bring family members closer. However, it is often not until disaster strikes, until one is actually afflicted with illness, until the threat of loss is real, that we begin to take things seriously and long for time lost. Like any blessing, many are cheated out of it and do not realize its true value until it is gone or taken away. Imam Muslim collects a narration reported by Anas bin Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, in which he describes how his sickly, younger half-brother, Abū ʿUmayr, passed away. Anas’s mother, Umm Sulaym, seeks to break the news gently to her husband, Anas’s stepfather Abū Ṭalḥah. She prepares a tantalizing meal for him and shares an intimate evening with him. Thereafter, she breaks the difficult news to him, using words indicating her strength of faith and a proper conceptualization of the value of family. She said, “If some people were to loan something to a family and, thereafter, requested that the loan item be returned, should the family refuse to return the loaned item.” Her husband, Abū Ṭalḥah, replied, “No.” She said, “So be patient and seek reward with Allah for the loss of your son.”[^11] There are so many points to ponder in her words, perhaps the most salient being that our time with one another is limited; ergo, every moment is special. Even when a family is not faced with tragedy—and we ask Allah to bless and protect all of our family members—children grow up so quickly. For many of us, it was just yesterday when our children admired our every word and movement. Then, their friends became their world and our role as parent did not seem to matter so much anymore. Shortly thereafter, they began families of their own or at least started lives of their own. The point is that if we begin to look at each family as a loan of comfort, a loan of love, a loan of mercy that will one day be reclaimed, perhaps that perspective will help us to appreciate the blessing of being able to spend meaningful time together. A pathway towards recognizing the true value of family begins with the heart. That we actually begin to feel that family is a blessing is found in the attention that we give to them with our hearts. When family is perceived as a blessing, one cannot help but think about them and desire their well-being. This desire is manifest on our tongues when we begin to thank Allah more for the blessing of family and to incorporate the supplications for family in our daily practices. Ibn ʿUmar reported that the Prophet ﷺ would never leave out the following words every evening and every morning, “O Allah, I ask you for protection in regards to my religion, my worldly affairs, my family and my wealth…”[^12] Al-Amīr Aṣ-Ṣanʿānī remarked, “\[Asking for protection\] regarding one’s family is to be saved from poor or negative interaction with them as well as from them being afflicted with illness and disease or from a preoccupation with overindulgence of transitory, material possessions.”[^13] Allah Himself mentions that His servants, the servants of the Most Merciful, say: Du'a for children وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا And \[they are\] those who say, “Our Lord, make our spouses and our children the joy of our eyes and make us ourselves leaders in piety and righteousness.”[^14] Qur'an 25:74 Ibn Kathīr commented, “They ask Allah to bring out from their progeny and offspring those who obey Him and worship Him alone, without partner.” He quoted al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī as saying, “It is for Allah to allow His Muslim servant to see his wife, his brother, and his close relative obedient to Allah. I swear by Allah that there is nothing more joyous to a Muslim than seeing his child, grandchild, brother, or close relative obedient to Allah, the Exalted.”[^15] Their appreciation for family is seen in their concern for the well-being of their family members in this life and the next, which shows a true comprehension of reality. Certainly, all parents want to see their children physically, financially, and emotionally well. Yet, no matter how intact these aspects of life are, they must come to an end. Consequently, a parent does a disservice to those closest to him or her if the only concern is for their material well-being and not for their eternal well-being. This desire for family well-being that is expressed in one’s prayer for family must also be realized through action. In this regard, Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī notes: > It is important to understand that the Arabic term *duʿāʾ* linguistically means “seeking,” which means that the one making *duʿāʾ* is calling out for what he or she is seeking after and hoping to attain. At times, *duʿāʾ* is performed by supplicating to and asking of Allah, just as when a person says, “Allah, forgive me. Allah, have mercy on me.” Other times, *duʿāʾ* is seeking the means by which something desired is to be attained, which is busying oneself with the obedience of Allah and His remembrance.[^16] Later in the same reference, Ibn Rajab cites a prophetic tradition collected by at-Tirmidhī in which Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī reported that the Prophet ﷺ quoted Allah as saying, “Whoever is distracted from asking me directly because he is preoccupied with the Qur’an and remembering me, I will give him the best of what I give those who ask me directly.” Ibn Rajab highlights the fact that when someone really desires something, he or she not only asks for it but actually strives to attain it. Accordingly, those who truly appreciate the blessing of family and, therefore, want the members of their family to be the joy of their eyes strive to take care of the blessing Allah has given them by helping their family be obedient to Allah and attain happiness in this life and the next. This is by achieving the latter part of the supplication mentioned in Surah al-Furqān, which reads: > وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ **وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا**  > > And \[they are\] those who say, “Our Lord, make our spouses and our children the joy of our eyes and **make us ourselves leaders in piety and righteousness**.”[^18] Those who want to see the best in their families help their families by not only asking Allah to guide them and protect them, but they lead by example, striving to create a family founded in Islamic values. Establishing prayer in the home on time as a family is a wonderful opportunity that often is not shared by men in the family, who should be praying their obligatory prayers at the *masjid* as much as reasonably possible. With curfews and home-shelter ordinances in effect, this is a real opportunity for parents to set the tone for timeliness with prayer in the household. It is an opportunity for the entire family to pray together. It is also an opportunity to practice the common remembrances to be said after the prayers and in the morning and in the evening. Imagine the blessing of a family whose members encourage one another to do an action that will supersede many other actions on the Day of Judgment. Abū Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said to his economically deprived companions when they complained about the advantage that the wealthy had for good deeds, “Shall I not teach you something by which you will catch up to those who have done more than you, and get ahead of those who come after you? Only those who do as you do will be able to achieve such excellence.” They said, “Yes, Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” He ﷺ said, “Say *Subḥānallāh*, *Alḥamdulillāh*, and *Allāhu Akbar* thirty-three times after every prayer.”[^19] This does not diminish the value of charity, which the Prophet ﷺ described as “evidence” for one’s *īmān*; it is an indication of the importance of the remembrance of Allah. For the family, developing this habit of worshipping together will help them preserve their identity as Muslims and take pride in their religion. One should also model family service by making time to help one another around the house and showing love through a shared sense of family duty. The idea that we worship Allah through helping one another with tasks, chores, and service to one another can really help to set a new, positive tone in the household. Imagine if mundane chores like washing dishes and folding clothes were not just seen as tasks but as an actual means of drawing close to Allah. This balance between family service and worship was established by our Prophet ﷺ in the tradition collected by al-Bukhārī and reported by ʿĀʾishah who, when asked about what the Prophet ﷺ used to do when at home, responded, “He used to be in the service of his family; however, when it was time for prayer, he ﷺ left to go pray.”[^21] Look at the balance and the model that he ﷺ set for his family and for his followers. Consider also that the Prophet’s ﷺ service to his family was visible and memorable to those dearest to him. It is this appreciation for family, realized in the heart, expressed on the tongue, and practiced through the limbs that will not only show our appreciation to Allah for the blessing of family but also allow us to be remembered by those dearest to us when we will be in need of their appreciation. Allah, the Exalted, commands righteous, appreciative children, saying: وَاخْفِضْ لَهُمَا جَنَاحَ الذُّلِّ مِنَ الرَّحْمَةِ وَقُل رَّبِّ ارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِي صَغِيرًا Show merciful humility towards them (i.e., your parents), and say, “My Lord, show mercy to them because they cared for me when I was young.”[^22] Qur'an 17:24 We ask Allah to bless us to take full advantage of this opportunity that He has placed before us out of His supreme wisdom and mercy just as we ask Him to remove this and all affliction from Muslims everywhere. *Ameen*. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:88, no. 6412. [^2]: Qur’an 64:11. [^3]: Abū Jaʿfar aṭ-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr at-Tabarī* (Riyadh: Dār ‘ālim ul-kutub, 2003), 23:12. [^4]: Abū Bakr Ibn al-‘Arabī, ‘*Āriḍat-ul aḥwadhī* (Cairo: Maktaba Ibn Taymiyya, n.d.), 12:235. [^5]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*,, 8:163, no. 6806. [^6]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:716, no. 1031. [^7]: Yūsuf bin ʿAbdul Barr al-Mālikī, *At-Tamhīd* (Mohammedia: Maṭba‘at ul-Fadhāla, 1967), 2:283. [^8]: Qur’an 16:72. [^9]: Qur’an 80:33–37. [^10]: Muḥammad bin ʿAlī ash-Shawkānī, *Fatḥ ul-Qadīr* (Mansoura: Dār-ul Wafā’, 2005), 5:512. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*,, no. 2144. [^12]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5904; *Sunan an-Nasāʾī al-kubrā*, 10:325, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3871; classified as authentic by al-Albānī. [^13]: Al-Amīr as-Ṣanʿānī, *Subul as-salām* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2014), 8:314. [^14]: Qur’an 25:74. [^15]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2010), 6:132. [^16]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2004), 1:18. [^17]: *Sunan at-Tirmidhī*, no. 2926. [^18]: Qur’an 25:74. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 223. [^20]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm wal-ḥikam* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 2002), 1:412. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 676. [^22]: Qur’an 17:24. ## Summary Among the greatest means by which a servant's faith is strengthened is to witness revelation come alive before his own eyes. To read the Qur'an and the prophetic traditions without seeing their practical manifestations is one matter; to experience the truth of revelation firsthand in one's own life is another altogether. In the present circumstances of pandemic and closure, this experience is realized in the hadith collected by al-Bukhārī and reported by Ibn ʿAbbās, in which the Prophet ﷺ said, "There are two blessings which most people are cheated out of: good health and free time." The deeper lesson here is not merely the blessing of health, which occupies people's concern at present, but rather that there are blessings near to us that are easily overlooked—either because we are preoccupied with attaining other things, or because familiarity has led us to take them for granted. For those who live near the masjid, the temporary closure of the houses of worship and the inability to attend the Friday congregation and the daily prayers in congregation has awakened a renewed love for the houses of Allah. This rekindled yearning, especially as Ramadan draws near, brings alive the words of Allah, the Exalted: "No affliction happens except by the will of Allah. And Allah will guide the heart of whoever has īmān in Him." ʿAlqama bin Qays (d. 62 AH), the scholar of Kufa and student of ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd, explained this verse to refer to "a person afflicted by a trial but who knows it is from Allah and so is pleased with Allah and submits to Allah's will." An integral part of that submission is to be granted the ability to search for the indications of Allah's perfection within a trial, rather than being consumed by the trial itself. Whoever does so is enabled to praise and thank Allah in moments of hardship rather than complain, and thereby practices an act of worship often mistaken as belonging to the limb and tongue more than the heart: gratitude. Even if Muslims gained nothing from this pandemic beyond a greater love and reverence for the masjid, that alone would suffice as a blessing. To appreciate its weight, consider that when people are resurrected, they will wade in perspiration according to their sins. Abū Bakr bin al-ʿArabī (d. 543 AH), the Mālikī scholar, noted that each person will drown in his own perspiration in accordance with his sins, the perspiration rising with him without affecting the one beside him—unlike water upon the earth. Among those who will find relief on that Day is the one whose heart is attached to the masjid. In the hadith collected by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, reported by Abū Hurayrah, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned "seven people whom Allah will shade on a day there is no shade but His shade," among them "a person whose heart is tied to the masjid." Muslim's narration reads, "A person tied to the masjid from the time he leaves it until he returns." Ibn ʿAbdul Barr (d. 463 AH), the scholar of al-Andalus, remarked in his commentary on al-Muwaṭṭaʾ that whoever attains Allah's shade on that Day has escaped the horrors of the standing, if Allah wills. Consider then all those who now long for Allah's houses, and that Allah created the very circumstances by which that longing was cultivated in their hearts—a painful experience that may prove their salvation from the terrors of that awesome Day. This is but one of the countless manifestations of Allah's unmatched wisdom in guiding His servants to what they most need. Another blessing of this trial, and a clear sign of Allah's wisdom, is that He has brought together family members who had grown accustomed to living apart, each in his own orbit between the material and the virtual world. Like health, free time, and the masjid, family is a blessing of which many are cheated. Allah indicates its worth in Sūrah an-Naḥl: "Allah gave you spouses from yourselves and gave you children and grandchildren from your spouses and provided you with good and wholesome things. Do they believe in falsehood and show ingratitude for the favors of Allah?" The closeness of family is further implied in His words describing the Day "when a person will run away and leave behind his brother, his mother, and his father, his companion, and his children." Muḥammad ʿAlī ash-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH), the Yemeni scholar of the thirteenth hijrī century, explained in Fatḥ ul-qadīr that these relatives are named specifically because they are one's closest kin, "to whom one is expected to show the most affection and compassion," so that fleeing from them could only occur amid unimaginable horror. Yet though the terrors of that Day have not arrived, many family members are already distant, and this estrangement has become the norm—lives arranged so that families spend as little time together as possible, each retreating to a screen. Distressingly, even amid the pandemic many are frustrated at spending extended time together and long to return to "better times" of separation. Often it is only when disaster strikes and loss becomes real that its true value is felt. In the narration collected by Muslim from Anas bin Mālik, when the young Abū ʿUmayr passed away, Umm Sulaym gently broke the news to Abū Ṭalḥah by asking whether a family should refuse to return a loaned item when its owner reclaims it; when he answered no, she said, "So be patient and seek reward with Allah for the loss of your son." Her words teach that our time with one another is a loan, limited and thus precious. If we regard each family as a loan of comfort, love, and mercy that will one day be reclaimed, perhaps we will better cherish our time together. The path to recognizing family's true worth begins in the heart, then appears on the tongue through thanking Allah and supplicating for one's family. Ibn ʿUmar reported that the Prophet ﷺ never omitted, morning and evening, the words: "O Allah, I ask you for protection in regards to my religion, my worldly affairs, my family and my wealth." Al-Amīr aṣ-Ṣanʿānī explained that protection concerning one's family means being saved from poor interaction with them, from their affliction with illness, and from preoccupation with material excess. Allah likewise describes the servants of the Most Merciful as those who say, "Our Lord, make our spouses and our children the joy of our eyes and make us ourselves leaders in piety and righteousness." Ibn Kathīr commented that they ask Allah to raise from their offspring those who obey and worship Him alone, and he quoted al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: "There is nothing more joyous to a Muslim than seeing his child, grandchild, brother, or close relative obedient to Allah." This appreciation extends to concern for family's well-being in both this life and the next, for material comfort must inevitably end. Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī observed that duʿāʾ linguistically means "seeking," and that it takes two forms: directly asking Allah, and seeking the means to what is desired by busying oneself in Allah's obedience and remembrance. He cited the tradition collected by at-Tirmidhī from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, in which Allah says, "Whoever is distracted from asking me directly because he is preoccupied with the Qur'an and remembering me, I will give him the best of what I give those who ask." Thus the one who truly desires good for his family both prays for them and strives to attain it—leading by example and establishing a home founded upon Islamic values. The present circumstances offer an opportunity to establish prayer on time as a family and to practice the remembrances after prayer and in the morning and evening. Abū Hurayrah reported that when the poor companions complained of the wealthy's advantage in good deeds, the Prophet ﷺ taught them to say Subḥānallāh, Alḥamdulillāh, and Allāhu Akbar thirty-three times after every prayer, by which they would catch up to those ahead of them. One should also model service to the family, for helping one another with the tasks of the home may itself become a means of drawing near to Allah. This balance was established by the Prophet ﷺ, as ʿĀʾishah reported in the collection of al-Bukhārī that he "used to be in the service of his family; however, when it was time for prayer, he left to go pray." This appreciation—realized in the heart, expressed on the tongue, and practiced through the limbs—will also cause us to be remembered by those dearest to us when we shall be in need of it, as Allah commands the righteous child: "Show merciful humility towards them, and say, 'My Lord, show mercy to them because they cared for me when I was young.'" We ask Allah to enable us to seize this opportunity He has placed before us out of His wisdom and mercy, and to remove this and every affliction from the Muslims everywhere. Ameen. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection # Prophetic Prayers for Relief and Protection **Author:** Dr. Tahir Wyatt **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Dua, Faith in the Time of COVID-19 **Published:** April 3, 2020 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 An eBook containing all of the prayers and supplications mentioned in this publication is available [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tahirwyatt/ebook-prophetic-prayers-for-relief-and-protection). بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيم In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Beneficent --- ## Preface Asking Allah for help is one of the best ways we can come closer to Him and express our vulnerability and need for Him. The Prophet ﷺ said, “*Duʿāʾ* is the essence of worship,”[^1] meaning that it is the ultimate expression of one’s humility and submissiveness. During times of hardship and suffering, it is even more important that we humbly beg Allah for His comfort and protection. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: فَلَوْلَا إِذْ جَاءَهُم بَأْسُنَا تَضَرَّعُوا وَلَٰكِن قَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ **Translation**: If only, when Our calamity came upon them, they humbled themselves. But their hearts hardened, and Shaytan made their deeds appear good to them.[^2] The famous scholar of *tafsīr*, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH), said, “This is (divine) reproach for abandoning supplication. It also draws awareness to the fact that they did not humble themselves when punishment came.”[^3] May Allah protect us from hard hearts and the delusion of Shayṭān! The importance of supplication to Allah cannot be overstated. Ibn al-Qayyim said, “*Duʿāʾ* is one of the most beneficial remedies. It is the enemy of calamity; it repels it, cures it, prevents its occurrence, and alleviates it or reduces it if it befalls \[one\]. It is the weapon of the believer.”[^4] There are two kinds of supplications related to hardships, illnesses, and epidemics. We will begin with the first type, which are general supplications for protection from evil. Our goal is to build a habit of saying these prayers even after Allah ends the current pandemic by His Grace and Mercy. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The most beloved deeds to Allah are those that are the most consistent, even if they are few.”[^5] We will then follow with supplications that are specific for relief and protection from illnesses. In total there are sixteen (16) supplications in this small booklet. You might find many of them in other books of *duʿāʾ* and mobile apps. However, our goal is not simply that you learn how or when to *say* a *duʿāʾ*. We want you to *understand* the *duʿāʾ*. *Duʿā* is described as “the weapon of the believer,” but a weapon’s effectiveness coincides with the skill of the person using it. *Duʿāʾ* will benefit the believers most when they understand what they are praying for. Otherwise, we may be guilty of making empty prayers without our hearts being present. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah does not answer the prayer coming from a preoccupied heart.”[^6] Therefore, we will add a brief explanation after each *duʿāʾ* to help you better understand its context and meaning. --- ## I. Prayers in the morning and the evening Some of the most frequent supplications that the Prophet ﷺ would make are those commonly referred to as *adkhār al-ṣabāḥ wa-al-masāʾ*, supplications of the morning and evening. The “morning” here refers to the time between dawn (*fajr*) and sunrise, while the “evening” refers to the beginning of ʿ*aṣr* time until sunset.[^7] Allah has specified these times for glorifying and remembering Him. Allah says, وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ قَبْلَ طُلُوعِ الشَّمْسِ وَقَبْلَ غُرُوبِهَا **Translation**: Glorify your Lord with praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting.[^8] He also says, وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعًا وَخِيفَةً وَدُونَ الْجَهْرِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالْآصَالِ وَلَا تَكُن مِّنَ الْغَافِلِينَ **Translation**: And remember your Lord within yourself, humbly and fearfully—without raising your voice—in the morning and the evening, and do not be of the neglectful. [^9] *Duʿāʾ* made during this time has special merit and puts one on the path of being from those praised by Allah as “men and women who remember Allah often.”[^10] Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) said, “Whoever consistently says the prophetic *adhkār*[^11] of the morning and evening, along with the supplications that are specific to time and situation ... is among those who remember Allah often.”[^12] The following eight supplications were made by the Prophet ﷺ regularly.[^13] We need them to bring life to our hearts. Ibn Taymīyah said, “*Dhikr* is to the heart like water is to fish. In what condition would the fish be without water?!”[^14] Moreover, the Prophet ﷺ himself said, “The example of the one who remembers his Lord compared to one who does not remember his Lord is like that of the living and the dead.”[^15] --- ## (1.1) Prayer for general protection from evil ‏أَمْسَيْنَا وَأَمْسَى المُلْكُ لِلَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ،‏ لَهُ المُلْكُ وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ. رَبِّ أَسْأَلُكَ خَيْرَ مَا فِي هَذِهِ اللَّيْلَةِ وَخَيْرَ مَا بَعْدَهَا وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا فِي هَذِهِ اللَّيْلَةِ وَشَرِّ مَا بَعْدَهَا. رَبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْكَسَلِ وَسُوءِ الْكِبَرِ رَبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابٍ فِي النَّارِ وَعَذَابٍ فِي الْقَبْرِ. *Amsaynā wa-amsá al-mulku lillāhi wa-al-ḥamdu lillāhi lā ilāha illā Allāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu, lahu al-mulku wa-lahu al-ḥamdu wa-huwa ʿalá kulli shayʾin qadīr. Rabbi asʾaluka khayra mā fī hādhihi al-laylati wa-khayra mā baʿdahā wa-aʿūdhu bika min sharri mā fī ḥādhihi al-laylati wa-sharri mā baʿdahā. Rabbi aʿūdhu bika min al-kasali wa-sūʾ al-kibari rabbi aʿūdhu bika min ʿadhābin fi al-nāri wa-ʿadhābin fī al-qabr.*  We have reached the evening, and all sovereignty remains with Allah this evening, and all praise is for Allah. There is no true God except Allah, alone, without a partner. To Him belongs all sovereignty and praise, and He has power over all things. My Lord, I ask You for the good in this night, and the good of what follows it, and I seek refuge in You from the evil in this night and the evil of what follows it. My Lord, I seek refuge in You from laziness and from the harms of old age. My Lord, I seek refuge in You from torment in the Fire and punishment in the grave. Muslim **‏**أَصْبَحْنَا وَأَصْبَحَ المُلْكُ لِلَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ‏ لَهُ المُلْكُ وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ. رَبِّ أَسْأَلُكَ خَيْرَ مَا فِي هذا اليَوْمِ وَخَيْرَ مَا بَعْدَهُ وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا فِي هذا اليَوْم وَشَرِّ مَا بَعْدَهُ**.** رَبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْكَسَلِ وَسُوءِ الْكِبَرِ رَبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابٍ فِي النَّارِ وَعَذَابٍ فِي الْقَبْرِ. *Aṣbaḥnā wa-aṣbaḥa al-mulku lillāhi wa-al-ḥamdu lillāhi lā ilāha illā Allāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu, lahu al-mulku wa-lahu al-ḥamdu wa-huwa ʿalá kulli shayʾin qadīr. Rabbi asʾaluka khayra mā fī hādhā al-yawmi wa-khayra mā baʿdahu wa-aʿūdhu bika min sharri mā fī ḥādhā al-yawmi wa-sharri mā baʿdah. Rabbi aʿūdhu bika min al-kasali wa-sūʾ al-kibari rabbi aʿūdhu bika min ʿadhābin fi al-nāri wa-ʿadhābin fī al-qabr.*  We have reached the morning, and all sovereignty remains with Allah this morning, and all praise is for Allah. There is no true God except Allah, alone, without a partner. To Him belongs all sovereignty and praise and He has power over all things. My Lord, I ask You for the good in this day and the good of what follows it, and I seek refuge in You from the evil in this day and the evil of what follows it. My Lord, I seek refuge in You from laziness and from the harms of old age. My Lord, I seek refuge in You from torment in the Fire and punishment in the grave. Muslim **Context**: ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd (ra) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ “used to say” this beautiful *duʿāʾ* in the morning and in the evening. “Used to say” indicates that it was a part of the Prophet’s ﷺ routine. **Notable**: The Prophet ﷺ begins this *duʿāʾ* by praising and glorifying Allah. This is one of the most important etiquettes of *duʿāʾ*.[^16] Allah established this model for us in the greatest *duʿāʾ*: “Sūrat al-Fātiḥah.”[^17] By recognizing that everything we need and want is in Allah’s hands (“to Him belongs all sovereignty”), and that He has the power to grant our petitions (“and He has power over all things”), we are expressing confidence that our prayers will be answered. **Protective Benefits**: After praising Allah, the Prophet ﷺ makes the following request: When asking for “the good in this night,” you are praying that Allah will grant you that which benefits you both materially and spiritually. This includes help in guarding your prayers, reciting the Qur’an, and calling upon Him. “And the good following it” refers to all of the good that comes after the time in which you are making this supplication. “And I seek refuge in You from the evil in this night” means that you seek Allah’s protection and safety from anything and everything that may be harmful during that night. “And what follows it” refers to the evil of the next day. It may also refer to any future evil.[^18] This is significant because it begs us to look beyond this life. Night is the time that Allah has created for sleep, and “what follows it” may well be death.[^19] What circumstance could be more evil than being deprived of Allah’s mercy and compassion in the Hereafter? **(1.2) Prayer to avoid bringing harm to oneself or other Muslims** اللَّهُمَّ فَاطِرَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ عَالِمَ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ رَبَّ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَمَلِيكَهُ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ نَفْسِي وَمِنْ شَرِّ الشَّيْطَانِ وَشِرْكِهِ وَأَنْ أَقْتَرِفَ عَلَى نَفْسِي سُوءًا أَوْ أَجُرَّهُ إِلَى مُسْلِمٍ. *Allāhumma fāṭira al-samāwāti wa-al-arḍi ʿālima al-ghaybi wa-al-shahādati lā ilāha illā anta rabba kulli shayʾin wa-malīkahu aʿūdhu bika min sharri nafsī wa-min sharri al-shayṭāni wa-shirkihi*[^20] *wa-an aqtarifa ʿalá nafsī sūʾan aw ajurrahu ilá muslim.*   O Allah, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the Unseen and Visible, there is no true god but You, Lord of all things and their Sovereign. I seek refuge in You from the evil of myself and the evil of Shayṭān and his (encouragement to commit) idolatry, and from bringing evil to myself or to another Muslim. al-Tirmidhī **Context**: This is a *duʿāʾ* the Prophet ﷺ taught the best of his Companions, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him). al-Tirmidhī narrates that Abū Bakr said: “O Messenger of Allah, teach me what to say in the morning and in the evening.” He ﷺ said: “Say: ‘O Allah, Originator of the heavens and the earth…”[^21] **Notable**: This supplication begins with the mention of several of Allah’s noble attributes. It highlights His Greatness, Majesty, and Perfection. As we make this *duʿāʾ*, we remember that Allah is the “Knower of the Unseen and Visible.” He sees that which is hidden to others and He knows our secrets. He is the “Lord and Master of all things” so nothing is outside of His control. He has the power to answer our prayers and give us whatever good we ask for. Beginning the prayer in this fashion reminds us that we are in dire need of Allah’s aid at all times. It serves as a way to introduce the request that we are making of Allah. **Protective Benefits**: When we truly understand this *duʿāʾ*, we will realize that we are seeking Allah’s protection from both the sources of evil and the consequences of evil. Commenting on this supplication, Ibn al-Qayyim said, “The Prophet ﷺ mentioned the two sources of evil: the self (*nafs*) and the Shaytan. He also mentioned the two victims of evil; i.e., it will return to oneself or his Muslim brother. Hence this *hadīth* has combined the sources of evil, its causes, and where it leads in the briefest yet clearest and most comprehensive expression.”[^22] This *duʿāʾ* is especially relevant during times of widespread illness. A Muslim needs Allah’s protection to avoid doing things that may unintentially bring harm to himself, to his family, or to other people. --- ## (1.3) Prayer to avoid sudden afflictions بِسْمِ اللهِ الَّذِي لَا يَضُرُّ مَعَ اسْمِهِ شَيْءٌ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ (ثَلَاثَ مَرَّاتٍ) Bismillāhi al-ladhī lā yaḍurru maʿa ismihi shayʾun fī al-arḍi wa-lā fī al-samāʾi wa-huwa al-samīʿu al-ʿalīm. In the Name of Allah, with Whose Name nothing is harmed on earth nor in heaven, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Repeat three times) Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī **Context**: The great *khalīfah*, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān  (may Allah be pleased with him), mentioned that he heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say, “Whoever repeats, ‘*In the Name of Allah, with Whose Name nothing is harmed on earth nor in heaven, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing*’ three times \[in the evening\] will not be stricken with a sudden affliction until he reaches the morning. And whoever repeats this three times in the morning will not be stricken with a sudden affliction until he reaches the evening.”[^23] **Notable**: ʿUthmān’s son, Abān, narrated this hadith from his father. Later he suffered partial paralysis. One of the narrators who had heard this *hadīth* from Abān began to look at him strangely. He wondered how Abān was harmed if he had been saying these words. So Abān said to him, “Why are you looking at me? I swear by Allah, I did not tell a lie about ʿUthmān, nor did ʿUthmān tell a lie about the Prophet ﷺ, but that day when I was afflicted by it, I became angry and forgot to recite this supplication.”[^24] **Protective Benefits**: When we say “*bismillāh*” at the beginning of an action, we are seeking help through the name of Allah and seeking blessing from Him in that action. In Arabic there is always a verb implied with “*bismillāh*.” For example, when we say *bismillāh* before eating, it means “In the name of Allah I begin eating.” Similarly, when we say *bismillāh* before reading, it means “In the name of Allah I begin reading.” Each time a person says *bismillāh* there is a verb implied based on the context. In this *duʿāʾ*, saying *bismillāh* means “In the name of Allah I seek refuge (from any harm coming to me).” [^25] “With Whose Name nothing is harmed on earth nor in heaven” means that whoever seeks refuge in the name of Allah will not suffer any calamity coming from the earth, nor from the heavens, except as Allah wills. The great scholar of Yemen, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH) said, “This hadīth is evidence that these words repel every harm, no matter what it is, from the one who says them. He will not be afflicted by anything in the night or day if he says them during the night and day.”[^26] **(1.4) Prayer for well-being and divine protection** ((اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الْعَافِيَةَ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الْعَفْوَ وَالْعَافِيَةَ فِي دِينِي وَدُنْيَاىَ وَأَهْلِي وَمَالِي اللَّهُمَّ اسْتُرْ عَوْرَاتِي وَآمِنْ رَوْعَاتِي اللَّهُمَّ احْفَظْنِي مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَىَّ وَمِنْ خَلْفِي وَعَنْ يَمِينِي وَعَنْ شِمَالِي وَمِنْ فَوْقِي وَأَعُوذُ بِعَظَمَتِكَ أَنْ أُغْتَالَ مِنْ تَحْتِي)). Allāhumma innī asʾaluka al-ʿāfiyah fī al-dunyá wa-al-ākhirah allāhumma innī asʾaluka al-ʿafwah wa-al-ʿāfiyah fī dīnī wa-dunyāya wa-ahlī wa-mālī allāhumma ustur ʿawrātī wa-āmin rawʿātī allāhumma iḥfaẓnī min bayni yadayya wa-min khalfī wa-ʿan yamīnī wa-ʿan shimālī wa-min fawqī wa-aʿūdhu bi-ʿaẓamatika an ughtāla min taḥtī. O Allah, I ask You for well-being in this world and the Hereafter. O Allah, I ask You for pardon and well-being in my religion, my worldly affairs, my family and my property. O Allah, conceal my faults and keep me safe from what I fear. O Allah, guard me from in front of me and behind me, on my right and on my left, and from above me. And I seek refuge in Your Magnificence from being swallowed up from beneath me.  Abū Dāwud and Ibn Mājah **Context**: The Prophet ﷺ consistently made this supplication every morning and every evening. Ibn ʿUmar (ra) said, “Allah’s Messenger never failed to say these prayers when he reached the evening and \[then again\] when he reached the morning.”[^27] **Notable**: In this *duʿāʾ*, the Prophet ﷺ asked for well-being (ʿ*āfiyah*), which means to be free of illnesses and afflictions. ʿ*Āfiyah* is much more than physical health. It includes spiritual, emotional, and social dimensions of well-being. ʿ*Āfiyah* is so important that the Prophet ﷺ asked for it twice in this *duʿāʾ*. The Prophet’s uncle, al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, said, “O Messenger of Allah, teach me something that I should ask Allah for. He ﷺ said: ‘Ask Allah for *ʿāfiyah*.’ So I remained for a few days, then I came back and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, teach me something that I should ask Allah for.’ So he ﷺ said to me: ‘O Abbas, O uncle of the Messenger of Allah! Ask Allah for *ʿāfiyah* in this world and in the Hereafter.’”[^28] It is as if al-ʿAbbās (ra) wanted the Prophet ﷺ to teach him another *duʿāʾ*. Instead the Prophet ﷺ emphasized the importance of asking for *ʿāfiyah*. This is because *ʿāfiyah* includes Allah’s safeguarding of His servant from every misfortune and tribulation, by turning evil away from him, protecting him from afflictions and sickness, and guarding him from evil and committing sin. In this particular *duʿāʾ,* the Prophet ﷺ asks for *ʿāfiyah* in this world and the hereafter. He also asks for *ʿāfiyah* in his religion, worldly affairs, family, and property. *ʿĀfiyah* in the religion means that one is protected from doubts, misunderstandings, and evil thoughts. It includes anything that would hurt our faith or cause our worship to be deficient. Notice that this is the first thing that the Prophet ﷺ mentions in this *duʿāʾ*. When a person’s religious affairs are in order, his or her bond with Allah is strong. This will cause every other aspect of life to improve. *ʿĀfiyah* in worldly affairs includes protection from any physical or mental harm or other forms of hardship. *ʿĀfiyah* in family means that they are protected from trials, misfortune, and severe suffering. *ʿĀfiyah* in wealth is that it is preserved from anything that would destroy it, including floods, fires, and theft. *ʿĀfiyah* in the hereafter is that one is protected from any distress or punishment in the next life.[^29] **Protective Benefits**: The Prophet ﷺ requested that Allah protect him and grant him security from every direction. The greatest evil that we need protection from is the evil of Shayṭān. We know that he is lurking, waiting for every chance to turn us away from the path that pleases Allah. This is what Allah has told us that Shayṭān said: Since You misguided me, I will lie in ambush for mankind on Your straight path. I will come upon them from the front, from the rear, from the right, and from the left, and You will not find most of them to be grateful.[^30] This *duʿāʾ* is one of the best ways that a believer can beseech Allah’s protection from Shayṭān and from any other evil. **(1.5) Prayer for the well-being of our faculties** ((اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي فِي بَدَنِي اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي فِي سَمْعِي اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي فِي بَصَرِي لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ)) ثَلاَثًا حِينَ تُصْبِحُ وَثَلاَثًا حِينَ تُمْسِي Allāhumma ʿāfinī fī badanī allāhumma ʿāfinī fī samʿī allāhumma ʿāfinī fī baṣarī lā ilāha illā ant. “O Allah! Grant me well-being in my body. O Allah! Grant me well-being in my hearing. O Allah! Grant me well-being in my sight. There is no true god but You.” (Repeat three times in the morning and three times in the evening.) Abū Dāwūd **Context**: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakrah reported that he used to hear his father repeat this *duʿāʾ* three times in the morning and three times in the evening, so he asked his father about that. His father replied, “I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ praying with these words and I like to follow his practice.”[^31] **Notable**: The companions of the Prophet ﷺ were eager to put what they learned into practice. They followed his example and taught those who came after them. When we learn new supplications, we should try to learn them and teach them to our families and loved ones. **Protective Benefits**: In this prayer, we are asking Allah to protect our bodies, our hearing, and our sight. This means that we are asking to be granted good health and that we use that blessing to fulfill our purpose in life. Allah says, “I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me.”[^32] When we ask Allah for *ʿāfiyah* in our bodies, we are asking that He grant us the strength to serve Him. Many scholars have noted that the Prophet ﷺ specified hearing and sight. They point out that these senses allow us to know Allah’s blessings. We see His signs in the creation and hear His speech in the words of the Qur’an.[^33] Hearing and sight are also the main pathways to the heart. If the eyes and ears have *ʿāfiyah*, the heart is safe from doubt and desire. When we ask Allah for *ʿāfiyah* in hearing and sight we are asking for more than protection from loss. We are begging for protection from seeing and hearing things that feed our egos and cause us to be heedless of Allah’s commands. **(1.6) Supplication that protects from every harm** قُلْ هُوَ اللهُ أَحَدٌ‏ وَالمُعَوِّذَتَيْنِ حِينَ تُمْسِي وَحِينَ تُصْبِحُ ثَلاَثَ مَرَّاتٍ تَكْفِيكَ مِنْ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ (Reciting) Surat al-Ikhlāṣ and the *Muʿawwidhatayn* (Surat al-Falaq and Surat al-Nās) three times in the morning and three times in the evening will suffice you in all respects. Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī قُلْ هُوَ اللَّـهُ أَحَدٌ ﴿١﴾ اللَّـهُ الصَّمَدُ ﴿٢﴾ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ ﴿٣﴾ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ ﴿٤﴾ قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ ﴿١﴾ مِن شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ ﴿٢﴾ وَمِن شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ إِذَا وَقَبَ ﴿٣﴾ وَمِن شَرِّ النَّفَّاثَاتِ فِي الْعُقَدِ ﴿٤﴾ وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ ﴿٥﴾ قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ ﴿١﴾ مَلِكِ النَّاسِ ﴿٢﴾ إِلَـٰهِ النَّاسِ ﴿٣﴾ مِن شَرِّ الْوَسْوَاسِ الْخَنَّاسِ ﴿٤﴾ الَّذِي يُوَسْوِسُ فِي صُدُورِ النَّاسِ ﴿٥﴾ مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ ﴿٦﴾ *Qul huwa Allāhu aḥadun. Allāhu al-ṣamadu. Lam yalid wa-lam yūlad. Wa-lam yakun lahu kufuwan ahadun.* *Qul aʿūdhu bi-rabbi al-falaqi. Min sharri mā khalaqa. Wa-min sharri ghāsiqin idhā waqaba. Wa-min sharri al-naffāthāti fī al-ʿuqadi. Wa-min sharri ḥāsidin idhā ḥasada.* *Qul aʿūdhu bi-rabbi al-nāsi. Maliki al-nāsi. Ilāhi al-nāsi. Min sharri al-waswāsi al-khannāsi. al-Ladhī yuwaswisu fī ṣudūri al-nāsi. Min al-jinnati wa-al-nāsi.* **Context**: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khubayb (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “We went out one very dark, rainy night looking for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to lead us in prayer. When we found him, he asked: ‘Have you prayed?’ but I did not say anything. So he said: ‘Say’ but I did not respond. He again said: ‘Say’ but I did not respond. He then said: ‘Say.’ So I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, what should I say?’ He said: ‘Recite Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ and the *Muʿawwidhatayn* (Sūrat al-Falaq and Sūrat al-Nās) three times in the morning and three times in the evening. This will suffice you in all respects.’”[^34] Al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH) said, “This hadīth is evidence that reciting these sūrahs in the evening and in the morning protect the reciter from anything and everything that is feared.”[^35] **Notable**:  The Prophet ﷺ said about the *Muʿawwidhatayn* that “people have never sought refuge by means of anything like them.”[^36] They are so important that the Prophet ﷺ left off many other ways of seeking refuge in Allah after they were revealed.[^37] He also recited them along with Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ before going to sleep;[^38] and He taught us to recite those three surahs after each of the five daily prayers.[^39] Ibn al-Qayyim said, “A person’s need of seeking refuge by (reciting) these two surahs is greater than his need for air, food, drink, and clothing.”[^40] Reading these surahs in order again follows the model set in Sūrat al-Fātiḥah. Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ is dedicated entirely to praising Allah and declaring His Oneness. In Sūrat al-Falaq and Sūrat al-Nās we are asking for Allah’s protection. **Protective Benefits**: These surahs, when recited with conviction, protect from both internal and external evils. In Sūrat al-Falaq, we seek refuge in Allah, the “Lord of the daybreak,” from the “evil of what He created.” This refers to external dangers that threaten to harm a person. Allah specifies three of these evils in the surah.  They are: the darkness as it falls, sorcery, and envy. In Sūrat al-Nās, however, we seek refuge in Allah from internal threats. Allah mentions the whispers of Shayṭān that cause us to leave the path that is pleasing to Allah. Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī (d. 745) notes that the internal threat is actually more severe than external threats. He says in his commentary on these two surahs, “The disease of evil insinuations (*waswasah*) damages one’s religion and is more dangerous than the harm to one’s worldly affairs, even if that harm is severe. For that reason refuge is sought through three divine attributes—“*Rabb*, *Mālik*, and *Ilāh*”—even though there is only one request \[i.e., protection from *waswasah*\]. In Sūrat al-Falaq refuge is sought from three things: the darkness as it falls, sorcery, and envy—through only one divine attribute and that is “*al-Rabb*.”[^41] Highlighting the importance of seeking refuge from Shayṭān’s whispers, Burhān al-Dīn al-Biqāʿī (d. 885 AH) said, “Sūrat al-Nās comprises seeking refuge from a specific evil, namely diabolical whispers. These whispers are the foundation of all internal deficiencies of the human soul and are the cause of all sins and disobedience.”[^42] Only Allah can grant protection from the evil of Shayṭān who makes immorality attractive to men and causes us to wrong ourselves. He “flows inside man like blood”[^43] and seeks to destroy us from within. Once we understand the protective value of these surahs, we should follow the guidance of our Prophet ﷺ by reciting them several times daily and reflecting on their meanings. **(1.7) A supplication that removes anxiety** حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ (سَبْعَ مَرَّاتٍ) Ḥasbiya Allāhu lā ilāha illā huwa ʿalayhi tawakkaltu wa-huwa rabbu al-ʿarshi al-ʿaẓīm. Allah is enough for me. There is no true god but Him, in Him I put my trust, and He is the Lord of the Great Throne. (Repeat seven times.) Abū Dāwūd **Context**: This prayer was actually taught by one of the Prophet’s ﷺ Companions. Abū al-Dardāʾ (ra) said, “Anyone who repeats, ‘Allah is sufficient for me…’ seven times in the morning and seven times in the evening, Allah will suffice him from that which worries him.”[^44] **Notable**: This supplication also appears in the Qur’an. Allah, the Almighty, says,  If they turn away, say, “Allah is enough for me. There is no true god but Him, in Him I put my trust, and He is the Lord of the Great Throne.”[^45] **Protective Benefits**: Anxiety is a state of uneasiness and apprehension. Usually it comes from worrying about the future. By saying “Allah is enough for me” we affirm that Allah is sufficient for all of our needs. This should help us temper our worries and keep our composure. Everything that happens is part of Allah’s decree. Nonetheless, we are instructed by our Prophet ﷺ to “strive to do what benefits you, and seek Allah’s aid.”[^46] We should work diligently today to reap the fruits that we want tomorrow. Ultimately, however, “what reached us was never going to miss us, and what missed us was never going to reach us.”[^47] No matter how much we plan for our future, there are so many things that are beyond our control. Something as simple as avoiding a traffic jam, even with modern-day technology, is often not possible. So we say, “in Allah I put my trust.” We resign our affairs to Allah and rely upon Him. This *duʿāʾ* is a reminder that everything in creation is under Allah’s control. Our belief in Him and His divine decree should soothe our hearts. Once we have put forth the effort for our desired results, we no longer have to worry. The outcome is in the Hands of the Lord of “the Great Throne” and the Throne is the greatest of all creations. It is interesting to note that mental health professionals often suggest repeating certain phrases to relieve anxiety.[^48] Perhaps that is one reason why the Prophet ﷺ instructed that this *duʿāʾ* be repeated seven times. **(1.8) A prayer for protection in the evening** أَعُوذُ بِكَلِمَاتِ اللهِ التَّامَّاتِ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ Aʿūdhu bi-kalimāti Allāhi al-tāmmāti min sharri mā khalaq. I seek refuge in the Perfect Words of Allah from the evil of what He has created. Muslim **Context**: Abū Hurayrah reported that a person came to Allah's Messenger ﷺ and said, “Allah's Messenger, I was stung by a scorpion last night.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Had you recited these words in the evening: ‘I seek refuge in the Perfect Words of Allah from the evil of what He has created,’ it would not have harmed you.”[^49] **Notable**: This supplication can also be said when stopping at a place to rest while traveling. Khawlah bint Ḥakīm al-Sulamīyah said, “I heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ say, ‘Whoever stops at a place and then says: ‘I seek refuge in the Perfect Words of Allah from the evil of what He has created,’ nothing will harm him until he leaves that place.”[^50] Some scholars say that this hadith is not specific to travel and can be said whenever we stop at any place, such as a family outing to the park.[^51] **Protective Benefits**:  “Seeking refuge” means to run away *from* something we fear *to* someone who can protect and defend us. By seeking refuge in Allah, we acknowledge that He is the best protector. We turn to Him for shelter and safety from all harm. The “Perfect Words of Allah” in this *ḥadīth* may refer to the Glorious Qur’an, or to Allah’s divine decree that governs the universe.[^52] The hadith indicates that whoever recites this supplication at the onset of the evening will be protected and safeguarded, by the permission of Allah, from “the evil of what He has created.” This refers to evil from a created being, be it animal, man or *jinn*, or even the wind and lightning.[^53] --- ## II. Prayers made on specific occasions *What specific du'as would the Prophet ﷺ make in the month of ramadan? Watch Dr. Tahir Wyatt's series "Ramadan Du’as on Repeat*" *below:* https://youtu.be/BjZf2rwK\_Jk **(2.1) Prayer for guidance and protection before leaving the home** بِسْمِ اللَّهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لاَ حَوْلَ وَلاَ قُوَّةَ إِلاَّ بِاللَّه Bismillāhi tawakkaltu ʿalá Allāhi lā ḥawla wa-la quwwata illā billāh. In the Name of Allah, I place my trust in Allah. There is no might nor power except with Allah. Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasaʾī **Context**: The Prophet ﷺ mentioned that whoever says these words upon leaving the home will be protected from evil and harm, and will be guided by Allah. Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Prophet ﷺ said, “If a man leaves his home and says: ‘In the Name of Allah, I place my trust in Allah. There is no might nor power except with Allah.’ It will be said: You have been guided, defended and protected. The devils will flee from him saying to each other, ‘How can you reach a man who has been guided, defended and protected?’”[^54] **Notable**: “There is no might nor power except with Allah” is one of the treasures of Paradise.[^55] We are encouraged to say it on various occasions throughout the day, including after the five daily prayers and after the statements “come to prayer, come to success” when hearing the *adhān*. A word-for-word translation of *lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illá billāh* is “There is no might nor power except with Allah.” However, this may not adequately convey the meaning of this magnificent phrase. The word *ḥawla*, translated here as “might,” comes from the trilateral root *hāʾ-waw-lām* which means movement.[^56] It includes every transition from one condition to another. The word *quwwah* refers to the ability to make the transition.[^57] When put together, this statement means that there is no strength to repel evil or resist sin and no power to acquire good and do acts of obedience except with Allah’s aid.[^58] The message here is that we are frail beings in constant need of Allah. Our egos may try to convince us that we are independent and in control. But Allah reminds us of our fragility when He says, “O people, it is you who stand in need of Allah; Allah is inherently rich (free of all needs) and worthy of all praise.”[^59] Allah will strengthen us when we acknowledge that we are weak. Allah will grant us power when we absolve ourselves of independent ability. When we remove our egos from the equation, Allah will fill that void with His guidance and protection. **Protective Benefits**: Home is a safe haven, comfort zone, and place of stability. When leaving this familiar space, we are reminded to seek Allah’s protection and help. As mentioned previously, there is always a verb associated with “*bismillāh*.” So here we mean “*bismillāh* I leave my home,” for it is with Allah’s name that nothing is harmed. By saying *bismillāh* upon exiting, we are seeking Allah’s protection from all danger. By putting our “trust in Him” we are showing that we recognize His ability to care for and defend us. Surely Allah does not disappoint those who rely upon Him. This full reliance culminates in “*lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illá billāh.*” This phrase embodies the essence of surrendering to Allah: we recognize that there is nothing we can do or change without His help. Ibn al-Qayyim said, “*lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illá billāh*” has the effect of warding off anxiety and depression because it comprises complete surrender, total admission of no strength or power except with Allah, resignation of one’s affairs totally to Him, and not challenging Him in any way … It has an amazing effect in repelling the devil.”[^60] When we leave the home and utter these three phrases, we are leaving it to Allah, the Most Merciful, to guide, protect, and defend us. This is what it means to truly be a *Muslim* (literally, one who submits). Surrendering means that we also accept whatever happens during the day, good or bad. We meet the good with appreciation and the bad with patience. The Prophet ﷺ said, “How wonderful is the case of a believer! There is good for him in every situation and this applies only to a believer. If something good happens to him, he thanks \[Allah\] and this is good for him. When he faces adversity, he endures it patiently and this too is good for him.”[^61] **(2.2) Reciting these two *āyahs* at night is a protection from all harm** مَنْ قَرَأَ بِالآيَتَيْنِ مِنْ آخِرِ سُورَةِ الْبَقَرَةِ فِي لَيْلَةٍ كَفَتَاهُ‏ Whoever recites the last two verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah at night will be sufficed by them. Bukhārī and Muslim آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّـهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ ﴿٢٨٥﴾  لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّـهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَّسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ ۖ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ **ا**لْكَافِرِينَ ﴿٢٨٦﴾ *Āmana al-rasūlu bi-mā unzila ilayhi min rabbihi wa-al-muʾminūna. Kullun āmana billāhi wa-malāʾikatihi wa-kutubihi wa-rasulihi lā nufarriqu bayna aḥadin min rusulihi wa-qālū samiʿnā wa-aṭaʿnā ghufrānaka rabbanā wa-ilayka al-maṣīru.* *Lā yukallifu Allāhu nafsān illā wusʿahā lahā mā kasabat wa-ʿalayhā ma iktasabat. Rabbanā lā tūʾākhidhnā in nasīnā aw akhṭaʾnā. Rabbanā wa-lā taḥmil ʿalaynā iṣrān kamā ḥamaltahu ʿalá al-ladhīna min qablinā. Rabbanā wa-lā tuḥammilnā mā lā ṭāqaṭa lanā bihi waʿfu ʿannā waghfir lanā warḥamnā anta mawlānā fanṣurnā ʿalā al-qawmi al-kāfirīna.* **Context**: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī (d. 83 AH) narrated that he saw the noble Companion, Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī (ra), near the Kaʿbah and said to him, “A ḥadīth has been conveyed to me on your authority about the two *āyahs* in Sūrat al-Baqarah.” He responded, “Yes. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Whoever recites the last two verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah at night will be sufficed by them.’”[^62] **Notable**: These two verses are a concise summary of the major themes in Sūrat al-Baqarah. They begin, as the *sūrah* does, by mentioning the articles of faith. Allah then describes the attitude of the believers towards His injunctions. Believers accept what Allah says and adhere to His commands. They say, “We hear and we obey,” indicating their total submission. Nonetheless, it is human nature to fall short in fulfilling one’s obligations. Therefore, the believers ask Allah for forgiveness “Your forgiveness (O Allah),” fully aware that they will have to stand in front of Allah “and to You is the final return.” In principle, it is not difficult to adhere to Allah’s commands and prohibitions. They are nourishment for the soul, a remedy for the body, and protection from harm. Despite that, our accountability is limited by the extent of our ability. Allah excuses us if we are unable to perform a required act. Furthermore, we are only accountable for what we ourselves do. No soul shall bear the burden of another.[^63] After informing us of these laws of retribution, Allah mentions that the believers pray, “Our Lord! Do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord! Do not place a burden on us like the one you placed on those before us. Our Lord! Do not task us with more than we have strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our Guardian. So grant us victory over the disbelieving people.” Ibn Taymīyah asserts that the depth of meaning found in these two verses is “beyond the ability of human intellect to fully grasp.”[^64] This is why it is so important to read them every night and reflect deeply on them. **Protective Benefits**: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Shayṭān runs away from the home in which Sūrat al-Baqarah is recited.”[^65] This refers to the entire *sūrah*. However, the last two verses are especially beneficial for protection from devils. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah sent down two *āyahs* to conclude Sūrat al-Baqarah. Devils will not come near a house in which they are recited for three nights.”[^66] Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ informed us that whoever recites these verses at night would be “sufficed” by them. Ibn al-Qayyim said, “The correct meaning is that they protect him from any evil that would harm him.”[^67] Due to the virtue and importance of reciting these verses, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ra) said, “I do not think that anyone who understands Islam would ever go to sleep without reciting the last verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah, for they are a treasure given to your Prophet from under the Throne.”[^68] Every Muslim should strive to read these priceless verses every night. It takes less than two minutes to gain this divine protection. Who does not need Allah’s protection? Who does not waste that much time every day? May Allah help us to use our time in a way that benefits us in this life and the next. **(2.3) Duʿāʾ for well-being and protection in *witr* prayer** اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنِي فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ وَ عَافِنِي فِيمَنْ عَافَيْتَ و تَوَلَّنِي فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ وَ بَارِكْ لِي فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ وَ قِنِي شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ إنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلا يُقْضَى عَليْكَ إنَّهُ لا يَذِّلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ تَبَارَكْتَ وَتَعَالَيْتَ  *Allāhumma ihdinī fī-man hadayta wa-ʿāfinī fī-man ʿāfayta wa-tawallanī fī-man tawwalayta wa-bārik lī fī-mā aʿṭayta wa-qinī sharra mā qaḍayta innaka taqḍī wa-lā yuqḍā ʿalayka innahu lā yadhillu man wālayta tabārakta wa-taʿālayt*  O Allah, guide me among those whom You have guided, grant me well-being among those whom You have granted well-being, turn to me in friendship among those to whom You have turned in friendship, bless me in what You have bestowed, and save me from the evil of what You have decreed. Truly, You decree and none can decree against You; one whom You have befriended is not humiliated. Blessed are You (O Allah) and Exalted. Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasaʾī **Context**: The Prophet ﷺ taught his grandson, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, to say this supplication during *qunūt* in the *witr* prayer.[^69] **Notable**: This supplication begins with a request for guidance, which is one of the most comprehensive things a person can ask for. Whoever is guided by Allah will achieve all that is good in this life and the next. Due to the necessity of divine guidance in every aspect of our lives, Allah requires us to say “Guide us to the straight path”[^70] in every *rakʿah* of prayer. That’s a minimum of seventeen times a day! This is especially important during trying times. We need the light of Allah’s guidance to get through adversity and help us navigate the path forward. Allah reminds of this in the Qur’an: No affliction happens except by the will of Allah. And whoever has faith in Allah, He will guide his heart.[^71] This means that whoever suffers an affliction must know that it occurred by Allah’s decree. Therefore, he patiently endures the hardship and anticipates Allah’s reward. If he does so, Allah will guide his heart, grant him certainty in faith, and replace whatever he lost with something equal or better.[^72] **Protective Benefits**: In addition to the supplication for guidance, this *duʿāʾ* includes four other requests for different kinds of protection.. The first of the four requests is for well-being (ʿ*āfiyah*), which includes protection from physical, mental, and spiritual diseases. Physical and mental illnesses are well known, so most people will be mindful of them as they pray for well-being. When making this *duʿāʾ*, however, one should not neglect to think about being cured of spiritual diseases. These are two main types: vain desires (*shahawāt*) and doubts (*shubuhāt*). The second request is for Allah to be your *walī*, a close, watchful companion and ally. Allah says, “Allah is the *Walī* of those who believe. He brings them out from darkness into light.”[^73] This special type of companionship and guardianship includes Allah’s guidance, aid, and protection. Allah also says, “The friends of Allah will certainly have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve. (They are) those who are faithful and God-fearing.”[^74] This clarifies that the friends of Allah are people of faith and *taqwá*. When we say “Turn to me in friendship among those to whom You have turned in friendship,” we are asking Allah to grant us faith (*īmān*) and God-consciousness (*taqwá*). The third request is for Allah to bless everything that He has bestowed upon us. Allah has given us everything we have, tangible or intangible. He has granted us knowledge, hearing, sight, wealth, children, and faith. When Allah blesses (puts *barakah* in) something, He makes it stable. He nourishes what he has given us so that it will grow and develop. Allah’s *barakah* protects what He has blessed us with from destruction. If these things are not “blessed” we will truly be in loss! The final request is for protection from the evil of what Allah has decreed. It is important to distinguish between things that are evil and things we dislike. Allah says, Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.[^75] Most people can think of something that they initially thought was bad, only to later see Allah’s wisdom in it. These are the things that we often dislike, although they are good for us. Evil is a different matter. Being dissatisfied with Allah’s decree, not trusting Him, and losing faith in Him are all examples of “evil.” We are begging Allah for protection from evils such as these. Additionally, Allah has given people the ability to obey or disobey Him.[^76] Disobedience, though occurring by Allah’s will, is not pleasing to Allah. It is the evil of what Allah decreed. So in this prayer we are seeking Allah’s protection from disbelief, idolatry, murder, adultery, and all other evils that exist. **(2.4) Prayer made when afflicted with illness or pain (1)** بِسْمِ اللهِ (ثَلَاثَ مَرَّاتٍ) أَعُوذُ باللَّهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ مِن شَرِّ ما أَجِدُ وَأُحَاذِرُ (سَبعَ مَرَّاتٍ) Bismillāhi. Aʿūdhu billāhi wa-qudratihi min sharri mā ajidu wa-uḥādhir (Place your hand where you feel pain and say) ‘*Bismillah*’ (three times). (Then repeat seven times), “I seek refuge in Allah and in His power from the evil of what I am experiencing and what I fear.” Muslim **Context**: ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ said that he went to Allah’s Messenger ﷺ to complain of \[severe\] pain that had been bothering him from the time he had become Muslim. The Prophet ﷺ instructed him to place his \[right\] hand on the area of pain and say *“Bismillāh”* three times … \[ʿUthmān (ra) said, “So I said that and Allah healed me.”\][^77] **Notable**: One of the prominent scholars of al-Andalus, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544 AH), notes that it is common in the *sharīʿah* to repeat phrases three or seven times. This is especially true for matters related to healing and well-being. It is also common for remedies used to protect from sorcery, the devil, and poisons.[^78] For example, when the Prophet’s ﷺ illness intensified, he said to those caring for him, “Pour on me the water of seven water skins.”[^79] The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Whoever eats seven *ʿajwah* dates in the morning will not be harmed by toxins or sorcery on that day.”[^80] Ibn al-Qayyim also mentions that repeating phrases makes them more effective, like the repetition of any medical treatment, and asserts that there is a unique effectiveness in repeating things seven times.[^81] This ḥadīth also indicates that it is permissible for a person to inform his loved ones that he is suffering, as long as he does not show any displeasure with Allah’s decree. They may be able to help him, pray for him, and offer him sound advice that he would otherwise be deprived of if they were unaware of his situation. **Protective Benefits**: This prayer is for relief of pain that one is currently experiencing. It is also a request for protection from future complications associated with the original disease. A person may worry that the pain will increase or that his illness will become more severe. This may cause a lot of anxiety. This supplication is for seeking refuge in Allah from current pain, future complications, and the mental anguish associated with it.[^82] Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn (d. 1421 AH) said, “If a person says this prayer with conviction, believing that he will benefit from it, the pain will subside by the will of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. This prayer is more effective than tangible medication (e.g., pills, syrup, and injections) because you are seeking refuge in the One in whose hand is the kingdom of the heavens and earth Who sent down the disease and Who will protect you from it.”[^83] This is not an encouragement to not take conventional medicine.[^84] However, true healing is from Allah, the Healer (*al-Shāfī*). So we should pray to Allah to make any medication we use beneficial. **(2.5) Prayer made when afflicted with illness or pain (2)**  أَذْهِبِ اَلبَأسَ رَبَّ النَّاسِ وَاشْفِ أَنْتَ الشَّافِي لاَ شِفَاءَ إِلاَّ شِفَاؤُكَ شِفَاءً لاَ يُغَادِرُ سَقَمًا Adhhibi al-baʾsa rabba al-nās washfi anta al-shāfī lā shifā’a illá shifā’uk shifāʾan lā yughādiru saqaman Remove the difficulty O Lord of mankind, and heal. You are the Healer, no healing avails but Yours, a healing that leaves behind no ailment. Bukhārī and Muslim **Context**: The Prophet ﷺ used to make this *duʿāʾ* for others when they were sick. Aisha (ra), the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, said, “Whenever Allah’s Messenger ﷺ would visit a patient, he would say, ‘Remove the difficulty, O Lord of mankind…’”[^85] In a slightly different wording of the prayer, Aisha (ra) reported: The Prophet ﷺ used to invoke Allah’s protection for some of his wives by passing his right hand over the place of ailment and saying, ‘O Allah, Lord of mankind! Remove the difficulty and heal the patient. You are the Healer, no healing is of any avail but Yours, a healing that leaves behind no ailment.’”[^86] **Notable**: Some of the Prophet’s ﷺ Companions learned this prayer from him and would say it as a treatment for people experiencing pain. Thābit al-Bunānī (d. 127 AH) went to Anas ibn Mālik, an esteemed Companion of the Prophet ﷺ, and mentioned to him that he was ill. So Anas said, “Shall I treat you with the *ruqyah* of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ?” Thabit said, “Certainly!” So Anas prayed, “O Allah, Lord of mankind, Remover of difficulty! Heal; You are the Healer, there is no Healer but You, a healing that leaves behind no ailment.”[^87] **Protective Benefits**: Protection of the heart from being attached to other than Allah is a great blessing. We should not place our hope in others; rather it should be reserved for Allah alone. Saying “You are the Healer, no healing avails but Your**s**” emphasizes that only Allah can cure. Prophet Ibrāhīm said when describing Allah, “And when I get sick, He heals me.”[^88] Any treatment, whether it be medicine or *duʿāʾ*, will not work unless Allah decrees for that person to get well.[^89] The great scholar of al-Andalus, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) highlighted this point. He mentioned that more than once, he had heard a physician claim that two men had the same illness at the same time. The two men were of the same age and locale. In some cases, they were twins who had the same diet. The physician used the same treatment for both of them, and while one of them recovered the other died![^90] A comforting aspect of this *duʿāʾ* is that it asks for complete removal of the disease and its future effects. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī said, The benefit of qualifying ‘healing’ with the statement ‘that leaves behind no ailment’ is that one could be cured from that disease but then another disease resulting from the initial one arises. So the Prophet ﷺ prayed for complete and total healing.[^91] --- ## III. Prayers not specific to time or occasion **(3.1) Prayer for protection from illnesses** اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْبَرَصِ وَالْجُنُونِ وَالْجُذَامِ وَمِنْ سَيِّيءِ الأَسْقَامِ Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika min al-baraṣi wa-al-junūni wa-al-judhāmi wa-min sayyiʾi al-asqām Oh Allah! I seek refuge in you from vitiligo, madness, leprosy, and evil diseases. Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasaʾī **Context**: Anas ibn Mālik (ra), who served the Prophet ﷺ in Madīnah for ten years, said that Allah’s Messenger would frequently say this prayer.[^92] **Notable**: The Prophet ﷺ only asked for protection from evil diseases and not all illnesses. Certainly, good health is best.[^93] But some scholars explain that diseases with only mild, temporary symptoms can benefit the believer. If one bears them patiently, they will be an expiation for one’s sins.[^94] The Prophet ﷺ said, “A person shall continue to be tried until he is left walking upon the earth without any sins.”[^95] Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭībī (d. 743 AH) emphasized this point when he said: The reason why the Prophet ﷺ did not seek refuge with Allah from all diseases is that some temporary ailments (e.g., fevers, headaches, and eye inflammation) are easy to bear. However, they bring a great deal of reward if one endures them patiently. In this hadith, refuge is sought from chronic diseases. That is because they could lead to a situation where one’s close friends abandon him and only a few are around to care for and comfort him. They may even carry a great deal of stigma.[^96] **Protective Benefits**: Preserving one’s mental health is so important that it is one of the five higher objectives of the *sharīʿah*. This *duʿāʾ* mentions protection from “madness” or severe mental illness. Needless to say, our prayers should be combined with action. Therefore, a person who makes this prayer should also avoid anything that would alter their own mental state, such as drugs and alcohol. The last phrase in this *duʿāʾ* is “evil diseases.” This refers to diseases that most find extremely hard to bear. They are usually chronic or have long-term devastating effects. When we make this *duʿāʾ*, it will protect us, *in shāʾ Allah*, from all of these diseases. We should do our best to say this prayer frequently, as our Prophet ﷺ did. **(3.2) Prayer for protection from grief and anxiety** اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَمِّ وَالْحَزَنِ وَالْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ وَالْبُخْلِ وَالْجُبْنِ وَضَلَعِ الدَّيْنِ وَغَلَبَةِ الرِّجَالِ *Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika min al-hammi wa-al-ḥazani wa-al-ʿajzi wa-al-kasali wa-al-bukhli wa-al-jubni wa-ḍalaʿi al-dayni wa-ghalabati al-rijāl* O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and grief; from inability and laziness; from stinginess and cowardice; and from the burden of debt and oppression of men. Bukhārī **Context**: Anas ibn Mālik (ra) said, “I would tend to the needs of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ whenever he dismounted \[to stay somewhere on the way to Khaybar from Madīnah\] and I heard him ﷺ frequently saying, ‘O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and grief…’ I continued to serve him ﷺ until we left \[the battle of\] Khaybar.”[^97] **Notable**: The Prophet ﷺ begins this supplication by seeking refuge in Allah from anxiety (*al-hamm*) and grief (*al-hazan*). These are both forms of mental suffering, but they are different. Anxiety comes from fear about some future uncertainty. Grief is the anguish associated with loss (i.e., something that has happened in the past). Experiencing some degree of grief and anxiety is normal for most people. It may even serve to cleanse a believer from sins. The Prophet ﷺ said, “No hardship, illness, anxiety, grief, harm, or distress—not even the pricking of a thorn—afflicts a Muslim but that Allah will expiate some of his sins by it.”[^98] Being consumed by grief and anxiety, on the other hand, can have a devastating impact on a person. Sometimes it can arise due to underlying biological or genetic factors. Therefore, it is important for a person suffering from symptoms of depression or anxiety to seek the attention of a trained mental health professional. It is also recognized that a positive spiritual outlook can help protect against such symptoms or lessen their intensity. The noted Māliki scholar of hadith, Ibn Baṭṭāl (d. 449 AH) said, A believer should not be anxious or overly concerned about worldly matters, for Allah has decreed everything with precision and measured all provisions. Anxiety does not engender any good to a person in this world, nor does it bring to him something that was not decreed for him. Excessive worry implies a lack of contentment with Allah’s decree and displeasure with Him. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz used to pray, ‘O Allah make me content with Your judgment, and make Your decree beloved to me so that I do not want what You have delayed to be hastened, nor what You have hastened to be delayed.’ Whoever believes in the divine decree should not lament anything of the *dunyá* that passes him by, nor should he accuse his Lord \[of being unfair\], for what Allah has chosen for him is best. A person should instead be concerned about the Hereafter, when he will be brought before his Lord. He should think about what he can do to be saved from the questioning in which he will be asked about everything, even \[something as trifling as\] the *qiṭmīr* (film over a date-stone). This is why the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘If you knew what I knew, you would laugh little and cry much.’[^99] It is only about this that it makes sense to be anxious and to cry.[^100] **Protective Benefits**: Another prophetic tradition tells us of the efficacy of this *duʿāʾ* in relieving anxiety. Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered the mosque one day and saw a man from the Anṣār named Abū Umāmah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “O Abū Umāmah, why are you sitting in the mosque while it is not time for prayer?” He said, “O Messenger of Allah, I am consumed by anxiety and debts.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Shall I not teach you words to say by which Allah, the Almighty, will remove your anxiety and settle your debt?” He said, “Certainly, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Say in the morning and evening: O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and grief. I seek refuge in You from inability and laziness. I seek refuge in You from stinginess and cowardice. I seek refuge in You from the burden of debt and oppression of men.” Abū Umāmah said “When I did that, Allah removed my anxiety and settled my debt.”[^101] This supplication is especially important during turbulent times of widespread economic instability, public health crises, and general apprehension about what the future holds. While people who lack faith panic and lose hope, a believer finds solace in this prophetic prayer. He or she knows that whoever seeks refuge in Allah is safeguarded by the Most Merciful Protector and Wise Overseer. **(3.3) A comprehensive prayer for certainty and protection of faith** اللَّهُمَّ اقْسِمْ لَنَا مِنْ خَشْيَتِكَ مَا يَحُولُ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَ  مَعَاصِيكَ وَمِنْ طَاعَتِكَ مَا تُبَلِّغُنَا بِهِ جَنَّتَكَ وَمِنَ الْيَقِينِ مَا تُهَوِّنُ بِهِ عَلَيْنَا مُصِيبَاتِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَتِّعْنَا بِأَسْمَاعِنَا وَأَبْصَارِنَا وَقُوَّتِنَا مَا أَحْيَيْتَنَا وَاجْعَلْهُ الْوَارِثَ مِنَّا وَاجْعَلْ ثَأْرَنَا عَلَى مَنْ ظَلَمَنَا وَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى مَنْ عَادَانَا وَلاَ تَجْعَلْ مُصِيبَتَنَا فِي دِينِنَا وَلاَ تَجْعَلِ الدُّنْيَا أَكْبَرَ هَمِّنَا وَلاَ مَبْلَغَ عِلْمِنَا وَلاَ تُسَلِّطْ عَلَيْنَا مَنْ لاَ يَرْحَمُنَا Allāhumma iqsim lanā min khashyatika mā yaḥūl baynanā wa-bayna maʿāṣīka wa-min ṭāʿatika mā tuballighunā bihi jannataka wa-min al-yaqīn mā tuhawwinu bihi ʿalaynā muṣibāti al-dunyá wa-mattiʿnā bi-asmāʿinā wa-abṣārinā wa-quwwātinā mā aḥyaytanā wajʿalhu al-wāritha minnā wajʿal thaʾranā ʿalá man ẓalamanā wanṣurnā ʿalá man ʿādānā wa-lā tajʿal muṣibatanā fī dīninā wa-lā tajʿal al-dunyá akbara hamminā wa-lā mablagha ʿilminā wa-lā tusalliṭ ʿalaynā man lā yarḥamunā **:** O Allah, apportion us reverential fear of You that will stop us from disobeying You, and (apportion us) obedience to You that will allow us to reach Paradise, and (apportion us) conviction that will make calamities in the world easier for us (to endure). Let us enjoy our hearing, our sight, and our power, as long as you let us live, and leave them to inherit us. Let retaliation be upon those who oppress us, and support us against those who are hostile to us. Let no calamity afflict our religion. And let not the world be our greatest worry, nor the extent of our knowledge. And let not rule over us those who are unmerciful to us.  al-Tirmidhī **Context**: Ibn ʿUmar said: “Rarely would the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stand up from a gathering until he supplicated for his Companions with these words: ‘O Allah, apportion us reverential fear of You…’”[^102] **Notable**: The Prophet ﷺ used to sit with his Companions and make himself available to them. He ﷺ was, as Allah described him, “deeply concerned for your well-being, compassionate and merciful to the believers.”[^103] This *duʿāʾ*, which  comprises the good of this life and the hereafter, is one way that the Prophet ﷺ would show his compassion for the Companions. We should also follow this prophetic tradition and pray for one another when we gather. This will ensure that our gatherings are a source of benefit for us in this life and the next, and not a source of regret. The Prophet ﷺ said, There are no people who rise from a gathering in which Allah was not mentioned except that it is like they are rising from the carcass of a donkey, and it will be a cause of regret for them.[^104] It is also important to note that in this prayer the Prophet ﷺ did not seek refuge from calamities. In fact, he ﷺ mentions twice that there will be affliction. This should remind us that this world is one of trials and tribulations. So what does the Prophet ﷺ ask Allah for? Two things: The first is for *yaqīn* (conviction or certainty) which is the highest level of faith. Through *yaqīn* we know that Allah, with his eternal attributes of Wisdom, Mercy, and Justice, is in control and that nothing happens outside of His divine will. When our *yaqīn* is strong, it is easier to endure the trials of life with patience and even contentment. The second request is that our hardships do not hurt our faith. Every human being will face some degree of misfortune in this life, whether it be in their health, wealth, family, or otherwise. But the greatest calamity is to be afflicted with doubt or disbelief, or hating what Allah loves, or loving sin and transgression. These are as destructive to one’s soul as death is to the body. **Protective Benefits**: This is one of the most comprehensive prayers found in the prophetic tradition. It includes protection for the mind, body, and soul. In addition to *yaqīn*, which has a marked calming effect on the mind, the Prophet ﷺ says, “Let not the world be our greatest worry, nor the extent of our knowledge.” When a person’s primary concern is this temporary life, they will have little time to prepare for their permanent abode. Their mind will be preoccupied with thoughts and plans that will ultimately bring them little benefit, and they may suffer from severe anxiety. Allah sums up the focus of these type of people with the following words: Know that this worldly life is no more than play, distraction, adornment, mutual boasting, and competition in wealth and children.[^105] The Prophet ﷺ also informed us that there is an underlying detriment to being preoccupied with this life. He ﷺ said, Whoever makes this world his primary concern, Allah will scatter his affairs and put poverty right before his eyes, and he will get nothing of the world but what is decreed for him. But whoever makes the Hereafter his goal, Allah will bring his affairs together, place richness in his heart, and the world will come to him despite his lack of enthusiasm for it.[^106] Thus, the prayer “let not the world be our greatest worry” is a great protection for our mental well-being. We pray for our physical health when we say, “Let us enjoy our hearing, our sight, and our power, as long as you let us live, and leave them to inherit us.” We ask Allah to protect our senses and strength until the day we die. It is if they are our heirs who, by definition, are there even after death.[^107] “O Allah apportion us reverential fear of You that will keep us from disobeying You” is a prayer for spiritual health. There are two kinds of disobedience: one can fail to fulfill his duty to Allah, or he may violate Allah’s prohibitions. Either of these may distance him from spiritual serenity in this life, which is achieved through a genuine bond with the Divine. Worse, they may jeopardize a person’s salvation and eternal bliss in the next life. --- ## Conclusion One of the Companions came to the Prophet ﷺ concerned with his inability to keep up with the number of good deeds Islam has prescribed. Looking for something that was comprehensive and would give him a lot of reward, he said to the Prophet ﷺ, “Tell me something that I can stick to.” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah.”[^108] Calling upon Allah is one of the greatest ways that you can strengthen your bond with Him. Many of the sixteen supplications found here should be said daily, or multiple times a day. They are not, however, ritual incantations that you can simply repeat without understanding their meanings. This will not bring about the desired benefit. So come back to this book periodically to remind yourself of the meanings of these *du’ā*s. Memorize them and teach them to your friends and family. Always know that when you ask Allah for anything, He is Near. “If My slaves ask you about Me, I am Near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me.”[^109] [\[1\]](#ftnt_ref1) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1479; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2969, who graded it authentic. [\[2\]](#ftnt_ref2) Qur’an 6:43. [\[3\]](#ftnt_ref3) Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: al-Risālah Publishers, 2006), 8:378. [\[4\]](#ftnt_ref4) Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Dā’ wa-al-dawā’* (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1429 AH), 11. [\[5\]](#ftnt_ref5) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6464; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 783. [\[6\]](#ftnt_ref6) *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 6655, graded authentic by Shaykh Aḥmad Shākir. [\[7\]](#ftnt_ref7) See Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Wābil al-ṣayyib* (Mecca: ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1425 AH), 239. If someone misses saying these *duʿāʾ* at the specified time, they should say them as soon as they remember. [\[8\]](#ftnt_ref8) Qur’an 20:130. [\[9\]](#ftnt_ref9) Qur’an 7:205. [\[10\]](#ftnt_ref10) Qur’an 33:35. [\[11\]](#ftnt_ref11) Plural of *dhikr*, which here refers to the remembrance of Allah. [\[12\]](#ftnt_ref12) *Fatāwá Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ* (Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1407 AH), 150. [\[13\]](#ftnt_ref13) This list is not meant to be exhaustive. There are over twenty supplications that the Prophet ﷺ would regularly say in the morning and evening. Some of them mention a specific reward for saying them and others do not. Memorizing all of them is highly encouraged, though not an obligation. [\[14\]](#ftnt_ref14) Ibn al-Qayyim mentions that he heard Ibn Taymīyah say this. Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Wābil al-ṣayyib*, 96. [\[15\]](#ftnt_ref15) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6407. [\[16\]](#ftnt_ref16) Fudālah ibn ʿUbayd (ra) narrated that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ heard a person supplicating during prayer without mentioning Allah’s greatness and without invoking blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ. Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: “He was hasty.” He then said to the man (or perhaps to another person): “If any of you prays, he should praise and glorify his Lord in the beginning, and then invoke blessings on the Prophet ﷺ. Thereafter he should ask Allah for anything he wishes.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1481, graded authentic by al-Albānī. [\[17\]](#ftnt_ref17) Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya gives a beautifully detailed explanation of how Sūrat al-Fātiḥah is an actual lesson on how to properly ask Allah for one's needs and of how Sūrat al-Fātiḥah is the model followed by the Prophet ﷺ  in his own supplications. See Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madarij as-salikeen* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1988), 1:23–24. [\[18\]](#ftnt_ref18) See Muḥammad Mubarakfūrī, *Tuḥfat al-aḥwadhī* *bi sharḥ al-Tirmidhī* (Damascus: Dār al-Manhal, 2011), 9:323. [\[19\]](#ftnt_ref19) See Qur’an 39:42. [\[20\]](#ftnt_ref20) *Wa-shirkihi* has also been narrated as *wa-sharakihi*. al-Nawawī mentioned that the most obvious and popular of the two narrations is *shirkihi*, which refers to Shaytan’s attempt to get man to associate partners with Allah. The second pronunciation, *sharakihi*, means the traps of Shayṭān. al-Nawawī, *al-Adhkār* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1994), 78. [\[21\]](#ftnt_ref21) *Jami’ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3529. There is a similar narration with slightly different wording (no. 3392), classified as authentic by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2701. [\[22\]](#ftnt_ref22) Ibn al-Qayyim, *Badāʾiʿ al-fawā’id* (Mecca: Dar ‘Alam al-Fawa’id, 1425 AH), 2:718. [\[23\]](#ftnt_ref23) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5088; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3388; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3869, graded authentic by Ibn al-Qayyim in *Zād al-maʿād* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah,1994), 2:338. [\[24\]](#ftnt_ref24) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5088; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3388; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3869, graded authentic by Ibn al-Qayyim in *Zād al-ma’ād*, 2:338. [\[25\]](#ftnt_ref25) ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Badr, *Fiqh al-adʿiyah wa-al-adhkār* (Medina, self-pub., 1426 AH), 2:13. [\[26\]](#ftnt_ref26) Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shawkānī, *Tuḥfat al-dhākirīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 1984), 91. [\[27\]](#ftnt_ref27) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5074; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3871; and graded authentic by al-Nawawī and al-Albānī. [\[28\]](#ftnt_ref28) *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3514. [\[29\]](#ftnt_ref29) Al-Badr, *Fiqh al-adʿiyah wa-al-adhkār,* 2:31. [\[30\]](#ftnt_ref30) Qur’an 7:16–17. [\[31\]](#ftnt_ref31) Collected by *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5090 and graded *ḥasan* (fair) by Ibn Ḥajar in *Natāʾij al-afkār* (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 2008), 2:390 and al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ Abū Dāwūd*. [\[32\]](#ftnt_ref32) Qur’an 51:56. [\[33\]](#ftnt_ref33) See, for example, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Mubārakfūrī, *Mir’āt al-mafātīḥ* (India: Idārat al-Buḥūth al-ʿIlmīyah, al-Jāmiʿah al-Salafīyah, 1984), 8:156. [\[34\]](#ftnt_ref34) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5082; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3575, who graded it authentic, as did al-Nawawī in *al-Adhkār*, 107. [\[35\]](#ftnt_ref35) *Tuḥfat al-dhākirīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 1984), 91. [\[36\]](#ftnt_ref36) *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 5431. [\[37\]](#ftnt_ref37) Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to seek refuge from the evil eye of the jinn and of mankind. When the Muʿawwidhatayn (Sūrat al-Falaq and Sūrat an-Nās) were revealed, he took hold of them and ceased other forms of seeking refuge.” *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2058; *Sunan al-Nasa’i*, no. 5494; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3511, and graded authentic by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī*. [\[38\]](#ftnt_ref38) ʿĀʾishah reported that, upon going to bed each night, the Prophet ﷺ would join his hands, then blow in them as he recited in them Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ and Sūrat al-Falaq and Sūrat al-Nās. He would then wipe as much of his body as he could, beginning with his head and face, and then the front of his body. He would do this three times. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. [\[39\]](#ftnt_ref39) ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded me to recite the *Muʿawwidhat* \[i.e., the last three chapters of the Qur’an\] following every prayer.” *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1523 and *Sunan al-Nasaʾī*, no. 1336, graded authentic by al-Dhahabī in *Mīzān al-iʿtidāl* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1963), 4:433 and others. [\[40\]](#ftnt_ref40) Ibn al-Qayyim, *Tafsīr al-muʿawwidhatayn* (Taif: Maktabah al-Ṣiddīq, 1988), 15. [\[41\]](#ftnt_ref41) Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī, *al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1420 AH) 10:579. [\[42\]](#ftnt_ref42) Burhān al-Dīn al-Biqāʿī, *Nadhm al-durar* (Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-Islāmī, n.d.), 22:424. [\[43\]](#ftnt_ref43) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7171; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2174. [\[44\]](#ftnt_ref44) Abū Dāwūd (no. 5081) collects this narration with the addition, “whether or not he believes what he is saying.” This addition has been declared a fabrication. However, the supplication of Abū al-Dardāʾ has been classified as authentic and is given the ruling of a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, for such a statement could not be made based upon opinion and independent judgment. See: *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-daʿīfah*, no. 5286. [\[45\]](#ftnt_ref45) Qur’an 9:129. [\[46\]](#ftnt_ref46) *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2664. [\[47\]](#ftnt_ref47) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4700. [\[48\]](#ftnt_ref48) Some experts in the field mention that repeating a positive phrase, especially one that has spiritual connections, creates new pathways between neurons in the brain, which help people feel calmer and healthier. Dr. Jill Bormann, a Psychiatric Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist, has written a lot on this topic. See: “A ‘Burnout Prevention’ Tool for Improving Healthcare Providers’ Health and Wellbeing: Mantram Repetition,” [https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/coe/cesamh/docs/Mantram\_Repetition\_for\_Employees.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/coe/cesamh/docs/Mantram_Repetition_for_Employees.pdf&sa=D&ust=1587773364387000). [\[49\]](#ftnt_ref49) *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2709. [\[50\]](#ftnt_ref50) *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2708. [\[51\]](#ftnt_ref51) ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Qarī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2002), 4:1682; Abū al-Ḥasan al-Mubārakfūrī, *Mirʿāt al-mafātih*, 8:171. [\[52\]](#ftnt_ref52) al-Badr, *Fiqh al-adʿiyah wa-al-adkār*, 2:277. [\[53\]](#ftnt_ref53) Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd Allah ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, *Taysīr al-ʿAziz al-Ḥamīd* (Riyadh: Dār al-Sumayʿī, 2007), 1:404. [\[54\]](#ftnt_ref54) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5095; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2436, who graded it authentic. [\[55\]](#ftnt_ref55) Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī (ra) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “O ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays, would you like to be guided to one of the treasures of Paradise: *lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāh*.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6384; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2704. [\[56\]](#ftnt_ref56) Ibn Fāris (d. 395 AH), *Maqāyīs al-lughah* (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1999), 2:121. [\[57\]](#ftnt_ref57) Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmūʿ al-Fatawá* (Medina: King Fahd Complex, 1995), 5:574. [\[58\]](#ftnt_ref58) al-Nawawī’s explanation of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, 1392 AH), 4:87. [\[59\]](#ftnt_ref59) Qur’an 35:15. [\[60\]](#ftnt_ref60) Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿād*, 4:193. [\[61\]](#ftnt_ref61) *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2999. [\[62\]](#ftnt_ref62) The Prophet’s statement is collected by both al-Bukhārī (no. 5009) and Muslim (no. 807), while the story of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd meeting Abū Masʿūd is in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* alone. [\[63\]](#ftnt_ref63) See: Translation of *Tafsīr al-Saʿdī* (Riyadh: IIPH, 2018), 1:367–71; Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatawá*, 14:129–41. [\[64\]](#ftnt_ref64) Ibn Taymīyah, 14:129–41. [\[65\]](#ftnt_ref65) *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 780. [\[66\]](#ftnt_ref66) *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2882, graded authentic by al-Albānī. [\[67\]](#ftnt_ref67) Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Wābil al-ṣayyib* (Cairo: Dar al-Hadith, 1999), 97. For other opinions about what “suffice” means in this context, refer to Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (n.p.: al-Maktabah as-Salafiyyah, n.d.), 9:56. [\[68\]](#ftnt_ref68) See *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr* (Riyadh: Dar Taybah, 1999), 1:735. A similar wording was mentioned by al-Nawawī who graded it authentic in *al-Adhkār*, 94. [\[69\]](#ftnt_ref69) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1425; *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 464; *Sunan an-Nasa’i*, no. 1745; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 1178. Some scholars maintain that this *duʿāʾ* can be made at any time, and that the correct wording of the hadith does not include a reference to *qunūt* or the *witr* prayer. See: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, n.d.), 2:252. [\[70\]](#ftnt_ref70) Qur’an 1:6. [\[71\]](#ftnt_ref71) Qur’an 64:11. [\[72\]](#ftnt_ref72) Translation of *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr* (Lebanon: Dar us Salam, 2003), 10:25. [\[73\]](#ftnt_ref73) Qur’an 2:257. [\[74\]](#ftnt_ref74) Qur’an 10:62–63. [\[75\]](#ftnt_ref75) Qur’an 2:216. [\[76\]](#ftnt_ref76) For further discussion on the relationship of man’s free will and the divine decree, see: Justin Parrott, “Reconciling the Divine Decree and Free Will in Islam,” *Yaqeen*, July 31, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/reconciling-the-divine-decree-and-free-will-in-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/reconciling-the-divine-decree-and-free-will-in-islam/&sa=D&ust=1587773364363000). [\[77\]](#ftnt_ref77) *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2202; the additions in brackets come from *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3522. [\[78\]](#ftnt_ref78) See al-Qaḍī ʿIyāḍ, *Ikmāl al-muʿlim* (Cairo: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1998) 7:110. [\[79\]](#ftnt_ref79) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4442. [\[80\]](#ftnt_ref80) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5779 and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2047, on the authority of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ. [\[81\]](#ftnt_ref81) *Zād al-maʿād*, 4:172. [\[82\]](#ftnt_ref82) *Fiqh al-adʿiyah wa-al-adkār* 2:216-217. [\[83\]](#ftnt_ref83) Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn, *Sharḥ riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn* (Riyadh: Madār al-Waṭan, 1426 AH), 4:483. [\[84\]](#ftnt_ref84) Some Bedouins asked the Prophet ﷺ, “Should we treat our ill?” He replied, “Yes, O servants of Allah, use medicine. Surely Allah has not made a disease except that He made a cure (or remedy) for it.” Collected by al-Tirmidhī (no. 2038), who graded it authentic. [\[85\]](#ftnt_ref85) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5675; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2191. [\[86\]](#ftnt_ref86) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5743. [\[87\]](#ftnt_ref87) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5742. [\[88\]](#ftnt_ref88) Qur’an 26:80. [\[89\]](#ftnt_ref89) See: Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī, *al-Mufhim* (Damascus: Dar Ibn Katheer, 1996), 2:819; Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:207. [\[90\]](#ftnt_ref90) Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd* (Morocco: Ministry of Endowments, 1967), 5:264. [\[91\]](#ftnt_ref91) Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:131. [\[92\]](#ftnt_ref92) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1554; *Sunan an-Nasa'i*, no. 5493. It was graded authentic by al-Nawawī in *Riyād al-ṣālihīn* (Dammam: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1421 AH), p. 492, ḥadīth no. 1492. [\[93\]](#ftnt_ref93) Ibn Baṭṭāl, *Sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2003), 9:390. [\[94\]](#ftnt_ref94) See al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan* (Ḥalab: al-Maṭbaʿah al-ʿIlmīyah, 1932), 1:297; *Dalīl al-Fāliḥīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 2004), 7:290. [\[95\]](#ftnt_ref95) *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2398, who graded it authentic, as did al-Albānī. [\[96\]](#ftnt_ref96) See ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Qarī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2002), 4:1711. [\[97\]](#ftnt_ref97) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5425. [\[98\]](#ftnt_ref98) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5641; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2573. [\[99\]](#ftnt_ref99) *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6486; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2359 on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik. [\[100\]](#ftnt_ref100) Ibn Baṭṭāl, *Sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 10:120. [\[101\]](#ftnt_ref101) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1555. This hadith has some weakness. One of the narrators, Ghassan ibn Auf, is described as *layyin al-hadith* (lit. “soft” in hadith), which means that he did not have a strong memory. Ibn Ḥajar al-Asqalani, *Taqreeb at-tahdheeb* (Halab: Dar ar-Rasheed, 1991), 42. [\[102\]](#ftnt_ref102) *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3502, graded *hasan* (fair) by al-Shawkānī in *Tuḥfat al-dhākirīn* (no. 451) and al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī*. [\[103\]](#ftnt_ref103) Qur’an, 9:128. [\[104\]](#ftnt_ref104) *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4855, graded authentic by al-Nawawī in *Riyāḍ al-ṣālihīn*. [\[105\]](#ftnt_ref105) Qur’an 57:20. [\[106\]](#ftnt_ref106) *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 4105, graded authentic by al-Albānī. [\[107\]](#ftnt_ref107) See ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Qari, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2002), 5:1727; al-ʿUthaymīn, *Sharḥ riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn* (Riyadh: Madar al-Watan, 1426 AH), 4:362–63. [\[108\]](#ftnt_ref108) *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3375; *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, no. 3793. [\[109\]](#ftnt_ref109) Qur’an 2:186. ## Summary بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيم Supplication (duʿāʾ) stands among the noblest means by which a servant draws near to his Lord, for it is the very expression of humility and need before Him. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Duʿāʾ is the essence of worship," a hadith reported by Abū Dāwūd and graded authentic by al-Tirmidhī. In moments of hardship and affliction, this humble pleading becomes all the more pressing. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, reproaches those who fail to turn to Him when calamity strikes, saying, "If only, when Our calamity came upon them, they humbled themselves. But their hearts hardened, and Shaytan made their deeds appear good to them" (Qur'an 6:43). The mufassir al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH) explained this as a divine rebuke for the abandonment of supplication. Ibn al-Qayyim likewise described duʿāʾ as among the most beneficial of remedies, calling it "the enemy of calamity" and "the weapon of the believer." Yet a weapon avails its bearer only according to his skill, and duʿāʾ benefits most when its meanings are understood, for the Prophet ﷺ warned that "Allah does not answer the prayer coming from a preoccupied heart." For this reason, understanding each supplication, not merely reciting it, is the aim. The first category comprises general supplications for protection from evil, the habit of which should endure even after affliction lifts, since the Prophet ﷺ taught that "the most beloved deeds to Allah are those that are the most consistent, even if they are few." Foremost among these are the adhkār of the morning and evening, the "morning" spanning dawn to sunrise and the "evening" from ʿaṣr until sunset. Allah commanded such remembrance: "Glorify your Lord with praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting" (Qur'an 20:130), and "remember your Lord within yourself, humbly and fearfully... in the morning and the evening" (Qur'an 7:205). Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) held that whoever maintains these adhkār is counted among "those who remember Allah often" (Qur'an 33:35). Ibn Taymīyah compared dhikr to water for a fish, and the Prophet ﷺ likened the one who remembers his Lord to the living against the dead. Among these eight morning-and-evening supplications, the first, reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, opens with praise of Allah's sovereignty and power before requesting the good of the day or night and refuge from their evil and from laziness, old age, and punishment in the Fire and grave. Beginning with praise follows the model of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, an etiquette Ibn al-Qayyim elaborated upon. The second, taught to Abū Bakr and reported by al-Tirmidhī, seeks refuge from the evil of one's own self and of Shayṭān and from harming oneself or another Muslim; Ibn al-Qayyim praised its comprehensiveness in gathering the sources and consequences of evil. The third, reported by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, invokes protection through Allah's Name from sudden affliction; notably, ʿUthmān's son Abān, when later paralyzed, explained that he had neglected it out of anger that day. Al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH) affirmed that these words repel every harm by Allah's leave. The fourth supplication, reported by Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah from Ibn ʿUmar, seeks ʿāfiyah (well-being) in religion, worldly affairs, family, and property, and protection from every direction. The Prophet ﷺ urged his uncle al-ʿAbbās to ask Allah for ʿāfiyah in this world and the next, for it encompasses safeguarding from every misfortune, and mirrors the protection Allah described Shayṭān threatening from all sides (Qur'an 7:16–17). The fifth, from Abū Dāwūd, asks for well-being in body, hearing, and sight; scholars note the singling out of hearing and sight since through them the servant perceives Allah's signs and fulfills his purpose of worship (Qur'an 51:56). The sixth is the recitation of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ and the Muʿawwidhatayn three times, which the Prophet ﷺ said "will suffice you in all respects," and of which he said none have sought refuge by anything comparable. Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī (d. 745 AH) observed that the internal threat of waswasah addressed in Sūrat al-Nās is graver than the external harms of Sūrat al-Falaq, and al-Biqāʿī (d. 885 AH) called such whispering the foundation of all sin. The seventh, the words "Ḥasbiya Allāh..." repeated seven times, is the practice of Abū al-Dardāʾ reported by Abū Dāwūd; it echoes the Qur'an (9:129) and, through reliance upon Allah, relieves anxiety, for "what reached us was never going to miss us." The eighth, from Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, seeks refuge in "the Perfect Words of Allah" from the evil of creation; the Prophet ﷺ told a man stung by a scorpion that reciting it would have spared him harm. The second category concerns specific occasions. Upon leaving home one says "Bismillāh, tawakkaltu ʿalá Allāh...", reported by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī, whereby one is guided, defended, and protected and the devils flee; the phrase lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāh is a treasure of Paradise (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim), affirming the servant's utter need of Allah, who says, "O people, it is you who stand in need of Allah" (Qur'an 35:15). Reciting the last two verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah at night (Bukhārī and Muslim) suffices the reciter, which Ibn al-Qayyim explained as protection from harm; the Prophet ﷺ said devils will not approach a house where they are recited for three nights, and ʿAlī called them a treasure from beneath the Throne. The witr supplication taught to al-Ḥasan (Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī) requests guidance, ʿāfiyah, Allah's guardianship, blessing, and protection from the evil of His decree, distinguishing between what is evil and what one merely dislikes, for "perhaps you dislike something which is good for you" (Qur'an 2:216). For pain, one places the hand on the site and says "Bismillāh" thrice then seeks refuge seven times (Muslim), as the Prophet ﷺ taught ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ; al-ʿUthaymīn (d. 1421 AH) affirmed its efficacy without discouraging conventional medicine, since true healing is from Allah alone. The Prophet's ﷺ prayer for the sick, "Adhhibi al-baʾs..." (Bukhārī and Muslim), affirms that "no healing avails but Yours." The third category comprises supplications unbound to time. One seeks refuge from vitiligo, madness, leprosy, and evil diseases (Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī); al-Ṭībī (d. 743 AH) explained that refuge is sought specifically from chronic, stigmatizing ailments, since mild ones patiently borne expiate sins, as the Prophet ﷺ said one is tried until left without sin. Another seeks refuge from anxiety, grief, incapacity, laziness, miserliness, cowardice, debt, and oppression (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī); Ibn Baṭṭāl (d. 449 AH) counseled contentment with Allah's decree, and the tradition of Abū Umāmah shows Allah removing anxiety and debt through it. A comprehensive supplication reported by al-Tirmidhī asks for reverential fear, obedience, and certainty (yaqīn) that eases worldly calamities, protection of one's faculties, and that the world not become one's greatest concern, for "whoever makes the Hereafter his goal, Allah will bring his affairs together." Notably, it does not seek refuge from affliction but requests conviction to bear it, since this world is a place of trial. Finally, the Prophet ﷺ advised the Companion who sought a deed he could maintain, "Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah," for Allah says, "I am Near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me" (Qur'an 2:186). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-hardship-and-in-ease-how-to-rely-on-god # In Hardship and in Ease: How to Rely on God **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** April 2, 2020 **Updated:** August 8, 2025 ## Introduction > …But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not.[^1] This life is a test, both in good times and bad. As I write this, each and every one of us is enduring some kind of hardship. In recent years, parts of our *ummah* have suffered devastating natural disasters and have been ravaged by war. We’ve collectively endured a global pandemic caused by COVID-19 that, in one fell swoop, took lives and depleted resources. It crippled global markets, causing financial distress, and brought many activities we take for granted to a grinding halt, with the forced closure of businesses, schools, places of worship and leisure. As we face  difficult circumstances with uncertainty, fear, and the anticipation of loss, it is our relationship with Allah that must remain constant. With every hardship, Allah has promised ease. As the saying goes, the light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion—the tunnel is! Our faith teaches us that this too will pass, but as we go through the test (*fitna*) we must seek ways to purify ourselves and to nourish our souls. In every moment, the believer sees an opportunity to reap blessings and rewards. We remain optimistic in Allah, the All-Merciful (*al-Raḥmān*) and the Eternal Refuge (*al-Ṣamad*), who never lets us down and brings us out of darkness into light, time and time again. Allah does not send us trials without also giving us the means to seek relief and to make our success easy. The real test of hardship goes beyond worldly concern and discomfort and extends to how we choose to respond to it. So, how do we overcome what seems beyond our comprehension and control? How do we overcome anxiety, fear of the unknown, and feeling isolated, while finding purpose and solace? The Straight Path we seek demands faith, gratitude, and patience on our part. We need to place our *trust* in Allah. Such reliance on Allah, *tawakkul*, is among the greatest acts of worship along this Path and one required of us, “…and upon Allah rely, if you should be believers.”[^2] *Tawakkul* is a means to Allah’s pleasure and reward[^3] and  is among the greatest blessings we have that enable us to nurture and maintain our faith. It inspires hope, contentment with divine decree, and confidence during *all* times and situations, particularly during moments of fear and uncertainty. Allah promises to *“*provide for the believer from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him.”[^4] Muslim scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) said, “*Tawakkul* \[reliance on Allah\] is half of the religion. As for the other half, it is *inābah* \[to return to Allah in all affairs and repentance\].”[^5] --- ## Tawakkul: An action of the heart *Tawakkul* lives in the heart of the believer. It is at the very core of our spiritual well-being and practice. It provides the lens through which to form one’s outlook *and* actions to bring about the best outcome. Allah commands us, “And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely \[upon Him\].”[^6] It is human to struggle, to be thrown off track, to be troubled with doubt, to complain when there is no end in sight, and to even become consumed with fear at times. *Tawakkul* is the means by which we right our course and stay on it, and bring about resolve and contentment. The benefits of *tawakkul* are many, and among them is that you hand over to Allah whatever burdens your heart and mind. Realize that you are not broken, abandoned, or forgotten, but that Allah has actually given you exactly what you need. Knowing this, the believer acknowledges with certainty and confidence, “And my success is not but through Allah. Upon him I have relied, and to Him I return.”[^7] The concept of reliance on Allah is a familiar one, given its frequent mention in the Qur’an and Sunnah. We recite these verses and supplications ardently, yet often we may not entirely comprehend the scope of *tawakkul* and are yet to connect our hearts fully to Allah’s consoling and empowering words. The question is, “How do I live *tawakkul*? How do I implement it in my daily life to achieve its benefits?” *Tawakkul* involves placing complete trust in Allah, above and beyond all others, including oneself. As Muslim scholar Ibn Rajab (d. 795/1393) stated, “Complete reliance on Allah is the sincere dependence of the heart on Allah in the servant’s endeavors in pursuing his interests and safeguarding himself against anything that may be harmful to his well-being, both in this life and in the *ākhira* (after life).”[^8] However, when our inner voice resonates loudly and becomes further emboldened by Shaytan’s whispers, we may erroneously place our emotions, logic, and that which seems immediately tangible ahead of our reliance on Allah and what is often beyond our perception of divine wisdom and  decree. *Tawakkul* is a leap of faith into that very unknown. Hence, the answer to this question lies in two key aspects upon which this trust is hinged: How well do I know Allah? And what is my relationship with Him? --- ## To know Allah is to place your trust in Him To know Allah is to know and acknowledge His names and attributes. Pause and reflect when reciting them and call upon Him by these names. Only then can one develop a meaningful connection to Allah—one that will inculcate complete reliance on Him. He is Eternal (*al-Ḥayy*) and the Sustainer of all that exists (*al-Qayyūm*). His knowledge is All-Knowing (*al-ʿAlīm*). He is the Most Powerful (*al-Qadīr*), the One who is Self-Sufficient (*al-Ghanī*), the One who provides abundantly (*al-Razzāq*), and the One who is most Noble and Generous (*al-Karīm*). Allah is our Guardian (*al-Wakīl)*: “To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.”[^9] He is always in control over all of His creation. Thus, the greater our awareness of Allah, the greater our certainty in Him and our love for Him—and the stronger our *tawakkul*. --- ## The fruits of tawakkul Allah repeatedly commands us in the Qur’an to place our trust and reliance on Him. Hence, *tawakkul* is an act of submission to the Master. It is the foundation and perfection of our belief and worship in the Oneness of Allah (*tawhīd*) by not relying on anyone else: “But if they turn away, \[O Muhammad\], say, ‘Sufficient for me is Allah; there is no deity except Him. On Him I have relied, and He is the Lord of the Great Throne.’”[^10] Just as supplicatory prayer (*duʿāʾ*) is a means to receiving our desired outcome, so too is the possession of *tawakkul,* as Allah answers the call of those who place their trust in Him. By submitting our hearts and giving complete authority to Allah, the believer also gains the love of Allah: “Indeed, Allah loves those who rely \[upon Him\].”[^11] Bringing calm to the heart, *tawakkul* frees us from being perturbed by the tremors of life. *Tawakkul* is the source of contentment, ease, and protection Allah grants to the believers, relieving them from fear and doubt. It is a means to come closer to Allah and to raise one’s level of faith (*imān)* and certainty (*yaqīn*). > No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things. And obey Allah and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away, then upon Our Messenger is only \[the duty of\] clear notification. Allah—there is no deity except Him. And upon Allah let the believers rely.[^12] Thus, if we are tested with hardship, or our worldly provision is taken away, or if we do not see the desired or immediate outcome of a particular *duʿāʾ*, we must remain optimistic that Allah’s treasures are boundless and He will remove that hardship and replace any loss with something better. The Prophet’s Companion,  Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī (d. 74/693), reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “No Muslim makes supplication—unless he is someone who has cut off his relatives—but that he is given one of three things: either his supplication is answered quickly, or it is stored up for him in the next world, or an evil equal to it is averted from him.” It was said, “Then many supplications will be made.” He replied, “Allah has more still to give.”[^13] Hence, perhaps the greatest fruit of *tawakkul* is that one is satisfied with the outcome, regardless of its specifics, knowing that it comes from the One who loves His servants and knows what is best for them. --- ## Three types of people Scholars who specialize in Islamic spirituality divide people into three categories in terms of their approach to *tawakkul*.[^14] The first type of person is one who relies wholly on Allah, without personally asserting any effort toward the end goal himself. The term used to describe this concept is *tawākul*. This is contradictory to *tawakkul* as understood from the Qur’an and Sunnah. The noble Companion, ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 687/1288), reported that the people of Yemen traveled for Hajj without sufficient provision, claiming to depend solely on Allah to provide for them. When they resorted to begging the people of Medina to take care of them, Allah revealed the verse, “And take provisions, but indeed, the best provision is fear of Allah.”[^15] The second type of person takes the means to achieve the desired outcome, while relying solely on those means, and not on Allah. Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, could not convince his own son to seek refuge in Allah from the flood in the safety of the ark. His son defiantly said, “I will take refuge on a mountain to protect me from the water.” \[Noah\] said, “There is no protector today from the decree of Allah, except for whom He gives mercy.” And the waves came between them, and he was among those who drowned.[^16] This action is sinful because it goes against *tawḥīd* for one to rely on other than Allah, and therefore, it contradicts *tawakkul*. This is likened to one who seeks the recommended or necessary medical treatment for an ailment and places his trust solely on the means—the medicine and the doctor—but does not trust in Allah as the One who ultimately provides the cure through those very means, giving them their effectiveness and potency. The third group of people are those who take the necessary means to achieving the desired outcome *and* place their trust in Allah to grant them success. This is the correct understanding of *tawakkul* as taught and practiced by the Prophet ﷺ and every prophet before him. We might wonder why Mary was instructed to shake the date palm as she was in the throes of giving birth. “And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be content*.*”[^17] It was, no doubt, her reliance on Allah and His divine wisdom in directing her to that action that provided her with the necessary means to give her ease in her time of difficulty. Likewise, during any time of uncertainty and fear, the people of *tawakkul* are those who remain steadfast in their hope in Allah to bring them through the test, while they use every permissible means to achieve that end. We must remain optimistic and completely trust that Allah will bring us relief from our hardship whilst, at the same time, we must make every effort to take the necessary measures needed to achieve this. This includes increasing our acts of worship, such as *duʿāʾ*, seeking forgiveness (*istighfār*), giving charity (*ṣadaqa*), and being of service to others to the best of our ability. The great scholar, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) summarized the concept of *tawakkul* as follows: “*Tawakkul* comprises of reliance on Allah, in order for Him to help the person do what they are ordered to do, as well as reliance on Allah in giving the person what they cannot achieve. *Istiʿānah* (seeking help) is in actions, and *tawakkul* is broader than that.”[^18] Therefore, making *duʿāʾ* is an important and ever-present aspect of the means we take to exercise *tawakkul*. It is also important to note that reliance on Allah is essential for *all* matters, both worldly and religious, to seek a good outcome in this world and in the Hereafter. --- ## Follow in the footsteps of the ones who led by example The Qur’an and Sunnah are replete with accounts and valuable lessons about *tawakkul*, illustrating how our greatest role models understood and implemented it in their lives. Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, found coolness and tranquility in the middle of the fire when he placed his trust in Allah, reciting the words, “Allah (Alone) is sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs.” These were also the words of the Prophet ﷺ when he and his companions were informed of a great army gathering against them at Uhud.[^19] He ﷺ made sure to take the necessary means available—strategic planning, armor, and *duʿāʾ* \- to seek the help and protection of Allah. When faced with the imminent danger of migrating (*hijra*) to Medina , the Prophet ﷺ placed his complete trust in Allah to guide him to safety. He then meticulously carried out protective measures to achieve it. Along with his closest Companion, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (d. 634/1236), he escaped from Mecca, taking a guide with them, and choosing an alternate route to avoid capture. They made arrangements for sufficient provision and sought refuge in a cave until it was safe to resume the journey to Medina. Seeing Abū Bakr’s concern for his safety, the Prophet ﷺ reassured Abū Bakr of their unwavering trust in Allah to protect them. > If you do not aid the Prophet—Allah has already aided him when those who disbelieved had driven him out \[of Mecca\] as one of two, when they were in the cave and he said to his companion, “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us.” And Allah sent down his tranquility upon him and supported him with angels you did not see and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the word of Allah—that is the highest. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.[^20] The sea itself was made a path to safety for Moses, peace be upon him, when he was commanded to strike it with his staff. We see the certainty and *tawakkul* of Moses (as) when he said, “Nay, surely! With me is my Lord, He will guide me.”[^21] As difficult as it is to imagine, the mother of Moses was divinely inspired to place her infant in a river in order to save his life. How amazing is His wisdom that Allah then kept Moses (as) safe, raising him in the home of the very same tyrant from whom she was desperate to secure his escape.[^22] These are historic accounts. Although we may be blessed with the comforts of life and, therefore, not fully comprehend the extent of the adversity these exemplary believers overcame with *tawakkul*, they provide consolation and hope to us all. To those among us who find themselves in the midst of a storm, be it calamity, injustice, loss of life or provision, place your trust in Allah and stay the course with hope and confidence to weather the storm. Allah is with you too. --- ## Life lessons The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If you all depend on Allah with due reliance, He would certainly give you provision as He gives it to birds who go forth hungry in the morning and return with \[a\] full belly at dusk.”[^23] This hadith teaches us that *tawakkul* begins with the heart’s firm reliance on Allah. Strengthened with *tawakkul*, the believer sets forth on the path to attain his goal, be it safety, sustenance, knowledge, etc. One may not know where that path will take him, nor have the knowledge of how or when he will reach his goal, but his reliance on Allah keeps him steadfast with the certainty that Allah will provide, just as He does for the birds. No doubt this example depicts heightened vulnerability and need. The nest appears feeble and unable to withstand harsh weather and predators. The eggs are fragile and the bird has limited capacity and significant responsibility to shoulder. Yet, we see Allah’s perfection in His plan, His mercy, and generosity for all of His creation such that no one who seeks from Him returns empty-handed. *Tawakkul* involves the coming together of both one’s spiritual and material means.[^24] The renowned hadith scholar and theologian Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 812/1408) noted that this hadith teaches us that not only is *tawakkul* an essential component of faith, but it is also of the utmost importance in acquiring sustenance.[^25] It begins in the heart, and manifests in action, be it for survival, well-being, or any benefit. The means are those actions that are within the bounds of permissibility, beginning with seeking the help of Allah through acts of worship along with practical steps within one’s capacity. This may include seeking counsel and the help of trustworthy people: family, friends, and specialists in a particular field, such as medical professionals. Placing one’s trust in another person is called *tawkīl*, which is a category of the means one takes, while relying on Allah to provide both the means and the end result. > And cooperate \[assist one another\] in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression.[^26] Thus, one carries out the actions while the heart remains firmly reliant on Allah. Trust that your provision is guaranteed, but you may have to struggle and strive for it. Every action and effort exerted with *tawakkul* is an action on the Path of Allah and is being recorded and rewarded. Hence, *tawakkul* supports the believer’s confidence, courage, strength, motivation and productivity because of their reliance on Allah to help them achieve their goals. > And when the prayer has been concluded, disperse within the land and seek from the bounty of Allah, and remember Allah often that you may succeed.[^27] --- ## Taking the means – daily checklist The following is by no means an exhaustive list. However, it outlines and briefly touches on a few key reminders and practices we can use to nurture our *tawakkul* on a daily basis. ### 1\. Make duʿāʾ *Duʿāʾ* is the greatest act of worship and a significant component of *tawakkul*. “*…*so worship Him and rely upon Him. And your Lord is not unaware of that which you do.”[^28] Call upon Allah and when you do, pray with certainty that you will be heard and answered.[^29] Develop a meaningful connection with Allah, asking Him sincerely and with an understanding of the supplications in the Qur’an and Sunnah, along with your own heartfelt words. Internalize your *duʿāʾ* the way you may have internalized your anxiety and fear, and trust that Allah will turn your *duʿāʾ* into a means of relief and comfort. *Duʿāʾ* is the weapon of the believer, but it is only as strong as the one who recognizes how to best use it to maximize its benefit. We often make the mistake of limiting our *duʿāʾ* to our own limited perception. Don’t be afraid to ask Allah—He moves mountains for those who ask. In light of this, it’s clear that *tawakkul* leads to a life of confidence and certainty, because although tomorrow is not certain, Allah surely is! Among the numerous prescribed *duʿāʾ* taught by the Prophet *ﷺ* is the *duʿāʾ* of ‘seeking guidance’ or *istikhāra*, to ask Allah to guide one to the best action: > O Allah! I ask guidance from Your knowledge, And Power from Your Might and I ask for Your great blessings. You are capable and I am not. You know and I do not and You know the unseen. O Allah! If You know that this job is good for my religion and my subsistence and in my Hereafter (or said: If it is better for my present and later needs),Then You ordain it for me and make it easy for me to get and then bless me in it. And if You know that this job is harmful to me in my religion and subsistence and in the Hereafter (or said: If it is worse for my present and later needs), then keep it away from me and let me be away from it. And ordain for me whatever is good for me and make me satisfied with it). The Prophet ﷺ added that then the person should name (mention) his need.[^30] Ibn al-Qayyim reported from his Shaykh, Ibn Taymiyya that he said: “Predestined issues are enveloped by two things: reliance on Allah before it happens, and contentment with Allah afterwards; whoever relies on Allah before the action, and is content with that has been decreed after it, has completed servitude.”[^31] ### 2\. Have firm resolve The Prophet ﷺ was instructed by Allah, “And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely upon Him.”[^32] This verse arms us with confidence to proceed with the tasks ahead. It allows us to remain focused on the goal and to maintain stability, day after day. Imagine riding a jet-ski into open water; keep moving at a steady speed and the water will become a firm highway, but stop and go, and you will be rocked by the waves onto an unsteady and undefined path. Similarly, *tawakkul* closes the door to questions and doubts, to inaction, stress, and dissatisfaction with oneself and others. Drop the baggage that slows you down and busy yourself with good deeds to avoid wasting time and regret. Remember, *tawakkul* has two actions—one is in the heart and the other involves seeking the means available. The Companion Anas ibn Mālik (d. 93/712) reported: A man said, “O Messenger of Allah, should I tie my camel and trust in Allah, or should I leave her untied and trust in Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ, said, “Tie her *and* trust in Allah.”[^33] ### 3\. Sincerely believe in Allah’s forgiveness Prophet Moses, peace be upon him, struck a fatal blow to a man while trying to save the life of another. He turned to Allah and sought forgiveness, and Allah forgave him: “‘My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, so forgive me,’ and He forgave him. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”[^34] The door to repentance is open but it demands of us sincerity and that we place our complete trust in Allah that He will forgive us; it is one’s level of *tawakkul* here that will generate hope and motivation toward good deeds. The prescribed daily *duʿāʾ* for *istighfār* embodies this trust in Allah: > The Prophet ﷺ said, “The supreme supplication for seeking forgiveness (*sayyid al-istighfār*) is to say: ‘O Allah! You are my *Rabb*. There is no true god except You. You have created me, and I am Your slave, and I hold to Your Covenant as far as I can. I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge the favors that You have bestowed upon me, and I confess my sins. Pardon me, for none but You has the power to pardon.’ He who supplicates in these terms during the day with firm belief in it and dies on the same day (before the evening), he will be one of the dwellers of Paradise (*janna*); and if anyone supplicates in these terms during the night with firm belief in it and dies before the morning, he will be one of the dwellers of *janna*.”[^35] The more one humbles himself as a servant of Allah, the more noble one becomes in the sight of Allah. Our repeated falling down and getting back up become badges of honor when we return to Allah sincerely with repentance (*tawba*). ### 4\. Hold firm to the five daily prayers Allah gives us the opportunity to converse with Him and to unburden our hearts and minds at least five times a day. *Ṣalāh* (prescribed prayer) contains praise of Allah, affirmations of His greatness, reminders from His Book, and an immense opportunity to make *duʿāʾ*; all of which serve to strengthen our *tawakkul*. By reflecting on the words we recite in every unit of prayer, “It is You we worship and You we ask for help”[^36] and “*Allāhu Akbar*” (Allah is the greatest), we are able to increase our faith and thus *tawakkul*. Our five daily prayers are a means to stay on course, gain reward and forgiveness, and gain closeness to Allah (swt). ### 5\. Internalize the reality of the unseen This is the very essence of belief in the unseen: “*…*the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah, who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them.”[^37] We don’t always have the knowledge or the insight to make sense of every situation. We may feel trapped in the dense trees and thorny bushes with no end in sight, but internalizing the reality of the unseen will increase our *tawakkul* in Allah, Who will guide us out of the forest into the clear. It may be beyond our rational minds to comprehend and some things may seem unfair or counterintuitive, but Allah, in His infinite knowledge and wisdom, is steering us to good even if we cannot see it.  Reflect on the stories in *Sūrah al-Kahf* (the Chapter of the Cave). Each of the encounters of Moses (as) appeared to be the exact opposite of what was actually so.[^38] What comes from Allah is the truth, and that which contains the greatest wisdom and good. This aspect of *tawakkul* gives us the confidence and the ability to accept His decree as the best outcome, no matter how things may appear at the time. ### 6\. Know that you are equipped Find comfort in the reality that Allah will never burden you with more than you are capable of: “Allah does not charge a soul except \[with that which is within\] its capacity.”[^39] Knowing this brings ease as we become confident that we will get through what is ahead because our Master knows us like no other. He has equipped us, He wants ease for us and He will provide us with ease even during the most challenging of situations. ### 7\. Exercise patience The topic of patience is a very comprehensive discussion, but for the purpose of this daily checklist, we remind ourselves that it is a necessary component of *tawakkul*. Without exercising patience every day and in all situations of prosperity and adversity, we are unable to fully depend on Allah. But by staying persistent, consistent, and engaged in action in the face of hardships and challenges, we are able to develop and maintain the faith and discipline needed to rely entirely on Allah. Let us not be of those who in the face of hardship abandon patience in favor of despair: > Man is not weary of supplication for good \[things\], but if evil touches him, he is hopeless and despairing.[^40] ### 8\. Increase in gratitude As is the case with patience, gratitude is a necessary component of *tawakkul.* Without it, we are unable to fully rely on Allah and his decree. There is ample and extensive discussion in the Qur’an and Sunnah urging the believers to develop this beautiful quality in their outlook on life, showing gratitude to Allah for all that He has blessed His creation with. When gratitude flourishes and manifests itself from within, *tawakkul* slowly ensues as we exhibit a complete trust in Allah that He has blessed us and answered our call. Allah's Messenger ﷺ said**, “**Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.”[^41] For a more detailed understanding of the divine gift of gratitude, [read here.](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude-the-secret-of-happiness-in-the-modern-world&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490608609&usg=AOvVaw1H0vj-IxUhithRqII9w-FO) ### 9\. Stay optimistic Pessimism is contradictory to *tawakkul*. It’s about changing our perception. We often see the world through a lens colored by our own experiences, but what has not come our way today, may await us in the future. Think of the positives we are experiencing today and remember that with every hardship, Allah has promised ease.[^42] Allah's Messenger ﷺ visited a sick Bedouin and said to him, “Don't worry, *ṭahūr* (i.e., your illness will be a means of cleansing of your sins) if Allah wills.” The Bedouin said, “*Ṭahūr*! No, but it is a fever that is burning in the body of an old man and it will make him visit his grave.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Then it is so.”[^43] ### 10\. Have a good opinion of Allah In order to have *tawakkul* we have to know Allah and to trust Him in every aspect of our journey through this life to our final return to Him. Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “Allah said, ‘I am to my slave as he thinks of Me’ (i.e., I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him).”[^44] Learn, study, and reflect on the beautiful names and attributes of Allah to strengthen your relationship with Him and increase your *tawakkul.* ### 11\. Know that Allah loves those who rely upon Him At times, we erroneously interpret a test from Allah as an indication that He doesn’t love us, or that we have been abandoned. But tests come to all people, in all stations of life, whether by way of prosperity or adversity, and regardless of one’s level of faith. Every test is designed to bring us closer to Allah because He loves His servants and wants the best outcome for us:“Your Lord \[O Muhammad (Peace be upon him)\] has neither forsaken you nor hated you.”[^45] Remember, Allah loved His Messengers yet they endured what seemed like insurmountable losses, challenges, and setbacks because such difficulties raised them to the greatest heights of nobility. ### 12\. Perform your daily adhkār The Prophet ﷺ has taught us a number of *duʿāʾ*s to make at prescribed times throughout a twenty-four hour period, as well as on specific occasions. Developing a daily regimen that includes these serves as a frequent reminder to seek the protection of Allah and to help one entrust all affairs to Him. For example, when leaving home, we should recite, “In the Name of Allah, I have placed my trust in Allah, there is no might and no power except by Allah.”[^46] ### 13\. Engage in the tranquility of dhikr The more we engage in the remembrance of Allah (*dhikr*), the more awareness we have of Allah and His presence in our lives. Allah tells us to find tranquility in remembrance: “Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured.”[^47] This reassurance is a sign of and a means of strengthening one’s *tawakkul*. --- ## Conclusion ʿAbd Allah Ibn Masʿūd stated that the verse in the Qur’an that exhibits the greatest reliance on Allah and submission of one’s affairs to Him is: “And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out, and will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a \[decreed\] extent.”[^48] One may have the impression that *tawakkul* is only required during adversity, but *tawakkul* is a constant state of the believer’s heart. All of us are in constant need of Allah, and whether the test be that of prosperity or difficulty, all tests from Allah are opportunities for us to rely on Him.  *Tawakkul* is a way of life for the believer—one that combines certainty of faith and contentment. Hence, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: “Reliance on Allah is what gathers the whole of the religion together.”[^49] No doubt, many of us are experiencing great turbulence today. We pray for the help of Allah to come soon with relief for all those enduring pain, hardship, and loss. *Tawakkul* in Allah is the greatest of gifts which reassures us and reminds us of exactly how to stay the course until we reach our ultimate destination. > Our Lord, upon You we have relied, and to You we have returned, and to You is the destination.[^50] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 2:216. [^2]: Qur’an 5:23. [^3]: “So whatever thing you have been given, it is but \[for\] enjoyment of the worldly life. But what is with Allah is better and more lasting for those who have believed and upon their Lord rely.” Qur’an 42:36. [^4]: Qur’an 65:3. [^5]: Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, *Reliance on Allaah* (n.p.: Zad Group, n.d.), 3, accessed April 2020, [https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih\_books/single2/en\_Reliance\_on\_Allah.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single2/en_Reliance_on_Allah.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490616895&usg=AOvVaw1NvipymMbym8pk9bONSDcl). [^6]: Qur’an 3:159. [^7]: Qur’an 11:88. [^8]: Ahmad Farid, *The Purification of the Soul* (London: Al-Firdous, 1996), 105. [^9]: Qur’an 4:171. [^10]: Qur’an 9:129. [^11]: Qur’an 3:159. [^12]: Qur’an 64:11–13. [^13]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-mufrad*, hadith no. 107, [https://sunnah.com/adab/31/107](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/adab/31/107&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490626303&usg=AOvVaw31N1pGhLDumcPIubUu4neH). [^14]: Al-Munajjid, *Reliance on Allah*, 9-14. [^15]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 1523, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/25/11](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/25/11&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490618281&usg=AOvVaw38SyHGws1in59HlFWIIPW_). [^16]: Qur’an 11:43. [^17]: See Qur’an 19:23–26. [^18]: Ibn Taymiyya, Majmoo' Al-Fataawa (8/177) [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no.  4287 [^20]: Qur’an 9:40. [^21]: Qur’an 26:62. [^22]: See Qur’an 28:7–13. [^23]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2344, *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) according to al-Tirmidhi. [^24]: Abū Bakr Jābir al-Jazāirī, *Minhāj Al-Muslim: A Book of Creed, Manners, Character, Acts of Worship and Other Deeds*, vol. 1 (Riyadh: Dār al-Salām, 2001), 301. [^25]: Farid, *Purification of the Soul*, 105. [^26]: Qur’an 5:2. [^27]: Qur’an 62:10. [^28]: Qur’an 11:123. [^29]: “And your Lord says, ‘Call upon Me; I will respond to you.’” Qur’an 40:60. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, hadith no. 45, no. 1166, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/19/45](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/19/45&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490621115&usg=AOvVaw3tBZ-AZBQlqLC4m7-mRRnY). [^31]: Ibn al-Qayyim, Madaarij As-Saalikeen (2/122) [^32]: Qur’an 3:159. [^33]: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, hadith no. 2517. [^34]: Qur’an 28:16. [^35]: Al-Nawawī, *Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn*, bk. 20, hadith 7, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/20/7](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/20/7&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490622125&usg=AOvVaw3OYDhqLRaUYFYCygHoPGia); also reported by al-Bukhārī. [^36]: Qur’an 1:5. [^37]: Qur’an 2:2–3. [^38]: Qur’an 18:60–82. [^39]: Qur’an 2:286. [^40]: Qur’an 41:49. [^41]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, bk. 55, hadith 82, no. 2999, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/82](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/82&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490623235&usg=AOvVaw03mwkCOFoCS9ikyHi6oAu6). [^42]: Qur’an 94:5–6; also see Roohi Tahir, “Overcoming Pessimism with Faith,” *Yaqeen*, April 17, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/overcoming-pessimism-with-faith/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/overcoming-pessimism-with-faith/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490625549&usg=AOvVaw34OkeEFbUCYLD85nfIWvka). [^43]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, bk. 97, hadith 96, no. 7470, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/96](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/96&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490625958&usg=AOvVaw3J8HNpe6OoxS_dxxtcbaYo). [^44]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 7505, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/130](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/130&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1710826490623643&usg=AOvVaw0wuZwv8y6dKX77SJ5Q6mkn). [^45]: Qur’an 93:3. [^46]: *Sunan Abi Dāwūd,* no. 5095. [^47]: Qur’an 13:28. [^48]: Qur’an 65:2–3; also al-Munajjid, *Reliance*, 41. [^49]: Al-Munajjid, *Reliance*,  3. [^50]: Qur’an 60:4. ## Summary Reliance upon Allah, known as *tawakkul*, stands at the very heart of the believer's spiritual life, particularly in times of trial. Life itself is a test, both in ease and in hardship, and Allah reminds us in His Book: "But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not." Whether through natural disasters, war, or the global affliction of the COVID-19 pandemic, the *ummah* endures suffering that is uncertain and frightening. Yet through all of this, it is our relationship with Allah that must remain constant, for with every hardship He has promised ease, and He brings His servants out of darkness into light time and again. The real test extends beyond worldly discomfort to how we choose to respond, and the answer lies in faith, gratitude, patience, and trust in Allah. Such reliance is among the greatest acts of worship, for Allah says, "…and upon Allah rely, if you should be believers," and He promises to "provide for the believer from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him." Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) said, "*Tawakkul* is half of the religion. As for the other half, it is *inābah*—to return to Allah in all affairs and repentance." *Tawakkul* is an action of the heart, residing at the core of one's spiritual well-being, providing the lens through which one forms outlook and action. Allah commands, "And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely upon Him." It is human to struggle, to doubt, and to fear, but *tawakkul* is the means by which we right our course and find contentment, handing over to Allah whatever burdens the heart. Ibn Rajab (d. 795/1393) explained it as "the sincere dependence of the heart on Allah in the servant's endeavors in pursuing his interests and safeguarding himself against anything harmful to his well-being, both in this life and in the *ākhira*." Yet when the whispers of Shaytan grow loud, one may wrongly place emotion, logic, and the immediately tangible ahead of reliance on Allah. Thus *tawakkul* is a leap of faith, and its foundation rests on two questions: How well do I know Allah, and what is my relationship with Him? To know Allah is to know and reflect upon His names and attributes—the Eternal (al-Ḥayy), the Sustainer (al-Qayyūm), the All-Knowing (al-ʿAlīm), the Most Powerful (al-Qadīr), the Provider (al-Razzāq), and our Guardian (al-Wakīl), for "sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs." The greater our awareness of Allah, the stronger our *tawakkul*. The fruits of *tawakkul* are many. It is an act of submission and the perfection of belief in the Oneness of Allah (*tawḥīd*), for Allah says, "Sufficient for me is Allah; there is no deity except Him. On Him I have relied." Through it the believer gains the love of Allah, calm in the heart, contentment, and freedom from fear and doubt. Even when a hardship is not lifted or a *duʿāʾ* is seemingly unanswered, the believer remains optimistic. Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī (d. 74/693) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said that no Muslim makes a supplication—unless it involves severing ties of kinship—except that he is given one of three things: his supplication answered quickly, stored for him in the Hereafter, or an equal evil averted from him; and when it was said that many would then supplicate, he replied, "Allah has more still to give." The greatest fruit of *tawakkul* is satisfaction with the outcome, knowing it comes from the One who loves His servants and knows what is best. Scholars of Islamic spirituality divide people into three categories regarding *tawakkul*. The first relies wholly on Allah while asserting no personal effort—a state called *tawākul*, which contradicts *tawakkul*. Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 687/1288) reported that the people of Yemen would travel for Hajj without provision, claiming dependence on Allah, until they resorted to begging, and Allah revealed, "And take provisions, but indeed, the best provision is fear of Allah." The second takes the means but relies solely upon them rather than upon Allah—a sinful state contradicting *tawḥīd*, illustrated by the son of Prophet Nūḥ who sought a mountain for refuge from the flood and was among the drowned. The third, and correct, group takes the necessary means while placing trust in Allah for success, as taught by every prophet. This is why Maryam was instructed to shake the palm trunk while in the throes of childbirth: "And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates." Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) summarized that "*Tawakkul* comprises reliance on Allah to help the person do what they are ordered to do, as well as reliance on Allah in giving them what they cannot achieve." The Qur'an and Sunnah are replete with examples. Prophet Ibrāhīm found coolness in the fire when he said, "Allah alone is sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs"—the very words the Prophet ﷺ and his companions uttered before Uḥud, even as they took up armor and strategic planning. During the *hijra*, the Prophet ﷺ trusted Allah while taking a guide, an alternate route, and provision, reassuring Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (d. 634/1236): "Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us." The sea became a path for Mūsā when he struck it with his staff, declaring, "Nay, surely! With me is my Lord, He will guide me." The Prophet ﷺ also said that if we relied upon Allah as we ought, He would provide for us as He provides for the birds who leave hungry and return full. Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 812/1408) noted this shows *tawakkul* is essential both to faith and to acquiring sustenance—it begins in the heart and manifests in permissible action, including seeking counsel and help (*tawkīl*). Among the daily practices that nurture *tawakkul* are: making *duʿāʾ* with certainty, including *istikhāra*; having firm resolve, for the man was told to "tie her and trust in Allah"; believing sincerely in Allah's forgiveness, reciting *sayyid al-istighfār*; holding firm to the five daily prayers; internalizing belief in the unseen, reflecting on Sūrah al-Kahf; knowing "Allah does not charge a soul except with that which is within its capacity"; exercising patience; increasing gratitude; staying optimistic; having a good opinion of Allah, for "I am to my slave as he thinks of Me"; knowing Allah loves those who rely on Him, for "Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hated you"; performing daily *adhkār*; and engaging in *dhikr*, for "by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." Ibn Masʿūd stated that the verse showing the greatest reliance upon Allah is: "And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out, and will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him." *Tawakkul* is not required only in adversity but is a constant state of the heart in ease and difficulty alike, as Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: "Reliance on Allah is what gathers the whole of the religion together." It is a way of life combining certainty of faith and contentment—the greatest of gifts that reassures the believer until reaching the ultimate destination. "Our Lord, upon You we have relied, and to You we have returned, and to You is the destination." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/embracing-uncertainty-how-to-feel-emotionally-stable-in-a-pandemic # Embracing Uncertainty: How to Feel Emotionally Stable in a Pandemic **Authors:** Dr. Osman Umarji, Dr. Hassan Elwan **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 30, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Life is all about making decisions. Every moment of the day we make decisions, some mundane and others more meaningful. In the morning, we have to decide what to wear and what to eat and by the afternoon we may have to decide what stocks to invest in or how to respond to a crisis. Before deciding any course of action, we wish we could be certain that we are making the best decision. People crave certainty in life.[^1] Certainty gives us a sense of security and the feeling that we have life under control. That is why we check the weather forecast, can’t wait for the ultrasound revealing the gender of our child, and make investments with the most stable returns. However, despite constantly seeking certainty for what tomorrow will hold, uncertainty has been woven into the fabric of the universe by the infinite wisdom of Allah. Everything in this life is meant to change except for Allah. The seasons, the colors of the trees, our emotions, our children, and even our personalities are always changing, all with varying levels of predictability. The only absolute constant in the universe is Allah; as He says, “...Everything will perish except His Face.”[^2] Allah reminds us that He alone has certainty and control over the most fundamental affairs in this life. “Indeed, Allah \[alone\] has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” This verse reminds us not only of Allah’s infinite knowledge but that to human beings nearly everything is indeterminate and uncertain. The date that this world will end, where and when rain will fall (which societies and economies depend on), the fate of the child in the earliest stages in the womb, our jobs and wealth, and the time of our death are all matters that we will never achieve certainty in regardless of advancements in science.[^3] The person who tolerates uncertainty and is comfortable with it will be able to function better in life than the one who constantly desires control and certainty. This is because the person who accepts uncertainty acknowledges that they are not in absolute control of their affairs and does not stress over what they cannot control. Conversely, the one who runs away from uncertainty and covets control over the details of their life will find “what they resist to persist.” They will only find uncertainty everywhere and be in a perpetual state of worry, anxiety, and stress. Stress is a direct response to situations where people feel uncertain and feel a lack of control. Uncertainty intolerance can be defined as a cognitive bias that affects how a person perceives, interprets, and responds to uncertain situations on a cognitive, emotional, and behavioral level. People who exhibit high levels of uncertainty intolerance consider it unacceptable that a negative event may occur, however small the probability of its occurrence.[^4] Decades of research on the etiology of worrying have suggested that uncertainty intolerance is actually the root cause of worry and generalized anxiety disorder.[^5] Worrying and anxiety then lead to fear, and fear leads people to overestimate the risk of negative outcomes.[^6] This creates a negative feedback cycle that perpetuates anxiety. Thus, not only does uncertainty intolerance cause us to worry about today, through increased anxiety and fear we envision a future far more dismal than it actually will be. This creates a sense of hopelessness and pessimism about the future, which is antithetical to the Islamic worldview of hope and optimism. The Islamic worldview encourages us to focus our attention and effort where we have more agency and to entrust the affairs that we have no control over to Allah.[^7] Thus, we reduce our uncertainty by working hard to increase the probability of success in our sphere of influence, while embracing the only certainty in life: Allah, *al-Haqq,* the Truth that is constant and never changes. We put our uncertainty in the hands of *al-Wakeel*, the One most suitable to entrust our affairs to. The Prophet ﷺ beautifully explained this mindset and behavior when he explained, “Were you to put your complete trust in Allah, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds. They go out hungry in the morning and return filled in the evening.”[^8] The birds are completely uncertain regarding the when, where, and what they will catch when they leave their nests in the early morning. However, their uncertainty does not paralyze them but it motivates them to do the only thing in their power: to actually seek out what has been decreed for them. Similarly, in aspects of life that the Prophet ﷺ had no control over and was uncertain regarding its outcome, he would make *dua* (e.g., *istikhara*[^9]) to Allah and move on. Moreover, he was certain that Allah would respond, and commanded us to “Call upon Allah with certainty that he will answer you. Know that Allah will not answer the supplication of a heart that is negligent and distracted.”[^10] For example, when the wind would begin to blow strongly, he would say, “O Allah, I ask You for its goodness and I take refuge with You from its evil.” This is how life is meant to be lived. We do not know exactly what will happen tomorrow, but we do what is in our control to please Allah and maximize positive outcomes while relying on Allah and trusting His divine decree is in our best interest. This is what the great scholar, Ibn Taymiya, referred to when he reflected over what the most important *dua* was. He said, “I realized it was seeking Allah’s assistance in trying to please Him. And I realized it was in the *Fatiha*, in the verse, ‘It is you alone that we worship and you alone that we rely upon.’”[^11] --- ## Coping with uncertainty in especially uncertain times The spread of the coronavirus has increased the uncertainty all around us. Allah has wisdom in everything He does and how people respond to this uncertainty is a test from Him. Allah says, “And We will surely test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, loss of life, and loss of fruits, but give glad tidings to the patient.”[^12] Therefore, it is our goal to understand what factors contribute to having an adaptive mindset that would qualify us as being counted amongst the patient. We also seek to understand maladaptive ways of thinking so we can find solutions to them. We present the results of an empirical study to accomplish our goal in the remainder of this paper. --- ## Muslim mindsets regarding the new coronavirus Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research conducted a survey to better understand the American Muslim reaction to the coronavirus. Just as strict social isolation policies were being implemented in many communities, we received feedback from over 1200 people. Our sample was diverse with respect to age, education level, and race. The largest categories of respondents were 25-34 (36%), held bachelor’s degrees (40%), and were South Asian (56%). Females comprised 74% of the sample and 73% of the sample reported praying five times a day. Therefore, it is important to highlight that our sample was generally religious in practice. By the mercy of Allah, the Muslims in our sample were doing quite well in general. Although people had mixed views on the present and future, many were optimistic and had turned to Allah for support. This can be seen in response to our question asking, “Which of these statements reflects how you believe things will unfold in the next few months?” 3% of people reported not being worried at all and that they felt everything would be fine. These people may have been in a state of denial. 49% were optimistic that despite the many ordeals people will face, things will turn out all right with many positive outcomes. We label this attitude “realistic optimism.” However, 20% of people were more pessimistic, saying that things will be bad, as lots of people will suffer from the consequences of the virus (realistic pessimism). 5% were completely pessimistic, believing that things will turn out terribly, with catastrophic loss of life and societal outcomes. Nearly a quarter of the sample said they had no idea what might happen. It is worth highlighting that both realistic optimists and realistic pessimists believed that numerous challenges were on the horizon, but the optimists also saw the potential that good might come out of the situation. Another sign of the spiritual health of the community was that 53% of the respondents said they had witnessed a lot or many blessings from Allah since the emergence of the new coronavirus. Furthermore, over 58% of people said their relationship with Allah had improved over the past week, whereas only 5% said it had gotten worse. ![Graph: How will things unfold with the Coronavirus? ](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image4-1-1024x637.png) --- ## Uncertainty intolerance and mental health ![Graphic: Relationship with Faith and Blessings during Coronavirus ](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image1-2-1024x664.png) We asked respondents about their general attitudes towards uncertainty and their current mental health. Uncertainty intolerance questions gauged how much distress people feel in uncertain situations.[^13] 57% of the sample disagreed that uncertainty causes them distress, whereas 20% of the sample agreed that uncertainty causes them distress (a score of 4 out of 5). Mental health was gauged with questions regarding the frequency of feeling anxious, nervous, and calm over the past few days. Nearly 60% of participants said they had either never or sometimes felt anxious and nervous over the past few days, whereas 22% said they had felt anxious and nervous half the time or more. We specifically wanted to test the hypothesis that people’s attitudes and coping behaviors regarding the coronavirus could be predicted by their uncertainty intolerance and mental health. We also wanted to understand what other factors contributed to optimistic and pessimistic attitudes. We ran a structural equation model (i.e., a statistical model) to predict the hypothesized process by which an individual’s core beliefs (beliefs regarding uncertainty in life) influence their psychological well-being (mental health), which subsequently influences how they see the world (outlook on life as positive or negative) and cope. We specifically looked at uncertainty tolerance and mental health as predictors of three different outlooks regarding effects of the coronavirus: 1) Seeing the potential of blessings resulting from its spread; 2) Expressing concern for oneself, others, and society; 3) Pessimistically predicting that, over the next few months, things will unfold largely negatively. The simplified model can be illustrated as follows. ![Graph on how dealing with uncertainty and mental health affect outlook on life.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image2-2-1024x315.png) **Figure 1: Hypothesized Model** --- ## Key findings The data strongly supported our hypotheses.[^14] Higher uncertainty intolerance predicted significantly worse mental health, (*B*\=.68), and worse mental health significantly predicted our three outcomes pertaining to outlook on life. To reword the key finding in a positive manner, higher uncertainty tolerance predicted better mental health, and better mental health predicted a positive outlook on life. Worse mental health was associated with not seeing blessings from Allah (*B*\=-.18), more personal and societal concerns about getting the coronavirus (*B*\=.38), and being more likely to predict things unfolding badly or terribly over the next few months (OR=1.35; 35% more likely). Again, to reword it positively, better mental health was associated with seeing many blessings from Allah, expressing fewer personal and societal concerns about getting the coronavirus, and being more likely to predict things unfolding in a positive manner. In addition to these effects, there were other important predictors of outlook. Reading the Qur’an frequently was associated with having a more positive outlook, reduced concerns, and seeing more blessings from Allah since the coronavirus spread. Having a grateful disposition was also associated with seeing more blessings. Checking the news more frequently was associated with having a more negative outlook and more concerns. Finally, gender was an important predictor as well. Although women had slightly higher uncertainty intolerance and worse mental health than males, they were more likely to express realistic optimism than men. Another interesting and important finding was that both uncertainty intolerance and mental health predicted coping strategies. We conceptualized coping strategies as either being religious (e.g., reading Qur’an, making *dua*, praying), social (e.g., communicating with friends and family), or negative (e.g., excessively purchasing supplies, emotional eating, and watching a lot more entertainment). Both uncertainty intolerance (r=.25) and mental health (r=.29) were correlated with negative coping. This means that people who were less tolerant of uncertainty or had poorer mental health generally engaged in more negative coping strategies. However, they also engaged in religious and social coping mechanisms, suggesting that people struggling with uncertainty and anxiety may engage in both positive and negative coping behaviors. Regardless of an individual’s current tolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, or negative coping behaviors, it is important to highlight that all of these beliefs, feelings, and behaviors are malleable and subject to change. We discuss the results in the following section, along with practical suggestions for coping. --- ## Discussion of the results Our perceptions shape how we see the world. Perception acts as a lens through which we view reality, and it influences what we focus on, our interpretation of life events, and the decisions we subsequently make.[^15] Our perception is fundamentally shaped by the core beliefs we have about life, which include our beliefs about uncertainty and our tolerance of it. In line with psychological research and our guiding Islamic principles, uncertainty intolerance is maladaptive and causes high anxiety and worry. This anxiety and worry may turn into specific fears, which skew our perception of reality.[^16] These perceptions influence the decisions we make, including how we cope with uncertainty. Based on our analysis, we suggest two possible pathways that people can take based on their uncertainty tolerance or intolerance. ![Chart: Maladaptive and Adaptive Uncertainty Pathways](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image3-2-1024x546.png) **Figure 2: Maladaptive (Orange) and Adaptive (Blue) Uncertainty Pathways** ### The adaptive path Muslims who tolerate uncertainty in life have lower anxiety and better mental health. Their peaceful and calm mind is able to perceive things through a positive lens, allowing them to see blessings in hardship and experience optimism in times of fear; they turn to Allah with their uncertainty by reading His words, praying, and making *dua*. Although they check the news sometimes, they primarily look for answers to the uncertainty in that which is certain (Allah and His Book). They find comfort in these actions and a positive feedback cycle is created that reinforces accepting uncertainty, thus leading to better mental health. --- ## A maladaptive path Muslims who are intolerant of uncertainty have higher anxiety and worse mental health. Their minds may be consumed with fear and unable to perceive things through a positive lens, which makes it difficult to see blessings in hardship and to escape pessimistic thoughts. Even though they may turn to Allah in *dua* and prayer, they also check the news and social media excessively, possibly to help remove their uncertainty or anxiety. Unfortunately, the news and social media will not remove uncertainty; rather, they likely compound their uncertainty with sensational stories of constantly changing conditions and scary predictions of doom.[^17] They may look for answers to the uncertainty in that which is itself uncertain. Unable to find comfort, they may turn to buying extra supplies to give them a sense of security, watch more entertainment to escape their fears, and eat to suppress negative emotions. Unfortunately, these behaviors do not provide the comfort they need, and this may lead to a negative feedback cycle where watching the news keeps them anxious.[^18] --- ## The way forward Just as so many other things in life are subject to change, we can change our perceptions as well. Allah is the Changer of Hearts. We can learn to accept uncertainty and become more comfortable with it. Once this is achieved, we may find ourselves with less worry and anxiety, opening an optimistic world before us. How can we begin this journey to embrace uncertainty (about the world) to attain certainty (in Allah)? The first suggestion is to remember that, although this life is a test, we are not required to take this test alone. In fact, the intent of Allah is not that we find answers by ourselves but that we seek the answers through Him and His Book. This entails seeking trustworthy information and seeking Allah’s help through *istikhara.* Patience is required in this test, as Allah reveals the answers to us when and how He deems appropriate. This is what we mean by embracing uncertainty to attain certainty. The Prophet practiced this daily as he would begin his night prayer with the words, “O Allah, Lord of Jibril, Mikail, and Israfil, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen, You judge between Your servants in that which they differ in. O Allah, guide me to the truth of these disputed matters for You are the One Who guides to the Straight Path.”[^19] The second suggestion is to take a moment and realize what we can and cannot control. We should neither be arrogant in believing that everything is in our absolute control nor hopeless in believing everything is completely out of our control. We should acknowledge that we have some control over many things, such as how we respond to events in life. At the same time, we should also acknowledge that there are many things completely out of our control. For example, we cannot control what others do or what difficulties will present themselves to us in life. It is in these situations that the only way to enhance personal control is by letting go of control: this is the paradox of surrender. Therefore, rather than trying to control the uncontrollable, surrender (to Allah) involves noticing that there is nothing we can do to change the situation.[^20] It is in these events that we completely rely upon and put our trust in Allah. This can be exemplified in the statement that the Prophet ﷺ would frequently repeat and that he ﷺ described as one of the treasures of Paradise. > لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللهِ > > There is no change of a condition nor any power except with Allah.[^21] The third suggestion is to engage in specific behaviors that reduce anxiety. Although our minds may attempt to intellectually accept uncertainty, we still need to engage in actions that reduce the likelihood of its onset and reduce the physiological responses that arise in anxiety-inducing situations. These behaviors include specific religious practices and more general practices that both the Islamic tradition and modern psychology have found to be beneficial. We suggest a combination of activities from this list. 1. A Spiritual Regimen consisting of: - Daily prayers - Daily Qur’an reading - *Dua* focused on removing anxiety and relinquishing control[^22] - Daily *dhikr* (e.g., morning and evening) - *Tahajjud* Night prayers - Reading about Allah’s Names and Attributes 2\. Positive Psychological Practices: - Keeping a daily gratitude journal[^23] - Looking at nature and reflecting on its beauty[^24] [^25] - Islamic mindfulness-based practices[^26] and mindful eating[^27] - Taking regular walks and other exercise - Drawing and other forms of art therapy[^28] - Progressive muscle relaxation[^29] 3\. Limiting exposure to unnecessary news and social media The fourth and most important suggestion is to acknowledge that anxiety can be positive if channeled appropriately. There is no way to eliminate all concerns from our minds, but if we can focus our energy on the one concern that matters most and that we do have control over, then all other concerns will dissipate. The Prophet ﷺpromised us that whoever took all of their concerns and focused on only one of them, the concern for the afterlife, then Allah would suffice for the other concerns of this life.[^30] Thus, our collective fears and anxieties can be addressed if all of our energy is focused on one concern: Is Allah pleased with us? The great scholar ibn Hazm mentioned that he contemplated the concerns of people and the motivation behind their actions and he found them to be focused on repelling anxiety. He then contemplated until he found the answer to be truthfully turning towards Allah in seeking the afterlife.[^31] It is this uncertainty that kindles a fire in the hearts of the believers, as they yearn for the day that they finally hear from their Lord, “Oh my beloved servant, I am so happy with you.” The Prophet ﷺ beautifully taught us this lesson when he was chased out of the city of Taif, bleeding and exhausted. He raised his hands up to Allah and said, “As long as you are not displeased with me, I do not care \[what I face\]. I would, however, be much happier with Your mercy.”[^32] It is with this mindset that the Prophets of Allah, despite the countless ordeals they faced, were the happiest of people. --- ## Conclusion Uncertainty is a fundamental part of this life and we are not meant to escape it. Rather, we are meant to embrace it and put that which is out of our control in the hands of Allah, while focusing on those matters within our control. “And seek support through patience and prayer. For indeed, it is difficult \[to do this\] except for the humbly submissive.”[^33] In conclusion, we want to highlight the power of prayer and turning to Allah as the antidote for seeking control in times of uncertainty. Studies have found that in order for the brain to cope with uncertainty, it may enter a hypervigilant state to decrease uncertainty. This involves activating numerous brain regions, especially those related to seeking control. Providing the brain with the necessary energy entails neuroendocrine and neuroenergetic responses that constitute a stress response.[^34] However, in a fascinating study on the effect of *salah* on the brain, it was found that when *salah* was performed with deep concentration that the brain showed decreased activation of the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with seeking control. Thus, *salah* makes the believer experience surrender and relinquish personal, willful control.[^35] Turning to Allah is the one action that we are meant to do with absolute certainty that it will lead to advantageous outcomes in this life and the next. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured.[^36] --- ## Appendix A Survey Questions Used in the Analyses **Uncertainty Intolerance** 1. Uncertainty makes life intolerable 2. My mind can’t be relaxed if I don’t know what will happen tomorrow 3. Uncertainty makes me uneasy, anxious, or stressed. **Mental Health** 1. During the past few days, how often have you felt anxious? 2. During the past few days, how often have you felt nervous? 3. During the past few days, how often have you felt calm? **Outlook on Future** Which of these statements reflects how you believe things will unfold in the next few months? 1. Things will turn out just fine. There is no reason to be worried about anything. 2. Despite the many ordeals people will face, things will turn out all right with many positive outcomes. 3. Things will be bad, as lots of people will suffer from the consequences of the virus.   4. Things will turn out terribly, with catastrophic loss of life and societal outcomes. 5. I really have no idea. **Blessings Seen** How many blessings do you see from Allah in allowing the coronavirus to spread? (1) None at all to (5) a great deal **Coronavirus Concerns** 1. How concerned are you about getting the coronavirus? 2. How concerned are you about beloved friends or family getting the coronavirus? 3. How concerned are you about the societal consequences of the coronavirus? (1) Not at all concerned to (5) extremely concerned ### Descriptive Statistics for Uncertainty Intolerance & Mental Health   **Mean** **SD** **min** **max** **UI intolerable** **2.78** **1.23** **1** **5** **UI thinking** **2.47** **1.25** **1** **5** **UI anxious** **3.22** **1.25** **1** **5** **Anxious** **2.41** **1.04** **1** **5** **Nervous** **2.19** **1.03** **1** **5** **Calm** **3.27** **1.00** **1** **5** ***N*** **1235** --- ## Appendix B *Full Structural Equation Model* **Structural Model** ***B*** **SE** **Z-value** **p-value** **Pessimistic Outlook**  Mental Health 0.16 0.03 4.93 0.00 Female   \-0.08 0.03 \-2.96 0.00 Reading Qur’an \-0.07 0.03 \-2.32 0.02 Checking the News 0.12 0.03 3.92 0.00 Gratitude 0.02 0.03 0.61 0.54 Intercept 0.36 0.50 0.71 0.48 **Coronavirus Fears** Mental Health 0.38 0.03 13.44 0.00 Female   \-0.03 0.03 \-1.29 0.20 Reading Qur’an \-0.04 0.03 \-1.42 0.16 Checking the News 0.18 0.03 6.68 0.00 Gratitude 0.04 0.03 1.34 0.18 Intercept 2.86 0.47 6.04 0.00 **Blessings Seen Since the Coronavirus**  Mental Health \-0.18 0.03 \-5.83 0.00 Female   0.04 0.03 1.37 0.17 Reading Qur’an 0.22 0.03 8.15 0.00 Checking the News 0.03 0.03 1.13 0.26 Gratitude 0.14 0.03 5.10 0.00 Intercept \-0.06 0.49 \-0.12 0.90 **Mental Health**                           Female 0.08 0.03 3.19 0.00 Uncertainty Intolerance 0.68 0.02 32.49 0.00 **Measurement Model**         **Uncertainty Intolerance** UI intolerable 0.60 0.02 27.69 0.00 UI thinking 0.80 0.02 50.03 0.00 UI anxious 0.81 0.02 51.71 0.00 **Mental Health**         Anxious 0.88 0.01 87.01 0.00 Nervous                  0.88 0.01 88.35 0.00 Calm 0.70 0.02 41.81 0.00 chi2(45) =        228.73, p=0.0000     Note: All values are standardized. SE=Standard Error.Fit Indices: RMSEA =.057, CFI=.96 --- ## Notes [^1]: Archy O. de Berker, Robb B. Rutledge, Christoph Mathys, Louise Marshall, Gemma F. Cross, Raymond J. Dolan, and Sven Bestmann, “Computations of Uncertainty Mediate Acute Stress Responses in Humans,” *Nature Communications* 7 (2016): 10996. [^2]: Qur’an 28:88. [^3]: Scientific research itself is based on probabilities, not certainties. [^4]: Kristine Buhr and Michael J. Dugas, “The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale: Psychometric Properties of the English Version,” *Behaviour Research and Therapy* 40, no. 8 (2002): 931–45. [^5]: Michel J. Dugas, Andrea Schwartz, and Kylie Francis, “Brief Report: Intolerance of Uncertainty, Worry, and Depression,” *Cognitive Therapy and Research* 28, no. 6 (2004): 835–42. [^6]: Kristina Maria Hengen and Georg Wilhelm Alpers, “What’s the Risk? Fearful Individuals Generally Overestimate Negative Outcomes and They Dread Outcomes of Specific Events,” *Frontiers in Psychology* 10 (2019): 1676. [^7]: Ibn Ata Allah mentions in his book *al-Hikam* that “Your striving for what has already been guaranteed to you, and your remissness in what is demanded of you, are signs of the blurring of your inner sight \[*basira*\].” [^8]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. The Book on Asceticism, the chapter on Relying upon Allah, no. 2344. [^9]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “When one of you has a decision to make, he should perform two cycles of prayer other than the obligations, then let him say: O Allah, I seek guidance from your knowledge and power from your might, and I ask you from your tremendous favor. Verily, you have power and I do not have power, and you know and I do not know. You know the unseen. O Allah, If you know that this matter is good for my religion and my livelihood and my ending (or he said: if it is better for my present and later needs), then decree it for me and make it easy for me and bless me in it. But if you know that this matter is evil for my religion and my livelihood and my ending (or he said: if it is worse for my present and later needs), then divert it from me and keep me away from it, and decree for me what is good for me and make me content with it.” *Sahih al-Bukhari,* no. 1113. [^10]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3479. [^11]: Qur’an 1:5. [^12]: Qur’an 2:155. [^13]: See Appendix A for the full set of items. Three items were used to measure uncertainty intolerance and mental health. Cronbach’s alpha for uncertainty intolerance was .78 and for mental health it was .86. Factor analysis also revealed that the items represented the underlying constructs with good model fit. [^14]: The model fit the data very well using numerous fit indices (RMSEA=.057, CFI =.96). See Appendix B for details. [^15]: Jim Taylor, “Perception Is Not Reality,” *Psychology Today*, August 5, 2019, [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201908/perception-is-not-reality](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201908/perception-is-not-reality). [^16]: We understand that the data are correlational and the relation between anxiety and fear is not necessarily causal in nature. We posit that general anxiety may turn into specific fears in some people, whereas other people may have a specific fear that leads to general anxiety. Alternatively, there may be a third factor that contributes to increases in both of these variables. [^17]: We are not advocating that people ignore the news completely. However, we caution against obsessively checking the news and social media, especially sensational stories that are simply meant to captivate an audience through shock and awe. Rather, people should seek out information on an as-needed basis from authoritative sources that provide important updates, including the CDC and other agencies. [^18]: Daniel R. Anderson, Patricia A. Collins, Kelly L. Schmitt, and Robin Smith Jacobvitz, “Stressful Life Events and Television Viewing,” *Communication Research* 23, no. 3 (1996): 243–60. [^19]: *Sunan an-Nasa'i*, the book of the night prayer and voluntary prayers during the day. [^20]: *The Crisis Kit*, PositivePsychology.com, 2020, [https://positivepsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Crisis-Kit.pdf](https://positivepsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Crisis-Kit.pdf) [^21]: *Sahih al-Bukhari,* the book of *tawheed*, the chapter on Allah is ever hearing and ever seeing. [^22]: See here for lists of *dua* and explanations: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/collections/faith-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/collections/faith-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/). [^23]: Courtney Ackerman, “Gratitude Journal: A Collection of 67 Templates, Ideas, and Apps for Your Diary,” *Positive Psychology*, February 18, 2020, [https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-journal/](https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-journal/). [^24]: Courtney Ackerman, “What Is Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory (ART)?,” *Positive Psychology*, October 7, 2020,  [https://positivepsychology.com/attention-restoration-theory/](https://positivepsychology.com/attention-restoration-theory/). [^25]: The Qur’an encourages us to reflect on nature in hundreds of verses as a way of connecting with Allah. [^26]: Justin Parrott, “How to Be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation,” *Yaqeen*, November 21, 2017,  [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/). [^27]: “Mindful Eating Exercise,” Duke Integrative Medicine, [ttps://www.dukeintegrativemedicine.org/dukeimprogramsblog/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/08/Mindful-Eating-Transcript.pdf](https://www.dukeintegrativemedicine.org/dukeimprogramsblog/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/08/Mindful-Eating-Transcript.pdf). [^28]: Elaine Mead, “15 Art Therapy Activities, Exercises & Ideas for Children and Adults,” *Positive Psychology*, March 25, 2020, [https://positivepsychology.com/art-therapy/](https://positivepsychology.com/art-therapy/). [^29]: “Progressive Muscle Relaxation Script,” adapted from *The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook* by Edmund J. Bourne, [https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Progressive\_Muscle\_Relaxation.pdf](https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Progressive_Muscle_Relaxation.pdf). [^30]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, the book of asceticism, chapter on concern for the *dunya.* [^31]: Ibn Hazm, *Mudāwāt an-nufūs fī tahdhīb al-akhlāq* (Medina: al-Maktabah al-Salafīyah, 1970). [^32]: See the complete *dua* [here](https://theidealmuslimman.com/2016/11/20/1219/). [^33]: Qur’an 2:45. [^34]: Achim Peters, Bruce S. McEwen, and Karl Friston, “Uncertainty and Stress: Why It Causes Diseases and How It Is Mastered by the Brain,” *Progress in Neurobiology* 156 (2017): 164–88. [^35]: Andrew B. Newberg, Nancy A. Wintering, David B. Yaden, Mark R. Waldman, Janet Reddin, and Abass Alavi, “A Case Series Study of the Neurophysiological Effects of Altered States of Mind during Intense Islamic Prayer,” *Journal of Physiology-Paris* 109, nos. 4–6 (2015): 214–20. [^36]: Qur’an 13:28. ## Summary Life is a continuous succession of decisions, and human beings by their very nature crave certainty, for it grants a feeling of security and control over one's affairs. Yet uncertainty has been woven into the fabric of creation by the infinite wisdom of Allah. Everything in this world is subject to change—the seasons, our emotions, our children, and even our own personalities—while the only absolute constant is Allah Himself, as He declares, "Everything will perish except His Face." Allah alone possesses certainty over the most fundamental matters of existence, as stated in His words: "Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted." This verse teaches that to human beings nearly everything remains indeterminate, no matter how far science advances. The person who learns to tolerate uncertainty functions better in life than the one who ceaselessly seeks control, for the latter finds "what they resist to persist" and dwells in perpetual worry. Drawing on decades of psychological research, uncertainty intolerance may be defined as a cognitive bias affecting how one perceives and responds to uncertain situations, and this intolerance has been identified as a root cause of worry and generalized anxiety disorder. Such worry breeds fear, which causes people to overestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes, producing a pessimism that is antithetical to the Islamic worldview of hope and optimism. In contrast, the Islamic outlook encourages us to direct our effort toward what lies within our agency while entrusting what lies beyond it to Allah, al-Wakeel, the One most suitable to be relied upon. The Prophet ﷺ illustrated this beautifully when he said, "Were you to put your complete trust in Allah, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds. They go out hungry in the morning and return filled in the evening." The birds, uncertain of what they will find, are not paralyzed by their uncertainty but rather motivated to seek what has been decreed for them. Likewise, in matters beyond his control, the Prophet ﷺ would turn to Allah in supplication, such as istikhara, and then move forward with certainty that Allah would respond. He commanded, "Call upon Allah with certainty that He will answer you. Know that Allah will not answer the supplication of a heart that is negligent and distracted." When strong winds blew, he would say, "O Allah, I ask You for its goodness and I take refuge with You from its evil." Ibn Taymiyyah reflected upon the most important supplication and concluded that it was seeking Allah's assistance in pleasing Him, which he found embodied in the verse of al-Fatiha: "It is You alone that we worship and You alone that we rely upon." The spread of the coronavirus intensified uncertainty everywhere, and this response constitutes a test from Allah, who says, "And We will surely test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, loss of life, and loss of fruits, but give glad tidings to the patient." To understand how Muslims cope, Yaqeen Institute surveyed over 1,200 American Muslims—a sample that was generally religious in practice, with 73% praying five times daily. By Allah's mercy, respondents were faring well overall: 49% expressed what may be termed "realistic optimism," believing that despite many ordeals, good could still emerge, while 20% held "realistic pessimism," and smaller percentages fell into denial or complete pessimism. Encouragingly, 53% reported witnessing many blessings from Allah since the virus emerged, and over 58% said their relationship with Allah had improved. The study tested the hypothesis that attitudes and coping behaviors could be predicted by uncertainty intolerance and mental health, using a structural equation model. The data strongly supported the hypotheses: higher uncertainty intolerance significantly predicted worse mental health (B=.68), and worse mental health in turn predicted three outcomes. Poorer mental health was associated with failing to see blessings from Allah (B=-.18), greater personal and societal concern about the virus (B=.38), and a 35% higher likelihood of predicting a bleak future. Conversely, better mental health was linked to perceiving many blessings, holding fewer concerns, and anticipating positive outcomes. Additional predictors emerged: reading the Qur'an frequently was associated with a more positive outlook, fewer concerns, and greater recognition of blessings, and a grateful disposition likewise predicted seeing more blessings. Checking the news frequently correlated with a more negative outlook. Regarding gender, although women showed slightly higher uncertainty intolerance and worse mental health, they were more likely than men to express realistic optimism. The study further found that both uncertainty intolerance (r=.25) and mental health (r=.29) correlated with negative coping strategies—such as excessive purchasing, emotional eating, and excessive entertainment—though those struggling also engaged in religious and social coping. Importantly, these beliefs, feelings, and behaviors are malleable and subject to change. Two possible pathways are suggested. On the adaptive path, Muslims who tolerate uncertainty enjoy lower anxiety and perceive matters through a positive lens, turning to Allah and His Book while checking the news only occasionally, thus creating a positive feedback cycle. On the maladaptive path, those intolerant of uncertainty suffer greater anxiety, may seek relief in excessive news and social media—which only compound their uncertainty with sensational and frightening reports—and turn to negative behaviors that fail to provide the comfort they seek. Since perceptions can change, and since Allah is the Changer of Hearts, several suggestions are offered for the way forward. First, remember that though this life is a test, we are not meant to face it alone but to seek answers through Allah and His Book, exercising patience as He reveals answers in His own time. The Prophet ﷺ would begin his night prayer imploring, "O Allah, Lord of Jibril, Mikail, and Israfil... guide me to the truth of these disputed matters, for You are the One Who guides to the Straight Path." Second, recognize what lies within and beyond our control, being neither arrogant nor hopeless, and surrender the uncontrollable to Allah—a truth captured in the Prophet's ﷺ frequent words, described as a treasure of Paradise: "There is no change of a condition nor any power except with Allah." Third, engage in behaviors that reduce anxiety, combining a spiritual regimen of daily prayer, Qur'an reading, supplication, dhikr, tahajjud, and reflection on Allah's Names, together with positive psychological practices such as gratitude journaling, reflecting on nature, Islamic mindfulness, exercise, and limiting exposure to unnecessary news. The fourth and most important suggestion is to channel anxiety toward the single concern that truly matters and lies within our control. The Prophet ﷺ promised that whoever focused all his concerns upon one—the concern for the afterlife—Allah would suffice him for the rest. Ibn Hazm, contemplating the motivations behind human action, found them all aimed at repelling anxiety, and concluded that the true remedy lay in sincerely turning toward Allah and seeking the afterlife. When the Prophet ﷺ was driven from Taif, bleeding and exhausted, he raised his hands and said, "As long as You are not displeased with me, I do not care what I face. I would, however, be much happier with Your mercy." Thus uncertainty is not to be escaped but embraced, placing the uncontrollable in Allah's hands while striving in what we can control: "And seek support through patience and prayer. For indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive." Finally, the power of prayer stands as the antidote to the craving for control; a study on salah performed with deep concentration found decreased activation in the prefrontal cortex, the region associated with seeking control, allowing the believer to experience genuine surrender. Indeed, "by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/blog/productive-seclusion-how-to-make-the-most-of-working-from-home # Productive Seclusion: How to Make the Most of Working From Home **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Blog, Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Publication **Published:** March 26, 2020 **Updated:** August 10, 2026 ## Introduction Amidst the lockdowns in response to COVID-19, many of you have been working from home, perhaps for the very first time. For those who have never had this experience, it may feel overwhelming. Suddenly, time and focus are a thing of the past. But as someone who has been working remotely for the past two years, I can assure you that not all hope is lost. I have picked up a handful of habits that have allowed me to not only focus, but to actually be my most productive at home. Here are **seven** easy tips to incorporate into your day to enable you to be productive too. --- ## Goal-setting The most important step to making sure you stay productive, whether you are working from home or back to your normal schedule, is to think about **what you want to accomplish**. What exactly are you trying to achieve or complete today, tomorrow, this week, or this month? If this question seems overwhelming, focus on your most pressing goals. The Prophet ﷺ reminded us to “Take up good deeds only as much as you are able, for the best deeds are those done regularly even if they are few.” Following this prophetic advice can be life-changing. Identifying our goals and then creating a realistic way of following through with them gradually allows us to make our efforts more manageable. Not to mention, as countless [“scientific” books](https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X) have now proven, having small (achievable) and consistent goals allows you to experience reward from accomplishing even a little a day and hence motivates you day by day to maintain and increase good habits. Say, for example, your goal is to memorize the Qur’an. So you set a manageable goal of reading for 20 minutes a day. The first day goes by and you feel good. You sense the reward of having achieved even something as little as reading (and not necessarily memorizing yet) the Qur’an. But that sense of accomplishment motivates you to do it again and again, until you find yourself memorizing every day for an hour. And ultimately, this is how you create habits. To identify your goals, start with your work or children’s school responsibilities since they are more likely to have set expectations and hard deadlines. What projects are you working on and what deadlines do you have to meet? Write these down along with the ideal completion date for each. Then move on to your personal goals, which can include spiritual, emotional, and family goals. Don’t limit yourself to things you need to get done in your day-to-day life. Sure, write down all of the chores you have to get around to like laundry and scrubbing the bathroom. But also think about all of the other projects you’ve wanted to do around the house or in your life. Always a dream gardener but never enough time? Keep telling yourself you’re going to read more Islamic books? Planning to incorporate a few minutes of [mindfulness techniques](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/&sa=D&ust=1585239462353000) a day to keep track of your thoughts and emotions? Well, now’s the time. Write down—yes, I mean literally *write*—all of these goals, and organize them by level of priority: high, medium, or low. Once you know *what* you want to do, you can move on to *how* you’re going to do it. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-26-at-11.27.53-AM-1024x215.png) --- ## Block-scheduling Scheduling your time is the answer to “how” you achieve your goals. And when I say scheduling, I mean having every hour (or blocks of hours) of your day planned. Don’t worry, it’s not as intimidating as it sounds. Choose one day of the week (ideally, Sunday night) and do a “brain dump.” Basically, sit and write down all of the tasks and goals you have for the upcoming week (you can also do this on a monthly basis). Then, once you’ve identified what you need to do and you have prioritized each task, write down which day or days of the week you will work on each task. To give you a simple example, I had two tasks this week: 1) to write this article and 2) work on my dissertation. The first task is a “one and done,” meaning that it’s a short-term project that can be completed in one or a few sittings. I planned to have it done in one day, so I dedicated Monday afternoon to write this article. The other task was to work on my dissertation, a long-term project to say the least. In light of all of my other responsibilities and personal goals, I have committed to working on my dissertation daily for two hours. So, as I started to plan my schedule for the week, I blocked off 8am-10am every morning for working on my dissertation. Once you’ve figured out what *you* generally need to do each day of the week, take a few minutes every night before you go to sleep to plan exactly how that’s going to look the next day. Here’s a sample schedule: 6:30-7:30am                Wake up, *Fajr*, drink coffee, get ready for the day 7:30-8am                      Qur’an 8am-10am                   Work on dissertation; daily target: 500 words 10am-12pm                 Write first draft of article 12pm-1pm                   Lunch, *Dhuhr* 1pm-3pm                     Revise article draft 3pm-3:30pm               Break, *Asr* 3:30-5pm                     Submit article draft and review comments 5pm-6:30pm               Go for a run, shower 6:30-7:30pm                *Maghrib*, Dinner 7:30-9:30pm                Laundry, cleaning, other chores 9:30-10:30pm              *Isha*, Reading 10:30pm                       Sleep As you can tell, block-scheduling requires you to essentially plan out every hour of the day. But that does not mean you are working every minute of the day. In fact, it’s crucial to schedule in break times, family bonding, and even meals. The point in doing all of this is that it allows you to 1) not waste your day thinking about what you’re going to do next, and 2) hold yourself accountable. So when you have every hour of the day planned, the moment you find yourself aimlessly scrolling through Facebook for half an hour, you’ll realize exactly how much time you lost working on a certain task. With your children at home, “focus” or “work” times may feel like a luxury of the past. Parents with older children, however, have some respite. Plan an activity or allot “free time” for your kids during certain hours of the day, and specifically inform them that within those allotted hours (e.g., 10am-12pm) you are not to be disturbed. To make this more realistic in the long run, consider offering your kids incentives if they manage to not disturb you during this time period. This way, both you and your children can benefit from having a set schedule to retain normalacy and, might I add, the occasional (healthy) break from your kids. One of the most intimidating aspects of block-scheduling is feeling like your day is set in stone. So, if something pops up, like a sick child or a random work assignment, all is lost. Scheduling, however, is primarily meant to keep you on track to achieving your goals and holding yourself accountable, so if other needs arise, that’s OK. When something urgent or unexpected emerges, take a step back, reassess your daily tasks, and rearrange your schedule to meet your priorities. Rest assured, this is entirely normal and all part of the process. If you are having trouble with creating a daily schedule, the best way to start is by blocking off times for *salah*. For those of you who may struggle with praying five times a day or praying on time, this trick is a particularly important first step. When you plan your day around your prayers, then you know exactly where and what you will be doing when the time of *salah* comes in, and you will be mentally prepared ahead of time to take a *salah* break. For those of you who are looking to increase certain actions, like praying *sunnah* prayers or allotting time for *dhikr*, this works great as well. Because, in order to create a habit (e.g., making *dhikr*), you need to repeat an action enough until it becomes routine. --- ## Routine One of the best perks of block-scheduling is that it creates a sense of routine in your life. This is extremely important to keep yourself motivated and productive. When you don’t have a routine, you lose track of your time and spend most of your energy on simply getting through the day. After identifying your goals and scheduling your day, the best way to create a routine is by doing the same thing at the same time every day. So for example, you create the routine of jumpstarting your day every morning by making your bed. You’re up, you’ve washed your face, and you’ve made your bed, so you’ve signaled to your brain that you are ready to begin working. Even better than making your bed, however, is creating the habit of starting your day every morning by reading Qur’an. That way, once you’ve created this habit, even on mornings you feel groggy, your brain immediately reminds you to fall back into routine. --- ## Create the vibe Another great way to create a routine is by mimicking the habits you have when *not* working from home. This means washing up when getting out of bed, getting dressed, and being fully ready to tackle your day. Yes, this also means brushing your hair and getting out of your pajamas even on the days you work from home. Once you’re refreshed and dressed, you’ll want to transition to your “workstation.” Find a space in your home—which may be a make-shift table for many—to dedicate as your work station. This is ideally an office space, or perhaps an allotted seat at the kitchen table, to signal that when you’re there, it’s all work and no play. That way, you tell your brain that when you’re at your workstation, it’s time to focus and be productive. When you want to take a break or do something unrelated to your scheduled tasks, make it a point to leave that space to maintain its work vibe. --- ## Food prep One key to productivity is eliminating the time your mind wanders to complete your next task. Block-scheduling and routine help keep you on track and keep your day moving forward. One of the most common daily tasks that people get stuck on is food. What am I going to eat for lunch today? What am I craving? Should I cook something or eat out? Concern for what we’re going to do for what is usually only an hour of our day at most (hopefully) sometimes takes hours to figure out. Instead of wasting energy debating what you’re going to eat, plan ahead. Ideally, it’s best to figure out what you and your family will be eating for the entire week ahead of time and shop accordingly. That way, you get the benefit of not aimlessly walking around in a grocery store and buying unnecessary things (like tapioca bubbles as I did this week), while also knowing beforehand what you’ll have to eat every day. This is also a great opportunity to involve your kids. Ask them what they are all craving and together create a menu of the week’s meals and hang it up in the kitchen. Many people find it easiest to cook for the entire week on Sunday, but if you’re like me and prefer fresh meals, I recommend preparing for your meal as you tune into your daily dose of news, lectures, or even those endless conference calls you’ll now have the pleasure of joining. --- ## Physical activity Even though it's near the end of my list, physical activity is by no means any less significant to maintaining productivity. Many of you have heard or read about the numerous short-term and long-term benefits of exercise. But when you’re working from home and are experiencing higher stress or anxiety levels, physical activity can be a real game-changer. It’s an opportunity to clear your mind, release endorphins (aka feel-good neurotransmitters), and reset your day. One of the greatest blessings of enduring COVID-19 at this time of the year is the fact that most of us will be experiencing warmer weather. Go out for a speed walk, run, bike ride, or engage in other outdoor activities. There are also plenty of online videos to tune into for in-home strength training. As an avid gym-goer, I would be lying if I said motivating myself to work out at home is just as easy. It’s not. So text a friend or family member and FaceTime one another over some squats and lunges. Once you start to sweat, I promise you won’t regret it. --- ## Airplane mode Last but not least, give yourself a break. And by that, I mean a break from screen time that you’ll already be overdosing on. Put your phone on airplane mode, [deactivate social media](https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586676/ref%3Dtmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1585154516%26sr%3D8-2), hide your devices—do whatever it takes for you to disconnect and give your eyes and mind a break. This is of course not only important because of the anxiety scrolling through social media induces or the unnecessary stress reading every article about the virus can cause, but because when we constantly check our phones, we do not allow our minds to focus. In order to reach peak productivity, we need to have zero distractions, which means no background music and no email-checking twitches. Things may feel lonelier these days, and this may be the last thing you’re looking to do, but by allowing your mind to reach a state of “[deep work](https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586676/ref%3Dtmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1585154516%26sr%3D8-2),” you can get more things done in shorter periods of time, giving you more time to bond with your loved ones and getting around to those bigger goals you’ve been dreaming of accomplishing. --- ## Conclusion In spite of the abrupt changes to your schedules and routines, know that you can still be productive in the coming days and weeks. Sometimes, it just requires a little [motivation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/the-power-of-motivation-the-spiritual-psychology-series/%23ftnt72&sa=D&ust=1585239462366000). For me, one of the most inspiring reminders is the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, “Take benefit of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you are preoccupied, and your life before your death.” Now more than ever this advice rings true to all of us. Time is passing. Our health feels precarious. For some of us, our sources of income are being threatened. Know that one day we will be asked how we spent our time, health, and wealth. InshAllah, as a result of your efforts to adapt amidst uncertainty and to be more productive in working towards achieving your goals, you will be able to look back and confidently say that you tried your best and made the most of your time. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-our-worlds-are-shaken-finding-strength-in-beautiful-patience # When Our Worlds Are Shaken: Finding Strength in ‘Beautiful Patience’ **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 23, 2020 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* Hardship is an inevitable experience in life. Each one of us will encounter pain, loss, fear, anxiety, sadness, and grief at some point in our journey to the Hereafter. Islam equips us with the spiritual resources to be able to overcome any trial in this world, as long as we maintain trust in Allah’s plan and decree. It is important to draw on these resources whenever we face adversity, such that we respond with the type of ‘beautiful patience’ practiced by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the other prophets before him. The theology of Islam and the contents of its sacred scriptures, the Qur’an and authentic Hadith, contain what psychologists call beneficial *cognitions*, or thought patterns, that are conducive to a believer’s sound mental health and well-being. These cognitions have even been integrated into psychotherapy and counseling specifically for Muslims.[^1] Islam provides us with a worldview that considers the creation to be a temporal abode of testing, in which Allah puts His servants to trial in order to turn them back to faith when they forget, to expiate their sins, and to bring out the best in them. Everything that happens to a believer in this life is good, even if it appears outwardly bad. If it is a time of prosperity, believers are rewarded for their gratitude, and if it is a time of adversity, believers are rewarded for their patience. The highest level of faith is to respond to these trials with ‘beautiful patience,’ an unshakeable trust in Allah without hesitation, apprehension, or complaint. This article will discuss the wisdom of Allah in sending trials, the optimism of the believers, and the nature of beautiful patience, with some practical guidance for acquiring this noble trait. --- ## Wisdom of trials The life of this world is not the end of the story, as many among humanity wrongly assume. There is another life, an eternal and infinitely more important life after this one, in which we will be judged for the deeds we are doing now. Allah’s purpose in making the creation is to give us the opportunity to grow closer to Him through our good deeds and acts of worship. Allah said: > It is He who created death and life to test which of you is best in deed.[^2] Part of the test in this life is to endure trials in many forms, most obviously as pain and suffering that we might be patient, but even pleasure and happiness that we might be grateful. There are two words for ‘trial’ in the Qur’an. First, *al-balā’* means “to test… that the reality of what has been done is known.”[^3] Second, *al-fitnah* has a similar but broader meaning, adding dimensions of seduction, temptation, misguidance, or trial by fire. According to classical lexicographer of the Qur’an, Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, the word originally means “to place gold in the fire to sift out its valuables from its impurities.” He adds that “*al-fitnah* is like *al-balā’* in that they are both used to mean what is driven towards the human being, whether prosperity or adversity, but both of them usually mean adversity.”[^4] So each word carries the sense that Allah tests us with hardship or ease to make known who we really are. Like a blacksmith who melts gold and silver in a furnace to remove its dross, Allah likewise puts us to trial in order to remove our spiritual defects such that only our best qualities remain. All human beings can notice this dynamic in their lives. Crises can bring out the best in people, just as they can bring out the worst in people. Firefighters, for instance, show great courage by putting themselves at risk as they rush into burning buildings to save total strangers. If we reflect deeply upon our own experiences, we can find many times we may have been in a difficult situation but eventually grew stronger from it, or in the end it worked out better than we thought it would. This is the nature of trials; they are opportunities for advancement. Allah promises us that we will indeed be put to trial with many forms of hardship. We might lose our job, witness the death of a loved one, or suffer in our health, all of which will provoke a natural response of anxiety or grief in us. These tests are definitely going to happen whether we like it or not, whether we respond in a positive way or not. Allah said: > We will surely test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives, and fruits, but give glad tidings to the patient, those who, when afflicted by calamity, say, ‘Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we will return.’[^5] And Allah said: > Do people think they will be left alone to say, ‘We have faith,’ and they will not be put to trial? We have surely tested those before them. Allah will make evident those who are truthful and He will make evident those who are liars.[^6] The classical scholar ‘Izz al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd al-Salām wrote a short treatise on the wisdom of trials entitled *Al-Fitan wa’l-Balāyā wa’l-Miḥan wa’l-Razāyā* (Tribulations, Trials, Tests, and Calamities). He details seventeen blessings derived from trials, including: 1. Realizing the power of Allah over us. 2. Realizing our complete servitude to Him. 3. Being sincere to Him. 4. Repenting to Him. 5. Being humble before Him. 6. Being forbearing. 7. Being forgiving. 8. Being patient. 9. Being pleased with the decree of Allah. 10.  Being grateful to Allah. 11.  Being purified of sins. 12.  Being compassionate to those who suffer. 13.  Appreciating our blessings and well-being. 14.  Hoping in the reward of the Hereafter. 15.  Recognizing the hidden blessings in trials. 16.  Preventing us from arrogance, tyranny, and oppression. 17.  Being in a state of contentment.[^7] Despite the many subtle benefits of trials, we should not rush into adversity because we never know if we will be able to properly handle it. When the test inevitably comes, we should respond with an optimistic spirit, having good thoughts and good assumptions about Allah, and striving to obey Allah inwardly and outwardly as we navigate these challenges in life. If one of us loses his or her job, we should assume Allah closed this door to us because He has opened a better door for us down the road. If one of us experiences a decline in health, we should assume Allah is giving us the opportunity to atone for our sins in this life instead of the Hereafter. One of the best thought patterns to adopt in this regard is to remember everything that happens to a believer is good as long as he or she keeps the faith. --- ## Everything is good for the believer No matter what occurs to us in this life, our sincere belief in Allah is the key to converting any bad situation into a good one. Being thankful to Allah in times of prosperity is highly desirable, though it is truly easier said than done. Being patient for the sake of Allah in times of adversity, on the other hand, is the way to change any outward calamity into a blessing in disguise. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Wondrous is the affair of the believer, as there is good for him in every matter and this is not the case with anyone but the believer. If he is happy, he thanks Allah and thus there is good for him. If he is harmed, he shows patience and thus there is good for him.[^8] Patience and gratitude are actually two sides of the same coin, so to speak. For this reason, Al-Ghazālī dedicated a section of his magnum opus *Iḥyāʼ ʻUlūm al-Dīn* to patience and gratitude.[^9] Ibn al-Qayyim likewise devoted an entire treatise entitled *ʻUddat al-Ṣābirīn wa Dhakhīrat al-Shākirīn* to explain the interconnection between these two virtues.[^10] According to him, patience means “to stop ourselves from despairing and panicking, to stop our tongues from complaining, and to stop our hands from striking our faces and tearing our clothes at times of grief and stress.”[^11] In other words, patience is to not let stress and sharp emotions cause us to react in a harmful manner, whether by disobeying Allah or losing our self-control. It is essential to remember that, for the believer, a hurdle in life is actually a sign that Allah has good plans for us and, in fact, He loves us. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whomever Allah intends good, He afflicts him with trials.”[^12] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “If Allah loves a people, He afflicts them with trials. Whoever is patient has the reward of patience, and whoever is apprehensive has the fault of apprehension.”[^13] As long as we do our best to remain patient and to persevere, Allah is removing our sins and rewarding us for every moment of discomfort we experience, no matter how seemingly trivial. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Nothing afflicts a Muslim of hardship, nor illness, nor anxiety, nor sorrow, nor harm, nor distress, nor even the pricking of a thorn, but that Allah will expiate his sins by it.[^14] Hardship in this life also serves as a substitute for punishment in the next. Each one of us has sins in our records and it is far better for us to be punished for them mildly in this life rather than severely in the next. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If Allah intends good for His servant, He hastens the punishment for him in this world.”[^15] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “The believing men and women continue to experience trials in their lives, their children, and their wealth until they meet Allah without any sin.”[^16] As such, there is no rational justification for one to think a trial from Allah was decreed with the intention to destroy us. Rather, it is a sign that Allah loves us, He is looking out for us, and He wants to give us this opportunity to prove ourselves, set things right, and grow closer to Him. This being the case, the Prophet ﷺ used to praise Allah for everything that happened to him, even if it outwardly appeared ‘bad’ to everyone else. Aisha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, said: > If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw something he liked, he would say, ‘All praise is due to Allah, by whose favor good deeds are accomplished.’ If he saw something he disliked, he would say, ‘All praise is due to Allah in every circumstance.’[^17] There is always a good reason to praise Allah and be grateful to Him whenever we encounter a trial. The righteous judge Shurayh, who embraced Islam in the time of the Prophet ﷺ but never had a chance to meet him, used to say: > Indeed, if I am afflicted by a calamity, I praise Allah four times. I praise Him that it was not worse than it was. I praise Him as He provides me with patience to bear it. I praise Him as He guides me to recall my hope for reward, and I praise Him as He did not make it a calamity in my religion.[^18] Shurayh was always looking on the bright side or finding the silver lining in a dark cloud, as they say, whenever something bad happened to him. Things can always be worse than they are, so praising Allah in the spirit of optimism is always called for. No matter what physical or emotional anguish we experience now, the only true calamity is to allow these hardships to turn us away from our religion. --- ## Beautiful patience with trials We certainly need to be patient with trials and the highest level of faith is to respond with ‘beautiful patience’ in the face of adversity. This is the level of the Prophet ﷺ himself and the foremost of the righteous believers. Allah said to him, “So be patient with beautiful patience.”[^19] Similarly, the Prophet Jacob ﷺ said after his sons brought him the false blood-stained shirt of Joseph ﷺ, “Rather, your souls have enticed you to something, so for me is beautiful patience.”[^20] Allah even says Jacob’s eyes turned white with grief but again he still said, “For me is beautiful patience.”[^21] But what exactly does ‘beautiful patience’ mean? The early interpreter of the Qur’an in the era of the righteous predecessors, Mujāhid, said beautiful patience “does not have any agitation.”[^22] The classical exegete Al-Qurṭubī likewise defined beautiful patience as “that in which there is no agitation and no complaint.”[^23] Put differently, it is to perfectly accept the decree of Allah as it happens, to not have any hesitation to continue obeying Allah to the best of one’s ability and to not have any angst regarding Allah’s decree. Such a person who shows beautiful patience experiences fear and grief, of course, but their responses to these feelings are graceful, measured, and put into the larger perspective of the Islamic worldview. Part of beautiful patience is to prepare for such trials while life is easy so that our involuntary knee-jerk reactions at the time of calamity are within the limits of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ once passed by a woman who was weeping next to a grave and he said to her, “Be mindful of Allah and be patient.” She said to him, “Go away from me! You have not been afflicted by a calamity like mine,” because she did not recognize who he was. Later she was told that it was the Prophet, so she went to his house and she said, “I did not recognize you.” The Prophet ﷺ said to her, “Verily, patience is at the first strike.”[^24] Some beneficial points can be derived from this story. First, the Prophet ﷺ had the emotional intelligence not to rebuke the lady when she was at her lowest point, even though she was less than respectful to him at the time. We should likewise show compassion and empathy to people who are suffering and overlook their faults because in such a situation it is difficult to behave with the best manners. Second, he informed her that true patience is to be patient in the instant that a calamity occurs. This can only be achieved by preparing for calamities beforehand, through spiritual exercises like prayer, silent meditation and reflection, and the remembrance of Allah. Such preparation softens the tough blow when it occurs, whereas being caught off guard by a sudden tragedy increases our likelihood of transgressing the limits. Allah promises a tremendous reward for those who can show beautiful patience at the first strike. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Allah Almighty says: O son of Adam, if you are patient and restrained at the first moment of calamity, I would not be pleased with any reward for you less than Paradise.[^25] Another important component of beautiful patience is to complain only to Allah, not to people. Complaining to Allah means to be in conversation with Him in prayer and supplication, pouring our hearts out to Him in a healthy emotional catharsis. In contrast, complaining to people can never fill the spiritual void in the same way as complaining to Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Whoever is afflicted by a pressing need and complains to people, his need will never be satisfied. Whoever is afflicted by a pressing need and complains to Allah, eventually Allah will provide for him, sooner or later.[^26] It is certainly no problem to share our concerns and feelings with trusted family members or friends, or to engage in talk-therapy, as long as doing so does not encourage negative thoughts and feelings about Allah in our hearts. Talking through our problems in a private setting should be a positive release of tension, rather than a means of nurturing resentment. What we should not do is take our problems to social media and share our grievances with the entire world, which neither fills the void nor results in productive change. Rather, we ought to direct ourselves inwardly to use this trial as a means of growing closer to Allah through prayer, meditation, reflection, remembrance, and acts of charity. Beautiful patience does not mean we cannot experience grief or be moved emotionally. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ himself lost several loved ones throughout his life, including his first wife Khadījah and his infant son Ibrāhīm. When Ibrāhīm was breathing his last breaths, the Prophet ﷺ took hold of him, kissed him, and smelled him, and he began to cry. One of his companions said, “Even you, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “This is mercy.” Then, he wept some more and he said: > Verily, the eyes shed tears and the heart is grieved, but we will not say anything except what is pleasing to our Lord. We are saddened by your departure, O Ibrāhīm.[^27] The best of creation was deeply saddened by the death of his infant son so we should not be deluded into thinking there is such a spiritual state that makes people immune from ordinary human emotions. Nevertheless, he grieved for his son *gracefully* and he only said what he was allowed to say in Islam, on his tongue and in his heart. He did not wail, slap his face, tear his clothes, or outwardly display intense emotional disturbance. What, then, can we do practically to cultivate beautiful patience before and during trials? The most important practice is to turn to Allah in prayer and engage in recitation of the Qur’an. Allah said: > O you who have faith, seek help in patience and prayer. Verily, Allah is with the patient.[^28] Allah links patience with prayer in this verse because prayer gives us the strong relationship with Allah we need that will enable us to show beautiful patience. Reflection upon the Qur’an in prayer reminds us of the hardships endured by the Prophets and believers before us, the temporary nature of this world and of suffering, and the final outcomes in the Hereafter, putting all things into the proper perspective. Reflecting upon the transience of the world also reminds us that any difficulty we experience in this life is only for a limited time. Allah promises us that our tough times will not last forever, “Verily, with hardship comes ease, with hardship comes ease.”[^29] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > Know that there is much good in being patient with what you hate, victory will come with patience, affliction will come with relief, and hardship will come with ease.[^30] It was the habit of the Prophet ﷺ to always hope for the best in this way and to avoid negative cognitions or thought patterns. Ibn ‘Abbas said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was optimistic and he did not see evil omens.”[^31] Critical to this practice is encouraging ourselves to think positively about Allah and our situation from a holistic point of view. Sometimes it is very difficult for us to be optimistic in the face of adversity, especially if we are stuck in the habit of pessimistic thinking. Clinical depression and anxiety are serious disorders that are characterized by automatic, involuntary, compulsive, and harmful thoughts, and breaking the cycle of negativity is a tremendous challenge. It is not enough to simply tell people they have weak faith or to stop being sad or fearful, but rather they need a comprehensive treatment plan addressing each of the constituent parts of the human being (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual). A fundamental element of successful treatment is to embark on a process of *cognitive restructuring*, that is, a process of changing our malignant patterns of thinking. This is usually aided by a licensed therapist, but those of us without access to a therapist need to do so on our own. Personal mindfulness practices are very important to this endeavor. Even those without a clinical diagnosis or significant distress can benefit from more mindfulness in their lives. Through silent meditation, we can calm our racing minds, induce a natural relaxation response to counteract our stress hormones, become more aware of our thoughts, learn to ignore unhealthy thoughts (rather than try to suppress them), and to replace these thoughts with positive habitual cognitions based in Islamic theology.[^32] --- ## Caution with trials While we have discussed the hidden blessings of trials in this life, it is important to issue a word of warning. Trials and tribulations should not be sought after. It is dangerous to throw ourselves into hardship and adversity with naive confidence in our spiritual ability to overcome them. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Verily, the blessed one is kept away from trials, the blessed one is kept away from trials, the blessed one is kept away from trials. How good is one who is afflicted but bears it patiently![^33] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > There will be trials during which one sitting will be better than the one standing, and one standing will be better than one walking, and one walking will be better than one running. Whoever exposes himself to these trials will be destroyed, so whoever finds a place of protection or refuge should take shelter in it.[^34] After every prayer, the Prophet ﷺ would seek refuge in Allah from “the trials of life and death and the evil trial of the False Messiah.”[^35] This is a comprehensive supplication for protection from every trial we can face in this world, especially the great tribulations that will appear at the end of time. Allah also told the believers to supplicate, saying, “O Lord, do not lay a burden upon us as you did to those before us. O Lord, do not burden us with what we cannot endure.”[^36] The Prophet ﷺ recommended that we recite these supplications every night,[^37] and he said that Satan is repelled from the house in which they are recited for three nights.[^38] Therefore, we should not be so arrogant to believe we are strong enough to face trials unnecessarily. If we want the reward of beautiful patience but are experiencing a time of good fortune and prosperity, we should practice the inverse virtue of beautiful gratitude. Muṭarrif ibn ‘Abd Allāh used to say, “That I am safe and thankful is more beloved to me than that I am tested and patient.”[^39] --- ## Conclusion Allah guarantees that He will send us numerous challenges in the form of loss, pain, suffering, fear, and grief. These trials are decreed in accordance with His divine wisdom, as they contain many hidden blessings. When we respond to trials with faith and reliance upon Allah, they push us closer to Him, bring out the best in us, and expiate our sins in this world instead of being punished for them in the Hereafter. Everything is good for the believers, either through patience in adversity or gratitude in prosperity. The highest level of faith in these moments of hardship is to have ‘beautiful patience,’ an unshakeable and unwavering trust in the Divine Decree at the first strike of calamity. We can achieve such patience by preparing ourselves through prayer, silent meditation, reflection, and mindfulness exercises in the context of Islamic theology. These practices endow us with beneficial cognitions, or thought patterns, that help us weather the storms of life. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Aisha Hamdan, “Cognitive Restructuring: An Islamic Perspective,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 3, no. 1 (2008): 99–116. [^2]: Qur’an 67:2. [^3]: Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, *Al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʼān* (Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 1992), 1:145. [^4]: al-Iṣfahānī, 1:623. [^5]: Qur’an 2:155–56. [^6]: Qur’an 29:2–3. [^7]: ‘Izz al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd al-Salām, *Al-Fitan wa’l-balāyā wa’l-miḥan wa’l-razāyā* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr al-Muʻāṣir, 1992). This treatise was explained in an audio lecture by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: [http://shaykhhamza.com/transcript/17-benefits-of-tribulation](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://shaykhhamza.com/transcript/17-benefits-of-tribulation&sa=D&ust=1584978518754000). [^8]: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Beirut\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:2295, #2999. [^9]: Translated into English by Henry T. Littlejohn as *Al-Ghazālī on Patience and Thankfulness* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2013). [^10]: Translated into English by Nasiruddin al-Khattab as *Patience and Gratitude* (London: Ta-Ha, 1997). [^11]: al-Khattab, 12. [^12]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 7:115, #5645. [^13]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 39:35, #23623; declared very good (*jayyid*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ in the comments. [^14]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 7:114, #5641. [^15]: Muḥammad ibn ʻĪsá al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Beirut: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:179, #2396; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^16]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:180, #2399; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^17]: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1975), 1:509, #1597; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^18]: Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Siyar a’lām al-nubalā’* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 5:52. [^19]: Qur’an 70:5. [^20]: Qur’an 12:18. [^21]: Qur’an 12:83. [^22]: Abū Ja’far al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-bayān ‘an ta’wīl al-Qur’ān* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 15:584, verse 12:18. [^23]: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʻ li-aḥkām al-Qurʼān* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutūb al-Miṣrīyah, 1964), 9:156, verse 12:18. [^24]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:79, #1283. [^25]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 1:509, #1597; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^26]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:141, #2326; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^27]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:83, #1303. [^28]: Qur’an 2:153. [^29]: Qur’an 94:5–6. [^30]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 5:19, #2803; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ in the comments. [^31]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad*, 4:169, #2328; declared fair due to external evidence (*ḥasan li ghayrihi*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ in the comments. [^32]: For more information on this topic, see Justin Parrott, “How to be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, November 21, 2017, [yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/&sa=D&ust=1584978518752000). [^33]: Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʻath al-Sijistānī Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Saida, Lebanon: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:102, #4263; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^34]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:198. [^35]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:99, #1377. [^36]: Qur’an 2:286. [^37]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 6:188, #5009. [^38]: Muḥammad Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993), 3:61, #782; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Ibn Ḥibbān, Al-Arna’ūṭ, and Al-Albānī in the comments. [^39]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *ʻUddat al-Ṣābirīn wa Dhakhīrat al-Shākirīn* (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1989), 1:120. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Hardship is an unavoidable part of the human journey toward the Hereafter, for every soul will taste pain, loss, fear, anxiety, sadness, and grief. Yet Islam furnishes the believer with spiritual resources sufficient to overcome any trial, provided one maintains trust in Allah's plan and decree, responding with the "beautiful patience" that was practiced by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the prophets before him. Indeed, the theology of Islam and the contents of its sacred scriptures, the Qur'an and authentic Hadith, contain what psychologists term beneficial cognitions—thought patterns conducive to sound mental health and well-being—which have even been integrated into psychotherapy and counseling designed for Muslims. Islam presents a worldview in which the creation is a temporary abode of testing, wherein Allah tries His servants to turn them back to faith when they forget, to expiate their sins, and to bring out the best within them. The wisdom behind trials is rooted in the truth that this worldly life is not the end of the story, but is followed by an eternal and infinitely more important life in which we shall be judged for our present deeds. Allah's purpose in creation is to grant us the opportunity to draw nearer to Him through good deeds and worship. He said: "It is He who created death and life to test which of you is best in deed." Part of this test is enduring trials in many forms—suffering, that we may be patient, and even pleasure, that we may be grateful. The Qur'an employs two words for "trial." The first, al-balā', denotes testing "that the reality of what has been done is known." The second, al-fitnah, carries a broader meaning encompassing seduction, temptation, misguidance, or trial by fire. The classical lexicographer of the Qur'an, Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, explained that al-fitnah originally means "to place gold in the fire to sift out its valuables from its impurities," adding that both words are used for what is driven toward a human being, whether prosperity or adversity, though both usually denote adversity. Thus, just as a blacksmith melts gold and silver in a furnace to remove the dross, Allah puts us to trial to remove our spiritual defects so that only our best qualities remain. This dynamic is observable in human experience, for crises can bring out both the best and the worst in people, as seen in the courage of firefighters who risk themselves for strangers. Allah has promised that we shall certainly be tested, saying: "We will surely test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives, and fruits, but give glad tidings to the patient, those who, when afflicted by calamity, say, 'Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we will return.'" He also said: "Do people think they will be left alone to say, 'We have faith,' and they will not be put to trial? We have surely tested those before them. Allah will make evident those who are truthful and He will make evident those who are liars." The classical scholar 'Izz al-Dīn ibn 'Abd al-Salām, in his treatise Al-Fitan wa'l-Balāyā wa'l-Miḥan wa'l-Razāyā, enumerated seventeen blessings derived from trials, among them realizing the power of Allah and one's servitude to Him, sincerity, repentance, humility, patience, contentment with His decree, gratitude, purification of sins, compassion for those who suffer, and being kept from arrogance and tyranny. Nevertheless, despite these subtle benefits, we should not rush into adversity, for we never know whether we shall handle it properly. When the test comes, we should respond with optimism and good assumptions about Allah—assuming, for instance, that a closed door means a better one will open, or that declining health is an opportunity to atone for sins in this life rather than the next. For the believer, sincere faith is the key to converting any bad situation into a good one. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Wondrous is the affair of the believer, as there is good for him in every matter and this is not the case with anyone but the believer. If he is happy, he thanks Allah and thus there is good for him. If he is harmed, he shows patience and thus there is good for him." Patience and gratitude are two sides of the same coin, which is why Al-Ghazālī devoted a section of his Iḥyāʼ ʻUlūm al-Dīn to them, and Ibn al-Qayyim wrote his treatise ʻUddat al-Ṣābirīn wa Dhakhīrat al-Shākirīn on their interconnection. Ibn al-Qayyim defined patience as stopping ourselves from despairing and panicking, restraining our tongues from complaining, and our hands from striking our faces or tearing our clothes in grief. A trial is in fact a sign of Allah's love, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whomever Allah intends good, He afflicts him with trials," and, "If Allah loves a people, He afflicts them with trials." He also taught that no hardship, illness, anxiety, sorrow, harm, or even the pricking of a thorn afflicts a Muslim without Allah expiating his sins by it, and that hardship in this life serves as a substitute for punishment in the next: "If Allah intends good for His servant, He hastens the punishment for him in this world." Accordingly, the Prophet ﷺ praised Allah in every circumstance. Aisha reported that when he saw something he liked he would say, "All praise is due to Allah, by whose favor good deeds are accomplished," and when he saw something he disliked he would say, "All praise is due to Allah in every circumstance." The judge Shurayh, who embraced Islam in the Prophet's time though he never met him, would praise Allah fourfold upon any calamity: that it was not worse, that he was granted patience, that he was guided to hope for reward, and that it was not a calamity in his religion. The highest response to trial is "beautiful patience," the level of the Prophet ﷺ, to whom Allah said, "So be patient with beautiful patience," and of the Prophet Jacob ﷺ, who said, "For me is beautiful patience," even as his eyes turned white with grief. The early exegete Mujāhid said beautiful patience "does not have any agitation," and Al-Qurṭubī defined it as "that in which there is no agitation and no complaint." Such a person still feels fear and grief, but responds gracefully within the Islamic worldview. Part of beautiful patience is preparing for trials during ease, so that our instinctive reactions remain within Islam's limits. The Prophet ﷺ told the weeping woman at the grave, "Verily, patience is at the first strike," and from this we learn both compassion for the grieving and the necessity of spiritual preparation through prayer, reflection, and remembrance. Allah declares in a divine narration: "O son of Adam, if you are patient and restrained at the first moment of calamity, I would not be pleased with any reward for you less than Paradise." Another component is to complain to Allah alone, for the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever complains to people will not have his need satisfied, whereas whoever complains to Allah will be provided for. Sharing with trusted persons or engaging in talk-therapy is permissible so long as it does not nurture negative thoughts about Allah, but airing grievances to the whole world brings no benefit. Yet beautiful patience does not preclude grief, for the Prophet ﷺ wept over his dying son Ibrāhīm, saying, "Verily, the eyes shed tears and the heart is grieved, but we will not say anything except what is pleasing to our Lord." Practically, one cultivates this patience through prayer and Qur'an, for Allah said, "O you who have faith, seek help in patience and prayer," and through remembering that hardship is temporary, since "Verily, with hardship comes ease, with hardship comes ease." Alongside these, mindfulness and cognitive restructuring can help those struggling with pessimism, depression, or anxiety, which require comprehensive treatment rather than mere admonition. A word of caution remains: trials should never be sought. The Prophet ﷺ repeated thrice, "Verily, the blessed one is kept away from trials," and warned that whoever exposes himself to tribulations will be destroyed, urging those who find refuge to take shelter in it. He sought refuge after every prayer "from the trials of life and death and the evil trial of the False Messiah," and Allah taught the believers to pray, "O Lord, do not burden us with what we cannot endure." Muṭarrif ibn 'Abd Allāh said, "That I am safe and thankful is more beloved to me than that I am tested and patient." In sum, Allah guarantees trials by His wisdom, and when met with faith they draw us nearer to Him, refine us, and expiate our sins, so that everything is good for the believer—through patience in adversity or gratitude in prosperity—the highest station being beautiful patience at the first strike, attained through prayer, reflection, and mindfulness grounded in Islamic theology. Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-everyones-life-better-than-mine # “Why Is Everyone’s Life Better than Mine?” Protecting Yourself from the Dangers of Comparison **Authors:** Sarah Sultan, Najwa Awad **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** March 12, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction *Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.* \- Viktor E. Frankl[^1] *Whenever Yaser went on Facebook his heart would sink. His newsfeed was filled with friends' achievements, pictures of beautiful homes and details of exotic trips abroad. Yaser, on the other hand, was just let go from a place he had been working at for eight years and he lived at home with his mother who was very ill. As the breadwinner and only child left in his childhood home, this was a devastating situation to be in. For the first time in his life, he had to go to social services to apply for financial assistance as his mother’s professional nursing care was very expensive. Everyone’s life looked so easy on social media and he wondered if he was doing such an honorable thing, then why were his circumstances so difficult? It pained him seeing wedding and baby pictures on social media. Yaser wanted to start a family of his own, but it seemed that women were not interested in marrying him when they found out he had to take care of his mother. Yaser was not doing anything exciting like his peers and often wondered if others thought he was a loser—because that is exactly how he felt. Yaser would get so anxious and depressed looking at pictures and videos online, but it was so hard to stop. He found himself experiencing tremendous jealousy and wondered why his life turned out the way it did. Yaser wanted to know,* ***“Why is everyone’s life better than mine?”*** --- ## What is happening to me? Jealousy is painful. It feels like a heavy object you carry inside your chest and no matter how much you dislike the feeling you can’t find a way to get inside and remove the aching. Internally you may also feel sad, anxious, and overwhelmed. Nobody *wants* to feel jealous and be consumed by desiring what others have. Jealousy can also feel ungrateful and petty, which compounds layers of guilt within. Outside you might wonder if others can see the burden you are carrying. Jealousy is invisible, but at the same time has a visible impact on the one experiencing it. For many people jealousy stems from the cognitive distortion of **disqualifying positives.** This is when a person minimizes the good in their life by thinking less of themselves, their actions, and/or what has been given to them.[^2] The comparison might be something very specific (e.g., we both got an A on the test, but I had to study much harder) or it could be a more general global comparison (e.g., everyone likes her more than they like me). The dark path of comparing oneself to others that leads to jealousy has been present since the beginning of human existence. In Islamic (and Judeo-Christian) tradition, we know the story of Qabil (Cain) and Habil (Abel) in which both of Adam’s sons offered a sacrifice to Allah, but only one’s was accepted. As a result of envy, Qabil killed his brother Habil and became overwhelmed with regret. Qabil suffered in a few ways: 1) immediately from his jealousy; 2) long-term by incurring the sin of being the first to commit murder in humanity, and  3) inadvertently elevating the status of his brother by possibly making him the first martyr in Islam. Jealousy and envy are some of the most destructive forces in life, causing internal upheaval and irreparable damage to relationships. Sometimes jealousy doesn’t make much sense and may seem unwarranted, while other times it feels justified because of our difficult circumstances. When we are in times of great hardship, jealousy can sometimes be associated with feelings of entitlement. Jealousy coupled with trauma adds another layer of pain and can be a barrier to healing. *Why was I molested and not her?* *Why does my child have a disability and not others?* *Why do I have a chronic illness and everyone else my age is healthy?* A person who has experienced trauma does not necessarily wish harm on others but might wonder why they have to go through excruciating hardships and others do not. --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions While the example of Qabil and Habil is extreme, comparing ourselves to others is now arguably worse than it has ever been, especially with the advent of social media. In the past, accomplishments and blessings were typically shared with immediate family, friends, and relatives, whereas now every life detail is openly shared with the public in real-time. Modesty is an elusive concept and oversharing with little boundaries has opened up everyone’s once private life to the world. Much is laid bare for others to comment including one’s deep thoughts, day-to-day activities, meals eaten, objects purchased, report cards, awards from work, engagements, and pregnancies. It’s almost like TV, but even better because it’s people you know. Social media can be very beneficial, but can also be extremely toxic if one is not careful. You don’t have to be online to participate in the comparison game as people create public personas in real day-to-day life as well. Many individuals and families act differently in public than they do at home, and brand themselves to appear different from what they truly are. Mirages are created about homes, children's behavior, possessions, and marriages. At a *halaqah,* a father might brag about his son getting a scholarship to an Ivy League school, but would never disclose that his son has a drug problem. During a playdate, a woman might talk about all the jewelry her husband buys her, but would never talk about his infidelity. At an extravagant party, the host might appear very generous and have the best of everything, but nobody would ever know that the family is swimming in debt. These innocent deceptions breed jealousy as friends and family compare themselves to false standards. If one also has low-self esteem by continuously disqualifying positives, then the feelings of self-loathing and pain are even greater. In most societies and cultures around the world, the average person doesn’t discuss failures and tragedies except with a few people. When was the last time you heard a coworker or acquaintance say: “I’m lonely,” “I think my spouse doesn’t love me anymore,” or “I’m not as a good father as I should be”? The answer is likely “Never” because although it would be very authentic, it wouldn’t be socially appropriate. One might be labeled as negative, needy, or trying to attract unnecessary attention, although everyone experiences these types of emotions. If someone *appears* positive, attractive, witty, intelligent and well-rounded, however, he or she will get that acceptance and recognition that all human beings crave. As a result of invisible social rules, a lot of effort is expended to create public personas that just reflect the best parts of ourselves, creating illusions of how we truly live life. While the average person understands these concepts, there is still competition, jealousy, and deep resentment when other people’s lives appear better than our own. --- ## Changing your mind, body, and heart What is the cure for comparing yourself to others and disqualifying your positive attributes? There is no easy fix, but it starts with internalizing key concepts about how you view yourself and look at the world. You cannot change your feelings or behaviors until you hone in on the thoughts that are contributing to them. To help break out of the cycle of thinking that everyone’s life is better than yours, remember that you are special and nobody can fulfill the calling and purpose Allah has planned for you. You have the same power as anyone else to create the life *you* want and envision. Your life may not look like the life of your friends or people you see on social media, but then again why would you want it to? If you firmly believe that you are a person of irreplaceable value and can bring meaning to the world that nobody else can, you would not want to be anyone else. When you feel like you are getting pulled into thinking that everyone’s life around you is better than yours, start by paying attention to the thoughts about your self-worth and reflect on the script or recurrent messages playing in your head. Many times those unhealthy thoughts are related to 1) low-self-esteem; 2) misunderstanding about Allah’s bounties; and/or 3) unrealistic or false expectations of how the world works. ### Low self-esteem *I’m not as pretty as my friends.* *I will never be as accomplished as my brother.* *My friend’s children are so much smarter than mine.* Low-self esteem causes feelings of self-doubt and never feeling good enough. It leads to minimizing good qualities and focusing on negative qualities (which we all have). The person with low self-esteem is in no place to objectively judge if their life is better or worse than others because their assessment will be clouded by the negative feelings about themselves. When you think negatively of yourself everyone else will appear better by default. When you begin to have healthier self-esteem, however, your perspective will not be as skewed. Where does low self-esteem come from? The biggest predictors of low self-esteem are early childhood emotional neglect, physical,\[3\] and emotional abuse.\[4\] Parenting style, perceptions of successes and failures (especially in the domain of academics), and genetics also play a big role in self-esteem.[^5] These childhood factors have profound emotional and physical effects on individuals into adulthood.[^6] Understanding the impact of emotional neglect is imperative, as it’s widely acknowledged that physical abuse is a type of trauma. Many people who grow up with low-esteem due to emotional neglect do not know that they may also be victims of trauma. Another contributor to low self-esteem can be the occurrence of a negative experience, like failure or rejection.[^7] The negative experience can be any event that was emotionally painful and decreased the individual’s perception of self-worth and core values about themselves. Every individual has core values about who they are; a negative experience may be perceived as an anomaly or it may open up a new door on how they view themselves. For example, a person who is verbally attacked with racial slurs may look at the experience as a fluke whereas another person might internalize the experience to the point they change how they view themselves. Core values like “I belong,” “I’m worthy of being safe,” and “I’m a good person” can change to “I’m an outcast; I will never be accepted,” “I’m not safe,” and “There is something wrong with me.” Self-esteem work in adulthood is not easy but can be accomplished by focusing on your positive traits and building mastery in those areas. To begin to counter low self-esteem, shift your focus needs to shift to your good qualities. Your good qualities are not going to be the same as those of your friends or the person who is the subject of your jealousy. It may be hard to find those positive qualities initially, but you can nurture them by learning how to strengthen and use them. For example, if you are not very academically inclined, but are good at making things with your hands, then focus your efforts on improving those skills. If you are not great at making friends, but excel at writing, then work on your writing skills to uplift you and make the world a better place. Also keep in mind that just because someone doesn’t value your good quality doesn’t mean it’s not a good asset to have. If your father thinks that math is the most important skill in the world, but you are fantastic at English, that doesn’t mean your English skills are not of value. To improve self-esteem, it’s also important that you change internal and external factors that contribute to how you feel about yourself. Internally, pay attention to how you talk to yourself or about yourself in your head. If you talk to yourself very negatively, you can expect that your mood and outlook will reflect that. Just for one minute, imagine being around someone who is chronically putting you down and saying negative things about you. How would you feel about this person? You probably wouldn’t feel very good about them or yourself. What if that person was actually you? Replacing negative self-talk with positive self-talk intentionally and consistently can have a profound effect on how you view yourself. Nobody deserves to be put down continuously, especially by one's own self. To improve your self-esteem externally, reflect on whether some people around you may be the source of your negative feelings or may reinforce pre-existing negative feelings about yourself. If you know someone at home, work, or school who contributes to your negative self-esteem, consider distancing yourself from that person. If you can not do that because the person is family or someone you have to interact with, then put appropriate boundaries in place when interacting with them to protect yourself. People will treat you as you allow them, so do not let anyone think it’s ok to call you names, put you down, or take advantage of you. ### Misunderstanding Allah’s bounties Minimizing blessings is a very sneaky way Shaytan brings people down emotionally and spiritually without them realizing it. There is a regular kind of jealousy when you want what others have, and then a more sinister kind of jealousy that wants those people’s blessings to be taken away. This latter form is very dangerous because it involves a questioning of Allah’s Wisdom and perhaps even a resentment towards Allah for giving things to other people and not you. *Why is my best friend better-looking than me?* *Why is my brother so smart and such a good test-taker? I wish I was more intelligent than him.* *Why do I have to work so hard at my job to make ends meet, but this lazy community member lives in a mansion and has a lot of family wealth? Aren’t I more deserving than him?* Bounties and blessings are all gifts from Allah. At certain points in life family and friends may appear to have more than us. Blessings can have nothing to do with how hard a person works or desires something. Some blessings you are born with, some are transient, and some last a long time. Sometimes beauty, wealth, and success are good for some people, and sometimes they can be trials that take people away from their closeness to Allah. Ultimately, Allah has allotted a share for each person and questioning what He gives to whom indicates a lack of understanding of His Wisdom. There are ways to increase your blessings, but when certain bounties are outside of your control be cautious that you are not upset with Allah directly for the things you wish you had. Allah encourages, if not commands, us to be thankful, and tells us that if we are thankful He will give us more: > And He gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you should count the favor of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is \[generally\] most unjust and ungrateful. (Qur’an 14:34) > And if you should count the favors of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (Qur’an 16:18) > So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me. (Qur’an 2:152) > And \[remember\] when your Lord proclaimed, “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you \[in favor\]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.” (Qur’an 14:7) > Then do you wonder that there has come to you a reminder from your Lord through a man from among you, that he may warn you? And remember when He made you successors after the people of Noah and increased you in stature extensively. So remember the favors of Allah that you might succeed. (Qur’an 7:69) If you feel that you are starting to go down the path of being ungrateful to Allah, then seek refuge in Him from Shaytan, as this tactic is an aggressive assault on both your emotional and spiritual well-being. It’s one thing to lose faith in yourself, but never lose faith in Allah’s positive attributes and His ability to provide for you. Allah is *Ar-Razzaq* (The Ever-Providing, Sustainer), *Al-Fattah* (The Opener, the Victory Giver), *Al-Muqeet* (The Nourisher) and *Al-Karim* (The Generous, The Bountiful). When you ask and work hard, Allah will give you what you are looking for, even though it may come in a different form than you anticipated. Allah has no limitations in what He can give; if you see someone who has something you want, never fear that there isn’t enough bounty left for you or that you can not have the same. Abu Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > There is not a man who calls upon Allah with a supplication, except that he is answered. Either it shall be granted to him in the world, or reserved for him in the Hereafter, or his sins shall be expiated for it according to the extent that he supplicated—as long as he does not supplicate for some sin, or for the severing of the ties of kinship, and he does not become hasty. They said: “O Messenger of Allah, and how would he be hasty?” He ﷺ said: “He says: ‘I called upon my Lord, but He did not answer me.’”[^8] ### Unrealistic expectations about how life works *If only I were better looking I could climb up the corporate ladder more quickly.* *If I was just a little wealthier I know I would be happy.* *If my spouse wasn’t so lazy my marriage would be better for sure.* When we blame others (the world, *qadr*, society, parents, the president, etc.) for things we want but can’t have, we are creating unrealistic expectations for how the world works and giving those outside forces more power than they actually have. Blaming outside forces takes away from our own accountability and resourcefulness to find alternative means for our happiness. There are many circumstances in life we cannot control, but this does not mean we lack control to influence or change other circumstances. It’s not what happens to you that dictates your life, it’s how you choose to react and respond to those unexpected variables that affects your overall quality of life and happiness. *Your not advancing at work has nothing to do with how you look, and even if it did, a good work ethic would get you further.* *Lack of wealth is not preventing you from being happy;your thirst for more is clouding your ability to find contentment.* *Your marriage could be better if your spouse wasn’t lazy, but your marriage would also be better if you put more effort and positivity into it.* Instead of focusing on things in your life outside of your control, focus on what is in your control: Your thoughts Feelings Attitude Appreciation Openness Flexibility Kindness Creativity Resourcefulness Resilience The power you have to control and exercise these qualities can offset any circumstance because you get to choose how to perceive the world around you. *You get to decide if something is of importance.* *You get to decide if something bothers you.* *You get to decide how you want to bounce back.* ### Cognitive shifts needed in addressing comparing yourself to others Once you have started to shift incorrect beliefs about yourself, you can begin to replace those erroneous thoughts with more empowering concepts and cognitions. It’s not enough to just remove the old cognitions that were holding you back, you also need to utilize tools to improve how you relate to the world and those around you in a different way. Keeping perspective, self-improvement, making appropriate comparisons, and gratitude are great ways to do this. **1\.  Keeping Perspective:** In life there is always more to obtain, and there will always be someone who has more than you in one capacity or another. Chasing after these things whether money, beauty, homes, cars, fame, etc. is never-ending and is very much like being a mouse running on a wheel. The mouse never gets anywhere running in place and achieves nothing but fatigue. This is because oftentimes humans focus more on what they don’t have rather than what they do have. This is very eloquently narrated by Sahl bin Sa'd who said: > I heard Ibn Az-Zubair who was on the pulpit at Mecca, delivering a sermon, saying, “O men! The Prophet used to say, ‘If the son of Adam were given a valley full of gold, he would love to have a second one; and if he were given the second one, he would love to have a third, for nothing fills the belly of Adam's son except dust. And Allah forgives he who repents to Him.’ Ubai said, “We considered this as a saying from the Qur'an till the Sura (beginning with) ‘The mutual rivalry for piling up of worldly things diverts you...' (102.1) was revealed.”[^9] We are reminded in the Qur’an, as well as the Sunnah, that possessions come and go, while good deeds last; so, amassing good deeds is far better than amassing goods. Good deeds increase us in rank and give us better provisions in the *akhirah* which is not only better, but permanent. > Wealth and children are \[but\] adornment of the worldly life. But the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for reward and better for \[one's\] hope. (Qur’an 18:46) > Know that the life of this world is but amusement and diversion and adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of wealth and children—like the example of a rain whose \[resulting\] plant growth pleases the tillers; then it dries and you see it turned yellow; then it becomes \[scattered\] debris. And in the Hereafter is severe punishment and forgiveness from Allah and approval. And what is the worldly life except the enjoyment of delusion.  (Qur’an 57:20) Internalizing perspective on long-term goals, such as trying to go to *Jannah*, helps stabilize mood when things don’t go our way or when someone appears to have more than us. Factually, you don’t actually know if someone truly has more than you, but even if they did it wouldn’t matter when you think about The Day of Judgment, *Jannah*, and *Jahannam* in light of this hadith: > Anas b. Malik reported that Allah's Messenger ﷺ said that one amongst the denizens of Hell who had led a life of ease and plenty amongst the people of the world would be made to dip in Fire only once on the Day of Resurrection and then it would be said to him: “O, son of Adam, did you find any comfort, did you happen to get any material blessing?” He would say: “By Allah, no, my Lord.” And then that person from amongst the persons of the world be brought who had led the most miserable life (in the world) from amongst the inmates of Paradise. and he would be made to dip once in Paradise and it would be said to him: “O, son of Adam, did you face any hardship? Or had any distress fallen to your lot?” And he would say: “By Allah, no, O my Lord, never did I face any hardship or experience any distress.”[^10] Furthermore, an increase in the blessings you seek results in an increase in accountability on the Day of Judgment. Ibn Mas'ud narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "The feet of the son of Adam shall not move from before his Lord on the Day of Judgement, until he is asked about five things: about his life and what he did with it, about his youth and what he wore it out in, about his wealth and how he earned it and spent it upon, and what he did with what he knew." *(Tirmidhi)* Therefore, anyone who *appears* to have more than you at the moment may be questioned more extensively about it later—and perhaps to their detriment. **2\. Self-improvement for success:** One of the most destructive aspects of getting caught up in comparisons is that it takes away from working on oneself. Two hours a day checking out people’s profiles on social media, and feeling terrible about oneself, is two hours one could have used to read a book, volunteer, learn something new, or work on an important goal. Multiply two hours a day by seven days a week and that is fourteen hours a week that is being given up. Fourteen hours a week is a part-time job or approximately how many hours a student needs to be enrolled full-time at college. Multiply two hours a day by thirty days in a month and you will get sixty hours that could be used for bettering oneself. Sixty hours a month can do wonders: One could work on writing a book, memorize lots of Qur’an, create community programs, or get oneself in top physical shape. The travesty in spending your life looking at what others are doing is that you are completely overlooking what you could be doing yourself. Wasting time comparing yourself to others is bad enough, but the resulting poverty of your soul due to neglecting it and not taking care of it is far worse. Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > Richness does not lie in the abundance of (worldly) goods but richness is the richness of the soul (heart, self).[^11] If you feel yourself caught up in thinking about how much more someone has than you, or how little you have, then put a cap on it. You may be thinking, “Well if I could stop thinking about it, I would.” However, this technique works counterintuitively. Set a designated time for you to sit with your negative feelings for 5 or 10 minutes. Set a timer if you need to. Then when the time is up, make a conscious effort to shift gears to doing something productive. This is a way to compartmentalize your feelings and prevent your feelings from taking over your day. Giving yourself permission to feel bad for 5 minutes and then do something productive for 2 hours is more useful than being distracted for 2 hours. Over time you will feel like sitting and being negative on purpose is a waste of time, and because it’s now out of your system, you will no longer have a need for it. **3\. If you are going to compare, compare yourself to previous versions of who you are or to people who have less than you.**  Everyone is born into a unique set of circumstances that will set them on an exclusive trajectory that nobody else will be able to experience. Some people have similar interests, values, and family dynamics as you but nobody will ever have a life exactly like yours. Comparing one’s blessings to someone who you think has more than you will be of no benefit to you, whereas continually assessing your own growth to previous versions of yourself can increase your productivity and self-esteem. Comparing yourself to how you were 6 months ago, 2 years ago and 5 years ago can give you concrete insight on how you may have improved or worsened in particular aspects of your life. If you insist on comparing yourself to others, then look to those lower than you as demonstrated in this prophetic advice: Abu Hurairah (RAA) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > Look at those who are lower than you (financially) but do not look at those who are higher than you, lest you belittle the favors Allah conferred upon you.[^12] When you look at people who appear to have less than you, it can help you appreciate small blessings you may have not considered before. If you are worrying about having humiliated yourself in front of your community, but then reflect on a friend’s child who has a terminal illness, your problems may not seem as bleak anymore. Looking to those who have less than you is a useful way to develop a deeper appreciation for what you have. **4\. Gratitude:** One of the antidotes for dismissing positive things in your life is building appreciation and thankfulness for what you do have. It doesn’t matter exactly how you practice gratefulness as long as you do it consistently. Research supports that gratitude lists, grateful contemplation (reflecting globally on things you are grateful for), and gratitude visits (writing a letter to someone who has done something good for you and reading it to them) are effective in improving well-being.[^13] Consider the following exercises: A.    Every day when you wake up, identify 3 things you are looking forward to, and when you go to sleep, identify 3 things that you are grateful for. These items do not have to be big but the thankfulness should come from your heart. Examples of things you might look forward to: your morning coffee, your walk during lunchtime, hugging a family member, tending to your garden or making a new recipe for dinner. Examples of things you might be grateful for: That you snuck into a work meeting without anyone seeing you were late, that you made it to the gas station before your tank was empty, that your child did not have a tantrum when leaving the toy store, a delicious meal, or the chance to read a chapter from your favorite book. B.    When you are facing something traumatic or difficult, find three good things that came out of that situation. This exercise does not take away from the pain or difficulties you are experiencing but can help you see that good can come from the worst of situations. The good thing might be a new relationship that was formed, an increase in patience, a new opportunity or strength you did not have before, or a chance to help others in a similar situation. Many times when reframing trauma one might find that in the long-term the good outweighs the bad. C.    Volunteer to help those who have less than you. Scientific studies show that by helping others you actually help and feel better about yourself.[^14], [^15] Places you can volunteer: a soup kitchen for the homeless, nursing homes where the elderly are away from their family, hospitals, social services agencies, etc. You can also visit sick people in your local community and get tremendous amounts of *ajr* that way. It was narrated that ‘Ali said: > I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “Whoever comes to his Muslim brother and visits him (when he is sick), he is walking among the harvest of Paradise until he sits down, and when he sits down he is covered with mercy. If it is morning, seventy thousand angels will send blessing upon him until evening, and if it is evening, seventy thousand angels will send blessing upon him until morning.”[^16] **Inspirational Hadith & Ayat for Reflection** > *Allah extends provision for whom He wills and restricts \[it\]. And they rejoice in the worldly life, while the worldly life is not, compared to the Hereafter, except \[brief\] enjoyment. (Qur’an 13:26)* *'Umar bin Al-Khattab narrated that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) said:* > *“If you were to rely upon Allah with the required reliance, then He would provide for you just as a bird is provided for, it goes out in the morning empty, and returns full.” (Jami\` at-Tirmidhi, 2344)* *Ibn Mas'dd reported that Umm Habiba said:* > *O Allah, enable me to derive benefit from my husband, Allah's Messenger ﷺ, and from my father Abu Sufyan, and from my brother Mu'awiya. Allah's Messenger ﷺ said to her: Verily, you have asked Allah about the durations of life already set, and the steps which you would take, and the sustenances the share of which is fixed. Nothing would take place earlier than its due time, and nothing would be deferred beyond that when it is due… (Sahih Muslim 2663)* **Practical Exercise** ***A.    Cultivating Gratitude:*** Every morning, identify 3 things you are looking forward to: 1. 2. 3. Every night before you go to sleep, identify 3 things that you are grateful for: 1. 2. 3. ***B.    Building Your Self-Esteem and Goals:*** Sometimes being distracted by what other people have is because one has low self-esteem. What are unique characteristics have you been blessed with? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Pretend that you are older and reflecting back on your life. What are five long-term accomplishments you would like to have achieved? These goals should reflect values important to you, and not goals other people have for you or have for themselves. To increase well-roundedness, list goals in several different aspects of your life: familial, career, spiritual, philanthropic, etc. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are three short-term goals you can start to work on today to help meet your long-term goals? 1. 2. 3. To work to become your best self, you will need to commit some time every day to work on your goals. Half an hour at a consistent time can do wonders for turning your life around. Pick the same time every day, preferably after *fajr* (since this is a blessed time) to work on your goals. If you are really committed to working on yourself, your focus on others and what they have will naturally decrease. When you are ready to pick a time, block off that time daily for 30 days and watch how both your outlook and life will change for the better *inshaAllah*. **Case Revisited** *One day Yaser felt he couldn’t take how he felt anymore and knew that things had to change. Yaser understood that his mood was greatly affected by the amount of time he spent online so he started limiting social media use to one hour a day. He also realized that he was burned out taking care of his mother and that if he was going to continue doing this long-term he needed help. He asked extended family members for a loan to get his mother more in-home help. Having professionals assist him helped lift his spirits and allowed Yaser to be able to focus on himself, which was something he hadn't been able to do in a long time.* *Yaser felt that he needed to adjust his outlook on life. His circumstances were different than his friends, but that didn’t mean that his life was bad. Yaser owned a home, had good health, and was highly educated so it would be easy for him to get a new job. He also saw a great opportunity in taking care of his mother, as he was optimistic it would help him get to Jannah inshaAllah.* *Yaser sat down and reflected on his life goals. He had wasted so much time on social media before that he realized he really didn’t have any long-term goals. Something that stood out right away was that he hadn’t exercised in a long time and that always made him feel good. He joined a brothers’ basketball team that met twice a month. The exercise and seeing old friends made him feel more like himself.* *Regarding other long-term goals: Yaser knew he had no control over getting married or having children, but understood that he could contribute to the Ummah in other ways. With his IT skills from college he decided to create an online foundation for Muslims taking care of parents with chronic illness. His foundation would provide connections for other Muslims like himself to get support, learn about resources, and exchange helpful information.* *Focusing on long-term goals helped Yaser stop minimizing the good in his life and comparing his life to others. Shifting attention to what Yaser could actually control empowered him and gave him a lot less time to sit around and compare his life to others. If Yaser ever felt like he was slipping into his old ways he would make sure to increase practicing his gratefulness exercises (identifying things to look forward to in the morning and counting his blessings at night), and this would help him get back on track.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Viktor Frankl, *Man’s Search for Meaning* (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006). [^2]: David D. Burns, *Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy* (New York: Penguin Books, 1981). [^3]: Seyede S. Sajjadi, Yadolla Zargar, Leila Zare, and Fakhri Tajikzadeh, “The Predictive Role of Early Trauma Dimensions on Self-Esteem in 11–13-Year-Old Students: Controlling the Role of Maladaptive Schema,” *Razavi Int J Med.* 4, no. 3 (2016): e38869. [^4]: Ilyse L. Spertus, Rachel Yehuda, Cheryl M. Wong, Sarah Halligan, and Stephanie V. Seremetis, “Childhood Emotional Abuse and Neglect as Predictor of Psychological and Physical Symptoms in Women Presenting to Primary Care Practice,” *Child Abuse & Neglect* 27, no. 11 (2003): 1247–58. [^5]: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, *The Costs and Causes of Low Self-Esteem*, 2001, [https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/n71.pdf](https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/n71.pdf). [^6]: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, *Causes of Low Self-Esteem*. [^7]: Nicholas Emler, “Self Esteem: The Costs and Causes of Low Self Worth,” *Youth Studies Australia*, no. 21 (2001). [^8]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*: no. 3604d, bk. 48, hadith 238. [^9]: *Saḥīh al-Bukhārī*: no. 6438, bk. 81, hadith 27. [^10]: *Saḥīh Muslim*: no. 2807, bk. 52, hadith 42. [^11]: *Saḥīh Muslim*: no. 1051, bk. 12, hadith 157. [^12]: *Bulugh al-maram*: bk. 16, hadith 1482. [^13]: Alex M. Wood, Jeffrey J. Froh, and Adam W. A. Geraghty, “Gratitude and Well-Being: A Review and Theoretical Integration,” *Clinical Psychology Review* 30, no. 7 (2010): 890–905, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005). [^14]: Faiza Tabassum, John Mohan, and Peter Smith, “Association of Volunteering with Mental Well-Being: A Lifecourse Analysis of a National Population-Based Longitudinal Study in the UK,” *BMJ Open* 6, no. 8 (2016): e011327. [^15]: Jerf W. K. Yeung, Zhuoni Zhang, and Tae Yeun Kim, “Volunteering and Health Benefits in General Adults: Cumulative Effects and Forms,” *BMC Public Health* 18, no. 8 (2018). [^16]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*: vol. 1, bk. 6, hadith 1442. ## Summary Everyone who reflects upon the trials of this life will find that comparing oneself to others, and the jealousy that flows from it, is among the heaviest burdens a soul may carry. It is a pain felt inwardly like a weight upon the chest, bringing with it sadness, anxiety, and a sense of being overwhelmed. What makes this affliction more grievous is that it is often accompanied by guilt, for no believer wishes to feel envious or ungrateful for what Allah has decreed. Frequently this jealousy is rooted in what may be described as a habit of dismissing the good in one's own life, whereby a person diminishes his own worth and belittles the blessings he has been given, whether through specific comparisons or through broad and sweeping judgments of himself against others. This tendency to compare and to envy is not new; it has accompanied mankind since its earliest days. We are reminded of the two sons of Adam, Qabil and Habil, both of whom offered a sacrifice, yet only one was accepted. Overcome by envy, Qabil slew his brother and was afterward consumed by regret. His suffering was manifold: the immediate torment of his jealousy, the enduring sin of being the first to shed blood unjustly among mankind, and the unintended consequence of possibly raising his brother to the rank of the first martyr. Thus jealousy and envy stand among the most destructive of forces, ruining the heart within and severing bonds between people. At times envy appears without reason, and at other times it feels justified on account of hardship, for one who has suffered trauma may not wish harm upon others yet still wonders why he alone must bear such grievous trials while others are spared. In our present age, this affliction has been intensified by the spread of social media, where every detail of life is displayed openly before all. Where once accomplishments were shared only among close family and companions, now modesty has become a rare thing, and the once-private lives of people are laid bare for public comment. Yet this comparison is not confined to what is online. People fashion public faces in their daily lives as well, appearing outwardly different from their true state. A father at a halaqah may boast of his son's scholarship while concealing that son's affliction, and a host may display generosity and abundance while drowning in debt. Such innocent deceptions breed envy, for people measure themselves against standards that are false. Rarely does one hear another confess loneliness, or marital sorrow, or shortcomings as a parent, for social custom deems such honesty unwelcome. And so great effort is spent constructing images that reflect only our best, and this feeds the competition and resentment that arise when the lives of others appear better than our own. The remedy for this begins not with the feelings or the actions but with the thoughts that give rise to them, for a person cannot change what he does until he examines what he believes. One must remember that Allah has appointed for each soul a purpose that none other can fulfill, and that a person of irreplaceable worth would not desire to be anyone but himself. The unhealthy thoughts that pull one into envy generally arise from three sources: low self-esteem, a misunderstanding of Allah's bounties, and false expectations of how life works. Concerning low self-esteem, when a person thinks poorly of himself, all others appear superior by default, for his judgment is clouded by his own negativity. Such feelings often stem from early childhood emotional neglect, physical and emotional abuse, and are shaped also by parenting, one's perception of success and failure, and genetics. A single painful experience of rejection may cause a person to alter the core beliefs he holds about himself, so that "I belong" becomes "I am an outcast." The way toward healing is to focus upon one's own God-given qualities, which differ from those of others, and to strengthen them, while replacing harsh self-talk with kinder speech, and while placing appropriate boundaries between oneself and those who reinforce such harmful beliefs. The second source, the misunderstanding of Allah's bounties, is a subtle means by which Shaytan brings a person low. There is ordinary jealousy, in which one desires what another possesses, and there is a more sinister envy that wishes the blessing removed from its owner, which borders upon resentment toward Allah's Wisdom and His distribution of His gifts. Yet all provision is from Allah, and it bears no fixed relation to one's effort or desire. Some blessings are trials that draw a person away from his Lord, and Allah has apportioned to each his share. He commands gratitude and promises increase for the thankful: "And if you should count the favor of Allah, you could not enumerate them" (Qur'an 14:34; 16:18), "So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me" (Qur'an 2:152), and "If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe" (Qur'an 14:7). One should seek refuge in Allah when tempted toward ingratitude, and never doubt His power to provide, for He is Ar-Razzaq, Al-Fattah, Al-Muqeet, and Al-Karim. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught, as Abu Hurairah narrated, that no supplication is made except that it is answered, whether granted in this world, reserved for the Hereafter, or made an expiation for sins, so long as one does not ask for sin or the severing of kinship and does not grow hasty in saying, "I called upon my Lord, but He did not answer me." The third source is the holding of unrealistic expectations, whereby a person blames the world, qadr, society, or others for what he lacks, and thereby surrenders his own accountability and resourcefulness. Though there is much a person cannot control, he retains power over his thoughts, feelings, attitude, gratitude, kindness, and resilience, and it is not what befalls a person but how he responds that shapes the quality of his life. Once these mistaken beliefs are corrected, one must replace them with strengthening practices: keeping perspective, striving for self-improvement, making sound comparisons, and cultivating gratitude. Regarding perspective, the pursuit of worldly increase is endless, as related by Sahl bin Sa'd from Ibn Az-Zubair, that the Prophet ﷺ said, "If the son of Adam were given a valley full of gold, he would love to have a second... for nothing fills the belly of Adam's son except dust." Allah reminds us that "Wealth and children are but adornment of the worldly life. But the enduring good deeds are better" (Qur'an 18:46), and that this life is "the enjoyment of delusion" (Qur'an 57:20). Muslim relates from Anas that the most fortunate person of the world, if destined for the Fire, will forget all comfort after a single dipping, and the most wretched, if destined for Paradise, will forget all hardship. And Ibn Mas'ud narrated that man will be questioned on the Day of Judgment about his life, his youth, his wealth, and his knowledge (Tirmidhi), so that those who possess more may be questioned more severely. Regarding self-improvement, the hours wasted in comparison could be spent bettering the soul, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, as Abu Hurairah reported, "Richness does not lie in the abundance of worldly goods but richness is the richness of the soul." And regarding comparison, one should measure oneself against previous versions of oneself, or against those who possess less, as Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, "Look at those who are lower than you but do not look at those who are higher than you, lest you belittle the favors Allah conferred upon you." Finally, gratitude may be nurtured through the daily naming of blessings, the seeking of good within hardship, and the service of those in need, for 'Ali narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said whoever visits his sick Muslim brother walks among the harvest of Paradise, and seventy thousand angels send blessings upon him. And Allah reminds us, "If you were to rely upon Allah with the required reliance, then He would provide for you just as a bird is provided for, it goes out in the morning empty, and returns full" (Tirmidhi, 2344), and He teaches through the words of the Prophet ﷺ to Umm Habiba that sustenance and appointed times are already fixed and nothing is advanced or delayed beyond its due (Sahih Muslim 2663). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/faithful-activism-a-sunnah-framework # Faithful Activism: A Sunnah Framework **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Da'wah in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 9, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Note *Last updated October 30, 2020.* --- ## Introduction The following document represents instructional notes formulated by Sh. Omar Suleiman, Founder and President of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, for a course taught on *Faithful Activism: A Sunnah Framework* to the Alimiyya students at [Qalam Seminary](https://www.qalamseminary.com/) in Dallas. It aims at a systematic treatment and provides a guiding framework for Muslims to engage in healthy civic participation in various social spaces. It is part platform and part procedural approach—the what *and* the how—to achieve this aim. Beginning with a thorough and methodical affirmation of our calling, structure, and language, these notes provide concrete direction on how to navigate limiting terminology and avoid the pitfalls of divisive social tribalism. Leading further, Suleiman argues that we must expand both our religious *and* political frameworks. He does so by offering tangible guidance on mapping ourselves within broader coalition structures based upon shared moral foundations. The notes then elaborate on the specific opportunities for spiritual and legal renewal within the parameters of Islam, positioning our methodology in order to ask one of the most relevant questions in 2020 and beyond: *how do we work together?* Sh. Omar Suleiman intends to further update this document in accordance with feedback from Scholars as to make it more thorough. Using the two key principles of preservation of faith and participation with faith as a springboard, the notes sketch out a blueprint for fruitful and firmly rooted coalition-building in our multi-faith and politically pluralist society. Replete with examples of actual figures, organizations, and movements, Suleiman provides both positive and negative examples to serve as a toolkit for American Muslims to reflect upon and learn from the best practices *and* blindspots of others.  These notes are being shared publicly with the hope they will benefit those who are in positions of negotiating public spaces in order to protect our private religious institutions and build out a better, more productive and more faithful discourse for tomorrow. And Allah knows best. --- ## Our own calling Championing the best of our faith is an obligation to it. We are called to uplift society by conveying the message of God verbally through *dawah* (preaching) and letting our actions speak louder than our words through khidma (service). At the heart of both of these things is sincere concern for the people. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stood up to make his initial call, he referenced his credibility with the people as being one who always wished well for them: I have cared for you in this life, so clearly I care for you in the afterlife. No one can claim to care solely for the welfare of others in the hereafter while neglecting them in this life. The mission of the Prophet ﷺ began even before he knew it at the age of 40. God was preparing him, molding him, and elevating him through his character. He spent his life in service to others, and that service was only further made manifest in Islam. When the Prophet ﷺ said that the best of people in the days of ignorance are the best of people in Islam if they solidify their understanding, he himself was the greatest example of that. His service to the people, commitment to justice, and love for humanity were already unparalleled in society before Allah appointed him as a Prophet. He had already earned the title of *Al Ameen* (the trustworthy one). But after Islam, he rose to a rank that no one before or after him ever would, and became *rahmatan lil a’alameen* (a mercy to the worlds). He was not merely a mercy to Arabs, or even to Muslims, or even to humanity, but a mercy to the worlds. As his followers, we have to kindle that desire in ourselves to be like him and seek to continue his impact on the world around us so that people come to know him through us, as they came to know Allah through him. The closer we become to the Prophet ﷺ in our worship, service, and affairs as a whole, the more deserving we become of being called people of Sunnah. In the process of enjoining good and forbidding evil, we must start with a recognition of what good and evil are according to our tradition, and then be faithful to those concepts while seeking out the best mechanisms to live up to this noble calling. --- ## Our own framework Religion is on the decline in America today and many who have left it cite divisive rhetoric and corruption in religious institutions. Most of the religious presence in our political discourse seems to be superficial with the religious left and the religious right often simply representing nothing more than the political left and the political right with collars. On the right, Christian nationalism has become the language of White supremacy. And on the left, selective ambiguous religious language is given to fundamentally secular concepts. Hence, a positive intervention of religion generally, and Islam specifically is so crucial. In many cases, religion does not fail because it is refuted, but because it is no longer relevant or worse, viewed as a tool of oppression. The greatest threat to religion is stagnation, not refutation. When we suggest Islam has nothing to say about the problems and pain people are encountering other than to point out what’s wrong with proposed solutions, we’re doing a disservice to a faith that encompasses everything that we do in a profound manner. > An-Nu’man ibn Bashir reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “The parable of those who respect the limits of Allah and those who violate them is that of people who board a ship after casting lots, some of them residing in its upper deck and others in its lower deck. When those in the lower deck want water, they pass by the upper deck and say: If we tear a hole in the bottom of the ship, we will not harm those above us. If those in the upper deck let them do what they want, then they will all be destroyed together. If the people do not stop them, they will all fall and be failures, but if they stop them they will all be saved.” > > (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2361) What this hadith calls us to, amongst other things, is to provide legitimate solutions to legitimate problems, or else people will resort to illegitimate ways that will harm themselves, the *ummah*, and society as a whole. From an ideological perspective, that doesn’t mean there is no place for refuting false ideologies and engaging in rigorous intellectual discourse, just that it has to go hand in hand with service. We also must push back on the idea that all good ideas originated in Western thought, where so much of what is of benefit to the people actually originated in Islam. Naturally, if we don’t promote our own frameworks, we risk reinforcing frameworks that are foreign to what can principally be extracted from our faith. --- ## Our own language Articulating those frameworks should also be intentionally in the spirit of reviving what the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ brought to us, as opposed to trying to fit them into terminology that can’t encompass the profoundness of the Sunnah. We should constantly both think and act in accordance with what Muhammad ﷺ would do. There should be some reservation however with expressing definitely what the Prophet would do with things that are not so clearcut. It isn’t wise or intellectually honest to state that if the Prophet were here, he would validate my precise platform. We should, however, strive to make our actions as consistent with his example as possible, while engaging thoroughly the things that we know with certainty the Prophet would engage. We can take from some prominent Christian and Jewish  thinkers and activists in this regard: - ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1-1024x1024.png) - ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image5-1024x1004.jpg) [Daniel Edelman writes](https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/social-justice-and-orthodoxy/) about Social Justice and Orthodoxy in the Jewish community saying, “In this time of heightened political polarization, American denominational Judaism is more frequently dividing by political party affiliations and agendas. As a consequence, one common mistaken impression is that Orthodox Judaism does not value or promote social justice...Whatever the merits of any particular political agenda or party politics, the ethical responsibilities to stay true to the credo that *hesed* is the password of the Jew requires us to publicly protest against the oppression of the helpless, the defrauding of the poor, the plight of the orphan.” We should seek to craft language, especially on sensitive issues, that is authentic, consistent, wise, and beautiful. The wisdom and beauty of the message should not betray the substance of the message or be ambiguous. **Authentic:** It is extracted from the proper paradigms and is true to the Qur’an and Sunnah in word and substance. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا - 33:70 Oh you who believe, be conscious of Allah and speak words of clear truth. **Consistent:** While we ought to use wisdom in how we speak with different people in different spaces, we can’t say one thing in a Muslim space and another in a non-Muslim space. We can’t say one thing in theological spaces, and another in organizing spaces. We need language and position statements that leaders, institutions, and laypeople can all use. وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَىٰ شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ - 2:14 And when they meet those who believe, they say, “We believe”; but when they are alone with their evil ones, they say, “Indeed, we are with you; we were only mockers.” **Wise and beautiful:** ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ ۖ وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ - 16:125 Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is \[rightly\] guided. When Allah sent Musa and Haroon (*alayhimus-salaam*) to Firawn, He commanded them: ![20:44](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image3-1.png) “And speak to him with gentle speech that perhaps he may be reminded or fear His Lord.” The word *layyin* literally means to soften. Let the strength of your message come through its substance and not a harsh tone. If you employ harshness in language as a regular practice, you merely activate the ego of the intended recipient of your message and also leave them to assume that you preach from a place of meanness and harsh-heartedness. فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ ۖ فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ ۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَوَكِّلِينَ “So by the mercy of Allah, \[O Muhammad\], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude \[in speech\] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from around you…” The logical conclusion of harsh or insulting speech is the exchange of insults and further polarization. That makes it hard for the message to be heard and at times invites rudeness in return that does not respect what you consider sacred. وَلَا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْوًا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ زَيَّنَّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِم مَّرْجِعُهُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ “And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do.” Contrast this result to what Allah mentions to those who maintain composure, dignity, and noble character even in the face of insult:  ادْفَعْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ فَإِذَا الَّذِي بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَهُ عَدَاوَةٌ كَأَنَّهُ وَلِيٌّ حَمِيمٌ “And not equal are the good deed and the bad. Repel \[evil\] by that \[deed\] which is better, and thereupon the one whom between you and him is enmity \[will become\] as though he was a devoted friend.” \[*Fussilat* 41:34\] In the absence of positions that balance the above components, leaders are often put on the spot to improvise in the face of crisis. Examples of this are the Orlando statement in the wake of the tragic PULSE nightclub shooting and the Joint statement of Muslim Scholars & Imams on LGBT row in schools. --- ## Terminology and tribalism It is essential, where possible, to avoid terminology that is limiting while highlighting epistemology that is authentic. Terms like progressive, conservative, centrist, moderate, liberal, etc. are inherently politicized and don’t do justice to our theological commitments as orthodox Muslims, nor our politics (at least where we agree amongst ourselves). We also take away from the effectiveness of our unique message when we resign ourselves to such labels. With that being said, there may be times that our specific positions can be identified as “conservative” or “progressive” without us having to absorb the entirety of those labels. We not only have to transcend labels and spaces but help our societies think outside of tribal lines as well. Political tribes in America are no less tribal than Banu Makhzoum and Banu Ummayya of Arabia. And tribalism is an inherent obstacle to truth. As I highlighted in a [recent talk I gave at the IOK-Yaqeen-Qalam joint conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3Fo3APs44), people are inherently tribal but not ideological. We use motivated cognition to drive us to comfortable conclusions that give us a place to belong, and a team to root for. And the need to belong in order to find a sense of validation increases with social alienation which is a hallmark of the social media age. The society of the Prophet ﷺ was inherently at risk of fracturing along tribal lines, even after they accepted Islam. Consider when Aws and Khazraj almost split again in the midst of debating who would relieve the Prophet ﷺ of the pain caused to him by the slander of Ayesha (ra). --- ## Expanding our religious framework In his book, *The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion*, author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt builds upon research from neuroscience, genetics, social psychology, and evolutionary modeling to analyze morality, politics, and religion. The core of his work, in collaboration with his colleagues Craig Joseph and Jesse Graham, is *Moral Foundations Theory*. Haidt posits that people “bind themselves into political teams that share moral narratives,” and once they have joined a particular narrative, they “become blind to alternative moral worlds.” The chart below shows a breakdown from their perspective of the different ways that morality is understood. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image1-1-1024x652.png) The first two columns speak to what Progressives typically understand as important foundations of morality. They largely revolve around harm reduction. Conservatives tend to view the latter three columns as weighing heavier in terms of importance as they are primarily focused on preserving social order. The following chart illustrates those differences more specifically: ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image6-1024x661.png) Now the Muslim moral framework includes more than just oppression and harm. But the spirit of achieving the entirety of the framework should be from a place of concern and wanting good for the people; i.e., harm reduction in a more comprehensive sense, including in the hereafter. When the Prophet ﷺ stood on Safa with his initial call, he invoked his care for the people before Islam and desire for their wellbeing and safety in this life as proofs of his desire to see them find salvation in the hereafter. This is also how the *ummah* is a just and balanced *ummah* (*wasata*), not in that it takes centrist positions that are devoid of consequence or controversy, but that it balances all of the necessary components of society to make it more wholesome. The scholars of Islam typically [broke down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbaxbaEI7ew) *[dhulm](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DvbaxbaEI7ew&sa=D&ust=1583781436976000)* [into 2 categories](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DvbaxbaEI7ew&sa=D&ust=1583781436976000): self-harm and harm to others. Some considered 3 categories with *shirk* being a category of its own. Those that didn’t still maintained *shirk* as the greatest *dhulm* in the first category. They were greatly interconnected in the time of the Prophet ﷺ as false idols were used to drive malicious agendas that harmed the people. The same can be said of today albeit in more deceitful forms. This understanding was even new to the companions when made clear through the verses of Surah Luqman that indeed *shirk* is a great *dhulm*. In the Prophetic call, the *dawah* began with monotheism. Then came verses that spoke more specifically about *dhulm* to others. The category of *dhulm* to others which is also known as *ta’adee* includes things like consuming the wealth of orphans, female infanticide, and cheating with the weights (*al-mutaffifeen*). These were addressed in the early revelations and prioritized as things that were inherently wrong and against the *fiṭrah*. The Arabs knew that their practices were unjust, but needed to be more God Conscious in overcoming the temptation of greed that led them to corrupt and oppressive practices. All along the way, the belief and longing for the hereafter were being solidified in their hearts so that when the other forms of *dhulm* that fell under self-harm were prohibited, they were ready to make the personal commitments and sacrifices they were being called to. These forms of *dhulm* arise out of desire whereas the other type which is *ta’adee* arises out of greed and pride. Since they arise out of desire, the desire for the hereafter had to overwhelm their worldly lusts to where they can develop the willpower needed to conform accordingly. This is why [Ayesha (ra) mentioned](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/15), “If the first thing to be revealed was: ‘Do not drink alcoholic drinks,’ people would have said, ‘We will never leave alcoholic drinks,’ and if there had been revealed, ‘Do not commit illegal sexual intercourse,’ they would have said, ‘We will never give up illegal sexual intercourse.’ But Allah revealed the Mufassal Surahs (i.e., the shorter ones) until faith was settled in their hearts.” A practical example of a noble attempt to achieve the entirety of the moral framework in our time was the founding of Muslim Mosque Inc. by Al-Hajj Malik Al Shabazz Malcolm X upon his leaving the Nation of Islam. Malcolm, of course, embraced orthodox Islam, but still believed that the genius of the nation of Islam was in how it dignified its members comprehensively and collectively. To Malcolm, political oppression, social degradation, and economic exploitation were all interconnected. So as he exited the Nation of Islam, he founded Muslim Mosque Inc. just a few days after saying, “This will give us a religious base and the spiritual force necessary to rid our people of the vices that destroy the moral fiber of our community.” As Malcolm went to Hajj and became further established in orthodoxy, he prayed in Arafa that he would eliminate racism from the Nation of Islam and bring it to Sunni creed while maintaining its structure. This, of course, did not happen, and Muslim Mosque Inc. never exceeded 120 members. Malcolm then formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity which would be a broader organization that wouldn’t require its members to be Muslim seeing that it was a barrier for people who wanted to work with him but weren’t ready to accept Islam. He did not relinquish his *dawah* in the process. In fact, he openly expressed in interviews and letters that he believed Islam was the solution to racism in America, and that he hoped every black man and woman would eventually embrace Islam. He commissioned the members of Muslim Mosque inc. to be members of OAAU also and hoped that their unique commitment to the black freedom struggle and noble character would, in turn, win members over from the OAAU to Muslim Mosque Inc. What can be learned from this practical example is that in this spirit, Muslims should be so sincere in their uprightness and dedication to justice that people would naturally be drawn to the spiritual reservoir that they pull from which is Islam in its purest sense. We need to be able to draw out our *tawheed*\-centric framework that starts with belief in Allah and ends with a connection of that to everything that we do that involves only us, or the world around us. As [Dr. Yasien Mohamed writes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yasienmohamed/the-idea-of-justice-in-the-quran/), “The Islamic conception of natural justice is not akin to the secular conception in which the idea of a transcendent God is absent and the structure of nature is self-contained and independent. God commands justice, has created man with a natural inclination to it, and justice means to comply with the divine command. This is justice to God, and justice to man’s primordial nature (*fiṭrah*), which is itself created by God.” We also need to remember that not every objective of the *deen* is attained through politics, alliances, and coalitions. *Dawah* still has its priority and place. Calling people to Allah and to a better way still has to happen. *Tawheed* still remains at the core of our call. All of that which is good and bad in accordance with our divine revelation still is worth challenging society through appropriate vehicles. Our commitment to justice doesn't preclude our commitment to *dawah* and vice versa. We must both serve people for Allah, and call them to Allah while demonstrating a commitment to Islam in its fullest sense. This translates into a commitment to humanity. Imam [al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yasienmohamed/the-idea-of-justice-in-the-quran/) summarized the concept of justice in its full sense beautifully by saying, “Justice \[*al-ʿadl*\] is a term associated with equality \[*musāwāh*\]. It has various meanings, depending on the context. In the context of potential, it is an innate human desire for equality. In the context of action, it means dealing fairly with others. And in the context of the Divine, it describes the complete orderliness of God’s actions. In the pursuit of justice, man tries to be virtuous, but can only be perfectly virtuous if his outer actions stem from an inner noble disposition and character. Outwardly just actions do not necessarily make one a just human being. If the intention of the just action is for the sake of show, a worldly benefit, or fear of a Sultan’s punishment, it cannot be truly just.” --- ## Expanding our political framework Sadly, many people think of political engagement only in the capacity of voting. While voting as a bloc can be effective, it is only as good as the concrete promises, and accountability to those promises, that an elected official is held to. An agreeable candidate with whom we disagree on certain issues should be welcomed and engaged on the condition that we are not forced to agree with them or their party on those issues that run counter to our ethics. There is an option between embracing a candidate’s full platform, and not voting at all. Still however, voting has to be part of a larger strategy of political engagement to be truly meaningful and when we elect a candidate, we are not electing a savior but an elected official accountable to us. We also need to differentiate between how we engage society, vs. how we engage government. In regards to society, we lead the way in good, challenge evil in all of its forms either through political action or beautiful preaching, and demonstrate people-power through healthy coalition-building. When it comes to government, we hold it to justice, redirect crushing power to benevolence, and focus on economic justice. As [Ibn Taymiyya mentions](https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/65854/), “God will establish a just nation even if it is a disbelieving one, and will destroy an unjust nation even if it is a believing one.” Power structures are meant to be held in check, and in the case of the United States, the Muslim world is the constant victim of her imperialism. --- ## Unique opportunities Islam is a religion of divine ethics and comprehensive notions of justice. First by looking at the Qur’an, one finds hundreds of references to justice and the pathway to an equitable society. Then in the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ are the most explicit traditions and pathways to how to achieve that society the Qur’an speaks of. Indeed one of the appeals to Malcolm was how explicit the anti-racism tradition is in Islam, whereas it is derived from other scriptures on equity in other faith traditions. This was the basis of my series [40 Hadiths on Social Justice](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/40-hadiths-on-social-justice/) in which we studied the in-depth *ahadith* regarding social justice along with their explanations. We also have the works of *Maqasid Al Shariah* (the objectives of Islamic law) that ponder upon the divine intent of the divine law that we may act in its spirit. In no way can *maqasid* be used to undermine clear cut dictates, but they can be used to guide us through difficult terrain. The Shariah is meant to preserve religion, life, honor, property, and intellect. As [Ibn Al Qayyim (ra) said](https://books.google.com/books?id=SDNLCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT372&lpg=PT372&dq=%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84+%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%86+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%85+%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%87+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87+%D9%81%D9%8E%D8%A5%D9%90%D9%86%D9%8E%D9%91+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%8E%D9%91%D8%B1%D9%90%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%A9%D9%8E+%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%A8%D9%92%D9%86%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7+%D9%88%D9%8E%D8%A3%D9%8E%D8%B3%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8F%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7+%D8%B9%D9%8E%D9%84%D9%8E%D9%89+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D8%AD%D9%90%D9%83%D9%8E%D9%85%D9%90+%D9%88%D9%8E%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B5%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%90%D8%AD%D9%90+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D8%B9%D9%90%D8%A8%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%90+%D9%81%D9%90%D9%8A+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%90+%D9%88%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%90+%D9%88%D9%8E%D9%87%D9%90%D9%8A%D9%8E+%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%AF%D9%92%D9%84%D9%8C+%D9%83%D9%8F%D9%84%D9%8F%D9%91%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7+%D9%88%D9%8E%D8%B1%D9%8E%D8%AD%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%A9%D9%8C+%D9%83%D9%8F%D9%84%D9%8F%D9%91%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7+%D9%88%D9%8E%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B5%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%90%D8%AD%D9%8F+%D9%83%D9%8F%D9%84%D9%8F%D9%91%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7&source=bl&ots=o2bM4g6X87&sig=ACfU3U36p1uMJm8-zdAZOpdSthcuhS01Zw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQk4733YLoAhXBF80KHWLFB2MQ6AEwA3oECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84%20%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%86%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%85%20%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%87%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87%20%D9%81%D9%8E%D8%A5%D9%90%D9%86%D9%8E%D9%91%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%8E%D9%91%D8%B1%D9%90%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%A9%D9%8E%20%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%A8%D9%92%D9%86%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7%20%D9%88%D9%8E%D8%A3%D9%8E%D8%B3%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8F%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7%20%D8%B9%D9%8E%D9%84%D9%8E%D9%89%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D8%AD%D9%90%D9%83%D9%8E%D9%85%D9%90%20%D9%88%D9%8E%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B5%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%90%D8%AD%D9%90%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D8%B9%D9%90%D8%A8%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%90%20%D9%81%D9%90%D9%8A%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%90%20%D9%88%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%90%20%D9%88%D9%8E%D9%87%D9%90%D9%8A%D9%8E%20%D8%B9%D9%8E%D8%AF%D9%92%D9%84%D9%8C%20%D9%83%D9%8F%D9%84%D9%8F%D9%91%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7%20%D9%88%D9%8E%D8%B1%D9%8E%D8%AD%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%A9%D9%8C%20%D9%83%D9%8F%D9%84%D9%8F%D9%91%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7%20%D9%88%D9%8E%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%B5%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%90%D8%AD%D9%8F%20%D9%83%D9%8F%D9%84%D9%8F%D9%91%D9%87%D9%8E%D8%A7&f=false), “Verily, the Shariah is founded upon wisdom and welfare for the servants in this life and the afterlife. In its entirety, it is justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom. Every matter which abandons justice for tyranny, mercy for cruelty, benefit for corruption, and wisdom for foolishness is not a part of the Shariah even if it was introduced therein by an interpretation.” Lastly, we have a history of contribution, ethics, justice, peace amongst peoples, etc. that originated through Islam. We pay close attention to the systems of justice under the likes of Omar Ibn Al Khattab and Omar Ibn AbdulAzeez, the legacies of institutionalized welfare programs for the benefit of residents and travelers regardless of their claims to faith, and how Islam dealt with a changing world only by changing it for the better. As [Dr. Khalil Abdurrashid writes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/khalil-abdurrashid/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs), “Charitable foundations and endowments would become fundamental to the conceptualization and manifestation of an Islamic society to such an extent that it would become nearly impossible to envision the Muslim world without *waqf*s.” Reviving that history is on us. --- ## Unique boundaries Just as Islam provides unique richness and depth through its preserved legacy, scriptures, and scholarly works, it also has unique parameters and restrictions. As other religious groups, particularly Christian denominations, wrestle with issues of reform, it’s important to highlight Islam’s distinct understanding of the process and limitations of reform. The Qur’an is the literal word of God, not the words of men inspired by God. The Sunnah is the manifestation of the word of God in the actions of the Prophet. What is authentically narrated from the Messenger in terms of his words and deeds cannot be separated from the message itself. This already separates us from how our brethren of other faiths understand their scriptures, but there is an added level of difference in the scope of interpretive measure and that is the concept of consensus. While other faith denominations hold regular convenings and councils or have figureheads with the vested power to dramatically reshape tradition, Orthodox Muslims have no such equivalent. As [Dr. Emad Hamdeh writes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/emadhamdeh/are-hadith-necessary/), “the theory of consensus (*ijmāʿ*) holds that it is inconceivable for the entire Muslim community to agree upon falsehood. Whenever all living jurists agreed on a particular formulation of Islamic law, this consensus raised the formulation to an infallible representation of divine will. The possibility of error concerning formulations of law only existed when jurists disagreed. When they agreed on an issue, the fallibility of individual jurists was erased through the supervening principle of the infallibility of consensus. Consensus set boundaries on disagreement in the formulation of the law, and the authority of the Sunnah was outside of those boundaries. Because dissent is the norm in matters of Islamic law, it makes any consensus all the more credible and binding when it occurs. In other words, the unanimity of opinion (*ijmāʿ*)—in a religion that has countenanced in its history a vast array of differences—is considered one of the strongest proofs for the formulation of law or creed. Ḥadīth, therefore, form a necessary component of the religion (*al-maʿlūm min al-dīn bi ḍarūra*).” Essentially, *ijmāʿ* serves as our Pope and there is no changing it unless it is proven to have been claimed falsely. We do have a vibrant sense of *ikhtilaf* (difference of opinion) and *ijtihad* (religious reasoning) that has helped form the richness of our tradition, but to the Sunni Muslim of any school of thought, *ijtihad* can never violate *ijmāʿ*. Furthermore, *ijtihad* is meant to arise primarily due to changing circumstances and, to a lesser extent, new evidence. Public shifts of opinion wouldn’t influence the *ijtihad* on an issue. The point of this is to say that the role of human endeavor is far more limited in Islamic orthodoxy, even when compared to other orthodox expressions of faith. So where does this leave us in regards to the future of American Muslim participation? Some may say, well not all Muslims in America identify with Sunni orthodoxy. And they would be correct. But the reality is that the majority of Muslims in America do. And even amongst those that don’t, Shia Muslims, being the second largest group, would be just as conservative on some of the pressing issues in Western religion today. Finding an Imam that performs same-sex marriages for example in any major Islamic center in North America, Sunni or Shia, is near impossible (I personally don’t know of a single one). Now our friends and partners from other faith communities can certainly dislike and debate that reality, and groups that identify as progressive Muslims in the theological sense will certainly continue to attempt to change that, but it would simply be dishonest to say that there is any equivalent of religious progressives of other faith traditions in the Muslim community in terms of size and where they stand on some of the most contentious issues facing other denominations today. That certainly could make it awkward for those that consider themselves allies of the Muslim community and are simultaneously fighting for revisions of their faith traditions or positions that are not possible within normative Islam. But isn’t that what pluralism is supposed to accommodate? Is erasing the particulars of our differences what’s being called to, or harmonizing them in a way that we can peacefully coexist? Superimposing those religious conflicts from other faith traditions on Muslims can be both hegemonic and contradictory. Now, are we eventually bound for a bigger schism amongst Muslims similar to those faith groups? That is very possible. But those who want to engage our community and claim to be opposed to Islamophobia can’t claim to work with the Muslims and sidestep, or worse threaten the mainstream, with their policies or positions. Interfaith groups are ineffective if they exclude the mainstream of any faith. Suggesting that orthodox followers of a faith have no room at the table for the betterment of society or in achieving justice is actually a form of intolerance. And antagonizing normative Islam while claiming to be opposed to Islamophobia specifically is also unfair. As I wrote on the anniversary of the Muslim ban in an essay titled **[I am not your American Muslim](https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/opinions/travel-ban-anniversary-suleiman-opinion/index.html)**, “In our polarized politics, the liberal who limits calls of inclusivity to ‘liberal Muslims,’ and the conservative who will not stand up for the ‘religious liberty’ of a conservative Muslim both betray their own ideals. Frankly, more and more American Muslims are not willing to alter their identity to gain the half-hearted advocacy of any group that merely sees them as a political football. Just like other groups of Americans, we reserve the right to live in peace and be treated with justice just like everyone else, even by those who don't particularly like our religion.” As one of the most famous Americans in history, Muhammad Ali, [once said](https://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/06/06/muhammed-ali-i-am-america/): “I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.” This has implications for two things: conditional allyship and tokenization. The expectation of groups coming to the table is that they are allowed to come to the table in the fullness of themselves so long as they are willing to work together on the issues on the table. They can have deep theological and political differences, but a strong desire to build a better nation in fellowship. And when groups tokenize the Muslim community by choosing our representatives for us that fit their tribal political schemes, right or left, instead of respecting the mainstream, their claims to fighting Islamophobia should be interrogated. Unity is not uniformity, though those that champion the former often demand the latter. If people can harmoniously coexist despite strong beliefs about God, purpose, salvation, and scripture, surely they can learn to coexist on political issues that are of far lesser consequence to them in their worldviews. --- ## How do we work together? The life of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions provide strong precedents for how we can engage society as a minority, a majority, in peace, and in conflict. What is most relevant to our discussion is coalition building. The constitution of Madinah, the pact of Umar in Jerusalem, the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, etc. are all important, but not specifically applicable even though they should be regularly cited to show the strong inclination of the Prophet to harmony. While the constitution of Madinah guided interactions with other faith communities, the concept of interest groups didn’t exist so *qiyas* should be exercised with caution. The peace treaty of Hudaybiyyah was signed with a hostile enemy, not neighbors of different persuasions. But two important lessons can be gleaned from it as we construct our framework: 1) Islam both seeks and thrives in peace. Not only was Hudaybiya a much-needed way of ushering in peace, the *dawah* benefited tremendously from the ceasing of war; and 2) Clarity has to be maintained in any negotiation. While Suhayl Ibn Amr demanded things like “*Al Rahman Al Raheem*” and “*RasulAllah*” be removed from the treaty, there was no doubt or lack of clarity amongst the Muslims about Who the Most Merciful was and who the Prophet was. As we engage society for its collective betterment, we must retain clarity of our *deen* to the greatest extent possible. The most significant blueprint we have for coalition building in a multi-faith and multicultural society is the *Hilf Al Fudool* pact which we will soon elaborate on. Muslims ultimately seek with and of their faith two things: **Preservation of faith:** Seeking to practice without being denied the right to fulfill any of the components of the *deen*. We insist on a dignified existence as American Muslims without having to relinquish our Islam to be acceptable to anyone else. Political acceptance without religious freedom in its true sense is of no benefit to us. **Participation with faith:** Beyond *dawah,* we seek to be people of service and active participants in the construction of a better society. This should not be for the sake of good public relations, but out of a sense of scriptural imperative. If the Prophet ﷺ was described as a mercy to the worlds, how do we become a mercy to our worlds? If we are called to be witnesses unto mankind that establish justice for all, what does that look like for us as an increasingly vulnerable minority? We have to use whatever means are available to us to implement the maximum amount of change our circumstances allow us to. As the [Prophet ﷺ said](https://sunnah.com/nasai/47/24): “Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart- and that is the weakest of Faith.” --- ## Building out the framework Coalition and Alliance building: The golden rule of organizing meaningfully is to build broad coalitions around bold platforms. This means having as many partners possible around as specific a platform as possible. The Sunnah precedent of this model is found as alluded to above in the Prophet’s example of participating in *Hilf Al Fudool*; i.e., the pact of justice. The Messenger ﷺ said: Certainly, I had witnessed a pact of justice in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud’an that was more beloved to me than a herd of red camels. If I were called to it now in the time of Islam, I would answer it. Before the prophet ﷺ received revelation, a man from the tribe of Zubaid came to do business in Makkah. On his journey, he encountered a man who was from the Quraysh. The Qurayshi man asked him to hand over his merchandise and told him that he would give his payment for the merchandise the next day. There was no doubt in the Zubaidi man’s heart that he would receive his payment as people from outside Makkah respected and trusted the Quraysh. The next day he went to collect the money from the Qurayshi man who denied any knowledge of such payment. The Zubaidi man was distraught at the situation and went to all of the leaders complaining of the Qurayshi man who took his belongings. They ignored and dismissed him. The next morning he went to the Ka’aba, stood at the door, and took his shirt off as a sign of desperation. He cried out and read some verses of poetry, addressing the Makkans as a people of dignity and honor, asking how theft and oppression could occur in the city of Makkah. Embarrassed about the whole ordeal, the Quraysh called a meeting to address the situation and the youngest attendees were the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr (ra). They came to the agreement that they would stand with the oppressed regardless of what tribe they were from. There were five tribes who made this pact and they were Banu Hashim, Banu Muttalib, Banu Zuhrah, Banu Asad, and Banu Taym. There was a notable tribe that was missing from this gathering, Banu Umayyah, which would go on to reject Islam initially and fiercely oppose the Prophet ﷺ and his message. This pact was also called *Hilf Al-Mutayyabeen*, the pledge of the perfumed. They dipped their hands in henna and imprinted onto the Kaaba an oath that they would stand together in support of those that are oppressed. This was a turning point in the history of Makkah as historically Makkans were known to take petty conflicts and turn them into full-blown wars that would span several decades. The Prophet ﷺ said after Islam: “I witnessed a treaty at the home of Abdullah bin Jud’aan. If I was asked to attend such a meeting now, I would answer.” \[*Sunan Al-Bayhaqi Al- Kubra*: 12859\] The Prophet ﷺ mentioning that he would continue to uphold the pact indicates that it was still in place when the Prophet said this statement despite the fact that many of the original members of the agreement never accepted Islam. The Prophet ﷺ also made it clear that he wasn’t abiding by it because he felt compelled to but because it was noble before and after Islam. He said, “I was present with my uncles at the alliance of the perfumed (*Hilf al-Mutayyabin*). I would not wish to break it, even for red camels.” \[*Al-Adab al-Mufrad* 567\] This took place when the Prophet was well situated in power after the Conquest of Makkah. The Muslims were confused about what should be retained from theology and seemingly good things done before Islam (i.e., certain rituals of Hajj) and so the Prophet ﷺ clarified to the community that Hilf al-Fudul would be amongst that which would be upheld. This makes this statement all the more powerful because it’s easier to call upon the pact when you are one of the oppressed. However, he ﷺ was at the height of his power and maintained the integrity of this pact to make sure accountability is still in order. This pact gives Muslims a precedent for the moral responsibility of all citizens to protect the weak, speak for them, critique the rulers and the powerful, and establish citizens’ groups that advocate for the downtrodden. The Prophet ﷺ acknowledged that Muslims and non-Muslims could work together in such pacts and coalitions even if there were bigger issues that they disagreed on. The Makkans at this time maintained all sorts of idolatry, lewdness, and oppressive practices, but that didn’t stop the Prophet from joining them in achieving this specific good. He wasn’t normalizing their practices, he was addressing the specific harm of one of those practices that had tainted them collectively. The pact also teaches Muslims to embrace anything that is for the betterment of humanity in this life or the next. Allah (swt) says وتعاونوا على البر والتقوى “and cooperate with one another in *Al-Birr* (righteousness) and *Taqwa* (piety)” \[5:2\] Some scholars commented that *Al-Birr* means well being in this world and *Taqwa* means well being in the next. The purpose of any pact should be to achieve one or both of these goals. The pact doesn’t only apply when the Muslims are a minority, but also when Muslims are in a state of power. The Prophet ﷺ was not an opportunist, but instead genuinely committed to achieving a more equitable society no matter what the benefits or implications were to him. As for the nature of such pacts in our times, Imam Dawud Walid proposes the model of specific coalitions as opposed to general alliances as well in his book *[Towards Sacred Activism](https://www.meccabooks.com/1528-towards-sacred-activism-9781732258815.html)*. He lists the following reasons for doing so: - Coalition is a collaboration which is usually temporary in nature and is based upon a narrow focus of issues - Coalition partners do not have to share the same belief systems and methodologies in order to cooperate upon limited common goals - Coalition partners can be in partnership on some issues while simultaneously be in opposition to each other on other matters As Imam Dawud points out, this usually comes up specifically regarding coalitions that involve groups that also support LGBT causes that orthodox Muslims find objectionable. While some may distinguish the political from the religious, to ask Muslims to champion any right or cause politically that is in direct violation of divine revelation is unfair, unnecessary, and spiritually detrimental. Instead, Muslims should champion just causes that are of benefit to all people, rather than specific causes that may compromise their faith. This model proposed by Imam Dawud also gives room for Muslims to not be put in the position of being expected to support every cause of groups that support us and in fact find room to express opposition when necessary. What follows is a proposed model for Muslims to work in for different purposes. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image7-1024x576.png) ### LEVEL 1: Commitments to genuine condemnations of hate, dehumanizing rhetoric, bullying. Condemn violence and precursors to violence. This starts with affirming the basic sanctity and dignity of every human being. Allah says, “And verily we have honored the child of Adam.” When a Jewish funeral passed by the Prophet ﷺ, he stood up and said, “Is it not a human soul?” We then need to consider both the language we use, and the language we tolerate about other human beings. The Prophet ﷺ said: **At-Tirmidhi also related on the authority of Ibn Mas'ud (RAA) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:** “The believer is not a slanderer, nor does he curse others, and nor is he immoral or shameless.” لَيْسَ اَلْمُؤْمِنُ بِالطَّعَّانِ, وَلَا اَللَّعَّانُ, وَلَا اَلْفَاحِشَ, وَلَا اَلْبَذِيءَ }... ‏ } We speak with language that is courteous, even when we challenge those whom we disagree, and we don’t let the bad character of anyone else drag us into such a realm. Instead, we teach with our insistence upon good character no matter what we face. This doesn’t always mean turning the other cheek, but it does mean never getting into the gutter. We reject bullying in schools, workplaces, and media spaces. We reject violence against anyone in our society, and vigilantism in all of its forms. We remain reflective on our own language and challenge others to do better as well. We check hate against us or anyone in our presence when we see it, and elevate the discourse. I repeat, none of this means veering away from what is authentic and consistent as mentioned prior to this section. I’m also not referring to hate speech in the legal sense since that differs greatly from country to country and is sometimes used to unfairly stifle Muslims and others. ### LEVEL 2: Broadest coalitions possible to advance social change of benefit to everyone or that remove an imminent harm or advance an obvious good: poverty, homelessness, public education, etc. Some would say broad coalitions don’t work because they don't get to the heart of the issues. But these are the most important issues of our day and they cut across identities. Not only that, but you help people no matter who they are if they’re in the condition you’re seeking to eradicate, and don’t discriminate in that process. Political tribes seek the welfare only of their particular tribes, and we have to transcend that. That doesn’t mean ignoring systemic elements of these issues, but immersing yourself in them primarily as a member of the shared human family enables a perspective beyond politics or tribalism. This is, in fact, the purest form of *khidma* and where the majority of the community should be involved. It doesn’t require much political sophistication at all, just a high level of sincerity and dedication. ### LEVEL 3: Joining or engaging coalitions that are for the sake of social cohesion, unity, general welfare, harmony, civil discourse, and coexistence. Muslims should lead the way, not just in reconciliation between Muslims and other groups, but in pulling society together as a whole. Wherever an opportunity presents itself to remind people to see each other as human beings first instead of political opponents, Muslims should play a constructive role. We need to teach people how to talk to each other again, and we have to start with ourselves. Examples of this include Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George, who hold opposing political views on practically every divisive issue in American politics today, doing a joint series of lectures on civil discourse and the importance of protecting both the right to disagree and maintain friendship despite those disagreements. It’s imperative we bring this out of the political realm and engage welcoming cities committees and diversity and inclusion groups in schools and corporations to be more balanced, and help define both healthier parameters for public debate, and better opportunities for social harmony. ### LEVEL 4: Joining or engaging coalitions that address specific issues that are about harm reduction: criminal justice reform, police brutality, militarism, healthcare, ecological justice, environmentalism. This is where things mentioned in Level 2 are addressed at their systemic roots. This requires a deeper understanding of these issues, and a willingness to engage them alongside other organizers and groups. Engaging these issues should be done in the following 2 ways: 1. Charitable endeavors within these areas: An example of this is the [Muslims for Migrants](https://muslimmatters.org/2019/08/05/muslims-for-migrants-a-joint-letter-by-imam-zaid-shakir-imam-omar-suleiman/) campaign Imam Zaid Shakir and I launched through Celebrate Mercy in which we raised funds to actually reunite families by paying bail bonds. A group that does this in the broader sense is the [Believers Bail Out campaign](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-believers-bailout-ramadan-20180612-story.html). 2. Justice-oriented Prophetic paradigms: Be very clear that you are engaged in the issue both because there is precedent in the Sunnah to be engaged in that issue, and to the extent that the Sunnah teaches you to be engaged in that issue. ### LEVEL 5: Coalitions with Faith Groups that share concerns, commitments, or plights. Muslims have to move away from operating within the forced confines of a political identity, and reclaim our space as a faith community. As a faith community, we have religious concerns. And we share the dual burden of being racialized which at times puts at odds with the right and being religiously committed which at times puts at odds with the left. We’re not the only group that operates within this conundrum, but certainly the most visible. 68% of Latinos, who are at the center of the immigration debate, identify as Roman Catholic. The A.M.E Church, which is a historic church of black liberation with members like Rosa Parks and James Cone, is a socially conservative church that was attacked in the horrific Charleston massacre in 2015. Orthodox Jews are visible targets as antisemitism is surging across the nation. We need to do a better job of broadening our multifaith engagement to include communities that share some, or all, of our plights. As the figure below indicates, coalition-building is possible across partners as unexpected as Democrats and Republicans, Black Protestants and White Evangelicals, on issues such as the public safety net and policy frameworks that would speak to spiritual life. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image4-1024x837.png) As for the subjects of religious freedom and religious liberty, we need to engage with religious conservatives to ensure that we are not erased from that discussion. Typically, Muslims only think of conservatives in the sense of neo-fundamentalists and far-right Christian nationalists, but it is unfair to define conservatives in such a narrow sense. There are, even in the evangelical community, those who are faithful believers who are genuinely worried about losing their ability to practice their religion without government interference. Expanding religious freedom advocacy to include Muslims and some of the other groups above would move it away from either being used as, or perceived as, merely a tool of political dominance. Muslims actually do have genuine religious liberty concerns. We’re not a powerful religious group trying to dominate others, but a vulnerable minority trying to maintain our faith without any legal ramifications. And there are other groups like us who feel the same way and with whom we need to work. When Beto O'Rourke as a Presidential candidate threatened to take away the tax-exempt status of religious institutions that don’t perform marriages outside of their established guidelines, it was the collective pressure of minority religious groups that met with him privately that played a role in his walking back that statement. We need to use that example when dealing with any candidate that flirts with that type of legislation to say that it is unconstitutional and disqualifying with our communities. A great initiative furthering ties between Muslims and Evangelicals is [Neighborly Faith](https://www.neighborlyfaith.org/your-muslim-neighbor) which recently [organized a panel](https://www.brnow.org/news/greear-joins-islamic-leader-to-discuss-religious-freedom-civility/) with J. D. Greear, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and myself at NC State. ### LEVEL 6: Engaging forums that discuss the advancement of family values, wholesome morality, etc. also with authentic paradigms. The politics of White nationalism are as secularizing as anything on the left, and often cause religious groups to veer into overt hypocrisy. We have an opportunity to bring forth Prophetic paradigms that are far more consistent. Beyond just ushering in our own ideas of marriage, sexuality, etc, intelligently, I think Muslims can uniquely address the harms of the over-sexualization of the public space from our TV screens to our children's school books. We can address an age in which mobile apps exist where people shop through humans like products, and/or consume pornographic content that destroys the human psyche and dehumanizes both those in the films and those watching, not to mention its connection to human trafficking. We can call for a restoration of decency alongside others through things like the [Family Movie Act](https://www.mediaplaynews.com/parent-group-calls-on-congress-to-pass-family-movie-act-clarification-act-as-christmas-gift/). We can also address issues like poverty and desperation that lead people to prostitution, without sanitizing the institution of it. See: [https://muslimmatters.org/2020/08/22/fighting-back-against-porn-the-idea-the-industry/](https://muslimmatters.org/2020/08/22/fighting-back-against-porn-the-idea-the-industry/). --- ## Further Considerations for Coalitions 1\. Find balanced voices to work with on different sides of the spectrum. It’s not wise to restrict ourselves to one side in totality. Even if we insist on differentiating ourselves in principle, our practices, if partisan, will undermine our own self expressed uniqueness. 2\. Don't adopt others’ blind spots. We have to stay true to our own positions as a community, even if we’re in a highly ideological or partisan space. Many Americans feel the same, but often [get pulled into championing the lesser of the two evils](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=575180359561009). An example of this is the discussion of abortion which is one of the most polarizing debates in American politics today. While 55% of Americans consider themselves pro-choice, most Americans are opposed to late-term abortions except in the case of saving the life of the mother but don’t find themselves represented in today’s political platforms. See: [Americans weigh in on backing candidates who support certain abortion restrictions](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-weigh-in-on-backing-candidates-who-support-certain-abortion-restrictions/). 3\. Put pressure in the space that you are in. If they ideate in a certain direction that's positive, push it to consistency. *Example 1:* When you’re in a liberal setting, where people identify as progressives, challenge them on the exclusion of Palestine. If they talk about cages at the border, why don't they talk about Gitmo and Abu Ghraib? If they talk about policing, where are they on militarism? *Example 2:* When you’re in a conservative setting, challenge them on how they uphold morality as sacred, yet overlook regularly the frequent moral discretions of Republican political actors including the President. Challenge them on their insistence on the sanctity of the unborn that doesn’t seem to translate to born black and brown born babies. 4\. Conditional allyship should be rejected. There is no rule of reciprocity that demands anyone to politically support an issue that contradicts their conscience. We do however sometimes assume this out of our own insecurity. Don’t be afraid to articulate your positions in totality, and if someone doesn’t want to work with you because of that, they’re not worthy coalition partners anyway. But sometimes relationship building allows for suspicions to be cast aside to where you could have those conversations respectfully. 5\. Differentiate between well-meaning individuals and big agendas. Agendas are driven by economic, imperialistic, and destabilizing interests and are highly self-contradicting. It’s greed that drives it all. For example, when President Donald Trump spoke last to the United Nations, he boasted about his administration’s efforts to push for the decriminalization of homosexuality in the dozens of countries where it remains illegal. That is not out of any love for LGBT groups, but because it serves his global agenda. Individuals are usually far less complicated. You’ll often find well-meaning people who either sincerely want to support the Muslim community, or sincerely have hesitations based on misconceptions that you can rectify. Give people the benefit of the doubt and don’t automatically tie them to things that are bigger than them. --- ## Potential problems and pitfalls 1. Are we normalizing *haram* because of who we work with? My hope is that we’re actually neutralizing haram by providing an alternative. But this is certainly a valid concern. If following the *Hilf Al Fudool* model, no one bears the baggage of the other groups ideally due to the specificity of the issues, but reality can be different if we don’t do a good enough job articulating our entire framework. People are interacting with these various realities outside of coalition frameworks as is, and the proper boundaries set within coalitions can hopefully offer some guidance for people in their day to day lives. 2. Can the same person or groups really engage all sides meaningfully? Probably not, so let's not undermine anyone in those different spaces who doesn’t veer into *haram* or clear unethical practices. We also should try to be as longitudinal as possible so that we don’t get restricted to one end of the spectrum. 3. Perception vs. Reality: you shared a platform with this person, this poster was behind you, this chant in the protest, this picture seems to suggest support for this, etc. Even if we never say anything against the Qur’an and Sunnah, a narrative can be created by the optics. Malcolm insisted, just a few days before his murder, in [an interview with Gordon Hall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcQb0f8kBXbQ) who accused him of being many things, that he shouldn’t be judged by the platform he was speaking on, but by his message to the public. 4. In a coalition, how much does one organization, personality, or cause dominate the platform to where it’s only diverse on paper? This is also a very valid concern and requires careful deliberation upon each engagement. While we may be speaking to the public, we have to constantly be aware that we may be used to impart a message that is antithetical to it. Every engagement has to be considered individually. 5. What if in the process of trying to craft our space, we become marginalized within that space? My hope is that if we become authoritative enough on important issues, we can exert enough strength to stay firm. But we have to be careful not to empower a space that is bound to suffocate us. It is natural that Muslims will always feel the pressure, especially as a vulnerable minority, to advance at all costs. We have to demonstrate that not all advancement is good, and there is such a thing as making strides with your religious principles at your center instead of cast behind you. I do believe that Isolation is a losing strategy for Orthodox Muslims. Online, the echo chambers will get smaller and more disconnected, suspicion of the Muslim community will only grow, and our rights will be systematically taken away from us without us having any say about it. We need our own discourse that can be the basis by which we interact with anybody on any side of the spectrum, and that the community can line up behind with confidence. It would be ideal if we had our own theory of justice that can organize us. Until we build out our own frameworks, we risk reinforcing others even when we participate authentically. And to have a community agenda is not to neglect others, but to serve as an authentic expression of who you are. I also believe that participating in an empowering way with our Islam is a means of preserving it. If young people are not confident in their faith and identity, their sense of contribution is either removed altogether or motivated through other frameworks. The logical sentiment at that point is that the pursuit of greatness comes through breaking the shackles of Islam, rather than embracing it. Finally, we need to commit ourselves to constantly renewing our intentions, reconsidering our strategies, advising one another, and cooperating in good. I would urge scholars and thinkers to continue to attempt practical frameworks for the Muslim community to consider that allow them to both preserve their religious identity meaningfully and participate with it prophetically. This will require more forums, better working relationships, a willingness to engage the realities of our time productively, and putting our differences aside for the greater good. May Allah make us sincere and firm, guided and guiding, and forgive us for our shortcomings. May He protect us and inspire us with the way of the Prophet ﷺ in this life, and join us with him in the highest level of *Jannatul Firdaws* in the next. Ameen. --- ## Further Reading: 1. [40 Hadiths on Justice](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/40-hadiths-on-social-justice/) 2. [Muslims and the Left: Can Social Conservatives Work in Social Justice?](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/muslims-and-the-left-can-social-conservatives-work_b_597cdcc5e4b0c69ef70528a7) 3. [The Conflicted Muslim Voter And The Flawed Candidate](https://muslimmatters.org/2018/11/02/the-conflicted-muslim-voter-and-the-flawed-candidate-imam-omar-suleiman/) 4. [My Islam: Not Dogmatic Secularism Nor Religious Fanaticism](https://muslimmatters.org/2017/02/27/my-islam-not-dogmatic-secularism-nor-religious-fanaticism-sh-omar-sulieman/) 5. [Questions About My Political Activism](https://muslimmatters.org/2019/10/17/questions-about-my-political-activism-imam-omar-suleiman/) 6. [Yaqeen Institute Justice in Islam Collection](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/collections/justice-in-islam/) 7. [Towards Sacred Activism by Dawud Walid](https://www.meccabooks.com/1528-towards-sacred-activism-9781732258815.html) --- ## Examples of Service: 1. [Nurse Opens Domestic Violence Shelter That Gives Free Healthcare To Homeless and Uninsured](https://nurse.org/articles/nurse-opens-domestic-violence-shelter/) 2. [Speaking Through Service - Rami Nashishibi](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yaqeen-institute/speaking-through-service-rami-nashashibi-confident-muslim/) 3. [A Peaceful New Life in a South L.A. Islamic Community - Islah LA](https://losangeleno.com/features/muslim-community-south-la/) 4. [NY Drug Patrols - Imam Siraj](https://web.archive.org/web/20171231053046/http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200503/the.imam.of.bedford-stuyvesant.htm) --- ## Appendix I **Dealing With Conflict in Curriculum in Schools:** Imam Ajmal Masroor and LGBT Curriculum controversy in the UK: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_WgIqohR4Jo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WgIqohR4Jo) Imam Mustafa Umar and LGBT Curriculum in California:  [https://youtu.be/tYK8ADEyvlc](https://youtu.be/tYK8ADEyvlc) Interfaith Article: [https://religionnews.com/2020/06/24/how-to-pray-talk-and-act-across-faiths-without-betraying-your-own/](https://religionnews.com/2020/06/24/how-to-pray-talk-and-act-across-faiths-without-betraying-your-own/) Navigating Differences - Clarifying Sexual and Gender Ethics in Islam: [](https://navigatingdifferences.com/clarifying-sexual-and-gender-ethics-in-islam/)[https://navigatingdifferences.com/clarifying-sexual-and-gender-ethics-in-islam/](https://navigatingdifferences.com/clarifying-sexual-and-gender-ethics-in-islam/https://navigatingdifferences.com/clarifying-sexual-and-gender-ethics-in-islam/) --- ## Appendix II **The Challenge of Coalition Building: The Religious/Secular Divide:** Select quotes from the following Brookings paper: [Faith in Equality: Economic Justice and the Future of Religious Progressives](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BrookingsFaithInEqualityFINAL-4.pdf) A July 2013 study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Brookings Institution underscored the difference between the two parties. While a majority of Republicans—56 percent—could be classified as religious conservatives, only 28 percent of Democrats could be classified as religious progressives. The study found that while nearly one Democrat in five (17 percent) could be classified as non-religious, only 6 percent of Republicans were non-religious. If the decline in religion’s public standing hinders the Christian conservative movement, it also makes it difficult for progressive religious leaders to win the hearing they are seeking. It therefore hinders the creation of potentially fruitful secular/religious alliances on behalf of economic justice. This is a serious loss for justice advocates. Yet despite broad agreement on economic issues between religious and secular progressives, religious activists speak of regularly encountering suspicion and even hostility from their potential secular allies. Differences on social issues are almost always at the root of this secular mistrust, but there is also a larger suspicion of faith itself. In The Left Hand of God, Michael Lerner argues that the secular left “often sees religion not merely as mistaken but as fundamentally irrational, and it gives the impression that one of the most important elements in the lives of ordinary Americans is actually deserving of ridicule.” The association of religion with the religious right has exacerbated this tendency. Religious progressives reported finding themselves under increasing pressure to persuade secular allies that a hostile stance toward religion could still have high political costs and weaken potential alliances for more progressive economic policies. “One of our jobs post-election is to provide a strong counter-narrative to this ‘Thank God we’re done with God’ sentiment,” said Sally Steenland, Director of the Center for American Progress’ Faith & Progressive Policy Initiative. She noted that the Democratic coalition includes many Latinos and African-Americans and that those communities have very high levels of religious commitment. “So the idea that this is going to become a more secular party and still be able to win elections is crazy.” The strengthening of conservative evangelicals on the right and secular liberals on the left has seriously weakened both religious moderates and religious progressives. Referring to the “nones,” those who express no religious affiliation, Putnam and Campbell noted: “In 1973 evangelicals plus nones comprised 30 percent of the American population, but by 2008 these two extremes comprised 41 percent.” Such religious polarization has resulted in American’s religious affiliation aligning with their political inclinations.” --- ## Appendix III **Positive examples of faith-based coalitions and initiatives to study** *Author's note: Due to ever changing dynamics and the fact that I am personally no longer involved with any of the multi-faith groups I used to work with, I’ve chosen to remove this section from the paper.* ## Summary Championing the best of our faith is an obligation upon every believer, for the Muslim is called to uplift society both by conveying the message of God through *daʿwah* (preaching) and by letting deeds speak louder than words through *khidma* (service). At the heart of both lies sincere concern for people. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ first ascended al-Safa to make his call, he appealed to his known credibility among his people, as one who had always wished them well—for no one can genuinely claim to care for another's welfare in the Hereafter while neglecting them in this life. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ was already known as *al-Amīn* (the trustworthy) before revelation, and after Islam he was raised to a rank no one before or after would attain, becoming *raḥmatan lil-ʿālamīn* (a mercy to the worlds)—not merely to Arabs, nor Muslims, nor even humanity, but to all the worlds. His statement that the best of people in the days of ignorance are the best of them in Islam, provided they attain understanding, applied first and foremost to himself. As his followers, we are to kindle in ourselves the desire to continue his impact, and the nearer we draw to him in worship, service, and affairs, the more deserving we become of being called people of the Sunnah. In enjoining good and forbidding evil, we must first recognize what good and evil are according to our own tradition, then remain faithful to those concepts while seeking the best means to fulfill this noble calling. Religion is in decline in America, with many who leave citing divisive rhetoric and corruption in religious institutions; much of the religious presence in political discourse is superficial, with the religious left and right often functioning as nothing more than the political left and right "with collars." On the right, Christian nationalism has become the language of white supremacy, while on the left, ambiguous religious language is lent to fundamentally secular concepts. Hence a positive intervention of religion generally, and Islam specifically, is crucial, for religion often fails not because it is refuted but because it is deemed irrelevant or, worse, a tool of oppression—stagnation, not refutation, being the greatest threat. This is illustrated by the ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, reported in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (2361), of the people who cast lots aboard a ship: those below deck who wished to bore a hole for water would, if unrestrained, destroy all aboard, but if stopped, all would be saved. This teaches us to provide legitimate solutions to legitimate problems, lest people resort to illegitimate remedies that harm themselves and society. Refuting false ideologies retains its place, but it must go hand in hand with service, and we must resist the notion that all good ideas originated in Western thought, when much of benefit to humanity in fact originated in Islam. Our frameworks must be articulated in the spirit of reviving what the Prophet ﷺ brought, rather than forced into terminology that cannot encompass the profundity of the Sunnah, though one should exercise reservation before declaring with certainty what the Prophet ﷺ would do on matters that are not clear-cut. Drawing an instructive parallel from another tradition, Daniel Edelman writes of Orthodox Jewish social justice that "*ḥesed* is the password of the Jew," requiring public protest against oppression of the helpless. Our language, especially on sensitive issues, must be authentic, consistent, wise, and beautiful. It must be authentic in being true to the Qurʾān and Sunnah, as Allah commands, "O you who believe, be conscious of Allah and speak words of clear truth" (33:70). It must be consistent, for we cannot say one thing in a Muslim space and another elsewhere—Allah condemning those who say "We believe" before the believers but declare "we are with you" to their evil ones (2:14). And it must be wise and beautiful, following, "Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching" (16:125). When Allah sent Mūsā and Hārūn to Firʿawn, He commanded gentle speech (*layyin*), that the strength of a message come through its substance rather than a harsh tone, and He reminded the Prophet ﷺ that had he been harsh in heart they would have disbanded from around him (3:159). Insulting others invites insult to what we hold sacred, as Allah warns, "Do not insult those they invoke other than Allah lest they insult Allah in enmity" (6:108), whereas repelling evil with what is better may turn an enemy into a devoted friend (41:34). It is essential to avoid limiting terminology—progressive, conservative, liberal, and the like—that is inherently politicized and does not do justice to our theological commitments, even if particular positions may at times be described by such labels without absorbing them entirely. We must transcend tribalism, for the political tribes of America are no less tribal than Banū Makhzūm and Banū Umayya of Arabia, and tribalism is an obstacle to truth; people are inherently tribal rather than ideological, using motivated cognition to reach comfortable conclusions and a sense of belonging heightened by the alienation of the social media age. Even the society of the Prophet ﷺ risked fracturing along tribal lines after Islam, as when the Aws and Khazraj nearly clashed during the debate over the slander of ʿĀʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her). Regarding the moral framework, Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory holds that people "bind themselves into political teams that share moral narratives" and become "blind to alternative moral worlds," with progressives emphasizing harm reduction and conservatives emphasizing social order. The Muslim framework, however, encompasses more than harm, though its spirit is concern and desire for people's good—harm reduction in a comprehensive sense that includes the Hereafter—and this is the meaning of the *ummah* being *wasaṭa*: balancing all necessary components of society, not taking consequence-free centrist positions. The scholars divided *ẓulm* (wrongdoing) into self-harm and harm to others, some adding *shirk* as a third category and others holding it the greatest *ẓulm*, a truth made clear to the Companions through Sūrat Luqmān. The Prophetic call began with *tawḥīd*, then addressed *ẓulm* to others—*taʿaddī*, such as consuming orphans' wealth, female infanticide, and cheating in weights—as violations of the *fiṭrah* arising from greed, while sins of self-harm arising from desire were prohibited only after longing for the Hereafter had settled in the hearts. ʿĀʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her) noted that had prohibition of alcohol or fornication come first, people would have refused, but the shorter *mufaṣṣal* sūrahs were revealed until faith was settled. A practical example was Malcolm X (al-Ḥājj Mālik al-Shabazz), who founded Muslim Mosque Inc. and later the Organization of Afro-American Unity without relinquishing *daʿwah*, teaching that Muslims should be so upright and devoted to justice that people are drawn to the reservoir of Islam itself. As Dr. Yasien Mohamed writes, Islamic justice, unlike the secular conception, means compliance with the divine command and with the *fiṭrah* created by God, and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī notes that outwardly just actions do not make one just unless they stem from a noble inner disposition. Yet not every objective is attained through politics; *daʿwah* and *tawḥīd* remain at the core. Political engagement must extend beyond voting, for an elected official is not a savior but one accountable to us, and we may engage an agreeable candidate without being forced to endorse positions counter to our ethics. We must distinguish engaging society from engaging government, holding power to justice, as Ibn Taymiyya said: "God will establish a just nation even if it is a disbelieving one, and will destroy an unjust nation even if it is a believing one." Islam offers unique opportunities—hundreds of Qurʾānic references to justice, explicit Prophetic traditions such as those studied in the *40 Ḥadīths on Social Justice*, the *maqāṣid al-sharīʿa* (preserving religion, life, honor, property, and intellect), which, as Ibn al-Qayyim said, are founded upon justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom, and a rich history of institutionalized welfare, of which Dr. Khalil Abdurrashid notes the *waqf* became indispensable. Yet Islam also has unique boundaries: the Qurʾān is the literal word of God and the Sunnah its manifestation, inseparable from the message, and the concept of *ijmāʿ* (consensus)—which, as Dr. Emad Hamdeh explains, renders a formulation an infallible representation of divine will—functions, in effect, as our authority that cannot be overturned. *Ijtihād* is genuine and vibrant but can never violate *ijmāʿ*, arising from changing circumstances rather than shifts in public opinion, so the scope of human revision in Islam is more limited than in other traditions. The majority of American Muslims identify with Sunni orthodoxy, and even Shia Muslims are conservative on the pressing issues of Western religion, such that finding an imam who performs same-sex marriages is near impossible. Pluralism calls not for erasing the particulars of our differences but for harmonizing them so we may coexist, and antagonizing normative Islam while claiming opposition to Islamophobia is unfair; interfaith groups that exclude the mainstream of a faith are ineffective, and demanding conformity in the name of unity is a form of intolerance. As Muhammad Ali said, "get used to me." This bears on conditional allyship and tokenization, for groups should come to the table in the fullness of themselves, willing to work on shared issues despite deep differences—unity is not uniformity. For working together, the *sīra* offers precedents, though the Constitution of Madinah and the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya are not directly applicable and require cautious *qiyās*; still, Ḥudaybiyya teaches that Islam thrives in peace and that clarity must be maintained even when Suhayl ibn ʿAmr demanded phrases be removed. The most significant blueprint is *Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl*, the pact of justice in the house of ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān, which the Prophet ﷺ said, per *Sunan al-Bayhaqī* (12859) and *al-Adab al-Mufrad* (567), he would answer even in Islam and would not exchange for red camels—a pact he upheld at the height of his power, joining even polytheists to redress a specific wrong without normalizing their practices, in the spirit of "cooperate in righteousness and piety" (5:2). Imam Dawud Walid proposes specific, temporary coalitions among partners who need not share belief systems and may oppose one another on other matters, so that Muslims are not asked to champion causes contradicting revelation. Muslims seek two things: preservation of faith—a dignified existence without relinquishing Islam—and participation with faith as a scriptural imperative, using whatever means available, as the Prophet ﷺ said one should change evil with the hand, then the tongue, then the heart, the last being the weakest of faith. Isolation is a losing strategy; we must build our own frameworks, renew our intentions, and cooperate in good, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-childhood-experiences-predict-religiosity-and-doubt-in-adults # Can Childhood Experiences Predict Religiosity and Doubt in Adults? An Empirical Analysis of Muslims **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Atheism, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 5, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Apostasy and atheism have been on the rise in America in the past decade.[^1] In a 2019 survey, more than one in four Americans (26%) identified as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” up from 17% in 2009.[^2] American Muslims are no exception to this statistic, as 24% of those raised Muslim report no longer identifying with Islam in adulthood, predominantly moving towards atheism or no religion.[^3] While these numbers are staggering, they do not include the large number of Americans struggling with religious doubt.[^4] While many people have questions related to religious teachings at some point in their lives, these questions are often resolved, allowing them to maintain or even strengthen their faith. However, in other cases, religious doubt may grow until individuals reject religious teachings or leave their religion because their concerns have not been adequately addressed.[^5] Additionally, people experiencing religious doubt may also experience more psychological distress and report worse physical health than those who do not report doubt.[^6], [^7], [^8] Thus, with these concerns that religious doubts for Muslims may lead to a loss of faith, coupled with the negative psychological consequences associated with religious doubts, we investigate the antecedents and correlates of religious doubt of Muslims in America. --- ## Theoretical framework The Qur’an uses various terms to describe feelings of doubt, including *rayb* and *shakk*. While each term is unique in its meaning, they both refer to a psychological state of doubt.[^9] Religious doubt refers to a feeling of uncertainty towards, and a questioning of, religious teachings and beliefs.[^10] Religious doubt can have multiple causes and is experienced in various ways. All religious doubts are not qualitatively the same; they may be classified as soft or hard, as conceptualized by Abdul-Rahman and Khan.[^11] Soft doubts are acute and may arise from fleeting thoughts that are generally not serious threats to the person’s religious beliefs or well-being. Soft doubts may also represent minor religious questions or momentary concerns that do not cause any lingering discomfort in the individual. Hard doubts, on the other hand, represent chronic doubt that persists in the mind and may cause serious uncertainty and hesitation in the individual towards their religion.[^12] All doubts, soft or hard, are subjective beliefs in the mind of the individual, and what constitutes a soft doubt to one person may represent a hard doubt to another person (or no doubt to yet another). Religious doubt is a complex multidimensional construct, and prior research has investigated different pathways to it. Based on intensive interviews with a set of Muslim community leaders in the US, Chouhoud classified the pathways to religious doubt into three categories: (1) moral and social concerns; (2) philosophical and scientific concerns; and (3) personal trauma.[^13] Moral and social concerns include doubts that pertain to issues of religious intolerance, religious hypocrisy, gender rights and roles, and a low sense of belonging to one’s religious community. Philosophical and scientific concerns include doubts stemming from perceived conflicts between religion and science (e.g., evolution), the problem of evil and suffering in the world, and uncertainty about the existence of God. Personal trauma includes experiences with racism, and various types of abuse, including child abuse, spousal abuse, or spiritual abuse. Considering the numerous pathways to doubt, it is important to understand the factors that bolster or counter these pathways. As religious beliefs are internalized through a variety of life experiences, we consider the onset of religious doubt as the result of a developmental process. The experiences that shape an individual’s religious views span infancy to adulthood and, through understanding the process of religious socialization, we can work towards interventions that prevent the development of hard religious doubts and help individuals cope with existing doubts. In addition to conceptualizing religious doubt as soft or hard regarding a particular issue (e.g., a specific moral or social concern, philosophical or scientific concern, or personal trauma), religious doubt may also be thought of as a more general attitude of religious skepticism. Religious skepticism refers to a disposition that includes constantly questioning religious matters and searching for answers to existential questions. General religious skepticism has been hypothesized to relate to having specific hard doubts. In a recent study of religious doubt in Muslims, Chouhoud found that religious questioning and skepticism was indeed correlated with having more specific religious doubts.[^14] Therefore, we investigate both specific hard doubts and religious skepticism as aspects of religious doubt. ### Religious doubt and religious socialization Having doubt does not negate one’s belief, and people can be religious and at the same time experience religious doubts. In fact, the role of doubt in developing deeper faith has long been discussed in both classical Islamic and Western thought.[^15] Within the Islamic context, individuals are commanded to seek knowledge and perform religious actions as a means of coming closer to Allah and increasing in their conviction. Similarly, those who experience doubt are also encouraged to be patient, to find answers through seeking knowledge, and to perform religious acts, such as prayer, supplication, and reading the Qur'an.[^16] Thus, although religious people may experience religious doubt, increased religiosity is considered a means of counteracting and, in some cases, preventing the onset of doubt. Therefore, understanding the development of religiosity will help us understand the development of doubt. Prior research on religious socialization has identified numerous correlates of religiosity that are informative in developing models explaining the development of hard religious doubts. There are several religious socializers in a person’s life who help shape one’s religious beliefs and practices. The first and most important of these socializers are parents, who influence their children’s beliefs and behaviors through modeling, encouragement, and reinforcement, coactivity, and providing religious materials and experiences.[^17], [^18] From an Islamic perspective, parents may encourage prayer, encourage reading the Qur'an, engage in conversations about religious values and rules, and observe religious holidays with their children. In addition to the direct effects that parents have in shaping their children’s religiosity, they also indirectly support their children’s religiosity by channeling them into experiences that reinforce desired religious values.[^19] For example, Muslim parents may select educational experiences and peer influences that they believe will positively influence their children’s religiosity. Taken collectively, one of the strongest predictors of stronger religious beliefs and fewer doubts is the extent to which religion is emphasized in a person’s childhood by parents and other adult socializers.[^20] In addition to early religious exposure in the home and in formal educational settings, friends have been found to influence an individual’s religious beliefs and practices.[^21], [^22] Friends may influence an individual’s religious beliefs and behaviors through several mechanisms including modeling, social reinforcement, peer pressure, and sharing religious experiences and ideas. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ astutely remarked, “A person follows the religion of his close friend; so, each one should consider whom he makes his close friend.”[^23] Prior research has found that religious friends positively influence an individual’s religiosity, whereas having fewer religious friends is associated with engaging in riskier behavior, such as drug use and sexual relations.[^24], [^25] ### Personal beliefs and behaviors In addition to the influence of parents and peers, internalized religious beliefs and practices are related to the presence or absence of religious doubts. Holding hard doubts reflects a mismatch between an individual’s personal beliefs and behaviors and the orthodox beliefs and practices of their faith. Research on Christian samples has found that holding orthodox beliefs and attending church are negatively correlated with religious doubts. This implies that levels of religious doubt are lower in people who hold orthodox beliefs[^26] and who attend church more frequently.[^27] In addition to adherence to orthodoxy, an individual’s motivation towards religion is also related to doubt. People who are more interested and intrinsically motivated to practice their religion report lower levels of doubt than those with extrinsic motivation.[^28] Thus, the more personally important and meaningful religion is to an individual, the less likely they are to experience hard doubts. --- ## The present study The existing body of research suggests that religious doubt is related to early religious experiences and religiosity. However, it is unknown if the correlates of religious doubt derived from Christian samples apply to Muslims, as there is very little research on the development of religious doubt in Muslim samples. As Muslims in America are living in a predominantly Christian society and are generally not represented in the dominant culture, it is important to identify the development of both religiosity and doubt. Therefore, we build upon prior research on religious doubt among adherents of other faiths, along with the recent research by Chouhoud on Muslims, to study the development of religious doubt in Muslims in America.[^29] In this study, we investigated the existence of religious doubt and its relation to early religious socialization (retrospectively reported) and religiosity in adulthood. We consider religiosity to include religious beliefs, behaviors, and interactions with members of the same faith.[^30] The model in Figure 1 represents the hypothesized development of religiosity and doubt. The left-hand side of the model, in yellow, suggests that early childhood experiences predict adult religiosity (i.e., religious importance, Muslim friends, daily prayer, orthodox beliefs), which in turn, predicts both hard doubt and religious questioning and skepticism. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image2-1024x703.png) In order to investigate these hypothesized correlates of religious doubt, we utilize the data gathered by Chouhoud as part of Yaqeen’s inaugural project. Chouhoud’s quantitative analysis of doubt provided the most in-depth analysis of religious doubt in American Muslims to date.[^31] His study focused on which pathways to doubt were most common for American Muslims, how Muslims with doubts sought answers to their doubts, and investigated the general correlates of religious doubt using linear regression.[^32] Chouhoud found that neither age nor education predicted experiencing doubt. He also did not find a relation between the frequency of prayer and doubt. Surprisingly, he found that childhood religious emphasis was associated with increased rather than decreased doubt, contrary to prior literature.[^33] In this follow-up study, we specifically investigated the direct and indirect predictors of religious doubt as informed by the literature on religious socialization. We investigated whether variables that do not directly predict doubt are related to other variables that do predict doubt. Specifically, we addressed the following questions: 1\.         To what extent do early childhood experiences of religious socialization (i.e., retrospective self-reports of childhood religious emphasis and religious education) predict adult religiosity (i.e., importance of religion, praying daily, holding orthodox Islamic beliefs, and having Muslim friends)? 2\.         To what extent does having Muslim friends predict importance of religion, praying daily, and holding orthodox Islamic beliefs? 3\.         To what extent do early childhood religious experiences (i.e., retrospective self-reports of religious emphasis and religious education) and adult religiosity predict experiencing hard doubts and/or a skeptical disposition towards religion? --- ## Method ### Participants The data in this study come from the Muslim American Attitudes Survey (MAAS). MAAS was a cross-sectional online study of Muslim adults in America collected in 2017 by Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. The total sample included 630 Muslims who were randomly sampled and was diverse in many ways, including racial background, income, and education levels. The sample was approximately 28% White, 24% African American, 25% Asian, 12% Middle Eastern/North African/Arab, and 11% were other minorities. 36% of the sample reported income below $40,000 annually, 37% reported income between $50,000 and $100,000, and 15% reported income over $100,000. Nearly 24% had a high school degree or less, 59% reported having some college education, and 17% held a college degree. The sample was 40% male and 60% female, ages ranged from 18 to 79 years, and included both converts (26%) and those born into Islam (74%). ### Measures **Childhood religious education.** Religious education was measured with a single item asking, “What type of religious education did you receive before the age of 18?” Choices included: (1) none; (2) occasional informal lessons; (3) regular formal lessons out of school (e.g., Sunday school); and (4) regular formal lessons in a private religious school. **Childhood religious emphasis**. Religious emphasis was measured by a six-item scale.[^34] Items asked respondents to what degree particular aspects of religion were emphasized by parents, teachers, and close relatives, on a Likert-type scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (a great deal). As the survey was administered in adulthood, the construct is a measure of perceived childhood religious emphasis. See Appendix A for a complete list of items for each scale. All six items were summed to create a total score of childhood religious emphasis. **Muslim friends.** Muslim friends consisted of a single item asking, “About how many of your close friends are the same religion as you?” Choices included: (1) almost none, a few of them (2), about half of them (3), most of them (4), almost all of them (5). This variable was dichotomized (converted to 0 or 1) so that those with almost none were scored as 0 and a few or more (1 to 4) were coded as 1. **Religious importance.** Religious importance was measured with a single item asking, “How important is religion in your life?” Choices included not at all important (1), not too important (2), somewhat important (3), very important (4). Due to the variable being heavily skewed (only 12% of the sample considered religion as either not too important or somewhat important), the variable was dichotomized so that not at all important, not too important, and somewhat important were coded as 0 and very important was coded as 1. **Daily Prayer.** Frequency of prayer was assessed with a single item that asked “In general, how often do you pray *salah* or *namaz* (formal prayer)?” Choices included almost never (1), only on Eid (2), once or twice a month (3), once or twice a week (4), daily (5). This item was dichotomized so that daily prayer was coded as 1 and all other options were 0. **Orthodox Beliefs.** Orthodox beliefs were assessed by four items. Items included beliefs about the Qur'an, the literal nature of heaven and hell, salvation, and the afterlife. If respondents believed that the Qur'an is the word of God (i.e., options 1 or 2), heaven was literal, hell was literal, and salvation in the afterlife requires belief in God, these beliefs were coded as 1 for being in line with orthodox beliefs. All other answers were coded as 0 for not conforming to orthodoxy. ### Doubt outcome variables **Hard Doubt.** Religious doubt was measured by 13 items pertaining to two of the three pathways to doubt (moral and social concerns & philosophical and scientific concerns). The first series of questions asked, “To what extent have the following issues EVER caused you to seriously doubt your religious beliefs?” For all respondents who reported ever having experienced doubt, follow-up questions asked, “And of those issues that have troubled you in the past, how much do they CURRENTLY still cause you to doubt your religious beliefs?” Response options included not at all (1), a little (2), a moderate amount (3), quite a bit (4), a great deal (5). Following our classification of doubt into soft doubt or hard doubt, we dichotomized the responses as 0 or 1. For each of the 13 possible current doubts, responses of not at all or a little were coded as 0 to represent not having a current hard doubt and responses of a moderate amount or above were coded as 1 to represent currently possessing a hard doubt. Therefore, if a respondent had a hard doubt on any of the 13 questions, they were classified as possessing hard doubt. **Religious Questioning**. Rather than ask about a specific religious doubt, religious questioning is concerned with a more general skeptical disposition to searching for answers to existential questions.[^35] A five-item scale[^36] measured the degree of skepticism and uncertainty with which a person saw themselves as approaching religion and their own conviction. A summary score for religious questioning was created by adding the scores from each of the five items, with higher scores indicating a stronger tendency towards questioning religious beliefs. ### Analytic approach Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data.[^37] SEM allows for simultaneously estimating the direct and indirect effects of multiple predictors and outcomes. This method allowed us to see the interdependencies amongst predictors in order to explain the relations between constructs of interest. SEM provides advantages over regression analysis by allowing for simultaneously testing multiple relationships amongst variables. Furthermore, it allows for modeling development over time. Therefore, we can test our model of religious socialization by allowing childhood experiences to temporally precede and predict adult religiosity, which can then predict religious doubt. --- ## Results Before elaborating on the results of the structural equation model that addressed the main research questions, we provide some descriptive results that provide context about the sample and its beliefs. See Appendix B, Table 1 for descriptive statistics and Table 2 for correlations between variables. The average amount of childhood religious education involved attending Sunday school. As for adult religiosity, 82% of respondents reported having at least some Muslim friends, 60% reported religion being at least somewhat important, 53% reported praying daily, and 56% reported orthodox beliefs. Of the 630 Muslims in our sample, 55% (n = 348) reported experiencing at least one current hard doubt in Islam. The average number of hard doubts amongst those who reported any hard doubt was 3.5. Approximately 9% expressed one or two hard doubts, 24% expressed three to seven hard doubts, and 22% expressed eight or more serious doubts. Whites scored significantly higher on religious questioning (*p* \=.002) and total number of hard doubts than non-Whites (*p* \= .04). There were no observed differences in frequency of reported hard doubt by gender, income, or education level. See Figure 2 for the significant results of the structural equation model (and Appendix B, Table 3 for the statistical results of the full model). Our first question pertained to the relations between reported childhood religious education and religious emphasis and adult reports of daily prayer, religious importance, holding orthodox beliefs, and having Muslim friends. It is important to reiterate that since all of the data were gathered on a single survey in adulthood, we have a measure of *perceptions* of childhood religious emphasis, rather than actual childhood religious emphasis, as people reconstruct their memories based on numerous factors that influence their accuracy.[^38] An increase in reported childhood religious education increased the odds of considering religion important in adulthood by 24%, of having Muslim friends by 27%, and of reporting praying daily by 21%. Childhood religious education was not significantly related to reported holding of orthodox beliefs in adulthood. Perceived childhood religious emphasis increased the odds of considering religion important by 7%, holding orthodox beliefs by 9%, and praying daily by 6%. However, perceived childhood religious emphasis was not related to the likelihood of having Muslim friends in adulthood. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image1-1024x705.png) Our second research question investigated the relation between having Muslims friends and religious importance, daily prayer, and holding orthodox beliefs. Having Muslim friends increased the odds of considering religion important by 148% (i.e., a factor of 2.48; people with Muslim friends were approximately two and a half times more likely to consider religion important than people without Muslim friends), praying daily by 280% (i.e., a factor of 3.8), and holding orthodox beliefs by 186% (i.e., a factor of 2.86). Our third research question was concerned with the predictors of hard doubt and religious questioning. Daily prayer, holding orthodox beliefs, and considering religion important were all associated with reduced religious questioning and skepticism and decreased the likelihood of reporting any hard doubts. Praying daily reduced the odds of reporting any hard doubts by 33% (*OR* \=.67, *p*<.05),[^39] holding orthodox beliefs reduced the odds of having hard doubts by 34%, and considering religion important reduced the odds of having hard doubts by 51%. Similarly, praying daily (*B* \= -.1, *p* < .05*)*, holding orthodox beliefs (*B* \= -.22, *p* <. 05*)*, and considering religion important (*B* \= -.12, *p* < .05*)* were all associated with reduced religious questioning and skepticism.[^40] Religious education and perceived childhood religious emphasis did not directly predict having hard doubts or religious questioning and skepticism. However, both indirectly influenced hard doubt and religious questioning through their positive associations with religious importance, daily prayer, and holding orthodox beliefs. Similarly, having Muslim friends did not directly relate to doubts and religious questioning. However, having Muslim friends indirectly decreased the likelihood of having hard doubt and religious skepticism through its positive association with religious importance, praying daily, and holding orthodox beliefs. In turn, as previously mentioned, all three of these factors (e.g., daily prayer, holding orthodox beliefs, and religious importance) decreased the likelihood of reporting any hard doubt and the extent of religious questioning and skepticism. These results highlight that religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices are related to religious doubts. Religious importance, orthodox beliefs, and daily prayer are all associated with reducing the likelihood of having doubts and religious questioning and skepticism. Additionally, childhood religious education, perceived childhood religious emphasis, and having Muslims friends indirectly decrease religious doubt and questioning through increasing the likelihood of holding orthodox beliefs, daily prayer, and religious importance. Therefore, these factors appear to mediate the relationship between early childhood religious experiences and religious doubt. However, we caution against inferring a causal relationship, as perhaps holding religious doubts decreases religious importance, orthodox beliefs, and frequency of prayer. Nonetheless, it seems apparent that early religious experiences and perceptions of experiences predict future religiosity, which is related to subsequent hard doubt and religious questioning. --- ## Discussion This study investigated the correlates of religious doubt and religious skepticism. More than half of our sample (55%) reported experiencing at least one hard religious doubt, suggesting that religious doubt in Muslim Americans is common and needs to be better understood. One of the key findings is the importance of childhood religious experiences in predicting adult religiosity, which is subsequently correlated with lower levels of religious doubt. People who report having received more religious education and having religion emphasized in their childhood are more likely to pray daily, hold orthodox beliefs, and consider religion important in their lives. These factors all reduce the likelihood of having any hard doubt and generally being skeptical of religion. These findings support the channeling theory of religious socialization, which states that parents influence their children’s religiosity by channeling them into experiences and environments that support desirable religious values. Our results, in this sample of Muslims in America, are similar to the findings of Himmelfarb, who studied the religious socialization of Jews in Chicago. Himmelfarb found that parental religiosity indirectly influenced their children’s religiosity through other agents of religious socialization that parents encouraged, such as religious education and religious peers.[^41] Although we do not have data on parental religiosity itself, perceived childhood religious emphasis functions as a reasonable proxy of the religious values of parents and other influential adult socializers. Furthermore, the indirect effect of perceived childhood religious emphasis reducing religious doubts and religious questioning differs substantially from the previous findings of Chouhoud’s study of doubt.[^42] Chouhoud found that perceived childhood religious emphasis actually predicted increased religious doubt, whereas we found that it indirectly decreased religious doubt. He stated, “... growing up in an environment where religion was emphasized, rather than staving off doubt, seems to enhance it. In the full model (see [Appendix C](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/%23.Xi8coiN7nVg&sa=D&ust=1583421782361000)), this positive association crosses into statistical significance.”[^43] We respectfully believe that Chouhoud’s finding may have been a statistical artifact and a false positive.[^44] Furthermore, the divergent findings between the two studies may have been caused by analyzing slightly different outcomes. In the current study, we investigated the relation between perceived childhood religious emphasis and whether the individual was currently experiencing any hard doubt. Chouhoud analyzed the relation between perceived childhood religious emphasis and the total doubt ever experienced, both previously and currently. Ultimately, the current finding is more theoretically aligned with prior research, giving us more confidence in the results. This is an important distinction as parents should not believe that emphasizing religion in their children’s lives may increase their children’s doubt. However, as Chouhoud speculated, people who perceive their religious upbringing as overly strict and harsh may harbor doubts. We should be careful in future research to differentiate between harsh and coercive religious parenting (i.e., authoritarian) and warm and compassionate parenting (e.g., authoritative), as they likely lead to different outcomes. Childhood religious education predicted the likelihood of having Muslim friends in adulthood, and having Muslim friends was an important predictor of religiosity as measured by daily prayer, orthodox beliefs, and religious importance. Thus, having Muslim friends indirectly reduced the likelihood of having doubts. The effect of Muslim friends could operate in multiple ways and we cannot make any strong claims based on our data. It could be that having Muslim friends reduces doubt in and of itself, or it could be that having Muslim friends provides a support system for people to discuss their doubts with and have them resolved before they become hard doubts. **Nonetheless,** **this finding was interesting because our measure was not a measure of how religious their friends were, but only whether respondents’ friends were Muslim or not. This suggests that simply having same-faith friends provides a level of religious support, independent of their actual religiosity.** We suspect, based on prior literature, that having religious friends would have an additive effect on religiosity. This notion is supported by both the Qur'an and the advice of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who said, “A person will be upon the religion of his best friend(s), so let one of you look closely at whom he befriends.”[^45] Another important point of discussion is the relationship between religiosity and religious doubts. Although our model suggests that certain aspects of religiosity, such as daily prayer, orthodox beliefs, and religious importance, predict the absence of hard doubt and reduce religious questioning, no causal conclusion can be made as to whether religiosity causes less doubt or whether less doubt causes more religiosity. We suspect a bidirectional influence, where religiosity influences doubt and doubt influences religiosity. The relationship between religiosity and doubt may also be dependent on coping mechanisms (i.e., how people cope with doubt). Exposure to resources that are anti-Islamic (whether by accident or by choice, such as querying search engines, YouTube, or online forums and finding anti-Islamic results) will likely diminish one’s religiosity,[^46] whereas seeking out pro-Islamic resources may help resolve the doubt and increase or maintain religiosity. Future longitudinal research should be done to further investigate the causal relations between doubt and religiosity and how they vary as a function of the sources one consults to deal with these doubts. Another limitation of this study was its reliance on retrospective memories of childhood religious socialization. Substantial research has found that our memories can be disrupted by future life experiences (i.e., retroactive interference). Therefore, a person’s current religiosity and doubt likely influence how they perceive their childhood. Future prospective studies should consider asking parents about how they emphasize religion in their children’s lives, asking children and adolescents about their perceptions of religious emphasis, and measure subsequent religiosity and doubt. In addition, future studies should investigate the relations among mental health, religiosity, and religious doubt, as they are likely related. These types of studies will help uncover the causes of doubt, which are important to establish before designing interventions. This empirical study of religious socialization, religiosity, and religious doubt builds upon the now growing literature on Muslims in the West. Our findings add value in highlighting the important relations between childhood religious socialization and adult religiosity and doubt. The results provide evidence that social influences at a young age may lead to certain behaviors and beliefs in adulthood that predict religious doubt. Faith is the most valuable thing in the life of a Muslim, and more studies on religiosity and doubt are necessary to aid in preserving the *imaan* of Muslims. Through continuing to research these topics, we hope to inform parents and other agents of religious socialization about the pathways to religious conviction, so they may nurture them, and the pathways to hard doubt, so they may help people avoid experiencing it. --- ## Appendix A **List of survey questions used** ### Religious Education Which of the following forms of religious education did you receive BEFORE turning 18 years old? ·         I did not have any religious education prior to turning 18 years old  (1) ·         Occasional informal lessons (e.g., Bible/Torah/Qur'an study)  (2) ·         Regular formal lessons outside of normal school hours (e.g., “Sunday school”) (3) ·         Regular formal lessons as a student in a private religious school  (4) ### Religious Emphasis Thinking back on your youth, to what extent did the important people in your life--such as teachers, parents, or other close relatives--do the following: (1 – not at all, 4 – a great deal) ·        Emphasize attending religious services ·        Encourage you to read scripture and other religious material ·        Teach you to fear God's punishment if you sin ·        Discuss moral "dos" and "don'ts" in religious terms ·        Observe religious holidays ·        Teach you that your religion's rules are not to be questioned ### Religious Importance How important is religion in your life? ·        Not at all important  (1) ·        Not too important  (2) ·        Somewhat important  (3) ·        Very important  (4) ### Frequency of Prayer In general, how often do you pray *salah* or *namaz* (formal prayer)? ·        Almost never  (1) ·        Only during Eid  (2) ·        Once or twice a month  (3) ·        Once or twice a week  (4) ·        Daily  (5) ### Orthodox Beliefs Which of the following statements comes closest to your personal beliefs about the Qur'an? · The Qur'an is the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word  (1) · The Qur'an is the actual word of God but has some content that is merely symbolic  (2) · The Qur'an is an ancient book of history and moral guidance authored by men  (3) Do you believe there is a literal Hell? ·        No  (0) ·        Yes  (1) ·        Not sure  (99) Do you believe there is a literal Heaven? ·        No  (0) ·        Yes  (1) ·        Not sure  (99) Which of the following statements comes closest to your personal beliefs about the Afterlife: ·       My religion offers the only true path to Heaven  (1) ·        My religion is the truest path to salvation, but those who have not received its message (or received a distorted version of it) may also enter Heaven  (2) ·        Those of any faith who believe in God can enter Heaven, but not those who don't believe in God or who believe in something other than one Supreme Being  (3) ·        Followers of any religion, or even those who do not belive in God, are all equally eligible to enter Heaven  (4) ### Religious Doubt And of those issues that have troubled you in the past, how much do they **CURRENTLY** still cause you to doubt your religious beliefs? (1 – not at all, 3 – a moderate amount, 5 – a great deal) ·        Uncertainty over the existence of God ·        The problem of evil and unfair suffering in the world ·        The bad things that people do in the name of religion ·        The debate over Evolution (through natural selection) vs. Creation (through God) ·     The way that religious people sometimes insist that there is only one "right" way to practice faith ·     The hypocrisy of religious people; that is, the nonreligious behavior of supposedly religious individuals ·        The death of a loved one ·        The intolerance that some religious people show toward other faiths ·        Teachings about the role of women ·        Finding that being religious does not make one happy ·      The intolerance that some religious people show toward certain other people (for example, homosexuals) ·        Not feeling welcomed in your faith community ·        Feeling that certain religious beliefs or practices do not make sense ### Religious Quest Please indicate whether you AGREE or DISAGREE with the following statements: (1 – strongly disagree, 5 – strongly agree) ·        My life experiences have led me to rethink my religious convictions ·        For me, doubting is an important part of what it means to be religious ·        I find religious doubts upsetting ·        Questions are far more central to my religious experience than are answers ·        As I grow and change, I expect my religious beliefs will similarly shift ·        I do NOT expect my religious convictions to change in the next few years ·        There are many religious issues on which my views are still changing --- ## Appendix B **Table 1 - Descriptive Statistics for All Variables** Mean/ Proportion Standard Deviation Minimum Maximum Religious Education 2.44 1.02 1 4 Religious Emphasis 17.30 4.86 6 24 Muslim Friends 82% 0.39 0 1 Religious Importance 60% 0.49 0 1 Daily Prayer 53% 0.50 0 1 Orthodox Beliefs 56% 0.50 0 1 Religious Questioning 14.64 4.77 5 25 Hard Doubt 55% 0.50 0 1 Total Hard Doubts 3.46 3.88 0 11 *N* 630  **Table 2 - Correlation Table for all Study Variables**   ReligEduc Relig Emph Muslim Friends Relig Import Daily Prayer Orthodox Beliefs Relig Quest Hard Doubt Relig Educ 1.00 Relig Emph 0.34\*\*\* 1.00 Friends 0.11\*\* 0.10\* 1.00 Relig Import 0.17\*\*\* 0.21\*\*\* 0.19\*\*\* 1.00 Prayer 0.16\*\*\* 0.19\*\*\* 0.25\*\*\* 0.55\*\*\* 1.00 Orthodox 0.12\*\* 0.23\*\*\* 0.21\*\*\* 0.35\*\*\* 0.25\*\*\* 1.00 Relig Quest \-0.04 \-0.12\*\* \-0.14\*\*\* \-0.26\*\*\* \-0.23\*\*\* \-0.30\*\*\* 1.00 Hard Doubt \-0.03 \-0.03 \-0.08\* \-0.24\*\*\* \-0.20\*\*\* \-0.17\*\*\* 0.33\*\*\* 1.00 *Note*: \* p<.05, \*\* p<.01, \*\*\* p<.001 **Table 3 - Full Output of SEM Model**     Log Odds/ beta OddsRatio Standard Error *z* value *p* value Religious Questioning   Prayer **\-0.95** **\-** 0.44 \-2.17 0.03 Rel Education 0.17 \- 0.19 0.90 0.37 Rel Emphasis \-0.03 \- 0.04 \-0.87 0.38 Orthodox **\-2.09** **\-** 0.39 \-5.34 0.00 Religious Import **\-1.17** **\-** 0.45 \-2.58 0.01 Friends \-0.57 \- 0.48 \-1.17 0.24 Intercept 17.68 0.76 23.38 0.00 Hard Doubt   Prayer \-0.41 **0.67** 0.20 \-2.01 0.04 Rel Education 0.03 1.03 0.09 0.35 0.73 Rel Emphasis 0.02 1.02 0.02 1.03 0.30 Orthodox \-0.42 **0.66** 0.18 \-2.29 0.02 Religious Import \-0.71 **0.49** 0.21 \-3.38 0.00 Friends \-0.04 0.96 0.23 \-0.17 0.87 Intercept 0.74   0.36 2.05 0.04 Daily Prayer Rel Education 0.19 **1.21** 0.09 2.16 0.03 Rel Emphasis 0.06 **1.06** 0.02 3.37 0.00 Friends 1.33 **3.80** 0.23 5.68 0.00 Intercept \-2.53   0.39 \-6.48 0.00 Orthodox   Rel Education 0.06 1.06 0.09 0.66 0.51 Rel Emphasis 0.09 **1.09** 0.02 4.80 0.00 Friends 1.05 **2.86** 0.22 4.71 0.00 Intercept \-2.31   0.38 \-6.09 0.00 Relig Import | Rel Education 0.21 **1.24** 0.09 2.38 0.02 Rel Emphasis 0.07 **1.07** 0.02 3.77 0.00 Friends 0.91 **2.48** 0.22 4.18 0.00 Intercept \-2.03   0.37 \-5.48 0.00 Friends   Rel Education 0.24 **1.27** 0.11 2.15 0.03 Rel Emphasis 0.03 1.03 0.02 1.52 0.13   Intercept 0.37   0.38 0.98 0.33 *Note*: Bolded odds ratio coefficients are statistically significant (p <. 05) --- ## Appendix C ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/image3-1024x722.png) --- ## Notes [^1]: “10 Facts about Atheists,” Pew Research Center, 2019, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/06/10-facts-about-atheists/](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/06/10-facts-about-atheists/). [^2]: “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,” Pew Research Center, 2019, [https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/](https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/). [^3]: “The Share of Americans Who Leave Islam Is Offset by Those Who Become Muslim,” Pew Research Center, 2018, [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/&sa=D&ust=1583421782466000). [^4]: “Two-Thirds of Christians Face Doubt,” Barna, July 25, 2017, [https://www.barna.com/research/two-thirds-christians-face-doubt/](https://www.barna.com/research/two-thirds-christians-face-doubt/). [^5]: Bruce Hunsberger, Michael Pratt, and S. Mark Pancer, “A Longitudinal Study of Religious Doubts in High School and Beyond: Relationships, Stability, and Searching for Answers,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 41, no. 2 (2002): 255–66. [^6]: Kenneth I. Pargament, *The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice* (New York: Guilford Press, 1997). [^7]: Neal Krause, Berit Ingersoll-Dayton, Christopher G. Ellison, and Keith M. Wulff, “Aging, Religious Doubt, and Psychological Well-Being,” *The Gerontologist* 39, no. 5 (1999): 525–33. [^8]: Kathleen Galek, Neal Krause, Christopher G. Ellison, Taryn Kudler, and Kevin J. Flannelly, “Religious Doubt and Mental Health Across the Lifespan,” *Journal of Adult Development* 14, no. 1–2 (2007): 16–25. [^9]: Although the exact meaning of each word has been debated and requires a more thorough examination, some scholars have suggested that *shakk* refers to a wavering belief, whereby the individual is unsure whether to accept or reject the belief. It is as if someone is fifty-fifty in their belief of something. *Rayb* has been said to be a more intense form of doubt that is accompanied by anxiety and distress. For a longer discussion in Arabic on these terms, see [https://www.alukah.net/literature\_language/0/27973/](https://www.alukah.net/literature_language/0/27973/). [^10]: Bruce Hunsberger, Barbara McKenzie, Michael Pratt, and S. Mark Pancer. “Religious Doubt: A Social Psychological Analysis,” *Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion* 5 (1993): 27–51. [^11]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman and M. Nazir Khan, “Shakk (2) – The Psychology of Doubt,” Spiritual Perception, September 17, 2017, [https://spiritualperception.org/shakk-2-the-psychology-of-doubt/](https://spiritualperception.org/shakk-2-the-psychology-of-doubt/). [^12]: Abdul-Rahman and Khan, “Shakk.” [^13]: Youssef Chouhoud, “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, October 24, 2016, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/). [^14]: Youssef Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, February 13, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/). [^15]: Keith A. Puffer, Kris G. Pence, T. Martin Graverson, Michael Wolfe, Ellen Pate, and Stacy Clegg, “Religious Doubt and Identity Formation: Salient Predictors of Adolescent Religious Doubt,” *Journal of Psychology and Theology* 36, no. 4 (2008): 270–84. [^16]: Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam?” [^17]: Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Amy Arberton, Christy Miller Buchanan, Jacobs Janis, Constance Flanagan, and Rena Harold, “School and Family Effects on the Ontogeny of Children’s Interests, Self-Perceptions, and Activity Choices,” *Developmental Perspectives on Motivation* 40 (1993): 145–208. [^18]: Christian Smith, Bridget Ritz, and Michael Rotolo, *Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). [^19]: Harold S. Himmelfarb, “The Study of American Jewish Identification: How It Is Defined, Measured, Obtained, Sustained and Lost,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, 1980, 48–60. [^20]: Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer, “Longitudinal Study of Religious Doubts,” 255–66. [^21]: Pamela E. King, James L. Furrow, and Natalie Roth, “On Adolescent Religiousness,” *Journal of Psychology and Christianity* 21, no. 2 (2002): 109–120. [^22]: Marie Cornwall, “The Influence of Three Agents of Religious Socialization: Family, Church, and Peers,” in *The Religion and Family Connection: Social Science Perspectives*, ed. Darwin L. Thomas (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1988), 207–31, [https://rsc-legacy.byu.edu/archived/religion-and-family-connection-social-science-perspectives/chapter-11-influence-three](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rsc-legacy.byu.edu/archived/religion-and-family-connection-social-science-perspectives/chapter-11-influence-three&sa=D&ust=1583421782469000). [^23]: *Sunan Abi Dawud*: chapter “with whom we are ordered to accompany.” [^24]: Stephen J. Bahr and John P. Hoffmann, “Religiosity, Peers, and Adolescent Drug Use,” *Journal of Drug Issues* 38, no. 3 (2008): 743–69. [^25]: Antoinette Landor, Leslie Gordon Simons, Ronald L. Simons, Gene H. Brody, and Frederick X. Gibbons, “The Role of Religiosity in the Relationship between Parents, Peers, and Adolescent Risky Sexual Behavior,” *Journal of Youth and Adolescence* 40, no. 3 (2011): 296–309. [^26]: Bob Altemeyer, *Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism* (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988). [^27]: Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer, “Longitudinal Study of Religious Doubts,” 255–66. [^28]: Paul J. Watson, Ronald J. Morris, Ralph W. Hood Jr., Liv Miller, and Maude G. Waddell, “Religion and the Experiential System: Relationships of Constructive Thinking with Religious Orientation,” *The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion* 9, no. 3 (1999): 195–207. [^29]: Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam?” [^30]: Loren D. Marks and David C. Dollahite, *Religion and Families: An Introduction* (New York: Routledge, 2016). [^31]: Marks and Dollahite, *Religion and Families*. [^32]: Linear regression is a statistical technique that permits multiple independent variables to predict an outcome variable (i.e., dependent variable). The technique isolates the unique effect of each independent variable on the outcome variable, while all other independent variables in the model are held at the mean level (i.e., holding all other variables constant). [^33]: Some of the surprising findings may have been the result of statistical artifacts. Upon further investigation of the data, some of the variables were not normally distributed, which violates the statistical assumptions of linear regression and may yield inaccurate results. Additionally, a linear regression analysis pits all predictors against one another to explain the variance in an outcome. Therefore, this method does not allow for understanding how independent variables may be related to one another and temporally cause one another. [^34]: The internal reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) was .88 for the six-item religious emphasis scale. [^35]: Charles Daniel Batson and W. Larry Ventis, *The Religious Experience: A Social-Psychological Perspective* (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982). [^36]: The internal reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) was .79 for the five-item quest scale. [^37]: Stata 15 was used to run the model. The generalized sem (gsem) command was utilized to estimate the parameters for both continuous linear outcomes and binary (logit) outcomes. GSEM in Stata does not provide model fit parameters, so we were unable to test how well the model fit the data. [^38]: Elizabeth F. Loftus and Jacqueline E. Pickrell, “The Formation of False Memories,” *Psychiatric Annals* 25, no. 12 (1995): 720–25. [^39]: *OR* stands for odds ratio. Odds ratios express the likelihood, odds, or chance of being in one of two categories under different conditions. Odds ratios greater than 1 indicate increased odds, whereas odds ratios less than 1 indicate decreased odds of an outcome. [^40]: *B* refers to the standardized value. All standardized values have been calculated from the unstandardized SEM results. To illustrate their meaning, we can use the association between praying daily and religious questioning as an example. Praying daily is associated with one-tenth of a standard deviation decrease in religious questioning and skepticism. [^41]: Harold S. Himmelfarb, “Agents of Religious Socialization among American Jews,” *Sociological Quarterly* 20, no. 4 (1979): 447–94. [^42]: Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam?” [^43]: Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam?” [^44]: There are a few reasons we doubt the accuracy of Chouhoud’s finding that perceived religious emphasis was related to increased doubt. First, the relation between perceived childhood religious emphasis and doubt was inconsistent in his study between the multiple models in his analysis. For example, in Figure 6 of his paper, religious emphasis is not statistically significant in its relation with doubt, although its magnitude is slightly negative. Then, in the complete model in Appendix C, which includes many more predictors, the relation between religious emphasis and doubt both increases in magnitude and becomes statistically significant. As the relation between religious emphasis and doubt was not robust in his analysis, in addition to being opposed to prior research and our expectations, we conclude that his finding was a false positive, possibly due to a suppressor effect. [^45]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*: *kitab al-zuhd*, hadith 2378. [^46]: Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer, “Longitudinal Study of Religious Doubts,” 255–66. ## Summary # The Development of Religious Doubt Among Muslims in America In recent years, a noticeable increase in disbelief and disaffiliation from religion has been observed in America. Survey data indicate that whereas 17% of Americans in 2009 identified as atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular," this figure rose to 26% by 2019. The Muslim community has not been spared this trend, for approximately 24% of those raised as Muslims report that they no longer identify with Islam in their adult years, most of them drifting toward atheism or no religion at all. Beyond these figures lie the many who wrestle with religious doubt without abandoning their faith. Doubt, then, is a matter of grave concern, for it may culminate in the loss of īmān and is often accompanied by psychological distress and diminished physical well-being. It is for this reason that the causes and correlates of religious doubt among Muslims in America warrant careful examination. The Qur'an itself refers to states of doubt by several terms, among them *rayb* and *shakk*, each carrying its own nuance yet both describing a psychological condition of uncertainty. Religious doubt may be defined as a sense of uncertainty toward, and a questioning of, religious teachings and beliefs. Not all doubts are alike. Following the framework of Abdul-Rahman and Khan, doubts may be classified as either "soft" or "hard." Soft doubts are fleeting and pose little threat to a person's faith or well-being, amounting to minor questions or passing concerns. Hard doubts, by contrast, are chronic, lingering in the mind and provoking serious hesitation toward one's religion. Yet it must be understood that all doubts are subjective, so that what is a soft doubt for one person may be a hard doubt for another, or no doubt at all for a third. Drawing upon interviews with Muslim community leaders in the United States, Chouhoud identified three pathways to religious doubt: moral and social concerns, such as religious intolerance, hypocrisy, and matters of gender; philosophical and scientific concerns, such as the perceived conflict between religion and science, the problem of evil, and uncertainty about the existence of God; and personal trauma, including experiences of racism and various forms of abuse. Alongside these specific doubts, doubt may also manifest as a general disposition of religious skepticism, a constant questioning of religious matters and searching for answers to existential questions. Chouhoud found that such skepticism was indeed correlated with holding specific hard doubts. It is important to affirm that experiencing doubt does not negate belief, for a person may be religious and yet encounter doubt. Indeed, the role of doubt in the deepening of faith has long been discussed in both classical Islamic and Western thought. Within the Islamic tradition, the believer is commanded to seek knowledge and to perform righteous deeds as a means of drawing near to Allah and increasing in conviction. Those afflicted with doubt are likewise encouraged to be patient, to seek answers through knowledge, and to engage in acts of worship such as prayer, supplication, and the recitation of the Qur'an. Thus, though the religious may still experience doubt, increased religiosity serves as a means of countering and, at times, preventing its onset. The shaping of a person's faith is understood as a developmental process spanning infancy to adulthood, in which certain "socializers" play a central role. Foremost among these are parents, who influence their children through modeling, encouragement, reinforcement, shared activity, and the provision of religious materials and experiences. Muslim parents may encourage prayer and the reading of the Qur'an, discuss religious values, and observe religious holidays with their children. Beyond such direct influence, parents also channel their children into environments—educational settings and peer groups—that reinforce desired religious values. Friends, too, exert influence through modeling, social reinforcement, and the sharing of religious experiences. This accords with the words of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: "A person follows the religion of his close friend; so, each one should consider whom he makes his close friend." Prior research confirms that religious friends foster greater religiosity, while fewer religious friends are associated with riskier behavior. A person's own internalized beliefs and practices likewise bear upon doubt. Hard doubt reflects a mismatch between an individual's personal beliefs and behaviors and the orthodox beliefs and practices of the faith. Research on Christian samples has shown that holding orthodox beliefs and attending church regularly are negatively correlated with doubt, and that those who are intrinsically motivated toward their religion report less doubt than those motivated by external factors. Whether these findings applied to Muslims, however, remained uncertain, and it was this gap that the present investigation sought to address, building upon the earlier work of Chouhoud. Drawing upon the Muslim American Attitudes Survey—a cross-sectional online study of 630 Muslim adults collected by the Yaqeen Institute in 2017, diverse in race, income, and education—the relationships between childhood religious socialization and adult religiosity and doubt were examined using structural equation modeling. Among the sample, 82% reported having at least some Muslim friends, 60% considered religion at least somewhat important, 53% prayed daily, and 56% held orthodox beliefs. Notably, 55% reported experiencing at least one current hard doubt, with an average of 3.5 hard doubts among those affected. White respondents scored higher on both religious questioning and total hard doubts than non-Whites, while no differences appeared by gender, income, or education. The findings revealed that greater reported childhood religious education increased the likelihood of considering religion important, of having Muslim friends, and of praying daily in adulthood, while perceived childhood religious emphasis increased the likelihood of considering religion important, holding orthodox beliefs, and praying daily. Having Muslim friends markedly increased the odds of religious importance, daily prayer, and orthodox belief. In turn, daily prayer, orthodox belief, and religious importance each reduced the likelihood of hard doubt and religious questioning. Childhood experiences and having Muslim friends did not directly reduce doubt but did so indirectly, through their strengthening of these three dimensions of adult religiosity. These results support the channeling theory of religious socialization and align with Himmelfarb's study of Jews in Chicago. Significantly, they diverge from Chouhoud's earlier finding that childhood religious emphasis increased doubt; it is suggested that his result may have been a statistical artifact, or the product of analyzing a different outcome. This distinction matters, for parents ought not to fear that emphasizing religion will harm their children's faith—though it is acknowledged that harsh, coercive parenting may differ in its effects from warm, compassionate parenting, a matter left for future inquiry. Remarkably, the measure of Muslim friends concerned only whether friends were Muslim, not how religious they were, suggesting that same-faith companionship itself offers religious support. This again recalls the counsel of the Prophet ﷺ: "A person will be upon the religion of his best friend, so let one of you look closely at whom he befriends." It must be stressed that no causal conclusion can be drawn regarding whether religiosity reduces doubt or doubt reduces religiosity; a bidirectional influence is suspected, possibly shaped by how individuals cope with doubt and the sources—pro- or anti-Islamic—they consult. The reliance on retrospective memory of childhood is acknowledged as a limitation, since present religiosity may color one's recollection of the past. Faith being the most precious possession of a Muslim, further study is deemed necessary so that parents and other socializers may be guided toward nurturing the pathways to conviction and helping others avoid the pathways to hard doubt. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/black-and-muslim-how-chaplains-can-empower-marginalized-students # Black and Muslim: How Chaplains Can Empower Marginalized Students **Author:** Anonymous Guest Contributor **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 27, 2020 **Updated:** June 18, 2026 ## Abstract Being Black and Muslim on college or university campuses poses both challenges and opportunities. It's one thing to be Black and Muslim on a campus such as Howard University or any of the other Historically Black College or Universities (HBCU) where everything associated with being Black is acknowledged, welcomed, celebrated, and embraced. However, it’s too often a totally different experience being Black and Muslim on the campus of a predominantly white institution (PWI). Black Muslims at PWIs often experience microaggressions and oppression by other Muslim students, faculty, and staff. This paper offers researched strategies for chaplains and other academic professionals at predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) that can be a guide to help Black Muslim students find and assert their religious identity, feel comfortable as a welcomed member of Muslim organizations, events, and activities, and encourage their participation and leadership in the Muslim Students Association, all while helping them strengthen and affirm their faith. --- ## Introduction Halimah was so excited to go to the state university. Her parents had attended another state school and had told her wonderful stories of being in the Muslim Students Association (MSA), where they met their best friends. They told her about the exciting events and programs they attended as young Muslims trying to make their way in the world, the *halaqas*, the amazing guest speakers, and the trips to other schools to socialize as well as network with other young Muslims. Halimah wanted the same things. She was eager to get started, and with freshman enthusiasm, she went to the first MSA meeting of the semester. She was surprised to be one of only a few Black students there. She was even more surprised at the looks she received when she got there. Halimah chalked it up to being new and figured more Black students would attend later in the semester. That didn’t happen. However, Halimah was undaunted. She came to every meeting, but by mid-semester realized her ideas and suggestions were always rejected. Maybe it was just because she was a freshman, she thought. She kept coming and kept trying until, at one meeting, she suggested that at the next event they have something other than Desi (South Asian) or Middle Eastern food, have a more diverse menu. One of the other students responded with a snarl, “Do you want us to have bean pies?” “That’s not a bad idea,” she thought, but the message was clear. That was her last meeting with the MSA. She took her hurt feelings and started going to the Black Student Union meetings. There she was welcomed because of her race, but there were no activities related to her religion. She felt as if they tolerated her breaks for prayers, her requests for “Cheese pizza only, please,” and her hijab and modest attire. Halimah found herself  at the intersection of race and religion, as do so many Black Muslim university students at predominantly white institutions (PWI). --- ## Challenges of being Black and Muslim The challenges of being Black and Muslim for many mean you are often too Black to be Muslim, and for others, you are too Muslim to be Black. When people talk about Blacks, they are rarely also talking about Black Muslims. When people talk about Muslims, they seldom include Black Muslims. America’s intense media campaign to stigmatize Muslims has also negatively impacted Black Muslims. Black Muslims face both racism and Islamophobia. This double burden becomes a triple burden for females who face sexism too. Dr. Sherman Jackson explains in *Islam and the Blackamerican* that Black Muslims must interpret everything through the lens and prism of the real and or imagined expectations of immigrant and overseas possessors of “true Islam.”[^1] We all need to work to replace the intentional or unintentional marginalization of Black Muslims by being intentionally welcoming with  “Salaams” in the various spaces in which they engage with other Muslims. Our Prophet ﷺ said, “Smiling in your brother’s face is an act of charity.”[^2] The challenges of being Black and Muslim include often having to answer a series of questions that serve as a litmus test of their Islam. “Are you a convert? When did you convert? Are you in the Nation? Are you in the Imam's community? Tell me how you came to Islam.” Layla Abdullah-Poulos, founder of Native-Born American (NbA) Muslims, a blog on Patheos, addressed this issue in a 2018 Facebook post, “I am just done with immigrant/immigrant-descent Muslims having the audacity of thinking not only are they the authority on Islam but also the arrogance of thinking NbA Muslims (African American, Native American, Latino American, & European American) should ‘stand and deliver’ their deen by answering a bunch of asinine questions. ‘Are you on the Sunnah?’ ‘Do you know the prophets? Man, you and your dumb questions.” She expresses the frustration of countless Native-born American Muslims who feel they have to always prove themselves when confronted by someone who feels their “Islam” has more power or authenticity. The challenge of being Black and Muslim is also prevalent in death. Have you heard of Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein? This 15-year-old almost had his legs severed in 2014 when a man whom Kansas City locals said had been harassing the community with anti-Islamic taunts and violent threats swerved his car and plowed into the boy.[^3] Many called it a hate crime, but his death and the circumstances behind it didn't achieve national attention. Just another young Black man dead, his name added to the statistics. The following year in Chapel Hill, the horrific murder of Deah Barakat, Yusor and Razan Abu-Salha made international headlines. Muslims around the world knew their names. A year later, in 2016, three young Black men—two of whom were Muslim—were shot dead in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Noor Rostoum, president of the NYU MSA, was preparing to speak at a campus vigil. As he developed his remarks, he was approached by members of his community, asking why the MSA had chosen to mourn these lives.[^4] Do Black Muslim lives matter? If South Asian or Arab Muslims don’t sanction the event, the message being sent is that it must not be Islamic. This again speaks to an unspoken totem pole of priority within the Muslim community. Alaina Morgan, a lawyer and Ph.D. candidate at NYU studying the history of Black Muslims in the African diaspora, said there’s a “hierarchy of authority and authenticity within Islam.”[^5] “Even among African-Americans who converted to Islam, they have historically looked at the Middle East and North Africa as a source of authority,” she said. “South Asian and Arab imams are looked at as more authentic.”[^6] In that hierarchy of authority and authenticity, Blacks are nowhere to be found on the totem pole. In life and death, Arab and South Asian Muslim lives seem to matter far more than the lives of Black Muslims.[^7] These values have financial consequences, as well. Deah’s fundraiser for dental supplies for Syrian refugees went from $20,000 before his death to $380,000 after his death. In contrast, when Black Muslims are murdered, families struggle to pay the bills.[^8] When a Pittsburgh Synagogue was attacked in 2018, Muslim organizations raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the victims and survivors. They raised none for the two Black people who were killed the same week in a Kentucky grocery store by a white man who first went to a Black church, but the doors were locked. He then went to the Kroger and shot Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones. Donna Auston, a Ph.D. Candidate, and Black Muslim, organized a fundraiser for them, raising $50,000. Again, do Black lives matter? Do Black Muslim lives matter? Are they valuable? Apparently, many think not. Many behave as if Black Muslim lives do not matter. Life for Black Muslims is bifurcated into a war fought on two fronts: a battle with one's community to be seen and respected as well as a battle to resist targeted state and vigilante violence.[^9] The challenge of being Black and Muslim begins with the problem of just being Black in America. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois wrote about it at the turn of the century, “One ever feels his twoness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”[^10] Writer and activist James Baldwin said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” When the Black man interacts with the broader Muslim community, he brings this conflicting sense of self with him. It may be better as a Muslim, and in some sense, it can get worse. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.[^11] Black Muslims, in many ways, have exchanged a white oppressor (expressions of white supremacy) for an immigrant oppressor (the presumed source of “authentic Islam”) in the name of Allah. Black Muslims see themselves through the eyes of immigrant Muslims. It is a world they desperately want to be a part of but that, too many times, excludes them. Being a Black Muslim within American Muslim communities means learning to navigate the precarious intersection of two marginalized groups, simultaneously fighting for the respect of their Muslim peers and safety within a national system of violence.[^12] College and university chaplains have the unique and exceptional job of expressing our willingness as scholars to become a community that, however imperfectly, strives to create a welcoming, equitable, inclusive, and engaged academic climate.[^13] When Muslim students walk on our campus, they are accosted by Christian privilege. This privilege is defined as “the conscious and subconscious advantages often afforded to the Christian faith in America’s colleges and universities.”[^14] It is reflected in the university calendar and time off; food; holidays, celebration and worship; space; curriculum and language; the secularization of Christianity; and safety. Yoruba T. Mutakabbir and Tariqah A. Nurridin explain Muslim students may encounter: [^15] - a Eurocentric curriculum - dietary limits (no pork, alcohol) - a school calendar which may conflict with Muslim holidays - lack of a physical prayer space on campus - classes that conflict with prayer times - threats/harassment/student intimidation. How do chaplains make it easy for Muslim students to exist in this environment? When we serve Muslim students, we decry the unrighteousness of discrimination, racism, imperialism, privilege, and exclusivity that is found in the academy and the nation. We oversee human interaction by the young and inquisitive, the adventurous, the vulnerable, the wondering, the woke, the confused, the know-it-alls, the I-really-don’t-know, and the you-fill-in-the-blank from your experiences. We aid those with faith crises, those who yearn for more meaning in their lives beyond a good job, house, and family, as well as those who hunger to know God and all that He can mean in their lives. We are a lamppost in a very dark alley for some and a warm, caring reminder for others. We have the privilege of working with young people making some of the most important decisions of their lives as college students, from determining their future careers to embracing their need to find their religious identity to discerning their deepest values and what Sharon Daloz Parks has called their “worthy dreams”: “an imagination of self as adult in a world that honors the potential of the young adult soul.”[^16] Supporting students, faculty, and staff during moments of personal and spiritual development has always been an explicit role of college chaplains. From cultural-immersion pilgrimages where chaplains accompany students through deeply transformational experiences to the daily work of reminding individuals and institutions of their higher calling, to responding with grace in moments of crisis, chaplains enrich the lives of their communities.[^17] I believe chaplains are best qualified and suited to assist Black Muslim students in their quests for acceptance, recognition, freedom, justice, and equality at PWIs. The following are my recommendations to help chaplains be successful in this effort. --- ## Recommendations 1. Encourage students’ spiritual development by inviting them to the campus dedicated prayer space that allows for the five daily prayers, Jummah, *halaqas*, workshops, Eid celebrations, Ramadan *iftars*, and more. Give them a personal invitation. In that space, invite Black guest speakers but *not just during Black History Month*. If you need a list of more-than-qualified *khateebs*, I would be happy to share that with you. Jummah khutbahs at Howard University are 99% given by Black Imams. Also, do not have a Black History Month event and only have White speakers. *Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives*[^18] explains that “spiritual growth enhances other college outcomes, such as academic performances, psychological well-being, leadership development and satisfaction with college.” It’s important to understand this as many students are struggling to find themselves, who they are away from their family, away from the structures of home. This becomes even more challenging when you are Black and Muslim and feel unwanted. Having Black *khateebs* do Jummah and speak at other events empowers the Black students; representation matters. It also shows other students the value of Black imams and Islamic scholars. All of this will help students excel in other areas of campus life as well. 2\. Establish an environment that allows students to create their own identity as Muslims and not just replicas of immigrant Muslims. Many are looking for something concrete and real, independent of stereotypes of Muslims seen in the media. What does it mean to be Black and Muslim? What does it mean to be African and Muslim? What does it mean to be Caribbean and Muslim? What does it mean to be Afro Latino or Afro Latina and Muslim? Christian Smith explains in Soul Searching:  The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers [^19] Three “dimensions” (or clusters of actions) a congregation might provide in engaging teenagers to grow spiritually and acquire valuable knowledge, abilities, and contacts include Moral Order, Learned Competencies, Social and Organizational Skills. For Black students, these three factors are essential for them but difficult to achieve if they feel isolated and marginalized from the larger group. There have to be both informal and formal invitations for these students to be a part of the group. Make real connections with students by talking to them individually. Check on them when you don’t see them at events. Just sending a flyer or posting invites may attract some but not others. Reach out with a personal connection. The Black Muslim students on the fringes may need additional support and incentives. Chaplains can play a crucial role in making this happen. Once a part of the group, students can quickly learn moral order and learning competencies. The development of social and organizational skills should include having Black students in leadership roles. They will bring a different perspective to what's being done. It will empower them and shatter any stereotypes that Black Muslims are ill-suited to lead. 3\. Create a space with activities that allow students to learn together in Islam. A bonding takes place.  Some may be on varying levels, but have “each one teach one.” Mark DeVries suggests that developing an “emotionally healthy schedule” is suitable for our work and ministry.[^20]  I believe this is also good for the students.  If they have an “emotionally healthy schedule” that allows them to be an integral part of the group of Muslims on campus, that will enable them to learn together as Muslims. This schedule can include *halaqas* (study circles) on Tuesdays, Jummah on Fridays, MSA meetings the first Thursday, social activities every other Friday repeating every week and every month. The focal point, if possible, is the prayer space, which can be a gathering spot. It allows the other students to also develop “emotionally healthy schedules” by seeing the value of including the Black students. Both groups learn the importance of working together and leave college with skills that are transferable to *masjid* leadership. Students come with varying levels of Islamic knowledge and can significantly benefit from learning from each other. Make each student where possible responsible for teaching another student. It allows the group to learn together and creates social skills that will last a long time. Follow the example of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he migrated to Yathrib, now Medina. The early Muslims came with nothing but their faith in Allah. Prophet Muhammad paired the migrants with the believers of Yathrib. This foundation of brotherhood established by the Prophet ﷺ was based on mutual economic and psychological support and the principle of being inheritors of one another, which in turn provided the migrants with support to get over the sorrow and misery they felt because of homesickness.[^21] |Establish Islamic study circles that pair new students with a current student to exchange learning. Help Black Muslim students overcome the sorrow and misery that many experience being at a PWI. 4\. Have diverse representations of culture like food, *nasheeds* (music), and spoken-word artists at events that represent the heritage of all the students, not just Middle Eastern or South Asian, just because people think that’s considered “Islamic.” Dr. Adair Lummis wants religious life professionals to understand that youth are an increasingly changing diverse population: > There is no one-size-fits-all youth culture anymore. That *did* exist in the first two waves of youth culture. But, likely, it will never exist again. There was a day in the not-too-distant past when the average high school entirely revolved around football players and cheerleaders. Today’s high schools…are a goulash of subcultures…The splintering of youth culture has created a huge methodological quagmire for youth workers, especially those steeped in ‘the right program is the answer’ thinking.”[^22] Is there really a ‘right program’? You’re on the wrong path if you think one program will suit all students. This is important to consider when MSAs want only to serve cultural food they believe to be Islamic or that represents one area of the planet to the exclusion of the other diverse representations of Islam around the globe. Have pizza to solve this problem, have wings and fries to solve this problem, but just serving South Asian food or Middle Eastern food can be seen as a microaggression by students from diverse backgrounds. Consider the *nasheeds* (vocals with percussion) by Native Deen, the spoken word of Amir Suleiman and/or Brother Ali.  One menu does not suit all. 5. Allow students to develop a positive identity of who they are as Muslims by encouraging them to get involved in all aspects of campus life, including interfaith activities. Dr. Adair Lummis, from Hartford Seminary, explains in a lecture that,  for teenagers in the 21st century, studies indicate that socio-economic situation, race, ethnicity, birth country, parental household dynamics, family religious involvement and other youth with whom they encounter in school, congregation, or neighborhood may variously contribute to their religious beliefs and future congregational participation. Teenagers go to schools in the majority where students are from different religions, denominations, have no specific religious affiliation, or are atheists, and so will be hearing other viewpoints. Also important, many teenagers will become involved in sports, clubs, and social events outside their congregation, which will take their time and interests in directions other than religious observance and learning. The welcoming MSA can become an escape from the real world where Black students just stay to themselves when they experience racism from other students on campus. They can develop a lower sense of self-worth and become vulnerable to outside influences. Many Muslim students also want to explore and get involved in different areas on campus but the sting of racism can be repulsive. The MSA may be their starting point, but chaplains can encourage them to get involved in other activities like student government, interfaith groups, and alternative spring break. Chaplains can take note of the interactions between students and encourage other students to make room for the Black Muslims who may be feeling left out. Together, they all can be encouraged to become involved in a variety of activities on campus. These students live in a very diverse world, and what they learn on campus is what they take with them to live off-campus. At Howard University, I’m always on the lookout for the student who looks lost or left out. I find ways to include them in what we are doing. I also suggest activities for them to get involved with, activities that they might not have considered. 6\. Encourage the development of good relationships between Muslim students, faculty, and staff. Dr. Lummis explains, “We can no longer expect that young adults will come through the doors of congregations on their own. Instead, we must make it a priority to go beyond our walls to engage this generation and co-create truly thriving communities of faith.”[^23] Students can easily get lost in the challenges of life on campus. Halima felt she had nowhere to turn. She just drifted away from the MSA and gravitated to the BSU. This challenge can have a positive side. The experience with Halima at the BSU can be educational for many students. She exposed other Black students to Islam who may never have interacted with a Muslim student on a social and cultural level. *Alhamdullilah*. That’s a win in dispelling myths and stereotypes about Muslims. However, if there was a Muslim Chaplain who took notice of her being absent from events, that person could have reached out to her to encourage and engage her to be a part of another truly thriving community. After a conversation with her, the chaplain could also involve the MSA leadership to be more welcoming to Halima and other students like her or others who feel marginalized. We have white converts and immigrant Muslims at Howard University, and I make special efforts to ensure their inclusion in all that we do. 7\. Help the students build brotherhood and sisterhood with appropriate activities that can also involve faculty and staff as mentors. Vern L. Bengtson[^24] contends that youth are most influenced (in regard to faith transmission) by their own immediate family, parents, and grandparents. It’s critical also to have intergenerational activities that focus on the family as a unit. On-campus, the people students interact with can become like family. These adults are in the best positions to make Black Muslim students feel welcomed and a part of the community. They can model as parents often do appropriate behavior. They can help students navigate the challenges of making room in their assemblies for others. At Howard, our Jummah service is a mix of students, faculty, and staff who are also involved in other MSA events. 8\. Connect students with the off-campus community that surrounds them and find ways for the students to engage in community service. Damon Mayrl and Freeden Oeur [^25] explain that “the best activities to strengthen students’ level of Religious Commitment include engaging in volunteer work, donating money to charity, joining a campus religious organization, and discussing religion with peers, faculty, or staff.”  Encouraging all Muslim students to be a part of the Muslim Students Association can help create the best activities to strengthen students' level of religious commitment. Students can suggest community service projects like feeding the homeless, mentoring and tutoring, and much more. All students can feel welcomed by the inclusion of their ideas and suggestions. At Howard, the MSA worked with the MSAs at Georgetown, George Washington, American, George Mason Universities, and the University of Maryland to produce backpacks for the homeless that included toiletries that they collected on campus. This event brought a diverse group of Muslim students together for a most worthy cause. --- ## Conclusion The problems Black students face regarding racism do not disappear as soon as they step foot on any main campus USA. Nooses have been found on colleges around the country like American University, the University of Maryland, Kansas State University, and Amherst College, to name a few. Under the hashtag #feartheturtle, Black students detailed the racism they experienced at the University of Maryland. Tweets include the following: > *my first week in college park a white kid told me at a party that Obama was a monkey & that all black girls were ugly [#FearTheTurtle](https://twitter.com/hashtag/FearTheTurtle?src%3Dhash)* > *I left McKeldin after studying for my Chinese final. I got pulled over by campus police. “Why am I getting pulled over, sir?” “You looked out of place. Where are you coming from?”[#FearTheTurtle](https://twitter.com/hashtag/FearTheTurtle?src%3Dhash)* These are the experiences of Black students at the prestigious University of Maryland. What is it like for Black Muslims? Jamillah is a graduate of Howard University and is now in grad school at the University of Maryland. She frequently comes to Howard for Jummah and other MSA social events. When I asked her about her involvement with the MSA there, she explained it was a painful experience. She wanted to get involved with police brutality issues but was told that was “unIslamic,” and they were only concerned with Palestine and Syria. In their minds, the issues facing Black Muslims are dismissed as un-Islamic. Back to the totem pole of priority and authority. However, for Black Muslims and other Muslims, addressing police brutality most definitely is Islamic. Much of a chaplain’s work focuses on supporting students, colleagues, and institutional life in ways that those we care for may not even be aware of.[^26] Black and Muslim students often want and need a chaplain to intervene on their behalf to make college life more meaningful and beneficial. Our work as chaplains places us at the intersections of tradition and innovation, secularity and the sacred, and in some ways, hope and despair.[^27] Always choose hope. Black Muslim students desperately need a chaplain to intervene on their behalf, and these recommendations can help chaplains accomplish this divine task. --- ## Notes [^1]: Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), loc. 172–73, Kindle. [^2]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*: no. 1970, declared authentic by al-Albani. [^3]: Joanna Walters, “Community Mourns Somali Muslim Teen's Death in Kansas City Hate Crime,” *The Guardian*, December 06, 2014, [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/06/community-mourns-somali-muslim-death-in-kansas-city-hate](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/06/community-mourns-somali-muslim-death-in-kansas-city-hate). [^4]: Omar Etman, “For Black Muslim Students, a Two-Pronged Fight for Solidarity,” PBS, August 13, 2016, [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/black-muslim-college-students-issue-call-allies](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/black-muslim-college-students-issue-call-allies). [^5]: Etman, “Two-Pronged Fight.” [^6]: Etman, “Two-Pronged Fight.” [^7]: Khaled A. Beydoun, “The Colour of Muslim Mourning,” Al Jazeera, February 15, 2015, [https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/colour-muslim-mourning-150215065825362.html](https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/colour-muslim-mourning-150215065825362.html). [^8]: Beydoun, “Colour of Muslim Mourning.” [^9]: Muna Mire, “Towards a Black Muslim Ontology of Resistance,” *New Inquiry*, April 25, 2015, [https://thenewinquiry.com/towards-a-black-muslim-ontology-of-resistance/](https://thenewinquiry.com/towards-a-black-muslim-ontology-of-resistance/). [^10]: W. E. B. Du Bois, *The Souls of Black Folks* (New York: Pocket Books, 2005). [^11]: Du Bois, *Souls of Black Folks*. [^12]: Etman, “Two-Pronged Fight.” [^13]: Lucy A. Forster-Smith, *College & University Chaplaincy in the 21st Century: A Multifaith Look at the Practice of Ministry on Campuses across America* (Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths, 2013), loc. 87–89, Kindle. [^14]: Tricia Seifert, “Understanding Christian Privilege: Managing the Tensions of Spiritual Plurality,” *About Campus* 12, no. 2 (2007), 10–17, [https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.206](https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.206). [^15]: Yoruba T. Mutakabbir and Tariqah A. Nuriddin, *Religious Minority Students in Higher Education* (New York: Routledge, 2016). [^16]: Forster-Smith, *College & University Chaplaincy*, loc. 161–64. [^17]: Forster-Smith, *College & University Chaplaincy*, loc. 167. [^18]: Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, *Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives* (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011). [^19]: Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, *Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). [^20]: Mark DeVries, *Sustainable Youth Ministry: Why Most Youth Ministry Doesn't Last and What Your Church Can Do About It* (Surry Hills, NSW, Australia: Read How You Want, 2010). [^21]: “Brotherhood Established Between Migrants and the Ansar,” Questions on Islam, [www.questionsonislam.com/article/brotherhood-established-between-migrants-and-ansar](http://www.questionsonislam.com/article/brotherhood-established-between-migrants-and-ansar). [^22]: Adair Lummis, “Tackling Youth Issues” (lecture, Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT, January 1, 2017). [^23]: Lummis, “Tackling Youth Issues.” [^24]: Vern L. Bengtson, *Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down Across Generations* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 203. [^25]: Damon Mayrl and Freeden Oeur, “Religion and Higher Education: Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 48, no. 2 (2009), [doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2009.01446.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2009.01446.x). [^26]: Forster-Smith, *College & University Chaplaincy*, loc. 199–200. [^27]: Forster-Smith, *College & University Chaplaincy*, loc. 188–189. ## Summary Being Black and Muslim upon the campuses of predominantly white institutions (PWIs) presents a reality marked by both trial and opportunity, and it is upon the shoulders of college chaplains and academic professionals that much responsibility falls to ease this burden. While a Historically Black College or University such as Howard University celebrates and embraces all that is associated with Blackness, the experience at a PWI is frequently the opposite, where Black Muslim students too often endure microaggressions and marginalization at the hands of fellow Muslim students, faculty, and staff. The story of Halimah illustrates this affliction plainly: a young woman who entered university eager to join the Muslim Students Association (MSA) as her parents once did, only to find herself among the very few Black students present, her suggestions repeatedly dismissed, until a mocking response to her request for diverse food drove her away entirely. She retreated to the Black Student Union, where her race was welcomed but her faith merely tolerated, leaving her stranded at the intersection of race and religion. The predicament of the Black Muslim is that one is often deemed "too Black to be Muslim" and by others "too Muslim to be Black." When people speak of Blacks, Black Muslims are rarely intended; when they speak of Muslims, Black Muslims are seldom included. Thus they bear the double burden of racism and Islamophobia, and for women this becomes a triple burden with the addition of sexism. Dr. Sherman Jackson, in *Islam and the Blackamerican*, explains that Black Muslims are made to interpret everything through the lens of the real or imagined expectations of immigrant and overseas possessors of a "true Islam." Against this marginalization, the noble words of our Prophet ﷺ stand as a corrective and a reminder of our duty: "Smiling in your brother's face is an act of charity" (recorded in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, no. 1970, and declared authentic by al-Albānī). Deliberate welcome and the offering of *salām* in shared Muslim spaces are among the means to replace this exclusion. Part of this trial is the interrogation Black Muslims routinely face—a litmus test of their Islam: "Are you a convert? Are you in the Nation? Tell me how you came to Islam." Layla Abdullah-Poulos, founder of the Native-Born American (NbA) Muslims blog, gave voice to this frustration in a 2018 post, decrying immigrant and immigrant-descent Muslims who presume themselves the authority on Islam and demand that native-born Muslims "stand and deliver" their *dīn* by answering demeaning questions. This affliction extends even into death. The killing of fifteen-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein in Kansas City in 2014, struck by a man said to have harassed the community with anti-Islamic threats, drew no national attention, while the murders of Deah Barakat, Yusor and Razan Abu-Salha in Chapel Hill the following year became international news known to Muslims across the world. In 2016, three young Black men, two of them Muslim, were shot dead in Fort Wayne, and when Noor Rostoum, president of the NYU MSA, prepared to speak at a vigil, members of his community questioned why the MSA had chosen to mourn these lives at all. This disparity reflects what Alaina Morgan, a scholar of Black Muslim history in the African diaspora, called a "hierarchy of authority and authenticity within Islam," in which even African-American converts have historically looked to the Middle East and North Africa as the source of authority, and South Asian and Arab imams are regarded as more authentic—while Blacks find no place on this totem pole. The consequences are even material: Deah Barakat's fundraiser rose from twenty thousand to three hundred eighty thousand dollars after his death, while Black Muslim families struggle to bury their dead. When a Pittsburgh synagogue was attacked in 2018, Muslim organizations raised vast sums, yet raised nothing for Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones, two Black people murdered that same week in a Kentucky grocery store; it was Donna Auston, a Black Muslim doctoral candidate, who organized a fundraiser that gathered fifty thousand dollars for them. The trial begins, however, with the mere condition of being Black in America. W. E. B. Du Bois, in *The Souls of Black Folk*, described this "twoness" and "double-consciousness," the sense of always measuring one's soul through the eyes of a contemptuous world. When the Black Muslim enters the broader Muslim community, he carries this conflicted self with him, and in some respects it worsens, for—as is argued—Black Muslims have in many ways exchanged a white oppressor for an immigrant oppressor presumed to be the source of "authentic Islam," done in the very name of Allah. To be Black and Muslim in America thus means fighting on two fronts: for respect within one's own community and for safety within a national system of violence. It is precisely here that the chaplain's calling becomes indispensable. Muslim students already contend with what has been termed "Christian privilege"—reflected in the academic calendar, food, holidays, prayer space, curriculum, and safety—and encounter, as Mutakabbir and Nuriddin note, a Eurocentric curriculum, dietary limits, calendar conflicts, absence of prayer space, class times conflicting with prayer, and harassment. The chaplain stands as "a lamppost in a very dark alley," aiding those in faith crises and those seeking their religious identity and their "worthy dreams," as Sharon Daloz Parks phrased it. For these reasons, chaplains are best suited to assist Black Muslim students in their quest for acceptance, recognition, and justice. Several recommendations follow toward this end. First, encourage spiritual development by personally inviting students into the prayer space for the five prayers, Jumuʿah, *ḥalaqāt*, and celebrations, and by inviting Black speakers and *khaṭībs*—not merely during Black History Month—since representation matters and, as *Cultivating the Spirit* notes, spiritual growth enhances academic and personal outcomes. Second, establish an environment in which students form their own identity as Muslims rather than replicas of immigrant Muslims, drawing on Christian Smith's dimensions of moral order, learned competencies, and social skills, and placing Black students in leadership. Third, create shared spaces of learning through an "emotionally healthy schedule," following the Prophet's ﷺ example in Medina of pairing the Muhājirūn with the Anṣār in bonds of mutual support that eased the migrants' sorrow and homesickness. Fourth, offer diverse cultural representation in food and *nashīd*, for—as Dr. Adair Lummis observes—there is no single youth culture and no single program that suits all; serving only South Asian or Middle Eastern fare can itself be a microaggression. Fifth, encourage involvement across campus life, including interfaith activities, lest the MSA become merely an escape from racism. Sixth, foster good relationships among students, faculty, and staff, reaching beyond the walls to engage students as Halimah was never engaged. Seventh, build brotherhood and sisterhood through intergenerational activities, since Vern Bengtson holds that youth are most influenced in faith by family, and campus elders can serve in that role. Eighth, connect students with community service, which Mayrl and Oeur identify among the strongest strengtheners of religious commitment, as when Howard's MSA joined other universities to assemble backpacks for the homeless. The racism Black students face does not vanish upon entering campus, as nooses found at several universities and the testimonies gathered under the hashtag #FearTheTurtle attest. Jamillah, a Howard graduate now at the University of Maryland, found her MSA involvement painful, told that her concern for police brutality was "unIslamic" while only Palestine and Syria mattered—yet, as is argued here, addressing police brutality most certainly is Islamic. The chaplain's work, much of it unseen, places one at the intersection of tradition and innovation, the sacred and the secular, hope and despair. Black Muslim students need a chaplain to intervene on their behalf, and one should always choose hope in fulfilling this sacred task. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/insights-for-muslim-american-youth-development # Insights for Muslim American Youth Development: Culturally-Centered Youth Approaches in the Black American Community **Author:** Dr. Husain Lateef **Topics:** Education, Family & Community **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 25, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Islamophobia by proxy and through lived experiences poses an internalization risk for Muslim American youth. Internalization of negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims may have adverse effects on various developmental outcomes and adherence to Islamic practice. Before we can generate specific developmental models for Muslim American youth, a beneficial starting place is to consider the empowerment strategies developed by the Black American community to assist their youth overcome internalization of racial oppression. By reflecting on insights that may be relevant to Muslim youth, this paper describes the rise of culturally-centered approaches to youth development within the Black American community. The paper also provides some of the significant outcomes associated with the application of culturally-centered approaches for Black children. The paper concludes with implications for Muslim families, communities, and research into Muslim youth development in the US. --- ## Youth development in the United States of America Procuring positive developmental outcomes for youth is thought of as a process of preparing young people for a healthy and productive adulthood. At present, generalized models of youth development, also known as universal approaches, are the most common methods used to inform practice for youth within the United States. The formation of modern universal approaches to address the concerns of youth development began formally in the 1960s. Early approaches focused on the utilization of fear-provoking techniques and dramatized attempts to discourage youth from drug use and other forms of delinquent behavior with most programs lacking a strong theoretical basis—they instead were based on the best *thinking* of the time.[^1] Faced by failures, prevention program developers began turning toward data from longitudinal and intervention youth studies.[^2] The outcome of this change was that in the 1980s, prevention efforts began to focus on specific problem behaviors such as drug abuse and school failure. Moreover, prevention programs then began to be guided by theories developed in psychology and sociology.[^3] By the 1990s, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers began to challenge past paradigms of seeing youth as broken or at risk of being broken.[^4] Also, they began to call for an expansion from the focus on single problem behaviors to a broader range of indicators influencing prevention efforts. Based on growing evidence of the etiology of both problematic behaviors and positive behaviors, a substantial body of support had been amassed that both positive and negative experiences influence youth outcomes.[^5] Protective and resilience factors were acknowledged as playing important roles in youth development; this new wave of thinking today is known as the Risk and Resilience Framework.[^6] By the beginning of the 21st century however, yet another shift in conceptualizing youth development arose within the literature—instead of focusing on problem prevention and deterrence as the primary objective, resilience and asset building among youth was taking primacy.[^7] This shift is known as Positive Youth Development (PYD).[^8] Theoretically, PYD draws on the Five Cs: Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, and Caring, which are considered desired outcomes for *all youth*.[^9] Despite great strides in developmental approaches to inform practice and prevention with youth, the specific resilience and asset needs of youth from minority backgrounds has gone largely understudied. The Black American community was amongst the first for decades to champion the application of culturally centered approaches for their youth. Not because the dimensions of standard universal models are not beneficial, but because of the belief of some scholars that Black American youth require approaches that address additional social, cultural, and historical dimensions they must navigate as they transition during their adolescent years—such as race in America and kinship dynamics.[^10],[^11] As a result, the utility of current universal frameworks like the Risk and Resilience Framework and PYD has been argued by some scholars of prevention-focused approaches to Black American youth development to be insufficient. --- ## Muslim youth in America Muslim youth form a minority group in America whose experiences related to religious identity need to be better understood. Among Muslim communities across the US, a growing concern is that Muslim youth are deviating from their religious practices and beliefs. While Muslim youth absconding from their faith not only is worrisome from a faith-based perspective, it may also be potentially worrisome from a developmental perspective. Religious upbringing and daily religious practice are associated with a host of desirable outcomes for youth. Some of the known potential benefits include greater positive affect, emotional processing and expression, greater volunteering, and a greater sense of mission and self-esteem.[^12]Given these benefits, it is important that Muslim youth participate in supportive Islamic environments not only for spiritual benefits but also for their secular life outcomes. However, a potential risk-factor that may serve as a significant barrier to religious adherence and community belonging amongst Muslim youth is the reality of Islamophobia. By definition, Islamophobia results in negative stereotyping, sentiments, hatred, and or prejudice of Islam and or Muslims.[^13] How Muslim youth experience Islamophobia is both by proxy through media outlets and also in their lived experiences. With respect to Muslim youth in America specifically, many have reported being bullied, teased, and physically assaulted by not just other youths but also adults.[^14] Yet, there remains limited research that demonstrates the full impact of Islamophobia on the lives of Muslim children— in particular, their adherence to their Islamic faith system. Given that research on stigmatized identities has shown that internalization of the stigma is linked to psychological distress, low psychological well-being, and increases in depressive symptoms, amongst other detrimental outcomes—it is not unreasonable to hypothesize that some Muslim youth may, in an attempt to preserve their self-concept, choose to distance themselves from Islam or attempt to conceal their Islamic identity.[^15] --- ## Purpose of the paper The Black American community, since the first enslaved Africans were brought from Africa's western and central coasts to America, has been confronted by the challenge of hate in America, in particular white supremacy. The community continues to resist unabating racial oppression on all fronts—socially, psychologically, economically, and spiritually. One important resistance measure to racial oppression, which may have particular relevance today for Muslim American youth, as new ideas and approaches are considered on how to best protect and bolster developmental outcomes for this population, is the Black community's pursuit of culturally-centered education and socialization for their youth members. Dr. Martin Luther King in some of his final writings called for the need for specific education and programming for Black American children that would allow them to thrive in light of environmental hazards and the very real presence of hatred for Blackness in America.[^16] Thus, the push for culturally-centered approaches for Black youth became one response by the community at large. To reflect on insights that may be relevant to Muslim American youth, in this paper I highlight the development of culturally-centered approaches to youth development within the Black American community as a case example. The Black American community’s quest for culturally-centered programming demonstrates how knowing the unique needs of one’s youth population and how it may overlap with and differ from other youth groups, is an essential step to resolve the problems marginalized minority youth face. Thus, the paper begins with some of the major reasons Black American communities who apply culturally-centered approaches to youth development have done so, and what have been the implications. The paper then concludes with implications for Muslim families, communities, and Islamic-based youth developmental research. --- ## Context of culturally-centered programming in the Black community A key consideration of specific approaches to youth development for Muslim American youth is the *broader* contextualization of their experiences. For the Black American community, the broader contextualization was the lack of attention to the racial and ethnic inequality impacting Black American young people by universal approaches and programs.[^17] Tthe majority Black American youth, unlike many other youth populations of the United States, begin their American heritage not with voluntary immigration, but with the tragedy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which is an important element that is overlooked by universal approaches.[^18] Turning toward this history, the paradox of the US involvement with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, was that ideas of human brotherhood and social equality flourished amongst Western societies during this same period. Consequently, to overcome this great contradiction, justifications were developed. Beginning in the 17th century, Western writers such as Jean Barbot began the process of developing rationales to save the moral consciousness of Western societies involved in the human trafficking of enslaved Africans.[^19] One of the rationales was that many of the Africans enslaved were of non-Christian backgrounds. It was argued the enslavement of non-Christian Africans would be a benefit to them and save them from their “heathen” ways of animism and also *Islam*. Later, more elaborate rationales based on ethnocentrism and racial categories of White superiority and African/Black inferiority were developed.[^20] Western scholars in support of this belief argued that Black Africans had never developed anything correlated with civilization because they were not fully human. As a result, the national laws of protection of human beings, such as those articulated in the United States Constitution, did not apply to enslaved African people.[^21] After slavery, the Black American community, including its *youth,* continued to experience micro- and macro-level injustices due to race through government-sanctioned segregation known as “Jim Crow Laws.” These laws reinforced inequalities in education, housing, and essentially every other human institution in which they were involved.[^22] Moreover, up until the 1940s, the Black American community was greatly plagued by the reality of public lynchings, the majority of which involved Black American male victims. Currently, there are no studies that have been conducted on the psychological impacts lynching had on the Black American community. However, it is known that during this same period, Black Americans migrated out of the south in vast numbers, heading north and west in the hopes of better opportunities to support their families and to escape Jim Crow.[^23] Yet, by the 1960s, many of the newly formed Black American communities created in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, emerged as ghettos due to concentrations of poverty, growing unemployment, increased crime, substandard housing conditions, and racist housing practices such as redlining. In response to the growing poverty in urban Black American communities, local governments failed to address issues of unemployment and housing discrimination; instead, they focused on increasing crime control by police, which led to increased police brutality reports (Abu-Jamal, 2004). Numerous police killings of unarmed Black American community members across the country, mainly Black American men, were reported as justifiable homicides.[^24] The historical trauma brought about by systemic racism is a concern the Black American community continues to fight to address, particularly for its youth members.[^25] The issues that have stemmed from systemic racism in many Black communities continue to exist as daily realities in which Black American youth find themselves forced to develop.[^26] Moreover, Black American children are regularly bombarded with visual stereotypes that reinforce Western notions of Blacks and or Africans as physically less attractive, less intelligent, hypersexual beings, which present additional stressors for developing healthy self-esteem and respect for others who are similar in phenotype.[^27] Likewise, the regularity of police killings of unarmed Black men, women, and children reinforces notions of the historical lack of value that Black Americans have had within American society.[^28] --- ## Kinship and family dynamics Similar to the broader level context, the interpersonal experiences within the lives of Muslim American youth should be considered in the development of specific approaches that inform youth development for this population. For the Black community, this has been the transformation of home life for many Black American youths. Despite constant stereotyping of the Black family structure as dysfunctional, prior to the end of the 1970s, the vast majority of Black American youth lived in two-parent households with both mother and father present.[^29] However, by the 1980s, the number of mother-headed households within the Black American community expanded.[^30] Today a significant number of Black American children live in mother-headed households, but also Black American youth are also more likely to be reared by their grandparents than any other youth group living within the US.[^31] Also, a significant number of Black American youth are growing up in foster care and currently make up the majority of children within the foster care system.[^32],[^33] The transformation of the Black American family from its historical two-parent model to majority single-parent model in the 1990s has been attributed in part to the devastating drug epidemic of the 1980s and the lack of humanist approaches taken by the federal and state governments to assist Black families—unlike the approach taken today in response to the opioid crisis which plagues largely White American youth and their families. However, the increase in incarceration of Black American men due to injustices in sentencing in the 1990s for a majority of non-violent offenses has also been seen as a contributing factor.[^34] Many who invested in the empowerment of Black children through culturally-centered approaches found it also noteworthy that the vast majority of Black American children had not lived without the support of both their mothers and fathers before the 1990s since their ancestors’ enslavement during the late 1600s to 1865.[^35] During enslavement, the African ancestors of present-day Black Americans were overwhelming female-headed.[^36] It was not uncommon for fathers, mothers, and children to be sold away from one another, never to be seen again.[^37] Consequently, the enslaved African ancestors of Black Americans were forced to adapt, forming new family structures in an attempt to provide stability for children when stability was never fully possible.[^38] Commonly, enslaved African men, women, boys, and girls would serve the role of mother, father, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, grandmother, and grandfather for Black American youth severed from some or all of their biological family, which scholars refer to as the “Fictive Kin” system.[^39] Without an alternative, enslaved Africans were forced to utilize a communal system lens of family, a retention from their African homelands, which in many cases places emphasis on shared collective responsibility for youth members.[^40] Universal approaches to youth development do not address the reality that many Black American children have uniquely different family and kinship dynamics from other youth populations. These differences have been found to potentially impact how prevention and or intervention programs for healthy development among Black American children should be designed and implemented. Travis and Leech have noted that the empirical validity of the universal models like the Five Cs for Black American youth is questionable since only small percentages have been included within the evaluative studies.[^41] As a result, our current understanding of how well a PYD model performs is based on samples of children who come from majority two-parent homes, which is not the reality for the majority of Black American children today.[^42] Additionally, Ginwright  noted that even in cases where Black American children may individually have the benefits associated with having a two-parent household and other nuclear family supports, the majority of such children still live amongst other children impacted by the lack of a two-parent home and other social supports, and thus may be potentially still negatively impacted by their peers’ lack of supports.[^43] Consequently, for Black American youth, prevention/intervention programs that emphasize youth development as a collective response and focus on collective dimensions versus primarily on individual assets and support systems involve a significant shift in addressing their healthy developmental process from advocates of culturally-centered approaches to Black youth development. --- ## The African-Centered Framework and positive development of Black children Once the considerations of broad context and interpersonal factors are considered, theoretical approaches for Muslim American youth can be developed and later evaluated for relevance. Within the Black American community, taking the considerations of race, ethnicity, and family into account, cultural theorists, community activists, and members during the late 1960s and early 70s began the push for communities to engage in culturally-centered programs to bolster healthy development for its youth population.[^44] One consequence was the development of what is known interchangeably as the Afrocentric or African-Centered framework. The rationale for the usage of African-Centered frameworks endorsed by many within the Black American community is based on both an historical and societal premise.[^45] With regard to youth, the application of the African-Centered Framework is most commonly expressed through community-based initiatives such as rites of passage programs, after-school programs, charter and homeschooling groups. A common thread that many African-Centered programs seek to bolster is the development of positive perceptions in youth participants of their racial and ethnic identity as Black people and Black Americans.[^46],[^47] A central assumption of youth programs that apply an African-Centered framework is that mainstream American culture has failed to empower Black American youth. Moreover, an assumption of the African-Centered framework is that the information widely distributed in schools and media outlets has been centered on protecting what DiAngelo calls *White fragility* and also maintaining a subservient identity amongst Black children to maintain the White dominance over non-White Americans.[^48],[^49] Consequently, African-Centered programs seek to address this issue by bolstering a sense of positive identity amongst Black youth emphasizing a strengths-based approach to viewing and utilizing their African and American heritage.[^50] This emphasis on ethnic and racial identity is thought to result in numerous benefits for the youth participants and is thought to be key in their capacity to navigate experiences of being Black in America and becoming positive members of society.[^51] In addition to identity, African-Centered programs tend to focus on bolstering positive social connections amongst youth with members of their community. This assumption is based on a concept familiar to many African cultures according to Mbiti that social connectedness or the bolstering of the communal self is key to individual success.[^52] Consequently, many African-Centered programs also focus on developing a strong sense of community connectedness among youth. Today, burgeoning research is documenting that African-Centered programs with their focus on positive *racial* and *ethnic* identity and community connectedness provide a host of supports conducive to positive youth transitional success indicators among Black American children including self-esteem, life satisfaction, academic and personal adjustment, anti-drug attitudes and behaviors, and racial identity.[^53] For example, when Burlew et al.  the mediating role of Afrocentric socialization in alcohol use amongst youth participants, they found that the program’s bolstering of youths’ Afrocentric identity was correlated with a decrease in both their intended and actual usage of substances.[^54] Similar findings have been reported by Flay et al. and Liu and Flay who found that Afrocentric self-concept programs were associated with less favorable attitudes toward substance use and also fewer friends among youth participants who encouraged substance use, or who used themselves.[^55],[^56] Moreover, African-Centered programs may also serve as a buffer against anti-Black racism for Black youth—providing them with a framework that allows them to articulate for themselves the *fallacy* of White supremacy and Black inferiority. African-Centered programs also address the kinship concerns of Black American youth by providing participants mechanisms of forming positive community-based relationships with Black American adult male and female role models. Within the African-Centered literature, kinship factors are commonly addressed in the form of providing youth participants with rites-of-passage programs.[^57] Based upon a practice widespread in many indigenous African cultures, rites-of-passage programs allow Black American youth the opportunity to bond in a positive semi-structured environment with other youths and adults of their gender, engaging in activities that promote brotherhood, or sisterhood, and activities that promote prosocial behaviors.[^58] Moreover, the adult members chosen to facilitate rites of passage programs are often intended to take on family-like roles, which are known within Black American culture as “fictive kin,” providing youth participants the opportunity to develop positive adult paternal and maternal relationships.[^59] --- ## Implications for Muslim families and communities This paper highlighted how the Black American community came to envision culturally-centered approaches to youth development in part due to the failure of universal approaches to address the concerns of racial and ethnic identity their children face being Black in America. While culturally-centered approaches are not the only response or unanimously accepted approach for Black youth empowerment by the Black American community, it is one that continues to show promise for their youths’ adjustment during their adolescent years. There are takeaways from the case example of culturally-centered approaches by the Black American community for those rearing Muslim youth. The first is the necessity for adult Muslims to begin with accepting the undeniable fact that no matter how outstanding Muslims may be in their citizenship, there is an element of hate and or negative stereotyping of Islam and Muslims that that exist to the detriment of our youth. The Qur’an and *seerah* of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ demonstrate this fact—local and national state media coverage reflects this fact. This author does not take for granted that in America, there are civil rights and hate crime laws that provide Muslims, like other faith groups, protections by law from discrimination and harm. However, it should be kept in mind that these laws exist because of the *real* potential for religious discrimination by individuals in America. For many Black American parents and communities, racial socialization is used to anticipate and prepare their children for what they will have to navigate.[^60] This process often includes both direct conversations by parents with their child(ren) regarding race in America and also modeling specific behaviors of how to confront racism. Similarly, Muslim parents and communities need to prepare Muslim youth for experiences of Islamaphobia through a socialization process that engages them in 1) dialogues about the reality of Islamophobia in America; and (2) provides strategies to navigate Islamophobic spaces. Today’s Muslim American youth are not developing their Islamic identity in an environment where being Muslim evokes an ideal of social justice and uprightness as was provided for Black American Muslims during the 1930s through the 1960s.[\[61\]](#ftnt_ref61) Moreover, many second-generation Muslim youths, unlike their parents, are unable to perceive a deep connection and identity outside of America. Thus, the potential resiliency factor of having a context of home outside of America, has not been inherited by the present generation of Muslim American youth.[^62] Instead, today's Muslim youth are developing their Islamic identity in a post 9/11 American society where the negative actions of a few are used to rationalize hate for and negative perceptions of the whole. Also, as was noted in the discussion of African-centered programs for Black youth, with their emphasis on cultural and ethnic identity socialization, the goal of these programs is set to improve the overall self-concept of Black youth as it pertains to their ethnic and racial identity. The same must be considered for Muslim American youth—their education, youth programming, and conversations at home must be prepared to embolden them to feel a sense of empowerment in their identity regarding what it means to be a Muslim and being a part of the Muslim American community. In conjunction to empowerment, like the example illustrated through the case example provided in this paper, Muslim youth must be equipped with the knowledge and an environment that provides them with the *skillsets* to guard and protect their Islamic self-concept from messages and experiences of Islamophobia they will have to navigate. --- ## Implications for Islamic youth development research There remains a need for research to inform evidence-based approaches to improve the developmental outcomes of Muslim youth. Despite the proliferation of Islamic educational and cultural programming events that engage Muslim youth, there still remains a void in empirical research with a focus on intervention and prevention. This research can provide answers to the impact of Islamic socialization programs for Muslim youth and which may be the most predictive of long-term outcomes related to religious adherence and community connection, which have noted benefits for youth in addition to well-being. Moreover, as Muslims, we share universal principles of faith, daily practices, and perspectives on living derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. When developing a model of youth development for Muslim American youth, the nuanced differences in their intersecting identities (e.g., ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status of their households, gender) need to be considered. How does the intersection of Muslim American youths’ multiple identities associate with their healthy Islamic identity formation and adherence? Moreover, how do neighborhood, state location and other community factors impact how Islamic education and youth programming should be centered? These are questions that remain for Islamic researchers concerned with youth development to answer as they may have important implications on how Islamophobia may vary in impact on the lives of Muslim American youth.  Failure to consider unique nuances of identity among Muslim American youth may also contribute to short-sighted approaches, which has been the critique of universal approaches of youth development for Black American youth. --- ## Conclusion The development of culturally-centered approaches and community-based programs reasserts the legacy of the Black American community’s empowerment strategies to overcome oppression. Culturally-centered approaches to youth development within the Black community formed in direct response to the systemic and historical nature of racism in America and its negative impact on the lives’ of Black American children. Its focus has been to start with the realization that Black children must not be made subservient or to feel inferior to Whiteness, nor to overt or subtle expressions of White supremacy. Muslim communities can benefit by reflecting on the history of Black Americans to empower their youth in a society that still demonstrates a lack of full support for the healthy development of Black lives, a societal ill with historical antecedents. Muslim children must be provided with the tools to be resilient and thrive within societies where Islamophobia and prejudice threaten to undo many of the beneficial outcomes of belonging to a faith-based community. Therefore, including within their education, conversation and discussion around navigating hate and negative stereotyping of Islam and Muslims, and how to make sense of these perspectives is unquestionably an obligation we must fulfill. --- ## Notes [^1]: Jeffrey M. Jenson, Catherine F. Alter, Nicole Nicotera, Elizabeth K. Anthony, and Shandra S. Forrest-Bank, *Risk, Resilience, and Positive Youth Development: Developing Effective Community Programs for At-Risk Youth: Lessons from the Denver Bridge Project* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). [^2]: Robert J. Haggerty and Patricia J. Mrazek, eds., *Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research* (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1994). [^3]: Richard F. Catalano, David J. Hawkins, and John W. Toumbourou, “Positive Youth Development in the United States: History, Efficacy, and Links to Moral and Character Education,” in *Handbook of Moral and Character Education*, ed. Larry P. Nucci and Darcia Narvaez (New York: Routledge, 2008), 1–483. [^4]: Richard M. Lerner, Jacqueline V. Lerner, Jason B. Almerigi, Christina Theokas, Erin Phelps, Steinunn Gestsdottir, Sophie Naudeau, Helena Jelicic, Amy Alberts, Lang Ma, Lisa M. Smith, Deborah L. Bobek, David Richman-Raphael, Isla Simpson, Elise DiDenti Christiansen, and Alexander von Eye, “Positive Youth Development, Participation in Community Youth Development Programs, and Community Contributions of Fifth-Grade Adolescents: Findings from the First Wave of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development,” *The Journal of Early Adolescence* 25, no. 1 (2005): 17–71. [^5]: Catalano, Hawkins, and Toumbourou, “Positive Youth Development.” [^6]: David J. Hawkins, Richard F. Catalano, and Janet Y. Miller, “Risk and Protective Factors for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: Implications for Substance Abuse Prevention,” *Psychological Bulletin* 112, no. 1 (1992): 64. [^7]: Jenson et al., *Risk, Resilience, and Positive Youth Development*. [^9]: Jenson et al., *Risk, Resilience, and Positive Youth Development*. [^10]: Shawn Ginwright, “Racial Justice through Resistance: Important Dimensions of Youth Development for African Americans,” *National Civic Review* 95, no. 1 (2006): 41–46. [^11]: Tony P. Jackson, *Black Male Violence in Perspective: Toward Afrocentric Intervention* (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015). [^12]: Ying Chen and Tyler J. VanderWeele, “Associations of Religious Upbringing with Subsequent Health and Well-Being from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: An Outcome-Wide Analysis,” *American Journal of Epidemiology* 187, no. 11 (2018): 2355–64. [^13]: Siham Elkassem, Rick Csiernik, Andrew Mantulak, Gina Kayssi, Yasmine Hussain, Kathryn Lambert, Pamela Bailey, and Asad Choudhary, “Growing Up Muslim: The Impact of Islamophobia on Children in a Canadian Community,” *Journal of Muslim Mental Health* 12, no. 1 (2018): 3–18. [^14]: CAIR California. “Mislabeled: The Impact of School Bullying and Discrimination on California Muslim Students,” CAIR, 2016. [^15]: Diane M. Quinn and Valerie A. Earnshaw, “Concealable Stigmatized Identities and Psychological Well‐Being,” *Social and Personality Psychology Compass* 7, no. 1 (2013): 40–51. [^16]: Martin Luther King Jr., *Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?*, vol. 2 (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010). [^17]: Anne Nordberg, Mary K. Twis, Mark A. Stevens, and Schnavia Smith Hatcher, “Precarity and Structural Racism in Black Youth Encounters with Police,” *Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal* 35, no. 5 (2018): 511–18. [^18]: Faye Z. Belgrave and Kevin W. Allison, *African American Psychology: From Africa to America* (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2018). [^19]: Madeleine Burnside, *Spirits of the Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century* (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997). [^20]: W. E. B. Du Bois and Mahmood Mamdani, *The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the Part Which Africa Has Played in World History and Color and Democracy*, The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois, vol. 9 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). [^21]: Burnside, *Spirits of the Passage.* [^22]: Elmer P. Martin and Joanne Mitchell Martin, *Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition in Social Work* (Washington, DC: NASW Press, 2002). [^23]: Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, *Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016). [^24]: Bloom and Martin, *Black Against Empire*. [^25]: Sterling Stuckey, *Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). [^26]: Belgrave and Allison, *African American Psychology*. [^27]: Cheryl Grills, Deanna Cooke, Jason Douglas, Andrew Subica, Sandra Villanueva, and Brittani Hudson. “Culture, Racial Socialization, and Positive African American Youth Development,” *Journal of Black Psychology* 42, no. 4 (2016): 343–73. [^28]: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, *From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation* (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016). [^29]: Yvette R. Harris and James A. Graham, *The African American Child: Development and Challenges* (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2014). [^30]: Harris and Graham, *The African American Child*. [^31]: Faye Z. Belgrave and J. Brevard, *African American Boys* (New York: Springer, 2016). [^32]: Belgrave and Brevard, *African American Boys*. [^33]: Harris and Graham, *The African American Child*. [^34]: Belgrave and Brevard, *African American Boys*. [^35]: Belgrave and Allison, *African American Psychology*. [^36]: Martin and Martin, *Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition*. [^37]: Martin and Martin, *Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition*. [^38]: Martin and Martin, *Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition*. [^39]: Martin and Martin, *Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition*. [^40]: Belgrave and Allison, *African American Psychology*. [^41]: Raphael Travis Jr. and Tamara G. J. Leech, “Empowerment-Based Positive Youth Development: A New Understanding of Healthy Development for African American Youth,” *Journal of Research on Adolescence* 24, no. 1 (2014): 93–116. [^42]: Travis and Leech, “Empowerment‐Based Positive Youth Development.” [^43]: Ginwright, “Racial Justice through Resistance,” 41–46. [^44]: Patricia Reid-Merritt, *Righteous Self Determination: The Black Social Work Movement in America* (Baltimore, MD: Inprint Editions, 2010). [^45]: Wade W. Nobles, “Extended Self: Rethinking the So-Called Negro Self-Concept,” *Journal of Black Psychology* 2, no. 2 (1976): 15–24. [^46]: Dorie J. Gilbert, Aminifu R. Harvey, and Faye Z. Belgrave, “Advancing the Africentric Paradigm Shift Discourse: Building toward Evidence-Based Africentric Interventions in Social Work Practice with African Americans,” *Social Work* 54, no. 3 (2009): 243–52. [^47]: Arthur L. Whaley and John P. McQueen, “An Afrocentric Program as Primary Prevention for African American Youth: Qualitative and Quantitative Exploratory Data,” *Journal of Primary Prevention* 25, no. 2 (2004): 253–269. [^48]: Robin DiAngelo, “White Fragility,” *International Journal of Critical Pedagogy* 3, no. 3 (2011): 54–70. [^49]: R. A. Winbush, “Back to the Future: Campus Racism in the 21st Century,” *The Black Collegian* 32, no. 1 (2001): 102–3. [^50]: Asa G. Hilliard, *SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind* (Gainesville, FL: Makare Publishing Company, 1999). [^51]: Mwalimu J. Shujaa and Kenya J. Shujaa, eds., *The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America* (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2015). [^52]: John S. Mbiti, *African Religions & Philosophy* (Oxford: Heinemann, 1990). [^53]: Aerika Brittian Loyd and Brittney V. Williams, “The Potential for Youth Programs to Promote African American Youth's Development of Ethnic and Racial Identity,” *Child Development Perspectives* 11, no. 1 (2017): 29–38. [^54]: Ann Kathleen Burlew, LaTrice Montgomery, Andrzej S. Kosinski, and Alyssa A. Forcehimes, “Does Treatment Readiness Enhance the Response of African American Substance Users to Motivational Enhancement Therapy?,” *Psychology of Addictive Behaviors* 27, no. 3 (2013): 744. [^55]: Brian R. Flay, Sally Graumlich, Eisuke Segawa, James L. Burns, and Michelle Y. Holliday, “Effects of 2 Prevention Programs on High-Risk Behaviors among African American Youth: A Randomized Trial,” *Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine* 158, no. 4 (2004): 377–84. [^56]: Li C. Liu, Brian R. Flay, and Aban Aya Investigators, “Evaluating Mediation in Longitudinal Multivariate Data: Mediation Effects for the Aban Aya Youth Project Drug Prevention Program,” *Prevention Science* 10, no. 3 (2009): 197–207. [^57]: Paul Hill Jr., *Coming of Age: African American Male Rites-of-Passage* (Chicago: African American Images, 1992). [^58]: Hill, *Coming of Age*. [^59]: Hill, *Coming of Age*. [^60]: Stephanie I. Coard and Robert M. Sellers, “African American Families as a Context for Racial Socialization,” in *African American Family Life: Ecological and Cultural Diversity*, ed. Vonnie C. McLoyd, Nancy E. Hill, and Kenneth A. Dodge (New York: Guilford Press, 2005), 264–84. [^61]: Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). [^62]: Sherman A. Jackson, “Muslims, Islam(s), Race, and American Islamophobia,” in *Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 93–108. ## Summary Islamophobia confronts Muslim American youth on two fronts: through what they absorb by proxy from media portrayals, and through what they endure in their own lived experiences. The central concern raised is that such exposure carries a risk of internalization—that young Muslims may absorb the negative stereotypes leveled against Islam and its adherents, and that this internalization may harm both their developmental outcomes and their adherence to Islamic practice. Because dedicated developmental models for Muslim American youth have not yet been established, a fruitful starting point is to examine the empowerment strategies already developed by the Black American community, which for decades has labored to help its youth resist the internalization of racial oppression. Careful reflection upon the experience of that community is offered not as a finished blueprint, but as a case example from which relevant insights may be drawn. To situate this argument, it is helpful to recall how youth development has been approached in the United States. Its formal beginnings in the 1960s relied upon fear-provoking and dramatized techniques to discourage drug use and delinquency, most of which lacked any solid theoretical grounding and rested merely upon the best thinking of the time. Following repeated failures, program developers turned to longitudinal and intervention studies, so that by the 1980s prevention began to target specific behaviors such as drug abuse and school failure, now guided by theories from psychology and sociology. By the 1990s, scholars and policymakers challenged the older paradigm that viewed youth as broken or at risk of being broken, giving rise to the Risk and Resilience Framework, which recognized the importance of protective and resilience factors. Early in the twenty-first century this developed into Positive Youth Development, drawing upon the Five Cs—Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, and Caring—held to be desirable outcomes for all youth. Yet these universal or generalized models, for all their advances, have largely neglected the particular resilience and asset needs of minority youth. Some scholars concerned with Black American youth have therefore argued that such frameworks are insufficient—not because their dimensions lack benefit, but because Black youth must navigate additional social, cultural, and historical realities, such as race in America and distinctive kinship dynamics, that the universal models overlook. It bears noting that culturally-centered approaches are neither the only response nor a unanimously accepted one within the Black American community, though they continue to show promise for youth adjustment during adolescence. For Muslim youth, who form a minority whose experience of religious identity remains poorly understood, there is a growing worry within their communities that they are drifting from their faith. This is troubling from a religious standpoint and also from a developmental one, for religious upbringing and daily practice have been associated—as noted by Chen and VanderWeele—with greater positive affect, emotional processing and expression, volunteering, a sense of mission, and self-esteem. Islamophobia, however, may serve as a barrier to such adherence and belonging. Studies cited, such as that of Elkassem and colleagues and the CAIR California report, document that Muslim youth have been bullied, teased, and even physically assaulted by both youths and adults. Since research on concealable stigmatized identities—as Quinn and Earnshaw observe—links internalization of stigma to psychological distress and depressive symptoms, it is hypothesized, though not established, that some Muslim youth may distance themselves from Islam or conceal their Muslim identity to preserve their self-concept. The Black American community's turn toward culturally-centered programming arose from a broader historical context that universal models ignore: its members' American heritage began not with voluntary immigration but with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. To reconcile this with the era's ideals of human brotherhood, rationales were constructed—writers such as Jean Barbot argued that enslaving non-Christian Africans would save them from their supposed "heathen" ways, including animism and Islam, and later, more elaborate justifications rooted in white superiority denied Africans full humanity. This history continued through Jim Crow segregation, public lynchings persisting into the 1940s, and, following northward and westward migration, the emergence of impoverished urban ghettos shaped by redlining and discriminatory practices. It is acknowledged openly that no studies exist on the psychological impact of lynching upon the community, an honest gap rather than a resolved question. A further dimension is kinship and family. Contrary to persistent stereotypes, before the late 1970s the majority of Black American youth lived in two-parent households; from the 1980s onward, mother-headed households and rearing by grandparents grew, and Black children came to form the majority within the foster care system. This transformation has been attributed in part to the drug epidemic of the 1980s—handled without the humanist approach later extended to the opioid crisis affecting largely white families—and to mass incarceration for mostly non-violent offenses. Historically, enslaved Africans, frequently separated from family, adapted through a communal "fictive kin" system rooted in African homelands. Travis and Leech note that the validity of models like the Five Cs for Black youth is questionable, since evaluative samples drew overwhelmingly from two-parent homes, and Ginwright observes that even children with such supports live among peers who lack them. In response, cultural theorists and activists of the late 1960s and 1970s advanced the Afrocentric or African-Centered framework, expressed through rites-of-passage programs, after-school initiatives, and charter and homeschooling groups. Resting on the assumption that mainstream culture failed to empower Black youth and, as DiAngelo describes, protected "white fragility," these programs seek to build positive racial and ethnic identity and, drawing on Mbiti's concept of communal selfhood, strong community connectedness. Emerging research—such as that of Burlew and colleagues, Flay and colleagues, and Liu and Flay—associates such programming with reduced substance use, higher self-esteem, better adjustment, and a buffer against anti-Black racism, while rites-of-passage programs provide fictive-kin relationships with adult role models. From this case example, several implications are drawn for those raising Muslim youth. The first is the necessity that Muslim adults accept that, however exemplary their citizenship, hatred and negative stereotyping of Islam and Muslims exist to the detriment of their children—a reality reflected in the Qur'an, in the *seerah* of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and in contemporary media coverage. Just as many Black parents employ racial socialization, Muslim parents and communities are urged to prepare their youth through honest dialogue about the reality of Islamophobia and through strategies for navigating Islamophobic spaces. It is further observed that today's Muslim youth develop their identity in a post-9/11 society where the actions of a few are used to condemn the whole, and that many second-generation youth, unlike their parents, lack the resiliency factor of a felt home outside America. Their education and upbringing must therefore embolden them to feel empowered in their Muslim identity and equip them to guard their Islamic self-concept. Regarding research, a void remains in empirical, intervention- and prevention-focused study of Islamic socialization programs and their predictive value for long-term religious adherence and community connection. While Muslims share universal principles derived from the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, the intersecting identities of Muslim American youth—ethnicity, race, household socioeconomic status, gender—along with neighborhood and location, must be weighed, lest research repeat the short-sightedness that marked universal approaches to Black youth. Ultimately, providing Muslim children the tools to remain resilient and to make sense of the hatred directed at their faith is presented as an obligation that must be fulfilled. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-black-muslim-american-mayor-in-the-home-of-the-kkk # The Black Muslim American Mayor in the Home of the KKK **Author:** Dr. Khalil Abdurrashid **Topics:** History, Islam in the West **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 21, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction In 1915, the modern Ku Klux Klan, a notorious white supremacist group was born in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The Klan was first formed during the Reconstruction years after the Civil War. This early group died out around 1871 only to reemerge in the midst of World War I. It was this modern Klan that would become infamous and flourish across the nation. The Klan’s platform affirmed white supremacy, hatred towards Catholics and Jews, and a vitriolic opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. It was during this era that James Venable, a white supremacist Georgia lawyer, emerged and revived the Ku Klux Klan, establishing it in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He served as mayor of the city from 1946-1949 and led the Klan for 25 years! With incredible irony, it was this same man who later supported my father in his bid to serve on the Stone Mountain City Council and later, as the first African American mayor of the city of Stone Mountain. I share my father’s story for the first time in order to both honor his life and legacy as well as to remind us of the continued work that needs to be done by American Muslims. My father was born Charles Burris on March 5, 1951, in Alexandria, Louisiana. He was an orphan, quite literally left as an infant on the doorstep of the woman I would come to know as “Mama,” his adoptive mother. Although his biological parents were unknown to him until the day he passed, and to me and my sisters as well, his adoptive parents were church-going, Southern Baptist educators. Mama, my grandmother, was Vermont Burris, a high school English teacher. Her husband Seymour Burris, was an elementary school teacher who would later become blind. My father used to help care for him as a young child and therefore grew up valuing education and helping others in need at an early age. Mama taught him mathematics and the works of Shakespeare before he reached the first grade and would make him memorize several parts. My grandparents were also very active volunteers in the community and for the NAACP. They used to take my father with them to help register other blacks in their community to vote. At the age of 16, my father graduated from Peabody High School in Louisiana and was accepted into Morehouse College in 1967 as a Merrill Scholar. He used to hold various positions in student government as an undergraduate, competed on the swim and diving teams, reported for the campus newspaper, and attended Morehouse’s Saturday seminars, which were taught by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One day my father was late to class and entered the room after having gotten into an altercation with another person. Dr. King noticed my father’s appearance and demeanor and asked him what had happened. My father informed Dr. King that another person had provoked him into an altercation. Dr. King then replied, “My son, so long as you allow another person to move you towards aggression, you will always be a slave!” Those words stuck with my father and he devoted himself towards fighting against injustice through intellectual and not physical means, a lesson he imparted to me on numerous occasions later in life. My father remained very active in local politics because he truly believed that his mission was to make people’s lives better by making government work better for them. He called this his social mission in life. In 1968 he worked on the vice mayoral campaign of Maynard Jackson, who would become the first African American mayor of the city of Atlanta. In 1970 he worked on Ambassador Andrew Young’s congressional campaign. During this time, he met my mother, Jeannie Dowell, fell in love, and married. He was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Morehouse College and he and my mother used to frequent the Canterbury House interfaith center, known as the Absalom Jones Episcopal Center on the Atlanta University Campus (AUC). That was also the place frequented by many Sunni Muslims who used to establish the Friday Prayer service there. Both my parents used to watch the Muslim students pray. My father was always religiously inclined, constantly in search for the true religion. The campus chaplain allowed interfaith talks quite often and it was in that environment that my father first encountered Islam. He later got a copy of the Qur’an and began to read it, noticing what he used to describe as, “the same God as in the Bible.” The thought of being abandoned by his original parents always haunted my father and he never moved past it. But when he opened the Qur’an and came across chapter 93, the message spoke deeply and profoundly to him: > In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy. By the morning brightness and by the night when it grows still; your Lord has not forsaken you, nor does He hate you, and the future will be better for you than the past; Your Lord is sure to give you so much that you will be pleased. Did He not find you an orphan and shelter you; find you lost and guide you; find you in need and satisfy your need? So do not be harsh with the orphan and do not chide the one who asks for help; Speak about the blessings of your Lord! (Qur’an 93: 1-11) My father converted to Islam in October of 1975 after reading this chapter and later, as an American Muslim convert, he always wept whenever he read or heard this chapter of the Qur’an recited. He also was particularly fond of poetry and one of his favorite poets was a famous Lebanese American poet named Gibran Khalil Gibran. My father also learned in Islam that the name “Khalil” was an epithet of Prophet Abraham and changed his name to “Charles Khalil Burris.” Two years later, he would change my name legally to Khalil. My father encountered various early American Muslim communities in Atlanta. First was the Twelver-Shia community. He admired their love of books and used to read on Shiism although he would later express doubts about the doctrine of the occultation of the twelfth Imam. He enrolled in law school at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta and received his law degree. In 1979, the year my father finished law school and passed the Georgia State Bar exam, the Shia community he was affiliated with left for Iran after the Iranian Revolution. Next, my father and mother moved to the community led by one of the most famous Imams in the United States, Imam Jamil al-Amin. Formerly H. Rap Brown, Imam Jamil had converted to Islam in 1971 in Rikers Island Prison and became one of the most famous and influential American Muslim leaders of the late 20th century. Imam Jamil was the leader of a rapidly expanding network of over 25 Muslim communities across the Caribbean and North America. The Atlanta West End was the headquarters of the network and a large segment of the community were ex-convicts who had converted to Islam in prison and vowed to reform their lives—just like brother Malcolm X! My parents’ home (646 Atwood Street at the time) served as a makeshift proto-library for the community. I remember as a child a constant barrage of strangers coming into our home, sitting down and reading new books about Islam that they had never heard of before, such as Bukhari and Muslim, two household names of Islam’s most notable canonical texts. As a child, I grew up in Imam Jamil’s mosque and spent much of my childhood in his corner shop speaking and engaging with him about a variety of topics. My father had several disagreements with Imam Jamil regarding some issues at the time and, notwithstanding my father’s great respect for him as a proven leader, those disagreements led my father to maintain what he called a “close but healthy distance.” During this time, my father worked as a researcher and crime analyst for the city of Atlanta, a position he held for two years. It was then that he would cultivate a stronger relationship with a different Imam, Imam Plemon al-Amin of the World Community of Imam W. D. Muhammad. Imam Plemon, a recent graduate of Harvard University, had converted to Islam after Harvard and wanted to help elevate and transform his community from the harms of drugs and the Vietnam War, both of which had had devastating impacts. My father and Imam Plemon became friends and it was at Imam Plemon’s mosque that my father met his spiritual mentor, Shaykh Abdur-Rashid from Nigeria. My father used to study Arabic and Islamic studies with Shaykh Abdur-Rashid, a graduate of the Islamic University of Medina, Saudi Arabia, who would have a profound impact on my father—so much so that my father changed our last name legally from his (Burris) to “Abdur-Rashid.” From 1980 onward, both me and my father legally became Khalil Abdur-Rashid, he the senior and I the junior. As a family of African American converts, we were the ‘Abdur-Rashid’ family. My mother changed her name also from Jeannie Dowell to Jihan Abdur-Rashid. On the advice of the Shaykh, my father decided to move to Saudi Arabia to find a community there and learn more about Islam. This was in 1980 and there was a frustrating climate of the newly emerging Islam in America. At the center of many convert Muslim’s frustrations was the blurred line that rendered the boundary between cultural and religious Islam indistinguishable. My father, along with two other friends of his, were accepted to the University of Medina and traveled to study there. My father stayed for one year and returned in 1981. He possessed a utopic and nostalgic vision of what life in Medina, the birthplace of Islam, was like. As a child of the South, and being especially dark-complexioned, his experience with racism in America was like that of many other Blacks in the South. My father witnessed a cross burning on his front lawn as a child; in college, he was taught by and influenced by Dr. King; my father’s classmates at Morehouse were Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee. And as an Alpha man, he knew well the struggles of being Black in America. Thinking he would find what Malcolm found in his travel to Arabia, he left with hope and optimism but was smart enough to go alone first to survey the landscape. Leaving behind my mother, myself and my three sisters at the time, my father journeyed to Arabia only to return with negative experiences that would forever imprint themselves deep within his consciousness. I don’t know much about what happened to my father during that year in Arabia except for two things: 1) he studied Arabic and Islamic studies, and 2) some people there used to address him as “boy” which both enraged and hurt him. Some tried to explain the reasoning behind calling him ‘boy,’ saying they thought he was African at first glance and not American—as if that were an actual justification. My father returned after one year scarred by his experience of what he called the ‘sickness of racism by Muslims who should know better.’ My father told my mother that Arabia was not a place where African Americans should raise their children and that our job was to make life here in America meaningful for Muslims. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image3.jpg) After returning, my father worked as an urban planner for the city of Atlanta during the time when Maynard Jackson was Mayor (1974–1982) of Atlanta. During that time, a group of Muslims who were students from abroad at Georgia Tech got together to establish a mosque in central downtown Atlanta, called the Al-Farooq Mosque, now the largest mosque in Atlanta. They recruited my father to help work on the project. My father, who was the only Muslim who worked in Atlanta City Hall at the time, was able to get the land chartered and enabled the establishment of the mosque. After the mosque was established and construction began, the original founders, who included my father and the other students, who were now working professionals, refused to offer my father a place on the board of the mosque. Although I was not yet 10 years old, I remember the argument in the mosque between my father and the others and how he felt that he had a right to serve as a board member in the community and how he was denied this in favor of others. My father took this incident to his grave with him and considered it an act of betrayal by people who acted in hypocrisy. While not knowing all of the details, I am able to say that my father attributed the cause of the incident to racism towards African Americans on the part of immigrant Americans from Arab and South Asian backgrounds. He used to tell me, “Khalil, I can take an enemy in white sheets, but I can’t take the snake in the grass that bites you from behind when you don’t see it coming.” My father predicted that as long as intra-communal Muslim racism persists, the American Muslim community will never realize its full potential. He used to tell me, “Khalil, because of racism, the Muslims aren’t ready for prime time!” He never got over being damaged by the community overseas and in the local mosque, a problem that later contributed to the separation and later divorce between him and my own mother. They would always love each other I would later learn, but the divisions in the community bitterly divided them, for while he felt too damaged to work within the Muslim community, my mother, caring for me and my three younger sisters at the time, felt she had a need and responsibility for her children to remain rooted within the community. My father needed to find and nurture himself after the damage and he decided to work on a different front in order to both heal himself and work on healing others. He decided to remain a Muslim but a closet-Muslim, never going to the mosque or any events, even during Ramadan, but maintaining the prayer and doctrinal tenets of Islam. He relied on what he learned in the classroom of the University of Medina and the spiritual and doctrinal practices he learned from the Shaykh, allowing himself to be self-guided in the domain of being a believer without a community. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image4-1024x768.jpg) My father retreated from the American Muslim community and instead went back into local American politics, changing his name legally from “Khalil Abdur-Rashid” back to Charles Burris, as it was before. Some called him an apostate, but others denied this, knowing his positions and just decided to leave him alone and root for him from afar. He moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia, land of the Klan then and used to witness Klan marches and celebrations downtown on Main Street every year. This was in the late 1980s to early 1990s. He served on the Dekalb County School board, then on the Stone Mountain City Council from 1991 to 1996. He maintained several high-ranking government positions, including having worked for the late Senator and Secretary of the State of Georgia, Max Cleland. In 1994, my father developed his own computer software company as a side business called MountainWare Ltd. During his time in public service, my father was deeply troubled by the racism he encountered in his old religious community as well as the persistent Klan marches in his local community. He also wanted Stone Mountain to be a more family-oriented and diverse place. He once complained about there not being enough sidewalks in Stone Mountain and someone said to him, “instead of complaining why don’t you do something about it.” He later told me that this was his motivation to run for city council and eventually mayor! My father began his campaign for mayor of Stone Mountain, a town with 6,700 residents at the time; the site of the world’s largest Confederate Memorial invoked by Dr. King in his “I Have a Dream” speech and at a time when the KKK was actively marching down Main Street and burning a cross adjacent to Stone Mountain property. My father used to publish and distribute a newsletter called “The Burris Report” that detailed his goals and vision. It was this publication that caught the attention of many people, including James Venable. Mr. James Venable, the grand wizard of the Klan, was the leader of the KKK for 25 years and his father and uncle co-owned the mountain until the State of Georgia purchased it from them in 1958. The KKK used to burn a cross atop the mountain until the late ’60s after which they later burned it on the property owned by Mr. Venable on the base of the mountain. Mr. Venable’s ancestors turned Stone Mountain, the largest exposed piece of granite in the world, into a rock quarry and became wealthy from selling its stone for major construction projects. It is known that the then Klan-owned Stone Mountain provided the raw building materials for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Panama Canal, Fort Knox, the steps of the U.S. Capitol building, the U.S. Treasury, and the Suez Canal. Mr. Venable himself was a very successful attorney whose record included defending the bombers of the Hebrew Benevolent Temple Bombing in Atlanta of a Reform Jewish congregation as well as representing some blacks accused of crimes. He allegedly won an acquittal for a black man accused of murder and later won an appeal for two Black Muslims in Louisiana convicted on charges stemming from a police raid on their mosque. The $25,000 he won from that suit was supposedly funneled into his Klan. Mr. Venable’s support for my father was surprising to some but not to others who knew my father. My dad convinced him to vote for him and my father always believed he could work to transform hate into hope, as he put it—so long as he knew what he was dealing with. He preferred dealing with people who were direct and upfront and could not work at all with hypocrisy. Former Georgia State Representative, Billy Mitchell, a close friend of my father’s once said that my father was, “very personable, very diligent, and I think that even Mr. Venable came to realize that.” Mr. Venable even posted a campaign sign when my father was running for city council on his own front lawn in support of my father. Six years later, a few years after the death of Mr. Venable, my father ran for mayor and was victorious. Furthermore, he purchased the home that belonged to Mr. Venable and moved into it, living there for the duration of his tenure as mayor. Initially, my father rebuffed the offer to buy the house but later, he realized that his aversion to the house was also based on prejudice towards a place that he needed to overcome in order to lead effectively. He said that “It wasn’t until we got to know the place and gave it a chance; until we opened the door and looked in, that we realized we liked the house and didn’t care who had owned it.” My father by then had also remarried and both he and my stepmother purchased the house and resided there. The first night after moving in, my father took a framed photo of Dr. King and hung it on the bedroom wall. I spent many nights there with my father and vividly remember my experiences with him. We used to walk the grounds together and talk about leadership, service, life, and lessons. “The house,” as I called it, left an indelible imprint on me. It was my own first personal encounter with the legacy of hate and racism in an intimate space. The first night I slept there was the hardest, for I was obsessed with imagining the kinds of people who had been there before me; how many lives had they terrorized and ruined and how I could live in such a place marked by hate? My father helped me come to terms with my encounter with what would function as a second home (at the time an anti-home) and he taught me that nothing and no one is immune from the possibility of change but that such a change could go both ways, either towards improvement or towards reversal and decay; that we sometimes imprison ourselves in the confines of our own prejudices which contribute to our moral and social decay and that the only question is whether we want to be the change we inspire others towards or not. I learned from “the house” and from my father in it that the shameful past is critical to shaping us today and keeping the past before us helps us fuse the horizons of yesterday with the light of today, a critical compound for the shaping of a hopeful tomorrow. “The house” served as a site of deep thought and reflection of these things for me during my early college years. Whenever I wanted to think about my own purpose in life, I would go to “the house,” a space different from my home but no less significant. “The house” used to be owned by Mr. Venable’s daughter, Ginger Birts and she maintained a friendship with my father and his wife for many years. She would say, “They’re just great people!” After her father died, she was concerned that the city would not designate a street that carried the Venable name and raised the concern to my father. As *The New York Times* reports about the incident, > Sensing an opportunity, Mr. Burris told Ms. Birts that he would be pleased if the family would no longer allow the Klansmen to hold rallies on its property at the base of the mountain, where the 60-foot crosses were burned each Labor Day weekend. The deal was struck…that left the Klan all dressed up with nowhere to go![^1] Despite this success and his disdain for the Klan and the vivid memory of the cross burning in his yard when he was only 3 years old, my father never banned the Klan from the city. He served as mayor from 1997–2001. About this, my father used to say, “God does have a sense of humor!” During the interview with *The New York Times*, he stated, “There’s a new Klan in Stone Mountain, only its spelled with a C: C-L-A-N, Citizens Living As Neighbors. And I guess I’m the Black dragon!” My father was amused at the fact that Dr. King and James Venable shared the same birthday, January 15th and to further cement Dr. King’s legacy in the town and replace hatred with hope, on February 26, 2000, my father placed the “Freedom Bell” in the middle of downtown Main Street to honor Dr. King’s legacy, with an inscription that reads, “Let Freedom Ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia.” - ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image2-1.png) - ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image1-2.png) As a city councilman and during his tenure as mayor, my father added new sidewalks in the city, stopped the Klan from marching down Main Street, raised the pay for police officers and firefighters, reduced property tax appraisals on the elderly, cleansed the city of all the crack houses, diversified the funding for the city’s parks, established a recycling program for the city, advocated for the preservation of historic sites, and reformed the city’s image. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the March on Washington led by Dr. King, my father organized the Freedom Train which ran from downtown Atlanta to City Hall on Main Street in Stone Mountain. He used to say, “Maybe things are getting a little better. If nothing else, hopefully my election will make people know that the city of Stone Mountain is a good town, that everybody is welcome here, that there are no bars to anyone moving here and finding friends and neighbors.” After 6 years serving on the city council, and after receiving wide support from black and white citizens of Stone Mountain, he decided to run for mayor. His message was about equality and economic development through reviving business interests in the city. Although the position of mayor in Stone Mountain was officially a part-time position, he worked full-time as mayor, earning only $300 a month. My father recalled later a phone call he received from a 92-year old white woman who was a lifelong resident of Stone Mountain. She asked him what kind of mayor he was going to be, whether he would be a mayor for black people or white people or for everyone? My father gently but unwaveringly assured her that he was going to be the mayor for everyone! To which she replied, “Well then I guess I don’t mind turning the city over to you black folks as long as y’all are gonna act right!” My father as mayor established programs to cultivate a sense of community among the residents of Stone Mountain. He converted an old gymnasium into a community movie theater and initiated a program called, “The Mayor’s Saturday Night at the Movies”. Family and community-oriented films were shown to the public for free; popcorn and refreshments were provided complimentary of the Mayor’s Office. My father’s project for adding sidewalks in the city helped encourage families to walk together to the event along with other neighbors, which facilitated people getting to know one another to and from the event. He sought to make the city a pedestrian-friendly town that would connect businesses, neighborhoods, and main street together through the installation of sidewalks across Stone Mountain. My father once said, “I want to see people walking into town to do their shopping, to take their kids for ice cream. When people walk through town, they get to know their neighbors, and this enhances their sense of community.” Recognizing the changing demographics of Stone Mountain along with the dark past of the city, my father used to say, > This area is rich in history. Some of it is painful to many people. I want to deal with those facts in a way that people can profit from. This should be a place where everyone can come to the table, not just black and white residents but also Hispanic and Asian… The place has a tricky history—one of the older developments here was built on a Native American burial ground. We’ve got to take a careful, respectful look at the past, in a way that educates and helps heal old wounds. My father’s election as the town’s first black mayor made local and national history. He was invited by President Clinton as an honored guest for the State of the Union Address in 1998 and was seated with the first lady. After his mayoral term ended in 2001, my father became executive director of the Southern Regional Council, a non-profit organization established in 1944 in order to create racial equality and avoid racial violence across the southern United States. My father worked to enhance voter registration and political awareness as part of the goals of the organization. In 2007, he left public service for the private sector and relocated to Baltimore, Maryland in order to work at Lockheed Martin as a senior IT manager. During that same year, my father became suddenly ill and was hospitalized and diagnosed with a rare incurable disease called amyloidosis, in which abnormal protein builds in body organs and tissues. He desperately wanted to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama but was too ill to leave his hospital bed. He died from post-surgery complications on Thursday night, February 12, 2009, at age 57. My sisters, Sasha Abdur-Rashid, Khadeejah Abdur-Rashid, and Jameelah Abdur-Rashid are all also his daughters, and my mother, despite remarrying and having two other daughters (Fatima Abou-Harb and Ruyaa Mahmud), never changed her last name back, remaining to this day Jehan Abdur-Rashid. --- ## Conclusion My father led an incredibly unique and profoundly remarkable life. He came from nothing and lived to change history in the South. He used to tell me that the best thing you can do is live your life in a way where you can look at yourself in the mirror and live with the decisions you have made. He told me once that there is no such thing as a small or little practice of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, for you never know what practice of his you adopt that will be the one to take you into heaven! Helping the community was part of his vocation and a calling. Deep within his core, he found racism to be the worst human disease that corrupted the best of what it meant to be human. Deeply religious, he found Islam to be the answer for him, but the character of the Muslim community at the time to be problematic—for he saw that on too many occasions, there were some Muslims who abandoned the best of their values in favor of the worst of human characteristics, all for short-term gains with long-term consequences. I have always felt that the iconic picture of my beloved father standing with Stone Mountain in the background, displaying the carvings of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, along with Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, is quite revealing of the challenges faced by American Muslims today. The shadow of the American Civil War foreshadows the struggle of African American Muslims in the face of a changing American Muslim narrative and leadership. At the heart of the American Civil War was a racial struggle and in my father’s consciousness, the problem preventing Muslims from entering into ‘Prime Time,’ as he called it, was rooted in racial animosities that still segregate us and contribute to the extremely problematic individual and communal conditions in which we find ourselves today. We have not carved out equal spaces for one another in our hearts and minds, let alone in many of our physical places such as mosques, board rooms, and other organizations. Such hierarchical disarrangements of each other have been imported by cultural practices and dangerous ideologies that have become ingrained and anchored into our thinking and behavior. Nor have we understood our local histories and narratives well enough to ensure that neither we nor our children repeat the deleterious mistakes of the past. The history and contributions of African American Muslims to the legacy of Islam in America is a historical monument that deserves preservation and recognition, a fact often obscured by the reality of the constant diversification of the American Muslim community. In the end, it is not our origins or identities which ultimately define us but our legacies. My father’s ‘man before the mountain’ photo makes us ask, what legacy are we as American Muslims leaving and what contributions are we making? If anything, both his story and that of the *her*/*his-story* of other African American Muslims in general, may help us better understand how Islam may be viewed as an authentic domestic feature of the American experience and no longer as simply an imported cultural production. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image5-1024x768.jpg) --- ## Notes [^1]: Kevin Sack, “Birthplace of Klan Chooses a Black Mayor,” *The* *New York Times*, Nov. 22, 1997. ## Summary The life of Charles Khalil Abdur-Rashid, as recounted by his son, stands as a testament to struggle, faith, and the quest for justice in a land marked by the wounds of racism. Born Charles Burris on the 5th of March, 1951, in Alexandria, Louisiana, he entered the world an orphan, left as an infant upon the doorstep of the woman who would raise him. His adoptive parents, church-going Southern Baptist educators, instilled in him from an early age the value of knowledge and service to others. His grandmother taught him mathematics and the works of Shakespeare before he reached the first grade, and his grandparents brought him along in their work registering Black citizens to vote for the NAACP. At sixteen he entered Morehouse College as a Merrill Scholar, where he attended the Saturday seminars taught by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A defining moment came when, having arrived late to class after an altercation, he was corrected by Dr. King, who told him: "My son, so long as you allow another person to move you towards aggression, you will always be a slave!" These words redirected his life toward the struggle against injustice through intellectual rather than physical means. He remained active in local politics, working on the campaigns of Maynard Jackson and Ambassador Andrew Young, and there met his wife, Jeannie Dowell. His encounter with Islam came through the interfaith gatherings at the Canterbury House on the Atlanta University Campus, where Sunni Muslims established the Friday Prayer. A man forever haunted by the abandonment of his parents, he found in the Qur'an the answer his soul sought. Upon reading the ninety-third chapter, its words spoke to the wound at the center of his being: "In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy. By the morning brightness and by the night when it grows still; your Lord has not forsaken you, nor does He hate you… Did He not find you an orphan and shelter you; find you lost and guide you; find you in need and satisfy your need? So do not be harsh with the orphan and do not chide the one who asks for help; Speak about the blessings of your Lord!" (Qur'an 93:1-11). He embraced Islam in October of 1975, and thereafter would weep whenever this chapter was recited. Having learned that "Khalil" was an epithet of the Prophet Abraham, he took the name Charles Khalil Burris. His journey through the early American Muslim communities of Atlanta was varied. He first encountered the Twelver-Shia community, whose love of books he admired, though he later expressed doubts regarding the doctrine of the occultation of the twelfth Imam. He then joined the community led by Imam Jamil al-Amin, formerly H. Rap Brown, who had embraced Islam in 1971 in Rikers Island Prison and led a network of over twenty-five Muslim communities. Though he held great respect for Imam Jamil as a proven leader, disagreements led him to keep what he called a "close but healthy distance." His home became a makeshift library for the community, where new converts read the canonical texts of Bukhari and Muslim. He later drew closer to Imam Plemon al-Amin of the World Community of Imam W. D. Muhammad, and through him met his spiritual mentor, Shaykh Abdur-Rashid of Nigeria, a graduate of the Islamic University of Medina. So profound was the Shaykh's influence that he legally adopted the family name Abdur-Rashid. On the advice of the Shaykh, he traveled alone to study at the University of Medina in 1980, hoping to find what Malcolm X had found in his journey to Arabia. Yet he returned after one year deeply wounded, for some there addressed him as "boy," an insult that both enraged and hurt him, feebly justified by the claim that they mistook him for an African rather than an American. He named this the "sickness of racism by Muslims who should know better," and concluded that Arabia was not a place where African Americans should raise their children. Their duty, he told his wife, was to make life meaningful for Muslims in America. His wounds deepened upon his return. Having helped charter the land for the Al-Farooq Mosque as the only Muslim working in Atlanta City Hall, he was later denied a place on its board in favor of others. He attributed this betrayal to racism on the part of immigrant Muslims of Arab and South Asian backgrounds, telling his son: "Khalil, I can take an enemy in white sheets, but I can't take the snake in the grass that bites you from behind." He predicted that so long as intra-communal racism persisted, the American Muslim community would never realize its full potential, saying, "Khalil, because of racism, the Muslims aren't ready for prime time!" This damage contributed to his separation and eventual divorce from his wife, who felt a responsibility to keep their children rooted within the community, while he felt too damaged to remain within it. He chose to remain a Muslim in private, maintaining prayer and the doctrinal tenets of Islam while withdrawing from communal life, relying on what he had learned at Medina and from the Shaykh. Returning to local politics, he legally resumed the name Charles Burris and moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia, the very birthplace of the modern Ku Klux Klan, where he witnessed Klan marches down Main Street. In an extraordinary irony, James Venable, who had led the Klan for twenty-five years and whose family had owned the mountain, came to support him, even placing a campaign sign on his own lawn. Venable's record was itself complex, having defended the bombers of a Reform Jewish congregation yet also having represented Black defendants, including two Black Muslims in Louisiana. Charles later purchased Venable's home and lived there during his tenure, hanging a framed photograph of Dr. King on the bedroom wall. He came to understand that "nothing and no one is immune from the possibility of change," though such change could move toward improvement or toward decay. Through his relationship with Venable's daughter, he secured an agreement that the Klan would no longer hold its rallies on the family's property at the base of the mountain, "which left the Klan all dressed up with nowhere to go." Yet he never formally banned the Klan, remarking, "God does have a sense of humor!" and speaking of a new Klan spelled with a C: "Citizens Living As Neighbors," in which he was "the Black dragon." He placed the "Freedom Bell" downtown in honor of Dr. King, bearing the inscription, "Let Freedom Ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia." As councilman and then as Stone Mountain's first Black mayor, he built sidewalks, halted the Klan marches, raised the pay of police and firefighters, cleansed the city of crack houses, and sought to make it a place welcoming to all peoples. He assured a ninety-two-year-old white resident that he would be "the mayor for everyone." He was hosted by President Clinton at the 1998 State of the Union Address. After his tenure, he led the Southern Regional Council, and later relocated to Baltimore. In 2007 he was diagnosed with the rare and incurable disease amyloidosis, and he died on the 12th of February, 2009, at the age of fifty-seven. His son reflects that his father taught him there is no small practice of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, for one never knows which of the Prophet's practices adopted may be the one to admit a person into Paradise. He held racism to be the worst human disease, corrupting the best of what it means to be human, and he found that some Muslims abandoned the best of their values for the worst of human characteristics in pursuit of short-term gains with lasting consequences. The image of him standing before Stone Mountain, with its carvings of Confederate figures behind him, reveals the ongoing struggle of African American Muslims amid a changing narrative and leadership. The contributions of African American Muslims to the legacy of Islam in America deserve preservation and recognition. In the end, it is not our origins or identities that define us, but our legacies, and his story invites us to ask what legacy we as American Muslims are leaving, that Islam may be understood as an authentic feature of the American experience rather than merely an imported cultural production. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-mythicization-and-mobilization-of-malcolm-x-in-the-malay-world # A Global Model: The Mythicization and Mobilization of Malcolm X in the Malay World **Author:** Khairudin Aljunied **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 20, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract This article explores the ways in which Malcolm’s life and ideas have been mythicized and used as an inspiration for ideational, social, and political mobilization in contemporary Malaysia and Indonesia—two of the largest Muslim nations in the world today. I examine works of fiction, digital resources, and speeches of Malay-Muslim activists who engaged in the mythicization and mobilization of Malcolm’s thought. Malcolm X’s speeches have been translated from one language to another, absorbed, adapted, appropriated, and vernacularized among Malay-Indonesian Muslims, ushering in novel formulations of the notions of justice, freedom, and equality in a setting Malcolm was not very familiar with but had gained much intellectual stimulus from. It follows then that this paper seeks to address a yawning gap in the ever-growing studies on Malcolm X: how his ideas and life story were recast outside the Anglo-American world. --- ## Introduction Few African American Muslim figures have attracted as much scholarly attention outside the Euro-American academe as has Malcolm X. Courageous, sincere, brutally honest, and eloquent, his fame could be attributed to the fact that he was “the first real Black spokesperson who looked ferocious white racism in the eye, didn’t blink, and lived long enough to tell America the truth about this glaring hypocrisy in a bold and defiant manner.”[^1] But Malcolm X did not only place White racism on his rhetorical chopping board. He grew to become progressively concerned with injustices and exploitation of all sorts that affected most of humankind, the bottom billion that populated much of Africa, Asia, and the wider Muslim world. His ideas morphed from a racially-oriented position to one that leaned closer to the ideals of Islamic universalism just before his untimely demise.[^2] This shift was born out of Malcolm X’s travels outside the United States to as far as Southeast Asia. Despite Malcolm X’s attentiveness to the plight of oppressed people all over the world and the sway that he held in the minds of thinkers and laypersons globally, very little has been written about his influence outside the Euro-American world. He has been particularized as a quintessentially American activist who fused Islam, Black suffering, and human rights discourse into a potent political theology. This is not to say that such a localized focus on the legacy of Malcolm X is a step backward in our efforts to analyze his massive contributions. Far from it. Rather, what I wish to argue here is that Malcolm X had a far wider supra-local significance than has been previously assumed and how the ideas, experiences, and models outside the United States shaped his discourses must be placed in sharp relief now more than ever. As such, my purpose here is to add to the “growing cohort of interdisciplinary scholars whose work extends the project of recuperating Malcolm X’s radical humanism and his global legacy, which collectively challenge the ‘Americanization of Malcolm X.’”[^3] Indeed, Malcolm was and is still an exemplar whose life journey, personal reflections, and public pronouncements acquire a deep resonance and meaning among a broad spectrum of people located far in space and time from his own. Malcolm X’s autobiography and ideas have been translated from one language to another, absorbed, adapted, appropriated, and vernacularized among Muslims outside the United States, ushering in novel formulations of the notions of justice, freedom, and equality in settings Malcolm was not very familiar with but from which he had gained much intellectual stimulus. My focus here is on how Muslims in the Malay world projected different Malcolm Xs to serve different ends. In the first part of this essay, I look at the mythicization of Malcolm X in that his life story was novelized with an eye to demonstrating how a marginal figure in society eventually became a champion of the marginals. This is followed by the mobilization of Malcolm X whereby he was extolled by contemporary Muslims as a resource for youths, preachers, and political activists. In this, I examine the employment of the image of Malcolm X to promote certain religious, social, and political agendas. The mythicization and mobilization of Malcolm X’s life and ideas reveal the wide and ever-expanding uses of Malcolm X in the contemporary Muslim world. --- ## Mythicization In life and in death, Malcolm X is a perpetual source of myth, sometimes loved and other times condemned. In the eyes of his detractors, he was a racist, a violent preacher, and a militant, among many negative epithets. Among those who admired his courage in speaking truth to power, he is glorified as an ideologue for the weak, for human dignity, for revolutionary change, and for the excluded. The mythicization of Malcolm X has made him greater than the sum of the many dimensions and shifts in his life. For that same reason, his subjectivities are all too often drowned by a melange of hero-worshipping narratives and iconoclastic critiques, thus making him an either-or: a prized idealist or a demonic demagogue.[^4] Here, I wish to provide a critical analysis of an ongoing attempt at mythicizing Malcolm X as an icon to be admired and followed. Such a mythicization ought to be problematized as it will unravel the ways in which and the reasons why selected aspects of Malcolm X’s legacy are magnified, at times at the expense of other facets of his life. I place under scrutiny a recent and relatively popular novel written by Al Ghazali Sulaiman. Published in Malaysia, the book has been reprinted twice since its release in 2017. Al Ghazali has written twenty historical novels that are all geared toward making his Malay-speaking readers aware of the lives of prominent historical figures as useful lessons for them to confront a complex future. His novels are therefore not sheer pulp fiction but fictionalized versions of actual historical personas narrated in ways that serve a particular function: to reform society. The historical novel that has gained Al Ghazali most attention recently is entitled *Malcolm X: Pembela Kulit Hitam Amerika* (Malcolm X: Defender of the Blacks in America). The title is in itself suggestive of the author’s narrative framework. The novel aims at uncovering the making of a heroic personality whose landmark achievement was to speak on behalf of a marginalized group of people in American history. The word “*hitam* (Black)” placed in the subtitle sets the tone for a story that shows how a valiant colored man struggled in the face of White domination. This “Black versus White” binary that Al Ghazali establishes is among the many myths about Malcolm X that have been circulating especially among writers who would like to position him as a victim of a White-dominated society and a spokesperson for the black community.[^5] The first nine chapters of the novel (almost a third of the entire book) heighten this point as Al Ghazali tracks how Malcolm X suffered under continuous threats by militant White groups which led to his father’s death and his family falling apart. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image2-202x300.png) Nor is this all. Although the overall structure of the novel mirrors that of Malcolm X’s autobiography, the novel also departs from it in a few significant ways. First, like most texts of this genre that are tailored toward making the readers sympathetic to or intimate with the main historical actor, it “summons powerful emotions, it disconcerts and puzzles. It inspires distrust of conventional pieties and exacts a frequently painful confrontation with one’s thoughts and intentions.”[^6] Al Ghazali achieves this by interlacing the descriptions of actual figures and events with dialogues between those figures. Some of these dialogues and descriptions are highly emotive. For example, while grieving at his father’s funeral, the five-year-old Malcolm X said to his elder brother Wilfred, “I am scared.” Wilfred replied confidently (which is the author’s way of showing Black confidence in the face of tragedy), “There is nothing to be afraid of. Our father was a human being. His time has come.” Malcolm then looked his brother in the eyes and replied, “I am afraid that our home will be attacked and burnt down again. Where would we live if our home has become ashes?” Al Ghazali then closes this emotional chapter with a more tragic note which further dramatizes Malcolm’s grim childhood which formed his eventual character. “Malcolm was just five years old and too young to accept the reality of a painful life. Earl’s demise is but a small setback. They \[Malcolm’s family\] least expect a bigger problem that lurks on the horizon.”[^7] Secondly, Al Ghazali’s historical novel downplays many of Malcolm X’s personal failings in the author’s venture to provide a linear account of Malcolm’s ostensible role as a Black rights activist. One example is Malcolm X’s relationship with an African American woman. An entire chapter in the *Autobiography of Malcolm X* is dedicated to discussing Laura and how much she was affected by Malcolm X leaving her to begin a crime-ridden relationship with a White woman named Sophia. Malcolm X openly acknowledged that “\[o\]ne of the shames I have carried for years is that I blame myself for all of this. To have treated her \[Laura\] as I did for a White woman made the blow doubly heavy. The only excuse I can offer is that like so many of my Black brothers today, I was just deaf, dumb, and blind.”[^8] The reality is, of course, more complex than Malcolm X had admitted. Still, Al Ghazali chose to remove this significant part of Malcolm’s life story which showed that he was not merely a victim of circumstances. Malcolm was also a perpetrator of injustice toward his own people at one stage in his life, a fact that he openly disclosed. Viewed from this perspective, if a historical novelist is, as Alessandro Manzoni argues, one who does more than regurgitate “the bare bones of history, but something richer, more complete. In a way you want him to put the flesh back on the skeleton that is history,”[^9] then Al Ghazali has removed more flesh in what could have been a more nuanced depiction, albeit fictional, of Malcolm X. Al Ghazali may have done so to ensure that Malcolm X is looked up to as a point of reference for Muslims. Above all, Al Ghazali’s novel embellishes his subject’s virtues as a martyr of a pristine form of Islam. This embellishment is problematic as it insulates Malcolm X from an in-depth examination of his personality and deeds in order to arrive at a more humanized portrayal of him. Even so, mythicization is not always a negative thing: it can function as a powerful tool for community cohesion, as an instrument of identity formation, and also as a source of inspiration for posterity. Al Ghazali achieves this in two ways. The first was to show how Malcolm X transformed fully from being a Black nationalist into a Muslim who accepted that all human beings are equal. In Chapter 35 with the suggestive title “El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz,” Al Ghazali relates Malcolm X’s radical transformation upon his return to New York City after completing the *hajj*. Malcolm X told the press how he was wrong to assume that all White people were evil and that he had since accepted that Whites too could join hands with colored people to undo injustices. The chapter ends hyperbolically. While driving his Oldsmobile, Malcolm X encountered a White couple in their car at a traffic junction. The man in the car recognized Malcolm X and called out his name. He then asked: “Are you willing to shake hands with a White man?” Malcolm X responded: “I have no issues with shaking hands with a human being.” He then added: “Are you willing to do the same?”[^10] Malcolm’s rejoinder as narrated by Al Ghazali shows how he had moved on from his racist past. In sum, Al-Ghazali’s mythicization of Malcolm X blurs the division between reality and fiction. Indeed, the idea that reality and fiction are two discrete “realms” is quite misleading, for it blinds one to the more subtle displacements and carry-over effects between the two as well as to the specific and mutable nature of the contradictions or modes of alienation that may arise between and within them.[^11] Al Ghazali challenges the established story of Malcolm X’s life to introduce his own version of the various events, actors, and other contexts that gave rise to a globally renowned African American activist. By de-emphasizing Malcolm’s frailties and bringing attention to his radical transformation into a man “whose name would always be remembered as long as human rights and equality are upheld,” Al Ghazali’s novel adds to the internationalization and vernacularization of the myth-making enterprise surrounding the character of Malcolm X.[^12] Malcolm X’s fictionalized life, or his mythicized biography, becomes part of the shared legacy of Muslims in the Malay world in the author’s effort to portray him as a global model to be followed. --- ## Mobilization There has been a resurgence of interest in Malcolm X in the United States today as it copes with the marginalization and mistreatment of minorities, particularly African Americans. The image of Malcolm X is now refashioned, resurrected, and mobilized to “represent the internalized expression of their \[African American\] anger and frustration. The promotion of Malcolm X becomes essentially a kind of voodoo doll—something to shake at White people and say, “I’m not happy here. I’m not satisfied yet.””[^13] Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia have not experienced the same form of challenges as those minorities in the USA. Even so, Malcolm X is still an imperative tool of mobilization and an effective instrument in highlighting stark prejudices. Malcolm X is relevant for majority Muslims in the Malay world because his ideas address the concerns of three main groups: Muslim youth, preachers, and political activists. I will examine here how these three groups have mobilized Malcolm X for their respective causes and how they have used his ideas to effect positive changes in their societies. The mobilization of Malcolm X is, in other words, the use of Malcolm’s ideas for constructive transformations. Due to limitations of space, I will discuss only a few notable examples from each of the three groups. To Muslim youth in the Malay world, Malcolm X is the epitome of courage, idealism, and self-reliance. These are traits that should be embodied by various programs. An illustrative case in point is the Angkatan Belia Islam Semalaysia (Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia), more commonly known as ABIM. This 40,000-strong globally recognized movement holds Malcolm X high as an iconic figure in modern Islamic history who effected change in the lives of young Muslims. Malcolm X is therefore couched as not just an African American Muslim but, as Ahmad Azam (one of the former Presidents of ABIM) described, “one who waged a battle against all forms of oppression.”[^14] Malcolm X’s speeches, ideas, and life story are often quoted, publicized, discussed, and developed by ABIM into practical activities for the youth in the Malay World. From 11-17 April 1996, ABIM organized a public screening of a documentary on Malcolm X at the Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the visit of Imam Warithudeen Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad who transformed the Nation of Islam into a mainstream Sunni-oriented movement. This was one of the many programs that ABIM had organized in memory of Malcolm X’s activism to inspire the youth.[^15] More recently, in April 2016, the Malaysia Youth Council, an umbrella body of all youth organizations in the country held a public forum to critically discuss Malcolm X’s speeches, notably, *Malcolm X Speaks to Young People*. One speaker at the event, Jufitri Joha, was ABIM’s vice president. The main aim of the event was to make Malcolm X known to the young who may have not been aware of his importance. The speakers at the forum all stressed Malcolm’s remarkable resilience in the face of life’s challenges. Malcolm X is projected as a model for youth to be more involved in social and other grassroots causes.[^16] Malcolm X’s ideas and life story are mobilized by youth to encourage them to be prime movers of society and catalysts of change; among Muslim preachers in the Malay world, he is the standard for any Muslim who engages in the work of spreading the message of Islam to the world. A quick search on Google with the keywords “Malcolm X”+“dakwah” yields hundreds of websites written in the Malay-Indonesian language that extol Malcolm X’s role in Islamic missionary work (*da’wah* or *dakwah* \[in Malay\]). Many of these articles explain how he brought thousands into the fold of Islam and captured the world’s attention toward tackling the plight of African Americans. Indonesia’s celebrated and award-winning journalist and poet, Goenawan Mohamed, for example, described Malcolm X’s Muslim missionary work as one that moved beyond addressing the shackles of racism to acknowledging the universal conception of justice as enjoined by Islam. The spirit of *dakwah* of Malcolm X, according to Goenawan, is relevant for Indonesians. “Still we know that Malcolm lives on. The one who transcended hatred or even death.”[^17] For Ustaz Abdul Somad, one of Indonesia’s most popular preachers today, Malcolm X was a modern manifestation of a known model Muslim, Bilal bin Raba, who was one of Prophet’s Muhammad’s closest companions from an African background. Like Bilal, Malcolm X preached Islam to non-Muslims instead of Muslims only. Reflecting on this point, Abdul Somad criticizes Muslim clerics for preaching to the converted in the Malay World, who were making Muslims more Islamic instead of bringing the message of Islam to the non-Muslim population as Malcolm X did. Abdul Samad stressed that Malcolm X’s *dakwah* catered to all human beings, whom Malcolm X saw as his brethren.[^18] Finally, I wish to highlight here the mobilization of Malcolm X by political activists. A cursory survey of the extant literature shows that no incumbent politician in the Malay World has ever mentioned Malcolm X in their speeches and writings and the reasons for this are not hard to guess. Malcolm’s ideas would lay bare many of the jaundiced policies that are in place, especially in the realm of minority marginalization. For the same reason, Malcolm X’s speeches and life story have found their appeal mainly among oppositional forces in mainstream politics as a means by which transformations could be agitated. One prominent example is the use of Malcolm X by members of the former opposition party (now incumbent), Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in Malaysia. During his speech on 4th October 2014 in conjunction with the Hari Raya Haji celebrations (celebrations in honor of the month of *hajj*), Azmin Ali, the Chief Minister of the opposition-held state of Selangor called attention to the spirit of Malcolm X. He urged the public to support democracy, human rights, and tolerance in a multi-ethnic society, which were issues that Malcolm X stood for toward the end of his life.[^19] A few months later, in a lengthy interview, the youth leader of the PR, Nik Nazmi, mentioned how Malcolm X had influenced his views on racial equality in Malaysia and the need for a new form of that politics would redress social and economic injustices.[^20] In the same month, the leader of PR (now Prime Minister-in-waiting) Anwar Ibrahim, tweeted Malcolm X’s famous quote on the misinformation which newspapers were capable of purveying, indirectly criticizing the ruling government of manipulating the media to entrench their power and consolidate their hegemony in Malaysia.[^21] For the opposition politicians in the Malay world, Malcolm X was a guiding light and also a weapon against their nemeses. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image1-1.png) In sum, like mythicization, the mobilization of Malcolm X is inevitably a selective and condensed view of his multifaceted life. Malcolm X’s noteworthy traits and accomplishments are used for the purposes of mobilization while his imperfections are redacted and refracted in ways that transform the negative into useful lessons for personal and social reconstruction. --- ## Conclusion In an incisive take on the legacy of Malcolm X, Emin Poljarevic highlights the epistemic bias within contemporary scholarly analyses that have done much to “sidestep an Islamic dimension of an iconic civil rights leader.”[^22] Poljarevic goes further to state that Malcolm X’s “fearless commitment to justice and equality are still great moral resources for contemporary minority populations in the USA and, potentially, in Europe as well.”[^23] The pages that follow further Poljarevic’s point by arguing that Malcolm X was and is still a great source of inspiration, not only for minorities but also for majorities seeking to realize Malcolm X’s dream of a just and equitable society. Malcolm X demystified the idea that the struggle of African Americans in America was a struggle of minorities against the dominant White population. As he put it sharply, “It’s impossible for you and me to know where we stand until we look around in this entire earth.”[^24] His travels reshaped his approaches to the struggles for social justice and, in so doing, he became an icon, a model, whose words and deeds were emulated by his Malay counterparts. It remains to be seen what other forms of appropriation of Malcolm X will appear in the near future. For now, that Malcolm X’s influence has spread into the far reaches of the Malay world demonstrates the universality of his message and the unique quality of his life story for the betterment of humanity. --- ## Notes [^1]: Cornel West, *Race Matters* (New York: Beacon Press, 2001), 151. [^2]: Dustin J. Byrd, “Malcolm X: From Political Eschatology to Religious Revolutionary,” in *Malcolm X: From Political Eschatology to Religious Revolutionary*, eds. Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 126; Edward E. Curtis IV, *Islam in Black America: Identity, Liberation, and Difference in African-American Islamic Thought* (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002), 12. [^3]: Zareena Grewal, “1965 and the Global Intellectual Afterlife of Malcolm X,” *American Studies* 54, no. 2 (2015): 11. [^4]: Maria Josefina Saldana-Portillo, “Consuming Malcolm X: Prophecy and Performative Masculinity,” *Novel: A Forum on Fiction* 30, no. 2 (1997), 307. The latest iconoclastic take on Malcolm X is by Manning Marable, *Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention* (New York: Viking, 2011). A sharp yet informed critique of Manning’s imbalanced and highly speculative approach to Malcolm X’s biography is found in bell hooks, *Writing beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice* (New York: Routledge, 2013), 71–80. [^5]: See Regina Jennings, *Malcolm X and the Poetics of Haki Madhubuti* (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006), 5–28. [^6]: Martha C. Nussbaum, *Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life* (Boston: Beacon, 1995), 5. [^7]: Al Ghazali, *Malcolm X: Pembela Kulit Hitam Amerika* (Selangor: PTS Publications, 2017), 33. [^8]: Malcolm X, *The Autobiography of Malcolm X* (New York: Ballantine, 1964), 69–70. [^9]: Alessandro Manzoni, *On the Historical Novel*, trans. Sandra Bermann (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 67–68. [^10]: Al Ghazali, *Malcolm X*, 216. [^11]: Dominick LaCapra, *History, Politics, and the Novel* (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987), 206. [^12]: Al Ghazali, *Malcolm X*, 219. [^13]: Darren W. Davis and Christian Davenport, “The Political and Social Relevancy of Malcolm X: The Stability of African American Political Attitudes,” *Journal of Politics* 59, no. 2 (1997): 561. [^14]: “Mengenang El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X),” *Madinah Al-Nur* (blog), February 21, 2009, [https://ahmadazam.blogspot.com/2009/02/mengenang-el-hajj-malik-el-shabazz.html](https://ahmadazam.blogspot.com/2009/02/mengenang-el-hajj-malik-el-shabazz.html). [^15]: “Imam Warithudeen Muhammad,” *Madinah Al-Nur* (blog), September 19, 2008, [https://ahmadazam.blogspot.com/2008/09/imam-warithudeen-muhammad.html](https://ahmadazam.blogspot.com/2008/09/imam-warithudeen-muhammad.html). [^16]: “Kupasan Buku: Malcolm X Talks to Young People,” Majlis Belia Malaysia, April 19, 2016, http://belia.org.my/wp/2016/04/19/kupasan-buku-malcolm-x-talks-to-young-people/. [^17]: Goenawan Mohamad, *Catatan Pinggir*, vol. 10 (Jakarta: Graffiti Pers, 2012), 70. [^18]: “MALCOLM X - Ustadz Abdul Somad, Lc. MA,” March 18, 2019, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ffcNb4J68](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Du8ffcNb4J68). [^19]: “Azmin Invokes Malcolm X in Sharp Hari Raya Message,” *Malay Mail*, October 4, 2014, [https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2014/10/04/azmin-invokes-malcolm-x-in-sharp-hari-raya-haji-message/757945](https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2014/10/04/azmin-invokes-malcolm-x-in-sharp-hari-raya-haji-message/757945). [^20]: Rita Jong, “The Lessons that Malcolm X Taught Me,” *Focus Malaysia*, December 18, 2014, 10–11. [^21]: Anwar Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim), “Good quote fr Malcolm X,” Twitter, December 6, 2014, 5:27 p.m., [https://twitter.com/anwaribrahim/status/541373306507493376](https://twitter.com/anwaribrahim/status/541373306507493376). [^22]: Emin Poljarevic, “Malik al-Shabazz’s Practice of Self-Liberation,” in *Malcolm X: From Political Eschatology to Religious Revolutionary*, eds. Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 227–228. [^23]: Poljarevic, “Malik al-Shabazz’s Practice of Self-Liberation,” 245–246. [^24]: Malcolm X, *Malcolm X Speaks* (New York: Grove Press, 1965), 163. ## Summary Few figures among the African American Muslims have captured the imagination of scholars and laypersons beyond the Euro-American world as has Malcolm X. Known for his courage, sincerity, and unflinching honesty, he was described as "the first real Black spokesperson who looked ferocious white racism in the eye, didn't blink, and lived long enough to tell America the truth about this glaring hypocrisy in a bold and defiant manner." Yet his concern was not confined to the sufferings of Black Americans alone. Toward the end of his life, his outlook widened to encompass the oppressed and exploited across Africa, Asia, and the broader Muslim world—those whom one might call the bottom billion of humanity. His thought shifted from a racially-oriented position toward the ideals of Islamic universalism, a transformation born of his travels abroad, which reached as far as Southeast Asia. The examination undertaken here seeks to fill a neglected gap in the ever-growing body of studies on Malcolm X, namely how his life and ideas were received, reshaped, and given new meaning outside the Anglo-American setting. Much scholarship has particularized him as a quintessentially American activist who fused Islam, Black suffering, and human rights discourse into a potent political theology. Without dismissing the value of such localized study, the argument here is that Malcolm X carried a far wider significance than has been previously assumed, and that the ideas, experiences, and models he encountered beyond the United States shaped his own discourse. In this way, the aim is to join those interdisciplinary scholars whose work seeks to recover Malcolm X's radical humanism and global legacy, challenging what has been termed the "Americanization of Malcolm X." The focus of this study rests upon two of the largest Muslim nations in the world, Malaysia and Indonesia, and the manner in which Malay-Muslims projected differing images of Malcolm X to serve differing ends. His autobiography and ideas were translated, absorbed, adapted, appropriated, and vernacularized among Muslims of the Malay world, giving rise to fresh formulations of justice, freedom, and equality in a setting Malcolm himself was not familiar with but from which he had drawn intellectual stimulus. Two processes are treated in turn: the mythicization of his life story, whereby a marginal figure became a champion of the marginalized, and the mobilization of his ideas as a resource for youths, preachers, and political activists. Concerning mythicization, it is observed that in both life and death Malcolm X has been a perpetual source of myth—condemned by detractors as a racist, a violent preacher, and a militant, while glorified by admirers as an ideologue for the weak and the excluded. Such mythicization has made him greater than the sum of the many shifts in his life, so that his true subjectivity is often drowned beneath hero-worship on one side and iconoclastic critique on the other. To illustrate an ongoing effort at mythicization, scrutiny falls upon a recent and relatively popular Malay novel by Al Ghazali Sulaiman, entitled *Malcolm X: Pembela Kulit Hitam Amerika* (Malcolm X: Defender of the Blacks in America), published in Malaysia in 2017 and reprinted twice since. Al Ghazali has written twenty historical novels intended not as mere fiction but as fictionalized accounts of real personages meant to reform society by drawing lessons from prominent historical figures. The very title of the novel is telling, for the word "hitam" (Black) sets a tone of a valiant colored man struggling against White domination, establishing a "Black versus White" binary that is itself one of the circulating myths about Malcolm X. The first nine chapters, nearly a third of the book, dwell upon his suffering under militant White threats that led to his father's death and the collapse of his family. Though the novel largely mirrors the structure of Malcolm X's autobiography, it departs from it in significant ways. Al Ghazali interlaces real figures and events with emotive dialogue, as in the scene where the five-year-old Malcolm, grieving at his father's funeral, confides his fear to his brother Wilfred. Such passages summon powerful emotions and dramatize the grim childhood that shaped his character. More importantly, the novel downplays Malcolm X's personal failings in order to present a linear account of him as a Black rights activist. A notable omission is his relationship with the African American woman Laura, whom, by his own open admission in his autobiography, he wronged by leaving her for a White woman named Sophia. Malcolm X himself confessed, "One of the shames I have carried for years is that I blame myself for all of this... I was just deaf, dumb, and blind." By removing this episode, Al Ghazali strips away flesh that could have yielded a more nuanced portrayal, for Malcolm was not only a victim of circumstance but, at one stage, a perpetrator of injustice toward his own people—a fact he disclosed openly. As Alessandro Manzoni observed, the historical novelist should put the flesh back on the skeleton of history, yet here more flesh has been removed than added, likely so that Malcolm X might stand as an unblemished point of reference for Muslims. Above all, the novel embellishes Malcolm X's virtues as a martyr of a pristine form of Islam. Yet mythicization is not wholly negative, for it can serve community cohesion, identity formation, and inspiration for posterity. This is achieved by dwelling upon his complete transformation from Black nationalist into a Muslim who accepted the equality of all human beings. In the chapter titled "El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz," Al Ghazali narrates his change upon returning from the *hajj*, declaring that he had been wrong to assume all White people were evil and that Whites too might join hands with colored people against injustice. The account closes hyperbolically with Malcolm, when asked by a White man whether he would shake his hand, replying, "I have no issues with shaking hands with a human being," and adding, "Are you willing to do the same?" Thus the boundary between reality and fiction is blurred, and Malcolm's mythicized biography becomes part of the shared legacy of Malay Muslims who portray him as a global model. As for mobilization, while Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia have not faced the same marginalization endured by African Americans, Malcolm X remains a potent instrument for highlighting prejudice and effecting constructive change. His ideas address three groups. To Muslim youth he embodies courage, idealism, and self-reliance, as seen in the 40,000-strong Angkatan Belia Islam Semalaysia (ABIM), whose former president Ahmad Azam described him as "one who waged a battle against all forms of oppression." ABIM screened a documentary on him in April 1996 alongside the visit of Imam Warithudeen Muhammad, and in April 2016 the Malaysia Youth Council held a forum on *Malcolm X Speaks to Young People*, featuring ABIM's vice president Jufitri Joha, to acquaint the young with his resilience. Among preachers, Malcolm X is a standard for *dakwah*. The Indonesian journalist and poet Goenawan Mohamed praised his missionary work as moving beyond racism to the universal justice enjoined by Islam, writing that "Malcolm lives on... The one who transcended hatred or even death." The popular Indonesian preacher Ustaz Abdul Somad likened him to Bilal bin Rabah, one of the Prophet Muhammad's closest companions of African origin, for preaching Islam to non-Muslims, and rebuked Malay clerics for merely making Muslims more Islamic rather than carrying the message to non-Muslims as Malcolm did. Among political activists, Malcolm X finds appeal mainly among oppositional forces, since no incumbent politician has invoked him, his ideas laying bare policies of minority marginalization. Members of Pakatan Rakyat, including the youth leader Nik Nazmi and Anwar Ibrahim—who tweeted Malcolm's remark on the misinformation of newspapers—wielded him as a guiding light and a weapon against their rivals. In all cases, mobilization, like mythicization, is a selective and condensed view: his virtues are magnified while his imperfections are redacted or turned into useful lessons. In sum, following the observation of Emin Poljarevic that scholarship has too often sidestepped the Islamic dimension of this iconic civil rights leader, the conclusion drawn is that Malcolm X remains a source of inspiration not only for minorities but also for majorities seeking a just society. Having demystified the notion that the African American struggle was merely one of a minority against a dominant White majority—"It's impossible for you and me to know where we stand until we look around in this entire earth"—his words and deeds were emulated by his Malay counterparts. What further appropriations may yet appear remains to be seen, but the spread of his influence into the far reaches of the Malay world demonstrates the universality of his message and the singular quality of his life for the betterment of humanity. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/culture-as-contestation-planting-good-seeds-in-the-nations-soil # Culture as Contestation: Planting Good Seeds in the Nation's Soil **Author:** Dr. Zara Khan **Topics:** Culture, Family & Community **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 13, 2020 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction In 1999, the historic Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York City (one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States) hosted *Sensation*, a collection of works by young British artists. The museum described the exhibit as “an attempt to define a generation of artists and their diverse artistic visions” with themes to be found in the works including “contemporary and pop culture, identity politics, feminism, cultural diversity and racism, mortality, memory, class, and social criticism.”[^1] The Museum’s Art Director at the time, Arnold Lehman, said of *Sensation*: “Reflective of the contemporary artistic energy and creativity in Great Britain, the exhibition contains important work that provokes, challenges, and rewards the viewer.”[^2] Two years prior, several of the exhibit’s works had generated substantial controversy in London. These include Marcus Harvey’s *Myra,* a mosaic replication of the police photo of convicted child-murderer Myra Hindley; Damien Hirst’s *The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living*, which featured a shark suspended in formaldehyde; Marc Quinn’s self-portrait, a frozen head made with pints of his own blood; and Sarah Lucas’ sexually explicit images and sculptures. At the Brooklyn Museum, however, *Sensation* harbored controversy on account of another work: *The Holy Virgin Mary* by Chris Ofili, a work made of paper collaged pornographic images, oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, map pins, and elephant dung on linen. Then New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, offended as a Catholic, threatened to shut down funding for the Museum, stating that government subsidies cannot be used to desecrate religion.[^3] The city’s Catholic and Jewish leadership issued public statements of a similar sentiment, while Hillary Clinton (who would soon announce her candidacy for New York Senator), the New York Civil Liberties Union, *The New York Times*’ editorial board and numerous celebrity personalities articulated defenses of the artwork on account of the cherished civil freedom of speech.[^4] What this incident at the intersection of race (the Madonna was represented as Black), religion, and representation unveils are several tensions that democracy in the United States must reckon with in its *iconomy of power*. According to political philosopher Susan Buck-Morss, iconomy is to be understood as the economy of image.[^5] In this rendering, economy is a metaphor, such that meaning (value) is relational and dependent on context. The icon provides direct, experiential access to enigmatic relationships of sovereign power. The concept of iconomy draws on the Aristotelian conception of economy as ‘household law,’ in which social cohesion is the precondition of political life (“implying relational orders of reciprocity and exchange”), wherein property and social inequality are prefigured.[^6] Buck-Morss’ definition of the iconomy of power is useful for our approach to the Brooklyn Museum’s *Sensation* controversy. Through the iconomy of Ofili’s *The Virgin Holy Mary*, we can directly and experientially discern the (at times) enigmatic relationships of sovereign power. In this case, the sovereign power’s protection of free speech in artistic depictions superseded its obligations to prevent and redress the offense and outrage of New York City’s Catholic and Jewish faith-based sensibilities. Social cohesion and reciprocity, the preconditions of political life, were divided into dissenting factions: those who believed religious iconography ought to be spared from subversive and disrespectful rendering, and those who believed an abstract freedom of expression (no matter how distastefully articulated) ought to outweigh the claims of religious groups in defense of their tradition. Social inequality favored the secular parties over the religious ones. In *The Sunnah as Primordiality*, Shaykh Abdalhakim Murad contends that Muslims today living amidst chaotic confusion far removed from nature, beauty, and saintly examples can nonetheless adhere to the prophetic *sunnah* in its outward and inward dimensions. Speaking of Western art in its present form, Murad states: > Perhaps this is why we Muslims find modern Western art particularly disagreeable and resistant to our contemplation: if art is the crystallisation of a civilisation, then to amble along the corridors of the Tate Gallery is to be confronted with a disturbing realisation. Christianity, when it was taken seriously by the cultural elite, produced significant works, which Muslims can recognise as beautiful, despite the inherent dangers of its love of the graven image. Christianity was sapped by the so-called enlightenment; and now that the enlightenment itself has run its course, the Western soul, as articulated by its most intelligent and most respected artistic representatives, has shifted its concerns to the human entrails. From the spirit, to the mind, to the body—and now to its waste products: a depressing trajectory, and one from which we avert our gaze.[^7] The Brooklyn Museum’s *Sensation* exhibit provides a paradigmatic example of the most recent station in Western aesthetic descent from spirit, to mind, to body, to waste products. The picture is as dismal (if not more) when we survey the poetic arts, which today find their most prevalent and normative expression in the lyrics of popular music. The themes of today’s pop culture poetry pertain only to lower *nafsi* or egotistical/appetitive desires. The most prominent of these are love of wealth, untethered sexuality and fornication, tyrannical power (i.e., power to seize and compel unjustly), and abuse of pleasure-maximizing intoxicants. Today’s popular movies and television series promote a similar hierarchy of values. Our question becomes: what is the cultural imperative for American Muslims, given such a milieu? --- ## The good word and the good tree Allah the Exalted says in Surat Ibrahim: “Art thou not aware how God sets forth the parable of a good word?  \[It is\] like a good tree, firmly rooted, with its branches towards the sky, yielding its fruit at all times by its Sustainer's leave. And \[thus it is that\] God propounds parables unto men so that they might bethink themselves \[of the truth\].”[^8] The good word is the message of the faith; it is the glad tiding, the promise to believers of Allah’s pleasure. The good word is a life of faith itself. The believer herself *is* like a good tree, whose roots are firmly planted—in Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him)—and whose good speech and good actions, good intentions and good works, good knowledge and good manners, emanate throughout family and society—branches spreading wide and reaching for the sky. After the essential element of ritual worship, good works are the extra deeds by which a servant draws near to Allah and receives Allah’s love. As relayed in the prophetic saying: > On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Allah (the Exalted) said: Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall be at war with him. My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask \[something\] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about \[seizing\] the soul of My faithful servant: he hates death and I hate hurting him.”[^9] Our actions are the outer, visible portion of our tree of life: its branches and sweet, nourishing fruits. And our faith is what *grounds* us (gives us roots), providing our sustenance and determining our health and strength. Actions stem from faith. Belief determines and guides practice. As the verses from Surat Ibrahim show, the good word, like a good tree, is firmly rooted with branches reaching the sky and yielding fruit all year long by Allah’s permission. However, just as good belief leads to good practice, so too does corrupt belief lead to corrupt practice. In the very next verse, Allah the Exalted says: “And the parable of a corrupt word is that of a corrupt tree, torn up \[from its roots\] onto the face of the earth, wholly unable to endure.”[^10] What lesson can these three verses from Surat Ibrahim teach us as we navigate culture in increasingly ungodly environs? ### What is culture? All human societies produce and enjoy distinct cultures. If we think of a culture as a tree, it is identifiable by its outermost manifestations—its customs, mores, aesthetics, and products. These are the habits, traditions, values, beauty standards, and sciences and arts of every type, including agriculture, animal husbandry, economy, politics, education, family life, cuisine, dress, music, dance, theatre, literature, poetry, etc. For Plato, artwork being mimetic, or imitative, of real-life objects, occupied a lower metaphysical stratum of life. The objects imitated are themselves lower than the ultimate realities, or *forms*, they depict. Forms can only be grasped through contemplation, and artworks pertaining to the lower soul, ought to be subjected to moral realities. Art, for Plato, was not the default realm of beauty.[^11] Just like a tree, the outermost artistic extensions of a culture represent its firmness and health—in this case, its values. What are a society’s highest-ranking values? They will be reflected in the culture that is produced. And these cultural products and values are further rooted in and guided by the philosophy of that civilization (the tree’s roots). A society’s philosophy answers the most basic and universal human questions, including: What is life? What is the human being’s purpose? What ought we to aim at? What are the most important values that will help us achieve that aim? In this paper, I focus on factors and values to consider for American Muslim artistic cultural production within the broader American cultural arts. Because a tree from root to fruit is a single organism, examining and tasting the culture reveals a great deal about the nature and foundations of that philosophical ground, and guides us to understand what nourishment—*or* *harm*, as the case may be—that culture is providing. While “culture” is a modern behavioral concept,[^12] classical Islamic jurists spoke about *‘urf* and *‘aada*: custom and usage. Dr. ‘Umar Faruq ‘Abd-Allah in “Islam and the Cultural Imperative” argues that Islamic civilization—a civilization that spanned from China to the Indian subcontinent, Somalia, Senegambia, Italy, Spain, and as historical evidence suggests, reached the Americas centuries prior to Columbus[^13]—traditionally related to its sprawling variety of cultures in a distinctly healthy and productive way.[^14] ‘Abd-Allah states: “In history, Islam showed itself to be culturally friendly and, in that regard, has been likened to a crystal clear river. Its waters (Islam) are pure, sweet, and life-giving but—having no color of their own—reflect the bedrock (indigenous culture) over which they flow. In China, Islam looked Chinese; in Mali, it looked African.”[^15] Culture for Muslims has always been understood as second nature. As such, Islamic law has always been known to implicitly endorse local cultures in their positive aspects. *‘Urf* as a legal category indicates that cultural forms have the weight of law: if it is *sound* culture that is neither prohibited nor explicitly harmful, then it enjoys the weight of law. The jurists were careful not to abuse or criminalize the sound aspects of local culture, for “to reject sound custom and usage was not only counterproductive, it brought…difficulty and…harm to people.”[^16] And this is because what people generally consider proper “tends to be compatible with their nature and environment, serving essential needs and valid aspirations.”[^17] Indeed it is from the *sunnah* of our Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, to acknowledge the emotional needs, tastes, and cultural inclinations of all who embrace his teachings. Islam as a civilization, historically, was the perfect balancing point between the universal sacred law (the crystal clear river) and the indigenous cultural forms of a people (the distinctive and colorful bedrock over which that river flows). ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image5-1024x356.png) Culture is so powerful it not only represents the underlying foundations of a people, but it can also *change* those underlying foundations over time. Culture “governs everything about us and even molds our instinctive actions and natural inclinations.”[^18] The roots determine the outer manifestation, but the environment outside can also affect the deeper values. Our instincts, inclinations, desires, and values can be molded and influenced over time by actions and opinions that are culturally normative and prevalent. Perhaps most importantly for developing responsible practice vis-à-vis culture today, we must understand the ways in which culture is rooted in expression, language, and symbol.[^19] ### Popular culture today If culture is rooted in expression, language, and symbol, what do the expressions, language, and symbols of popular culture today reveal about our deeper values? Examining today’s American cultural production, it becomes apparent that the media of choice—the language and expressions most performed and consumed—include videos, poetry (found in song lyrics), movies, television series, and normative socialization habits. Some of the most potent and prevalent symbols of pop culture include money, cars, beautiful and hypersexualized women, romantic love, sex, specifically sex *without/outside* marriage (adultery and fornication), the idea to ‘be yourself,’ the idea ‘Yolo,’ meaning *you only live once*, socially unrestrained freedom; family as regressive to individual freedom and social progress, and religion as antiquated, among others. Further elaboration of these themes reveals some of our values in action as a society: - We live in a products economy and all our products are dispensable.  Nothing is to be reused, and reusable things are only to last for a very short time before being thrown away and replaced. These include coffee cups, water bottles, clothes based on ephemeral clothing trends, cosmetics, and electronics. - More and more of our communities are virtual, as we slowly convert more of our communications to online and social media platforms. One of the gravest dangers of this—and this is not to advocate pulling the plug on technology or social media, but rather to promote responsible, moral, and intelligent use of technology—is that we spend more time on our appearances (i.e., profiles, selfies, check-ins, etc.) than on reflecting on souls for the purpose of self-improvement. A gaze that is turned outwards cannot simultaneously see inward. The latter is something that can only be done in quietude, away from the popular gaze, in intimate *dua* with Allah and/or with the guidance of a spiritual teacher. Virtual communities also don’t have mechanisms by which we can hold one another accountable—something that families, *masaajid* and churches, and neighborhoods *can* do. - Sexual relations, according to pop culture, are completely unfettered. There is no restriction on sexuality other than mutual consent, and this has become the absolute norm. Various other forms of cultural expression, habit, and symbol enforce this. Anyone with a smartphone and the inclination can engage in fornication or adultery. This ‘freedom’ is actually the removal of our mutual *responsibility* to enjoin the keeping of truth and patience in adversity.[^20] Popular poetry, found in song lyrics, promotes a dismal relationship cycle (or worse, a hookup cycle) in which: a romantic or sexual attraction is sparked ➔ a felicitous coupling occurs ➔ heartbreak (or recycling of partner without heartbreak) ensues, due to infidelity (or some other power to exercise preference) ➔ a new partner helps to soothe the distaste and suffering of the previous cycle/a romantic or sexual attraction is sparked ➔ the cycle perpetuates *ad infinitum*. - All cultural notions of power are material; that is, they involve power over something tangible—like people, money, objects, territory, markets, etc. It is the power of conquest, specifically the conquest to fulfill and maximize pleasure, whether that pleasure be buying beautiful clothes, trying a new makeup trend, smoking or drinking, or being in yet *another* romantic relationship. Or, at the level of socioeconomic priorities, the power to achieve upward economic mobility, financially take over a competing company, or invade and occupy a foreign sovereign country. - There is no concept in our popular culture that *true* power is spiritual power. That power lies not in *fulfilling* pleasures, but in *transcending* being ruled by them. There is no concept in pop culture that true power is power *over* the lower self; only power (*of* the *nafs*) over others is considered impressive. Religion is considered the opposite of freedom because it can hold you back from what is seen as being your “true” self in one way or another. Increasingly, the only occasion in which pop culture affords value to religious experience is when its expression is somehow being turned on its head. Examples include a gay church, or “finding God” in places and experiences that are inimical to what God commands. But these are only the negative aspects of pop culture. Above all, pop culture is a *field of contestation*. Culture can be a battleground of competing values. While we live in a largely throw-away society, at the same time there are movements to reduce waste, to cultivate urban farms, and to recycle and end the use of plastic bags. While many people have switched to virtual communities and social media communication, so too are there community associations, food co-ops, and other initiatives to restore more traditional forms of community. Just as sexuality has become an appetite completely swollen out of proportion, as well as anonymous and completely untethered from the familial obligations that Allah the Exalted intends, so too do people continue to get married, aim at monogamy, and uphold the sanctity of new life. Poetically, while scores of recording artists extol fornication, sexual violence, sensationalized alcoholism, and crass individualism, Damien Marley counters the current by promoting a godly life, marriage, and raising babies; Kanaan defines life’s struggle as taking care of your family, neighbors, and nation; and Sevin raps about “being in love” with God “unrepentantly” and how the only enemy that needs to be defeated is his inner (i.e., lower) self. Culture is a contest, so both sets of competing values in these examples constitute it. However, certain values are more normalized than others; i.e., one finds majority and minority positions. We find that an overwhelming quantity, and increasingly invasive in its forms (i.e., internet-based), of cultural production is secular and promotes *nafsi* excess. But this same cultural landscape *can* and *ought* to become more spiritualized and upright. In this land of good trees and bad trees, we ought to be planting far more good seeds. ### Planting good seeds in the battleground of values In order to map a course of action for planting good cultural seeds, it is first crucial to survey the values and underlying philosophies of life that nourish the cultural products all around us. **Pop Culture Product** **Value / Philosophy** Cash/money Never-ending acquisition of products for consumption Greed for more and more Lack of charity (global supply chain) Fear of death ➔ No belief in afterlife Power = material Justice as law of the strong (political realism) Earthly kingdom > Afterlife Virtual communities No accountability to others ➔ Self-invention (vs. co-constitution) The self as Sovereign (all rights; no responsibilities) Pleasure-driven*YOLO* ~~I ought~~ ➔ I want No consequential belief in afterlife Religion =/= Freedom Freedom *from* submission, not freedom *through* submission; indifference to God Unfettered sexuality All of the above + Reign of the *nafs* The above chart indicates some of the roots of popular culture today. Our societal drive to acquire maximal monetary wealth, coupled with our never-ending acquisition of products for temporary consumption, indicates that we have become a people of insufferable greed. Our habits are an example of the divine description in Surat At Takathur of those obsessed with greed for more and more.[^21] Our runaway materialism is also associated with a lack of charity within the human family. A cursory study of the global supply chain (extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal)[^22] shows how nations of people must be made peripheral to the human civilizational story and suffer unlivable poverty so that others in the metropoles of the world may become central actors, living affluently and consuming conspicuously. On the level of spiritual psychology, rampant consumerism and love of wealth reveal a fear of death.[^23] As the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, said: “If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys, for nothing fills his mouth except dust. And Allah forgives whoever repents to Him.”[^24] For it is only when we think we will live forever (or that what follows earthly life is inconsequential) that we mistakenly resort to building earthly kingdoms that we believe might preserve us after death.[^25] The cultural norm that all power is material has deep roots in Western political thought (though this strand has always been contested). In Plato’s *Republic*, the character of Thrasymachus answers Socrates’ main question (*What is justice?*) with the idea that justice is the interest of the powerful. In *Gorgias*, the character of Callicles similarly maintains that it is natural law for the strong to dominate the weak. Later political philosophers in the Western tradition who continued the *political realism* of this position include Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke. Political realism’s underlying philosophy of life privileges the earthly life over the afterlife. However, as Muslims, we know that all earthly power (no matter how sprawling or impressive) is only conferred by the Most Powerful, and is, ultimately, a spiritual test. We find in virtual communities many opportunities to spread good words and provoke good works. But the sordid side of this young phenomenon is the lack of accountability. Virtual communities (activated through smart technology, social media, and the internet) provide a cloak of anonymity for those whose whisperings require it. They feed the mammoth delusion that we invent ourselves: filtering faces; editing speech acts; adding and subtracting people from our social circles at will; etc. Rather, human beings constitute one another in a way that cannot nor ought be detangled. Virtual communities can easily eclipse the fullness of our social nature for those who are not vigilant. The broader context that nurtures these cultural products and processes is the riotous rank that pleasure enjoys. It is no hyperbole to claim that much of our popular culture celebrates decadence and hedonism. Ethics philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre argues that, over the course of philosophical and moral permutations, the syllogism for practical actions transformed from the traditional *I ought* to the materialist *I want*.[^26] Whereas practical action previously had to stem from some moral imperative, lower desires and personal preferences alone now provide sufficient justifications for the decisions we take, without regard to the (or *any*) moral law. This philosophy of life helps to explain the popular mantra *yolo!* Signifying that *you only live once*, the phrase is uttered in contexts where caution will be thrown to the wind, and living a full life means liberating oneself from traditional restraints. Such motivation bypasses not only a belief in an afterlife (ultimate accountability), but also descends another level to disregard immediate consequences. In popular cultural expressions, we find that religion, religious leaders and practitioners, and even prophets are often caricatured or reviled. When these archetypes are presented as subverting traditional religious norms, they are celebrated for being forward-thinking. To provide a commonplace example, the Abrahamic faiths all prohibit fornication, adultery, and homosexual acts—and these prohibitions violate the unfolding liberal sexual freedoms of our age. Rather than problematize, think through, and reformulate what tolerance and pluralism mean in a shared and contested terrain of *adyaan* (plural of *din*), religion is made to bend to prevailing sexual mores. Good religion will evolve with the river of time in its conception of human sexuality; bad religion will remain recalcitrant, antiquated, and unfree. At its roots, this debate makes clear that popular culture is indifferent to the Creator, and will be determined by *human qua human* deliberations alone. The cultural norm of unfettered sexuality contains within it many of the motivations and values elucidated above, and resolutely affirms the reign of the *nafs*, or lower appetites. As Shaykh Mokhtar Maghroui succinctly stated, freedom in a secular sense is the freedom of the *nafs* from the *khalq* (creation)*;* but freedom for us (Muslims) is freedom of the *qalb* (the intuitive substance that can know Allah or become corrupt) from the *nafs.*[^27] A political guess as to why public regulations on sexuality have been relinquished over time is that increasing unfreedom, specifically tyrannies and juridifications of market and state, risk massive revolt and overthrow—to which unhinged sexual freedom provides a palliative sedation. If these are some of the roots of harmful popular culture fruits, what is the implication? What *ought* we do? --- ## Our cultural imperative Before the advent of Islam, poetry was the dominant mode of cultural expression of the Arabs of Mecca. With the advent of Islam, Allah the Exalted sent down a book from Himself in superior poetic form that responded directly to the existent culture of the time. In that way, the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, enabled the first Muslims to refine the existing culture, speaking the truth as opposed to boasting, emphasizing prophetic lineage as opposed to tribal lineage, celebrating acts of good deeds as opposed to celebrating carnal escapades. For example, let us consider the distinction between the pre-Islamic *Jahiliy* and Qur’anic conceptions of time. The characteristic philosophy of life of *Jahiliy* Arabs was a pessimistic nihilism, with no notion of a Hereafter. Human existence on earth was in the hands of the “tyrannical sway” of a “powerful master”: *dahr*, or time.  Allah the Exalted says of them: “They say: there is nothing but this present life of ours; we die and we live, and it is only ‘Time’ that destroys us.”[^28] *Dahr* had various other names: *zaman* (time), *‘asr* (age), *ayyam* (days), *‘awd* (time), but the underlying idea was always that an abstract *fate* (what Machiavelli referred to as the Roman goddess *Fortuna* and what today’s culture calls “the universe”) decides all human fortune and suffering. As Toshihiko Isuztsu shows in his semantic study of the Qur’anic worldview, “no one, not even the most valiant warrior, the wisest sage, can escape from the blind and capricious tyranny of *dahr*…a dark conception of human destiny.”[^29] The *Jahiliy* Arabs subscribed to a dismal determinism. As opposed to this, of course, the Qur’anic worldview places all of human life under God’s will and control (see Figures \* and \* below). Death is *not* the terminal point of all existence, but *khulud* is the eternal life: ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image3-1024x556.png) Figure 1: *Jahiliy* Arab conception of time and determinism ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image1-1024x635.png) Figure 2: Qur’anic conception of time and Allah’s divine determinism. Notice that *dahr* is subservient to Allah[\[30\]](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=14161&action=edit#ftnt30) The Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, his companions and subsequent generations of Muslims in other lands created new value-based versions of various cultures. Giovanni Herran, in reviewing Muhsin al-Musawi’s *The Islamic Republic of Letters*, argues that Islamic civilization produced “a centuries-long process of intellectual life spanning multiple geographic, political, and ethnic domains…\[in which\] cultural productions represent not only a continuation of a long-standing tradition...but also the emergence of a self-fueling and dynamic ‘literary-republic’ independent of emerging, decaying, or shifting political centers.”[^31] Islamic scholarly texts, assemblies, networks, and extensive travels infused lexicography and literature with the consequences of an expansively open economy of ideas. The imperative, therefore, is that Muslims have to produce culture today as we did in ages past. We have the obligation to plant good seeds in our land but also to be good trees—firmly rooted in faith, unaffected by seasonal changes in our steadfast postures and fruitful in benefitting all (Muslims and non-Muslims alike). For example, Al-Busirir’s famous *Burda* praise-poem for the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, not only sparked dozens of subsequent imitations but also blasted the prevailing discourse and practices of poetic devices—while praising Allah’s beloved Messenger.[^32] To this end, one can’t help but wonder: where are our poets creating 21st-century renditions of the *burda*? Where are our filmmakers, playwrights, and artists who produce culture in a way that is culturally *relevant*; i.e., as American as it is Muslim. Works like *The Honest Struggle* by Director Justin Mashouf (2017) and the calligraffiti of Gabril Garay (see Figure \* below) provide fruitful models of what American Muslim art can and ought to do. Our Muslim inheritance must employ beautiful cultural production in forms legible to American culture if we are to fulfill our obligation to transfer faith and knowledge to future generations. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image8.png) Figure 3: Gabril Garay, mixed media artist, pictured with his blended urban and Islamic calligraphic pieces.[\[33\]](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=14161&action=edit#ftnt33) ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image9.jpg)  Figure 4: *The Honest Struggle* (right) 2017 documentary. The United States has a very rich literary-cultural tradition. At least some Muslims today have to produce brilliant novels and novellas, comic books, and series. At least some Muslims have to produce great blends of Eastern and Western, Native and Settler architectural forms in order to enrich the American landscape with structural pronouncements of *tawhidi* beauty. The United States has an incredibly deep and luxuriant culture of performance poetry, another site for Muslims to infuse the shared American cultural landscape with beautiful Qur’anic values. When Prophet Moses, upon him be peace, faced the Pharaoh and his magicians, they threw down their staffs, which then turned into snakes. Moses was afraid, but Allah the Exalted told him to throw down his staff as well. When he did, his staff turned into an even more powerful snake that consumed them and was victorious. Through the Prophet Moses’ pronouncement of Allah’s Oneness *in the cultural language of the Pharaoh*, truth was established and their falsehood abolished.[^34] If today’s magicians are creating illusions that venerate so many false gods—the false god of the Self, of money, of pleasure, etc.—there *ought* and must be an active practical effort by Muslims to normalize the values and truth of Islam in society. It is a *fard kifayah*, or communal obligation, on our part to produce culture in a way that enjoins good and forbids evil (*amr bil-maruf wa nahy anil munkar*). In so doing, we have to produce culture in a way that avoids both cultural predation and cultural apostasy. Cultural predation means to burn and obliterate what is distinctive about a culture. Many famous classical Muslim jurists—‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Baghdadi, Al-Sarakhsi, Al-Shatibi, Al-Tusili—all declared it unjust to forbid the unique characteristics of culture, provided they were not harmful.[^35] Cultural apostasy is also not a viable option for our dignified participation in social life.[^36] Cultural apostasy, an expectation that is unfortunately often heaped upon reverts and converts to Islam, is the idea that you have to disavow, abandon, and disassociate from aspects of your culture because you are Muslim. All praise and thanks be to Allah who guided us to Islam. But our *cultures* are unmistakably surviving on American soil. The only way the tree of our faith can take root in this *our* land is if we fully acknowledge *this* soil. Our community ought to make a concerted effort to manage our expectations and goal-setting with regard to career choices. Professionals in medicine, engineering, and Information Technology are healthy to the life of any community but in surplus, they may become carcinogenic. What we need to ensure, however, is that we look favorably upon those whose life’s work involves graphic design, production, animation, literature and other writing, poetry, criticism, business, and philanthropy, as well as education that can think outside the normative circuit. How else can we hope to demonstrate an alternative to the harm that reaches further and deeper each day through cultural media? Today we find many free clinics established by Muslims in America. These highlight the Islamic value of *ihsaan*, or benevolence, and are a good example of an attempt to create culture through specialized knowledge and charitable endowments. Let us turn with the same spirit toward artistic cultural production. ‘Abd-Allah states that the “intelligent use of indigenous language has been an aspect of Muslim culture wherever it flourished.”[^37] Poetry is an indigenous language in this land. Where are the Muslim poets today, who like Hassan ibn Thabit, can sling rhymes fiercer than the arrows of our enemies? And did his poetry not *please* the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, tremendously? Would *our* poetry today speaking about Allah, His Messenger, the correct philosophy and goodly values of life not also please him and stake a claim in his legacy? If we produce good words today to enjoin the good and forbid the evil in our *shared* cultural space, wouldn’t Allah bless us with branches that reach the sky and fruit that grows in every season? And Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection,” Brooklyn Museum, April 1999, [https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/683](https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/683). [^2]: “Sensation: Young British Artists.” [^3]: “Sensation Sparks New York Storm,” BBC News, September 23, 1999, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/455902.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/455902.stm). [^4]: Wikipedia, s.v. “Sensation (art exhibition),” last modified May 14, 2019, 13:13, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensation\_(art\_exhibition)#New\_York\_City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensation_\(art_exhibition\)%23New_York_City). [^5]: Susan Buck-Morss, “Visual Empire,” the website of Susan Buck-Morss, April 9, 2013, [http://susanbuckmorss.info/text/visual-empire/](http://susanbuckmorss.info/text/visual-empire/). [^6]: Buck-Morss. [^7]: Abdal Hakim Murad, “The Sunna as Primordiality,” Masud.co.uk, April 1999, [http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/sunnah.htm](http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/sunnah.htm). [^8]: Qur’an, 14:24–25, trans. Muhammad Asad. [^9]: Sahih al-Bukhari: 6502. [^10]: Qur’an, 14:26. [^11]: Plato, *Republic*, bks. 3, 4, and 10. [^12]: Pioneers in the early iterations of the modern concept of “culture” include Franz Boas, in his study of the relationship between man and land among the Inuit (see Ludger Müller-Wille, “Franz Boas \[1858-1942\],” *Arctic* 36, no. 2 \[Jun. 1983\]: 212–13); Margaret Mead in her Pacific ethnography that integrated Freudian analysis with cultural studies (see Lenora Foerstel and Angela Gilliam, *Confronting Margaret Mead: Scholarship, Empire, and the South Pacific* \[Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992\]); A. L. Kroeber in his study of *Style and Civilizations* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963); and Ruth Benedict’s theoretical elaboration in *Patterns of Culture* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934). [^13]: See Ivan Van Sertima, *They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America* (New York: Random House, 1976); Abdullah Hakim Quick, *Deeper Roots: Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean Before Columbus* (Nassau, Bahamas: AICCLA, 1990); and Clyde-Ahmad Winters, “Islam in Early North and South America,” *Al-Ittihad* 14, nos. 3–4 (Jul.–Oct. 1977). [^14]: Umar Faruq ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative” (Nawawi Foundation, 2004). [^15]: ‘Abd-Allah. [^16]: ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative,” 6. “Sound” culture refers to that which is neither forbidden nor harmful. [^17]: ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative,” 4. [^18]: ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative.” [^19]: ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative.” [^20]: Qur’an, 103:3. [^21]: Qur’an, 102:1. [^22]: See “The Story of Stuff,” The Story of Stuff Project, written by Annie Leonard, Louis Fox, and Jonah Sachs, directed by Louis Fox (Free Range Studios, December 2007), [https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/](https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/). [^23]: For further elaboration of this point, see Zara Khan, “Personhood and Tech: Moral Accountability in the Smartphone Era,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research* (forthcoming). [^24]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*: 6439. [^25]: Qur’an, 104:1–3. [^26]: Alasdair MacIntyre, *After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory* (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), 277. [^27]: Mokhtar Maghraoui, “*Dhunoob* and Freedom of the *Qalb*,” in “Purification of the Hearts,” vol. 1 (Zawiyah Productions, 2004), CD. [^28]: Qur’an, 45:23. [^29]: Toshihiko Izutsu, “Ontological Relation Between God and Man,” in *God and Man in the Qur’an: Semantics of the Qur’anic* Weltanschauung (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2002), 133–139. [^30]: Adapted from Izutsu, 138. [^31]: See Giovanni Herran, “Reviewed Work: The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction by Muhsin J. al-Musawi,” *Comparative Literature Studies* 55, no. 1 (2018), 237–241. See also Muhsin J. al-Musawi, *The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction* (Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press, 2015). [^32]: al-Musawi. [^33]: See Umm Issa, “Gabril’s Art (Mixed Media Artist),” Islamic Art Expo, March 23, 2013,  [https://www.islamicartexpo.com/gabrils-art-mixed-media-artist/archives/03-2014](https://www.islamicartexpo.com/gabrils-art-mixed-media-artist/archives/03-2014) and “Calligraffiti: How Artist Gabriel Garay Blends Graffiti and Calligraphy,” Scripts ’n’ Scribes, March 2, 2018, [https://www.scriptsnscribes.com/blogs/2018/3/21/calligraffitii-how-artist-gabriel-garay-blends-graffiti-and-calligraphy](https://www.scriptsnscribes.com/blogs/2018/3/21/calligraffitii-how-artist-gabriel-garay-blends-graffiti-and-calligraphy). [^34]: Qur’an, 7:104–118. [^35]: ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative.” [^36]: See Muhammad Khalifa, Omar Suleiman, James Wright, and Nimo M. Abdi, “Ancestral Knowledge and American Muslims: Rooting Cultural Resistance in Islam,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, February 21, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muhammad-khalifa/ancestral-knowledge-and-american-muslims-rooting-cultural-resistance-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muhammad-khalifa/ancestral-knowledge-and-american-muslims-rooting-cultural-resistance-in-islam/). [^37]: ‘Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative,” 8. ## Summary In 1999, the Brooklyn Museum of Art hosted an exhibit titled *Sensation*, a display of works by young British artists that had already stirred controversy in London two years earlier. In New York, the greatest uproar centered on Chris Ofili's *The Holy Virgin Mary*, a work depicting a Black Madonna assembled from pornographic collage, elephant dung, and other materials. The city's mayor at the time, Rudy Giuliani, was offended as a Catholic and threatened to withdraw the museum's funding, and Catholic and Jewish leaders voiced similar objections, while others—including public figures, a civil liberties organization, and a newspaper editorial board—defended the work in the name of free speech. This episode reveals a tension at the meeting point of race, religion, and representation. Drawing on the political philosopher Susan Buck-Morss and her concept of "iconomy"—the economy of the image, in which the icon grants direct access to the enigmatic workings of sovereign power—the controversy shows how the secular protection of artistic expression was allowed to override the offense felt by religious communities, so that the preconditions of shared political life fractured into opposing camps, with social inequality favoring the secular over the religious. Shaykh Abdalhakim Murad, in *The Sunna as Primordiality*, observes that Muslims find modern Western art particularly resistant to contemplation. He notes that when Christianity was taken seriously by the cultural elite it produced works Muslims can recognize as beautiful, despite the inherent dangers of its love of the graven image, but that after the fading of the Enlightenment the Western soul has shifted its concerns "from the spirit, to the mind, to the body—and now to its waste products," a trajectory he calls depressing and from which he averts his gaze. *Sensation* stands as an example of this descent. A similar decline appears in the poetic arts, whose most common expression today is found in the lyrics of popular music, which dwell only upon lower, appetitive (*nafsi*) desires—love of wealth, untethered sexuality and fornication, tyrannical power, and intoxicants. The question that follows is: what is the cultural imperative for American Muslims living in such an environment? Allah the Exalted says in Sūrat Ibrāhīm: "Art thou not aware how God sets forth the parable of a good word? [It is] like a good tree, firmly rooted, with its branches towards the sky, yielding its fruit at all times by its Sustainer's leave" (Qur'an 14:24–25, trans. Muhammad Asad). The good word is the message of faith, and the believer is herself like a good tree, rooted in Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, whose good speech, actions, intentions, knowledge, and manners spread through family and society. After obligatory worship, it is good works that draw the servant near to Allah, as related on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who reported the Prophet ﷺ conveying that Allah said: "My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks" (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6502). Just as good belief yields good practice, corrupt belief yields corruption, for the very next verse describes "the parable of a corrupt word... that of a corrupt tree, torn up [from its roots] onto the face of the earth, wholly unable to endure" (Qur'an 14:26). Every human society produces its own culture, which may be pictured as a tree known by its outermost fruits—its customs, values, arts, and products—while its roots are the philosophy that answers life's deepest questions about purpose and the highest goods. Here it is noted that for Plato, art was mimetic and occupied a lower metaphysical rank, so that works pertaining to the lower soul ought to be subjected to moral realities, and art was not for him the default realm of beauty. While "culture" is a modern concept, classical jurists spoke of *ʿurf* and *ʿāda*—custom and usage. Dr. ʿUmar Farūq ʿAbd-Allāh, in *Islam and the Cultural Imperative*, argues that Islamic civilization related to diverse cultures in a healthy way, likening Islam to "a crystal clear river" whose pure waters, having no color of their own, reflect the bedrock of indigenous culture over which they flow—so that in China Islam looked Chinese, and in Mali it looked African. Because *ʿurf* carries the weight of law, jurists were careful not to criminalize sound custom that was neither forbidden nor harmful, since rejecting it brings difficulty and harm to people. Yet culture is also powerful enough to reshape those very foundations over time, molding instincts and inclinations, and it is rooted in expression, language, and symbol. Examining today's American cultural production, its most consumed media are videos, song lyrics, films, and series, and its most potent symbols include money, cars, hypersexualized women, sex outside marriage, the mottos "be yourself" and "YOLO," unrestrained freedom, and the framing of family and religion as obstacles to progress. This yields a throwaway products economy, increasingly virtual communities that lack mechanisms of mutual accountability, an unfettered sexuality restrained by nothing but consent, and a repeated cycle of coupling and heartbreak in popular song. All cultural notions of power are shown to be material—power over people, money, or territory—with no recognition that true power is spiritual, lying in transcending the lower self rather than serving it. Yet culture is above all a field of contestation: alongside waste there are movements to reduce it, alongside virtual life there are efforts to restore community, and alongside artists who extol vice, figures such as Damian Marley, Kanaan, and Sevin promote godliness, marriage, and love of God. Certain values are simply more normalized than others, and in this land of good and bad trees, more good seeds ought to be planted. Tracing the roots of harmful culture reveals a set of underlying philosophies. Rampant consumerism and love of wealth reflect the divine description in Sūrat At-Takāthur of those obsessed with "more and more" (Qur'an 102:1), and betray a fear of death, for the Prophet ﷺ said that if the son of Adam had a valley of gold he would desire two, "for nothing fills his mouth except dust" (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6439). The notion that all power is material has roots in a contested strand of Western thought—Thrasymachus in Plato's *Republic*, Callicles in the *Gorgias*, and later Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke—whereas Muslims know all earthly power is conferred by the Most Powerful as a test. Alasdair MacIntyre argues that moral reasoning shifted from "I ought" to "I want," which helps explain the mantra "YOLO." Religion, meanwhile, is caricatured and made to bend to prevailing sexual mores, revealing a culture indifferent to the Creator. As Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui expressed it, secular freedom is freedom of the *nafs* from the creation, but our freedom is freedom of the *qalb* from the *nafs*. The imperative, then, is that Muslims must produce culture today as they did in ages past. Just as the Qur'an, sent in superior poetic form, refined the poetry of the Arabs and replaced the fatalistic worship of *dahr*—which they blamed for destroying them (Qur'an 45:23), as Toshihiko Izutsu shows in his study of the Qur'anic worldview—with life under Allah's will and the promise of *khulūd*, so must Muslims produce good culture now. Islamic civilization built a centuries-long "literary republic," and works like al-Būṣīrī's *Burda* transformed poetic practice while praising the Messenger ﷺ. The call is for present-day poets, filmmakers, and artists—with models such as Justin Mashouf's *The Honest Struggle* and the calligraffiti of Gabril Garay—to create work at once American and Muslim. As Moses ﷺ cast down his staff and overcame the magicians in the Pharaoh's own idiom (Qur'an 7:104–118), Muslims must confront today's illusions of self, money, and pleasure, for producing such culture is a *farḍ kifāya* of enjoining good and forbidding evil. This must avoid both cultural predation—obliterating a culture's distinctiveness, which jurists such as al-Baghdādī, al-Sarakhsī, al-Shāṭibī, and al-Tusūlī deemed unjust when the traits were not harmful—and cultural apostasy, the demand that converts disavow their heritage. As Ḥassān ibn Thābit's poetry pleased the Prophet ﷺ, so may faithful cultural production today, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-idea-of-justice-in-the-quran # More Than Just Law: The Idea of Justice in the Qur’an **Author:** Dr. Yasien Mohamed **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 7, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction There is an urgent need to revitalize the concept of justice specifically as a virtue since the focus in the Islamic and Western worlds has been more significantly on the juridical and political aspects of justice. Since the European Enlightenment, the classical philosophical conception of justice has been replaced by individualistic conceptions of human nature, focusing on human rights. But for a society to operate with full justice we need righteous humans. For peace and justice to prevail in society, we do not require only laws of justice, but also people of justice. That is to say, justice as a virtue of political institutions should be brought in relation to justice as a virtue of character. Justice is the only one of the four virtues that is inherently good. Wisdom, temperance, and courage are good when they serve virtuous ends, but justice surpasses all of them because it is concerned with the quality of the soul and society. Justice is concerned with both an inward quality of the soul and an outward quality of virtue. We have to be just to ourselves and with everything else and everyone else around us. Qur’anic justice must be seen in the context of the age of ignorance (*jāhilīyah*) in which it was first revealed. Ignorance implies the ‘reckless temper’ of pagan Arabs who were prone to violence. In the name of manliness (*murūʾah*), they sought violent revenge for the smallest slights, inspiring blood feuds that sometimes went on for generations.[^1] The Qur’an made them aware that the essence of morality comes from moral responsibility, not tribal loyalty and preservation. The Qur’an taught them that every person is responsible for his or her actions, and thereby transformed tribal loyalty into a personal morality: “No burdened soul shall bear the burden of another, and every person will be accountable on the Day of Judgment for himself” (Q. 13:89; 31:32). A universal personhood governed by justice and kindness is more important than tribal custom and law. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ responded to the challenges of his time, curbing the violence and cruelty of the pagan Arabs. The Qur’an devotes two hundred verses to admonishing those who are guilty of injustice and oppression. The Qur’an provides the principles of justice, but scholars have differed as to how they should be implemented. I will discuss the example of one classical scholar, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1060), who integrated the philosophical knowledge available to him in his time into a Qur’anic framework. This is an indication of how classical Muslim philosophers, such as al-Iṣfahānī, were open-minded representatives of Islam and were not averse to knowledge from foreign sources. Al-Iṣfahānī’s theory of justice is not absolute, but only an attempt at *ijtihād*. We may not agree with it entirely, but we can learn from his method of integrating  contemporary knowledge into the Islamic worldview. --- ## The linguistic meaning of justice (‘adl) in the Qur’an The most common term for the word “justice” in Arabic is *ʿadl*, and related terms include *qisṭ*, *istiqāmah*, *wasaṭ*, *na*ṣ*īb* (share), and *mīzān*. The opposite meaning is injustice (*jawr*), and related terms are *ẓulm* (wrongdoing), *ṭughyān* (tyranny), and *inḥirāf* (deviation). These terms are used in the broadest sense to connote ethical and religious meanings. The Arabic word *ʿadl* (justice) comes from the root verb *‘a-d-l*, which means to be equal to, just, straight, and temperate. These significations are contained in the following verses: “I am commanded to decide justly between you” (Q. 42:15); “And when you judge between people, judge with justice” (*bi-al-ʿadli*) (Q. 4:58); “One who commands to justice” (*bi-al-ʿadli*) (Q. 16:76); “Call two upright witnesses (*ʿadlin*) from among you” (Q.  65:2). A word that is synonymous with *‘adl* is *qisṭ*: “My Lord commands to justice” (*bi-al-qisṭ*) (Q. 7:29).[^2] However, as Harvey explores, there is a subtle difference between these two terms for justice. The meaning of *qisṭ* refers primarily to its application concretely within the socio-economic domain, whereas *‘adl* pertains primarily to the internal quality of the soul.[^3] The term *ʿadl* is used in the Qur’an in the following senses: > To act justly or equitably, to be fair in judgment, to be impartial in speech, or witness; to straighten someone to a state of moral uprightness, or from disbelief to faith, to offer a compensation in place of punishment for a sin, to deviate or turn away from the truth, or to set up something as equal to something else, which can have a positive connotation approximating the first of these, or a negative one referring to the sin of *shirk*, worshipping anything else alongside God.[^4] The moral and spiritual connotations of justice (*ʿadl*) in this passage echo partly al-Iṣfahānī’s definition of justice: > Justice \[*al-ʿadl*\] is a term associated with equality \[*musāwāh*\]. It has various meanings, depending on the context. In the context of potential, it is an innate human desire for equality. In the context of action, it means dealing fairly with others. And in the context of the Divine, it describes the complete orderliness of God’s actions. In the pursuit of justice, man tries to be virtuous, but can only be perfectly virtuous if his outer actions stem from an inner noble disposition and character. Outwardly just actions do not necessarily make one a just human being. If the intention of the just action is for the sake of show, a worldly benefit, or fear of a Sultan’s punishment, it cannot be truly just.[^5] Thus, for al-Iṣfahānī, justice (*ʿadl*) pertains to acting justly with others. Outer action is not enough; the person also needs to be upright in character. This is the internal condition of the soul; when in balance, the rational faculty predominates and justice as a cardinal virtue emerges. It is comprehensive: concerned with justice towards the self and others. The appropriate term for justice towards the self is *ʿadl*, and the appropriate term for justice in society is *qisṭ*. The litmus test for this moral virtue is the concrete social situation. These two levels of justice are not separate but complementary, for justice towards the self must affect justice in society, and justice in society must have its impact on justice to the self. The same applies to injustice. Injustice towards others will lead to the injustice of the soul. Every action has consequences for the purification or deprivation of the human soul. Just actions, according to al-Iṣfahānī, are not only justice towards others but also justice to God. Justice generally means equality in the sense of equating one thing with another. In the abstract sense, it could mean equality before the law; “The Believers are indeed brothers” (Q. 49:10). When used in the sense of distributive justice, it is expressed in the concept of *qisṭ*  (equity), *mīzān* (scale), and *taqwῑm* (straightening). The notion of balance is expressed in the word *taʿdῑl*, and the notion of moderation in the word *wasaṭ*. The opposite of justice (*ʿadl*), is injustice (*ẓulm*), from the verb *ẓalama*, which the Qur’an uses to refer to the one wronged (Q. 22:39) and to be denied one’s due (Q. 21: 47). The noun takes on the following meanings in the Qur’an: injustice (Q. 20:111), wrongdoing (Q. 6:82), placing something in the wrong place or attributing wrong to a person (Q. 25:4).[^6] For al-Iṣfahānī, injustice, or *ẓulm*, is to “put something in its improper place.” He provides the analogy of a dot in the center of the circle as representing justice, and deviation from this center as injustice. He cites the verse: “O indeed, those who disbelieve and debar others from the path of Allah have gone far astray” (Q. 4:167).  Deviation from justice is *jawr* (injustice). A more comprehensive term is *ẓulm* (injustice). Injustice is to be removed from the center, near or far, as indicated in the two verses: “But the devil wishes to lead them far astray” (Q. 4:60); and “It is as if those were called from a distant place” (Q. 41:44).[^7] Injustice (*jawr*) refers to stepping out of what is right and ending up at what is adjacent and wrong. This is why one’s neighbor is called *jār*, or the one adjacent to you. This is why justice and wrongdoing are often narrated by the Prophet ﷺas referring to neighbors and their rights. The deviation in the word *jawr* is deviation or straying from the Right Path (*ṣirāt al-mustaqīm*). Thus, there is a nuanced difference between *jawr* and *ẓulm*. *Jawr* is injustice related to straying and deviating from what is right, and *ẓulm* involves doing wrong by misleading others and concealing the truth from people, thereby oppressing them by keeping them in the dark. Thus, *ẓulm* has to do with darkness (*ẓulma*), and *jawr* has to do with deviation. There are three kinds of injustice (*ẓulm*) described in the Qur’an. The first is between man and God; anyone who rejects faith in God is an aggressor (*ẓālim*): “Those who reject faith and do wrong, Allah will not forgive them” (Q. 4:168). The second is among men, which is the worst kind of injustice. “Those who unjustly eat up the property of the orphans eat fire into their own bodies’ (Q. 4:10). The third is between man and himself. “They harmed Us not but they used to do injustice to themselves” (Q. 7: 160).[^8] --- ## Natural justice Ibn Rushd (d. 1198), the Andalusian philosopher, held that the intellect is aware that murder and theft are unlawful. Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 944), the founder of a school of Sunni theology, stated that the intellect is aware of the existence of God and the universal forms of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ without the help of revelation, such as knowing intuitively that stealing is wrong. As for particular practiced actions such as eating pork, we can only know these prohibitions through divine revelation. Ashʿarī Sunni theology differs in its view on knowledge of good and evil and holds the position that the morality of all actions, whether universal or specific, is knowable only through divine revelation. Al-Iṣfahānī adopts the Māturīdī position in this respect, which is reflected in his *Kitāb al-Iʿtiqādāt* (*Book of Beliefs*). In this theological treatise, he was critical of the Muʿtazilites who attributed the knowledge of all good and evil to independent reason first, before its confirmation by revelation.[^9] The classical theory of natural law understands justice as a virtue grounded in the inner character of humankind. Justice is therefore tied up with an assumption that is grounded in the physical and psychic constitution of humans. The classical theory assumes that principles of human conduct await discovery by human reason (with which man-made laws must conform), but for Iṣfahānī it is the divine law that conforms with the natural law of human nature. God is the source of this divine law, just as He is the source of the natural law of innate nature (fiṭrah). This innate nature is inclined to know God and to know good and evil in the universal sense. The law of nature is, therefore, eternal like divine law because the former is the product of God’s will. Al-Iṣfahānī reconciled natural justice with divine justice, as natural justice rooted in innate human nature is part of God’s providence. Justice as a universal principle permeates the whole of creation, and it is because of God’s justice that the world is balanced and orderly. Without this balance, the world would be disturbed and discordant.[^10] Al-Iṣfahānī states: > God describes justice in terms of *al-mīzān* \[the scale/the balance\], because weighing is one of its obvious concrete actions. The Prophet Muhammad (ṣ) said, “The heavens and the earth have been established through justice.” That is to say, if the existence of the world and its principles were either more or less than what is required, the world would not be in perfect order. \[Ironically\], unjust people expect justice to be done: even thieves expect it from one another. If they agree on certain conditions, and some of them violate those conditions, \[they are so incensed by the injustice\] their relationships are thrown into chaos and disorder. Thus, each soul naturally feels happy when seeing or hearing justice, and feels unhappy to see or hear the opposite. That is why even the unjust admire just actions when they see or hear them. It is said a just person is confident of being cleared by God on the Day of Judgment. Since man has an innate sense of justice, he is grieved by the abnormalities and disorders of the world. He is sad to see someone with physical deformities like a limp or a squint. To achieve equality and symmetry, God placed single features \[like the nose\] in the middle, and other organs \[like ears\] in pairs, one on each side of the body. Imitating God’s design, painters and sculptors ensure that paintings and carvings are symmetrical and harmonious and that they are not distorted.[^11] The word *mīzān* signifies that God the All-Just administers balance in the universe, and there is nothing lacking. There is no injustice and imbalance. Balance in the universe reminds us that we should act with justice towards all things, including nature and man. The Qur’an states: “It is Allah who sent down the Book in truth, and the Balance too” (Q. 42:17). And He said, “And the sky, He raised and He set up the balance. That you may not transgress in the balance” (Q. 55:7). Thus, justice leads to balance, not only in nature and in our souls, but also in relations with fellow humans.[^12] Justice is also the reason why the world was created: “God made the heavens and the earth in truth so that each soul could be rewarded for what it had earned, and they will not be wronged” (Q. 45:22). Justice and balance were created by God in all things and beings in the universe, and so equilibrium in the world is an expression of divine justice. Thus, “Such is the artistry of God, who has created everything with due wisdom, balance, and perfection” (Q. 27:88). Al-Iṣfahānī sees justice (*ʿadl*) as a principle of equality and a mean between excess and deficiency. It is innate in human nature and in the natural universe. God’s justice and orderliness are reflected in nature, humans, animals, and in all non-living beings. Despite the innate sense of justice within humans, they are still capable of injustice. Hence, the only absolute justice lies with God. All other justice in this world is relative. God alone can measure everything; “He encompasses whatever they have and measures everything” (Q. 72:28). With this absolute knowledge of human actions, God alone can hold man accountable on the Day of Judgment; thus, should proper justice not be meted out in this world, full justice will be exacted in the next. Naquib al-Attas, a contemporary Malaysian scholar, acknowledges the existence of both natural and civil justice. Civil justice is concerned with law and order in society, including distributive and rectificatory (corrective) justice. The former is administered through the state and the latter through the courts.[^13] Al-Attas states: > Justice is natural (*fiṭrī*) in the sense that justice as a whole precedes man and the state in time from the beginning of creation. Justice is natural because it is an integral part of the Divine principle or law that regulates the uniformity and rationality that is apparent in the whole of nature. Natural justice pertains to the nature (*fiṭrah*) of man as an individual.[^14] The Islamic conception of natural justice is not akin to the secular conception in which the idea of a transcendent God is absent and the structure of nature is self-contained and independent. God commands to justice, has created man with a natural inclination to it, and justice means to comply with the divine command. This is justice to God, and justice to man’s primordial nature (*fiṭrah*), which is itself created by God. Natural law in the Qur’anic sense is the customary law of God acting upon creation; that is *sunnat Allah*, in consonance with God’s knowledge, power, and will, “and the requirements of the qualities of perfection inherent in His Names *al-Ḥakῑm* \[The Wise\] and *al-ʿAdl* \[The Just\] apportioning to each created thing its proper measure; i.e., its *qadar*.”[^15] Nature in the universal sense is *ṭabῑʿah*. Natural law in the secular sense is independent of the Divine; the law of nature operates independently, but natural law in the Islamic sense presumes that all things in nature are directly created by God and are dependent upon Him for power and sustenance. Thus, people obey God not only because He is Good but also because their innate nature (*fiṭrah*) predisposes them to good and obedience. The Qur’an recognizes that we have been created to admire virtues in others. “God has endeared to you belief and made it appear graceful to your hearts. And he has made detestable to you unbelief, ungodliness, and disobedience” (Q. 49:7-8). By God’s Grace, believers have cultivated their souls in such a manner that they are in harmony with their innate nature and so they naturally find good action endearing and bad action abominable. Thus, the recognition and pursuit of virtue is an innate quality in man, born out of his natural state of *fiṭrah*.[^16] The pagan Arabs admired the Prophet’s trustworthiness (*al-Amῑn*). Justice is a result of *aman* (to be safe) and to have *amānah* (trustworthiness). Thus, the one who upholds safety and is trustworthy is *amīn*. The prerequisite for justice is trustworthiness. That is why the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ was first and foremost recognized as trustworthy. Only then was he trusted to work towards justice for all. Just as we naturally admire virtues in people, we also naturally abhor vices in people. We all abhor the thief who steals from us. The thief himself abhors the thief who steals from him and will demand his right to have his goods returned to him. He naturally and instantaneously demands justice. The Qur’an appeals to human conscience and man’s innate sense of good and evil (e.g., Q. 7:157; 16:90; 7:28; and 7:33).[^17] When justice appeals to innate human nature and reason, it falls in the category of natural justice. Righteous people act out of their pure nature; they will honor agreements, be delighted by acts of justice, and offended by injustice. They will not be diverted from justice on account of fear of retribution but will be moved by their natural reason and their human conscience. The use of discursive reason allows us to translate the natural inclination to God (*fiṭrah*) and to all that is just and good into practical law. Al-Iṣfahānī, partly inspired by Aristotle, introduced distributive and rectificatory justice into his Islamic theory of justice. The social laws of justice flow out of the quest for equality in natural justice and also try to fulfill the five objectives of *sharῑʿah*: protection of life, reason, wealth, progeny, and religion. These social laws of justice are not absolute but are attempts to express the principles of divine law, which are eternal. Ultimately, no absolute justice is possible in this world. A murderer might get away with murder in this world, but not in the next world. --- ## Ethical justice: Justice of the self Ethical justice is concerned with the justice of the soul, where the mean between the extremes of vice and virtue is attained. Here the concern is with justice as a virtue of individual character. For example, generosity is the mean between stinginess and extravagance. The Qur’an calls for the mean or the middle-path: “Pursue the middle path as you have been commanded” (Q. 11: 112). Since justice is the whole of virtue in the sense that it pertains not only to the justice of the soul but also to justice to others, the two levels of justice are interconnected, and the social dimension of justice flows out of the individual dimension of justice. The Islamic philosophers of the eleventh century adopted the Platonic-Aristotelian division of the soul into three faculties, the rational (reason), the concupiscent (desire), and the irascible (anger). When the rational predominates over the concupiscent and irascible faculties, the cardinal virtues of temperance, courage, wisdom, and justice will emerge. Al-Iṣfahānī integrated this psychological model into the Islamic worldview such that all the philosophical virtues are spiritualized and are directed towards happiness not only in this world but also in the hereafter. When reason has control over desire and anger, the four cardinal virtues will emerge, which we refer to as the ethical justice of the soul. Justice is the metaphorical crown of the three individual virtues of the soul. It counteracts the crude individualism of the soul that demands everything for itself. Justice, however, does not demand everything for the self only, but also for others. A well-cultivated character seeks justice for others and will check all those who cause willful harm to others, whether against their body, life, property, social status, reputation, or honor. In short, one must be just to oneself in order to be just towards others. Justice to the self implies the affirmation and fulfillment of the covenant between the soul and God. Justice in the Qur’an does not refer to a state of affairs such as: “Between one man and another; or between society and the state; or between the ruler and the ruled; or between the king and his subjects.”[^18] Justice is a condition whereby a person is in his right and proper place. This is not merely a situation in relation to other people but also in relation to oneself. Justice primarily refers to a person’s relation to themself. The Qur’an makes it plain that when a person is unjust, he is being unjust (*ẓālim*) to himself. If one allows one’s carnal soul to dominate one’s rational soul, one does wrong to others and wrong (*ẓulm*) to oneself. One has abused one’s soul and made it exceed the bounds of its own nature and caused it to deviate from the true path.[^19] Social justice in this sense is not mere conformity to external laws but also requires self-discipline and control over the emotions. Hatred for others should not lead to the avoidance of justice. In this sense, the Qur’an states: “O believers. Be steadfast for the sake of God, and bear true witness to equity (*shuhadāʾ bi-al-qisṭ*) and let not the enmity for others incite you to commit injustice (*ʿalā allā taʿdilū*). Do justice, (*iʿdilū*) for this is nearer to piety” (Q. 5:8). Thus, there is a relation between justice (*ʿadl*) and piety (*taqwá*). Here the reference is to *qisṭ*, which pertains to social justice. The word *taqwá* implies self-restraint due to consciousness of God and a sense of accountability to Him on the Day of Judgment. The warning is that in striving for revenge or social justice one must be careful not to commit a wrong greater than the wrong done by one’s enemy. When Prophet Muhammad ﷺ conquered Mecca he forgave his bitterest enemies. For al-Iṣfahānī, there are five ways a man should practice justice: > Between him and his Creator, through living in the knowledge of His Oneness and in accordance with His Laws. > > Between the faculties of the soul, so that desire submits to reason. It is said: the just man is he who is just to his intellect, not his desire. > > Between him and his forefathers, following their good advice and praying for them. > > In his conduct towards others, honoring their rights, and being fair to them in selling and buying and in contracts and leases. > > Dispensing justice through sound judgment. This applies to governors and their agents.[^20] Injustice for al-Iṣfahānī also has five categories: > First, injustice to the Almighty Lord; second, injustice to the faculties of the soul; third, injustice to the ancestors; fourth, injustice to those who deal with him from among the living; and fifth, injustice to the common people. Al-Iṣfahānī states: > The most unjust person is the one who wrongs his own soul, his own relatives, and then the rest of mankind. The most just among people is one who is just to all people, his relatives and then with his soul. That is to say, the unjust person cannot be unjust to others unless he transgresses himself first.[^21] The two passages complement each other; the first deals with the five categories of justice, and the second with the five categories of injustice. I would like to comment on the first two categories of justice: justice to God (the first category) and justice to the self (the second category). The first category deals with basic knowledge of God (His Oneness and Attributes), obedience in the form of obligatory worship such as prayer and fasting, and obedience to the Prophet of God ﷺ. The second category of justice deals with justice to the three faculties of the soul, where reason predominates over desire and anger. Justice in this sense is a moral virtue and it is the basis of justice in a society. It is the precondition of true social justice. Justice to the self, which is the justice of character, is followed by justice to others, which is social justice. Al-Iṣfahānī states: “He is just to himself first, before being just to others.”[^22] If a person cannot be just to himself, greed will cause him to usurp the wealth of others; hunger for power will lead him to eliminate his opponents through violent means; stinginess will lead him to hoard wealth and eschew generosity. Greed is injustice towards the self and it is confirmed in the Qur’an: “O believers, do not usurp unjustly the wealth of each other—not even by trade by mutual consent—and do not destroy yourselves” (Q. 4:29). According to Hourani, the term *ẓulm al-nafs*, or wronging oneself, means primarily to do wrong to someone and in doing wrong to someone one is simultaneously doing wrong to oneself. In this sense, it is a moral term and does not primarily connote harming someone accidentally, although it can also have this connotation. Some acts of *ẓulm* are also related to God and include being ungrateful to God or rejecting God. The Qur’anic concept of wrongdoing is different from that of Aristotle. The phrase *ẓulm al-nafs* is connected to punishment in the hereafter because those who are guilty of sinful actions will face consequences in the hereafter. If the agent harms himself involuntarily or unwittingly, such harm has no moral value, as no one can be held responsible. However, a wrongful act committed out of volition will have the same consequences as those of self-harm.[^23] Justice in the commercial sphere should be tempered by compassion. Muhammad Asad, the Polish commentator on the Qur’an, states that although trade is mutual, the weaker party may consent under duress: “The believers are prohibited from devouring another person’s possessions wrongfully even if that other person—being the weaker party—agrees to such a deprivation or exploitation under the stress of circumstances.”[^24] One party should not exploit the desperation of the other but should be compassionate and not force the other party to consent under duress. This would be an injustice not only to the person who is under duress but also to the soul of the person who causes the injustice. Greed can cause one to be unjust towards others and this injustice will be spiritually harmful to one’s soul. If, however, the soul is just and in balance, the person with such a soul will be just towards others. I would like to turn now to a commentary on the following verse: “God commands you to deliver the trusts to keepers worthy of them; and when you judge between people, that you judge with justice” (Q. 4:58). Naquib al-Attas states that the first part pertains to trust (*amānah*) and its keeper (*ahl*). The keepers should be worthy of trust by virtue of their moral integrity, skill, and knowledge of the revealed Truth. The second part of the verse pertains to arbitration when settling disputes; the keeper of the trust should be prudent and possess religious ethics. God commands to virtue, not only for society as a whole but also the individual. The command refers to both the religious and the worldly affairs of the state and the self. The various contexts involved pertain to three situational realities: 1) God in relation to His creation; 2) man in relation to God and His creation; and 3) man in relation to himself.[^25] The second reality corresponds to man’s justice to God and the third corresponds to justice towards the self. The former refers to man’s duty to God and his role as vicegerent. The latter refers to good moral character, when the rational faculty predominates over the two lower faculties of the soul, and where man is dutiful towards God.[^26] As mentioned, the word *amānah* connotes trustworthiness. When there is doubt in the trustworthiness and justice of political leaders of a country, the citizens become disillusioned and frustrated because the state is unable to protect its citizens from crime and insecurity. Their minds are agitated and they live in fear of the unknown. When the soul is tranquil, it is free of fear and anxiety, and the faithful are not confused about their ultimate destiny.[^27] The trustworthy are to be graded according to their excellence of character and cognitive ability. They should have a sense of critical self-examination (*muḥāsabah*), where they become aware of their moral weaknesses, as these arise due to the incitement of the soul to evil (*al-nafs al-ammārah*). This is how they purify their soul of bad qualities and restrict their lower desires from dominating their rational faculty.[^28] These are the people suited to fulfill the trust granted to them. The verse warns of the tendency to stray from the path of justice if people have the opportunity to do so. If they do not have proper knowledge and character, they may be inclined to abuse power. In verse 33:72 in the Qur’an, God offered the trust to the mountains and they refused to accept this responsibility. This is the trust or responsibility of human free will which humankind accepted from God, but they have proved to be unjust \[*ẓalūman*\] and ignorant \[*jahūlan*\]. This ignorance is not innocent but compounded by a perverse arrogance of the soul.[^29] Thus, al-Attas stresses the importance of justice as a virtue of character, which is a primary condition of dispensing social justice. This verse was revealed in the period of *jāhilīyah*, when the custodial duty of keeping the keys to the Kaaba was entrusted to Uthman ibn Talḥah, who forbade the Prophet ﷺ from entering the Kaaba. After the conquest of Mecca, The Prophet ﷺ borrowed the key from Ṭalḥah but then returned it in accordance with the divine instructions in verse 4:58. Thus, the keepers of trusts are not only jurists. The main message is that trusts should be granted on the basis of merit and trustworthiness and that those in authority should decide cases of disputes.[^30] --- ## Legal justice The essential feature of justice is equality, which implies equal rights for all. This principle is the basic condition of communal life. When justice is applied within the political and judicial domains, it constitutes legal justice. The law can be just if it aligns with the idea of what is right. In this sense, justice does not mean the moral value of a person, but a situational value, which implies the good as it applies to a person. Justice as a moral value is different, and we have discussed this in the section on ethical justice. Thus, in this sense, the discussion on legal justice refers to the situational value of justice, which is the justice of institutions, not the justice of individual character. As already mentioned, ethical justice is of a higher value as it is not constrained by the law. It is a moral action that stems spontaneously from a soul that is committed to what is right and has conquered its lower desires. This application of justice varies from time to time. Islamic thinkers will typically draw upon the knowledge and experience of the time or what is available to them in the literature. Al-Iṣfahānī, in his commentary on the Qur’anic verses on justice, expounded on all three forms of justice: natural, ethical, and legal. For legal justice, he adopted distributive and rectificatory forms of justice from Aristotle, integrating these into the Qur’anic worldview. Aristotle’s notion of legal justice is explicated in his Politics, but this has not been linked to justice as a virtue of individual character as in his Nicomachean Ethics; rather, his Politics is located within the justice of institutions in his city-state or polis.[^31] This is in contrast to the stoic tendency to depoliticize the social aspect of justice.[^32] Al-Iṣfahānī applied *ijtihād*, or intellectual explication, to socio-economic affairs. These are not clear-cut in the revealed text, which allows for varied applications of justice in accordance with new circumstances. He introduced distributive justice (equitable distribution of goods) and rectificatory justice (punishment for wrongdoing). These two forms of justice should be administered through courts and should, therefore, be distinguished from justice as a virtue of character. Al-Iṣfahānī, however, never intended, like Aristotle, to separate legal justice from ethical justice. For al-Iṣfahānī, to be a true vicegerent of God in the social sphere, one must be able to exercise leadership over oneself first before leadership over society. He states: > He who cannot rule over his own soul is not suitable to rule over others. For this reason, God Most High rebukes unworthy men who wish to rule over other people, commanding good and prohibiting evil without having reformed themselves. He declares: “Do you command others to be righteous and forget yourself while you recite the Book?”[^33] In other words, one has to be exemplary in character, because the politics of self should precede the politics of society. His view of justice as a virtue, however, is not so stoic as to depoliticize the social aspect of justice. We know from his ethical treatise that the vicegerency of God is one of the three goals of human beings as stated in the Qur’an.[^34] ### Distributive justice: Islamic economic justice Distributive justice implies economic justice. It is concerned with the equitable distribution of wealth in society. For justice to be applied as a principle of equality one must assume that all humans are equal. God has commanded justice but has not specified how it should be implemented. Although justice is essentially about equality, the Qur’an recognizes differences in people’s talents and skills in the following verses: “He has made you successors in the land and elevated some in rank above others. And He may try you by what He has given you” (Q. 61:66); and “God has favored some of you over others in the provision of means” (Q. 16:71). The differences here pertain to people’s spiritual rank (*‘ibādāt*); however, when it comes to relationships with others (*muʿāmalāt*), then all people should be treated equally before the law. A crime is a crime whether committed by someone of high or low rank, a religious or non-religious person. All people are equally accountable, no matter what their race, color, or creed. The following Qur’anic verse is usually cited to connote the equality of all human beings: > O mankind, surely We have created you from a male and a female and made you tribes and nations that you might know one another. Surely the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is the most pious among you (Q. 49:13). The verse refers to the equality of all human beings and only identifies the superiority of one person over another in terms of piety (*taqwá*). The verse addresses all of humankind, and on the Day of Judgment God will not ask about status or lineage, but only about one’s piety. The reference to “nations and tribes” is meant to foster rather than to diminish the mutual desire to understand and appreciate the essential human oneness underlying outward differentiations and, correspondingly, all racial, national, or tribal prejudice is condemned implicitly in the Qur’an. In another verse, God states: “Keep your duty to God \[or fear God\] by whom you demand your rights from one another and maintain the ties of kinship” (Q. 4:1). These verses reinforce the idea of the unity of origin and equality in creation. They also imply that people have rights and duties towards one another as they all originate from the same divine source. The implication is not a mere sense of equality of creation, but also the reciprocal rights that ensue. Equality is normally regarded as fundamental to distributive justice, but one should also consider differences in individual needs. The libertarian philosophers hold that a free market system will guarantee social justice, and that the maximization of utility should be the primary concern of distributive justice. John Rawls (d. 2002), in *A Theory of Justice* (1971) disagreed with the utilitarian perspective. The increase in total happiness might be purchased at the cost of the suffering of individuals. He also disagrees with the laissez-faire system, because it encourages hoarding. Justice should provide basic liberties for all citizens, such as freedom of speech, religion, and social and economic equality. This does not imply an equal distribution of wealth but permits only social and economic equalities that benefit the neediest members of society.[^35] This aligns with the implementation of justice (*qisṭ*) in an equitable manner in the socio-economic sphere. The government should provide primary needs like food, shelter, and clothing to all its citizens. The rich must share a portion of their wealth to benefit the poor. For Rawls, wealth should be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution would benefit the least privileged in society.[^36] John Rawls, according to Naqvi, is closer to the Islamic position, which makes it mandatory for the rich to transfer a portion of their wealth to the poor.[^37] However, the view of Rawls is not without criticism as Naqvi states: “The Rawlsian difference principle accords priority to the needs of the least privileged members of the society. But even in this case, those who are really worst off \[e.g., those with physical disabilities\] may be excluded from the Rawlsian principles of justice which he defines as ‘a scheme of cooperation for reciprocal advantage.’”[^38] At the pragmatic level, Rawls’ position of the rich sharing with the poor is compatible with the Islamic system of *zakāt*. However, at the spiritual level, it is incompatible with this system. For Rawls, the giving by the rich to the poor is mandated by the secular state but in Islam, it is made mandatory through the Islamic state. Moreover, for Rawls, the rich may not be happy to be coerced into giving away their wealth, but in Islam the rich are generous with their wealth willingly, because it is a  religious obligation and because it purifies their wealth and their souls. That is to say, it is spiritually fulfilling both at the level of the society and the level of the soul. At the spiritual level, the rich are not doing the poor a favor, but are fulfilling their duty to God. They know that the wealth God granted them is a trust to be shared. Thus, *zakāt* is an obligation for every economically able Muslim and it is a fundamental way of bringing about social justice.[^39] Within the framework of the *maqāsid al-shar’iah* (objectives of the revealed law), Islam encourages the perpetual circulation of wealth (*zakāt*) and the perpetual investment of wealth for a noble cause.[^40] Islam teaches that all wealth belongs to God and what we possess is only a trust from God to be used, not abused. Wealth should be spent lawfully and should not be hoarded, and a portion of it is the right of the poor.[^41] The concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich is undesirable and hoarding of wealth is condemned as God states: “So that it \[the wealth\] does not concentrate in the hands of the rich among you” (Q. 59:7); and “To those who accumulate gold and silver, and do not spend in the way of God, announce the news of painful punishment” (Q. 9:34-35). In commenting on the latter verse, al-Iṣfahānī states: > God has prohibited hoarding the dirham and not putting it into active use in economic affairs. … Hoarding gold and silver is like locking away rulers, preventing them from managing people’s livelihood. The Prophet (ṣ) said, “He who drinks from a silver jug actually drinks the fire of hell.”[^42] Jugs and plates made of gold and silver reduce the amount of money in circulation and so stifle trade.[^43] ### Rectificatory justice: Crime and punishment Rectificatory justice is concerned with righting injustice. In Western philosophy, Aristotle's view is the classical statement on this kind of justice. Rectificatory justice is not the whole of justice; rather, it is a special part along with distributive justice. The latter is concerned with the distribution of things that can be divided among members of society in equal or unequal shares. Rectificatory justice is concerned with rectifying transactions where someone was treated unfairly (and so unjustly). When one has inflicted harm on another and has thereby profited, it is the aim of rectificatory justice to punish the perpetrator through a fine or imprisonment, depending on the severity of the offense. However, there should also be scope for the rehabilitation of the offender and compensation for the victim. Al-Iṣfahānī adopted rectificatory justice and integrated it into an Islamic theory of justice. This is a form of legal justice and therefore must be realized through the courts, not personal revenge. It is a universal norm for courts of law to assume a person innocent until proven guilty. If a person wants to take justice into his own hands, his verdict would be based on anger and not reason, so it may not be equal to the severity of the offense. If brought to the court, a judge decides on the kind of punishment, whether it is for minor crimes such as theft or more serious crimes such as murder. In the case of murder, the court must prove whether the murder was premeditated. But if the crime was committed due to an ineluctable urge, uncontrollable rage, or under duress, the degree of responsibility will be diminished, and the offender will receive a lesser sentence. In the case of premeditated murder, the perpetrator will be given a life sentence, but the circumstances under which the crime was committed could influence the judge’s decision. --- ## Justice and benevolence Justice and benevolence are two sides of the same coin, but they are not of the same value. Justice is an expression of the law that seeks equality, whereas benevolence is an expression of the human soul that seeks generosity and compassion. Since benevolence is a voluntary, spontaneous expression of the soul, it is a higher virtue according to al-Iṣfahānī, which is confirmed in the Qur’an. This is explained below with the example of dividing an apple into two equal parts. Benevolence and compassion require the view that bad things happen to people through no fault of their own. The insight of compassion is that people are dignified agents, but they are also victims. Various social support systems presume that people are victims of life’s ills rather than agents capable of working to better their own lot. God requires that we exercise compassion towards His servants: “They are compassionate towards each other” (Q. 14:48). Justice is the basic requirement of the law and is important for maintaining order in society. Benevolence means to be kind and forgiving. God states: “God commands justice, benevolence, and giving \[of your wealth\] to kith and kin, and He forbids indecency, evil, and lawlessness”(Q. 16:90). Kamali explains this verse, stating: > The juxtaposition of *iḥsān* (benevolence) next to *ʿadl* tends to open up the scope of justice to considerations of equity and fairness. Whereas *ʿadl* is primarily regulated by law, the scope of *iḥsān* is not restrained by conformity to formal rules. *Iḥsān* can consist of forgiveness and returning good for evil, or doing a good turn and being generous to those who may have neither claimed nor demanded justice. The reference to financial help in the text evidently accentuates the material dimensions of both *ʿadl* and *iḥsān*.’[^44] Justice and benevolence pertain mainly to socio-economic situations. Economic justice means giving each person his material due. If a person is not able to give another his due because of unforeseen circumstances, then there is the option to act with benevolence. For instance, justice means to divide the apple into two equal halves, half for ‘Umar and half for Zaid. Injustice is when Zaid takes ‘Umar’s share. Benevolence is when ‘Umar grants Zaid his share. The latter act of *iḥsān* is not constrained by the law but is an act of compassion arising from ‘Umar’s kind nature. ‘Umar’s benevolence transcends legal justice. This kind of benevolence is absent in Aristotle, and for al-Iṣfahānī it has more moral value than justice. In fact, justice and benevolence are two sides of the same coin, so should go hand in hand. If one is in a position to judge between two persons, then one must apply justice (*ʿadālah*). As for benevolence, it depends on the individual parties, the perpetrator and the victim. Benevolence includes forgoing one’s right to justice. The Qur’an states: “To forgo it \[justice\] is more righteous. And do not forget to be bountiful to each other. Allah sees what you do” (Q. 2:237). Furthermore, God elevates those who act with grace: “To those who do good is the best reward and more” (Q. 10:26).[^45] Benevolence (*iḥsān*) involves not only forgoing one’s right to justice but also demonstrating kindness and sympathetic compassion (*shafaqah*) towards the perpetrator, in spite of the wrong he has done. God prescribes retaliation as a form of justice but grants believers the option to act with benevolence. This is spiritually beneficial and serves as atonement as God states: “And We prescribed to them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds retaliation; but whoever forgoes it charitably, it would be an atonement for him” (Q. 5:45). It is, therefore, better for a person’s spiritual well-being to rather respond charitably than vengefully. *Al-ʿafw* (forgiveness) and *al-ṣafḥ* (pardon) are forms of forbearance and benevolence. The former is to overlook a person’s wrong and the latter is to refrain from punishing him for his wrong. God states: > So pardon \[their wrongs towards you\] with a most graceful pardon \[without grudge\] (Q. 15:85); > > Those who curb their anger and those who pardon their fellow men: God loves those who do good (Q. 3:134); > > Yet, pardon them and forgive: God surely loves those who do good to others (Q. 5:13); > > But he who pardons and makes peace, his reward is with God (Q. 42:40). Al-Iṣfahānī states that benevolence leads to reconciliation, but justice can lead to alienation.[^46] Justice is the least of morality; it is to give the other person his due in accordance with the law. Shylock in *The Merchant of Venice* sought minimal justice, and said: “And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”[^47] Antonio could not repay the loan on time, and Shylock demanded a ‘Pound of Flesh’ and was not prepared to pardon him. In terms of Qur’anic verse 5:45, Shylock was within his rights to ask for retribution, but it would have been more charitable on his part to forgo his right. Indeed, pardon is a higher ethical value than justice, as it is determined by morality, not legality. For the sake of law and order in society, laws of punishment should be enforced, especially for serious crimes such as murder. However, the desire for revenge should not lead to vigilantism. One should curb one’s anger, and follow the due process of law. The 2017 Pakistani drama serial *Khaani*, is a good illustration of justice through legal means. The son of a wealthy politician named Hadi murders Khaani’s brother and is sentenced to death by hanging. Khaani is satisfied that justice was done but, out of compassion, she requests that Hadi not be hanged but given life imprisonment. This is true reconciliation: the perpetrator was remorseful and Khaani forgave him. This is a good example of justice with compassion. Khaani’s anger drove her to seek justice for her brother’s death, and she achieved it. Anger is often a motivation for social justice, especially if we know that the damage was willingly inflicted by the agent. Khaani sought justice through the legal system, not through personal revenge. She is a good example of justice tempered by mercy. What about mercy without justice? An example of this is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the end of apartheid South Africa. The perpetrators confessed their crimes and the victims forgave them. But justice was not done to the victims, as they were not compensated for their losses. This is mercy without justice. Compassionate justice comes into play when we are aware that the offender is himself a victim of circumstance. This may not lessen his punishment but increases our sympathy. As in the above example, we are compassionate because we know that during apartheid there was a double form of injustice in the form of inequality of opportunity as well as inequality of environment. Today, South Africa has equality of opportunity but not equality of environment. Weinreb holds that equal opportunity is good but of no use if the person’s circumstance provides no hope of success. “It \[equality\] is favored nevertheless because it sustains an illusory compatibility between the affirmation of human equality in general and recognition of individual differences. The illusion makes the principle of equal humanity or equal dignity and respect seem to work.”\[48\] However, individuals may have great potential, but if the environment is not conducive, they cannot flourish. Just as plants will wither away due to poor soil, so will humans deteriorate due to poor environments, as Thomas Gray states in *Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard*: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.”[^49] Islam aims not only for the equality of opportunity to acquire income and wealth but also the equality of economic conditions. Equality of opportunity alone will not relieve the misery borne of the brutal childhoods of many stunted souls. There is a big difference in people’s capacity to make use of these opportunities, which needs to be “redressed by a significant redistribution of income and wealth to provide them with equal starting points in life.”[^50] Muslim countries must work towards equality of opportunity and equality of environment through an egalitarian redistribution of income and wealth based on Qur’anic principles of justice. --- ## Conclusion The Islamic form of distributive justice could create a society that may not be equal in economic standards because it must allow for individual differences, depending on the degree of effort put in. Nevertheless, whether such a judicial system is inspired by Islamic thinkers such as al-Iṣfahānī or it takes on another form; if administered by those who are just and righteous as suggested in surah al-Nisāʾ, verse 58, it would help those who are the least fortunate and bridge the gap between rich and poor in such a way that we would never again live in an Islamic society where there is abject poverty. Justice in the Qur’anic context is about conforming to the divine law and being obedient to God. Justice in the Qur’an has no room for discrimination based on color, race, or gender. Qur’anic justice is a moral virtue and a legal concept. These two dimensions of justice—justice towards oneself and justice towards others—are two sides of the same coin, so should not be separated. Those in leadership positions should be the embodiment of moral virtue if they are to dispense justice in a fair manner. If justice is a virtue of the soul, as al-Iṣfahānī has demonstrated, it will provide the strength of character and the force of will to implement justice at the external level of the society. Principles of justice should not be morally neutral but informed by a clear set of values, not only for the sake of human rights but also to nurture these rights. The focus on human rights in Western society is partly a result of self-interest, and partly an over-legalistic conception of justice. This has led to great societal injustices. There is an urgent need to revitalize the concept of justice as a virtue for the sake of peace and happiness. While Western philosophy defines justice as ‘giving to each what is due’, Islamic philosophy, while acknowledging justice as equality, views justice as an overflowing stream that sweeps away inequities. Islamic justice is not to be conceived in purely legalistic terms but has an ethical spirit that allows for spontaneous acts of kindness from the heart. The Qur’an assigns responsibility for justice to both the individual and the government. There is no limit to how much voluntary charity the individual can give to help the less fortunate. Islamic governments are expected to collect and dispense the compulsory dues paid to those who are in need, such as orphans, widows, the sick, and the elderly. Al-Iṣfahānī in the eleventh century integrated the Aristotelian forms of distributive and rectificatory justice into the Islamic worldview. Contemporary scholars should continue in this spirit and apply their minds to contemporary knowledge and the best available approaches to implement distributive justice in Muslim societies. As for rectificatory justice, it is not only a matter of addressing individual crimes but also about redressing historical injustices through affirmative action. Muslim modernists and revivalists have been mainly concerned with distributive justice. The modernists who were inspired by Western ideals hold that distributive justice is for the public good, and therefore does not need Islamic justification, while the revivalists are hesitant to adopt Western forms of justice without integrating them with the moral and spiritual values of Islam. Justice in the context of Islamic virtue ethics is incompatible with many modern liberal conceptions of justice, which tend to be more inspired by individualistic self-interest than humanitarian altruism. --- ## Notes [^1]: Toshihiko Izutsu, *The Structure of the Ethical Terms in the Koran* (Tokyo: Keio Institute of Philological Studies, 1959), 23f; I. Goldziher, *Muslim Studies*, vol. 1 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1967), 202f. [^2]: Elsaid M. Badawi and Muhammad Abdel Haleem, eds., *Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage* (Leiden: Brill, 2008). [^3]: Ramon Harvey, *The Qur'an and the Just Society* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018), 19–22. [^4]: Harvey, *The Qur’an*, 20. [^5]: Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah ilá makārim al-sharīʿah* (Cairo: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1987), 350. [^6]: Badawi and Haleem, *Arabic-English Dictionary*. [^7]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 357. [^8]: R. Berjak, *The Qur’an: An Encyclopedia*, ed. O. Leaman, s.v. “*ẓalama*,” (London: Routledge, 2006), 711. [^9]: Yasien Mohamed, *The Path to Virtue: The Ethical Philosophy of al-Raghib al-Isfahani* (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 2006), 75–88. [^10]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 350. [^11]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 350–351. [^12]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 350. [^13]: Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, *On Justice and the Nature of Man: A Commentary on Surah al-Nisā’ and Surah al-Mu’minūn* (Kuala Lumpur: IBFIM, 2015), 19. [^14]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 19. [^15]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 20. [^16]: Yasien Mohamed, *Fiṭrah: The Islamic Concept of Human Nature* (London: Taha, 1996), 98–99. [^17]: M. A. Draz, *Introduction to the Qur’an* (London: I. B. Taurus, 2011), 63. [^18]: Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, *Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam* (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1995), 65–68. [^19]: al-Attas, *Prolegomena*, 65–68. [^20]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharī‘ah*, 353–354. [^21]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharī‘ah*, 357. [^22]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharī‘ah*, 358. [^23]: George F. Hourani, *Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 49–56. [^24]: Muhammad Asad, *The Message of the Qur’ān* (Gibraltar: Darul Andalus, 1980), 108. [^25]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 2. [^26]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 2–3. [^27]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 17. [^28]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 8. [^29]: al-Attas, *On Justice*, 17–18. [^30]: Mufti Muhammad Shafi, *Ma’arif al-Qur’an*, trans. Muḥammad Shamīm, vol. 2 (Karachi: Maktaba-e-Darul-Uloom, n.d.), 468–472. [^31]: Jonathan Barnes, trans. and ed., *The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation*, vols. 1–2, Bollingen Series LXXI.2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 1986–2192. [^32]: Julia Annas, *The Morality of Happiness* (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 293. [^33]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 92. [^34]: Yasien Mohamed, “The Idea of Happiness in the Qur’an,” *Yaqeen Institute*, September 12, 2019, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yasienmohamed/the-idea-of-happiness-in-the-quran](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yasienmohamed/the-idea-of-happiness-in-the-quran/). [^35]: Michael J. Sandel, *Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do* (New York: Penguin Books, 2009), 141–142. [^36]: Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, *Perspectives on Morality and Human-Being: A Contribution to Islamic Economics* (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 2003), 44–48. [^37]: Naqvi, *Perspectives*, 85. [^38]: Naqvi, *Perspectives*, 85. [^39]: M. A. Muqtedar Khan, “The Philosophical Foundations of Islamic Political Economy,” *The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences* 13, no. 3 (1996): 389–400. [^40]: Mohamad Akram Laldin, *Fundamentals and Practices in Islamic Finance* (Kuala Lumpur: ISRA, 2008). [^41]: Naqvi, *Perspectives*, 105. [^42]: al-Bukhārī, *kitāb al-ashribah*, 5634. [^43]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 388. [^44]: Mohammad Hashim Kamali, *Freedom, Equality and Justice in Islam* (Petaling Jaya: Ilmia Publishers, 1999), 154. [^45]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 356. [^46]: al-Iṣfahānī, *al-Dharīʿah*, 356. [^47]: William Shakespeare, *The Merchant of Venice*, act 3, scene 1. [^48]: Lloyd L. Weinreb, *Natural Law and Justice* (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1987), 170. [^49]: Thomas Gray, Thomas.  *Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard*, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1920). [^50]: Naqvi, *Perspectives*, 112. ## Summary On the Revival of Justice as a Virtue in the Islamic Tradition There is a pressing need in our age to restore the understanding of justice (ʿadl) as a virtue of the soul, and not merely as a matter of law and politics. Since the European Enlightenment, the classical conception of justice as a quality of character has largely been displaced by individualistic notions of human nature centered on human rights. Yet a society cannot become just through laws alone; it requires just human beings. For peace and equity to prevail, justice as a virtue of political institutions must be joined to justice as a virtue of character. Among the four cardinal virtues, justice holds a unique station, for wisdom, temperance, and courage are good only when they serve virtuous ends, whereas justice is inherently good, being concerned with both the inward quality of the soul and the outward ordering of society. A person must be just to himself, to his Lord, and to all others around him. Qur'anic justice must be understood against the backdrop of the age of ignorance (jāhilīyah) into which it was revealed. The pagan Arabs, in the name of manliness (murūʾah), pursued violent revenge for the smallest offenses, kindling blood feuds that endured for generations. The Qur'an taught them that morality flows from moral responsibility rather than tribal loyalty, declaring: "No burdened soul shall bear the burden of another" (Q. 13:89; 31:32). Thus tribal custom was transformed into a universal personhood governed by justice and kindness. So central is this concern that the Qur'an devotes some two hundred verses to admonishing those guilty of injustice and oppression. The most common Arabic term for justice is ʿadl, whose related terms include qisṭ, istiqāmah, wasaṭ, and mīzān, while its opposite, injustice, is expressed through jawr, ẓulm, ṭughyān, and inḥirāf. The root of ʿadl conveys equality, straightness, and temperance, as seen in the commands: "And when you judge between people, judge with justice" (Q. 4:58), and "Call two upright witnesses (ʿadlin) from among you" (Q. 65:2). Though ʿadl and qisṭ are near-synonyms, as Harvey notes there is a subtle distinction: qisṭ pertains primarily to the concrete socio-economic domain, while ʿadl pertains primarily to the inner quality of the soul. The classical scholar al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1060) defined justice as a term associated with equality (musāwāh), bearing distinct meanings according to context—an innate human desire in the realm of potential, fair dealing in the realm of action, and the complete orderliness of God's works in the realm of the Divine. For al-Iṣfahānī, outer just actions do not by themselves make a person just; if performed for show, worldly gain, or fear of a ruler's punishment, they cannot be truly just. Thus justice toward the self (ʿadl) and justice in society (qisṭ) are complementary, each affecting the other, so that injustice toward others corrupts the soul as well. As for injustice, al-Iṣfahānī described ẓulm as "putting something in its improper place," likening justice to a dot at the center of a circle and injustice to deviation from it. He distinguished jawr—straying from the right path—from ẓulm, which carries the sense of darkness (ẓulma) and the misleading and oppression of others. The Qur'an describes three kinds of ẓulm: injustice between man and God, as in "Those who reject faith and do wrong, Allah will not forgive them" (Q. 4:168); injustice among men, the worst kind, as in "Those who unjustly eat up the property of the orphans" (Q. 4:10); and injustice of man against himself, as in "they used to do injustice to themselves" (Q. 7:160). On the question of natural justice, scholars differed. Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) held that the intellect perceives murder and theft to be unlawful, and Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 944) held that reason grasps God's existence and the universal categories of good and evil without revelation, while specific prohibitions such as pork are known only through revelation. The Ashʿarī school, by contrast, held that the morality of all actions, universal or specific, is knowable only through divine revelation. Al-Iṣfahānī adopted the Māturīdī position in his Kitāb al-Iʿtiqādāt, while criticizing the Muʿtazilites who gave reason precedence over revelation in knowing good and evil. For him, divine law conforms with the natural law of human nature (fiṭrah), both being products of God's will, so that natural justice is part of God's providence permeating all creation. He explained that God describes justice in terms of the balance (al-mīzān), citing the Prophet's ﷺ words, "The heavens and the earth have been established through justice," and observing that even thieves expect justice from one another and that every soul rejoices at justice and grieves at its opposite. This accords with "And the sky, He raised and He set up the balance, that you may not transgress in the balance" (Q. 55:7), and "God made the heavens and the earth in truth so that each soul could be rewarded for what it had earned" (Q. 45:22). Yet despite this innate sense, humans remain capable of injustice, and so absolute justice belongs to God alone, who "encompasses whatever they have and measures everything" (Q. 72:28), such that full justice denied in this world will be exacted in the next. The contemporary Malaysian scholar Naquib al-Attas affirmed both natural and civil justice, holding that justice is natural (fiṭrī) as an integral part of the Divine law regulating all of nature, and that Islamic natural justice differs from the secular conception in that it presumes all things depend upon God, being the customary law of God (sunnat Allah) flowing from His names al-Ḥakīm and al-ʿAdl. Men obey God not only because He is Good but because their fiṭrah inclines them to good, as God says: "God has endeared to you belief and made it appear graceful to your hearts" (Q. 49:7-8). The prerequisite for justice is trustworthiness (amānah), which is why the Prophet ﷺ was recognized as al-Amīn before being entrusted with justice for all. The Qur'an appeals to this innate conscience (Q. 7:157; 16:90; 7:28; 7:33), and through discursive reason, partly inspired by Aristotle, al-Iṣfahānī introduced distributive and rectificatory justice while seeking to fulfill the five objectives of the sharīʿah: the protection of life, reason, wealth, progeny, and religion. Ethical justice concerns the soul, where the mean between vice and virtue is attained, as the Qur'an commands: "Pursue the middle path" (Q. 11:112). The philosophers divided the soul into rational, concupiscent, and irascible faculties, and when reason predominates, the four cardinal virtues emerge—justice being their crown. Al-Iṣfahānī spiritualized this model toward happiness in this life and the next. Justice to the self means fulfilling the covenant with God, for when a person allows his carnal soul to dominate, he wrongs both others and himself. Hence God commands: "let not the enmity for others incite you to commit injustice. Do justice, for this is nearer to piety" (Q. 5:8), linking ʿadl to taqwá. Al-Iṣfahānī enumerated five domains of justice—toward one's Creator, among the faculties of the soul, toward one's forebears, in dealings with others, and in sound judgment—with five corresponding categories of injustice. He held that the unjust man cannot wrong others without first wronging himself, and that greed leads to usurping others' wealth, which God forbids: "do not usurp unjustly the wealth of each other… and do not destroy yourselves" (Q. 4:29). Hourani observed that ẓulm al-nafs primarily means wronging another and thereby wronging oneself, connected to punishment in the hereafter, though involuntary harm bears no moral value. Muhammad Asad noted that the weaker party in trade may consent under duress, so exploitation is forbidden even where the other agrees. Regarding "God commands you to deliver the trusts to keepers worthy of them; and when you judge between people, that you judge with justice" (Q. 4:58), al-Attas explained that trustees must possess moral integrity, knowledge, and self-examination (muḥāsabah), guarding against the soul that incites to evil (al-nafs al-ammārah). He linked this to God's offer of the trust to the mountains, which humankind accepted though proving "unjust (ẓalūman) and ignorant (jahūlan)" (Q. 33:72). This verse was revealed concerning the key of the Kaaba, which the Prophet ﷺ returned to ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah after the conquest of Mecca, teaching that trusts are granted on merit. Legal justice, whose essence is equality, applies within the political and judicial domains and constitutes a situational rather than a moral value. Al-Iṣfahānī expounded natural, ethical, and legal justice together, adopting from Aristotle the distributive and rectificatory forms while integrating them into the Qur'anic worldview—never, unlike Aristotle, separating legal from ethical justice. He held that "he who cannot rule over his own soul is not suitable to rule over others," citing God's rebuke: "Do you command others to be righteous and forget yourself while you recite the Book?" Distributive justice concerns the equitable sharing of wealth. Though the Qur'an acknowledges differences in provision and rank (Q. 61:66; 16:71), these pertain to spiritual matters, while in dealings (muʿāmalāt) all are equal before the law, for "the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most pious" (Q. 49:13). Naqvi observed that John Rawls, who rejected utilitarianism and laissez-faire, is closer to the Islamic position that obliges the rich to transfer wealth to the poor, though his principle may exclude the truly worst-off. Yet Rawls's system, while pragmatically compatible with zakāt, differs spiritually, for in Islam the rich give willingly as a religious obligation that purifies wealth and soul. The Qur'an condemns hoarding: "so that it does not concentrate in the hands of the rich among you" (Q. 59:7), and "to those who accumulate gold and silver… announce the news of painful punishment" (Q. 9:34-35). Al-Iṣfahānī, commenting on this, likened hoarding to locking away rulers who should manage livelihoods, and cited the Prophet's ﷺ words that "he who drinks from a silver jug actually drinks the fire of hell." Rectificatory justice, righting wrongs through the courts rather than personal revenge, presumes innocence until guilt is proven, weighs premeditation and duress in murder, and leaves room for rehabilitation and compensation. Justice and benevolence (iḥsān) are two sides of one coin, yet not of equal value, for benevolence is a voluntary overflowing of the soul and thus, for al-Iṣfahānī, the higher virtue. God commands: "God commands justice, benevolence, and giving to kith and kin" (Q. 16:90), which Kamali explained opens justice to considerations of equity beyond formal rules. God says of forgoing one's due: "To forgo it is more righteous" (Q. 2:237), and prescribes retaliation while praising the one who pardons: "but whoever forgoes it charitably, it would be an atonement for him" (Q. 5:45). Forgiveness (al-ʿafw) and pardon (al-ṣafḥ) are extolled repeatedly (Q. 15:85; 3:134; 5:13; 42:40), and al-Iṣfahānī observed that benevolence leads to reconciliation while bare justice may lead to alienation. Compassionate justice arises when we recognize that offenders may themselves be victims of circumstance, and Islam therefore aims not only at equality of opportunity but also at equality of economic conditions through an egalitarian redistribution grounded in Qur'anic principles. In sum, Qur'anic justice means conforming to the divine law and obeying God, admitting no discrimination of color, race, or gender, and uniting the moral and legal, the inward and the outward, as two sides of one coin. Those in authority must embody virtue if they are to dispense justice fairly, for a soul possessed of justice gains the strength of will to establish it in society. Whereas Western philosophy defines justice as giving each his due and tends toward an over-legalistic, self-interested conception, Islamic justice, while affirming equality, is an overflowing stream that sweeps away inequity and permits spontaneous acts of kindness. The Qur'an assigns responsibility for justice to both individual and government—the former through unlimited voluntary charity, the latter through the collection and disbursement of compulsory dues to orphans, widows, the sick, and the elderly. As al-Iṣfahānī integrated Aristotelian forms of justice into the Islamic worldview in the eleventh century, so contemporary scholars should apply their minds to present knowledge in implementing distributive justice and redressing historical injustices. Ultimately, justice within Islamic virtue ethics remains incompatible with many modern liberal conceptions, which are inspired more by individualistic self-interest than by humanitarian altruism. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/writ-and-wisdom-the-qurans-moral-narrative # Writ and Wisdom: The Quran’s Moral Narrative **Author:** Dr. Ramon Harvey **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 6, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Author’s Note This article has been abridged from the first chapter of *[The Qur’an and the Just Society](https://www.amazon.com/Quran-Just-Society-Ramon-Harvey/dp/1474403298)* (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) by Ramon Harvey, now available in paperback. It presents the historical narrative told within the Qur’an at the widest possible scale, charting the soul’s journey from the primordial covenant through worldly life to the Hereafter. Along the way, key religious and moral concepts are explored to provide a guide to the Qur’an’s ethical vocabulary. --- ## Introduction In God’s wisdom all things begin and so shall they end. This is the idea that animates this reflection upon the story that the Qur’an tells from the primordial beginning of human existence to its infinite future. Unlike the Bible, in which the historical unfolding of God’s covenant with humanity is traced through the linear order of the text, the Qur’an’s moral narrative must be reconstructed from passages dispersed throughout its pages. In one sense this reflects more general principles of Qur’anic structure; in another, it accords with the attention it pays to the metaphysical patterns of the wider human condition, rather than the history of particular peoples. God’s wisdom is the constant that informs His creation of the world, just as it underlies both His justice and mercy in the Hereafter. By turning to this wide canvas and sketching the Qur’an’s story of the spiritual journey undertaken by individuals and societies, it is possible to articulate the relationship between key concepts within its world view. The narrative to follow passes through four distinct stages and is divided into sections accordingly: primordial covenant (*mīthāq*), natural disposition (*fiṭrah*), prophecy (*nubuwwah*), and eschatology (*ākhirah*). --- ## I. Primordial covenant In the Qur’an, human history is only ethically meaningful due to the possession of moral responsibility. This is appropriately portrayed in Q. 33:72 by a powerful vignette in which vast natural elements cower at the offer of the Trust (*al-amānah*), “We offered the Trust (*al-amāna*) to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, yet they refused to bear it and feared it (*fa-abayna an yaḥmilnahā wa-ashfaqna minhā*). Humanity bore it—it has always been hasty and foolish.” The verse’s impact is heightened by the personification of the heavens, earth, and mountains with the plural feminine verbs *abayna* and *ashfaqna*, usually reserved for intelligent beings. The Trust can be interpreted as symbolic of the moral responsibility accepted by humanity, enabling it to freely enter into a covenant with God. Human souls then promise their Lord (*rabb*) that they shall recognize Him and render their lives to His worship, which is the ultimate purpose of their existence. This idea is mentioned in Q. 51:56, “I created jinn and humankind only to worship Me.” The Qur’anic covenant has a reciprocal structure. Human beings are obliged to fulfill their commitments and, in turn, it is inconceivable that God, as *al-ḥakīm*, will break His promise to them (Q. 13:31). The worldly life furnishes the arena of their testing, as mentioned in Q. 67:2, “He is the one who has created death and life to test which of you is best in deeds (*li-yabluwakum ayyukum aḥsanu ʿamalan*).” When they return to Him they are promised just recompense for the manner in which they lived their lives based both on the internal state of their hearts (Q. 26:89) and the actions of their limbs (Q. 24:24). However, as mentioned in Q. 6:54, “Your Lord has taken it upon Himself to be merciful.” Thus God’s justice is balanced with His mercy (*raḥmah*), a defining attribute. The same can be said of the human level, in which a person’s quality of justice (*ʿadl*) is transcended by his or her spiritual excellence (*iḥsān*). In the Christian Bible, the Old and New Testaments are named after an English archaism for a covenant, the idea being that an ancient covenant with the patriarchs, such as Abraham in Genesis 17, and renewed with the Israelites, was superseded—or strengthened—by a new one for the community of Christ. The Qur’an presents instead a primordial covenant with all of humanity in Q. 7:172-173: > \[Prophet\], when your Lord took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves (*ʿalá anfusihim*), He said, “Am I not your Lord?” and they replied, “Yes we bear witness.” This is so you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, “We were not aware of this,” or, “It was our forefathers who, before us, ascribed partners to God, and we are only the descendants who came after them: will you destroy us because of the deeds of those who invented falsehood?” These verses evoke a primordial time in which humanity collectively entered into a covenantal relationship with God, thereby affirming their obligations to Him. Stylistically, Q. 7:172 brings the reader directly into the scene in which the covenant is affirmed, making the Qur’an’s audience privy to the act. The call to testify and its response can be taken as an indication that the natural disposition of the human being is to incline towards belief in God. The rationale given for this witnessing is to establish a proof to be used on the Day of Resurrection should human beings deny their responsibilities as servants entirely, or blame their forebears for their disbelief. The covenant is thus the freely made confirmation of a pre-existing relationship between Lord and servant, in which humankind is not only made cognizant of the fundamental moral implications of its existence but confirms accountability to its Creator. Here enters the central concept of *dīn* (religion), the living of one’s life as a transaction of the debt (*dayn*) of one’s own existence, accounted for by God on *yawm al-dīn* (The Day of Reckoning). In the primordial stage of history, the creation of each life-to-be is recorded as a debt owed to God. The worldly existence that follows is for humans to spend their lives in worship of their Creator, fulfilling various ‘debt obligations’ that are placed upon them by divine Writ. The eventual Day of Reckoning shows either a profitable or loss-making transaction to be carried into eternity. The narrative of Adam in the Qur’an prefigures that of his descendants, mapping for them the moral territory of their own lives by introducing the ideas of stewardship, obligation, transgression, and repentance. Q. 2:30 records a conversation between God and His angels, in which He is quoted as saying, “Indeed I am placing upon the earth a steward (*innī jāʿilun fī al-arḍi khalīfah*).” In the same verse, the angels reply, “How can You put someone there who will cause damage (*yufsidu fīhā*) and bloodshed (*yasfiku al-dimāʾ*), when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?” In response, God says, “I know what you do not.” There is considerable discussion in both early exegetical literature and modern academic studies about the meaning of *khalīfah* in this passage, with the following main possibilities suggested: successor, deputy, substitute, cultivator, and ruler. Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 422/1031) provides an insightful analysis of the term *khilāfah* as representation of another, either for one who is absent, one who has died, one who is incapacitated, or to honor the representative. As the first three meanings cannot be applied to God, the final meaning of an honored representative, or steward, best fits the context of the act of creation in Q. 2:30. This provokes two questions: what is the meaning of God’s steward? And why would the angels attribute corruption and bloodshed to such an honored figure? It is evident from both the initial statement and the angelic response that the word *khalīfa* is not meant to apply only to Adam, but to include his descendants, the Adamic creation. This concision accords with Arabic usage, in which the named patriarch of a tribe, or clan group, can be used to indicate descendants. As verses 2:31–3 show, human beings are given a special status due to an ability to gain knowledge of things within creation: > He taught Adam all of the names. Then he presented all things to the angels, saying, “Tell me their names if you are truthful.” They said, “Glory be to You, we know nothing save what you have taught us. You truly are the Omniscient, the Wise.” He said, “O Adam, inform them of their names.” When he had informed them of their names, He said, “Did I not tell you that I know the hidden of the heavens and the earth, and that I know all you reveal and conceal?” Teaching Adam names may symbolize humanity’s ability to form moral evaluations, as well as authority over the creation and the power to cultivate the earth for His sake. Conversely, the reference to corruption and bloodshed perhaps alludes towards the capacity of humans for free will and the potential that they will reject this role. The angels are surprised that God would entrust such responsibility to a being unable to wield power with complete justice, in contrast to their own absolute obedience. The answer ‘I know things you do not’ could thus refer to the superiority of flawed, but nonetheless free, humanity over its perfectly obedient, yet volitionless angelic counterpart. It is also possible this indicates the help that God will send by way of the prophets and their followers to bring guidance and establish justice. Both these positive and negative elements of the human being are given further resonance in the remainder of this passage. Q. 2:34 mentions the order to the angels to prostrate in honor of Adam and the refusal of the Devil, Iblis, who was included in the command. Q. 2:35 provides the initial ‘debt obligation’ upon the first two human beings, “O Adam, live with your wife in the garden and eat from it in comfort as you like, but do not approach this tree, as then you will become wrongdoers.” It is the failure of the couple to abide by the prohibition that leads to their descent into the world in Q. 2:36. In Q. 20:120, the Devil whispers, “O Adam, shall I lead you to the Tree of Immortality (*shajarat al-khuld*) and a kingdom that will never age?” Thus, it is evident that despite the pleasant nature of the garden, Adam knew that he would eventually die and face his reckoning. The attraction of the tree is that it seemingly offers a shortcut to Paradise without death. As the Devil says in Q. 7:20, “Your Lord only forbade you from this tree lest you become angels or immortals.” Moreover, the fact that God previously informed the angels that he was placing a steward upon the earth points to His prior knowledge of the outcome of this test. It also provides human beings with the basic pattern of obligation, transgression, and repentance. After his mistake, Adam “received some words from his Lord” (Q. 2:37), which are often associated with the prayer for forgiveness in Q. 7:23, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, if you do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will be lost.” Q. 2:37 goes on to mention, “He accepted his repentance: He is the Ever Relenting, the Most Merciful (*al-tawwāb al-raḥīm*).” Finally, when God tells Adam and his wife to enter into the worldly realm, He gives them a divine promise of guidance, an allusion to the future dispensation of revelation. He also informs them where the human story will end, in either a permanent return to paradisial existence or the torture of Hell (Q. 2:38-39). --- ## II. Natural disposition The Adamic narrative leads to human beings entering into the world, but what is the moral status of this new home and of people born within it? The picture that the Qur’an paints appears to be one in which the natural world has an essential morality with which human beings are expected to interact. As an arena designed for the testing responsibilities of *dīn* and stewardship, it is appropriate that creation itself comes with a built-in moral setting, an idea encapsulated in the Qur’an by the Scale (*al-mīzān*). In Q. 55:7-12: > He has raised up the sky. He has set the Scale so that you may not exceed in the Scale: set up the weighing scale with justice and do not fall short in the Scale. He set down the Earth for His creatures, with its fruits, its palm trees with sheathed clusters, its husked grain, its fragrant plants. Here, God’s setting of the Scale is revealed to be for the purpose of testing the ability of humans (and jinns) to live according to it. Placing the *mīzān* between the description of the heaven, or sky (*al-samāʾ*), and the earth with its flora and fauna implies it is natural and applicable universally throughout the created order. The command “set up the weighing scale with justice (*wa-aqīmū al-wazna bil-qisṭ*)” utilizes a familiar metaphor for the just society. A human level of action is envisaged that mirrors the divine with the steward to measure out earthly justice according to the standard set by God. This description also alludes to the theme of moral freedom, as the command to weigh with justice assumes the possibility that its addressees will not. This underscores a difference with animals that are placed besides vegetative life as the recipients, not the agents, of moral choices. As human beings are also part of the created order, it stands to reason that they would reflect the setting of the Scale. Within the Qur’an, this is expressed by the concept of *fiṭrah* (natural disposition) in Q. 30:30: > \[Prophet\] stand yourself up devoutly for the religion – the natural disposition God instilled in humanity (*fa-aqim wajhaka lil-dīni ḥanīfan fiṭrata allāhi allatī faṭara al-nāsaʿalayhā*); there is no altering God’s creation—that is the upright religion, though most people do not realize it. Q. 30:30 can be read as Qur’anic support for the notion that human beings inherently aim to obtain faith and morality. This would be a consequence of their receipt of the Trust in Q. 33:72 and the reason that no dissension is recorded among human souls in Q. 7:172, the verse of the primordial covenant, to which it is often linked in exegetical literature. This reading of *fiṭrah* as an active inclination of human beings towards recognition of God and worshipping Him is contrasted with their propensity for temptation by the Devil and beguilement by the pleasures of the world. Although this can lead to the corruption of this initially innocent state, there is no concept of original sin in the Qur’anic worldview. Just as the narrative of Adam’s fall contains within it his forgiveness and redemption, the life of each human being starts from the same point as Adam in returning to the state of *fiṭrah* and being tested as he was. If it is granted that there is an objective moral setting to the world, the epistemological question of whether this is knowable before the arrival of revelation still remains. First, it is important to distinguish what can be known from what typically is known in any given society. The Qur’an castigates a great swathe of humanity as astray from the truth, for instance in Q. 6:116, “If you obeyed most of those on earth, they would lead you away from the path of God. They follow nothing but speculation; they are merely guessing.” Proceeding from the above interpretation of the primordial covenant and the Scale, it would seem most coherent to understand the Qur’an as affirming that basic norms of morality are rationally knowable to a human actor in the state of *fiṭrah*. However, the question is finely balanced with interpretations that challenge this assumption. An illustrative contested verse is Q. 17:15, “We never punish a people until we send a messenger (*wa-mā kunnā muʿadhdhibīna ḥattā nabʿatha rasūlan*),” which can be understood as either a radical stance that human moral obligation is predicated on the revealed messages brought by the prophets, or a statement about God’s practice of sending a warner before destroying a community, as commonly narrated in the Qur’an. The difficulty with the use of verses such as Q. 17:15 to uphold the former idea is arguably that to do so they must be dislocated from their textual context to serve an argument that originates from theological, not Qur’anic, concerns. Q. 17:4-7 presents a brief history of the warnings and punishments inflicted on the Children of Israel, while the verse after Q. 17:15 begins, “When we decide to destroy a town.” Thus, the meaning of the verse is seemingly descriptive, not prescriptive: God’s practice in dealing with past nations has been to provide warners to each community before they are destroyed. As Q. 17:17 goes on to declare, “How many generations We have destroyed since Noah! Your Lord knows and observes the sins of His servants well enough.” --- ## III. Prophecy The Qur’an presents God as intimately aware of human frailties: the heart under constant threat from the whisperings of the Devil, the temptations of worldly life, and its own selfish promptings. He does not leave humanity alone to become steeped in corruption, but rather sends prophets with guidance (*hudá*). This is in harmony with the *fiṭrah* that it encounters and yet is able to supplement it, so as to assist humankind in overcoming its weaknesses to confirm its covenantal agreement to believe in and worship God. The Qur’an mentions in a number of places that humanity in general was once a single community (*ummah wāḥidah*). In Q. 1 0:19, “Humanity was a single community, then they split”; in Q. 2:213, “Humanity was a single community, then God sent prophets as bearers of good tidings and warnings, revealing for them the Writ with truth, so that they could judge between the people in that which they differed.” In other verses, such as Q. 16:93, 32:8, and 5:48, which presumably refer to a later stage of history, it is said that God could have kept the people within a single community, but that divine wisdom prevailed in allowing divergence between them. An aspect of this wisdom is explained in Q. 49:13, “O humankind, We have created you from male and female and have made you peoples and tribes so that you may come to know one another. Certainly, the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most pious of you.” This verse can be read as a definitive rejection of any kind of ethnic supremacy. The creation of diverse nations makes possible the universal experience of encounter with those who differ greatly in culture yet share the same fundamental humanity. Making the criterion of measure *taqwá* ensures that material circumstance plays no part in the eventual eschatological success of moral actors. As well as a general category for all of humanity, the word *ummah* can refer to a particular prophetic community, such as in Q. 7:159, “There is a group among the community of Moses who guide with the truth, and who act justly according to it (*wa-min qawmi mūsā ummatun yahdūna bil-ḥaqqi wa-bihi yaʿdilūn*).” *Millah* seems to be a specific term for the same idea and is especially associated with the legacy of the Prophet Abraham, as in Q. 16:123, “Then we inspired you to follow the community (*millah*) of Abraham devotedly; he was not a pagan.” The Qur’an also has an idea of brotherhood. At the level of humanity as a whole, Q. 4:1 states, “People, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them spread countless men and women far and wide.” For the community of believers specifically, it emerges in Q. 49:10, “Truly the believers are brothers, so reconcile between your brothers. Be mindful of God; perhaps you will receive mercy.” As a *millah* is formed around a prophet, such a community receives a particular dispensation of God’s *sharīʿah*. This concept of a divine law and moral code for humanity has an implicit scriptural basis, as well as the explicit statement in Q.45:18, “Now We have set you \[Muhammad\] on a clear religious path (*sharīʿatin min al-amr*), so follow it.” The word *sharīʿah* in Arabic is derived from the path that leads to a watering hole, symbolically conveying the way to what is most vital in life. It should be noted that in the Arabic lexicon of the Qur’an there is no clear distinction between the equivalents of ‘law’ and ‘morality,’ the two seamlessly blending in the term *sharīʿah*. Numerous Qur’anic descriptions of the prophets and messengers highlight their role as bringers of glad tidings and warnings, referring respectively to the promise of Paradise and the threat of Hell. The general Qur’anic pattern is to describe each messenger of God as having been sent to his people with the repeated refrain, “O my people (*yā-qawmī*).” Uniquely, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is sent to the totality of humanity and jinn, as mentioned in Q. 21:107 and 46:29–31. In Q. 2:151, more detail is given about the purpose of sending the Prophet Muhammad to the inhabitants of Arabia: > We have sent among you a messenger of your own to recite Our signs (*āyātinā*) to you, purify you (*yuzakkīkum*) and teach you the Writ (*al-kitāb*), the Wisdom (*al-ḥikmah*), and\[other\] things you did not know. The word *āyāt* can be used for signs, revelations, proofs, or Qur’anic verses. For this discourse about the Prophet, these ideas dovetail insofar as the verses of the Qur’an are presented as inimitable and therefore proof of its divine origin. The term thus connotes the means by which the Prophet establishes his authenticity as speaking for the divine and engendering faith in his community, without which he cannot proceed in his mission. Next, *tazkiyah* (spiritual purification) is mentioned, as it is only on the basis of interior change, for good or ill, that one ensures success or failure in the world and Hereafter. This can be associated with the higher level of spiritual excellence known as *iḥsān*: a going beyond the basic requirements of one’s obligations to develop one’s virtues. Turning to the phrase *al-kitāb wal-ḥikmah*, I propose that a consistent reading can be developed by understanding the pair of terms, in general, as referring respectively to the revealed obligations conveyed by messengers and their wise purposes, a position that also finds support in the analysis of al-Farāhī. This interpretation avoids the charge that can be leveled at the gloss of the phrase as the Qur’an and Sunna by al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820) that it does not account for the full range of its scriptural usage. Of course, just as the possibility of understanding the word *kitāb* to refer to the Law does not prevent it meaning the totality of the revelation, reading *ḥikmah* as the rationale of divine laws does not eliminate from the Qur’an wisdom not associated with rule-following. Such material is prominent in the many Qur’anic stories and parables. As mentioned in Q. 54:4–5, “Truly, warning tales that should have restrained them have come down to them—far-reaching wisdom (*ḥikmatun bālighah*)—but these warnings do not help.” If the *kitāb* and *ḥikmah* brought by messengers within the Qur’anic worldview are understood as the divine Writ and its wise purposes, it becomes important to relate this to the wider life of the people. The key verse that allows this broader conception is Q. 57:25, “We sent Our messengers with proofs (*al-bayyināt*), the Writ (*al-kitāb*) and the Scale (*al-mīzān*), so that people could uphold justice (*li-yaqūma al-nāsu bil-qisṭ*).” This is a particularly important verse as it draws together the various threads discussed hitherto, and acts as a point of departure for the presentation of the theme of societal justice. Here the messengers are given three elements: proofs to establish their credentials, similar to the term *āyāt* discussed above; the Writ, obligations of revealed Law; and the Scale, insight into the measure of morality, or natural law, set within the creation. This mirrors Q. 42:17, “It is God who has revealed the Writ with truth and the Scale.” These elements are provided for a very particular reason, empowering humanity to establish justice (*qisṭ*). The term *qisṭ* is one of the two Arabic words in the Qur’anic vocabulary that most closely correspond to ‘justice’ in English. The other one is *ʿadl*. Based on a study of their linguistic and scriptural meanings, it can be suggested that these two terms have different connotations beyond the general meaning of justice: *ʿadl* an internal quality of equity, *qisṭ* a justice established concretely within the social sphere. This understanding of *qisṭ*, combined with the previous discussions of *mīzān* and *ḥikmah*, makes possible the following definition: societal justice is the condition of society realized by the Wisdom of God’s Writ, which matches the scale of moral value. Such a just society is the highest moral aspiration of human civilization as a collective activity, manifesting within it all other praiseworthy values, such as mercy, goodness, and piety. For each person, their *dīn* consists of attempting to fulfill human stewardship of the earth and a successful resolution in the Hereafter. As al-Attas points out, the concept of *dīn* necessitates the establishment of a cosmopolis on the earth with certain general features. These include “the natural tendency of man to form societies and obey laws and seek just government.”[^1] Implicitly, then, the Qur’anic discourse posits the just society as built upon natural law foundations. In the Qur’an, this pattern is embodied in the person of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who lives at the culminating point in sacred history, receiving the final revealed code in the cycle of reform and corruption. Thus, in Q. 33:40 he is described as *khātam al-nabīyīn* (the Seal of the Prophets), which matches the statement in Q. 3:81 that God took a pledge from the prophets confirming his authority over them. This is mirrored in several verses that state the community of believers are to act as witnesses for other communities, in both the world and the Hereafter, with the Messenger as a witness for them. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is thus envisaged within the Qur’an as the delegate of divine authority and the final successor to all prophets—the *khalīfah* of God *par excellence*. However, the very fact that the Qur’an is addressed to the Prophet ﷺ, rather than about him, means that exegetes have often found evidence for the foregoing in subtleties of expressions, rather than unequivocal statements. Al-Alūsī (d. 1270/1854) analyzes Q. 2:30, “When your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed I am placing upon the earth a *khalīfah* (*idh qāla rabbuka lil-malāʾikati innī jāʿilun fī al-arḍi khalīfatan*).’” He argues that turning the address directly to the Prophet highlights that he has the greatest portion of the stewardship mentioned. The Qur’an pictures the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, like the Prophet Abraham before him, as the exemplar of conduct to be followed, “The Messenger of God is an excellent model (*uswatun ḥasanatun*) for those of you who put your hope in God and the Last Day and remember Him often” (Q. 33:21). This excellence is in the higher purposes for which human beings have been created, both proximate, establishing societal justice as God’s stewards, and ultimate, making a successful return to Him in the Hereafter. The personal narrative of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is also relevant here. The following phrase is repeated twice in the Qur’an in Q. 9:33 and 61:9: > He is the one who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, in order to reveal to him the religion, all of it, despite the dislike of the pagans (*huwa alladhī arsala rasūlahu bil-hudā wa-dīni al-ḥaqqi li-yuẓhirahu ʿalá al-dīni kullihi wa-law kariha al-mushrikūn*). A nearly identical phrase occurs in Q. 48:28, but replaces”‘despite the dislike of the pagans” with ”and God suffices as a witness (*wa-kafá billāhi shahīdan*).” This verse can be read as indicating that the divine revelation will be completed despite the enmity of those who oppose the Prophet, an interpretation attributed to the Companion Ibn ʿAbbās. In contrast to this, one strand of classical exegesis, widespread in modern translations of the Qur’an, understands *li-yuẓhirahu ʿalá al-dīni kullihi* as ‘to make it dominant over all other religions.’ However, this view does not fit well with the linguistic construction of the verse in two respects. First, the word *dīn* here is singular not plural. Second, when the Qur’an uses the expression *aẓhara/yuẓhiru* x *ʿalá* y it does not refer to dominance, but rather to making something known. Examples are Q. 66:3, which refers to God revealing something secret to the Prophet connected with his wives, and Q. 72:26, which states that God does not reveal the unseen to anyone (the exception of His chosen messengers is given in the next verse). A further point is that both Q. 9:33 and 61:9 follow verses mentioning God “perfecting His light.’” This can be understood in the sense of successive revelations to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ illuminating his knowledge of God’s Writ. The process was declared complete during the Prophet’s only pilgrimage in 10/632, when he recited the famous words of Q. 5:3, “Today I have completed your religion (*dīn*) for you, perfected My favor upon you and am pleased with devotion (or: Islam) as religion for you (*raḍītu lakum al-islāma dīnan*).” --- ## IV. Eschatology The final stage of the spiritual journey according to the Qur’an, like the first one, takes place in a realm beyond natural human knowledge and concerns all that comes after death, including the grave itself, resurrection in bodily form, the terrifying Day of Judgment, and the final residence in Paradise or Hell. Upon dying, the human being is confronted with the opening of a reality that was hitherto hidden from sight. With this comes an awareness of one’s moral responsibility and the return to God for judgment, as mentioned in Q. 50:19, “The trance of death will bring the Truth with it: ‘This is what you tried to escape.’” Al-Ghazālī writes > Upon death there stand revealed before him certain things which were never disclosed to him in life, in the way that things may be revealed to a man who is awake which were concealed from him during his slumber, for ‘people are asleep, and when they die they awake.’[^2] The logical corollary to moral obligation is the existence of corresponding consequences, either reward or sanction, and this is what the eschatological arena provides. A person’s truthfulness to their covenant, the acknowledgment of God’s Lordship, is the most fundamental duty and God examines it along with fidelity to His messengers, outward conduct, acts of worship, and inner purity of heart. Based on these, He sends the human being to the ultimate fate of either Paradise or Hell. It is axiomatic within the Qur’an that God is absolutely just in carrying out His judgment. As mentioned in Q. 10:54, “They will be judged justly and not wronged (*quḍiya baynahum bil-qisṭi wa-hum lā yuẓlamūn*).” This concept of perfect divine justice is predicated on the idea that God establishes judgment that takes into account every piece of evidence, and does not wrong a single soul: > We will set up scales of justice (*al-mawāzīna al-qisṭ*) for the Day of Resurrection so that no one can be wronged in the least (*fa-lā tuẓlamu nafsun shayʾan*), and if there should be even the weight of a mustard seed, We shall bring it out. We take excellent account (Q. 21:47). In this verse, the scales of justice in the Hereafter parallel the Scale set up to measure moral value within the worldly life. The description of God as one who does not wrong His servants is also an important linguistic habit of the Qur’an in discussing His justice. The implication is that there are certain minimum and maximum standards to operate in the dispensation of justice in the Hereafter: neither reduction in one’s good deeds, nor increase in recompense for one’s bad deeds. Furthermore, after establishing this on the basis of His wisdom, God also reserves the right to increase greatly the reward for deeds, recognized through such verses as Q. 2:261, “God gives multiple increase to whoever He wishes: He is limitless and all-knowing”; as well as to forgive transgressions. The remission of major sins is mentioned in Q. 4:48, “God does not forgive the joining of partners with Him: anything less than that He forgives to whoever He will, but anyone who joins partners with God has committed a tremendous sin.” However, even *shirk* can be forgiven through sincere repentance before death, as mentioned in Q. 4:110, while bad deeds done in a state of disbelief can be forgiven or changed by God into good deeds following faith, as in Q. 25:70. Thus, an implicit theology can be detected in the Qur’an’s dual promise regarding God’s absence of injustice and presence of mercy. Rather than these two elements being arbitrary manifestations of His will, such that any punishment would be just and any reward merciful, they reflect the deeper mystery of His wisdom. God’s mercy is absolute, but human beings come to it on His terms. This discussion has shown that reading the Qur’an’s story of the human condition holistically can furnish us with key aspects of its moral theology that are lost when considering verses in isolation. The leitmotif of this narrative is God’s wisdom to create life as a debt owed and ultimately repaid as a test of morality. Although this notion of wisdom makes human life purposeful and intelligible, there remains an element of ineffability in its application as a quality to characterize the divine. Within the created world, it is represented by the Scale, read here as a Qur’anic analog to the natural law. This interpretation, combined with the Qur’an’s general discourse and the specific notion of *fiṭra*, leads to the knowability of at least basic ethical norms before the descent of revelation. The justice that the Qur’an calls upon its audience to establish, then, is predicated on realizing the wisdom of God’s revealed Law such that it builds upon His natural law. --- ## Notes [^1]: Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas, *Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islām* (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1995), 44. [^2]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife*, trans. T. J. Winter (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1989), 124–5; cf. Qur’an 50:22. ## Summary In God's wisdom all things begin, and in His wisdom all things shall return. The Qur'an charts a moral journey for the human soul that stretches from a primordial beginning to an eternal future, yet, unlike the linear covenantal history of the Bible, this narrative lies scattered across the pages of revelation and must be gathered together. This reflects the Qur'an's concern with the enduring metaphysical patterns of the human condition rather than the history of particular peoples. Understood in its entirety, the soul's passage unfolds through four stages: the primordial covenant (*mīthāq*), the natural disposition (*fiṭrah*), prophecy (*nubuwwah*), and the Hereafter (*ākhirah*). The story begins with moral responsibility, for human history holds ethical meaning only because humanity bears it. This is vividly portrayed in the offer of the Trust: "We offered the Trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, yet they refused to bear it and feared it. Humanity bore it—it has always been hasty and foolish" (Q. 33:72). The heavens, earth, and mountains are personified with verbs reserved for intelligent beings, and their shrinking away heightens the gravity of what humanity accepted. This Trust may be understood as the moral responsibility that allows humanity freely to enter a covenant with God, promising to recognize Him and devote their lives to His worship, which is the very purpose of their creation: "I created jinn and humankind only to worship Me" (Q. 51:56). This covenant is reciprocal, for while human beings are bound to fulfil their commitments, it is inconceivable that God, as *al-ḥakīm*, would break His promise (Q. 13:31). Worldly life is the arena of testing—"He is the one who has created death and life to test which of you is best in deeds" (Q. 67:2)—and recompense will follow according to both the state of the heart (Q. 26:89) and the deeds of the limbs (Q. 24:24). Yet justice is balanced by mercy, for "Your Lord has taken it upon Himself to be merciful" (Q. 6:54), and at the human level the quality of justice (*ʿadl*) is surpassed by spiritual excellence (*iḥsān*). Rather than a covenant confined to particular patriarchs, the Qur'an presents a primordial covenant with all humanity: "when your Lord took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, 'Am I not your Lord?' and they replied, 'Yes, we bear witness'" (Q. 7:172–173). This testimony establishes a proof against those who would deny their responsibilities on the Day of Resurrection or blame their forefathers for their disbelief. From here emerges the central concept of *dīn*: living one's life as the repayment of the debt (*dayn*) of one's own existence, to be accounted for by God on *yawm al-dīn*, the Day of Reckoning. The narrative of Adam prefigures the moral life of his descendants, introducing stewardship, obligation, transgression, and repentance. When God declared, "Indeed I am placing upon the earth a steward" (Q. 2:30), the angels questioned how He would place there one who would cause corruption and bloodshed, and He answered, "I know what you do not." Drawing on al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 422/1031), who analysed *khilāfah* as representation of another, the meaning of an honoured representative or steward best fits the context, and the term extends to the whole Adamic creation, not Adam alone. The teaching of the names (Q. 2:31–33) may symbolise humanity's capacity for moral evaluation and cultivation of the earth, while the mention of corruption alludes to human free will. Adam's transgression regarding the tree, his temptation by the Devil with the promise of immortality (Q. 20:120, Q. 7:20), his fall, and then his reception of words from his Lord and forgiveness—"He accepted his repentance: He is the Ever Relenting, the Most Merciful" (Q. 2:37)—establish for humanity the recurring pattern of obligation, transgression, and repentance, together with a promise of guidance to come (Q. 2:38–39). Descending into the world, humanity finds a home bearing an essential morality with which it must interact. This is expressed through the Scale: "He has set the Scale so that you may not exceed in the Scale: set up the weighing scale with justice and do not fall short in the Scale" (Q. 55:7–9). Placed between the heaven and the earth, the *mīzān* appears natural and universal, and the command to weigh with justice presumes the freedom to do otherwise, distinguishing humanity from animals, which are recipients rather than agents of moral choice. Because humanity is part of this created order, it too reflects the setting of the Scale through the *fiṭrah*: "the natural disposition God instilled in humanity; there is no altering God's creation—that is the upright religion, though most people do not realise it" (Q. 30:30). This may be read as an active inclination towards recognising and worshipping God, consistent with the Trust and the concord of souls at the primordial covenant. Crucially, there is no notion of original sin in this worldview; each life begins, like Adam, in the state of *fiṭrah*. Whether basic morality is knowable before revelation is a question the author judges finely balanced, though the most coherent reading affirms that basic norms are rationally knowable. The contested verse "We never punish a people until we send a messenger" (Q. 17:15) is best read, from its context in Q. 17:4–17, as descriptive of God's practice of warning nations before their destruction rather than as a claim that moral obligation depends wholly upon revelation. God does not abandon humanity to corruption but sends prophets with guidance (*hudá*) that harmonises with and supplements the *fiṭrah*. Humanity was once "a single community, then they split" (Q. 10:19), and God sent prophets with the Writ to judge between people (Q. 2:213); yet divine wisdom permitted divergence (Q. 16:93, Q. 5:48). The diversity of peoples serves mutual recognition, with piety alone as the measure of nobility: "the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most pious of you" (Q. 49:13), a rejection of ethnic supremacy. Each prophetic community (*ummah*, or *millah*, as with Abraham in Q. 16:123) receives a dispensation of *sharīʿah*—"a clear religious path" (Q. 45:18)—a term in which law and morality blend seamlessly. Uniquely, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is sent to all humanity and jinn, to "recite Our signs to you, purify you, and teach you the Writ, the Wisdom, and other things you did not know" (Q. 2:151). The author proposes, following al-Farāhī, that *al-kitāb wal-ḥikmah* refers to the revealed obligations and their wise purposes—a reading held to account better for the full scriptural usage than al-Shāfiʿī's (d. 204/820) gloss of the phrase as the Qur'an and Sunna. Drawing together these threads, Q. 57:25 states, "We sent Our messengers with proofs, the Writ, and the Scale, so that people could uphold justice." Here *qisṭ* denotes justice concretely established in society, while *ʿadl* denotes an internal quality of equity. Societal justice may thus be defined as the condition of society realised by the wisdom of God's Writ matching the Scale of moral value, and the Qur'anic just society rests upon natural-law foundations, a point supported by al-Attas concerning humanity's natural tendency to form societies and seek just government. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stands at the culmination of sacred history as "the Seal of the Prophets" (Q. 33:40), the successor over whom God took a pledge from the prophets (Q. 3:81), and the exemplar—"an excellent model for those of you who put your hope in God and the Last Day" (Q. 33:21). Al-Alūsī (d. 1270/1854) notes that God's addressing Q. 2:30 to the Prophet highlights his greatest portion of stewardship. Regarding "to reveal to him the religion, all of it" (Q. 9:33, Q. 61:9), the author, following an interpretation attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās, reads *li-yuẓhirahu ʿalá al-dīni kullihi* as the completion of revelation rather than dominance over other religions, since *dīn* here is singular and the construction *aẓhara ʿalá* elsewhere means making known (as in Q. 66:3, Q. 72:26). This process was declared complete at the farewell pilgrimage in 10/632: "Today I have completed your religion for you" (Q. 5:3). The final stage lies beyond natural knowledge, encompassing death, resurrection, judgment, and the final abode. Upon dying, hidden realities are unveiled: "The trance of death will bring the Truth with it: 'This is what you tried to escape'" (Q. 50:19). Al-Ghazālī observes that things are then revealed to a person as to one who awakens, for "people are asleep, and when they die they awake." Divine judgment is perfectly just—"They will be judged justly and not wronged" (Q. 10:54)—weighed on scales that overlook nothing: "if there should be even the weight of a mustard seed, We shall bring it out" (Q. 21:47). These scales parallel the worldly Scale of moral value, and God's justice sets minimum and maximum standards, neither diminishing good deeds nor increasing recompense for evil. Beyond this, His mercy multiplies reward (Q. 2:261) and forgives sins; even *shirk*, unforgiven when persisted in (Q. 4:48), may be forgiven through sincere repentance before death (Q. 4:110), and evil deeds may be transformed into good following faith (Q. 25:70). Thus the Qur'an's dual promise of the absence of injustice and the presence of mercy reflects not arbitrary will but the deeper mystery of divine wisdom: God's mercy is absolute, yet human beings come to it on His terms. Read holistically, the leitmotif of this narrative is God's wisdom in creating life as a debt owed and ultimately repaid through the test of morality—a wisdom represented in creation by the Scale, understood as a Qur'anic analogue to natural law, upon which the justice the Qur'an calls its audience to establish is founded. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/a-sacred-duty-islam-and-social-justice # A Sacred Duty: Islam and Social Justice **Author:** Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Justice in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 4, 2020 **Updated:** September 4, 2024 ## Note This article has been excerpted from the author’s contribution to a larger chapter co-authored with Amal Qutub (registered social worker) and Mahdi Qasqas (clinical psychologist) entitled “Islam and Social Justice” in the volume *Spirituality and Social Justice: Spirit in the Political Quest for a Just World* (Canadian Scholars Press, 2019) available [here](https://canadianscholars.ca/book/spirit-in-the-political-quest-for-a-just-world/). The chapter provides an introduction to, and overview of, the Islamic faith for Canadian social workers counseling Muslim clients with special focus on contemporary challenges facing the Canadian Muslim community. The portion of the chapter relating to Islamic theology and social justice has been excerpted and adapted below. --- ## Introduction The concept of justice in Islam is rooted in God’s Divine nature. The Qur’an states, “Verily, God does not do even an atom’s weight of injustice” (Qur’an 4:40). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ quotes God as saying, “O My Servants, I have forbidden injustice upon myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not commit injustice.”[^1] In this saying of the Prophet, we see a connection between how humans ought to act and our knowledge of God’s Divine qualities. In fact, it is a principle of Islamic theology that our quest in life is to come closer to God by emulating His Divine Names. One builds a relationship with God by building virtues within oneself. The famous theologian, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH/1111 CE), wrote a book on the concept of God in which he included a chapter entitled, “Explaining that the perfection and salvation of the worshipper is in emulating the Divine qualities of God and embodying their meanings to the extent that is humanly conceivable.”[^2] All the experiences of life provide human beings with opportunities to embody virtues that emulate the Divine attributes, such as being compassionate to those in distress, giving generously to those who are needy, advocating on behalf of the oppressed, and so on. Belief in God’s Divine Justice is thus directly linked to one’s commitment to strive for justice and to avoid any form of oppression towards anyone in one’s personal life. In fact, those who stand for justice are the ones who truly know God and testify to His Grandeur: “God testifies that there is none worthy of worship except Him, as do the angels, and those endowed with knowledge standing firmly for justice” (Qur’an 3:18). Thus, in Islam, the starting point for any type of justice is rooted in one’s spiritual quest to love God and be God’s beloved. That spiritual justice begets all other forms of justice. In Islam, justice is woven into the very nature of the cosmos. The Qur’an states, “God raised up the heavens and established the Scales of balance” (Qur’an 55:7), a phrase which commentators take to mean “He established justice (*athbata al-ʿadl*).”[^3] This concept of balance is central to the Islamic definition of justice which entails upholding the rights (*ḥuqūq*) due to others, or giving what is due to the one to whom it is due.[^4] Upholding rights begins in one’s relationship with God, acknowledging that God is the sole Sovereign, the ultimate objective of one’s pursuits, the only One worthy of worship (which constitutes part of the basic testimony of faith in Islam). Pure monotheism is the Qur’anic message. The deification of earthly creatures, invention of false deities, and worship of others alongside God all constitute ‘associating partners with God’ (*shirk* in Arabic) which is termed a ‘grave injustice’ (Qur’an 31:13). The primary victim of such an injustice is one’s own soul because it is deprived of the spiritual fulfillment that comes about from a meaningful connection with one’s Creator, and instead becomes subjugated to false ideologies and worldly desires. One’s relationship with God must manifest in the way one deals with others, and thus there is tremendous emphasis on upholding the rights of all creation—from one’s family, to one’s neighbors, to all human beings, to animals and the environment.[^5] A verse of the Qur’an cited routinely at the end of the Friday sermon states, “Verily God commands justice, excellent conduct, and caring for one’s relatives, and He forbids all forms of immorality, evil and transgression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed” (Qur’an, 16:90). The Qur’an admonishes human beings to always arbitrate every matter with justice (Qur’an, 4:58), and to remove every bias in upholding justice even if it requires taking a stance against one’s own interests: “O you who believe, be persistently standing firm in justice, as witnesses before God, even if it be against yourselves or your parents and relatives” (Qur’an, 4:135). So important is the notion of impartiality to justice that the Qur’an advises, “Let not the hatred of others towards you prevent you from being just. Be just, that is closer to piety” (Qur’an 5:8). --- ## The Islamic perspective on social justice Justice has many dimensions. Broadly defined, the vertical dimension of justice between humankind and God is the theological sense of justice while all forms of justice between human beings constitute forms of social justice. This would include everything from macro-level political and economic dimensions to micro-level interpersonal interactions between family members, friends, neighbors, and so on. The Qur’anic term which best explains social justice is the Arabic term *qisṭ* (fairness) which entails a sense of equality and justice in distribution[^6] and a shared social project to ensure that all members of society receive their fair share.[^7] The political aspect of justice entails fair governance of people according to mutual consultation (Qur’an 42:38). There are many sayings of the Prophet ﷺ that praise the virtues of the just ruler and assign a place in paradise for one who rules with justice.[^8] As well, the Prophet declared that the most noble struggle is to speak a truthful word in the presence of a tyrannical ruler.[^9] This latter sentiment is a powerful motivation for political activists calling for human rights. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ heard about an incident in Abyssinia where an elderly woman was pushed, he declared, “How would God sanctify a nation that does not protect its underprivileged from its powerful?”[^10] Thus, the prosperity and wellbeing of an entire nation are at stake when its members fail to protect those underprivileged from those in power. In many ways, Islam is fundamentally a faith of activism. According to the Qur’an, an essential characteristic of believers is their participation in publicly “enjoining good and forbidding evil” (Qur’an 3:110, 9:71). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Whoever witnesses something evil, let him change it with his hand, and if he is unable then with his tongue, and if he is unable then with his heart, but that is the weakest form of faith.”[^11] In this sense, Islam does not permit one to be a bystander to any form of injustice; one is morally obligated to do everything in one’s power to eradicate oppression. Of course, this duty is accompanied by the requirement for wisdom to ensure that one’s attempt to remove an evil does not backfire and lead to a greater evil. Activism encompasses both collective and individual efforts. In Islamic terminology, the term *farḍ kifāyah* describes a collective obligation which the community as a whole participates in, and the term *farḍ ʿayn* describes an individual obligation that must be fulfilled by each and every person. Thus Islam calls upon human beings to work individually and collectively to eradicate injustice on the micro- and macro-levels. The Arabic word for injustice, oppression and wrongdoing is *‘ẓulm.’* It is linguistically closely related to the word for darkness *‘ẓulmah’* (pl. *ẓulumāt*) and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ drew on this comparison when he said “Verily, injustice (*ẓulm*) will become darkness (*ẓulumat*) on the Day of Judgment.”[^12] God, being the “Light of the Heavens and the Earth” (Qur’an 24:35), guides humanity out of the depth of darkness into the light (Qur’an 2:257). The faithful striving for justice represent the forces of light wrestling with the darkness of oppression and injustice. One’s proximity to God is thus based on the extent to which one embodies this light and emulates the Divine attribute of justice. The Qur’an also speaks about humankind having the position of *khilāfah* (custodianship) in various passages (Qur’an 6:165, 27:62). One famous interpretation of this is that humanity as a whole has been given the role of being God’s appointed custodian, deputy, viceroy, or vicegerent (Arabic: *khalīfa*) on earth, tasked with the mission of promoting virtue in accordance with the Divine plan.[^13] As Ramon Harvey notes, “If the basic idea of the *khalīfa* within the Qur’an is the human steward charged with a duty to live according to the moral scale that God has set within creation, then in the social sphere this implies upholding justice, establishing his law, and rectifying worldly corruption.”[^14] Throughout time, as human beings have drifted from their divinely ordained mission of striving for justice, God has sent prophets in every epoch for the purpose of re-establishing justice. “We have sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Scripture and the Scales of balance so that humanity may uphold justice (*qisṭ*)” (Qur’an 57:25). This spiritual worldview of custodianship is integral to the Muslim notion of social justice. --- ## Justice in wealth Social justice requires fairness in the allocation and distribution of goods to all members and groups in society. To this effect, there is an incredible emphasis in Islam on taking care of people who are poor. The two fundamental duties incumbent on believers which the Qur’an repeatedly cites (e.g., Qur’an 27:3) are prayer to God and giving money to the poor, the latter referred to as *zakāh* or alms-tax. Zakāh is the religious obligation that requires all Muslims who possess sufficient wealth to donate 2.5% of their assets to the poor and needy. As Wael Hallaq writes: > Among all “branches” of the law, *zakāt* is unique in that it has a dualistic character: on the one hand, it is an integral part of religious “ritual,” and, on the other hand, it functions as a substantive legal sphere, constituting itself as a “tax law.” Inasmuch as socially based financial responsibility merges into rituality, rituality merges into the moral accountability for society’s welfare. Like the ubiquitous charitable trust (*waqf*), *zakāt* was one of the most important instruments of social justice.[^15] In addition to the mandatory amount to be paid, Muslims are also encouraged to donate additional money in charity (*ṣadaqah*). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ quotes God as stating, “O son of Adam, spend in charity and I shall spend on you.”[^16] According to the Prophet, one’s generosity is not to be limited only to members of one’s own community, for he advised, “Donate in charity to people of all faiths.”[^17] Indeed, the Prophet himself regularly sponsored a Jewish household, and his followers continued the practice after him.[^18] The abundance of Qur’anic passages containing exhortations to donate to the poor reveal a conception of spirituality in Islam that is fundamentally tied to social activism and humanitarian relief. Proximity to God requires proximity to the poor. In a powerful statement related by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, God will say on the Day of Judgment: > O son of Adam, I sought food from you but you failed to feed Me. The man would ask: My Lord, how could I feed You when You are the Lord of the worlds? God replies: Do you not realize that a particular servant of Mine asked you for food but you did not feed him? Didn’t you realize that if you had fed him, you would have found him with Me?[^19] Based on this hadith, prayer to God is understood to be bereft of benefit for those who do not actualize their worship in the way they care for others. Individual actions of charity and kindness are certainly praiseworthy, but in order to effect real change, one must work collectively on a larger scale to address systemic injustices and institute policies that rectify inequalities on a comprehensive scale. For instance, during the rule of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, upon hearing from a woman that she was hastening to wean her infant in order to obtain a stipend from the treasury (*Bayt al-Māl*), he instituted a new policy whereby all newborn infants were documented in state records and a stipend of financial support was allocated to their mother.[^20] In doing this, he made a systematic change to help all mothers avoid such hardships rather than just helping the woman in question. --- ## Standing with the marginalized When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ arrived in Madinah, he began his message to the people with several instructions which included, “supporting the weak, helping the oppressed, and spreading peace.”[^21] It is a fundamental tenet of Islamic activism to always be on the side of the oppressed which involves advocating for those groups as allies. The Prophet Muhammad taught, “Beware the supplication of the oppressed, for there is no barrier between it and God.”[^22] If God listens to the oppressed, so must we all. In order to advocate effectively for those who have suffered injustice at the hands of others, one must begin by lending an ear and listening attentively to understand what has happened, and what their demands for justice and reconciliation are. The Qur’an states, “God does not love the public mention of evil, except by one who was wronged; Verily God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (Qur’an 4:148). In other words, publicly mentioning the faults of others is generally prohibited in Islam unless a person has suffered some injustice and oppression, in which case the society must listen to their demands for justice. The legacy of Islam demonstrates the comprehensive manner in which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his followers strived to support all those who were oppressed or marginalized in society prior to the coming of Islam. ### Orphans In seventh-century Arabia, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, one’s status and security in society were contingent on one’s tribal affiliation. Without a powerful clan for protection, there was no way to ensure that one’s rights would not be violated or trodden upon by the upper echelons of society. In this context, the emphasis placed by the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions on caring for orphans is of profound relevance to the subject of social justice. “God instructs you,” the Qur’an tells us, “that you stand firmly for justice towards orphans” (4:127). So critical to Islam’s message is support for orphans that rejecting it has been linked with the rejection of the faith: “Have you not seen the one who rejects faith? That is the one who repels the orphans” (Qur’an 107:1-2). The Qur’an refers to orphans no less than 23 times. The Prophet ﷺ himself grew up an orphan, his father having passed away shortly before his birth, while his mother passed away when he was only six years old. The Qur’an reminds him that it was God who ensured his survival and shelter, “Did He not find you an orphan and grant you refuge?” (Qur’an 93:6). The Qur’an then instructs the Prophet to emulate and replicate God’s care towards him: “So therefore, do not treat the orphan with harshness” (Qur’an 93:9). Why should caring for orphans figure so prominently in this faith? The orphan represented the most vulnerable member of society, most susceptible to exploitation, the one who had lost all means of physical, financial and emotional security in the fierce tribalistic milieu of seventh-century Arabia where everything hinged on patrilineal descent. It is easy to see how the Qur’anic concept of the orphan can be extended as an archetype, emblematic of those who are vulnerable, marginalized, and disenfranchised in any community, in any time and place. ### Slaves The economic context of pre-industrial societies resulted in the proliferation of coercive labor institutions such as slavery and serfdom.[^23] Thus, slavery and forced labor was the most common form of labor transaction in ancient civilizations[^24] and was the norm in pre-Islamic Arabia. Islam targeted the eradication of the maltreatment of slaves as a critical form of social injustice. First, Islam ordained freeing slaves as an integral part of the spiritual journey towards God: > What will make you understand the uphill climb? It is the freeing of a slave. Or feeding on a day of severe hunger the close orphan or the needy person lying in the dust. Then he will become one of those with faith, who urge one another to have patience and urge one another to show compassion and mercy. (Qur’an 90:12-17) The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stated, “He who frees a slave, God will set free every limb of his body from Hell in reward for every limb of the slave’s body.”[^25] To this end, the early Muslim community set about freeing many of the slaves in society, much to the irritation of the Makkan elites, the chiefs of the various powerful tribes in the city. Slaves like Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ and ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah attained great prominence in Islam, both of whom were freed by the Prophet’s companion Abū Bakr. The Prophet Muhammad himself personally freed 63 slaves during his life, his wife Aisha freed 69 slaves, and his companions freed numerous slaves, most notably his companion ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf who freed an astounding thirty-thousand.[^26] The exhortation to free slaves was not limited to those who were Muslim. The foremost compendium of Hadith, *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, contains a chapter on freeing idolater slaves wherein it is mentioned that the Prophet praised Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām’s action of freeing 100 non-Muslim slaves during the pre-Islamic period.[^27] Islam also set about eliminating the mistreatment and abuse of slaves. The Prophet declared, “He who slaps his slave or beats him, the expiation for it is that he should set him free.”[^28] The Prophet ﷺ preached, “Your slaves are your brothers. God has placed them under your care, and he who has his brother under him should feed him with the same food he eats and clothe him with the same clothes he wears, and do not burden him beyond his capacity, and if you burden him then help him.”[^29] The Prophet thus transformed the status of existing slaves, elevating them to servants who had rights over their former masters. Even referring to them as ‘slaves’ was prohibited: “None of you should say: My slave, for all of you are the slaves of God. Rather, you should say 'My young man.'”[^30] Moreover, Islam condemned the enslavement of free persons as an abominable act, as the Prophet ﷺ stated he would personally prosecute such a person on the Day of Judgment.[^31] The Prophet also said that the person who enslaves a free person would not have their prayers accepted by God.[^32] The companions understood this as a universal principle affirming the freedom of all humankind from any kind of exploitation or abuse. When the Muslim ruler ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was told that a Christian peasant had been abused in Egypt, he angrily turned to the governor of Egypt and asked him, “Since when did you treat people as slaves, when their mothers bore them as free souls?”[^33] Indeed, the influential Muslim intellectual Muhammad Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935 CE) postulated that the gradual abolition of slavery was the final goal of Islam, and if Muslim rulers had been true to the Islamic code of ethics, slavery would have died out centuries ago.[^34] While many rulers continued the institution of slavery into the modern era for political and economic interests before eventually ceding to European pressure, the Tunisian ruler Ahmad Bey issued an abolition decree in 1846, arguing that freedom was the aspiration of Islam, with the support of the two highest religious authorities—the Ḥanafī Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad Bayram IV and Mālikī Mufti Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Riyāḥi.[^35] Islam’s campaign against slavery represents an ethic of combating all forms of exploitation, subjugation, abuse, and should continue in modern times through advocacy for factory workers in deplorable conditions, as well as rescuing victims of human trafficking, child labor, and forced marriages. ### Persons with disabilities[^36] Recently, there has been a growth in public awareness and sensitivity towards those with physical and mental disabilities. Historically, those with disabilities were often stigmatized and marginalized; in Islamic society, however, some of the greatest legacies were established by famous individuals with disabilities, which established an important precedent of respect and dignity for all. One of the illustrious companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm, a man who also happened to be fully blind. He holds a very unique distinction in Islam, being one of two people assigned by the Prophet to perform the daily calls to prayer, the other being the aforementioned Bilāl Ibn Rabāḥ.[^37] On one occasion in the early period of Islam when the Prophet ﷺ was preaching about the teachings of Islam to the chiefs of Makkah, ʿAbd Allāh came and interrupted the gathering with a request, which caused the Prophet to frown momentarily. Even this very slight expression of displeasure (invisible to ʿAbd Allāh) was considered a lapse in judgment and the opening verses of the 80th chapter of the Qur’an were then revealed which corrected the Prophet and reminded him that only God knows who will benefit the most from hearing the message. From this story, we can derive the importance of ensuring that those with disabilities are equally welcomed at all gatherings, provided equal and equitable access to educators and educational opportunities, and not discriminated against in any manner. One of the famous reciters of the Qur’an was ʿĪsá al-Zarqī, better known as Qālūn (d. 220 AH/835 CE). He was the leading reciter in the city of Madinah during his lifetime. His style of recitation is the norm today in Qatar, Libya, and Tunisia. A lesser-known fact about Qalun, however, is that he was in fact a person who was deaf, and yet was able to master the art of recitation, with all its subtle phonetic nuances; it is said that through lip-reading he was able to correct his students’ errors.[^38] In addition to physical disabilities, Islam provided a precedent for treating with dignity and compassion those with mental health and learning challenges. On one occasion, a woman with an unspecified condition that affected her cognition approached the Prophet ﷺ to request his assistance. The Prophet immediately prioritized her request, he addressed her with a customary honorific title (which signifies both respect and comfort), and asked her to select any public place in the city at her convenience so that he could arrange to meet her and assist her. When he met with her, he patiently stood with her at the roadside until her requests were all satisfied.[^39] This story is particularly significant and authoritative for Muslims because the Prophet Muhammad represents the moral example to be emulated and his actions and teachings constitute the basis of the Islamic ethical framework. Thus, this specific incident can be used by Muslims to derive many lessons. For instance, it demonstrates that it is an Islamic goal to ensure that mental health counseling services are available, and that such services must be arranged according to the terms of those who utilize them, in a manner that is convenient and accessible for them. It demonstrates the importance of creating a safe space where people are not stigmatized, but rather addressed with terms of respect and equal dignity so that they feel comfortable accessing their needs in public. ### Diverse ethnicities One of the most fundamental aspects of Islam’s social justice message has been its emphasis on racial equality. The Qur’an has a famous passage that states: > O Humankind, verily we created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honorable of you in the sight of God is the most pious. Verily, God is all-Knowing, all-Aware. (Qur’an 49:13) This verse is universally cited by Muslims as endorsing racial equality because it mentions that belonging to different ethnic identities is not a matter that confers superiority, but rather is intended to enhance human interactions and harmony. Meanwhile, it is only virtue and piety that make one more honorable in the sight of God, not one’s skin color or ethnicity. In his most famous sermon delivered during the pilgrimage towards the end of his life, the Prophet ﷺ declared: > O People, your Lord is One, and your father (Ādam) is one. Verily, there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab over an Arab. There is no superiority of a white over a black nor a black over a white. Only piety causes one to excel.[^40] Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ’s story has become one of the most iconic examples of Islam’s campaign against racism. He was an Abyssinian slave in Mecca who embraced Islam and was freed by Abū Bakr, and became one of the most prominent companions of the Prophet ﷺ, given the honor of regularly making the call to prayer (in addition to ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Umm Maktum). In fact, when the Prophet ﷺ returned to Makkah eight years after being expelled from the city, he requested Bilāl to climb on to the roof of the Holy Ka’ba and make the call to prayer, thus simultaneously establishing Islam’s message of monotheism and racial equality. The Makkan elites who opposed Islam were horrified at this sight and began making derogatory racist remarks, and the Qur’anic verse on racial equality (49:13) was revealed to refute them.[^41] It is difficult to overstate the importance of Islam to the civil rights movement in the United States. Malcolm X was particularly inspired by his experience during the Hajj pilgrimage where he witnessed people of all ethnic backgrounds united in worship without any distinction between them. He wrote in his letters, “America needs to understand Islam because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem...I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.”[^42] ### Other faith communities Truth cannot be arrived at through compulsion or coercion, and hence the Qur’an stipulates that people should arrive at their own convictions willingly: “There is no compulsion in faith; truth is clear from error” (Qur’an 2:256) and “Had your Lord willed, all people on earth could have believed; so how then could you try to force people to arrive at faith?” (Qur’an 10:99). From its outset, Islam called upon its followers to express kindness and compassion towards all people: “Be compassionate with all those on earth, and the One above Heaven will bestow His Compassion upon you,” the Prophet ﷺadvised.[^43] As custodians of God on Earth, establishing justice for all people is of utmost importance, and hence it is those who stand for justice who receive Divine aid regardless of their ideological affiliation. A famous tradition amongst Muslim scholars states, “God will support a just nation, even if it be a nation that rejects faith, and He will not support an unjust nation even if it be a nation of believers.”[^44] Believers who do not act upon their belief by establishing justice are failing to live up to the dictates of their religion. True faith requires that believers manifest their commitment to God by upholding justice for all people. Islam’s message of social justice was not limited to supporting the rights of Muslims alone. The Prophet ﷺ affirmed his commitment to a pledge known as *Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl*, an agreement by some of the clans of Makkah to protect anyone who was oppressed, regardless of their identity or background. The Prophet’s affirmation of this pledge demonstrated the duty Muslims have to protect anyone who is oppressed and that Muslims should have no qualms entering into alliances with other religious communities in order to fulfill this duty. As the Qur’an states, “And cooperate in moral virtue and piety, and do not cooperate in sin or transgression” (Qur’an 5:2). Religious identity should not be a consideration when deciding whether to support someone in need. In one tradition, the Prophet ﷺ related that God says, “I do not reject the supplications of the oppressed, even if it be from one who rejects faith.”[^45] In the previously mentioned story of the Christian peasant in Egypt during the time of the Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb lies one of the most powerful examples of social justice for all people. Umar decreed for the Egyptian Christian peasant to exact full retribution upon the Arab Muslim nobleman who had abused him, disregarding any favoritism based on class, ethnicity, or religion. --- ## Women’s rights In seventh-century Arabia, Islam played a revolutionary role in transforming the status of women in society.[^46] The Qur’an contains several passages criticizing the cultural favoritism of sons over daughters, condemning the practice of female infanticide (Qur’an 16:58-9 and Qur’an 81:8-9), and declaring that it is a gift from God when a person is bestowed with a daughter or a son (Qur’an 42:49). In a famous anecdote, when the Prophet ﷺ saw a man treat his son preferentially over his daughter (by greeting only the former with a kiss), the Prophet spoke out and said, “Why did you not treat them equally?”[^47] Indeed, the Prophet declared that God promises paradise for whoever raises a daughter in the best manner, never demeaning her nor preferring his sons over her.[^48] The Qur’an affirmed the spiritual equality of men and women. The Qur’an states, “I shall not lose sight of the labor of any of you who labors in My way, be it man or woman; you are equal to one another” (Qur’an 3:195). The Prophet ﷺ stated, “Women are the equal counterparts of men.”[^49] The Qur’an dedicates its fourth chapter, entitled *Women*, with a call to society to uphold the economic and marital rights of women. The message of Islam on women’s rights overturned the existing culture and revolutionized the way men thought about women’s rights. As one of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ testified, “In the pre-Islamic era, we used to have no regard for women whatsoever. But when Islam came and God made mention of them, this caused us to realize that they have rights upon us.”[^50] Women began to occupy public roles including that of market advisors and supervisors in the case of Samrāʾ bint Nuhayk[^51] and Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh.[^52] They also served the community as teachers and scholars, the greatest scholar being Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, who taught over 300 students. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught that seeking all types of knowledge is important for both men and women. The Caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz would consult the female scholar ʿAmrah bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 98 AH/717 CE), whose authority was so weighty that she could overturn the ruling of a court case. The Muslim female scientist Maryam al-ʿIjlīyah (d. 356 AH/967 CE) designed astrolabes that were used by the ruler, Sayf al-Dawlah, and an asteroid belt has since been named after her. In the field of Ḥadīth alone, there have been over 8000 famous women scholars.[^53] --- ## Conclusion The Islamic faith, shared by one-quarter of the world’s population, has a profound tradition of social justice that is rooted in spirituality, seeing humankind as custodians of this world, divinely entrusted with the duty to always stand on the side of the oppressed and speak truth to power. Through the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions, Muslims seek to revitalize the true essence of the faith, which calls upon human beings to serve God by caring for those in need. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 2577. [^2]: A. Al-Ghazālī, *Al-Maqṣad al-asná fī sharh asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusná*, ed. Muhammad ʿUthmān al-Khisht (Cairo, Egypt: Maktabat al-Qur’an, 1984), 45. [^3]: Jalāl al-Dīn Al-Maḥallī and Jalāl al-Dīn Al-Suyūṭī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn* (Cairo: Dar al-Hadīth, 2010), 709. [^4]: M. R. Al-Nābulsī, “Khuṭbah al-Jumuʿah, Silsilat al-Akhlāq, Al-ʿAdl,” *Nabulsi*, 1992, http://www.nabulsi.com/blue/ar/te.php?art=599/. [^5]: Sira Abdul Rahman, “Religion and Animal Welfare: An Islamic Perspective,” *Animals: An Open Access Journal from MDPI* 7, no. 2 (2017): 11. [^6]: Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-ʿArab*, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dar Sader, 1990), 377. [^7]: Ramon Harvey, “Justice and Mercy on the Scale,” *Renovatio*, July 10, 2017, https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/justice-and-mercy-on-the-scale/. [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 2865. [^9]: *Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī*: no. 2174. [^10]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*: no. 4010. [^11]: *Ṣaḥīh Muslim*: no. 49. [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: no. 2315. [^13]: Al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfaqāt*, vol. 3 (Khobar: Dar ibn ʿAffān, 1997), 24. [^14]: Ramon Harvey, *The Qur’an and the Just Society* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), 83. [^15]: Wael Hallaq, *The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity's Moral Predicament* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 123. [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: no. 5352. [^17]: *Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah*: no. 1194. [^18]: Abū ʿUbayd Ibn Sallām, *Kitāb al-amwāl*, ed. Muhammad Ammarah (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1989), 727–8. [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 2569. [^20]: Ibn Kathīr, *Al-Bidāyah wa-al-nihāyah*, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dar Ibn Kathir, 2010), 266. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: no. 6235. [^22]: *Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī*: no. 2014. [^23]: Gregory Clark, *A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 220–223. [^24]: Daron Acemoglu and Alexander Wolitzky, “The Economics of Labor Coercion,” *Econometrica* 79, no. 2 (March 2011): 555–600. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 1509. [^26]: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Shirwānī and Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-ʿAbbādī, *Hawāshi al-Shirwānī wa-al-ʿAbbādī ʿalá tuḥfat al-muḥtāj bi-sharḥ al-minhāj*, 10 vols. (Cairo: Maktabah Tijaria al-Kubra, 1938), 352. [^27]: The Muslim jurist Ibn Baṭṭāl al-Mālikī (d. 449 AH/1057 CE) comments on this chapter by stating, “There is no difference of opinion amongst the scholars of Islam concerning the virtue of freeing idolaters as a voluntary act of worship.” Cited in Badr al-Dīn Al-ʿAynī, ʿ*Umdat al-qārī sharh ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, vol. 13 (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah, 2009), 141. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ explained that the more expensive the slave, the more noble an act it was to free him (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 2518), which was used by the earliest Muslim jurists, like Imām Mālik (d. 179 AH/795 CE), to prove that freeing an expensive disbelieving slave could be more virtuous than freeing a believer since it required a greater financial sacrifice on the person donating. Cited in Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-bārī bi-sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, vol. 6 (Riyadh: Dar al-Taybah, 2005), 339. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 1657a. [^29]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 1661. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 2249. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: no. 2227. [^32]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah*: 5:1023. [^33]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, *Futūḥ Miṣr*, vol. 1 (Cairo: Maktabah al-Thaqafah al-Deeniyah, 2010), 195. [^34]: William Gervase Clarence-Smith, *Islam and the Abolition of Slavery* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 205. [^35]: Elisabeth C. Van Der Haven, “The Abolition of Slavery in Tunisia (1846),” *Revue d’Histoire Maghrébine* 27, nos. 99–100 (2000): 449–64. [^36]: There is considerable discussion in the literature over the most appropriate language to use for individuals with disabilities and health conditions. The trend has been towards “person-first” language (thus, a “person with schizophrenia” rather than a “schizophrenic person”), which has been seen to be more humanizing and less stigmatizing. However, the “person-first” model has been challenged in some scenarios by advocates who argue that “identity-first” language is less stigmatizing, particularly with evidence demonstrating that the label “autistic person” is preferred by individuals rather than “person with autism.” See for instance Roger Collier, “Person-First Language: What It Means to Be a ‘Person’,” *CMAJ* 184, no. 18 (2012): E935–6; also see D. S. Dunn and E. E. Andrews, “Person-First and Identity-First Language: Developing Psychologists' Cultural Competence Using Disability Language,” *American Psychologist* 70, no. 3 (2015): 255–264. The use of sensitivity and respect in one’s terminology is part of the Qur’anic directive to not refer to one another by undesirable or offensive names (Qur’an 49:11). [^37]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 380a. [^38]: Ibn Khalaf al-Anṣārī, *al-Iqnāʿ fī al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ* (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1983), 59. [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: no. 2326. [^40]: *Musnad Aḥmad*: no. 22978. [^41]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *Zād al-maṣīr* (Beirut: Dar ibn Hazm, 2002), 1335. [^42]: Malcolm X and Alex Haley, *The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley*, (New York: Grove Press, 1964), 345. [^43]: *Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī*: no. 1924. [^44]: Quoted by Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728 AH/1328 CE) in *Majmuʿ al-fatāwá*, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim, vol. 28 (Riyadh: Majmaʿ al-Malik al-Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 2004), 63. [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*: no. 361. [^46]: For further readings on the status of women in seventh-century Arabia, refer to F. Sulaimani, “The Changing Position of Women in Arabia Under Islam During the Early Seventh Century,” (PhD diss., University of Salford, 1986). [^47]: *Musnad al-Bazzār*: no. 6361. [^48]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*: no. 5146. [^49]: *Musnad Aḥmad*: no. 5869. Abū Sulaymān Al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 386 AH) writes, “His saying that women are counterparts of men means their equals and their likeness in creation and nature as if they split off from men. In jurisprudence, it is an affirmation of the analogy and equivalence in rulings, equal by equal. Such that if the address is conveyed in the male grammatical form, it is also addressed to women, except for specific topics whose specification is established by evidence.” See Al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan*, ed. Muhammad Rāghib al-Ṭabbākh,  vol. 1 (Aleppo: al-Matba’ah al-Ilmiyyah, 1932), 79. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: no. 5505. [^51]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *Al-Muʿjam al-kabīr*, ed. Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Salafī, vol. 24 of 25 (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymiyyah, 1983), p. 11, no. 785. [^52]: Ibn Abī ʿĀsim, *Al-Āḥād wa al-mathānī*, ed. Basim Faisal al-Jawabira, vol. 6 of 6 (Riyadh: Daral-Raya, 1991), p. 4, no. 3179. [^53]: M. A. Nadwi, *Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam* (London: Interface Publications, 2007). ## Summary **Justice as Rooted in the Divine Nature** The concept of justice in Islam begins not with human society but with the very nature of God. The Qur'an affirms, "Verily, God does not do even an atom's weight of injustice" (Qur'an 4:40), and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ relates that God has said, "O My Servants, I have forbidden injustice upon Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not commit injustice." From this we understand a foundational principle of Islamic theology: that the human being's quest in life is to draw near to God by emulating His Divine Names. The theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH/1111 CE) devoted a chapter of his work on the concept of God to explaining that the worshipper's perfection and salvation lie in emulating the Divine qualities and embodying their meanings to the extent humanly conceivable. Thus belief in God's Justice is inseparable from one's commitment to strive for justice and avoid oppression, and it is those who uphold justice who truly testify to God's grandeur: "God testifies that there is none worthy of worship except Him, as do the angels, and those endowed with knowledge standing firmly for justice" (Qur'an 3:18). Spiritual justice, the love of God, is therefore the wellspring from which all other forms of justice flow. **Balance in the Cosmos and the Rights of Others** Justice is woven into the fabric of creation itself. When the Qur'an states, "God raised up the heavens and established the Scales of balance" (Qur'an 55:7), commentators understand this to mean that He established justice (athbata al-ʿadl). Justice in Islam entails upholding the rights (ḥuqūq) due to others—giving what is owed to the one to whom it is owed. This begins with God's own right, acknowledging Him as the sole Sovereign worthy of worship. To deify creatures or worship others alongside Him is shirk, which the Qur'an calls "a grave injustice" (Qur'an 31:13), and whose primary victim is one's own soul, deprived of the fulfillment of a meaningful connection with its Creator. One's relationship with God must then manifest in dealings with all creation—family, neighbors, humanity, animals, and the environment. The Qur'an, in a verse routinely recited at the close of the Friday sermon, commands "justice, excellent conduct, and caring for one's relatives" while forbidding "all forms of immorality, evil and transgression" (Qur'an 16:90). So essential is impartiality that believers are told to stand firm in justice even against themselves, their parents, and relatives (Qur'an 4:135), and not to let hatred of a people prevent them from being just (Qur'an 5:8). **The Social Dimension and the Duty of Activism** Justice possesses both a vertical dimension between humanity and God and a horizontal, social dimension among human beings. The Qur'anic term that best expresses social justice is qisṭ, denoting fairness and equity in distribution so that all members of society receive their due share. Political justice requires governance through mutual consultation (Qur'an 42:38), and the Prophet ﷺ praised the just ruler and declared that the most noble struggle is to speak a truthful word before a tyrannical ruler. Upon hearing that an elderly woman had been pushed in Abyssinia, he said, "How would God sanctify a nation that does not protect its underprivileged from its powerful?" Islam is in this sense a faith of activism, for the believers are characterized by "enjoining good and forbidding evil" (Qur'an 3:110, 9:71). The Prophet ﷺ instructed, "Whoever witnesses something evil, let him change it with his hand, and if he is unable then with his tongue, and if he is unable then with his heart, but that is the weakest form of faith." This duty, however, is bound to wisdom, so that removing an evil does not produce a greater one. It is discharged both collectively (farḍ kifāyah) and individually (farḍ ʿayn). Injustice itself is termed ẓulm, linguistically linked to darkness (ẓulmah), and the Prophet ﷺ warned, "Verily, injustice will become darkness on the Day of Judgment," while God, "the Light of the Heavens and the Earth" (Qur'an 24:35), guides humanity from darkness into light. **Custodianship and the Purpose of Prophethood** The Qur'an describes humankind's role as one of khilāfah, or custodianship (Qur'an 6:165, 27:62), understood in one famous interpretation as humanity being God's appointed steward on earth, charged with promoting virtue according to the Divine plan. As Ramon Harvey notes, this stewardship implies "upholding justice, establishing his law, and rectifying worldly corruption." When people drift from this mission, God sends messengers to restore justice: "We have sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Scripture and the Scales of balance so that humanity may uphold justice" (Qur'an 57:25). **Justice in Wealth** Social justice demands fairness in the distribution of goods, and Islam places extraordinary emphasis on caring for the poor. The two duties the Qur'an repeatedly pairs (e.g., Qur'an 27:3) are prayer and the giving of zakāh, the obligatory alms of 2.5% of one's wealth. Wael Hallaq observes that zakāt is unique in its dual nature as both ritual and a substantive legal sphere functioning as a tax law, making it "one of the most important instruments of social justice." Beyond the obligatory, Muslims are urged toward voluntary charity (ṣadaqah), for the Prophet ﷺ relates that God says, "O son of Adam, spend in charity and I shall spend on you." This generosity is not confined to one's own community—the Prophet ﷺ advised, "Donate in charity to people of all faiths," and himself regularly sponsored a Jewish household. So closely is proximity to God tied to proximity to the poor that God will say on the Day of Judgment, "O son of Adam, I sought food from you but you failed to feed Me… a particular servant of Mine asked you for food but you did not feed him." Yet individual charity must be joined to collective reform of systemic injustice. When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb learned that a woman was hastening to wean her infant to obtain a stipend, he instituted a policy documenting all newborns and allocating support to their mothers. **Standing with the Marginalized** Upon arriving in Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ enjoined "supporting the weak, helping the oppressed, and spreading peace." He warned, "Beware the supplication of the oppressed, for there is no barrier between it and God," and the Qur'an permits the public mention of wrong by one who has been wronged (Qur'an 4:148). Concerning orphans—the most vulnerable in tribal Arabia—the Qur'an commands standing "firmly for justice towards orphans" (Qur'an 4:127) and links repelling the orphan to the rejection of faith itself (Qur'an 107:1-2), mentioning orphans no fewer than twenty-three times. The Prophet ﷺ, himself an orphan, was reminded, "Did He not find you an orphan and grant you refuge?" and instructed, "So therefore, do not treat the orphan with harshness" (Qur'an 93:6, 9). **The Case of Slaves** Islam confronted the entrenched institution of slavery by making the freeing of slaves part of the spiritual ascent: "What will make you understand the uphill climb? It is the freeing of a slave" (Qur'an 90:12-13). The Prophet ﷺ taught, "He who frees a slave, God will set free every limb of his body from Hell." He himself freed sixty-three slaves, Aisha freed sixty-nine, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf freed thirty thousand. Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī records the Prophet's praise of Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām for freeing one hundred non-Muslim slaves in the pre-Islamic period. He forbade abuse, saying that one who slaps or beats his slave must free him in expiation, and that slaves are "your brothers" whom masters must feed and clothe as themselves. He forbade even calling them "slaves," saying, "you should say 'My young man.'" He condemned the enslavement of free persons, declaring he would prosecute such a one on the Day of Judgment. When ʿUmar heard of a Christian peasant abused in Egypt, he asked, "Since when did you treat people as slaves, when their mothers bore them as free souls?" Muhammad Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935 CE) held that the gradual abolition of slavery was Islam's ultimate goal, and the Tunisian ruler Ahmad Bey issued an abolition decree in 1846 with the support of the Ḥanafī Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad Bayram IV and the Mālikī Mufti Ibrāhīm al-Riyāḥi. **Persons with Disabilities** Islamic history offers precedents of dignity for those with disabilities. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm, a blind companion, was one of two men appointed to call the prayer. When the Prophet ﷺ once frowned at his interruption, the opening of the eightieth chapter was revealed to correct him, reminding that only God knows who will benefit most from the message. Qālūn (d. 220 AH/835 CE), the leading reciter of Madinah whose recitation prevails today in Qatar, Libya, and Tunisia, was deaf and corrected his students through lip-reading. And when a woman whose condition affected her cognition approached the Prophet ﷺ, he prioritized her request, addressed her with an honorific, and patiently stood with her at the roadside until her needs were met—an example, as the Prophet is the moral exemplar for Muslims, of providing accessible, dignified, and non-stigmatizing care. **Racial Equality and Other Faith Communities** The Qur'an proclaims, "O Humankind, verily we created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honorable of you in the sight of God is the most pious" (Qur'an 49:13). In his farewell sermon the Prophet ﷺ declared, "there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab… nor a black over a white. Only piety causes one to excel." Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ, an Abyssinian freed by Abū Bakr, was honored to call the prayer atop the Kaʿba, and Malcolm X later wrote that Islam "erases from its society the race problem." Islam's justice extends to all faiths: there is "no compulsion in faith" (Qur'an 2:256), the believers are told to "cooperate in moral virtue and piety" (Qur'an 5:2), and the Prophet ﷺ honored the pledge of Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl to protect any oppressed person. A tradition among scholars holds that "God will support a just nation, even if it be a nation that rejects faith, and He will not support an unjust nation even if it be a nation of believers." ʿUmar's decree granting the Egyptian Christian retribution against his Arab Muslim abuser embodies this. **Women's Rights** Islam transformed the status of women, condemning female infanticide (Qur'an 16:58-59, 81:8-9) and affirming that a daughter is a gift from God (Qur'an 42:49). When the Prophet ﷺ saw a man favor his son, he asked, "Why did you not treat them equally?" The Qur'an affirms spiritual equality: "I shall not lose sight of the labor of any of you… be it man or woman" (Qur'an 3:195), and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Women are the equal counterparts of men." A companion testified that before Islam "we used to have no regard for women whatsoever," until God made mention of them. Women served as market supervisors like Samrāʾ bint Nuhayk and Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh, as scholars like Aisha who taught over three hundred students, as the jurist ʿAmrah bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 98 AH/717 CE) whose authority could overturn a court ruling, and as the scientist Maryam al-ʿIjlīyah (d. 356 AH/967 CE), after whom an asteroid belt is named. In the science of Ḥadīth alone there have been over eight thousand renowned women scholars. **Conclusion** The Islamic tradition of social justice is rooted in spirituality, casting humankind as custodians of the world, divinely entrusted to stand always on the side of the oppressed and to speak truth to power. Through the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions, Muslims seek to revive the essence of a faith that calls the human being to serve God by caring for those in need. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is justice in Islam? Justice in Islam is the divine command to uphold fairness, give others their due rights, and act with equity regardless of personal interest or relation. It is rooted in *tawḥīd* (oneness of Allah), recognizing God as the ultimate source of authority, and manifests through moral, social, and legal responsibility toward all creation. ### Which hadith speaks against injustice? The Prophet ﷺ quoted Allah as saying, “O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another.” (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 2577) This hadith *qudsi* (a hadith whose meanings are from Allah) reveals that injustice is prohibited by Allah Himself and must be entirely avoided in all dealings with others. ### How does Islam address oppression? Islam condemns all forms of oppression and mandates its removal through moral courage, truth-speaking, and institutional reform. Believers are encouraged to stand against wrongdoing, even if committed by those close to them, and to support the oppressed through solidarity, advocacy, and action rooted in faith and compassion. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-can-i-ever-get-past-this-reclaiming-your-future-after-the-abuse-has-ended # "How Can I Ever Get Past This?" Reclaiming Your Future After the Abuse Has Ended **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 24, 2020 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Note *Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.*  \-Brene Brown[^1] --- ## TRIGGER WARNING This section contains information about sexual assault, which may be triggering to survivors. *Muna came from a religious, traditional family. She grew up with a solid foundation of Islamic learning and practice. When Muna was 12 years old, her uncle came to live with the family from overseas. The touches started off subtly. At first, she wasn’t sure if she was imagining things so she didn’t say anything. She tried to avoid her uncle as much as possible as she began to feel more and more uncomfortable. One day Muna got home and neither of her parents was there. She felt trapped and unable to do anything when her uncle touched her more than he ever had. When she tearfully told her mother what happened, her mother was in disbelief and said, “He couldn’t have done that! He’s a good man! How were you acting? Don’t tell your father about this—he couldn’t bear it.” Muna was devastated and felt even more hurt after her mother’s response. She thought, “I’m a dirty and worthless person. I’m a bad Muslim now. How can I ever get past this?”* --- ## What is happening to me? After experiencing something traumatic, particularly traumas like abuse, sexual assault, physical violence, or even the threat of harm, it’s hard to know how to react. You may be physically hurt, emotionally drained, and unsure of what to do next. The mix of emotions you may be experiencing after something so traumatic can make everything seem incredibly confusing. You may be scared, angry, and/or shocked. You may also find yourself feeling guilty despite this experience not being your fault. It is never ok for someone to hurt you, take advantage of you, or do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or scared. When we go through a traumatic experience, we may experience self-doubt and we may inadvertently start to identify ourselves and the rest of our lives through the lens of what we’ve endured. Our minds try to make sense of what has happened so we scan for evidence that something fundamentally wrong within us is the reason we have experienced something so painful. You may find yourself thinking: *I’ve always been a loser, so it’s no wonder I haven’t been able to keep any friends.* *I got laid off from my job; well, there’s another example of how inadequate I am.* *My parents always told me no one would want to marry me; that explains why my marriage failed—because I’ve always been worthless and ugly.* If we imagine we deserve the pain we’re enduring, it might hurt more but at least it makes the world predictable. Sometimes it can be scarier to deal with unpredictability, so we begin to base our identities on the negative events that have happened in our lives. We scan our lives and ourselves for evidence that we are failures, sinners, victims, worthless, or inadequate in some way. When you think negatively about yourself, your mind will inevitably find evidence to support your thoughts. This negative self-perception can lead every day to begin with a cloud of distress over our heads as we live our lives based on the incorrect assumption that we are not good enough. --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions ### What is labeling? This negative thought pattern of basing our self-image on a negative trait or incident in our lives is called labeling. **Labeling** is a cognitive distortion in which we overgeneralize by taking one incident or characteristic of a person and applying it to the whole person. For example: *I can’t believe I lost my car keys again. I’m such an airhead.* *Why has my wife been so distant lately? I’m unlovable.* *My husband is late again. He’s such a jerk.* *My son failed his math test. I don’t spend enough time going over his homework. I’m a bad mother.* Rather than considering the situation or behavior objectively, when we engage in labeling, we globally describe *the whole person*. This results in viewing ourselves, and others, through a label that is inaccurate, causing us to ignore any evidence that doesn’t fit under the umbrella of the picture we’ve painted. For example: If you have been passed over for a promotion, rather than focusing on the positive feedback your supervisor gave you last month, you label yourself a *failure* and an *inadequate worker.* By viewing yourself in this way, you lose motivation at work, which perpetuates these negative emotions and patterns and can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Making an overgeneralization about ourselves or someone else based on one isolated data point, or just a few data points, is inherently problematic. Learning that you did not get a promotion would likely lead to feeling some disappointment, whereas labeling yourself a complete failure results in the disempowering feelings of despair and hopelessness. Thus, labeling yourself negatively will prevent you from working towards solutions to the problem since it fuels a belief that the problem is, fundamentally, *you*. ### How are our identities impacted by the labels we ascribe to ourselves? The narrative and labels that run through our heads screaming that we are inadequate or that we are defined by our struggles can further advance a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. The “I ams” that we say to ourselves are an incredibly important factor in terms of how resilient we are during times of stress. This can be seen through *labeling theory.* Labeling theory is the theory of how our identities and behaviors are influenced by the way we describe ourselves. Researchers Wright, Gronfein and Owens[^2] found that stigmatization of mental illness labels resulted in social isolation and negative self-concepts in patients who had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital. The way these individuals labeled themselves resulted in them isolating themselves socially, which perpetuated a cycle of low self-esteem and feelings of rejection by others. For example, someone who is suffering from depression may label themselves as a depressed person. When you begin each day with the perception that being depressed is the core of who you are, it will be difficult to engage in activities that are not in line with depression. Therefore, as a depressed person, you may stay in bed rather than go to work and ruminate on negative thoughts about yourself rather than focusing on your positive traits. The way we define ourselves can be incredibly powerful. ### The impact of labeling on spirituality The labels we create for ourselves can also impact us spiritually. We have all sinned, but should we constantly label ourselves as sinners?  If you define yourself as a sinner, you lose hope in the mercy of Allah and this can lead you to further sins. If you label yourself a failure, when something goes wrong you think, *“Of course Allah is sending me hardships as a punishment because I’m a sinner and beyond hope no matter how hard I try.”* Imagine, instead, thinking of yourself as a repenter because you sin but turn back to Allah (swt). With this label, you may think to yourself, *“Allah is testing me with this trial as an opportunity to get closer to Him and as an indication of how strong I am to be able to handle this.”* That shift in how you define yourself makes all the difference. Happiness starts from the inside out, not the outside in. If, at the core, you believe yourself to be worthless, hopeless, inadequate, or a bad Muslim, external factors will be unable to change that. A person complimenting you for a job well done will not make you feel accomplished if you label yourself a failure. No matter how many pages of Qur’an you recite, you will never feel closer to Allah (swt) if you label yourself a bad Muslim. No matter how happy your children are, you will never feel a sense of fulfillment in motherhood if you label yourself an inadequate mother. Even if you are loved deeply, you will be unable to accept it if you believe yourself to be undeserving of love—including the love of Allah (swt). ### Learned helplessness after victimization *\*****Note:*** *In the following sections, steps to begin the recovery process after victimization are discussed. While the idea of re-labeling oneself as a survivor rather than a victim is mentioned below, it is important to note that not every victim of abuse survives. And those who do live through their trauma are faced with the arduous task of moving forward after the loss of a piece of themselves and the life for which they had hoped. When exploring the idea of shedding the victim label, it is important to remember that it was not your choice to become a victim. This was something forced upon you. Rather, it is intended as a step forward in reclaiming your power and redefining your life on your own terms. May Allah (swt) grant you healing and peace on this journey. Your strength is immeasurable and something unfathomable to most.* After experiencing a traumatic incident, particularly at the hands of another person, feelings of helplessness and victimization can arise. After a boundary has been violated, knowing that you were helpless to stop this from occurring is a disturbing realization. It shakes your view of everything—including yourself. Even when you are no longer powerless, you may find yourself unable to let go of this feeling. Furthermore, this feeling may lead you to label yourself as a victim and live your life through this lens. This is called *learned helplessness*. Learned helplessness[^3] is a concept that was developed by Martin Seligman and first seen in animals; however, the same phenomenon occurs in people as well. Researchers discovered that when animals were repeatedly exposed to something painful that they could not avoid, they would eventually stop trying to escape. Even when the situation was changed and the animals were able to escape the painful shocks, they lacked the motivation to try and instead continued to passively accept the pain. We find the same pattern in our own lives: we eventually stop trying to change things when we feel that control over a situation has been lost, even when the situation changes so that control might be taken back. There may have been circumstances in your life in which you felt completely powerless and this may have contributed to the development of negative beliefs about your abilities, a tendency to take on blame when things go wrong, and/or a sense of hopelessness regarding the possibility of change. If abuse, bullying, or any type of violation occurs repeatedly, you may begin to believe that there is no way out and that you are someone who is doomed to be a victim. The feeling of powerlessness to change your life is attached to the victim label. Reclaiming control of your life and its different facets is a journey but one that is possible. Just as we can “learn” helplessness, we can “unlearn” it as well. The road to agency and self-empowerment is there if you’re willing to walk it. --- ## Changing your mind, body, and heart ### Unweaving the tapestry of our minds Labeling can be deeply ingrained within us so it can take some effort to begin to release the grip of this cognitive distortion. The neurological network within our brain is like a blanket we have woven with multiple spools of wool. Imagine you’ve chosen to weave a tapestry—a picture of your life. Now imagine being asked to take the tapestry apart, thread by thread, in order to weave a new picture of your life. That is no easy feat! In the same way, retraining our brains to view our lives without the negative labels we have created can be a strenuous process but it is definitely possible—and definitely worth the hard work. If the thought, *“This is just who I am. I’ve been through so much pain so how can I ever get past this?”* comes to mind, consider this: Our brains are *plastic*, which means they can change throughout ours lives.[^4] It was once believed that the connections in our brains are fixed and unchangeable, making the idea of brain growth in adulthood an impossibility. However, research within the past 50 years has shown that substantial brain changes occur throughout our lives. Whenever something new is learned, our brain changes.[^5] Therefore, no matter how ingrained our negative thoughts become—even the ways we view ourselves and our identities—we are capable of change. ### Sense of inadequacy Why is labeling so hard to “unweave” from our minds? Labeling creates and solidifies a sense of inadequacy. The fear at the surface may actually indicate a deeper sense of inadequacy if we explore it. Consider this example where Ayah expresses her worries about her child tantruming in public: Therapist: *Suppose your child has a tantrum in the grocery store. Why would that be particularly upsetting to you? Why is that such a big deal?* Ayah: *Because then everyone would look down on me and think I was a bad mother.* Therapist: *What would happen if people did look down on you?* Ayah: *I would feel horrible.* Therapist: *What about people looking down on you would weigh so heavily on you?* Ayah: *I would be ashamed. It would mean that I’m failing at the one thing I should be good at. I’m failing at the one thing I’ve looked forward to being for so long: a mother.* Therapist: *And if you failed at being a good mother? What would that mean?* Ayah: *It would mean that I’m worthless.* Here, we see that Ayah ties her child’s behavior to whether she is a “good” or “bad” mother and that she ties her self-worth to this role in her life. She believes that something that is outside of her control (her child struggling in a store), would mean she was a failure as a mother. She struggles to extricate her sense of self-worth from the approval of others and the definition she imagines that society has of a successful mother. She labeled herself based on a measurement of the way others perceive her and based on unrealistic, impossible standards and expectations. While this might be self-defeating and unhealthy, it’s important to realize that it feels real and logical to someone in Ayah’s shoes. No matter how these labels are defined, they will never be realistic. **Labeling ourselves results in an inability to change because we imagine that we are beyond solutions.** In order to overcome labeling, we have to come to the conclusion that our lives are complex and constantly changing so our sense of self cannot be equated with any one thing we do or any one situation. Labeling a human being is overly simplistic. David Burns[^6] explains this by asking, “Would you think of yourself exclusively as an ‘eater’ just because you eat, or a ‘breather’ just because you breathe? This is nonsense, but such nonsense becomes painful when you label yourself out of a sense of your own inadequacies.” --- ## Relinquishing the victim mindset: From victim to survivor ### Why do I still feel like a victim? Feelings of helplessness and powerlessness do not develop in a vacuum. Your experiences of feeling incapable in difficult circumstances can be factors that lead to labeling yourself as a victim. It can continue to be a struggle to let go of this label even when you are no longer being victimized. Although you may currently be safe, your brain and your body may struggle to realize this. A traumatized brain maintains a mindset of impending harm. There is always a fear that something bad will happen again. These feelings of fear maintain the victim label and the threat patterns in our minds. It is not your fault that this happened to you. And it is not your fault that these patterns have developed in your mind and that you’re struggling to undo them. If you have been abused in any way, your human rights have been violated. It is your right not to be hurt or harmed and that right was taken away from you. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, ***“Shall I not tell you what distinguishes the best of you from the worst of you? The best of you are those from whom goodness is expected and people are safe from their evil. The worst of you are those from whom goodness is not expected and people are not safe from their evil.”***[^7] ### What can I do to see myself as a survivor rather than a victim? 1. **Build Awareness:** What happened to you is not ok. Your mind continues to hold on to familiar patterns of fear even after the threat has passed; it is a compilation of your experiences and the ways these experiences have affected you. There are so many aspects of your life that you did not choose—from your eye color to your parents to the traumas you have experienced. Your job is not to blame yourself for what happened to you or what you are mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally struggling with right now. Your responsibility is to get to know the programs that are running in your brain that were developed because your environment was threatening. Building awareness is the first step to regain control of your choices, actions and responses to situations. 2. **Acknowledge the Struggle with Compassion**: There is often shame, anger, fear, disgust, and self-doubt associated with experiences of abuse. Acknowledge all of the different thoughts and emotions you are experiencing without judgment. There is nothing wrong with anything you may be feeling. “Naming” the emotion you are feeling helps to tame it; it reduces the hold it has on you and normalizes it. Criticizing yourself for struggling or being hard on yourself because you expected yourself to have “gotten over it by now,” will only hurt you more. Remind yourself that what happened to you was not ok, that pain is a normal human experience, and verbalize the intention: “I want to be helpful, not harmful to my pain.” 3. **Focus on What You Can Control**: Making a conscious choice to no longer give your struggles the power to define you is an empowering step forward. When it comes to shedding the victim label and viewing yourself as a survivor, focusing on the things you can control in different situations—even miniscule details—is key. Begin by focusing on small steps you can take toward accomplishing something. This can be as simple as acknowledging the choices you make in preparing something to eat when you feel hungry. When you feel stuck and as though you’re unable to control any aspect of your life, ask yourself what you would tell a friend in your situation: What small aspect of your friend’s situation can they change at this very moment? You likely wouldn’t tell them to give up; you’d likely help them to walk through all of the different choices they have at their disposal. Treat yourself as you would treat this friend. 4. **Regain Control of Your Body**: Survivors of abuse, particularly physical violations, struggle with an additional feeling of powerlessness—an encroachment on the privacy of one’s own body. Regaining ownership of your body is an empowering step. It can be beneficial to engage in forms of physical activity that lead to a sense of regained body control. Exercise, including martial arts, running, and yoga can help you reconnect with your body in a powerful way to relieve feelings of helplessness as a sense of control over the body is regained. Furthermore, recognizing the capabilities of your body, the way it functions, and what it gives you shifts your focus to the strengths and power of your body to regain a sense of power and control. 5. **Remember the Ultimate Justice**: Allah (swt) says,***“That is a nation which has passed on. It will have \[the consequence of\] what it earned, and you will have what you have earned. And you will not be asked about what they used to do.”***[^8] You may be bearing the burden of your abuser’s choices; however always remember that *they* will be asked by Allah (swt) about every single choice, every single consequence of that choice, and every single ounce of pain you are currently experiencing. *“They will have what they earned.”* On the Day of Judgment, you will not be asked about the faults and abuses of others. Focus on what is in your control today and know that the accountability of the soon-to-come tomorrow will be weighed by Allah (swt) Who has seen all you have suffered. ### Dismantling negative labels Here are some steps to consider when dismantling the negative labels we assign to ourselves: **What label do you use to describe yourself? (e.g., bad Muslim, loser, failure, etc.)** *Example: I really believe I’m a bad Muslim because of everything I’ve done and everything that’s happened.* **What is your evidence that this label is accurate?** *Example: I know I’m a bad Muslim because I couldn’t stop my uncle from touching me. Now I feel so dirty so I can’t bring myself to pray, which proves I’m a bad Muslim.* **If someone asked you to describe the opposite label (e.g., “a good Muslim,” “an intelligent person,” “a winner,” etc.), what would you say?** *Example: A good Muslim is someone who follows the rules of Islam all the time. It’s someone who was never abused because a good Muslim wouldn’t be punished that way.* **Look back at your description and see if it includes words like *always*, *never*, *should*, or *shouldn’t*. Is your definition attainable and realistic?** *Example: My definition of a good Muslim necessitates perfection. I know that Allah didn’t create human beings to be perfect and that it’s impossible for a person not to make a mistake. We are also not responsible for what others do. So we cannot be responsible for someone else abusing us. Remember that even the prophets experienced emotional, verbal, and physical abuse and they were the best Muslims.* **Labels often hurt us and hold us back from growth rather than helping us to cope with pain. When you hear the label you use to describe yourself when you think about a difficult past experience, how do you feel?** *Example: When I think of myself as a bad Muslim because of what happened to me, I hate myself.* **How do you want to feel when you think back to that experience?** *Example: I want to feel safe and reassured that it’s not my fault and that I’m not dirty. I want to feel loved by Allah and to feel sure that I didn’t do anything wrong.* **What needs to happen for you to feel like that?** *Example: I need to focus on the feelings of warmth, care, and compassion I have for myself and on the feeling of knowing that I am honored and loved by Allah (swt). I need to let myself feel sad and hurt about what happened to me and to understand how hard this was for me.* **Can you hold those feelings in your mind, body, and heart? Experience it for a moment. How do you feel?** *Example: I feel stronger. I know I’m safe and I know Allah (swt) is always there to care for me. I feel soothed knowing that He (swt) has given me the strength to survive this.* ### Self-compassion, warmth, and safety When our minds are in “anxious mode,” our thoughts and our physical sensations can create a loop that causes us to perpetually remember the worst times in our lives. At random times throughout your day, your thoughts may naturally seem to drift back to the pain you’ve experienced, plunging you back into feelings of fear, despair, self-criticism, and loneliness. When these thoughts make you think horrible things about yourself, it can be helpful to remember times when you felt the opposite.[^9] Were there times in your life when you experienced a sense of safety? Times when you felt happiness? Can you recall times when you experienced compassion and warmth from yourself or someone else? To change the path your thoughts take when they lead you down the path of reliving the trauma you’ve experienced, try out this exercise to change the ending of your story. This exercise includes components that have been shown to lead to reductions in depressive symptoms and self-criticism as well as to an increase in self-compassion.[^10] ### Change the ending of your story Imagine seeing a child in front of you who is sitting all alone, crying into her arms. You can tell she’s feeling lonely and hopeless. She’s not sure what to do and feeling scared about whether she can get past these huge, difficult feelings. You feel the urge to comfort her. What do you say? What do you do? You may say something like, “I know you feel broken now but it won’t be like this forever.” Or, “You are a wonderful person and what happened to you was not ok.” You may choose to take her by the hand and walk somewhere peaceful and beautiful together. You may choose to sit down next to her and wrap your arms around her. Now, remember something that happened to you that you are struggling to get past. Can you give yourself or tell yourself what you needed at that moment? Just as you were able to show compassion for this child, can you say to yourself exactly what you said to her? Can you imagine the feeling of holding a hand, receiving a hug, or hearing words of reassurance? Picture what you need and allow yourself to imagine receiving that. Pay attention to how you feel emotionally and physically as you visualize this. ### Imagine your best possible future self The “Imagined Self” technique[^11] is an exercise that can get us to start moving toward the life we want to live rather than remaining stuck in our current negative labels. When you can picture the best possible version of yourself, it paves the way for negative labels to be replaced with positive ones. It is an opportunity to learn about yourself, restructure your priorities, and gain insight into the obstacles that may be preventing you from regaining control of your life. Research has also found that writing a description of your best possible future self for a few minutes each day for a few days in a row was associated with a significant immediate increase in positive mood and increased sense of well-being for 3 weeks after engaging in this exercise.[^12] Try it out for yourself by following the instructions in the following section. ### The Imagined Self technique[^13] Imagine yourself in the future, after everything has gone as well as it possibly could have. You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals. Think of this as the realization of your life dreams and of your own best potential. In all of these cases, you are identifying the best possible way that things might turn out in your life in order to help guide your decisions now. You may never have thought about yourself in this way before so it might feel strange, but allow yourself a few moments to visualize this. As you do this, think about the small details that make your future self and your future life wonderful. Who is there with you? What are you struggling with now that you have achieved in the future? How did you get to this point—what did you need to do to achieve all of this? Immerse yourself in your future self. What feelings do you experience as you imagine this? ### Inspirational ayāt and hadith for reflection Consider the following *āyāt* and when you label yourself negatively think about how Allah (*subḥānahu wa taʿālá*) describes the honor of human beings: > O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule \[another\] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule \[other\] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by \[offensive\] nicknames. Wretched is the name of disobedience after \[one's\] faith. And whoever does not repent—then it is those who are the wrongdoers.[^14] This verse prohibits us from using negative labels in referring to others so we should also avoid labeling ourselves in disrespectful ways. Through this command, we see how Allah (swt) honors us through ensuring that the words we use with ourselves and others build us up rather than tear us down. > And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with \[definite\] preference.[^15] > Do you not see that Allah has made subject to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and amply bestowed upon you His favors, \[both\] apparent and unapparent? But of the people is he who disputes about Allah without knowledge or guidance or an enlightening Book \[from Him\].[^16] In these verses,[^17] Allah tells us that He prefers us above so many other creations and He treats us accordingly. He also reminds us of the blessings He bestows upon us. The amazing sky you see above you has been subjugated to us through stars to give us light during the night and day and clouds to bring us water. The earth grants us sustenance through its rivers, trees, crops and animals. When you label yourself negatively—as a “failure,” as “worthless,” or as “nothing,” remember that Allah (swt) is talking about *you* in these verses. Think about how He (swt) sees you, rather than your negative view of yourself. > And \[mention\] when We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Adam”; so they prostrated, except for Iblees. He refused and was arrogant and became of the disbelievers.[^18] > The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Allah created Adam in His image, and he was sixty cubits tall. When He created him, He said, ‘Go and greet that group of angels who are sitting and listen to how they greet you, for that will be your greeting and the greeting of your descendants.’ So he said, ‘*Al-salāmu ʿalaykum* (peace be upon you),’ and they said, ‘*Al-salāmu ‘alayka wa raḥmat Allah* (Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah).’ So they added (the words) ‘*wa rahmat Allah*.’ Everyone who enters Paradise will be in the form of Adam, but mankind continued to grow shorter until now.[^19] When you read this *āyah* and hadith, remember that you are a descendant of Adam and that you, too, were created in the image of the Almighty Allah (swt). What greater honor could there be than to be from amongst creation who Allah created in His image and to whom Allah (swt) commanded the angels to prostrate? When you find yourself doubting your worth or allowing the inner critic to take over, remind yourself of the honor Allah (swt) has bestowed upon you. If He deemed you worthy of such an honor, doesn’t that say something pretty incredible about you? --- ## Practical exercises 1. **Dismantling negative labels** What label do you use to describe yourself? (e.g., bad Muslim, loser, failure, etc.) \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ What is your evidence that this label is accurate? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ If someone asked you to describe the opposite label (e.g., “a good Muslim,” “an intelligent person,” “a winner,” etc.), what would you say? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Look back at your description and see if it includes words like *always*, *never*, *should,* or *shouldn’t*. Is your definition attainable and realistic? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Labels often hurt us and hold us back from growth rather than helping us to cope with pain. As you hear the label you use to describe yourself when you think about a difficult past experience, how do you feel? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ How do you *want* to feel when you think back to that experience? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ What needs to happen for you to feel like that? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Can you hold those feelings in your mind, body, and heart? Experience it for a moment. How do you feel? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ 2\. **Memories of safety, warmth, and compassion** Our negative memories often stand out, leading us to relive them repeatedly. Instead of fear, describe a time in your life when you experienced a sense of safety. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Instead of despair, describe a time when you felt happiness. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Instead of criticism, describe a time when you experienced compassion from yourself or someone else. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Instead of loneliness, describe a time when you felt warmth from others. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ 3\. **Change the ending of your story** When a difficult memory comes up in which you remember feeling scared, hurt, or helpless, ask yourself: What did I need at that moment? (This can be someone to protect you, words of reassurance and compassion, a hand to hold, etc.) \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Can you imagine giving this to yourself in that moment? Picture what you need and allow yourself to imagine receiving that. What would that have been like and how do you feel as you picture this? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ 4. **Imagine your best possible future self** Imagine yourself in the future, after everything has gone as well as it possibly could have. You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals. Think of this as the realization of your life dreams and of your own best potential. In all of these cases, you are identifying the best possible way that things might turn out in your life in order to help guide your decisions now. You may not have thought about yourself in this way before so it might feel strange, but allow yourself a few moments to visualize this. As you do this, think about the small details that make your future self and your future life wonderful. Who is there with you? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ What are you struggling with now that you have achieved in the future? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ How did you get to this point—what did you need to do to achieve all of this? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Immerse yourself as your future self. What feelings do you experience as you imagine this? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ --- ## Case revisited *Muna had endured a severely traumatic event involving inappropriate touch by a trusted family member. Her view of the incident and her perception of herself was further confused by her mother’s negative and shaming reaction in response to what happened. Muna was devastated and began to wonder if there was something fundamentally wrong with her and how it would be possible to get past this.* *Muna realized that she could do nothing to change what had happened and knew she would struggle with the aftermath of it for a long time. Although she did not have control over her uncle’s choices or her mother’s reaction, Muna realized that she could control the way she labeled herself.* *Muna realized she had been labeling herself as a “bad Muslim,” “worthless,” and “dirty.” She realized that the way she viewed herself was intensifying her negative emotions. She realized that, because of these labels, she considered the abuse she endured to be further evidence supporting the way she viewed herself. By working to develop a more compassionate and realistic image of herself and working toward differentiating who she was as a whole person from the experiences she endured, Muna’s self confidence increased and she was able to take greater control of her life and her identity.* *Muna did the “Dismantling Negative Labels” exercise and realized that she had been viewing herself strictly through a lens based on her struggles, rather than her strengths. She discovered that, due to labeling herself as a “bad Muslim,” she wondered if Allah had sent her uncle as a punishment for something. Muna realized that her definition of a “good Muslim” was someone who doesn’t go through any hardships since she thought struggles were a punishment from Allah. When she was able to work on redefining this to understand that even the best of people (Prophets) went through hardships and pain, she realized that what happened to her didn’t mean that she was a bad Muslim. She realized that she didn’t need to identify herself based on her traumatic experience and that labeling herself as “dirty” because of abuse perpetrated against her gave her uncle the power to define her life, which she definitely did not want. By separating the trauma from her perception of herself as a person, Muna felt empowered and was able to begin the healing process.* *As Muna developed a new vision of her identity, her mood improved and she was able to speak with a therapist about the incident. Through therapy, she was able to process her trauma, talk to other family members about what had happened, and eventually reported her uncle for his crime.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Brene Brown, *The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Ar*e (Center City, MN: Hazelton Publishing, 2010), 6. [^2]: E. R. Wright, W. P. Gronfein, and T.J. Owens, “Deinstitutionalization, Social Rejection, and the Self-Esteem of Former Mental Patients,” *Journal of Health and Social Behavior* 41, no. 1 (2000): 68–90. [^3]: S. F. Maier and M. E. Seligman, “Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence,” *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General* 105, no. 1 (1976): 3–46. [^4]: E. L. Bennett, M. C. Diamond, D. Krech, and M. R. Rosenzweig, “Chemical and Anatomical Plasticity of the Brain,” *Science* 146, no. 3644 (1964): 610–619. [^5]: P. Rakic, “Neurogenesis in Adult Primate Neocortex: An Evaluation of the Evidence,” *Nature Reviews Neuroscience* 3, no. 1 (January 2002): 65–71. [^6]: David D. Burns, *Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy* (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1999), 40. [^7]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*: no. 2263. [^8]: Qur’an 2:141. [^9]: M. Matos, J. P. Gouveia, and C. Duarte, “Constructing a Self Protected against Shame: The Importance of Warmth and Safeness Memories and Feelings on the Association between Shame Memories and Depression,” *International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy* 15, no. 3 (2015): 317–335. [^10]: C. J. Falconer, A. Rovira, J. A. King, P. Gilbert, A. Antley, P. Fearon, and C. R. Brewin, “Embodying Self-Compassion within Virtual Reality and Its Effects on Patients with Depression,” *British Journal of Psychiatry Open* 2, no. 1 (2016): 74–80. [^11]: K. M. Sheldon and S. Lyubomirsky, “How to Increase and Sustain Positive Emotion: The Effects of Expressing Gratitude and Visualizing Best Possible Selves,” *The Journal of Positive Psychology* 1, no.2 (2006): 73–82. [^12]: L. A. King, “The Health Benefits of Writing about Life Goals,” *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin*, no. 27 (2001): 798–807. [^13]: K. M. Sheldon and S. Lyubomirsky, “How to Increase and Sustain Positive Emotion: The Effects of Expressing Gratitude and Visualizing Best Possible Selves,” *The Journal of Positive Psychology* 1, no. 2 (2006): 73–82. [^14]: Qur’an 49:11. [^15]: Qur’an 17:70. [^16]: Qur’an 31:20. [^17]: Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʻīl ibn ʻUmar, Ṣafī al-Raḥmān Mubārakfūrī, and Ismāʻīl ibn ʻUmar Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr ibn Kathīr*, abr. ed. (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2000). [^18]: Qur’an 2:34. [^19]: *Saḥīh al-Bukhārī*: no. 6227; *Saḥīh Muslim*: no. 2841. ## Summary # Reclaiming the Self: Healing from Trauma and the Danger of Negative Labels Among the most painful trials a believer may face is harm inflicted by another person, and the confusion that follows in its wake. When a person endures abuse, assault, or violence, they are often left carrying not only the wound itself but a tangle of fear, anger, shock, and misplaced guilt. It must be said clearly: it is never permissible for anyone to hurt, exploit, or frighten another human being. Yet the human mind, in its attempt to make sense of suffering, often turns inward and begins scanning for some flaw within the self that supposedly "explains" the pain. In this way, a person may begin to build their entire identity upon the worst thing that has ever happened to them, believing that they somehow deserved it. Though embracing such blame makes the world feel more predictable, it is a false predictability purchased at the cost of one's dignity and hope. This destructive habit of the mind is known as *labeling* — a cognitive distortion in which a single incident or trait is stretched to define the whole person. A woman who loses her keys calls herself "an airhead"; a father whose son fails a test calls himself "a bad parent." Rather than looking at a situation objectively, the person paints themselves in one broad and inaccurate stroke, ignoring all evidence that does not fit the grim picture they have drawn. *Labeling theory* teaches that the way we describe ourselves shapes our very behavior and identity. Researchers Wright, Gronfein, and Owens found that patients discharged from psychiatric care who internalized the stigma of mental-illness labels withdrew socially and developed damaged self-concepts, trapping themselves in a cycle of low self-esteem and perceived rejection. The one who wakes each morning already convinced they are "a depressed person" finds it nearly impossible to act in any way that contradicts that verdict. These labels wound us spiritually as well. All of us sin, yet there is a vast difference between one who brands himself "a sinner" beyond hope and one who sees himself as a repenter — one who errs but continually returns to Allah. The first loses hope in Allah's mercy and interprets every hardship as punishment, while the second sees his trials as opportunities to draw nearer to his Lord and as signs of the strength he has been granted to bear them. This shift in self-definition changes everything, for happiness is built from the inside out, not the outside in. No amount of praise, recitation of the Qur'an, or love from others can reach a heart that has already sentenced itself to worthlessness. When trauma is inflicted repeatedly, a person may sink into what Martin Seligman termed *learned helplessness*. First observed in animals who ceased trying to escape pain even after escape became possible, this same pattern appears in human beings: we stop trying to change our circumstances even when change has become attainable. From this grows the label of "victim," to which a feeling of powerlessness clings. It is essential to recognize — as the author gently and repeatedly stresses — that becoming a victim was never one's choice; it was forced upon the person. The invitation to move from "victim" toward "survivor" is not a denial of the wound but a reclaiming of one's power to define one's own life. And just as helplessness can be learned, it can, by Allah's leave, be unlearned. The good news is that the mind is not fixed. Our brains are *plastic*, and research over the past half-century has shown that meaningful change occurs throughout life, for whenever something new is learned, the brain itself changes. However deeply a negative self-image has been woven — like a tapestry knotted thread by thread — it can be patiently unwoven and rewoven anew. The difficulty lies in the fact that labeling feeds a deep sense of inadequacy. In the example of Ayah, a mother terrified of her child's public tantrum, gentle questioning revealed that beneath the fear lay the belief that failing at motherhood would render her "worthless." She had tied her entire self-worth to something outside her control and to impossible standards of others' approval. As David Burns observed, we would never call ourselves merely "an eater" because we eat or "a breather" because we breathe; labeling an entire human being by one act is equally absurd, though it becomes agonizing when born of a sense of inadequacy. The traumatized brain clings to a mindset of impending harm, and the fear that the pain will return keeps the victim-label alive. Yet the author affirms plainly: this was not your fault, and the persistence of these patterns is not your fault either. To be harmed is a violation of one's God-given rights. The Prophet ﷺ said, *"The best of you are those from whom goodness is expected and people are safe from their evil, and the worst of you are those from whom goodness is not expected and people are not safe from their evil,"* placing the moral weight upon the one who inflicts harm. Practical steps toward healing include building awareness of the mental "programs" formed in a threatening environment, acknowledging one's struggle with compassion rather than judgment (for naming an emotion helps to tame it), focusing on what one *can* control however small, and regaining ownership of the body through physical activity such as exercise, martial arts, running, or yoga. Above all, one must remember the ultimate justice of Allah, who says, *"That is a nation which has passed on. It will have what it earned, and you will have what you have earned, and you will not be asked about what they used to do."* The abuser will be questioned about every choice and every ounce of pain caused; the survivor will not be answerable for another's crimes. Finally, the honor Allah bestows upon human beings is offered as the truest antidote to self-contempt. In Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt He forbids us from insulting one another or using offensive nicknames — and if we may not degrade others, neither may we degrade ourselves. He declares, *"And We have certainly honored the children of Adam,"* preferring them over much of His creation and subjecting the heavens and earth to their benefit. He commanded the angels to prostrate before Adam, and the Prophet ﷺ taught that *"Allah created Adam in His image."* When the inner critic rises, the believer is urged to remember that these are the words Allah speaks about *them*. As the case of Muna illustrates, when a survivor separates the trauma inflicted upon her from her worth as a person — refusing to let an abuser define her life — she reclaims her identity, restores her hope in her Lord, and opens the door to genuine healing. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/will-my-children-be-muslim-the-development-of-religious-identity-in-young-people # Will My Children Be Muslim? The Development of Religious Identity in Young People **Author:** Dr. Osman Umarji **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 16, 2020 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Religious identity development: A review of the research One of the primary concerns of Muslim parents in the West is the religious identity of their children. Many parents wonder what the secret is to raising a child with *imān* (faith) in a society in which being Muslim can be challenging. Approximately 70% of people in the U.S. identify as Christian, nearly 23% identify as having no religion, and less than 1% identify as Muslim.[^1] Although Muslim families transmit their religious affiliation to their children at higher rates than Christians in America, approximately 20% of those raised as Muslims do not identify as Muslim in adulthood.[^2] In this cultural context, where Christianity is the majority religion and the philosophies of secularism, liberalism, feminism, capitalism, and atheism are pervasive and influential, Muslims who desire to transmit Islam to their children need to understand how to socialize their children to develop a healthy Islamic identity. Exactly what should parents do to inculcate Islamic beliefs, values, and behaviors in their children? What type of schools should they send their children to? What effects do friends have on their children’s religious identity? What types of parent-child relationships and parenting practices facilitate the development of faith? These are the types of questions that parents ask and need answers to, yet relatively little is known about the process of religious identity development in Muslim youth in America. This paper provides an overview of theories about the mechanisms by which religion is conveyed and passed down to children in America. Although the overwhelming majority of research has been conducted with adherents of other faiths in the United States, the insights from existing research are invaluable in constructing theoretical models and a roadmap to better understand Islamic identity development of Muslim American youth. --- ## The meaning of identity Identity development often involves asking, “Who am I? What do I value? What do I want to do with my life?” Identity formation is considered the most important developmental task of adolescence as adolescents are driven to answer these types of questions.[^3], [^4], [^5] It is also the developmental period often characterized by religious instability, a time when adolescents may engage in exploration of various beliefs and behaviors before ultimately committing to a particular religious identity.[^6], [^7], [^8] The transcendent meaning found in religion can play an important role in adolescents’ identity formation and well-being, as religious beliefs and values enable youth to make sense of the world and understand their place in it.[^9], [^10]  Additionally, religiosity has been associated with substantial mental health benefits, including lower rates of depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance abuse.[^11] Although religious identity can be described as merely ascribing to a particular religious group without any behavioral ramifications, we focus on religious identity as something deeper that influences how a person lives their life. We believe the scope of religious identity is best captured by the three dimensions of religious beliefs and values, religious practices, and participation in a religious community.[^12] These three dimensions capture the sacred things people believe in and value, how they practice what they believe, and how they interact with those with similar beliefs and practices. Thus, the optimal Islamic identity includes self-identifying as Muslim, internalizing Islamic values and beliefs, and living a life in accordance with the guidance of Islam within a community. Identity is thus composed of self-perceptions, specific competencies, and personal values and goals, and can manifest itself both individually and collectively.[^13] For a Muslim, this refers to both personally identifying as a Muslim and having a sense of belonging to the Muslim *ummah*. Engaging in particular behaviors is the mechanism through which individuals enact their personal and collective identities, thus validating their proclaimed Islamic identity. This notion of identity is represented in the verse, “And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah, engages in righteous behavior, and proclaims, ‘Indeed, I am of the Muslims.’”[^14] These behaviors may include devotional acts, such as individual and congregational prayer, reading the Qur’an, fasting, and interpersonal relations, such as respecting parents, honoring neighbors and guests, and engaging in appropriate behavior with the opposite gender. Although identity is often solidified in later stages of adolescence and early adulthood, an individual’s religious identity develops over the lifespan and is influenced by many factors. These factors include social and psychological experiences from childhood to adulthood, personal agency in creating social roles and experiences that reinforce (or undermine) one’s religious identity, and the co-construction of the content, meaning, and salience of their religious identity by the individual and those with whom they interact.[^15] Since the construction of identity both shapes and is shaped by an individual’s worldview and sense of life’s purpose, identity serves as a fundamental motivator of religious behavior. Whether an individual chooses to engage with Islam in a meaningful way heavily depends on the salience of their Islamic identity, which includes their conviction in Islam, the existence or absence of religious doubts, and the religious behaviors they engage in. In order to broadly consider the influences on an individual’s religious identity, we find it helpful to think about the nested environments[^16] that a child resides in, in light of the three dimensions of religious identity (beliefs, practices, community). By nested environments, we refer to environments that do not exist completely independent of one another; rather, they are layered one inside another like Russian dolls. The child’s most proximal environment is the family, which is nested in the neighborhood and community environment, which is nested within a broader societal and cultural environment. All of these environments exist within a historical context that changes over time. This conceptual model hypothesizes that each of these environments has both direct or indirect effects on each component of religious identity. Considering each of the three dimensions of beliefs, practices, and community helps organize how environmental factors relate to specific dimensions of religiosity. For example, if we believe the *masjid* influences a child’s religious identity, we can investigate whether beliefs or practices are most influenced by the *masjid*. The three dimensions are also hypothesized to influence one another. For example, engaging in communal worship may influence conviction in religious beliefs and vice versa. We investigate each layer of this model in the subsequent sections based on the body of existing literature on religious identity in America. ### Conceptual model of nested environments: Religious socialization and identity development Youth are embedded in complex circles of influence that include various socializers.[^17] By socialization, we refer to the interactions in which individuals acquire specific values, beliefs, and behaviors. Socialization entails social learning that derives from continuing interactions between individuals and those who influence them.[^18] Primary agents of religious socialization include parents, peers, and community institutions (e.g., places of worship and schools).[^19] In the following sections, we review what is known about the role of each of these agents. ### Parental socialization In a famous hadith on [parents and religion](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/the-importance-of-conscious-parenting-in-raising-confident-muslims/), the Prophet ﷺ said, “No child is born but that he is upon the natural disposition \[to believe in Allah\]. Thereafter, it is one’s parents that make the child a Jew, or a Christian, or Magian.”[^20] There is overwhelming empirical evidence that the most important source of religious socialization is the family. Youth raised in religious families are more likely to be religious than youth raised in nonreligious families.[^21], [^22], [^23] Parents influence their children’s beliefs and behaviors through several mechanisms, including modeling, encouragement and reinforcement, parent-child coactivity, and provision of religious materials and experiences.[^24] After interviewing over 200 families from various religious backgrounds, Smith and colleagues concluded that “parents have only one good and hopefully effective way to raise children to understand and carry on their family’s religion. That is for parents simply to practice their own personal faith, naturally, for its own sake and as role models for their children.”[^25] Additionally, based on their longitudinal study of 350 families over 35 years, Bengtson and colleagues concluded, “If the parents are not themselves involved in religious activities, if their actions are not consistent with what they preach, children are rarely motivated to follow in their parents’ religious footsteps.”[^26] Children often imitate the behavior of their parents, and observing a parent engaged in prayer or reading scripture serves as a spiritual model for a child to emulate. Central to spiritual modeling is observational spiritual learning, that is, the learning of spiritually relevant skills or behaviors through observing other persons.[^27] Parents are often the first sources of spiritual modeling. Although children can acquire the abstract principles of religion, they will remain in a quandary about how to implement them if they have not had the benefit of illustrative exemplars.[^28] Parent-child coactivity may include behaviors such as reading religious books or praying together. For example, parents can engage in coactivity with their children by reading Qur’an together, telling religious stories, and performing congregational prayers in the home. Parents may also encourage their children to participate in religious practices by providing access to religious materials and taking their children to religious programs and experiences in the community. Another major consideration in studying the influence of parental socialization is understanding the quality of the parent-child relationship.[^29] Prior research suggests that how emotionally close a child feels to his mother or father (i.e., affective solidarity) is a strong predictor of religious continuity across generations.[^30] When a child feels close to a parent, he or she may be more likely to imitate or model that parent’s religiosity. However, other research has found that the strength of the parent-child relationship only matters if parents and youth actually discuss religion together. In the absence of this close bond between parent and child, the transmission of religious values may be diminished as youth may not desire to be like their parents and may not engage in the types of conversations where they can discuss their religious identity or concerns. Although mothers typically spend more time with their children, some prior research has found that, for religious transmission, having a close bond with one’s father may matter even more than a close relationship with the mother.[^31] However, this finding is not consistent in the literature. Furthermore, within the American context, existing research generally supports the idea that parents who are both high in warmth and hold their children to high standards (i.e., authoritative parenting) transmit their religion to their children better than other types of harsh, permissive, or disinterested parenting styles. Explaining why this method of parenting was successful, Gunnoe and colleagues found that “authoritative parents demand age-appropriate mature behavior from their children and foster children’s autonomy in a warm and supportive environment. Although authoritative parents have the final say, they encourage their children to participate actively in discussions of decisions that affect them.”[^32] When parents speak to their adolescents about religion, there is potential for either strengthening or weakening the parent-child relationship, depending on the quantity and quality of conversations. In a national study of youth and religion in America, one-third (34%) of adolescents reported speaking to their parents about religion multiple times a week, 28% reported speaking to their parents about religion only a few times a month (28%), and 38% reported either never conversing about religion or only a few times a year with their parents.  Adolescents have been found to place more importance on religion and practice their faith more when they have bidirectional discussions on religious topics with their parents.[^33] These bidirectional discussions are characterized by the child asking questions, voicing his or her opinion, and initiating and ending the discussion.[^34] In a qualitative study of religious conversations, both parents and children rated religious conversations as the most meaningful religious activity, above church/synagogue/*masjid* attendance and prayer with children.[^35] Through their interviews with families, Dollahite and Thatcher found that “parents and adolescents reported that when religious conversation was focused on the adolescent child’s needs and interests, the adolescents were engaged, interested, and enjoyed discussing religion. In contrast, when the conversations were tailored more to the parents’ desires and needs, the adolescents were more likely to be disengaged and uninterested.”[^36] For example, religious conversations that involve a parent lecturing their child about religion are not as effective as when the child is involved as an active participant. This may be especially important as children grow older and enter developmental periods marked by a desire to demonstrate competence and explore their identity. The conversation that Ibrahim had with his son, Ismail, is an example of the bidirectional discussions that involve a parent soliciting their child’s opinion. “And when he \[Ismail\] reached maturity, Ibrahim said to him, ‘O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice you. So, what do you think?’ He responded, ‘O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast.’”[^37] Family structure has also been linked to the religious identity of children. Youth raised by married biological parents who share the same faith are more likely to be religious and share the faith of their parents than children of single parents, divorced parents, interfaith marriages, and other non-traditional family structures. In a study based on the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), the relation between parental religiosity and their children’s religious attendance and religious salience in daily life was significantly stronger for children of married biological parents than for children from non-traditional households. In a longitudinal study of over 300 families, divorce significantly reduced the likelihood of parents transmitting their religious identity to their children, especially for Protestants and Catholics. Interesting, there was no differences in religious transmission for children of divorced Jewish parents, and it was hypothesized that this was due to Jewish identity coming from matrilineality (e.g., from the mother). Additionally, it may be that, for many families, being Jewish is considered an ethnic identity as much as a religious identity. Prior research has also found that divorce increases the likelihood of abandoning religion altogether rather than simply changing religions.[^38] Many reasons have been suggested for the general decrease in the religious identity of children of divorced parents. Trauma from a difficult divorce is likely to be a major factor, including the numerous psychological stressors associated with divorce. However, regardless of how amicable divorce may be, divorce still reduces the likelihood of religious transmission due to other factors. Divorce leads to many changes in the household routine, and divorced parents who share custody often struggle to keep up with the continuity of religious practices in the home and attending religious community events.[^39], [^40] Furthermore, religious communities highly value the nuclear family, and families that have experienced a divorce may not be as welcomed and included in social gatherings, thus limiting religious opportunities for the children of these families. Although Islam discourages divorce, it is permissible when the situation warrants, and divorced religious parents can still transmit religion to their children. There are likely many situations when couples should separate, as staying in a dysfunctional marriage may be more damaging to themselves and their children than staying together. Additionally, communities have to think of ways to support children and families struggling with the effects of divorce and find ways to be inclusive and nurture their faith. Another aspect of family structure related to religious identity is whether parents have same-faith marriages or interfaith marriages. Same-faith marriages have repeatedly been found to be much more stable than interfaith marriages.[^41], [^42]  Interfaith marriages generally do not transmit the religion of either parent well. In a longitudinal study of religious transmission, more than two-thirds of same-faith marriages produced children who followed their parents’ religious tradition, whereas less than one in four interfaith marriages resulted in a child who followed either the mother’s or the father’s religious tradition. Additionally, in cases of interfaith couples who divorced, children were more likely to share their mother’s religious tradition than the father’s.[^43] Although the samples in these studies were predominantly non-Muslim, Muslims need to carefully consider the serious implications of interfaith marriages for both the stability of marriage and the religious identity of their children, especially in a society where Islam is not a part of the dominant culture. While Muslim women are not permitted to marry non-Muslim men, we also find this concern in classical legal opinions that discouraged Muslim men from marrying non-Muslim women unless there was some overriding and substantial benefit.[^44] Furthermore, in his capacity as the *khalifa* (caliph), Omar bin Khattab encouraged one of his governors, Hudhaiya bin al-Yaman, to divorce his Jewish wife because there were numerous Muslim women available, and Omar was worried about the effects of Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women in predominantly non-Muslim lands.[^45] A final mechanism by which parents socialize their children into religion is by channeling them into other groups or experiences that reinforce and accentuate the religious values of the home environment.[^46], [^47] Thus, in addition to the direct effects that parental religiosity may have on their children’s religious identity, parents indirectly influence their children’s religious identity by selecting peer groups, schools, or religious institutions that further socialize their children.[^48] For example, parents may elect to introduce their children to peers from families who share their Islamic values, or enroll their children in full-time Islamic schools, or take them to the *masjid* or other facilities for Sunday school, youth groups, camps, etc. These experiences will introduce them to a number of different peers, adults, and potential role models and socializers. The following section describes the role of peers as religious socializers. ### Peers and religious socialization Theoretical models of religious identity development have posited that, during the adolescent years, people are strongly dependent upon peers in their efforts to formulate religious views.[^49] One of the most salient features of the transition from childhood to adolescence is the heightened importance and influence of peer relationships. As adolescents enter a phase of life marked by exploring who they are and who they want to be, peers are heavily involved in negotiating these identities. However, there is less empirical evidence of the role of friends in religious identity development than there is on the role of parents. Depending on whether parents are able to channel their children into desired peer networks, parents and peers may share religious values and operate as complementary sources of socialization, or their values may be in conflict and operate as competing sources of socialization.[^50] Peers are posited to influence youths’ religious beliefs and behaviors through a number of mechanisms including modeling, social reinforcement and peer pressure, and through sharing religious experiences and ideas. The notion of peer socialization has been beautifully stated by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who said, “A metaphor for \[the influence of\] a righteous friend compared to a bad friend is the example of a perfume-seller and a blacksmith. As for the perfume seller, you will either buy perfume from him or benefit from the good smell he exudes, whereas the blacksmith will either burn you or your clothes or the foul smell will rub off on you.”[^51] Peers may positively or negatively influence an individual’s religious beliefs and behaviors depending on social group dynamics. The formation of adolescent cliques (small, tight-knit circles of friends) based on shared interests or similarities (i.e., homophily) may lead to changes in religious beliefs and behaviors. For example, adolescents who play on the same sports teams or work together on projects are likely to spend considerable amounts of “down-time” together, developing deep friendships, sharing experiences, and discussing values, goals, and aspirations. Through these interactions, they co-construct activity-based peer cultures and identities.[^52] Through these co-constructed cultures and identities, shared values and behaviors form. The existing body of literature has shown that adolescents’ religious beliefs and behavior are influenced by their friends. Thus, youth with religious friends tend to be more religious than youth with non-religious friends.[^53] Adolescents are more likely to attend religious services in the present and future if they have friends who attend religious services, even when accounting for parents’ religiosity and attendance. Similarly, adolescent ratings of religious importance and spirituality have been linked to the religiosity and support of peers.[^54] In a rare study of the effect of peers in a Muslim sample, changes in the religiosity of Indonesian adolescents were predicted by the religiosity of their friends. Just as these aforementioned religious behaviors can be enhanced by friends, lower religiosity of one’s peers has been linked to the increased likelihood of engaging in problematic behaviors such as drug use and sexual activity.[^55],[^56] Thus, adolescents with more religious friends typically engage in more religious behavior, and adolescents with less religious friends typically engage in riskier and less religious behavior. The negative effect of peers is found in the Qur’an when Allah describes the regret a person will feel in the afterlife for having selected the wrong friend. “Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that person as a friend. He led me away from the remembrance \[of Allah\] after it had come to me. Satan has always deserted mankind.”[^57] Literature on identity construction may help explain the processes by which friends and peer networks influence religious identity. One of the key aspects of identity construction is the importance of verbal and visual self-presentation.[^58] Depending on the specific costs and rewards associated with manifesting a religious identity in a particular situation, youth may choose to make their Islamic identity more or less conspicuous. For example, if Muslim adolescents are out with their friends in the evening during *maghrib* prayer, how do they decide whether to step aside and pray? There are likely many considerations stemming from the numerous personal and social identities that reside within the individual. Perhaps the individual personally is committed to prayer, but the social group does not value prayer. Furthermore, there may be immediate psychological and emotional costs of engaging in prayer (e.g., fear of people mocking them, fear of missing out on fun) that the teenager has to weigh against the rewards that may not be immediately apparent. Thus, it is the complicated relationship between negotiating social and personal identities that may ultimately determine whether a Muslim youth in the process of developing their religious identity engages in religious practices in the presence of peers or not, likely depending on what the social group values and rewards. It is during this stage of adolescence when Muslim youth often decide if the Muslim identity that was given to them by their parents will mature into a personally chosen Muslim identity, which requires evaluation of one’s own values and goals. Thus, one can appreciate how the exact same scenario would play out differently if the peers were religious and valued prayer. Then, there might be a psychological and emotional cost to *not* engaging in prayer. Finally, although parents and peers may be central to influencing religious identity, there are other more distal societal and cultural socializers that also play a  role in religious identity. We next consider the role of educational institutions and mass media. ### Institutional and cultural socializers The religious pursuits of American youth operate in social and institutional environments that compete for their time, attention, and energy. Adolescents’ religious interests and values typically compete against those of school, homework, media, sports, and more. In the lives of many adolescents, religion occupies a quite weak and often losing position among these competing influences.[^59] One example of these competing influences is the decline in enrollment of Muslim adolescents in religious educational programs relative to younger age groups. Although no published data to our knowledge has been gathered on age-specific enrollment, the majority of Islamic weekend school programs appear to be populated by elementary-school-aged children. In the North American context, once children reach adolescence they typically become far less engaged with religious education. In interviews with adolescents and their parents, the most common reasons given for decreased attendance in weekend schools and youth groups (from both parents and youth) are the mounting pressures of schoolwork, the need to focus on high academic achievement, and extracurricular sports. This is consistent with the major finding of a national study of youth values that found American youth perceive their parents to be far more concerned with academic achievement than anything else, including being a kind or caring person.[^60] The subtle signals parents send their children through emphasizing sports and academics above religion likely influence children’s own values for religion. With limited time in adolescents’ busy lives, encouraging a balanced lifestyle may be particularly important for youth religiosity. As educational attainment has become an integral focus for families, including religious families, prior research has investigated the role of higher education in religious socialization. ### Higher education Higher education is hypothesized to influence students’ religious beliefs and values through exposure to secular philosophies and the methods of the social and natural sciences that de-emphasize the role of super-empirical beliefs and explanations (i.e., aspects of the unseen that are not empirically testable). University scientists have been found to endorse reason as the primary authority and they privilege science over other forms of knowledge.[^61] Additionally, university scientists are typically less religious than the general public.[^62] In this context, it is possible that knowledge rooted in rational discourse and empirical methods may simply make super-empirical belief less plausible for some students. However, the literature on higher education and religion has shown mixed results depending on numerous factors.[^63], [^64] Although there is no strong evidence that adolescents are abandoning their religious beliefs in college at large, there are numerous studies showing that religious beliefs may be reexamined, refined, and incorporated in subtle ways with other beliefs and philosophical dispositions.[^65] For example, young Muslims may attempt to reconcile their religious identity with secular ideologies such as feminism and liberalism. In support of these hypotheses, US and Canadian data gathered over decades (from the General Social Survey in America and the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series in Canada) show that more education is correlated with decreased religious beliefs.[^66] Similarly, a study using the NSYR data found that students who graduated from elite universities were much more likely to be skeptical of super-empirical entities (e.g., angels) and occurrences (e.g., miracles).[^67] The author of the study, Jonathan Hill, suggested that the social status one gains from having graduated from college may explain increased religious skepticism, as those who are more educated may desire to distinguish themselves from the religious views of those with less education. In support of this idea, he found that the negative effects of college on religion were more significant for those who had graduated college rather than simply attended some college. Thus, shunning super-empirical explanations may simply be one way that young people come to identify themselves as knowledge-class professionals. Another body of literature has found that higher education does not necessarily influence religiosity or religious identity negatively as it previously did.[^68], [^69] Smith and Snell suggest that “one factor seems to be a growing influence of campus-based religious and parachurch groups that provide alternative plausibility structures for sustaining religious faith and practice in college.”[^70] We know of no published empirical studies on changes in religiosity of American Muslims; in fact, it is possible that Muslim students who actively participate in campus religious organizations (e.g., Muslim Students’ Association) may strengthen their religious identity over time. Further research is needed to better understand the influence of higher education on the religiosity of American Muslims. ### Mass media Exposure to various types of media has also been hypothesized to relate to religious beliefs in adolescence. In today’s digital context, where youth regularly access media on their phones or computers, understanding how religiosity may be influenced is important. In a study investigating the relations among media use, religious identity, and religious practices, negative media use, which was defined as the frequency of playing violent video games and viewing pornography, was negatively associated with self-reported religious importance and frequency of engaging in religious practices (e.g., going to places of worship, prayer, reading religious content).[^71] As this study was cross-sectional, it was not possible to explain the causal direction and possible confounding variables. In an NSYR study that utilized longitudinal data, watching R-rated movies in early adolescence was associated with decreases in religious salience and church attendance two years later, but not related to religious doubts, after controlling for prior religiosity, peer influence, and parental influence. Thus, adolescent religiosity may be influenced in part by exposure to the content in R-rated movies, above and beyond the effect of other socializers.[^72] The current historical and political climate reflected in the news media may also relate to young Muslims’ identity development. Half of adult Americans surveyed believe Islam is not part of mainstream American society and Muslims have been rated lower on a feelings thermometer[^73] than any other religious group (e.g., Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and atheists), at a cold 48 degrees.[^74] Exposure to negative media coverage about Muslims, including awareness of the rise in hate crimes against Muslims, may substantially affect an individual’s developing religious identity. It has been hypothesized that individuals who perceive that they lack the resources to deal with being a target of stigma may experience threats to their self-perception.[^75] One strategy to cope with identity threats involves disengaging from and avoiding identity-threatening situations.[^76] For example, removing clothing that identifies oneself as a Muslim[^77] or avoiding praying in public may be consequences of internalized Islamophobia. In a study of Turkish Muslims in Germany, perceived Islamophobia, negative media representations, and experiencing religious discrimination were all negatively associated with religious identity, which was measured by the reported importance of  religious identity and engaging in religious behavior.[^78] More research is needed to understand the role of Islamophobia and discrimination in the development of religious identity of Muslims in America. --- ## Conclusion This literature review is meant to provide an overview of the various theories and mechanisms through which adolescent religious identity develops. The existing body of social science literature has identified numerous socializers of religiosity, including parents, peers, religious institutions, higher education, and mass media. Although there are many religious socializers in the lives of children and adolescents, none are more essential than parents. Smith and colleagues declare that “the single, most powerful causal influence on the religious lives of American teenagers and youth adults is the religious lives of their parents. Not their peers, not the media, not their youth group leaders or clergy, not their religious school teachers…beyond a doubt, the parents of Americans play the leading role in shaping the character of their religious and spiritual lives, even well after they leave home and often for the rest of their lives.”[^79] Therefore, parents need to realize their tremendous potential in shaping the religious lives of their children. Furthermore, these socializers are embedded in the nested environments that youth reside in, and they collectively influence youths’ religious beliefs and practices. A central theme that cuts through all the environments in a child’s life is the importance of observational learning. Whether it be parents, siblings, peers, religious figures, or professors, youth observe the beliefs and behaviors of these socializers and may internalize them, especially if a strong relationship between the youth and the socializers has been established. Therefore, stakeholders in the process of religiously socializing Muslim youth should carefully consider these socializers and work to create environments in which Muslim youth can develop a healthy Islamic identity composed of proper beliefs and behaviors and a healthy sense of community belonging. For example, Muslims pursuing higher education may benefit from joining Muslim Student Associations and participating in the activities of the local *masjid* to develop their religious identity. The role of religiously oriented peers and spiritual role models may nurture religious beliefs and provide a buffer against the negative effects that college may have on religion. Additionally, for students who move away from home, families should carefully consider the choice of roommates and the housing environment. With the overall decline in religiosity in America, and specifically within the Muslim community, the need for evidence-based interventions is a high priority for Islamic institutions and Muslim families. However, the existing research may not be sufficient in creating the appropriate guidance and interventions for Muslims, although it contains important insights and will be important to build upon. There are a few limitations to note on the existing research on religious identity development. First, this review primarily relied on Western academic theories and studies of religiosity and identity. Within the Islamic tradition, there are numerous models for inculcating a religious identity that were not addressed in this review. Second, the vast majority of the literature on this subject has relied on predominantly Christian and other non-Muslim samples. Therefore, although we believe the underlying mechanisms should not differ substantially for Muslims, more research on Muslim samples is important to increase the generalizability of the findings. Third, many of the published studies in this review relied on cross-sectional and correlational data, which limits our ability to understand religious development over time and infer causal mechanisms. Ultimately, these limitations underscore the necessity of gathering longitudinal data on Muslim youth and families from diverse backgrounds. This type of data will allow us to understand the process of religious identity formation, especially the predictors of religious conviction and doubt, religious behavior, and community engagement. Understanding these factors will provide the necessary insights that will facilitate the design of interventions and guidance for Muslim youth and families. --- ## Notes [^1]: “Religious Landscape Study,” Pew Research Center, 2014, [https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/&sa=D&ust=1579192280681000). [^2]: “Religious Switching and Intermarriage,” chap. 2 in “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015, [https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-2-religious-switching-and-intermarriage/#net-gains-and-losses-by-religious-tradition-unaffiliated-make-big-gains-catholics-suffer-major-losses](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-2-religious-switching-and-intermarriage/%23net-gains-and-losses-by-religious-tradition-unaffiliated-make-big-gains-catholics-suffer-major-losses&sa=D&ust=1579192280682000). [^3]: Jacquelynne Eccles, “Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do with My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action,” *Educational Psychologist* 44, no. 2 (2009): 78–89. [^4]: Erik H. Erikson, *Identity: Youth and Crisis* (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1968). [^5]: James E. Marcia, “Identity and Psychosocial Development in Adulthood,” *Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research* 2, no. 1 (2002): 7–28. [^6]: Carol Markstrom-Adams, Greta Hofstra, and Kirk Dougher, “The Ego-Virtue of Fidelity: A Case for the Study of Religion and Identity Formation in Adolescence,” *Journal of Youth and Adolescence* 23, no. 4 (1994): 453–69. [^7]: Richard J. Petts, “Trajectories of Religious Participation from Adolescence to Young Adulthood,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 48, no. 3 (2009): 552–71. [^8]: Christian Smith and Melina Lundquist Denton, *Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^9]: Erikson, *Identity*. [^10]: Pamela Ebstyne King, “Religion and Identity: The Role of Ideological, Social, and Spiritual Contexts,” *Applied Developmental Science* 7, no. 3 (2003): 197–204. [^11]: Harold G. Koenig, “Research on Religion, Spirituality, and Mental Health: A Review,” *The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry* 54, no. 5 (2009): 283–91. [^12]: Loren D. Marks and David C. Dollahite, *Religion and Families: An Introduction* (New York: Routledge, 2016). [^13]: Eccles, “Who Am I,” 78–89. [^14]: Qur’an 41:33. [^15]: Eccles, “Who Am I,” 78–89. [^16]: Urie Bronfenbrenner and Pamela A. Morris, “The Bioecological Model of Human Development,” in *Handbook of Child Psychology*, edited by William Damon and Richard L. Lerner (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006). [^17]: David C. Dollahite and Jennifer Y. Thatcher, “Talking about Religion: How Highly Religious Youth and Parents Discuss Their Faith,” *Journal of Adolescent Research* 23, no. 5 (2008): 611–41. [^18]: John A. Clausen, ed., *Socialization and Society* (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968). [^19]: Alan C. Acock and Vern L. Bengtson, “On the Relative Influence of Mothers and Fathers: A Covariance Analysis of Political and Religious Socialization,” *Journal of Marriage and the Family* 40, no. 3 (1978): 519–30. [^20]: *Saheeh al-Bukhari*: *kitaab al-janaaiz*. [^21]: Vern L. Bengtson, Susan Harris, and Norella M. Putney, *Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down Across Generations* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). [^22]: Smith and Denton, *Soul Searching*. [^23]: Marks and Dollahite, *Religion and Families*. [^24]: Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Amy Arberton, Christy Miller Buchanan, Jacobs Janis, Constance Flanagan, and Rena Harold, “School and Family Effects on the Ontogeny of Children’s Interests, Self-Perceptions, and Activity Choices,” *Developmental Perspectives on Motivation* 40 (1993): 145–208. [^25]: Christian Smith, Bridget Ritz, and Michael Rotolo. *Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020), 179. [^26]: Bengtson, Harris, and Putney, *Families and Faith*, 65. [^27]: Doug Oman and Carl E. Thoresen, “Invited Essay: Spiritual Modeling: A Key to Spiritual and Religious Growth?,” *The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion* 13, no. 3 (2003): 149–65. [^28]: Albert Bandura, *Social Foundations of Thought and Action* (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986). [^29]: Vern L. Bengtson, Timothy J. Biblarz, and Robert E. L. Roberts, *How Families Still Matter: A Longitudinal Study of Youth in Two Generations* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). [^30]: Ibid. [^31]: Bengtson, Harris, and Putney, *Families and Faith*. [^32]: Marjorie Lindner Gunnoe, E. Mavis Hetherington, and David Reiss, “Parental Religiosity, Parenting Style, and Adolescent Social Responsibility,” *The Journal of Early Adolescence* 19, no. 2 (1999): 199–225, 200. [^33]: Douglas L. Flor and Nancy Flanagan Knapp, “Transmission and Transaction: Predicting Adolescents' Internalization of Parental Religious Values,” *Journal of Family Psychology* 15, no. 4 (2001): 627. [^34]: Chris J. Boyatzis and Denise L. Janicki, “Parent-Child Communication about Religion: Survey and Diary Data on Unilateral Transmission and Bi-Directional Reciprocity Styles,” *Review of Religious Research* (2003): 252–70. [^35]: Dollahite and Thatcher, “Talking about Religion,” 611–641. [^36]: Ibid., 265. [^37]: Qur’an 37:102. [^38]: Leora E. Lawton and Regina Bures, “Parental Divorce and the ‘Switching’ of Religious Identity,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 40, no. 1 (2001): 99–111. [^39]: Ibid. [^40]: Marks and Dollahite, *Religion and Families*. [^41]: Howard M. Bahr, “Religious Intermarriage and Divorce in Utah and the Mountain States.” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* (1981): 251–61. [^42]: Evelyn L. Lehrer, *Religion, Human Capital Investments and the Family in the United States*, in *The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion*, ed. Rachel M. McCleary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). [^43]: Bengtson, Harris, and Putney, *Families and Faith*. [^44]: Abdullah bin Ahmad Ibn Qudamah, *al-Mughni* (Egypt: Maktabah al-Kaherah, 1968). [^45]: Muhammad al-Tabari, *Tarikh al Rusul wa al Muluk*, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Maarif, 1963). [^46]: Harold S. Himmelfarb, “The Study of American Jewish Identification: How It Is Defined, Measured, Obtained, Sustained and Lost,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* (1980): 48–60. [^47]: Marie Cornwall. “The Determinants of Religious Behavior: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Test,” *Social Forces* 68, no. 2 (1989): 572–92. [^48]: Todd F. Martin, James M. White, and Daniel Perlman, “Religious Socialization: A Test of the Channeling Hypothesis of Parental Influence on Adolescent Faith Maturity,” *Journal of Adolescent Research* 18, no. 2 (2003): 169–87. [^49]: James W. Fowler, *Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning* (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981). [^50]: James Youniss and Denise L. Haynie, “Friendship in Adolescence,” *Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics* 13, no. 1 (1992): 59–66 [^51]: *Saheeh al-Bukhari:* chap. the perfume seller and selling musk. [^52]: Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Bonnie L. Barber, Margaret Stone, and James Hunt, “Extracurricular Activities and Adolescent Development,” *Journal of Social Issues* 59, no. 4 (2003): 865–89. [^53]: Doran C. French, Urip Purwono, and Airin Triwahyuni, “Friendship and the Religiosity of Indonesian Muslim Adolescents,” *Journal of Youth and Adolescence* 40, no. 12 (2011): 1623–33 [^54]: Pamela E. King, James L. Furrow, and Natalie Roth, “On Adolescent Religiousness,” *Journal of Psychology and Christianity* 21, no. 2 (2002): 109–20. [^55]: Antoinette Landor, Leslie Gordon Simons, Ronald L. Simons, Gene H. Brody, and Frederick X. Gibbons, “The Role of Religiosity in the Relationship between Parents, Peers, and Adolescent Risky Sexual Behavior,” *Journal of Youth and Adolescence* 40, no. 3 (2011): 296–309. [^56]: Stephen J. Bahr and John P. Hoffmann, “Religiosity, Peers, and Adolescent Drug Use,” *Journal of Drug Issues* 38, no. 3 (2008): 743–769. [^57]: Qur’an 25:29. [^58]: Erving Goffman, *Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009). [^59]: Smith and Denton, *Soul Searching*. [^60]: “The Children We Mean to Raise: The Real Messages Adults are Sending about Values,” Harvard Graduate School of Education, July 2014, [https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/children-mean-raise](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/children-mean-raise&sa=D&ust=1579192280691000). [^61]: E. H. Ecklund, *Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). [^62]: Neil Gross and Solon Simmons, “The Religiosity of American College and University Professors,” *Sociology of Religion* 70, no. 2 (2009): 101–129 [^63]: A. W. Astin, H. S. Astin, and J. A. Lindholm, *Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Live*s (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010). [^64]: Jenny J. Lee, “Religion and College Attendance: Change among Students,” *The Review of Higher Education* 25, no. 4 (2002): 369–384. [^65]: Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini, *How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research*, vol. 2 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005). [^66]: Daniel M. Hungerman, “The Effect of Education on Religion: Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws,” *Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization* 104 (2014): 52–63. [^67]: Jonathan P. Hill, “Faith and Understanding: Specifying the Impact of Higher Education on Religious Belief,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 50, no. 3 (2011): 533–51. [^68]: R. Hoge, Benton Johnson, and Donald A. Luidens. “Determinants of Church Involvement of Young Adults Who Grew Up in Presbyterian Churches,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* (1993): 242–55. [^69]: Christian Smith and Patricia Snell, *Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). [^70]: Ibid. [^71]: Carolyn McNamara Barry, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, and Larry J. Nelson, “The Role of Mothers and Media on Emerging Adults’ Religious Faith and Practices by Way of Internalization of Prosocial Values,” *Journal of Adult Development* 19, no. 2 (2012): 66–78. [^72]: Phil Davignon, “The Effects of R-Rated Movies on Adolescent and Young Adult Religiosity: Media as Self-Socialization,” *Review of Religious Research* 55, no. 4 (2013): 615–628. [^73]: In a January 2017 survey, Pew Research Center asked respondents to rate Muslims on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 degrees indicates the coldest, most negative feelings and 100 degrees indicates the warmest, most positive feelings. On average, Americans gave Muslims a thermometer rating of 48 degrees, which was 8 degrees warmer than in 2014, when the Center first posed the question. [^74]: “How the U.S. General Public Views Muslims and Islam,” Pew Research Center, July 26, 2017, [https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/how-the-u-s-general-public-views-muslims-and-islam/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/how-the-u-s-general-public-views-muslims-and-islam/&sa=D&ust=1579192280693000). [^75]: Brenda Major, Wendy J. Quinton, and Shannon K. McCoy, “Antecedents and Consequences of Attributions to Discrimination: Theoretical and Empirical Advances,” in *Advances in Experimental Social Psychology*, vol. 34, (San Diego: Academic Press, 2002), 251–330. [^76]: Claude M. Steele, Steven J. Spencer, and Joshua Aronson, “Contending with Group Image: The Psychology of Stereotype and Social Identity Threat,” in *Advances in Experimental Social Psychology,* vol. 34, (San Diego: Academic Press, 2002), 379–440. [^77]: Omar Suleiman, “Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth,” Yaqeen Institute, March 3, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth/#.XbdiEedKgWo](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth/%23.XbdiEedKgWo&sa=D&ust=1579192280695000). [^78]: Jonas R. Kunst, Hajra Tajamal, David L. Sam, and Pål Ulleberg, “Coping with Islamophobia: The Effects of Religious Stigma on Muslim Minorities’ Identity Formation,” *International Journal of Intercultural Relations* 36, no. 4 (2012): 518–532. [\[79\]](#ftnt_ref79) Smith, Ritz, and Rotolo, *Religious Parenting*. ## Summary Among the foremost concerns of Muslim families residing in the West is the preservation of faith (*imān*) in their children, particularly in a society where those who identify as Muslim constitute less than one percent of the population, while roughly seventy percent identify as Christian and nearly twenty-three percent claim no religion at all. Though Muslim households transmit their religious affiliation to the next generation at higher rates than Christian families in America, approximately one in five persons raised as Muslims does not remain Muslim in adulthood. In such an environment—saturated with the philosophies of secularism, liberalism, feminism, capitalism, and atheism—there is a pressing need to understand how a healthy Islamic identity is cultivated in the young. Yet relatively little is known about this process among Muslim youth specifically, and the overwhelming majority of existing social-scientific research has been conducted upon adherents of other faiths. Its insights, nevertheless, remain valuable in constructing a preliminary understanding, provided we recognize the limits of generalizing findings drawn from non-Muslim populations. Identity development is regarded as the central task of adolescence, a stage often marked by religious instability in which the young explore various beliefs before committing to a settled path. Religious identity, understood not merely as belonging to a group but as a lived reality, is best captured through three dimensions: religious beliefs and values, religious practices, and participation in a religious community. The optimal Islamic identity therefore combines self-identification as a Muslim, the internalization of Islamic belief and value, and a life lived in accordance with divine guidance within a community. This conception finds expression in the words of Allah, "And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah, engages in righteous behavior, and proclaims, 'Indeed, I am of the Muslims'" (Qur'an 41:33). The behaviors through which one enacts this identity include devotional acts such as prayer, recitation of the Qur'an, and fasting, as well as righteous dealings such as honoring parents, neighbors, and guests. To organize the many influences upon a child's faith, it is useful to imagine the child as residing within nested environments, layered one within another like Russian dolls: the family, nested within the neighborhood and community, nested within the broader society and culture, all situated within a historical context that shifts over time. Each of these environments is hypothesized to bear directly or indirectly upon the three dimensions of belief, practice, and community, and these dimensions in turn influence one another. Within these circles reside the primary agents of religious socialization—parents, peers, and the institutions of worship and learning. Foremost among these agents is the family, and the evidence to this effect is overwhelming. This accords with the words of the Prophet ﷺ, "No child is born but that he is upon the natural disposition [to believe in Allah]. Thereafter, it is one's parents that make the child a Jew, or a Christian, or Magian" (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī). Parents shape their children through modeling, encouragement, shared activity, and the provision of religious experiences. After interviewing over two hundred families, Smith and colleagues concluded that the single effective path is for parents "simply to practice their own personal faith, naturally, for its own sake and as role models for their children." Bengtson and colleagues, drawing upon a longitudinal study of three hundred and fifty families across thirty-five years, likewise found that when parents' actions are inconsistent with their words, children are rarely moved to follow them. Central to this process is observational spiritual learning, whereby a child emulates the exemplar he witnesses in prayer or recitation. The quality of the parent-child bond is a strong predictor of religious continuity, though some research holds that this closeness avails little unless parents and children actually converse about faith. Bidirectional discussions—in which the child questions, voices opinions, and initiates the exchange—are more effective than one-sided lecturing. Dollahite and Thatcher observed that adolescents were engaged when conversation centered upon their own needs and interests, but disengaged when it served the parents' concerns. A beautiful illustration of such a mutual exchange appears in the address of Ibrāhīm to his son: "O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice you. So, what do you think?" and Ismāʿīl replied, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast" (Qur'an 37:102). Within the American context, existing research generally favors authoritative parenting—warmth combined with high expectations—over harsh, permissive, or disinterested styles. Family structure likewise bears upon the faith of children. Youth raised by married biological parents of the same faith are more likely to inherit that faith than children of divorce, of single parents, or of interfaith unions. Divorce was found to reduce transmission—notably among Protestants and Catholics, though not among Jews, possibly owing to the matrilineal and ethnic character of Jewish identity—and to increase the likelihood of abandoning religion altogether. This is attributed to the trauma of separation, the disruption of household routine, and the diminished welcome extended to such families within religious communities. Although Islam permits divorce when warranted, the review notes that divorced parents may still transmit faith, and that communities must find ways to include and nurture such families. Interfaith marriages, moreover, prove far less stable and transmit the faith of neither parent well; while the samples were predominantly non-Muslim, this concern echoes classical legal opinions that discouraged a Muslim man from marrying a non-Muslim woman absent some substantial benefit, as recorded by Ibn Qudāmah in *al-Mughnī*, and the reported instance of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb urging Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān to divorce his Jewish wife out of concern for Muslims in non-Muslim lands. As for peers, their influence intensifies in adolescence, though the evidence concerning them is less abundant than that regarding parents. Their effect was captured by the Prophet ﷺ in his likening of the righteous companion to a perfume-seller and the corrupt one to a blacksmith (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī). Youth with religious friends tend to be more religious, and a rare study of Indonesian Muslim adolescents found their religiosity predicted by that of their companions, while less religious peers were linked to greater risk-taking. The Qur'an warns of the regret awaiting one who chose the wrong friend: "Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that person as a friend" (Qur'an 25:29). A Muslim youth deciding whether to step aside for the *maghrib* prayer among friends weighs personal conviction against social cost, and it is often in this stage that an inherited identity either matures into a chosen one or falters. Beyond parents and peers lie more distal socializers. Religion frequently occupies a losing position amid the competing demands of school, sport, and media, and a national study found American youth perceive their parents as more concerned with academic achievement than with kindness. Higher education has shown mixed results: some data correlate greater education with diminished belief, and Hill suggested that skepticism toward the unseen may serve as a marker of knowledge-class status; yet other findings indicate that campus religious groups, such as the Muslim Students' Association, may sustain and strengthen faith. Regarding media, negative use such as violent games and pornography was associated with lessened religiosity, and R-rated films in early adolescence predicted later decline. The hostile climate toward Muslims—rated coldest among religious groups—may further threaten identity, prompting some to conceal outward signs of faith, as a study of Turkish Muslims in Germany suggested. In conclusion, none of these socializers surpasses the parents, whom Smith and colleagues named "the single, most powerful causal influence" upon the religious lives of the young. A recurring theme is observational learning across every nested environment. Yet the review candidly acknowledges its limits: it draws chiefly upon Western theories and predominantly non-Muslim, cross-sectional samples, leaving the need for longitudinal research upon diverse Muslim youth as an open and pressing task. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why do some kids who grew up Muslim stop practicing when they get older? Adolescence is developmentally a period of religious instability. Young people are asking foundational questions: Who am I? What do I value? What do I want my life to look like? Rather than simply inheriting the identity their parents gave them, adolescents explore and evaluate before committing. This is a normal phase of development, but it means that a Muslim identity received passively in childhood is not automatically one that will be personally chosen in adulthood. Several factors compound this. If a child’s home life did not model genuine religiosity, if their peer group did not reinforce Islamic values, or if they had no meaningful community, the Islamic identity they grew up with may not have the roots needed to hold. Approximately 20 percent of those raised Muslim in America do not identify as Muslim in adulthood. ### What is the most important thing I can do as a parent to make sure my kids stay Muslim? There is no substitute for parents actually living their faith. Researchers who studied over two hundred families across religious backgrounds concluded that parents have essentially one effective path for transmitting religion—to practice their own faith naturally, for its own sake, as genuine role models. A longitudinal study of 350 families over 35 years confirmed the same: If parents are not themselves involved in religious life, or if their actions contradict what they preach, children are rarely motivated to follow. Children learn primarily through observation. When a child watches a parent make *wuduʾ*, stand for salah, or open the Qur’an with quiet sincerity, they are receiving something deeper than instruction. ### How do I talk to my teenagers about religion without them completely shutting down? The quality and structure of religious conversations matter enormously. Research consistently shows that adolescents are more likely to internalize Islamic values when religious conversations are bidirectional—meaning the child asks questions, voices opinions, and is treated as an active participant rather than a passive recipient. When parents lecture, adolescents disengage. When parents listen and invite their child’s perspective, adolescents stay engaged and place greater importance on religion. The Qur’an illustrates this in the exchange between Ibrahim and his son Ismaʿil: “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice you. So, what do you think?” (37:102). Ibrahim did not simply inform Ismaʿil of what would happen. He asked his son what he thought. For teenagers especially, conversations that center on their needs, questions, and doubts are far more powerful than those centered on what a parent wants to convey. ### I am scared college will make my child lose their faith. Is that a real risk? It is a real consideration, though not an inevitable outcome. University environments are shaped by a culture that privileges empirical reasoning and secular frameworks, and many professors are less religious than the general public. Data gathered over decades from American and Canadian surveys shows that higher levels of education correlate with decreased religious belief. Students at elite universities were found to be especially skeptical of superempirical realities such as angels and miracles. That said, college does not automatically erode faith. Research points to campus-based Muslim communities as a meaningful buffer. Students who actively participate in Muslim Students Associations and remain connected to local masjids appear to maintain or even strengthen their religious identity. Before a child leaves for college, families should think seriously about housing arrangements, proximity to an active Muslim community, and which social environments their child will be entering. The religious identity formed in high school will be tested, but it can also be deepened if the right supports are in place. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/financing-kindness-as-a-society-the-rise-fall-of-islamic-philanthropic-institutions-waqfs # Financing Kindness as a Society: The Rise & Fall of Islamic Philanthropic Institutions (Waqfs) **Author:** Dr. Khalil Abdurrashid **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Waqf, Wealth & Finance **Published:** January 9, 2020 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Note *Last updated on August 24, 2020* --- ## Introduction From approximately the ninth century, roughly two hundred years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, charitable foundations and endowments (*waqf*s or *awqāf*) began to emerge and spread across the Islamic world. Over the next millennium, charitable foundations and endowments would become fundamental to the conceptualization and manifestation of an Islamic society to such an extent that it would become nearly impossible to envision the Muslim world without *waqf*s. They had become the thread that stitched together the diverse tapestry of the Islamic civilization. By the early 1800s, according to one conservative estimate, more than half of the real estate in the Ottoman Empire was classified as endowed (*waqf*).[^1] According to another reliable source, charitable endowments (*awqāf*) comprised > an estimated 75 percent of arable land in the area of today’s Turkey, one-fifth in Egypt, one-seventh in Iran, one-half in Algeria, one-third in Tunisia, and one-third in Greece. At the end of the eighteenth century, an estimated 20,000 *waqf*s in the Ottoman Empire had a total annual income equal to one-third of annual government revenues, and perhaps including as much as one-half to two-thirds of arable land.[^2] The institutionalization of charity in Islam became a defining factor that would exert dominating influence on urban planning and the development of cities and towns, social welfare, religious habits and practice, the production of art and the development of aesthetics, the structure and stability of markets and economic forces, political stability, as well as the production of Muslim culture in all its diverse representations. As a famous historian remarked: > from about the tenth century, private *waqf*s replaced *zakāh* as ‘the vehicle for financing Islam as a society…they offered the material foundation for most specifically Islamic concerns, supporting religious, social, cultural, and economic activities, while equally serving political functions…Through the *waqf*s, the various civic essentials and even amenities were provided for on a private yet dependable basis without need or fear of the intervention of political power.[^3] From about the middle of the nineteenth century, this integral element of Islamic civilization would be taken over by the newly created nation-state and, in some cases, purposefully obliterated. Coterminous with the decline of the *waqf* was the rise of Westernization and reform projects in the Muslim world that sought to move the Muslim world forward towards “progress” in the name of “civilization.” The *waqf*, as a uniquely Islamic institution, would come under assault and thereby usher in a transformation of the Islamic world. This paper explores both the origins and transformation of charitable foundations and endowments in Islam. I divide the history of *waqf*s into five different phases. The first is the formative period for *waqf*s and I begin with an overview of the origins and formation of this institution. In this section, I explore central concepts and themes that were critical for the foundation and establishment of Islamic philanthropy as an institution. The second phase is the post-formative period for *waqf*s. There, I describe how the term *waqf* emerged in the midst of much cultural and terminological diversity. I further outline the first recipients of Islamic philanthropy in form and content. The third phase is the maturation period for *waqf*s. In this section, I outline various examples of *waqf*s in a more mature form and how they operated. I provide examples regarding how *waqfs* affected a variety of places and beneficiaries in various parts of the Muslim world. Of significant importance in this section are the details about the founding of *waqf*s for animals as well as endowments and foundations established by Muslim women solely for single women. This provides special insight into how pre-modern Islamic societies developed creative mechanisms to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusion and belonging by devoting certain *waqf*s to the cause of providing space for those on the margins of society. The fourth phase is a transformation period of *waqf*s and in this section, I describe how the issue of concreteness and perpetuity of *waqf*s began to be applied to cash, something more mobile and practically useful in preparation for a new world. The final period is the period that marked the deterioration of *waqf*s. In this section, I attempt to reveal the causes and consequences of the decline of *waqf*s in the Muslim world. In chronicling an epic institution such as the *waqf* in Islam, it is important to acknowledge that this topic is widely researched. What I am attempting to accomplish in this paper is a general synopsis and synthesis of major source materials regarding the institution of *waqf*s in order to provide the reader (both Muslim and non-Muslim) with a central source that both maps the landscape of the history and development of the institution of *waqf*s and provides scholarly integrations in order to explain this profound aspect of the Islamic civilization. To comprehend the institution of *waqf*s is to understand Islamic philanthropy. This paper, in short, seeks to unveil and present the core and the branches of the greatest form of the Islamic philanthropical enterprise. --- ## The conditions allowing for the cultivation of Islamic philanthropy (waqfs) Islamic philanthropy as a social institution (the *waqf*) emerged against the backdrop of two distinct and ubiquitous practices in Muslim society. The first backdrop was the pervasive theological and ontological framework of the centrality of charity to life itself that gives momentum to giving in the first place. The second backdrop consisted of the legal and sociological consequences of death, preparation for them, and the resulting issues of bequest and inheritance. In Islam, from birth throughout a person’s lifespan, charitable giving fashions a person’s daily, nightly, and monthly routine. Even the body itself is included in the expectation of charitable giving for the Islamic tradition encourages a person to engage all their bodily limbs in charitable acts. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stated that: > Each joint of every person must perform a charity every day the sun comes up: to act justly between two people is a charity; to help a man with his mount, lifting him on to, it is a charity; a good word is a charity; every step you take to prayers is a charity, and removing a harmful thing from the road is charity.[^4] Kind words, helping another across the road, removing litter from the street, showing affection towards one’s spouse, feeding the poor, and even remembering God are among the numerous actions that are considered charitable in Islam. Islam encourages charitable actions on a daily basis through a myriad of practices that can be done, ranging from very easy and simple to grand and socially transformational, such as speaking out against injustice. Furthermore, charity was codified in the Islamic calendar during various days, nights, weeks, and even months. Friday, the occasion of the Muslim congregational prayer, is designated the most advantageous day of the week for charitable giving. Giving before and especially after the Friday Prayer is a practice enshrined in Islamic norms throughout Islamic history. The feeding of the poor especially is encouraged after the Friday Prayer and a practice found in Muslim sources. The last ten nights of Ramadan are considered the most virtuous nights for giving and for charitable actions. The first month of the Islamic calendar, Muḥarram, is known as the first month for charity in the year. The tenth of Muḥarram, known as ʿĀshūrāh, whose significance is shared between both Sunnis and Shi’is, is known for its being an occasion for charitable giving and virtuous actions. During the third month of the Islamic calendar, the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the Prophet’s birth is usually commemorated by Muslims globally. The celebration, although originating in the Mamluk era from Muẓaffar al-Dīn (d. 682/1283), brother-in-law of Ṣalāḥuddīn Ayyūbī, would become part of both Sunni and Shi’i social norms.[^5] The practice of commemorating the Prophet’s birth always involved feeding people and the distribution of gifts as an act of charity. The sacred months of Rajab (the 7th lunar month), Shaʿbān (the 8th lunar month), and Ramadan (the 9th lunar month), are also designated as months for charity. Rajab historically was designated as a month for gift-giving to the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The middle night of the month of Shaʿbān, called *Laylat al-Barāʾ*, is considered a night of prayer and penitence. On that night, Muslims are highly encouraged to ask forgiveness and to perform acts of charity in hopes of having their sins absolved. Ramadan, as a month for fasting and charitable giving is widely known by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The first day of Shawwal, the tenth month in the Islamic calendar, is considered a grand festival day, *ʿĪd al-Fiṭr*, marking the completion of Ramadan and is the first of the two grand festivals for giving. Finally, Dhū al-Hijjah, the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar, contains the Pilgrimage as well as the second grand festival, ʿĪd al-Aḍḥá. This festival is a holiday devoted to feeding others, gift-giving, and other forms of charitable giving lasting for three consecutive days. Days, nights, and months punctuate the Muslim’s life-span with an overall climate of charitable giving that Muslims are literally born in to: seven days after the birth of every child, the charitable act of the distribution of food to the poor and non-poor alike is a religious practice called ʿ*Aqīqah* for the purpose of giving thanks to God for the gift of a child. Charitable giving was even considered central in the early childhood education of children. Ibn Nujaym (d. 970/1563) quotes the famous Sunni theologian Imam Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) as saying: > The believer is obligated to instruct their child in generosity and charity just as they are obliged to instruct them in monotheistic doctrine and belief, for the love of this world is the source of all sin.[^6] Like amniotic fluid that functions as a source of protection for the developing fetus, as well as facilitates the exchange of nutrients and water between mother and child, the encompassing atmosphere of charity insulates the Muslim community from the blows of natural calamities, staving off the worsening of conditions while allowing for the exchange of material blessings between various members of the community so that each segment of the community comes to value and appreciate the presence and well-being of the other. The second framework that forms the backdrop to the emergence of the *waqf* was death itself and the preparation for transition to the afterlife. Death and dying in Islam ushered in two extremely significant Islamic legal mechanisms: the bequest (*waṣīyah*) and inheritance (*mīrāth*). The relationship between these two legal actions in Islam, coupled with a terminal illness (*maraḍ al-mawt*) brought to the forefront of Muslim families and jurists the problem of protecting heirs and creditors in the event of a dying person’s last testament. In Islamic law, bequests are restricted to one-third of a person’s property. This restriction to one-third, along with the strict rules of Islamic inheritance shares, posed a problem for Muslims on their deathbed wishing to donate a significant portion of their wealth to the poor in perpetuity. The challenge of distinguishing normal, regular charitable giving in the form of a bequest, subject to Islamic inheritance laws, from the creation of an institution for ongoing charity that would benefit the donor in the afterlife on an ongoing basis contributed to the creation of the *waqf* as a separate and uniquely developed Islamic institution. The impetus for ongoing charitable giving was given by the Prophet ﷺ who explained that: > When a human being dies, their work comes to an end, except for three things: ongoing charity, knowledge benefitted from, or a pious child who prays for them.[^7] Muslim scholars have interpreted “ongoing charity” as a reference to Islamic philanthropical institutions (*waqf*s). But early on in Islamic history, this distinction was not overtly clear, for both the practice of charitable giving and term for giving (*ṣadaqah*) would confuse matters leading to a need to distinguish the general practice of charitable giving (*ṣadaqah*) from ongoing or perpetual charitable institutions (*waqf*s). This would lead to the rise of the *waqf* as both a legal and social phenomenon that produced an entirely new layer of meaning for Muslims and Muslim societies for well over a thousand years. Financing kindness would transcend individual and personal boundaries to become spiritual, familial, communal, social, political, cultural, philosophical, regional, international, and even global. In the modern era, it would become a colonial priority to dismantle the *waqf*s, leading to their being disrupted and falling into significant decline as a result of external pressures from colonial forces abroad and internal pressures from Muslim reformers seeking to replicate European Enlightenment at home. With this backdrop in mind, I now turn to the five phases in the historical development of the *waqf* as the premier Islamic philanthropic institution. ### The formative period for Islamic philanthropical institutions The formative period for Islamic philanthropy began after the Prophet’s migration to Medina and ended around the early Abbasid era. During this period, the essence and contours of Islamic philanthropy were established by Qur’anic and Prophetic decree and philanthropic giving emerged in various forms. As ubiquitous as the *waqf* is in Islamic history, it is quite interesting that the term *waqf* does not appear in the Qur’an itself nor in the hadith literature. The term *waqf* is believed to have emerged around the middle of the third century in Islam, during the post-formative period of Islamic law. Although the term itself does not exist in the Qur’an, scholars of Qur’anic exegesis explain the following Qur’anic passage as providing the basis for Islamic philanthropic giving: > None of you (believers) will attain true piety unless you give out of what you cherish: whatever you give, God knows about it very well.[^8] Upon hearing this verse of Qur’an, Abū Ṭalḥah, a notable Companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ donated his most cherished possession, a large date-palm grove with over 600 date palm trees to the service of the poor in the city of Medina. He explained the reasons behind his gift to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by saying that the date-palm grove was his most cherished possession and that he hoped that by gifting it to the poor that he would attain the status of true piety in the next life. Upon declaring his gift to those in need, in the presence of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Abū Ṭalḥah returned home to find his wife and child relaxing in the grove. Abū Ṭalḥah immediately informed his wife that he had gifted and endowed the grove to serve the poor of Medina in service of Islam. His wife asked him, “Did you do this in your name only or in our name collectively?” Abū Ṭalḥah replied that he had done so in both of their names. His wife replied, “May God be pleased with you, Abū Ṭalḥah! I was considering the exact same thing after having thought deeply about what to do for the poor in our midst. But I did not have the courage yet to do something about it. May God accept our offering and let us now leave the grove together.”[^9] This dedication of their most valuable real estate for the good of the poor of Medina, in service of Islam, became known as the first act of endowment (*waqf*) in Islam. From the perspective of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, we have more specific details for the establishment of the *waqf*. First, the Prophet ﷺ died leaving only three items: a mule, his weapons, and some land that he designated as being reserved for charitable purposes (*ṣadaqah*).[^10] Second, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instructed his Companion Umar how to endow property for Islamic philanthropic purposes and this became the model for the *waqf*s of many prominent Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Imam Mālik mentioned this advice from the Prophet ﷺ as having established the precedent for *waqf*s—which were called *ahbas* by Imam Mālik. According to Islamic history, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb had acquired some property in Khaybar and consulted the Prophet ﷺ on what to do with it. The event is reported as follows: > ʿUmar said: ‘I have acquired land in Khaybar, and I have never acquired property more precious to me than it. What do you command me to do with it?’ The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘If you want, sequester its principal and dedicate (the profits) for charitable purposes.’ Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘ʿUmar gave away the yields as alms on the condition that it (the principal) not be sold, given away as a gift, or inherited. ʿUmar gave the yields away as alms for the poor, kin relations, freeing of slaves, (the funding of) military expenditures, travelers, and guests. It will not be held against the one who administers it if they eat from it in an appropriate manner or gives something to a friend so long as they do not appropriate any of the property.[^11] From this tradition, we learn the basic operational parameters, functions, and conditions of Islamic philanthropy of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. ʿUmar’s statement about his land in Khaybar as being the most precious of his property is significant, as it conforms with the import of the Qur’anic verse above, namely that a person should give from what they cherish most. The Prophet’s instruction to ʿUmar to sequester the principal and devote the proceeds for charitable causes is also important because it explains the Qur’an’s statement instructing the person about how to “give out of what you cherish.” This does not mean to give away what you cherish but instead to restrict the most cherished aspect of our wealth to the service of yielding proceeds for charitable purposes. The property itself is to be sequestered from being bought, sold, gifted or inherited. In short, it is removed from the marketplace and protected from being a commodity. However, as Ibn ʿUmar articulated in describing his father’s actions in following the Prophet’s instructions, the property is still put to work in order to produce gains for alms for the poor, kin, the freeing of slaves, (the funding of) military expenditures, and the needs of travelers and guests. This is also remarkably consistent with the *zakāh* recipient categories outlined in chapter 9, verse 60 of the Qur’an. Two significant aspects of Islamic philanthropy are outlined here in this narration: the first is the advice from the Prophet ﷺ on establishing a philanthropic institution (as opposed to a singular act of charity): sequester the principal and devote the proceeds to charitable uses. The second involves the parameters of the *waqf* institution itself: 1) that it be explicitly and legally removed from being a commodity; 2) that it be used solely for charitable purposes; and 3) general guidelines for the trustee outlining personal benefit from the endowment. Regarding this latter point, Umar had a *waqf* deed drawn up by a scribe in the presence of several Companions and ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Arqam served as the witness for the document. ʿUmar named his daughter, Ḥafṣah, as trustee, administrator, and manager of the property he endowed, in his words, “for as long as she lives.” He then stipulated that after her, it should be administered by a person of sound judgment from her family…The yields were to be spent, as the administrator saw fit, for beggars, the destitute, and kin. It is not objectionable if the administrator eats, feeds, or purchases servants to work the property.[^12] Imam Shāfiʿī explained that “knowledge of *ṣadaqāt* \[*waqf*s\] has been preserved by a considerable number of the Emigrants (*Muhājirūn*) and Helpers (*Anṣār*). Indeed, a great number of (the early Muslims’) descendants and relatives continued to administer their *ṣadaqāt* until they died. The majority of them transmitted this on the authority of the majority, so there is no dispute in this matter.”[^13] Al-Wāqidī (d. 207/823) reported that the Companions had transformed their dirhams and date trees into endowments (*ṣadaqah*), while al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) related the conversion of conquered lands into endowments (*ḥabs*) during the first century.[^14] Among the prominent Companions who established Islamic philanthropical endowments (*waqf*s) are: ʿUmar, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Sawdah bint Zamʿah (the Prophet’s wife), ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr (the Prophet’s wife), al-Zubayr ibn ʿAwwām, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thābit, Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr, Umm Salamah (the Prophet’s wife), Umm Ḥabībah (The Prophet’s wife), Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyayy (the Prophet’s wife), Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Khālid ibn Walīd, Abū Arwá al-Dawsī, Ḥafṣa (the Prophet’s wife), Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah, Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir, and ʿAbd Allah ibn Zubayr—may Allah be pleased with all of them.[^15] ### The post-formative period for Islamic philanthropical institutions The post-formative period began in the early Abbasid era (around 250/864) and ended around the beginning of the Mamluk rule in Egypt (648/1250). During this period, the term *waqf* became codified within Islamic legal parlance across legal schools and *waqf*s adopted the concrete forms of mosques and *madrasah* colleges. Early on in this period, a terminological problem emerged. Scholars and jurists of this period employed the following terms to refer to what we know today as *waqf*s: *ḥubs*, *aḥbās*, *ṣadaqah*, *ṣadaqāt muḥarramāh*, and *ṣadaqāt mawqūfāh*. The Mālikīs, early Shāfiʿīs,[^16] and scholars of the Ẓāhirī School employed the terms *ḥabs* or *ḥubs* (to retain or detain) and variants of this term, such as the plural *aḥbās*, and other derivatives like *taḥbīs*, *ḥabāʾis*, *ḥabisa*, and *iḥbās*. Imam Shāfiʿī and other scholars preferred the term, *ṣadaqāt muḥarramāt*, or inviolable charity. Others preferred to add different qualifiers to the term *ṣadaqah* (charity) such as *ṣadaqa muʾabbadah* (eternal charity) and *ṣadaqah jāriyah* (ongoing charity). Imam Shafi explained that *hubs* is a term that meant *ṣadaqāt muḥarramāt* and that *ṣadaqāt muḥarramāt* was a term for *waqf*. Later Shafi scholars followed that view and now universally employ the term *waqf*. Early Ḥanafī scholars also employed the same differing terms and only later in this period settled on *waqf* as the preferred signifier. The same with Ḥanbalī scholars. The Mālikī scholars however preferred to retain the term *ḥubs* over the term *waqf* and therefore *ḥubs* (or *habous*) became normative for the Muslims of North Africa (the Maghrib) and the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). For Shia Muslims, the scholars of the Jaʿfarī School distinguished between the meaning of *ḥubs* and *waqf*, and they employed both. For them, *ḥubs* referred to Islamic philanthropic entities whose existence was not intended to extend into perpetuity. *Waqf*, however, refers to all endowments that were stipulated to exist in perpetuity. This was not the case for Ismāʿīlī and Zaydī scholars, most of whom employed the term *waqf*.[^17] Consequently, both the terms *waqf* and *ḥabs/ḥubs* would become standard nomenclature for Islamic philanthropical endowment institutions. While *waqf* would eventually be used by the majority of Muslim scholars, *ḥabs/ḥubs* was retained by a minority of them. By the end of this period, Muslim jurists had finally settled on what endowments were to be called. Now what was left was for what structure they were to adopt in light of the presence of Islam in many foreign lands, mixing with local customs and norms about giving. The post-formative era in Islamic history was further characterized by tremendous urban and rural development on account of *waqf* institutions. Beginning initially with the patronage of learning, Islamic arts and sciences began to flourish in this period on account of Islamic philanthropy and royal patronage. Science, literature, philosophy, architecture, glass and crystal making, painting and pottery, writing and calligraphy, textiles and technology, all were among the earliest Islamic philanthropic dependents during this period, particularly in major urban areas. Education, research, and invention became extensions to and part of ritual worship and for this reason, Islamic colleges (*madrasah*s) were constructed adjacent to major houses of worship (mosques). In rural areas, however, agricultural materials such as farming tools, work animals, and agricultural real estate continued to form the majority of endowments (*waqf*s). The development of major mosques and *madrassa* colleges with libraries together as *waqf*s characterizes this period. Salient examples of this heritage which emerged after the pioneering House of Wisdom (*Bayt al-Ḥikmah*) are: Al-Azhar Mosque and Madrasah College in Cairo, Egypt built in 358/969 by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muʿizz; The Qarawiyyīn Mosque and Madrasah College in Fez, Morocco founded in 245/859 by Fāṭimah al-Fihrīyah, a descendant from the Quraish tribe of the Prophet ﷺ; Fatima’s sister, Maryam al-Fihrīyah established the Al-Andalus Mosque in Fez around the same year; and the Niẓāmīyah Madrasa College which was established in 457/1065 as a *waqf* in Baghdad by Niẓām al-Mulk and employed the famous Imam al-Ghazālī as lead professor. These institutions produced a learned society throughout the Muslim world and helped foster the cross-pollination of ideas and inspirations that helped enhance Muslim society further. The establishment of such grand, imperial *waqf*s enabled the development of smaller, more influential communal *waqf*s to emerge in a variety of ways which paved the way for a new era of *waqf* creation that transformed Muslim society in general. This also ushered in a transformation in Muslim women’s leadership and education and aided in the dispensing of Muslim social services in a post-Crusades/post-Mongol invasion Muslim world. ### The maturation period for Islamic philanthropical institutions From the start of Mamluk rule in Egypt (around 648/1250) to roughly the first half of Ottoman Imperial rule (around 1000/1592), *waqf*s entered into a more mature and diverse period in Islamic history. This period marked the expansion of *waqf*s from their previous mosque-*madrassa*\-college form to multiple other forms of Islamic philanthropy that met the diverse needs of an ever-changing Muslim community. *Waqf*s during this era emerged in various forms as a result of war, famine, an increase in female entrepreneurs and scholars, increased human migration and travel, the spread of Sufism, and the significant growth of international commerce. Of further significance during this period was that *waqf*s began to surpass *ṣadaqah* as well as *zakāh* as the primary form of charitable giving by Muslims. Among the many new forms of *waqf* that emerged during this period were: - Sufi lodges (*zāwiyah*/*tekke/khanqa*); travelers’ inns; soup kitchens; public baths; famine relief centers, the construction and maintenance of tombs of scholars; hospitals; veterinary services, animal fountains; prayer rooms along travel routes; libraries; public water fountains; orphanages; public bathhouses; cemeteries, kindergarten/primary schools founded independently adjacent to many mosques for the primary purpose of teaching the Qur’an; institutions devoted to charitable causes such as freeing slaves, feeding the poor, paying debts, the distribution of gifts on the two Eids, and the preparation and burial of the deceased. Among the many examples of flourishing *waqf*s that went beyond the mosque-*madrasah*\-college form that are worth highlighting are the single-women housing *waqf*s called *ribāṭ*s established in the Mamluk era (1250-1517). *Ribāṭ*s[^18] were known to be female-only Sufi institutions that originated in the 6th/12th century during the Fatimid era, developed greatly in the Mamluk period, and fell into decline in the early Ottoman era. *Ribāṭ*s housed single women exclusively. Oftentimes elite women, poor women, recent divorcees, and widows would share spaces together in a *ribāṭ*. In addition to providing rooms for single women, strict devotional activities were required in exchange for paying rent. Personnel were on hand to take care of the basic needs of the residents of the *ribāṭ*. Residents were expected to attend the *dhikr* ceremonies, the five daily prayers, and the Friday Prayer service which was led by the resident scholar *shaykhah*. In addition to their charitable function for single women, *ribāṭ*s functioned as spaces for the cultivation of female piety as well as a solution to female homelessness. Ibn Taymīyah’s family used to provide cleaning items for a *ribāṭ* for elderly women that was adjacent to his family’s home. *Ribāṭ*s were ubiquitous during this period and as Rapoport explains: > The establishment of *ribāṭ*s in all Mamluk urban centers reached a peak in the latter half of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth. The Ribāṭ al-Baghdādīyah, established in Cairo in 684/1285, was the most famous *ribāṭ* devoted exclusively to women. The daughter of the Sultan Baybars, Tidhkarbay Khatun, endowed the institution for the benefit of a female mystic called Zaynab al-Baghdādīyah, after whom it was named. Shaykhah Zaynab had already acquired a large following among the women of Damascus when Tidhkarbay invited her to come to Cairo. The *ribāṭ* was located next to Baybars’ *khanqah* and was probably intended as a sister institution. In 694/1295, the *amīr* ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Barabah established a *ribāṭ* for the use of Sitt Kalla, the widow of another senior *amīr*. In 715/1315, the *amīr* Sunqur al-Saʿd attached a women’s *ribāṭ* to the *madrasah* he endowed in the city. Al-Maqrizī and Ibn Ḥajar agree that the primary function of these *ribāṭ*s was to provide shelter for widows, divorcees, and abandoned women. At least six additional *ribat*s for widows and old women operated in the Qarāfah cemetery during the fourteenth century… Syrian cities had an even larger number of women’s religious houses. In Damascus, the term *ribāṭ* had come to mean a specifically female place of worship. A Damascene author, Ibn Zufar al-Irbīlī (d. 726/1326), remarks that a *ribāṭ* is a *khanqah* devoted exclusively to women (*al-rubūṭ hiya al-khawāniq allatī takhtaṣṣu bi-l-nisāʾ*). He then enumerates twenty such institutions, fifteen within the city itself and an additional five in its suburbs.[^19] Related to the function of the *ribāṭ* is the fact that many of them served as female hospice centers in Cairo during the Mamluk period. It was so common that many jurists wrote about their family’s involvement in this form of *waqf* establishment. Imam al-Sakhāwī, for instance, mentioned how his own mother opened her house up to divorcees and widows, turning it into a *ribāṭ* that some view as having had a hospice-like function. Many women of the fifteenth century Mamluk period are recorded as having established *ribāṭ*s for this purpose. The flourishing of *ribāṭ*s in this time is one of the little-known, nearly lost examples of how *waqf*s addressed pressing individual needs in society. Muslims did not wait for governments to solve their problems but resorted to establishing *waqf*s to meet public needs. Established mostly by women, exclusively for women, *ribāṭ*s were *waqf*s that specifically met the spiritual, social, and psychological needs of Muslim women in urban and rural areas, carving out spaces of inclusion for them in this life in preparation for the afterlife. Ibn Baṭūṭah describes his encounters with an overwhelming number of endowments during his travel to Damascus. He explains that, > The varieties of the endowments at Damascus and their expenditure are beyond computation, so numerous are they. There are endowments in aid of persons who cannot undertake the Pilgrimage, out of which are paid to those who go in their stead sums sufficient for their needs. There are endowments for supplying wedding outfits to girls, to those namely whose families are unable to provide them with the customary paraphernalia. There are endowments for freeing prisoners and endowments for travelers out of which they are given food, clothing, and the expenses of conveyance to their countries. There are endowments for the improvement and paving of the streets, because the lanes in Damascus all have a pavement on either side on which the foot passengers walk, while riders use the roadway in between…As I went one day along a lane in Damascus, I saw in it a young slave-boy out of whose hand there had just fallen a Chinese porcelain dish and had broken into bits. A crowd gathered around him and one of them said to him, ‘Pick up the pieces and take them with you to the custodian of the endowments for utensils.’ So he picked them up and the man went with him to the custodian, to whom the slave showed the broken pieces and thereupon received from him enough to buy a similar platter.[^20] The Ottoman Empire is known to have pioneered the term “*waqf* society” for itself. As historians explain, the *waqf*s in Istanbul were, > …a quintessential system of welfare, used both to develop the economy of the city and to guarantee the material conditions and well-being of many of the city’s inhabitants. It contained elements of prestige and display, and of protection of family wealth. For many of the inhabitants of the city, it was a cradle-to-grave institution, for a man could be born into a *waqf* house, sleep in a *waqf* cradle, eat and drink from *waqf* provisions, read in *waqf* libraries, teach in a *waqf* school, take his wage from the *waqf* administration, and when he died, be put in a *waqf* coffin and be buried in a *waqf* graveyard. It was the *waqf* institution that fed, educated, housed, washed, and gave medical treatment to the population. It provided people with a livelihood and rescued them in times of natural disaster. They went shopping in the *waqf* shops, they prayed in the *waqf* mosques; and the physical features of their city were to a great extent shaped by the *waqf*. In short, life in Istanbul without the *waqf* institution was unthinkable.[^21] According to official records of the General Directorate of Waqf Archives of the Ottoman Empire, now located in Ankara, Turkey, there are a total of 26,300 *waqf*s that were officially recorded as having existed in the empire, 1,400 of which were established by Ottoman Muslim women.[^22] During this period, the integral pillars required for the creation of a *waqf* were refined on account of the prevalence of *waqf*\-making among the masses, as opposed to just from rulers and governors. Scholars of Islam stipulated that the establishment of a *waqf* required four elements. First, a declaration in writing had to be made. This declaration had to be authorized by the court and recorded as an official document. This condition also meant that the term *waqf* or *ḥabs* had to be used for the validity of the endowment in Islam. Second, the wealth or property endowed had to be designated for a particular purpose. Recalling the hadith from above, property or wealth had to be sequestered for the use of generating proceeds to be used for charitable purposes. Third, a beneficiary had to be named, meaning a person or persons, a category of people like orphans, the poor, or the public in general. And, fourth, the benefactor of the *waqf* had to be named and had to be alive during the time of this action, as this action was required to stem from their free will. Once these four elements had been established, then the *waqf* was formally established in Islam and could not be revoked, sold, gifted, or inherited. *Waqf* deeds were considered bound by Islamic contract law, and therefore *waqf*\-making was viewed as a transaction on account of the fact that ownership of property changed hands. Exactly who owned the property was a matter of unresolved contention among Muslim jurists. The Ḥanafīs and most of the Shāfiʿīs, and an opinion narrated from Imam Aḥmad affirm that ownership of property was transferred from the benefactor to God and took the form of a public trust. The Mālikīs, some Jaʿfarīs, some Shāfiʿīs and Ḥanbalīs, and Ibn Humām of the Ḥanafīs affirmed that it transferred to the endowment itself. Stated differently, it was retained from all other forms of ownership and reserved exclusively for the *waqf* to disburse to others in order to create ownership. According to the preferred opinion of the Ḥanbalī School and other Shāfiʿī and Jaʿfarī scholars, ownership transfers to the beneficiaries and is only managed by the administrator or trustee (*mutawallī*). Possession of the property[^23] was relative to what the item for *waqf* was in the first place. Possession occurred when the property was either used (in the case of real estate or tools), or when the property was received in hand (in the case of food or money), or even as early as the moment the *waqf*\-deed was approved by the court. The endowment deed had to be a legal document. The court’s approval of the *waqf* deed as an official legal document was itself deemed “possession” and this was an opinion attributed to Abū Ḥanīfah himself. Further necessary as part of the drafting of the endowment deed was the required stipulation of the phrase “in perpetuity” (‘*ala* *ta’bid*). The Ḥanafīs, most of the Shāfiʿīs, the Ḥanbalīs, The Jaʿfarīs, and Ẓahirī Schools all required the declaration of the phrase “in perpetuity” as a conditional element of the validity and binding irrevocability of a *waqf*. Stipulating an endowment to last 99 years, for instance, would be invalid. Other Muslim jurists, such as the Mālikī School, some Shāfiʿī and Jaʿfarī scholars, disagree with the aforementioned view and collectively they affirm two opinions: one opinion affirms the position that upon mentioning a time limit (e.g., 99 years) that when the time reaches its limit, the property reverts back to its original state of ownership. The second camp affirms that the endowment act itself is valid, but the stipulation of the time limit is invalid.[^24] Regardless of whether perpetuity was declared in the legal document establishing a *waqf*, the only Muslim jurist on record who affirmed that *waqf* property was revocable, even after being a legal document, was Abū Ḥanīfah. All other scholars, even in the Ḥanafī school itself, consider legal *waqf*s to be irrevocable. Regarding the beneficiaries, *waqf*s during this period were divided into two categories: public endowments and private endowments. Public endowments were *waqf*s that were established for the benefit of the public. These *waqf*s stipulated in the endowment deed (*waqfīyah or vakifname*) that the beneficiaries were “the public.” Private endowments were *waqf*s whose endowment deed specified the beneficiary by name or by characteristic, such as “the poor,” “my family,” “single women,” “orphans,” “travelers,” and the like. Private endowments therefore restricted the proceeds of the *waqf* to a particular category of people, while public ones did not. Furthermore, *waqf*s, while historically employed in the service of the poor, are not in Islam exclusive to the poor. Both the wealthy and those impoverished may be recipients of a *waqf*’s proceeds. Therefore, a traveler who is wealthy and a traveler who is poor would both be entitled to stay at a travelers’ inn that was a *waqf* whose endowment deed stipulated that it was for the benefit of  “travelers.” As to the benefactor, he/she/they had to have reached the age of maturity (which was 18 years for females and 21 for males in the Ottoman period), be in possession of their mental capacities, meaning neither insane nor intoxicated, and freely able to discharge their wealth. Abstract persons or legal entities like corporations and governments may also establish *waqf*s. As a *‘waqf* society,’ rarely did people during this period experience extreme poverty or remain extremely wealthy. All people were both donors and recipients of *waqf*s at all levels of society. To emphasize this in Islamic art, the letter *wow* was designed in writing to encapsulate this lived reality: the fact that we all are givers and receivers, donors and beneficiaries of *waqf*s. The famous circular design of the letter *wow* reminds us of the three components inherent in the *waqf* system—not from a legal vantage point but from a social-spiritual one: the first letter *wow* symbolized the sacred oath, ‘I swear to Allah’ or in Arabic, *wallāhi*—indicating that the *waqf* action is done in the name of God and that the *waqf* action is binding. The second letter *wāw* indicates the trustee of the *waqf*, entrusted with the administration of the endowment—the *wālī*, also known as the *mutawallī*; the third letter *wow* is a reference to the *waqf* itself. The fact that each letter *wow* attaches and connects to the next one reminds the observer that each person is connected to another through the *waqf*. Furthermore, the letter *wāw* is written in two ways, one with the tail going out, away from the letter, and the other with the tail curved back towards the letter. The former indicates that what leaves from your possession exits your ownership and is no longer yours; the latter indicates that what goes around comes around and that we are all recipients of giving. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/image1-1-865x1024.png) Inscribed in this calligraphic design, which adorned houses and mosques alike, and symbolizing an earthly and eternal link, the *waqf* institution established a connection between people, God, wealth and welfare in a circle of life that nourished Muslim society by creating the incentive and outlets for personal responsibility and virtuous creativity through discovering what one could do to make the world a better place, one contribution at a time. Grounded in real property during this period, *waqf*s reached their maturation and would soon expand from land to cash, a deeply controversial transformation that occurred in the second half of the Ottoman era. ### The transformation era for Islamic philanthropical institutions As was mentioned before, *waqf*s in urban areas were varied but, in general, were all real estate based. They all took the form of what we would call today commercial or residential buildings that were designated as *waqf*\-property whose sole purpose was to generate rental revenue which would be used for a plethora of charitable causes. In rural areas, *waqf*s tended to consist of land and fields whose sole purpose was to generate fruits, grains, and vegetables to be donated. There were *waqf*s that were gardens, trees, farm equipment, and the like. These items would either be given to the *waqf* beneficiaries directly for use or the crops would be harvested and sold in the market for cash, which would then be distributed to the beneficiaries of the *waqf*s. In the urban setting, buildings comprised the investment for the *waqf* and the rent was the yield for distribution. In rural settings, the field and equipment were the investments and the cash procured from the produce or crops sold in the marketplace was the yield for distribution. The latter half of the Ottoman Empire, from the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, may be considered the era of the transformation of *waqf*s. As Islamic philanthropical institutions reached their pinnacle in the late 16th and 17th centuries, two noteworthy transformations occurred that contributed to this time period being transformational. The first transformational component of *waqf*s was their becoming common practice among Jews and Christians residing in Muslim lands. Although medieval Islamic law did not allow for the establishment of *waqf*s exclusively for the benefit of churches and synagogues, Islamic law did allow Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands to establish their own *waqf*s and allowed for the management of such *waqf*s by Jewish and Christian trustees. This practice existed all over Muslim lands and was common in Morocco, Palestine, Lebanon, the Balkans, Turkey, and Egypt. A notable case in point was the Jewish woman, Bannita bint Barakat, a resident of Jerusalem, who established her house as a *waqf*, and stipulated that her son and his heirs serve as the beneficiaries. As Amy Singer explains about this case: > If the line of descendants ended, the poor of the Jewish community would become the beneficiaries, a purpose accepted in Islamic Law. If, for some reason, the revenues could not be spent on the poor, then the money should be used for the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Thus in her *waqf*, Bannita articulated the seemingly remote possibility that there might one day be either no poor people among the Jews in Jerusalem or no Jews left in the city…That some Jews and Christians saw fit to make endowments according to Muslim law, recorded before Muslim legal authorities, suggests that they acknowledged the strength of Muslim legal institutions in safeguarding their own interests.[^25] The second transformation was in the nature of what was endowed—the *waqf* itself. More and more during this period, particularly in the Ottoman Empire, cash was beginning to take the place of real estate, a phenomenon known as cash *waqf*s. Cash *waqf*s essentially involved the use of interest-based lending of the proceeds earned from an investment. This new transformation created lines of credit that were endemic in the Empire, long before modern banking emerged. Although not considered legal by many scholars in Islamic law of the period, the famous Ottoman Shaykh al-Islām for 30 years, Ebus Su’ud Efendi[^26] (d. 982/1574) legitimized the practice of cash *waqf*s in a legal epistle he wrote in 1545. In it he stipulated that cash *waqf*s were valid and permissible with two conditions: 1) by ensuring through certain Islamic legal devices that the contract took on the formal requirements of a sale; and 2) that the interest did not exceed 15%. In the Ottoman Empire, it should be noted that the maximum allowance for profit at the time was 11%.[^27] Cash *waqf*s, although common in the Anatolian regions of the Ottoman Empire, were mostly non-existent in majority Arabic-speaking regions controlled by the Ottomans, such as Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, and the Arabian Peninsula. ### The deterioration period of Islamic philanthropical institutions From the middle of the 19th century until World War I, *waqf*s in the Ottoman Empire and the Muslim world, in general, deteriorated due to the direct involvement of colonial powers. Much has been published about the details of this period. In summary, *waqf*s gradually became nationalized as the Muslim world began the transition to nationalism. Over time, this led to all *waqf*s becoming bankrupt and without any operational funding. The government proved unable to meet the needs of the public and incapable of providing the same level of social services as the *waqf*s and this led to increasing impoverishment and general neglect. The words of Charles McFarlane (d. 1858), the British consul to the island of Rhodes, who visited parts of the Ottoman Empire during this period and noticed the collapse of social service delivery and the rise in neglect in the Muslim lands, are revealing in this regard and worth quoting at length: > Education morally and physically is set aside. Notwithstanding…a soup kitchen at Rhodes from which soup is distributed thrice a week to the indigent musulmans, no other pious or benevolent institutions exist on the island. There is no hospital, no infirmary, no asylum; the lame, the blind, the mad, and the old are all left to their fate…(the reformers) have laid their greedy hands on nearly all *vakoufs* \[*waqf*s\] of the empire…Hence, with very few exceptions, we see the heads of mosques and the medressehs in abject poverty, the rabble of religious students in rags, the most beautiful of temples and minarets shamefully neglected and hurrying into decay…It is notorious that since the *vakoufs* have been administered by the government nothing has been done to maintain the works of public utility.[^28] In the Ottoman Empire, an Imperial Ministry of Endowments was established which gradually took over the administration of all *waqf*s, including what we call waterworks. We know that at least one-half to two-thirds of real property in the Ottoman Empire was designated as *waqf*s. All the revenue from the properties as well as the properties themselves became property of the Ministry. The budget allocations plummeted to less than 50% of what they were before the Ministry’s application of eminent domain to all *waqf*s. In the case of North Africa, the French settlers, “by hook or by crook…managed to amass a good deal of property coming from the *waqf* domain…During the first year of conquest, France had already declared the entire colony, including *habous* or *waqf* lands, to belong to the public domain. In 1844, the *habous* were confiscated and the administration was charged with the tasks of funding the religious and educational endowments and their employees.”[^29] This wholesale confiscation of *waqf* lands by British, French, and Dutch colonial power decimated the *waqf*/*habous* as institutions and led to the loss of historical memory of the significance and scale of impact that Islamic philanthropy has had in developing society in Muslim history, for Muslims, Jews, and Christians. --- ## Conclusion The twentieth century has been marked by a series of global catastrophes. Referred to as the age of extremes,[^30] this century was notorious for the kind of human suffering never witnessed before in human history, beginning with World War I (1914-1918), the Great Depression (1929-1934), World War II (1939-1944), the Cold War period (1947-1991), the Gulf War (1990-1991) and the century’s close with the Bosnian Genocide (1992-1995). This century has decimated not only human lives but more importantly produced trauma in the psyches of many people, Muslims in particular. The legacy of Islamic philanthropy must be revived if we are to begin the work of healing hearts, minds, and communities. If nothing else, the legacy of Islamic philanthropical institutions (*waqf*s/*habous*) tells us that more often than not, the solutions to social, economic, moral, and even political problems lie in our willingness to take the initiative to do something for others and to leave behind a world that is a little better than when we found it. And by systematically (and systemically) deleting and not remembering positive, lasting contributions to our conditions, we cease to build on greatness and instead abdicate our moral and spiritual cultivation in favor of the degenerative nature of materialism in the name of progress. Financing kindness as a society was what made the Islamic civilization a just, beautiful, lasting, and great civilization. Perhaps the institution of the *waqf* teaches us that, in sequestering our most cherished property, we are indeed preserving the best of who we are and what makes us great, thereby preserving it for others to benefit from and to enhance their lives and well-being. Perhaps this, in the end, is the communal goal of Islam. --- ## Notes [^1]: Wael B. Hallaq, *Sharia: Theory, Practice, Transformations* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 402. [^2]: Amy Singer, *Charity in Islamic Societies* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 186. [^3]: Marshall Hodgson, *The Venture of Islam*, vol. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 124; also see Singer, *Charity*, 91. [^4]: Related by Bukhārī and Muslim (see hadith no. 26 in *al-Nawawī’s Forty Hadith*). [^5]: See Singer*, Charity*. [^6]: Ibn Nujaym, *al-Baḥr al-Rāʾiq*, vol. 7 (Cairo: Dar Ihya Turath al-Arabi, 2010), 284. [^7]: Muslim, hadith 1631, narrated by Abu Huraira, *kitab al-wasiyyah*, *bab* the reward which reaches a person after their death. [^8]: Qur’an 3:92. [^9]: Osman Topbas, *Medeniyetimizin Fazilet Zirvelerinden: Vakif, Infak, Hizmet* (Istanbul: Erkam Yayinlari, 2006), 24–25. [^10]: Related by Bukhārī (*sahih*), as cited in Peter C. Hennigan, *The Birth of a Legal Institution: The Formation of the Waqf in Third Century A.H. Hanafi Legal Discourse* (Boston: Brill, 2004), 169. [^11]: Al-Bayhaqi, *Sunan*, chap. 6; Al-Dāraquṭnī, *Sunan*, chap. 4; Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Musnad*, vol. 6; Hennigan, *The Birth of a Legal Institution*. [^12]: Hennigan, *The Birth of a Legal Institution,* 160. [^13]: Hennigan, *The Birth of a Legal Institution*, 107. [^14]: Ibid. [^15]: See Al-Khaṣṣāf, *Aḥkām al-Awqāf*, (Cairo: Diwan Umum al-Awqaf al-Misriyya, 1904). [^16]: Including Imam Shafiʿī himself, although he did use the term *waqf*. [^17]: Ahmed Akgunduz, *Islam Hukukunda ve Osmanli Tatbikatinda Vakif Muessesesi* (Istanbul: Osmanli Arastirmalari Vakfi, 1996), 78–81. [^18]: Yossef Rapoport, *Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 39–40. [^19]: Ibid. [^20]: H. A. R. Gibb, *The Travels of Ibn Battuta (A.D. 1325–1354),* trans. and ed. with revision and notes from the Arabic text by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti, vol. 1 (London: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1829), 148–49. [^21]: Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, *A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 130. [^22]: Topbas, *Vakif, Infak, Hizmet*, 34. [^23]: Termed *qabḍ* in Islamic law. [^24]: Akgunduz, *Islam Hukukunda*, 140–141. [^25]: Singer, *Charity*, 99–100. [^26]: Also known as Abu al-Su’ud al-Afandi. [^27]: See Akgunduz, *Islam Hukukunda*, 227; Singer, *Charity*, 99. [^28]: Hallaq, *Sharia*, 403, no. 18. [^29]: Ibid., 434. [^30]: Eric Hobsbawm, *The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991* (New York: Vintage, 1994). ## Summary The institution of charitable endowments (*waqf*, pl. *awqāf*) arose in the Islamic world roughly two hundred years after the passing of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, around the ninth century, and over the following millennium it became so central to Muslim civilization that it grew nearly impossible to imagine Islamic society without it. By the early nineteenth century, one conservative estimate held that more than half the real estate in the Ottoman Empire was endowed, while another reliable source recorded that endowments comprised roughly seventy-five percent of arable land in present-day Turkey, one-fifth in Egypt, one-half in Algeria, and significant portions elsewhere, with some twenty thousand *waqfs* generating annual income equal to a third of Ottoman government revenues. As one historian remarked, from about the tenth century private *waqfs* replaced *zakāh* as "the vehicle for financing Islam as a society," offering the material foundation for religious, social, cultural, and economic life without dependence upon political power. From the mid-nineteenth century, however, this institution was taken over by the emerging nation-state and, in some cases, deliberately dismantled amid the rise of Westernization and reform. Two conditions cultivated the soil from which Islamic philanthropy grew. The first was the theological centrality of charity to life itself. Charity in Islam shapes the believer's daily routine, extending even to the body, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Each joint of every person must perform a charity every day the sun comes up: to act justly between two people is a charity; to help a man with his mount is a charity; a good word is a charity; every step you take to prayers is a charity, and removing a harmful thing from the road is charity." Charitable practice was further woven into the Islamic calendar, from Friday and the last ten nights of Ramadan to the months of Muḥarram, Rajab, Shaʿbān, and the two ʿĪds, and even into the *ʿAqīqah* observed seven days after a child's birth. Ibn Nujaym (d. 970/1563) transmitted from Imam Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) that "the believer is obligated to instruct their child in generosity and charity just as they are obliged to instruct them in monotheistic doctrine and belief, for the love of this world is the source of all sin." The second condition was death and its preparation for the hereafter, which brought forth the legal mechanisms of bequest (*waṣīyah*) and inheritance (*mīrāth*). Since bequests in Islamic law are restricted to one-third of one's property, and inheritance shares are fixed, a difficulty arose for those wishing to donate significant wealth to the poor in perpetuity. This difficulty, together with the need to distinguish ordinary charity (*ṣadaqah*) from a lasting institution of ongoing charity, contributed to the emergence of the *waqf* as a distinct institution. Its impetus lay in the words of the Prophet ﷺ: "When a human being dies, their work comes to an end, except for three things: ongoing charity, knowledge benefitted from, or a pious child who prays for them." Muslim scholars interpreted "ongoing charity" as a reference to endowments, though this distinction was not overtly clear in early Islamic history. Regarding the formative period, which began after the migration to Medina and closed in the early Abbasid era, it is notable that the very term *waqf* appears neither in the Qur'an nor in the hadith, emerging only around the middle of the third century. Exegetes nonetheless grounded the practice in the verse, "None of you (believers) will attain true piety unless you give out of what you cherish: whatever you give, God knows about it very well." Upon hearing this, the Companion Abū Ṭalḥah donated his most cherished possession, a date-palm grove of over six hundred trees, to the poor of Medina, which became known as the first endowment in Islam. From the Sunnah, the Prophet ﷺ died leaving only a mule, his weapons, and land reserved for charity. He further instructed ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb concerning his property at Khaybar, saying, "If you want, sequester its principal and dedicate (the profits) for charitable purposes," and ʿUmar accordingly gave its yields as alms for the poor, kin, the freeing of slaves, military expenditures, travelers, and guests, on condition that the principal never be sold, gifted, or inherited. From this we learn the twofold essence of the endowment: sequestering the principal while devoting its proceeds to charity, and removing the property from the marketplace. Imam Shāfiʿī noted that knowledge of these endowments was preserved by many of the Emigrants and Helpers without dispute, and among the Companions who established them were ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, al-Zubayr, Muʿādh, and several of the Prophet's wives, may Allah be pleased with them all. The post-formative period, from around 250/864 until the beginning of Mamluk rule in 648/1250, saw the term *waqf* codified across the legal schools amid earlier terminological diversity, including *ḥubs*, *aḥbās*, and *ṣadaqāt muḥarramāt*. The Mālikīs retained *ḥubs*, which became normative in the Maghrib and al-Andalus, while the Jaʿfarī scholars distinguished *ḥubs*, which was not perpetual, from *waqf*, which was. This era witnessed flourishing urban and rural development through endowments, with mosque-and-*madrasah* colleges such as al-Azhar in Cairo, the Qarawiyyīn in Fez founded by Fāṭimah al-Fihrīyah, and the Niẓāmīyah of Baghdad which employed Imam al-Ghazālī. During the maturation period, from about 648/1250 to roughly 1000/1592, endowments diversified into Sufi lodges, inns, soup kitchens, hospitals, veterinary services, libraries, and orphanages, and *waqfs* began to surpass both *ṣadaqah* and *zakāh* as the primary form of giving. Notable were the *ribāṭs*, female-only institutions housing single women, widows, and divorcees, such as the famed Ribāṭ al-Baghdādīyah endowed in 684/1285. Ibn Baṭūṭah marveled at the endowments of Damascus, which even replaced a slave-boy's broken porcelain dish. During this era scholars refined the four pillars of a valid endowment: a written and court-authorized declaration using the term *waqf* or *ḥabs*; property designated for a purpose; a named beneficiary; and a living benefactor of sound mind acting of free will. Disagreement persisted over ownership: the Ḥanafīs and most Shāfiʿīs held it transferred to God as a public trust, the Mālikīs and others to the endowment itself, and the preferred Ḥanbalī view to the beneficiaries. Most schools required the stipulation "in perpetuity," while the Mālikīs and others permitted time limits, and only Abū Ḥanīfah himself held *waqfs* revocable, against the rest even of his own school. The transformation era, from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, saw two developments. First, Jews and Christians in Muslim lands established their own endowments under Islamic law, as with Bannita bint Barakat of Jerusalem, indicating their trust in Muslim legal institutions. Second, cash *waqfs* arose, involving interest-based lending, which many scholars deemed illegal but which Shaykh al-Islām Ebūs Suʿūd Efendi (d. 982/1574) legitimized in 1545 under conditions limiting interest to fifteen percent. Such cash endowments remained largely absent from the Arabic-speaking regions. The deterioration period, from the mid-nineteenth century until World War I, saw endowments nationalized and often bankrupted through colonial involvement. Charles McFarlane observed the collapse of social services, the poverty of mosques and *madrasahs*, and the neglect that followed government seizure. French settlers in North Africa confiscated *ḥabūs* lands, and British, French, and Dutch powers decimated these institutions, erasing the memory of philanthropy's vast historical impact for Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike. The legacy of the *waqf* teaches that solutions to social ills often lie in our willingness to act for others, and that in sequestering our most cherished property we preserve the best of who we are for the benefit of those who come after. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shariah-in-todays-world-renewing-islamic-discourse # Shari'ah in Today's World: Renewing Islamic Discourse **Author:** Dr. Hatem al-Haj **Topics:** Methodology (usul), Sharia **Tags:** Ijtihad, Paper, Publication, The Straight Path - Finding Guidance in an Age of Confusion **Published:** December 13, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Renewal of religious discourse in Islam (*tajdeed*) has taken center stage due to the turmoil in Muslim lands nowadays. While the concept of *tajdeed* is legitimate, the implication (occasionally stated explicitly) that religious discourse is the root cause of the many problems from which Muslim-majority countries suffer is unfair. It deliberately overlooks a myriad of factors leading to these problems, which if examined, would show that these harms are partly self-inflicted and partly inflicted on Muslims by others. However, it would also be unreasonable to claim that the contemporary religious discourse is completely free of any guilt. First, let me state here that it is only expected of any Muslim who believes that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ received a revelation from God to submit to that revelation and acknowledge its infallibility. After all, God is above any error. However, the religious discourse that is subject to this discussion is in part a human product that should not be conflated with the revelation itself nor treated as sacred. Infallibility is the characteristic only of the explicit text of the revelation (the Qur’an and the *Sunnah*) and of *bona fide* explicit scholarly consensus. Our understanding of the text may be far from what is intended. For example, our misunderstanding of some of our religious teachings may be contributing to the lack of righteous governance and the high level of corruption in the vast majority of Muslim countries. If, however, someone claimed that Islam itself is responsible for this situation, then the simple answer is that contemporary Muslim generations are not better Muslims than the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ who were successful in establishing righteous governance. In fact, the *Columbia History of the World* notes that ‘Umar established a system of government superior to the bureaucracy of the Roman Empire, which had preceded Muslim rule.[^1] Furthermore, *tajdeed* of religious discourse is not only a communal necessity, but it is a religious responsibility, as the Messenger ﷺ himself indicated: **إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى يَبْعَثُ لِهَذِهِ الأُمَّةِ عَلَى رَأْسِ كُلِّ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ مَنْ يُجَدِّدُ لَهَا دِينَهَا** Indeed, Allah sends for this *ummah*, at the onset of every century, those who renew the religion for it.[^2] Most people will agree that renewal is needed. Nonetheless, many disagree on what renewal consists of and exactly what part or parts need to be renewed. Some accept the concept of *tajdeed* as long as it is limited to the techniques of delivering *daʽwah*. Once religious content is addressed, many ‘conservative’ Muslims feel instantly uncomfortable. For some this is due to fear of the unknown. This is partly because our *ummah* suffers from a great deal of weakness and disunity, which fosters an environment of defensiveness and mistrust. However, some of our fears of the call to *tajdeed* may be justified. After all, many of the callers to tajdeed of the *deen* are utterly unqualified for the job. They dismiss much of the established *Sunnah* and, with complete disregard for the cumulative tradition, defy the definitive implications of the text of revelation. They are quick to dismiss the great jurists of Islam, claiming that they were but a product of their culture and were blindfolded by their biases. It also seems to the ‘conservative’ Muslim that much of the proposed *tajdeed* is simply an act of unconditional surrender to the mainstream modern culture, making the Divine instruction subject to the influence of people’s changing thoughts and social constructs. However, the problem with our timidity in contributing to this discourse about *tajdeed* is that others may hijack its banner. Those who are frustrated with the condition of the *ummah* and are yearning for a change may well be tempted to follow unqualified “renewers.” This paper discusses certain aspects about the renewal of the religion, mainly the following points:    1. The validity of the concept of *tajdeed* and its scope *Tajdeed* is mainly about restoration and adaptation    2. Do we need to renew the methodology of deduction itself (or the science of *uṣool ul-fiqh*)?       *a. Uṣool*\-related *ijtihâd* that may have impeded the renewal of religious discourse           i. The problem of over-reporting consensus           ii. Departure from the agreement of the four *madhâhib* and when a position outside them can be validated       b. Existing flexibility in the discipline of *uṣool ul-fiqh*           i. The role of *maqâṣid* (objectives) in the renewal of the religion           ii. The role of human intellect       c. Suggestions for incremental renewal within juridical theory    3. Practical examples of intended and unintended *tajdeed* --- ## The Validity of the Concept of Tajdeed (Renewal) and Its Scope As mentioned earlier, the Prophet ﷺ explained that at the turn of every century Allah sends to the *ummah* “those who renew the religion for it.” Therefore, the one who calls for tajdeed should not be denounced, since the first one to utter this term in this context was the Messenger ﷺ himself. Rather, the discussion should revolve around the intended meaning of this tajdeed. Does it only mean ‘restoration’? If it does, why did the Prophet ﷺ use *tajdeed* (renewal) rather than other Arabic words that specifically mean ‘restoration’? Also, ‘restoration’ sounds more suited to a static structure, like a historic building that you want to bring back to its original beauty. Our *deen* is a living entity with one spirit, consistent objectives, and overarching maxims, but with a flexible legal framework that can appropriately engage with changing realities. ‘Renewal’ is thus the appropriate word. But if it is about renewal, how does one ‘renew’ the religion? Does this mean we have the liberty to change the Divine instruction? The default status in the religion is that it remains unchanging, and most of what is meant by ‘renewal’ is actually restoration achieved simply through reviving that which is original, and cleansing it of that which is unoriginal, such as innovations and customs which conflict with the revelation. Aside from that, there is another type of renewal, and that is the *ijtihâd*\-based renewal. This is what the scholars refer to by saying, “The change in rulings due to the change in times is not to be denounced.”[^5] One example of this was when ‘Umar (ra)[^6] prevented *al-mu’allafati quloobuhum*[^7] from receiving their share of *zakat* when he saw that Allah had empowered Islam and the Muslims during his blessed caliphate. He felt that he no longer needed to repel their evil or earn their loyalty by giving them money from the *zakat* funds. In another instance, ‘Uthmân (ra) commanded during his caliphate that the stray camel be taken, sold, and its price kept in escrow for its owner. This was contrary to the original ruling that taking stray camels was prohibited, but it was resorted to because of the moral deterioration that had occurred between the time of the Prophet ﷺ and the time of the caliphate of ‘Uthmân (ra). ‘Ali (ra) made craftsmen liable for the materials they received from clients, when he feared that they may become otherwise negligent or reckless in safeguarding people’s property. Similarly, it was undisputed among the early Ḥanafi scholars that taking a wage for teaching the Qur’an was unlawful; they later consented to allow Qur’an teachers to receive payment when volunteers became few in number—out of fear that knowledge of the Qur’an would be lost. Did these greats change the legislated ruling? Never, for the legislation of Allah is not subject to change. Allah, the Most High, said: **اتَّخَذُوا أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَانَهُمْ أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ اللَّه** They took their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah (at-Tawbah 9:31) The Messenger of Allah ﷺ explained to ‘Adi ibn Ḥâtim (ra) that “taking scholars and monks as lords” meant following them in considering the unlawful as permissible and the permissible as unlawful.[^8] Moreover, this is exactly what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prohibited when he said: **مَنْ أَحْدَثَ فِي أَمْرِنَا هَذَا مَا لَيْسَ مِنْهُ فَهُوَ رَدٌّ** If anyone introduces into this matter of ours what is not from it, it will be rejected.[^9] Therefore, it is impossible that the preceding examples involved changing the *ḥukm* (as it refers to the Divine *khiṭâb* or instruction), even if some of the scholars used that term, for they only meant the *fatwa* (religious edict) and not the actual ruling in *Shariah*. A single act can have two different *fatwas* in different contexts. To further clarify, let us take the example of receiving wages for teaching the Qur’an. Its prohibition was a matter of agreement among the early Ḥanafi scholars, but then the practice was later permitted by them. The question is: were the prohibition and permission with regard to the same thing? It may appear that way, but upon taking a closer look, it becomes clear that we cannot equate between accepting a wage for teaching the Qur’an during an era when many were enthusiastic about teaching it as an act of devotion to Allah, and were supported financially from the state treasury, and the same action during a period in which teachers were no longer sustained by the state treasury. In the latter situation, if they occupied themselves with teaching, their families would be lost, and if they occupied themselves with earning a livelihood, their students would be lost. Thus, a particular scenario may call for different sets of rulings that suit it, and the *mujtahid* (the one who engages in expert reasoning) chooses from among these rulings what is most suitable to it. Sometimes, the matter may fall between two rulings or two principles, in which case the *mujtahid* attributes the matter to whichever of the two it seems closer to. This is obviously pertinent only to rulings that are affected by people’s customs and interests. Regarding this, Imam ash-Shâṭibi (rh)[^10] said: > *Rulings that differ whenever customs differ is not a \[reflection of\] any difference in the Divine instruction itself, for the Shariah was revealed to be permanent and eternal. Hypothetically, were this world to remain without end, and the people remained liable \[to uphold the Shariah\] as well, the Shariah would not need any additions. In other words, whenever customs change, they would fall under another \[different\] principle of Shariah that would govern them…*[^11] In the example of taking wages for teaching the Qur’an, the first of the two principles was that there was no intention other than (the pleasure of) Allah in acts of devotion—and this supported the view of impermissibility in the first era; and the second was to preserve the Qur’an by teaching it to youngsters—and this supported the view of permissibility in the second era. The *ijtihâd*\-based renewal considers the change of time and place, not because they are in themselves consequential to the rulings, but because they are vehicles of different circumstances that may be consequential to those rulings. Before we embark on discussing what may be changed, let us first underline what may not be changed. While *ijtihâd* is always necessary in all fields to correct our understanding, the following are matters that are not subject to change, whether due to changes in customs, world conditions, technological advancements, or any circumstantial variables: - all matters of creed - the pillars of Islam - rulings in the sphere of worship that have incomprehensible causes, such as the times of the different prayers and their composition, and the rituals of *hajj* and fasting - quantified injunctions of the *Shariah* (*muqaddarât*) that were fixed by the text of revelation, such as expiations (*kaffârât*), duration of the waiting period (*‘iddah*), and entitlements in inheritance - matters about which there is an explicit text with definitive implication and certain transmission, and their effective cause is still operative - matters about which there is a clear genuine consensus: the consensus must not be based on circumstantial variables such as in cases where the common interest (or weighing harm vs. benefit) is the deciding factor - basic rulings of morality and those that define the Islamic value system, such as the prohibition of arrogance, prejudice, murder, fornication, usury, gossip, slander, etc.; the obligation of mutual agreement in contracts; and the protection of basic human rights, such as the sacredness of life, property, and reputation: regarding these issues, change may only be related to the means of ensuring the preservation of those values and rights After excluding those spheres, it seems that the renewal of *ijtihâd* is most needed in the spheres of governance, public policy, international relations, financial transactions, employment, corporate ethics, admissible proofs and judiciary proceedings, and to some extent interpersonal relations and relations with people of different theological orientations and religious affiliations. ### Mainly restoration and adaptation After affirming that we do not consider the content of our *fiqhi* legacy immune to critical examination and that many of the rulings issued by our esteemed imams and scholars are subject to change because of changes in the geopolitical, economic, and social conditions of the world, it is important to assert that most *tajdeed* has nothing to do with this content. It is about restoration of the values and principles of the religion that were upheld by the earlier generations in a completely different world environment; so, it is restoration with adaptation, or meaningful restoration. This could be accomplished by a few changes in our contemporary *daʽwah* narrative.[^12] What our contemporary religious discourse needs the most, in this author’s assessment, is a change of emphasis, along with combating zealotry, partisanship, and demagogy, while promoting intellectual honesty and objectivity. #### Change of emphasis As the news media can change the awareness of their audience by spinning the truth, preachers could do the same. However, the impact of the preachers may be deeper and longer lasting, because it is about changing and reshaping people’s religious convictions. If a single story is repeated one hundred times, and there are fifty stories that counter that one story, but each counter story is presented only once, you will have managed to skew people’s perception of the reality, and to alter their convictions. Can we say the same thing about the prophetic traditions? Absolutely. What the *daʽwah* narrative needs nowadays is some change of emphasis from technicality to spirituality and morality, from the minor details to the major foundations, and from focusing on the form and the exterior to concentrating on the substance and the interior. This is not in any way an attempt to show disregard for the *Shariah* or for the *Sunnah* of our beloved ﷺ, or to call for an unjustifiable esoteric interpretation of them, but simply to rearrange the priorities of the religion into the proper order. Our theological legacy, particularly when we include all the teachings and statements of our esteemed scholars, is so vast that one who wants to manipulate it will have enough material to do so. Two preachers may give their audiences two contrasting portraits of one scholar—Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for instance—and both could do so using only the imam’s own statements. It is not only about contextualization, but also about checking the messages of any imam or even of a Companion against the infallible measuring stick: that of the revelation and the traditions of the Prophet ﷺ. It is also about its suitability for the current circumstances. We need scholars to calibrate the message that will reach the masses; and we need the masses, in turn, to be learned enough to know which message they should accept, but humble enough to avoid assuming the role of the qualified scholars. It is clearly vital that we rebuild trust in scholarship to achieve these goals. #### Combating zealotry and partisanship When a young man or woman chooses a certain affiliation around the age of twenty, you usually find them at age fifty still allied to the same group or organization, upholding its convictions and defending its stances, despite thirty years of growth. This is true across the different factions and groups that make up the bulk of our *ummah*. Naturally, strong social bonds develop among people of the same group, and this means that a change in an individual’s convictions becomes socially and emotionally costly. Allah mentions this phenomenon: **وَقَالَ إِنَّمَا اتَّخَذْتُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَوْثَانًا مَّوَدَّةَ بَيْنِكُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا** And \[Abraham\] said, "You have taken, other than Allah, idols only as \[a bond of\] affection among you in worldly life.”  (Al-‘Ankaboot 29:25) In addition to the burden of changing loyalties, or even just having convictions counter to the defining ones of one’s group, people also fall into the quandary of having a skewed worldview because of their narrow exposure to their group’s dicta and their continuous pursuit of confirmation of their established views, even when they are exposed to other ways of thinking. All those factors and others hinder free intellectual exploration and a true development of thought. This is not only detrimental to individuals, but it is particularly detrimental to those groups who commit ‘mutual blindfolding.’ The phenomenon of *taʽaṣṣub* (zealotry) cannot be described as a new occurrence in our *ummah*. If we know that luminaries the likes of Imam Aḥmad, al-Bukhâri, aṭ-Ṭabari, Ibn Ḥazm, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Taymiyyah, and many others experienced nothing short of persecution by intellectual opponents, we may be able to understand how far back in our history this problem has its roots. Almost every scholar had his own *miḥnah* (trial). It is unfortunate that the vast majority of Islamic groups—whether they are divided along ideological, theological, legalistic or other lines—demand conformity and allegiance and fail to inculcate in their followers the essential qualities of critical analysis. Changing this atmosphere is vital for an intellectual renaissance. #### Combating demagogy while promoting intellectual honesty and objectivity Contemporary discourse has worked to establish a stereotypical image of the religiously committed individual: ignorant of worldly affairs, blindly chasing after mystical legends, rigid in their ideas and perceptions, demagogic in their discourse, and intolerant of opposing views. Although this cartoonish image is very unfair, we must not disregard it completely in our introspection. We imperfect humans are not immune to any of that. Sometimes our demagogy is the result of misplaced zeal because we know no better; sometimes it involves deliberate attempts to hurt our intellectual or political adversaries. A skewed presentation of history and reality has created a generation of youth that has a severely distorted awareness of the past and present, completely consumed by mega-conspiracy theories. #### Reform of the content The need for reform and renewal is recognized by the vast majority of Muslim scholars. Recognition and acknowledgment of the stagnation that has taken place over centuries and that has affected the development of our juridical theory and laws is essential to generating the resolve for the desired renewal. A seasoned Azhari scholar of the fourteenth century, Sh. Abdul-Wahhâb Khallâf, attributes the stagnation that took place in *ijtihâd* to four factors: 1) political division and infighting within the Muslim state that derailed scholars in all fields from developing their respective disciplines; 2) *madhhab*\-based partisanship that made many scholars preoccupied with a keen interest in supporting their own *madhhab* (school of thought) and proving it correct, precluding an impartial inquiry into the body of evidences, particularly the Qur’an and the *Sunnah*; 3) the “*fatwa* chaos” that the scholars had failed during that time to control,[^13] so they preemptively closed the door of *ijtihâd* out of caution, which resulted in considerable stagnation; and 4) moral decay that affected many scholars, causing them to envy and disparage anyone who attempted independent *ijtihâd*.[^14] ### Is renewable content limited to law? While this discussion is mainly about renewal as it relates to laws, it is important to answer this question. As we said before, the matters of *‘aqeedah* and principal Islamic values are not subject to new *ijtihâd* in the sense of forming new positions compatible with new realities. However, we still need *ijtihâd* to correct our own understanding of some of these concepts and values. For example, the misunderstanding of *qadar* (predestination) and *zuhd* (asceticism, or renunciation of worldly matters) has been detrimental to the well-being of the *ummah* and can impede any prospects of progress. Imagine an entire nation that is fatalist in its outlook and disinterested in this world. Simply put, we need to reset our collective understanding of these concepts to the time of the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions. Sometimes, the resetting of our collective understanding needs to go back one or two centuries only, to remove a thin crust of recent deviation. At other times, the reset needs to go back all the way to the time of the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions, whose teachings and lives will always be the brightest beacons of light and an unfailing measuring stick. This does not mean that the *ummah* was entirely misguided at any time, but it is very possible (as predicted by the Messenger ﷺ himself) that certain trends inconsistent with the revelation may prevail in our collective conscience and practice. While many people will continue to be opposed to (or at least suspicious of) *ijtihâd*\-based *tajdeed*, it is promising that most of the notable Muslim scholars are showing acceptance of this concept. One issue of contention, however, is whether we need to reform the very principles of *uṣool al-fiqh*. This is what we attempt to discuss in the following section. --- ## Do We Need to Renew Juridical Theory and the Methodology of Deduction? The vast majority of Muslim scholars agree that new *ijtihâd* is necessary to address newly emergent matters that have not been previously addressed by classical scholars. Most of them would also agree that new *ijtihâd* may also be needed to reexamine the established positions in the Islamic *fiqhi* legacy and choose from among those positions what is most suitable for the current realities. Those scholars are simply talking about using the same established juridical theory to reexamine individual rulings. However, a group of scholars are calling for a ‘systems approach’ to the juridical theory itself and an overhaul of the methodology of deduction. Not unexpectedly, they were met by fierce resistance. Those calling for *tajdeed al-uṣool* are very diverse, and one should not be hasty to use a broad brush in describing their propositions, let alone their intentions. I will try here to examine whether there is a need for an overhaul of the juridical theory or of the science of *uṣool al-fiqh*. First, the scholars of Islam have always disagreed over issues pertaining to *uṣool al-fiqh*. Imam Aḥmad (rh) famously said, “…whoever claimed a consensus had lied.”[^15] Ibn Rushd (rh) wrote his book *Faṣl ul-maqâl wa taqreer ma bayn al-Sharee‘ah wal-Ḥikmah min al-ittiṣâl* on the harmony between religion and philosophy. Ar-Râzi (rh) suggested that there is rational abrogation. Aṭ-Ṭoofi (rh) expanded (judiciously or not) the place of *maṣlaḥah* (benefit/interest) in legislation. Al-Qarâfi (rh) divided the traditions of the Prophet ﷺ into different categories based on the capacity in which he was acting. These are just a few examples of the ongoing *tajdeed* in the principles of jurisprudence. It is obvious then that the science of *uṣool al-fiqh* was not meant to be a closed system, since that makes it subject to stagnation and demise. Nevertheless, this author posits here that there is no need to overhaul the science of *uṣool al-fiqh*; it is a solid structure with remarkable flexibility. It is our failure to utilize its flexibility and discover its *tajdeed*\-enabling principles that makes some of us hastily desire to overhaul it. What we really need is learned incremental renewal in this science. Having said that, one must admit that there have been positions, sometimes adopted by the majority, that caused some stagnation and rigidity in juridical theory and its practical use. These positions were mainly in the domain of *ijtihâd*. I will start here by addressing some of those positions and their impact on the development of the law; then I will talk about the existing flexibility within the science of *uṣool al-fiqh* that should be used to serve the purposes of adaptation and renewal of our religious discourse. Finally, I will suggest some areas where change may be desirable. ### Positions impeding the ongoing renewal of discourse[^16] #### Over-reporting of consensus Nothing could stifle *ijtihâd*\-based renewal more than the over-reporting of consensus. Sometimes, scholars reported consensus on matters that were debated heatedly within the four *madhâhib* (pl. of *madhhab*), let alone outside of them. This was sometimes because of the usage of special terminology or simply the result of innocent mistakes. Even those scholars known for their rigorous practice of verification reported hundreds of cases of consensus after the era of the Companions that are extremely difficult—if not impossible—to establish. I will quote Shaykh Muhammad al-Khudari, whose views here are shared by many of the contemporary verifying scholars of *uṣool al-fiqh*. He states: > *The question that remains is whether they \[the Companions\] truly reached consensus on a particular issue that was presented to them, while it is considered subject to ijtihâd. We may be able to answer this and say that there are many issues about which we do not know of any disagreement among the Companions regarding them. This is the most we could say. As far as claiming that they all reached a positive consensus, that is a claim that lacks supporting proofs. As for the following generations, after the expansion of Muslim territories and the relocation of the jurists to different Muslim lands, and many of the jurists among the followers of the Companions (tâbiʽeen) and others reaching distinction, whose numbers grew beyond count, with their variant political ideologies and personal interests, the claim of the establishment of a consensus then is not easy for one to accept. This is even though many issues during these times were not known to be subjects of disagreement. On such basis, we may be able to understand the statement of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “Whoever claimed a consensus has lied; maybe they disagreed; he should rather say, ‘I don’t know that they disagreed,’ if he did not hear of a disagreement.” Some Ḥanbali scholars posited that the imam means a consensus other than that of the Companions.*[^17] While Ibn Ḥazm (rh) was an erudite scholar and was one of those known to verify reports, his book *Marâtib al-Ijmâʽ*, in which he reported the consensuses of the scholars, had so many dubious reports of consensuses that Ibn Taymiyyah (rh) was prompted to write a treatise entitled *Naqd Marâtib al-Ijmâʽ* to point out those erroneous reports. Interestingly, one consensus Ibn Taymiyyah criticized concerns the disbelief (*kufr*) of one who rejects a certain consensus after recognizing its validity.[^18] It is vital that we appreciate the beauty of the doctrine of *ijmâʽ*,[^19] which is not only a tool of preservation, but also an antidote to clerical autocracy. In a nation where no one after the Messenger ﷺ speaks on behalf of God, this doctrine provided an instrument not only for conservatism, but also for efficiency, tolerance, and adaptability. However, we need an objective examination of the reported consensuses and we need to apply stringent criteria before we accept them, since mere acceptance would be conferring definitiveness on a certain position and putting an end to any scholarly debate. We apply rigorous criteria before we authenticate the prophetic traditions, even though they may not confer the same decisiveness as a consensus, because of their often-speculative implications. Additionally, we should treat the validated *ijmâʽ sukooti* (tacit *ijmâʽ*),[^20] which constitutes the bulk of *ijmâʽ*, as only corroborative evidence because of its presumptive nature. #### Can there be truth outside the four madhâhib? The four *madhâhib* in Sunni Islam are intellectual accomplishments that any Sunni Muslim should feel proud of. Thousands of scholars contributed through interdisciplinary and transgenerational efforts to the production of these intellectual wonders. Their authority and our need for them are as clear as the sun in the middle of a summer day, as the Arabic proverb goes. It is also the recommendation of the vast majority of Muslim scholars that the student of knowledge be first instructed in one of the four schools. One may also add that the truth does not diverge from the positions of the four *madhâhib* except very rarely. Imam Ibn Taymiyyah (rh) stated: > *As for one who says, “I am not bound by anyone of the four imams,” if he meant he is not bound by a particular one of them as opposed to the rest, then he has spoken well; in fact, this is the correct of the two \[known\] positions. However, if he meant that he is bound by none of them and that he disagrees with them all, then surely he will be wrong most of the time. This is because the truth does not diverge from their positions in the vast majority of the \[laws of\] Shariah. People only disagreed whether the truth could be different from their positions in a few cases.*[^21] Any attempt to belittle all, some, or any of the four *madhâhib* is an assault against the *ummah* and its heritage. However, having a balanced understanding regarding them is essential. The *ummah* cannot afford to swing with the pendulum of extremism. ‘Anti-*madhhabism*’ is wrong, but it is not the cause of all of the ailments of our *ummah*, as some ideologues on the opposite end of the spectrum like to believe. This simplistic reduction of complex phenomena is not new to human thinking. However, it seems extremely repugnant to the facts and the concept of causation itself. After all, who would have the audacity to claim that our *ummah* was doing well before this ‘new phenomenon’? This is not only about defeat by external forces, but also backwardness, inner conflict, and *taʽaṣṣub*, whether interdenominational or inter-*madhhabi*. The verifying scholars complained during their times about the conditions of *fiqh* and the *fuqahâ’*. The stagnation within the *madhâhib* resulted in the divide between *fiqh* and the needs of the people, pushing the leaders, long before the colonial era, to make arbitrary legislations. Additionally, why is it that countries and communities that were not affected by this ‘new phenomenon’ are not faring better than those that were affected? Having said that, this is not a discussion of the importance of the legacy of the four *madhâhib*, nor an attempt to referee between the contestants on the two ends of the spectrum concerning them. The discussion here is about the existence of truth beyond what they have agreed upon—an agreement that many Muslim scholars treat as a binding consensus. Some scholars have gone as far as claiming that there is a consensus that in the spheres of *fatwa* and judging at least, no scholar may take a position outside that of the four schools.[^22] According to Dâr al-Iftâ’ al-Miṣriyyah (the Egyptian *fatwa* agency), this agreement is subject to change with time, people’s customs, and the acceptance of and trust in other positions. It is also subject to enforcement by the state.[^23] The most someone can say about this agreement—and this is extremely hard to establish—is that it was a procedural decision that may have had some merit at some point, but is not in any way a binding consensus that the *ummah* must indefinitely abide by. It is interesting to note here that the disagreement between the earlier scholars was not about the obligation for a *mujtahid* to follow the opinion of another *mujtahid*, but about its permissibility. Imam Abu Ḥanifah (rh) allowed it, whereas Imam ash-Shâfiʽi (rh) prohibited it: the latter argued that the level of certainty someone acquires through his or her own *ijtihâd* must exceed that which could be ever acquired through someone else’s *ijtihâd*.[^24] Whenever we seek a ruling on a particular issue, it is either a contemporary matter or one that has been previously addressed. If it is new, then the position of the four *madhâhib* is not even present, except through *takhreej* (a form of analogical deduction based on a position in a *madhhab*), which usually offers some flexibility and is not particularly binding. If it is a matter that has been previously addressed, then the question is whether a position outside of the agreement of the four *madhâhib* may have any merit. While it is commendable for Muslims to be wary of positions that conflict with the agreement of the four imams, this wariness should not completely rule out such positions. Abu al-Khattâb (rh) (d. 510 AH) stated in his book *At-tamheed fi uṣool al-fiqh*, > *The proofs on the \[authority of\] consensus do not pertain to them (the agreement of the four imams), because they are among the believers of the ummah, and their status as imams does not change the rulings of ijmâʽ.*[^25] Ibn Taymiyyah (rh) held the same opinion and mentioned several instances where some followers of the four imams dissented from their agreement.[^26] While Imam al-Qarâfi (rh) was one of the scholars who reported from Ibn aṣ-Ṣalâḥ (rh) the agreement on following one of the four *madhâhib*, he said in a different place (and context) that a consensus was established during the time of the Companions that whoever converts to Islam may ask any of the scholars and is not bound to ask certain ones, and that one who asked Abu Bakr and ‘Umar may still ask Muʽâdh and Abu Hurayrah and others, and he challenged anyone who claimed those consensuses had been revoked to produce evidence for that.[^27] Imam Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytami ash-Shâfi’i (rh) explained that it is permissible for a scholar to follow an *ijtihâd* outside the four *madhâhib* as long as it is well documented, and its conditions and all necessary details are known, and he attributed this opinion to Imam as-Subki (rh).[^28] Imam an-Nafrâwi al-Maliki (rh) attributed this position to some of the verifying scholars—without limiting the permissibility of *taqleed* to the scholars.[^29] What should be clear is that there is no legitimate justification that the agreement of the four *madhâhib* establishes consensus, and if it does not, then there are no grounds for adding their agreement to the sources of legislation. Their agreement should rather serve as a warning sign for the *mujtahid* to proceed with caution and the non-*mujtahid* to stop. As mentioned above, even those who did not allow the public to follow other than one of the four *madhâhib* recognized that the truth may exist outside their agreement, and they allowed the faqeeh (pl. *fuqahâ*’: specialist in *fiqh*) to adopt a position outside that of the four schools.[^30] As mentioned in our discussion of the existing flexibility within the juridical theory, they also allowed the use of unauthorized positions in the *madhâhib* for valid reasons. In our times, what can be done to protect people from the chaos of unregulated fatwas is to stress the guidelines that must be followed in mainstreaming positions that are counter to the agreement of the four *madhâhib* (which will be addressed later) and to advance the cause of collective *ijtihâd*, which confers greater validity on new positions, as Shaykh Mustafa az-Zarqa remarked when he talked about reopening the gates of *ijtihâd*.[^31] An example of a new collective *ijtihâd* is the decision of the Fiqh Assembly of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) concerning the manufacturing contract (*‘aqd al-istiṣnâ‘*) whereby people may purchase unbuilt homes and pay their price in installments. This transaction is considered a type of *salam* (sale with payment in advance) by the Mâliki, Shâfiʽi, and Ḥanbali schools, which means all of the conditions of *salam* will apply to it, including the immediate payment of the whole price. The reason for this particular condition is so that the transaction does not become forbidden because of the deferment of both the price and the commodity (*bayʽ al-kâli’ bil-kâli’*). However, Imam Abu Ḥanifah (rh) considers it a separate contract since, unlike *salam*, it involves the manufacturing of the commodity. This position allows the buyer to pay the price in installments. Yet, according to Abu Ḥanifah, this contract will turn into *salam* if a deadline is set for submitting the commodity. His two disciples held a different position, and allowed setting a deadline. The Fiqh Assembly of the OIC indicated that a deadline should be set, and that this should not change the contract from *istiṣnâ‘* to *salam*, allowing for deferred payments. Thus, the Assembly approved the sale of homes before their construction and paying the price in installments if there is an accurate description of the property.[^32] This is an important ruling that is vital for the thriving of a major industry. Its adoption by a major *fiqh* council removed the discomfort many people may have had because of its perceived contradiction with the authorized view of the four *madhâhib*. The same may be said about Ibn Taymiyyah’s position on the composite threefold divorce. He counted it as one divorce. His position was counter to the authorized view of the four *madhâhib*. The adoption of this position by *fatwa* agencies in many Muslim countries, including Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, has conferred it with mainstream acceptance. In summary, one may say that the mainstreaming of positions outside the agreement of the four *madhâhib* should be contingent upon their validation by collective *ijtihâd* or acceptance by a large group of verifying scholars. ### Flexibility Within Juridical Theory (Uṣool al-Fiqh) #### Objectives of Shariah and reform The *maqâṣid* of *Shariah* and their role in *tajdeed* is a frequently and heatedly debated issue. The primary objectives of *Shariah*, as deduced by the scholars, are the preservation of religion, life, intellect, lineage, honor, and wealth of the people. The Shariah not only prioritizes among these objectives, but it also recognizes three levels within each of them: luxuries, needs, and dire necessities. A third aspect of brilliance is the flexibility of the *Shariah* wherein concessions are made for dire necessities, and to some extent, for needs as well. Muslim thinkers who were searching for a way to reform the Islamic collective mind, like the prominent Moroccan critic and professor of philosophy Muhammad ‘Âbid al-Jâbiri (rh), had hopes, as he posited in his book *Wijhat naẓar*, that the use of *maqâṣid* would be the key to that reform. They felt that such use—coupled with a proper understanding of the reality to which the rulings were meant to be applied—would result in a major renaissance in Muslim communities. There is no doubt that this is true. However, a problem arises when some of them seek to use maqâṣid in isolation from the detailed rulings in the books of fiqh and even in the textual proofs. The *maqâṣid* are the highest level of abstraction in Islamic law, like the ultimate transcendental values of Plato (truth, beauty, and goodness) and the motto of the French Revolution (liberty, fraternity, and equality). Although humans have perpetually agreed on the merit of these values, they have forever disagreed on the roadmap to them. This is where the *Shariah* shines bright, for it is what grants guidance towards the realization of those great objectives and values, quenching humanity’s thirst for direction. Linguistically, *Shariah* (*shareeʽah*) refers to a path which leads to a water supply. Water is essential for our physical sustenance, and invoking the Divine guidance of Allah is essential for our spiritual (and overall) sustenance. The middle position between those who exaggerate the utility of *maqâṣid* and those who reject their role in guiding the *ijtihâd* of the *faqeeh*, in my belief, is that the *faqeeh* must always be mindful of the maqâṣid (as addressed in the discussion of the rational proofs), but he or she should not circumvent the detailed rulings, the methodology of deduction, or the legal maxims to realize those objectives. They must provide valid justification if they decided to use *istiḥsân* or other legal devices to achieve those *maqâṣid*. It is those legal experts that are most suited to employ the *maqâṣid* without compromising the methodology of deduction laid out in uṣool al-fiqh. They will always be capable of finding a way to their proper realization through the proper understanding of the textual proofs and legal maxims (*al-qawâ’id al-fiqhiyyah*); the latter are a lower level of abstraction than the *maqâṣid*, and thus much more reckonable. A mistake that many callers to *tajdeed* through the understanding of *maqâṣid* make is overestimating the capacity of the human intellect in realizing those *maqâṣid* independently. The error their diametrical opponents fall into is underestimating the human intellect, which results in a state of stagnation and deprives the *Shariah* of its flexibility in addressing ever-changing realities—a salient quality that guarantees its transcendental vitality. #### The role of human intellect The pressing question here is whether human intellect can suffice in realizing the *maqâṣid* mentioned above. The scholars have disagreed regarding the ability of humankind to discern between good and bad (*ḥasan and qabeeḥ*). The Muʽtazilah believed that human intellect is totally capable of this (and liable for it as well). Many Ashʽaris and some Atharis said it is not (but they still employed rational thought in the matters of law). Many Maturidis and Atharis, including Ibn Taymiyyah,[^33] maintained a middle position and said that human intellect is partially capable of that discernment; however, it is incomplete and clouded by ego, prejudice, ignorance, and so on. They also maintained, like the Ashʽaris, that people are not liable based on this discernment until they receive a revelation from God. The last position has great merit, because all humans agree at some level on an objective consistent system of basic moral values. The *Shariah* acknowledges that discernment mechanism which exists in every human being; it calls it *fitrah* (natural disposition). Based on this position, which Ibn Taymiyyah (rh) attributed to the majority of *Ahl us-Sunnah*,[^34] the intellect has a great role in drawing that roadmap by ensuring a solid understanding of the *Shariah* and its *maqâṣid* and a clear understanding of the reality within which the *Shariah* operates. Before we talk about the interplay between the intellect and *Shariah*, we must ask about their respective scopes of operation. What parts and how much of our lives are controlled by the *Shariah* and how much is left for human thought? As Muslims, we comply with the Divine. Life itself is a gift from Him. We live it by Him and for Him. However, how much did the Divine leave for us to decide for ourselves, while still being under His authority? Contention between the Divine and the secular in our modern discourse as Muslims is intense. Many times, the proponents of secularism assault the place of the Divine in the ‘public sphere.’ However, we need to ask ourselves if the opposite is also true. When you hear of clinics that claim to treat patients with prophetic medicine, you must find the idea offensive to the Prophet ﷺ himself and his teachings. He ﷺ was, after all, the one who said, **أَنْتُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِأَمْرِ دُنْيَاكُمْ.** You know best about the affairs of your world. (Reported by Muslim) It is true that the Prophet ﷺ did prescribe some medications. However, only very few of these prescriptions have an indication that their source was Divine revelation. Otherwise, the Prophet ﷺ used the same medicines available to him at the time and in the place he lived. While some scholars, like Ibn al-Qayyim (rh), believed that all of his prescriptions are infallible, others, like al-Qâḍi ‘Iyâd (rh) and Ibn Khaldoon (rh), believed they are not. Excluding the few prescriptions that have some indication of a Divine origin, the second position seems more consistent with the *hadith* above, and as Ibn Khaldoon pointed out, he ﷺ came to teach us about the religion, not about medicine and the like.[^35] Whichever position you are more comfortable with, the fact that should not be missed is that there is no separate genre of medicine called ‘prophetic medicine.’ The matter gets more contentious when the discussion pertains to politics, economics, or other aspects of public policy. It is to be expected that there would be Islamic instructions and guidelines regarding these matters. It seems though that we selectively abandoned some of the most obvious ones, like the concept of *shoorâ* (consultation), which, if we consider it binding, may be translated as ‘majority rule.’ Having said that, it seems that those areas were left very lightly regulated and without detailed instruction in order to allow for human creativity and leave ample room for human intellect to decide what is suitable in different times and places. If we had been commanded to abide by direct democracy, the command would have been inapplicable for more than twelve centuries because it was simply logistically impossible. It would have also barred people from choosing some form of representative oligarchy if they found it more suitable in certain circumstances. The endless debate over Islam being more capitalist or socialist or a completely separate system is an indication of the light regulation in this area that has allowed this discussion to take place between sincere scholars and thinkers. Beyond setting boundaries between the Divine and the secular, the interplay between the intellect and *Shariah* is enormous. One of the roles of the intellect, which is guided by the text of revelation and the tradition, is to examine the tradition in light of the revelation, the *maqâṣid*, and *al-qawâ’id al-fiqhiyyah*, and to determine which opinions are most justifiable and most suitable. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (rh) wrote, > *The Shariah is based on wisdom and the pursuit of the welfare of humanity in their fleeting life and in the life to come. It is entirely just, wise, beneficial, and merciful. Anything that veers from justice into injustice, from mercy to its opposite, from wisdom to foolishness, and from the welfare of humanity to its harm, is not part of the Shariah, even if it has been included therein by misinterpretation.*[^36] These positions, which were included by misinterpretation in the *Shariah* (meaning here the *fiqhi* legacy), need to be identified. The critical examination of the great legacy of the scholars is not an assault on the Shariah, as long as it is done by qualified experts, for proper purposes, and with the respect due to our intellectual elders, those who spent their lives serving the religion and its branches of study. The intellect has another role here that relates to changing realities. A *fatwa* is a specific ruling, or the application of *Shariah* in tailored details, so it is the customization of a ruling for a certain situation. There is even more of a human element here—and subsequently a greater margin of error—since a *fatwa* requires understanding the texts of the *Shariah* as well as an understanding of the situation being judged. When you add to this the enormous changes that have taken place in the world in the last two hundred years, you will be able to appreciate how much effort should be spent in examining the fatwas in classical *fiqh* books before we rush to apply them to current realities. If we go by the expression of Imam ar-Râzi (rh),[^37] there will be a lot of rational abrogation, which is abrogation of a ruling because of the absence of its sphere of operation (*dhahâb al-maḥal*). However, the word ‘abrogation’ here may have been used loosely by ar-Râzi (rh). We can simply say that the rule is inapplicable due to the absence of the conditions of its application, as Imam al-Qarâfi (rh) remarked.[^38] For example, the condition of the imam (head of the Muslim state) being from the tribe of Quraysh may have been simply, as Ibn Khaldoon maintained, to defuse conflict and chaos in the immediate succession to the Prophet ﷺ. Nowadays, millions of people trace their roots back to Quraysh, and there is no dependable way of verifying the veracity of their claims. The ruling is, therefore, considered by many to be inapplicable. Those who master the different sciences and fields of human activity would be the best people to employ the Islamic value system in them. The scholars need to have some mastery of those fields to provide proper guidance in them. Then, we must resort to the division of *ijtihâd*, where scholars may be most sought for *fatwas* in the areas of their specialization. If that is not always possible, then it may be required that *fatwas* in such matters be undertaken collectively with the *faqeeh* being the last signatory, after listening to various experts and learning sufficiently about the issue at hand. #### Expansion of our use of rational proofs In our existing juridical theory, there is an expected emphasis on the authority of textual proofs (the Qur’an, the *Sunnah*, and the *fatwas* of the Companions), but there is also an acknowledgment of a myriad of rational proofs, such as *qiyâs* (analogical reasoning), *al-maṣlaḥah al-mursalah* (consideration of interest), *istiḥsân* (juristic preference), *‘urf* (norms and customs), and *sadd/fatḥ al-dharâ’iʽ* (blocking and opening the means to evil and good, respectively). These rational proofs provide a great repository for renewal-enabling instruments when the *faqeeh* approaches them while being cognizant of the *maqâṣid* and the wisdoms of legislation. For example, the different forms of *qiyâs* provide great malleability and strength to the body of *fiqh*; this is particularly true of the less technical *qiyâs*, which is more observant of the *maqâṣid* and the principle of equity. Also, using the *ḥikmah* (wisdom; which is the primary reason behind the legislation of a particular ruling) in addition to the *‘illah* (which is the immediate contingency of the ruling) will give great vitality to *qiyâs*. Using the *ḥikmah*, when it is apparent (*ẓâhir*) and measurable (*mundabiṭ*) is the position of al-Âmidi, Ibn al-Ḥâjib, aṣ-Ṣafiy al-Hindiy, and many Ḥanbalis.[^39] This is also the way in which the Qur’an attaches rulings to the ultimate wisdom of their legislation. Even when some scholars stress that qiyâs cannot be based on the *ḥikmah*, you find them considering it in their application of *qiyâs*. A good example of this is the ruling on combining the prayers for the sick, which lacks any specific proof in the text of revelation: you find the Mâlikis, the Ḥanbalis, and many Shâfiʽis allowing it, using analogy to the rule on combining prayers for travel and for prolonged bleeding, on the basis of preventing hardship. Hardship is not the *‘illah* (immediate effective cause) in combining the prayers for traveling; it is rather the *ḥikmah* (wisdom behind the legislation). We find the Ḥanbalis using that rationale to further expand the list of valid excuses for combining prayers to include various reasons that may cause hardship or harm to a person concerning his or her health, dignity, or even livelihood.[^40] Ibn Taymiyyah (rh) expounded upon this to include a baker who fears that his dough will get spoiled if he leaves it.[^41] It was also Ibn Taymiyyah’s understanding of the wisdom of the prohibition of intoxication that led him to keep his disciples from preventing the Tatar soldiers from drinking. He reasoned that if the invaders became intoxicated, people might be safe for a while from their evil, because whenever they were sober, they pillaged the city and spread mischief. The consideration of *ḥikmah* is not limited to using it in *qiyâs*, but it affects the understanding of the *naṣṣ* (text of revelation) itself. For example, you find the Ḥanafis and Mâlikis considering, in addition to other factors, the ultimate wisdom behind the legislation of tayammum (dry ablution) where they consider any surface of the earth suitable for it, unlike those who, based on the wording of one report, limited it to mean soil. The consideration of *ḥikmah* is also behind the concept of *istiḥsân*, which is an antidote to the literalism and technicality that may frustrate rather than serve the ideals and objectives of *Shariah*. It is setting aside an established analogy in favor of an alternative one that serves the ideals of justice and public interest in a better way. This form of *istiḥsân* originally considered by Imam Abu Ḥanifah (rh) and his main disciples, as Ibn Taymiyyah noted, is not the form that was denounced by Imam ash-Shâfiʽi and Imam Aḥmad when they encountered some of the later Ḥanafi scholars practicing it.[^42] Al-Âmidi (Shâfiʽi jurist) stated that, notwithstanding his explicit denunciation of *istiḥsân*, Imam al-Shâfiʽi (rh) himself resorted to *istiḥsân* on several occasions.[^43] For a practical example, traditionally our jurists agreed that someone who is in debt may subtract their debts from their assets when calculating their *zakat*. However, nowadays people incur debts to purchase durable assets, such as houses and investment tools. If we allow people to subtract their mortgages and the debts incurred to buy machines for their factories, many wealthy people will not pay *zakat* at all. The scholars, through juristic preference, excluded investment debts from those debts that may be subtracted from the ‘zakatable’ assets. This *istiḥsân* is observant of the spirit of the legislation of *zakat* and its objectives and wisdoms, including the prioritization of the rights of the poor. The place of *maṣlaḥah* in the Shariah is established, whether, the jurists recognize *istiṣlâḥ* (acquisition of benefit) in theory as a source of legislation or not. The fact is that all of them in their actual deduction of rulings considered *maṣlaḥah*. The question is not about the consideration of *maṣlaḥah* but rather the strength of this in the face of the explicit or implicit meaning of the text of revelation. One finds that scholars differ regarding this: their opinions fall on a wide spectrum from Najm-ud-Deen aṭ-Ṭoofi (rh) who gave *istiṣlâḥ* almost unchecked authority, to others who limited it to instances where there is no superior basis for legislation in the revelation; and even then, this particular *maṣlaḥah* has to be recognized by the *Shariah*.[^44] If we tie this into the role of *maqâṣid* in *tajdeed*, we can simply expand the recognizable *maṣlaḥah* to include any benefit that is harmonious with the *maqâṣid* of the *Shariah*: that is, all the benefits that are recognized by sound intellect. Where there is a conflict between the perceived benefit and the text of revelation, a careful examination of both is warranted by qualified masters of *fiqh*. There is always an error, whether in the estimation of the benefit, or due to overlooking the overriding associated harms, or in our understanding of the *naṣṣ*.[^45] “Customs are binding” is a legal maxim of *Shariah*. *‘Urf* which does not oppose the *Shariah* is, hence, given authority and recognized as evidence. In other words, the Law-Giver considers customs a determining factor in the rulings on interpersonal dealings, not as a stand-alone source of law, usually, but a secondary one that will ensure the proper application of the naṣṣ. Allah says, **خُذْ الْعَفْوَ وَأمُرْ بِالْعُرْفِ وَأعْرِضْ عَنْ الْجَاهِلِينَ** Take what is given freely, enjoin what is *‘urf* (known to be good), and turn away from the ignorant. (al-Aʽrâf 7:199) Allah also says, **وَلَهُنَّ مِثْلُ الَّذِي عَلَيهِنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ** And due to them \[i.e., the wives\] is similar to what is expected of them, according to what is *ma‘roof* (considered reasonable). (al-Baqarah 2:228) That which is ‘known to be good’ and ‘considered reasonable’ is left to the judgment of the society or community, as long as there is no conflict with a clear text of revelation. An example of the consideration of societal norms is what Abu Dâwood reported from Ḥarâm ibn Muhayyiṣah on the authority of his father: > *A she-camel belonging to al-Barâ’ ibn ‘Âzib entered a man’s garden and ruined it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ decreed that the property owners must safeguard their wealth by day, and the herd owners must keep their animals \[from harming\] by night.*[^46] If people in a different time or place agreed that the owners of livestock must watch them all the time, their *‘urf* (custom) will be the basis of judgment between them. Imam al-Qarâfi stated: > *Whenever the customs change, take that into consideration, and whenever they end, drop them (out of the equation), and do not be stiffly bound your entire life by that which is written in books. Similarly, when someone from outside your region comes to seek your fatwa, do not apply to him the norms (‘urf) of your town. Instead, ask him about the norms of his town and base your fatwa on them, not on the norms of your town or that which is established in your books. This is the plain truth; stiffness in applying the transmitted edicts is misguidance in the religion and ignorance of the objectives of the Muslim scholars and the pious predecessors.*[^47] Imam Ibn al-Qayyim wrote: > *He who issues fatwas to people based only on what is transmitted in books, despite the differences in their norms, customs, times, and places, and their own conditions, has gone astray and led others astray. His crime against the religion is greater than that of one who treats all people, regardless of their countries, customs, times, and personal inclinations, by that which is in the books of medicine. These ignorant muftis and physicians are the most damaging to the people’s religion and bodies. Allah alone is the one sought for assistance.*[^48] Through this maxim, the *Shariah* recognizes people’s varying norms, customs, and traditions, and preserves the cultural identities of diverse nations. This also applies to people of different times, accommodating the changes that humans of different generations are bound to experience. In summary, the expansion of the use of rational evidence that is guided by the *maqâṣi*d and observant of the bounds set by the text of revelation and genuine consensus will provide a major source of flexibility and serve as an instrument of *tajdeed*. ### Flexibility in the existing theory of ijtihâd Quoting earlier scholars, Imam Ibn Taymiyyah stated, **إجماعهم حجة قاطعة واختلافهم رحمة واسعة** Their \[the scholars’\] consensus is a definitive proof, and their divergence of opinion is a vast mercy.[^49] The vastness of our *fiqhi* legacy and the many disagreements among the different *madhâhib* and independent *mujtahideen* cause frustration to some students of *fiqh* and junior *fuqahâ*’. This is, however, a major source of flexibility that enables renewal. Many followers of the four most reputable schools allowed transfer (*tanaqqul*), even for the public,[^50] from one *madhhab* to another, and *takhayyur* (expert selection) or patching positions (*talfeeq*) from the different *madhâhib*; something that is frequently done in contemporary fiqh assemblies by scholars who are otherwise wholly committed to their own *madhâhib*. Concerning the concept of *tanaqqul* from one *madhhab* to another, Imam Ibn Nujaym al-Ḥanafi wrote: > *It is permissible to follow any mujtahid one pleases, even after the codification of the madhâhib as is the case today. It is also permissible for him to transfer from his madhhab, but he should not seek out the concessions (rukhaṣ), and if he did, would he be a deviant (fâsiq)? \[There are\] two views. The commentator said, the most eminent view: \[he is\] not; and Allah knows best. In the beginning of At-tatârkhaniyah, \[the author\] wrote two chapters on religious decrees; the summary of the first is that Abu Yusuf said that issuing a fatwa is permissible only for a mujtahid, while Muhammad permitted it for anyone whose correct views are more numerous than his errors. It is reported from Al-iskâf that the most knowledgeable in a town has no excuse to avoid \[issuing fatwas\].[^51]* Imam Zakariyâ al-Anṣâri ash-Shâfiʽi said: > *It is permissible for the non-mujtahid “to follow any mujtahid he chooses, if the madhâhib are codified like they are today.” Then, they may follow each of them in some issues, for the Companions used to ask someone one time and another one another time, without any denunciation \[of this practice by any of them\]. “He may also transfer from his madhhab” to another one, whether or not we said he is bound to seek the more knowledgeable or allowed him to choose any of them, as when he follows someone in their ijtihâd concerning the qibla sometimes and \[follows\] another one at other times. However, he may not seek out the concessions, for selecting them leads to the compromise of one’s religious dutifulness. “If he still chose them from the different madhâhib, would he become a deviant (fâsiq)? Two views; the more esteemed one: no.” This is different from one who selects them from the madhâhib that have not been documented, if he was in the early era, he would certainly not be a deviant (fâsiq), but if he is from the latter ages, it appears that he would become a deviant (fâsiq) for sure.[^52]* The Ḥanbalis agree with this concept, and Abu al-Khaṭṭâb al-Kallodhani (rh) even cites consensus on it.[^53] Al-Qâḍi Abu Yaʽlâ (rh) cites several reports from Aḥmad allowing his disciples and other people who asked him to find a concession in *fatwas* by other scholars, referring them at times to Abdul Wahhâb al-Warrâq, Isḥâq, or Abu Thawr, and even to locations where scholars gathered to ask any of them.[^54] It is obvious that, to Abu Yaʽlâ (d. 458 AH), the concept was not limited to the four *madhâhib*. #### The utility of weak or unauthorized positions Even if we consider an opinion weak, it may sometimes be adopted to relieve some hardship, provided that it meets certain conditions, as found in the following verses by the Mâliki author of Marâqi as-soʽood: **وكَوْنِهِ يُلْــجى إليهِ الضَّرَرُ         إنْ كانَ لَمْ يَشْتَــدّ فِيهِ الخَوَرُ** **وثَبَتَ العَــزْوُ وقَـدْ تَحَقَّقَا         ضُرّاً مَن الضُّرُّ بِهِ تَعَلَّــــقَا** *Finally, because the pressing need or necessity may compel people to act upon such \[weak positions\] if they are not too weak, and their attribution \[to a mujtahid\] was established, and the one under duress is certain of his/her necessity.[^55]* One may add to those two more conditions that al-Qarâfi quoted from previous Mâliki scholars: 1. That one does not seek out concessions wherever they are. This may be part of the condition mentioned above, which is the presence of need. Thus, one may not screen all the *madhâhib* of the previous scholars in order to take the easiest position among them concerning every matter. This is the position of the vast majority. A minority of scholars allowed this. They also attribute it to ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez, who said,  **مَا أُحِبُّ أَنَّ أَصْحَابَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَمْ يَخْتَلِفُوا؛ لأَنَّهُ لَوْ كَانُوا قَوْلا وَاحِدًا كَانَ النَّاسُ فِي ضِيقٍ وَإِنَّهُمْ أَئِمَّةٌ يُقْتَدَى بِهِمْ وَلَوْ أَخَذَ رَجُلٌ بِقَوْلِ أَحَدِهِمْ كَانَ فِي سَعَةٍ** *I would not like it if the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had not differed, for if they had agreed on one opinion, people would be restricted. They (the Companions) are the leaders to be followed, and if a person were to adopt the opinion of one of them, he would not be blameworthy.*[^56] However, the vast majority of scholars qualify that statement to mean that one may take an easier position of a qualified *mujtahid* if it spares him or her some hardship, but may not simply select every easy position he or she encounters. 2. That one does not compose a position which is rejected by consensus. (This applies mostly to *talfeeq* (patching or mixing of different positions). Al-Qarâfi approvingly reported from az-Zanâti that the three conditions to make a transfer from one *madhhab* to another permissible are: 1) that one does not patch the opinions of the different *madhâhib* in a way that produces a position which has been rejected by consensus; 2) that the person engaging in this *talfeeq* believes in the virtue of the *mujtahid* being followed;  and 3) that they do not choose the concessions from all the *madhâhib*. Al-Qarâfi commented that the concessions that are not to be adopted are those that are unfounded and that may be revoked even if issued by a judge.[^57] Also, *talfeeq* that leads to the synthesis of a position rejected by all of the integrated madhâhib should only be forbidden in certain cases. If one engages in *taqleed* (following) of one imam in some clauses of a sale transaction and another in others, this contract should still be valid, unless the clauses are mutually exclusive or lead to inequity or deviation that is repugnant to the *maqâṣid* of the *Shariah*. This is based on the stronger position, which is that the *‘ammi* (the layperson) has no *madhhab*.[^58] An example of forbidden *talfeeq* is when someone marries without witnesses, citing Imam Mâlik, and without announcement, citing the majority. This marriage is a secretive relationship that is considered unlawful by all. Another example is when one applies different standards to oneself than one applies to others, such as invoking the right to preemption against one of his neighbors but refusing to honor it if another neighbor attempted to use it against him. It should be obvious that these examples are different from the case of a layperson asking two *muftis* about two different matters pertaining to *wudu* (wuḍoo’: ablution) and getting an answer from a Shâfiʽi mufti that wiping any part of the hair is sufficient and another answer from a Ḥanafi that (a man) touching a woman without lust is not a nullifier. If he makes *wudu* according to the Shâfiʽi position and then touches a woman without lust, he will have retained his wudu according to any of the four. Despite that, it seems that his *wudu* should still be valid.[^59] These issues are neither interdependent nor mutually exclusive. Although the majority of scholars after the tenth century prevented this, we do not find it mentioned before the seventh century.[^60] Also, it is the consensus of the Companions that one who asked Abu Bakr and ‘Umar about one issue may ask Muʽadh, Abu Hurayrah, or others, about another issue.[^61] They never restricted this to issues that do not pertain to the same act of worship. Without the permission of regulated *talfeeq* many modern contracts would not be permissible according to any single *madhhab*. Much hardship would ensue and the vastness of our *fiqhi* legacy would lose an important feature of its malleability and resilience. One may add another condition here, which is that the follower of the weaker position must not have certain knowledge of its faultiness. Imam ash-Shâfi‘i stated, **أجمع المسلمون على أن من استبانت له سنة رسول الله ﷺ لم يكن له أن يدعها لقول أحد من الناس** The Muslims have unanimously agreed that whomever the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ becomes apparent to, it becomes impermissible for him to leave it for the statement of anyone else, regardless of who they are.[^62] While he was talking about the scholars, the same may apply to all people who are certain of the erroneousness of some position.[^63] Wâbisah bin Maʽbad (ra) said: I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he said, “You have come to ask about righteousness.” I replied, “Yes.” He ﷺ said, **اسْتَفْتِ قَلْبَكَ؛ الْبِرُّ مَا اطْمَأنَّتْ إِلَيْهِ النَّفْسُ وَاطْمَأنَّ إِلَيْهِ الْقَلْبُ، وَالإِثْمُ مَا حَاكَ فِي النَّفْسِ وَتَرَدَّدَ فِي الصَّدْرِ وَإِنْ أَفْتَاكَ النَّاسُ وَأَفْتَوْكَ** “Consult your heart. Righteousness is that about which the soul feels at ease and the heart feels tranquil. And *ithm* (sin) is that which wavers in the soul and causes uneasiness in the breast, even though people have repeatedly given you their legal opinion.”[^64] ### Suggestions for Incremental Renewal Here are some areas of flexibility and suggestions to improve the existent utility of *uṣool* in the adaptation of the laws to changing realities: - Removing topics that are of no benefit and adding others, such as the legal maxims that are considered a different discipline of knowledge, but must be recoupled with the science of *uṣool* due to their great utility in the deduction of rulings. Also, coupling the study of uṣool with that of *maqâṣid* is essential due to the role the *maqâṣid* play in guiding the whole theory. Finally, recoupling the study of *uṣool* with that of *takhreej al-furoo’ ‘ala al-uṣool*, which deals with tracing the various positions in fiqh to their roots in the *uṣool* (juridical theory). One must add here that it is essential to update the examples given in the science of uṣool and use modern and relevant examples in the application of the principles to detailed rulings, so that the junior *faqeeh* may be trained in addressing contemporary issues. - Placing a greater emphasis on the sources of rational evidence discussed above. - Including *dalâlât al-maqṣood* (signification of intended objective). In the chapters of *dalâlât* (significations), which deals with the rules of interpretation, we have two main *dalâlât*: *manṭooq* (stated) and *mafhoom* (implied). While the scholars have always been aware of the importance of *maqâṣid*, it may be helpful to add *dalâlât al-maqṣood* to the rubric. This addition may simply highlight the importance of including the intended objective in the understanding of the text to begin with. Sometimes, scholars who accept the divergent implication (*mafhoom al-mukhâlafah*) and then reject it are thought by junior *fuqahâ’* to be contradicting themselves in their practice of deduction; whereas these scholars did so purely because their awareness of the intended objectives made them override their previous position on this type of implication. It would be helpful to explain this clearly, in order for the junior *fuqahâ’* to learn the inclusion of *dalâlat al-maqṣood* in their deductive methodology.   - In the chapters on *ijtihâd*, greater emphasis should be placed on collective *ijtihâd*, as discussed earlier, and experts from various fields need to be included in this process. - There is also a need for placing greater emphasis on specialized *ijtihâd*, the so called *tajazzu’ al-ijtihâd* (division of juristic reasoning). This allows jurists to specialize in certain areas of the law, so that they may become more competent in those areas. This is not a new concept; in fact, *tajazzu’ al-ijtihâd* is sanctioned by the majority of the scholars as pointed out by Imam Ibn an-Najjâr al-Futooḥi al-Ḥanbali (rh), who wrote, “\[*Ijtihâd* is divisible\] according to our fellows and the majority, and it is the correct position.”[^65] - Finally, there is a need for reexamination of *uṣooli* positions that may have hindered the development of the *fiqhi* legacy, such as the over-reporting of consensus and the requirement of following only one of the four *madhâhib* while avoiding any alternative *ijtihâd*, even from qualified scholars. --- ## Some Practical Examples of Tajdeed Sometimes we need to reexamine not only the rulings but the very terms we use, since the similarity of the name does not necessarily mean similarity of the named. For example, the prohibition of making a *ṣoorah* (translated as ‘picture’) of any being that can be said to have a soul: is this prohibition applicable to a photograph by virtue of the two things (picture and photograph) having a name in common in Arabic? Not likely. This still does not mean that they cannot share the same ruling. However, the prohibition of photographs (if one is so inclined) must be reached through analogy, and only if it meets specific requirements. Was war during the time of the Prophet ﷺ like war is today? Lexically speaking, yes. However, we must ask ourselves if the one-on-one confrontation of thousands of individual soldiers sparring in a battlefield is like the mass and indiscriminate devastation that ensues from modern warfare. If Imam Ibn Taymiyyah says that a catapult may not be used in other than the necessary *jihad* (to repel the enemy),[^66] what would he have said concerning modern war? Should the difference be consequential? Should it make war an even remoter last resort? Did the early Muslims fight for humanity or against it? We are sure they fought and sacrificed their lives to achieve the cause of Divine justice and to liberate humanity from tyranny, to afford people the right to worship their Lord. If so, is the fact that most nations allow their subjects freedom of religion consequential? When the Prophet ﷺ prohibited women from travelling alone, was travel then like travel now? Would a difference be consequential? It would, at least according to the scholars who rule as acceptable travelling with a safe company; they must have understood that there was some identifiable *‘illah* for the prohibition. As mentioned before, sometimes, erudite scholars will even make the well-defined *ḥikmah* consequential to the rulings. Some may claim that, using the same rationale, we may also do away with *hijab* or the rules of proper conduct between the two sexes, since the human community has matured and it is safer for women to go out in whichever attire they please. This would be in defiance of a clear text and of unchanging human nature as well. The Islamic rules of modesty were meant to protect women, men, and entire societies from an avalanche of evil that would result from failure to observe them. It must be also observed that the societies of the modern and ‘civilized’ humans of the twenty-first century, when compared to societies of earlier eras, are not experiencing lower rates of infidelity, family breakdown, rape, or psychological disorders related to sex. There is no level of education or cultural sophistication that has proved to be protective against any of these ills. This religion has immense vitality, so there will never be a time where the *mujtahidoon* fail at finding solutions for newly emerging challenges. All over the world, changes in living standards and conditions in the last two centuries have been immense. Some of these changes have had an enormous impact on family dynamics. In today’s world, if a woman decides to stay at home for the interest of the family, and after forty years of marriage her husband divorces her, should he walk away with all of the family’s savings because it is ‘his’ money? Should she get half of it? What if this happened after only two years of marriage? Would that discourage many men from getting married? Is there a point of moderation between those two ends? The Shariah has in fact provided a solution, albeit controversial in this case, yet authentic and also supported by the apparent implication of the Qur’an, where Allah says, **وَلِلْمُطَلَّقَاتِ مَتَاعٌ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ حَقًّا عَلَى الْمُتَّقِينَ** And for divorced women is a provision according to what is acceptable—a duty upon the righteous. (al-Baqarah 2:241) This provision is called *mut‘ah*, which may be translated as ‘bereavement gift’ or alimony. If we employ this provision and make it sizeable and commensurate with the duration of marriage and the socioeconomic status of the family, we can provide a legitimate solution for a new challenge. Some people may argue that the same changes in our world should warrant a change to the laws of inheritance. This would not fall under *tajdeed* (renewal), but rather *tabdeed* (annihilation). This is a fixed law in the revelation. It is explicitly stated. It is not contingent upon the customs and interests of people. Women do not always take half of what men take. This is only true in certain cases. However, if you make the proportion of inheritance equal in all cases, you must also relieve men of their financial responsibilities towards the women of their households and kin. While certain people (not necessarily Muslims) may find this to be acceptable during different times or eras, it defies the distribution of roles that Allah has designated based on innate differences between the sexes that are not subject to change. Such a suggestion would have been absurd to Westerners in the nineteenth century, and still is to many people throughout the world. An indispensable component of *tajdeed* must be fact-checking our literature to avoid the recirculation and perpetuation of errors. Advancements in various sciences proved wrong some judgments of some of our jurists—may Allah have mercy on them. They did all they could during their time to ascertain the presence of the effective causes of the various rulings in the individual cases that confronted them. May Allah reward them immensely on behalf of this *ummah*. However, while the Qur’an and the *Sunnah* are infallible, the judgments of the jurists are not. There is no shame in their having erred, consequent to the erring of the experts of their times. It is shameful, however, that the mistake be confirmed and recirculated. For example, modern medicine does not know of—nor can it even theorize about—any cases of human gestation longer than forty-five weeks. This is an example of the interface between Islamic law and other disciplines. As Ibn Abdul-Barr noted, this is a matter that has no basis in the revelation, and is founded completely on reasoning and occurrence.[^67] It is also an example of a case where we cannot afford to limit the truth to the four *madhâhib*. According to them, the longest duration of a pregnancy ranges from two years to an unlimited time period.[^68] It is among the favors of Allah on this *ummah* that some scholars disagreed with the position of the four schools, so that it will not be said that the entire *ummah* was misguided regarding this issue. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣri hinted that it is ten months.[^69] Ibn Ḥazm limited it to nine months.[^70] The longest term of pregnancy does not surpass ten months, according to modern medicine. It is prudent, though, for the law to make the maximum duration one year, as indicated by Muhammad ibn Abdul-Ḥakam,[^71] and as chosen by the law in many Muslim countries. Based on this, the *fatwas* will need to change concerning many issues that are contingent upon this determination. At times, we have conflicting scholarly positions. Some opinions may be indispensable in our times, even if they are counter to the majority position. When there is nothing definitive in the Qur’an and the *Sunnah* to prevent us from choosing to go with an opinion that provides a solution to a contemporary problem, we ought to. For example, in the past, the jurists differed regarding the methods by which a claim is established in the Islamic judiciary. Some limited it to whatever has been explicitly stated in, or extracted from, the revealed texts. Others widened the circle of evidence to include whatever reveals the truth and paves the way for justice. For this reason, basing rulings on *qarâ’in* (corroborative evidence) was a matter of debate among the jurists. The difference today is that forensic science has evolved to such a degree that judicial systems throughout the world are extremely reliant on it. Law experts call this type of evidence ‘tangible proof,’ and despite it being considered a largely modern phenomenon, it still falls under corroborative evidences. The question is, where should the Islamic judiciary stand regarding forensic science? Should it benefit from it? Should this benefit be limited to guiding the criminal investigator and enlightening the judge with important details of the crime? Or should these evidences be used by the judge, whenever they qualify, even in the absence of the customary evidences known to Islamic jurisprudence, such as the testimony of witnesses, admissions, oaths, and *nukool* (refusal to take an oath)? I believe that a reasoned incorporation of tangible evidences in what counts as admissible proofs is completely warranted. This was the position of luminaries like Ibn al-Qayyim,[^72] Ibn Taymiyyah,[^73] and Ibn Farḥoon,[^74] of the Mâlikis, in addition to Ibn al-Ghars[^75] of the Ḥanafis, and some Ḥanbalis.[^76] The use of *qarâ’in* is emphatically not like redefining the admissible proofs or equating the testimony of women in financial matters to that of men. These actions would be in defiance of a clear text, while using corroborative evidences is not. There is reason to believe that there are specific differences between men and women that made the testimony of two women equal to that of one man in financial matters, while a woman’s testimony is of the same or higher value than a man’s in other areas of knowledge, such as childbirth and breastfeeding. Sometimes we create rigidity and fear of ‘walking away’ from what we created. Neither the Prophet ﷺ nor ‘Umar[^77] (ra) decreed that the *tarâweeḥ* prayer should be done in congregation, or that it should be eight or twenty *raka‘ât* or that one *juz’* ought to be completed every night. In fact, Imam Mâlik and Imam ash-Shâfi‘i consider it superior if *tarâweeḥ* prayers are done at home. Yet today we adhere to a particular number of *raka‘ât in tarâweeḥ* and/or a specific length for its recitation, without this being binding on us. Now, with the time for ‘ishâ’ starting very late in North America and other extremely northern or extremely southern lands during the summer, and the many differences between the era of the Companions and our own, should we adhere to a particular format for the *tarâweeḥ* when none has been designated by Allah, His Messenger ﷺ, or even any of the Companions? Should there be more time for reflection in the local language over the meanings of what is being recited? Should there be more time left for socialization and creating a bond between the ‘Ramadan only’ congregants and their local masjid? I believe all of this is warranted. On the other hand, if someone said that we should do away with the tarâweeḥ prayers in congregation, then he would be calling for the cessation of an agreed-upon practice that has been ongoing since the time of ‘Umar (ra). Once again, that is not in any way a form of *tajdeed*.[^78] Some people want, via *tajdeed*, to diminish the role of the *Shariah* in guiding humanity. We believe that beyond the domain of worship and family law, the *Shariah* already leaves enough room for human thought and creativity, and it only provides guidelines and milestones to prevent people from being victims of their own and others’ prejudices, biases, and excesses. We do believe, however, that this general guidance is much needed by humanity. We believe that the Shariah must contribute to the discourse on contemporary issues such as corporate ethics, bioethics, environmentalism, and so on. This is an important aspect of the *tajdeed* we seek. In the attempts by Muslim countries to re-normalize Islam’s position in the public sphere, they will have to answer many questions. In fact, we have to develop a new *fiqh* that is conscious of the new world we live in: again, without departing from the objectives of the law or the constants of the revelation. The relationship between the ruler and the ruled must be re-evaluated. The consensus reported about the prohibition of rebellion against the oppressive ruler must be re-examined—at least with regard to its modern implications.[^79] If we were to accept it, we must ask whether it applies to a sectarian effort to topple a ruler or a popular uprising by the nation. Would it apply to populist revolutions, even if they were unarmed? What if it were supported by *ahl ul-ḥall wal-‘aqd*?[^80] Is there an effective alternative to end the tyrannical regimes that have become a signature characteristic of Muslim-majority countries? What about the caliphate we reminisce about? Does it consist of a central, federal, or confederal government? What is the plausibility of that? Could the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) serve that purpose, if it took gradual steps towards becoming more like the European Union, allowing Muslim and non-Muslim states to join if they wished to? Denying Muslim-majority countries the right to seek some form of unity and denouncing the very concept of the caliphate is simply succumbing to outside pressure. This is not a genuine *tajdeed* in the interest of Islam and the Muslims. On the other hand, expecting the return of an Abbasid-style caliphate is a form of rigidity that is bound to impede any progress towards a more plausible form of unity. The presence of large Muslim minorities in non-Muslim lands is not a recent phenomenon. However, nation-states and secular governments are relatively new. There is a pressing need to normalize and harmonize the relationship between those minorities and their respective countries. This effort is a major part of the needed *ijtihâd*\-based *tajdeed*. We need an authentic and realistic formula to reconcile between religious allegiance and national belonging. Muslims in non-Muslim countries must not be seen as a Trojan horse or potential traitors by their compatriots, and they should not act as such. Finally, this *ijtihâd*\-based renewal can only be exercised by the most distinguished mujtahid scholars of each era. If the matter is left to those who have not reached this degree of *ijtihâd*, the religion will fall into peril and be subject to distortion, and the enormity committed by non-scholars who engage in this is beyond needing to be mentioned. This involves the greatest calamity: forging lies about Allah—the Mighty and Majestic—and speaking about Him without knowledge. Allah (st) says: **وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا** And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart—about all those \[a person\] will be questioned. (al-Isrâ’ 17:36) Therefore, what is required is the reunion between theory and practice, in light of the *ijtihâd* that preserves the constants but accommodates changing variables. This is what existed during the days of the rightly-guided caliphate, and it is what enabled the *ummah* to accommodate the Persian, Roman, Nabataean, Kurdish, Coptic, Berber, and other cultures which led to a civilizational, technological, and cultural development that has never been matched in the history of this world. All of that occurred without the religion itself being tainted by any distortion. But when this vigilant *ijtihâd* vanished, and that was specifically around the middle of the Abbasid era, the gap between theory and practice began widening until Muslim society became divided into groups: people of extravagance who had no care for religion; Sufis who mostly fled the trials of life by escaping into spirituality and monasticism (and some to mysticism) in search of what would satisfy their souls’ longing for truth; withdrawn scholars who were fixated upon serving the texts and literature; and the masses who became lost when their leaders lost their compass. Correspondingly, there remained a scarcity of God-fearing scholars, committed to the spirit and letter of the *deen*, to purifying the interior (actions of the heart) and upholding the law, true beacons of light that—by Allah’s bounty—no era in the life of this *ummah* may be void of. They are those who remained fighting to revive the true teachings of Islam that have been subverted by heedlessness and corrupted customs, and make these teachings guide the life of the *ummah* once again. I hope that some of the examples mentioned above clarify, to some extent, what I mean by *tajdeed*. Some readers may justifiably ask what my role is in this effort. It is understandable that *ijtihâd*\-based *tajdeed* is the lot of the mujtahideen. However, the public can always engage in restorative *tajdeed*. It is also the public that will establish foundations and institutions to foster *ijtihâd*\-based *tajdeed*. If we are still struggling to build mosques, when might we have endowments that could support independent and authentic research institutes? Let the revival begin by individual repentance, purification of the hearts and intentions, learning the religion from its pristine sources, commitment to righteousness and correctness, and finally, a discerning *ijtihâd* that allows the *Shariah* to continue its role in showing humanity a balanced and holistic path to success in this world and the one to come. --- ## Notes [^1]: Garraty, J. A., & Gay, P., *The Columbia History of the World*. New York: Harper & Row, 1985, p. 264. [^2]: Collected by Abu Dâwood and al-Ḥâkim, who authenticated it on the authority of Abu Hurayrah. *Sunan Abi Dâwood,* verified by Muhammad Muḥyid-Deen ‘Abdil-Ḥameed. Beirut: Dâr al-Fikr, 4/109. [^3]: *Ijtihad*: to use one’s knowledge of the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and other Islamic sciences to derive rulings on matters not specifically or explicitly mentioned in either source of Islamic law. [^4]: *Madhhab* (pl. *madhâhib*): a school of juridical or legal thought. The four schools in Sunni Islam are the Ḥanafi, Shâfiʽi, Mâliki, and Ḥanbali. [^5]: *Majallat al-ahkâm al-‘adliyyah*, Article 39. This was also stipulated in different wordings by some of the most erudite scholars of uṣool, such as Ibn al-Qayyim, ash-Shâṭibi, ash-Shawkâni, and others. [^6]: *Raḍiya Allâhu ‘anhu*: may Allah be pleased with him. [^7]: *Al-mu’allafati quloobuhum* (at-Tawbah 9:60) are new or non-Muslims whose hearts the Muslims hope to win over. [^8]: *Sunan al-Bayhaqi al-kubrâ*, 10/116, in the chapter ‘The Manners of the Judge, and What the Judge Rules By,’ Mecca: Dâr al-Bâz, 1414H. [^9]: *Ṣaḥeeḥ al-Bukhâri*, 2/959, in the chapter ‘Treaties: Agreeing upon Unfair Terms Nullifies the Treaty,’ Beirut: Dâr Ibn Katheer wal-Yamâmah, 3rd ed., 1407 H; and *Ṣaḥeeḥ Muslim*, 3/1343, in the chapter ‘Verdicts: Nullifying False Rulings and Rejecting Innovations,’ Beirut: Dâr Ihyâ’ at-Turâth al-‘Arabi. [^10]: *Raḥimahu Allah*: may Allah bestow mercy on him. [^11]: *Al-muwâfaqât* by ash-Shâtibi, verified by ‘Abdullâh Drâz, Beirut: Dâr al-Ma‘rifah, 2/217. [^12]: Since this article is mainly about *ijtihâd*\-based *tajdeed*, my discussion of the intended restoration will be brief and only serves as a second introduction to the subject matter at hand. [^13]: The “*fatwa* chaos” resulted in many odd and esoteric *fatwas* and teachings; many scholars attempted to regain control of the situation by shutting down independent *ijtihâd* (*ijtihâd muṭlaq*) and decreeing that it was allowed only for the scholars of the past. [^14]: *‘Ilm uṣool al-fiqh* by Abdul Wahhâb Khallâf, p. 260. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^15]: *Uṣool al-fiqh* by Muhammad al-Khudari, pp. 313-314. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^16]: I chose not to address the issue of *insidâd bâb al-ijtihâd* (closure of the gates of *ijtihâd*) declared near the end of the fifth century AH by many Muslim scholars who, after failing to properly regulate the practice of *ijtihâd*, intended to preserve the religion and protect it from the chaos of “*ijtihâd*” by unqualified individuals. It is hoped that most contemporary scholars are fully aware of the harmful effects of maintaining this position and how it could impede the development of Islamic law and its juridical theory. [^17]: *Uṣool al-fiqh* by al-Khudari, pp. 313-314; See also, *‘Ilm uṣool al-fiqh* by Khallâf, pp. 54-55. [^18]: That is, one who yielded to sound proofs on an established consensus and then rejected the subject of that consensus, so he agreed that they agreed on a position but he subsequently rejected that position. *Naqd marâtib al-ijmâʽ* by Ibn Taymiyyah, Beirut: Dâr Ibn Ḥazm, 1419 H/1998 CE, p. 299. [^19]: *Ijmâʽ*: consensus; a method of deriving rulings in jurisprudence. [^20]: Tacit *ijmâ*ʽ (*al-ijmâʽ al-sukooti*) is when some *mujtahidoon* express their opinion concerning a religious matter, while the rest remain silent. There are many opinions about this type of *ijmâʽ* (see *‘Ilm uṣool al-fiqh* by Abdul Wahhâb Khallâf, p. 51. Retrieved from *Shamilah* \[computer software\]). [^21]: *Mukhtaṣar al-fatâwa al-miṣriyyah* by Badrul-Deen al-Baʽli, Cairo: Maṭbaʽat as-Sunnah al-Muḥamadiyyah, 1/61. [^22]: *Tuhfat al-muhtâj fee sharḥ al-minhâj* by Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytami, Cairo: Al-Maktabah at-Tijâriyyah al-Kubrâ, 10/109. Retrieved from *Shamilah* \[computer software\]. [^23]: ‘Following the Four Schools of Law and the Ruling of Being at Variance with Them’ اتباع المذاهب الفقهية الأربعة وحكم مخالفتها. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2017, from http://www.dar-alifta.org/AR/ViewFatawaConcept.aspx?ID= 187 [^24]: See *Qawâ‘id al-ahkâm fi maṣâlih al-anâm* by ‘Izz ad-Deen ibn ‘Abdil-‘Azeez ibn ‘Abdis-Salâm, Beirut: Dâr al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 2/160. [^25]: *At-tamheed fi uṣool al-fiqh* by Abu al-Khaṭṭâb al-Kallodhani. Makkah: Markaz al-Baḥth al-‘Ilmi wa Iḥyâ’ al-Turâth al-Islâmi, 1406 H/ 1985 CE, 3/281. [^26]: *Majmoo‘ al-fatâwâ* by Ibn Taymiyyah, Taqi ad-Deen Aḥmad, Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymiyyah, 20/10. [^27]: *Sharḥ tanqeeḥ al-fuṣool* by al-Qarâfi, Cairo: Sharikat aṭ-Ṭibâʽah al-Fanniyyah, 1973, p. 432. [^28]: *Tuḥfat al-muḥtâj* by Ibn Ḥajar, Cairo: al-Maktabah at-Tijâriyyah, 1983, 1/47. [^29]: *Al-fawâkih al-dawâni* by an-Nafrâwi, Beirut: Dâr al-Fikr, 1995, 2/356. [^30]: See *Fayd al-Qadeer* by Abdul Raʽoof al-Munawi (d. 1031), Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Tijâriyyah al-Kubra, 1/210. [^31]: *Al-ijtihâd al-jamâʽi wa dawr al-fiqh fi ḥall al-mushkilât* by Mustafa az-Zarqa, Jamʽiyyat al-Dirâsât wal-Buḥooth al-Islâmiyyah, p. 49. [^32]: Resolution # 65 (7/3), Sixth Annual Conference of the OIC, 1412 AH/ 1992 CE. [^33]: *Majmoo‘ al-fatâwâ* by Ibn Taymiyyah, 8/434. [^34]: Ibid. [^35]: *Târeekh Ibn Khaldoon* by Abdul-Raḥmân Ibn Khaldoon, Beirut: Dâr al-Fikr, 1988, 1/651. [^36]: *I‘lâm al-muwaqqi‘een* by Ibn al-Qayyim, Beirut: Dâr al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1991, 3/11. [^37]: *Al-maḥṣool by ar-Râzi*, Beirut: ar-Risâlah Foundation, 3/74-75. [^38]: *Nafâ’is al-uṣool fi sharḥ al-maḥṣool* by al-Qarâfi, Makkah: Nizâr al-Bâz, 5/2073-2074. [^39]: *Al-muhadh-dhab fi ‘ilm uṣool al-fiqh* by Abdul-Kareem an-Namlah, Riyadh: Maktabat ar-Rushd, 1999, 5/2121. [^40]: *Kash-shâf al-qinâ’* by  Manșoor al-Buhooti, Beirut: Dâr al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 2/6. [^41]: *Al-inșâf fi ma‘rifat ar-râjih min al-khilâf ’alâ madhhab al-Imâm al-Mubajjal Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* by ‘Ali ibn Sulaymân al-Mirdâwi, Cairo: Dâr Ḥajar, 1995, 5/91. [^42]: *Jâmiʽ al-masâ’il, qâ’idah fil-istiḥsân* by Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 195. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^43]: *Al-iḥkâm fi uṣool al-aḥkâm* by Al-Âmidi, Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islâmi, 4/157. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^44]: See *Naẓariyyat al-maṣlaḥah fil-fiqh al-Islâmi* by Ḥusayn Ḥâmid Ḥassân, Dâr an-Nahdah al-‘Arabiyyah, 1971, p. 10. [^45]: *Dar’ ta‘ârud al-‘aql wal-naql* \[Refutation of the contradiction of reason and Revelation\] by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) is all about this. [^46]: *Sunan Abi Dâwood*, authenticated by al-Albâni (sunnah.com/abudawud/24/154). [^47]: *Al-furooq* by Shihâb al-Din al-Qarâfi, ‘Alam al-Kutub, 1/191. [^48]: *I‘lâm al-muwaqqi‘een*, 3/66. [^49]: *Majmoo‘ al-fatâwâ,* 30/80. The hadith cited in this regard is not authentic. [^50]: *At-taqreer wal-taḥbeer ‘ala taḥreer al-kamâl*, 3/352. [^51]: *Al-baḥr ar-râ’iq*, 6/292. *At-taqreer wal-taḥbeer*, 3/352. [^52]: *Asna al-Maṭâlib fi Sharḥ Rawd aṭ-Ṭâlib* by Zakariyâ al-Anṣâri, Cairo: Dâr al-Kitâb al-Islâmi, 4/286. [^53]: *At-tamheed* by al-Kallodhani, 4/334. [^54]: *Al-‘uddah fi uṣool al-fiqh* by Abu Ya’lâ al-Farrâ’, 5/1571. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^55]: *Nashr al-bunood ‘ala Marâqi as-So’ood* by Abdullâh Ibn Ibrâheem al-‘Alawi, 2/270-271. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^56]: *Jâmi‘ bayân al-‘ilm wa faḍlih* by Ibn ‘Abdul-Barr, 2/901. Retrieved from Shamilah \[computer software\]. [^57]: *Sharḥ tanqeeḥ al-fuṣool*, p. 432. [^58]: See *Al-baḥr al-muḥeeṭ* by az-Zarkashi, 8/375, Dâr al-Kutbi, 1997. Retrieved from *Shamilah* \[computer software\]; *Hâshiyat Ibn ‘Âbideen*, 2nd ed., by Ibn ‘Âbideen, Beirut: Dâr al-Fikr, 1/48. [^59]: See *Al-fiqh al-Islâmi wa adillatuhu* by Wahbah az-Zuḥayli, Damascus: Dâr al-Fikr, 1/106-107. [^60]: Ibid. [^61]: *Sharḥ tanqeeḥ al-fuṣool*, p. 432. [^62]: *I‘lâm al-muwaqqi‘een*, 1/6. [^63]: See *At-taqreer wat taḥbeer*, 3/352. [^64]: A reliable *hadith* reported by Imam Aḥmad and by ad-Dârimi with a good chain (sunnah.com/nawawi40/27). [^65]: *Sharḥ mukhtaṣar al-taḥreer* by Ibn an-Najjâr al-Futooḥi, 14/74. Retrieved from *Shamilah* \[computer software\]. [^66]: *Majmoo‘ al-fatâwâ*, 24/69. [^67]: *Ahkâm al-Qur’ân* by al-Qurṭubi, Cairo: Dâr al-Shaʽb, 1372 H, 9/287. [^68]: See *Al-mabṣoot* by as-Sarakhsi, Beirut: Dâr al-Ma‘rifah, 30/51; *Ahkâm al-Qur’ân* by al-Qurṭubi, 9/287; *Al-umm* by ash-Shâfiʽi, Beirut: Dâr al-Ma’rifah, 1393 H, 5/234; Kash-shâf al-qinâ’, 4/356; and *Al-mughni* by ‘Abdullâh ibn Aḥmad ibn Qudâmah al-Maqdisi, Beirut: Dâr al-Fikr, 1405 H, 6/260. [^69]: *Tuḥfat al-mawdood* by Ibn al-Qayyim, Damascus: Dâr al-Bayân, 1/267. [^70]: *Al-muhallâ* by Ibn Ḥazm adh-Dhâhiri, Beirut: Dâr al-Âfâq al-Jadeedah, 10/316. [^71]: *Al-muhallâ*, 10/316; Ahkâm al-Qur’ân, 9/287. [^72]: See his books *I‘lâm al-muwaqqi‘een* and *Aṭ-ṭuruq al-ḥukmiyyah*. [^73]: See the two previous books, in addition to *Al-inșâf* by Al-Mirdâwi, Cairo: Dâr Ḥajar, 1995, 10/233; Ibn Mufliḥ’s *al-Furoo‘* , (6/85); and Ibn Taymiyyah’s *As-siyâsah ash-sharʽiyyah* , p. 136. The last two sources were retrieved from *Shamilah* \[computer software\]. [^74]: See his book *Tabṣirat al-ḥukkâm fee uṣool al-‘aqḍiyyah wa manâhij al-aḥkâm*: 2nd section, regarding the types of evidences. [^75]: See *Hâshiyat Ibn ‘Âbideen*, 5/354. [^76]: These are mentioned in order of the strength of their support for the use of qarâ’in and the scope of its use in their *ijtihâd*. [^77]: ‘Umar (ra) found the Companions praying in the *masjid* in small groups, so he simply brought them together and had Ubayy lead them in prayer. Many of the Companions continued to pray at home. Some of them, including Ibn ‘Umar, considered it inferior if done at the *masjid* in congregation. [^78]: An even more absurd suggestion we have heard is to make the *tarâweeḥ* start before *‘ishâ’*. [^79]: The first one to report it was Ibn Mujâhid al-Baṣri (d. 370 AH). It was contested by many scholars. Ibn Mujâhid (rh) was a resident of Basra, a city deeply traumatized two centuries earlier by the defeat of Ibn al-Ashʽath, which cost the lives of many of its eminent scholars in their fight against the Umayyads. One may ask if there is a basis in the Revelation that made them agree on this edict in the fourth century AH. If there is, how could it have been missed by all of the previous generations of the righteous predecessors and suddenly become so clear to them? If this agreement was based on reasoning related to public interest, which is most likely, then as Shaykh Shaltoot points out, such is the only consensus that may be abrogated by another upon a change in circumstances. [^80]: Literally: ‘the people of authority.’ They are the elites, somewhat equivalent to today’s ‘representatives of the people,’ or the ‘senate.’ Traditionally, they were the princes, scholars, tribal chiefs, leaders of the army and various professions. ## Summary Renewal of religious discourse (tajdeed) has become an urgent matter amid the turmoil afflicting Muslim lands, yet it is unjust to imagine that religious discourse itself is the root cause of the ailments plaguing Muslim-majority countries. Such harms are partly self-inflicted and partly inflicted by others, and many factors are deliberately overlooked when the blame is placed on religious discourse alone. At the same time, it would be unreasonable to claim that contemporary religious discourse bears no responsibility whatsoever. A crucial distinction must be drawn: infallibility belongs solely to the explicit text of the revelation—the Qur'an and the Sunnah—and to genuine, explicit scholarly consensus. The religious discourse under discussion is in part a human product and must never be conflated with the revelation itself nor treated as sacred. Our understanding of the text may fall short of what is intended, and our misunderstanding of certain teachings may itself be contributing to poor governance and corruption. Yet if anyone were to claim that Islam is responsible for this state of affairs, the simple response is that contemporary Muslims are no better than the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ, who succeeded in establishing righteous governance—indeed, the Columbia History of the World notes that 'Umar established a system of government superior to the Roman bureaucracy that preceded Muslim rule. Tajdeed is not merely a communal necessity but a religious responsibility, as the Messenger ﷺ indicated: "Indeed, Allah sends for this ummah, at the onset of every century, those who renew the religion for it." Since the Prophet ﷺ himself first uttered this term in this context, the one who calls for tajdeed should not be denounced; rather, the discussion must concern its intended meaning. Most people agree renewal is needed but disagree on what it entails and which parts require it. Many so-called "renewers" are unqualified, dismissing much of the established Sunnah, defying the definitive implications of the text, and belittling the great jurists—and much of what they propose amounts to unconditional surrender to modern culture, subjecting Divine instruction to changing thoughts and social constructs. Some fear of tajdeed is therefore justified. Yet timidity in engaging this discourse carries its own danger: those frustrated with the ummah's condition may be tempted to follow unqualified renewers who hijack its banner. Why did the Prophet ﷺ choose the word "renewal" rather than words specifically meaning "restoration"? Because our deen is not a static structure but a living entity with one spirit, consistent objectives, and overarching maxims, yet with a flexible legal framework that engages changing realities. The default is that the religion remains unchanging, and most of what is meant by renewal is restoration—reviving what is original and cleansing away innovations and customs that conflict with the revelation. Beyond this lies ijtihâd-based renewal, expressed in the maxim, "The change in rulings due to the change in times is not to be denounced." Several examples illustrate this: 'Umar (ra) withheld zakat from al-mu'allafati quloobuhum when Islam had grown strong; 'Uthmân (ra) ordered stray camels sold and their price held in escrow, contrary to the original prohibition, because of moral deterioration; 'Ali (ra) held craftsmen liable for clients' materials to prevent negligence; and the early Ḥanafis, who deemed taking wages for teaching the Qur'an unlawful, later permitted it when volunteers grew scarce, fearing the Qur'an's loss. Did these greats change the legislated ruling? Never, for Allah's legislation does not change—He says of those who "took their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah" (at-Tawbah 9:31), which the Prophet ﷺ explained to 'Adi ibn Ḥâtim (ra) as following them in making the unlawful permissible and vice versa. The Messenger ﷺ also said, "If anyone introduces into this matter of ours what is not from it, it will be rejected." What changed in these examples was the fatwa, not the ḥukm itself. As Imam ash-Shâṭibi (rh) explained, rulings that differ with customs reflect no difference in the Divine instruction; rather, changed customs fall under a different Shariah principle. The mujtahid selects the ruling most suitable to the circumstance, considering time and place not for their own sake but as vehicles of consequential conditions. Certain matters, however, are not subject to change: all matters of creed; the pillars of Islam; devotional rulings with incomprehensible causes such as prayer times, hajj, and fasting; quantified injunctions fixed by the text such as expiations, the 'iddah, and inheritance shares; matters with definitive, certainly-transmitted texts whose cause remains operative; matters of genuine consensus not based on circumstantial variables; and basic moral rulings and the Islamic value system, such as the prohibition of murder, fornication, and usury, where change may relate only to the means of preserving these values. Renewal of ijtihâd is most needed in governance, public policy, international relations, financial transactions, employment, corporate ethics, judiciary proceedings, and interpersonal and interfaith relations. Most tajdeed, however, has nothing to do with revising the fiqhi content; it is restoration with adaptation—meaningful restoration of the values upheld by earlier generations. What contemporary discourse most needs is a change of emphasis: from technicality to spirituality and morality, from minor details to major foundations, from form to substance—not disregarding the Shariah or Sunnah, but reordering priorities. Because our theological legacy is vast, one who wishes to manipulate it can portray even a single scholar like Imam Aḥmad in contrasting ways using only his own statements. Every message must therefore be checked against the infallible measuring stick of revelation and prophetic tradition, and trust in scholarship must be rebuilt. Discourse must also combat zealotry (taʽaṣṣub) and partisanship—Allah described such worldly bonds when Abraham said, "You have taken, other than Allah, idols only as a bond of affection among you in worldly life" (al-'Ankaboot 29:25). Zealotry is no new phenomenon; luminaries like Imam Aḥmad, al-Bukhâri, aṭ-Ṭabari, Ibn Ḥazm, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Taymiyyah all suffered persecution and trials. Demagogy must likewise be combated and intellectual honesty promoted. On juridical theory (uṣool al-fiqh), the vast majority of scholars agree that new ijtihâd is needed for novel matters and to reexamine established positions. Some, however, call for a wholesale overhaul of the methodology of deduction and were met with fierce resistance. Since scholars have always disagreed within uṣool—Imam Aḥmad said, "whoever claimed a consensus had lied"; Ibn Rushd wrote on the harmony of religion and philosophy; ar-Râzi spoke of rational abrogation; aṭ-Ṭoofi expanded maṣlaḥah; al-Qarâfi categorized the Prophet's ﷺ actions by capacity—the science was never a closed system. Yet no overhaul is needed; it is a solid structure of remarkable flexibility, and what is required is learned, incremental renewal. Certain positions have impeded renewal. Foremost is the over-reporting of consensus, which stifles ijtihâd; Shaykh Muhammad al-Khudari observed that even positive consensus among the Companions is difficult to establish, and among later generations nearly impossible—clarifying Imam Aḥmad's statement. Ibn Ḥazm's Marâtib al-Ijmâ' contained so many dubious reports that Ibn Taymiyyah wrote Naqd Marâtib al-Ijmâ' to correct them. Tacit consensus (ijmâʽ sukooti), being presumptive, should be treated only as corroborative. A second question is whether truth can lie outside the four madhâhib. These schools are magnificent accomplishments deserving pride, and Ibn Taymiyyah affirmed that truth rarely diverges from them—yet he also held their agreement does not constitute binding consensus, as did Abu al-Khattâb, who noted their imam-status does not alter the rulings of ijmâʽ. Al-Qarâfi cited the Companions' consensus that a questioner may ask any scholar; Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytami and an-Nafrâwi permitted following qualified ijtihâd outside the four schools. Mainstreaming such positions should be contingent upon collective ijtihâd or acceptance by verifying scholars—as with the OIC Fiqh Assembly's ruling on istiṣnâ' contracts and Ibn Taymiyyah's counting the threefold divorce as one, now adopted in Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The Shariah's flexibility resides in its objectives (maqâṣid)—preserving religion, life, intellect, lineage, honor, and wealth—which the faqeeh must always keep in mind, without circumventing the detailed rulings, methodology, or legal maxims to reach them. Some, like al-Jâbiri, hoped maqâṣid would be the key to reform, but error lies in using them in isolation from detailed rulings and texts. On the intellect, Ibn Taymiyyah's middle position—attributed to the majority of Ahl us-Sunnah—holds that the intellect is partially capable of discerning good and bad through the fitrah, yet people are not liable until revelation reaches them. Much of public life was left lightly regulated for human creativity; the Prophet ﷺ said, "You know best about the affairs of your world," and though scholars disagreed—Ibn al-Qayyim holding all his ﷺ prescriptions infallible, al-Qâḍi 'Iyâd and Ibn Khaldoon holding they were not—there is no separate genre called "prophetic medicine." Ibn al-Qayyim affirmed that anything veering from justice and mercy is not part of the Shariah even if included by misinterpretation. Rational proofs—qiyâs (especially considering ḥikmah as with combining prayers for the sick), istiḥsân (as with excluding investment debts from zakat), maṣlaḥah, and 'urf—provide instruments of renewal. Regarding 'urf, Allah says, "enjoin what is 'urf" (al-A'râf 7:199) and "according to what is ma'roof" (al-Baqarah 2:228), and al-Qarâfi and Ibn al-Qayyim warned against rigidly applying transmitted edicts across differing customs. Existing ijtihâd theory permits transfer between madhâhib (tanaqqul) and expert selection (takhayyur) and patching (talfeeq), as attested by Ibn Nujaym, Zakariyâ al-Anṣâri, and the Ḥanbalis—provided one does not merely seek concessions or compose a position rejected by consensus. Even weak positions may be adopted under necessity if not too weak, properly attributed, and the need is certain. Ash-Shâfi'i affirmed the unanimous agreement that once the Sunnah becomes apparent one may not abandon it for anyone's statement, and the Prophet ﷺ told Wâbisah (ra), "Consult your heart... even though people have repeatedly given you their legal opinion." Practical examples include distinguishing a photograph from a prohibited ṣoorah; questioning whether modern warfare resembles the battles of old; the mut'ah provision (al-Baqarah 2:241) as a solution for long-married divorced women—while inheritance shares, being fixed and explicit, cannot be equalized without also relieving men of their financial responsibilities. Fact-checking is essential: modern medicine knows no gestation beyond forty-five weeks, contradicting the madhâhib's estimates of two years or more, though al-Ḥasan al-Baṣri, Ibn Ḥazm, and Ibn Abdul-Ḥakam offered shorter durations. Forensic evidence (qarâ'in) may be incorporated as admissible proof, as held by Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Farḥoon, and Ibn al-Ghars—unlike redefining testimony, which defies clear text. The tarâweeḥ format was never fixed by the Prophet ﷺ, 'Umar (ra), or the Companions and may be adapted, though abolishing its congregation would abandon an agreed practice. Governance, the caliphate, and Muslim minorities all require fresh ijtihâd without departing from the constants. This ijtihâd-based renewal belongs only to the most distinguished mujtahid scholars, for Allah says, "And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge" (al-Isrâ' 17:36). Such vigilant ijtihâd flourished under the rightly-guided caliphate and declined around the middle of the Abbasid era, dividing society and leaving a scarcity of God-fearing scholars—though no era is void of such beacons. While ijtihâd-based tajdeed is the lot of the mujtahideen, the public can engage in restorative tajdeed and build institutions to foster it. Let revival begin with individual repentance, purification of the heart, and learning the religion from its pristine sources. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam # Finding Truth in the Age of Fake News: Information Literacy in Islam **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Epistemology, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, The Straight Path - Finding Guidance in an Age of Confusion **Published:** December 12, 2019 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Abstract Information literacy is the set of skills needed in the modern age to discover, evaluate, interpret, and use information properly and truthfully. With the worldwide proliferation of misinformation on the internet, information literacy is rapidly becoming the most important human competency of the 21st century, as important as reading and writing were to previous generations. Essential components of information literacy include maintaining appropriate attitudes towards learning, assessing the authority of information providers, employing appropriate research methodologies, engaging information-sharing and scholarly communities, and utilizing the latest technology. In many ways, the scholastic tradition of Islam foreshadowed modern information literacy concepts as classical scholars prioritized ethics and manners, systematic curricular learning, and a devotion to understanding the truth of matters as they actually exist in objective reality. This article introduces readers to modern information literacy concepts, drawing parallels to their precedents in Islamic tradition. --- ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* Perhaps the most defining characteristic of our age is the prevalence of all types and sources of information. Computers, smartphones, social media, and, of course, the internet at large, can provide us with the things we want to know, when we want to know them, instantaneously. Certainly, these tools have the potential to provide a tremendous advantage for scholars, researchers, and seekers of knowledge. But the benefits of these technologies are offset by their darker side: misinformation, disinformation, and the weaponization of information technology. Like any tool, information technologies can be, and are, used for evil. They spread lies around the world in the blink of an eye, incite panic or mob-rage with hoax text messages, and even alter the course of entire nations for the worse. Some professionals have ominously dubbed our current situation as the ‘post-truth’ era.[^1] For this reason, a key competency in our information age is the ability to sift through mountains of information to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is what information scientists and professionals refer to as *information literacy*. As Muslims, the verification of truth, source methodology, and the proper management of knowledge are essential components of our religion, which is why scholars, for example, went to great lengths to authenticate what the Prophet ﷺ really said. Imam Muslim (rha) introduced his compilation of authentic *hadith* with a chapter entitled, “The chain of verification (*al-isnad*) is part of the religion and narrations are only accepted from the trustworthy.”[^2] Building upon this precedent, we can combine the lessons of our righteous predecessors with modern principles of information literacy to help us navigate the swells of this massive information ocean. This article defines information literacy and relates its principles and methods to precedents in our Islamic heritage and tradition. --- ## What is Information Literacy? According to the American Library Association (ALA), information literacy is defined as “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.”[^3] These abilities include academic and technological skills, as well as critical thinking, logic, and attitudinal dispositions. Information literacy is simply “learning how to learn” in the information age. The key features of this age are that “change will be constant, and it will be a century of data and information abundance.”[^4] Firstly, we must distinguish between “knowledge” and “information.” Over thirty years ago, futurist scholar John Naisbitt lamented, “We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge.”[^5] This was the state of things before the ascendancy of the internet, smartphones, and social media, so how much more true is his statement today? True knowledge is to understand something as it actually exists in reality, based upon the premise that there is such a thing as objective reality. In contrast, information consists of reports and data, which could be true but are liable to misinterpretation, misrepresentation, and outright forgery. When information is false or misleading, it is called *misinformation*. When information is deliberately falsified to obscure the truth, it is called *disinformation*; as applied to states and armies, it is called *information warfare.* Al-Mahalli, commenting on Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni’s (rha) classic primer on the fundamentals of Islamic jurisprudence (*usul al-fiqh*), defines knowledge and ignorance as follows: > *Knowledge is to recognize what is known, that is, the conception of something one knows, as it exists in reality... Ignorance is to imagine something, that is, to conceive of it, differently than it is in reality.*[^6] Thus, it is possible for a person to have access to all kinds of misinformation and disinformation, creating the illusion of knowledge but which is, in fact, complete ignorance. When several false assertions in one’s mind reinforce each other, this results in compound ignorance (*jahl murakkab*), which can only be remedied through a long process of debunking each individual piece of misinformation. It is only authentic knowledge of reality, not simply information, that gives people an edge over others, as Allah said, “How can those who know be equal to those who do not know? Only those who have understanding will take heed.”[^7] As such, it is our duty to search for the truth and to accept it when and where we find it. The pervasiveness of false information, and the ease by which it is transmitted, is a clear and present threat to societies and communities. According to Anne P. Mintz: > *Misinformation on the internet is dangerous and part of a much larger picture. Bending the truth or telling outright lies is not new. It’s just the messenger who has changed, and this messenger spreads the word lightning fast and to far-flung places. In just the past decade, we have witnessed government leaders and chief executives of major corporations misinform the public in ways that have had enormous consequences, some involving life and death, and others contributing to financial ruin.*[^8] Alan Bundy, a scholar of informatics, asserts that information literacy is *the* key competency of the 21st century. Without a critical mass of citizens competent in making sense of a profusion of information—sifting good information from bad information—society runs the risk of failing to produce enough new knowledge, upon which the global economy depends, as well as failing to address mutual world-wide challenges that threaten the planet and civilization itself.[^9] Just as human society in the past required its citizens to become literate in reading and writing as a matter of survival, today we are in desperate need of citizens to become literate in information access, evaluation, and technology. Information literacy is also particularly relevant to our community, because the anti-Muslim hostility we call *Islamophobia* is largely based upon misinformation, and sometimes disinformation, on the internet about our religion and its teachings. Some Muslims even leave Islam because of they are presented with misinterpretations of its sacred texts, misinterpretations which are, unfortunately, also sometimes reinforced by Muslims who should know better. We ought to be concerned, but also optimistic. The skills we need to acquire are not terribly difficult to understand or teach, and they have strong precedents in our own Islamic tradition. We are merely building upon the scholarly methods of our predecessors to meet the needs of a new age. --- ## Lifelong Learning The most important part of acquiring information literacy may be the attitudinal dispositions that must underpin it. In other words, we need to develop good character, intellectual curiosity, and humility, all of which facilitate the personal growth needed to tackle large swaths of information. As we know (or *should* know), certain categories of knowledge are obligatory upon Muslims to acquire, such as the basics of Islamic creed, worship, and ethics. However, this is only the *minimum* obligation as delineated by scholars. Those of us who want to advance our religious understanding, or our contribution to our communities through beneficial fields of science and administration, should cultivate a thirst for knowledge and an *identity* as a lifelong learner. Allah, in fact, commanded the Prophet ﷺ, and all of us by extension, to supplicate to Him for an increase in knowledge, as He said, “Say, ‘Lord, increase me in knowledge!’”[^10] Therefore, the Prophet ﷺ considered continual learning to be an obligation for Muslims, “Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim.”[^11] The Prophet ﷺ himself applied this advice and he carried on with learning until the day he passed away. Ibn Utaybah (rha) said, “The Prophet ﷺ continued to increase in knowledge until Allah Almighty took his soul.”[^12] There are only two constant hungers that can never be satiated, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “The seekers of two concerns are never satisfied: the seeker of knowledge and the seeker of the world.”[^13] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “Moses asked his Lord: Who are the most knowledgeable of your servants? Allah said: A scholar who is unsatisfied with his knowledge and adds the knowledge of people to his own.”[^14] This being the case, we should direct our best efforts towards beneficial knowledge and not transient worldly pleasures. The great imams, scholars, and leaders of our religion considered themselves to be lifelong learners. Imam Malik (rha) said, “It is not befitting for anyone with knowledge to give up learning.”[^15] It was said to Ibn al-Mubarak (rha), “For how long will you seek knowledge?” He replied, “Until death, if Allah wills. Perhaps the words that will benefit me have not yet been written.”[^16] Ibn al-Mubarak said on another occasion, “A person will continue to have knowledge as long as they seek knowledge. If they assume that they have knowledge, then they have become ignorant.”[^17] And Ibn Abi Ghassan (rha) said, “You will have knowledge as long as you are a student. If you consider yourself sufficient, then you will become ignorant.”[^18] Put differently, you will continue to have knowledge as long as you keep seeking knowledge with proper methods; once you stop learning, you become ignorant. Like sharks, if we are not swimming, we are sinking. The Prophet ﷺ, in addition to seeking religious knowledge, also encouraged us to seek beneficial knowledge from natural sciences, tradecraft, medicine, and more. One particular incident demonstrates a demarcation between religious and worldly knowledge. The Prophet ﷺ once passed by people grafting trees and he said, “It would be better if you did not do that.” They abandoned the practice and there was a decline in the yield. He passed by again and said, “What is wrong with your trees?” They said, “You told us to stop.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “You have better knowledge of the affairs of your world.”[^19] In another narration of this event, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, I am only a human being. If I command you to do something in religion, then adhere to it. If I command you to do something from my opinion, then I am only a human being.”[^20] The Muslim community is in collective need of both religious and worldly knowledge. Imam al-Shafi’i (rha) said, “Indeed, knowledge is of two types: knowledge of the religion and knowledge of the world. The knowledge of religion is to achieve understanding of the law (*fiqh*) and the knowledge of the world is medicine. Do not settle in a land in which there is no scholar to inform you about your religion, nor a doctor to inform you about your body.”[^21] That is, in the time of Al-Shafi’i, medicine was the most important worldly science and he considered it *necessary* for a medical expert to live in every Muslim town. In our times, several additional categories of knowledge have been developed that are essential for modern living. As a seeker of knowledge, *you* need to find your role in the community, whether as a religious scholar, a scientist, an administrator, a doctor, a businessperson, or any other occupation, and then direct your learning towards achieving literacy, competency, and eventually expertise in your chosen field. That said, be aware that knowledge is also demarcated between what is beneficial and what is trivial or even harmful. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Ask Allah for beneficial knowledge and seek refuge in Allah from knowledge without benefit.”[^22] Whatever role we decide upon and commit to lifelong learning in, it must be beneficial to the community in some way. Al-Ghazali, for example, describes some fields of knowledge, or “sciences,” as being “blameworthy,” such as astrology, fortune telling, and the occult sciences.[^23] It is impermissible in Islam to study such subjects with the intention of practicing them. So whatever field of knowledge you commit to, you need to be sure that it will benefit yourself and your community. As lifelong learners, it is very important that we have *intellectual humility*. One needs to accept the possibility that in secondary religious issues, as well as in any worldly endeavor, one could be wrong or mistaken. Ibn Hajar al-Haytami said, when asked about differences in secondary religious issues (*al-furu’*), “Our way (*madhhab*) is correct, but could be mistaken. The way of those who disagree with us is mistaken, but could be correct.”[^24] The same attitude applies to any field of knowledge; we pursue the most accurate information we can, while keeping in mind that, like anyone else, we have our own biases and we commit errors. Regular self-evaluation and inward mindfulness is necessary to avoid intellectual stagnation. If we fail to acknowledge that our personal perspective has a degree of subjectivity, we might be misled by our own *confirmation bias*, which is our tendency to uncritically accept new information that supports our pre-existing narrative or theory. Finally, we should be humble enough to accept the truth wherever we find it and from whoever says it, whether it is from an opposing scholar, a dissenting scientist, or a common person. Ibn Rajab reported, “Some of the righteous predecessors said: Humility is that you accept the truth from anyone who brings it, even if they are young. Whoever accepts the truth from whoever brings it, whether they are young or old, whether he loves them or not, then he is humble. Whoever refuses to accept the truth because he regards them as beneath himself, then he is arrogantly proud.”[^25] These attitudinal dispositions are the prerequisites not only for acquiring information literacy, but likewise for achieving success in religious and worldly learning. Now, we will discuss some of the methodological principles that apply specifically to our situation today. --- ## Information Authority Information literacy depends upon the ability to distinguish a credible source from a less credible or totally unreliable source. We need to be able to identify the experts in various fields, including their leading organizations and associations. Expertise is not infallible, of course. Individual scholars and even entire organizations make mistakes, but experts are far more likely to be correct than laypeople. This gives them a certain amount of authority in their fields, because they take public responsibility for their errors. They are the first sources from which to seek knowledge. Relying upon experts in this manner is the concept known as *information authority*. Allah tells us to ask the experts whenever we do not know something, as He said, “If you do not know, ask people who know the Scripture.”[^26] This command was directed to the unbelievers, who doubted whether the message of Islam agreed with previous revelations. Early Muslim scholars interpreted the “people of the Scripture” to mean Jewish and Christian scholars, who could confirm the truthfulness of the Prophet’s ﷺ revelation, or it could mean the scholars of the Quran.[^27] We can extract a general principle from this verse that the way to acquire knowledge is to refer questions to expert guidance. This is the only way to overcome ignorance of an issue, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Is not the cure for ignorance to ask questions?”[^28] However, we are sometimes presented with information from unreliable sources, information that may or may not be true. Such an incident occurred in the time of the Prophet ﷺ and Allah revealed guidance for us in such situations. Allah said, “Believers, if a troublemaker brings you news, check it first, in case you wrong others unwittingly and later regret what you have done.”[^29] It is said, in various narrations, that this verse was revealed about Walid ibn ‘Uqbah. The Prophet ﷺ sent him to collect alms from tribes among Banu Mustaliq, who had recently converted to Islam. Walid was afraid of them, perhaps because of a dispute he had with them or a rumor he heard (depending on the narration), so he returned to the Prophet ﷺ and incorrectly claimed that the tribes had rejected giving alms and that they wanted to kill him. The Prophet ﷺ became angry and he sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to investigate. Khalid found that they were, in fact, still Muslims and the rumor of their rebellion was false. Upon this, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Composure is from Allah, and haste is from Satan,”[^30] and the verse was revealed.[^31] Al-Bayhaqi narrated this *hadith* about not rushing to conclusions, alongside the verse, in his section on “the manners of judges” within the chapter on “verification in judgment.” This verse and the cause of its revelation deliver important lessons for us: when exposed to dubious information, caution is warranted. The standard recitation of this verse tells the believers to “seek clarification” (*tabayyanu*), but an authentic variant recitation also says to “seek verification” (*tathabbatu*).[^32] The two meanings reinforce each other. A group of scholars extended the prohibition to include not narrating from people whose “status is unknown” (*majhul al-hal*), out of caution that they might be untrustworthy.[^33] Historically, Muslim judges applied this principle from the very beginning, as they would assess the credibility (ta’dil) of a witness in court through a process of screening (*tazkiyah*).[^34] When we access pertinent information from a non-credible source, we have a responsibility to investigate further before we act upon or deny that information. Ambiguity is inevitable in today’s information environment, so one must be able to verify dubious claims or, if verification is not possible, to suspend one’s judgment. Healthy skepticism in this context, but not cynicism which assumes the worst, is an important attitude to have. Hence, we should be cautious against spreading misinformation in the form of chain emails, spam text messages, conspiracy theories, and fake news articles, all of which are plentiful in the online environment and damaging to society. The Prophet ﷺ said, “It is enough falsehood for someone to speak of everything he hears.”[^35] That is, it is enough sin to damn a person in the Hereafter if they negligently pass along gossip, rumors, and unverified information to others. The danger is all the more real in our times, as a lie can be transmitted around the world at the speed of light, literally. The counterbalance to this misinformation involves referring to experts and authorities who can *fact check* various claims. Academic books are subject to peer review, before and after publication, so dissenting scholars can point out their mistakes and disagreements. It requires the skills of *academic literacy*, an awareness of peer review sources and methods, to sift through competing narratives on university campuses. Entire organizations have branches within them that are dedicated to debunking false claims made in their respective fields. No matter the subject, information literacy rests upon identifying credible sources to verify controversial assertions. Credibility is also an inverse function of bias; the greater the bias, the less credible the source. Scholars, organizations, and other entities inevitably adopt a certain *stance* towards their subject matter. Perhaps this is most apparent in the current news media environment. News organizations invariably have a political or national bias, whether it is right-wing or left-wing, pro-government or pro-opposition. No media source is free from leaning one way or another (as is true for all people, who unavoidably draw upon their subjective life experiences). Consequently, an aspect of *media literacy* is the ability to evaluate news articles according to their sources, methods, and editorial standards. Purveyors of information might have a conflict of interest related to that information, a bias that we should take into account when evaluating their claims. To see how this works in the online environment, which is probably the first place many of us need to apply these principles, Amber Benham provides us with some guidelines for evaluating websites: > *Ask yourself: Who wrote this article? Who sponsors the site? Is there an agenda to the content? Is it complete, accurate, and current? What kind of page is it? Is the URL appropriate for the kind of content on the site?* > > *The internet is a powerful tool with a tremendous amount of information to offer, but verify, verify, verify is still the name of the game. When you take all that you’ve investigated into consideration, count on your instincts to tell you whether you can trust the information you’ve found. Don’t take shortcuts, and remember: Buyer beware— even if it isn’t money that’s changing hands.*[^36] There are many scammers, swindlers, and crooks on the web who are out to sell you false promises and shoddy goods. There are professional fake news artists who want to influence your opinion to their own advantage by using targeted disinformation. And there are professional Islamophobes who specialize in demonizing Islam, its people, and its traditions. By familiarizing yourself with the principles of information literacy, you can protect yourself from all of these online predators, as well as from contributing yourself to their nefarious actions. Lastly, although authority is a key principle of information literacy, it also has its limits. Authority is *contextual* and *constructed* by communities. Expertise in one field does not readily transfer to another field. An expert biologist is not necessarily an expert theologian, and vice versa. Authority can also be misplaced and undeserved. To rely entirely on authority, known in Islamic jurisprudence as *taqlid*, is sometimes permissible and necessary when we do not have the ability to investigate further. Yet to do so is to make an *argumentum ad verecundiam*, an argument based solely upon authority, which is a potential logical fallacy because, as we know, authority is not infallible. Therefore, to move beyond our reliance upon authority, we need to learn how to study a subject and subsequently become authorities ourselves. --- ## Roots and Branches Every subject that can be studied has within itself a hierarchy of priorities; first concepts and principles, secondary issues, and tertiary matters. To master a subject, one has to learn and absorb its fundamentals before moving on to its details. In this manner, scholars divided the Islamic sciences into fundamental principles or “roots” (*al-usul*) and from these are derived subsidiary issues or “branches” (*al-furu’*). According to Imam al-Juwayni (rha), “The ‘root’ is that which secondary topics are based upon. The branch is that which is based upon a primary topic.”[^37] Like a tree, the most important parts are the roots, which keep the tree firmly planted and allow it to grow. The branches are likewise important, but they always—*always*—emerge after the roots. This method of learning is best illustrated by examining a basic curriculum in Islamic jurisprudence. For example, if I want to become an expert in the Shafi’i school of jurisprudence, I would begin my studies with a *primer*, such as *Matn Abi Shuja’*, which states the position or verdict of the school without discussing its evidences or disagreements within the school. After I sufficiently understood this primer, I would move on to its commentaries and other intermediate texts, which discuss evidences, arguments, and more details about issues within the Shafi’i school itself. Once I have completed the proper study of those texts, I would move on to large, comprehensive, and comparative works, such as *Al-Majmu’ Sharh al-Muhadhdhab* by Imam al-Nawawi, which compare the views of the Shafi’i school with the other orthodox schools. Through the course of my studies, I would be able to acquire expertise in the Shafi’i school and Islamic jurisprudence more generally. Reaching the ‘end’ of a course of study and acquiring expertise, however, is never truly the end of learning a particular subject; there is always more to learn. Through structured, hierarchical, curriculum-based learning in this manner, focusing on first principles before details, students can achieve mastery in their subjects. The same dynamic is at work in various fields of knowledge. Each discipline has reference works, such as encyclopedias, which summarize the current state of knowledge in any given field. They have primers, usually called ‘introductions’ or ‘companions,’ which give students the ‘big picture’ of the field. After these introductions come more specialized, granular works that explore a particular secondary issue in all of its details. Academic resources consist collectively of *reference works*, monographs (books by a single author), edited volumes, book reviews, journal articles, subject dictionaries, and more. Each category of literature plays a specific role in the acquisition of knowledge, and they play different roles within different fields. Thus, to become literate in any given field is to be knowledgeable about its specialized literature. A student needs to know the literature from a bird’s-eye view and set about studying in a trajectory of beginner, to intermediate, to advanced texts, under the guidance of an expert. Furthermore, each discipline has its own specialized terminology, what Muslim scholars of the classical period refer to as *mustalahat*. For instance, in the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, one will find terms such as “the greatest Imam,” and, “the two Shaykhs,” and, “Shaykh al-Islam,” and, “our three Imams,” and so on.[^38] One cannot know who they are talking about unless one consults an expert or a subject-specific dictionary. Similarly, each field has its own ‘language’ one must learn in order to properly understand and advance in it. Not only should learning be structured and methodical, students also need to have the technical research skills to discover and access new resources. Modern research is increasingly conducted online using computer systems and discovery tools like search engines and content aggregators. Books, articles, and data are accessed by searching databases using *keywords* and *controlled vocabulary* (again, all the more reason to know the ‘language’ of the field). Searches can be filtered and refined to pinpoint even more relevant resources. Each database and research tool, such as Google Scholar, has its own advantages, disadvantages, and quirks, so each researcher needs to learn how to get the most out of each tool they use. In addition, resources we find usually cite other resources. By examining bibliographies and ‘works consulted’ pages, a practice called *citation mining*, we can ‘branch out’ to find even more resources; one article might lead to a book, which leads to an expert author, who leads to a school of thought in the field, which leads to an authoritative scholarly association. Each new piece of scholarship absorbs the work of previous authors, allowing a researcher to effectively trace the origins of concepts. Finally, the creation of knowledge is often an unfinished *conversation* between experts. Listening to multiple perspectives and acknowledging a diversity of opinions reduces bias and corrects errors. In the academic world, this is the process of *peer review*. A single scholar or expert may not represent the only, or even majority, perspective on a given issue. For example, in the authoritative work on advanced Hanafi jurisprudence, *Al-Hidayah fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi* by Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, the author narrates several instances when Imam Abu Hanifa’s own students disagreed with him, or when the Hanafi school disagrees with Al-Shafi’i, and so on, while providing arguments, evidence, and reasoning for the author’s preferred position. Other scholars responded to these arguments with their own arguments, evidence, and reasoning, all of which amounts to an ongoing dialogue between experts. Today, Islamic scholarship is not merely in the hands of a few individual scholars. Rather, it exists in large communities, associations, and councils, just as the Hanafi school does not solely represent the views of Abu Hanifa, but instead the collective and cumulative work of thousands of scholars over centuries who followed his methodology. Likewise, the major scientific, scholarly, and professional associations reflect the combined efforts of numerous individual experts. One should aim to progress in his or her field in order to become an expert *contributor*, and not only a *consumer*, in the information marketplace. A budding expert embeds him or herself into a scholarly community or an association, which exchanges ideas and information, and can provide mentorship and guidance to those just beginning their journey of seeking knowledge. These associations act as suppliers and verifiers of information and, through that function, they facilitate the creation of new beneficial knowledge for future generations. As the great physicist Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”[^39] --- ## Conclusion Information literacy is the set of modern skills needed to discover, access, verify, and correctly interpret information in an age of abundant misinformation on the internet. It is perhaps the key competency of the 21st century, essential to the prospering of human civilization—in the same way learning to read was for previous generations—as well as the religious health of the Muslim community. It is based upon attitudinal dispositions, or character traits, which coincide with Islamic teachings on seeking beneficial knowledge for life, verifying truth, and intellectual humility. It also involves methodological principles of evaluating sources, consulting experts and expert communities, curricular learning, search strategies, citation mining, and technical computer skills. By acquiring and teaching these skills within our community, we can protect ourselves, our families, and our communities from Islamophobic disinformation, scam artists, fake news, conspiracy theories, and other such sources of deceit. More importantly, we will protect our souls from earning the sin of complicity in the worldwide propagation of false narratives, fraud, and lies. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. The defining feature of our present age is the overwhelming abundance of information, made available instantly through computers, smartphones, social media, and the internet. While these tools offer tremendous benefit to scholars, researchers, and seekers of knowledge, they carry a darker dimension as well: the spread of misinformation, deliberate disinformation, and the weaponization of information technology. Lies now travel across the world in an instant, inciting panic and altering the course of nations, such that some have called our situation a "post-truth" era. For this reason, a central competency of our time is the ability to sift through vast quantities of information and distinguish what is sound from what is false, a skill that information professionals call *information literacy*. As Muslims, the verification of truth and the sound management of knowledge are woven into the fabric of our religion, which is why the scholars labored to authenticate what the Prophet ﷺ truly said. Imam Muslim (may Allah have mercy on him) opened his collection of authentic hadith with a chapter titled, "The chain of verification (al-isnad) is part of the religion and narrations are only accepted from the trustworthy." Information literacy, as defined by the American Library Association, is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, an understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the ethical use of information within communities of learning. It is, in essence, "learning how to learn" in an age marked by constant change and an abundance of data. A crucial distinction must be drawn between knowledge and information: true knowledge is to grasp a thing as it actually exists in reality, whereas information consists of reports and data that may be true but are equally liable to misinterpretation, misrepresentation, or forgery. Al-Mahalli, commenting upon Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni's primer on the principles of jurisprudence, defined knowledge as "the conception of something one knows, as it exists in reality," and ignorance as conceiving of a thing "differently than it is in reality." Thus a person may possess a wealth of misinformation that creates the illusion of knowledge while being, in truth, sheer ignorance; and when several falsehoods reinforce one another, this becomes compound ignorance (jahl murakkab), which can only be undone through the laborious process of refuting each falsehood in turn. It is genuine knowledge of reality, not mere information, that elevates a person, as Allah said, "How can those who know be equal to those who do not know? Only those who have understanding will take heed" (al-Zumar 39:9). This literacy bears a particular relevance to our community, for the hostility called Islamophobia is largely built upon misinformation, and sometimes deliberate disinformation, spread online about our religion. The foundation of information literacy lies in attitudinal dispositions, that is, in good character, intellectual curiosity, and humility. While certain categories of religious knowledge are obligatory upon every Muslim, those who wish to advance further should cultivate the identity of a lifelong learner. Allah commanded the Prophet ﷺ, and by extension all of us, to supplicate, "Say, 'Lord, increase me in knowledge!'" (Ta Ha 20:114), and the Prophet ﷺ declared, "Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim" (Ibn Majah, declared authentic by al-Albani). He ﷺ taught that "the seekers of two concerns are never satisfied: the seeker of knowledge and the seeker of the world" (al-Tabarani, declared authentic by al-Albani), and that the most knowledgeable is "a scholar who is unsatisfied with his knowledge and adds the knowledge of people to his own" (Ibn Hibban, declared fair by al-Albani). Imam Malik held that it is unbefitting for one with knowledge to abandon learning, and Ibn al-Mubarak, asked how long he would seek knowledge, replied, "Until death, if Allah wills. Perhaps the words that will benefit me have not yet been written," adding that a person retains knowledge only so long as he continues to seek it, for "if they assume that they have knowledge, then they have become ignorant." This pursuit encompasses both religious and worldly knowledge. When the Prophet ﷺ advised the people of Madinah concerning the grafting of trees and the yield subsequently declined, he said, "You have better knowledge of the affairs of your world," and in another narration, "If I command you to do something in religion, then adhere to it. If I command you to do something from my opinion, then I am only a human being" (Sahih Muslim). Imam al-Shafi'i observed that knowledge is of two types, that of religion, which is fiqh, and that of the world, which in his day was medicine, and he held it necessary that every Muslim town possess both a scholar and a physician. Yet knowledge must be beneficial, for the Prophet ﷺ prayed, "Ask Allah for beneficial knowledge and seek refuge in Allah from knowledge without benefit" (Ibn Majah, declared fair by al-Albani), and al-Ghazali counted certain sciences, such as astrology, fortune-telling, and the occult, as blameworthy and forbidden to study with the intent of practice. Alongside this, intellectual humility is indispensable. Ibn Hajar al-Haytami said of differences in secondary matters, "Our way (madhhab) is correct, but could be mistaken. The way of those who disagree with us is mistaken, but could be correct." One must guard against confirmation bias and be willing, as Ibn Rajab reported from the predecessors, to "accept the truth from anyone who brings it, even if they are young," for whoever refuses the truth out of disdain for its bearer is arrogant. Information literacy further depends upon distinguishing a credible source from an unreliable one, a principle known as *information authority*. Allah directs us to consult those who possess knowledge: "If you do not know, ask people who know the Scripture" (al-Anbiya 21:7), which the early scholars, as al-Tabari relates, understood to mean the learned among the People of the Book or the scholars of the Qur'an. Yet when information reaches us from a doubtful source, caution is commanded: "Believers, if a troublemaker brings you news, check it first, in case you wrong others unwittingly and later regret what you have done" (al-Hujurat 49:6). This verse was revealed, according to the narrations, concerning Walid ibn 'Uqbah, whom the Prophet ﷺ sent to collect alms from tribes of Banu Mustaliq; fearing them, he returned and falsely claimed they had apostatized and sought to kill him, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to investigate and found the report untrue, saying, "Composure is from Allah, and haste is from Satan" (Abu Dawud, declared fair by al-Albani). Al-Bayhaqi placed this narration within his chapter on verification in judgment. The standard recitation instructs the believers to "seek clarification" (tabayyanu), while an authentic variant reads "seek verification" (tathabbatu), the two reinforcing one another; and a group of scholars extended this to prohibit narrating from those whose status is unknown (majhul al-hal). Muslim judges applied this from the earliest times through the screening (tazkiyah) of witnesses. We must therefore beware of spreading rumors and unverified reports, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "It is enough falsehood for someone to speak of everything he hears" (Sahih Muslim). Credibility, moreover, decreases as bias increases, and this warrants attention to the sources, methods, and conflicts of interest of any provider of information. Amber Benham counsels that one ask who authored a piece, who sponsors it, and whether it is complete, accurate, and current, holding that "verify, verify, verify is still the name of the game." Yet authority has its limits, for it is contextual and does not transfer readily between fields; to rely wholly upon it is *taqlid*, sometimes necessary but never a substitute for becoming a knowledgeable investigator oneself. Every field of study contains a hierarchy of fundamentals and derivatives, which the scholars termed "roots" (al-usul) and "branches" (al-furu'). Imam al-Juwayni explained that "the 'root' is that which secondary topics are based upon," and just as a tree's branches emerge only after its roots, so must a student absorb the fundamentals before the details. This is illustrated by the study of Shafi'i jurisprudence, in which one begins with a primer such as *Matn Abi Shuja'*, then progresses to its commentaries, and finally to comprehensive comparative works such as Imam al-Nawawi's *al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab*. Each discipline likewise possesses its own specialized terminology (mustalahat), such as the Hanafi references to "the greatest Imam" or "the two Shaykhs," which cannot be understood without an expert or a subject dictionary. Beyond structured learning, students require the technical skills to search databases through keywords and controlled vocabulary, and to trace scholarship through citation mining, following one work to another. Finally, knowledge is an ongoing conversation among experts, as seen in al-Marghinani's *al-Hidayah*, where the disagreements of Abu Hanifa's students and the debates with al-Shafi'i are recorded with their arguments and evidences. Islamic scholarship today resides not in isolated individuals but in communities and councils, the cumulative labor of thousands over centuries, and the seeker should aspire to become a contributor and not merely a consumer, embedding himself within such a community. As Newton observed, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Information literacy, then, is the set of skills needed to discover, verify, and rightly interpret information amid an age of abundant misinformation, and it may well be the key competency of this century, as vital to civilization as literacy was to earlier generations, and no less vital to the health of the Muslim community. It rests upon dispositions that accord with Islamic teachings on beneficial knowledge, the verification of truth, and intellectual humility, together with methods of evaluating sources, consulting experts, structured learning, search strategy, and citation mining. By acquiring and teaching these skills, we may guard ourselves and our communities against Islamophobic disinformation, deceit, and falsehood, and, more importantly, protect our souls from complicity in the propagation of lies. And success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-iman-ihsan-climbing-the-spiritual-mountain # Islām, Īmān, Iḥsān: Climbing the Spiritual Mountain **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** November 27, 2019 **Updated:** May 8, 2025 ## Abstract This paper presents the three levels of religious practice in Islam as expressed in the famous ḥadith of Gabriel: 1) *Islām* (outward submission to the will of Allah), 2) *Īmān* (faith), and 3) *Iḥsān* (spiritual excellence). Texts from the Qur’an, Sunnah, and classical scholarly works are cited to distinguish these three levels of religion (*dīn*) from each other. The purpose of this knowledge is to lay out the big picture before the worshipper, the highest religious goals in Islam, what the author refers to as the “spiritual mountain.” This includes a broad awareness of the Islamic disciplines: *Qur’an*, *Tafsīr*, *Tajwīd*, *Ḥadith*, *Sīrah*, *ʿAqīdah*, *Sharīʿah*, *Fiqh*, and purification of the soul or spirituality. The prophetic method of self-improvement and habit formation will lastly be presented as the primary means to achieve stronger faith and spiritual excellence. --- ## Introduction Human beings were created with an internal drive to seek out purpose and to live for something greater than themselves. Many people have the misfortune of living for the sake of something in the world, devoting their lives to the transient, worshipping created objects instead of the Creator. They do not acknowledge where they came from, why they are here, and where they will end up after their inevitable death. Lost and without guidance, they stumble through life until the Reality confronts them. But many of them want direction in their lives and conviction in the knowledge of the Hereafter. They only need to be shown the path, the universal and primordial religion revealed to the Prophets and Messengers, *Islam*, peaceful surrender to the Will of the Creator. In Islam, we have a clear conception of why we were created, what constitutes righteous living, and what happens after death. Moreover, Islam is not simply a set of rules and beliefs, but also contains the seeds of constant self-improvement. We have been taught how to grow closer and closer to the Creator, to become excellent worshippers and moral leaders, to the point that our individual will and the eternal Will of the Creator become perfectly aligned. This is known to us as the station of *Iḥsān*, religious excellence, the very top of the spiritual mountain. The three levels of our religion were revealed to the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ in the famous hadith about his encounter with the Angel Gabriel, upon him be peace. Gabriel came to the Prophet ﷺ while he was surrounded by his companions and he said, “O Muḥammad, tell me about Islam.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > Islam is to testify there is no true god but Allah and Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah, to establish prayer, to give charity, to fast the month of Ramadan, and to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to the House if one can find a way. Gabriel said, “You have spoken truthfully,” and then he said, “Tell me about faith.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > Faith is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in the Divine Decree (*al-qadr*), both its good and its evil. Gabriel said, “You have spoken truthfully, so tell me about excellence.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > Excellence is to worship Allah as if you see Him, for though you do not see Him, He surely sees you.[^1] This narration lays out the journey before us, from religious infancy to spiritual maturity: surrender, faith, and excellence. When each of these terms is used in isolation, they refer to the totality of faith. When they are contrasted, they each have a specific meaning. Imām Ibn Taymiyyah explains the hadith, writing: > The hadith of Gabriel clarifies that Islam is built upon five pillars, which is Islam itself. It is not based upon anything other than its foundation. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ designated three degrees of the religion. The pinnacle is excellence (*al-iḥsān*), its middle is faith (*al-īmān*), and its base is Islam. Thus, every good-doer (*muḥsin*) is a believer and every believer is Muslim, but not every believer is a good-doer and not every Muslim is a believer.[^2] As believers, our ultimate goal should be to practice much more than the basics. Rather, we should aspire to climb the figurative mountain, to graduate from the lowest levels to the highest levels of faith, in pursuit of the loftiest station in Paradise, *Jannat al-Firdaws*. Yet the journey to the Hereafter must always begin at the beginning. None of us exit the womb praying five times a day or knowing our creed. We all have to take that first step. Every Muslim must start with the basics and move forward into faith. Allah has likened faith development to the development of a seed that becomes a large tree producing fruit. Allah said: > Have you not seen how Allah strikes the parable of a good word as a good tree, its roots firmly planted and its branches reaching to the sky? It produces its fruit at all times, by the permission of its Lord. Allah strikes parables for people, that perhaps they will reflect.[^3] When we first declare our testimony of faith (*shahādah*), knowing its meaning and truly believing in it, the seed of faith is planted in our hearts. Thus begins our trek along the straight path, advancing forward as if climbing a mountain upon which we know is an eternal treasure and an everlasting home. As Abū Sulaymān رحمه الله said, “Blessed is the one who takes a single step desiring nothing but Allah Almighty.”[^4] --- ## Islam: Following the basics The very first priority for a new Muslim, or a newly awakened Muslim, is to learn the basic practices of Islam—its five pillars—starting most importantly with understanding the meaning of the declaration of faith (“There is no God but Allah, and Muḥammad is His Messenger”) and the six articles of faith. After this theological foundation is established, it is essential to begin performing the daily prayers and the rest of the pillars of Islam as applicable. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: > Islam is built upon five: to worship Allah and to disbelieve in what is worshipped besides him, to establish prayer, to give charity, to perform Hajj pilgrimage to the house, and to fast the month of Ramadan.[^5] Everything else in Islam is built upon the five pillars. No Muslim can advance spiritually unless they adhere to these basic religious practices. Imām Ibn Rajab comments on this tradition, writing: > The purpose is to strike a parable of Islam as a building supported on these five pillars. The building cannot stand without them, while the remaining attributes of Islam perfect the building. If any of the secondary attributes are missing, the house will be lacking although it is standing. It will not fall by lacking those attributes, in contrast to these five pillars.[^6] The parable of the five pillars is a concrete way for us to understand priorities in an Islamic framework. The scholars have divided all outward actions into five categories: obligatory (*farḍ* or *wājib*), recommended (*mustaḥabb* or *mandūb*), permissible (*ḥalāl* or *mubāḥ*), discouraged (*makrūh*), and forbidden (*ḥarām*). It makes sense that our first order of business is to practice the obligations and avoid the prohibitions (which is like setting the foundation of the house), then move on to practicing recommended acts and avoiding discouraged acts, which is like decorating the house or adding fixtures. Adhering to the pillars of Islam does not necessarily make one a believer in good standing with Allah. Islam provides us guidance on both outward and inward deeds, rituals and spirituality. When some nomad Arabs came to the Prophet ﷺ, they declared themselves to be believers, but Allah knew that their hearts had not yet internalized the faith. Allah said: > The bedouins say, ‘We have faith.’ Say, ‘You do not have faith, but rather say we have surrendered in Islam,’ for faith has not entered your hearts. If you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not diminish anything from your deeds. Verily, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.[^7] On one occasion, the Prophet ﷺ was distributing charity and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ said to him, “O Messenger of Allah, give it to this man, for he is a believer.” The Prophet said, “Or merely a Muslim.” Saʿd said it three times and the Prophet repeated it three times, “Or merely a Muslim.”[^8] The Prophet ﷺ also addressed a group of Muslims, saying: > O you who have faith with their tongues but faith has not entered their hearts! Do not backbite the Muslims or seek out their faults. Whoever seeks their faults, Allah will seek his faults. And if Allah seeks his faults, He will expose him even in the privacy of his house.[^9] As clarified in these traditions and many others, the outward components of Islam are only the beginning of our journey to the Hereafter. Not only must our limbs submit to the will of the Creator; our hearts must submit to Him as well. A man once asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is Islam?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “That you surrender your heart to Allah and that Muslims are safe from your tongue and hand.”[^10] The greatest Muslims in our history were not content with limiting their spiritual potential to outward deeds. In fact, the first of the righteous Caliphs was distinguished not by his external worship, but because of something inside him. According to Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Muzanī, “Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was not better than people because of an abundance of fasting and prayer. Rather, he was only favored over them because of something that settled in his heart.”[^11] It is the true and actualized faith, internalized and fully absorbed, that propels a Muslim to the peak of righteousness in this world and the highest parts of Paradise in the Hereafter. --- ## Faith (Īmān): Actualizing our Islam Having understood what Islam requires of us in matters of ritual worship, our next step is to understand faith as it was revealed to us in the Qur’an and Sunnah and as it was understood by our righteous predecessors. Faith is based upon belief in the six articles of Faith, but this is not blind belief, as many people incorrectly assume. Readers may need to set aside any preconceived notions that the English word ‘faith’ might imply. Rather, faith in Islam is an *action*. As Allah said, “Give glad tidings to those who have faith and do righteous deeds, that they will have gardens beneath which rivers flow.”[^12] The phrase “those who have faith and do righteous deeds” occurs over and over throughout the Qur’an. Faith is inseparable from the deeds of the heart and the deeds of the body, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather he looks at your hearts and actions.”[^13] For this reason, the scholars defined *iman* in terms of both inward and outward action. Ibn Taymiyyah explains the definition for us, “It is understood that *īmān* is \[actually\] affirmation and not simply belief (*al-taṣdīq*). Affirmation includes both the heart's statement, which is belief, and the heart's action, which is compliance.”[^14] The statement of the heart means to really believe in what you profess with your tongue, and the actions of the heart are the internal mechanisms of worship, such as one’s ultimate fear, love, hope, reliance, and penitence. In another place, Ibn Taymiyyah writes that faith “is not merely belief in His existence and His attributes, as is shared by the believer and unbeliever alike.”[^15] Even Satan believes in Allah’s existence, but that does not make him a believer. It was only after he arrogantly disobeyed his Creator that “he became one of the unbelievers.”[^16] It was not the sin per se that made him an unbeliever, as we are all sinners, but rather it was his stubborn and remorseless refusal to repent and obey the commands of his Lord. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī gives us an even more detailed definition of faith: > As for the definition of faith and its explanation, it is resolute belief and total acknowledgment of everything Allah and His Messenger commanded to have faith in, complying both outwardly and inwardly. It is belief in the heart and its acceptance, including actions of the heart and actions of the body… For this reason, the Imams among the righteous predecessors would say: Faith is a statement of the heart and the tongue, and the actions of the heart, the tongue, and the limbs.[^17] Hence, faith is fulfilled through internal and external actions, in our hearts and minds as well as our limbs. From this perspective, faith is not a static category, but rather the strength of one’s faith fluctuates according to the nature of our deeds. As Allah said, “When a *sūrah* is revealed, those among them say, ‘Which of you had his faith increased by this?’ As for those who believe, it increased their faith and they rejoice in it.”[^18] When new verses of the Qur'an were revealed, the companions of the Prophet ﷺ would memorize them, contemplate over them, and put them into action. The book of Allah would increase their faith. As such, the parable of faith is that of a piece of clothing, which one wears or takes off at any given time. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, the faith of one of you will wear out within him, just as a shirt becomes worn out, so ask Allah to renew faith in your hearts.”[^19] And ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah رضي الله عنه said, “The parable of faith is that of a shirt. You may not be wearing it and then you put it on, or you may be wearing it and then you take it off.”[^20] Faith must be constantly renewed by actions such as prayer, fasting, seeking Islamic knowledge, and remembrance. This is why Muʿādh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه used to say to his companions, “Come and sit with us. We will have faith for a while.”[^21] That is, they would perform the actions of faith together as a means to increase their faith. From another perspective, there are aspects of faith that do not change, because Allah Himself is Eternal and Unchanging. Most importantly, Allah is One and there is no object worthy of worship except for Him. Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, a commentator on the popular classical creed of Imām al-Taḥāwī, defines monotheism (*al-tawhīd*) in Islam: > Monotheism is the beginning and end of the matter, meaning the oneness of divinity. Monotheism has three components. First, knowledge of the divine attributes. Second, the oneness of Lordship and clarity that Allah alone has created all things. Third, the oneness of divinity, that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, deserves to be worshipped alone, without any partners.[^22] In other words, there are three aspects to monotheism: the Oneness of Names and Attributes (*tawḥīd al-asmāʾ wa-al-sifāt*), the Oneness of Lordship (*tawḥīd al-rubūbiyyah*), and the Oneness of Divinity (*tawḥīd al-ilāhiyyah*). These are not mutually exclusive categories; they overlap. To affirm the name *Allah* (“the God”) is to affirm His Divinity. To affirm the name *al-Khāliq* (“the Creator”) is to affirm His Lordship, and so on. From the all-encompassing principle of monotheism, the scholars have delineated the most important beliefs in the discipline known as *ʿAqīdah*, creedal theology. As aspiring believers, then, we come to know Allah by studying His Names and Attributes as they are revealed in the Qur’an. In a particularly meaningful passage, Allah reveals several of His Names to us: > He is Allah, besides whom there is no God, the Sovereign, the Holy, the Pure, the Faithful, the Overseer, the Almighty, the Compeller, the Superior. Glory be to Allah above what they associate with Him. > He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; unto Him belong the Best Names. Whatever is in the heavens and on the earth glorifies Him, for He is the Almighty, the Wise.[^23] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has ninety-nine names and whoever preserves them will enter Paradise.”[^24] By these Names, we recognize our Creator and worship Him correctly. Shaykh al-Saʿdī comments on this tradition, writing, “Whoever memorizes them, understands their meanings, believes in them, and worships Allah by them, he (or she) will enter Paradise.”[^25] Studying these Names, learning them by heart, and observing their manifestations in the world is an essential method of increasing our faith. Great scholars, like Imām al-Ghazālī, would produce treatises on the Names of Allah, explaining not only their meanings but also how to act upon them.[^26] Our faith in the Creator must include the means by which He has communicated His will to us: faith in the Messengers and their Books. Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ is the last in a long line of Prophets, including well-known figures such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, peace be upon them all. However, as the Books of earlier Prophets were obfuscated, lost to history, or changed by their latter followers, Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ is distinguished among them as the bearer of the Noble Qur’an, the literal words of Allah. The importance of the Qur’an in Islam cannot be overstated. It is the direct connection between the worshipper and the Creator, a divine discourse speaking to you, the reader, from the Lord of the universe. It is a prophetic miracle in its substantive content, which laid the foundation for a great world civilization. It is also a linguistic miracle in that the very method of reciting the Qur’an, known as *al-tajwīd*, has the ability to stir hearts and increase faith; the miracle of the Qur’an can be *experienced* by all who study it. Even if believers do not yet have the knowledge to experience the Qur’an, they should know that its miraculous nature is an article of faith for a very good reason. Imām al-Taḥāwī رحمه الله writes in his famous creed: > The Qur’an is the word of Allah. It originated from Him, without ascribing a modality to its speech. It was revealed to His Messenger by divine inspiration. The believers affirm all of that as the truth. They have conviction that it is the word of Allah Almighty in reality, not created like the word of creatures.[^27] New, or newly awakened, Muslims who do not know the Qur’anic language have yet to experience the miracle, but this is also how the companions of the Prophet ﷺ learned Islam. First, they learned faith, then they learned the Qur’an. Jundub ibn ʿAbdullah رضي الله عنه said, “We learned faith before we learned the Qur’an, then we learned the Qur’an and it strengthened our faith.”[^28] One must first connect their heart to the Creator, then connect their heart to His words. Reciting the Qur’an, in both its outward form (*al-tajwīd*) and inward meanings (*al-tafsīr*), is how a believer can take his or her faith to the next level, as Allah said, “Do they not ponder over the Qur’an? If it had come from another besides Allah, they would have found many contradictions in it.”[^29] The beauty of its enlightening words, the wisdom of its rulings, the natural simplicity of its theology, everything about the Qur’an provides a spiritual experience like no other. We were not present when the sea was parted for Moses عليه السلام, nor when the dead were raised for Jesus عليه السلام, but each one of us can study the Qur’an and experience this miracle firsthand. As such, the Prophet ﷺ said, “There were none among the prophets but that he was given unique signs to instill faith in humanity. Verily, I have been given the revelation that Allah has inspired in me, so I hope to have the most followers on the Day of Resurrection.”[^30] The miracle of the Qur’an is timeless and accessible, unlike the miracles of all other Prophets. Furthermore, Allah challenges all of creation to bring forth a book that matches the Qur’an. Allah said, “If you are in doubt about what We have revealed to Our servant, produce one *sūrah* like it and call upon your witnesses besides Allah if you are truthful.”[^31] But the fact is that no one can produce anything like the Qur’an. No one else can match its style, its influence on history and civilization, its settling in the hearts of millions of believers, who strive to memorize its every utterance. Complementing the miracle of the Qur’an is the authentic prophetic tradition, the Sunnah, the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. Allah said, “It is He who has sent a Messenger to the unlettered from among themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the Wisdom.”[^32] According to the great exegete among the *tābiʿīn*, Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah, the “Wisdom” in this verse, and others like it, means the prophetic tradition, the Sunnah.[^33] The Sunnah is contained in rigorously preserved oral traditions (*ḥadīth* or plural *aḥādīth*).[^34] Believers learn the practical application of the Qur’an, such as the details of prayer, everyday habits, and morality from the Sunnah, as put by the wife of the Prophet, ʿĀishah, “Have you not read the Qur’an? The character of the Prophet of Allah was the Qur’an.”[^35] The two source-texts of divine revelation, the Qur’an and Sunnah, together make up the *Sharīʿah*, the religious path. The term *Sharīʿah* has been misunderstood, confused, and abused by anti-Islam media and even by some Muslims. As with all technical terminology, we need to precisely define what we mean by the word *Sharīʿah* from its usage in Islam’s source-texts. Allah said, “Thus We have placed you upon an ordained path (*sharīʿah*), so follow it and do not follow the whims of those without knowledge.”[^36] Al-Ṭabarī explained the linguistic meaning of *Sharīʿah* in this verse as a way (*ṭarīqah*), a tradition (*sunnah*), and a method (*minhāj*).[^37] The technical definition of the term by later scholars is comprehensive, consisting of three branches inclusive of the entire religion: rules (*āḥkām*), beliefs (*ʿaqāid*), and morals (*akhlāq*).[^38] Moreover, the moral foundations of the *Sharīʿah* are the virtues and values of mercy (*raḥmah*), integrity (*istiqāmah*), God-consciousness (*taqwá*), gratitude (*shukr*), patience (*ṣabr*), honesty (*ṣidq*), justice (*ʿadl*), temperance (*ʿiffah*), fidelity (*wafāʾ*), and tolerance (*samāḥah*).[^39] The religion in its fullest sense is contrasted in the verse with whims and base desires (*ahwāʾ*). That is, true faith is about conforming our personal desires to the *Sharīʿah*, not changing the *Sharīʿah* to fit our personal desires, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you has true faith until his desires comply with what I have brought.”[^40] With this broader picture in mind, a believer is ready to study the *Sharīʿah* with the hope of being blessed by its guidance. However, it is encouraged for believers to study the *Sharīʿah*, Islam’s source-texts, within the theoretical framework of  one of the interpretive schools established by the four Imāms: Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, Al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. The early scholar Ibn Wahb would say, “Were it not for Mālik and Al-Layth (two Imāms of *fiqh*), I would have been ruined. I used to think that everything narrated about the Prophet ﷺ should be acted upon.”[^41] This concern still holds true today, since many of the anti-Islam arguments that permeate the internet are nothing more than citing Qur’anic verses and hadith out of context. And since *fiqh* is essential for interpreting hadith, many scholars recommended studying *fiqh* according to one of the orthodox schools, while others maintain that one does not need to limit oneself to one school as long as their practice of the Sunnah draws upon the inherited guidance of *fiqh*. The authentic hadith and the Sunnah (plural *Sunan*) they express also fit into a broader narrative known as the *Sīrah*, the prophetic biography. Believers keen to increase their faith ought to study the Prophet’s ﷺ biography, the social context within which he preached the message of One God, the hardships he and his followers overcame, and the magnanimity they showed to their enemies. Even many non-Muslims who investigate the life of the Prophet ﷺ with curiosity and fairness cannot help but be amazed by his faith. Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader best-known for his successful nonviolent campaign to achieve independence from British imperial rule, was an admirer of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. Gandhi wrote in one of his letters: > I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind… I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These, and not the sword, carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet’s biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.[^42] Indeed, the biography of the Prophet ﷺ is yet another sign for the believers. The classical jurist Ibn Hazm used to say, “If there were no other miracles besides his biography, it would be enough.”[^43] Another important practice to increase our faith, and this is especially important for those who cannot yet read the Qur’an, is to ponder over the wonders of creation and witness the miracles of the Creator in nature. Allah said: > Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day are signs for those who understand, who remember Allah standing, sitting, or lying on their sides and reflect deeply upon the creation of the heavens and the earth, saying, ‘Our Lord, You have not created all this without purpose. Glory be to You, so save us from the Hellfire.’[^44] Believers who think about their own existence can only logically conclude that the creation has a Creator, who created it for a wise purpose. When asked to justify belief in God, the early Muslims, like the Qur’an, found evidence in the many signs in creation. Imām al-Shafi’i رحمه الله, for instance, was asked about the existence of the Creator and he replied, “The leaves of a berry bush all have one taste. Worms eat it and produce silk. Bees eat it and produce honey. Goats, camels, and cows eat it and produce droppings and dung. Deer eat it and produce musk. Yet, all of these come from one thing.”[^45] If one really thinks about this particular natural miracle—that many different creatures eat the same plant but produce different substances useful to humankind—the necessary conclusion is that it was made to be this way.[^46] Once we have established our relationship with our Creator, His Messenger, and His Book, we then need to turn our attention towards how the believers are described in the Qur’an and Sunnah, and act accordingly. Allah said: > Righteousness is not that you turn your faces east or west, rather righteousness is in one who has faith in Allah and the Last Day, the Angels, the Book, and the Prophets, who give out their wealth, despite their love for it, to relatives, the orphans, the needy, the wayfarers, those who ask, and for freeing slaves, who establish prayer, give in charity, and keep the promises they make, the patient in poverty, hardship, and times of danger. Such as these have been truthful and are Godfearing.[^47] These verses and many others describe the believers by various virtues and good deeds, such as praying, giving charity, being patient, and restraining their anger. Speaking on the verses of this type, Shaykh al-Saʿdī writes: > Whoever fulfills these characteristics is a true believer. Included in that are the establishment of obligations, both outwardly and inwardly, and avoidance of what is forbidden and discouraged… These verses are explicit in that faith includes theological beliefs, morals, outward and inward actions. Based on this, it increases by the increases in these characteristics and their actualization, and it decreases when they are decreased*.*[^48] As proven in many verses and traditions, faith is inseparable from moral character, dignified manners, and good behavior towards others.[^49] The topic of morals (*al-akhlāq*) and manners (*al-ādāb*) greatly concerned the early Muslims, who compiled hundreds of prophetic traditions about it and authored extended treatises on it. The classical scholar Ibn al-Qayyim went so far as to say, “The religion itself is good character, so whoever surpasses you in good character has surpassed you in religion.”[^50] In this statement are the two dimensions of the religion: good behavior towards Allah (including correct theological beliefs, sincere and correct acts of worship), and good behavior to the creation (including giving charity, being kind, and showing mercy). Both of these aspects—the rights of Allah (*huqūq Allah*) and the rights of His servants (*huqūq al-ʾibād*)—are intrinsically linked. Whoever is deficient in one aspect will be deficient in the other. The summation of how our behavior should be towards our fellow human beings and creatures is found in the theological maxim, “The recompense for deeds is of the same type” (*al-jazāʾ min jins al-ʿamal*). Put differently, Allah will treat you how you treat others. In this regard, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Love for people what you love for yourself and you will be a believer. Behave well with your neighbors and you will be a Muslim.”[^51] A true believer imagines himself in the shoes of his neighbors; he naturally empathizes with them and shows compassion for them. This is known as the “ethics of reciprocity,” a concept deeply rooted in Islamic texts.[^52] Ibn al-Qayyim expresses the essence of this principle, writing: > The recompense of a deed resembles its type of good and evil. Whoever covers the faults of a Muslim, Allah covers his faults. Whoever eases one in difficulty, Allah will make it easy for him in the world and the Hereafter. Whoever relieves a believer of hardship in the world, Allah will relieve his hardship on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever cancels a sale someone later regretted, Allah will cancel his slips on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever seeks out the faults of his brother, Allah will seek out his faults. Whoever harms a Muslim, Allah will harm him. Whoever is harsh, Allah is harsh with him. Whoever abandons a Muslim in a situation in which he needs support, Allah will abandon him in a situation in which he needs support. Whoever is tolerant, Allah is tolerant with him. The Most Merciful will show mercy to the merciful. Indeed, Allah only has mercy on His merciful servants. Whoever spends in charity, He will spend on him. Whoever is miserly, He will withhold from him. Whoever forgoes one of his rights, Allah will forgo one of His rights over him. Whoever overlooks the mistakes of people, Allah will overlook his mistakes. Whoever is keen to find fault, Allah is keen to find fault in him. This is the law of Allah, His decree, and His revelation. His reward and punishment are entirely based upon this principle.[^53] Shaykh al-Saʿdī concurs, writing, “The recompense is commensurate with the deeds. As one is good to the servants of Allah and approaches them with benevolence—as much as one can—Allah will be good to him with all types of good.”[^54] To recap, faith is defined as both conviction and action. It increases or decreases depending on our deeds. Believers can increase their faith by studying the Qur’an, studying the Sunnah, reading the biography of the Prophet ﷺ, and reflecting deeply on the miracles of nature. Believers must also try to live up to the description of the believers in the Qur’an and Sunnah, upholding justice, showing compassion, and generally behaving with the same moral standard that they expect from other believers. The next level of faith, *Iḥsān*, involves achieving excellence in all characteristics of the faith: worshipping Allah sincerely and correctly, seeking knowledge, purifying the heart from spiritual diseases, and treating others how we like to be treated. --- ## Excellence (Iḥsān): Doing our best in Islam Having grasped the major components of faith—the six articles, the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the *Sīrah*, the *Fiqh*, and moral values—the believer can clearly view the path ahead, the figurative mountain to be climbed. The top of this mountain was described by the Prophet ﷺ as worshipping Allah as if you can see Him in front of you. Muʿādh ibn Jabal once asked, “O Messenger of Allah, instruct me.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Worship Allah as if you can see Him and prepare yourself for death.”[^55] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ taught Muʿādh to say this supplication, “O Allah, help me to remember You, to give thanks to You, and to worship You in the best manner.”[^56] Worshipping Allah as if you see Him means to strive for excellence in worship and in all of our deeds. Imām al-Nawawī explains the meaning of this phrase, writing: > This statement is among the comprehensive sayings (*jawāmiʿ al-kalim*) brought by the Prophet ﷺ. If one of us is able to worship as if he sees his Lord, Glorified and Exalted is He, he would never abandon any good thing he can do, such as being humble, reverent, behaving well, and taking care to combine outward and inward aspects completely, in the best possible manner.[^57] We all tend to be more modest and shy to do wrong in public, rather than in private. It is easier to disobey your parents when they are not looking over you, or to disobey a teacher when their back is turned. In a similar way, we feel more shame in doing wrong when we have the conviction that Allah is watching our every deed, even what we do in the innermost part of our being, our hearts. But unlike our parents or teachers, Allah is always aware of what we are doing and is more deserving of our obedience, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah is more worthy of your modesty than people.”[^58] Islam teaches us to perform all of our good deeds—prayer, charity, fasting, or any beneficial activity we do—as best as we possibly can, as if Allah were right in front of us. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah has prescribed excellence in everything. If you have to kill, kill in the best manner. If you have to slaughter, slaughter in the best manner. Let one of you sharpen his knife, so his animal is spared of suffering.”[^59] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “If you make a judgment, be just. If you have to kill, kill in the best manner. Verily, Allah Almighty is Excellent and He loves excellence.”[^60] Of course, doing our best means both outwardly and inwardly. From the external perspective, we are often presented with a range of options in a given situation. In *fiqh* terms, we may have a choice between doing something that is recommended or merely permissible. In this regard, Allah said, “Give glad tidings to My servants who listen to the word and follow the best of it.”[^61] For instance, when we are wronged, we can choose between legal retaliation or forgiveness for the offender. Al-Samarqandī comments on this verse, writing, “It is said that they listen to the Qur’an and they follow the best in it, such as in the choice between retaliation and pardon, one chooses to pardon, as in His saying, ‘If you are patient, it is better for the patient.’”[^62] There are many recommended *sunan* actions we can choose to practice or not, just as one could choose to decorate his house (his faith founded upon the five pillars of Islam) or not. Moreover, sometimes we are presented with two benefits or two harms, in which we need to consider the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils. Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The intelligent one is not one who knows good and evil, but rather only one who can recognize the better of two goods or the worse of two evils.”[^63] In this way, identifying and implementing the better action within an appropriate framework of *fiqh* is part of striving for excellence in our worship and deeds. From the internal perspective, we must purify our hearts from all kinds of spiritual diseases, such as hypocrisy, arrogance, worldliness, envy, and malice. Allah tells us that no one will be safe on the Day of Judgment except for “one who comes to Allah with a pure heart.”[^64] The heart (in the spiritual sense, not the physical heart) is the basis for all other voluntary actions. If the heart is truly pure of sinful dispositions, the rest of our deeds will be correct. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, in the body is a piece of flesh which, if sound, the entire body is sound, and if corrupt, the entire body is corrupt. Truly, it is the heart.”[^65] To illustrate what a pure heart is like, Al-Thaʿlabī shares one of the wise sayings of the righteous predecessors, “A man does not reach the peak of righteousness (*sinām al-taqwá*) until it is such that, were he to place what is in his heart on a plate and go around the market with it, he would not be ashamed of anything on it.”[^66] Imagine how ashamed we would feel if other people could peer into our hearts and find every one of our spiritual flaws. If we carry any dark secrets within us, then we still have room to improve until we reach the top of the mountain. However, it is important to acknowledge that excellence, or *iḥsān*, does not necessarily mean perfection. We were not created to be perfect, as the Prophet ﷺsaid, “All of the children of Adam are sinners, and the best sinners are those who repent.”[^67] We will make mistakes and we will commit sins, but part of excellence is to fulfill the conditions of sincere repentance. For this reason, Allah tells us to “be mindful of Allah as much as you are able.”[^68] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “When I prohibit something, avoid it. When I command you to do something, do it as much as you are able.”[^69] Each of us has strengths and weaknesses, which means *iḥsān* may not look exactly the same for each and every believer. We have all inherited different means, so excellence is to do our very best with what we have. --- ## How do we get there? Systematic spiritual advancement The ultimate goal is to bring all the inward and outward components of faith together in the best possible manner, according to the means provided to us by Allah. How can we advance to higher states of faith in a systematic way? The prophetic method was revealed in the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ description of the “allies” of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Allah Almighty said: My servant does not grow closer to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the duties I have imposed upon him. My servant continues to grow closer to Me with extra good works until I love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask something from Me, I would surely give it to him. Were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant it to him.[^70] This tradition describes the process by which faith is strengthened and states of excellence are attained. The correct place to start improving is by fulfilling our obligations (*al-farāʾiḍ*) to Allah and His creatures as best as we can—prayer, charity, fasting, performing the Hajj pilgrimage if possible, and respecting the basic limits of permission and prohibitions (*halāl* and *harām*). Once we have established these duties—the pillars of Islam—we can begin adding extra good works (*al-nawāfil*), which correspond to the *fiqh* categories of Sunnah and recommendation. In this way, we establish good habits and, slowly but surely, add more good habits to our routine. Many times the companions would come to the Prophet ﷺ and ask him about extra good works they could incorporate into their daily lives. For example, Abū Hurayrah said: > My dear friend, the Prophet ﷺ, advised me to do three deeds and I will never abandon them until I die: to fast three days of every month, to perform the forenoon prayer, and to sleep after performing the *witr* prayer.[^71] Abū Hurayrah was told to work these three practices into his routine. On another occasion, Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه the first of the righteous Caliphs, said, “O Messenger of Allah, command me with something to say in the mornings and evenings.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > Say, ‘O Allah, the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of everything and its Owner, I testify that there is no God but You. I seek refuge in You from the evil of my soul and from the evil of Satan and his idolatry.’ Say this in the morning, evening, and when you lie down to sleep.[^72] In this case, Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه was given a specific supplication (*duʿāʾ*) to say every day and night. The key to self-improvement is to pick one good habit—it could be as simple as an extra supplication—and stick with it until it becomes routine. ʿĀishah describes how the Prophet ﷺ developed his consistent good habits, “If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took up a practice, he would be determined to do it regularly. If he slept through his night prayer or he was ill, he would pray twelve units of prayer in the day.”[^73] So even if, for whatever reason, he was unable to complete his habit of night prayer, he would make up for it during the day. When a good habit is firmly established, then one can add another small good habit to his or her practice. Quality in worship, or charity, is more important than quantity. That is why the Prophet ﷺ said, “Take up good deeds only as much as you are able, for the best deeds are those done regularly even if they are small.”[^74] It is also why the  Prophet ﷺ would prescribe various recommended actions to his companions. In his wisdom, he knew what they were capable of doing, so he did not prescribe the same routine to everyone who asked him. Rather, he discouraged Muslims from taking on more practices than they could reasonably sustain, saying, “Verily, the religion is easy and no one burdens himself in religion but that it overwhelms him.”[^75] And he said to ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAmr, “O ʿAbdullah, do not be like a man who would stand for prayer at night but later abandoned his night prayer.”[^76] By this slow, but steady, incremental method, a believer grows closer to Allah and the state of excellence. Building up outward habits, however, must be accompanied by efforts to purify our hearts and souls of spiritual diseases. This requires mindful introspection, which for many can be uncomfortable since none of us likes to think of ourselves as flawed or “bad” people. But we need to overcome this barrier of the ego, to seek out our own personal faults so that they can be systematically corrected. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb رضي الله عنه used to say, “May Allah have mercy on the one who shows me my faults.”[^77] And Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah رحمه الله said, “No man fails to recognize the defects in his own soul but that he is the greatest of fools.” It was said, “O Abū Wāthilah, what is your defect?” Iyās said, “Speaking too much.”[^78] Believers need to be aware of their own soul’s capacity to incline to evil, to wage *jihād* against it (*jihād al-nafs*), as well as to know the methods by which Satan deludes believers into an arrogant sense of self-righteousness.[^79] Great scholars like Imām al-Ghazālī and Ibn al-Qayyim wrote at length on specific techniques that can be used to target spiritual flaws and ultimately excise them from the heart. Envy (*al-ḥasad*), for example, is the malicious feeling of wanting to see someone deprived of goodness. The Prophet ﷺ warned us, saying, “Envy and hatred are the razors. I do not say they shave hair, but rather they shave the religion.”[^80] That is, this spiritual disease has the potential to wipe out our good deeds if we do not bring it under control. According to Al-Ghazālī, the cure for envy is to do the exact opposite of what it suggests: > For everything that envy judges one should say or do, one should oblige oneself to do its opposite. If envy compels one to disparage the envied, one should oblige one’s tongue to praise him and commend him. If envy compels one to be arrogant against him, one should require oneself to be humble before him and apologize to him… These are the cures for envy and they are very beneficial, although they are very bitter for the heart. Rather, the benefit is in bitter medicine.[^81] And this is the price of Paradise, to consume bitter medicine in pursuit of excellence. Every spiritual disease involves a cure that at first is bitter, but in time will lead to the sweetness of faith in this life and the next, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “The sweetness of the world is bitterness in the Hereafter, and the bitterness of the world is sweetness in the Hereafter.”[^82] --- ## Conclusion The three levels of religion in Islam begin with its outward components, followed by improving upon its inward components, and reaching its peak when the inward and outward states of the worshipper are fully actualized. These three levels are not mutually exclusive; they overlap in important ways. A new Muslim at the beginning of their faith-journey still needs to work on their spiritual interior until they achieve purity of heart, or excellence, as much as they can. In this state of spiritual excellence, one’s free will coincides with the Will of Allah, such that one becomes the tool through which Allah sends His blessings and mercy to His creatures. The worshipper achieves this state by knowledge and implementation of Islam’s source-texts and its primary scholarly disciplines (*Qur’an*, *Tafsīr*, *Tajwīd*, *Ḥadith*, *Sīrah*, *ʿAqīdah*, *Sharīʿah*, *Fiqh*, and purification of the soul or spirituality). Like climbing a mountain, the worshipper starts at the bottom or lowest level, then improves by gradually adding acts of worship and good habits to their daily routines, and using introspection to pinpoint the diseases in their heart (such as arrogance, greed, malice, and envy) and applying the cures to such diseases as prescribed by the scholars. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Muslim Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 1:36 #8, *kitab al-Iman bab ma’rifah al-Iman wal-Islam wal-Qadr wa ‘alamat al-sa’ah*. [^2]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Al-Īmān li-Ibn Taymīyah* (‘Ammān: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1996), 1:8; see also an alternative translation in *Book of Faith: Kitab al-Iman* (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2009), 20. [^3]: Sūrat Ibrāhīm 14:24-25. [^4]: Ibn Qudāmah, *Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Qāṣidīn* (Dimashq: Maktabat Dār al-Bayān, 1978), 1:365. [^5]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 1:11 #8. [^6]: Ibn Rajab, *Jāmi’ al-‘Ulūm wal-Ḥikam* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 1:145; see also an alternative translation in *The Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom* (London: Turath Publishing, 2007), 61. [^7]: Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt 49:14. [^8]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:132 #150, *kitab al-Iman bab ta’alluf qalbi man yakhafu ‘ala imanihi*. [^9]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:270 #4880, *kitab al-Adab bab fi al-ghaybah*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [^10]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 28:251 #17027; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā'ūṭ in the commentary. [^11]: al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, *Nawādir al-Uṣūl fī Maʻrifat Aḥādīth al-Rasūl* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Jīl, 1992), 1:148-149.. [^12]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:25. [^13]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1986 #2564. [^14]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà* (al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah: Majmaʻ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʻat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 7:638. [^15]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà*, 7:558. [^16]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:34. [^17]: ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Sa’dī, *Al-Tawḍīḥ wal-Bayān li-Shajarat al-Īmān* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Minhāj, 2002), 1:41-42. [^18]: Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:124. [^19]: al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī, *Al-Mustadrak ʻalá al-Ṣaḥīḥayn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1990), 1:45 #5; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* (\[Dimashq\]: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 1:330 #1590. [^20]: Ibn Ḥajar al-’Asqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1959), 12:61. [^21]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:10. [^22]: al-Ṭaḥāwī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, and ’Alī ibn ’Alī Ibn Abī al-’Izz, *Sharḥ Al-’Aqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyah* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1997), 1:24. [^23]: Sūrat al-Ḥashr 59:23-24. [^24]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:118 #7392; Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2062 #2677. [^25]: al-Sa’dī, *Al-Tawḍīḥ wal-Bayān li-Shajarat al-Īmān*, 1:71-72. [^26]: See for example Abū Ḥāmid Ghazālī, *Al-Maqṣad al-Asná fī Sharḥ Asmāʼ Allah al-Ḥusná* (Qubruṣ: al-Jaffān wal-Jābī, 1987); translated into English as *Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1999). [^27]: al-Ṭaḥāwī and Ibn Abī al-’Izz, *Sharḥ Al-’Aqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyah*, 1:172. [^28]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1975), 1:23 #61; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in the commentary. [^29]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:82. [^30]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 6:182 #4981, [^31]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:23. [^32]: Sūrat al-Jumu’ah 62:2. [^33]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’an* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 23:373. [^34]: For more information on the authentication of Hadith, see Muntasir Zaman, “Can We Trust Hadith Literature? Understanding the Processes of Transmission and Preservation.” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. October 30, 2018. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muntasir-zaman/can-we-trust-hadith-literature-understanding-the-process-of-transmission-and-preservation/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muntasir-zaman/can-we-trust-hadith-literature-understanding-the-process-of-transmission-and-preservation/) [^35]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:512 #746. [^36]: Sūrat al-Jāthiyah 45:18. [^37]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’an*, 22:70 verse 45:18. [^38]: *Al-Mawsū’at al-Fiqhīyah* (al-Kuwayt: Dawlat al-Kuwayt, Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-al-Shu’ūn al-Islāmīyah, 1986), [^39]: *Ma’lamat Zāyid lil-Qawā’id al-Fiqhīyah wa Uṣūlīyah* (Abu Dhabi: Zayed Charitable Foundation, 2013), 3:49. [^40]: Ibn Abī ‘Āṣim, *Al-Sunnah li-Ibn Abī ‘Āṣim* (Bayrūt: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1980), 1:12 #15; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Nawawī in *Sharḥ al-Arbaʻīn al-Nawawīyah* (Bayrūt: Muʼassasat al-Rayyān, 2003), 1:135 #41. [^41]: al-Dhahabī, *Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā’* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 7:211. [^42]: Mahatma Gandhi, *The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi* (New Delhi, India: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1960), 29:133. [https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-29.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-29.pdf&sa=D&ust=1574875255404000) [^43]: Ibn Ḥazm, *Al-Fiṣal fī al-Milal wal-Ahwāʼ wal-Niḥal* (Miṣr: Maṭba’at Muḥammad ’Ali Ṣabīḥ wa Awlāduh, 1928), 2:73. [^44]: Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:190-191. [^45]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-‘Aẓīm*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 1:106 verse 2:21. [^46]: For more information on this topic, see Justin Parrott, “The Case for Allah’s Existence in the Qur’an and Sunnah.” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. February 27, 2017. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/the-case-for-allahs-existence-in-the-quran-and-sunnah/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/the-case-for-allahs-existence-in-the-quran-and-sunnah/) [^47]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:177. [^48]: al-Sa’dī, *Al-Tawḍīḥ wal-Bayān li-Shajarat al-Īmān*, 1:52. [^49]: For more information on this topic, see Justin Parrott, “Can a ‘Good Muslim’ Be a ‘Bad Person’? Aligning Faith and Character.” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. July 3, 2019. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/can-a-good-muslim-be-a-bad-person-aligning-faith-and-character/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/can-a-good-muslim-be-a-bad-person-aligning-faith-and-character/) [^50]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Īyāka Na’budu wa Īyāka Nasta’īn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 2:294. [^51]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1410 #4217; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [^52]: For more information on this topic, see Justin Parrott, “The Golden Rule in Islam: Ethics of Reciprocity in Islamic Traditions.” MRes dissertation for the *University of Wales*. Spring 2018. [https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/43458/2/The%20Golden%20Rule%20in%20Islam\_FINAL.pdf](https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/43458/2/The%20Golden%20Rule%20in%20Islam_FINAL.pdf) [^53]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Iʻlām al-Muwaqqiʻīn ’an Rabb al-’ālamīn* (Bayrut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʻIlmiyah, 1991), 1:150. [^54]: al-Sa’dī, *Al-Tawḍīḥ wal-Bayān li-Shajarat al-Īmān*, 1:78-79. [^55]: Ibn Abī Dunyā, *Kitāb al-Ṣamt wa Ādāb al-Lisān* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī, 1990), 1:56 #22; declared fair due to external evidence (*ḥasan li ghayrihi*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb* 3:92 #2870. [^56]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 2:86 #1522; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [^57]: al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1972), 1:157-158. [^58]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:407 #2794; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^59]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1948 #1955. [^60]: al-Ṭabarānī, *Al-Muʻjam al-Awsaṭ* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1995), 6:40 #5745; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 1:147 #494. [^61]: Sūrat al-Zumar 39:17-18. [^62]: al-Samarqandī, *Tafsīr al-Samarqandī al-Musammá Baḥr al-’Ulūm* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1993), 3:181 verse 39:18; Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:126. [^63]: Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà*, 20:54. [^64]: Sūrat al-Shu’arā’ 26:89. [^65]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:20 #52. [^66]: al-Thaʻlabī. *Al-Kashf wal-Bayān ʻan Tafsīr al-Qur’an* (Bayrut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 2002), 1:144. [^67]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:240 #2499; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 2:831 #4515. [^68]: Sūrat al-Taghābun 64:16. [^69]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:94 #7288. [^70]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:105 #6502. [^71]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:58 #1178. [^72]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:334 #3392; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^73]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:515 #141. [^74]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1417 #4240; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [^75]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:16 #39. [^76]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:54 #1152. [^77]: al-Dārimī, *Sunan al-Dārimī* (al-Riyāḍ: Dār al-Mughnī, 2000), 1:506 #675. [^78]: Ibn ’Asākir, *Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 10:34. [^79]: For more information on this topic, see Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Justin Parrott, “Devil in the Details: An Analysis of the Dark Side of the Self.” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. January 24, 2019. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/devil-in-the-details-an-analysis-of-the-dark-side-of-the-self/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/devil-in-the-details-an-analysis-of-the-dark-side-of-the-self/) [^80]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:245 #2510; declared very good (*jayyid*) by Al-Haythamī in *Majma’ al-Zawā’id wa Manba’ al-Fawā’id* (al-Qāhirah: Maktabat al-Qudsī, 1933), 8:30 #12732. [^81]: Al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyā’ ’Ulūm al-Dīn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 3:199. [^82]: Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal*, 37:533 #22899; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif, 1996), 4:431. Al-Albānī also mentions that it was authenticated by al-Ḥākim and al-Dhahabī agreed with him. ## Summary The religion of Islam unfolds in three ascending levels, and this ordering is drawn directly from the celebrated hadith in which the Angel Gabriel, upon him be peace, came to the Prophet ﷺ in the presence of his companions and questioned him about the faith. When asked about Islam, the Prophet ﷺ named its five pillars: the testimony that there is no true god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, establishing prayer, giving charity, fasting Ramadan, and performing the Hajj for whoever is able. When asked about faith (īmān), he named belief in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and the Divine Decree, both its good and its evil. When asked about excellence (iḥsān), he replied, "Excellence is to worship Allah as if you see Him, for though you do not see Him, He surely sees you." These three—surrender, faith, and excellence—map the journey from religious infancy to spiritual maturity. As Imam Ibn Taymiyyah explained, the Prophet ﷺ designated three degrees of the religion, whose pinnacle is iḥsān, whose middle is īmān, and whose base is Islam, so that every muḥsin is a believer and every believer is a Muslim, but not every believer reaches excellence and not every Muslim has attained true faith. The aim of understanding these degrees is to place the whole "spiritual mountain" before the worshipper, that he may know the highest goals of the religion and the disciplines that serve them. The journey must begin at its beginning, for none of us emerges from the womb praying or knowing his creed. Allah likened the growth of faith to a good tree whose roots are firm and whose branches reach the sky, producing its fruit at all times by its Lord's permission (Ibrāhīm 14:24–25). When one declares the testimony of faith with understanding and conviction, the seed is planted, and thus begins the ascent, as Abū Sulaymān said, "Blessed is the one who takes a single step desiring nothing but Allah Almighty." The first priority is to learn and practice the basics: the meaning of the shahādah, the six articles, and the five pillars, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Islam is built upon five." Imam Ibn Rajab explained that this is a parable of a building resting on pillars without which it cannot stand, while the remaining qualities of Islam perfect and adorn it. Thus the scholars ranked all outward deeds as obligatory, recommended, permissible, discouraged, or forbidden, and our first task is to fulfil the obligations and shun the prohibitions before decorating the house with recommended acts. Yet mere outward submission does not by itself place one in good standing with Allah, for the religion addresses both the limbs and the heart. Allah rebuked the bedouins who claimed faith, telling them to say rather that they had surrendered in Islam, "for faith has not entered your hearts" (al-Ḥujurāt 49:14). When Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ urged the Prophet ﷺ to favour a man because he was a believer, the Prophet ﷺ answered three times, "Or merely a Muslim." He also warned those "who have faith with their tongues but faith has not entered their hearts" against backbiting and seeking out the faults of Muslims. Indeed, when asked what Islam is, he answered, "That you surrender your heart to Allah and that Muslims are safe from your tongue and hand." Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Muzanī observed that Abū Bakr was not favoured over the people by an abundance of prayer and fasting, "but only because of something that settled in his heart." It is this internalized faith that carries a servant to the heights. Faith itself is not blind belief but affirmation joined to action, and readers must set aside the narrow sense the English word "faith" might suggest. Allah repeatedly pairs "those who have faith and do righteous deeds," and the Prophet ﷺ said Allah looks not at appearance or wealth but at hearts and actions. Ibn Taymiyyah clarified that īmān is affirmation, which includes the heart's statement (belief) and the heart's action (compliance), and that it is "not merely belief in His existence and His attributes, as is shared by the believer and unbeliever alike"—for Iblīs believed in Allah's existence yet became an unbeliever through his arrogant refusal to obey and repent. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī likewise defined faith as belief in the heart together with the actions of the heart, the tongue, and the limbs, following the righteous predecessors. Because faith comprises action, it rises and falls: Allah says of the revelation of a sūrah that "as for those who believe, it increased their faith" (al-Tawbah 9:124). The Prophet ﷺ compared faith to a garment that wears out, urging us to ask Allah to renew it, and ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah likened it to a shirt one puts on and takes off, while Muʿādh ibn Jabal would say, "Come and sit with us. We will have faith for a while." At the changeless core of faith stands tawḥīd. Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, commenting on the creed of Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī, described monotheism as the oneness of the divine attributes, the oneness of Lordship, and the oneness of divinity—overlapping rather than separate categories, from which the discipline of ʿaqīdah is drawn. We come to know Allah through His Names and Attributes revealed in the Qur'an (al-Ḥashr 59:23–24), and the Prophet ﷺ said Allah has ninety-nine names, "whoever preserves them will enter Paradise"; al-Saʿdī explained this as memorizing them, understanding them, believing in them, and worshipping Allah by them. Our faith must also embrace His Messengers and Books, culminating in Muhammad ﷺ who bears the Qur'an, the literal words of Allah. Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī affirmed that the Qur'an is the word of Allah, uncreated, revealed to His Messenger. Jundub ibn ʿAbdullah reported that the companions learned faith before the Qur'an, then the Qur'an strengthened their faith. Its miracle is timeless: the Prophet ﷺ said he was given a revelation such that he hoped to have the most followers on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah challenges creation to produce even a single sūrah like it (al-Baqarah 2:23). Complementing the Qur'an is the Sunnah, the "Wisdom" mentioned alongside the Book (al-Jumuʿah 62:2), as Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah explained, and ʿĀʾishah said the Prophet's character "was the Qur'an." Together the Qur'an and Sunnah constitute the Sharīʿah—defined by al-Ṭabarī linguistically as a way, tradition, and method (al-Jāthiyah 45:18), and by later scholars as comprising rulings, beliefs, and morals, with foundations of mercy, integrity, taqwā, gratitude, patience, honesty, justice, temperance, fidelity, and tolerance. True faith conforms desires to the Sharīʿah, as the Prophet ﷺ said none has true faith until his desires comply with what he brought. It is encouraged to study through the frameworks of the four Imams—Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—for Ibn Wahb said that but for Mālik and al-Layth he would have been ruined by acting on every narration in isolation; on whether one must confine oneself to a single school, the scholars differed. Believers are further nourished by the Sīrah—which even Gandhi praised, and of which Ibn Hazm said it would suffice as a miracle by itself—and by reflection on creation, as al-Shāfiʿī noted how one leaf yields silk, honey, and musk through different creatures. Righteousness, as Allah describes it (al-Baqarah 2:177) and al-Saʿdī explains, unites belief, morals, and outward and inward deeds. Ibn al-Qayyim held that "the religion itself is good character," binding the rights of Allah to the rights of His servants under the principle that "the recompense for deeds is of the same type," which he and al-Saʿdī elaborated at length. The summit is iḥsān: to worship Allah as if seeing Him. The Prophet ﷺ told Muʿādh to worship Allah as though he saw Him and to prepare for death, and Imam al-Nawawī counted this among the comprehensive words of the Prophet ﷺ. Allah has prescribed excellence in all things, even in slaughter, and "loves excellence." Excellence is both outward—following "the best of it" (al-Zumar 39:18), as al-Samarqandī noted regarding pardon over retaliation, and choosing the better of two goods as Ibn Taymiyyah taught—and inward, purifying the heart, that piece of flesh upon which the whole body depends. Yet iḥsān is not perfection, for "all the children of Adam are sinners, and the best are those who repent," and we are commanded to fear Allah as much as we are able. The means of ascent is the prophetic method in the hadith of the awliyāʾ: drawing near through the obligations, then through voluntary works until Allah's love is attained. The companions were each given practices suited to them—Abū Hurayrah three deeds, Abū Bakr a supplication—and the Prophet ﷺ counselled consistency in small deeds, warned that the religion is easy, and taught introspection, as ʿUmar welcomed those who showed him his faults. Al-Ghazālī prescribed opposing envy by praising the envied, for "the benefit is in bitter medicine," and the Prophet ﷺ said the bitterness of this world is sweetness in the Hereafter. And success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/its-all-my-fault-quieting-and-healing-your-inner-critic # “It’s All My Fault”: Quieting and Healing Your Inner Critic **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** November 21, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 * * * *Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.* \-Edwin Hubbell Chapin[^1] --- ## Introduction *Halima was ecstatic when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. She had wanted a baby as long as she could remember and couldn’t wait to meet her unborn son. She would daydream about him being a leader of the believers and wondered if he would memorize the Qur’an or help the Ummah in amazing ways. Immediately after she gave birth, her baby unexpectedly had to be rushed for emergency heart surgery. While still recovering at the hospital NICU, a doctor came by to tell Halima that all the testing had come back and her son had a rare genetic disorder. The syndrome was not curable and although doctors didn’t know her baby’s prognosis yet, it was likely that her child would have severe physical, mental, and psychiatric issues for the rest of his life. Her son was going to have special needs, would very likely have to go to a special school, and would probably need extra care even as an adult. Halima was completely devastated. This is not what she imagined for her child at all. How could this have happened? There were no genetic disorders in her or her husband’s family, and her pregnancy had been uneventful. Halima kept asking herself if this was her fault until she started to believe it. She began to think she must have done something wrong during her pregnancy. Perhaps it was something she ate or medicine she might have taken. As the weeks passed by and her baby grew, she also started to blame herself if anything didn’t go as planned with him. If he didn’t eat enough, had the sniffles, or was crying more than usual, she would blame herself for not being a good mother. She agonized over her child’s health and wondered if on the Day of Judgment she might be held accountable for causing her child any pain. Halima fell into a depression making it very hard for her to take care of her baby. Every morning Halima would wake up with a massive invisible weight on her chest and think, **“Everything is my fault.”*** --- ## What is happening to me? Unexpected events can knock the wind out of us. When we build up expectations of ourselves, people around us, or things to come, a part of us begins to live in our future dreams. Yearning for what is coming and fantasizing about what lies ahead helps us get through our mundane lives. These dreams inspire us and motivate us to be better versions of ourselves, with our families and even with the world. When these expectations don’t develop or materialize as expected, all those intense feelings of hope and longing feel like they are crashing down all around us. Hope is one of the most powerful emotions a human being can have and when snatched away its loss can be a very painful and traumatic experience. For the person already living with a particular fantasy in their mind, the jolt back to reality can feel like a part of their world has been ripped away from them. Dreams that don’t turn out as expected might include: - A job you worked very hard to get, maybe even took years and years to get promoted to, doesn’t pan out. - A marriage you had very high hopes for, and perhaps waited for all your childhood and young adult life, ends in divorce. - A baby or child who you envisioned would mature a certain way develops an illness or condition that changes the trajectory of your family’s life. --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions When something major happens that impacts our lives in unexpected ways, one of the first things our brain does is ask two questions: 1\. What just happened? 2\. Why did this happen? We are wired for survival purposes to ask “why” when something bad happens. This protects us from making the same mistake twice. It’s also our brain’s way of making sense of unexpected events. If unexpected things happened to us all the time, we would not be able to cope with day-to-day life. For example, if you thought you could get into a car accident randomly at any given time, you would probably not drive. However, if you attribute car accidents to faulty car parts or bad driving, you are more likely to continue driving because you know that if you monitor these causes, your risk of an accident will decrease dramatically. This is why when we are ill and go to the doctor the first thing we want to know is, “Why is this happening to me?” And this is why when something bad happens, our first instinct is to ask, “Who or what caused this?” When unexpected events occur, we go through an appraisal process in which we review all variables that led to what happened, including our own actions. ***Could this have been prevented?** Maybe I caused my cancer with unhealthy eating habits.* ***Was this my fault?** Perhaps my child has autism because I painted her nursery while pregnant.* ***Was I negligent?** Maybe if I had double-checked everyone’s seat belt, then my nephew would have survived the car crash.* Taking responsibility for one’s actions (accountability) is one of the most important attributes a person can have. It’s integral to understanding the law of cause-and-effect, being able to reflect on one’s mistakes, and accepting responsibility when things go wrong. A healthy individual will engage in this skill to maintain wellness, redress wrongs, and prevent undesirable things happening in the future. Holding oneself accountable is a healthy way of thinking and is different from **self-blame**. Self-blame and self-criticism involve accepting fault with the main purpose of making oneself feel bad or punishing oneself.[^2]  **Egocentrism** never goes away completely but is more common during some parts of the life-span than others.[^3] As children mature, they begin to understand that not everything that happens is for them, because of them, or about them. It is very typical for a 7-year-old whose parents are experiencing a separation to think that his parents are getting a divorce because of him, whereas a 17-year-old can understand that his parents are getting a divorce for many reasons that have nothing to do with him. Egocentrism can be affected by many things including parental affection and rejection.[^4] If a child does not successfully navigate through egocentrism because of environmental factors (bad parenting, bullying, trauma, etc.) he or she may have more difficulty with unsubstantiated guilt or self-blame than the average person when he or she gets older. Lack of development in this area may lead a person to feel guilty for things not within their power, take blame for things that are not their fault, and even take blame for other people’s mistakes. Children who come from families with high conflict and trauma often feel responsible for circumstances that have nothing to do with them. Lack of appropriate boundaries in families can also lead to unnecessary feelings of guilt. In a healthy family, members are interdependent, meaning they have autonomous identities but they rely on each other and function better when connected with each other. If family members are enmeshed (overly reliant on each other) or have weak boundaries between them, there can be high risk for emotional dependency and confusion about accountability. Some examples may include: The oldest sibling gets punished for something their younger sibling did just because they are the older sibling. A young child gets blamed for causing a fight between her parents when the parents should have enough insight, discipline, and self-control to work through their conflict. A young girl tells her mother she was molested by a family member and, instead of taking action against the perpetrator, the mother blames her daughter. Many people who suffer from self-blame can trace that critical voice in their head back to a particular parent or authority figure (like a teacher or caregiver) who may have meant well in teaching the concept of accountability but did it in the wrong way. For example, if you did poorly on an exam they might have said to you: “You didn’t do well because you are lazy and didn’t study,” instead of “Why do you think you got a poor grade? Let’s look into what you can do differently next time.” Another example might be: “Nobody likes you because you cry all the time,” instead of “Sometimes it looks like you might have a hard time managing your emotions; maybe we can work on that together.” Or lastly: “Stop eating so much junk, if you are fat now it’s going to be even harder to change when you are older,” instead of, “I think we need to replace all the junk food in the house with delicious fruit and vegetables so we can all be healthy together.” In all the examples above, the first statements are designed to make a person feel bad in order to motivate them to change, whereas the second statements offer feedback for the purpose of growth. Both statements aim at changing behavior, but the first uses emotional pain as a motivator instead of fostering intrinsic motivation (wanting to do something because you actually want to do it vs. avoiding some kind of punishment). When children, who are very impressionable, hear negative statements like the ones above repeatedly, they can begin to internalize their parent’s critical voice. This critical voice can become part of their internal script for how they tend to talk to themselves when they grow older. --- ## Changing your mind, body, and heart If self-blame appears to be a recurring theme in your life, or perhaps emerged after a recent major change, consider reflecting back on your childhood to see where this thought process might have developed. Take time to contemplate: When you made mistakes as a child (which we all do), how did family members treat you? Were authority figures supportive or did they reprimand you? Did anyone call you names or put you down? If something bad happened in your family, to who or what did family members attribute the cause? When your parents did something wrong, did they beat themselves up over it? Did they blame each other? Did they blame you? While negative self-talk often develops in response to early experiences, it is also a common technique of Shaytan. Shaytan uses self-blame to demoralize people and push them to the brink of questioning the qadr of Allah. While it’s very normal to ask why certain things happened, Shaytan sometimes leads us to forget that some things in life are destined to happen and that no amount of preparation can deter the inevitable. Some events happen because of things we did, and sometimes things happen because they are part of a bigger picture that we may not fully understand. An excellent way of internalizing the concept that hardships can be a part of the bigger picture is reflecting on the Prophets (peace be on them all), who are the best of mankind, and their ongoing struggles with poverty, death, assault, imprisonment, rejection, etc. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) faced many difficulties including being orphaned, war, extreme hunger, physical violence, emotional abuse, and persecution. Prophet Yusuf was thrown by his brothers into a well to die, became a slave, and went to prison. Yet we never blame them or attribute these misfortunes to their sins. These were all events that had a purpose in the lives of the Prophets as well as the Muslims that came after them. Your answers to the questions above might help you discover where some of your unhealthy thought patterns might have come from. Once you have identified where they originated, you can begin to gently repair that way of thinking by inserting healthier messages about yourself. It might feel unnatural at first, but over time you can re-write the negative script in your head with a more positive one. Every time you think in your mind or feel in your body that you are responsible for something that you are not, try the following: 1. Sit down in a quiet and comfortable space alone. Keep your eyes closed. 2. Identify where on your body you feel tension when you are engaging in self-blame. 3. Begin structured breathing (breathing in for 3 seconds, holding it for 2 seconds and then exhaling for 6 seconds). 4. Gently visualize coming face-to-face with one self-blaming thought at a time. Let the thought come to you and challenge it with an opposite statement (Examples: “This is not my fault,” “There is a silver lining to every cloud,” “If I could go back in time and change things, the outcome would still have been the same,” etc.). Repeat this process for each self-blaming thought. 5. As you address the negative thoughts, allow the tension in your body to release as you exhale. For example, if you feel tightness in your neck, imagine your negative thoughts and the tension dissipating as you exhale the air out. Another technique you can use if you have an internalized voice from someone in your past is to visualize the person and remember how those negative thoughts are from *them* and not *you*. In your mind, imagine your negative thoughts are real words you can hold in your hands. Take all those negative thoughts and put them in as a big a basket as you need. Visualize handing that basket of words back to that person and telling them you will not hold on to them anymore. Then create distance in your mind from that person by walking away. If you catch yourself in the future using those negative words, repeat the exercise. To help reinforce these concepts on paper, you can write down your thoughts in an *unhealthy thought dump and repair activity*. Fold a piece of paper in half vertically. At the end of the day reflect and write down all the unhealthy negative thoughts that passed through your mind on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side directly next to the unhealthy thoughts write down healthier versions of those same thoughts. Research indicates that expressive therapies, including art therapy, can be very healing for those who have experienced certain types of trauma.[^5] If you are artistically inclined, consider using art as a medium to express your hurt, sadness, anger, and frustration in healthy ways. Transformative art, or artistic activity aimed at productively reconstructing thoughts and feelings, can be especially therapeutic.[^6] 1. Get a large piece of paper and a crayon, marker, or paint color that accurately expresses how you feel. The color red is commonly associated with trauma, but you can use whatever color you feel best captures what you are feeling. 2. Write down all your self-blaming thoughts. Write as messily, creatively, or neatly as you would like—there is no wrong way to do this. 3. Pick another color to scribble, color, or paint over those negative feelings. Address your frustration and pain by visually and artistically obliterating all your negative thoughts with this second color. Add positive thoughts or images if you would like. 4. Transform your art into something that feels beautiful to you. Add additional colors or images to convert what was once a paper with difficult feelings to something that feels healing. 5. Decide what you want to do with the art. You can keep it somewhere safe or discard it if that feels more cathartic for you. --- ## Unique circumstances of complex trauma Self-blame can happen with everyday stressors and minor traumas, but self-blame associated with complex trauma (long-term and/or ongoing trauma) warrants special attention. One of these circumstances, as illustrated in the case study, is the birth of a child with lifelong disabilities. Parents of children who have special needs can face a unique type of trauma. Many of these parents feel, although they know it’s not logical, that they could have prevented what happened or that they are somehow to blame for their child’s hardships. Some also feel a great sense of loss. We now turn to how overcoming trauma and grief may be slightly different for this population. ### Stages of grief When someone experiences a loss, they are typically expected to go through the stages of grief, which are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.[^7] These stages are not always linear but typically involve the following reactions. *Denial*: “This is a mistake, this can’t be happening.” In this stage, the person may be in shock or feel numb. The loss or trauma may feel like it hasn’t quite registered yet. *Anger*: “Why did this happen to me!” “Whoever did this will pay.” Anger can be projected at oneself, others, or sometimes even Allah. For parents of children who have special needs many times this anger is pushed inward at oneself and turns into self-blame. *Bargaining*: “Allah, if you fix this situation I will fast Mondays and Thursdays for the rest of my life.” “If I do such-and-such, maybe this can be reversed.” There is nothing inherently wrong with this phase, but this can be a person’s last-ditch effort to try and fix things before starting to accept what happened. *Depression*: “This is all my fault,” “I’m never going to get over this.” Before coming to full acceptance, it’s not unusual to fall into a phase of depression. In this phase, there is a lot of sadness about the loss. For the parent of a child with special needs, this can be the loss of what is considered a “normal” lifestyle or the loss of what they envisioned for their child’s future. It can also feel like a loss of independence as the child will grow into an adult that may need them indefinitely or a loss of time in that the parent will have to put more effort into taking care of the child than would be expected of other children. *Acceptance*: “I’m still sad, but have come to terms with what has happened.” This doesn’t mean that the person is ok with the loss, but has accepted the reality of the situation. For the parent of a child with special needs, this involves looking beyond the diagnosis to *really see* one’s child; it involves appreciating their child’s differences and loving them for being exactly who they are and were meant to be. Moving back and forth through the stages of grief is expected with regular trauma, but the whole process is generally viewed as one journey. The stages of grief related to having a child with special needs, however, often look cyclical because the trauma unfolds over a long period of time and is ongoing. The acceptance phase can be short-lived; every time a parent goes to the doctor and gets new information about how his or her child needs extra care may lead them back to earlier stages. For example, a child might be born with a genetic syndrome,  then at age 3 is diagnosed with autism, and then at age 13 develops psychosis. The new information doesn’t necessarily trigger the original trauma—it can initiate a new trauma. Additionally, every time there is an important life event that is expected to happen and doesn’t, the parent might find themselves going through the stages of grief from the beginning again. Parents experiencing these struggles may simultaneously face both solace and difficulty in realizing that this cycle of grief might not end. It’s difficult to accept that the struggles are long-term, but knowing that the struggles are long-term also takes away from the jolting reality each time something new hits. When a parent expects to go through the cycle of grief only once, they may feel ashamed, guilty, or weak for “not getting over it.” Cultivating self-compassion and knowing that these feelings are expected to be cyclical can be a relief for some. ### Coping with complex trauma and bereavement Ongoing trauma is like being a traveler on a journey to a faraway destination. The trip is fatiguing and long; however, putting down one’s luggage and resting is imperative to keep moving forward. The journey ahead will still be there tomorrow and self-care is the only way to find the strength to keep going forward. Continuously walking on the journey with no repose will only lead to excruciating pain and exhaustion. Self-care doesn’t consist of extravagant or expensive things, but simple activities to keep oneself physically and mentally healthy. If you feel that this analogy accurately captures your experience, consider making your own go-to list of self-care activities, like the one at the end of this chapter, to help maintain wellness long-term. It is recommended that we have self-care activities in four different spheres of our lives: intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical.[^8] Mindfulness is one self-care practice that can be useful in working with complex trauma. When there is pressure to figure out and cope with everything at once, slowing down and taking things as they come can reduce anxiety. You don’t need to figure out what life will be like ten, five, or even two years from now. All that you need to know now is that you are trying the best you can. When you do your best, Allah will take care of everything else—there is no purpose or benefit to agonizing over a future you can neither predict or control. The practice of mindfulness involves learning to be fully present in day-to-day life through one’s senses. You can be present by focusing on what’s going on right now at this very moment. *What do you see? What sounds do you hear? What do you feel with your skin? Perhaps your clothing or what you are resting on with your body. What does the temperature of the room feel like? What’s in your environment that needs your attention right now?* You only have to figure out one thing at a time, so shift your attention to what’s in front of you. Orienting yourself to the present can decrease anxiety, which focuses on the future, and depression, which usually focuses on the past. In day-to-day life, mindfulness involves paying attention to the small things. It may be smelling your child’s hair when you cuddle with them or savoring your food at dinner time. Mindfulness might involve enjoying nature as you walk around your neighborhood or snuggling up with a warm blanket. Mindfulness can also be a way of connecting to Allah by appreciating the faculties He has given you to experience His Creation. Bearing witness to the beauty of His Creation and the blessings around you can increase gratefulness. Although being a parent of someone with special needs can be difficult, it is also tremendously rewarding. Some of the lows in the journey can be met with extreme highs of happiness, gratitude, and love for one’s child. Many parents feel that it’s an honor and privilege because Allah directly chose them for the task, and this honor is not for the weak but the strong. Keeping perspective can help a tremendous amount, and one way of doing that involves connecting with other parents who have similar challenges. These days there are many support groups available, in one’s local community as well as online. --- ## Inspirational hadith and ayat for reflection It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, although both are good. Strive for that which will benefit you, seek the help of Allah, and do not feel helpless. If anything befalls you, do not say, ‘If only I had done such and such; rather say, ‘*Qaddara Allahu wa ma sha'a fa'ala* (Allah has decreed and whatever he wills, He does).’ For (saying) 'If' opens (the door) to the deeds of Satan.” (*Sunan Ibn Majah*, Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith 79) No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being—indeed that, for Allah, is easy. (The Qur’an, 57:22) Ubadah b. al Samit said to his son: “Son! You will not taste the reality of faith until you know that what has come to you could not miss you and that what has missed you could not come to you. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: The first thing Allah created was the pen. He said to it: Write. It asked: What should I write, my Lord? He said: Write what was decreed about everything till the Last Hour comes. Son! I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: He who dies on something other than this does not belong to me.” (*Sunan Abi Dawud,* 4700) On the authority of Abu Abbas Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: One day I was behind the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) \[riding on the same mount\] and he said, “O young man, I shall teach you some words \[of advice\]: Be mindful of Allah and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, then ask Allah \[alone\]; and if you seek help, then seek help from Allah \[alone\]. And know that if the nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had already prescribed for you. And if they were to gather together to harm you with anything, they would not harm you except with what Allah had already prescribed against you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.” (*40 Hadith Nawawi,* 19) --- ## Practical Exercises      A. *Unhealthy Thought Dump and Repair Activity*: Fold a piece of paper in half vertically. At the end of the day, reflect and write down all the unhealthy negative thoughts that passed through your mind on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side, directly next to the unhealthy thoughts, write down healthier versions of those same thoughts.      B. *The Un-Blame Game* Just because you don’t have an answer to what caused the trauma in your life doesn’t mean the blame comes back to you. Write down all the reasons you feel guilty for a trial or difficulty. The more reasons you can write the better, even if the reasons sound silly. 1\. Example: My son has autism because one day in my first trimester I had a migraine and took a Tylenol. 2. 3. After writing the reasons as to why you feel bad, do a truth check and examine the accuracy of the above statements. Write down below, matching the number above, a fact that counters your irrational thought. 1\. Example: The cause of autism is unknown at this time, but researchers believe it’s a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Many women take Tylenol during pregnancy. Taking a pain reliever was not the cause of my son’s autism. 2. 3. If these truths or counter thoughts don’t feel genuine initially, that is ok. Turn them into affirmations and repeat them daily until they become internalized.      C. *Self-Care* Self-care is important for everyone, but it is especially important for those who have experienced trauma, loss, or on-going hardship. Many people assume that self-care is something that has to be indulgent but this is a myth. Self-care activities are things you can do once a day or throughout the week that are healthy and help sustain or nourish you. While going to the spa and your favorite restaurant can be nice self-care activities every once in a while, they are not sustainable daily. Reasonable daily self-care activities include a 10-minute walk outside, savoring a nice piece of fruit, reading, speaking with a trusted friend, or making *duaa* after *salat*. Self-care is ongoing and should nurture different aspects of your life. Below, write regular self-care activities that can keep you strong in the face of adversity. Self-care for your body (physiological): 1. 2. Self-care for your spirit or *deen* (spiritual): 1. 2. Self-care for your mind (intellectual): 1. 2. Self-care for your soul (emotional): 1. 2. --- ## Master list of coping skills Coping skills are activities that we practice during times of stress. They help distract and can give temporary relief when feeling a lot of pressure. Although it’s ok to have one or two favorite coping skills, it’s better to have several. Below are a list of coping skills you can use when experiencing difficult feelings. Circle the ones that work for you and add as many more as you can. 1. Cuddle with a pet 2. Go to a park and smell flowers 3. Stretch your body for 5 minutes 4. Read 5. Color a mandala or coloring book 6. Go for a brisk walk or run 7. Do *tasbeeh* 8. Tapping (google emotional freedom technique to learn more) 9. Sit outside looking at nature for 5 minutes 10.  Watch funny videos on social media 11.  Do something nice for somebody 12.  Toss around a ball 13.  Take a warm bath 14.  Drink tea 15.  Talk to a friend 16. Organize something 17.  Exercise 18.  Talk to Allah about your frustrations 19.  Bake 20.  Play with silly putty or play-doh 21.  Make a craft 22.  Meet up with friends to play basketball or soccer 23.  Write in your journal 24.  Write a poem 25.  Draw an abstract picture of your feelings 26.  Listen to nature sounds 27.  Practice deep breathing 28.  Practice your affirmations 29.  Hug a family member 30.  Squeeze a stress ball 31.  Take a short drive with the windows down 32.  Read Qur’an 33.  Count to 100 34.  Clean your room 35.  Read positive quotes online 36.  Eat a small, healthy snack 37.  Take a 15-minute nap 38.  Learn a new skill 39.  Plank 40.  Do jumping jacks 41.  Paint 42.  Sing 43.  Do a puzzle 44.  Give yourself a facial 45.  Build something 46.  Make a blessings list 47.  Do a random act of kindness 48.  Try progressive muscle relaxation (do an internet search for “progressive muscle relaxation” to learn more) 49.  Visit someone sick 50.  Pray a *sunnah* or *nawafil* prayer --- ## Case study revisited *Halima got a routine call one day from her son’s social worker. After holding so much sadness inside, she broke down on the phone and told her how she had been feeling. The social worker suggested that Halima finding out about her son’s diagnosis may have been a traumatic experience for her. Halima had no idea that the feelings she was experiencing were “normal” for someone who was experiencing traumatic grief.* *Halima realized that a lot of her grief came from unhealthy guilt about her son’s condition. Halima’s parents were very critical of her as a child and made her feel bad any time something didn’t go as expected or planned. Over time, she became accustomed to thinking everything was her fault and when her son was born, it wasn't difficult to fall into that same thought pattern. To help break this cycle, Halima made sure to take 10 minutes every day to journal and do the Thought Dump and Repair Activity that her social worker recommended. Halima felt like writing was similar to combing long hair; if she went a day without brushing her hair, it would get knotted just the way missing journaling would tangle her thoughts.* *Halima knew that the journey with her son was going to be long and decided that the best thing she could do was take life one day at a time. She became determined that she and her son were not going to be defined by his diagnosis. To help manage the ups and downs of their day-to-day life she joined online support groups for mothers who have children with special needs. She also made sure to create a self-care list which included reading, yoga at home, crocheting, and doing tahajud once a week. Halima’s life was mostly dedicated to taking care of her child, but setting time aside for mindfulness and self-care on a consistent basis made her feel like her life was still her own. Halima believed that by taking care of herself she could better take care of her son long-term.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Gilbert, J. (1895). *Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers*. New York:  W. B. Ketcham. [^2]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy*. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^3]: Riva, F., Triscoli, C., Lamm, C., Carnaghi, A., Silani, G. (2016, April 26). Emotional Egocentricity Bias Across the Life-Span. Retrieved from [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844617/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844617/) [^4]: Riley, T., Adams G. & Nielsen, E. (1984). Adolescent egocentrism: The association among imaginary audience behavior, cognitive development, and parental support and rejection. *Journal of Youth and Adolescence*, *13*(5), 401-417. [^5]: Li, Xingyi (2015). *Treating Complex Trauma with Art Therapy from a Neurobiological Viewpoint*. (Master’s thesis). Hofstra University, New York. DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4365.3925 [^6]: Preminger S. (2012). Transformative Art: Art as Means for Long-Term Neurocognitive Change. *Front. Hum. Neurosci*. 6:96. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00096 [^7]: Kübler-Ross, E., & Kessler, D. (2000). *Life lessons: Two experts on death and dying teach us about the mysteries of life and living*. New York: Scribner. [^8]: Covey, Stephen R. *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic*. \[Rev. ed.\]. New York: Free Press, 2004. ## Summary Out of profound suffering, Allah in His wisdom often raises the strongest of souls, and it is through trials that the human character is refined and made resilient. Consider the account of a mother, called here Halima, who awaited her first child with great joy, dreaming that he might one day become a leader among the believers, a memorizer of the Qur'an, or a benefit to the Ummah. Yet immediately after birth, her son required emergency heart surgery and was diagnosed with an incurable rare genetic disorder promising lifelong physical, mental, and psychiatric difficulties. Devastated and unable to reconcile this reality with her hopes, Halima began to blame herself, wondering whether something she ate or a medicine she took had caused it, and even feared she might be held accountable on the Day of Judgment for any pain her child endured. She sank into a depression that made caring for her baby immensely difficult, waking each morning with the crushing thought, "Everything is my fault." Such is the nature of unexpected calamity, for when we invest our hopes in future dreams—whether a hard-won position, a long-awaited marriage, or a vision of how our child will grow—the sudden collapse of those expectations can feel as though a part of our world has been torn away. Hope is among the most powerful of human emotions, and its loss can be traumatic. When a major disruption occurs, the human mind instinctively asks two questions: "What just happened?" and "Why did this happen?" This questioning is a mercy woven into our nature for the sake of survival, protecting us from repeating mistakes and helping us make sense of a world that would otherwise be unbearable. So we ask whether a hardship could have been prevented, whether it was our fault, or whether we were negligent. It is important to distinguish here between two very different inner postures. Taking responsibility for one's actions—accountability—is a praiseworthy trait, essential to understanding cause and effect, reflecting upon one's errors, and preventing future harm. This is entirely healthy. Self-blame and self-criticism, however, involve accepting fault chiefly to punish oneself and to feel bad, and this is a corrosive and unhealthy pattern. The roots of unhealthy self-blame often lie in childhood. Young children are naturally egocentric, perceiving the world as revolving around themselves; a seven-year-old may believe his parents' separation is his fault, whereas a seventeen-year-old can grasp the many unrelated reasons behind it. When a child does not successfully move beyond this stage—due to harsh parenting, bullying, trauma, or the absence of healthy boundaries within a family—he or she may grow up carrying unfounded guilt, taking blame even for the mistakes of others. Many who struggle with self-blame can trace the critical voice in their heads to a parent or authority figure who, perhaps intending to teach accountability, instead used emotional pain rather than encouragement as a motivator, so that the child internalized that harsh voice as their own inner script. Beyond its psychological origins, self-blame is also recognized as a stratagem of Shaytan, who employs it to demoralize a person and drive them to the very brink of questioning the divine decree, the qadr of Allah. While it is natural to ask why hardship befalls us, Shaytan tempts us to forget that certain matters are destined and that no amount of preparation can avert what is written. Some events flow from our own choices, and others are part of a wisdom greater than we can perceive. A powerful remedy for this is to reflect upon the Prophets, peace be upon them, who were the best of mankind yet endured poverty, death, assault, imprisonment, and rejection. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was orphaned and faced war, extreme hunger, physical violence, emotional abuse, and persecution; the Prophet Yusuf was cast into a well by his brothers, sold into slavery, and imprisoned. Never do we attribute their trials to sin, for these were events laden with purpose. This truth is affirmed in the words of Allah, "No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being—indeed that, for Allah, is easy" (Qur'an 57:22). The Prophet ﷺ directly warned against the spiral of self-recrimination in the hadith reported by Abu Hurairah: "The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, although both are good. Strive for that which will benefit you, seek the help of Allah, and do not feel helpless. If anything befalls you, do not say, 'If only I had done such and such,' rather say, 'Qaddara Allahu wa ma sha'a fa'ala (Allah has decreed and whatever He wills, He does).' For (saying) 'If' opens the door to the deeds of Satan" (Sunan Ibn Majah). Likewise, Ubadah ibn al-Samit taught his son that faith is not truly tasted until one knows "that what has come to you could not miss you and that what has missed you could not come to you," citing the Prophet's ﷺ statement that the first thing Allah created was the Pen, commanded to write all that was decreed until the Last Hour (Sunan Abi Dawud 4700). And the Prophet ﷺ counseled Ibn Abbas, "Know that if the nation were to gather together to benefit you, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had already prescribed for you... The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried" (Forty Hadith Nawawi, 19). Healing this pattern begins with reflecting honestly upon one's upbringing to locate the origin of these thoughts, then gently replacing the negative internal script with healthier messages, however unnatural this may feel at first. Practical means are offered: sitting in quiet solitude, identifying where tension gathers in the body during self-blame, practicing structured breathing, and confronting each blaming thought with a truthful counter-statement while releasing the physical tension. One may also visualize returning the internalized critical words of a past figure to that person and walking away from them. Writing exercises, such as recording unhealthy thoughts alongside their repaired versions, and expressive art therapy—research indicates such expressive therapies aid healing from certain traumas—can further this process. Particular attention is due to complex, ongoing trauma, such as raising a child with lifelong disabilities. The recognized stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—are not linear, and for such parents anger is often turned inward as self-blame, while depression may reflect the loss of an imagined "normal" future. Unlike ordinary bereavement viewed as a single journey, this grief is cyclical, since each new diagnosis or missed milestone can initiate a fresh trauma rather than merely reviving the first. Realizing that the cycle may not end brings both difficulty and relief, freeing the parent from shame at "not getting over it" and inviting self-compassion. Ongoing trauma resembles a long journey in which rest and self-care are not indulgence but necessity, spanning the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical spheres. Mindfulness—being fully present through one's senses—can ease the anxiety fixed on the future and the depression fixed on the past, and can itself become a means of connecting to Allah by appreciating His creation and increasing gratitude. When one does one's utmost, Allah takes care of the rest, and there is no benefit in agonizing over an unknowable future. Indeed, many parents regard this trust as an honor Allah chose for the strong. Halima came to understand that her feelings were a normal traumatic grief rooted in her critical childhood, and through daily journaling, support groups, and consistent self-care and tahajjud, she resolved to take life one day at a time, believing that in caring for herself she could better care for her son. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamophobia-and-the-law-unpacking-structural-islamophobia # Islamophobia and the Law: Unpacking Structural Islamophobia **Author:** Dr. Naved Bakali **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** November 14, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 Introduction When we think of Islamophobia, most of us imagine physical harassment, verbal abuse, hate speech, or even to a lesser degree, dirty looks and insensitive passing comments. In reality, this is how we, or people we know, have experienced anti-Muslim racism and bias. It is real, tangible, and in your face. Often these forms of Islamophobia evoke an emotional response from us as they are experienced at a very individual level and are tantamount to attacks on our very being and essence as individuals. Such experiences can have the effect of caricaturing us to reductionist embodiments of a monolithic block of ‘Muslimness’ that in no way represents our faith, beliefs, or our intersectionality as complex multifaceted beings composed of multiple identities, affiliations, and viewpoints. However, there are more subtle and insidious forms of Islamophobia that exist, which may pose far greater challenges for Muslims living in the West. These forms of Islamophobia are institutional and structural in nature. In previous articles, I have written about the notions of ‘structural Islamophobia’ and ‘private Islamophobia’ as described by Beydoun.[^1] Private Islamophobia, as alluded to in the discussion above, is enacted by private actors. These could be informal and formal groups, like the English Defence League and other street protest movements, or individuals like neighbors or a random stranger in the street. Structural Islamophobia, on the other hand, consists of anti-Muslim racism and bias authorized by the state.[^2] With structural Islamophobia, state power is operationalized to legislate policy and programming to subordinate and oppress Muslim classes and to vilify Islam. The notion of a ‘clash of civilizations’ is embedded within structural Islamophobia; this notion legitimizes and sanitizes the securitization of the Muslim subject. The reason that structural Islamophobia is more problematic than other forms that may randomly appear in our day-to-day experiences is because structural Islamophobia, in essence, legalizes Islamophobia. In other words, through the law, state power is able to create regulations that target and marginalize Muslims simply because they are Muslim. This can have devastating effects on young Muslims and can possibly contribute to internalizing Islamophobia.[^3] This article explores the notion of structural Islamophobia and how it is increasingly becoming endemic in a number of European and North American nations. --- ## Structural Islamophobia in the European context Most forms of structural Islamophobia manifest through limiting and controlling visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness’ in the public sphere. Muslim women are often the targets of this type of Islamophobia. A number of European nations have passed legislation curtailing expressions of ‘Muslimness’ and Islam through laws that prohibit face and head veils. In some instances the laws are framed in general terms, banning clothing that covers one’s face for security reasons, while in other instances there is no pretense of neutrality and the law specifically targets Islamic face coverings. In 2011, one of the first European nations to implement a face-covering ban was Belgium. Belgium implemented a nationwide ban on full-face covering clothing including burqas and niqabs. This law was challenged on the basis that it violated basic rights of religious expression; however, in 2017 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the ban did not “violate the rights to private and family life and freedom of religion, or discrimination laws.”[^4] In 2016, a number of smaller European states followed suit and implemented similar face-covering bans. Both Bulgaria and Latvia implemented laws banning face veils. Individuals found wearing the face veil in Bulgaria could face fines up to £660, while in Latvia, this law was instituted despite there being only three known instances of people wearing such clothing in the nation.[^5] In 2017, The Austrian Parliament adopted a face-covering clothing ban in public spaces. This law was implemented under the guise of preserving national security. Individuals wearing face veils such as the niqab were fined 150€. Similarly, in 2018 Denmark passed a law banning face veils. People violating this ban would be fined £115, and repeat offenders could face fines ten times that amount.[^6] The Netherlands also passed a face veil ban in 2018. Under this law the face veil was banned in public spaces such as schools, hospitals, public transport, and government buildings; however, it was still permitted in public streets.[^7] Face veils were not the only visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness’ that were banned.  Restrictions were even placed on Islamic looking structures in some European nations. For example, in 2009, Switzerland held a referendum to ban the construction of minarets on mosques. Media coverage of this issue included inflammatory rhetoric from the political Right arguing that minarets were a symbol of the impending Islamization of Switzerland, despite the fact that there were only four minarets in the country at the time of the referendum.[^8] In all of the above-mentioned examples, these laws and bans were implemented through support from right-wing and far-right political parties that came to power in these nations. However, not all instances of Structural Islamophobia have been at the hands of right-wing and far-right political parties. In the case of France, the notion of French secularism was used to advance structural Islamophobic discourse and legislation. France was the first European nation to implement formal restrictions of Muslim women’s dress in the public sphere. As early as 2004, under the guise of advocating state neutrality and secularist ideals, France implemented a ban on religious clothing in state schools. Though this ban affected a number of religious minority groups, Muslim women were overwhelmingly targeted through this law, as it was regularly referred to both in public and political discourse as the ‘veil law.’[^9] The state went on to ban Islamic face veils through a niqab ban in 2010, and even attempted to ban the burkini, a full-body swimsuit worn by some Muslim women, in a number of French municipalities in 2016. The lines between public and private policing of Muslim women’s dress became blurred in France through a recent controversy over the selling of sports hijabs by sports retailers. In February 2019, Decathlon, Europe’s largest sports accessories vendor, decided against selling sports hijabs because of growing criticism and scrutiny from French politicians over such clothing.[^10] This distaste for visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness’ within French culture and society is not a recent phenomenon. Rather, it has an enduring legacy that can trace its roots back to the colonial era. In his critical essay ‘Algeria Unveiled,’ Frantz Fanon[^11] discusses the French colonizers’ project of removing the Muslim headscarf from Algeria in the 1930s. According to Fanon, the colonizers perceived the headscarf as a cultural identifier. They believed that by eliminating the headscarf they would be taking steps towards destroying Algerian culture in the colony. Dismantling Algerian culture was essential, as the colonizers viewed themselves in stark contrast to the colonized. According to Al-Saji “\[t\]he representational apparatus of colonialism not only constitutes the image of the ‘native’ but posits this image in opposition to a certain self-perception of colonial society and against an implicit normalization of gender within that society.”[^12] It is through this dichotomizing gaze that a civilized self emerged in contrast to a barbaric ‘Other.’ This perception of the ‘Other’ constructed the Muslim head veil as a deviation from French society and was therefore deemed unacceptable. This historic legacy of racism and limiting religious and cultural expression in the public sphere has fostered an atmosphere in France where political parties can legislate laws that target minority communities, claiming they are threatening French culture and identity. In addition to policing Muslim women’s dress, structural Islamophobia has manifested through legislation that has disproportionately targeted Muslim men. The most virulent example of this can be seen in anti-terrorism laws and programming aimed at curtailing and preventing individuals from violent extremist activities. One of the most widely criticized aspects of the United Kingdom’s response to countering violent extremism programming has been the Prevent strategy. The Prevent strategy forms a branch of the UK’s overall countering violent extremism policy referred to as Channel. Prevent came about in the mid-2000s and was aimed at identifying individuals who may be on a trajectory towards violent extremist activity and to prevent such individuals before they engaged in these activities. In 2015 the program was instituted on a statutory basis. This required people working in the public sector, such as teachers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, to report individuals they suspected were vulnerable to radicalization. Not doing so could involve institutional repercussions.[^13] The Prevent strategy did not claim to target any specific ethnic or religious group; however, in practice, the Prevent strategy has unfairly and overwhelmingly targeted Muslim communities in the UK. According to data collected by UK government in 2018, ‘Islamist extremists’ are 17 times more likely to be referred to Prevent than individuals engaging in ‘far-right’ extremist activities.[^14] Despite only representing 5% of the UK population and accounting for roughly 5% of the terrorist-related activities in the nation, Muslims represent 65% of the referrals to Prevent. Furthermore, 95% of the Muslim referrals to Prevent require no further Channel intervention.[^15] In other words, 95% of the Muslims referred to Prevent are falsely identified and pose no threat to UK society. Muslims are 40-50 times more likely than non-Muslims to be referred to the Prevent strategy, a quarter of these referrals are youth under the age of 15.[^16] Clearly, the Prevent strategy has disproportionately targeted Muslim communities in the UK and consequently has had far-reaching effects in these communities. Many Muslims in the UK feel stigmatized because of the wide net cast by this program. Muslim parents have to think twice about how they educate their children about Islam and may even encourage them to engage in self-censorship out of fear that they may be flagged through this program. These concerns are very real and legitimate, as Muslim children as young as four-years-old have been misidentified by this program.[^17] A similar process of structural Islamophobia can be observed in North America through legislation policing visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness’ and through state surveillance and securitization programming. --- ## Structural Islamophobia in the North American context Structural Islamophobia in the Canadian context can be observed at both the provincial and federal levels of government. Some Canadian provinces have passed laws and legislation targeting Muslim minorities in ways that are specific to their localized contexts, while the federal government has also enacted nationwide policies that have adversely affected Canadian Muslims. With regard to localized manifestations of structural Islamophobia, the province of Quebec recently passed legislation banning religious clothing, including the hijab, in certain public spaces in the province. With the emergence of a right-leaning nativist government recently coming to power in Quebec, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), emboldened by their majority election victory, was able to pass Bill-21. Bill-21 is a law, under the guise of promoting state secularism in the public sphere, that would prohibit state employees in positions of power, such as teachers, police officers, judges, and others, from wearing religious symbols.[^18] A number of religious minorities have been affected by this ban, as it prohibits the Sikh turban, Jewish skull caps, and the hijab, to be worn by public sector employees. However, as was the case in the European context, this ban disproportionately impacts Muslim women, as a number of women who wear the hijab work within educational institutions throughout the province. This is not the first time the province of Quebec has targeted Muslim minorities through discriminatory laws. In the mid-2000s there was an uproar in the province around the notion of reasonable accommodation—permitting religious minority groups to adhere to their religious practices in the public space. These concerns were precipitated by a series of highly publicized cases including a Sikh boy wanting to wear a kirpan to school, an 11-year-old Muslim girl being disallowed by a referee from participating in a soccer match because of her hijab, as well as a synagogue requesting an adjacent YMCA to frost their windows so that women wearing tight-fitting clothes would not be visible to members of the congregation. A few other incidents exacerbated tensions such as the Quebec Human Rights Commission ruling against a local French university, École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), forcing them to accommodate Muslim students attending the school with prayer space, as well as cases of disputes of pregnant Muslim women requesting female doctors in Quebec hospitals.[^19] Ultimately, this led the Quebec government to launch a wide scale investigation into the issue of reasonable accommodation. The commission investigating the issue found that Quebec identity and culture were not in any significant way under threat. However, in the aftermath of these public debates, municipalities across Quebec instituted horribly ignorant and racist immigration codes of conduct, despite these municipalities having a practically non-existent immigrant population. These immigration codes banned things such as the stoning of women, honor-based violence, and other acts, which were already illegal within the province and country. Clearly, a number of the declarations by these municipalities were banning practices commonly associated with a perception of Muslim barbarism.[^20] These declarations, not so subtly, made certain assumptions about the backwardness and incivility of Muslim immigrant communities and unapologetically proclaimed their incompatibility with Quebec society and culture. Structural Islamophobia can also be observed at the federal level in both the USA and Canada through securitization practices and countering violent extremism programming. The most blatant examples of this can be seen in the USA PATRIOT Act and the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act. The USA PATRIOT Act is a piece of legislation that was introduced in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks ostensibly to strengthen national security. Measures within the Act have been widely criticized by civil rights organizations as it introduced extensive measures to enable a hyper-securitized state that compromised fundamental human rights. Provisions within the Act enable the state to detain non-citizens suspected of terrorism indefinitely; use secret evidence, without granting permission to the accused to access the evidence; monitor religious and ethnic groups; obtain wiretaps and searches without warrants; as well as many other abuses of power that are tantamount to pre-emptive punishment—a situation where people are being punished before they have committed any crime or wrong-doing.[^21] In the Canadian context, similar laws have been enacted in the form of the Anti-Terrorism Act (2001 and 2015) and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Measures within the Anti-Terrorism Act (2001) include: > the strengthening of state powers of surveillance and detention; the imposition of greater restrictions on immigration and refugee policies; the increased scrutiny of immigrants and refugees (both at the borders and within the country) and a strengthening of the powers of deportation; a commitment to fighting the war against terrorism under the leadership of the Bush administration, most specifically to participate in the war on Afghanistan; and the intensification of intelligence, security, and military alliances with the United States.[^22] Although not as many Muslims have been affected by this law in Canada as in the US, a number have been racially profiled, intimidated by Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS), and most notably, provisions within this law allowed for the illegal detention, extraordinary rendition, and torture of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent in 2002.[^23] The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act authorizes the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in conjunction with the Solicitor General to issue a security certificate. Security certificates, like the provisions mentioned above, suspend rights and due process for non-citizens residing within Canada. The majority of security certificates in the post-9/11 context have targeted Muslim men of Middle Eastern origin. A security certificate permits: > the detention and expulsion of non-citizens who are considered to be a threat to national security. Detainees have no opportunity to be heard before a certificate is issued, and a designated judge of the federal court reviews most of the government’s case against the detainee in a secret hearing at which neither the detainee nor his counsel is present. The detainee receives only a summary of the evidence against him. Detention is mandatory for non-permanent residents…and there is no possibility of release unless a person leaves Canada, or the certificate is struck down, or if 120 days have elapsed and deportation has still not taken place.[^24] Additionally, detainees deported to their countries of origin as a result of a security certificate face the possibility of torture there. These provisions strip away basic and fundamental human rights. Muslims detained on the grounds of security certificates in the post-9/11 context include Hassan Almrei, Mohammed Mahjoub, Mohammed Jaballah, Mohamed Harkat, and Adil Charkaoui. All men have languished in prison for three to seven years and have spent varying amounts of time in solitary confinement.[^25] All five men have spent time under house arrest with extremely strict conditions; some of them felt the house arrest conditions were so humiliating and difficult that they preferred to return to prison.[^26] Another component of the structural Islamophobic security apparatus in the post-9/11 context has been the use of agent provocateurs by the state. There have been a number of instances, both in the US and Canada, where agent provocateurs have been employed trying to fish out terrorists where they would not otherwise exist. A report published by New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice entitled *Targeted and Entrapped* (2011) found that the government often resorted to “a dangerous incentive structure” by offering informants reduced criminal charges or changes in immigration status. The report goes on to mention that the “government’s informants introduced and aggressively pushed ideas about violent jihad and moreover, actually *encouraged* the defendants to believe that it was their duty to take action against the United States.”[^27] This has been the case with a number of informants and *agent provocateurs* including Shahed Hussain in the case of the Newburgh Four; Craig Monteilh who infiltrated a Southern California mosque for the FBI, Shamiur Rahman, who was paid US $1,000 a month by the NYPD to ‘bait’ Muslims into making incriminating statements; as well as Mubin Sheikh and Shaher Elsohemy, the informants who provided a firearm, three tons of ammonium nitrate, and were paid $300,000 and $4.1 million, respectively, in the Toronto 18 case.[^28] The practice of pre-emptive punishment and the use of agent provocateurs is indicative of how a constant cloud of suspicion is cast over Muslims in North American societies and demonstrates how Muslims have experienced structural Islamophobia in the post-9/11 context. Structural Islamophobia in the European and North American contexts has also had serious negative effects on young Muslims in these nations. According to one study conducted by Suleiman,[^29] young American Muslims feel exasperated at the need to demonstrate their ‘Americanness’ in the present climate. Such a status was not a taken-for-granted experience for these youth. In a sense, these young American Muslims feel they need to prove their ‘credentials’ as their ‘Muslimness’ may have brought their loyalty to their nation into question. Such a scenario is hardly surprising when the state has legislated and legalized Islamophobia. Suleiman’s study also suggested that the mental anguish brought on by heightened anti-Muslim sentiment in society has caused young Muslim women in America to question the extent to which they display visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness.’ Suleiman described how the vast majority of the young women interviewed in his study who wore the hijab considered taking it off out of fear. Almost half of the respondents said that they did take off their hijabs in certain settings because they felt threatened. Undeniably, structural Islamophobia has had serious repercussions, especially among Muslim youth. When visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness’ become increasingly seen as a violation against the state, and targeted laws associated with national security overwhelmingly police Muslims, it reinforces the notion that Muslims are ‘Other’ in society. Consequently, Muslims may feel conflicted between being Muslim and American and in some instances may feel that they need to choose between those two identities.[^30] In other words, due to structural Islamophobia, some youth may feel an incongruity between their Muslim and American identities, seeing these categories as mutually exclusive. As such, structural forms of racism, like Islamophobia, can cause young American Muslims to devalue their position in society and can have damaging effects on their mental health and self-identification.[^31] --- ## Conclusion Structural Islamophobia has become increasingly pervasive in western nations in the post-9/11 context. It frequently manifests as legislation policing Muslim women’s dress, as well as policies that promote securitization practices and targeted countering violent extremism programming. This type of Islamophobia is more impactful than private Islamophobia as it legalizes anti-Muslim bias. Laws aimed at regulating visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness’ like the hijab, niqab, and burqa in the public sphere are often framed as measures to promote national security or state neutrality, while simultaneously viewing such clothing as an affront to national values, culture, and ideals. Laws that promote the securitization, surveillance, and policing of the Muslim subject are also lauded as neutral laws and necessary measures for national security. Structural Islamophobia is far more insidious than private Islamophobia because it is subtle and indirect. Furthermore, it can have harmful effects on Muslim youths’ self-identification, as many young Muslims have internalized Islamophobia through the ‘Othering’ caused by structural Islamophobia. This ‘Othering’ may cause some youth to feel that being Muslim is incompatible with being a westerner. Islamophobic legislation are usually framed in neutral terms not identifying any specific groups. But how neutral are these laws when they overwhelmingly target a specific group? These laws are framed as exceptional in nature. In the example of laws that limit visual signifiers of ‘Muslimness,’ it can be argued that personal rights of self-identification, freedom of expression,  and freedom of religion are values that are trumped by national security or the values and culture of that society. But in how many instances do such measures even promote national security? Are children not allowed to wear masks on Halloween? Do people not cover their faces and heads because of weather conditions? Has anyone dressed in a niqab or burqa committed crimes and used these forms of dress to hide their identity? Furthermore, by arguing that these visual signifiers somehow contradict state values, culture, and identity, it is further excluding vulnerable and marginalized members of society. Does this not contradict the western ideals of inclusion and diversity? Laws that target Muslims through securitization and countering violent extremism programming are also described as states of exception necessary for national security in the current climate. As such, racial profiling and targeting of specific groups for securitization measures have become endemic, while other groups or individuals who do not fit a Muslim profile often fly under the radar. Introducing laws and legislation that are framed as states of exception is an extremely slippery slope, as those states of exception become normalized and embedded in law and society. Though such practices may initially be sanitized through rhetoric concerning national security, the eventuality of these states of exception is that certain groups become excluded from society by law indefinitely. It is essential for Muslims living in the west to understand structural Islamophobia and to resist it, as silence in the face of these targeted laws and practices threatens our existence in these nations. Furthermore, the existence and promotion of structural Islamophobia emboldens Islamophobes and feeds into the narrative promoted by Islamophobic hate groups that promote a “clash of civilizations” viewpoint, arguing that Muslims do not belong in these nations. Ultimately, structural Islamophobia adds fuel to the private Islamophobia fire. It creates living conditions for Muslims in western nations that are increasingly challenging and may cause doubt with regards to their sense of belongingness to these societies. --- ## Notes [^1]: Bakali, Naved. 2019. "Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research: Collections." *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. March 22. Accessed August 7, 2019. [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/navedbakali/islamophobia-in-american-society-culture-politics/%23ftnt_ref5&sa=D&ust=1573752993206000)[https://yaqeeninstitute.org/navedbakali/islamophobia-in-american-society-culture-politics/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/navedbakali/islamophobia-in-american-society-culture-politics). [^2]: Beydoun, Khaled. 2018. *American Islamophobia: Understanding the roots and rise of fear*. Oakland: University of California Press. [^3]: Suleiman, O. (2017). "Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth." *Islamophobia Studies Journal*, 4(1). [^4]: Dearden, Lizzie. 2017. *The Independent*: News. July 11. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/belgium-burqa-ban-upheld-european-court-of-human-rights-dakir-v-full-face-islamic-veils-headscarf-a7835156.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/belgium-burqa-ban-upheld-european-court-of-human-rights-dakir-v-full-face-islamic-veils-headscarf-a7835156.html). [^5]: Pells, Rachael. 2016. *The Independent*: News. April 21. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/islamic-muslim-face-veil-niqab-burqa-banned-latvia-despite-being-worn-by-just-three-women-entire-a6993991.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/islamic-muslim-face-veil-niqab-burqa-banned-latvia-despite-being-worn-by-just-three-women-entire-a6993991.html). [^6]: The Guardian. 2018. *The Guardian*: News. May 31. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/31/denmark-passes-law-banning-burqa-and-niqab](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/31/denmark-passes-law-banning-burqa-and-niqab). [^7]: McKenzie, Stephanie Halasz and Sheena. 2018. *CNN*: World. June 27. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/27/europe/netherlands-partial-burqa-ban-intl/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/27/europe/netherlands-partial-burqa-ban-intl/index.html). [^8]: Lean, Nathan. 2012. *The Islamophobia industry: How the Right manufactures fear of Muslims*. London: Pluto Press. [^9]: Hanley, Jon. 2004. *The Guardian*: News. February 11. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/feb/11/schools.schoolsworldwide](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/feb/11/schools.schoolsworldwide). [^10]: Elian Peltier and Aurelien Breeden, ‘A sports hijab has France debating the Muslim veil, again,’ February 28, 2019, *The New York Times*. Retrieved March 3, 2019: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/europe/france-sports-hijab-decathlon.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/europe/france-sports-hijab-decathlon.html) [^11]: Frantz Fanon. (1965). Algeria Unveiled. *The New Left Reader*, 161-185. [^12]: Alia Al-Saji, (2010). The racialization of Muslim Veils: A philosophical analysis. *Philosophy and Social Criticism*, 36(8), 883. [^13]: Younis, Tarek. 2019. *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. March 21. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tarekyounis/counter-radicalization-a-critical-look-into-a-racist-new-industry/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tarekyounis/counter-radicalization-a-critical-look-into-a-racist-new-industry/). [^14]: Home Office. Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, April 2017 to March 2018. (2018). Available at: [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment\_data/file/763254/individuals-referred-supported-prevent-programme-apr2017-mar2018-hosb3118.pdf](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/763254/individuals-referred-supported-prevent-programme-apr2017-mar2018-hosb3118.pdf) [^15]: Butt, Salman. 2019. *TRT World*: Opinion. March 11. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/anti-extremist-policy-targeting-uk-muslims-successfully-appealed-24844](https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/anti-extremist-policy-targeting-uk-muslims-successfully-appealed-24844). [^16]: Butt, Salman. 2017. *Islam21.com*: News. November 9. Accessed August 8, 2019. [https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/anti-extremist-policy-targeting-uk-muslims-successfully-appealed-24844](https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/anti-extremist-policy-targeting-uk-muslims-successfully-appealed-24844). [^17]: Kundnani, A. (2014). *The Muslims are coming: Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror.* New York, NY: Verso. [^18]: Authier, Philip. 2019. *The Montreal Gazette*: News. June 17. Accessed August 9, 2019. [https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-passes-secularism-law-after-marathon-session](https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-passes-secularism-law-after-marathon-session). [^19]: Wong, A. (2011). The disquieting revolution: A genealogy of reason and racism in the Québec press. *Global Media*. Vol. 4, No. 1, 145-162. [^20]: Mahrouse, G. (2010). Reasonable accommodation’ debates in Quebec: The limits of participation and dialogue. *Race and Class*. Vol. 52, No. 1, 85-96. [^21]: Alsultany, E. (2012). *Arabs and Muslims in the media: Race and representation after 9/11.* New York, NY: New York University Press. [^22]: Thobani, S. (2007). *Exalted subjects: Studies in the making of race and nation in Canada.* Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 348. [^23]: Mazigh, M. (2009). *Hope and despair: My struggle to free my husband, Maher Arar*. New York, NY: Emblem Editions. [^24]: Razack, S. (2008). *Casting out: The eviction of Muslims from western law and politics.* Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, p. 26. [^25]: Ibid. [^26]: Freeze, C. (2009). Video evidence shows details of homegrown terrorism plans. *Globe and Mail*, 20 October. [^27]: Center for Human Rights and Global Justice . (2011). *Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing the "Homegrown Threat" in the United States*. New York: Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, p. 2. [^28]: Teotonio, I. (2010, January 11). *Toronto Star*: News; GTA. Retrieved February 23, 2013, from Toronto Star website: [http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/01/11/informant\_paid\_millions\_to\_infiltrate\_toronto\_18\_testifies.html](http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/01/11/informant_paid_millions_to_infiltrate_toronto_18_testifies.html) [^29]: Suleiman, O. (2017). Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth. *Islamophobia Studies Journal*, 4(1). [^30]: Aaser, S. H. “From Islamophobia to Identity Crisis: Internalized Oppression Among American Muslim Children,” *Noor Kids*, 2016. [^31]: Suleiman, O. (2017). Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth. *Islamophobia Studies Journal*, 4(1). ## Summary Structural Islamophobia, though less visible than the physical harassment, verbal abuse, and hateful glances that many Muslims endure at an individual level, presents a graver and more enduring danger to Muslims residing in the West. Drawing upon the distinctions made by Beydoun, a difference is to be recognized between "private Islamophobia," which is enacted by private parties such as street movements like the English Defence League or by individual neighbours and strangers, and "structural Islamophobia," which is the anti-Muslim bias sanctioned and enforced by the state itself. The latter is the more troubling, for it operationalizes state power to legislate policies that subordinate and vilify Muslims and Islam, drawing legitimacy from the "clash of civilizations" narrative that sanitizes the securitization of the Muslim. Its peril lies in that it effectively legalizes Islamophobia, permitting the state to target and marginalize Muslims merely on account of their being Muslim, with devastating effects upon Muslim youth and the possibility of nurturing internalized Islamophobia. In the European context, structural Islamophobia most frequently manifests through the limiting of visual signifiers of "Muslimness" in public, with Muslim women being the primary targets. Numerous European nations have enacted laws prohibiting face and head veils, some framed in neutral terms of security, others explicitly targeting Islamic coverings. Belgium was among the first, implementing a nationwide ban on full-face coverings in 2011, a ban later upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in 2017 as not violating rights to religious freedom or family life. Bulgaria and Latvia followed in 2016, the latter despite there being only three known instances of such dress in the entire nation. Austria adopted a similar ban in 2017 under the guise of national security, and Denmark and the Netherlands enacted bans in 2018. Beyond dress, Switzerland held a referendum in 2009 to ban the construction of minarets, propelled by rhetoric from the political Right warning of an impending "Islamization," though only four minarets existed in the country at the time. While most of these measures came at the hands of right-wing and far-right parties, France advanced its own version through the ideology of secularism (laïcité), banning religious clothing in state schools in 2004, the niqab in 2010, and attempting to ban the burkini in 2016. This French aversion to signifiers of "Muslimness" is shown to possess deep colonial roots. Drawing upon Frantz Fanon's essay "Algeria Unveiled," the French colonizers of the 1930s sought to strip the headscarf from Algerian women, perceiving it as a cultural identifier whose removal would help dismantle Algerian culture. As Al-Saji is quoted, the colonial representational apparatus constituted the image of the "native" in opposition to the self-perception of colonial society, producing a "civilized self" set against a "barbaric Other," rendering the veil an unacceptable deviation. This inherited legacy has fostered an atmosphere in which political parties may legislate against minorities under the pretext that they threaten French culture and identity. Structural Islamophobia has likewise targeted Muslim men, most virulently through anti-terrorism programming. The United Kingdom's Prevent strategy, part of the wider Channel policy, emerged in the mid-2000s and was placed on a statutory basis in 2015, requiring teachers, nurses, and other public sector workers to report those suspected of vulnerability to radicalization. Though claiming to target no specific group, in practice it has overwhelmingly targeted Muslims. According to UK government data from 2018, "Islamist extremists" were seventeen times more likely to be referred than those engaging in "far-right" activity; Muslims, though only five percent of the population and roughly five percent of terror-related activity, accounted for sixty-five percent of referrals, of which ninety-five percent required no further intervention, meaning they posed no threat. Muslims were forty to fifty times more likely to be referred than non-Muslims, and a quarter of referrals concerned youth under fifteen, with children as young as four having been misidentified. Such targeting has stigmatized Muslim communities and driven parents toward self-censorship in how they teach their children about Islam. In North America, similar patterns are observed. In Canada, the province of Quebec passed Bill-21 under the pretext of state secularism, prohibiting public employees in positions of authority—teachers, police officers, judges—from wearing religious symbols. Though affecting the Sikh turban and Jewish skullcap as well, it disproportionately impacted Muslim women who wear the hijab and work in education. This was not Quebec's first such measure; a prior controversy over "reasonable accommodation" in the mid-2000s, sparked by incidents such as a Muslim girl being barred from a soccer match over her hijab, led to a government commission which found that Quebec identity was not meaningfully threatened. Nonetheless, municipalities—some with practically no immigrant populations—enacted racist immigration codes banning acts such as stoning and honour-based violence that were already illegal, thereby making assumptions about Muslim "backwardness" and incompatibility with Quebec society. At the federal level, the USA PATRIOT Act, introduced after the attacks of September 11th, was widely criticized by civil rights organizations for enabling indefinite detention of non-citizens, use of secret evidence, monitoring of religious and ethnic groups, and warrantless searches—amounting to pre-emptive punishment before any wrongdoing. Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act (2001 and 2015) and Immigration and Refugee Protection Act enacted parallel measures, strengthening surveillance, detention, and deportation powers. Though fewer Muslims were affected in Canada than in the United States, provisions of these laws permitted the illegal detention, extraordinary rendition, and torture of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent, in 2002. Security certificates under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act suspended due process for non-citizens, permitting secret hearings where neither the detainee nor his counsel is present and the detainee receives only a summary of the evidence. The majority targeted Muslim men of Middle Eastern origin—among them Hassan Almrei, Mohammed Mahjoub, Mohammed Jaballah, Mohamed Harkat, and Adil Charkaoui—who languished in prison for three to seven years, endured solitary confinement, and faced house arrest conditions so humiliating that some preferred to return to prison, alongside the risk of torture if deported. The state has further employed agents provocateurs to manufacture terrorists where none would otherwise exist. The report *Targeted and Entrapped* (2011) by New York University's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice found the government relied upon "a dangerous incentive structure," with informants who "introduced and aggressively pushed ideas about violent jihad" and encouraged defendants to believe it their duty to act against the United States. Such informants included Shahed Hussain in the Newburgh Four case, Craig Monteilh who infiltrated a Southern California mosque, Shamiur Rahman paid by the NYPD to bait Muslims, and Mubin Sheikh and Shaher Elsohemy in the Toronto 18 case, the latter paid $300,000 and $4.1 million respectively. These realities bear heavily upon Muslim youth. A study by Suleiman found young American Muslims exasperated at the need to prove their "Americanness" and loyalty, their "Muslimness" having cast doubt upon it. The mental anguish of heightened hostility led many young Muslim women who wear the hijab to consider removing it out of fear, with almost half reporting that they did remove it in certain settings when they felt threatened. When visual signifiers of faith become viewed as violations against the state, Muslims are reinforced as an "Other," and some youth come to feel their Muslim and Western identities are mutually exclusive, with damaging consequences for their mental health and self-identification. In sum, structural Islamophobia has grown pervasive in Western nations since September 11th, manifesting through the policing of Muslim women's dress and through securitization and counter-extremism programming, all framed in ostensibly neutral terms of national security or state neutrality—yet one must ask how neutral such laws are when they overwhelmingly target a single group. Framed as exceptional states of necessity, such measures risk becoming normalized and permanently embedded, indefinitely excluding certain groups by law. It is essential that Muslims in the West understand and resist structural Islamophobia, for silence threatens their very existence in these lands; moreover, it emboldens Islamophobes, feeds the "clash of civilizations" narrative, and ultimately adds fuel to the fire of private Islamophobia, creating conditions that cast doubt upon Muslims' sense of belonging. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the difference between everyday anti-Muslim prejudice and structural Islamophobia? When a stranger makes an abrasive remark on the subway or a neighbor gives you a dirty look because of your hijab, that is what scholars call private Islamophobia. It is painful, real, and personal. Structural Islamophobia is something different: it is anti-Muslim bias embedded in laws, institutions, and policies. Rather than isolated acts of individual prejudice, it operates through systems that subordinate Muslim communities and vilify Islam. Through law, state power is used to subordinate Muslim communities and vilify Islam. The distinction matters because structural Islamophobia essentially legalizes discrimination. A random person's prejudice cannot strip you of your job, detain you without evidence, or deport you. Because structural Islamophobia operates through legislation framed in neutral language, it is far more insidious—and far harder to challenge—than what we encounter on the street. ### How can laws that never mention Muslims still be Islamophobic? This is precisely what makes structural Islamophobia so difficult to confront. Laws policing "face coverings" or promoting "state neutrality" are written in general terms, with no specific group named. Yet in practice, they overwhelmingly target Muslim communities. France's 2004 ban on religious clothing in state schools was publicly referred to as the "veil law" in both political debate and media coverage. Belgium's face-covering ban was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights despite its disproportionate impact on Muslim women. Latvia implemented a face-veil ban despite there being only three known instances of people wearing such clothing in the entire country. Framing discrimination as a security measure or a secularist ideal does not make it neutral. It simply makes it harder to name it for what it is. ### Why are Muslim women specifically targeted by so many of these laws? Structural Islamophobia most frequently manifests through laws restricting what scholars call visual signifiers of Muslimness in the public sphere, and Muslim women bear the heaviest weight of that targeting. Across Europe, countries including Belgium, France, Bulgaria, Latvia, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands have all passed legislation restricting the niqab, burqa, or hijab in varying public contexts. Quebec's Bill 21 prohibits public sector employees from wearing religious symbols, which disproportionately affects hijab-wearing women in education. This pattern has deep colonial roots. Frantz Fanon documented how French colonizers in Algeria viewed removing the headscarf as a deliberate strategy for dismantling Algerian culture. The logic that Muslim women's dress is an affront to national identity did not begin in the twenty-first century; it was inherited from that colonial project and continues to shape legislation today. ### Is the UK's Prevent program actually targeting Muslims unfairly, or is that just a perception? The data is unambiguous. Muslims make up roughly 5 percent of the UK population and account for approximately 5 percent of terrorist-related activity in the country. Despite this, Muslims represent 65 percent of all referrals to the Prevent counterextremism program—meaning they are 40 to 50 times more likely than non-Muslims to be referred. A quarter of those referrals involve youth under the age of 15, and 95 percent of Muslim referrals require no further intervention, meaning the vast majority of people flagged pose no threat whatsoever. The consequences are real: Muslim parents must now think carefully about how they teach their children about their own faith, and Muslim children as young as four have been misidentified by the program. In North America, similar dynamics play out through the USA PATRIOT Act and Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, where provisions have enabled indefinite detention, secret evidence, and the use of agent provocateurs who have actively manufactured the appearance of criminal activity in Muslim communities. ### Why do so many young Muslims feel they have to prove they belong in their own countries? When the state legislates laws that treat Muslim identity as a security threat or as culturally incompatible, it sends a clear message: Being visibly Muslim disqualifies you from full belonging. That message seeps into how young people understand themselves. Research on young American Muslims found that many felt they had to continuously demonstrate their "Americanness" in ways their non-Muslim peers never had to. The vast majority of young Muslim women interviewed who wore hijab had considered removing it out of fear, and nearly half had actually done so in certain settings because they felt threatened. This legal Othering does not stay confined to courtrooms; it reshapes identity. Some Muslim youth begin to see their religious and national identities as mutually exclusive. Silence in the face of these laws is not neutrality; it carries real cost for Muslim communities. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/reframing-the-suffering-narrative-can-affliction-direct-us-to-our-calling # Reframing the Suffering Narrative: Can Affliction Direct Us to Our Calling? **Author:** Amira Ayad **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** November 7, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 Introduction In 1095 C.E., Imam Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) was one of the highly esteemed scholars of Baghdad. He had it all: fame, fortune, family, and prestige. Nevertheless, deep in his heart lay an unsettling feeling urging him to pull away from the worldly life and move closer to God. It was a hard choice to make until one day it ceased to be a choice. He woke up with a lock upon his tongue that prevented him from teaching. Soon enough, he fell into depression and his body started to waste away. The renowned imam resolved to leave Baghdad and embark on a journey of heart purification and self-discovery that lasted eleven years and culminated in the production of a seminal Islamic book, *Revival of the Islamic Sciences* (*ʾIḥyāʾa ʿUlūm al-Dīn*).[^1] Could Ghazālī’s physical suffering have been his wake-up call? Since the dawn of civilization, physical and other forms of suffering have taken a central position in theological discussions. One fundamental question that has always perplexed human beings is “Why?” Why is there so much suffering in the world? Illnesses, physical pain, and suffering can be debilitating and crippling. Nevertheless, for some people, they turn out to be among the most rewarding experiences of their life, a blessing for themselves and others. Muslims’ understanding of themselves and their role and purpose in life is largely shaped by their religious beliefs and Islamic tradition.[^2] And their view of their illnesses and their coping abilities are based on their theological belief in God’s Oneness.[^3] Given the fact that negative religious coping can do more harm than good,[^4] the interpretation and application of theological concepts are crucial in shaping the course of Muslim patients’ healing journeys. Consequently, if we are to succeed in easing their physical suffering, our approach should take into consideration the context of religious and theological conceptualization.[^5] This paper explores a new approach to physical suffering that counselors and spiritual care providers can use to assist clients in reframing their physical suffering narrative into a quest narrative that helps them transcend a challenging experience and achieve a higher meaning and purpose. It encourages positive religious coping by putting forward an argument that physical suffering could contain a sign for us to discern, a sign pointing towards a life vocation and calling. I start by examining the meaning of physical suffering in the Qur’an and Prophetic teachings, then its meaning as seen through the eyes of the four primary Islamic theological schools and the Islamic mystical (Sufi) tradition. Subsequently, I consider the different narratives suffering patients weave for their illnesses and how those narratives affect their healing journey and their life trajectory. Finally, I discuss the role of the practitioner in using the quest narrative model for positive religious coping. Disclaimer: This paper is not designed to judge the strength or weakness of various theological positions but rather to extract benefits from the variant representative perspectives of those traditions and to explore the potential application of those benefits in spiritual care and counseling. --- ## Physical suffering in the Qur’an and hadith Muslims believe that the universe is perfectly designed by its Creator. Nothing is random. The Qur’an urges Muslims to discern the signs sent their way, not only in the world around them but also within themselves (Qur’an 51:20-21). It deals with suffering not as an evil but as an integral part of the human experience and a test from an All-Merciful God, “Do the people reckon that they will be left to say, ‘We believe,’ and will not be tried?” (Qur’an 29:1). Suffering, from the Qur’anic perspective, serves a purpose and calls human beings to heed the call of faith and strive to come closer to God.[^6] The Qur’an advises believers facing an affliction to be patient and “Say, ‘Surely we belong to God, and to Him we return.’ Upon those rest blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those are the truly guided,” (Qur’an 2:156-57). Prophetic traditions (*aḥadīth*) teach that illness is mercy in disguise that comes to expiate the believer’s sins and emphasize God’s goodness and purposefulness in everything He decrees.[^7] Most importantly, Prophetic tradition is against passivity and urges Muslims to seek treatment through all available means.[^8] It also recognizes the metaphysical and psychological aspect of illness and advocates reflection on the religious purpose underlying the suffering: is it a trial from God, a purification of the believer’s heart, or both? Seen as such, suffering is not supposed to create a theoretical problem for Muslims; instead, it is regarded as part of God’s bigger plan for humanity.[^9] --- ## Physical suffering in the eyes of the four major Islamic schools of theology Islamic theodicy, while affirming God’s Oneness, Goodness, and Justice, also accepts suffering as part of a bigger divine plan.[^10] The Muʿtazilite School is one of the earliest rationalist schools of Islamic theology and the closest one to modern day Shīʿism. In their attempt to distance God from all moral evil and injustice, the Muʿtazilites emphasize human free will and agency and maintain a substantial role for reason as a source of religious knowledge, including the knowledge of good (*al-ḥasan*) and evil (*al-qabīḥ*).[^11] Unlike the other three schools of theology, namely the Ashʿarites, the Māturīdites, and the Traditionalists, that all emphasize Divine Omnipotence, the Muʿtazilites’ belief in Divine Justice (*ʿadl*) provides the foundation of their theodicy; it is the lens through which they see all Divine actions and is the basis on which they proclaim human free will. The Muʿtazilites’ believe that “a just God could neither sponsor human evil nor reward and punish people for actions over which they exercised no effective control.”[^12] Accordingly, they believe that human free will encompasses not only freedom of choice (in agreement with the three other schools), but also the power to translate these choices into actions. The latter constitutes a major point of disagreement between the Muʿtazilites and the three Sunni schools of theology.[^13] The Muʿtazilites affirm that “God has no need for the world,” and believe that He creates for a purpose (*gharaḍ*) that benefits human beings and not God Himself.[^14] For them, all actions should be judged on the basis of their inherent properties and ultimate effects and not on the simple notion of provenance. And, since God transcends pointlessness (*ʿabath*), there must be a concrete meaning and purpose (*gharaḍ*) for all His actions, including physical suffering.[^15] The Muʿtazilites ultimately use two concepts to help them reconcile divine justice with human suffering. First, *luṭf* (kindness), stating that God must, at all times, act according to humans’ best interests and that all God’s actions are good and just. Thus, even if the suffering seems to have no apparent benefit, it must be promoting an underlying or an indirect good. Second, *ʿiwaḍ* (indemnification), which is seen as a form of “restitution for harm suffered.” This restitution could be delivered in this life or the next.[^16] Unlike the Muʿtazilites, the Ashʿarites, one of the most popular theological Sunni schools today, emphasize Divine Omnipotence. Despite being rationalists, the Ashʿarites insist that God has the absolute will and power to do as He pleases, and that good and evil cannot be known through reasoning; they must be understood from scripture. Hence, what we see as evil (physical suffering in this case) is not an ontological reality but is rather a matter of human perspective.[^17] Human will, for the Ashʿarites, carries a different meaning. Humans, in Ashʿarites’ doctrine, are free to choose but not free to act unless God grants them the power to do so. This is the doctrine of acquisition (*kasb*) that ensures God’s exclusive, non-negotiable omnipotence. The Ashʿarites are predestinarians, a stand that is clearly revealed in their famous expression: “What reaches you could not possibly have missed you; and what misses you could not possibly have reached you.”[^18] Like the Ashʿarites’, the Māturīdites’ Sunni school of theology rejects secondary causation and commits to Divine omnipotence. It sees God as the Commander and Controller (*al-mudabbir*)[^19] and holds its own version of the doctrine of *kasb* to define human free will in relation to God’s omnipotence.[^20] Wisdom (*ḥikma*) is the central theme in the Māturīdites’ theology. Wisdom for them holds an underlying meaning of purpose (*qaṣd*), knowledge, and justice (*ʿadl*); and it denotes that creation is rational and subject to reasonable analysis.[^21] Like the Muʿtazilites, the Māturīdites see God entirely above pointlessness (*ʿabath*).[^22] Therefore, His Wisdom ensures that everything is in its proper place and every action has a commendable consequence (*ʿāqibah ḥamīdah*) even if we do not immediately understand His Wisdom or purpose.[^23] Unlike the Ashʿarites, who see evil as a negation (non-existence), the Māturīdites see evil as a creation of God, which was created to play a defined positive role in human life. Accordingly, when viewed through the lens of Divine wisdom, not in terms of human justice, physical suffering is considered evil only for as long as we lack full understanding and insight into the whole picture and purpose.[^24] The Traditionalists’ (Ḥanbalī’s) school of theology confirms the superiority of scripture (*naql*) and regards reasoning (*ʿaql*) as subjective speculation. It rejects the need for allegorical interpretation (rationalism) of the scripture and insists on the plain meaning of the text. Like the two other Sunni schools, the Traditionalists deny secondary causation and emphasize God’s absolute will and power; yet, they recognize a degree of human agency that the Ashʿarites would not recognize.[^25] The Traditionalists are not monolithic. Today, their theology is mostly exemplified in Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya’s teachings. Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya acknowledges reason’s ability to understand good and evil and sees God totally above pointlessness (*ʿabath*).[^26] He teaches that “God loves human beings” and that His act of creating has an inherent wise purpose that He loves. The shaykh “relates God’s love to God’s will” and acknowledges that although God sometimes creates things that He hates, there is always a wise purpose (*ḥikma*) rooted in Divine love.[^27] Accordingly, the word *ḥikma* (wisdom) for Ibn Taymiyya denotes a “moral significance” to everything that God creates.[^28] The shaykh chose the word *ḥikma* (wisdom) instead of *gharaḍ* (purpose), the term used by the Muʿtazilites, as he “believes that God wills and creates for a cause, reason, or end but yet that God is definitely not moved by a purpose” and that He is definitely above all needs.[^29] Ibn Taymiyyah sees that absolute moral evil (*sharr maḥḍ*) is a privation (non-existence—*ʿadam*).[^30] Accordingly, he regards what human beings perceive as evil as only relative to the context and the particulars of the situation within which it is embedded but it is “wholly good by virtue of God’s wise purpose in creating it.”[^31] For Ibn Taymiyyah, evil plays educational and spiritual roles in the world, roles that should be seen in the light of God’s Justice (*ʿadl*), Wisdom (*ḥikma*) and Beneficence (*raḥma*).[^32] Thus, what we might see as evil is only a relative evil that God, with His Mercy and Goodness, allows into creation for an ultimate wise consequence and a higher purpose that we might or might not understand.[^33] The Sufis, whether subscribing to the Ashʿarite, Māturīdite, Traditionalist, or Shīʿite schools of theology, add some mystical aspects to their doctrine. For Sufis, suffering draws the believer closer to God leading him/her to supplicate so that “the gates of mercy are opened up for him.”[^34] Shaykh Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allah as-Sakandarī (d. 709 CE/1310 AH), the Egyptian Sunni scholar and Sufi mystic, says, “When \[God\] loosens your tongue with a request, then know that He wants to give you something.”[^35] The extent to which a person benefits and learns from the suffering experience depends on the kind of relationship they establish with the Divine. Human suffering is thus a testimony for Divine mercy with God aiming at purifying the believers’ hearts and driving them to reflect on the divine purpose of creation.[^36] Whether this suffering leads to ultimate bliss or utmost despair depends on how the person makes use of it through reflection and reasoning. Additionally, Sufis see suffering as a “stimulus for spiritual growth” and a route for “perfection of gnosis.”[^37] A period of suffering is a period during which the believers face their own weaknesses and realize that only God is in full control. Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allah teaches, “Nothing pleads more for you than utter need; nor is anything swifter in bringing divine gifts than humiliation and want,” and “My Lord, I realize \[…\] that what You want of me is to reveal Yourself to me in everything, so that I may not be ignorant of You in anything.” [^38] --- ## Weaving the suffering narrative In his book, *Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn*, Imam Al-Harawy (d. 481 CE/ 1089 AH), the Sunni scholar and Sufi mystic, classifies awakening as the first station in his hundred-station journey towards God: awakening to our blessings, our misdeeds, and the passage of time.[^39] Illness forces us to awaken to all three. It forces us to slow down or even stop in our tracks and re-examine and re-evaluate our life. This pause makes us see the blessings that we formerly took for granted, evaluate our deeds and intentions, and value each moment of our existence. Illness makes us face, maybe for the first time, the possibility of the end of life, and with it face the question: what did I achieve? What did I do with the trust (*al-ʾamāna*) that God entrusted me with? Arthur Frank describes three types of narratives that a suffering patient weaves when faced with a serious diagnosis: chaos, restitution, and quest narratives.[^40] By integrating Muslims’ theological thinking into Frank’s narratives, I suggest a new approach to physical suffering that counselors and spiritual care providers can use to assist patients to reframe their suffering, weaving a richer alternative story that not only helps them positively cope but also helps them heal. The chaos narrative is where most patients commence upon receiving a life-altering diagnosis or when their unexplained crippling pains and disabilities start seriously interfering with everyday life. They lose their sense of coherence and with this uncertainty and ambiguity they are thrown into anxiety, depression, and/or despair. Many patients unconsciously prefer to remain in the safety of the chaos to avoid having to face the metaphysical questions about the meaning of their illness and the purpose of their existence. Such questions entail some degree of responsibility; they necessitate decision-making and agency, traits that are missing from a chaotic narrative. Nevertheless, the denial of chaos only makes it worse.[^41] Although the Muʿtazilites believe that God transcends pointlessness (*ʿabath*), the Ashʿarites and the Traditionalists stress that all God’s acts must be good and just, and the Māturīdites insist on there being Divine wisdom behind any suffering, they all acknowledge that the goodness, justice, and wisdom might rest beyond our human interpretation and apprehension.[^42] This lack of understanding, direction, and clarity is what defines the chaos narrative. Although Islam shows considerable tolerance of human vulnerability, many Muslim spiritual care providers show little or no tolerance of the chaos narrative, which isoften mistaken for displeasure with God’s will and decree. Surprisingly, the ambiguity and emptiness of the chaos are what open the door to a deeper experience of faith. Within the vicissitudes of the chaotic narrative, a therapist can help the patient locate “sparkling events”[^43] where signs of resilience and strength might have gotten lost in the disarray of painful reality. However, before life can re-emerge from the mayhem, it should be acknowledged and given its due time. Like Ghazālī’s, the most celebrated spiritual stories start with despair and chaos. It was precisely that chaos that forced him to withdraw from public life and take time for restitution. The restitution narrative is the preferred narrative of our modern-day pharmaceutical and medical systems. It aims at restoring the sense that everything is going to be okay, and normalizing illness so that it does not interrupt our ordinary, quotidian story. The restitution narrative is essential for us to foster hope, ensure patients’ compliance with needed treatments, and bring initial relief and stamina to withstand and cope with the suffering. Like a physician offering medication to calm the pain or control the symptoms promising restitution, theological concepts have their role in that promise. The concept of *ʿiwaḍ* (indemnification) in the Muʿtazilites’ theology tells a gentle and compassionate narrative (*luṭf*) that promises restitution in this life or the next. Likewise, the Ashʿarites’ determinism, promoting trust in God’s omnipotence, has an underlying form of optimism that God will show the way and open the doors and that there is always room for miracles. The Māturīdites’ doctrine affirming God’s wisdom and stressing that illness has an ultimate purpose[^44] and the Traditionalists’ theology view of suffering as a relative evil that the All-Merciful God allows for an ultimate wisdom both offer an antidote for despair and helplessness and raise the patient’s morale. However, the restitution narrative has its drawbacks. Although it takes the patient out of the initial chaos and initiates the healing journey, it does not promote self-reflection nor does it foster responsibility. In a secular setting, the restitution narrative places power in the hands of doctors and puts medications in charge of the cure. Similarly, although it is initially beneficial, taking theological concepts at face value without deeper reflection risks fostering dependency and making patients defer their responsibility, waiting for God to fix or reward them. If this restorative trust is taken too far, it can tilt the scale towards quietism and passivity, traits that are not supported by any of the four Islamic theological schools.[^45] The restitution narrative is definitely useful and even required as long as it does not blind us from the bigger picture. All healing traditions posit that symptoms are messengers sent by the body to inform us about an underlying more serious problem. They even describe body metaphors in which every organ and system in the body holds a specific emotional/spiritual message that it delivers in the form of its malfunction.[^46] The restitution narrative, like medications, calms down or “fixes” those symptoms, aiming at reaching a cure, but cure does not necessarily equate with healing. Health restoration entails listening to those body whispers; it entails tending to the needs of the soul as well as the body. In the fast-paced, left-brained Western world, there is no time for mysteries. We seek science for restitution, and we have given it the role of theology to give us support and patience until this restitution is achieved. No soul searching is required. Patients are expected to return to the way they lived before the illness, no self-reconstruction performed, and no wisdom grasped. The restitution narrative skips any self-reflection and runs back to the “safety” of everyday life, even if this “safety” held the reason for our illness in the first place. There is a fine line between trust, satisfaction (*riḍā*), and surrendering (*tawakkol*) on one side, and falling into helplessness and passivity on the other. The restitution narrative gives hope and energy, paving the way for further work on the self, for the patient to stand up and start weaving a richer quest narrative. The quest narrative empowers patients to face not only their symptoms but also themselves. It propels them to embark on a journey of self-discovery, a journey that, like Ghazālī’s, might interrupt their life and compromise their “safety,” a journey that ventures into the unknown, with an unclear destination, yet with a deep sense of trust that this journey will result in important lessons and wisdom.[^47] By weaving their quest narrative, they reclaim their voice and assume responsibility for their life and their suffering. And, as they start making changes, some sense of meaning and purpose gradually reveals itself. The quest narrative resembles Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey.[^48] In this famous mythology, the hero (the patient in our case) receives a call that urges him/her to leave the comforts of daily life. For Ghazālī, as for many patients, this calling was the unsettled feeling informing him that something needed to change in his life. Knowing the difficulty involved, he initially rejected the call, in the same manner that many patients brush off those body whispers until they turn into screams—official diagnoses that thrust them into action. Ghazālī left Baghdad and started what Campbell calls “the road of trials.”[^49] It took him eleven full years to organize the chaos of his narrative and grasp the lessons that he was meant to learn. He eventually achieved healing and returned, forever changed by his experience. Similarly, to discern the wisdom behind illness, a patient needs to adopt a unique epistemology that challenges the modern cognitive frame of the dichotomy of good and evil. He/she needs to stop judging evil solely on the basis of it not serving an immediate interest or pleasure. Likewise, healing should not be regarded through a reductionist Cartesian lens that reduces its meaning to curing the illness. Healing means becoming whole again, becoming at peace with oneself, the world, and the Divine. Healing entails finding a meaning and purpose that is bigger than ourselves and bigger than our suffering. The quest narrative is about embarking on a journey of self-reflection, a hero/heroine’s journey that encourages us to look beyond the direct effects of the suffering to discern the underlying signs and lessons. Sheikh Ibn Taymiyya sees awakening as one of the purposes of suffering.[^50] Illness wakes us up from heedlessness and redirects us to our role as worshippers of God. Taking into account the wider meaning of worship, which Ghazālī sees as carrying the trust (*ḥaml al-ʾamāna*),[^51] we can thus reframe suffering and see it as a wake-up call that initiates our protagonist’s journey. And, what if the Muʿtazilites’ *ʿiwaḍ* is not just a reward in this life and the Hereafter, but is also the *tawfīq* (divine facilitation) of discernment, the moment of cognizance that gives the protagonist this subtle psychological and mental attitude shift towards not only their illness but also their life? What if, as the Ashʿarites teach, we look at physical suffering, not as an ontological reality, but rather as a matter of perspective:[^52] “but perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and, perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And God Knows, while you know not” (Qur’an 2:216). What if we shift our perception of illness such that, as the Māturīdites teach, it is seen as a creation of God that is here to play a defined, wise, and positive role in our lives? And, what if we add this Sufi mystical dimension to enrich our narrative and reflect on the kind of relationship we need to establish with God and the *ʾamāna* (trust) we are entrusted with? All Muslim theological schools agree that human beings possess the will to choose their actions and reactions. Accordingly, they are the ones who decide whether to embark on the quest journey or to settle for physical restitution. Imam Ghazālī could have chosen the restitution narrative, staying in the comfort of his luxurious life and seeking the best physicians in his time to restore his health. If he had done that, he might have healed his physical body but not his soul. His soul needed to tell the quest narrative, a narrative that we all identify with more than 900 years after his death. The quest narrative is a tough narrative to weave. Society prefers the restitution narrative that prescribes clear directions and a definite course of treatment. Ambiguity, soul searching, and massive life changes are hard for us to tolerate. The quest narrative often not only demands an upending of the status quo of our personal lives, but it also necessitates social engagements and changes.[^53] Besides, we might not always be able to grasp the full picture and wisdom. Imam Ghazālī never knew that his books would be taught centuries after his death. Even if we understand some lessons, many more could be still hidden and veiled from our limited human apprehension. We may only have a glimpse of the big picture, just see part of the larger plan, or solve one tiny piece of the puzzle, yet this tiny piece is often all it takes to keep us going, to rekindle the hope in our suffering hearts. A successful quest narrative harmonizes human agency and free will with the Divine decree, acknowledging that the full picture might not be fully revealed. --- ## The role of the practitioner Although many studies show the importance of religiosity and spirituality for overall health and wellbeing, research conducted with Iranian physicians and nurses has shown that the level of religiosity decreased as the level of medical training—emphasizing the technological aspects of healthcare—increased.[^54] Moreover, a study performed on a sample of Muslim psychology students revealed a lack of confidence and apprehension when faced with spiritual issues in therapy.[^55] These studies show the pressing need for integrating spirituality into healthcare education and practice. Although research shows that helplessness and powerlessness pave the way to depression,[^56] when faced with a life-threatening diagnosis, a patient is blamed for his/her initial helpless chaos and only offered a powerless restitution narrative as an alternative. The latter comes either in the form of medications from the physician and/or encouragement from most religious leaders promising reward for patience, expiation of sins, and rising in spiritual status. Counselors, therapists, and spiritual care providers need to practice helping the client embrace, navigate, and surpass the shady areas of the chaotic narrative; seek restitution and physical restoration; and, ultimately embark on a hero/heroine’s journey of soul restoration. In other words, they need to help the patient proceed beyond the chaos and restitution narratives and start weaving a quest narrative, one that fosters positive religious coping and shifts their attitude towards not only their illness but towards life itself. Finding higher meaning in life is a central tenet of positive psychology;[^57] re-formulating an illness story into a quest narrative is a powerful tool for preventing the depression and helplessness associated with many life-threatening diagnoses; it also protects the patient from embracing an attitude of resignation and quietism. However, care should be taken to avoid rushing an unready patient into a quest that adds to his/her existing chaos or imposing guilt on an already vulnerable patient. It is important not to romanticize the quest narrative by condemning the chaos and skipping the phase of restitution. As described earlier, the chaos and restitution narratives have their place and should be gracefully accepted. The chaos narrative acknowledges human vulnerability and opens the door to faith and a mystical dimension of reality. And the restitution narrative instills hope and reminds us that seeking treatment is a religious obligation. --- ## Conclusion All four Islamic theological schools affirm God’s Transcendence, are against quietism and resignation, and believe in human free will, although they differ in the specific definition, range, and scope of this free will.[^58] Patience and forbearance in the face of suffering are direct results of belief in God’s Wisdom, Goodness, and Justice. Believing in these Divine attributes helps us navigate the chaos and gives us the needed hope and stamina for restitution through medical or other means. The goal of this paper is to show that yet another narrative needs to be woven, a quest narrative that aims at discerning the lessons and wisdom behind suffering. This paper explored ways in which counselors can help patients reframe the physical suffering narrative into a quest narrative. I started by examining the meaning of physical suffering in the Qur’an and Prophetic teachings, then its meaning as seen in the eyes of the four major Islamic theological schools and the Islamic Mystical (Sufi) tradition. Next, I considered three common narratives that suffering patients weave for their challenges and showed how Islamic theological concepts could be integrated into those narratives to promote positive religious coping. Finally, I discussed the role that practitioners can play in helping a suffering patient to successfully navigate the shady areas of the chaotic narrative, seek restitution, and initiate a hero/heroine’s journey of soul restoration. This approach has its limitations, though. While I have proposed a way in which a suffering patient can build an alternative story and a quest narrative, it is still the case that not every example of physical suffering can be explained and rationalized (children’s suffering, for instance). Furthermore, the paper did not deal with other forms of suffering, like natural disasters and human-inflicted suffering. Additionally, it explored the three most common narratives that a suffering patient weaves as defined by Arthur Frank,[^59] yet it acknowledges that every patient weaves their own unique suffering narrative that might fall outside those common frames and these alternative narratives also need to be considered. Finally, qualitative analysis is needed to further explore the application of the suggested model in a practical setting. Examining case studies and documenting detailed therapeutic sessions will help us better understand patients’ needs and the role a spiritual care practitioner can play in helping patients weave their quest narratives. --- ## Notes [^1]: Abū Ḥāmid Muhammad, Al-.Ghazālī, *Deliverance From Error: Five Key Texts Including His Spiritual Autobiography, al-Munqidh min al- Ḍalāl*, trans. R.J. McCarthy (Louisville, KY: FonsVitae, 1980). [^2]: Majed A. Ashy, “Health and Illness from an Islamic Perspective,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 38, no. 3 (1999). [^3]: Chaïma Ahaddour and Bert Broeckaert, “For Every Illness There is a Cure: Attitudes and Beliefs of Moroccan Muslim Women Regarding Health, Illness, and Medicine,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 56 (2017). [^4]: Azi Berzengi, Latef Berzenji, Aladdin Kadim, and Falah Mustafa, “Role of Islamic Appraisals, Trauma-Related Appraisals, and Religious Coping in the Posttraumatic Adjustment of Muslim Trauma Survivors,” *Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy* 9, no. 2 (2017): 189–197. [^5]: Ahaddour and Broeckaert, “For Every Illness There is a Cure.” [^6]: Abdulaziz Sachedina, “Can God Inflict Unrequited Pain On His Creatures? Muslim Perspectives On Health And Suffering,” in *Religion, Health, and Suffering*, ed. John R. Hinnells and Roy Porter (London, New York: Routledge, 1999), 65-84. [^7]: Ibid. [^8]: Amira Ayad, *Healing Body & Soul: Your Guide to Holistic Wellbeing Following Islamic Teachings* (Riyadh: Islamic International Publishing House, 2008). [^9]: Sachedina, “Can God Inflict Unrequited Pain On His Creatures?” [^10]: Ibid. [^11]: Sherman Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 52. [^12]: Ibid., 51. [^13]: Ibid., 52. [^14]: Jon Hoover, *Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism* (Boston: Brill, 2007), 70-74. [^15]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 61. [^16]: Ibid., 62-64. [^17]: Ibid., 76-77. [^18]: Sachedina, “Can God Inflict Unrequited Pain On His Creatures?” [^19]: J. Meric Pessagno, “The Uses of Evil in Maturidian Thought,” *Studia Islamica* 60 (1984): 59-82. [^20]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 106. [^21]: Pessagno, “The Uses of Evil in Maturidian Thought.” [^22]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 109. [^23]: Ibid. [^24]: Pessagno, “The Uses of Evil in Maturidian Thought.” [^25]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 149. [^26]: Ibid., 148, 150. [^27]: Jon Hoover, *Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism* (Boston: Brill, 2007), 70-73. [^28]: Ibid., 74. [^29]: Ibid., 74-102. [^30]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 148, 150. [^31]: Hoover, *Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy*, 209. [^32]: Ibid., 209-229. [^33]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 146-47. [^34]: Ibn ʿAṭā’ Allah as-Sakandarī, *The Book of Wisdoms: A Collection of Sufi Aphorisms*, Trans. Victor Danner (London: White Thread Press: 2014), 180. [^35]: Ibid. [^36]: Abdulaziz Sachedina, “Can God Inflict Unrequited Pain On His Creatures? Muslim Perspectives On Health And Suffering,” 65-84. [^37]: Nuh Keller, Suffering and Divine Wisdom, Seekers Guidance, July 31, 2011, [https://www.seekersguidance.org/answers/general-counsel/suffering-and-divine-wisdom/](https://www.seekersguidance.org/answers/general-counsel/suffering-and-divine-wisdom/) (accessed March 20, 2019). [^38]: Ibid. [^39]: Abdullah Al-Ansary Al-Harawy, *Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn* (Beirut: Dār Al-Kutub Al-ʿilmiyyah, 1988). [^40]: Arthur W. Frank, *The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). [^41]: Ibid., 112. [^42]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 110. [^43]: Alice Morgan, *What is Narrative therapy? An Easy-to-Read Introduction* (Adelaide, Australia: Dulwich Centre Publication, 2000). [^44]: Sachedina, “Can God Inflict Unrequited Pain On His Creatures?” [^45]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*. [^46]: Amira Ayad, *Body Whispers: Unraveling the Emotional & Spiritual Root of Illness and Restoring Energy & Vitality* (New York: Createspace, 2015). [^47]: Frank, *The Wounded Storyteller*, 115. [^48]: Ibid., 117-119. [^49]: Joseph Campbell, *The Hero with a Thousand Faces* (California: Princeton University Press, 1972). [^50]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*. [^51]: Abū Ḥāmid Muhammad Al-Ghazālī, *ʾIḥyāʾa ʿUlūm al-Dīn* (Bairut: Dār al-Fikr, 2016). [^52]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*, 77. [^53]: Frank, *The Wounded Storyteller*, 113, 120. [^54]: Sina Hafizi, Harold G. Koenig, Mohammad Arbabi, Mohammad Pakrah, and Amene Saghazadeh, “Attitudes of Muslim Physicians and Nurses Toward Religious Issues,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 53 (2014): 1374–1381. [^55]: Cynthia Joan Patel and Armas E. Shikongo, “Handling Spirituality/Religion in Professional Training: Experiences of a Sample of Muslim Psychology Students,” *Journal of Religion and Health* 45, no. 1 (2006). [^56]: Paul Gilbert, *Depression and Powerlessness* (New York: Routledge, 2009). [^57]: Martin E. P. Seligman, *Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being* (New York: Free Press Simon & Schuster, 2011). [^58]: Jackson, *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering*. [^59]: Frank, *The Wounded Storyteller*. ## Summary In the year 1095 C.E., Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), then among the most celebrated scholars of Baghdad, was afflicted with a physical ailment that locked his tongue and prevented him from teaching, casting him into depression and bodily decline. This suffering became a turning point, prompting him to abandon his prestigious life and embark upon an eleven-year journey of heart-purification that culminated in his monumental work, *Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn* (Revival of the Religious Sciences). His story frames a deeper inquiry: might physical suffering itself contain a sign—a call towards a higher vocation and purpose? Since Muslims' understanding of illness and their capacity to cope are rooted in their belief in God's Oneness, and since negative religious coping can cause harm, the proper interpretation of theological concepts becomes essential in shaping the healing journey of Muslim patients. The aim here is not to weigh the strength or weakness of the various theological positions, but rather to draw benefit from their representative perspectives and explore their application in spiritual care and counseling. The Qur'an teaches that creation is purposeful, not random, and calls the believer to discern the signs sent both in the world and within the self: "And in the earth are signs for those who have certainty, and in yourselves. Then, do you not see?" (Qur'an 51:20–21). Suffering is presented not as evil but as an integral part of human existence and a trial from an All-Merciful God: "Do the people reckon that they will be left to say, 'We believe,' and will not be tried?" (Qur'an 29:1). The believer facing affliction is counselled to patience and to say, "Surely we belong to God, and to Him we return" (Qur'an 2:156–157), upon whom rest the blessings, mercy, and guidance of their Lord. The prophetic traditions teach that illness may be a mercy in disguise that expiates the believer's sins, yet they oppose passivity and urge the seeking of treatment through all available means. They also recognise the metaphysical and psychological dimensions of illness, inviting reflection on whether the suffering is a trial, a purification of the heart, or both. Seen thus, suffering poses no theoretical dilemma for the believer, for it forms part of God's larger plan. The four major schools of Islamic theology, while affirming God's Oneness, Goodness, and Justice, each frame suffering within a broader divine design. The Muʿtazilites, the earliest rationalist school, ground their theodicy in Divine Justice (ʿadl), holding that a just God could neither author human evil nor punish people for actions beyond their control. They affirm that God has no need of the world and creates for a purpose (gharaḍ) benefiting humankind, and since God transcends pointlessness (ʿabath), every act must carry meaning. They reconcile justice with suffering through two concepts: *luṭf* (kindness), whereby God always acts in humanity's best interest so that even seemingly purposeless suffering serves an indirect good; and *ʿiwaḍ* (indemnification), a restitution for harm delivered in this life or the next. The Ashʿarites, by contrast, emphasise Divine Omnipotence, holding that good and evil are known only through scripture and that what appears as evil is a matter of human perspective rather than an ontological reality. Through their doctrine of acquisition (kasb), humans choose but cannot act save by God's granted power, and their predestinarian outlook is captured in the saying: "What reaches you could not possibly have missed you; and what misses you could not possibly have reached you." The Māturīdites likewise uphold Divine omnipotence and their own form of *kasb*, but centre their theology on Wisdom (ḥikma), which carries the meanings of purpose (qaṣd), knowledge, and justice, rendering creation rational and intelligible. Placing God above pointlessness, they hold that His Wisdom ensures every act yields a praiseworthy consequence (ʿāqibah ḥamīdah) even when its purpose eludes us, and unlike the Ashʿarites—who see evil as non-existence—they regard evil as a creation of God fashioned to play a defined, positive role. The Traditionalists (Ḥanbalīs) affirm the primacy of scripture (naql) over reason (ʿaql), reject allegorical interpretation, yet grant a degree of human agency the Ashʿarites withhold. Their theology today is largely represented by Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya, who acknowledges reason's capacity to grasp good and evil and teaches that God loves human beings and creates with a wise purpose (ḥikma) He loves. Preferring *ḥikma* to the Muʿtazilite *gharaḍ*, he holds that God wills and creates for a cause yet is moved by no need. Absolute evil (sharr maḥḍ), for him, is a privation; what we perceive as evil is only relative to its context, "wholly good by virtue of God's wise purpose," serving educational and spiritual roles seen through God's Justice, Wisdom, and Beneficence (raḥma). The Sufis, across these schools, add a mystical dimension, seeing suffering as drawing the believer nearer to God and opening the gates of mercy through supplication. Shaykh Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allah al-Sakandarī (d. 709/1310) said, "When God loosens your tongue with a request, then know that He wants to give you something," and "Nothing pleads more for you than utter need; nor is anything swifter in bringing divine gifts than humiliation and want." Suffering thus becomes a stimulus for spiritual growth and the perfection of gnosis, though whether it leads to bliss or despair depends upon the believer's reflection and their relationship with the Divine. Drawing on Imam al-Harawī (d. 481/1089), who in his *Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn* names awakening—to our blessings, our misdeeds, and the passage of time—as the first station on the journey to God, illness is understood to force such an awakening. Integrating this theological thinking with Arthur Frank's three illness narratives, a new approach emerges. The *chaos narrative*, where patients lose coherence and fall into anxiety or despair, mirrors the theological acknowledgement that God's goodness and wisdom may lie beyond human comprehension; though often mistaken for displeasure with God's decree, its emptiness can open the door to deeper faith, as al-Ghazālī's own despair once did. The *restitution narrative*, favoured by modern medicine, restores hope and secures compliance with treatment, and finds theological expression in *ʿiwaḍ*, Ashʿarite trust in omnipotence, and Māturīdite and Traditionalist affirmations of purpose behind suffering; yet taken too far, it risks fostering dependency and a quietism unsupported by any of the four schools. The *quest narrative*, resembling Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, empowers patients to face themselves, reclaim their voice, and discern meaning—as al-Ghazālī did over eleven years. Since Ibn Taymiyya names awakening among suffering's purposes, and since al-Ghazālī understood worship as carrying the trust (ḥaml al-ʾamāna), suffering may be reframed as a wake-up call, illuminated by the Qur'anic teaching: "But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And God Knows, while you know not" (Qur'an 2:216). All four schools affirm human free will—differing over its scope—and reject quietism, so the patient ultimately chooses between mere restitution and the harder quest journey, which harmonises human agency with Divine decree while accepting that the full picture may remain veiled. Given research showing that religiosity declines with increased medical training and that Muslim counsellors often feel unequipped for spiritual matters, practitioners are called to help patients navigate the chaos, seek restitution, and embark upon a journey of soul-restoration, without rushing the unready, imposing guilt, or romanticising the quest by dismissing the necessary phases that precede it. This approach carries acknowledged limitations: not all suffering—such as that of children—can be rationalised; other forms of suffering, like natural disasters and human-inflicted harm, remain unaddressed; patients weave narratives beyond the three common frames; and qualitative study of the model in practice is still needed. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/who-wants-the-caliphate # Who Wants the Caliphate? **Author:** Dr. Ovamir Anjum **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 31, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 Editor's note *This publication was scheduled for release before the news of the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. In light of this news, we felt it even more important to release this paper to contrast the way the concept of the Caliphate lives in the Islamic tradition and many Muslim minds with the image in the Western imagination evoked by the brutality of ISIS.* --- ## Author Acknowledgments I am indebted to a number of scholars and friends who painstakingly read earlier drafts of this essay and gave invaluable suggestions, even though I remain solely responsible for all the opinions and any lingering errors in it. These include Zara Khan, Jonathan Brown, Omar Anchassi, Mohammed El-Sayed Bushra, Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, and Mobeen Vaid, among others. Each of these went above and beyond to provide numerous line-by-line suggestions, corrections, and references. My heartfelt gratitude goes also to the leadership of Yaqeen who encouraged me to write on this challenging topic, and to the numerous students in various places from North America to nearly every Muslim country to whom I have taught this material in various formats, and whose questions, insights, and aspirations have been its real inspiration. --- ## Who Wants the Caliphate? A word loaded like no other, “caliphate” summons deep memories and desires for some and ominous fears for others. For some fourteen centuries, notwithstanding some discontinuities, the Muslim world had been synonymous with the caliphate. The loss of the Ottoman Caliphate after the First World War sent convulsive waves of shock and lament throughout the lands of Islam, the idea of its return inspiring numerous movements and intellectual projects. Its lure, however, receded in the short-lived excitement of post-colonial state-building in the shadow of the Cold War. Today, as the failure of this state-building becomes ever more spectacular, neoliberal economics and the global environmental collapse claim more victims, and the world system inches toward deglobalization and nativism, the idea of the caliphate as the only civilizational alternative that can safeguard the interests of the most vulnerable becomes stronger among Muslims globally. Although it is only beginning to attract scholarly attention, with every suppressed uprising in the Muslim world, every new cycle of terrorism and punitive war, every new Muslim population violated with impunity, and every new wall erected in Euro-America, the idea of a pan-Islamic union wins more converts. A recent boost for the idea of a good caliphate was the rise of a bad one. The meteoric rise and ignominious fall of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS; also known as ISIL: the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), with all its promise and horror, threw the potency of the idea into sharp relief. Even populist leaders in the region have gestured toward it, none more than Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has capitalized on the growing global Muslim nostalgia for the Ottoman Caliphate. He recently declared that the Republic of Turkey is a continuation of the Ottoman Empire. “Sultan Erdogan,” as he is affectionately called by his admirers, fills a void that many Muslims worldwide feel with increasing poignancy.[^1] Although the Turkish president’s power may be short-lived, the aspirations he has stirred up are not. Not too long ago, the advocates of resurrecting the caliphate were cast, not always unfairly, as being fanatics, romanticists, or die-hard traditionalists, nostalgic for a golden age that critics claimed never was. Mainstream Islamists, increasingly inclined or compelled to embrace nation-state politics, had adopted positions ranging from a vision paralleling the secular Christian democratic politics of Europe to a sheepish acknowledgment that a union of Muslim, or at least Arab, countries, imagined as a confederation of Muslim democracies like the European Union, was indeed desirable, if virtually out of reach. Such pragmatists, for all their compromises, have largely failed in attaining their political goals or even avoiding massive persecution and, as the events after the Arab uprisings of 2011 show, seem to be losing the struggle for young Muslims’ imagination to newer, bolder visions. As the real and virtual images of the helplessness of Muslim masses and the betrayal of the Muslim elite circulate and grow, the idea of the *ummah*—the global community of Muslims—soars higher and sinks deeper, as does its natural complement, the *caliphate*, a unified government to care for all Muslims, especially the forgotten ones on the margins. As these margins widen, far outweighing the fewer and fewer protected populations of the Muslim lands, the call grows shriller. A recent *New York Times* article sheds light on the continuing power of the idea of the caliphate among Muslims worldwide, including those who abhorred ISIS and categorically condemned its violence as well as its religious outlook. The caliphate, the author found during her investigation, “was an idea with more appeal than many in the West wanted to admit.”[^2] The ensuing events—the vile, self-serving politics of Middle Eastern despots and the deepening rifts of sectarian violence—seem to have led to “a broad mainstream embrace of a collective Muslim identity that is global and overtly political and that has prompted young Muslims to view themselves as a collective community, for whom a homeland would provide solutions to trying circumstances.”[^3] The objections to the idea of resurrecting the caliphate, too, appear formidable. These are of three types: that it is undesirable, unfeasible, and/or religiously unnecessary. It is *undesirable* because it is a medieval, absolutist political system (if it can be called a *system* at all); it beckons to a primitive age prior to human rights, progress, citizenship, democracy, and religious freedom. Moreover, it is associated with terrorist outfits like ISIS and draws the worst kind of attention from both its supporters and its adversaries. It is *unfeasible* because the nation-state, whatever its flaws, is here to stay. Finally, it is *religiously unnecessary* because the caliphate, it is claimed, is not an Islamic religious institution to begin with but only a historical institution and one that never even existed for long in its ideal form as a unified authority over all Muslims. In this essay, I evaluate these claims. The controversy around the caliphate is animated in part by the ambiguity of its significance; it may invoke, especially to its detractors, an absolutist medieval theocracy of one-man-rule or, to its reformist supporters, a confederation of Muslim governments after the model of the European Union (one, presumably, with a happier ending!). To some, it is a premodern alternative to contemporary political systems; to others, a postmodern union of Muslim-majority democratic nation-states. Both of these types of views miss part of the complexity and richness of the Islamic discursive tradition around the caliphate and need to be engaged and deconstructed. *If understood as governance based on a just, accountable, human-rights-conscious, and decentralized union of the various Muslim regional governments with a unified economy and defense, it is my contention that the caliphate may be the only way to avoid the further spiraling degradation of Muslim societies and states into terrorist fiefdoms and, God forbid, a third world war.* The idea that the caliphate—or the ideal caliphate—is unfeasible simply because it no longer exists is based on little more than a failure of imagination and intellectual courage. Democracy, after all, began its life in a limited fashion in a small Greek city-state, flourished for a couple of hundred years, and then disappeared for the following two thousand years.[^4] Even in its second incarnation, it emerged as a pejorative at first; the American Founding Fathers and the elite saw the idea of a “republican democracy” as an oxymoron but ultimately had to relent to popular pressures.[^5] There is no reason for an idea to be deemed unfeasible simply because it is not in vogue. At a minimum, *caliphate* means Muslim unity expressed in political terms, and as such, it is hardly an idea Muslims need to reinvent.  It is present in every Qur’anic lesson on social existence, every Prophetic teaching, and every Friday sermon to this day. Throughout history, Muslims have agreed on the need for a political actualization of this idea; it not only predated Islamic law but was a condition of its birth and coherence. In reality, the caliphate did not always include all Muslim regions, and the idea of a total pan-Islamic unity has been an aspiration only rarely attained. In this respect, the ideal caliphate is no different from the ideal of a perfect democracy or even a sovereign nation-state. Such collective aspirations are rarely realized in their ideal form, yet they inspire personal and collective moral action for the majority of humankind in any given era. I call such ideals *asymptotic ideals*. An asymptote (fans of high-school Calculus will remember) is a line that approaches a curve but does not meet it at any finite distance. An asymptotic ideal is not the same as a utopian ideal: it is real, rational, and even attainable at moments, but its perfection is always a work in progress. Political theorist Sheldon Wolin expresses the same idea when he uses adjectives such as “episodic” and “fugitive” to describe democracy.[^6] All meaningful human ideals worth living for, including Islam’s religious ideals, are asymptotic, like the Sunnah of the Beloved Prophet Muhammad, God grant him peace and blessings. Avoiding sin, always preferring God over all else, and being truthful, just, and courageous are all part of the same asymptotic ideal. One’s asymptotic ideals, I contend, are the truest indication of one’s faith. True believers in democracy, liberalism, capitalism, or socialism are those who hold on to them even when they seem to be failing. The political unity of Muslims and the continuity of Prophetic governance is one such ideal that has been a part of Muslim identity throughout history and is based, I will show below, in the imperatives of Islam. The caliphate was not a utopia even in its best days; we must, therefore, reject the romanticization of the caliphate as an institution that can magically, merely by dint of a declaration, guarantee Muslims’ independence and well-being. Nor did it last continuously and unproblematically throughout its thirteen centuries of existence. Some critics, however, hold the historical caliphate grounded in fourteen centuries of consensus to such exacting ideals that would not leave any political or religious institution or ideal standing. Clearly, the consensus in Islam on the prohibition of perjury, usury, the killing of the innocent, etc. has not meant that these norms have always been upheld in practice. This selective skepticism reminds one of the Kharijite ferocity toward other Muslims. They, too, had first created a false ideal arbitrarily—the Qur’an alone, as they understood it, without the aid of the living authorities who had seen it revealed—and then condemned all whom they judged to have fallen short. Specifically, the Kharijites abhorred the imperfect governance by the caliphs and even leaders of their own sects. If the fact that past caliphates were not fully unified and not always just is taken to mean that no caliphate existed, we could argue by analogy that there have been no Muslims in history because they have all been imperfect, just as there exists no democracy because all democracies are imperfect. All such arguments are equally absurd. There are, of course, modern secularists who have argued that the political autonomy and unity of Muslims, as implied in the idea of the caliphate, are not desirable goals or religious ideals to begin with. To such arguments we turn presently. The point made so far is that merely pointing to historical imperfections is hardly an argument against the feasibility of the caliphate. The question of feasibility, admittedly, is an important element in evaluating and prioritizing obligations in Islamic jurisprudence and, rather than dismissing it out of hand, we must argue for it, as we begin to do in this essay. Next, there is the question of desirability. For the believers, the question of desirability is always subordinated to the question of the divine command. After all, God’s commands are for our ultimate well-being even when we cannot see it: “God knows and you know not.”[^7] Any particular command of God, however, is to be understood within an edifice of Islamic jurisprudence that consists of commands, prohibitions, and recommendations arranged (differently by different scholars) in terms of pragmatic priorities, individual and collective capacities, and epistemological certitude about its status. In the following, we briefly address the status of establishing the caliphate as a command, an exhaustive treatment being beyond our scope. Some leading scholars of Islam, like Hujjat al-Islam al-Ghazali, have considered the caliphate an obligation regardless of its efficacy, like a religious ritual, thus separating it from its political functionality or utility. Others, like Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya and Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni, have emphasized its rational nature. This latter view, I believe, is more compelling. Any movement toward reenacting such a global institution must make a compelling case for its ability to address pressing political, social, economic, and ecological challenges confronting Muslims. Any attempt to transcend the existing state of affairs—which we shall identify as the nation-state system—in favor of pan-Islamic unification in the Muslim world would have to engage in a long and hard dialogue about these problems. Such an endeavor, moreover, would have to involve in this dialogue and rebuilding not only all Muslims, especially the disadvantaged and disenfranchised, but also non-Muslim citizens of Muslim lands, regional neighbors, and the global scholarly and scientific community. In summary, to argue for its religious obligation, we must invoke scripture and Islamic jurisprudential tradition, but to make a case for its feasibility and desirability, one must also turn to history and politics (the so-called *fiqh al-wāqiʿ*). In reality, on this as on any given issue, these two types of discourse must proceed dialectically between jurisprudence and reality. If the case is properly made with these considerations in mind, I submit, the outcome will be preferable to most well-meaning people worldwide, not just Muslims. There are more and more compelling grounds to make such a case today. Over the past few decades, globalization has enormously increased Muslims’ awareness of other Muslims and of their unity of circumstance and vision across the globe. At the same time, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has increased tremendously in every society. The Arab uprisings of 2011 threw into sharp relief the commonality of the public sphere of nearly two dozen Arabic-speaking countries. The convulsions of these uprisings are far from over. At the same time, the ensuing tragedies in nearly every country have demonstrated the vacuity of national sovereignty, as oil-based monarchies and military autocrats across national boundaries closed ranks against the popular protest movements. Too came tumbling down the facade of the clerical establishments that happily cheered on the massacres and imprisonments. Under the crushing weight of utter political illegitimacy and the bankruptcy of the clerical establishment, Muslim societies are becoming increasingly incapable of providing for decent human life, and reactions to such unbearable conditions include endemic violence (this includes terrorism, but more importantly, broken individuals and communities that are also more vulnerable to microaggressions and domestic violence), religious disillusionment or fanaticism, and general ethical cynicism.[^8] Globally, the nation-state model has been unraveling since the promulgation of the neoliberal policies of the 1980s by global powers. This anxiety has been evident in influential titles that have appeared since the 1990s, such as “The End of the Nation-State” (several monographs carry this telling title, discussed below), “The Clash of Civilizations,”[^9] *Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism are Reshaping the World*,[^10] and *Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought*.[^11] This literature speaks of the dissolution of the traditional nation-state and the rise instead of global capitalists in cahoots with regional strongmen bent on amassing wealth and securing their power at the expense of increasing numbers and classes of people. These forces have together repurposed the apparatus of the nation-state. Even in its best days (from the nineteenth century until the Second World War), the nation-state consisted of an alignment of particular interests behind the façade of an abstracted international system. A leading American scholar of international relations at Stanford University aptly captured this idea in his book *Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy*.[^12] The supposed sovereignty of weaker states, his work shows, has been routinely violated by global powers, but the fiction has been useful in maintaining just the right kinds of puppets in power. Much of the literature concerning the end of the nation-state points out the inability of this system to deal with the greatest crises of our times, from man-made climate change and income inequality to the growing refugee crisis (the rise of non-citizens), and recommends regional or global economic cooperation as the way out.[^13] The irony of it all is that Muslims have historically benefited the least from the Industrial Revolution but are going to be the first targets of its inevitable consequence, environmental catastrophe. “We're headed for ‘climate apartheid,’ in which the poor will suffer while the rich save themselves, warns a chilling UN report.”[^14] Muslims can be sure that this scenario is going to play out in its most infernal form in the petty kingdoms and military states that they inhabit. In short, for Muslims, the nation-state system has been, and will continue to be, particularly brutal, divisive, and infernal. This is so not only because it was calculated by the outgoing colonizers from the outset to divide them and control their resources, but also, as we show below, because it is structurally incompatible with Islam.[^15] --- ## Dreams, pasts, and futures Humans are creatures of memories and desires. Life without hope that transcends the present, without dreams of improving one’s condition and equally of saving others that we love, is a dreadful nightmare. Such dystopian hopelessness has often birthed great evil. Even great imperialists have recognized the need for dreams; Churchill once said that if one was not a Marxist by the age of twenty-five, one had no heart, but if one was still a Marxist by thirty-five, one had no brain. Marxism has been the ultimate secular religion of the modern age, complete with an eschatology and creed.  To the secular youth of the Global North, Marxism or some other form of progressive vision fills the vacuum left by religious eschatology and world-saving compassion that capitalism lacks. Inasmuch as Muslims are a global community, they must possess worthy shared dreams and hopes. The Orwellian control of official religion and extermination of any expression of alternative visions of Islam by the reigning despots in the Muslim world is directly responsible for the apocalypticism and nihilistic destructiveness evident in the likes of ISIS. The despots at home are aided and complemented by the global War on Terror and demonization by world powers of anything but the most emasculated Islam. This state of affairs has devastated the psyche of an entire generation of millennial Muslims by polarizing them between those who feel sorry for being Muslim and others who feel angry for the same reason. The kind of Islam that is sustainable in the future must be one that is at home with itself while being able to save the world not from itself, but by being itself. This vision is powerfully articulated by Professor Salman Sayyid in his bold, imaginative work *Recalling the Caliphate*: > *Recalling the caliphate means understanding that the challenges that confront Muslims collectively are neither religious nor cultural but political, and their resolution can only be found in a politics in the name of Islam. This politics has no necessary content other than that struggled over in the historical sequence inaugurated by the return of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) \[from his ascension to the heaven\] … Recalling the caliphate, then, is a decolonial declaration, it is a reminder that Islam is Islam, and for Muslims that is all it needs to be.*[^16] The call is long overdue. For nearly a century now, Islam has not been allowed to be Islam. After the Cold War, the western order triumphed. Its prophets, from conservatives like Huntington (“Others are different, we must fight all”) to liberals like Fukuyama (“We are the end of history, we must assimilate all”), recognized the need for new frontiers and new enemies. Liberalism (like its economic twin, capitalism) constantly needs empire and conquest, and its triumph has nearly flattened the world, leaving liberals themselves sometimes wondering whether another kind of life is possible. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz agonized over this dilemma: his belief in the superiority of liberalism and his awareness, as an anthropologist, of genuine and irreducible diversity of human beliefs and cultures. His colleague, Richard Shweder, builds on this tension and poses a compelling question: given the current flattening of all civilizations by liberal capitalism, is our Brave-New-World-like monoculture the only possible human future? He boldly speculates three possible futures, inviting us to note that: > *it remains to be seen whether history will come to an end with the apotheosis of a universal civilization (prophecy #1), the universal triumph of ethnonationalism with its many separated and autonomous nation (based)-states (prophecy #2), or whether human beings, having lived in multinational empires many times before the modern era, are ready to do so again, even on politically liberal terms (prophecy* #3).[^17] It is the third possible future, he suggests, that alone ensures real human prosperity and liberty. And this is the only one, I contend, that Muslims can reasonably embrace: a world of genuinely different civilizations, but ones that see collaboration and coexistence, not clash, as their constant, renewing aim. Its false universalism is liberalism’s greatest aporia and its greatest hypocrisy. As Wael Hallaq has perceptively argued in his recent monograph *Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge*,[^18] those like Edward Said who opposed this belligerence of the “clash” did so by eliminating Islam as a civilizational reality. A rather more fruitful approach is to embrace Islam as a civilizational entity and question, rather, the seeming inevitability of “clash.” --- ## The flowing blood “Across the world, genocidal states are attacking Muslims,” reads the title of an opinion piece by sociologist Arjun Appadurai, “Is Islam really their target?” And the by-line reads: “As Israel incarcerates Palestinians and Myanmar drives out its Rohingyas, a reflection on the predicament of ethnic and racial biominorities.”[^19] Welcome to the club, I thought. For decades, this has been the question Muslims have asked themselves; most have no doubt about the answer. The piece ends with no great insight, but it is the banality of the observation—one made by an Indian-American sociologist, not an al-Qaeda operative ready to blow things up in revenge—that caught my attention. The banality of Muslim blood, that is. As Muslim-majority nation-states, along with others in the developing world, fail or become otherwise uninhabitable, the Global North erects [walls](http://td-architects.eu/assets/projectimages/_tilezoom/walled-world-english-2009_files/thumb.jpg). Faced with war, colonialism, genocide, corruption, pollution, and/or starvation, Muslims worldwide—even those only nominally religious in their personal lives—readily sign up for a modern pan-Islamism that would protect them from these shared indignities. In a globalized world where the West’s War on Terror[^20] has, paradoxically, accentuated the Muslimness of Muslims everywhere, Israel, China, Myanmar, India, and countless other states feel free to deal with their “Muslim problem” with total impunity. “Our conflict is with the entire Muslim world, with the entire Arab world,” declared an Israeli politician, echoing the anti-Islam sentiment in Euro-America and elsewhere.[^21] Muslims are inevitably reminded of the warning of the Prophet, Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, that nations will feast on them one day, and not because they will be few but because their great numbers will be worthless like the straw carried by a torrent.[^22] The problem is not new, and it is not about to go away. Already at the end of the Cold War, pundits had declared Islam to be a problem for the West’s total cultural hegemony. “Islam has bloody borders,” declared Samuel Huntington in his epoch-making 1993 article “The Clash of Civilizations.”[^23] Huntington credited his inspiration for the idea to writers on both sides of the Islam–west divide. He quotes a secular Indian Muslim who wrote, “It is in the sweep of the Islamic nations from the Maghreb to Pakistan that the struggle for a new world order will begin,” and Bernard Lewis, who wrote, “This is no less than a clash of civilizations—the perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and the worldwide expansion of both.” Lewis’s and Huntington’s vision was belligerent, inaccurate, and uncharitable, but it had an element of realism that has triumphed over the thousands of academic protests contending that there was no such clash because, they contended, there were no distinct civilizations. There are. Since Huntington wrote, the borders have only gotten bloodier, but not just the borders. Beyond the borders, the inner organs of the body of which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ spoke are failing and bleeding as the body attacks itself. Palestine is being shot and bled to death by an ethnoreligious, colonizing apartheid state. The Rohingya are being burned, raped, and annihilated by another ethnoreligious, nationalist state as Rohingyan mothers are birthing en masse the children of their Myanmar rapists. The Kashmiris and millions of Indian Muslims are being deprived daily of their dignity, humanity, and life by yet another religiously-inspired ethnic nationalism. In China, the Uyghur Muslims are being exterminated in torture and brainwashing camps, where their men are killed while their women are forced to cohabit with Han Chinese men. To date, not a single Muslim-majority state in the region has strongly protested—even the Muslim street has been silent—and the only significant outcry comes from secular human rights groups and, increasingly, from states that are strategically hostile to the rise of China. Muslims in the Central African Republic are being ethnically cleansed.[^24] Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, and Afghanistan are embroiled in civil wars or deep unrest with no end in sight. The regional struggle between paper-tigers made of fossil fuels, Saudi Arabia and Iran—portrayed as a sectarian Shiʿa–Sunni conflict by embattled elites on both sides looking for distractions from their inadequacies—could catapult the entire region into an atrocious regional war that could easily pull in the rest of the world. The biggest hurdles on the way to unification and collaboration are also the precise reasons that they must be brought about. --- ## An absolutist theocracy or a tolerant Islamic union? For any defense of the caliphate to be meaningful, the frequent failures of Muslim political thought and practice in the past would have to be candidly acknowledged and systematically distinguished from an authentic and feasible vision of a Muslim political union in the modern world. Such a vision cannot afford to be ahistorical, nor utopian, nor a mere recapitulation of one medieval treatise or institution or another. Furthermore, such a union must guarantee meaningful and robust accommodation of local variations of political arrangements, cultures, and religious denominations among Muslims and the rights of non-Muslim minorities. The task of delineating and imagining such a vision requires not an essay but a generation of Muslim jurists, theologians, political theorists entrepreneurs, and visionary leaders. What I offer here is a modest justification and some imaginative delineation of this vision in broad strokes, starting with a little history. Professor David Wasserstein, a scholar of Judaism and Islam of Jewish heritage at Vanderbilt University, recently published a study on the ideological and religious roots of ISIS and its caliphate, *Black Banners of ISIS: The Roots of the New Caliphate.*[^25] A few years earlier, he also delivered an enlightening address in which he argued that it was medieval Islam—the Islam of the Old Caliphate, that is—that saved Judaism from extinction. > *Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished, laying foundations for subsequent Jewish cultural prosperity – also in Christendom – through the medieval period into the modern world. . . . Had Islam not come along, Jewry in the west would have declined to disappearance and Jewry in the east would have become just another oriental cult.*[^26] It is not clear if the irony is obvious to the professor. The historical caliphate was a precondition for the existence of Islamic civilization, one that produced the law, theology, and religious vision that, despite is imperfections (remember the asymptote!), protected intellectually vibrant communities of Christianity and Judaism and hosted the renaissance of Hellenistic science and philosophy. Before we dismiss this fact with a hasty “Enough with that nostalgia!” and “You cannot turn back the wheels of time,” it behooves us to stay with the contrast between Wasserstein’s two examples a bit longer. Had the caliphate not existed and presided over the centuries-long unified reign over far-flung lands characterized by relative peace, stability, and cultural and commercial exchange, and had the unity of the lands it conquered ended as quickly after the Prophet ﷺ as it was gained, the alternative would have been a dark age of little kingdoms or, worse, tribal vendettas presided over by the likes of the Kharijites (a fitting analog of today’s ISIS). Neither the Umayyads, nor the Abbasids, nor the Ottomans were perfect caliphs—some were downright tyrants—but on the whole, they and the Muslim religious and political elite all recognized the paramount value of the unity of the community and the primacy of law and order. It is this consensual ideal cherished by the learned Muslim to which we now turn. --- ## The past: History and normative tradition The word “caliphate” is the anglicized version of the Arabic *khilāfa*. Its triliteral root (*khaʾ-lām-fāʾ*) connotes the idea of “being or coming after or behind someone in terms of order, time, or space.” A *khalīfa* (caliph), then, is a successor, someone literally left behind by a predecessor to fulfill a certain responsibility. The Qur’an speaks of Adam and by implication his progeny as “*khalīfa*” (2:30)—which the earliest exegetes naturally took to mean “successor of an earlier creation that once dominated the earth.” But God is also, according to a famous supplication of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in *Sahih Muslim*, the *khalīfa* of a traveler who leaves his home and family in God’s care.[^27] This usage suggests that the modern translation of the “caliph” as “deputy” or “vicegerent” is imprecise, as is the idea popularized in the twentieth century that the humans are metaphysical “vicegerents of God.” Another reference in the Qur’an to the Prophet David, upon him be peace, as “*khalīfa* in the land,” simply meant “inheritor of the land,” but has been similarly used to impute to the word a sense of political authority and metaphysical stewardship of the earth. The metaphysical meaning is conceptually justifiable through the Qur’anic notions of *taskhīr* and *takrīm* (that God has honored humans and subdued all other creation for them, 17:70, 14:32-3, etc.), but linguistically, it has no necessary relation to the term at hand, *khalīfa*. This is not merely a linguistic quibble; entire genres of literature both by Muslim authors and Orientalists have emerged based on this misunderstanding.[^28] In certain cases, this misunderstanding has been used to impute to the Qur’an the modern idea of popular sovereignty in the nation-state.[^29] What we are interested in, however, is the historical use of the term to signify the supreme political ruler of the Muslims. In this sense, *khalīfa* (caliphate) came to mean the deputyship (*niyāba*) of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the leadership and stewardship of his community after his death. This supreme political leader of Muslims was also called *imam* (leader) by theologians both Sunni and Shiʿa—although the Shiʿa reserved the term *imam* for their theologically rightful, and not necessarily political, leader. Earlier on, precisely because the term *khalīfa* did not have a clear political meaning and was only a description of Abu Bakr’s role as the successor to the Prophet ﷺ, the more explicit label of *amīr al-muʾminīn* (the commander of the believers) became the common way to address the ruler since the reign of the Second Caliph, ʿUmar. Over time, when the political field became crowded with different kinds of leaders such as *amīr* (military commander), *sulṭān* (authority, king) and *malik* (king), historical and political usage settled on the term *khalīfa* to refer to the single, supreme leader of all Muslims. --- ## The five historical models of the caliphate The first and only normative model of the caliphate for the Sunni majority comprises the first four successors of the Prophet ﷺ, who later came to be called the *Rashidun* (Rightly Guided). At first, religious and political authorities were not systematically distinguished and the caliph or successor of the Prophet embodied both. Less than a century later, another model emerged in which the caliphate became a primarily political office, and religious authority gradually came to be shared between the caliph and the scholars (*ʿulamāʾ*). The *ʿulamāʾ*, the emerging class of dedicated scholars, now increasingly served as the real socio-religious leaders of urban Muslim communities and intellectual schools. The caliph’s powers had never been absolute in practice, but the *ʿulamāʾ* began to theorize such limits and functions starting in the fourth/tenth century. The early caliphs ruled the world’s largest empire from the small town of Medina as first among equals (*primus inter pares*). This egalitarian, direct-access, and piety-based model proved unscalable to the needs of administering a vast, far-flung empire. It thus gave way to the *imperial caliphate* of the late Umayyad and High Abbasid eras. At its height, during the second/eighth and third/ninth centuries, the Baghdad-based Abbasid caliphate was the richest and largest empire the world had ever seen in terms of per capita wealth.[^30] It also adopted the symbolism of the pre-Islamic Sassanid empire in which a worthy emperor, in order to dispense total justice, had to project an absolutist, god-like aura. The actual powers of the caliph, both in reality and in the Law of Islam, were rather limited, and in some cases drastically so. This was the second model of the caliphate. As the actual power of the Baghdadi caliphs waned, a third model arose in which the caliph was primarily a symbolic and spiritual authority; the actual rulers of various provinces were often local governors or invading military commanders who, lacking inherent legitimacy, paid homage to the caliph. This age lasted for some five centuries. It is in this *classical* era that Islamic law, theology, and political thought crystallized. The caliph’s symbolic power was indispensable, and the possibility of its recovery of actual power was not far-fetched. The famous twelfth-century Islamic hero, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin), who took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders and won hearts by showing great magnanimity, died seeking but not attaining the approval of the caliph in Baghdad; the caliph’s approval mattered for a ruler’s authority to be legitimate, no matter his accomplishments. The caliph, it became increasingly clear to Muslims, represented two crucial continuities for the Muslim *ummah*: (1) the symbolic connection back to the Prophet ﷺ and the Rightly Guided caliphs, whose conduct remained the gold standard, and (2) the spatial continuity (or unity) of all Muslims, who now lived in networked societies stretching over parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe and ruled by various local kings and governors. These two continuities made political fragmentation, religious sectarianism, and cultural rivalries manageable, averting the worst centrifugal tendencies and preventing a collapse of the region into constant warfare and savagery. These societies were largely self-governed by the Law of Islam as administered by local rulers and scholars. The kings or sultans served as ‘butlers’ or, more grandiosely, as the executive branch, who were important for defense and upkeep of the Law but nevertheless disposable. They came and went without changing the norms, laws, or institutions of this mega-society. This third model has been called “*classical Islamic constitutionalism*.”[^31] It is important because, with the exception of the first couple of centuries, it is what the caliphate has actually looked like throughout most of Islamic history. Things were far from perfect, and the most influential *ʿulamāʾ* who deliberated on political matters, from al-Mawardi (d. 450/1058), al-Juwayni (d. 478/1085), al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111), to Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), considered the actual loss of the caliph’s power to military usurpers unacceptable, though they deemed it tolerable as an exceptional situation. Al-Ghazali likened accepting the Saljuq sultans of his time, who only nominally accepted the supreme authority of the Abbasid caliph but in fact flouted his authority, to the eating of carrion: it was permitted only to save life in the absence of wholesome food. Others, in particular Ibn Taymiyya, agreed, as we shall see below. During the first half of this model before the Mongol attack in 656/1258, the Baghdad-based caliph’s symbolic power was significant, but even afterward in the Mamluk period, when the Abbasid caliph, now in Cairo, lost all power, in distant Muslim lands such as Delhi and Timbuktu, his letter of investiture was crucial to marking the difference between mere usurpation of power and legitimacy and belonging to the Muslim body politic. A fourth model of the caliphate, which was an amalgam of the second and third ones, came to the fore when the Ottomans politically united Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa under one empire that lasted for about four hundred years as one of the most successful, stable, and powerful empires of the time. The Ottoman sultans (who took on the title “caliph” after defeating the Mamluks in Cairo), upheld the Shariʿa Law that was expounded and administered by the scholars as muftis and judges. The caliph-sultan’s powers, therefore, were limited. We have cases of sultans who were deposed because of the verdict of the chief *qadi* (judge). Yet the sultans could gain power and act despotically as well, flouting Islamic norms on matters that touched on their crucial interests. In contrast to the Ottomans in the Middle East and North Africa and to the Mughals in India, who ruled over a Hindu majority, their Shiʿa rivals, the Safavids, based their legitimacy on strong theocratic claims. The Ottoman claim to the caliphate was at times imagined in mystical ways. Anatolian Sufism helped imagine the Ottoman caliph as a ruler, spiritual guide, and lawmaker for all Muslims, even though no political effort was made—and was perhaps unthinkable—to join the three vast Muslim empires into one political order.[^32] The crucial common factor in the last three models of the caliphate is that the caliph did not wield religious authority except in limited public matters. For the Ottomans, the mystics could imagine the caliph to be God’s shadow on earth, and even the occult could be used to make prophecies and justify policies, but the Hanafi legal establishment, the backbone of the empire, ensured that such claims remained within the Sufi lodges. Bernard Lewis, the famous hawkish neo-conservative doyen of Orientalist studies, acknowledged this much: there has been and can be no theocracy in (Sunni) Islam. This is thanks to the inherent epistemological pluralism of Sunni jurisprudence and the lack of any institution like the medieval Church to speak for God. The multiplicity of voices interpreting scripture and tradition meant two things: that religious authority was divided and polyphonic and that the ruling elite could never control the religious authority, and as a result, an organic system of socio-religious checks and balances emerged. The third and fourth models of the caliphate, which lasted a combined total of a thousand years, were, in short, neither theocratic nor absolutist. They guaranteed a large measure of freedom to communities under their rule: Muslims of different rites, Jews, Christians, and others could live as relatively free communities. Although far from perfect, this system worked more effectively in facilitating a fair and God-centered life than modern Muslim states and even many democracies. Unlike the modern liberal model, communities and hence communal norms were deemed necessary for any decent human existence, which is why even non-Muslims were free to live by the religious norms in which they believed. The needle of the balance between individual and communal rights tilted often in the latter direction. The Ottomans, like the Romans had been vis-à-vis the Greeks, were administrators and institution builders, and turned the Qur’anic model of protected communities, *dhimmis*, into an institution of multiple religious communities represented by their leaders in the capital. This became known as the *millet system*.[^33] When the modern nation-states of the nineteenth century confronted the Ottomans, for the first time becoming their equals and quickly surpassing Ottoman economic and military might, the Ottomans adjusted and ultimately made great strides in modernizing their army, economy, and society—in that order—in a relatively short time. The old organic, socially, and communally grounded limits on the sultan’s power were replaced with a constitution, but the Ottomans did not survive the First World War. Modern historians have suggested that the old idea of an unsustainably decrepit regime—the idea of the Ottoman Empire as the “sick man of Europe”—was incorrect; in fact, the Ottomans could have survived had they bet on a different side in the war or somehow survived it. We might call this short-lived *constitutional caliphate* a fifth potential model of the caliphate. --- ## The theory of the caliphate Trying to separate the essence of the caliphate from its various manifestations, the Sunni tradition theorized the caliphate meticulously, establishing the foundation of its obligation, its functions, nature, and limits, and responding to its transformations while also trying to stay true to the *Rashidun* model. This was a complex exercise; every disagreement that could be conceived was had, and the leading jurist-theologians built and continually rethought a careful edifice of proofs and justifications. Unsurprisingly, careful theorization of the institution took place first at the hands of the Sunni *ulama* in the fifth/eleventh century precisely when the institution’s existence was threatened. The sheer necessity of the caliphate for the continued unity and existence of the religious community during the first two centuries made extensive theoretical defense superfluous, even though we find one of the earliest preserved epistles in Islam, that of the Umayyad secretary ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Kātib (d. 132/750), concerned with theorizing and defending the caliphate as a divinely mandated institution that continued the Prophet’s mission.[^34] All surviving Muslim schools and sects agreed on the obligation of appointing one leader for the Muslim community. The Sunnis and the Shiʿa agreed on this point but their conceptions of the office differed. The Imami Shiʿa included belief in an imam—a chosen scion of the Alid family—in the very definition of faith, and an obligation upon God (as a matter of *luṭf*, or divine grace), which meant that knowing and believing in one true imam (even if he was not in power or physically existent) to be an obligation upon all humans.[^35] The Zaydi Shiʿa believed in the right to rule of a scion of the Alid family, but one who showed his fitness for the office by successfully rebelling against unjust rule and claiming leadership. The Sunnis, in contrast, considered establishing the caliphate to be a collective obligation. The difference is subtle: for the Shiʿa, not believing in the right imam is heretical and may even invalidate one’s faith; for the Sunnis, failing to install a rightful imam or failing to strive to do so is sinful. The Ibāḍīs—the moderate and the only Kharijite sect to survive past the formative period—believe in the obligation of a just imam/caliph, but, unlike the Shiʿa and most Sunnis, and like most post-Ottoman Sunnis, they do not require that the candidate be from Quraysh or any particular lineage.[^36] Opinions varied as to the possibility of Islamic life without a caliph. Some, like al-Ghazali, went so far as to deny the legitimacy of Islamic life under such conditions. Others, like his teacher and the chief Ashʿari theologian and Shāfiʿī jurist of his time Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwayni, considered such a scenario in his brilliant, imaginative treatise *Ghiyāth al-umam fī-l-tiyāth al-ẓulam*.[^37] There he imagines dystopian futures in which Muslims may not have a caliph with proper qualifications, or no caliph at all, leaving the scholars to lead the community, and finally, the absence even of qualified scholars and instructions about what Muslims might do in such cases. Not satisfied with citing a few indirect verses and solitary (*āḥād*) ḥadiths, he insists that since the definitive obligation of the caliphate requires absolute proof, it must be established on the basis of the consensus of the Companions, the highest imaginable authority for a religious obligation.[^38] He argues that numerous rational people cannot agree on an answer to a question that accepts multiple rational answers unless there is a reason, and that reason in the case of the Companions must have been their shared understanding of the teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophet ﷺ. The consensus, therefore, was neither accidental nor one born out of mere necessity. As the initial disagreement of the Medinan Helpers (*Anṣār*) in their meeting at the Portico of Banū Sāʿida shows, it was arrived at after deliberation as Abū Bakr and ʿUmar saw clearly, and everyone subsequently agreed, that its need was created by the indubitable obligations of Islam. In the post-Mongol period (seventh/thirteenth-century onward), the earlier tendency to pragmatically justify usurping strongmen in conditions of dire urgency and insecurity led to the justification of any usurper who could defend the community or some part of it. The most original writers of this period, including both Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Taymiyya, asserted the obligation of the caliphate but also broke new ground in political thinking. Ibn Khaldun theorized the social, material, and psychological bases of political power, thus giving birth to a theory of history and politics several centuries before such thinking became common in the modern period. Ibn Taymiyya, without questioning the obligation of the caliphate, recognized the utter inefficacy of the post-Mongol caliphate and sought to recover communal vibrancy and an ascending political model in which upholding the Shariʿa became the central dimension of the ruler’s legitimacy. Before the Mongol destruction of Baghdad, the caliphate was seen as having created the world in which the Shariʿa could be articulated and developed. This fact, coupled with the caliphate’s claim of continuity to the Prophet ﷺ, was stronger than any particular scriptural justification: the caliphate had been bigger than the Shariʿa. The *ʿulamāʾ*, like al-Mawardi and al-Ghazali, provided proof for the caliphate only when they felt it was threatened. Now, in the post-Mongol world, it was the Shariʿa that provided the impetus to create Islamic governments everywhere until the proper caliphate could be restored. Ibn Taymiyya provided only the first arguments for such Islamic politics; scholars from all schools subsequently—and especially in Ottoman political thought—recognized this natural development of “Shariʿa politics.”[^39] To give substance and texture to the claims just put forth, let us consider a sampling of the types of claims and justifications for the caliphate provided by scholars from a broad range of schools. The encyclopedic Ẓāhirī scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064), writing in Spain and hence outside of the traditional lands of the Abbasid caliphate, noted: > *All* Ahl al-Sunnah*, all Murjiʾa, all Shiʿa, and all Kharijites have agreed unanimously on the obligation of the Imamate and that the Ummah has an obligation to obey a just Imam who establishes the rulings of God over them, managing their affairs with the Law brought by the Messenger of God. The only exception are the Najadāt of the Kharijites, who said that people have no obligation to have an imam; it is upon them, rather, to fulfill each other’s rights.*[^40] Ibn Ḥazm’s reference is to a handful of radicals during the Second Civil War (AH 60–70s), when the Kharijites and a few Muʿtazila could even question the obligation of the caliphate in the heady days of early schisms. But then, even basic doctrines such as the authority of the hadith, the validity of rational analogy, the righteousness of the last two Rashidun caliphs, and even the sanctity of Muslim life were fair game for these groups. One such free-thinker argued almost counter-factually: if all believers volunteered to live by the divine law, no government would be necessary. Note that he did not suggest a secular government as an alternative, but denied the need for a political order altogether. Another argued, almost hyper-factually, that this no-imam situation applied only in times of civil war, and allegiance to no imam was necessary during one.[^41] On the whole, however, the necessity of a caliph was far more unproblematically and unanimously agreed upon than many other doctrines now taken to be fundamental. The Creed (*al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyya*) of the leading Hanafi-Maturidi authority Abū Ḥafṣ al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142) reads: “Muslims must have an imam to enforce their rulings, establish *ḥudūd*, and defend borders … .” Commenting on this, the Persian polymath and Ashʿari theologian al-Taftāzānī (d. 792/1390) wrote: > *There is consensus that installing an imam is an obligation. The disagreement is on whether the obligation is upon God or upon creation, by revelational evidence or rational. And \[our\] school holds that it is an obligation upon the creation through revelation, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever dies without knowing the imam of his time dies in pre-Islamic ignorance,”*[^42][^42] *which is why the Ummah made the installing of an imam their utmost concern, even before his burial (i.e., of the Prophet), and so it should be after the death of every imam, as many obligations of the Sharīʿa depend on him*.[^43] Commenting on the situation in his day when the central lands of Islam, Syria, and Egypt, were under the Mamluks and the east (Persia and Transoxiana) was ravaged by Tamerlane (Tīmūr Lang), Taftāzānī explained why there must be only one imam for all regions: > *If it is said: why is it not sufficient to appoint a ruler in every region, or why is it obligatory to appoint one who has the general authority (*al-riyāsa al-ʿāmma*)?” we say: because that would lead to conflict and animosity, which would lead to the corruption of the affairs of religion as well as this world, as we witness in our own times.*[^44] He then goes on to ask, in typical dialectic style, why a conqueror like the Turks of his day (he most likely had Tamerlane in mind) could not suffice and why, therefore, there needed to be an imam. To this, he responded that such a ruler over all Muslim lands would still fulfill some of the functions but that “the matter of religion, the most important of all ends and the central pillar of all else, would be corrupted without it.”[^45] Writing about the same time in the western parts of the Islamic world, the great historian and Mālikī jurist Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406) summed up the consensus succinctly: > *Appointing a leader is obligatory. Its mandatory nature is known through revealed law by the consensus of the Companions and the generation of the Followers. It is so because the Companions of the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him) hastened, upon his death, to pledge allegiance and submit consideration of their affairs to Abu Bakr (May God be pleased with him). And it was thus in every age thereafter, and the matter was established as consensus indicating the obligation of appointing a leader.*[^46] Ibn Khaldun then goes on to argue, in accordance with his Ashʿari commitments, that the obligation of establishing the caliphate (like all other obligations) derives from the revealed law and not reason and hence cannot be suspended by rational judgment. It is an understatement to note that Ibn Khaldun upheld the caliphate; he wrote his masterpiece to explain its history and advocate its return. A leading Western scholar of Islamic civilization, Hamilton Gibb, argued that the caliphate occupied a central position in Ibn Khaldun’s thought. This can be inferred from the way that his chapters are logically organized to culminate in the caliphate, where he then discusses elaborately the organization associated with it before going on to analyze the causes of the state’s decay and its final destruction. It is impossible to avoid the impression that he, in addition to analyzing the evolution of political power and group solidarity, was, like other Muslim jurists of his time, concerned with the problem of reconciling the ideal demands of the Shari‘a with the facts of history.[^47] Others, including the Muʿtazila, Shiʿa, traditionalists like Ibn Taymiyya, argued that the obligation of the caliphate, like all other obligations, is known by both revelation *and* reason.[^48] Scholars offered numerous reasons, or rational functions, that necessitate a government. For some, these functions are the cause or part of the cause of the obligation; for others, they are its benefits, but the obligation itself stands independent of any benefits. To those who emphasized the absolute ritual necessity of the caliphate for the validity of Islamic life, such as al-Mawardi and, even more so, al-Ghazali, it was an obligation to install a caliph even if he no longer possessed effective power (*shawka*, *munna*) and had to depend on others (e.g., sultans) for upholding its basic functions. For others, like al-Juwayni and Ibn Taymiyya, effective power to uphold the *ḥudūd*, maintain law and order, and defend the community and its religion was a necessary ingredient of the definition of a caliph. The *ʿulamāʾ* have continued to faithfully reproduce this line of reasoning until today. An eleventh-/seventeenth-century Damascene jurist notes in his authoritative compendium of Hanafi jurisprudence: > *The major imama* (khilāfa) *is the right of general disposal over the people. Its investigation is in* Kalam *(i.e., theology) and establishing it is the most important of obligations. Hence, they (the Companions) gave it priority over the burial of the Possessor of Miraclesﷺ*. [^49] Why has the caliphate been so central to Islamic creed? Chiefly, because it was the defining problem of Islam—as Trinity was for Christianity. Theorizing the rightful leadership of the community was central to defining faith since the early splinter sects had called into question the mainstream community’s rectitude and fitness as the carrier and embodiment of God’s message. Justifying the rectitude of the community that preserved the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ was, therefore, the central ‘problem space’ within which much of Islamic thinking was formed during the first two centuries of Islam.[^50] The first instance of the Companions’ unanimous decision to declare political unity of the Muslims a top concern, reflected in the election of Abu Bakr, was truly consolidated in their consensus to go to war against those who had seceded from the Medinan authority. They did not merely express abstract opinions on the matter but took up arms on its basis. In doing so, they followed the Prophet’s own conduct toward those who abandoned the community or tried to divide it.[^51] This initial consensus of the Companions was confirmed time and again. The next clear confirmation of consensus is witnessed when ʿAli (based in Iraq) battled against Muʿawiya (based in Syria) at Ṣiffīn; ʿAli never entertained the idea of splitting the difference and dividing the Muslim community into two halves to avert the bloodshed, which turned out to be massive. Similarly, when ʿAbdallāh b. al-Zubayr in Mecca confronted the Umayyads in Syria, dividing the community for the sake of peace was similarly never considered a possibility. When Ibn ʿUmar and other leading authorities refused to give allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr, they did so precisely on this basis: the community had not united under him yet.[^52] The classical Sunni *ʿulamāʾ’s* view of the functions of the caliph is best captured in a statement attributed to Imam ʿAli. When the radicals in his army contested his right as the leader to accept arbitration in the battle against the Syrian rebels, he responded by emphasizing the necessity of a human leader to govern the affairs of the *ummah*: > *ʿAli said, “People must have leadership (*imāra*), be it pious or impious.” They asked, “O Commander of the Faithful, we understand the pious, but why if it is impious?” He said, “By it \[legal\]* ḥudūd *are established, public streets are protected,* jihād *is made against the enemy, and the spoils are divided.*[^53] If government in general was a rational necessity, the caliphate was seen as the properly Islamic form of government. A helpful analogy to understand this is marriage, the pairing of males and females for companionship and reproduction: all human cultures settle on some form of this institution, adding to it constraints, ceremonies, rituals, and invocations of blessings. An Islamic marriage is not fundamentally different in terms of its basic function, but many forms of cohabitation prevalent in other traditions are prohibited and certain constraints, rituals, and legal norms added to it make of it a distinctively Islamic form of marriage. Ibn Taymiyya, thus, explains in *al-Siyāsa al-sharʿiyya*: > *It must be known that the governmental authority (*wilāya*) of people’s affairs is one of the greatest obligations of religion, and, in fact, the religion cannot be established without it, for the well-being of the Children of Adam cannot be secured except by their coming together to fulfill each other’s needs. . .  This is why all things that \[God\] has obligated, such as* jihād*, justice, establishment of the pilgrimage, Friday congregations, Eid festivals, aiding the oppressed, and the establishment of God’s* ḥudūd *can only be established with power and authority.*[^54] What sets the caliphate apart from any other government is, first and foremost, formally speaking, the constitutive principle (its source, limits, ends, and functions). The definitive classical work on the caliphate was authored by al-Mawardi, the chief judge of Baghdad and the leading Shāfiʿī of his time. It gave the standard description of the caliph, namely, that a caliph is “the successor of the Prophet who protects the religion and manages and governs worldly affairs of the community by it.”[^55] Nearly all definitions mention these elements, namely, that a caliph 1. stands in the Prophet’s place, but is neither a prophet nor infallible, and commands the allegiance of the entire Muslim community, and 2. governs the religious and worldly affairs of the Prophet’s community, which effectively means that he protects the religion, defends borders, upholds law and order, and (re)distributes resources. In other words, a caliph is defined as the leader of all followers of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and not *primarily* as the ruler of a territory, a country, a sect, or a chosen group of Muslims—even though he inevitably rules over and defends the territory of Muslims.[^56] --- ## Caliphate is not kingship Since the earliest times, Muslims made a distinction between a properly Islamic government, which they came to call *khilāfa*, and political authority in general, which they called *mulk*. It should be noted that the word *mulk* has dual connotations in the Arabic language: it could simply refer to any kind of political authority, one particular species of which would be the Islamic caliphate. It could also denote, pejoratively, the stereotypical kingship characterized by arbitrary power in which the ruler treats his subject and wealth as his personal property. As noted earlier, the early Muslims avoided using the term *malik* (king) for their ruler because they despised the inegalitarianism implied by this term.[^57] A revealing hadith is reported in al-Bukhari, where Companion Jarir b. Abdallāh states that a wise man from Yaman told him, > *You O Arabs will do well so long as you consult when your chief dies, for when it is taken by the sword, they become kings (*mulūk*), their wrath is like the wrath of kings and their pleasure is the pleasure of kings.*[^58] This distinction remained operative throughout the medieval period. A Mālikī scholar al-Maqarrī al-Tilimsānī answered revealingly when some Sufi mendicants (*fuqarāʾ*) asked him about Muslims’ misfortune with respect to their kings (*mulūk*), who often act without fairness and piety. He answered, > *It is so because kingship (*mulk*) is not in our Law (*sharʿ*); rather, it is in the law of those before us, as God mentioning His favors upon the Israelites. . . . He \[God\] has not legitimized for us anything but* khilāfa*.*[^59] Al-Maqarrī then goes on to identify the difference between the two as primarily relating to whether one treats authority as personal and passes it on to one’s sons dynastically. What makes the caliphate different from kingship, then, is that in the former, the interests of the *ummah* are front and center and authority is exercised as a trust. Ibn Taymiyya is even more explicit. The obligation is not fulfilled with kingship, even if there be one just king over all Muslims, but the obligation is to install a caliph, an accountable ruler who will wield power as a trust, in the footsteps of the Prophet ﷺ and the early caliphs, rather than arbitrarily. > *The question arises whether kingship (*mulk*) is lawful and the Prophetic caliphate simply preferred or whether it is unlawful and may only be justified in the absence of the knowledge \[that is it obligatory\] or the power to establish the caliphate.* > > *In our view, kingship is essentially unlawful, and the obligation is to establish a prophetic caliphate. This is because the Prophet ﷺ said, “You must follow my practice and the practice of the rightly guided caliphs after me; stick to it and hold fast to it. Refrain from (unjustified) innovations and remember that every (such) innovation is an error” ...  This hadith is therefore a command; it exhorts us to follow necessarily the practice of the Caliphate (of the Prophet), enjoins us to abide by it, and warns us against deviation from it. It is a command from him and definitely makes the establishment of the caliphate a duty ...  Again, the fact that the Prophet ﷺ expressed his dislike for the kingship that would follow the prophetic caliphate proves that kingship lacks in something that is compulsory in religion... Those who justify monarchy argue from the words of the Prophet ﷺ to Muʿawiya, “If you acquire kingship, be good and kind.”*[^60]*But there is no (cogent) argument in this ... The establishment of the caliphate is an obligatory duty, and exemption from it may be permitted only on grounds of necessity*.[^61] --- ## The loss The religious necessity of the caliphate remained unquestioned until the twentieth century, when the arguments for abolishing the Ottoman caliphate were articulated by Turkish nationalists and made palatable, at least to the elite, by a century of secularization and Europeanization. A fateful moment in this transition was the seven-hour long speech by an Ottoman modernist scholar, Seyyid Bey, in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) in 1924, in which he made the case for a Turkish republic, tragically, on Islamic grounds.[^62] The Kemalists’ aggressive secularization campaign and violent de-Islamization of social life in the following decades was certainly not part of Seyyid Bey’s plan, but he was not the first nor the last scholar to be used as an intellectual mercenary and then discarded by a strongman. What Atatürk did next, suffice it to say, inspired Hitler and Mussolini.[^63] The most influential theoretical defense of the abolition of the caliphate and defense of what might be called *political secularism* came in the wake of the dissolution of the caliphate when the Azhar-trained Egyptian scholar ʿAli ʿAbd al-Raziq (1888–1966) wrote his a*l-Islām wa-uṣūl al-ḥukm* (*Islam and the Foundations of Rule*, 1925). He argued that Islam is a private religion and all political actions of the Prophet ﷺ and his successors (that is, the caliphs) were accidental and conceptually separate from Islam as a religion. ʿAbd al-Raziq had spent two years at Oxford when his education was cut short by WWI, and his family had played a founding role in the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (*Ḥizb al-Aḥrār al-Dustūriyyīn*, a breakaway from the Wafd, which was a secular nationalist anticolonial party; the *Ḥizb al-Aḥrār* had an even more secular agenda as it advocated the emulation of Western countries). ʿAli ʿAbd al-Raziq himself was a politician and had run, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the Parliamentary elections of 1923-24 on the party’s ticket.[^64] He wrote, in short, as a politician with a clear agenda, not merely a scholar, although posterity has misread his work as a heroic heresy with mystical depth. His book betrays a forced, ahistorical reading of both the Prophet’s mission and the succeeding caliphs and an equally shallow understanding of modernity. The Azhari establishment condemned the book and formally defrocked its author, and the leading scholars of the Muslim world authored numerous detailed refutations.[^65] In fact, ʿAli ʿAbd al-Raziq’s controversial book ended up focusing the attention of the leading scholars of the twentieth century on this question, furnishing, in defense of the caliphate, the closest example in the modern period of a renewed consensus of leading Islamic authorities across the world. The power of an argument, however, often lies not in its theoretical cogency but in its timeliness. The Arab nationalists and secularists could not have asked for a better way to boost their agenda. --- ## Did the Prophet ﷺ establish a state? ʿAli ʿAbd al-Raziq’s case was based on the argument that the Prophet’s ﷺ message was religious and spiritual, not political. He offered as evidence the claim that the Qur’an never commanded the caliphate, nor did the Sunna.[^66] He must have known that the Qur’an not mentioning or naming a thing is barely an argument for its non-obligation or non-validity. After all, the Qur’an does not give the number of the daily prayers, nor specify the geographic coordinates of the city in which the Prophet of Islam ﷺ was born, nor that in which he is buried, etc.; these are known only through the transmission of such knowledge through the Companions and the succeeding generations. The Qur’an, the scholars had generally argued, mentions the direct and indirect obligation for the believing community (referred to in the Qur’an as the *believers* or the *ummah*) to be united under a ruler from among them and contains numerous *constitutional*, *political*, and *legal* commandments—rules that can only be implemented in an autonomous Islamic polity. The signification of direct commands like 4:59 (“Obey ... those in authority among you”)[^67] was consolidated by innumerable indirect commands and references. For instance, 1. the imperative to be a distinct community whose members were forbidden to make compromising alliances with outsiders; 2. the command to make war, peace, and political treaties as a sovereign community; 3. obeying no other law but God’s, hence requiring the community to be legally sovereign; 4. upholding the Law in all areas of collective life, including the penal code, marital and social life, commercial and financial regulations, and so on; and finally, 5. a distinct “foreign policy” as the Prophet ﷺ dispatched epistles to the neighboring sovereigns and emperors (which implied the obligation on his successors to follow up on them), in addition to his punitive campaigns against claimants of prophecy like Ṭalḥa, Musaylima, and other tribes that acted treacherously and rebelliously after entering Islam,[^68] and his command to prepare a punitive campaign on the Roman border just before his return to his Lord, and so on. All of these factors required, beyond doubt, that the followers of the Prophet ﷺ form a sovereign political community and control, if not monopolize, the means of violence. The aforementioned are historically undisputed facts that indicate that his successors merely obeyed his commands and continued his policies. From a historical perspective, had the Companions and then the Umayyads not continued the Prophet’s political and military activism, Islam would have been little more than forgotten tribal lore in history. The Sunnah has been far more explicit on the question of successorship. Numerous hadiths command obedience to those who succeeded the Prophet ﷺ as mentioned in Ibn Taymiyya’s quote above. In fact, ʿAli ʿAbd al-Raziq seems to have been unaware that the leading *ʿulamāʾ* had addressed his concerns at great length. Al-Juwayni, being an Ashʿarite who did not accept unitary hadiths (*āḥād*) as grounds for certitude, limiting definitive knowledge to multiple concurrent (*mutawātir*) reports alone, had written his aforementioned work explicitly to furnish an incontrovertible proof for the necessity of the caliphate. In contrast, Ibn Taymiyya, who emphatically argued for the possibility of certitude based on less-than-concurrent reports and for the efficacy of reason in establishing religious obligation, did not shy away from using numerous sound hadiths in establishing the same while also appealing to consensus and rational arguments.[^69] ʿAbd al-Raziq’s crucial error, however, was conceptual: he seems to have picked up the modern religion-versus-politics dichotomy during his sojourn in Europe and, unaware that these were recently constructed categories foreign to Islam and perturbed by the autocratic tendencies of the rulers who used religion to prop up their decadence, applied them to Islamic theology and history. To anyone not schooled in western secularism, it would seem arbitrary and unjustifiable to declare certain Qur’anic and Sunnaic commandments ‘religious’ and others ‘secular.’ What gaveʿAbd al-Raziq’s attack its potency was that he knew the stakes well: he not only undermined the aforementioned scriptural evidence and traditional discourse on the subject, but went for the jugular by attacking Abu Bakr and the rest of the Companions for the *ridda* wars that were the first step in consolidating the Medinan political authority in Arabia. According to ʿAbd al-Raziq, they had essentially agreed, willingly or unwillingly, with Abu Bakr to engage in a worldly war in the name of religion against perfectly good Muslim tribes who merely resisted Medinan authority.[^70] Wittingly or not, ʿAbd al-Raziq was willing to discard not only consensus but also the integrity of the closest Companions around the Final Messenger of God, the same men whose integrity is assured in the Qur’an, and indeed, the integrity of whose consensus is the only guarantee of the preservation of the Qur’an itself. Together, this coupling forms the very foundation of Islam. --- ## Longing for the caliphate To appreciate how deeply Muslims have felt the ideal of continuity and unity embodied in the caliphate, it helps to get a glimpse of how the loss of and rupture in the caliphate have been historically experienced at not only political but also emotional and cultural levels. Islamic studies scholar Mona Hassan has richly chronicled this experience in the wake of the Mongol sacking of Baghdad in 656/1258 and then again some seven centuries later in 1924.[^71] Numerous Islamic scholars, activists, and transnational movements have kept alive the idea of a union of Muslims over the past century. Whereas most such groups consider a reconstituted caliphate a by-product of their revivalist and reformist activities, a few such movements have made it their primary objective. For groups most directly dedicated to resurrecting the caliphate like Ḥizb al-Taḥrīr (The Liberation Party) of Palestinian-Jordanian and Tanzeem-e-Islami (The Islamic Organization) of South Asian provenance, now both international, caliphate is not only a fruit of collaboration among reformed Muslim societies and states but the political end of the struggle as well as the instrument of attaining a desirable state of affairs and warding off internal and foreign threats to Muslims.[^72] Over the course of the twentieth century, ambitious political leaders of Muslim states have worked to create links and institutions at the international level to inch toward greater pan-Islamic collaboration. In the post-WWII era of developmentalist policies, nation-state politics largely trumped any serious attempts.[^73] Today, such aspirations have resurfaced once again.[^74] Non-state actors, like the ones mentioned earlier, have been more successful in keeping the idea alive. The most significant ones have been the socio-religious reformist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood (in Arabic speaking countries) and Jamaat-e Islami (in South Asia) that have sought to restore the caliphate only as a distant goal, never making it their priority. Only in times of crisis, such as the Israeli occupation of Palestine, would the pan-Islamic sentiment find a vent. In the era of statism (1940s–80s), the Islamic movements mobilized the masses to take the helms of various states. They often failed, and where they succeeded, as in Iran and Sudan, they often discovered that the internal, secularizing logic of the nation-state model was far stronger than their own ideological aspirations and often succumbed to repression, corruption, and self-serving regional and geopolitical concerns. Statehood never seriously took root in the Muslim world, and whereas socially, Islamism became increasingly popular, it never fulfilled its promise. The idea of the caliphate remained on the backburner as the ultimate goal that had to be realized as the final step after the attainment of democracy and progress.[^75] --- ## The present: Failing states The Arab Revolt (1916–1918) began a century and God-knows-how-much-longer era of political illegitimacy and instability in the Arab Middle East. Today, the region is increasingly convulsive. One contemporary historian notes, linking the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate to the malaise in the contemporary Middle East, > *I think everyone is rational to be pessimistic about the prospects for the region. None of these problems have a short-term solution.*[^76] Similarly, in his aptly titled *A Peace to End All Peace* (1989), historian David Fromkin wrote, reflecting on the continuing legacy of the European partitioning of the region: > *Continuing local opposition, whether on religious grounds or others, to the settlement of 1922 or to the fundamental assumptions upon which it was based, explains the characteristic feature of the region's politics: that in the Middle East there is no sense of legitimacy—no agreement on rules of the game—and no belief, universally shared in the region, that within whatever boundaries, the entities that call themselves countries or the men who claim to be rulers are entitled to recognition as such. In that sense, successors to the Ottoman sultans have not yet been permanently installed.*[^77] Today, the future of Muslim nation-states is less certain than it has ever been over the last century. At least one reason for the unlikeliness—and, in the words of one scholar, the *impossibility*—of the nation-state is ideological: Islam.[^78] That is, given the deep roots of Islam in these societies, alternative attempts at constructing legitimacy through secular—whether nationalist, regional, leftist-internationalist, or other—narratives have failed. As the Arab scholar Nazih Ayubi described it in his influential study *Overstating the Arab State* (1996), twentieth-century post-colonial Arab states are not strong but fierce—meaning, they are weak, illegitimate, and hence ferocious.[^79] Because they do not command people’s broad allegiance (but only that of the elite benefitting from them), they can only assert control through brute force, often combined with and legitimated through extraneous factors such as regional threats and animosities (e.g., Israel, Zionists, crusaders, Shiʿa, Sunnis, etc.) and the exploitation of religious and ethnic divisions. As the elite realized the failure of their secular programs, especially with the failure of Nasser-led Arab nationalism and the epic humiliation of the Arab armies at the hands of Israel in 1967, they hoped to exploit Islam more effectively. The results have been unimpressive for a number of reasons. First, although the rulers could control some of the *ʿulamāʾ* and religious institutions, Sunni Islam has never been amenable to a clerical hierarchy, and such attempts invariably engender or strengthen alternative, competing claims of religious authority. An example is the Egyptian state’s attempt to control the ancient al-Azhar University. Islam being a strongly scripturalist religion, the spread of literacy only facilitates the availability of its anti-authoritarian, if not anti-clerical, message to all believers. The same spirit of Islam that had thwarted the absolutist ambitions of the Umayyad (in the form of rebellions) and then the Abbasid caliphs (in the form of the heroic resistance of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal) refuses to be manipulated by the military autocrats and monarchs of today. Another, and perhaps the most important, ideological factor obstructing Islam’s recruitment in the nation-building project is the global nature of the Islamic community and the essentially territorial nature of the modern state. This illegitimacy of the state in Muslim-majority regions has had devastating consequences. Terrorism has been a direct and unavoidable consequence. These insecure, weak, and fierce states inevitably govern through repression and turn religious and cultural authorities into mercenaries against their own societies. Weaponing globalism for their cause, the autocrats hire global mercenary “*ʿulamāʾ*” against socially invested scholars. The oppressed inevitably look to the international community, which seldom helps except when moved by its own interests. This further deepens the illegitimacy of the state on the one hand and the distrust of any would-be reformers (who now can be labeled by the autocrats as foreign agents) on the other. --- ## The secular theology of the modern state These problems are not accidental but essential to any state that has to contend with a popular religion that it cannot re-create for its own purposes. In addition, Islam is conceptually unique in its ability to challenge modernity not only theologically but also politically through its own compelling notions of belonging, solidarity, rule-of-law, and tolerance for plurality. Aspects of this Islamic exceptionalism have been recognized by both scholars who study the tradition as well as those who investigate the lived experience.[^80] No nation-state can do without demanding near-total loyalty to the state and exclusion of outside interests and influences. It makes and implements laws and makes life-and-death decisions, drafting citizens to kill and die for its interests. In a liberal democracy with an impartial judiciary, this demand is presumably not arbitrary and the powers of the state are checked, but this is rarely the case in reality. Liberal democracies have shown themselves to be helpless before predatory capitalism and incompatible with religious commitment, community ethics, and now ecological sustainability. Lacking any collective and transcendent moral ideals, citizens in the modern state are either manipulated by large, multinational corporations or ethno-nationalist demagogues, or both. Liberal democratic or not, the modern state effectively functions as the absolute arbiter of the law, ethics, and lives of its citizens. The modern nation-state, precisely defined, is an institution foreign to Islam in any of its recognizable forms. Commonplace knowledge to the scholars of Islamic tradition and history, this incompatibility has been powerfully argued recently by Wael Hallaq’s important book *The Impossible State*. He contends that the modern nation-state is an amoral, if not immoral, institution, and an unsuitable home to Islam. His case, however, is based on a particular notion of the ‘state,’ and this has caused much confusion among non-specialists. A digression to clarify this claim, therefore, is in order. Whether and when we can use the term ‘state’ to describe the early Islamic forms of government depends on how we settle the thorny question of the definition of the state. The modern state has so ubiquitously conquered the contemporary world and imagination as to threaten all historical understanding and along with that, any historically extended and authentic alternative. European intellectual historians generally agree that the concept of the state emerged in Europe between 1300 and 1600 due to a number of specific developments.[^81] What set it apart from any prior form of rule is the confluence of a number of conceptions that constructed the state as “an omnipotent yet impersonal power”: (a) the state as a separate legal and constitutional order that governs, abstracted and distinct from the monarch or the officials who hold office, (b) the state as the sole source of law, exclusive of God, the Church, or the Holy Roman Empire, within its own territory, and (c) the state as the sole appropriate object of its citizens’ allegiance.[^82] Secularity, territoriality, abstraction (i.e., impersonality), and sovereignty are thus held to be the necessary ingredients of the modern state. This *maximalist* definition of the state employed by historians is to be contrasted with the more widely employed *minimalist* definitions, such as the one offered by Charles Tilly, who sees states as “coercion-wielding organizations that are distinct from households and kinship groups and exercise clear priority in some respects over all other organizations within substantial territories.”[^83] The Medinan order certainly represented such a ‘state’ by the time the Prophet ﷺ passed away, one that was further consolidated by the end of Abu Bakr’s reign. This latter use of the term, however, is too imprecise to be meaningful, and, following Hallaq, we are better off using the term ‘government’ or, better yet, ‘governance’ rather than ‘state’ to capture the essence of premodern Islamic forms of political authority. Strictly speaking, the modern state is an abstract, impersonal institution apart from any particular individuals or dynasties that hold its reigns. Being a seventeenth-century European development, it is a new species of power foreign to Islamic theology or jurisprudence. Political philosophers and historians have long suggested that as an institution, it assumes the powers that belonged to God in traditional Christianity. To quote Carl Schmitt in his essay “Political Theology,” perhaps the most quoted words in modern political theory: > *All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts not only because of their historical development—in which they were transferred from \[Christian\] theology to the theory of the state, whereby, for example, the omnipotent God became the omnipotent lawgiver—but also because of their systematic structure, the recognition of which is necessary for a sociological consideration of these concepts.*[^84] The obvious thing to note in this observation is that the theological origins and pretensions of political concepts define the modern state: sovereignty (a god-like, unquestionable authority to make laws and decide exceptions to them), territory (a bounded area where the sovereignty of the state is supreme), national community (the believers in the nation’s greatness and mythic past), and citizenship (rights given to individuals on the basis of relation to the state, denied to non-citizens),[^85] and so on. But its greater insight, I think, is to point out the ideologically secular structure of the state; it is not an empty space to be filled by whatever ideology, but possesses one of its own. This is what Wael Hallaq alludes to in the following passage: > *Modern Islamist discourses assume the modern state to be a neutral tool of governance, one that can be harnessed to perform certain functions according to the choices and dictates of its leaders. \[It can be turned into\] … an Islamic state implementing the values and ideals enshrined in the Qur’an and those that the Prophet had once realized in his “mini-state” of Medina. ... \[This is not so.\] It inherently \[emphasis in the original\] produces certain distinctive effects that are political, social, economic, cultural, epistemic, and, no less, psychological, which is to say that the state fashions particular knowledge systems that in turn determine and shape the landscape of individual and collective subjectivity and thus much of the meaning of its subjects’ lives.*[^86] One of the reasons for this ideological power of the state is that the state is its own lawgiver, judge, and executioner. This awesome and total power devolves to a seemingly immaterial, abstract entity but, in reality, is always wielded by some group of men. Furthermore, these authorities of the modern state are enforced (of course, always selectively) by global powers in the name of the international agreement that is the nation-state system. When the powers of this leviathan were found too absolute, the ideas of institutional checks and balances and the separation of powers inscribed in a constitution and democratic processes were born. Yet, all these checks and balances reside within the state. In imperfect democracies (are there any perfect ones?), the totality of this power becomes clearer, and the separation of powers becomes often less than effective. But, as numerous legal historians have argued, the separation-of-powers hypothesis does not hold in reality in even the most institutionally developed nation-states like the United States.[^87] When the state acts as a unified actor, as in times of real or fabricated crises, wars, and triumphs—which are potentially continual or even constant—it acts as an absolute power, a “mortal god,” as the Leviathan, a mythic creature of unlimited power—as imagined by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. The insurmountable trouble for Islamic theology is not that the rulers as individuals may go rogue or engage in war, enact discriminatory policies, and arbitrary executions, which are all comprehensible evils and inevitable realities in political life. Religious authorities have always felt free to invoke Islamic norms to critique and censure the rulers, at times even justifying armed rebellion. Rather, the “impossibility” of the modern state within an Islamic framework, as argued by Hallaq and others, is that the state is, by definition as well as structurally, supreme. Religious opinions and institutions are authorized by the state, not the other way around. Even if the state elite are “Muslim” or “Islamic,” these scholars argue, structurally the modern state cannot be Islamic; it is *secular* and *secularizing*. And yet, being secular has never stopped the state elite anywhere, including in Europe and America, from exploiting religion to further their ends. The idea of an Islamic state, therefore, is an oxymoron, and the experiences of the actual states that have claimed to be Islamic over the last several decades only confirm this. Another, and even more concrete, incommensurability with the demands of the modern state’s territorial sovereignty is that Islam brooks no differentiation of rights and duties of Muslims based on regional or territorial affiliation. Numerous scriptural commandments of solidarity and mutual support make it impossible to cut off Muslims in one region from the needs, rights, wealth, and suffering of other Muslims, except on temporary and pragmatic grounds. To act in response to the oppression of the Rohingya, the Uyghurs, the Palestinians, and the Kashmiris is, therefore, a direct Qur’anic command to all Muslims, a command whose enactment is subject only to considerations of distance and feasibility. A political structuration that circumscribes the loyalties of individuals to the territorial boundaries of the state is in essential conflict with Islam. Even more problematic to the demands of a territorial state is its citizens’ allegiance to a religious authority emanating from outside its borders. The widespread scholarly, intellectual, and Sufi networks that have defined the lands of Islam in the past continue to pose a challenge to the demands of the nation-state. Of course, limited municipal or administrative independence of territorial or regional governments is indeed possible (and desirable), but the sovereignty claimed by the nation-state goes far beyond this. It is, therefore, crucial to distinguish the state, an abstract and sovereign entity, from *government*, the name for the administrative and legal apparatus in a region. Accordingly, the imagination of a future caliphate must not be deluded into thinking that local governments, institutions, communities, and histories must be destroyed to create a regional superstate. Many other critiques of the nation-state can be made, and indeed have been made, but our purpose is not to offer a comprehensive critique but to present some reasons for why the nation-state has had such a deeply troubled career in the lands of Islam, and why the end of the nation-state may offer a historical opportunity for the reconstitution of a more Islamic and humane form of political existence for Muslims. --- ## Looking ahead > *The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood: Indeed, the world is run by little else.*[^88] The critiques of the modern state that I have proposed in the foregoing require that the future caliphate be envisioned not as a super-nation-state, or merely a merger of existing states, but as a different kind of governance that draws its legitimacy from a different political philosophy than the one grounded in Westphalia, nationalism, and secularism. This does not require turning away from modern experience to a prefabricated premodern model, but rather seeking wisdom and guidance from the past while looking to the future, broadening the scope of thinking, and engaging the contemporary experience beyond hegemonic categories. Once we disabuse ourselves of the notion that the nation-state is a given (until foreign masters and textbooks permit us to think otherwise), many inspirations from past and present open up. The notion of an innovative restoration of the caliphate is far from unthinkable; it was how many independent Muslim thinkers imagined the future. The influential Egyptian jurist ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Sanhūrī (1895-1971), who is also the single most important author of Egyptian, Iraqi, and other Arab civil laws, shared an unambiguous commitment to the revival of the caliphate in a systematic and progressive manner: > *Given that establishing a rightly-guided or complete caliphate is impossible under the current conditions, there is no alternative to establishing incomplete or deficient Islamic government (*ḥukūma*) on the basis of necessity that the current circumstances impose upon the Islamic world today. But such a system (*niẓām*) must be considered deficient and temporary … The ideal caliphate system of the future must be flexible, for as we have seen, the sharīʿa does not impose a specific \[administrative\] form for governance at all.*[^89] He goes on to offer these broad requirements for a feasible and effective caliphate: 1. Unification of the Islamic world; 2. application of Islamic law, and 3. certain religious and political features. These he further elaborates as follows: 1. Separation of powers: as history and experience show that concentration of power in the hand of one person or body leads to the domination of the political over the religious and moral. 2. Legal reform: the traditional Islamic legal system (outside of ritual and religious aspects) had led to stagnation, which makes it necessary to engage in serious research and effect an intellectual renaissance of sorts before applying it in practice. 3. Decentralization and localism: history and experience show that the unity of the Islamic world cannot be maintained stably in a highly centralized state, nor is that desirable from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence; any such attempt will have to be decentralized with a large measure of freedom given to each region to govern itself.[^90] Sanhūrī was no mere dreamer; his subsequent studies detailed at length the kinds of issues that would have to be faced in such a multilayered government, down to the kinds of committees for various religious and other affairs and the sensitivity to the rights of non-Muslims as well neighboring non-Muslim states—“the nations of the east”—that would be required. In this vein, the United States’ constitutional architecture represents one of the best cases of political envisioning the modern world has seen, and no contemporary effort of political thinking can afford to ignore it. Right-wing pundit George Will recently remarked in an interview for his book *The Conservative Sensibilit*y that the Bush administration’s attempt to bring democracy to Iraq failed because Iraq did not have men like John Locke the philosopher, George Washington the statesman, Alexander Hamilton the visionary economist, and the society of eighteenth-century America. His larger argument is that certain political geniuses created the American political system, which in turn created a culture and subjectivity, which is necessary for a successful democracy. In other words, one needs each of these three elements for a successful political vision: a set of shared ideals, an exceptional and courageous set of visionary thinkers, and a society ready to respond to their vision. George Will is hardly an expert on Iraq, and his view of America myopically filters out all the blood and contingency from its history, but some of his insights are correct: the need for visionaries and for buy-in from society and, in particular, the failure of imported solutions. Even more noteworthy is Will’s observation about the American Declaration of Independence: it sees its purpose as not inventing rights to be imposed top-down, but *securing* pre-existing rights widely believed to be given by God.[^91] We imagine the caliphate as a federation of local governments that may be governed democratically or by any number of traditional or yet undiscovered institutionalization of *shura*—by which I mean representation, consultation, and accountability. Islamic Law has been inherently legally pluralistic and does not seek to impose its communal norms on non-Muslims. This is so because the Islamic notion of communal life and governance is essentially bottom-up: people can be governed only by laws they believe in. Another related commitment of Islamic governance is the integrity of family and community. A third related commitment of Islamic tradition as it historically developed has been small government and respect for local customs. When modernizing nation-states abandoned these standards and tried to force Islamic law into a state law, disastrous abuse ensued.[^92] All these commitments provide building blocks for a constitutional design that will need to balance the check on the powers of the government. The institutional design of any future confederation of Muslim governments, in short, will have to use the ancient resources of Islamic tradition, but equally important will be the adoption of compatible contemporary institutions. This is not a call for a violent revolution, for it inevitably summons a reign of terror in its wake. It is a call, rather, for new discourses and practices in the framework of the broad, shared framework of the caliphate that take the collective future of the global Muslim *ummah* seriously. It is a call for Muslims to allow ourselves to dream big without neglecting small, immediate obligations and duties, to think globally even as we must act locally. It is a call for conversations, networking, rethinking, and reimagining the possibilities of living politically as Muslims. It is a call for young Muslims everywhere to link up with each other across artificial borders and ask themselves practical, moral questions: *how can we respond better to the loss of faith and devotion to God, the apathy and corruption of the elite, lift up the dispossessed refugees, aid our persecuted brethren in faith, facilitate economic collaboration, alter political institutions, improve religious discourse, enrich dialogue and discourse with Muslims within and across sectarian and national boundaries, and improve education and communication across the many barriers of distance, language, and prejudice?* All these questions must be answered in a way that simultaneously defeats the autocrats as well as the terrorists, not only in their respective ideologies but in their tactics and worldviews. When ISIS activities were at their peak and the western media were competing in publishing the most sensationalist stories about chopped heads and murderous suicides, as a researcher working on the issue at the time, I wanted to go beyond the headlines and get a personal grip on what ISIS was really about. Skeptical as I was about the pornography of violence that the group produced specifically for the Western media, I looked in their publications (such as the glossy magazine, *Dabiq*) for clues of the culture beyond the pervasive violence and judgments of unbelief. Nothing helped me understand it better than the obscure and largely ignored reports about the conduct of its members and supporters regarding how they treated each other. There were numerous clues that created a picture: Western, European, white recruits were treated as superior, they were given leading positions from where they controlled the messaging and even the direction, and recruits from poorer, darker countries were routinely humiliated and marginalized. The children were taught violence and hatred from the get-go, rather than knowledge, reasoning, and compassion. There was the cherry-picked invocation of legal norms from classical manuals, but no attention to history, context, and diversity; their apocalyptic message was the antithesis of these virtues so essential to Islamic tradition. I knew that these features could not be made up by the CIA propagandists, and they revealed the core. In a field rife with enormous propaganda and conspiracy theories, down-to-earth data like this helped me understand this bunch of angry thugs and psychopaths, the *mariqa* and the *khawarij* as prophesied and condemned by the Beloved Prophet ﷺ as “young fools who read the Qur’an but it does not go past their throats.”[^93] The pursuit of a just political order cannot replace the pursuit of humble prayers, reverence for parents, better marriages, deeper friendships, robust local communities, and most of all concern for justice for the underprivileged and the weak. Maintaining the status quo in the Muslim world is a pipe-dream; the dream to change it is not. The current order is un-Islamic, unethical, and inimical to a decent future for Muslims and our human brethren at large. Those who wish to maintain it are a small and shrinking elite. To maintain these despotic states, these elites are having not only to suppress their majorities and kill or silence every last possibility of independent, moral thinking but also denature and distort Islam and massively brainwash Muslim societies. These grotesquely repressive and nearly-failed states are different from ISIS only in superficial ways. They are actively engaged in eliminating and replacing the Muslim sense of solidarity, as well as narrowing theological, jurisprudential, and ethical discourse to serve exclusively their interests. We Muslims, I submit, must reimagine the caliphate as a confederation of governments in the core regions of Islam that protects a range of human rights for all, provides political and economic stability to these regions, and allows Muslims to develop a variety of local political arrangements while embracing the larger religious and cultural unity of these regions. Such an order would not only be in accordance with the divine command but also is the only long term alternative to the mutually reinforcing coterie of despots and terrorists. --- ## Notes [^1]: Diyar Guldogan, “Turkish Republic continuation of Ottoman Empire,” Anadolu Agency, 10 Oct 18, [http://aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/turkish-republic-continuation-of-ottoman-empire/1059924](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/turkish-republic-continuation-of-ottoman-empire/1059924&sa=D&ust=1572469969768000) (Accessed 19 Dec 2018). See also, Rashid Dar, “The Other C-word: Caliphate,” [http://ciceromagazine.com/features/the-other-c-word-caliphate/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ciceromagazine.com/features/the-other-c-word-caliphate/&sa=D&ust=1572469969768000) [^2]: Azadeh Moaveni, “The Lingering Dream of an Islamic State,” *New York Times*, 12 Jan 2018. [^3]: Ibid. [^4]: This observation was made by the Jewish-American constitutional scholar at Harvard University, Noah Feldman, in his *The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State* (Princeton University Press, 2008), 1. [^5]: John Keane, *The Life and Death of Democracy* (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009): “The new democracy was a bastard. Its creation was unintended. Its survival at no point in time guaranteed. It was not inevitable” (161). [^6]: Sheldon S. Wolin and Nicholas Xenos (eds.), *Fugitive Democracy and Other Essays* (Princeton University Press, 2016). [^7]: This statement appears almost verbatim five times in the Qur’an, see, e.g., 2:216. [^8]: This is a small sample of such reports, notwithstanding the wishful exaggerations of western journalists: “Despots are pushing the Arab world to become more secular,” *The Economist*, 2 Nov 2017, [https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2017/11/02/despots-are-pushing-the-arab-world-to-become-more-secular](https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2017/11/02/despots-are-pushing-the-arab-world-to-become-more-secular); “The Arab world in seven charts: Are Arabs turning their backs on religion?” 24 Jun 2019, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48703377](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48703377). [^9]: Samuel P. Huntington, *The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order*.(Touchstone, 1993/1996). [^10]: Benjamin R. Barber, *Jihad Vs. McWorld* (Ballantine Books, 1996). [^11]: John Gray, John, *Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought* (Polity Press, 1997). [^12]: Stephen D. Krasner, *Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy* ( Princeton University Press, 1999). [^13]: For instance, Kenichi Ohmae, *The End of the Nation-State: The Rise of Regional Economies* (Free Press, 1995); Luigi Padula, *End of the Nation-State: A Historical Perspective* (2015). [^14]: Peter Dockrill, *Business Insider*, 6/26, [https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-apartheid-united-nations-report-2019-6](https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-apartheid-united-nations-report-2019-6) (Accessed 7/4/19).) [^15]: This argument has been made in Wael B. Hallaq, *The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament* (Columbia University Press, 2012); here Hallaq argues that the modern state is not a neutral arrangement that can be transformed at will, as Islamic reformers had initially thought, but one that is essentially amoral and incompatible with any historically recognizable form of Islam. Andrew F. March, in his more recent *The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought* (Harvard University Press, 2019), tells the story of the failure of attempts to Islamize the state in the twentieth century, and points to reasons that confirm Hallaq’s thesis: “It is a short step from the prerevolutionary ideological claim that ‘the state must be run by the sacred law’ to ‘whatever the state requires for its defense, preservation, and welfare is what the sacred law is’” (225). [^16]: Salman Sayyid, *Recalling the Caliphate* (Hurst & Co. 2014), 190–911. [^17]: Richard A. Shweder, “Geertz’s Challenge: Is It Possible to Be a Robust Cultural Pluralist and a Dedicated Political Liberal at the Same Time?,” in Austin Sarat, Lawrence Douglas, and Martha Merrill Umphrey (eds.), *Law without Nations* (Stanford Law Books, 2010), 226. [^18]: Columbia University Press, 2018. [^19]: Arjun Appaduri, “Across the World, Genocidal States Are Attacking Muslims. Is Islam Really Their Target?,” *Scroll.in*, 22 May 2018, [https://scroll.in/article/879591/from-israel-to-myanmar-genocidal-projects-are-less-about-religion-and-more-about-predatory-states](https://scroll.in/article/879591/from-israel-to-myanmar-genocidal-projects-are-less-about-religion-and-more-about-predatory-states) (Accessed 29 May 2018). [^20]: The “War on Terror,” admittedly, has also been successful in making willing subjects out of Muslims. Thus, Sayyid, *Recalling the Caliphate*, 189-90: “Muslims have been the most visible targets of the War on Terror; they have been conscripted into an emerging political consciousness, by the never-ending war. They trade stories comedic (‘flying while been Muslim’), horrific (the visceral sadism in the force-feeding of the hunger strikers in Guantanamo) and heroic (daily grind of living under occupations in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, and Burma). The conversations of the ummah are now irredeemably coloured by the War on Terror as Kemalists and Islamists adjust to the banality of its execution.” Many thanks to Mohammed El-Sayed Bushra for this reference. [^21]: *Times of Israel*, 9 July 2019, [https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-future-peace-deal-with-palestinians-must-include-arab-israelis/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-future-peace-deal-with-palestinians-must-include-arab-israelis/) [^22]: This hadith is reported through two companions, Thawbān (Abu Dawūd # 4297) and Abū Hurayra, (*Musnad Aḥmad*), and regarded as sound. [^23]: *Foreign Affairs*, Summer 1993, 72.3. [^24]: Azad Essa, “Muslims being 'erased' from Central African Republic,” *Aljazeera*, 31 Jul 2015, [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/amnesty-muslims-erased-central-african-republic-150731083248166.html](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/amnesty-muslims-erased-central-african-republic-150731083248166.html) (Accessed 19 Dec 2018). [^25]: Yale University Press, 2017. [^26]: David Wasserstein, “How Islam Saved the Jews,” [https://kavvanah.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/how-islam-saved-the-jews-david-wasserstein/](https://kavvanah.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/how-islam-saved-the-jews-david-wasserstein/) (Accessed 7/4/19).) [^27]: Muslim # 1342. [^28]: For the Orientalist literature, the confusion has been spread since Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds, *God’s Caliph* (1986). For contemporary Muslim literature, an endless stream of literature is being generated that describes humans as God’s vicegerents. Its earliest case may have been Abu al-Aʿla al-Mawdudi’s popular Urdu exegesis of the Qur’an, *Tafhim al-Qur’an*. [^29]: For a study of this phenomenon, see Andrew F. March, *The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought* (Harvard University Press, 2019). [^30]: See the comparison chart in David Graeber, *Debt: The First 5000 Years* (2014), 272. [^31]: Noah Feldman, *Fall and Rise of the Islamic State* (2008), xxxix. [^32]: Hüseyin Yılmaz, *Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in the Ottoman Political Thought* (Princeton University Press, 2018). [^33]: For more on the millet system, see Teseneem Alkiek, “Tolerance, Minorities, and Ideological Perspectives,” [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/tolerance-minorities-and-ideological-perspectives/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/tolerance-minorities-and-ideological-perspectives/) [^34]: Wadad Kadi and Aram Shahin, “caliph, caliphate,” in *Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought*, 85. [^35]: Even though belief in (as a result of the dispute about the appointment of) the right imam was the defining problem for the Shiʿa, the list of the five well-known beliefs for the Imami Shiʿa did not become settled until the fifth/eleventh century; see Mohammed Ali Amir-Moezzi, “Early Shīʿī Theology,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology*, 82-3. [^36]: Patricia Crone, “Ibadis,” in G. Bowering (ed.), *Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought* (Princeton University Press, 2013), 230. [^37]: For a study of al-Juwayni’s political thought, see my article “Political Metaphors and Concepts in the Writings of an Eleventh-Century Sunni Scholar, Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī,” *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society*, 26.1-2 (2016): 7-18. For an overview of the entire classical period and Ibn Taymiyya’s innovative political ideas, see my monograph *Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment* (Cambridge University Press, 2012). [^38]: After a clear text in the Qur’an or a multiple corroborated (*mutawātir*) hadith, that is. Al-Juwaynī, Ghiyāthī, 39-43. [^39]: Yılmaz, *Caliphate Redefined*. [^40]: Ibn Ḥazm, *al-Fiṣal fī al-milal wa-l-ahwā’ wa-l-niḥal*, 4:87. [^41]: The Muʿtazila and the Kharijites generally uphold the obligation; only a handful of Muʿtazila, such as Hishām al-Fuwātī, who argued that no caliphate can be established in civil war, thus denying ʿAli’s caliphate. The Najadāt were short-lived fanatic Kharijites who excommunicated all other Muslims, and who in reality always had an imam, but denied the obligation of having one. [^42]: The wording in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* is “Whoever dies without giving allegiance dies the death of pre-Islamic ignorance” (Muslim #4793). [^43]: Al-Taftāzānī, *Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyya* (Karachi: Maktabat al-Bushrā, 1430/2009), 353–54. [^44]: Ibid. [^45]: Ibid., 355. [^46]: “*Inna naṣb al-imām wājib qad ʿurifa wujūbuh fī al-sharʿ bi-ijmāʿ al-ṣaḥāba wa-l-tābiʿīn*,” Ibn Khaldun, *al-Muqaddima*, ed. Muḥammad al-Iskandarānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī,2006), 186 (Bk I, sec. 3, ch. 26); compare the translation by F. Rosenthal, abridged by N. J. Dawood in Ibn Khaldun, *The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History* (Princeton University Press, 1967), 156. [^47]: H. A. R. Gibb, *Studies on Islamic Civilization* (Princeton Legacy Library, 1982 \[orig. 1962\]), 173. [^48]: For a summary of these views, see Ṣādiq Nuʿmān,*al-Khilāfa al-Islāmiyya* (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 2004), 26–27; ʿAbdallāh al-Dumayjī, *al-Imāma al-ʿuẓmā ʿinda ahl al-sunnah wa-l-jamāʿa* (Riyadh: Dār Ṭayba, 1987), 45ff. [^49]: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Ḥaṣkafī (d. 1088/1677), *al-Durr al-Mukhtār*, 75. [^50]: The helpful notion of ‘problem space’ is proposed by anthropologist David Scott in his *Conscripts of Modernity* (Duke University Press, 2004). [^51]: See the section below entitled “Did the Prophet Establish a State?” [^52]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, 3:372. [^53]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-īmān*, 5:75114 vols., ed. Mukhtār al-Nadwī (Riyadh: Maktaba al-Rushd, 2003), 10:15; Ibn Taymiyya, *Minhāj al-sunna*, 1:146. [^54]: Ibn Taymiyya, *al-Siyāsa al-sharʿiyya* , 161–62. [^55]: Al-Māwardī, *Aḥkām*, 27. [^56]: For details of the classical models of the caliphate and its political theory, see my *Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment* (Cambridge University Press, 2012). [^57]: For a discussion of the “strikingly egalitarian” nature of early Islamic society and their Qur’anic inspiration, “accentuated … by its conjunction with … Arab tribalism,” see L. Marlow, *Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought* (Cambridge University Press, 2002), 1-6; esp. 4. [^58]: Bukhari #4359. [^59]: Al-Kattānī, 99. The same view is adopted by Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ Fatāwā*, 35:33. [^60]: Scholars, including al-Dhahabī, al-Bayhaqī, and Ibn Kathīr, all agree on the weakness of this hadith. See, e.g., al-Dhahabī, *Siyar* 3:131. [^61]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ Fatāwā*, 35:22. [^62]: Michaelangelo Guida, “Seyyid Bey and the Abolition of the Caliphate,” *Middle Eastern Studies* 44.2 (2008), 275–89. [^63]: Speaking of how quickly Atatürk killed off the religious scholars and transformed an entire culture, Hitler wrote admiringly in 1938 that the Turkish despot “was the first to show that it is possible to mobilize and regenerate the resources that a country has lost.” “Atatürk was a teacher,” Hitler said. “Mussolini was his first and I his second student.” Halil Karaveli, “Hitler’s Infatuation with Atatürk Revisited,” [https://www.turkeyanalyst.org/publications/turkey-analyst-articles/item/367-hitler%E2%80%99s-infatuation-with-atat%C3%BCrk-revisited.html](https://www.turkeyanalyst.org/publications/turkey-analyst-articles/item/367-hitler%25E2%2580%2599s-infatuation-with-atat%25C3%25BCrk-revisited.html) (Accessed 7/4/19). See also Pankaj Mishra, *Age of Anger: A History of the Present* (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), 131. [^64]: James Broucek, “The Controversy of Shaykh 'Ali 'Abd Al-Raziq,” Ph.D. Dissertation (University of Florida, 2012), 128. [^65]: Those who wrote refutations were the leading scholars of the twentieth century: Aḥmad Shākir, Muḥammad Bakhīt al-Muṭīʿī, Muḥammad Khiḍr Ḥusayn, Rashīd Riḍā, Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr. See Muḥammad ʿImāra’s *Maʿrikat al-Islām wa-uṣūl al-ḥukm* (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 1989) for an analysis of the controversy in Arabic and a detailed presentation of the original arguments and their refutations. [^66]: Quoted in Souad T. Ali, *A Religion Not a State* (The University of Utah Press, 2009), 73. See also James Broucek, “The Controversy,” 183; and Muḥammad ʿImāra, *Maʿrikat al-Islām*. [^67]: For the historical evolution of the *tafsir* opinions on this verse, see my book *Politics, Law*, 52n59. [^68]: Ṭabarī, *Tārīkh* (Dār al-Turāth), 3:186-7. [^69]: In all likelihood, ʿAbd al-Rāziq had not read Juwaynī’s *Ghiyāth al-umam* (which would not have been available in published form), Ibn Taymiyya’s *Minhāj*, and most other classical works on the subject available to us, with the exception of al-Māwardī and Ibn Khaldūn, whom he cites. In personal communication, Prof. Ahmed El Shamsy of the University of Chicago informs me that whereas Ibn Taymiyya’s *Minhāj* had been published by Būlāq publishers in 1903-5, al-Juwaynī’s *Ghiyāth* would have been unavailable in published form at the time. [^70]: ʿAbd al-Rāaziq, *al-Islām wa-Uuṣūl al-Ḥukm*, quoted in Broucek, “The Controversy,” 183; also ʿImāra, *Maʿraikat al-Islām*, 395ff. [^71]: Mona Hassan, *Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History* (Princeton University Press, 2017). [^72]: Reza Pankhurst’s *The Inevitable Caliphate? A History of the Struggle for Global Islamic Union, 1924 to the Present* (London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd., 2013). [^73]: Jacob Landau, *Pan-Islamism: Ideology and Organization* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). [^74]: See, e.g., Sayyid, *Recalling the Caliphate*, 189. [^75]: See, in particular, Sayyid, *Recalling the Caliphate*, chap. 5. [^76]: Justine Marrozi, “Forget Lawrence of Arabia, here’s the real history of the Middle East and World War I,” *The National*, 26 Feb 2015, https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-long-read-forget-lawrence-of-arabia-here-s-the-real-history-of-the-middle-east-and-world-war-1-1.640119 (Accessed 18 Dec 2018) [^77]: Fromkin, *A Peace to End All Peace*, 564. [^78]: Wael Hallaq, *The Impossible State*. [^79]: Ayubi, *Overstating the Arab State* (1996); see also, Sayyid, *Recalling*, 146, who names the contemporary Arab governments ‘the *Mukhabarat* state.’ [^80]: See, for instance, Michael Cook, *Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective* (Princeton University Press, 2014); Shadi Hamid, *Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World* (St. Martin’s Press, 2016). [^81]: A good reference in this regard, showing how the eventual triumph of the nation-state model was not inevitable, is Hendrik Spruyt, *The Sovereign State and its Competitors* (Princeton University Press, 2006). Thanks to Mohammed El-Sayed Bushra for this reference. [^82]: Quentin Skinner, *The Foundations of Modern Political Though*t, vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1978), ix–x. [^83]: Tilly, *Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1990* (Basil Blackwell, 1990), 1–2. [^84]: Carl Schmitt, *Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty*, trans. George Schwab (MIT Press, 1985), 36. [^85]: The modern state, furthermore, is a national state, one that presumably limits its loyalty—its “avowal and disavowal”—by national boundaries. [^86]: Hallaq, *The Impossible State*, 155-6. [^87]: Ibid. Citing and building on these studies, Hallaq has argued that the doctrine of the separation of powers is ineffective in the modern state in general, and this inefficacy has been thoroughly documented in the most institutionally advanced democracy, the United States (see chap. 3). [^88]: John Maynard Keynes, *The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money* (Harvest/Harcourt Inc., 1964; orig. 1935),  ch. 24, 383. [^89]: ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Sanhūrī, quoted in Muḥammad ʿImāra (ed.), *Islāmiyāt al-Sanhūrī Bāshā*, vol. 1, 335–37. [^90]: Ibid. [^91]: George Will, *The Conservative Sensibility* (2019), 157. [^92]: For the kinds of conversation in political theory that these reflections require, see Chandran Kukathas, *The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom* (Oxford University Press, 2003). [^93]: This hadith is multiply reported (*mutāwatir*), on the authority of many companions including ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib as recorded in, e.g., al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, Bukhari 6930 and Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, 1066. ## Summary # Who Wants the Caliphate? For nearly fourteen centuries, the life of the Muslim community was bound up with the institution of the caliphate, and its loss after the First World War sent waves of grief throughout the lands of Islam. Today, as the post-colonial nation-state project falters and Muslim populations suffer with impunity, the longing for a unified political order that might safeguard the vulnerable of the ummah grows ever stronger. It must be said plainly, however, that the recent rise of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) presented a grotesque distortion of this ideal—one whose brutality, racism, and apocalypticism stand as the antithesis of the tradition. Reflecting on their internal conduct, in which white European recruits were elevated while poorer and darker Muslims were humiliated, and children were schooled in hatred rather than knowledge and compassion, one recognizes in them the very people the Beloved Prophet ﷺ warned against: the mariqa and khawarij, "young fools who read the Qur'an but it does not go past their throats." Three objections are commonly raised against reviving the caliphate: that it is undesirable, unfeasible, and religiously unnecessary. As to feasibility, to declare the caliphate impossible merely because it is not presently in vogue reflects a failure of imagination; democracy itself vanished for two millennia before its return. The caliphate should be understood as an *asymptotic ideal*—real, rational, and attainable in moments, yet always a work in progress, much like the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, which the believer strives toward without ever perfectly attaining. To argue that no true caliphate ever existed because past caliphates were imperfect is as absurd as claiming there have been no Muslims because all Muslims are imperfect. This selective skepticism echoes the ferocity of the Kharijites, who fashioned an arbitrary ideal and then condemned all who fell short of it. For the believer, the question of desirability is subordinate to the divine command, for "God knows and you know not." Here scholars differed: al-Ghazali held the caliphate an obligation regardless of its efficacy, akin to a ritual, while Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya and Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni emphasized its rational nature—a view I find more compelling. All surviving Muslim schools agreed upon the obligation of appointing a single leader for the community, though they differed in conception. The Imami Shiʿa made belief in the imam part of faith itself and an obligation upon God as a matter of *luṭf*; the Zaydis affirmed the right of a qualified Alid who rose against injustice; while the Sunnis, and the surviving Ibadis, held it a collective obligation (*farḍ kifāya*)—the Ibadis and most post-Ottoman Sunnis dispensing with the requirement of Qurayshi descent. The linguistic root of *khalīfa* denotes succession, one left behind to fulfill a responsibility. The Qur'an calls Adam a *khalīfa* (2:30), which the earliest exegetes took to mean successor to an earlier creation, and it names David a *khalīfa* in the land (38:26), meaning inheritor. Notably, in a supplication preserved in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ names God as the *khalīfa* of the traveler over his family. This shows the popular modern rendering of *khalīfa* as "vicegerent of God" to be linguistically imprecise, however justifiable the metaphysical meaning may be through the Qur'anic notions of *taskhīr* and *takrīm* (17:70, 14:32-33). In its historical sense, *khalīfa* came to mean the deputyship (*niyāba*) of the Prophet ﷺ in leading his community, the ruler being addressed as *amīr al-muʾminīn* since the time of ʿUmar. The historical caliphate passed through several models: the normative Rashidun era of "first among equals" ruling from Medina; the imperial Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate, which adopted Sassanid grandeur yet whose ruler's actual legal powers remained limited; the classical constitutional model of some five centuries, in which the caliph was a symbolic authority securing the community's continuity while the ʿulamāʾ and local rulers governed by the Shariʿa; the Ottoman synthesis; and the short-lived constitutional caliphate before the empire's fall. A crucial truth emerges: in Sunni Islam there has been, and can be, no theocracy—as even Bernard Lewis conceded—owing to the epistemological pluralism of Sunni jurisprudence and the absence of any church to speak for God. The scholars theorized the institution most carefully precisely when it was most threatened, in the fifth/eleventh century, with figures such as al-Mawardi, al-Juwayni, al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Khaldun. Al-Juwayni, an Ashʿari who rejected solitary reports as grounds for certitude, insisted the obligation rested upon the consensus of the Companions—reflected in their election of Abu Bakr, which they prioritized even over the Prophet's burial. The witnesses to this consensus are many. Ibn Ḥazm recorded that all Ahl al-Sunnah, the Murjiʾa, the Shiʿa, and the Kharijites agreed upon the obligation of the Imamate, excepting only the Najadāt. Al-Taftāzānī, commenting on al-Nasafī's creed, affirmed the consensus and cited the ḥadith, "Whoever dies without knowing the imam of his time dies in pre-Islamic ignorance," explaining that a single imam is required lest conflict corrupt the affairs of religion and world—"as we witness in our own times." Ibn Khaldun likewise summed the matter as established by the consensus of the Companions and Followers. The functions of this office were captured in the report from Imam ʿAli, who declared that people must have leadership, pious or impious, for by it the *ḥudūd* are established, the roads made safe, the enemy fought, and the spoils divided. The scholars further distinguished the caliphate (*khilāfa*) from mere kingship (*mulk*). The early Muslims shunned the title *malik* for its connotations of arbitrary, self-serving power; a ḥadith in al-Bukhari records the warning that once rule "is taken by the sword, they become kings." The Mālikī al-Maqarrī al-Tilimsānī observed that *mulk* belonged to the law of those before us, and that God legitimized for this ummah only *khilāfa*. Ibn Taymiyya held kingship essentially unlawful, arguing from the Prophet's command to cling to "my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs," that the establishment of the caliphate is an obligatory duty, exemption from which is permitted only by necessity—just as al-Ghazali likened tolerating the usurping Saljuq sultans to eating carrion to preserve life. The religious necessity of the caliphate went unquestioned until the twentieth century. The most influential challenge came from ʿAli ʿAbd al-Raziq, who argued that the Prophet's mission was purely spiritual and his political acts incidental. Yet he wrote as a politician with a partisan agenda, and his reasoning was conceptually flawed, importing the modern religion-versus-politics dichotomy foreign to Islam. That the Qur'an does not name the caliphate proves nothing, for it likewise does not specify the number of daily prayers. Rather, the command to "obey those in authority among you" (4:59), together with the commands to be a distinct community, to make war and treaties as a sovereign body, to be governed by God's law alone, and the Prophet's own dispatching of epistles to emperors and his punitive campaigns, all establish that his followers must form a sovereign political community. Most gravely, ʿAbd al-Raziq impugned the integrity of Abu Bakr and the Companions over the ridda wars—the very men whose consensus is the guarantee of the Qur'an's own preservation. The Azhar condemned and defrocked him, and the scholars' many refutations produced, ironically, the closest thing to a renewed consensus in the modern age. I contend that if understood rightly—as a just, accountable, decentralized, and human-rights-conscious confederation of Muslim governments with a unified economy and defense—the caliphate may be the only means of averting the further degradation of Muslim lands into terrorist fiefdoms and, God forbid, a wider war. The nation-state, as Wael Hallaq has argued in *The Impossible State*, is structurally secular and secularizing, an abstract sovereign that becomes its own lawgiver, judge, and executioner—a "mortal god." It cannot accommodate Islam, which brooks no severing of Muslims in one region from the suffering of others; to aid the oppressed Rohingya, Uyghurs, Palestinians, and Kashmiris is a direct Qur'anic command, subject only to distance and feasibility. The vision here is not of a violent revolution, which summons only terror in its wake, nor of a centralizing superstate that would destroy local governments and communities. ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Sanhūrī, foreseeing this, called for a flexible, decentralized caliphate built upon Muslim unity, the application of a reformed Shariʿa, the separation of powers, and localism, since the Shariʿa imposes no single administrative form. This, then, is a call for young Muslims to dream large while attending to small and immediate obligations—to think globally while acting locally, to link across artificial borders, and to ask how they might aid the dispossessed and enrich Islamic discourse. Yet the pursuit of a just order can never replace humble prayer, reverence for parents, and concern for the weak. The delineation of such a vision requires not a single essay but a generation of jurists, theologians, and visionaries, and it must be candid about the failures of the Muslim political past, guaranteeing the rights of local communities, differing denominations, and non-Muslim minorities. We must reimagine the caliphate as a confederation protecting the rights of all and preserving the religious and cultural unity of the ummah—an order that accords with the divine command and stands as the only lasting alternative to the mutually reinforcing coterie of despots and terrorists. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-hadith-necessary # Are Hadith Necessary? An Examination of the Authority of Hadith in Islam **Author:** Dr. Emad Hamdeh **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 25, 2019 **Updated:** October 6, 2026 ## Introduction The Qur'ān and the Sunnah have served as the primary sources of Islam. Together with the Qurʾān, the statements and actions of the Prophet ﷺ form the basis of Islamic law and theology. Historically, all Islamic sects have acknowledged the necessity of at least some ḥadīths, even if few, to understand the Qur'ān. Despite their many theological and legal differences, Muslim sects have all drawn from these two primary sources: the Qurʾān, which is considered to be the direct word of God revealed to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Sunnah, which consists of the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ inspired by God. In other words, the ḥadīth are reports about what the Prophet ﷺ said and did. Muslim jurists and ḥadīth scholars use these reports (i.e., ḥadīth) to understand the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, which are called the Sunnah. Each ḥadīth is a piece of data about the Prophet ﷺ; when collected, these data points paint a larger picture which is the Sunnah. *Watch Why do we need hadith? with Dr Jonathan Brown* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QMVguBi6BY All Muslim groups consider the Qurʾān to be the most authentic and authoritative source, followed by the Sunnah. Because the Sunnah is needed in order to contextualize the Qur'ān, all Muslim groups have accepted the necessity of following *at least some* ḥadīth alongside the Qurʾān. This view has been held by all known Muslim groups, including all strands of both Sunnism and Shi'ism. This is important because the theory of consensus (*ijmāʿ*) holds that it is inconceivable for the entire Muslim community to agree upon falsehood. Whenever all living jurists agreed on a particular formulation of Islamic law, this consensus raised the formulation to an infallible representation of divine will. The possibility of error concerning formulations of law only existed when jurists disagreed. When they agreed on an issue, the fallibility of individual jurists was erased through the supervening principle of the infallibility of consensus. Consensus set boundaries on disagreement in the formulation of the law, and the authority of the Sunnah was outside of those boundaries.[^1] Because dissent is the norm in matters of Islamic law, it makes any consensus all the more credible and binding when it occurs. In other words, the unanimity of opinion (*ijmāʿ*)—in a religion that has countenanced in its history a vast array of differences—is considered one of the strongest proofs for the formulation of law or creed. Ḥadīth, therefore, form a necessary component of the religion (*al-maʿlūm min al-dīn bi ḍarūra*). It was not until the nineteenth century that a movement emerged that rejected the entire corpus of ḥadīth and the authority of the Prophet ﷺ. This rejection of the entire ḥadīth corpus stems from a mistrust in the historical preservation of ḥadīth when compared to the Qur'ān or the fact that many ḥadīth clash with modern sensibilities. In an attempt to bypass any fabrications and ḥadīth that might contain discomfiting material, some have attempted to understand the Qur'ān on its own, without ḥadīth. --- ## Reasons for ḥadīth rejection Questions about the authenticity of the Sunnah have long been of central importance in the study of ḥadīth. Ḥadīth scholars attempted to decipher the Prophet’s authentic statements from the inauthentic ones. Although Muslim scholars differ about the authenticity of certain statements attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, there have been very few cases in Islamic history where groups completely rejected the authenticity or authority of the Prophet’s statements.[^2] It is primarily in the last two centuries that a group has emerged who completely reject the Sunnah as an authoritative source. They not only reject the Prophet’s statements because they believe them to be inauthentic, but their rejection is based on the belief that the Prophet ﷺ has no authority beyond delivering the Qurʾān.[^3] A more common trend is the rejection of ḥadīth due to doubt concerning the preservation of ḥadīth. There might be a recognition that the Qur'ān requires that the Prophet ﷺ be followed, but the concern is that his words have not been preserved in a similar manner as the Qur'ān. This argument is based on the assumption that, unlike the Qur’ān, some ḥadīth books contain inauthentic statements that are unreliable and often contain conflicting narrations. This perspective implies that Muslims are commanded to follow the Prophet ﷺ but that the reports about him are unreliable. The Andalusian scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) disputes this argument by saying that doubting the authenticity of the entire ḥadīth corpus involves contending that God made it mandatory to obey the Messenger but made it impossible to do so. It does not befit God that He would command Muslims to follow something that is not accurately preserved; otherwise God would be requiring them to follow something that does not exist or to follow a falsified report about the religion.[^4] Another reason some people tend to reject ḥadīth is a result of their encountering a ḥadīth that appears to have a problematic meaning or that conflicts with modern sensibilities. Ḥadīth literature contain reports that vary in their degree of authenticity. Some are authentic while others are complete fabrications. The science of ḥadīth was established with the aim of separating authentic from the weak and fabricated. There are ḥadīth that are problematic, and these were usually highlighted by early ḥadīth scholars. However, not every apparently problematic ḥadīth is actually problematic. It is often the case that the individual misunderstands or lacks the knowledge to contextualize the ḥadīth. It is important to keep in mind that ḥadīth literature was compiled by scholars *for* scholars. In other words, they were compiled by scholars with other scholars in mind as their main readers, not the untrained layperson. In our current era of information overload, everyone has access to texts and data that can be read and interpreted without consulting experts. Hence, ḥadīth are often accessed without scholarly explanation, in translation, and/or decontextualized. This results in confusion and doubt concerning the preservation of ḥadīth and whether or not they accurately represent the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ. It is important to note that access to ḥadīth, or any text, is not the same thing as understanding the text. There are many cases where individuals might reject a ḥadīth simply based on a shallow reading of it. In his introduction to Bukhārī’s *Adab al-Mufrad*, Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo argues that very few people are equipped to deal with Bukhārī’s *Ṣaḥīḥ*, a work that is readily available online in Arabic and translation. He points out that, in traditional learning circles, study of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* comes only after a student has spent years learning the classical disciplines such as Arabic, rhetoric, literature, the rational sciences of logic, Islamic legal theory, the many Qurʾānic sciences from elocution (*tajwīd*) to Qurʼānic exegesis (*tafsīr*), and study of the principles of ḥadīth. Only after students have demonstrated mastery of these subjects are they allowed to attend the lessons, which were usually given by the most learned and respected of all teachers, on the *Ṣaḥīḥ* of Bukhārī.[^5] DeLorenzo goes on to state that, in the traditional educational scheme, there were many reasons for this postponement. The status accorded to Bukhārī’s *Ṣaḥīḥ* was so elevated that only those who had mastered the classical disciplines were considered prepared to take on its study. The *Ṣaḥīḥ* is so full of technical nuances related to principles of ḥadīth (*uṣūl al-ḥadīth*) and the biographical handbooks (*ilm al-rijāl*) that a thorough understanding of those subjects is required if they are to be appropriately appreciated. Similarly, unless one has mastered other classical disciplines, there is much learning and meaning that will be overlooked.[^6] Bypassing a teacher and studying texts directly leads to a limited understanding of primary texts. Delorenzo writes: > ***The word I recall the shaykh using to describe what results when the unprepared non-scholar attempts to read the hadith literature was* fitnah*, or a trial, in the sense that the person would be so confused and overcome after undertaking such an uninformed and one-dimensional reading of that literature (i.e., in translation without the presence of a shaykh to guide him/her through the obstacles) that he or she would face a crisis in their religion, a trial of spiritual proportions.***[^7] Ḥadīth compilations such as *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* can be compared to advanced texts that are studied at the graduate level. They are not intended to be read, analyzed, and interpreted without the necessary tools for proper understanding. Studying ḥadīth online or through self-study often produces more confusion than knowledge. In his excellent book, *The Death of Expertise,* Tom Nichols highlights how the internet challenges actual learning. Although people may think they are learning when they search the internet, they are more likely to be immersed in yet more data they do not understand. What often happens online is an avoidance of reading in the traditional sense. Instead of reading with the aim of learning, it often involves reading to win an argument or to confirm a pre-existing belief.[^8] Doubt concerning ḥadīth has increased over the last several decades because ḥadīth experts who insist on a systematic method of learning and logic cannot compete with a machine that always gives readers their preferred answers. The internet created a space where laypeople are exposed to ḥadīth that would typically only be taught at later stages of Islamic studies. This results in misunderstanding and doubt concerning ḥadīth as accurate and authentic sources of Islam. To remedy this problem, it is important to reexamine the status of ḥadīth in light of the Qur'ān. --- ## The necessity of hadīth What does it mean to follow only the Qur'ān? Can the Qur'ān be understood entirely on its own without relying on any other sources? One of the primary problems of attempting to follow only the Qur'ān is that without any assistance or background from the Sunnah, the Qur'ān loses its meaning. Many of the Qur’ānic injunctions concerning prayer, pilgrimage, and commercial transactions require clarification. The Prophet ﷺ expounded on these injunctions verbally and demonstrated them in practice. These explanations had the force of law and Muslims understood them to be another form of revelation, which they called the Sunnah. Thus, the Sunnah as a concept came into existence simultaneously with the revelation of the Qur’ān and was part of the process of the creation of an Islamic system of jurisprudence.[^9] The rituals of Islam are prominent examples that demonstrate the challenges that ensue when trying to understand the Qurʾān without the Sunnah. Hadith rejecters have arrived at many different conclusions concerning Islamic law and rituals. What does *ṣalāh* mean? How often does one perform it, what does one say in it, and how many units does it contain? Muslims also differ over the details of prayer,  but the fundamentals of prayer such as the number of prayers per day, the physical format, and certain core elements are agreed upon. Ḥadīth rejecters differ significantly with each other on fundamental aspects of the prayer, how it is performed, and the number of prayers each day. They argue that all the details are found in the Qurʾān, but in fact must resort to ḥadīth to understand these rituals in the Qurʾān.[^10] The rituals are but one example; even the meanings of particular words in the Qur'ān require the Sunnah to be understood. For example, some ḥadīth rejecters such as Edip Yuksel have attempted to translate and understand the Qurʾān using only the Qurʾān.[^11] However, they still rely on extra-Qur'ānic material and ḥadīth tradition because they consult Arabic dictionaries. The earliest Arabic dictionary, *Kitāb al-ʿAyn* was written by al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. 175/795). This dictionary and others like it were passed down by the same scholars who preserved ḥadīth.[^12] How do we know the authenticity of this dictionary? It has been ultimately passed down through the same generations that passed down ḥadīth. If scholars gathered *en masse* to fabricate sayings about the Prophet ﷺ, then everything in Islamic history, including Arabic dictionaries and the Qurʾān, must be similarly suspect to be false and fabricated.[^13] The idea that one can use only the Qur'ān to understand and translate the Qur'ān does not work without resorting to extra-Qur'ānic texts. For instance, the word *ẓihār* is found in chapter 58 verses 2-4. Ḥadīth literature defines *ẓihār* as a husband’s saying to his wife, “You are like the back of my mother to me,” which was a statement of irrevocable divorce. Yuksel translates *ẓihār* according to this traditional understanding. However, the verb *ẓāhara* does not appear anywhere else in the Qurʾān with this meaning; throughout the rest of the Qurʾān it means to aid or give help.[^14] Jonathan Brown states, “By the *Reformist Translation*’s stated methodology, the verse should be read, awkwardly if at all, ‘He did not make your wives to whom you granted aid from as your mothers.’”[^15] The Sunnah is therefore necessary in order to uphold the Qurʾān as a meaningful text. Texts do not speak for themselves; readers always provide context and bring their assumptions to their understanding of texts. The Sunnah is meant to provide context to the Qur'ān to ensure it is interpreted within certain boundaries; without it, the Qur'ān would be decontextualized, vague, and meaningless. When one encounters any text, there is a process of interpretation that takes place, and this is no different for the Qur'ān. Extra-Qur'ānic sources are necessary to understand the Qur'ān. If the Qur'ān is stripped of all context, it becomes a text that is full of vague meanings. For instance, the historical context of the Qur'ān is only found outside of the Qur'ān. The Qur'ān makes no mention of the time period in which it was revealed, it makes references to Badr, Uhud, and Hunayn, and the Prophet’s wives, expecting the reader to know what these are. The Qurʾān presupposes that the reader is aware of the context in which it was revealed. There are universal parts of the Qurʾān, such as the nature of God, that can be understood independently of the historical context in which it was revealed. However, there are other parts of the Qurʾān that are bound to the Prophet’s life and historical context. The Qurʾān speaks of Zayd, the companion of the Prophet ﷺ and it presupposes that the reader knows who Zayd is so that the legal implications of the Prophet’s marriage to Zayd’s ex-wife are understood. Without this history, we would not be able to understand the Qur'ān itself. Early Muslims only knew what constituted the Qur'ān because they relied on the Prophet’s words. They only knew what the Qur'ān is because of his declaring it as such. When the Prophet ﷺ spoke, how did people around him distinguish between what parts of his speech were his own and which were Qur'ān? This could have only been distinguished by the Prophet's indication that a particular verse was the speech of God and not his own. One must, therefore, depend on the declarations of the Prophet to know what the Qur'ān is. Otherwise, there is no way to differentiate between the Qur'ān and the Prophet’s words. This means his declaring something as part of the Qur'ān is authoritative and the declaration itself is extra-Qur’ānic. Without it, we would not know what the Qur’ān is. When the Qur'ān states, “Surely We have revealed the *dhikr* and We will most surely be its guardian” (Qur'ān 15:9), it includes the Sunnah. Ibn Ḥazm notes that scholars are in agreement that all revelation is called *dhikr.* He argues that the preservation is not limited to the text of the Qur'ān, but it extends to its meaning as well. If the Prophet’s explanation is needed in order to understand the Qur'ān, then it is necessary that this explanation be preserved as well.[^16] Without ḥadīth, the Qur'ān would be a text without meaning, which would mean it was not preserved. For example, the verses that address intoxication give contradictory advice: - The Qur'ān states that dates and grapes provide intoxicants and good provision (Qur'ān 16:67); - Wine has some benefits, but its harm outweighs its benefits (Qur'ān 2:219); - Muslims should not approach prayer while intoxicated (Qur'ān 4:43); and - Muslims should completely abstain from wine. (Qur'ān 5:90-91). Without the ḥadīth to provide context, how does the reader know which of these verses was revealed first? Were intoxicants prohibited at first and then gradually allowed except when one was praying or were they allowed at first and then gradually prohibited? The Sunnah provides the necessary context to these verses and others like them. Muslims differ over the interpretation of the Qur’ān, but the Sunnah provides a context that limits the boundaries of interpretation. --- ## The Sunnah as revelation Muslim scholars have responded to anti-ḥadīth tendencies by noting that the Qur'ān makes it evident that revelation is not limited to the scriptural revelation of books, but includes the Sunnah as well. The Qur'ān itself makes this evident by highlighting that God “revealed” to certain Prophets who did not have books: “Indeed, We have revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him. And we revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the Descendants, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the book of Psalms” (Qur'ān 4:163). Because the vast majority of these Prophets did not have books, there must have been a non-scriptural form of revelation. Despite these Prophets not having scriptures, people were still required to obey them. Of the many verses that establish a non-Qur'ānic form of revelation are the following: > ***And it was revealed to Noah: None of your people will believe except those who have believed already, so be not sad because of what they used to do* (Qur'ān 11:36).** > > ***And We revealed to him \[Joseph\]: Indeed, you shall inform them of their affair, when they know not* (Qur'ān 12:15).** > > ***And We gave Moses the Scripture, after We had destroyed the former generations, as enlightenment for the people and guidance and mercy that they might be reminded* (Qur'ān 28:43).** Moses was given scripture after Pharaoh was destroyed. This means that even when Moses did not have scripture his people were still required to follow him. The Qurʼan also makes no mention of Prophet Noah or Joseph receiving any scripture. These verses established that revelation is not limited to a book but can take different forms. Several scholars have highlighted examples from the Qur'ān that establish extra-Qur'ānic revelation (i.e., ḥadīth/sunnah). Muhammad Luqmān al-Salafī notes that the changing of the *qibla* from Jerusalem to Mecca is mentioned in the Qur'ān. However, the original command to face Jerusalem during prayer is not found in the Qur'ān. Arguing that the decision to face Jerusalem during prayer was based on reason is not convincing, especially while keeping in mind that the Prophet ﷺ wanted to face Mecca.[^17] Additionally, the *adhān* (call to prayer) is another example of a fundamental ritual mentioned in the Qur'ān only as a sanctioned action without a command to perform it. The command to perform the *adhān* must have come in the form of extra-Qur'ānic revelation.[^18] The late Indian scholar Habib-ur-Rahman Azami (d. 1992) notes that funeral prayer is similarly mentioned in the Qur'ān, but its legislation is absent from the Qur’ān: “Never pray for any of them who dies, nor stand at his grave” (Qur'ān 9:84). Azami goes on to state: > ***The verse implies that such funeral services had begun to be performed and that the Prophet used to offer prayers at the burial of the dead before this particular verse was revealed; yet no verse revealed earlier than this one can be cited as enjoining such services or prayers upon the Prophet and the Muslims. It must, therefore, be conceded that the command for the burial service was given through the sunnah.***[^19] --- ## The Prophet ﷺ as a teacher The Qur'ān explains that the Prophet’s job is to teach the Qur'ān: “Verily Allah has bestowed grace on the believers by sending to them a Messenger from among themselves who recites to them His revelations, and purifies them, and teaches them the book and wisdom; although before they were in manifest error” (Qur'ān 3:164). If the Prophet’s authority was limited to delivering the Qur'ān, the Qur'ān would have made that explicit. However, it emphasizes that the Prophet ﷺ is to teach the Qur'ān and “the wisdom.” Since one teaches by word and example, there must be a source along with the Qur’an that tells us about the Prophet’s actions. Imām al-Shāfiʿī explains that “the wisdom” must mean the Sunnah. The term “wisdom” cannot refer to the Qur'ān itself, because it is being taught alongside the Qur'ān. The concept of the Prophet ﷺ as an expounder on the Qur'ān is advanced by the following verse: “And We sent down to you the reminder so that you may explain to people what was revealed to them and so they may reflect” (Qur'ān 16:44). Upon closer examination, we notice that the verse mentions the revelation of two distinct things. First is the reminder (*dhikr*) that was revealed only to the Prophet ﷺ in order to guide him in explaining the revelation of the Qur’an. Second is that which was already been revealed to the people; i.e., the Qur'ān. The Arabs of the seventh century excelled in all aspects of the Arabic language. They competed in poetry and delivered eloquent speeches, all of which are the main sources of Arabic literature today. They did not need anyone to translate the Qur'ān for them. Because it was revealed in their mother tongue, the Prophet’s explanation was more than merely the literal meaning. Instead, it must mean that he explained the deeper meanings, implications, and details of the Qur'ānic verses that were not mentioned in the Qur'ān itself. Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami (d. 2017) writes: > ***Many of the Qur’ānic injunctions—such as those dealing with prayer,* zakāt*,* hajj*, usury, and other commercial transactions—needed careful explanation. The Prophet, as an expounder of the Qur’ān, must have both explained them verbally and demonstrated them in practice. These explanations had the force of law and came under the heading of the sunnah of the Prophet. Thus, the sunnah came into existence simultaneously with the revelation of the Qur’ān and were part of the process of the creation of an Islamic system of jurisprudence****.*[^20] --- ## “Obey God and obey the Messenger” In over forty different places, the Qur'ān instructs Muslims to obey both God and the Messenger. There is not a single instance where “obey God” appears by itself; it is always coupled with “and obey the Messenger.” There are several cases where “obey the Messenger” appears alone without “obey God” before it.[^21] Those who reject ḥadīth might interpret the command to obey the Messenger as obedience to the Qur'ān. This idea conflicts with other verses in the Qur'ān: “And when it is said to them ‘Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger’, you see the hypocrites turning away from you with aversion” (Qur'ān 4:61). It is important to highlight that the verse does not say “come to what Allah revealed *to the* Messenger, but rather “come to what Allah revealed *and* come to the Messenger.” This makes it evident that the Qur'ān and the Messenger are two separate things, each of which is authoritative in and of itself. One of the most famous verses used by Muslim scholars to establish the authority of the Prophet ﷺ is chapter 4 verse 59: “O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. If you differ in anything, then refer it to Allah and His Messenger if you believe in Allah and the last day; that is better and the best interpretation.” Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) explained that the word “obey” is only mentioned before the words Allah and the Messenger. It is absent before “those in authority,” making obedience to them based on the condition that it conforms with obedience to God and the Messenger. It then goes on to say that if a dispute arises, it should be referred to God and His Messenger. The only way that disputes can be taken back to the Prophet ﷺ after his death is by returning to the Sunnah and Hadith.[^22] How does one refer to God and His Messenger? One might argue that this verse was limited to the time of the Prophet ﷺ when people could have physically referred to him. Ibn Ḥazm convincingly explains that this interpretation is untenable because the same cannot be said about God. In other words, if the term “refer” means meeting and consulting with the Prophet ﷺ, this cannot be the case with God because doing so with God is impossible. He goes on to explain that the command “refer” in this verse means to return to the speech of God which is the Qur'ān, and the speech of the Messenger that is only available in the form of ḥadīths. There is nothing in this verse that indicates the necessity of meeting the Messenger. What is meant by referring to him is to return to the words of God and His Messenger, not their beings.[^23] Another part of the Qur'ān maintains that the Messenger is a legislator: “It is not befitting for a believing male or believing female, if Allah and His Messenger decide a matter, that they have a choice in the matter. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has gone astray into manifest error” (Qur'ān 33:36). Commenting on this verse, Muhammad Taqī Usmanī says: > ***Here, the decisions of Allah and the Messenger both have been declared binding on the believers. It is worth noting that the word ‘and’ occurring between ‘Allah’ and ‘His Messenger’ carries both conjunctive and disjunctive meanings. It cannot be held to give conjunctive sense only, because in that case it will exclude the decision of Allah unless it is combined with the decision of the Messenger—a construction too fallacious to be imagined in the divine expression. The only reasonable construction, therefore, is to take the word ‘and’ in both conjunctive and disjunctive meanings. The sense is that whatever Allah or His Messenger, any one or both of them, decide a matter, the believers have no choice except to submit to their decision.***[^24] Muḥammad Ismāʻīl al-Salafī explains that the Qur'ān notes that Muslims must not separate or distinguish between God and His Messengers*:* “Surely those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and wish to separate between Allah and His messengers and say: We believe in some and disbelieve in others, and desire to take a course in between that. These are truly unbelievers, and We have prepared for the unbelievers a disgraceful punishment” (Qur'ān 4:150-151). What does it mean to separate between God and His Messengers? God and His Messengers are not one in their being; God is the Creator and the Messengers are part of His creation. Therefore, separation does not mean split up in their beings, because it is obvious that the two are completely different and separate. Rather it refers to separating between them with regards to obedience or stating that one will obey God but not the Messengers.[^25] --- ## Conclusion In this article, I set out to demonstrate two important points that establish the absolute necessity of ḥadīth in Islam. First, without the context provided by ḥadīth literature, the Qur'ān itself loses all meaning. Previous attempts to understand the Qur'ān completely stripped of the context provided by ḥadīth literature have been unsuccessful because they always resorted to ḥadīth, even if a few. This is because the Qur'ān, by its nature, was intended to be read within the context in which it was revealed and is closely bound to the life of the Prophet ﷺ. While some people claim to follow only the Qurʾān, the Qurʾān’s nature is such that it requires the reader to consult with the Sunnah. Second, the authority of the Prophet ﷺ and the obligation to follow him were not invented by Muslim scholars. Rather, the Qur'ān makes it unequivocally clear that there were two forms of revelation: the Qur'ān and the Sunnah. It also establishes the role of the Prophet ﷺ as a teacher, legislator, and expounder on the Qur'ān. --- ## Notes [^1]: Bernard Weiss, “Interpretation in Islamic Law: The Theory of Ijtihād,” *The American Journal of Comparative Law*, 2:26 (1978), 201. [^2]: This group was mentioned by al-Shāfiʿī in his *Kitāb al-Umm*, but he makes no mention of names. Several scholars have discussed who this early group was. See Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami, *On Schacht's Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence* (Oxford: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and The Islamic Texts Society, 1985), 73-74. Also see ʿAlī Ibn Ḥazm, *Al-Iḥkām fī Uṣūl al-Aḥkām* (Cairo: Maṭbaʻat al-ʻĀṣima, 1968) 254-257. Jilāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Miftāḥ al-Janna fi-l-Iḥtijāj bi-l-Sunna* (Cairo: Idārat al-Ṭibā῾a al-Munayriyya, 1974), 3-4. [^3]: For more information on these groups, see Daniel Brown, *Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Among the most famous responses to the rise of Qur'ān-only movements in the Muslim world, see Muṣtafā al-Sibāʿī, *Al-Sunna wa Makānatuha fī al-Tashrīʿ al-Islāmī* (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 2006); ʿAbd al-Ghanī ‘Abdl al-Khāliq, *Ḥujjiyyat al-Sunna* (Virginia: al-Maʻhad al-ʻĀlami lil-Fikr al-Islāmi, 1994). [^4]: Ibn Ḥazm, *Al-Iḥkām fī Uṣūl al-Aḥkām*, 121-124. [^5]: Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, *Imam Bukhari’s Book of Muslim Morals and Manners* (Alexandria: Al-Saadawi Publications, 1997), i-iii. [^6]: Y. DeLorenzo, *Imam Bukhari’s*, ii. [^7]: Y. DeLorenzo, *Imam Bukhari’s*, ii-iii. [^8]: T. Nichols, *Death of Expertise*, 115-120. [^9]: M.M. Azami, *On Schacht's Origins*, 20. [^10]: For examples of the extent of differences on the fundamentals of prayer see D. Brown, *Rethinking Tradition*, 47-50. Also see E. Hamdeh, *The Necessity of Ḥadīth*, 129-147. [^11]: See Edip Yuksel’s *Quran: A Reformist Translation* (Brainbow Press, 2007). [^12]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting Muhammad’s Legacy* (London: Oneworld, 2014), 204-208. [^13]: Ibid. [^14]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad*, 206. [^15]: Ibid. [^16]: Ibn Ḥazm, *Al-Iḥkām fī Uṣūl al-Aḥkām*, 135-136. [^17]: Muḥammad Luqmān al-Salafī, *Makānat Al-Sunnah fil-Tashrīʻ al-Islāmī wa Daḥḍ Mazāʻim al-Munkirīn wal-Mulḥidīn* (India: Dār al-Dāʻī lil Nashr wal-Tawziʻ, 1999), 63. [^18]: See M. Usmani, *The Authority of Sunnah*, 26-32. [^19]: Habib-ur-Rahman al-Aʿzami, *The Sunnah in Islam: The Eternal Relevance of the Teaching and Example of the Prophet Muhammad* (United Kingdom: UK Islamic Academy, 1989), 32. [^20]: M.M. Al-Azami, *On Schacht's Origins*, 20. [^21]: Qur'ān 24:54, 24:56, and 4:42. [^22]: Muḥammad ibn Abū Bakr Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Iʻlām al-Muwaqiʻīn ʻar-Rab al-ʻālamīn* (Cairo: al-Maktabah at-Tijāriyyah, 1955), 48. Also see Muhammad Asad, “Social and Cultural Realities of the Sunnah.” In *Hadith and Sunnah - Ideals and Realities.* Edited by P. K. Koya (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 1996), 236. [^23]: Ibn Ḥazm, *Al-Iḥkām fī Uṣūl al-Aḥkām*, 87-88. [^24]: M. Usmani, *The Authority of Sunnah*, pp. 48-49. [^25]: Muḥammad Ismāʻīl al-Salafī. *Ḥujjiyyat al-Ḥadīth al-Nabawī Majmūʻ Maqālāt Nafīsa fil-Difāʻ ʿan al-Sunnah al-Sharīfa*. Edited by Ḥasan Muqtaḍa. (Kuwait: Ghirās, 2007), 51-52. ## Summary The Qur'ān and the Sunnah stand together as the two foundational sources of Islam, and throughout Islamic history all recognized Muslim groups—across the various strands of both Sunnism and Shi'ism—have accepted the necessity of following at least some ḥadīth alongside the Qur'ān. This near-universal acceptance carries considerable weight, for the principle of consensus (ijmāʿ) holds that it is inconceivable for the entire Muslim community to agree upon falsehood. In a religion whose history has embraced a vast array of differences, unanimity is one of the strongest proofs available. On this basis, the ḥadīth may be regarded as a necessary component of the religion, part of what is known as al-maʿlūm min al-dīn bi ḍarūra. It was only in the nineteenth century that a movement emerged rejecting the entire ḥadīth corpus and the very authority of the Prophet ﷺ, motivated either by mistrust of how ḥadīth were historically preserved in comparison to the Qur'ān, or by discomfort with ḥadīth that clash with modern sensibilities. Several distinct reasons underlie the rejection of ḥadīth, and it is important to distinguish between them. The most radical position holds that the Prophet ﷺ possessed no authority beyond delivering the Qur'ān—a view that emerged only in the last two centuries. A more common concern is doubt about the preservation of ḥadīth: some acknowledge that the Qur'ān commands obedience to the Prophet ﷺ, yet fear his words were not safeguarded as the Qur'ān was. The Andalusian scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) refutes this by observing that to doubt the entire corpus is to claim that God made obedience to the Messenger obligatory while making it impossible to fulfil—something that does not befit God, for He would then be commanding people to follow something non-existent or falsified. A third reason arises when a person encounters a ḥadīth whose meaning seems problematic. While ḥadīth literature indeed contains reports ranging from the authentic to the fabricated—and the science of ḥadīth was established precisely to separate the two—not every seemingly problematic report is truly so; often the reader simply lacks the knowledge to contextualize it. A recurring theme is that ḥadīth literature was compiled by scholars with other scholars in mind, not for the untrained layperson. In our age of information overload, ḥadīth are frequently accessed in translation, decontextualized, and without scholarly explanation, breeding confusion and doubt. Access to a text is not the same as understanding it. Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, in his introduction to Bukhārī's Adab al-Mufrad, notes that in traditional learning circles the study of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī came only after years spent mastering Arabic, rhetoric, logic, Islamic legal theory, the Qur'ānic sciences from tajwīd to tafsīr, and the principles of ḥadīth. The Ṣaḥīḥ is so laden with technical nuances of uṣūl al-ḥadīth and ʿilm al-rijāl that only the prepared could appreciate it. DeLorenzo recalls a shaykh describing the result of an unprepared reading as fitnah—a trial that could plunge a person into a crisis of faith. Such compilations resemble advanced graduate texts not meant to be interpreted without the proper tools. Drawing on Tom Nichols' The Death of Expertise, it is noted that the internet often immerses people in data they do not understand, encouraging reading to win arguments or confirm existing beliefs rather than to learn, so that ḥadīth experts insisting on systematic method cannot compete with a machine that supplies preferred answers. Turning to the necessity of ḥadīth, the fundamental problem with following the Qur'ān alone is that without the Sunnah the Qur'ān loses its meaning. Many injunctions—concerning prayer, pilgrimage, and commercial transactions—require the clarification the Prophet ﷺ provided by word and practice, explanations that carried the force of law and were understood as another form of revelation. The Sunnah thus came into existence simultaneously with the revelation of the Qur'ān. The rituals illustrate this vividly: ḥadīth rejecters differ sharply among themselves over what ṣalāh means, how it is performed, and how many prayers there are each day, yet must resort to ḥadīth to understand these matters. Even the meanings of individual words require the tradition. Edip Yuksel, who sought to translate the Qur'ān by the Qur'ān alone, still relied on Arabic dictionaries such as the Kitāb al-ʿAyn of al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. 175/795)—works passed down by the very scholars who preserved ḥadīth. If those scholars conspired to fabricate, then the dictionaries and even the Qur'ān would be equally suspect. The word ẓihār in Sūrat al-Mujādila (58:2–4) is a telling case: ḥadīth defines it as a husband saying to his wife "You are like the back of my mother to me," yet the verb ẓāhara elsewhere in the Qur'ān means to aid or help. Jonathan Brown observes that by Yuksel's stated method the verse would awkwardly read that God did not make the wives one aids as one's mothers. Texts do not speak for themselves; readers always bring context. The Qur'ān presupposes knowledge of its own setting—it names Badr, Uḥud, and Ḥunayn, and mentions the Prophet's wives, expecting the reader to know them. While universal truths such as the nature of God can be grasped independently, other passages are bound to the Prophet's life; the Qur'ān speaks of Zayd, assuming the reader knows him so the legal implications of the Prophet's marriage to Zayd's former wife can be understood. Moreover, the early Muslims knew what constituted the Qur'ān only through the Prophet's declaration that a given verse was God's speech and not his own—an authoritative, extra-Qur'ānic declaration. When the Qur'ān states, "Surely We have revealed the dhikr and We will most surely be its guardian" (15:9), Ibn Ḥazm notes the scholarly agreement that all revelation is called dhikr, and argues that preservation extends to meaning as well as text; if the Prophet's explanation is needed, it too must be preserved. The verses on intoxicants (16:67; 2:219; 4:43; 5:90–91) show this, for only the Sunnah reveals their sequence and thus the final ruling. The Qur'ān itself indicates that revelation is not confined to scripture. It states that God revealed to Noah and the prophets after him, to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, while giving David the Psalms (4:163)—yet most of these had no book, implying a non-scriptural revelation that people were still obliged to obey. Further verses confirm this: revelation came to Noah (11:36) and to Joseph (12:15), and Moses received scripture only after the former generations were destroyed (28:43), meaning his people followed him before any book. Muhammad Luqmān al-Salafī notes that the original command to face Jerusalem in prayer, and the sanction of the adhān, are absent from the Qur'ān and must have come through extra-Qur'ānic revelation. Habib-ur-Rahman Azami (d. 1992) observes that the funeral prayer is likewise presupposed in "Never pray for any of them who dies" (9:84), yet no earlier verse enjoined it, so its command must have come through the Sunnah. The Qur'ān presents the Prophet ﷺ as a teacher who "teaches them the book and wisdom" (3:164); Imām al-Shāfiʿī explains that "wisdom" must mean the Sunnah, since it is taught alongside the Qur'ān. It also appoints him an expounder: "so that you may explain to people what was revealed to them" (16:44)—for the eloquent Arabs needed not a literal translation but the deeper meanings and details. Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami (d. 2017) affirms that the Prophet explained the injunctions verbally and in practice, so the Sunnah arose with the Qur'ān itself. In over forty places the Qur'ān couples "obey God" with "obey the Messenger," never the former alone, and it distinguishes the two: "Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger" (4:61). Regarding 4:59, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) notes that "obey" precedes God and the Messenger but not "those in authority," and that disputes referred to God and His Messenger after the Prophet's death can only return to the Sunnah; Ibn Ḥazm adds that "refer" means returning to their words, not their persons, since consulting God directly is impossible. Muhammad Taqī Usmanī explains that in 33:36 the "and" between Allah and His Messenger bears both conjunctive and disjunctive senses, so either decision binds the believer, while Muḥammad Ismāʻīl al-Salafī reads 4:150–151 as forbidding any separation between God and His Messengers in obedience. Thus the necessity of ḥadīth rests on two established points: without it the Qur'ān loses meaning, and the Qur'ān itself affirms two forms of revelation and the Prophet's role as teacher, legislator, and expounder. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/everything-is-falling-apart-dealing-with-unexpected-life-detours # "Everything is Falling Apart": Dealing with Unexpected Life Detours **Authors:** Sarah Sultan, Najwa Awad **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 18, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.* \-Zig Ziglar[^1] --- ## Case study *The day of the doctor’s appointment that changed everything would remain ingrained in Salwa’s mind, causing her to relive it daily. She could vividly remember the feeling of the cold chair beneath her when the doctor sat across from her and began explaining the aggressive form of cancer that would be a part of her life—or a part of her death, as Salwa constantly thought. She was alone when she got the news—she and her husband had thought it would be a routine workup. Salwa remembered feeling shaky, feeling as though she was hearing the doctor’s words through a fog, and feeling overwhelmingly alone without someone to lean on as she processed this news. She began to think about her children and her husband and what this news would mean to them and the life they had built together. Salwa worried about finances and how they would pay for treatment since they didn’t have insurance. How do you choose between buying your children’s school supplies and paying for chemotherapy? As Salwa began chemotherapy, she tried to act as though nothing was happening. She could not quite accept the reality of the situation and tried to avoid it for as long as possible. Eventually, the pain and weakness were overwhelming. She could no longer do the things she took for granted—her husband dropped off the kids at school, a neighbor cooked meals for them, and she could no longer go to work. Everything had changed. As a sense of hopelessness overwhelmed her, she often thought to herself, “Everything is falling apart. There’s nothing good left in my life.”* --- ## What is happening to me? One of the most terrifying aspects of our lives is how much of it is outside of our control. On most days, we don’t pay attention to the fact that if one thing was different, our lives would be completely transformed within the blink of an eye. Every day you drive to work or school, you typically arrive there unscathed. It takes a split second of someone not checking their blind spot for your life to change drastically. If we were to sit and ponder everything that could possibly go wrong, we would probably stay in bed each morning. When we are faced with the uncertainty that comes when something transformative happens, it can feel as though everything is falling apart. You no longer recognize your life; the things that were once familiar are now foreign and you yourself may have changed tremendously throughout all of this. When so much is changing, it is natural to feel overwhelmed and helpless. Your thoughts will reflect that as well. Some thoughts you might experience when it feels as though your life is spiraling out of control are: *I can’t deal with this.*  *I’ve lost so much. What do I have left to appreciate?* *There’s nothing I can do to change this; it’s hopeless.* When these thoughts permeate our minds and hearts, they can cause us to reduce ourselves and our capabilities to nothingness. When we view uncontrollable circumstances as an indication that *nothing* is within our control, we eventually succumb to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. While this impacts our emotional, mental, and physical health, it also affects our spiritual health. In our relationship with Allah (swt), our thoughts may look something like this: *Allah is sending me hardship after hardship but He promises ease too. Where is the ease?* *I just don’t understand why Allah would deny me so many blessings.* *There is no point in going through this—nothing good can come out of it.* When so much in your life feels uncontrollable, reclaiming control over your thoughts and the impact they have on your perception of your life and your faith can be incredibly empowering. This is within your reach so let’s explore how to work on it. --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions When you view your problems as larger than life, while ignoring the positive aspects, it’s only natural that negative emotions will follow.  *Magnification* and *minimization* are two of the most common forms of cognitive distortions. Most of us fall prey to them occasionally—even people with relatively healthy thinking patterns. Magnification[^2] occurs when you look at imperfections in your life, your own errors, or the mistakes of others and exaggerate their importance. This involves looking at mistakes or the struggles you face as huge and insurmountable. Minimization occurs when you look at your strengths or positive things in your life as small and inconsequential. It’s like wearing glasses that strictly enhance negativity rather than what is really present before you. One of the biggest issues with these cognitive distortions is that they lead to more and more self-defeating thoughts. We tend to find what we search for. When we begin to scan our environment, relationships, and ourselves for negatives, the more our reality will be filled with darkness because that is what we are searching for. Furthermore, your relationship with Allah (swt) will also, inevitably, be impacted by this. As we feel more and more overwhelmed, we can easily feel disconnected from Allah (swt). Your thoughts may follow a trajectory such as this: *Everywhere I look, it just seems like tragedy follows me.* ↓ *There is nothing but bad in my life.* ↓ *No expectations means no disappointments. I’ll just accept that Allah has cursed me so no matter how much I try or how much I pray, only bad things will come my way.* These thoughts perpetuate a *self-defeating cycle* featuring painful emotions, unhealthy behaviors, and more negative thoughts. Because you are convinced that nothing you do will make a difference, you don’t even try to make a change. This results in living your life passively, which affects every aspect of your day-to-day life: - It will impact your job since a lack of trying will impact future prospects in your place of employment.  - Your relationships will suffer since this negativity can permeate your marriage, parenting, and friendships—magnification of the bad and minimization of the good cause you to overlook things that can bring you closer to others while emphasizing things that can push you away from them.  - You may refuse to reach out to friends or put effort into relationships due to fear that your efforts will only result in more negativity. This vicious cycle will go on indefinitely unless you know how to beat it. Take a look at this self-defeating cycle and how it can impact our faith:[^3] As you can see in this diagram, our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are intertwined. When one changes, the others change as well. We also find this concept in Islam: Consider how Allah (swt) comforts the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the Qur’an: ***“We know how your heart is distressed at what they say. But celebrate the praises of your Lord, and be of those who prostrate themselves in* *adoration.”***[^4] Allah prescribed action to alleviate the anxiety of the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims at that time. That is why it is reported that whenever the prophet faced a difficult time, he would rush to *salah* and say: ***“Give us comfort through prayer, Bilal.”*** [^5] This shows that a change in our behaviors can be an effective way to transform our thoughts and emotions as well. Also, consider the saying of Ibn al-Qayyim (*rahimahullah*): > ***Ward off passing thoughts, for if you do not, they will become ideas. Ward off ideas, for if you do not, they will become desires. Fight them, for if you do not, they will become resolve and determination, and if you do not ward them off, they will become actions. If you do not resist them with their opposite, they will become habits and it will be difficult for you to get rid of them.***[^6] Here, again, there is an emphasis on the link between thoughts, emotions, and actions. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > ***Allah the Most High said, ‘I am as my servant thinks (expects) I am. I am with him when he mentions Me. If he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in an assembly greater than it. If he draws near to Me a hand’s length, I draw near to him an arm’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.’*’**[^7] Here, consider one of the wisdoms of this hadith: Allah is to each of us what we expect Him to be because those who think well of Allah will *mention* Him, will *draw closer* to Him, and will *walk* to Him. All of these are behaviors that can change our perception of Allah—the more we reach out to Him, the more we move toward Him, the better our expectations of Allah will be. It is only when we give up hope, that we feel that Allah has abandoned us. Furthermore, we tend to find what we look for. If we seek out examples of what is missing from our lives, our expectations of Allah (swt) diminish. However, if we seek out examples of the blessings within our lives, our perception of Allah (swt) is enhanced, which leads to further connection with Him. --- ## Changing your thoughts Now that we have an understanding of the self-defeating cycle that minimization and magnification can perpetuate, let’s explore different antidotes to these cognitive distortions. ### Minimizing capabilities and magnifying shortcomings Our brains tend to overestimate and amplify perceived flaws while underestimating our abilities and accomplishments. Magnification of shortcomings and minimization of our capabilities can result in the idea that whatever you do or qualities you have are not worth much. A helpful method to address this is called the “self-endorsement method.”[^8] This technique involves writing down the self-defeating thoughts you are struggling with and responding to them by countering them with accomplishments you have achieved (by the will and grace of Allah) and the blessings you possess. This transforms distorted thoughts and grounds them in reality. When we discount the things we accomplish and convince ourselves that they don’t matter, we begin to believe nothing we do matters. Consider this example: **Cognitive distortion:***I’ve accomplished nothing in life.*  **Antidote:** Step 1: Break down the self-defeating thoughts in order to address them one-by-one. Step 2: Identify where you are minimizing the good and where you are maximizing the bad. Step 3: Replace self-defeating thoughts with ones that are self-endorsing by objectively identifying accomplishments and positive qualities to counteract each of the negative thoughts. Step 4: Turn this into gratitude to Allah (swt) for giving you the ability to accomplish these things, no matter how trivial they may seem. This antidote can also be applied to cases in which we magnify the flaws (and minimize the good) of people in our lives and can help to enrich our relationships with them. For example: **Cognitive distortion:***My husband never helps with anything at home.*  **Antidote:** Step 1: Break down the negative thoughts in order to address them one-by-one. Step 2: Identify where you are minimizing the good and where you are maximizing the bad. Step 3: Replace negative thoughts with ones that are healthier by objectively identifying the positive things this person brings into your life to counteract each of the negative thoughts. Step 4: Turn this into gratitude to Allah (swt). One common deterrent people often face when they are attempting to consider self-endorsing thoughts is the fear of this being a form of arrogance or pride. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > ***‘He who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride shall not enter Paradise.’ A person (amongst his hearers) said: ‘Verily a person loves that his dress should be fine, and his shoes should be fine.’ He (the Holy Prophet) remarked: ‘Verily, Allah is Graceful and He loves Grace. Pride is disdaining the truth (out of self-conceit) and contempt for the people.’***[^9] We should definitely be wary of arrogance; however, acknowledging our accomplishments does not need to lead us down that path. That is why a part of the antidote to self-defeating thoughts is turning our accomplishments into a form of gratitude to Allah. Acknowledging that every capability, accomplishment, and goodness in our lives is through the Will of Allah (swt) reinforces our understanding of the power of Allah and our dependence on Him. Rather than self-endorsing thoughts being an indication of pride, they are a testament to Allah’s blessings in our lives. Let’s consider how to further enhance a sense of gratitude by exploring another magnification/minimization issue. ### Minimizing blessings and magnifying struggles As human beings, we naturally tend to focus on what is lacking within our lives rather than shifting our focus to our blessings. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would want to have two valleys. Nothing fills his mouth but the dust of the grave, yet Allah will accept whoever repents to Him.”[^10] In this hadith, we see that even with a valley filled with gold, it is still easy to look at the valley we don’t possess rather than the one we do. This is why the cognitive distortions of magnification and minimization are so common. It is easy to minimize what we have and magnify what we lack; however, living our lives in this way will yield feelings of discontentment, sadness, and frustration. After experiencing trauma, magnification of the bad and minimization of the good can become even more prominent. Fear can often be at the root of this. This fear could be a fear of failure, a fear of getting hurt again, a fear of rejection, or a fear of disappointment. Allowing our fears to dictate how we live our lives is a recipe for sadness and a lack of fulfillment. When our decisions are based on fear, we struggle to consider things rationally because we are thinking with the part of ourselves that is afraid rather than our entire self. A certain degree of fear is natural; however, when it becomes a barrier toward living a happy and fulfilling life, it needs to be addressed. Allah (swt) reassures us, > ***Indeed, those who have believed \[in Prophet Muhammad\] and those \[before Him\] who were Jews or Sabeans or Christians—those \[among them\] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness—no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.***[^11] Part of our fears stem from doubts about ourselves but, beneath the surface, there may also be doubts about Allah (swt) and His plans for us. Here we see that faith can be an antidote to fear. Trust in Allah (swt) and take a leap of faith. Rather than minimizing your capabilities, rely on the fact that Allah is the Most Capable and that He has given you what you need to get through this. #### A hidden blessing: Growth Spirituality is a component that has been highly correlated with something called *posttraumatic growth.*[^12] Posttraumatic growth is a positive change that occurs as a result of a major life crisis or traumatic event. It occurs when a person adapts to very difficult circumstances that would normally result in high levels of psychological distress. Posttraumatic growth is not a direct result of trauma; rather, it comes about as a result of how a person responds to their new reality and whether they allow themselves to be positively changed by life’s challenges. Ibn al-Qayyim (*rahimahullah*) described posttraumatic growth when he said:[^14] > ***His Wisdom (the Glorified) determined that happiness, pleasure, and comfort are not reached except by the bridge of difficulty and fatigue, and they are not accessed except through the gates of hardship, patience, and enduring difficulties. What great disparity exists between the joy of someone He relieved after affliction, and enriched after poverty, and guided after being astray, and collected his heart after its dispersal, and the joy of someone who did not taste those bitter pains.*** **What is this bridge of turmoil leading you toward? Your joy is on the other side, waiting for you to find it as you journey through this struggle.** Without perceiving a struggle as traumatic, posttraumatic growth is not possible. A person who is rocked to the core by a traumatic event endures a tremendous psychological struggle and then ultimately finds a sense of personal growth. Posttraumatic growth cannot occur without pain and turmoil. Experiencing growth does not mean one will not suffer. It is actually through suffering that growth can happen. Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives guide us toward the path that leads to the best thing that could possibly happen to us. Researchers have found that posttraumatic growth can be measured through positive responses in five areas:[^15] 1. Appreciation of life 2. Relationships with others 3. New possibilities in life 4. Personal strength 5. Spiritual change There are so many examples of posttraumatic growth in our history. One is that of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. His uncle, Abu Talib, and his wife, Khadijah, died within days of one another. After this loss of his strongest supporters, circumstances became more difficult for the Muslims in Makkah, causing the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to look for another, more welcoming community for his people. He ventured to Ta’if, hoping it would be a place where Muslims could live in peace. However, he was turned away and pelted with stones. When the Angel Jibreel stated that Allah (swt) would send the Angel of the Mountains to avenge the Prophet ﷺ, he said, > ***No, rather I hope that Allah will bring from their descendants people who will worship Allah alone without associating partners with him*.**[^16] Consider how the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ responded to loss and devastation. With the option to avenge what had been done to him, he instead used this opportunity to hope for better possibilities for himself as well as for the people who had hurt him. This illustration of posttraumatic growth shows us the possibility of gaining greater emotional and mental strength as well as closeness to Allah (swt) through our struggles. Posttraumatic growth occurs when we make our struggles a part of our life story without them controlling us or defining us. We cannot control what befalls us, but how we deal with our struggles can mean the difference between growth and decline. Here are some ways to encourage growth as we face difficult experiences: - Acceptance: Accept the situation  - Trust: Trust in Allah that He is truly the Best of Planners - Courage: Have the courage to put forth effort to change things within your control  - Confidence: Use strength-based words to describe yourself and your capabilities and understand that you are capable of handling whatever comes your way - Identity: Understand that you are defined by much more than your struggles - Process: Accept emotions and allow yourself to feel them rather than avoid them The incredible thing about posttraumatic growth is the fact that, without an intensely difficult experience, you may never have had the opportunity to become your best self.  Sometimes tragedy is what propels a person forward in gaining the greatest potential to live their best life and to bring out their best qualities. It may be strange to think that something so painful is what you needed in order to become your best self but Allah sends us what we need, despite it being packaged in a form we don’t want. As Asmaa Hussein says in her powerful book, *A Temporary Gift: Reflections on Love, Loss, and Healing*:[^17] > ***The beauty of a gift has less to do with what's actually given, and more to do with the relationship between the gifter and the receiver. Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, “Give gifts to one another and you will love each other.” So it's not about gifts, really. It's about love. When you love someone, you want to show it - and one way to do that is through gifts. Sometimes I think about the endless gifts that Allah (swt) gives us. We tend to think of the beautiful, happy things in our lives as ‘gifts,’ and the difficult, painful things as ‘tests.’ And so they may be! But what if we recalibrated our hearts a little and convinced them to believe that everything is a gift. Everything. The terribly painful to the unbelievably blissful. I know it's hard, but gifting is about fostering love, right? It's about strengthening bonds and bringing hearts together. Every happy thing you're given is a chance to be grateful to Allah. Every difficulty you're given is a chance to be patient and seek help and comfort from Him. Everything you're given is either about fostering gratitude or patience - both of which are things that Allah loves and both of which strengthen your connection with Him. So yes, everything from Allah must be a gift because it's an opportunity to do better and be better. Our entire existence is about worshiping Allah. All that comes our way is calling us to this one, true purpose. He is Allah, Al-Wahhab. The Giver of gifts.*** ### Shift your focus: Big picture vs. pixel One skill that can help us to cope and grow during difficult experiences is one that also overcomes the magnification/minimization thought process. Cultivating the ability to look at the whole picture through a lens of gratitude versus focusing on one pixel allows us to interpret our struggles as one facet of our lives, rather than using them to define our lives. Imagine taking a picture of your face and then zooming in deeper and deeper. At first, you begin to see more details—every imperfection is emphasized until you can no longer see the big picture, only the flaws. As you zoom closer and closer, the picture becomes distorted and eventually, you can’t recognize what the original photograph was. This is what happens when we magnify negatives and minimize positives in our lives. Try out this activity: ### Inspirational sayings for reflection Ash-Sha’bi reported: Shuraih (*radi Allahu ‘anhu*) said: > ***Verily, if I am afflicted with a calamity, then I praise Allah four times. I praise him that it was not worse than it was. I praise Him when He provides me patience to bear it. I praise Him when He guides me to supplicate appropriately and hoping for reward, and I praise Him for not making it a calamity in my religion.***[^18] Ibn Mas’ud (*radi Allahu ‘anhu*) said: > ***A person may hope for some matter of trade or position of authority, until he is close to attaining it. Thereupon Allah looks at him from above the seven heavens and says to His angels: ‘Divert it from him, for if he attains it, he will enter into the Hellfire.’ Thus, Allah diverts it from him and the slave of Allah remains pessimistic, saying ‘So-and-so preceded me to it, So-and-so outwitted me,’ when in fact it is a favor from Allah.***[^19] ### Practical exercises #### Conquering self-defeating thoughts with self-endorsing thoughts Step 1: Break down the self-defeating thoughts in order to address them one-by-one. Step 2: Identify where you are minimizing the good and where you are maximizing the bad. Step 3: Replace self-defeating thoughts with ones that are self-endorsing by objectively identifying accomplishments and positive qualities to counteract each of the negative thoughts. Step 4: Turn this into gratitude to Allah (swt) for giving you the ability to accomplish these things, no matter how trivial they may seem. #### Step 1: Break down the negative thoughts in order to address them one-by-one.Conquering relationship-ruining thoughts with relationship-enriching thoughts Step 2: Identify where you are minimizing the good and where you are maximizing the bad. Step 3: Replace negative thoughts with ones that are healthier by objectively identifying the positive things this person brings into your life to counteract each of the negative thoughts. Step 4: Turn this into gratitude to Allah (swt), no matter how trivial the positives may seem. #### Cultivating posttraumatic growth Acceptance: Accept the situation  *What do you need to accept about your life at this moment in order to move forward?* Trust: Trust in Allah that He is truly the Best of Planners *Has anything happened in the past that you imagined was detrimental to your life but ended up turning out for the best? When has Allah shown you that His plan for you is better than the plan you imagined for yourself?* Courage: Having the courage to put forth effort to change things within your control *What is within your control at this moment? What can you do to address the factors in your control in the best way possible?* Confidence: Use strength-based words to describe yourself and your capabilities and understand that you are capable of handling whatever comes your way *What qualities do you possess that will help you through this struggle?* Identity: Understanding that you are defined by much more than your struggles *Who are you as a person? What is at the core of your identity? What are the different facets that make you who you are?* Process: Accepting emotions and allowing yourself to feel them rather than avoid them *How are you feeling right at this moment? Write it all out and allow them to come to the surface rather than keeping them at bay.* #### Identifying signs of posttraumatic growth Appreciation of life: Is there anything in your life that you appreciate more now than before the trauma you experienced? Relationships with others: Have any of your relationships improved or have you made new relationships since your trauma? New possibilities in life: Do you see opportunities and possibilities in your life differently than you did before? Personal strength: Do you feel more capable of handling situations that come your way? Do you find that life’s small annoyances do not seem as big after your trauma? Do you feel mentally and emotionally stronger? Spiritual change: Do you feel a deeper connection with Allah (swt) since your trauma? #### Cultivating gratitude: Pixel vs. big-picture activity Think about the thing you are struggling with most right now. Now click the “zoom-out” button in your mind and gradually start to see the other facets of the big picture of your life. --- ## Case revisited *Salwa was dealing with a lot after her cancer diagnosis. It was hard to accept the fact that this was her new reality and this became even more difficult once treatment began. As she continued reliving the day she received the news, she realized that she viewed her cancer as the end of her life and responded accordingly. Her self-defeating thoughts took over and she found herself saying:*  *“Nothing will ever be the same.” “I can’t do anything with my life anymore.” “Everything is falling apart.” “There’s nothing good in my life.”* *When Salwa realized that she could no longer get out of bed in the morning even on days when she didn’t feel nauseous or weak from the chemotherapy, she talked to a friend who encouraged her to work with a therapist.*  *During her time in therapy, Salwa realized that she had been magnifying all of the intense hardships in her life and minimizing her capabilities and the good she still had that cancer had no power to take away. By working to conquer her self-defeating thoughts and replacing them with self-endorsing ones, Salwa’s emotions and behaviors also began to change. When she woke up without nausea, she was able to get out of bed and start her day with a smile. Instead of thinking, “Nothing will ever be the same,” Salwa began to tell herself, “There are some things in my life that have changed and that’s hard but in this moment, it feels really good to wake up without feeling nauseous. There are many things in my life that are still here—my kids, my husband, my home. I’m grateful for that.”* *As she worked on her self-defeating thoughts, Salwa learned about posttraumatic growth and strove to:* - *Accept that cancer was now a part of her reality* - *Trust that her cancer was part of Allah’s plan to elevate her status with Him and emphasize her inner strength* - *Have the courage to strengthen her bond with her children since she now realized the finality and unpredictability of life* - *Have the confidence in her ability to push through any challenges that came her way* - *Identify herself through all of the facets of her identity as a Muslim, mother, wife, employee, and survivor* - *Allowing herself to process her experience by feeling the waves of emotions that would come and go throughout her battle with cancer* *Salwa also worked on the “Cultivating Gratitude: Pixel vs. Big Picture” activity and realized how much she had magnified the role cancer played in her life while minimizing all of the other blessings she experienced. When looking at the big picture, she discovered that on most days, she could find more blessings in her life than hardships and that some of these blessings actually developed from her cancer. She made new friends who were cancer survivors and these became lasting relationships despite always imagining she was “too old” to make any new, strong friendships. Salwa and her family developed family traditions to ensure they made more time for one another, which allowed them to feel closer. Salwa rediscovered her love of listening to the Qur’an, particularly when she was at the hospital for chemo treatments. Friends came by with food often and the local masjid created a GoFundMe account to raise money to make up for Salwa’s inability to work during her recovery. As she listed all of these blessings, Salwa realized that magnifying the hardships in her life had prevented her from seeing all of the good in it.* --- ## Notes [^1]: [https://www.ziglar.com/articles/the-gratitude-journey/](https://www.ziglar.com/articles/the-gratitude-journey/) [^2]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy*. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^3]: Ibid. [^4]: Qur’an 15:97-98. [^5]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* 4986. [^6]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, 1292-1350 (1394/1974). *Kitab al-fawaid al-mushawwiq ilá ulum al-Quran wa-ilm al-bayan talif al-Imam ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah*. Kujranwalah: Dar Nashr al-Kutub al-Islamiyah. [^7]: *Sahih Muslim* 2675; *Sahih al-Bukhari* 7405. [^8]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy*. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^9]: *Sahih Muslim* 91. [^10]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 6075; *Sahih Muslim* 1048. [^11]: Qur’an 5:69. [^12]: O'Rourke, J.; Tallman, B.; Altmaier, E. (2008). Measuring post-traumatic changes in spirituality/religiosity. *Mental Health, Religion, & Culture*, *1*, 719–728. [^13]: Tedeshi, R.G., & Calhoun, L.G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. *Psychological Inquiry*, *15*, 1-18. [^14]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifā’ al-‘Alīl fī Masā’il al-Qaḍā’i wal-Qadari wal-Ḥikmati wat-Ta‘līl* (pp. 448-449). [^15]: Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. *Journal of Traumatic Stress*, *9*(3), 455-472. [^16]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 3059; *Sahih Muslim* 1759. [^17]: Hussein, Asmaa. *A Temporary Gift: Reflections on Love, Loss, and Healing*. Toronto, Ontario: Ruqaya’s Bookshelf, 2015. [^18]: *Siyar A’lam An-Nubula* 4/105. [^19]: Ibn Rajab in *Jami al-Ulum wal Hikam*. ## Summary When calamity descends upon a person, it often feels as though the entire edifice of life has collapsed at once, and the story of Salwa—a woman who received a diagnosis of aggressive cancer while alone in a doctor's office, burdened by fears for her children, her husband, and the impossibility of paying for treatment without insurance—illustrates how such a trial can consume a soul until she believes, "Everything is falling apart. There's nothing good left in my life." Much of what befalls us lies beyond our control, and when a transformative hardship strikes, the familiar becomes foreign and feelings of helplessness naturally take hold, producing thoughts such as "I can't deal with this," "What do I have left to appreciate?" and "There's nothing I can do; it's hopeless." These thoughts wound not only the emotional and mental state but the spiritual one as well, so that a person may begin to say, "Allah is sending me hardship after hardship, but where is the promised ease?" or "There is no point in this—nothing good can come of it." Yet reclaiming authority over one's thoughts, and over how they shape one's perception of life and faith, remains within reach. Two common distortions of the mind lie at the root of this despair: magnification, in which one exaggerates the weight of flaws, errors, and struggles until they appear insurmountable, and minimization, in which one shrinks one's strengths and blessings until they seem worthless. It is as though a person wears glasses that magnify only darkness. These distortions feed upon themselves, for we tend to find what we search for; when we scan our lives for the negative, our reality fills with it. This spirals into a self-defeating cycle of painful emotions, harmful behaviors, and further negative thoughts—damaging one's work, marriage, parenting, and friendships—because a person convinced that nothing will make a difference ceases even to try, and lives passively. The remedy begins with recognizing that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are intertwined, such that changing one changes the others—a principle affirmed in the guidance of Islam. Allah consoled His Messenger ﷺ by prescribing action, saying, "We know how your heart is distressed at what they say. But celebrate the praises of your Lord, and be of those who prostrate themselves in adoration." So too it is reported that when the Prophet ﷺ faced difficulty he would hasten to prayer, saying, "Give us comfort through prayer, Bilāl." This demonstrates that a change in behavior can transform thought and emotion. Ibn al-Qayyim (raḥimahullāh) likewise pointed to this chain when he warned, "Ward off passing thoughts, for if you do not, they will become ideas… and if you do not resist them with their opposite, they will become habits and it will be difficult for you to get rid of them." And in the sacred narration the Prophet ﷺ conveyed that Allah said, "I am as My servant thinks I am… If he draws near to Me a hand's length, I draw near to him an arm's length." One wisdom drawn from this is that those who think well of Allah will remember Him and draw near to Him, while it is only in surrendering to hopelessness that a person feels abandoned. To counter the tendency to minimize one's capabilities and magnify one's shortcomings, the "self-endorsement method" is offered: writing down the self-defeating thought, breaking it into parts, identifying where the good has been diminished and the bad enlarged, and replacing it with an honest acknowledgment of one's accomplishments and blessings—then turning that acknowledgment into gratitude to Allah for granting the ability to achieve them. This same method may be applied to relationships, as with the thought "My husband never helps with anything," by objectively recalling the good another brings and thanking Allah for it. Some fear that acknowledging one's strengths borders on arrogance, given that the Prophet ﷺ said, "He who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride shall not enter Paradise," yet he ﷺ clarified in the same narration that "Allah is Graceful and He loves Grace. Pride is disdaining the truth and contempt for the people." Attributing every capability to the will of Allah transforms self-endorsement from pride into a testimony of His blessings. Regarding the tendency to magnify struggles and minimize blessings, the Prophet ﷺ observed, "If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would want to have two valleys. Nothing fills his mouth but the dust of the grave, yet Allah will accept whoever repents to Him." After trauma this distortion intensifies, often rooted in fear—of failure, of being hurt again, of rejection or disappointment—and allowing fear to govern one's decisions yields only sorrow. Faith is the antidote, as Allah reassures, "Indeed, those who have believed… and did righteousness—no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve." Beneath our fears may lie doubts about Allah's plans, and the cure is to trust in Him and rely upon the truth that He is the Most Capable and has given us what we need. There is, moreover, a hidden blessing in hardship known as posttraumatic growth: positive change that arises not from the trauma itself but from how a person responds to their new reality. Ibn al-Qayyim (raḥimahullāh) described this when he wrote that "happiness, pleasure, and comfort are not reached except by the bridge of difficulty and fatigue," contrasting the joy of one relieved after affliction with one who never tasted such bitterness. Such growth cannot occur without genuine pain, and it manifests in five areas researchers have identified: appreciation of life, relationships with others, new possibilities, personal strength, and spiritual change. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself exemplified this, for after losing Abū Ṭālib and Khadījah and being driven out and stoned at Ṭāʾif, when offered vengeance he replied, "No, rather I hope that Allah will bring from their descendants people who will worship Allah alone." Growth is cultivated through acceptance, trust in Allah as the Best of Planners, courage to change what lies within one's control, confidence in one's God-given capacity, a secure identity beyond one's struggles, and allowing oneself to feel emotions rather than avoid them. As Asmaa Hussein writes in *A Temporary Gift*, if we recalibrate our hearts to see everything—the painful and the blissful alike—as a gift, then every joy becomes an occasion for gratitude and every difficulty an occasion for patience, both beloved to Allah and both strengthening our bond with Him, for He is Al-Wahhāb, the Giver of gifts. A further skill is to view the whole picture rather than a single pixel: just as zooming endlessly into a photograph distorts it until only flaws remain and the original is unrecognizable, so magnifying negatives destroys our perception of life's fullness. Among the sayings offered for reflection is that of Shurayḥ (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu), who praised Allah fourfold in calamity—that it was not worse, that he was granted patience, that he was guided to supplicate hoping for reward, and that it was not a calamity in his religion—and that of Ibn Masʿūd (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu), who noted that Allah may divert a coveted matter from a servant out of mercy, though the servant, unaware, despairs. Returning to Salwa, through therapy she recognized that she had magnified her hardship and minimized the good cancer could never take—her children, husband, and home—and by replacing her self-defeating thoughts with self-endorsing ones, cultivating posttraumatic growth, and practicing the pixel-versus-big-picture exercise, she came to see that on most days her blessings outnumbered her hardships, some of which—new friendships, renewed family closeness, and a rediscovered love of listening to the Qur'an—had grown from the trial itself. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-pursuit-of-conviction-ii-proving-gods-existence # Proving God’s Existence | In Pursuit of Conviction II **Authors:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 11, 2019 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction Throughout history, theologians and philosophers have enumerated the many evidences and proofs for God’s existence. In response, atheist philosophers have attempted to critique these arguments and provide their own proofs for non-belief. Departing from this project that relegates God’s existence to an abstract hypothesis requiring philosophical arguments, this treatise explores an alternative epistemology that conceptualizes belief in God as a fundamental human need and ontological necessity.[^1] In the previous article, we examined how human beings are guided to God and His revelation first through the primordial spiritual intuition embedded within our nature. But what is the ontological and epistemological framework that makes that belief justified? It is that faith in God serves as the anchorage to any meaningful conception of reality or of our lives. For indeed, the idea that spiritual intuition is what leads us to God can be readily misconstrued to suggest that faith has no firm grounding beyond a subjective feeling. To the more astute reader, however, what should become evident is how faith functions as an ontological necessity—the bedrock of what constitutes meaning.[^2] Faith in God is the necessary building block of all that makes up meaningful human experience. Three dimensions of human life are explored: spiritual, intellectual, and moral. Muslim tradition and scholarship have identified these as core aspects of the human experience.[^3] The manner in which these dimensions of life are experienced by each and every one of us is through the first-person perspective, which is the subject matter of phenomenology, rather than the third-person perspective which is the artificial manner in which we are often accustomed to deliberate on life. A phenomenological analysis demonstrates humanity’s absolute need for God, regardless of whether they profess belief in Him. This approach enables the reader to appreciate that the justification for God’s existence is firmly rooted in the epistemology of meaning, the phenomenology of our lived experiences, and our dire need of Him, rather than potentially contestable rational proofs. Therefore, believing in God becomes synonymous with the choice to pursue meaning in life using our innate human capacities. Faith in God is intimately connected to the core of our being, and its strength is based on the purity of our spiritual, intellectual, and moral dimensions. --- ## Human beings are in need > ***O humankind, you are those that need Allah with much destitution, while Allah is The Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy.* (Qur’an 35:15)** The Qur’an describes dependence on God as a key feature of the human condition. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) opens his monumental spiritual work Tareeq al-Hijratayn with the aforementioned verse followed by the declaration that the human being’s need of God is an essential existential reality, and the voluntary recognition of one’s dire need (faqr) of God is the most basic realization at which the human soul must arrive.\[4\] The phenomenology of faqr which Ibn al-Qayyim articulates situates us within the first-person perspective at the heart of human nature through which all lived experiences are filtered. It is true that the main driving factor of all human behavior is the fulfillment of their needs. This is the building block of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs: > ***Any motivated behavior, either preparatory or consummatory, must be understood to be a channel through which many basic needs may be simultaneously expressed or satisfied.*[^5]** The needs described by Maslow include physical, social, and psychological. The obvious physical needs for food, drink, and shelter ensure the survival of our biological substance.[^6]  Beyond that, Maslow recognized that human beings possess a psyche that requires certain factors for its sustenance and balance, including a sense of belonging and esteem.[^7] Though there are criticisms of the hierarchy itself,[^8] there is no dispute regarding the idea that human needs drive human behavior. Other fields, such as history and anthropology, also recognize human needs as fundamental to human psychology. In fact, one can summarize all of human history as simply the story of how humans have endeavored to fulfill their needs across time and place. > ***Anthropogenic changes are assessed at the scale of human needs, rather than in terms of ecosystem structure and function.*[^9]** Maslow’s model, as well as others that have extended his theory, places the fulfillment of spiritual needs at the top of the hierarchy. Self-actualization and self-transcendence are often the ultimate needs of human beings represented in these models. > ***Maslow defines growth as the continuous development of talents, capacities, creativity, wisdom, and character, the various processes which bring the person toward ultimate self-actualization.*[^10]** Although widely shared versions of Maslow’s model show self-actualization as the ultimate need, this does not reflect his own amendment that put the need for self-transcendence beyond it.[^11] Self-transcendence is about living for something greater than one’s self, thereby finding meaning and purpose in one’s existence. This need emerges from a realization of one’s inherent inability to find fulfillment through themselves or this worldly life. Hence, when a person searches for the fulfillment of their needs, they are ultimately searching for a means to connect themselves with a Transcendent Reality (or God). As quoted earlier, the Qur’an asserts that the only true fulfillment of human needs in a holistic sense is with God. According to Maslow and other psychologists, needs are organized in a hierarchical manner.\[12\] This means that they should be fulfilled sequentially and not out of order. According to this, one cannot start their spiritual journey unless all lower needs are met first (biological, social, etc.). From the Islamic perspective, all needs are fulfilled through the all-encompassing pursuit of Tawheed, which represents faith in the Oneness of the Divine and dedicating one’s whole self in devotion to Him. All human needs are integrated harmoniously and fulfilled through this pursuit of dedicating one’s whole self in service to the Divine Will. --- ## The need for God and the need for meaning This article will explore faith in God from the phenomenological perspective of human needs, rather than a philosophical inquiry into His existence. This is a more fruitful approach to truly understand what it means to have faith in God from the perspective of the individual. A person may object to this endeavor from the outset and point out that the perceived need for an idea or being, does not rationally necessitate that it truly exists. This objection, however, does not apply to the concept of God because, as we will demonstrate in the article, the level of need we have for God goes beyond the moral, spiritual, and psychological and extends into the domain of the intellectual. In other words, faith in God is required for truth, logic, and rationality itself to have any real meaning and ontological grounding. Even the concept of meaning itself is rooted in a belief in God as we will explore later in this article. Along similar lines, our very notion of self-identity and individuality also requires faith in God. Thus, demonstrating our need for God at this ultimate level confers complete certainty in His existence, given that we cannot meaningfully live, rationally think, or even individually be without believing in Him. The skeptic may respond by simply stating that he is willing to dispense with any real notions of rationality, meaning, self, morality, and anything else that is in need of faith in God. They may claim that they are happy to live life presuming that our existence is fundamentally pointless, the unintended consequence of material elements that exist reasonlessly, and that our conscious awareness and sense of self is itself an illusion brought about by blind interactions of the material elements. The response to this is a Qur’anic one that highlights the central element of choice in the selection of one’s paradigm: > ***Say: The Truth is from your Lord, whoever wants (to believe) let him believe and whoever wants (to disbelieve) let him disbelieve.* (Qur’an 18:29)** Meaningful truth can ultimately only be found with God, as will be demonstrated in this article. Once this point is understood, then we have the choice to accept it along with the responsibility it entails, or reject it and absolve ourselves from any responsibility by denying any sense of real purpose. This verse tells us that faith is not an abstract intellectual exercise; it is a choice human beings must make in this world. The choice is whether a person accepts what life reveals to them through their intellectual tools, moral instincts, and spiritual intuitions. All of these fundamental aspects of humans—intellectual, moral, and spiritual— find their fulfillment in the Divine Reality if we take them seriously. The dilemma is whether we should take them seriously. Taking them seriously means that we affirm ourselves, our experiences, and what we witness in this world, and we assume full responsibility for them. Claiming that these domains of a human being are mere epiphenomena or illusions means that we negate ourselves, our experiences, and what we witness in this world. At its root, the choice is whether we believe in meaning or reject it. The absurdity of choosing meaninglessness in this dilemma of faith can be summarized in the following line of thinking: > ***\[W\]hat does it actually mean to believe in meaninglessness? The belief in meaninglessness is itself meaningless, and therefore not a belief at all. Accordingly, there really is only one option—the meaningful. There was no battle to begin with. For an entity that fathoms meaning, there is no escape but to find a meaningful outlook on* *life*.[^13]** With this framework in mind, we can appreciate the significance of understanding our profound need for God. Recognizing this ultimate necessity places our belief in God at a higher place of conviction than any other belief we may hold. The article will now proceed to explore each aspect of the human being—spiritual, intellectual, and moral—and how it finds its fulfillment in the Divine Reality. --- ## 1) The spiritual necessity of God ### The need for value Before a person even decides to embark on the tumultuous journey of life, they need to know if their life is worth living. This spiritual necessity is the most fundamental of all needs and requires fulfillment above even the most basic physiological needs. Why else would one decide to commit to a life of need, dependency, pain, hardship, and inevitable separation through death and loss? Victor Frankl, the famous German psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, explains, > ***Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain, but to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has meaning*.[^14]** Recognizing one’s life as having an inherent value and worth that outweighs the cost of living in this world of trial and tribulation is the most fundamental of all needs. The question is: where does one find such value to their life? --- ## Finding value in purpose The value of one’s life is based on what one believes to be their fundamental purpose. This is because value is a relative term that is determined in relation to a goal or objective. For instance, the value of an employee is based on their utility in achieving the goals of a company. The value of a team player is based on their ability to take their team toward their goal. Therefore, the value of your life is based on its relation to the ultimate purpose of life itself. It is inconceivable to understand the value of anything if there is no objective in relation to it. Therefore the quest to find value in one’s life is rooted in one’s quest to discover the purpose of life. Atheists often object to the idea of God being necessary for meaning and purpose in life by simply giving imagined examples of hypothetical purposes or meaning that a person’s life could serve in the world. This only serves the purpose of rendering life a game with arbitrarily fashioned aims and rules. And when the game is no longer fun, one can choose not to play. According to the worldview of atheistic naturalism, this world emerged as the unintended byproduct of blind material forces and thus, by definition, without purpose. Imagine a group of people arguing over which word the sound of a creaking door most resembled. It is pointless to confer semantic meaning on the sound emitted by the haphazard interaction of particles in the door hinge when it is known that meaning can only be generated by the purposively articulated sounds of speech in a word. According to naturalism, all your conscious experiences—including emotions, hopes, thoughts, values, fears, ideas and actions—are no more meaningful than the haphazard creaking of particles which give the illusion of a meaningful word. Meaning requires purpose, and so it is with life. > ***And We did not create the heaven and the earth and that between them aimlessly. That is the assumption of those who reject faith.* (Qur’an 38:27)** The materialist view renders not only the concept of purpose incoherent but also the concept of values. It strips the world of an ultimate objective, which is a necessary foundation for values to be nested in. Indeed, the iconoclastic philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer famously said, “It would be better if we did not exist at all.” It is necessary to view the world as existing for a reason in order for a person to assign value to their life. The value of our life is thus found in relation to its role in the grand scheme of existence. --- ## Is there a purpose to life? Some maintain that there is no purpose to life at all since it emerged through blind forces of nature without any intention or reason. This proposition can be examined from both an intellectual and practical perspective. We will demonstrate the intellectual incoherence of denying purpose later in the article. At this junction, we will focus on the impractical consequences of the denial of life having any purpose. People with such a view on life cannot justify the pain of existence with their lifestyle and attempt to numb this dissonance with hedonistic pleasures. The question of the purpose of one’s life is so significant to human beings that it seems to be hard-wired into our brains. A study of the neuroscience of well-being revealed that more activity in the area of the brain associated with goal-oriented behavior was associated with higher levels of positive affect and wellbeing.[^15] The consequences of living a life without any purpose are a nihilistic dread and misery that lead to absurd choices and behavior such as the man attempting to sue his own mother for giving birth to him. The plaintiff in this court case said, > ***There’s no point to humanity, So many people are suffering. If humanity is extinct, Earth and animals would be happier. They’ll certainly be better off. Also no human will then suffer. Human existence is totally pointless*.[^16]** This argument is difficult to refute if one shares his godless worldview. This nihilism is the ideological consequence of atheism. Life without purpose becomes a crime perpetrated against the people who are cursed to live it. This concept is self-destructive and ultimately seeks to end human life. This is why the most fundamental of needs is the spiritual need for purpose. When life has a purpose, it turns from being a painful, cursed burden into an opportunity for growth and achieving the highest state of living through a spiritual connection with God, The Transcendent. Human life, like a flower, blossoms despite the winds and waves, shining its beauty and radiance for the benefit of others. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave a parable of the believer to this effect, > ***The example of the believer is like the fresh stalk, the leaves of which move in whatever direction the wind blows and, when the wind becomes still, it stands straight. Such is the example of the believer being affected by hardships. And the example of the one who rejects faith is like a cedar tree that remains hard and straight until Allah cuts it down whenever He wills.*[^17]** --- ## Requirements for a purpose in life ### i) Transcendence Popular convention in the contemporary secular age is to encourage everyone to make their own purpose in life. Such a proposition undermines the very concept of purpose due to the lack of transcendence. The purpose of something is a transcendent quality that is based on its role in relation to things outside of itself. Furthermore, the notion of the purpose of life is only coherent if it is determined by the One who brought life into existence. As mentioned earlier, if a person holds that there was no being that created the world, then the concept of purpose becomes meaningless. When a person decides to ‘make their own purpose,’ they are merely stating a preference for how they wish to live their life. Preference is a subjective wish based on personal whims and desires, whereas purpose is an objective responsibility based on a transcendent determination. The Qur’an describes the former as dhann (conjecture; assumption) and the latter as *haqq* (truth; purpose; responsibility): > ***They only follow* dhann *and what their egos desire even though guidance has come to them from their Guardian Lord.* (Qur’an 53:23)** > > ***And most of them only follow* dhann *while* dhann *cannot compete with* haqq *at all.* (Qur’an 10:36)** ### ii) Intention The second requirement for a coherent purpose of life is the belief that someone or something intended life to exist. If life is the *unintended* consequence of a sequence of material events, then it is, by definition, without purpose or meaning. Simply affirming a transcendent reality or higher power is insufficient if this entity does not possess a will with an intention. If this world and our lives were brought into being with no intention, then the concept of purpose becomes meaningless once again. Consider an example that further elucidates this point. Imagine that a person randomly throws 10 coins onto a table. Although that person was the one who caused the coins to be put on the table, there is no purpose or reason behind their arrangement. This is because their placement was not based on any will or intention. Lack of intention results in a lack of purpose. People who affirm a higher power but do not relate their purpose in life to this higher power’s intention undermine the very concept of purpose, and thus Deism is impotent as an ontological foundation for meaning. The Qur’an is filled with expressions of the clear existence of intention behind creation: > ***He created the heavens and the earth with the Ultimate Purpose (*Haqq*).* (Qur’an 16:3)** > > ***...And they reflect regarding the creation of the heavens and the earth (saying), “Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly...”* (Qur’an 3:191)** > > ***And We didn’t create the universe and the earth and everything in between for fun. If We had desired to have some amusement, We would have derived it from Ourselves, but We did not do that.* (Qur’an 21:16-17)** ### iii) Revelation The third requirement flows from the first two. If there is a transcendent entity that intended this world and our lives to exist, our purpose in life lies in that intention. Therefore, discovering our purpose in life requires wisdom that is sourced in communication between human beings and the Transcendent. The Qur’an also explains that human beings do not have the epistemic authority (*sultan*) to know their purpose if they lack access to The Transcendent: > ***Or do they have a stairway (to heaven) upon which they listen? Then let their listener bring a clear* sultan. (Qur’an 52:38)** > > ***What is wrong with you? How do you judge? When will you learn? Or do you have a clear* sultan*? (If that is the case), then bring your scripture if you are being truthful.* (Qur’an 37:154-157)** The concept of revelation from God to humankind is a historically documented phenomenon that serves as the foundation for many of the world’s religions. Examining the scriptures that claim to be revelations from God is an essential undertaking that enables us to differentiate genuine revelation from delusions or false claims. This idea will be explored further in a future article in this series. The main point to be established in this article is simply that revelation from God is required for a person to possess the epistemic authority necessary to know their purpose in life. Claiming that the experience of revelation is not real or has never occurred renders our purpose in life unknowable. This is a common claim by the anti-religious voice, as captured in the Qur’an: > ***And they did not appraise Allah with a true appraisal when they said, “Allah did not reveal anything to a human being.”* (Qur’an 6:91)** Interestingly, the Qur’an links the denial of revelation to diminishing the perfection of God. If He truly created us for a specific purpose, then He must have communicated it to us in some form. Claiming that He didn’t challenges His Wisdom, Mercy, and Love. It challenges His Wisdom as it would mean He created us for a reason but failed to give us access to that knowledge. This would undermine the purpose He created us for since ignorant humans would not be able to fulfill it. It challenges His Love and Mercy by making our value and worth as human beings unknown in the face of incredible hardship and suffering in life. The only alternative to revelation would be instinctive knowledge hard-wired into our brains that informs us of our purpose. Although we do possess inherent knowledge on a lot of issues related to the question of purpose, including an innate understanding of morality and God, we do not have a coherent picture of the path required to fulfill our purpose. As the Qur’an asserts, > ***Just as We have sent among you a messenger from yourselves reciting upon you Our signs, purifying you and teaching you knowledge of the scripture and wisdom, and teaching you what you couldn’t have ever known.* (Qur’an 2:151)** Therefore, revelation is the only thing that informs us of our ultimate purpose in life and the road we must take to fulfill it. ### iv) Permanence Lastly, one’s purpose in life must also have permanent and eternal consequences; otherwise, it would undermine any value or worth. The Qur’an exhorts humanity to place full faith in Him, highlighting His Permanence and Eternality: “And rely upon The Living who does not die, and proclaim His purity with His praise” (Qur’an 25:58). If this entire existence and our lives will inevitably come to an end, then the collective striving and toiling of humanity and life as a whole were all for no consequence. This strips life of any inherent worth or meaning, as there is nothing greater that it relates to and one’s actions and decisions ultimately have no real consequence in the grand scheme of reality. An action that has no long-term impact, consequence, or effect is ultimately bereft of meaning and significance. From the Islamic paradigm, our lives are consequential and, thus, meaningful. The consequences are rooted in the concepts of resurrection and reckoning after death. The circle of life and rebirth that is ever-present in nature, according to the Qur’an, also applies to our consciousness. > ***So see the effects of Allah’s Mercy how He brings life to the earth after it had died. Certainly, that (same One) will give life to the dead.* (Qur’an 30:50)** The Qur’an relates this resurrection to our purpose in life, “Then did you think that We created you uselessly and that to Us you would not be **returned**?” (Qur’an 23:115). If the decisions we make in this life will have eternal consequences, then even the smallest choices are imbued with infinite meaning. This grants our lives an immeasurable amount of value that provides us with the strength necessary to overcome the challenges of this world. The requirements of the purpose of life are contained in all six articles of faith. The Transcendent requirement is fulfilled through faith in Allah. The Intention requirement is detailed in the theology of God’s Attributes but specifically emphasized as an article of faith in Divine Decree (*Al-Qadar*). The Revelation requirement is fulfilled through faith in the Angels, Books, and Messengers. Lastly, the Permanence requirement is fulfilled through faith in the hereafter. It is through the lens of faith provided by Islam that a person is able to discover their purpose in life and thereby realize the value of their life. --- ## Finding purpose elsewhere Despite the necessity of attaching one’s purpose to the Transcendent, Eternal, Creator through His revelation, many people search for value in the domain of the ephemeral world. One of the most common, seemingly harmless ways is through relationships. But searching for worth and purpose through social relationships intrinsically is inadequate as those relationships do not possess the qualities of transcendence or permanence. It is dangerous due to the ever-present possibility of betrayal and is unjustified due to the inevitable permanent separation through death that would render all life pointless once the person passes on. This concept was captured eloquently in the speech of Abu Bakr after the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ passed away, > ***Whoever worshipped Muhammad, know that he has died, but whoever worships Allah, then know that He is The Living and will never die*.[^18]** The fact is that all worldly things that people cling to for stability in the chaos of life will eventually break or depart, leaving those poor souls to fall into the dark crevice of this world. The breaking of these handholds takes the form of betrayal, separation, or just weakness and incompetence in the face of life’s challenges. But there is one handhold that illuminates the darkness and is available to us no matter how far we have fallen. The Qur’an beautifully explains, > ***Let no one force another to adopt a way of life. Without a doubt, Truth is clear from Falsehood. So whoever rejects false gods and puts their faith in Allah, then they have grasped the firm, trustworthy handhold that will never break. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. Allah is the Ally of those who believe, taking them out from the darkness into the light.* (Qur’an 2:256)** --- ## Finding purpose through God > ***And I have not created Jinn and Humankind except for them to lovingly devote themselves (to God) through worship.* (Qur’an 51:56)[^19]** One must direct their gaze beyond the universe to find value and worth in their life. The Transcendent Divine Reality, Eternally Living Owner of Beauty and Grace is the only true source of value and worth for human life. Recognizing our life as a gift from God and that we are tasked with the mission of reflecting the Light of God’s Divine Qualities on to this world of darkness through seeking to make ourselves and this world a better place provides us a limitless fountain of meaning that fills the human spirit with immense worth and value. > ***Allah, there is nothing worthy of worship except Him, The Living, The Sustainer of All. Neither sleep nor drowsiness overtakes Him. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and in the earth. Who can intercede except with His permission? He knows what is before them and what will come after. And they cannot apprehend even a drop of His Knowledge except with His Will. His* Kursi *extends over the heavens and the earth. Protecting them does not tire Him and He is The Transcendent, The Magnificent.* (Qur’an 2:255)** Experiencing the greatness of Allah through powerful descriptions of His Qualities is empowering when viewed through the lens of His Love and Compassion toward us. When we ask ourselves if we deserved to be born or if our life is worth something, we are swiftly answered by the Guardian Lord of the Universe who calls us to be with Him, > ***O Humankind, lovingly devote yourself through worship to your Guardian Lord, Who created you and those before you, so that you may attain* taqwa *(caution and alertness, being fearful of God).* (Qur’an 2:21)** > > ***And follow the path of those who turn to Me.* (Qur’an 31:15)** The Owner of Might and Grandeur wants us to achieve an everlasting paradise, where all our dreams will come true. > ***And Allah calls to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to the straight path.* (Qur’an 10:25)** > > ***Is that better or the Garden of Eternity which has been promised to the pious? It will be for them a reward and their final destination. They will have whatever they wish, abiding in it eternally. That is a binding promise on your Lord.* (Qur’an 25:15-16)** Experiencing this Love can fill the holes in our hearts with the light of faith. Ibn al-Qayyim explains, > ***In the heart, there exists an anxiousness that nothing can calm but drawing nearer to Allah. In it is a desolate feeling that cannot be removed except by experiencing His Loving Company in solitude. In it is sadness that will not leave except with the joy of knowing Him and genuinely devoting oneself to Him. In it is a worry that is not made tranquil except by focusing on Him, fleeing from His punishment toward Him. In it is a fire of regret which cannot be extinguished except by satisfaction with His commands, prohibitions, destiny, and patiently gripping on to all that until the time it meets Him. In it is a strong desire that will not cease until He is the Only One Who is sought. In it is a hole that cannot be filled except by His Love, turning to Him, always remembering Him, and being sincere to Him. Were a person to be given the entire world and everything in it, that would never fill the hole.*[^20]** Therefore, faith in God is truly the essential pillar on which all other needs rest. From this faith, we see branches sprout forth that provide fruits of fulfillment for all domains of human existence. Understanding faith as a tree with branches that intersect with all levels and layers of human life in all its complexities is a Qur’anic and Prophetic allegory that enables us to understand the mystery of faith. > ***Have you not considered how Allah presents an example, (making) a pure word like a pure tree, whose roots are firmly fixed and its branches (high) in the sky? It produces its fruit at all times by permission of its Lord. And Allah presents examples for people that perhaps they will recognize.* (Qur’an 14:24-25)** The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > ***Faith has over seventy branches—or over sixty branches—the uppermost of which is the declaration: “None has the right to be worshipped but Allah”; and the least of which is the removal of a harmful object from the road, and modesty is a branch of* iman.[^21]** Faith in God is not meant to be limited to rituals but to be extended from the highest of human concerns like the declaration of one’s existential purpose to the minutiae of life such as removing a thorny branch from the footpath. All our needs can be fulfilled by the fruits that arise from this tree of faith. Fulfillment of all of the necessities of human life is, in fact, rooted in faith in the Divine. Without this essential ingredient, we would not be able to fulfill the most basic physical, psychological, and intellectual needs we encounter as we live out the story of our life. The body, mind, and soul are dependent on God, whether we realize it or not. As we will see throughout the course of this article, even those who profess disbelief in God implicitly trust and have faith in the presence of His Divine Names and Attributes out of necessity. > ***So is it other than the way of Allah that they seek while whoever is in the galaxies and the earth have submitted to Him, willingly or out of compulsion, and to Him shall they all return.* (Qur’an 3:83)** --- ## 2) The intellectual necessity of God The intellect is one of the fundamental human faculties. Human beings naturally develop a sophisticated cognitive apparatus that allows them to process ideas, thoughts, and sensorial experiences in order to arrive at coherent and meaningful internal representations of reality. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) notes that every human being would invariably prefer to have their mind populated with true beliefs and beneficial desires rather than false beliefs and harmful desires.[^22] So how then does a human being justify his or her beliefs as true representations of reality? There is a well-known philosophical problem in epistemology known as Münchhausen’s trilemma. A person is asked to provide proof that a proposition is true, after which they are asked how they know that proof itself to be true. At this stage, they are confronted with choosing one of the following three basic options:[^23] - Option 1: Every proof itself requires another proof, in which case they require an infinite number of proofs to justify a belief as true (infinitism). - Option 2: All proofs go back to a certain indubitable premise which itself does not need to be proven or justified (foundationalism). For instance, for some people that foundation may be rationalism; for others, it may be empiricism. - Option 3: The proofs justify one another in a circular fashion, with the last proof being justified by the first (coherentism). Of course, all three options are problematic and would seem to suggest that no one can ever obtain certainty in anything, for no belief could justifiably be regarded as true if there is no escape from Münchhausen’s trilemma. Humans would never be able to possess knowledge about anything. Without a superior epistemology that can escape the trilemma, all human beliefs amount to nothing more than unsubstantiated presumptions; and that superior epistemology is embedded within the Divine revelation. “They follow nothing but conjecture and their own wishful thinking, even though true guidance has come to them from their Lord” (Qur’an 53:23). On closer scrutiny, there is something rather dubious about Münchhausen’s trilemma—in order for the trilemma to even be posed, it requires presupposing certain ontological concepts, such as truth, meaning, justification, belief, proof, sequence, relation, distinction, and so on. Where did these concepts come from, and if they too are unjustified, should they likewise be discarded? If all concepts are discarded, then how can the mind conceptualize any meaningful thought at all? As mentioned above, it is logically incoherent to affirm a belief in meaninglessness, since the very act of affirming a belief necessitates a commitment to meaning. Thus, to proclaim a ‘belief’ in meaninglessness becomes an absurd paradox. In the West, Münchhausen’s trilemma remains as insoluble to modern philosophers as it was to their Hellenistic predecessors. But where philosophers have floundered for eons, Qur’anic exegetes elegantly succeed. The Qur’an espouses a teleological dimension to truth—the Qur’an uses the Arabic term *haqq* to signify both truth and purpose and likewise uses the term *batil* to signify both falsehood and something devoid of purpose.[^24] Truths serve a function in rendering reality meaningful. Drawing upon the Qur’anic epistemology of the *fitrah*, Ibn Taymiyyah astutely notes that there are certain basic ontological building blocks that the mind must possess by necessity in order to have any meaningful conception of reality whatsoever: “What all human beings recognize is that there are some mental conceptualizations and affirmations which are primordial concepts and not themselves in need of proof by definition or syllogism, or else it would entail circularity or infinitism.”[^25] What Ibn Taymiyyah identifies is that there is a category of concepts that serve as ontological anchors for any meaningful conceptualization of reality, and these are integral to the human being’s acquisition of knowledge through the natural course of development. Human infants naturally develop notions of causality, numerical quantity, morality, purpose, and so forth, and any attempt to discard these ontological building blocks would entail the deterioration of coherent and meaningful representations of reality. Adopting a paradigm of skepticism and demanding proof for the ontological anchors themselves only results in the collapse of the entire intellectual enterprise of meaning. Every human being must necessarily search for a paradigm that provides a meaningful conception of the fundamental aspects of existence. The Qur’an states, “These are the signs of God that We recite to you in truth (*bil-haqq*). So in what narrative after God and His signs will you believe?” (Qur’an 45:6). The Qur’anic exegete al-Alusi (d. 1270 AH) said, “And this indicates that there is no meaningful explanation (*bayan*) more meaningful than this explanation \[i.e., the Islamic paradigm\], nor sign (*ayah*) stronger as a proof than this sign.”[^26] The most powerful epistemology of proof is one that functionally serves to construct an understanding of reality that yields the greatest meaning. --- ## Does the existence of God require philosophical proof? Contemporary discussions regarding faith in God are almost exclusively broached through a dialectical approach that attempts to provide syllogistic arguments for or against the theoretical existence of the Divine Reality. Viewed from this lens, the idea of God becomes a mere hypothesis that is destined to be debated for millennia into the future as it has already been for millennia in the past. Such an endeavor has proven fruitless in terms of reaching any real understanding of what it means to have faith in God. It has also led to the erroneous idea that theists believe in a “God of the Gaps,” since the proof of His existence has been relegated to simply inserting Him in a causal link stemming from a Newtonian mechanistic explanation of the world. The classical theologian, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), famously remarked in his widely acclaimed discourse on Islamic spirituality, *Madaarij as-Salikeen*, > ***Knowledge (of God) according to them (spiritual masters) is innate rather than something that requires proof...This is why none of the messengers were ever sent to their nation in order to prove the existence of a Creator, rather their calling was to the devotion to and unity of the Divine.*[^27]** Ibn al-Qayyim viewed faith in God to be a necessity and found the notion of having to prove God’s existence an absurdity, > ***And how can the proof (for God) be valid if His existence is more obvious than the supposed proof?*[^28]** Modern cognitive science has also asserted that belief in God does not arise from extensive philosophical deliberations, inferences, or other rational processes but through a separate primary “god-faculty” that is beyond the reach of reason.[^29] Kelly Clark, a philosopher who writes extensively on the cognitive science of religion, states that belief in God is “a natural product of our common cognitive faculties, and in this sense, religious belief is ‘natural.’”[^30] From this perspective, the difficulty encountered by theologians and philosophers attempting to prove the existence of God to the atheist is akin to the difficulty a person would have in trying to prove their own existence to a solipsist (someone skeptical about the existence of reality). If such a self-evident truth is questioned, there is little common ground that can be established for any fruitful dialogue. One may try and direct the skeptic to clear audio-visual-tactile sensation for proof of one’s existence. However, the solipsist can easily dismiss such proof by introducing the possibility of hallucination or even extend this doubt to questioning external reality itself as an illusive matrix.[^31] This hyper-skeptical attitude is described in the Qur’an in response to the requests for miracles to prove that Muhammad ﷺ was a prophet. It is mentioned that even the most powerful empirical sign would be futile in convincing a cynical skeptic, > ***And (even) if We opened to them a gate from heaven and they continued therein to ascend, they would say, ‘Our eyes are hallucinating, or we’ve been affected by magic.’* (Qur’an 15:15)** How can one begin to try and prove these self-evident truths that are being called into question? Since syllogistic reasoning and philosophical inquiry on their own are unable to bring closure to these issues, the only portal of entry remaining is faith. --- ## Reality of faith It may sound strange that belief in the existence of other people requires faith. But faith from an Islamic perspective is the most fundamental epistemic decision that a human being can make in response to what they witness in the world. Thus, faith becomes the highest level of conviction a person can achieve, rather than belief in the absence of evidence. The more an idea is related to the core of our being, the further it is from the grasp of rational and empirical pursuits and the closer it is to the all-encompassing reality of faith. Therefore, as we will see in the forthcoming discussion, the most self-evident of truths are the ones that require the strongest of faith, including the truth of God’s existence. The theological term for faith, *Iman*, linguistically carries the connotation of trust, security, and safety. This is a fascinating etymology because preceding any knowledge acquisition is the necessity of epistemic trust. This ‘trust’ or ‘faith’ must be directed at one’s own empirical senses and rational faculties in order to render them valid avenues to knowledge and truth. There are no logical proofs for the validity of logic since that would involve circular reasoning. You have to *trust* that your logic provides a true representation of reality in order for your logic to be of any benefit to you. Similarly, there are no empirical proofs for the validity of our sense-perception since validity is not an entity that can be observed. Therefore, reason and empirical sense must be taken on epistemic faith and trust, because without this faith we would be unable to formulate any meaningful interpretation of reality. --- ## Faith in God Prior to contemplating whether to trust our senses or logic, there is an even more fundamental notion that must be recognized through faith. It is the idea that this world and one’s life are *about* something. Such a universal and fundamental belief about ourselves and the universe we inhabit uncovers how we view faith in God. In reality, believing that the universe and our lives are about something is nested in the Divinely Destined origin of reality. This is the only possible source of the true *‘aboutness’* or existential *‘intentionality’* of our lives and the universe. Thus, the starting point of all knowledge is faith in God’s Divine Intention (*Al-Qadar*). > ***He created the heavens and earth with a purpose; Transcendent is He above all they associate with Him.* (Qur’an 16:3)** The world and our lives can only be about something if there is a reason for their existence. There can only be a reason for our existence if there is an intention behind it. Finally, there can only be an intention behind it, if there is One who intended—God. Everything we learn about the natural world, history, anthropology, medicine, and every other conceivable art or science is a testament to the meaning that exists in the world, which is a testament to the One who endowed this world with meaning and truth to be discovered, bringing color and light to the cold dark matter of the universe. --- ## Finding intelligibility through God If the world had not been divinely ordained, then it must have emerged through random blind forces of ‘nature.’ This would strip away the aboutness of the entire world and our lives. > ***And We did not create the heaven and the earth and everything between them randomly. That is the assumption of those who reject faith.* (Qur’an 38:27)** Thus, our conscious experience of realities like meaning, knowledge, value, truth, and falsehood become mere illusions of the mind. Why would value exist in a world that has been formed by random and blind forces? There is no good and bad in randomness, only alternative arrangements of atoms and molecules. Similarly, why would meaning have any real existence except as an illusion of the human mind? Words become arbitrary means of categorization invented by our species. Lastly, why would any real notion of identity or self exist if we were nothing but an amalgamation of atoms and particles, only with different arrangements than others? We, as individuals, would no longer exist, only our bodies. > ***The naturalist tries to build his whole outlook of reality based on what can be directly observed and tested—whatever constitutes ‘empirical evidence.’ But as a consequence of his a priori commitment to exclude anything beyond the immediacy of his own empirical lens, he ends up with a puzzling picture of a pointless world of purposeless particles. There is no good or evil, right or wrong, pleasure or pain, knowledge or ignorance—only different arrangements of particles, which are all equally aimless and bereft of any significance. Values, ideas, meanings—nay, even consciousness itself, must be nothing more than the delusions of collections of particles we call ‘people,’ which presume their own consciousness and individuated existence. Everything in existence which is conceived to have meaning is—at its very root and essence—ultimately, meaningless. Nothing matters and nothing means anything at all. This conclusion all stems from the initial choice made to dismiss the spiritual instinct that life is inherently about something greater*.[^32]** All these self-evident truths that every sane individual takes as givens are called into question the moment we attempt to remove God from our worldview. Thus, faith in Him is a necessity for us to traverse the ocean of inexhaustible meaning that is to be discovered from the world and inside ourselves. > ***We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth.* (Qur’an 41:53)** Faith in God is necessary for meaning itself to exist in this world. This is not a “God of the gaps” argument, as we are not attempting to justify God’s existence through inserting Him in a mechanistic conception of the world. Rather, we are postulating that the very essence of explanation itself requires faith in a Divine entity to render any notion of meaning coherent. No conceptualization is coherent without meaning; meaning is the very bedrock of ontology. Unlike the “God of the gaps,” there is no empirical discovery that can challenge this unbreakable bond between Meaning and the Divine, as it is a metaphysical connection forged beyond this world, never to be broken. > ***They cannot encompass anything from His Knowledge except what He wills.* (Qur’an 2:256)** The Truth of God is as clear and evident as the meaning that naturally arises from our tongues through language. According to the Qur’an, the language we speak testifies to this Reality, > ***By the Lord of the Universe and the Earth, it is the Truth, just as sure as it is that you are speaking.* (Qur’an 51:23)** The manner in which meaning surfaces within the human mind, the capacity of the mind to fathom meaning, and the concordance between meanings conceptualized in the mind and the external reality are some of the most powerful testaments to the ontological reality of the Divine. Why and how the intellect exists as a conscious representation of reality is a tremendous puzzle to any naturalistic conception of reality. Indeed, the theologian Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 333 AH) identified this as an epistemic foundation to recognize God that comes even before recognition of the Divine signs in the natural realm and through the revealed guidance. He writes that God clarified to us that He is the sole Deity and Lord, and the only One deserving of our worship via the following three methods: (i) The modality (*kayfiyyah*) and quiddity (*mahiyyah*) of the human intellect cannot be grasped by the intellect itself;[^33] (ii) the manifestations of the Divine in the created natural realm of signs; and (iii) the revealed guidance which informs us of His Lordship and sole right to be worshipped.[^34] In addition to the origins of the meanings which emerge in their mind, such meanings are only properly developed and shaped when their purpose is recognized and equipped with the proper cognitive tools. Thus, the intellectual dimension of the human being flourishes in the company of true spirituality. --- ## 3) The moral necessity of God --- ## The moral instinct Human beings seem to have a fascination with ethics and morality. They have an innate and instinctive desire to ensure the world around them is arranged in a manner that is morally justified. Psychologist Steven Pinker remarks, > ***According to Noam Chomsky, we are born with a ‘universal grammar’ that forces us to analyze speech in terms of its grammatical structure, with no conscious awareness of the rules in play. By analogy, we are born with a universal moral grammar that forces us to analyze human action in terms of its moral structure, with just as little awareness*.[^35]** There has been a lot of work in the field of developmental psychology that has looked at infant and toddler behavior in relation to conventional moral virtues.[^36] The results are astonishing. Take for instance the preference for justice which can be seen in infants as young as 8 months, and the expressions of compassion that start to emerge in one-year-olds. These are all constitutive elements of the primordial nature the Qur’an terms the *fitrah*, which includes all our basic spiritual, moral, and rational intuitions about the world. --- ## Moral realism is incompatible with naturalism The belief in and commitment to acting in accordance with moral virtues necessitate certain ideas about the world. The first is that there is a way that the world *should* be. Valuation is inescapable. The second is that these moral imperatives represent the ideal course of reality that everyone should submit to. Both of these ideas are nonsensical from a worldview of atheism and naturalism. If the world is the sum total of random blind forces, then it is nonsensical to consider notions of *ideal* or how the world *should* be. There can be no *should* or *ideal* if there was no intention behind the formation of the world. There can only be preferences, which are amoral by their very nature. They represent mere whims and desires about how a person subjectively wishes to see the world. Richard Garner, a contemporary atheist philosopher argues that fellow atheists have no grounds to believe in morality and should dispense with it altogether (a position he terms moral abolitionism): > ***Just as atheists claim that the beliefs of theists about the objective existence of a god are in error, moral error theorists claim that the beliefs of moral realists about the objective existence of moral rules, prohibitions, virtues, vices, values, rights, and duties are also in error, and for the same reason—what they are talking about doesn’t exist*.[^37]** In recent times there has been a push by New Atheists like Sam Harris to create a system of values based on a naturalistic view of the world using science.[^38]  We have already demonstrated the absurdity of this notion, owing to the fact that values are meaningless in a materialistic worldview—there is no substantive reason to prefer one arrangement of the material particles in the universe over another and according to naturalism, all of existence reduces to mere alternations in the arrangement of particles. Harris himself admits to this point when responding to critiques of his book: > ***My purpose was to show that moral truths exist and that they must fall (in principle, if not in practice) within some (perhaps never to be complete) understanding of the way conscious minds arise in this universe*.[^39]** He also admits that moral truths exist as intuitions independent of any scientific investigation: > ***We have certain logical and moral intuitions that we cannot help but rely upon to understand and judge the desirability of various states of the world.*[^40]** After conceding these points, Harris is simply advocating for the use of science to determine how to *apply* values we hold deep inside. However, he refuses to realize that value must be nested in belief in God and that disbelieving in God results in the denial of value. Richard Garner explains that the secular morality advocated by New Atheists will be unable to sustain itself intellectually and eventually will lead to the denial of morality outright: > ***An atheist’s eventual embrace of a moral error theory will be facilitated, if not forced, by the ease with which arguments used to undermine theism can be recycled to criticize the analogous beliefs of secular moralists*.[^41]** --- ## Morality comes from beyond this world In order to truly believe in moral virtues and advocate for their implementation in the world, one requires faith in the moral nature of the universe. This is the notion that the universe has not only been arranged physically according to qualities of rationality, wisdom, and power but also morally according to qualities such as love, justice, and compassion.[^42] This is rooted in faith in the Divine ordering of the world at these two levels, “Certainly to Him belongs the creation and the command” (Qur’an 7:54) and > ***We have raised the heavens and placed the balance so that you do not transgress (and stay) within the balance.* (Qur’an 55:7-8)** Even Steven Pinker, a staunch atheist who attempts to reconcile morality with a godless world, cannot avoid relying on metaphysical explanations, invoking the concept of the platonic world of forms as the ontological grounding of good and evil.[^43] However, this merely begs the question and does not provide any explanation. Where do these ideals come from and what is their relation to the reality we experience? If they are to be taken as eternal ideals existing external to the material universe that have somehow burdened humanity with the task of their implementation, then this is, by definition, a supernatural God. Therefore, believing in moral virtues necessitates ontological grounding which is only ultimately realized through faith in God. From the Islamic worldview, moral virtues such as compassion, justice, love, kindness, and generosity stem from the Divine Names and Attributes of God that humanity is meant to emulate. Anyone who works for these moral virtues is actually working in the path of God through His Attributes. Those who claim to reject God may actually believe in some of His Attributes and effectively submit to them by acting in accordance with them at least to the extent that their understanding of them aligns with God’s. Human rights activists who claim to disbelieve in God are working for His cause by striving to implement His qualities on this earth. The Qur’an describes a type of unacknowledged submission to Him as we have previously quoted. > ***So is it other than the way of Allah they desire, while to Him have submitted \[all\] those within the heavens and earth, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him they will be returned?* (Qur’an 3:83)** The unacknowledged submission in this verse has been understood by some commentators in the context of the pagan Arabs who ‘submitted’ to the idea that God was the sole Creator, despite their insistence on affirming multiple gods in worship.[^44] They accepted the Divine essence (*dhaat*) while denying God’s attribute of *uluhiyyah*—His sole right to be worshipped. This concept of affirming one aspect of the Divine Nature and negating other aspects can perhaps be extended to the modern manifestation of secular humanists who affirm the Divine qualities (*Sifaat*) of morality, justice, compassion, and beauty in the world but deny the Divine Essence (*Dhaat*), which is the ontological source. --- ## Islamic theology and Euthyphro’s dilemma Pinker tries to object to the moral necessity of God by claiming that Divinely-sourced morality results in a philosophical dilemma.[^45] Are these morals arbitrarily determined by God? If so, He could command us to torture children and that would be considered good. But this would go against our moral conscience and intuition, rendering them illusions. Or are these morals external restraints on God that He must abide by Himself? If this is the case, it would challenge His Omnipotence and violate His Divinity. This argument about morality, often termed *Euthyphro’s dilemma*,[^46] is far from novel and has been debated for millennia. In fact, it is a familiar theological discussion to any student of Islamic theology—is something good because God commanded it, or did God command it because it is good? Muhammad Ash-Shahrastani (d. 553 AH) documents in his work on comparative theology the controversy surrounding *Tahseen wa Taqbeeh* (deeming things good and evil) as well as the concept of *al-Hikmah wa Ta’leel Fee Af’aal Allah* (the Wisdom and Reason behind God’s Actions).[^47]  The Ash‘ari (and Maturidi)[^48] approach to the question of morality, which in contemporary terms is called *Divine command theory*, resembles the first option posited by Pinker.[^49] The Ash’aris asserted that moral values are defined only in terms of what God commands. > ***All (moral) obligations are based on revelation (*sam’iyya*), and the intellect (*’aql*) has no role in discerning between right and wrong*.[^50]** Imam Fakhr ad-Deen Ar-Razi (d. 606 AH), one of the most influential Ash’ari thinkers, writes in his theological work, *Muhassal Afkaar al-Mutaqaddimeen*, > ***The judgment of goodness in this world is not established except with revelation (*shar’*) and nothing can judge over revelation*.[^51]** The Mu’tazili approach resembled the second option, claiming that actions are intrinsically characterized as good or bad and that God must abide by ethical values when He acts.[^52]  Al-Qadhi Abdul-Jabbar (d. 415 AH), the famous Mu’tazili theologian, states in his comprehensive work on theology, *Al-Mughni fee Abwaab at-Tawheed wa al-’Adl*, regarding the moral imperatives of the Qur’an, > ***The command is based on its connection to goodness and benefit … The prohibition is based on its connection to evil. And so, based on its connection to evil, it is something that leads to corruption or prevents* *benefit*.[^53]** The Hanbali approach to moral theology, which received its most elaborate articulation by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) and his student Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), advanced a centrist view that ontologically rooted morality in the Divine Names and Attributes themselves and at the same time affirmed our epistemological capacity to know certain fundamental moral truths independent of revelation.[^54] With respect to ontology, the very existence of the concepts of justice, compassion, truth, and so on, exist in reality as a reflection of the Divine Nature. With respect to epistemology, we know the basics of whether something is good or evil from the inclinations in our *fitrah* which we subsequently extend through our intellect (*‘aql*). Ibn al-Qayyim explains, > ***Allah has predisposed His creation to (intuitively) know that truth and justice are good, along with beauty, modesty, and gratitude. He has also predisposed His creation to (intuitively) know that the opposite of all the above is evil. This capacity is related to their* fitrah *(human nature) and* ‘aql *(intellect), just like sweetness and bitterness is known through taste sensation, or like perfume and foul odor is known through smell sensation … Our moral sense is just as intuitive as our empirical senses in distinguishing between the good and the bad, the pure and the filthy*.[^55]** Our moral sense is a reflection of the Divine Nature and is tied to our spiritual journey. We love justice because justice is a Divine quality, and we naturally love the Divine. Therefore, love for morality is synonymous with love for God. In fact, our love for, and commitment to, morality are merely extensions of our innate love and aspiration for the Divine. The early 20th-century Turkish Muslim thinker, Said Nursi explains this point, > ***Humanity is created with a capacity to be able to receive the manifestations of all Divine Names and attain all perfections.*[^56]** Elsewhere he writes, > ***By means of the miniature measure it contains, Selfhood slowly comes to understand the true nature of the Divine Attributes and Names.*[^57]** This integration of morality with spirituality solves the confusions mentioned by Pinker. God commanding what is good and forbidding what is evil is neither arbitrary nor an external force compelling Him to act. God acts according to His nature and He would not contradict His own qualities. If He did, they would, by definition, cease to be His qualities. God’s nature cannot be considered arbitrary since arbitrariness is a product of this world and human limitation. When something is arbitrary, it means a decision was made without any particular rationale or reason due to limitations in the comprehension or processing of the consequences and implications of the decision. This does not exist in the Divine reality where His existence is defined by *Hikmah* (wisdom) and ‘*Ilm* (absolute knowledge). He has no limitations that would allow room for arbitrariness. Someone may ask, what determined God’s nature and qualities to be the way that they are? This question is nonsensical as it assumes a temporal concept of causality, which does not exist in a reality that transcends time. Moreover, such a question would ultimately lead to *Tasalsul* (infinite regress of causes), a philosophical absurdity. Ibn Taymiyyah says, > ***That would necessitate an infinite regress. Because if His action had a cause, then that cause would require another cause.*[^58]** A person may apply this concept to the issue of wisdom or morality as a reason for God’s actions and claim that it involves the same absurdity. However, Ibn Taymiyyah responds by explaining how a wisdom behind an action is not etiological (temporally-based) but teleological (purpose-based). This means that the reason for the action is based on a future set of events rather than an infinite causal chain into the past. > ***This is an infinite chain of events into the future rather than into the past. When He does an action for a wisdom, that wisdom is achieved after the action. Then from that particular wisdom that is achieved, another wisdom is intended from that, and it continues into eternity. So that wisdom that is achieved is intrinsically loved and also a means for a second wisdom. So Glorified is He, the One who brings forth from His wisdoms what He loves and makes them means for more of what He loves.*[^59]** Regarding the second option, it is absurd to consider God’s qualities as ‘higher’ than Him, such that He becomes compelled to act in accordance with them. The qualities are part of His Being, which, by definition, means that He acts in accordance with them. But this does not entail that He is compelled or obligated in any way by anything outside of Himself. Ibn Taymiyyah writes, > **Ahl al-Sunnah *(people following Islamic tradition) agree that He created everything as Lord and Owner*. *Everything He wills becomes and anything He does not will does not become and no one else can place restrictions that He must abide by.*[^60]** God acts and commands based on His Will, as is mentioned throughout the Qur’an, “And such is the case that Allah does whatever He Wills” (Qur’an 3:40), “Certainly Allah does whatever He Wills” (Qur’an 22:18), “He Forgives whoever He Wills and Punishes whoever He Wills, and Allah is the Determiner of all things” (Qur’an 2:284). And this Will is characterized by His Qualities of *Hikmah* (wisdom), *Rahma* (compassion) and *‘Adl* (justice) as alluded to in several verses,:“He Forgives whoever He Wills and Punishes whoever He Wills and Allah is The Most Forgiving and Most Compassionate” (Qur’an 3: 129), “God Commands justice, benevolence, and giving to one’s relatives and He forbids indecency, wretchedness, and transgression” (Qur’an 16:90), and “Declare that my Lord commands absolute justice” (Qur’an 7:29). --- ## Finding morality through God In summary, morality can only exist coherently if viewed through the lens of faith in God. A person who is committed to moral virtues, advocating and striving to live his or her life in accordance with them is, in fact, submitting to the Will of the Divine. Criticisms against the moral necessity of God have been shown to be unwarranted through a theological analysis of the issue. Thus, our moral sense that starts to manifest as early as infancy is a reflection of our need and love for the Divine Names and Attributes. When we experience moral outrage at injustice and cry out for peace, compassion, and love, it is our souls that are crying out and longing for the Divine Presence in our world. We all naturally want God in our lives; even those who reject His existence can’t help but desire His Divine Qualities. --- ## Recognizing God through your lived experience There is no proof that can make the existence of God more obvious than it already is for those who reflect deeply on their lived experience. Our spiritual experience that craves purpose, value, and worth can only find its fulfillment in the Transcendent Reality of God. Our intellectual journey that seeks to discover meaning in the world, finds its ontological grounding in the Divine origins of the universe. There is no other obvious reason why the world should be comprehensible or lend itself to our explanatory endeavors, which is what makes science a sensible enterprise. Our moral journey seeks to actualize qualities that can only find their reality in the Divine Essence. Therefore, by simply living life we are testifying to our desire for God. The alternative is to attempt the impossible—to embrace a view of meaninglessness within a mind that cannot escape meaning. It is to deny that meaning, purpose, and reason exist at the most fundamental level of reality, while meaningful conceptions of reality, logic, and morality are supposed to be suspended in an ontological void without any foundation. The spiritual, intellectual, and moral dimensions of life necessitate a purposeful journey towards God, yet some refuse to embark on the journey of meaning and choose to stay stranded on the island of nihilism. Indeed, faith in God is ultimately a choice that people must make in their lives. It involves a commitment to love, serve, and strive towards Him. It isn’t a theoretical proposition, nor the outcome of abstract philosophical or empirical deliberation, analyzing data for and against His hypothesized existence. Nor is it a decision that is merely made on a whim. It takes courage and conviction to pursue a meaningful existence that tasks us with the Divinely ordained mission to serve as agents of piety and virtue on earth, a worldview that renders us accountable for every moment of our conscious choices. Indeed, it is a choice that comes from the depths of our being. The choice to live by faith or without it is a reflection of the purity of perception within our souls. The deeper our introspection and capacity for reflection on the spiritual, intellectual, and moral dimensions of life, the sharper our spiritual perception. The more we live our lives for the pursuit of transient bodily pleasures without any higher purpose or meaning, the more obscure our vision. > ***Declare that the Truth is from your Lord. So whoever chooses, let him have faith and whoever chooses, let him repress faith.* (Qur’an 18:29)** We are in essence compelled to faith by virtue of our need for God. A relationship with Him is the most important relationship we have in this world—it fulfills our spiritual needs for purpose and worth, our intellectual needs for knowledge and meaning, and our moral needs for establishing justice and compassion. There is simply no substitute for God. Humankind stands in absolute need of the presence of the Divine in their life: > ***O humankind, you are those that need Allah with much destitution, while Allah is Free of need and Worthy of All Praise and Thanks.* (Qur’an 35:15)** --- ## Notes [^1]: Ontology is the study of existence, being, and the very nature and constituents of reality. Content in the field includes the examination of such questions as the nature of causality, the existence of numbers, the relationship between explanations and abstract concepts and the objects to which they relate, and so on. What is required in order for us to maintain coherent notions about existence indicates an ontological necessity. [^2]: Philosopher Harry Gene Blocker writes on the meaning of meaning, “the logical root of meaning can be traced to the sense of purpose and a system of purposeful relations. When people speak of the meaningfulness of things, they are usually talking either about (a) the purposive way things seem to hang together or (b) the purpose which this system has as a whole. Correspondingly, meaninglessness can mean either (a) the breakdown of this system or (b) the realization that the purpose for the system as a whole is a human projection having no foundation in reality.” Blocker, H. G. *The Meaning of Meaninglessness* (1974), pp. 33-40. [^3]: Ibn al-Qayyim. (2009). *Rawdatul-Muhibeen*. Cairo, Egypt: Dar Alam al-Fawa’id, p.14. For a full discussion see Khan N. (2015). Tawheed - A life worth living. Accessed on [https://spiritualperception.org/a-life-worth-living/](https://spiritualperception.org/a-life-worth-living/). [^4]: Ibn al-Qayyim. (2007). *Tareeq al-Hijratayn.* Makkah, Saudi Arabia: Dar Alam al-Fawa’id, pp.12-16. He contrasts this view with the notion that God’s role with respect to creation is limited to a cause-effect relationship, either originating their existence as an occurrence in time (*huduth*) or affirming a contingent possibility (*imkan*), whereas Ibn al-Qayyim sees these as mere signs of the more essential ontological dependence of creation upon the Creator. [^5]: Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. *Psychological Review*, *50*(4), 370. [^6]: Ibid. [^7]: Ibid. [^8]: Bouzenita, A. I., & Boulanouar, A. W. (2016). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: An Islamic critique. *Intellectual Discourse,* *24*(1). [^9]: Briggs, J. M., Spielmann, K. A., Schaafsma, H., Kintigh, K. W., Kruse, M., Morehouse, K., & Schollmeyer, K. (2006). Why ecology needs archaeologists and archaeology needs ecologists. *Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment*, *4*(4), 180-188. [^10]: Sengupta, S. S. (2011). Growth in human motivation: Beyond Maslow. *Indian Journal of Industrial Relations*, *47*, 102-116. [^11]: Koltko-Rivera, M. E. (2006). Rediscovering the later version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Self-transcendence and opportunities for theory, research, and unification. *Review of General Psychology*, *10*(4), 302. [^12]: Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. *Psychological Review*, *50*(4), 370. [^13]: Khan N. (2015). The real battle: Meaningful vs meaningless. *Spiritual Perception.* Accessed on [https://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless/](https://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless/) [^14]: Kaplin, A., & Anzaldi, L. (2015). New movement in neuroscience: A purpose-driven life. *Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain Science*, *7*. [^15]: Urry, H. L., Nitschke, J. B., Dolski, I., Jackson, D. C., Dalton, K. M., Mueller, C. J., ... & Davidson, R. J. (2004). Making a life worth living: Neural correlates of well-being. *Psychological Science*, *15*(6), 367-372. [^16]: Piper, K. ( 2019, February 7). This man is trying to sue his parents for giving birth to him. *Vox*, Retrieved from [https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/7/18215586/india-man-suing-parents-giving-birth-antinatalism-raphael-samuel](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/7/18215586/india-man-suing-parents-giving-birth-antinatalism-raphael-samuel) [^17]: *Sahih al Bukhari,* Hadith 7466. [^18]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, Hadith 4453. [^19]: For a larger discussion on the concept of ‘*ibadah* (worship) see: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mohammad-elshinawy/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him/) [^20]: Ibn al-Qayyim (2013). *Madaarij as-Saalikeen*. Al-Mansoorah, Egypt: Maktabah Fiyaadh, p. 987. [^21]: *Sahih Muslim*, Hadith 60. [^22]: Ibn Taymiyyah. *Dar Ta’arud al-ʿAql wal-Naql*. Edited by Muhammad Rashad Salim, second edition (Riyadh: Al-Imam University 1991), vol. 8, p. 458. [^23]: There are also some permutations that combine these options but do not significantly impact the trilemma. See, for instance, Tramel, P.(2008). Haack’s foundherentism is a foundationalism. *Synthese, 160*(2), 215-228. [^24]: See for instance Qur’an 16:3 and 38:27. Also, refer to Ibn Taymiyyah, *Naqd al-Mantiq*. Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah, Beirut 1999. p131. [^25]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Naqd al-Mantiq*. Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah, Beirut 1999,  p. 166. [^26]: Al-Alusi. *Ruh al-Ma’ani fi Tafsur al-Qur’an al-Adhim wa Sa’ al-Mathani*. Dar Ihya Turath al-Arabi, Beirut n.d. Vol. 25, pp. 141-142. [^27]: Ibn al-Qayyim. (2013). *Madaarij as-Saalikeen*. Al-Mansoorah, Egypt: Maktabah Fiyaadh, p. 720. [^28]: Ibid. [^29]: Clark, K. J., & Barrett, J. L. (2010). Reformed epistemology and the cognitive science of religion. *Faith and Philosophy*, *27*(2), 174-189. [^30]: Ibid. [^31]: For a more complete examination of the epistemological failings of skepticism, refer to Khan, N. (2017). Shakk - The Epistemology of Doubt. [https://spiritualperception.org/shakk-1-the-epistemology-of-doubt/](https://spiritualperception.org/shakk-1-the-epistemology-of-doubt) [^32]: Khan N. (2015). The real battle: Meaningful vs meaningless. Accessed on [https://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless/](https://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless) [^33]: The quiddity (*mahiyyah* = *ma bihi huwa huwa*; i.e., that by which something is what it is) of intellect would subsume what is referred to by contemporary philosophers and neuroscientists as the ‘hard problem of consciousness’ famously described by David Chalmers in *The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory* (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996). [^34]: Al-Maturidi. *Ta’wilat Ahl al-Sunnah - Tafsir al-Maturidi*. Edited by Majdi Muhammad Surur Baslum. Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah 2005. Vol. 7, pp. 26-27. [^35]: Pinker, S. (2008, January 13). The moral instinct. *The New York Times*. Retrieved from, [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html) [^36]: Bloom, P. (2013). *Just babies: The origins of good and evil*. New York, NY: Broadway Books. [^37]: Garner, R. (2011). Morality: The final delusion? *Philosophy Now*, *82*, 18-20. [^38]: Harris, S. (2011). *The moral landscape: How science can determine human values.* New York, NY: The Free Press. [^39]: Harris, S. (2014 June 6). Clarifying the landscape: A response to Ryan Born. Retrieved from, [https://samharris.org/clarifying-the-landscape](https://samharris.org/clarifying-the-landscape) [^40]: Ibid. [^41]: Garner, R. (2011). Morality: The final delusion? [^42]: Hallaq, W. (2009). Groundwork of the moral law: A new look at the Qurʾān and the genesis of Sharīʿa. *Islamic Law and Society,* *16*(3/4), 239-279. [^43]: Pinker, S. (2008, January 13). The moral instinct. *The New York Times.* Retrieved from, [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html) [^44]: At-Tabari. *Jami’ al-Bayan fee Tafseer al-Quran*, Accessed [online](https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo%3D0%26tTafsirNo%3D1%26tSoraNo%3D3%26tAyahNo%3D83%26tDisplay%3Dyes%26UserProfile%3D0%26LanguageId%3D1). [^45]: Pinker, S. (2008, January 13). The moral instinct. *The New York Times*. Retrieved from, [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html) [^46]: This comes from the name of a character who engages with Socrates in the dialogue written by Plato. Euthyphro tells Socrates that he is attempting to prosecute his father over a crime, to which Socrates responds by interrogating Euthyphro regarding the definition of piety, and he enquires as to what makes a matter good and beloved to the gods. [^47]: Shahrastani, M. (1992). *Al-Milal wa Al-Nihal*. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al Kotob Ilmiyya, vol. 1, p. 88. [^48]: The Maturidi approach agreed with Mu’tazilah in epistemology but with the Ash’ari view in ontology. In other words, what determines whether an action is good or bad is nothing other than Divine instruction; however, God has rendered the intellect capable of recognizing the moral value of actions in some matters. Rudolph, U. (2014). *Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand*. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, p. 297. [^49]: Pinker, S. (2008, January 13). The moral instinct. [^50]: Ar-Razi, M. (1905) *Muhassal Afkaar al-Mutaqaddimeen wa al-Mutakhireen.* Cairo, Egypt: Al-Matba’ah Al-Husayniya, p. 148. [^51]: Ibid. [^52]: Johnston, D. (2004). A turn in the epistemology and hermeneutics of twentieth-century usūl al-fiqh. *Islamic Law and Society*, *11*(2), 233-282. [^53]: Abdul Jabbar, A.H. (2011). *Al-Mughni fee Abwaab at-Tawheed wa al-’Adl*. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar ul Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, vol. 9, p. 82. [^54]: Ibn Taymiyyah notes that the moral quality of some actions is rationally discernible; however, human accountability for those matters is contingent on receiving guidance from God. On the other hand, there are other matters which have no intrinsic moral quality but only become morally praiseworthy or blameworthy after the Divine command. Ibn Taymiyyah. (2005). *Majmu al-Fatawa*, Mansoura, Egypt: Dar Al-Wafa, vol. 8, pp 256-7. [^55]: Jawzi, I.Q. (2013). *Madaarij as-Saalikeen*. Al-Mansoorah, Egypt: Maktabah Fiyaadh, p. 197. [^56]: Nursi, S. (2013). *The words: The reconstruction of Islamic belief and thought*. Clifton, USA: The Light, Inc.,  p. 354. [^57]: Ibid. [^58]: Taymiyyah I. (1986). *Minhaj as-Sunnah*. Riyaadh, Saudi Arabia: Jami’ Al-Imam Muhammad Bin Sa’ud Al-Islamiyya,  vol. 1, p. 145. [^59]: Ibid., p. 146. [^60]: Taymiyyah, I. (1999). *Iqtidaa Seerat al-Mustaqeem.* Beirut, Lebanon: Dar ‘Aalim al-Kitab, vol. 2, p. 310. ## Summary Human beings stand in absolute need of Allah, as He declares: "O humankind, you are those that need Allah with much destitution, while Allah is The Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy" (Qur'an 35:15). Rather than treating belief in God as a mere hypothesis to be established through philosophical proofs and defended against the objections of atheist philosophers, an alternative approach conceives faith in God as a fundamental human need and an ontological necessity. Building upon the earlier recognition that human beings are first guided to God through the primordial spiritual intuition embedded within their nature, the deeper question concerns the ontological and epistemological framework that justifies that belief. That framework is this: faith in God is the anchorage of any meaningful conception of reality or of our lives. Faith is thus not merely a subjective feeling but the very bedrock of what constitutes meaning, encompassing three dimensions of human life identified by Muslim tradition and scholarship—the spiritual, the intellectual, and the moral. These dimensions are examined through the first-person perspective of phenomenology, rather than the detached third-person perspective, and this analysis demonstrates humanity's need for God regardless of whether one professes belief in Him. The reality of human need is central. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) opens his spiritual work Tareeq al-Hijratayn with the verse cited above, declaring that the human being's need of God is an essential existential reality, and that the voluntary recognition of one's destitution (faqr) before Allah is the most basic realization the soul must reach. Human behaviour is driven by the fulfilment of needs, a principle underlying Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which spans physical, social, and psychological needs. While Maslow's model is not without criticism, the notion that needs drive behaviour is undisputed and recognised across disciplines. Notably, Maslow's own amendment placed self-transcendence—living for something greater than oneself—beyond even self-actualisation. From the Islamic perspective, however, all human needs are fulfilled harmoniously through the all-encompassing pursuit of Tawheed, the affirmation of the Oneness of the Divine and the dedication of one's whole self to Him, rather than being met sequentially in a rigid order. A possible objection is that needing an idea does not prove its truth; yet this objection does not apply to God, because our need for Him extends beyond the moral, spiritual, and psychological into the intellectual—truth, logic, rationality, meaning, and even selfhood require faith in God to have grounding. A skeptic may respond that he is content to dispense with real notions of rationality, meaning, self, and morality, presuming existence to be pointless. The response is Qur'anic, resting upon choice: "Say: The Truth is from your Lord, whoever wants (to believe) let him believe and whoever wants (to disbelieve) let him disbelieve" (Qur'an 18:29). Yet to believe in meaninglessness is itself an incoherent absurdity, for the belief in meaninglessness is itself meaningless; thus, for a being that fathoms meaning, there is truly only the meaningful. The spiritual necessity of God concerns the need for value. Before a person can undertake the hardships of life, they need to know their life is worth living—a need Victor Frankl captured when observing that man's main concern is to see meaning in his life, being ready even to suffer if that suffering has meaning. Value is relative to a purpose, and so the value of one's life depends upon the ultimate purpose of life itself. Yet according to atheistic naturalism, the world emerged from blind material forces without purpose, and thus meaning and value become mere illusions. As Allah says, "And We did not create the heaven and the earth and that between them aimlessly. That is the assumption of those who reject faith" (Qur'an 38:27). This nihilism carries destructive practical consequences. In contrast, the believer whose life has purpose flourishes through trial, as the Prophet ﷺ described: "The example of the believer is like the fresh stalk... affected by hardships," while the disbeliever is like a rigid cedar that Allah cuts down when He wills. A coherent purpose requires four elements. First, transcendence: purpose is determined by the One who brought life into existence, not self-invented preference, which the Qur'an distinguishes as dhann (conjecture) versus haqq (truth): "they only follow dhann and what their egos desire" (Qur'an 53:23), and "dhann cannot compete with haqq at all" (Qur'an 10:36). Second, intention: life must have been willed, for lack of intention yields lack of purpose, and thus even Deism cannot ground meaning—"He created the heavens and the earth with the Ultimate Purpose (Haqq)" (Qur'an 16:3). Third, revelation: since only the Transcendent knows His intention, humans lack the epistemic authority (sultan) to discover their purpose without communication from Him (Qur'an 52:38; 37:154–157), and denying revelation renders purpose unknowable while diminishing God's Wisdom, Mercy, and Love (Qur'an 6:91). Fourth, permanence: purpose must have eternal consequences, grounded in resurrection and reckoning—"Then did you think that We created you uselessly...?" (Qur'an 23:115). These four requirements correspond to the articles of faith. Seeking value in fleeting relationships is inadequate, as Abu Bakr declared upon the Prophet's death: "Whoever worshipped Muhammad, know that he has died, but whoever worships Allah, then know that He is The Living and will never die." The firm handhold that never breaks is faith in Allah (Qur'an 2:256), and true worth is found in devotion to Him, for "I have not created Jinn and Humankind except for them to lovingly devote themselves through worship" (Qur'an 51:56). Ibn al-Qayyim described the heart's anxiousness that nothing calms except nearness to Allah, a hole that nothing but His love can fill. Faith is likened to a tree with firm roots and lofty branches (Qur'an 14:24–25), and the Prophet ﷺ said faith has "over seventy branches," the highest being the declaration of Tawheed and the least the removal of harm from the road. The intellectual necessity of God addresses how humans justify their beliefs. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) noted that every person prefers true beliefs over false ones. The Münchhausen trilemma shows that justifying any belief leads to infinite regress, unproven foundations, or circularity. Yet posing this trilemma itself presupposes concepts like truth, meaning, and justification. The Qur'an offers a teleological conception of truth, using haqq for both truth and purpose, and batil for both falsehood and purposelessness. Ibn Taymiyyah, drawing on the epistemology of the fitrah, identified certain primordial concepts—causality, quantity, morality, purpose—that the mind necessarily possesses and that cannot themselves require proof without collapsing into circularity or infinitism. Al-Alusi (d. 1270 AH) affirmed that no explanation is more meaningful, nor sign stronger, than the Islamic paradigm (Qur'an 45:6). Ibn al-Qayyim held in Madaarij as-Salikeen that knowledge of God is innate, not requiring proof, and that no messenger was sent to prove God's existence but rather to call to His worship and unity; indeed, he found it absurd to prove what is more obvious than any proof. Modern cognitive science, as noted by Kelly Clark, similarly regards belief in God as natural. Faith (Iman), linguistically connoting trust and security, is the most fundamental epistemic act—we must trust our senses and reason, for which there are no non-circular proofs. Prior even to this is trusting that the world is "about something," which is grounded in God's Divine Intention (Al-Qadar): "He created the heavens and earth with a purpose" (Qur'an 16:3). Without this, meaning, value, and selfhood become illusions of arranged particles. This is not a "God of the gaps" argument, for meaning is the very bedrock of ontology, an unbreakable metaphysical bond (Qur'an 51:23). Al-Maturidi (d. 333 AH) identified the intellect's own inscrutable nature, the signs in creation, and revelation as three means of recognising God. The moral necessity of God rests upon the innate moral instinct. Pinker, borrowing Chomsky's analogy, spoke of a universal moral grammar, and developmental psychology observes justice and compassion in infants—elements of the fitrah. Yet moral realism is incompatible with naturalism: if the world is blind forces, there is no "should," only amoral preference, as the atheist Richard Garner concedes in advocating moral abolitionism. Even Sam Harris admits moral truths and intuitions exist independent of science. Morality requires faith in a morally ordered universe (Qur'an 7:54; 55:7–8). Even Pinker resorts to platonic forms, which merely amounts to a supernatural source. From the Islamic view, moral virtues stem from the Divine Names and Attributes, and those who strive for them submit unknowingly to God (Qur'an 3:83). Regarding Euthyphro's dilemma—familiar to Islamic theology as Tahseen wa Taqbeeh, documented by Ash-Shahrastani (d. 553 AH)—the Ash'aris and Maturidis rooted morality in revelation (Ar-Razi, d. 606 AH), the Mu'tazila (al-Qadhi Abdul-Jabbar, d. 415 AH) in intrinsic values binding upon God, while Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim advanced a centrist view grounding morality ontologically in the Divine Names while affirming the fitrah's capacity to know good and evil, as Ibn al-Qayyim likened moral perception to taste and smell. Said Nursi observed that humanity is created to receive the manifestations of all Divine Names. God's commands are neither arbitrary—for He is defined by Hikmah and 'Ilm—nor externally compelled, since His attributes are part of His Being. Ibn Taymiyyah explained that His wisdom is teleological rather than etiological, avoiding infinite regress, and that Allah does whatever He wills (Qur'an 3:40; 22:18; 2:284), a Will characterised by wisdom, compassion, and justice (Qur'an 16:90; 7:29). Ultimately, no proof can render God more obvious than He already is to those who reflect upon their lived experience. Faith is a choice requiring courage and conviction: "Declare that the Truth is from your Lord. So whoever chooses, let him have faith and whoever chooses, let him repress faith" (Qur'an 18:29). We are compelled to faith by our very need, for a relationship with Allah fulfils our spiritual, intellectual, and moral needs alike, and there is no substitute for Him: "O humankind, you are those that need Allah with much destitution, while Allah is Free of need and Worthy of All Praise and Thanks" (Qur'an 35:15). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-meaning-of-allahs-name-as-samad-the-eternal-the-absolute # The Meaning of Allah's Name as-Samad: The Eternal, The Absolute **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Names of Allah, Paper, Publication **Published:** September 26, 2019 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. --- ## Prelude Each of us will encounter moments in our lives that remind us how inherently vulnerable we are as human beings. They may be moments of feeling paralyzed by our fears, beaten down by our weaknesses, or suffocated by our anxiety about the future. There may be an act of betrayal that causes us to realize just how fragile we actually are, or an imprudent decision we make that crushes our self-confidence for years, or a tragic event that erects a prison of depression around us. It is only in these moments, when the gift of desperation is delivered to our hearts, that we are reintroduced to the authentic version of ourselves; not the invincible image we choose to imagine in the mirror, or show in public, or are deluded to believe others see. It is in these moments, and through that reintroduction, that the arena is cleared to invite Allah’s name *aṣ-Ṣamad* into our hearts and minds. --- ## The meaning of aṣ-Ṣamad > ***Say, “He is Allah—the Uniquely One. Allah, aṣ-Ṣamad (the Eternal Refuge). He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there to Him any equivalent”*** (Qur’an 112: 1-4). *Aṣ-Ṣamad* is among Allah’s names of majesty and grandeur, rendering those who contemplate its meaning awestruck and filling them with reverence. It can also be included among Allah’s names of beauty and grace, for it stems from a deep recognition of God’s absolute perfection and fuels endless hope in His divine support. The origins of this name are the tri-letter verb *ṣa-ma-da* which usually denotes resorting to a superior[^1] to compensate for an inferiority. Arabs would only say *ṣamad-tu* (I resorted to) when the pursuit of that person or object was for some need they could not independently fulfill. In early Arabia, a tribal chief would be referred to as *aṣ-Ṣamad* since finalizing a decision was dependent on his authority. A warrior was called *aṣ-Ṣamad* when he could withstand not eating or drinking during battle, unlike the other fighters, because victory hinged on exhibiting this unique resilience. Therefore, at the core of Allah’s name *aṣ-Ṣamad* is the idea that He is sought for His unique perfection; it is His distinct nature that makes Him the ultimate compensation for every deficiency. This etymological dive helps us thread together the pearls when facing variant translations for *aṣ-Ṣamad* in English. Translators of the Qur’an chose a variety of terms to explain *aṣ-Ṣamad*, some of which highlight how Allah is inherently flawless, while others highlight how His creation intuitively seeks Him out to counteract a corresponding flaw they themselves, as created beings, possess. These interpretations are two sides of the same coin; were it not for Allah being the Absolute who never fails or lacks anything, He would not be uniquely longed for whenever a creature fails or lacks something. Therefore, *aṣ-Ṣamad* is the Eternally Sought (Pickthall) since it is natural that one who is finite anxiously turns to the Eternal (Yusuf Ali), the needy to the Self-Sufficient (Muhsin Khan), and the quivering to the Everlasting Refuge (Arberry). The great Companion, Ibn ‘Abbās (d. 687, may Allah be pleased with him), once defined *aṣ-Ṣamad* as, “The Master who is perfect in His mastery; the Honorable who is perfect in His honor; the Great who is perfect in His greatness; the Forbearing who is perfect in His forbearance; the Self-Sufficient who is perfect in His self-sufficiency; the Compeller who is perfect in His compulsion; the Knower who is perfect in His knowledge; the Wise who is perfect in His wisdom. He is the One who is perfect in every form of honor and mastery; He is Allah—the Glorified; this is His inherent quality which should only be attributed to Him.”[^2] Created beings may have some of these qualities, but not inherently nor fully. Whenever they exist in others, they have been partially and momentarily endowed by Allah. As for Allah (the Glorified and Exalted), He is *aṣ-Ṣamad*; Who has no cavity needing to be filled nor any reservoir needing to be refilled; Who never for a moment needs His creation, while every human and *jinn* needs Him at every moment; Who does not just outlive emperors and dynasties after they fall, but even the galaxies and universes once they perish. Ibn Manẓūr (d. 1311) reports all these linguistic inferences and more in his lexicon, *Lisān al-‘Arab*, from the earliest authorities.[^3] The Qur’an enlightens humanity to understand that Allah’s uniqueness (*aḥadiyya*) and perfection (*ṣamadiyya*) necessitate that He has no point of emanation that would negate His eternality, nor any parent or child who resembles or inherits Him, nor any peers that are comparable to Him. Allah says in *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ*, **“*Say, ‘He is Allah—the Uniquely One. Allah, aṣ-Ṣamad (the Eternal Refuge). He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there to Him any equivalent’*”** (Qur’an 112: 1-4). Imam Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328, may Allah bestow mercy on him) said about Allah not having any equivalent, “Even if the created being may be *ṣamad* from certain angles, the reality of *ṣamadiyya* does not exist in him, since he is subject to disunion and divisibility, and is also dependent on others—for everyone other than Allah is dependent on Him from every angle, while nobody is depended on for everything and is not dependent on anything except Allah (Blessed and Exalted be He).”[^4] --- ## The primordial anchor An intriguing aspect of Allah’s name *aṣ-Ṣamad* is its infrequent mention in the Qur’an; it appears only in that single context in *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ*. Perhaps this speaks to the fact that recognizing God as such is universal and instinctual, an integral part of every human’s nature and not reliant upon nurture. Geneticist Dean Hamer, the author of *The God Gene*, was among a wave of scientists who attempted to explain why belief in an unseen god seems to be hardwired in all human beings. But this inborn disposition does not end at believing in His existence, rather it includes us clinging to this supreme being with unexplainable confidence, one that many times only increases in strength with the severity of our trials. That phenomenon is called *ṣumūd*; the act of seeking out God with the realization that anchoring our optimism elsewhere is futile. Humans do not need scripture to recognize at some level the pre-installed function of *ṣumūd*. Authentic scripture protects from a faulty perception of God that impairs that function, and also perfects and augments that realization of His *ṣamadiyya*. But in the depths of our sometimes very different worldviews, all people share a core conviction about God that will never cease to breach the crust of social and cultural conditioning. That core conviction is that God is *aṣ-Ṣamad*: the worthiest object of our *ṣumūd*. Perhaps it is *ṣumūd* occurring in every atom of God’s created universe that deems it redundant to repeat the name *aṣ-Ṣamad* in Qur’anic verses. Allah has surrounded the human experience with towering waves of vulnerability so that we never forget that He is *aṣ-Ṣamad* and flee to Him. When the rainfall becomes scarce and delays the farmer’s crop, and all his ideas to improvise are expended, he is rattled by the thought of the season expiring before harvesting his family’s livelihood that year. In that state of heightened desperation, he finds himself scanning the skies for a cloud each morning, whispering in earnest: O God. When the pilot announces that the plane’s landing gear is stuck and we must brace for impact, people’s dreams about life, family, and happiness almost instantly disappear. Their terror drives them to the only thing more certain in their hearts than their looming end, and so they scream from within: O God, please. When you stand by your loved one at the hospital bed, watching powerlessly the staggered lines on the monitor, your soul fights to remain hopeful. But then their pulse declines further, their breathing gets quieter, and your heart sinks like never before. It is then that you forget the nurse’s name, and the doctor’s face evaporates from your mind, and all you can utter in your brokenness is: O Allah, be with them.[^5] [These are among the countless moments in life that force us to relearn that Allah is](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being) *aṣ-Ṣamad* and that, in reality, we have no option but *ṣumūd* to the only One truly in control. **“*Say, ‘In whose hand is the realm of all things—and He protects while none can protect against Him—if you should know?’*”** (Qur’an 23:88) A rhetorical question is presented in this verse as if to say: Why do you at times behave otherwise (equating others with God), when you know full well that Allah alone is the ultimate sanctuary? It is reported that Imam Ja‘far b. Muhammad (d. 765, may Allah bestow mercy on him) once said to a skeptic, “Have you sailed the seas?” He said, “Yes.” He said, “Tell me about the wildest thing that has happened to you \[at sea\].” The man said, “One day, powerful winds began to blow, destroying the ship and drowning its crew. I grabbed on to one of its planks, but I found myself tossed around by the violent waves and the plank was eventually lost. Somehow I was still delivered to the shore.” Ja‘far said, “Your reliance was upon the ship and sailors, and then on that plank. But when these things deserted you, did you surrender yourself to death or were you still hoping to survive?” He said, “No, rather I hoped to survive.” Ja‘far said, “Who did you hope in for survival?” The man fell silent. Ja‘far then said, “God is the One whom you were hoping in at that moment, and He is the One who spared you from drowning.” Allah (the Glorified and Exalted) captures for us this scene of instinctual *ṣumūd* repeatedly in the Qur’an; **“*And when adversity touches you at sea, forgotten are \[all\] those you invoke except for Him. But when He delivers you to the land, you turn away \[from Him\]. And ever is man ungrateful*”** (Qur’an 17:67). When rationalist René Descartes embarked on his intellectual journey, he quickly realized that unbridled skepticism would drown him in uncertainty. Descartes then sought an anchor, a safeguard that would ensure that our existence is real, as are our senses that perceive, as are our minds that process. How can we dismiss the possibility of us being merely a figment of an alien’s imagination, and what guarantee is there that our thinking is not manipulated by evil demons? Descartes was driven to conclude that *ṣumūd* was a fundamental necessity here, or else every mode of thought, investigation, and analysis would be pointless. His “I think therefore I am” proposition was adrift without this anchor, and nothing qualified to ground it but *aṣ-Ṣamad* Himself. In Descartes’ framing, God cannot be a deceiver because deception is an imperfection, and since He has equipped us with the faculties to arrive at certain truths, then we should, in that case, pursue truth. He says, > *...that the sun is of such and such a figure, etc., or which are less clearly and distinctly conceived, such as light, sound, pain and the like, it is certain that although they are very dubious and uncertain, yet on the sole ground that God is not a deceiver, and that consequently, He has not permitted any falsity to exist in my opinion which He has not likewise given me the faculty of correcting, I may assuredly hope to conclude that I have within me the means of arriving at the truth even here.[^6]* Without first conceding to our innate knowledge that *aṣ-Ṣamad* is the justification for our capacity to think straight, no rational arguments can follow. When a skeptic demands an explanation for God, when God is the explanation for us, they will never be able to escape circular reasoning and inconsistency. In this respect, God is *al-Ḥaqq* (the Truth), beyond which no truth can be possible, and without which the polemical acrobatics of any philosopher are incoherent child’s play. As Allah said, **“*Say, ‘Allah.’ Then leave them in their \[empty\] discourse, amusing themselves*”** (Qur’an 6:91). To counter a list of objections to faith, God instructs us in this verse to respond with just one word: Allah. It suffices on its own to silence life’s biggest lies and exposes every pseudo-intellectual theory. Prudent thinkers realize it is their indispensable philosophical stronghold, their refuge against ideological disarray, and their guarantee that the trojan horse of fancy language will never breach their defenses and invade their worldview. --- ## Devotion to as-Ṣamad ### Empty your heart of others [Our future will remain unknown to us, our resources will remain limited, our human nature will remain impatient, and hence Allah assured us that He is undoubtedly *aṣ-Ṣamad*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-hardship-and-in-ease-how-to-rely-on-god) so that we may lean on Him at every moment. He is not like those whose doors are open in the morning but closed at night. He is not like those who can defend you against smaller oppressors but only sympathize with you when it comes to tyranny’s juggernauts. He is unlike those who are agitated by our incessant requests, or exploit us for asking, or shortchange us upon delivery, or leave us guilt-ridden for taking without returning the favor. We should, therefore, empty our hearts of all others, for belief in *aṣ-Ṣamad* necessitates clarity on where we should turn when we aspire, how to escape the storms of confusion, and how to vanquish our insecurities with our heads raised high. **“*****So flee to Allah. Indeed, I (Muhammad) am to you from Him a clear warner*****”** (Qur’an 51:50). Emptying our hearts of other than *aṣ-Ṣamad* is not about becoming antisocial or disengaging from reality and resigning to apathy. Rather, it is about depending on Allah—the truest Reality—as we engage the physical world; not forgetting from where helpful people get their existence, specialists get their competence, and those who stand with us in solidarity get their courage and kindness. It is about us pursuing scholars for guidance, jobs for income, friends for companionship, and righteousness for salvation, while locking [our hearts only upon](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-iman-ihsan-climbing-the-spiritual-mountain) *aṣ-Ṣamad* to bring those to fruition. It is about *internally* recognizing that **“*the example of those who take allies other than Allah is like that of the spider who takes a home. And indeed, the weakest of homes is the home of the spider, if they only knew*”** (Qur’an 29:41). The spider’s web is a pathetic shelter on the brink of collapsing when nudged by almost any object or wind. The entire creation is similarly vulnerable in the face of every event, whether we perceive it as such or not, while *aṣ-Ṣamad* is unshakeable and remains so in even the most turbulent days. Whoever recognizes that within themselves, while engaging whichever physical means Allah has placed at their disposal, has a guarantee to never be disappointed by the One who named Himself *aṣ-Ṣamad*. Emptying our hearts of others is also not just about overattachment to people but also to the objects we assume are necessary for our happiness or wellbeing. It is Allah Who made the medicine effective, and so we will search for it, but trust that He can cure us without medicine if we cannot find it. It is Allah who made our homeland dear to us, so we will yearn for it, but are confident that He can make a foreign place just as dear if we cannot return home. When the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions were driven out of Mecca, the relocation to Madinah was grueling. The persecution of the Meccans had torn apart their families, expelling some and holding back others, and forced them to an unfamiliar place. Many of the Companions fell physically ill in the new climate and rumors began to spread that they were cursed. Others stood outside Madinah, reciting sorrowful poetry about the valleys of Mecca they longed for or staring at the horizon in hopes that their detained loved ones would somehow appear in the distance. After a yearlong saga of heartache, the Prophet ﷺ began saying, **“O Allah, make Madinah as beloved to us as You made Mecca, or more intensely so.”**[^7] Here, the Prophet ﷺ exhibited great humility by not demanding a return to Mecca, and profound *ṣumūd* by recognizing that God could afford them the health and happiness they once had in Mecca anywhere. Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ marveled at how Lūṭ عليه السلام fearlessly confronted the hostility of his nation all by himself, and say, **“May Allah’s mercy be upon Lūṭ; he would seek refuge in a strong support,”**[^8] meaning with Allah. Lūṭ  عليه السلام  had no tangible means of support but knew in the depths of his soul that if you have *aṣ-Ṣamad*, you have all you need. **“*If Allah should aid you, no one can overcome you; but if He should forsake you, who is there that can aid you after Him? And upon Allah let the believers rely*”** (Qur’an 3:160). ### Worship Allah Alone Humans are compelled to stop at God’s door for their ambitions, but sincerity lies in also making God their ultimate ambition. The oft-forgotten mission of desiring God, not just desiring from God, is replenished by *Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ* through its very title (*ikhlāṣ* = sincere devotion). Furthermore, its sole theme serves as the justifier for this; Allah’s uniqueness (*aḥadiyya*) and perfection (*ṣamadiyya*) necessitate His exclusive right to worship, and singling Him out in worship implies recognizing that about Him. Noncompliance with His exclusive right to worship implies not believing that He is uniquely perfect and that others also deserve a share of one’s devotional acts. As for those who concede to the reality of *aṣ-Ṣamad*, they see that veneration must be directed to Him Alone. Allah says, **“*Say, ‘Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds. No partner has He. And this I have been commanded, and I am the first \[among you\] of the Muslims.’ Say, ‘Is it other than Allah I should desire as a lord while He is the Lord of all things?’*”** (Qur’an 6:162-164) It is reported that when the Prophet ﷺ first met ‘Imrān b. Ḥuṣayn (may Allah be pleased with him), an elderly Bedouin, he said, **“How many gods do you worship today?”** He said, “Seven; six on earth and one in the heavens.” He said, **“Which of them do you depend on for your moments of hope and fear?”** He said, “The one in the heavens.”[^9] ‘Imrān soon embraced Islam, convinced that *aṣ-Ṣamad*, to Whom we resort in hope and fear, is the only One Who deserves lowering our heads to in prostration. Worshipping God should never be reduced to only the outward rituals such as prayer and sacrifice; these are the necessary physical manifestations of *adoring God within oneself* which is what worship is all about. Consider how amidst establishing the necessary *qibla* (direction) one must physically face for a valid prayer, Allah says, **“*And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you \[might\] turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing*”** (Qur’an 2:115). Even outside of prayer, whenever our lives demand we turn our heads or send our limbs in a necessary direction, a believer always perceives *aṣ-Ṣamad* as the single most valid *qibla* of his or her heart. Not only is this wise and His due right, but it is also humanity’s greatest need; the need to love the Divine and feel loved by Him, which Allah created within every soul. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350, may Allah bestow mercy on him) says about this, > *In the heart, there exists an anxiousness that nothing can calm but drawing nearer to Allah. And over it looms a loneliness that nothing can remove but experiencing His company in private. And in there exists a sadness that nothing can dispel but the joy of knowing Him and genuinely devoting oneself to Him. And in there exists a worry that nothing can reassure but focusing on Him and fleeing from Him to Him. And in there flare the flames of regret, and nothing can extinguish them but becoming content with His commands, prohibitions, destiny, and patiently gripping on to all that until the time it meets Him. And in there exists a pressing demand; it will not stop until He alone becomes its greatest pursuit. And in there is a dire need; nothing will satisfy it except loving Him, constantly remembering Him, and being sincerely devoted to Him. And if a person were given this entire world and all it contains, it would never fulfill that need.[^10]* [Finally, there is one particular act of ritual worship that beholders of *aṣ-Ṣamad* will naturally engage in, and that is *du‘ā*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection)*’* (supplication). The Prophet ﷺ taught us that **“*Du‘ā’* is the \[essence\] of devotional worship”**[^11] because *du‘ā’* is a testimony of one’s inability and Allah’s ability, and one’s confidence that *aṣ-Ṣamad* can quench every physical, emotional, and spiritual thirst. Some people wonder why make *du‘ā’* when Allah knows the situation, missing that while He knows everything, He loves to hear us whisper to Him in supplication, for it demonstrates our certainty in His presence and our trust in His decision and timing. That is why the Prophet ﷺ said, **“Nothing is more honorable with Allah than *du‘ā’*”**[^12] and that you should call upon Allah in prayer **“even for your sandal-strap when it rips.”**[^13] It is not about the object of the request, but the fact that Allah loves to witness your heart and tongue pulsating with *ṣumūd*, just as He hates the callous person who refuses to admit his needs or who turns to others for them but not to Allah. In one of many prophetic supplications that relegate every last affair of this world and the next to Allah, *aṣ-Ṣamad*, the Prophet ﷺ would say, **“O Allah, rectify for me my religion which is the stronghold of my affairs. And rectify for me my worldly life in which is my living. And rectify for me my hereafter in which is my return. And make life an increase for me in every good, and make death a relief for me from every evil.”**[^14] Illustrating the power of invoking Allah’s name *aṣ-Ṣamad* in particular, Miḥjan b. al-Adru‘ (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that Prophet ﷺ once heard a man say at the conclusion of his prayer, اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ يَا أَللَّهُ بِأَنَّكَ الْوَاحِدُ الصَّمَدُ، الَّذِي لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ، أَنْ تَغْفِرَ لِي ذُنُوبِي، إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ *Allāhumma inni as’aluka yā Allāhu bi-annak al-wāḥid uṣ-ṣamad, alladhī lam yalid wa lam yūlad wa lam yakun lahu kufuwan ahad, an taghfira ly dhunūbī, innaka antal ghafūr ur-raḥīm.* “O Allah, I ask You by virtue of You being *al-Wāḥid* (the One), *aṣ-Ṣamad* (the Absolute), who does not beget nor is begotten, nor is anyone comparable to Him—that you forgive my sins for me—for certainly, it is You Who are the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.” The Prophet ﷺ said upon hearing this, **“He has certainly been forgiven; he has certainly been forgiven; he has certainly been forgiven.”**[^15] ### Transcend morally People bolstered by *aṣ-Ṣamad* and desirous of Him above all else become morally incorruptible so long as those two factors remain within them. They transcend the lower appetites which dissuade most humans from their values, such as the appetites for fortune, fame, comfort, and longevity. Carnal desires fail at diverting the people of *sumūd* from the right path and the threats of tyrants fail at bringing those who take cover with *aṣ-Ṣamad* to their knees. When al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf arrested Sa‘īd b. Jubayr (d. 714, may Allah bestow mercy on him) for speaking against his tyranny, he made many attempts to frighten and demoralize the leading scholar of that age. All these attempts failed miserably, though Sa‘īd was ultimately executed, due to his unwavering conviction in Allah being *aṣ-Ṣamad*. While chastising Sa‘īd for his ‘insolence’ and open rebellion, al-Ḥajjāj said, “You are doomed,” to which Sa‘īd responded, “It is \[only\] someone else who knows the unseen,” meaning only Allah knows the future. Al-Ḥajjāj then said, “By Allah, I will replace your world with a blazing fire,” meaning you will now be executed and go straight to Hell. Sa‘īd retorted, “If I believed that this was in your control, I would not have worshipped anyone but you” and, “If you do this, you will ruin my worldly life and I will ruin your afterlife,” meaning triumph will still be mine. When the executioner set Sa‘īd b. Jubayr in place for beheading, he faced the *qibla* (direction of prayer) and recited, **“*I have turned my face toward He Who created the heavens and the earth*”** (Qur’an 6:79). This infuriated al-Ḥajjāj, but when he instructed them to turn his back to the *qibla*, Sa‘īd simply recited, **“*So wherever you \[might\] turn, there is the Face of Allah*”** (Qur’an 2:115). Al-Ḥajjāj finally instructed them to position him face-down, upon which he recited **“*From it (the earth) We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will extract you another time*”** (Qur’an 20:55). He was then slaughtered from behind. When news of this exchange reached al-Ḥasan al-Baṣri (d. 728, may Allah bestow mercy on him), he said, “O Allah; O Breaker of Tyrants, break al-Ḥajjāj,” and within three days worms had infected al-Ḥajjāj’s abdomen and killed him.[^16] When enviers of Imam Ibn Taymiya had him summoned before the sultan, he was told, “I have been informed that the masses listen to you and that you harbor a desire to usurp power \[from us\].” Ibn Taymiya responded to this charge of mutiny in a loud confident voice that could be heard by many of those present, “\[You think\] *I* would do that? By Allah, neither your kingdom nor that of all the Mongols is worth *filsayn* (two pennies) in my eyes.”[^17] On a different occasion, Maḥmūd Ghāzān, the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire, offered to rebuild Hiran for Ibn Taymiya and crown him its head of state. The Imam dismissed that proposal and made it clear that he had no interest in appeasing kings made of dust nor in being granted any of the dust beneath their feet.[^18] Just as a person who kneels to God does not bow before anyone else, they also are never enticed by material gains to be swayed from justice. They feel sufficed by Allah and are transformed by that into greats who can sacrifice in the shade of *aṣ-Ṣamad*, not pant after worldly offers, nor grovel at the feet of those offering them. Conscientious people see their own moral compromises as disgraceful and only compromise when no viable alternative seems possible. But when someone is acquainted with *aṣ-Ṣamad*, the dignified option is never absent. ### Support others Having strength to spare for bolstering others is another blessed byproduct of submitting to *aṣ-Ṣamad*. Being there for people physically, financially, emotionally, and intellectually is directly proportionate to the depth of our relationship with *aṣ-Ṣamad*, for only from Him can we find the resilience and surplus to help ourselves, then march onwards to uplift others around us, whether benefiting them during our lives or through the legacy we leave behind. Imam al-Ghazāli (d. 1111, may Allah bestow mercy on him) writes, “Whomever Allah (Most High) appoints as the aim of His servants in their worldly and religious concerns, and facilitates on his hands and tongue the needs of His creation, then He has favored him with a share of that \[divine\] attribute’s meaning. It is \[then\] upon him to adopt the traits of leadership so that he can be *maṣmūd* (resorted to), and his door \[can be\] *maqṣūd* (sought out). Hishām b. ‘Urwa narrates from his father, that he said, ‘I lived to see Sa‘d b. ‘Ubāda (may Allah be pleased with him) having an announcer who would call people to his home, and later lived to see his son Qays inviting others in a similar fashion.’”[^19] In other words, the generation of the Companions actualized the divine quality of *ṣamadiyya* as best as human beings can, by making themselves available for the unconditional service of others each day of their lives and instilling this virtue in their children as well. The Prophet ﷺ also told us that **“The most beloved people to Allah are those most beneficial to people”**[^20] and that **“if Allah wishes well for a person, He uses him \[for good\].”**[^21] Therefore, the characteristic of supporting others is not only made possible by our reliance on Allah, but also driven by our desire for the pleasure of Allah, and these two are the essence of *ṣumūd* as we earlier established. This explains why nobody could match the aid and healing extending by the Prophet Muhammad’s life and legacy: because nobody invoked God for strength like he did, nor was anyone ever as passionate a seeker of God’s pleasure as he was ﷺ. --- ## Conclusion Life often whispers to us, and sometimes screams at us, that we have a Master upon the Throne and that all we seek rests with Him. Let us receive those messages while attentive and lock the compass of our hearts upon Him. Let us realize that He sometimes causes us to lose some things so that we find the greatest thing—*ṣumūd* to *aṣ-Ṣamad*—so that we may remember His name, realize His power, rediscover His house, and recall what life while loving Him is like. May we always turn to *aṣ-Ṣamad* for all our needs and never swerve from that to reliance on any of His creation. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Ṣamada* and *ṣumūd* may at times entail the ability to withstand adversity; not seeking endurance externally but simply exhibiting it within oneself thereafter. Hence, Hans Wehr translates *ṣumūd* as “staying power” in his lexicon. [^2]: Collected by Ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabari in *at-Tafsīr* (24/736), Abu ash-Shaykh in *al-‘Aẓama* (96), and al-Bayhaqi in *al-Asmā’ waṣ-Ṣifāt* (98), with an authentic chain. [^3]: Ibn Manẓūr, *Lisān al-‘Arab* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṣādir, 1994), 3:258-259. [^4]: Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmū‘ al-Fatāwā* (al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah: Majmaʻ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʻat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 17:238. [^5]: Adapted from Dr. ‘Ali al-Fīfi’s bestseller, *لأنك الله (Because You are God)*. [^6]: Descartes, René, Elizabeth S. Haldane, and G R. T. Ross. *Philosophical Works: Rendered into English* (Cambridge: University Press, 1911), pp. 191-192. [^7]: Al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad b. Ismāʻīl, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (1889, 5677) (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002). [^8]: Al-Qushayrī, Muslim b. Ḥajjāj, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (151); (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), and *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (4537). [^9]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (3483) who graded it *ḥasan-gharīb*; Ibn Ḥajar graded its transmission *jayyid* (good) in *Tahdhīb at-Tahdhīb* (2/384), and Ibn al-Qayyim graded it *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) in *al-Wābil aṣ-Ṣayyib* (199), while al-Albāni considered it *ḍa’īf* (weak). [^10]: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, *Madārij al-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Iyyāka Na’budu wa Iyyāka Nasta‘īn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-Arabīyya, 1996), 3:156. [^11]: Collected in *Musnad Ahmad* (4/267, 271), *Sunan Abu Dāwud* (1479), *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2969), *Sunan an-Nasā’i* (11464), and *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (3828) with an authentic chain of transmission. [^12]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2684) and graded *ḥasan* (acceptable) by al-Albāni. [^13]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (3973) and graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by as-Suyūṭi in *al-Jāmi‘ aṣ-Ṣaghīr* (7544). [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2720). [^15]: Collected in *Musnad Ahmad* (4/338), *Sunan Abu Dāwud* (985), and *Sunan an-Nasā’i* (1225, 7618); narrated similarly in *Musnad Ahmad* (5/349) *Sunan Abu Dāwud* (1493, 1494) *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (3475), *Sunan an-Nasā’i* (7666) and *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (3857). [^16]: See: AbdulRaḥmān b. al-Jawzi, *al-Muntaẓam fi Tārīkh al-Mulūk wal-Umam*, vol. 7, years 95-136H. [^17]: Mar‘i al-Karmi, *al-Kawākib ad-Durriyya*, pp. 98-99 with adaptation. [^18]: Abu Bakr al-Bazzār, *al-A‘lām al-‘Aliyya*, p. 65. [^19]: Muhammad b. Aḥmad al-Qurṭubi, *al-Asnā fī Sharḥ Asmā’ Allāh al-Ḥusnā*, 1/186. [^20]: Collected by aṭ-Ṭabarāni in *al-Mu‘jam al-Awsaṭ* (6026) and graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by al-Albāni in *as-Silsila aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥa* (906). [^21]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2142) and graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) by al-Albāni. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. Among the majestic names of Allah is *aṣ-Ṣamad*, which appears in His words, "Say, 'He is Allah—the Uniquely One. Allah, aṣ-Ṣamad (the Eternal Refuge). He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there to Him any equivalent'" (Qur'an 112:1-4). It is a name of both grandeur and beauty, filling the one who contemplates it with awe and with hope. Linguistically, the name derives from the tri-letter root *ṣa-ma-da*, which denotes resorting to one who is superior in order to compensate for a deficiency. The Arabs would only say *ṣamad-tu* ("I resorted to") when seeking something they could not fulfill on their own. A tribal chief was called *aṣ-Ṣamad* because decisions depended on his authority, and a warrior who could endure hunger and thirst in battle was likewise called by this name, since victory hinged upon his resilience. At its core, then, the name signifies that Allah is sought for His unique perfection, and that His distinct nature makes Him the ultimate compensation for every deficiency in His creation. This etymology helps us reconcile the varied English renderings of the name. Some translators emphasized how Allah is inherently flawless, while others emphasized how creation instinctively seeks Him to counter its own flaws—two sides of a single truth. Were Allah not the Absolute who never fails or lacks, He would not be uniquely sought whenever a creature fails or lacks. Thus we find *aṣ-Ṣamad* rendered as "the Eternally Sought" (Pickthall), "the Eternal" (Yusuf Ali), "the Self-Sufficient" (Muhsin Khan), and "the Everlasting Refuge" (Arberry), each capturing an aspect of how the finite and needy turn to the Eternal and Self-Sufficient. The Companion Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 687, may Allah be pleased with him) defined *aṣ-Ṣamad* as "the Master who is perfect in His mastery; the Honorable who is perfect in His honor; the Great who is perfect in His greatness... He is the One who is perfect in every form of honor and mastery; this is His inherent quality which should only be attributed to Him." Created beings may possess some of these qualities, but never inherently nor fully, for whenever such qualities appear in others they have been partially and momentarily granted by Allah. He alone is *aṣ-Ṣamad*, who has no cavity needing to be filled, who never needs His creation for a moment while every human and jinn needs Him at every moment, and who outlives not only emperors and dynasties but the very galaxies and universes once they perish. Ibn Manẓūr (d. 1311) records these linguistic inferences from the earliest authorities in his lexicon *Lisān al-ʿArab*. Imam Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328, may Allah bestow mercy on him) explained that although a created being may be *ṣamad* from certain angles, the true reality of *ṣamadiyya* cannot exist in him, for he is subject to disunion and divisibility and depends upon others—while everything other than Allah depends upon Him, and He depends upon nothing. A striking feature of this name is its rarity in the Qur'an, appearing only in Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ. This may reflect that recognizing God as such is instinctual and universal, woven into human nature rather than dependent upon nurture. The act of seeking out God with the certainty that anchoring one's hope elsewhere is futile may be termed *ṣumūd*. Scripture does not create this disposition but rather protects it from distortion and perfects it. Allah has surrounded the human experience with waves of vulnerability so that we never forget He is *aṣ-Ṣamad* and flee to Him. The farmer scanning the sky for rain, the passengers on a failing aircraft, and the one standing at a loved one's hospital bed all find themselves crying out to Allah alone. As He says, "Say, 'In whose hand is the realm of all things—and He protects while none can protect against Him—if you should know?'" (Qur'an 23:88). It is reported that Imam Jaʿfar b. Muhammad (d. 765, may Allah bestow mercy on him) reminded a skeptic who nearly drowned at sea that the One in whom he had hoped for survival, after ship, sailors, and plank had all deserted him, was God Himself. This echoes the verse, "And when adversity touches you at sea, forgotten are [all] those you invoke except for Him" (Qur'an 17:67). Even the rationalist René Descartes, in seeking an anchor against total skepticism, was driven to ground certainty in God, reasoning that since God is not a deceiver, He has granted us the means of arriving at truth. As Allah instructs, when confronted with the objections of skeptics, "Say, 'Allah.' Then leave them in their [empty] discourse, amusing themselves" (Qur'an 6:91). Belief in *aṣ-Ṣamad* demands that we empty our hearts of all others. He is not like those whose doors open in the morning and close at night, nor those who tire of our requests or exploit our need. "So flee to Allah" (Qur'an 51:50). This emptying is not withdrawal from the world but reliance upon its true Reality while engaging its means—pursuing scholars for guidance, work for provision, and friends for companionship, while locking the heart upon Allah alone to bring these to fruition. "The example of those who take allies other than Allah is like that of the spider who takes a home. And indeed, the weakest of homes is the home of the spider" (Qur'an 29:41). When the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions were driven from Mecca and suffered illness and homesickness in Madinah, he did not demand a return but supplicated, "O Allah, make Madinah as beloved to us as You made Mecca, or more intensely so." And he ﷺ said of Lūṭ (peace be upon him), "May Allah's mercy be upon Lūṭ; he would seek refuge in a strong support," meaning Allah, for "if Allah should aid you, no one can overcome you" (Qur'an 3:160). Yet sincerity lies not only in desiring *from* God but in desiring God Himself, which is the very meaning of *ikhlāṣ*. His uniqueness and perfection necessitate His exclusive right to worship: "Say, 'Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah'" (Qur'an 6:162-164). When the Prophet ﷺ asked ʿImrān b. Ḥuṣayn (may Allah be pleased with him) which of his gods he relied upon in hope and fear, he answered, "The one in the heavens," and soon embraced Islam. Worship is fundamentally the adoration of God within the heart, of which outward rituals are the manifestation—"So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah" (Qur'an 2:115). Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350, may Allah bestow mercy on him) described the anxiousness, loneliness, and dire need within the heart that nothing can satisfy except loving Allah and devoting oneself to Him, which the whole world and all it contains could never fulfill. Foremost among the acts of the people of *ṣumūd* is *duʿāʾ*, which the Prophet ﷺ called "the [essence] of devotional worship," saying, "Nothing is more honorable with Allah than duʿāʾ," and instructing us to ask Him even for a broken sandal-strap. Miḥjan b. al-Adruʿ (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that when a man supplicated by Allah's names *al-Wāḥid* and *aṣ-Ṣamad* for forgiveness, the Prophet ﷺ said, "He has certainly been forgiven," repeating it thrice. Those anchored by *aṣ-Ṣamad* also transcend the lower appetites and the threats of tyrants. When al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf threatened Saʿīd b. Jubayr (d. 714, may Allah bestow mercy on him) with fire, Saʿīd replied that if he believed this lay in al-Ḥajjāj's control, he would have worshipped none but him. Facing execution, he recited, "I have turned my face toward He Who created the heavens and the earth" (Qur'an 6:79), and when turned from the qibla, "So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah" (Qur'an 2:115). Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣri (d. 728, may Allah bestow mercy on him) supplicated against al-Ḥajjāj, who died within three days. Likewise, Ibn Taymiya declared that neither the sultan's kingdom nor that of all the Mongols was worth two pennies in his eyes, and rejected Ghāzān's offer to crown him ruler of Hiran, for he had no interest in kings made of dust. Such strength overflows into the service of others. Imam al-Ghazāli (d. 1111, may Allah bestow mercy on him) noted that whomever Allah appoints to meet His creation's needs is granted a share of this attribute's meaning, becoming one who is *maṣmūd*—resorted to—as were Saʿd b. ʿUbāda and his son Qays. The Prophet ﷺ taught, "The most beloved people to Allah are those most beneficial to people," and that "if Allah wishes well for a person, He uses him [for good]." Thus life continually reminds us that we have a Master upon the Throne, and that we should lock the compass of our hearts upon *aṣ-Ṣamad* and never turn from Him to reliance upon any of His creation. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/muslims-collective-amnesia-of-the-ottoman-past-and-why-we-should-reclaim-our-history # Muslims’ Collective Amnesia of the Ottoman Past—and Why We Should Reclaim Our History **Author:** Dr. Yakoob Ahmed **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 19, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 Bismillah-ir-rahman-ir-rahim[^1] --- ## Abstract The Ottoman dynasty, which emerged as a small *beylik* in Asia Minor after the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the fifteenth century, became a major world power that not only shaped West Asia but Europe as well. By the sixteenth century it became a Caliphate which in this period was known as a ‘golden age’ of Ottoman history. However, by the eighteenth century it was depicted as a dynasty in decline and by the nineteenth century it was presented as the ‘sick man of Europe’ that finally was abolished in 1342/1924 and the successor state became known as the Turkish Republic. Much of what has been written regarding Ottoman history has been shaped by ideology, narrative, and language either within academia or by the nation-states that emerged from the Ottoman domains. While many of these narratives are starting to be revised, nonetheless general Muslim engagement (outside academic circles) in knowledge production about the once\-powerful Islamic dynasty still continues to lag. While interest has started to increase, it will be argued that there is a need for more Muslim voices to study history in general, and Ottoman history more specifically, so that a plurality of views from within the Muslim worldview can be represented.[^2] --- ## Introduction Every year, when I meet new students who take my history or Ottoman history classes, I always start by asking a set of questions about why history should matter to Muslims. Do we need more Muslim historians of Islam and Muslims? Do we need Muslim historians who can write about any moment in history, whether about Islam or not? What is the role of the historian apart from presenting the past? What about the present and the future? Do historians have any role in speaking about anything apart from the past? Is there a distinct way that Muslims should be writing history, especially their own? Has the history of Islam stopped, or do we still belong to a world where there is a large corpus of Islamic history to be written in the future? Lastly, can history be written from an Islamic perspective? My students are often taken aback by these questions, as that is not what they expect during the first class of Ottoman history. While Ottoman history is a staple in Turkey (where I live and work), over the past few years I have come to realize that, while Muslims are globally starting to show increasing interest in Ottoman history, they nevertheless know very little regarding the six hundred years of Muslim rule in the Balkans, West Asia, and parts of Africa, furthermore they know even little of the changing ideological trends that are taking place in the writing of Ottoman history. To my students from the Americas, Europe, or say other parts of the Muslim world, I have started asking additional sets of questions: why should Ottoman history in particular matter to you? Should you study Ottoman history? Can it be instructive to your lives? Is Ottoman history simply a history of the Turks or is it part of the vast corpus of Islamic history? Before I even begin teaching a class on the subject, my hope is to get my students to think and reflect. This essay has three main segments. The first asks the question of whether history can be written from an Islamic perspective that can be instructive for Muslims. The second examines some of the conceptual challenges that exist regarding the writing of history in general and Ottoman history more specifically and asks whether these conceptual notions can be challenged. Finally, the essay provides a brief historical narrative of the Ottoman world in an attempt to introduce the reader to the complex nature of Ottoman history and some of the challenges historians face. The historical narrative section is not a comprehensive study but simply an overview in the hope that the reader is aware that there are a series of more detailed studies on any given specialized period or topic that for obvious reasons can not be discussed in detail in this paper; such is the vastness of the corpus of work written on Ottoman history. But the hope is that this paper can establish a discussion in which more Muslims will feel invested in the study of Islamic history, especially Ottoman history. --- ## Do Muslims have anything to contribute? So, how do we, as Muslims, practice history and what can we contribute to Ottoman studies? Apart from learning the shared experiences, traditions, and memories it must be emphasized that Muslims need to be able to write about the past from their worldview. The well-known works of early Islamic history were written from an Islamic perspective and catered to an Islamic worldview: for Muslims, by Muslims. It is important that Muslims contribute to detailed in-depth works in the same vein, to reflect how they see the world, their role in it, and how they are part of a discursive tradition, not mere disinterested observers. In order to have a Muslim worldview when writing about the past, it is important to prioritize our worldview and what is central to it: our beliefs regarding this world, humankind, our values, our purpose, and that which is to follow.[^3] If Islam is a worldview that provides answers it should be able to inform not just our duties regarding religious rituals and our relationships with others, it should also inform our politics, our ethics, our morality, and the way we attain and interpret knowledge. Indeed the history of Muslims is not a perfect one. Muslims have made (and will continue to make) mistakes and have even committed crimes. Some may want to emphasize how the Ottomans or any other Muslim may have moved away from the morality of Islam and how we should judge such actions. But we need to be careful not to judge people of the past by the moral standards by which we judge the world today. Instead, we must first make a distinction between the history of Islam and the history of Muslims’ actions. At times these themes may be inseparable as Islam is what gives Muslims their name and identity; nonetheless, judging Islam by the actions of Muslims is a problem of restricting Islam to the disposition of people. To some degree, this method is like focusing on the brushstrokes of the artist on a painting, rather than taking a step back and examining the painting as a whole—people often get lost in the details rather than looking at the bigger picture. When examining Islam, its civilization, or the Ottomans who reigned for six centuries, it is important to first distinguish between the acts of people and what Islam permitted; and secondly, it is important to view a narrative in its entirety. Muslims need not be partisan, but they need to be aware of the units of examination they use when making judgments of Muslims and their past actions. Western academia stresses the importance of rationality when studying the past; the Islamic worldview also promotes rationality, but from its own tradition, a point worth stressing when making judgments of how to write about Islam and Muslims in history. Islam should be examined from its own framework and the Islamic past should be judged by a framework established by the Islamic tradition, even if this framework requires adjustment. Islam’s worldview is rational, its *aqeedah* is rational, and we abide by that which it ordains and we enable that which it permits, facilitating a comprehensive view of this life and the hereafter. The Qur’an and the Sunnah shape this worldview. As a result, the *aqeedah* must be understood so that we know how we establish an Islamic worldview and how knowledge comes from it or interacts with it. Once this is understood, the Qur’an ought to be the manual that Muslims turn to in order to place knowledge in its rightful place; the Qur’an as the heart of the Islamic worldview should drive the way in which Muslims attain and produce knowledge. In that sense, I argue that even when writing about the past, there are lessons we can take from the Qur’an, which I shall later explain. For a Muslim historian, it is not simply a matter of upholding Qur’anic principles that is important when writing but understanding how we are placed relative to what people have done in the past. While not important in Western academia, I would stress that for the Muslim, the Qur’an as a template should influence how we view ourselves and write about our past; it was certainly central to how Muslim scholars viewed the world and how they wrote about it. Thus, before addressing the need to study Ottoman history, I would like to stress how the Muslim historian should view the writing of history differently than how it is often viewed in the contemporary world. The great Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun, when writing his monumental work the *Muqaddimah*, stressed in the opening section—the *kitab al-Ibar*—the need for history writing in Islam. The writing of history was not new for Muslim societies as from the inception Muslim scholars documented the past in great detail, whether it was the *hadith*, the biographies of the *hadith* transmitters, or the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ known as the *seerah*. For Ibn Khaldun, history writing was a natural product of any given civilization and Muslims writing about their past were no different than the people who had come before. However, where Ibn Khaldun was exceptional was in his attempts to explain the necessity of writing history for future generations and why Muslims in particular were required to do so in order to maintain Islam as a civilization. For Ibn Khaldun, the writing of history was to establish that which was the truth, or at least come closer to it, a principle of Islam that every Muslim and scholar should subscribe and aspire to. It was this search for the truth that saw Ibn Khaldun stress that the writing of history ought to be part of the Islamic sciences and tradition; he argued that history writing was in fact an aspect of philosophy. While there are indeed strict criteria regarding the study of the Qur’an and Sunnah, Ibn Khaldun’s concern, shared by this author, was that the same type of scholarly vigor can be found wanting when studying history. In fact, in a world where information is so easily misrepresented, now more than ever, the study of the past is susceptible to manipulation, misinformation and, at times, outright untruths.[^4] Muslims have built their identities, worldview, and traditions from what has come before them. While the Qur’an as a book has survived the test of time due to its divine nature, the history writing of the Islamic past has not. This is indeed natural as any comparison between the Qur’an and history writing are somewhat unfair. However, the point is to stress how history can be manipulated, to compromise not only the past, but how Muslims in the present view themselves in relation to that past. In that sense, like time travelers, historians may alter a narrative of the past that is bound to have consequences for people in the present. The need to understand history is important. No doubt the average person who takes an interest in history doesn’t view history as part of a larger ideological project. However, it would be to the detriment to the Muslim community if the writing of history, whether Islamic or not, was described as simply events written for our own entertainment. Like Ibn Khaldun, I stress that the writing of history is related to power, and how identity, tradition, and memory are narrated. As a result, it is important to know who the narrative is written by and whose history is being made and why, and here I don’t simply mean an individual, but more importantly from which form of power, whether that be a nation, institutional body, or value system.[^5] For Ibn Khaldun, history was about human social organization; thus, the reader must be aware of the bias of the author’s truth-claims regarding the events and narratives that they present. This bias can come from the individual or from the corpus of knowledge that they belong to as no knowledge is neutral. In today’s world I would say this bias stems from a worldview that attempts to dictate not only what Islam was but what Islam ought to be. In order to establish what is truth and be able to deconstruct bias, the historian requires an understanding of the Islamc worldview and must acquire the tools to be able to undertake a study of the past. The study of history requires the ability to read numerous sources and gain a great amount of knowledge about various subject areas. These include knowledge of a people’s customs and traditions, the fundamentals of their politics, and the nature of how those societies organize themselves. It thus requires Muslims to be able to write from the inside about their worldview, free of the traps of bias, misinterpretation, and partisanship.[^6] Today the majority of works written about Islamic history are produced within the corridors of Western academia, published in Western journals and/or by Western book publishers who no doubt are impacted by the culture of print capitalism. Today Muslims need truth seekers of the past, as much of their past is under extreme scrutiny which can lead the global Muslim community to feel insecure about Islam. If a single author was to misrepresent Islam or an event, moment, or people in Islamic history, this is far easier to address. But today’s writing of history is part of a larger institutional structure in which meta-narratives are established that are assumed to be truth. The machine of history writing in the academic environment represents a form of power that has yet to be replicated by Muslims in the writing of their own history, leaving them exposed to a host of blind spots, and at times outright untruths. That is not to say that Muslims are not studying in academic spaces where they can challenge such claims, but from the epistemology of academic writing, Muslim works very rarely, if ever, are written for the Muslim to provide their life some meaning regarding their past. It is for this reason I stress that whenever any Muslim historian writes that they write from a place that is from their *aqeedah* (creed), in conformity with it, and attempts to establish the principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah in the form and content of what they write. While it may sound strange for the Muslim historian that I am stressing that the Qur’an should be the center of how we write history, I do so because, like Ibn Khaldun, I argue that history and its writing should come from a place in which we must establish the truth and know the past better, that the past must be relatable and instructive in the way the Qur’an is, and that we internalize the Qur’anic principle of establishing that which is true over that which is false. --- ## The Qur’an matters What lessons can we learn from the Qur’an itself? It is from this point—before even opening any book on Ottoman history—that I start my classes. There is no doubting that, as an *ummah* and part of the human race, there is much to learn from past events. Allah (SWT) Himself continues to remind us of events in the past in an instructive manner. The narratives in the Qur’an are fundamentally instructive; they teach us values, ideals, and how previous civilizations before us came and went. In that sense, no matter how much we may assume that the modern world is the pinnacle of human civilization, it is merely a stage in human history, a stage that too will eventually end. Some of the narratives are of prophets and others of ordinary people, but what is interesting is that the Qur’an continues to stress the need to “remember” events, peoples, and civilizations of the past, even though we may have no collective memory of those events. This is because the Qur’an wants us to remember the past; as a result, a fundamental goal of understanding one’s own history is not to forget. We must examine our world, our textbooks, buildings, monuments, and traditions so that we do not forget that the Islamic tradition is a rich one, one that has many moments of inspiration but also moments of pain and suffering. Our memories should not simply stretch to what has happened in the immediate past, but beyond. This indicates that with some level of scrutiny of the past, despite the claims of the exceptional nature of modernity, human beings haven’t ‘progressed’ much apart from their technological capacity and that the essence of human beings is one that will remain the same until the end. Thus, the Qur’an constantly reminds us that the people of the past and their experiences do indeed matter. While not a history book, the Qur’an is a book of authority and so many of the narratives presented in it such as the story of the Prophet Yusuf عليه السلام or the seven sleepers, for example, are signs of the truth. The Qur’an, more importantly, is a key part of the biography of our Prophet ﷺ as on many occasions Allah (SWT) mentions aspects of the Prophet’s life, character, attributes, and events he ﷺ experienced. In fact, so much of the Qur’an is a response to a host of events in the Prophet’s life that to not read his *seerah* alongside the Qur’an does a disservice both to his biography and to one’s understanding of the context in which the Qur’an was revealed. These narratives should matter to us, and one of the interesting things about the Qur’an is the manner in which they are told. The way in which the Qur’an recounts the past is to help the readers (and listeners) imagine it and place themselves in those situations. In showing how history needs to be instructive, the Qur’an highlights the importance of teaching and transmitting history in a manner that is relatable. The manner in which history is told is, thus, just as important as the information given. What is also interesting in the Qur’an is the manner in which it approaches the concept of time. The Qur’an is not linear, disrupting our sense of time and reminding us of both the past and the future. Because of the way it is collated, it jumps from the past to the future, connecting the two. As an *ummah* then, it is necessary to learn from past events and peoples to enable us to imagine possible futures.[^7] The past of the Muslim starts with the Prophet Adam عليه السلام—some may argue even before—and ends with our final destination *in sha Allah* in Heaven. As Muslims, then, we believe that we do not only live once, but instead only die once, with this life geared towards the hereafter. Time and place for us are in some ways not linear, to be spent only in this world, but take on an otherworldly dimension too. This needs to be taken into consideration when writing the history of Islam for Muslims, especially how Muslims placed themselves in the timeline of history from the Islamic worldview, constantly linking the past and present together so that we can ‘remember’ the past and ‘imagine’ our future. It is my hope that these simple points are indeed internalized when Muslims study their own past, as the actuality of humanity is not one of mere existence that is to be objectively studied. For us, the existence of humanity is fundamentally one about worship and we should view the world with its success and mistakes in order to better engage in worship. It could be argued, as S. Parvez Mansoor has stressed, that current writers continue to view themselves and the past through a ‘secularized consciousness,’ and it might be important to ask whether there is indeed a different way that Muslims can write their history, and whether the Qur’an can be a central point in the manner in which we think when writing for ourselves.[^8] Thus, the notion of imagining the future is as much a matter of knowing our past from a particular viewpoint irrespective of how much we perceive the world to have changed.[^9] It is thus worth investigating how Muslims of the past identified with Islam in their lives. How did Muslims in the past locate themselves, not only in terms of the time they lived in but also in relation to the past, and how did they perceive their future? While there is evidently a large corpus of work regarding the formative period of Islam, Ottoman studies tends to lack the same level of attention and rigor within Muslim circles. Why has this happened, and is there anything meaningful we can learn from the Ottomans, just as we are encouraged to learn from prior peoples? --- ## Challenging approaches to the teaching and learning of Ottoman Studies Much of what I have just explained may seem quite straightforward, but I often receive surprising answers to the very same questions by my students—most of whom admit that they had never really thought about these questions. My reply to that is always that it is not too late to start. So now that I have stressed the need to examine whether as Muslims we can write Islamic history differently, I will now explain why Ottoman history matters.[^10] There are two main points that I would like to stress regarding the study of Ottoman history. The first is what I feel is a lack of intellectual investment by Muslims, by and large, regarding the understanding of Ottoman history and how students approach it. Second is the problematic manner in which Ottoman history is taught both in Western academia and Muslim seminaries. A purpose of this essay is to also provide a historical overview of the Ottoman world, but it almost equally aims to encourage reflection on the Ottoman past. What can we learn from it, and how can Muslims from the various backgrounds making up this *ummah* help write about the Ottoman past? I believe that, by beginning to do so, we can attain a more rounded and layered understanding of the Islam within Ottoman studies that has been fundamentally marginalized. While there are indeed numerous scholars who write about the various Islamic aspects of Ottoman history, I would like more Muslims to take part in writing and understanding it. Much like the rest of the history of Islamic civilization, our engagement with the Ottoman past needs to be a continuous dialectic conversation among Muslims throughout the world. As a lecturer of history in a theology department, I can safely say that a collective amnesia has set in the minds of Muslims regarding the last Caliphate of the Muslim world, a Muslim dynasty that ruled provinces across three continents until the early twentieth century. History as a vocation is not a priority for many students who study Shariah or Islamic studies, even though much of what they study is indeed interconnected with the Islamic past. Additionally, one can imagine the lack of investment in the study of history by students pursuing fields such as the sciences, engineering, and even political science. History, which was perceived as a vocation that created intellectuals and thinkers in Western societies, was also part of the Islamic educational curricula as many works on Islamic history used to be written by the *ulema*. However, in both the West and Muslim circles, there tends to be a tendency to study the sciences, technology, and business over the humanities, with even fewer Muslims perceiving the humanities as a suitable career option, as most lifestyle choices are based on practical concerns of how to attain a sustainable income. However, while that may be the case in the academy, there has been an increase in the number of Muslims wanting to know more about the Ottoman past, which suggests that things are not all doom and gloom.[^11] The reason why the writing of history is important, however, is that Muslims may lose agency and control over the way their past is told. Rather than coming from a position of owning their identity, tradition, and past, instead their identity, traditions and past will become dictated to them. The amnesia will lead to a host of untruths of the past, but furthermore will create disjointed breaks regarding the tradition. If Islam is to be categorized as a discursive tradition,[^12] then any changes regarding the narratives of key milestones impacts the way that we view ourselves today. This point is important when examining the Ottoman past, as six centuries of history of Muslims, in Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa are either forgotten or misunderstood. The Ottoman world was multi-ethnic, a world in which the Islamic tradition, in conjunction with the various Islamic authorities, evolved, changed, and reformed over time. In particular, understanding how Islam, the Shariah, the evolution of the Islamic sciences and more importantly authority functioned is important in recognizing whether the Ottomans had, in fact, started to move away from the Islamic tradition. As stressed, if Islam is indeed a discursive tradition, then our learning of Islam surely should not end after the collapse of the Abassids, and in fact should at least continue until the end of the Ottomans in 1342/1924 when a host of Islamic institutional structures still existed. Thus, while practical concerns are indeed important when life choices are being made, it is imperative however that in the community there is a culture that supports the study of intellectual discourse, as the community’s identity depends on it. I have often been asked by Muslims why should Ottoman history matter. While I understand such a question, it is my opinion that the premise of the question is incorrect. The Islamic past is not race-, time-, or geography\-specific. Our intention is to establish as Muslims what we can learn from our past as a collective and where mistakes were made. It is about understanding the context and narrative so that we may, as a collective, take meaning from them. The fact that so much of today’s Islamic revivalist discourse has emerged from the Ottoman past should indicate to us that we are still invested in the actions of the past and that they continue to impact our lives today. It wasn’t only Ibn Khaldun who stressed the importance of the study of history within the Muslim community; the famous Muslim thinker Mohammad Iqbal[^13] made the same case and, more recently, on a trip to Malaysia I heard in a presentation by the Muslim scholar Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas that it is necessary for the Muslim community to produce scholars and thinkers who produce works on Islamic history as this is as much about the existence of Islam in the minds of Muslims as it is simply a scholarly endeavor. There are two main ways in which Muslims learn about the Ottoman past. The first is from works produced in academia and the second are works written in Muslim seminaries, often written by the *ulema*, who include imams, preachers, and so forth. By and large, most of the investment regarding Ottoman history comes from either Western academia or Turkish academia, which has meant that, within seminary circles, Ottoman studies still continue to lack a space in which it can be taught appropriately. This is even more concerning because the Ottomans existed for six hundred years and were a Caliphate for at least four hundred, during which time there was much knowledge production. This, at times, has facilitated a wedge between Muslims who study Ottoman history in Western academia and those who study in Muslim seminaries. It is imperative in my view that we attempt to bridge this gap. Over time, I have come to notice that, when talking about the immediate past, the *ulema* either no longer feel comfortable or don’t have the specialized skills to address the ideologically driven narratives that are being presented in the books of Western academia or the Western media. I do not blame the *ulema* for this oversight as I recognize that in the era of specialization that Ottoman history may not be of priority over other subject areas. While the *ulema* may have forsaken the writing of Ottoman studies, it can equally be stressed that Western academia reflects what Mansoor calls ‘secular consciousness’ when viewing the Islamic past. A recent phenomenon, mainly due to Turkish TV shows, has seen a relative increase in seminarians giving talks and tours on the Ottomans. However, while it is welcome that talks, lectures, and tours are undertaken by sincere scholars of religion as a way of maintaining a link to our past, tradition, and heritage, very little practice is undertaken in the way of archival research, scrutiny of secondary literature, or the problems of narrative construction. Some may say that these things are not important for most people who want to learn about the past, which I understand, as most Muslims simply want to gain knowledge in any given subject and do not wish to scrutinize dates, data, and ideologically driven narratives. However, the same cannot be said about the one who is the agent of providing the information. If we are thorough about early Islamic history, then I would request that the same level of care and diligence is taken regarding Ottoman history. I hear the community when they say that most academics tend to have difficulties engaging a Muslim audience. Nonetheless, while that may be the case for some, by and large as a community we need to work together to find cohesive ways of making our past relevant to the present and the future. When history is taught either as a set of dates, overcomplicated data, or narratives of a glorified past, I can understand why many choose to not engage with it. When history is taught in this manner, there is no doubting that most end up bored, before a class is even taught. It can then come as no surprise that Turkish TV shows on Ottoman history such as *Diriliş Ertuğrul* and *Payitaht Abdülhamid* have become popular, not only with my students in the classroom but worldwide. But fundamentally what I have learned is that students and people are mainly engaged with history when they start to appreciate why it should matter to them. And it is my hope that I can explain why it should. --- ## The challenges of ideology, narrative, and language With academia leading the way regarding the writing of the Ottoman past, it is important to understand what is being done so that Muslims can study Ottoman history from their own worldview. There are three main issues that we must take into consideration when examining the Ottoman past. Before even looking at specific events, which is how Muslims have usually chosen to study history, it is important to view three main issues that are far more important: ideology, narrative, and language.[^14] As thinkers such as Parvez Mansoor, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas and Ziauddin Sardar have suggested, ideology or worldview is important in the way Islamic history is studied. In particular, I would stress that Ottoman history primarily has been viewed from Orientalist or nation-state perspectives that framed the Ottoman past within an ideological paradigm.[^15] Orientalism was one of the most divisive tools used in Western academia to shape and frame particular narratives of the Ottoman past—narratives that continue to resonate in the Western press and some academic circles until today.[^16] While some academics have chosen to revise some of the narratives that emerged from the ideological paradigms of writing the Ottoman past, these were still perceived as internal criticisms within the larger framework of the ideology.[^17] When teaching many of my international Muslim students, it continues to surprise me that, while many of them have read the works of Edward Said, they nonetheless choose not to apply his criticisms to the field of Ottoman studies. It may be, as Wael Hallaq has recently stressed, that maybe Said didn’t go far enough in his criticism of Orientalism. Or maybe, as Hallaq has implied, Said was working within the same ideological paradigm.[^18] Thus, ideology often facilitates narrative construction. Narrative construction is to some degree the fluid intellectual machinery that creates a theme where the narrative does not require a dominant argument, nor gains dominance by the strength of the argument, but rather it is a series of claims repeated over and over by power. In the case of the Ottomans, it was Western academia and the nation-states who asserted this power. While not as restrictive as, say, ideology, narrative construction is, however, an equally powerful tool of creating perceptions of people and their value systems, where very little scrutiny is undertaken to check its validity. What is necessary to ask is: where is the truth in the narrative? In particular, Orientalist discourse has done much to create a narrative of Muslims and Islam that has become so deeply entrenched that it is rarely questioned. In the Ottoman case, narratives of Ottoman decline, Westernization,[^19] and secularism[^20] require further attention within Muslim circles, as these narratives collectively consolidated the notion that Islam had been lacking within the Ottomans domains throughout their history, a notion that has only recently started to be robustly questioned within Western academic spaces.[^21] It is fair to argue that, while there is considerable academic debate regarding many of the above-mentioned narratives, this type of vigor has yet to be seen within Muslim circles, especially as collectively these narratives created a larger meta-narrative that questions Islam’s place and contribution in the world for the last six hundred years and has successfully left behind a host of ingrained assumptions. Unpacking such narratives will be a long, drawn-out process that requires much investment from Muslims worldwide. What is required first, however, is for Muslim students to understand what the prior narratives were and how they are being challenged to understand how they place themselves within both the ideologically driven narratives and the subsequent responses to them. Thus, the fluidity of narratives, unlike ideology, has meant that meta-theories are created but hardly questioned as a series of dots are created usually in a teleological fashion to consolidate a point. It is required that Muslims write their own narratives, from their own perspective and worldview; as Mahmut Mutman has suggested, there is a politics to writing about Islam that has considerably shifted since the age of colonialism in which much Muslim agency has been lost, of which it is worth asking as Mutman has: who is writing for Islam?[^22] The obvious answer should be Muslims not simply as Muslims but from their Islamic worldview, but Muslim engagement is still lacking in re-claiming their own narratives. What is important to stress is how narrative is given much agency due to language and the coining of terms, which brings me to my third and final point: that language matters. In regards to Ottoman studies, the importance of language falls into two main categories. The first is the need to learn languages in order to be able to read the primary texts and the second and more significant point is how terms are created and used to explain Muslim experiences, which I shall explain. Dependency on reading and writing in English has led to the challenges of translations into English that have reduced Muslim communities to read in a medium that at times is unable to provide adequate meaning to the Islamic and/or Muslim experience. One of the biggest challenges regarding Ottoman studies is the need to study a multiplicity of languages that include Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian as official Islamicate languages and then other possible languages that include Greek, Albanian, Ladino, French, and even German. The challenges for the translator is that translation requires either literal translations which lose meaning or implied meaning, which means that the translator needs to have not only a grasp of language skills but also cultural nuances in order to best explain what the original author intended. This often leaves the original text dependent on the translator who may view any given text within a particular ideological paradigm, as no translation is devoid of this. There is no doubting that the biggest challenge regarding language to the Ottoman historian has been the loss of Ottoman Turkish as a practiced language. The invisibility of the language has made the Ottoman world somewhat invisible to many of us today. Language, however, is not simply a tool for conveying meaning; it is part of ideology and, to some degree, the dominance of history writing in the English medium has facilitated the learning of Ottoman history within the purview of Western interests, Western forms of expression, and Western terminology as narratives are constructed by how words are used. For example, when the Ottoman sultans were deemed Oriental despots, this inspires negative connotations of the Ottoman form of governance. Even today, when the term Sultan is used in the Western press, one pictures a despotic Islamic past. A term such as Hamidian[^23] ‘regime’ rather than Hamidian ‘government’ is an example of how subtle changes in words can impact the way a narrative is told. This suggests that Islam was often depicted in a language that presented Islam and its adherents as the ‘Other.’ In that sense, Muslim self-expression requires some investigation. An example is when in the nineteenth century when Muslims used words such as *ittihad-i Islam*, which reflected ideas of Muslim/Islamic unity, it was unhelpfully translated as Pan-Islamism, a term coined and used in the West. Pan-Islamism, later to become Islamism, failed to capture how the notion of Muslim unity was not merely an instrumentalization of Islam for political objectives. It thus needs to be stressed that our Islamicate indigenous languages matter, as English translations of terms and words that reflect Muslims experiences may not be helpful in understanding how Muslims viewed themselves. An example would be that if the word *dawah* was translated as Muslim missionary activity, it would surely be a grave injustice to what the term *dawah* actually means. It is for this reason important to note that terms describing Muslim experiences do not carry over well in English at times but English has become an authoritative instrument for promoting orientalist positions regarding Ottoman experiences. As a result, the learning of multiple languages, especially Ottoman Turkish, requires investment if we are to develop a better understanding of the Ottoman past. I would argue that Islamicate languages continue to translate a lot smoother than translations into English. In that sense words in Farsi or say Malay have very little if anything lost in translation from the original Arabic content. This can also be said about Ottoman Turkish. This is due to the fact that Islam was infused in the Islamicate languages. Languages such as English and French have yet to replicate this type of smoothness, suggesting not all translations are the same and that some languages (mainly the Islamicate) maintain an integrity in translation that other languages (mainly English) do not. In fairness, the English language has done much to maintain Islamic ideas as more and more Muslims write in English, but words continue to hold their value only when English embraces them not translates them. To some degree, the Ottomans fall into what Salman Sayyid has categorized the ‘West’ versus ‘the rest’ narrative in which the world continues to be lumped into two main categories: that which is perceived as belonging to so-called Western norms, values, and traditions and then everybody else.[^24] Very little distinction is made in understanding the nuanced differences between say the Ottomans and Iran, or Russia and nations to the south of the North African belt. Narratives and language are used together to perpetuate the view that the non-Western world was a homogenous block, as reflected in the pejorative generalization that represented all non-Western governance as ‘Oriental despotism.’ For the Ottomans, their interactions with all these entities, peoples, traditions, and cultures created a very complex culture of political and social configuration that was pluralistic and multifaceted. But, more importantly, it was done in a language that was part of its own worldview and narrative. With these points in mind, I attempt to explain the periods in which Ottoman studies are studied and the challenges that should be understood regarding the points mentioned previously. --- ## So who are the Ottomans? I am often asked who the Ottomans are and what makes one an Ottoman? Is it race, language, or religion? Such is the complexity of defining a multi-ethnic world under the stewardship of one dynasty. Nowadays, identity is a lot easier to determine: for example, one can say they are from Germany or from Japan or any other nation in the world which draws identity along lines of borders, language, and ethnicity. But increasing migration (through globalization) and territorial negation invite one to ask how communities configured identity and belonging prior to the emergence of the nation-state. In West Asia, to suggest that one is an Arab or a Turk based on ethno-linguistic lines is also something we have become accustomed to. But what did it mean to be an Ottoman? What happened to that identity after the collapse of the Ottoman domains? The Ottoman dynasty existed for nearly six centuries—during which its own identity underwent constant reconfiguration and change. In contrast, an international system with far more stable borders and clear ideologies is very different and it is challenging for citizens of the latter to understand the ways in which people identified themselves prior to this arrangement. --- ## It started in a small part of Anatolia After the devastation of much of Asia and West Asia by the Mongol invasions, the Muslim world that had once been the center of learning, culture, and trade retained a shadow of its former glory. With the gradual decline of Mongol power, multiple Muslim principalities emerged, among which the Seljuks of Rum became the ruling power in the region of Western Asia known as Anatolia. The trauma of the collapse of *Dar al-Salaam* (Baghdad) dramatically reshaped the geopolitical configurations of the region. As a result, there was a period of interregnum with an unclear Caliphal authority. While the Abassid ‘state’ had collapsed, Islam remained within the culture, tradition, and peoples. It was in the lands of the now-weakened Seljuk Sultanate of Rum that a small Turkic tribal people belonging to the Kayı tribe migrated westwards with peoples from various backgrounds to the frontier of the Byzantine Empire. It is from the Kayı tribe that the Ottoman dynasty emerged. Named after Osman Gazi, the first records of the Ottomans suggest that Osman probably died in 724/1324 after attempting to capture the city of Bursa. Very little is known about Osman but legend has it that he had seen a dream interpreted by his Sheikh Edebali in which a tree of light had grown from his chest with many leaves and branches, indicating that his progeny would rule over the region for centuries to come. Whether this legend is true or not, the progeny of Osman did indeed become heirs to one of the most powerful Islamic states in the history of Islam.[^25] The emergence of the Ottomans as a regional *beylik*/emirate however happened under Orhan Gazi, the son of Osman, who consolidated the House of Osman as a power in the region by opening Bursa and establishing it as the first capital city of the Ottoman domains in 726/1326. Juxtaposed between the Seljuks to the East and a Byzantine Empire in crisis in the West, the Ottomans gradually emerged as an expanding *beylik* in the region that acted as a buffer between the Christian and Muslim worlds.[^26] Early Ottoman narratives by academics attempted to present Ottoman expansion in relation to what came to be known as ‘the Gazi thesis’ in which the early Ottomans were seen as being inspired by the goal of conquest to spread Islam.[^27] However, some academics attempted to challenge this thesis by suggesting that it wasn’t Islam that had inspired the early Ottomans but instead the quest for booty and the rewards that they bought with them.[^28] As a result, these academics argued about the possibility of the early Ottomans not being Muslims at all and only later converting. Unable to make the links between the Turkic *beyliks* and the Seljuks in the region, much academic endeavor has gone into whether the early Ottomans were indeed Muslim or not. The contention comes from the fact that we know very little regarding Osman Gazi or his predecessors as the tribal peoples of Anatolia documented very little in this period. What we do have information on are coins minted in the name of Orhan, as well as mosques and tombs that were  constructed during his reign. However, what has often been missing in these narratives is the role of the *ulema* as too much emphasis is placed simply on the warrior. However, recent studies indicate that the early Ottomans were indeed aware of their Islamic identity and their cultivation of early institutions based on Islam do not look as haphazard as some earlier Ottoman historians have portrayed. [^29] This early period of Ottoman history is quite similar to what we are experiencing today: a period in which Muslim “states” attempted to implement a nominal Shariah\-based political system, but still worked outside the remit of the theological position of the Caliphate model (although it must be stressed that the Abassid Caliph did nominally exist in Egypt). The question thus remains: what was the end goal of the early Ottoman *beylik*? It would be fair to suggest that whether it be the Umayyads, Abbasids, or the Ottomans, that the inception of the dynasty was a fluid one in which consolidation of power only occurred later. But in Muslim conciousness, the inception of any political entity has become important. Even today’s nation-states require a moment in which the state was first established. The question for us is: why is this important? Especially as it was probably Orhan who established the Ottoman dynasty, not his father. Thus, it should be the study of Orhan that requires greater investment as it was during his reign that we start to see the formulation of an entity that attempted to call itself Ottoman. But it must be stressed that the notion of being Ottoman was not static as an identity marker and that people in the earlier period would not have called themselves Ottomans until much later, as the notion of citizenship did not exist. --- ## The conquest of Constantinople/Istanbul After a small spell of internal strife, the Ottoman *beylik* was significantly weakened due to the conflict between the Ottoman Sultan “Yıldırım” Beyazit (the Thunderbolt) and the formidable Mongol-Turkic leader Timurlane over Anatolia. This led to an internal civil war between the princes of the dynasty and it wasn’t until the rise of Sultan Mehmet Fatih, the eventual conqueror of Constantinople/Istanbul in 857/1453, that the Ottomans became a regional power. Beyazit was the first of the Ottomans to lay siege to Istanbul and advance into the Balkans. Constantinople was now the target but it required a charismatic sultan who could attempt to conquer Istanbul again and then unify the fractured Anatolian provinces. Fatih Sultan Mehmet was that sultan. Following a fifty-seven-day siege, Fatih attempted the audacious tactic of taking the lighter fleet of ships over land to avoid the Byzantine boom chain (naval barrier) that was blocking his ships from going through the Bosphorus straits and laying siege to the city from behind with his cannons. It has to be said that this was an extraordinary feat. Istanbul had now come into the hands of the Muslims, the Christian church Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, and a gradual program of encouraging inhabitants of the Balkans who had skills to live in the city was implemented.[^30] As mentioned, before the conquest of the Byzantine capital, the Ottomans had already made a series of conquests in the Balkans with both Beyazit and Fatih being born in Edirne, the second capital city of the Ottoman domains, bringing Islam to the Balkans and the frontiers of Europe. Mehmet Fatih would later again attempt to centralize Anatolia when the Ottomans had become an established entity in the region. [^31] From its inception, the Ottoman *beylik* had already been a multi-ethnic, multi-religious domain. Under Fatih, however, the Ottomans became a ruling power in the region, taking Constantinople (which would be renamed Istanbul). In doing so, Fatih fulfilled the prophecy narrated in the *hadith* of the Prophet ﷺ by becoming the great Muslim leader to conquer the city.[^32] Following the conquest, Fatih took great care to maintain the culture and traditions of one of the most significant cities in Christendom. He managed to incorporate much of the skills, workers, and peoples of the Christian Byzantine Empire and encouraged a program of social cohesion between the majority non-Muslim inhabitants of Istanbul and the Balkans with the new Muslim authority and peoples who were converting to Islam. Mosques and *madrassas* started to become a feature of the Istanbul skyline as Muslims congregated in the places of worship that shaped their lives. As the places of worship became integral to life in the Ottoman domains, so too did the *ulema* became an important bureaucratic force within the imperial politics of the new Ottoman world.[^33] It was the conquest of Istanbul that facilitated the embracing of Byzantine practices as the Topkapı palace was built, along with the controversial culture of eunuchs becoming part of the Ottoman political culture. The most controversial issue regarding the early Ottomans has been the practice of fratricide in which the protection of the *devlet/dawla* (state)[^34] was seen as paramount to the safeguarding of Islam; thus, the concept of *din*[^35] *ü devlet* indicating that both Islam and the state were inseparable. Furthermore, apart from the conquest of Istanbul, students tend to focus very little on the institutionalization of practices during Fatih’s reign; the role of the Shariah, the Kanun, and knowledge production requires further study within Muslim circles.[^36] Very little attention is given to Islam and the Balkans; yet Albanians, Bosnians, and many other Muslim groups became part of the landscape of Europe, due to the Ottoman endeavor. This was not the first time that Islam was part of Europe, but unlike the Umayyads of Spain we continue to have Muslim groups in the region who deserve better attention regarding their history. The most significant point of this period is that Islam as a political entity was brought back to Europe after the Muslims were forced out of Spain. Albanians and Bosnians as well as other Muslim groups had become Muslim due to the Ottomans. Islam in the Balkans was an Ottoman effort. But Fatih’s reign was not without controversy. The concept of fratricide was introduced in an attempt to safeguard the *devlet* over the ambitions of a brother from the Ottoman household. While *ulema* in the past had legitimized such a practice, more contemporary positions have become far more critical regarding the legitimizing of murder, let alone that of a family member. This was not simply an Ottoman practice, however, as the Sasanians, Byzantines, and Muslims of Spain also engaged in such practices. There were a host of reasons for fratricide and to assume that every situation was the same is simplistic. Some instances were due to internal revolts, others for colluding with the enemy, nonetheless the issue of legitimacy that was not aptly formulated, provided a caveat for the killing of a brother who challenged the leadership of the community. This matter requires further research as *fetwa* culture is diverse and robust for positions for and against. --- ## The Ottomans as a Caliphate It is due to Fatih’s conquests that we can truly call the Ottomans a dynasty but it wasn’t until the coming to the throne of Yavuz (the Grim) Sultan Selim I, in 917/1512 that the Ottomans laid claim to the Caliphate. Selim came to the throne in conditions that can be described as civil strife, but nevertheless expanded the Ottoman domains by defeating the Turkic Mamluk rulers of *Balad al-Sham* and Egypt in 922/1517. Legend has it that in Cairo the last Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil gave the keys of Mecca to Selim as it is alleged that *beyah* (oath of allegiance) was given to him as the first Turk to become Caliph.[^37] Whether or not this is true, there was no disputing that the Ottomans from this moment onwards became *Khadim al-Haramayn* (Custodians of the two Harams—Mecca and Medina) as well as becoming custodians of the Christian Holy sites in Bethlehem and al-Quds, which also lent weight to their claims as successors to the Byzantines. Under his son, Kanuni (the Law Giver) Sultan Suleyman, the Ottoman domains were at their largest, encompassing areas that include today’s Algeria, the Crimea, Iraq, and much of the Balkans. Many historians have called this period of Ottoman history a ‘golden age,’ a point now challenged.[^38] The Ottoman domains at this point were a rich conglomerate of peoples of many backgrounds, religions, and linguistic groupings. Along with the nominal existence of the Abassids in Cairo under Mamluk rule and inspired by the works of *ulema* such as al-Mawardi, al-Baqillani, and al-Ghazali, writings of the medieval period managed to maintain the memory of the idea of the Caliphate as an institution in Islam that the Ottomans eventually implemented. The question is why? Some academics have argued that the narratives of Selim becoming Caliph were re-written by Ottoman writers later on in their history as challenges to the Caliphate started to resurface within Arab and British circles. While some scholars have questioned whether the Ottomans actually saw themselves as Caliphs or not in this period, it is worth examining whether the Ottomans fulfilled the conditions of the works that they had been inspired by. I would stress that there is enough evidence that the Ottomans took seriously the claim of being Caliphs well before the nineteenth century, suggesting that the memory of the institution of the Caliphate was intrinsic to Islamic political theory in which the Ottoman *ulema* must have had a strong hand. It must be stressed, however, as Hüseyin Yılmaz has pointed out, that the collapse of the Abbasids was still fresh in the minds of the Ottoman world. Furthermore, with a host of religious works being written on the nature of good Islamic governance, this naturally lent towards the ideas of the Caliphate.[^39] In the Ottoman domains, non-Muslims probably still continued to outnumber Muslims but, up until this period, the notion of expansion and conquest was still very much of the Ottoman world-view. Monumental projects such as mosques, *madrassa* expansion, the institutionalization of the *ilmiye* and the Janissary corps and the multiple Sufi *tariqats* had become part of the Ottoman Islamic world; this period of Ottoman history can be termed the Second Empire.[^40] Mimar (The Architect) Sinan had become one of the most famous architects in Islamic history, building projects all over the Ottoman domains, even inspiring Muslims in other parts of the Muslim world as distinct Ottoman architectural features were established. The Ottomans were a military power unrivalled as the strength of the three Muslim powers, the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals (also known as the ‘Gunpowder Empires’) was based on their military expertise and innovation. Along with an Islamic worldview, institutional building was attributed to political strength, statecraft, military innovation, and policies of taxation. Wars were an accepted feature of the Ottoman world and military strength and reformation gave the Ottomans a distinct identity. It wasn’t simply the military that became institutionalized, as the *ulema* also equally became a significant institutionalized group of both learning and talking truth to power. Cities such as Cairo, Damascus, Kerbela, Baghdad, Al-Quds, Mecca, and Medina, as well as Tripoli and Tunis had now become part of the domains that had Konya, Bursa, Kosovo, Salonika, and Istanbul indicating the numerous centers of Islamic learning in one domain. It is understandable why this period in Ottoman history is referred to by historians and Muslim scholars alike as a golden age. It also indicates that even Muslims determine success on the basis of power, inviting us to ask if the way we feel about our Islamic past is as much an evaluation of how we imagine Islam and power and the place we see ourselves in the world today. It was during the reign of Sulayman that the *kanun* started to become institutionalized. The *kanun*, wrongly described as secular law, was a law established probably during the reign of Fatih which supplemented the Shariah regarding matters to do with administration. Practical concessions were made by arguing that *Örf* (custom) should be taken into consideration in matters that didn’t contradict the Shariah. This was to be regulated by the *ulema*, and consisted of laws that provided the Sultan some level of authority in matters to do with the state administration, especially in a time when the state administration was increasing in size. There has been much discussion regarding the notion of the *kanun* being secular and these debates once again require further study from Muslims in order to establish how the *kanun* and the Shariah were implemented and became part of the Ottoman legal structure. Orientalist historians have perpetuated an assumption that Sultanic authority was authoritarian in nature, conveyed through the notion of ‘Oriental despotism.’ On the contrary, closer inspection indicates that the Sultan was not the absolutist that many have suggested. The *ulema*, Janissary corps, and local magnates all managed to be part of the political power sharing culture that emerged in the Ottoman domains.[^41] In particular, the Janissaries, an institution that attained much success during the height of Ottoman political expansion, had now become an integral internal check on Sultanic power. However, as a result of the  internal contestations of power between the various factions that had served the Ottomans so well, these same institutions would be perceived as hindering the Ottomans in comparison to the aggressive colonial expansions the European powers had begun to engage in around the world. Internal revolts, the rise of Muslim movements such as the Kadızadelis in Istanbul, and later the Wahabbis in the Hijaz, would create new challenges and the need for military and economic reform would become apparent. However, the decentralized configuration of power in the Ottoman domains made it difficult to extract the resources for much-needed changes to compete with the Russian and European powers. The Janissaries, who were seen as a traditional constitutional check on Sultanic absolutism, had themselves begun to inhibit the functioning of the government by compromising the role of the sultan and dethroning sultans who did not support their interests.[^42] Much of Ottoman political culture emerged from the idea of the ‘Circle of Justice’[^43] and the House of Osman became the main body of authority accepted by all other authorities as a way of dissuading alternative contestations to central authority by any other internal Muslim power group as had happened during the earlier interregnum periods of Ottoman rule in which Muslim principalities were going to war with one another. --- ## A series of defeats—Indication of a decline? Thus, the next century witnessed much internal conflict and contestation in Istanbul with the turnover of sultans and indeed young sultans created much political instability as the Janissary attained influence in Istanbul and the magnates consolidated authority in their localities.[^44] The decentralized domains were creating problems of rulership for the Ottomans as the domains became internally embroiled while the more centralized the European powers became, the more efficient in both military strength and expansion they became. European powers were colonizing much of the world, not only due to their more modern weapons, although that was a factor, but more significantly due to the level of aggression they were willing to use to achieve their objectives. If the European world was going through a period of Enlightenment, it was equally displaying forms of violence that fractured many societies in their wake. The collapse of the other two Muslim ‘gun powder’ powers, the Safavid and Mughals, left the Ottomans as the only real Muslim power that could resist the European race for the resources of the rest of the world. The Ottoman domains clearly needed to find a way to, on the one hand, improve its military to be able to resist and even compete with the European powers and, on the other, adhere to the Islamic principles of warfare, just governance, and political competency. In 1187/1774, the Ottomans under Sultan Abdülhamid I for the first time lost a major Muslim area, the Khanate of Crimea, to the Russians. The terms of the peace treaty known as Küçük Kaynarca were unfavorable to the Muslims, with the exception that the Muslims allow Istanbul to elect the Mufti and be recognized as a Caliphate that still continued to have a vested interest in the affairs of the Muslims there. For the first time, the Ottomans lost domains in which Muslims were previously under their protection which, also for the first time, forced the Ottomans to re-examine the role of the Caliph in the protection of the *ummah*.[^45] It was always understood that the *ummah* was split within two main spheres, those in the domains and those outside of the Ottoman domains such as India, China, Russia, Iran, and Africa. The Ottomans knew that they could not offer much protection to the Muslims outside of their domains but the loss of the Crimea made the Ottomans realize that there was now a third category: Muslims who used to be part of the domains but now were not. This period became a period of mass Muslim migration to Anatolia, which intensified the discussions in the imperial center of the need to centralize as a way to compete with the outside empires. It also contributed to debates on the role of the Caliphate in the global Muslim *ummah* and whether the Sultan as Caliph should use soft power or hard power policies in attaining the loyalty of Muslims outside the Ottoman domains.[^46] This also raised questions of legitimacy and questions of what should be the policy towards Muslims in areas like India, Russia, and Africa that were facing much persecution at the hands of various colonial powers. With a military still unable to compete with the European powers, even if the Ottomans wanted to they could not risk war with the European powers. Also, this is the period in Ottoman history that was eventually labeled the period of Ottoman decline. It has been argued by historians that the weakening of Ottoman domains was the main reason why the Ottomans allowed Western ideas and thoughts to dominate their understanding of Islam. Many revisionist historians now argue that, in fact, this was a form of narrative construction that had no basis that was any different regarding the earlier periods of Ottoman history, as a thorough examination of Ottoman institutional reformation is required.[^47] This is not to say there wasn’t a decline or that there was, but simply to stress the point that Muslims outside of academia have yet to contribute to this debate within Muslim circles as the ‘decline narrative’ becomes heavily contested in academic circles just as it was created in the corridors of the Western powers.[^48] But what should we have expected from the Ottomans in order to not be seen as a declined entity? What is indeed the criterion of comparison? Should the Ottoman period be compared to the period that came before? In many ways, the age of Sulayman was known as a ‘Golden Period.’ The period of Sulayman, however, also involved much bloodshed; Sulayman even had his son and Grand Vizier killed. So what are the parameters of a Golden period and those of decline? The notion of decline is one of how we view ourselves and that is a question that requires further scrutiny. Should the Ottoman powers have been compared to Western powers? The parameters of both entities were different. While it is true that the Western powers were gaining much success in terms of expansion, with that came a tremendous amount of violence, death, and destruction, which the Ottomans could not have replicated due to the culture of Islam, as well as legal and political culture. In many ways, while Muslims do indeed have a right to question decisions made by Ottoman thinkers in this period, very little solution\-based discussion exists. --- ## Ottoman modernity—The so-called long nineteenth century A series of reform proposals were being considered by the palace in the wake of a series of defeats of which military reformation was perceived as a must. It was decided to create a new army known as the *Nizam el-Cedid/Nitham al-Jadid*, which was supposed to be better at learning the new military techniques employed by the European powers, but within an Islamic framework.[^49] In 1212/1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt, sending shockwaves through the Ottoman world. It took an ambitious soldier by the name of Mehmet Ali/Muhammad Ali Pasha from Kavala to expel the French forces in 1215/1801 and later to crush the local Mamluks and establish his rule as a viceroy to the Ottomans. As part of the Ottoman domains since 922/1517, it was unthinkable to lose Egypt to the French.[^50] In Istanbul, the Janissaries perceived the attempts to create a new army unit as a threat to them as an institution and, after an internal struggle between the Janissaries and the palace, Sultan Mahmud II finally came to the throne with the support of a strongman magnate. At the same time, civil unrest in Greece and the Hijaz required Mehmet Ali to use his troops to crush the internal rebellions, and soon after Mehmet Ali Pasha would conquer Sudan and conscript the peasantry into his new military. [^51] In Istanbul, Mahmud II mounted an aggressive centralization campaign in order to rapidly bring the military up to speed and be able to control it and the economy; all local magnates were eliminated, with the Janissaries finally being brutally dissolved in 1246/1831. It is during this period that historians argued that “modernity had truly become consolidated within the Ottoman domains.”[^52] Both Mehmet Ali Pasha and Sultan Mahmud II became known as ‘autocratic’ modernizers. It’s still worth investigating whether both were indeed absolutists; however, what can’t be denied is that centralization allowed for rapid decision-making, the consolidation of tax revenues, and the minimization of internal contestation from multiple actors, which no doubt facilitated a quicker reformation process that had been bogged down during the previous century due to the laborious mechanism decentralization represented. But the Sultan’s policies perceived as aggressive and counter to Islam were now challenged by his loyal servant Mehmet Ali Pasha of Egypt. A discourse erupted regarding the nature of Islamic governance, with one camp insisting on absolute loyalty to the imam and the other arguing for a *Şura/Shura* based system with more decision-makers. Mehmet Ali marched from Egypt, occupying *Balad al Sham* and parts of the Hijaz for 8 years, eventually waiting for the Sultan in Anatolia, sending telegram after telegram advising the Sultan to stop his aggressive centralization policies. The Sultan, out of desperation, turned to the Russians and then the European powers in a vain attempt to stop the Egyptian Pasha. It was now not the fear of outside intervention that concerned the Ottoman center but instead a head-to-head between the two most powerful men of the Ottoman domains that had brought the Ottoman world to its knees. In 1254/1839, after the fortuitous death of Mahmud II and the coming to the throne of his son Sultan Abdülmecid I, Mehmet Ali finally withdrew due to European pressure, and the new Sultan and his office made the declaration of the edict known as the *Gülhane* (Rose-garden) that the imperial center was to mend its ways and adhere to the principles of Islam that were justice and the correct implementation of the Shariah.[^53] In Ottoman history, this period has come to be known as the *Tanzimat* period in which Orientalist academics suggested that the Ottomans were now moving towards more westernizing/modernizing principles in the vain hope of survival. Both Mehmed Ali and Mahmud II have been presented as autocratic modernizers. Both have been viewed as introducing modernity and, at the same time, being autocratic rulers. In Mehmed Ali Pasha’s case, some have even said that dictatorship began during his reign in Egypt. But more recent studies by Fredrick Anscombe[^54] and the late Butrus Abu-Manneh[^55] have argued that Islam was far more important to the Ottoman world than others have suggested, and attempts to replicate Western sucesses while remaining loyal to the principles of Islam had become marginalized in the earlier historiography of the late Ottoman world. But it must be added that the conflict between the two most powerful leaders in the Ottoman world did compromise the Ottoman domains greatly. The Pasha, concerned with facing the consequences of a Sultan intent on centralizing the domains at all costs, was aware that he needed to react in order to survive. However, his stronger army, his tactical skill, and the possibility of Mahmud’s soldiers being reluctant to fight the Pasha meant that the Sultan was forced to take more drastic measures. First, he turned to the Russians for assistance; and second, he signed the Balta Liman treaty in which favorable tariffs were given to the British in the hope that this would undercut the economic influence of the Pasha who was now occupying much of *Balad al-Sham* and parts of Anatolia. The impact of the treaty was to introduce the Ottomans to capitalism and eventually compromised the autonomy of the Ottoman economy. The internal conflict drew much criticism from Muslims, both elite and lay; after the death of Mahmud, the *Gülhane* edict was the first semi-constitutional document in which the Ottoman government showed much introspection. However, while the Ottoman government accepted that the actions of Mahmud had compromised the domains, nonetheless Mahmud’s actions facilitated an environment of reform that would not have been possible during the reign of his predecessors. Loans were taken by the Ottoman central bank from the European powers in order to accelerate the reform program to bureaucratize the domains but ironically authority now shifted away from the Sultan and into the hands of the office of the Grand Vizier and Foreign office knows as the *Bab-i\-Ali* (Sublime Porte). Paradoxically, much of the work had been achieved by the aggressive policies of Mahmud II, as the Ottomans attempted to reform the political, educational, and legal systems. With the Sultanate losing much authority to the hands of the Sublime Porte, it was felt that the office of the Sultanate/Caliphate would simply become symbolic and, in 1292/1876, after much political turmoil, Sultan Abdülhamid II came to the throne as a constitutional Sultan. It was during the *Tanzimat* period that nationalism, mainly in the Balkan provinces, became a challenge for the Ottomans. Nationalism, a mainly European idea, started to become problematic for the Ottomans as they attempted to establish an ‘official’ state ideology of imperial patriotism that was called Ottomanism in which both Muslim and non-Muslim alike shared a common identity of being inhabitants of the Ottoman domains.[^56] Most identities in the Ottoman domains were either religious or by locality. For example people would say they were Muslim, Greek Orthodox, or Jew, or that they were from Tripoli, Mardin, or Sanaa. While some academics have suggested that Ottomanism was a form of nationalism, one has to be a little skeptical as after the collapse of the Ottoman government the identity didn’t survive, suggesting that the identity was simply for official use, not institutionalized for the vast majority of the Ottoman public. The notion of nationalism and nation-states started to exist only in the non-Muslim areas, as Muslims still maintained their loyalty towards the Sultan who was Caliph. Also, this period in Ottoman history is known for two main ideas: Ottoman secularism and Ottoman Westernization or/and modernization. There is still much debate on the secularization narratives of the Ottoman domains. While some academics, including Muslim scholars, have suggested that the Ottomans were replicating modes of law and governance that resembled what was happening in Europe as a way of competing, other scholars have argued that law was still not centralized and local customs were adhered to in various parts of the Ottoman domains.[^57] The question of law and secularism especially in what is known as the modern period has been a narrative simply accepted based on a few cases, but more detailed studies in various parts of the Ottoman domains present a far more complicated picture. Also the notion of Ottoman modernity is also starting to be challenged as modernity is perceived as a Western experience that the Ottomans were negotiating with. While the domains were becoming centralized, they were in no way as centralized as the modern nation-state is, begging the question what was happening regarding the *ulema* and the challenges that they were facing throughout the Ottoman world. At the moment, Muslims still continue to focus on works by Salafist-reformists, without examining other parts of the Ottoman domains, especially Istanbul, which after all was the center of the Ottoman domains. In Muslim circles, the debate surrounding the Sultan as Caliph losing control to the office of the Sublime Porte has begged the question of the diminishing role of the Caliphate as an institution within the late Ottoman polity. However, this would be an inappropriate conclusion, as the office still held much weight within the internal political culture. The *Tanzimat* period did attempt to strengthen the political structure and, more importantly, to facilitate a space for new legal practices. Increased literacy and learning meant new civil schools were created to supplement the seminal *medressa*. The need for translation, modern technocrats, and medical students meant that the *medressas* became an institution of the *ilmiyye*. The *Nizamiye* courts were created to support the Shariah courts and projects such as the *Mecelle/Medjellah* (civil code) as well as a Islamic constitution with a parliamentary system indicated to many Western academics that the Ottomans were replicating Western models. On closer inspection, however, academics who have studied the *Nizamiye*, *Mecelle*, and civil schools have started to argue that all three institutions were within the remit of Islamic thought.[^58] This debate thus comes down to perspective and how the Islamic is qualified regarding these structures. The *Tanzimat* period was also a period of much cultural production in which Ottoman literature went through a renaissance, at a time where the Arabic\-speaking world was also experiencing an *al-Nahda*. The *al-Nahda* narratives have to be seen in relation to what was happening in the Ottoman center as Ottoman Turkish was also witnessing an increase of Arabic forms in the language, especially in the printed press. Architecture was also experiencing a new synthesis in which the Ottomans were actively searching to establish a style that took inspiration from Europe, the Far East, and Africa where they used Ottoman Gothic styles, Ottoman Art Nouveau, with Moorish influences inspired by Andalusian mosques and buildings. In 1290/1873, the Ottomans established the notion of the *Usul-I Mi’mari-i Osmani* (the fundamentals of Ottoman architecture) in which they tried to establish a new style of Ottoman architecture. It was an attempt to mainstream the Ottoman dynastic building and redefine it to a new Ottoman architectural style that was supposed to be highly evolved.[^59] Much of the narratives surrounding the *Tanzimat* period are centered on whether the Ottomans were moving closer to the West; thus, the question being asked is whether the Ottomans were moving away from Islam. It is worth asking how Islam and Muslims can have a synthesis with that which is not considered Islamic. Late Ottoman history is still going through such a debate, a debate that is not only important to Muslims living in the West but to Muslims worldwide. How do Islam and the ‘Modern’ interact with one another? There is still much that can be learned from the late Ottomans. --- ## Sultan Abdülhamid II—The pious sultan Upon coming to the throne, Sultan Abdülhamid II fashioned a policy that was to emphasize the outwardly expression of Islam far more prominently than his predecessors.[^60] This led some historians to believe that his policies were a shift from the policies of the *Tanzimat*, suggesting that the Tanzimat period reflected a moment of shifting away from Islam with the Hamidian returning back to Islam. However, on closer inspection this type of analysis is somewhat short-sighted in not recognizing that much of what Abdüllhamid did was a continuation of prior policies. With a loss of some of the Balkan provinces, mainly Christian such as Greece and Serbia, it was felt that only an emphasis on Islam around the patronage of the Sultan as Caliph would provide the necessary loyalty from Muslims to protect the Ottoman domains. Abdülhamid thus reached out to Muslims within the domains and even outside by supporting Muslim projects as a way of attaining the loyalty of Muslims even outside the Ottoman borders. Internally, however, while the Sultan began as a constitutional Sultan, he quickly abandoned the constitution and parliament to return to a policy similar to Mahmud’s of being a strong and stoic ruler. Known as the pious Sultan, Abdülhamid II ruled the Ottoman domains for three decades, based on a policy of a strong office of the Sultanate, Islam, reform, and conservatism.[^61] Politics and statecraft is a delicate business, however, and the Sultan’s ability to remain in authority for so long involved the marginalization of other factions; such is the nature of politics. After a series of attempts to agitate change, finally, in 1326/1908 a group of military men, ideologues, and *ulema* fashioned a revolution for the reinstatement of the Ottoman constitution of 1293/1876, which became known as the Constitutional Revolution. The revolution was initiated by a clandestine movement named the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) who demanded that the Sultan reinstate the constitution and parliament, championing a hybrid of slogans that combined the French Revolutionary ideals of  *hurriyet/hurriyah*, *uhuvet/uhuwah,* and *musavat/musawah* (Freedom, Equality, and Liberty) with the slogans of *Mesveret/Mashwarah*, *Adalet/Adalah*, and *Nizam/Nitham* (Consultation, Justice, and Order) from the Ottoman political culture. The Sultan yielded and, while an internal contestation on the 9th of Rabi al-Awwal 1327/31st March 1909 attempted to weaken CUP control over the government, with the help of the military, the rebellion in Istanbul was crushed and Abdülhamid II was deposed due to pressure from parliament. The Ottoman world was now a Constitutional Caliphate with a parliamentary system.[^62] It was hoped that the parliament could function both as an avenue for *şura/shura* and *ictihad/ijtihad*; instead the Italian invasion of Libya in 1329/1911, and then the Balkan wars in 1330-1331/1912-1913, paralyzed the Ottoman government as it became embroiled in World War One on the side of the Germans. It was during the late 19th century that we view a renascence of cultural production and intellectual production in languages such as in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and even Ladino and Armenian. Islamic political thought was also going through a phase of transition with a view of maintaining the culture of the past and at the same time dealing with rapidly changing contemporary needs.[^63] Trains, steamships, the printed press, telegram, and photography had rapidly changed the manner in which information, traveling, and ideology functioned. It was also during this period that ideas such as Ottomanism, ‘Islamism,’ and nationalism started to be debated among the thinkers of the Ottoman world as ideals that might unify the inhabitants of the Ottoman domains as Ottoman subjects started to become Ottoman citizens. In particular, Islamic political thought was presented in the printed press as the notion of a constitutional Caliphate where public opinion became important in creating a relationship between the ruler and the ruled. This suggests that in late Ottoman domains the nation-state was not a given and that an alternative political route could have been taken. Furthermore, this was a period of revolution and calls for justice. Revolutions in Islamic societies have yet to call for the ousting of Islam as they are often designed for the reimplementation of Islamic rules and norms, at least in rhetoric. In 1323/1905 in Russia, 1324/1906 in Iran, and then in 1326/1908 in the Ottoman domains, revolutionary activity was enacted on each occasion for the instatement of some form of constitutional governance.[^64] The fact that we see a similar thing happening today in various parts of the Muslim world forces us to ask how Islam, just governance, so-called autocracy, and revolutionary activity were instantiated in the late 19th century. --- ## The end of the Ottoman domains A series of mistakes made in the war weakened Ottoman authority in the provinces as the victories of the Allied forces, and an internal rebellion in the Arab provinces meant that by 1336/1918 the Ottomans had lost all of the Arab provinces to the French and British, with the Russians finally pulling out of the war due to the Bolshevik revolution in the same year. Now with two governments, one in Istanbul and one in Ankara, led by Mustapha Kemal Pasha (later known as Atatürk), the Ottoman political powers were facing civil war. [^65] It was hoped that Muslims around the world would support the Ottomans in the war effort; in India, the Muslims organized a movement known as the Khilafat Committee in hopes of saving the Ottoman world and ridding themselves of British occupation in India.[^66] The French were also afraid that the Algerians would not fight the Ottomans during this war. In the end, the Ottomans were defeated, and Mustafa Kemal’s government dissolved the Sultanate in 1341/1922 and then the Caliphate in 1342/1924. The Caliphate existed after the fall of Abdühamid II but it can be argued that it was only symbolic. As an institution in Islam, the Caliphate was suggested to be simply a symbol or a metaphor for Muslim power that was no longer needed which allowed for its dissolution. The authority of the Caliphate had its roots in Islamic theology, established in the literature of the *ulema* in the medieval period and further consolidated throughout the Ottoman period up until its collapse.[^67] Six hundred years of Ottoman rule had come to an end due to the devastation of World War One, as the European powers created nation-states in the region as a way of sharing the resources of the ex-Ottoman domains. In the case of Turkey, while it was not colonized, it chose to uphold the values of the European powers as it now saw this as the model of success. With the leaders of the CUP assassinated or killed in battle, the remaining members of the Ottoman family and *ulema* were exiled from what was to be known as the secular Turkish Republic, not to return until more recently. For many Muslims at the time, and even now, there is a belief that the main reason for the Ottoman collapse was their abandonment of Islam. At the time, vigorous debates were being had about needing more people in society to pay attention to the basic principles of Islam. For others, there was a belief that the Ottomans had to be able to compete with the European powers in science, technology, and knowledge. Further still in the Ottoman political circles, a host of debates centered around the notion of political competency and the various forms of political governance Islam allows. It can be argued that these debates have yet to be resolved within Muslim circles. A series of mistakes were made in World War One in which the Ottomans believed that that war, just like the wars in Libya and the Balkans, would only last a year or two maximum. The fact that the war went on for almost a decade shattered the human and structural resources of the Ottoman world. Added to the internal rebellions and contestation, the Ottoman government was fighting a war on two fronts, internally and externally. A host of tactical, diplomatic, and local mistakes meant that the Ottomans were struggling to regain control. Furthermore, famine and a host of natural disasters had many Muslims believing that they were being punished by Allah. Many Muslims were traumatized by witnessing the collapse of the domains and Caliphate. It was thought that they would return back to the Ottoman form of governance in some shape or form in the future, but after a decade the fact that nation-states were here to stay became more and more of a reality. While Tsar Nicholas had described the Ottomans as the sick man of Europe, this claim was largely based on economic difficulties rather than political considerations. It has often been assumed that that throwaway comment was a reflection of the late Ottoman domains, even though the nineteenth century was showing that the Ottomans were going through a period of revival, in which they had shored up their administrative, military, and political structures. It was an amazing achievement that the Ottomans in a short space of reform were able to bring their armies up to scratch such that they were able to fight a war against the Allied forces for so long. The collapse of the Ottoman state was not a foregone conclusion, as the Ottoman state over its six-hundred\-year history managed to re-invent itself and transform over time. In the end, the devastating nature of World War One not only destroyed the Ottoman domains but also the Austrian-Habsburgs too with the British, Germans, and French losing much of their colonial influence after World War Two. The collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate also raised a series of questions in the Muslim world regarding Islamic governance and the need for revival. Debates and discussions had already begun in the late nineteenth century but after that collapse, a number of *ulema* such as Mustafa Sabri Efendi and Sheikh Rashid Rida started to write works on trying to save the caliphate as an institution. While the nation-states had fashioned a history that saw the institution as irrelevant, more recent studies have shown that the Muslim community was far more affected and traumatized by its loss.[^68] This, in turn, led to the establishment of various Islamic revivalist movements. While readers may want to see a series of mistakes where the Ottomans fell short in order to better make sense of the collapse of the domains, I would suggest instead to read Ottoman history as a dynasty that went through a series of challenges and changes in which its uniqueness was that it was able to survive so long; it is unlikely that another political entity in history would be able to do the same. This is because the Ottomans, more than a dynasty or a state,  represented an idea, an idea that was heavily entrenched in Islam. The collapse of the Ottomans was not simply a collapse of structure, but how the successor nation-states went about uprooting the very idea that the Ottomans represented; it was the removal of the Ottomans as an idea that has led to the collective amnesia that many Muslims suffer from. However, so entrenched were the Ottomans in the history of Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa, that they still remain a source of contestation in which a revival is taking place in the Muslim consciousness to start to know more. This could be due to the possible fragmentation of the ideology of the nation-state, in which more and more people in the region choose to ask what came before the nation-state. --- ## Conclusion Thus, the story of the six-hundred-year history of the Ottoman dynasty is one of transformation and evolution in political arrangement and traditions. It is a remarkable tale of the emergence, ascent, and traumatic collapse of a once global Islamic super-power. Yet it would be no exaggeration to claim that, until very recently, Muslim interest in the last Caliphate of the Islamic world has been somewhat subdued. There are a multitude of reasons why a collective amnesia has occurred regarding the Ottoman past. Ideology and power are a major reason why Muslims have not invested in a history that was part of their lives only a hundred years ago. Some might retort that there is no reason to privilege the Ottoman past over any other entity in Islamic history. Yet I am not arguing for an either/or, for I believe that Muslims should invest in the learning of all Islamic history—which inherently necessitates giving due consideration to each stage and era. What makes the Ottomans a unique case is that over the last hundred years, historical narratives regarding the Muslim world have been influenced by paradigms of knowledge, ideology, and power that run counter to Muslim agency. Orientalist narratives regarding the writing of the history and collapse of the last Islamic Caliphate have become so ingrained that Muslims have simply accepted several problematic conclusions regarding the nature of Islam and power, Islamic governance, authority/authorities, knowledge, identity, memory, ‘Islamism,’ nationalism, and Muslim agency. Although all of these debates still resonate with Muslims today, much of our approach and outlook on these rely on Orientalist and nationalist interpretations of Muslim history—and most of all, late Ottoman history. As a lecturer in history, I always stress that we need to find new ways of providing the tools necessary for Muslims to understand our history. We have a rich tradition of history-writing in the early Islamic era written by the *ulema*. History writing and biographies were written with the intent of understanding the tradition better, later evolving into narratives that served the Muslim community in being able to place their narratives along with those of other civilizations such as in the examples of al-Tabari. With the advent of specializations in modern education, the study of history has been relegated to a secondary discipline within traditional seminaries, in favor of what are perceived to be more pressing issues. The new paradigms of education have somewhat compromised our worldview to the point that teaching history from an Islamic perspective of the last few centuries no longer feels like a priority, which has led to a reliance on the narratives of Orientalism, modernization, and secularization. This has resulted in the learning and writing of Islamic history becoming highly dependent on Western academia, which views the learning of history as a form of ‘objective’ analysis rather than a didactic or instructive endeavor. Nevertheless, there is no doubting that historians trained in academia have developed sophisticated and reliable methodologies for examining a large variety of sources. Official and private archives, memoirs, newspapers, journals, official data, photographs, along with works on ideology, narrative, memory, and discourse have created the need for specialist historians. In an ideal world, both Muslims in academia and *ulema* should work together to bridge the gaps in knowledge and obfuscation caused by Orientalist and non-Islamic interpretations of the past. Ottoman studies have been heavily influenced by works in Western academia framed within Eurocentric/Orientalist narratives, treating the Ottoman world as an object of the Western gaze rather than independent from it.[^69] Over the past decade or so, there have been revisionist attempts in Western academia to address the impact of Orientalist depictions of Ottoman history, but hardly any are done outside of the academic space/worldview. When Muslims have responded, they have been either reactionary rebuttals or nostalgic glorifications that have neither aptly responded to Orientalist positions nor helped the Muslim community in better understanding how Ottoman history has become victim to specific political and ideological narratives. In spite of this contestation, younger generations of Muslims still find it challenging to see why Ottoman history should be important to them. Perhaps a welcome antidote to this is the recent popularity of Turkish historical dramas and TV shows, which have done much to create interest regarding the Ottoman past. In this regard, both the *alim* and historian have to consider the new image this has given Turkish history, especially as Muslims globally are starting to show increasing interest. Most researchers studying the Ottoman past in Western academia continue to facilitate Western political and ideological interests at the expense of people of the formerly Ottoman domains, Muslims and non-Muslims. It is worth investigating how an Islamicate world influenced not only Muslim culture but non-Muslim cultures too, in which peoples from a host of different religious denominations were able to live under Islamic rule for such a long period of time. Both scholars who embraced Western hegemonic narratives about the Ottoman past (orientalists) and those who critiqued them (revisionists) were heavily influenced by master narratives of the region and its history over the last century or two. Most of the narratives prevalent within Western academia were not developed in the formerly Ottoman lands and certainly not by Muslims.[^70] Yet these narratives have become so deeply ingrained that we continue to treat terms such as ‘Sultan’ as characteristic of despotism, unaware that language in the Western press has deliberately imposed these connotations upon institutions in the non-West since the nineteenth century and continues to do so today. Sultan Abdülhamid II was portrayed in the Western press in the late nineteenth century as an oriental despot, yet what is surprising is how these connotations have been internalized by Muslims to the point that even the Muslim political psyche has come to see the rule of any sultan as an unfortunate or undesirable turn of events, rather than a reflection of an Islamic historical reality. Of course, it should come as no surprise that Western historiography would place Ottoman history within the purview of the Western gaze. However, the Ottomans as a so-called ‘European Empire,’ or at least a state on the frontier regions of Europe, deserves better attention regarding the mutual systematic influences they had with Europe that have been critically overlooked.[^71] Narratives of Ottoman history present Ottoman inferiority regarding Europe, especially from the 18th century onwards, in which it only sought to emulate its Western neighbors but gave nothing in return; these narratives perpetuate the broader European narrative that Muslims and Islam did not offer the world, let alone Europe, anything worthy of note. One could argue that not much has changed regarding how Muslims and their contributions are represented in mainstream spaces. The point of note is that, while narratives of the Ottomans have been shaped by European historiography, what is missing is that the Ottomans played a significant role in shaping European history and identity for the last few hundred years as a mutual actor with shared interests, peoples, and traditions. Instead, Ottoman history written mainly from an Orientalist perspective has portrayed and fashioned European identity in opposition to the Ottomans as the external Other to be feared and despised. As mentioned, from the perspective of European historiography, we learn about European influences on the Ottomans but very little of the influence of the Ottomans and Islam on Europe, even during the height of the so-called Ottoman ‘Golden Age’ of Suleiman the Law Giver. The fact that this point is ignored is not only a problem regarding the loss of Muslim agency regarding Muslim contributions to Western historiography but, more significantly, that depictions of Islam and Muslims in Europe continue to perpetuate a narrative that has done very little to acknowledge Islam’s existence within Western society and its political configurations. But the Ottomans should not be reduced to simply their relationship with Europe. The complexity of the Ottoman domains is that they straddled three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. Ottoman narratives regarding its neighbors and its interaction with parts of Africa, Russia, the Asian Subcontinent and China receive very little attention. We have yet to learn how all these different peoples, nations, cultures, and traditions exchanged with the Ottoman domains and vice versa. The Ottomans were not simply looking West, but also East, North, and South; their society was one that reflected multicultural protected domains unlike any other in the history of Islam. Thus, a thorough study of the Ottomans is, in fact, a study of global history and how the Islamic domains encompassed the multiculturalism of the world. In that sense, I stress my earlier point that Ottoman history should matter to all Muslims, as the Ottoman domains were not simply Turkish, nor a frontier dominion that was European; it was an African and Asian state as much as a European one. In fact, Ottoman interactions in Africa are far too understudied for us to have any meaningful analysis either way of whether the Ottoman presence in Africa was overall positive or negative. It becomes more so imperative to study this area of Ottoman history as Africa is a Muslim continent and interactions among Muslim peoples, governments, and authorities require far more sensitive n examination from the culture and traditions of Islam than the narratives of Western academia have offered. Additionally, too many narratives place emphasis on the ruling structures, but a closer examination of the Ottoman domains from its people and the ideas that it represented indicates that the Ottoman world was indeed a multi-ethnic one that encompassed different denominations of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. There is much for Muslims to contribute to the study of the Ottoman world. The hardest question is where does one start? In a world in which readers want a simple primer that can answer most questions, the historian in me can simply answer that question by saying there is no easy way out. The hope is that more and more Muslims demand to know more about the Ottoman past in order to force those of us who are experts to help facilitate Muslims’ needs and interests better. While there are a host of primers in Western academia where some monumental works have been written, nonetheless I suggest that the first step should be to contact historians who are Muslim to be more engaged within the community to facilitate a medium of learning that is not simply restricted to the libraries of universities. At the moment, however, it can not be denied that Western academic circles continue to be the better places to study Ottoman studies. It would be fitting if scholars from the traditional seminaries and academics could come together to create programs in which Muslims can start to re-examine their own history in ways that stem from their own tradition while being mindful of the numerous sources that are required in writing about the past. The academic by nature is not designed to be an activist, and yet this is exactly what is required today. As stressed earlier, the writing of Islamic history and of our past is fundamentally an issue of agency, control, and existence. It should be a given that we be in control of how we view ourselves and how we belong to the *ummah* of the past as much as the *ummah* of today or the future. To be able to create such connections, Muslims have to be aware that not only does Western academia have a host of blind spots, but that the ways in which the academy examines history are not designed to give meaning to Muslims. While Muslims may feel that they can establish such meaning by attaining careers in the academy, nonetheless, it is also required that they produce literature for the wider Muslim community. The decentralization of traditional knowledge structures due to the democratization of knowledge via the Internet has meant that there are a host of avenues one can explore in teaching Islamic history to the interested student. In a culture of consumption, while many readers may want to know more about the Islamic past, we as a community need to also facilitate an environment where we are once again producers of knowledge for the Muslim community, for both today and the future. It is thus my opinion that we need to reclaim the narratives that are written about our past so that we can reclaim our existence in the world we live in. Indeed this is much easier said than done, but as Muslims, we must indeed have hope in Allah and this *ummah*. I started this essay by asking a set of questions. I further pressed on the point that the Qur’an and, by extension, the Islamic viewpoint of writing about the Islamic past is something that should be central to the Muslim historian. However, there is no doubt that much writing is taking place in more secular domains. It is, therefore, my view that it is imperative that Muslims try to forge or fashion a writing of the Ottoman past that finds meaning from an Islamic perspective and is simultaneously aware of some of the ideologically driven narratives that are produced in academic circles. Studies on Ottoman history require further Muslim engagement with the history writing of the Ottoman past seen as Islamic and inclusive of the Muslim voice in the way the Muslim needs to exist in this world. I hope that this essay, rather than pressing home any conclusive points, can start a discussion that encourages more Muslims to ask why the learning of our history is important. --- ## Notes [^1]: All Glory and thanks belong to Allah for it is He who is the Knower of all. Anything written in this essay of any value is from Him and anything that is not is from me alone. I ask Allah to forgive me if at any point of this essay I have slandered or misrepresented any of the people that I have written about. [^2]: I would like to thank Dr. Nameera Akhtar for her efforts in editing and providing valuable feedback on this essay. I would also like to thank the blind reviewer for their insights. [^3]: S. Parvez Manzoor, “Studying Islam Academically” in *How We Know: Ilm and the Revival of Knowledge*, ed. Ziauddin Sardar (London: Grey Seal Books, 1991), pp. 40-45. [^4]: Syed Farid Al-Attas, *Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology*, Routledge, 2015, pp. 75-77. [^5]: Talal Asad, *Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam*, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. [^6]: Al-Attas, *Applying Ibn Khaldun*, p. 95. [^7]: Ziauddin Sardar, *The Future of Muslim Civilization*, (Mansell Publishing Limited, New York, 1987), pp. 181-207. [^8]: Manzoor, “Studying Islam Academically,” pp. 40-45. [^9]: Sardar, *The Future of Muslim Civilization*, pp. 180-207. [^10]: I would like to thank Humza Azam Gondal for his insights and contribution to the writing of this essay. [^11]: [https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2018/09/why-humanities-programs-suffer-as-the-humanities-themselves-do-great/](https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2018/09/why-humanities-programs-suffer-as-the-humanities-themselves-do-great/) [^12]: Ovamir Anjum, ‘Islam as a Discursive Tradition: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors,’ *In Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East*, Duke University Press, Volume 27, Number 3, 2007, pp. 656-672. [^13]: Mohammad Iqbal, *The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam*, Ashraf, Lahore, 1971, pp. 147-8. [^14]: I would like to thank Dr. Burcin Kagan Mustafa a lecturer at Princess Nourah University, Riyadh, and a graduate of the School of Oriental and African studies for his conversations on these points. [^15]: Bernard Lewis, *The Emergence of Modern Turkey.* (London: Oxford U.P., 1961); Niyazi Berkes, *The Development of Secularism in Turkey* (New York: Routledge, 1998); Yusuf Hikmet Bayur, *Türk İnkılâbı Tarihi*, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları (İstanbul: Maarif Matbaası, 1940). [^16]: Edward Said, *Orientalism*, (London, Penguin Books, 2003). [^17]: Cameron Michael Amin, Benjamin C. Fortna, And Elizabeth B. Frierson, *The Modern Middle East- A Sourcebook of History*, Oxford University Press, 2006, pp.viii-xi. [^18]: Wael Hallaq, *Restating Orientalism: A Critique of  Modern Knowledge*, (Columbia University Press, 2018). [^19]: Lewis, *The Emergence of Modern Turkey*. [^20]: Berkes, *The Development of Secularism in Turkey.* [^21]: On the challenge to the theory of Ottoman Westernization see Frederick F. Anscombe, *State, Faith, and Nation in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Lands* (New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2014); on the idea of Ottoman modernity, see Olivier Bouquet, *Is It Time to Stop Speaking about Ottoman Modernisation? Order and Compromise: Government Practices in Turkey from the Late Ottoman Empire to Early 21st Century*, 2015, 45; and on the idea of Ottoman decline, see Cemal Kafadar, *The Question of Ottoman Decline*, Harvard Middle East and Islamic Review, 1999. [^22]: Mahmut Mutman, *The Politics of Writing Islam: Voicing Difference* (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), pp. 1-7. [^23]: Hamidian is the term used to depict the governance of Sultan Abdulhamid II. [^24]: Salman Sayyid, *Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonisation and the World Order* (C. Hurst & Co Publishers, London, 2014), pp. 1-7. [^25]: Caroline Finkle, *Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923* (John Murrey Publishers, London), 2006, p. 42. [^26]: Halil İnalcık, *Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300\-1600*, London, 1973, pp. 3-9. [^27]: Paul Wittek, *The Rise of the Ottoman Empire: Studies in the History of Turkey, Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries* (Routledge, London, 2012). [^28]: Heath Lowry, *The Nature of the Early Ottoman State* (State University of New York Press, 2003), pp. 43-56. [^29]: Abdulrahman Atçıl, *Scholars and Sultans in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire*, Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 17-40. [^30]: Finkle, *Osman’s Dream*, p. 118. [^31]: Halil İnalcık, ‘Mehmed the Conqueror (1432-1481) and his Time,’ in H. İnalcık, *Essays in Ottoman History, Istanbul* (1998) 87-109 (Speculum XXXV (1960)). [^32]: “Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader he will be, and what a wonderful army will that be!” Narrated from Bishir al-Khath’ami or al-Ghanawi by: Ahmad, *al Musnad* 14:331. [^33]: Atçıl, *Scholars and Sultans in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire*, pp. 59-100. [^34]: Here when I mention *devlet* or state I do not mean what modern conceptions represent but rather the Ottoman configurations of the various power groups that reflected that the House of Osman was the main dynastical power that represented the Caliphate. It must be stressed that throughout Ottoman history ‘the state’ was a fluid entity that transformed as political configurations evolved. [^35]: I use the word *din* (deen) here as meaning worldview rather than religion as this is how it was understood in the Ottoman world. [^36]: Ibid. [^37]: Selâhattin Tansel, *Yavuz Sultan Selim*, (Ankara, 1969), pp. 118-120; see also Hüseyin Yılmaz, *Caliphate Redefined – The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought*, (Princeton University Press, 2018), pp. 21-64. [^38]: Finkle, *Osman’s Dream*, p. 280. [^39]: Yılmaz, *Caliphate Redefined*, pp. 64-107. [^40]: Baki Tezcan, *The Second Ottoman Empire: Political and Social Transformations in the Early Modern World* (Cambridge University Press, 2010). [^41]: Ibid., pp. 191-226. [^42]: Hüseyin Yılmaz, “Containing Sultanic Authority: Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire before Modernity.” *Osmanlı Araştırmaları/The Journal of Ottoman Studies,* no XLV (2015). [^43]: The term “Circle of Justice” was coined by the sixteenth-century Ottoman thinker and scholar Kinalizade. It described the relationship between state and society prior to the nineteenth century. For more information see Linda Darling, “Circle of Justice” in *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, THREE, Consulted online on 6 January 2019. [^44]: Tezcan, *The Second Ottoman Empire*, pp. 115-184. [^45]: S. Tufan Buzpinar, ‘The Question of Caliphate under the Last Ottoman Sultans’ in *Ottoman Reform and Muslim Regeneration* (I.B. Taurus, London, 2005), pp. 17-20. [^46]: Ibid., pp. 20-25. [^47]: Dana Sajdi, ‘Decline, its Discontents and Ottoman Cultural History: By Way of Introduction’ in *Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee: Leisure and Lifestyle in the Eighteenth Century* (I. B. Tauris, London, 2014), pp. 1-40. [^48]: A Muslim response on Ottoman decline can be seen in the ideas, for example, of the likes of Abul Hassan al-Nadwi who examines the crises of Muslim civilization and the paths to revival. Revivalism requires decline which is an evident theme within works of Muslim writers. See in *Islam and the World: The Rise and Decline of Muslims and its Effects on Mankind* Trans by Mohammed Assif UK: UK Islamic Academy of Islamic Research and Publications, 2005. [^49]: Ali Yaycioğlu, *Partners of the Empire – The Crises of the Ottoman Order in the Age of Revolutions* (Stanford University Press, 2016), pp. 38-64. [^50]: Khaled Fahmy, *All the Pasha’s Men: Mehmed Ali, His Army and the Making of Modern Egypt* (Cairo, The American University of Cairo Press, 2002), pp. 1-40. [^51]: Frederick F. Anscombe, *State, Faith, and Nation in Ottoman and Post Ottoman Lands* (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 61-90. [^52]: For a response to this debate, see Ibid., pp. 83-87. [^53]: Butrus Abu-Manneh, “The Islamic Roots of the Gülhane Rescript,” *Die Welt Des Islams* 34, no. 2 (1994): 173–203; Butrus Abu-Manneh, “Two Concepts of State in the Tanzimat Period: The Hatt-I Şerif of Gülhane and the Hatt-I Hümayun,” ed. Kate Fleet, *Turkish Historical Review*\- Brill 6, no. 2 [^54]: Frederick F. Anscombe, *State, Faith, and Nation in Ottoman and Post Ottoman Lands*. [^55]: Butrus Abu-Manneh, Mehmed Ali Paşa and Sultan Mahmud II: The Genesis of a Conflict, *Turkish Historical Review* 1 (2010) 1-24. [^56]: Şerif Mardin, *The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought: A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas,* 1st Syracuse University Press ed., Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East (Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2000). [^57]: Samy Ayoub, “The Mecelle, Sharia, and the Ottoman State: Fashioning and Refashioning of Islamic Law in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,”  *Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association* 2:1 (2015) 121-146. [^58]: Jun Akiba, ‘Sharia Judges in the Ottoman Nizamiye Courts, 1864-1908,’ *Osmanlı Araştırmaları/The Journal of Ottoman Studies*, Volume 51, 2018, pp. 209-237, Samy Ayoub, *The Mecelle, Sharia, and the Ottoman State*, pp. 121-146. For an alternative reading see Murteza Bedir, *Fikih to Law: Secularization Through Curriculum, Islamic Law and Society*, 2004. [^59]: Ahmet A. Ersoy, *Architecture and the Late Ottoman Historical Imaginary – Reconfiguring the Architectural Past in a Modernizing Empire*, Routledge, 2015, pp. 2-18. [^60]: Selim Deringil, *The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire 1876-1909* (London : I. B. Tauris, 1998). [^61]: Feroze Yasamee, *Ottoman Diplomacy: Abdülhamid II and the Great Powers 1878-1888,* Studies on Ottoman Diplomatic History; (Istanbul: The Isis Press, 1996), pp. 20-21. [^62]: Nader Sohrabi, *Revolution and Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and Iran*, Reprint edition (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 72-250. [^63]: İsmail Kara, *Islâmciların Siyasî Goruşleri* (Dergah Yayınları, 2001). [^64]: Nader Sohrabi, “Global Waves, Local Actors: What the Young Turks Knew about Other Revolutions and Why It Mattered,” *Comparative Studies in Society and History* 44, no. 01 (January 2002), pp. 45–79. [^65]: Eugene Rogan, *The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920* (London, Penguin, 2016). [^66]: Gail Minault, *The Khilafat Movement- Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India* (New York, Columbia University Press, 1982), pp. 65-207. [^67]: Mona Hassan, *Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History* (Princeton University Press, 2016), pp. 218-252. [^68]: Madawi al-Rasheed and Carool Kersten, *Demystifying the Caliphate*, Columbia, Hurts, 2013. [^69]: Cameron Michael Amin, Benjamin C. Fortna, and Elizabeth B. Frierson, *The Modern Middle East- A Sourcebook of History*, pp.viii-xi. [^70]: Ibid. [^71]: Halil İnalcık, *The Ottoman Empire and Europe – The Ottoman Empire and Its Place in European History* (İstanbul, Kronik Books, 2017), pp. 11-12. ## Summary Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim. The history of the Ottoman dynasty, which arose as a modest Turkic beylik in Anatolia and grew into a Caliphate that endured for some six centuries until its abolition in 1342/1924, deserves renewed attention from Muslims themselves. Much of what has been written about this dynasty has been shaped by ideology, narrative, and language, whether within Western academia or by the nation-states that emerged from the former Ottoman domains. While these narratives have begun to be revised, general Muslim engagement in the production of knowledge about this once-powerful Islamic dynasty continues to lag behind. There is a pressing need for more Muslim voices to study history in general, and Ottoman history in particular, so that a plurality of views may be represented from within the Islamic worldview. A central question is whether history can be written from an Islamic perspective that is instructive for Muslims. The well-known works of early Islamic history were written from an Islamic perspective and for an Islamic audience, by Muslims and for Muslims. It is therefore important that Muslims contribute in the same vein, writing from their own worldview rather than as disinterested observers. To do so, they must prioritise what is central to that worldview: their beliefs regarding this world, humankind, values, purpose, and the hereafter. If Islam offers a comprehensive worldview, it should inform not only ritual and social conduct but also politics, ethics, morality, and the manner in which knowledge is attained and interpreted. A crucial distinction must be drawn between the history of Islam and the history of Muslims' actions, for judging Islam by the errors and crimes of Muslims restricts the faith to the disposition of its adherents. One must also be careful not to judge people of the past by the moral standards of the present. Islam should be examined from its own framework, and the Islamic past judged by criteria established by the Islamic tradition. In this connection, the example of Ibn Khaldun is invoked. In the opening section of his Muqaddimah, the Kitab al-Ibar, he stressed the need for history-writing in Islam. History-writing was not new to Muslim societies, for from the very beginning scholars documented the past in detail, whether in hadith, in the biographies of hadith transmitters, or in the seerah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Ibn Khaldun held that history-writing existed to establish the truth, or at least to come closer to it, and he argued that it ought to be part of the Islamic sciences, indeed an aspect of philosophy. He also understood history as being about human social organisation, and warned that the reader must be aware of the bias of the author's truth-claims. Just as strict criteria govern the study of the Qur'an and Sunnah, the same scholarly rigour should attend the study of history, especially in an age where information is easily manipulated and distorted. The Qur'an itself offers lessons for the writing of history. Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) repeatedly recounts events of the past in an instructive manner, teaching values and ideals and showing how earlier civilisations rose and passed away. The narratives of the Qur'an, such as the story of the Prophet Yusuf (alayhi al-salam) and the story of the seven sleepers, are signs of the truth, even though the Qur'an is not a history book but a book of authority. Much of the Qur'an responds to events in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, so that his seerah should be read alongside it. The Qur'an urges us to "remember" past peoples and events, and its non-linear treatment of time connects past and future, disrupting the assumption that the modern age is the pinnacle of human progress. For the Muslim, existence is fundamentally an act of worship, and the past should be studied so that we may better engage in that worship. Drawing on S. Parvez Mansoor, present writers are said often to view themselves and the past through a "secularised consciousness," which raises the question of whether Muslims might write their history differently, with the Qur'an at the centre of their thinking. Turning to Ottoman studies specifically, two problems are highlighted: a lack of intellectual investment by Muslims, and the problematic manner in which Ottoman history is taught both in Western academia and in Muslim seminaries. A "collective amnesia" has set in regarding the last Caliphate, and if Muslims do not write their own history they risk losing agency over how their past, identity, and tradition are narrated. The importance of history was stressed not only by Ibn Khaldun but also by Muhammad Iqbal and by Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas. A further difficulty is that the recent popularity of Turkish television dramas such as Diriliş Ertuğrul and Payitaht Abdülhamid has generated interest without corresponding archival research or scrutiny of narratives. Three conceptual challenges must be recognised: ideology, narrative, and language. Ottoman history has largely been viewed through Orientalist or nation-state paradigms. Drawing on Wael Hallaq, it is suggested that Edward Said may not have gone far enough, or may himself have worked within the same ideological paradigm. Narratives of Ottoman decline, Westernisation, and secularism require far greater scrutiny within Muslim circles, and these are debates in which Muslims outside academia have yet to participate. Language too matters: the loss of Ottoman Turkish has rendered the Ottoman world nearly invisible, and English terms often distort Muslim experience, as when ittihad-i Islam was rendered as "Pan-Islamism," or when a term such as dawah is reduced to "missionary activity." The Islamicate languages, in which Islam is infused, translate more faithfully than English. The historical overview that follows is offered as an introduction rather than a comprehensive study. The Ottomans emerged from the Kayı tribe under Osman Gazi, who is said to have died around 724/1324, and consolidated their power under his son Orhan Gazi, who established Bursa as their first capital in 726/1326. The "Gazi thesis" and its critics are noted, along with recent studies suggesting the early Ottomans were indeed conscious of their Islamic identity. The conquest of Constantinople by Fatih Sultan Mehmet in 857/1453, fulfilling the prophecy narrated in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ concerning that city, marked the emergence of the Ottomans as a ruling power. The controversial practice of fratricide, justified by earlier ulema through the principle of din ü devlet but criticised by more contemporary voices, is presented as a matter requiring further research, since fatwa culture on the question is diverse. With Yavuz Sultan Selim I and his defeat of the Mamluks in 922/1517, the Ottomans laid claim to the Caliphate and became Khadim al-Haramayn. Their claim drew upon the medieval works of al-Mawardi, al-Baqillani, and al-Ghazali, which preserved the idea of the Caliphate. Some scholars question whether the Ottomans truly saw themselves as Caliphs at this stage, but there is held to be sufficient evidence that they took the claim seriously well before the nineteenth century; Hüseyin Yılmaz is cited on the memory of the Abbasid collapse. Under Kanuni Sultan Suleyman the domains reached their greatest extent, in a period historians have called a "golden age," a label now contested. The kanun, wrongly described as secular law, supplemented the Shariah in administrative matters through the principle of örf (custom) under the supervision of the ulema, and this too is said to require further study. The notion of "Oriental despotism" is rejected, for the ulema, Janissaries, and local magnates all shared in power within the framework of the "Circle of Justice." The subsequent losses, beginning with the Khanate of Crimea to the Russians in 1187/1774 under the treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, forced the Ottomans to reconsider the Caliph's role in protecting Muslims beyond the domains. The "decline narrative" attached to this period is noted to be heavily contested by revisionist historians, and the question of the proper criterion for judging "decline" or a "golden age" is deliberately left open. The reforms of the long nineteenth century, the Tanzimat, and the debates over Ottoman secularism and modernity are presented as similarly unsettled; drawing on Fredrick Anscombe and Butrus Abu-Manneh, it is argued that Islam remained far more important to the Ottoman world than earlier historiography allowed. The reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II, the Constitutional Revolution of 1326/1908, and the final abolition of the Sultanate in 1341/1922 and the Caliphate in 1342/1924 are recounted, along with the Indian Khilafat Committee and the later efforts of ulema such as Mustafa Sabri Efendi and Sheikh Rashid Rida to preserve the institution. The collapse of the Ottomans was not a foregone conclusion, for the dynasty repeatedly reinvented itself over six centuries; it represented not merely a state but an idea deeply entrenched in Islam, and the uprooting of that idea by the successor nation-states is held to explain the collective amnesia many Muslims suffer. Muslims should invest in the study of all Islamic history, giving each era its due. Both scholars trained in academia and the traditional ulema should ideally work together to bridge the gaps created by Orientalist and nationalist interpretations. The writing of history is fundamentally a matter of agency, control, and existence, and Muslims must strive to fashion a writing of the Ottoman past that finds its meaning from an Islamic perspective while remaining aware of the ideologically driven narratives produced elsewhere. Rather than pressing any conclusive point, the aim here is to begin a discussion that encourages more Muslims to ask why the learning of our history matters, placing our hope in Allah and in this ummah. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-idea-of-happiness-in-the-quran # The Idea of Happiness in the Qur'an **Author:** Dr. Yasien Mohamed **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 12, 2019 **Updated:** November 11, 2025 ## Happiness in Qur’anic ethics The desire for happiness is a natural desire, and both the Greek and Islamic philosophers agree that happiness is the final end, but they differ as to what this end is and how it should be achieved. A key question that philosophers pose is whether virtues are sufficient for happiness, or whether they require external goods such as health, wealth, and friends for the fulfillment of happiness. We know from experience that a passionate attachment to external goods such as wealth and material possessions can be harmful to human life. However, we cannot also dismiss the idea that these external goods are necessary to contribute to our well-being and to the nurturing of virtue. It should, furthermore, be borne in mind that the ethical philosophy of the Qur’an is not purely intellectual, but that it is bound up with a diagnosis of human suffering and an intuitive conception of human flourishing. Islamic ethicists, therefore, in their attempt to grapple with human suffering, try to articulate a mode of living in the world. They do not simply philosophize about ethics for the sake of academic pleasure. They propose a theory of immoderate desire that they believe to be the root cause of human ailments, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual in nature. Contemporary moral philosophy has much to learn from Islamic philosophical wisdom if it wishes to move beyond the academy and take its place in the daily life of human beings. In reading the works of the eleventh-century Islamic ethicists such as al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali, one finds that their philosophical-literary style engages the reader’s entire soul in a way that an abstract and impersonal ethical prose treatise does not. --- ## The meaning of happiness Happiness in the Qur’an refers to happiness in this world and the hereafter. Happiness in the hereafter, or everlasting felicity, is the ultimate goal of the believer. All the joys that humans experience in this world are a means to ultimate happiness in the next world, and they acknowledge God with gratitude for the blessings granted them. Happiness that is associated with the word *sa’adah* in the Qur’an is a permanent state and refers to otherworldly happiness or the happiness of the hereafter. This eternal happiness is mentioned twice in the Qur’an, as an adjective and as a verb. God says: > *“The day it comes, no soul shall speak except by His permission. Some of them will be wretched, and some happy”* (Qur’an 11:105). > > *“And as for those who are happy, they will be in Paradise, abiding there so long as the heavens and the earth endure, unless your Lord wills, as uninterrupted giving”* (Qur’an 11:108). The word *ata’* (giving) appears 14 times in the Qur’an, and nowhere else is uninterrupted giving mentioned. Thus, we may conclude from this that happiness comes from uninterrupted giving from God, but it does not exclude the happiness from the giving of humans. Divine giving is a result of human giving, which means that when humans give freely they will become the recipients of divine giving. God says: > *And give good tidings to those who believe and perform righteous deeds that theirs shall be Gardens underneath which rivers run; whenever they are with fruits therefrom, they shall say, ‘This is the provision we received before’; and they were given a likeness of it…* (Qur’an 2:25). This verse refers to the inhabitants of heaven who remember that they experienced similar provisions in this world. This is the perspective of the inhabitants of paradise, who remember the world. However, since the provisions in the two worlds cannot really compare, it also refers to a state of wonderment. It is therefore clear that the inhabitants of paradise have not forgotten this world. Thus, the giving that people receive in heaven is akin to the provisions that they experienced on earth. This includes the true provisions of the righteous deeds in this world, which is to give freely of one’s possessions and of one’s self, as God states: ‘Go forth in the way of God, lightly or heavily, and strive with your wealth and yourselves in the way of God. That is better for you if you but knew” (Qur’an 9:41). This kind of happiness, whether of an otherworldly nature or what is akin to it in this world,  should be distinguished from mere physical enjoyment (*mut’a*), which is the pleasure that originates purely from the physical senses. Human beings share the latter form of pleasure with animals, as God states: “As for those who disbelieve, they take their enjoyment and eat as the cattle eat” (Qur’an 47:12). This kind of physical pleasure is short-lived because bodily health and external qualities such as wealth and friends are but transient and cannot provide permanent happiness. Thus, God states: “Are you content with the life of this world, rather than with the hereafter? Yet the enjoyment of the life of this world compared with the hereafter is but little” (Qur’an 9:38). So, happiness in the Qur’an refers to a permanent state in paradise and not a state of mere physical joy in this world. So the otherworldly happiness is not equal to the joy or happiness of this world. Otherworldly happiness is of a higher order, and cannot be identical to worldly joy. The joys (*farah*) in this world, however, are of two types: negative (blameworthy) joy and positive (praiseworthy) joy. Blameworthy joy is worldly joy as God states: “They rejoice in the life of this world, yet the life of this world compared to the hereafter is but a fleeting joy” (Qur’an 13:26). Praiseworthy joy, however, is to enjoy the bounties of God and to be grateful to Him for those bounties. God states: “Say: In the bounty of God, and in His Mercy—in this, then, let them rejoice. That is better than what they hoard (of worldly goods)” (Qur’an 10:58). Thus, if one rejoices in these material bounties purely for the sake of worldly acquisition, then it is a blameworthy joy. However, if one rejoices in it as a gift from God, and for the benefit it brings, then it is a praiseworthy joy.[^1] As mentioned, people will be held accountable on the Day of Judgment. If they have done good, they will obtain otherworldly happiness, and if they have done evil, they will obtain otherworldly misery. Good people will be given the book of righteous deeds, and they will be happy: > *As for him who is given his book in his right hand, he shall say, Come! Read my book! I knew I was going to face my accounting. He shall be in a happy life, in an exalted garden whose fruit-bunches are nigh \[to be plucked\]. \[It shall be said to them:\] Eat and drink to your satisfaction in consideration of what you had left in previous days.* (Qur’an 69:19-25; see also: Qur’an 56:27-44; 17:71-72; 74:39) The Qur’an portrays the exalted garden in vivid terms: “God has promised believing men and believing women gardens beneath which rivers flow wherein they shall abide forever and good homes in the gardens of eternity. And God’s pleasure is the greatest. That is the supreme success” (Qur’an 9:72). The believers and the virtuous will have their greatest reward in the pleasure (*ridwan*) of God. The faces of the believers on that day will be “fresh with joy and will be looking at their Lord” (Qur’an 75:22).[^2] Philosophers have reinterpreted the Qur’anic expression *Yawm al-Qiyamah* (Day of Resurrection) (Qur’an 9:105-109) to mean *Yawm al-Sa‘adah* (Day of Happiness). Happiness is a key concept in Islamic philosophy and connotes humans' highest striving for eternal happiness in paradise. We earn this supreme happiness through the purification of the soul. All the bounties that God granted us, whether it be wealth, health, or good friends, we employ to assist us in the purification of the self. In the end, we can only achieve the ultimate happiness through God’s Grace. Thus, if we pursue worldly pleasures in moderation and with the proper intention, we serve the immortal soul and not merely our base desires. Thus, happiness in Islamic philosophical ethics, as expounded by eleventh-century Islamic philosophers, including al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali, concerns two kinds of happiness: happiness in this world and the happiness of the hereafter. The happiness of this world pertains to three aspects: the soul, the body, and the external virtues. The happiness of the soul relates to virtues such as wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. The happiness of the body relates to virtues such as health, strength, and beauty. The happiness of the external virtues relates to virtues such as wealth, status, friends, etc. For Aristotle, these external virtues contribute to the happiness of the soul in this world, and for the Islamic ethicists, they contribute to the happiness of the soul in this world and the hereafter. For the sake of brevity, I will focus mainly on the external virtues, and particularly on wealth, as it is the primary aspiration in the contemporary age of materialism. Alain De Botton, the Swiss-born British philosopher, argues that the primary driving force today is status, and that wealth is just a means to achieve status. Status makes us famous, influential, and accepted by society. We earn the love of others through high status, and we seek it more than anything else after we have secured our biological needs for food, shelter, and clothing. People of rank are observed by all the world, and everyone is eager to look at them. Rank here is connected to high income and what is owned.[^3]. Adam Smith, author of *The Wealth of Nations*, however, placed self-interest as the primary motive for the division of labor and the economic development that is the consequence of this division of labor. Smith, however, admits that great wealth does not always bring about happiness: “Riches leave a man always as much and sometimes far exposed to anxiety, to fear, and to sorrow.”[^4] For Smith, the belief that opulence will make you happy is an illusion, but it is a necessary illusion as it motivates the tradesman to accept a division of labor for the sake of the greater production of material goods. Smith knew that the key to happiness lies in virtue. His anti-materialist strand of thought is best contained in *The Theory of Moral Sentiments*, where he called for the stoical attitude of self-restraint to temper the excesses of commercial society. It all depends on how one conceives of wealth. Smith, like the Stoics, knew that it is not wealth that makes one happy, but virtue. Smith belongs to the anti-compassion tradition started by the Stoics, who tend to be indifferent to the misfortunes of this world and the misfortunes of others. Compassion insults the dignity of the person who suffers. The Stoics see Socrates as a true hero, because of his “calm, self-sufficient demeanor in misfortune, his low evaluation of worldly goods.”[^5] The Stoic repudiation of compassion appears to be hard-heartedness, but it is meant to express the idea of human dignity. The Stoic indifference to the deaths of loved ones should be seen as closely linked to their egalitarian cosmopolitanism. That means that we should have equal concern for all. The problem with compassion is that we attach importance to worldly goods; so if someone loses those goods, we are compassionate because we place value on those goods. Being compassionate does not mean one cannot be merciful. Mercy does not mean that one is not responsible for one’s actions, but one is more tolerant of people’s faults and will plead for mitigation in sentencing, not a verdict of non-guilt.[^6] Islamic moral philosophers, however, have not been indifferent to the misfortunes of others. While they acknowledge like the Stoics that wealth and other external goods are not the central sources of virtue and happiness, they hold that the basic material well-being of a person is still important, and can contribute to a person’s happiness. They may be Stoic in the sense of accepting Divine Providence, but cannot be indifferent to worldly helplessness. They will call for compassion in the face of losses of truly basic goods, such as life, loved ones, nourishment, and shelter. The Prophets were not indifferent to their own suffering; they expressed their emotions, not out of self-pity, but genuine feelings of loss. Prophet Jacob lost his son Joseph and suffered from grief for many years until he became blind because of his tears. Yet, he knew that these trials were all a test from God, and so never ever despaired of God’s Mercy. Islamic scholars had a positive view of wealth and other external goods. Ibn Khaldun explains that the wealthy companions of the Prophet ﷺ and the ascetic-minded Sufis, by contrast, saw wealth not as a means to opulence, but as a means to a higher spiritual end.[^7] Classical philosophers such as al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali, however, regarded wealth as the lowest value in the scale of external virtues. Friends were more highly ranked in value by these Islamic ethicists than money. Al-Isfahani reminds us that true friends are always there for you, whether in good fortune or bad fortune, but superficial friends are only there in good fortune. *The Death of Ivan Ilyich* by Count Leo Tolstoy is an excellent illustration of superficial friends. Ilyich, the main character, is more concerned with his status as a high court judge, but at the age of forty-five, he becomes so sick that he loses his appetite and can no longer go to work. It dawns upon him that he will soon die, but his friends no longer come to visit him. He realizes that he wasted his life trying to impress society and that his friends were only there to benefit from his high position and his wealth. The opportunistic attitude of Ilyich’s friends is a characteristic of materialistic culture, which is now also affecting the Muslim world. We need to reorder our scale of values and place greater value on the soul than the body. Indeed, we do need to fulfill the needs of the body, as we cannot live without food, shelter, and clothing. These are biological necessities. If we cannot fulfill our bodily needs, we will become dehumanized and will turn to crime. This is not a justification for crime, but it partly explains why people beg, borrow, and steal. Fellow citizens should have respect for their basic terrestrial needs. It is a truism that ‘man does not live by bread alone,’ but it is equally true that without bread we cannot live. Abject poverty compels us into a state of vegetative existence. The Qur’an identifies three goals for human beings, and al-Isfahani places the cultivation of the earth (*‘imarat al-ard*) first on the list because production to provide for our needs is a matter of biological necessity.[^8] We require the crafts of agriculture, building, and weaving for the cultivation of the earth and the fulfillment of our bodily needs. These are fundamental needs, without which worship is not possible, and without which we would not be able to transcend our physical existence. Yet, this is not our higher purpose, which is of a spiritual order. In order to transcend our physical existence, we will have to control our desires by cultivating the virtue of temperance. A temperate life is a life of frugality, self-discipline, and simplicity through the virtue of temperance, which is nurtured when our intellect predominates over our concupiscent faculty of the soul, namely, our desire. The eleventh-century Islamic ethicists did not promote the obliteration of desire, as they knew it is a very powerful desire and a biological necessity. What they did promote is the moderation of desire through reason and the guidance of the Qur’an. The key virtue is temperance. Our desires are only a means to an end, which is to serve the soul, and the soul is a means to serve God. The problem today is that the soul is more likely to serve desire; thus, the needs of the body have taken priority over the needs of the soul. For al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali, the external virtues such as wealth, status, and friends are meant to assist ultimately in the cultivation of the soul, and not primarily to serve the needs of the body. Of all the external virtues, wealth is the lowest value. Although we need it, it cannot bring us happiness. It is only a means by which we fulfill our duties to God. Al-Ghazali says people should be financially self-sufficient so that they can give all their attention to the pursuit of knowledge. Thus, wealth and all other external virtues are only a means to an end, not ends themselves. Our focus should be on the justice of the soul, where reason prevails over the body, and the body becomes the servant of the soul and not the soul the servant of the body. The pleasure derived from material goods is an illusion, and we are like thirsty people who imagine the mirage in the desert to be water: “As to the unbelievers, their works are like a mirage in level ground, which the thirsty supposes to be water, but when he comes close to it, he finds that it is nothing” (Qur’an 24:39).[^9] Happy are those who see material goods as a divine blessing, and miserable are those who cannot see them as such. These wretched people will be tormented by their attachment to worldliness, as the Qur’an states: “So do not let their wealth and their children win your approval, Allah only wishes to torture them therewith in the present life, so that their souls might depart while they are still unbelievers” (Qur’an 9:55).[^10] The problem lies in our insatiable desire, and the secret is to control it through temperance. Al-Ghazālī holds that if people discipline their desire (*shahwah*), they will attain the perfection that is distinctive of their nature, which is the heart’s knowledge of God (*ma’rifah*). This special perfection is unique to humans and because of it they are able to obtain the higher pleasure: > *Know, the happiness of everything—its pleasure, its serenity—indeed the pleasure of everything accords with the needs of its nature. The nature of everything accords with what it has been created for. The eye delights in \[seeing\] pretty pictures and the ear delights in \[hearing\] harmonious sounds. Every limb can be described like this. The heart’s distinctive delight is in the knowledge of God, the Most High, because the heart is created from it \[divine knowledge\]*.[^11] Thus, the intuitive knowledge of God (*ma’rifah*) can only be attained through the purification of the soul, which includes cultivation of the virtues of temperance, courage, and wisdom. However, the knowledge of God and the happiness of the individual can only be attained if these virtues are directed at the happiness of the hereafter. --- ## This worldly life (al-dunyā) is not the main source of our ultimate happiness People generally forget that happiness is a disposition of the soul and not a condition of circumstance. They confuse happiness with the means of happiness, sacrificing the first for the attainment of the second. The miser seeks money for the mere joy of it and makes the acquisition of money his sole object in life and pursues it to the sacrifice of all rational ends and pleasures. A miserly person said,  “Imagine if I did not eat food for fifty years, how much money would I have saved!” Circumstances and character both contribute to happiness, but character is more important as it helps to shape our circumstances. Character also helps to shape our inward attitude to inevitable adverse circumstances and helps us cope with them. Character plays an important part in improving our circumstances; as the Almighty states: “God does not change the condition of people unless they change their souls” (Qur’an 13:11). There are two interpretations of this verse. One is that the onus is on people to take the initiative to change themselves from a state of evil to a state of goodness. The other is that the change referred to is from a state of good to evil. As long as people retain their pure inner state (*fiṭrah*), God will not withhold their blessings. “If man conforms to his *fiṭrah*, his external circumstances will improve, but if he deviates from his *fiṭrah*, his circumstances will deteriorate”.[^12] Regardless of how one interprets the verse, the common view is that change of character is key to a change of circumstances.  Contrary to this position is the view of sensational philosophers from Bacon to Marx, who explain the world through sense experience, that external circumstances are fundamental to happiness. Chapter 13, Verse 11, of the Qur’an, however, seems to suggest that we need to change our inner state first before we can improve our external circumstances. The Qur’an is not opposed to the enjoyment derived from the external virtues of this world. As already mentioned, these contribute to our happiness in this world and the hereafter, but they are not critical to our happiness provided our basic biological needs are fulfilled. It gives one pleasure, for example, to have a Persian carpet in our house, but it is more critical to our happiness in this world to have a secure roof over our heads. This world is called *al-dunya*, literally; ‘the lower world.’ The Qur’ān mostly uses the expression *al-hayat al-dunya* (the lower life). The concept of *al-dunya* presupposes the concept of *al-akhirah* (the hereafter) and stands in contrast to it. The Qur’an frequently uses these two words: “You desire the ephemeral goods of this world (*al-dunya*), while God desires \[for you\] the Hereafter (*al-akhirah*)” (Qur’an 8:67). It states that the afterlife is better and more enduring. It teaches that this life is transient and that the real life is the one to come. Life in this world is a gift from God to be used properly, following God’s commandments. It is like a farm, where one should sow the seeds of good deeds to reap a harvest in the hereafter. Life in this world is an inseparable part of a unified whole that includes birth, death, and life after death. This provides a context to our life, and it becomes meaningful inasmuch as it is full of good works. The afterlife is always treated in the Qur’an as something in relation to life in this world, and it is mentioned on almost every page. God states: “From the earth We created you, into it We shall return you, and from it We shall raise you a second time” (Qur’an 20:55). The Qur’an does not disparage the life of this world; instead, it is world-affirming. God states: “It is He who created all that is on this earth for you” (Qur’an 53:25); Also: “Eat from what your Lord has provided for you and give Him thanks” (Qur’an 34:15). And while seeking paradise, “Do not neglect your rightful share in this world” (Qur’an 28:77). Thus, while believers enjoy the goods of this world, they work towards the higher goods of the next world. Thus, it all depends on one’s attitude to this world, and how we live in it. If we are engrossed in the material world and take it as an end in itself, we will forget our ultimate purpose of creation. According to al-Ghazali, the moderate way of living is like the lives of the Prophets, since it fulfills both the needs of this world and the hereafter.[^13] In another passage, al-Ghazali states: > *As mentioned, the goal of food is to nourish the body, and the body in turn \[through physical acts of worship\] is important for the perfection of the soul. He who has understood the order of the importance of wealth, food, and the body, will know the value of wealth, and how it should be ranked in the scale of importance. Once he knows the extent of the honor given to wealth, he should use it accordingly, and fulfill the goal for which it is intended. He will use only what he needs, \[bearing in mind\] the ultimate goal, which is the purification of the soul. Thus, one should not depend on wealth, but one should only take what is important for one’s essential needs. One will then understand why God has disparaged wealth in some places in the Qur’an. And know that your property and your children are only a trial and that God-with Him is a great reward (8:28). One should also understand why God has praised it in some places: And He supports you with wealth and children (71:12). So, in short, if wealth is a means to the Hereafter, it is praiseworthy, and if it is a diversion from the Hereafter, it is blameworthy.*[^14] Thus, al-Ghazali’s understanding of these verses is that wealth can be used for good or evil; good if it helps towards the happiness of the hereafter, and evil if it diverts from the happiness of the hereafter. There is nothing that prohibits believers from enjoying the external goods of the world, including wealth, health, good friends, relatives, beauty, and a good spouse. These are sources of joy in this world, but can also be a means of happiness in the next world. They are not to be conceived as ends, but only as means to otherworldly felicity. These are the bounties of God, for which we are required to be grateful. Although they have a lower value than the virtues of the soul, they benefit us in cultivating those virtues. For example, through wealth, we can afford to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca and give charity to the poor. It is well-known that Khadija, the Prophet’s wife, and Abu Bakr, his companion, were wealthy merchants, but their wealth was not directed at a life of opulence. Instead, it was spent in the path of God. About 69 verses in the Qur’an refer to God’s bounties, including the following:  “For God is He who gives all sustenance” (Qur’an 51:58); “There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance depends on God” (Qur’an 11:6); “We have honored the sons of Adam: provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure” (Qur’an 17:70); “If you are grateful, I will add \[more favors\] unto you” (Qur’an 14:7). These verses affirm that God intended that humans should enjoy the fruits of this world and thank God for them. --- ## The virtue of temperance According to the classical Islamic ethicists, there are three faculties of the soul: the rational faculty, the concupiscent faculty (desire) and the irascible faculty (emotion). When the rational faculty has control over the two lower faculties of the soul, the virtues of the soul emerge. In this section, I focus on the control of the concupiscent faculty and the virtue of temperance that arises from it. The classical Islamic philosophers did not recommend the repression of the concupiscent faculty and would have agreed with Sigmund Freud that this will lead to neurosis. Rather, they proposed the moderation of the concupiscent faculty, including discipline over the desires for food, sex, and wealth. A wise person curbs his enjoyment of food, drink, and music. Temperance is that kind of virtue that allows us to be masters of our pleasures instead of being slaves to them. The temperate person is happy because he is independent; he is not a slave to his desires and is content with little. The concupiscent faculty refers to the abdomen and private parts, and humans enjoy the fulfillment of these parts in the same way that animals do. These are animal pleasures and temperance is the ability to curb such lower pleasures. Al-Isfahani states: > *It is the mean between ‘greed’ and ‘abstention.’ It is the source of basic virtues, including contentment, restraint, satisfaction of the soul, and generosity. No praiseworthy qualities are possible without these basic virtues. Temperance is the key to attaining these noble traits. Once established in the heart, it moderates all physical pleasures and restrains bad thoughts that induce a person to indulge in sin. When the heart is perfected through temperance, the rest of the limbs will be protected. Without temperance a person will have bad aspirations and bad thoughts—the foundations of vice. The person who desires or thinks of wanting what another person has will become envious. This envy will lead to hostility, and this hostility to quarrelling, which may lead to killing that person. Bad thoughts \[about another person\] is the cause of enemies, and lead one to wrong and transgression. God has forbidden covetousness and \[such\] suspicion, saying: “Do not covet that with which God has favored some of you over the others” (Qur’an 4:32);* “*O you who believe! Shun much conjecture. Indeed, some conjecture is a sin”* (*Qur’an 49:12*).[^15] The ambition for material success leads to envy and hostility. The greed for material acquisitions is a source of unhappiness and malevolence. It is never the source of benevolence and wishing others well. The lawyer prays for dissension, and the physician cannot wait for the season of sickness, to make more money. The wealthy person fears the loss of his wealth, but the poor person has nothing to fear because he has nothing to lose. The wealthy person’s insatiable desire for luxury is a disease. If he were master of the whole world, he would be still a beggar; he would always be poor. Once we have secured our roofs against cold and heat, and we have enough food to nourish our bodies, then all else is but vanity and excess. Happy is the person who eats only when hungry, and drinks only when thirsty, and lives according to his reason and the guidance from the Qur’an. A good Muslim controls his desires and avoids the sins of envy, gluttony, lust, and greed. Let us, therefore, curb our appetites, for this is the key to virtue, and virtue is the key to happiness. The virtue of temperance allows us to live according to our needs, not our wants. It is therefore prudent to practice temperance. The month of Ramadan is a month of abstention and helps us cultivate the virtue of temperance. According to al-Isfahani, contentment (*al-qanā‘ah*) is the state of being satisfied with one’s fill, which is an important prerequisite for asceticism (*al-zuhd*), or the practice of restricting oneself to very little. The ascetic is one who will give away that which he has, even if he himself needs it. His heart is completely detached from the material world. Wealth is not having much and poverty is not having little. It is all relative to one’s degree of contentment. The poor person who is content is wealthy, as he is satisfied with his simple car and modest house; but the rich person who is not content is poor, as he craves a smarter car and a bigger house. It is not the man who has little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more. The proper limit to a person’s wealth is to have what is essential and to have what is enough. Al-Isfahani states: > *He who accepts his poverty by being content with what he has and restricts himself to the minimum for his essential needs is truly rich and is nearest to God. This is affirmed by Saul. When he set out with his forces, he said: ‘God will test you with a river. He who drinks from it will not belong to me, but he who refrains from drinking it, will indeed belong to me; but forgiven shall be he who shall scoop up but a handful from it. They drank from it their fill except for a few of them’ (Qur’an 2:249). Therefore, God made people rich by reducing their needs. The absolutely rich need absolutely nothing, and that is God. The Prophet (ṣ) said, ‘Richness lies not in material acquisitions, but in the richness of the soul.*[^16]’ The verse in this passage suggests that God did not intend by asceticism that we should reject the world entirely, but that we should only partake in what suffices, and we are forgiven for doing so. That is, scooping up a handful of water from the river is permissible, but over-indulgence is reprehensible. We should take the middle course between excessive satisfaction of desire and abstention from what is unlawful: “O you who believe, forbid not the good things which God has made lawful for you and exceed not the limits” (Qur’an 5:87). Thus, the Qur’an teaches frugality, both in consumption and spending. Frugality means that we can spend our wealth but should not be extravagant: “And squander not \[your wealth\] wastefully. Surely, the squanderers are the devil’s brethren. And the devil is ever ungrateful to his Lord” (Qur’an 17:26-27). The rule is to be moderate without wasting and to be economical without meanness. Furthermore, the revealed book states, “And those who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly, but hold a just \[balance\] between those \[extremes\]” (Qur’an 25:67). So it is not that we should remove desire, but we should control it to attain nearness to God and happiness in the hereafter. Thus, for al-Isfahani, wealth is a means to an end, which is to attain the virtues of the soul, and the virtues of the soul, in turn, are a means to the happiness of the hereafter. Thus, although wealth has a low value, it can, if properly used, help us in the cultivation of the virtues.   Many virtues are connected to wealth, including honesty, justice, charity, and frugality. However, the general tendency is to abuse wealth and, therefore, it is prudent to avoid attachment to the material world. Apart from its ethical and religious value, it has practical benefits such as being able to afford nutritious food and medical care. Wealth becomes a disadvantage if we are in the service of it, as al-Isfahani says; “Wealth serves, but is not to be served.”[^17] Wealth becomes a vice if we are a slave to it, but it becomes a virtue if we are the masters over it. Wisdom should prevail in the use of it, and if used to cultivate the virtues of the soul, then it is a virtue  (al-Isfahani, 1987: 389; Qur’an 4:5; 63:9; 23:55-56; 74:11).[^18] Al-Isfahani uses a fitting analogy: Just as a traveler stops at a shop to buy what he needs for his journey, the believer stops at a spot and buys only what he needs for his journey to the hereafter, and keeps the balance of his money for the rest of the journey. We should not serve wealth; otherwise, we will fall into vice.[^19] Abraham’s family became attached to idols and all worldly matters that diverted them from God. The Qur’an describes such people as eventually saying: “My wealth has availed me not. My power has passed from me” (Qur’an 69:28-29). Thus, attachment to wealth will not profit us in the next world, as God states: “Wealth and children are the adornments of the life of this world, but that which endures, \[such as\] righteous deeds, are better in reward with thy Lord, and better \[as a source\] of hope” (Qur’an 18:46). The Qur’an reminds us to adopt an attitude of detachment to this world. It warns us that the life of materialism will not avail us in the hereafter. Only the pursuit of virtue will lead to enduring happiness. The wise believer is fully aware of the impermanence of this world, so will not allow himself to be attached to it. He accepts death and will even risk his life for the sake of God. He knows that his soul is immortal and death will lead him to the higher happiness of the hereafter.  However, those who fear death are ignorant of the immortality of the soul, and fear that they should die and lose all their material possessions.[^20] The wise person knows that worldly life enslaves him, but death will liberate him. He is happy to return to God but sad that he could not serve Him enough in this world. He has some fear of death, but it is different from the fear of a disbeliever. His only fear is his anxiety when he meets his Lord for the first time, not knowing what God will say to him, or what he will say to God.[^21] He is content with his lot and never complains about his poverty, knowing that inconceivable wealth and permanent residence awaits him in the hereafter. He would say, “Praise be to Allah who lifted our sorrow. Our Lord is indeed All-Forgiving, All-Thankful” (Qur’an 35:34-35). Such a person is content with what God has granted him.[^22] He is detached from the world, fearless in the face of death, and ready for the hereafter. His only fear is that he has not done enough good to serve his Maker and will be accountable on the Day of Judgment. --- ## Conclusion In my essay on the ‘ethical worldview of the Qur’ān,’ I cited al-Isfahani, who identified three goals of humans as stated in the Qur’ān. The first goal is the habitation and cultivation of the earth (*‘imarat al-ard*). This goal precedes that of worship and the goal of vicegerency because it is a biological necessity, as we all need food, shelter, and clothing for survival. It is a universal requirement for all human beings. It is not a religious duty like worship, but if we pursue it in accordance with the ethical principles of the Qur’an, then it becomes religious and has the potential to bring us closer to God. If we indulge in God’s bounties in moderation and in appreciation of God, we will develop the virtue of temperance, which is the key to happiness in this world and the next. I have given the example of wealth as an external virtue to be treated as a servant, not a master. The modern world is troubled today because we have made wealth our master, not our servant. If we can rise above our desire, and not make it our god, the world will be a better place to live in. We can enjoy wealth without clinging to it. Unlike Aristotle, the classical Islamic philosophers hold the view that the control of desire through the virtue of temperance is a means to happiness in this world and the hereafter. These two worlds are interconnected. There is a spiritual element in the happiness of this world, if conceived as a means to happiness in the next world. But when one pursues happiness in this world alone, as an end in itself, such happiness can only be transient and fluctuating and cannot yield true happiness. Al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali have Islamized the philosophic virtues in accordance with the ethical worldview of the Qur’an and drew them into the ambit of the religious ethical virtues, such as patience, gratitude, repentance, and trust in God. The philosophical virtues together with the religious virtues are essential for the attainment of happiness in this world and the hereafter. --- ## Notes [^1]: Shayib, Ayat Jihād Awdah, *al-faraḥ fi al-Qur’an al-Karim, Dirāsat mawdu’iyyah, Jāmi’ah al-Najaḥ al-wataniyyah,* 2015, p. 12. [^2]: Rahman, F. (1980). *Major Themes of the Qur’an*, Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica, pp. 112-113. [^3]: De Botton,  A. (2005). *Status Anxiety*, London: Penguin Books, 2005, pp. 11-14. [^4]: Ibid., p. 77. [^5]: Nussbaum, M. (2001). *Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions*, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [^6]: Ibid., pp. 359-368. [^7]: Mohamed, Y.  (2014). ‘The Economic Thought of Ibn Khaldun and Adam Smith, with a  Focus on the Division of Labour,’  in *Islamic Perspective Journal*, LAIS, 12: 1-22. [^8]: Mohamed, Y.  (2019). ‘The Ethical Worldview of the Qur’an.’ Yaqeen Institute, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/yasienmohamed/the-ethical-worldview-of-the-quran/#.XXuxb5OpHOQ [^9]: Isfahani, R. (1987). *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*, Cairo: Dār al-Wafā’, p. 134. [^10]: Ibid., p. 130. [^11]: Al-Ghazali (1964). *Mīzān al-‘Amal*, ed. Sulayman Dunya, Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, p. 139. [^12]: Mohamed, Y. (1996). *Fiṭrah: The Islamic Concept of Human Nature*, London: Taha. [^13]: Al-Ghazali (1964). *Mīzān al-‘Amal*, ed. Sulayman Dunya, Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, p. 377. [^14]: Ibid., pp. 373-374. [^15]: Isfahani, R. (1987). *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*, Cairo: Dār al-Wafā’, p. 319. [^16]: Ibid., p. 321. [^17]: Ibid., p. 30. [^18]: Ibid., p. 389. [^19]: Ibid., p. 390. [^20]: Isfahani, R. (1987). *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*, Cairo: Dār al-Wafā’, p. 334; Mohamed, Y. (2006). *The Path to Virtue*, Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, p. 287. [^21]: Isfahani, R. (1987). *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*, Cairo: Dār al-Wafā’, p. 335; Mohamed, Y. (2006) *The Path to Virtue*, Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC. 287 [^22]: Isfahani, R. (1987). *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*, Cairo: Dār al-Wafā’, pp. 335-338. ## Summary Happiness, according to the teaching set forth here, is by nature something every human being seeks, and both the Greek and the Islamic philosophers concurred that it is the final end toward which people strive. Where they parted ways was in defining what that end truly is and how it is to be attained. A central question posed by the philosophers is whether the virtues alone suffice for happiness, or whether they also require external goods such as health, wealth, and companions. Experience teaches that a passionate attachment to wealth and possessions can injure human life, yet one cannot simply deny that such goods play a part in our well-being and in the nurturing of virtue. The ethical vision of the Qur’an, moreover, is not a matter of pure intellect; it is bound to a diagnosis of human suffering and an intuitive sense of human flourishing. The Muslim ethicists did not philosophize merely for the pleasure of the learned; rather, they sought to articulate a way of living in the world, tracing human ailments—bodily, psychological, and spiritual—to the root of immoderate desire. In the works of eleventh-century figures such as al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali, one finds a philosophical and literary manner that engages the whole soul of the reader in a way abstract treatises cannot. Happiness in the Qur’an embraces both this world and the Hereafter, but everlasting felicity in the next life is the ultimate goal of the believer, and the joys of this world are a means toward it, calling forth gratitude to God for His blessings. The word saʿadah denotes this permanent, otherworldly happiness, mentioned twice in the Book of God, once as an adjective and once as a verb: “The day it comes, no soul shall speak except by His permission. Some of them will be wretched, and some happy” (Qur’an 11:105), and “as for those who are happy, they will be in Paradise… as uninterrupted giving” (Qur’an 11:108). Since the word ʿata’ (giving) appears fourteen times in the Qur’an but nowhere else describes an uninterrupted giving, it may be concluded that happiness flows from God’s ceaseless giving—though this does not exclude the giving of human beings, for divine giving follows upon human giving. When people give freely, they become recipients of God’s bounty. This is confirmed by the promise to the people of Paradise who recognize their provisions as resembling what they had received before (Qur’an 2:25), and by the exhortation, “Go forth… and strive with your wealth and yourselves in the way of God” (Qur’an 9:41). This happiness, whether of the Hereafter or its likeness in this world, must be distinguished from mere physical enjoyment (mutʿa), the pleasure of the senses that humans share with beasts, of whom God says the disbelievers “take their enjoyment and eat as the cattle eat” (Qur’an 47:12). Such pleasure is fleeting, for bodily health, wealth, and friends are transient (Qur’an 9:38). Worldly joy (farah) is itself of two kinds: a blameworthy joy in the fleeting life of this world (Qur’an 13:26), and a praiseworthy joy in the bounty and mercy of God (Qur’an 10:58). Thus rejoicing in material bounty for its own sake is blameworthy, while rejoicing in it as a gift from God is praiseworthy. On the Day of Judgment people will be recompensed, the righteous receiving their book in the right hand and entering “a happy life, in an exalted garden” (Qur’an 69:19–25), while the greatest reward is the pleasure (ridwan) of God (Qur’an 9:72) and the beholding of their Lord, their faces “fresh with joy” (Qur’an 75:22). Some philosophers have reinterpreted the Day of Resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyamah) as the Day of Happiness (Yawm al-Saʿadah), the highest striving toward eternal felicity, earned through the purification of the soul yet attained finally only through God’s grace. Following al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali, happiness is of two kinds: in this world and in the Hereafter. Worldly happiness concerns three aspects: the soul, whose virtues are wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice; the body, whose virtues are health, strength, and beauty; and the external goods such as wealth, status, and friends. Whereas Aristotle held that external goods serve the happiness of the soul in this world alone, the Muslim ethicists held that they serve the soul in this world and the next. Of the external goods, wealth ranks lowest, and friends are ranked higher; al-Isfahani reminds us that true friends remain in both fortune and misfortune, while superficial ones remain only in good fortune. Unlike the Stoics, who repudiated compassion out of a concern for human dignity, the Muslim philosophers were not indifferent to worldly suffering; though they accepted Divine Providence, they called for compassion at the loss of truly basic goods. The Prophets themselves felt genuine grief, as Jacob wept for Joseph until he lost his sight, yet never despaired of God’s mercy. Ibn Khaldun observed that the wealthy Companions and the ascetic Sufis alike viewed wealth as a means to a higher spiritual end rather than to opulence. The needs of the body remain real, for “man does not live by bread alone,” yet without bread life is impossible, and abject poverty reduces a person to a vegetative state. For this reason al-Isfahani placed the cultivation of the earth (ʿimarat al-ard) first among the three human goals stated in the Qur’an, since production for our needs is a biological necessity that precedes worship and vicegerency, though it is not our highest purpose, which is spiritual. To transcend physical existence, one must govern desire through temperance—not by obliterating it, as the eleventh-century ethicists never counseled its destruction, but by moderating it through reason and the guidance of the Qur’an. The pleasure of material goods is likened to a mirage that the thirsty man mistakes for water (Qur’an 24:39), and attachment to wealth may become a torment (Qur’an 9:55). Al-Ghazali taught that when a person disciplines his desire (shahwah), he attains the perfection distinctive to his nature—the heart’s knowledge of God (maʿrifah)—for as the eye delights in beautiful sights and the ear in harmonious sounds, the heart’s delight is in the knowledge of its Creator. This lower world (al-dunya) presupposes and contrasts with the Hereafter (al-akhirah), and the Qur’an teaches that the afterlife is better and more enduring (Qur’an 8:67), while affirming that this life is a gift to be used rightly, like a farm in which one sows good deeds. The Qur’an does not disparage the world but affirms it, declaring that God “created all that is on this earth for you” (Qur’an 53:25) and bidding us to eat with thanks (Qur’an 34:15) while not neglecting our rightful share (Qur’an 28:77). Al-Ghazali held that the moderate way of the Prophets fulfills the needs of both worlds, and that wealth is praiseworthy if it serves the Hereafter and blameworthy if it diverts from it—hence the Qur’an both warns that wealth and children are a trial (Qur’an 8:28) and describes them as a divine support (Qur’an 71:12). Character, moreover, matters more than circumstance, for “God does not change the condition of people unless they change their souls” (Qur’an 13:11), a verse read either as a call to reform oneself from evil to good or as a warning against declining from good to evil, but understood in both readings as making inner change the key to outer change. Temperance is the mean between greed and abstention, the source of contentment, restraint, and generosity, and the guardian against envy, hostility, and transgression, which God forbade in warning against covetousness and suspicion (Qur’an 4:32; 49:12). The truly rich person is the one content with little, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “Richness lies not in material acquisitions, but in the richness of the soul.” Ramadan trains the soul in this virtue, and the Qur’an teaches frugality between extravagance and miserliness (Qur’an 17:26–27; 25:67), forbidding both the neglect of lawful good things and the exceeding of limits (Qur’an 5:87). As al-Isfahani said, “Wealth serves, but is not to be served,” and like a traveler who buys only what he needs for his journey, the believer takes only what suffices for the road to the Hereafter, knowing that enduring righteous deeds are better with his Lord (Qur’an 18:46). Thus the cultivation of the earth, if pursued according to the Qur’an’s ethical principles, draws one nearer to God; and temperance, for al-Isfahani and al-Ghazali—unlike Aristotle—becomes a means to happiness in both this world and the next, since these two worlds are interconnected, and the philosophic virtues, Islamized and joined to the religious virtues of patience, gratitude, repentance, and trust in God, together secure true and lasting felicity. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Qur’an distinguishes between fleeting worldly pleasures and enduring happiness (*sa‘adah*) in the hereafter. Worldly enjoyments (*mut‘a*) are transient, while true felicity lies in abiding in Paradise. The soul’s highest delight is found in knowing God (*ma‘rifah*), a joy that surpasses all bodily pleasures. This understanding links worldly life to the hereafter, making virtuous living the bridge to eternal joy. 2. Islamic philosophers, such as al-Isfahani and al-Ghazālī, recognize that external goods—wealth, health, and friendship—can contribute to happiness but remain secondary to the virtues of the soul. When misused or pursued excessively, these goods become obstacles to true happiness. While the Qur’an invites believers to enjoy God’s bounties in this life, it calls for moderation and gratitude, warning against attachment to material excess and diversion into sin. 3. At the heart of Islamic ethics lies the control of desire (*shahwah*) through temperance (*al-qanā‘ah*), which fosters self-mastery and detachment from greed, envy, and gluttony. By moderating rather than repressing desires, believers cultivate virtues such as contentment, generosity, and justice. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-technology-of-happiness # The Technology of Happiness **Author:** Dr. Edward Omar Moad **Topics:** Nature & Science, Technology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 10, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction “When there is a general change of conditions,” Ibn Khaldun writes, “it is as if the entire creation had changed and the whole world been altered as if it were a new and repeated creation, a world brought into existence anew.”[^1] Diligent study of history had given him a unique awareness of something all Muslims believe, though few perhaps truly grasp: Allah alone is Eternal, while everything else is perishing. The best we can hope to pin down is a relative view of the Sunnah of Allah as manifest in the pattern of created events. Thus, Ibn Khaldun concluded that history, if it is to aspire to real knowledge, must be a branch of philosophy; that is, we must hypothesize unchanging algorithms governing the flow of events, underwriting the order evident therein. Only to the extent that we understand these laws of human culture can we hope to verify reports, explain the past, or anticipate future events. Alas, since we can only arrive at such laws by inference from the pattern of events, our understanding of them is always limited by the scope and reliability of the historical evidence itself. Ibn Khaldun’s evidence was limited to historical reports from a specific period in a specific geographic area. Consequently, as the statement makes clear, he understood that eventually, his understanding of human society as a cycle of nomadic and settled life would no longer apply. In our current conditions, it is simply inexcusable not to be at least as aware as Ibn Khaldun of the difference between the eternal and temporal. Only the amnesia that these conditions induce could explain it. Simply bemoaning this rate of change as another modern ailment is essentially complaining that nothing other than God is eternal. For the rate of change is relative. The task, as always, is to distinguish the eternal from the temporal with clarity. For if the proper relation of humans to God is always a possibility—that is to say, if Shariah is applicable to all historical conditions—then there must be something about the part of creation implicated in such a relation (namely, the human being), that will not change. Yet in our time, technology has ‘advanced’ at a rate that has led us to imagine the eclipse of human nature itself, a historical condition known as the ‘transhuman.’ Now what? In Part I of what follows, we describe the prospect of transhumanism and the current state of moral deliberation on technology to which it draws attention. Then we will suggest an alternative paradigm. In Part II, with some help from Aristotle, we conceptualize technology itself in a more principled way. In Part III, we review some insights from Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s *Alchemy of Happiness* on the true nature of the world, applying our concept of technology, to find a more stable vantage from which to independently evaluate the moral implications of technological changes. --- ## Part I Transhumanists come in a variety of flavors but share the common belief that advances in technology will soon enable them to take control over (what they believe to be) the process of evolution, and in fact transcend humanity by either engineering or becoming an altogether distinct, superior species—the next stage in the so-called evolutionary process.[^2] They advocate realizing this vision by a combination of diverse means, including not only genetic engineering but also cybernetics, leading some to imagine future human bodies as robotic as they are biological, blurring the line between machine and living organism. Some have already had themselves placed in cryogenic deep-freeze to be revived at some future time when, they hope, technology will allow them to escape physical deterioration and even death. Others prefer mind-uploading, an imagined process whereby information—believed by the mind-uploaders to constitute the mind—would be transferred to an alternative medium engineered for superiority over the relatively fragile and limited organic brain, completely transforming man into machine. The ‘singularitarians,’ for their part, predict and advocate the development of an artificial intelligence that will outstrip the human cognitive capacity, and whose consequently superior wisdom would be rightfully obeyed in the interest of the optimal social organization of our own inferior and self-destructive species. The ‘Singularity,’ as they call it, would be manufactured by first developing a computer program that simulates human-level thinking processes, but with a built-in self-improvement mechanism that will trigger a perpetual increase in its own computational powers.[^3] At the other end of the spectrum on the relation between humans and technology are the anarcho-primitivists, whose opposition to technology is as absolute as is the transhumanist faith therein. Anarcho-primitivists trace every form of social injustice, unjust social stratification, coercion, and alienation to, not just modern technology, but technology per se. Specifically, their view is that social injustice emerged as a result of ancient humanity’s shift from the hunter-gatherer to the agricultural mode of subsistence. Their vision of life before this shift is that of a simple, pure, egalitarian tribal existence, to which they promote a process of return they call ‘rewilding.’[^4] Neither side can be faulted for shortcomings in imagining the possibilities of technology on the one hand, or in seeing the many links between technology and existing problems, on the other. Yet, even though these represent the extremes of contemporary western philosophy of technology, the fact that they can oscillate so wildly, and be taken seriously by so many is an indication of the inability of contemporary western intellectuals to find a balance. In fact, these extremities follow quite naturally from premises that modernists typically view as unquestionable; that is, secular humanism combined with evolutionary biology. While humanism holds the good to be what is good for the human being, secularism prohibits the humanist from justifying himself philosophically by reference to religious or metaphysical conceptions of human nature. Evolutionary biology, then, offers the only explanatory option. The human being is the rightful focus of moral consideration because she represents the apex of the evolutionary process, not because of any special creation or divine purpose for her existence. Yet if evolutionary theory is correct, this is a contingent state of affairs, and in all likelihood, a new species will emerge to dethrone the human being as the crown of evolution. In that case, members of this new species will be the rightful focus of moral consideration in relation to whom we would be like chimpanzees are to us. So what are we to say to the possibility of some such new species using us as guinea pigs, or even lunch packs? We may not like it, but would we be philosophically justified in considering it morally objectionable? This may sound silly or fantastic, but there is no excuse for a secular humanist not to take such questions seriously. There is nothing in his worldview that justifies him in assigning any special moral status to the human being, that is not simply contingent on evolutionary history. He also has no basis for dismissing out of hand the possibility of a superior species, the mere possibility of which is adequate for undermining the foundation of humanism as a moral framework. If natural selection endows moral as well as biological superiority, then transhumanism follows: it may not only be morally fitting for me to contribute to a transhuman lunch pack, but there may even be a moral imperative for me to hasten the emergence of the very transhuman to whose lunch pack I might fittingly contribute. Perhaps this explains some of the recent condemnation of anthropocentrism in the west, and the call for moral consideration to extend beyond the human to all forms of life. Why should being at the top of the evolutionary ladder give you a special moral status, whether you are human or transhuman? I imagine something like this would be favorable to the anarcho-primitivists, opposed as they are to stratification. Why should a hierarchy rooted in biology be an exception? Yet this extension of moral consideration beyond the human could have the consequence of rendering nature and life itself essentially bad, locked as it is in its circle of digestion. Or if it is not morally bad that some organisms eat others, that humans eat others, or that others eat humans, then why should it be morally bad for humans to eat humans? Life itself must then be essentially bad—or cannibalism must be okay. Yet if cannibalism is okay, then what is wrong with being eaten by a transhuman? Furthermore, does cannibalism not entail some degree of social stratification? When the average person faces such extreme consequences of their own worldview, a common reaction is to laugh it off, ridicule the ‘prima facie’ absurdity, and profess one’s adherence to a more moderate, reasonable position. However, this does nothing to make the moderate position any more compatible with the basic premises of the worldview, nor does it make the extreme conclusions any less consequential. The tension between the conclusion you want and the premises you have remains and eventually even politicians and similarly intelligent people cannot avoid its ramifications. One generation will internalize the fruit sown in the notions of previous generations even if the latter refused to taste it. How did it come to this? At least part of the process, aside from that just discussed, lies, I believe, in modernity’s general abandonment of substantive conceptions of the good in favor of procedural approaches for determining ‘right’ action. This is related to the foregone discussion inasmuch as, in imposing secularism onto its humanism, modernity effectively salted most of the soil in which any determinate conception of human well-being might have grown. Consequently, the good is not an objectively conceivable thing by reference to which moral evaluation can proceed. It simply comes down to one’s preference, there being no real standard by which to judge one preference over another. Ethics, then, becomes a question of procedure, either of negotiating the service of competing preferences, or a purely formal exercise, ostensibly independent of preference or consequences. None of this offers anything in the way of a determinate concrete conception of the good. The effect of all this has been a deep cultural aversion to such discussions, a sense that no objective investigation into such questions is possible. It has produced an ethical discourse dominated exclusively by talk of rights, autonomy, equality, and other notions involved basically in the determination and assertion of one’s role in an inter-subjective procedure of moral decision-making. This discourse excludes any substantive evaluations connected to any real conception of the good that is not just something like ‘whatever would be the result of such and such sort of procedure.’ As we see, this prevents any principled distinction between the appropriate and inappropriate use of technology. --- ## Part II Any discussion of such a distinction must begin with a clear view of what technology is. A Wikipedia entry on technology defines it as ‘knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools, and raw materials.’[^5] But perhaps accepting this Wikipedia definition is tantamount to letting technology define itself. It may be wiser to refer back to Aristotle, who carefully distinguished technology (*techne*) from both science (*episteme*) and prudence (*phronesis*). In *Nicomachean Ethics*, Aristotle is primarily concerned with understanding prudence, which he defines as, “a state grasping the truth, involving reason, concerned with action about what is good or bad for a human being.”[^6] Whereas science, for Aristotle, is concerned with that which is necessarily as it is, and so cannot be otherwise, prudence differs in that the object of its concern—action—is contingent on the very decision process which prudence seeks to inform. We want to know how to do what is good for human beings precisely because it is possible for us to do otherwise. Technology, on the other hand, is a state grasping the truth, involving reason, concerned with production. Action and production are both contingent, but for Aristotle, action can be an end in itself—indeed the human good is a certain kind of action. Production differs from action in that, in every case, ‘production has its end beyond itself.’ While there are many activities we undertake simply for their own sake, we produce things only for the sake of facilitating action. Generalizing, we may say that we build things in order to live well. Living well is an action and an end in itself. This allows us to form the idea of prudence in the use of technology, and to understand that such prudence is something entirely distinct from technology per se. Such prudence is, of course, not possible without reference to scientific knowledge (in the Aristotelian sense) of what is good or bad for the human; that is, a science of human nature. Moreover, we can see that it would be circular to simply identify technology as the human good. Since technology, by definition, always has its end beyond itself, the human good is something beyond technology. What sense, then, can be made of the much-vaunted use of ‘modern technology for the good of humanity’ for a humanity that is incapable of admitting any determinate good? --- ## Part III In the prolegomena of the *Alchemy of Happiness*, al-Ghazali introduces a science of the self, of God, of this world, and of the Hereafter.  In the section on the gnosis of this world, he writes: > *The body needs three things in this world: food, clothing, and shelter. Food is for nourishment, clothing and shelter are for cold and heat, to prevent them from killing him. A person’s needs for his body are no more than these; indeed these are the foundations of the world.*[^7] One might expect a science of the world, understood as a large material object, or the set of all material objects, to identify its ‘foundations’ as something like subatomic particles, the laws of physics, or even the atoms and accidents of Asharite *kalam*. How, then does Ghazali conceive of the world, such that these bodily needs—food, clothing, and shelter—are to be understood as its foundations? “The world and the Hereafter comprise two states,” Ghazali writes, “that which is prior to death and nearer to you and which is called the world; and that which is after death, called the Hereafter.”[^8] Here, the world is spoken of as a *state* rather than a thing or collection of things—a state that the human being is in prior to death, and which is *nearer* in relation to that state which is posterior to death. But, being a state rather than a thing, and thus presumably not located in space the way a thing or a place would be, in what sense is the world *nearer*? Clearly, the world is nearer in temporal order; at least, we experience being in the world now, and the Hereafter as *after*. But there is another, possibly more important, sense of ‘nearness’ at work here. “The purpose of the world,” Ghazali writes, “is the provisioning for the Hereafter.”[^9] This suggests that the world is to be understood as nearer in a teleological order; that is, in the way that means are nearer to one than the ends for which they are used. > *The key to the knowledge of Divine Beauty is knowledge of the wonders of Divine handiwork. And the (five) human sensory organs are the first key to the Divine handiwork. These senses would not have been possible, save in this body compounded of water and earth.*[^10] Here, the senses are spoken of as a key. The function of a key is to provide selective access. Thus, it has an end beyond itself. It is technological in the Aristotelian sense. The function of the senses is to provide selective access to knowledge of the wonders of Divine handiwork. This knowledge is also spoken of as a key, the function of which is to provide access to knowledge of Divine Beauty. Knowledge of Divine Beauty constitutes human happiness. It is the good in itself. The senses, then, can be understood as technological apparatus, dependent on the body, the purpose of which is to enable the human being “to gather his provisions and obtain the gnosis of God Most High with the key of the knowledge of his own self and the knowledge of all horizons perceptible to the senses.”[^11] To try to capture the full import of this technological conception of the senses, let us consider Ghazali’s metaphor. As we said before, a key has a function. But there is more to it than that; namely that, divorced from its function, it is not a key. That is to say, a key is not primarily an object possessed of such and such physical properties (specific subatomic structure, shape, mass, etc.), which just happens to have this particular function, ‘on the side’ so to speak. The very existence of a key lies in its being for the purpose of providing access, aside from which there is simply *no key*. For it to exist *is* for it to play a role, as a means, in an order of means and ends. This is the existential basis of anything technological. The role of being a means itself is, at bottom, a kind of potential relation between, on the one hand, the ends for which it is the means, and on the other hand, a kind of being which has ends and means, without whom, no order of means and ends is possible. For to say that the purpose of a key is to provide access does not mean that the key exists independently and has its purpose the way a substance has its accident. The purpose is not accidental to the key, but existential. A key *is* nothing else than a *being there for providing access*. There is no key without provision of access, and there is no provision of access without 1) one who *can* have access, for whom access is not already provided, and who can make use of the means for gaining access, and 2) something that is made accessible to that person. In understanding the senses as technology, then, in the way Ghazali has it, we understand the senses to be nothing over and above a potential relation between the human being and knowledge of Divine handiwork. Since this latter is itself a key to knowledge of Divine Beauty, the senses can, in the final analysis, be understood as part of a complex potential relation between the human being and God. “As long as a person possesses these senses,” writes Ghazali, “and they spy out things for him, he is said to be ‘in the world.’”[^12] As we saw before, the world is a *state* that a person is *in*. Now it is clear that the real nature of that state is possession of the senses. The senses, we saw, are technology in the Aristotelian sense; that is, they have their end beyond themselves, which is to gain access to knowledge of Divine Beauty and thus, ultimate human happiness. Upon reflection, we have discovered that technology is really nothing over and above a potential relation between a human being and his or her end. The senses, then, are a potential relation between the human being and knowledge of Divine Beauty. The world, then, is nothing but a state that a person is in, of standing in a potential knowing (thus also loving) relation with God. This line of thought, however, beckons toward a discussion of the nature of the world that runs too deep for our present purposes. For these, it is sufficient to arrive at the understanding that the sense in which food, shelter, and clothing are the foundations of the world is that they are necessary means of maintaining that state. We must, of course, add to this the proviso that, by necessary, here we mean necessary in a relative sense, for us, and in virtue of the pattern established by Divine Will, and not necessary in an absolute sense. While this technological apparatus, possession of which constitutes the world, is entirely a product of God, parts of it are also (in a relative, metaphorical sense, of course) a product of the human being. Yet, Ghazali’s description of even that part related to human effort is structurally analogous to an item of creation with which the human has no part; that is, a tree, with roots, branches, and branches of branches. The roots, again, are the basic bodily needs: food, clothing, and shelter. As for the manner in which these foundations of the world give rise to its branches, Ghazali’s observation is as simple as it is insightful. Meeting these three needs, he writes, requires the crafts of farming, weaving, and construction. Weaving requires the spinner and tailor. Spinning and tailoring involve tools of wood, iron, leather, and other materials, requiring the craft of blacksmithing, carpentry, and cobblery. These crafts, in their turn, require further specialists, all of whom must work together, giving rise to transactions and, hence, the potential for disputes. This circumstance calls for the arts of politics and rule, adjudication and government, and also religious jurisprudence, “by which the law of mediation among the people may be known.”[^13] Ghazali writes: > *In this manner, the vocations of the world multiplied and became interrelated.  The people lost themselves among them and did not know that the root of all these was no more than three things: food, clothing, and shelter. All of this became necessary for (satisfying) these three needs, and these three are necessary for the body, and the body is necessary for the heart, to serve as its vehicle. The heart is necessary for God. But they forget themselves and they forget God, like the pilgrim who forgets himself, the Kabah, and (the object of) his journey and spends all his time taking care of his camel!*[^14] Another image one might strike is that of gardeners getting lost in the branches of technology, and losing sight of its roots—the basic bodily needs—and its proper fruit: knowledge of the Divine. Prudence in the use of technology can then be likened to the pruning and nourishing of a tree, in accordance with its proper function, such that every branch should be proportional and connected with the root in such a way as to facilitate its bearing fruit. Keeping the root and the fruit in mind, one may be able to distinguish the dead and useless branches from the healthy, so that the former would not be allowed to overcrowd and choke the latter. These dead branches might be imagined as so much dead lumber nailed to the living tree. Or they may be likened to a nasty web of thorny, parasitic vines with no root, fruit, or order, and no end beyond itself other than its own perpetuation, which simply feeds off a healthy tree until it kills its own host, and ultimately, itself. A basis for a principled distinction between appropriate and inappropriate uses of technology might then turn on asking: does the technology in question facilitate attaining knowledge of the Divine handiwork, the self, and ultimately, of God? Keeping this question in mind can help us maintain our center as we adapt to circumstances of rapid technological acceleration or proliferation (understanding that not all such proliferation constitutes ‘advancement’). An immediate implication of this is that we need not, and should not, operate under the presumption that we need to ‘catch up with the West,’ if this means to simply propagate for ourselves an equally extensive tangle of useless gadgets. Of course, much turns on the use we make of the gadgets we find ourselves surrounded by, and the extent to which we allow them to make use of us. For instance, time is the major commodity we have with which to pursue our proper aim. Thus, we should evaluate whether our ‘time-saving’ devices are really saving or consuming time, and how we are led to use the time that is ostensibly saved. Returning to the topic with which we began, we may venture to say that, in what we might call Ghazali’s philosophy of technology, there is, interestingly enough, something corresponding to the transhumanist, as well as the anarcho-primitivist perspective. Many, if not all, of the Prophets in history lived, at one time or another, in material conditions as simple and primitive as that of the hunter-gatherer idealized by the anarcho-primitivists. Even so, they were content with the satisfaction of only the most basic bodily necessities. Simultaneously, they attained a state that, in relation to the transhumanists’ comparably impoverished biological conception of humanity, we can fairly describe as transcending the very species. Of course, in relation to the Islamic conception of human nature, the Prophets simply embodied the utmost perfection of what the human being is and is meant to be. The difference is that this conception of human nature locates the human potential in a determinate conception of human happiness in which technology finds its proper end and in relation to which wisdom with regard to its application is possible. From this vantage point, it is possible to deliberate over the application of technology in a manner more sophisticated than the crude dilemma of being simply ‘for’ or ‘against’ technology, the respective horns of which transhumanists and anarcho-primitivists represent, and which indeed, modernity seems to impose on itself.  Nor is it a simple quantitative question of ‘how much’ technology is good. Rather, we are empowered to consider the question qualitatively in terms of what kind and to what end. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Khaldun. *Al-Muqaddimah*, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2005). [^2]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism) [^3]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological\_singularity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity) [^4]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding\_(anarchism)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding_\(anarchism\)) [^5]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology) [^6]: Aristotle. *Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI*, translated by W.D. Ross in: *The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation*, Jonathon Barnes, ed. (Princeton University Press, 1984). [^7]: Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad Tusi. *Alchemy of Happiness*, Jay R. Cook (trns.) (Chicago, 2005), 60. [^8]: al-Ghazali, *Alchemy of Happiness*, 59. [^9]: Ibid. [^10]: Ibid. [^11]: Ibid. [^12]: Ibid. [^13]: al-Ghazali, *Alchemy of Happiness*, 61-62. [^14]: al-Ghazali, *Alchemy of Happiness*, 62. ## Summary # The Eternal, the Temporal, and the Question of Technology Ibn Khaldun, through his diligent study of history, arrived at an awareness of a truth that every Muslim professes yet few truly grasp: that Allah alone is Eternal while all else is perishing. He observed that "when there is a general change of conditions, it is as if the entire creation had changed and the whole world been altered as if it were a new and repeated creation." From this he concluded that history, if it is to yield genuine knowledge, must aspire to be a branch of philosophy—seeking the unchanging patterns, the Sunnah of Allah, that govern the flow of created events. Yet Ibn Khaldun himself understood the limits of his knowledge, for it was drawn only from reports of a specific time and place; he anticipated that his own account of society as a cycle of nomadic and settled life would one day cease to apply. In our own age the pace of change has become so rapid that it induces a kind of forgetfulness, and it is inexcusable that we should be less mindful than Ibn Khaldun of the distinction between what is eternal and what is temporal. To merely lament the rate of change is, in truth, to complain that nothing besides God endures. The proper task, as ever, is to distinguish the eternal from the temporal with clarity. If the right relationship between the human being and his Lord is possible in every age—that is, if the Sharia is applicable to all conditions—then something in the human being must remain constant. Yet modern technology has advanced to the point where some now imagine the very eclipse of human nature, a condition they call "transhuman." Among those who hold such views, the transhumanists believe that technology will soon allow them to seize control of what they take to be the process of evolution and to transcend humanity itself—engineering or becoming a superior species. To this end they pursue genetic engineering, cybernetics, cryogenic freezing, and "mind-uploading," in which they suppose the mind, reduced to mere information, might be transferred to an engineered medium. The "singularitarians" among them advocate creating an artificial intelligence surpassing human cognition, whose superior judgment they hold ought rightfully to be obeyed. At the opposite extreme stand the anarcho-primitivists, who trace all social injustice not merely to modern technology but to technology as such, locating the fall of man in the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, and who call for a "rewilding" or return to a simpler tribal existence. These two extremes, though opposed, spring from the same soil: the marriage of secular humanism and evolutionary biology. Humanism holds the good to be whatever benefits the human being, yet secularism forbids grounding this in any religious or metaphysical conception of human nature, leaving evolution as the only explanation. But if the human being is honored merely as the current summit of an evolutionary process—and not through a special creation or a divine purpose—then this honor is a passing accident of history. Should a superior species arise, the secular humanist has no principled ground to object to being used, or even consumed, by it. This is no idle jest; it exposes that such a worldview can assign no fixed moral status to man. Indeed, when moral consideration is extended beyond man to all life, one is driven to conclude either that life itself is evil or that there is nothing wrong in the strong devouring the weak—whereupon even cannibalism finds no clear condemnation. People instinctively laugh away such conclusions, yet ridicule does not reconcile them with the premises from which they follow, and one generation eventually reaps what an earlier one sowed. Part of how matters reached this state lies in modernity's abandonment of any substantive conception of the good in favor of mere procedures for determining "right" action. Having salted the ground in which any determinate notion of human well-being might grow, it reduced the good to personal preference, leaving ethics a matter of negotiating competing wants or of empty formal exercise. Its moral language became dominated by rights, autonomy, and equality—notions concerned only with one's role in a shared procedure—while excluding any real conception of the good. Consequently it can draw no principled line between the fitting and unfitting use of technology. To draw such a line one must first understand what technology is. Rather than let technology define itself, it is wiser to return to Aristotle, who distinguished technology (*techne*) from science (*episteme*) and prudence (*phronesis*). For Aristotle, prudence is "a state grasping the truth, involving reason, concerned with action about what is good or bad for a human being," while technology is likewise reasoned but "concerned with production." The crucial difference is that action can be an end in itself—the human good is a kind of action—whereas production always "has its end beyond itself." We build things in order to live well. From this it follows that prudence in the use of technology is something wholly distinct from technology itself, and that it requires knowledge of what is good for the human being. It is therefore incoherent to identify technology as the human good, for technology by its very nature points beyond itself. What, then, can be meant by using "technology for the good of humanity" when that humanity admits no determinate good? Here the insights of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in his *Alchemy of Happiness* offer a firmer vantage. Al-Ghazali writes that "the body needs three things in this world: food, clothing, and shelter," and calls these "the foundations of the world." He conceives the world not as a collection of material things but as a *state*: "that which is prior to death and nearer to you and which is called the world," while the Hereafter is that which follows death. The world is nearer both in time and, more importantly, in purpose, for "the purpose of the world is the provisioning for the Hereafter"—as means stand nearer to us than the ends they serve. Al-Ghazali describes the five senses as "the first key to the Divine handiwork," which is itself a key to knowledge of Divine Beauty, wherein lies true human happiness. A key exists only for the sake of granting access; divorced from that function it is no key at all. In this the senses are technological in Aristotle's sense: their being lies wholly in serving as a means. "As long as a person possesses these senses," al-Ghazali writes, "he is said to be 'in the world.'" Thus the world is nothing but the state of a human being standing in a potential knowing and loving relation with God, and food, clothing, and shelter are its foundations because they sustain that state—necessary, he cautions, only in a relative sense, by the pattern of the Divine Will, not absolutely. From these three roots, al-Ghazali observes, arise the crafts of farming, weaving, and building, and from these the trades of spinning, tailoring, blacksmithing, carpentry, and cobblery, and from their interrelations the need for transactions, politics, government, and jurisprudence "by which the law of mediation among the people may be known." "In this manner," he writes, "the vocations of the world multiplied... The people lost themselves among them and did not know that the root of all these was no more than three things"—forgetting themselves and their Lord "like the pilgrim who forgets himself, the Kaaba, and the object of his journey and spends all his time taking care of his camel." Technology may thus be likened to the branches of a tree whose roots are the basic bodily needs and whose proper fruit is knowledge of the Divine. Prudence in its use is like pruning, so that dead and parasitic branches—like thorny vines with no end beyond their own perpetuation—do not choke the living. The principled question becomes: does a given technology facilitate knowledge of the Divine handiwork, of the self, and ultimately of God? This frees us from the presumption that we must merely "catch up with the West" by amassing useless gadgets, and it invites us to weigh even our "time-saving" devices, since time is the chief commodity with which we pursue our true aim. Within this framework something answers to both extremes. Many of the Prophets lived in conditions as simple as those idealized by the anarcho-primitivists, content with the barest necessities, while attaining a state that, measured against the transhumanists' impoverished biological view of man, might be called a transcending of the species—though in truth they merely embodied the utmost perfection of what the human being is meant to be. The difference is that this conception locates human potential in a determinate happiness in which technology finds its proper end. From such a vantage the question of technology ceases to be a crude choice of "for" or "against," or even of "how much," and becomes instead a question of what kind, and to what end. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-allah-hate-me-rescripting-negative-self-talk # "Why Does Allah Hate Me?" Rescripting Negative Self-Talk **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 5, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 “Be with someone who makes you happy” ― Anonymous --- ## Case study *Ever since Rula was a young girl, she thrived in close relationships—mostly because she lacked connection at home with her parents. Her parents fought all the time and were consumed with their own issues, leading her to seek out connection with her peers at school. Her first close relationship was with a best friend in elementary school. The friendship lasted 7 years until her friend slowly began distancing herself from Rula as she fell in with a different crowd at school. The same thing happened frequently in her other friendships: Rula became very close to friends quickly and trusted them wholeheartedly, but the relationship always ended with Rula feeling confused, needy, and unwanted. As Rula got older she also noticed the same patterns as she was trying to get married. Rula would put ads on matrimonial sites and put her all into trying to make things work, but nothing ever materialized. In fact, sometimes Rula felt like she was being used or taken advantage of. Relationships for Rula seemed like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole—everything felt forced, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t make relationships work long-term. As all of Rula’s friends got married, she increasingly felt alone and unworthy. Eventually Rula also began to feel this way in her relationship with Allah. She would pray and desperately make duaa to Allah for things she wanted, but felt disconnected and cast off in that relationship as well. Rula wondered: Was He ignoring her? Did He not care about her? Was her constant duaa annoying and pestering Him? She didn't understand why her prayers were unanswered, when she tried so hard to connect with Allah. In the same way Rula felt rejected by everyone else in her life she also asked herself, **“Does Allah hate me too?”*** --- ## What is happening to me? When we experience love and fulfillment in relationships, we feel secure in how we see ourselves and relate to the world around us. Kindness, vulnerability, and loyalty are some of the best parts of our inner selves, and when we share those qualities with the people closest to us, it makes us feel good to receive those gifts in return. On the contrary, when we put a tremendous amount of effort in trying to make a relationship work and do not have the same affection and love reciprocated, we experience a great deal of emotional upheaval. Feeling rejected is probably one of the most painful experiences in life and studies indicate that the neural pathway of rejection in the brain is the same as physical pain.[^1] In other words, if you feel like you are in physical pain when someone puts you down, treats you badly, or invalidates you, it’s because you are. When you experience rejection repeatedly, whether by the same person over and over or by many different people, it is not unusual to wonder if there is something wrong with you. You might ask yourself: Why am I so unlovable? What is it about me that no matter how hard I try it never works? How come what I do is never good enough? Feelings of rejection by family and friends can also spill over into faith and spirituality. When you are trying your best and believe Allah has the power to help you but are not seeing the results you want, then you might start to wonder if there is a disconnect. You might question if Allah doesn’t like you, or if He is ignoring you the same way others in your life might be doing. Or perhaps you might consider that you are so unworthy that Allah will abandon you as well. The thought that Allah, the Owner and Controller of the whole universe, dislikes you feels catastrophic for a Muslim. When a family member or friend hates you, you can attempt to try to smooth things out directly in person, but how can you do that with Allah? You cannot see Him or talk to Him face-to-face to assess the situation. He is so powerful and you may feel so small. Also, what are the implications of being hated by Allah? If he Hates you will you be rejected by Him and His creation in this *dunia* and in the *akhira*? Does that mean nothing in your life and the Hereafter will work out for you? --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions Meaningful relationships are undoubtedly an integral part of life and everyone experiences interpersonal conflict every once in a while, but why is it that some people struggle much more in maintaining relationships than others? Difficulties can involve patterns of intense connection followed by a huge falling-out, ongoing fighting, or perpetual fear of being alone and abandoned. Unstable relationships feel like coming home to find out that the locks have been unexpectedly changed; they cause a tremendous amount of stress because they involve people we love, trust, and expect to be there consistently. If you struggle with relationships, it’s important to look at three elements of your life: (i) how you view the world; (ii) how you view yourself; and (iii) how you value yourself in relation to others. ### I. Cognitive perceptions of the world When a relationship falls apart or doesn’t go as planned, you want to know why. You might contemplate: “What did I do wrong for this relationship to not work out?” or “Is there something wrong with me that I can’t keep a good friend or get married?” Trying to answer these questions is a way for your brain to sort through and process all the information. It’s a way of synthesizing emotions and thoughts by trying to make sense of what feels like a puzzle with many missing pieces. During these reflective times, it can be easy to go down a slippery slope in terms of making negative associations with things around you. Places, people, and things that are neutral might begin to appear negative or bad because of the difficult circumstances you are in. This is because the feelings we have on the inside color how we see ourselves, our environment, and the people around us. If you are not feeling good about yourself, you might begin to think others don’t like you as well. Similarly, if you are feeling pessimistic about life, then how you experience circumstances around you will also reflect that. When we start to make decisions based on how we are feeling instead of using logic or facts, we begin to engage in a psychological process called **emotional reasoning**.[^2] Emotional reasoning occurs when a person makes conclusions about reality based on their feelings, not facts. “I feel ugly so therefore I must be.” “I feel like nobody loves me and so I must be unlovable.” “I feel like everyone hates me—I need to close myself off and protect myself from the world.” ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/image1.jpg) The same unhealthy logic we use in applying internal negative feelings to objects around us can also be applied to our relationship with Allah. Not everyone who thinks Allah hates them arrived at that feeling with the same thoughts but the cause is likely the same: emotional reasoning. “Everyone hates me, so Allah must hate me too.” “Bad things keep happening to me—this is Allah’s way of showing me that He is upset with me.” “My sins are so big that Allah just wishes bad for me.” Emotional reasoning is very dangerous. As Aaron Beck, the American psychiatrist who is considered to be the founder of cognitive behavior therapy, stated: “If our thinking is straightforward and clear, we are better equipped to reach these goals. If it is bogged down by distorted symbolic meanings, illogical reasoning, and erroneous interpretations, we become in effect deaf and blind."[^3] It’s impossible for any human being to be devoid of emotion but when a person uses emotion instead of intellect to make decisions, he or she truly becomes impaired in judgment. Emotional reasoning prevents a person’s ability to hear information clearly without misunderstanding or misinterpreting it. Allah states, > *So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears with which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts.* (Qur’an 22:46) Emotional reasoning can be catastrophic for general mental health as well as for relationships because it creates illusions of problems and dynamics that aren’t actually there. When one person engages in emotional reasoning in a relationship, whether platonic or otherwise, he or she is operating on an emotion-based reality that is not only unstable but untrue, likely alienating the healthier person in the long-term. When two people in a relationship participate in emotional reasoning, then neither party is engaging rationally, making the likelihood of having a healthy and stable relationship impossible. ### II. Cognitive perceptions of yourself How we view ourselves dictates how we see and interpret the world. Emotional reasoning is not just a byproduct of faulty thinking but can also be a result of how we feel about ourselves. Sometimes emotional reasoning stems from psychological projection, which in simplistic terms is when a person blames another for doing or feeling what they themselves are doing/feeling. For example, a woman who has really low self-esteem might continuously blame her husband for not thinking highly of her, when in fact it’s she who feels that way about herself. Another common example is that a man who is unfaithful to his wife might accuse her of infidelity when there is absolutely no evidence to substantiate his claim. Projection is subconscious and not an intentional way of manipulating someone. When something is too painful to accept about oneself, it’s psychologically easier to accuse someone else of doing it. How we view ourselves also impacts how we relate to the people we seek to have meaningful relationships with. If you have low self-esteem and feel undeserving of love, you are going to bring those feelings into how you interact with friends and family on a day-to-day basis. This can be seen in how you treat others, how you think others perceive you, and how you allow others to treat you. If you think badly about yourself, you will likely also assume others think badly of you. If you think that your ideas are stupid or are of no value, you will also expect others to feel the same. All relationships have an equilibrium and low self-esteem can disrupt healthy equilibrium in three major ways: 1\. If you think you are unlovable and less deserving than the other person of happiness, relationship satisfaction, and reciprocity, then you will inevitably withdraw because you don't perceive yourself to be worthy of experiencing the benefits of a relationship with someone good. When you emotionally withdraw from the other person, they will naturally withdraw over time as well and eventually, the relationship will end. 2\. If you think you are unlovable and less deserving than the other person of happiness, relationship satisfaction, and reciprocity, then you may cling to the other person to compensate for all the ways you feel you are lacking. You might be needy and possessive and fear abandonment and that you will never find someone else who wants to be with you. When this happens, the healthy person will flee the relationship because it’s too much for them to handle such high needs and expectations. 3\. If your self-esteem erratically fluctuates, then this can affect your relationships through highs and lows with attachment and unpredictability in behavior. This might be seen in tumultuous relationships in which friends or spouses are extremely close one minute and then extremely distant the next. ### III. Cognitions about Allah In the same way that you think others don’t like you because you don’t like yourself, you might make similar inferences about your relationship with Allah. Allah is consistent in His message and attributes, and so if you feel that He hates you, wants bad for you, or has abandoned you, this is likely from internal turmoil. In other words, if you feel that Allah hates you, it’s very likely that you feel bad about or hate yourself. Spiritual emotional reasoning might lead you to think: I’m not worthy of His Mercy. He is not listening to me. He doesn’t want what’s best for me. He doesn’t care about me. Additionally, some emotional reasoning about Allah might come from a deeper part of your unconscious, as many people project negative feelings and experiences with their parents on to Allah. There is a fair amount of literature that suggests people project their views of their parents onto God.[^4],[^5],[^6] So, for example, if you have a history of your parents being unavailable to you in childhood, it would not be unusual for you to project the same expectations onto Allah (although not correct). If you have trust or abandonment issues because of deception from your parents you might also feel that way about Allah as a Provider of your needs. Lastly, if you feel unworthy of attention and love due to how your parents treated you, you may suspect the same from Allah. --- ## Changing your mind, body, and heart During times of distress, it might feel like it’s impossible to change oneself and how one relates to others but with awareness, insight, and dedication, it is possible to change. In order to address emotional reasoning about yourself and the world, you will need to rectify three areas: how you view yourself, how you view others in relation to yourself, and how you view Allah in relation to yourself. ### I. Transforming how you see yourself If you feel empty, lonely, and negative about who you are, this may not just stem from lack of self-esteem but could also be from a lack of a sense of self. When someone knows who they are as a person, has strong connections to others, has passion, drive, and purpose, then life feels full and worth living. A lack of sense of self leads to the opposite—when a person doesn’t really know who they are as an individual, their mood, purpose, and goals can drastically fluctuate with their changing circumstances. Our sense of self develops during childhood when there is a heavy dependence on our parents to take care of us and help us navigate the world. In healthy homes, a parent’s love, time, and attention goes to nurturing a child. Nurturing involves not just providing food and a roof over the child’s head, but also emotional, psychological, and spiritual sustenance. When the child is ready for separation-individuation, a normal developmental stage in adolescence, the teenager healthily begins to separate themselves from their parents; the teenager will still rely on their parents for help but begins to emerge as his or her own individual. When a child from a home with inadequate nurturing hits adolescence, they also begin to separate but find themselves lost. This is because their parents did not bolster them with the adequate nourishment and care to know who they are as an individual apart from their caregivers. If you have ever planted a sapling or young plant in a pot in your home to make it stronger before planting outside, the concept is the same for children. The sapling will not survive outside because it has to grow in a safe environment first to be made strong enough to withstand the harsh elements to come. Teenagers from unhealthy homes oftentimes have inadequate strength to successfully navigate stressors outside the home, making them much more prone to anxiety, depression, and unhealthy relationships. Developing a strong sense of self and self-esteem can take a lot of work but it ultimately starts with many intentional and incremental steps in recognizing yourself as a person worthy of respect, dignity, and love. Sometimes Muslims shy away from self-esteem work because they feel it will breed arrogance; however, healthy self-esteem is not about putting oneself on a pedestal and glorifying oneself—it’s about acknowledging blessings Allah has given you and striving to be the best version of yourself. Start this invaluable work by doing an honest but kind inventory of your positive and negative attributes. Reflect on unique gifts, talents, and strengths that Allah has blessed you with. If you struggle with finding good personal attributes, ask a trusted friend, teacher, or family member to assist you. Making a list of negative qualities sounds counterintuitive to working on your self-esteem, but this is only true if you have no intention of working on those qualities. Taking your negative qualities and turning them into goals for change can be a great way to improve yourself, which will not only make you a better person but increase your self-esteem in the long-term. Allah has created you individually and put you on earth for a reason which means you have a purpose. Take your qualities and fine-tune them to create a life both you and Allah can be pleased with and make the world a better place. ### II. Transforming how you relate to others The weaker the sense of self is, the more likely an individual will cling to relationships and find little meaning outside them because the connection to others makes them feel complete and whole. It’s completely healthy, natural, and necessary to our existence and wellbeing to be connected to others, but when a person can’t function or find meaning in life outside of relationships this can be problematic. You can see this in people who jump from marriage to marriage because they can’t tolerate the idea of being alone, a woman who completely puts her life on hold while she searches for a husband or a person who completely falls apart whenever they have a spat with friends or family members. When a person with no sense of self latches onto someone who appears to have the characteristics they lack (like bravery, intellect, spiritual devotion, etc.), that gives them a false sense of security; however, once that person leaves, the emptiness returns with a vengeance because now the hollowness is magnified by feelings of abandonment. Unhealthy dependence for adults can also be troublesome from a spiritual standpoint as ideally complete dependence should only be on Allah, not other human beings. When one seeks to have their needs to be met by people, they will inevitably be disappointed because human beings are fallible and can be undependable. Our purpose in life is to worship Allah and get to *jannah*; therefore, completely falling apart and finding no meaning in life after one’s children leave home, or after divorce, or in the absence of a best friend might suggest that one’s overall purpose in life may need to be reexamined. Life is more joyful and comfortable with relationships, and even Prophet Muhammad ﷺ grieved after losing loved ones, but that is not to say that life is not worth living outside relationships. Insight is the first step to understanding unhealthy views about depending on others. Reflect and analyze on how much you might rely on others: Are you dependent on others for your happiness? Do you rely on others to make decisions for you? Are you dependent on others’ validation to feel good about yourself? Do you need to take care of other people's needs for your own wellbeing? If you find in your assessment that you rely on others too much, consider going a step further and writing down all the different ways you depend on others—socially, financially, emotionally, and/or spiritually. Once you have identified the different areas that need improvement, you can begin to use cognitive restructuring (identifying irrational thoughts and replacing them with healthier thoughts) and affirmations (positive statements affirming the opposite of your negative thoughts) to correct views about your ability to do things independently. For example, if you feel dependent on others to make decisions for you, step one would be to write out your initial unhealthy thoughts as to how this dynamic is playing out in your life.  Once you have the irrational or unhealthy thought, then step two would be to write the opposite, in a way someone who cared about you would if they heard the negative thought. Lastly, take the corrected thought and turn it into an affirmation that you can repeat to yourself on a regular basis to reinforce the positive attributes you have or are trying to achieve. Dependency:  *I feel that others need to make decisions for me because I always make mistakes and don’t know what I’m doing.* Cognitive Restructuring: *Everyone errs, not just me—and it’s not like I make mistakes often. Besides, how will I learn if I don’t make mistakes?* Independence Affirmation: *I’m capable of making good decisions on my own.* If you would like to take this process one step further, follow the affirmation with real-life evidence to support your statement. This may not be possible in all scenarios, but it is good practice when applicable. Example: *I once bought a laptop on my own that I really liked. I read reviews online, did* istikhara *prayer and bought it with nobody helping me—and it turned out to be a good laptop and decision.* For individuals who are highly dependent on others, psychotherapy is usually the best course of action but if you just have dependency tendencies, assessing how you rely on others too much and shifting your thoughts might be enough to empower yourself to a healthier way of thinking. ### III. Transforming your relationship with Allah The long-term effects of assuming that Allah doesn’t like you can be dire. Thinking that Allah hates you creates a barrier between having love for Him, wanting to do good deeds, seeking repentance, and having overall positive feelings about Islam. It’s almost impossible for one to have feelings of love towards Allah, His Messenger, and the religion if hate, the complete opposite, is what is filling one’s heart. Shaytan loves for people to assume that Allah hates them because this makes it easier for him to lead them astray. If you are feeling that Allah hates you, it’s not too late to change that. Know that He has never abandoned you and has always been there, although perhaps you may have distanced yourself from Him. Begin by spending time with yourself and reflecting on how you got to this point in the first place. Thoughts often don’t happen spontaneously—most of the time they are planted and become stronger over time. Go back in time and think about when you first started to feel this way: - Did someone (perhaps an adult or authority figure) say Allah hated you? - Are you taking characteristics or assumptions about your parents as providers and unintentionally superimposing them on Allah as your Provider? - Did someone make *duaa* for Allah to curse you, in which you assumed that all bad things happened after that was a result of the bad *duaa* against you? - Did something catastrophic happen that made you think Allah hates you? - Did you feel that you are so unworthy of love that nobody, including Allah, loves you? Once you have identified the origin of the thought, you can begin to deconstruct the unhealthy parts of it and change it. Look objectively at the circumstances of your situation using facts. Emotions are your feelings about what happened, whereas facts simply describe what happened. This sounds very simplistic but oftentimes people don’t realize they are getting the two mixed up. If all your thoughts seem jumbled up, try writing them down. Write a narrative of what led you to feel that Allah hates you. Highlight your feelings in red and then the facts in green. Is your narrative mostly emotion or facts? Are there parts of your story you thought were true but were based on emotion? Remember, just because you feel something doesn’t make it true. Another exercise to help identify where your feeling that Allah hates you came from is a free association technique. Write on top of a piece of paper: “I think Allah hates me because…..” followed by all the reasons you can think of. Write as many reasons as you can. Once you have identified all the reasons you feel that Allah hates you, begin to replace the emotional reasoning with facts. Cross out the unhealthy thoughts and rewrite them with healthy ones. Example: *I think Allah hates me because my* duaas *are never answered.* *Allah answers all* duaas *but the response might not be immediate or might take a different form.* If you happen to notice any parallels between how you view Allah and other authority figures, like your parents or teachers, be sure to deconstruct and disassociate the two in your mind. Cross out characteristics you inadvertently transferred from the authority figure to Allah in red. Look up the 99 names of Allah and write the opposite or more fitting characteristic in green instead. Example: I think Allah hates me because everyone in my life, including my parents, think I’m useless. *Allah* is Al Latif - *The Kind* *Allah* is Ash Shakur - *The Grateful* *Allah* is Al Wudud - *The Loving* Sometimes it’s painful to look at past events objectively because when you realize that Allah doesn’t hate you, accountability for the traumatic incident might fall on someone else. This person could be you, a family member, or a friend. For example, you might have attributed failing out of college to Allah’s hating you, when really it was because you didn’t go to class or study. Or perhaps you might have thought Allah did want good for you when in fact it was that your beloved parents were feeding you misinformation about Him. The end goal of this process is not to transfer blame but to increase insight and accountability so positive changes can be made for the future. Lastly, in addition to examining the origins of why you think Allah hates you, it is also important to reflect on how your interpretation of your life events might be reinforcing your existing thoughts. For example, it is an Islamic concept that humans are punished for their sins in this life and the next, but this does not mean that a Muslim can attribute everything that doesn’t go his or her way to punishment from Allah or that Allah hates them. Let’s deconstruct some common beliefs about the link between “bad” things happening to a person and that Allah hates them. ### I think Allah hates me because bad things always happen to me Our definitions of what is “bad” are not always true. Just because something doesn’t go as planned or makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean that it is bad. You not getting that job you wanted might be because Allah has a better one in store for you. That fight you had with your spouse might because Allah wanted to teach you an important lesson through it. You getting into a car accident may be because Allah wanted to prevent you from more harm than what was waiting for you at your destination. ### I think Allah just wants bad for me through these trials Sometimes bad things happen to us because of the evil things we have done, but bad things can also happen to us because they are trials and Allah wants to increase us in our rank. We know that the Prophets faced huge difficulties, but we do not attribute those difficulties to their sins. If every difficulty truly translated to a punishment, why would Allah have punished the best of humanity (the Prophets) so harshly? There is no way for us to know what bad things happen to us because of our own doing, and while it’s essential to contemplate about this and make *istighfar*, it’s fruitless to ruminate (keep thinking about something over and over) if (i) you don’t know and can’t know why that bad thing happened to you; and (ii) you did sincere *tawbah*—in which case, Allah may have already forgiven you. ### I think Allah just wants to punish me and make me feel bad If Allah is punishing you for something, it doesn’t mean that He hates you. One of the benefits of punishment in this *dunya* (if you are in fact being punished) is so you can feel distress enough to change a wrong you are committing and be expiated for that sin. The end goal is not for Allah to make you feel bad; it’s for you to feel bad enough to change. This is because Allah actually wants what is best for you. If you are engaging or persisting in a sin, Allah may be trying to correct you to ward off future pain, as usually there is no incentive to change without distress. > *Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When Allah intends good for His slave, He punishes him in this world, but when He intends an evil for His slave, He does not hasten to take him to task but calls him to account on the Day of Resurrection.”*[^7] If you’ve made mistakes in assuming that Allah hates you in the past, ask Him to forgive you and try to start over on a new page. Don’t let guilt cloud the newfound hope that you now know the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth doesn’t hate you. Feel how liberating it is to understand that The One Who has power over all things wants what is best for you. Instead of focusing on weaknesses in your relationship with Allah in the past, refocus your energy on doing things that Allah loves in the present. How wonderful is it that Allah tells us directly in the Qur’an how to seek closeness to Him so that He loves us more: > *...Indeed, **Allah loves** those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves.* (Qur’an, 2:222) > > *And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw \[yourselves\] with your \[own\] hands into destruction \[by refraining\]. And do good; indeed, **Allah loves** the doers of good.* (Qur’an 2:195) > > *\[They are\] avid listeners to falsehood, devourers of \[what is\] unlawful. So if they come to you, \[O Muhammad\], judge between them or turn away from them. And if you turn away from them—never will they harm you at all. And if you judge, judge between them with justice. Indeed, **Allah loves** those who act justly.* (Qur’an 5:42) > > *So by mercy from Allah, \[O Muhammad\], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude \[in speech\] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, **Allah loves** those who rely \[upon Him\].* (Qur’an 3:159) *Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah the Exalted has said: ‘I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper of Mine. And the most beloved thing with which My slave comes nearer to Me is what I have enjoined upon him, and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing* nawafil *(prayer or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him. When I love him I become his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks (something) from Me, I give him, and if he asks My Protection (refuge), I protect him.’” (Al-Bukhari)* --- ## Inspirational hadith and ayat for reflection Narrated \`Umar bin Al-Khattab: Some *sabi* (i.e., war prisoners, children and women only) were  brought before the Prophet ﷺ and behold, a woman amongst them was milking her breasts to feed and whenever she found a child amongst the captives, she took it over her chest and nursed it (she had lost her child but later she found him). The Prophet said to us, “Do you think that this lady can throw her son in the fire?” We replied, “No, if she has the power not to throw it (in the fire).” The Prophet ﷺ then said, “Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this lady to her son.” (*Sahih al-Bukhari* 5999) It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Allah says, ‘I am as My slave thinks I am, and I am with him when he mentions Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws to Me a hand-span length, I draw near to him a forearm's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him in a hurry.’” (*Sunan Ibn Majah* 3822) --- ## Practical exercises 1. *Personal inventory:* A personal inventory is a great way to start working on increasing your self-esteem and positive sense of self. Below write down as many positive traits, characteristics that set you apart from others, and general strengths that you can. You can also add blessings in your life like supports and/or resources. Everyone has desirable, positive traits unique to who they are as an individual, but also areas that need improvement as well. Can you think of specific areas in your life that need to be worked on? Instead of looking at these weaknesses as something negative, rewrite these traits or habits as positive, concrete, and achievable goals. Taking a perceived negative trait and turning it into something constructive can help improve self-esteem. 2.  *Increasing independence* To decrease dependence on others, you first have to identify ways that you might rely on others socially, spiritually, financially, or emotionally in unhealthy ways. Cognitively restructure those statements and turn them into affirmations to shift your views about getting your needs met from others to yourself. Provide evidence in the past of times you were successful in these areas to demonstrate that you can do it again. Repeat the affirmations to yourself regularly for maximum effect. 3\. *Fact-checking with emotional reasoning* Do you feel that your emotions cloud your judgment? Write a narrative of why you think Allah hates you and highlight your feelings in red and then the facts in green. Is your narrative mostly emotion or facts? Are there parts of your story you thought were true but were based on emotion? Remember, just because you feel something doesn’t make it true. Take all the red statements you wrote above and next to them rewrite the statements correctly as facts. If you can’t turn your emotion statement into a fact statement then just cross it out altogether. ![figure 5 trauma and islam](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/figure-5-trauma-and-islam.png) 4\. *Free association technique:* Write on top of a piece of paper: “I think Allah hates me because…..” followed by all the reasons you can think of that He might dislike you. Write as many reasons as you can. Once you have identified all the reasons you feel that Allah hates you, you can begin to replace the emotional reasoning with facts. Cross out the unhealthy thoughts and replace them with healthy ones. --- ## Case study revisited *During one day of feeling lonely and sad that she would never get married, Rula decided to do the Fact-Checking with Emotional Reasoning Exercise and discovered she was using emotional reasoning a lot. Rula realized two important things: (1) that she used emotion instead of logic in most of her decision-making; and (2) that she measured her self-worth by her relationships. If she had a friend or a good candidate for marriage, she put everything into that relationship, oftentimes ignoring other parts of her life and putting important matters on hold. When those relationships ended, however, Rula felt terrible. Upon reflection. Rula understood that her self-esteem was more underdeveloped than she thought. She made a commitment that she wanted to secure her wellbeing and happiness independent of the people around her. Rula did an inventory of her positive and negative traits and uncovered that she had a lot of good attributes to work with. She set aside time to make her positive traits better and to reframe her negative traits into tangible steps she could work on.* *Rula also did the free association technique about why Allah hated her and quickly grasped that Allah didn’t dislike her—she just felt hated when she wasn’t getting her way. Rula began to be more cognizant of when things went wrong that she should not assume that this was because Allah was angry with her. To counter this inclination, she made sure to always replace her unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones as soon as she realized what was happening. When Rula freed herself from the idea that Allah hated her, she felt empowered and started taking a more proactive stance in life. She understood that the only person putting her life on hold was herself and that she could not wait around for a husband to live her life. Rula continued looking for a husband but made short-term and long-term goals related to her* deen*, career, family, and well-being. These goals put Rula’s life back on track, gave her hope, and made her feel like herself again.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Kross, E., Berman, M., Mischel, W., Smith, E., & Wager, T. (2016). Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain. *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America*, *108*, 6270-6275. [^2]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy.* New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^3]: Beck, A. (1989). *Love is never enough: How couples can overcome misunderstandings, resolve conflicts and solve relationships through cognitive therapy.* New York: Harper & Row Publishers. [^4]: Dickie, J., Eshleman, A., Merasco, D., & Shepard, A. (1997). Parent-child relationships and children’s images of God. *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, *36*, 25-43. [^5]: McDonald, A., Beck, R., Allison, S., & Norsworthy, L. (2005). Attachment to God and parents: Testing correspondence vs. compensation hypotheses. *Journal of Psychology and Christianity,* *24*, 21-28. [^6]: Aifuwa, S. (2016). Effects of child-parent attachment and God attachment on depression in adolescent Christians.  *Doctoral Dissertations and Projects*. Retrieved on February 8, 2019 from [https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2408&context=doctoral](https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2408&context=doctoral) [^7]: *At-Tirmidhi*, Book 1, Hadith 43. ## Summary Feeling rejected is among the most painful of human experiences, so much so that it has been observed that the pain of rejection travels along the very same pathways in the mind as physical pain. When a person pours their heart into a relationship—whether a friendship or the search for a spouse—and finds their affection unreturned, they naturally begin to question themselves, asking why they seem unlovable and why their efforts never bear fruit. What is important to understand is that these feelings of rejection do not remain confined to our dealings with people. They frequently spill over into the heart's relationship with Allah, so that a believer who feels cast off by family and friends begins to wonder whether Allah too has abandoned them, whether their supplications annoy Him, or whether they are so unworthy that even the Owner and Controller of the universe dislikes them. For a Muslim, the thought that Allah harbors dislike for them feels catastrophic, for one cannot smooth matters over with Allah face to face as one might with a friend. The root of much of this distress lies in a pattern of thinking known as *emotional reasoning*, in which a person draws conclusions about reality based upon their feelings rather than upon facts. A person tells themselves, "I feel ugly, therefore I must be," or "I feel unloved, therefore I am unlovable." This same faulty logic is then turned upon Allah: "Everyone hates me, so Allah must hate me too," or "Bad things keep happening to me, so this is Allah showing His anger." Aaron Beck, regarded as the founder of cognitive behavioral therapy, warned that when our thinking is "bogged down by distorted symbolic meanings, illogical reasoning, and erroneous interpretations, we become in effect deaf and blind." This danger is captured in the words of Allah, who says: *"So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears with which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts"* (Qur'an 22:46). Emotional reasoning conjures problems that do not truly exist and, when practiced within a relationship, makes stability nearly impossible. Those who struggle repeatedly in relationships would benefit from examining three matters: how they view the world, how they view themselves, and how they value themselves in relation to others. How we regard ourselves colors how we perceive everything around us. A person who thinks poorly of themselves will assume others think poorly of them as well. Sometimes this arises from *projection*, a subconscious process whereby a person blames another for the very faults or feelings they themselves harbor. Low self-esteem disturbs the natural equilibrium of relationships in three ways: a person who feels unworthy may withdraw until the relationship withers; or they may cling desperately out of fear of abandonment, driving the healthier party away; or their fluctuating sense of worth may produce tumultuous bonds that swing between closeness and distance. These same distortions attach themselves to one's view of Allah. Since Allah is consistent in His message and His attributes, if a person feels that He hates them, wants ill for them, or has forsaken them, this feeling most likely springs from inner turmoil rather than from any reality. There is, moreover, a well-documented tendency for people to project their experience of their parents onto their Lord. One who had unavailable or deceptive parents in childhood may, without warrant, expect the same from Allah as their Provider. Change, though difficult in times of distress, is possible through awareness, insight, and dedication. The first task is to transform how one sees oneself, for an empty and lonely feeling may stem not only from weak self-esteem but from a weak *sense of self*, which develops in childhood through the nurturing of a caring home. It should be understood that healthy self-esteem is not arrogance nor the glorification of oneself; rather, it is the acknowledgment of the blessings Allah has bestowed and the striving to become the best version of oneself, recognizing that Allah created each person for a purpose. A believer may begin with an honest yet kind inventory of their strengths and gifts, and turn their shortcomings into goals for change. The second task is to transform how one relates to others. It is natural and necessary to be connected to people, but when a person can find no meaning in life apart from relationships, this becomes spiritually troubling, for complete dependence belongs to Allah alone. Human beings are fallible and will inevitably disappoint. Our purpose is to worship Allah and attain *jannah*; therefore, to fall utterly apart after a divorce or the loss of a friend suggests one's sense of purpose needs re-examining. Yet this does not mean life outside of relationships is worthless, for even the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ grieved at the loss of his loved ones. Through cognitive restructuring and affirmations—and, where the difficulty is severe, through psychotherapy—one may gradually shift toward a healthier independence. The third and most vital task is to transform one's relationship with Allah, for the belief that Allah hates a person erects a barrier against loving Him, seeking repentance, and finding joy in the religion. Indeed, Shaytan delights when a person assumes Allah hates them, for it eases his work of misguidance. One should trace the origin of this thought—whether it came from an authority figure, from the transference of a parent's image onto Allah, or from some calamity—and then deconstruct it with facts rather than feelings. When a person notices they have transferred a parent's traits onto their Lord, they should recall the beautiful names of Allah, for He is *Al-Latif* (the Kind), *Ash-Shakur* (the Grateful), and *Al-Wadud* (the Loving). It must also be understood that hardship is not proof of Allah's hatred. Our notions of what is "bad" are often mistaken, for a lost opportunity may shield us from greater harm. Even the Prophets endured tremendous trials, yet we do not attribute their difficulties to sin; had every hardship been a punishment, why would the best of humanity have been so severely tested? Trials may in fact raise a person's rank. And even where a punishment does occur, it is not a sign of hatred but a mercy meant to prompt correction and expiation. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, as reported by Anas, that "When Allah intends good for His slave, He punishes him in this world, but when He intends evil for His slave, He does not hasten to take him to task but calls him to account on the Day of Resurrection." Rather than dwelling upon past failings, one should redirect energy toward what Allah loves, for He tells us plainly in His Book that He loves those who repent and purify themselves (Qur'an 2:222), the doers of good (Qur'an 2:195), those who act justly (Qur'an 5:42), and those who rely upon Him (Qur'an 3:159). In the sacred hadith reported by Abu Hurairah, Allah declares that His slave draws ever nearer to Him through the obligatory acts and then the voluntary ones, until "I love him," after which Allah answers his requests and grants him protection (Al-Bukhari). The vastness of Allah's mercy is best illustrated in the hadith of `Umar ibn al-Khattab, when the Prophet ﷺ, seeing a captive woman clutch her child to nurse it, asked whether such a mother would ever cast her child into the fire, and then said, "Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this lady to her son" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5999). And in the hadith reported by Abu Hurairah, Allah says, "I am as My slave thinks I am… and if he draws to Me a hand-span length, I draw near to him a forearm's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him in a hurry" (Sunan Ibn Majah 3822). How liberating it is, then, for a person to cast off the illusion of Allah's hatred and to know instead that the One who has power over all things wants only what is best for them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/dealing-with-apparently-problematic-hadiths # Give It a Second Thought: Dealing with Apparently Problematic Hadiths **Author:** Mufti Muntasir Zaman **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 29, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract The surge of criticism in recent times of supposedly problematic ḥadīths generally rests on the claim that such ḥadīths are absurd, unscientific, impossible, or contradictory. Every ḥadīth whose content is seen as problematic has a specific explanation, for which relevant literature can be consulted. This article highlights broad guidelines that are to be kept in mind when dealing with narrations of this nature. After some preliminary thoughts, four points are proffered for consideration: (1) the limits of human reason and experience; (2) the importance of contextualization; (3) the usage of figurative speech; and (4) the need to distinguish between impossibility and unlikelihood. In no way are these guidelines meant to be exhaustive. As a first response, they can help to assuage the concerns of a Muslim whose conscience is constantly agitated by reading apparently problematic ḥadīths. Detailed discussions of specific ḥadīths can be offered on a case-by-case basis. --- ## Introduction In numerous places in the Qurʾān, Allah calls upon humankind to use their intellect and to contemplate the perfection of His creation. He says, “And now We have sent down to you \[people\] a Scripture to remind you. Will you not use your reason?”[^1] In other verses, He reprimands those who do not use their intellect: “But the disbelievers invent lies about Allah. Most of them do not use reason”[^2] is a striking case in point.[^3] That the Qurʾān transcends a mere exposition of raw assertion by engaging in a process of argumentation and dialogue—it is the “evincive proof” (*burhān*) and “conclusive argument” (*al-ḥujjah al-bālighah*)—is indicative of its appeal to the human mind.[^4] Therefore, there exists no incongruity between reason and revelation; the former in fact leads one to appreciate the latter while the latter enjoins and exemplifies the former.[^5] There are, however, two important caveats that should not escape our attention: the reasoning has to be sound and the revelation authentic.[^6] From the formative period of Islamic history, scholars wrote books to address apparently contradictory ḥadīths, a field known as *mukhtalif al-ḥadīth*,[^7] and ḥadīths that apparently conflict with other evidence or external reality, a field known as *mushkil al-ḥadīth*.[^8] In this vein, Imām al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204 AH) authored Ikhtilāf al-Ḥadīth,[^9] regarded as one of the earliest works on the subject. Analogous works include Ibn Qutaybah al-Dīnawarī’s (d. 276 AH) pioneering monograph, *Taʾwīl Mukhtalif al-Ḥadīth*, Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī’s (d. 321 AH) peerless compendium, *Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār*,[^10] and Abū Bakr Ibn Fūrak’s (d. 406 AH) masterpiece, *Mushkil al-Ḥadīth wa Bayānuhū*. Scholars also dealt with such narrations in their general Ḥadīth commentaries when the occasion arose. Abū Bakr Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311 AH) confidently proclaimed, “I am unaware of any two authentic narrations of the Prophet ﷺ that are contradictory. If anyone comes across such narrations, let him bring them to me so that I can reconcile them.”[^11] --- ## Preliminary thoughts It goes without saying that, before venturing to clarify any misunderstanding or problematic content in a ḥadīth, it is paramount to ensure its authenticity. A person should not expend energy in trying to reconcile, say, a fabricated ḥadīth with external realities, because it cannot be reliably attributed to the Prophet ﷺ to begin with, and therefore, should not be a matter of concern. [^12] It is pointless to attempt to explain the putative ḥadīth, for instance, that states, “Hornets were created from the heads of horses and bees from the heads of cows” because this supposed ḥadīth is fabricated.[^13] Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī reminds the reader of the ancient adage: first stabilize the throne firmly, then worry about engraving it (*thabbit al-ʿarsh thumm unqush*); that is, before concerning ourselves with whether the meaning is correct, we should ensure that the report is even reliable to begin with.[^14] In his magnum opus, al-Ṭaḥāwī’s modus operandi was to examine only acceptable narrations.[^15] A ḥadīth is often transmitted via multiple routes (*riwāyāt*), which may differ in wording. When attempting to understand a ḥadīth, the need to examine it in view of all its routes of transmission cannot be stressed enough. Until all the routes of a ḥadīth are collected and analyzed as a whole, Ibn al-Madīnī explains, its errors will not become apparent.[^16] Take the Prophetic ḥadīth narrated via ʿĀʾishah and Buraydah that a human body has 360 joints and a person is required to perform a virtuous deed for each joint.[^17] In two variant routes of transmission from Abū Hurayrah and Ibn ʿAbbās, this ḥadīth is narrated with the words “360 bones,” which is incongruent with modern knowledge of human anatomy.[^18] But these routes are defective. The route of Ibn ʿAbbās contains the impugned narrator al-Layth ibn Abī Sulaym while the route of Abū Hurayrah suffers from several flaws, viz. disagreement among, and contentions regarding, the sub-transmitters, isolation in transmission, and conflict with more authentic routes. Although there are multiple routes for the ḥadīth, the correct version contains the words “360 joints.”[^19] The main focus here is on how to deal with problematic ḥadīths (*mushkil al-ḥadīth*). Before proceeding, however, a word on conflicting ḥadīths (*mukhtalif al-ḥadīth*) is in order. Jurists laid out the following procedure for dealing with conflicting ḥadīths.[^20] The first step is to harmonize (*jamʿ*) between the conflicting reports.[^21]  The Prophet ﷺ prohibited a person from placing one leg on the other when lying down,[^22] but he reportedly did exactly that on one occasion.[^23] Al-Khaṭṭābi explains that the prohibition pertains to the scenario where placing one leg on the other will expose one’s private part; the Prophet ﷺ did so in a manner that ensured his lower body was concealed.[^24] When harmonization is not possible, one is to seek out evidence of abrogation (*naskh*).[^25] As we have seen earlier, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have both allowed and prohibited the writing of his ḥadīths.[^26] To avoid any issues in preserving the Qurʾān, the Prophet ﷺ initially prohibited the Companions from writing ḥadīths. Once there remained no fear of such neglect, he allowed them to write material besides the Qurʾān.[^27] In the absence of evidence to suggest abrogation, one should prefer (*tarjīḥ*) one ḥadīth over the other based on a list of factors related to the chain of transmission, the text, and other issues.[^28] --- ## Guidelines Muslims believe that the Prophet ﷺ received information about the unseen; how then can they reject something *authentically* attributed to him only because it seems far-fetched in light of the conventional understandings of the world? If a ḥadīth describes how the Devil flees flatulating upon hearing the call to prayer,[^29] how can anyone who accepts that the Prophet ﷺ receives information about the unseen reject it under the pretext that it is absurd when it is describing something beyond the scope of his intellect and/or experience? To understand this point better, note that there are three primary sources from which people acquire knowledge: sound senses, reason, and truthful reports.[^30] The first source includes the five senses, i.e. hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. We use these senses to perceive the world around us, knowing that each sense is limited. The second source is human reason.[^31] We come to know the texture of silk with our sense of touch and the smell of musk with our sense of smell, but neither of these senses can help us to determine how they were prepared and what purpose they serve, simply because this is conceptual and propositional knowledge that lies beyond the senses and can only be comprehended by the intellect. This is where reason comes in and guides us; but reason also has its limits.[^32] The third source of knowledge is accurate information provided through truthful reporting, such as historical anecdotes or testimony. The most important form of such transmitted information for a believer is divine revelation, the scope of which extends beyond both human reason and experience. It would be *unreasonable* to reject information derived from divine revelation merely because it seems prima facie absurd. To say revelation transcends human reason is not to say it is irrational—it is, rather, supra-rational, in the sense that it transcends the (necessarily limited) cognitive competencies of human reason.[^33] In other words, it is incorrect to weigh revelation solely on a scale as limited as human reason and experience.[^34] One who attempts to do so, Ibn Khaldūn observes, is like a person who wishes to weigh mountains on a goldsmith’s weighing scale.[^35] Reports authentically related from the Prophet ﷺ are best understood in their context. Failing to contextualize will lead a person to criticize a ḥadīth anachronistically. It would be unfair for a critic to object to a particular practice or statement of the Prophet ﷺ only because it is considered unacceptable in the critic’s current social milieu. Modern critics are often guilty of imposing certain ideals onto their reading of history; they believe that what does not correspond to these ideals is to be unquestionably abandoned because it is “backward” or “irrational.” It is, therefore, disingenuous to criticize the marriage of our mother ʿĀʾishah at a young age based on modern marital ethics. Despite the lengths the Prophet’s most ardent contemporary critics went to criticize him, his marriage to ʿĀʾishah was never considered problematic for them since marriage at a young age was socially acceptable at that time. It is only recently that this has become an issue. The first to formally appraise this aspect of the Prophet’s life negatively was the Orientalist David Margoliouth (d. 1940) in the early 1900s.[^36] This is not to deny the universality of the Prophet’s example for humankind throughout time. The Prophet ﷺ was undoubtedly sent “to bring good news and warning to all people.”[^37] Legal theorists have formulated the maxim “*al-ʿibrah bi ʿumūm al-lafẓ lā bi khuṣūṣ al-sabab* (consideration is given to the generality of the wording and not to the specific cause)” when studying divine scripture. However, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (d. 702 AH) qualifies this maxim by cautioning students to be aware of the difference between “the indication of context and signs (*qarāʾin*) towards specifying the generality” and “the occurrence of a general rule in a specific scenario” because the mere occurrence of a generality in a scenario does not specify it.[^38] In other words, this maxim is not to be taken as a universal rule. He further explains, “Context provides clarity on what is ambiguous, specifies what is ambivalent, and frames statements according to their intended purpose.”[^39] In any case, studying the context of a ḥadīth to better understand its rationale and application is a far cry from dismissing ḥadīths arbitrarily because they are seen as outdated.[^40] At times a figurative reading of a ḥadīth can easily remove the difficulty in understanding its contents. To interpret the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ without considering the tools of rhetoric can be misleading, especially when the use of figurative speech (*majāz*) is common in Arabic, as in other languages.[^41] This equally applies to verses of the Qurʾān where a literal reading would convey an incorrect meaning.[^42] Take the example of the ḥadīth, “Two months of ʿĪd never fall short: Ramadan and Dhū al-Ḥijjah,” which apparently means that these two months will never fall short of thirty days. Taken at face value, this contradicts reality. However, it is interpreted figuratively to mean that these two months will never fall short of spiritual value even though their days may be twenty-nine, which is a completely plausible explanation.[^43] Losing sight of the broader message of a ḥadīth by delving into its literal words can deter one from understanding its intent. When taken at face value, the ḥadīth in which the Prophet ﷺ tells Abū Dharr “during sunset, the sun prostrates underneath the ʿ*Arsh* (Divine Throne) and then seeks permission to rise again” is difficult to reconcile with science. However, there is a greater message embedded in these words. The Prophet ﷺ took this opportunity—when the world goes through a magnificent transformation, that of the alternation of night and day—to teach mankind that this marvelous phenomenon happens only with the permission of Allah. The *ʿArsh* encompasses the entire creation, and therefore, the sun is always beneath the *ʿArsh*.[^44] This moving with Allah’s permission and by His command is described as its “prostration;” the prostration of each creation manifests according to its individual state of being, as stated in the Qurʾān.[^45] The Prophet ﷺ articulated his comment according to what Abū Dharr observed in front of him. Expressing a specific orbital path or other material reality was not the purpose of the ḥadīth; misconstruing it as such would only serve to obscure the intended message.[^46] It is inaccurate to study hadīths of this nature through a strictly materialistic and naturalistic lens because the Prophet’s mission was not to provide guidance on scientific matters.[^47] Shāh Walī Allah al-Dihlawī (d. 1762 CE) makes the apt observation that the prophets would not occupy themselves with matters not relevant to “the refinement of the soul and governing of the community unless it was incidental.”[^48] Even in daily conversations today, people use phrases that are unscientific if taken literally; e.g., at sunrise or sunset. A study of the Prophet’s ḥadīths demonstrates that they possessed a rhetorical consistency that can be dubbed a Prophetic style of speaking.[^49] Scholars were well aware of this phenomenon. While grading a particular ḥadīth, Ibn ʿAdī (d. 365 AH) states, “It does not resemble the words of the Prophet”[^50] and elsewhere al-Mundhirī (d. 656 AH) states, “But this ḥadīth gleams with a shine from the light of prophethood.”[^51] One characteristic of the Prophetic style was hyperbole.[^52] Hence, early Muslim scholars have not interpreted ḥadīths that state “he is not from among us” as excommunication from the faith.[^53] To fully grasp the message of certain ḥadīths, therefore, one is required to be conversant with the language of Ḥadīth. Finally, it is essential to make a distinction between what is fundamentally impossible (*mustaḥīl*) and what is merely unlikely (*mustaghrab*) though within the realm of what is possible. Impossibility is a quality intrinsic to a thing itself. Something impossible can never be; a circle can never take the shape of a square. On the other hand, deeming something unlikely is a relative and subjective matter as it derives from the limitations of human reason and experience, either individual or collective.[^54] Not so long ago, it was considered unlikely for someone to travel from one country to another in a short span of time, and even impossible for anyone to reach the moon. But due to technological advancements, such feats are now easily achievable. In a similar manner, if an authentic ḥadīth describes something that appears difficult to believe, such as the splitting of the moon,[^55] it is incorrect to discard it as an impossibility. Failure to appreciate its meaning can stem from a myriad of factors. Khalīl Mullā Khāṭir aptly points out, “It seems that skeptics of Ḥadīth have confused what is *impossible* with what is *unacceptable* to the Western worldview.”[^56] ∞ That many of the same ḥadīths modern critics regard as problematic were already discussed in detail by the greatest Islamic minds is often overlooked in these discussions. The difference between classical Muslim scholars and modern critics is the perspective from which the two groups look at the objection. Traditional scholars were not oblivious to scientific realities nor blind to logical fallacies; many, in fact, were actively involved in the rational and scientific fields.[^57] However, they had a more robust conception of revelation as a purveyor of actual knowledge and truth about the world, while modern detractors usually presume a more empiricist and rationalist epistemology which tends to reduce the role of revelation in providing knowledge, as well as being overly quick to subordinate the interpretation of revelation to the independent conclusions of reason and science. When presented with ḥadīths that, at first blush, seem problematic, the reader is advised to bear in mind the guidelines outlined above and not dismiss those ḥadīths summarily without a second thought. \[embed\]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heitI0S9BCo\[/embed\] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 21:10. [^2]: Qur’an 5:103. [^3]: “\[T\]he Qurʾanic mode of thinking is not empirical or rationalist, historical or systematic, apodictic or pedagogical, analytical or descriptive. It is none of them and yet all of them at once. It combines conceptual analysis with moral judgment, empirical observation with spiritual guidance, historical narrative with eschatological expectation, and abstraction with imperative command.” See Ibrahim Kalin, *Reason and Rationality in the Qurʾān*, p. 9. [^4]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī writes, “There is no demonstration, argumentation, disjunction, or admonition built upon the general categories of knowledge afforded by reason and revelation that the Book of Allah has failed to articulate; it has mentioned them, however, according to the customary \[speech habits\] of the Arabs and not in accordance with the intricate methods of the theologians.” See al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān*, vol. 4, p. 60. [^5]: Al-Ghazālī, *Qānūn al-Taʾwīl*, p. 9. [^6]: Fūdah, *al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr*, vol. 1, pp. 38-40. [^7]: When vocalized as *mukhtalif* (active participle) it refers to ḥadīths that ostensibly conflict with one another; when vocalized as *mukhtalaf* (verbal noun) it refers to the difference between the apparently contradictory ḥadīths. See Khayyāṭ, *Mukhtalif al-Ḥadīth bayn al-Muḥaddithīn wa al-Uṣūliyyīn wa al-Fuqahā*ʾ, pp. 25-26. [^8]: Abū Shahbah, *al-Wasīṭ fī ʿUlūm wa Muṣṭalaḥ al-Ḥadīth*, pp. 442-43. [^9]: On whether *Ikhtilāf al-Ḥadīth* is an independent work or part of *al-Umm*, see al-Sūsah, *Manhaj al-Tawfīq wa al-Tarjīḥ*, pp. 32-34. [^10]: The accurate title of this book is “*Bayān Mushkil Aḥādīth Rasūl Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) wa Istikhrāj mā fīhā min al-Aḥkām wa Nafy al-Taḍād ʿanhā.*” See al-ʿAwnī, *al-ʿUnwān al-Ṣaḥīḥ li al-Kitāb*, pp. 64-65. [^11]: Al-Baghdādī, *al-Kifāyah*, pp. 432-33; cf. al-Haytamī, *Ilṣāq ʿUwār al-Hawas*, pp. 223-26. [^12]: It is not uncommon to find commentaries (e.g. al-Munāwī’s *Fayḍ al-Qadīr*) expounding on the meanings of ḥadīths that are arguably unreliable. One reason for this is that the commentator did not believe the given ḥadīth to be unreliable or he commented with the hope that, if an authentic route of transmission were located later, his commentary might be of help. See, for instance, al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār*, vol. 4, p. 331. Beyond this, explanations of such ḥadīths can also be useful since they indirectly provide commentary for material that, at times, is also found in reliable ḥadīths for which commentary is not easily accessible. [^13]: Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Mawḍūʿāt*, vol. 1, p. 189. [^14]: Al-Qārī, *al-Asrār al-Marfūʿah*, p. 217. [^15]: Al-Ṭahāwī sets out to explain the apparent problems and disharmony between reports “transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) via acceptable chains of transmissions related by those of circumspection, honesty, and suitable delivery.” See al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār*, vol. 1, p. 6. [^16]: Al-Khaṭīb, *al-Jāmiʿ li Akhlāq al-Rāwī wa Ādāb al-Sāmiʿ*, vol. 2, p. 212. [^17]: The route of ʿĀʾishah is cited in Muslim, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 1007, and the route of Buraydah in Aḥmad, *al-Musnad*, no. 22998, among others. [^18]: The route of Ibn ʿAbbās is cited in al-Bukhārī, *al-Adab al-Mufrad*, no. 422 and al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr*, vol. 11, p. 55. The route of Abū Hurayrah is cited in al-Bazzār, *al-Musnad*, no. 9200; Ibn Mandah, *al-Tawḥīd*, no. 92; al-Aṣfahānī, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ*, vol. 8, p. 307; and al-Bayhaqī, *Shuʿab al-Īmān*, vol. 13, p. 482. [^19]: See Jamīl Abū Sārah, *Athar al-ʿIlm al-Tajrībī fī Kashf Naqd al-Ḥadīth al-Nabawī*, pp. 212-19. [^20]: There is disagreement among jurists on the sequence of these steps. Although the majority of scholars arrange the steps as outlined here, the sound view in the Ḥanafī school of law is that a person will first seek out abrogation, then preference, then harmonization. See al-Turkumānī, *Dirāsāt*, pp. 499-502. [^21]: Ibn Rajab, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, vol. 5, pp. 155-56; Ibn Ḥazm, *al-Iḥkām*, vol. 2, p. 21; al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār*, vol. 4, p. 274. Related to this is Ibn al-Qayyim’s priceless observation that every time a ḥadīth is reported with multiple, conflicting permutations, it constitutes poor methodology to dismiss them as multiple occurrences, instead of attributing a flaw to one of the transmitters. See Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-Maʿād*, vol. 2, p. 273. For an extensive study on employing ‘multiple occurrences’ as an interpretive tool for conflicting ḥadīths, see Dr. Ḥamzah al-Bakrī’s *Taʿaddud al-Ḥādithah fī Riwāyāt al-Ḥadīth al-Nabawī.* [^22]: Muslim, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 2099. [^23]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 475; Muslim, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 2100. [^24]: Al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-Sunan*, vol. 4, p. 120; cf. al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār*, vol. 4, p. 280. [^25]: Indications that one ḥadīth is abrogated can take several forms: an explicit directive from the Prophet ﷺ, a statement from a Companion on the Prophet’s final practice, dating the ḥadīths to determine the latter of the two, and the consensus of the community upon one of the ḥadīths. See al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj*, vol. 1, p. 35. [^26]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 112; Muslim, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 3004. [^27]: Ibn Qutaybah, *Taʾwīl Mukhtalif al-Ḥadīth*, p. 412; al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿalim al-Sunan*, vol. 4, p. 184. [^28]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj*, vol. 1, p. 35. On these factors, see al-Ḥasanī, *Maʿrifat Madār al-Isnād*, p. 87 ff.; al-Turkumānī, *Dirāsāt*, pp. 509-531. [^29]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 608; cf. Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, vol. 2, p. 85. [^30]: Al-Nasafī, *al-ʿAqīdah al-Nasafiyyah*, p. 2. [^31]: “Reason, both theoretical and practical, is our accumulated and critically organized common sense and contains a normative kernel of widely accepted values and ultimate ideals.” See Shabbir Akhtar, *The Qurʾān and the Secular Mind*, p. 58. One has to be cautious not to confuse certain constructions of reason, such as the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic tradition, as synonymous with ‘human reason’ per se. See Sherman Jackson, *On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam*, p. 19 ff.; idem, *Islam & the Problem of Black Suffering*, pp. 38-40. In the present day, many charges of Islam as being irrational stem from the fact that rationality “as developed in the Islamic intellectual tradition contravenes the main thrust of modern and postmodern notions of rationality that have arisen in the West since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” See Kalin, *Reason and Rationality in the Qurʾān*, p. 2. [^32]: In *The Outer Limits of Reason*, Noson Yanofsky provides fascinating and engaging examples of the limits of reason and its related areas: science, technology, logic, and mathematics. See, for instance, the chessboard and dominoes example, the ship of Theseus, Russell’s paradox, and the problem of induction on pp. 2, 31, 85, 236, and 340-45, respectively. [^33]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql,* vol. 5, pp. 297-8; Kalin, *Reason and Rationality in the Qurʾān*, p. 7. [^34]: See Shabbīr al-ʿUthmānī, *al-ʿAql wa al-Naql*, pp. 87-95. Mawlānā Shabbīr al-ʿUthmānī asks rhetorically: have we applied, say, our sense of touch to the point that we have touched everything that can be felt or our sense of hearing to the point that we have heard all there is to hear? When we accept that we have not—and could not have—utilized these senses to their full capacity, how can we then expect to achieve a complete grasp of our rational faculties? See ibid., p. 33. Allah informs mankind about the limits of their knowledge, “You may dislike something although it is good for you, or like something although it is bad for you: Allah knows and you do not” (Qur’an 2:216) and “You have only been given a little knowledge” (Qur’an 17:85). [^35]: Ibn Khaldūn writes, “The intellect, indeed, is a correct scale. Its indications are completely certain and in no way wrong. However, the intellect should not be used to weigh such matters as the oneness of God, the other world, the truth of prophecy, the real character of the divine attributes, or anything else that lies beyond the level of the intellect. That would mean to desire the impossible. One might compare it with a man who sees a scale in which gold is being weighed, and wants to weigh mountains in it.” Ibn Khaldūn, *The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History*, trans. Franz Rosenthal, vol. 3, p. 38. [^36]: Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad*, p. 144; idem, *Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction*, p. 76. [^37]: Qur’an 34:28. [^38]: Al-Subkī, *al-Ashbāh wa al-Naẓāʾir*, vol. 2, p. 135. For other qualifications to this maxim, see ibid., pp. 136-37. [^39]: Ibid. [^40]: There is obvious nuance in categorizing the practices (*sunan*) of the Prophet ﷺ vis-à-vis their value as legal rulings. Dr. Sulaymān al-Ashqar divides the actions (*afʿāl*) of the Prophet ﷺ  into ten categories. Among them, actions that were *jibillī* (innate) \[e.g., ordinary activities like walking and sleeping\], *ʿādī* (customary) \[e.g., lengthening the hair and wearing certain attire\], *dunyawī* (mundane) \[e.g., political strategies\] do not allow for more than general permissibility unless external evidence suggests otherwise. See al-Ashqar, *Afʿāl al-Rasūl wa Dalālatuhā al-Sharʿiyyah*, pp. 215-48. That being said, Shaykh ʿAbd Allah al-Ghumārī explains that legal theorists have stated that a person will be rewarded for following the customary practices of the Prophet (e.g., wearing certain types of clothing or eating certain types of food) out of love and emulation of the Prophet ﷺ. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar is on record for his scrupulous emulation of the Prophet ﷺ even in these matters. See al-Ghumārī, *al-Nafḥah al-Ilāhiyyah*, p. 157. According to Abū Shāmah al-Maqdisī (d. 665 AH) and Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (d.771 AH)—and Ḥadīth scholars in general, as related by al-Ghazālī—emulation in these practices are desirable, albeit the lowest form of desirability (*istiḥbāb*). See Abū Shāmah, *al-Muḥaqqaq min ʿIlm al-Uṣūl*, pp. 270-71; ʿAwwāmah, *Ḥujjiyat Afʿāl al-Rasūl*, pp. 56-60. [^41]: On the use of a figurative reading of ḥadīths as a tool to explain away problematic content, see Jamīl, *Athar al-ʿIlm al-Tajrībī*, pp. 146-50. [^42]: See, for instance, Qur’an 9:67; cf. Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm*, vol. 4, p. 174. [^43]: Al-Tirmidhī, *al-Sunan*, no. 692. [^44]: For a summary of the interpretations of the word *ʿArsh*, see al-Muṭīʿī, *Tawfīq al-Raḥmān*, pp. 361-63. [^45]: See Qur’an 17:45. [^46]: See al-Bukharī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 3199; Shafīʿ, *Maʿārif al-Qurʾān*, vol. 7, pp. 389-82. [^47]: Al-Bannūrī, *Maʿārif al-Sunan*, vol. 5, p. 349. [^48]: Al-Dihlawī, *Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bālighah*, vol. 1, p. 158. [^49]: In a fascinating study, Halim Sayoud conducted an author discrimination analysis—where two texts are studied to determine whether they were composed by the same author—comparing the Qurʾān and the ḥadīths recorded in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. By conducting three series of experiments (global form, segmental form, and an automatic author attribution), Sayoud concluded, “First, the two investigated books should have different authors; second, all the segments that are extracted from a unique book appear to have a certain stylistic similarity.” See Halim Sayoud, Author Discrimination Between the Holy Qurʾān and the Prophet’s Statements, *Literary and Linguistic Computing*, vol. 27 (2012), no. 4, 2012, pp. 427-44. The second conclusion of this study demonstrates that despite the frequent usage of paraphrasing when transmitting the Prophet’s words (*al-riwāyah bi al-maʿnā*), the ḥadīths maintained an overall degree of stylistic consistency. See Brown, *Hadith*, 2nd ed., p. 12. [^50]: Ibn ʿAdī, *al-Kāmil*, vol. 2, p. 403. [^51]: Al-Mundhirī, *al-Targhīb wa al-Tarhīb*, vol. 4, p. 75, no. 4855. [^52]: Brown, *Hadith*, 2nd ed., p. 12. [^53]: Under the ḥadīth “Whoever deceives us is not from among us,” al-Khaṭṭābī writes, “That is, he is not upon our path. He intends thereby that the person who deceives his brother and does not take his best interest to mind has failed to follow me and hold onto my lifestyle. Some have understood this as an exclusion of the person from Islam, but this interpretation is not sound.” See al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-Sunan*, vol. 3, p. 118. [^54]: Al-Sibāʿī, *al-Sunnah wa Makānatuhā fi al-Tashrīʿ al-Islāmī*, pp. 51-52; cf. Mullā Khāṭir, *al-Iṣābah fī Ṣiḥḥat Ḥadīth al-Dhubābah*, p. 101; ʿAbd Allah al-Ghumārī, *al-Qawl al-Jazl fī mā lā Yuʿdhar fīhi bi al-Jahl*, p. 11. [^55]: Al-Bukhārī, *al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 3636, 3868; cf. Jamīl, *Athar al-ʿIlm al-Tajrībī*, pp. 84-88. [^56]: Mullā Khāṭir, *al-Iṣābah fī Ṣiḥḥat Ḥadīth al-Dhubābah*, p. 102; cf. Brown, *The Rules of Matn Criticism*, pp. 393-94. [^57]: The Muslim scientist and physician Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 687 AH) is one example. Not only was he a skilled physician and scientist, second only to Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), he also wrote a book on Ḥadīth nomenclature. See al-Subkī, *al-Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah al-Kubrā*, vol. 8, p. 305; Meyerhof, M. and Schacht, J., “Ibn al-Nafīs,” in *The Encyclopedia of Islam*, Second Edition. ## Summary Among the challenges that agitate the hearts of many believers today is the wave of criticism directed against certain prophetic narrations, which are alleged to be absurd, unscientific, impossible, or self-contradictory. Yet every ḥadīth whose content appears problematic has a specific explanation to which the relevant scholarly literature can be referred. Rather than examining each narration in isolation, four broad guidelines may be kept in mind when confronting reports of this nature, along with certain preliminary considerations. These guidelines are not exhaustive, but they serve as a first response capable of settling the conscience of a Muslim troubled by such narrations, while detailed treatment of individual ḥadīths may be pursued case by case. The foundation of the matter is that Allah repeatedly summons humankind in the Qurʾān to employ their intellect and to reflect upon the perfection of His creation. He says, “And now We have sent down to you [people] a Scripture to remind you. Will you not use your reason?” and He rebukes those who neglect their reason: “But the disbelievers invent lies about Allah. Most of them do not use reason.” The Qurʾān does not rest upon bare assertion but engages in argumentation and dialogue, being the “evincive proof” (burhān) and the “conclusive argument” (al-ḥujjah al-bālighah). There is therefore no genuine conflict between sound reason and authentic revelation; reason leads one to appreciate revelation, and revelation both enjoins and exemplifies reason. Two conditions, however, must be preserved: the reasoning must be sound, and the revelation must be authentic. This concern is not novel. From the earliest period of Islamic history, scholars composed works addressing apparently contradictory narrations, a discipline known as mukhtalif al-ḥadīth, and narrations that seem to conflict with other evidence or external reality, known as mushkil al-ḥadīth. Among the pioneering contributions are Imām al-Shāfiʿī’s (d. 204 AH) Ikhtilāf al-Ḥadīth, regarded as one of the earliest works of its kind; Ibn Qutaybah al-Dīnawarī’s (d. 276 AH) Taʾwīl Mukhtalif al-Ḥadīth; Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī’s (d. 321 AH) Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār; and Abū Bakr Ibn Fūrak’s (d. 406 AH) Mushkil al-Ḥadīth wa Bayānuhū. Such confidence in the coherence of the Sunnah was voiced by Abū Bakr Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311 AH), who declared, “I am unaware of any two authentic narrations of the Prophet ﷺ that are contradictory. If anyone comes across such narrations, let him bring them to me so that I can reconcile them.” Before any attempt is made to resolve a difficulty, it is essential to verify the authenticity of the narration itself. No effort should be spent reconciling a fabricated report with external realities, for it cannot be reliably attributed to the Prophet ﷺ in the first place. The alleged saying that “hornets were created from the heads of horses and bees from the heads of cows” warrants no explanation, for it is fabricated. Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī recalls the ancient adage, “first stabilize the throne firmly, then worry about engraving it” (thabbit al-ʿarsh thumm unqush), meaning that one must first establish that a report is reliable before scrutinizing its meaning. This was the method of al-Ṭaḥāwī, who examined only acceptable narrations. Equally vital is the gathering of all the routes of transmission (riwāyāt) of a ḥadīth, for as Ibn al-Madīnī explains, a ḥadīth’s errors do not become apparent until all its routes are collected and analyzed together. Thus the report of ʿĀʾishah and Buraydah that the human body has 360 joints, each requiring a virtuous deed, is sometimes narrated from Abū Hurayrah and Ibn ʿAbbās with the word “bones,” which conflicts with modern anatomy. Yet those routes are defective: the route of Ibn ʿAbbās contains the impugned al-Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, and the route of Abū Hurayrah suffers from disagreement among sub-transmitters, isolation, and conflict with sounder routes. The correct wording is “360 joints.” A word on conflicting narrations (mukhtalif al-ḥadīth) is also fitting. The jurists established an ordered procedure: first, harmonization (jamʿ) between the reports. When the Prophet ﷺ prohibited placing one leg upon the other while lying down, yet was reported to have done so, al-Khaṭṭābī explained that the prohibition concerned exposure of the private parts, whereas the Prophet ﷺ did so while concealed. Where harmonization is impossible, one seeks evidence of abrogation (naskh), as with his initial prohibition of writing ḥadīth—lest it be confused with the Qurʾān—and his later permission once that fear had passed. Where no abrogation is established, one resorts to preference (tarjīḥ) based on factors of chain and text. The first guideline concerns the limits of human reason and experience. Since the believer accepts that the Prophet ﷺ received knowledge of the unseen, it is inconsistent to reject an authentic report merely because it seems far-fetched—such as the narration that the Devil flees flatulating upon hearing the call to prayer. Knowledge is acquired through three primary sources: the sound senses, reason, and truthful reports. Each sense is limited; reason perceives what the senses cannot, yet reason too has its bounds; and the most important truthful report for the believer is divine revelation, whose scope surpasses both reason and experience. To reject revelation because it appears initially absurd is itself unreasonable. Revelation is not irrational but supra-rational, transcending the necessarily limited competencies of the human mind. As Ibn Khaldūn observed, one who weighs revelation solely upon the scale of human reason is like a man who wishes to weigh mountains upon a goldsmith’s balance. The second guideline is contextualization. Reports authentically related from the Prophet ﷺ are best understood within their context, and failing to do so leads to anachronistic criticism. It is unjust to object to a statement or practice merely because it offends the critic’s present social milieu. Thus criticism of the marriage of our mother ʿĀʾishah at a young age rests upon modern marital ethics; even the Prophet’s fiercest contemporaries never faulted it, since early marriage was then socially accepted. Indeed, the first to formally appraise it negatively was the Orientalist David Margoliouth (d. 1940) in the early 1900s. This does not deny the universality of the Prophet’s example, for he was sent “to bring good news and warning to all people.” The legal theorists framed the maxim, “consideration is given to the generality of the wording and not to the specific cause” (al-ʿibrah bi ʿumūm al-lafẓ lā bi khuṣūṣ al-sabab), yet Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (d. 702 AH) cautioned that it is not absolute, distinguishing between contextual indications that specify a generality and the mere occurrence of a general rule in a particular scenario, adding that “context provides clarity on what is ambiguous, specifies what is ambivalent, and frames statements according to their intended purpose.” The third guideline is the recognition of figurative speech (majāz), which is common in Arabic as in other tongues and applies to both ḥadīth and the Qurʾān. The saying, “Two months of ʿĪd never fall short: Ramadan and Dhū al-Ḥijjah,” taken literally, would contradict reality, yet it is understood figuratively to mean they never fall short of spiritual value even when they are twenty-nine days. Likewise, the ḥadīth in which the Prophet ﷺ told Abū Dharr that at sunset the sun prostrates beneath the ʿArsh and seeks permission to rise carries a greater message: that the alternation of night and day occurs only by Allah’s permission. Since the ʿArsh encompasses all creation, the sun is ever beneath it, and its obedient motion is described as “prostration,” each creation prostrating according to its own state, as the Qurʾān affirms. The Prophet ﷺ spoke according to what Abū Dharr observed, for his mission was not the exposition of scientific matters. Shāh Walī Allah al-Dihlawī (d. 1762 CE) observed that the prophets did not occupy themselves with matters unrelated to the refinement of the soul and the governance of the community except incidentally. The Prophetic speech possessed a recognizable rhetorical style; Ibn ʿAdī (d. 365 AH) once graded a report saying, “It does not resemble the words of the Prophet,” while al-Mundhirī (d. 656 AH) said of another, “this ḥadīth gleams with a shine from the light of prophethood.” Among its features was hyperbole, which is why the early scholars did not interpret narrations stating “he is not from among us” as excommunication. The fourth guideline is the distinction between what is intrinsically impossible (mustaḥīl) and what is merely unlikely (mustaghrab) yet possible. Impossibility is an intrinsic quality—a circle can never become a square—whereas unlikelihood is relative and subjective, arising from the limits of human experience. Travel between distant lands in a short time, and reaching the moon, were once deemed unlikely or impossible, yet became achievable through technology. Similarly, an authentic report such as the splitting of the moon must not be discarded as impossible merely because it is difficult to believe. As Khalīl Mullā Khāṭir observed, “It seems that skeptics of Ḥadīth have confused what is impossible with what is unacceptable to the Western worldview.” In closing, it is frequently overlooked that many of the very narrations modern critics deem problematic were already treated in depth by the greatest minds of the Islamic tradition. The difference lies in perspective: the classical scholars were neither ignorant of scientific realities nor blind to logical fallacies—many were themselves engaged in the rational and scientific disciplines—yet they held a robust conception of revelation as a genuine bearer of knowledge and truth about the world. Modern detractors, by contrast, tend to assume an empiricist and rationalist epistemology that diminishes the role of revelation and hastens to subordinate its interpretation to the independent conclusions of reason and science. When confronted with narrations that appear troubling at first glance, the reader is counselled to keep these guidelines in mind and not to dismiss such reports summarily without a second thought. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran # The Origins of the Variant Readings of the Qur'an **Authors:** Ammar Khatib, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Faith, Quran **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 23, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Note *This article has been updated on June 2nd, 2023.* --- ## Introduction The Qur’an is the literal word of God, the sacred scripture of the Islamic faith, and God’s final revelation to humanity. This single text produced the largest and most diverse civilization ever to exist on Earth, and for one and a half millennia it has been recited, memorized, and practiced by billions of human beings across the globe. Entire libraries of books have been devoted to the study of the text’s revelation, preservation, recitation, and interpretation. Yet, one aspect of the Qur’an that continues to astound and puzzle researchers has been the fact that Qur’anic verses are recited in diverse ‘modes of recitation’ (*qirāʾāt*). These different modes utilize different rules (termed *uṣūl*) regarding the prolongation, intonation, and pronunciation of words, in addition to differences in the vowelization or letters of particular words in individual passages in the Qur’an (termed *farsh*). Thus, the words of the Qur’an can be divided into two categories: those words that can only be read one way (which constitute the majority of the Qur’an),[^1] and those words that can be read in multiple ways (which constitute the basis of the *qirāʾāt*). The different modes of recitation are named after the most famous early reciter known for teaching that mode, and individuals who master a mode and receive *ijāzah* (license to teach) in it become part of an unbroken chain of transmission of that mode back to the Prophet ﷺ. While the majority of the Muslim world is accustomed to hearing the Qur’an recited in the mode of ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd (d. 127 AH) according to his student Ḥafs ibn Sulaymān (d. 180 AH) (frequently referred to simply as *Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim*), other modes continue to be recited such as that of the Medinan Nāfiʿ (d. 169 AH) (transmitted by his students Qālūn (d. 220 AH) and Warsh (d. 197 AH)), which remains the dominant mode in many regions of North Africa. Specialists in Qur’anic recitation will be familiar with seven or ten canonical modes of recitation.[^2] All of these modes of recitation adhere to the *muṣḥaf* (codex) of the Qur’an compiled under the supervision of the Caliph ʿUthmān (d. 35 AH) in the year 30 AH (650 CE), which was written without diacritics, thus accommodating the variations. The vast majority of these differences are quite subtle, although in certain cases they add nuances in meaning, complementing one another. Muslims believe that the Qur’an was taught in different ways during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, known as different *aḥruf* (plural of *ḥarf*)—a concept that will be elucidated further below. The famous ten *qirāʾāt* studied today represent only a limited assortment of the variations that existed prior to the ʿUthmānic codex. There are a number of reported readings that differ from the ʿUthmānic codex and were recited by companions of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, including ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 32 AH), Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 69 AH), ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40 AH), Ubayy ibn Kaʿb (d. 30 AH), and ʿĀʾishah (d. 58 AH), among others رضي الله عنهم. These variant readings[^3] in a select number of verses have historically been recorded in books of *qirāʾāt* and classical works of *tafsīr* (commentary on the Qur’an) and occasionally works of jurisprudence and typically relate to the presence of additional explanatory words or word substitutions. Perhaps one of the most fascinating discoveries of the past century has been the study of ancient Qur’anic manuscripts that demonstrate wordings that precisely match those wordings attributed to the companions in the classical tradition (see below). The burning questions for both researchers and laity alike are, of course, why the Qur’an happens to be recited differently, and where these differences come from. The prevailing Muslim understanding is quite straightforward: these different readings arose from the instruction of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ himself, and constitute a unique feature of the Qur’an that multiplies its eloquence and aesthetic beauty. This traditional narrative shall be elaborated and analyzed in full below. Meanwhile, Western European and American scholarship has experienced considerable debate over the nature of the variant readings and the history of the Qur’anic text. Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi have categorized the prevailing viewpoints as revisionist, skeptical, and neo-traditionalist.[^4] Revisionists, including John Wansbrough, Patricia Crone, and David Powers, believe the Qur’anic text itself was only standardized after ʿUthmān; however, this conclusion requires dismissing the entirety of traditional sources except for a handful of convenient statements—an approach that has been rightly critiqued as “marshaling cherry-picked, decontextualized and misinterpreted reports.”[^5] Skeptics remain in doubt concerning both traditional and revisionist narratives. Finally, there are Western scholars who believe the evidence supports key aspects of the traditionalist account, including the historian Michael Cook (a former revisionist) and Harald Motzki.[^6] Building upon manuscript evidence from Sadeghi and Goudarzi, in addition to critical analysis of arguments offered by revisionists, Nicolai Sinai has concluded that, given the absence of any compelling evidence to challenge the traditional narrative, and given the presence of considerable data in its support, the default presumption remains the ʿUthmānic recension date of 650 CE or earlier.[^7] Contemporary Muslim scholarship (both Western and Eastern) has responded to recent manuscript evidence and the output of writings from orientalists by defending traditional narratives surrounding the variant readings or by elaborating modified narratives.[^8] Muslim responses have outlined different perspectives on the nature of pre-ʿUthmānic variant readings (those attributed to different companions), ʿUthmānic variants (differences between the regional codices ʿUthmān sent to different cities), and post-ʿUthmānic readings (differences between the *qirāʾāt* traditions). The present article aims to elucidate the perspective of the Islamic tradition on pre-ʿUthmānic variant readings reported from companions in light of the latest scholarship and to explore some of the questions surrounding the origins of these variant readings.[^9] --- ## The Qur’an during the Prophet’s time The revelation of the Qur’an began over fourteen hundred years ago when the Angel Gabriel (*Jibrīl* in Arabic) came to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ at the cave of Hirāʾ and commanded him to recite.[^10] Angel Gabriel was the Holy Spirit who was trusted by God to deliver the words of revelation to the Prophet ﷺ: > Say (O Muhammad) *Rūh-ul-Qudus* \[The Holy Spirit\] has brought it (the Qur’an) down from your Lord with truth, that it may make firm and strengthen (the faith of) those who believe and as a guidance and glad tidings to those who have submitted (to Allah as Muslims)*.*[^11] The Prophet ﷺ learned the recitation of the Qur’an directly from Angel Gabriel. Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that Gabriel used to meet with the Prophet every night in the month of Ramadan to revise the Qur’an with him.[^12] Allah commanded the Prophet to recite the Qur’an to people (29:45, 17:106). The Prophet ﷺ recited the Qur’an in various ways as he was commanded by Allah. Among the large number of Muslims were those who had memorized the Qur’an and had learned the recitation of it directly from the Prophet ﷺ. These well-versed reciters (*Qurrāʾ*) were then instructed by the Prophet to teach others the recitation of the Qur’an.[^13]For instance, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ sent seventy Medinan companions who were reciters of the Qur’an to various tribes in the incident of Biʾr Maʿūnah.[^14] The sacredness of teaching the Qur’an was captured in the Prophet’s statement, “The best of you are those who learned the Qur’an and taught it (to others).”[^15] This practice of teaching the recitation of the Qur’anic text became embedded within the culture and the Qur’an was passed on in the same manner, generation after generation. In addition to this oral transmission, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had over sixty-five scribes writing down the Qur’an.[^16] We cannot understand the history of the Qur’an during the Prophetic era without an understanding of the centrality of the Qur’anic recitation and memorization in Muslim ritual practice. Perhaps the most critical fallacy of Western academics who enter the arena of Qur’anic scholarship is that they presume that the Qur’an is like the Old or New Testament and consequently rely solely on manuscripts to construct a picture of its transmission and preservation, neglecting the importance of ritual memorization and oral recitation. Indeed, what percentage of Christians have memorized the entire New Testament in Koine Greek and recite it on a daily basis? Meanwhile, practically every Muslim community in the world boasts plentiful *Ḥuffāẓ* (singular *Ḥāfiẓ*): those who have memorized the entire Qur’an by heart in Arabic. The Qur’an is recited out loud in daily congregational prayers and from cover to cover during congregational prayers in Ramadan. This unbroken practice of reciting the Qur’an publicly in daily prayers since the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is one of the reasons why revisionist Western narratives seem so fanciful to Muslim scholars familiar with the lived practice of Islam. --- ## Did the Prophet ﷺ teach multiple readings? The Qur’an was revealed in the Arabic language. Allah said that the Qur’an was revealed “in the clear Arabic tongue” (26:195). However, the early Muslim community contained people of all backgrounds, young and old, those proficient in Arabic and those unlettered, as well as people from different Arab tribes, with different accents and different dialects. Since learning the Qur’an was the primary means by which the Islamic message itself was learned, practiced, and transmitted in the Prophet’s time, it was essential that learning the Qur’an be facilitated for diverse peoples. Thus, the Qur’anic text was recited in different ways (termed *aḥruf*) during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. There are several authentic reports that support this fact, transmitted through so many chains from the earliest sources[^17] that it reaches the level of *mutawātir lafẓī* (massively transmitted verbatim).[^18] Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Jibrīl recited the Qur’an to me in one *ḥarf*. Then I requested him \[to read it in another *ḥarf*\] and continued asking him to recite in other *aḥruf* until he ultimately recited it in seven *aḥruf*.”[^19] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ says, “‘O Jibrīl! I have been sent to an illiterate nation among whom are the elderly woman, the old man, the boy and the girl, and the man who cannot read a book at all.’ He said: ‘O Muḥammad! Indeed the Qur’an was revealed in seven *aḥruf* (i.e., seven different ways of reciting).’”[^20] The early Muslim scholar Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276 AH) said: > In order for the Muslims to read the Qur’an easily, the Prophet was commanded to teach the Qur’an in accordance with people’s dialects…and if everyone was to abandon their dialect and what they were accustomed to speaking as a child, as a youth and in their old age, this would have imposed great difficulty and hardship on them…Thus, Allah intended for them ease by allowing some flexibility in the language in the multiplicity of readings.[^21] Thus, the Qur’an was inherently a multiform recitation, with multiple diverse equally valid alternate readings of many verses. This phenomenon was explained explicitly by the Prophet ﷺ himself to the companions, as we see in the famous incident where ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Hishām ibn Ḥakīm disagreed in their recitation of Surah Al-Furqān. ʿUmar narrates: > I heard Hishām ibn Ḥakīm reciting Sūrah Al-Furqān during the lifetime of Allah's messenger. I listened to his recitation and noticed that he recited in several different ways which the Prophet had not taught me. I was about to jump over him during his prayer, but I was able to contain myself, and when he had completed his prayer, I put his upper garment around his neck and seized him by it and said, “Who taught you this Sūrah which I heard you reciting?” He replied, “The Prophet taught it to me.” I said, “You are wrong, for the Prophet has taught it to me in a different way from yours.” > > So I took him to Allah’s Messenger and said “O Messenger of Allah, I heard this individual reciting Sūrah Al-Furqān in a way that you did not teach me, and you have taught me Sūrah Al-Furqān.” > > The Prophet said, “O Hishām, recite!” So he recited in the same way as I heard him recite it before. On that Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “It was revealed to be recited in this way.” Then Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “Recite, O ʿUmar!” So I recited it as he had taught me. Allah's Messenger ﷺ then said, “It was revealed to be recited in this way.” Allah’s Apostle added, “This Qur’an has been revealed to be recited in seven different *aḥruf*, so recite it whichever way is easier for you.”[^22] This narration provides explicit proof that the two different readings were taught by the Prophet ﷺ and that it was the Prophet himself who instructed each companion to recite it in the precise manner in which they did. --- ## The nature of the aḥruf Muslim scholars discussed the meaning of the seven *aḥruf*. However, they differed in defining the meaning of these seven *aḥruf* and whether or not those “seven” were intended to be interpreted metaphorically (to indicate multiplicity) or literally.[^23] The purpose of this article is not to recapitulate the discussion of the diverse opinions, which is already available in numerous works in Arabic[^24] and English.[^25] The viewpoint espoused and elaborated in this article is one that enjoys the support of a vast majority of specialists in Qur’anic sciences, and that is that *aḥruf* can be explained simply as ways of varying. For example, the difference in words manifests in the following ways: - Singularity, duality, plurality, masculinity, and femininity. - *Taṣrīf al-Afʿāl* (Verbal Morphology)—verb tense, form, grammatical person. - *Iʿrāb* (grammatical case endings). - Omission, substitution, or addition of words. - Word order. - *Ibdāl* (alternation between two consonants or between words). This list of different types of Qur’anic variants was mentioned by Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī (d. 454 AH).[^26] Among the many scholars who adopt this opinion are Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276 AH), al-Zarkashī (d. 794 AH), and Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH). Of course, these scholars differed over the precise categorization of differences and which categories to combine or split in the list of *aḥruf*. Therefore, it is best not to present such a list as an exclusive or exhaustive categorization but rather to use it simply as potential examples. The proposed examples of variation include phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and semantic variation. Furthermore, one must examine all the *qirāʾāt* (alternative readings of Qur’an) including non-canonical (*shawādh*)  *qirāʾāt*[^27] when attempting to explain the exact meaning of the seven *aḥruf*. Thus, one can say that the seven *aḥruf* are all the categories of variation to which the differences found within *qirāʾāt* correspond. In other words, they represent a menu of ingredients from which each *qirāʾah* selects its profile. Having said that, we can now examine the beginning of Sūrah al-Furqān in which ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Hishām ibn Ḥakīm disagreed on the reading of certain verses. We know that they both recited the verses differently but we don’t know exactly what those differences were. Although the canonical *qirāʾāt* contain no significant differences in the first verse of Sūrat al-Furqān (Qur’anic chapter 25), there are some non-canonical readings in the first verse which may provide some clues to unveil the mystery of the disagreement between ʿUmar and Hishām in Sūrat al-Furqān; these are provided in the table below.[^28] In his explanation of this very narration, the scholar Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) also examined different readings of Sūrat al-Furqān to provide insight into the nature of the difference between these two companions’ readings.[^29] The examples listed below of different readings also help illustrate the different categories of how the *aḥruf* vary. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/image1-1024x724.png) The reading of the *ṣaḥābah* (companions of the Prophet) was not unified during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. There were differences in the way they recited the Qur’an. This was due to the license of the seven *aḥruf* as they were taught different readings by the Prophet himself. When the *ṣaḥābah* disagreed on the reading of certain verses, they sought the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet would listen to each party and he would give his approval of these variants as being divine. This was reported in the previously mentioned incident of ʿUmar with Hishām in addition to several other recorded incidents. The reports of the seven *aḥruf* clearly indicate that the *ṣaḥābah* read precisely as they were taught by the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Masʿūd narrated a similar incident when he had a disagreement with another companion in reading the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ was displeased and he commanded the Muslims to recite the Qur’an according to the ways they were taught.[^30] Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the Prophet ﷺ used to teach them *tashahhud* as he would teach them a *sūrah* of the Qur’an.[^31] ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said that the reading of the Qur’an is *Sunnah* and it is transmitted by the first generation to later generations.[^32] In other words, one must have learned directly from the Prophet ﷺ or from him through his students and successors. There was nothing left to the discretion of the individual in this regard; it was necessary to recite precisely as one learned. --- ## Codices of companions The aforementioned diversity in reciting the Qur’an did not pose a problem during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ as the companions became accustomed to the concept of seven *aḥruf* and diverse modes of recitation. The Prophet ﷺ sent different companions to teach the Qur’an to different tribes and communities and the different readings were transmitted. However, as Islam spread to distant lands, disputes began to arise between Muslims reciting according to different modes and dialects and it was precisely this emerging confusion that led the Caliph ‘Uthmān to compile and distribute a copy of the Qur’an to eliminate such confusion. > Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān came to ʿUthmān at the time when the people of Shām and the people of ʿIrāq were waging war to conquer Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hudhayfah was afraid of their (the people of Shām and Irāq) differences in the recitation of the Qur’an, so he said to ʿUthmān, “O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur’an) as Jews and the Christians did before.” So ʿUthmān sent a message to Ḥafṣah saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may compile the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” Ḥafṣah sent it to ʿUthmān. ʿUthmān then ordered Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥārith ibn Hishām to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. ʿUthmān said to the three Qurayshī men, “In case you disagree with Zayd ibn Thābit on any point in the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect of Quraysh, the Qur’an was revealed in their tongue.” They did so, and when they had written many copies, ʿUthmān returned the original manuscripts to Ḥafṣah. ʿUthmān sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.[^33] During the caliphate of ʿUthmān, the codex of the Qur’an was compiled by a designated committee led by Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 45 AH) and was subsequently copied and sent throughout the Muslim world. ʿUthmān ordered all other written copies of the Qur’an to be destroyed or corrected.[^34] However, in some regions of the Muslim world, it seems the transition to the ʿUthmānic codex took time, particularly in Kūfah owing to the massive influence of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd.[^35] The early scholar al-Aʿmash (d. 148 AH) is reported to have said, “I reached Kūfah, and the reading of Zayd was not with them except as the reading of ʿAbd Allāh is with you today: no one recited it except for one or two people.”[^36] When reading classical works of *tafsīr*, it is common to encounter narrations that mention that a particular verse was recited differently by a companion (most often ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd), typically with a word substitution, addition, or omission. A number of these variant readings are readily encountered in the canonical books of Hadith and a few are mentioned in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. For instance, when ʿAlqamah ibn Qays (d. 62 AH) traveled to Greater Syria, he met the companion Abū al-Dardāʾ, and the latter asked ʿAlqamah about how Ibn Masʿūd recited Sūrat al-Layl; ʿAlqamah responded that Ibn Masʿūd recited verse 3 as “*wa-al-dhakari wa-al-unthá*” (*and by the male and the female*) instead of “*wa* ***mā khalaqa*** *al-dhakara wa-al-unthá*” (*and by* ***that which created*** *the male and the female*), whereupon Abū al-Dardāʾ testified that he had learned the verse in the same way from the Prophet ﷺ.[^37] This variant is said to represent one of the *aḥruf* in the recitation of the Qur’an that was no longer recited after the codex of ʿUthmān was established. Similarly, a narration records that Ibn ʿAbbās would recite 18:79-80 as “*wa kāna* ***amāmahum*** *malikun yaʾkhudhu kulla safīnatin* ***ṣāliḥatin*** *ghaṣbā. Wa ammā al-ghulāmu fa kāna* ***kāfiran***” (translation: *and there was* ***ahead*** *of them a king seizing every boat* ***in good condition*** *by force; as for the boy, then he was a* ***disbeliever***), thus containing three lexical differences from the ʿUthmānic codex.[^38] Another narration records an additional phrase mentioned by Ibn ʿAbbās after 26:214: “*wa andhir ʿashīrataka al-aqrabīn,* ***wa rahṭaka minhum al-mukhlaṣīn***” (translation: *and admonish your nearest kinsmen* ***and your exclusive tribesmen***).[^39] The understanding of these variants will be elucidated in detail in the following section. ### How many variant readings of companions are there that differ from the ʿUthmānic codex? Many who write on this subject simply cite a few instances of variants without giving any sense of proportion or frequency; a systematic study requires evaluating all the transmitted material. In a comprehensive study of the primary sources undertaken by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān at-Ṭāsān,[^40] the author notes a total of 592 instances where a companion’s reading of a verse has been narrated. Of these narrations, 52 are identical to the ʿUthmānic codex, while the remaining 540 are variant readings which differ from the ʿUthmānic codex, thus termed *shādhdh*. However, of those 540 instances, only 177 are found with a chain of transmission (*isnād*), and of those with a chain, only 20 are classified as authentic by hadith standards.[^41] Thus, the actual quantity of variants traceable to the companions is significantly smaller than may initially be supposed.[^42] Of particular interest is that studies of ancient manuscripts of the Qur’an have demonstrated the incredible precision and accuracy of the Muslim tradition in faithfully transmitting these variants in circulation amongst the earliest Muslim community. The Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest is a manuscript where the original writing (termed the lower text) was erased and written over (the upper text), although contents from the undertext can be revealed using ultraviolet light, and when studied demonstrates numerous variants ascribed to companions in the Muslim tradition.[^43] Thus, the Muslim tradition erred on the side of caution in preserving and documenting a larger volume of reported variants beyond what was established exclusively through authentic chains of transmission. ### Did the Ṣahābah have muṣḥafs containing variant readings? In his famous work entitled *Kitāb al-Maṣāḥif*, Ibn Abī Dāwūd (d. 316 AH) has a chapter on the differences between the codices of companions (*bāb ikhtilāf maṣāḥif al-ṣahābah*) which he begins by explaining his terminology: “We only say the codex of so-and-so (*muṣḥaf fulān*) for that which differs from our codex (*muṣḥaf*) in writing, by addition or subtraction. This is what I have taken from my father,[^44] who followed the same practice in his work *Kitāb al-Tanzīl*.”[^45] He then proceeds to list narrations of variant readings from companions under chapter titles, “*muṣḥaf* ʿUmar,” “*muṣḥaf* ʿAlī,” “*muṣḥaf* Ibn Masʿūd,” and so on. This terminology may lead to confusion, as the narrations mention that these companions were simply heard reciting a verse in that reading, not that they possessed a physical codex that had the verse written in that reading. As al-Ṭāsān demonstrates, these readings attributed to the companions were initially simply referred to as *qirā’ah* Ibn Masʿūd or *ḥarf* Ibn Masʿūd, but later came to be referred to as *muṣḥaf* Ibn Masʿūd.[^46] In the case of many companions, there is no evidence that a personal codex with exclusively variant readings ever existed.[^47] Moreover, the early bibliographer Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 380 AH) noted that he personally came across many early *muṣḥaf*s attributed to Ibn Masʿūd but was unable to find any two in agreement (*laysa fīhā muṣḥafayn muttafiqayn).*[^48] Muhammad Mustafa al-Aʿzami comments: > The divergent nature of the many ‘*Muṣḥaf*s of Ibn Masʿūd’ that materialized after his death, with no two in agreement, shows that the wholesale ascription of these to him is erroneous, and the scholars who did so neglected to examine their sources well. Sadly the less scrupulous among antique dealers found it profitable, for the weight of a few silver pieces, to add fake Muṣḥafs of Ibn Masʿūd or Ubayy to their wares.[^49] It is essential, therefore, to take the attribution of such readings to the companions and to personal codices with a grain of salt, as there is little that is verifiable in such reports. ### Did these codices contain chapter differences? Scholars have discussed a number of reports which indicate the absence of Sūrah al-Fātiḥah and *al-Mūʿawwidhatayn* (chapters 113 and 114) in Ibn Masʿūd’s codex and whether this implies that he did not believe them to be from the Qur’an.[^50] For instance, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī (d. 93 AH) states, “I saw ʿAbdullah \[ibn Masʿūd\] scrape (i.e. erase) *al-Muʿawwidhatayn* from the *muṣḥaf* and say, ‘They are not from the Book of Allah’.”[^51] Amongst Muslim scholars, there are differing views with respect to addressing these narrations. Some scholars rejected them as inauthentic, while other scholars considered them authentic while excusing Ibn Masʿūd for not being aware.[^52] The first group of scholars, including al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH), Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH), Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH), al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH), and others, rejected these narrations as inauthentic. Fakhr al-Dīn Al-Rāzī pointed to the mass transmission (*tawātur*) of these chapters which makes it inconceivable that Ibn Masʿūd could dispute their status.[^53] Similarly, al-Nawawī emphasized the unanimous consensus of the Muslim community on the status of these chapters, and that what has been related from Ibn Masʿūd is false and not authentically established.[^54] Ibn Ḥazm declared this to be a fabrication against Ibn Masʿūd and one that contradicts the fact that all the canonical readings contain *al-Fātiḥah* and *al-Muʿawwidhatayn*, including the reading of ʿĀṣim which is partly transmitted from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh from Ibn Masʿūd.[^55] In a lengthy chapter in his *al-Intiṣār*, al-Bāqillānī advances several considerations to render these narrations logically implausible.[^56] There is no record of any companions directly criticizing Ibn Masʿūd for such a controversial view.[^57] Moreover, numerous narrations from the Prophet indicate that *al-Muʿawwidhatayn* are part of the Qur’an.[^58] Al-Bāqillānī also suggests that there may have been a misunderstanding as to why Ibn Masʿūd did not write these chapters in his *muṣḥaf*. It is possible he wished to only write down what he witnessed the Prophet instruct the Muslims to write down. It is also plausible that Ibn Masʿūd chose not to write down al-Fātiḥa and *al-Muʿawwidhatayn* because they are recited daily and known to every Muslim.[^59] Indeed, al-Fātiḥah is the most recited chapter of the entire Qur’an, being a component of every unit of prayer and thus recited a minimum of seventeen times a day. Any dispute about its Qur’anic status would have created a massive disruption to daily worship.[^60] Ibn Masʿūd himself alluded to this in one narration. When asked why he didn’t write al-Fātiḥah in his *muṣḥaf*, he stated that were he to write it, he would have written it with every single chapter of the Qur’an.[^61] Concerning this statement, Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH) explained, “He means that the way of recitation in every unit of prayer (*rakʿah*) is to start with al-Fātiḥah before reciting another *sūrah*, so \[it is as though Ibn Masʿūd\] said ‘For brevity, I have sufficed with omitting it and have entrusted it to the Muslims’ preservation/memorization of it.”[^62] Ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī (fl. 400 AH) considered the case of *al-muʿawwidhatayn* as analogous to al-Fātiḥah in Ibn Masʿūd’s *muṣḥaf*; he wrote: > “He did not place it (i.e. al-Fātiḥah) in his *muṣḥaf* because he was not concerned about it being lost due to its *shuhra* (well-known status) and it being frequently recited during prayer and otherwise. And so in the same manner, he did not place the *muʿawwidhatayn* in his *muṣḥaf,* finding no need to do so due to their *shuhrah* and being frequently recited.[^63] Similarly, al-Māzirī (d. 536 AH) explained, “It can be understood from what is related regarding the omission of *al-muʿawwidhatayn* from the *muṣḥaf* of Ibn Masʿūd that he did not consider it required for him to include all the Qur’an, and he wrote that which was other than these two and left them due to their *shuhrah* (well-known status) with him and with the people.”[^64] The reality is that the *ṣaḥābah* used their writings of the Qur’an as memory aids for personal worship and recitation, and consequently never intended them as complete official copies of the Qur’an. Thus, al-Zarqānī (d. 1367 AH) writes: > Sometimes the author of a *muṣḥaf* would leave out a *sūrah* due to its popularity (*shuhrah*) and its not needing to be written down due to this popularity (i.e., it was common knowledge), as has been related about Ibn Masʿūd’s *muṣḥaf* not containing al-Fātiḥah. And sometimes the author of the *muṣḥaf* would write what he saw himself needing to include from other than the Qur’an in the same *muṣḥaf* as has preceded regarding *al-qunūt al-ḥanafiyyah* which it is reported that some of the companions included in their *muṣḥaf* and named *sūrah al-khalʿ wa al-ḥafd*.[^65] The second group of scholars accepted the aforementioned narrations concerning Ibn Masʿūd and *al-muʿawwidhatayn* as authentic. They considered this to be an erroneous position that was excusable on his part due to being uninformed about their status. Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198 AH) states: > “\[Ibn Masʿūd\] used to see the Prophet use these invocations for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn and he never heard him recite them in his prayers so he presumed they were simply invocations and remained on this assumption. Meanwhile, others verified that they were in fact from the Qur’an and included them within the text of the codex.[^66] Similarly, Ibn Qutayba (d. 276 AH) states that Ibn Masʿūd thought that *al-muʿawwidhatayn* were a supplication that the Prophet taught akin to other invocations which were not part of the Qur’an.[^67] Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) also held these narrations to be authentic; although the Qur’anic status of these chapters was *mutawātir* (mass transmitted) in general, this may not have been the case for Ibn Masʿūd who therefore cautiously refrained from declaring them to be chapters of the Qur’an.[^68] Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) writes: > Some of them \[i.e. the companions\] used to erase *al-muʿawwidhatayn* while others would write \[as a Qur’anic chapter\] al-Qunūt. And this is a mistake that is known by unanimous consensus (*ijmāʿ*) and mass transmission (*al-naql al-mutawātir*). In spite of this, so long as this knowledge was not mass transmitted to them \[i.e. these companions\], they would not have committed disbelief, even though it would be disbelief for someone upon whom the evidence was established by mass transmission.[^69] The contemporary scholar al-Ṭāsān supports this conclusion.[^70] Ibn Kathīr (d. 773 AH) states that Ibn Masʿūd perhaps did not hear them from the Prophet or they were not mass transmitted to him, and he may have corrected himself on this point and revised his position later in life.[^71] ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī distinguishes between Ibn Masʿūd’s position towards al-Fātiḥa (which Ibn Masʿūd accepted as a chapter of the Qur’an but refrained from writing since it was widely known) and his position towards *al-muʿawwidhatayn* (which Ibn Masʿūd erroneously considered Divinely revealed non-Qur’anic invocations);[^72] al-Jaʿfarī also notes that Ibn Masʿūd’s own students did not adopt this position.[^73] As the ʿUthmānic codex became widely disseminated, no such disagreement remained. --- ## How do we view the variants reported from Companions? We now arrive at the interesting question of how variant readings from *ṣaḥābah* (i.e., those which differ from the ʿUthmānic codex) are to be understood theologically, from within the Muslim tradition. Did God speak all of these readings and did Jibrīl recite all of them to Muhammad ﷺ? Are they all considered ‘Qur’an’? Do they all exhibit the miraculous Qur’anic inimitability? Is it permissible to recite them in prayer? In order to address these questions, let us first distinguish between two concepts: *qirāʾah bi-al-talaqqī* (recitation based on direct learning) and *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* (recitation based on paraphrasing the meaning). We believe that the companions’ recitation of the Qur’an was based on the former concept—they took great care to recite the Qur’an exactly as they heard it from the Prophet ﷺ, and when a reciter erred in doing so, he would be corrected by others. We will return later to the opposing concept of *qirāʾah bi-al-ma’nā*. For now, based on *qirāʾah bi-al-talaqqī*, there are three possible explanations for a variant reading of a verse authentically established from a companion that differs from what we find in the ʿUthmānic codex: 1. Abrogated *ḥarf* 2. Abandoned *ḥarf* 3. Non-Qur’anic *tafsīr* recital We will explain these in turn. ### Abrogated ḥarf The concept of Qur’anic abrogation is established in the Qur’an itself in the verse: “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth \[one\] better than it or similar to it. Do you not know that Allah is over all things competent?” (Qur’an 2:106). Abrogation may pertain to the legal ruling of a verse, whereby an instruction provided in an initial verse is known to no longer be applicable or effective following the revelation of a later abrogating verse (*nāsikh*).[^74] Alternatively, abrogation can pertain to the recitation of a verse, whereby it is no longer recited as part of the Qur’an, despite being initially revealed by Allah. It was narrated that ʿĀʾishah said: “One of the things that Allah revealed in the Qur’an and then abrogated was that nothing makes marriage prohibited except ten breastfeedings or five well-known (breastfeedings).”[^75] Likewise, another companion al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib mentioned about verse 2:238: “This verse was initially revealed as ‘Guard the prayers and ***the ʿAṣr prayer***.’ We recited it thus for as long as Allah willed. Then Allah abrogated it and it was revealed: ‘Guard the prayers and the middle prayer.’”[^76] The earliest Muslim community was thus exposed to some Qur’anic recitation that Allah in His infinite Divine Wisdom excluded from the composition of the Qur’an that would be recited until the end of time; i.e., the Qur’an was revealed with extra passages no longer found in it today. How then was the exact composition of the Qur’an determined, considering also that verses and *sūrah*s were revealed in a different order? Every year, the Angel Jibrīl would review the recitation of the Qur’an with the Prophet Muhammad during the month of Ramadan—“Gabriel used to meet him every night during Ramadan to revise the Qur’an with him,”[^77] and “Gabriel used to repeat the recitation of the Qur’an with the Prophet ﷺ once a year, but he repeated it twice with him in the year he died.”[^78] According to many scholars, it was during this ‘final review’ (in Arabic called *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*) in the last year of the Prophet’s life that the wording of the Qur’an was finalized and much of the variants in the *aḥruf* were abrogated and excluded from the final recitation.[^79] The companion Samurah (d. 54 AH) said, “The Qur’an was reviewed with the Prophet several times. So they say that our *qirāʾah* is *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*.”[^80] The early scholar Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn (d. 110 AH) mentioned the understanding that the ʿUthmānic codex was in conformity with what was recited in *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*.[^81] Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) stated, “And the *maṣāḥif* were written according to the wording that was confirmed in the final review from the Messenger of Allah as was explicitly stated from more than one of the Imams of the *salaf* such as Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, ʿUbaydah al-Salmānī, and ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī.”[^82] How was it known what the Prophet ﷺ recited with Jibrīl? The Prophet would have instructed his companions accordingly after the final review with Jibrīl. Scholars speak of specific companions who ‘attended’ the final review, in the sense that the companion reviewed the entire Qur’an with the Prophet after he recited with Jibrīl, not that they were physically present while the Prophet was reciting to Jibrīl.[^83] al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH) states: > It is said that Zayd ibn Thābit attended the final review in which it was clarified what was abrogated and what remained. > > Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said, “Zayd recited the Qur’an twice to the Prophet during the year in which he passed away, and this recitation is called the *qirāʾah* of Zayd because he transcribed it for the Prophet and recited it to him and witnessed *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*, and he taught its recitation to people until he passed away. That is why Abū Bakr and ʿUmar relied upon him in its compilation and ʿUthmān appointed him in charge of writing the *maṣāḥif*—may God be pleased with them all.”[^84] However, there is no definitive proof about who, if anyone, actually attended the final review with the Prophet ﷺ. Other scholars simply stated that the reading of Zayd was the one confirmed by *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*.[^85] Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728 AH) wrote, “And the final review is the *qirāʾah* of Zayd ibn Thābit and others, and it is the one that the rightly-guided caliphs—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī—instructed to be written in the *maṣāḥif*.”[^86] Nonetheless, the idea that the variant readings from Ibn Masʿūd and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb represent a *ḥarf* that was originally revealed but subsequently abrogated does not seem to square with the fact that Muslims in the subsequent generation continued to recite according to the *ḥarf* of Ibn Masʿūd at least in Kūfah, as reported by al-Aʿmash and others. Moreover, abrogation is generally considered a matter that must be decisively established by an injunction from God and His Messenger. Proponents of the abrogation view may counter that the knowledge of its abrogation was not widely known and may have escaped some amongst the companions and the subsequent generation. ### Abandoned ḥarf The second explanation for the existence of these diverse variants from companions also sees them as having come from a *ḥarf* originally revealed as part of the Qur’an. However, when ʿUthmān compiled the codex it was not necessary for him to include every single *ḥarf* revealed and so it was left out and eventually became extinct. Indeed, for most reported variants we have no mention that they were abrogated, but simply that they were no longer being recited except by the companion to whom they are attributed. This is seen, for instance, in the previously discussed example of Ibn Masʿūd’s reading of 92:3.[^87] Many scholars were of the view that the ʿUthmānic codex left out some or all of the other *aḥruf* because the intention was to reduce the disagreement amongst Muslims.[^88] Since the other readings were intended only as a concession, this has no bearing on the preservation of the Qur’an, which can be recited according to any *ḥarf*. Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, for example, explicitly argues that the ʿUthmānic codex was based on one *ḥarf* because the diverse readings were a concession (*rukhṣah*) and therefore it wasn’t an obligation for Muslims to learn and transmit them all.[^89] The opinion that the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf* selected one *ḥarf* was also the view of al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH),[^90]  Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH),[^91] al-Abyārī (d. 616 AH),[^92] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH),[^93] and many other scholars.[^94] However, Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH),[^95] Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH),[^96] Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852 AH) and other scholars explained that what remained after the ʿUthmānic compilation were the differences from the other *aḥruf* that could still be accommodated by the skeletal text of the ʿUthmānic codices; so what remained were “some of the differences of the *aḥruf*, not all of them”.[^97] Ibn Ḥajar cites Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmmār al-Mahdawī (d. 430 AH) who states, “The most correct position which is upheld by the experts is that what is recited now are some of \[the differences\] of the seven *ḥurūf* which were permitted to be recited and not all of them.”[^98] The remnants of the *aḥruf* are thus found amongst the various *qirāʾāt* recited today, while those *aḥruf* that did not conform to the ʿUthmānic codex were abandoned.[^99] In reality, the view that the variant readings were abandoned is practically very similar to the view that they were abrogated. It entails that the variant reading was revealed by God, yet because God did not intend for it to be included in the final Qur’an, it became abandoned as per the Divine Decree (*qadar*) of God. One can say that here abrogation is seen as effectively taking place by God’s Divine Will (*irādah kawnīyah*) rather than an explicit revealed instruction (*irādah sharʿīyah*). Divine Will has effectively excluded those variant readings from the *muṣḥaf* of this *ummah*, and since history is intended by God, then the Qur’an we have in our hands today is exactly the Qur’an that God wanted us to have, and the loss of variations that did not make it into the *muṣḥaf* was also intended by God. What the Muslim *ummah* would collectively agree upon (*ijmāʿ*), recite, and practice was included in the foreknowledge of God prior to the creation of the universe. With the passage of time, some variant readings were effectively ruled extinct by Allah’s Divine Decree concerning the consensus of the community, just *as if* such readings were abrogated by legislation—and this is precisely what some scholars said. Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH) wrote, “As for what it is in our hands of the Qur’an, it is that which conforms to the script of that (ʿUthmānic) *muṣḥaf*, from those *qirāʾāt* with which the Qur’an was revealed, and upon which the community unanimously agreed. No longer practiced are those *qirāʾāt* that differ from the script of the *muṣḥaf*. So it is *as if* *they were abrogated* by the consensus upon the script of the *muṣḥaf*.”[^100] ### Non-Qur’anic recital Many scholars held the view that variant readings reported by companions were often nothing more than a companion’s method of explaining the verse by simplifying the language, adding an explanatory phrase, or substituting a word for a more familiar one. Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 404 AH) states, “From amongst them (i.e., the companions) were those who would recite interpretation (*taʾwīl*) alongside revelation (*tanzīl*).”[^101] This has been termed *qirāʾāt tafsīrīyah* (exegetical recitations). Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalūsī was of the view that whatever was in conflict with the script of the *muṣḥaf* was in reality *tafsīr*, not Qur’anic recitation.[^102] Imam al-Tirmidhī comments on a hadith with an added phrase after the verse by saying, “This appears to be a statement of Ibn ʿAbbās (i.e., rather than a variant reading).”[^103] Imām al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) writes (quoting al-Māzirī (d. 536 AH)): > As for Ibn Masʿūd then much has been narrated from him including that which is not reliably established according to the people of transmission. And that which is established which differs from what we say (i.e., recite in our *muṣḥaf*), then it is interpreted to mean that he wrote in his *muṣḥaf* some rulings and *tafsīr* which he believed to not be Qur’an, and he did not believe that to be impermissible as he saw it as a parchment upon which to write what he willed. While ʿUthmān and the community deemed that to be prohibited lest with the passage of time it be assumed to be Qur’an. al-Māzirī said: So the disagreement goes back to a jurisprudential matter (*masʾalah fiqhīyah*) and that is whether it is allowed to include commentary interspersed in the *muṣḥaf*.[^104] Similarly, Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) writes, “It was possible that they (i.e., the companions) would include *tafsīr* in the *qirāʾāh*, as clarification and elucidation (*īḍāḥan wa bayānan*). This is because they were well-versed in what they had learned directly from the Prophet ﷺ as Qur’an, so they were secure from confusing between them. And it was possible that some of them would write it (i.e., *tafsīr*) alongside it (i.e., Qur’an).”[^105] Many early authorities explicitly considered this to be the explanation for variant readings reported by companions. Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH) wrote, “As for what is transmitted from the companions or the successors that they recited in this or that manner, that is only from the angle of explanation and clarification (*innamā dhālika ʿalā jihatil bayān wa at-tafsīr*), not that it was Qur’an being recited.”[^106] Abū Jaʿfar al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH) wrote, “It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘And the middle prayer (is) the ʿ*aṣr* prayer.’ And this recitation is a *tafsīr* since it is an addition to what is in the *muṣḥaf*.”[^107] Furthermore, it is related that ʿAmr ibn Dīnār (d. 126 AH) heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr recite 3:104 with an additional phrase “and they seek Allah’s help on that which befalls them”; ʿAmr ibn Dīnār said, “And I do not know whether it was his *qirāʾah* or he was doing *tafsīr*.”[^108] Thus, sometimes those who heard companions recite on rare occasions with a variant reading may have been unsure whether they were reading a non-ʿUthmānic *ḥarf* or whether it was *tafsīr*. Perhaps one of the strongest pieces of evidence in favor of the *Qirāʾāt tafsīrīyah* viewpoint is simply an empirical examination of the wording found in many of the reported variant readings from the companions. In a survey of several readings attributed to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, one author compared them with the vocabulary used in other relevant passages. The Qur’an uses *al-mashy* for human movement on the earth, while Ibn Masʿūd’s variant replaces 2:20 with *maḍaw fīh*. Likewise, the variant reading from Ibn Masʿūd of verse 1:6 replaces *hidāyah* (guidance) with its near-synonym *irshād* as follows: “***arshidnā*** *al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm”* instead of “***ihdinā*** *al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm*.” However, the word *hidāyah* and its derivatives are associated with the path in 23 other places in the Qur’an and the straight path in 18, while the word *rushd* is associated with none and a linguistic analysis of the meanings of the words demonstrates the greater suitability of the word *hidāyah*. Thus, the author writes, “So it is possible to say that the recitation ***arshidnā*** *aṣ-ṣirāt al-mustaqīm* is not a recitation but rather it is *tafsīr*, and that is based on an examination of the Qur’anic expressions in its usage of words given that it does not use *irshād* with the word *ṣirāt* in contrast to *hidāyah*.”[^109] Thus, Ibn Masʿūd’s variant readings almost invariably seem to substitute Qur’anic terminology with easier to understand near-synonyms or add additional explanatory words that are at variance with the Qur’an’s usual style. This seems to represent a strange coincidence but becomes readily explicable when considered to be *qirāʾāt tafsīrīyah*. The observation that these variant readings serve an exegetical function did not escape the earliest of scholars—one of the most powerful evidences in favor of this viewpoint is the fact that the student of Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid ibn Jabr al-Makhzūmī (d. 103 AH) stated, “Had I read the *qirāʾah* of Ibn Masʿūd, I would not have needed to ask Ibn ʿAbbās about much of the Qur’an which I asked about.”[^110] Although this view terms such variant readings as *qirāʾāt tafsīrīyah*, it should be noted that the non-Qur’anic wording added or substituted by companions in their recital need not always have been strictly for *tafsīr*. Rather, it would sometimes be word alterations to facilitate pronunciation or memorization. In one incident, Ibn Masʿūd was trying to teach a man to recite verse 44:44, “food of the sinful (*ṭaʿāmu* ***al-athīm***)” but the man kept repeating “food of the orphan (*ṭaʿāmu* ***al-yatīm***).” When the man was unable to recite the correct word after multiple attempts, Ibn Masʿūd told him to recite instead using a near-synonym “food of the disobedient (*ṭaʿām* ***al-fājir***).”[^111] If others learned this same “easy version” of the verse, it would be evident that this was not what Ibn Masʿūd believed the actual wording of the Qur’anic verse to be, but rather an alternate reading for the sake of facilitation (*taysīr*). Al-Qurṭubī (d. 676 AH) explained that this by no means entails that one can substitute words from the Qur’an as one may ignorantly presume, but rather this was a means for ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿūd to make things easier for the student.[^112] Al-Māwardī (d. 450 AH) states that Ibn Masʿūd’s intention was to indicate the meaning of the word so that the learner would understand the correct word to recite.[^113] ### Evaluation of the aforementioned explanations The explanation which single-handedly appears to encompass all the evidence most easily is the second explanation: that non-ʿUthmānic readings were simply abandoned by the overwhelming consensus and practice of the community. However, in comparing the aforementioned three possibilities, it also becomes apparent that there is no reason why they should be considered mutually exclusive. That is, it is certainly possible that some variant readings were simply *tafsīr* (such as the word substitutions from Ibn Masʿūd, which clearly differ from Qur’anic style), while other variant readings were revealed Qur’anic *aḥruf* that subsequently were either abrogated (as al-Barā’ ibn ʿĀzib said for 2:238) or were abandoned following the ʿUthmānic recension (as Abū al-Dardāʾ suggested for 92:3). Abrogation of a reading could have occurred at any point in the Prophet’s life, as there is nothing to definitively establish the theory that *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah* itself was a means of abrogating readings. The contemporary scholar Mufti Taqī Uthmanī notes the following five possibilities with respect to *shādhdh qirāʾāt*:[^114] 1. The reading was an innovation or fabrication. 2. The reading has not been reliably transmitted. 3. The reading represents the addition of explanatory words. 4. The reading was abrogated in the final days of the Prophet’s life and known to be abrogated by the majority of companions, but an individual companion who was unaware may have continued to recite it as he learned it. 5. The reading was actually a mistake made by a successor in his recitation but the listener thought it was a variant reading and transmitted it as such. There is overlap between these possibilities and the scenarios discussed in detail above, and each of them appears to plausibly account for at least some of the reported variants. In the estimation of the authors of this paper, this appears to be the most reasonable conclusion on this matter. --- ## What was the scope of the concession? Scholars differed concerning the extent of flexibility granted to the early Muslim community to recite the Qur’an in different ways. Was there a requirement for every variant to be transmitted from the Prophet, or was there a concession for Muslims to recite the approximate meaning, paraphrasing to some degree if they could not recall the exact wording? The latter scenario has been termed *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* (reciting based on meaning), in contrast to *qirāʾah bi-al-talaqqī* (reciting based on direct learning). One of the scholars who thought such an expanded concession existed was Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321 AH). He wrote, “The flexibility given to them in reciting the Qur’an was to recite according to its meanings (*an yatlūhu bi-maʿānīhi*) even if the wording which they recited differed from the words of their Prophet with which he recited it to them.”[^115] However, al-Ṭaḥāwī specified that this was a concession (*rukhṣah*) that was later abrogated as it was no longer needed.[^116] Al-Ṭaḥāwī does not consider this license to have been the origin of the widely-transmitted readings (*qirāʾāt*); instead he believed that the *qirāʾāt* came from different review sessions between the Prophet and Jibrīl. Furthermore, al-Ṭaḥāwī considered there to be no remnants of this temporary license of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* within the codices compiled by Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān.[^117] A similar idea concerning a concession for reciting according to meaning has been expressed by Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 404 AH). He wrote, “And it is possible that in the beginning of Islam it was legislated for people to exchange one *ḥarf* for another for instance instead of *ʿalīm qadīr* using *ghafūr raḥīm*, and then it was abrogated after that.”[^118] He was explicit on the latter point: > And the seven \[canonical\] reciters are to be followed in all their readings established from them… and it is not permissible and not justifiable to recite according to the meaning (*qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*) instead of following the Divinely-revealed wording.[^119] The statements of al-Bāqillānī and al-Ṭaḥāwī are in agreement that the existence of a concession to recite according to the meaning during the Prophetic era does not entail that the *qirāʾāt* originated from this license. Likewise, Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī (d. 1150 AH) wrote in response to the question concerning the permissibility of substituting synonyms in recitation, “It is not allowed to do that, rather the concession was for those whose tongue was previously accustomed to something other than the *mutawātir* wording of the Qur’an.”[^120] There are other scholars who may have also been referring to such a restricted concession to recite according to the meaning, although their statements are less explicit in comparison to those previously mentioned. Perhaps the earliest statement that can be cited in this regard is from Ibn Shihāb al-Zuḥrī (d. 124 AH): > Abū Uways said, “I asked al-Zuḥrī about *al-taqdīm wa-al-taʾkhīr* (reversing the order of words or a phrase) in Hadith and he replied, ‘This is permitted with the Qur’an so how about the Hadith? If the meaning of the Hadith is captured correctly and one does not make the impermissible permissible or make the permissible impermissible, then there is no problem and that is if the meaning is correctly captured.”[^121] Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī was known to have permitted transmission of hadith based on meaning (*riwayah bi-al-maʿnā*);[^122] however, he also commented on the famous seven *aḥruf* hadith by saying, “It has reached me that these seven *aḥruf* are basically one in meaning, they do not differ about what is permissible or prohibited.”[^123] Taken together with his previous statement, it may be claimed that he considered the seven *aḥruf* tradition to essentially be the Prophet’s way of describing a concession to use *qirā’ah bi-al-ma’nā*. The other possibility is that he was simply referring to the fact that revealed *aḥruf* use *taqdīm wa-l-ta’khīr* in Divine speech so there is no reason why human speech cannot. Imām al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204 AH) has an interesting statement concerning the seven *aḥruf*. In his work on legal theory entitled *al-Risālah*, he discusses the fact that there are different wordings narrated from various companions for the *tashahhud* (the supplication recited during the seated position in the ritual prayer). As al-Shāfiʿī explains, it was allowed for the companions to recite this prayer with slight variations according to what they memorized so long as it did not affect the meaning. He then cites as evidence for the permissibility of this the very same narration about ʿUmar and Hishām encountered earlier regarding their difference in reading Sūrat al-Furqān. He then writes: > If God, out of mercy and compassion for His creatures, revealed His Book in seven \[*aḥruf*\]—knowing that memorization is subject to slippage—making it lawful for them to recite it with different wordings as long as their differences do not distort the meaning, then it is even more appropriate that differences in the wording of texts other than the Book of God be permitted as long as the meaning is not distorted in any text that does not convey a legal ruling. Differences in wording do not distort the meaning in such cases. One of the Successors said: “I met some of the Companions of God’s Emissary, and they were united in regard to the meaning but disagreed over the wording of a certain text. I asked one of them about that and he said, ‘It is not a problem as long as the meaning is not distorted.’”[^124] In this case, al-Shāfiʿī is using the license for reciting according to the seven *aḥruf* to prove the permissibility of slight variation in *tashahhud* using *argumentum a fortiori* (*qiyās bi-l-awlā*). However, there is no need to take that as an endorsement of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*. The point is that if Allah provided a license for people to read with slight differences according to the *aḥruf* due to the fallibility of human memory, there is all the more reason to provide a license for small variations when narrating supplications. The license for the former is more restricted than the license for the latter, given that one must still recite according to the way one was taught the *aḥruf* while the less restricted license is only applicable to ḥadith. This statement therefore does not explicitly indicate a concession to recite differently from the revealed wording. Moreover, al-Shāfīʿī has commented on the same issue elsewhere with further details. In *Ikhtilāf al-Ḥadīth*, he discusses the different variants of the *tashahhud*, again draws an analogy with the *aḥruf*, however he specifies, “It is plausible that all these variants are authentically established, and that the Prophet would teach the congregation and individuals the *tashahhud*, so that one person would memorize it according to one wording and another person would memorize it according to a different wording.”[^125] He also writes, “and no one has the right to intentionally avoid reciting a letter from the Qur’an (according to the revealed wording), except out of forgetfulness.”[^126] This makes it clear that he considered the rule to be reciting according to the exact wording, and impermissible for one to intentionally depart from it. Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī (d. 375 AH) was of the opinion that Muslims were given permission under the license of *aḥruf* to recite the Qur’an according to the pronunciation of their own dialects without precedent, while only one reading originated from the Prophet ﷺ. According to Abul-Layth, this license to pronounce words differently (e.g., *buyūt* or *bīyūt*) was applicable even in *farsh* as long as the changes did not impact the meaning; he did not extend this to wording alterations.[^127] Abū Shāmah al-Maqdisī (d. 665 AH) linked the seven *aḥruf* with *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* though he considered them to have not been abrogated but simply no longer applicable after the ʿUthmānic recension. He writes concerning the seven *aḥruf* hadith: > The meaning of the hadith is that it was a concession given to them to replace words with that which gave the same or nearly the same meaning from one *ḥarf* to seven *aḥruf*. And they were not compelled to stick to one *ḥarf* since it was revealed upon an unlettered nation who were not accustomed to studying, repetition, or memorization of the exact wording of something, taking into consideration those who were elderly as well as those preoccupied with striving in battle and livelihood. So a concession was given to them in that. And some raised with one dialect would find it difficult to switch to another. So the *qirāʾāt* differed as a result of all of that. > And this is proven for us by the Hadith which explains \[seven *aḥruf*\] using the examples of *halumma* and *taʿāl*, showing the permissibility of exchanging one word for its synonym. And this is also proven for us by what has been established about substituting *ghafūran raḥīman* in place of ʿ*azīzan ḥakīman* using what conveys the same essential meaning without preserving the exact wording (*dūna al-muḥāfaẓati ʿalā al-lafẓ*). For all of that is praise of Allah, Glorified is He. > This is all in regards to what the reciter can naturally pronounce. As for what is not possible for him because it is not from his dialect, then his situation is clear. And nothing of the *qirāʾāt* goes beyond this principle, which is exchanging a word for its synonym or a similar word that conveys the same essential meaning. Then, when the *maṣāḥif* were codified, those *qirāʾāt* that conflicted with the codified script were abandoned and what remained were those readings to which the script was amenable. Then some readings which conformed to the script became popular while the transmission of others became rare.[^128] A few pages later, Abū Shāmah does quote al-Baghawī who explicitly rejects *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*.[^129] Moreover Abū Shāmah made it clear that *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* did not enter into the text of the Qur’an: “That which is compiled in the *muṣḥaf* is that which is agreed to be Divinely revealed, decisively confirmed, and it is what was written by the instruction of the Prophet ﷺ or what was established from him that he recited or taught others to recite.”[^130] Thus, Abū Shāmah clearly indicates that a concession for *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* was limited to the practice of some early Muslims prior to the ʿUthmānic codex and it was not something that entered into the Qur’anic text, which was compiled exclusively according to the revealed wording as taught by the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) similarly states: > The aforementioned permission \[to recite in different ways\] was not according to desire, meaning that everyone could exchange a word with its synonym from his dialect, rather it was necessary to adhere to what was directly heard from the Prophet, and this is indicated by the fact that both ʿUmar and Hishām said, “The Prophet recited it to me this way.” > However, it is established from more than one companion that he would recite using synonyms without precedent (*wa law lam yakun masmūʿan lahu*). And it is for this reason that ʿUmar critiqued Ibn Masʿūd’s recitation of “*attā ḥīn*” to mean “*ḥattā ḥīn*” and he wrote to him, “Verily, the Qur’an was not revealed in the dialect of Hudhayl so teach people the recitation of Quraysh and do not teach them the recitation according to the dialect of Hudhayl.”[^131] Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) used the same concept to explain one possible origin of the *shadhdh* *qirāʾāt*: > The *shādhdh qirāʾāt*, if they happen to be authentic, originate from readings that were permitted but were not established as Divinely revealed; or people were given the choice concerning it in the beginning and then the *ummah* agreed upon abandoning them due to the benefit (*maṣlaḥah*).[^132] He further said: > The companions agreed upon writing the Qur’an according to the Final Review (*al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*) which the Prophet ﷺ recited during the year of his passing, and according to what was revealed by Allah Most Exalted, rather than according to that for which a permission was given (*dūna mā adhina fih*).[^133] Let us pause for a moment and consider what these scholars say and what they do not say. If the Prophet ﷺ gave a concession for some people to recite according to meaning, was that the rare exception while the default remained *talaqqī* or was the default variation? There is no indication that these scholars considered the default to be anything other than *talaqqī* even if a concession was made for some to recite by meaning due to hardship and difficulty. In fact, most of the aforementioned scholars reiterate the concept of recitation being a practice to be followed precisely (*sunnah muttabaʿah*). Moreover, did those companions who recited according to meaning ever consider their variant wording equivalent with Allah’s Divine speech? None of these scholars suggest any such notion; if anything, it would be clear that the wording was a concession in lieu of reciting the precise wording of the Divine speech.[^134] This provides an important corrective to recent attempts to take *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* from being a limited concession which a small handful of scholars believed existed, and interpret it instead as an explanation for the emergence of all Qur’anic variants, including the *qirāʾāt*.[^135] This *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* theory and its arguments will be evaluated and critiqued in detail in the subsequent section. However, for now it is important to note that the scholars discussed did not state that the widely-recited canonical *qirāʾāt* were the result of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*. It is also interesting to note that the orientalist Ignaz Goldziher espoused a version of this view in his claim that the *qirā’āt* traditions in the Muslim world were invented without precedent or transmission, based on Muslims’ interpretation of the ʿUthmānic script lacking diacritics.[^136] However, this view has been convincingly challenged by a detailed study of the nature of variants.[^137] ### Evaluation of arguments Proponents of the theory of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* generally cite the following evidences (the specific counter-points to which are mentioned in the footnotes while the general counter-arguments are offered later in this section): 1. The seven *aḥruf* hadith which conveys a degree of fluidity so long as the message is not altered, such as the hadith wherein the Prophet ﷺ states, “Whether you say ‘*Samīʿan ʿAlīman*’ (Most Hearing, Most Knowing) or ‘ʿ*Azīzan Ḥakīman*’ (Most Mighty, Most Wise) then Allah is like that, so long as you do not conclude a verse of punishment with mercy or a verse of mercy with punishment.”[^138]  2. Reports about the reading or teaching of companions; e.g., the hadith reported from Abū al-Dardāʾ and Ibn Masʿūd about teaching a man to recite *ṭaʿām al-fājir* instead of *ṭaʿām al-athīm*.[^139] Anas ibn Mālik recited *aṣwabu qīlan* instead of *aqwamu qīlan* and when questioned about that, he replied that the meaning was the same.[^140] 3. Reports about the companions seemingly criticizing or denying a Qur’anic reading, which would seem to negate the supposition that they are all equally valid and all from the Prophet.[^141] This includes, for instance, an example of ʿĀʾishah denying one of the readings of 12:110,[^142] and ʿAlī denying the ʿUthmānic reading of 56:29.[^143] 4. The existence of *shādhdh* readings which do not conform to the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*. 5. The examples of reciters performing *ijtihād* based on the ʿUthmānic text or reciters who selected a reading without precedent.[^144] 6. The argument that the sheer quantity of all readings that would be traced back to the Prophet ﷺ makes it seem implausible that he could have recited them all. The theory of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* may seem to account for all the variants reported and conveniently side-step the orientalist arguments about multiple “versions” of the Qur’an that do not originate from the Prophet ﷺ. However, these are not strong reasons to adopt this view given that the well-established traditional explanations easily account for variant readings and the above-mentioned evidences are, in fact, not very convincing on closer inspection. First, with respect to the inferences drawn from *aḥādīth* implying a degree of flexibility in the wording of a verse so long as one does not conclude a verse of mercy with punishment, these inferences neglect the textual evidence that demonstrates an understanding on the part of the companions that they were to recite precisely as they were taught. For instance, the incident between ʿUmar and Hishām ibn Ḥakīm would never have occurred if there was an expectation that small variations were tolerable (which is the understanding of those who consider the Qur’an akin to other compositions in oral cultures). It is precisely because the companions expected everything to be recited exactly as taught by the Prophet ﷺ that they were so cautious and a dispute occurred when they suspected a variation in reading that was not taught by the Prophet. When the Prophet ﷺ spoke of the seven *aḥruf*, he said “the Qur’an was revealed according to seven *aḥruf*” or he said about a reading “This is how it was revealed,” and “Thus Jibrīl recited to me.” Moreover, in response to these disputes, the Prophet ﷺ did not tell people to read as they pleased but rather told ʿAlī to reiterate to people that each individual was to recite according to how he had learned.[^145] ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “*Qirāʾah* of the Qur’an is a *sunnah* that one takes from one before him.”[^146] Thus, any hadith that seems to imply flexibility in wording is taken to mean that flexibility exists in selecting one of the pre-specified Divinely revealed readings. Al-Bayhaqī (d. 458 AH) states: > As for those reports that have been transmitted concerning the permissibility of reciting *Ghafūr Raḥīm* in place of *ʿAlīm Ḥakīm*, then it is because all of that is from what has been revealed in *waḥy* (revelation). So if one recites that phrase in other than its correct place so long as he does not conclude a verse of punishment with a verse of mercy or a verse of mercy with a verse of punishment, then it is as if he recited the verse of one *sūrah* with the verse of another so he would not be sinful according to that. And the basis is that *qirāʾah* which was confirmed in the year the Prophet passed away after Jibrīl reviewed the Qur’an with him twice that year, and then the companions agreed upon its compilation between the covers of the *muṣḥaf*.[^147] There is a hadith that is particularly explicit about the necessity of preserving the precise wording of the Qur’an. It tells of a man from Banū al-Najjār who outwardly converted to Islam and used to write revelation for the Prophet ﷺ but made alterations; he would write *samīʿ ʿalīm* when the Prophet dictated *samīʿ baṣīr* and vice versa. He later publicly renounced the faith and claimed the Prophet knew nothing other than what he had written. When he died, his tribesmen attempted to bury him several times but would awaken the next day to find his body cast out by the earth. Eventually, they gave up trying to bury him and abandoned his corpse.[^148] This would constitute the sternest warning in the Muslim tradition against making any alterations in the Qur’anic recitation or script. Evidence suggests that the early Muslim community had the understanding of preservation of the wording of the Qur’an, rather than a notion of preservation and transmission by meaning. A story recounted by Yaḥyā ibn Aktham (d. 242 AH) tells of a man who accepted Islam in the court of al-Maʾmūn because of a test the man had invented to confirm the veracity of the faith. He had introduced subtle scribal errors into the Torah, the Gospels, and the Qur’an and disseminated their copies; the first two went undetected while the copies of the Qur’an containing errors were detected immediately. When Yahya told this story to Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198 AH), the latter confirmed that this is one of the unique features of the Qur’an in contradistinction to previous scriptures which were entrusted to their respective nations to preserve, citing 5:44.[^149] As for the narrations regarding a companion reportedly criticizing a *qirāʾah*, these narrations are readily understood to be based on what they were familiar with from the diverse readings of the Qur’an. For instance, when Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ criticized a reading of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, he did so because he did not think it came from the Prophet (ﷺ).[^150] When ʿUthmān compiled the *muṣḥaf*, when they wanted to record a verse they would specifically ask a person who heard it directly from the Prophet ﷺ, “How did the Prophet recite this verse to you?”[^151] Thus, the narrations of criticizing other readings need to be understood in light of the companions’ zeal in establishing with certainty the correct reading and being stringent in accepting the validity of a reading, which is precisely the opposite of the laxity one would expect if the companions adopted *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*. One of the clearest examples of this is an incident in which ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb heard a variant reading from a man who stated he learned it from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. So ʿUmar took the man to Ubayy and questioned Ubayy about whether he heard this verse directly from the Prophet ﷺ in this manner, to which Ubayy replied in the affirmative, “Yes, I learned it directly (*talaqqī*) from the Prophet.” However, ʿUmar repeated the question multiple times, and on the third time, Ubayy became upset and said, “Yes I swear by Allah! Allah revealed it like this to Jibrīl and revealed it to Muhammad, and He did not consult al-Khaṭṭāb nor his son (i.e., ʿUmar)!” Thereupon ʿUmar left Ubayy, raising his hands in prayer saying, “*Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar*.”[^152] In light of these narrations, it is clear that any narrations that suggest the substitution of words when a companion was teaching a Qur’anic verse are to be understood as isolated cases of providing a *rukhṣah* in circumstances when the student was unable to recite, memorize, or learn the original word. This is most evident in the story of Ibn Masʿūd or Abū al-Dardāʾ substituting *ṭaʿām al-fājir* in place of *ṭaʿām al-athīm* after the student continued to mistakenly recite *ṭaʿām al-yatīm* despite multiple attempts.[^153] These incidents do not imply that the concession wording was then considered part of Allah’s Divine speech revealed in the Qur’an. Numerous classical scholars rejected the notion of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* in explicit terms, including al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH), Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ al-Shahrazūrī (d. 643 AH), Ibn al-Ḥājib al-Mālikī (d. 646 AH), Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728  AH), Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 832 AH), and al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH), among many others.[^154] The early scholar Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH) wrote concerning the narration from Anas ibn Mālik (reciting *aṣwabu qīlan*): > Some of those astray may resort to such reports to cast doubts and state: whoever recites according to a reading that conforms to the meaning of a ḥarf from the Qur’an is correct so long as he does not contradict the meaning or bring forth other than what Allah intended and meant, and they use as proof this statement of Anas ibn Mālik. And this argument is an empty claim that should not be relied upon nor should the one making it be paid any attention. And that is because if one were to recite according to words that differ with the wording of the Qur’an despite approximating its meaning and general intent, then it would be permissible to recite in place of “*al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi al-ʿālamīn*” the phrase “*al-shukru lil-bārī malik al-makhlūqīn*.” And the flexibility in this regard would continue to increase until the entire wording of the Qur’an was nullified and replaced with that which would be a fabrication upon God and a lie upon His Messenger.[^155] The quote from Ibn al-Anbarī raises an incredibly profound point about the notion of unrestricted *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*. How can such *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* even work? Why *can’t* someone recite “*al-shukru lil-bārī malik al-makhlūqīn*”? It is very difficult to understand how the process can take place without any limits or parameters—in essence, it’s a game without rules. If the Qur’an was being recited on a daily basis by thousands of people of diverse linguistic backgrounds and imperfect recollection, each with the license to alter its wording at will, there would be no consistency in public recitation and prayers, and no one would know whether to correct the imam’s recitation or not. There would be so much variability that the task of even assembling a fixed copy of the Qur’an would be nigh impossible.[^156] In order to even recite, memorize, and record something there must be a high degree of invariance and permanence. Moreover, we don’t have any statement from the Prophet ﷺ or any of the companions ever telling a learner that they had exceeded the limits or gone beyond the scope of what was acceptable variation. We can learn as much from the places where *qirāʾāt* agree as we can from where they differ. The *qirāʾāt* traditions demonstrate an exceptionally high degree of invariance overall, despite containing multiple near-identical passages with subtle differences (*mutashābihāt*) that are challenging to recall with precision without careful diligent memorization of the differences (e.g., 2:58-60 compared with 7:160-2, or compare 20:10, 27:7, and 28:29, or 26:41-5 versus 7:113-117). If variant readings were based on imperfect recall and transmission based on meaning, we should expect the greatest concentration of reported variants in such near-identical passages given that they are the hardest to remember precisely. Does the foregoing discussion mean that any conception of *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā* is entirely without merit? To the contrary, the concept as it was discussed by the classical scholars raises some interesting questions and does suggest the possibility that, on some occasions, the companions would provide a “*rukhṣah* reading” of sorts that was meant to assist someone unfamiliar with the words in a particular Qur’anic verse, but these readings were only an aid and did not become part of what was considered ‘God’s speech’ (*kalām Allāh*), nor did they become the basis for widely recited *qirā’āt* in the Muslim world. Taken in this manner, this view becomes no different from the basic idea behind *al-qirāʾāt tafsīrīyah*. ### Were all variations recited by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? A final question might arise here as to what did the Prophet himself ﷺ read? Did he actually read all the *uṣūl* from each of the canonical *qirāʾāt* and the *farsh* as well? 1\. With regard to *uṣūl*, the Prophet ﷺ could have recited each principle (*aṣl*) of these *uṣūl* in a few *sūrah*s or even in one *sūrah*, or it could have been that it was read to him and he gave his approval. For example, a companion whose dialect is *imālah* would naturally read to the Prophet in what he was accustomed to. However, one must have had the approval of the Prophet ﷺ before attempting to recite the Qur’an according to their own dialect.[^157] 2\. As for *farsh*, the Prophet ﷺ would have recited each word in each of its different ways at least at some point in *ṣalāh* or in teaching sessions at least once during the course of his lifetime, as per *qirāʾah bi-l-talaqqī*. However, different pronunciations of the same word would fall under the same category as *uṣūl* as mentioned earlier by Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandī.[^158] --- ## Conclusion The *qirāʾāt* that Muslims recite today have been transmitted through generations after generations of reciters with uninterrupted chains of transmission tracing back to the Prophet ﷺ, containing within them a mixture of the variation permitted according to the seven *aḥruf*. All of the accepted *qirāʾāt* follow three basic rules: 1. Conformity to the consonantal skeleton of the ʿUthmānic *muṣḥaf*. 2\. Consistency with Arabic grammar. 3\. Authentic chain of transmission. Those *qirāʾāt* that fall short of these conditions are *shādhdh* (anomalous/irregular). This article has focused on elucidating how the Islamic tradition accounts for authentically established readings that do not meet the first condition above. The variant readings reported from companions that differ from the ʿUthmānic codex may represent either an abrogated or abandoned *ḥarf*, or they may represent a recitation containing word alterations for commentary or for facilitation for a learner. The vast and astounding detail with which the Islamic tradition discusses the diverse modes of recitation of the Qur’an is without a doubt unparalleled by any other book in the history of human civilization. Today, Muslims continue to recite multiple canonical recitations that conform to the *muṣḥaf* and have been transmitted by generations upon generations with unbroken chains of authority tracing to the Prophet ﷺ. To listen to the melodious Qur’anic recitation in different readings is to experience it in the same mesmerizing manner with which it captured the hearts of its earliest audience. --- ## Notes [^1]: A rough approximation can be obtained by dividing those 703 places wherein a different reading is listed in the index to Ibn Mujāhid’s *Kitāb al-sab’ah fī al-qirā’āt* by the total number of words in the Qur’an (surpassing 77,400), in order to arrive at 0.9% of words with an alternative reading. For these numbers see Yasin Dutton, “Orality, Literacy and the ‘Seven Aḥruf’ Hadith,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 23, no. 1 (2012): 10. [^2]: The early scholar from Baghdad, Ibn Mujāhid (d. 324 AH) is famous for enumerating seven acceptable modes of recitation in his work *Kitab al-sabʿah fi al-qirāʾāt*. He selected those readings that had become widely accepted, picking one reader for every major center of knowledge in the Muslim world (Mecca—Ibn Kathīr, Damascus—Ibn ʿĀmir, Basrah—Abū ʿAmr, Madinah—Nāfiʿ) except for Kūfah, from which he chose three reciters (ʿĀṣim, Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʾī). There were many readings that were left out; for instance, Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH) stated that the early scholar Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (d. 224 AH) compiled twenty-five *qirā’āt*. Some scholars, including Ibn al-Jazarī, took the list of seven from Ibn Mujāhid and added three other reciters to form the canonical list of ten: Abū Ja’far from Madinah, Yaʿqūb from Baṣrah, and Khalaf from Kūfah. [^3]: Both Muhammad Mustafa Al-Aʿzami and Yasin Dutton note the inadequacy of the term “variant” for the Qur’an, given that there is not a singular fixed original, but rather the original itself is “multiformic” to use Dutton’s terminology. See Dutton, “Orality, Literacy and the ‘Seven Aḥruf’ Hadith,” 1–49; also see Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami, *The History of the Qur’anic Text from Revelation to Compilation* (Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2003), 154–55. Acknowledging this point, the term is used in the present article to signify a reading that does not conform to the Uthmanic recension. Shady Hekmat Nasser terms such readings “anomalous” and uses the term “irregular” for those readings that are deficient in transmission or grammar, while both are referred to as *shaadh* in Arabic. Nasser, *The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān: The Problem of Tawatur and the Emergence of Shawadhdh* (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003), 16. [^4]: Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi, “San'a' 1 and the Origins of the Qurʾān,” *Der Islam* 87, no. 1–2 (February 2012): 1–129. For this categorization, pp. 3–4. [^5]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi, 3. [^6]: Sadeghi and Goudarzi; see also Harald Motzki, “Alternative Accounts of the Qur’an’s Formation,” in *The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’an*, ed. J. McAuliffe, Cambridge Companions to Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 59–76. [^7]: Nicolai Sinai, “When Did the Consonantal Skeleton of the Quran Reach Closure? Part II,” *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 77, no. 3 (2014): 509–21. [^8]: See for instance: Sami Ameri, *Hunting for the Word of God* (Minneapolis: Thoughts of Light Publishing, 2013); Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*; Abd al-Fattah Shalabi, *Rasm al-mushaf al-Uthmani wa awham al-mustashriqin fi qira'at al-Qur'an al-Karim* (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1999); Muhammad Mohar Ali, *The Quran and the Orientalists* (Norwich: Jamiyat Ihyaa Minhaaj al-Sunnah, 2004). The alternative narrative is discussed below in the section on *qira’ah bil-ma’na*. [^9]: It is anticipated that the present article will form the first in a trilogy with two subsequent articles examining the ʿUthmānic variants and the post-ʿUthmānic readings respectively. [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, no. 3, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/1/3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/1/3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219857109&usg=AOvVaw3Cph9Vap0_NfLAUt38Flt6). [^11]: Qur’an 16:102. [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhari*, no. 6, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/1/6](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/1/6&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219857574&usg=AOvVaw3HMpZyFz2N7Kq83If2aa-H). [^13]: Al-A’zami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 64–65. Al-A’zami lists no fewer than thirty-nine companions by name who memorized the Qur’an directly from the Prophet ﷺ, and this list evidently includes only the most famous who lived to teach others, as the names of those who died in Bi’r Ma’unah and Yamamah have not been preserved. [^14]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhari*, no. 4090, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/64/134](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/64/134&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219885941&usg=AOvVaw18GPHniZDBXihRMSHVT6_h). [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhari*, no. 5027, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/49](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/49&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219857933&usg=AOvVaw3TmmGbuhkyj-chcuX-V4wS). [^16]: Al-A’zami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 68. [^17]: In addition to being recorded in almost all the canonical six works (Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī, al-Nasā’ī), the seven *aḥruf* narrations are found in numerous early works including the *Jāmiʿ of Maʿmar ibn Rāshid* (d. 153 AH), *Muwaṭṭa* of Imam Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH), the *Musnad* of Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (d. 204 AH), *Musnad al-Ḥumaydī* (d. 219 AH), *Muṣannaf ibn Abī Shaybah* (d. 235 AH), and the *Musnad* of Imām Aḥmad (d. 241 AH). Given the voluminous transmitted reports from the earliest era, the fact that the earliest Muslim community understood the Qur’an to be a multiform recitation cannot be logically disputed even by the most skeptical historian. [^18]: A comprehensive study of the narrations demonstrates that it was reported by no fewer than twenty-three companions through numerous diverse chains. See ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Qāriʾ, *Hadith al-aḥruf al-sabʿ: Dirāsat isnādihi wa matnihi wa ikhtilaf al-ʿulamāʾ fī maʿnāhu wa ṣilatihi bi-al-qirā’āt al-Qurʾānīyah* (Beirut: Resalah Publishers, 2002). [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4991, *kitāb faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān*. The hadith of seven *aḥruf* are cited in no fewer than four books within *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*. [^20]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2944, [https://sunnah.com/urn/731900](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/731900&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219861271&usg=AOvVaw24ra91OYSFyCaYUw4Wdwy4). [^21]: Ibn Qutaybah, *Ta’wīl mushkil al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Maktabah Dar al-Turath, 1973), 38–40; see also Abū Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajīz ilā ʿulūm tataʿallaq bi-al-kitāb al-ʿazīz* (Beirut: DKI, 2003), 90. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5041, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/65](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/65&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219887948&usg=AOvVaw3PzVXH8SAIpt9pH1CPYIE4). [^23]: al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan*, (Halab: al-Maṭbaʿah al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1932), 1:293. [^24]: For further details, see Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibānah ʿan maʿānī al-qirāʾāt* (Cairo: Dar Nahdah Misr, 1977), 71–79; Abū Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajī*z, 91-111; al-Zarkashi: *al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Cairo: Dār al-Turāth, 1984), 1:213–27; Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, ed. Muḥammad Sālim Muḥaysin (Cairo: Maktabah al-Qahirah, 1978), 1:21–31; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Qāriʾ, *Hadith al-aḥruf as-sab’ah*; Ghanim Qadduri Al-Hamad, *al-Ajwibah al-‘ilmiyyah ‘alā as’ilat multaqā ahl al-tafsīr*. [^25]: Taqi Uthmani, *An Approach to the Qur’anic Sciences* (Karachi: Darul Ishaat, 2007), 105–65; Ahmad Ali al-Imam, *Variant Readings of the Qur’an* (London: IIIT, 2006); Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 152–64; Abu Ammar Yasir Qadhi, *An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur’aan* (Birmingham: Al-Hidaayah Publications, 1999), 172–202. [^26]: See Ibn al-Jazarī: *an-Nashr*, 1:27; al-Suyūṭī: *al-Itqān*, 1:313–14. [^27]: In our time, *shawādhdh* has been used as a designation for all *qirā’āt* other than the ten canonical *qirā’āt*. The formal classical definition is those readings that lack one of the following three criteria: (1) authentic transmission; (2) conformity to the ʿUthmānic skeletal text; and (3) concordance with conventional Arabic grammar. [^28]: For a list of these variants see ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Khaṭīb, *Mu’jam al-qirāʾāt* (Damascus: Dār Sa’d al-Din, 2002), 6:315. No. 1 variant 2 is read by Abū Sawwār al-Ghunawī and Abū al-Jawzāʾ, no. 2 variant 2 by ʿĀṣim al-Jaḥdarī and ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, no. 2 variant 3 by Muʿādh Abū Ḥulaymah and Abū Nahik, no. 3 variant 2 by Ad´ham al-Sadūsī, and no. 4 variant 2 by ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr. [^29]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd li mā fī al-Muwaṭṭa min al-maʿāni wa-al-asānīd* (Rabat: al-Maṭba’ah al-Malakiyyah, 1980), 8:301–2. Shady Hekmat Nasser also adopts a similar approach, *The Transmission*, 29–30. [^30]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, *kitāb al-raqā’iq*, *bāb qirā’āt al-Qur’ān*, 747, [https://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display\_book.php?idfrom=749&idto=749&bk\_no=314&ID=741](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom%3D749%26idto%3D749%26bk_no%3D314%26ID%3D741&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219860317&usg=AOvVaw2BCY9uVr0paO0-ooM9WCFH). [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 403, [http://sunnah.com/muslim/4/64](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://sunnah.com/muslim/4/64&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219860716&usg=AOvVaw2U5DKi6k-GNPvmdPS0iRXj). [^32]: Ibn Mujāhid, *Kitāb al-sabʿah fī al-qirāʾāt*, ed. Shawqi Dayf (Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif, 1972), 51. [^33]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4987, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/9](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/9&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219886797&usg=AOvVaw3gaiXlK7eoCUAt63CmpxlQ). [^34]: For a discussion on this point, see Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*,  97. [^35]: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mas’ud was praised for his recitation by the Prophet ﷺ, being one of the four from whom the Prophet told others to learn the Qur’an (alongside Sālim, Mu’ādh, and Ubayy ibn Ka’b; *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhari*, no. 4999), and being one whose recitation was described “as fresh as how it was revealed” (*Sunan ibn Majah*, no. 143, [https://sunnah.com/urn/1251380](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1251380&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219864207&usg=AOvVaw1GQ2vZI2_DdSptOtCM8xEH)). [^36]: Ibn Mujāhid, *Kitab al-sabʿah fī al-qirāʾāt*, 67. See also Ghānim Qaddurī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf: Dirāsah lughawīyah tārīkhīyah* (Baghdad: al-Lajnah al-Waṭaniyyah, 1982), 623; and Ramon Harvey, “The Legal Epistemology of Qur’anic Variants: The Readings of Ibn Masʿūd in Kufan fiqh and the Ḥanafī madhhab,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 19, no. 1 (2017): 72–101, 20, endnote 8. [^37]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3742, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/62/89](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/62/89&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219864929&usg=AOvVaw3xNT57fV-mt9WDmKTnqodB). [^38]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*, no. 4727, [https://sunnah.com/urn/180620](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/180620&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219874312&usg=AOvVaw0FUmlHDJ3CjMheiNbPpttA). [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*, no. 4971, [https://sunnah.com/urn/183110](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/183110&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219884945&usg=AOvVaw1NX5hyG0RbN-GVKs1ciJbv); *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 208a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/416](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/416&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219885266&usg=AOvVaw1WuNaOhb_kaRwsoVTnAPGE). al-Nawawī (d. 671 AH) and al-Qurṭubī (d. 676 AH) both stated that this was a revealed verse that was abrogated. See al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim bin Ḥajjāj* (Cairo: Mu’assasat Qurtubah, 1994), 3:102; al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur*’*ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2006), 16:83. Al-Kirmānī (d. 796 AH) adds the possibility of it being *tafsīr*: *Sharḥ al-Kirmānī ala Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: DKI, 1971), 9:211. [^40]: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd ul-Raḥmān al-Ṭāsān, *al-Masāḥif al-manṣuba lil-ṣaḥābah wa-al-radd ʿalā shubuhat al-muthārah* (Riyadh: Dar al-Tadmuriyyah, 2016), 314-315. [^41]: Variant readings that differ from the ʿUthmānic codex must be studied by hadith standards because, unlike the *qirā’āt*, they have not been transmitted by the ritual practice of one generation of Muslims from the next, but rather only as isolated reports. The successively transmitted uninterrupted living oral tradition has always been the primary factor in establishing the validity of one’s recitation. [^42]: While the 540 reported variants likely overestimates the quantity, the 20 variants with an authentic chain of transmission likely underestimates it due to the fact that some of the other variants are demonstrated in manuscripts. [^43]: In their 2012 essay studying folios of the lower text, Benham Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi write: “The lower writing of Ṣan‘ā’ 1 clearly falls outside the standard \[Uthmanic\] text type. It belongs to a different text type, which we call C-1. . . . Ṣan‘ā’ 1 constitutes direct documentary evidence for the reality of the non-‘Uthmānic text types that are usually referred to as ‘Companion codices.’ . . . C-1 confirms the reliability of much of what has been reported about the other Companion codices not only because it shares some variants with them, but also because its variants are of the same kinds as those reported for those codices” (Sadeghi and Goudarzi, 17–20). They also note that since the Uthmanic *mushaf* always agrees with either C-1 or Ibn Masʿūd’s text (i.e., it is always in the majority) in the case of difference, this suggests either that it was compiled from a critical examination of other textual sources or that it is the most faithful reproduction of the Prophetic prototype (21–22). Both of these scenarios are entirely consistent with what the Muslim tradition states. [^44]: His father is, of course, none other than the famous Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī (d. 275 AH) who compiled the *Sunan*. [^45]: Ibn Abī Dāwūd, *Kitāb al-maṣāḥif*, ed. Muhib al-Din Wa’iz (Beirut: Dar al-Basha’ir al-Islamiyyah, 2002), 2:284. [^46]: al-Ṭāsān, *al-Maṣāḥif al-manṣuba lil-ṣaḥābah*, 63–64. [^47]: al-Ṭāsān, *Maṣaḥif al-ṣaḥābah*, lecture, Tafsir Centre for Qur’anic Studies, Riyadh, KSA, April 11, 2018, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDH5PtQIvkE#t=48m16s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDH5PtQIvkE#t=48m16s). [^48]: Ibn al-Nadīm, *Kitāb al-fihrist*, ed. Rida Tajadud (Teheran: 1971), 29. [^49]: Al-Azami, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 215. [^50]: For a detailed list of these reports and their analysis in a recent work dedicated to this subject, see ʿAlī al-Jaʿfarī, *alʿAdl wa-l-Iḥsān fī taḥrīr iʿtirāḍāt Ibn Masʿūd ʿalā muṣḥaf ʿUthmān*, (Kuwait: Dār al-Ẓāhiriyya, 2022), 64-57. [^51]: Musnad Aḥmad 21226, Muʿjam al-Kabīr li-Ṭabarānī 9150. Declared authentic by Ibn Ḥajar, al-Suyūṭī, al-Shawkānī, al-Haythamī, Aḥmad Shākir and Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ. See al-Jaʿfarī, *al-ʿAdl*, 65, fn 2. [^52]: Al-Ṭāsān, *Taḥqīq mawqif al-ṣaḥābī al-jalīl ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿūd min al-jam al-ʿUthmānī*, (Riyadh: King Saud University, Chair of Quranic Sciences 1435H), 80-88. Al-Ṭāsān also mentions a third group that considers Ibn Masʿūd to have only disputed writing these chapters in the *muṣḥaf* and not to have disputed their Qur’anic status. However, this possibility falls within the scope of the first group since it rejects the apparent import of the reports about Ibn Masʿūd as the *muʿawwidhatayn*, and thus we find al-Bāqillānī mentions this possibility while also disputing the authenticity and reliability of the narrations. [^53]: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, The Great Exegesis = Al-Tafsīr Al-Kabīr, trans. Sohaib Saeed (Cambridge, UK: The Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute For Islamic Thought, 2018), 343. [^54]: Al-Nawawī, *al-Majmūʿ Sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab*, (Cairo: Idarat al-Tiba'a al-Muniriyya, 1925), 3:396. [^55]: Ibn Ḥazm, *al-Muḥallā* (Beirut: DKI, 2003), 1:32. See also al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ʿulum al-Qurʾān*, 2:128; and Al-Azamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 201. [^56]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār lil-Qur’ān* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2001), 1:300-330. [^57]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 307. [^58]: For instance, ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir asked the Prophet about al-Muʿawwidhatayn, and the Prophet led them in Fajr prayer and recited them; Sunan al-Nasāʾī, 952. [^59]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 317. [^60]: Al-Aʿẓamī, 199. [^61]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 320; see also al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur*’*ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Turkī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2006), 177. [^62]: al-Qurṭubī, 177. For a discussion of the subject, see al-Tāsān, *al-Masāhif*, 390–97. [^63]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī, *ʿAdad suwar al-Qurʾān*, ed. Khalid Ḥasan Abū al-Jūd, (Cairo: Maktaba al-Bukhārī, 2010), 86. [^64]: Cited in al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim ibn Ḥajjāj*, (Cairo: Mu’assasat Qurtubah, 1994), 6:157–58. [^65]: Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil al-ʿirfan fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: DKI, 2013), 1:200. See also the discussion of Theodor Nöldeke who argues on the basis of stylistic features that this invocation clearly does not match the Qur’anic style; Theodor Nöldeke, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergsträsser, Otto Pretzl, and Wolfgang Behn, *The History of the Qur’an* (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 241–42. [^66]: Musnad Aḥmad 21189 and declared authentic by Shuʿayb al-Arnāʿūṭ. [^67]: Ibn Qutayba,  *Ta’wīl mushkil al-Qurʾān*, 43. [^68]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, (Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifah 1379H), 8:743. [^69]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatawa*, (Mansoura: Dar El-Wafaa, 2005), 12:493. [^70]: Al-Ṭāsān, *Taḥqīq mawqif al-ṣaḥābī al-jalīl*, 86-87. See also al-Judayʿ, 112. [^71]: Ibn Kathīr*, Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr*, (Riyadh: Dar al-Tayba 1999), 8:531. [^72]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *al-ʿAdl*, 63-64. [^73]: Al-Jaʿfarī, *al-ʿAdl*, 84. [^74]: See Justin Parrott, “Abrogated Rulings in the Qur’an: Discerning Their Divine Wisdom,” *Yaqeen*, November 15, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219887363&usg=AOvVaw0QcSUR_4s0BmCpqXlRAeKy). [^75]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 1452a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/17/30](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/17/30&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219866998&usg=AOvVaw1vCE5rCdmdLiUwQixudUPG). This narration refers to the extent of infant breastfeeding that is sufficient to establish a familial relationship under Islamic rulings. [^76]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 630, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/5/264](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/5/264&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219867472&usg=AOvVaw3DGn-BBnJ6BfXKl6YQ2ytQ). [^77]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3554, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/61/63](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/61/63&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219867855&usg=AOvVaw2YiJPm3CrSbFC0A0J7Oedc). [^78]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4998, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/20](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/20&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219868471&usg=AOvVaw29epkNoeSoGatGdtqL8VwS). [^79]: For a detailed review, see Nāsir ibn Saʿūd al-Qithamī, “al-ʿArḍah al-akhīrah: Dalālatuha wa atharuhā,” *Majallah Maʿhad al-Imām al-Shaṭibī li-Dirasah al-Qurʾāniyyah*, 2013, no. 15. [^80]: *Mustadrak al-Hākim*, no. 2959, [https://library.islamweb.net/NewLibrary/display\_book.php?flag=1&bk\_no=74&ID=2784](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://library.islamweb.net/NewLibrary/display_book.php?flag%3D1%26bk_no%3D74%26ID%3D2784&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219870287&usg=AOvVaw0s2uSt5nj1t4TaiKs_dX8Z). [^81]: *Sunan Sa’īd ibn Mansūr* (Riyadh: Dar al-Samee’, 1993), 1:239. [^82]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:8. [^83]: Osama Alhaiany, “al-ʿArḍah al-akhīrah lil-Qurʾān al-Karīm wa-al-aḥadīth al-wāridah fīhā jamʿan wa dirāsah,” *al-Majallah al-Ulum al-Islamiyyah*, no. 10, p. 67. [^84]: al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah* (Beirut: Al-Maktab Al-Islami, 1983), 4:525–26. Witnessing the final review would attest to Zaid’s merit in leading the committee commissioned by Uthman. However, Ibn ʿAbbās has a statement reported from him that states that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mas’ud attended *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah* (*Musnad Aḥmad* 3422). If both ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mas’ud and Zayd attended, then it doesn’t make sense why Ibn Masʿūd would have variant readings from that which was established by Zayd in the ʿUthmānic codex. And if ʿAbdullah attended and Zaid did not, then why would the *sahabah* unanimously adopt a codex that did not match *al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah*? Abū Jaʿfar al-Naḥḥās answers that since the reading of ʿAsim comes from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, we know that Ibn Masʿūd did not only teach and recite in one *ḥarf*, rather he also had the same *ḥarf* as Zayd in addition to one that differed. See al-Naḥḥās, *al-Nāsikh wa-al-mansūkh* (Riyadh: Dar al-Asimah, 2009), 2:408. On ʿAsim’s transmission, see al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Tuḥfat al-akhyār bi-tartīb mushkil al-āthār,* ed. Khalid Mahmud al-Rabat (Riyadh: Dar al-Balansiyya, 1999), 8:435. [^85]: al-Naḥḥās, *al-Nāsikh wa-al-mansūkh*, 2:407. [^86]: Ibn Taymīyah, *al-Fatāwā al-kubrā* (Beirut: DKI, 1987), 4:418. [^87]: See section “Codices of companions” above. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3742, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/62/89](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/62/89&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219889483&usg=AOvVaw1yrNYk2Mi7E7kXwFnTGAGu). [^88]: Note that Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī and a few other scholars differed with this position and believed that all the seven *aḥruf* are contained within the ʿUthmānic codices. However, the majority believed that at least some of the *aḥruf* were left out. [^89]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī*, ed. al-Turkī (Cairo: Dār Hajar, 2001), 1:59–60. [^90]: al-Naḥḥās, *al-Nāsikh wa-al-mansūkh*, 2:405. *Fa-arāda ʿUthmān an yakhtār min al-sabʿah ḥarfan wāḥid wa huwa afṣaḥuhā*. [^91]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār* (Damascus: Dar Qutaibah, 1993), 8:45. [^92]: ʿAlī ibn Ismaʿīl al-Abyārī, *al-Taḥqīq wa-al-bayān fī sharḥ al-burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh* (Doha: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa al-Shuʾūn al-Islāmīyah Qatar, 2013), 2:792. [^93]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Ṭuruq al-ḥukmīyah fī al-siyāsah al-sharʿīyah*, (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1428 AH), 1:47–48; Ibn al-Qayyim, *Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn* (Dammam: Dār ibn al-Jawzī, 2002), 5:65. [^94]: See also Mannāʿ al-Qaṭṭān, *Mabāḥith fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān* (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1995), 158. [^95]: Makkī states, [^96]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr*, 1:31. He writes, “As for whether ʿUthmānic codices encompass all the seven *aḥruf* then this is a major topic . . . the position taken by the majority of the scholars from the earlier and later generations and the Imams of the Muslims is that these codices encompass that which the text can accommodate from the seven *aḥruf*.” [^97]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh: Dār al-Ṭaybah, 2005), 11:195–96. He further explains that this was a reason for the textual variants between ʿUthmānic codices, to increase the number of readings that could be accommodated. [^98]: Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmmār al-Mahdawī, *Sharḥ al-hidāyah* (Riyadh: Maktabah Rushd, 1995), 5. [^99]: As demonstrated by the view of Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, there is no conflict between the view that the committee of ʿUthmān compiled the Qur’an according to one *ḥarf* and the view that some of the other *aḥruf* remained because even if the committee may have primarily had one of the various readings in mind when they transcribed the codex, that does not change the fact that other readings could still be accommodated by the skeletal text. See also Ghānim Qaddurī al-Ḥamad, *Rasm al-muṣḥaf: Dirāsah lughawīyah tārīkhīyah*, 152. [^100]: Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, *al-Ibānah ʿan maʿanī al-qirāʾāt* (Cairo: Dar Nahdah Misr, 1977), 42. [^101]: Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār lil-Qur’ān* (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2001), 1:153. He mentions as an example the reading “*salāt al-ʿaṣr*” in 2:238. [^102]: Abū Ḥayyān, *al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2010), 1:260. [^103]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3314, [https://sunnah.com/urn/740400](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/740400&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219883018&usg=AOvVaw3YyVjeiHUC_kcMpOKhk_jD). [^104]: al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim bin al-Ḥajjāj* (Cairo: Mu’assasat Qurtubah, 1994), 6:157. [^105]: Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirā’āt al-ʿashar*, 1:44. [^106]: Related in al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur*’*ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2006), 1:134. See also, Ghānim Qaddūrī al-Ḥamad, *Muḥāḍarāt fī ulūm al-Qurʾān* (Amman: Dar Ammar, 2003), 145. [^107]: al-Naḥḥās, *I’rab al-Qurʾān*, (Riyadh: Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1988), 1:321–2. Note however the previously mentioned narration concerning this being an abrogated reading: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 630, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/5/264](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/5/264&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219871168&usg=AOvVaw0mfgCjIN6DQwFwi4ZTfXMS). [^108]: Reported in *Sunan Sa’īd ibn Mansūr* (d. 227 AH) according to al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān* (Beirut: DKI, 2000), 1:119. [^109]: Abdul Jalil, “Dhahirat al-ibdāl fī qirāʾat ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd wa-qīmatuhā al-tafsīrīyah,” *Journal of Qur’anic Studies* 15, no. 1 (2013): 168–213, 210. [^110]: *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, book 47, no. 3208, [https://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display\_book.php?flag=1&bk\_no=56&ID=5684](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?flag%3D1%26bk_no%3D56%26ID%3D5684&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219873088&usg=AOvVaw1F2o7LHDJC7fgfKVlLUyd2). [^111]: al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-ṣaḥiḥayn*, ed. Yūsuf ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Marʿashī (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1986), 2:451. The viewpoint adopted by al-Zarqānī is that Ibn Masʿūd selected another revealed *ḥarf* that was easier for the man to recite. al-Zarqānī, *Manāhil al-ʿirfān*, 1:133. [^112]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur*’*ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2006), 19:132-133. [^113]: Al-Māwardī, *al-Ḥāwī al-kabīr*, (Beirut: DKI 1994) 2:115. [^114]: Taqi Uthmani, *An Approach to the Qur’anic Sciences* (Karachi: Darul Ishaat, 2007), 249–51. [^115]: Al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ mushkil al-āthār*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʿūṭ, 16 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 1994), 8:118. [^116]: This can be contrasted with al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 AH) who considered it permissible without having been abrogated. After quoting the incident of Abū al-Dardāʾ teaching a man to recite *ṭaʿām al-fājir*, al-Zamakhsharī writes, “And this is used to prove the permissibility of exchanging one word for another so long as it gives the same meaning.” He goes on to use this as an explanation for Abū Ḥanīfah permitting recitation in Persian. al-Zamakhsharī, *al-Kashshāf* (Beirut: Dar al-Marefah, 2009), 1003. See also the opinion of Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī in *Maʿānī al-Aḥruf al-Sabʿa*, 385-389. [^117]: For a detailed analysis of al-Ṭaḥāwī’s views, refer to Ammar Khatib, *Taḥrīr madhhab al-Īmām al-Ṭaḥāwī fī maʿna al-aḥruf al-sabʿa*, Tafsir Center for Quranic Studies, May 22, 2021, https://tafsir.net/article/5351.pdf. [^118]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 1:370. [^119]: Al-Bāqillānī, *al-Intiṣār*, 1:65. [^120]: Ibn ʿAqīlah al-Makkī, *al-Ziyada wal-iḥsān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān*, (Sharjah: Markaz al-Buḥūth 2006) 1:491-492. [^121]: Reported by al-Dhahabī in *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ*, 1:347. [^122]: See for instance, Naṣīr Aḥmad Muḥibb, *Ḥukm riwāyah al-ḥadīth bil-maʿnā*, AJRSP 19 (2020):251-259. [^123]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 819a, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/6/330](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/6/330&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219903421&usg=AOvVaw2yB__RyAwqsVnxxcrOoZ4i) [^124]: Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, *The Epistle on Legal Theory: A Translation of Al-Shafii's Risalah*, trans. Joseph Lowry (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 119. Cf. al-Shāfiʿī, *al-Risālah*, (Cairo: al-Ḥalabī 1940), 275. [^125]: Al-Shāfiʿī, *Ikhtilāf al-ḥadīth*, (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr 1990), 600. [^126]: Al-Shāfiʿī, *Ikhtilāf al-ḥadīth*, 600. [^127]: See Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī, *Bustān al-ʿārifīn*, chap. 29, concerning revelation of the Qur’an in 7 *aḥruf*, manuscript, Thomas Fisher Arabic Collection, University of Toronto, [https://archive.org/details/bustanalarifin00unse/page/40](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/details/bustanalarifin00unse/page/40&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219898406&usg=AOvVaw0-fiii2F2wvUM9uhGtZ0gd); see also az-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān*, 1:326–27. [^128]: Abu Shāmah, *al-Murshid al-wajeez ila ulum tata’alaq bil-Kitab al-Aziz* (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah, 2003), 105. See also p. 85 where Abu Shāmah states the ʿUthmānic recension was based only on the revealed wording (*lafdh al-munazzal*) and not the substituted synonym words (*lafdh al-murādif*). [^129]: Abu Shāmah, 109. The quote from al-Baghawī reads, “The meaning of these *aḥruf* is not that every group reads according to what matches their dialect without instruction (*min ghayrī tawqīf*) but rather all of these *ḥurūf* are mentioned (*mansusah*) and all of them are the speech of God (*kalām Allah*) with which the trustworthy spirit (i.e., Jibrīl) descended upon the Prophet.” See al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah* (Beirut: Maktabah Islami, 1983), 4:509. [^130]: Abu Shāmah, 112. On the same page, he also states that differences between the ʿUthmānic codices were all revealed. [^131]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh: Dar al-Taybah, 2005), 11:191. Commenting on Ibn Hajar’s quote, ʿAbd al-Hādī Ḥamītu supports this view and states this concession was present until the unanimous consensus of the companions on the ʿUthmānic codex. Ḥamītu, *Ikhtilāf al-qirāʾāt wa atharuhu fī al-tafsīr wa istinbāṭ al-aḥkām* (Manama: Islamic Affairs Ministry, 2010), 40. [^132]: Ibn al-Jazarī*, Munjid al-muqriʾīn wa murshid al-ṭālibīn*, ed. ʿAli al-ʿImrān (Makkah: Dar al-Fawāʾid 1998), 99. [^133]: Ibn al-Jazarī*, Munjid*, 95. [^134]: In addition to the above questions, there are other matters of uncertainty in the theory of *qirā’ah bi-al-maʿnā*. Did the Prophet ﷺ himself recite according to meaning? Was the primary impetus for reciting according to meaning the fact that a companion had an imperfect recollection of how the verse was recited by the Prophet and, thus, if they had recourse to a written parchment, would they subsequently revert back to the Prophet’s reading? [^135]: For a review of such theories, see the doctoral dissertation by Ammar Khatib,  *Qirāʾāt al-ṣaḥābah al-khārijah ʿan khaṭṭ al-maṣāḥif al-ʿUthmāniyyah: dirāsah taʾsīlīyah tahlīlīyah* (forthcoming). In 2018, the authors of this paper engaged in discussions with some of the proponents of such views. To date, the most significant published work advocating views of this nature is by Ṣāliḥ ibn Sulaymān al-Rājiḥī, *al-Masāʾil al-kubra allatī khālafa fīhā al-Qurrāʾ al-Mutaʾakhkhirīn Ijmāʿ al-Mutaqaddimīn min al-Qurrāʾ*, (Riyadh: Dar al-Ṣumayʿ 2022). See also Salwa bint Aḥmad al-Ḥārithī, *al-Qirāʾah ʿalā sabʿat aḥruf bayna al-ijtihād wa al-tawqīf*, BFDA, 36:5 (June 2020): 97-158 and Yasin Dutton, “Orality,” 32–34. More recently, similar views have been advanced in Tareq Moqbel, The Emergence of the Qirāʾāt: The Divine Permission Hypothesis, Journal of Islamic Studies, 2022;, etac032. [^136]: Arabic translation of Ignaz Goldziher’s work by 'Abdul-Halim Najjar, *Madhahib al-tafsīr al-Islāmī* (Cairo, 1955). Shady Hekmat Nasser claims that Ibn ʿAṭīyah “openly embraces” this view that the canonical readings are not of Divine or Prophetic origin but rather “the result of the Readers’ interpretation (*ijtihād*) of the defective Uthmanic consonantal script” (Shady Nasser, *The Transmission*, 7, fn 9). However, in the provided reference, Ibn Aṭiyyah actually says nothing of the sort. What Ibn Aṭiyyah actually says is that the seven canonical readers used their *ijtihād* to select whatever variation from the *aḥruf* they found would conform to the *mushaf*, not that the variation itself was invented by *ijtihād*. *Ijtihād* was thus in selection, not invention. See Ibn ʿAṭīyah, *al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz* (Beirut: DKI, 2001), 1:48. The same incorrect claim using the same reference are repeated in Nasser’s second book. See Shady Hekmat Nasser, *The Second Canonization of the Qur’an*, (Leiden: Brill 2020), 61. [^137]: See, for instance, al-Aʿẓamī, *History of the Qur’anic Text*, 155–59. [^138]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1477, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/8/62](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud/8/62&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219874687&usg=AOvVaw0C8-r3_apIDAz4f6wPzJVs). [^139]: al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-ṣaḥīḥayn*, 2:451. [^140]: *Musnad Abī Yaʿla*, no. 4022. Ibn Jinnī (d. 392 AH) discusses this and many other examples. While discussing the variant reading ascribed to Anas ibn Mālik for 9:57 and Anas’s statement that *yajmahūn,* *yajmazūn,* and *yashtadūn* mean the same thing, Ibn Jinnī states, “And the apparent meaning of this is that the *salaf* would recite one letter in place of another without a precedent simply on the basis of agreement in meaning... However, giving the benefit of the doubt to Anas would entail believing that a reading had already preceded with these three words—*yajmahūn, yajmazūn, yasthadūn*—so it was said ‘Recite with any that you wish.’ So all of them constitute a reading heard from the Prophet due to his saying, ‘The Qur’an has been revealed on seven *aḥruf*, all of them healing and sufficient.’” See Ibn Jinnī, *al-Muḥtasib fī tabyīn wujūh shawadhdh al-qirāʾāt wa al-īḍāḥ ʿanhā* (Dar Sazkin, 1406)*,* 1:296. [^141]: For a comprehensive discussion of these reports, refer to Hamzah Awad, “Sharṭ Muwāfaqat al-Rasm al-ʿUthmānī” (PhD diss., University of Batna, Algeria, 2014), 124–38. If authentic, these reports are simply understood to relate to them expressing a preference for the reading they learned directly from the Prophet ﷺ over a reading they were unfamiliar with. [^142]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 4695, [https://sunnah.com/urn/180290](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/180290&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219876322&usg=AOvVaw3FEsI7uBByktk4L8dIaM4B). Ibn Ḥajar explains that she was likely unfamiliar with the interpretation of the other reading. Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Cairo: Dār al-Rayan lil-Turath, 1986), 218, [https://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display\_book.php?idfrom=8477&idto=8478&bk\_no=52&ID=2464](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom%3D8477%26idto%3D8478%26bk_no%3D52%26ID%3D2464&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219876677&usg=AOvVaw3OSBRyUW6OZTejGzvg86Ce). [^143]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr*, 23:309–10. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) comments that Ali considered the ʿUthmānic reading to be a valid revealed reading but was expressing a preference for the reading he had learned. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Tamhīd* (Egypt, 1967), 8:297; see also Hamzah Awad, “Sharṭ Muwāfaqah al-Rasm al-ʿUthmānī,” 138. [^144]: In verse 17:5, it is stated that Abū al-Sammal al-Adawi recited “*faḥāsu*” with a ح instead of a ج and when asked about it stated that they meant the same thing. Ibn Jinnī (d. 392 AH) states, “And this indicates that some of the reciters would choose readings without precedent (*yatakhayyar bi-la riwāyah*)” (Ibn Jinnī, *al-Muḥtasib*, 2:15). However, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH) states about this variant, “It is necessary to understand that as him mentioning it as *tafsīr* of the words of the Qur’an, not that he actually made it part of the Qur’an, since if we were to adopt what Ibn Jinnī says it would entail no longer relying on the wording of the Qur’an and it would permit each individual to express a meaning using a word they thought was concordant with that meaning and then either being correct in that belief or erring, and this is an attack on the Qur’an, so it is evident that we must understand it according to what we have mentioned.” See al-Rāzī, *Tafsīr al-Fakhr al-Rāzī* (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr, 1981), 30:177. [^145]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*, no. 747. [^146]: Ibn Mujāhid, *Kitāb al-sabʿah fī al-qirāʾāt*, 51. Similar statements have been related from Zaid ibn Thabit (al-Bayhaqi, *al-Sunan al-kubrā*, no. 3900) and Urwah ibn al-Zubayr. [^147]: al-Nasāʾī, *al-Sunan al-kubrā*, 2:539. [^148]: The essence of the story is in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari*, no. 3617, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/61/124](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/61/124&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219882410&usg=AOvVaw0cVKbEkS9uZxdEmijt1f6O); however, the details of the man substituting words are found in *Musnad Aḥmad* (no. 13312), *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān* (no. 751), and *Musnad Abī Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī* (no. 2119), among other sources. [^149]: al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur*ʾ*ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2006), 12:180–81. al-Bayḥaqī, *Dalā’il al-nubuwwah* (Beirut: DKI, 1988), 7:160. [^150]: Sa’d said, “Verily the Qur’an was not revealed to ibn al-Musayyib nor his family.” al-Nasa’i, *al-Sunan al-kubrā*, no. 10996; *Sunan Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr*, 1:597. [^151]: al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Mushkil al-āthār*, 8:132–33. [^152]: *Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 5381. In another narration, we find that ʿUmar considered some of Ubayy’s variant readings to have been abrogated. ʿUmar said, “Ubayy is the best of us in recitation yet we leave some of what he recites. Ubayy says, ‘I have taken it from the mouth of Allah’s messenger so I will not leave it for anything.’ However, Allah says {We do not abrogate or cause a revelation to be forgotten except that we bring that which is better than it.}” (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5005, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/27](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/66/27&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219881737&usg=AOvVaw0sDw7-3xvdHZmm3AkMTUuh)). As Ibn Ḥajar explains, “ʿUmar is implying that Ubayy may not have been aware of a reading’s abrogation.” *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (Riyadh, 2001), 8:17. [^153]: al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-ṣaḥīḥayn*, 2:451. This is analogous to the Prophet ﷺ permitting one who cannot recite any Qur’an to simply repeat *subḥān Allāh* (glory be to God) or *alḥamdu lillāh* (praise be to God) instead. See *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 832, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/2/442](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud/2/442&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1685753219883630&usg=AOvVaw2efIfNpSOidLyH5JiyeIra). [^154]: See Ibn al-Salāḥ, *Fatāwā wa masāʾil Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ* (Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifah, 1986), 1:233; Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā* (Mansoura: Dar El-Wafaa, 2005), 13:214; Ibn al-Jazarī, *al-Nashr fī al-qirā’āt al-ʿashar*, 1:32; al-Suyūṭī, *al-Itqān* (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, 1999), 1:263; al-Zarkashī, *al-Burhān fī ulūm al-Qur’ān*, 1:332–33, who cites Ibn al-Ḥājib. [^155]: al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur*ʾ*ān*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-Turkī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 2006), 21:329–30. He also points out that the narration from Anas being used as proof is in fact a weak narration due to a disconnection in the chain. [^156]: Adrian Brockett writes, “Thus, if the Qur’an had been transmitted only orally for the first century, sizeable variations between texts such as are seen in the hadith and pre-Islamic poetry would be found and if it had been transmitted only in writing, sizeable variations such as in the different transmissions of the original document of the Constitution of Medina would be found. But neither is the case with the Qur’an.” Adrian Brockett, “The Value of the Hafs and Warsh Traditions for the Textual History of the Qur’an,” in *Approaches to the History of Interpretation of the Qur’an*, ed. Andrew Rippin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), 44. [^157]: See Ibn Taymīyah, *Jāmiʿ al-masāʾil* (Jeddah: Majma’ al-Fiqhī al-Islāmī, 1422), 1:133. [^158]: Discussed under the section “Critiquing a different paradigm: *qirāʾah bi-l-maʿnā*.” ## Summary Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings upon His Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ, who received the Qur'an and conveyed it in trust to his community. The Qur'an is the literal word of God and His final revelation to humanity, recited and memorized by billions across a millennium and a half. Among its remarkable features is that its verses are recited in diverse modes of recitation (qirāʾāt), which differ in rules of prolongation, intonation, and pronunciation (termed uṣūl), as well as in the vowelization or letters of particular words (termed farsh). The words of the Qur'an thus divide into those that may be read only one way—the majority—and those that admit multiple readings, which form the basis of the qirāʾāt. Each mode is named after a famous early reciter, and those who master it receive ijāzah, entering an unbroken chain of transmission back to the Prophet ﷺ. While most of the Muslim world recites according to ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd (d. 127 AH) through Ḥafṣ ibn Sulaymān (d. 180 AH), other modes remain in use, such as that of the Medinan Nāfiʿ (d. 169 AH) through Qālūn and Warsh, which predominates in North Africa. All of these adhere to the codex (muṣḥaf) compiled under the Caliph ʿUthmān (d. 35 AH) in the year 30 AH, written without diacritics so as to accommodate these variations. Muslims hold that the Qur'an was taught in different ways during the Prophet's life, known as the seven aḥruf. The ten qirāʾāt studied today represent only a limited portion of the variations that existed before the ʿUthmānic codex. A number of readings differing from that codex were recited by such Companions as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 32 AH), Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 69 AH), ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40 AH), Ubayy ibn Kaʿb (d. 30 AH), and ʿĀʾishah (d. 58 AH), may Allah be pleased with them. These were preserved in works of qirāʾāt, tafsīr, and jurisprudence, and remarkably, ancient manuscripts—such as the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest—have been found to match wordings the classical tradition attributes to the Companions, testifying to the precision of the tradition's transmission. The prevailing Muslim understanding is that these readings arose from the Prophet's own instruction and multiply the eloquence of the Qur'an. Western scholarship, by contrast, has debated the matter. Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi categorize the views as revisionist, skeptical, and neo-traditionalist. Revisionists such as John Wansbrough, Patricia Crone, and David Powers held that the text was standardized only after ʿUthmān—a conclusion requiring the dismissal of nearly all traditional sources, an approach critiqued as "marshaling cherry-picked, decontextualized and misinterpreted reports." Skeptics doubt both narratives, while scholars such as Michael Cook (a former revisionist), Harald Motzki, and Nicolai Sinai have concluded that, absent compelling evidence against the traditional narrative and given considerable data supporting it, the default remains the ʿUthmānic recension of 650 CE or earlier. The present concern is the tradition's perspective on the pre-ʿUthmānic variants reported from the Companions. The revelation began when Jibrīl came to the Prophet ﷺ at the cave of Ḥirāʾ. Allah affirms, "Say, the Holy Spirit has brought it down from your Lord with truth" (16:102). Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that Jibrīl would meet the Prophet ﷺ every night in Ramadan to revise the Qur'an with him. The Prophet ﷺ taught reliable reciters and instructed them to teach others, sending seventy Medinan reciters to the tribes at Biʾr Maʿūnah, and saying, "The best of you are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it." Over sixty-five scribes recorded it. It is a critical error of some Western scholars to treat the Qur'an as they would the Old or New Testament, relying solely on manuscripts and neglecting the centrality of oral recitation and memorization—for practically every Muslim community boasts its ḥuffāẓ, and the Qur'an is recited aloud in daily prayer. That the Prophet ﷺ taught multiple readings is established by reports so widely transmitted they reach the level of mutawātir lafẓī. He said, "Jibrīl recited the Qur'an to me in one ḥarf, and I kept asking him for more until he recited it in seven aḥruf," explaining that his community included the elderly, the young, and the unlettered. Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276 AH) explained that this flexibility was a mercy easing the burden upon a people of varied dialects. The clearest proof is the incident of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Hishām ibn Ḥakīm, who differed in reciting Sūrat al-Furqān; when brought before the Prophet ﷺ, he approved both, saying to each, "It was revealed in this way," and, "This Qur'an has been revealed in seven aḥruf, so recite whichever way is easier." Scholars differed over the meaning of the seven aḥruf and whether "seven" was literal or metaphorical. The view favored by most specialists, and articulated by Abū al-Faḍl al-Rāzī (d. 454 AH), Ibn Qutaybah, al-Zarkashī (d. 794 AH), and Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH), is that the aḥruf are categories of variation—involving number and gender, verbal morphology, case endings, omission or addition of words, word order, and consonantal alternation. This list is best treated as illustrative rather than exhaustive. The Companions' recitations were not uniform, for they were taught differently; when they disagreed, they returned to the Prophet ﷺ, who confirmed the readings as divine. ʿUmar affirmed that recitation is a Sunnah transmitted from one generation to the next, leaving nothing to individual discretion. As Islam spread, disputes over recitation arose. Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, alarmed at the differences among the people of Shām and Iraq, urged ʿUthmān to act. ʿUthmān thus commissioned Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 45 AH), ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith to compile perfect copies, instructing that any disagreement be resolved according to the dialect of Quraysh, and ordering other materials burned. In some regions, notably Kūfah, the transition took time owing to the influence of Ibn Masʿūd, as al-Aʿmash (d. 148 AH) reported. Works of tafsīr and even Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī record such variants—for instance, that Ibn Masʿūd recited 92:3 as "and by the male and the female," which Abū al-Dardāʾ testified he learned likewise from the Prophet ﷺ. A comprehensive study by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭāsān counted 592 reported instances of Companion readings; of the 540 differing from the codex, only 177 possess a chain of transmission, and only 20 are authentic by hadith standards. The tradition thus erred on the side of caution in preserving more than was strictly authenticated. Regarding the "codices" of Companions, Ibn Abī Dāwūd (d. 316 AH) clarified in Kitāb al-Maṣāḥif that he used the term muṣḥaf only for what differed in writing. Al-Ṭāsān showed these were first called qirāʾah or ḥarf of Ibn Masʿūd, only later termed muṣḥaf. Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 380 AH) found no two attributed copies in agreement, and Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī warned that wholesale ascription is erroneous, some copies being forgeries sold by antique dealers. Concerning the reports that al-Fātiḥah and al-Muʿawwidhatayn were absent from Ibn Masʿūd's codex, scholars divided. Al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH), Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH), Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH), and al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) rejected these reports as inauthentic, citing the tawātur of these chapters and the community's consensus. Al-Bāqillānī further suggested Ibn Masʿūd may have omitted them for brevity, since their fame made writing unnecessary—as Ibn Masʿūd himself indicated regarding al-Fātiḥah, and as al-Māzirī (d. 536 AH) and al-Zarqānī (d. 1367 AH) explained. A second group, including Ibn Qutaybah, Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852 AH), Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), and al-Ṭāsān, accepted the reports as authentic but excused Ibn Masʿūd on the grounds that their Qur'anic status had not been transmitted to him with certainty. Ibn Kathīr (d. 773 AH) held he may have later revised his view. In any case, the disagreement vanished as the ʿUthmānic codex spread. The variant readings from Companions are understood theologically through the framework of qirāʾah bi-al-talaqqī—recitation by direct learning, which was the Companions' careful practice. On this basis, three explanations arise. First, an abrogated ḥarf: abrogation is affirmed in "We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth better than it" (2:106), and may pertain to recitation itself, as ʿĀʾishah reported concerning the verses of breastfeeding, and al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib concerning 2:238. Many scholars held that the wording was finalized in the final review (al-ʿarḍah al-akhīrah) in the Prophet's last year, when Jibrīl reviewed the Qur'an with him twice; Ibn Sīrīn (d. 110 AH), Ibn al-Jazarī, and Ibn Taymiyyah affirmed that the codex conformed to it and to the reading of Zayd. Yet this view sits uneasily with the continued recitation of Ibn Masʿūd's ḥarf in Kūfah. Second, an abandoned ḥarf: many scholars—including al-Ṭabarī, al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH), Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH), and Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH)—held that ʿUthmān selected one ḥarf as a concession to reduce discord, while others, including Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH) and Ibn al-Jazarī, held that what remained were some differences the skeletal text could accommodate. This view resembles abrogation, save that the exclusion occurred by God's decree through the community's consensus. Makkī observed it was "as if they were abrogated by consensus upon the script." Third, non-Qur'anic recital: many held that Companions' variants were often exegetical clarifications (qirāʾāt tafsīrīyah). Al-Bāqillānī noted that some recited interpretation alongside revelation; Abū Ḥayyān, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn al-Jazarī, Ibn al-Anbārī (d. 328 AH), and al-Naḥḥās affirmed this. Ibn Masʿūd's substitution of arshidnā for ihdinā in 1:6 illustrates it, since hidāyah accompanies "the path" in many places while rushd does so nowhere—Mujāhid (d. 103 AH) remarked that Ibn Masʿūd's reading spared him much questioning of Ibn ʿAbbās. At times the alteration eased pronunciation, as when Ibn Masʿūd taught a struggling man ṭaʿām al-fājir for ṭaʿām al-athīm, which al-Qurṭubī and al-Māwardī explained as facilitation, not substitution of God's words. These three explanations need not be mutually exclusive; Mufti Taqī Usmani listed five overlapping possibilities for the anomalous readings. As for qirāʾah bi-al-maʿnā (reciting by meaning), a small number of scholars—al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321 AH), al-Bāqillānī, and Abū Shāmah (d. 665 AH)—acknowledged a limited concession that was later abrogated or ceased after the codex, none holding it the origin of the canonical qirāʾāt. Al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204 AH) insisted no one may intentionally depart from the revealed wording save through forgetfulness. Ibn Ḥajar affirmed that recitation required adherence to what was heard from the Prophet ﷺ. The attempt to make qirāʾah bi-al-maʿnā the explanation for all variants—echoing the discredited claim of Goldziher—is unconvincing, for the incident of ʿUmar and Hishām, ʿUmar's threefold questioning of Ubayy, and the stern warning of the apostate scribe of Banū al-Najjār all show the Companions' insistence on exact wording. Ibn al-Anbārī rightly warned that unrestricted paraphrase would nullify the Qur'an's wording entirely. In sum, the qirāʾāt recited today rest upon three conditions: conformity to the ʿUthmānic consonantal skeleton, consistency with Arabic grammar, and an authentic chain. Those falling short are shādhdh. The Companions' variants differing from the codex represent either an abrogated or abandoned ḥarf, or a recital altered for commentary or facilitation. The tradition's detailed treatment of these modes is unparalleled, and to hear the Qur'an in its varied readings is to experience the same beauty that captured its earliest hearers. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-colonized-mind-and-the-decline-of-the-islamic-education-system # All That We Lost: The Colonized Mind and the Decline of the Islamic Education System **Author:** Faisal Malik **Topics:** Education, Family & Community **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 15, 2019 **Updated:** June 5, 2026 ## Introduction **In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful** In a 2009 CNN documentary entitled *Generation Islam*, a segment dedicated to Islamic education in Pakistan stated: “*Many madrassas teach a version of Islam that's locked in the past. Students are rarely taught math or science…*” The documentary then goes on to praise an NGO worker by describing him as “*…on the forefront of the battle to modernize Pakistan's madrassas....*”[^1] The documentary’s depiction of *madaaris*[^2] as remnants of a pre-modern Muslim culture frozen in time, out of touch, and at times in conflict with the modern world, is reflective of a wider discourse found in media outlets, think tanks, intellectual circles, and governmental bodies[^3] that explains educational challenges of  the Muslim world as a result of a lack of “modernization.” From this vantage point, the inability of educational institutes in many parts of the Muslim world to meet the needs of their populations,[^4] is explained away as being the result of an inability to evolve into modernity. The “tradition vs. modernity” narrative has been supported by various historians and academics who have depicted Islamic educational institutes as having a very limited role in intellectual development in Muslim civilization.[^5] This narrative, however, has been challenged by many other historians, intellectuals, and scholars over the years,[^6] despite the fact that the depiction of Islamic educational institutes, such as the *madrasa*, as archaic remnants of a medieval past is still prevalent in popular discourse. Following on the works of earlier researchers and intellectuals, this paper demonstrates that the current state of education in the Muslim world, far from being a remnant of ancient Muslim civilization, is rather a by-product of developments that began during the colonial period. To make the case that the current state of education in the Muslim world is quite modern, as opposed to a relic of the past, I will examine the philosophical foundations of schooling in the Muslim world and the impact of colonialism on these educational systems. For context, in the Muslim world,  various school systems were developed on the basis of an Islamic worldview. The oneness of God (*tawhid*), prophethood (*nubuwwa*), and the afterlife (*akhira*) helped shape and sustain the educational institutes established in traditional Muslim societies. Starting in the 18th century, with the rise of European colonialism, the educational system in the Muslim world underwent a radical transformation. European colonialism introduced into the Muslim world educational theories and institutes that were grounded within a secular paradigm. With exposure to these new understandings of pedagogy and schooling, older understandings of education became displaced in many parts of the Muslim world. A problem arose, however, with the fact that these new school systems were established on epistemologies and worldviews that were foreign to the Islamic worldview, which in turn created an educational crisis in the Muslim world that exists to this day. In this paper I focus on three specific areas: 1) The philosophical foundations of schooling in the Muslim world; 2) The impact of colonialism on educational systems in the Muslim world; 3) An exploration of educational reform in the Muslim world. --- ## The philosophical foundations of schooling in the Muslim world ### Iqra! The divine commandment and knowledge When discussing education in Islam, Muslim historians will often begin with the first verses of the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The first word revealed in the Qur’an was the commandment *Iqra!*, meaning ‘Read!’ From the next few *ayaat* (verses), it can be extrapolated that Islam from its inception gave importance to searching for knowledge through the divine injunction to read (96:1); to elevating literacy by referring to the pen (*al-qalam*) as being a tool to teach humans (96:4); to examining the observable world by making reference to human origins from an ‘*alaq* (96:2);[^7] and, finally, connecting acquisition of knowledge with gaining cognizance of God (96:1-5).[^8] The call to acquire knowledge is a recurrent theme throughout the Qur’an. In fact, the word for knowledge in the Qur’an—*‘ilm*—and its derivatives occur more than 800 times in the Qur’an[^9] and, after the word *Allah*, this word is the second-most repeated word in the Qur’an.[^10] True knowledge from a Qur’anic perspective is not just information and data that can be functionalized for people, society, and institutions; rather, true knowledge is that which transforms human beings and connects them with the source and purpose of their existence and brings them into harmony with the cosmos. In an Islamic framework, the pursuit of knowledge cannot be divorced from divinely legislated ethics[^11] and the metaphysical realities that underpin human existence. True knowledge must always lead one back to God. In regards to the pursuit of knowledge through institutional forms, three terms came to be used for education in the Arabic language and in Muslim civilization: 1) *ta’lim*, the root of which means  to know, be aware, to perceive, to learn; 2) *tarbiyya*, the root of which means to increase, to grow, to rear; 3) *taadib*, the root of which means to be cultured, refined, well-mannered.[^12] From these concepts, one can derive the notions of awareness, growth, and refinement as part of the aims of the educational process in the Islamic worldview. ### Flourishing of education institutes in the Muslim world During the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the first generation of Muslims was encouraged to learn and seek knowledge. The emphasis on acquiring knowledge was so great that during the first major battle of the Muslim community, the Battle of Badr, after the Makkans were defeated, the Prophet ﷺ laid a condition upon some of the Makkan prisoners of war that they could gain their freedom if they were able to teach 10 children to read and write.[^13] For the first Muslim community, teaching and learning occurred first in private houses of Muslims, such as the house of ibn al-Arqam, and then later gravitated towards the *masaajid* (plural of *masjid*).[^14] While the *masaajid* marked the beginning stages of educational development in the Muslim world, eventually more complex institutions of learning would emerge.[^15] With the passage of time and through the system of pious religious endowment (*waqf*), the *madrasa* was born, which helped pave the way for mass institutionalized learning throughout the Muslim world.[^16] Under Nizam al-Mulk, the Vizier of the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century (CE), the *madrasa* system would flourish[^17]and would expand further with the coming of the Ottomans centuries later.[^18] Schools became prevalent in many parts of the Muslim world and were generally accessible to various levels of society. Records show that during the period of Mamluk rule, there were schools in Cairo and Damascus for educating women and in the 13th century, education was provided for elderly, divorced, and widowed women.[^19]At the time of Muslim rule in Spain, in Cordoba alone there are reported to have been 17 universities and 70 public libraries with hundreds of thousands of books.[^20] During the 14th and 15th centuries CE, there are reports that in Delhi alone there were close to a thousand *madaaris* and education was accessible to all classes of society, including slaves.[^21] Many non-Muslims in India during the Mughal period would enroll in *madaaris* and *makaatib* (plural of *maktab*, a type of primary school for children).[^22] One colonial official reported in 1857 his amazement at the number of Hindus who were attending Muslim-run schools in the Punjab region.[^23] During the 18th century, European tourists visiting places such as Cairo recorded their surprise at the huge percentage of the population that was literate.[^24] Reports from French researchers in Algeria during the beginning of the French occupation of Algeria in the 19th century noted that the proportion of literate people in Algeria was higher than that in France.[^25] These are just some examples of the vast networks of schools that were prevalent in many parts of the Muslim world. However, the question arises: what exactly was being taught in these schools? ### Al-Ma’qul and Al-Manqul: The rational and the transmitted When discussing the curriculum of what was being taught and studied in the *madaaris* and other schools in the Muslim world, it is important to note that, unlike the division between religion and the secular that would eventually mark the Western world, traditional Muslim societies did not divide knowledge in this way. In Muslim civilization, religion was viewed as encompassing a holistic view of reality in which reason and rational thought were integrated with sacred knowledge. The curricula of *madaaris* and other schools in the Muslim world were generally divided between the *ulum al-ma’qul* (the rational sciences) and *ulum al-manqul* (the transmitted sciences).[^26] Many subjects that would in modern times be classified as secular—such as math, medicine, and others—in traditional Muslim societies would generally fall under the *ulum al-ma’qul*.[^27] It is important to note that, although many of the *ulum al-ma’qul* (e.g., math, medicine, etc.) would in contemporary times be classified as secular sciences, these subjects were taught in the Muslim world within an Islamic paradigm. Muslim society never saw a need to divorce subjects from religion; therefore, the *ulum al-ma’qul* were considered a sub-branch of religious learning and Muslim thinkers regarded scientific research as a means of exploring religious truths[^28] and contemplating God’s creation. While speaking of the study of medicine, astronomy, or other sciences as grounded in an Islamic paradigm might seem strange to some, it is important to note that no subject can be taught outside of a paradigm and a worldview. While many disciplines studied and taught in the West and secular universities often claim universality, deep analysis would find them grounded in a various array of paradigms and worldviews, whether positivism, reductionism, relativism, historicism, etc. Just glimpsing the lives and works of prominent thinkers who lived during the period when Muslim civilization flourished, one can find many instances that demonstrate how Muslim societies were established on an integrative approach to knowledge that combined religion, reason, science, ethics, and metaphysics. Ibn Sina, the famous Muslim polymath who lived in the 10th and 11th centuries, divided theoretical philosophy in relation to matter and motion into three types of science: natural, mathematical, and theological/metaphysical.[^29] He did not see these sciences as secular and religious; rather, he saw them as divisions within a larger framework of knowledge. It is noteworthy that while Ibn Sina believed that theology/metaphysics was the highest of sciences and natural sciences was the lowest,[^30] this did not hinder his approach to the natural sciences, with his work on medicine (*Qanun fi al-Tibb*) becoming the standard textbook on medicine in Europe for several centuries.[^31] The famous theologian Al-Ghazali, who lived just a generation after Ibn Sina, praised the study of medicine and math and claimed that it was a communal obligation for some people within a community to study these sciences. For Al-Ghazali, any field of study that was necessary for developing communities—such as medicine, math, agricultural, and others—was considered theologically a communal religious obligation and at least some members of every community needed to be skilled in such sciences.[^32] The 14th\-century historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun wrote in his *Al Muqaddimah* about the various sciences that were being studied in the Muslim world at his time and noted that the sciences that were included amongst the *ulum al-ma’qul* were logic, physics, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, medicine, algebra, optics, and others.[^33] He noted that there existed a high regard for math in some Muslim communities and children were taught the subject at an early age.[^34] It is also noteworthy that, in outlining the various sciences that were being studied in the Muslim world, Ibn Khaldun also observed that, throughout Muslim civilization, the Qur’an played a central role in the education of children.[^35] One example of the centrality and impact of Qur’anic education in the Muslim world can be seen in an account of Francis Moore, an employee of the Royal African Company of England, who noted in the 1730s that, in the region of Senegambia, the local population was more learned in Arabic, the language of the Qur’an, than Europeans were in Latin.[^36] Ibn Khaldun’s outline of the various subjects being taught in the Muslim world, along with recording the centrality of the Qu’ran in the education system, shows that Muslim civilization saw no contradiction between religious faith and science, reason and revelation, and had developed a civilization that integrated knowledge into a unified system that was not bifurcated into a secular and religious divide. The integrative approach to reason, science, and revelation that existed in Muslim societies facilitated the creation of educational institutes that advanced knowledge and scientific inquiry. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, there were more philosophical, medical, historical, astronomical, and geographic works written in Arabic than in any other language.[^37] Under Abbasid rule, scientific research was often supported by the government[^38] and the *Baytul Hikma* (House of Wisdom) was a famous observatory, research, and learning center.[^39] During the Seljuk period, one could find hospitals and astronomical observatories adjacent to *madaaris*.[^40] Under the Ottomans, *madaaris* dedicated to the study of medicine were established, such as the *Suleymaniye Medical Madrasa* set up by Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566).[^41] Under the Mughal ruler Akbar, it was decreed that every boy should learn arithmetic, agriculture, geometry, astronomy, medicine, and logic along with other subjects.[^42] The *Dars-e-Nizami*, a curriculum devised by the 18th\-century scholar Mullah Nizamuddin Sahlavi, which hundreds of *madaaris* associate with in contemporary times, originally had engineering, astronomy, and medicine in its curriculum.[^43] --- ## The impact of colonialism on the educational system in the Muslim world The flourishing of Muslim civilization did not occur in isolation from the rest of the world; rather, interactions between various cultures helped shape Muslim civilization and, in turn, Muslim civilization also impacted the broader world. The impact was felt in Europe and much cultural and intellectual exchange had occurred prior to colonialism. An example of this can be seen in the development of universities in medieval Europe through the influence of events occurring in the Muslim world, particularly in Muslim Spain. The medical schools established in Europe in places such as Montpellier, Padua, and Pisa were founded on the pattern of Muslim medical schools in Cordoba.[^44] The research and writings of many Muslim scientists were translated and studied in Europe for many centuries. The 8th\-century works on chemistry of Jabir ibn Hayyan;[^45] the writings on medicine of Ibn Sina;[^46] the 10th\-century writings on surgery by Al-Zahrawi;[^47] and the 13th\-century work on pharmacology of Al-Baytar[^48] are just a few examples of works of Muslim scientists that were translated and became influential in Europe for several centuries. The colonial experience, however, changed the environment of mutual exchange into one of dominance and imposition, with colonialism being a cause of major shifts in the educational systems in the Muslim world. ### Colonialism and epistemicide In the late 15th century, Al-Andalus/Muslim Spain was in the final stages of conquest by the Catholic Monarchy[^49] and accompanying the physical genocide of the population of Al-Andalus was intellectual genocide, or what Grosfoguel has referred to as epistemicide.[^50] Along with murdering and suppressing an entire population of Muslims and Jews, mass burning of libraries was undertaken.[^51] The mass burnings of libraries in Al-Andalus signaled the early stages of intellectual colonization that ran parallel to the political conquests of the colonial era. As Western Europe moved towards secularization, it would eventually become a global homogenizing force, imposing its intellectual tradition on cultures and societies throughout the world in the name of progress. The secular epistemology that lay at the heart of the Enlightenment era became a driving force for the destruction of knowledge systems of other cultures and societies, such that occurring parallel to political imperialism was a process of intellectual colonization. Science, as it was being secularized and developed in the Western world during the Enlightenment era, along with naturalist philosophy, was projected as universal and the only valid way of analyzing the world. The Western scientist became as integral to the colonial project as the military official.[^52] The claim that the Western world had developed a knowledge system superior to all other knowledge systems in the world was one of the justifications used for the great political conquests and subjugation of the rest of the world.[^53] While knowledge production and science from other cultures and societies were being mythologized, science coming from the West was claimed to be universal; hence, science became a means of intellectual colonization.[^54] In the Muslim world, intellectual colonization gradually led to the replacement of an integrative and holistic approach to knowledge with a secularized knowledge system that was fragmented, reductionist, and materialistic. Under the veil of progress, colonialism justified not only conquest of other societies but the reductionist and materialistic science that was being produced became a means for the exploitation of nature and the destruction of entire ecosystems.[^55] The famous intellectual and poet Muhammad Iqbal succinctly described the disastrous nature of science that was being produced by Europe and exported to the rest of the world in analogy of the natural sciences: > *like so many vultures falling on the dead body of Nature, and each running away with a piece of its flesh. Nature as the subject of science is a highly artificial affair, and this artificiality is the result of that selective process to which science must subject her in the interests of precision.*[^56] This understanding of science and secular knowledge was imported into the Muslim world through the creation of new education systems in the Muslim world that were secular. These systems were implanted in the Muslim world by colonial officials and also adopted by Muslim statesmen who desired to use education as a tool for state-building. ### Colonial educational policies In 1835, Thomas Babington Macauley, a British educationist, prepared a syllabus for educational institutes all over India, which contained ‘modern sciences’ and English. The colonial government supported Macauley’s curriculum and worked to undermine the curriculum being taught in schools that had been established in pre-colonial India.[^57] This curriculum was taught until a famous uprising in 1857,[^58] after which new policies were put in place to put education under complete control of the colonial regime. In Egypt, during the three years of occupation under Napoleon, plans were made to build a primary school for Egyptians to teach them elements of the arts and sciences in French in order to prepare them to enter into a French-run school of medicine.[^59] There were also plans to establish a military training school for Mamluk elites to create a modern military[^60] that would act as a proxy for French rule in Egypt. In the Ottoman Empire, a growing number of countries from Europe began to establish schools in the empire through the system of capitulations as the empire was decreasing in power.[^61] In West Africa, the French colonial government sought to control and reduce the influence of Islamic education on the population. Starting in 1857, the French colonial administrator and general Louis Léon César Faidherbe initiated a series of legal decrees and educational policies that were followed for decades by other colonial officials who sought to systematically curb Islamic education in the Senegambia region and to diminish the influence of Qur’anic schools that had been central to the region for 900 years.[^62] This process of new school systems being introduced occurred throughout the Muslim world and had significant outcomes. The first significant outcome was that secular education and schooling as a tool for building the nation-state and extending government control began to gain currency in the Muslim world. Secondly, the introduction of schools set up by colonial regimes began a process of slowly undermining the autonomy and influence of schools run and established by Muslims prior to the colonial period as well as pre-colonial knowledge systems developed by Muslims. Finally, these schools were often intended to co-opt indigenous elite and train them as colonial functionaries, thereby creating a new elite in the Muslim society who were sympathetic to the colonial project. In this respect, where the colonial officials stopped in their intellectual colonization, reformers, often coming from the indigenous elite, would pick up on the project of modernization. ### Reformers, the military, and modernization The project of modernizing the education system in the Ottoman Empire began as early as 1734 when Sultan Mahmud I established the first modern military schools.[^63] More schools would follow in the years to come, mostly linked with the desire to produce a modern military, which would later culminate in the establishment of secular schools under the *tanzimat* reformation beginning in the mid-19th century.[^64] Major changes in education in the Ottoman Empire came in full force when Sultan Selim III initiated the program of the *Nizam-i Cedid* in 1789.[^65] The blind imitation of the West that characterized many of these educational reforms was criticized by thinkers such as Jamal al-Din Al-Afghani.[^66] In West Africa, the Médersa of Saint-Louis established in 1908 marked an attempt of the French colonial state to create educational institutes that integrated elements from the French educational system with Islamic education. The rationale behind this type of school was to create an indigenous elite that would act as proxies for *la mission civilisatrice* of the colonial state.[^67] In Egypt, written documents of Azhari *ulema*, such as al-Jabarti and Hassan al-Attar, showed a fascination with the military and intellectual achievements of the French when they were ruling Egypt.[^68] It was in this respect on the basis of establishing a strong military that Muhammad Ali would establish a parallel system of government-controlled schooling to exist alongside Egypt’s *maktab* and *madrasa* system.[^69] To help with the creation of a new educational system, Muhammad Ali sent students to Europe, primarily to France,[^70] and in 1844 the Egyptian Military School was established in France for the students he sent to study military science. After Muhammad Ali, Ali Mubarak, another famous Egyptian reformer, also worked to transform and modernize the education system in Egypt after traveling to France and studying the education system there.[^71] Mubarak criticized older schools such as Al-Azhar, Egypt’s longest-standing institute of higher learning, by stating: “*They take no cognizance of history and geography and philosophy*,”[^72] referring to new modes of knowledge developed out of interactions with the education system and educational theories coming from France. Another important figure and contemporary of Mubarak was Rifa’a Al-Tahtawi, who had also spent time in France; he stated that in every village that there should be a government teacher to teach the villagers “*the principles of government*,”[^73] to teach them *hub al-watan* (love for the state).[^74] That Al-Tahtawi’s notion of education was directly linked to state-building shows how influential the Western model of education became in certain elite sectors of Muslim society; his idea of using schools to consolidate national identity bears a striking similarity to policies adopted by the French in its own rural population at the time.[^75] In the Indian subcontinent, there was the establishment of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO) (later known as Aligarh University) in the mid-19th century by Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who used Cambridge University as a model for his school.[^76] Ahmed Khan had been greatly impressed with the system of higher education in Britain. He once said to a colleague in regards to Britain: “*If you came here…you would see how education is carried on and how children are taught, how knowledge is acquired and a community attains honor*.”[^77] As far as MAO College’s curriculum was concerned, it replaced the subsection of the *ma’qul* that dealt with topics such as philosophy, astronomy, and medicine that were studied in pre-colonial *madaaris* by their European counterparts.[^78] This move was relevant in that it triggered a new stage of Muslim educational institutes in India adopting discourses of knowledge that were developed in Europe and that came to replace pre-colonial discourses of knowledge. Such a move was predicated on the belief that sciences as they were developed in Europe were more advanced than the understanding of science that existed in the Muslim world and other societies. Parallel to Ahmed Khan’s educational reform, in 1866, a group of Indian *ulema* established the *Darul Uloom Deoband*.[^79] The curriculum of the *Darul Uloom Deoband* was largely influenced by a reformed version of the *Dars-i-Nizami* curriculum.[^80] The *Dars-i-Nizami* curriculum dates back to the 18th\-century scholar Mullah Nizamuddin Sahlavi.[^81] The contents of *Dars-i-Nizami* were quite expansive and the original intention of Nizamuddin was to develop a curriculum that incorporated both *ulum al-manqul* and *ulum al-ma’qul*; engineering, astronomy, and medicine were part of the original curriculum.[^82] The Deobandi reform of the *Dars-i-Nizami* curriculum removed major parts of the *ma’qul* subjects that were initially found in earlier versions of the curriculum[^83] and narrowed the focus primarily to *ulum al-manqul*. The justification for this by some of the founders of the Deobandi movement was that those who wanted a ‘modern’ education could go to schools and colleges outside the *madrasa* system.[^84] This attitude demonstrates how Muslims began to bifurcate their own tradition of unified knowledge, giving way to the secularized frames and subjects coming from colonial systems. The superiority of western knowledge and science was no longer simply a claim of the colonialists but became internalized within the minds of the colonized population.[^85] One can see from the examples cited above of the Ottoman Empire, West Africa, Egypt, and Indian subcontinent how colonialism greatly affected the education system in many parts of the Muslim World. There was first direct imposition by the colonial regimes of secular schools that were foreign to Muslim culture and that undermined the pre-colonial education system. Then Muslim reformers continued the process of establishing schools that were based on a western secular paradigm. The new schools also helped introduce into the Muslim world conceptions of science and discourses of knowledge that were developed in a secularizing Europe, which would eventually undermine and replace scientific discourses and knowledge systems that had developed within Muslim society through an integrated framework. While there were reformers trying to develop educational institutes based on western secular paradigms, other influential Muslim reform movements, such as the Deobandi movement, established *madaaris* with a narrowed-down curriculum, focusing only on *ulum al-manqul*. This narrowing of curriculum signaled an acceptance that *madaaris* should have a more limited role in society and intellectual development than their pre-colonial predecessors. In the post-colonial period, educational reform continued in the direction of imitation of Western secular schools, both in terms of structure and content, and parallel to this has been a limiting of the role of *madaaris* in society. These trends have ultimately led to an educational crisis in Muslim societies. --- ## An exploration of educational reform in the Muslim world Ibn Khaldun, writing centuries before European colonialism, observed that it is in the nature of conquest that the conquered imitate those who conquer them. This occurs because the conquered are either impressed by the conqueror or erroneously attribute their own subservience to the perfection of the conqueror, failing to analyze the nature of their defeat.[^86] This diagnosis of conquered people precisely describes the defeatist attitude that has existed in the Muslim world since their loss of political power due to colonialism and continues on with the blind imitation of the Western world that has marked much development in the Muslim world in the post-colonial era. The rationale behind the blind acceptance of school systems coming from the West by reformers and governments was a fascination with the economic and political power of the West and it was hoped that importing secular schools would lead to the economic growth and political strength of nation-states. Not only did this fail to occur, but it would be no exaggeration to state that the secular education system created in the Muslim world has led to the *disintegration* of local communities, loss of culture, and destruction of traditional knowledge systems.[^87] The detrimental effects of importing western secular education systems into the Muslim world have been noted by Al Zeera: > *The dilemma of Islamic societies lies partly in the fact that they imported secular education systems and planted them in the heart of Islamic traditional societies. To me this is like planting a palm tree in Alaska and expecting it to grow naturally and give fruit as well. The mismatch between the religious foundation of Islamic societies and the secular building of the Western education system is a major cause of the problems encountered by our universities*.[^88] The mismatch between a western secular education system and Muslim societies often resulted in producing an educated class that was culturally alienated from their own society and intellectual heritage and, in the worst case, comprised harbingers of neo-colonial policies that sought to legitimate their societies by imitating and making the West the standard for everything that was real, beautiful, and acceptable.[^89] The extent of this intellectual colonization even reached to the point where Islam itself was given legitimacy only if it could be justified through methodologies of research that were based on a secular epistemology and at the cultural and political level Islam could only have validity if it could be seen to fit within the norms of a paradigm developed by Western intellectuals.[^90] The secular education system not only undermined the holistic and integrative understanding of knowledge coming from an Islamic worldview but, at best, placed religion as a separate subject within school curricula, isolating it from its relationship to economics, politics, science, culture, and other fields. In the Islamic paradigm, religion is seen as encompassing all forms of knowledge, being integral to every subject and every aspect of the educational process.[^91] Iqbal described such an understanding of religion from an Islamic worldview: “*Religion is not a departmental affair; it is neither mere thought, nor mere feeling, nor mere action; it is an expression of the whole man*.”[^92] Furthermore, the notion that the world can be divided between the secular and religious, sacred and profane, that has marked the Western world for centuries and has characterized the secular education system and production of knowledge is antithetical to Islam. Iqbal alludes to this point poetically: “*There is no such thing as a profane world. All this immensity of matter constitutes a scope for self-realization of spirit*.”[^93] Unless serious steps are taken to address the educational crisis in the Muslim world and conscious efforts are made to counter the secularization of knowledge that has been a homogenizing force in the world, then the Muslim world will remain a shadow of its former self with no real substance.[^94] Blind imitation of the Western world has prevented the Muslim world from continuing to develop its own models of science and knowledge systems that reflect Muslim cultural identity,[^95] serve the needs of their societies, and are true to an Islamic worldview. The project of state-building through the use of a secular school system is foreign to Islamic teachings since a true and just society cannot be created without reference to God, prophetic teachings, and understanding the dimension of the next life (*al-akhira*). The fallacy of a secular understanding of knowledge comes from the fact that the human “self” can never be the sole means of measuring reality.[^96] The first verses revealed of the Qur’an highlighted the fact that the source of all true knowledge comes from God; hence, knowledge acquisition that is not connected back to God will ultimately lead to loss and misguidance for human beings. In this respect, the re-Islamization of knowledge is not simply the process of glorifying the heritage of great Muslim thinkers that lived many centuries ago; rather, it is the development of an Islamic epistemology that creates a unity of knowledge,[^97] where all branches of learning connect back to the fundamental reality of the Oneness of God (*tawhid*). Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud best defined the Islamization of knowledge as: “*…fundamentally a process of returning to the metaphysical worldview, epistemic framework, and ethical and legal principles of Islam*.”[^98] During the latter part of the 20th century, much discussion has occurred about developing educational systems that would be conducive to the needs of Muslim society and developed within a genuine Islamic framework. Intellectuals such as Naquib Al-Attas, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Ismail al-Faruqi have written about the need for a process of re-Islamization of knowledge and educational systems. In 1977, the first international conference was held in Makkah to discuss the issues and problems surrounding education in the Muslim world, followed by several conferences on the topic in other parts of the Muslim world.[^99] While much discussion has occurred and quite a few Islamic universities have been established since then, such as the International Islamic University of Malaysia, much work still needs to be done to establish leading educational institutes that will bring relevant change to the Muslim world. Not only in the Muslim world but globally the impact of centuries of knowledge produced within the context of colonization will take many generations to analyze and understand.[^100] --- ## Conclusion While discussions on the Islamization of knowledge have helped spark debates about knowledge production, education, and the role of Islam on epistemology, they have also been critiqued for certain limitations in the current literature on the topic. It has been noted that much of this literature has been reactionary, focusing on polemics against the West instead of providing tangible means by which conceptual frameworks of Islamization can be implemented within knowledge production and education.[^101] The secularization of knowledge, society, and individuals has created immense problems in the world in multiple ways: environmental, political, social, psychological, etc. A successful project of the Islamization of knowledge would address problems facing our world today and would bring back a much-needed holistic approach to knowledge, integrating spiritual realities and metaphysical truths to fields of knowledge that have been stripped of their spiritual significance. Iqbal’s statement in this regard in the early 20th century best signifies the project of the Islamization of knowledge, although he lived before the term came to be used: > *Humanity needs three things today—a spiritual interpretation of the universe, spiritual emancipation of the individual, and basic principles of a universal import directing the evolution of human society on a spiritual basis.*[^102] By shedding light on transformations that took place during the colonial era, it is hoped that current and future generations of educationists understand their importance and contribute to the process of reintegrating an Islamic worldview, epistemology, and ethics into educational curricula. Furthermore, it also hoped that this paper will begin to inspire students and experts in various disciplines such as psychology, business, art, etc. to rethink the paradigms within which their own fields of discipline exist and contribute towards integrating an Islamic ethos within their own fields of knowledge. We ask that God guide us to that knowledge which leads us back to Him and which allows us to benefit our souls in this life and the next insha’Allah. --- ## Notes [^1]: [http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/13/se.01.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/13/se.01.html&sa=D&ust=1565851732022000) [^2]: Plural of *madrasa*. [^3]: Farish Noor, Yoginder Sikand, and Martin van Bruinessen, eds., *The Madrasa in Asia: Political Activism and Transnational Linkages* (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008), 11. [^4]: International Crisis Group (ICG). 2004, October 7. Pakistan: Reforming the Education Sector. Islamabad/Brussels: International Crisis Group & Arab Human Development Report, 2003, *Building a Knowledge Society*. New York: United Nations Development Programme. [^5]: For examples of influential academics of the past see Goldziher, Ignaz, “The Attitude of Orthodox Islam toward the Ancient Science” in *Studies on Islam*, ed. Merlin L. Swartz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), 185–215 & Makdisi, George. *The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981). For examples of more recent writers see Hoodbhoy, Pervez, *Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality* (London & New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd, 1991) & Huff, Toby E. *The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017). [^6]: For examples of historians and academics who have put forth a more nuanced view of Islamic educational institutes in Muslim civilization, see Ekmeleddin, Ihsanoglu, *History of the Ottoman State, Society & Civilization* (Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture IRCICA, 2002) & Langohr, Vickie (2005) “Colonial Education Systems and the Spread of Local Religious Movements: The Cases of British Egypt and Punjab,” *Comparative Studies in Society and History* 47, no. 1 & Robinson, Francis, 1997, “Ottomans-Safavids-Mughals: Shared Knowledge and Connective Systems,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 8, no. 2 & Sahin, Abdullah. 2018. “Critical Issues in Islamic Education Studies: Rethinking Islamic and Western Liberal Secular Values of Education,” *Religions* 9, no. 11: 335, & Iqbal, Muzaffar. *The Making of Islamic Science* (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2009). [^7]: *‘Alaq* literally means to cling, has been interpreted as referring to an embryo or a stage in the development of the fetus; see *The Qur’an: A New Translation*, trans. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 428. [^8]: Take, for instance, that the commandment in the first *aya* is not just ‘Read!’ but to Read in the name of God; the commandment to read is repeated in *aya* 3 and this time followed immediately with a description of God. [^9]: Al-Attas, *Islam and Secularism*, 78 & Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, x & Muhammad Abdel Haleem and Elsaid M. Badawi, *Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’Anic Usage* (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2008), 635. [^10]: Al Zeera, *Wholeness and Holiness in Education*, 63. [^11]: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, *Kitab Al-‘Ilm: The Book of Knowledge, Book 1 of the Ihya ‘Ulum Al-Din: The Revival of the Religious Sciences*, trans. Kenneth Honerkamp (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2015), xxx. [^12]: Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, xxvi. [^13]: Kuldip Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India: A Study of Its Past and Present* (Chandigarh: Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CCRID), 1990), 6 & Safiur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, *The Sealed Nectar: Ar-Raheeq-ul-Makhtum*. (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2002), 276. [^14]: Shawkat Omari, “Towards an Islamic Vision of Parallel Education Institutions,” ed. Hussein Abdul-Fattah and Fathi Malkawi, in *The Education Conference Book: Planning, Implementation, Recommendations, and Abstracts of Presented Papers: A Conference on “Towards the Construction of a Contemporary Islamic Educational Theory”* (Amman: Islamic Studies and Research Association, 1990), 176-177 & Sajid Muhammad Qasmi, Madrasa Education Framework (Dehli: MANAK Publications Pvt. Ltd, 2005),12-15. [^15]: George Makdisi, *The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981), 10. [^16]: Ibid., 27-28. [^17]: Ibid., 31. [^18]: Feyyat Gokce, “Minority and Foreign Schools on the Ottoman Education System,” *e-international journal of educational research* 1, no. 1 (2010), 42 & Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, *History of the Ottoman State, Society & Civilization* (Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture IRCICA, 2002), 2, 371. [^19]: Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, 244. [^20]: Ahmed Basheer “Contributions of Muslim Physicians and Other Scholars: 700-1600AC” in *Muslim Contributions to World Civilization*, ed. Syed A.Ahsani, Ahmed Basheer, and Dilnawaz A. Siddiqui (United Kingdom: International Institute of Islamic Thought, Association of Muslim Social Scientists, 2005), 73. [^21]: Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 21. [^22]: Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 92 & Langohr, Vickie (2005) “Colonial Education Systems and the Spread of Local Religious Movements: The Cases of British Egypt and Punjab.” *Comparative Studies in Society and History* 47, no. 1, p. 169. [^23]: Vickie Langohr, “Colonial Education Systems and the Spread of Local Religious Movements,” *Comparative Studies in Society and History* 47, no. 1 (2005), 168, 169. [^24]: Ihsanoglu, *History of the Ottoman State, Society & Civilization Vol. 2*, p. 247. [^25]: Ibid., 247-248. [^26]: Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, XX & Francis Robinson, “Ottomans-Safavids-Mughals: Shared Knowledge and Connective Systems,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 8, no. 2 (1997), 152. [^27]: Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, XX & Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India: A Study of Its Past and Present*, 170. [^28]: Cook, *Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought*, XX. [^29]: Al Zeera, *Wholeness and Holiness in Education*, 69. [^30]: Ibid., 69. [^31]: Ahmed “Contributions of Muslim Physicians and Other Scholars,” 80. [^32]: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, *Kitab Al-‘Ilm*, 38. [^33]: Ibn Khaldun, *The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History*, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 370-390. [^34]: Ibid., 376. [^35]: Ibid., 422-424. [^36]: Ware III, Rudolph T., *The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa* (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), p. 106. [^37]: Ahmed, “Contributions of Muslim Physicians and Other Scholars,” 87. [^38]: Ibid., 76. [^39]: Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 7. [^40]: Ihsanoglu, *History of the Ottoman State, Society & Civilization* Vol. 2, 373. [^41]: Ibid., 391, 405. [^42]: Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 34. [^43]: Ibid., p. 52 & Hamid Mahmood, *The Dars-E-Nizami and the Transnational Madaris in Britain* (Queen Mary: University of London, 2012), 9, 10, 78 & Qasmi, *Madrasa Education Framework*, 49, 55-57. [^44]: Ahmed, “Contributions of Muslim Physicians and Other Scholars,” 77. [^45]: Ibid., 81. [^46]: Ibid., 80. [^47]: Ibid., 80. [^48]: Ibid., 82. [^49]: Grosfoguel, “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities,” 78. [^50]: Ibid., 79. [^51]: Ibid., 79. [^52]: Thésée ,“A Tool of Massive Erosion,” 29. [^53]: ElMessiri, “The Gate of Ijtihad,” 17 & Hamed Ibrahim “Reflections on Technology and Development: A Cultural Perspective,” in *Epistemological BIAS in the Physical & Social Sciences*, ed. Abdelwahab M. ElMessiri (Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2006), 259. [^54]: Rafik Habib, “Modernizing vs. Westernizing the Social Sciences: The Case of Psychology” in *Epistemological BIAS in the Physical & Social Sciences*, ed. Abdelwahab M. ElMessiri (Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought., 2006), 130 & Thésée “A Tool of Massive Erosion,” 33. [^55]: Al Zeera, *Wholeness and Holiness in Education: An Islamic Perspective*, 86. [^56]: Muhammad Iqbal, *The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam* (Lahore: Sang-E-Meel Publications, 2010), 44. [^57]: Qasmi, *Madrasa Education Framework*, 69-70. [^58]: Ibid., 69-70. [^59]: James Dunne-Heyworth, *An Introduction to The History of Education in Modern Egypt* (London: Frank Cass & Company Ltd, 1969), 98. [^60]: Ibid., 100. [^61]: Gokce, “Minority and Foreign Schools on the Ottoman Education System,” 48. [^62]: Ware III, *The Walking Quran: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa*, 164, 191, 203. [^63]: Kemal Cicek, *The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilisation* (Ankara: Yeni Turkiye, 2000), p. 657. [^64]: Vernon O. Egger, *A History of the Muslim World Since 1260; The Making of a Global Community* (Upper Saddle: Pearson: Prentice-Hall, 2008), 309, 339. [^65]: Ihsanoglu, *History of the Ottoman State, Society & Civilization* Vol. 2, 424. [^66]: Adel Hussein “Bias in Western Schools of Social Thought: Our Heritage as the Starting Point for Development” in *Epistemological BIAS in the Physical & Social Sciences*, ed. Abdelwahab M. ElMessiri (Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2006), 95. [^67]: Ware III, *The Walking Quran: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa*, 196. [^68]: Abdur-Rahman Al-Jabarti, *Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation of Egypt, 1798*, trans. Schmuel Moreh (Princeton: M. Weiner Pub., 1993), 36, 38, 185, 186, 195, 198. [^69]: Jeffrey C. Burke, “Education,” in *The Islamic World*, ed. Andrew Rippin (London & New York: Routledge Taylor & Franchis Group, 2008), 313 & Bayad Dodge, *Al-Azhar: A Millennium of Muslim Learning* (Washington: The American International Printing Company, 1961), 114 & Mona Russell, “Competing, Overlapping, and Contradictory Agendas: Egyptian Education Under British Occupation, 1882-1922,” *Africa and the Middle East, Comparative Studies of South Asia* XXI, no. 1-2 (2001), 50. [^70]: Dunne-Heyworth, *An Introduction to The History of Education in Modern Egypt*, 105 & Ghulam N. Saqib, *Modernization of Muslim Education in Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey: A Comparative Study*. (Lahore: Islamic Book Service, 1983), 84. [^71]: Mitchell, *Colonising Egypt*, 64 & Paula Sanders, *Creating Medieval Cairo: Empire, Religion, and Architectural Preservation in 19th Century Egypt* (Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 2008), 33. [^72]: Michael J. Reimer, “Contradiction and Consciousness in ʿAli Mubarak’s Description of Al-Azhar,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 29, no. 1 (1997), 62. [^73]: Mitchell, *Colonising Egypt*, 109. [^74]: John W. Livingston, “Western Science and Educational Reform in the Thought of Shaykh Rifa’a Al-Tahtawi,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 28, no. 4 (1996), 552. [^75]: Weber, *Peasants Into Frenchmen*, 307. [^76]: Egger, *A History of the Muslim World since 1260*, 342. [^77]: David Lelyveld, “Disenchantment at Aligarh: Islam and the Realm of the Secular in Late Nineteenth Century India,” *Die Welt des Islams* 22, no. 1 (1982), 86 & Syed Mahmood, *A History of English Education in India (1781-1893)* (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1895), 86, 87. [^78]: Lelyveld, "Disenchantment at Aligarh,” 86 & Mahmood, *A History of English Education in India (1781-1893)*, 89. [^79]: Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 55 & *Mahmood The Dars-e-Nizami and the Transnational Madaris in Britain*. 11 & Barbara Metcalf, “The Madrasa at Deoband: A Model for Religious Education in Modern India,” *Modern Asian Studies* 12, no. 1 (1978) 111 & Qasmi, *Madrasa Education Framework*, 38, 41. [^80]: International Crisis Group (ICG), *Pakistan: Madrasas, Extremism and the Military*, (Islamabad/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2002), 5 & Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 121 & Qasmi, *Madrasa Education Framework*, 67-68. [^81]: Muhammad Farooq, “Objectification of Islam: A Study of Pakistani Madrassah Texts,” *Pakistan Journal of History and Culture* 31, no. 1 (2010), 36. [^82]: Ibid., p. 36 & Kaur, *Madrasa Education In India*, 52 & Mahmood, *The Dars-e-Nizami and the Transnational Madaris in Britain*, 9, 10, 78 & Qasmi, *Madrasa Education Framework*, 49, 55-57. [^83]: International Crisis Group (ICG). *Pakistan*, 6 & Metcalf,  “The Madrasa at Deoband,” 117-118. [^84]: Qasmi, *Madrasa Education Framework*, 44. [^85]: Thésée, “A Tool of Massive Erosion,” 34. [^86]: Ibn Khaldun, *The Muqaddimah*, 116. [^87]: El-Mously, “Reflections on Technology and Development,” 250-251. [^88]: Al Zeera, *Wholeness and Holiness in Education*, 139-140. [^89]: AbdulHamid A. Sulayman, *Revitalizing Higher Education in the Muslim World* (Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2007), 10 & Al Zeera, *Wholeness and Holiness in Education*, 55, 134-135. [^90]: Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, *Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the Role of the University in the Context of De-Westernization and Decolonization* (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit UTM Press, 2013), 7 & ElMessiri “The Gate of Ijtihad,” 19, 20, 50, 51. [^91]: Abdul Haq, *Educational Philosophy of the Holy Quran*, 183. [^92]: Iqbal, *The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam*, 10. [^93]: Ibid., 136. [^94]: Abdelwahab M. El-Messiri, “Introduction,” in *Epistemological BIAS in the Physical & Social Sciences*, ed. Abdelwahab M. El-Messiri (Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2006), p. xix. [^95]: Habib, “Modernizing vs. Westernizing the Social Sciences,” 127. [^96]: El-Mously, “Reflections on Technology and Development,” 258. [^97]: Al Zeera, *Wholeness and Holiness in Education*, xxv. [^98]: Daud, *Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge*, 18. [^99]: Ashraf, Sayyid Ali, “Islamic Education: Evaluation of the Achievements of Previous Conferences,” ed. Hussein Abdul-Fattah and Fathi Malkawi, in *The Education Conference Book: Planning, Implementation, Recommendations, and Abstracts of Presented Papers: A Conference on “Towards the Construction of a Contemporary Islamic Educational Theory”* (Amman: Islamic Studies and Research Association, 1990), 73-74. [^100]: Thésée, “A Tool of Massive Erosion,” 35. [^101]: See Sahin, Abdullah. 2018. “Critical Issues in Islamic Education Studies: Rethinking Islamic and Western Liberal Secular Values of Education,” *Religions* 9, no. 11: 335. & Henzell-Thomas, Jeremy & Sardar, Ziauddin *Rethinking Reform in Higher Education: From Islamization to Integration of Knowledge* (Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2018). [^102]: Iqbal, *The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam*, 156. ## Summary In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. A common narrative found in media outlets, think tanks, and governmental bodies portrays the *madaaris* and educational institutes of the Muslim world as archaic relics of a medieval past, frozen in time and in conflict with modernity. A 2009 CNN documentary, *Generation Islam*, exemplified this by describing Pakistani *madaaris* as teaching "a version of Islam that's locked in the past" and praising efforts to "modernize" them. This "tradition versus modernity" narrative, supported by some historians, has nevertheless been challenged by many other historians, intellectuals, and scholars. The central argument here is that the current state of education in the Muslim world is not a remnant of ancient Muslim civilization but rather a by-product of developments that began during the colonial period. In other words, the present educational crisis is itself quite modern. To establish this, it is necessary to examine the philosophical foundations of schooling in the Muslim world. Education in traditional Muslim societies was rooted in an Islamic worldview shaped by the oneness of God (*tawhid*), prophethood (*nubuwwa*), and the afterlife (*akhira*). The Qur'an itself gave centrality to knowledge from the very beginning, for the first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the command *Iqra!*—"Read!" (Qur'an 96:1). From these opening verses one can extrapolate the importance placed on seeking knowledge, on literacy through mention of the pen (*al-qalam*) as a tool of teaching (96:4), on examining the observable world through reference to human origins from an *'alaq* (96:2), and on connecting the acquisition of knowledge to the cognizance of God (96:1–5). The word for knowledge, *'ilm*, and its derivatives occur more than 800 times in the Qur'an, making it the second most repeated word after the word *Allah*. True knowledge, from this perspective, is not merely data to be functionalized but that which transforms human beings and leads them back to God. Three Arabic terms came to express education in Muslim civilization: *ta'lim* (to know, perceive, learn), *tarbiyya* (to increase, grow, rear), and *taadib* (to be cultured and refined)—yielding the notions of awareness, growth, and refinement as aims of the educational process. Educational institutes flourished from the earliest days of Islam. So great was the emphasis on learning that after the Battle of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ permitted some Makkan prisoners to gain their freedom by teaching ten children to read and write. Teaching first occurred in private homes, such as that of Ibn al-Arqam, then gravitated toward the *masaajid*, and eventually, through the institution of pious endowment (*waqf*), gave rise to the *madrasa*. Under Nizam al-Mulk, vizier of the Seljuk Empire in the eleventh century, the *madrasa* system flourished, later expanding under the Ottomans. Schools became widely accessible: records show schools for women in Cairo and Damascus under Mamluk rule, with provision made in the thirteenth century for elderly, divorced, and widowed women. In Cordoba there are reported to have been seventeen universities and seventy public libraries; in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Delhi close to a thousand *madaaris*, accessible even to slaves, with many non-Muslims enrolling. A colonial official in 1857 expressed amazement at the number of Hindus attending Muslim-run schools in the Punjab, and French researchers in nineteenth-century Algeria noted that literacy there was higher than in France. As for the curriculum, traditional Muslim societies did not divide knowledge into the religious and the secular as the West would. Learning was divided between the *ulum al-ma'qul* (rational sciences) and *ulum al-manqul* (transmitted sciences), with subjects such as mathematics and medicine—later classified as secular—falling under the former yet taught within an Islamic paradigm as a sub-branch of religious learning. Scientific research was regarded as a means of exploring religious truths and contemplating God's creation. Ibn Sina divided theoretical philosophy into natural, mathematical, and theological sciences, regarding metaphysics as highest and the natural sciences as lowest, yet this did not hinder his work; his *Qanun fi al-Tibb* became the standard medical textbook in Europe for centuries. Al-Ghazali praised medicine and mathematics and held their study to be a communal obligation (*fard kifaya*). Ibn Khaldun, in his *Muqaddimah*, listed among the rational sciences logic, physics, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, medicine, algebra, and optics, noting the high regard for mathematics and the central role of the Qur'an in the education of children. Francis Moore, an English company employee, observed in the 1730s that the people of Senegambia were more learned in Arabic than Europeans were in Latin. Such an integrative approach facilitated the growth of institutions like the *Baytul Hikma*, hospitals and observatories adjacent to *madaaris*, the Suleymaniye Medical Madrasa, and the original *Dars-e-Nizami* curriculum of Mullah Nizamuddin Sahlavi, which included engineering, astronomy, and medicine. Muslim civilization did not develop in isolation; European medical schools at Montpellier, Padua, and Pisa were founded on the pattern of those in Cordoba, and the works of Jabir ibn Hayyan, Ibn Sina, Al-Zahrawi, and Al-Baytar were translated and studied in Europe for centuries. Colonialism, however, transformed mutual exchange into dominance and imposition. In late fifteenth-century Al-Andalus, alongside the physical genocide of Muslims and Jews came what Grosfoguel terms *epistemicide*—the mass burning of libraries. As Western Europe secularized, it became a homogenizing force, projecting its science as universal and the only valid means of understanding the world, making the scientist as integral to colonization as the military official. In the Muslim world, this gradually replaced an integrative, holistic approach with a fragmented, reductionist, and materialistic knowledge system. Muhammad Iqbal likened this science to "so many vultures falling on the dead body of Nature," each running off with a piece of flesh. Colonial educational policies advanced this transformation. In 1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay prepared a syllabus of "modern sciences" and English for India, which the colonial government used to undermine pre-colonial curricula. In Egypt, Napoleon's occupation brought plans for French-medium schools and military training for Mamluk elites. In the Ottoman Empire, European countries established schools through capitulations. In West Africa, Louis Faidherbe from 1857 initiated decrees to curb Islamic education and diminish Qur'anic schools central to the region for nine hundred years. These systems served to build the nation-state, undermine Muslim-run schools and pre-colonial knowledge systems, and co-opt indigenous elites as colonial functionaries. Where colonial officials stopped, reformers continued. Ottoman modernization began with Sultan Mahmud I's military schools in 1734 and Selim III's *Nizam-i Cedid* of 1789, developments criticized by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. In Egypt, Azhari *ulema* such as al-Jabarti and Hassan al-Attar expressed fascination with French achievements; Muhammad Ali built a parallel state-controlled system and sent students to France. Ali Mubarak criticized Al-Azhar for taking "no cognizance of history and geography and philosophy," while Rifa'a al-Tahtawi called for teachers to instill *hub al-watan*, love of the state. In India, Sayyid Ahmad Khan founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College on the Cambridge model, replacing the *ma'qul* subjects with their European counterparts. In 1866, the *Darul Uloom Deoband* was established with a reformed *Dars-i-Nizami* curriculum that removed much of the *ma'qul* and narrowed its focus to *ulum al-manqul*, with some founders reasoning that those seeking "modern" education could study elsewhere. Thus Muslims began to bifurcate their own tradition of unified knowledge, internalizing the claimed superiority of Western science. Ibn Khaldun, centuries before colonialism, observed that the conquered imitate their conquerors, either from admiration or from the mistaken belief that their subservience stems from the conqueror's perfection. This diagnosis describes the defeatist attitude and blind imitation that has marked the post-colonial Muslim world. Al-Zeera compares importing secular systems into Islamic societies to "planting a palm tree in Alaska and expecting it to grow." The mismatch produced an educated class alienated from its heritage, reaching the point where Islam itself was granted legitimacy only if justified through a secular epistemology. Yet in the Islamic paradigm religion encompasses all knowledge; as Iqbal stated, "Religion is not a departmental affair… it is an expression of the whole man," and "there is no such thing as a profane world." The re-Islamization of knowledge is therefore not mere glorification of past thinkers but the development of an epistemology uniting all learning in *tawhid*—defined by Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud as "a process of returning to the metaphysical worldview, epistemic framework, and ethical and legal principles of Islam." Intellectuals such as Naquib al-Attas, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Ismail al-Faruqi have advanced this, and the first international conference on Muslim education was held in Makkah in 1977, followed by the founding of institutions like the International Islamic University of Malaysia, though much work remains. The literature on the Islamization of knowledge has itself been critiqued as reactionary and polemical, lacking tangible frameworks for implementation. Still, a successful project would restore a holistic approach integrating spiritual realities into fields stripped of their significance, echoing Iqbal's claim that humanity needs "a spiritual interpretation of the universe, spiritual emancipation of the individual, and basic principles of a universal import." The hope is that present and future educationists will grasp the colonial-era transformations and work to reintegrate an Islamic worldview, epistemology, and ethics into education across disciplines. We ask that God guide us to that knowledge which leads us back to Him and benefits our souls in this life and the next, *insha'Allah*. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What went wrong with education in the Muslim world? The assumption that Muslim education simply failed to keep up misreads what actually happened. Before European colonialism, Muslim educational institutions were integrated, expansive, and widely accessible. In fourteenth and fifteenth-century Delhi alone, there were close to a thousand madrassas serving all classes of society, including enslaved people. In Algeria at the start of French occupation, the proportion of literate people exceeded that of France itself. In Cordoba under Muslim rule, there were reportedly seventeen universities and seventy public libraries. What changed was not a slow internal decline but a series of deliberate disruptions. Colonial regimes systematically displaced existing institutions and built schools designed to produce an indigenous elite loyal to the colonial project. In India, the British worked to undermine precolonial curricula. In West Africa, French decrees starting in 1857 sought to curb Qur’anic schools that had served the Senegambia region for nine hundred years. The current state of education in much of the Muslim world is not a remnant of some ancient stagnation—it is the aftermath of a relatively recent dismantling. ### Did premodern Muslims separate religious education from scientific education? No, and this is one of the most consequential misconceptions about Islamic intellectual history. Traditional Muslim societies did not compartmentalize knowledge into “religious” and “secular” the way the modern world does. The curriculum in madrassas and other schools was divided between *ʿulum al-manqul* (the transmitted sciences, such as Qur’an and hadith) and *ʿulum al-maʿqul* (the rational sciences, which included logic, medicine, astronomy, geometry, and algebra). Al-Ghazali praised the study of medicine and mathematics and declared it a communal religious obligation for some members of society to develop expertise in them. Ibn Khaldun’s *al-Muqaddima* catalogued the vast range of subjects being studied across Muslim civilization in his era. Suleiman the Magnificent established a medical madrassa in Istanbul. The Mughal ruler Akbar decreed that every boy should study arithmetic, agriculture, geometry, astronomy, medicine, and logic alongside other subjects. ### How exactly did colonialism damage Muslim education? Colonialism cannot be reduced to political conquest. What accompanied colonialism was something scholars of coloniality have called epistemicide: the deliberate destruction of knowledge systems. When al-Andalus fell to the Catholic Monarchy in the late fifteenth century, the conquests were accompanied by mass burnings of libraries, erasing centuries of accumulated intellectual heritage. As European colonialism expanded, Western secular science was projected as universal and the only valid way of understanding the world. Colonial officials built schools in places like India, Egypt, and West Africa explicitly designed to displace existing institutions and produce an indigenous elite loyal to the colonial project. In India, the British worked to undermine precolonial curricula. In West Africa, French General Faidherbe issued decrees starting in 1857 to systematically curb Qur’anic schools that had served the Senegambia region for nine hundred years. The result was a displacement of a holistic God-centered knowledge system with a fragmented materialistic one. ### Why does it feel like my faith and my education have nothing to do with each other? That feeling has a history. It is not a personal failure or a contradiction within Islam itself. It is the inherited result of over a century of educational systems designed to treat religion as a separate compartment, isolated from economics, politics, science, and culture. When secular schools were planted in the Muslim world, religion at best became one subject among many—rather than the *weltanschauung* against which various forms of knowledge were understood. Ibn Khaldun, writing centuries before colonialism, observed that conquered peoples tend to imitate those who conquer them, sometimes mistakenly attributing their own defeat to the conqueror’s inherent superiority. This diagnosis fits precisely what happened: Muslim reformers in Egypt, India, and the Ottoman Empire began to internally accept that Western knowledge was more advanced and Islamic knowledge less legitimate unless it could prove itself on Western terms. That internalized hierarchy is what many Muslims still carry today. ### Why do some Muslims feel like studying science means leaving their faith at the door? That feeling is not built into Islam—it is built into the education system most Muslims inherited. For most of Islamic history, the rational sciences (*ʿulum al-maʿqul*)—which included medicine, astronomy, geometry, and algebra—were studied within an Islamic framework alongside the transmitted sciences. Ibn Sina’s medical work belonged, for him, within a broader metaphysical framework rather than a secular one. His treatise on medicine was a standard textbook in European universities for centuries. Al-Ghazali argued that fields like medicine, agriculture, and mathematics carry a communal religious obligation because they are necessary for sustaining communities. What changed was not Islam’s relationship to science but the framework in which science began to be taught. As secular education was imported into the Muslim world during the colonial period, the assumption took hold that legitimate knowledge is knowledge produced without reference to God—and that religious knowledge belongs in a separate category. That assumption is itself predicated on a worldview that puts no stock in notions of the sacred. Recognizing this is not about rejecting modern disciplines. It is about refusing to accept the premise that faith and intellect occupy separate rooms. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/be-a-man-constructing-prophetic-masculinity # "Be a Man!" Constructing Prophetic Masculinity **Author:** Yahya Ibrahim **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 24, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction “Be a man, stop this crying right this minute!” These words are familiar to most adult men today as a part of their upbringing, irrespective of their heritage. Undoubtedly, the conceptualization of “manliness” has always been dependent on context. But it seems always to be relevant, whether to conservatives or liberals, as a prominent point in a society’s morality. For many even in our contested society, ‘being a man’ is still a major plank of moral and familial life. To those who see it as such, it is not something bestowed by law on a certain birthday.  It is earned and must be continually proven. How should Muslims in the modern West approach the phrase ‘Be a man’? What does that mean and, more importantly, how do we make sense of the changes that have occurred and seem to be constantly occurring at an even greater rate every day in how the phrase is understood? How can the scriptures of Islam guide us, and what model do they provide? In this paper three issues will be addressed: 1. The usage of Arabic masculine pronouns in the Qur’an; 2. A Qur’anic paradigm distinguishing *ar-Rajul al-Kamil*—a Complete (refined) Man—from a genetically male individual; and 3. Constructing the Prophetic masculinity. --- ## The usage of Arabic masculine pronouns in the Qur’an It is important to note that many Qur’anic verses establish men and women inclusively in the broad terms of “human being” (*insan*) or “people” (*nas*). Although *insan* is grammatically masculine in Arabic, and is often translated as “man” or “mankind,” *insan* and *nas* are semantically gender-neutral in the original Arabic; they apply to women as much as they do to men. It is important to also keep in mind that when a group includes both Muslim men and Muslim women it is referred to with the masculine collective noun *muslimun*. In most cases, it refers to all Muslims, irrespective of gender. This is an important clarification for those who can only access the Qur’an in translation or are confronted with a male-centric English translation that does not reflect the reality of the Qur’an in its original Arabic. Where the Qur’an mentions men and women separately, it is clear and unambiguous. The Qur’an’s basic stance is that Muslim men are the religious equals of Muslim women. They assist and protect one another: > *Anyone, male or female, who does good deeds and is a believer, will enter Paradise and will not be wronged by as much as the dip in a date stone.*[^1]  > > *The believers, both men and women, support each other; they order what is right and forbid what is wrong; they keep up the prayer and pay the prescribed alms; they obey God and His Messenger. God will give His mercy to such people: God is Almighty and Wise.*[^2] The Qur’an describes the Muslim marriage in terms of love and mercy interchanged between two separate but equal parts that come into one another: > *It is He who created you all from one soul, and from it made its mate so that \[that being\] might find comfort in \[its pair\]: when one \[of them\] lies with his wife and she conceives a light burden, going about freely, then grows heavy, they both pray to God, their Lord, ‘If You give us a good child we shall certainly be grateful.’*[^3]  > > *Another of His signs is that He created spouses from among yourselves for you to live with in tranquillity: He ordained love and kindness between you. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect.*[^4] Further, the Qur’an describes spouses as “garments” for one another: > *You \[believers\] are permitted to lie with your wives during the night of the fast: they are \[close\] as garments (libaas) to you, as you are to them.*[^5] *Libaas*—become the most intimate garment to your spouse. Muslims are instructed to be their spouse’s armor against hostility, warmth in frigidity, and shelter them from the heat shone upon them by others. Become the sparkle and elegance that they adorn themselves with when sized up by others. They are garments to you, as you are to them. There is a clear Qur'anic paradigm distinguishing a male from a female and, as important, a man in attitude and behavior from a male by biological sex. The books of exegesis of the Qur’an report that while pregnant, Hinna bint Faqudh, the wife of ʿImran and the mother of Maryam, cried out the following words in anguish and dismay. She had sworn an oath to dedicate her child to the service of her Lord. Her oath presumed that the unborn child growing within her, and an answer to her prayers, was male. Due to the prevailing customs of the time, only boys and men were allowed to worship in the holy spaces of Jerusalem. When she uttered her vow during pregnancy, she had assumed that for her child to be a spiritual authority, he would have to naturally be a male. “…but when she gave birth, she said, ‘My Lord! I have given birth to a girl’—God knew best what she had given birth to: the male is not like the female—‘I name her Mary and I commend her and her offspring to Your protection from the rejected Satan.’[^6] So the male is not like the female, but the Qur’an teaches us that distinction does not mean disparagement. Whereas Hinna feared that her daughter’s gender would prevent her from achieving greatness, Allah Himself made Maryam a divine sign to the entire universe: that indeed, the male is not like the female. A female attains an elite, unique position of being capable of piety that many men of our world are unable to attain. Additionally, only through her femininity and womanliness could righteousness and blessing come to fruition in the carrying and nurturing of a new generation. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Verily, women are the twin halves of men.”[^7] --- ## A Qur’anic paradigm distinguishing ar-rajul al-kamil—a complete (refined) man from a male in gender When the word *rajul* (man), or *rijaal* (men), is used in the Qur’an, there is usually a qualification attached as a reason for that designation. In the following verses, a theme of *sidq* (truthfulness), honor, self-restraint, tenacity, inward piety, reverence, devotion, charity, consciousness, focus, resilience, purity, and guardianship are highlighted as ethical behavior consistent among men of God. > *There are* rijaal *(true men) among the believers who honored their pledge to God: some of them have fulfilled it by death, and some are still waiting. They have not changed in the least.*[^8]  > > Rijaal *(true men) who are not distracted, either by commerce or profit, from remembering God, keeping up the prayer, and paying the prescribed alms, fearing a day when hearts and eyes will turn over.*[^9]  > > *…(Prophet) You should rather pray in a mosque founded from its first day on consciousness of God: in this mosque there are men (*rijaal*) who desire to grow in purity—God loves those who seek to purify themselves.*[^10] All of those noble characteristics funnel into an oft-contested *ayah* in the Qur’an that highlights *rujula*—masculinity: > *(*ar-rijaal qawwamun*) Husbands should take good care of their wives…*[^11] The word *qawwamun*, translated by Dr. Professor Muhammed Abdul Haleem as meaning ‘should take good care of,’ and by others as 'in charge of' or ‘caretakers of’ or ‘protectors and maintainers’ or ‘managers of affairs’ or ‘shall take full care of’ their wives is linked to the concept of vigilance and standing at attention—*qiwamah*. *Qawwamun* and *Qiwamah* are mentioned in the Qur’an as recognition of perseverance in the establishment of equitable uprightness and fairness.[^12] It is a rallying call to all believing men and women to work for justice, uprightness, and fairness in society. The word *qawwamun* is the plural of *qawwam*, whose root word is *qama*, which means “to stand or to make something stand or be established.” *Qawwam* is also an intensive form of the word *qa’im*, which means “one who stands or makes something stand,” a form of “guardianship.” *Qawwamun* suggests a form of *qa’im* that is ongoing, that is, eternal vigilance. It involves legal rights and obligations on the part of both men and women committed to each other in holy matrimony. *Qiwama* necessitates that a woman has the right to security and the luxury of being completely free of the need to support herself. To understand the verse of *qiwama* accurately, some commentators have established a link between the verse and the ayah, **“Let him who possesses plenty spend of his plenty; and let him whose provision is straitened spend of what Allah has given him.”**[^13] In this context the verse becomes the effective cause (*‘illa*) that predicates the verse of *qiwama*, ‘Husbands should take good care of their wives.’ Jurists in all the Sunni schools of jurisprudence have inferred that whenever a husband is unable to support his wife and is no longer her caretaker (*qawwam*), she becomes no longer obliged to remain at his side. Particularly in the Shafi’i school, the wife is entitled to have the marriage annulled.[^14] The rationale is that if he is no longer a caretaker, then one of the objectives of caretaking of her by marriage is unmet and she is able to request to exit the relationship. Moses is a shining example of a husband who was *qawwam*. Allah asks Musa عليه السلام, as he stands of the Mount of Sinai: ***“And what is that in your right hand, O Moses?”*** ***He said, “It is my staff; I lean upon it, and I manage my sheep with it and I have therein other uses.”*** [^15] Musa عليه السلام explains, in detail, the primary uses of his staff. He begins with “I lean on it.” He would rely on his staff in three ways, the first of which is our focus—I lean on it. As the guardian of his flock,  he uses it to: (a) prevent injury when traversing rugged terrain; (b) when worn out and physically exhausted, he would lean on it; (c)  when injured, he would push along and remain upright and attentive to the needs of his family and flock. Keep in mind that shepherding a flock has been the vocation of every prophet of Allah and, as such, it is a term often used to describe one’s responsibility to family and society. We are all shepherds over something, having responsibilities over them. The statement of the Prophet of Allah ﷺ further enlightens us regarding what it really means to be a man tending to his family: > *All of you are shepherding guardians and are responsible for your flock. The ruler is a guardian of his subjects, a man is a steward of his family, the woman is a guardian and is responsible for her husband's house and his offspring; and so all of you are guardians and are responsible for your subjects.*[^16] --- ## Constructing Prophetic masculinity Following the *Sunnah* (lit. way, path oft-traveled by the knowing) or habit of the Prophet ﷺ is the completion of one’s humanity. In adhering to his tradition and lifestyle we find salvation in the Hereafter and felicity in the here and now. The path of the Prophet ﷺ is the path of the Prophets. As God says of the Prophet, *‘And indeed, you are of a great moral character.’*[^17] Our faith is built on the prayer seeking Allah’s guidance to the straight path trod upon by the virtuous from the ancients. We seek in our Prophet ﷺ  and through his way the path of Abraham, Moses and Jesus عليهم السلام. > *There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and \[who\] remembers Allah often.*[^18] The Prophet ﷺ was a builder of men. His compassion, strength, and character were a beacon in the darkness of the prevailing *jahiliyah*. They were also the guiding principles of transitioning from the corruption of the self to its *tazkiyah* and purification. In understanding his ascendancy to an unrivaled standard of character we can begin to construct a prophetic masculinity. Each of the following incidents or proclamations are milestones on the path to completing our humanity and service of Allah. > *Qatadah reported: I said, ‘O mother of the believers, tell me about the character of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.’ Aisha said, ‘Have you not read the Qur’an?’ I said, ‘O course!’ Aisha said, ‘Verily, the character of the Prophet of Allah was the Qur’an.’*[^19] Every letter of every word and verse of the Qur’an were reflected in his demeanor, disposition, and beauty. The choicest Praise and Mercy of Allah be upon him.  Muhammad ﷺ, the Praised one, is Ahmed, the greatest in Praise of Allah; sublimely appropriate. *Al-Mustapha*, the Divinely Chosen, is real. He was flesh and blood. Human. He stressed in his mission of calling us to the service of the Al-Mighty the necessity of refinement of character. He would say, peace be upon him: > *I was sent to perfect good character.*[^20] For some, a robust, relatively good character comes naturally and is a default disposition that can be built upon with ease. The Prophet ﷺ said to Al-Mundhir al-Ashshajj: > *You have two characteristics which Allah likes: gentleness and deliberation. He asked: ‘Have I acquired them or has Allah created (them) my nature?’ He replied: ‘No, Allah has created (them) in your nature.’ He then said: ‘Praise be to Allah Who has created in my nature two characteristics which Allah and His Apostle like.’*[^21] In other places he would say, peace be upon him, *“People are like ores of silver and gold…”*[^22] We have established that the separation between real men of God and others is their ethical behavior and outlook, in particular in dealing with those they are required to nurture and shepherd. Pertinently, there are particular morals, ethics, and attitudes that typify a positive, prophetic masculinity. Conversely, deficiency in them equates to a severance between oneself and the Lord of Mercy. al- Fudayl b. ‘Iyad said: *“Whoever has a deficiency in his character has a deficiency in his religion, his reputation, and his manhood.”*[^23] A profound, comprehensive statement of censure and recommendation can be found in the words of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, *‘If you have these four qualities, then you will not worry about what you missed in the world: fulfilling trust, truthful speech, good character, and restraint with food.’”*[^24] An honest man is a real man. A real man’s word is his bond. If he can’t keep a promise, he doesn’t give his word. A man molded with prophetic masculinity does not break deals and is not chased after to pay his debts. A real man knows that his words are more powerful at times than his actions and that they must be taken at face value by all. A profound example, once again, can be gleaned from the life of Musa revealed to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon them both, as an important multi-dimensional lesson central to the noble virtue of *qawwama*. > *Has the story of Moses come to you \[Prophet\]? He saw a fire and said to his people, ‘Stay here––I can see a fire. Maybe I can bring you a flaming brand from it or find some guidance there.*’[^25] **1- Family comes first** Musa seeks to ensure his family’s safety and comfort by asking them to wait for him in the cold darkness of the night while he departs to investigate the source of fire at a distance from them. Never compromise your family and lead them into the unknown. **2- Present danger is better than hidden danger** Musa knows it is dangerous to leave his family in the dark expanse of the desert that they lost their way in. Yet, that is less a danger than walking into a campfire of what could possibly be a group of brigands who would harm him and his family. The known danger is clear and evident, but at least it is predictable. **3- Danger to one is better than exposing many** Musa instinctively decides that the danger faced by him, alone, is worth the risk of warmth and guidance to safety. Judgment is imperative when a preponderance of danger exists. The less exposure, whether financially, psychologically, spiritually and physically, the better. **4- One person makes the final decision** In trying circumstances, defined, clear and unambiguous directions can be the difference between life and death, health and sickness, safety and tragedy. In all decisions, especially within the household, a unified singular voice needs to provide leadership and direction. **5- Leaders consult and explain their decision-making process** Musa explains, in detail, *why* he has made the decision to investigate the fire and to leave his family behind. It is reasoned, rational, and explicit. Often, complaints arise about a decision being made without consultation and explanation. That contradicts the established Prophetic model. Decisions are not demands and the authority to make them is not inherent to one party over another except by virtue of trust. Trust is lost not by poor decisions but by poor consultation. **6- Speak to all whom your decision impacts** Musa spoke to *ahlihi* (all his family/people), not just his wife. Taking counsel of your sons and daughters in important decisions is a way of ensuring reciprocation when they reach an age of decision-making ability themselves. If you ignore their voices, then expect them not to share their opinions with you. **7-     Don’t promise what is not assured** Musa says, “Maybe/perhaps I can bring you” and does not speak in definite terms.  Nothing undermines the credibility of a parent with their children more than unfulfilled promises. The greatest wedge between a husband and wife are vows that are not maintained and assurances not met. Speak the truth and do not embellish. **8- Maximize your benefit from assumed danger** Musa calculates what he stands to gain—warmth, light, guidance out of the desert, return with a flaming brand, and more. Always seek maximum benefit, even in precarious situations that others may view as a complete loss. **9- Prioritize** Musa speaks about warmth and a flaming brand to return with and provide comfort and light for his family before he speaks about finding their way. He understands the greatest need and seeks to fulfill it before other essentials. The adaptation to a bad situation and seeking to minimize its impact has been a hallmark of all of the People of God. **10- Take responsibility** Musa says “*Inni* (I can)” to legitimize his decision. He assumes responsibility for the decision and intends a positive outcome, even though he does not guarantee it. Families disintegrate due to a lack of responsibility. Standing up and assuming leadership equally necessitates being responsible when things go bad. The Prophet, peace be upon him, was a man of action and deliberation. A man nurtured upon the Sunnah of Muhammed, peace be upon him, is durable, courageous, and persevering. Our Messenger ﷺ experienced in his 63 years of blessed life more tribulation than a whole cohort. He ﷺ was an orphan, a widower, battle-scarred, and unjustly outcast. He outlived many of his children and buried some of his grandchildren. His uncle, the Mercy of Allah be upon him, was martyred and his body desecrated. He ﷺ was defamed, mocked, lied to and lied about. He was poisoned, stoned, and had to witness his companions tortured on account of their faith in his message ﷺ. ʿAlī said: ‘When the war became hot and we met and faced the enemy, we shielded ourselves behind the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, there was no one who was closer to the enemy than he was.’[^26] This strength of purpose did not erode his compassion, empathy, and generous spirit. *So by mercy from Allah, \[O Muhammad\], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude \[in speech\] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely \[upon Him\].*[^27] A famous incident is recounted by Imam Bukhari in his *Sahih*. al-Aqraʿ b. Habis visited the Prophet ﷺ and saw him kissing his grandson, al-Ḥasan. Al-Aqraʿ said, ‘I have ten children and I have never kissed any one of them!’ The Prophet ﷺ replied:  ‘The one who has no mercy will not be shown any mercy.’[^28] The learned explain that as far as al-Aqraʿ b. Habis was concerned it was a point of pride that he was not ‘soft’ but ‘tough.’ This toxic, fraudulent masculinity was immediately stamped out by the Prophet ﷺ. A real man is self-sufficient, inward, and pious as described by the Prophet ﷺ. The elite learned this lesson well. Fudayl b. ‘Iyad: ‘If you can get by without being known, then do so. What does it bother you that people will not praise you, and what does it bother you that you may be blameworthy in the sight of people if in the Sight of Allah you are praiseworthy?’[^29] Bishr b. al-Harith: ‘I do not know a single man who loves fame except that he loses his religion and becomes disgraced.’[^30] He also said: ‘A man who loves that everyone should know him will never find the sweetness of the Hereafter.’[^31] Our Messenger ﷺ set a blessed example with the company he kept. The weakest, poorest, and socially downtrodden could access him ﷺ as readily as the chieftains. He sheltered the needy, fed the hungry, protected the vulnerable, guarded others’ secrets, and instructed the uninformed. He ﷺ was calm when others were agitated, loving when others were filled with hate, and polite when shown contempt. He ﷺconsistently had the highest standard of character and is the spring of Divinely ordained etiquette. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘The strong man is not the one who can overpower others. Rather, the strong man is the one who controls himself when he gets angry.’[^32] In another narration, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: The strong are not those who defeat people. Rather, the strong are those who defeat their ego.”[^33] He ﷺ dressed similarly to his compatriots. He never owned a throne or regal markings to distinguish himself ﷺ from others. He would walk without an escort and disliked sentries being placed to guard him. He preferred neutral shades of white, green, and black to clothe himself with. When he ate, it was never to his fill, and he always ate while sharing his food with others. He ﷺ cared for the earth and despised wastefulness and corruption. He was a tree hugger *literally*. He loved animals and instructed his companions to show kindness to them. Today, his way of life and tradition remain intact, preserved not only in print but in conscious spirit. He loved us so much ﷺ. He would think of those who would believe in him many generations after his generation and weep in longing and hope.  He loved us more than some care to consider. Every Messenger of God was allowed a request that would be answered by Allah. All the Messengers utilized their invocation in the worldly life except for Muhammed ﷺ. He ﷺ preserved his invocation to be intercession on the Day of Judgment for those who accept his message! To ascend we must look back to a man who was sent as the completion of the legacy of prophethood and the perfection of our own individual and collective humanity. I pray that our character is shaped by his tradition and that our love for him elevates us to his lofty status. I pray we find comfort in this final narration, Ameen. > *A man asked the Prophet about the Hour (i.e., the Day of Judgment) saying, ‘When will the Hour be?’ The Prophet said, ‘What have you prepared for it?’ The man said, ‘Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Apostle.’ **The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘You will be with those whom you love.’** We had never been so glad as we were on hearing that saying of the Prophet (i.e., ‘You will be with those whom you love.’) Therefore, I love the Prophet, Abu Bakr and \`Umar, and I hope that I will be with them because of my love for them though my deeds are not similar to theirs.*[^34] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an: 4:124. [^2]: Qur’an 9:71. [^3]: Qur’an 7:189. [^4]: Qur’an 30:21. [^5]: Qur’an 2:187. [^6]: Qur’an 3:36. [^7]: Al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʻālim al-Sunan: Sharḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ḥalab: al-Maṭbaʻah al-’Ilmīyah, 1932), 1:79. [^8]: Qur’an 33:23. [^9]: Qur’an 24:37. [^10]: Qur’an 9:108. [^11]: Qur’an 4:34. [^12]: Qur’an 4:135 and 5:8. [^13]: Qur’an 65:7. [^14]: Ahmad ibn al Naqib al Misri. *Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.* Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Beltsville, MD: Amana Pubns; Revised edition, 1997. (m11.13, pp. 546-547). [^15]: Qur’an 20:17-18. [^16]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 2:5 #893. [^17]: Qur’an 68:4. [^18]: Qur’an 33:21. [^19]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 1:512 #746. [^20]: Mālik ibn Anas and Al-Zuhri, *Muwaṭṭa’ al-Imām Mālik* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993), 2:75 #1885. [^21]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:357 #5225. [^22]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2031 #2638. [^23]: Ibn ’Asākir, *Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 48:414. [^24]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 11:233 #6652. [^25]: Qur’an 20:9-10. [^26]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal*, 2:453 #1347. [^27]: Qur’an 3:159. [^28]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:7 #5997. [^29]: Abū Nuʻaym, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’ wa Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣfiyā’* (Miṣr: Maṭba’at al-Sa’ādah, 1974), 8:8. [^30]: Ibn Abī Dunyā, *Al-Tawāḍu’ wal-Khumūl* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1989), 1:90 #72. [^31]: Ibid. [^32]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:28 #6114. [^33]: Al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1994), 4:331 #1645. [^34]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 5:12 #3677. ## Summary The question of how Muslims living in the modern West ought to understand the familiar exhortation "Be a man" is one that deserves careful reflection, for the meaning of manliness has never been fixed but has always shifted according to time and place, even as it remains a persistent concern in the moral life of every society. For those who take it seriously, being a man is not something conferred by law upon reaching a particular age; rather, it is earned and must be continually proven. To find a way through the constant and accelerating changes in how this phrase is understood, we may turn to the scriptures of Islam for guidance and for the model they provide, considering three matters in turn: the use of masculine pronouns in the Qur'an, a Qur'anic paradigm distinguishing the complete or refined man (*ar-rajul al-kamil*) from a merely biological male, and the construction of a Prophetic masculinity. It must first be understood that many verses of the Qur'an address men and women together under the broad terms *insan* (human being) or *nas* (people). Though *insan* is grammatically masculine in Arabic and is often rendered "man" or "mankind," both *insan* and *nas* are semantically gender-neutral in the original, applying to women no less than to men. Likewise, when a group comprises both believing men and women, it is designated by the masculine collective noun *muslimun*, which in most cases embraces all Muslims irrespective of gender. This clarification is important for those who can only reach the Qur'an through translation, particularly a male-centric English rendering that does not reflect the reality of the Arabic. Where the Qur'an does distinguish men and women, it does so clearly and unambiguously. Its basic stance is that believing men and women are religious equals who assist and protect one another. Allah declares that "anyone, male or female, who does good deeds and is a believer, will enter Paradise and will not be wronged by as much as the dip in a date stone," and that "the believers, both men and women, support each other; they order what is right and forbid what is wrong; they keep up the prayer and pay the prescribed alms." Marriage itself is described in terms of love and mercy between two separate but equal parts: "It is He who created you all from one soul, and from it made its mate so that [that being] might find comfort in [its pair]," and "He created spouses from among yourselves for you to live with in tranquillity: He ordained love and kindness between you." So intimate is this bond that spouses are called "garments" (*libaas*) for one another, each becoming the other's armor against hostility, warmth in coldness, and shelter from the heat cast by others. Alongside this equality, there remains a clear Qur'anic paradigm distinguishing male from female. The books of exegesis relate that Hinna bint Faqudh, wife of ʿImran and mother of Maryam, having vowed to dedicate her child to her Lord's service, cried out in dismay upon giving birth, for she had assumed her child would be male, since the customs of her time permitted only males to serve in the holy spaces of Jerusalem. Allah records her words: "My Lord! I have given birth to a girl"—and then affirms, "God knew best what she had given birth to: the male is not like the female." Yet this distinction is not disparagement; for where Hinna feared her daughter's gender would bar her from greatness, Allah made Maryam a sign to the entire universe. A woman attains through her very femininity a unique station of piety, and through it alone comes the blessing of carrying and nurturing a new generation. As the Prophet ﷺ said, "Verily, women are the twin halves of men." When the words *rajul* (man) and *rijaal* (men) appear in the Qur'an, they usually carry a qualification that explains the designation, drawing out themes of truthfulness (*sidq*), self-restraint, inward piety, devotion, and guardianship. Thus Allah speaks of "*rijaal* among the believers who honored their pledge to God," of "*rijaal* who are not distracted, either by commerce or profit, from remembering God," and of the mosque in which "there are men who desire to grow in purity." These noble qualities converge in the much-discussed verse on masculinity (*rujula*): "Husbands should take good care of their wives," in which the word *qawwamun* is variously translated as "should take good care of," "in charge of," "protectors and maintainers," or "managers of affairs." It derives from the root *qama*, "to stand or establish," and conveys ongoing vigilance and guardianship, entailing legal rights and obligations upon both spouses; through *qiwama* a wife has the right to security and freedom from the need to support herself. Some commentators link this verse to Allah's words, "Let him who possesses plenty spend of his plenty," making financial provision the effective cause (*ʿilla*) of *qiwama*. On this basis the jurists of all the Sunni schools have inferred that when a husband can no longer support and care for his wife, she is no longer bound to remain with him, and in the Shafiʿi school in particular she is entitled to annulment. Musa عليه السلام exemplifies such a caretaker: asked by Allah about his staff, he replied, "I lean upon it, and I manage my sheep with it," leaning on it to steady himself over rough ground, to rest when weary, and to remain upright when injured while tending his flock. Since shepherding was the vocation of every prophet, it fittingly describes responsibility over one's family and society, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "All of you are shepherding guardians and are responsible for your flock… a man is a steward of his family." The completion of one's humanity lies in following the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, in which is found salvation in the Hereafter and felicity in this world, for Allah says of him, "And indeed, you are of a great moral character," and, "There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern." When Qatadah asked ʿAisha about his character, she answered, "Verily, the character of the Prophet of Allah was the Qur'an." He ﷺ said, "I was sent to perfect good character," and he taught that noble traits may be either innate or acquired, telling al-Mundhir al-Ashshajj that Allah had created gentleness and deliberation in his very nature, and that "people are like ores of silver and gold." Al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyad observed that "whoever has a deficiency in his character has a deficiency in his religion, his reputation, and his manhood," and the Prophet ﷺ named four qualities—fulfilling trust, truthful speech, good character, and restraint with food—by which a man need not grieve over what he misses of the world. A true man's word is his bond. From the account of Musa and the fire—"He saw a fire and said to his people, 'Stay here… Maybe I can bring you a flaming brand from it or find some guidance there'"—may be drawn a series of lessons in *qawwama*: that family comes first; that a known danger is preferable to a hidden one; that exposing one is better than exposing many; that a single voice must decide in trying moments; that a leader consults and explains his reasoning, speaking to all whom his decision affects; that one must not promise what is not assured, hence Musa's "Maybe I can bring you"; that benefit should be maximized even amid danger; that needs must be prioritized, warmth before guidance; and that one must take responsibility, hence his "I can." Yet the Prophet ﷺ, a man of both action and deliberation, endured in his sixty-three years more tribulation than a whole generation: orphaned, widowed, battle-scarred, outcast, bereaved of children and grandchildren, defamed, mocked, poisoned, and stoned. ʿAli said that when battle grew fierce, "there was no one who was closer to the enemy than he was." This strength never eroded his mercy, for Allah said, "So by mercy from Allah, you were lenient with them," and when al-Aqraʿ ibn Habis boasted of never kissing any of his ten children, the Prophet ﷺ, as related by Imam Bukhari, rebuked such false toughness: "The one who has no mercy will not be shown any mercy." He taught that "the strong man is not the one who can overpower others; rather, the strong man is the one who controls himself when he gets angry," and that true strength is the conquest of one's ego. Pious men such as Fudayl ibn ʿIyad and Bishr ibn al-Harith counseled obscurity over fame, warning that love of renown ruins one's religion. The Prophet ﷺ kept the company of the poor and downtrodden, dressed as his people did, sought no throne or escort, ate sparingly and in company, cared for the earth and its creatures, and reserved his single answered supplication as intercession for his community on the Day of Judgment, weeping in longing for those who would believe in him after his time. May our character be shaped by his tradition, taking comfort in his words to the man who had prepared nothing for the Hour save love of Allah and His Messenger: "You will be with those whom you love." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-open-letter-to-muslim-men-the-sunnah-trumps-toxic-masculinity # An Open Letter to Muslim Men: The Sunnah Trumps Toxic Masculinity **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 23, 2019 **Updated:** January 15, 2026 ## Introduction This article is addressed to young Muslim men. Others are welcome to read on but please understand that I am addressing a specific audience. Today’s world is polarized along the lines of how people understand religion, what culture they see as deserving, which values they see as determinative, and whether they are open or closed to certain kinds of change. So pervasive is this polarization that it can overwhelm even a hardy reader who spends too long submerged in the media. To the above issues, Muslims committed to taking their religion seriously add another axis of polarization: what we could call the ‘Sellout vs. Real Axis.’ In short, it marks where you are on the following matter: are you understanding Islam in a way authentic to the faith and its sources (Real)? Or are you taking some other source or value system as the definer of how you see the world and merely stretching an Islamic cover over it (Selling Out)? Of course, the answer depends on who’s judging. For our purposes here, just assume you are. Since the beginning of our faith, Muslims have been wrestling with how to understand the revelation of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in changing times and circumstances, in new languages, over new food, in new climates, and among new faces. In the Qur’an, God orders us to use our reason and also to cling to the teachings given to us in revelation (Qur’an 22:71, 17:36, 24:15; 2:76; 3:65, 30:80).  He shows us both that we are created to worship Him but also that moments of real worldly hardship excuse our lapses in that duty (Qur’an 2:184; 51:56; 16:106). So Muslims have constantly been reading their revealed sources in the light of reason and empirical observation, balancing the commandments about good and bad sealed in scripture with the benefit and harm accruing in our worldly life. At times, codes of value generated in this world have had enormous influence. There have been times that some Muslims have accused others of taking some other source of norms or knowledge as their true point of reference instead of the Qur’an and Sunnah. This was, essentially, what al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) accused some Islamic philosophers of doing with the tradition of Greek learning, and it was essentially what Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) accused al-Ghazali and others of doing with their synthesis of the Greek tradition and Islamic learning. But, in any case, for most of our history, Muslims who engaged in such debates did so from a position of utter self-confidence and on their own terms. This all changed in the 1800s. By the early decades of the twentieth century, Muslims globally were in a clear position of cultural, scientific, economic, political, and military weakness. Almost all Muslims lived under the direct control of non-Muslim powers. As a result, the ‘Sellout vs. Real’ axis was no longer simply a matter of intellectual or spiritual predilection. It had been overlaid onto supercharged dynamics of ‘collaborator vs. resistor,’ ‘colonial vs. colonized,’ ‘Western vs. indigenous,’ ‘imposing them vs. authentic us.’ This polarization has become overwhelming. What it has meant for Muslims is that all behaviors and all words are sucked towards one of two irresistible poles. Anything that seems to smack of something ‘liberal’ or ‘Western’ is seen as a sign or badge of loyalty to that pole. Anything that resists this or seems ‘traditional’ or stemming from the Islamic past is a pledge to the other. There are, of course, two massive problems here. First, ‘wrong in the eyes of God’ and ‘right in the eyes of God’ don’t correspond to ‘Sellout’ and ‘Real’ or to any other polarized axis mentioned so far. Not everything that is authentically Islamic would qualify as ‘traditional’ or ‘conservative’ today. Second, wisdom isn’t the exclusive property of the Islamic tradition; Muslims can avail themselves of it wherever they find it. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “A wise word is the lost animal of the believer, wherever he finds it, he has the right to it.”[^1] This is especially apt when some wisdom reminds us of moral or spiritual callings within our own religion. The idea of abolishing slavery as an institution arose in the Christian West with the early Industrial Revolution. But Muslims have, by and large, realized that this helps fulfill the clear mandate for emancipation in the Qur’an and Sunnah, so abolition has become a commitment of most Muslims too, a commitment that Muslims should carry forward in combating all forms of exploitative labor. So we face a constant and very consequential problem. First of all, the ‘Sellout v. Real’ axis of polarization blurs into other global axes, like ‘Liberal/Conservative,’ Western/Non-Western.’ Second, the ‘Sellout v. Real’ axis of polarization is like a black hole for our public life, sucking everything into itself. But Islamically right and Islamically wrong don’t correspond to it. So it becomes almost impossible for Muslims simply to do what they sincerely believe their religion guides them to do. Setting aside what is actually correct according to the Shariah, let’s imagine how a Muslim scholar or intellectual would be viewed if they came to a conclusion on some controversial topic. If they conclude that there should be no partition between men and women in the mosque, then they’re liberal sellouts according to some and enlightened heroes according to others. If they conclude that same-sex acts are prohibited in Islam, then they’re standing firm by God’s message in the eyes of one group and refusing to leave the medieval darkness in the eyes of the other. The Muslim who came to these conclusions might simply be offering their best understanding of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and Islamic tradition. But neither of these two sides look at that. All that matters is which pole you’re seen as serving. This is crucial background for addressing a pressing issue among Muslim men today in the global West (i.e., the West and its satellite elite communities globally): what is masculinity or, in other words, what does it mean to be a man? We might [mock this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQWGIzSGtOc) as melodramatic but the question lies at the root of ethical traditions (and of words like virtue and *muruwwa*) and remains as essential as ever to how we judge morality. Taking the modern US as an example, anything resembling consensus over what it means to be a man has totally fragmented in the last few decades. Think about this: is there any one man living today that all or even a vast majority of Americans would agree upon as an uncontested role model for masculinity? Even the perennial box office draw James Bond has been knocked off his pedestal. He may have been a guilty pleasure or a classic anti-hero but, either way, it is hard to imagine what a Bond movie will be like in the #metoo era. The American public square seems dominated by two proposed ideals of masculinity. The first is what we might call the Progressive Male: he is sensitive, intellectual, woke, does dishes, is a stay-at-home dad, and is so in touch with his feminine side that he seems to straddle the male/female boundary and even dissolve it altogether. The second is what we could call the Traditional Man’s Man: we can imagine him coming in two models; there is the blue-collar father and husband who knows right from wrong, knows ‘what it means to be a man,’ enjoys beer with the boys and baseball with the kids in all its Americana glory… think Kevin Costner roles; and there is the white-collar model, either the corporate titan or the moral pillar of the community. One feature of the recent Progressive reaction against establishment (elite and/or White male) norms is that the Traditional Man’s Man has been severely critiqued by Progressive and liberal voices. Many of these voices see the Progressive Male as the obvious replacement for the proper role model for biological males in a society that they hope will soon eliminate male/female as categories with any economic or legal meaning and embrace gender as a fluid spectrum defined by each individual’s subjectivity. This situation has provoked a strong and understandable reaction among many Muslims, both men and women. Important aspects of this Progressive, liberal vision and the model of the Progressive Male find little support in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Indeed, both seem to contradict strong themes in core Islamic teachings. Islam does not envision any removal of the distinction between male and female. “And the male is not like the female” (Qur’an 3:36), God says. “For men there is a share of what they have earned, and for women there is a share of what they have earned” (4:32). In Islam, gender is not determined subjectively but objectively by one’s physiology. Even those Muslim scholars who have accepted that people can suffer from gender dysphoria [only permit](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/lgbtq-and-islam-revisited-the-days-of-the-donald/) medical procedures to effect a sex change if some clear evidence can be shown for a real psychological condition. Critics might object that Islamic law regularly recognized the existence of people with ambiguous genitalia (hermaphrodites) and it has always recognized that gender is fluid, acknowledging the reality of effeminate men (*mukhannath*) and masculine women (*mutarajjila, saʿtarī*) and, generally, that people with such inclinations are blameless for their condition.[^2] This is all true, but it only proves the points being objected to. Effeminate men are still men in Islamic law, though some legal rulings might not apply to them regarding mixing with women. Masculine women are still women. For hermaphrodites, their dominant sex must still be identified by some means or another so they can be placed in the male or female category. If there is absolutely no external bodily marker of sex for an adult hermaphrodite (an inconceivably rare occurrence), then the category is determined by which sex the individual is attracted to (i.e., if they’re attracted to women, they’re a man, etc.).[^3] So, many Muslims (and here I’m addressing Muslim men in particular) cannot accept what they see as Progressive liberal efforts to delegitimize traditional models of masculinity and replace them with a model committed to dismantling categories confirmed in the revelation of the Qur’an and central to the tradition of Islamic law and ethics built upon it. Many Muslims, especially young Muslim men, have reacted in the same way that many other more conservatively inclined Americans have: by sympathizing or even identifying with those figures who denounce the perceived Progressive liberal agenda on sexuality and masculinity, such as Jordan Peterson. If the only choices one sees are the Progressive Male (and the Progressive vision he comes with), on the one hand, and an angered defense of the Traditional Man’s Man by effectively Alt-Right and Men’s Rights champions on the other, many young Muslim men conclude that the second choice is, by far, the superior. They also see in the hyperbolically re-imagined ‘Traditional Man’ a near image of the Third World alpha male that many grew up with in the immigrant cultures their parents and grandparents brought with them to the West. Many a young Muslim man in the West grew up watching TV while his sisters cleaned up after him and took turns with their mother serving him food and drinks. Many grew up with at least some notion that a real man was one who ruled over and enjoyed the devoted service of his womenfolk. And so, for many young Muslim men in the West, taking the side of Alt-Right critics of Progressive liberal gender norms is both common sense and in accord with Islam not just as they understand it manifested in Islamic doctrine but also in the lived experiences of their parents’ ‘true’ traditional Islamic lifestyles in those places and times before their move to America. The problem is that this ‘Traditional Man’s Man’ is not inherently Islamic at all. Taking the question of wives cooking and doing housework as an example, according to the Sunni schools of law this is either not required of her, required only if her husband is poor and she does not see the job as beneath herself, or her duties are based on the customary expectations in her particular society (this was [recently discussed](https://musafurber.com/2019/03/20/summary-a-wifes-religious-obligation-to-perform-housework/) by my teacher Shaykh Musa Furber as well as [others](https://islamicportal.co.uk/serving-the-husband-and-his-family-and-vice-versa/)). The Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ certainly instructs wives to respect and obey their husbands but it also clearly states that respect is only due in what is known as right in that context.[^4] Husbands can expect their wives to heed them to the extent that such heeding is accepted in the culture they live in. Muslim men disapproving of the Progressive liberal model of masculinity should not turn to a reactionary masculinity produced by the West’s angry conservatives. They should heed the ‘goodly example’ given them by the Qur’an (33:21), whose conduct should be compelling for all believers: the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. And he did not sit around letting his womenfolk serve him. As his wife Aisha described him, he would mend his own clothes, milk his own sheep, “and serve himself.”[^5]  He would help his wives prepare meals.[^6] “He was,” she said, “in the service of his family (*kāna fī mihnat ahlihi*).”[^7] When the Prophet’s daughter Fatima came to him complaining of how her hands had been calloused by domestic work and asking for a servant, he dismissed her complaint by telling her that praising God was better.[^8] This is just my interpretation, but it seems almost as if the Prophet ﷺ felt that being served was a self-indulgence that is better avoided. In light of ongoing debates about differences between sexes and expectations of gender roles, it’s worth looking at how the men and women of Islam’s ideal, founding generation conducted themselves. In the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, men and women are distinct in their duties of prayer and fasting (women don’t do either when menstruating), in their dress (they must cover different areas of their body), and other legal issues. Men have the duty to guard and protect (*qiwāma*) their womenfolk because of some of the capacities that God generally grants one sex to a greater degree than the other. But what surprised me when I reflected on it was how little difference there was otherwise between the conduct of men and women in this noble community. Both were deeply pious, decisive, courageous in word and deed, proud of themselves but humbled by the charge God put upon them, confident when they believed they were right but also utterly deferential to the instructions of God and His Messenger ﷺ. Both were dynamically involved in public life. And both men and women were extremely conscious of their code of sexual propriety. Aisha رضي الله عنها became a major political leader in the first decades of the Muslim community and one of its most respected sources of knowledge. When the Prophet’s ﷺ wife Umm Salama رضي الله عنها heard him addressing the people outside, she went out to join the crowd. When she was asked why she thought she was meant to attend, she replied, “Are we not among the people?”[^9] During the caliphate of ʿUmar رضي الله عنه, a female Companion interrupted his Friday sermon to correct him on a point, and he admitted she was right.[^10] A whole slew of female Companions fought in battle, the most notable among them Nuṣayba bint Kaʿb رضي الله عنها, who defended the Prophet ﷺ with her sword at the Battle of Uhud and later died on campaign.[^11] The great enemy of the Prophet ﷺ, Abū Lahab, was killed by Umm al-Faḍl رضي الله عنها, who smashed his head with a tent-pole. During the Battle of the Trench, Ṣafiyya bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib رضي الله عنها was among the people defending the small fort of Fāriʿ. When the senior man there would not go out and confront an enemy soldier who was about to find the fort’s secret entrance, Ṣafiyya took matters into her own hands. She leapt on him from the fort’s walls and clubbed him to death. But she demanded that one of her male comrades strip off his weapons and armor since he was an unrelated man she would never touch with her own hands.[^12] The Prophet ﷺ and his community did not leave a legacy of ‘Traditional Man’s Men’ and subservient women. Their legacy is one of courageous, committed, humble, and engaged individuals, men and women alike. At their head was not an angry alpha male whose masculinity made him mock or subordinate others. He ﷺ was a man who saw that a man’s role is to serve his family and that letting others serve you is something a real man would prefer to avoid. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī:* *kitāb al-ʿilm, bāb mā jā’a fī faḍl al-ʿilm ʿalā al-ʿibāda*. [^2]: Paul Sprachman, ‘Le beau garçon sans merci: The Homoerotic Tale in Arabic and Persian,’ in *Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature*, ed., J.W. Wright, Jr. and Everett K. Rowson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 199; Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 12 vols. (Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 2000), 13/14:413-4. *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-adab, bāb fī al-ḥukm ʿalā al-mukhannathīn; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī: kitāb al-adab, bāb mā jā’a fī al-mutashabbihāt bi’l-rijāl min al-nisā’*. [^3]: Paula Sanders, ‘Gendering the Ungendered Body: Hermaphrodites in Medieval Islamic Law,’ in *Women in Middle Eastern History*, ed. Nikki R. Keddie and Beth Baron (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 74-95. [^4]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-nikāḥ, bāb idhā bātat al-mar’a muhājira firāsh zawjihā; kitāb al-aḥkām, bāb al-samʿ wa’l-ṭāʿa li’l-imām…; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī: kitāb al-riḍāʿ, bāb mā jā’a fī ḥaqq al-zawj ʿalā al-mar’a.* [^5]: *Musnad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Maymaniyya printing), 6:242-3, 256. [^6]: *Musnad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 6:94. [^7]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-adab, bāb kayfa yakūnu al-rajul fī ahlihi.* [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-daʿawāt, bāb al-takbīr wa al-sasbīḥ ʿind al-manām*. [^9]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-faḍā’il, bāb ithbāt ḥawḍ nabiyinā…; Musnad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal:* 6:279. [^10]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ mushkil al-āthār*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1987), 13:57. Ibn Kathīr affirms the report; Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr*, ed. Muṣṭafā al-Sayyid Muḥammad, et al. (Giza: Mu’assasat Qurṭuba, 2000), 3:403. [^11]: Ibn Hishām, *al-Sīra al-nabawiyya*, ed. Jamāl Thābit and Muḥammad Maḥmūd (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1998), 2:73; 3:44; Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā’*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ, et al. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1992–98), 2:297. [^12]: Ibn Hishām, 3:198. ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Muslims have, from the earliest days of the faith, been engaged in the effort to understand the revelation brought by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ amid changing times, tongues, and circumstances. Allah in His Book commands us both to employ our reason and to hold fast to what has been revealed (Qur'an 22:71, 17:36, 24:15, 2:76, 3:65, 30:80), and He teaches us that though we are created to worship Him (51:56), genuine worldly hardship may excuse our lapses in that duty (2:184, 16:106). Thus the balancing of scriptural commands with worldly benefit and harm has always been part of the tradition. At times, external systems of value exerted great influence, and Muslims accused one another of taking some source other than the Qur'an and Sunnah as their true point of reference. This was, in essence, al-Ghazālī's (d. 505/1111) charge against certain Islamic philosophers regarding the Greek learning they absorbed, and it was, in essence, Ibn Taymiyya's (d. 728/1328) charge against al-Ghazālī and others for their synthesis of Greek and Islamic thought. Yet for most of our history, Muslims conducted these debates from a position of self-confidence and on their own terms. This changed in the nineteenth century, and by the early twentieth century Muslims globally found themselves in evident weakness, most living under the direct control of non-Muslim powers. As a result, what may be called the "Sellout versus Real" axis—the question of whether one understands Islam authentically or merely stretches an Islamic cover over some other value system—became fused with the charged dynamics of colonizer and colonized, Western and indigenous. This polarization has become so overwhelming that behaviors and words are pulled toward one of two poles: anything appearing "liberal" or "Western" is read as loyalty to one side, anything "traditional" as loyalty to the other. Two grave problems attend this. First, what is right and wrong in the sight of Allah does not correspond to these poles; not everything authentically Islamic would be counted "traditional" or "conservative" today. Second, wisdom is not the exclusive property of the Islamic tradition. Muslims may take it wherever they find it, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "A wise word is the lost animal of the believer; wherever he finds it, he has the right to it." So it is with the abolition of slavery, which arose in the Christian West with the early Industrial Revolution, yet which most Muslims have come to embrace because it helps fulfill the clear mandate for emancipation in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Because of this polarization, it becomes nearly impossible for a Muslim scholar simply to voice his sincere understanding of the sources; whatever conclusion he reaches on a contested matter is judged only by which pole he is seen to serve. This is the necessary background for a pressing question among Muslim men in the global West: what does it mean to be a man? The question lies at the root of ethical traditions and of words like virtue and muruwwa. In present-day America, any consensus about masculinity has fragmented, and the public square is dominated by two rival ideals. The first is the "Progressive Male"—sensitive, in touch with his feminine side, so much so that he seems to dissolve the male-female boundary altogether. The second is the "Traditional Man's Man," imagined in blue-collar and white-collar forms. Progressive voices have severely critiqued the latter, hoping to eliminate male and female as categories bearing any legal or economic meaning and to embrace gender as a fluid spectrum defined by individual subjectivity. This vision finds little support in the Qur'an and Sunnah and indeed contradicts strong themes within them. Allah says, "And the male is not like the female" (Qur'an 3:36), and, "For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned" (4:32). In Islam, gender is determined objectively by physiology, not subjectively. Even scholars who accept that a person may suffer genuine gender dysphoria permit medical procedures only where clear evidence of a real psychological condition can be shown. One might object that Islamic law long recognized the hermaphrodite, the effeminate man (mukhannath), and the masculine woman (mutarajjila, saʿtarī), holding such persons blameless for their disposition. Yet this only confirms the point: the effeminate man remains a man in the law, though certain rulings about mixing with women may not apply to him, and the masculine woman remains a woman. For the hermaphrodite, the dominant sex must still be identified so the person may be placed in one category; and in the exceedingly rare case where no bodily marker exists, the category is determined by which sex the individual is attracted to. Understandably, then, many Muslims—here the address is to Muslim men in particular—cannot accept efforts to delegitimize traditional models of masculinity in favor of one committed to dismantling categories affirmed in revelation. Many young Muslim men have reacted as other conservatively inclined Americans have, sympathizing with figures such as Jordan Peterson who denounce the Progressive agenda. Presented with only two options—the Progressive Male or an angry defense of the Traditional Man's Man by Alt-Right and Men's Rights champions—many conclude the second is far superior. They also see in this reimagined "Traditional Man" a near image of the alpha male of the immigrant cultures many grew up in, where a real man was thought to rule over and enjoy the devoted service of his womenfolk. But this "Traditional Man's Man" is not inherently Islamic at all. Taking the example of a wife cooking and keeping house: according to the Sunni schools of law, this is either not required of her, or required only if her husband is poor and she does not deem the work beneath her, or determined by the customary expectations of her society—a matter discussed by Shaykh Musa Furber and others. The Sunnah instructs wives to respect and obey their husbands, yet it makes clear that obedience is due only in what is known to be right, to the extent accepted in the culture in which they live. Muslim men who reject the Progressive model should not turn to a reactionary masculinity produced by the West's angry conservatives, but should heed the "goodly example" of which the Qur'an speaks (33:21): the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. He did not sit while his womenfolk served him. As his wife ʿĀ'isha described him, he would mend his own clothes, milk his own sheep, and serve himself; he would help his wives prepare meals; he "was in the service of his family." When his daughter Fāṭima came complaining that domestic work had calloused her hands and asked for a servant, he turned her aside, telling her that praising Allah was better—as though, in the author's own reading, being served was a self-indulgence better avoided. It is worth reflecting on how the men and women of Islam's founding generation conducted themselves. Men and women are distinct in duties of prayer and fasting, in dress, and in various legal matters, and men bear the duty of guarding and protecting (qiwāma) their womenfolk on account of capacities Allah generally grants one sex more than the other. Yet beyond this, how little difference there was in their conduct. Both were pious, courageous, and engaged in public life. ʿĀ'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) became a major political leader and source of knowledge. When Umm Salama heard the Prophet ﷺ addressing the people and was asked why she thought herself meant to attend, she replied, "Are we not among the people?" During the caliphate of ʿUmar, a woman interrupted his Friday sermon to correct him, and he conceded she was right. Female Companions fought in battle—Nusayba bint Kaʿb, who defended the Prophet ﷺ with her sword at Uhud and later died on campaign; Umm al-Faḍl, who slew Abū Lahab with a tent-pole; and Ṣafiyya bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, who at the Battle of the Trench clubbed to death an enemy soldier, yet demanded a male comrade strip the slain man's arms, since he was an unrelated man she would not touch with her own hands. The Prophet ﷺ and his community left a legacy not of "Traditional Man's Men" and subservient women, but of courageous, humble, and engaged individuals, men and women alike. At their head stood not an angry alpha male who mocked or subordinated others, but a man who saw that a man's role is to serve his family, and that being served is something a real man would prefer to avoid. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/courage-commitment-the-femininity-of-muslim-women # Courage & Commitment: The Femininity of Muslim Women **Author:** Dr. Tamara Gray **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication, Women in Islam **Published:** July 18, 2019 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Introduction The term ‘feminine’ conjures up images of flowers and pink fluffy fabrics, soft smiles, and sweetly spoken words. Years ago, girls in Minnesota who preferred soccer to sewing were called ‘tomboys’ because their hobbies were not feminine or ‘girly.’ Today, children are questioning their very biological sex because they do or do not identify with cultural norms around ‘being a girl’ or ‘being a boy.’ Muslims are often grappling with this disturbing tendency by grasping on to a binary definition of feminine and masculine behavior, applying these standards to all women and men, and claiming to do so based on religion. Further to this problem, the “status of Muslim women” and “the role of women in Islam” are topics that have been tossed from one speaker to another like a large piece of pizza dough. Each ‘handler’ tosses the dough up into the air, making claims about Muslim women’s roles and responsibilities as wives and mothers; some tell women not to come to the mosque, while others call for women to forgo their God-given rights of financial independence and personal agency. Still other speakers may stray far from traditional values; e.g., denying the necessity for *hijab* and calling on Muslim women to defy religion and traditional *fiqh*. This binary thinking has caused confusion and confoundment—especially amongst women of faith. Who am I as a Muslim woman? What does it mean to be female and what role does femininity play in my life? These are questions playing on the minds of young and old alike. In order to answer this question, we must find a way to break out of preconceived ideas around femininity and masculinity that we have adopted subconsciously. In the following pages, I first discuss Western myths around femininity. I then look to the women mentioned in the Qur’an and Muslim women throughout the centuries, in an attempt to propose a model of Muslim femininity that is rooted in Muslim women themselves. --- ## The global June Cleaver During colonialist rule, Western governments and missionary schools introduced their own beliefs about femininity to Muslim lands. Their concept of the delicate and fainting woman clashed strongly with the example of bravery in battle of Safiyya bint Abdul Muttalib رضي الله عنها but it began to permeate local cultures nonetheless. Eventually the ‘ideal woman’ who cooks, cleans, docilely serves her husband, and gently raises her children became part and parcel of *khutbas* and *halaqas*—all without questioning where that ideal came from in the first place. The sexualization of women, and especially Muslim women, also became part of the feminine ethos. The harem became an orientalist trope while, in reality, it remained the *haram*—the place where women gathered to do laundry and cook without the need for *hijab* in a space where men were not allowed. Images of traditional families come to us in television shows. We are taught that mom and dad and two and a half children make up an ideal family. Post-World War II, the US invented the suburb and social workers began to endorse “nuclear family separateness and looked suspiciously on active extended-family networks.”[^1] For most women, this move to nuclear families separated from other supportive family members meant more housework and fewer support systems. Sitcoms in the 1950s showed so-called ‘ethnic’ men as unable to ‘control’ their wives, whereas the middle-class white housewife was well behaved. An image of ideal femininity attached to gentle and sweet housewifery was born and then exported across the world via movies and television for peoples of every culture to absorb. Suddenly, in Muslim societies, there was women’s work (housework) and men’s work (office work)—though our very Prophet ﷺ had never endorsed this distinction. Muslims care very much about family, and we were particularly susceptible to the image of perfect happiness, submission, and feminine ‘light.’ It was, however, only an image. The breaking up of the extended family and the locking in of one definition of femininity has had tragic consequences. Emotional needs cannot be met by so few people, same-sex networks have dissolved, and success outside of family has been defined as individual, strategic, and smart, while success inside families is described as sacrificing, selfless, and involving an intentional disregard for rationality.[^2] The result has been unhappiness. In the sixties, many women tried to rectify their emptiness by throwing themselves into the workplace and demanding equal access and equal treatment. “The acquisitive, competitive values women adopted when they forsook domesticity led them to become ‘clones’ of men.”[^3] Feminine qualities then, without examination, became associated with being weak and a failure. A nostalgia grew for ‘the traditional family’ but most people had forgotten what that actually was (the original extended version). If the image of the domesticated woman is a false ideal, what is the Muslim version of womanhood? We need to be careful not to adopt tropes that we did not define and that are not exemplified in our history. Instead we must look to the Qur’an and Sunnah to discover the characteristics of womanhood and femininity. The Qur’an is not void of women; in fact, there a number of examples of women in the Qur’an, believers and non-believers. Next, we will look at some of these examples. --- ## Women in the Qur’an The women mentioned or referred to in the Qur’an run the gamut of social roles. Single mother, barren woman, fertile woman, wife of a great man, wife of a terrible man, woman without evidence of a spouse, married woman seeking to have an affair, and a divorcee are all examples of women found in the Qur’an. Their social status is not the main story but it is interesting, nonetheless, to know that nearly every possibility is represented. ### The single mother The single mother is, of course, Maryam, Mother of Jesus عليهما السلام. Her femininity is expressed in the story of a woman with great confidence in her Lord. She gave a lesson to her uncle—a prophet—when he asked her where she got fruit that was out of season by responding, “...Indeed it is from God, God provides for whom He wills.”[^4] And her uncle listened carefully, returned to his Lord, and requested offspring. His prayer was answered when his wife, a woman who had passed her fertile years, became pregnant with Prophet Yahya عليه السلام. The mother of Jesus was very young (13 or 14 according to Christian scholars) and the mother of Yahya was very old (in her 80s according to Christian sources and God knows best)—the Qur’an presents them both as women of faith and confidence in their Lord. The story of Maryam (may God be pleased with her) is one of struggle and difficulty. We are with her when she gives birth to Prophet ‘Isa عليه السلام. We watch as, alone and in agony, she is sent comfort from God in the form of angels and a tree full of fruit. We see her return to her people who are, not surprisingly, shocked. She does not run away or hide but rather relies on a miracle from the One who gave her this gift: the infant in her arms speaks. She has great courage on every step of this journey, and we also see her commitment to the path that Allah gave her. We see a courageous, confident, and committed woman. ### Married Āsiyya was married to one of the worst men ever—Pharaoh. He was an arrogant narcissist who said to his people, “I am your Lord, the Most High.”[^5] Āsiyya is presented as a woman of faith who was able to take a young Jewish boy from the river and save his life at the very time that Pharaoh was killing male Jewish babies. She does not cower to a husband’s wishes, nor is her later confidence in her Lord influenced by his cruelty. We learn that women have agency and must obey and worship God regardless of who their husband is. Then we meet the wives of Nuh and Lut عليهما السلام who refused to believe and were punished. This story is important as well because, without it, we might have concluded that womanhood on its own was saintly. But in reality, women (like men) must choose goodness and belief on their own, separate from the good or bad choices of their spouse. In the examples of Āsiyya and the wives of Lut and Nuh, womanhood is not special. We all, male and female, are engaged in the same human struggle to believe or failure to believe that everyone from the beginning of time to the end of time has engaged in and will continue to engage in. ### No evidence of a husband The queen of Sheba, Bilqis, is presented in the Qur’an as a fair leader who consulted her advisors. Prophet Suleiman عليه السلام tested her by altering her throne. He asked her if it was her throne and she said, “It is as though it is the very same.”[^6] Ibn Kathir says that this answer demonstrates her intelligence, strong resolve, and wisdom. The presentation of Bilqis in these verses is one of a capable leader and a woman who made her own decisions. The Qur’an says nothing about her marital status. It is irrelevant to the important aspects of her person—belief and good leadership. She was courageous in her interactions with Prophet Suleiman عليه السلام and confident in her discussion with her counselors. When she becomes a believer, it is with great commitment and she brings her citizenry with her. ### Seeking an affair We are then introduced to the wife of Aziz who is a married woman but is tempted by the good looks of her slave Yusuf  عليه السلام. She attempted to seduce him, then invited other women to her home so that she could prove to them his irresistible nature. They also desire him and he goes to jail. Later in the story she repents and identifies the source of her troubles, “Yet I claim not that my soul (*nafs*) was innocent—surely the soul of humankind incites to evil—except inasmuch as my Lord had Mercy; truly my Lord is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.”[^7] The Queen of Sheba is provided as an example of a woman who makes slow and deeply intelligent decisions. Zulaikha (the wife of Aziz) is passionate, pushed to make mistakes because of her desire but she is also brought to repentance and clarity at the end of the story. We learn that personality may influence how we act but it does not determine our ability to believe and do good deeds. Indeed, Zulaikha proves courageous in repentance and commitment to her Lord as she ultimately chooses God over a life of sin and following her desires. ### Divorcée The Qur’an also refers to the divorcée, Zaynab bint Jahsh  رضي الله عنها to whom God granted the great gift of marriage to the Prophet ﷺ. Zaynab’s story is one of the instances of a woman whose very life is used as an example for other believers. The lesson was that divorce is not a sign of a bad Muslim, nor of a failed woman. Indeed God said, “We joined her in marriage to thee.”[^8] --- ## And more... There are other women mentioned in the Qur’an: the woman who complained to God about her husband and was responded to in *Surat al Mujadila*; Hawa (or Eve) who was the first woman (20:117, 2:30-38); the daughters of Lut who stood ready to stand with their father against the sinful ways of the people of Sodom (15:71); Sarah, the believing wife of Ibrahim who is mentioned as pleased by the birth of her son Isaac (11:71-72); the mother of Moses who received direct instruction from God which she obeyed (God sent an inspiration to Moses’ mother that she should put Moses in a chest and throw the chest into the river, which would ultimately wash up on the shore of God’s enemy and he would be taken in; Qur’an 28:7); and the sister of Moses who brought him back to his mother so that he would nurse (28:12-13). Both his mother and sister were part of the divine project to save Moses. Later Moses’ wife and her sister are mentioned in the Qur’an (28:26-27). Maryam’s mother, the wife of Imran, is also mentioned in the Qur’an as a woman devoted to God.[^9] The mothers of the believers are mentioned as a group (33: 28-29; 32-34) as are the Prophet’s daughters with the rest of believing women (33:59). And finally, the wife of Abu Lahab was mentioned in the Qur’an (111:4-4) as deserving of punishment for her harassment and abuse of the Prophet ﷺ. --- ## Qur’anic definitions of femininity If we were to define femininity according to the Qur’an, we could easily use words like confidence, courage, and commitment to promises. That confidence, courage, and commitment was demonstrated in Maryam’s mother’s dedication of her child to the temple, in Maryam’s response to the Angel (*How could I bear a child when no man has touched me and I am not unchaste?*),[^10] and in Āsiyya’s response to Pharaoh (*And the wife of Pharaoh said: (He will be) a consolation for me and for thee. Kill him not. Perchance he may be of use to us, or we may choose him for a son. And they perceived not*).[^11] The stories of women in the Qur’an narrate bravery and belief disconnected from their social or familial status. The example of our foremothers was neither that of the Western myth of “Leave it to Beaver,” nor a modern desire to throw off traditional dress or worship rituals. Rather, we find women with a sense of purpose, a commitment to the betterment of society, and a devout relationship to God and His Prophet ﷺ. “Feminine” begins to look different in this light. In fact, it begins to look strong and powerful in its connection to God. --- ## Historical roles The lived realities of historical Muslim women are complicated and valuable.  They give richness and pragmatic examples to theoretical and theological concepts of womanhood and personhood. The past is a legitimizing force and the present is a dissipative example of the fractal of our early history. Even as the chaos of Western “civilization” attempts to erase us, Muslim women demonstrate our regenerative force and again and again come into our own space of faith and power. --- ## The case of Aisha  رضي الله عنها Aisha  رضي الله عنها was a historical anomaly. Her contribution to Islamic law and thought became part of the foundational canon of Islamic epistemology and legal tradition. She lived for nearly 50 years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ and left a legacy of leadership and teaching in her wake. Such a role for a woman as an intellectual founder was unheard of in other faiths, philosophies, and social theories. But Aisha, known for her outspoken frankness and her commitment to carrying on and carrying forth the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, broke with historical trends and began a new line of female scholarship and leadership amongst Muslim women. She, along with the other wives of the Prophet ﷺ, was granted the status of *ummahat al mumineen* by God: “The Prophet is worthier of the believers than themselves, and his wives are their mothers…”[^12] The word *umm* or *mother* in Arabic is related to the words *ummah* (community) and *imam* (leader). As such, it contains the meanings of both leadership and community. In Western thinking, the Great Mother is an archetype for individuals and societies.[^13] She is a giver and a key to transformative mysteries. She is fundamental to spiritual transformation. The archetype of mother is symbolic of growth, change, and development. It is deeply connected to religion because it is a directional force. Indeed, the Arabic term *imam* means to stand in front of and *ummahat*—or mothers—stand in front of the next generation in leadership. As our early mothers led us to good action, leadership, and a deep understanding of our role in society, so did their descendants. Throughout history, there have been women—as individuals and as groups—who have taken up the mantle of faith and community as they lived the legacy of leadership in their lives. --- ## Early spiritual and religious leaders In the first century after the *hijra*, ‘Amra bint Abdur Rahman began the chain of female scholarship. She was a direct student of our Mother Aisha, may God be well pleased with her, and a confident jurist. At one point, upon hearing of an unjust ruling, she sent a messenger to object. Her opinion was considered stronger than that of the judge and the ruling was corrected.[^14] In the second century, Nafisa al-Tahira, *hafitha*, jurist, *mufassira*, *muhadditha*, lived in Egypt. She set an example of Muslim womanhood in her worship vigils, her teaching, and her commitment to her faith. Imam Shafi’ was a student of Nafisa al Tahira, as were many, many others. She was a descendant of the Prophet ﷺ and lived his example. The people of Egypt loved her deeply. They would throng to her house to learn from her and to receive her blessing.[^15] The third century brought us a woman who devoted her money to the Muslim community. Fatima al-Fihri (800-880 CE), using her inheritance, founded the oldest academic degree-granting institution still in existence: the University of Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco. She began the project fasting, and so continued to fast for the full three years until it was complete. She demonstrated initiative, confidence in her ability to contribute, and devotion to worship practices in her decision to fast for the duration of the project. Malika bint Dawud ibn Muhammad al Qurtaki was a profound scholar who lived in Egypt during the fourth century. She gave an *ijaza* to the great spiritualist and scholar Ibn Asakir.[^16] In the fifth century, Karima bint Ahmad al Marwaziyya demonstrated how the spread of Islam included devoted women. Originally from Turkmenistan, Karima became a renowned scholar of *hadith* who was known for her precision and exactness. She lived and taught in Mecca and became known as the “Shaykha of Mecca.”[^17] Fatima bint Sa’d al Khair traveled across lands seeking teachers and *hadith*. She settled in Damascus and then Cairo, teaching in both cities and growing a long list of devoted students. In the sixth century, she was born in today’s China to parents who had traveled there from Spain.[^18] --- ## Inheritance of Aisha Six centuries and six women. None of them questioned their womanhood; rather, they asked how they could best serve their faith. Each found a way to teach or work for the betterment of their community. This is the inheritance of our Mother Aisha. This is the femininity of commitment and courage. We continue to find examples of strong women, political women, and women of faith, throughout the centuries, women who rooted their work and power in their religion. Women like Razia Sultan, leader of the Delhi Sultanate in the 7th century, Queen Al Adar al Karima, leader of her people and philanthropist of Yemen in the 8th century, Bibi Raji a social activist who built mosques, schools, retreats, and bridges in India in the 9th century, and Queen Aminatu of Zaria—a military genius who ruled her African nation for 34 years in the 10th century. For five centuries, women across Muslim lands continued to stand up and carry political and social responsibility—without any doubt that they could and should take on the mantle of their communities. In the 11th century, Mumtaz Mahal demonstrated to future generations the devotion of a wife and mother. She was deeply religious and gave birth to 14 children, dying during the birth of her last. Her husband so deeply mourned her that he built one of the seven wonders of the world in order to honor her greatness—the Taj Mahal. The 12th century of *hijra* gave us the artist Asma Ibre—whose first major work was a commissioned description of the Prophet ﷺ, which she did in her own artistic calligraphic style. She was only fifteen years old at the time. She was paid for her work by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and her last work, completed when she was only 28 years old, was a scripted and decorated *mushaf* of the Qur’an.[^19] (Kazan, 2010). And in the 13th century, Nana Asma’u of the Sokoto Caliphate was a scholar, poet, activist, and educationalist who used brilliant and creative techniques to ensure the stability of Islam in her country.[^20] Generation after generation has seen women who devoted their lives to religion, scholarship, service, and education. Islam raised these women, but they were not alone nor were they the exception to the rule. --- ## Communities of women In Uzbekistan, there was a little-known category of Muslim women religious leaders called *Otines*. These women worked for centuries as female scholars, teachers, and cultural caretakers of faith. The Otines safeguarded Islam and maintained tradition in the face of Soviet policies meant to disrupt it. These women lived in a political climate that stood against their religion but their religion was the foundation of their work. As the communist system spread and they lost space for teaching and influencing, they sought out new places to teach in and continued to uphold the religious tradition.[^21] The Otines began to learn as children, then at twenty were allowed to commit to a rigorous series of courses and training. At forty, they were given the status of teacher. This system of women teachers preserved outlawed books, traditional knowledge, and moral authority.[^22] It also embodied the concept of the femininity of commitment and courage that the women in the Qur’an and our early founders demonstrated. The Aisyiyah Organization in Indonesia has been preserving Islam for over 100 years. This wing of the Muhammadiyah movement was begun in 1917 by Muslim women in order to educate women and fight backwardness and the negative effects of the Dutch on Islam in Indonesia. It brought a balance of piety and contemporary attitudes toward faith. The women teachers persevered and ensured the continuation of Islam on the islands.[^23] In their work, we again see the femininity of courage and commitment to serve Islam and Muslims. China was another place of women’s leadership and agency. In the 15th century CE, a system of female teachers called *jingshis*[^24] was established and, for the next four hundred years, Islamic education for girls helped to preserve and protect Islamic knowledge during the Qing dynasty (1616-1911). The schools were called Nuxue and Nusi. They had different origins but a singular goal: the education of women in Islamic sciences.[^25] There were other women concerned with the preservation of Islam in their communities as well: the *ahong*—a committee of female elders. Their job was to address the challenges faced by the community at the hands of the communist party and state interventions. They gained political legitimacy and legal entitlements in their roles as community leaders.[^26]Again, we see commitment and courage. --- ## Femininity redefined Women throughout history, as individuals and as organizations, have taken part in the perpetuation of religious tradition. Devout, successful, and energized, these women were committed to their personal goals. What is the Islamic framework that these women worked in and might that help modern women understand our role in life? First and foremost, the women mentioned did not see themselves as women first, but rather as servants of The Merciful. They saw themselves as inheritors of the Prophet’s message, with the duty to propagate and support it in their geographical places and historical eras. Dr. Zainab Alwani, in *Muslim Women and Global Challenges*, said, “… nurturing the role of women in society is critical; they are the eyes of society that pinpoint the problem and help provide effective solutions… having this understanding will enable Muslim communities to realize the significance of Muslim women’s role in establishing a healthy and peaceful human culture and society.”[^27] Muslim women in the past understood this. They recognized the importance of their spiritual and religious contributions to society and did not shirk their duties. Indeed, the creation of men and women together is indicative of our mutual work. Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an, “Believers, men and women, are each other’s reliable friends. They enjoin right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give *zakah* and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those—Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.”[^28] This attitude of working together for the betterment of society is the framework within which Muslim women worked and succeeded in early generations. But there is also the framework of “mothering”—the feeling of obligation to a child is not unlike the feeling that Muslim women demonstrated to their community. The women in the examples here did not pause to ask if they should serve but, like mothers of infants, woke up at night and toiled during the day to do what was necessary in order to keep their child, Islam, alive. This definition of mothering—courage and commitment—is quite different from the Western tropes of docility and obedience. The question ‘What is women’s role in society’ is a question resulting from the globalization of Western thought. Instead, Muslim women have been asking, “What does society need from me?” and then responding with power, agency, and commitment that welled from their spiritual and religious resources. As we look to the Qur’an and our past and see individual women in every century as well as groups of communities of teachers across geographical borders, we can find a wellspring of hope and strength. Muslim women today must stand in the shade of their legacy and look outside of the pettiness of modern life. We must engulf our communities with the commitment, courage, and service that is our very own. --- ## Notes [^1]: Coontz, S. (1992). *The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap*. USA: Basic Books of Harper and Collins., p. 26. Coontz attributes this view to several sociologists including Talcott Parsons (1902-1979). See Coontz, p. 296, note 9. Coontz cites Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, Family, Socialization, and Interaction Process (Glencoe: Free Press, 1955). [^2]: Ibid. [^3]: Ibid., p. 151. [^4]: Qur’an 3:37. [^5]: Qur’an 79:24. [^6]: Qur’an 27:42. [^7]: Qur’an 12:53. [^8]: Qur’an 33:37. [^9]: Qur’an 3:35 [^10]: Qur’an 19:21. [^11]: Qur’an 28:9. [^12]: Qur’an 33:6. [^13]: A classic study is Erich Neumann’s *Die große Mutter. Der Archetyp des grossen Weiblichen*. The work was published in English translation as *The great mother: An analysis of the archetype* in 1955 and recently re-printed in 2015. See Erich Neumann, *The Great Mother* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015). [^14]: For more on ‘Amra, see Asma Sayeed, Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 67-69. [^15]: Bewley, A. (2004). *Muslim women: A biographical dictionary* London: Ta-Ha Publishers. [^16]: Ibid. [^17]: Nadwi, M. A. (2007.) *Al-Muhaddithāt: The women scholars in Islam*. Oxford: Interface Publications. [^18]: Ibid. [^19]: Kazan, H. (2010). *Female calligraphers: Past and present*. Istanbul: Cultural Co. [^20]: Boyd, J. (1989). *The Caliph’s sister: Nana Asma’u 1793-1865 teacher, poet, and Islamic leader.* London: Frank Cass Publishers. [^21]: Fathi, H. (1997). Otines: The unknown women clerics of Central Asian Islam. *Central Asian Survey*, 16(1), 27-43. doi: [10.1080/02634939708400967](https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02634939708400967) [^22]: Ibid. [^23]: Aryanti, T. (2013) A claim to space: Debating female religious leadership in a Muhammadiyah mosque in Indonesia. *The Muslim World*, 103(3). 375-388. [^24]: Jaschok, M. & Jingjun, S. (2015). *The history of women’s mosques in Chinese Islam: A mosque of their own*. Oxford, UK: Routledge Press. [^25]: Ibid. [^26]: Jaschok, M. (2012). Sources of authority: Female ahong and Qingzhen Nüsi (women’s mosques) in China. In M. Bano & H. Kalmbach (Eds.),*Women, leadership and mosques: Changes in contemporary Islamic authority.* Leiden: Brill, 37-58. [^27]: Alwani, Z. (2012). *Muslim women and global challenges: Seeking change through a Quranic textual approach and the prophetic model*. New Delhi: Institute of Objective Studies, p. 4. [^28]: Qur’an 9:71. ## Summary **A Vision of Muslim Womanhood Rooted in Revelation and History** In our age, the words "feminine" and "masculine" have become entangled with cultural images that owe more to fashion and custom than to any sound principle. Where once a girl who preferred sport to sewing was merely called a "tomboy," today children question their very created nature because they do not conform to invented norms of what a boy or girl should be. Muslims, in confronting this confusion, have too often responded by clinging to a rigid binary of behaviour, imposing it upon all men and all women, and claiming religious sanction for it. Meanwhile, the "status of the Muslim woman" has been tossed from speaker to speaker like dough in the hands of many bakers: some forbid women the mosque, some urge them to surrender their God-given rights to financial independence, and others stray far from tradition by denying the obligation of *ḥijāb* and calling women to defy the *fiqh* altogether. Amidst this, women of faith are left asking: who am I, and what does my womanhood mean before Allah? The way forward is to set aside inherited assumptions and to look instead to the women mentioned in the Qur'an and to Muslim women across the centuries, so that a model of femininity may be drawn from Muslim women themselves. Much of what passes today as "feminine" is in truth a foreign import. During colonial rule, Western governments and missionary schools carried their notions of womanhood into Muslim lands. Their image of the delicate, fainting woman stood in sharp contradiction to the courage of Ṣafiyya bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (may Allah be pleased with her), who was known for bravery in battle, yet it seeped into local cultures nonetheless. The orientalist fantasy of the "harem" distorted what was in reality the *ḥaram*—a private space where women gathered freely to work without need of *ḥijāb*, for no men were present. After the Second World War, America invented the suburb, and social workers, as has been observed, "looked suspiciously on active extended-family networks." This dismantling of the extended family, alongside the imposition of a single narrow ideal of womanhood, brought grievous consequences: emotional needs left unmet, women's support networks dissolved, and the notion born that "women's work" was housework and "men's work" the office—a distinction the Prophet ﷺ never taught. When women later fled this emptiness into the workplace, they adopted, as one observer noted, "the acquisitive, competitive values" that turned them into "clones of men," and femininity itself came to be equated with weakness and failure. If the domesticated ideal is a false one, then the Muslim must not adopt tropes she did not define; rather she must return to the Qur'an and Sunnah. The Qur'an is not empty of women. Within its pages we meet the single mother in Maryam (peace be upon her), whose confidence in her Lord was such that she instructed even her uncle the prophet, saying of the provision she received, "…Indeed it is from God, God provides for whom He wills." Alone in her labour, she was comforted by angels and a tree of fruit, and returning to her shocked people she relied not on flight but upon a miracle—the infant who spoke. In her we see courage, confidence, and commitment. We meet the married believer in Āsiya, wife of the tyrant Pharaoh who claimed, "I am your Lord, the Most High," yet she saved a child and held to faith regardless of her husband's cruelty. Alongside her the Qur'an mentions the disbelieving wives of Nūḥ and Lūṭ (peace be upon them), so that we do not imagine womanhood is inherently saintly; men and women alike must choose belief for themselves. We meet Bilqīs, the Queen of Sheba, whom Ibn Kathīr praises for intelligence, resolve, and wisdom in her reply to Sulaymān (peace be upon him), "It is as though it is the very same"—a capable ruler whose marital status the Qur'an leaves unmentioned as irrelevant to her faith and leadership. We meet the wife of al-ʿAzīz, who was overcome by desire yet came to repentance, confessing, "Yet I claim not that my soul was innocent—surely the soul of humankind incites to evil—except inasmuch as my Lord had Mercy." And we meet Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (may Allah be pleased with her), the divorcée whom Allah honoured with the words, "We joined her in marriage to thee," teaching that divorce is no mark of a failed woman. Many others appear as well: the woman who complained in Sūrat al-Mujādila, Ḥawwāʾ (20:117, 2:30–38), the daughters of Lūṭ (15:71), Sārah (11:71–72), the mother of Mūsā who obeyed direct inspiration (28:7) and his sister who returned him to her (28:12–13), the wife of ʿImrān devoted to God, the Mothers of the Believers (33:28–34), the Prophet's daughters (33:59), and the wife of Abū Lahab, deserving punishment for her abuse of the Prophet ﷺ (111:4–5). If we were to define femininity by the Qur'an, we would speak of confidence, courage, and commitment—qualities disconnected from social or familial rank, and connected instead to God. Femininity, seen thus, is strong and powerful. This same spirit is embodied in the lived history of Muslim women. Foremost stands ʿĀʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her), a historical anomaly whose contribution became part of the foundational canon of Islamic learning, who lived nearly fifty years after the Prophet ﷺ and founded a line of female scholarship unknown among other faiths. She and the wives of the Prophet ﷺ were named *ummahāt al-muʾminīn* by Allah: "The Prophet is worthier of the believers than themselves, and his wives are their mothers." The word *umm* is kin to *ummah* and *imām*, joining the meanings of community and leadership—for the *imām* stands in front, and so the mothers stand before the coming generation. Her inheritance passed down through the centuries: ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, student of ʿĀʾisha, whose juristic opinion overturned a judge's ruling; Nafīsa al-Ṭāhira of Egypt, teacher of Imām al-Shāfiʿī; Fāṭima al-Fihrī, who fasted three years while founding the University of al-Qarawiyyīn in Fez; Malika bint Dāwūd, who granted an *ijāza* to Ibn ʿAsākir; Karīma bint Aḥmad al-Marwaziyya, the precise muḥaddith known as the "Shaykha of Mecca"; and Fāṭima bint Saʿd al-Khayr, who journeyed from China to teach in Damascus and Cairo. Six centuries, six women—none doubting their womanhood, all asking how best to serve their faith. So too Razia Sultan, Queen al-Adar al-Karima of Yemen, Bibi Raji of India, Queen Aminatu of Zaria, Mumtaz Mahal, the calligrapher Asma Ibre, and Nana Asmaʾu of Sokoto. And beyond individuals stood whole communities of women: the *Otines* of Uzbekistan who preserved knowledge under Soviet repression, the Aisyiyah of Indonesia founded in 1917, and the *jingshi* teachers and *ahong* elders of China who guarded Islamic learning for four centuries. These women did not see themselves as women first, but as servants of the Merciful and inheritors of the Prophet's message. As Dr. Zainab Alwani has written, "nurturing the role of women in society is critical; they are the eyes of society that pinpoint the problem and help provide effective solutions." Their labour reflects the divine word: "Believers, men and women, are each other's reliable friends. They enjoin right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give *zakāh* and obey Allah and His Messenger." Theirs was also a "mothering" of the *ummah*—rising by night and toiling by day to keep their child, Islam, alive—a courage and commitment far removed from Western images of docility. The question "What is woman's role in society?" is itself a product of globalized Western thought; the Muslim woman has instead asked, "What does society need from me?" and answered with power drawn from her faith. Standing in the shade of this legacy, she is called to enfold her community in that same commitment, courage, and service. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why do so many khutbahs describe the ideal Muslim woman as gentle, quiet, and domestic? Where did that image come from? That image has a surprisingly specific origin. During colonial rule, Western governments and missionary schools introduced their own ideals of womanhood into Muslim lands. The picture of a delicate, docile woman who stays home and sweetly serves her husband was not drawn from the Qur’an or Sunnah. It came from post-World War II American sitcoms and the mythology of the nuclear family, and it was exported globally through television and film until it felt natural everywhere—including in mosques. Our own Prophet ﷺ never endorsed the division between “women’s work” and “men’s work.” That distinction was imported, not revealed. When Muslims accepted it without question and began presenting it as religious, they replaced a rich and diverse tradition of Muslim womanhood with someone else’s fantasy of what women should be. ### How does the Qur’an describe women? What the Qur’an consistently highlights about women is their relationship with Allah and the quality of their choices, not their social or marital status. Asiya was married to Pharaoh and still believed. The wives of Nuh and Lut were married to prophets and still disbelieved. A good husband does not guarantee faith, and a bad husband does not prevent it. Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, is presented as a capable leader and intelligent decision-maker whose marital status is never even mentioned; what matters is her belief and her leadership. Every woman, like every man, faces the same human struggle to believe and act rightly. The Qur’an makes faith and courage the subject, and women are among its finest examples. ### What is a Muslim woman’s role in life? The women across thirteen centuries of Islamic history asked a very specific question: not “What is a woman’s role?” but “What does my community need from me?” That reorientation matters. The role was never fixed in advance; it was discerned through looking outward. Fatima al-Fihri used her inheritance to found what became the oldest degree-granting academic institution still in existence, the University of Qarawiyyin in Fez, and she fasted for the entire three years of its construction. Nana Asmaʾu of the Sokoto Caliphate was a scholar, poet, and activist who built creative educational systems to preserve Islam in her nation. Queen Aminatu of Zaria commanded her people militarily for thirty-four years. What drove each of them was a sense of duty as servants of Allah and inheritors of the Prophet’s message, applied to whatever their communities needed most. ### Were women who led, taught, and shaped their communities throughout Islamic history just rare exceptions? Across continents and centuries, communities of Muslim women organized themselves specifically to preserve and transmit Islam. In Uzbekistan, women known as Otines spent decades training in religious sciences, beginning as children and reaching the status of teacher at forty. When the Soviet government outlawed religious practice, the Otines preserved banned books, protected traditional knowledge, and found new spaces in which to teach. In Indonesia, the Aisyiyah Organization, founded in 1917 specifically to counter colonial influence on Indonesian Islam, has been educating women and strengthening Islamic knowledge for over a hundred years. In China, female religious teachers called jingshis ran women’s Islamic schools for four hundred years during the Qing dynasty, preserving Islamic sciences for girls when the surrounding culture offered no space for it. These were not exceptions. They were recurring patterns, reproduced across geography and history by women who understood service to their faith as their defining purpose. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/we-used-to-have-no-regard-for-women-gender-equity-the-advent-of-islam # "We Used to Have No Regard for Women": Gender Equity & the Advent of Islam **Authors:** Roohi Tahir, Dr. Omar Suleiman, Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, Maryam Al-Dabbagh **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication, Women in Islam **Published:** July 17, 2019 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Introduction The status and rights of women are contentious issues within and across cultures. Opinions diverge for the most subjective of reasons, due to fluctuations in personal biases that are susceptible to changes in time and place. This becomes evident when examining perceptions of women in any particular society through the lens of its own people, while taking into account biases within the religious, historical, and social context of that society. In current times, such differences between cultures continue to be hotly contested, with divergent views on the function of gender within society still spurring both intra- and inter-societal debates. To explore such discussions in depth is beyond the scope of the current paper. Rather, we focus on a period of time in which one particular society was remarkably successful in overcoming the malignancy of misogyny. Over a relatively short period of time in 7th century Arabia, deeply ingrained negative perceptions of women were reversed, and their treatment markedly improved. Through the impact of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s message, highly problematic cultural attitudes towards women that were widespread during the time later referred to as ‘the Age of Ignorance’ saw an extraordinary transformation. Islam’s acknowledgment of women’s equity in the societal,  familial, and spiritual spheres was unprecedented at its time, and its demarcation of rights and obligations between men and women remains unmatched to this day. Through the application of Islam’s ethical principles and a paradigm placing women on an equal spiritual footing with men, pre-Islamic society was forever transformed for the better. This paper will overview that transformation, one that can be demonstrated by the shift in one prominent man’s perspective. A companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra) became the second Caliph of Islam and one of the most influential leaders in recorded history. His own view of women changed significantly under the Prophet ﷺ’s gentle guidance after he embraced Islam. As he testifies in his own words: “In *Jâhiliyya*,[^1] we used to have no regard for women whatsoever. But when Islam came and Allah made mention of them, this caused us to realize that they have rights upon us…”[^2] To truly fulfill Islam’s mandate of justice and mercy, Umar’s realization of the proper status of women must continuously be revived in the hearts of all Muslims, at all places and times. > *Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while a believer—We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward \[in the Hereafter\] according to the best of what they used to do.* \[Qur’an 16: 97\] --- ## Societal Regard It is important to note at the outset that, as in any society, there was variability in the status of  pre-Islamic Arab women. Early sources indicate that some women were able to attain a degree of relative independence in spite of constraining societal circumstances. For instance, the Prophet ﷺ’s wealthy wife Khadija was able to carry on business in her own name, and women in pre-Islamic times were often bold enough to speak their mind without hesitation, particularly those who occupied the upper echelons of society, such as Hind b. Utbah. However, as elaborated upon below, the drawbacks of being female in pre-Islamic society were unmistakable, with women of lower economic and social classes particularly downtrodden and oppressed. Generally speaking, in pre-Islamic Arabia’s rigidly tribal society, without the support of a powerful tribe, the poor and marginalized would often suffer. This social reality was sharply criticized in many Qur’anic verses, a critique that formed a fundamental part of the Prophet ﷺ’s message. In his role as the final prophet in a long line of prophets in the Abrahamic tradition, the Prophet ﷺ had to challenge the long-standing practices of Arabia, while reviving the original spirit of the laws of previous Abrahamic prophets. Therefore, in analyzing the impact of the Islamic message on women in Arab society, the question to be asked is whether the men who embraced the message of the Prophet ﷺ came to view women differently, and how; and whether early female converts to Islam felt empowered or hindered by their new faith. One of the earliest stances in the Qur’an against the manifest injustices within pre-Islamic society was a denunciation of its treatment of women, in particular infant girls who were regarded as nothing more than a financial burden. Thus the heinous practice of female infanticide was rationalized, and implemented without consequence. The Qur’an describes and condemns the practice in the following verses: > *And when one of them is informed of \[the birth of\] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. He hides himself from the people because of the evil of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably evil is what they decide.* \[Qur’an 16: 59\] Those who were spared this fate often faced other cruel customs. In the pre-Islamic Arabian milieu, treating women as mere property was widespread. For instance, when a man died, his male relatives would ‘inherit’ his wife. Under this logic, in most circumstances, a woman could not inherit anything herself: “No one inherits but someone who carries the sword and protects the tribe,” as the Arabs would say. In this manner, a woman’s economic rights were largely overlooked due to a worldview that disregarded women and marginalized their contributions to society. The fear of other tribes’ raiding and plundering led to the further marginalization of women, given that they would be considered part of the plunder, kidnapped, and taken captive by the raiders. This rendered women nothing more than a source of potential ‘shame’ to their families and was in fact part of the motivation of those who buried their daughters alive: to circumvent this prospective humiliation.[^3] Yet from the point of view of the *Shariah*, none of these factors were seen as relevant to a woman’s essential value. Regardless of any perceived ‘shame’ in relation to women, infanticide and any form of honor killing are completely impermissible in the *Shariah*. When the Prophet ﷺ was asked by a companion about what one should do if he caught his wife in the act of adultery, he clearly prohibited killing either the wife or the man with her; thus, even extreme provocation was not considered an acceptable defense.[^4] Taking a woman’s life is not seen as less of a crime than taking a  man’s, and renders the murderer liable to suffer the most severe of punishments in retaliation: the death penalty. There is no gender differentiation in the sanctity of life. Even in private settings, women often faced societal gender-based discrimination. Under certain menstruation laws and practices, women’s physiology was often used as an excuse to further marginalize them. Muslim women do observe certain restrictions during their menstrual cycle, in some ways similar to Orthodox Jewish women. But the Prophet ﷺ’s statement that, “A believer never becomes impure,”[^5] is a foundational principle within Islam, such that all the laws surrounding this and similar ritual purity issues, related to both women and men, were never intended or viewed as punishment for sin. Women are excused from prayer and fasting during menstruation due to the weakness that accompanies menstrual bleeding, but they are not ostracized nor deemed spiritually impure, nor are they obligated to separate themselves from society. It is well documented that the Prophet ﷺ would make it a point to be intimate, sans intercourse, with his wives during their menses. He would recite Qur’an in his wife ‘Âisha’s lap and let her comb his hair while she was menstruating. He would inform her that she could touch things freely, telling her, “Your menses are not in your hands.”[^6] Furthermore, he would encourage menstruating women to come out and witness the festive Eid proceedings, instilling in women a sense of their essential purity and value. In further contrast with the erasure of women under other value systems and societies, Islam affirmed the rights of women to maintain their identities, property, and dignity throughout their lives. Even after marriage, a Muslim woman’s name and property remain her own. As will be elaborated upon in the next section, she is not obligated to spend her own money on her family. Additionally, Muslim women have the right to represent themselves in court, as well as to testify and pledge their fealty on their own behalf. The Prophet ﷺ was directed in the Qur’an (60:12) to take the pledge of allegiance from women directly, thus giving them primary responsibility for themselves, and their own lives and choices. Furthermore, even in the earliest days of Islam, women would feel free to speak up on their own behalf, and their voices would be heard. One chapter of the Qur’an begins by mentioning the plaintive entreaties of a woman to the Prophet ﷺ, testifying: ‘Surely, Allah has heard the speech of the woman who argues with you \[O Muhammad\] concerning her husband and directing her complaint to Allah. And Allah hears your dialogue; indeed, Allah is Hearing and Seeing’ \[Qur’an 58:1\]. From then on, the Prophet’s ﷺ companions, including Umar himself, would treat this woman with great respect.[^7] Not only was the Prophet ﷺ sensitive to women’s troubles, but he also took heed of their advice. Following the Truce of Hudaybiya, a number of Muslims felt chagrined at some of the conditions of the truce, which they perceived as unfair. When the Prophet ﷺ ordered them to sacrifice the animals they had brought for that purpose and to shave their heads, they initially did not heed his order, no matter what he told them. Upon noting the seriousness of the situation, Um Salamah, one of his venerable wives, advised the Prophet ﷺ not to say anything more, but rather to simply to shave his own head and offer his own sacrifice. As she had predicted, the Companions quickly fell in line and followed suit, and any escalation was averted due to her wise counsel. This respect and acknowledgment of women was something that the Prophet ﷺ taught the rest of his companions as well. Coming back to Umar ibn al-Khattab’s shifting perspective: during his caliphate, he appointed two different women, Samra b. Nuhayk[^8] and Shifa b. Abdullah,[^9] to fulfill the role of market supervisors. They would patrol the markets to ensure that fair business practices were being carried out, and proper Islamic behavior was maintained. Thus, women were not restricted to their familial roles as wives, mothers, and daughters within the private sphere. Performing valued public duties could also be considered a means by which gifted women were able to fulfill their potential and benefit society at large. A clear balance was sought between a woman’s role in the public and private spheres, delineating her rights and responsibilities in a manner where no single aspect was granted disproportionate importance to the detriment of the other. In this way, while acknowledging the productive ways in which a woman can contribute to overall society, Islam does not suggest that a woman’s role in the private sphere as a mother or wife is inferior to a role performed in public; instead, Islam extols the virtues of all these roles and calls society as a whole to recognize the value in performing them, and to honor the women who do so. > *And their Lord responded to them, ‘Never will I allow to be lost the work of \[any\] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another. So those who emigrated or were evicted from their homes or were harmed in My cause or fought or were killed—I will surely remove from them their misdeeds, and I will surely admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow as reward from Allah, and Allah has with Him the best reward.* \[Qur’an 3: 195\] --- ## Familial Regard It can be argued that a woman’s place in society is ultimately a reflection of her place within her family. It should then come as no surprise that in pre-Islamic Arabian society, the familial status of a woman was precarious, largely contingent upon circumstances beyond her control. A strange contrast existed between the laudatory treatment of mothers of sons—who were respected in society and lauded through poetry, especially if they had given birth to brave warriors—and the utter lack of worth granted to an infant daughter, as touched upon earlier. It was as though the value of a woman could only be established through her attachment to a male, an unfortunate reflection of the lack of inherent value with which women were regarded in pre-Islamic Arab society. This can also be illustrated by the dubious pre-Islamic marital arrangements a woman could be entered into, of which there were many, ranging from formal marriages with an official proposal and dowry to temporary contracts that could last as little as a few hours. However, none of these forms of marriage guaranteed a woman’s security or ensured a relationship of parity and mutual responsibility. Prior to Islam, husbands bore no official economic or social duties towards their wives, who had no recourse to divorce. In contrast, husbands could divorce at will, and marry as many women as they wanted without limit. A woman could hence be kept in limbo, without physical or emotional maintenance, and unable to leave her unfortunate situation through divorce. Men were also free to command their wives as they willed, without taking into account any consideration but their own caprice. A husband could even temporarily ‘give’ his wife to another man whom he admired—perhaps a courageous knight, or a noble poet—in order for her to become impregnated, taking her back once she showed signs of pregnancy from the other man. Her own feelings would not be considered in the matter. While most nobles, like the Quraysh tribe the Prophet ﷺ belonged to, saw fornication as beneath them and abstained from it, some elites would keep women in bondage to lease their bodies as prostitutes against their will. They also engaged in many other oppressive practices, such as forced marriages, honor killings, and female genital mutilation: human rights tragedies that existed pre-Islam, and still exist today in some tribal cultures that are oblivious to the guidance of Islam. Equally inauspicious endings to marriage abounded. In pre-Islamic Arab society, a widow was tantamount to property her husband left behind, to be inherited by her husband’s male relatives who could dictate her future as they saw fit. One common form of marriage was for a son to ‘inherit’ his stepmother. Even prior to that, a woman in pre-Islamic society was required to mourn her husband by consigning herself to the tiniest, darkest chamber in the marital home for an entire year, a heinous practice known as *iftidâd*. She would don her worst clothes, not touch water, clip a nail, remove any body hair, nor appear in society. Once the year ended, in a ceremonial culmination of bereavement, she would wipe her private parts with an animal that would usually die as a result, then pelt the first stray dog she saw with animal dung, thus bringing her mourning to an end.[^10] Even thereafter, her future would not be her own, but rather constrained by the whims of whoever had inherited her. With the advent of Islam came a paradigm shift in society’s views towards women that mandated monumental changes in their familial lives. A sharp departure from these ancient practices was legislated to establish a woman’s rightful status in her family as valued and cherished in her own right. First and foremost, Islam enshrined the noble status of mothers, calling for the utmost respect and kindness toward them, regardless of their behaviors or even their beliefs. Mothers are acknowledged for their mercy, tenderness, and selflessness through special mention in the Qur’an: > *And We have enjoined upon man \[care\] for his parents. His mother carried him, \[increasing her\] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the \[final\] destination.* \[Qur’an 31:14\] A mother’s immense value and importance was often underscored by the Prophet ﷺ. He would instruct his companions to treat their mothers with special care and gratitude, teaching them that kindness towards one’s mother is a means to attaining the pleasure of God and immense reward. On one occasion, Muʿāwiya b. Jāhima came to him saying, “O Messenger of Allah, I want to go out and fight \[in *jihad*\] and I have come to consult you.” He said, “Do you have a mother?” Muʿāwiya said, “Yes.” He said, “Then stay with her, for Paradise is at her feet.”[^11] Taking care of one’s parents was thus made equivalent to striving with one’s life for the cause of justice and protecting the oppressed. Describing another such interaction, the companion Abu Hurayra narrated, “A man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, which person is most deserving of my good company?’ He said, ‘Your mother.’ He said, ‘Then who?’ He said, ‘Then your mother.’ He said, ‘Then who?’ He said, ‘Then your mother.’ He said, ‘Then who?’ He said, ‘Then your father,’”[^12] thereby further highlighting the importance of this special and unique relationship. His companions were deeply impacted by these teachings. Ibn ʿUmar (ra) once saw a man circling the Kaʿbah while carrying his mother around his neck. The man asked him, “O Ibn ʿUmar, have I repaid her?” He said, “No, not even for a single contraction. But you have done well, and Allah will reward you for this little with much.”[^13] In another narration that illustrates the shift in outlook brought about by Islam, the companion Abu Dharr (ra) humbly admitted about himself that, “I once exchanged insults with a man, so I chastised him about his mother. He complained about me to the Prophet ﷺ who then said to me, ‘Did you exchange insults with so and so?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Did you insult his mother?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘You are a man in whom is \[an aspect of the pre-Islamic\] ignorance.’”[^14] Whereas Islam had confirmed what was already established in pre-Islamic society with regards to mothers, it revolutionized their treatment of daughters. As noted above, the Prophet ﷺ fully understood where his society’s disregard for women had come from: the very nature of how a woman was viewed, and the lack of essential, independent value attached to a woman. Burying a girl alive physically was only the ultimate culmination of her already buried value. The Prophet ﷺ changed this by demonstrating a woman’s inherent value since birth, through the way he treated his own daughters: the greatest example of a total upheaval of the status quo. When his beloved daughter Fatima, the woman he called the ‘leader of the women of Paradise,’ walked into his home he would stand up to receive her, kiss her on the forehead, and seat her in the place he had been sitting. He said of her, “She is a piece of me.”[^15] In fact, the Prophet ﷺ fully reversed the negative cultural implications attached to daughters by saying: “Whoever raises two daughters and does well with their upbringing will be with me in paradise like these two fingers (holding together his index and middle finger).”[^16] In contrast to their characterization as a financial burden in the days of ignorance, they were now considered the greatest investment for one who sought the Hereafter. Any residual negative cultural considerations attached to daughters that still remained would be dispelled through constant recourse to the Prophet ﷺ’s example. Yaʿqūb b. Bakhtān said, “Seven daughters were born to me. Whenever a daughter was born, I would enter upon the scholar, Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, and he would tell me, ‘O Abu Yūsuf! The prophets were fathers of daughters,’ and his statement would dispel my grief.”[^17] Along with being a means to Paradise, one’s role as the father of a daughter was considered a serious responsibility. Muhammad b. Sulayman would say, “Boys are a blessing, and girls are good deeds. Allah questions about blessings, and rewards for good deeds.”[^18] For a father, this meant being dedicated to one’s daughters by showing them love and compassion, giving them the best upbringing through educating them and looking after their affairs, and thus, seeking paradise through them. Imam Shaʿbī would say, “Whoever marries his princess to a wicked man has severed ties with her.” In this way, concern for daughters would continue up until and beyond their marriages. With regards to a woman’s marriage, her role in shaping her own destiny is emphasized by the fact that the *Shariah* flatly invalidates a marriage conducted without the woman’s consent, whether expressed or implied. Once again, the Prophet ﷺ led by example, clearly demanding that consideration be given to a woman’s consent in regard to marriage. Ibn ‘Abbâs narrates that when a virgin girl came to the Prophet ﷺ and told him that her father had married her off despite her objections, the Prophet ﷺ gave her the choice to annul the marriage.[^19] In a similar report, the Prophet ﷺ annulled the marriage of al-Khansāʾ b. Khizām, a formerly married woman whose father had married her off without her consent.[^20] Another woman once came to Aisha, one of the Prophet’s ﷺ wives, saying that her father had married her to her cousin in order to elevate his own status. When the Prophet ﷺ heard her story, he left the ultimate decision whether to remain married up to the woman herself. At that point, she said that she was not in fact opposed to the marriage, “but I wanted women to know that their fathers are not entitled to this.”[^21] An in-depth discussion of divorce laws in Islam will be dealt with in a future publication. For the purposes of this paper, it is sufficient to note that an appropriate channel exists for a Muslim woman to initiate the process of separation and subsequent divorce, while ensuring a fair outcome for both parties. A practical example of a wife initiating separation from her husband occurred when the wife of Thabit b. Qais came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, "O Allah's Messenger! I do not blame Thabit for defects in his character or his religion, but I, being a Muslim, dislike to behave in an un-Islamic manner (if I remain with him)." On that Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, "Will you give back the garden which your husband has given you (as dowry)?" She said, "Yes." Then the Prophet ﷺ said to Thabit, "O Thabit! Accept your garden, and divorce her once."[^22] In general, the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ significantly curtailed men’s unbridled control over women. No more could a man force his servant girl into prostitution for his own financial ends. In the context of marriage, a wife was instructed not to obey her husband in matters that are unlawful in Islam. The number of wives a man could have was restricted to four, with the caveat that all wives be treated equitably. The number of times a man could proclaim a divorce from his wife without consequence was limited to three, after which the divorce would be final. This ensured that divorce was taken seriously, and prevented a man from attempting to manipulate his wife through idle threats. Additionally, the dowry a woman was given prior to entering into marriage was considered her own, to do with as she saw fit. Within marriage, wives were guaranteed inalienable economic rights, including the right to maintenance for themselves and their children. One woman whose stingy husband would not give her enough money for herself and her children once consulted the Prophet ﷺ who allowed her to take from her husband’s money that which was reasonably sufficient for her and her children’s needs.[^23] Whether a woman is married or not, under Islamic law, she is not obligated to spend on herself out of her own money, while still being entitled to a portion of inheritance and earnings. Financial responsibility is delegated to her closest male relative, whether father, husband, or brother. Following the death of a Muslim husband, the *iddah* (the prescribed mourning period, which lasts four months and ten days) is considered a mercy to the woman, allowing her to remain in her husband’s home for its duration. This grants a woman the practical and emotional space needed to reflect on her loss during a vulnerable time. Once this period is over, she is free to remarry whomever she wishes. The Prophet ﷺ himself married multiple widows who voluntarily accepted him, demonstrating a commitment to doing away with the stigma and injustice surrounding them, in sharp contrast to a society that had previously treated widows with such callousness. The Prophet ﷺ’s female companions would also use his exalted example to keep their husbands’ behavior in check, as Umar experienced firsthand. Umar once raised his voice at his wife, and she responded in kind. When he reacted to her response with anger, she stated that Umar had no right to be outraged. After all, Umar’s own daughter, who was married to the Prophet ﷺ, would respond to her husband similarly. The Prophet ﷺ would allow his wife to express her opinion without silencing her, “and he is better than you,” Umar’s wife noted.[^24] This respect for women involves simply putting into practice the Qur’an’s teachings on marriage, describing husbands and wives as a ‘mercy’ to one another. > *And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed, in that are signs for a people who give thought.* \[Qur’an 30: 21\] --- ## Spiritual Regard As a society’s negative treatment of women is only a symptom of beliefs about their very nature, it is important to diagnose the underlying disease in order to arrive at a cure. A dire state of affairs is essentially a consequence of views regarding a woman’s inherent value, or the presumed lack thereof. Yet the Islamic view of women’s spiritual status, grounded in the Qur’an and the example of the Prophet ﷺ, places men and women on an entirely level spiritual playing field, equal in their potential for a profound relationship with God. From the outset, the Qur’anic narrative of mankind’s beginnings leaves no room to place the woman at fault. While the basics of the story in the Garden of Eden are essentially the same as in Genesis, there is no account of a temptation by Eve; rather, Satan deludes *both* Adam and Eve into eating the fruit. They are then both blamed for their mistake—the Qur’an specifically uses the dual linguistic form to address the two of them—and both are forgiven once they seek God’s mercy. Thus, men and women are equal in spiritual responsibility for their negative actions, as well as in the spiritual potential they can reach when seeking their Creator. Nowhere is the spiritual potential uniquely available to women more apparent in the Qur’an than through its recounting of the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, peace be upon them both. She is lauded for demonstrating her active devotion to God in many ways, including those traditionally reserved for men in her culture: through studying under the tutelage of Zachariah (pbuh), engaging in sincere worship, and even being blessed with miracles. > *And \[mention\] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds. O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord and prostrate and bow with those who bow \[in prayer\].* \[Qur’an 3:42-43\] In particular, the Qur’an highlights Mary’s experience of childbirth with considerable sympathy, conveying her anguish through her own words and offering her comfort: > *And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, "Oh, how I wish I had died before this and was left in oblivion, utterly forgotten!" But a voice called to her from below, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be content.”* \[Qur’an 19:23-26\] This emphasizes women’s ability to integrate a sense of spirituality at every point in their lives, including experiences specific to them. In this manner, Mary (pbuh) is continually lauded by the Qur’an as a paragon of faith, an example and inspiration to be followed by both men and women. This lofty station was not restricted to Mary alone. Asiyah, the believing wife of the tyrant Pharaoh, is also cited as a role model for all believers, regardless of their gender. Her heartfelt prayer, for God to grant her a house near Him in Paradise, is recorded in the Qur’an to be recited by Muslims for eternity. The role of women in propagating Islam has always been an integral part of the faith. The Prophet ﷺ himself exemplified this in his encouraging attitude towards women’s learning. One companion recounts an instance in which a woman came to the Prophet ﷺ, saying: “‘O Messenger of Allah, the men went away with \[the privilege of\] hearing from you, so dedicate for us one of your days so that we may come to you, and you can teach us from what Allah taught you.’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Gather \[the women\] on such-and-such day in such-and-such place.’ So they gathered, and he came to them, and taught them of what Allah taught him.”[^25] His consideration of women’s desire to learn, specifically making the effort to welcome women into a safe and private group environment where they could ask questions at their ease, is especially noteworthy, considering the current context in which women’s access to Muslim scholars is, for the most part, limited. This inclusive outlook bore the bountiful fruit of a flourishing legacy of female Islamic scholarship, starting with the Prophet ﷺ’s own wife, Sayyida Aisha (ra), one of the top narrators in Sunni collections and the source of countless legal rulings. The great scholar and worshipper Um ad-Dardâ’ (ra) said, “I sought devotion in everything, and did not find anything more gratifying than sitting and studying with the scholars.” It is significant that she was allowed, indeed welcomed, among scholarly circles in a culture in which women had, in the very recent past, been barely considered human— especially considering that they are still sometimes excluded from scholarly spaces today, in sharp contrast to the Prophet ﷺ’s own example. Another prominent woman renowned for her spiritual and intellectual excellence was Sayyida Nafisa, a descendant of the Prophet ﷺ. For a time, she taught *hadith* to Imam al-Shafi’i, one of the founders of the four Sunni schools of Islamic law, and at his request prayed the funeral prayer over him. More recently, Nana Asma’u led extensive efforts to educate women across the African Sokoto Caliphate in the 1800s. Countless more such examples could be cited. One study by Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi documented 8,000 female transmitters of *hadith*—and not a single one of these women was ever disqualified for dishonesty.[^26] Muslim women’s influence on history stretches beyond scholarship as well. Nusayba b. Ka’ab (ra) was one of the Prophet ﷺ’s defenders during the dire circumstances of the Battle of Uhud, when she valiantly shielded him from the swords of the Makkans. The Prophet ﷺ’s granddaughter, Zaynab b. Ali (ra), was one of the strongest voices of righteous defiance against the tyrant ruler Yazid, following the massacre of her brother, Husayn b. Ali (ra), and other members of the Prophet ﷺ’s family. For centuries, pilgrims to Makkah quenched their thirst through the irrigation channels built along pilgrimage roads at the behest of Zubayda, wife of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, and the spiritual odes of Rabi’a al-Adawiya describing her yearning for God are contemplated to this day. The extensive contributions of women to Islam should come as no surprise, arising from the legacy of a Prophet ﷺ who, as mentioned, described his beloved daughter Fatima (ra) as being a piece of him. It is unfortunate that a widespread perception exists to the contrary, and that some ‘contentious’ passages in the Islamic corpus have been used to marginalize women. The devastating effect of these odious efforts can be seen in many Muslim communities around the world. This reality should not be whitewashed, nor romanticized, but rather confronted head-on, using the tools of the tradition itself. The strength of a principled, authentically rooted position that rejects misogynistic readings of certain verses and narrations lies in well-grounded methodological principles of scriptural interpretation, established by the Prophet ﷺ himself during his lifetime, and by those who followed him. The Prophet ﷺ’s clearly delineated message provides Muslims with an unmistakable mandate to establish equity for all. Jurisprudential rulings are required to be made in accordance with Islam’s well-established objectives, taking into account the relevant circumstances, as demonstrated in the authoritative Islamic tradition. Islam’s markedly equitable system established the equivalence of men and women as the default, unless revelation determined an exception to this rule, in keeping with God’s prevailing mercy and justice for all His creation. The respected pre-modern Muslim scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH/1350 AD) noted: “Indeed, the *Shariah* is founded upon wisdom and welfare for the servants in this life and the afterlife. In its entirety, it is justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom. Every matter which abandons justice for tyranny, mercy for cruelty, benefit for corruption, and wisdom for foolishness is not a part of the Shariah, even if it was introduced therein by an interpretation.”[^27] Thus, as demonstrated throughout this paper, the Prophet ﷺ’s divinely ordained mission as a mercy to all extends to guaranteeing women their rightful place as determined by Islamic law, without hesitation or apology. Should an outlier opinion violate fundamental Islamic principles of equity, it is to be rejected, from even the most traditional of perspectives. Less than this could not be expected from followers of a prophet who stated unequivocally: “Women are but the full siblings of men.” [^28] This principle of respect and esteem between genders can be demonstrated once more in the example of Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra). As Caliph, he had once publicly mandated a legal ruling. But when a woman stepped forward from the crowd and corrected him, citing the Qur’an, this ruler over the vast swathes of Muslim lands conceded, “The woman has disputed ‘Umar, and she has defeated him.”[^29] Demonstrating humility towards women in the face of the truth—without any sense of machismo—was simply what Umar had learned from the Prophet ﷺ himself. This attitude is part and parcel of what it means to be a Muslim man and should be taken to heart by anyone who is serious about following the Prophet’s ﷺ example today. > *The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, establish prayer, give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. On these, Allah will have mercy. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.* \[Qur’an 9: 71\] --- ## Conclusion As illustrated throughout this paper, the advent of Islam was a significant leap forward for women in pre-Islamic Arab society. Historically, the Qur’an and *Sunnah* were viewed as neither oppressive nor regressive, but rather advocates on behalf of women. No narrations can be found from any of the Prophet ﷺ’s female companions ever complaining about the revelation itself nor the manner in which the Prophet ﷺ implemented it. On the contrary, they are authentically documented to have said, “Surely, Allah and His Messenger are more merciful to us than we are to ourselves.”[^30] They did not perceive any rulings pertaining to them as oppressive, and they actively spoke of the empowerment they felt by the revelation that had elevated the previously most vulnerable members of society. Of course, it is not enough to point out the positive changes Islam instigated for women in the 7th century, and ignore the all-too-many negative circumstances Muslim women find themselves facing in the present day. Rather, it is incumbent upon Islamic scholars and the Muslim community at large to develop our understanding of Islam in a way that ensures our realization of the Prophet ﷺ’s teachings, as he said: “The most perfect believers in faith are those best in manners, and the best of you are those best to their women.”[^31] Most importantly of all, he taught by example and practiced what he preached. Without being subject to any other paradigm of gender justice, the Islamic paradigm that the Prophet ﷺestablished provides the most equitable, just, and beneficial outcomes for all people. The same spirit of empowerment he embodied should be implemented by Islamic scholars going forward, in order to ensure the greatest benefit to society and to the world as a whole. Perhaps the best verse to end this paper with—although many such verses exist, as listed in the appendix below—is the verse whose circumstances of revelation demonstrate God’s mercy towards all His creation, male and female. Upon a query from the esteemed Umm Salamah (ra) on whether women would be mentioned in the Qur’an as the men were mentioned, the following verse was revealed to emphatically illustrate that principle of equitable mercy: > *Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who guard them, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so—for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.* \[Qur’an 33: 35\] --- ## Appendix: The Qur’an’s Regard for Women         1.        Equally human: >                 *O humankind! We have created you from a single male and female, and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.* \[Qur’an 49: 13\]         2.        Equally eligible for salvation: >                 *Allah has promised the believing men and believing women gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally, and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual residence; but approval from Allah is greater. That is the great attainment.* \[Qur’an 9: 72\] > > *On the Day you see the believing men and believing women, their light proceeding before them and on their right, \[it will be said\], ‘Your good tidings today are \[of\] gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein you will abide eternally.’ That is the great attainment.* \[Qur’an 57: 12\] > > *That He may admit the believing men and the believing women to gardens beneath which rivers flow to abide therein eternally and remove from them their misdeeds—and ever is that, in the sight of Allah, a great attainment.* \[Qur’an 48: 5\]         3.        Equally eligible for reward: >                 *And whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer —those will enter Paradise and will not be wronged, \[even as much as\] the speck on a date seed.* \[Qur’an 4:124\] > > *Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while a believer—We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward \[in the Hereafter\] according to the best of what they used to do.* \[Qur’an 16: 97\] > > *Whoever does an evil deed will not be recompensed except by the like thereof, but whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while a believer—those will enter Paradise, being given provision therein without account.* \[Qur’an 40: 40\]  > >         *And their Lord responded to them, ‘Never will I allow to be lost the work of \[any\] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another. So those who emigrated or were evicted from their homes or were harmed in My cause or fought or were killed—I will surely remove from them their misdeeds, and I will surely admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow as reward from Allah, and Allah has with Him the best reward.* \[Qur’an 3: 195\]         4.        Equally inviolable: >                         *And when the infant girl \[who was\] buried alive is asked, for what sin she was killed.* \[Qur’an 81: 8-9\]  > >         *And do not kill your children out of poverty. We will provide for you and them… And do not kill the soul which Allah has made sacred…* \[Qur’an 6: 151\] > >         *And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses—lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. Those are the defiantly disobedient.* \[Qur’an 24: 4\]         5.        Equally recognized as a promoter of good: >                 *The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.* \[Qur’an 9: 71\]         6.        A sign of God’s mercy: >                 *And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed, in that are signs for a people who give thought.* \[Qur’an 30: 21\] > >                 *It is He who created you from one soul and created from it its mate that he might dwell in security with her.* \[Qur’an 7: 189\] --- ## Notes [^1]: Arabic for ‘the Age of Ignorance’—a term used in reference to the time prior to the advent of Islam. [^2]: *Sahih al-Bukhâri; Kitâb al-Madhâlim; Bâb al-Ghurfa wal-‘Ulya*; Hadith 5505 [^3]: Sulaimani, F. (1986) ‘The Changing Position of Women in Arabia Under Islam During the Early Seventh Century.’ University of Salford, International Studies Unit. [http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14814/1/361089.pdf](http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14814/1/361089.pdf) [^4]: Brown, J. (2016) ‘Islam is not the Cause of Honor Killings. It’s Part of the Solution.’ Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/islam-is-not-the-cause-of-honor-killings-its-part-of-the-solution/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/islam-is-not-the-cause-of-honor-killings-its-part-of-the-solution/) [^5]: Sahih al-Bukhari 283 In-book reference: Book 5, *Hadith* 35, USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 1, Book 5, *Hadith* 281  [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/5/35](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/5/35) [^6]: Collected by Muslim (298), Abu Dawud (261), at-Tirmidhi (134), and an-Nasai (1/192) [^7]: Attributed to al-Bayhaqi’s *al-Asmâ’ was-Sifat* and to Ibn Abi Hâtim in *ad-Durr al-Manthoor* (6/179) [^8]: *Al-Mu’jam Al-Kabeer At-Tabarani* 785 [^9]: *Al-Ahad* wal*\-Mathani* 2860 [^10]: Collected by Mâlik in *al-Muwatta’* (2/596-598) in *at-Talâq, Mâ Jâ’a ‘an al-Hidâd*. [^11]: Collected by Ahmad (15577), an-Nasâ’i (3104), and Ibn Mâjah (2781), and deemed sound by al-Arna’oot. [^12]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (5971) and Muslim (2548) [^13]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (11) in *al-Adab al-Mufrad*, Ibn al-Mubârak in *al-Birr was-Sila*, al-Bayhaqi in *Shu‘ab al-Eemân* (55). [^14]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (6050) and Muslim (1661) [^15]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* (3714) [^16]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* (1914) [^17]: *Tuhfat al-Mawdood*: (p. 26) [^18]: *Sawn al-Mukramât Bi Ri’âyat al-Banât* [^19]: Collected by Abu Dawud (2096) and deemed authentic by al-Albâni [^20]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (4845) [^21]: Collected by Ibn Mâjah (1874) and deemed authentic by al-Buwaysiri and al-Wâdi‘i [^22]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* (5273) [^23]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* 3533 Book 23, *Hadith* 3526 [^24]: *Sahih al-Bukhâri*; *Kitâb al-Madhâlim; Bâb al-Ghurfa* wal*\-‘Ulya;* *Hadith* 5505 [^25]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (1/175) and Muslim (2633) [^26]: Nadwi, A. M. (2007). *Al-Muhaddithat: Women Scholars in Islam*. Interface Publications. [^27]: *I’lām al-Muwaqqi’īn* 3/11 [^28]: Collected by Ahmad (2/256), Abu Dawud (236), and at-Tirmidhi (113) [^29]: Ibn Hajar *Fath ul-Bari* 4853 [^30]: al-Tirmidhī, Muḥammad ibn ʻĪsá. *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1998), v.3 p.204 #1597; deemed authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Tirmidhī in his commentary. [^31]: Collected by at-Tirmidhi (1/217-218), Ahmad (2/250 & 472), and Ibn Hibbân (1311). At-Tirmidhi deemed it *hasan-sahih*, and al-Albâni deemed it authentic in *as-Sahihah* (284). ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. The question of the status and rights of women has long been a subject of dispute across cultures and epochs, often shaped by personal biases that shift with time and place. Yet there was a moment in history when one particular society triumphed over the malignancy of misogyny in a remarkably short span. In seventh-century Arabia, through the message of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, deeply entrenched attitudes toward women during the age called Jāhiliyya (the Age of Ignorance) were transformed, and the treatment of women was markedly improved. Islam's acknowledgment of women's equity in the societal, familial, and spiritual spheres was without precedent, and Allah affirmed the shared spiritual worth of both sexes: "Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while a believer—We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward according to the best of what they used to do" (Qur'an 16:97). This transformation is embodied in the changed heart of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the second Caliph, who testified: "In Jāhiliyya, we used to have no regard for women whatsoever. But when Islam came and Allah made mention of them, this caused us to realize that they have rights upon us." It should be acknowledged, however, that the pre-Islamic condition of women was not uniform. Some women attained a degree of independence—Khadija, the Prophet's ﷺ wife, conducted business in her own name, and figures such as Hind bint ʿUtbah spoke boldly. Yet the drawbacks of being female were unmistakable, especially for the poor and marginalized who, in a rigidly tribal society, suffered without the protection of a strong tribe. The Qur'an sharply condemned this injustice, most starkly the practice of female infanticide, describing the man who received news of a daughter: "his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief… Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably evil is what they decide" (Qur'an 16:59). Women who were spared this fate faced other cruelties. They were often treated as property, "inherited" by male relatives upon a husband's death, and generally barred from inheritance under the maxim, "No one inherits but someone who carries the sword and protects the tribe." The fear of raiding tribes rendered women a source of potential "shame," which partly motivated the burying of daughters alive. Yet in the Sharīʿah, none of these considerations bore upon a woman's essential value. Infanticide and honor killings are wholly forbidden. When a companion asked the Prophet ﷺ what to do if he found his wife in adultery, the Prophet ﷺ forbade killing either party; even extreme provocation was no defense. The sanctity of a woman's life equals that of a man's, and there is no gender differentiation in this regard. Islam likewise refused to make a woman's physiology a means of marginalizing her. Though Muslim women observe certain restrictions during menstruation, the Prophet's ﷺ principle that "a believer never becomes impure" ensured these rulings were never framed as punishment for sin. Women are excused from prayer and fasting during menstruation on account of its accompanying weakness, but are neither ostracized nor deemed impure. The Prophet ﷺ would recite Qur'an in the lap of his wife ʿĀʾisha and allow her to comb his hair while she menstruated, telling her, "Your menses are not in your hands," and he encouraged menstruating women to witness the Eid gatherings. Islam further affirmed women's rights to their own identity, property, and dignity: a woman retains her own name and property after marriage, is not obligated to spend on her family, may represent herself in court and testify, and pledges allegiance on her own behalf, as the Prophet ﷺ was directed to take women's pledge directly (Qur'an 60:12). Women spoke freely and were heard—an entire chapter opens by affirming the woman who disputed with the Prophet ﷺ concerning her husband: "Surely, Allah has heard the speech of the woman who argues with you… And Allah hears your dialogue" (Qur'an 58:1). The Prophet ﷺ heeded women's counsel, as when Umm Salamah's wise advice defused the crisis after the Truce of Ḥudaybiya. ʿUmar himself, during his caliphate, appointed Samrā bint Nuhayk and Shifāʾ bint ʿAbdullah as market supervisors, demonstrating that women were not confined to the private sphere, while Islam honored their roles as mothers and wives without deeming them inferior. Allah declared: "Never will I allow to be lost the work of any worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another" (Qur'an 3:195). Within the family, the pre-Islamic woman's status was precarious—mothers of warrior sons were praised, while infant daughters were despised, as though a woman's worth existed only through attachment to a male. Marital arrangements offered no security, husbands bore no obligations, could divorce at will and marry without limit, and could even "lend" their wives to other men for offspring. Widows were inherited as property, and a widow endured the cruel year-long mourning of iftidād. Islam overturned all of this. It enshrined the honored status of mothers: "And We have enjoined upon man care for his parents. His mother carried him, increasing her in weakness upon weakness" (Qur'an 31:14). The Prophet ﷺ told Muʿāwiya ibn Jāhima, "Stay with her, for Paradise is at her feet," and answered thrice "Your mother" before naming the father as most deserving of good company. He rebuked Abū Dharr for insulting a man's mother, saying, "You are a man in whom is an aspect of the pre-Islamic ignorance." Concerning daughters, he revolutionized attitudes, standing to receive his daughter Fāṭima and calling her "a piece of me," and promising Paradise to whoever raises two daughters well. Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal consoled a father of daughters: "The prophets were fathers of daughters." The Sharīʿah invalidates a marriage conducted without a woman's consent; the Prophet ﷺ gave a girl the choice to annul a marriage her father imposed, and annulled the marriage of al-Khansāʾ bint Khizām. A wife could seek separation, as did the wife of Thābit ibn Qays through khulʿ. Men's unbridled control was curtailed: wives are not to be obeyed in the unlawful, wives are limited to four with equitable treatment, and divorce is limited to three pronouncements. A woman's dowry is her own, her maintenance guaranteed, and the Prophet ﷺ permitted a wronged wife to take what was reasonable from her stingy husband's wealth. The ʿiddah is a mercy, and the Prophet ﷺ married widows to dispel their stigma. ʿUmar's own wife reminded him that the Prophet's ﷺ wives would answer him back, reflecting the Qur'anic vision of spouses as tranquility and mercy: "He placed between you affection and mercy" (Qur'an 30:21). Spiritually, men and women stand on equal footing. The Qur'an assigns no blame to Eve alone; Satan deluded both Adam and Eve, both were addressed and both forgiven. Mary is chosen "above the women of the worlds" (Qur'an 3:42), and her childbirth is recounted with tender sympathy (Qur'an 19:23-26); Āsiya, Pharaoh's believing wife, is likewise a model for all believers. The Prophet ﷺ welcomed women's learning, dedicating a day to teach them, which bore fruit in a flourishing legacy of female scholarship—ʿĀʾisha, Umm al-Dardāʾ, Sayyida Nafīsa who taught al-Shāfiʿī, and the 8,000 female ḥadith transmitters documented by Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi, none disqualified for dishonesty. Women like Nusayba bint Kaʿb defended the Prophet ﷺ at Uḥud, and Zaynab bint ʿAlī stood against the tyrant Yazīd. Where misogynistic readings of certain texts have caused harm, this reality must be confronted through the tradition's own principles, for as Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) noted, the Sharīʿah "is justice, mercy, benefit, and wisdom," and whatever abandons these "is not a part of the Sharīʿah, even if introduced by an interpretation." The Prophet ﷺ said, "Women are but the full siblings of men," and ʿUmar, corrected by a woman citing the Qur'an, humbly conceded, "The woman has disputed ʿUmar, and she has defeated him." Allah affirms: "The believing men and believing women are allies of one another" (Qur'an 9:71). In conclusion, the coming of Islam was a decisive advance for women. The female companions never complained of the revelation, saying rather, "Surely, Allah and His Messenger are more merciful to us than we are to ourselves." Yet it is not sufficient to praise the seventh century while ignoring the hardships Muslim women face today; the community must strive to realize the Prophet's ﷺ teaching, "the best of you are those best to their women." When Umm Salamah asked whether women would be mentioned as men were, Allah revealed: "Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women… for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward" (Qur'an 33:35). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does Islam oppress women, or is that just a stereotype? The claim collapses under the weight of the historical record. Before Islam, many women in Arabia—especially those without tribal protection—could be inherited as property when their husbands died, infant daughters were buried alive, and women had no recognized right to divorce, inherit, or refuse a marriage. Islam dismantled each of these practices within a single generation. Islam established women’s right to own and retain their wealth, to consent to or refuse marriage, to initiate divorce, to inherit, and to participate fully in public and spiritual life. The Prophet ﷺ personally annulled marriages conducted without a woman’s consent and made the treatment of women a centerpiece of teaching: “The most perfect believers in faith are those best in manners, and the best of you are those best to their women.” His companion ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab captured the transformation plainly: “In the Age of Ignorance, we used to have no regard for women whatsoever. But when Islam came and Allah made mention of them, this caused us to realize that they have rights upon us.” Where Muslim women face injustice today, the source is the distance between these teachings and how they are practiced—not the teachings themselves. ### Does Islam actually see men and women as spiritually equal? Completely and without qualification. Umm Salama, one of the Prophet’s wives, once asked whether women would be mentioned in the Qur’an as men were. The response came as a direct revelation: “Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women . . .” (33:35), listing ten paired qualities and confirming that Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward for both equally. On the question of blame, the Qur’anic account of the Garden of Eden places no special fault on Eve; Satan deceives both Adam and Eve, both are addressed in the dual linguistic form, and both are forgiven when they repent. The Prophet ﷺ himself stated plainly: “Women are but the full siblings of men.” Men and women are thus equal in spiritual responsibility and equal in their potential to draw close to God. ### How did the Prophet ﷺ change what it meant to have a daughter? He reversed its meaning entirely. Where pre-Islamic culture treated a daughter’s birth as a source of grief and shame, the Prophet ﷺ made having daughters a path to Paradise: “Whoever raises two daughters and does well with their upbringing will be with me in Paradise like these two fingers,” he said, holding his index and middle finger together. His own treatment of his daughter Fatima modeled this: When she entered his home, he would stand to receive her, kiss her on the forehead, and seat her in his own place. He called her “a piece of me” and described her as the leader of the women of Paradise. The scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal would congratulate fathers of newborn daughters by saying: “The prophets were fathers of daughters.”  In this way, daughters went from being seen as a financial burden to being recognized as a means of reaching Paradise. ### What rights did Islamic law give women in marriage that they did not have before? The changes were sweeping. Before Islam, men could marry without limit, divorce at will, keep wives in prolonged legal limbo, and inherit widows as property. Islam restricted polygyny to four wives at most, and only with equitable treatment between them. It capped divorce proclamations at three, ensuring men could not manipulate their wives through constant idle threats. A marriage conducted without a woman’s consent was rendered legally void; the Prophet ﷺ personally annulled marriages where women’s consent had been ignored, even when the marriage had been arranged by the woman’s own father. A wife’s dower was hers alone, not to be controlled by her husband. And a woman who was unhappy in her marriage had a recognized channel to initiate separation. When the wife of Thabit ibn Qays came to the Prophet ﷺ saying she could not stay with her husband without acting in an un-Islamic manner, he arranged her dignified release. ### Were women actually active in Islamic scholarship, or is that a modern revisionist claim? Their contributions begin with the earliest generation and run unbroken through Islamic history. ʿAʾisha is one of the highest narrators of hadith in the Sunni collections and the source of countless legal rulings. The scholar Umm al-Darda said of her own path: “I sought devotion in everything, and did not find anything more gratifying than sitting and studying with the scholars.” Sayyida Nafisa, a descendant of the Prophet ﷺ, taught hadith to Imam al-Shafiʿi, the eponym of one of the four Sunni schools of law, and at his own request prayed the funeral prayer over him when he died. A study by Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi documented eight thousand female hadith transmitters across Islamic history, and not one was ever disqualified for dishonesty. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/and-we-created-you-in-pairs-islam-and-the-gender-question # "And We Created You in Pairs": Islam and the Gender Question **Author:** Faatimah Knight **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Gender and Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 12, 2019 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Introduction Gender informs who we are as individuals, as collectives, and as creators of civilization because it is real. The modern era, however, has uprooted much of our understanding of this defining aspect of selfhood. The new gender theories, pioneered by public intellectuals like Professor Judith Butler, have not so much replaced traditional configurations as simply disregarded them. In order to gain influence, these theorists misrepresent the meaning and implications of biological sex, take a reductionist approach to gender, and fail to consider the wide domain that “traditional” thinking about gender covers. They vulgarize science and overlook philosophical approaches to gender. This paper will argue that traditional thinking on gender—specifically Muslim thought—expanded far beyond a discussion of the body and its function, roles, dress, and demeanor, to map meaning on to the entirety of the cosmos. We use the word *tradition* here to refer to a body of ideas that has been cultivated over an extensive period of time and is oft referred back to for the wisdom it continues to bestow. Professor Sachiko Murata argues in her landmark work, *The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought*, that gender was a characteristic feature in Muslim cosmological and Sufi thinking.[^1] Religious cosmology details a way of explaining the origins, history, and future of the world, principally on religious terms; and the Sufi tradition that Murata utilizes, refers to Muslim intellectuals whose work focused on the higher ideals and spiritual depths of Islam. Likewise, Professor Abdal Hakim Murad argues in his essay “Islam, Irigaray, and the Retrieval of Gender,” that Islam offers an affirming narrative regarding gender which includes it as constitutive of what makes a human being spiritually whole and vibrantly connected to the universe.[^2] As much as Western culture debates gender and rights, it does not have a coherent message about gender. In fact, gender is one of the most fragmented concepts that we come across in current debates over ideas that shape our society. One of the reasons for this may be that many of those speaking about these issues are not speaking from a place of expertise. Biologists certainly have something to say about gender but they are limited to their area of expertise. Historians as well have much to offer us on gender but from within the confines of historical analysis. Likewise, philosophers, sociologists, religious scholars, and others have knowledge to contribute but it is from within their own disciplines that they can authoritatively speak. However, we observe that people find it profoundly difficult to stay within their knowledge base, and some go wildly outside of their expertise to make claims that support their analysis, instead of treading lightly into other arenas with intellectual humility, open to being informed by what exists *out there*. The present paper, which puts forth an analysis of the role that the feminine and masculine play in Islamic metaphysics and cosmology, calls on the authority of the Muslim intellectual tradition to address the modern critique of gender. One of the modern critiques stresses the irrelevance of gender while itself being consumed by the concept, adamant about its own authority to restructure it, and wholly unconcerned with what is lost through this reimagination of gender. Judith Butler argues in “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” that gender is a social construct, falsely correlated with biological sex, perpetuated generationally through the adoption of certain manners of dress and effectuations, ultimately serving the patriarchal end of reproduction. She writes, “Gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.”[^3] In Butler’s view, gender has no reality, no quiddity, and biological sex is “distinct from the process by which the body comes to bear cultural meanings.” Biological sex is a matter of fact she does not dispute but she associates it with the anatomy of the conspicuous practically to the exclusion of the inscription of gender in the literal cells of our bodies. If Butler denied biological sex, her work would be dismissed as absurd. She affirms it just enough to be believed as credible but falls far short of affirming its full scientific weight so as not to reveal the contradictions in her thinking. She makes reductionist claims about biological sex in order to make her central argument that it should not have any implications for how individuals express themselves alone and in relationship to one another. --- ## Framing gender The phrase ‘men and women’ tends to funnel into certain conversations like marriage, rights, equality, and history among a few others. But even the phrase ‘men and women’ is under scrutiny as being dangerously exclusionary. It has embedded within it certain implications that are increasingly under question. The phrase suggests, for one,  a natural pairing: that men and women can and should be talked about together. It also suggests that ‘men and women’ represent two categories outside of which there are no other key players. In other words, men and women are the corresponding elements that make up a system of sorts. Some theorists, like Butler, would suggest this pairing is antiquated, that it assumes something about the world that no longer reflects ‘reality’ as ‘reality’ is commonly defined. Rarely do we talk about ‘men and women’ as an idea even though for much of history, in cultures far and varied, the realm of ideas was a natural place for this topic to live. We have stalled in talking about these as spiritual ideas with explanatory power and instead prefer the brass tacks—those things that present themselves as urgent because they are obvious. One reason we have ceased talking about the idea of gender is that we have lost a sense of just how broad it is. As a society, we have become so narrowly focused on the biology and lived experiences of men and women, as Butler’s assessment demonstrates, that our scope of conversation is limited to whatever seems to engage directly with those dimensions. Pervasive is the notion that, in order to protect ourselves from limiting ideas about gender, we must marginalize discussions that suggest difference or make gender too prominent an issue. Religion is viewed as a culprit in perpetuating gender distinctions to an oppressive extent. Yet, religious cosmology seeks to explain the dynamic structure of the universe by utilizing a large number of symbols, of which gender is a key component. Yet it rejects the idea that the symbolized could be equated with the symbol. The former is always far greater in importance and scope than the latter, although the latter is more tangible. Arguably, thinkers like Butler have been able to take their conclusions as far as they have because of how patently flimsy some of our expressions of gender are. The more people insist that girls must wear pink and only boys can play with toy trucks as matters of principle, the more arguments like Butler’s seem credible. Claims like those are far removed from the concerns of Muslim cosmologists. Likewise, the more American culture exploits notions of the perfect male and female body, the more Butler’s idea that gender rests on the social performance of gender gains ground. Butler’s critiques about the ways in which we “perform” gender, particularly in the public domain, are not without basis. Modern American dress is perhaps more gendered than any generation prior for the ways in which it crudely overemphasizes the distinct aspects of the male and female form. It is reasonable that someone surrounded by this display questions whether this style of dress is not socially constructed toward a sexual end that has usurped the will of the individual although they do not perceive it as such—Butler calls these individuals “actors”[^4]—they are parroting the script they’ve been given. Again, it is worth noting that Muslim thinkers cared little for some of the same excesses that Butler finds fault with. The cosmologists who postulate the ways in which gender can be employed to understand the forces that shape our world are wholly unconcerned with many of those social “acts” as Butler calls them, which seem to defy any higher purpose, like overtly sexualized dress. Islam, of course, deemphasizes and desexualizes the body in any public setting and therefore disincentivizes profiteering over the body, women’s bodies in particular. The Muslim cosmologist engages with a Qur’anic principle, that Allah “created everything in pairs in order that you reflect” (Qur’an 51:49) so he or she must concede to the obvious pairing of men and women. Yet, because the verse calls on us to reflect, we are compelled to dig deeper than superficial differences. Furthermore, the language of pairs is distinct from the language of binaries, the former brings into focus difference as well as sameness whereas the latter emphasizes only difference. Biology advances the idea that men and women are bimodal, not binary, that while we exist in two categories this does not deny variance within each of those categories, as well as the overlapping of categories. As biologist Dr. Heather Heying puts it, members of a gender category “are simultaneously of a type, and distinct within that type.”[^5] --- ## Finding purpose through stories Stories and symbols are the guardians of a culture’s values and sources of meaning. The narratives we tell or hear about ourselves and the world we operate within form structural support for our individual and collective lives. Any psychologist who listens to his client’s discourse will be able to identify the story the latter tells about himself, grasping through it the world he has confined himself to and determining if there isn’t some alternative narrative—whether more true or more helpful—that can enable the client to live in a different, life-affirming paradigm. Similarly, our beliefs about gender inform our understanding of what it means to be human and, thus, are profoundly important and of fundamental concern for believers. The story of the creation of Adam and Eve, in the numerous ways that it is told and retold in the Qur’an, illustrates just how important it is for humans to recognize that we have an origin and therefore a story to reflect upon in order to determine our essence and our purpose. Sachiko Murata, writing on the motivation of Muslim cosmologists states that, “...most cosmologists have been concerned with demonstrating the analogies among all levels of existence in order to show that human beings play a unique role in the universe as God’s representatives or vicegerents (*khalifa*). This, in turn, demands human responsibility.”[^6] Without the story of Adam, we would not know that we have been charged with the responsibility of *khilafa*, but it is also not readily apparent why we are capable of carrying out this task. If we cannot access the ‘why,’ then acting in proper accordance with the station of *khilafa* will escape us. Cosmologists have charged themselves with the task of demonstrating analogies because the Qur’an relays many of its core messages through analogical language.[^7] Of concern to us in this discussion are the analogies God uses to help human beings understand Him as well as themselves. Vicegerency, as described in the Qur’an, bestows human beings with God-like responsibilities in the relationship we have to the rest of creation. For one, human beings have the unique capacity to think and act freely with limitations that are barely perceptible. Therefore, we are able to wield a certain amount of control over the rest of creation. We are called to care for creation, but our abilities can just as easily be used to cause harm if our outlook and priorities are disordered. Animal, plant, and mineral life are not practically defined in moral language because their actions are confined by their natures which are limited and fixed. Murata points out that “Evil appears when people break the balance…. Evil has no other entry into the world since only human beings have the freedom to choose it.”[^8] This brings us to the second characteristic of humans that annexes us to God in our relationship to creation: we are endowed with a richness and complexity of nature and capacities that are unlike any other creature. Murata writes that human beings “manifest the whole,”[^9] meaning that we are a little cosmos, manifesting all the attributes of the ‘big’ cosmos within ourselves. This assessment by the cosmologists is based on a number of traditional statements, among them, “We will show them our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth” (Qur’an 41:53)[^10] and the *hadith*: “Allah created Adam in His image.”[^11] These correspondences to The Divine are of particular interest to cosmologists because they are illustrative of what is demanded by human vicegerency and why such an honor and responsibility has been placed upon us. The Qur’an employs the term signs (*ayat*) hundreds of times and we, the audience, are asked to see the signs and then see beyond them to the truth that they are alluding to. Notes Murata, “...the Koran tells us that we must perceive things not so much for what they are in themselves but for what they tell us of something beyond themselves.”[^12] The multitude of signs ultimately delivers us to a unified notion of wholeness, *tawhid*. In this way, all of life is imbued with meaning. Just as we derive knowledge of our purpose from the Qur’an’s discussion of our origin story, so, too, do we learn about gender and its significance. Within the origin story, Adam stands both as the archetypal human and the archetypal man. This is because gender is only understood (by humans) when both male and female are present. Before Hawa’s creation, Adam is more properly described as human than as a human male because maleness is not comprehended without femaleness as its complement. Much of our knowledge base as people is impossible without recourse to opposites. There is the old adage that a fish neither knows that it is wet nor that it lives in water because it has no concept of dryness. When we read our origin story, we see a derivation from oneness, as exemplified in Adam before Hawa, then duality, Adam with Hawa, then multiplicity, ourselves as the progeny of Adam and Hawa. While nearly all animals exist in pairs, none, as far as we know, was created from its own self like Adam and Hawa were created from the same *nafs* (soul). And while all other creatures live in accordance with their natures, none of them is conscious of their origin. The first verse of Surah Nisa illustrates human derivation from oneness, through to duality and then multiplicity: “O mankind, have *taqwa* of Allah who created you from one soul and created from it its mate, and spread from it countless men and women…” (Qur’an 4:1). Surah Hujurat reinforces this movement from singularity to multiplicity with the added benefit of encouraging us to reflect on proverbially climbing the ladder from multiplicity back to singularity: “O humankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted” (Qur’an 49:13). Gender further informs our position as stewards. As we know, God is not gendered; but, as Abdal Hakim Murad points out, “the phenomenal God is manifested in not one but two genders.”[^13] When Murad says “phenomenal God,” he is referring to our perception of God which is dependent upon that which God chooses to manifest of Himself to us. This is different from “the noumenal God” which refers to God’s ipseity, or who He is in Himself, independent of human sense perception. An example of “phenomenal God” is ‘The Names of God’ which have inspired an entire doctrine that designates them as archetypes for all duality in creation.[^14] As Murad points out, they are divided into Names of Majesty and Names of Beauty; the former are associated closely with the masculine pole and the latter with the feminine pole. It would belie the point of this essay to think of these in strict opposing categories. God, who possesses ultimate Unity, does not suffer internal conflict or contradiction. Rather, God’s effects on creation can be seen through the lens of His many names which appear to fall gracefully into two categories, archetypically masculine and archetypically feminine. Yet each of those categories contains dozens of Names, displaying variance from within as well as methodical overlap. God’s wrath, for example, is categorically distinct from His Mercy, but Prophet Ibrahim warns of a “punishment from the All-Merciful” (Qur’an 19:45), a seemingly oxymoronic statement that must be true given the authority of the person uttering it. Thus, the dynamism we see in creation—its nuance and interconnectedness—is a manifestation of God’s creative power which we come to experience from His Names, those of Majesty and Beauty. God “created everything in pairs” (Qur’an 51:49), and thereby we are affirmed in our genders and connected to all of creation as well as to the dynamic pairing of God’s Names through our genders. Notes Murad, “The doctrine of the Names as archetypes for all bipolarities in creation ruled out any possibly consequent idea that humanity’s retrieval of theomorphism must entail a shedding of gender in favour of androgyny. On the contrary, the retrieval of theomorphism is the retrieval of gender, fully understood.”[^15] Theomorphism, or being created in likeness to God, should not be confused with the Christian conception of the term which includes ‘God made flesh.’ Rather, for the Muslim, we mean that humans are granted qualities that are a small sample of the omnipotent God. It also hinges on the understanding that in order for us to be our highest version of ourselves, we ought to adopt God-like qualities of care and concern for others, goodwill, forethought, and forgiveness among others. While modern theorists hold that true freedom rest in throwing off the shackles of masculine and feminine in favor of androgyny, Murad argues that living to our full humanity does not necessitate a rejection of gender in favor of androgyny. God is not androgynous, so the idea of the theorist that in order to have the ultimate freedom that we attribute to God we must be androgynous is a misconception. Their understanding of theology is deeply flawed. What Murad shows is that God has created these differences as a means to reflect upon Him; they are not obstacles, rather, they are means. Our genders, like our bodies, are vehicles meant to aid us in achieving our ultimate purpose of *ibadah* (worship) and *khilafa* (stewardship). Modernity sees the ways in which we are not identical and reads meaninglessness into that. One common way this plays out can be seen in the persistence by some of feigning blindness to aspects of another’s identity. This shows, in my estimation, an inability to not be reductionist while perceiving someone’s identity. In other words, if I can’t look at you and let go of the stereotypes and preconceived notions I have about your identity, I’d rather pretend to not see our differences and claim some moral ground. Some modernists assume traditions like Islam crafted comprehensive theories because the latter refused to acknowledge variance but the opposite is true. What Islam resurrects in the modern day that is useful for us as people negotiating perspectives and influenced by thought trends is a reaffirmation of embodiment, a resurgence of feminine symbolism, and an invitation to see the form and perceive beyond it. These are important retrievals in our time. --- ## Conclusion Ironically, Judith Butler’s paper “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” works from a feminist framework to achieve a feminist end. It erases gender, femaleness included and commonly understood, in pursuit of a feminist aim. Ultimately, Butler’s argument is that we achieve a fuller expression of humanity when we liberate ourselves from gender. So women must give up their gender identity if they want to be treated as fully human and live in an equitable world. Butler seems to be asking that women once again sacrifice themselves, which is odd given that she and other feminist theorists argue that sacrifice is one of those norms that patriarchal society forces upon women. And what is the benefit of asking the beleaguered group (women) to do away with gender when the empowered group (men) receives no benefit in doing the same? It seems at best uncertain how women will benefit from such a radical change when the world around them inevitably stays the same. Not to mention the herculean task of ripping gender from one’s very self. It seems Butler thinks we can remake ourselves in the image of our choosing but this is an atheistic way of viewing the world because it makes us out to be gods in full control. But this is not possible. Religion tells us we are like God and yet the gulf between who and what we are and who and what God is *is* immeasurable. The greatest crime a steward could make is refusing to acknowledge that he is a placeholder for the king, not the king himself. Muslim cosmologists would argue that gender is inextricable from humanity and in truth enriches our selfhood. For the believer on the path to God, learning to express the positive aspects of one’s gender is a help rather than a hindrance. And learning to observe the pairings of the world grants us a deeper vision, not a skewed one. The scope of this topic is far greater than the constraints of this paper, which by no means exhausts what can be said on the broader meaning and implications of gender. To conclude, let us revisit the headlines of what this essay does cover. We situate this discussion within the persuasive modern theory of gender which posits that gender is a social construct without any reality other than the norms we pass down generationally. While there is truth to the claim that some ways of acting and dressing vary across cultures, this hardly stands as a refutation of gender in its totality. Gender is biologically and culturally determined, as well as spiritually significant. Thus, it is inadequate to point to some superficial cultural and social standards of gender in order to tear down gender’s entire edifice. Reductionist claims about gender misrepresent the issue by setting up a straw man that is easy enough to tear down. However, gender has meant much more as an ontological and cosmological phenomenon in the imagination of Muslim thinkers than the petty gender differences used as targets by theorists. Muslim thinkers in the sapiential and Sufi traditions have utilized and championed gender as an analogy for the world more broadly. They take seriously God’s teaching in the Qur’an that He created all things in pairs and use that as a lens to clarify what otherwise would have remained nebulous. By lifting up this teaching, they affirm and celebrate human fullness with regard for, instead of disregard of, the body. --- ## Notes [^1]: Murata, Sachiko. *The Tao of Islam*, (New York: SUNY Press, 1992), 15. [^2]: Murad, Abdal Hakim. “Islam, Irigaray, and the Retrieval of Gender,” 1999. [http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/gender.htm](http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/gender.htm) [^3]: Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” *Theatre Journal* 40, no. 4 (1988): 519. [^4]: Ibid., 520. [^5]: Heying, Heather. Should We “Stop Equating ‘Science’ With Truth”? *Quillette*,  August 11, 2017. [https://quillette.com/2017/08/11/stop-equating-science-truth/](https://quillette.com/2017/08/11/stop-equating-science-truth/) [^6]: Murata, *The Tao of Islam*, 15. [^7]: Ibid., 23. [^8]: Ibid., 15. [^9]: Ibid., 43. [^10]: Alternate translation: “He is the Truth.” [^11]: Narrated by Abu Hurayrah in both Bukhari and Muslim. [^12]: Murata, *The Tao of Islam*, 24. [^13]: Murad, “Islam, Irigaray, and the Retrieval of Gender.” [^14]: Ibid. [^15]: Ibid. ## Summary Gender is not an illusion to be discarded but a reality woven into the very fabric of creation, shaping who we are as individuals, as communities, and as builders of civilization. The modern age, however, has uprooted our inherited understanding of this defining feature of the self. Contemporary gender theorists, chief among them Professor Judith Butler, have not so much refuted traditional conceptions of gender as they have simply ignored them. To secure influence, such theorists misrepresent the meaning of biological sex, reduce gender to a narrow set of behaviors, and neglect the vast intellectual terrain that traditional thought concerning gender once occupied. In doing so they vulgarize science and pass over the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of the question. Against this tendency, the Muslim intellectual tradition holds that thinking about gender extended far beyond the body and its functions, roles, dress, and demeanor, reaching outward to map meaning onto the entirety of the cosmos. By *tradition* is meant a body of ideas cultivated over a long span of time and repeatedly returned to for the wisdom it continues to yield. Professor Sachiko Murata, in her landmark study *The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought*, argues that gender was a defining feature of Muslim cosmological and Sufi reflection, in which religious cosmology explains the origins, history, and destiny of the world on religious terms, and the Sufi tradition concerns itself with the higher ideals and spiritual depths of Islam. Likewise, Professor Abdal Hakim Murad, in his essay "Islam, Irigaray, and the Retrieval of Gender," maintains that Islam offers an affirming narrative in which gender is constitutive of what makes a human being spiritually whole and vibrantly connected to the universe. For all that Western culture debates gender and rights, it possesses no coherent message about gender; indeed gender is among the most fragmented of the concepts that shape our society. Part of the reason is that many who speak on the matter do so without expertise. The biologist, the historian, the philosopher, the sociologist, and the religious scholar each have something to contribute, yet only from within their own disciplines. The difficulty of our age is that people rarely remain within their competence, and some venture far beyond it to make sweeping claims, rather than treading into other domains with intellectual humility. Judith Butler, in "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory," argues that gender is a social construct, falsely correlated with biological sex, perpetuated across generations through certain modes of dress and behavior, and ultimately serving the patriarchal end of reproduction. She writes that "gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self." In her view gender has no reality, no quiddity, and biological sex is "distinct from the process by which the body comes to bear cultural meanings." She does not deny biological sex, for to do so would render her work absurd; yet she affirms it only just enough to appear credible, stopping short of granting it its full scientific weight, and making reductionist claims about it so as to sever it from any implication for how persons express themselves. This position is one to be critiqued, not endorsed. The very phrase "men and women" now falls under scrutiny as dangerously exclusionary. It suggests a natural pairing and implies that these are the two principal categories that make up a system. Theorists such as Butler would call this pairing antiquated. Yet rarely today do we speak of "men and women" as an *idea*, though for much of history, across varied cultures, this was precisely the realm in which the subject dwelt. We have lost a sense of how broad the concept is, narrowing our gaze to biology and lived experience alone. Religion is blamed for perpetuating oppressive distinctions, yet religious cosmology seeks to explain the structure of the universe through a wealth of symbols, of which gender is central, while insisting that the symbol never be equated with the thing symbolized, the latter being always greater in scope than the former, though the former is more tangible. It must be granted that theorists like Butler have advanced their conclusions partly because some of our expressions of gender are genuinely flimsy. The more it is insisted that girls must wear pink and only boys may play with toy trucks, the more plausible Butler's argument appears; the more American culture exploits idealized images of the male and female body, the more her thesis that gender rests on social performance gains ground. Her critique of the ways we "perform" gender in public is not baseless, for modern dress crudely overemphasizes the distinct aspects of the male and female form. Yet the Muslim cosmologists cared little for these very excesses. Islam desexualizes the body in public settings and thereby discourages profiteering over it, women's bodies in particular. The Muslim cosmologist engages the Qur'anic principle that Allah "created everything in pairs in order that you reflect" (Qur'an 51:49), and so must concede the pairing of men and women; yet because the verse commands reflection, the believer is compelled to dig beneath superficial difference. The language of *pairs* is not the language of *binaries*: the former holds together difference and sameness, while the latter emphasizes only difference. As the biologist Dr. Heather Heying observes, members of a gender category "are simultaneously of a type, and distinct within that type," which accords with the biological insight that men and women are bimodal rather than binary. Stories and symbols guard a culture's values and sources of meaning. The narratives we hold about ourselves and our world form the structural support of our lives, and our beliefs about gender therefore shape our very understanding of what it means to be human. The story of the creation of Adam and Eve, retold in numerous ways throughout the Qur'an, teaches that we have an origin, and thus a story to reflect upon in discerning our essence and purpose. Murata writes that "most cosmologists have been concerned with demonstrating the analogies among all levels of existence in order to show that human beings play a unique role in the universe as God's representatives or vicegerents (*khalifa*)," a role that "in turn demands human responsibility." Without the story of Adam we would not know we have been charged with *khilafa*, nor grasp why we are fitted to bear it. Two features annex humanity to God in its relationship to creation. First, human beings alone possess the freedom to think and act, and therefore alone can introduce evil; as Murata notes, "evil appears when people break the balance… Evil has no other entry into the world since only human beings have the freedom to choose it." Second, human beings "manifest the whole," each a small cosmos reflecting the attributes of the greater one. This rests upon the words of Allah, "We will show them our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth" (Qur'an 41:53), and the *hadith*, "Allah created Adam in His image." The Qur'an names things *ayat*, signs, hundreds of times, calling us to perceive things "not so much for what they are in themselves but for what they tell us of something beyond themselves," until the multitude of signs delivers us to *tawhid*, wholeness. From the origin story we likewise learn the meaning of gender. Adam stands as both the archetypal human and the archetypal man, for maleness is comprehended only with femaleness as its complement; before the creation of Hawa, Adam is more properly human than male. The narrative moves from oneness, to duality, to multiplicity: "O mankind, have *taqwa* of Allah who created you from one soul and created from it its mate, and spread from it countless men and women" (Qur'an 4:1), and again, "O humankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you" (Qur'an 49:13). Unlike other creatures, Adam and Hawa were created from a single *nafs*, and unlike them, human beings are conscious of their origin. God is not gendered, yet as Murad observes, "the phenomenal God is manifested in not one but two genders." By the *phenomenal* God he means our perception of what God chooses to manifest, distinct from the *noumenal* God, His ipseity as He is in Himself. The Divine Names furnish an example, divided into Names of Majesty, associated with the masculine pole, and Names of Beauty, associated with the feminine—yet not as rigid opposites, for God suffers no internal contradiction. Each category contains many Names, with variance and overlap within. Thus even Prophet Ibrahim warns of "a punishment from the All-Merciful" (Qur'an 19:45). Since God "created everything in pairs" (Qur'an 51:49), we are affirmed in our genders and connected through them to all creation and to the dynamic pairing of the Names. Murad concludes that "the retrieval of theomorphism is the retrieval of gender, fully understood," where theomorphism, unlike its Christian sense, means that humans bear a small sample of God's qualities and are called to adopt God-like care, forethought, and forgiveness. Where the modern theorist holds that freedom lies in casting off masculine and feminine for androgyny, Murad answers that our full humanity requires no such rejection. God is not androgynous, so the notion that ultimate divine-like freedom demands androgyny rests upon a flawed theology. Differences are means by which to reflect upon God, not obstacles; our genders, like our bodies, are vehicles toward *ibadah* and *khilafa*. Modernity, seeing that we are not identical, reads meaninglessness into difference, sometimes even feigning blindness to another's identity out of an inability to perceive without reductive stereotype. What Islam recovers for our age is a reaffirmation of embodiment, a resurgence of feminine symbolism, and an invitation to see the form and perceive beyond it. There is a deep irony in Butler's project, which works from a feminist framework yet erases gender, femaleness included, in pursuit of a feminist end, asking women to surrender their gender identity to be treated as fully human. This asks the beleaguered group to sacrifice while the empowered group gains nothing from doing likewise, and offers no clear benefit when the surrounding world remains unchanged. To imagine that we may remake ourselves in the image of our choosing is an atheistic outlook, casting us as gods in full control, when in truth the gulf between the human and the Divine is immeasurable. The gravest error of a steward is to forget that he is a placeholder for the king, not the king himself. The Muslim cosmologists would insist that gender is inextricable from humanity and enriches selfhood, and that for the believer walking toward God, expressing the positive aspects of one's gender is a help and not a hindrance, while observing the pairings of the world grants deeper vision rather than a distorted one. The subject far exceeds what can be treated here. While it is true that some modes of acting and dressing vary across cultures, this is no refutation of gender in its totality, for gender is biologically and culturally determined as well as spiritually significant. Reductionist claims set up a straw man easily toppled, yet in the imagination of Muslim thinkers gender has meant far more as an ontological and cosmological reality than the petty differences seized upon by theorists. The sapiential and Sufi traditions took seriously God's teaching that He created all things in pairs and made of it a lens to clarify what would otherwise remain nebulous, thereby affirming and celebrating human fullness with regard for the body rather than disregard of it. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is gender a social construct or does Islam say it is real? The claim that gender is purely a social construct rests on a selective reading of biology. It is true that some culturally specific expressions of gender—color-coded clothing and particular social scripts—vary across time and place. But pointing to those surface-level variations to dismiss gender entirely is like noticing that some fish are different colors and concluding that fish do not exist. Members of a gender category are simultaneously of a type and distinct within that type. Gender is biologically shaped, culturally expressed, and, for the believer, spiritually significant. The Qur’an tells us Allah “created everything in pairs in order that you reflect” (51:49)—and that instruction to reflect signals that the pairing of male and female is meant to carry us somewhere deeper than dress codes or social roles. Muslim thinkers in the cosmological and ascetic traditions spent centuries exploring what masculine and feminine reveal about the nature of reality and our relationship to Allah. Reducing gender to social performance misrepresents the science and overlooks an entire tradition of philosophical and religious reflection that has taken gender seriously for centuries. ### What does Islam say about people who want to get rid of gender altogether? The idea that true freedom requires shedding gender rests on a particular assumption: that we are capable of remaking ourselves entirely in an image of our own choosing. This rests on a secular constructivist framing of human existence, with the assumption that we can remake ourselves entirely according to our own chosen self-concept.. Islam rejects this not because it fears freedom but because it understands human beings differently. We are not self-made; we are created, and our creation is itself a mercy. Gender in the Islamic tradition is not a cage but a sign, and the Qur’an consistently asks us to see signs and then see beyond them to the truth they are pointing toward. What is lost in erasing gender is precisely that depth of vision. ### Why does Islam treat men and women differently if they are equal before God? Because equality does not require sameness. Allah says He “created everything in pairs” (51:49), and the language of pairs is doing real work: *pairs* emphasize both difference and correspondence, not opposition. Before Hawwaʾ’s creation, Adam is more properly described as simply human than as male, because maleness is not fully comprehended without femaleness as its complement. Much of what we know about the world is impossible without recourse to its opposite—a fish does not know it is wet because it has no concept of dryness. The Qur’an traces a movement from oneness, through duality, into multiplicity: “O humankind, have *taqwa* of Allah who created you from one soul and created from it its mate, and spread from it countless men and women” (4:1). The differences between men and women do not necessitate deficiencies in either; they are part of a larger pattern through which creation itself becomes intelligible. The Islamic tradition asks us not to flatten those differences but to see through them to the wisdom of the One who designed them. ### Is the way Muslims talk about gender actually from Islam, or is it mostly cultural? Often it is a mix—and the failure to distinguish between the two is where much of the frustration comes from. When gender is reduced to rigid hierarchies, sexualized dress codes, or cultural scripts with no higher purpose, it naturally begins to feel like a constraint rather than something meaningful. Muslim cosmologists were critical of many of the same excesses. The crude, overtly sexualized expressions of masculinity and femininity that dominate modern culture were not their concern, and neither were the petty cultural rules some communities enforce in the name of religion. Gender as Allah created it carries dignity; what human culture has layered on top of it is a separate, and often distorted, matter. The Qur’an invites reflection on pairs precisely so we look past surface-level conventions to the wisdom underneath. Separating what Allah revealed from what people have added is not a rejection of the tradition. It is exactly what the tradition asks of us. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-a-good-muslim-be-a-bad-person-aligning-faith-and-character # Can a "Good Muslim" Be a "Bad Person"? Aligning Faith and Character **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 3, 2019 **Updated:** April 1, 2026 *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* --- ## Abstract This article addresses the misconception that religious worship is separate from moral character, or that someone can be a “good Muslim” but a “bad person.” Faith in Islam, as described in the Qur’an and Sunnah, consists of not only a theological creed but also a set of character dispositions. The five pillars of Islam, which are the religion’s core rituals of worship, all contain moral dimensions that inform both a believer’s relationship to their Creator and to other created beings. It is a categorical error, then, to claim someone can simultaneously be a “good Muslim” and a “bad person” because a good Muslim believer is, by definition, a good person. --- ## Introduction It is common in modern secular society to hear the argument that people do not need God, religion, or revelation to be “good,” to recognize moral values, and be productive members of society. In the Muslim community, some people even say that so-and-so is a “good Muslim” but not a “good person.” Why do people separate religion from morality when in Islam they are so obviously intended to be integrated? It is true, in a limited sense, that people have access to moral knowledge even without divine revelation. Every person is born with a God-given conscience or instinct (*al-fitrah*) that naturally recognizes the moral truths manifesting from the Attributes of Allah, such as love, compassion, justice, and beauty. The Prophet ﷺsaid, “Righteousness is good character and sin is what disturbs your heart and you hate for people to find out about it.”[^1] And Ibn Umar رضي الله عنهما said, “The servant will not achieve true mindfulness of Allah (*al-taqwa*) until he leaves what disturbs his heart.”[^2] The innate conscience of people can acknowledge good and evil to a degree without being informed by revelation; so, yes, from this perspective a person can be a “good” member of society without being religious or believing in God. But being good solely on the basis of personal conscience or philosophy is a precarious position to be in. It lacks a metaphysical understanding of reality to ground its ethics and hold it in place when our moral values are put to the test. Put simply, if there is no God to judge us, if there is no divine law to guide us, our moral prescriptions are merely preferences, and preferences can be discarded the moment they become inconvenient. For this reason, Moses, peace be upon him, said to Pharaoh, “Verily, I have taken refuge in my Lord and your Lord from every arrogant person who does not have faith in the Day of Reckoning.”[^3] Rulers like Pharaoh, who do not really believe they are held accountable to God, inevitably devolve into the most notorious of tyrants. Perhaps the most notable example of 20th-century godless despotism was the murderous Communist regime which “subjected the Soviet public to virulently atheistic propaganda on the streets and in the workplace.”[^4] Joseph Stalin certainly did not believe he would stand before God on the Day of Judgment to take responsibility for the millions of souls who died by his command. Religious people commit atrocities too, some will argue, and it is indeed true. Islam, however, does not separate religion from morality as some people misunderstand. One cannot be a “good Muslim” and a “bad person” at the same time, because worship and character are two sides of the same coin. The use and abuse of religion for evil ends is definitely a reality, but it does not represent the true expression of faith. Rather, it is hypocrisy which Allah has condemned in the Qur’an: > *Among people are those who say, ‘We have faith in Allah and the Last Day,’ but they are not truly believers. They try to deceive Allah and the believers but they deceive none but themselves, while they do not perceive it. In their hearts is a disease (of hypocrisy), so Allah has increased their disease and they will have a painful punishment*.[^5] Again, Allah said: > *Among people are those whose speech impresses you in the life of this world and he calls Allah to witness what is in his heart, yet he is most fierce in argument. When he turns away, he strives in the land to corrupt it and destroy crops and cattle, but Allah does not love corruption. When it is said to him, ‘Fear Allah!’ pride in the sin takes hold of him, so Hell will suffice him and wretched is the destination.*[^6] There are many religious people who practice their “faith” in an arrogant and hypocritical manner, who commit atrocities, crimes, and offenses by cynically exploiting religious sentiments and the language of righteousness. Their hypocrisy, though, stands in marked contrast to authentic faith as it has been described by Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. In this article, we will examine the definition of faith in Islam and its inextricable link to ethics, morality, and good character. We will further demonstrate that each of the five pillars of Islam—the testimony of faith, prayer, charity, fasting Ramadan, and the Hajj pilgrimage—include moral dimensions in regards to relations with other people that must be fulfilled for these acts of worship to have merit. In short, we will prove that a “good Muslim” must, *by definition*, be a “good person.” --- ## Islam, faith, and good character The testimony of faith (*al-shahada*) is the first and most important pillar in Islam. Faith in Islam (*al-iman*) includes not only theological creed (*al-aqidah*) and rituals (*al-’ibadah*) but also a set of character dispositions, moral virtues, and spiritual practices. The classical scholar Ibn Taymiyyah wrote, “It is understood that faith is affirmation and not merely belief. Affirmation includes the words of the heart, which is belief, and the actions of the heart, which is compliance.”[^7] After all, even Satan *believes* in the existence of the Creator but “he was arrogant and become one of the unfaithful.”[^8] True faith must manifest itself as outward actions (profession of creed and ritual worship) and inward states (purity of heart, compassion, humility, etc.). It was the pedagogy of the companions to learn faith from this broad-based perspective before seriously memorizing the Qur’an and studying other Islamic disciplines, as recalled by Jundub ibn Abdullah رضي الله عنه, “We learned faith before we learned the Qur’an, then we learned the Qur’an and it strengthened our faith.”[^9] Faith can be spoiled by the appearance of hypocrisy (*al-nifaq*), in which a person outwardly professes and practices Islam but has internalized characteristics of unfaithfulness, such as dishonesty. An outward Muslim who has no faith in his or her heart commits major hypocrisy, tantamount to unbelief, while a Muslim who has faith and manifests sinful actions contrary to faith commits lesser hypocrisy; an egregious sin to be sure, but not enough to completely nullify one’s faith. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *There are four signs that make someone a pure hypocrite and whoever has one of them has a characteristic of hypocrisy until he abandons it: when he speaks he lies, when he makes a covenant he is treacherous, when he makes a promise he breaks it, and when he argues he is wicked.*[^10] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ defined Islam and faith according to both their inward and outward dimensions. In regards to the outer meaning, the Prophet ﷺ was asked by the Angel Gabriel about the meaning of Islam and he said, “Islam is to testify there is no true god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, to establish prayer, to give charity, to fast the month of Ramadan, and to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to the House if one can find a way.” Then Gabriel asked the Prophet ﷺabout the meaning of faith and he replied, “Faith is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in the Divine Decree (*al-qadr*), both its good and its evil.”[^11] These definitions explain the religion according to its concrete exoteric elements—the pillars of worship and the outwardly professed articles of faith. That said, there is also a spiritual dimension to Islam and to faith that includes moral virtues as they relate to our behavior towards other people. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe, and the believer is the one who is trusted with the lives and wealth of the people.”[^12] In another narration, a man asked, “O Messenger of Allah, whose Islam is best?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Those from whose tongue and hand people are safe.”[^13] On several occasions, the Prophet ﷺ would associate faith in Islam with good deeds towards others. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever has faith in Allah and the Last Day, let him not harm his neighbor. Whoever has faith in Allah and the Last Day, let him honor his guest. Whoever has faith in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good or be silent.”[^14] In another narration, the Prophet said, “Let him honor his neighbor.”[^15] And in another narration, he said, “Let him uphold family ties.”[^16] In other words, the Muslim is, *by definition*, someone who does not unjustly harm other people with their words and actions, who shows good behavior to family members, neighbors, guests, and people in general. Of course, when a Muslim does commit such offenses they remain a Muslim in the outward sense, but their faith and practice of Islam is deficient until their behavior matches the Prophet’s definition of a Muslim and a believer. Faith, in this sense, increases or decreases according to the measure of our deeds from moment to moment. If we commit a major sin, our faith might entirely vanish in that moment until we repent. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *The adulterer is not a believer while he is committing adultery. The drinker of wine is not a believer while he is drinking wine. The thief is not a believer while he is stealing. The plunderer is not a believer while he is plundering and the people are looking on*.[^17] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Nor is one who kills a believer.” Then it was said to Ibn Abbas  رضي الله عنهما, “How does faith leave him?” Ibn Abbas said, “Like this,” and he clasped his fingers together and pulled them apart and said, “But if he repents, then it returns to him like this,” and he clasped his fingers together.[^18] For this reason, regular repentance is mandatory for the believers.[^19] Since faith, like our internal states and moods, has a tendency to fluctuate, it follows that we need to continue renewing our faith through acts of worship and charity on an ongoing basis. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, the faith of one of you will diminish just as a garment becomes worn out, so ask Allah to renew faith in your hearts.”[^20] ‘Umayr ibn Habib رضي الله عنه said, “Faith increases and decreases.” It was asked, “How does it increase and decrease?” ‘Umayr said, “If we remember our Lord and fear Him, it will increase. If we are heedless and we forget and we waste our time, it will decrease.”[^21] As such, if a Muslim is committing sins, causing offense, and generally being a “bad person,” that is a reflection of their weakness in faith and not the ideal of faith itself. An important element of faith, which has direct consequences for our salvation, is the effort we put into purifying our hearts from spiritual diseases such as malice, envy, greed, and worldliness. Allah said, “He has succeeded who purifies his soul, and he has failed who corrupts it.”[^22] An entire discipline of Islamic learning was developed based upon this imperative, known as “purification of the soul” (*tazkiyyat al-nafs*)[^23] and its importance cannot be overstated. No one will be spared punishment on the Day of Judgment except for those “who come to Allah with a pure heart.”[^24] The inward actions of the heart are the precursors to all the conscious outward deeds of the limbs and tongue. If our heart is pure, then it should necessarily result in acts of charity and good deeds for others. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The faith of a servant is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart is not upright until his tongue is upright. A man will not enter Paradise if his neighbor is not secure from his evil.”[^25] The heart affects our use of language and our language affects our neighbors, for better or worse. What we say reflects what is in our hearts because that is where our words originated. If we cannot, at the very least, refrain from harming our neighbors, then we are in danger of losing our place in Paradise. When it comes to neighbors and other people in general, our faith and practice must be informed by the *ethics of reciprocity*; i.e., we need to treat others as we would like to be treated. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you will have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”[^26] That is, faith is to love good for others the same as we would love it for ourselves. Great classical scholars like Imam al-Ghazali made this principle central to their understanding of ethics.[^27] This reciprocity includes both Muslims and non-Muslims because every human being is your brother or sister either in the specific religious sense or in the universal sense that all people are the children of Adam and Eve عليهما السلام. Ibn Hajar al-Haytami commented on this tradition, writing, “It is apparent that the expression of ‘brother’ here is based upon the general sense, as it is befitting for every Muslim to love Islam for the unbelievers and what arises from it of virtues.”[^28] Additional evidence and inclusive language from the Sunnah indicates that reciprocal ethics apply to all people. In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let him treat people the way he would love to be treated.”[^29] And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Love for people what you love for yourself and you will be a believer; behave well with whoever would be your neighbor and you will be a Muslim.”[^30] Once again, a believer and a Muslim must love good for all human beings the same as they love it for themselves, or else their faith is deficient and incomplete. Hence, a believer in good standing should have a pure heart and treat others the way they would like to be treated. Put differently, a believer should have good character (*al-akhlaq*), which is the inward disposition of a pure heart, and also good manners (*al-adab*), which are the outward manifestations of good character. Perfecting both the inward and outward moral dimensions of faith comprises the very essence of Islamic teachings, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, I have only been sent to perfect righteous character.”[^31] The primary focus of the Prophet’s teaching was to instill good character in his companions and followers, first towards Allah by holding sound beliefs and performing regular acts of worship, and second towards other people by modeling compassionate, kind, and fair behavior. When the companion Abu Dharr رضي الله عنه first heard about the Prophet ﷺ before he met him, he sent his brother to see what he was teaching. His brother returned and he said, “I saw him ordering noble morals and he did not speak like one of the poets.”[^32] Likewise, the successors took the matter very seriously, as stated by Al-Dahhak ibn Muzahim رحمه الله, “The head of the matter is good character.”[^33] The classical scholar Ibn al-Qayyim even considered the entire religion to be a way of life revolving around moral behavior, “The religion itself is good character, so whoever surpasses you in good character has surpassed you in religion.”[^34] Being a good Muslim *means* being a good person, and being a bad person means being a bad Muslim or perhaps not being a Muslim at all. On several occasions, the Prophet ﷺ defined the best Muslims as those who have the best inward and outward behavior, “The best of you are those with the best character.”[^35] Good character, however, must be informed by a spirit of learning and devotion to religious instruction. In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of you in Islam are those with the best character, if they have understanding.”[^36] Implied in good character, then, is to have knowledge and understanding (*al-fiqh*) of the religion, both inwardly and outwardly, theoretically and practically. Certainly, well-meaning religious folks can make serious mistakes if they are ignorant, making knowledge of the religion all the more important. Faith goes hand-in-hand with family values, positive relationships, and, for men, chivalry. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The most complete of the believers in faith are those with the most excellent character, and the best of you are the best in behavior to their women.”[^37] And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺsaid, “...and those who are most kind to their families.”[^38] In fact, Islam defined genuine masculinity in terms of intellect and character, as opposed to machismo and bravado. Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه, the second righteous Caliph, said, “The foundation of a man is his intellect, his honor is in his religion, and his manhood is in his character.”[^39] Expressions of what might be called “toxic masculinity” have no sanction in Islamic teachings.[^40] In theological terms, good character is central to the Islamic understanding of salvation in the Hereafter. All Muslims, indeed all human beings, will be evaluated on the Day of Judgment by placing their good and bad deeds on the Scale. The character of the faithful is among the heaviest deeds on the side of good. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Nothing is heavier on the Scale of a believer on the Day of Resurrection than good character.”[^41] Indeed, good character is one of the primary reasons that people are admitted into Paradise. A man once asked the Prophet ﷺ, “What admits most people into Paradise?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Mindfulness of Allah (*al-taqwa*) and good character.”[^42] Good character and positive relationships are even more important than voluntary acts of worship, such as extra prayers and fasting. The Prophet ﷺ once said to his companions, “Shall I not tell you what is better in degree than voluntary fasting, prayer, and charity?” They said, “Of course!” The Prophet said, “Reconciliation between people. Verily, corrupted relations between people is the razor.”[^43] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ added, > *Hatred is the razor. I do not say it shaves hair, but rather it shaves the religion. By the one in whose hand is my soul, you will not enter Paradise until you have faith and you will not have faith until you love each other.*[^44] By good character alone, the believers can reach ranks in Paradise as high as those who regularly performed voluntary acts of worship. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, the believer may reach by his good character the rank of one who regularly fasts and stands for prayer at night.”[^45] In contrast, voluntary worship is of little value to a Muslim if they insist on behaving badly. A man once asked, “O Messenger of Allah, a woman prays in the night, fasts during the day, does many deeds and gives charity, yet she harms her neighbors with her tongue.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no good in her. She is among the people of Hellfire.” The man continued, “O Messenger of Allah, another woman prays the obligatory prayers and gives bits of food in charity, yet she does not harm anyone.” The Prophet said, “She is among the people of Paradise.”[^46] Even some people who were fervent worshippers will find their deeds voided in the Hereafter because of their bad manners and character. The Prophet ﷺ once said to his companions, “Do you know who is bankrupt?” They said, “The one without money or goods is bankrupt.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Verily, the bankrupt of my nation are those who come on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting, and charity, but also with insults, slander, consuming wealth, shedding blood, and beating others. Those who were oppressed by someone will each be given from that person’s good deeds. If his good deeds run out before justice is fulfilled, then their sins will be cast upon him and he will be thrown into the Hellfire.*[^47] Even something like backbiting (speaking ill of another person when not in their presence) can lay waste to a person’s record of good deeds. Ibn al-Jawzi commented, “O brother, beware of backbiting and gossip! For both of them harm the religion and nullify the good deeds of the doers.”[^48] When this fact of faith is truly appreciated and internalized within the believer, it provides a strong metaphysical incentive not to harm others with our words. Another way to look at faith is to think of it as a tree with several branches. The seed is the testimony of faith, “There is no true god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger,” and from this seed grow the fruits of faith like compassion, fairness, and humility, as Allah said: > *Have you not considered how Allah strikes the parable of a good word \[faith\] as a good tree, its roots firmly planted and its branches reaching to the sky? It produces its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord. Allah strikes parables for people that perhaps they will remember.*[^49] According to Ibn Abbas  رضي الله عنهما, the “good word” in this verse is “the testimony that there is no God but Allah” and the “branches reaching to the sky” are the “good deeds of the believer raised to heaven.”[^50] True faith is the root from which the fruit of the branches benefiting humankind is harvested. The Prophet ﷺ himself described faith as having branches, “Faith consists of sixty odd branches, the best of which is to declare there is no God but Allah and the least of which is to remove something harmful from the road, and modesty is a branch of faith.”[^51] Modesty (*al-haya’*) is to have a healthy sense of shame, a sensitive conscience that prevents us from doing wrong. Conversely, the vices opposite to the virtues of faith are branches of hypocrisy. In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Modesty and reticence are two branches of faith. Profanity and temerity are two branches of hypocrisy.”[^52] Vulgar words (*al-badha’*) originate in the hypocrisy residing in someone’s heart, so to speak with such profanity and obscenity is a sign of this spiritual disease. The imagery of faith as a tree producing branches with fruit was developed early in Islamic intellectual history. The classical *hadith* scholar Ahmad al-Bayhaqi compiled an entire multi-volume work on this subject, entitled “The Branches of Faith” (*Shu’ab al-Iman*). In the introduction, al-Bayhaqi writes: > *Allah, Majestic is His Praise and Sacred are His Names, by His Favor and Kindness has facilitated for me the arrangement of books containing reports to be applied in the fundamentals of the religion and its branches. All praise is due to Allah for that greatly. Then I desired to arrange a comprehensive book on the fundamentals of faith, its branches, and what has been related in reports of clarifying its good practice, for inspiring hope and instilling fear (of sin).*[^53] Many of its chapters include large sections on ethical matters such as seeking knowledge,[^54] benevolence to parents,[^55] upholding family ties,[^56] the rights of children and other family members,[^57] good character,[^58] honoring neighbors,[^59] patience with trials,[^60] generosity and magnanimity,[^61] guarding the tongue from sins,[^62] reconciliation between people,[^63] abstinence from worldliness,[^64] and loving for others what one loves for themselves.[^65] Perhaps the most concise description of the character of believers was given by the early successor Hasan al-Basri رحمه الله: > *Verily, from the character of the believer is strength in religion, determination with leniency, faith with certainty, eagerness for knowledge, sympathy with understanding, moderation in worship, mercy with effort, giving to those who ask, not wronging the one he hates, not sinning against the one he loves, dignified in turmoil, grateful in ease, content with what he has, speaking to impart understanding, being silent out of caution, and affirming the truth as a witness over him.*[^66] All of these moral values are embedded within the faith of Islam. If someone fails to live up to the ideals of the faith, it is a failing of that individual and not the religion itself. In sum, faith in Islam must, by definition, include good character traits, moral values, and goodwill towards all human beings. From this broad-based perspective, it is inconceivable that any sincere and knowledgeable Muslim could be a bad member of society, notwithstanding the occasional slips and mistakes we all make from time to time. All of the ritual acts of worship in Islam reinforce this understanding of faith, to which we now turn our attention. --- ## Prayer and character Ritual prayer (*al-salat*) is the second pillar of Islam and the most important of them after sincere faith. Every Muslim is required to perform the ritual prayer five times a day. Being a daily practice, the prayer serves as an obligatory act of servitude to the Lord Almighty and a reminder of our accountability for our deeds on the Day of Judgment. As such, it must necessarily affect our behavior by refining our character in the process. Every worshipper in prayer must recite the opening chapter of the Qur’an, Surat al-Fatihah, either aloud or silently: > *All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,* > > *The Merciful, the Beneficent,* > > *Master of the Day of Judgment,* > > *You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help,* > > *Guide us to the straight path,* > > *The path of those whom You have favored, not of those who have earned Your wrath or have been led astray.*[^67] This brief prayer reminds the believers that they will be judged by Allah on the Day of Resurrection and therefore should seek guidance from Him to avoid going down the path of those who have strayed from righteousness. A Muslim will recite this prayer a minimum of 17 times day, once for each cycle of prayer (*rak’ah*). That results in at least 17 daily reminders of the metaphysical underpinnings of Islamic morality, the reality of the Last Day. It naturally follows that the ritual of reciting, bowing, and prostrating—if done sincerely—will motivate the true believers to do good deeds and avoid sins. As Allah said: > *Recite what has been revealed to you from the Book and establish prayer. Verily, prayer prohibits one from immorality and evil, yet the remembrance of Allah is greater. Allah knows what you are doing*.[^68] Prayer and reciting the Qur’an ought to cleanse the heart of spiritual diseases and therefore cause profound positive change to our behavior outside of prayer. Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما commented on this verse, saying, “Whoever is not prohibited by his prayer from immorality and evil, then he gains nothing from his prayer but distance from Allah.”[^69] A Muslim whose prayer has no positive effect on their character or behavior is infected with a measure of hypocrisy. Abdullah ibn Mas’ud رضي الله عنه said, “There is no prayer for one who does not obey the prayer, and obedience to the prayer is to be prohibited from immorality and evil.”[^70] To obey Allah is to obey the prayer, and to obey the prayer is to stop sinning outside of prayer. Again, it is incomprehensible that a person recites the Book of Allah several times a day and feels no compunction about harming others. A man once came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “There is a person who prays in the night but steals in the morning.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, it should prohibit him from doing that.”[^71] The prayer should instill within us a healthy fear of God’s judgment, the type of fear that brings us closer to our Creator, as Allah said, “So flee to Allah, for I clearly warn you of Him.”[^72] Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما explained this verse, saying, “Flee to Allah by repenting of your sins, and flee from Him to Him by acting obediently to Him.”[^73] And Abu Bakr al-Warraq commented, “Flee from obedience of Satan to obedience of the Merciful.”[^74] But our fear of Allah has to be balanced with hope in His Mercy, as Allah said about the righteous that “they call upon their Lord in fear and hope.”[^75] Prayer not only motivates us to avoid sin, it also inspires us to do good to others in anticipation of reward from Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The son of Adam does not act with anything better than prayer, reconciliation between people, and good character.”[^76] In this tradition, the Prophet ﷺ associated prayer with the virtues of reconciliation and good character, as the ritual cannot be separated from its moral purpose. If prayer is separated from its purpose of nurturing good character, it becomes an act of hypocrisy and showing off (*al-riya’*), which is a lesser form of idolatry (*al-shirk al-asghar*). Allah issues a clear warning to such people: > *Woe to those who pray! Those who are neglectful of their prayer, who pray to be seen and withhold small acts of help.*[^77] A hypocrite of this nature prays only so other people can see him, and he will not even do small good deeds for his neighbors. Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما was asked about the meaning of “small acts of help” and he said, “Things people use between themselves.” Abu Malik gave other examples such as “a bucket, a pot, or a pickaxe.” Muhammad ibn Ka’b said it is any “good deed.”[^78] Such a person who prays but cannot bring himself to do basic acts of kindness has a serious flaw in his faith. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The believer is friendly, for there is no goodness in one who is neither friendly nor befriended.”[^79] And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is deprived of kindness is deprived of goodness.”[^80] A praying person should be a kind person in everyday life, otherwise what value is the prayer of one who insists on cruelty? Like the tree of faith as the root, the prayer itself is the source and vanguard of many virtues. For this reason, the companions were very strict about maintaining the prayer both outwardly and inwardly. When Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه was the Caliph, he wrote to his deputies, saying, “Indeed, the most important of your affairs to me is the prayer. Whoever maintains it and watches over it will maintain his religion. Whoever is negligent of it will be even more negligent of other things.”[^81] Umar knew that if the prayer was respected by his deputies, as it was meant to be, their actions and decisions outside of the prayer would improve. And this is why one of the last things to be said by the Prophet ﷺ as he lay on his deathbed was, “The prayer, the prayer…”[^82] --- ## Charity and character Charity, or almsgiving, is the third pillar of Islam and it has a direct impact on our behavior towards others. There are two types of charity in Islam: obligatory annual almsgiving (*al-zakat*) subject to formal rules and calculations, and voluntary charity (*al-sadaqah*). The obligatory almsgiving is the bare legal minimum that wealthy Muslims owe to the poor and needy, but the spirit of charity in Islam extends beyond the basic obligations, as a charitable and generous disposition should animate all of our interactions with people. The Prophet ﷺ explained the means of calculating the obligatory almsgiving to Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه, who would become the fourth of the righteous Caliphs: > *If you have two hundred silver coins and a year has passed, then five coins are due for alms. You will owe nothing until you own twenty gold coins. If you own twenty gold coins and a year has passed, then half of a coin is due for alms. Whatever is extra should be calculated likewise.*[^83] From this tradition, scholars derived the amount of annual obligatory almsgiving to be a minimum of 2.5% of all surplus wealth (after all bills, expenses, and obligations have been paid) at a set time each year. The poor and needy obviously do not pay alms, but rather they receive it. The formal rules of almsgiving, such as who pays and receives it and how wealth is calculated, have been elaborated by scholars in the books of jurisprudence. The spirit of charity in Islam, however, is rooted in the values of generosity and compassion for other people and all living creatures, including animals. Every time we spend our time, effort, and money to benefit other people, doing so sincerely for the sake of Allah, it should purify our hearts from hypocrisy, greed, and miserliness. Allah said: > *Take charity from their wealth by which you cleanse them and purify them, and pray for them*.[^84] Al-Tabari interprets the phrase “to purify them” as meaning “to increase them and raise them above the lowly level of hypocrisy to the level of sincerity.”[^85] And according to al-Baydawi, to cleanse them means “of their sins or love of wealth” and to purify them means “to increase by it their good deeds and to raise them to the level of those who are sincere.”[^86] Thus, charity not only benefits the receiver, but it also purifies the heart of the giver from the characteristics of hypocrisy. In this regard, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Charity does not decrease wealth, no one forgives another but that Allah increases his honor, and no one humbles himself for the sake of Allah but that Allah raises his status.”[^87] These statements might seem counterintuitive from a worldly perspective but, from a religious perspective, they make perfect sense. Charity does not decrease the wealth of the spirit, because it generates purity of heart and good deeds on our records; it provides a greater return on investment in the Hereafter than whatever was given away. Likewise, forgiving a wrongdoer might seem meek and cowardly to people from a worldly perspective but in the Hereafter those who forgave their oppressors will be highly honored. Of course, sometimes people give charity in a very insincere manner, doing so to be seen as generous by others or to gain leverage over the vulnerable. Allah said: > *O you who have faith, do not annul your acts of charity by reminders or harm, as one who spends his wealth to be seen by people and does not have faith in Allah and the Last Day.*[^88] Charity given in this hypocritical manner is not charity in reality. Al-Tabari explains the verse, “It means they do not truly affirm the Oneness of Allah and His Lordship, nor that they will be resurrected after their death to account for their deeds, such that he should make his deeds for the sake of Allah and seek His reward and what is with Him in the hereafter. This is a characteristic of hypocrisy.”[^89] Just as the prayer of those who sin outside of prayer is defective, charity followed by offenses defeats the purpose of charity to begin with. There are, in fact, many ways to give in charity even by those who do not possess any monetary assets. Some of the companions came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, the rich have taken all the rewards. They pray as we pray, they fast as we fast, and they give charity from their extra wealth.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Has not Allah made for you ways to give charity? In every glorification of Allah is charity, in every declaration of His Greatness is charity, in every praise of Him is charity, in every declaration of His Oneness is charity, enjoining good is charity and forbidding evil is charity, and in a man’s intimate relations with his wife is charity.* They said, “O Messenger of Allah, is there a reward for one who satisfies his passions?” The Prophet ﷺ said: > *You see that if he were to satisfy his passions with the unlawful, it would be a burden of sin upon him? Likewise, if he were to satisfy himself with the lawful, he will have a reward.*[^90] A believer does not need to have a lot of money to be a charitable person, because every good recognized by reason and revelation to be good is an act of charity, even simply smiling at another or obeying the law by confining sexual relationships to a valid marriage. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Every good deed (*ma’ruf*) is charity. Verily, it is a good deed to meet your brother with a cheerful face, and to pour what is left from your bucket into the vessel of your brother.”[^91] The term *ma’ruf* used by the Prophet ﷺ here is significant, because it is derived from the root meaning “to recognize” and refers to “what is approved by reason and by law.”[^92] Namely, all good acts recognized by our God-given conscience and accepted by revelation as good are regarded as charity. Charity is not only limited to human beings either. Suraqa ibn Malik رضي الله عنه once asked the Prophet ﷺ about a lost camel who came to drink from his cisterns that he prepared for his own camels. Suraqa said, “Will I be rewarded if I give it some water to drink?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Yes, in every living being with a warm liver is a reward for charity.”[^93] On another occasion, the Prophet ﷺ said, “No Muslim plants a tree or sows seeds and then a bird, or a human, or an animal eats from it but that it is charity for him.”[^94] The Prophet ﷺ also told his companions the story of a man who was admitted into Paradise: > *A man suffered from thirst while he was walking on a journey. When he found a well, he climbed down into it and drank from it. Then he came out and saw a dog lolling its tongue from thirst and licking the ground. The man said, ‘This dog has suffered thirst just as I have suffered from it.’ He climbed down into the well, filled his shoe with water, and caught it in his mouth as he climbed up. Then he gave the dog a drink. Allah appreciated this deed, so he forgave him.* They said, “O Messenger of Allah, is there a reward for charity even for the animals?” The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Yes, in every creature with a moist liver is a reward for charity.*[^95] Note that the man said to himself, “This dog has suffered thirst just as I have suffered from it,” and proceeded to help the dog. He treated the dog the way he wanted to be treated, which shows that the ethics of reciprocity, mentioned earlier as an essential component of faith, also apply, to an extent, to animals. The question worthy of reflection is this: if Allah admitted a man into Paradise because of his charitable act to a dog, how much greater is it to give charity to human beings and especially the righteous? --- ## Fasting and character Fasting the month of Ramadan is the fourth pillar of Islam and this, like the others, includes a moral dimension in relation to others. A believer who is fasting not only avoids food, drink, and marital intimacy in the daylight hours, but he or she should also avoid harming others, backbiting others, disputing with others, and engaging in trivial worldly activities. Like the two types of charity in Islam, fasting in Islam is also divided into two types: the obligatory fasting during the month of Ramadan, and recommended fasting throughout the year, such as fasting every Monday and Thursday, the three middle days of each lunar month, and the days of ‘Arafah and Ashura. Allah said: > *O you who have faith, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may become righteous.*[^96] The purpose of fasting is clearly stated here as a means of developing mindfulness of Allah (*al-taqwa*) and its accompanying righteous qualities. According to Al-Suyuti, the goal of fasting is to avoid “sinful acts of disobedience to Allah, for it curbs the desires which precede them.”[^97] If a fasting person has enough self-discipline to control their natural urges to eat and drink, then they have greater control over their manners, words, passions, and anger. The concept of righteousness, as mentioned in the verse, means a healthy fear and mindfulness of Allah that motivates us to avoid sins. The early Muslims also elaborated the meaning of this righteousness as they understood it. Sufyan al-Thawri and Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad said, “The righteous one (*al-muttaqi*) loves for people what he loves for himself.”[^98] Again, the fasting person should practice the ethics of reciprocity and treat others the way they want to be treated. Al-Junayd ibn Muhammad, however, believed righteousness involved even more than simple reciprocity, “The righteous one is not he who loves for people what he loves for himself. Rather, the righteous one is he who loves for people even more than he loves for himself.”[^99] This is the Islamic concept of altruism (*al-ithar*), which is to prefer others over oneself. Al-Tha’labi offered up another definition he attributed to wise elders, “A man will not reach the peak of righteousness until it is such that, were he to place what is in his heart on a plate and go around the market with it, he would not be ashamed of anything on it.”[^100] The ideal of righteousness, then, and by implication the purpose of fasting, is learning to control our natural impulses, to treat others as we like to be treated, and to purify our hearts to such an extent that our conscience would feel nothing to be ashamed about if the content of our hearts were revealed to the world. The Prophet ﷺ was clear that fasting involves both outward and inward components, “Verily, fasting is not only from eating and drinking. Rather, fasting is from frivolity and obscenity. If someone insults you or acts foolish against you, then say: Indeed, I am fasting.”[^101] And Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه said, “Fasting is not merely from food and drink. Rather, it is from lies, falsehood, vain talk, and swearing.”[^102] Not only is the fasting outward by reining in our natural impulses, it is also the fasting of the tongue from abusive and frivolous speech, and the fasting of the heart and mind from malicious thinking. Recall that bad words corrupt the heart so our tongues must fast as well. As such, Muslims are counseled to be extra cautious in avoiding arguments and pettiness during the fast. Just as with other acts of worship, sincerity in the fast is a requirement and hypocrisy spoils the fast just as it spoils prayer and charity. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever does not leave evil words and deeds while fasting, then Allah does not need him to leave food and drink.”[^103] And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “A person might fast but get nothing from his fast except hunger. A person might pray at night but get nothing from his prayer except sleeplessness.”[^104] Such people fast only in an outward sense, but fail to fast in an inward sense. The only thing they get from it is hunger and thirst, unfortunately for them. Additionally, a fasting person should carry themselves with calm and composure, not with bombast and extravagance. Jabir رضي الله عنه said: > *When you fast, let your hearing, seeing, and tongue fast as well from falsehood and sins and avoid harming your servants. Rather, you must have dignity and tranquility on the day of your fasting. Do not make your non-fasting days the same as your fasting days.*[^105] Our behavior on the days that we fast, whether during Ramadan or as a voluntary act, should not be the same as the days we do not fast. Of course we cannot keep up the ideal of fasting every day of our lives, just as we cannot sprint through life. In the same way prayer affects behavior outside of prayer, days on which we fast are times when we should be extra careful to control our behavior, with the aim of improving our behavior on non-fasting days. Though abstention is the foundation of fasting, it is also encouraged during the month of Ramadan to proactively increase our acts of charity. Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما  said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most generous of people and he was even more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel would meet him. He would meet him every night of Ramadan to study the Qur’an. Thus, the Prophet would be more generous than a swift wind.”[^106] There is even a small amount of obligatory alms that Muslims must donate at the end of Ramadan, if they have the means. Ibn Umar رضي الله عنهما said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ made it an obligation upon people to pay charity at the end of Ramadan (*zakat al-fitr*), a portion of dates or barley upon every freeman and servant, every male and female among the Muslims.”[^107] Lastly, there is a final top level of fasting that expresses the very heart of Islamic spirituality and mindfulness. The classical scholar Al-Ghazali writes: > *Know that there are three degrees of fasting: the fasting of common people, the fasting of the spiritual elite, and the fasting of the elite of the spiritual elite. As for the fasting of the common people, it is restraining the stomach from fulfilling its desires as has been mentioned. As for the fasting of the elite, it is restraining one’s hearing, sight, tongue, hands, feet, and all limbs from sin. As for the fasting of the elite of the elite, it is the fasting of the heart from unworthy concerns and worldly thoughts and to restrain it entirely from everything besides Allah Almighty.*[^108] Peak fasting is to abstain from food and drink, from all types of sins, and to abstain from unnecessary worldly thoughts, in a perfect state of remembrance and meditation upon Allah. To this end, the Prophet ﷺ would perform a spiritual retreat (*al-i’tikaf*) in the mosque at the end of the month to remember Allah and recite the Qur’an, not leaving its walls unless absolutely necessary, as reported by Ibn Umar رضي الله عنهما, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺwould seek seclusion in the mosque during the last ten nights of Ramadan.”[^109] In this serene state of heart and mind, which requires much effort to sustain, the believers cultivate their presence with Allah, their relationship to His Book, and the purity of heart that brings mercy to those on earth. --- ## Hajj pilgrimage and character The Hajj pilgrimage to the city of Mecca is the fifth pillar of Islam and,  as with the other pillars, cannot be separated from its moral purpose. Like charity and fasting, there are two types of pilgrimage: the greater pilgrimage (*al-Hajj*) which occurs once every year during the month of Dhul-Hijjah, and the lesser pilgrimage (*al-’Umrah*) which can be performed at any time. Allah said: > *Hajj pilgrimage is in the well-known months, so whoever has prepared himself for Hajj, he should not not engage in intimate relations, sin, and disputing in the Hajj. What good you have done, Allah knows it. Bring your provisions, but the best provision is righteousness, O you of understanding!*[^110] The believers are informed that pilgrims must come to Mecca with mindfulness of Allah (*al-taqwa*) and its accompanying qualities, this purpose being the same as fasting in Ramadan. Thus, it requires all the moral behaviors previously mentioned as implied by the term. The Hajj pilgrimage is an incredibly difficult act of worship to fulfill, even in our times with modern conveniences like air travel, air-conditioned hotels, and supermarkets. In early generations, pilgrims went through even greater hardship to make the journey to Mecca and perform its rites. Naturally, the reward from Allah for completing the Hajj is tremendous, although there is a caveat. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever performs the Hajj pilgrimage to this house without having intimate relations or committing sin, will return \[sinless\] like the day his mother gave birth to him.”[^111] A believer who completes the Hajj will have all of the sins in their record expiated (except for major sins that require specific repentance like murder, theft, etc.), but only on the condition that they do not commit flagrant sins (*fisq*). The imagery surrounding the pilgrimage provides a concrete metaphor for the equality of humanity in Islam. Men must wear only two simple sheets of white clothing, with no marking, writings, or designs (women are not required to wear a specific type of dress as long as it fulfills the requirements of religiously mandated modesty). Pilgrims who dress themselves in these garments enter into a state of sanctity (*ihram*) in which they are not allowed to hunt or harm any living thing, enjoy marital intimacy, or wear fragrances. The unity of humankind is on full display, as everyone from kings and princes to workers and servants appear the same in an endless sea of white. The meaning of this symbolism was explained by the Prophet ﷺ in his farewell sermon, the last time he performed the pilgrimage: > *O people, your Lord is One and your father Adam is one. There is no virtue of an Arab over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, and neither white over black nor black over white, except by righteousness. Have I not delivered the message?* They said, “Of course, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Let those present inform those who are absent.*[^112] The Hajj is a pronounced indictment against all the racist and supremacist ideologies that have caused so much strife and violence in the world throughout history. Racism and violence are the inevitable products of one another, which is why the Prophet ﷺ was clear to reject them in his farewell sermon, “Do not return to unbelief after me by striking the necks of one another.”[^113] The act of murder is a crime so heinous that it has been described as a type of unbelief, the lesser unbelief (*al-kufr al-asghar*) which is a serious violation of faith but does not completely eject a Muslim from the fold of Islam. The power of the Hajj to contribute to racial healing is most vivid in the life of American civil rights activist Malcolm X. Malcolm’s early activism against racist policies and practices in the United States were influenced by the Nation of Islam (NOI), a heterodox Muslim group that preached an anti-white theology. His tragic childhood and early adult experiences made him susceptible to the NOI’s message and their combative approach, but something changed in Malcolm after his pilgrimage to Mecca. Malcolm wrote a letter to his associates in Harlem about what he had experienced during the Hajj: > *Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this Ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors…* > > *America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered ‘white’—but the ‘white’ attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.*[^114] It was a transformative spiritual experience for him, as reflected in the new Muslim name he adopted: El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He would leave the NOI, denounce racism, and become more open to the possibilities of racial integration. Sadly, his change of heart set in motion the harrowing events that led up to his assassination in 1965. Nonetheless, his enduring legacy continues to be relevant to all who struggle against racism today. While the Hajj has broad implications for the positive reformation of human social relationships, it is still in its essence a personal act of worship between an individual and the Creator, with the power to transform individuals by cleansing their hearts of arrogance. The color white worn by the pilgrims is symbolic of the purity of heart they ought to cultivate while performing their rites. The Prophet ﷺ once prayed the funeral prayer for a man, saying, “O Allah, cleanse him from sins just as the white garment is cleansed from dirt.”[^115] The clothing of *ihram* is a material reminder to the pilgrim of their spiritual goal in performing their rites. Unfortunately, Muslims do not always live up to the ideals of the pilgrimage due to lack of knowledge. In particular, there is often misbehavior related to one of the pilgrimage’s lesser rites, kissing the black stone at the Ka’bah. Pilgrims are encouraged to kiss the stone not as if it were a good luck charm but rather to emulate the practice of the Prophet ﷺ. ‘Abis ibn Rabi’ah saw Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه go to the black stone and he kissed it, then Umar said, “Verily, I know you are only a stone with no power to harm or benefit me. Were it not that I saw the Prophet ﷺ kiss you, I would not have kissed you.”[^116] However, this is only a supererogatory rite and not an obligation, according to Al-Nawawi, “It is recommended to kiss the black stone during circumambulation after touching it.”[^117] Despite its status as only recommended, uninformed pilgrims often push and shove their way through the crowds to kiss or touch the stone, harming other pilgrims in the process. There is a consensus among Muslim scholars that harming anyone to touch the black stone is forbidden.[^118] Nevertheless, some pilgrims violate an obligation of the pilgrimage (not harming other pilgrims) at the expense of a recommendation. If they had learned how this rite should be practiced, they would know that it is sufficient to supplicate upon seeing the stone, as the Prophet ﷺ would sometimes circumambulate the Ka’bah and when he reached the corner with the black stone, he would declare, “Allah is the Greatest.”[^119] Then they would be rewarded for the intention to touch it even without having touched it. The stone itself is a symbol of the darkness that exists in the hearts of people, a concrete reminder of our ego’s capacity to commit evil. According to the Prophet ﷺ, “The black stone descended from Paradise and it was whiter than milk, but it became black due to the sins of the children of Adam.”[^120] Hence, it is a visible, concrete reminder of humankind’s capacity to sin and our need to atone for the wrongs we have done. The Hajj pilgrimage culminates in the standing at ‘Arafat. The pilgrims gather in the plain around Mount ‘Arafat and spend their day offering prayers, supplications, and renewed repentance, seeking the mercy of Allah and asking for His forgiveness. This ritual is called “the standing at ‘Arafat” (*al-wuquf bi-’Arafat*). The large gathering of pilgrims standing and petitioning Allah together simulates what the Prophet ﷺ said will occur at the time of Judgment in the Hereafter, “People will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection upon a white plain with a slightly reddish color, as if it were a white loaf of bread without a mark from anything.”[^121] The purpose of the ritual at ‘Arafat, then, is to reflect upon our accountability in the life to come, to solicit the forgiveness of Allah for everything bad we have done, and to pledge to do better moving forward. This introspection is the essence of the pilgrimage, so much so that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Hajj is ‘Arafat,”[^122] meaning its most important ritual. How can an informed pilgrim perform all the rituals of Hajj, knowing the rich meaning of its imagery, and not return home as a person changed for the better? The Hajj ultimately brings together many facets of Islam—prayer, charity, purity of heart, remembering the prophets, unity in faith and humanity—into the spiritual experience of a lifetime. Many Muslims save up their modest earnings and undertake the difficult journey for the sake of their Lord, and when they see the Ka’bah in Mecca for the first time in their lives, you find them “falling down in prostration and glorifying the praises of their Lord, and they are not arrogant.”[^123] --- ## Conclusion Faith in Islam is a comprehensive way of life, consisting of outward and inward dimensions, ritual and creed, spirituality and morality. It cannot properly be reduced to outward rituals without any practical moral implications in daily life. No one among the Muslims can be perfect in all spheres of Islamic teachings. Some of us excel in some branches of faith while we are deficient in others. But it is important to note that the deficiencies and imperfections of individual Muslims reflect our own weaknesses, our ignorance, and our shortcomings, not a flaw in the ideal of faith as it is presented in the Qur’an and Sunnah. The five pillars of Islam are all concrete, tangible markers of faith not only as it appears on the outside, but perhaps more importantly how it manifests on the inside, how it purifies our hearts and refines our characters in a way that benefits the lives of all those around us. Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali, the late Egyptian Muslim scholar, wrote at the end of his chapter on the pillars of Islam: > *Thus, the prayer, fasting, charity, the Hajj pilgrimage, and whatever is similar to these acts of obedience (to Allah) among the teachings of Islam, they are steps on the desired path towards moral perfection and supporters of purification (of the heart), which preserve life and elevate its affairs. Because of these noble qualities, which are connected to them or proceed from them, they have been given a grand status in the religion of Allah. If a person does not make use of their ability to purify their heart, empty their inner-being (of evil), and set right their relationships with Allah and people, then they have failed.*[^124] This quote is a concise summary of everything this article has tried to convey. The rituals of faith cannot be separated from the essence of faith, the positive effects it is meant to have on our hearts and character. A good Muslim must necessarily by definition be a good person; anything less is the fault of our own human weaknesses and not the revealed religion. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* ## Notes [\[1\]](#ftnt_ref1) Muslim Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:1980 #2553, *kitab al-Birr wal-Sillah wal-Adab bab tafsir al-birr wal-ithm.* [\[2\]](#ftnt_ref2) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 1:10, *kitab al-Iman qawl al-Nabi ﷺbuniya al-Islam ‘ala khams.* [\[3\]](#ftnt_ref3) Sūrat Ghāfir 40:27. [\[4\]](#ftnt_ref4) Daniel Peris, *Storming the heavens: the Soviet League of the Militant Godless* (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press 1998), 6. [\[5\]](#ftnt_ref5) Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:8-10. [\[6\]](#ftnt_ref6) Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:204-206. [\[7\]](#ftnt_ref7) Ibn Taymīyah, *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà* (al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah: Majmaʻ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʻat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 7:638; see also Ibn, Taymīyah, Salman H. Ani, and Shadia Tel, *Kitab al-Iman: Book of Faith* (Bloomington, Ind: Iman Pub. House, 2010). [\[8\]](#ftnt_ref8) Sūrat Ṣād 38:74. [\[9\]](#ftnt_ref9) Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī), 1:23 #61, *iftitah al-Kitab bab fi al-Iman*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[10\]](#ftnt_ref10) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:16 #34, *kitab al-Iman bab ayah al-munafiq*. [\[11\]](#ftnt_ref11) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:36 #8, *kitab al-Iman bab ma’rifat al-Iman wa al-Islam, wa al-Qadr*. [\[12\]](#ftnt_ref12) al-Nasā’ī, *Sunan al-Nasā’ī* (Ḥalab: Maktab al-Maṭbūʻāt al-Islāmīyah, 1986), 8:104 #4995; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[13\]](#ftnt_ref13) Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 11:366 #6753; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [\[14\]](#ftnt_ref14) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:11 #6018, *kitab al-Adab bab man kana yu’minu bi-Allah.* [\[15\]](#ftnt_ref15) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:11 #6019. [\[16\]](#ftnt_ref16) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:32 #6138. [\[17\]](#ftnt_ref17) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:136 #2475, *kitab al-Mathalim wal-Ghadab bab al-nuhba bi ghayr idhni sahibihi.* [\[18\]](#ftnt_ref18) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:164 #6809, *kitab al-Hudud bab ithmi al-zina’.* [\[19\]](#ftnt_ref19) Roohi Tahir, “Repentance, Redemption, & Salvation: An Islamic Framework,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. February 5 2018. [yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework/) [\[20\]](#ftnt_ref20) al-Ḥākim, *Al-Mustadrak ʻalá al-Ṣaḥīḥayn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1990) 1:45 #5; declared reliable (*thiqāt*) by Al-Dhahabī in the commentary. [\[21\]](#ftnt_ref21) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 1:154 #55. [\[22\]](#ftnt_ref22) Sūrat al-Shams 91:9-10. [\[23\]](#ftnt_ref23) Another term used by classical scholars is *tasawwuf*, from which we get the English term Sufism. Although this term was used appropriately in the past, it has become controversial in modern times due to the behavior of some Sufi groups. Instead of using this term, many scholars prefer to designate the field of classical *tasawwuf* as ‘purification of the soul.’ [\[24\]](#ftnt_ref24) Sūrat al-Shu’arā’ 26:89. [\[25\]](#ftnt_ref25) Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 20:343 #13047; declared fair (ḥasan) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 2:680 #2554. [\[26\]](#ftnt_ref26) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:12 #13, *kitab al-Iman bab min al-Iman an yuhibba li akhihi ma yuhibbu li nafsi.* [\[27\]](#ftnt_ref27) Justin Parrott (2017), “Al-Ghazali and the Golden Rule: Ethics of Reciprocity in the Works of a Muslim Sage,” Journal of Religious & Theological Information, 16:2, 68-78, [DOI: 10.1080/10477845.2017.1281067](https://doi.org/10.1080/10477845.2017.1281067) See also: [yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/al-ghazali-and-the-golden-rule-ethics-of-reciprocity-in-the-works-of-a-muslim-sage/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/al-ghazali-and-the-golden-rule-ethics-of-reciprocity-in-the-works-of-a-muslim-sage/) [\[28\]](#ftnt_ref28) Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar Haythamī, *Al-Fatḥ al-Mubīn bi-Sharḥ al-Arba’īn* (Jiddah: Dār alMinhāj, 2008), 305 #13. [\[29\]](#ftnt_ref29) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1472 #1844, *kitab al-Imarah bab al-amr bi al-wafa’ bi bay’ah al-khulafa’.* [\[30\]](#ftnt_ref30) Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1414 #4229, *kitab al-Zuhd bab al-wara’ wa al-taqwa*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[31\]](#ftnt_ref31) Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 14:513 #8952; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [\[32\]](#ftnt_ref32) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1923 #2474, *kitab Fada’il al-Sahabah bab min fada’il Abi Dharr*. [\[33\]](#ftnt_ref33) Al-Kharā’iṭī, *Makārim al-Akhlāq* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Āfāq al-ʻArabīyah, 1999), 1:34 #34. [\[34\]](#ftnt_ref34) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij al-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Īyāka Na’budu wa Īyāka Nasta’īn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 2:294. [\[35\]](#ftnt_ref35) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:189 #3559. [\[36\]](#ftnt_ref36) Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 16:94 #10066; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [\[37\]](#ftnt_ref37) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 2:457 #1162, *kitab al-Rida bab ma ja’a fi haqq al-mar’ah ‘ala zawjiha*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[38\]](#ftnt_ref38) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:305 #2612, *kitab al-Iman bab ma ja’a fi istikmal al-iman*; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[39\]](#ftnt_ref39) al-Māwardī, *Adab al-Dunyā wal-Dīn* (Bayrūt: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāh, 1986), 1:17. [\[40\]](#ftnt_ref40) See forthcoming Yaqeen article by Dr. Jonathan A. C. Brown on this topic. [\[41\]](#ftnt_ref41) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:430 #2002, *kitab al-Birr wa Sillah bab ma ja’a fi husn al-khuluq*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[42\]](#ftnt_ref42) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:431 #2004, *kitab al-Birr wa Sillah bab ma ja’a fi husn al-khuluq*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[43\]](#ftnt_ref43) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:244 #2509, *kitab Sifat al-Qiyamah wal-Raqa’iq wal-Wara’ bab minhu*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[44\]](#ftnt_ref44) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:245 #2510; declared good (*jayyid*) by Al-Haythamī in *Majma’ al-Zawā’id wa Manba’ al-Fawā’id* (al-Qāhirah: Maktabat al-Qudsī, 1933), 8:30 #12732. [\[45\]](#ftnt_ref45) Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:252 #4798; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[46\]](#ftnt_ref46) al-Bukhārī, *Kitāb al-Adab al-Mufrad* (al-Rīyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 1998), 1:63 #66, bab la yu’dhi al-jarr; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[47\]](#ftnt_ref47) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1997 #2581. [\[48\]](#ftnt_ref48) Ibn al-Jawzī, *Baḥr al-Dumū’* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Fajr lil-Turāth, 2004), 1:133. [\[49\]](#ftnt_ref49) Sūrat Ibrāhīm 14:24-25. [\[50\]](#ftnt_ref50) al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi’ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 16:567 #20658 verse 14:24. [\[51\]](#ftnt_ref51) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* 1:11 #9, *kitab al-Iman bab umur al-iman.* [\[52\]](#ftnt_ref52) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:443 #2027; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[53\]](#ftnt_ref53) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 1:83-84. [\[54\]](#ftnt_ref54) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 3:195. [\[55\]](#ftnt_ref55) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 10:246. [\[56\]](#ftnt_ref56) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 10:321. [\[57\]](#ftnt_ref57) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 11:109. [\[58\]](#ftnt_ref58) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 10:353. [\[59\]](#ftnt_ref59) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 12:84. [\[60\]](#ftnt_ref60) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 12:176. [\[61\]](#ftnt_ref61) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 13:282. [\[62\]](#ftnt_ref62) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 6:440. [\[63\]](#ftnt_ref63) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 13:429. [\[64\]](#ftnt_ref64) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 12:471. [\[65\]](#ftnt_ref65) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 13:459. [\[66\]](#ftnt_ref66) Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, *Jāmi’ Bayān al-’Ilm wa Faḍlih* (al-Dammām: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1994), 1:545 #906. [\[67\]](#ftnt_ref67) Sūrat al-Fātiḥah 1:7. [\[68\]](#ftnt_ref68) Sūrat al-’Ankabūt 29:45. [\[69\]](#ftnt_ref69) al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi’ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl āy al-Qur’ān*, 20:41 verse 29:45. [\[70\]](#ftnt_ref70) Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qurān al-‘Aẓīm* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 6:254 verse 29:45. [\[71\]](#ftnt_ref71) Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 15:483 #9776; declared authentic (ṣaḥīḥ) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [\[72\]](#ftnt_ref72) Sūrat al-Dhāriyāt 51:50. [\[73\]](#ftnt_ref73) al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʼan* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Kutūb al-Miṣrīyah, 1964), 17:53 verse 51:50. [\[74\]](#ftnt_ref74) al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʼan*, 17:54 verse 51:50. [\[75\]](#ftnt_ref75) Sūrat al-Sajdah 32:16. [\[76\]](#ftnt_ref76) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 13:429 #10579.; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr wa Ziyādatihi* (\[Dimashq\]: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 2:986 #5645. [\[77\]](#ftnt_ref77) Sūrat al-Mā’ūn 107:4-7. [\[78\]](#ftnt_ref78) al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi’ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl āy al-Qur’ān*, 24:641 verse 107:7. [\[79\]](#ftnt_ref79) Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 37:492 #22840; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [\[80\]](#ftnt_ref80) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2003 #2592, *kitab al-Birr wa Silah bab fadl al-rifq.* [\[81\]](#ftnt_ref81) Mālik ibn Anas and Abū Muṣ’ab al-Zuhri, *Muwaṭṭa’ al-Imām Mālik* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993) 1:6 #6. [\[82\]](#ftnt_ref82) Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:339 #5156; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[83\]](#ftnt_ref83) Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 2:100 #1573; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[84\]](#ftnt_ref84) Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:103. [\[85\]](#ftnt_ref85) al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi’ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl āy al-Qur’ān*, 14:454 verse 9:103. [\[86\]](#ftnt_ref86) al-Baydạ̄wī, *Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Ta’wīl al-Ma’rūf bi Tafsīr al-Baydạ̄wī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ihỵāʼ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1998), 3:96 verse 9:103. [\[87\]](#ftnt_ref87) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2001 #2588, *kitab al-Birr wa Silah bab istihbab al-’afw wa tawadu’*. [\[88\]](#ftnt_ref88) Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:264. [\[89\]](#ftnt_ref89) al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi’ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl āy al-Qur’ān*, 5:522 verse 2:264. [\[90\]](#ftnt_ref90) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:697 #1006, *kitab al-Zakat bab bayan an ism al-sadaqah yaqa’a ‘ala kulli naw’in min al-ma’ruf.* [\[91\]](#ftnt_ref91) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:414 #1970, *kitab al-Birr wal-Silah bab ma ja’a fi talaqat al-wajh wa husn al-bishr*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[92\]](#ftnt_ref92) Murtaḍá al-Zabīdī, *Tāj al-’Arūs min Jawāhir al-Qāmūs* (\[Lebanon?\]: Dār al-Hidāyah lil-Ṭibā’ah wal-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 1965), 24:135. [\[93\]](#ftnt_ref93) Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1215 #3686, *kitab al-Adab bab fadl sadaqah al-ma’*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[94\]](#ftnt_ref94) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:103 #2320, *kitab al-Muzara’ah bab fadl al-zar’ wal-ghars idha ukila minhu.* [\[95\]](#ftnt_ref95) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:9 #6009, *kitab al-Adab bab rahmat al-nas wal-baha’im.* [\[96\]](#ftnt_ref96) Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:183. [\[97\]](#ftnt_ref97) al-Suyūṭī and al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2001), 1:37 verse 2:183. [\[98\]](#ftnt_ref98) al-Thaʻlabī, *Al-Kashf wal-Bayān ʻan Tafsīr al-Qurʼān* (Bayrut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 2002), 1:143-144. [\[99\]](#ftnt_ref99) Ibid. [\[100\]](#ftnt_ref100) Ibid. [\[101\]](#ftnt_ref101) Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993), 8:255 #3479, *kitab al-Sawm bab adab al-sawm*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[102\]](#ftnt_ref102) Ibn Abī Shaybah, *Al-Muṣannaf* (al-Riyādh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2004), 2:272 #8882, *kitab al-Siyam bab yu’maru bihi al-sa’im min qillah al-kalam.* [\[103\]](#ftnt_ref103) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:26 #1903, *kitab al-Sawm bab man lan yada’ qawl al-zur.* [\[104\]](#ftnt_ref104) Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 1:539 #1690; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[105\]](#ftnt_ref105) Ibn Abī Shaybah, *Al-Muṣannaf*, 2:271 #8880, *kitab al-Siyam bab yu’maru bihi al-sa’im min qillah al-kalam.* [\[106\]](#ftnt_ref106) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:8 #6, *badi al-Wahy kayfa kana badu al-wahy ila Rasul Allah sall Allahu alayhi wa salaam.* [\[107\]](#ftnt_ref107) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:130 #1504, *kitab al-Zakat bab sadaqah ‘ala al-’abd wa gharyihi min al-Muslimin.* [\[108\]](#ftnt_ref108) al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ’Ulūm al-Dīn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 1:234. [\[109\]](#ftnt_ref109) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:47 #2025, *kitab al-I’tikaf bab al-i’tikaf fi al-’ashr al-awakhir.* [\[110\]](#ftnt_ref110) Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:197. [\[111\]](#ftnt_ref111) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 3:11 #1819, *kitab al-Muhsar bab qawl Allah ta’ala fa la rafatha.* [\[112\]](#ftnt_ref112) al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 7:132 #4774; declared authentic due to external evidence (*ṣaḥīḥ li ghayrihi*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 3:135 #2964. [\[113\]](#ftnt_ref113) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:35 #121, *kitab al-’Ilm bab al-insat al-’ulama’*. [\[114\]](#ftnt_ref114) Malcolm X and Alex Haley, *The Autobiography of Malcolm X: With the Assistance of Alex Haley* (New York: Ballantine Books, 1973), 370-371. [\[115\]](#ftnt_ref115) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:662 #963, *kitab al-Jana’iz bab al-dua’ al-mayyit fi al-salah*. [\[116\]](#ftnt_ref116) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:149 #1597, *kitab al-Hajj bab ma dhakara fi al-hajr al-aswad.* [\[117\]](#ftnt_ref117) Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1972), 9:16 #1270. [\[118\]](#ftnt_ref118) Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shu’ūn al-Islāmīyah, *Al-Mawsū’at al-Fiqhīyah al-Kuwaytīyah* (al-Kuwayt: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shu’ūn al-Islāmīyah, 1992), 2:356. [\[119\]](#ftnt_ref119) al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:155 #1632, *kitab al-Hajj bab al-marid yatuf rakiba.* [\[120\]](#ftnt_ref120) al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 2:218 #877, *kitab al-Hajj bab ma ja’a fi fadl al-aswad wal-rukn wal-maqam*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [\[121\]](#ftnt_ref121) Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2150 #2790, *kitab siffat al-Qiyamah wal Jannah wal Nar bab fi al-ba’th wal-nushur.* [\[122\]](#ftnt_ref122) al-Nasā’ī, *Sunan al-Nasā’i*, 5:256 #3016, *kitab Manasik al-Hajj bab fard al-wuquf bi-’Arafah*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [\[123\]](#ftnt_ref123) Sūrat al-Sajdah 32:15. [\[124\]](#ftnt_ref124) Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī, *Khuluq al-Muslim* (al-Qāhirah : Dār al-Riyān lil-Turāth, 1987), 9. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. It is a grave error to imagine that a person can be a “good Muslim” while remaining a “bad person,” for faith (al-iman) in Islam is not confined to creed and ritual alone but embraces character, moral virtue, and spiritual refinement. Worship and character are two sides of a single coin. Though it is true in a limited sense that every human being possesses an innate conscience (al-fitrah) that recognizes moral truths such as love, justice, and compassion, this alone is a precarious foundation for morality. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Righteousness is good character, and sin is what disturbs your heart and you hate for people to find out about it,” and Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said that true taqwa is not achieved until one abandons what disturbs the heart. Yet without belief in a Lord who judges and a divine law that guides, moral prescriptions become mere preferences to be discarded when inconvenient. Musa (peace be upon him) sought refuge from every arrogant one who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning, for tyrants like Pharaoh, who denied accountability before God, inevitably became the worst of oppressors. Some object that religious people also commit atrocities, and this is indeed true. But Islam does not sanction such conduct; rather, the abuse of religion is hypocrisy, which Allah condemns in His description of those who claim faith yet harbor disease in their hearts (al-Baqarah), and of the man whose speech impresses yet who strives to spread corruption in the land. Such hypocrisy stands in sharp contrast to authentic faith as described by Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Faith itself, beginning with the testimony (al-shahada), unites creed (al-aqidah), ritual (al-ibadah), and moral disposition. Ibn Taymiyyah explained that faith is affirmation encompassing both the belief of the heart and its compliance—for even Satan believed in the Creator, yet was arrogant and became one of the unfaithful. The companions, as Jundub ibn Abdullah related, learned faith before the Qur’an, and it strengthened their faith. Faith may be corrupted by hypocrisy (al-nifaq): major hypocrisy, which is tantamount to disbelief, and lesser hypocrisy, in which a believer manifests sinful conduct contrary to faith. The Prophet ﷺ named four signs of the pure hypocrite: lying in speech, treachery in covenants, breaking promises, and wickedness in disputes. When Angel Gabriel questioned him, the Prophet ﷺ defined Islam by its five pillars and faith by its six articles, yet he also stressed its moral dimension: “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe.” He tied faith to honoring neighbors and guests, speaking well or remaining silent, and upholding family ties. Faith fluctuates according to our deeds. The Prophet ﷺ taught that the adulterer, the thief, the wine-drinker, and the plunderer are not believers while committing such acts, and Ibn Abbas illustrated how faith departs and returns through repentance by clasping and separating his fingers. Hence the believer must continually renew faith, for the Prophet ﷺ said faith wears out in the heart like a worn garment, and Umayr ibn Habib noted it increases with remembrance and decreases with heedlessness. Purification of the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs) is therefore essential, for none will be saved except one who comes to Allah with a pure heart. The Prophet ﷺ said the servant’s faith is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart until his tongue is upright, warning that one whose neighbor is not safe from his evil will not enter Paradise. Central to faith is the ethic of reciprocity: “None of you will have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” Ibn Hajar al-Haytami understood “brother” in the general sense, extending goodwill even to non-Muslims, and other narrations command loving for people what one loves for oneself. Thus the believer must possess good character (al-akhlaq) and good manners (al-adab), for the Prophet ﷺ said, “I have only been sent to perfect righteous character.” Al-Dahhak said the head of the matter is good character, and Ibn al-Qayyim declared the religion itself to be good character. The best of people are those of best character—especially, as the Prophet ﷺ added, when joined with understanding—and the noblest men are the kindest to their families, as Umar ibn al-Khattab located manhood in intellect and character. On the Scale, nothing is heavier than good character, and the Prophet ﷺ said that taqwa and good character admit most people into Paradise. He ranked reconciliation between people above voluntary worship, warned that hatred “shaves the religion,” and described the truly bankrupt one whose prayers and fasting are consumed by his offenses against others. Al-Bayhaqi devoted his Shu’ab al-Iman to the branches of faith, and Hasan al-Basri gave an eloquent portrait of the believer’s character. Each pillar reinforces this union of worship and morality. Prayer (al-salat), performed five times daily, reminds the believer of the Day of Judgment through the repeated recitation of al-Fatihah, and, as Allah states, “prayer prohibits immorality and evil.” Ibn Abbas warned that one whose prayer does not restrain him gains only distance from Allah, and Ibn Mas’ud said there is no prayer for one who does not obey it. Umar recognized that whoever guards the prayer guards his religion, and among the Prophet’s ﷺ final words was, “The prayer, the prayer.” Charity (al-zakat and al-sadaqah) purifies the giver’s heart. Allah commanded, “Take charity from their wealth by which you cleanse them and purify them,” which al-Tabari and al-Baydawi explained as raising one from hypocrisy to sincerity. The Prophet ﷺ said charity does not decrease wealth, and he taught that every good deed (ma’ruf) is charity—even a smile, watering a thirsty animal, or lawful marital relations. He related the man forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog, showing that mercy extends to all creatures with a moist liver. Fasting (al-sawm) develops taqwa, as Allah declared its purpose. Al-Suyuti explained it curbs sinful desire, and the Prophet ﷺ said fasting is from frivolity and obscenity, not merely food and drink, warning that one who does not abandon evil speech gains only hunger. Al-Ghazali described three degrees of fasting, culminating in the fasting of the heart from all but Allah. Finally, the Hajj embodies human equality and purity of heart. In his farewell sermon the Prophet ﷺ proclaimed no superiority except by righteousness and forbade returning to bloodshed. Its white garments symbolize the purity of heart sought, and the standing at ‘Arafat mirrors the gathering of Judgment—“The Hajj is ‘Arafat.” The transformation of Malcolm X after his pilgrimage illustrates its power to dissolve racism. In sum, the deficiencies of individual Muslims reflect their own weaknesses, not a flaw in the revealed ideal. As Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali observed, the pillars are steps toward moral perfection and purification of the heart; whoever fails to use them for this purpose has failed. A good Muslim must, by definition, be a good person. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-importance-of-conscious-parenting-in-raising-confident-muslims # The Importance of Conscious Parenting in Raising Confident Muslims **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Family & Community, Parenting **Tags:** Atheism, Confident Muslim, Paper, Publication **Published:** June 27, 2019 **Updated:** June 18, 2026 ## Introduction Is there a connection between parent behavior that contradicts their professed religious beliefs and the eventual outcome of atheism in their children? This question was the subject of a recent study conducted with over five thousand participants from diverse backgrounds, all of whom identified as atheists. All of the participants had some form of religious upbringing yet, at some point, chose to reject the faith they were raised with. The findings of the study, published in the journal *Religion, Brain, & Behavior*, became the impetus for this paper.[^1] The research suggests a correlation between parental behavior and the onset of atheism in their children. “People tend to become atheists at a younger age when their religious parents talk the talk but don’t walk the walk…The study provides evidence that exposure to religiously-motivated actions plays an important role in the onset of atheism.”[^2] This study focused solely on those who left their faith and the age at which they did so. While it does not include analysis and comparison of those who remained true to their faith, it does provide valuable insight into the crucial role and influence parents have on the religious beliefs of their children. --- ## Parenting objectives Leaving one’s religion is a grave matter for faith-based communities as a whole. This is certainly true for Muslims who believe that our purpose and salvation is centered on belief in and worship of the one true God. Naturally, we as parents are most concerned with providing for and nurturing our children. Typically, this necessitates a focus on their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing, along with their educational needs (both religious and secular). Parents hope to raise responsible, confident individuals who will reflect their upbringing and contribute to society in productive ways. While each of these parenting objectives is important in and of itself, it is the level of prioritization and care given to each one that is influenced greatly by our own surroundings and experiences—that of an increasingly secular and materialistic world imposing constant demands on our time and energy. Factors such as higher divorce rates, single parenting, and parents who do not share the same religious beliefs will further shape the approach to parenting. The amount of time spent out of the house, on social media, and on entertainment, in place of quality face-to-face family time, all have an impact on one’s parenting methods. In addition to these factors, the global decline of morality has perhaps the greatest overarching influence on parenting today. ### Implications for Muslim parents The Muslim community is not immune to these factors, and studies are showing that we face many of the same religious and social challenges as our counterparts across the globe. 23% of Muslims in America no longer identify with Islam, half of whom choose to not affiliate with any religion, joining the fastest growing global group today.[^3] Studies are showing that Muslims are experiencing an increasing faith crisis as is the case among other religious groups. Furthermore, among the foremost cited reasons that lead to doubt and abandonment of Islam is the behavior of Muslims themselves, in terms of personal conduct, misinterpretation, and misconstruing Islam.[^4] No doubt, parents are the first and primary influence in a child’s life. Hence, the greatest and most important provision of all to come from parents, that of instilling faith, may take a direction of its own—even in religious households. It is noteworthy that the same study also found that “…religious individuals who were exposed to high levels of CREDs \[*credibility-enhancing displays*\] by their parents were more likely to report believing in the existence of God with high certainty.”[^5] A practical example of a CRED is seen in parents who worship with the same commitment and regularity they teach and expect from their child. Additionally, CREDs are formed and reinforced through other religiously and morally driven actions and interactions of the parents, such as being consistently truthful, charitable, and just—at home, in the workplace, and in social settings. What is the solution? Simply put, Islamic principles and values are timeless, comprehensive, and holistic in regard to all of life’s experiences and challenges, including those that come with parenting. The findings of this study corroborate in many ways Islamic teachings in regard to the relationship between parents and the effective transmission of faith to their children. A number of arguments can be made in favor of the Islamic approach to parenting to safeguard against the unfavorable findings of this study. The first and most obvious one is the need for parents to actively nurture faith from birth. This is the essential first step on the path to raising the next generation of confident Muslims who will be equipped with sound knowledge, conviction in their belief and practice of Islam, and upright and empathetic character. It is this moral and religious foundation that will enable and motivate them to contribute to society in productive and meaningful ways. This paper serves as a primer to the topic of parenting in Islam by addressing its foremost aspect—that of the role of the behavior of parents in instilling faith in their children. --- ## The parent-child relationship is built upon faith at its core Islam assigns parents guardianship and primary responsibility for their children in terms of the child’s physical, emotional, *and* spiritual wellbeing. Parenting in Islam is part of one’s personal accountability and servitude to Allah through one’s virtuous conduct and service to His creation. This was taught and exemplified by the Prophet ﷺ who said that “…a man is a shepherd in charge of the inhabitants of his household and he is responsible for his flock; a woman is a shepherdess in charge of her husband's house and children and she is responsible for them…”[^6]  This obligation carries with it the noble charge of safeguarding the faith of one’s children and, in turn, that of future generations to come and society at large. Parenting is from the abundant provisions and blessings from Allah. As with every blessing, it is also part of the test of life in this world—one that demands sincere effort and gratitude at all times, for which there is, in turn, tremendous reward from Allah. The Qur’an states, “And know that your properties and your children are but a trial and that Allah has with Him a great reward.”[^7] Allah acknowledges the commitment and the sacrifice parents make in this selfless endeavor by honoring them with the highest regard, after Allah and the Prophet ﷺ. > *And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning \[period\] is thirty months. \[He grows\] until, when he reaches maturity and reaches \[the age of\] forty years, he says, ‘My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to work righteousness of which You will approve and make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed, I am of the Muslims.’*[^8] --- ## The foundation for sound parenting in the Qur’an and Sunnah The foundation for sound parenting is clearly established in the Qur’an and Sunnah. We are given instruction and lessons through the narratives of the noble prophets and believers, such as those of Ibrahim, Yaqub, and Luqman عليهم السلام. Detailed accounts are found in the biography (*seerah*) and methodology of the final Prophet, Muhammad ﷺ. They embody the importance of teaching the Oneness of Allah (*tawhid*), sincerity in all affairs concerning worship and worldly matters (*ikhlas*), good character (*akhlaq*), etiquette and the appropriate response in all situations (*adab*) within the Islamic framework of justice and compassion. These parenting goals are emphasized in sacred texts as part of the thorough and complete guide to humanity as to how to prioritize the needs of the child in order to ensure spiritual and physical well-being in this world as well as ultimate success in the Hereafter. As with every deliberate action we undertake, parenting requires sincere intention. This is demonstrated through supplications (*du’a*) for one’s offspring, even prior to conception, throughout life and for future generations to come. Of the beautiful examples of this in the Qur’an is the supplication of the mother of Maryam who sought protection in Allah from the evils of Shaytan for her unborn child and the future progeny to come.[^9] Explicit parenting advice is found in Surah Luqman in the form of Luqman’s words to his son: > *And We had certainly given Luqman wisdom \[and said\], ‘Be grateful to Allah.’ And whoever is grateful is grateful for \[the benefit of\] himself. And whoever denies \[His favor\]—then indeed, Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy.* > > *And \[mention, O Muhammad\], when Luqman said to his son while he was instructing him, ‘O my son, do not associate \[anything\] with Allah. Indeed, association \[with him\] is great injustice.’ And We have enjoined upon man \[care\] for his parents. His mother carried him, \[increasing her\] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the \[final\] destination. But if they endeavor to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them but accompany them in \[this\] world with appropriate kindness and follow the way of those who turn back to Me \[in repentance\]. Then to Me will be your return, and I will inform you about what you used to do. \[And Luqman said\], ‘O my son, indeed if wrong should be the weight of a mustard seed and should be within a rock or \[anywhere\] in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth. Indeed, Allah is Subtle and Acquainted. O my son, establish prayer, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and be patient over what befalls you. Indeed, \[all\] that is of the matters \[requiring\] determination. And do not turn your cheek \[in contempt\] toward people and do not walk through the earth exultantly. Indeed, Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful. And be moderate in your pace and lower your voice; indeed, the most disagreeable of sounds is the voice of donkeys.’*[^10] These verses of the Qur’an contain instruction, wisdom, and advice on servitude to and worship of Allah. They provide guidance as to how to interact with His creation with confidence, perseverance, and humility. Of their many benefits, they highlight the perfection and balanced, holistic nature of Islam. The Qur’an is not only the source of guidance to strengthen one’s own faith; it also teaches how to build a loving bond with one’s children and how to instill faith in them. It is this prescription that enables children to grow into exemplary Muslims, who in turn becomes a means of reward for their parents. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When a person dies, all action is cut off for him with the exception of three things: *sadaqa* \[charity\] which continues, knowledge which benefits, or a righteous child who makes supplication for him.”[^11] --- ## All humans are born on the fitrah The concept of the *fitrah* is mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah as the innate aspect of human nature each of us is born with. The *fitrah* is naturally inclined toward the worship of Allah and toward morality.[^12] When parents provide the ideal environment in which to strengthen and maintain the child’s natural disposition to believe in Allah and to live by the moral compass and guidance Islam provides, the *fitrah* will remain strong and protected from corruption, enabling the child to remain steadfast in faith and practice. Research in the area of childhood psychology has shown that children, from the earliest stages of development, exhibit an inclination toward good over evil, toward justice, kindness, and empathy for others. “Humans are predisposed by their *fitrah* to find purpose and prosperity in the world, so they cry for guidance and care, observe their surroundings, interpret their environment with causation and deduction, seek morally upright patterns of behaviour, and yearn for an existence worthy of God’s friendship…The *fitrah* is thus comprised of a conceptual apparatus with ethical, spiritual, and intellectual processing functions by which the external reality is rendered meaningful, and life’s journey towards God is appropriately conceived.”[^13] Another manifestation of the *fitrah* is described in the Qur’an as man’s natural instinct to call upon Allah in moments of helplessness and the dire need for divine intervention.[^14] --- ## What can go wrong? So what can go wrong to corrupt the *fitrah* and take the child away from the path of faith? One narration of the Prophet ﷺ speaks directly to the role of the parents. He ﷺ said, “No child is born except on Al-*Fitra* (Islam) and then his parents make him Jewish, Christian or Magian, as an animal produces a perfect young animal: do you see any part of its body amputated?"[^15] This *hadith* affirms two fundamental truths: firstly, that children are born with the inclination to recognize and worship Allah, after which secondly, they come under the influence of their parents who will either nurture that inclination or teach them to reject it. Hence, in Islam, parents shoulder the primary responsibility for providing their children the optimal means to strengthen and maintain their faith. Islam teaches us that the *fitrah* remains susceptible to constant attack from the Shaytan.[^16] He will attempt to lead us astray through every means available in the daily interactions we have with the world at large, including those people in close proximity to us who have the greatest capacity to influence our spirituality and faith—our own parents. > *The servants of God are inherently compelled by their* fitrah *to love God, though amongst them are those who corrupt this* fitrah*… and this love of God intensifies according to one’s knowledge of Him and the soundness of one’s* fitrah*. And it diminishes with diminished knowledge, and the pollution of one’s* fitrah *with corruptive vain desires.*[^17] --- ## Self-esteem and a confident Muslim identity ### The impact of Islamophobia and other factors The term *internalized Islamophobia* denotes the harmful impact of Islamophobia on Muslims—one that takes a firm grip within the individual, creating fear, doubt, and, eventually, distance from God and religion.[^18] This is just one factor today on the spectrum of prevalent root causes, both from outside and from within the home, that can have detrimental effects on one’s self-esteem and faith. Each of these factors, often traumatic, is deserving of its own discourse beyond that of this paper.[^19] However, parents play a crucial role in overcoming these challenges, given the impact on the child’s self-esteem and faith. It is paramount that parents create a strong foundation and proper understanding of Islam in regard to the child’s core beliefs (*aqeedah*). They must provide the correct contextualized lens through which to apply those beliefs in every aspect of daily life, as is the goal of every conscientious Muslim. Experiencing life through the lens of the Qur’an and the Sunnah both strengthens the Muslim identity as well as provides the appropriate response to every situation, be that situation one that supports or challenges the core identity. ### Inculcating love of Allah It is clearly not sufficient for parents to limit the teachings and practice of Islam to ritual acts of worship in specific times and places alone, as is unfortunately widespread today. Rather, it is the awareness of Allah, His Names and Attributes, and the desire to connect with Him out of love and servitude toward Him that must be at the forefront of what is taught and applied at all times to strengthen that identity. Additionally, self-esteem is further developed from the realization that Allah bestows the most noble status on His beloved servants.[^20] These concepts are further reinforced by parents through showing love, encouragement, and acknowledgment of the child—and, where possible, with the additional support of like-minded company. Of the core aims of Islam is to strengthen the individual both spiritually and practically by placing great emphasis on collective effort as exemplified by the prophetic model of family and community life. ### The Companions as role models Many of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ were either in the prime of their youth or children who grew up in his company. Their biographies provide abundant fruit from which to nourish young minds and to encourage them to emulate the praiseworthy character traits and conduct of these phenomenal role models who are among the best of humanity. While they exemplify faith in action, fortitude, and conviction, they were also among the foremost in their empathy and kindness. Given the self-serving, individualism-driven mindset of today, it is important to encourage these positive qualities in order to build a healthy level of self-esteem and confidence, while at the same time safeguarding against arrogance or bigotry toward others. --- ## Adverse effects on faith Going back to the atheism study, we can draw parallels between the finding that loss of faith in children is linked to parental practices and the following problematic scenarios that have implications for Muslim parents: **a. When one or both parents barely practice Islam (or do not practice it at all)** Marriage and family life are central to Islamic teachings and the preservation of faith at the individual and collective level. Hence, when one or both parents is not a practicing Muslim, it is bound to have an impact on the transmission of faith to the child. Two key approaches—one preventive and the other corrective—provide the solution to safeguard the child’s faith in this scenario. The first is that of spouse selection and the importance of choosing a practicing Muslim as one’s life partner, for whom Islam is both the spiritual as well as the practical lens for all aspects of daily life and worship. The second is to remember that it is never too late to begin that journey together as parents. Instilling and nurturing faith is a work in progress for parents and children alike. The Mercy of Allah is boundless—especially for those who sincerely seek His Path. **b. The absence of active involvement of both parents working cooperatively to instill faith** Islam recognizes the individual strengths, contributions, and the role of each parent, while emphasizing the importance of working together for mutual support and benefit. This is encouraged in every aspect of the marriage, in regard to the relationship between spouses and includes the relationship with one’s children and their upbringing. **c. The assumption that children will discover their own path to faith and a failure to set and establish boundaries when it comes to religious belief** [^21] This is clearly a false assumption given that the roles and responsibilities of parents defined in the Qur’an, and exemplified by the Prophet ﷺ as detailed above, involve actively instilling faith in their children. Parenting in Islam necessitates active involvement from birth to protect and strengthen the *fitrah* and to teach, by example, the correct understanding and practice of Islam, within its established boundaries. Additional pitfalls for Muslim parents, not directly mentioned in the study, but which can be derived from it include: **d. The assumption that Islamic schools, *masjid* programs and the like suffice as the *primary* source of Islamic education and religious upbringing (*tarbiya*)** This stems from thinking that these valuable resources are sufficient (without the reinforcement and active involvement of parents) to safeguard against the multi-faceted harmful effects of secularism, liberalism, atheism, and Islamophobia our children are heavily exposed to on a daily basis, via school, peer pressure, social media, and entertainment. **e. Prioritizing secular education over Islamic education** When secular education becomes the focal point, it sometimes replaces instilling faith and establishing a Muslim identity as the core upon which to build all knowledge and education, both religious and secular. --- ## Knowledge is an essential tool ### Parents as the primary sources of knowledge Seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim.[^22] Furthermore, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah makes the way to *Jannah* easy for he who treads the path in search of knowledge.”[^23] This statement contains profound wisdom for each of us—and particularly for parents who become the first and primary source of knowledge from the moment their children enter this world. Parents provide the initial surroundings through which their children filter and absorb the world during their formative years. This happens through both parent-child interaction,[^24] and through the child observing and imitating the behavior of their parents. ### Imitation is a powerful form of learning A study conducted at the University of Washington states, “Imitation is a powerful form of learning commonly used by children, adults, and infants. A child's enthusiasm for imitative behavior prompts parental attention and interaction and provides a mechanism for transmitting appropriate cultural and social behavior. Although simple imitative behavior is evident in the postnatal period, by around 14 months infants remember and repeat actions they observe in adults, other children, and on television. Imitation games provide early experience in mapping the similarities between self and other. Behavioral imitation, empathy, and moral sentiments may be part of the same developmental pathway.”[^25] Hence, children’s faith and practice will reflect their parents’ understanding of Islam and their parents’ behavior in accordance with those beliefs—be it correct, uninformed, or misunderstood. The level of conviction with which parents are able to communicate the religion will impact the conviction and confidence of their children. In line with the atheism study, it is no surprise that parents whose behavior matched their religious beliefs were more likely to have children who continued to profess those beliefs as adolescents. ### Parenting with ihsan and yaqeen Conveying Islam to one’s child with sincerity, excellence, and due diligence (*ihsan*) means raising the bar for oneself first, to the best of one’s ability. Hence, parents must be in constant search of sound knowledge to increase their own understanding and practice of Islam—in addition to acquiring secular knowledge and the necessary skills to practically navigate the world. Furthermore, one must address any questions, concerns, and doubts one may personally harbor in order to first build conviction (*yaqeen*) in oneself. This will, in turn, become a source of strength and inspiration to the child, as well as the means to tackle future challenges with confidence and clarity to help further build the child’s faith and conviction. ### Faith, Islam, and imaan It logically follows that parents must themselves have a correct understanding of the core beliefs of Islam (*aqeedah*) as a foundation on which to build and instill faith in their children. With regard to the word *faith*, there is a theological distinction between the two Arabic words often synonymous with the English word *faith*—*Islam* and *imaan*.[^26] The former is used in a general sense to denote the religion itself. The latter denotes a far more complex definition of faith which emanates with sincerity from the heart and influences one’s speech and actions. *Imaan* is present in varying levels of strength at any given moment, such that it is entirely possible to claim and even practice Islam outwardly with little to no conviction in one’s heart. Rituals such as prayer, charity, and fasting, along with morally upright actions are manifestations of *imaan* when accompanied by sincerity, as are virtuous character traits such as honesty and modesty.[^27] ### Cultural bias and societal norms In addition to making an effort to learn and practice authentic Islam, it is just as important for parents to be aware of any cultural biases that may have shaped their understanding of Islam. These can be passed down automatically, generation to generation, often resulting in a skewed lens on one’s religious beliefs and practice. It is important to note that Islam gives ample allowance for cultural norms and context. An example of this is the vast spectrum of permissible food and clothing, unique to each culture, from which to choose to eat and wear. The biases referred to here are those which exceed the limits of the religion, falling into misinterpretation and incorrect belief and practice. Additional factors that necessitate a conscientious effort to acquire sound knowledge are the rise of secularism, the call to a more progressive and reformed Islam for modern times, and the many perceived conflicts and misconceptions that have arisen as a result. All of these factors are challenging to navigate successfully without knowledge of both the correct framework of Islam, as well as an understanding of one’s current context. --- ## The need for parenting resources No doubt, there is a need for increased community-wide awareness and resources designed specifically for parents to be better equipped to face today’s challenges. Yaqeen Institute is a gateway to authentic and relevant material—as are other established and emerging Islamic organizations at the community level and via the internet. The local *masjid* may provide appropriate resources, along with the company of like-minded community members. The internet, with discernment, offers authentic and accredited programs for every category of student from the stay-at-home and working parent to those who are looking to supplement their education. Additionally, programs designed specifically to cater to families such as Islamic conferences, weekend schools, and parent support groups are also important to take advantage of. Foremost in all of these is the individual need for a daily regimen of the remembrance of Allah (*dhikr*) to build a strong connection to Him as the means to fulfilling one’s purpose in life as a believer and a parent who wants to instill faith in their child. --- ## Practice what you teach One of the key findings of the atheism study was that in cases where parents failed to act in accordance with their professed beliefs, their children abandoned religion at a younger age. The credibility factor in parent behavior can be the difference between faith, doubt, and rejection of faith on the part of the child. From the Islamic perspective, sincerity demands one be truthful, diligent in abstaining from hypocrisy, and consistent in one’s belief and practice, to the best of one’s ability.[^28] In a detailed account of the numerous levels and characteristics of hypocrisy, Ibn Al-Qayyim (d. 1350 CE) mentions that foolishness and short-sightedness are attributed to hypocrisy. Those who exhibit these characteristics lack spiritual insight and are prone to falling into doubt and following their desires. Eventually, this may lead to a contradiction between belief and practice—and ultimately, to one belittling the religion.[^29] He describes a “people prone to laziness and laxity in fulfilling the orders of the All-Merciful and because of this they find sincerity burdensome.”[^30] > *And the Messenger has said, ‘O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur'an as \[a thing\] abandoned.’*[^31] Inconsistency in parent behavior feeds conflict, doubt, and lack of conviction, building the case for rejection of faith. Sadly, this has become a common phenomenon today. An obvious example of this involves parents expecting the child to observe the five daily obligatory prayers while they are inconsistent in doing so themselves. Yet, many are left wondering why the child refuses to pray or makes excuses not to. Contradictions between faith and action may be present in other areas such as one’s daily interactions and general outlook on life, be it in the workplace or social settings—all of which are observed and scrutinized by the child. This is corroborated by the recent doubt studies conducted on Muslims which point to the behavior of Muslims themselves as a leading contributing factor to doubts about Islam.[^32] --- ## Extremes and reactionary responses When action stems from inaccurate or partial knowledge, it will logically lead to misinformed decisions which may fall into unhealthy extremes when it comes to how parents behave in regard to their religious beliefs. An example of this is the liberal and progressive outlook of many parents today who diminish the importance and existence of particular boundaries set by Islam if they appear cumbersome or to conflict with current prevailing norms. This can be contrasted with the opposite extreme of falsely attributed rigidity to Islam which parents impose on their children—to the point of it leading to undue hardship and excessive control. These skewed approaches in parent behavior will naturally have an impact on the outcome and success with which parents instill faith in their children. For instance, neglect of obligatory actions, or a focus on the outward rituals, tradition, or appearance alone in place of emphasis on the child’s relationship with Allah both carry potential for great harm. Parents may unintentionally drive their child away from true faith and practice. This may either result in the child identifying with Islam primarily in a cultural or social context or outright rejecting it out of the false perception of Islam being harsh and oppressive. Likewise, this may also lead to religious conflict within the home between parent and child. Islam places great emphasis on the importance of balance in every aspect of life, including religious practice. The key is to avoid extremes and strive for consistency, with a balance of compassion and discipline as taught and exemplified by the Prophet ﷺ. > *But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and \[yet\] do not forget your share of the world. And do good as Allah has done good to you. And desire not corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters.*[^33] --- ## Consolation for struggling parents An important finding of the atheism study is that a match between professed beliefs and practices is not the only determining factor nor does it always provide a complete explanation as to why people believe or not.[^34] This aligns with the fundamental Islamic principle that it is Divine Wisdom and the Divine Decree (*qadr* of Allah) that ultimately prevail in all matters—in this case, above and beyond the effort of the parents to instill faith in their children. Parents who find themselves in distress, faced with the reality of religious conflict or abandonment of faith by their child, are acknowledged and rewarded for their patience, steadfastness, and sincere effort to fulfill their responsibility in the sight of Allah. It is also important to acknowledge the pain and grief they experience as a consequence. Islam provides both spiritual solace and comfort in trusting the Mercy and Wisdom of Allah, as well as the guidance to seek practical solutions.[^35] There is a tremendous need for increased awareness and for the encouragement to seek help and support from external resources as part of fulfilling the Islamic objectives of parenting and family life. This must be sought as needed through consultation with family and friends, a local imam, support groups, medical care, counseling, etc. Undoubtedly, people encounter life-altering and, at times, traumatic experiences beyond their control. While these are acknowledged as valid factors that contribute to doubt or rejection of faith in one’s child, it must also be stated that they do not point to failure on the part of the parents. Islam teaches hope in the Mercy of Allah and places great emphasis on the power of prayer as part of having faith and placing one’s trust in Allah. The outcome is ultimately with Allah alone as proven in the powerful examples of the most righteous and noble parents who were tested with these very challenges such as Nuh and Yaqub عليهما السلام. In the case of the former, the son went astray, while in the case of the latter, the sons ultimately redeemed themselves.[^36] Among the many blessings and wisdoms of being tested in life is that Allah tests His beloved servants in order to bring them closer to Him, to reward them, to raise them in rank, and to make that very test a means of forgiveness. The Prophet ﷺ said, "No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that."[^37] Both one’s provision and its removal are manifestations of divine Wisdom and blessings through which parents are tested for their gratitude and perseverance.[^38] Allah's Messenger ﷺ said: “Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.[^39] Allah reassures the believers that they are never alone and abandoned, and He instructs them to seek help through patience and prayer.[^40] This is the power of supplication (*du’a*) and placing one’s trust in Allah as exemplified in the comprehensive and eloquent supplications in the Qur’an and Sunnah. > *And those who say, ‘Our Lord, grant us from among our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes and make us an example for the righteous.’*[^41] --- ## The prophetic model as the solution for all times The prophetic model offers us far more than a fourteen-hundred-year-old historic reference to a flourishing society built upon moral standards and the worship of the one true God. It not only represents the pinnacle of all Islamic ideals, including parenting goals and methodology, for Muslims all over the world but it also contains within it the solution for a life lived to its fullest potential—for all of humanity, for all times. Hence, the prophetic model provides us with the most effective, practical, and rewarding plan of action to ensure success in this world and the Hereafter. ### Inculcating prophetic character traits The Prophet ﷺ embodied the optimum qualities for all humans, and in this case, parents, to emulate. He taught and demonstrated conviction in his beliefs. The most crucial takeaway is that he led by example—firmly establishing that parent behavior and the correct modeling of faith is essential in order to instill faith in one’s child. The Prophet ﷺ took a nurturing approach to his relationships, building trust and credibility as their foundation. He showed compassion and empathy while maintaining self-discipline and balance in all aspects of life, with consistency and *ihsan* in his own actions and allowance for ease when it came to the actions of others. It is well-documented that he was particularly kind and affectionate toward children.[^42] He was known to be loving and respectful, not only to his own children and grandchildren but to all children. The most comprehensive point we can take from the prophetic model is that of his investing his time and attention in those around him—adults and children alike. Every encounter with him became a means of his imparting some benefit, even if it was a smile to bring about happiness, ease, or relief. Every individual was made to realize his or her importance and left the company of the Prophet ﷺ feeling loved, uplifted, and empowered, both spiritually and practically. This authentic and beautiful demonstration of Islam had a powerful impact. It would become the basis of countless numbers of people wholeheartedly entering Islam and the establishment of faith and of lasting bonds with individuals, and in turn, entire communities. The Prophet ﷺ endured the weight of the world as the final Messenger of Allah and as the first head of state for the Muslim world yet he made time to greet children and to play with them. His grandsons would ride his shoulders and he would frequently embrace them. > *Abu Huraira reported that al-Aqra' b. Habis saw Allah's Apostle ﷺ kissing Hasan. He said: I have ten children, but I have never kissed any one of them, whereupon Allah's Messenger ﷺ said: He who does not show mercy (towards his children), no mercy would be shown to him.*[^43] --- ## The Prophetic model of teaching The prophetic model of teaching is yet another discussion in and of itself.[^44] Among its techniques and boundless wisdom is the compassionate and measured approach to inculcating upright behavior. This is illustrated through the gradual legislation and establishment of a number of religious obligations such as prayer (*salah*),[^45] charity (*sadaqah and zakah*), fasting (*saum*), and the pilgrimage (*Hajj*). The Qur’anic verses in regard to the prohibition of intoxicants, for example, were divinely revealed in a systematic way to lead the early Muslims to successful and sustainable implementation of its final ruling, through establishing faith and conviction, and without placing undue hardship on a society that had been accustomed to consuming alcohol prior to Islam.[^46] Additionally, the Prophet ﷺ used storytelling and parables as effective means of teaching and communication.[^47] He was known to repeat particular instructions in order to reinforce their importance. Viable alternatives were offered to redirect toward correct behavior, to facilitate ease, and to avoid embarrassment. Above all, the Prophet ﷺ was uniquely blessed with a level of emotional intelligence that enabled him to interact with each individual in terms of what was best suited for that person, at that time, in order to bring about the greatest benefit to that individual.[^48] It must be highlighted that the Prophet ﷺ exhibited remarkable patience in dealing with people—even those who ardently opposed him. ### The Prophetic methodology of correcting and advising The Prophetic methodology of correcting the behavior of others is anchored in sincerity to Allah.[^49] As was mentioned above in regard to the need for consistency between one’s beliefs and actions, sincerity is a prerequisite for parents in terms of their own behavior and when attempting to correct or to advise (*naseeha*) their children. Numerous examples from the *seerah* of the Prophet ﷺ detail the recognition and allowance for the fallibility of all humans. Much can be gleaned from the Prophet’s ﷺ nuanced approach to people based on his relationship with them. How he corrected a senior Companion was different from how he corrected a Bedouin who lacked knowledge. We can summarize the prophetic methodology of correcting and advising with the Prophet’s ﷺ impeccable abilities when it came to his principles of fairness, distinction between major and minor mistakes, avoiding the greater harm in a given situation, and critiquing the mistake without denouncing the individual. Care was given to conceal the faults of others and to pray for his *ummah* to be rightly guided and forgiven. ### Planting the seeds of faith All of these techniques ultimately became the means for the Prophet ﷺ to achieve his greatest goal—that of planting the seeds of faith within the hearts of the people and effectively connecting them to Allah. This is further confirmed through his wisdom in focusing primarily on imparting the basics of *imaan* and nurturing it within the new Muslims for thirteen years in Makkah until it became firmly rooted in their hearts, before obligating them to uphold the legalities, which were not revealed by Allah in large part until after the migration to Madinah. No doubt, establishing a strong connection with Allah is the primary goal of every parent and the means to successfully instilling faith in children. Thus, one of the fundamental narrations we have is that of the recollection of the Prophet’s ﷺ Companion, Abdullah ibn Al-Abbas, a young boy at the time, who said: > *One day I was riding behind the Prophet when he said, “O lad, be mindful of Allah and He will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you shall find Him with you. When you ask (for anything), ask it from Allah, and if you seek help, seek help from Allah.”*[^50] --- ## Conclusion The atheism study emphasizes the critical need for parents to be cognizant of their behavior at all times—particularly in regard to how they act on their religious beliefs. The Islamic approach to parenting not only confirms the correlation between parent behavior and the outcome of faith in the child, but it also provides the optimal solution to nurture faith and safeguard against its loss. The primary goal of parents is to actively instill faith in their children. This is best achieved when parents acquire the correct knowledge of Islam and have a comprehensive understanding of the roles and responsibilities Allah has assigned to them. Seeking the support of external resources where needed and like-minded company is a necessary and practical application of the Islamic approach to parenting. It is also important to be aware of the challenges facing Muslims today in order to safeguard against them and overcome them—particularly those that contribute to doubt and abandonment of faith in our increasingly secular surroundings. Furthermore, it is paramount for parents to spend quality time with their children and create an environment at home that fosters healthy and open communication between parent and child. The prophetic model provides the ideal roadmap for how to achieve these goals such that the child will actively look to the parent for guidance and answers, and willingly respond in accordance to their natural disposition toward faith and belief—the *fitrah*. Ultimately, this approach allows both parent and child to learn and grow together in their respective roles as confident Muslims who are equipped to nurture and benefit one another and to contribute to society at large. Finally, making one’s home a sanctuary where the remembrance of Allah is abundant is essential for every believer and likewise for every parent looking to instill faith in their child. In fact, it is essential to hope, to placing one’s trust in Allah, and to life itself. The Prophet ﷺ said: “*The house in which remembrance of Allah is made and the house in which Allah is not remembered are like the living and the dead.*”[^51] --- ## Notes [^1]: Joseph Langston, David Speed & Thomas J. Coleman III (2018) Predicting age of atheism: credibility enhancing displays and religious importance, choice, and conflict in family of upbringing, *Religion, Brain & Behavior*, DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2018.1502678 [^2]: Dolan, Eric W. "How Parents Act on Their Religious Beliefs Linked to the Onset of Atheism in Their Children." PsyPost. August 26, 2018. Accessed October 05, 2018. [https://www.psypost.org/2018/08/how-parents-act-on-their-religious-beliefs-linked-to-the-onset-of-atheism-in-their-children-52058](https://www.psypost.org/2018/08/how-parents-act-on-their-religious-beliefs-linked-to-the-onset-of-atheism-in-their-children-52058). [^3]: Mohamed, Besheer, Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac. "Islam Gains about as Many Converts as It Loses in U.S." Pew Research Center. January 26, 2018. Accessed March 05, 2019. [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/26/the-share-of-americans-who-leave-islam-is-offset-by-those-who-become-muslim/). [^4]: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/) [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/) [^5]: Dolan, Eric W. "How Parents Act on Their Religious Beliefs Linked to the Onset of Atheism in Their Children." PsyPost. August 26, 2018. Accessed October 05, 2018. [https://www.psypost.org/2018/08/how-parents-act-on-their-religious-beliefs-linked-to-the-onset-of-atheism-in-their-children-52058](https://www.psypost.org/2018/08/how-parents-act-on-their-religious-beliefs-linked-to-the-onset-of-atheism-in-their-children-52058). [^6]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* 2928, *Sahih Al-Albani*, [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/20/1](https://sunnah.com/abudawud/20/1) [^7]: Qur’an, 8:28, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/8/28](https://quran.com/8/28) [^8]: Qur’an, 46:15, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/46/15](https://quran.com/46/15) [^9]: Qur’an, 3:36, “…and I seek refuge for her in You and \[for\] her descendants from Satan, the expelled \[from the mercy of Allah\],” *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/3/36](https://quran.com/3/36) [^10]: Qur’an, 31:12-19, [https://quran.com/31/12-19](https://quran.com/31/12-19) [^11]: *Al-Adab Al-Mufrad* 38, *Sahih Al-Albani*, [https://sunnah.com/adab/1/38](https://sunnah.com/adab/1/38) [^12]: Qur’an, 30:30-33, “So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. \[Adhere to\] the *fitrah* of Allah upon which He has created \[all\] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know…,” *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/30/30-32](https://quran.com/30/30-32) [^13]: Khan, M. Nazir, Dr. “Fitrah – The Primordial Nature of Man,” Spiritual Perception. January 01, 2015. Accessed March 05, 2019. [http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/](http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/). [^14]: Qur’an, 31:32, “And when waves come over them like canopies, they supplicate to Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, there are \[some\] of them who are moderate \[in faith\]. And none rejects Our signs except everyone treacherous and ungrateful,” *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/31/32](https://quran.com/31/32) [^15]: *Sahih Al-Bukhari*, Vol. 6, Book 60, Hadith 298, [https://sunnah.com/urn/44530](https://sunnah.com/urn/44530) [^16]: Qur’an, 7:16-17, “\[Satan\] said, "Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful \[to You\],” *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/7/16-17](https://quran.com/7/16-17) [^17]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Dar’ ta’arud al-Aql wa’l-Naql*, [http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/](http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/) [^18]: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth/) [^19]: For an in-depth discussion on trauma and its impact on faith: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/trauma/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/trauma/) [^20]: Qur’an, 17:70, *Sahih International*, “And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with \[definite\] preference,” [https://quran.com/17/70](https://quran.com/17/70) [^21]: Cragun, R. T., Hammer, J. H., Nielsen, M., & Autz, N. (2018). Religious/secular distance: How far apart are teenagers and their parents? *Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 10*(3), 288-295. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rel0000205](http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rel0000205) [^22]: Qur’an, 17:36, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/17/36](https://quran.com/17/36) , “And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart - about all those \[one\] will be questioned.” [^23]: *Riyad As-Saliheen*, Muslim, Book 13, Hadith 6, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/13/6](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/13/6) [^24]: Landry SH. The role of parents in early childhood learning. In: Tremblay RE, Boivin M, Peters RDeV, eds. Tremblay RE, topic ed. *Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development* \[online\]. [http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/parenting-skills/according-experts/role-parents-early-childhood-learning](http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/parenting-skills/according-experts/role-parents-early-childhood-learning). Updated December 2014. Accessed March 6, 2019. [^25]: Meltzoff, Andrew M. "Born to Learn: What Infants Learn from Watching Us." 1999. Accessed March 7, 2019. [http://ilabs.washington.edu/meltzoff/pdf/99Meltzoff\_BornToLearn.pdf](http://ilabs.washington.edu/meltzoff/pdf/99Meltzoff_BornToLearn.pdf). [^26]: Hamdan, Aisha. *Nurturing Eemân in Children*. Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House. [https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih\_books/single/en\_Nurturing\_iman\_In\_Children.pdf](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Nurturing_iman_In_Children.pdf) , pp. 28-31 [^27]: The Prophet ﷺ said: “Faith \[imaan\] has over seventy branches or over sixty branches, the most excellent of which is the declaration that there is no god but Allah, and the humblest of which is the removal of what is injurious from the path; and modesty is the branch of faith,” *Sahih Muslim*, Book 1, Hadith 60, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/60](https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/60) [^28]: *Sahih Al-Bukhari*, Hadith 6465, “The Prophet ﷺ was asked, ‘What deeds are loved most by Allah?’ He said, ‘The most regular constant deeds even though they may be few.’ He added, 'Don't take upon yourselves, except the deeds which are within your ability,’” [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/54](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/54) [^29]: Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad Ibn Abī Bakr. *Characteristics of the Hypocrites*. Birmingham: Daar Us-Sunnah Publications. [https://maktabahassunnahblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/characteristics-of-the-hypocrites.pdf](https://maktabahassunnahblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/characteristics-of-the-hypocrites.pdf), pp. 21-28 [^30]: Ibid., p. 28, see also \[4:142\], “…And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily, showing \[themselves to\] the people and not remembering Allah except a little.” [^31]: Qur’an, 25:30, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/25/30](https://quran.com/25/30) [^32]: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/) [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis)/ [^33]: Qur’an, 28:77, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/28/77](https://quran.com/28/77) [^34]: Dolan, Eric W. "How Parents Act on Their Religious Beliefs Linked to the Onset of Atheism in Their Children." PsyPost. August 26, 2018. Accessed October 05, 2018. [https://www.psypost.org/2018/08/how-parents-act-on-their-religious-beliefs-linked-to-the-onset-of-atheism-in-their-children-52058](https://www.psypost.org/2018/08/how-parents-act-on-their-religious-beliefs-linked-to-the-onset-of-atheism-in-their-children-52058). [^35]: “Anas bin Malik narrated that a man said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! Shall I tie it \[my camel\] and rely (upon Allah), or leave it loose and rely (upon Allah)?’ He said: ‘Tie it and rely (upon Allah),’” *Jami’ At-Tirmidhi, Hasan*, Vol. 4, Book 11, Hadith 2517, [https://sunnah.com/urn/678230](https://sunnah.com/urn/678230) [^36]: Qur’an, 11:42-49, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/11/42-49](https://quran.com/11/42-49) , also 2:133-136, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/2/133-136](https://quran.com/2/133-136) [^37]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 5641, 5642 [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/75/2](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/75/2) [^38]: Hamdan, Aisha. *Nurturing Eemân in Children*. Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House. [https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih\_books/single/en\_Nurturing\_iman\_In\_Children.pdf](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Nurturing_iman_In_Children.pdf), pp. 38-42 [^39]: *Sahih Muslim* 2999 [https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/82](https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/82) [^40]: Qur’an, 2:153, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/2/153](https://quran.com/2/153) , “O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.” [^41]: Qur’an, 25:74, *Sahih International*, [https://quran.com/25/74](https://quran.com/25/74) [^42]: Hamdan, Aisha. *Nurturing Eemân in Children*. Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House. [https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih\_books/single/en\_Nurturing\_iman\_In\_Children.pdf](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Nurturing_iman_In_Children.pdf), p. 180 [^43]: *Sahih Muslim* 2318 a [https://sunnah.com/muslim/43/86](https://sunnah.com/muslim/43/86) [^44]: Hamdan, Aisha. *Nurturing Eemân in Children*. Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House. [https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih\_books/single/en\_Nurturing\_iman\_In\_Children.pdf](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Nurturing_iman_In_Children.pdf), pp. 73-76 [^45]: The early Muslims prayed in the morning and evening until the five daily prayers were made obligatory during the Night Journey and Ascension, *Sahih al-Bukhari* 349, [https://sunnah.com/bukhari/8](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/8) [^46]: See Qur’an, 2:219, 4:43, 5:90 and *Tafsir Ibn Kathir*, [http://www.recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/5:90](http://www.recitequran.com/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/5:90) [^47]: *Muslim*, Book 1, Hadith 429, Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The five daily *Salat* (prayers) are like a great river running by your door in which you take a bath five times a day, [https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/429](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/429) [^48]: See [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mikaeel-ahmed-smith/shame-morality-and-emotions-understanding-the-prophetic-model-of-intelligence/#.XPQ-29OpE\_U](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/mikaeel-ahmed-smith/shame-morality-and-emotions-understanding-the-prophetic-model-of-intelligence/) [^49]: Al-Munajjid, Muhammed Salih, Sh. The Prophet’s Methods for Correcting People’s Mistakes. www.islamhouse.com,2005. [https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih\_books/single/en\_Correcting\_People\_Mistakes.pdf](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Correcting_People_Mistakes.pdf), pp. 4, 13-15,17-21,28,35,39,43,62,103. [^50]: *At-Tirmidhi*, 1931, *Hasan Sahih*. [^51]: *Sahih Muslim*, Hadith 779, [https://sunnah.com/muslim/6/251](https://sunnah.com/muslim/6/251) ## Summary Bismillāh. All praise is due to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. A recent study published in the journal *Religion, Brain, & Behavior*, drawing upon more than five thousand participants who identified as atheists—all of whom had been raised with some form of religious upbringing—found a correlation between parental behavior and the onset of atheism in children. The research indicated that people tend to become atheists at a younger age when their religious parents "talk the talk but don't walk the walk," suggesting that exposure to religiously motivated actions plays an important role in whether faith takes root. Though the study examined only those who left their faith, and not those who remained upon it, it offers valuable insight into the profound influence parents hold over the beliefs of their children. Notably, the same research also found that religious individuals exposed to high levels of what are termed *credibility-enhancing displays* (CREDs)—such as parents worshipping with the same regularity they expect of their children, and being consistently truthful, charitable, and just—were more likely to report believing in God with high certainty. This matter carries grave weight for the Muslim community, which is not immune to these trends. Studies show that 23% of Muslims in America no longer identify with Islam, half of whom affiliate with no religion at all, and that Muslims face an increasing faith crisis, with the conduct of Muslims themselves cited among the foremost reasons leading to doubt and abandonment of the religion. Islam assigns parents guardianship and primary responsibility for the physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of their children, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "…a man is a shepherd in charge of the inhabitants of his household and he is responsible for his flock; a woman is a shepherdess in charge of her husband's house and children and she is responsible for them…" Children are described in the Qur'an as a trust and a trial: "And know that your properties and your children are but a trial and that Allah has with Him a great reward." Allah honors parents with the highest regard after Himself and His Messenger ﷺ, and He enjoins upon man good treatment toward his parents, mentioning the mother's hardship in carrying and bearing him. The foundation for sound parenting is established in the Qur'an and Sunnah through the narratives of the noble prophets and believers—such as Ibrāhīm, Yaʿqūb, and Luqmān (upon them be peace)—and through the *seerah* of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. These teach the Oneness of Allah (*tawḥīd*), sincerity (*ikhlāṣ*), good character (*akhlāq*), and proper etiquette (*adab*). Parenting requires sincere intention, expressed through supplication for one's offspring, as seen in the prayer of the mother of Maryam, who sought Allah's protection for her unborn child and its progeny from Shayṭān. Explicit parenting counsel appears in Sūrah Luqmān, where Luqmān instructs his son to avoid associating partners with Allah—for indeed "association with Him is great injustice"—to establish prayer, to enjoin good and forbid wrong, to be patient, and to shun arrogance in gait and voice. The Qur'an thus not only strengthens one's own faith but teaches how to build a loving bond with one's children and instill faith within them, so that a righteous child becomes a means of continuing reward, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "When a person dies, all action is cut off for him with the exception of three things: sadaqa which continues, knowledge which benefits, or a righteous child who makes supplication for him." Central to the Islamic understanding is the *fiṭrah*—the innate human disposition, mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah, that is naturally inclined toward the worship of Allah and toward morality. Childhood psychology research affirms that children incline early toward justice, kindness, and empathy. Yet the *fiṭrah* remains susceptible to corruption, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "No child is born except on Al-Fitra (Islam) and then his parents make him Jewish, Christian or Magian, as an animal produces a perfect young animal: do you see any part of its body amputated?" This ḥadīth affirms two truths: that children are born inclined to recognize Allah, and that parents thereafter either nurture or suppress that inclination. Shayṭān seeks to lead the *fiṭrah* astray through every means, including those closest to the child. As noted, the love of Allah in the servant intensifies with knowledge of Him and the soundness of the *fiṭrah*, and diminishes with corruptive desires. Parents must therefore build a firm foundation in creed (*ʿaqīdah*) and a correct, contextualized lens for daily life, guarding against forces such as *internalized Islamophobia* that can breed fear, doubt, and distance from God. It is insufficient to confine Islam to ritual acts alone; rather, awareness and love of Allah—His Names and Attributes—must be at the forefront, reinforced through parental affection, encouragement, and like-minded company. The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, many of them youth, serve as role models of faith in action combined with empathy and kindness. From the atheism study, several problematic scenarios bear upon Muslim parents: when one or both parents barely practice Islam—remedied by careful spouse selection and by remembering it is never too late to begin, for Allah's mercy is boundless; the absence of both parents working cooperatively; and the false assumption that children will find faith on their own, contrary to the parents' Qur'anic duty to actively instill it. Derived pitfalls include over-relying on Islamic schools and *masjid* programs without parental reinforcement, and prioritizing secular over Islamic education. Knowledge is an essential tool, for seeking it is an obligation upon every Muslim, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Allah makes the way to Jannah easy for he who treads the path in search of knowledge." Since imitation is a powerful mode of learning—a study from the University of Washington describes how infants remember and repeat observed actions—children reflect their parents' understanding and conduct. Parents must convey Islam with excellence (*iḥsān*) and first build conviction (*yaqīn*) in themselves. A theological distinction exists between *Islam*, denoting the religion generally, and *īmān*, denoting faith that emanates sincerely from the heart and varies in strength, such that one may practice outwardly with little conviction within. Parents must also examine cultural biases that exceed the bounds of the religion, while recognizing that Islam allows ample latitude in matters such as food and dress. Beneficial resources include Yaqeen Institute, local *masājid*, and accredited programs, foremost among them a daily regimen of remembrance of Allah (*dhikr*). Regarding the study's key finding—that inconsistency between belief and practice hastens a child's abandonment of faith—the credibility of parental behavior can be the difference between faith and its rejection. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350 CE) attributed foolishness and short-sightedness to hypocrisy, describing those who find sincerity burdensome and prone to laxity in obeying the All-Merciful. A common example is parents demanding the five daily prayers while neglecting them themselves. Extremes must be avoided in both directions: the progressive diminishing of Islam's boundaries, and a falsely attributed rigidity that imposes undue hardship. Islam emphasizes balance, as Allah commands: "But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and do not forget your share of the world." Yet the study also acknowledges that matching belief with practice does not fully explain why people believe or disbelieve—aligning with the Islamic principle that the Divine Decree (*qadr*) ultimately prevails above parental effort. Parents facing a child's abandonment of faith are rewarded for their patience and sincere effort, and are consoled by the examples of Nūḥ, whose son went astray, and Yaʿqūb, whose sons ultimately redeemed themselves (upon them be peace). Trials draw the believer nearer to Allah, as the Prophet ﷺ said that no fatigue, disease, or sorrow befalls a Muslim "but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that," and that the believer's affair is entirely good, thanking Allah in ease and enduring in hardship. Such parents should seek support through consultation, imams, counseling, and above all supplication, praying as the believers do: "Our Lord, grant us from among our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes." The prophetic model remains the complete solution: the Prophet ﷺ led by example, showed compassion toward children—warning "He who does not show mercy would be shown no mercy"—taught gradually and with wisdom, corrected with sincerity while concealing faults, and focused first on rooting *īmān* in the heart for thirteen years in Makkah before the legal obligations. He counseled Ibn ʿAbbās as a boy: "O lad, be mindful of Allah and He will protect you… When you ask, ask of Allah, and if you seek help, seek help from Allah." Thus parents are urged to instill faith actively, seek sound knowledge, guard against contemporary challenges, spend quality time fostering open communication, and make the home a place of remembrance, for the Prophet ﷺ said: "The house in which remembrance of Allah is made and the house in which Allah is not remembered are like the living and the dead." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-can-i-ever-trust-again-navigating-betrayal # "How Can I Ever Trust Again?" Navigating Betrayal **Authors:** Sarah Sultan, Najwa Awad **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 20, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness.*[^1] \-Brene Brown --- ## Case study *Kathleen had never loved anyone the way she loved Mustafa. They met when they were in college and quickly realized there was something worth pursuing. They dated for a while and soon started to get into serious relationship territory. When they started to discuss marriage, Mustafa told Kathleen he wanted the future mother of his children to be a Muslim.* *Kathleen began to study Islam and found that a lot of the tenets and values resonated with her. She never would have explored the religion if she hadn’t met Mustafa but she felt comfortable converting. They had a small marriage ceremony in a local masjid and were happily married for 10 years. During these 10 years, they had 3 children and both gradually learned more about Islam.* *Mustafa started to become more involved in the community, particularly through teaching classes. His schedule started to get busier and Kathleen found herself spending more time alone with the children. When she broached this subject one day, Mustafa reluctantly admitted that he had been having an affair for some time but didn’t tell her due to fears of upsetting her.* *Kathleen was stunned. It never crossed her mind that infidelity was a possibility, especially from someone who portrayed himself as a spiritual and practicing person. Suddenly, she was plagued with doubts, including unsettling questions surrounding her faith in her religion. Mustafa was the one who had introduced her to Islam all those years ago yet he had betrayed her. If this was what Islam was about, she didn’t want to have anything to do with it! She found herself thinking, “If someone I loved, looked up to, and invested so much time in could betray me, **how can I ever trust again?”*** --- ## What is happening to me? When someone you trust betrays you, it hurts tremendously. The pain can be so intense that it can be felt physically. People often describe it as a “punch in the gut,” where it feels as though all of the breath has been completely knocked out of you. Whether you are double-crossed in a business deal, or a person in a position of authority abuses their power, or you have suddenly discovered that you’ve been lied to, betrayal is intensely painful. Even more difficult to endure is when the betrayal comes from one of the people you trust most in life. When a betrayal occurs, the blow you experience is two-fold. First, you experience a breach of the trust that you so tenderly gave to another person—so much so that the relationship is often changed in a permanent way. Secondly, you suddenly realize that you’ve been lied to for an extended period of time but didn’t know until this moment. You may start to doubt yourself and wonder how you hadn’t seen it before. You may wonder if you’re gullible because you trusted someone who has been lying to you for so long. You may feel inadequate—as though something or someone else has been prioritized over you in the relationship. You may even wonder if you’ve done something to bring this upon yourself and whether you deserve this type of treatment. Betrayal and the accompanying breach of trust is a unique type of trauma. No one has died but in many ways the emotions you experience can be even more painful than other types of loss. A large part of your life has died after a betrayal and can never be revived fully. You may even feel as though a part of yourself has passed away in the process. It’s important to grieve the loss of the relationship you thought you had. This also applies to one-sided relationships, such as feeling betrayed upon finding out unsavory news about an imam, public speaker, or shaykh who you admire. We each picture our lives moving forward in a particular direction—we dream of vacations, children, and having the comforting presence of someone who loves us. As children, we trust in parents and relatives who care for our needs, show us affection, and read us stories. We believe that the scholars we listen to online live their lives in accordance with what they preach. Once we realize that our expectations of the people we care about aren’t always accurate, the entire mental picture we’ve created suddenly bursts and a vast emptiness takes its place. That void can be terrifying. --- ## Understanding your thoughts and emotions After experiencing the trauma associated with a betrayal, it may feel as though your world has come crashing down on you and like your legs simply can’t hold up the tremendous burden you now have to walk around with. Suddenly, you find yourself scanning the world for threats. If your husband could have kept his porn addiction a secret for so long, what would stop something just as shocking from happening in another relationship in your life? If your uncle, who is supposed to care for you, touches you inappropriately, what would possibly stop someone else from doing the same on your commute to school? And, even scarier, your fears might start to extend to Allah (swt). You might be thinking, *“If the person I trusted more than anyone in my life was capable of hurting me so badly, how can I trust anyone at all? If nobody can be trusted, what if I feel like I can’t trust Allah?”* What you’re feeling—and even what you’re thinking—is normal after experiencing betrayal. These passing thoughts are so common that there is even a hadith about them: The Prophet ﷺ said, ***“Allah has forgiven my followers the thoughts that occur to their minds, as long as such thoughts are not put into action or uttered.”***[^2] This *hadith* can alleviate a lot of the shame many of us may feel when doubts surface related to our faith and our relationship with Allah (swt). However, these thoughts can still increase our anxiety and may result in distancing ourselves from Allah (swt) if they begin to impact our actions and the way we view ourselves. Therefore, proactively addressing them is needed to alleviate them. With a little bit of information and effort, you don’t have to spend your life struggling with these thoughts. Remember, just because one person (or even  more than one person) has hurt you, doesn’t mean that everyone is unworthy of your trust. ### Why does betrayal hurt so much? Recovery from a betrayal can be a long journey. There are several steps in the process and everyone walks the road to healing at a different pace. Betrayal traumas involve the perpetrator being in a close relationship with the victim. Due to this, the violation of trust feels deeply personal, rather than random. If someone pushed you as you were walking down the street, you would experience a sense of shock and fear but it wouldn’t cause you to doubt any of your closest relationships. Betrayal trauma is different because it jeopardizes the safety of the very relationship you would normally turn to for comfort when distressed, which causes an increased sense of vulnerability at a time when support is most needed. Betrayal by someone close to you, like a parent or a spouse, is a unique form of trauma and one that hurts tremendously. When a person who is supposed to love, respect, and support you betrays you, your world can feel like it’s shattering. ### Why does experiencing betrayal impact my ability to trust Allah? Along with the overwhelming instability you may be experiencing, another type of instability may take root: instability in your relationship with Allah (swt). Just as you now scan the world for ways you might get hurt, you may start scanning the skies for ways you feel disappointed by God. Why does this happen? Logically, we know that Allah isn’t comparable to human beings but emotionally we may fear risking closeness to *anyone*, including Allah. There is something called “attachment theory,” which began with John Bowlby who devoted extensive research to the concept of attachment, describing it as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.”[^3] This is first created through our childhood experiences with our parents/caregivers and can influence our relationship patterns and behaviors later in life. Attachment is a human need. Allah (swt) created us as social creatures that are in need of belonging, closeness, and caring. Allah (swt) says, ***“O mankind! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes, that you may know one another…”***[^4] Even our brains are wired for sociality. Research suggests that we are born with innate abilities for facial recognition[^5] and language acquisition.[^6] However, the ability to move forward in these developmental stages is dependent on a child being stimulated by interactions with other people. Brain structures activate and mature during interactions with attachment figures.[^7] The brain area associated with trusting people is the same brain area needed to trust Allah. This brain area is called the amygdala.[^8] It is the core of emotion processing and assesses our experiences for safety or danger. When an emotionally charged experience transpires, such as a spouse cheating or a family member being abusive, our brain registers this experience to be remembered long term. Our brains cannot differentiate the feeling of trusting a human being and the emotion associated with trusting God. After a betrayal trauma, the amygdala signals “danger” whenever you begin to trust someone. However, don’t lose hope: The amazing thing about the brain is that it’s flexible. We may struggle to trust Allah now but that doesn’t doom us to struggle forever. --- ## Changing your thoughts Now that you understand why you might struggle with trusting Allah after you’ve had your trust betrayed by someone close to you, we can work toward changing this thought process. The thought, “How can I ever trust again?” is a form of the cognitive distortion called overgeneralization. **Overgeneralization** means coming to a general conclusion based on a single event or one piece of evidence. Therefore, when something bad happens, you expect it to happen over and over again. Thinking that you will *never* be able to trust again creates a permanent umbrella over your entire life based on one rainy day. A thought trajectory based on overgeneralization may progress like this: *I thought we were close friends but now she’s ignoring me.* ↓ *I shared so much with her and now she’s gone. I didn’t matter to her.* ↓ *I don’t really matter to anyone.* ↓ *There’s no point in investing in relationships since they always end this way.* As we can see here, overgeneralization causes us to see a single event as a never-ending pattern of negativity, defeat, and pain. This causes us to search for evidence that goes along with this worldview. We see people in our lives as a part of this overgeneralized pattern of tragedy, disappointment, and negativity. We focus on the times when we notice negativity and it further validates our overgeneralized perception of reality. We find what we look for: If you believe that people will hurt you, you will search for any indication that this is true rather than being able to view situations objectively. Overgeneralization can impact our ability to fully trust Allah (swt) just as it can impact our ability to be vulnerable in our relationships with people. When we overgeneralize, we may lose sight of who Allah truly is. Consider the impact overgeneralization can have on our faith: *If I can’t trust my spouse who can I trust?* ↓ *I should only depend on myself.* ↓ *I trust Allah, pray, and make du’aa but nothing changes.* ↓  *I guess this just solidifies the fact that I can’t trust anyone at all.* It is important to realize that we often model our relationship with Allah after our relationship with attachment figures. Therefore, our relationship with Allah often mirrors our relationship with others in our lives. So when we’ve been hurt by people close to us, we also assume that we will be hurt by Allah. When we ask a friend for help and she doesn’t follow through, we feel disappointed and we hold Allah to that same standard. When we ask Allah for something we want or for help in a situation and we don’t get the response in the way we anticipate, we feel disappointed and concerned that we are being ignored and are beyond help. It can be a very lonely and painful feeling. ### Transforming your overgeneralizations Consider these questions to identify and combat the overgeneralizations that are dictating the way you live and perceive your life: **What overgeneralization are you struggling with? What overarching perception of the world/people/Allah do you have?** *Example: There is no point in investing in relationships since they all end in me feeling hurt and disappointed.* **How has this overgeneralization impacted your emotions and the way you live your daily life?** *Example: No expectations means no disappointment. But, realistically, I am always disappointed and sad. I tend to avoid calling people and then I get upset that they don’t reach out to me. It just proves that I shouldn’t bother investing in relationships. It’s safer to just depend on myself.* **How has this overgeneralization impacted your relationships with others and relationship with Allah?** *Example: I tend to distance myself from people in my life even when they want to get close to me. I don’t always support people since I imagine that they won’t support me in the future. I don’t open up to or seek help from anyone since I feel like I’m alone and I can’t trust anyone. I also feel distant from Allah since I stopped praying and asking for help; I feel sure that I’ll be disappointed so I don’t bother trying.* **What was the starting point of this overgeneralization?** *Example: I told my best friend everything. We used to talk on the phone for hours everyday. She knew everything about me and I trusted her with the deepest parts of myself. She gradually started distancing herself from me once she found a new friend group and eventually stopped answering my calls and texts. I was so hurt and I promised myself I wouldn’t allow myself to ever feel pain like that again.* **What evidence do you have that shows the inaccuracy of this overgeneralization?** *Example: I guess I rationally know that not everyone will hurt me in the same way that my best friend did. There are other people in my life who I’ve known for a long time and they have never betrayed my trust. My childhood friends have been there for me and my parents have always had my best interests at heart. There are a lot of relationships that have been valuable to me that would never have existed if I had chosen not to invest in them.* **What is a more realistic assumption?** *Example: There is always a risk of getting hurt when we trust others; however,  there is a greater risk in choosing not to invest in relationships. I may have been hurt but this does not guarantee that I will be hurt over and over again if I allow myself to get close to someone.* --- ## The cost of avoiding pain The more distressed we are at any point in our lives, the more we want relief from pain and despair and the more we fear removing the armor we imagine is protecting us from experiencing more hurt. This fear presents itself in different ways including: anger toward the one who betrayed you and anyone else who crosses your path, including God; numbness in every relationship to prevent yourself from investing in something that may potentially cause pain; and creating distance from anyone who may disappoint you. This is called *avoidance coping*. This is a maladaptive form of coping that involves avoiding thinking, feeling, or doing things that are uncomfortable. We avoid stressors rather than dealing with them. Although it may seem logical to avoid things that feel stressful and it may feel as though avoiding problems is working well for you, in reality avoidance of discomfort usually yields more stress.[^9] What we resist tends to persist. When we avoid things that yield uncomfortable emotions, the same emotions and situations we fear have an interesting way of reappearing in our lives at inopportune times. When we overgeneralize, we think we are protecting ourselves from getting hurt again but, in fact, we usually end up creating situations where we do end up getting hurt. For example, you may avoid getting close to others due to fears that they may hurt you; however, in the process of avoiding connection with people in your life, relationships deteriorate, which eventually causes you pain. The cycle of avoiding discomfort often yields even more discomfort in the end. ### Conquering avoidance Avoiding problems feels like it works for us, which is why we do it. However, what we really need is to build up the ability to tolerate discomfort and stress. Difficult emotions encourage us to figure out the source of the issue and take action to solve the problem. Avoiding anything that can be a threat feels safer because it prevents uncomfortable feelings from ever surfacing. ### False refuges We all seek to feel “protected and safe… loved and at peace… to feel at home in my life.”[^10] We pray for a sense of refuge yet, in reality, we often turn toward *false refuges*. They provide temporary relief from discomfort and provide us with a false, temporary sense of comfort and security. Maybe your spouse texts you, “We need to finish the discussion we were having last night. It’s still bothering me.” And you respond with, “Sure.” But you end up finding extra work to do and stay at the office late that night. Avoiding the discussion feels safer and more comfortable but it’s a false refuge and the longer we live in a false refuge, the more suffering and damage we’ll find once we leave it. Maybe you’re scared of being rejected and you worry that any assertion of your needs will result in others disliking you so you avoid taking that risk and always strive to please others, allowing resentment to build up within. Maybe you’re worried that you are unworthy of being cared for so it feels safer to avoid asking for anything, even asking anything of Allah (swt). Identifying your *false refuges* is a great step in breaking down the walls that prevent you from gaining a true sense of peace and safety. When we avoid situations, people, and thoughts that may lead to discomfort, we are falling into the trap of overgeneralization: We are operating under the assumption that we have to hide from *everything* in order to prevent the risk of getting hurt by *anything*. In the process of protecting ourselves, the shields of avoidance end up preventing us from accessing the good things in life as well. Think about what you’ve been avoiding and ask yourself: What is one small thing I can do today that I haven’t felt willing to do in a long time? It can be as small as looking at a picture from a happier time, picking up the Qur’an and reading one *ayah*, or gently telling yourself, “I am worthy of being loved.” Try one small change and see if you can slowly step away from your false refuge and into the true refuge of living life more fully. --- ## How to experience safety and security through Allah After the end of a meaningful relationship, opening yourself up to trust again can feel incredibly overwhelming. When overgeneralization takes over, you are naturally going to assume that since one person has hurt you, every person in your life is capable of being inconsiderate, untrustworthy, and unfaithful. As mentioned earlier, this mindset can extend to an inability to trust Allah. However, in reality, in your journey toward healing, there is no better place to gain a sense of security than in your relationship with Allah. It is important to keep in mind that Allah (swt) is above and beyond what our minds are capable of imagining. We imagine that we can no longer make *du’aa* because the prayers we have fervently been making have not yet come to fruition or because we blame Allah for allowing someone to betray us. However, realistically, we trust in Allah every single moment of every single day. We trust in Allah with every breath we take—we trust that He will allow that inhalation to reach our lungs. We trust Allah with every bite we eat—we trust that He will allow the nourishment to access the parts of our body that need it most. Every blessing we encounter is by the will of Allah and they are innumerable. So, when we say that we can never trust again—that we can’t even trust Allah—realize that the way we live every second of our lives contradicts this thought. The guarantees of human beings are not always guarantees. However, the promise of Allah is always a guarantee. Allah (swt) says, ***“\[It is\] the promise of Allah. Allah does not fail in His promise, but most of the people do not know.”***[^11] We assume that when our prayers are not responded to exactly in the way we envision them that Allah has chosen to overlook us. However, realize that we often ask for what we want, not what we need. We assume that our wants are best for us but Allah knows us better than we know ourselves. He says, ***“But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not.”***[^12] There is a difference between wanting something and needing something. If what we are asking for is not given to us, then we don’t truly need it. Also realize that every prayer is heard but the answer to each prayer may come in a different form than what we anticipate. We assume that our du’aa can only be answered in one particular way—the way we envision the response. However, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, ***“There is no Muslim who supplicates to Allah without sin or cutting family ties in it but that Allah will give him one of three answers:*** 1. ***He will hasten fulfillment of his supplication*** 2. ***He will store it for him in the Hereafter*** 3. ***He will divert an evil from him similar to it.”*** *They said, “In that case we will ask for more.” The Prophet said, **“Allah has even more.”***[^13] Try to take an objective look at your life. The prayers you have been asking for that you feel have not yet been responded to—could the answers possibly have come in a different form? Could the hurt you’ve experienced actually be a form of protection from something else that may have come your way? You may have prayed for a marriage filled with love and mercy and just found out that your husband has been with someone else. The pain you are enduring feels unbearable but, as you process it, consider the fact that the children you have were meant to be yours through your marriage with him. Despite his betrayal, there are certain aspects of your marriage that can never be taken away—your children, your experiences, and the lessons you learned during your time in this relationship. After processing your hurt, when you’re ready to shift your focus away from the pain of the betrayal, consider the fact that you are no longer in an unhealthy relationship and realize that your *du’aa* may have been responded to by Allah granting you the love of your children and also diverting a different evil away from your life through your marriage to your husband. Instead of thinking, “I’ve been hurt so deeply. I can never trust anyone again,” reframe this thought to encompass an understanding that there is One Being who will never betray you: “I’ve been hurt so deeply. I know I’m afraid to trust because that makes me vulnerable to being disappointed. However, Allah will never disappoint me. I trust that even when things happen that seem negative on the surface, there is something good in it because Allah always takes care of my needs.” ### Getting to know Allah as a means of regaining trust While overgeneralization and the weight of betrayal trauma can impact our relationship with Allah (swt), one of the best ways to reconnect with Him is through getting to know Him, His Names, and His Attributes. We cannot realistically trust someone we don’t know so, naturally, learning more about who Allah truly is will be an important step in reconnecting with Him (swt). Consider a story that illustrates some of the beautiful Names and Attributes of Allah (swt) that remind us of the fact that even though we may struggle to emotionally open ourselves up to trusting Him, He is still our Protector every step of the way. The Prophet Yusuf عليه السلام was described as, ***“The honorable is the son of the honorable, the son of the honorable, i.e., Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.”***[^14] The story of Yusuf عليه السلام is one filled with danger and betrayal yet is also inspirational as the culmination of it shows us the one stable force in his life (and in our own lives): the presence and care of Allah (swt). One thing to remember is this: even one so beloved to Allah experienced tremendous betrayal so it is not an indication of Allah’s love and care that those around us choose to hurt us. Yusuf عليه السلام experienced the betrayal of his own brothers who intended to kill him, of an employer who attempted to seduce him toward sin and then wrongfully accused him of sexual violation, and of high ranking officials who jailed him despite his having not committed a crime. Throughout all of this, Allah (swt) was, ***“closer to him than \[his\] jugular vein”***[^15] and protected him by giving him ways to dodge physical and spiritual danger. While plotting to kill him, one of Yusuf’s brothers suggested placing him in a well instead. When he was accused of rape, physical evidence to the contrary was presented. When constant temptation to engage with women sexually was offered to him, Allah (swt) positioned Yusuf in prison to save him from spiritual danger. Through experiencing constant betrayals, Prophet Yusuf عليه السلام realized that he only had Allah. We learn from his example: Even when those closest to you betray you, Allah (swt) can raise your status and open doors for you in the most difficult and darkest of times. From the outside looking in, it appears as though Yusuf was moving backward and his life was falling apart but he was actually being positioned to become who Allah has destined him to be. If even one small step had been missing in his journey, it would not have culminated in the finale in which Yusuf was given a high ranking position in the government and was reunited with his family in a position of nobility and honor. This is the hidden hand of God. At the end of his story, Yusuf عليه السلام reflects on his deep understanding of the Lord who brought him through such arduous challenges, protected him, and shaped him into the person he had become. > ***And he raised his parents upon the throne, and they bowed to him in prostration. And he said, “O my father, this is the explanation of my vision of before. My Lord has made it reality. And He was certainly good to me when He took me out of prison and brought you \[here\] from bedouin life after Satan had induced \[estrangement\] between me and my brothers. Indeed, my Lord is Subtle in what He wills (*****al-Lateef*****). Indeed, it is He who is the Knowing, the Wise.*** > > ***My Lord, You have given me \[something\] of sovereignty and taught me of the interpretation of dreams. Creator of the heavens and earth, You are my protector (*****Wali*****) in this world and in the Hereafter. Cause me to die a Muslim and join me with the righteous.”***[^16] Here we see that Yusuf عليه السلام calls Allah (swt) by two of His Names, *al-Lateef*, the Subtle and Gracious, and *al-Wali*, the Protector: ***Al-Lateef:*** The One who is Kind, Gracious, and Understanding, with regard for the subtle details of individual circumstances.[^17] He knows what is in your heart and mind. He knows exactly what you’re going through. He knows where hidden goodness lies and His approach to addressing this can be so subtle that it’s imperceptible to us and beyond our comprehension. You can see this Name in action during moments when you’re feeling down and a friend randomly sends you a meme that makes you laugh. Or when you open the Qur’an and suddenly come across an *ayah* that resonates with you in a way it never had before. Or when you’re stuck in traffic and the bumper sticker of the car in front of you has a message that strikes you as inspirational. It’s not simply your friend who is comforting you, it is Allah who sent that friend, that statement on that bumper sticker, or that verse to uplift you. That is *al-Lateef*. ***Al-Wali:*** The One who is the loving Defender, the nearby Guardian, and a constant Supporter.[^18] He is the One who lovingly supports us in paving the way toward that which we most need in every moment of our existence. He is the One who defends us from potential harms of which we are completely unaware. He is the One who guides us and turns us toward that which is most needed, despite it sometimes not being what we want for ourselves. You can see this Name in action when you are running late to work and caught in traffic when suddenly you see a horrible car accident in the lane you normally drive in every day, realizing that could have been you. Or when you find out a new friend you’ve quickly grown to love has been saying horrible things about you to others, causing you to witness her true colors and end the friendship before you’ve shared too much of yourself with her. Allah’s protection often comes in forms we may not notice but we can be confident that *al-Wali* is constantly defending us. Opening ourselves up to trusting again, even trusting Allah (swt), can be a terrifying step. However, in choosing to take action rather than avoiding anything that reminds us of the betrayal we have faced, we reclaim the power we have given to those who have hurt us and choose to thrive despite them. This power you reclaim, this ability to trust again and expand your world to include new experiences, is a gift from Allah (swt) and another demonstration of His Mercy, His Protection, and the amazing plan He has for your life. --- ## Inspirational hadith for reflection A *hadith* of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ states, *“There is no person who says, in the morning and evening: 'I am content with Allah as my Lord, Islam as my religion and Muhammad as my Prophet,' but he will have a promise from Allah to make him pleased on the Day of Resurrection.”*[^19] This *du’aa* is an excellent reminder to implement into our daily morning and evening routines. By saying this each day, while truly giving thought to the meaning of the words, the brain area involved in interpersonal trust can be gradually soothed. By saying this each day, you are actively reminding yourself that, although someone may have hurt you deeply, Allah is always worthy of your trust. And through this, the healing process can begin. --- ## Practical exercises ### A. Mindfulness exercise for inspiring trust We discussed the fact that we inherently trust in Allah when we expect our bodies to function as they normally do. Try this guided mindfulness activity as a reminder of this fact and notice how you feel afterward:[^20] > *Close your eyes. Take a deep, encompassing breath and allow it to flow out of your mouth slowly. Allow yourself to switch from the usual mode of doing to a mode of non-doing. Of simply being. As you allow your body to become still, bring your attention to the fact that you are breathing. And become aware of the movement of your breath as it comes into your body and as it leaves your body. Not manipulating the breath in any way or trying to change it. Simply being aware of it and of the feelings associated with breathing. Observe the breath deep down in your belly. Feeling the abdomen as it expands gently on the inbreath, and as it falls back towards your spine on the outbreath.*  > > *Imagine each breath filling your lungs with the air that it needs. Allow yourself to experience the feeling of knowing that Allah is ensuring that each breath reaches your lungs. Allow yourself to trust that each breath will be allowed in and each breath will be allowed out. Remind yourself that every breath is an exercise in trusting Allah to take care of you and your body.* > > *As you feel your limbs relax, tell yourself, “Right at this moment, I am safe. Others might disappoint me; I might even disappoint myself—but Allah will always be there for me.” Remind yourself of the verse in Surah al-Baqarah where Allah (swt) says, “So whoever… believes in Allah has grasped **the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it**. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.”*[^21]  > > *Slowly open your eyes and take note of how you feel physically and emotionally.* ### B. Transforming your overgeneralizations Ask yourself these questions to reconsider the overgeneralizations that are dictating the way you live and perceive your life: **What overgeneralization are you struggling with? What overarching perception of the world/people/Allah do you have?** **How has this overgeneralization impacted your emotions and the way you live your daily life?** **How has this overgeneralization impacted your relationships with others and your relationship with Allah?** **What was the starting point of this overgeneralization?** **What evidence do you have that shows the inaccuracy of this overgeneralization?** **What is a more realistic assumption?** ### C. False refuges In order to feel safe, we often turn toward *false refuges*. They provide temporary relief from discomfort and provide us with a false, temporary sense of comfort and security.[^22] This can come in the form of distractions, avoiding difficult conversations through increasing our workload, focusing solely on others instead of working on ourselves, etc. Unfortunately, false refuges can prevent us from gaining a true sense of peace and safety. **What types of *false refuges* have you noticed in your life? What have you been avoiding due to your personal fears?** **Think about what you’ve been avoiding and ask yourself: What is one small thing I can do today that I haven’t felt willing to do in a long time?** ### D. Getting to know Allah as a means of regaining trust While overgeneralization and the weight of betrayal trauma can impact our relationship with Allah (swt), one of the best ways to reconnect with Him is through getting to know Him through His Names and Attributes. We cannot realistically trust someone we don’t know so, naturally, learning more about who Allah truly is will be an important step in reconnecting with Him (swt). **Pick any Name of Allah (swt) and read a little more about it. What resonates with you about this Name? How have you seen this Name of Allah manifested in your life?** --- ## Case revisited *Kathleen endured something incredibly traumatic upon the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. His actions resulted in a spiral of negative thoughts that eventually affected her faith. Kathleen could not wrap her head around the fact that the man she had loved, trusted, and devoted herself to for over 10 years would hurt her so cruelly. Furthermore, her husband had been her initial introduction to Islam so, as her relationship with Mustafa ended, she thought it was the end of her relationship with Allah. After all, if Mustafa could do this, despite being a Muslim, Kathleen began to doubt everything about Islam.* *Kathleen began to experience symptoms of trauma, such as flashbacks to her discovery of Mustafa’s affair, hopelessness, negative thoughts about herself, withdrawal from family and friends, difficulty sleeping, and angry outbursts. She realized she needed to do something to address what she was dealing with and sought out a therapist. Through therapy, Kathleen began to differentiate her husband’s choice to betray her trust from her ability to trust other people in her life. She also explored the connection between her faith in Allah and her faith in her husband, realizing that Allah (swt) is beyond comparison to any human being and that her relationship with Him could be a source of soothing, rather than pain. Kathleen began to feel empowered by being able to dissociate her husband from her faith—she began to feel a sense of ownership of her life and her ability to have a strong relationship with Allah without her husband’s presence in her life.* *Kathleen realized that her overgeneralization, “I will never be able to trust anyone again” led her to distance herself from people in her life who were her supporters and from Allah (swt), which only amplified her pain. As she explored her negative assumptions, she realized that she was painting everyone with the same brush and basically saying that no one is capable of being a good person, which was unfair to the people who cared about her. As she learned to accept that her husband’s hurtful choices did not impact the fact that others have consistently been there for her, Kathleen was able to reconstruct healthy relationships with others.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Brown, C. B. (2012). *Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead.* New York, NY: Gotham. [^2]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 5269. [^3]: Bowlby J. (1969). *Attachment. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Loss.* New York: Basic Books. [^4]: Qur’an 49:13. [^5]: Otsuka, Y. (2014) Face recognition in infants: A review of behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopic studies. *Japanese Psychological Research, 56*(1), 76–90. [^6]: John-Steiner, V., Panofsky, C., & Smith, L. (Eds.). (1994). *Sociocultural approaches to language and literacy: An interactionist perspective.* Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511897047 [^7]: Avants, B. B., Hackman, D. A., Betancourt, L. M., Lawson, G. M., Hurt, H., & Farah, M. J. (2015). Relation of childhood home environment to cortical thickness in late adolescence: Specificity of experience and timing. *PLoS ONE, 10*(10): e0138217. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138217 [^8]: Koscik, T. R., & Tranel, D. (2011). The human amygdala is necessary for developing and expressing normal interpersonal trust. *Neuropsychologia, 49*(4), 602-611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.023. [^9]: Holahan, C. J., Moos, R. H., Holahan, C. K., Brennan, P. L., & Schutte, K. K. (2005). Stress generation, avoidance coping, and depressive symptoms: A 10-year model. *Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73*(4), 658-66. [^10]: Brach, T. (2013). *True refuge: Finding peace and freedom in your own awakened heart.* New York: Bantam Books, p. 7. [^11]: Qur’an 30:6. [^12]: Qur’an 2:216. [^13]: *Musnad Ahmad* 10749 (Graded *Sahih* by al-Albani). [^14]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 3382. [^15]: Qur’an 50:16. [^16]: Qur’an 12:100-101. [^17]: Shelquist, R. (N.D.) The Beautiful Names of Allah: Al-Latif. Retrieved from: https://wahiduddin.net/words/99\_pages/latif\_30.htm [^18]: Shelquist, R. (N.D.) The Beautiful Names of Allah: Al-Wali. Retrieved from: https://wahiduddin.net/words/99\_pages/walee\_55.htm [^19]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* 3870. [^20]: http://mindfulnesshamilton.ca/meditation-scripts [^21]: Qur’an 2:256. [^22]: Brach, T. (2013). *True refuge: Finding peace and freedom in your own awakened heart.* New York: Bantam Books. ## Summary Trust after betrayal: healing the heart's bond with people and with Allah When someone we love and rely upon betrays us, the wound cuts deeper than almost any other. Consider the case of a woman who embraced Islam through her husband, built a decade of marriage and three children with him, and then discovered his long-hidden infidelity. Her pain was not confined to the marriage; it spilled into her very faith, for the man who had introduced her to Islam had shattered her trust. She found herself asking, "If someone I loved and looked up to could betray me, how can I ever trust again?" This question, though born of a specific tragedy, opens onto a struggle many endure: how does one, after betrayal by a close person, learn to trust others—and even trust Allah—once more? Betrayal by an intimate is a distinct kind of trauma. The blow is twofold: the trust one tenderly gave is breached, and one realizes one has been deceived over a long stretch of time without knowing it. This gives rise to self-doubt, feelings of inadequacy, and even the sense that one somehow deserved such treatment. Though no one has died, a real death has occurred—the death of the relationship one thought one had, and sometimes it feels as though a part of oneself has died too. It is therefore right to grieve this loss, and the same holds true when the betrayal is one-sided, as when one is disillusioned by an admired imam, speaker, or shaykh whose conduct falls short of what he preached. After such a wound, a person begins to scan the world for threats, and this vigilance can extend even toward Allah. One may fear that if the most trusted person in one's life could inflict such harm, then perhaps no one can be trusted—not even the Almighty. Such intrusive thoughts, though distressing, are not sinful in themselves. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Allah has forgiven my followers the thoughts that occur to their minds, as long as such thoughts are not put into action or uttered." This hadith relieves the shame that often accompanies doubts about faith. Yet these thoughts, if left unaddressed, can breed anxiety and distance one from Allah if they begin to shape one's actions, so they must be confronted rather than ignored. There is a reason betrayal so easily disturbs one's bond with Allah. Human beings were created with an innate need for attachment, belonging, and closeness. Allah says, "O mankind! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes, that you may know one another." Drawing on attachment theory—first developed by John Bowlby, who described attachment as a "lasting psychological connectedness between human beings"—we understand that our earliest bonds with caregivers shape our later patterns of relating. Moreover, the region of the brain that governs trust in people, the amygdala, is the same region engaged in trusting Allah; the brain does not sharply distinguish between the two. After betrayal, the amygdala signals "danger" whenever trust begins to form. Yet there is hope in this, for the brain is flexible, and present struggle need not become permanent. The thought "How can I ever trust again?" is a cognitive distortion known as overgeneralization—drawing a sweeping conclusion from a single event, so that one rainy day becomes a permanent umbrella over one's whole life. A person may move from "she ignored me" to "I don't matter to anyone" to "there's no point in relationships." This distortion warps our view of Allah as well, since we tend to model our relationship with Him upon our relationships with our attachment figures. When people fail us, we assume Allah will too; when our supplications are not answered as we imagined, we feel overlooked and beyond help. To break this pattern, one should examine the overgeneralization honestly: identify it, trace its starting point, weigh the evidence against it—recalling those who have never betrayed us—and replace it with a more realistic assumption, namely that while trusting carries the risk of hurt, refusing to invest in relationships carries a greater loss. The instinct after betrayal is to avoid all discomfort—through anger, numbness, or distance—what is termed avoidance coping. Yet this maladaptive strategy usually multiplies suffering, for what we resist tends to persist; in shielding ourselves from connection, relationships wither and cause the very pain we feared. We seek refuge and safety, but often flee into false refuges that offer only temporary comfort while causing greater damage the longer we dwell in them. Breaking free begins with a single small step—reading one verse of the Qur'an, gazing at a picture from a happier time, or gently affirming, "I am worthy of being loved." There is no better place to regain a sense of security than in one's relationship with Allah, for He is beyond all comparison with human beings. In truth, we trust Allah with every breath that reaches our lungs and every bite that nourishes us; to claim we can never trust again is contradicted by how we live each moment. Human guarantees may fail, but Allah's promise never does: "It is the promise of Allah. Allah does not fail in His promise, but most of the people do not know." Often we ask for what we want rather than what we need, for "perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not." Every supplication, moreover, is heard, though its answer may take an unexpected form. The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah grants one who supplicates one of three things: He hastens its fulfillment, stores it in the Hereafter, or diverts an evil equal to it—and when the Companions said they would then ask for more, he said, "Allah has even more." Thus the pain of a betrayal may itself be a form of protection or a diverted harm. Since we cannot trust one we do not know, reconnecting with Allah comes through knowing His Names and Attributes. The story of Yusuf عليه السلام illustrates this: betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused by his master's wife, and unjustly imprisoned, he was nonetheless protected at every turn by Allah, who was "closer to him than his jugular vein." What seemed like ruin was in fact his path to honor. At the end, Yusuf called upon Allah by two Names: al-Lateef, the Subtle and Gracious, who tends to the hidden details of our circumstances, and al-Wali, the loving Protector and Guardian who defends us from harms we never perceive. Even one so beloved to Allah endured betrayal, so the cruelty of others is no measure of Allah's love for us. To soothe the heart's capacity for trust, one may take up the daily practice reported in the hadith: whoever says morning and evening, "I am content with Allah as my Lord, Islam as my religion, and Muhammad as my Prophet," has a promise from Allah to please him on the Day of Resurrection. Reframing one's despair into the words, "Allah will never disappoint me," and grasping "the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it," one reclaims the power surrendered to those who caused harm, and begins, by Allah's mercy, the journey of healing. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/in-pursuit-of-conviction-i-faith-certainty # Faith & Certainty | In Pursuit of Conviction **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 13, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Muslims trying to hold on to their faith in environments hostile to Islam—or to religion in general—often find themselves struggling to achieve a calming sense of certainty for the beliefs they hold.[^1] The ‘In Pursuit of Conviction’ series aims to restore clarity and conviction in the fundamentals of our faith as Muslims through an interdisciplinary approach that combines revelation and theology with research in psychology, neuroscience, and other academic fields. With this approach, we will be examining the six core beliefs that serve as the foundation of faith: belief in God, Angels, Scripture, Prophethood, Afterlife, and Destiny.[^2] Through this analysis, we hope to nurture conviction in the hearts of Muslims around the globe who are struggling to understand the value of their faith. This first article serves as an introduction to the series, focusing on understanding the phenomena of faith and certainty themselves. --- ## Preface In this article, we mainly build on the work of modern Muslim thinkers, Allama Iqbal (d. 1938 CE)[^3] and Malik Bennabi (d. 1973 CE)[^4] as well as the medieval polymath, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH)[^5] regarding the nature of faith, knowledge, and certainty. Iqbal and Bennabi wrote extensively on a problem that they foresaw would arise in the Muslim conscience due to the influence of western thought on Muslims around the world at the turn of the 20th century. They were concerned that Muslims would adopt a Cartesian approach to knowledge and, as a result, start to lose confidence and conviction in their faith due to failing to realize its intellectual underpinnings. Bennabi writes in *The Qur’anic Phenomenon*, > *For a long time, our faith on this point has depended on the principle of authority, which can hardly keep pace with the demands of the minds of an elite already captivated by positivism.*[^6] And > *Whatever it may be, the problem of Qur’anic exegesis arises at two levels: firstly, the problem of religious conviction at the level of the intellectual and secondly, the problem of the popular ideas at the level of the layman.*[^7] While many thinkers attempted to construct arguments and proofs from within the western paradigm, Iqbal and Bennabi recognized the weakness of that approach and provided strong critiques against rationalism and empiricism. Iqbal describes the fall of rationalism in the Western and Muslim world in *The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam*, > *With the elimination of dogma came the utilitarian view of morality, and thus rationalism completed the reign of unbelief. Such was the state of theological thought in Germany when Kant appeared. His* Critique of Pure Reason *revealed the limitations of human reason and reduced the whole work of the rationalists to a heap of ruins...Ghazali’s Philosophical scepticism which, however, went a little too far, virtually did the same kind of work in the world of Islam in breaking the back of that proud but shallow rationalism which moved in the same direction as pre-Kantian rationalism in Germany.*[^8] Ibn al-Qayyim lived in a very different time in Islamic history but, as Iqbal explains, medieval scholars were also under the influence of a radical rationalistic approach to knowledge. Ibn al-Qayyim, like his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), criticized the trend within the Muslim scholastic tradition of attempting to articulate philosophical proofs for the existence of God. Ibn Taymiyyah writes in his introduction to *Radd alaa Mantaqiyeen*, > *I have always known that Greek logic is not necessary for any intelligent minded person and it does not provide any benefit to any light-minded individual...and it is clear to me that most of what they mention regarding the Divine reality and logic comes from false assumptions regarding God.*[^9] In the same vein, Ibn Qayyim also criticized these philosophical proofs, > *They are not able to affirm the existence of the Lord (*rabb*), the messenger, nor any other of the foundations of faith that are necessary for the happiness (*sa’adah*) of the servant.*[^10] He saw these arguments as coming from the Greek Hellenistic tradition that failed to engender any true knowledge of God: > *They wish to show that a possible existent (*mumkin*) requires a necessary existent (*waajib*)...As for the existence of God, the One who is the only worthy of our devotion, the Ever Living, the Sustainer of all, the Irresistible...Who has knowledge of the hidden matters, Who Sees, Hears, Speaks, is Pleased...then their proof and logical premises do not prove any of these essential realities of faith that are shared by the believers.*[^11] Iqbal also recognized this problem regarding the rational and empirical attempts to prove God, > *I hope I have made it clear to you that the ontological and the teleological arguments, as ordinarily stated, carry us nowhere...This view of thought gives us a mere mechanician in the one case, and creates an unbridgeable gulf between the ideal and the real in the other.*[^12] From this perspective, Ibn al-Qayyim provides powerful insights into the nature of faith and certainty in many of his works including *Tareeq ul-Hijratayn*, *As-Sawaa’iq al-Mursala*, *Miftaah Dar as-Sa’adah*, and *Madarij as-Salikeen*. Building on the legacy of these scholars, we will integrate research from fields such as neuroscience and psychology, as well as examine revelation to provide further insight into the phenomena of faith and conviction, while demonstrating the inadequacy of dogmatic rationalism and empiricism. The paper is divided into three sections: i) The Spiritual Instinct, ii) The Necessity of Faith and iii) Attaining Certainty. The first section describes the starting point when it comes to approaching questions about the unseen world. The second section explains faith and its relation to values and reason, demonstrating its necessity. The last section focuses on understanding certainty as a spiritual-emotional experience rather than a theoretical property of a specific argument. We hope that this article provides a framework for Muslims to understand the role of faith in their lives and an alternative Qur’anically-rooted approach to discovering the Truth of this world. --- ## Section 1: The spiritual instinct Spirituality has been an integral part of the human condition throughout history and across civilizations. The spiritual instinct may manifest as an impulse that there is something greater beyond this existence; a desire to reach beyond the stars to a reality outside of this world. Through art, poetry, mythology, rituals,, and religious traditions, humans until today have attempted to conceptualize, describe, and experience the Divine. Iqbal explains, > *The revealed and mystic literature of mankind bears ample testimony to the fact that religious experience has been too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be rejected as mere illusion.*[^13] In the modern period, despite prevailing attitudes of materialism, naturalism, and hedonism, the human need for spiritual expression persists. Carl Jung explains that the field of psychology in the West was, in fact, driven by a neglected spiritual outlet, “*So also a spiritual need has produced in our time our ‘discovery’ of psychology*.”[^14] Even the popular atheist writer, Sam Harris, has actively promoted the concept of engaging in meditation to reach profound spiritual states.[^15] Moreover, contemporary psychologist Robert Emmons has argued for the integration of spirituality to further our understanding of the human mind, recognizing it as a type of intelligence.[^16] Such a strong universal drive suggests that human beings possess a spiritual instinct that inclines them toward the transcendent. Iqbal has described prayer as a type of instinct, “*Thus you will see that, psychologically speaking, prayer is instinctive in its origin*.”[^17] This is consistent with the Qur’anic view, > *And when humanity is touched with hardship, he calls upon Us, whether lying on his side, or sitting, or standing*.[^18] Recent insights in neuroscience have lent further support to the claim that spirituality can be conceived as instinctual. Andrew Newberg, a physician and neuroscientist, described the limbic system as the ‘seat of the soul’ and demonstrated its role in human spiritual experiences.[^19] In his book, he provides neurological correlations for a range of spiritual expressions including rituals, religious beliefs, mystical experiences, and transcendence which led him to the conclusion that these were instinctual and to be taken as serious avenues toward perceiving ultimate reality. > *But science has surprised us, and our research has left us no choice but to conclude that the mystics may be on to something, that the mind’s machinery of transcendence may in fact be a window through which we can glimpse the ultimate realness of something that is truly divine*.[^20] Allah has described the spiritual instinct in the Qur’an as part of the *fitrah* with which every human being has been endowed, > *So turn your face toward the true natural way of life—God’s chosen* fitrah *(constitution) upon which He has formed humanity. There is no altering the primary state of God’s creation. That is the correct way of life though most people fail to realize it. It is the path of turning towards God, remaining dutiful to Him, establishing prayer, and being not of those who ascribe partners to Him.*[^21] It is fascinating that the Qur’anic term for ‘disbelief,’ *kufr*, linguistically carries the meaning of covering up and repressing by burying something in the ground. When we think about *kufr* in the context of the spiritual instinct, we can understand it as covering up and repressing an instinctual drive. A recent study into the psychology of disbelief describes this exact process, cognitively, > *Therefore, atheism is possible, but requires some hard cognitive work to reject or override the intuitions that nourish religious beliefs.*[^22] Bennabi argues that seeing spirituality as an instinct delivers a lethal blow to the worldview of naturalism and, by extension, atheism.[^23] According to Bennabi, if we concede that the cross-cultural consistency of spiritual expression arises from an instinctive process, then we place the phenomenon of religion “at the level of cosmic facts together with natural laws.”[^24] Therefore, if we accept empirical and logical facts based on our instinctive capacity for sensory perception and our innate cognitive ability to reason, we must also accept the spiritual impulse that drives us to believe in the metaphysical unseen realm (*ghayb*). He explains that religion “appears to be inscribed in the order of the universe as a law characteristic of the human spirit.”[^25] Denying the legitimacy of our spiritual faculty would also question the validity of all other processes of the mind (including sensory perception and reasoning) since they are derived from the same source. This disingenuous attitude is described in the Qur’an in relation to revelation, “So do you believe in part of the book and deny the other part?”[^26] This is analogous to arbitrarily trusting some of our faculties (empirical and rational sense) and distrusting others (spiritual sense). Bennabi explains that humans exist in a dual plane of reality that is comprised of the physical and metaphysical world. This is why, > *Peoples’ customs and habits are moulded by a metaphysical preoccupation that inclines even the smallest village together around a small hut, deliberately and carefully built as a meeting place for spiritual devotions varying in their primitiveness*.[^27] He goes on to comment, > *That that human consciousness has thus faced, throughout all the phases of its development, the metaphysical problem with such regularity is itself an issue which sociologists wished to resolve by characterizing man as ‘a fundamentally religious animal*.’[^28] Included within this metaphysical world and the spiritual impulse is the existence of ethics and a moral imperative that drives much of human behavior. Bennabi explains this as > *an ideal of moral perfection towards which civilization has never ceased to move as its essential and ultimate goal.*[^29] Thus, from the Islamic perspective, intellectual, moral, and spiritual pursuits are unified in the pursuit of God. This is the essence of *tawheed* (Islamic monotheism), the fundamental message of the Islamic worldview, as [Nazir Khan](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/dr-nazir-khan/) writes: > Tawheed *blends spiritual, moral and intellectual—the spiritual goal of coming closer to God entails the moral goal of doing good towards His creation, and the intellectual goal of analyzing the signs of God in scripture and nature.*[^30] The intellectual journey that seeks knowledge of the physical and metaphysical world are, in reality, knowledge of the Divine Will. The moral journey that seeks to actualize qualities such as compassion, justice, generosity, and kindness are in reality, submitting to the Will of The Most Compassionate, The Most Just, The Most Generous, and The Most Kind. The spiritual journey that seeks a connection with the transcendent involves seeking The Transcendent Who is beyond this world. ### Differing approaches to spirituality One of the biggest pitfalls people fall into when they approach spirituality is the failure to apprehend its purpose in the grand scheme of the human being. Some factions view it purely as a feeling to be achieved, providing the individual with mystical states of euphoria akin to intoxication through substances. Indeed, some spiritual practitioners utilize psychedelics as a means of reaching higher spiritual states. In these states, it is said that an individual experiences a heightened awareness of reality, recognizing its true nature. In essence, they describe experiencing a revelation. Others view spirituality as engaging in traditional rituals. These rituals endow a person’s day-to-day life with a sense of tradition but do not penetrate their heart. Furthermore, the rituals often don’t conform with any clear religious or rational authority. Some take rituals to an extreme and neglect the needs of the flesh as seen in monasticism. > *And we instilled compassion and mercy into the hearts of those who followed him (Jesus). But monasticism was something they invented—We did not ordain it for them—only to seek God’s pleasure, and even so, they did not observe it properly.*[^31] The first approach provides the human being with mystical experiences that result in purely subjective knowledge regarding the nature of reality. These experiences do not provide the individual with knowledge of their purpose in life. Recognizing the inherent unity in things, experiencing ‘pure consciousness’ or other mystical states does not inform us of what our life means or why we are here. The end result is confusion. The second approach provides the human being with a belief system and a set of rituals but fails to provide any intellectual, moral, or spiritual growth. The end result is dogmatism. These two extremes are encapsulated in the most significant prayer of Islam, known as *Al-Fatiha* (The Opening): > *Guide us to the straight path. The path that You have bestowed Your favor upon, not (the path) of those who have earned anger, nor those who have gone astray.*[^32] The two divergent paths are described as *maghdoob alayhim* (anger is upon them) and *daaleen* (those who are lost). Ibn Qutayba mentions that *dalaal* refers to confusion and swerving from the truth, something that appropriately depicts those who are fixated on achieving mystical states.[^33] And, according to Ibn Kathir, *maghdoob alayhim* are those whose actions are corrupt despite the fact that they know the truth.[^34] This appropriately depicts the dogmatic attitude of those who hold to religious beliefs but do not let them transform their character. ### Toward a balanced spirituality So how can we differentiate a balanced spirituality from misplaced spirituality rooted in extreme neglect or obsession? The answer is known to us intuitively and we engage in the same corrective processes for our other faculties on a daily basis. We are well aware of the multitude of limitations and numerous biases that affect the judgment of our rationality and sense-perception. We often use our reasoning skills but end up making one of the near hundred logical fallacies when attempting to articulate an argument. Sometimes we use our sense-perception and get fooled by optical illusions. By integrating all our faculties together and being critical of our judgment, we are able to correct these misunderstandings. We recognize optical illusions as illusions, indicating our other faculties are enabling us to understand the truth, even if we are experiencing something contrary to it through one epistemological outlet. Thus, it is essential that we seek to understand and interpret our spiritual experiences in light of our entire lived experience. #### Intellectual experience For instance, Allama Iqbal mentions the important role of rationality when it comes to understanding spirituality, > *Indeed, in view of its function, religion stands in greater need of a rational foundation of its ultimate principles than even the dogmas of science*.[^35] Ibn al-Qayyim also mentions that spiritual experiences can come from satanic delusions, > *Everyone should fear that their spiritual experience may be a delusion from Satan.* People often mistakenly place their spiritual experiences above common sense notions as fundamental as self, identity, and memories. For instance, Sam Harris argues “conventional sense of self is an illusion—and...spirituality largely consists in realizing this, moment to moment.”[^36] This view sees spirituality in a constant battle with something as intuitive as acknowledging the existence of our own self. #### Moral experience Furthermore, Harris also separates spirituality from morality, > *The link between self-transcendence and moral behavior is not as straightforward as we might like. It would seem that people can have genuine spiritual insights, and a capacity to provoke those insights in others, while harboring serious moral flaws.*[^37] However, this presentation of morality as wholly separate from the human spiritual instinct is dubious, unfounded, and based on a superficial representation of spirituality. It is in attaining moral excellence that humans achieve the most rewarding spiritual experiences and find meaning in life while, on the other hand, departing from one’s moral values precipitates spiritual deterioration. Interestingly, the Qur’an explains that those who seek a life without God will forget themselves and succumb to moral corruption and wickedness. > *And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. They are the ones who are defiantly wicked (*fasiqun*)*.[^38] #### Sacred experience Moreover, one’s spiritual journey must inform a person of what is sacred in their life. Disbelieving in the sacred renders the spiritual pursuit fundamentally pointless. Kenneth Pargament, one of the pioneering psychologists of spirituality and religion, states, > *I see spirituality as a search for the sacred. It is, I believe, the most central function of religion. It has to do with however people think, feel, act, or interrelate in their efforts to find, conserve, and if necessary, transform the sacred in their lives.*[^39] The sacredness of a thing is based on how related it is to a person’s understanding of ‘the holy.’ This represents a person’s ultimate concern in life and provides a person with meaning and purpose.[^40] Spirituality requires this transcending force nested in the overall purpose of a person’s life. A fascinating study in neuroscience demonstrates the significance of purpose to the psyche of the human being. In this study, well-being was associated with the left hemisphere of the prefrontal cortex, an area that is associated with engaging in goal-oriented activities.[^41] Thus, having a purpose in one’s life can be seen as a neurological necessity in making a life worth living. Searching for the purpose of life has been hard-wired into our brain and compels us to seek answers to this existential question and live by its consequences. Through an understanding of one’s purpose in life, a person is able to sanctify and transform the mundane into the spiritual. Robert Emmons, one of the leading psychologists of spirituality, explains, > *To sanctify means to set apart for a special purpose—for a holy or a godly purpose. A recognition of the presence of the divine in ordinary activities is an aspect of spiritual knowing in all major religions of the world*.[^42] Pargament also comments on the process of sanctification, > *There may be important consequences of the sanctification process. A job is likely to be approached differently when it becomes a vocation. A marriage likely takes on special power when it receives divine sanction. The search for meaning, community, self, or a better world are likely to be transformed when they are invested with sacred character.*[^43] ### Islamic paradigm of spirituality: Tawheed Spirituality arises from a coherent conception of reality that unifies the intellectual, moral, and sacred dimensions of life as seen in the Islamic conception of *tawheed*. It is meant to be an integrative and unifying force that mirrors the unity of the Divine (*tawheed*). As Ibn al-Qayyim beautifully expresses in his poetic treatise *Al-Kaafiya Ash-Shaafiya*, widely known as the *Nooniya*, > *For the One, be one, in one* > > *In the path toward Truth and faith.*[^44] Meaning, for the sake of the *One* God, be *one* in your ambition and pursuit of *one* path that leads a person to understand Truth. From the Islamic perspective, the spiritual journey is seen as a unification of all pursuits of a human being toward Truth. Thus, true spiritual development arises from a journey towards God through the mobilization of intellectual, moral, and sacred ambitions. It does not ignore a person’s rational approach to the world, a person’s strongly held moral ideals, nor a person’s need for purpose. Rather, when a person realizes that the unified pursuit of the Divine is the fulfillment of all their needs, an internal unification occurs that results in a person becoming a unique individual. Unlike other popular notions of spirituality, *tawheed* is not based on the eradication of the ‘self,’ but the actualization of it. As Allama Iqbal mentions in his introduction to the widely acclaimed Farsi poem, *Secrets of the Self*, > *Thus, man becomes unique by becoming more and more like the most unique Individual. What then is life? It is individual: its highest form, so far, is the self (*khudi*) in which the individual becomes a self-contained exclusive centre...The greater his distance from God, the less his individuality.*[^45] While the idea of union with God and extinguishing the self is present in many spiritual traditions, including certain Muslim orders, it is an idea that is absent from any explicit reading of the Qur’an and Prophetic Tradition. Ibn al-Qayyim, in *Madarij as-Salikeen*, has criticized this notion as something that has emerged as an illusion of the mind, akin to an optical illusion, that has not been necessarily tempered with reason and revelation. > *And this matter (spiritual experience) is shared between those who believe and don’t believe in Islam...When a person experiences the complete extinguishing of reality (*fanaa’ al-mutlaq*), then this is an illusion (*wahm*) that contradicts reality, it is simply imagination (*khiyaal*) that throws a person into a deep ocean with no shore, entering into a dark night with no dawn.*[^46] ### Conclusion This section has explored the reality of the spiritual instinct that exists within every human being. It behooves us to consider the true expression of this instinct, as it will form the basis of our entire value system, along with our purpose and sense of self-worth. It will determine what we choose to pursue in life, as well as provide us with meaning and fulfillment. These are vital components of our lives and approaching them from a false paradigm will necessarily have severe consequences. --- ## Section II: The necessity of faith The preceding section has established the existence of a spiritual drive within the human being that inspires them to answer existential questions and contemplate a higher reality. These questions cannot be approached purely through abstract reasoning, nor purely through seeking spiritual experiences. Rather, what is required is for an individual to approach these questions by integrating one’s entire being, merging the rational, moral and spiritual dimensions to produce the greatest feature of the human being: faith. ### What is faith? Faith is one of the most misunderstood theological concepts in the history of religion. The Qur’an mentions that the details of faith were not fully grasped even by the Prophet ﷺ prior to revelation. > *You knew neither the Scripture nor the faith, but We made it a light, guiding with it whoever We will of Our servants.*[^47] In fact, the first theological controversy in Islamic history was a debate surrounding the nature and reality of faith. Some schisms that arose erroneously limited the scope of faith to either a pure theoretical affirmation of the mind or mere verbal utterances of the tongue. However, a comprehensive reading of the Qur’an demonstrates that faith is a complete manifestation of the whole self, comprised of beliefs, feelings, and actions. Ibn Abi’l-‘Izz al-Hanafi (d. 792 AH) explains in his commentary of *‘Aqeedah Tahawiyyah* that the majority of the early Muslim scholars saw faith as a reality that emerges from the heart (feeling), tongue (belief), and limbs (action).[^48] This holistic expression being the essence of faith is one of the reasons why the Qur’an refers to *salah* (Muslim prayer) as faith itself. The *salah* is a complete manifestation of faith such that one’s entire physical body, mental attention, and spiritual focus are engaged. God says regarding the prayer, “*God will not let your faith go to waste*.”[^49] Therefore, contrary to the conventional understanding that faith is belief in the absence of evidence, this view regards faith as the foundation of every human being’s life. Moreover, faith is not merely a feeling that cannot be articulated. It contains intelligible content that serves as an organizing principle that renders life meaningful, inspiring individuals with their deepest aspiration and providing them with beliefs about themselves and the world. Faith, far from being irrational, is an inescapable reality for every human being living in this world. As Muslim thinker Allama Iqbal writes, “It is neither mere thought, nor mere feeling, nor mere action; it is an expression of the whole man.”[^50] ### Faith in the unseen We don’t just experience the material world, we experience the metaphysical (*ghayb*) realm at every moment. Every snapshot of reality we witness is grasped through the lens of moral values (good and evil), the lens of aesthetic values (beauty and ugly), and the lens of epistemic values (truth and falsehood). These transcendent ideals are held deep in the hearts of humankind. However, these realities are not known through any logical deduction, nor any empirical sense. They can only be known through the gateway of faith. The Qur’an starts with an imperative to place one’s faith in the unseen, > *This is a book about which there is no doubt. It is guidance for people mindful of God. **Those who have faith in the unseen**, establish the prayer and give from what We have provided them with.*[^51] ### The necessity of faith Understanding faith as a necessity allows us to appreciate its reality and function in our lives. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that human beings are dependent creatures and thus require an understanding of what will bring their lives true fulfillment and joy. Conversely, they must also understand what brings about the pain and misery of existence so they can actively fight against it. > *It is known that every living thing besides Allah...is in dire need (*faqeer*) of achieving benefit and thwarting harm. This cannot be accomplished except by identifying the \[ultimate source of\] benefit and harm.*[^52] Ibn al-Qayyim explains that, without this set of beliefs, a person would not be able to thrive, nor even sustain their existence. It is important to note that merely satisfying the biological needs of human beings does not bring about a fulfilling and meaningful life, nor does it protect against the pain of existence. Many wealthy people cannot escape the suffering of life, as they have neither sought after the true source of fulfillment nor protected against the ultimate source of pain. Whatever a person chooses to believe are sources of benefit and harm in their life forms their sense of purpose and drives their deepest ambitions and aspirations. This forms the basis for an individual’s value system. Regardless if a person professes belief in an official creed or not, every single human being, the atheist, the agnostic, and the religionist has a value system. Faith in this value system is what drives us to act in the world despite the immense resistance that we face while pursuing our most strongly held dreams. It is what tells us that life is worth living and that the pain we experience is worth the gift of life. > *Whoever, male or female, does acts of goodness while they are believers, then We will awaken them to a blessed life*.[^53] ### Faith is not irrational The vehicle that carries an individual from the shore of reality onto the sea of life is a person’s faith. It is the ship upon which a person traverses the great ocean of life with its waves that take an individual through the ups and downs of destiny. The bearing of the ship points toward the horizon, beyond what can be physically seen to a reality that is perceived by faith. The ship is an extension of a person’s entire being, integrated and working together to carry them to their ultimate aspirations. The analogy of religion to a ship has been made by Imam Malik (d. 170 AH), > *The prophetic tradition is like the ark of Noah: whoever embarks on it will be saved, and whoever leaves it will drown.*[^54] So, far from being an irrational belief, faith is the starting point of every person’s journey of life and the very justification for rationality itself. Rationality is impotent on its own due to the fact that it cannot sustain itself. Why should we trust that our innate cognitive abilities provide us with an accurate representation of reality? Indeed, through the lens of evolution, the entire process is nothing more than the amalgamation of a series of random mutations, which casts doubt on its own merit. Therefore rationality has to depend on another method of inquiry that is self-sustaining. This paradox has been identified by serious evolutionary scientists. Max Delbrück[^55] writes, > *Our concrete mental operations are indeed adaptations to the mode of life in which we had to compete for survival a long, long, time before science...Why, then, do the formal operations of the mind carry us so much further? Were those abilities not also matters of biological evolution? If they, too, evolved to let us get along in the cave, how can it be that they permit us to obtain deep insights into cosmology, elementary particles, molecular genetics, number theory? To this question I have no answer.*[^56] Faith is the reality that enables us to validate and utilize all our faculties, skills, and talents to reach our destiny in life. It cannot be considered ‘irrational’ because it is the very justification for rationality. Allama Iqbal explains the complex relationship of reason and faith, > *Thus, in the evaluation of religion, philosophy (reason) must recognize the central position of religion and has no other alternative but to admit it as something focal in the process of reflective synthesis.*[^57] Faith is the necessary foundation to pursue meaning in this world.[^58] Paul Davies, a contemporary physicist, in his article “Taking Science on Faith,” explains, “All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way.”[^59] Therefore, science represents a faithful approach to the world, believing that there is knowledge to discover. Hence, faith cannot be considered a mere unprovable assumption, for it is an ontological reality beyond the grasp of ‘rational’ or ‘empirical’ proof. Trusting our reason and empirical senses is dependent on faith, so how can it challenge faith’s existence? Ibn al-Qayyim explains that Islamic theologians viewed faith as a necessity, rather than an idea that required proof. He quotes them by saying, “How can I seek proof for the One who is a Proof for everything.”[^60] Faith is the only way meaningful way forward in response to the sea of the unknown we are confronted with. Set sail or stay stranded on the island of darkness, despair, and nihilism. > *Whoever turns away from My Remembrance, then for them is a miserable life.*[^61] For those who refuse to construct the ship of faith, they are doomed to a life without purpose, meaning, or values. Hence, the rejection of faith is the very pinnacle of irrationality and immorality. Moreover, the question of what makes life worth living is not one that lends itself to being answered through syllogistic reasoning or mathematical equations. Nor is it something that can be uncovered by examining one’s material existence empirically, analyzing each cell of the human body. The avenue of faith is the only way to access these deeper questions of human existence. ### Finding true faith So we have explained the nature of faith and established its necessity to human existence. But how can a person differentiate true faith from false faith? It is important to note that reason is not separate from faith, but an integral part of its whole. So, while reason does not supersede faith nor challenge its reality, it plays a vital role in evaluating whether the content of faith is true or false. Allama Iqbal mentions the importance of faith being consistent with rational principles, > *Now, since the transformation and guidance of man’s inner and outer life is the essential aim of religion, it is obvious that the general truths which it embodies must not remain unsettled. No one would hazard action on the basis of a doubtful principle of conduct.*[^62] Therefore, having faith in realities that violate rational principles is not true faith. > *For that is Allah , your Lord, the Truth. And what can be beyond truth except error? So how are you averted?*[^63] Similarly, having faith that violates strongly held moral convictions cannot be considered the right thing to pursue. > *And when they commit an immorality, they say, “We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has ordered us to do it.” Say, “Indeed, Allah does not order immorality. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know?”*[^64]  > > *Say, “How wretched is that which your faith enjoins upon you, if you should be believers.”*[^65] Lastly, having faith that does not provide a person a reason to live can never fill the void inside the human spirit. > *And whoever turns away from My Remembrance—indeed, he will have a depressed life and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind.*[^66] All dimensions must be merged to produce the reality of faith deep inside our conscious. All these components form the criterion that evaluates the truthfulness of a person’s faith: *sidq* (authenticity). One must endeavor to ensure that the faith they express is truly a reflection of who they are. This authenticity is challenged by the alluring nature of the worldly life and all its temptations that tarnish the pure nature of humanity. This prevents them from confirming truth when it comes to them, as they are not being true to themselves. > *And who is more oppressive than the one who lies about Allah and lies about the truth when it comes to them.*[^67] Therefore, the journey of faith is the journey of searching for authenticity and manifesting a lifestyle congruent with one’s pure nature. Ibn al-Qayyim describes this process as *riyaadha*, where a person trains themselves to remove biases, societal pressures, inherited cultural beliefs, and the like so that they are able to live an authentic existence. > *The station of* riyaadha *is training the self to be authentic (*sidq*) and sincere (*ikhlaas*)*.[^68] The greatest companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was named *As-Siddeeq* (the confirmer of truth) which captures the authentic attitude of Abu Bakr toward his faith. He was known for his uncompromising commitment to the truth, being ready to accept it whenever it came, despite any barriers and challenges. ### Faith in Islam According to the Islamic tradition, there are two layers of faith that can settle in the heart. The first layer is the faith that emerges from the *fitrah* that provides the human being with an innate set of beliefs and motivations that orients them in the direction of Truth.[^69] The second layer of faith is that which emerges from a person’s encounter with *wahi* (revelation) that complements the primordial faith like a glove on a hand. The revelation is meant to guide the pursuit that flows from the first layer of faith, answering deeper questions and clarifying the way forward. From the Islamic perspective, if a person is true to themselves, the first layer of faith will emerge. This faith manifests as a strong desire to connect with the Divine Reality characterized by all the qualities of beauty, goodness, power, and perfection. This is expressed through refining one’s character with these values and attempting to experience the divine reality through spiritual practices. People at the first layer of faith are described as *hunafaa*, possessing the primordial faith instinctive to mankind, “Inclining \[only\] to Allah, not associating \[anything\] with Him.”[^70] But this faith is incomplete, like a ship at sea without a map or a compass to deliver passengers to their destination. What is the Divine Reality? What does this Reality expect from me? Why did this Reality place me here? The Divine Reality that human beings naturally seek expressed His Will through the phenomenon of *wahi* to a select category of his creation. We know them through history as prophets. They receive articulated forms of revelation that enabled the ideas to spread among a society of people. A person recognizes the Truth of revelation by examining its message and analyzing the character of the messenger. > *Do they not ponder upon the Qur’an? Had it been from other than Allah they would have found in it much discrepancy*.[^71]  > > *Say I only advise you to one thing, that you stand for the sake of Allah, in pairs or in isolation and then reflect. Your companion (the Prophet Muhammad) is not insane.*[^72] When a person sees the revelation as congruent with their first layer of faith, sees the signs of its divine origin, and recognizes the sincerity of the messenger, a new layer of faith emerges in the heart. Confirming this truth flows from living an authentic existence. > *And the one who brings the Truth and the one who confirms it, they are the righteous.*[^73] The Qur’an describes the moment people recognize the truth of revelation, the culmination of a journey of faith: > *And when they hear what has been revealed to the messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth. They say, “Our Lord, we have believed, so write us among the witnesses.”*[^74] At the moment of finding the Truth that they have sought their entire life, journeying through the seas of confusion and obscurity, their heart illuminates. The dawn of revelation radiates the light of guidance to a world already shimmering with the light of the first layer of faith. This produces the effect of light upon light. > *Light upon light, Allah guides to His light whoever He Wills.*[^75] These two lights are the two layers of faith and are captured in the *shahada*, the first pillar of Islam, > *I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His messenger.* Once these truths are witnessed, a person achieves faith in the heart in its full form. They find in this faith an authentic expression of their entire being. From this faith arises a conviction that endows a person’s will with the fire of determination. From this faith arises love, in its purest form: Divine Love, untarnished by self-interests and dependency. From this faith arises hope so powerful that it can withstand any storm that comes its way, granting the individual courage to overcome the trials of life in pursuit of their ultimate destiny. From this faith arises fear. This is not a fear that limits a person’s potential. Rather, it is a fear that expands the boundaries of the possible for an individual. It is the fear that a person will not be able to achieve what their faith is carrying them toward. This possibility lurks in the spirit of this faithful soul, obliterating the presence of any self-limiting fears that hold a person back from achieving their greatest aspiration. It is the fear that aids a person to temper their passions as they recognize the dark places their desires can lead them. This is a fear that is freeing and breaks the shackles of this world, allowing a person to soar to the sky with their wings outstretched. The everlasting bond of faith endlessly inspires, continuously supports, and constantly reminds us of our ultimate purpose as we journey through life. ### Conclusion In summary, the human being is brought into the world with a spiritual inclination to answer the big questions of life, the ability to reason, and a strong belief in moral values. Faith brings the human being into an authentic existence by mobilizing one’s spirituality, intellectuality, and morality to discover the answers to the questions that confront the deepest aspects of one’s consciousness. Far from conventional definitions of faith being belief in the absence of evidence, faith is an essential part of being human. It is the decision to see life as meaningful, to pursue the ideals we hold deep inside, to live life, and accept all that it reveals to us at every moment. Rejecting faith involves suppressing what appears readily and instinctively in our consciousness. It involves denying the beauty that is seen as we gaze upon the skies, suppressing the moral inclinations we feel in response to an atrocity, and ignoring the questions that confront us on a daily basis. > *So whoever disbelieves in false gods and has faith in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.*[^76] --- ## Section III: Attaining certainty ### What is certainty? Certainty is often viewed as a passive mental state that is exclusively related to the exposure to evidence for a particular truth claim. This view holds that achieving certainty is an intellectual exercise and can be achieved through reasoning alone. According to this notion, if one is not certain (or in doubt) about something, it necessarily implies that the problem either lies in the rationality of the idea itself or the individual’s insufficient exposure to the evidence for said idea. This is the basic assumption of modern skepticism. Rene Descartes (d. 1650 CE) defined perfect certainty as “*a conviction so firm that it is quite incapable of being destroyed*” and perfect knowledge as “*impossible for us ever to have any reason for doubting what we are convinced of*.”[^77] Immanuel Kant (d. 1804 CE) describes the attitude of the modern age thus: > *Our age is the genuine age of criticism, to which everything must submit...reason grants only to that which has been able to withstand its free and public examination*.[^78] These ideas have been perniciously inherited by many Muslims across the world through the globalization of western intellectual culture and its epistemic perspectives. Thus, if a person is not convinced of the existence of God, for instance, and they have been exposed to all the proofs and arguments, it must mean that belief in God is irrational. Iqbal explains the plight of the modern believer, > *Moreover, the modern man, by developing habits of concrete thought—habits which Islam itself fostered at least in the earlier stages of its cultural career—has rendered himself less capable of that experience which he further suspects because of its liability to illusion.*[^79] And so the war rages on inside the minds and hearts of young Muslims who are struggling to hold on to their faith while not feeling a sense of certainty or intellectual clarity. They equate the absence of personal conviction with the absence of rationality of their faith. Despite being exposed to all the arguments, evidence, and proofs that have been provided by scholars, speakers, debaters, friends, and family, they can’t ever seem to be convinced. ### Certainty as an emotion Contrary to the idea that conviction lies in our exposure to evidence for a belief, recent developments in the field of metacognition suggest a different conceptualization of certainty.[^80] They have described it as a feeling that arises from parts of the brain that are associated with emotional processing (the limbic system).[^81] Therefore, from a neurophysiological perspective, certainty seems to contain an emotional response to a particular idea, rather than a purely intellectual one. Understanding this dimension of certainty helps us make sense of everyday lived experiences. We often feel certain about things we don’t consciously know. This is captured in the “tip-of-the-tongue” paradox of not being able to remember a name, place, thing, or word, but being certain that it is known to us. How is it we can be certain without any conscious knowledge? Conversely, we can also be uncertain about things we consciously know. All evidence, memories, and even witnessed accounts may point toward the fact that you turned off the kitchen stove before you left home. But we can start to experience an unrelenting feeling of uncertainty that can only be quelled by returning to the home and checking “just to be sure.” This phenomenon is taken to an extreme in the mental illness known as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). One study found that pathological subjective uncertainty in the face of objective certainty in individuals with OCD was linked to hyperactivity of the limbic and paralimbic brain regions.[^82] Excessive uncertainty exists along a spectrum and, while the most extreme cases may manifest in mental illness, even healthy individuals can reason in ways that bring them to unjustified uncertainty about something that is clearly true or unjustified certainty in something that is clearly false. In fact, it has been found that using logic and reasoning rarely aids in changing the state of a person’s feelings of knowing.[^83] Most often people engage in logical reasoning to justify a conclusion that they already feel confident about for other psychosocial reasons. Therefore, when one encounters uncertainty, it is not necessarily a proof that there is something wrong with the thing being doubted, but rather it is simply a mental sensation from the limbic system which may be justified or unjustified depending on the context. Feelings of uncertainty regarding faith in God, Islam, or the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ must be considered from this perspective. Perhaps the issue lies in the individual rather than the presence of ‘convincing’ evidence. ### Psychosocial aspects of certainty A person may ask how can we nurture conviction if it seems to arise arbitrarily, rather than meaningfully? The response is that the opposite is true. The research informs us that certainty is a subjective phenomenon that arises from an individual’s psychosocial context. Hence, when subjective certainty does not correlate with objective truth, it means that something in the mind or environment of the individual is out of equilibrium. Consider the example of someone who experienced trauma in childhood with religious authority figures. Due to their social circumstances, their mind has made an emotional association between their religion and trauma. Later in life, when this person interacts with their faith, it can activate an anxiety response in the limbic structures in the brain, leading to feelings that may be interpreted as uncertainty or doubt. The influence of early childhood experiences on faith later in life has been described by Albertz (translated by Waaijman), > *What an individual person hopes for and experiences from God has its frame of reference in what he has experienced in the years of childhood from his parents in terms of love, affection, and security.*[^84] There are many social and psychological factors that can follow this same pathway. This can range from a person who has grown up in a strongly religious household in which religion was associated with limitation, restriction, and punishment to someone who has experienced judgment, ostracization, and loneliness in the Muslim community. There is also the person who has erroneously internalized the belief that certainty is only achieved through evidence, which subsequently transforms any strange transient feelings of uncertainty into intrusive obsessions, shaking the core of their faith. Therefore, taking a holistic approach that addresses the intellectual, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of Muslims struggling with their faith will enable us to build communities of conviction. ### Certainty as a spiritual pursuit We have not yet mentioned the most fundamental and essential quality of certainty. When we take a deeper look at the brain structures associated with the feeling of certainty, we find that they are also the structures associated with spirituality. The limbic system has been termed the “seat of the soul” and is an integral part of our spiritual experiences.[^85] Thus, certainty (*yaqeen*) can be conceived of as a spiritual pursuit at its root. In fact, the spiritual tradition of Islam includes *yaqeen* as a spiritual station that is reached through cultivation of the soul.[^86] The Qur’an elaborates on this understanding with reference to two concepts: *inaabah* (sincerely turning towards the truth and towards God) and *hidayah* (Divine guidance)—“*He guides those who sincerely turn towards Him*.”[^87] Rather than *yaqeen* being a random inexplicable occurrence in the limbic system, or something achieved through argumentation and debate, *yaqeen* can be brought about through sincere reflection and *inaabah*, through which God confers the gift of *yaqeen* upon one’s “limbic system.” Looking at guidance and *yaqeen* as a gift makes sense when we see how often the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ used to pray: “*O Turner of the hearts, make my heart firm upon Your Way*.”[^88] Indeed, even the Prophet of God did not see himself as self-sufficient in the quest for certainty. He ﷺ recognized conviction as a gift from God and was continually connected to Him. In *Madarij as-Salikeen*, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) includes *yaqeen* as a spiritual station one traverses in one’s journey toward Allah. His treatment on the subject provides us with a holistic understanding of the nature of *yaqeen*, the paths toward it, and the role it is meant to play in our lives. #### The nature of yaqeen Ibn al-Qayyim explains that yaqeen is not something that can be acquired through a simple cause-and-effect pathway. > *Achieving certitude cannot occur by virtue of the person’s own ability, it is solely a gift from God that is granted to people as a favor upon them*.[^89] Having said that, he also acknowledges that there are certain means a person can take to make it more likely to receive this gift. > *The truth of the matter is that it (certainty) is earned from the perspective of its means, but it is a pure gift from the perspective of its essence and ontological reality.*[^90] In explaining the reality of *yaqeen*, he quotes Junayd al-Baghdadi (d. 298 AH), > *Yaqeen is the internalization (*istiqraar*) of knowledge that will not turn, change, or waiver in the heart*.[^91] This describes *yaqeen* as involving active processing that occurs due to knowledge that a person has acquired. As mentioned earlier, a person does not have complete control over this processing. It can be seen as an automatic process, akin to the processing of visual stimuli that occurs at the level of the brain. We have no control over our ability to visually process the world. It is automatic but we know that certain things can enhance or diminish this process. The experience of *yaqeen* itself, according to Ibn al-Qayyim, exists on a spectrum of three stages, > *An example of these three degrees is like a person who tells you that he has honey with him. (At this stage) you have no doubt in his testimony. Then you actually see the honey and this increases your* yaqeen*, then you actually taste the honey. The first is reasonable certainty (*‘ilm al-yaqeen*), the second is empirical certainty (*‘ayn al-yaqeen*), the third is ultimate certainty (*haqq al-yaqeen*).*[^92] It does not contradict *yaqeen* to wish for higher levels of certainty; in fact, this is something that naturally flows from having *yaqeen*. This idea is captured in the story of Ibrahim and the birds, > *And remember when Ibrahim said, “My Lord! Show me how you give life to the dead.” Allah responded, “Do you not believe?” Ibrahim replied, “Yes I do, but just so my heart can be reassured.” Allah said, “Then bring four birds, train them to come to you, then cut them into pieces, and scatter them on different hilltops. Then call them back, they will fly to you in haste. And thus you will know that Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.”*[^93] Badr ad-Deen al-Ayni (d. 855 AH) explains that Ibrahim wished to “ascend from *‘ilm al-yaqeen* to *‘ayn al-yaqeen*.”[^94] Ibn Hajr (d. 808 AH) also includes this in his commentary, > *It can be understood that he asked to increase his* yaqeen*, not to say that he was doubtful before. Knowledge has levels of strength, and he intended to ascend from* ‘ilm al-yaqeen *to* ‘ayn al-yaqeen.[^95],[^96] Interestingly, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ commented on this story saying, “We have more right to doubt (*shakk*) than Prophet Ibrahim.”[^97] This aids us in understanding the nature of *yaqeen* and its relation to doubt. Having uncomfortable thoughts or feelings that come to our mind does not contradict *yaqeen* or our faith. In fact, these are proofs of our faith as explained by the Prophet ﷺ in another narration, > *“O Messenger of God, verily we perceive in our minds that which any one of us would consider too grave to even express.” The Prophet replied, “Do you really have such thoughts/feelings?” They said, “Yes.” Upon this he remarked, “That is the manifestation of faith.”*[^98] Imam Nawawi explains how such thoughts paradoxically indicate strong faith. He explains that the person’s reaction to such involuntary thoughts indicates that they are protective of their faith and wish to ensure its security.[^99] The reason they feel uncomfortable and blasphemous is because faith is present. If there was no faith, these thoughts would not cause any dissonance or anxiety. In terms of where these thoughts come from, he quotes Al-Qadhi Iyaadh’s (d. 543 AH) interpretation, > *The Shaytaan only throws these whispers into the minds of those who he has given up on misguiding. So he frustratingly whispers these thoughts out of a deep failure to misguide this person*.[^100] #### The path to yaqeen *Yaqeen* processing at the level of the spirit recognizes the truth in knowledge that is acquired and provides a person with firm conviction in its reality. This concept is further explored when examining certain verses in the Qur’an. For instance, Ibn al-Qayyim comments on the interesting usage of the term *yaqeen* in the Qur’an when describing the clear signs of truth, “*And in the earth are signs for those who are certain*” (Qur’an, 51:20). Ibn al-Qayyim explains, > *God specifies that the people of certainty will be the ones who will be able to benefit from the signs and proofs*.[^101] While the superficial reader may think that it is circular reasoning to state that in order to be convinced of a proof, you need to have prior certainty in what it was trying to prove, the Qur’an actually gives a profound insight into the nature of *yaqeen*. It appropriately describes *yaqeen*, not as a characteristic of the argument or proof, but as the approach of the person. As Imam al-Alusi (d. 1270 AH) comments in his *tafseer*, > *(The people of certainty refer to) the monotheists that take the straight and rational path that leads to true knowledge and understanding, using their piercing insight.*[^102] Therefore *yaqeen* represents a mindset whereby a person is determined to discover the truth and build their understanding. The Qur’an explains that a sincere individual with a *yaqeen* mindset will benefit from their experiences in life, which will ultimately lead them toward the truth. Imam Raazi (d. 606 AH) explains in his commentary on the aforementioned verse, > *The person who achieves certainty (*al-muqin*) is never heedless of God, and sees signs of Him in everything*.[^103] This is in contrast to the *shakk* mindset that is cynical and distrustful of the most obvious of realities and not concerned with building knowledge and understanding. The Qur’an provides a hypothetical example that illustrates the futility of the *shakk* mindset. > *And if we opened for them a gateway from the universe so that they would ascend (through it), they would say, “Our eyes are hallucinating or even worse we have been affected by magic.”*[^104] The *shakk* mindset yields doubtful assumptions, conjecture, and no real knowledge. It comes from the unconscious desire of the *nafs* (self) to avoid the responsibilities of life by being doubtful of any real purpose or meaning, > *They only follow assumptions and whatever their self desires, even though guidance has come to them from their Lord.*[^105] The Qur’an demonstrates how this mindset enables them to reject responsibility for their actions by being skeptical about the reckoning of the next life: > *And when it was said, “Indeed, the promise of Allah is Truth and the Hour \[is coming\]—no doubt about it,” you said, “We know not what is the Hour. We assume only conjecture (*dhann*) and we are not seeking certainty (*yaqeen*).”*[^106] The *yaqeen* mindset is the only epistemological approach that enables a person to acquire true knowledge. It comes from a spirit that yearns for knowledge and understanding of life’s big questions. Therefore, the means we can take to make our hearts more receptive to the gift of *yaqeen* is to furnish in our minds this *yaqeen* mindset. Ibn al-Qayyim describes three signs of this mindset, > *Seeing Allah in everything, returning to Him in every situation (you encounter), seeking His Aid in every circumstance.*[^107] Seeing Allah in everything is about witnessing the Divine Names and Attributes in everything that a person experiences. Returning to Him in every situation is about seeing every life event as an opportunity to come closer to God. Seeking His Aid is about recognizing one’s weaknesses and limitations and finding strength through relying on His Strength to overcome any challenges or obstacles. Cultivating this attitude and approach to life will make a person’s heart a receptacle for the gift of *yaqeen*. A crucial aspect of developing a *yaqeen* mindset requires creating a protective environment in the heart against doubts. We mentioned previously that experiencing feelings of doubt does not necessarily mean an absence of certainty or faith. However, this does not mean that we can be negligent toward these thoughts and let them sink into our hearts. Ibn Taymiyyah provided sagacious advice to Ibn al-Qayyim regarding this point, > *Do not let your heart be a sponge for every doubt and allegation so that it absorbs them and is moistened with nothing else. Instead, make your heart like solid glass; doubts pass over its surface but do not settle on the inside. Thus, the doubts are seen through the clearness of the glass, but are repelled by its firmness. Otherwise, if you allow your heart to drink every doubt you encounter, it will end up affirming them.*[^108] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us how to actively disengage from doubts to avoid absorbing them into our hearts. There are two narrations that provide us with a beautiful strategy to counteract doubts, > *Men will continue to question one another till this is propounded: Allah created all things but who created Allah? He who found himself confronted with such a situation should say: “I have faith in Allah.”*[^109] > > *Satan comes to one of you and says, “Who created so-and-so?” till he says, “Who has created your Lord?” So, when he inspires such a question, one should seek refuge with Allah and give up such thoughts.*[^110] These are profound narrations that provide us with deep insight into the phenomenology of doubt. Firstly, they both speak to the spiraling nature of doubt that starts with one question that carries a person down the rabbit hole of a multitude of unsettling questions and feelings. Secondly, they explain the sources of doubt that can come from either intrusive and obsessive satanic whispering from the inside or from encountering unguided philosophical discourse from the outside. Thirdly, an ‘emergency exit plan’ is provided for those who find themselves in these situations. Declaring one’s faith in Allah represents returning to one’s grounding of certainty after venturing into questions that are beyond the limits of our intellect. The Qur’an deters us from attempting to philosophize realities beyond our intellectual capacity, > *And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart—about all those \[one\] will be questioned.*[^111] Regarding the intrusive and obsessive thoughts that are a result of the [whispering of Satan](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/najwa-awad/are-the-whispers-of-satan-a-type-of-ocd/), the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged us to seek protection in Allah and to actively desist from these doubts. Seeking Divine Aid grants us the strength necessary to prevent these thoughts from being absorbed into our hearts like a sponge, as Ibn Taymiyyah explains. The advice to actively disengage from these thoughts demonstrates to us that we can develop the capacity to choose what thoughts our consciousness focuses on. As discussed by Muslim psychotherapist, [Najwa Awad](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/team/najwa-awad/), certain forms of psychotherapy can be useful in granting us the strategies and tools to take back control of our minds from obsessive and intrusive thoughts.[^112] #### The point of yaqeen People erroneously assume that the sole function of certainty is establishing the veracity of a particular truth claim. As explained, *yaqeen* is not reached through abstract proofs, nor through being convinced of an argument. Rather it is a gift that is received from God that amounts to a spiritual experience. *Yaqeen* is not meant to merely be a theoretical state we experience to put to rest our own insecurities. Rather, it serves a very important practical function in our lives.  It drives our actions. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that “*Yaqeen* is the spirit of the actions of the heart, which are the spirit of the actions of the body.”[^113] Conviction is meant to inspire us with the courage necessary to act in the world based on what we believe. He says, > *If it weren’t for* yaqeen*, no one would choose to embark on the journey to Allah. Moreover, it is only through it (*yaqeen*) that a person is able to stand firm on the path.*[^114] *Yaqeen* is meant to drive contribution by granting us the resolve and determination to work toward a better world. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that knowledge (*ilm*) on its own is not enough to inspire contribution. In fact, it often leads to hesitancy and reluctance to act as a person is aware of all the possible dangers and potentially negative repercussions of that action.[^115] Therefore, a person requires a conviction in their knowledge to feel the burning desire to push one’s boundaries and to be blessed with a relentless drive that reaches beyond the horizon with every step they take. --- ## Conclusion In this article, we have explored the concepts of spirituality, faith, and conviction holistically rooted in the Islamic tradition, drawing on insights from modern psychology and neuroscience. This approach challenges western skepticism and how it views the relationship between reason and faith. We hope that future articles in this series serve as a framework to confront the theological challenges facing the *ummah* today. It is a call to examine the fundamentals of our faith and find a dormant light that can guide us through the confusion of the 21st century. Rather than requiring external evidence or justification, the six pillars of faith themselves may be the evidence and justification necessary to become convinced of our way of life. Through deep reflection on these theological concepts along with their epistemic, spiritual, and moral implications we can transform as individuals and as a community. Thus, we can continue to inspire contribution through conviction. --- ## Notes [^1]: See: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/) [^2]: *Sahih Muslim*, Hadith 60. [^3]: Sir Muhammad Iqbal was a poet, philosopher, and Muslim thinker born in 1877 CE in the Punjab region of India. His studies of Western philosophy in Europe under a number of professors deepened his appreciation for Islam. He was heavily involved in politics and envisioned a Muslim-majority state in India. This idea would come to fruition after his death and be known as Pakistan. \[Aksoy, N. (2015). *Meeting the challenges of modernity as experienced by Said Nursi, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Abduh* (Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University-Graduate School-New Brunswick).\] [^4]: Malik Bennabi was a modernist Muslim thinker born in Constantine, Algeria in 1905 CE. He was a civil engineer by trade but dedicated his life to developing ideas of social reform for the Muslim world. He was heavily influenced by the modernist Muslim movement in North Africa during the time of colonization. He wrote a number of works in French that outlined his views on social change. He is a controversial figure due to his offensive views on race, specifically African communities. The West also views him as controversial due to his ideas regarding Islam and politics, viewing him as an early founder of ‘Islamism.’ \[Naylor, P. C. (2006). The Formative Influence of French Colonialism on the Life and Thought of Malek Bennabi (Malik bn Nabi). *French Colonial History*, *7*(1), 129-142.\] [^5]: Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Abi Bakr is known as Ibn al-Qayyim Jawziyyah due to the fact his father, Abu Bakr ibn Ayub, was the custodian (*qayyim*) of the *Jawziyyah* school in Damascus. Ibn al-Qayyim was born 691 AH/1292 CE in Damascus to a family of scholars. He mastered the Islamic sciences as well as fields such as astronomy and medicine. He wrote extensively on Islamic theology and the Islamic spiritual tradition with profound insight and mastery. \[Krawietz, B. (2006). Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: His Life and Works. *Mamluk Studies Review*,10(2).\] [^6]: Bennabi, M. (2010). *The Qur'anic phenomenon: an essay of a theory on the Qur'an*. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Islamic Book Trust, p. 5. [^7]: Ibid., p. 6. [^8]: Iqbal, M. (2011). *The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam*. Lahore, Pakistan: Iqbal Academy Pakistan, p. 4. [^9]: Taymiyyah, I. (1976). *Ar-Radd alaa al-mantaqiyeen*. Lahore, Pakistan: Dar Tarjuman As-Sunnah,  pp. 3-4. [^10]: Qayyim, I. (2004). *As-Sawa’iq al-mursala*. Riyaadh, Saudi Arabia: Maktabah Ar-Rushd, vol. 1, p. 359. [^11]: Ibid. [^12]: Iqbal, M. (2011). *The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam*, p. 33. [^13]: Ibid., p. 14. [^14]: Jung, C. G. (2014). *Modern man in search of a soul*. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge, p. 205. [^15]: Harris, S. (2014). *Waking up: A guide to spirituality without religion*. New York, USA: Simon and Schuster. [^16]: Emmons, R. A. (2000). Is spirituality an intelligence? Motivation, cognition, and the psychology of ultimate concern. *The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion*, *10*(1), 3-26. [^17]: Iqbal, M. (2011). *The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam*, p. 90. [^18]: Qur’an, 10:12. [^19]: Newberg, A. (2000). *Why god won’t go away: Brain science and the biology of belief*. New York, USA: Random House Publishing. 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Retrieved from [http://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless/](http://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless/) [^59]: Davies, P. (2007 November 24). Taking Science on Faith. *The New York Times*. Retrieved from [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/opinion/24davies.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/opinion/24davies.html) [^60]: Qayyim, I. (2013). *Madarij as-salikeen*. Al-Mansoorah, Egypt: Maktabah Al-Fayyadh, p. 720. [^61]: Qur’an, 20:124. [^62]: Iqbal, M. (2011) *The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam*. Lahore, Pakistan: Iqbal Academy Pakistan, p. 2. [^63]: Qur’an, 10:32. [^64]: Qur’an, 7:28. [^65]: Qur’an, 2:93. [^66]: Qur’an, 20:124. [^67]: Qur’an, 39:32. [^68]: Qayyim, I. (2013). *Madarij as-salikeen*. Al-Mansoorah, Egypt: Maktabah Al-Fayyadh, p. 390. [^69]: Khan, N. (2015, January 1). Fitrah: The Primordial Nature of Man. *Spiritual Perception*. Retrieved from, [http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/](http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/) [^70]: Qur’an, 22:31. [^71]: Qur’an, 4:82. [^72]: Qur’an, 34:46. [^73]: Qur’an, 39:33. [^74]: Qur’an, 5:83. [^75]: Qur’an, 24:35. [^76]: Qur’an, 2:256. [^77]: Newman, L. (2008). Descartes' epistemology. Retrieved from, [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistemology/#ConcKnow](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistemology/#ConcKnow) [^78]: Kant, I. (1998). *Critique of pure reason*. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, pp. 100-101 [^79]: Iqbal, M. (2011). *The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam*. Lahore, Pakistan: Iqbal Academy Pakistan, p. i. [^80]: Koriat, A. (2000). The feeling of knowing: Some metatheoretical implications for consciousness and control. *Consciousness and Cognition, 9*(2),149-171. [^81]: Burton, R. A. (2008). *On being certain: Believing you are right even when you are not*. New York, USA: St. Martin’s Press, p. 23. [^82]: Stern, E. R., Welsh, R. C., Gonzalez, R., Fitzgerald, K. D., Abelson, J. L., & Taylor, S. F. (2013). Subjective uncertainty and limbic hyperactivation in obsessive‐compulsive disorder. *Human Brain Mapping, 34*(8), 1956-1970. [^83]: Burton R. A. (2008). *On being certain*, p. 13. [^84]: Waaijman, K. (2007). What is spirituality? *Acta Theologica, 27*(2), 1-18. [^85]: Newberg A. (2000). *Why god won’t go away: Brain science and the biology of belief.* New York, USA: Random House Publishing. [^86]: Qayyim, I. (2013). *Madarij as-salikeen*, p. 757. [^87]: Qur’an 13:27. [^88]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, Hadith 3522. [^89]: Qayyim, I. (2013). *Madarij as-salikeen*, p. 458. [^90]: Ibid., p. 758. [^91]: Ibid., p. 758. [^92]: Ibid., p. 762. [^93]: Qur’an, 2:260. [^94]: Al-Ayni, B.D. (2001). *‘Umdat ul-qari*. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar ul-Fikr, vol. 19, p. 128. [^95]: Al-Asqalani, I.H. (1960). *Fath ul-bari*. Riyaadh, Saudi Arabia:: Al-Maktaba As-Salafiyya, vol. 6, p. 413. [^96]: It should be noted that there are multiple interpretations regarding the reason why Ibrahim asked to see life come to the dead. Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani (d. 856 AH) explains that some have understood the story to also mean: 1) Ibrahim was affected by the whispering of Shaytaan; 2) he was not in doubt of the power of resurrection, but doubted whether he was really *Khaleel Allah* and made this prayer as a sign that he truly achieved this status; or 3) he wanted to see it due to his previous debate with Nimrod who claimed he could give and take life. Ibn al-Jawzi also documents the various interpretations in his commentary on the verse in *Zaad al-Maseer Fee Ilm at-Tafseer*. [^97]: *Sahih Bukhari*, Hadith 4537. [^98]: *Sahih Muslim*, Hadith 247. [^99]: An-Nawawi (1929). *Al-Minhaj sharh sahih muslim*. Cario, Egypt: Al-Matba’a al-Misriyya bi-Al-Azhar, vol. 2, p. 205. [^100]: Ibid., pp. 205-206. [^101]: Ibid., p. 757. [^102]: Al-Alusi. *Ruh al-ma’ani*. Accessed [online](https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo%3D0%26tTafsirNo%3D52%26tSoraNo%3D51%26tAyahNo%3D20%26tDisplay%3Dyes%26UserProfile%3D0%26LanguageId%3D1). [^103]: Ar-Raazi. *Mafaatih al-ghayb*. Accessed [online](https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo%3D0%26tTafsirNo%3D4%26tSoraNo%3D51%26tAyahNo%3D20%26tDisplay%3Dyes%26UserProfile%3D0%26LanguageId%3D1). [^104]: Qur’an, 15:14-15. [^105]: Qur’an, 53:23. [^106]: Qur’an, 45:32. [^107]: Qayyim, I. (2013). *Madarij as-Salikeen*. Al-Mansoorah, Egypt: Maktabah Al-Fayyadh, p. 758. [^108]: Qayyim, I. (2010). *Miftah dar al-sa’adah*. Makkah, Saudi Arabia: Dar ‘Alam al-Fawa’id, vol. 1, p. 395. [^109]: *Sahih Muslim*, Hadith 134. [^110]: *Sahih Bukhari*, Hadith 3276. [^111]: Qur’an, 17:36. [^112]: See: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/najwa-awad/clinicians-imams-and-the-whisperings-of-satan/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/najwa-awad/clinicians-imams-and-the-whisperings-of-satan/) [^113]: Qayyim, I. (2013). *Madarij as-Salikeen*, p. 757. [^114]: Ibid., p. 760. [^115]: Ibid. ## Summary Faith and certainty, as understood in the Islamic tradition, are not fragile assumptions clinging to the margins of reason, but rather constitute the very foundation of a meaningful human existence. Many Muslims living in environments hostile to religion struggle to feel a settled conviction in what they believe, often equating their inner unease with a supposed weakness in the faith itself. Yet this struggle arises largely from a borrowed way of thinking. The modern Muslim thinkers Allama Iqbal (d. 1938 CE) and Malik Bennabi (d. 1973 CE) warned that Muslims, influenced by Western thought, would adopt a Cartesian approach to knowledge and lose confidence in their religion by failing to grasp its intellectual foundations. Bennabi lamented that faith based merely on "the principle of authority… can hardly keep pace with the demands of the minds of an elite already captivated by positivism." Both Iqbal and Bennabi critiqued rationalism and empiricism rather than accepting their terms. Iqbal observed that Kant's *Critique of Pure Reason* revealed the limitations of human reason and "reduced the whole work of the rationalists to a heap of ruins," while Al-Ghazali's philosophical skepticism performed a comparable task in the Muslim world. This concern was echoed centuries earlier, for the medieval scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), following his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), criticized the attempt to construct Greek-derived philosophical proofs for God's existence. Ibn Taymiyyah wrote that "Greek logic is not necessary for any intelligent minded person," and Ibn al-Qayyim argued that such logical premises fail to prove "the essential realities of faith that are shared by the believers"—the Living, the Sustainer, the One who Sees, Hears, and Speaks. Iqbal likewise held that "the ontological and the teleological arguments, as ordinarily stated, carry us nowhere." Every human being possesses a spiritual instinct inclining them toward the transcendent. Iqbal noted that religious experience has been "too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be rejected as mere illusion," and even described prayer as "instinctive in its origin." This accords with the Qur'anic depiction of the human being who, "when touched with hardship… calls upon Us, whether lying on his side, or sitting, or standing" (Qur'an 10:12). Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg identified the limbic system as the "seat of the soul" and concluded that spiritual experience may be "a window through which we can glimpse the ultimate realness of something that is truly divine." Allah describes this instinct as the *fitrah*: "So turn your face toward the true natural way of life—God's chosen *fitrah* upon which He has formed humanity" (Qur'an 30:30). Notably, the word *kufr* linguistically carries the meaning of covering up and burying, so that disbelief may be understood as the repression of this instinctual drive—a process one study describes as requiring "hard cognitive work to reject or override the intuitions that nourish religious beliefs." Bennabi argued that recognizing spirituality as an instinct undermines naturalism, for to trust our sensory and rational faculties while distrusting the spiritual faculty—drawn from the same source—is arbitrary, much as the Qur'an rebukes those who "believe in part of the book and deny the other part" (Qur'an 2:85). This unified vision is the essence of *tawheed*, which, as Nazir Khan writes, "blends spiritual, moral and intellectual" pursuits. Two extremes distort spirituality: reducing it to mystical feeling and euphoric states, which yields only confusion (*dalaal*), or reducing it to hollow ritual and inherited creed, which yields dogmatism—the state of the *maghdoob alayhim*, who according to Ibn Kathir know the truth yet act corruptly. Both errors are answered in *Al-Fatiha*, which asks for guidance to the straight path, "not (the path) of those who have earned anger, nor those who have gone astray." A balanced spirituality integrates all faculties, subjecting spiritual experience to reason and revelation, for Iqbal held that religion "stands in greater need of a rational foundation of its ultimate principles than even the dogmas of science," and Ibn al-Qayyim warned that a spiritual experience "may be a delusion from Satan." Accordingly, Ibn al-Qayyim criticized the notion of *fanaa'*—the extinguishing of the self—as an "illusion (*wahm*) that contradicts reality," while Iqbal affirmed that man "becomes unique by becoming more and more like the most unique Individual." Faith itself has been gravely misunderstood. The Qur'an states of the Prophet ﷺ, "You knew neither the Scripture nor the faith" (Qur'an 42:52), and the first theological controversy in Islam concerned faith's very nature. Ibn Abi'l-'Izz al-Hanafi (d. 792 AH) reports that the majority of early scholars held faith to be a reality emerging from the heart, tongue, and limbs. This is why the Qur'an calls the prayer itself faith: "God will not let your faith go to waste" (Qur'an 2:143). Iqbal captured this holistic nature, saying faith "is neither mere thought, nor mere feeling, nor mere action; it is an expression of the whole man." Far from being belief without evidence, faith is an inescapable reality and the foundation of every life. The Qur'an opens by commanding faith in the unseen: "Those who have faith in the unseen, establish the prayer and give from what We have provided them" (Qur'an 2:2–3). Ibn al-Qayyim explained that every creature is "in dire need (*faqeer*)" of identifying the sources of benefit and harm, and this forms a person's value system—which the atheist, agnostic, and believer all possess alike. Faith is therefore not irrational but the very justification for rationality. As the scholars quoted by Ibn al-Qayyim asked, "How can I seek proof for the One who is a Proof for everything?" This paradox troubled the evolutionary scientist Max Delbrück, who confessed he had "no answer" for how minds evolved for cave-survival can grasp deep cosmological truths, while physicist Paul Davies acknowledged that "all science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way." Imam Malik (d. 170 AH) likened the prophetic tradition to the ark of Noah: "whoever embarks on it will be saved, and whoever leaves it will drown." Yet reason still evaluates faith's content, for Iqbal warned that "no one would hazard action on the basis of a doubtful principle of conduct." The criterion of true faith is *sidq* (authenticity), cultivated through what Ibn al-Qayyim calls *riyaadha*—training the self toward sincerity—exemplified by Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq. Two layers of faith exist: the primordial faith of the *fitrah*, belonging to the *hunafaa* "inclining only to Allah" (Qur'an 6:79), and the faith completed by revelation, which a person confirms by pondering the Qur'an's freedom from discrepancy (Qur'an 4:82) and the sincerity of the Messenger. When these meet, it is "Light upon light" (Qur'an 24:35). Finally, certainty (*yaqeen*) is often wrongly imagined as a purely intellectual state achieved through evidence alone—the assumption underlying the skepticism of Descartes and Kant. Yet research in metacognition locates certainty as a feeling arising from the limbic system, which is also the seat of spiritual experience; hence people feel certain of forgotten names and uncertain of clearly known facts, as seen in the extreme case of OCD. Certainty is thus a spiritual pursuit, attained through *inaabah* and *hidayah*, for "He guides those who sincerely turn towards Him." The Prophet ﷺ himself prayed, "O Turner of the hearts, make my heart firm upon Your Way," and Ibn al-Qayyim held *yaqeen* to be "a gift from God," though "earned from the perspective of its means." Junayd al-Baghdadi (d. 298 AH) defined it as knowledge that "will not turn, change, or waiver in the heart," existing in three degrees—*'ilm al-yaqeen*, *'ayn al-yaqeen*, and *haqq al-yaqeen*—illustrated by Ibrahim's request to see the dead revived (Qur'an 2:260). The Prophet ﷺ said, "We have more right to doubt than Prophet Ibrahim," and taught that unsettling thoughts are "the manifestation of faith," which Imam Nawawi explained indicates the presence of faith that Satan whispers against out of despair, as Al-Qadhi Iyaadh noted. Ibn Taymiyyah advised making the heart "like solid glass" against doubts, and the Prophet ﷺ instructed that one confronted with such whispers should declare, "I have faith in Allah," and "seek refuge with Allah." Ultimately, *yaqeen* is not theoretical but practical: "the spirit of the actions of the heart," for without it "no one would choose to embark on the journey to Allah." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-ethical-worldview-of-the-quran # The Ethical Worldview of the Qur'an **Author:** Dr. Yasien Mohamed **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 25, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction A worldview is a comprehensive philosophical view of the world we live in and interact with and it encompasses all aspects of reality, physical and metaphysical.  A worldview represents one’s most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe one inhabits. It is the perspective from which one sees and interprets life and it is the way one finds meaning and purpose in life. It answers questions such as “Who am I?” and “Where do I come from?” Wilhelm Dilthey defined a worldview as a global conception that combines a picture of reality, a sense of meaning, and principles of conduct that correspond to thinking, feeling, and will. Accordingly, there are three main types of worldview: religious, artistic, and philosophical. Although one type may predominate, it rarely excludes the others.[^1] Thus, although we are dealing mainly with the philosophical/ethical worldview of the Qur’ān, which pertains to principles of conduct, we cannot divorce it from the other two dimensions of a worldview, namely the religious and artistic. These three dimensions should then provide the criteria for evaluating the permissibility of any moral action and serve as a guide for decision-making when faced with various moral dilemmas confronting people in the contemporary context. The Islamic worldview is a philosophical view of the world rooted in the Islamic vision of life and reality. It provides a comprehensive Islamic framework of concepts and perspectives regarding the Oneness of God (*tawḥīd*) and His relationship with the world, man as the vicegerent on earth (*khalīfah*), human free will and responsibility, divine destiny, and the ultimate abode in the hereafter. The ethical worldview of the Qur’an is an Islamic worldview, but with emphasis on the ethical dimensions. The Qur’an is a book of guidance (*hudā*) for humanity and a criterion (*furqān*) to distinguish between good and bad actions. It is only with proper guidance that one is able to surrender to the will of God, and not the whims of man. The Islamic ethical worldview, although primarily religious because it is based on the ethical and metaphysical teachings of the Qur’an, is also philosophical in orientation and, therefore, for a fully integrated Islamic ethical worldview, we need to also apply reason to our understanding of the Qur’an. Although there is much work ahead of us in this respect, most of the groundwork in the area of Islamic ethics has already been accomplished by classical Islamic philosophers of the eleventh century, including: Miskawayh (d. 1030), author of *Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq* (Refinement of Character), al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1060), author of *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah* (The Means to the Noble Qualities of the Revealed Law), and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), author of *Mīzān al-‘Amal* (The Scale of Action) and the *Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn* (The Revival of the Religious Sciences). These Islamic philosophers have shown us how to integrate revelation and reason. They were open-minded representatives of Islam and were not afraid to integrate foreign philosophical sources of knowledge into the ethical worldview of the Qur’an. Al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī developed an ethical philosophy, which can be regarded as religious, because it is based on the Qur’anic revelation. A mere glance at al-Iṣfahānī’s ethical treatise shows the extent to which he cites verses from the Qur’an on every page. Ethics are concerned with a rational examination of principles and rules that guide appropriate moral conduct. The Arabic word for morality is *akhlāq* (good character), which is etymologically related to *al-Khāliq* (the Creator), and *makhlūq* (the created), which assumes a good relationship between human beings and God, and a good relationship between human beings. Islamic ethics is not exclusively philosophical, but is multi-disciplinary, as it connects with other disciplines, including jurisprudence, theology, and Sufism. Majid Fakhry divides ethical theories in Islam into four categories: scriptural morality, theological theories, philosophical theories, and religious theories.[^2] Although this essay will focus on scriptural morality, which is based on the ethical pronouncements of the Qur’ān and Prophetic Traditions (*aḥādīth*), it cannot be divorced from the other categories as the commentators of the Qur’ān inevitably bring to bear their own orientations upon their ethical interpretations, whether they lean towards theology (*kalām*), philosophy (*falsafah*), or Sufism (*taṣawwuf*). The aim of this and subsequent essays is to demonstrate how these various orientations have shaped the ethical theories of the classical Islamic ethicists such as Miskawayh, al-Iṣfahānī, and al-Ghazālī. The primary sources for all of these ethical thinkers are the Qur’ān and the Prophetic *sunnah*, although Islamic philosophers like Miskawayh were more dependent on the ancient Greek tradition, especially Aristotle’s *Nicomachean Ethics*. Nevertheless, such Islamic philosophers never ignored the Qur’ān as a source of inspiration in the formulation of the general Islamic ethical worldview. The Qur’ān and the Prophetic Traditions are not philosophical works, but they have provided a framework for the philosophical and theological explication of Islamic ethics. As already mentioned, the early classical Islamic philosophers were open-minded representatives of the intellectual Islamic legacy and were not afraid to integrate knowledge from foreign philosophical sources into the moral worldview of the Qur’ān. For example, they adopted the tripartite division of the soul into the rational, concupiscent, and irascible faculties, and the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice that emerge from the balance of these three faculties under the predominance of the rational faculty. Islamic philosophers adopted this Platonic-Aristotelian psychological paradigm and integrated it into an Islamic *Weltanschauung*. Such models of the integration of knowledge inspired the Christian Thomas Aquinas and the Jewish Maimonides, who both quoted extensively from the works of al-Ghazālī. Thus, a worldview implies a certain philosophical influence, and any formulation of a particular worldview typically involves a selective and judgmental response to lived experience. To integrate experience into a coherent worldview we are expected to filter out certain aspects of reality. That is to say, we need to apply a certain value-judgment to achieve such coherence. It is therefore inevitable that these ethical Islamic thinkers, although inspired by the Qur’ān as a common source, would end up with different value-judgments. They were inspired by the ancient philosophical tradition of their time but constructed it in accordance with their own theological, philosophical, or Sufi orientations. While the early Islamic philosophers were more faithful to the Greek tradition, later scholars, including al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī, integrated the philosophical with the religious tradition. Al-Iṣfahānī developed an Islamic ethics that is fully integrated into Qur’ānic teachings and inspired al-Ghazālī to do the same, except that al-Ghazālī’s ethics took on an explicitly Sufi orientation. The Qur’an is a book of guidance that appeals to both the mind and heart and lays down a unified ethical system anchored in eternally valid and life-enriching moral principles. A feature of the Qur’an is the blending of law and morality, as in the message on divorced women: “And so, when you divorce women and they reach the end of their waiting term, then either retain them in a fair manner or let them go in a fair manner. And do not retain them to their hurt or by way of transgression; whoever will do that will indeed wrong himself. Do not take the signs of God in jest and remember God’s favor upon you.”[^3] Thus, moral action is not only a personal matter but also a social concern and always connected to belief in God: > *Piety is not to turn your faces towards the East and the West; piety is he who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the Prophets; who gives of his money, in spite of loving it, to the near of kin, the orphans, the needy, the wayfarers and the beggars, and for the freeing of slaves. \[And truly pious\] are those who keep their word whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in times of peril; it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they who are conscious of God.*[^4] Given the prominence of ‘right action,’ Muslim scholars have emphasized this theme and developed an extensive body of laws based on moral action and categories of actions that are obligatory, recommended, or simply permissible. With the current emphasis on human rights, there seems to be a need to review certain legal aspects of the Qur’ān; our focus will be rather on moral principles and some key ethical concepts that are important for a coherent and integrated framework. Values such as justice and benevolence are key virtues that shape the content of the moral world of Islam, and they are also broad and flexible enough to apply to the concrete situations of today. These moral values are voluntary in nature, and so they are free expressions of the human soul. For al-Iṣfahānī, acts of worship (*‘ibādat*) are compulsory for every Muslim, but the moral virtues, which are supererogatory (*nawāfil*) and based on one’s own volition, are additional to worship and define who is truly fit to become a vicegerent of God (*khalīfat Allah*), or a friend of God (*walī Allah*). These virtues are the keys to happiness in this world and the next and must be conceived within the ethical worldview of the Qur’ān, where God is the center of all things. By virtue of God’s attributes such as Justice, Mercy, and Generosity, He permits all things, and empowers and guides everything. The Qur’ānic worldview is theocentric and directs humankind towards human salvation. The stamp of *tawḥīd* (the Oneness of God) is an intrinsic part of human nature (*fiṭrah*) and actions in obedience to God reflect His Oneness. Man has been granted a trust (*amānah*), which is his free will. However, the heavens and earth refused to accept this trust: “Lo! We offered the trust unto the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. And man assumed it. Lo! He hath proved a tyrant and a fool.”[^5] Thus, Islam recognizes the liberty of the individual but there are limits to this liberty, as in the prohibition of suicide and abortion. I discuss below the main principles that make up the moral worldview of the Qur’ān: responsibility and accountability; justice and benevolence; sin and repentance; and intention and sincerity. I have selected what I believe to be the most important moral concepts that shape the ethical worldview of the Qur’ān.  These are not isolated concepts but are connected to one another and fit within the metaphysical worldview of the Qur’ān. The metaphysical worldview of the Qur’an provides the basic vision and mission set out for humankind. Imam al-Iṣfahānī, the eleventh-century Islamic moral philosopher, and precursor to Imam al-Ghazālī, sets out the purpose of man as involving three duties: the duty of *khilafah* (vicegerency), the duty of *imarah* (the cultivation of the earth), and the duty of *ibadah* (worship). Al-Iṣfahānī states in his ethical treatise: > *Man was created for three purposes. Man’s first purpose is in the cultivation of the earth, as is implied in the verse: He brought you out from the earth and made you inhabit it (Q. 11:61). So man must earn his livelihood, for his own sake and for the benefit of others. Man’s second purpose is to worship God. As He says: I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me (Q. 51.56). This means that man should obey God’s commandments and prohibitions. Man’s third purpose is his vicegerency, referred to in: He will make you successors in the land and then observe what you will do (Q. 7:129), and in other verses. Vicegerency is the imitation of God in accordance with one’s ability to rule by applying the noble virtues of the Law: wisdom, justice, forbearance, beneficence, and graciousness. These virtues draw Man to Paradise and close to God Most High*.[^6] If man pursues these three duties, he will attain happiness in this world and the next world. Happiness in this world too, as Islam is not monastic but world-affirming and requires of the human person to play his role in the cultivation of the earth and the development of society. These three duties should be kept in mind when undertaking any moral action, which is not merely being good for the sake of being good, but has a higher purpose in this world, and which ultimately brings man close to God. As noted from the quoted passage, for man to attain  the high status of vicegerency, he would first have to perform his duty of worship and submission to God, and this is the very foundation of ethics in Islam. Without worship, man’s ethical conduct and the internalization of the virtues would not have a higher purpose. And without the virtues, the believer would remain at the level of servitude to God, but could not possibly attain to the high level of vicegerency. Thus, there is a hierarchy with respect to the duties of man, and the lower duties are prerequisites for the higher functions of human life.[^7] It should be borne in mind that the virtues of the soul, such as temperance, courage, wisdom, and justice, are supererogatory practices, and only acceptable after the believer has practiced the acts of worship that are obligatory. It is through such virtues that man can function as a vicegerent of God. Vicegerency is defined as: “The imitation of God in accordance with man’s ability to rule by the application of the noble qualities of the revealed law.”[^8] Mohamed sums it up as follows: “Moral virtues require obedience to God through worship; it leads to vicegerency, which is the imitation of God. They are not to be pursued for their own sakes, but for a higher goal, for happiness in paradise and proximity to God. This is not the mere intellectual pursuit of the Platonic virtues, but combines the practice of religion, and is directed at happiness in this world and the Hereafter.”[^9] As we can see, the virtues of Western secular ethics are far removed from Islamic ethics and that is why there is a need for the ethical worldview of the Qur’an to be formulated in such a manner that we are able to distinguish it clearly from secular ethics. This is not the place to elaborate on all forms of secular ethics, but let us just take the example of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism, as espoused by Jeremy Bentham (d. 1832) and John S. Mill (d. 1873) focused on utility, pursuing that which causes pleasure and avoiding that which causes pain. Actions are judged as good and bad purely in terms of their pleasurable or painful consequences. Thus, those actions that produce pleasure are considered good and right in accordance with the utilitarian principle. Even if Mill holds that there are higher pleasures such as justice and love, these pleasures are for their own sakes, and not a means to nearness to God and the happiness of the hereafter. Unlike utilitarianism, the worldview of the Qur’an is not only concerned with public welfare, but also individual morality; not only with material pleasure, but also with spiritual pleasure in this world and the next. Islam is therefore just as concerned with social welfare, and it is prepared to respond to the new challenges facing the *ummah*. The conceptual framework for Qur’ānic ethics should form the basis for the integration of new knowledge. The interpretation of the Qur’ān is an ongoing activity in light of new challenges that constantly arise as time progresses. These challenges include bioethics, environmental issues, human rights, and consumerism. The Qur’ān even has the potential to make positive contributions to the social concerns of biomedical and environmental issues, not only because it is the main source of the rich Islamic intellectual legacy, but also because of its powerful methods of communicating moral truths through stories and metaphors. The challenge for contemporary Islamic thinkers is to extract the moral content of Islam and to rearticulate it in an intelligible manner to modern people so that it can provide guidelines to solve practical problems that affect the whole of humanity. The moral content of the Qur’ān could also be of practical benefit to non-Muslims, but for Muslims it will always have intrinsic value because of its Divine Source. --- ## Morality in the Qur’ān Early Islamic ethical trends modified the old Arabian ideal of *murū’ah* (chivalry) into a new ideal of virtuous happiness in this world and the hereafter. Morality refers to the degree to which society conforms to moral principles. Good manners and morality provide the materials for building a noble character. Sins that are committed under the impulse of man’s lust conflict with Islamic morality and human nature, especially the element of shame (*ḥayā’*), which prevents one from doing wrong. Islamic education nurtures this sense of shame. Pre-Islamic Arabia was the ‘age of ignorance’ (*jāhiliyyah*), which connotes the ‘reckless temper’ of the pagan Arabs and is the antithesis of forbearance (*ḥilm*). The pagan Arabs were torn between ignorance and forbearance; while they lost their temper easily and were prone to violence, they admired the qualities of forbearance and self-control.[^10] The Qur’ān responded to the haughty spirit of the pagan Arabs that inspired many blood feuds: > *When the unbelievers instilled in their hearts fierceness, the fierceness of paganism (*ḥamiyyat al-jāhiliyyah*), Allah then sent down His serenity upon His apostle and upon the believers, and imposed on them the word of piety, they being more deserving and worthier. Allah has knowledge of everything.*[^11] Connected to this blind anger is the pagan notion of masculinity, which also subsumed under it the qualities of generosity (*jūd*) and honor (*karam*).[^12] The Qur’ān transformed the tribal morality of the Arabs into a personal morality: “No burdened soul shall bear the burden of another, and every person will be accountable on the Day of Judgment for himself.”[^13] It favored a universal brotherhood in which kindness and equity were more important than custom and law. The morality of the Qur’ān may be summed up as, “Believe and do right.”[^14] Belief in One God is fundamental to Muslim ethics and is the foundation of man’s accountability to God, as well as of his happiness in this world and the next. The ethical dimensions of the Qur’ān are integral to the social context of the pagan Arabs and the early companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Of all the social virtues, the Qur’ān insists most frequently on benevolence to the poor, the needy, the stranger, the slave, and the prisoner. This is, in fact, true piety as suggested in Surah 2, verse 177, quoted above. These acts of benevolence are primarily expressed in the form of compulsory alms-giving (*zakāt*), but, more importantly, in the form of voluntary charity (*ṣadaqah*). These social and moral obligations are also religious obligations, as they are subsumed under God’s will. People obey God because He is Good, but also because their  innate nature (*fiṭrah*) predisposes them to do good. Forbearance is a key virtue in the Qur’ān, and it is contained in Luqmān’s advice to his son: > *O my son, perform the prayer, command the honorable and forbid the dishonorable and bear patiently what has befallen you. …Do not turn your face away from people and do not walk in the land haughtily. Allah does not love any arrogant or boastful person. Be modest in your stride and lower your voice; for the most hideous voice is that of asses.*[^15] The term goodness (*khayr*) is used comprehensively, covering the material and religious. It also connotes wealth; “Whatever bounty (*khayr*) you give is for parents, the near of kin, the orphans, the needy, and the wayfarer. And whatever good (*khayr*) you do, Allah is fully cognizant of it.”[^16] It also refers to pious work: “Perform the prayer and give the alms-tax. Whatever good (*khayr*) you do for your own sake, you will find it with Allah, surely Allah is cognizant of what you do.”[^17] The Qur’ān recognizes the innate goodness within human nature. No matter our failings, we naturally admire the virtues of others. We also naturally detest the vices of others. The thief finds it abominable for someone to steal his goods. More than forty-five references in the Qur’ān appeal to man’s universal moral conscience and his innate sense of good and evil; e.g., Qur’an 7:157; 16:90; 7:28; and 7:33.[^18] --- ## Responsibility A person with *taqwa* has moral responsibility as he fears divine displeasure and divine justice. Such a person is deserving of the status of *khalīfah* (vicegerent of God). The vicegerent is capable of the responsibility of stewardship of the world granted to man because of his reason and free will. The proper employment of this free will and reason is to fulfill the trust (*amānah*) God has given man. Since we are potentially capable of fulfilling this trust, God has made us vicegerents[^19] and taught us “all the names”[^20] to make meaning of the world around us. We are responsible for guarding human life and preserving the natural resources of this earth. However, in order to manage the world and its inhabitants, it is important to change oneself first. That is to say, one should inculcate within oneself all the virtues that the Qur’ān emphasizes: righteousness, justice, truthfulness, piety, patience, and compassion. This is why the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ emphasized that the greatest struggle (*jihād al-akbar*) is the struggle of the self (*jihād al-nafs*). Responsibility implies voluntary action. A person who acts voluntarily acts with his free will, and so has the choice to act virtuously or viciously. This is what makes him responsible for his action. But should his actions be a result of compulsion, ignorance, or insanity, then he cannot be held responsible for them. Aristotle agreed that the principle of voluntary action must be internal to the agent. Muslim philosophers, however, were not only concerned with the dialectical relationship between human freedom and responsibility but also the relationship between divine power and human action. The standard argument is this: if God determines man’s fate, then how can man be responsible for his own actions? The attempts by theologians to reconcile this apparent contradiction have already been noted. Man is free and responsible and he has choices: to believe or not to believe, to accept God’s revelations or not to accept them. In secular humanistic philosophy, man is also free and responsible for his actions but he is responsible only to himself. By contrast, in the ethical worldview of the Qur’an, man is ultimately responsible to God. He is free to accept or reject the truth from God; but, whatever his choice, he will be responsible for it on the Day of Judgment. The following verses further confirm man’s freedom of choice: > *The truth is from your Lord. Whoever wishes, let him believe; and whoever wishes, let him disbelieve.*[^21]  > > *O Children of Adam, when apostles from your own people come to you reciting to you My revelations, then those who fear God and mend their ways have nothing to fear and they will not grieve. But those who deny Our revelations and reject them arrogantly—those are the people of the Fire; therein they shall abide forever.*[^22] These verses imply that man has free choice to believe in God’s message or not. Yet, there are verses that suggest that God seals people’s hearts, or does not guide them: “God will not guide those who reject His signs”[^23]; “God will only lead astray those who are wicked”[^24]; and “God will only seal up those hearts that are arrogant.”[^25] However, the Qur’ān repeatedly states that every man is responsible alone for what he does—a doctrine that underlies the Qur’ānic rejection of the Christian doctrine of redemption. The Qur’ān also states: “Man gets nothing but what he strives for,”[^26] which means that man must make an effort to achieve his goal. Another thought-provoking verse is that “God does not change what is in a people until they change what is in themselves.”[^27] This verse could mean that God will not withdraw His blessings from man as long as man remains good. It could also mean that God will not bless man unless he changes his inner state to become a recipient of God’s grace.[^28] The first meaning corresponds with the views of Ibn Kathīr, al-Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Jawzī, and al-Qurṭubī.[^29] It also corresponds with the view of the contemporary scholar, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, who states: > *It means that ‘Allah Ta’alla does not change the state of peace and security enjoyed by people into a state of distress and instability until such time that those people themselves change their deeds into evil and disorder.*[^30] People are actively protected by God but if they disobey Him and are ungrateful for His blessings, He will withdraw His blessings and protection. In the end, how are we to know the extent of God’s intervention in our actions and the extent of our own free will? We will never really fully understand the mystery of God’s workings. We do have free will, and act as though we have it, all the while knowing that there is a higher divine power that determines all actions. Without this divine power, no action can take place, whether good or evil. God never desires evil but grants us the power to perform evil deeds. We alone desire evil and are responsible for it. Draz states: > *When we act, we have no intentions of acting as instruments of God’s Holy will, since we know nothing of this divine will in advance. Leaving all other considerations aside, we accept it pure and simply as our own and thereby sign our agreement. So man becomes responsible in doing so, as if he becomes a debtor as soon as he surrenders his surety. We can now see why the Qur’ān insists on proclaiming our responsibility before God. The human will seems entirely \[subject\] to divine will, \[as the Qur’an states: ‘And you shall surely be questioned about that which you used to do.’ (Qur’an 16:93)*[^31] Man is responsible for his actions because he will be held accountable on the Day of Judgment and will be rewarded or punished in accordance with what he has earned in this world. God states, “God made the heavens and the earth in truth so that each soul could be rewarded for what it had earned.”[^32] Also: “It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in six days—and His throne was upon the water—that He might test you as to which of you is best in conduct.”[^33] Divine justice implies that no one is exempt from being questioned for his deeds on the Day of Judgment. The Qur’ān also reserved a place for moral responsibility and sets up the tribunal of conscience. Human conscience will testify before God for what it has done. Human conscience in this context is not the Freudian superego, which, according to Freud, is the product of parental indoctrination. It is the *al-nafs al-lawwāmah* (the self-reproaching psyche), which is not merely socially determined, but inspired by *fiṭrah*, the innate inclination towards God and all that is virtuous. The Qur’ān states: “Today, your own self is reckoner enough against you”[^34]; “That each soul will know what it has done”[^35]; “On this day, every soul will be repaid for what it has earned.”[^36] Thus, man is responsible for his own actions. No force of nature, whether internal or external, can undermine the inner workings of man’s will. Nature can deprive us of the material conditions for executing our decisions but we have the freedom to either yield to or resist the external constraints of nature. However, it is always wiser to submit to the inevitable constraints of nature, such as death, terminal or incurable illness, and old age. We cannot alter these conditions, but we have the choice to either resign to or fight against them. If we resign to them, it means we have accepted inwardly the inevitable consequences of our fate. This may not remove the suffering, due to the loss of a dear one or some sickness inflicted upon us; but by accepting God’s destiny, we will be able to bear the suffering, and cope with it with meaningfulness and hopefulness. However, we are absolved should our wrong actions be a result of external factors beyond our power. In the case of the person who denies his faith verbally to avoid violence against him, the Qur’ān states: “Whoso disbelieves in God after his belief—except for him who is forced to do so and whose heart is still content with faith—but who finds ease in unbelief, on them is the wrath of God.”[^37] A believer is also permitted to eat forbidden food out of necessity to save his life. Even prostitution could be forgiven should a despot compel it, as God states: “Do not force your slave girls to prostitute themselves if they desire to be virtuous women out of your desires for the pleasures of this world. If they are forced, then afterwards God is Ever-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.”[^38] Thus, if an action is wrong but was done in a disturbed state of mind, or forced upon one, then such an action is not really blameworthy and the victims of such actions should be pitied rather than blamed. If there is no consent of will, then there is no mortal sin, only a venial sin. A person who commits such an action can always turn to God in repentance and renew his good will. However, in the opinion of Professor Draz, who taught Qur’anic studies at al-Azhar, venial sins do not apply to premeditated murder, rape, or theft. Nobody has the right to murder or rape, even if he must pay with his own life for refusing to do so. A person coerced to perform murder has violated the right of another human being, while a person coerced to unlawful intercourse has not violated the rights of any other human being, as unlawful intercourse is a violation of the rights of God.[^39] If we take the Islamic legal principle of the lesser of the two evils, then it is less evil to succumb to prostitution than to give up one’s life and it is less evil to sacrifice one’s life than to commit murder. Some classical scholars, however, differ regarding forced prostitution; they hold the opinion that although a coerced person is absolved of the crime, it is morally preferable to accept death than commit adultery. The verse, “God misguides whom He wills and guides whom He wills” [^40] appears to suggest that God’s Will is arbitrary. However, the Divine Will is regulated by Divine Knowledge and Justice. God will only favor those who are worthy and who are grateful to Him. As for those who shut their eyes to the light, God will leave them to their blindness. That is to say: He leaves those who are misguided to grope in their darkness and guides with the light of guidance those who turn to Him. --- ## Sin and repentance I have already discussed the question of man’s responsibility for his own sins.  However, will God forgive us for our sins? Yes, indeed, the God of the Qur’ān is Merciful and every chapter but one of the Qur’ān starts with a statement of God’s Mercy. God is a personal God and the believer can therefore turn to Him in repentance. There is no such thing in the Qur’ān as redemption in the Christian sense of accepting Jesus as one’s savior: every person carries his own sins but he can turn to God in repentance. In the Qur’ān, Adam succumbed to the seduction of Satan but turned to God in repentance. His disobedience towards God is indicative of his free will and responsibility. The Qur’ān rejects the concept of original sin because Adam was forgiven for his sins after he had received his Lord’s words: “Then Adam received words \[of guidance\] from his Lord, and God accepted his repentance: truly, He is the Acceptor of Repentance, the Compassionate.”[^41] God forgives those who repent sincerely and act with righteousness: “I am, indeed, All-Forgiving unto him who repents, does righteous deeds and is well guided.”[^42] Man is born with an innate good nature (*fiṭrah*) but negative socialization causes him to deviate from this original natural disposition. Adam’s sin was due to an insufficient effort to observe his duty but he did not become so corrupt that it required the intervention of a redeemer other than himself. It was enough for him to acknowledge that he had sinned and then repent. Satan tempted Adam عليه السلام and disobeyed God but Adam was remorseful and repentant and God forgave him. God then assured Adam that He would grant his progeny guidance but that those who did not follow His guidance would be miserable and those who followed it would be happy. The concept of *fiṭrah* is a key concept in Islam and is in sharp contrast to the Christian concept of original sin, which implies the need for a redeemer; thus, his good deeds will not secure him salvation, and he would have to turn to a savior to redeem him of his innate wicked state. The concept of *fiṭrah*, rather, implies that sin is a result of human choice and not an innate condition. The Qur’anic version of Adam and Eve is different from the Biblical version. In the Qur’an, Adam and Eve were equally responsible for their sins and they both succumbed to Satan’s temptation. They both repented and God forgave them both. To be sure, those who have faith and act righteously will attain the highest reward, but those who stoop low in their unbelief and wicked deeds will stoop to the lowest level, as God states: “We created man in the finest mold. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low, except for those who believe and do right actions: they will have an unfailing reward.”[^43] Although Satan is the enemy of man, God granted him the freedom to play his cosmic role of leading man astray until the Day of Judgment. Thus, Satan says: “You see this being you have honored above me? If you reprieve me until the Day of Resurrection, I will lead all but a few of his descendants by the nose.”[^44] Thus, God knew that Adam was going to cause mischief and yet He created him with the freedom to choose between good and evil; and if he chose evil, he was granted the opportunity to repent. Thus, humans are allowed freedom to make mistakes and this is how they have “a taste of the consequences of their own actions.”[^45] This is to show them the error of their ways, and to learn that God has planned better ways for them.[^46] Nursi urges the believer to use his limited freedom to act with responsibility; to use one hand for supplication, and the other for repentance: > *And give his other hand to the seeking of forgiveness so that it may be short for evil deeds and will not reach the Zakkum tree of Hell, which is one fruit of that accursed tree. That is, just as supplication and reliance on God greatly strengthen the inclination to good, so too repentance and the seeking of forgiveness cut the inclination to evil and break its transgressions.*[^47] Morality is primarily concerned with the inner self and inner intentions, not purely physical actions. However, when it comes to a mortal sin such as murder, the courts will sentence the criminal for his crime but he has the opportunity to repent for his sins and thereby redeem himself spiritually. However, when it comes to punishment, it is not the inner intention that counts alone, but the physical expression of it. If a person has intended to murder, and has put into effect his  intention, then he is  legally responsible for his action and punishment has to take its course. To justify retribution for a crime, the judge must be convinced of clear evidence pointing to the wicked intention of the criminal. However, it is the inner self, the human conscience, that will know if it is really responsible. The court’s verdict may be innocent but the person’s conscience knows that he is guilty. Since man is born in a state of *fiṭrah*, he is naturally inclined towards good actions and he is naturally averse to evil. This is provided that his good innate nature has not been obscured or blocked because of his environment or socialization. Conscience is not only a product of parental socialization, as Freud would have us believe, but it is embedded within our created innate nature. That is why even a non-Muslim can be moved by an innate moral sense. Raskolnikov, a character in Dostoevsky’s *Crime and Punishment*, was moved by his conscience because of the murder he committed. He confessed to his crime, not because of the law, but because of his conscience. Conscience is man’s internal judge. God has created within man an innate judge which is the self-reproaching soul (*al-nafs al-lawāmmah*). God states: “By the Day of Resurrection and the self-reproaching soul!”[^48] This is his innate conscience, his natural *fiṭrah* that is inclined to good and averse to evil. It is because of this innate moral sense that we tend to pass judgment on our own actions. The self-evident judgments we have are the moral principles of human conduct. The dictates of the conscience are practical, not theoretical. They tell us which actions are bad and which are good. Our conscience enables us to know when we are offending others and when we are offending God. This internal source of guidance is confirmed by the Qur’an, which is the external source of guidance. Our conscience, however, is not always correct; we can also be misguided through ignorance and feel guilty for something that we believe to be sinful, when it is actually not sinful according to the *Sharī’ah*. We therefore have to make a distinction between a true conscience and a false conscience. A conscience that is too strict, too lax, or too scrupulous is a false conscience. A person with a strict conscience tends to make a person feel very guilty for a venial sin, thinking that it is a mortal sin. Such a person may act in good faith and with religious conviction, but his action is based on ignorance about the revealed law. He can overcome his ignorance through Islamic education and a proper study of the divine law. Otherwise, he will be plagued by his conscience and will develop an unhealthy neurosis. However, when it comes to a mortal sin such as murder, the courts will sentence the criminal for his crime. However, this does not mean that there is no room for repentance and rehabilitation. The Qur’ān promises many beautiful things for those who repent, but this does not mean escape from retribution, especially if the crime is serious, such rebellion against justice, which is punishable by death, amputation, or exile. The Qur’ān states: “Except  for those who repent of their rebellion before you gain power over them. Know that God is Ever-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.”[^49] According to Draz, Imam Shāfī‘ī originally established from this verse a universal principle that repentance prevents punishment but he abandoned this opinion when he moved to Egypt. He nevertheless distinguished between two kinds of responsibility: “One rules in this life on earth, the other concerns the supreme judgment in the life beyond. Repentance may be universally effective on the religious level without necessarily being so in the social realm.”[^50] Thus, remorse and repentance may rehabilitate the guilty person and re-establish his respect for the law, but they do no justice to the victims or the family of the victims who suffered due to crimes, such as murder or rape, that were committed by the perpetrators. There has to be some form of reparation. A contemporary example is the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) at the inception of the South African democracy. The White perpetrators confessed to their crimes and the victims forgave them. They received state pardon. In principle, this is a good thing, as it is a way of healing the nation at a difficult time of transition into the new democracy. Unfortunately, the TRC as spearheaded by Bishop Desmond Tutu failed, as the focus was not on justice. If it was a question of material justice, the post-Apartheid government would have granted the victims material compensation for their losses and suffering. This did not happen. Ethical and spiritual rehabilitation is psychologically therapeutic and most beneficial  but, for peaceful reconciliation to occur, the minimal justice must be done in the form of compensation. --- ## Intention and sincerity Intellectual curiosity in classical *kalām* (theological discourse) was not seen as having a powerful effect upon the purification of the inner self. This was al-Ghazālī’s main critique of *kalām*. He did, however, see its value in the defense of Islamic belief and in the rational exposition of faith. The key to self-purification is the practice of faith through moral action. What is important for moral action is to have the correct intention. The will has the capacity for action and no force of nature, whether internal or external, can stop the inner workings of it. If we yield to an external constraint, we do so freely, after some deliberation. Moral responsibility in the Qur’ān is an individual principle that does not admit to heredity or collective responsibility. There is no redemption through a savior, only through faith and righteous actions and, ultimately, the grace of God. Intention (*niyyah*) is a fundamental precondition for considering an action to be moral. Intention means a more or less firm decision (*‘azm/qaṣd*). An intention has three elements: understanding what one is doing, wanting to do it, and wanting to do it because it is commanded.[^51] The question that should be posed is: when a moral action is performed, does primacy belong to the action or the intention? An action performed unconsciously or independently of one’s will cannot be considered to be a moral action. An action is owned in proportion to the degree of intention with which it is performed and cannot be divorced from our psychological reality. The Qur’ān requires us to be aware of what we are doing. In the early stages of the revelation, believers were required to be sober when they  began prayer. In the later stages of revelation, intoxicants were completely forbidden. A moral action is a fully conscious action and it must be done with sincerity of intention. So, when we give charity, it is not merely an outward duty but comes from the heart. Prophetic tradition states: > *Actions are but by intention and every man shall have but that which he intended. He who migrates for God and His messenger does so for God and His Messenger. But he who migrates for a worldly gain or a woman to wed migrates to whatever he migrates to.*[^52] Thus, migration should be for the sake of God alone and not for any ulterior motive which would bring into question the person’s intention. If multiple motives accompany the migration—that is, if the migration is not primarily for the sake of God—the person’s sincerity comes into question. However, this does not mean that the intention can be pure while the action is contrary to the revealed law. For instance, one cannot raise funds for charity by selling wine. The action itself must also be permissible in Islam. However, this is not always possible. A person may order grape juice but is served wine. He drinks the wine, thinking it is grape juice. Such an action is valid because his intention was sound. But, on the other hand, if a person orders wine and they serve him grape juice, and he drinks the grape juice, thinking it is wine, his action is not valid. It may not be possible to fulfil the strict duty of the law in all circumstances; we are not required never to fall into error. A simple error made in good faith can be excused. Moral action is neither purely an internal state nor an external state of duty for the sake of duty, but a combination of these two, and both are united within our conscience. Draz states: > *Volition is the orientation of the ideal towards the real; and it is along this trajectory, from the inside to the outside, from conscience to experience, that the moral deed is found. It is not a static state, a solitary act of worship enclosed within the sanctuary of the heart; it is a living force, a movement of expansion which has its point of departure at the center, and its point of arrival at the outside. Thus, not only does intention call for action and wait to be followed by it, but it contains it in the form of a seed, if not in a nascent state.*[^53] According to al-Ghazālī, a person’s action can be governed by more than one motive. He has only one motive when a wild animal attacks him: to flee from the animal. His intention is pure and sincere (*ikhlāṣ*). Actions can also have two motives. A person may give charity to a poor person, both because he is poor and because he is a relative.[^54] Most actions, it seems, are driven by more than one motive. People may give charity for the sake of the poor but also out of sentiment to help a poor relative. Religious people give charity for the sake of God and for a heavenly reward. This is a powerful driving force of good action. People do not only do good because of moral duty or because of rationality; they are also motivated by what is in their hearts. Thus, al-Ghazālī states that the soul’s inclination towards otherworldly acts of goodness and its renunciation of worldly acts leave it free to invoke and contemplate God. This is only established through acts of piety and avoidance of sins.[^55] Thus, the effect of all pious actions is on the heart, not just the body. Thus, placing the forehead on the ground should create humility in the person; it is not merely a mechanical exercise of the body. In addition, a person who strokes an orphan’s head and kisses him will establish in his heart tenderness towards the orphan. Action without intention is useless. If a person strokes an orphan’s head with an inattentive heart, as if he is stroking a garment, his actions will not affect his heart and thus will not establish a feeling of tenderness for the orphan.[^56] Thus, a complete moral deed is not only the performance of a physical act but involves also a heart that rejoices and an intellect that reflects. According to Rahman, *taqwā* (fear of God, or piety) is the most central ethical concept of the Qur’ān.[^57] Concerning ritual sacrifice during the pilgrimage, God states: “The flesh \[of these sacrificed animals\] never reaches God, nor does their blood, but *taqwā* on your part does reach Him.”[^58] Thus, the term *taqwā*, which appears more than 220 times in the Qur’ān, refers to both the physical and moral aspects of actions. The rites of pilgrimage could easily become mechanical exercises but, through *taqwā*, deep faith and purity of intention will accompany those physical acts. This applies to all the acts of worship in Islam, which have both an external and an internal dimension. For al-Ghazālī, piety is the quality of the heart that has turned away from the love of this world and sacrificed it for the love of God. This detachment from the world and directing attention to God is what purifies the intention and all actions that follow it.[^59] Thus, the believer does not obey God as a rational idea. Moral actions are not mechanical acts devoid of spirit but are filled with pure intentions and obedience to God. It is good to conform to the revealed law, but better still is to conform with actions based on understanding and purely for the sake of God. Thus, the truly pious man is “\[he\] who gives away his wealth to make himself pure, and not to return a favor to anyone, but to seek the Face of his Lord Most High, and he will be satisfied.”[^60] Furthermore, ‘And drive not away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, desiring His Face.”[^61] The metaphor ‘Face of God’ refers to a sense of piety (*taqwā*), which marks a true believer who is fully aware of the presence of God; it also refers to the sincerity of the Prophet’s followers. One has to consider the context of this verse. The prominent Meccans wanted to be seated in the circle of the Prophet ﷺ but were averse to sitting among the poor believers of lower rank. The Prophet ﷺ refused to drive the poor followers away but agreed to have them depart temporarily. God revealed Surah 6, verse 52 to stop the Prophet ﷺ from driving his sincere followers away.[^62] The metaphor of the ‘Face of God’ is connected to *iḥsān*, which the Prophet ﷺdefined as “To worship God as though you are seeing Him, for \[even\] if you do not see Him, He sees you.” The verses that refer to the doing of something for the sake of God’s Face (Qur’an 2:72; 6:52; 13:22; 18:28; 30:8-39; 92:20) suggest that a moral action should be performed sincerely and not for any utilitarian motive. Such metaphors make a powerful impression on our minds and encourage us to act morally with a pure heart directed to God alone.[^63] It is interesting to note that the metaphor is mentioned a few times in the Qur’ān in the context of giving wealth to the needy: > *So give their due to the near relative, the needy, and the wayfarer—that is best for those whose goal is God’s Face: these are the ones who will prosper. Whatever you lend out in usury to gain value through people’s wealth will not increase in God’s eyes, but whatever you give in charity, in your desire for God’s Face, will earn multiple rewards.*[^64]  > > *\[God’s servants\] give food to the poor, the orphan, and the captive, though they love it themselves, \[saying\] ‘We feed you for the sake of God’s Face alone. We seek neither recompense nor thanks from you.’*[^65] Thus, every action, no matter how mundane, performed for the sake of God, is an act of worship. It brings the believer closer to God. That is to say, if the worship or the good deed is not performed out of compulsion or in a ritualistic manner, it will bring the believer nearer to God. All good actions should have good intentions. To draw close to God, one has to perform actions with earnestness, for the sake of God’s pleasure. It is not a matter of duty for the sake of duty, or doing something voluntarily merely because it is done out of one’s free choice. It is all done in submission to God, not because of mere fanciful feeling; even it comes from one’s own free will. A woman may wear *hijab* just because she feels like doing it but this is not a good enough motivation. If she is merely following a whim, she could easily revert back to her earlier habits of not wearing *hijab*. But if her intention is to please God, it is less likely that she would give up the *hijab*. As for fasting, some people may do it for the sake of losing weight. However, once they have lost the weight, they could easily stop fasting. However, if their motive for fasting is out of obedience to God’s law, they would continue to fast, whether they have achieved the weight loss or not. Al-Ghazālī states: > *All this enables one to draw close to God, since any means that preserve the body and free the heart of the body’s requirements are an aid to religion. He who intends by eating to protect his acts of worship and by physical union to fortify his religion to gratify his family’s hearts, and to beget a righteous child who worships God after him, and through him increases the community of Muhammad, is obedient in both food and marriage.*[^66] The sincere person is the one whose only motive is to draw near to God and this is only possible if a person is fond of God. This sincerity is rare. The sincere person is to be so engrossed in the hereafter that the love of this world has no sway over his heart, to the point that he has no liking for food and drink. He only drinks or eats to provide himself with enough strength to worship God.[^67] According to al-Ghazālī, this is a rare state and one’s actions are rarely disengaged from temporal concerns. Al-Ghazālī states: > *He may perform ablution to cool himself off; wash to give himself an agreeable scent; …live secluded in a mosque to avoid renting a dwelling, fast to spare himself from frequent cooking of food, …give alms to a beggar to end his wearisome begging; visit an ailing person, that he, in turn, be visited should he fall ill; attend a funeral that the funerals of his own family be attended. He may do any of these just to be known by his good works, remembered and regarded for his probity and dignity.*[^68] It is also possible for a disbeliever to act with benevolence as an expression of his innate natural predisposition (*fiṭrah*). This action has no spiritual value; it is not done out of obedience to God’s command. The Qur’ān states: “Allah is to be the sole aim of your charitable deeds.”[^69] There are Muslims who worship God out of desire for the reward of paradise or out of fear of punishment. There is nothing wrong with this, but their level of worship is of a lower level, as al-Ghazālī states: > *Although it is of an inferior degree in relation to the former \[higher level of intention\], it is acceptable all the same. Those people resemble bad merchants but their level is that of those who have simple understanding.*[^70] Rābi‘ah al-‘Adawiyyah (d. 185/801), one of the earliest mystics in Basra, was a critic of the rhetoric of fear of God. She never married, as she held that there was no place for anyone in her heart but for God. It has been narrated that she used to walk the streets with a broom in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When questioned about her behavior, she said, “I want to set fire to paradise and pour water onto hell, so that these two veils disappear. Then it will become clear who serves God out of love, and not out of fear of hell or hope of paradise.”[^71] Since the Qur’an does use the rhetoric of fear in its description of hell, one cannot say it is wrong to be motivated by fear, but for Rābi’ah, a higher form of worship is not to worship God through fear, but through love. Thus, pure intention and sincerity are connected. To overcome an insincerity of intention, one has to arrest the gratification of the self, end the craving of this world, and be exclusively devoted to the hereafter. This requires detachment from the material matters of this world. This attitude of detachment will be discussed further in a separate essay. --- ## Justice and benevolence Justice in the Qur’ān is linked to the concepts of balance and just measure in the actions of both God and humanity. “You who believe, stand in front of Allah as witnesses of equity (*shuhadā’ bi al-qisṭ*); \[do not allow\] your hatred for other men to turn you away from acting justly (*‘alā allā ta‘dilū*). Acting justly (*i‘dilū*), this is nearest to piety.”[^72] Justice should be implemented to secure law and order in society. Al-Iṣfahānī supports justice fully when he cites the verses, “But if you judge, judge between them justly”[^73] and “God commands you to deliver trusts to their owners and, if you judge between people, to judge justly.”[^74] Al-Iṣfahānī holds that, when reason controls the two lower faculties of the soul, the concupiscent and irascible, then temperance, courage, and wisdom emerge. This is the justice of the self. When these three faculties are in balance, the virtue of justice emerges. This is not only the justice of the self but also the justice of society. Al-Iṣfahānī integrates these two forms of justice, that of the self and that of society. The justice of a society is the legal justice that is carried out through the courts. Legal justice is important for social order. Those who commit theft and murder disrupt the order of society and must face legal retribution. It is not the prerogative of the judge to forgive them. This coheres with justice in the Qur’ān, indicated by verse 5:8, cited above. One should act with justice in mind, even if it goes against one’s own desire or one’s hatred of others. The Qur’ān states that justice approximates piety. Justice and religiosity are connected. Social ethics cannot be separated from a transcendent God or from the worldview of *tawḥīd*. Thus, ethics and transcendent metaphysics are inseparable in the ethical worldview of the Qur’ān. When a personal right has been violated, such as when a robber steals one’s money, then the victim has the right to forgive such a person before it reaches the courts because it is not within the jurisdiction of the judge to forgive. Forgiveness is an act of benevolence and grace as apparent in the verse: “To forgo it is more righteous. And do not forget to be bountiful to each other. God sees what you do.”[^75] In a society of strangers, the judgment of the courts should take its course. There should be no place for mercy, except when mitigating circumstances warrant it. That is to say that, although punishment for a crime may be reduced because of mitigating circumstances, the punishment must still take place, whether it is a fine or a prison sentence. When it comes to friends and relatives, one has to try to maintain friendship or keep family ties. So if a wrong is committed against a family member, it is better to forgive, for demanding one’s rights can destroy the relationship, which is reprehensible in Islam. Al-Iṣfahānī states that friendship is founded on grace (*faḍl*), not on justice; grace leads to intimacy and justice leads to separation. There is nothing wrong with justice, for every man has a right to what is due to him, but God elevates those who act with benevolence and grace: “To those who do good is the best reward and more.”[^76] The word ‘grace’ refers to God’s favor and mercy and man’s generosity and benevolence. To act with gracefulness is to imitate the divine quality of grace, for God is *al-Raḥmān* (the Merciful), a term which appears 170 times, *al-Raḥīm* (the Compassionate) which appears 227 times, *al-Ghaffār* and *al-Ghafūr* (the Forgiving), which appear 97 times in the Qur’an. Thus, God is both Just and Merciful, but mercy is His predominant quality: > *He is God, other than Whom there is no god. He knows the unseen and the seen. He is the Merciful, The Compassionate. …To Him belong the most beautiful names. Whatever is in the heavens and on Earth glorifies Him and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.*[^77] God’s Benevolence, Grace, and Mercy encompass the whole of creation, including even the worst of sinners (Qur’an 7:156; 30:33; 30:36; 30:46; 40:7; 42:28). Divine Grace is the source of all good, even of our ultimate destiny in the hereafter. Although faith and good deeds are important requirements for salvation, we are still dependent on Divine Grace. God is Just and will forgive those who seek His Mercy, and He will forgive those who turn to Him sincerely in repentance. All people, whether sinful or not, should be grateful to God. The pious man should not be proud of his piety but must be humble before God Who is the real Power behind all actions. The good that he does also depends on God’s Grace, so he should be repentant and hope for paradise. Just as God is Benevolent and Compassionate towards His servants, His servants are required to be benevolent and compassionate amongst themselves: “They are compassionate towards each other.”[^78] In the same way that God is Just, so should His servants be just towards people. Justice is the basic requirement of the law and is important for order in society. Justice means to give a person his due. When a wrong is done to a person, justice also involves punishing the wrongdoer. Greater than justice is benevolence. That is, to be kind and charitable and to give a person more than his due is better than being just. It also means forgoing one’s right to justice and forgiving the person who caused the harm. Benevolence transcends justice. Dividing an apple equally is justice, dividing it unequally is injustice, and voluntarily forgoing one’s share is benevolence.  Al-Iṣfahānī compares benevolence (*faḍl*, or *tafaḍḍul*) with justice (*‘adl*). Justice is a legal quality, but benevolence is a spiritual one because it is a voluntary action of the soul. Benevolence is not justice because the former implies excess, while justice implies equality. Benevolence is nobler than justice because it is from oneself, but justice is through the courts. As mentioned, benevolence is to forgo one’s right to justice and forgive a person who has done wrong.[^79] One cannot forgive a tyrant who must be punished for his oppression but one can forgive an individual who has wronged one personally. --- ## Conclusion I have discussed major ethical concepts in the Qur’ān, such as the concept of responsibility, the concept of sincere intention, and the concept of sin and repentance. These key ethical concepts make up the main content of the Islamic ethical worldview, which primarily stems from *tawḥīd* or the Oneness of God. I have tried to extract the Qur’an’s general ethical principles so that we may have a clear picture of the ethical law of the Qur’an as a whole. It was not my intention to deal with specific moral actions, but only with key ethical ideas that help in the shaping of the ethical worldview of the Qur’an. For the sake of brevity, I have omitted some important ethical principles in the Qur’an but will include them in separate essays in the near future. The ethical worldview of the Qur’an should be the point of departure for the integration of new knowledge and for reinterpreting the Qur’ān in the light of contemporary challenges. This is the intellectual effort or *ijtihad* that is needed. Traditional and modern scholars must work together to respond to the new challenges in accordance with the objectives of the revealed law (*maqāṣid al-sharī’ah*). The ethical worldview of the Qur’ān is not static but can expand, provided we draw upon the two main sources of knowledge in Islam: revelation and reason. Classical Muslim moral philosophers have shown us how we can harmonize these two sources of knowledge. The ethical work of al-Iṣfahānī is a good example of how philosophical knowledge can be integrated into the worldview of the Qur’an.   There has been some effort by Muslim theologians and jurists to address the challenges of modern biotechnology, artificial intelligence, environmentalism, and human rights, but for an adequate response to these challenges, we need to go beyond a mere philological and legalistic interpretation of the revealed text.[^80] Philosophical and Sufi-inspired interpretations of the Qur’ān have given much attention to the ethical dimensions of the human self and we should continue to pursue this. It is hoped that in the ethical worldview of the Qur’ān we shall find a basis for cultivating virtue in our individual lives and for rearticulating the Qur’ānic principles of human dignity and human justice for our contemporary social context. Western secular ethics is one-sided; it places too much emphasis on human rights and social welfare, neglecting individual morality and spirituality. We need the ethical worldview of the Qur’an so that we have a criterion to judge whether we are moving too far in the one direction of social justice at the expense of the direction of individual justice. By individual justice, we mean the balance of the three faculties of the soul, where reason, guided by revelation, prevails over the two lower faculties of the soul. To be sure, Muslims ought to follow Islamic legal prescriptions, but the spirit of the Qur’ānic worldview requires us to internalize these prescriptions and make them part of our own choices and inner convictions and not merely to conform to external rules. Purity of intention is important for making an action pleasing in the sight of God. However, one may wonder how the internalization of these virtues and prescriptions is going to improve Muslim societies and Muslim governments. The crisis of the Muslim world is fundamentally a moral crisis. The ethical worldview of the Qur’an will provide us with moral direction towards becoming a middle community, characterized by justice to the self and justice to society. We need to maintain a healthy balance between these two levels of justice so that the pursuit of individual justice is supportive of social justice, and the pursuit of social justice is supportive of individual justice. --- ## Notes [^1]: Hodges, H. A. (1952) *The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey*, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, p. 92. Also see Dilthey, W. (1960) *Gesammelte Schriften, Band VIII* (Weltaushauunslehre), Stuttgart: Abhandlung zur Philosophie der Philosophie. [^2]: Fakhry, M. (1991) *Ethical Theories in Islam*, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 6-7. [^3]: Qur’an 2:231. [^4]: Qur’an 2:177. [^5]: Qur’an 33:73. [^6]: Iṣfahānī, R. (1987) *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*, Cairo: Dār al-Wafā’, pp. 91-92. [^7]: Mohamed, Y. (2006) *The Path to Virtue*, Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, p. 214. [^8]: Iṣfahānī, R. (1987) *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*,  p. 59. [^9]: Mohamed, *The Path to Virtue*, p. 215. [^10]: Goldziher, I. (1967) *Muslim Studies*, vol. 1, London: George Allen and Unwin, p. 202f. [^11]: Qur’an 48:26. [^12]: Izutsu, T. (1959) *The structure of the ethical terms in the Koran*, 23f. [^13]: Qur’an 13:89, 31:32. [^14]: Qur’an 18:105. [^15]: Qur’an 31:17-19. [^16]: Qur’an 2:211. [^17]: Qur’an 2:104. [^18]: Draz, M. A. (2011) *Introduction to the Qur’an*, London: I. B. Taurus, p. 63. [^19]: Qur’an 2:30. [^20]: Qur’an 2:31. [^21]: Qur’an 18:29. [^22]: Qur’an 7:35. [^23]: Qur’an 16:104. [^24]: Qur’an 2:24. [^25]: Qur’an 40:37. [^26]: Qur’an 53:39. [^27]: Qur’an 13:11. [^28]: Asad, M. (1980) *The Message of the Qur’ān*, Gibraltar: Darul Andalus, p. 360. [^29]: Idris, G. S. (1983) *The Process of Islamization*, USA: Muslim Students Association of America and Canada,  pp. 3-5. [^30]: Shafi, M. *Ma’arif al-Qur’an*, trans Muhammad Shamim, Maktaba e Darul-Uloom, vol. 5, p. 200. [^31]: Draz, M. A. (2008) *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, trans. D. Robinson and R. Masterton, London: I. B. Tauris, p. 108. [^32]: Qur’an 45:22. [^33]: Qur’an 11:7. [^34]: Qur’an 17:14. [^35]: Qur’an 81:14. [^36]: Qur’an 31:32. [^37]: Qur’an 16:106. [^38]: Qur’an 24:33. [^39]: Draz,  *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, p. 100. [^40]: Qur’an 16:93; 35:8. [^41]: Qur’an 2:36-37. [^42]: Qur’an 20:84. [^43]: Qur’an 95: 4-7. [^44]: Qur’an 17:62. [^45]: Qur’an 30:41. [^46]: Haleem, M. A. (2011) *Understanding the Qur’an: Themes and Styles*, London: I. B. Tauris, pp. 139-140. [^47]: Nursi, S. (1997) *The Words*, vol. 2, Izmir: Kaynak, p. 483. [^48]: Qur’an 75:1-4. [^49]: Qur’an 5:33-34. [^50]: Draz, *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, p. 112. [^51]: Ibid., p. 176. [^52]: *Sahih Bukhari* (1). Also see, Ibrahim, E. and D. J. Davies, trans. (1979) *Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith*, Lahore: S. H. Ashraf, p. 26. [^53]: Draz, *The Moral World of the Qur’an*,  p. 187. [^54]: Shaker, Anthony F (2016) *Al-Ghazālī: On Intention, Sincerity, and Truthfulness*, *Book XXXVII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences*, Translated with an introduction and notes by A. F. Shaker, Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society,   pp. 14-16. [^55]: Draz, *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, p. 20. [^56]: Ibid., p. 21. [^57]: Rahman, F. (1983) “Some key ethical concepts of the Qur’ān,” *Journal of Religious Ethics*, 11(2): 170-185. [^58]: Qur’an 22:31. [^59]: Draz, *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, p. 200. [^60]: Qur’an 92:17-20. [^61]: Qur’an 6:52. [^62]: Nasr, S. H. (1981) *Islamic Life and Thought*, London: Allen and Unwin, p. 358. [^63]: Haleem, M. A. (2011) *Understanding the Qur’an: Themes and Styles*, pp. 115-116. [^64]: Qur’an 30:38-39. [^65]: Qur’an 76:8-9. [^66]: Draz, *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, p. 33. [^67]: Ibid., p. 60. [^68]: Ibid., p. 59. [^69]: Qur’an 2:272. [^70]: Draz, *The Moral World of the Qur’an*, p. 224. [^71]: Wild, Stefan (2006) *‘Hell’ in The Qur’an: an Encyclopedia*, ed. Oliver Leaman, London and New York: Routledge, p. 262. [^72]: Qur’an 5:8. [^73]: Qur’an 5:42. [^74]: Qur’an 4:58. [^75]: Qur’an 2:237. [^76]: Qur’an 10:26; Isfahani, 1987, p. 356. [^77]: Qur’an 59:23-24. [^78]: Qur’an 14:48. [^79]: Iṣfahānī, R. (1987) *al-Dharī‘ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘ah*,  p. 355. [^80]: Knysh, A. (2007) “Multiple areas of influence,” in *The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’an*, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 211-212. ## Summary The ethical worldview of the Qur'ān is best understood as a comprehensive philosophical vision of reality that encompasses both the physical and the metaphysical, answering humanity's deepest questions of origin, meaning, and purpose. Drawing upon Wilhelm Dilthey's definition of a worldview as a global conception uniting a picture of reality, a sense of meaning, and principles of conduct, we may say that a worldview comprises three intertwined dimensions—the religious, the artistic, and the philosophical. While the ethical concern of the Qur'ān belongs chiefly to the domain of conduct, it cannot be severed from the religious and artistic dimensions, for these together furnish the criteria by which the permissibility of moral action is judged. The Islamic worldview is rooted in the vision of *tawḥīd*—the Oneness of God—and its attendant concepts: man as vicegerent (*khalīfah*), human free will and responsibility, divine destiny, and the hereafter. The Qur'ān presents itself as a book of guidance (*hudā*) and a criterion (*furqān*) distinguishing good from evil, for it is only through proper guidance that one surrenders to the will of God rather than the whims of man. Though this worldview is primarily religious, being founded upon the ethical and metaphysical teachings of the Qur'ān, it is also philosophical in orientation, requiring that reason be brought to bear upon our understanding of revelation. The classical Islamic philosophers of the eleventh century accomplished much of the groundwork in this integration: Miskawayh (d. 1030), author of *Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq*; al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1060), author of *al-Dharī'ah ilā Makārim al-Sharī'ah*; and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), author of *Mīzān al-'Amal* and the *Iḥyā' 'ulūm al-dīn*. These thinkers showed how revelation and reason may be harmonized, and were unafraid to incorporate foreign philosophical sources—such as the Platonic-Aristotelian tripartite division of the soul into rational, concupiscent, and irascible faculties, from which emerge the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice—into a Qur'ānic *Weltanschauung*. Their models of integration later inspired Thomas Aquinas and Maimonides, both of whom quoted extensively from al-Ghazālī. Yet because any worldview involves a selective and value-laden response to experience, these thinkers, though drawing upon the Qur'ān as a common source, arrived at differing emphases: while the earlier philosophers such as Miskawayh leaned more heavily upon Aristotle's *Nicomachean Ethics*, al-Iṣfahānī and al-Ghazālī more fully integrated the philosophical with the religious, the latter taking on an explicitly Sufi orientation. The Arabic word for morality, *akhlāq*, is etymologically linked to *al-Khāliq* (the Creator) and *makhlūq* (the created), signifying that ethics presupposes a right relationship between man and God and between men themselves. Following Majid Fakhry, ethical theories in Islam may be divided into scriptural, theological, philosophical, and religious categories, and though the focus here is scriptural morality, these categories cannot be fully divorced from one another. The Qur'ān blends law and morality, as in its guidance concerning divorced women, whom one must either "retain in a fair manner or let go in a fair manner" (Q. 2:231), warning against retaining them "to their hurt or by way of transgression." Moral action is thus never a merely private matter but is bound to belief in God and to social concern, as the great verse of piety declares: true piety is not turning one's face east or west, but to believe in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the Prophets, to give of one's wealth despite loving it, and to keep one's word and be patient in hardship (Q. 2:177). For al-Iṣfahānī, acts of worship (*'ibādāt*) are obligatory upon every Muslim, while the moral virtues are supererogatory (*nawāfil*), free expressions of the soul that define who is truly fit to become a vicegerent (*khalīfat Allah*) or friend (*walī Allah*) of God. Man has been entrusted with the *amānah* of free will, which the heavens, earth, and mountains refused to bear (Q. 33:72), and though Islam honours the individual's liberty, it sets limits upon it, as in the prohibitions of suicide and abortion. Al-Iṣfahānī sets forth three purposes for which man was created: the cultivation of the earth (*'imārah*), as implied in "He brought you out from the earth and made you inhabit it" (Q. 11:61); worship (*'ibādah*), for "I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me" (Q. 51:56); and vicegerency (*khilāfah*), for "He will make you successors in the land and then observe what you will do" (Q. 7:129). Vicegerency he defines as the imitation of God, according to man's capacity, through the application of the noble virtues of the revealed Law—wisdom, justice, forbearance, beneficence, and graciousness. There is a hierarchy among these duties, the lower being prerequisites for the higher: without worship, ethical conduct lacks its higher purpose, and without the virtues, the believer remains at the level of servitude and cannot ascend to vicegerency. This distinguishes Islamic ethics sharply from Western secular systems such as the utilitarianism of Bentham (d. 1832) and Mill (d. 1873), which judge actions solely by their pleasurable or painful consequences; for even the higher pleasures Mill acknowledges are pursued for their own sake, not for nearness to God and the happiness of the hereafter. The Qur'ān transformed the tribal morality of pre-Islamic Arabia—the *jāhiliyyah* marked by "the fierceness of paganism" (Q. 48:26)—into a personal morality wherein "no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another" (Q. 6:164). Of the social virtues, it insists most upon benevolence to the poor, the needy, the stranger, the slave, and the prisoner, expressed in obligatory alms (*zakāt*) and, more nobly still, in voluntary charity (*ṣadaqah*). Forbearance is a key virtue, taught in Luqmān's counsel to his son to establish prayer, enjoin good, forbid evil, bear misfortune patiently, and shun arrogance (Q. 31:17–19). The Qur'ān recognises an innate goodness in human nature, appealing in more than forty-five places to man's universal moral conscience. Concerning responsibility, the person of *taqwā* fears divine justice and is worthy of vicegerency, exercising the free will and reason by which he fulfils the *amānah*, having been taught "all the names" (Q. 2:31). Since the greatest struggle is the struggle against the self (*jihād al-nafs*), one must first reform oneself. Responsibility presupposes voluntary action; compulsion, ignorance, or insanity removes it—a point on which Aristotle concurred that the principle of action must be internal to the agent. Man is free to believe or disbelieve—"Whoever wishes, let him believe; and whoever wishes, let him disbelieve" (Q. 18:29)—yet other verses state that God seals hearts or leads astray "those who are wicked." The Qur'ān nonetheless affirms individual responsibility, rejecting the Christian doctrine of redemption, and declares that "man gets nothing but what he strives for" (Q. 53:39). The verse "God does not change what is in a people until they change what is in themselves" (Q. 13:11) bears two possible meanings; the first—that God does not withdraw His blessings until a people turn to evil—accords with Ibn Kathīr, al-Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Qurṭubī, and Mufti Muhammad Shafi. Draz observes that man accepts his acts as his own and thereby "signs his agreement," becoming responsible, for "you shall surely be questioned about that which you used to do" (Q. 16:93). Man will be recompensed on the Day of Judgment, when his conscience—the self-reproaching soul (*al-nafs al-lawwāmah*), rooted in *fiṭrah* and not merely, as Freud held, in parental conditioning—will testify against him: "Today, your own self is reckoner enough against you" (Q. 17:14). Actions performed under coercion are excused, as with one forced to utter disbelief "while his heart is content with faith" (Q. 16:106), or the compelled slave girl whom God forgives (Q. 24:33). Yet Professor Draz holds that such excuse does not extend to premeditated murder or rape; and while some classical scholars agree a coerced woman is absolved, they hold it morally preferable to accept death than commit adultery. God's guiding and misguiding is not arbitrary but regulated by His Knowledge and Justice. Regarding sin and repentance, the God of the Qur'ān is Merciful, and there is no vicarious redemption; each bears his own sins yet may turn to God. Adam succumbed to Satan but repented and was forgiven—"Then Adam received words from his Lord, and God accepted his repentance" (Q. 2:37)—so that Islam rejects original sin. Man is born upon *fiṭrah*, inclined to good, and sin results from choice, not innate corruption. Though man is created "in the finest mould" and may be "reduced to the lowest of the low," those who believe and do right have "an unfailing reward" (Q. 95:4–6). Satan was granted reprieve to lead men astray (Q. 17:62), yet man may always repent, using, as Nursi urges, one hand for supplication and the other for seeking forgiveness. Even the conscience of a non-Muslim, as in Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov, may drive him to confess, for conscience is embedded in *fiṭrah*, testifying by "the self-reproaching soul" (Q. 75:2). Yet conscience may err through ignorance and must be corrected by knowledge of the Sharī'ah. For grave crimes such as rebellion, repentance may avert punishment, as in Q. 5:34; Draz notes that Imām al-Shāfi'ī first derived from this a universal principle that repentance prevents punishment but later abandoned it in Egypt, distinguishing responsibility before the courts from responsibility before God—for repentance may rehabilitate the sinner yet do no justice to the victims, who require reparation, as the failure of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission illustrated when justice through compensation was neglected. Intention (*niyyah*) is a precondition of moral action, for "actions are but by intention" (Prophetic tradition), and one who migrates does so for God or for worldly gain according to his intent. A sound intention cannot validate an unlawful act—one cannot raise charity by selling wine—yet an error in good faith, such as drinking wine believed to be grape juice, is excused. Al-Ghazālī, whose critique of *kalām* was that it does not purify the inner self, held that actions may spring from multiple motives, and that pious acts affect the heart, not merely the body: prostration should engender humility, and stroking an orphan's head should stir tenderness. According to Rahman, *taqwā*—appearing over 220 times—is the most central ethical concept, for God declares that neither flesh nor blood of sacrifice reaches Him, "but *taqwā* on your part does reach Him" (Q. 22:37). True piety is to give wealth seeking "the Face of his Lord Most High" (Q. 92:20), a metaphor linked to *iḥsān*, which the Prophet ﷺ defined as "to worship God as though you see Him." Thus every mundane act done for God's sake becomes worship, whereas al-Ghazālī warns that even ablution, fasting, or almsgiving may be corrupted by worldly motive. Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyyah (d. 185/801) sought to worship neither from fear of hell nor hope of paradise but from love alone—though, since the Qur'ān itself employs the rhetoric of fear, such motivation is not wrong but of a lower degree. Finally, justice ('*adl*) is linked to balance and just measure, commanded even against one's own hatred, for "acting justly, this is nearest to piety" (Q. 5:8). Al-Iṣfahānī holds that when reason governs the two lower faculties, temperance, courage, and wisdom emerge, and from their balance arises justice—both of the self and of society. Legal justice must run its course through the courts, which have no prerogative to forgive; yet when a personal right is violated, the victim may forgive, for "to forgo it is more righteous" (Q. 2:237). Al-Iṣfahānī teaches that friendship is founded upon grace (*faḍl*), not justice, for grace leads to intimacy and justice to separation. Benevolence transcends justice, being a voluntary act of the soul that imitates the divine quality of mercy, for God is *al-Raḥmān* (170 times), *al-Raḥīm* (227 times), and *al-Ghaffār* and *al-Ghafūr* (97 times), His mercy predominating over His justice and encompassing all creation. Thus these ethical concepts—responsibility, sincere intention, sin and repentance, justice and benevolence—flow from *tawḥīd* and together compose the ethical worldview of the Qur'ān, which must serve as the point of departure for integrating new knowledge through *ijtihād* and *maqāṣid al-sharī'ah*. Unlike one-sided Western secular ethics, which overemphasises rights and welfare while neglecting individual morality and spirituality, the Qur'ānic worldview calls the believer to internalise the Law as inner conviction, so that the *ummah*—whose crisis is fundamentally a moral one—may become a middle community balancing justice to the self with justice to society. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-bother-living-if-the-future-is-filled-with-pain-reclaiming-our-thoughts # "Why Bother Living if the Future is Filled with Pain?" Reclaiming Our Thoughts **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 18, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.* \-Albert Camus[^1] --- ## Case Study *Aliya was in her last year of college and lived at home with her parents. Silence in her home always meant that something must be horribly wrong because the norm was constant yelling, threatening, and screaming. Her parents fought with each other all the time and she also fought with them—about her grades, how she dressed, and what she should be studying. Some days it felt like they fought about everything and nothing at the same time. It was just a never-ending feeling of walking on eggshells and feeling doomed rolled into one. Aliya used to try and please her parents but now she was just fed up and tired. She changed her degree from something she loved to pre-med, she sacrificed her social life by rarely going out with friends, and tried to do whatever her parents asked of her but nothing was ever good enough for them. Aliya felt manipulated, taken advantage of, and guilt-tripped about everything. It felt like no matter what she did they were going to be perpetually unhappy with her and everyone else in the home. She just wanted a “normal” life in which she could be free of feeling anxious and sad all the time but there seemed to be no end in sight to her misery. She felt alone and hopeless about what to do. **“Why bother living if the future is filled with pain?”** was a thought she frequently experienced.* --- ## What’s Happening to Me? There are crossroads in life where trauma and the desire to keep going in life intersect. It’s a busy intersection where on the outside everything seems to be whizzing past you, almost crashing into you, yet on the inside there is a deafening and throbbing lull. This lull is not peace, but a numbness that develops after feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place for so long. In this overwhelming pain it may feel like it takes too much effort to continue. You might ask yourself questions like: *How much longer can I hang on?* *How am I supposed to keep carrying such a heavy load?* *When will this pain stop?* On your bad days, the questions may be less exploratory and more emphatic, like: *I hate my life.* *Nothing ever works out for me.* *Everything about me and my existence is terrible.* Thoughts about not wanting to continue life during times of adversity can alternate between feeling strangely right and feeling very scary. Many people get worried not just about experiencing thoughts of death, but also what those thoughts mean: *If I think about ending my life, does this mean I’m crazy?* *What would others think about me if they found out I had these thoughts?* *Will these thoughts ever go away? What if I’m going to feel this way forever?* If you’ve had these thoughts, know that you are not alone. There are people all over the world, including other Muslims who are reading this chapter just like you, who feel stuck with no way out. Studies shows that the lifetime prevalence rate for thinking about ending one’s life in the average population is about 18.5%[^2] and that those who have experienced trauma have an even higher likelihood of experiencing these feelings.[^3] You may to think to yourself, “Well I bet they weren’t ***good*** Muslims because even just the thought of ending your life before its time is *haram*!” How would you feel to know that that one of the best Muslims of all time had thoughts about dying when suffering from intense pain—someone who was promised Heaven and was dear to Allah. How would you feel to know that this person was Maryam عليها السلام? In Surat Maryam, in which we are told about the conception and birth of Isa عليه السلام Allah tells us about the difficulties of birth Maryam عليها السلام experienced: > *And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, **“Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten.”** (Quran, 19:23)* The example of Maryam عليها السلام shows that being overwhelmed with anguish and having thoughts about dying does not make you a bad Muslim. Ideas of death don’t make you “crazy” and oftentimes these thoughts are just slivers of time in your life—not something that you will continue to experience indefinitely. Unbeknownst to many, these types of thoughts are a type of cognitive distortion called **black-and-white thinking**.[^4] In order to know how to cope with thoughts about not wanting to continue living, it’s important to understand more about where these types of thoughts come from. When medicine helps heal the body, the sufferer doesn’t need to know how or why the medicine works—the cure just needs to help the person feel better. The mind is different, however, in that gaining insight and understanding plays a crucial role in healing psychological pain long-term. --- ## Understanding Your Thoughts and Emotions Black-and-white thinking is one of the most common types of unhealthy ways of thinking and occurs when a person develops extreme views about people, objects, or ideas—including religion. It is the inability to see gray in between the two extremes. This type of polarized thinking can happen at any time and for some people it happens often when they are under continuous distress. Common everyday examples include: ### 1\. All-good or all-bad thinking: Examples: “I yelled at my kids again—I’m the worst mother in the world.” or “My wife never cleans up—she’s the worst wife ever.” ![Trauma3_Diagrams#1](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Trauma3_Diagrams1.jpg) ### 2\. All-or-nothing thinking: Example: “I cheated on my diet by eating two cookies, so I might as well eat the whole bag.” or “I missed *fajr* prayer today so what’s the point in praying the rest of the day.” ![Trauma3_Diagrams#2](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Trauma3_Diagrams2.jpg) Black-and-white thinking starts all the way back in infancy. In the early stages of development, infants can only hold one good or one negative thought at a time. When an infant’s caregiver is unavailable or does not meet the baby’s needs (e.g., not comforting when they are upset, not feeding them when they are hungry, not changing them when they are wet, etc.) the infant will associate negative feelings with the caregiver. When the caregiver is present and meeting the infant’s needs, the baby will associate positive feelings with the caregiver. As time progresses and cognitive abilities improve, the growing child will be able to hold the two views simultaneously if the caregiver is caring and consistent.[^5] For example, the child might think (within their limited abilities): *My mother is away, but she still cares for me and will come back soon. I know this because she always comes back and shows how much she cares about me.* In situations in which a caregiver is neglectful, unpredictable, and/or abusive then it will be difficult for the child to reconcile the two opposing views at the same time and black-and-white thinking will persist over time. This is because when the caregiver is inconsistent, the child will never know what to expect next so it’s easy to go from one extreme to another at any given time. For example, the child might think (within their limited abilities): *My mother has abandoned me. There is a time when she left and didn't come back for a very long time, so she is probably not coming back this time.* Black-and-white thinking in healthy, typical development gradually disappears from infancy through adolescence, but it’s not unusual for even healthy adults to fall into black-and-white thinking on occasion. Common examples include: *“I got all Cs for my midterm grades so there is no point in continuing on with the semester.”* *“My boss gave me an unsatisfactory review so I want to quit the job immediately.”* *“My friend didn’t respond to my text for two days, I’m totally done with the friendship.”* In high-pressure situations, the fight, flight, or freeze instinct can make black-and-white thoughts even darker and harder to ignore. The flight response is not always about physically leaving; it can also involve impulsively removing yourself from the picture. You might have had thoughts like: *“What’s the point in continuing with life?”* *“If I knew my illness would be over soon I could wait it out, but I don’t know if it will ever go away—and so my life is already over.”* *“I’m a burden, perhaps others would be better off without me.”* It should be noted here that there is a big difference between passive thoughts of death and active thoughts of death. Passive thoughts are temporary feelings with no intent of following through, whereas active thoughts, or feeling suicidal, warrant immediate help. If you ever feel suicidal, it’s important to get help right away by calling 911 or having someone take you to the nearest hospital emergency room for immediate attention. The next sections of this article address how to cope with ***passive*** thoughts of death that result from black-and-white thinking. --- ## Changing Your Mind, Body, and Heart Overcoming black-and-white thinking is no easy feat, but it can be done with self-compassion, commitment, and a lot of practice. You matter. Your feelings matter and your future matters. Allah put you on this earth for good reason and does not want you to end your life. He wants you to stay and find your way back to Him when it’s the right time. If you have had this type of thinking all your life, then understand it cannot be undone with the flick of a switch. Looking at the world in black-and-white can not only deeply embed itself in your way of thinking, but in how your body responds to the environment around you as well. Some days your physical and mental urges to get caught up in the fight, flight, or freeze response will be stronger than others, and that is ok. The more you practice riding out those emotional waves, the easier it will be to tame them. Over time, you will notice that the black-and-white thinking still exists but the feelings will be less intense, less frequent, and less impactful. ### Building Distress Tolerance Distress tolerance is the ability to experience stress without being completely overcome by it and is a great way to start practicing coping with black-and-white thinking. It involves being able to take a step back, *pausing*, and then acting. The pause can be a few moments or a few days, but it’s enough time to allow you to recenter yourself. Maintaining calm doesn’t mean suppressing your feelings or pretending that a problem doesn’t exist; it means that you are stressed, but that you feel in control of yourself—instead of your emotions controlling you. > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “(Real) Patience is at the first stroke of the calamity.”*[^6] The first step in building distress tolerance is to know what stress feels like in your body. Humans experience emotional overwhelm in different ways, but individuals tend to experience similar symptoms within themselves in distressing situations. The next time you feel distressed, pay attention to your body and reflect on where you feel tension or pain. Notice if you have: - A racing heart - Labored breathing - Feelings of wanting to yell - Feelings of wanting to throw something - Sweating - Clenched fists - Tension in other parts of the body, like one’s neck or back - A sense of hastiness and wanting to take immediate action - Heat on your face, chest, or other parts of your body - Feeling like your body is shutting down Symptoms are signs our bodies manifest *before* we take action. The unrest, although uncomfortable, is actually a blessing in that it gives our bodies a signal and the ability to recognize that we have an opportunity to decide what happens next. Taking a pause in between the feeling and the action is the space where you can regain control of your body and thoughts and decide how to proceed.[^7] This is also the space where black-and-white thinking can be modified. Those who succumb to black-and-white thinking usually do it here, sometimes making snap decisions that end relationships and have catastrophic effects on opportunities and achievements. Some keywords to listen for in your mind during this time are: Always, never, and hate. “I **hate** my life: “You are **never** there for me” “I **always** fail.” [^8] Practicing the pause in between stimulus (what is happening) and response (how you act) is where all your power lies to modify your black-and-white thinking and change the course of your future.[^9] You can decide if you want to act based on temporary emotions and feelings or if you want to act in accordance with healthy logic, your values, and what is in your long-term best interests. During this pause, try some of these effective exercises from the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) model to make better choices: According to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), we have 4 options when facing a calamity or hardship:[^10] 1. Stay Miserable 2. Solve the problem 3. Change your perception of the problem 4. Radically accept the problem #### Staying Miserable The first option is to stay miserable, a common path that many people take without even realizing it. The reason so many people take this path is because they think that not taking action is a way to avoid having to make a decision; but, in fact, ***not*** making a decision ***is*** a decision. Let’s take staying in an extremely unhappy marriage, for example. Staying silent about one’s feelings, participating in futile fighting, and not getting marriage counseling are all choices. Avoiding meaningful action to change is, in effect, a decision to stay unhappy. Being miserable is probably the easiest of the four options but it still takes a lot of time and effort to maintain this unhealthy state. When people realize that being miserable is a choice, the first instinct is to think, “Well, I don’t want to be miserable on purpose!” But they often continue to feel stuck because they don’t know what to do next or how to change. This is ok as awareness is the first step to change. #### Solving the Problem Behind every black-and-white thought there is usually a larger, big-picture issue at hand. Solving the problem is not always an option in cases involving trauma and calamity, but when possible it’s best to try solve the problem directly. Let’s look at a few examples: > *If you are so upset at your parents for never letting you leave the house that you want to self-harm, the immediate issue is that you want to hurt yourself, but the big-picture issue is that there are significant communication, trust, and relational issues with your parents.*  > > *If you are so stressed out at work or school that you just want your life to end, the immediate issue is wanting to die but the big-picture issue is how you are relating to and coping with the demands in your life.* Although you may be faced with uncomfortable circumstances, addressing the problem at the root is the best way to reduce difficult emotions in the long term. An excellent way to solve a problem is to turn it into an action item and then create a basic pros and cons list associated with that idea. Writing out the pros and cons will help organize your thoughts, get more clarity on the situation, and ideally build insight into the best way to move forward. In the first example, the teen’s action item may be to ask her parents to go to family therapy or to speak with her guidance counselor about getting help. In the second example, one action item may be to consider changing from a full-time work/school schedule to part-time. If you would like to take your pros and cons list one step further, you can use the Motivational Interviewing technique below.[^11] This technique is a more advanced pros and cons list that will help you think in a multidimensional way, whereas the traditional chart is simpler. The decision matrix looks like this: The quicker you are able to complete the pros and cons list and act on it with due diligence, the better. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged us to perform a prayer called *istikhaara* when making a decision. This prayer will help affirm your decision or deter you from it as Allah knows variables affecting your issue that you may not be aware of. It can also provide a sense of calmness in knowing that you have consulted with Your Creator, who knows you and your life better than anyone. Please see the end of this chapter for details about the *istikhaara* prayer. #### Changing Perception of the Problem If you can’t change your problem, then the next best thing is to change how you view it. Perhaps the problem is not as bad as you originally thought? Or maybe it’s not a problem, but could represent an opportunity? Perhaps you have more control over the problem than you think, or you play a bigger role in the problem than you think? After all most positive changes in life start out as something difficult. Looking at the silver lining, making excuses for people, and deriving positive meaning from adversity are key ways of looking at the situation differently. Let’s take the example of someone who is suffering from a serious long-term illness. If you have ever met someone with a chronic disease, you know that there can be many setbacks at various points in their medical journey. A person who is overcome with emotion and gives into black-and-white thinking might say: *“Everyone in this hospital in incompetent.”* *“There is no hope for me!”* *“If I have this much pain, I might as well just be dead.”* The same person who pauses and tries to reframe their pain might say: *“I’m blessed to be able to get treatment for this illness even though it’s not perfect.”* *“I’m scared and I don’t know how this disease will play out but I trust that Allah is the Best of Planners and everything good in my past, present, and future comes from Him.”* *“To Allah we belong, to Allah we must all return—when it’s my time, Allah will take me. My pain now will alleviate my pain when my time here ends.”* The circumstances are identical, but reframing the problem completely changes the outlook of the person experiencing the difficulty. When you reframe a problem you are taking ownership of how the problem is presented to you which, in turn, gives you power. You are exemplifying that, while you may not have control over your circumstances, you do have control over how you view them, which is more important. A good example of changing one’s views about a problem can be seen in the words of Ibn Taymiyyah, a well-known 13th-century Muslim scholar: > *What can my enemies do to me! My garden and my paradise are in my breast wherever I go and they are with me. If my enemies kill me, I become a martyr and if they banish me from my country, I go abroad as a tourist, and by imprisoning me, they allow me to have solitude (so that I can worship Allah).*[^12] For the average person, these circumstances may be very traumatic and terrible, but Sheikh Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, found a way to genuinely look at these circumstances in the best light so they had no power over him whatsoever. Another way one can change one’s perspective on a problem is to imagine how the situation could be worse. Sheryl Sandberg, in her famous University of California at Berkeley 2016 commencement speech, talked about how this technique helped her with the immense grief she experienced when her husband suddenly died of complications due to a heart condition: > *One day my friend Adam Grant, a psychologist, suggested that I think about how much worse things could be. This was completely counterintuitive; it seemed like the way to recover was to try to find positive thoughts. “Worse?” I said. “Are you kidding me? How could things be worse?” His answer cut straight through me: “Dave could have had that same cardiac arrhythmia while he was driving your children.” Wow. The moment he said it, I was overwhelmingly grateful that the rest of my family was alive and healthy. That gratitude overtook some of the grief.*[^13] When you feel like you have hit rock bottom, it seems that there is nowhere else to go; however, rock bottom is relative. When you imagine that your difficult situation could be worse, you can gain perspective and gratitude that it may not be bad as it could be. Originally, Sandberg thought that the worst thing that could happen to her was her husband dying; however, when she realized that her children could have died as well if they had been riding in the car with him, then she had a big shift in how she viewed the situation. This does not take away from the legitimacy of the pain you are experiencing; however, it helps to shift some of the focus away from everything that has gone wrong back to the things that haven’t gone wrong. #### Radical Acceptance A final option is radical acceptance. Radical acceptance involves completely accepting in one’s mind and body the situation at hand so there is no longer any bitterness in the heart.[^14] Radical acceptance is not giving in or giving up. It’s also not complacency with matters that can be changed or should be changed. Domestic violence, for example, is not something radical acceptance would be appropriate for, whereas the death of a child would be. In the case of domestic violence, a person has options even if one doesn’t feel like pursuing them, whereas nothing can really change the death of a loved one. Radical acceptance also doesn’t mean accepting the stressor itself; rather, it means that you have accepted that this is the decree of Allah. Let’s take terminal cancer, for example. Radical acceptance doesn’t mean that you are ok with cancer or that you will not take steps to fight cancer, but it means that you accept this is a trial that you have to face. Radical acceptance is coming to peaceful terms that you might have cancer for a long time or may even die from cancer. In accepting the trial, you are not living in denial, but acknowledging the truth of your circumstances with no ill feelings in your heart or soul. Radical acceptance is riding the wave instead of fighting it. Radical acceptance in Islam is eloquently expressed in this *hadith*: > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “How wonderful is the case of a believer; there is good for him in everything and this applies only to a believer. If prosperity attends him, he expresses gratitude to Allah and that is good for him; and if adversity befalls him, he endures it patiently and that is better for him.”*[^15] There is no easy way to achieve radical acceptance. This psychological concept is probably one of the most difficult achievements in one’s journey with trauma. Many people can accept bad things that happen to them, but not without bitterness or despair. Radical acceptance takes a lot of reflection, talking through, and faith. For some individuals it may also take working with a professional, sometimes for many years, to get to this place of acceptance; but it is possible. Radical acceptance is the antithesis of black-and-white thinking. It’s being able to tolerate and accept something undesirable but still have hope, peace, and optimism. Instead of thinking, “I’m ill and there is no point in living,” it’s thinking, “I’m ill and in pain, but I have more to offer the world.” Instead of saying, “I’m in so much misery right now I should end my life,” it’s saying “I’m in so much despair, but I will hang on and make the most of my situation.” Black-and-white thinking does not allow us to see the good and bad at the same time, while *integration* involves accepting the whole picture and being able to tolerate the good and bad simultaneously. Integration is being upset with others without ending relationships, being upset with oneself without resorting to self-harm, and even having extremely difficult life circumstances while still believing in Allah. #### Self-Soothing Coping Skills Pausing before falling into black-and-white thinking, changing your perspective on the problem, and radical acceptance are not easy tasks but can be made easier by practicing self-soothing activities at the same time. These types of activities also help take the sharp edge off of difficult feelings of anxiety, agitation, anger, and depression. The next time you are experiencing intense emotions, consider the following self-soothing activities to help you practice the pause longer. *Affirmations:* Affirmations are brief and often powerful sayings you tell yourself to help shift your thoughts towards something positive. The nice thing about affirmations is that you don’t have to believe the thoughts (at least initially) to practice them. The more you use them, however, the more you begin to alter your thoughts and begin to believe them. *This is not what I would have chosen, but I’m at peace with it.* *Hasbi Allaho wa naima Al Wakeel (Allah is sufficient for me and is the Best Trustee of affairs).* *I don’t have control in this situation, but I have control over myself and that is enough.* *I accept what has been ordained for me and I know Allah will bring something good from this.* *I trust Allah and His Plan and His Wisdom.* *Deep breathing:* When you get upset, your breathing automatically becomes more rapid and shallow. This sends ongoing messages to your brain that you are upset and, in turn, your brain will continue to send back messages to the rest of your body that result in constricted breathing. Taking deep breaths will help counter this and make you feel more stable. Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, and then exhale through your mouth like it is holding a straw for at least 6 seconds. Practice this 10 times or as long as you need to. ![Trauma3_Diagrams#4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Trauma3_Diagrams4.jpg) [^16] *Tawakkul & Practicing Hope:* Have you ever driven around in really thick fog and were taken aback that you could not see the road, the usual buildings, and everything else you typically observe on your commute? Everything looks like it is covered and you can not see past what is right in front of your car. Although it might be anxiety-provoking, you know with certainty that despite not being able to see anything, all those objects are still there. The same is for *tawakkul* (reliance on Allah). You may not readily see Allah in the fog of your distress but you can constantly remind and affirm to yourself that He is still there, loves you and wants what is best for you. Intentionally practicing and looking at situations with optimism can also remind you that although you are in very difficult circumstances now, relief will eventually come and that good things lie ahead. > *For indeed, with hardship \[will be\] ease. Indeed, with hardship \[will be\] ease.* (Quran, 94: 5-6) Additionally, practicing hope and *tawakkul* during times of ease will help them come to mind more quickly when in distress. Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, a pioneer of Islamic cognitive psychotherapy in the 9th century, indicates that similar to the healthy person who keeps medicine readily at hand in case an unexpected ailment occurs, the same should be done with thoughts. Healthy thoughts should be stored during a tranquil state so they can be easily accessible when emotional distress occurs.[^17] *Replace thoughts with cognitive activities:* If you are feeling consumed with your thoughts, put them to the side and distract yourself with other thought-based activities like doing a puzzle, learning a new task, or building something new. Distracting yourself in a healthy way can help you keep your mind off the problem until you calm down. *Replace thoughts with grounding physical activities:* In psychosomatic literature, which focuses on how psychological ailments manifest themselves through the body, triggering thoughts that jump-start the fight or flight response can be minimized through positive physical touch and pressure.[^18] Simple physical activities may include wrapping yourself in a blanket (what Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did when distressed at first receiving revelation), lying flat on the floor (a recommended *sunnah* for when angry), or placing your hand on your heart. These small gestures are very simple but can profoundly help you feel more safe, in control, and secure. --- ## Inspirational Hadith & Ayat for Reflection *Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, “The example of a believer is that of a fresh tender plant; from whatever direction the wind comes, it bends it, but when the wind becomes quiet, it becomes straight again. Similarly, a believer is afflicted with calamities (but he remains patient till Allah removes his difficulties.) And an impious wicked person is like a pine tree which keeps hard and straight till Allah cuts (breaks) it down when He wishes.”* (*Sahih al- Bukhari* 5644) *Narrated Abu Uthman: Usama bin Zaid said that while he, Sa’d and Ubai bin Ka’b were with the Prophet (peace be upon him) a daughter of the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent a message to him, saying. “My daughter is dying; please come to us.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) sent her his greetings and added “It is for Allah what He takes, and what He gives, and everything before His Sight has a limited period. So she should hope for Allah’s reward and remain patient.” She again sent a message, beseeching him by Allah, to come. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) got up and so did we (and went there). The child was placed on his lap while his breath was irregular. Tears flowed from the eyes of the Prophet. Sa’d said to him, “What is this, O Allah’s Apostle?” He said, “This is Mercy which Allah has embedded in the hearts of whomever He wished of His slaves. And Allah does not bestow His Mercy, except on the merciful among His slaves.”* (*Sahih Al-Bukhari* Book 70, Hadith 559) *Narrated \`Aisha: I asked Allah's Messenger ﷺ about the plague. He said, “That was a means of torture which Allah used to send upon whomsoever He wished, but He made it a source of mercy for the believers, for anyone who is residing in a town in which this disease is present, and remains there and does not leave that town, but has patience and hopes for Allah's reward, and knows that nothing will befall him except what Allah has written for him, then he will get such reward as that of a martyr.”* (*Sahih al-Bukhari* 6619) *Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: I entered the home of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, while he was suffering from fever. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, you are suffering from a strong fever.” The Prophet said, “Yes, for I am afflicted with fever like two men among you.” I said, “Is it that you have a double reward?” The Prophet said, “Yes, it is so. Likewise, there is no Muslim who is afflicted with pain as much as the prick of a thorn or more but that Allah will expiate his sins just as leaves fall from a tree.* (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* 5324) --- ## Practical Exercises ### A. Distress Tolerance To address black-and-white thinking, it’s important to increase tolerance for difficult feelings. Instead of making snap decisions and statements, working on the space between a trigger and response helps with coping and the ability to make healthy decisions. Identify your personal triggers when you are feeling like you are about to lose your cool: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are coping skills or activities you can use before you jump to black-and-white thinking? Think of ways to stay in the pause or gray-zone as long as you can: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.  If you can’t shake off your black-and-white thinking, try this exercise in your journal: A. I know this is black-and-white thinking and I feel (write black-and-white statement here): Example: Everyone hates me and I’m worthless. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ B. I know this is black-and-white thinking, but my rational self knows that the truth is (affirmation): Example: Allah cares about me and people in my life do love me. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ C.  Repeat these affirmations to yourself 3 times in the morning and evening, or as often as you need to. ### B. Changing Your Perception of the Problem: Reframing Problems are sometimes masked opportunities for growth and opportunity. Reframing is a powerful tool for viewing obstacles in a different or more positive light. Below, write down your top 3 biggest obstacles and next to them reframe them, keeping the following questions in mind: How can I use this issue to end up in a better place than where I started? How can I take this issue to propel me closer to my life goals? ![Why Bother Living 2](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Why-Bother-Living-2.png) You have four options anytime you are facing a problem. Fill out the graph below with how life would be if you tried each option: Example: My wife says she has met someone else she wants to marry and wants to get a divorce. Are there truths are you fighting and refusing to accept? What are they? Example: I don’t want to accept that my marriage might be over after 10 years. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ What are the pros and cons of continuing to fight? What are the pros and cons of radical acceptance (not giving in, but accepting reality)? What affirmations will help you in your radical acceptance? 1\. Example: Allah is the Best of Planners. 2\. Example: I don’t have control over others, but I have control of myself and that’s what’s important. 3\. Example: Everything is going to be ok *inshaAllah*. 4. 5. Radical acceptance is not something you can turn on like a light switch. Think about it, journal about it, and debate it in your head. When you are ready to make a commitment to accepting your reality, write it down here: Example: I accept that my marriage is over. It was a good chapter in my life while it lasted and now I’m ready for the next one. It’s not exactly how I envisioned it would be, but I will have *tawakkul* in Allah and look forward to what’s ahead. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ --- ## Case Study Revisited *Aliya learned about the four options to approaching a problem (solving it, changing perception of it, radical acceptance, and staying miserable) and decided that staying miserable was not an option for her. It’s not that she truly wanted to die—she just wanted the conflict and pain to stop. She thought about changing her perception of the problem, but she knew that this was not going to work unless she at least tried to change the problem first.* *Aliya decided that she wanted to go to therapy. Her parents were reluctant to accept her going to treatment so she decided to utilize the free therapy sessions at her college. Aliya learned that she had developed depression as a result of her family dynamics and that the extreme yelling, name-calling, and fighting were actually forms of verbal abuse. Aliya consulted with her local Imam and he agreed with Aliya’s therapist that her current living situation was very unhealthy.* *Aliya decided to move in with her aunt nearby and work on developing healthier boundaries with her parents from a distance. She understood that vilifying her parents was not going to get her the results she wanted long-term and so she made efforts to build a better relationship with them; when her parents acted inappropriately, however, she would try to change the subject or leave without making a scene.* *With the help of her therapist, Aliya began to work on addressing her black-and-white thinking and depression. If she began to think too negatively of her parents, she would try to focus on their good qualities and the fact that they had raised her. If she became overwhelmed and started to have thoughts of wanting to shut down, or that she didn’t want to continue living, she would use self-soothing activities to calm down. Over time, she realized that the quicker she started her coping skills the less she experienced the black-and-white thinking. As her black-and-white thinking decreased, so did her depression.* --- ## Istikhaara Prayer Use this prayer when you want to make a decision about a difficult matter (or any matter). Pray two *rakat* voluntary prayer and, after completing the prayer and saying *salaam* (*tasleem*), say this *du'aa*. “It was narrated that Jabir bin ‘Abdullah said: > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to teach us Istikharah, just as he used to teach us a Surah of the Qur’an. He said: ‘If anyone of you is deliberating about a decision he has to make, then let him pray two Rak’ah of non- obligatory prayer, then say: Allahumma inni astakhiruka bi ‘ilmika wa astaqdiruka bi qudratika wa as’aluka min fadlikal-‘azim, fa innaka taqdiru wa la aqdir, wa ta’lamu wa la a’lam, wa Anta ‘allamul-ghuyub. Allahumma in kunta ta’lamu hadhal-amra (then the matter should be mentioned by name) ma kan min shay’in khairan li fi dini wa ma’ashi wa ‘aqibati amri, aw khairanli fi ‘ajili amri wa ajilihi, faqdurhu li wa yassirhu li wa barik li fihi. Wa in kunta ta’lamu \[O Allah, I seek Your guidance (in making a choice) by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power, I have none. And You know, I know not. You are the Knower of hidden things. O Allah, if in Your knowledge, this matter (then it should be mentioned by name) is good for me in my religion, my livelihood and my affairs, or both in this world and in the Hereafter then ordain it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me. And if in Your knowledge\]. Then saying similar to what he said the first time, except: Wa in kana sharran li fasrifhu ‘anni wasrifni ‘anhu waqdur li al-khair haithuma kana thumma raddini bihi (If it is bad for me then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and ordain for me the good wherever it may be and make me pleased with it).’”* (*Sunan Ibn Majah*, Vol. 1, Book 5, Hadith 1383) حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ يُوسُفَ السُّلَمِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا خَالِدُ بْنُ مَخْلَدٍ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنُ أَبِي الْمَوَالِ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ مُحَمَّدَ بْن الْمُنْكَدِرِ، يُحَدِّثُ عَنْ جَابِرِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، قَالَ كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ يُعَلِّمُنَا الاِسْتِخَارَةَ كَمَا يُعَلِّمُنَا السُّورَةَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ يَقُولُ "‏إِذَا هَمَّ أَحَدُكُمْ بِالأَمْرِ فَلْيَرْكَعْ رَكْعَتَيْنِ مِنْ غَيْرِ الْفَرِيضَةِ ثُمَّ لْيَقُلِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْتَخِيرُكَ بِعِلْمِكَ وَأَسْتَقْدِرُكَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ وَأَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ فَضْلِكَ الْعَظِيمِ فَإِنَّكَ تَقْدِرُ وَلاَ أَقْدِرُ وَتَعْلَمُ وَلاَ أَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتَ عَلاَّمُ الْغُيُوبِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ هَذَا الأَمْرَ - فَيُسَمِّيهِ مَا كَانَ مِنْ شَىْءٍ - خَيْرًا لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي - أَوْ خَيْرًا لِي فِي عَاجِلِ أَمْرِي وَآجِلِهِ - فَاقْدُرْهُ لِي وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي وَبَارِكْ لِي فِيهِ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ - يَقُولُ مِثْلَ مَا قَالَ فِي الْمَرَّةِ الأُولَى - وَإِنْ كَانَ شَرًّا لِي فَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي وَاصْرِفْنِي عَنْهُ وَاقْدُرْ لِيَ الْخَيْرَ حَيْثُمَا كَانَ ثُمَّ رَضِّنِي بِهِ‏"‏ ‏ --- ## Notes [^1]: Camus, A. (1954). *Summer*. “Return to Tipasa.” [^2]: Lee, J.-I., Lee, M-B., Liao, S.-C., Chang, C.-M., Sung, S.-C., Chiang, H.-C., & Tai, C.-W. (2010). Prevalence of suicidal ideation and associated risk factors in the general population. *Journal of the Formosan Medical Association*, *109*(2), 138-147. [^3]: Panagioti, M., Gooding, P., & Tarrier, N. (2009). Post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal behavior: A narrative review. *Clinical Psychology Review*, *29*(6), 471-482. [^4]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy*. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^5]: Boag, S. (1994). Psychodynamic Approaches to Borderline Personality Disorder. *The ACPARIAN*, *9*, 25-28. [^6]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi*, Vol. 2, Book 5, *Hadith* 988. [^7]: Covey, S. R. (2004). *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic*. New York: Free Press. [^8]: Mujtaba, B. G. (2008). Interpersonal change through the" Inside-Out-Approach": Exercising the freedom to choose our responses during conflict and stressful situations. *RU International Journal, 2*(1), 1-12. [^9]: Covey, *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People*. [^10]: Lineham, M. (2015). *DBT Skills Training Manual*, Second Edition Second Edition, Available separately: DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, 2nd ed., New York, NY: The Guilford Press. [^11]: Lundahl, B., Burke, B. (2009). The effectiveness and applicability of motivational interviewing: A practice-friendly review of four meta-analyses. *Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65*(11), 1232-1245. [^12]: Al-Qarni, ‘Aaidh Ibn Abdullah. *Don’t be Sad* (2005). Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, p. 120. [^13]: O’Dea, Meghan (2016, May 14). Transcript: Sheryl Sandberg at the University of California at Berkeley 2016 Commencement. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/05/14/sandberg-uc-berkley-transcript/ [^14]: Lineham, *DBT Skills Training Manual*. [^15]: *Riyad as-Salihin*, The Book of Miscellany, Book 1, *Hadith* 27. Retrieved from https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/27 [^16]: Image courtesy of www.therapistaid.com (2017) [^17]: Badri, Malik (2013). *Abu Zayd al Balkhi’s Sustenance of the Soul: The Cognitive Behavior Theory of a Ninth Century Physician*. Washington: The International Institute of Islamic Thought. [^18]: Wong, A. (2019). Somatic Approaches to Healing Trauma. Online Course. Retrieved from https://www.somatopia.com ## Summary There are moments in life when a person feels caught between the weight of hardship and the will to continue, and in that stillness there is not peace but a numbness that settles after being trapped for too long. Many who endure such distress find themselves visited by thoughts of death, wondering how much longer they can carry their burden or whether their pain will ever cease. It is important to know that such thoughts do not mark a person as a bad Muslim, nor do they mean one has lost their mind. Studies indicate that the lifetime prevalence of thinking about ending one's life is roughly 18.5 percent of the general population, and those who have suffered trauma are even more likely to experience these feelings. A person is not alone in this struggle. The clearest proof that such anguish does not diminish one's standing before Allah lies in the example of Maryam عليها السلام, a woman promised Paradise and beloved to her Lord. When the pains of childbirth overtook her, she cried out, as Allah relates: "And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, 'Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten'" (Qur'an 19:23). If one of the most honored of women could be overwhelmed to the point of wishing for death, then being visited by such thoughts is not a sign of weak faith. Often these thoughts are but fleeting moments, not a permanent state one is destined to endure forever. These thoughts are frequently a form of what is called black-and-white thinking, a cognitive distortion in which a person sees only extremes and cannot perceive the gray between them. This way of thinking begins in infancy, when a child cannot yet hold both good and bad feelings toward a caregiver at once. When a caregiver is loving and consistent, the growing child learns to integrate the two, but when a caregiver is neglectful, unpredictable, or abusive, this integration is disrupted and black-and-white thinking persists into later life. Even healthy adults occasionally fall into it, and under intense pressure the fight, flight, or freeze instinct can make such thoughts darker still. A crucial distinction must be preserved here: there is a difference between passive thoughts of death, which are temporary and carry no intent, and active suicidal thoughts, which demand immediate help by calling emergency services or going to a hospital. What follows concerns coping with passive thoughts arising from this distorted thinking. Overcoming this pattern is not easy, but it is possible through self-compassion, commitment, and practice. Allah placed each person on this earth for a reason and does not wish for anyone to end their life; rather He wishes for them to remain and find their way back to Him in due time. A first tool is building distress tolerance, meaning the ability to feel stress without being overcome by it, to pause between what happens and how one responds. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "(Real) Patience is at the first stroke of the calamity." Learning to recognize how stress manifests in the body—a racing heart, labored breathing, clenched fists, tension, heat—allows one to notice the signal and seize the space to decide what happens next. In that pause, one should listen for words like "always," "never," and "hate," which are the markers of distorted thinking. Within this pause, the Dialectical Behavior Therapy model offers four options when facing hardship: to stay miserable, to solve the problem, to change one's perception of it, or to radically accept it. Staying miserable is itself a decision, for avoiding meaningful action is a choice to remain unhappy, though awareness of this is the first step toward change. Solving the problem directly is best when possible, for behind most black-and-white thoughts lies a larger issue; turning the matter into an action item and weighing its pros and cons brings clarity. Here the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged the prayer of istikhaara when making decisions, that one may consult the Creator who knows the hidden variables of one's life and may thereby find affirmation, deterrence, or calm. When a problem cannot be changed, the next best course is to change how one views it—to seek the silver lining, to derive positive meaning, or to recognize a hidden opportunity. Ibn Taymiyyah, the well-known 13th-century scholar, embodied this when he said, "What can my enemies do to me! My garden and my paradise are in my breast wherever I go and they are with me. If my enemies kill me, I become a martyr and if they banish me from my country, I go abroad as a tourist, and by imprisoning me, they allow me to have solitude." Circumstances that would crush most people held no power over him because of how he chose to see them. Another means, illustrated by Sheryl Sandberg's account of imagining how her loss could have been worse, is to gain perspective and gratitude by recognizing what has not gone wrong, without diminishing the reality of one's pain. The final option is radical acceptance, which means accepting a situation fully so that no bitterness remains in the heart. This is neither surrender nor complacency, and it is not appropriate for matters that can and should be changed, such as domestic violence; it is fitting for what cannot be altered, such as the death of a loved one. Radical acceptance does not mean approving of the trial itself but accepting that it is the decree of Allah. This is beautifully captured in the words of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: "How wonderful is the case of a believer; there is good for him in everything... If prosperity attends him, he expresses gratitude to Allah and that is good for him; and if adversity befalls him, he endures it patiently and that is better for him." Radical acceptance is the very opposite of black-and-white thinking, for it allows one to hold hardship and hope at once. These efforts are aided by self-soothing practices: affirmations such as "Hasbi Allahu wa ni'ma al-Wakeel," deep breathing, and the cultivation of tawakkul and hope. Like driving through thick fog where unseen objects remain present, one may not perceive Allah in the fog of distress, yet He is there and wills what is best. Allah promises, "For indeed, with hardship will be ease. Indeed, with hardship will be ease" (Qur'an 94:5-6). Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, a pioneer of Islamic cognitive psychotherapy in the 9th century, advised storing healthy thoughts during times of ease so they are ready in times of distress, just as one keeps medicine at hand. One may also replace consuming thoughts with cognitive activities, or with grounding physical acts such as wrapping oneself in a blanket, as the Prophet ﷺ did when first receiving revelation, or lying flat on the floor, a recommended remedy for anger. Through such patient practice, the believer, like the tender plant of the Prophet's parable that bends in the wind and rights itself again, may weather affliction while remaining rooted in faith. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shariah-from-diverse-legal-discourse-to-colonial-misrepresentation # Shari'ah: From Diverse Legal Discourse to Colonial Misrepresentation **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** Methodology (usul), Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 11, 2019 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Introduction Just over a century after the Prophet’s passing, Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, the well-known Persian secretary and vizier to the second Abbasid caliph al-Manṣūr, penned his famous *Risāla fī al-Ṣaḥāba* (*Epistle Concerning the Entourage*), advising the caliph on how to confront the political troubles of his caliphate.[^1] Among his handful of recommendations, Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ suggested that the caliph codify the growing corpus of what constituted Islamic law. Although the Caliph al-Manṣūr did not ultimately undertake Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s proposal, he did have another idea: why not simply use the respectable Imam Malik’s legal compendium, *al-Muwaṭṭaʾ*, as a standardized legal code?[^2] When the caliph summoned Imam Malik to propose this idea, however, Imam Malik did not hesitate to reject the proposition. Using the *Muwaṭṭaʾ* as the only source of law, the scholar explained, would interfere with the legal diversity that had been uniquely produced throughout every region.[^3] The notion that Islamic law is inconsistent with too many opinions on any given issue has persisted until today.[^4] In the 1949 United States Supreme Court case of *Terminiello v. Chicago*, Justice Felix Frankfurter scoffed at the proceedings by retorting, “We do not sit like a *kadi* under a tree dispensing justice according to considerations of individual expediency.”[^5] In other words, decisions should be determined by a set of rules unhindered by the subjective interpretations of the judge. His bigoted attitude aside, the Supreme Court Justice’s remark reflects the often-held assumption that Islamic law was a little too vast for its own good, with the undesirable result of scholars and judges ruling based on their own personal biases. So how, then, did scholars navigate the corpus of legal diversity and thought? In the following paper, I begin by offering an overview of how Islamic law was traditionally practiced at a communal level, as well as how scholars and laity alike took advantage of the diversity offered within the Shari'ah. I then discuss the legal methods scholars employed in order to ensure consistency and reliability within the law, prior to briefly concluding with reflections on the modern codification processes that began in the disintegrating Ottoman empire and lasted well beyond the colonial period. At a time when even some Muslims associate the Shari'ah with harshness and regression, it is extremely important for us to learn about these historical moments in order to see the value the Shari'ah held in maintaining flourishing communities, before exploring the significant changes inflicted upon Islamic law over recent centuries that have led to its ineffective and distorted practice today. --- ## The Shari'ah in practice Before delving into a discussion on how law was practiced, it is necessary to take a step back and identify the general key players in society: the ruler, the *ʿulamāʾ* (or scholars), and the common people. The ruler, although early on in Islamic history governed the community’s religious and social affairs, was primarily responsible for the political and economic governing of his dominion.[^6] In short, he protected those under his rule from foreign threats and collected taxes, among other “political” responsibilities. The *ʿulamāʾ*, on the other hand, were the bearers of religious knowledge and the embodiment of its teachings. But beyond simply enforcing the law or acting as its advisors, the *ʿulamā*ʾ played a significant role in organizing the social, religious, and economic affairs of the community. For example, they ensured the institution and maintenance of the *awqāf*, or religious endowments, which in turn funded religious education and public establishments and ensured the continuous flow of monetary funds within the community.[^7] Finally, we have the commoners or laity (i.e., average Muslims like you and me). The laity had the option of choosing which scholar they wanted to follow and were not confined to a single *madhhab* (school of law).[^8] The flexibility in choosing one’s scholar for adjudication is most often articulated through the example of married women. In the event that a woman’s husband went missing, for example, the dominant Ḥanafī opinion held that the wife must wait a lifetime (e.g., approximately 80-90 years) before a divorce was issued to her through the courts. Hence, most women approached Shāfiʿī or Mālikī judges, who required only a four-year waiting period to finalize their divorce in order for them to remarry.[^9] Likewise, the Shāfiʿī, Mālikī, and Ḥanbalī *madhhabs* allowed for women who were abandoned by their husbands (e.g., their husbands were delayed unintentionally on business or travel) to complain to a judge when the funds (i.e., *nafaqa*) their husbands left behind were depleted. Judges consequently often ruled that a woman could take a loan out in her husband’s name that was sufficient for maintaining herself and children and suitable for their economic status. Ḥanafī judges, on the other hand, required that a husband and wife submit a claim *prior* to his departure in the event of a delayed trip. If not previously requested, the wife could not later complain when her living stipend was exhausted.[^10] Hence, most women in these cases, who were typically adherents of the Ḥanafī school, took advantage of the diversity of opinions and turned to scholars from other schools for recourse. --- ## One question, many answers ### Forum-shopping But wait, does that mean *fatwa*\-shopping is allowed? The legality and morality of asking around for different opinions has always been subject to debate. Scholarly positions on the issue can be categorized as one of three approaches. On one end of the spectrum, we have the position promoted by ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 1262), who permitted laypeople to choose freely among *muftis* and their rulings. If one intentionally chooses to follow the easiest opinion, however, he or she should know that they are only harming themselves and will have to answer to God.[^11] On the other end of the spectrum, we find the position that required Muslims to choose one authority (i.e., *madhhab*) to consistently follow on any given issue. Advocates of this approach also strongly discouraged muftis from issuing *fatwas* that were contrary to the most prominent opinion (e.g., *mashhūr*, *rājiḥ*, *aṣaḥḥ*, etc.) of their school. In other words, choosing between opinions from *within* the same school was disliked. Finally, we have what can be considered on this spectrum the middle-ground approach that promoted following one school of law but allowed a person to switch positions if another school or scholar had stronger evidence or in the event of a legitimate need (*ḥāja*) or necessity (*ḍarūra*). This third approach, however, did not permit crossing school boundaries if it was in pursuit of illegitimate desires (*ittibāʿ al-hawā*).[^12] What’s interesting for us to note here is that, in the cases of women mentioned earlier who were seeking divorce, it was oftentimes the Ḥanafī judges themselves who would transfer their jurisdiction of the wife’s case to a judge from another school when they knew it would better help her situation.[^13] Despite the strictness of written rules, scholars were much more flexible in reality. This isn’t because they were not committed to the established doctrines of their schools, but because they creatively interpreted the texts in light of the plaintiff’s particular circumstances and customs.[^14] In fact, the eminent Hanafi scholar Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1836) was resolute about this matter and proclaimed: > *The rigidity of the* mufti *and the judge in following \[only\] the apparent meaning of the reported text (*ẓāhir al-manqūl*), while neglecting custom (*ʿurf*) and context (*al-qarāʾin al-wāḍiḥa*), and his ignorance of the \[actual\] circumstances of the people necessarily entails the loss of numerous rights and \[results in\] injustice for numerous people.*[^15] ### Theological Debates The plurality of legal answers, on the other hand, begs the question: how did scholars accept the *possibility* that there could be more than one answer? Were all legal answers legitimate? These questions opened a Pandora’s box of theological debates on the will of God: if the law represents God’s will, how can there be different but equally correct answers to the same issues? Does that imply that God does not have a specific will? Or does He have a will that we as finite human beings cannot understand? How then do we know what the Shari'ah is supposed to be?[^16] Over time, a principal question was posed to solve this debate: is every jurist correct (*hal kullu mujtahidin muṣīb*)? In the event that there was a difference of opinion on the same matter, was one opinion right and the other(s) wrong? Two main groups emerged in answering this theological quandary: the fallibilists (*muṣawwiba*), who held that every jurist was correct in their legal conclusions, and the infallibilists (*mukhaṭṭiʾa*), who believed that only one jurist could possibly be correct.[^17] The heart of the debate rested on a narration of the Prophet ﷺ that says, “When a judge decides on a legal ruling and gets the right answer, he receives two rewards. If he adjudicates but gets the wrong answer, he gets one reward.” Based on this *hadith*, the *mukhaṭṭiʾa* understood that a *right* and *wrong* answer can clearly exist, even if we as humans may never truly know which answer is correct.[^18] Hence, jurists must remain humble in their epistemology and recognize that their interpretation may be subject to reconsideration. The *muṣawwiba*, on the other hand, understood the *hadith* to imply that a jurist is always rewarded for their sincere efforts and are, subsequently, always correct. Their concern, moreover, was less about right and wrong, and more focused on ensuring that jurists were making their claims with a high degree of confidence, or *ghalabat al-ẓann* (a preponderance of opinions).[^19] Despite their differences on the probability of the outcome of legal reasoning (*ijtihād*), both groups came together to recognize that the results (i.e., the laws)—even though there was more than one answer—are all *valid* because they were created within a *system* that is certain.[^20] That is to say, both the *mukhaṭṭiʾa* and the *muṣawwiba* agreed on the concept and methodology of legal reasoning; since the framework of the jurisprudence was accepted, then differences within the system were also accepted. In this way, scholars were able to reconcile the *possibility* of a range of different legal answers. --- ## Case studies ### Mamluk Sultanate Regardless of these scholarly debates, by the Mamluk period in the 13th century, legal subjects were allowed to pursue whatever school or scholar would best benefit them.[^21] In fact, the entire legal system was built upon the notion that all established schools of law (i.e., Mālikī, Ḥanafī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī) were equally authoritative and valid. This acceptance of legal pluralism enabled the Mamluk Sultan Baybārs (d. 1277) to appoint four chief *qāḍīs* in Egypt—one representing each of the four schools of law.[^22] Whereas beforehand the Shāfiʿī school dominated the Mamluk sultanate and was exclusively entitled to authorize legal rulings, Baybars’ institution of the quadruple legal system sanctioned the verdicts of all four schools.[^23] Hence, when constituents of the military elite, who were often Ḥanafī, sought to purchase or sell endowments, they turned to the Ḥanbalī *qāḍī*, who was the only one permitted (by his school) to authorize such transactions.[^24] The chief *qāḍīs* themselves acknowledged the advantages of a legally pluralistic society and, hence, allowed for the deferral of some cases to judges from other schools.[^25] ### Ottoman Empire Four chief *qāḍīs*, however, did not exist in every empire in Islamic history.[^26] From the 15th century (if not earlier), the Ottomans adopted a particular version of the Ḥanafī *madhhab* as the official school of the empire.[^27] Yet, although the chief judges in the major districts in the Ottoman Empire were Ḥanafi, in smaller towns where the population included followers of other *madhāhib*, deputy judges (*nāʾib, nuwwāb*) from those schools were additionally commissioned.[^28] As a result, in Ottoman provinces throughout the Levant where the Shāfiʿī *madhhab* was popular, we find Shāfiʿī deputy judges, while in North Africa, Mālikī deputies were appointed to serve the needs of the predominantly Mālikī population. As for Cairo in particular—the home of Baybārs’ quadruple legal system—four chief *qadis* continued to be equally authoritative even under the Ottomans. ### Mughal Empire Another case in point is Mughal India. Under the reign of Aurangzeb ʿAlamgir in the late 17th century, the emperor called for a compilation of the most prominent opinions in the Hanafi school of law into what became one of the most famous legal compendia in South Asia, the *Fatāwā al-Hindiyya* or *Fatāwā-i ʿAlamgiriyya*.[^29] In his desire for this code, Aurangzeb actually intended to extract the most widely accepted opinions within the Ḥanafī legal tradition, thereby dismissing the lesser-known opinions. Ironically, however, authors of this compendium hardly attempted to systematize the vast array of opinions. In fact, the *Fatāwā* include an array of differing opinions on a number of issues—providing judges with a variety of choices when dealing with legal cases. The author-jurists even note that, when clear guidance within the Ḥanafī legal tradition is unavailable and later scholars disagree on a matter, the judge has the authority to make a legal judgment based on any of the opinions he or she deems most fitting.[^30] Put differently, judges had the right to exercise their own legal judgment unique to each situation. --- ## Legal determinacy So if anyone could just choose whatever opinion worked most conveniently for them, how was there any way to have consistency and reliability in the legal system? Well, first of all, judges were limited to ruling by the accepted and established schools of law. One of the major discussions in legal texts that preoccupied jurists was fueled by a very similar question: which opinion—out of all of these opinions *within* our school—is the most authoritative?[^31] In order to answer this question, jurists embarked on a mission to determine which opinions were the soundest or most authoritative within their *madhhab*. They too understood the dire need for consistency and predictability and, thus, established techniques in order to maximize legal determinacy. One such mechanism is referred to as *tarjīḥ*, or the process of weighing and comparing evidence that is ostensibly conflictual.[^32] In the case of *tarjīḥ*, we are not simply referring to the juxtaposition of a Qur’anic verse and a saying of the Prophet ﷺ that was used as evidence in making a claim; the *methods* of interpretation were crucial as well. In other words, it was necessary to take into consideration linguistic and speculative reasonings, among other factors, that were used to deduce a legal norm. If one scholar had stronger evidence and methods for their claim, then their legal conclusion would hold more weight. *Tarjīḥ*, furthermore, was only applied to probable (*ẓannī*) cases and not those that were certain (*qaṭʿī*). For example, the fact that a person who breaks their oath is required to fast three days (if he cannot pay the expiatory penance) is not open to *tarjīḥ* because the Quranic verse referencing this command explicitly says “three days”—nothing more, nothing less.[^33] After weighing the evidences that take into account revealed texts, consensus, analogical reasoning, inferential thought, etc., scholars would conclude that one of the many opinions that existed within their doctrinal tradition was *rājiḥ* (preponderant) or *aṣaḥḥ* (most sound).[^34] Through this process of gradation, scholars identified the single most authoritative opinion that could hold weight in issuing *fatwas* or court verdicts and hence demanded that both *muftis* and *qāḍīs* not deviate from those opinions.[^35] As early as the 7th/13th centuries, these preponderant opinions were collected into *mukhtaṣars*, or “abridged” books—a form of codified law, as Dr. Mohammed Fadel argues—as a means to provide easy and direct access to the school’s main ruling on any given inquiry.[^36] This conscious decision to limit legal rulings to the four main schools of law was not intended to restrict the flexibility and plurality of Islamic law. Rather, it was an opportunity for stability and legal continuity within a doctrinal system that served as a reservoir for generations’ worth of legal discourse.[^37] --- ## What went wrong? Beginning as early as the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was confronted head-on by not only plenty of internal political strife but a growing number of military losses to the rapidly growing military and economic strength of the Europeans as well.[^38] Despite reforms targeting the military at the beginning of the 1800s, the 19th century was not spared from an onslaught of defeats at the hands of various Western powers.[^39] By 1839, with the transition of power to Abdülmecid I, members of the Ottoman ruling elite acknowledged the need for more to be done. Their weakness, they assumed, stemmed from internal conflicts and lack of sufficient reforms, leading to a call for renewed administrative organization as they sought to match the West’s ever-growing success. These factors, in addition to mounting pressure to change from the West itself, culminated in a series of reforms known as the *Tanzimat* (i.e., the era of “organization”).[^40] Apart from the countless financial and military changes enacted during the *Tanzimat*, this era witnessed a set of legal and constitutional reforms that sought to centralize and unify the legislation. In order to initiate these amendments, Ottoman officials turned to existing Western conceptions of constitutional norms for inspiration. Under this framework, the state itself is considered to be the primary source of authority and it alone should determine the laws of the land. A key marker of this state was the standardization and simplification of its laws in order for the state to actively supervise the legal realm; hence, the Ottomans were soon convinced of the need to codify all areas of the law.[^41] This was premised on the Western notion that law as was traditionally practiced (i.e., with a plethora of opinions that were spread across schools and, in our case, *fiqh* manuals) was too “chaotic and inaccessible” while codification represented the pinnacle of a modern (and organized) civilization.[^42] Based on these assumptions, the Ottomans moved forward with not only modernizing the prevailing (Islamic) laws but also adopting Western law codes like the Commercial Code of 1850 and the Penal Code of 1858 (based on the French system).[^43] Later, after the fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of nation-states in its place, a large number of these new Muslim-majority countries established legal codes based partially or often entirely on Western models.[^44] There’s a lot more that could be said to describe the devastating effects that ensued from the creation of nation-states in the “Muslim world” and the concurrent colonial project. Like the fact that the very ideologies that fueled the rise of the State (e.g., industrialism, nationalism, capitalism, etc.) were organically created to solve problems inherent to the West, while the rest of the world was coerced into following these terms and renouncing their own traditions and history.[^45] Or the fact that, under this system, law was stripped from the hands of the jurists and co-opted exclusively by the state.[^46] The resulting legislative interference, unlike in traditional Islamic societies where the ruler’s intervention was strongly limited, allowed the state to infringe on the legal realm and even take control of the public endowments (*awqāf*) that served as educational institutions, formerly supervised by the *ʿulamāʾ*.[^47] Consequently, the state could dictate what curriculum was to be taught, placing the scholarly tradition under tight surveillance. Or the fact that an elite class of Muslim lawyers (and in many cases, non-Muslims) educated in Western institutions began to replace the ʿ*ulamāʾ*, despite the fact that their training in the Shari'ah was limited to the decontextualized readings of a handful of classical legal treatises that had been selectively translated into European languages.[^48] But I will leave these discussions for another paper. What I would like to focus on is how the disjointed and incomplete attempts to codify the Shari'ah impacted the image of flexibility and leniency within the law that was presented earlier on—so much so that we too as Muslims engage in legal Orientalism and are guilty of associating the Shari'ah with rigidity and severity. Traditionally, as discussed earlier, rules throughout the various schools of law could and *did* differ on a range of issues—all while maintaining legal validity. Codification, or the reduction and systemization of the laws, on the other hand, meant that only one opinion could be formally selected.[^49] When officials who were Western-trained and hence limited in their legal capacities relative to the traditional *ʿulamāʾ* were tasked with the responsibility of codifying Islamic personal status laws, they selectively identified either the most prominent opinion of the Ḥanafī school or the most convenient opinion from one of the other schools of law. These processes, known as *takhayyur* (selection) and *talfīq* (patching), resulted in a hodge-podge of laws that was to make up the official Ottoman family law codes, which in turn served as the archetype for personal status codes in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia, and many other countries that, in some cases, remain in effect today.[^50] --- ## Conclusion Although the modernization project as a whole generated positive change in certain respects, the nature of Islamic law was forever transformed. A plethora of opinions and alternatives were reduced to a single legal ruling, depleting the vast legal discourse that has existed throughout most of Islamic history.[^51] Admittedly, Islamic law as we know it today, or rather as we see it playing out in the Middle East, is more often than not a form of Islamic law that was first significantly reduced and then diluted by nothing short of Western law. What does this mean for you and me and why should it matter so much to us? First of all, we oftentimes hear of laws being enacted in a Muslim country and we assume that is the *only* way Islamic law has been understood or could be understood. In reality, legal opinions were selectively chosen from amongst an array of options; we need to appreciate the diversity and flexibility of the Shari'ah. Secondly, we almost always assume that a law that is being implemented in Egypt or Pakistan is derived from the Qur’an or Sunnah. Honor killings, for example, are amongst the most notorious accusations against Muslims, when in fact—as Dr. Jonathan Brown demonstrates in his Yaqeen publication on this topic—they originated from Western law.[^52] Hence, we need to be more careful when we associate the practices of Muslims to Islamic law and the values of the Shari'ah and, more importantly, we need to make an effort to learn more about these differences in order to have confidence in the perfection and completeness of God’s laws and regain the pride that Muslims throughout Islamic civilization have had in the Shari'ah. --- ## Notes [^1]: Najm al-Din Yousefi, “Islam without Fuqahāʾ: Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and His Perso-Islamic Solution to the Caliphate’s Crisis of Legitimacy,” *Iranian Studies* 50, no. 1 (2017): 9. [^2]: Tarek Elgawhary, “Restructuring Islamic Law: The Opinions of the *ʿUlamāʾ* Towards Codification of Personal Status Law in Egypt” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2014), 18. [^3]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy* (England: OneWorld Publications, 2014), 35. [^4]: Since it is not compatible with their conceptualizations of religion (i.e., Western Christianity), Orientalists have long had difficulty understanding Islamic traditions and law. Their constant juxtaposition of the Shari'ah with Western Christianity left many Orientalists and colonizers with the ostensible notion that Islamic law was a closed system that had ‘a grip of iron from which there was no escape.’ This systematic demonization of the Shari'ah could be described as a type of legal Orientalism. See Ebrahim Moosa, “Colonialism and Islamic Law,” in *Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates*, eds. Muhammad Masud, et al. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 162ff. [^5]: Cited in Anver Emon, “To Most Likely Know the Law: Objectivity, Authority, and Interpretation in Islamic Law,” *Hebraic Political Studies* 4, no. 4 (2009): 415-440. Weber, too, coined the term *Kadijustiz* to describe the supposed capriciousness and irrationality of Islamic law; see Ahmed F. Ibrahim, “School Boundaries and Social Utility in Islamic Law: The Theory and Practice of *Talfīq* and *Tatabbuʿ al-Rukhaṣ* in Egypt” (Ph.D. Diss., Georgetown University, 2011), 10. [^6]: In his book, *Politics, Law and Community in Islamic Thought*, Ovamir Anjum proposes two dominant visions of community organization. The first is a community or *umma*\-centered vision, which prevailed during early Islamic caliphates and held the ruler directly accountable to the Muslim community (i.e., the *umma* had the authority to challenge the ruler in the event that he strayed from religious expectations). This is in contrast to the ruler-centered vision, which vested authority in the ruler himself rather than the community. The point in mentioning these visions is to note that, as Anjum argues, neither ever gained full legitimacy and variants of both were practiced throughout different periods; hence, under certain caliphates, sultanates, etc., the ruler sometimes took on a concern for religious affairs and was involved in the implementation of *sharʿī r*ulings. By and large, however, after the failure of the *miḥna* and the consequential rise in power of the ʿ*ulamāʾ*, we find the ruler using his authority vis-a-vis the scholarly elite to gain support for and legitimize his rule, or occasionally as a result of his acceptance of religious law as the principal form for governing. See Ovamir Anjum, *Politics, Law and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Ira Lapidus, *A History of Islamic Societies*, 3rd. Ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 174; Wael Hallaq, “Juristic Authority vs. State Power: The Legal Crisis of Modern Islam,” *Journal of Law and Religion* 19, no. 2 (2003): 252-4. [^7]: Wael Hallaq, “Juristic Authority,” 246. [^8]: Anjum, 268. [^9]: Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad*, 51. [^10]: Kenneth M. Cuno, “Reorganization of the Sharia Courts of Egypt: How Legal Modernization Set Back Women’s Rights in the Nineteenth Century,” in *Law and Legality in the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey*, ed. K. Schull, M. Saraçoǧlu, and R. Zens (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016), 101-104. [^11]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, “Reaching into the Obscure Past: The Islamic Legal Heritage and Reform in the Modern Period” in *Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage* (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), 104. [^12]: This position only allowed for switching positions amongst the established schools of law and, even so, did not allow mixing schools if it led to transgressive combinations (*talfīq*); Brown, “Reaching into the Obscure Past,” 105. [^13]: Muhammad Qasim Zaman, *The Ulama in Contemporary Society: Custodians of Change* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 19. [^14]: Ibid., 18-9. [^15]: Cited in Ibid., 19. [^16]: Anver Emon, “To Most Likely Know the Law: Objectivity, Authority, and Interpretation in Islamic Law,” *Hebraic Political Studies* (2009): 431-2. [^17]: Ibid., 432. [^18]: Emon, “To Most Likely Know the Law,” 434. [^19]: Ibid., 435. [^20]: Aron Zysow, *The Economy of Certainty: An Introduction to the Typology of Islamic Legal Theory* (Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2013), 3. [^21]: Fekry, 28. [^22]: Academics have varied in their interpretations of why Baybars may have decided to create this system. Some have said it was a response to demands of the growing population and the need to accommodate refugees from all four schools of law, while others have said it was an attempt to renew the authority and legitimacy of the Mamluks as the guardians of orthodoxy. For more, see Yossef Rapoport, “Legal Diversity in the Age of Taqlīd: The Four Chief Qāḍīs under the Mamluks,” *Islamic Law and Society* 10, no. 2 (2003), 211. [^23]: With the exception that the Shāfiʿī school held exclusive authority in matters of the public treasury and orphans’ property; Rapoport, 210. [^24]: Ibid., 222. [^25]: Ibid., 227. [^26]: Although the Mamluks are often credited for establishing the quadruple legal system, Ahmed F. Ibrahim interestingly points out that the Fāṭimids beat them to it almost a century prior when the vizier Ibn al-Afḍal appointed Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, Ismāʿīlī, and Imāmī chief judges; see A.F. Ibrahim, “Al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Pluralism: A Theory of Legal Pluralism,” *Islamic Law and Society* 20, no 1/2 (2013): 115-116. [^27]: Guy Burak, “The Second Formation of Islamic Law,” *Comparative Studies in Society and History* 55, no. 3 (2013): 582. [^28]: Kenneth M. Cuno, 96-7. [^29]: Zaman, 19-20. [^30]: Ibid., 20. [^31]: Wael Hallaq, *Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 126. [^32]: Ibid., 127. [^33]: Qur’an 5:89. [^34]: Some scholars used the concepts of *rājiḥ* and *aṣaḥḥ* interchangeably, while others differentiated between the two. Al-Nawawī, for example, used the term *aṣaḥḥ* to distinguish between two equally *rājiḥ* (preponderant) opinions. For others like Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *tarjīh* was the process by which one arrived at the *ṣaḥīḥ* opinion. See Hallaq, *Authority*, 133ff. Although Mālikīs also used the process of *taṣḥīḥ* frequently, they preferred the term *mashhūr* to describe the most authoritative opinions. See Ibid., 147ff. [^35]: Hallaq, *Authority*, 138-9, 147. [^36]: Mohammed Fadel, “The Social Logic of Taqlīd and the Rise of the Mukhtaṣar,” *Islamic Law and Society* 3, no. 2 (1996): 197. [^37]: Hallaq, *Authority*, 239. [^38]: Wael Hallaq, *Sharīʿa: Theory, Practice, Transformations* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 357. [^39]: Noah Feldman, *The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 59. [^40]: Ibid., 60. [^41]: Rudolph Peters, “From Jurists’ Law to Statute Law or What Happens When the Shari'a is Codified,” *Mediterranean Politics* 7, no. 3 (2002): 88. [^42]: Ibid., 88. [^43]: Peters, 88; Feldman, 61. [^44]: Felicitas Opwis, “Changes in Modern Islamic Legal Theory: Reform or Reformation?” in *An Islamic Reformation*, eds. M. Browers and C. Kurzman (New York: Lexington Books, 2004), 32. [^45]: Wael Hallaq, *The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 3-4. [^46]: Opwis, 32. [^47]: Wael Hallaq, “Can the Sharīʿa be Restored?” in *Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity*, eds. B. Stowasser and Y. Haddad (Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2004), 22-3. [^48]: Feldman, 69; Moosa, 168. [^49]: Feldman, 66. Consider one simple example: Islamic law had a range of potential punishments for the person who committed homicide, while colonial laws only had one: the death penalty. Moosa, 167. [^50]: Judith Tucker, *Women, Family, and Gender in Islamic Law* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 20. [^51]: Ibid., 223. [^52]: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/islam-is-not-the-cause-of-honor-killings-its-part-of-the-solution/ ## Summary Just over a century after the passing of the Prophet ﷺ, the Persian secretary and vizier Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (serving the Abbasid caliph al-Manṣūr) composed his famous *Risāla fī al-Ṣaḥāba*, in which he advised the caliph to codify the growing body of Islamic law. Al-Manṣūr, though he did not pursue this proposal, offered his own idea: to adopt Imam Malik's *al-Muwaṭṭaʾ* as a standardized legal code. When summoned, Imam Malik firmly declined, explaining that restricting the law to a single source would interfere with the legal diversity that had developed naturally across the various regions. This early episode reveals a truth that would remain characteristic of the Sharīʿah for centuries: legal plurality was not a defect to be corrected but a feature to be preserved. The assumption that Islamic law contains "too many" opinions, and that this results in judges ruling by personal whim, has persisted even into modern times. Justice Felix Frankfurter of the United States Supreme Court, in *Terminiello v. Chicago* (1949), dismissively remarked that the court does not "sit like a *kadi* under a tree dispensing justice according to considerations of individual expediency." Setting aside the bigotry of the comment, it reflects a widespread and mistaken assumption that the breadth of Islamic law inevitably led to arbitrary rulings. In reality, scholars developed careful methods to navigate this diversity while ensuring both consistency and reliability. To understand how the law functioned, one must first recognize the three principal actors in Muslim society: the ruler, the *ʿulamāʾ*, and the common people. The ruler was primarily responsible for political and economic governance—protecting his subjects and collecting taxes. The *ʿulamāʾ*, by contrast, were the bearers and embodiment of religious knowledge, and beyond enforcing or advising on the law, they organized the social, religious, and economic life of the community, including the maintenance of the *awqāf* (religious endowments) that funded education and public institutions. The laity, meanwhile, were free to choose which scholar to follow and were not bound to a single *madhhab*. This flexibility is best illustrated through the circumstances of married women. If a woman's husband went missing, the dominant Ḥanafī view required her to wait a lifetime—roughly eighty or ninety years—before the courts would grant a divorce. Consequently, most women approached Shāfiʿī or Mālikī judges, who required only a four-year waiting period. Similarly, the Shāfiʿī, Mālikī, and Ḥanbalī schools permitted a woman abandoned by her husband, once the *nafaqa* (maintenance funds) he left behind was exhausted, to petition a judge, who might allow her to take a loan in her husband's name suited to their economic standing. The Ḥanafī judges, however, required such a claim to be submitted before the husband's departure. Thus, women who were themselves Ḥanafī frequently turned to scholars of other schools for recourse. This raises the question of whether so-called "fatwa-shopping" was permitted. Scholarly views fell along a spectrum of three positions. At one end, ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 1262) permitted laypeople to choose freely among muftis and their rulings, though he warned that one who deliberately seeks the easiest opinion harms only himself and must answer to God. At the other end stood those who required a Muslim to adhere consistently to one *madhhab* and discouraged muftis from issuing rulings contrary to the most prominent opinion (*mashhūr*, *rājiḥ*, *aṣaḥḥ*) of their school. A middle position permitted following one school while allowing a switch when another possessed stronger evidence, or in cases of legitimate need (*ḥāja*) or necessity (*ḍarūra*)—but never in pursuit of mere desire (*ittibāʿ al-hawā*). Notably, in the cases of women seeking divorce, it was often the Ḥanafī judges themselves who transferred jurisdiction to judges of other schools when doing so would better serve the woman. Scholars, though committed to their schools, interpreted the texts creatively in light of circumstance and custom. The eminent Ḥanafī scholar Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1836) affirmed this, declaring that a mufti's or judge's rigid adherence to the apparent meaning of the transmitted text (*ẓāhir al-manqūl*), while neglecting custom (*ʿurf*) and clear context (*al-qarāʾin al-wāḍiḥa*), necessarily leads to the loss of rights and injustice for many people. The plurality of answers raised a profound theological question: if the law reflects God's will, how can multiple differing answers all be correct? This led to the famous inquiry—*hal kullu mujtahidin muṣīb* (is every jurist correct?). Two groups emerged: the *muṣawwiba* (fallibilists), who held that every diligent jurist was correct, and the *mukhaṭṭiʾa* (infallibilists), who held that only one jurist could truly be correct. Central to the debate was the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ: "When a judge decides on a legal ruling and gets the right answer, he receives two rewards. If he adjudicates but gets the wrong answer, he gets one reward." The *mukhaṭṭiʾa* understood this to mean a right and wrong answer genuinely exist, even if humans cannot always know which, requiring jurists to remain humble. The *muṣawwiba* understood it to mean the jurist is always rewarded for sincere effort, their concern being that jurists reach a preponderance of certainty (*ghalabat al-ẓann*). Despite their disagreement, both groups agreed that all the resulting laws were valid because they arose within a certain and agreed-upon methodology. By the Mamluk period in the thirteenth century, legal subjects could pursue whichever school or scholar best benefited them, the system resting on the principle that all four established schools were equally authoritative. This enabled Sultan Baybars (d. 1277) to appoint four chief *qāḍīs* in Egypt, one for each school, replacing the earlier Shāfiʿī monopoly. Thus, the Ḥanafī military elite could turn to the Ḥanbalī *qāḍī*, the only one permitted to authorize certain endowment transactions. The Ottomans, from the fifteenth century, adopted a particular version of the Ḥanafī *madhhab* as the empire's official school, yet appointed deputy judges (*nuwwāb*) from other schools in smaller towns—Shāfiʿī deputies in the Levant, Mālikī deputies in North Africa—while Cairo retained its four equally authoritative chief *qāḍīs*. In Mughal India, the emperor Aurangzeb ʿAlamgir commissioned the *Fatāwā al-Hindiyya* to extract the most widely accepted Ḥanafī opinions; yet ironically, the compendium preserved a range of differing opinions, and its author-jurists affirmed that where guidance was unclear and later scholars disagreed, the judge could rule by whichever opinion he deemed most fitting. How, then, was consistency maintained if opinions could be chosen at will? Judges were limited to ruling by the established schools, and jurists worked to determine which opinions within their *madhhab* were most authoritative. One mechanism was *tarjīḥ*—the weighing of ostensibly conflicting evidence, taking into account not only texts but the linguistic and interpretive methods used to derive rulings. Crucially, *tarjīḥ* applied only to probable (*ẓannī*) matters, not certain (*qaṭʿī*) ones; the requirement of fasting three days in expiation for a broken oath, for instance, is not subject to *tarjīḥ* because the Qur'an explicitly states "three days." Through this process, scholars identified the *rājiḥ* (preponderant) or *aṣaḥḥ* (soundest) opinion, and by the seventh/thirteenth century these were gathered into *mukhtaṣars*—abridged works that Dr. Mohammed Fadel argues functioned as a form of codified law, providing a reservoir of legal continuity rather than a restriction of the law's flexibility. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire faced mounting internal strife and military defeats against rising European powers. By the reign of Abdülmecid I in 1839, the ruling elite, believing their weakness stemmed from insufficient reform and pressured by the West, launched the *Tanzimat*—an era of "organization." Drawing on Western constitutional conceptions in which the state alone is the source of authority, the Ottomans became convinced that law must be standardized and codified, adopting Western codes such as the Commercial Code of 1850 and the Penal Code of 1858 modeled on the French system. This rested on the Western assumption that traditional law, with its plurality of opinions, was "chaotic and inaccessible," whereas codification represented modern civilization. After the empire's fragmentation, many new Muslim-majority nation-states built their legal codes partially or entirely upon Western models. Under this new order, law was stripped from the hands of the jurists and monopolized by the state, which even seized control of the *awqāf* and dictated the scholarly curriculum, while a class of Western-trained lawyers—whose knowledge of the Sharīʿah was confined to selectively translated classical treatises—began to displace the *ʿulamāʾ*. The most significant consequence was the transformation of the law's very nature. Whereas rules across the schools could and did differ while all remaining valid, codification meant that only a single opinion could be formally selected. Western-trained officials, tasked with codifying personal status laws, selected either the most prominent Ḥanafī opinion or the most convenient view from another school—processes known as *takhayyur* (selection) and *talfīq* (patching)—producing the Ottoman family law codes that became the model for Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia, and others, some of which remain in force today. Thus, a rich body of opinions was reduced to a single ruling, depleting a legal discourse that had flourished throughout most of Islamic history, so that what is seen today in the Middle East is often a form of Islamic law first reduced and then diluted by Western law. This matters for Muslims today. When a law is enacted in a Muslim country, one must not assume it is the *only* possible understanding of Islamic law, for legal opinions were selectively chosen from a wide array of options; the diversity and flexibility of the Sharīʿah deserve appreciation. Nor should every implemented law be assumed to derive from the Qur'an and Sunnah. Honor killings, among the most notorious accusations leveled against Muslims, in fact originated from Western law—as Dr. Jonathan Brown demonstrates in his Yaqeen publication on the topic. Muslims must therefore be cautious in attributing the practices of Muslims to the Sharīʿah, and must strive to learn these distinctions in order to have confidence in the perfection and completeness of God's law and to regain the pride that Muslims throughout Islamic civilization held in the Sharīʿah. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamophobia-in-american-society-culture-politics # Islamophobia in American Society, Culture, & Politics **Author:** Dr. Naved Bakali **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** March 22, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Islamophobia is a complex phenomenon that exists in various spheres of US society. The purpose of this short article is to help provide a basic historical analysis of Islamophobia to better understand what Islamophobia is and how it manifests in the present political and social context. It is important to mention here that manifestations of Islamophobia are very much influenced by localized geopolitical, cultural, and social factors. As such, Islamophobia is a contextualized phenomenon, and it may manifest differently in various contexts (Canada, France, UK, etc.). As the purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to Islamophobia, for the sake of brevity, the discussion will focus primarily on the US context.[^1] A number of academics, think tanks, and intellectuals have developed various definitions of the term. For the purposes of this exploration, Islamophobia refers to a type of racism that “sustains and perpetuates negatively evaluated meaning about Muslims and Islam…that inform and construct thinking about Muslims and Islam as Other.”[^2] Islamophobia manifests in both public and private spaces, or as Beydoun observes, structurally and privately.[^3] Structural Islamophobia can be understood as the ways in which Islamophobia has been sanctioned and legalized by the state. In other words, it is how state power has been able to use legislation, policy, and programming to subordinate and oppress Muslims and vilify Islam. The ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis undergirds structural Islamophobia, which is sanctioned through the securitization of the Muslim subject. Private Islamophobia is the fear, mistrust, and violence enacted on the Muslim subject by private actors. These private actors can be individuals or institutions that are not directly associated with the state. The following sections theorize and discuss manifestations of structural and private Islamophobia, which will help explicate lived experiences of Islamophobia in the present context. ### Structural Islamophobia: Islamophobia Critical Race Theory and the Law Islamophobia is not a recent phenomenon that originated after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center Towers in New York City (9/11). Rather, Islamophobia is one of many iterations of an enduring legacy of racism in America. One essential theoretical framework that can be employed to better understand this phenomenon is critical race theory. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a theoretical framework that explains racism as existing through relationships of power, which aim to preserve the regime of white supremacy while subordinating peoples of color. Within this paradigm, race is understood to be socially constructed. In other words, terms such as ‘white’ and ‘black’ do not refer to individual or group identity. Rather, they indicate “a particular political and legal structure rooted in the ideology of White European supremacy and the global impact of colonialism.”[^4] One of the primary concerns of CRT is to understand the relationship between law and racial power. The law, as argued by critical race theorists, is a tool that is wielded to maintain racial hierarchies. As such, racial categories that are at the supposed ‘lower rungs’ of the social order are targeted, subverted, and punished through the legal system. Critical race theorists also maintain that racism is embedded in society and that it is a persistent feature of society.[^5] What is meant by racism being embedded in society is that it appears normal to those in positions of power and privilege and it is not perceived as something that is abnormal or aberrant. Hence, assumptions of the superiority of privileged races are so rooted in the political, legal, and educational cultures of society that they are almost unrecognizable. Racism being a persistent feature of society implies that it cannot easily be removed. When the legal system perpetuates racial inequalities, racism becomes institutionalized and systemic; thus, eliminating racism becomes a daunting task that requires struggle and mass mobilization. Through this theoretical framework, it is argued that the law is a tool that has been used to perpetuate racial inequality. Considering the case of Muslims and Islamophobia in the Trump era, legislation like the “Muslim Ban” is simply an updated version of older laws that have been used to ban Muslims from the public spaces of American society. Over two hundred years before President Trump instituted a “Muslim ban” that barred Muslims from seven Muslim-majority nations entry into the US, Muslims were legally prevented from becoming American citizens. As Beydoun observes, “the courts prohibited Muslim immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens from 1790 to 1944. During this span, Muslim identity, by law, was viewed as contradictory with American citizenship.”[^6] Hence, Muslim immigrants were categorized as an enemy race. What this entailed was that ‘Muslims’ as a race were considered threatening and unassimilable to American values and society. It was during this era that systematic attempts were made, through the Naturalization Act of 1790, to keep the fledgling nation of America ‘white’ and Christian. As such, citizenship was restricted to ‘white’ Christian races and races deemed to be non-white were excluded. Therefore, until 1944, the ‘Muslim race’ was considered non-white. This original ban on Muslims demonstrates clearly how race was, and continues to be, socially constructed, as a prerequisite for ‘whiteness’ was Christianity. In other words, the Naturalization Act of 1790 is an example of how the law was able to determine whiteness, and consequently, those to be precluded from obtaining citizenship. Arabs who practiced the Christian faith could have been considered ‘white,’ whereas Muslim Arabs formed the block of what was considered an enemy race that was threatening to the culture and value system of America.[^7] Over two centuries later, we are witnessing a revised version of this ban on Muslims. One of the cornerstones of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was his dedication to bringing about major change to the political establishment in America. This entailed doing away with political correctness while pandering to the savage racist attitudes held by his base of supporters. Within a week of taking office, Trump signed an executive order denying Muslims from seven Muslim-majority nations entry into the US. Executive Order 13769, titled “Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into The United States,” also commonly referred to as the “Muslim Ban,” was enacted on January 27, 2017. The intended purpose of the ban was to prevent terrorism by modifying processes related to the issuance of visas. As such, the executive order suspended the entry of foreigners from Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. Furthermore, the US Refugee Program indefinitely suspended Syrian refugees from entering the country and limited the total number of refugees to 50,000 for 2017.[^8] Executive Order 13769 was challenged by the courts, which led to an amended version of the ban, Executive Order 13780. This version of the ban was also challenged by the courts. Eventually, in its third formulation, Presidential Proclamation 9645, the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision. Thus, the Trump Presidency, like previous administrations in the context of the War on Terror, has legalized the targeting of Muslims through Islamophobic legislation. The 9/11 attacks during the presidency of George W. Bush and the ensuing War on Terror that resulted ushered in a number of draconian laws, which overwhelmingly targeted Muslim Americans. Under the guise of preserving national security interests, legislation like the USA PATRIOT Act was enacted, which compromised a number of fundamental rights. Under provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act the state was permitted to monitor ethnic and religious groups; detain indefinitely non-citizens who were suspected of having ties to terrorism; search and wiretap without probable cause; arrest and hold a person as a “material witness” whose testimony might assist in a case; use secret evidence (not granting the accused access to the evidence); put to trial those designated as “enemy combatants” in military tribunals instead of civilian courts; and deport non-citizens based on guilt by association. As a result of these provisions, thousands of Muslims in the US were rounded up and detained unjustly, had their fingerprints taken, were deported, and/or were racially profiled. Furthermore, a number of charitable organizations were closed or unable to continue operating because Muslims feared being investigated if found donating funds to these charities.[^9] The USA PATRIOT Act is an example of how the law has been used as a tool to police specific ethnic, religious, and cultural communities through practices of pre-emptive punishment. Preemptive punishment involves legally punishing people before they have committed any crime or wrongdoing. Race is central to the concept of preemptive punishment, as it is undergirded by the assumption that *they* are not like *us*. Such a situation, where suspension of the law (i.e., stripping away fundamental basic human rights) becomes the law, can be described as one where there is a proliferation of ‘camps.’[^10] Camps are spaces that authorize the “suspension of law and the creation of communities of people without ‘the right to have rights’…camps are places where the rules of the world cease to apply.”[^11] The danger of camps and the logic that underlies these spaces is that they normalize the violence enacted by the state as actions associated with the law and therefore legitimize and sanitize them. Preemptive punishment has frequently occurred through programming aimed towards countering violent extremism (CVE). Since 9/11, CVE programs have flourished in cities across North America and Europe. These programs, though not explicitly targeting Muslims, have misidentified thousands of young Muslims as potential terrorist threats, some as young as four years old.[^12] Traditionally, the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) CVE program closely resembled programs like *Prevent*, based out of the UK, as well as other European models. However, under the Trump administration, the program took on a new character. According to Kundnani and Hayes, > *Whereas the UK government and EU policymakers have recently gone to great lengths to rebrand their CVE policies as addressing extremism in all its forms, the Trump administration has emphasised a focus on “radical Islam.” The idea of renaming the DHS’s CVE program as “Countering Radical Islam” or “Countering Violent Jihad” was floated by Trump transition officials. Almost all of the CVE grant recipients under the Trump administration have been law enforcement entities while funding for Muslim organisation and organisation tackling white supremacist violence has been cut.*[^13] In other words, under the Trump administration, all pretense of CVE programing being ‘objective’ and addressing violent extremism beyond the lens of race and culture was dropped. Furthermore, Muslim organizations that could potentially better address issues of violent extremism within their communities were sidelined. US policy related to national security and countering terrorism under the Trump administration, as well as previous administrations, is underscored by the assumption that ‘terrorism’ is a form of ‘Otherness’ that is a foreign import brought into the borders of the state through the Muslim subject. The nationalist subject is seemingly absolved from the threat of violent extremism as funding addressing extremism at the hands of white supremacists was deemed unnecessary. This was the case, despite the fact that white supremacy remains a far more serious threat to the national security of the US than individuals who commit acts of terrorism in the name of Islam. According to recent studies, from 2008 to 2016, the number of domestic terrorist acts by far-right extremist groups (most of whom were white supremacists) more than doubled those of Muslim extremists.[^14] Furthermore, from 2011 to 2016, only twelve percent of terrorist attacks in the US were committed by Muslims; more than half of the attacks during this period were committed by white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and other far-right groups.[^15] Legislation such as the USA Patriot Act, the DHS’s CVE programming, and other forms of structural Islamophobia reinforce the notion of the Muslim ‘Other.’ In essence, structural Islamophobia creates legitimate spaces where the Muslim subject is cast outside the nationalist space and the suspension of due process and equal rights becomes the rule and not the exception. This type of ‘Othering’ further legitimizes Islamophobia that is enacted by private actors. Having described structural Islamophobia and its manifestations through legislation, policy, and programming enacted by the state, we now turn to discuss private Islamophobia and its manifestations. ### Private Islamophobia: Menacing Muslim Men, Oppressed Muslim Women, and the Good Muslim/Bad Muslim Dichotomy Private Islamophobia, like structural Islamophobia, needs to be explicated in order to understand how and why Muslims are constructed as ‘Other.’ Acts of intolerance, bigotry, and bias at the hands of private individuals and institutions are undergirded by certain assumptions and preconceived notions of Muslimness and Islam. A fundamental work, which has greatly contributed towards present-day understandings of how and why Islamophobia manifests in US society is Edward Said’s Orientalism. According to Said, *Orientalism* is “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the ‘Orient’ and (most of the time) ‘the Occident.’”[^16] Said noted the presence of Orientalist thought in the works of European scholars, artists, and academics throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Through analyzing canonical European literary works from this era, Said observed the existence of misrepresentations, oversimplifications, and binaries that constructed the West as being diametrically opposed to the East. Said argued that Orientalists viewed the East or the “Orient” as being overly sensual, primitive, and violently opposed to the West. According to Said, these views of the Orient perpetuated a constant ensemble of images and stereotypes that completely ignored the actual diversity across the Orient. These views of the Orient became essential tropes of the Muslim subject in the Western imaginary. Said’s work, though it predates a number of other studies examining anti-Muslim racism, continues to be foundational. As Kumar notes, a number of Orientalist myths continue to endure in dominant Western discourse about Islam.[^17] These include the notion that Islam is a monolithic religion that perpetuates gender-based discrimination, that Muslims are incapable of reason and rationality or democracy and self-rule, and that Islam is an inherently violent religion. In the context of the War on Terror, a number of these tropes have been reconfigured to become the image of the dangerous Muslim man and the imperiled Muslim woman. The War on Terror was not merely a war in retaliation of the 9/11 attacks. It was a war that had no clear timeline, no specific target, and was against an enemy that was not clearly defined. It was a war that divided the world in diametrically opposed binaries in which you were either “with us” or “against us.” With this simplistic logic, the ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ were formulated as distorted mirror images of one another. The instigators of the War on Terror were imagined as proponents of freedom, democracy, and liberty. The ‘Other’ was primitive, violent, and oppressive. According to Razack, “three allegorical figures have come to dominate the social landscape of the ‘war on terror’ and its ideological underpinning of a clash of civilizations: the dangerous Muslim man, the imperilled Muslim woman, and the civilized European.”[^18] Hence, in the context of the War on Terror, Muslim men were portrayed as violent and misogynistic; Muslim women were understood as disempowered damsels in distress in need of rescue from their oppressive beliefs and cultures; and Western nations were perceived as the antithesis of an archaic religion and culture embodied by Islam and Muslims. Western nations exemplified the ideals that Muslim cultures were incapable of possessing. These tropes have been circulated and perpetuated in news media, popular cultural representations of Muslims, and have made their way into public and political discourse surrounding Muslims and Islam.[^19] In the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Afghanistan there was continuous media footage of Afghan women being liberated from their oppressive culture. Republican and Democrat politicians alike celebrated the violence of the War on Terror under the guise of advocating women’s rights. Feminist groups like the Feminist Majority, which represented over 220 human rights and women’s organizations in the US and worldwide,[^20] supported the War on Terror, endorsing the tropes of the ‘imperiled Muslim woman’ who needed to be saved from the ‘dangerous Muslim man’ and her supposedly barbaric violent culture.[^21] However, in the process, as Morey and Yaqin point out, “the voice of the ‘Third World’ woman herself \[was\] effectively silenced, evacuated from an argument that \[was\] about her but in which she \[was\] seldom invited to participate.”[^22] When looking at popular cultural representations of Muslims, Shaheen has noted over a thousand films throughout the 20th century that have degrading portrayals of Muslims,[^23] many of which reinforce Orientalist myths of the eroticized, oppressed Muslim female subject, and violent, primitive, and barbaric Muslim male. These stereotypes continue to exist in the post-9/11 context with films like *The Kingdom* (2007), *Iron Man* (2008), *Body of Lies* (2008), *The Dictator* (2012), *Argo* (2012), *Zero Dark Thirty* (2012), and *American Sniper* (2014), as well as in popular television dramas including *24* (2001-2010, and 2014) and *Homeland* (2011-2018). These forms of popular media provide an endless supply of the recurring tropes of the dangerous Muslim man and imperiled Muslim woman. The dangerous Muslim man is most often framed as a terrorist intent on the destruction of Western civilization who has hatched an extensive terrorist plot with the potential of killing hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent civilians. These terrorists will employ biological warfare, nuclear weapons, or other weapons of mass destruction to achieve their aims. Muslim female characters are routinely represented as oppressed or passive figures in these popular cultural representations that are willing co-conspirators, and in some cases active participants in planning and carrying out terrorist plots.[^24] This is possibly a sign of ‘progress,’ one may suppose. There are some exceptions to the archetypal portrayals of the dangerous Muslim man and imperiled Muslim woman in popular cultural representations of Muslims. However, these exceptional cases are generally represented through the ‘good Muslim/bad Muslim’ dichotomy. Thus, another dominant framing of Muslims in the context of the War on Terror is that of the ‘good Muslim’ and ‘bad Muslim.’ According to Mamdani, political and media discourses dichotomize Muslims into two camps. ‘Good Muslims’ are “modern, secular, and Westernized” and ‘bad Muslims’ are “doctrinal, antimodern, and virulent.”[^25] These political and media discourses advocate that good Muslims are modernized and adapt to a globalized world. ‘Bad Muslims,’ conversely, are anti-modern and destructive. They require policing and need to be put into place through military action. The War on Terror is therefore being waged against the ‘bad Muslims.’ Local Muslim populations are assumed to be ‘bad Muslims’ unless they are able to prove themselves to be ‘good Muslims.’ Within this formulation, ‘good Muslims’ are supportive of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all other targets of the War on Terror. Furthermore, they are supportive of, and possibly involved in, the securitization of Muslim populations through CVE programming. ‘Good Muslims’ cannot be critical of the War on Terror and must unquestionably support US foreign policy. ‘Bad Muslims’ may not necessarily be violently opposed to the West but simply choose not to adopt a Westernized identity. Visualizing markers, particularly in popular cultural representations of Muslims, are essential for delineating ‘good Muslims’ and ‘bad Muslims.’ The ‘good Muslim’ will typically be Western, educated, have an American or British accent, will be of a lighter complexion, wear westernized clothing, and is portrayed in relationships with Westerners. Often they need to be even more Westernized than a westerner to legitimate their ‘good Muslim’ credentials. ‘Bad Muslims’ are typically represented with a foreign accent, wear eastern style clothing, and are darker skinned. If they are men, they will wear beards, if they are women they will often wear a *hijab* or *burqah*.[^26] Understanding the relationship between visual signifiers of Muslimness and the ‘good Muslim’/‘bad Muslim’ dichotomy is essential for understanding Muslims’ and non-Muslims’ experiences with Islamophobia. For example, a number of Sikh men have been harassed, attacked, and abused on the basis that they appear to be Muslim due to wearing turbans. Furthermore, studies have indicated that Muslim women, when wearing a visual signifier of Muslimness like the *hijab*, have experienced differences in attitudes, mostly negative, amongst their peers compared to when they were not wearing such garments.[^27] --- ## Conclusion Islamophobia is not a post-9/11 or Trump-era phenomenon. Rather, it is a systemic form of racism that represents one of the many strands of racism that are embedded in American society and has a historical legacy that predates many current political and social tensions. Muslim experiences with structural and private Islamophobia prior to and in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Trump Presidency become more comprehensible when understanding concepts in CRT, Orientalism, the archetypes of the dangerous Muslim man and imperiled Muslim woman, as well as the ‘good Muslim’/‘bad Muslim’ dichotomy. These concepts are useful frames for developing holistic, contextualized, and informed understandings of Islamophobia. --- ## Notes [^1]: For a more detailed discussion and comparative analysis of Islamophobia in differing contexts please see: Arun Kundnani’s *The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror*  and Todd Green’s *The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West*. [^2]: Allen, C. (2010). *Islamophobia*. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing. [^3]: Beydoun, K. (2018). *American Islamophobia: Understanding the roots and rise of fear*. Oakland: University of California Press. [^4]: Taylor, E. (2009). The foundations of critical race theory in education: An introduction. In E. Taylor, D. Gillborn, & G. Ladson-Billings, *Foundations of critical race theory in education* (pp. 1-16). New York, NY: Routledge, p. 4. [^5]: Marx, S. (2008). Critical race theory. In L. Given, *The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods: Vol. 1* (pp. 163-167). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [^6]: Beydoun, K. (2018). *American Islamophobia: Understanding the roots and rise of fear*. Oakland: University of California Press, p. 47. [^7]: Ibid. [^8]: Elsheikh, E., Sisemore, B., & Lee, N. (2017). *Legalizing othering: The United States of Islamophobia.* Berkeley: Haas Institute. [^9]: Alsultany, E. (2012). *Arabs and Muslims in the media: Race and representation after 9/11.* New York, NY: New York University Press. [^10]: Arendt, H. (1973). *The origins of totalitarianism*. New York, NY: Harcourt. [^11]: Razack, S. (2008). *Casting out: The eviction of Muslims from western law & politics*. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, p. 7. [^12]: Kundnani, A. (2014). *The Muslims are coming: Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror*. New York, NY: Verso. [^13]: Kundnani, A., & Hayes, B. (2018). *The globalisation of Countering Violent Extremism policies: Undermining human rights, instrumentalising civil society.* Amsterdam : The Transnational Institute, p. 11. [^14]: Neiwert, D. (2017, June 21). *Reveal News: Article*. Retrieved from Reveal News: [https://www.revealnews.org/article/home-is-where-the-hate-is](https://www.revealnews.org/article/home-is-where-the-hate-is) [^15]: Kearns, E., Betus, A., & Lemieux, A. (2017). *Why do some terrorist attacks receive more media attention than others?* Atlanta: Georgia State University. [^16]: Said, E. (1979). *Orientalism*. New York: Vintage Books, p. 2. [^17]: Kumar, D. (2012). *Islamophobia and the politics of empire*. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. [^18]: Razack, S. (2008). *Casting out: The eviction of Muslims from Western law and politics*. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, p. 5. [^19]: Gottschalk, P., & Greenberg, G. (2008). *Islamophobia: Making Muslims the enemy*. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. [^20]: Thobani, S. (2010). White innocence, Western supremacy: The role of Western feminism in the "War on Terror." In S. Razack, M. Smith, & S. Thobani, *States of Race: Critical race feminism for the 21st century* (pp. 127-146). Toronto, ON: Between the Lines. [^21]: For more on gendered Islamophobia please see: Juliane Hammer’s “Center Stage: Gendered Islamophobia and Muslim Women” (in Carl Ernst’s *Islamophobia in America* volume); and Lila Abu-Lughod’s *Do Muslim Women Need Saving?* [^22]: Morey, P., & Yaqin, A. (2011). *Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and representation after 9/11*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 179. [^23]: Shaheen, J. (2001). *Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people.* New York: Olive Branch Press. [^24]: Alsultany, E. (2012). *Arabs and Muslims in the media: Race and representation after 9/11.* New York, NY: New York University Press. [^25]: Mamdani, M. (2004). *Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the roots of terror.* New York, NY: Three Leaves Press, p. 24. [^26]: Gottschalk, P., & Greenberg, G. (2008). *Islamophobia: Making Muslims the enemy*. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. [^27]: Bakali, N. (2016). *Islamophobia: Understanding anti-Muslim racism through the lived experiences of Muslim youth.* Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. ## Summary Islamophobia in the United States is best understood not as a sudden development that arose after the attacks of September 11, 2001, nor as something peculiar to the presidency of Donald Trump, but rather as one strand within a long and enduring legacy of racism woven into the fabric of American society. It is a contextualized phenomenon, shaped by local geopolitical, cultural, and social factors, such that it manifests differently in different lands, whether in Canada, France, the United Kingdom, or elsewhere. The focus here is upon the American context. Islamophobia may be defined as a form of racism that sustains and perpetuates negatively evaluated meanings about Muslims and Islam, constructing them as an alien "Other." Following the observation of Beydoun, it operates in two registers: the structural and the private. Structural Islamophobia refers to the manner in which the state, through legislation, policy, and programming, sanctions the subordination of Muslims and the vilification of Islam, undergirded by the so-called "clash of civilizations" thesis and enacted through the securitization of the Muslim. Private Islamophobia, by contrast, refers to the fear, mistrust, and violence carried out by private individuals and institutions not directly tied to the state. To grasp the structural dimension, Critical Race Theory offers a valuable framework. This theory explains racism as existing through relationships of power that seek to preserve white supremacy while subordinating peoples of color, understanding race itself to be socially constructed rather than a matter of fixed individual or group identity. As the theory holds, the terms "white" and "black" point to "a particular political and legal structure rooted in the ideology of White European supremacy and the global impact of colonialism." Critical race theorists maintain that the law is a tool wielded to preserve racial hierarchies and that racism is embedded within society, appearing normal to those in positions of privilege and proving persistent and difficult to uproot. Viewed through this lens, the so-called "Muslim Ban" of the Trump era is merely an updated version of far older laws used to exclude Muslims from American public life. Indeed, more than two hundred years before that ban, Muslims were legally barred from becoming citizens. Beydoun records that "the courts prohibited Muslim immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens from 1790 to 1944," during which time Muslim identity was, by law, regarded as contradictory to American citizenship. Through the Naturalization Act of 1790, the young nation sought to remain "white" and Christian, restricting citizenship to those deemed white and excluding the rest, so that until 1944 the "Muslim race" was classed as non-white and an unassimilable enemy. This reveals plainly how race was socially constructed, for Christianity was made a prerequisite for whiteness: an Arab who was Christian might be counted white, while a Muslim Arab was cast into the category of the threatening Other. This same logic reappeared over two centuries later. Within a week of taking office, President Trump signed Executive Order 13769, titled "Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into The United States," commonly called the "Muslim Ban," on January 27, 2017. It suspended the entry of nationals from Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, indefinitely suspended Syrian refugees, and capped total refugees at fifty thousand for that year. After two versions were struck down by the courts, the third formulation, Presidential Proclamation 9645, was upheld by the Supreme Court in a narrow five-to-four decision. This was but a continuation of a pattern established by earlier administrations in the War on Terror. Following the attacks of September 11 under President George W. Bush, draconian legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act was enacted, which compromised fundamental rights: permitting the monitoring of religious and ethnic groups, indefinite detention of non-citizens, searches and wiretaps without probable cause, the use of secret evidence, trials by military tribunal, and deportation by association. As a result, thousands of Muslims were detained, deported, or racially profiled, and Muslim charitable organizations were closed as donors feared investigation. Such measures embody what may be termed preemptive punishment, the legal punishing of people before any crime has been committed, resting upon the assumption that "they are not like us." This produces conditions likened to the proliferation of "camps," spaces authorizing "the suspension of law and the creation of communities of people without 'the right to have rights,'" where the ordinary rules cease to apply and state violence is thereby normalized and legitimized. Countering Violent Extremism programs illustrate this, having misidentified thousands of young Muslims, some as young as four, as potential terrorist threats. As Kundnani and Hayes note, whereas European policymakers rebranded such programs to address extremism in all forms, the Trump administration emphasized "radical Islam," floated renaming the program "Countering Radical Islam," directed nearly all grants to law enforcement, and cut funding for Muslim organizations and for those tackling white supremacist violence. This occurred despite the fact that, from 2008 to 2016, domestic terrorist acts by far-right extremists more than doubled those of Muslim extremists, and from 2011 to 2016 only twelve percent of terrorist attacks in the United States were committed by Muslims, while more than half were carried out by white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and other far-right groups. Turning to private Islamophobia, its foundations rest upon inherited assumptions about Muslims and Islam. Edward Said's Orientalism is foundational here, defining Orientalism as "a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the 'Orient' and (most of the time) 'the Occident.'" Said found in nineteenth and twentieth century European literature persistent misrepresentations and binaries casting the East as sensual, primitive, and violently opposed to the West. As Kumar observes, many such myths endure: that Islam is a monolithic religion perpetuating gender discrimination, that Muslims are incapable of reason or self-rule, and that Islam is inherently violent. In the War on Terror these were reconfigured into distinct figures. As Razack notes, three allegorical figures came to dominate: "the dangerous Muslim man, the imperilled Muslim woman, and the civilized European." Muslim men were portrayed as violent and misogynistic, Muslim women as helpless captives needing rescue, and Western nations as embodiments of freedom the East could never attain. Feminist organizations such as the Feminist Majority endorsed the War on Terror under this banner, yet, as Morey and Yaqin observe, in the process "the voice of the 'Third World' woman herself [was] effectively silenced." Shaheen documented over a thousand films across the twentieth century degrading Muslims, and these tropes persist in works such as The Kingdom, Iron Man, Body of Lies, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and American Sniper, as well as television dramas such as 24 and Homeland. A further framing is the "good Muslim/bad Muslim" dichotomy. As Mamdani explains, discourse divides Muslims into "good Muslims" who are "modern, secular, and Westernized," and "bad Muslims" who are "doctrinal, antimodern, and virulent." Local Muslims are presumed "bad" until they prove otherwise by supporting the War on Terror and refraining from criticism of it. Visual markers reinforce this: the "good Muslim" appears Western, lighter-skinned, and Westernized in dress, while the "bad Muslim" is darker, bearded, or veiled in hijab or burqah. This explains why Sikh men wearing turbans have been attacked as presumed Muslims, and why Muslim women wearing the hijab have reported more negative attitudes than when unveiled. Understanding Critical Race Theory, Orientalism, these archetypes, and this dichotomy provides holistic and contextualized frames for comprehending Muslim experiences of Islamophobia both before and after these events. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Islamophobia? Is it just people being rude to Muslims? Islamophobia is far more than individual acts of rudeness or hostility. It is a form of racism that sustains and perpetuates negatively evaluated meanings about Muslims and Islam, constructing Muslims as the fundamental "Other" in society. This Othering operates on two levels. Structurally, it works through laws, policies, and government programs that subordinate Muslim communities and vilify Islam—legislation like the USA PATRIOT Act, which authorized the monitoring of religious groups, indefinite detention, and the use of secret evidence, resulting in thousands of Muslims being rounded up, fingerprinted, and deported. Privately, it manifests through the fear, mistrust, and violence enacted by individuals and groups not directly tied to the state. Understanding both dimensions is essential because structural Islamophobia legalizes discrimination, making it far more insidious than what any single person can inflict. ### Did Islamophobia start after 9/11? Many people assume 9/11 was the origin point, but Islamophobia is one of many strands of a much older legacy of racism embedded in American society. Over two hundred years before any modern "Muslim ban," Muslims were legally prevented from becoming naturalized American citizens. From 1790 to 1944, Muslim identity was treated by law as incompatible with American citizenship. Under the Naturalization Act of 1790, citizenship was restricted to "white" Christians, and whiteness itself was defined partly by Christianity—meaning Arab Christians could be classified as white, while Muslim Arabs were categorized as an "enemy race." What happened after 9/11, and again under the Trump administration's Executive Order 13769, was not a new phenomenon; it was an updated version of exclusions that had been practiced for centuries. ### Why do people always assume Muslim men are violent and Muslim women are oppressed? These assumptions are rooted in a long tradition of Orientalism, the Western intellectual framework that constructed the "East" as primitive, irrational, and opposed to Western civilization. In the context of the War on Terror, these older stereotypes were reconfigured into three dominant archetypes: the dangerous Muslim man, the imperiled Muslim woman, and the civilized Westerner positioned as rescuer. Muslim men were framed as violent and misogynistic; Muslim women as passive victims in need of salvation from their own culture. Over a thousand films throughout the twentieth century reinforced such portrayals, and post-9/11 media continued circulating them. Even some feminist groups endorsed the War on Terror under the guise of advocating women's rights, while the voices of Muslim women themselves were largely excluded from a debate that was ostensibly about them. ### What is the "good Muslim/bad Muslim" framework and why does it matter? This framework, as described by political theorist Mahmood Mamdani, divides Muslims into two camps based on how closely they conform to Western secular norms. "Good Muslims" are modern, Westernized, and unquestioningly supportive of US foreign policy. "Bad Muslims" are those who hold visibly to religious identity, traditional dress, or any critical stance toward that foreign policy. Visual markers determine the sorting: A lighter complexion, Western clothing, and an American accent signal "good"; a beard, hijab, foreign accent, or darker skin signal "bad." The framework matters because it is designed never to be satisfied—a "good Muslim" must be even more Westernized than Westerners to legitimize their credentials. The pressure to constantly prove loyalty, condemn terrorism on behalf of all Muslims, or distance yourself from your own faith is not a reasonable social expectation. ### Why do Sikhs get attacked by people who think they are Muslim? What does that tell us about Islamophobia? The fact that Sikh men wearing turbans have been harassed and attacked by people who assume they are Muslim reveals something important about how Islamophobia operates. It works in part through racialized visual markers: a turban, a beard, brown skin. Anyone who visually "reads" as Muslim can become a target, regardless of their actual faith. This confirms that Islam has been racialized in American society, with ethnic, cultural, and religious differences collapsed into a single perceived category. At the same time, American history shows that being Muslim has also been a direct basis for legal exclusion. Under the Naturalization Act of 1790, Arab Christians could be classified as "white" and granted citizenship, while Muslim Arabs were classified as an enemy race and barred from naturalization. It was specifically their Islamic faith that determined their racial status. Taken together, these realities show that Islamophobia is not just one thing. The Sikh experience and the history of Muslim exclusion from citizenship show that Islamophobia can be driven by what someone believes and by what someone looks like, and the two do not always overlap. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/counter-radicalization-a-critical-look-into-a-racist-new-industry # Counter-Radicalization: A Critical Look into a Racist New Industry **Author:** Dr. Tarek Younis **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** March 21, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Radicalization is the process by which individuals develop an intent to support or commit acts of political violence. The industry of counter-radicalization, or countering violent extremism as it is known in the United States, is quickly growing across the Western world. In the UK, the government’s Prevent policy has made it mandatory for public bodies such as schools and hospitals to identify and report individuals suspected of being vulnerable to radicalization. The definition of radicalization however is not only vague, it is contingent on the political climate. The purpose of this article is to outline two fundamental issues with counter-radicalization practices. First, counter-radicalization practices, such as those enforced by policies such as Prevent, have dismissed the most basic tenets of scientific rigor: validity and reliability. Such practices are quintessential examples of policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy. Second, terrorism is strongly associated with Islam and issues of Muslim integration in public consciousness and political discourse. Thus, the practice of counter-radicalization in the War on Terror inevitably results in a racist and disproportionate impact on Muslim communities,  in much the same way the War on Drugs has resulted in the mass incarceration of Black youth in the United States. This paper will discuss the dangers of Muslims engaging in counter-radicalization practices and the importance of identifying institutionally racist practices in a supposedly post-racial society. --- ## Introduction A nurse made her scheduled visit at a Muslim family home. The parents welcomed her in, of course; she was there to see their homebound adolescent. His illness prevented him from basic chores like dressing and eating, so this was all procedure in the UK. The nurse made her way through the household and found the adolescent watching a video online—something in Arabic—and continued with her check-up. That was it—or so the family thought. Weeks later, the family discovered the nurse had referred their sick, adolescent son to a safeguarding lead (someone in charge of protecting those at risk of abuse). The reason for the referral: the adolescent might be vulnerable to radicalization. In other words, the nurse suspected the adolescent was *maybe* susceptible to condoning terrorism or even becoming a terrorist sometime in the future. Obviously, the disabled adolescent hardly posed a threat to anyone. But *maybe* was enough for a referral, even if the *maybe* was infinitely small. The nurse’s referral was also part of procedure. In early 2018, Warwick University researchers Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Erzsébet Strausz made a shocking discovery: several mental health institutions in the UK are assessing potential for radicalization among *all* their patients.[^1] This means that when a therapist writes their patient notes following a therapy session, the computer will demand, “Have you assessed for radicalization?” The answers are “Yes,” “No,” or “Not sure”—there is no option to disagree with the question. It then provides a list of risk factors including “exhibiting feelings of injustice and anger.” The purpose of this article is to take the reader on a journey exploring how such counter-radicalization practices developed and how they stigmatize the Western Muslim population. Radicalization refers to a presumed process by which an individual develops an intent to support or carry out acts of political violence (i.e., terrorism). Counter-radicalization (CR) therefore refers to efforts that would stop individuals from supporting terrorism or becoming a terrorist at some point in the future. Similarly, extremism relates to ideologies or narratives believed to be associated with, or supportive of, political violence. Counter-extremism, in turn, relates to efforts intended to suppress or counteract these narratives. As one might suspect, radicalization and extremism are highly elusive concepts—even those working in counter-terrorism admit as much.[^2] Most modern texts begin by laying the parameters of what they mean by radicalization and extremism due to an absence of any validated, reliable definitions. Government documents (e.g., the UK’s Counter-Extremism Strategy) sometimes forgo definitions altogether and use tautological logic, which often amounts to: *radicalization is the process by which extremists become terrorists*. This paper is not an attempt to dissect the concept of radicalization (for this read Kundnani[^3] or Silva[^4]), nor is it a wholesale critique of counter-terrorism. Rather, the purpose is to highlight two fundamental, observable concerns with CR efforts. The first is the lack of (or deficient) scientific evidence upon which CR practice is enacted. This paper argues that CR practices are determined first and foremost by politics, not research—policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy. Second, this paper explains how colorblind counter-radicalization practices inevitably discriminate against those who look or sound Muslim. It ends with a discussion on how the industry of CR necessitates “good Muslims” to identify and call out “bad Muslims.” The purpose of this paper is to engage the reader critically and to inspire a reflective position (looking inwardly) towards practices that are ill-constructed, politically-driven, and inescapably racist in execution. If the contemporary political climates of the UK and US are indicative of anything, it is the need to look critically at policies viewed as ‘necessary’ and ‘commonsensical.’ Note that this paper will not make a distinction between countering violent-extremism (CVE), as it is often called in the US, and counter-radicalization (CR) in the UK. As the distinction between the two is arbitrary for the purpose of this article, they will both be referred to as CR for the sake of brevity. --- ## Looking beneath the rhetoric Discussions of radicalization and extremism will always begin with terrorism. As Eqbal Ahmad argued, the term terrorism necessarily evades definition.[^5] The reason for this is simple: terrorism is a political construct. This is not to say that violence, when it occurs, is any less deplorable if it is not categorized as terrorism—far from it. It just means we are privileging certain forms of ‘violence’ and ‘ideology’ over others *when* we think of ‘terrorism.’ This is a well-trodden discussion among terrorism researchers. Lisa Stampnitzky, in her seminal book, *Disciplining Terror*, explains how terrorism studies was never a centralized field (like the study of depression, for example).[^6] Instead, in the United States, self-described experts on terrorism from various disciplines consolidated the field as they spoke and wrote about the subject in papers and at conferences. As Stampnitzky argues, the term was thus contingent on political rhetoric—those whose voices had the most sway—to decide which violence should be considered “terrorism” and which was “legitimate.” The implications of this reach beyond the cliché that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.’ For example, in the 1980s, an Israeli attack on Palestinian soil was not recorded as an incident of international terrorism, while a Palestinian attack on Israeli soil was.[^7] The aggregation of data based on these politically-loaded, pre-defined parameters paints a particular picture of who terrorists are, what terrorist objectives appear to be, and where terrorists are likely to be found. One need not go so far back to unpack the nuances of terrorism. In 1999, a German man attacked me on the streets of Berlin (he was held back by a friend), spitting racial slurs and yelling “You’re dirt! Get out of this country!” The ideological determination in this man’s violent intent was clear, notwithstanding the fear he struck in my heart. Was this an act of terrorism? Radicalization is a relatively new concept gaining exponential traction since the mid-2000s, following the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks in New York and London, respectively. The definition of radicalization, however, remains dependent on the political construction of terrorism. The elusive nature of radicalization has received a wide-range of critique (again, for an in-depth analysis, read anything by Kundnani).[^8] Not only are the parameters of terrorist acts subject to political influence; so is their importance. It is not easy to draw parallels to other social ills, but if we were to stay within the realm of murder, there have been over 400 *domestic homicides* in the UK between 2013 and 2016, while 13 terrorism-related deaths were recorded in the same time-frame.[^9] One might argue here that the number of terrorism-related deaths does not reflect incidents prevented through counter-terrorism efforts, and this may well be true—but it’s not the point. Rather, one must understand how particular forms of politics prioritize certain social ills over others. With limited resources as a result of austerity measures, whereby the UK government has significantly cut public expenditure, there are political reasons why there hasn’t been a nation-wide policy on “vulnerabilities towards domestic homicide”; why individuals working in public bodies like schools and hospitals are not given hour-long training sessions to ‘identify’ and ‘report’ pre-domestic homicide perpetrators; and why a similar construct to ‘radicalization’ has not yet been developed to describe individuals who might kill their partners or family members in the future. I suspect the reason why ‘domestic homicide pre-criminal identification’ has not been developed as a nation-wide strategy—accompanied by on-screen pop-ups in mental health institutions—may be related to the fact that the majority of victims are female, most perpetrators are White males,[^10] and alcohol use is a major factor.[^11]  To make matters worse, services for women experiencing domestic abuse are facing budget cuts across the UK.[^12] It is thus important to bear in mind that the academic and financial investments in counter-terrorism and all its sub-strands (now including hate crimes, etc.) reflect specific political interests—not just public safety. It is unsurprising, then, why many believe the War on Terror and the prioritization of Muslim-perpetrated violence, above other forms of violence, are derived from wider structures of Islamophobia.[^13] [^14] Though the policy evolved over the years,[^15] its most significant development was in 2011 when the government integrated PREVENT counter-radicalization training in public bodies (schools, hospitals, etc.), requesting all staff to identify and report those they *suspected* [^16] The now-integrated PREVENT policy then became a *statutory duty* in 2015.[^17] In other words, public bodies deemed deficient in counter-radicalization may face institutional repercussions (e.g., a school may receive a bad scholastic evaluation despite its academic performance). PREVENT distinguishes itself from other CR policies across the Western world precisely because it has become a *statutory duty* for staff in public institutions. To meet the demands of this duty, a nation-wide CR industry had to be developed. This industry, like any, involves thousands of trainers, managers, consultants and committees. In most cases, the referral process takes the following shape, using the example of a school: 1) a teacher suspects a student is vulnerable to, or is, being radicalized; 2) the teacher raises this concern with the institution’s safeguarding (Prevent) lead; 3) if deemed worthy, the lead forwards the report externally to be vetted by the police; 4) if still deemed worthy, the case is discussed by a committee called Channel (an eclectic group of individuals of various professions who have been chosen or elected, often including British Muslims) to discuss potential interventions, including therapy, housing and/or ideological reprogramming. Counter-radicalization thus attempts to intervene with suspected pre-criminals well before the intent of violence is even possible. Indeed the time-frame of pre-criminality can go all the way back to early childhood, nurseries included.[^18] As one might imagine, CR is a highly subjective and politicized enterprise. Remember: this paper isn’t about immediate threat—it’s about ‘pre-criminality.’[^19] Though the scientific enterprise of pre-criminality isn’t new, CR packages it in new skin.[^20] Thus this paper will not address actual threats of violence, irrespective of their intent. As it stands, the ethical rule-of-thumb remains: should anyone pose an immediate threat to themselves or others, contact authorities immediately. The following two sections outline how British CR developed as a nation-wide policy without a scientific evidence base, and how CR’s framing of radicalization as colorblind (“anyone can become a terrorist”) disguises the inherent racist structures upon which it operates. --- ## Policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy The project of the scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries was to (theoretically) unhinge knowledge-making from ideology. Today, a key buzzword is “evidence-based” which usually denotes that an intervention has been subjected to the scientific enterprise—otherwise it may be pseudoscience, like phrenology. But policy is not always based on evidence. Professor David Gregg gives the example of Family Intervention Projects (FIP), a national strategy to provide intensive support for ‘chaotic families’ in order to eliminate anti-social behavior and improve overall outcomes for children. Unsurprisingly, the strategy was almost completely directed at poor families who ‘bring misery’ to their communities, thereby conveniently dismissing the gamut of political decisions underlying the rise in poverty. Worse, the UK government developed FIP as a policy *first, then* sought contingent evidence for its success after the fact—policy-based evidence.[^21] The UK government’s CR training relies heavily on the Extreme Risk Guidance (ERG22+) framework, a government-funded risk assessment that lists 22 potential vulnerabilities relating to radicalization. The “+” suggests there may be more than those listed.[^22] The following are the first five vulnerabilities: - Lack of emotional resilience - Problems with relationships - Need to feel important, valued, or special - Need for identity, meaning, and belonging - Feelings of threat and insecurity Each of these vulnerabilities are remarkably commonplace, if not all too human. How have they been included in the ERG? Unfortunately, the science behind the ERG is highly suspect and has been critiqued by over 100 academics and various organizations including the National Union of Students[^23],[^24] (for an in-depth critique of the ERG, approved by notable scholars, read the report by Asim Qureshi and CAGE).[^25] According to a document prepared for US Homeland Security, not only have assessment tools such as the ERG not been validated, the authors admit they have the potential to catch significant numbers of innocents in their profiling nets.[^26] To make matters worse, the original study upon which the ERG is based is unavailable for academic or public scrutiny.[^27] These are all serious, scientific concerns. Nonetheless, the ERG serves as the conceptual framework for the UK’s national Prevent counter-radicalization training, which has now been completed over one million times.[^28] While the parameters of what constitutes “evidence” is (rightfully) open for discussion, the scientific method of evidence-production generally involves two key concepts: validity and reliability. Validity relates to the meaningfulness of a measure’s components, in that they measure what they’re supposed to measure. In an example of my own fieldwork, PREVENT’s CR training emphasizes emotional resilience as a potential vulnerability. But what is emotional resilience? And is “lack of emotional resilience” a valid component preceding political violence? As you can see, though there are many ways of assessing this component alone (e.g., even if we had a definition for emotional resilience, how do we measure it?), validity remains important because, without it, one cannot really determine whether someone is *truly* vulnerable to radicalization. Reliability relates to the extent to which a measure or intervention is repeatable. In other words, if two people were asked to determine an individual’s ‘emotional resilience,’ how likely are they to come to similar conclusions? Both validity and reliability underline why a robust evidence base is so important. Otherwise, invalid and unreliable measures—unscientific, in other words—are simply subject to personal whims and social conventions, similarly to the demonization of ‘poor families’ described above. This is antithetical to the scientific enterprise. [^29] In other words, our understanding of radicalization was less contingent on the scientific enterprise than on political scandals. This led to a convoluted process of framing and reframing the causes and solutions to homegrown terrorism. As an example, in the early 2000s, Tony Blair’s administration still spoke of terrorism without relating to any specific group (this is significant following the UK’s history with the Irish Republican Army). A leak in 2004 uncovered, however, that British Muslims had been targets of governmental surveillance as part of a secret counter-terrorism strategy. Refusing to comment on the leak, Tony Blair’s government ‘reframed’ the issue of radicalization as an issue of civic engagement, stating Muslims were less likely to engage with the rest of society than other groups, and therefore needed the ‘added attention.’ Counter-terrorism was thus reframed to justify the surveillance of British Muslims while maintaining that ‘anyone’ could become a terrorist. I began this article citing the discovery that several mental health institutions include radicalization in their comprehensive risk assessment for all patients. The list of ‘radicalization  risks’ that appear on the health professional’s pop-up screen are derived from the ERG. Thus, not only is the ERG a non-validated, unreliable instrument, it enjoys widespread use within mental health institutions without engaging the scientific enterprise or confronting the possibility that radicalization assessment may impact professional-patient relationships. Outside of Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Erzsébet Strausz’s work, little is known about how CR has impacted healthcare access and provision. At the same time, emerging research is recognizing the devastating impact of CR practice in education: a chilling effect on Muslim students and teachers who are increasingly fearful of speaking their minds and falling into the elusive catchment area of pre-criminality.[^30] In one incident recorded in the Eroding Trust report,[^31] a teacher referred a 14-year-old student to a Child Protection Officer for speaking about ‘eco-terrorism’ in class. The adolescent was naturally referring to the subject at hand: deforestation and the actions of ‘eco-warriors’ to stop it. Taken aside by the Child Protection Officer, the adolescent was questioned about ISIS. This experience was devastating for the adolescent. According to his mother, “he is much more careful, much more wary in school to this day.” --- ## Radicalization: a color-blind pathology? It’s not just the lack of evidence that’s problematic. In a social and political vacuum, one might ask: what’s the harm in trying to prevent people from becoming *bad*, even without valid or reliable methods? But we do not live in a social or political vacuum. British and American counter-radicalization efforts operate in politically volatile, economically insecure contexts with deeply embedded racial structures inherited from violent imperial legacies. [^32] Countries across the Western world differ in their relationship with Muslim communities according to their national insecurities and colonial histories, but issues of integration remain constant. As political scientist Olivier Roy explains, governments across the Western world are struggling to come to terms with Muslims’ affiliation to the nation-state vis-a-vis the Ummah.[^33] Counter-radicalization thus operates directly upon a long-standing logic in which Western Muslims are in need of constant assimilatory monitoring and interventions. What used to be ‘become like us or go back to where you’re from’ is now ‘become like us or you’re potentially a threat to national security.’ By employing the frame of non-violent extremism, counter-radicalization serves as a mode of regulating behaviors apparently at odds with a liberal nation-state. In this, as sociologist Nisha Kapoor explains, gender (in)equality is often employed as the measure by which one may identify potential radicals. In other words, orthodox Islamic gender roles that contradict Western liberal norms may be judged as the sort of ‘extremism’ from which political violence is suspected to arise. This has little to do with actual research into causes of political violence, and more to do with the securitization (and evolution) of a long-standing integration debate about Muslims in Western societies. All these concerns, which often fall under the heading of non-violent extremism, are not about terrorism per se, but are thought to constitute the sort of ideological soil from which political violence may blossom. [^34] Alexander argues that one of the reasons it has been so difficult to address institutionally racist policies associated with drug policing is their formulation as color-blind. Color-blindness is the assertion that racial privilege is not a factor—when of course it is. When political rhetoric speaks of drug dealers and drug users as ‘race-free,’ policy-makers cannot be held accountable for the racist aftermath of the War on Drugs: the mass incarceration of Black men. Racist incidents in the War on Drugs and Terror, irrespective of their number, are seen as ‘bad apples’ when they occur—bad examples of an otherwise guiltless framework. It’s not the policy’s fault; supposedly only a fool (not a racist, mind you) would refer a student, who wears the *hijab* for the first time, to CR. Anyway, CR advocates argue, the ‘system’ will iron out these kinks—the strategy itself is not racist. Here the question often arises, ‘how can one be racist towards Muslims?’ Perhaps the two Egyptian Christians who were attacked by their fellow protestors—in a rally opposing the building of a mosque—might give us an indication.[^35] But racism is not only contingent on the color of one’s skin. It’s a social construct, as Professors Michael Omi and Howard Winant argue, *‘a concept that signifies and symbolizes social conflict and interests by referring to different types of human bodies.’*[^36] When an erroneous counter-radicalization referral is made towards a woman wearing the *hijab*, this is a racist referral in that her physicality embodies a social conflict (the War on Terror, the non-integration of Muslims) in public consciousness, of which the *hijab* is a popular signifier. Thus, the racism in counter-radicalization policy is not only how Muslims are represented (in documents or training), but indeed that the terrorist threat is widely associated with perceived Muslimness—in appearance and expression. In other words, even if a public counter-radicalization strategy were to exclude references to Muslims altogether, *it would still be about Muslims*. Accordingly, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims in the UK recently proposed a definition of Islamophobia as: *‘rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.’* This short definition lacks the centrality of how Islam itself is perceived as a foreign, backwards, and dangerous ideology but it’s a positive step towards recognizing how racism targets Muslims (I would also add that any definition of Islamophobia that does not hold politicians or policies accountable is ultimately futile). *anyone* may be susceptible to radicalization—just like a brown and white person is equally likely to be a drug dealer in the War on Drugs, so too can *anyone* [^37] This entire process emulates the biomedical model of disease: just as a race-neutral body is susceptible to sickness from a foreign or dangerous agent, so too is a race-neutral individual susceptible to dangerous ideologies. But by denying how the threat of terrorism is associated with Muslims in public consciousness, CR arguably does *more harm* [^38] Unfortunately, we are still far from acknowledging racism outside of cases of overt, racial hostility. Though the myth of a post-racial society is increasingly disrupted by Trump, Brexit and far-right movements across Europe, the focus on explicit forms of racism subverts efforts to resist implicit forms of racism which operate within structures and policies such as counter-radicalization. None of this is new. Several decades ago, a famous study examined the impact of race and gender on mental health diagnosis. [^39] Two-hundred and ninety psychiatrists were divided into five groups to evaluate the same case of a patient save for key differences in race and gender (white male; white female; black male; black female; race and gender undisclosed). It came to light that the race of a patient influenced evaluations: Black people were more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than White people. The reason for this was simple: schizophrenia was commonly associated with aggression within the logic of mental illness, and the United States has a history of associating violence and criminality with Black bodies. What about PREVENT? The UK government’s own statistics for 2018 show that ‘Islamist extremism’ referrals are 17 times more likely to pass through PREVENT than ‘Far Right extremism.’[^40] This number alone represents a serious discrepancy, but even here there are some factors that indicate that the disparity may be much higher. First, the UK doesn’t count PREVENT referral rejections or interventions that occur *within* schools and hospitals. So if a teacher referred a student for commenting on eco-terrorism, and this referral was hypothetically rejected or dealt with *within* the institution, it would not enter official statistics. Second, the statistics are not categorized based on the *religion/ethnicity* of the one referred but on the *nature* of the referral itself. This is significant, as the UK government has recently added a new referral-type to Prevent: ‘Mixed, Unstable, or Unclear Ideology.’ This new category represent an enormous 27% of all 7,318 Prevent referrals in 2018. As ethnicity/religion of the referred is not mentioned, this 27% could potentially consist entirely of British Muslims exhibiting antisocial behaviors, but who have not made any explicit remarks associated with Islamist extremism. Thus, one must remain wary when the government asserts that ‘Islamist extremism’ referrals have gone down; it may be the case if we hold to *their* categories, but the reality of British Muslims may be significantly different. Racial prejudice cannot be addressed with training; one cannot simply tell people “Don’t be racist” and expect this to eradicate underlying prejudice. The reason for this is just as simple: Muslims are commonly associated with terrorism in public consciousness. There is sufficient research demonstrating that individuals *who think they’re not racist still make racist* judgments in controlled settings.[^41] If the racism in a PREVENT referral is apparent and returned to sender (as in the individual is not judged as vulnerable to radicalization by someone higher up in the school, for example, or the police), this is called a false positive. There has been an abundance of documented false positive referrals through PREVENT’s counter-radicalization initiatives. Non-publicized cases from my own fieldwork involve such radical behaviors as: putting on the *hijab*; going on Hajj; and coming to the UK as a (non-Muslim) asylum seeker from the Middle East. These cases never enter official statistics, but they exist. And it’s not only about numbers. The normative response to the overrepresentation of Muslims through CR efforts has been a) to increase the emphasis on far-right ideologies; and b) to involve more Muslims within the CR process (which will be discussed below). These options, however, do not address how radicalization is framed via politically-loaded formulations of non-violent extremism or how it’s associated with Islam in public consciousness—where race does matter. Instead, it aggravates circumstances further as it reproduces a system that sees radicalization as an unproblematic, color-blind concept, and frames issues of overrepresentation as problems of implementation. The consequences of such a system are truly dire: according to Fatima Ahdash, radicalization concerns have appeared in 231 British family court cases between January 2016 and March 2018—all of them Muslim.[^42] When an unregulated and racist logic can potentially separate children from their parents at the intersection of family law and counterterrorism, there is a need for a total and comprehensive deconstruction of this logic. --- ## Muslim reproducing a securitized narrative Muslims are increasingly sought to play central roles in security initiatives. Asim Qureshi, in his book *A Virtue of Disobedience*, calls for greater reflexivity among Muslims.[^43] He cautions how Muslims, though well-intended, may unintentionally reproduce State narratives which ultimately cause greater harm to marginalized communities all around—not just Muslims. It is easy to presume that, as a Muslim, one would not fall so easily into the racist traps of the CR industry. But there are caveats to this logic, as I listed above. First, we should question our engagement with industries dismissive of “scientific” rigor (in quotes as “science” itself is a political field as well) and public review. Second, racism is not only a question of an individual’s intentions. Rather, racism operates within structures which set the terms for how individuals interact with one another; it is very possible, if not the norm, to engage in a racist policy with “good intentions.” Moreover, though every voice matters, “being Muslim” is not a qualification to speak with exceptional authority on the social and political conditions of Western Muslims. Muslims must be vigilant of their participation in initiatives presented ‘in good faith’ which produce in them a sense of ‘expertise.’ We are also seeing a proliferation of organizations that profess an ability to distinguish “good” Muslims from “bad.” Unsurprisingly, the conception of good Muslim is often not only one who is ‘integrated’ or ‘assimilated,’ but who actively espouses State narratives on a variety of key political issues,[^44] such as Israel.[^45] Divisions among Western Muslims have always existed, though they are often spoken about, for brevity or from ignorance, as a monolithic community. The political categorization of Western Muslims however is inherently problematic. The term glosses over a wide range of groups, political affiliations, migration histories, and religiosities. Counter-terrorism strategies, directly and indirectly, play upon these divisions. The most glaring direct State intervention is the demonization and favoring of certain groups over others in the name of counter-terrorism, thereby endowing internal divisions (i.e., Sufi-Salafi) with political significance. Arun Kundnani reports, for example, how the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB, the overarching umbrella organization of UK mosques) fell out of the UK government’s favor when it voiced disapproval of the UK’s illegal invasion of Iraq, stating it might cause more violence.[^46] The government then funded the Sufi Muslim Council (with £203,000) instead, in the hopes of elevating their status and ‘moderation’ within the British Muslim community.[^47] This political siding with certain groups while demonizing others (often under the elusive rhetorical categorization of extremism) remains prevalent to this day. Preferential treatment by the State has created a lucrative industry for self-described Muslim experts such as Maajid Nawaz, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Tarek Fatah to rise in prominence; voices who represent, as David Cameron described in his infamous speech, ‘an active muscular liberalism,’ ‘made by those within Islam.’[^48] [^49] This has created an ominous feeling of always being on the alert—an affective surveillance.[^50] As we now see, even families have seen internal divisions due to securitized concerns, with the government putting the responsibility on mothers to prevent their children’s radicalization.[^51] In my fieldwork, I met mothers—some shaking and crying—scared of having their children removed, simply because the line between pre-criminality and criminality is so elusive.[^52] These complaints have been raised by many, including the UN Special Rapporteur.[^53] And yet, the CR industry has shown no interest in quelling its expansion, having continuously dismissed demands for scientific rigor and the cries of many who have demonstrated, repeatedly, how such CR practices are inevitably racist in practice. Finally, one should not disassociate counter-radicalization from the broader counter-terrorism strategy and the new Counter-Terrorism Act (2019) now in effect.[^54] This Act is rightfully considered a worst-case evolution of the counter-terrorism strategy, expanding both the range of offenses and the severity of punishments. For example, the new Act introduces the one-click offense (appropriately called the Medusa Offense): an individual may now serve up to 15 years in prison for clicking *once* on a terrorist website. As such, while one might imagine that a *single* click on a terrorist website would be prototypical of a step in the radicalization *process*, the behavior is seen as already having crossed the line into terrorism. As the boundaries of terrorism offenses shift, their movement significantly impacts the validity of CR initiatives. The purview of CR is increasingly infringed upon by counter-terrorism legislation. --- ## Conclusion: Beyond Bad Apples When someone tells me we must do everything we can to stop terrorism, I understand. I too share the goal of standing up to oppression. But the platform upon which we take a stand is as important as the spirit itself. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But counter-terrorism is also very difficult to discuss. There is a fear that criticism of counter-terrorism strategies is tantamount to supporting terrorism itself. Unfortunately, such a fear is not ill-founded; the British home secretary Sajid Javid said as much about counter-extremism critics.[^55] I always paint the following analogy when discussing bad policy: imagine a rat-infested town. As the infestation worsens, the mayor decides to kill all the rats by poisoning the water. The rats die, but people also become sick. So, even if a policy were hypothetically successful in its objectives, its “success” is not the only measure of impact. Despite all the criticism levied towards CR efforts, there are still those who argue that “doing something is better than nothing” which, as this analogy conjures, is not only false (one can always make things worse) but is also a common logical fallacy called the politician’s syllogism: ‘We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.’ This logic immediately dismisses structural faults at the heart of any policy. I hope, as I explained with the analogy of the poisoned water, that we look beyond the narrow definitions of CR’s alleged “success” to see its devastating impact on communities. The recognition of such devastation *should* be sufficient to rebuke public CR and CVE efforts and call towards a rethinking of how best to approach the subject of political violence. [^56] This act confirms a terrible suspicion many British Muslims hold:  they are second-class citizens in a racist, two-tier justice system that privileges their White counterparts. No one is better off by applying unscientific policies to other groups, pushing harder for counter-radicalization to target ‘far-right individuals.’ Rather, we should adopt the principle that what is harmful to one group is harmful to all groups and call for improvements in scientific scrutiny, public awareness, and sensitivity to institutional racism. With a better understanding of how racist structures operate, we can begin to look beyond “bad apples” towards the “bad trees” that are poisoning otherwise “good apples.” Let’s have a serious conversation about the sort of politics that make good people make bad decisions. --- ## Notes [^1]: Charlotte Heath-Kelly & Strausz, E. Counter-terrorism in the NHS: Evaluating Prevent Safeguarding Duty in the NHS. (University of Warwick, 2018). [^2]: Schmid, A. P. Radicalisation, de-radicalisation, counter-radicalisation: A conceptual discussion and literature review. *ICCT Research Paper* 97, 22 (2013). [^3]: Kundnani, A. *The Muslims are coming!: Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic war on terror* (Verso Books, 2014). [^4]: Silva, D. M. D. (2018). ‘Radicalisation: The journey of a concept,’ revisited. *Race & Class*, *59*(4), 34-53. doi:10/1177/0306396817750778. [^5]: Ahmad, E. *Terrorism: Theirs & ours*. (Seven Stories Press, 2011). [^6]: Stampnitzky, L. *Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented ’Terrorism’.* (Cambridge University Press, 2013). [^7]: Ibid. [^8]: Kundnani, A. Radicalisation: the journey of a concept. *Race & Class* 54, 3–25 (2012). [^9]: Home Office. Domestic Homicide Reviews. (2016). Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment\_data/file/575232/HO-Domestic-Homicide-Review-Analysis-161206.pdf. (Accessed: 6th November 2018) [^10]: Violence Policy Center. More Than 1,800 Women Murdered by Men in One Year, New Study Finds. (2018). Available at: http://vpc.org/press/more-than-1800-women-murdered-by-men-in-one-year-new-study-finds/. (Accessed: 8th January 2019) [^11]: Gilchrist, L. & Godwin, J. Roles of Alcohol in Intimate Partner Abuse. 61 (2014). [^12]: Jones, O. Britain is going backwards on violence against women. *The Guardian* (2014). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/30/britain-violence-against-women-domestic-abuse-funding-cuts. (Accessed: 8th January 2019) [^13]: Sabir, R. Blurred lines and false dichotomies: Integrating counterinsurgency into the UK’s domestic ‘war on terror.’ *Critical Social Policy* 0261018316683471 (2017). [^14]: Bail, C. A. The public life of secrets: Deception, disclosure, and discursive framing in the policy process. *Sociological Theory* 33, 97–124 (2015). [^15]: Ibid. [^16]: HM Government. Prevent Strategy. (2011). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment\_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf. (Accessed: 8th October 2017) [^17]: HM Government. Revised Prevent Duty Guidance: for England and Wales. (2015). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance. (Accessed: 17th August 2017) [^18]: Busby, M. Anger as Ofsted claims nursery failing to guard against radicalisation. *Education* (2018). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/aug/02/anger-ofsted-claims-nursery-failing-guard-against-radicalisation-brighton. (Accessed: 2nd August 2018) [^19]: Goldberg, D., Jadhav, S. & Younis, T. Prevent: what is pre-criminal space? *BJPsych Bulletin* (2016). doi:10.1192/pb.bp.116.054585 [^20]: Sian, K. Born radicals? Prevent, positivism, and ‘race-thinking’. *Palgrave Communications* 3, 6 (2017). [^21]: Gregg, D. Family intervention projects: a classic case of policy-based evidence. *London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies* (2010). [^22]: HM Prison & Probation Service. *A Process Evaluation of the Structured Risk Guidance for Extremist Offenders*. (2017). [^23]: Armstrong, K. Anti-radicalisation strategy lacks evidence base in science. *Letters* (2016). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/29/anti-radicalisation-strategy-lacks-evidence-base-in-science. (Accessed: 6th November 2018) [^24]: Royal College of Psychiatrists. Counter-terrorism and psychiatry. Position statement. (2016). Available at: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/PS04\_16.pdf. [^25]: Qureshi, A. The ‘Science of Pre-Crime’: The Secret ‘Radicalisation’ Study Underpinning Prevent. *CAGE*, *London* (2016). [^26]: RTI International. Countering Violent Extremism: The Application of Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Justice and Rehabilitation Process. (2018). Available at: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OPSR\_TP\_CVE-Application-Risk-Assessment-Tools-Criminal-Rehab-Process\_2018Feb-508.pdf. (Accessed: 6th November 2018) [^27]: Scarcella, A., Page, R. & Furtado, V. Terrorism, radicalisation, extremism, authoritarianism and fundamentalism: a systematic review of the quality and psychometric properties of assessments. *PloS One* 11, e0166947 (2016). [^28]: Taylor, D. Hospice staff ‘trained to report dying patients as part of terror strategy.’ *The Guardian* (2018). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/11/nhs-staff-trained-to-signs-of-radicalisation-in-terminally-ill-says-whistleblower. (Accessed: 26th September 2018) [^29]: Bail, C. A. The public life of secrets: Deception, disclosure, and discursive framing in the policy process. *Sociological Theory* 33, 97–124 (2015) [^30]: Fernandez, S. The geographies of Prevent: The transformation of the Muslim home into a pre-crime space. *Journal of Muslims in Europe* 7, 167–189 (2018). [^31]: Open Society Justice Initiative. Eroding Trust, The UK’s Prevent Counter-Extremism Strategy in Health and Education. *Open Society Foundations* 16–17 (2016). [^32]: Norton, A. *On the Muslim question*. (Princeton University Press, 2013). [^33]: Roy, O. *Globalized Islam: The search for a new ummah.* (Columbia University Press, 2004). [^34]: Alexander, M. *The New Jim Crow.* (New Press, 2012) [^35]: Conor Friedersdorf. A Mosque Near Ground Zero. *The Atlantic* (2010). Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/ideas-2010/archive/2010/06/a-mosque-near-ground-zero/57876/. (Accessed: 12th January 2019) [^36]: Omi, M. & Winant, H. *Racial Formation in the United States*. (Routledge, 2014). [^37]: Jones, J. The color-blind racial approach: Does race really matter. *The myth of color blindness: Manifestations, dynamics, and impact* 39–52 (2016). [^38]: Alexander, M. *The New Jim Crow.* (New Press, 2012). [^39]: Loring, M. & Powell, B. Gender, Race, and DSM-III: A Study of the Objectivity of Psychiatric Diagnostic Behavior. *Journal of Health and Social Behavior* 29, 1–22 (1988). [^40]: Home Office. *Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme*, April 2017 to March 2018. (2018). Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment\_data/file/763254/individuals-referred-supported-prevent-programme-apr2017-mar2018-hosb3118.pdf [^41]: Jones, J. The color-blind racial approach: Does race really matter. *The myth of color blindness: Manifestations, dynamics, and impact* 39–52 (2016). [^42]: Ahdash, F. The interaction between family law and counter-terrorism: a critical examination of the radicalisation cases in the family courts. *Child and Family Law Quarterly* 30, 26 (2018). [^43]: Qureshi, A. *A Virtue of Disobedience*. (Byline Books, 2018). [^44]: Kapoor, N. *Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism*. (Verso Books, 2018). [^45]: Abunimah, Ali. Islamophobia bankroller behind organizer of Israel junket for US “Muslim leaders.” *The Electronic Intifada* (2015). Available at: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/islamophobia-bankroller-behind-organizer-israel-junket-us-muslim-leaders. (Accessed: 13th January 2019) [^46]: Kundnani, A. Spooked. *How not to prevent violent extremism*. London: IRR (2009). [^47]: Ibid. [^48]: Klug, B. Fawlty Logic: The Cracks in Cameron’s 2011 Munich Speech. *ReOrient* 1, 61 (2015). [^49]: Abbas, M.-S. Producing ‘internal suspect bodies’: divisive effects of UK counter-terrorism measures on Muslim communities in Leeds and Bradford. *The British Journal of Sociology* 0, (2018). [^50]: Ellis, D., Tucker, I. & Harper, D. The affective atmospheres of surveillance. *Theory & Psychology* 23, 716–731 (2013). [^51]: Abbas, M.-S. “I Grew a Beard and My Dad Flipped out!” Co-Option of British Muslim Parents in Countering ‘Extremism’ within Their Families in Bradford and Leeds,” *Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies* 0, no. 0 (April 27, 2018): 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1466694. [^52]: Younis, T. British Muslims will live with an intolerable burden of uncertainty under new counter-terrorism bill. The Conversation Available at:   http://theconversation.com/british-muslims-will-live-with-an-intolerable-burden-of-uncertainty-under-new-counter-terrorism-bill-105716. (Accessed: 11th January 2019) [^53]: UN Special Rapporteur. End of Mission Statement of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance at the Conclusion of Her Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. *United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner* (2018). Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23073&LangID=E. (Accessed: 8th October 2018) [^54]: Younis, T. British Muslims will live with an intolerable burden of uncertainty under new counter-terrorism bill. *The Conversation* Available at: http://theconversation.com/british-muslims-will-live-with-an-intolerable-burden-of-uncertainty-under-new-counter-terrorism-bill-105716. (Accessed: 11th January 2019) [^55]: Hymas, C. Prevent critics ‘on side of extremists,’ says home secretary Sajid Javid. *The Telegraph* (2018). Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/01/prevent-critics-side-extremists-says-home-secretary-sajid-javid/. (Accessed: 3rd January 2019) [^56]: Ahsan, S. The revoking of Shamima Begum’s citizenship sets a worrying precedent for the children of immigrants. *Media Diversified* (2019). Available at: [https://mediadiversified.org/2019/02/20/the-revoking-of-shamima-begums-citizenship-sets-a-worrying-precedent-for-the-children-of-immigrants/](https://mediadiversified.org/2019/02/20/the-revoking-of-shamima-begums-citizenship-sets-a-worrying-precedent-for-the-children-of-immigrants/). (Accessed: 21st February 2019) ## Summary Counter-radicalization, known in the United States as countering violent extremism, has grown into a vast industry across the Western world, yet it rests upon a concept—radicalization—that remains vague and shifts according to the prevailing political climate. Two fundamental concerns lie at the heart of this enterprise. The first is that such practices, particularly the United Kingdom's Prevent policy, have abandoned the most basic requirements of scientific rigor, namely validity and reliability, and thus represent policy-based evidence rather than evidence-based policy. The second is that, because terrorism is so strongly bound in public consciousness to Islam and to anxieties over Muslim integration, counter-radicalization inevitably falls with a racist and disproportionate weight upon Muslim communities, much as the American War on Drugs produced the mass incarceration of Black youth. The gravity of the matter is illustrated by real cases. A homebound, disabled adolescent was referred to a safeguarding lead by a visiting nurse merely because he was watching an Arabic video, on the grounds that he might be vulnerable to radicalization. Furthermore, researchers Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Erzsébet Strausz discovered in 2018 that several mental health institutions in the UK assess all patients for radicalization, with software that prompts therapists to answer "Have you assessed for radicalization?"—offering only "Yes," "No," or "Not sure," with no option to reject the question itself. Among the listed risk factors is something as ordinary as "exhibiting feelings of injustice and anger." It is worth clarifying that radicalization is a presumed process by which a person develops the intent to support or commit political violence, while extremism refers to ideologies believed to be associated with such violence. These are elusive concepts, admitted as such even by those working in counter-terrorism, and government documents such as the UK's Counter-Extremism Strategy at times abandon definitions altogether in favour of tautology. Drawing on the argument of Eqbal Ahmad, terrorism itself evades definition because it is a political construct. Lisa Stampnitzky, in Disciplining Terror, shows how terrorism studies was never a centralized field but was consolidated by self-described experts, so that the very term became contingent upon whose political voice held sway. The consequence is telling: in the 1980s an Israeli attack on Palestinian soil was not recorded as international terrorism, while a Palestinian attack on Israeli soil was. Such politically-loaded parameters shape the entire picture of who terrorists are presumed to be. Consider that between 2013 and 2016 there were over four hundred domestic homicides in the UK against only thirteen terrorism-related deaths, yet no national policy of "pre-domestic homicide identification" exists, no hour-long training for public workers to report potential perpetrators, no equivalent construct to "radicalization." The likely reason, it is suggested, is that most victims are female, most perpetrators are White males, and alcohol is a major factor. Thus the investment in counter-terrorism reflects specific political interests, and many believe the prioritizing of Muslim-perpetrated violence flows from wider structures of Islamophobia. The Prevent policy, first developed in 2003 to win "the hearts and minds of British Muslims," was integrated into public bodies in 2011 and became a statutory duty in 2015. It seeks to intervene against suspected "pre-criminals" long before any intent to violence is even possible, extending even to nurseries—a highly subjective and politicized enterprise. It should be stressed that this concern is with pre-criminality, not immediate threats; anyone posing an immediate danger should be reported to authorities at once. On the question of evidence, Prevent's training relies heavily on the Extreme Risk Guidance (ERG22+), a government-funded assessment listing twenty-two vulnerabilities, the first five of which—lack of emotional resilience, problems with relationships, the need to feel important, the need for identity and belonging, and feelings of threat—are utterly commonplace and human. The science behind the ERG is highly suspect and has been criticized by over a hundred academics and various organizations, including the National Union of Students, with a detailed critique offered in the report by Asim Qureshi and CAGE. A document prepared for US Homeland Security concedes that such tools have not been validated and may ensnare significant numbers of innocents, and the original study underlying the ERG remains unavailable for scrutiny. Yet this framework has been completed over a million times. Genuine science requires validity, meaning a measure actually measures what it claims, and reliability, meaning it yields consistent results; the ERG satisfies neither, leaving officials to act upon personal whim and social convention. Christopher Bail's account further shows how understanding of radicalization was shaped less by science than by political scandals, as when a 2004 leak revealed the surveillance of British Muslims, prompting Tony Blair's government to reframe the matter as one of civic engagement. The absence of evidence is only half the danger. Counter-radicalization does not operate in a vacuum but within societies bearing deeply embedded racial structures inherited from imperial legacies. It securitizes the long-standing debate over the place of Muslims in the West—what Anne Norton calls "the Muslim Question"—and, as Olivier Roy explains, reflects the state's struggle with Muslim affiliation to the Ummah. As Nisha Kapoor notes, orthodox Islamic gender roles at odds with liberal norms are frequently treated as the soil from which violence is presumed to grow. Drawing on Michelle Alexander's work on the War on Drugs, the paper argues that Prevent, like drug policy, is framed as color-blind, asserting that "anyone" can become a terrorist, thereby protecting the system from the charge of racism. Yet racism, as Michael Omi and Howard Winant argue, is a social construct signifying conflict through reference to different human bodies; thus an erroneous referral of a woman in hijab is racist because her physicality embodies a social conflict. Even a policy that never mentioned Muslims would still be about Muslims. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims proposed defining Islamophobia as "rooted in racism and a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness," though this is judged incomplete for failing to hold politicians and policies accountable. The statistical evidence confirms the disparity. In 2018, "Islamist extremism" referrals were seventeen times more likely to pass through Prevent than "Far Right" ones, and this may understate the reality, since rejected referrals go uncounted and a new category, "Mixed, Unstable, or Unclear Ideology," comprising 27% of 7,318 referrals, obscures the ethnicity of those referred. An earlier study of 290 psychiatrists found that Black patients were more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, illustrating how prejudice operates even among those who believe themselves free of it—training cannot remove such underlying bias. Fatima Ahdash records that radicalization concerns appeared in 231 British family court cases between January 2016 and March 2018, all of them Muslim. Muslims are increasingly drawn into these security initiatives, and here Asim Qureshi, in A Virtue of Disobedience, calls for greater reflexivity, cautioning that well-intentioned Muslims may reproduce state narratives that harm marginalized communities. Being Muslim is no qualification for exceptional authority, and racism operates within structures such that one may serve a racist policy with good intentions. Arun Kundnani reports how the government withdrew favour from the Muslim Council of Britain after it opposed the Iraq invasion and funded the Sufi Muslim Council with £203,000 instead, elevating figures who embody what David Cameron called "muscular liberalism." This has produced "internal suspect communities" and an affective surveillance in which mothers, some shaking and crying in the author's fieldwork, fear having their children removed. Concerns of this kind have been raised even by the UN Special Rapporteur. The Counter-Terrorism Act of 2019 has worsened matters, introducing the "one-click" or "Medusa" offense carrying up to fifteen years' imprisonment. The proper response to violence should be the assurance of justice, recalling the words of Omar Abdul-Aziz: "Extinguish their sedition with justice." Racism is the antithesis of justice, as seen in the case of Shamima Begum, stripped of citizenship and rendered stateless on 19 February 2019, confirming for many British Muslims their status as second-class citizens in a two-tier system. The remedy is not to extend an unscientific policy toward the far-right, but to adopt the principle that what harms one group harms all, and to look beyond "bad apples" to the "bad trees" that poison otherwise good ones. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-islamophobia-race-power-and-the-roots-of-anti-muslim-discrimination # What is Islamophobia? Race, Power, and the Roots of Anti-Muslim Discrimination **Author:** Nour Soubani **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Racism, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** March 20, 2019 **Updated:** October 5, 2026 ## Introduction With rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States and Europe, there is an ongoing discussion about how it should be defined. Since Islam is not a race, some argue that it can’t be called “racism.” Others argue that the victims of “Islamophobia” also include people of color who may be perceived as Muslim, and so it fits into the category of racism. Still others say that, due to freedom of speech and expression, criticizing a religion should not be considered discriminatory. As these discussions are happening, the number of hate crimes against Muslims are growing, anti-Muslim legislation is being passed, and media narratives about Muslims persist on age-old tropes about Islam. All of these have been labeled in common discourse as Islamophobia. The purpose of this paper is to serve as an introduction to understanding this term, through the different theoretical lenses that have been proposed by scholars in the field. These lenses help us to make sense of the various manifestations of Islamophobia—both structural and interpersonal—that have become normalized in everyday life and discourse, and to connect these manifestations to their historical roots. This paper looks at three lenses through which we can understand what Islamophobia is and how it functions in society: culture talk, the subjectification of Muslims, and race. These three lenses are not mutually exclusive; instead, they exist at the same time and work in tandem. --- ## Culture Talk: Good Muslim, bad Muslim In March of 2016, on the campaign trail, at a town hall in Wisconsin, then presidential candidate Donald Trump was asked by CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper, “Do you trust Muslims in America?” Trump responded, “Many of them I do \[trust\]... and some, I guess, we don’t. We have a problem, and we can try and be very politically correct, but we have a major, major problem... This is a war.”[^1] Trump represents a rapidly growing social and political movement of white supremacy,[^2]becoming more visible by the increase in hate crimes and attacks against immigrants and people of color, the growing support for extreme right-wing politicians in Europe and North America and the trend of isolationist policies like Brexit and the Muslim Ban.[^3] But in his rhetoric and policy regarding Muslims—save for his hyperbolic tone—Trump actually falls in line with many before him. Whether through the continued surveillance of mosques and faith-based organizations or the “total and complete shutdown”[^4] of Muslims entering the United States through the travel ban in Trump’s first administration, Trump has posited, like many before him, that there is something about the Muslim community—both domestically and abroad—that poses a threat to American society. These narratives and policies haven’t changed over the past decades, although they have been activated more intensely at key points. A prominent idea in Islamophobic discourse, reflected in a mainstream discourse made up of political speeches, state policies, and media narratives, is that there is a schism within the world’s Muslim population: between Muslims who are violent and those who are not; Muslims who are civilized and civically minded and those who are not; Muslims who are good and Muslims who are bad. During Trump’s first administration, then US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, “We have a toxic ideology, hopefully very small within Islam; certainly most people, most Muslims don’t agree with this violent, jihadist approach.”[^5]His words echo those of former President George W. Bush, who declared, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”[^6]Bush’s successor Barack Obama would later say, along similar lines, “It’s very important for us to align ourselves with the 99.9 percent of Muslims who are looking for the same thing we’re looking for—order, peace, prosperity.”[^7] The worldview reiterated by each of these international power-holders is one in which Muslims can be divided into two groups. On the one hand, there are the Muslims represented by ISIS and its terrorist offspring. This group is ever-changing because the boundaries of who fits within it are subject to the whims of public opinion and state policy. On the other hand, there are the good Muslims, the ones who are hard-working and peace-loving—in other words, the ones who have progressed to modernity. The last statement by Obama symbolizes the implications of this binary between good and bad Muslims in US policy: as his words show, representatives of the Western nation-state have placed themselves in the position of allies to the “good Muslims” in the fight to overcome the bad ones.[^8] But what we call “mainstream discourse” here is not restricted to the words of politicians and their policies. The role of corporate media in perpetuating this narrative about Muslims is significant. As Evelyn Alsultany writes, “after 9/11, a strange thing happened: there was an increase in sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims on US television. If a TV drama or Hollywood film represented an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the story line usually included a ‘positive’ representation of an Arab or Muslim to offset the negative depiction.”[^9] Alsultany calls this “simplified complex representation,” where on the outside, media narratives appear to be creating a nuanced representation of Muslims by portraying them as diverse and not monolithic. However, through the constant association of Islam and Muslims with violence and terrorism, through the use of “native informants,” or people who have left Islam to become outspoken critics of its barbarism,[^10] and through the selective explanation of context, both entertainment and news media outlets have contributed to the binary representation of good Muslims and bad Muslims. These popular narratives are not only external, however. In some ways, they are internalized and replicated by Muslims themselves within the complex fabric of American Muslim identity and community. For an example, we can look to Khizr Khan, the Pakistani American father of the fallen United States army Captain Humayun Khan, killed in the Iraq War in 2004. Khizr and his wife Ghazala were given the stage at the Democratic National Convention in August of 2016, where he said, > Like many immigrants, we came to this country empty-handed. We believed in American democracy—that with hard work and the goodness of this country, we could share in and contribute to its blessings. We were blessed to raise our three sons in a nation where they were free to be themselves and follow their dreams.[^11] Khizr’s words represent a sentiment echoed by many American Muslims post 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror. He expressed appreciation for the American values of hard work, self-made success, and democracy and, in a nutshell, told the success story of an immigrant family that had fully assimilated into Americanness. The proof of their assimilation was in giving back to the nation. In fact, the Khans made the ultimate sacrifice of the life of their son. In an article studying the trends of Muslim charity-giving after 9/11, Sally Howell points out that many Muslims—faced with increased scrutiny of their communities—began to amplify this narrative of giving back. In Detroit, the founder of a new charity called the Huda Clinic described the thought process behind the departure from traditional modes of giving, including giving abroad: > We looked around and we thought, we have been here for a while and we are very comfortable now. Our mosque is established, we are raising our children as Muslims and sending them to Muslim schools. We are a part of the mainstream. But we haven’t really done anything for the larger society. We are using the generosity of this country to make a good life for ourselves, but we need to do something to give back. I wanted us to be excellent citizens, not just good citizens.[^12] While they were doing their best to be excellent citizens, however, American Muslims were also experiencing visits from federal agents, who asked donors questions about where their money went, why, how it was being used, whether they were giving internationally, whether they knew where and how their imam had trained. This climate of interrogation had a “chilling” effect[^13] on the activities of American Muslims, who began to turn their attention to “safe” domestic charities and projects that served the larger American society.[^14] So, how can we understand these intersecting representations and narratives about Muslims as we attempt to define Islamophobia? Where do they come from and what do they mean? Mahmood Mamdani first introduced the concept of “good Muslim, bad Muslim” in his paper: “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism.” In this, he argues that “the implication is … whether in Afghanistan, Palestine, or Pakistan, Islam must be quarantined and the devil must be exorcised from it by a civil war between good Muslims and bad Muslims.” What Mamdani calls “Culture Talk” is the assumption that “every culture has a tangible essence that defines it, and \[culture talk\] then explains politics as a consequence of that essence.”[^15] Culture Talk defines the essence of Islamic culture as violent and terroristic, thereby explaining horrific acts such as 9/11 and all other similarly violent attacks carried out by Muslims. Such attacks are not just acts of terrorism, but rather reflect a core value of terrorism within Islam, a lack of regard for human life, and an essence inherently at odds with Western “culture.” If we think about Mamdani’s argument in the context of the examples discussed above, these portrayals of Muslims, whether they are self-represented or imposed, all draw on the idea that there is a positive, “safe” way to be Muslim and another, inexplicably violent version. The emphasis here is on values—by pledging allegiance to Americanness, Muslims can emerge from whatever is inherently different about Islam. Ironically, however, even those Muslims who have made the ultimate sacrifice of life for the nation through military service cannot be fully accepted into the imagined community of Americans, which we will discuss in the next section on subjectification. The foundational belief that Islam, by its very nature, is harmful, however, is what both underlies and enables the policies that systematically target Muslims and widespread social bigotry towards Muslims. The roots of the cultural argument can be traced to the works of two other authors, Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington. In 1990, Lewis, an orientalist British-born American historian published an opinion piece in *The Atlantic* called “The Roots of Muslim Rage.” In it, Lewis first describes the principles of church, state, and the separation between them as fundamentally Christian ideas and then places Islam in opposition and rivalry to these. He writes, “The struggle between these rival systems has now lasted some fourteen centuries. It began with the advent of Islam in the seventh century, and has continued virtually to the present day.”[^16] Lewis argues that for the last few centuries, the “West” and Christendom have been “winning,” leading Islam and Muslims to experience multiple waves of loss: “The loss of domination in the world, to the advancing power of Russia and the West; the undermining of \[Muslim\] authority in his own country through an invasion of foreign ideas and laws and ways of life and sometimes even foreign rulers or settlers, and the enfranchisement of native non-Muslim elements.”[^17] Lewis’s op-ed was the impetus for Huntington’s piece three years later, published in *Foreign Affairs*. In “The Clash of Civilizations?” Huntington takes Lewis’s theory to the extreme. He writes, “Civilizational identity will be increasingly important in the future and the world will be shaped in large measure by the interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. These include Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, and possibly African civilization. The most important conflicts of the future will occur along the cultural fault lines separating these civilizations from one another.”[^18] Lewis and Huntington outline two interrelated theories of culture and its role in the relationship between the “West” and “Islam.” Huntington’s view is more extreme, framing Islam as being in perpetual conflict with the West: the “Green Peril” that was Islam became analogous to the Red Scare during the Cold War.[^19] But Lewis argues that “fundamentalism is not the only Islamic tradition… there are others… before this issue is decided there will be a hard struggle.”[^20] Much like more recent political discourse, Lewis argues that, in this situation, the West needs to support the “good” Muslims against the “bad” ones. --- ## Subjectification of the Muslim In 2015, Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act. Cruz emphasized the need to “call the enemy by its name,” echoing sentiments of a larger effort to counter Islamic extremism. After the bill failed to pass into law, Cruz would unsuccessfully reintroduce the bill three more times in 2017, 2020, and 2021.[^21]American Muslim analysts, advocates, and activists argued that “criminalizing the Muslim Brotherhood is widely viewed as a means to shutter US Muslim society.”[^22] The Muslim Brotherhood, an organization founded in Egypt in 1928, has been tied to the founding of important American Muslim institutions and organizations, including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim Students’ Association, among others. CAIR’s Director of Government Affairs Robert McCaw wrote, “The US Islamophobia network and its political allies are pushing this designation to create a new era of religious McCarthyism where being an American Muslim or an advocacy organization pushing back against anti-Muslim rhetoric is enough to disqualify you from civic participation.”[^23] The case of the controversial terrorism designation points to a number of important mechanisms of Islamophobia at work. The first is the connection between a foreign organization and American Muslims, tying an enemy abroad to one within the nation’s borders. The second is the way that the public narrative on Islam, Islamic violence, extremism, and radicalization, is used to reinforce and enshrine public policy and vice versa. Finally, the bounds of who fits into the targeted Muslim identity are flexible—expanded and constricted to achieve political, social, and economic purposes. Through these three factors, we can understand the subjectification of the Muslim figure. Leti Volpp, in an essay written just one year after 9/11, argued that the rapidly increasing violence against Arabs and Muslims in the aftermath of the attacks could be explained through the racialization of those who appear to be “Middle Eastern or Muslim into the category of terrorist and their removal from the category of citizen.”[^24] According to Volpp, this racialization happened on multiple levels. The increase in racial profiling resulted in the rounding up of over 1,200 non-citizens on the basis of terrorism; none of the individuals arrested were actually associated with terrorism but they were nonetheless detained and, in many cases, deported. The Migration Policy Institute reported that “media reports and evidence strongly suggest that suspicious and anonymous tips—based purely on ethnic and/or racial stereotypes—\[motivated\] the bulk of arrests.”[^25] So, racial profiling on both interpersonal and structural levels contributes to the creation of a suspect and criminal Arab Muslim character. Frequently, “Suspicious Activity Reports” are used as part of a state apparatus that has ordinary citizens reporting on one another in a way that propels implicit bias. Through state-funded programs like Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) and other counter-radicalization policies, people in communities—both Muslim and non-Muslim—are asked to identify “suspicious” behavior and report it to law enforcement. The problem is, what law enforcement describes as potentially suspicious includes physical indicators like growing a beard, wearing hijab, wearing traditional clothes and activities such as being politically outspoken, pro-Palestinian, attending the mosque, and/or reading holy scripture. Through community partnerships, the state then trains everyday people to recognize these characteristics as being associated with the potential for extremism or violence. In this way, we can see that the everyday activity of Muslims *and* their physical appearance is criminalized, making it so that just *being* Muslim is a problem.[^26] In typical cyclical fashion, waves of Islamophobia resurface alongside significant global events. Similarly, in the first three months following the Hamas attack of October 7th, 2023, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recorded a 180% increase in complaints of Islamophobia, including cases of anti-Palestinian censorship, doxing, and discrimination.[^27] A plausible line of argument holds that while anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian discrimination are often conflated, the former finds its origins in the latter.[^28] The second layer of Volpp’s analysis relates to Mamdani’s concept of Culture Talk, and draws on the pervasive influence of Orientalist tropes in Western discourse.[^29] Edward Said conceptualizes Orientalism as a “master discourse of European civilization that constructs and polarizes the East and West… \[and\] serves not only to define those who are the objects of the Orientalizing gaze, but also the West which is defined through its opposition to the East.”[^30] As we have discussed, this underlying theory of difference *creates* and positions Muslims as the other. The final layer in her analysis involves the manipulation of citizenship as a tool of inclusion or exclusion. Here, “citizenship” is not limited to formal legal citizenship. Instead, it includes four interrelated dimensions: formal legal status, rights, political activity, and identity. Citizenship as identity stands for the ideal of inclusion and exclusion, or the ties between citizens that form an imagined community or network of membership. Theoretically, it would follow that formal citizenship status and rights guarantee identity as well. That is, if one is a naturalized or born US citizen, they have the same protections as other US citizens, and are treated as such. The problem, however, is with the intervention that scholars call *interpellation*. Interpellation was first introduced by Louis Althusser. Althusser, describing how ideology creates subjects in society, writes: > …ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way that it ‘recruits’ subjects among the individuals, or ‘transforms’ the individuals into subjects by that very precise operation which I have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace everyday police hailing: ‘Hey, you there!’... the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one-hundred-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject. Why? Because he has recognized that the hail was ‘really’ addressed to him, and that ‘it was really him who was hailed’ (and not someone else). Experience shows that the practical telecommunication of hailings is such that they hardly ever miss their man: verbal call or whistle, the one hailed always recognizes that it is really him who is being hailed. And yet it is a strange phenomenon, and one which cannot be explained solely by ‘guilt feelings,’ despite the large numbers who ‘have something on their consciences.’[^31] In *Black Skin, White Masks*, Frantz Fanon also describes this process of interpellation from the perspective of a Black man who has been racialized: >      Look, a Negro! > > I came into the world imbued with the will to find meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world and then I found that I was an object in the midst of objects. > > Sealed into that crushing objecthood, I turned beseechingly to others. Their attention was a liberation, running over my body suddenly abraded with nonbeing… But just as I reached the other side, I stumbled and the movements, the attitudes, the glances from others fixed me there, in the sense in which a chemical solution is fixed by dye.[^32] The process of interpellation begins when, through profiling, state power identifies the Muslim and “calls out” to him. Then, he becomes the “subject of ideology—here, the subject of nationalist ideology that patrols borders through exclusion.”[^33] As a result, the Muslim subject falls outside of the bounds of “Americanness” as a national identity and, because of this, is also excluded from the protections of other dimensions of citizenship, including rights and safety. This mechanism explains why and how the civil liberties of Muslims in the United States are threatened. While advocates argue that measures like CVE, entrapment, social media monitoring, immigration policy, and other forms of profiling are unconstitutional,[^34] all of these measures rely on the notion that Muslims do not fall within the category of “citizen.” Nadine Naber, in her article “Look, Mohammed the Terrorist is Coming,” writes that, after 9/11, there was a new “subject” created by mainstream discourse on Islam—discourse made up of federal government policies, corporate media, and think tanks—that constructed what she calls the “Arab/Muslim/Middle Easterner” as an enemy of the state residing within the state. Attached to this constructed category are the physical or outward characteristics of name, skin color, dress, and nation of origin. Naber argues that the post 9/11 targeting of Muslims, manifested in government policies, media narratives, and interpersonal violence, is the result of not only—as Mamdani describes—the othering of Muslims from a cultural perspective. Instead, it is the “interplay between two racial logics: cultural racism and nation-based racism.”[^35] Cultural racism aligns with the ideas of Huntington and Lewis: it perceives a clash between cultures in which Muslim cultures are both unchanging and backwards and regressive. Naber quotes Minoo Moallem: “religion \[here\] was considered as a key determinant in the discourse of racial inferiority.”[^36] In other words, it is religion itself that makes Islamic culture inferior. On the other hand, nation-based racism is tied to the nation and its borders, physical and imaginary. Through the lens of nation-based racism, we can understand how those who fit into the “Muslim” category, both within and without the nation’s borders, have been treated as enemies of the nation and as threats to its security. Most immediate and long term consequences of the War on Terror were related to national security concerns—the US invasion of Iraq and the securitization of Muslim communities domestically are two examples. Although this enemy subject identity could most clearly be seen as attached to Muslim Arab immigrant men who were the targets of surveillance, detention, and deportation after 9/11, the category itself continues to have flexible boundaries and, in practice, it includes pro-Palestinian advocates, Arab Christians, Iranian Jews, Latinos, women, and more. To Muslims living in the West, or those who have witnessed or experienced Islamophobia firsthand, a question that may come to mind is: who, then, counts as “Muslim?” In the aftermath of 9/11 for example, many Sikh Americans were targeted by Islamophobic violence—as in the case of the 2012 mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.[^37] Arabs, or those perceived to be Arab, even if they are not Muslim, also face racial slurs and demands to “go back to your country.” In this way, the “potential terrorist” subject identity is arbitrary, and collapses multiple different identities within it. --- ## Islamophobia and race Outside of the recent history of the term Islamophobia, it is important to look at the historical roots of anti-Muslim sentiment and the construction of the Muslim identity as the “other,” which did not begin after 9/11, nor immediately before, nor even within the last few decades. When we do that, we can begin to deconstruct how the othering of Islam was also a mechanism of racial discrimination. In this final discussion on Islamophobia and race, we will look at the deeper historical roots of the phenomenon in order to understand how the Muslim is a figure that has been racialized through the expansion of empire. Junaid Rana, in his piece, “The Story of Islamophobia,” complicates the history of Islamophobia and its association to religious hatred, in order to place the concept within the history of race as well. “For many scholars in Europe, discrimination is defined in terms of xenophobia and prejudice, whereas scholars in the US have long argued for the importance of talking \[about\] race and racism.”[^38] The central question here is whether religious-based discrimination overlaps with race and how. In fact, many of the definitions and conversations around the term Islamophobia do not include race or racism, instead explaining it as a form of cultural prejudice. In the previous two sections, we defined Islamophobia in two dimensions: first, we discussed the dimension of cultural discrimination that includes religion within culture; then, we discussed the dimension of the creation of an enemy subject, which has to do with both the outward and the inward. Now, we will add the dimension of race. One obstacle to understanding the racialization of Muslims is the vast diversity of the Muslim community in nationality, language, ethnicity, culture, and dress. Because of this, Muslims cannot be grouped into one racial category against which racism is perpetuated. Muslims include Blacks, Arabs, Southeast Asians, Whites, and more, whereas traditionally race has been discussed as a Black/White binary. At the same time, policies that racially profile Muslims do so in a way that begs the question: what *does* make up the racial figure of the Muslim? And, how do we move from the Muslim as a religious figure to the Muslim as a racial figure? If we are considering only religion, a Muslim is one who practices the religion of Islam. But, when we take into consideration the element of power, the figure of the Muslim exists in multiple simultaneous dimensions. Traditional European notions of religion classify it as essential, bounded, and universal through time and space—that is, unchanging. Following that perspective, religion is separate from other systems and dynamics; it is confined to the spiritual. However, as Talal Asad argues in his essay *Genealogies of Religion*, when studying religion, we can understand it as being fluid and connected to what happens in the societies it functions in.[^39] So, because the concept of religion can and should be studied through specific historical frames that construct it, it can also be studied as historically tied to the concept of race. It is helpful to first expose the gap where religion can be interjected into the history of race. The concept of race as we know it today did not emerge “until the rise of Europe and the arrival of Europeans in the Americas… Even the hostility and suspicion with which Christian Europe viewed its non Christian others, the Muslims and Jews, was a rehearsal for racial formations, since these antagonisms were religiously interpreted.”[^40] Although the exclusion was similar to what we call racism today, race and religion were two separate categories at this point. The development of race as a category is tied to the expansion of the European imperial project. When the Europeans sailed to the New World, where they “discovered” indigenous peoples who not only worshiped differently, but looked and acted differently as well, they began to discuss what constituted “the family of man”—who belonged and who didn’t. Whoever was outside of this “family,” whose bounds were drawn by White Europeans, could be enslaved and used for economic gain. Interestingly, these notions of difference that European explorers relied on have their roots in religious discrimination against Muslims and Jews. When it came to Muslims, too, “the early sources of racism derived from imperial projects based in religious ideology. For European capitalism to expand, a religious other was created in the Islamic rivals of the Turks and Moors.”[^41] Anti-semitism can also be understood as an early form of racism. Howard Winant writes, > The Jews were the early ‘‘outsiders’’ of premodern Europe. In the Crusades Jews were as fiercely assaulted as Muslims and a series of expulsions drove the survivors from most of the later imperial powers as they were consolidated as nation-states (in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) and as imperial ambition dawned. The Inquisition founded in 1229, came by the sixteenth century to embody fairly racial anti-semitism with its renewal of persecutions against conversos or novos cristoes. Now it was no longer the Jew’s beliefs, but his or her essence, as depicted in the doctrine of limpieza de sangre, that was seen as unredeemable; thus even conversion was not acceptable: only expulsion or extirpation would generally suffice.[^42] To better understand this, we can study what happened with Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Even after conversion, the laws that determined the place of converts in society heavily emphasized the purity of blood. In Spain, “the notion of blood purity reinscribed a consciousness of *castas* in which a social hierarchy of status claimed a pure Hispanic genealogy as coveted above mixed or tainted heritage—often associated with color and physical description, but not exclusively, and clearly of religious difference.”[^43] When discussing the racialization of Islam and Muslims, it is imperative to spend time on the figure of the Black Muslim, who is at the intersection of generations of iterated racism based on both race and religion. On the one hand, as we will see, Islam clearly made its mark on Black identity. On the other hand, experiences of Blackness have also served to develop understandings of the socio-political reality of Islam and Muslims in America. Dr. Sherman Jackson, in an essay on “Islam, Muslims, and the wages of racial agnosia in America,” argues that the role of racism must actually be considered an element of society that should be factored into the *wāqiʿ*, or reality, of America. He criticizes those who argue, using traditional sources, that “Islam simply does not and cannot ‘do race’”[^44] and argues that, on the contrary, there is no way of understanding Islam in America effectively without race. Emerging from a context of imperialism that cast North African Muslims as the enemy other to White Christendom, the tropes of threatening Muslims were replicated by slave owners in the colonies, who saw Muslim slaves as representative of a larger civilizational battle. In fact, African Muslims were referred to as “Moors,” likening them to the Arab Muslim enemies of Europe. And because many enslaved African Muslims were literate, slave-owners especially feared them because of their ability to mobilize resistance among slaves. In fact, this *is* what happened: Muslim slaves led rebellions across the Americas. > The history of Muslim rebellion against enslavement in the Americas dates back to 1522, when enslaved Muslims of Wolof origin revolted in Santo Domingo, twelve years after the formal commencement of the transatlantic slave trade. Three centuries later, enslaved Muslims in Bahía, Brazil would organize an uprising that would become the last major slave rebellion in Brazilian history.[^45] The trajectory of racialization through Black Muslim identity continues. Fast forward to the early 1900s, Black Muslim identity continued to evolve through the teachings of Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Science Temple of America. Ali instructed his followers on the identification as “Moorish Americans” in an attempt to free them from American racism by attaching to an ethnic category which they already felt connected to through religion. Not only were they not able to escape racism, and still unable to penetrate the confines of American Whiteness, but the Moorish Science Temple was among the first targets of institutionalized profiling through surveillance by the FBI. Black Muslim identity continued to evolve and to weave together religion and race, as well as to receive the backlash of racial and religious profiling. Through the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad preached that Islam was at the core of Blackness. Malcolm X, too, connected his community’s experiences being Black with their experiences being Muslim. However, the racialized landscapes of the United States did not realize religion as a factor when it came to anti-Black racism. In fact, the Nation of Islam was heavily investigated as a part of the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), along with other Black organizing institutions like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other organizations deemed subversive. The layering of Blackness, Muslimness, and the anti-imperial project laid out by the Nation and its contemporaries, all combined in its characterization as a target. As Rana writes, “the context for the success of Islam in the African-American community… had much to do with economic displacement during the Great Migration and Great Depression, and the structural obstacles that prevented access to resources from organizations such as the Christian (read white) church and labor unions. For many in the Black community, Islam offered liberation from race through religious difference and the idea of multiracial egalitarianism.”[^46] --- ## Conclusion As the far-right increasingly occupies the halls of power across the Western world, there are many discussions on rising Islamophobia in the West, where it comes from, and how to stop it. My hope with this paper is to show that Islamophobia is both structural and interpersonal, that this cycle between the two dimensions, which has deep historical roots, has served to create an image of the Muslim as both a racial and religious enemy. The implications of this go far beyond the theoretical; as we have seen many times before, the consequences can be fatal.[^47] To understand Islamophobia through the lenses of Culture Talk, subjectification, and race is to also see these three discourses at work in the targeting of other groups in the current American context. The category of “Muslim” has been defined by power relations, and therefore over time has included the immigrant, the terrorist, the African American, the Latino, and many more. At the same time, the Latino is called a criminal, the African American a thug, and the immigrant dishonest and suspicious. These tropes, religious and racial, interact with one another to produce what we see, hear, read, and experience as Islamophobia. --- ## Notes [^1]: Jenna Johnson and Abigail Hauslohner, “‘I Think Islam Hates Us’: A Timeline of Trump’s Comments about Islam and Muslims,” Washington Post, May 20, 2017, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689529767&usg=AOvVaw1PXSKHFYxnK04xOO6I3rmj). [^2]: A term used to categorize beliefs and ideologies that hold White people as inherently superior to all other racial backgrounds. White supremacy can appear in both overt forms—such as hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi movements—and in more subtle or systemic ways, such as policies, institutions, or cultural norms that maintain racial inequality or privilege White individuals. [^3]: Booth Gunter and Ryan Lenz, “100 Days in Trump’s America,” Southern Poverty Law Center, April 27, 2017, [https://www.splcenter.org/20170427/100-days-trumps-america](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.splcenter.org/20170427/100-days-trumps-america&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689530489&usg=AOvVaw02sBWqhk0Pn1fFf0ln_Cw5). [^4]: Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, “Donald J. Trump (1st Term), Statement by Donald J. Trump Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration,” The American Presidency Project, December 7, 2015, [https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/314221](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/314221&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689557842&usg=AOvVaw1UwMqc2MCJ5tH1fVNuugUt); “User Clip: Trump's Muslim Ban,” C-SPAN, December 7, 2015, [https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2016/user-clip-trumps-muslim-ban/4737466](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2016/user-clip-trumps-muslim-ban/4737466&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689558219&usg=AOvVaw0fXkI79sq1-9FCiBQPubxh); Jessica Taylor, “Trump Calls For ‘Total And Complete Shutdown Of Muslims Entering’ U.S.,” *NPR*, December 7, 2015, [https://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458836388/trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-u-s](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458836388/trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-u-s&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689559054&usg=AOvVaw2FgPBLG2S5YyCgwiWjU0S2). [^5]: Anthony Zurcher,  “What the Trump Team Has Said About Islam,” February 7, 2017, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38886496](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38886496&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689531187&usg=AOvVaw1fhyxLF62r5D33WtVu5bfB). [^6]: Bush’s speech immediately following the attacks on September 11, 2001. See the full transcript: “‘Islam is Peace’ Says President,” The White House (President George W. Bush), September 17, 2001, [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689532277&usg=AOvVaw3GYHWmEt2D-1Wa-02U27i2). [^7]: Obama’s interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria during a state visit to India. See the full transcript: “PRES OBAMA on Fareed Zakaria GPS,” *CNN*, February 1, 2015, [https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/02/01/pres-obama-on-fareed-zakaria-gps-cnn-exclusive/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/02/01/pres-obama-on-fareed-zakaria-gps-cnn-exclusive/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689533266&usg=AOvVaw2GJF8GukzD6VX-SNFQiopr). [^8]: Mahmood Mamdani, *Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror* (Three Leaves Press, 2004). [^9]: Evelyn Alsultany, “Arabs and Muslims in the Media After 9/11: Representational Strategies for a ‘Post-Race’ Era,” *American Quarterly* 65, no. 1 (2013), 161–169. [^10]: One example is that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman who left Islam after 9/11. Hirsi Ali wrote many books including *Infidel: My Life*, in which she argues that Islam is inherently incompatible with freedom and democracy. Hirsi Ali has been invited to speak on many mainstream media outlets, and her “insider status” as a former Muslim woman lent credibility to her narrative that Islam is violent toward women. Hirsi Ali’s success points to the ways that corporate media has specifically used Muslim women to advance the image of the “good Muslim.” [^11]: “FULL TEXT: Khizr Khan’s Speech to the 2016 Democratic National Convention,” *ABC News*, August 1, 2016, [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/full-text-khizr-khans-speech-2016-democratic-national/story?id=41043609](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/full-text-khizr-khans-speech-2016-democratic-national/story?id%3D41043609&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689536294&usg=AOvVaw28XK3ythci7VqkxjD1xD8k). [^12]: Sally Howell, “(Re) Bounding Islamic Charitable Giving in the Terror Decade,” *UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law* 10 no. 1 (2011): 35–64. [^13]: “Terrorism Finance Laws Undermine American Muslims’ Religious Freedom, Says ACLU,” ACLU, June 16, 2009, [https://www.aclu.org/news/terrorism-finance-laws-undermine-american-muslims-religious-freedom-says-aclu](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aclu.org/news/terrorism-finance-laws-undermine-american-muslims-religious-freedom-says-aclu&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689537240&usg=AOvVaw3ExpWbgZgxLt3c02fd2fzh). [^14]: Howell, “(Re) Bounding Islamic Charitable Giving in the Terror Decade.” [^15]: Mamdani, *Good Muslim, Bad Muslim*. [^16]: Bernard Lewis, “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” *The Atlantic*, September 1990, [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1990/09/the-roots-of-muslim-rage/304643/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1990/09/the-roots-of-muslim-rage/304643/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689538650&usg=AOvVaw3rzuG-tHwHMThCdWr2gQK7). [^17]: Lewis, “The Roots of Muslim Rage.” [^18]: Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?,” *Foreign Affairs* 72, no. 3 (1993): 22–49. [^19]: Akan Malici, “The Green Scare: Islamophobia, Foreign Policy, and the Making of American Identity,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, June 23, 2020, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-green-scare-islamophobia-foreign-policy-and-the-making-of-american-identity](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-green-scare-islamophobia-foreign-policy-and-the-making-of-american-identity&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689549388&usg=AOvVaw12ViqWt4_hTqew7dbukp54). [^20]: Lewis,  “The Roots of Muslim Rage.” [^21]: “US Congressman makes fourth bid to declare the Brotherhood a terrorist group,” *Middle East Monitor*, November 5, 2021, [https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211105-us-congressman-makes-fourth-bid-to-declare-the-brotherhood-a-terror-group/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211105-us-congressman-makes-fourth-bid-to-declare-the-brotherhood-a-terror-group/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689550856&usg=AOvVaw2ORM6H_jqXr6OAdz8W1Q8N). [^22]: Engy Abdelkader, “Criminalizing the Muslim Brotherhood Helps Dictators and Hurts Americans,” *Huffington Post*, May 19, 2017, [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/criminalizing-the-muslim-brotherhood-helps-dictators-and-hurts-americans \_us\_58dbfe84e4b0cb23e65dc488](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/criminalizing-the-muslim-brotherhood-helps-dictators-and-hurts-americans&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689541396&usg=AOvVaw0RvjEwX9C0cR-o0n-ppZf2). [^23]: Siraj Wahab, “Trump set to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group,” *Arab News*, April 30, 2019, [https://www.arabnews.com/node/1490321/middle-east](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1490321/middle-east&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689539876&usg=AOvVaw0T-w6sVpI9enH6xcyp3VAW); Blake Hounshell and Nahal Toosi, “CIA Memo: Designating Muslim Brotherhood Could ‘Fuel Extremism’,” *POLITICO*, February 8, 2017, [https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/cia-memo-designating-muslim-brotherhood-could-fuel-extremism-214757/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/cia-memo-designating-muslim-brotherhood-could-fuel-extremism-214757/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689540555&usg=AOvVaw21LYqEIXL4HsT8pe9elb8c). [^24]: Leti Volpp, “The Citizen and the Terrorist,” *UCLA Law Review* 49 (2002). [^25]: Volpp, “The Citizen and the Terrorist.” [^26]: Aziz Huq, “Concerns with Mitchell D. Silber & Arvin Bhatt, N.Y. Police Department, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (August 2007),” Brennan Center for Justice, August 30, 2007, [https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Justice/Aziz%20Memo%20NYPD.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Justice/Aziz%2520Memo%2520NYPD.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689542541&usg=AOvVaw29v0TEf_KdqZZRFDa5q71g). [^27]: Sanya Mansoor, “Anti-Muslim hate in US rises since 7 October but advocates praise community resilience,” *Guardian*, October 3, 2024, [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/03/october-7-israel-gaza-islamophobia](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/03/october-7-israel-gaza-islamophobia&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689551528&usg=AOvVaw2myhTf1hyLx5UbbVlua4Di). [^28]: See: [Moustafa Bayoumi](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/moustafa-bayoumi&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689551832&usg=AOvVaw3lfUW3dh29VdiJUKIwyRPe), “Decades of spying and repression: the anti-Palestinian origins of American Islamophobia,” *Guardian*, May 23, 2024, [https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/may/23/islamophobia-us-palestine-history](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/may/23/islamophobia-us-palestine-history&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689552438&usg=AOvVaw1kl7e_l_53LlkUEeWtdz9k). [^29]: Said refers to Orientalism as a discourse. He writes, “ I have found it useful here to employ Foucault’s notion of a discourse, as described by him in *The Archaeology of Knowledge* and in *Discipline and Punish*, to identify Orientalism. My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage—and even produce—the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period.” (Edward W. Said, *Orientalism* (Pantheon Books, 1978).) [^30]: Volpp, “The Citizen and the Terrorist.” [^31]: Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation) (1970),” in *Cultural Theory: An Anthology*, edited by Imre Szeman and Timothy Kaposy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 204–222. [^32]: Frantz Fanon,  *Black Skin, White Masks* (Pluto, 2008). [^33]: Volpp, “The Citizen and the Terrorist.” [^34]: Faiza Patel and Meghan Koushik, “Countering Violent Extremism,” Brennan Center for Justice, March 16, 2017, [https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/countering-violent-extremism](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/countering-violent-extremism&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689545302&usg=AOvVaw2g5KuFmSrc5zbq7o-rUZBI). [^35]: Nadine Naber, “‘Look, Mohammed the Terrorist is Coming!’ Cultural Racism, Nation-Based Racism, and the Intersectionality of Oppressions after 9/11,” in *Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects*, edited by Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber (Syracuse University Press, 2007), 276–304. [^36]: Naber, “Look, Mohammed the Terrorist is Coming.” [^37]: “Gunman, six others dead at Wisconsin Sikh temple,” *CNN*, August 5, 2012, [https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/05/us/wisconsin-temple-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp\_t1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/05/us/wisconsin-temple-shooting/index.html?hpt%3Dhp_t1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689550060&usg=AOvVaw3wEmo5FiaRlMGTkGq2aY2U). [^38]: Junaid Rana, “The Story of Islamophobia,” *Souls* 9, no. 2 (2007): 148–161. [^39]: Talal Asad, *Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam* (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 53. [^40]: Rana, “The Story of Islamophobia.” [^41]: Rana, “The Story of Islamophobia.” [^42]: Howard Winant, T*he World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II* (Basic Books, 2002), 41. [^43]: Rana, “The Story of Islamophobia.” [^44]: Sherman Jackson, “Islam, Muslims, and the wages of racial agnosia in America,” *Journal of Islamic Law and Culture* 13, no. 1 (2011): 1–17. [^45]: Margarita Rosa, “Du’as of the Enslaved: The Malê Slave Rebellion in Bahía, Brazil,” Caribbean Muslims, February 4, 2018, [https://www.caribbeanmuslims.com/duas-of-the-enslaved-the-male-slave-rebellion-in-bahia-brazil](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.caribbeanmuslims.com/duas-of-the-enslaved-the-male-slave-rebellion-in-bahia-brazil&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689548367&usg=AOvVaw1_CQFXLC2RAWu9F940V-Uf). [^46]: Rana, “The Story of Islamophobia.” [^47]: Islamophobia has been explicitly linked to the killings of six Muslims in a mosque in Quebec City, Canada (2017), fifty-one Muslims in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand (2019), four members of a family in London, Canada (2021), a six-year-old boy in Chicago, US (2023), and a worshiper in a mosque in La Grand-Combe, France (2025), just to name a few incidents among many. See: Jonathan Montpetit, “Quebec City Mosque Shooting,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, April 25, 2019, [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-city-mosque-shooting](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-city-mosque-shooting&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689553966&usg=AOvVaw2c4elZT_ojYyIfYvAVOstl); “Executive Summary,” Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019, November 26, 2020, [https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/the-report/executive-summary-2/executive-summary](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/the-report/executive-summary-2/executive-summary&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689554482&usg=AOvVaw2ILiA08tTCK0hNOLwwYlm-); “Statement on the Third Anniversary of the London Family Attack,” Government of Canada, June 6, 2024, [https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/combatting-islamophobia-canada/media/statement-london-family-2024.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/combatting-islamophobia-canada/media/statement-london-family-2024.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689555186&usg=AOvVaw1wTdbCVZTBLcsvfNqSfvs9); Marlene Lenthang, Kailani Koenig, Samira Puskar, and Corky Siemaszko, “Suspect in death of 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was obsessed with Israel-Hamas war, prosecutors say,” *NBC News*, October 16, 2023, [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspect-wadea-al-fayoume-death-was-obsessed-israel-hamas-war-prosecuto-rcna120589](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspect-wadea-al-fayoume-death-was-obsessed-israel-hamas-war-prosecuto-rcna120589&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689555969&usg=AOvVaw3MLEuosTZ3LQ_Y9IvZnpEd); Angelique Chrisafis, “French Muslims decry religious hatred as mosque stabbing suspect arrested,” *Guardian*, April 28, 2025, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/28/french-muslims-religious-hatred-islamophobia-mosque-stabbing-suspect-arrested-italy](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/28/french-muslims-religious-hatred-islamophobia-mosque-stabbing-suspect-arrested-italy&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689556634&usg=AOvVaw2ByGGN5bdkGnt-IYrRr8Ho); Ségolène Le Stradic, “A Killing in a Mosque Puts France’s View of Muslims Under Scrutiny,” *New York Times*, April 29, 2025, [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/world/europe/france-mosque-killing.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/world/europe/france-mosque-killing.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1747781689557138&usg=AOvVaw31LitUaXeF8zCpVxUEWWp5). ## Summary **Understanding Islamophobia: Culture, Subjectification, and Race** In this age of rising hostility toward the believers in the lands of the West, a serious question has emerged concerning how such enmity ought to be named and understood. Some argue that because Islam is not a race, opposition to it cannot rightly be called racism; others hold that those who suffer this hostility include people of color merely perceived to be Muslim, and so it does fall within racism; still others claim that criticism of a religion is protected speech and cannot be deemed discrimination. Whatever the disagreement in terms, the harm is real and mounting: hate crimes against Muslims increase, hostile legislation is enacted, and media narratives continue to rely upon ancient falsehoods about Islam. The purpose here is to serve as an introduction to this term through three theoretical lenses proposed by scholars—Culture Talk, the subjectification of the Muslim, and race. These three are not mutually exclusive; rather, they operate simultaneously and reinforce one another. The first lens, drawn from Mahmood Mamdani's work "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim," is what he names "Culture Talk"—the assumption that every culture possesses a fixed essence that defines it, and that politics is then explained as a consequence of that essence. Applied to Islam, this discourse casts the essence of Islamic culture as violent and terroristic, so that acts of violence are treated not as isolated deeds but as expressions of a supposed core value within the religion itself. This narrative pervades political speech, state policy, and media. It appears in the words of powerful figures who divide the world's Muslims into two camps: the violent and the peaceful, the "bad" and the "good." Statements by George W. Bush ("Islam is peace"), Barack Obama (aligning with "the 99.9 percent of Muslims"), and officials in Donald Trump's administration all rest upon this binary, in which representatives of the Western nation-state position themselves as allies of the "good Muslims" against the "bad." Evelyn Alsultany identifies a related media phenomenon she calls "simplified complex representation," in which apparently sympathetic portrayals after the events of the eleventh of September nonetheless reinforce the association of Islam with terrorism, often by employing "native informants" who have abandoned the faith to condemn it. This binary is at times internalized by Muslims themselves. The example of Khizr Khan, who addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2016 after the death of his son Captain Humayun Khan in Iraq, is offered to illustrate the narrative of full assimilation and "giving back" to the nation. Sally Howell's study of Muslim charity shows that after the aforementioned attacks, faced with federal scrutiny—agents questioning donors about their giving, their imams, and their overseas connections—many American Muslims redirected their charity toward "safe" domestic causes, an effect described as "chilling." The intellectual roots of Culture Talk are traced to two writers: Bernard Lewis, whose 1990 essay "The Roots of Muslim Rage" framed a fourteen-century struggle between Islam and Christendom, and Samuel Huntington, whose 1993 "The Clash of Civilizations?" took this further, predicting future conflict along the fault lines separating major civilizations. Lewis, notably, allowed that "fundamentalism is not the only Islamic tradition," and, like later political voices, urged the West to support the "good" Muslims against the "bad." The second lens concerns the subjectification of the Muslim—the construction of the Muslim as an enemy figure residing within the nation. The repeated attempts by Senator Ted Cruz to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization illustrate three mechanisms: the linking of a foreign organization to American Muslims, the mutual reinforcement of public narrative and public policy, and the flexible boundaries of who counts as "Muslim." CAIR's Robert McCaw warned that such designations threaten "a new era of religious McCarthyism." Leti Volpp, writing shortly after the attacks, argued that Arabs and Muslims were racialized into the category of "terrorist" and removed from the category of "citizen." Over 1,200 non-citizens were detained on the basis of terrorism, though none were actually connected to it, with arrests driven, as the Migration Policy Institute reported, largely by ethnic and racial stereotypes. Programs such as Countering Violent Extremism recruit ordinary people to report "suspicious" behavior, where the listed indicators include growing a beard, wearing hijab, attending the mosque, reading scripture, and pro-Palestinian advocacy—thereby criminalizing the very being of a Muslim. Following the events of the seventh of October, 2023, CAIR recorded a 180 percent increase in complaints. Drawing on Edward Said's concept of Orientalism as a discourse that polarizes East and West, and on Louis Althusser's notion of "interpellation"—the "hailing" by which ideology transforms individuals into subjects—along with Frantz Fanon's account of racialization in *Black Skin, White Masks*, this section explains how the Muslim, once "called out" by state power, falls outside the bounds of "Americanness" and thereby loses the protections of citizenship. Nadine Naber, in "Look, Mohammed the Terrorist is Coming," argues that this targeting results from the interplay of two racial logics: cultural racism, which deems Islamic culture backward and inferior on account of religion itself, and nation-based racism, tied to the borders of the nation. This enemy identity, though most clearly attached to Muslim Arab immigrant men, has flexible boundaries encompassing Arab Christians, Iranian Jews, Sikhs—as in the 2012 Wisconsin temple shooting—Latinos, women, and others. The third lens situates Islamophobia within the history of race. Junaid Rana, in "The Story of Islamophobia," complicates the association of the term with mere religious hatred by placing it within the history of race and empire. A difficulty arises from the vast diversity of Muslims, who cannot be confined to one racial category. Yet, drawing on Talal Asad's argument in *Genealogies of Religion* that religion is fluid and historically situated rather than fixed, this discussion shows that religion can be studied as historically tied to race. The modern concept of race arose with the rise of Europe and the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, and its antecedents lay in the religiously interpreted hostility toward Muslims and Jews. For European capitalism to expand, a religious other was fashioned from the "Turks and Moors." Howard Winant's account of anti-Semitism, the Inquisition, and the doctrine of *limpieza de sangre* (purity of blood) shows how religious difference hardened into an inherited, racial essence that even conversion could not erase. Particular attention is given to the figure of the Black Muslim, standing at the intersection of racism based on both race and religion. Dr. Sherman Jackson, in his essay on "the wages of racial agnosia in America," argues against those who claim that "Islam simply does not and cannot 'do race,'" holding instead that race must be reckoned part of the *wāqiʿ*—the reality—of America. Enslaved African Muslims, called "Moors," were feared for their literacy and their capacity to mobilize resistance, and they led rebellions—from the Wolof revolt in Santo Domingo in 1522 to the uprising in Bahía, Brazil. Later, Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple, and afterward the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, wove together religion and race, offering, in Rana's words, "liberation from race through religious difference," while becoming among the earliest targets of institutionalized surveillance by the FBI, including through COINTELPRO. In conclusion, Islamophobia is shown to be both structural and interpersonal, a cycle with deep historical roots that has constructed the Muslim as both a racial and a religious enemy, with consequences that are at times fatal. The category of "Muslim," defined by relations of power, has over time absorbed the immigrant, the terrorist, the African American, and the Latino, while parallel tropes—the Latino as criminal, the African American as thug, the immigrant as dishonest—interact with one another to produce what is experienced as Islamophobia. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What exactly is Islamophobia—is it just prejudice against Muslims? Islamophobia is more than personal prejudice. It operates on two levels at once: the structural and the interpersonal. Structurally, it shows up in mosque surveillance, immigration policies that single out Muslims, and counterterrorism programs that treat ordinary religious practice as a warning sign. Interpersonally, it manifests as harassment, hate crimes, and the reflexive assumption that a Muslim is dangerous until proven otherwise. What makes Islamophobia distinct is that these two levels feed each other in a cycle. State policies generate and legitimize social bigotry; that bigotry, in turn, creates the political demand for draconian and racist policies. The result is a set of conditions in which simply being Muslim—visibly and publicly—is treated as a problem to be managed. ### How is Islamophobia racist if Islam is a religion and not a race? This is one of the most common objections against Islamophobia, and it misunderstands how racism actually works. The racialization of Muslims did not begin after September 11. During the expansion of European empires, perceived religious difference from Christianity was used to justify who could be enslaved, expelled, or conquered, and Muslims were a primary target of that logic. The Spanish Inquisition developed the doctrine of “blood purity” specifically to exclude Muslims and Jews even after they had converted—it was no longer about belief but about essence. Today, the boundaries of who gets targeted as “Muslim” remain flexible and arbitrary. Sikh Americans have been killed in anti-Muslim violence. Arab Christians face demands to “go back to your country.” ### Why does going to the masjid or being vocal about Palestine make Muslims feel like they’re being watched? That feeling has a concrete basis. Government counter-radicalization programs—particularly the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) framework—formally listed behaviors like growing a beard, wearing hijab, attending the mosque, and being politically outspoken as potential indicators of radicalization. Through community partnerships, the state trained teachers, social workers, and neighbors to treat these markers as warning signs worth reporting. In this way, ordinary Muslim religious and civic life was systematically recast as something requiring surveillance. The deeper issue is the gap between legal citizenship and social belonging. Having formal rights and legal status does not automatically grant the sense of full inclusion that makes those rights feel real. That gap is exactly what allows civil liberties violations against Muslim communities to persist—and why they have proven so difficult to challenge. ### Why are non-Muslims like Sikhs or Arab Christians also targeted by Islamophobia? Because the category of “Muslim” as it functions in Islamophobic targeting has never been theologically precise. It is constructed by power, and for that reason its boundaries shift. After 9/11, the identity that was criminalized was described as “Arab/Muslim/Middle Easterner,” attached to visible markers like name, skin tone, dress, accent, and national origin. This constructed category collapsed many distinct groups into one, including Arab Christians, Iranian Jews, Latinos, and South Asians. Sikh Americans were targeted and killed because they fit a visual profile that Islamophobia had produced. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-dont-muslims-condemn-terrorism-western-violence-and-scapegoating-in-an-age-of-islamophobia # “Why Don’t Muslims Condemn Terrorism?” Western Violence and Scapegoating in an Age of Islamophobia **Author:** Todd Green **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** March 19, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 When President Obama addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in February 2015, he did so in the midst of a new global crisis: the rise and spread of ISIS. News stories of ISIS beheading Western journalists and burning alive a Jordanian pilot, along with widespread calls to condemn this violence, loomed heavily over the event as Obama devoted considerable time in his prayer breakfast remarks to exposing and condemning the horrors of ISIS. But Obama was also sensitive to the possibility that ISIS’s crimes could fuel an anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. For this reason, Obama decided to take a two-sentence detour to remind his audience that violence in the name of religion was not something limited to Islam. > *And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.*[^1] Obama’s remarks drew swift condemnation from religious leaders, politicians, and journalists. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention labeled Obama’s comments “an unfortunate attempt at a wrongheaded moral comparison.”[^2] Jim Gilmore, the former governor of Virginia, called Obama’s comments “the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime.”[^3] Rick Santorum, a GOP presidential hopeful at the time, insisted that Obama’s remarks were “insulting to every person of faith,” while his fellow GOP contender, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, mockingly retorted that the “medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President.”[^4] On NBC’s *Meet the Press* the following Sunday, foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell rebuked Obama in no uncertain terms. “The week after a pilot is burned alive,” she said, “you don’t lean over backwards to be philosophical about the sins of the fathers.”[^5] What did Obama do that was so bad? He talked about the wrong kind of violence. He talked about white Christian violence. He talked about the sins of the fathers. He didn’t talk about this for long. He devoted a whopping twenty-four seconds to this topic in a twenty-four-minute speech. But it was clear that it was twenty-four seconds too many. Islam’s most vocal critics, from Bill Maher to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, believe the West is too afraid to criticize Islam and to talk candidly about Islam’s relationship with violence. That’s not true. It’s violence perpetrated by whites and white Christians that we cannot have a frank discussion about. But linking Islam and violence? That’s pretty much the only show in town. The Bush administration went to war linking Islam with violence, labeling the threat posed in the war on terror variously as “Islamic radicalism” and “Islamo-fascism” and infamously referring to the war as a “crusade.”[^6] Registration programs, detentions, deportations, extraordinary renditions, surveillance, profiling, Countering Violent Extremism initiatives, the Muslim ban, anti-sharia laws, and other government practices since 9/11 all assume violence is endemic to Islam and that Muslims must be treated as a suspect and securitized population that is predisposed to terrorism.[^7] Beyond state-sponsored policies, linking Islam with violence and terrorism seems to be the favorite pastime of journalists and politicians alike across the ideological spectrum. We see this at work most prominently when Muslims are asked (or otherwise commanded) to condemn terrorism. For example, Roger Cohen of the *New York Times* insists we will never be able to tackle the threat of terrorism “until moderate Muslims really speak out—really say, ‘This is not our religion.’”[^8] Sean Hannity of Fox News asks: “Will prominent Muslim leaders denounce and take on groups like ISIS, Hamas, and condemn and also fight against unthinkable acts of terrorism?”[^9] Cohen and Hannity represent left-leaning and right-leaning media outlets respectively, but they fundamentally agree that Muslims aren’t doing enough to repudiate terrorism. They have plenty of company among politicians. David Cameron, Scott Morrison, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, among others, have all called on Muslims publicly to say or do more to reject terrorism. Why don’t Muslims condemn terrorism? When are moderate Muslims going to speak out against terrorism? These questions are ubiquitous. They’re also racist. But they’re not going away anytime soon. And that’s because they serve a larger, more insidious purpose. That purpose is distraction. The eminent African American author, Toni Morrison, once said that “the function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction.”[^10] She was talking about anti-black racism in America, but her insights can be applied to anti-Muslim racism as well because, fundamentally, that’s what Islamophobia is—racism. Asking Muslims to condemn terrorism is a distraction that prevents us from facing our violent histories and from coming to terms with our ongoing complicity in a violent world order. And for the purpose of this essay, when I use language such as “we,” “our,” and “us,” I primarily mean whites and white Christians. “We” are the ones who, by and large, have failed to recognize the utter hypocrisy involved in asking Muslims to condemn terrorism while doing so little to come to terms with our own violent legacy. It’s telling that in the United States, white Americans have little difficulty publicly commemorating horrific violence, particularly if we see ourselves as victims of this violence. But if we see ourselves as the perpetrators of unjust violence, of violence targeting civilians, the innocent, or marginalized populations, we often go out of our way to sanitize the historical record or to erase this violence altogether from our collective memories. We go to great lengths to remember 9/11. We have built monuments and memorials from coast to coast to remember this violence. The massive 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City was erected to commemorate that horrific day of violence. Mantras of “Never Forget” have penetrated every corner of the country and have been plastered on billboards, bumper stickers, and buildings so that we, in fact, “never forget” that the United States was attacked by Muslim extremists on that horrific day. But white violence? Or white Christian violence? Particularly if it’s violence that has targeted civilians or marginalized peoples? We don’t typically construct memorials or conjure up mottos for this kind of violence. This is violence we work hard at forgetting. And we use Muslims to help us do this, with plenty of help from the mainstream media and its obsession with framing Islam as violent. Studies indicate that the media overwhelmingly depict Islam in the context of violence and terrorism. In one 2017 study, researchers discovered that while Muslim extremists committed 12.4 percent of terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015, those attacks were four and a half times more likely to receive media coverage than attacks by non-Muslims.[^11] Another study from 2015 revealed that the *New York Times* depicts Islam more negatively than alcohol, cancer, and cocaine, with many stories about Islam focusing on terrorism or extremism.[^12] Along with the persistently negative media coverage comes explicit efforts by journalists to create an organic link between the horrors of ISIS and Islam. The most notable instance of this is Graeme Wood’s highly cited article in *The Atlantic* from 2015 titled “What ISIS Really Wants.” Wood argued that “the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic.”[^13] The implication was that the horrors of ISIS derive not primarily from political and social conditions, despite the general consensus of the scholarship on terrorism, but from something hardwired into the ideological DNA of Islam itself. By extension, this means that the worst violence perpetrated by ISIS—slavery, torture, genocide—is something that all Muslims must explain because all Muslims are presumed guilty of harboring violent inclinations due to their connection to Islam. All Muslims, therefore, are kept on the defensive, distracted by questions and accusations about their supposed complicity with terrorism. But it’s not only Muslims who are distracted. We are distracted as well. As long as Muslims are on the defensive, we need not consider that the horrors of ISIS—slavery, torture, genocide—characterize our history too. These three examples, among others, each constitute a chapter in the history of Western violence. It’s just that we don’t want to remember this history, nor do we want to consider the possibility that unjust violence continues to play a role in how Western nations engage with civilian and marginalized populations within and beyond our borders. We are the ones who don’t want to remember that chattel slavery, with its utter brutality and subjugation of Africans based on assumptions of racial inferiority, forged modern America’s racial divide, a divide that continues to manifest itself in the killing of unarmed black men by law enforcement and in the system of mass incarceration. Slavery also paved the way for America to become a global economic power. Modern American capitalism was built on the backs of slaves, including Muslim slaves.[^14] The racism and violence that permeated slavery translated into other forms of racial terrorism and white supremacist violence after slavery, from lynchings to Jim Crow. We are the ones who don’t want to remember the prominent role played by torture in our history. I’m not just talking the Crusades, the Inquisition, or the witch trials of the pre-modern era. I’m talking about modern history. I’m talking about the Nazis and their use of attack dogs, whippings, electrocutions, and water torture, not to mention their “scientific” experimentation on living human subjects. I’m talking about torture in the French empire from Vietnam to Madagascar to Algeria. Paul Aussaresses, the French military officer who oversaw much of the torture used against the Algerian National Liberation Front during the Algerian War (1954–1962), said years later: “Only rarely were the prisoners we questioned during the night still alive the next morning.”[^15] I’m talking about torture in the British empire from Malaysia to Kenya. In the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya (1952–1960), the British employed the widespread use of torture in detention camps as a means of suppressing colonial rebellions, relying on beatings, castration, rape, and forced labor to subdue dissidents.[^16] I’m talking about the US-sponsored Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War that targeted and tortured civilians to expose supposed Vietcong sympathies. The program possibly killed as many as forty thousand people, most of them innocent of the accusations leveled against them.[^17] I’m talking about US-sponsored torture regimes and dictatorships in Latin America, with many of Latin America’s top military dictators and officers trained in the art of torture at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.[^18] I’m talking about torture in Abu Ghraib and at CIA black sites, the details of which have emerged more clearly in recent years. The types of torture victims were subjected to in these sites include sleep and sensory deprivation, ice water “baths,” forced rectal feeding, rape, mock executions, and waterboarding.[^19] Donald Rumsfeld once dismissively referred to some of this torture as the actions of a “few bad apples,” while years later, President Obama proclaimed that torture ran contrary to American values.[^20] Both Rumsfeld and Obama were wrong. Torture has been a widespread and systemic practice used by the United States in the name of the war on terror. In this sense, it’s very much reflective of our values. Much of this torture would not have been possible without the complicity of US allies, including the assistance provided by European countries in the extraordinary renditions of terrorist suspects. And we are the ones who don’t want to remember that genocide occupies a central place in Western history. This includes the Holocaust in mid-twentieth-century Europe in which millions of Jews, among others, were deported, starved, tortured, gassed, and exterminated. But this also includes genocide in North America, particularly efforts to annihilate the continent’s indigenous populations. When Christopher Columbus first “discovered” America, the indigenous population numbered in the millions, with perhaps as many as 16 million living on the continent. By 1900, around 237,000 native peoples remained according to the census.[^21] Some of this decline was the result of deliberate efforts to cleanse the land of indigenous peoples, as seen in battles such as the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and in the systematic decimation of the Yuki of northern California in the late nineteenth century.[^22] In all of this, we don’t want to remember that white Christians were central actors. White Christians justified chattel slavery by invoking biblical texts and themes, from the “Curse of Ham” story in the Old Testament (Genesis 9:25) to the New Testament command for slaves “to obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling” (Ephesians 6:5). White Christians developed and enforced the slave codes and the systemic violence that kept slaves “in line.” White Christians led the lynch mobs that beat, maimed, and killed over 4,000 African Americans between 1877 and 1950.[^23] White Christians fought to maintain Jim Crow segregation and to use violence if necessary to resist the nonviolent direct action of civil rights activists. It was white moderate Christians that Martin Luther King took to task in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” for standing by and mouthing “pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities” as African Americans suffered grave injustices and violence in their struggle for racial equality.[^24] White Christians tortured Jews and Muslims, political opponents and prisoners, from the Middle Ages onward. White Christian support for torture persists to this day. In 2014, a *Washington Post* poll indicated that 66 percent of white Catholics, 69 percent of white evangelicals, and 75 percent of white mainline Protestants found CIA “enhanced interrogation techniques” justifiable.[^25] White Christians in colonial America prayed to God that “our Israel” would prevail “over the cursed Amalek.”[^26] This is a reference to the Old Testament story from 1 Samuel 15 in which God commands King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites—women, men, and children. Puritan Christians had little difficulty conceiving of themselves as establishing the new Israel with a divine mandate to cleanse the new promised land of its indigenous populations (the new Amalekites). White Christians invoked Manifest Destiny to justify their campaign “to Christianize and civilize, to command and to be obeyed, to conquer and to reign” over indigenous populations and to “hunt the red devils to their holes and bury them.”[^27] White Christians pursued cultural genocide by using Christian missionary schools to “civilize” indigenous population according to white, Christian standards.[^28] White Christians in the form of the Deutsche Christen joined forces with the Nazis in Germany and provided the theological foundations that justified a genocidal state.[^29] They did this by drawing on German Christianity’s anti-Jewish heritage, including Martin Luther’s infamous treatise “On the Jews and Their Lies.”[^30] Of course, this is not all that white Christians did. They also fought for abolition, marched on Selma, protested CIA torture, and resisted Nazi cooptation. But one cannot tell the full story of the violent episodes discussed here apart from the role played by white Christians. What’s tragic is that this is a history we have worked so hard to whitewash or otherwise forget. After all, where is the equivalent of the 9/11 Memorial Museum for the genocide of indigenous populations? Where can I go inside the 9/11 Memorial Museum to visit the exhibit on CIA torture? Where are the bumper stickers and billboards in white Christian America commanding us to “never forget” slavery and lynchings? \-  -  -  -  - Relentlessly asking Muslims to condemn terrorism is a distraction. It forces Muslims to explain themselves, to prove their innocence, to defend their humanity. Yet the rest of us remained unconvinced by their efforts. So we keep asking the same questions. Over and over. But asking Muslims to condemn terrorism distracts us too. It keeps us from facing our own violent history and from recognizing that Western nations rose to prominence and power due to heinous, brutal violence. It keeps us from asking critical questions about how our current national security initiatives and foreign policies help to justify a violent world order, one that still bears the imprint of white supremacy and Western hegemony. It keeps us from using the word “terrorist” to describe violent people who look like me, share my cultural or religious background, or serve in my government. When we are this distracted, we remain blind to the utter hypocrisy involved in demanding Muslims reject the kinds of violence that we are seldom, if ever, asked to reject, much less atone for. In the end, Muslims don’t owe me, or people like me, or the United States government, or the political and media elite of Western nations any explanations, any defenses, when it comes to Islam and violence. None. It’s we who need to explain ourselves to Muslims and to make amends for what we have said and done to Muslims in the name of national security, in the name of the war on terror, and in the name of empire. It’s we who need to tell truths about our own history of violence and to face up to “the sins of the fathers”—and the sins of their children for that matter. It’s we who need to end the distractions and to focus our efforts on dismantling the military industrial complex, the war machine, and the regimes of torture that we have helped to create and that have fueled the conditions that breed so much violence and terrorism. It’s we who need to find the courage to see Muslims not as our adversaries but as our allies and our fellow architects in the effort to tear down an old world order built on exploitation and greed, destruction and death, and to rebuild a new world order, one that reflects the best principles of both Islam and Christianity—justice, mercy, compassion, and peace. --- ## Notes [^1]: “Remarks by the President at the National Prayer Breakfast,” The White House, February 5, 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/ycn32e29](https://tinyurl.com/ycn32e29). [^2]: Juliet Eilperin, “Critics pounce after Obama talks Crusades, slavery at prayer breakfast,” *Washington Post*, February 5, 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/yb4zdy4e](https://tinyurl.com/yb4zdy4e). [^3]: James Fallows, “The ‘Most Offensive’ Comments a President Has Ever Made,” *The Atlantic*, February 6, 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/y74xp6my](https://tinyurl.com/y74xp6my). [^4]: Alexandra Jaffe, “Obama takes fire for Crusades comparison,” CNN, February 7, 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/yc3vumgf](https://tinyurl.com/yc3vumgf). [^5]: “Meet the Press Transcript – February 8, 2015,” NBC News, March 18, 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/y9bbzobd](https://tinyurl.com/y9bbzobd). [^6]: George W. Bush, “President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy,” The White House, October 6, 2005, [https://tinyurl.com/y7rzsb6w](https://tinyurl.com/y7rzsb6w). [^7]: Arun Kundnani, *The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror* (London: Verso, 2014); Todd H. Green, *The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West* (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 267–76, 279–84, 286–87, 299–302; “Anti-Sharia Law Bills in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, [https://tinyurl.com/yctqv2h6](https://tinyurl.com/yctqv2h6). [^8]: “NYT Columnist: Moderate Muslims Held Responsible Too,” video, 1:55, CNN, January 9, 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/y7upgaa5](https://tinyurl.com/y7upgaa5). [^9]: Ellie Sandmeyer and Michelle Leung, “Muslim Leaders Have Roundly Denounced Islamic State, but Conservative Media Won’t Tell You That,” Media Matters for America, August 21, 2014, [https://tinyurl.com/y7zygmep](https://tinyurl.com/y7zygmep). [^10]: Cited in T. Elon Dancy II, “The Black Male Body and the (Post?)Colonial University: Identity Politics and the Tyranny of Meritocracy,” in *Black Men in the Academy: Narratives of Resiliency, Achievement, and Success*, ed. Brian L. McGowan, Robert T. Palmer, J. Luke Wood, and David F. Hibbler Jr. (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 165. [^11]: Erin Kearns, Allison Betus, and Anthony Lemieux, “Yes, the media do underreport some terrorist attacks. Just not the ones most people think of,” *Washington Post*, March 13, 2017, [https://tinyurl.com/ycdswbq7](https://tinyurl.com/ycdswbq7). [^12]: Dorgham Abusalim, “Study: ‘NYT’ portrays Islam more negatively than alcohol, cancer, and cocaine,” *Mondoweiss*, March 5, 2016, [https://tinyurl.com/ybxjk35y](https://tinyurl.com/ybxjk35y). [^13]: Graeme Wood, “What ISIS Really Wants,” *The Atlantic*, March 2015, [https://tinyurl.com/mb5os8d](https://tinyurl.com/mb5os8d). [^14]: Edward E. Baptist, *The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism* (New York: Basic Books, 2014); Sven Beckert, *Empire of Cotton: A Global History* (New York: Vintage, 2014); Greg Grandin, *The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World* (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2014). [^15]: Cited in Bruce Hoffman, *Inside Terrorism* (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 60; see also Alistair Horne, *A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962* (New York: New York Review Books Classics, 2006). [^16]: David Anderson, *Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire* (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005); Caroline Elkins, *Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya* (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005). [^17]: Seymour M. Hersh, “Moving Targets: Will the Counter-Insurgency Plan in Iraq Repeat the Mistakes of Vietnam?,” *The New Yorker*, December 15, 2003, [https://tinyurl.com/y6wtof3q](https://tinyurl.com/y6wtof3q); Michael Otterman, *American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond* (London: Pluto, 2007), 71. [^18]: Lesley Gill, *The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas* (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004). [^19]: For the full report on US-sponsored torture in the war on terror, see Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program*, December 3, 2014, [https://tinyurl.com/hltk455](https://tinyurl.com/hltk455). [^20]: Ed Pilkington, “Senators accuse Rumsfeld over abuse of detainees,” *Guardian* (UK), December 11, 2008, [https://tinyurl.com/ychmtfgs](https://tinyurl.com/ychmtfgs); Barack Obama, “Statement by the President Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,” The White House, December 9, 2014, [https://tinyurl.com/yajx9uo5](https://tinyurl.com/yajx9uo5). [^21]: Chris Mato Nunpa, “A Sweet-Smelling Sacrifice: Genocide, the Bible, and the Indigenous Peoples of the United States, Selected Examples,” in *Confronting Genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam*, ed. Steven Leonard Jacob*s* (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2009), 61. [^22]: Adam Jones, *Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction* (New York: Routledge, 2006), 73–75; Benjamin Madley, *An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873* (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016). [^23]: “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” Equal Justice Initiative, accessed December 28, 2018, [https://tinyurl.com/yck9x3d8](https://tinyurl.com/yck9x3d8). [^24]: Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” African Studies Center – University of Pennsylvania, April 16, 1963, [https://tinyurl.com/y9xqb2xn](https://tinyurl.com/y9xqb2xn). [^25]: Sarah Posner, “Christians more supportive of torture than non-religious Americans,” *Religion Dispatches*, December 16, 2014, [https://tinyurl.com/m3nybrf](https://tinyurl.com/m3nybrf). [^26]: John Corrigan, “New Israel, New Amalek: Biblical Exhortations to Religious Violence,” in *From Jeremiad to Jihad: Religion, Violence, and America*, ed. John D. Carlson and Jonathan H. Ebel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 114. [^27]: Brendan C. Lindsay, *Murder State: California’s Native American Genocide*, *1846–1873* (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), 67). [^28]: George E. Tinker, *Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide* (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993). [^29]: Robert P. Ericksen, *Complicity in the Holocaust: Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Doris L. Bergen, *Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich* (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996); Susannah Heschel, *The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010). [^30]: Martin Luther, “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies,” in *The Protestant Reformation*, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (New York: Harper Perennial, 2009), 137–49. ## Summary The persistent demand that Muslims publicly condemn terrorism, though presented as a reasonable expectation, functions in truth as a distraction. It compels Muslims to defend themselves, to prove their innocence, and to justify their very presence, while those who make such demands remain unwilling to examine their own histories of violence. This demand is not confined to one political faction; it issues from figures across the ideological spectrum, from Roger Cohen of the *New York Times*, who insists that moderate Muslims must declare "This is not our religion," to Sean Hannity of Fox News, who asks whether Muslim leaders will denounce groups such as ISIS and Hamas. Political leaders including David Cameron, Scott Morrison, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have likewise called upon Muslims to do more to reject terrorism. Such questions, though endlessly repeated, serve an insidious purpose: they distract from a violent legacy that the questioners themselves refuse to confront. A revealing episode illustrates the double standard at work. When President Obama addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in February 2015, amid the rise of ISIS and its atrocities—the beheading of journalists and the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot—he devoted a mere twenty-four seconds of a twenty-four-minute speech to reminding his audience that violence in the name of religion is not unique to Islam. He mentioned the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the justification of slavery and Jim Crow "in the name of Christ." For this brief acknowledgment, he was condemned by religious leaders, politicians, and journalists alike. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention called it "an unfortunate attempt at a wrongheaded moral comparison"; former Governor Jim Gilmore deemed it "the most offensive" remark he had heard a president make; Rick Santorum called it "insulting to every person of faith"; and Andrea Mitchell of NBC rebuked him for leaning "over backwards to be philosophical about the sins of the fathers." The offense, it becomes clear, was that Obama spoke of white Christian violence—the very kind of violence that cannot be openly discussed. Contrary to the claims of Islam's most vocal critics, such as Bill Maher and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, that the West is too frightened to criticize Islam, the reality is the reverse: linking Islam with violence is virtually the only permissible discourse. The Bush administration prosecuted the war on terror by tying Islam to violence, employing terms like "Islamic radicalism," "Islamo-fascism," and even "crusade." A cascade of policies since 9/11—registration programs, detentions, deportations, extraordinary renditions, surveillance, profiling, Countering Violent Extremism initiatives, the Muslim ban, and anti-sharia laws—all proceed from the assumption that violence is endemic to Islam and that Muslims form a suspect population predisposed to terrorism. Drawing upon the words of Toni Morrison, who observed that "the function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction," this understanding can be extended to anti-Muslim racism, for Islamophobia is fundamentally a form of racism. Demanding that Muslims condemn terrorism keeps them perpetually on the defensive while shielding others—principally white Christians—from reckoning with their own complicity in a violent world order. It is telling that white Americans readily commemorate violence in which they are the victims, as seen in the elaborate 9/11 Memorial Museum and the ubiquitous mantra "Never Forget," yet work to sanitize or erase from collective memory the violence they have perpetrated against civilians and marginalized peoples. The media reinforce this distortion. A 2017 study found that although Muslim extremists committed only 12.4 percent of terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015, those attacks were four and a half times more likely to receive coverage than attacks by non-Muslims. A 2015 study revealed that the *New York Times* portrayed Islam more negatively than alcohol, cancer, and cocaine. Journalists have further sought to forge an organic link between ISIS and Islam itself, most notably in Graeme Wood's widely cited 2015 article in *The Atlantic*, "What ISIS Really Wants," which argued that "the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic." The implication—contrary to the general consensus of scholarship on terrorism, which points to political and social conditions—was that ISIS's horrors are hardwired into the ideological DNA of Islam, rendering all Muslims presumptively guilty and permanently on the defensive. Yet the very atrocities attributed to ISIS—slavery, torture, and genocide—each form a chapter in the history of Western violence, a history deliberately forgotten. Chattel slavery, with its brutal subjugation of Africans, including Muslim slaves, forged America's racial divide and built its economic power, giving rise to lynchings and Jim Crow. Torture pervades modern Western history: the Nazis' use of dogs, whippings, electrocutions, and human experimentation; French torture in Vietnam, Madagascar, and Algeria, where Paul Aussaresses admitted that prisoners questioned at night were "rarely still alive the next morning"; British torture in the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, employing beatings, castration, rape, and forced labor; the US-sponsored Phoenix Program in Vietnam, which may have killed as many as forty thousand; US-backed torture regimes in Latin America trained at the School of the Americas; and the torture at Abu Ghraib and CIA black sites, including sleep deprivation, ice water baths, rectal feeding, rape, mock executions, and waterboarding. Though Donald Rumsfeld dismissed such acts as those of a "few bad apples" and Obama declared torture contrary to American values, both were mistaken, for torture has been systemic. Genocide, too, occupies a central place, from the Holocaust to the destruction of North America's indigenous populations, whose numbers fell from perhaps sixteen million to some 237,000 by 1900, through events such as the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the decimation of the Yuki of northern California. White Christians were central actors in these horrors. They justified slavery by invoking Scripture, from the "Curse of Ham" (Genesis 9:25) to the command that slaves "obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling" (Ephesians 6:5); they enforced the slave codes and led lynch mobs that killed over four thousand African Americans between 1877 and 1950; they defended Jim Crow, drawing the rebuke of Martin Luther King in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" against those who mouthed "pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities." A 2014 *Washington Post* poll found that 66 percent of white Catholics, 69 percent of white evangelicals, and 75 percent of white mainline Protestants deemed CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques" justifiable. Colonial Puritans imagined themselves as a new Israel cleansing the promised land of "the cursed Amalek," referencing God's command to King Saul in 1 Samuel 15; they invoked Manifest Destiny to conquer and "hunt the red devils to their holes"; and the Deutsche Christen provided theological foundations for the Nazi state, drawing upon Martin Luther's treatise "On the Jews and Their Lies." Yet white Christians also fought for abolition, marched on Selma, protested CIA torture, and resisted Nazi cooptation—the full story cannot be told without them, on both sides. The tragedy is that this history has been whitewashed. There exists no equivalent memorial for the genocide of indigenous peoples, no exhibit on CIA torture within the 9/11 Memorial Museum, no billboards commanding remembrance of slavery and lynchings. Therefore, Muslims owe no explanation, no defense, when it comes to Islam and violence. Rather, it is those who make such demands who must explain themselves to Muslims, make amends for what has been done in the name of national security, the war on terror, and empire, and face up to "the sins of the fathers." The task ahead is to end the distraction, to dismantle the war machine and the regimes of torture that breed violence, and to see Muslims not as adversaries but as allies in building a new world order reflecting the best principles of both Islam and Christianity—justice, mercy, compassion, and peace. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-far-rights-love-affair-with-islamophobia # The Far-Right’s Love Affair with Islamophobia **Author:** Dr. Naved Bakali **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Unpacking the Effects of Islamophobia **Published:** March 18, 2019 **Updated:** September 1, 2026 ## Abstract Anti-Muslim racism is increasingly becoming a prominent feature of far-right extremist groups and political figures across Europe and North America. This article examines the growth of Islamophobic discourse and actions among far-right political figures and street protest movements in Europe, focusing on the UK, France, and the Netherlands, as well as in North America, particularly Canada and the US. This paper will demonstrate that anti-Muslim racism, over other forms of racism, is increasingly defining the policies of these political elites, and occupies the foremost area of concern for these protest movements. This form of ‘Othering’ through racial and political posturing can have potentially devastating implications for Muslims living in Western nations and can result in such things as targeted legislation, hate crimes, and social marginalization. --- ## Introduction[^1] Anti-Muslim bias and hatred date back to the inception of the Islamic faith in the Arabian Peninsula. When Islam was confined to the city of Makkah, it was opposed by the ruling elite, the Quraysh. As Islam expanded beyond the borders of Makkah, it was opposed by a number of tribes within Madinah and beyond. When Islam grew into an imperial superpower, it was confronted by European Christendom, among other rival empires. Throughout the period of colonialism and thereafter, the Orientalist gaze became prominent in the works of European academics, chroniclers, writers, and artists,[^2] and arguably continues to persist through variant manifestations.[^3] Much of the anti-Muslim racism and bias in the present context has been referred to by some as Islamophobia. According to Allen Islamophobia is an > *ideology similar in theory, function and purpose to racism and other similar phenomena, that sustains and perpetuates negatively evaluated meaning about Muslims and Islam in the contemporary setting in similar ways to that which it has historically…that inform and construct thinking about Muslims and Islam as Other. Neither restricted to explicit nor direct relationships of power and domination but instead, and possibly even more importantly, in the less explicit and everyday relationships of power that we contemporarily encounter, identified both in that which is real and that which is clearly not.*[^4] This type of ‘Othering’ of Muslims has increasingly become a focal point of far-right extremist movements in Europe and North America. This paper discusses how these extremist groups have become increasingly vocal against Islam. In many cases, they have defined themselves exclusively in opposition to Islam and Muslims. This paper examines the growth of Islamophobic rhetoric and actions among far-right political figures and street protest movements in Europe, focusing on the UK, France, and the Netherlands, as well as North America, particularly Canada and the US. This paper will demonstrate that anti-Muslim racism, over other forms of racism, is increasingly defining the policies of these political elites, as well as occupying the foremost area of trepidation for these protest movements. That is not to say that anti-Muslim racism has become the sole concern of the far right, but rather that it is increasingly becoming a focal point for these individuals and groups. Islamophobic attitudes exist across the political spectrum; however, far-right manifestations of Islamophobia have become more overt, emboldened, and popularized through political rhetoric. As anti-Muslim discrimination is a growing phenomenon in European and North American societies,[^5] these far-right anti-Muslim movements and political figures develop a broader appeal, thus further legitimizing anti-Muslim racism in the public discourse, while seemingly normalizing far-right protest movements and anti-Muslim bigotry in the political sphere. The terms anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia are used synonymously in this paper. Some may argue that the term anti-Muslim racism is preferable, to avoid shielding ‘Islam’ from direct criticism. However, in the current climate, racist treatment towards Muslims is rarely separated from attacks on Islam. In other words, Muslims have become targets because they identify with Islam.[^6] As such, these terms are used interchangeably in this paper. ### Far-right Extremist Views in the West Far-right political parties in European and North American societies are not a new phenomenon. As Golder notes, far-right parties have formed coalition governments in Finland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, as well as other European nations. However, the surge of popularity of far-right views, particularly within Western politics, over the past decade has brought about some cause for concern.[^7] According to Golder, the fastest growing party family in Europe is the far-right party family. In other words, far-right political parties are the fastest growing type of political affiliation in Europe. A similar trend is seen in the North American context with conservative and far-right politicians gaining prominence in Canada and the US. Far-right ideologies, particularly in the realm of politics, have increasingly been defined along the lines of radicalism, extremism, populism, and nationalism. These terms are contested and have been defined in various ways across the Global North. For the purposes of this paper, ‘radical’ refers to views that are anti-establishment, or challenging to the ‘system.’ ‘Extremist’ views are those that oppose democratic processes altogether.[^8] The notion of ‘populism’ asserts that society is divided into two camps, the ‘pure people’ and ‘the corrupt elite.’[^9] Here, the ‘pure people’ are an imagined group[^10] that possess characteristics and qualities that represent the masses, whereas the ‘corrupt elite’ include establishment political figures, media personalities, and intellectuals, who celebrate liberal values, internationalism, and multiculturalism. Furthermore, populism can be exclusionary, marginalizing cultural, religious, and ethnic minorities,[^11] as these groups do not possess the imagined qualities of the ‘people.’ ‘Nationalism’ is a term in politics that denotes a strong relationship between the state and nation.[^12] Nationalism can manifest in various forms. For example, civic nationalism, though manifesting differently in various contexts, generally promotes the idea of a homogeneous state in which people choose to be citizens through accepting common values and cultural practices. In contrast, ethnic nationalism asserts that one’s belongingness to a nation is dependent upon one’s ethnic origins and is therefore exclusionary in nature. ### The growth of far-right ideologies in Europe and North America For the sake of brevity, I have limited my discussion of far-right movements in Europe to the UK, France, and the Netherlands. That is not to say that other European nations have not also seen a growth of far-right anti-Muslim movements. Far-right movements have also become increasingly popular in Germany, Finland, Norway, Greece, Switzerland, and other nations.[^13] Furthermore, Todd Green notes that extreme right-wing Islamophobic parties constitute the second- or third-largest parties in the parliaments of Norway and Denmark and have the largest representation in the Swiss parliament.[^14] When examining the growth of far-right views in Europe, it is clear that it was through far-right anti-Muslim rhetoric that Brexit was promoted in the UK. **UK.** The UK referendum to leave the European Union (EU), commonly referred to as ‘Brexit,’ was predominantly supported by far-right groups and politicians, and garnered almost fifty-two percent support amongst the UK population. It is important to note that Brexit was not solely caused by far-right groups and politicians. Rather, Brexit was symptomatic of racist attitudes already existent in British society that have been spurred on by both liberal and right-wing political figures. Political actors across the spectrum have for years promoted policies that facilitated “manufacturing the social and political conditions for this momentous decision. While Brexit added an accelerant on those conditions and allowed racism to flourish, it did not create them.”[^15] Brexit simply brought to light the racist and anti-Muslim attitudes that had been festering in the British public consciousness for decades. The overtly racist rhetoric employed by far-right political figures and activists served to galvanize the movement to leave the EU. One of the most prominent images employed in the campaign to leave the EU was a poster featuring swathes of refugees, seemingly lined up at the gates of the UK borders. With implicit reference to the refugee crisis stemming from the ongoing war in Syria and Iraq, these concerns were clearly targeted towards fears of an influx of the Muslim ‘Other.’ In bright red letters, the poster stated ‘BREAKING POINT,’ suggesting that these dark-skinned ‘Others’ were poised to invade the UK, catalyzing the erosion of the white English majoritarian culture. The poster’s subheadings suggested that this perceived tidal wave of refugees was brought on by the failings of the EU and that the only way to regain control of the borders would be through Brexit. Though these claims were fictitious and unsubstantiated, they drew heavily from the type of rhetoric commonly employed by far-right groups in the UK, particularly those of the English Defence League (EDL), promoting the notion that English culture and identity was under attack by an antithetical Muslim ‘Other.’ The EDL was formed in 2009 in response to protests against British soldiers returning from Afghanistan that were organized by the British-based radical Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun.[^16] The EDL is an Islamophobic street protest movement aimed at preserving UK identity and culture. It is one of the more extreme far-right movements in the UK. Finding popular support among a number of football hooligans, the EDL has increasingly gained mainstream credibility, despite its outlandish claims that Islam is threatening British civilization. One of the central beliefs amongst members of the EDL is that Muslims are culturally subsuming the UK through a massive influx of immigration and that the political elite are going to great lengths to cover this up. It is, therefore, not surprising that a number of its members vastly overestimate the Muslim population of the UK.[^17] EDL members allege that unless there are major political and/or legislative reforms, the ongoing Islamization of the UK will eventually reach a point at which Muslims will forcefully impose Islamic law and beliefs on their ‘host’ society through political pressure or violence. The EDL, like many other far-right movements around the world, incorporates imagery of anti-Muslim militancy and nostalgia for the Middle Ages, particularly the Crusades, in their messaging and advertisements.[^18] ![English Defense League Islamophobia](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/English-Defense-League-Islamophobia.jpg) This type of imagery is intentional as one of their central tenets involves combating what they perceive as “radical Islamic ideologies,” which they rarely, if ever, distinguish from orthodox Islamic practice and beliefs. The above EDL advertisement, despite misspelling ‘defending,’ reinforces the notion of the ‘nationalist subject.’[^19] The nationalist subject is a fallacious conception of citizenship that presumes that members of the majority group in society maintain certain core values, beliefs, and traits that embody the true essence of the nation. People who conceive of themselves as nationalist subjects believe that they are entitled to determine who does and does not belong in society. Furthermore, they are entitled and empowered to expel ‘Others’ who do not belong. In other words, the EDL feels empowered to determine the values, identity, and culture of the nation, as well as to identify the elements, groups, and individuals they see as contaminating it. These views are similar to those expressed by a number of far-right movements in France. **France.** While the UK has traditionally promoted a multiculturalist social cohesion model of integration, France has had a stronger assimilationist approach to the integration of immigrant populations.[^20] This has manifested in a number of state policies that have limited the display of religious practice and attire in the public sphere. Such policies include a ban on the *hijab* in public schools in 2004 and the *niqab* in 2010, as well as an attempted ban on the *burkini*, a full-body swimsuit worn by some Muslim women, in a number of French municipalities in 2016. More recently, public debate over the *hijab* and its disjunction from French culture and society aroused controversy in the private sector, as Decathlon, Europe’s largest sports retailer, halted its plans to sell a sports *hijab* because of growing criticism and scrutiny from French politicians.[^21] This trajectory towards eliminating visual signifiers of Muslimness from French society are thinly veiled attempts to control the Muslim female subject under the guise of promoting liberty, freedom, and the state policy of *laicité*. *Laicité*, or French secularism as I will term it, can be understood as a political system in which there is a strict separation between religion and the state on matters of public policy.[^22] *Laicité* has traditionally been formulated as a separation of Catholicism from the state. In more contemporary times it has been used as a tool to police Muslims in French society. As Selby notes, “\[i\]f during the first half of the twentieth century the separation of church and state was intended to displace Catholicism, in recent decades Islam has been increasingly depicted as the new challenge for French secularism.”[^23] Within France this dates back to the post-war era in the 1940-1960s when there was a large increase in Muslim immigrants arriving from North Africa as unskilled laborers. The consistent growth of Muslim migrants over the decades sparked tensions as state discourse framed Muslims as a threat to French culture and society. This was apparent in the Stasi Commission Report, published by the French government in 2003, which examined the application of secularist principles in France. The report emphasized *laicité* as a fundamental pillar of French society and essential for national unity and cohesion. However, the Stasi Commission Report positioned “Islam as overly ‘political’ and ‘patriarchal’ and describe\[d\] Muslim women as ‘oppressed’ by their religious tradition.”[^24] Additionally, the report associated Islam with polygamy, genital mutilation, and forced marriages.[^25] This report led to the French government passing a law banning conspicuous religious symbols in public schools in 2004. The majority of cases in which the law was applied involved Muslim women wearing the headscarf.[^26] Hence, Muslims have become the direct targets of French secularism in contemporary times through discourses of ‘liberating’ Muslim women from their ‘oppressive’ religious beliefs and practices. This historic legacy of racism and limiting of religious and cultural expression in the public sphere has fostered an atmosphere in France in which political parties can openly target minority communities by claiming they are threatening French culture and identity. One such organization is the Front National. The Front National has long been perceived as a far-right political party with openly anti-immigration, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim views. Founded in the 1970s and composed of neo-fascists and opponents of decolonization, it was perceived as a fringe party at its inception. However, in the 2017 French election, the Front National, led by Marine Le Pen, the daughter of party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, found herself in a runoff election against Emmanuel Macron, ultimately losing by a reasonable margin. That a far-right party like the Front National was able to gain enough support to make it to a runoff election vote in France was considered shocking at the time. Le Pen has openly advocated a ban on all religious attire in the public space; has claimed that she would put a halt to all immigration in France; has denied France’s role in the Vel d’Hiv Roundup in which French police mass arrested 13,000 Jews to send to Auschwitz;[^27] and has likened Muslims’ observance of prayers in France to the Nazi occupation.[^28] Yet, in the 2017 French election, Le Pen’s Front National still managed to obtain thirty-four percent support from French voters. Far-right anti-Muslim extremist views have also become increasingly popular amongst street protest movements in France. Once such movement is the Bloc Identitaire. The Bloc Identitaire was created in 2003 and “describes itself as very attached to the defence of national and regional identities and also the common values shared by the European ‘civilisation’ to whom they claim to belong.”[^29] Therefore, the Bloc is even more exclusionary than the EDL and is composed exclusively of white nationalists. Like the EDL, the Bloc invokes the idea of returning to a ‘golden age,’ which, though not clearly defined, is presumably a time predating the arrival of large immigrant communities in France, particularly Muslims. This ‘golden age’ has been succeeded by a civilization on the verge of collapse because of immigrant populations. Deflecting accusations of being a racist organization, the Bloc relies on the notion of white victimhood, claiming that they are at the forefront of protecting France’s national heritage. A number of its members have blamed Muslim populations for increased crime rates in France and, through online mediums, have advocated violence toward and murder of Muslims and other immigrant populations.[^30] In the Netherlands, vitriolic hate speech is not only common amongst street protest movements but most loudly proclaimed by political figures who have dramatically risen in popularity. **The Netherlands.** Undeniably, one of the most outspoken racist and Islamophobic European politicians is Geert Wilders, the founder and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands. Wilders’ anti-Muslim hatred was most prominent in a short film that he produced called *Fitna* (2008), which explicitly linked texts from the Qur’an with violence and terrorism. Wilders was eventually charged with hate speech under Dutch law in 2009 for the film but was later acquitted. The media frenzy surrounding the trial served to bolster his reputation as a staunch defender of European values and culture in face of the tidal wave of Islamization confronting Europe. In the 2017 Dutch election, almost half of his one-page election manifesto was committed to the de-Islamization of the Netherlands. A part of his political platform included closing all mosques and Islamic religious schools, drastically changing immigration policies, and banning the Qur’an.[^31] Furthermore, had he won the election, Wilders would have imposed a ‘head rag’ tax on Muslim women who wear the *hijab* and was willing to pay settled Muslims to leave the Netherlands.[^32] Though Wilders lost the 2017 Dutch election, one cannot deny the impact that he has had on the Dutch political landscape. Seen as a fringe minority party in 2006, Wilders’ PVV party became the third-largest party in parliament in the 2010 Dutch election. Furthermore, Wilders’s fiery populist rhetoric has pushed the country’s political discourse further to the right. This has helped spawn the popularity of other far-right and center-right political parties, such as the Forum for Democracy (PvD) who advocate similar views as Wilders but have taken a more sanitized approach to their anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim attitudes and rhetoric.[^33] Presumably, figures like Wilders have also fueled the growth of far-right populist groups, like Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA), a racist anti-Muslim group based in Germany, which was inaugurated in the Netherlands in 2015. Far-right views and politics have also grown substantially in Canada and the US. **Canada.** Barbara Perry and Ryan Scrivens have done an extensive study on the growth of far-right extremist groups across Canada and found that there are no fewer than 100 far-right extremist groups in Canada.[^34] These groups vary in size, ranging from three members to a few dozen. However, some groups have an exceptionally large following. One group, based out of Quebec called ‘La Meute’ (the Wolf Pack) has over 40,000 followers on Facebook.[^35] Like far-right groups in Europe, La Meute specifically has grievances with Muslims and the Islamic faith, and perceive them as threats to Quebecois culture and identity. Ultimately, members of this organization fear Islamization and believe that Muslims living in Canada want to impose *sharia.* Therefore, the group openly advocates for the banning of *halal* food and are critical of Canadian multiculturalism policies. The growth of far-right extremist groups in Canada has been particularly concerning as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has noted that the threat of far-right and white supremacist ideologies outweighs radical Muslim religious ideologies with regards to national security.[^36] Far-right extremist groups in Canada are overwhelmingly white supremacist in nature. These groups tend to be transitory and unorganized, but have been on the rise over the past two decades.[^37] They target a number of minority groups, particularly Muslims, Jews, and First Nations communities. Much of the anti-Muslim racism espoused by far-right groups in Canada is seen increasingly on online platforms. A study commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) suggests that the frequency of language that is Islamophobic, sexist, racist, or xenophobic has increased by 600% from 2015 to 2016. The same study found that language expressing far-right and white supremacist views increased by 300%, while anti-Muslim language online increased by 200% in Canada during this period.[^38] The proliferation of far-right views and ideas online may be helpful in understanding the growth of far-right and anti-Muslim views in Canadian politics. In 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated in an interview with CBC News that the greatest threat to Canada’s national security was ‘Islamicism.’ It is unclear exactly what this term means; however, the implied sentiment was that violence inspired by Muslim extremists occupied the primary focus of the national security apparatus. More recently, prominent Conservative politician Kellie Leitch ran for the Conservative Party leadership in 2017. A part of her platform involved a proposed screening process for immigrants coming to Canada to see if they possessed ‘anti-Canadian values.’[^39] What ‘anti-Canadian values’ Leitch was referring to were never clearly defined nor, and more troubling, was it clearly defined who was in a position to define what ‘anti-Canadian values’ were. However, Leitch has had a history of trying to cleanse Canada from ‘Other’ cultures, when she, along with Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander, unveiled Bill S-7, the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act. Echoing notions of the ‘nationalist subject,’[^40] this Bill was designed to prevent immigrants entering Canada from engaging in certain ‘barbaric’ cultural practices. No specific culture was defined in this legislation; however, cultural practices stereotypically associated with Muslims such as polygamy, forced marriages, female genital mutilation, and honor-based violence were all listed.[^41] The bill was clearly meant to inflame sentiment against Muslims, as it prohibited practices that were already illegal, while implicitly giving the impression of outlawing certain imagined cultures that were trying to infiltrate Canadian society. The growth of far-right views in public and political discourse have also emerged in the US through street protest movements in numerous states across the nation. **USA.** The current wave of far-right extremism in the US, manifesting in white supremacist protest movements across the nation, has been attributed to a growing sense of anger and misplaced fears of marginalization amongst young white American men. Michael Kimmel (2015), an American sociologist, has examined the notions of white masculinity in the US and has found that a growing number of young white men are feeling discontent with the ‘system’ and are raging against it.[^42] Kimmel believes that the reason for this anger is because the age of *unquestioned* white male privilege is coming to an end. Kimmel is not arguing that white privilege has ceased to exist. On the contrary, it is still embedded in the fabric of US society. However, the idea of unquestioned white male privilege is coming to an end. In other words, the US is *more* just with regards to labor laws, civil rights laws, and other forms of legislation than in previous generations. While the US is not a post-racial society, there is, however, arguably more recourse to justice for ‘out’-groups than in previous generations. As such, the ‘in’-groups, or members of the majoritarian culture may be feeling that the privileged world around them is slowly shrinking and that enrages them. As Kimmel observes, when one has experienced privilege their entire life, moving towards a more egalitarian society feels like oppression. These feelings of discontent and disillusionment have fueled the growth of an extremely Islamophobic ‘new’ far right in the US, commonly referred to as the alt-right, which is increasingly becoming apparent in US political discourse. A prominent far-right ideologue who recently came to prominence in US politics is Steve Bannon. Bannon was the former White House Chief Strategist to the President of the USA and executive chairman of Breitbart News, a far-right American news, opinion, and commentary website. Bannon was credited with being the architect of the nationalist-populist program promoted by the Trump campaign during the 2016 US presidential election. In his capacity as Chief Strategist to the US President, Bannon was the driving force behind a controversial executive order which, under the pretext of national security, barred individuals from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US. This travel ban was infamously dubbed the ‘Muslim ban’ because of how it was promoted throughout the 2016 US Presidential campaign. Prior to becoming Chief Strategist, Bannon openly espoused Islamophobic views, advocating the notion that America was at war with radical Islam.[^43] Though Bannon eventually resigned from his position as Chief Strategist, he continued to impact US politics with his far-right agenda through his position at Breitbart News; as he stated in one interview, “at the White House I had influence, at Breitbart I (have) power.”[^44] Bannon was able to exercise this ‘power’ as Breitbart represented the mouthpiece for the far-right political base, which greatly influenced the 2016 US Presidential election. Not surprisingly, Bannon openly promoted claims that Christianity is in a civilizational war with Islam. In 2014, Bannon addressed attendees at a conference hosted by the Vatican with a dire warning, claiming that the Judeo-Christian West was in the beginning phases of an apocalyptic war with Islam. He claimed that Islam was “threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values.”[^45] Furthermore, Bannon argued that ISIS was an expression of Islamic expansionism that was reminiscent of Europe’s troubled historical experiences with Muslims and Islam. In one such passage he stated: > *I believe you should take a very, very, very aggressive stance against radical Islam…If you look back at the long history of the Judeo-Christian West struggle against Islam, I believe that our forefathers kept their stance, and I think they did the right thing. I think they kept it out of the world, whether it was at Vienna, or Tours, or other places. … It bequeathed to us the great institution that is the church of the West.*[^46] Similar views have been expressed by evangelical lobbyists that have influenced far-right politics throughout US history in support of an aggressive Middle-Eastern foreign policy favoring the state of Israel.[^47] These evangelical lobbyists support Jewish control over Jerusalem as they believe it is a precondition for the second coming of Jesus Christ along with the kingdom of heaven.[^48] --- ## Conclusion This article examined how far-right protest movements and political figures across Europe and North America are increasingly voicing Islamization as a primary issue of concern, thereby appealing to populist sentiment. Far-right political figures and activists are not the only proponents of Islamophobia in North America and Europe. Liberal strands of Islamophobia have clearly contributed to anti-Muslim bias in these societies through legislation and targeted policies.[^49] Far-right political figures and protest movements have increasingly voiced stronger, overt Islamophobic rhetoric to gain public support for discriminatory actions and policies targeting Muslims. This paper is not implying that Islamophobia only exists in overt manifestations such as those promoted by the far right. Rather, these overt expressions of anti-Muslim racism, which can be characterized as far-right approaches to Islamophobia, normalize anti-Muslim bias and racism in public and political discourse. Not long ago, a number of these political parties, such as the Front National and the PVV, were considered fringe political parties. However, they are now increasingly being viewed as legitimate parties contributing to and impacting the political landscape in their nations despite their draconian views which openly promote platforms that target and police Muslims in their societies. These far-right political zealots feed off of identity issues to vilify Muslims, which in turn legitimizes outlandish claims of far-right protest movements like the EDL and Bloc Identitaire, whose members have advocated for violent solutions to stem the tidal wave of Islamization.[^50] The steady growth, incitement, and normalization of anti-Muslim racism has practical consequences for Muslim minority communities in Western nations including targeted legislation, hate crimes, and social marginalization.[^51] --- ## Notes [^1]: Sections of this paper were originally published in the *Islamophobia Studies Yearbook* 2019. [^2]: Edward Said, *Orientalism*. (New York: Vintage Books 1979). [^3]: Deepa Kumar, *Islamophobia and the politics of empire* (Chicago: Haymarket Books 2012). [^4]: Chris Allen, *Islamophobia* (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing 2010), 190. [^5]: Arun Kundnani, *The Muslims are coming: Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror* (New York: Verso 2014). [^6]: It is worth noting that Sikhs and other minority communities that ‘appear’ to be Muslim can also be victims of Islamophobia. Again, this type of behavior is directed at its victims because of a perceived association with Islam. [^7]: Matt Golder, ‘Far right parties in Europe,’ *Annual Review of Political Science*, vol. 19, 2016, 477-497. [^8]: Golder, ‘Far right parties in Europe,’ 477-497. [^9]: Cas Mudde, ‘The populist zeitgeist’, *Government Opposition*, vol. 39, 2004, 541-563. [^10]: Benedict Anderson, *Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism* (London: Verso 1991). [^11]: Golder, ‘Far right parties in Europe,’ 477-497. [^12]: Cas Mudde, *Populist radical right parties in Europe* (New York: Cambridge University Press 2007). [^13]: Ulrike Vieten and Scott Poynting, ‘Contemporary far right racist populism in Europe,’ *Journal of Intercultural Studies*, vol. 37, no. 6, 2016, 533-540. [^14]: Todd Green, *Fear of Islam: An introduction to Islamophobia in the West* (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2015). [^15]: Satnam Virdee & Brendan McGeever, ‘Racism, Crisis, Brexit,’ *Ethnic and Racial Studies*, vol. 41, no. 10, 2018, p. 1812. [^16]: Kevin Braouezec, ‘Identifying common patterns of discourse and strategy among the new extremist movements in Europe: The Case of the English Defence League and the Bloc Identitaire,’ *Journal of Intercultural Studies*, vol. 37, no. 6, 2016, 637-648. [^17]: Ibid. [^18]: Andrew Elliot, ‘A vile love affair: Right wing nationalism and the middle ages,’ February 14, available on *The Public Medievalist* at [https://www.publicmedievalist.com/vile-love-affair/](https://www.publicmedievalist.com/vile-love-affair) (viewed 21 December 2017). [^19]: Ghassan Hage, *White nation: Fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society* (New York: Routledge 2000). [^20]: Braouezec, ‘Identifying common patterns of discourse and strategy among the new extremist movements in Europe.’ [^21]: Elian Peltier and Aurelien Breeden, ‘A sports hijab has France debating the Muslim veil, again,’ February 28, 2019, *The New York Times*. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from The New York Times Website: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/europe/france-sports-hijab-decathlon.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/europe/france-sports-hijab-decathlon.html) [^22]: Charles Taylor, *The age of secularism* (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2007). [^23]: Jennifer Selby, ‘French secularism as a 'guarantor' of women's rights? Muslim women and gender politics in a Parisian banlieue,’ *Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal*, vol. 12, no. 4, 2011, 441-462 (442). [^24]: Selby, ‘French secularism as a 'guarantor' of women's rights?’, 445. [^25]: Stasi Commission, *Stasi Commission Report* (Paris: Gouvernement de France 2003). [^26]: Alia Al-Saji, ‘The racialization of Muslim Veils: A philosophical analysis,’ *Philosophy and Social Criticism*, vol. 36, no. 8, 2010, 875-902. [^27]: Ethan Katz, ‘How Marine Le Pen relies on dividing French Jews and Muslims,’ April 19 2017. The Atlantic. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from *The Atlantic* Website: [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/04/marine-le-pen-national-front-jews-muslims/523302/](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/04/marine-le-pen-national-front-jews-muslims/523302) (viewed 24 December 2017). [^28]: David Patrikarakos, ‘Marine Le Pen’s surprise voters,’ January 23 2017. *Politico* Retrieved October 23, 2017, from Politico Website: [http://www.politico.eu/article/marine-le-pen-surprise-muslim-islam-supporters-national-front-banlieues/](http://www.politico.eu/article/marine-le-pen-surprise-muslim-islam-supporters-national-front-banlieues/) (viewed December 24, 2017). [^29]: Braouezec, ‘Identifying common patterns of discourse and strategy among the new extremist movements in Europe,’ 639. [^30]: Ibid. [^31]: Cas Mudde, *Populist radical right parties in Europe* (New York: Cambridge University Press 2007). [^32]: Stephanie Marsh, ‘’This is exactly what he wants’: How Geert Wilders won by losing,’ March 16 2017, from *The Atlantic* Website: [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/geert-wilders-won-by-losing-netherlands-vote/519834/](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/geert-wilders-won-by-losing-netherlands-vote/519834/) (viewed October 23, 2017) [^33]: Ibid. [^34]: Barbara Perry and Ryan Scrivens, ‘Uneasy alliances: A look at the right-wing extremist movement in Canada,’ *Studies in Conflict and Terrorism*, vol. 39, no. 9, 2016, 819-841. [^35]: Jonathan Montpetit, ‘Inside Quebec’s far right,’ December 14 2016, from *CBC* Website: [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-far right-la-meute-1.3876225](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-far%2520right-la-meute-1.3876225) (viewed 12 October 2017) [^36]: Alex Boutilier, ‘CSIS highlights white supremacist threat ahead of radical Islam,’ March 15 2015, from *The Toronto Star* Website: [https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/15/csis-highlights-white-supremacist-threat-ahead-of-radical-islam.html](https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/15/csis-highlights-white-supremacist-threat-ahead-of-radical-islam.html) (viewed October 23 2017). [^37]: Perry and Scrivens ‘Uneasy alliances: A look at the right-wing extremist movement in Canada.’ [^38]: CBC News, ‘Canadians appear to be more hateful online,’ January 20 2017, from *CBC* Website: [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-racism-online-tips-1.3943351](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-racism-online-tips-1.3943351) (viewed October 23 2017) [^39]: Anne Kingston, ‘How Kellie Leitch accidentally revealed Canadian values,’ May 26 2017, from *Macleans* Website: [http://www.macleans.ca/politics/how-kellie-leitch-accidentally-revealed-canadian-values/](http://www.macleans.ca/politics/how-kellie-leitch-accidentally-revealed-canadian-values/) (viewed November 5 2017). [^40]: Hage, *White nation*. [^41]: Tamara Shephard, ‘Harper government to table zero tolerance for barbaric cultural practices bill,’ November 5 2014, from *Inside Toronto* Website: [https://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/4961733-harper-government-to-table-zero-tolerance-for-barbaric-cultural-practices-bill/](https://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/4961733-harper-government-to-table-zero-tolerance-for-barbaric-cultural-practices-bill/) (viewed 14 October 2017). [^42]: Michael Kimmel, *Angry white men: American masculinity at the end of an era* (New York: Nation Books 2015). [^43]: Scott Shane, ‘We are at war with radical Islam,’ February 1 2017, *New York Times* Website: [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/01/us/stephen-bannon-war-with-radical-islam.html?mcubz=0](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/01/us/stephen-bannon-war-with-radical-islam.html?mcubz%3D) (viewed 23 October 2017). [^44]: The Economist, ‘The future of Bannonism,’ August 25 2017,’ from *The Economist* Website: [https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21727089-donald-trumps-adviser-has-gone-his-ideas-stick-around-future-bannonism](https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21727089-donald-trumps-adviser-has-gone-his-ideas-stick-around-future-bannonism) (viewed 23 October 2017). [^45]: Jason Horowitz, ‘Steve Bannon carries battles to another influential hub: the Vatican,’ February 17 2017, Retrieved from *New York Times* Web site: [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html) (viewed 23 December 2017). [^46]: Tara Golshan, ‘In 2014 Steve Bannon explained his world view. This year, he helped craft a visa ban that fit it,’ January 31 2017, Retrieved from *Vox* Web site: [https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14439908/steve-bannon-worldview-visa-ban](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14439908/steve-bannon-worldview-visa-ban) (viewed 20 December 2017). [^47]: Steven Salaita, *Anti-Arab racism in the USA: Where it comes from and what it means for politics today* (Ann Arbor: Pluto Press 2006). [^48]: Ibid. [^49]: For detailed discussions on this topic see: *The Muslims are Coming* (2014) by Arun Kundnani, as well as *American Islamophobia* (2018) by Khaled Baydoun. [^50]: Braouezec, ‘Identifying common patterns of discourse and strategy among the new extremist movements in Europe.’ [^51]: Stephen Sheehi, *Islamophobia: The ideological campaign against Muslims* (Atlanta: Clarity Press 2011). ## Summary The growth of anti-Muslim hostility across Europe and North America deserves careful examination, for it has become a defining feature of far-right political movements and street protest groups in nations such as the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States. The central claim advanced here is that anti-Muslim racism, more than other forms of prejudice, is increasingly shaping the policies of certain political elites and forming the primary preoccupation of these protest movements. This is not to say that hostility toward Muslims has become their sole concern, nor that such prejudice exists only on the far right, for Islamophobic attitudes span the political spectrum. Rather, the far right has given this hostility an overt, emboldened, and popularized form. The terms "anti-Muslim racism" and "Islamophobia" are used interchangeably, since in the present climate mistreatment of Muslims can seldom be separated from attacks upon Islam itself; Muslims are targeted precisely because they identify with their faith. Hostility toward Islam is not new, for it dates back to the very inception of the faith in the Arabian Peninsula. When Islam was confined to Makkah, it was opposed by the ruling Quraysh, and as it spread it faced opposition from tribes in Madinah and beyond, and later from European Christendom and rival empires. Through the era of colonialism and after, the Orientalist gaze became prominent in European scholarship, writing, and art, and it arguably persists today in various forms. Allen has defined Islamophobia as "an ideology similar in theory, function and purpose to racism and other similar phenomena, that sustains and perpetuates negatively evaluated meaning about Muslims and Islam," operating not only through explicit relationships of power and domination but through the "less explicit and everyday relationships of power that we contemporarily encounter." Far-right parties are not themselves a novelty in the West, for as Golder notes they have formed coalition governments in Finland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland, among others. Yet their recent surge is cause for concern, for Golder observes that the far-right party family is the fastest growing in Europe, with a parallel trend in Canada and the United States. To clarify terms, "radical" here denotes anti-establishment views; "extremist" denotes opposition to democratic processes altogether; "populism" divides society into the "pure people" and the "corrupt elite," and can be exclusionary toward minorities; and "nationalism" denotes a strong bond between state and nation, whether in civic form, which asks citizens to accept common values, or in ethnic form, which ties belonging to ethnic origin and is exclusionary by nature. Todd Green notes that extreme right-wing Islamophobic parties are the second- or third-largest in the parliaments of Norway and Denmark, and the largest in Switzerland. In the United Kingdom, the Brexit referendum drew nearly fifty-two percent support and was promoted heavily through far-right anti-Muslim rhetoric, though it was not caused by the far right alone. It was, rather, symptomatic of racist attitudes long present in British society, spurred by figures across the political spectrum, so that Brexit "did not create them" but allowed them to flourish. A prominent campaign poster depicting refugees under the words "BREAKING POINT" played upon fears of a Muslim "Other" invading and eroding a white English majority. Such rhetoric echoed that of the English Defence League (EDL), formed in 2009, an Islamophobic street protest movement that claims British civilisation is threatened by Muslim immigration and imagines a coming forced imposition of Islamic law. Its members, who tend to overestimate the Muslim population, invoke imagery of the Crusades and the medieval past, reflecting what may be termed the "nationalist subject"—the fallacious belief that the majority embodies the true essence of the nation and is entitled to expel those deemed not to belong. France has followed an assimilationist rather than multiculturalist model, producing state policies that restrict religious expression: the banning of the hijab in public schools in 2004, the niqab in 2010, and attempts to ban the burkini in 2016, alongside pressure that led Decathlon to abandon a sports hijab. These measures, advanced under the banner of laïcité, or French secularism, once aimed at displacing Catholicism but now, as Selby notes, increasingly cast Islam as "the new challenge for French secularism." The 2003 Stasi Commission Report positioned Islam as overly "political" and "patriarchal," described Muslim women as "oppressed," and associated the faith with polygamy, genital mutilation, and forced marriages, leading to the 2004 law whose application overwhelmingly affected Muslim women. In this atmosphere the Front National, founded in the 1970s by neo-fascists and opponents of decolonisation, rose from a fringe party to reach the 2017 runoff under Marine Le Pen, gaining thirty-four percent support despite her calls to ban religious attire, halt immigration, and her likening of Muslim prayer to the Nazi occupation. The Bloc Identitaire, created in 2003 and composed exclusively of white nationalists, invokes a lost "golden age," relies on notions of white victimhood, and has seen members advocate violence against Muslims and immigrants online. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, founder of the Party for Freedom (PVV), produced the film Fitna (2008), which explicitly linked Qur'anic texts with violence and terrorism. Charged with hate speech in 2009, he was later acquitted, and the trial only strengthened his reputation as a defender of European values. Nearly half of his 2017 election manifesto was devoted to the "de-Islamization" of the Netherlands, including closing mosques and Islamic schools, banning the Qur'an, imposing a "head rag" tax on the hijab, and paying Muslims to leave. Though he lost, his PVV had become the third-largest party by 2010, and his rhetoric pushed the political discourse rightward, encouraging groups such as the Forum for Democracy and PEGIDA. In Canada, Perry and Scrivens found no fewer than 100 far-right extremist groups, among them the Quebec-based "La Meute," which has over 40,000 Facebook followers, fears Islamization and the imposition of sharia, and calls for banning halal food. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has noted that far-right and white supremacist ideologies outweigh radical Muslim ideologies as a national security threat. A study commissioned by the CBC found that Islamophobic, racist, and xenophobic language online rose by 600% between 2015 and 2016. In politics, Stephen Harper in 2011 named "Islamicism" the greatest threat to national security, while Kellie Leitch proposed screening immigrants for "anti-Canadian values" and, with Chris Alexander, introduced Bill S-7, the "Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act," which listed practices already illegal in order to inflame sentiment against Muslims. In the United States, Michael Kimmel attributes the current wave of white supremacist protest to young white men's misplaced fears of marginalisation, observing that "when one has experienced privilege their entire life, moving towards a more egalitarian society feels like oppression." Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and executive chairman of Breitbart News, was the architect of the nationalist-populist Trump campaign and the driving force behind the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority nations, dubbed the "Muslim ban." In 2014 he warned the Vatican that the Judeo-Christian West faced an "apocalyptic" war with Islam and praised his "forefathers" for keeping Islam "out of the world… whether it was at Vienna, or Tours, or other places." Similar views appear among evangelical lobbyists favouring an aggressive Middle-Eastern policy supportive of Israel. In sum, far-right movements and figures across Europe and North America increasingly voice Islamization as their foremost concern, appealing to populist sentiment. They are not the only source of Islamophobia, for liberal strands have contributed through legislation and policy; but their overt rhetoric normalises anti-Muslim bias in public and political discourse. Parties once considered fringe, such as the Front National and the PVV, are now viewed as legitimate contributors to the political landscape, and their rhetoric lends credibility to protest movements like the EDL and Bloc Identitaire, some of whose members advocate violence. The steady normalisation of anti-Muslim racism carries practical consequences for Muslim minorities in the West, including targeted legislation, hate crimes, and social marginalisation. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why has Islamophobia become the defining issue for far-right movements in the West? Far-right political parties and street protest movements have existed in Europe and North America for decades, but anti-Muslim racism has increasingly become their central organizing principle. Groups like the English Defence League in the UK, the Bloc Identitaire in France, and La Meute in Quebec have defined themselves almost exclusively by their opposition to Islam and Muslims. Politicians like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands devoted nearly half his election manifesto to the "de-Islamization" of the country, including proposals to ban the Qur'an, close all mosques, and impose a tax on hijab. This is not incidental. Islamophobia gives far-right movements a broadly appealing enemy that lets them rebrand white nationalism as a defense of "civilization" and "values." In doing so, parties that were once considered fringe—like France's Front National or the PVV—have entered mainstream politics and shifted the entire political discourse to the right. ### Are these just fringe groups, or do far-right anti-Muslim views actually have mainstream support? In the 2017 French election, Marine Le Pen's Front National—a party founded by neofascists and opponents of decolonization—secured 34 percent of the vote in a runoff against Emmanuel Macron. In the Netherlands, Wilders's PVV went from a fringe minority party in 2006 to the third-largest party in parliament by 2010. In the UK, the Brexit campaign drew heavily on fears of Muslim immigration, using imagery of refugee columns to suggest that "dark-skinned Others" were poised to erode English culture. In Canada, researchers found no fewer than one hundred far-right extremist groups, and a study commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found that Islamophobic language online increased by 200 percent from 2015 to 2016 alone. Far-right Islamophobic views are increasingly normalized in public and political discourse across the West. ### How do far-right groups use the idea of "protecting Western civilization" to justify targeting Muslims? This framing draws on a long Orientalist tradition that constructs Islam as the antithesis of Western values. Many far-right movements invoke nostalgia for a "golden age" predating the arrival of Muslim communities and incorporate Crusades-era imagery into their messaging and branding. Steve Bannon, the former White House Chief Strategist, explicitly framed the conflict as civilizational, arguing that the "Judeo-Christian West" was in the early phases of an apocalyptic war with Islam. By casting Muslims as an existential threat to civilization itself, far-right figures elevate what is in reality anti-Muslim racism to the level of cultural self-defense. ### Why do far-right groups in Europe keep targeting Muslim women's dress specifically? Policing Muslim women's clothing has been a central strategy for far-right movements because visual signifiers of Muslimness are the easiest targets for legislation framed as defending national values. In France, the trajectory is clear: a ban on hijab in public schools in 2004, a niqab ban in 2010, attempted burkini bans in 2016, and public pressure that forced Europe's largest sports retailer to abandon plans to sell a sports hijab. These measures are presented as upholding *laicite* (French secularism), but as scholars have documented, French secularism was originally designed to separate Catholicism from the state—it was only in recent decades that Islam became its primary target. The Stasi Commission Report of 2003, which laid the groundwork for much of this legislation, explicitly associated Islam with polygamy, genital mutilation, and forced marriages. This is not secularism applied neutrally; it is the far right's civilizational framing translated into law. ### Is far-right extremism actually a greater security threat than the "radical Islam" these groups claim to be fighting? Canada's intelligence service, CSIS, has noted that the threat posed by far-right and white supremacist ideologies outweighs that of radical Muslim religious ideologies with regard to national security. In the United States, from 2008 to 2016, the number of domestic terrorist acts by far-right extremist groups were more than double those committed by Muslim extremists. From 2011 to 2016, only 12 percent of terrorist attacks in the US were committed by Muslims, while more than half were carried out by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other far-right groups. Despite this, under the Trump administration, Countering Violent Extremism funding for Muslim organizations and groups tackling white supremacist violence was cut, while the program was reoriented to focus almost exclusively on what officials called "radical Islam." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/i-shouldve-gotten-over-it-by-now-surviving-the-impact-of-grief-on-faith # "I Should've Gotten Over It by Now": Surviving the Impact of Grief on Faith **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 14, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons.*[^1]  - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross --- ## Case Study *Khadeejah’s best friend, Amina, passed away in a sudden car accident one month ago. They attended college together and had been friends for over 20 years. After Amina’s sudden death, Khadeejah felt unable to cope with the grief she was enduring. Every time she picked up her phone, she remembered she couldn’t call her best friend. She couldn’t imagine a future without the friend who had enriched so much of her past.* *Khadeejah found herself changing as the days went on. Her temper flared up and she found herself feeling angry about seemingly minor issues. She also cried often and struggled to get out of bed for days at a time. She tried to drag herself to the restroom to make wudoo’ for each salah but sometimes the despair was so overwhelming, she couldn’t imagine lifting her head off the pillow. Khadeejah continually felt guilty about her feelings of sadness so she decided to talk to a friend about her struggles. When she approached her and explained what was happening, her friend replied, “It’s been a month so it’s time to get back to regular life. Have you tried praying and reading Qur’an more? When your iman increases, you won’t feel like this anymore. Be grateful that you’ll be reunited with Amina in Jennah.”* *Khadeejah returned home feeling even more depressed and was convinced that her relationship with Allah wasn’t strong enough. She already felt devastated and now she felt like a terrible Muslim. At this point she began to question her ability to connect with Allah, telling herself: “My friend was right. I must be a bad Muslim. **My iman should be stronger. Why else would I still be feeling this way?”*** --- ## What is Happening to Me? Experiencing grief can feel like you’re caught in a storm in the middle of an endless, dark ocean. As the storm strengthens, you are pulled under by huge waves and barely able to catch your breath. The rain pounds while the waves seem relentless. Suddenly, the waters calm and you catch a breath, not realizing this is the eye of the storm—an illusion of calmness before the waves begin to crash over you again. Sometimes you don’t know what will trigger the revival of the storm—a memory, a scent, or an old text message. Traumatic experiences, sudden life changes, and the loss of someone we love can be incredibly overwhelming. The pain can feel so intense that you may wonder how a person can experience such torture and still be capable of living and breathing. There will be days when you cry and can’t seem to stop and then there will be days when you feel guilty because you haven’t cried. Whether you have lost someone, your home, your job, or the life you imagined you would have, grief can be so painful that you feel it in your bones. Grief and loss can transform our daily lives, the way we face the world, and our views of ourselves. Loss is often a form of trauma and can, therefore, cause a significant shift in things we previously considered unquestionable. You may start to question your capabilities, strengths, and relationships. The parts of your life that previously seemed the most certain may suddenly seem unclear. While you used to consider yourself a person with good judgment, your view of this quality might change drastically after a financial investment has been completely lost. While you used to consider yourself a strong person, you may now feel broken after enduring years of abuse. While you may have considered yourself a successful person, you may start to doubt this after being fired from your dream job. Along with changes in your perception of yourself, the perception of your faith may change following an intense loss. What you’re feeling right now, as you struggle through tremendous pain, is a feeling that has touched the lives of people from the beginning of time. Furthermore, these feelings have even impacted the best of humanity—the Prophets of Allah عليهم السلام. Consider the example of Prophet Yaqub عليه السلام. He had twelve sons, one of whom was the Prophet Yusuf عليه السلام. When Yaqub was separated from his son Yusuf, he grieved so deeply that his eyes turned white due to the extent to which he cried. His intense grief is expressed in the Qur’an, **“And he (Yaqub  عليه السلام) said, "Oh, my sorrow over Yusuf," and his eyes became white from grief because of the sorrow that he suppressed”** (Surat Yusuf 12:84). People often misinterpret the grieving process as a sign of discontentment with the decree of Allah (swt). When things in your life are not going in the direction you anticipated or a sudden event causes you to feel hurt or devastated, feeling this way does not indicate a weakness in your relationship with Allah or in your ability to accept what He has written for you. Consider what happened when Ibrahim, the young son of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, passed away: **Allah's Messenger took Ibrahim and kissed him and smelled him and later we entered Abu Saif's house and at that time Ibrahim was breathing his last breaths, and the eyes of Allah's Messenger ﷺ started shedding tears. \`Abdur Rahman bin \`Auf said, “O Allah's Apostle, even you are weeping!” He said, “O Ibn \`Auf, this is mercy.” Then he wept more and said, “The eyes are shedding tears and the heart is grieved, and we will not say except what pleases our Lord. O Ibrahim! Indeed we are grieved by your separation.”**[^2] If the greatest human beings to walk the earth—those who were the most beloved to Allah (swt)—experienced such sadness, then how can we attribute our feelings of grief to lack of *iman*? Allah (swt) did not reprimand the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he grieved for the loss of his son because grief, sadness, and difficult emotions do not indicate doubt in Allah nor a weakness in our relationship with Him. Emotions were created by Allah and serve a purpose. Therefore, telling yourself that you ***“shouldn’t”*** feel a certain way denies an essential part that Allah has placed within you. --- ## Understanding Your Thoughts and Emotions When we create unrealistic rules and expectations for ourselves and others, we are engaging in an unhealthy thinking pattern called **“Should Statements.”** This is a type of cognitive distortion in which we use words such as “should,” “ought,” and “must” to create ideas that lead us to feel pressured and resentful. These statements can set up unattainable standards for ourselves and others. Should statements involve operating by rigid rules and do not allow for flexibility.[^3] Should/must statements are similar to the concept of **“if only”**—the idea that you or your life is missing an essential component, with which everything would be better. This is a thought pattern that leads to constant dissatisfaction, discontent, and regret. This thought pattern also leads to other cognitive distortions that can yield a negative self-image. ### Consider these examples: “I ***shouldn’t*** have eaten that. I just can’t control myself. I ***should*** be thinner. ***If only*** I could lose those extra 20 lbs, I’d find someone to marry. No one would find someone like me attractive.” “He ***shouldn’t*** be so inconsiderate and self-centered. He ***should*** be on time instead of being late constantly. ***If only*** he wasn’t late, I wouldn’t feel resentful toward him.” “I ***shouldn’t*** yell at my children so much. I ***must*** be a horrible mother and a failure. ***If only*** I were a better mother, everything would fall into place.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “**... Seek help from Allah and do not lose heart, and if anything (in the form of trouble) comes to you, don't say: If only I had not done that, it would not have happened so and so, but say: Allah did that what He had ordained to do and your ‘if’ opens the (gate) for Satan.”**[^4] When things aren’t going the way we anticipate, something traumatic or tragic occurs, or we’re experiencing uncomfortable emotions, our minds try to make sense of what is happening. We believe that our lives, our minds, and our emotions ***should*** function a certain way. When any of these get off track, we draw certain conclusions. We may start thinking about the things we ***should*** have done differently or the negative qualities we, or others, ***must*** possess to have caused this to happen. “My best friend passed away one month ago. I ***should*** be able to get back to my day-to-day life by now. I ***must*** be doing something wrong to still be crying every day.” “Everyone says a Muslim ***shouldn’t*** feel sad. Maybe my faith is the problem here.” “I ***should*** have stronger *iman*. I ***must*** be a bad Muslim for feeling this way.” Or “Why is she still looking so sad every day? She wasn’t even engaged for long. She’ll find someone else. She ***should*** be over it by now.” “She ***should*** understand that Allah decreed this. If she’s still sad about it, she ***must*** be doubting Allah. She ***must*** have low *iman*.” --- ## Unhealthy Ways of Coping with Difficult Emotions As human beings, we attempt to cope with negative emotions in different ways. We often attempt to ***push away*** our difficult emotions or the difficult emotions of others. They make us feel uncomfortable and it’s a painful process to sit with these feelings. You may find that you try to ***distract yourself***, put on a fake smile, or even ***self-medicate*** through the use of drugs or alcohol to alleviate the pain you are feeling. You may find that others invalidate your emotions because they don’t understand or don’t know how to deal with them. Another way we may try to reject these difficult emotions is through ***rationalization***. Our minds always seek to make sense of the world, particularly when things seem chaotic. Our brains naturally try to make connections even when a realistic connection doesn’t exist. We may connect two events or thoughts that occur around the same time whether or not there is an actual relationship between them. Therefore, when we’re feeling down, we may feel further away from Allah and Islam. This may result in connecting feelings of sadness, hurt, or pain with a lack of faith even though the two are not necessarily connected. When people around us are uncomfortable seeing us in pain, they may engage in something called ***spiritual bypassing***,[^5] a process through which spiritual ideas and practices are used to sidestep or avoid facing emotional issues and psychological wounds. During times of stress or sadness people may tell us, “You should pray more. You must not be praying hard enough.” There is absolute merit and truth to the idea that prayer can bring a sense of comfort, as Allah tells the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in Surah al-Hijr, **“We know how your heart is distressed at what they say. But celebrate the praises of your Lord, and be of those who prostrate themselves in adoration.”**[^6] Along with this, we have to also understand that trauma and fleeting feelings of sadness are not the same thing. And while prayer is healing, Allah (swt) provides us with many means through which we can journey toward healing alongside our connection with Him. While a cancer patient can be encouraged to pray for health, chemotherapy is also a means that is necessary to heal the underlying issue. In the same way, someone who is struggling due to an emotional or psychological wound needs to heal the wound through appropriate treatment as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, ***“*****Allah has sent down both the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically, but use nothing unlawful.”**[^7] --- ## What’s Happening In Your Brain Every trauma tends to involve loss, whether it is the loss of safety and security after a natural disaster, the loss of a future one had anticipated after an accident that causes long-term health issues, or the loss of hope after a sudden catastrophe. While it is safe to say that trauma nearly always involves loss, the reverse is not true: loss is not always traumatic. Grief is a healthy response to a loss—it is the natural experience of a wound that is in need of healing. Therefore there is nothing inherently problematic about grieving the loss of someone or something.[^8] However, when we do not have the opportunity to fully grieve and adapt to the loss we have experienced, it will continue to affect us, often in subtle ways, even years later. Without proper grieving and adaptation, the impact of the loss can be a traumatic experience. George Engel, M.D. related mourning the loss of someone or something to the healing of physical wounds, implying that the loss of a loved one is psychologically traumatic in the same way that being severely wounded would be physiologically traumatic.[^9] Both of these types of wounds need to heal; otherwise, further complications ensue, such as the manifestation of trauma. When we are unable to grieve fully and an experience becomes a source of trauma, our central nervous system becomes dysregulated and hyper-activated. When this happens, we are thrust into survival mode, which shuts down the executive functioning part of our brain and prevents us from thinking clearly. This is why we may react to situations in unhealthy ways or do things during times of stress that we would not have done during times of ease. If you’ve ever yelled at a loved one when you’re particularly overwhelmed or if you’ve ever done something that you know takes you further away from Allah (swt) when you’re feeling like a wreck, consider what’s happening in your brain during these moments. In the same way that we may do things we know are unhelpful during these moments, we may also avoid doing things that can potentially provide us with a little bit of respite. This is one reason why some people struggle to worship Allah during times of extreme stress. Our prefrontal cortex, the decision-making part of our brain, rationally knows that prayer, making *du’aa* or reflecting on verses from the Qur’an, will likely be helpful during difficult times but this part of our brain tends to shut down in response to trauma.[^10] When the “danger activation center” (including the amygdala in the picture below) part of our brain is dominant, there is a decrease in self-awareness, our capacity to self-evaluate, and our ability to establish goals. All of these require advanced thought processes, which are very difficult to sustain during times of extreme stress.[^11] ![Trauma_Diagram#1_NEW-01](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Trauma_Diagram1_NEW-01.jpg) You may also think: “Even during really hard times, I continued praying but prayer felt different. I couldn’t focus and I couldn’t get relief through it. Shouldn’t prayer bring me comfort during my struggles?” Prayer can bring us immediate relief when we are able to completely focus on our words, our movements, and the feelings within our body while praying. This is called mindfulness and is also very similar to the concept of *khushoo’*, or focus in prayer. This type of concentration activates our prefrontal cortex and can help us to shift away from stressed survival mode to a calmer, more mindful state.[^12] However, in order for any activity to help, our brain needs to register it. Research has shown an association between prayer and the ability to re-engage the “thinking” part of our brains.[^13] However, traumatic reminders cause increased amygdala function and decreased prefrontal function. This means that a difficult memory shuts down the “thinking” part of our brains and turns on the “survival” part of our brains. This makes it difficult for us to focus our attention on the task at hand,[^14] whether it’s our daily prayers, work tasks, or even remembering to put on your child’s shoes before leaving the house. ***When you are grieving or surviving a trauma, your struggle to pray or to feel uplifted during prayer is not an indication of the state of your heart. It’s an indication of the state of your brain—a brain that has endured trauma is a brain that will have trouble focusing on anything other than the pain that it is currently experiencing.*** --- ## Changing Your Thoughts If you are feeling as though your emotions indicate that you aren’t a good Muslim, that thought can be changed. Let’s consider the trajectory this thought pattern might lead to: “I shouldn’t be feeling sad. My *iman* must not be strong enough.” ↓ “If I have weak *iman*, then my relationship with Allah is weak.” ↓ “If my relationship with Allah is weak, then Allah must be upset with me.” ↓ “If Allah is upset with me and hates me, then I must be doomed.” *↓* “If I’m doomed, what’s the point in trying to change things?” Here, we see the connection between emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. When we are in pain and we set unrealistic standards about overcoming these emotions, these unhealthy thoughts propel us into a hurtful cycle. These negative thoughts lead to negative emotions, which eventually yield negative behaviors. ![Trauma_Diagram#2-NEW-01](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Trauma_Diagram2-NEW-01.jpg) If you or others around you are enforcing a set image of what it means to be a good Muslim and this image involves not grieving or allowing yourself to feel uncomfortable emotions, you may start to expect that Allah wants the impossible from you. And if you can’t fulfill the impossible, what’s the point of trying? This can have a profound impact on our relationship with Allah. You can find some helpful definitions below.[^15] Please note: A lot of Islamic literature utilizes the words “guilt” and “shame” interchangeably. It is difficult to translate Arabic terminologies directly into English so although some Islamic publications may describe shame as a positive attribute, the way the author is typically defining this concept is in line with the definition of healthy guilt below. Whatever terminology is used, our main goal is to propel ourselves forward in strengthening our connection with Allah (swt) versus holding on to an emotional experience that pushes us further away from Him. **Healthy guilt** is a feeling of psychological discomfort about something we’ve done that is not in line with our personal values. We can use this to hold ourselves accountable and work toward positive changes. The key here is identifying the *behavior* as inappropriate, rather than identifying *yourself*, *as a person*, as the problem. Healthy guilt is similar to what the Prophet ﷺ described when he said, **“Consult your heart. Righteousness is that about which the soul feels at ease and the heart feels tranquil. And wrongdoing is that which wavers in the soul and causes uneasiness in the chest, even though people have repeatedly given their legal opinion \[in its favor\].**”[^16] **Unhealthy guilt** is a feeling of disproportionate psychological discomfort about something we’ve done against our irrationally high standards. This could be about something sinful or something completely benign like asking someone for help. **Shame** is an intensely painful feeling of being fundamentally flawed. We feel this because we see ourselves as unworthy and deeply flawed. Consider the different implications of these statements: **Healthy guilt:** *I’ve been feeling so down lately that I’ve been struggling to pray. I feel like it’s taking a toll on my relationship with Allah so I’m going to pray at least one prayer today since I know this is an obligation and I can feel good about fulfilling an obligation to Allah.* **Unhealthy guilt:** *I’ve been feeling so down lately that I’ve been struggling to pray. I **should** be able to do it all perfectly and if I can’t do it all perfectly, there’s no point in doing anything at all. If I can’t keep up with all my prayers, there **mustn’t** be any hope so I won’t bother doing any of them.* **Shame:** *I’ve been feeling so down lately that I’ve been struggling to pray. Allah **must** hate me since I can’t do anything right since I can’t even keep up with simple things. I **must** be a worthless person and a waste of space in the world.* A balanced, healthy feeling of guilt is an asset for us to be able to hold ourselves accountable.*‘*Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “Call your souls to account before you are called to account and weigh your souls (actions) before you are weighed, for it will make the accountability easier for you tomorrow if you call yourselves to account today.”[^17] Healthy guilt functions as a compass for our hearts and minds. Furthermore, healthy guilt reminds us of the benefits of repentance following a questionable choice we’ve made. Allah says in Surah az-Zumar, ***“Say: ‘O My slaves who have transgressed against themselves! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah, verily Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”***[^18] Here, we see a promise that Allah (swt) forgives every sin and that we are commanded to never despair of His Mercy. He does not expect perfection from us. He reminds us that things are not hopeless and that He believes us to be worthy of His Forgiveness even if we struggle to forgive ourselves. While being human necessitates imperfection, it is incredibly liberating to realize that it is not so much about our sins or our good deeds, but rather it is fundamentally about Who Allah is. We are hopeful, not because our shortcomings are small, but because Allah’s Mercy is so great. And we are hopeful, not because our repentance is so sincere that we deserve forgiveness, but because Allah’s Compassion is so vast and His Promise of forgiveness is true. Sometimes overemphasis on our mistakes causes us to forget the Magnificence and Mercy of the One who has promised to forgive these same mistakes when we sincerely turn to Him. Ask yourself these questions as you try to dismantle your “should” statements: **What rule or assumption are you struggling with right now?** *Example: I believe that my feelings of sadness mean that I must have weak iman.* **How does it affect your daily life?** *Example: I feel ashamed to ask Allah for help because I’m not good enough to deserve it. I can’t pray anymore because I feel worthless in the eyes of Allah and no matter what I do, I don’t think it will ever be enough.* **When did you first realize that this unspoken rule became a part of your life? How did you learn about it? What was happening when you first adopted it?** *Example: When I was younger, I was always told that Muslims never feel sad because they are always grateful to Allah, no matter what happens. My Sunday school teachers told me, “Iman and sadness cannot coexist in one heart.” So, when I felt sad, I assumed my iman disappeared.* **What are some of the advantages of this assumption? What are some of the disadvantages? (How does believing this “should” statement help you and how does it hurt you?)** *Example: Sometimes thinking this way pushes me to pray more, fast more, and read more Qur’an but I always end up going backward after a little while. Believing that my negative feelings mean that I have weak iman usually leads me to stop praying and stop making du’aa because I don’t feel like I’m worthy of being heard by Allah.* **What is a potential alternative rule/assumption/statement that would better suit you?** *Example: Allah created us with emotions for a purpose. Feelings of sadness are normal and acceptable. My emotional state does not define my spiritual relationship with Allah (swt) nor my ability to worship Him.* **How can you put this new and improved rule into practice in your daily life?** *Example: I can remind myself that the Prophets عليهم السلام all experienced difficult emotions and Allah loved them; therefore I can be loved by Allah too. I can still be close to Allah even when experiencing feelings of sadness.* It can be a struggle to move past the negativity you’re experiencing—so much so that you may begin defining yourself based on your struggles. Consider how you want to be defined. Do you want to define your relationship with Allah based on your current struggle or based on the potential closeness you can strive toward? Your relationship with Allah does not need to be defined by how you are feeling right at this moment. We often identify with our imperfections and the negative occurrences that surround us rather than focusing on our positive qualities and the things that are going right in our lives. Trials afflict good people too. And doubts, dips in *iman*, and negative thoughts affect good people as well. Don’t let the things that are going wrong define you. Never believe that you are beyond forgiveness; never underestimate the Mercy of Allah. Allah sees you and knows your heart, mind, and circumstances better than you know them yourself. He knows your struggles. Allow your positive choices moving forward to define you and to define your relationship with Allah. --- ## Inspirational Hadiths for Reflection: *The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah has recorded good and bad deeds and He made them clear. Whoever intends to perform a good deed but does not do it, then Allah will record it as a complete good deed. If he intends to do it and does so, then Allah the Exalted will record it as ten good deeds up to seven hundred times as much or even more. If he intends to do a bad deed and does not do it, then Allah will record for him one complete good deed. If he does it, then Allah will record for him a single bad deed.”*[^19] *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah Almighty says: Whoever comes with a good deed will have the reward of ten like it and even more. Whoever comes with an evil deed will be recompensed for one evil deed like it or he will be forgiven. Whoever draws close to Me by the length of a hand, I will draw close to him by the length of an arm. Whoever draws close to Me by the length of an arm, I will draw close to him by the length of a fathom. Whoever comes to Me walking, I will come to him running. And whoever meets Me with enough sins to fill the earth, not associating any idols with Me, I will meet him with as much forgiveness.”*[^20] While Allah (swt) counts our sins once and multiplies our good deeds at least 10 times, we tend to do the opposite. The “shoulds” that dictate our lives tend to erase the efforts that we put forth and focus solely on the end-results. Yet, as we see in these hadiths, Allah (swt) rewards us tremendously for our efforts and, rather than emphasizing our shortcomings, emphasizes our perpetual ability to get closer to Him and receive His Forgiveness. --- ## Practical Exercise: A. Damaging Thought Trajectory The first step in addressing our negative thought processes is identifying them. Use this template to consider the “should” statement you are saying to yourself and how it impacts your thought patterns.  “Should” Statement: I should… or I shouldn’t… *Example: I should never snap at my children.* *Example: My wife shouldn’t complain all the time.*  *↓* If I don’t fulfill this, then that would mean…. *Example: If I snap at my children, it would mean I’m not a good mother.* *Example: If my wife complains, it means she’s an unhappy person.* *↓* If that is true, then it would mean this about me… *Example: If it is true that I’m not a good mother, then I am a complete failure.* *Example: If it is true that my wife is unhappy, then I’m incapable of making her happy which means we should get divorced.* B. Healthy Guilt, Unhealthy Guilt, and Shame Consider the “should” statement you wrote above. Does your thought trajectory lead you to healthy guilt that propels you toward positive change, unhealthy guilt that is due to unattainably high standards or shame that makes you feel hopeless and worthless? Write down your “should” statement and write down how it can be interpreted through the different lenses of healthy guilt, unhealthy guilt, and shame. **“Should” Statement:** **Healthy Guilt:** A feeling of psychological discomfort about something we’ve done that is objectively wrong. We feel this when we act in a way that breaks objective standards of moral behavior. We can use this to hold ourselves accountable and work toward positive changes. The key here is identifying the *behavior* as inappropriate, rather than identifying *you*, *as a person*, as the problem. **Unhealthy Guilt:** A feeling of psychological discomfort about something we’ve done against our irrationally high standards. We may feel this when we act in a way that fails to meet irrational standards of behavior developed early in childhood to please an adult. **Shame:** An intensely painful feeling of being fundamentally flawed. We feel this because we see ourselves as unworthy and deeply flawed. C. Dismantling “Should” Statements: Ask yourself these questions as you try to dismantle your “should” statements: **What rule or assumption are you struggling with right now?** **How does it affect your daily life?** **When did you first realize that this unspoken rule became a part of your life? How did you learn about it? What was happening when you first adopted it?** **What are some of the advantages of this assumption? What are some of the disadvantages? (How does believing this “should” statement help you and how does it hurt you?)** **What is a potential alternative rule/assumption/statement that would better suit you?** **How can you put this new and improved rule into practice in your daily life?** --- ## Case Revisited *As Khadeejah’s grief continued to impact her ability to function on a daily basis, she reached out to a therapist and finally had the opportunity to process her emotions in a safe, non-judgmental space. As she began to feel validated, she realized that the sudden loss of her friend had been a traumatic experience for her and she had never allowed herself to fully explore it.* *Khadeejah also discovered that her thought processes surrounding her expectations of how she “should” feel in response to Amina’s death were causing her to suffer even more. She realized that her “should” statements were preventing her from grieving fully and that she couldn’t move forward without addressing them. Khadeejah also realized that her “should” statements were causing her to pull away from her relationship with Allah, which was something she used to rely on for support. Through exploration with her therapist, she realized that her “should” statements resulted in a sense of unhealthy guilt and shame. Khadeejah thought, “My iman should be stronger. I’m still feeling sad so I must be weak and a bad Muslim. I should suck it up and move on.” Khadeejah had been holding herself to an impossible standard—the idea that it was not ok to feel sad anymore is unrealistic for anyone who has lost someone important to them. Furthermore, she viewed her grief as an indication that something was wrong with her, as a person and as a Muslim. This caused her to move further away from Allah due to shame and exacerbated her depression.* *Through understanding the impact her negative thoughts were having on her emotions, spirituality, and functioning, Khadeejah chose to dismantle her “should” statements. She realized she had been taught that sadness indicated a lack of contentment and a questioning of Allah’s decree. After changing her expectations to more realistic ones, Khadeejah realized that accepting Allah’s decree and feeling sad are not mutually exclusive and she worked to create new rules and expectations for her life moving forward. Khadeejah determined that Allah (swt) provided her with emotions and experiencing strong emotions during important moments in her life was ok. She also decided that she would no longer allow unrealistic expectations of herself to dictate her relationship with Allah and began to view her struggle as an opportunity to gain closeness to Him.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Lincoln, L. J. (2017). *Reclaiming banished voices: Stories on the road to compassion*. Bloomington, IN: Balboa Press, p. 95. [^2]: *Saheeh al-Bukhari* 1303. [^3]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy*. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^4]: *Sahih Muslim* 2664. [^5]: Cashwell, C. S., Bentley, P. B., & Yarborough, J. P. (2007). The only way out is through: The peril of spiritual bypass. *Counseling and Values*, *51*, 139-148. doi: [10.1002/j.2161-007X.2007.tb00071.x](https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.2007.tb00071.x) [^6]: Qur’an 15:97-98. [^7]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* 3874. [^8]: Worden, J. W. (2009). *Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner* (4th ed.). New York, NY, US: Springer Publishing Company. [^9]: Engel, G. (1961). Is grief a disease? A challenge for medical research. *Psychosomatic Medicine*, *2*, 18–22. [^10]: Shin, L. M., Orr,  S. P., Carson M. A., et al. (2004). Regional cerebral blood flow in the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex during traumatic imagery in male and female Vietnam veterans with PTSD. *Archives of General Psychiatry*, *61*, 168–176. [^11]: Buades-Rotger, M., Beyer, F., & Krämer, U. M. (2017). Avoidant responses to interpersonal provocation are associated with increased amygdala and decreased mentalizing network activity. *eNeuro*, *4*(3), ENEURO.0337-16.2017. doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0337-16.2017. [^12]: Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C., Wasserman, R. H., Gray, J. R., Greve D. N., et al. (2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. *NeuroReport*, *16*, 1893–1897. [^13]: Newberg, A., Pourdehnad, M., Alavi, A., & d’Aquili, E. G. (2003). Cerebral blood flow during meditative prayer: Preliminary findings and methodological issues. *Perceptual and Motor Skills*, *97*(2), 625–630. doi:10.2466/pms.2003.97.2.625 [^14]: Semple, W. E., Goyer, P. F., McCormick, R., et al. (2000). Higher brain blood flow at amygdala and lower frontal cortex blood flow in PTSD patients with comorbid cocaine and alcohol abuse compared to controls. *Psychiatry*, *63*, 65–74. doi:10.1080/00332747.2000.11024895 [^15]: The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (2018, April) *Guilt vs. Shame*. Retrieved from URL: https://www.nicabm.com/guilt-vs-shame/ [^16]: *40 Hadith an-Nawawi* 27. [^17]: *Ahmad* (Az-Zuhd 2/30). [^18]: Qur’an 39:53. [^19]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 6491. [^20]: *Sahih Muslim* 2687. ## Summary # Grief Is Not a Sign of Weak Faith When a believer is struck by the loss of someone dear, the pain can feel like being caught in a violent storm upon an endless ocean—waves crashing, moments of false calm, and unexpected triggers that revive the anguish. Such is the nature of grief, and it is important to understand that these overwhelming emotions are not, in themselves, a sign of a deficiency in one's *iman* or a discontentment with the decree of Allah. Loss is often a form of trauma, and it can shake the very things we once considered certain about ourselves, our capabilities, and even our faith. To feel this pain does not mean that one has failed as a Muslim. Indeed, grief has touched even the noblest of creation, the Prophets of Allah (عليهم السلام). Consider Prophet Ya'qub (عليه السلام), whose sorrow over the loss of his son Yusuf (عليه السلام) was so intense that his eyesight faded from weeping. Allah records his state in the Qur'an: *"And he said, 'Oh, my sorrow over Yusuf,' and his eyes became white from grief because of the sorrow that he suppressed"* (Surat Yusuf 12:84). Likewise, when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ lost his young son Ibrahim, his eyes shed tears. When 'Abdur Rahman bin 'Awf expressed surprise, saying, "O Allah's Apostle, even you are weeping!" the Prophet ﷺ replied, "O Ibn 'Awf, this is mercy." He then wept more and said, *"The eyes are shedding tears and the heart is grieved, and we will not say except what pleases our Lord. O Ibrahim! Indeed we are grieved by your separation."* If the most beloved of Allah's creation grieved openly, and Allah did not reprimand His Messenger ﷺ for doing so, then how can one attribute the natural experience of sorrow to a weakness in faith? Emotions were created by Allah and serve a purpose; to tell oneself that one "shouldn't" feel a certain way is to deny an essential part of what Allah has placed within us. A common source of unnecessary suffering lies in an unhealthy thinking pattern known as "should statements"—the use of rigid words such as "should," "ought," and "must" to construct unattainable standards for ourselves and others. These lead to pressure, resentment, and constant dissatisfaction, closely resembling the mentality of "if only." Against this way of thinking, the Prophet ﷺ instructed: *"...Seek help from Allah and do not lose heart, and if anything (in the form of trouble) comes to you, don't say: If only I had not done that, it would not have happened so and so, but say: Allah did that what He had ordained to do and your 'if' opens the (gate) for Satan."* When a grieving believer tells herself, "I should be over this by now," or "My iman must be weak, so I must be a bad Muslim," she plants the seeds of a destructive cycle in which negative thoughts breed negative emotions, which in turn produce harmful behaviors—including withdrawal from Allah Himself. People often cope with painful emotions in unhealthy ways: pushing feelings aside, distracting themselves, wearing a false smile, or even turning to intoxicants. Another common error is *rationalization*, whereby the mind connects two unrelated things—such as linking one's sadness to a supposed lack of faith—when no true connection exists. Those around us may also engage in *spiritual bypassing*, using religious ideas to avoid confronting genuine emotional wounds, telling the sufferer, "You must not be praying hard enough." While there is undeniable truth that prayer brings comfort—for Allah told His Prophet ﷺ, *"We know how your heart is distressed at what they say. But celebrate the praises of your Lord, and be of those who prostrate themselves in adoration"* (Surah al-Hijr)—we must also recognize that trauma and fleeting sadness are not the same. Allah has provided many means of healing alongside our connection with Him. As the Prophet ﷺ said, *"Allah has sent down both the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically, but use nothing unlawful."* Just as a cancer patient prays yet also undergoes treatment, one wounded emotionally may need appropriate care in addition to worship. There is also a physiological reality at work. Grief is a healthy response to loss, likened by Dr. George Engel to the healing of a physical wound; if the wound is not allowed to heal properly, complications—including trauma—may follow. When trauma dysregulates the central nervous system, a person is thrust into "survival mode," and the prefrontal cortex—the rational, decision-making part of the brain—effectively shuts down, while the "danger activation center" (including the amygdala) dominates. This explains why some struggle to worship or focus during times of extreme stress, even though they rationally know that prayer, *du'aa'*, and reflection upon the Qur'an would help. Focused, mindful prayer—akin to *khushoo'*—can activate the prefrontal cortex and shift a person toward calm, but traumatic reminders make such focus difficult. Therefore, one's struggle to feel uplifted in prayer during grief is not an indication of the state of the heart, but of the state of a brain enduring pain. It is essential to distinguish between three inner states. *Healthy guilt* is discomfort over a specific action misaligned with our values, which holds us accountable and moves us toward positive change—identifying the *behavior*, not the self, as the problem. This resembles the Prophet's ﷺ words: *"Consult your heart. Righteousness is that about which the soul feels at ease and the heart feels tranquil. And wrongdoing is that which wavers in the soul and causes uneasiness in the chest..."* 'Umar ibn al-Khattab likewise advised, "Call your souls to account before you are called to account." *Unhealthy guilt*, by contrast, arises from irrationally high standards, and *shame* is the intensely painful sense of being fundamentally flawed and unworthy. Guilt targets the deed; shame condemns the person and drives one away from Allah in despair. Yet despair has no place in the heart of a believer, for the mercy of Allah is vast. He says in Surah az-Zumar: *"Say: 'O My slaves who have transgressed against themselves! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah, verily Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'"* Our hope rests not on the smallness of our shortcomings but on the greatness of Allah's mercy. The Prophet ﷺ conveyed that Allah records the intention of a good deed as a full good deed, and multiplies its performance from ten to seven hundred times or more, while a single sin is recorded as one—or forgiven. He ﷺ also related that Allah says: *"Whoever draws close to Me by the length of a hand, I will draw close to him by the length of an arm... And whoever meets Me with enough sins to fill the earth, not associating any idols with Me, I will meet him with as much forgiveness."* While we tend to magnify our sins and erase our efforts, Allah does the opposite—rewarding effort abundantly and emphasizing our perpetual ability to draw near to Him. The path forward, then, is to identify and dismantle these "should" statements, replacing them with realistic and merciful expectations. Accepting Allah's decree and feeling sadness are not mutually exclusive. The Prophets (عليهم السلام) experienced difficult emotions and were beloved to Allah; so too can one be loved by Allah while grieving. One's emotional state does not define one's spiritual relationship with Allah nor one's capacity to worship Him. Rather than allowing trials, doubts, and dips in *iman*—which afflict righteous people as well—to define you, allow your positive choices moving forward to define your relationship with Allah, never underestimating His mercy, for He knows your heart and circumstances better than you know them yourself. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/ancestral-knowledge-and-american-muslims-rooting-cultural-resistance-in-islam # Is it Cultural or Religious? The Role of Culture in Islam **Authors:** Dr. Muhammad Khalifa, Dr. Omar Suleiman, Dr. James Wright, Dr. Nimo Abdi **Topics:** Culture, Family & Community **Tags:** Black Heritage, Black History Month, Paper, Publication **Published:** February 21, 2019 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 > *We’re anti-evil, anti-oppression, anti-lynching. You can’t be anti- those things unless you’re also anti- the oppressor and the lyncher. You can’t be anti-slavery and pro-slavemaster; you can’t be anti-crime and pro-criminal. In fact, [Mr. Muhammad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad) teaches that if the present generation of whites would study their own race in the light of true history, they would be anti-white themselves.* > > \-El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) --- ## Introduction As with many of Malcolm’s statements before he left the Nation of Islam, most Muslims would find a way to extract the benefit of his words minus the Islamically objectionable portions and mention of Mr. Muhammad. Many Black American Muslims would find no objection to the substance of brother Malcolm’s words. Many American Muslims who find their roots connected more directly to Muslim-majority countries might ponder what it meant for their existence and longevity in this racialized space. And many White Muslim converts might walk away perplexed, trying to decipher their own representation and entanglement in his words. We reflect more deeply on such communal differences in this article, but there is something deeply profound about what Malcolm has placed on full display—indeed, his ability to indict White America based on deep knowledge of how racial oppression operated in his era, his ability to disentangle and recombine White racial identity and technologies of Colonial oppression, and perhaps most astutely, and certainly most notably, his unabashed articulate critiques of White supremacy, are all indicative of the presence of what we will refer to as “Ancestral Knowledge.” In this article, we discuss Ancestral Knowledge, and what it means for Muslims in the US. Generally speaking, **Ancestral knowledges** (AK) are systems of knowledge comprised of the ontologies, epistemologies, and written, oral, cultural ways of knowing, and spiritual traditions of indigenous peoples. As we work to define and share examples of the use of AK, we first draw a brief portrait of aspects of knowledge production in the context of Colonization. Contextualizing this history is necessary because of the wretched history of Western European Colonization, and in particular, their inferiorization of all other knowledges by describing them as primitive, anti-modern, and eventually obscure and invisible. Indeed, this includes minoritized people who have been relocated through either Colonization or Enslavement. Here, we consider ways in which hegemonic, Eurocentric ontologies and epistemologies marginalize those of minoritized peoples. As we push Ancestral Knowledge to the forefront of our own epistemological considerations and navigational needs, we use this article to emphasize several other points. One, that both the textual scriptures and historical practices within Islam have always maintained a deep tolerance, if not encouragement, of Ancestral Knowledge. Two, in the US, some public Muslim spaces (such as mosques and Islamic conferences) have been led by ethnocentrists (despite good intentions), who have been unable to understand (or unwilling to consider) how they hegemonize space by placing their own unique Ancestral Knowledges at the center of these spaces, generalizing the particular. So, in much the same way that White racial knowledge was invisibilized and thus became normal or standard knowledge, immigrant-based Ancestral Knowledge entered and became the standard in those Muslim spaces. “This is how we were taught” comments were often productions of local knowledge, based on unique histories, yet have been passed off as “Islamic knowledge.” Here, we suggest that immigrant-based Ancestral Knowledge is in and of itself not a problem, so long as it is identified and localized as a particular type of Ancestral Knowledge that may or may not be useful or even noteworthy in diverse Muslim public spaces. And three, we note that at a basic level, the Ancestral Knowledge of Indigenous Americans (African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans) should be valued much more than they currently are in Muslim spaces. This can serve as a call to take a much deeper look at the community-based epistemologies and Ancestral knowledges that these Indigenous groups possess and could help us navigate oppressive American arrangements—such as Coloniality, White supremacy, and Islamophobia. This is not a suggestion to exoticize or even appropriate indigenous Ancestral Knowledge, but more to elevate tremendous yet mostly unrecognized sources that have historically allowed these communities to survive and thrive. --- ## Cultural knowledge and lived experiences within Islam Islam not only refutes any suggestion that diversity is a weakness, it encourages us as individuals and societies to tap into the greatest strengths that God has uniquely placed in a people. The Qur’an refers to diversity of language, skin color, and culture as a sign for people of knowledge.[^1] Just as it encourages us to identify our unique personalities and excel therein,[^2] it encourages nations and peoples to tap into their cultural and individual strengths and use them to attain the noble goals made pristine through Islam. We are to take those cultures and “get to know one another” in a way that is mutually beneficial.[^3] This is evident in the many books written by early Islamic scholars on the virtues of cultures and tribes under titles such as *The Virtues of the People of Greater Syria* by Ibn Taymiyyah[^4] and *Illuminating the Darkness: The Virtues of Black People and Ethiopia* by Ibn Al Jawzee.[^5] As Islam spread throughout the world, the Ummah was enriched through the various cultures it interacted with as Islam sought to enhance rather than erase the goodness of what was within those cultures. In that sense, Islam is like a filtration system with everything that it interacts with. The beneficial comes through and the harmful remains behind. Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah beautifully sums this up, writing, “For centuries, Islamic civilization harmonized indigenous forms of cultural expression with the universal norms of its sacred law. It struck a balance between temporal beauty and ageless truth and fanned a brilliant peacock’s tail of unity in diversity from the heart of China to the shores of the Atlantic…In history, Islam showed itself to be culturally friendly and, in that regard, has been likened to a crystal clear river. Its waters (Islam) are pure, sweet, and life-giving but—having no color of their own—reflect the bedrock (indigenous culture) over which they flow.” [^6] When Salman the Persian embraced Islam, he wasn’t diminished in his cultural richness. He wasn’t Arabized or viewed as less because he was not Arab, nor was his culture fetishized in ways that brought no benefit to his non-Persian companions. Rather he was embraced in the fullness of his experiences and was invited to participate in maximizing the potential of this Ummah. When we think of embracing culture, perhaps we only think of music, clothing, and food. But Salman’s contribution was most notable in his suggesting a Persian tactic of building a ditch around the city of Madinah to protect it from the Makkan onslaught as his people used to do the same against the Romans.[^7] This suggests that the Prophet ﷺ and his companions valued Salman’s knowledge and lived experiences. There are those who suggest that to engage anything beyond the Qur’an and Sunnah is to suggest that Islam as a religion or divine revelation is insufficient or incomplete. This assertion falls short in many respects. Firstly, the maxim in Islamic jurisprudence is that all things are permissible unless proven otherwise (except in creedal matters).[^8] Secondly, we are not suggesting that Islam is a religion of no solutions or frameworks but that the brilliance of Islam is that the frameworks don’t negate what benefits exist in other ideas so long as they do not contradict what is established by divine sources. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Malcolm X, for example, famously stated upon returning from the Hajj in 1964 that Islam had the solution to racism. That, however, did not stop him from continuing to act upon what he benefited from before he embarked on his journey that was still congruent with his Islamic orthodoxy and productive for his community. He didn’t stop being African American. Malcolm found peace in the explicit anti-racism traditions and frameworks that did not need to be extrapolated out of ambiguous scripture on equality in other systems, yet he found success in implementing much of what was beneficial before and after he and his message were refined through the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Those who speak of the Qur’an and the Sunnah as only a set of laws that limit, rather than a source of ethics and values that empower us to grow ourselves and our societies to their maximum potential do a great injustice to the sources they claim to defend. Articulations that knowledge outside of strict text is of no benefit are not only incorrect and problematic, but even destructive. Traditionally, such views rob the history of Islam of the great systems of *Maqasid*, *Usul*, *Qawaaid*, and *Ijtihad* that articulated the everlasting Macro goals of Islam in a way that could be executed with full potential at the Micro level given evolving contexts. --- ## A contemporary example on education This might be best understood by taking a contemporary issue that is ubiquitously discussed in the US, but generally not addressed by most US Muslim communities—the School-to-Prison-Pipeline (SPP). Briefly, the SPP is a phrase that refers to the systematic disciplining and eventually removal of Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth from school. They are disciplined—in both formal and informal ways—much more often than their White classmates who commit the same offenses.[^9] Because of the use of School Resource Officers (school-based police) and legal court citations, these school discipline practices have become an entry point for minoritized youth into the Prison-Industrial-Complex. Thus, the SPP is quickly becoming one of the greatest human rights injustices occurring in the US at this very moment—one that surely Muslims should condemn. By and large, Muslim leaders appear to be unaware of the SPP, its structures, nuances, and ramifications; if they are aware of it, they have been very silent. Yet, the US Department of Education and the federal Office of Civil Rights have found that this is a systemic and widespread problem, impacting the long-term life chances of millions of minoritized students. Moreover, neither “policies” or “laws” are the biggest causes of the SPP, nor have they contributed to reforms or fixes of the SPP.  Rather, it is the practices of educators who really need reeducation in liberatory pedagogical practices, hegemonic epistemology, and in-service development that would give them the tools to accomplish this. How is it that Islamic objectives are so emphatic about justice for the weak and the mandate to provide access to knowledge to all people, yet Muslims are ostensibly silent on one of *the* premier civil rights issues for young people of our time? While the macro commitment from Islam (i.e., the major objectives of Islamic Law such as preservation of intellect, wealth, and even humanity), would apply, at the micro-level, Ancestral Knowledge—a historically situated, embodied knowledge—has much to offer and could be tremendously beneficial to Muslims in the US. Blacks and Indigenous people in the US have used embodied knowledge—such as community-based resistances, which informed organizational systems and structures—for centuries to confront White supremacy. While there are plenty of Islamic ethics to draw from in addressing broader issues of oppression, how do we translate those ethics into specific mechanisms to lead schools, expose hegemony and oppression, reshift power, recenter minoritized student epistemology, and perhaps pass a few new policies? Most of what would need to happen in liberal democracies like the US will never be addressed through new policies or laws of any type. Most often, these are epistemological questions, where notions of oppressive and racializing discourse come into sharp focus. --- ## Is Western knowledge sufficient? Over the years, many Muslims have embedded themselves within various anti-oppression organizations. It is not uncommon to hear young Muslims say, “Well, since the Muslims are inactive on this issue, and since there is no relevant ‘Islamic knowledge,’ let me stand with one of the organizations already involved in fighting injustice.” Though we strongly encourage involvement on specific issues with organizations like the NAACP, the ACLU, American Immigration Council, and like organizations, many completely rely on Westernized approaches to addressing problems caused by Western colonial projects and give almost no attention to anything non-Western as a possible approach to remedying something such as the SPP. This is highly problematic and suggests to us that Muslims have no clear way of understanding our genius in fighting injustices, navigating contexts, and leading the way forward. Moreover, it suggests that the actual remedies of these Western-initiated problems can be addressed vis-à-vis Western critical approaches. Until now, this has not worked and a growing number of educators would actually welcome Ancestral Knowledges that found their beginnings in some Muslim communities (such as, those formed within Black proto-Islamic movements). It is here that we more closely examine the utility of Western knowledge, its move to inferiorize all non-Western and non-White knowledge (i.e., Ancestral Knowledge that many Muslims hold) and the role of power in privileging Western knowledge. --- ## Is one culture superior? Ancestral knowledge is deeply connected to power and, specifically, who has the power to put their knowledge forward as *standardized* knowledge. One example is how we conceptualize and talk about *culture*. In most of our minds, this comes down to food, language, and dress, and occasionally a concrete behavior that represents *culture*. For example, many Muslims discussing culture mention the *hadith* in which Umar رضي الله عنه moved to stop some of the Ethiopian companions from dancing with their spears in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ stopped ‘Umar رضي الله عنه from intervening and allowed them to continue with their dance and cultural activities.[^10] The lesson for most of us is that Umar رضي الله عنه and the Arabs do one thing, and the Africans do another and let us all get along in the same space. But the Prophet ﷺ was also creating a space that truly validated and embraced people in their cultures, placing them all on an equal spectrum. And he led by example himself ﷺ when he attempted to speak different languages to the children from those varied communities and familiarized himself with their rich cultures. Just imagine if Muslim leaders in the US emphasized this as it pertains to power and were, therefore, willing to deal with the various types of hierarchies of power that exist in racialized and post-colonial spaces. Perhaps then we would not have the type of white/brown supremacy and ethnocentrism that we sometimes see in Muslim public spaces in the US today, even if it is entirely unintentional. The only unquestioned power that should exist is the power of the Qur’an and the Sunnah and scholarship that interprets on that basis. However, assumptions about what is closer to the Qur’an and Sunnah are often based upon how familiar practices are to the dominant group in a Mosque who usually come from a Muslim-majority country. As Dr. Sherman Jackson writes, “Immigrant Islam embodies the habit of *universalizing the particular*. It enshrines the historically informed expressions of Islam in the modern Muslim world as the standard of normativeness for Muslims everywhere. In fact, it equates its *understanding* of Islam itself with a simple, unmediated *perception* of an undifferentiated ontological reality. On this approach, “true Islam” can only assume one form anywhere it goes. And in this process, Immigrant Islam’s interpretations are effectively placed beyond critique via the tacit denial that they are in fact interpretations.”[^11] This makes it unable to transfer any form of “self-authentication to Blackamerican Muslims. As a result, the latter are forced to proceed without the power or possibility of self-authentication, which leaves them to process their black, American reality through the prism of the real and/or imagined expectations of immigrant and overseas possessors of “true Islam.”[^12] ### Westernization and cultural epistemicide Given the central role of Power in determining whose knowledge is perceived to be credible, another concept we need to briefly discuss before we get to ancestral knowledge is **Colonization**. It is *not* possible for us to properly value ancestral knowledge without deeply interrogating Westernization and the colonized and racialized context that intentionally and unintentionally suffocates ancestral knowledge, what some scholars refer to as Cultural Epistemicide;[^13] i.e., the systematic destruction of an indigenous knowledge base. Walter Mignolo explains Westernization as the privileging and *canonization* of specific, Western knowledge and perspectives:[^14] - Knowledge is controlled by disavowing some, and privileging other, types of knowledge; - The disavowal of non-western perspectives and epistemology has been engaged with widely across academia;[^15],[^16]  - This has meant the privileging of Western Epistemological constructs that construct and name certain cultures, identities, and people. Before we dive into conversations about Ancestral Knowledge, it is important to understand why we often are not able to recognize AK and its value. Understanding colonization, in all its manifestations and continuously reproductive occurrences, is absolutely crucial in understanding the context of colonial knowledge. **Settler-colonialism** is a type of colonialism that maintains a material, imperial authority and presence in a population that is not indigenous to the colonizer. For example, the French left Gabon and so while elements of Colonization remain, it is not a settler-colonial society. However, Europeans never left the US, and so the US *is* still in that respect a settler-colonial society. In such spaces, all forms of land, economic resources, intellectual resources, and most importantly, human bodies and capital, are situated to deliver all wealth to the Western, global Capitalist state. Sadly, there are some settler societies in which it is nearly impossible to clearly see a path back. Mechanics and technologies, like surveillance, encomienda or forced slavery, depopulation, physical hierarchies, schools, standardized tests, and pathways to assimilation are all used to maintain colonial State control. These can be taken up in future research studies but are beyond the scope of our engagement here. **Coloniality.** Extending the conversation of colonialism and its contemporary impact can be illuminated with what Anibal Quijano[^17] and Walter Mignolo[^18] refer to as the *Coloniality of Power*, or simply, Coloniality. The concept of coloniality is undergirded by the interrelationship of European colonialisms’ legacies, practices, social orders and forms of knowledge, and their modern impact in social and organizational practices and norms. Coloniality is a perspective that identifies the legacy of colonization in modern societies, which includes post-colonial forms of social discrimination that are prevalent and pervasive today. Coloniality conceptualizes that popular thought, literature, educational curricula, media and art, and even critical theory and thought (if you are not careful) are its derivatives. Coloniality is conceptualized as permeating almost every single social system present in the US, including the organizing principles and leadership behaviors of most organizations, racial hierarchies in the US, and cultural systems that value Eurocentric hierarchies of economic and knowledge production and transmission. But why would we, as Muslims, accept this for ourselves? Should we not resist such oppression? Are we even aware that this is happening? How absurd is it for us to be putting forth our strongest effort on an issue such as Islamophobic bullying in school, to ignore our own knowledges and capacities on an issue only to end up fighting for another strand of the very thing we resist? Many of the scholars that we are pulling from today, in particular, Anibal Quijano and Walter Mignolo, discuss Coloniality in tandem with the concept of Modernity. According to Mignolo, coloniality emerged as a new structure of power as Europeans colonized the Americas and built on the ideas of Western civilization and modernity as the endpoints of historical time and Europe as the center of the world. Coloniality is the darker side of Western modernity, a complex matrix of power created and controlled by Western men and institutions from the Renaissance, then driven by “Christian” theology through the late twentieth century and the dictates of neoliberalism.[^19] What Mignolo is saying is this: conversations about why Muslims needed to be modern were directly entangled with the West’s need to define and control all subaltern people, including Muslims. “Modernity” requires this: give up everything that defines you if you want to be rational and ultimately successful in the world today. It is not just, or even primarily, about technological transformation. It’s epistemological, historical, and cultural. And so the process of characterizing Western civilization as modern, advanced, and progressive, while all others including Islam are somehow deficient, backward, and subhuman in some way led directly to particular hierarchies within Western spaces (and their global reach, even into the global South). Here are just a few examples of how this happened: - ***Orientalism*** of Arabs and South Asians: decline, degradation, decadence, but at the same time loyalty underlain with treachery.[^20]  - ***Tropicalization*** of people from the Caribbean: exotic, heathenish and relaxed, full and voluptuous, all in one.[^21]  - ***Primitivism*** of people in Africa: savage, childlike, tribal, libidinous, irrational, fecund, close to nature, innocent, and clearly underdeveloped, cultural underdevelopment intertwined with danger, savagery, and irrational violence.[^22] Whatever characterization needed to effectively colonize a people has always been deployed through media vehicles and education systems. So in the past, as Muslims have attempted to grapple with these realities, they have tended to rely on Qur’anic verses that deal with the People of the Book. The challenge is that Coloniality is a far more precise explanation of US foreign/colonial policy behaviors than religion. The United States Government is directly responsible for the death of more than six African presidents/prime ministers; the United States Government is responsible for the removal of many dozens of World leaders, primarily non-Muslims. This is just on the African continent. The United States Government attempted to kill Fidel Castro between 100-200 times. This is an ongoing saga of Coloniality. So, by not using a verse about religious oppression in concert with other verses to explain our current context, much is lost. Therefore, Coloniality and global capitalist structures are oppressive not only toward Muslims but toward everyone. In sum, we are not dealing with injustice here in the US because it is a “Christian” nation as much as we are because it is a Settler-Colonial nation with ubiquitous structures of coloniality. So here we are, not merely citizens of Colonial empires, as we are social and political agents of Coloniality. So how would we deal with oppressive systems that on the one hand cannot be explained through verses about Christianity, and are not *specifically* responded to through Islamic texts? Allah says: > *We sent aforetime our messengers with Clear Signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of Right and Wrong), that men may stand forth in justice.*[^23] We turn to Qur’anic verses like this and many others like it that demonstrate a clear commitment to justice. Yet, if Muslims do not understand how uniquely US-style oppression, power, or privilege operate in the US, and thus likely are facilitators of it, how can they understand a modern phenomenon like the *School-to-Prison-Pipeline*? Moreover, if there are no specific Islamic texts about schooling or oppressive practices within school systems, are we not called by our religion to interrogate such a problem using our pristine Islamic ethics? It is here that we turn toward Ancestral Knowledge as a part of the solution. --- ## Ancestral Knowledge So just what is ancestral knowledge? Ancestral knowledge speaks to epistemologies, everything that a person carries with them, as they interpret the world. Discourses, literature, language, any readings, personal experiences with cops, movies, comic strips, gender, disability, and race, among literally hundreds of other things, all impact one’s epistemology. AK encompasses those age-old cultural practices; that sage wisdom; those idioms, lines of poetry, and even discourses, that have been used to uphold cultural, *and religious*, practices over centuries. Described as “backward” and discarded in favor of false promises of modernity, ancestral knowledge is co-constructed and reshaped in new lands and even in Western communities. In other words, ancestral knowledge, while informed by our ancestors, is a living knowledge: it is embodied within the people who carry it forward. It is an embodied knowledge that iteratively impacts our very ontological principles. So this need to excavate and reclaim our ancestral knowledges comes on the heels of centuries of erasure and smothering, stigmatizing and othering, and then invisibilizing the fact that this very epistemicide occurred. **Indeed, traditional Islamic knowledge informs and even in some instances, dictates, ancestral knowledge. And in all cases, it must regulate our ancestral knowledge.** So when Quraysh and the early Makkans invoked their ancestors as validators of their polytheism, that was challenged by divine revelation and the fact that their truest ancestral knowledge was, in fact, one of monotheism (i.e., Abraham and the intentions behind the original construction of the Kaaba). And some ancestral knowledges—ontologies and epistemologies—were deemed entirely incompatible with Islam, such as the pre-eternality of the world among the Greeks, the practice of fortune-telling via soothsaying among the pagan Arabs, the practices of the occult/magic, etc. The Prophet ﷺ, however, continued to cite poetry from the days of ignorance that contained great wisdom and that did not contradict divine sources. He also praised good examples of people from the past and encouraged tribes to channel their unique strengths through the filter of Islam to benefit the Muslim community. Islam has always allowed for the use of any type of knowledge, including ancestral knowledge, that is beneficial to us, as long as there are no specific regulations to *not* do so. Ancestral knowledge has been neglected by different segments within the community for different reasons. Some segments seem to have been programmed to reject everything non-Western, critiquing first-generation immigrants exude a particular Muslim worldliness. At the other extreme, others hide within discourses of ‘tradition,’ rejecting any and every thing that they have not well studied and that does not fit perfectly in what they believe to be tradition. This approach assumes that Islamic tradition cannot engage current realities. But in this approach, we are giving up much. In the US, when we reject ancestral knowledge, we are denying knowledge from legendary luminaries that could teach American Muslims much: from the great Hunkpapa Lakota leader, Sitting Bull, who mounted deep resistance to American Imperialism, to Frederick Douglass’ abolitionist articulations, to Fannie Lou Hammers’ organizing, to W. E. B. DuBois’ willingness to dream about Negro art as he asked: “Suppose the fight for equality is won. He asks: “What do we want? What is the thing we are after?” Thus, we believe that a re-identification and reclamation of ancestral knowledge is important because of our need to exist in this space with dignity, with safety, and with humanization. Ancestral knowledge has also been preserved and passed on by people who no longer live on their ancestral homeland. For example, as many Indigenous nations in the US were forced into other areas of the US, and as Africans were enslaved in the US and Latin America, they maintained varying levels of their ancestral knowledge, which also evolved and adapted to new environments. Indeed, ancestral knowledge is structured to push against hegemonic, Eurocentric epistemologies and has the potential to actually assist in returning us and others to the Islamic tradition in ways that will improve/authenticate/beautify our faith and equip us to survive the erasures and confusions of those same epistemologies. --- ## Ancestral knowledge is transported, hybridized, and appropriated Ancestral knowledges were often re-versioned and hybridized with the practices of other Indigenous communities, and even sometimes co-constructed with the Colonizers and Slave Owners.[^24],[^25] Moreover, Ancestral knowledges have been appropriated or outright plagiarized by Western Europeans.[^26],[^27] But at the same time, what Richard Wright would call the *Middle Ground*[^28]—or a type of hybridized, newly-constructed space wherein subaltern people become something new—via appropriation, or resistance, or even assimilation—is possible. Ancestral knowledge comes in here and helped people like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali push forth something not previously found in Africa, nor America—new forms of ancestral knowledge that ended up changing the world. --- ## Centering ancestral knowledge: A centerpiece for all students When considering Coloniality, “the dark side of Modernity,” and Ancestral knowledge, we need to be a bit forceful here. We must be willing to center ancestral knowledges not only as a way to resist oppression, but as a way to affirm ourselves, our epistemologies, and our worth in this space. For example, many educators understand types of Ancestral knowledge to be a subject within an elective class. Unfortunately, this understanding will continue to minoritize and exoticize Ancestral knowledge and rob us of the Africans’ and Arabs’ oral traditions housed in poetry, the memorization of the Qur’an and other mimetic approaches, rites of passage found in indigenous groups (both here in the US and in Africa), the definition of self through community empowerment found in subaltern people, etc. These are all ancestral knowledges with tremendous value, that are not merely pre-modern and exotic. Professor Christine Sleeter found that when New Zealand centered the Te Kotahitanga approach to schooling, with the premise that “what will work for Indigenous students works for everyone, but what works for ‘everyone’ does not necessarily work for Indigenous students”; all students, in particular the Indigenous but even Whites, grew and benefited.[^29] Ancestral knowledge being centered can help humanize the descendants of colonizers and slaveholders, which is beneficial to everyone. --- ## Our Islam, our full experiences, and our full potential As we close, let us return to our discussion on the School-to-Prison Pipeline. We mentioned that it is one of the most virulent types of oppression facing our young people today and Muslims are largely silent about it. Most of us are unable to extract from our religion the relevant lessons for us to address what is arguably one of the worst crimes of our time. The SPP is not merely about policy and obviously cannot be addressed merely through policy. That first- and second-generation non-indigenous Muslims are often not impacted does not matter, per the verse about justice that we cited above. But thus far, as Muslims who rely on the sacred tradition and texts, we have nothing for these millions of oppressed folks whom we live with side-by-side. Yet, we do have some traditions: African Americans have developed “Double consciousness” and “Black liberation theologies” and the “Nation of Islam” and “Black Lives Matter” and other forms of resistance which are unique epistemologies and forms of ancestral knowledge that were specifically developed to deal with the unique forms of oppression here. The question we must ask ourselves is do we only find within ourselves to critique this ancestral knowledge rather than offer any meaningful contributions or alternatives? So how can we make the most of ancestral knowledge and lived experiences as committed American Muslims? To recap: - Ancestral knowledge makes up the centerpiece of the epistemologies of Indigenous and Minoritized (including Muslim) students and to deny access to this is a deep form of oppression that continues to marginalize students in school. - Based on Western European forms of colonization, schools in the US were designed to eradicate all types of ancestral knowledge in the past and to prioritize Western European, Christian, capitalist epistemologies.   - Scholars of Coloniality argue that this attempted eradication of Ancestral knowledge is built within the structures of society, community, organization, and school and will automatically reproduce itself. Therefore we must all take an anti-oppressive stance by not only recognizing ancestral knowledge, but by promoting it and making it the centerpiece in how we lead, live, and engage. - Ancestral knowledge has the power to contest racial hierarchies and to resist new hierarchies that can find their way into our existing spaces. For example, a predominance and preoccupation with political, cultural, and social issues cherished by wealthier immigrant communities should not dictate our overall strategies as a Muslim community. This is literally driving so many disenfranchised converts right back out of Islam as fast as they entered it. We can use religious texts, but also ancestral knowledges, to resist new types of hierarchies that help stratify US mosques. In no way does this suggest that we should be anti-immigrant or not make room to celebrate the beautiful cultures and experiences found in our diverse Muslim community. It simply means we should not privilege one over the other, especially in the name of it being more Islamic when it's really just another expression or more expedient to one section of the community. - From a political perspective, we must realize that some of the worst victims of issues like the SPP are actually Muslims, just not the ones who usually represent us in mainstream spaces or are included in our strategies. And the politics of uplifting the oppressed is an  Islamic issue, whether the oppressed are indigenous or immigrants. This speaks to one of the bigger issues that comes from negating culture or the experiences of the indigenous. The ramifications of invisibilizing are not just seen in the cuisine of the Mosques in Ramadan but in the social and political agenda of the community. This isn’t only about hurt feelings due to exclusion from spaces but about actual harm done to communities intentionally or unintentionally as a result of that exclusion. - Ancestral knowledge is deeply ingrained within Indigenous, minoritized, people of color, but many of us do not know how to access this knowledge within our communities. And, most unfortunately, some of us actually use languages of “Modernity” to push and critique all ancestral knowledge out of the Muslim public space, while at the same time others of us act out our ancestral knowledge in hegemonic ways because they too cannot recognize it. - Many of the Muslims who have migrated to the United States struggle with their own ancestral knowledge, and unintentionally colonize other spaces with ideals even inauthentic to them. The result is not just fair and lovely cream playing into misguided standards of beauty, but colonizers' standards of civility and progress by which existing indigenous communities are judged. - The call to empower through ancestral knowledge doesn’t invalidate the immense heritage and experiences of our immigrant Muslim communities, nor should this be deemed an attack on them. The beneficial ancestral knowledge from those communities has led to major advancements in fields like education and medicine. Moreover, the emphasis on the building of Mosques, the consumption of *halal* food, and student organizing contribute to the strong identity of the community overall. Many of these things were based in resistance to occupations or attempted erasures of Muslims in the countries of origin of many Immigrant Muslim communities. - The Eurocentric erasure of the ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples and epistemologies is the same erasure that overtook Islamic discourse in Muslim-majority countries in the 18th century, forcing Muslims to operate with epistemological foundations that were incompatible with their own. - The suggestion of all this is not that Islam is insufficient or should merely provide a language to other ways of thinking, but that of the brilliance of Islam is that it invites experiences and explorations while offering both paradigms and parameters that help us develop from our origins, through our experiences, to our final goal of pleasing the Most High. Finally, we see an opportunity for ancestral knowledge to engage more deeply with traditional Islamic thought. Indeed, as Islam entered and intermeshed with civilizations across millions of square miles and hundreds of countries, it eventually did come to speak to and within cultural knowledges and histories. Remember, ancestral knowledge is embodied and can thus engage dialectically with Islamic law, jurisprudence, and its general ethos. We have argued in this paper that ancestral knowledge is historically-informed and locally-contested cultural knowledge that local peoples have always used to navigate, understand, resist, and reproduce local contexts. To act as though Islam is blind to or does not embrace this is to leave off part of the historical Islamic tradition itself. The examples of this are plentiful in the biography of the Prophet ﷺ and thereafter without being specific to one geographical context. How rich, yet different, are the legacies of Andalus, Persia, Timbuktu, the Ottomans, and the Uzbeks? So what does this mean specifically in the context of resistance and shared struggles? On this point, we return to Malcolm X and an instance in which he was challenged by a friend and mentor, Dr. Said Ramadan, on whether his message was truly even Islamic after Malcolm embraced orthodoxy. Said Ramadan: > *How could a man of your spirit, intellect, and worldwide outlook fail to see in Islam its main characteristic, from its earliest days, as a message that confirms beyond doubt the ethnological oneness and quality of all races,thus striking at the very root of the monstrosity of racism?*[^30] Malcolm X: > *My first responsibility is to my 22 million fellow black Americans who suffer the same indignities because of their color as I do. Much to my dismay, until now the Muslim world has seemed to ignore the problem of the Black American, and most Muslims who come here from the Muslim World have concentrated more effort in trying to convert white Americans than Black Americans. I should think the Muslim World would realize that the most fertile area for Islam in the West is the Black American. This in no way implies discrimination or racialism, but rather shows that we are intelligent enough to plant the good seed of Islam where it will grow best…later we can “doctor up” or fertilize the less fertile areas, but only after our crop is already well planted in the heart and mind of these Black Americans….If the Arab world fails to assert itself as the leader of the Muslims worldwide, other forces would rise to replace their power centers. ALLAH CAN EASILY DO THIS.*[^31] Malcolm loved the Muslims he met and benefited from around the world and actually publicly praised them. But privately he struggled to articulate both to Muslims worldwide and his fellow non-Muslims in the civil rights struggle at home how he saw no conflict in his identities as a Black American thought leader and a caller to Allah. Malcolm didn’t see that being an orthodox Muslim erased his struggle against White supremacist structures that domestically harmed Black people at home and Muslims worldwide through colonialism. He also didn’t see that his commitment to *Dawah* to Islam made him less sincere in his struggle for Black America as a whole. In fact, he sought to unite the plight of Africans against colonialism, the plight of Palestinians against the Zionist occupation, the plight of Muslims against increasing imperialism, and the plight of African Americans here at home in forming a comprehensive struggle against political, economic, and cultural Western domination. Here we see the genius of Islam in generating the most refined version of Malcolm. Islam purified Malcolm of the disease of racism in his own heart, while offering him paradigms to fight the racism that had harmed him and his people his entire life, while expanding his struggle to people beyond the borders of his nation, while making space for him to continue to sharpen his specific mechanisms of struggle against the structures that continued to wreak havoc against his people here in the United States. Hence, the 1964 post-Hajj Malcolm could articulate the following two statements without paradox: > *In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I never will be guilty of that again*—*as I know now that some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are capable of being brotherly toward a black man. The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites made blanket indictments against blacks.*[^32]  > > *It isn’t the American white man who is a racist, but it’s the American political, economic and social atmosphere that nourishes a racist psychology in the white man*.[^33] --- ## Notes [^1]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Ar-Rum 30:22. [^2]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman and Nazir Khan, “Souls Assorted: An Islamic Theory of Spiritual Personality,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, accessed February 20, 2019, https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/zohair/souls-assorted-an-islamic-theory-of-spiritual-personality/. [^3]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Al-Hujurat 49:13. [^4]: Ibn Taymiyya, “Faḍā’il Wa Manāqib Al-Shām,” Tarīq al-Islām, May 12, 2012, https://ar.islamway.net/article/10323 [^5]: Ibn al-Jawziyy, “Tanwīr Al-Ghabash Fī Faḍl Al-Sūdān Wa Al-Ḥabash,” Al-Maktaba al-shamila, 1998 1419, http://shamela.ws/index.php/book/5748. [^6]: Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, “Islam & The Cultural Imperative,” The Oasis Initiative, accessed February 20, 2019, https://www.theoasisinitiative.org/islam-the-cultural-imperative. [^7]: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Salmān Al-Fārisī | Companion of Muḥammad,” *Encyclopedia Britannica*, accessed February 20, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salman-al-Farisi. [^8]: “Few Basic Principles of Fiqh (Jurisprudence) – Peace Propagation Center,” accessed February 20, 2019, http://peacepropagation.com/few-basic-principles-of-fiqh-jurisprudence/. [^9]: [http://www.national-consortium.org/~/media/Microsites/Files/National%20Consortium/Conferences/2016/Materials/School-to-Prison-fact-sheet.ashx](http://www.national-consortium.org/~/media/Microsites/Files/National%20Consortium/Conferences/2016/Materials/School-to-Prison-fact-sheet.ashx) [^10]: Bukhari (2901) and Muslim (893) narrate that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Whilst the Abyssinians were playing with their spears in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), ‘Umar came in, and he bent down to pick up some pebbles to throw at them, but he said: “Let them be, O ‘Umar!” [^11]: Sherman A. Jackson, *Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the Third Resurrectio*n (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 12. [^12]: Ibid., 13. [^13]: Boaventura de Sousa Santos, *Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide* (Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2014), 92. [^14]: Walter D. Mignolo, *Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking*, Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), ix-xiii. [^15]: Ramón Grosfoguel, “The Dilemmas of Ethnic Studies in the United States: Between Liberal Multiculturalism, Identity Politics, Disciplinary Colonization, and Decolonial Epistemologies,” *Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge:* X, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 81–90. [^16]: Ramón Grosfoguel, “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities: Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century” XI, no. 1 (Fall 2013): 73–90. [^17]: Anibal Quijano, “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America,” *Nepantla: Views from South* 1, no. 3 (2000): 533–80. [^18]: Walter D. Mignolo, “Introduction: Coloniality of Power and de-Colonial Thinking,” *Cultural Studies* 21, no. 2–3 (2007): 155–67. [^19]: Walter D. Mignolo, *The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options*, 1 edition (Durham: Duke University Press Books, 2011). [^20]: Edward W. Said, *Orientalism*, 1st Vintage Books ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1979). [^21]: Anshuman Prasad, *Postcolonial Theory and Organizational Analysis: A Critical Engagement* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 156–57. [^22]: Ibid., 155. [^23]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Ḥadīd 57:25. [^24]: Paul Gilroy, “To Be Real: The Dissident Forms of Black Expressive Culture,” in *Let’s Get It On: The Politics of Black Performance* (Bay Press, 1995), 12–33. [^25]: Richard White, *The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). [^26]: Ramón Grosfoguel, “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities: Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century” XI, no. 1 (Fall 2013): 73–90. [^27]: Martin Bernal, *Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization* (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1987). [^28]: Hazel Rowley, *Richard Wright: The Life and Times*, 1st ed. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2001), 373. [^29]: Christine E. Sleeter, *White Bread: Weaving Cultural Past into the Present*, Social Fictions Series (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2015), 137. [^30]: Louis A. DeCaro, *On the Side of My People: A Religious Life of Malcolm X* (New York: New York University, 1996), 255. [^31]: Ibid., 256. [^32]: Malcolm X and Alex Haley, *The Autobiography of Malcolm X*, 1st Ballantine Books hardcover ed. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992), 369. [^33]: Ibid., 378. ## Summary Diversity among the peoples and cultures of the world is not, as some suppose, a defect to be erased, but a divine sign to be reflected upon. The Qur'an presents the differences of language and color as evidence for those endowed with knowledge, and it directs mankind toward mutual acquaintance—that we should "get to know one another" in a manner that is mutually beneficial. Just as the individual is encouraged to discover his particular strengths and excel through them, so too are nations and peoples invited to draw upon their cultural inheritances and channel them toward the noble ends made pure through Islam. This appreciation of cultural inheritance was not foreign to the early scholars of the religion, for they composed entire works praising the virtues of particular peoples, such as Ibn Taymiyyah's treatise on the virtues of the people of Greater Syria and Ibn al-Jawzī's work *Illuminating the Darkness: The Virtues of Black People and Ethiopia*. The learned Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah has likened Islam in its relationship to culture to a clear river whose waters are pure and life-giving, yet which take on the color of the bedrock over which they flow. Islam, in this understanding, functions as a filtration system: what is beneficial in a culture passes through, while what is harmful remains behind. When Salmān al-Fārisī embraced Islam, he was neither diminished in his cultural richness nor Arabized nor made to feel lesser for not being an Arab. His most celebrated contribution was not in matters of food or dress but in his counsel to dig a trench around Madinah for its defense—a Persian stratagem his people had employed against the Romans. That the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions accepted and acted upon this shows that they valued Salmān's inherited knowledge and lived experience. Some contend that to engage with anything beyond the Qur'an and Sunnah implies that the revelation is somehow insufficient. This claim falters in several respects. The established maxim in Islamic jurisprudence is that all things are permissible unless proven otherwise, save in matters of creed. The brilliance of Islam lies precisely in that its frameworks do not negate whatever benefit exists in other ideas, provided they do not contradict what is established by the divine sources. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), upon returning from Hajj in 1964, declared that Islam held the solution to racism, yet this did not compel him to abandon what remained beneficial and congruent with his faith from his prior struggle. He did not cease to be an African American. To speak of the Qur'an and Sunnah as mere restrictive law rather than as a source of ethics and empowerment does a grave injustice to the very sources one claims to defend, and it robs the tradition of its rich systems of *Maqāṣid*, *Uṣūl*, *Qawā'id*, and *Ijtihād*, through which the enduring aims of the religion have been realized amid changing circumstances. A contemporary trial illustrates the need for such engagement: the School-to-Prison Pipeline, whereby Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth in the United States are disciplined and removed from schooling far more frequently than their White peers who commit identical offenses, funneling them into the prison system. The federal authorities themselves have found this to be a systemic and widespread injustice affecting millions, and its principal cause is not law or policy but the practices of educators. How is it, then, that the objectives of Islam are so emphatic regarding justice for the weak and the duty to provide access to knowledge, while Muslims remain largely silent upon one of the foremost injustices of our age? Allah, Most High, says: "We sent aforetime our messengers with Clear Signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of Right and Wrong), that men may stand forth in justice." If we are commanded to stand forth in justice, then we are bound to interrogate such wrongs through our pristine Islamic ethics, even where no specific text addresses schooling directly. The macro-objectives of the Sacred Law—the preservation of intellect, of wealth, of humanity itself—apply, yet at the micro-level, what may be termed Ancestral Knowledge offers much of practical benefit. Here a caution is necessary. Much of the Muslim engagement with injustice in the United States leans wholly upon Westernized approaches to remedy problems that Western colonial projects themselves produced, giving little regard to non-Western sources of wisdom. This reliance suggests a failure to recognize the genius that oppressed communities have long possessed in navigating their circumstances. The matter is deeply bound up with power—specifically, who holds the power to advance their own knowledge as the standard. Many Muslims cite the hadith in which 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) sought to stop the Abyssinians from dancing with their spears before the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ restrained him and permitted them to continue. The common lesson drawn is mere coexistence, yet the deeper meaning is that the Prophet ﷺ created a space that validated peoples in their cultures and placed them upon an equal footing, and he himself sought to speak the languages of the children of varied communities. Dr. Sherman Jackson has observed that what he terms "Immigrant Islam" embodies the habit of "universalizing the particular," enshrining the historically informed expressions of the modern Muslim world as the standard of normativeness everywhere, and treating its own interpretations as if they were simply unmediated perception of reality itself, thereby placing them beyond critique. The consequence, he notes, is that Blackamerican Muslims are denied the power of self-authentication and left to process their reality through the expectations of others. The only power that ought to stand beyond question is that of the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the scholarship that interprets upon their basis—not the mere familiarity of practices to whichever group dominates a given mosque. To value Ancestral Knowledge, one must first understand the colonial and racialized context that has suffocated it, a phenomenon some scholars call "cultural epistemicide," the systematic destruction of an indigenous knowledge base. Drawing upon Walter Mignolo, Westernization is described as the privileging and canonization of Western knowledge through the disavowal of non-Western perspectives. Settler-colonialism, of which the United States remains an instance since the Europeans never departed, situates land, resources, and human bodies toward the enrichment of the Capitalist state. Following Aníbal Quijano and Mignolo, "Coloniality" names the enduring legacy of colonization that permeates modern social systems, curricula, media, and even critical thought—the "darker side of Western modernity." The demand of "modernity," in this reading, is epistemological: surrender all that defines you to be counted as rational and successful. Muslims have often reached for Qur'anic verses concerning the People of the Book to explain their circumstances, yet Coloniality is presented as a more precise explanation of American conduct than religion alone, for the injustices of the Settler-Colonial order fall upon everyone, not Muslims only. We are not oppressed merely because the nation is "Christian," but because it is a Settler-Colonial nation saturated with structures of Coloniality. Ancestral Knowledge, then, refers to the epistemologies—the cultural practices, wisdom, idioms, poetry, and discourses—that peoples carry as they interpret the world. It is not a relic but a living, embodied knowledge, informed by our forebears yet reshaped in new lands. Crucially, traditional Islamic knowledge informs, and in all cases must regulate, this Ancestral Knowledge. When the Quraysh invoked their ancestors to justify their idolatry, revelation challenged them, for their truest ancestral inheritance was in fact the monotheism of Ibrāhīm and the original intention behind the building of the Ka'bah. Some inherited notions were deemed wholly incompatible with Islam—the pre-eternality of the world held by the Greeks, the soothsaying of the pagan Arabs, and the practices of magic. Yet the Prophet ﷺ continued to cite the poetry of the pre-Islamic age that contained wisdom not contradicting the divine sources, and he praised righteous examples of the past. Islam has always permitted the use of any beneficial knowledge so long as no specific prohibition stands against it. This knowledge has been neglected from two directions: by some who reject all that is non-Western, and by others who hide within a narrow conception of "tradition," assuming that the Islamic tradition cannot engage present realities. Both surrender much. Ancestral Knowledge, being embodied, can engage dialectically with Islamic law and jurisprudence, and to imagine that Islam is blind to it is to abandon part of the historical tradition—witness the distinct legacies of Andalus, Persia, Timbuktu, the Ottomans, and the Uzbeks. Centering such knowledge is not to exoticize or appropriate it, nor is it an attack upon immigrant Muslim communities, whose inherited knowledge has yielded great advancement and whose emphasis upon mosques, halal provision, and organization often arose from resistance to erasure in their own lands. It is rather to refuse privileging one expression over another in the false name of its being "more Islamic." The matter returns finally to Malcolm X, who was challenged by Dr. Sa'īd Ramaḍān as to how a man of his outlook could fail to see in Islam its foundational message of the oneness and equality of all races, striking at the root of racism. Malcolm answered that his first responsibility was to his oppressed people, lamenting that the Muslim world had seemed to ignore the Black American and concentrated its efforts upon converting White Americans. He saw no contradiction between his identity as a Black American thought leader and as a caller to Allah, seeking to unite the struggles of Africans against colonialism, of Palestinians against occupation, of Muslims against imperialism, and of African Americans at home. In this we witness the genius of Islam in refining him: it purified his heart of the disease of racism while granting him paradigms to combat the racism inflicted upon his people, expanding his struggle beyond his own borders. Thus the post-Hajj Malcolm of 1964 could declare, without contradiction, that he would never again indict all White people as he once had, having learned that a blanket indictment is as wrong as the indictments Whites made against Blacks, while yet maintaining that it was not the American White man who was inherently a racist, but the political, economic, and social atmosphere that nourished a racist psychology within him. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is “ancestral knowledge,” and is it just another word for culture? Ancestral knowledge is broader than what most people picture when they think of culture. It is not only food, dress, and language. It encompasses oral traditions, ways of seeing the world, systems of resistance, spiritual practices, idioms, poetry, and wisdom passed down through generations. It is embodied knowledge—it lives inside people, not only in books or museums. Crucially, this knowledge is not static. It evolves and is reshaped when communities are displaced, enslaved, or relocated. What Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali offered the world, for instance, was a form of ancestral knowledge that had never existed in Africa or America before them. It was something new, forged from struggle, yet rooted in a heritage that preceded them. ### Isn’t everything a Muslim needs already in the Qur’an and Sunnah? Why look to outside knowledge? Affirming the Qur’an and Sunnah as our ultimate reference does not require us to dismiss every other form of knowledge. The maxim in Islamic jurisprudence is that all things are permissible unless proven otherwise. More than that, the genius of Islam is that its frameworks do not negate what is beneficial in other ideas, so long as those ideas do not contradict what is established by divine sources. Consider Salman al-Farisi. When he embraced Islam, the Prophet ﷺ did not ask him to leave his Persian heritage behind. When Salman suggested digging a trench around Medina—a Persian military strategy his people had used against the Romans—the Prophet ﷺ adopted it. This was Islam functioning as it always has: a filtration system allowing the beneficial through and holding the harmful back. To insist that no knowledge outside of strict text is of any benefit robs Islamic history of the great systems of *maqasid*, *usul*, *qawaʿid*, and tools of *ijtihad* that made Islam applicable across vastly different contexts for over a millennium. ### How do you tell the difference between what’s actually Islamic and what’s just cultural? This is one of the most important questions Muslims wrestle with. Traditional Islamic scholarship is clear: Sacred law regulates ancestral knowledge—it does not simply absorb it. When the Quraysh appealed to their ancestors to justify polytheism, divine revelation challenged that directly, pointing out that their truest ancestral heritage was in fact the monotheism of the Prophet Ibrahim. At the same time, the Prophet ﷺ continued to cite pre-Islamic poetry that contained wisdom consistent with divine guidance. He praised good examples of people who preceded Islam and encouraged tribes to channel their unique strengths through the filter of revelation. The principle is clear: Ancestral knowledge that brings benefit without contradicting divine revelation has always had a place in this tradition. The challenge is developing the discernment to tell the difference—which is precisely why Islamic scholarship exists. ### Why does the masjid sometimes feel like it only reflects one culture, even though we’re supposed to be one ummah? What often happens in Muslim spaces is what scholars call “universalizing the particular.” A community from a Muslim-majority country arrives and, with entirely good intentions, centers its own practices, aesthetic sensibilities, and ways of doing things. Over time, those particular expressions of Islam come to be treated as simply “Islam” itself—as though they are not interpretations shaped by a specific history and geography. The result is that Black American Muslims, Indigenous Muslims, and convert communities are left processing their lived reality through the expectations of communities that did not share their history. This is not a condemnation of immigrant Muslims or their cultures, both of which carry tremendous value. The call is simply to recognize that one group’s ancestral knowledge should not function invisibly as the default “Islamic” norm for everyone else, while the knowledge of other communities is treated as foreign to the tradition. ### Is it okay for Muslims to draw wisdom from non-Muslim thinkers and civil rights leaders? Malcolm X himself is the most compelling answer to this question. After his hajj in 1964, Malcolm did not discard what he had learned or who he had been before his journey to orthodoxy. He continued to draw on the frameworks of Black resistance and the civil rights struggle that had sharpened him, because those frameworks remained congruent with Islamic ethics and were urgently needed by his people. Islam purified Malcolm of the disease of prejudice in his own heart while equipping him with paradigms to name and fight the structural racism that had harmed him his entire life. The question is not whether a figure was Muslim, but whether the knowledge they carried is beneficial and consistent with Islamic principles. When we reject the wisdom of figures like Frederick Douglass, Fannie Lou Hamer, or W. E. B. Du Bois entirely, we are not preserving our faith—we are denying ourselves some of the most sophisticated frameworks for understanding and resisting oppression. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-crime-of-family-separation-the-compassion-of-a-muslim-sultan # The Crime of Family Separation & the Compassion of a Muslim Sultan **Author:** Shibli Zaman **Topics:** Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 14, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Today, in America, we see our government and its agencies separating children from their mothers in what seems to be a weekly occurrence. The tragic stories keep pouring in of children no longer recognizing their parents after so long in government custody and, in the worst scenarios, the children being sexually abused and even dying in custody. Aside from these immigrants at our southern border, there is another group vilified not so proverbially as barbarians at the gates: Muslims. Many Americans would be surprised to find that we could learn much from the Muslims of 800 years ago during one of the bloodiest periods of history about how to treat the women and children trying to cross our southern border. There is a little-known but well-established historical event recorded by the renowned historian of the Crusades, Baha’ al-Din Ibn Shaddad,[^1] regarding a Frankish woman who appealed to the Muslim Sultan Saladin[^2] (also written as Salah Al-Din) that her baby girl had been kidnapped by thieves.[^3] What is remarkable about this incident is that the Frankish princes themselves advised her to seek justice from Saladin because he was respected even by his enemies for his kindness and mercy. The term “Frank” came to be used as a synonym for Western European as the Carolingian Franks ruled most of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. It was a generic term for the Christians of Western Europe. In the Muslim World, the Arabic rendition *Faranj* or the Persian and Turkic *Farang* came to be the term for Crusader. Thus, it is important for context that one be mindful of the fact that this was a woman coming from a people who had invaded Muslim lands and committed a host of atrocities during Crusades that spanned centuries. She should have been, in martial terms, “the enemy.” But Saladin didn’t see an enemy. He saw a weeping mother longing for her child and it stirred his soul. He commanded that his entire camp and surrounding areas be searched for the child and that they not rest until she be found. Eventually, the child was found with a man and his wife. They had lost their own child in the Crusades and bought this baby to raise as their own. They, too, appealed to Saladin that they had spent much of what little they had to acquire the baby and that the child was rightfully theirs now. When a soldier from Saladin’s army arrived with the baby perched on his shoulders, the mother fell to the floor and wept uncontrollably from joy. Saladin ordered that the child be returned to her mother and that he, himself, from his own money, would compensate the Muslim couple who had bought the baby. They protested tearfully. Saladin, who has been recorded as a scholarly ruler well versed in law, acted according to the decree of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: “Whoever separates a mother from her child, God will separate them from their loved ones on the Day of Resurrection.”[^4] And this has been codified in Islamic jurisprudence, called *Fiqh* in Arabic. Ibn Qudamah,[^5] a famed Palestinian jurist of the Hanbali legal rite, who himself fought alongside Saladin in the Crusades, records in his magnum opus of comparative jurisprudence entitled *al-Mughni* that when prisoners are taken in war, neither mothers nor even fathers should ever be separated from their children. He cites not only the aforementioned decree of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as precedent, but the namesake of his legal rite as well, Ahmad ibn Hanbal,[^6] who states that a mother should never be separated from her child, regardless of what one’s personal judgment may be. And this legal verdict is not unique to the Hanbali rite of law but is found among the other three Sunni canonical rites as well. The bond between mother and child is sacrosanct and inviolable. So the baby girl was returned to her mother and the mother wept profusely as she held her in her arms once again. It is recorded that, on her knees, she looked to the sky and began praying tearfully in a language that they did not understand. The couple who, sadly, lost a child also wept profusely. All of Saladin’s men witnessing this, soldier and official alike, could not control their emotions and they too began to weep. Saladin himself stepped down from his royal seat and crouched behind it and wept audibly, to the alarm of his advisors. In the book *Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War*, Malcolm C. Lyons and D.E.P. Jackson state: “Saladin himself, as has been seen, was an emotional man, who is shown weeping…over the return of the baby to its Frankish mother at the Siege of Acre.”[^7] Saladin did not see an enemy. He saw a fellow human being with whom he empathized deeply from his heart, which is clearly gleaned from his teeming emotions. Geraldine Heng, in her book, *The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages*, states: “The whole affair took only an hour, Beha ad-Din relates matter-of-factly, with no comment on the Sultan’s succor of an enemy.”[^8] So, none of them—not the people witnessing the event, nor those who recorded it—saw this as favoring the enemy. That doting mother wasn’t viewed as an adversary, regardless of her association with those killing them. She was viewed as the hallowed cradle of civilization itself whom every man and woman love like no other in their life. Enemies are those who raise arms against you on the battlefield or seek to harm those whom you are charged to protect. Outside of that, no human being should ever be viewed as an enemy when it comes to meting out justice and fairness and being just plain human. The Qur’an states: “O you who believe! stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that you do.”[^9] What makes that verse even more inspiring is that, according to exegetical sources, this verse was revealed in regards to those who had wanted to *murder* the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. This is explained by the famed exegete of the Qur’an, Abu Jaʿfar al-Tabari,[^10] as well as many others. In the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was commanded by God to not let the fact that his enemies were actively plotting to kill him get in the way of being fair and just towards them. These are events from hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. One would think that we would have reached the point that these principles of humanity would be ingrained in us and that we wouldn’t need to be reminded of them. But, alas, here we are with a wall being built to seal our southern border and children being seized from mothers trying to cross it. Some of those children have never been reunited with their parents, either having died in custody or having been adopted by American families. We pray that a day never comes that some calamity forces us to flee our homes and seek refuge beyond our borders. If that day comes, how will they receive us when we acted this way? Indeed, our national security is important and must be safeguarded with much precaution and vigilance. But security was no less important in the middle of the Crusades, some of the bloodiest wars in human history. The Muslims were invaded and many of them caught unawares by a coalition of Christian European nations at the behest of Pope Urban II.[^11] As a result they were brutally massacred until it is recorded that the Crusaders were ankle-high in blood. This is likely a fanciful description intended to evoke images of the massacre of unbelievers called “trampling the winepress” in the Book of Revelation 14:20. Nonetheless, one need not try too hard to imagine how truly terrible it actually was. Fulcher of Chartres[^12] writes: “In this temple 10,000 were killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.”[^13] Yet, when the Muslims retook Jerusalem, there was no revenge and no similar massacre occurred. Even into the rule of Saladin’s nephew, al-Kamil,[^14] this magnanimity towards combatants and civilians alike continued. When al-Kamil had handily defeated the Crusaders in the Fifth Crusade (yes, they tried *that* many more times), finding that they were at the point of starvation, he supplied them with medical care, food, and provisions. Oliver of Paderborn[^15] wrote: “Who could doubt that such goodness, friendship and charity come from God? Men whose parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, had died in agony at our hands, whose lands we took, whom we drove naked from their homes, revived us with their own food when we were dying of hunger and showered us with kindness even when we were in their power.”[^16] Even in one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history, such compassion was displayed to their enemies who had been invading and killing them for over 100 years. So don’t let anyone tell you that we can’t be better, considering the fact that we aren’t even involved in any combat at our borders. Just as Islamic law codified an unwavering rejection of separating a mother from her child, so do we need to similarly make sure that such violations of fundamental human rights never occur at our hands. --- ## Notes [^1]: Baha al-Din Yusuf bin Rafiʿ (1145-1234 CE), called Ibn Shaddad, an Iraqi traditionist and jurist from Mosul who accompanied Saladin in the Crusades. He died in Aleppo, Syria. [^2]: Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (1137-1193 CE), known popularly as “Saladin” or "Salah al-Din,”was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Sunni Muslim Kurd of the Shafiʿi rite, Saladin led the Muslims against the Crusaders. At the height of his power, he reigned over Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Hijaz, Yemen and other parts of Africa. [^3]: *The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin* (al-Nawadir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Mahasin al-Yusufiyya), Baha’ al-Din Ibn Shaddad, Translated by D.S. Richards, 1st Edition (2002), p. 37. [^4]: *Musnad Ahmad* nos. 22988, 23002, *Sunan al-Tirmidhi* no. 1283, *Sunan al-Darimi* no. 2479, *Sunan al-Daraqutni* no. 256/3014, *Mustadrak al-Hakim* no. 2381. [^5]: Muwaffaq al-Din Abdullah ibn Aḥmad (1146-1223 CE), popularly known as Ibn Qudamah and also with the epithet al-Maqdisi indicating his patronage to Jerusalem. He was a Sunni Muslim jurist, theologian, and mystic. He was from a town called Jammaʿil known today as Jammaʿin neighboring Nablus in the West Bank. [^6]: Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Ḥanbal (780-855 CE), often referred to as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal or Imam Aḥmad, was a Sunni Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, and traditionist. He is the founder and namesake for the Hanbali rite which is one of the 4 canonical rites of Sunni Islamic law. [^7]: *Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War*, M.C. Lyons, D.E.P. Jackson, Cambridge University Press (1982), p. 373. [^8]: *The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages*, Geraldine Heng, Cambridge University Press (2018) p. 171. [^9]: *The Holy Qur’an* 5:8, translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. [^10]: Abu Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarir al-Ṭabari (839-923 CE), known commonly as al-Tabari, was an influential Persian scholar, historian, and exegete of the Qur'an from Tabaristan, Iran. He is best known for his expertise in Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence and world history. Though coming from a background in the Shafiʿi rite of law, he had developed his own rite of law which is no longer extant. [^11]: Pope Urban II (1035-1099), born Odo of Châtillon succeeded Victor III as Pope from 1088 to 1099. [^12]: Fulcher of Chartres (1059-1128 CE) was a priest who participated in the First Crusade. He served Baldwin I of Jerusalem and wrote a chronicle of the First Crusade in Latin. [^13]: The Siege of the City of Jerusalem, Gesta Francorum Jerusalem Expugnantium, Fulcher of Chartres, in Frederick Duncan and August C. Krey, eds., *Parallel Source Problems in Medieval History* (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912), pp. 109-115. [^14]: al-Malik al-Kamil Nasir al-Din (1177-1238 CE), referred to as al-Kamil or as Meledin in Western sources, was a nephew of Saladin and was the fourth Ayyubid sultan who defeated the Crusaders in the Fifth Crusade. [^15]: Thomas Olivier or Thomas Oliver (1196-1227 CE), also known as Oliver of the Saxon, Oliver von Paderborn, Oliver of Cologne, was a German Bishop and Cardinal who from 1223 to 1225 served as Bishop of Paderborn. He preached fervently in Europe for the Crusades and accompanied them to the Holy Land for a time. [^16]: *Justice Without Frontiers: Furthering human rights*, vol. 1, Judge Christopher Gregory Weeramantry. ## Summary There is unfolding today in America a recurring tragedy: the separation of children from their mothers by government agencies. Stories emerge of children who no longer recognize their parents after prolonged custody, and in the most grievous cases, of children suffering abuse or even death while detained. Alongside the immigrants at the southern border who endure this, another group is frequently vilified in public discourse as though they were barbarians at the gates—namely, Muslims. Yet there is much that could be learned from the Muslims of eight centuries ago, during one of history's bloodiest periods, concerning how to treat the women and children seeking to cross that border. A well-established but little-known historical event, recorded by the renowned historian of the Crusades Baha' al-Din Ibn Shaddad, illustrates this profoundly. A Frankish woman came to the Muslim Sultan Salah al-Din (Saladin) appealing that her baby daughter had been kidnapped by thieves. What is remarkable is that the Frankish princes themselves counseled her to seek justice from Saladin, for even his enemies respected his kindness and mercy. It should be borne in mind that the term "Frank"—rendered in Arabic as *Faranj* and in Persian and Turkic as *Farang*—became a general term for the Christians of Western Europe and later for the Crusaders. This woman thus came from a people who had invaded Muslim lands and committed numerous atrocities over centuries of Crusade. In martial terms she should have been "the enemy." But Saladin did not see an enemy; he saw a weeping mother yearning for her child, and it stirred his soul. He commanded that his entire camp and the surrounding areas be searched, and that no one rest until the child was found. Eventually she was found with a man and his wife who had lost their own child in the Crusades and had bought this baby to raise as their own. They too appealed to Saladin, explaining that they had spent much of what little they had to acquire the child. When a soldier arrived carrying the baby upon his shoulders, the mother fell to the ground and wept from joy. Saladin ordered that the child be returned to her mother, and that he himself would compensate the Muslim couple from his own funds. They protested tearfully. Saladin, recorded as a scholarly ruler well-versed in law, acted in accordance with the decree of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: "Whoever separates a mother from her child, God will separate them from their loved ones on the Day of Resurrection." This principle was codified in Islamic jurisprudence (*fiqh*). Ibn Qudamah, the celebrated Palestinian Hanbali jurist who himself fought alongside Saladin, records in his comprehensive work *al-Mughni* that when prisoners are taken in war, neither mothers nor even fathers should ever be separated from their children. He cites as precedent both the aforementioned decree of the Prophet ﷺ and the statement of the namesake of his rite, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who held that a mother should never be separated from her child, regardless of one's personal judgment. This verdict is not unique to the Hanbali rite but is found among the other three Sunni canonical schools as well. The bond between mother and child is thus regarded as sacrosanct and inviolable. And so the baby girl was returned. The mother wept profusely, and it is recorded that, upon her knees, she looked to the sky and prayed in a tongue the onlookers did not understand. The couple who had lost their own child wept as well. All of Saladin's men, soldiers and officials alike, could not restrain their emotions and began to weep. Saladin himself stepped down from his royal seat, crouched behind it, and wept audibly, to the alarm of his advisors. As Malcolm C. Lyons and D.E.P. Jackson observe in *Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War*, "Saladin himself, as has been seen, was an emotional man, who is shown weeping…over the return of the baby to its Frankish mother at the Siege of Acre." Saladin did not perceive an enemy but a fellow human being, empathizing deeply from his heart, as is evident from his overflowing emotion. Geraldine Heng, in *The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages*, notes that Ibn Shaddad relates the entire affair as having taken only an hour, "with no comment on the Sultan's succor of an enemy." Neither the witnesses nor the recorders viewed this as favoring the enemy. That mother was not seen as an adversary despite her association with those who fought against the Muslims; she was seen as the hallowed cradle of civilization whom every person loves as none other in their life. Enemies, properly understood, are those who raise arms against you upon the battlefield or seek to harm those you are charged to protect; beyond this, no human being should be regarded as an enemy when it comes to justice, fairness, and simple humanity. This is grounded in the words of Allah: "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that you do." What renders this verse still more inspiring is that, according to exegetical sources—including the famed Qur'anic commentator Abu Ja'far al-Tabari and others—it was revealed concerning those who had sought to murder the Prophet ﷺ. Thus the Prophet ﷺ was commanded by God not to let the plotting of his enemies against his very life turn him away from fairness and justice toward them. These are events from many centuries ago. One might expect that such principles of humanity would by now be deeply ingrained in us. Yet here we are, with a wall being built to seal the southern border and children being seized from mothers attempting to cross it—some never reunited with their parents, having died in custody or been adopted by American families. We pray that a day never comes when calamity forces us to flee our own homes and seek refuge beyond borders; and if it does, how then shall we be received, having behaved in this manner? National security is indeed important and must be safeguarded with vigilance. Yet security was no less important amid the Crusades, among the bloodiest wars in human history, when the Muslims were invaded by a coalition of Christian European nations at the behest of Pope Urban II and brutally massacred. Fulcher of Chartres wrote of the taking of Jerusalem: "In this temple 10,000 were killed…you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain…None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared." This description may echo the imagery of "trampling the winepress" in the Book of Revelation 14:20, yet the horror it conveys is not hard to imagine. Even so, when the Muslims retook Jerusalem, no revenge or comparable massacre occurred. This magnanimity continued into the reign of Saladin's nephew, al-Kamil, who, after decisively defeating the Crusaders in the Fifth Crusade and finding them starving, supplied them with medical care, food, and provisions. Oliver of Paderborn wrote in wonder: "Who could doubt that such goodness, friendship and charity come from God? Men whose parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, had died in agony at our hands…revived us with their own food when we were dying of hunger and showered us with kindness even when we were in their power." If such compassion was shown toward enemies who had invaded and killed them for over a century, then none can claim we are incapable of better, especially as no combat rages at our borders. Just as Islamic law codified an unwavering rejection of separating a mother from her child, so too must we ensure that such violations of fundamental human rights never occur at our hands. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-bad-things-always-happen-to-me-breaking-the-cycles-of-negativity # "Why Do Bad Things Always Happen to Me?" Breaking the Cycles of Negativity **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 7, 2019 **Updated:** October 3, 2025 *We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.* \-Albert Einstein --- ## Case Study *Muadh is a 52-year-old man who is very well respected in his local Muslim community. On the outside looking in he has many good things going for him: a prestigious job working for a Fortune 500 company, a nice home, and a beautiful sports car. The walls of his home tell a different story however. Muadh is currently separated from his third wife and his children are struggling to behave at home and school. When Muadh got married this time around he thought it would be different but the same relationship patterns persisted as before: constant bickering, big fights about insignificant things and feeling totally alone. “How could this happen again?” and **“Why do bad things only happen to me?”** were questions Muadh would ask himself often. He couldn’t help but take this most recent divorce personally as he was the common denominator in all his failed relationships. Muadh could feel that his self-esteem was low and he had difficulty seeing positives in his life outside of his relationships. Muadh felt like he was a good person overall, but was convinced there must be something wrong with him because he kept getting involved in bad relationships over and over again.* --- ## What is Happening to Me? Feeling trapped within the confines of the same problem over and over again is both soul-crushing and overwhelming. Whether the issue is never-ending conflict with a family member, recurring feelings of defeat, or something holding you back from living the life you envisioned for yourself, it's emotionally exhausting to face the same issue day in and out, sometimes year after year. A difficulty that keeps resurfacing, sometimes under different guises, can feel like pushing a huge boulder up a hill; you expend so much energy trying to make progress only to be met with more resistance. Over time you might wonder: *“There has to be something wrong with me.”* *“How could so many bad things happen to one person?”* *“Why do bad things keep happening to me?”* Or you might take a different approach and think: *“How could the world be such a bad place?”* *“There are so many evil people out there.”* *“ Why is everyone out to get me?”* No matter how you interpret your experience, it becomes increasingly difficult to see good in anything or anybody through the pain. The more negative things you experience, the more negative the world looks. The worse people treat you, the worse you feel about yourself. And the more difficult your trials are, the more impossible it feels to change. --- ## Understanding Your Thoughts & Emotions ### The Filtering Phenomenon When unfavorable things happen back-to-back or repeatedly it’s easy to get discouraged and begin to look at the world through a pessimistic lens or filter. **Filtering** is a cognitive distortion, or unhealthy way of thinking, that skews how a person views the world and causes everything to be perceived from a negative bias.[^1] Life experiences go through a sieve that withholds the good and only what is negative comes out and is brought to one’s attention. Common everyday examples include: *Getting angry with your child when he or she generally gets good grades, but slips up and gets a poor grade.* *Becoming upset with a friend, who is generally reliable and kind, when they make a mistake.* When a person has a history of trauma, an internalized filter can be even more painful than it is for the average person. Traumatic events leave bigger impressions on the mind and body and cut into the soul in a deeper way. Some of these examples include: *A person might generally have good relationships, but after a rape begins to fear that most people are out to hurt him/her because danger seems to present everywhere.* *Someone who was physically attacked because of their religion may begin to think all negative interactions with others have to do with their faith, although most experiences in their day-to-day life are neutral or positive.* ### Cognitive Biases Over time, the filtered thoughts develop into more intricate frameworks, which impact how the overall environment is experienced. A filter blocks positive stimuli and allows only the negative to come through. This filter, along with each person’s individual temperament, experiences and circumstances lead to the development of *biases*. Biases are patterns of thinking that form over a period of time and impact how the world is seen. Some of these biases include: *Failure is inevitable regardless of hard work or effort—therefore, there is no point in trying.* *Humans are selfish, and you should never let your guard down because people will hurt you.* *Humans are unreliable and you can’t depend on family and friends for anything.* *Patience is the best recourse no matter what, even if others hurt or abuse you.* *When more than one person hurts you it’s because there is something wrong with you and not them.* *It’s better to be with others who hurt you than to be by yourself.* Once a filter and biases are in place it can be difficult to break free from those thought patterns. These cognitive and emotional biases are like colored glasses and can affect how we see everything unfolding in our lives, ultimately influencing our decision-making. Before we delve into how biases affect our decision-making let’s discuss why or how people form filters and biases in the first place. ### Contributors to the Development of Filters & Biases #### Learned Pessimism Disappointment is uncomfortable, and sometimes very painful. When a person is let down often, whether through events or people in their life, the healthy thing to do is to adjust expectations, try something new, or view the situation differently. Another option is to stop expecting good things to happen altogether—this prevents future disappointment since one is not hopeful that good things will happen in the first place. The logic is: *If I don’t expect good things to happen to me, then I won’t be be disappointed when I don’t succeed or good things don’t come my way.* This unhealthy and maladaptive way of looking at the world is initially developed to protect oneself; however, long-term it does much more harm than good. Over time, this way of thinking builds deep-rooted pessimism and a very reactive (instead of proactive) way of addressing concerns. #### Childhood Invalidation Parents, teachers, and caregivers play major roles in how we view and interact with the world. When we have role models who are pessimistic or have unhealthy ways of looking at things, we are susceptible to internalizing the same ways of thinking. Let’s take a very common example of striving for good grades. Imagine a child who worked hard all quarter to get good grades. This child did their homework, tried their best in class, and looked forward to their report card coming home to show their parents. This child turned out to be successful in making the honor roll with all As and one B. They are excited and happy with the results of their hard work, but when they show the report card to their parent, the first thing the parent says is, “Why do you have that B?” This unexpected reaction instantly deflates the child’s pride in their hard work over the course of weeks in just seconds. This reaction not only teaches a child to focus on negatives and shortcomings, but that their efforts, feelings, and thoughts are not valid or valuable. When a child thinks or feels something only to have an adult say their experience is wrong (not just about school but any life experience) it creates self-doubt, anxiety and a lack of security. #### Genetics A study conducted by Todd et al. in 2013 suggests the inclination for pessimism may be partially genetically based.[^2] Researchers are exploring whether a person’s genetic makeup may make them more susceptible to perceiving the glass as half empty. If this is the case, then individuals with this gene may have to try a little harder than others to practice looking on the brighter side of things. ### Implications of Having a Negative Filter According to cognitive behavioral theory, thoughts impact our feelings, which in turn influence how we behave, ultimately having big implications for our filters and potential biases. If a person has a skewed way of thinking about the world, whether through a particular filter or bias, it’s inevitable that feelings and behavior in that subject area will be affected as well. If someone thinks they will not succeed, they will feel as though they have already failed, and will not take the appropriate steps to become successful. As a consequence, they will not be successful. This is called a *self-fulfilling prophecy*. There are two kinds of self fulfilling prophecies: self-imposed and ones imposed by others (also known as the Pygmalion effect). Self-imposed prophecies are internal, coming from within ourselves and can be about ourselves or about other people. If a man thinks all women are irrational, he will behave in ways that will substantiate this through his interactions with women; he will speak to women in a condescending and offensive manner and will interpret their responses as irrational when they get upset, ultimately validating his initial perception. Similarly, if a woman thinks poorly about herself, she will interact with others in a way that will eventually cause them to view her in the same light, thereby substantiating her low-self esteem (e.g., she will be overly critical of herself when speaking with others). The Pygmalion Effect occurs when a person behaves in ways that meet others’ expectations of them. In the famous Rosenthal and Jacobson (1966) study, researchers described certain students as “ready to bloom” and realize their potential.[^3] Unbeknownst to their teachers, the students were labeled in this way at random, rather than based on their intellectual abilities. Students believed to be on the verge of academic success by their teachers performed in accordance with these expectations as seen by substantial gains in their IQ at the end of the study. Students not labeled as “ready to bloom” did not have similar IQ gains. Further research has supported the conclusion that teachers’ expectations can have a substantial effect on students’ academic performance due to children fulfilling the expectations of those around them—in essence, a self-fulfilling prophecy.[^4] ### Beginning to Change a Filter or Bias Once you have identified a negative filter and unhealthy biases, it’s important to look at what learned responses you have developed as a result of your cognitions.  If you are seeing a pattern in life problems or interpersonal conflict, meaning the same problem keeps coming up in different ways, it’s important to not just reflect on the biases contributing to your thoughts, but your learned behavior as well. Why do certain people end up being in the same situation over and over again? Why do some women keep finding themselves in abusive relationships? Why do some men keep losing their jobs over and over? Why are some families in one financial hardship after another? Most of the time these situations do not happen coincidentally, but due to a negative filter and learned maladaptive patterns of behavior. Let’s look at some theories as to why we subconsciously (not fully aware) or unconsciously (completely unaware) find ourselves in the same predicaments over and over again. --- ## The Cognitive Perspective Cognitive theory suggests that individuals make the same mistakes over and over because those mistakes are learned responses. Theorists believe that we have neural pathways in our brains that are reinforced by habit. A good way to visualize this is a dirt road. The more you travel on the dirt road, the more well-established it becomes, and the less likely you will travel on the grassy or wooded part. It is much easier to tread a well-worn path than one covered in rocks and branches. There is also a physiological explanation of the Islamic principle that the more you practice anything, the easier it becomes. The more you do good deeds or bad deeds, the easier they become. The more often you get up for *tahajjud*, the easier it becomes, just as the more you look at pornography, the easier it becomes. This is because the relevant neural pathways get strengthened any time a behavior is repeated. Cognitive theory also suggests that bad things keep happening to you because you are trapped in a cycle of making the same mistakes over and over. This does not mean that you are not smart or a good person, but that you don’t know how to break the cycle yet. If you are trapped in a room and the only way you know how to get out is through the door you will spend all your time trying to break the lock free, when perhaps the only way to get out is through the vent in the ceiling. It is possible that the solution is outside what you may be comfortable with or know exists. An example: *A lonely teenager feels hopeless and begins to engage in pleasurable self-destructive behavior through the party scene (drinking, clubbing and casual sex). His negative filter makes him feel that there is no good in his life and his bias makes him think he may as well do whatever he wants, good or bad, because it doesn’t matter. As he engages in risky behavior, he temporarily feels better and learns that his actions provide relief, although he feels exponentially worse from the consequences of his actions later. He internalizes the idea that it’s better to feel good for short periods of time followed by feeling bad, rather than feeling bad all the time. Over time, he gets stuck in a cycle and doesn’t know how to feel better without engaging in self-destructive behavior.* Cognitive behavioral theory suggests that individuals can learn maladaptive ways of coping with their problems, and over time these coping behaviors become habitual. The more someone gets into the pattern of making the same mistake over and over, the more difficult it will be to change the behavior. --- ## The Psychodynamic Perspective Psychodynamic theory offers a different perspective on why we fall into the same patterns, especially in relationships. According to one theory, individuals keep making the same mistakes over and over because they are trying to heal unmet needs from early childhood development. A person will keep putting themselves into the same predicament because, subconsciously or unconsciously, they want to use the current situation as an opportunity to resolve what has happened in the past. Unfortunately, since the person has not learned better ways of dealing with the situation, they keep making the same decisions over and over, leading to even more unresolved struggles. This perspective is useful for those who tend to get in the same types of toxic relationships over and over but do not understand why. An example: *A girl grows up in a household where her father abuses her mother, which makes her feel insecure and vulnerable. She develops biases that the world is unsafe and that she needs to be protected by others in order to get by. When she gets older, she finds herself attracted to very strong men who carry themselves with a lot of bravado because this makes her feel safe. This initially makes her feel good but over time she realizes these over-the-top men are also sometimes controlling and violent towards her. She finds that these men are actually very much like her father, although this was exactly what she was trying to escape in the first place.* In cases like this, there are oftentimes two major forces contributing to the individual’s decision-making. 1. Humans are attracted to what they are used to because it feels most familiar and comfortable. A person who grows up in an abusive household may hate it, but may find themselves being part of one as an adult because that is the dynamic and treatment they are accustomed to. 2. Humans have an innate need to resolve conflicts and when they are unable to do so, will create similar future conflicts to resolve previous issues. These conflicts are not created on purpose but subconsciously to help heal past wounds. --- ## Changing Your Mind, Body, and Heart If you feel that you are a magnet for bad things happening to you, it’s likely that you are struggling with a combination of a negative filter and unhealthy learned ways of adapting to stress in your environment. Don’t worry: filters and biases are not permanent, unless you want them to be. The nice thing about learning different psychological theories is that you can gain the tools needed to change thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with reflection and practice. The most logical thing to do if you have biases is change them; however, if you are like most people, you probably aren’t sure what biases you have in the first place. The tricky thing about biases is that when unexamined they appear logical, healthy, and like other thoughts you might have. A filter or bias may have been present for so long that you don’t remember what it’s like to see the world without it. In order to help reveal some of your biases you have to work backwards from repetitive cycles of conflict in your life.  Take a moment to reflect: 1. What causes me the most distress in my life on a regular basis? Don’t think of specific stressors or individuals, but themes in your life. Is what bothers me conflict with others? Not feeling good enough? Fear of what others might think? Abandonment? Feeling attacked? 2. Do you have themes in your emotions? Are you chronically angry, sad, or anxious? What environmental stressors are usually present when you experience these emotions? Once you have the answers to these questions you can begin to work backwards and reflect on whether there are fallacies in your thinking contributing to your distress. Let’s look at a few examples: If you notice a theme in your life that other people have ill will towards you then it’s possible that you have a bias in your view towards other people. Let’s say you are finding yourself having the following thoughts: *“I was called on in the meeting because my boss knew I didn’t know the answer and he wanted to embarrass me.”* *“My husband came home late on purpose today because he intentionally didn’t want to spend time with me.”* *“My friend takes time to text me back because deep down she actually doesn’t like me.”* Can you spot the filter and bias? A negative filter is preventing you from seeing good things in other people and focusing on the negative, while your bias is impacting your ability to objectively see and interact with others. This bias can be something you learned from your environment over time or it could be the result of a trauma (for example, someone betrayed your trust). Let’s take another example. Upon reflection, you might have come to the realization that most of your distress comes from yourself. You are your worst critic. You have perfectionist ways and can’t stand when you do things incorrectly. It may be that you have thoughts like: *“I can never do anything right.”* *“How did I mess this up again?”* *“God, I’m so dumb!”* Can you see the filter and bias here? You might be filtering out all the good things about yourself and just looking at the negative. Your bias is that you are flawed and that there is something wrong with you. This could be something you came to think on your own or that others have said to you. It can also be a result of trauma, such as emotional abuse in childhood. Once you have identified the negative filters you have, you can begin to work on them by using counter thoughts. If you have a filter that others are out to get you, practice the Sunnah of having *husn ad-dhan* (having a good opinion of others) and giving others many excuses. If you have a filter that you are worthless and not good at anything, counter those thoughts with positive qualities about yourself. Try to have 1-3 counter thoughts for every thought derived from your negative filter. It might take work and not feel genuine at first, but the more you practice replacing those thoughts, the more those new thoughts will become a part of your belief system. Keep practicing everyday until you get the results you want. If it takes weeks don’t be discouraged—it took years and years to develop and maintain those unhealthy biases so undoing that work will not happen overnight. Also notice how it feels in your body when you experience negative thoughts. During this exercise close your eyes, breathe deeply and notice where the tension lies (your forehead, your chest, your stomach, your shoulders, etc.). When you are ready to counter your negative thought imagine the thought leaving that place in your body and letting it float away in a balloon drifting toward the sky. Don’t forget to breathe deeply throughout. Imagine the balloon being released, drifting out your door, lingering near the ground, and then propelling itself with the wind into the horizon. Don’t rush the balloon leaving and let it take as long as you need until you feel that the negative thought has left you. When you are formulating your counter thought, imagine gently placing it on the part of your body where the negativity has left. Continue to breathe deeply. Imagine placing something therapeutic and reparative like a bandage or compress to heal that area. Cover that area gently until you start to feel yourself heal underneath. This visualization exercise might sound silly but it taps into the mind-body connection, reinforcing a healthy cognitive shift and releasing trauma stored in the body. Using visualization can have powerful effects on your healing process and has been substantiated through a systematic review of numerous studies.[^5] Below are some additional exercises to try if you are feeling that only bad things happen to you. --- ## 1) Through the Prophet’s Eyes ﷺ: This exercise taps into your negative filter. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had some incredibly difficult times in his life when he had no food, people were trying to kill him, and he had no sense of physical security. People abused him, attempted to sully his reputation, and tried hard to reject the words of Allah. He ﷺ also did not have any of the modern luxuries we have today like running water in the home, internet, electricity, etc. If the Prophet ﷺ had a negative filter it would have been very easy for him to be overcome by trauma, fall into depression, and stop sharing the message of Islam. Reflecting on your life now, as difficult as it may feel, what are positive things that you have that he ﷺ didn’t? What are good things about you? What are positives you have in your life or things you have the potential to look forward to? Imagine sitting down with the Prophet ﷺ and conversing with him. Write those blessings down on sticky notes and post them on your mirror so you see them often. --- ## 2) Follow the Pattern: This exercise is for helping explore behaviors resulting from your filter and biases. In the field of psychology there is a term called *transference*, which occurs when a person subconsciously or unconsciously interacts with another person in a certain way because that person reminds them of someone else. You have likely experienced this at some point; e.g., when a waitress at a restaurant has a similar voice to a friend you had in elementary school, or a person’s tone reminds you of the boss you struggled with at your first job. Transference can be a part of a person’s bias(es). If you notice that you are getting in the same types of unhealthy relationships repeatedly, try to find a common thread between all those people and reflect on if they remind you of a trauma you experienced, perhaps from childhood. Ask yourself: *Do these individuals remind me of a caregiver or someone I struggled having a relationship with in the past? Who had the biggest impact on my negative emotions growing up? Who has made me feel anxious, stressed, or depressed in my early development?* Reflect on whether the people from your recent toxic relationships have similar characteristics and remind you of a person who might have hurt you in the past. If a pattern becomes clear, and you find the original source of pain, then know that working on that relationship where the pain first started is imperative to healing. You do not, and sometimes should not, work on the relationship directly with the person; rather, this can be done within yourself. One effective way of trying to repair damage from previous relationships is writing candid letters to that person venting all your feelings and frustrations about what happened. This is very cathartic and brings a feeling of resolution for many people, which can be useful for future relationships. Once you are finished releasing all of your feelings into the letter, burn it, shred it, or throw it away. --- ## Inspirational Hadith and Ayat for Reflection > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever among you wakes up in the morning secure in his dwelling, healthy in his body, and having his food for the day, then it is as if the world has been gathered for him.”*[^6] > > *No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things.* (Qur’an, 64:11) Ibn Kathir said about this verse: > *Whoever suffered an affliction and he knew that it occurred by Allah’s Judgment and Decree, and he patiently abides, awaiting Allah’s reward, then Allah guides his heart, and will compensate him for his loss in this life by granting guidance to his heart and certainty in faith. Allah will replace whatever he lost for Him with the same or what is better. Ali ibn Abi Talhah reported from Ibn Abbas: ‘… and whosoever believes in Allah, He guides his heart.’ Allah will guide his heart to certainty. Therefore, he will know that what reached him would not have missed him and what missed him would not have reached him.*[^7] > > *And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient who, when disaster strikes them, say, "Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return." Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the \[rightly\] guided.*  (Qur’an, 2:155-157) --- ## Practical Exercises A. ***Through the Prophet’s Eyes*** ***ﷺ*:** *Step 1:* ![Trauma_Chapter1_Step1](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Trauma_Chapter1_Step1.png) *Step 2:* Write those blessings down on sticky notes and post them on your mirror so you see them often. Write one good thing per note. Say your blessings out loud once a day with intention and mindfulness (paying attention to what you are saying, not being hasty). Saying the blessings out loud has a stronger effect than just saying it in your head. B. ***Following the Pattern*** *Step 1:* Examine the relationships in your life and see if you notice any patterns in the people you are in conflict with (certain characteristics, behavior patterns, fight patterns).  Write down patterns you see below. *Example: I keep getting fired. All my bosses are rude, aggressive, and inconsiderate. When I’m with them I feel combative and insubordinate. This pattern has happened with my last 3 places of employment.* ![Trauma_Chapter1_Box](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Trauma_Chapter1_Box.png) *Step 2:* Once you have identified the current patterns, go back to earlier in your life and see if there are any difficult situations or people that remind you of the current conflict you are going through. If you see a connection to someone or something traumatic in your past write it below. *Example: My boss reminds me a lot of my father. My father was very aggressive, authoritarian, and sometimes violent. I never felt understood by him and felt that he always came first.* ![Trauma_Chapter1_Box](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Trauma_Chapter1_Box.png)*Step 3*: Identify how you may be contributing to the problem through transference (treating someone a certain way because they remind you of someone in your past). Write down your specific behaviors before, during, and after the problem at hand and describe how others are affected by your actions. *Example: Because my bosses remind me of my father perhaps I’m disrespectful and have a poor attitude. This outlook might put off my employers and make them not want to keep me long-term.* ![Trauma_Chapter1_Box](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Trauma_Chapter1_Box.png)*Step 4*: Visually break down the problem so you can see your pattern more clearly. Using a 3-5 step chart break down the pattern of your problem. *My boss asks me to do something I don’t want to do and this reminds me of my father.* ↓ *I develop a poor attitude.* ↓ *My boss develops a poor attitude and acts harshly towards me.* ↓ *I resent my boss for how he treats me and I start to become stubborn and rebellious.* ↓ *I get fired.* ![Trauma_Chapter1_Step5](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Trauma_Chapter1_Step5.png) *Step 5*: Go back to the original source. On a separate piece of paper write a letter with all your thoughts and feelings towards the person who you have unresolved feelings with from the past. Do not hold back. Tell them how their actions have upset and impacted you. This activity can be done in more than one sitting. Keep writing until your anger and sadness is released. *Step 6*: Now that you have a better handle on the past, alter your incorrect beliefs about your current situation. Identify maladaptive thoughts and biases you currently have because you were holding on to your past and change them. Write down all your unhealthy beliefs and replace them with more appropriate thoughts. Then begin to apply those thoughts in day-to-day life, especially when you feel triggered. Over time your unhealthy thoughts will be replaced by your new healthier ones. ![Trauma_Chapter1_Step6](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Trauma_Chapter1_Step6.png) --- ## Case Revisited *Muadh didn’t understand why he kept getting in the same toxic relationships over and over. He tried the Follow the Pattern exercise and noticed that all the women he had married were aggressive and reminded him a lot of his mother. As a child, Muadh never felt that she loved him although he did everything in his power to try to be close to her. When Muadh thought more and more about the connection between his ex-wives and his mother, he realized that perhaps he was trying to heal the relationship with his mother by marrying people similar to her. Furthermore, Muadh realized that he had pretty negative biases about women and that this was also contributing to some of the conflict with his wives. Since Muadh expected women to be hurtful, disloyal, and irrational, he acted in ways to unconsciously facilitate this, thereby causing a self-fulfilling prophecy.* *Muadh realized that he needed to better understand and overcome what happened with his mother in order to have healthier relationships in the future. He wrote a letter to his mother about all the feelings he had during childhood. The letter was unfiltered and didn’t leave any negative feelings or thoughts unaddressed. Sometimes a few days would pass and Muadh would have more to say so he would add a P. S. at the end of the letter. When he felt like he had nothing more to write, he burned the letter and decided to forgive his mother for everything. He didn’t feel what she did was right, but didn’t want to hold on to the negative feelings anymore.* *After putting the difficult parts of his childhood to rest, Muadh felt like he had more clarity in his life. He realized that bad things didn’t happen to him more than the average person—he was filtering out the good things in his life. Muadh decided he was going to take a break for a year from thinking about marriage and shift his focus to other aspects of this life. Muadh decided he needed to work on his and his children’s well-being. He bought several self-help books for himself and invested heavily on spending more quality time with family. As a result, his children began to respect him more and started doing better at home and at school. Muadh understood that if/when he met the next person he wanted to marry, premarital counseling would be a very important step to prevent him from repeating the same mistakes of the past.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Burns, D. D. (1981). *Feeling good: The new mood therapy*. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. [^2]: Todd, R. M., Muller, D. J., Lee, D.H., Robertson, A., Eaton, T., Freeman, N., Palombo, D. J., Levine, B., & Anderson, A. K. (2013). Genes for emotion-enhanced remembering are linked to enhanced perceiving. *Psychological Science*, *24* (11), 2244-2253. [^3]: Rosenthal, R., &. Jacobson, L. (1966). Teachers' expectancies: Determinants of pupils' IQ gains. *Psychological Reports*, *19*, 115-118. [^4]: Boser, U., Wilhelm, M., & Hanna, R. (2014). The power of the Pygmalion Effect: Teachers’ expectations strongly predict college completion. Center for American Progress, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED564606.pdf. (accessed January 30, 2019) [^5]: Wahbeh, H., Senders, A., Neuendorf, R., & Cayton, J., (2014). Complementary and alternative medicine for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms: A systematic review. *Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine*, *19*(3): 161–175. [^6]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi*, Vol. 4, Book 10, Hadith 2346. [^7]: Al Mubarakpuri, Sheikh Saifur-Rahman, *Tafsir ibn Kathir* (Abridged) vol. 10 (Riyadh, Darussalam, 2000), pp. 24-25. ## Summary Feeling as though hardship follows a person relentlessly is among the heaviest burdens the soul can carry. When a difficulty resurfaces again and again, whether through conflict with loved ones, repeated feelings of defeat, or obstacles that block the life one hoped to live, it becomes exhausting to face the same struggle day after day. In such states, a person may begin to wonder whether something is inherently wrong with them, or conclude that the world itself is filled with wickedness and people determined to cause them harm. However one interprets the pain, the more negativity accumulates, the harder it becomes to perceive any good in oneself, in others, or in the world. At the heart of this struggle lies what may be called the "filtering phenomenon." Filtering is a cognitive distortion, an unhealthy way of thinking, in which one's experiences pass through a kind of sieve that withholds the good and permits only the negative to surface. A parent might grow angry at a child who usually earns good grades but slips once, or become upset with a normally reliable friend over a single mistake. For those who have endured trauma, this internal filter cuts deeper still, since traumatic events leave stronger impressions upon the mind and body. A survivor of assault may come to fear that most people intend harm, and a person attacked because of their faith may begin to interpret nearly all negative interactions through that lens, even when most of their daily encounters are neutral or positive. Over time, these filtered thoughts harden into biases, patterns of thinking shaped by temperament, experience, and circumstance. Such biases include convictions that effort is futile because failure is inevitable, that people are inherently selfish and must never be trusted, that one can depend on no one, or that being mistreated by others is preferable to being alone. Like colored glasses, these biases distort everything a person sees and, in turn, shape their decisions. As for how such filters and biases first take root, three contributors are identified. The first is learned pessimism: when a person is repeatedly disappointed, rather than adjusting expectations in a healthy manner, they may abandon hope altogether, reasoning that expecting nothing spares them from further disappointment. Though intended as self-protection, this deepens into entrenched pessimism over time. The second is childhood invalidation, wherein caregivers who dismiss a child's feelings, such as the parent who fixates on a single "B" amid a report card of "A"s, teach the child to focus on shortcomings and to doubt the validity of their own experience. The third is genetics: a study conducted by Todd and colleagues in 2013 suggests that the inclination toward pessimism may be partially genetically based, meaning some individuals must strive harder than others to see the brighter side. According to cognitive behavioral theory, thoughts shape feelings, which in turn shape behavior. Thus a person who believes they will fail will feel defeated, neglect the steps toward success, and consequently fail, fulfilling their own expectation. This is termed a self-fulfilling prophecy, of which there are two kinds. The self-imposed prophecy arises from within: a man who believes all women are irrational will treat them condescendingly and interpret their justified reactions as confirmation of his belief. The prophecy imposed by others is known as the Pygmalion effect, illustrated by the famous Rosenthal and Jacobson study of 1966, in which students randomly labeled as "ready to bloom" showed substantial gains in IQ simply because their teachers expected them to succeed, while unlabeled students did not. Two frameworks are offered to explain why a person may find themselves trapped in the same predicaments repeatedly. The cognitive perspective holds that recurring mistakes are learned responses reinforced by habit, like a dirt road that grows more worn and easier to travel the more it is used, while the untrodden path remains difficult. There is a physiological basis here for the Islamic principle that the more one practices anything, the easier it becomes, whether the deed be righteous or sinful. As it was noted, the more often one rises for tahajjud, the easier it becomes, just as the more one looks at what is forbidden, the easier that too becomes, for the relevant neural pathways are strengthened with each repetition. A person may keep failing not because they lack intelligence or goodness, but because they have not yet learned how to break the cycle, much like one who exhausts himself trying to force a locked door while the true exit lies through a vent overhead. The psychodynamic perspective offers a complementary explanation, especially regarding relationships: individuals may unconsciously recreate familiar situations in an effort to heal unmet needs from early childhood. A girl raised in a household where her father abused her mother may, as an adult, be drawn to domineering men who ultimately mirror the very father she sought to escape, because humans gravitate toward what feels familiar and possess an innate drive to resolve unfinished conflicts. Yet these filters and biases are not permanent. The first step toward change is to identify them by working backward from the recurring conflicts in one's life, reflecting upon which themes cause the most distress and which emotions dominate. Once a negative filter is recognized, it can be countered with deliberate opposing thoughts. If one assumes others harbor ill intent, one should practice the Sunnah of husn al-dhann, holding a good opinion of others and seeking many excuses for them; if one believes oneself worthless, one should counter with genuine positive qualities, aiming for one to three counter-thoughts for every negative one. This work requires patience, for undoing biases built over years cannot happen overnight. Attention should also be paid to where tension gathers in the body, and a visualization exercise is recommended, imagining the negative thought floating away in a balloon while a healing compress is placed upon the affected area, an approach whose benefit has been supported by a systematic review of numerous studies. Two further exercises are offered. The first, "Through the Prophet's Eyes ﷺ," draws upon the negative filter: the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ endured profound hardship, hunger, threats upon his life, abuse, and slander against his reputation, without any of the comforts we enjoy today, yet he did not succumb to despair. Reflecting upon the blessings one possesses that even he ﷺ did not, and writing them where they may be seen daily, helps restore perspective. The second, "Follow the Pattern," addresses learned behavior through the concept of transference, wherein one treats a person in a certain way because they resemble someone from one's past. By tracing recurring toxic relationships back to their original source and writing an unfiltered letter to the person who first caused the pain, then discarding it, one may find catharsis and resolution. Among the sacred texts offered for reflection is the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: "Whoever among you wakes up in the morning secure in his dwelling, healthy in his body, and having his food for the day, then it is as if the world has been gathered for him." There is also the verse, "No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart" (Qur'an 64:11). Ibn Kathir explained regarding this verse that whoever is afflicted and knows it came by Allah's decree, and bears it patiently seeking His reward, Allah guides his heart and compensates his loss, and he reported from Ibn Abbas that such a one comes to know that what reached him could never have missed him, and what missed him could never have reached him. So too the verses, "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger... but give good tidings to the patient, who, when disaster strikes them, say, 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return'" (Qur'an 2:155–157). The case of Muadh illustrates these principles. Through the "Follow the Pattern" exercise, he recognized that the women he married resembled his mother, whose love he had never felt as a child, and that he had been unconsciously attempting to heal that wound while his negative biases toward women produced self-fulfilling conflict. After writing and burning a letter to his mother and choosing to forgive her, Muadh gained clarity, understood that he had been filtering out the good in his life, and turned his focus toward his own well-being and his children's, resolving to seek premarital counseling before any future marriage so as not to repeat the mistakes of his past. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/blind-spots-the-origins-of-the-western-method-of-critiquing-hadith # Blind Spots: The Origins of the Western Method of Critiquing Hadith **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 31, 2019 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Author’s Introduction *A few years ago I was involved in a debate on the radio with a prominent British historian who had recently written a sensationalist book on the origins of Islam. He claimed, in a distinctly haughty tone not uncommon among academics, that praying five times a day was not originally part of the Prophet’s message but was, in fact, imported into early Islam by Zoroastrian converts as an imitation of their own Zoroastrian five-times daily prayer.*[^1] *Along with many other Western scholars, he argued that, since Muslim sources like the Sira and Hadith collections consisted of material compiled at earliest a few decades after the events they described, they could not be relied on as reliable historical sources for the life of the Prophet ﷺ or Islam’s beginning. Moreover, they were compiled by Muslims who had every interest in shoring up the claims of their religion.* *But the evidence that this scholar relied on when making his claim about the ‘true’ origins of Muslim prayer came from a book written by a rabbi in France in the twelfth century, and it did not even mention prayer; it mentioned how Zoroastrian converts to Islam often continued drinking after becoming Muslim. Meanwhile, a Hadith describing the duty of praying five times a day appears in the earliest surviving book of Hadith, the* Muwatta’ *of the Medinan scholar Imam Malik (d. 796).*[^2] *Why did this British scholar disparage Muslim reliance on evidence from a few decades after the life of the Prophet ﷺ, collected by a scholar in the Prophet’s own city, while arguing that speculation about a statement made by a Jewish rabbi centuries later in Europe was better testimony about the origins of Islam?[^3]*[^3] *Why, not long after this interview, did [this and several other Western scholars](http://drjonathanbrown.com/2015/how-should-rationalists-deal-with-dogmatism-the-case-of-the-birmingham-quran-pages/) argue that the Qur’an could have come from much later than Muslims alleged or much earlier than they alleged **but not from the actual time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the seventh century?*** *The answer is that the way in which Western scholars generally view reports about the past, and reports about the history of religions and scriptures, in particular, is not neutral. It is the product of a specific cultural and political tradition. Though this method prides itself on shedding light on the dark recesses of all human pasts, it has its own blind spots.* *What follows is an excerpt from my book* Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, *2nd edition, (Oneworld, 2017). Specifically, it is the introduction of the chapter on the Western study of the Hadith tradition. We have decided to publish this section here on Yaqeen because it provides an important resource for those who read Western historical writings about early Islamic history and, more broadly, about the formation and development of religious traditions. In short, these pages provide a manageable summary of how and why ‘modern’ people came to a uniquely skeptical and cynical attitude towards scripture and orthodoxy across religious traditions.   - J. A. C. Brown* --- ## Introduction Thus far we have discussed hadiths and their functions in Islamic civilization as a tradition developed by a people who affirmed that Muhammad ﷺ was a prophet, the last in a series sent to humanity by a God who created the universe and is its sole font of truth. So far, the hadith tradition has unfolded among Muslims. Though they might have disagreed on the proper use or interpretation of hadiths, Muslims have controlled the boundaries of the discussion. This book, however, does not assume that the reader believes that God influences the course of history or that Muhammad ﷺ was a prophet. Instead, you may have noticed (assuming I’ve done my job) that this book discusses hadiths in a ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’ tone according to the methods of modern historians of a religious tradition. Like Muslim hadith critics, however, our methods of historical criticism in the West have their own tradition with its own assumptions. What we must admit before any further discussion is that, because a book does not assume that God directly intervenes in human events, that Muhammad ﷺ was a prophet, or that hadiths are in general authentic, then what it really assumes is that God does *not* directly interfere in historical events, that Muhammad ﷺ was *just a man*, and that there are *real doubts* about the historical reliability of the entire hadith corpus. Few Western readers of this book, for example, would accept the explanation that we know the Muslim hadith tradition is an accurate record of Muhammad’s words because God would never let his chosen religion go unpreserved (a standard Muslim explanation). As you can imagine, discussion of hadiths in the West differs dramatically from its indigenous Muslim counterpart. This chapter explores the Western academic investigation of early Islamic history and its radical critiques of the Sunni hadith tradition. ‘The Authenticity Question,’ as we will term it, has two implications that we must bear in mind. First, Western scholars’ critical examination of hadiths and the methods that Muslims used to authenticate them can be seen as laudably advancing our understanding of Islamic origins and as part of a larger human endeavor to expand all areas of knowledge. Second, however, Western criticism of the hadith tradition can be viewed as an act of domination in which one worldview asserts its power over another by dictating the terms by which ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth’ are established. From this perspective, one could ask why the ‘light’ that Western scholars shed on hadiths is necessarily more valuable to ‘the advancement of human understanding’ than what the Muslim hadith tradition has already offered. As the likes of Edward Said have shown, knowledge is power, and studying an object is an act of establishing control over it. It is thus no coincidence that four of the five main avenues through which the Western study of the Islamic world progressed grew out of European colonial or diplomatic interests (the French study of Islamic law and culture in colonial North Africa, similar Dutch studies in Southeast Asia, British studies of Persianate Islam in India, and European diplomatic interest in the Ottoman Empire). The fifth avenue, which proved most important for our subject, was that of Semitic studies, and stemmed from Biblical studies (as we shall discuss below).[^4] European diplomats in the late nineteenth century plotted how to promote a ‘progressive’ Islam among their colonial populations, much as their American successors have in the twenty-first. Western discussions about the reliability of the hadith tradition are thus not neutral, and their influence extends beyond the lofty halls of academia. When reports surfaced in 2008 that the Turkish government was preparing a ‘radical revision’ of the Sunni hadith canon, mainstream Western media applauded this move towards reformation (the rumor proved false).[^5] The Authenticity Question is part of a broader debate over the power dynamic between ‘Religion’ and ‘Modernity,’ and between ‘Islam’ and ‘the West.’ Instead of approaching the Authenticity Question from a teleological perspective, where we assume that the native ‘Muslim’ vision of the hadith tradition is wrong and that Western scholars have awakened it from its millennial slumber and are guiding it gradually forwards, we will assume what I think is a more accurate approach: the hadith tradition is so vast and our attempts to evaluate its authenticity so inevitably limited to small samples, that any attitudes towards its authenticity are necessarily based more on our critical worldview than on empirical fact. Because we ultimately cannot know empirically whether Muhammad ﷺ was a prophet or a character formed by history, or whether or not God played any role in preserving his words for posterity, we will not look at the Authenticity Question as one to which there is a right and wrong answer. Instead, we will identify what the various schools of thought on this question have taken as their basic assumptions and how they have built on them. We will examine how some schools of thought reacted to others and how their assumptions cast doubt on those of others. --- ## The Origins and Assumptions of the Western Study of the Hadith vs. the Islamic Tradition The Muslim hadith tradition and the Western academic study of Islamic origins represent diametrically opposed approaches to evaluating the authenticity of reports about the past. Both are critical, in that they concern themselves with questions of the reliability of historical sources, but they proceed from two sets of assumptions that are at loggerheads. The following section is a digression from the subject of hadiths, but it is an essential one if we are to understand why Western and Muslim scholars view the study of hadiths so differently. As we have seen, the Sunni tradition of hadith criticism was founded on a commitment to sifting reliable from unreliable hadiths based on criteria that examined both the sources of a report and its contents. In the absence of conflicting evidence or some strong objection, however, Muslim hadith scholars and jurists treated a report attributed to the Prophet ﷺ *prima facie* as something he really said. Ibn Hanbal thus famously stated that even a hadith whose authenticity was not established was a better source for law than ruling by one’s reason alone. A critical examination of a hadith was required only when a scholar had some compelling reason to doubt its authenticity. Even then, the charismatic authority of the Prophet ﷺ could overwhelm any critical concerns. The famous Egyptian scholar Ibn al-Hājj (d. 737/1336) ignored the legal ruling of a hadith and was subsequently afflicted by leprosy. When the Prophet ﷺ appeared to him in a dream, the scholar asked him why he was being punished, since he had analyzed the hadith and concluded that it was not reliable. The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘It suffices you to have heard it.’ Ibn al-Hājj repented and was cured by the Prophet ﷺ in his dream.[^6] Furthermore, Muslim belief that the Prophet ﷺ had been granted knowledge of the unseen and intended his legacy to form the basis for the civilization of Islam has meant that Muslims venerate statements attributed to the Prophet ﷺ before they doubt them. Skepticism towards hadiths was not the default setting of Muslim hadith critics. The approach of Western scholars has been the converse. According to the famous Lord Acton (d. 1902), the modern historian cannot believe in the presumption of innocence. His first reaction to any historical report must be suspicion.[^7] The modern Western study of history, commonly referred to (despite its internal diversity) as the **Historical Critical Method (HCM)**, is an approach to the past that emerged from Renaissance humanism and the critical approach to the sources of history and religion that subsequently developed in Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Maintaining a ‘historical critical’ perspective towards the past means that we do not accept what historical sources tell us without question. Instead, we interrogate them and attempt to establish their reliability according to a set of assumptions about how human society functions. As the great German historian Leopold von Ranke (d. 1886) declared, history is about looking behind the sources to find out ‘What really happened.’[^8] Numerous books have been written on the origins of the modern, historical critical worldview. In brief, its roots lie in 1) The Renaissance rediscovery of the Classical heritage of Greece and Rome; 2) The Age of Discovery, particularly the discovery of the New World; and 3) The Protestant Reformation. The rediscovery of the Classical heritage gave European scholars a sense of historical distance from the past and revealed the historical changes undergone by long revered texts like the Bible. At the same time, it affirmed a constant, unchanging human nature—an essential tool for how Western scholars authenticate stories from the past. Greek and Roman historians exuded a cosmopolitan skepticism that European minds found irresistible and introduced the model of the historian as detached analyst, as opposed to Christian chronicler. Ironically, reengaging with Classical philosophy did not energize rumination on metaphysics and theology as much as it led to a new focus on studying the rules governing the material world. Meanwhile, the discovery of the Americas exploded the established map of the world, which had been drawn from the genealogies and geographies of the Bible. The Protestant Reformation dismantled the Church’s monopoly on interpreting scripture, ultimately resulting in a view of the Bible as a historical product bound in its own context rather than an inerrant and timeless spring of literal truth. The roots of the HCM emerged from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, when Italian and French humanist scholars were reintroduced to the range of the Classical Greco-Roman heritage through manuscripts brought from the Muslim world and Byzantium. This led Western European scholars to a new perspective towards their cultural heritage. Western Europe had always considered itself a continuation of the Roman tradition, looking to Roman law and literature as exempla. But this relationship lacked any notion of historical distance; pre-Renaissance medieval artists painted Biblical heroes in the armor of English knights and portrayed French kings in Roman regalia.[^9] History was conceived according to the scheme articulated by St. Augustine (d. 430) and drawn from Biblical themes and markers. Since the time of Adam, history had been punctuated by one great cosmic event, the life of Christ, and since his crucifixion mankind had been in unrelenting decline, awaiting his second coming. One effect of the Renaissance ‘rebirth’ of interest in Roman figures like Cicero (d. 43 BCE) was that Italian scholars like the poet Petrarch (d. 1374) developed a sense of historical depth. Far from Augustine’s medieval synthesis of the Classics and Christianity, what Petrarch found as he fell in love with the prose of Cicero’s Latin letters was a pagan outlook on religion. Cicero’s writings revealed a culture of supercilious skepticism alongside public piety. The famous Roman Senator readily admitted how ridiculous Roman religious practices were but still demanded they be respected in public.[^10] Nowhere was historical distance more obvious than in the Latin language itself. Renaissance humanism was first and foremost a realization of how different (or, according to the humanists, how decadent) medieval Church Latin was from the language of Cicero. This fascination with recovering the pure Latin of the ancient Romans led the Italian scholar of language, or **philologist**, Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457) to realize how many Latin words had come to mean something other than their original meaning. Examining a document called *The Donation of Constantine*, which the Roman emperor Constantine supposedly had written in the early fourth century granting the pope control over lands in the West, Valla pointed out that the presence of linguistic **anachronisms** (things that appear out of place in time—like a letter supposedly written by Jesus but mentioning mobile phones) meant that this document must have been a later forgery. The document mentions ‘fiefs,’ or land grants, but Valla points out that this word did not appear until much later.[^11] Noticing how language changed over time had led Valla to unmask a historical forgery that had long served as a pillar of the papacy’s claim to the right to act as a temporal power. Identifying anachronisms would serve as a pillar of the HCM. The Renaissance fascination with language as a tool for rediscovering origins had even more stunning implications for the study of the Bible. One of Valla’s successors in philology, the famous Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (d. 1536), duplicated Valla’s obsession with Classical Latin in the field of Greek. Erasmus devoted his career to producing the most reliable and accurate versions of ancient Greek texts by comparing the oldest possible manuscripts of the books and then purging them of mistakes made in copying and the linguistic misunderstandings or even insertions of later scholars. When producing a new edition of the original Greek text of the New Testament, Erasmus discovered that a verse that had long been part of the Latin Bible and used as a definitive proof of the Trinity was a later addition totally absent in the original Greek.[^12] Erasmus’ life straddled stunning discovery and religious upheaval. In the span of his adult life, two new continents were added to the map. Not only had the great minds of the past never guessed their existence, but their inhabitants had no place in the Biblical genealogy based on Adam’s children. With the globe as conceived by Church fathers shattered, a path was opened for novel scholarship. The French Protestant Isaac de la Peyrère (d. 1676) made the controversial argument that the Bible must have been more local than global. Adam was not the first man but merely the patriarch of one of many tribes (since Cain was able to flee and marry elsewhere, see Genesis 4:16). Similarly, Noah’s flood was not global, just a local punishment for the land of Canaan.[^13] By Peyrère’s time, the Protestant Reformation had opened new space for theological speculation in Protestant realms like England and the Netherlands. The revival of philosophy, or the notion that metaphysical truth can be attained by reason alone, led to the blossoming in seventeenth-century England of Deism, or the belief in a rational God knowable and bound by reason. In line with contempt for the papacy and the discovery of the human hand in shaping scripture, Deists like John Toland (d. 1722) argued that Christianity had originally been a purely rational religion but that the early Church had corrupted it with Roman superstitions.[^14] The great Protestant reformers had called for Christianity to be based on scripture alone, with the Holy Spirit, not Church tradition, guiding the believer to the proper understanding of the Bible. In contrast to Church fathers, who had long read Biblical passages in accord with Church doctrine or with select tenets of Aristotelian philosophy, Protestant founders like John Calvin (d. 1564) insisted on a reading of the Bible that adhered more closely to its literal sense.[^15] Ironically, this approach produced an influential Protestant outgrowth whose perspectives on the Bible proved hugely consequential. The Quakers soon came to see the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as a more important guide to truth than scripture, so critiques of the Bible’s historical integrity began losing their sting.[^16] By the late seventeenth century, such developments had raised a key question at the fringes of Protestant thought. If truth could be known from outside scripture, either through reason or inspiration, and if that scripture itself seemed more and more like a historical product of a flawed Church tradition, then was the Bible really a timeless vessel of universal truth? Benedict Spinoza (d. 1677) of Amsterdam gave the most influential answer. In his landmark *Theological-Political Treatise*, he argued that the Bible must be treated as the product of a particular time and place, phrased in the language and idiom of its original audience. The Old Testament’s description of God walking with man (Genesis 5:24) or the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament were not universal theological claims or historical facts. They were expressions of how religion was understood by the Bible’s original audiences. This did not mean that the Bible was pointless, but it no longer held the paramount place in the hierarchy of truth. The ‘universal foundation’ of all religion, wrote Spinoza, was to love God and love one’s neighbor, to ‘defend justice, assist the poor, not to kill, not to covet other men’s property, etc.’[^17] But the historically bound Bible only *shared in* this truth, it did not monopolize it. Contrast Spinoza’s approach with the Muslim position that the Qur’an is, as Muslim scholars have held, ‘the most truthful of speech, suitable for all times and all places.’[^18] The critical methods of Erasmus and the philosophical outlook of Spinoza and the Deists took root and blossomed in the university cities of Germany, where the HCM emerged as a clear scholarly methodology in the late 1700s. The philological study of ancient texts led to a myriad of critical revelations about Greco-Roman history and the Bible. Examining the style of Greek in Homer’s *Iliad* and *Odyssey*, F. A. Wolf concluded in 1795 that the two works could not have been the product of one author.[^19] Studies of the New Testament Gospels led German scholars to conclude that, far from being themselves eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus’ life, the gospel writers Luke and Matthew had both constructed their versions of Christ’s life based on material from the book of Mark. As Voltaire (d. 1778) reported, scholars now knew that the many non-canonical gospels that had been discovered actually predated the four gospels of the New Testament.[^20] One German scholar, Hermann Reimarus (d. 1768), made the controversial but ultimately influential contention that the first generations of Christians had invented much of the life of Jesus. Leading German scholars of theology adopted the position that the truth of religion was knowable first and foremost by reason, with both scripture and Church teachings constructed by human hands. The truth of biblical narrative was no longer assumed. It had to correspond to reason and fact. Of course, some German scholars still maintained the inerrant and literal truth of the Bible. Others tried to rationalize its miracles (Jesus did not walk on water, for example, this was merely what the Apostles *perceived*). But what emerged as the conventional approach, exemplified by the theology professor Johann Semler (d. 1791), was that the true function of the Bible was to convey *spiritual* truth, not historical or scientific fact. The Biblical canon was a historical development, and its particular meanings were tied to the worldviews of its original audiences. The Bible was no longer the sole storehouse of truth for mankind. Rather, it was just a stage in man’s journey towards a greater philosophical truth working its way through history.[^21] The development of the HCM among German scholars culminated in David Friedrich Strauss’ (d. 1874) controversial 1835 book *The Life of Jesus*. The work called for a total rejection of the historicity of the gospels (Jesus’ miracles were just ‘culturally conditioned myths’) and a recognition that Christianity must be based on the Christ of faith, not of history.[^22] By the mid-nineteenth century, what had been controversial seventy years earlier had become mainstream scholarship. The primary focus of university scholarship in Germany had shifted from Christian theology to history (though controversy still raged in more conservative colleges in Scotland and America). Historians no longer served the Bible and theology, now these subjects were merely objects of historical study.[^23] A crucial principle of the HCM was that the original founders of all religions were not actually responsible for the later, formalized teachings of those religions. This idea was already present in Voltaire’s observation that the early Church fathers relied on non-canonical gospels.[^24] But it was ultimately formalized by the German sociologist Max Weber (d. 1920), who argued that a religion’s orthodoxy was organized by later generations in order to institutionalize the founder’s charismatic religious authority. Contrast this with the Sunni belief that hadith scholars were merely *preserving* their Prophet’s original teachings by ‘fending off lies from the Sunna of God’s Messenger.’ This new German school of history assumed that the first step of studying any text was to question its reliability and determine its authenticity. In other words, the default setting for scholars was to doubt the reliability of material transmitted about the past. Certainly, this principle of doubt did not mean that European historians doubted *everything* about the past. But as their criticisms of the textual integrity of Homer’s epics or the historical veracity of the Bible illustrate, they were willing to indulge fundamental doubts about the cornerstones of Western history and religion based upon what they considered anachronisms or stylistic inconsistencies within a text. Contrast this with the statement of Sunni hadith critics like Mullā ‘Alī al-Qārī (d. 1014/1606), who asserted that ‘it is manifestly obvious that if something has been established by transmission \[from the Prophet\], then one should not heed any contradiction with sense perception or reason.’[^25] In contrast to the mission of Muslim chroniclers—to preserve God’s message and recount the history of God’s chosen community—from the eighteenth century onward European historians envisioned themselves as detached observers. They were inspired by the Classical historians whose works Petrarch and others had recovered in the Renaissance. In writing his monumental *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*, Edward Gibbon (d. 1794) channeled the Roman historians Tacitus (d. *circa* 117 CE) (whom he called the first historian who ‘applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts’)[^26] and Polybius (d. 118 BCE), who insisted it was the historian’s duty to criticize friend and foe impartially.[^27] Far from defending some religious truth, historians like Gibbon saw themselves like Cicero, standing above and outside religion’s benighted confessional traditions while remarking on the deeper, underlying constancies of human history. Along with an *a priori* doubt about textual reliability and the human construction of religious orthodoxy, the HCM rested on other revolutionary methodological foundations. The Renaissance had reacquainted European scholars with the Classical skepticism of Sextus Empiricus (d. *circa* 210 CE), who dismissed inherent truth and universal morality as unknowable and who urged people to focus on their immediate moral and physical surroundings. In the sixteenth century, the Italian city of Padua emerged as a center for ‘natural philosophy’ (i.e., science) where Aristotle’s empirical observations, not his metaphysics, were front and center. Based on this Classical foundation, scholars in Padua developed the procedure of hypothesis and demonstration that became the foundation of empirical investigation.[^28] The writings of the Roman philosopher Lucretius (d. *circa* 55 BCE), a materialist who believed that only the material world existed and that natural causes, not the gods, govern our affairs, became wildly popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His poetic stanza ‘Happy is he who understands the causes of things’ became a mantra often quoted by Enlightenment scholars. It embraced a materialist understanding of the world in which events proceeded according to natural laws and not according to divine intervention. The most influential scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Blaise Pascal (d. 1662), were still committed Christians. But for them, in order to protect Christian belief from critics, faith had to be placed beyond the realm of reason and scientific study. The physical world, on the other hand, was created by God according to fixed laws that could be measured and relied on. In the late 1700s, a certain crass materialism emerged that did not just set the metaphysical respectfully aside. It mocked any belief in the supernatural (reminiscent of Lucretius himself). Particularly evident in the writings of the French encyclopedist Diderot (d. 1784), this crass materialism would become a dominant cultural theme in Europe by the late 1800s. Contrast this with the position of Muslim scholars (and, indeed, medieval Christians) that scripture and empirical observation had to be read in accord with one another, since both revelation and nature were ‘signs’ of God. The scientific revolution sealed the assumption that miracles or God’s direct involvement could not be called on to explain history and scripture. European historians embraced the Roman poet Horace’s command ‘Let no god intervene (*nec deus intersit*)’; it was the immutable laws of nature and human society that shaped human history. They followed their Greco-Roman exemplars, who adhered to the ancient position that human nature was an unchanging constant.[^29] Herodotus (d. *circa* 420 BCE), the ‘Father of History,’ concluded that Helen could not actually have been at Troy because people would never choose fighting a ten-year war over surrendering a woman they had wrongly abducted in the first place.[^30] Just as Newton discovered the laws of motion, Voltaire described human society as governed by its own, constant laws.[^31] One of the central principles of the HCM was thus the Principle of Analogy (sometimes called, clumsily, uniformitarianism), which dictates that, although cultures can differ dramatically from place to place and era to era, human societies always function in essentially the same way. As a result, we can reconstruct how and why events transpired in Greece thousands of years ago based on our understanding of how individuals and groups function in our own societies today. If people generally tend to pursue their own interests and advance their own agendas today, then they did so in Greek times or at the time of Christ, and no one can be realistically exempted from such motivations.[^32] Contrast this with the Sunni Muslim view of history in which, as the Prophet ﷺ supposedly said, **‘The best generation is the one in which I was sent, then the next, then the next’** (or, indeed, contrast it with the pre-Renaissance Christian view of history). For Sunni hadith critics, the Prophet’s time was ‘free of evil.’[^33] His Companions were incapable of lying about him and certainly not analogous to anyone else. Along with the Principle of Analogy and the detection of anachronisms to identify unreliable reports, the HCM has also relied on a tool often referred to as the Principle of Dissimilarity. Articulated by the Dutch classicist Jakob Perizonius (d. 1715), this states that a report that seems to contradict or challenge orthodoxy is probably originally true, since no one trying to construct or defend that orthodoxy would have made it up.[^34] In the study of the Bible, these trains of thought led to the development of what was termed **Form criticism** in Germany in the first decades of the twentieth century. This method of criticism combined the presumed doubt in the integrity of texts with the modern critic’s confidence that the construction of these texts was affected by very profane, worldly interests. Form critics identified smaller sections within Biblical books from which their larger narratives were composed. Each of these smaller components, termed forms, ‘served a definite function in a concrete situation in the life of the early church.’ ‘The main purpose for the creation, the circulation, and the use of these forms was not to preserve the history of Jesus, but to strengthen the life of the church.’[^35] From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, the various strands of European thought on science, history, and religion came together to form a worldview immediately familiar to us today. Often called Positivism, it held that through their newly developed methods of science and rigorous scholarship, humans were able to cast aside ignorance and superstition and uncover the truth about their surroundings and their past. Equally important, only truth so discovered was worth following. Although glimpses of it had appeared in the Renaissance and around the time of the French Revolution, one crucial pillar of Positivism was the notion of progress—that human civilization was *improving*. Unlike almost everything else mentioned so far, this belief was unprecedented. It was alien to the Greeks, the Romans, and St. Augustine alike. Despite two world wars, Positivism remains alive today. It is immediately exemplified by the popular character Sherlock Holmes, whose detailed scientific method allows him to reconstruct past events and determine the exact character of any person. As summarized neatly by Voltaire, historians applying the HCM believed reports coming from people in the past if ‘what they say of themselves is to their disadvantage, when their stories have some resemblance of truth, and they do not contradict the normal order of nature.’[^36] The important basic assumptions and methods that together made up the Historical Critical Method of scholars in Europe and later America are: 1) A presumption of doubt about the authenticity or reliability of a historical text or historical reports; 2) A general suspiciousness towards orthodox narratives presented in such texts or reports; 3) The conviction that by analyzing historical sources using the methods noted above a scholar can sift the reliable from unreliable by identifying which parts of the text served which historical agendas. The development of the Historical Critical Method would have immediate consequences for the questions of authenticity in the Islamic tradition. The nineteenth century in particular saw French and British scholars begin investigating the life of Muhammad ﷺ and Islam’s origins as part of their efforts to dominate colonized Muslim populations. For German scholars of the ancient Near East, studying Islam was a byproduct of Biblical studies. In his efforts to better understand the historical development of the Old Testament, the German Biblical scholar Julius Wellhausen (d. 1918) saw studying Islam as the best way to approximate the Bible’s Semitic context. But, in seeking to ‘uncover’ the origins of Islam and its scripture, these German scholars were engaging in a conscious, if well-intentioned, act of domination. As it was announced proudly in 1902 at a German Orientalist conference, ‘the darkness of antiquity has been illuminated’ and ‘light has been carried into the dusky forests’ of India, Africa, and the Middle East by Europeans uncovering the origins and developments of these peoples’ religions. As one scholar has put it, Theodor Nöldeke’s (d. 1930) influential 1860 book on the origins of the Qur’an typified ‘Europe’s newfound confidence in its superior knowledge of oriental texts and traditions.’[^37] More important for our purposes, these Orientalists were making an imposing assumption: that what had proven true of Christianity and the Bible must be true of all other religions and all other sacred texts as well. Soon the methods of Biblical scholars would be brought to bear on the Arab-Islamic tradition. … Western historians are of course totally right to point out the suspicious anachronism in a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ allegedly says, ‘If you see Mu‘āwiya on my pulpit, kill him,’ or the even more outrageous alleged hadith of ‘There will be in my community a man named Muhammad b. Idrīs \[al-Shāfi‘ī\], and the strife he brings will be worse than Satan.’ But prominent Muslim hadith critics like Ibn ‘Adī (d. 975), al-Jawzaqānī (d. 1148-9), and al-Dhahabī (d. 1348) also considered the hadith about Mu‘āwiya to be unreliable or fabricated outright, and the hadith condemning al-Shāfi‘ī was used by Muslim scholars as a textbook example of forgery.[^38] Even though many Muslim scholars considered them unreliable, hadiths condemning the Qadarites (*qadariyya*, that early Muslim sect that upheld a belief in total human free will) appear in collections like the respected Four *Sunan*. Certainly, it seems that the proper name Qadarite did not develop for over a century after the death of the Prophet ﷺ.[^39] But jumping to dismiss these hadiths as forgeries due to the anachronism of the Prophet ﷺ ‘foretelling’ this sect’s emergence is hasty. Western scholars might not accept that the Prophet ﷺ could know the future, but the Qur’an clearly engages the questions of free will and predestination. Some Muslims in Muhammad’s time could well have angered him by advocating the idea that God did not control human actions, so it is not unreasonable that he might have warned them against this. Crucially, for every hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ condemns the Qadarites by this proper name there is a corresponding, non-anachronistic narration in which he refers to them as ‘the people of *qadar*’ or ‘those who disbelieve in *qadar*.’ In fact, these non-anachronistic narrations are the most reliable ones according to Muslim scholars. What seems like a clear case of anachronism to Western scholars might actually be a case in which the Prophet ﷺ condemned an existing heresy, then some later transmitters of those hadiths lazily replaced ‘the people of *qadar*/those who disbelieve in *qadar*’ with the conventional label Qadarite as it had emerged in their time.[^40] Western critics from Ignaz Goldziher (d. 1921) onwards rebuked Muslim hadith scholars for not taking the contents of a hadith into consideration when analyzing its authenticity. But as we have seen, Muslim critics like al-Bukhārī (d. 870) did, in fact, use the contents of hadiths to prove that they were unreliable, although their degree of skepticism never approached that of the HCM. Certainly, Muslim hadith critics differ from modern Western criticism in that they believe that the Prophet ﷺ could know the future, but perhaps Western scholars could benefit from their cautious approach. Western reasoning for why the hadith about visiting the three mosques must be forged rested on the fact that it seemed to promote an Umayyad agenda and that al-Zuhrī (d. 742), who was associated with the Umayyad court, is in the *isnād*.[^41] But there are other early *isnāds* for this hadith that do not have al-Zuhrī in them.[^42] Should we reconsider our conclusion or assume, quite without reason, that these other *isnāds* were forged as well? The Al-Aqsa Mosque is mentioned in the Qur’an, so is it so inconceivable that the Prophet ﷺ would order his followers to pay special attention to it along with the Haram Mosque in Mecca and his mosque in Medina? There is a certain ‘chicken and the egg’ logic to the Western approach to the reliability of hadiths. Goldziher and others have regularly criticized the hadith, considered *sahīh* by Muslims, ‘When you see the black banners approaching from Khurasan, go to them, for indeed the Messiah (*Mahdī*) is among them,’ which they consider to be a product of Abbasid revolutionary propaganda (the Abbasids both had black banners and emerged from Khurasan).[^43] But we must accept the fact that Muhammad ﷺ, prophet or not, might actually have acted like a prophet and prophesied occasionally. Did the Abbasids forge this hadith about the black banners and the *Mahdī*, or did they take advantage of an existing hadith and simply tailor their banners to fit the messianic image that the Prophet ﷺ had actually described? Looking outside the Islamic tradition, the Old Testament Book of Zechariah reads, ‘Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey’ (Zechariah 9:9). Does the fact that the Gospels describe Jesus entering Jerusalem on a colt or donkey (Mark 11:1–11; Matthew 21:1–4) mean that Christians made up this part of the Book of Zechariah to bolster the case for Jesus being a messianic figure (we know this is not true since the Book of Zechariah predates Christianity)? Or did Jesus really enter Jerusalem (not unlikely) riding the transport of his day—a donkey (not unlikely)—an event that the Gospel writers then described in the language of Old Testament scripture to show how Jesus’ life was part of Old Testament prophecy being fulfilled? Taken further, the entry of the Quaker James Nayler (d. 1660) into the English town of Bristol in 1656, riding on a donkey with women strewing fronds before him and singing ‘Holy, Holy, Holy,’ obviously does not mean that Quakers concocted the Gospel story. Nayler was simply casting himself in the image of Christ as portrayed in scripture.[^44] Similarly, some of the apparent anachronisms found in hadiths may simply be Muslims scripturalizing their own actions and history to dovetail with statements made by Muhammad ﷺ. Both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars of hadiths have agreed that there are many forged hadiths. In my opinion, explaining how this came about involves understanding the choices made by the Sunni scholarly tradition more than it does doubting the systematic effectiveness of their method of hadith criticism. In theory as well as practice, the Sunni system of hadith transmission criticism, which demanded a source, investigated its reliability and sought out corroborating evidence, is an effective way of determining the authenticity of a report. Modern reporters, after all, employ a similar method. The Western scholars G.H.A. Juynboll (d. 2010) and Michael Cook cited the practice of *tadlīs* (when a transmitter cites a source in a way that seems like they heard it directly from them when they did not) as the loophole by which hadiths were attributed to major transmitters or equipped with additional *isnāds*. Juynboll states that *tadlīs* ‘was hardly ever detected.’[^45] But Muslim hadith scholars from the mid-eighth century onward were obsessive about identifying which transmitters lapsed into *tadlīs* and when. Shu‘ba (d. 776) said that ‘*tadlīs* is the brother of lying’ and studied the transmissions of his teacher Qatāda b. Di‘āma (d. 735) closely to know when he had heard a hadith directly from the person he was citing and when it was unclear if there was an unspecified intermediary. Yahyā b. Sa‘īd al-Qattān (d. 813) made sure to identify *tadlīs* even when it was done by as revered a figure as Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 778). Later, master critics like ‘Alī b. al-Madīnī (d. 849), al-Husayn al-Karābīsī (d. 859), and others wrote multi-volume books identifying the names of those who committed *tadlīs* and the degree of their laxity.[^46] Juynboll states that the critical method of Muslim hadith scholars did not take into account the possibility that *isnāds* were fabricated wholesale. But the intensive focus on finding corroboration in order to evaluate a transmitter was aimed at isolating those individuals who cited *isnāds* not backed up by other students of the same teacher. If a transmitter was making up *isnāds* wholesale, he would be identified as someone who ‘is not corroborated (*lā yutāba‘u ‘alayhi*)’ or narrates ‘unacceptable (*munkar*)’ hadiths. The number of hadiths transmitted by Ibn ‘Abbās appears to increase incredulously over the centuries only when we forget to distinguish between the relatively small number that Ibn ‘Abbās actually heard from the Prophet ﷺ and those in which he said ‘the Prophet said …’ leaving out the older Companion who had actually told him the hadith. Clearly, Muslim scholars’ rulings on the reliability of individual hadiths cannot be accepted without careful examination. But, as the German scholar Harald Motzki and others have shown, the classical Islamic method of filtering out forged hadiths was much more effective than earlier scholars like Goldziher and Juynboll have believed. However, Sunni scholars only chose to apply their critical methods *some of the time*. Masters of early Sunni hadith criticism such as Sufyān al-Thawrī, Ibn al-Mubārak (d. 797), Ibn Hanbal (d. 855), Ibn Ma‘īn (d. 848), and Ibn Abī Hātim al-Rāzī (d. 938) all stressed that they dealt stringently with the *isnāds* of hadiths dealing with law and dogma but were lax with material concerning history (*maghāzī*), the virtues of people or acts (*fadā’il*), pious preaching (*wa‘z*), the end of days (*malāhim*), good manners, and the meaning of Qur’anic terms (*tafsīr*). As Nabia Abbott (d. 1981) stated, this material easily passed through the hadith scholars’ critical filters. These were the doors that Sunni scholars left open for forged material. Al-Tirmidhī’s (d. 892) collection offers a useful example since he alone provided his own ratings for each hadith in his book. In chapters dealing with core legal topics, only a relatively small percentage of hadiths suffer from some lack of corroboration (*gharīb*): for the chapters on tithing (*zakāt*) and fasting (*sawm*), it is 17%. His chapter on inheritance (*farā’id*) has only 7%. Al-Tirmidhī’s chapters on non-legal matters, however, have a much larger percentage of hadiths that the author himself acknowledges as problematic: apocalyptic strife (*fitan*)—35%; the virtues of various early Muslims (*manāqib*)—52%; pious invocations (*da‘awāt*)—50%; and manners (*ādāb*)—27%. If corroboration was the keystone of Muslim hadith criticism, then al-Tirmidhī certainly dropped his critical guard in the non-legal chapters in comparison with legal ones. It is unfortunate that many of the areas that Western scholars consider the most important subjects of study—political history, apocalyptic visions, and Qur’anic exegesis—were simply not the priorities of Sunni hadith scholars. It is possible that it was prioritization of law over other areas that led to the inclusion of large numbers of unreliable hadiths in Sunni collections, not the failings of Sunni hadith-critical methods. --- ## Bibliography Acton, John Lord. *A Lecture on the Study of History*. London, MacMillan & Co., 1905 Al-‘Ajlūnī, Ismā‘īl b. Ahmad. *Kashf al-khafā’*, ed. Ahmad al-Qalāsh. Cairo, Dār al-Turāth, \[n.d.\] Bentley, Jerry. *Humanists and Holy Writ. Princeton*, Princeton University Press, 1983 Brooke, Rosalind and Christopher. *Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000–1300*. New York, Barnes and Noble, 1984 Brumfitt, J.H. *Voltaire, Historian.* Oxford, Oxford U. Press, 1958 Cicero, Marcus. *The Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum)*, trans. Horace McGregor. New York, Penguin, 1967 Al-Dhahabī, Shams al-Dīn. *Mīzān al-i‘tidāl fī naqd al-rijāl*, ed. ‘Alī Muhammad al-Bijāwī. \[Beirut\], Dār Ihyā’ al-Kutub al-‘Arabiyya, n.d. Ehrman, Bart D. *The New Testament*, 2nd ed. New York, Oxford University Press, 2000 Frampton, Travis. *Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Criticism of the Bible*. New York, T&T Clark, 2006 Frei, Hans. *The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative*. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1974 Gay, Peter, ed. *Deism: An Anthology*. Princeton, D. van Nostrand Co., 1968 Gibbon, Edward. *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.* New York, The Modern Library, n.d. Gilmore, Myron P. *Humanists and Jurists.* Cambridge, MA, Belknap Press, 1963 Herodotus. *The Histories*, trans. Aubrey De Sélincourt. London, Penguin Books, 1996 Howard, Thomas A. *Religion and the Rise of Historicism.* Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000 Al-Humaydī, Abdallāh b. al-Zubayr. *Al-Musnad*, ed. Habīb al-Rahmān al-A‘zamī. Karachi, al-Majlis al-‘Ilmī, 1963 Ibn ‘Adī, ‘Abdallāh. *Al-Kāmil fī du‘afā’ al-rijāl*. Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1985 Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī. *Fath al-bārī sharh Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, ed. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz b. Bāz and Ayman Fu’ād ‘Abd al-Bāqī. Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1997 Al-Isbahānī, Abū Nu‘aym. *Hilyat al-awliyā’ wa tabaqāt al-asfiyā*’. Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 2006 Al-Jawzaqānī, al-Husayn b. Ibrāhīm. *Al-Abātīl wa al-manākīr wa al-sihāh wa al-mashāhīr*, ed. Muhammad Hasan Muhammad. Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 2001 Juynboll, G.H.A. *Muslim Tradition: Studies in Chronology, Provenance and Authorship of Early Hadīth.* London, Cambridge University Press, 1983 Al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī. *Al-Jāmi‘ akhlāq al-rāwī wa ādāb al-sāmi‘*, ed. Muhammad Sa‘īd. Mansoura, Egypt, Dār al-Wafā’, 2002 \------. *Al-Kifaya fī ma‘rifat usūl ‘ilm al-riwāya*, ed. Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Dimyātī. Cairo, Dār al-Hudā, 2003 \------.*Tārīkh Baghdād*, ed. Mustafā ‘Abd al-Qādir ‘Atā. Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1997 Lecker, Michael. ‘Biographical Notes on Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī,’ *Journal of Semitic Studies*, 41, 1996, pp. 21–63 Von Leyden, W. ‘Antiquity and Authority: A Paradox in the Renaissance Theory of History,’ *Journal of the History of Ideas* 19, no. 4, 1958, pp. 473–92 Livy, Titus. *The Early History of Rome*. London, Penguin Books, 1960 Al-Makkī, Abū Tālib.  *Qūt al-qulūb*.  Cairo, Matba‘a al-Anwār al-Muhammadiyya, \[1985\] Marchand, Suzanne L. German *Orientalism in the Age of Empire*. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009 Massad, Joseph A. *Islam in Liberalism*. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2015 Momigliano, Arnaldo. *Studies in Historiography*. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966 Morgan, Robert and John Barton. *Biblical Interpretation*. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1988 Perrin, Norman. *What Is Redaction Criticism?* Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1969 Petrarch, Francesco. *The Secret*, trans. William H. Draper. London: Chatto & Windus, 1911 Polybius. *The Histories*, trans. Mortimer Chambers. New York, Washington Square Press, 1966 Qārī, Mullā ‘Alī. *Al-Asrār al-marfū‘a fī al-akhbār al-mawdū‘a*, ed. Muhammad Lutfī Sabbāgh. Beirut, al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1986 Randall, John Herman Jr. *The School of Padua and the Emergence of Modern Science*. Padua, Editrice Antenore, 1961 Von Ranke, Leopold. *Sämtliche Werke* (1868–90), vol. 33 Rice, Eugene F. Jr. and Anthony Grafton. *The Foundations of Early Modern Europe*, 1460–1559. 2nd ed. New York, W.W. Norton, 1994 Scholder, Klaus. *The Birth of Modern Critical Theology*, trans. John Bowden. Philadelphia, Trinity Press, 1996 Spinoza, Benedict. *Theological-Political Treatise*, trans. Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 Troeltsch, Ernst. ‘Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology.’ In *Religion in History*, ed. and trans. James A. Luther and Walter Bense. Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1991 Voltaire. *Essai sur les moeurs*. Paris: Éditions Garniers et Frères, 1963 \------. *La Philosophie de l’Histoire*. Utrecht, n.p., 1765 Wolf, Friedrich August. *Prolegomena to Homer*, ed. and trans. Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most and James E.G. Zetzel. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1985 --- ## Notes [^1]: Tom Holland, *In the Shadow of the Sword*, 405. [^2]: *Muwatta’: kitab salat al-layl, bab al-amr bi’l-witr*. [^3]: For more on this, see [here](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://drjonathanbrown.com/2015/tom-holland-the-five-daily-prayers-and-they-hypocrisy-of-revisionism/&sa=D&ust=1548952207791000). [^4]: Expanding on Marshall Hodgson, *The Venture of Islam*, vol. 1, p. 40. [^5]: Joseph Massad, *Islam in Liberalism*, pp. 65–73. See [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm).; http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/03/07/turkeyexplains-revision-of-hadith-project/ (last cited July 2016). [^6]: Al-‘Ajlūnī, *Kashf al-khafā*, vol. 1, p. 12 al-Makkī, *Qūt al-qulūb*, vol. 1, p. 177. [^7]: Lord Acton, *A Lecture on the Study of History*, pp. 40–42. [^8]: Leopold von Ranke, *Sämtliche Werke* (1868–90), vol. 33, pp. v–viii. [^9]: For example, twelfth-century paintings of Gospel scenes in the Swiss church of Zillis show characters dressed in medieval clothes; Rosalind and Christopher Brooke, *Popular Religion in the Middle Ages*, p. 137; Myron P. Gilmore, *Humanists and Jurists*, pp. 1–10. [^10]: Cicero, *The Nature of the Gods*, pp. I:60–62, 71–73; Petrarch, *The Secret*, pp. 68–69. [^11]: Eugene F. Rice, Jr. and Anthony Grafton, *The Foundations of Early Modern Europe*, p. 82. [^12]: This verse reads: ‘And there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one…’ King James Bible 1 John 5:7–8. Only four Greek manuscripts mentioned this famous ‘Johannan comma,’ and all were historically late; Jerry Bentley, *Humanists and Holy Writ*, pp. 45, 152–153. [^13]: Klaus Scholder, *The Birth of Modern Critical Theology*, p. 67; Travis Frampton, *Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Criticism of the Bible*, pp. 208–216. [^14]: Peter Gay, ed., *Deism*, pp. 72–77. [^15]: Hans Frei, *The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative*, pp. 25–26. [^16]: Scholder, *Birth of Modern Critical Theology*, pp. 37–40. [^17]: Benedict Spinoza, *Theological-Political Treatise*, pp. 170–171. [^18]: See for a version of this, al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī, *Tārīkh Baghdād*, vol. 6, p. 115. [^19]: F. A. Wolf, *Prolegomena to Homer*, p. 233. [^20]: Voltaire, *Essai sur les Moeurs*, p. 1:288. [^21]: Frei, *Eclipse of Biblical Narrative*, pp. 56–57, 162; Robert Morgan and John Barton, *Biblical Interpretation*, p. 48. See also Pico’s (d. 1494) *Oration on the Dignity of Man*. [^22]: Robert Morgan and John Barton, *Biblical Interpretation*, p. 47; Thomas Howard, *Religion and the Rise of Historicism*, p. 34. [^23]: Howard, *Religion and the Rise of Historicism*, pp. 2, 12–13. [^24]: Voltaire, *Essai sur les moeurs*, p. 1:288. [^25]: Mullā ‘Alī al-Qārī, *al-Asrār al-marfū‘a*, p. 407. [^26]: Edward Gibbon, *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*, vol. 1, p. 186. [^27]: Polybius, *The Histories*, p. I:14. [^28]: John Herman Randall, *The School of Padua and the Emergence of Modern Science*, pp. 18, 46–47. [^29]: Livy, *The Early History of Rome*, p. 3:1. [^30]: Herodotus, *The Histories*, p. II:120. [^31]: J. H. Brumfitt, *Voltaire, Historian*, p. 103. [^32]: Ernst Troeltsch, ‘Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology,’ pp. 13–14; W. Von Leyden, ‘Antiquity and Authority: A Paradox in the Renaissance Theory of History,’ p. 488. [^33]: The scholar al-Kirmānī (d. 786/1384) said that it is an essential belief in Islam that there was no ‘evil (*sharr*)’ in the time of the Prophet ﷺ; Ibn Hajar, *Fath*, vol. 13, p. 26. [^34]: Bart D. Ehrman, *The New Testament*, pp. 204–205; Arnaldo Momigliano, *Studies in Historiography*, p. 21. [^35]: Norman Perrin, *What Is Redaction Criticism?*, p. 16. [^36]: Voltaire, *La Philosophie de l’Histoire*, p. 121. [^37]: Suzanne Marchand, *German Orientalism in the Age of Empire*, pp. 157, 174, 183–184, 187; Nöldeke’s *Geschichte des Qorans* has been translated as *The History of the Qur’ān*, trans. Wolfgang Behn (Leiden, Brill, 2013). [^38]: Al-Jawzaqānī, *Al-Abātīl*, pp. 114–115; al-Dhahabī, *Mīzān*, p. 3:277; Ibn ‘Adī, *Al-Kāmil*, vol. 5, pp. 1744, 1751, 1756. [^39]: See the Caliph ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-Azīz’s (d. 720) letter on the subject, where he refers to them as those who hold ‘*al-qawl bi’l-qadar*’; Abū Nu‘aym, *Hilyat al-awliyā’*, vol. 5, p. 351. Compare with Mālik b. Anas referring to them as the *qadariyya* in his *Muwatta’: kitāb al-qadar, bāb al-nahy ‘an al-qawl bi’l-qadar.* [^40]: For the corresponding versions of these hadiths, see *Sunan Ibn Mājah*: introduction, *bāb fī al-qadar*; *Musnad Ibn Hanbal*, vol. 2, p. 125, etc. [^41]: Michael Lecker, ‘Biographical Notes on al-Zuhri,’ p. 38. [^42]: Al-Humaydī, *Al-Musnad*, vol. 2, p. 330. [^43]: Al-Suyūtī, *Al-Jāmi‘ al-saghīr*, # 648. [^44]: *A True Narrative of the Examination, Tryall, and Sufferings of James Nayler* \[London\], n.p. 1657, pp. 4–5. [^45]: G. H. A. Juynboll, *Muslim Tradition*, pp. 52, 73, 75. [^46]: Khatīb, *Al-Kifāya*, p. 2:371–378; idem, *Al-Jāmi‘*, vol. 2, p. 312. ## Summary A prefatory word is in order regarding how reports about the past have been weighed in two very different scholarly worlds. Much of what has come before concerned the ḥadīth and their role within a civilization built by a people who affirmed that Muḥammad ﷺ was truly a prophet, the last of those sent by the God who created the universe and is the sole source of truth. Within that world, however much Muslims disagreed over how ḥadīth should be used or interpreted, it was Muslims who set the terms of the conversation. Yet the Western academic study of ḥadīth proceeds otherwise, and it must be admitted plainly that when a study declines to assume that God intervenes in history, that Muḥammad ﷺ was a prophet, or that ḥadīth are generally authentic, it in fact assumes the opposite: that God does not directly interfere, that Muḥammad ﷺ was merely a man, and that the entire ḥadīth corpus is open to real doubt. Few Western readers would accept the familiar Muslim explanation that the ḥadīth tradition is reliable because God would not permit His chosen religion to go unpreserved. It should be recognized that the Western approach to ḥadīth carries two possible faces. It may be praised as advancing human understanding of Islamic origins, yet it may equally be seen as an act of domination in which one worldview asserts power over another by dictating how "knowledge" and "truth" are established, for as figures such as Edward Said have observed, knowledge is power and to study an object is to establish control over it. It is no accident that four of the five avenues through which the Western study of Islam developed grew from colonial or diplomatic interests—French studies of Islamic law in North Africa, Dutch studies in Southeast Asia, British studies in India, and diplomatic interest in the Ottoman Empire—while the fifth, Semitic studies, sprang from Biblical scholarship. European diplomats in the late nineteenth century schemed to promote a "progressive" Islam among colonized populations, and when a rumor spread in 2008 that Turkey was preparing a "radical revision" of the Sunni ḥadīth canon, Western media applauded it, though the rumor proved false. The honest course is not to assume that the Muslim vision is wrong and that Western scholars have awakened it from slumber, but to recognize that the tradition is so vast, and our samples so small, that any judgment on its authenticity rests more on one's critical worldview than on empirical fact. The two approaches are, in truth, at loggerheads. The Sunni tradition of ḥadīth criticism sifted the reliable from the unreliable through scrutiny of both a report's chain and its content, yet in the absence of strong objection it treated a report from the Prophet ﷺ, at first glance, as genuinely his. Thus Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 855) famously held that even a ḥadīth of unestablished authenticity was a better source for law than one's own reasoning. The charismatic authority of the Prophet ﷺ could overwhelm critical concerns, as in the account of the Egyptian scholar Ibn al-Ḥājj (d. 737/1336), who dismissed a ḥadīth's ruling and was afflicted with leprosy, until the Prophet ﷺ appeared to him in a dream; when the scholar protested that he had judged the report unreliable, the Prophet ﷺ answered, "It suffices you to have heard it," whereupon he repented and was cured. Because Muslims believed the Prophet ﷺ was granted knowledge of the unseen and meant his legacy to found a civilization, they venerate statements attributed to him before doubting them; skepticism was never their default posture. The Western approach is the reverse. As Lord Acton (d. 1902) declared, the modern historian cannot grant a presumption of innocence, and his first reaction to any report must be suspicion. This Historical Critical Method (HCM) grew from Renaissance humanism and the critical scholarship that flowered in Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, expressed in Leopold von Ranke's (d. 1886) aim to discover "what really happened." Its roots lay in the Renaissance recovery of the Greco-Roman heritage, the Age of Discovery, and the Protestant Reformation. The rediscovery of the Classics gave scholars a sense of historical distance and revealed that revered texts had changed over time; it also affirmed a fixed, unchanging human nature. Cicero's (d. 43 BCE) letters revealed to Petrarch (d. 1374) a culture of supercilious skepticism paired with public piety. Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457), noticing linguistic anachronisms, unmasked the Donation of Constantine as a forgery, since its mention of "fiefs" postdated its supposed era. Erasmus of Rotterdam (d. 1536), applying the same philology to Greek, found that a verse long cited as proof of the Trinity was absent from the original text. The discovery of the Americas shattered the Biblical map, prompting Isaac de la Peyrère (d. 1676) to argue that Adam was not the first man and Noah's flood was merely local. In Protestant lands, Deists such as John Toland (d. 1722) held that Christianity had begun as a rational religion later corrupted, while Calvin (d. 1564) had insisted on the Bible's literal sense. Benedict Spinoza (d. 1677) gave the most influential answer of all, treating the Bible as a product of its time and place, its "universal foundation" being merely to love God and neighbor and to act justly. This stands in stark contrast to the Muslim conviction that the Qur'an is "the most truthful of speech, suitable for all times and all places." In Germany the method matured: F. A. Wolf judged Homer's epics the work of more than one author; scholars concluded that Luke and Matthew drew upon Mark; Hermann Reimarus (d. 1768) claimed the early Christians invented much of Jesus' life; and David Friedrich Strauss (d. 1874) called for outright rejection of the Gospels' historicity. Max Weber (d. 1920) later held that a religion's orthodoxy is fashioned by later generations to institutionalize the founder's charismatic authority—the very opposite of the Sunni belief that ḥadīth scholars merely preserved their Prophet's teaching by "fending off lies from the Sunna of God's Messenger." Against this stands the assurance of Sunni critics such as Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1014/1606): "if something has been established by transmission [from the Prophet], then one should not heed any contradiction with sense perception or reason." The HCM further rested upon the Principle of Analogy—that human societies always function in essentially the same way—which contradicts the Prophet's ﷺ reported words, "The best generation is the one in which I was sent, then the next, then the next," and the belief that his Companions were incapable of lying about him. It also employed the Principle of Dissimilarity, articulated by Jakob Perizonius (d. 1715), and later Form criticism, which held that the Gospel materials existed "not to preserve the history of Jesus, but to strengthen the life of the church." All of this crystallized into Positivism, with its unprecedented faith in progress. In sum, the method presumes doubt about a text's authenticity, suspects orthodox narratives, and claims to sift reliable from unreliable by exposing which portions served which agendas. This apparatus was carried over to Islam by scholars such as Julius Wellhausen (d. 1918) and Theodor Nöldeke (d. 1930), often as a byproduct of Biblical studies, and often with a conscious sense of Europe "illuminating the darkness" of other peoples—resting on the imposing assumption that what held true of the Bible must hold true of every scripture. Yet caution is warranted before accepting these Western conclusions wholesale. Western scholars are right that some ḥadīth bear suspicious anachronism, such as "If you see Muʿāwiya on my pulpit, kill him," or the outrageous report foretelling that a man named Muḥammad b. Idrīs [al-Shāfiʿī] would bring strife worse than Satan. But Muslim critics themselves judged these unreliable or forged: Ibn ʿAdī (d. 975), al-Jawzaqānī (d. 1148–9), and al-Dhahabī (d. 1348) rejected the ḥadīth about Muʿāwiya, and the report condemning al-Shāfiʿī served scholars as a textbook example of fabrication. As for ḥadīth condemning the Qadarites by that name—a name that arose over a century after the Prophet ﷺ—to dismiss them as forgeries is hasty, for the Qur'an itself engages free will and predestination, and for every such report there exists a more reliable, non-anachronistic narration in which the Prophet ﷺ speaks instead of "the people of qadar" or "those who disbelieve in qadar." What appears to be anachronism may be later transmitters lazily substituting a familiar label. Ignaz Goldziher (d. 1921) faulted Muslim critics for ignoring content, yet al-Bukhārī (d. 870) did use content to expose unreliability, though never with the sweeping skepticism of the HCM. Similarly, the ḥadīth on the three mosques was declared a forgery serving an Umayyad agenda because al-Zuhrī (d. 742) appears in its chain, yet other early chains lack him altogether, and the Aqṣā Mosque is named in the Qur'an itself. There is a "chicken and egg" quality to this reasoning, as with the ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth of the black banners from Khurasan and the Mahdī, dismissed as Abbasid propaganda; but the Prophet ﷺ may genuinely have prophesied, and the Abbasids may simply have tailored their banners to fit. The parallel is instructive: Zechariah 9:9 predates Christianity, so the Gospels' account of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Mark 11:1–11; Matthew 21:1–4) reflects him fulfilling scripture, just as the Quaker James Nayler (d. 1660) cast himself in Christ's image entering Bristol in 1656. So too, apparent ḥadīth anachronisms may be Muslims scripturalizing their own history against the Prophet's ﷺ words. Both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars agree that forged ḥadīth exist, but explaining this lies more in the choices of the Sunni tradition than in any failure of its method, which—demanding a source, testing its reliability, and seeking corroboration—resembles the practice of modern reporters. G. H. A. Juynboll (d. 2010) and Michael Cook cited tadlīs as a loophole "hardly ever detected," yet Muslim critics were obsessive about it: Shuʿba (d. 776) called tadlīs "the brother of lying" and scrutinized Qatāda (d. 735); Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 813) exposed it even in Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 778); and ʿAlī b. al-Madīnī (d. 849) and al-Karābīsī (d. 859) wrote volumes naming those who committed it. Harald Motzki and others have shown the classical method far more effective than Goldziher or Juynboll allowed. The real weakness, as Nabia Abbott (d. 1981) observed, is that critics such as al-Thawrī, Ibn al-Mubārak (d. 797), Ibn Ḥanbal, Ibn Maʿīn (d. 848), and Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 938) applied rigor to law and dogma but were lax with history, virtues, preaching, apocalyptic reports, manners, and exegesis. Al-Tirmidhī's (d. 892) own ratings bear this out: his legal chapters show little want of corroboration—17% in zakāt and ṣawm, 7% in inheritance—while his non-legal chapters show far more—35% in fitan, 52% in manāqib, 50% in daʿawāt, 27% in ādāb. It may be that the prioritization of law over other fields, rather than any failing of the critical method itself, admitted large numbers of unreliable ḥadīth into the Sunni collections. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/devil-in-the-details-an-analysis-of-the-dark-side-of-the-self # Devil in the Details: An Analysis of the Dark Side of the Self **Authors:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman, Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 24, 2019 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Abstract The ability to distinguish between right and wrong is an essential skill in the life of a Muslim. But what makes something good or evil may often come down to a very subtle distinction—the devil really is in the details, both literally and figuratively. Often such distinctions are rooted in the consciousness, or ‘soul,’ of a human being. Each person has an aspect of the Self, called *nafs ammarah bi-su*’, that instigates them to commit evil deeds and which is exploited by Satan and his devils in their battle against the believers and the forces of good. This article offers an analysis of this dark side of the Self. It conceptualizes the *nafs ammarah bi-su’* and the resulting spiritual struggle, or jihad, against it. Then, commonly understood virtues are contrasted with their subtly corrupted counterparts: love of Allah vs. love for other than Allah, reverence vs. hypocrisy, inspiring gratitude vs. boasting, friendly competition vs. envy, authentic leadership vs. love of authority, reliance upon Allah vs. laziness, advising vs. condemning, and esteem vs. pride. The purpose of this research is to equip us with knowledge and tools we can use to help us succeed in the *jihad* within. --- ## Introduction The transformation of the human soul, from a state enshrouded in darkness to the light of faith, should be the most important personal struggle of every Muslim. Every human individual’s soul has characteristics of both good and evil, and authentic spiritual transformation involves confronting the dark side of the Self known as *nafs ammarah bi-su’*, the aspect of the human soul, or ego, that suggests evil. The first step in this journey is simply to become aware of the nature of the self, its light and its dark sides. As if awakening from a slumber, a person must acknowledge his or her own potential to succumb to malevolent forces. Everyone has a predatory nature inclining to aggression and a gluttonous nature inclining to desire and appetite, as well as a moral nature inclining to charity and a spiritual nature inclining to the Divine. Accepting these facts at the start sets the stage for the internal battle against Satan and his relentless attempts to take advantage of a human being’s dark side by evil whisperings and suggestions (*al-waswasah*). Becoming conscious of these sinister urges is crucial to a person’s success on their spiritual journey toward Allah in the Hereafter. Through daily acts of worship such as prayer, remembrance, reciting the Qur’an, and contemplation—according to their inward and outward etiquettes—a Muslim cultivates mindfulness of Allah and an awareness of their own inner states of being, polishing the mirror of the heart from the rust of sin and allowing divine light to reflect off themselves into the world.[^1] Islamic acts of worship, properly practiced, result in good character and the acquisition of virtues such as authentic love, patience, compassion, and temperance. This spiritual transformation involves a constant struggle against the lower nature of the soul. Mindfulness of Allah is a state of being we must constantly maintain, returning to it again and again, through worship and vigilant self-examination; the potential for relapse into sin exists until the end of life itself. The bell will only ring, so to speak, at the moment the soul is separated from the body. When we lower our guard or fall back into negligence, it creates an opening in our lines of defense for Satan to exploit. Even small holes in our mental fortress can easily burst into chasms that allow the enemy’s soldiers to storm the castles of our hearts. According to Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H): > *Indeed, Iblis (Satan) only enters people by the measure he is able. His ability to do so is increased or decreased according to the degree of their mindfulness, their negligence, their ignorance, and their deeds. Know that the heart is like a fortress. Upon that fortress are walls and the walls have gates, and in it are chambers in which the mind resides. The angels often visit that fortress. To its side are siege towers, in which are desires and devils frequently occupying them, with none to stop them. War is declared between the inhabitants of the fortress and the inhabitants of the siege towers. The devils continuously circle around the fortress, seeking the negligence of the guards and passage into some of its chambers. Thus, the guards should know all of the gates of the fortress, upon which its protection depends.*[^2] In the event Satan gains access to our intellect, thereby utilizing the dark side of the self for his purposes, we must learn how to reclaim our inner territory. The first step can be the most difficult, especially if a person has not cultivated the mindfulness necessary to recognize the subtlest of evil changes in their mind, heart, and behavior. People might be under the control of Satan without even realizing it, mistakenly thinking they are actually righteous or ‘good’ people. The Prophet ﷺ said about some forms of evil, such as ostentation (*al-riya’*), that “it is more inconspicuous than the creeping of ants.”[^3] Ignorance of this evil inside of us enables Satan to take control of the dark side, as if he were riding a horse with its reins, diverting us in whichever direction he pleases while cloaking his evil pursuits with noble appearances and soaring rhetoric. In such a situation, we are deceived by his use of the *nafs ‘ammarah bi-su’* into being content with our current state, thinking that we are relatively ‘good’ individuals and rationalizing our misbehavior. Yet being a truly ‘good’ person is never possible without strong, active, and sustained effort. The initial state of the self is characterized as *nafs ammarah bis-su’*, in need of divine guidance for transformation. Allah ﷻ said, speaking through the Prophet Joseph  عليه السلام, “Verily, the self inclines toward evil, except for those upon whom my Lord has mercy.”[^4] That is, our egos incline to evil by default, unless Allah guides us to what is good. Every day, a person enters into the battlefield with their dark side, their lowly desires, and Satan. If we have no awareness of how these forces are at work inside of us every day, or that a battle is even taking place, then we will be handed a resounding defeat. In such a state of unmindfulness, Satan plays with us “just as a child plays with a ball.”[^5] More insidious than simple unmindfulness, the devil also has a tendency to decorate our evil behavior with a veil of delusional self-righteousness, such that we do not even acknowledge or recognize the sinfulness of our deeds. As Allah said about the idolatrous tribes of ‘Ad and Thamud, “Satan beautified their deeds to them and barred them from the right path, though they were capable of insight.”[^6] Despite the sharp minds that they had been blessed with, Satan was still able to trick them into viewing their vices as good and justified. They were simply honoring the gods of their forefathers, they claimed. If they had reflected upon the signs of Allah delivered to them by the Prophets Hud and Salih عليهما السلام they would have realized that their gods, and the lowly desires they represented, were false. Instead, they rationalized their sins by appealing to the authority of their cultural heritage, succumbing to the fallacy of *argumentum ad verecundiam*. This self-deception is quite subtle and hidden; it begins with a noble thought that becomes distorted over time by a constant stream of negative inward propaganda, when we are neglectful and unmindful of what the self is really suggesting to us. In this case, ‘Ad and Thamud claimed they only wanted to respect their forefathers, which is normally a good thing to do. But respecting one’s forefathers is not the same as accepting all of their ways wholesale, both good and evil. When the Prophets challenged their ways, they became defensive and doubled down on their worship of idols. They heard the little voice of their conscience speaking to them, but they chose to ignore it to the point that it was drowned out completely by the negative thoughts they nurtured. All of us are vulnerable to such deception by Satan, his devils, and their whisperings. For instance, one might start out with the intention to sincerely advise another person for their own benefit, but the conversation quickly devolves into harshness, condemnation, or even damnation. Egos are challenged on both sides, feelings are hurt, vengeance is lusted for. Another person might begin an endeavor with an appropriate zeal for the sake of Allah, but it rapidly thereafter degenerates into extremism for the sake of the world. In these cases, a good initial spiritual state later morphs into a negative outcome. If we turn our attention away from our inward realities and are ignorant of the stratagems of Satan and his devils, we are in danger of becoming deluded by our own sense of self-righteousness, which is in reality merely a veil for a much darker part of ourselves. In the following section, we will explore some of the means used by Satan to deceive us about our own deeds, intentions, and spiritual states, by taking our righteousness of purpose and disfiguring it into an evil purpose to which we are blinded. --- ## Devil in the Details The battle to rid oneself from the influences of the *nafs ‘ammarah bi-su’*, one’s lowly desires, and the influence of Satan and his devils is a spiritual *jihad*, known as *mujahadah*. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The one who wages *jihad* is he who wages *jihad* against himself.”[^7] ‘Umar ibn Abdul Aziz رحمه الله said, “The best *jihad* is the *jihad* against desires.”[^8] And Sufyan al-Thawri رحمه الله said, “The most courageous of people are the strictest in controlling their desires.”[^9] The most important fight in this world is not against other people, but against our own desires and the devils who manipulate them. Our most precious possession in this fight is our sincerity to Allah (*al-ikhlas*), the very essence of our faith. Hence, it is ultimately Satan’s primary target, the veritable king on the chess board. Ibn al-Qayyim asserts: > *For among the most difficult things for the self at rest is to purify its deeds from Satan and the nafs ammarah for the sake of Allah. If even a single deed of it was accepted as it should be, He would be generous to him. But the nafs ammarah and Satan refuse to let even a single deed reach Allah.*[^10] He then quotes an aphorism from an unknown spiritual master “who had knowledge of Allah and of himself,” indicating that knowledge of the psychological self is itself an important branch of divine gnosis. The spiritual master said, “By Allah, had I known that just one action of mine had reached Allah, I would be more excited for death (and thus Paradise) than a long-absent person is excited to return to his family.”[^11] This is not to say one should wish for death, but only to illustrate the importance of sincerity. From here we will examine various virtues and inward good deeds to demonstrate how the *nafs ammarah bi-su’* and Satanic whisperings can corrupt our spiritual state, changing something righteous into something evil. Identifying these subtleties will help us uncover the enemy’s stratagems in the *jihad* within, thereby giving us an edge over them. This knowledge allows us to engage in the internal spiritual conflict consciously and deliberately, to go on the offensive rather than merely playing defense, which greatly increases our chances of a decisive victory, with Allah’s help. --- ## 1) Love for Allah vs. Love for other than Allah This distinction is the most important of all because love for Allah is the essence of *Tawhid* (dynamic monotheism) and loving others besides or alongside Allah is the essence of *Shirk* (idolatry, or betraying the divine covenant). Love, in this context, is not simply a feeling, rather it is how we act based upon our ultimate concerns in life. To truly love something or someone is to take it or them as one’s ultimate concern, to place it or them at the highest point on one’s hierarchy of values and priorities. If we are not always critically examining and reexamining the manifestations of our love, Satan can quite easily trick us into believing our misplaced ‘love’ for something besides Allah is righteous and justified. ### Love for Allah Love for other people for the sake of Allah necessarily stems from love for Allah in the heart. When an individual’s heart is filled with love for the Divine, then it naturally follows that he or she will love whatever and whoever Allah loves. Allah loves to see His Names and Attributes reflected in this world. Thus, love for the sake of Allah is loving everything that reflects Divine qualities. Love is part of the essence of Allah Himself, as expressed by His name *Al-Wadud*, the Loving. According to Al-Baydawi, the believers manifest their love for Allah by treating people as they would like to be treated: > *‘The Loving’ is a rhetorical form derived from ‘affection.’ It means He who loves goodness for all creatures and is benevolent to them in every circumstance… The portion given from Him to the servant is that he wants for the creation what he wants for himself and he is benevolent with him according to the best of his power and ability, and he loves the righteous among His servants*.[^12] We love people who stand for justice, because Allah is the Most Just. We love those who show mercy, because Allah is the Most Merciful. We love those who are kind, because we recognize that they are a vehicle for Allah’s Kindness. We love our families, because we know Allah loves for families to be together. Even if we hate a person’s sinful deeds and acts of oppression, we should still love for them to turn back in repentance, because Allah loves repentance. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of faith is to love for the sake of Allah, to hate for the sake of Allah, and to work your tongue in the remembrance of Allah.” It was said, “How is that?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “That you love for people what you love for yourself, and you hate for them what you hate for yourself, and that you speak goodness or remain silent.”[^13] That is, to ‘hate for the sake of Allah’ is the inverse of love for the sake of Allah. If we love for people to be guided and righteous, we should hate for them to be misguided and sinful. That does not mean we hate them as if we wanted to harm them; one should hate sin itself, not sinners. Indeed, a classical tactic of Satan is to convince a person that their malicious actions and intentions are really self-righteous indignation for Allah’s sake. ### Love for others besides Allah Love for others besides or alongside Allah occurs when our love stems from a motivation that is separate from the Divine pursuit. Depending on the form, it may be a benign and permissible love but it can also potentially lead to spiritual ruin, if not physical harm. Forbidden love results when the object of love, whether it is a person, animal, place, or thing, is contrary to the individual’s love for Allah. This type of love can be entirely destructive to a person’s faith or it could merely represent a character flaw. When love for anything other than Allah is elevated to the state of *‘ibadah*, or worship, which is a love that elevates something to the ultimate concern in one’s life, then it has nullified one’s faith in Allah. Allah said, “Among people are those who take partners besides Allah. They love them as they should love Allah.”[^14] If this misplaced love is not at the level of worship, but is in opposition to a person’s love for Allah, then it a symptom of imperfect faith. This latter category generally involves spouses, children, wealth, cars, food, homes and properties, as Allah said: > *Beautified for people is the love of that which they desire, of women and children, heaped-up sums of gold and silver, fine branded horses, cattle, and tilled land. That is the enjoyment of the worldly life but Allah has with Him the best return.*[^15] We naturally love our families, which is permissible and beneficial if it results in good deeds. Allah loves for family members to love each other. But if our love for our families causes us or them to neglect our relationship with Allah, or leads us or our families into sin, this type of love is forbidden. As Allah said, “O you who believe, let not your wealth and your children distract you from remembrance of Allah.”[^16] The type of love that distracts one from the remembrance of Allah is not authentic love because it disregards the spiritual well-being of oneself and those they think they ‘love.’ In sum, love can be experienced in three different ways: 1. Love for the sake of Allah: required by faith and wholly good; 2. Natural love: permissible and neither good nor bad in itself; and 3. Love for what displeases Allah: forbidden and inauthentic. ### Key Distinctions Love and hatred are powerful emotions within the human being that must be actively monitored in order to prevent their misplacement. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه said, “Let not your love be infatuation and let not your hatred be destruction.” It was said, “How is this?” ‘Umar replied, “When you love someone, you become infatuated like a child. When you hate someone, you love destruction for your companion.”[^17] Our love for something should never let us neglect our relationship with Allah, and our hatred for something should never result in a desire to harm others. The perfection of *tawhid* is to ensure that everything in a person’s life is organized according to their love for Allah. This means that the variation in degrees of love should be based on their variation in closeness to Allah. People, places, and things in this world that bring you closer to Allah or enable you to better connect with Allah should be more beloved to you than things that are neutral. People, places, and things that hinder our relationship with Allah, or have negative influences upon us, should be avoided and actively removed from our lives. If we are not aware of our priorities in regards to love, Satan can easily send this fundamental human force in the wrong direction. There are two parameters that determine how much love a person should have if it is to be truly for Allah’s sake. The first is how much that object embodies the Qualities of Allah, and the second is how much it or they bring you closer to Allah ﷻ. The Prophet ﷺ is the highest possible in both categories and thus represents the strongest love we should have for anyone or anything in this world. He is the exclusive means for us to connect with Allah ﷻ. Ibn al-Qayyim writes: > *And there is no path to this end except by the knowledge inherited from His slave, messenger, and beloved. The one who was sent with it, calling toward it, establishing it, and guiding toward it.*[^18] He is also the embodiment of everything Allah loves in a human. As Allah said: > *Say (O Muhammad), ‘If you love Allah, then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive your sins, for Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.*[^19] Conventional wisdom has always been ‘money cannot buy happiness’ and even people who are very worldly in their outlook understand that their lives should not be consumed by acquiring material things. For this reason, a more common issue in a person’s love involves people rather than wealth. This means that friends and family are loved for their own sake, regardless of the consequences. Anything that keeps the friends or family happy and together is the most important to them, even if it involves committing sins. The way one thinks about their spouse or children evokes stronger emotions than if they think about Allah and His Messenger, and they may even be willing to displease Allah in order to please their friends and family. Such relationships are a trial (*fitnah*), as Allah said, “Know that your wealth and children are but a trial and that Allah has with Him a great reward.”[^20] So what are we to do with our strong love for our family and friends? Is it a sin? As described, this love can fall into one of three categories: good, permissible, or bad. If we do not prefer those we love to our relationship with Allah, then we have not sinned, but we have also not reached our full potential. The goal should be to have all of our love fall under the category of that which aids us on our journey to Allah ﷻ. Now, a person might be hesitant to ‘detach’ from those whom they love in this world and treat them as a ‘means’ rather than an ‘end.’ It is entirely possible to harmonize our natural love for our family and friends with love for Allah. It is also important to understand that transforming love for others into love for Allah is not only the perfection of loving Allah, but is likewise the perfection of loving His creation. Modern psychology recognizes the problems of maladaptive attachments to people or things. This includes over-attaching to the point that it hurts the relationship, as a person becomes anxious-ambivalent.[^21] Not only that, but loving people for the sake of Allah will actually result in treating them better. If, instead of treating people as a means for our happiness, we treat them as a means to get closer to Allah, this sometimes might involve doing good to them even when they wrong us. Moreover, it is not fair to any individual that you turn them into an intrinsic goal in your life. This responsibility and pressure is not meant to be put on worldly relationships. For instance, if a person acts out in any way during the relationship, it can be devastating to both parties. Feeling as if you are the world to another person is a pressure and stress that is unfair to that individual. Even if these strong feelings are mutual, it will be painful for both individuals when the inevitable separation occurs. This life is temporary and everything will fade. Separation may occur due to death but also could be due to a fight or breakup. The pain and anguish that will result may become unbearable and may lead to long-term physical or psychological damage. This is why Ibn al-Qayyim comments: > *(True) happiness can only occur when a person makes his motivation connected to a purpose that will not break or cease. His strongest desire and aim should be to journey to the presence of the Living, Who never dies.*[^22] Human beings were created for a higher purpose than to love each other in this manner. Rather, we were created to love Allah and to fulfill that love as a blessing and mercy to His creatures. By fulfilling our purpose, we benefit others around us even more than if we lived only for our family or loved ones. If one finds themselves loving other than Allah, then one should first reflect on whether their love is sinful or neutral. If it cannot be harmonized with the love of Allah in any way, it should be abandoned. If it is a natural love that is compatible with the love of Allah, they should gradually make the attachment psychologically and spiritually healthier by bringing it in line with their relationship with Allah. In this way, the natural love of family and other things can be transformed into worship if our priorities are in order. This can be done by reflecting on your relationship to your loved ones and determining that: 1) Your love is consistent with the Divine qualities and teachings; and 2) Your love is bringing you closer to Allah through gratitude for your loved ones. In other words, your love is guided by Islam and your loved ones are considered gifts from Allah to enrich your spirit. Let these conditions come the forefront of your mind and help you evaluate your love. Allow yourself to attach these conditions to the people and things you love. Let go of your ultimate hopes in the people and things of this world and instead turn to your Undying Creator for salvation, as Allah ﷻ said: > *Whoever rejects false idols and believes in Allah, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.*[^23] Indeed, anything we maladaptively attach ourselves to can become like idols. This verse speaks to the process of detachment and the subsequent reattachment to Allah. He is Living and never dies. He hears and answers all of your prayers. In the end, He will never let you down: > *And rely upon the Ever-Living who does not die, and exalt \[Allah\] with His praise.*[^24] --- ## 2) Reverence vs. Hypocrisy ### Authentic Reverence When a person stands in front of his or her Lord in prayer, they are meant to enter into a state of mindful submission or reverence (*al-khushu’*). Such a state is characterized by veneration, glorification, and awe of the Divine. The heart shatters in front of Allah as it is simultaneously filled with hope, humility, and fear; it bears witness to the blessings of Allah while at the same time admitting to its sins against Him. As the heart enters into this state, the body follows along in movement and recitation; therefore, an observer can see the reverence of the heart reflected on the physical limbs. When a person is humble before Allah, the flames of lowly passion inside their chest are extinguished by the cooling waters that enter through reverence. The lusts of the dark side of the self are confronted with fear of and reverence for the Divine, so they eventually subside. Peace and tranquility descend upon the reverent heart and a person feels serene in front of their Lord, enjoying every moment in authentic worship. As Allah said about the Prophets, “They would call upon Us in hope and fear, and they were reverent before Us.”[^25] ### Hypocritical Reverence Hypocritical reverence is the appearance of reverence on the physical body that has been deliberately displayed for someone other than Allah, to be seen and admired by people. It is a form of religious ostentation or ‘showing off.’ The Prophet ﷺ once said to his companions, “Shall I not tell you about my greater fear for you than the False Messiah?” They said, “Of course!” The Prophet said, “It is hidden idolatry, that a man stands for prayer and beautifies his prayer when he sees another man looking at him.”[^26] The Prophet ﷺ feared this spiritual disease for his nation even more than the greatest of trials that will afflict humankind in all of history. He even likened it to a lesser form of idolatry. This internal enemy is a much greater threat to our spiritual life than anything outside of us. A person in a dangerous state of hypocrisy expends active effort to achieve an appearance of submission to Allah, rather than allowing it to occur naturally from authentic worship. In this context, Allah ﷻ said, “Woe to those who pray, who are negligent of their prayer, who pray to be seen!”[^27] The companions of the Prophet ﷺ used to ask Allah for protection from such hypocrisy in outward reverence and worship. Abu al-Darda’ رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه said, “Seek refuge in Allah from the reverence of hypocrisy.” It was said, “What is the reverence of hypocrisy?” He said, “It is that you see the body in reverence while the heart is not reverent.”[^28] That being the case, we are much more in need of seeking refuge in Allah from this evil trait than they were! ### Key Distinctions Ibn al-Qayyim describes authentic reverence as an inward spiritual state that is attained by reflecting on two matters: 1) Allah’s blessings upon the individual; and 2) the individual’s sins against Allah. He writes: > *The reverent heart faces Allah with exaltation, glorification, veneration, dread, and penitence such that the heart is broken, a breaking that is mended by awe, shame, love, penitence, testifying to the blessings of Allah and one’s own crimes against Him. Thus, the reverent heart will inevitably be followed by reverence on the limbs (in prayer and recitation).*[^29] The energy of a reverent heart is directed towards appreciation of the meanings of prayer and awareness of one’s blessings and sins, as a way of inspiring the heart to do better and better and to grow even closer to Allah through worship and good deeds. In contrast, hypocritical reverence is when the heart’s energy is directed towards one’s limbs only, in an effort to appear humble to others. Ibn al-Qayyim continues: > *As for the reverence of hypocrisy, it is that one shows his limbs in feigning and pretense, while the heart is not reverent… It is a state of being in which is feigned tranquility of the limbs by pretense and ostentation, while his self within is immersed and saturated with lusts and desires. He is reverent outwardly while the serpent of the valley and the lion of the forest are stalking between his two sides, waiting for their prey.*[^30] Satan and his devils are like serpents and lions, lying in ambush for this very moment to attack their victims. This dynamic is at play not only in prayer, but in any kind of public good works that should be done for the sake of Allah alone. Satan attempts to whisper to his victims that their insincere outward show is either rationally justified or simply not a big deal. However, we have already seen that it is indeed a spiritual calamity that the companions feared more than anything else in this world, a major sin on the cusp of becoming a full-blown act of idolatry. One must remain vigilantly introspective and constantly examine one’s heart to detect and reject the whispers of Satan in this regard. --- ## 3) Inspiring Gratitude vs. Boasting ### Inspiring Gratitude Sharing news of good things and accomplishments in one’s life is an appropriate way of inspiring gratitude, known as *tahaddath bi-ni’am Allah* (discussing the blessings of Allah). To do so is commanded by Allah ﷻ in the Qur’an, “As for the blessing of Allah, proclaim it.”[^31] The purpose of mentioning the bounties of Allah to others, even in relatively small things, is to inspire thankfulness to Allah in them and in oneself. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever is not grateful for small things will not be grateful for large things. Whoever is not thankful to people is not thankful to Allah. Discussing the blessings of Allah is gratitude and ignoring them is ingratitude.*[^32] Hence, we should not hide the blessings that Allah has given to us, but we should also present them to others with grace, humility, and gratitude. The purpose is not to build ourselves up by putting others down. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah has revealed to me that you must be humble towards one another, so that no one oppresses another or boasts to another.”[^33] ### Boasting Boasting involves promoting oneself by mentioning successes, accolades, and accomplishments, so as to earn the praise and respect of others or to humiliate them. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The worst of my nation are the garrulous, the braggarts, and the pompous. The best of my nation are those with the best character.”[^34] Bragging about one’s deeds is characterized by bluster, swagger, and bravado that evoke pride and arrogance in oneself and jealousy and disgrace in others. ### Key Distinctions When a person shares their blessings in a humble way, they attribute them to Allah’s grace instead of their own personal ability. They truly believe it was from the Mercy of Allah alone, not something they deserved due to their own merit. The celebration is of Allah and His blessings and not of the self or ego, “By the grace of Allah and His Mercy, by that let them rejoice.”[^35] Boasting about oneself, on the other hand, is a celebration of the ego and one’s personal identity and perceived power. It is quite possible that a person thanks Allah and mentions His favors outwardly, but does so in a way that still implicitly praises themselves or humiliates others. As Allah said, “Among people is one whose words please you in the life of this world and calls upon Allah to witness what is in his heart, yet he is a fierce adversary.”[^36] Even if the outward words are correct, the true difference between boasting and gratitude lies in the state of the heart. Satan aims for us to mention blessings for the wrong reason. The question we should ask ourselves, then, is why are we mentioning these blessings in the first place? Are we praising Allah or praising ourselves? --- ## 4) Friendly Competition vs. Envy ### Friendly competition Competition is positive when a group of people strives together to achieve lofty goals (*‘uluw al-himmah*) and they also wish to see that same success in their competitors. It involves using the natural competitive drive of the human being as a cooperative and mutually beneficial tool, to overcome people’s tendency to procrastinate or to be apathetic. Friendly competition encourages one to be dissatisfied with their current state and to exert effort towards greater and greater achievements: a healthy means of continuous self-improvement between two or more people. In this context, Allah ﷻ said, “For this (Paradise), let the competitors compete with each other.”[^37] Perhaps the best example of such a friendly competition was between Abu Bakr and ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنهما. As told by ‘Umar: > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered us to give charity and at the time I possessed some wealth. I said to myself, ‘Today I will outdo Abu Bakr, if ever there were a day to outdo him.’ I went with half of my wealth to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, ‘What have you left for your family?’ I said, ‘The same amount (half).’ Then, Abu Bakr came with everything he had. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘O Abu Bakr, what have you left for your family?’ Abu Bakr said, ‘Allah and His messenger.’ I said, ‘By Allah, I will never do better than Abu Bakr.’*[^38] It should be no surprise that two of the greatest companions of the Prophet ﷺ, the first two righteous Caliphs no less, were in a friendly competition with one another. Their competition was not based upon ill will nor a need to ‘defeat’ or humiliate each other; rather, they understood that they were helping push each other to achieve more. They probably would never have achieved so much good without their benign rivalry. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, the believers are like a structure, each part strengthening the other,” and he interlaced his fingers to illustrate.[^39] Seeing friendly competitors achieve their goals also helps to dispel self-limiting beliefs. Competitors provide inspiration and role models for our own personal success. For this reason, it is recommended to have admiration (*al-ghibtah*) for righteous Muslims from the past and present. ### Envy Jealousy or envy (*al-hasad*) is a negative feeling in the heart when one learns of another’s success or blessing. It is a desire for the envied person to fail, to be harmed, or to otherwise be deprived of their success or their blessings. As Ibn Taymiyyah put it, “The reality is that envy is animosity and hatred when one sees the good state of the envied person.”[^40] Jealousy and envy are powerful types of malice that are directed against the personal identity of an individual, as opposed to hatred directed towards their sins in the abstract. In some sense, they can be viewed as the root of most sins against human beings. According to Ibn ‘Uyaynah رحمه الله, “Envy was the first sin by which Allah Almighty was disobeyed in the heavens, as *Iblis* (Satan) envied Adam. It was the first sin by which Allah Almighty was disobeyed on the earth, as the son of Adam envied his brother and killed him.”[^41] ### Key Distinctions Friendly competition can be distinguished from envy by examining their respective effects on the heart and one’s overall vision of success. Competition results in admiration, which is a wholesome feeling whereby one is pleased to see others achieve what one would also like to achieve. There is no real ‘defeat’ in such a competition, even if someone does better than another, because the purpose is for all competitors to do better than they would by themselves. It will always produce satisfaction regardless of who ‘wins.’ This vision of success is a win-win scenario, regardless of the actual outcome. Envy, by contrast, is a destructive feeling that provokes a desire to hurt those who are envied. An envious person does not desire for his competitors what he desires for himself, which is self-improvement. Instead, the envious want to see their opponents harmed, humiliated, and defeated. Their vision of success involves the downfall of their competitors, an uncompromising zero-sum game with a clear winner and loser. Envy will always produce anger, frustration, and an empty feeling, even if it results in defeat of the one envied. As stated by Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays, “There is no rest for the envious.”[^42] The envious can only achieve a pyrrhic victory at best, a win at such devastating spiritual cost that it could never bring lasting joy and peace. Satan is capable of cleverly shifting our metaphorical goalposts from mutual benefit with our competitors to zero-sum destruction—all the more reason for a Muslim to constantly reflect upon their vision for success during any competition. The cure for envy is to force oneself to do the opposite of what envy encourages one to do. If one feels like they want to curse their competitor, they should pray for them instead. Al-Ghazali writes: > *As for beneficial deeds, it is to be a judge over envy. For everything that envy brings to court of sayings and deeds, he should oblige himself to do its opposite. If envy compels him to disparage the envied, then he should oblige his tongue to praise him and commend him. If envy compels him to be arrogant against him, then he should require himself to be humble before him and apologize to him… These are the cures for envy and they are very beneficial, although they are very bitter for the heart. Rather, the benefit is in bitter medicine.*[^43] In fact, this is the secret to curing all the diseases of the heart. A person should compel themselves to do the opposite of whatever their negative feelings are encouraging, until the disease is beaten back through repetition and formation of new habits. --- ## 5) Authentic Leadership vs. Love for Authority ### Authentic Leadership Love for authentic leadership (not necessarily authority!) is a positive quality indicating a person’s desire to mobilize resources and people towards a vision of the good, or to serve as a proper role model for present and future generations. As Allah said about the companions, “You are the best nation to come forth for people. You enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil and have faith in Allah.”[^44] All of the righteous companions رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنهم are role models and ‘leaders’ in Islam, even if they never held authority in an official capacity like the Caliphs or governors. What made them the best generation is that they were focused on maximizing good and minimizing evil and inspiring others to believe in Allah. They are spiritual models to follow. Such authentic leaders are worthy of our admiration. We should aspire to be moral exemplars for our families and children first, and for the rest of the Muslim community, as Allah ﷻ said through the words of the believers, “Our Lord, grant us comfort from our wives and children and make us a leader for the righteous.”[^45] Love of authentic leadership puts us on a difficult but traversable path of personal transformation that compels us to increase our knowledge and virtues. The two key qualities of authentic leadership are perseverance (*al-sabr*) and certainty in faith (*al-yaqin*), “We made leaders among them, guiding by Our commands, when they were patient and certain of Our signs.”[^46] A leader needs to ensure that their vision of the good, and their intentions and methods, are approved by Allah and then to persevere in bringing the good to fruition. ### Love for Authority Love for authority is rooted in the desire for power, domination of others, and self-veneration. A person who craves the power of authority does not really believe in any collective vision of the good. Rather, they utilize authority to fulfill their own personal aims, and their subjects, or people under their authority, are simply expendable pawns for them to get what they want. In this regard, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, you will earnestly desire a position of authority but you will regret it on the Day of Resurrection.”[^47] The righteous companions رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنهم, who were both authentic leaders and authorities, were *appointed* to their positions by others above them, many times against their will. They did not desire authority, but it came to them nonetheless because they were recognized as moral leaders. With great power comes great responsibility, as they say. Authorities are held to a higher standard of judgment in the Hereafter, because their actions are so far-reaching. Their mistakes are magnified by the measure of all those who are affected by their deeds; a single bad decision can harm thousands of people. The Prophet ﷺ discouraged us from desiring such responsibility, saying, “Whoever accepts an appointment as a judge is as if he has been slaughtered without a knife.”[^48] Put differently, people who desire authority are generally not capable of wielding it responsibly and therefore they will be ‘slaughtered’ in the Hereafter, so to speak, by their failure to lead righteously and effectively in the world. ### Key Distinctions Authentic leadership involves a love of seeing virtue, good, and benefit actualized in the world and among people. It is characterized by humility and an unwillingness to take positions of authority unless asked or compelled to do so. It can be detected in the heart by feeling joy in the benefit of others and sensing fear when charged with responsibility for the public’s trust. An authentic leader wants others to look at him or her not as someone ‘better’ than them but rather as someone whose outward behavior can be emulated. They want their positive influence to permeate into the world against the promptings of their lower self. As said by the great Imam al-Shafi’i رحمه الله, “There is no knowledge in my heart but that I wish everyone would know it and attribute none of it to me.”[^49] Al-Shafi’i was a leader precisely because he did not want to be a leader. He was humble enough to eschew fame but pious enough to earnestly seek knowledge for the sake of Allah. Yet his accumulation of knowledge and worthiness of leadership could not be hidden from his contemporaries. As a result, he became a leading figure in the Muslim community from his time until today. On the contrary, love for authority involves a desire to accumulate wealth, status, praise, and other worldly interests in order to satisfy the desires of the self or ego. It is characterized by arrogance and a love for power and domination. It can be detected in the heart by feeling joy when presented with responsibility for the public’s trust and indifference to the effect of one’s leadership decisions on other people. Satan can, with little effort, muddle the difference in one’s heart between love for leadership and love for authority. It is remarkably difficult not to abuse the privileges of authority when placed in leadership positions. Again, one must vigilantly examine their intentions and their feelings in response to opportunities for authority. Does the potential for authority excite you or scare you? --- ## 6) Reliance upon Allah vs. Laziness ### Reliance upon Allah Relying upon or trusting in Allah (*al-tawakkul*) is an action of the heart that manifests the essence of true faith. It is a spiritual state in which a person acknowledges his fear and vulnerability in trying to reach a goal, finding comfort in Allah’s Mercy and Power. In order to be considered proper reliance upon Allah, this state of the heart must be accompanied by utilizing the worldly and spiritual means to obtain that goal. The Prophet ﷺ said, “If you were to rely upon Allah with reliance due to Him, then He would provide for you just as He provides for the birds. They go out in the morning with empty stomachs and return full.”[^50] Like the birds searching for food, a person should trust that Allah will provide for them as long as they pray for it and work for it. Even if what they are eventually given is not as they expected, they have faith that it was ultimately for the best. Accordingly, true reliance is submission to Allah in both aspects of His Will, the universal will (what we call ‘nature’) and the commanding will (what we call ‘divine law’ or religious teachings). We believe that the natural laws governing the world are a reflection of Allah’s supreme Will and therefore pursuing the series of predictable causes and effects is part of submitting to Allah. Pursuing causes and effects, however, must be in line with the divine law; one may not earn their provision by criminal or sinful means. These two aspects of the divine Will reflect the dual nature of the integrated physical and spiritual world that we inhabit. True reliance, then, involves the holistic surrender to both physical and spiritual laws in order to obtain one’s goals. This results in feelings of relief and serenity in the knowledge that Allah promises to provide the best outcome for the believers, in this life and in the Hereafter, regardless of what actually happens in this world. ### Laziness Laziness (*al-kasal*) is the failure to act upon spiritual and worldly causes in tandem. It is a character flaw that the Prophet ﷺ would supplicate for protection from, “O Allah, I seek refuge in you from disability and laziness.”[^51] Many people are tricked by Satan into believing they are demonstrating reliance upon Allah by not taking worldly means. This is nothing short of delusional. As described, reliance requires pursuing natural causes to achieve one’s goals. A person must eat and drink in the real world in order to obtain the benefits of food and water. One cannot simply think that he will be satiated by exclusively appealing to spiritual means. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه said, “Let not one of you refrain from working for his provision, supplicating to Allah to provide while knowing that the sky does not rain gold and silver.”[^52] People often use this distorted perspective of reliance as a justification for not putting in the necessary worldly effort to reach their goals. Students will not strive for excellence in studying, thinking that as long as they are performing their prayers, Allah will make a miracle occur on their behalf. People searching for jobs do not want to exert the energy of being proactive, networking, and enhancing their resume, content with the notion that “if it is meant for me, it will happen.” Hoping for a miracle without putting in the effort is like asking to get paid without doing the work. This is merely laziness and apathy dressed up in the guise of piety. ### Key Distinctions Reliance upon Allah produces a positive state of hope and contentment as a person surrenders to the reality that Allah has guaranteed a reward, in this life and in the next, for those who work. It is to act upon both spiritual and worldly causes, to pray and to act. For instance, a Muslim student should pray that Allah will provide them with knowledge and then go out into the world seeking teachers and books in an Islamically lawful manner. The prayer will be answered even if one cannot perceive the response. The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no Muslim who supplicates to Allah without sin or cutting family ties in it but that Allah will give him one of three answers: He will hasten fulfillment of his supplication, He will store it for him in the Hereafter, or He will divert an evil from him similar to it.”[^53] Faith and conviction that the supplication has already been answered by Allah in the best way, regardless of the worldly outcome, brings about peace of mind. Laziness produces delusions without any action or progress towards the end-goal. A person might pray only and not work, or pray but work in the unlawful, or work only without praying. In these cases, they have neglected one of the means, spiritual or physical, of achieving the best outcome. As a result, they will not be able to achieve the peace of mind of knowing that their supplications have been answered and their work has been rewarded. --- ## 7) Advising vs. Condemning ### Advising Sincerity in advising others with good will (*al-nasihah*) is an essential teaching of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The religion is sincere good will.” It was said, “To whom?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “To Allah, His book, His messenger, the leaders of the Muslims, and their common people.”[^54] As it pertains to advising common people, Ibn Daqiq summarizes sincerity as “to exhort them with beautiful preaching, to abandon malice and envy against them, to love for them what one loves for himself of goodness, and to hate for them what one hates for himself of the reprehensible.”[^55] Sincere advice is that which is intended to benefit the receiver of the advice. The purpose is to guide someone to a better way, towards benefit or away from harm, while preserving their reputation as much as possible. ### Condemning Condemnation (*al-ta’yir*) is to announce someone’s faults publicly with the intention of hurting their reputation or harming them in some way under the cover of giving ‘advice.’ According to Ibn Rajab, “Among the outward forms of condemnation is to expose an evil and divulge it under the pretext of giving advice, alleging that one is only compelled to do so because of those flaws, either general or specific. Inwardly, his purpose is to condemn and harm.”[^56] Unlike sincere advice, condemnation is motivated by hatred, malice, and bad intentions. It is done publicly and not privately, not because it is a last resort to stop evil, but rather to shame the one being condemned in the eyes of the community. Ibn Rajab continues: > *An example of that is when a human being wants to cast blame upon a man, belittle him, and expose his faults such that people desert him, either because he loves to harm him, or he has enmity for him, or he fears his rivalry in wealth and leadership, or for any other blameworthy reason… So he has combined an outward display of advice with ugly, forbidden matters.*[^57] It is possible that one’s advice be entirely proper outwardly and in an appropriate setting, but it is ultimately sinful because one’s intention is to deliberately hurt the receiver, not to benefit them. ### Key Distinctions The difference between sincere advice and condemnation is whether or not the advice-giver would be pleased to be treated this way in the same situation. Sincere advisors imagine themselves in the shoes of those they give advice to and they ask themselves these questions, “Would I be pleased if he advised me this way? Will this advice help them? Or will it push them further into harm?” For this reason, sincere advice is generally given in private so that the recipient can save face. Privacy also indicates that the advice is sincerely aimed at bringing about benefit, not for an ulterior motive such as scoring ‘points’ against an individual in public. --- ## 8) Esteem vs. Pride ### Esteem Having esteem for people (*al-mahabah*) means to have respect and admiration for them, a positive form of pride. Like friendly competition, this type of esteem and admiration is rooted in benevolent intentions towards others, confidence in them, and a desire to be like them without depriving them of their blessings. Zaynab, the wife of Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, said, “The Prophet ﷺ was endowed with esteem.”[^58] She and other women held the Prophet ﷺ in such high regard that they were too shy to knock on his door. In this way, one can be ‘proud’ of the achievements of one’s leaders, family, and friends without necessarily looking down on others or puffing up their own egos. Self-esteem is to have respect for oneself (*‘izzat al-nafs*). It is to hold an image of the self that is healthy and balanced, neither arrogantly proud nor humiliatingly meek. One should have enough respect for oneself not to commit sins that degrade one’s sense of honor and worth. This is why acts of sin are described as oppression against one’s self. A common phrase in the Qur’an is “We did not wrong them, but rather they have been wronging themselves.”[^59] When a person sees a loved one in a state of harm, they strive to do whatever is in their capacity to counteract it. Similarly, a person’s self-love should result in striving to avert harm to one’s soul through sins and transgression. When a sin is committed, one should have confidence that Allah will help them repent. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you should say, ‘My soul is wicked.’ Rather, one should say, ‘My soul is at fault.’”[^60] Faults are temporary problems that can be fixed, as we all make mistakes, so we should not attach pessimistic, self-defeating metaphysical labels like ‘wicked’ and ‘evil’ to ourselves. ### Pride Pride (*al-kibr*) is the misguided belief that one is so important that they have the right to reject the truth and to humiliate others, or that they deserve special treatment. The Prophet ﷺ  said, “No one who has the weight of a seed of pride in his heart will enter Paradise.” It was said, “But a man loves to have beautiful clothes and shoes.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah is Beautiful and He loves beauty. Pride means rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”[^61] People infected with pride do not hold themselves accountable to the same standards of justice that they apply to everyone else, as Ibn al-Qayyim writes: > *As for pride, it is among the effects of vanity and transgression from a heart that is filled with ignorance and oppression. Servitude to Allah has departed from it and disgrace has descended upon it. It looks at people disdainfully, it walks among people arrogantly, and it deals with them by seeking preference over them, not by altruism or fairness… It does not acknowledge the rights of anyone over it, yet acknowledges its rights over people. It does not acknowledge their favors to him, yet it acknowledges its own favors. Allah does not increase it except in alienation from people, except in scorn and hatred*.[^62] Rather than forming a healthy and balanced self-image, pride distorts one’s perception of the self from occupying the middle ground between arrogance and self-abasement. ### Key Distinctions The difference between esteem, or self-respect, and pride can sometimes be difficult to identify by outward cues alone. Satan can very subtly transform what might be a positive and natural pride into negative pride in the form of arrogance, haughtiness, and conceit. The distinction lies in the way self-respect and pride relate to the nature of the human ‘self’ or soul and its place in the world. Pride is built upon worldly trivialities like wealth, status, and lineage. Unlike a proud person, a person with self-respect cannot truly be humiliated or impoverished because they are confident in their self-image. Their self-respect, or honor, can never be taken away by people. It was said to Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه, “Indeed, people imagine there is pride in you.” Al-Hasan said, “It is not pride. Rather, it is self-respect, for this is respect with no humiliation in it and richness with no poverty in it.” Al-Razi added: > *Some of the knowledgeable said in actualization of this meaning that self-respect is not pride. It is not lawful for a believer to humiliate himself. For self-respect is the human being’s recognition of the reality of the self and its nobility above transient categories of the world, in the same way pride is the human being’s ignorance of the self and its claiming to be above its proper place. Self-respect resembles pride in form, but is different in reality. Just as humility and humiliation resemble each other, but humility is praiseworthy and humiliation is blameworthy. Pride is blameworthy and self-respect is praiseworthy.*[^63] In other words, pride is the result of ignorance of one’s place and purpose in the universe. A proud person thinks too highly of themselves, to the point of disdaining other people and belittling their rights. But a person with authentic self-respect is respectful of the human soul in general, one’s own self, as well as the rights of others. --- ## Conclusion Conceptually distinguishing between these virtues and their corrupted counterparts is crucial for our spiritual and moral development. Ibn al-Qayyim notes that “the entire religion consists of the ability to distinguish.”[^64] This is why the Qur’an refers to itself as *Al-Furqan* (The Distinguisher). The guidance within its pages, and the example of the Prophet ﷺ in his *Sunnah*, help us distinguish the light from the darkness, not only in the world but within our own selves. Misguidance, error, and straying away from the straight path are the result of obfuscating, convoluting, and confusing the nature of two things that are separate in reality. They represent a failure to appropriately discern matters as they are, so as to produce an inaccurate mental representation of those phenomena. The gravest of these errors is to place Allah alongside the creation, to blur the line between creature and Creator; such is the essence of idolatry. Similarly, the human Self has a tendency to blur the lines between virtue and vice, to rationalize and justify states of mind that are, in truth, serious character flaws. There will always be forces inside of us that will attempt to muddy the waters between what is right and wrong, rather than identifying them as separate. These forces represent the dark side within us, of the human Self, forces we need to be aware of at all times. But the dark side can only be conquered by the light, the source of which is Allah Almighty. As Ibn al-Qayyim said: > *Al-Furqan (the ability to distinguish) honors the one with this knowledge. It is a light that Allah casts into the heart, by which the Truth is distinguished from falsehood and the reality of matters is assessed, their good and their evil, their benefit and their harm. Whoever lacks the ability to distinguish will fall into the idolatry of the devils. Allah is the One in Whom to seek refuge, and upon Him we rely.*[^65] The gift of this divine light, which is attained through *duaa*, prayer, mindfulness, study, and purity of heart, is our best hope for salvation in this life and in the life to come. It is the only light by which we can discern our states of being as they really are, to give us a fighting chance to conquer the *nafs ammara bi-su’* and the devils who exploit it. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: For more on mindfulness from an Islamic perspective, see Justin Parrott’s “How to be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation.” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. November 21, 2017. [yaqeeninstitute.org/en/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/justin-parrott/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation/) [^2]: Ibn al-Jawzī. *Talbīs Iblīs* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr lil-Ṭibā’ah wal-Nashr, 2001), 36. [^3]: Al-Bukhārī, *Kitāb al-Adab al-Mufrad* (al-Rīyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 1998), 1:377 #716; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^4]: Sūrat Yūsuf 12:53. [^5]: Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī. *Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Qāṣidīn* (Dimashq: Maktabat Dār al-Bayān, 1978), 178. [^6]: Sūrat al-’Ankabūt 29:38. [^7]: Al-Tirmidhī. *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998) 3:217 #1621; declared authentic (*ṣaḥiḥ*) according to Al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^8]: Ibn Mufliḥ al-Maqdisī. *Al-Ādāb al-Sharʻīyah wa Minaḥ Al-Mar’īyah* (al-Riyāḍ: Dār ’Ālam al-Kutub, n.d), 3:131. [^9]: Ibid. [^10]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. *Al-Rūḥ fī al-Kalām ‘alá Arwāḥ al-Amwāt wal-Aḥyā’* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1975), 228. [^11]: Ibid., 228. [^12]: Al-Baydạ̄wī. *Tuḥfat al-Abrār Sharḥ Maṣābīḥ al-Sunnah* (al-Kuwayt: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-al-Shuʼūn al-Islāmīyah, 2012) 2:48. [^13]: Ibn Ḥanbal. *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 36:445 #22130; declared authentic due to external evidence (*ṣaḥīḥ li ghayrihi*) by Al-Arnāʼūṭ in the comments. [^14]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:165. [^15]: Sūrat Ālī ‘Imrān, 3:14. [^16]: Sūrat al-Munāfiqūn 63:9. [^17]: Al-Bukhārī, *Kitāb al-Adab al-Mufrad*, 1:744 #1322; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^18]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. *Miftāḥ Dār al-Sa'ādah* (Jeddah: Dār ‘Ālim Fawā’id), 1:126. [^19]: Sūrat Ālī ‘Imrān 3:31. [^20]: Sūrat al-Anfāl, 8:28. [^21]: Cassidy, J., & Berlin, L. J. (1994). The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: Theory and research. *Child Development*, *65*(4), 971-91. [^22]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Miftāḥ Dār al-Sa'ādah*, 125. [^23]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:256. [^24]: Sūrat al-Furqān 25:58. [^25]: Sūrat al-Anbiyā’ 21:90. [^26]: Ibn Mājah. *Sunan Ibn Mājah*. (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1975), 2:1406 #4204; declared fair (*ḥasan*) according to Al-Albānī in the comments. [^27]: Sūrat al-Mā’ūn 107:4-6. [^28]: Al-Bayhaqī. *Shu’ab al-Īmān* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 9:220 #6567. [^29]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Al-Rūḥ*, 232. [^30]: Ibid., 232-233. [^31]: Sūrat al-Ḍuḥá 93:11. [^32]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993), 30:392 #18450; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb* (Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 1:573 #976. [^33]: Muslim. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:2198 #2865. [^34]: Al-Bukhārī. *Kitāb al-Adab al-Mufrad*, 1:737 #1308; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^35]: Sūrat Yūnus 10:58. [^36]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:204. [^37]: Sūrat al-Muṭaffifīn 83:26. [^38]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 6:56 #3675; declared authentic (*ṣaḥiḥ*) according to Al-Tirmidhī in the comments. [^39]: Al-Bukhārī. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 1:103 #481. [^40]: Ibn Taymīyah. *Amrāḍ al-Qulūb wa Shifāʼuhā* (al-Qāhirah: al-Maṭba’ah al-Salafīyah wa Maktabatuhā, 1966), 14. [^41]: Al-Dīnawarī. *Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir al-’Ilm* (Bayrūt: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1998), 3:51 #659. [^42]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab al-Īmān*, 9:27 #6210. [^43]: Al-Ghazzālī. *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 3:199. [^44]: Sūrat Ālī ‘Imrān 3:110. [^45]: Sūrat al-Furqān 25:74. [^46]: Sūrat al-Sajdah 32:34. [^47]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:63 #7148. [^48]: Abū Dāwūd. *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 3:298 #3571; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in the comments. [^49]: Ibn Abī Ḥātim. *Ādāb al-Shāfi’ī wa Manāqibuh* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2002), 1:247. [^50]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:151 #2344; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Tirmidhī in his commentary. [^51]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2088 #2722. [^52]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 2:62. [^53]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 17:213 #11133; declared very good (*jayyid*) by Al-Arnāʼūṭ in the comments. [^54]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:74 #55. [^55]: Ibn Daqīq. *Sharḥ al-Arbaʻīn al-Nawawīyah* (Bayrūt: Muʼassasat al-Rayyān, 2003), 1:52. [^56]: Ibn Rajab. *Farq bayna al-Naṣīḥah wal-Ta’yīr* (‘Ammān: Dār ’Ammār, 1988), 22. [^57]: Ibid., 23-24. [^58]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 2:694 #1000. [^59]: Sūrat al-Furqān 25:74. [^60]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:41 #6179. [^61]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:93 #91. [^62]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Al-Rūḥ*, 236. [^63]: Al-Rāzī. *Al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Turāth al-ʻArabī, 1999), 30:549, verse 63:8. [^64]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Al-Rūḥ*, 260. [^65]: Ibid., 266. ## Summary The transformation of the human soul from darkness into the light of faith is presented as the most important personal struggle in the life of a Muslim. Every human being carries within the self both good and evil inclinations, and authentic spiritual growth begins with confronting the dark aspect of the soul known as *nafs ammarah bi-su'*—the part of the ego that persistently commands toward evil. This truth is rooted in the words of Allah, spoken through the Prophet Yusuf عليه السلام, "Verily, the self inclines toward evil, except for those upon whom my Lord has mercy." Thus the default inclination of the ego is toward wrongdoing unless Allah's mercy intervenes. The first step in this journey is simply to become aware of the nature of one's own self, acknowledging that within each person lies a predatory nature inclined to aggression, a gluttonous nature inclined to appetite, alongside a moral nature inclined to charity and a spiritual nature drawn to the Divine. This inner awareness is essential because Satan exploits negligence and heedlessness. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H) likened the heart to a fortress with walls, gates, and chambers, visited by angels but besieged by devils who circle continuously, seeking the negligence of the guards to gain entry. He explained that Iblis only enters a person by the measure he is able, and that measure increases or decreases according to one's mindfulness, negligence, ignorance, and deeds. For this reason, the guardians of the heart must know all its gates, upon which its protection depends. Daily acts of worship—prayer, remembrance, recitation of the Qur'an, and contemplation performed with their proper inward and outward etiquettes—polish the mirror of the heart from the rust of sin and cultivate mindfulness of Allah. A subtle danger is that Satan may take hold of a person without their realizing it, disguising evil with noble appearances so that one believes oneself righteous. The Prophet ﷺ warned that some forms of evil, such as ostentation (*al-riya'*), are "more inconspicuous than the creeping of ants." When unmindful, a person may be played with by Satan "just as a child plays with a ball." More insidiously, Satan may beautify sinful deeds, as Allah said of the tribes of 'Ad and Thamud, "Satan beautified their deeds to them and barred them from the right path, though they were capable of insight." Despite their sharp intellects, they rationalized their idolatry by appealing to the ways of their forefathers, ignoring the signs delivered by the Prophets Hud and Salih عليهما السلام. This shows how a good intention can gradually distort into a corrupt outcome—sincere advice devolving into harshness, or zeal for Allah degenerating into worldly extremism. The struggle against the *nafs ammarah*, one's lowly desires, and the devils is a spiritual *jihad* known as *mujahadah*. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The one who wages *jihad* is he who wages *jihad* against himself." 'Umar ibn Abdul Aziz said, "The best *jihad* is the *jihad* against desires," and Sufyan al-Thawri said, "The most courageous of people are the strictest in controlling their desires." The most precious possession in this battle is sincerity to Allah (*al-ikhlas*), which is therefore Satan's primary target. Ibn al-Qayyim observed that among the hardest things for the self is to purify its deeds from Satan and the *nafs ammarah* for Allah's sake, quoting one who knew Allah and himself: "By Allah, had I known that just one action of mine had reached Allah, I would be more excited for death than a long-absent person is excited to return to his family"—an illustration of sincerity's weight, not a wish for death. From here, several virtues are contrasted with their corrupted counterparts. The most important is love for Allah versus love for other than Allah, for the former is the essence of *Tawhid* and the latter the essence of *Shirk*. Love is understood not merely as feeling but as taking something as one's ultimate concern. Allah's name *Al-Wadud*, the Loving, reflects this, and al-Baydawi explained that the servant's share of this name is to want for creation what he wants for himself. The Prophet ﷺ taught that the best of faith is to love and hate for the sake of Allah. Love falls into three categories: love for Allah's sake, which is required and wholly good; natural love, which is permissible; and love for what displeases Allah, which is forbidden. Allah warned, "Let not your wealth and your children distract you from remembrance of Allah," and Ibn al-Qayyim noted that true happiness comes only when one connects his motivation to "the Living, Who never dies." The believer is directed to grasp "the most trustworthy handhold that will never break." Reverence (*al-khushu'*) is contrasted with hypocritical reverence. Authentic reverence combines hope, humility, and fear until the heart breaks before Allah, as He said of the Prophets, "They would call upon Us in hope and fear." Hypocritical reverence is displayed outwardly for people, which the Prophet ﷺ called "hidden idolatry," describing a man who beautifies his prayer when observed, and warning of it more than the False Messiah. Abu al-Darda' sought refuge from "the reverence of hypocrisy," described as reverence of the body while the heart remains unmoved. Ibn al-Qayyim likened such a person to one outwardly reverent while "the serpent of the valley and the lion of the forest are stalking between his two sides." Inspiring gratitude (*tahaddath bi-ni'am Allah*) is distinguished from boasting. Allah commanded, "As for the blessing of Allah, proclaim it," and the Prophet ﷺ said that discussing Allah's blessings is gratitude while ignoring them is ingratitude, yet he also commanded humility so none may boast. Boasting celebrates the ego, and the true difference lies in the heart's condition. Friendly competition is contrasted with envy (*al-hasad*): Allah said, "For this, let the competitors compete," exemplified by the rivalry of Abu Bakr and 'Umar in charity. Ibn Taymiyyah defined envy as "animosity and hatred when one sees the good state of the envied person," and Ibn 'Uyaynah noted it was the first sin in the heavens and on earth. Al-Ghazali prescribed forcing oneself to do the opposite of what envy demands, "bitter medicine" that cures the heart's diseases. Authentic leadership is set against love of authority. The companions were leaders and role models, described as "the best nation," whose leadership rested on patience (*al-sabr*) and certainty (*al-yaqin*). Yet the Prophet ﷺ warned that people would covet authority and regret it on the Day of Resurrection, and that accepting a judgeship is like being "slaughtered without a knife." Al-Shafi'i's humility—wishing knowledge attributed to none of himself—illustrates the authentic leader. Reliance upon Allah (*al-tawakkul*) is contrasted with laziness (*al-kasal*): the Prophet ﷺ taught that the birds are provided for as they go out and strive, and 'Umar warned that "the sky does not rain gold and silver." Advising (*al-nasihah*) is distinguished from condemning (*al-ta'yir*), Ibn Rajab noting that condemnation exposes faults under the pretext of advice while intending harm. Finally, esteem and self-respect (*'izzat al-nafs*) are distinguished from pride (*al-kibr*), which the Prophet ﷺ defined as "rejecting the truth and looking down on people." Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali affirmed that his bearing was "self-respect, not pride," and al-Razi explained that self-respect knows the soul's true place while pride is ignorance of it. In conclusion, the ability to distinguish between virtue and its corrupted imitation is central to the religion. Ibn al-Qayyim noted that "the entire religion consists of the ability to distinguish," which is why the Qur'an calls itself *Al-Furqan*, the Distinguisher. Misguidance arises from blurring what is truly separate, the gravest being to place the creation alongside the Creator. The dark side can only be conquered by light, which Allah casts into the heart, distinguishing truth from falsehood. This light, attained through supplication, prayer, mindfulness, study, and purity of heart, is the believer's best hope for salvation. Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim # Tracing Transmissions: The Accuracy of Sahih Muslim **Author:** Mufti Muntasir Zaman **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 17, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj’s (d. 261 AH) *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtaṣar*, better known as *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, has had an indelible impact on Islamic scholastic discourse and continues to shape the lives of ordinary Muslims.[^1] People of all ages, genders, and professions sought out, at times creative, ways to be connected with the *Ṣaḥīḥ*.[^2] The renowned lexicographer al-Fayrūzabādī (d. 817 AH) held the record of reading the entire text in three days, only to be beaten by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) in an astonishing two days and a few hours.[^3] The erudite scholar of Nishapur, Umm al-Khayr Fāṭimah bint ʿAlī (d. 532 AH), studied the entire text with ʿAbd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī (d. 448 AH), granting her one of the most elevated chains in her time.[^4] Between the years 500-1000 AH, at least 50 commentaries were written on it.[^5] Suffice it to say that *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was considered *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*’s “superior by some, its equal by others, and second to it by most.”[^6] This paper will outline the transmitters of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* and detail some of its extant manuscripts to shed light on its textual integrity. A word will then be presented on the claim that *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was put into final form a generation after the author’s demise. Many arguments for the textual integrity of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* can be gleaned from my [previous article](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/muntasir-zaman/can-we-trust-hadith-literature-understanding-the-process-of-transmission-and-preservation/) on the preservation of Ḥadīth literature. As such, this paper has been kept relatively short, touching only on the most essential points. A chart on the transmission of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* and folios from early authoritative manuscripts have been appended. ### Transmitters Imām Muslim spent 15 years compiling his *Ṣaḥīḥ*: he began in 235 AH and completed the work in 250 AH.[^7] When he passed away in 261 AH, he had spent eleven years teaching and disseminating the *Ṣaḥīḥ* to droves of students.[^8] However, in terms of documented transmission, a handful of his students gained prominence vis-à-vis the transmission of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. By the 7th century AH, Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) observed that *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* had been so widely transmitted that it was unreasonable to doubt its authorship. Al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) seconded this observation, and al-Sakhāwī (d. 902 AH) reiterated it in the 9th century AH.[^9] The primary transmitter is Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān (d. 308 AH), a close pupil of Muslim who was celebrated for his asceticism and expertise in Ḥadīth.[^10] This route eventually became the dominant recension of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*.[^11] Two people then transmitted from Ibrāhīm: Abū Aḥmad al-Julūdī (d. 368)—the most authoritative—and Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-ʿAdl.[^12] A third person named Abū Bakr al-Kisāʾī (d. 385 AH) also transmitted the *Ṣaḥīḥ* from Ibrāhīm but al-Ḥākim (d. 405 AH) took issue with his method of transmitting.[^13] Most, if not all, extant manuscripts and prints of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* are based on the recension of al-Julūdī via Ibrāhīm. The second transmitter from Muslim is Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Qalānisī, whose reliability was confirmed by al-Samʿānī (d. 562 AH).[^14] Ibn al-Ṣalāh notes that al-Qalānisī’s recension was exclusively found in the Maghrib (Muslim West), having reached there from Egypt in the early 5th century AH.[^15] Al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385 AH) counseled the study of this recension of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* via Ibn Māhān (d. 387 AH) from al-Ashqar from al-Qalānisī.[^16] Although this recension is believed to have become extinct, the Moroccan scholar Aḥmad Mahdī al-Nayfar is said to have obtained a manuscript of this recension.[^17] At any rate, the variants found in al-Qalānisī’s recension were preserved by early commentators like al-Jayyānī (d. 498 AH), al-Māzarī (d. 536 AH) and Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544 AH),[^18] and Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī (d. 575 AH) documented them in the margins of his manuscript.[^19] There are two other transmitters of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* whose recensions did not gain much prominence: Makkī ibn ʿAbdān (d. 325 AH) and Abū Ḥāmid Ibn al-Sharqī (d. 325 AH)—the latter only transmitted part of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. Abū Bakr al-Jawzaqī transmitted these two recensions of the *Ṣaḥīh*. [^20] Al-Sakhāwī writes that apart from the recension of Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān, he only received authorization for the remaining three recensions without continuous audition.[^21] There were transmitters besides the four listed here, like Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311 AH),[^22] but their transmission never survived the ravages of time or remained undocumented.[^23] The transmission of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* naturally expanded in the succeeding generations. Figure 1 illustrates the transmission of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* over five generations.[^24] ![Sahih-Muslim_Diagram_New](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Sahih-Muslim_Diagram_New.jpg) Figure 1: Transmission of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* over five generations (3rd to 6th centuries AH). ### Manuscripts There are at least five hundred extant manuscripts of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* that have been transcribed over a millennium by scribes from different regions.[^25] The preponderance of its manuscripts is second only to *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*.[^26] An early partial manuscript held in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library was transcribed some time in the 5th century AH. The exact date of its transcription is not documented, but it was used by Abū Bakr al-Ṭūsī in 486 AH to teach the text.[^27] Another partial manuscript dated to 471 AH is is held in the Ẓāhiriyyah Library (al-Assad National Library) in Damascus.[^28] Although the details of Muslim’s exemplar are unknown, important secondary and tertiary manuscripts were accessible to classical scholars. The manuscript of al-Julūdī via the recension of Ibrāhim ibn Sufyān was accessible in the 6th century to the commentator al-Māzarī.[^29] Ibn al-Ḥadhdhāʾ’s (d. 416 AH) manuscript of al-Qalānisī’s recension—via Ibn Māhan—was used by Abu ʿAlī al-Jayyānī (d. 498 AH) for his celebrated work *Taqyīd al-Muhmal*.[^30] Several valuable manuscripts are easily accessible today and have been used by researchers to produce a critically edited version of the text. One early manuscript was transcribed by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā al-Murādī in 559 AH. This was read to and verified by Ḥadīth experts like Abū ʿAlī al-Baṭalyawsī (d. 568 AH), Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH), and al-Dimyāṭī (d. 705 AH), all of whom noted variants found in their respective manuscripts.[^31] The physical copy is held in the El Escorial Library in Spain, and a digital copy is available online.[^32] Another manuscript was transcribed by Abū al-Qāsim al-Amawī in 573 AH. Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī compared this manuscript with his own manuscript—which he spent an entire lifetime refining—and in the margins he noted the variants that were found in his copy.[^33] ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī praised this manuscript as one of the most important in North Africa.[^34] The physical copy is held in the University of al-Qarawiyyīn in Fes, Morocco, and a digital copy is available online.[^35] The earliest print of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was produced by ʿAẓīm al-Dīn and Ghulām Akbar in 1849 CE through Maṭbaʿ-e Karīmī in Calcutta[^36] followed by Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Sahāranpūrī’s print—decorated with al-Nawawī’s commentary—in 1853 CE through his prestigious Maṭbaʿ-e Aḥmadī in Delhi.[^37] Between 1911-1915 CE, the Istanbul-based al-Ṭabʿah al-ʿĀmirah printed an edition of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* that was compared with reliable manuscripts and annotated with concise notes.[^38] This edition was later improved and reproduced by Zuhayr Nāṣir in 2013.[^39] In 2014, Dār al-Taʾṣīl printed an exceptionally accurate edition of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* that was compared with five manuscripts, including al-Murādī’s and Ibn Khayr’s manuscripts detailed earlier and a partial manuscript with a reading certificate dated to 461 AH.[^40] That the last manuscript was used for audition in 461 AH means it was transcribed before that time, making it one of the earliest, albeit partial, manuscripts of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* accessible today.[^41] ### Finalized Text or Fluid Text? Here we will address a concern that was raised concerning the authorship of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* as we have it today: did Muslim complete the *Ṣaḥīḥ* during his lifetime or was it put into final form by subsequent students? As a result of issues like “organic texts, pseudepigraphy, and long-term redactional activity,” Norman Calder argued that *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was put into final form a generation after the author’s demise.[^42] To be clear, there are definitely variations between the recensions of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. But that was a natural outcome of the process of transmission.[^43] To claim that the entire text was extremely fluid and only received final form a generation later is untenable. A recent study revealed that between the two major recensions of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*—(i) Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān and (ii) Ibn Māhān[^44] via al-Qalānisī—there are only 117 instances of variations, 56 in the chains of transmission and 61 in the texts; more than half of these variations, however, can be harmonized.[^45] An example of this conflict is the description of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr’s action: *raḥaltu* (I travelled) in the recension of Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān and its variant *dakhaltu* (I entered) in the recension of Ibn Māhān via al-Qalānisī.[^46] This variation is not serious and can be harmonized by taking Ibrāhīm’s recension as a reference to Saʿīd’s travel and Ibn Māhān’s variant as his entering Ibn ʿAbbās’ room after the travel.[^47] To put the negligible conflict between these recensions into perspective, based on the Dār al-Taʾṣīl numbering of total reports in the *Ṣaḥīḥ* (7525),[^48] variations are found in 1.55% of reports, an inconsequential percentage considering the extensive nature of the work. We saw earlier that *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was transmitted adequately during the author’s lifetime and extensively over subsequent generations. Any significant alteration in or tampering with such a widely received text could not have gone unnoticed. Moreover, a copy of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was presented to Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (d. 264 AH) and Ibn Wārah (d. 270 AH), contemporaries of the author; an incomplete text would not have been presented. [^49] Likewise, Abū Bakr al-Ṣāʾigh (d. 270 AH) wrote a *mustakhraj* on the *Ṣaḥīḥ* during Muslim’s lifetime. [^50]  The *mustakhraj* genre consisted of books whose authors used an existing Ḥadīth collection as a template to narrate ḥadīths via personal transmission until they met with the chain of the author of the template collection.[^51] Therefore, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* needed to be a complete text in order for al-Ṣāʾigh to have written a *mustakhraj* on it. [^52] It is worth adding that the transmitters of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* infrequently provided comments (*taʾlīqāt*) and added material to the text (*ziyādāt*). The direct transmitter of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān added thirteen chains of transmission and his students al-Julūdī added four. By no stretch of the imagination can these additions be considered tampering with the text. The purpose of these additions was to provide an alternative shorter chain among other considerations. Most importantly, these additions are marked with the transmitter’s name and were obviously not given the canonical status afforded to the *Ṣaḥīḥ*.[^53] Take the following example: > *Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us, saying: Wakīʿ narrated to us, saying: al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from al-Maʿrūr ibn Suwayd, from Abū Dharr, who said: the Messenger of Allāh (peace and blessing be upon him) said: Allāh said, “Whoever carries out a good deed will receive tenfold or more…” Ibrāhīm said: al-Ḥasan ibn Bishr narrated to us, saying: Wakīʿ narrated to us (continuing with Muslim’s chain) this ḥadīth.*[^54] Ibrāhīm’s addition is marked as his own, so as not to be confused with Muslim’s chain. Moreover, he merely provided an alternative chain of transmission that leads to a mutual source (*Wakīʿ*) for the purposes of elevation (*ʿuluww*). Transmitter-additions feature in many classical works and Ḥadīth literature, like Mālik’s *Muwattāʾ*, Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ’s *Tārīkh*,[^55] and Ibn Mājah’s Sunan. These additions were distinguished from the actual text and were not seen as a form of tampering.[^56] --- ## Conclusion Recent criticisms of the authorship of canonical Ḥadīth literature like *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* fail to grasp the nature of pre-print transmission. Often, insignificant and expected manuscript variations are seen as reasons to doubt a text’s attribution to its purported author. Given the evidence available to us—documented transmission, extant manuscripts, supplementary works,[^57] and the absence of serious manuscript variations—we can confidently say that *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* was compiled by Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj and that it was transmitted by subsequent generations as precisely as humanly possible—Allāh have mercy on them. --- ## Appendix ![Figure2_Al-Muradi Manuscript](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Figure2_Al-Muradi-Manuscript.jpg) Figure 2: A widely auditioned manuscript transcribed by al-Murādī in Ramaḍān 27, **559 AH**/August 18, 1164 CE. ![Figure 3](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Figure-3.png) Figure 3: Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī’s manuscript transcribed in Shaʿbān, **573 AH**/ January, 1178 CE. ![Figure4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Figure4.png) Figure 4: A manuscript used for audition in Baghdad in Shawwāl, **461 AH**/August, 1069 CE. --- ## Notes [^1]: The entire title of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtaṣar min al-Sunan bi Naql al-ʿAdl ʿan al-ʿAdl ʿan Rasūl Allāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wasallam.* On the title of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* see Abū Ghuddah, *Taḥqīq Ismay al-Ṣaḥīḥayn wa Ism Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, p. 33. [^2]: Nizār Rayyān, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Imām Muslim: Asānīduhu wa Nusakhuhu wa Makhṭūṭatuhu wa Ṭabaʿātuhu, *Majallat al-Jāmiʿah al-Islāmiyyah*, p. 323. [^3]: Al-Sakhāwī, *al-Jawāhir wa al-Durar*, vol.1, p. 162. On the phenomenon of speed-reading Ḥadīth literature, see Garrett Davidson, *Carrying on the Tradition: An Intellectual and Social History of Post-Canonical Hadith Transmission*, pp. 107-112. [^4]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ*, vol. 19, p. 625. [^5]: Mashhūr Ḥasan, *al-Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj*, pp. 251-257. [^6]: Zubayr Siddiqi, *Ḥadīth Literature: Its Origins, Development, and Special Features*, p. 59. [^7]: Abū Ghuddah, “Appendix,” in *al-Mūqiẓah*, pp. 137-140; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ṭawālbah, *al-Imām Muslim wa Manhajuhū fī Ṣaḥīḥīh*, pp. 104-105. [^8]: For a list of Muslim’s students, see al-Dhahabī, *Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ*, vol. 12, p. 562. [^9]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Ṣiyānat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, p. 103; al-Nawawī, *al-Minhāj*, vol. 1, p. 11; al-Sakhāwī, *Ghunyat al-Muḥtāj,* p. 40. [^10]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ*, vol. 14, pp. 311-312. [^11]: Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān heard the *Ṣaḥīḥ* from Muslim in 257 AH. There are three sections where he says, “from Muslim” instead of “Muslim narrated to us,” which indicates that he may not have heard several ḥadīths directly from Muslim. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ explains that Ibrāhīm received general authorization (*ijazah*) for these ḥadīths from Muslim or narrated them from him via *wijādah*. Ḥusayn Shawwāṭ states that this phraseology is based on the audition of 257 AH. Since Ibrāhīm stayed in Muslim’s company for several more years, it is not unlikely that he heard these ḥadīths from Muslim later. ʿAbd Allāh Damfū adds that even if we accept that Ibrāhīm only received general authorization for these ḥadīths, there is continuous audition for them in al-Qalānisī’s recension. See *Ṣiyānat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, pp. 103-104; Ibn Ḥajar, *al-Muʿjam al-Mufahras*, pp. 27-28; ʿAbd Allāh Damfū, Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān: *Riwāyātuhu* wa *Ziyādātuhu* wa *Taʾlīqātuhū ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,* Majallat al-Jāmiʿah al-Islāmiyyah, vol. 111 (2001), pp. 178-182. [^12]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Ṣiyānat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, p. 104. [^13]: Al-Samʿānī, *al-Ansāb*, vol. 11, p. 102. [^14]: Ibid., vol. 12, pp. 75-76. [^15]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Ṣiyānat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, pp. 103, 109. [^16]: Al-Jayyānī, *Taqyīd al-Muhmal*, vol. 1, p. 66. [^17]: Muḥammad al-Shādhilī, “Introduction,” in *al-Muʿlim bi Fawāʾid Muslim*, p. 181. [^18]: See, for instance, al-Jayyānī, *Taqyīd al-Muhmal*, vol. 3, p. 768; al-Māzarī, *al-Muʿlim*, vol. 1, pp. 396, 397, 418; ʿIyāḍ, *Ikmāl al-Muʿlim*, vol. 1, pp. 238, 329, 489, 585. [^19]: See, for instance, pp. 10 (*qāl Muslim: Jarīr kunyatuhu…*), 11 (the word *khamsah*). A link to a digital copy of this manuscript is provided below. [^20]: Al-Sakhāwī, *Ghunyat al-Muḥtāj*, p. 40. [^21]: Ibid. [^22]: Al-Khalīlī, *al-Irshād*, vol. 3, p. 826. In a treatise on this topic, al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī (d. 643 AH) lists ten people who transmitted the *Ṣaḥīḥ* from Imām Muslim. See ʿĀdīl al-Sabīʿī, *Riwāyāt Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, Majallat al-Jāmiʿah al-Islāmiyyah li al-ʿUlūm al-Sharīʿah, no. 185, pp. 133-134. [^23]: Mashhūr Ḥasan, *al-Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj*, p. 167. [^24]: For more information on the names of the transmitters found in the appended chart, see the introduction to *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ed. Dār al-Taʾṣīl, vol. 1, pp. 118-177. Some transmissions were omitted from the chart for brevity, such as the route of Hātim al-Ṭarābulusī from Abū Muḥammad al-Ṣiqillī from al-Kisāʿī from Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān. See Ibn Khayr, *al-Fihrist*, p. 86; cf. al-Mizzī, *Tuḥfat al-Ashrāf*, no. 8206. [^25]: The al-Fahras al-Shāmil catalog details the whereabouts of 532 manuscripts of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. See *al-Fahras al-Shāmil li al-Turāth al-ʿArabī al-Islāmī al-Makhṭūṭ*, pp. 574-590. [^26]: Brockelmann, *Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur* (Arabic trans.), vol. 3, p. 180. [^27]: See the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library catalog, vol. 5, pp. 79-80. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ed. Dār al-Taʾṣīl, vol. 1, p. 187 (note 1). [^29]: See, for instance, al-Māzarī, *al-Muʿlim bi Fawāʾid Muslim*, vol. 1, p. 451. [^30]: Al-Jayyānī, *Taqyīd al-Muhmal*, vol. 1, p. 65; cf. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ed. Dār al-Taʾṣīl, vol. 1, pp. 178-180, 182. [^31]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ed. Dār al-Taʾṣīl, vol. 1, p. 225 ff. [^32]: [https://archive.org/download/m-0002/06870-0311007.zip](https://archive.org/download/m-0002/06870-0311007.zip) (last accessed November 30, 2018). [^33]: Abū Ghuddah, *Taḥqīq Ismay al-Ṣaḥīḥayn wa Ism Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, pp. 43-45. [^34]: Al-Kattānī, *Fahras al-Fahāris*, vol. 1, p. 385. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghaddah writes that due to its thorough cross-analysis, marginal notes, and auditions, Ibn Khayr’s manuscript is, in fact, the most valuable extant manuscript in the world, not only in North Africa as Shaykh al-Kattānī mentioned. See Abū Ghuddah, *Taḥqīq Ismay al-Ṣaḥīḥayn*, p. 45. [^35]: [http://wadod.com/bookshelf/book/734](http://wadod.com/bookshelf/book/734) (last accessed November 30, 2018). [^36]: See the closing remarks of their edition on vol. 2, p. 744; cf. Brockelmann, *Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur* (Arabic trans.), vol. 3, p. 180. [^37]: Nūr al-Ḥasan Kāndhlawī, *Ḥazrat Mawlānā Aḥmad ʿAlī Sahāranpūrī kī Khidmāt-e Ḥadīth*, in *Hindustān awr ʿIlm-e Ḥadīth*, pp. 286-287. [^38]: The text was edited by Aḥmad Rifʿat and Muḥammad ʿIzzat several times using reliable manuscripts. Unfortunately, a description of these manuscripts was not provided. It was then revised and annotated by Muḥammad Shukrī al-Anqarawī. See Muṣaddiq al-Dūrī, *Riwāyat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim min Ṭarīq Ibn Māhān Muqāranah bi Riwāyat Ibn Sufyan*, pp. 45-46. [^39]: Zuhayr Nāṣir, “Preface,” in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Imām Muslim*, vol. 1, p. 30. [^40]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ed. Dār al-Taʾṣīl, vol. 1, pp. 225 ff., 246, 273. For the purposes of text-verification, Dār al-Taʾṣīl also consulted other resources like commentaries and supplementary works on the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. [^41]: A digital copy is available online: [https://ia800204.us.archive.org/29/items/m-0001/3736---01.pdf](https://ia800204.us.archive.org/29/items/m-0001/3736---01.pdf) (last accessed December 7, 2018). The al-Fahras al-Shāmil catalog details a manuscript of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* that is dated to 368 AH, a century after Muslim’s demise, located in the Alexandria Municipal Library in Egypt. See *al-Fahras al-Shāmil li al-Turāth al-ʿArabī al-Islāmī al-Makhṭūṭ*, p. 574. However, the information provided in the catalog is incorrect. The manuscript held in the Alexandria Library (item no. 836B) is correctly dated to 368 AH and is even titled “*al-Juzʾ al-Thālith ʿAshar min Ṣaḥīḥ al-Imām Muslim*,” but unfortunately it is not a manuscript of *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. Rather, it is a partial manuscript of Qāḍī Isḥāq al-Bustī’s (d. 307 AH) Qurāʾnic exegesis. It is possible that the librarian who labeled this manuscript confused the two books due to similarities in their structure: al-Bustī’s work is a transmission-based exegesis (*maʾthūr*) filled with chains of transmission that resemble the structure of Muslim’s *Ṣaḥīḥ*. I would like to thank Shaykh Aḥmad ʿĀshūr from Madinah for sharing his insights on this manuscript. The manuscript can be obtained here:  [https://ia600705.us.archive.org/15/items/m0368/tafsir\_busti.pdf](https://ia600704.us.archive.org/17/items/m0368/tafsir_busti.pdf) (last accessed December 7, 2018). [^42]: Norman Calder, *Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence*, p. 194. [^43]: Muṣaddiq al-Dūrī, *Riwāyat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim min Ṭarīq Ibn Māhān Muqāranah bi Riwāyat Ibn Sufyan*, p. 79. [^44]: Abū ʿAlī al-Jayyānī writes that Ibn Māhān transmits the entire *Ṣaḥīḥ* from al-Ashqar via al-Qalānisī apart from the last three parts which he transmits via al-Julūdī from Ibrāhīm. See *al-Jayyānī, Taqyīd al-Muhmal*, vol. 1, p. 66; Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Ṣiyānat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, p. 109; al-Dhahabī, *Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ*, vol. 16, p. 536. [^45]: From 117 cases, there are only 36 instances in Ibn Māhān’s recension and 4 instances in the recension of Ibrāhīm Sufyān that are mistakes or scribal errors. See al-Dūrī, *Riwāyat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, p. 390. [^46]: Muslim, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 3023. [^47]: Al-Dūrī, *Riwāyat Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, p. 388. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, ed. Dār al-Taʾṣīl, vol. 1, pp. 99-102, 291. [^49]: Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī, *al-Ḍuʿafāʾ*, vol. 2, pp. 674-677. On Abū Zurʿah’s comments on *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, see Mashhūr Ḥasan, *al-Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj*, pp. 101-02; ʿAwwāmah, Annotations on *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 2, pp. 326-328. [^50]: Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī, *al-Ḍuʿafāʾ*, vol. 2, pp. 674-675. [^51]: Al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*. vol. 2, pp. 421-427. [^52]: Jonathan Brown, *The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, p. 386. [^53]: Damfū, Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān: *Riwāyātuhu wa Ziyādātuhu wa Taʾlīqātuhū ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, pp. 171, 192 ff. Ibrahīm makes six comments throughout the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. See ibid., pp. 215-228. [^54]: Muslim, *al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, no. 2687. [^55]: Tobias Andersson, *Early Sunnī Historiography: A Study of the Tārīkh of Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ*, pp. 21-28. [^56]: Damfū, Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān, pp. 186-190; Mutawallī, *Ziyādāt al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar al-Firabrī ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, pp. 593-598. [^57]: There are nearly 20 exclusive *mustakhraj* works on *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* and at least 50 commentaries that were written between 500-1000 AH, not to mention a long list of other material. Furthermore, countless books were written on the two *Ṣaḥīḥs* collectively. See Mashhūr Ḥasan, *al-Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj*, pp. 221-224, 251-257. ## Summary Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 261 AH) and his celebrated collection, al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtaṣar—known widely as Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim—occupy a station of tremendous esteem in the scholarly heritage of the Muslim community. So great was the reverence for this work that scholars of every era devoted themselves to reading, transmitting, and commenting upon it. The lexicographer al-Fayrūzabādī (d. 817 AH) is reported to have read the entire text in three days, a feat later surpassed by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) in a little over two days. The learned woman of Nishapur, Umm al-Khayr Fāṭimah bint ʿAlī (d. 532 AH), studied the complete work under ʿAbd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī, thereby attaining one of the most elevated chains of her age. Between the years 500 and 1000 AH, no fewer than fifty commentaries were composed upon it. Indeed, scholars regarded Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim in relation to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī as superior by some, equal by others, and second to it by most. The concern here is to establish the textual integrity of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim by examining its transmitters, its surviving manuscripts, and the objection that the work reached its final form only a generation after its author’s passing. Imām Muslim spent fifteen years compiling his Ṣaḥīḥ, beginning in 235 AH and completing it in 250 AH, after which he devoted eleven years to teaching it to a multitude of students until his death in 261 AH. Though many received the work from him, a small number of his pupils rose to prominence in its documented transmission. So widespread was this transmission that Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) declared it unreasonable to doubt Muslim’s authorship—an observation affirmed by al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) and reiterated later by al-Sakhāwī (d. 902 AH). The foremost transmitter was Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān (d. 308 AH), a close and devout pupil of Muslim renowned for his asceticism and mastery of Ḥadīth, whose route became the dominant recension of the work. From Ibrāhīm the text passed chiefly to Abū Aḥmad al-Julūdī (d. 368 AH)—the most authoritative—as well as to Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-ʿAdl, and to Abū Bakr al-Kisāʾī (d. 385 AH), though al-Ḥākim (d. 405 AH) criticized the latter’s method of transmission. Nearly all surviving manuscripts and printed editions rest upon al-Julūdī’s recension by way of Ibrāhīm. A second transmitter from Muslim was Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Qalānisī, whose reliability al-Samʿānī (d. 562 AH) confirmed; his recension circulated exclusively in the Muslim West, having arrived there from Egypt early in the fifth century AH. Al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385 AH) recommended studying this recension through Ibn Māhān (d. 387 AH) from al-Ashqar from al-Qalānisī. Though it is believed to have become extinct, its variants were carefully preserved by early commentators such as al-Jayyānī (d. 498 AH), al-Māzarī (d. 536 AH), Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544 AH), and Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī (d. 575 AH). Two further transmitters, Makkī ibn ʿAbdān (d. 325 AH) and Abū Ḥāmid Ibn al-Sharqī (d. 325 AH), produced recensions that did not gain wide currency, while other transmitters such as Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311 AH) left transmissions that did not survive. The manuscript evidence is likewise abundant, for there exist at least five hundred surviving copies of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, transcribed across a thousand years by scribes of varied regions—a wealth second only to that of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Among the earliest is a partial manuscript in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, transcribed in the fifth century AH and used by Abū Bakr al-Ṭūsī in 486 AH for teaching, and another partial copy dated 471 AH held in the Ẓāhiriyyah Library in Damascus. Though the details of Muslim’s own exemplar are unknown, secondary manuscripts were accessible to the classical scholars: al-Māzarī possessed al-Julūdī’s copy, and Abū ʿAlī al-Jayyānī relied upon Ibn al-Ḥadhdhāʾ’s (d. 416 AH) copy of al-Qalānisī’s recension for his celebrated Taqyīd al-Muhmal. Notable too are the manuscript transcribed by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā al-Murādī in 559 AH—read and verified by masters such as Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH) and al-Dimyāṭī (d. 705 AH)—and that of Abū al-Qāsim al-Amawī, transcribed in 573 AH and collated by Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī against his own lifelong labor, which ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī praised as among the most important copies in North Africa. Printed editions followed, beginning in Calcutta in 1849 CE and Delhi in 1853 CE, and culminating in the highly precise 2014 edition of Dār al-Taʾṣīl, collated against five manuscripts including one used for audition in 461 AH. There remains the objection, advanced by Norman Calder, that on account of “organic texts, pseudepigraphy, and long-term redactional activity,” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim reached its final form a generation after its author’s death. It is not denied that variations exist between the recensions, for such is the natural fruit of transmission; yet the claim that the whole text was fluid and finalized only later is untenable. A recent study found that between the two major recensions—that of Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān and that of Ibn Māhān via al-Qalānisī—there are but 117 instances of variation, fifty-six in the chains and sixty-one in the texts, more than half of which are readily harmonized. An example is the description of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr’s action, rendered raḥaltu (“I travelled”) in one recension and dakhaltu (“I entered”) in the other, easily reconciled as travelling and then entering the room of Ibn ʿAbbās. Measured against the total of 7,525 reports in the Dār al-Taʾṣīl numbering, variations appear in a mere 1.55% of the reports—an inconsequential figure given the vastness of the work. Since the Ṣaḥīḥ was transmitted amply during Muslim’s own lifetime and extensively thereafter, any serious alteration could not have escaped notice. A copy was presented to his contemporaries Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (d. 264 AH) and Ibn Wārah (d. 270 AH), which an incomplete work would not have warranted, and Abū Bakr al-Ṣāʾigh (d. 270 AH) composed a mustakhraj upon it during Muslim’s lifetime—a genre that presupposes a complete template. As for the occasional comments (taʿlīqāt) and additions (ziyādāt) of the transmitters, these were few: Ibrāhīm ibn Sufyān added thirteen chains and al-Julūdī four, all explicitly marked with the transmitter’s name so as never to be confused with Muslim’s text, serving merely to furnish shorter, elevated chains (ʿuluww). Such marked additions appear likewise in Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ, Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ’s Tārīkh, and Ibn Mājah’s Sunan, and were never regarded as tampering. Recent doubts cast upon the authorship of the canonical collections betray a failure to grasp the nature of transmission in the age before print, wherein slight and expected manuscript variation is mistaken for grounds to sever a text from its author. In light of the documented transmission, the abundant surviving manuscripts, the supplementary works of Muslim’s contemporaries, and the near-total absence of serious variation, it can be affirmed with confidence that Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim was indeed compiled by Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj and conveyed by the generations that followed with all the precision humanly attainable—may Allāh have mercy upon them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/your-lord-has-not-forsaken-you-addressing-the-impact-of-trauma-on-faith # Your Lord Has Not Forsaken You: Addressing the Impact of Trauma on Faith **Authors:** Najwa Awad, Sarah Sultan **Topics:** Psychology & Mental Health, Trauma **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 10, 2019 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Giving a Voice to Unbearable Pain When you hear the word “trauma,” images of a soldier in combat, holding on to dear life while people all around him are being violently killed, may come to your mind. Or maybe you envision a refugee who forcefully left her beloved home to relocate to safety, only to have her entire family drown at sea. Trauma can provoke a wide range of ideas, but if you are like most people the clinical term feels exceptional and uncommon, and like something that doesn’t happen to average people like us. But what if you don’t need to travel to different corners of the world to bear witness to experienced trauma? What if these struggles are much closer to home—something your friend endured as a child, an event your sibling has kept private to themselves, or a load that you have been quietly carrying with you without even realizing it? According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study, in a sample of over 17,000 individuals, researchers found that 64% of the people surveyed had experienced something traumatic during their childhood years.[^1] Contrary to the images of trauma we discussed before, like war and violence, these more commonly experienced traumatic incidents included emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, household substance abuse, household mental illness, parental separation/divorce, incarceration of a household member, emotional neglect, and physical neglect. When you walk down the street, two out of every three people you pass by has experienced at least one of these significant traumas during their childhood. These substantial traumas are sometimes called ‘big T’ traumas. Now imagine what the numbers would look like throughout a person’s life span, especially during the tumultuous years of early adulthood when most people are experiencing intimate relationships for the first time, having children, coping with major changes like entering the workforce and adjusting relationship expectations with parents. Allah ﷻ tells us, *“Do the people think that they will be left to say: We believe, and they will not be tried?  But we have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars”* (Qur’an, 29:2-3). Adverse experiences and traumas are much more common than we might expect and can include conflict with family (spouse, parents, or children), extreme stress at work, natural disasters, financial trouble, unexpected illness, divorce, or legal issues. These smaller, but still significant traumas, are sometimes called ‘small t’ traumas. When we broaden the definition of trauma in this way, then everyone has likely been touched by trauma in one way or another. Trauma, even trauma we may not realize has impacted us, can manifest itself in ways we cannot anticipate. We may see signs of trauma all around us, like heightened anxiety, nightmares, irritability, and depression but completely overlook the connection of what we experienced in the past with our current day-to-day lives. The huge blow-out with your spouse that left you shaky for a day, that shame you felt as a child when your parent hit you for something you didn’t do, the racial slur you heard at the supermarket when you were a teenager all invisibly piled up in your nervous system without you knowing and one day you wake up feeling really unhappy and have no idea why. Did you know that many people who think they have chronic depression and anxiety actually have residual trauma? Did you know that some individuals who appear to have ADHD or fits of uncontrollable anger are actually acting this way because of unhealed trauma? Even physical ailments like frequent headaches, stomach issues, and body aches can be linked to trauma when no physiological reasons can be found. Many times in trying to figure our own selves out we look to the byproducts of our trauma, like anxiety and depression, instead of the actual source itself—leaving us vexed as to why we can’t heal that part of us that seems to be ever beyond our grasp. *Does it feel like your soul is tired no matter how much rest you get?* *Are you overcome with restlessness and anxiety, even when you think you should feel safe?* *Do you feel a sense of emptiness and struggle to connect with others in a genuine way?* *Do you find yourself losing your temper over seemingly small things because a bigger cloud is overshadowing you?* *Do you feel that you cannot trust anyone because nobody has your best interests at heart?* *Are you numb and completely disengaged from your life and relationships?* *Do you struggle to deal with stress effectively and find yourself always fighting or running away from conflict?* *Are you angry with Allah because it feels like your load is too heavy to bear?* *Do you find yourself crying frequently and unable to shake a sadness weighing you down?* *Do you struggle to find joy in your daily life or even to get menial tasks completed?* *Do you carry a deep sense of shame and feelings of unworthiness?* These painful feelings can all be residual effects of trauma, and when you begin to heal your trauma at the source, what is weighing heavily on your mind, body, and soul will begin to disappear. Healing will make space for connecting with others, experiencing joy, revitalizing your relationship with Allah ﷻ, and regaining a sense of control over your emotions, thoughts, and responses to situations. When we are overwhelmed by the circumstances that surround us, we tend to lose parts of our identities and ourselves. Through healing, we can regain the parts that have been lost and replace the puzzle pieces that trauma has removed from our minds, bodies, and hearts to allow ourselves to be whole once again. --- ## The Science Behind Trauma As two therapists who have seen scores of individuals and families in our private practices over the years, we have borne witness to the tremendous impact that trauma can have on people and the community. Trauma affects both the brain and body, altering the biological stress response system. Unbeknownst to many, ‘big T’ trauma and compounded ‘little t’ trauma can embed themselves into our bodies insidiously without us realizing it. Research shows that even when we no longer think about a trauma, it still hides in our body so hypothetically something that happened to you at age 7 can still be affecting how you cope with stress, and how you manage your relationships today.[^2] During exposure to trauma, our mind and body create an adaptive response necessary for our survival as human beings. In particular, the amygdala causes alarm bells to start ringing, our muscles tense, we breathe faster and our hearts begin to pump faster to ensure that more blood and oxygen can access our muscles. This is called the “fight, flight, or freeze” response, which prepares our bodies to deal with a threat or difficult situation that is happening around us. Basically, during stressful situations, we have three options: we attack and defend ourselves, run away toward safety, or freeze and self-paralyze.[^3] The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for mobilizing the body’s resources during stressful situations, which induces the fight, flight, or freeze response. In normal stressful situations, experiencing intense emotions and bodily sensations is a healthy response. Although symptoms can feel overpowering during and immediately after a stressful event, they are usually transitory and don’t cause any prolonged negative impact on day-to-day life. Our amygdala, which warns us of impending danger and activates the body’s stress response, is moderated by the frontal lobes, particularly the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC).[^4] The MPFC helps us make judgments about what is dangerous and what is not by observing what is going on, and predicting what will happen depending on how we choose to respond. Issues begin to arise when our sympathetic nervous system can’t turn off. This can happen when extreme stress persists over a prolonged period of time, or an incident is so traumatic that the amygdala can’t turn off, constantly reacting as though the danger has returned, when it has not. The more our nervous system is in a traumatized state, the more we will perceive threat all around us. The MPFC cannot be effective when constantly in fight, flight, or freeze mode, causing physiological imbalances and struggles in day-to-day functioning. Patterns develop that cause us to become overly focused on perceived hypothetical dangers, leading us to experience powerlessness, fear, hopelessness, and a constant state of alert. Sometimes trauma or stress can be so overpowering that an individual can begin to disassociate or disconnect from feelings, identity, and memories of oneself. In the current climate in which we have unprecedented exposure to every tragedy that unfolds through the news, Facebook, and other apps, most people are exposed to trauma on a constant basis without even realizing it. Indirect exposure to trauma, including viewing graphic news reports, hearing a detailed traumatic story from another person, hearing that someone you care about has experienced something traumatic, and working in a field that exposes you to others’ suffering, can yield the same symptoms as experiencing a trauma yourself. This is called vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress.[^5] In the same way as experiencing something traumatic yourself, we can get stuck in “fight, flight, or freeze” mode, where we no longer feel safe and feel like we have to defend against a threat that is no longer present. After direct trauma or vicarious trauma, our nervous system changes and relates to the world in a very different way than before,[^6] with increased hypervigilance and difficulty in fully engaging in life. --- ## Growth and Healing Are Possible This series of articles seeks to address trauma from a spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical perspective. The unique focus of these articles will be on working through the depressive feelings, worries, and doubts that may arise as negative experiences impact our faith. There is no easy fix for trauma. However, healing is very possible. You can move past your pain. We see it in therapy all the time, and it is incredible to behold. There is even a name for it: Post-Traumatic Growth. Although trauma can profoundly change an individual’s life-narrative, thought patterns, beliefs, and ability to manage emotional distress, positive psychological changes can be experienced as well.[^7] It sounds counterintuitive. However, there is growing research on this amazing phenomenon. Post-traumatic growth is a concept that researchers define as the ability to thrive after enduring a traumatic event and includes positive changes such as the development of new perspectives and personal growth.[^8] Researchers have identified five areas of post-traumatic growth,[^9] and our intent in the writing of this series of articles is to help you to rediscover yourself through the lens of growth and healing in all of these areas: 1. A greater appreciation of life – After being buried in grief and overwhelming trauma, emergence from the rubble can lead to a changed perspective and much gratefulness, making the mundane details of life seem like extraordinary blessings. 2. Increased closeness in relationships – Experiencing the severance of a relationship or living through trauma can increase the appreciation we feel for significant people in our lives and allow us to be more empathetic toward them. 3. Identification of new possibilities – Life-changing events shift our priorities. Suddenly things can seem clearer and opportunities that may have been there all along are suddenly discernible. 4. Increased personal strength – Before enduring particularly difficult circumstances, you may have thought that everything you are currently handling would have been impossible for you. Once you’ve been through tremendous hardships, future challenges do not seem as daunting. 5. Greater spiritual development – Going through suffering can result in a sense of spiritual and religious renewal and a greater sense of closeness to Allah ﷻ.  When our priorities change, God becomes a more integral part of our daily lives, which adds to a sense of stability and growth. Post-traumatic growth shows you that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that your trauma does not define who you are or where you can go in life. You are enough. You are capable of handling this seemingly insurmountable situation. You are perfectly equipped to deal with everything you face because you were meant to face it. And if Allah ﷻ has chosen you to face these tests, then you are guaranteed to have the ability to succeed through them due to His promise, *“Allah does not charge a soul except \[with that within\] its capacity”* (Qur’an 2:286). You are resilient even if you feel like you can barely hold on right now. The strength, courage, and capacity for healing are embedded within you and we pray that this series of articles will be a starting-point to help you to achieve it. --- ## Goals of this Series We have many goals and several intended audiences for this series. First and foremost, we want this to be a resource for Muslims around the world. The articles are easy to read and can be completed in chunks or sections at a time. We want the information to be easy to digest so that a busy mother can read it throughout the day or a professional who is working two jobs to make ends meet can read it during his/her lunch break. Although this series is not directly intended for clinicians, we also hope that mental health professionals can use it to supplement their therapy with clients who could benefit from reinforcement of concepts discussed during sessions. Lastly, we want this series to be a guide for imams and community leaders who are on the frontlines dealing with their congregations’ individual and communal problems. Since many imams and community leaders are typically not trained in the field of psychology, we hope this series can be a resource to enhance the spiritual counseling they already do on a daily basis. Before we discuss the purpose and intended use of the series further, we also would like to take a moment to discuss what this series is *not*. As two licensed psychotherapists who have been in the field for over 20 years combined, we know that the topic of trauma is one of the most complex and ever-changing topics in our field. Every day, new research and methodologies are being published in attempts to help those suffering from the effects of trauma. Having attended multiple trauma trainings and having worked with several hundreds of clients with trauma, we also recognize the importance of pursuing psychotherapy to heal the innermost complexities of symptoms. This series is not meant to be a substitute for therapy but only an introduction to the topic and how to begin the healing process. We will discuss, in depth, what trauma is and provide practical exercises to help address your symptoms, but please know that most individuals do not find complete relief without talking to a professional. A psychotherapist will help you uncover, process, and heal the unique parts of your trauma that can never be sufficiently addressed in a workbook or speaking to someone who doesn’t have expertise in this field. If at any time you have flashbacks, feel like you are about to harm yourself or someone else, feel incapacitated by emotion or that the contents of this series are too triggering for you, stop reading and seek professional help immediately. Now that what we have discussed who this publication is for and what it’s about, let’s look at its intended purposes. ### 1\.     A Healing The primary purpose of this series is to provide a refuge and healing for those who have silently endured trauma, perhaps not fully understanding what is happening to them and not knowing how or where to get help. Trauma is multifaceted and often carries with it very heavy and challenging emotions including deep sadness, paralyzing fear, unrelenting anxiety, and the suffocating feeling of being trapped and unsafe. Early in the process of contemplating seeking help, individuals may be cautious and would rather learn about the topic on their own. This series is a safe way to begin the healing process and a first stepping-stone for those individuals. ### 2\.     Establishing the Connection Between Trauma and Faith There is extensive research about how spirituality helps individuals cope with trauma and how trauma can deepen faith,[^10] but not much literature about how trauma can negatively impact a person’s faith. In our clinical experience, we have observed a strong link between trauma and faith-based doubts, which contributes to an increase in atheism and agnosticism. In our experiences as therapists, we have seen a wide range of responses to traumatic experiences but one fact remains true: Spirituality and a connection with Allah, whether it was present before the trauma or not, is very helpful as people strive to move forward following a tragedy. Trauma has a unique way of throwing us off balance; when the devastation of trauma spills over into an individual’s belief system in a negative way, it can lead to the deepening of difficult thoughts and emotions impacting spirituality, even to the point of abandoning faith altogether. This is commonly seen when people ask after a trauma, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” “If God existed, He wouldn’t have allowed this,” or “If God permitted this trauma to happen to me then I don’t want to have anything to do with religion.” One of the best forms of armor we can equip ourselves with to protect our connection with Allah during difficult times is to strengthen it during times of ease and stability. When we practice this mentality in our thoughts and actions during good times, it is easier to tap into that resource during struggles. The link between trauma and faith-based doubts is important in many ways. If our hypothesis is correct, that many Muslims are struggling with faith because of trauma-related issues, then how can healing trauma potentially affect faith? We suspect that healing trauma and reconciling tainted views about religion can increase faith. Rewiring our response to trauma can have a profound effect on every facet of our being, including the spiritual part of ourselves. One of our goals in writing this series is to help ourselves and our readers to find faith that can aid us in getting through our troubles. We are calling on faith-based researchers to further explore this through qualitative and quantitative studies as results can potentially have many implications for both secular and Islamic psychology. We also want to highlight the link between trauma and adverse views towards faith for imams and those who give *dawah* (Muslim missionaries) so the subject can be broached with due diligence and sensitivity. ### 3\.     Provide a Comprehensive Approach and Framework The primary methodology of treating trauma around the world currently focuses heavily on alleviating symptomology through interventions for the mind and body. For Muslims and other individuals who believe in a Higher Power, this framework falls short and is incomplete from a holistic perspective. While our paradigm will be discussed in more depth in the next section, one of the purposes of this series is to address trauma in the mind and body as well as in the heart and soul. ### 4\.     Promote Psychology Literacy Lastly, we hope that this series will be a means of promoting psychology literacy. The field of psychology is vast and most students around the world do not take psychology during grade school, and only a percentage of those who go to college will take an introductory class. The lack of exposure to psychological knowledge contributes to misconceptions surrounding this subject, which further deepens the stigma associated with the field of psychology and psychotherapy. While this series will barely scratch the surface of the field of psychology, one of our goals is to touch on a variety of basic psychological terms, concepts, and techniques so the average Muslim can walk away feeling more empowered about their understanding of mental health and well-being. --- ## Paradigm Used in this Series This series uses a holistic and Islamic approach to treating trauma. Secular psychology seeks to address trauma primarily through the mind and body, whereas Islamic psychology incorporates the mind as well as the heart, *ruh* (soul), and *nafs*. For the purposes and limited scope of this series, we will focus primarily on healing trauma through the mind, heart, and body. ### The Mind The importance of thoughts and cognitions is evident in the Islamic tradition: > *\[We sent them\] with clear proofs and written ordinances. And We revealed to you the message that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them and that they might give **thought***. (Qur’an, 16:44) There are many additional *ayat* that emphasize the importance of thought, some of them being: > *Say, “I only advise you of one \[thing\] - that you stand for Allah, \[seeking truth\] in pairs and individually, and then give **thought**.” There is not in your companion any madness. He is only a warner to you before a severe punishment.* (Qur’an, 34:46) > > *Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or \[lying\] on their sides and give **thought** to the creation of the heavens and the earth, \[saying\], “Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You \[above such a thing\]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”*  (Qur’an, 3:190-191) Allah ﷻ teaches us that thinking is important for reflecting, observing, and believing. In the field of psychology, cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are some of the most popular treatment modalities due to their practicality, versatility, and well-documented efficacy.[^11] Cognitive theory states that how individuals perceive and interpret the world around them influences how they feel and behave.[^12] On a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis individuals rapidly interpret stimuli in their environment into thoughts of varying types of awareness. Many of these thoughts are ‘automatic thoughts’ whose content is assumed to be correct, although it might actually be incorrect. Over time, thoughts are interpreted and grouped into categories of information, called ‘schemas,’ based on relationships between the thoughts. Chronic negative thoughts can lead to dysfunctional schemas or ‘cognitive distortions,’ which may subsequently lead to maladaptive feelings and/or behaviors. *In simple terms: Our thoughts affect our feelings, which in turn affect our behavior, and when we modify our thoughts, we can change our emotions and how we interact with the world*. Once thoughts become conscious, we can make a choice to keep them or alter them. If we choose healthy, positive, and Islamically congruent thoughts, then our mood and behavior will likely follow. If we choose unhealthy thoughts (although sometimes they can be very difficult to manage and change, especially with trauma) then our mood and behavior will likely reflect our outlook. Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy, identified many common cognitive distortions, or unhealthy ways of thinking, that we all experience from time to time. Those who suffer from anxiety, depression, and trauma, are much more susceptible to these cognitive distortions. Each article in this series will address one of the ten most common types of cognitive distortions linked to common faith-based questions.[^13] Through the cognitive approach employed throughout you will understand why you have the negative thoughts that you do and how you can change them in an effort to decrease your overall feelings of anxiety, depression, and the impact of the trauma you have experienced. ### The Heart In Islamic psychology, there is special emphasis on the heart in reasoning, belief, and psychological healing. The heart is mentioned over 100 times in the Qur’an and is central to our thinking and feeling. > *So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears by which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the chests.* (Qur’an 22:46) The Qur’an indicates that the heart has the capacity to reason, and today scientists are discovering that our bodies have cardiac consciousness showing that the heart has a way to communicate with the mind, although not much is known about this connection.[^14] The supremacy of the heart is demonstrated in the following *hadith*: > *There lies within the body a piece of flesh. If it is sound, the whole body is sound; and if it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. Verily, this piece is the heart.* (Bukhari and Muslim) There are several ways to soften the heart in Islam, but in this series of articles, we have chosen to incorporate Islamic techniques based on the Qur’an, primarily focused on how Allah ﷻ speaks to Prophet Muhammed ﷺ in Surat ad-Duha when he was sad and anxious. *Ad-Duha* is the Arabic word for “dawn,” which is quite an appropriate metaphor for what this *surah* offers—a light at the end of a tunnel of darkness. Before this *surah* was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ had not received revelation from Allah ﷻ in some time, which really distressed him. Furthermore, some of those who disbelieved in his message mocked him, saying that Allah was displeased with him. How did Allah ﷻ comfort him? *By the morning brightness* *And \[by\] the night when it covers with darkness,* *Your Lord has not forsaken you, \[O Muhammad\], nor has He detested \[you\].* *And the Hereafter is better for you than the first \[life\].* *And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied.* *Did He not find you an orphan and give \[you\] refuge?* *And He found you lost and guided \[you\],* *And He found you poor and made \[you\] self-sufficient.* *So as for the orphan, do not oppress \[him\].* *And as for the petitioner, do not repel \[him\].* *And as for the favor of your Lord, report \[it\].* As we examined this chapter of the Qur’an, it was apparent to us that it offers an answer to the question of how can we heal from psychological trauma. The chapter provides us with a glimpse as to how Allah, the One and Only God, comforted Prophet Muhammad, the best of mankind. What fascinated us, as professionals in this field, was the amount of clinical research we’ve stumbled upon in the course of writing these articles that is consistent with the method that Allah used to comfort Muhammad, peace be upon him, while he underwent such a traumatic time in his life. While we believe that Allah is capable of changing one’s psychological state at will, perhaps the inference that even the best of humans is vulnerable to life’s traumatic events was meant to provide us with a sense of comfort that we’re not alone in facing life’s darkest challenges. Based on this framework, which we coined ***The Duha Approach***, we attempt to bring to our readers a comprehensive and Islamically sound approach to treating trauma. Let’s take a brief look at a few of these interventions and how you will see them throughout the articles in this series. #### Attachment In the third *ayah* of Surat Ad-Duha Allah states, “*Your Lord has not forsaken you, \[O Muhammad\], nor has He detested \[you\],*” comforting The Prophet ﷺ that, despite the suspension in revelation, Allah ﷻ had not abandoned him. The same concept applies to you and your hardships or trauma. The traumas in your life are not because Allah ﷻ hates you or has ever stopped protecting you. Keep in mind that prior to this time of angst, the Prophet ﷺ experienced many events that would be considered traumatic to the average person; some of these included orphanhood, poverty, being a victim of physical assault and emotional abuse. He was also a war veteran. In this series we hope to regrow your attachment and connection to Allah and for you to know that your trauma is not a means of pushing you away from faith, but bringing you closer to Him. Secure attachment to a Higher Power is linked to psychological wellness.[^15] #### Shifting Perspective In the fourth and fifth ayat in Surat ad-Duha, Allah states, “*And the Hereafter is better for you than the first \[life\]. And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied*,” which gives perspective to the Prophet ﷺ that, although he is in pain and experiencing distress now, matters will get better. When we experience trauma, it can feel as though we are trapped in a dark tunnel, with no way out and a sense of certainty that we will be stuck there forever. Allah ﷻ is assuring the Prophet ﷺ, and indirectly the believers, that not only will the difficulties in this world come to an end, but the Hereafter will be better and filled with contentment. Our series addresses perspective-changing, both cognitively and through an Islamic framework. Shifting perspective is an important part of cognitive therapy as well as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which are both effective in treating a myriad of psychological ailments.[^16],[^17] #### Cognitive Therapy In the sixth, seventh, and eighth *ayat* in Surat ad-Duha Allah states, “*Did He not find you an orphan and give \[you\] refuge? And He found you lost and guided \[you\], And He found you poor and made \[you\] self-sufficient*.” In these *ayat*, Allah ﷻ is directly working on the cognitions of the Prophet ﷺ. He gently confronts him by pointing out his blessings and reshaping how he was thinking about his current state of affairs, which is one of the most fundamental techniques of cognitive therapy. We have already discussed the value of the cognitive approach, but wanted to further point out the merit of this approach as Allah ﷻ also used it with the Prophet ﷺ. #### Behavioral Activation In the ninth and tenth *ayat* in Surat ad-Duha Allah ﷻ states, “*So as for the orphan, do not oppress \[him\]. And as for the petitioner, do not repel \[him\]*,” emphasizing the importance of taking action. Cognitive behavioral theory states that not only do our cognitions affect our behavior but our behavior also reinforces our cognitions.[^18] When we take action this strengthens the neural pathways of desired thoughts and behaviors, increasing the likelihood of repeating the same thoughts and behaviors in the future, and achieving the goal of change. It’s not enough for us to simply change our thoughts, but to accompany our new thoughts with new actions. The workbook section in each article of this series will help prepare you to implement specific strategies in your day-to-day life so your new behaviors can strengthen your new, healthier mindset. #### Cultivating Gratitude In the last *ayah* of Surat ad-Duha, Allah ﷻ states “*And as for the favor of your Lord, report \[it\]*,” instructing the Prophet ﷺ to acknowledge and proclaim his blessings. In this series, we will discuss the importance of identifying and reflecting on blessings, and how science finds these small practices to have an immense impact on well-being.[^19] Additionally, at the end of each article, we include an inspirational *ayat* and *hadith* section for further contemplation and remembrance, as thinking about and reflecting on Allah ﷻ is important for softening the heart: > *…Then woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of Allah. Those are in manifest error...* (Qur’an 39:22) > > *Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth? And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before, and a long period passed over them, so their hearts hardened; and many of them are defiantly disobedient.* (Qur’an, 57:16) We believe that this combination of techniques will address what many hearts are desperately seeking and cannot find in secular trauma treatment. ### The Body In the past two decades, there has been a tremendous amount of research pointing to how trauma is stored in the body.[^20] Researchers have found that trauma is kept in somatic memory and creates long-term chronic physiological alterations. When one thinks of trauma the average person might figure that trauma is solely processed and kept in the brain; however, research shows that while trauma is processed in the brain, unprocessed trauma stays in the body.[^21] While the mind forgets over time, the body does not, and can develop psychosomatic symptoms such as stomachaches, headaches, or other inexplicable pain and discomfort. Psychosomatic symptoms are well documented in scientific literature and also mentioned in the Qur’an. When Prophet Yaqub عليه السلام experienced the trauma of what he thought was the loss of his son, Prophet Yusuf عليه السلام, he became blind; his psychological state affected his physiological state: > *And he turned away from them and said, “Oh, my sorrow over Yusuf,” and his eyes became white from grief, for he was \[of that\] a suppressor.* (Qur’an, 12:84) Expressive therapies, which are different from talk therapy and can include art, movement, visualization and breathing exercises, are effective in supplementing therapy, particularly when someone has experienced complex trauma over time.[^22] While not all of our articles will include expressive therapy techniques, the strategies we share are applicable to all of our articles. --- ## Series Format The articles from Part 2 of the series are designed to be independent so that if a person wanted to seek out a particular issue, they would be able to get help and relief without having to read the entire series. We do, however, recommend reading the series in its entirety as important information and different interventions will be interwoven throughout it. Most interventions are described in detail in separate articles, but some important ones do resurface. Each article has a specific topic (such as death, infidelity, or chronic toxic relationships) and addresses one of the ten most common cognitive distortions from the cognitive behavioral framework. Additionally, each article is paired with one of the most common questions that comes up in the midst of the trauma and faith crisis today, such as: *Why does Allah hate me?* *Why does Allah allow these things to happen? Why do bad things happen to good people?* *My iman should be stronger. Why else would I be feeling this way?* Other articles address basic questions related to trauma such as: *Why do only bad things happen to me?* *Why bother living if the future is filled with pain. The world would be better without me.* *Why is everybody’s life better than mine?* Each article has the same format and includes: - A Case Study - Why is this Happening to Me? - Understanding your Thoughts and Emotions - Changing Your Mind, Body, and Heart - Inspirational *Hadith* and *Ayat* for Reflection - Practical Exercises - The Case Study Revisited Part 3 contains common coping skills from the articles and additional coping skills we thought would be useful for readers to know as well. The coping skills are written in an easy-to-access fashion for quick reference while reading or after completing the entire series. Part 4 contains resources and tips on how to get help beyond this series of articles. --- ## Opening Du’aa As you are about to begin the primary section of this series, we encourage you to identify your intentions to help guide you in the best way. Intentionality is an important concept in Islam, mindfulness, as well as healing. > *‘Umar bin Al Khattab reported the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) as saying “Actions are to be judged only by intentions and a man will have only what he intended…”*  (*Sunan Abi Dawud*, 2201) We thought it would be helpful to begin our journey with a *du’aa*. You may decide to use it or not. Feel free to modify the *du’aa* however you like to suit your needs. > *O Allah, please reward me for seeking the first steps in my healing journey so that I can become the best possible version of myself and Muslim I can be. Allah, please accept my attempts in seeking nearness to You and building a stronger relationship with You. Allah, please open my heart to receive the contents of this series in the best way, and make it easy for me to work through and implement the strategies. Allah, please count me as those who seek knowledge for the betterment of myself, my faith, and those around me.* As you begin to internalize the messages within this series, we pray for healing that will allow you to feel like your best self, and that the past will no longer hold the same power over you. We ask Allah that the daily struggles that come your way will be met with resilience and that you will feel empowered to face the present moment with serenity and strength. We pray that through a strengthened connection with yourself and Allah ﷻ, you will find yourself at home within your life once again. We sincerely hope you will benefit and enjoy growth from this series of articles. Best wishes in starting your healing journey. **10 Most Common Cognitive Distortions** **Cognitive Distortion** **Definition** **All-or-Nothing Thinking** Seeing things in black-and-white categories. Falling short of perfection is viewed as a total failure. This involves the inability to see gray in between the two extremes. **Overgeneralization** Coming to a general conclusion based on a single event or one piece of evidence. A single negative event leads to assuming a never-ending pattern of negativity. **Filtering** Skews how a person views the world, making everything perceived from a negative bias. This includes focusing on a single negative detail and dwelling on it to the extent that it appears that your entire reality is painted through this lens. **Disqualifying the Positive** Rejecting positive experiences by insisting that they “don’t count.” Only negative beliefs are maintained due to not allowing positive experiences to play a role in determining your reality. **Jumping to Conclusions** Creating a negative interpretation about something even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support that conclusion. Jumping to conclusions can occur in two ways: 1. “Mind-reading” involves a person thinking that others are negatively evaluating them or have bad intentions toward them. 2. “Fortune-telling” involves predicting a negative future outcome or deciding that situations will turn out for the worst before the situation has even occurred. **Magnification & Minimization** Magnification: Occurs when you look at your own errors, fears, or imperfections and exaggerate their importance. This also includes overly focusing on negative events in your life. Minimization: Occurs when you look at your strengths or positive things in your life as small and inconsequential. **Emotional Reasoning** Assuming that your negative emotions reflect reality. It is the assumption that because you feel something, it must be true. **Should Statements** Using “should,” “ought,” or “must” statements, which can set up unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others. It involves operating by rigid rules and not allowing for flexibility. **Labeling** Overgeneralizing by taking one incident or characteristic of a person and applying it to the whole person rather than considering the situation or behavior objectively. **Personalization** Seeing yourself as the cause of a negative external event which you were not primarily responsible for. This involves accepting fault with the main purpose of making yourself feel bad or punishing yourself. --- ## Notes [^1]: Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. *American Journal of Preventive Medicine*, *14*(4), 245-258. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8 [^2]: van der Kolk, B. A. (1994). The body keeps the score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress. *Harvard Review of Psychiatry*, *1*, 253-65. doi:10.3109/10673229409017088 [^3]: Roozendaal, B., McEwen, B. S.,  & Chattarji, S. (2009). Stress, memory and the amygdala. *Nature Reviews Neuroscience*, *10*, 423-433. doi:10.1038/nrn2651 [^4]: Shin, L. M., Rauch, S. L., & Pitman, R. K. (2006). Amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampal function in PTSD. *Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences*, *1071*, 67-79. doi: 10.1196/annals.1364.007 [^5]: Stamm, B. H. (Ed.). (1995). *Secondary traumatic stress: Self-care issues for clinicians, researchers, and educators*. Baltimore, MD: The Sidran Press. [^6]: van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). *The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma*. New York, NY: Penguin Books. [^7]: Sheikh A. I. (2008). Posttraumatic growth in trauma survivors: Implications for practice. *Counselling Psychology Quarterly*, *21*(1), 85-97. doi:10.1080/[09515070801896186](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09515070801896186) [^8]: Zoellner, T., & Maercker, A. (2006). Posttraumatic growth in clinical psychology: A critical review and introduction of a two-component model. *Clinical Psychology Review*, *26*(5), 626-653. doi:10/1016/j.cpr.2006.01.008 [^9]: King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2009).Detecting and constructing meaning in life events. *The Journal of Positive Psychology*, *4*(5), 317-330. doi:10.1080/[17439760902992316](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439760902992316) [^10]: Mental Health Foundation (2006). The impact of spirituality on mental health: A review of the literature. Retrieved on November 7, 2018 from [https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/impact-spirituality.pdf](https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/impact-spirituality.pdf) [^11]: Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A.  (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. *Cognitive Therapy and Research*, *36*(5), 427–440. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9476-1 [^12]: Knapp, P. & Beck, A. T. (2008). Cognitive therapy: Foundations, conceptual models, applications and research. *Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry*. Retrieved from [http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbp/v30s2/en\_a02v30s2.pdf](http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbp/v30s2/en_a02v30s2.pdf) [^13]: Please find a table containing definitions of each of the ten cognitive distortions at the end of this article. [^14]: Hassanpour, M. S., Yan, L., Wang, D. J. J.,  Lapidus, R. C., Arevian, A. C., Simmons, W. K., Feusner, J. D., & Khalsa, S. S. (2016). How the heart speaks to the brain: Neural activity during cardiorespiratory interoceptive stimulation. *Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*, *371*(1708), doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0017 [^15]: Leman, J., Hunter III, W., Fergus, T., & Rowatt, W. (2018). Secure attachment to God uniquely linked to psychological health in a national, random sample of American adults. *The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion*, *28*(3), 162-173. doi:10.1080/[10508619.2018.1477401](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508619.2018.1477401?journalCode=hjpr20) [^16]: Linehan, M. M., Dimeff, L., Koemer, K. & Miga, E. M. (2013). Research on Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Summary of non- RTC studies. Retrieved on November 7, 2018 from: [https://behavioraltech.org/downloads/Research-on-DBT\_Summary-of-Data-to-Date.pdf](https://behavioraltech.org/downloads/Research-on-DBT_Summary-of-Data-to-Date.pdf) [^17]: Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A.  (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. *Cognitive Therapy and Research*, *36*(5), 427–440. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9476-1 [^18]: Chartier, I.S.,  & Provencher, M. D. (2013). Behavioural activation for depression: Efficacy, effectiveness and dissemination. *Journal of Affective Disorders*, *145*(3), 292-299. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2012.07.023 [^19]: Wood, A. M., Froh, J.J., & Geraghty, A. SW. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. *Clinical Psychology Review*, *30*(7), 890-905. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005 [^20]: van der Kolk, B. A. (1994). The body keeps the score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic Stress. *Harvard Review of Psychiatry*, *1*,  253-265. doi:10.3109/10673229409017088. [^21]: Ibid. [^22]: Dunphy, K., Mullane, S., & Jacobsson, M. (2013). The effectiveness of expressive arts therapies: A review of the literature. *Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia*. Retrieved on November 7, 2018 from [http://pacfa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/expressiveartsreviewnov20131.pdf](http://pacfa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/expressiveartsreviewnov20131.pdf) ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate Trauma is far more common than many people assume, and it does not belong solely to soldiers in war or refugees fleeing across dangerous seas. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study, which surveyed over 17,000 individuals, found that 64% of those studied had endured something traumatic during childhood—including emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, domestic violence, household substance abuse or mental illness, parental separation, incarceration of a family member, and emotional or physical neglect. These are sometimes called "big T" traumas. When we further consider the "small t" traumas of adult life—family conflict, extreme work stress, financial hardship, illness, divorce, or legal troubles—it becomes clear that nearly everyone has been touched by trauma in some way. This reality accords with the truth Allah reveals: "Do the people think that they will be left to say, 'We believe,' and they will not be tried? But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars" (Qur'an 29:2–3). The effects of trauma often go unrecognized, quietly settling into a person's nervous system until one day they awaken feeling profoundly unhappy without understanding why. What is frequently mistaken for chronic depression, anxiety, ADHD, or even unexplained physical ailments such as headaches, stomach problems, and body aches may in fact be residual, unhealed trauma. Rather than treating the source, people often chase the byproducts, and so healing remains beyond their grasp. Yet healing is possible: when trauma is addressed at its root, the burdens weighing upon the mind, body, and soul begin to lift, making space for genuine connection with others, renewed joy, restored control over one's emotions, and a revitalized relationship with Allah. There is a scientific dimension to this that must be understood. Trauma alters both the brain and body, changing the biological stress response system. When exposed to danger, the amygdala sounds an alarm, the muscles tense, and the heart quickens—this is the "fight, flight, or freeze" response, mobilized by the sympathetic nervous system to prepare us to face threat. Ordinarily, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) moderates the amygdala, helping us judge what is genuinely dangerous. Difficulties arise when the sympathetic nervous system cannot switch off, whether because stress persists or because an event was so overwhelming that the amygdala continues reacting as though danger remains. In such a state, a person perceives threat everywhere, feels powerless and hopeless, and may even dissociate from their own feelings, identity, and memories. In today's climate of constant exposure to tragedy through news and social media, many suffer vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress—experiencing the same symptoms without having directly undergone the event themselves. Alongside this difficult reality stands a hopeful truth: growth after trauma is real, a phenomenon researchers term Post-Traumatic Growth. Though trauma can reshape a person's beliefs, thoughts, and emotional capacities, positive psychological change can also emerge. Researchers identify five areas of such growth: a greater appreciation of life, increased closeness in relationships, the identification of new possibilities, increased personal strength, and greater spiritual development—including a renewed and deeper closeness to Allah. Trauma does not define who a person is or where they may go. As Allah promises, "Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity" (Qur'an 2:286). If Allah has chosen a servant to face a trial, that servant has been equipped to endure it. The purpose here is to serve as a resource for Muslims worldwide, easy to read and digest, useful also to mental health professionals as a supplement to therapy and to imams and community leaders in their spiritual counseling. Yet it must be stated clearly what this is not: it is not a substitute for professional therapy. Trauma is among the most complex and evolving subjects in the field of psychology, and most individuals will not find complete relief without the help of a trained psychotherapist. Anyone experiencing flashbacks, thoughts of self-harm or harming others, or overwhelming emotion should stop and seek professional help immediately. Several goals guide this endeavor. The first is healing—offering refuge to those who have silently endured trauma without understanding it or knowing where to turn. The second is to establish the connection between trauma and faith. While much research exists on how spirituality helps people cope with trauma and how trauma can deepen faith, there is little literature on how trauma can negatively affect faith. In clinical experience, a strong link has been observed between trauma and faith-based doubts, sometimes contributing to atheism and agnosticism, as people ask, "Why does God allow bad things to happen?" One of the best protections is to strengthen one's connection with Allah during times of ease so that it may be drawn upon during hardship. Faith-based researchers are called upon to explore this further. The third goal is to provide a comprehensive, holistic framework, and the fourth is to promote psychology literacy so that the average Muslim may feel more empowered regarding mental health. The paradigm employed is both holistic and Islamic. Whereas secular psychology addresses trauma primarily through the mind and body, Islamic psychology also incorporates the heart, the ruh (soul), and the nafs; here the focus is on the mind, heart, and body. Regarding the mind, the Islamic tradition affirms the importance of thought, as in the verse: "…that they might give thought" (Qur'an 16:44), and in the reflection of "those of understanding" who "give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth" (Qur'an 3:190–191). Cognitive therapy holds that how we perceive the world shapes how we feel and behave; unhealthy automatic thoughts can harden into "cognitive distortions." Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy, identified ten common distortions—such as all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, and emotional reasoning—each of which will be addressed alongside a common faith-based question. Concerning the heart, the Qur'an mentions it over a hundred times and affirms its capacity to reason: "…they have hearts by which to reason… but blinded are the hearts which are within the chests" (Qur'an 22:46). The Prophet ﷺ said, "There lies within the body a piece of flesh. If it is sound, the whole body is sound; and if it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. Verily, this piece is the heart" (Bukhari and Muslim). The chosen framework, called The Duha Approach, draws upon Surat ad-Duha, revealed to comfort the Prophet ﷺ during a distressing pause in revelation when disbelievers mocked him, claiming Allah was displeased. Its verses embody principles remarkably consistent with clinical research: attachment—"Your Lord has not forsaken you… nor has He detested [you]" (93:3); shifting perspective—"And the Hereafter is better for you than the first [life]" (93:4–5); cognitive reshaping—"Did He not find you an orphan and give [you] refuge?" (93:6–8); behavioral activation—"So as for the orphan, do not oppress [him]" (93:9–10); and cultivating gratitude—"And as for the favor of your Lord, report [it]" (93:11). Reflection softens the heart, for Allah warns, "Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of Allah" (Qur'an 39:22). As for the body, research over the past two decades shows that trauma is stored somatically, producing chronic physiological changes and psychosomatic symptoms even after the mind forgets. This is illustrated in the Qur'an when Prophet Yaqub عليه السلام, grieving the loss of Yusuf عليه السلام, wept until "his eyes became white from grief" (Qur'an 12:84). Expressive therapies—art, movement, visualization, and breathing—can supplement talk therapy, especially in complex trauma. Because intention shapes every action—"Actions are to be judged only by intentions" (Sunan Abi Dawud 2201)—this journey opens with a du'aa asking Allah for healing, nearness to Him, and the strength to become one's best self, that the past may no longer hold the same power and that one may feel at home within one's own life once again. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-and-following-jesus-the-muslim-claim-to-the-messiah # Finding and Following Jesus: The Muslim Claim to the Messiah **Author:** Dr. Shabbir Akhtar **Topics:** Faith, Prophets **Tags:** Jesus in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** December 24, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## I. Jesus عليه السلام and the House of Abraham Divided Christians do not care much when Muslims tell them that the prophets of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) are also prophets of Islam. They care a great deal when they find out that Jesus عليه السلام, their special savior, is a revered prophet in the Qur’an. Many Christian converts to Islam claim that they have kept the best moral qualities of the Christian Jesus, popular with Sufis as the prophet of peace, grace, love and self-denial, while augmenting and reinforcing these with the example of the last and greatest of God’s messengers, our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Only Islam made them feel complete as believers. They describe it as the most natural conclusion to their journeys. Some Muslims sport slogans such as ‘I love Jesus and follow him because I am a Muslim. And he was too!’ Or: ‘Every Friday is Good Friday.’ Christians feel offended by: ‘You have the Cross—but we have Jesus.’ Some are angered enough to cite with approval the ‘insider movement’: if you look for Jesus in the Qur’an, you will eventually find that he points to the Christ of the New Testament. If you really look for Allah, you shall find instead the divine Jesus! Some Muslims who choose to follow Christ claim that, in retrospect, they see the Islamic view of Jesus عليه السلام as being a parody and a caricature of orthodox Christian convictions about his nature and person. Two can play such games of dispossessing the rival—and with fatal consequences, daily, globally. Our concern is not polemical point-scoring nor combat and controversy but rather sincere zealousness for the truth. Can Muslims be loyal and sincere followers of Jesus Christ عليه السلام? Can they be loyal to the message of Jesus—without becoming Christians? Some Christians might reply: that is the only way to be loyal to the real Jesus! Can a Muslim commit to Christ—become a conscientious follower of Jesus of Nazareth, seal of the prophets of Israel? This question does not arise comparably for Jews, never as a part of their faith. Messianic Jews are seen, by other Jews, as being Jews only in name and therefore, in effect, Christians. Many joke that they are only ‘jew-ish’, not Jews! Some modern Jews do, however, want to reclaim and rehabilitate Jesus the Jew as a wise preacher who was misunderstood by his own tribe—both by his Pharisaic enemies and his Christian followers. Again, some prominent Hindus such as Mahatma Gandhi, fighting British imperialism, chose to honor Jesus of Nazareth as an advocate of pacifism in the context of the brutality of the Roman empire. Hinduism does not require any such position. Anyone, religious or secular, may opt to endorse the moral wisdom of Jesus’ teachings. It is not optional for Muslims since they are in some sense insiders with respect to Christianity as their faith requires them to believe in Jesus عليه السلام. The Muslim perspective on Jesus is unique. Muslims claim, on the authority of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s authentic sayings, that theirs is the only fully correct theological view of Jesus’ miraculous origins, true identity, nature, teachings, and ministry. This claim is proffered to rival the one found in the New Testament and in subsequent Christian dogmatic tradition. Just as Christians tell Jews that they have rejected and misunderstood Jesus Christ, Muslims tell Christians that they too have rejected and misunderstood the real Jesus in favor of their own invented doctrines about his true nature and real message. The person of Jesus is both divisive and also decisive for relations among the Abrahamic cousins, especially between the two global superpowers of faith, Christianity and Islam. Did Jesus  عليه السلام  intend to divide the House of Abraham? Did the last Prophet  ﷺ  successfully unite that family? Even what is in common need not unite, in the Abrahamic family any more than in any human family. Tragically, people often fight those with whom they share the most. The Qur’an’s Jesus عليه السلام was a prophet-teacher, honored by commentators as one of the five senior messengers of God, ‘the group of firm resolve’ (Qur’an 46:35), said to include the chief champions of monotheism, prophets such as Abraham and Moses عليهما السلام.  Indeed, all of these prophets supply excellent exemplars for conduct—and the Qur’an singles out Abraham عليه السلام  as being, like the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, a role model for all believers (Qur’an 60:4, 33:21). Christians claim that the earthly Jesus عليه السلام reflected the power, presence, and purpose of God the Father. Muslims proclaim that Muhammad  ﷺ, as God’s last prophetic representative, also reflected divine power, presence (in a different sense), and purpose without being God incarnate. After we introduce the problem of Jesus’ identity in the next section, we deepen and broaden our inquiry, in sections III and IV, to provide a scriptural account of his life and ministry. In sections V and VI, we examine two practical areas of disagreement about Jesus’ mission and role in history. In an interlude in section VII we note the emergence of an apparently permanent dogmatic deadlock about his alleged divinity. The rest of the essay attempts to resolve or avoid this ancient stalemate about Jesus’ nature and significance in sacred history. We examine in section VIII his self-image in order to break the stalemate. In the penultimate section, we locate an interim ethical consensus that would enable us all to vie with one another in good works (Qur’an 2:148) while deferring to the next world the resolution of dogmatic deadlocks. This shared practical moral ground for achieving the common good has ambiguous potential: what is held in common can unite as well as divide. Think of family rivalries. In the final section, I note the implications of this inquiry and set some tasks for the future. I conclude that Muslims may, optionally, follow the example of Jesus Christ عليه السلام, one of God’s senior prophets, a teacher ‘full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14). --- ## II. A Great Prophetic Leader—or the Lord of the Worlds? Some men have been named for the very quality that entitled them to lead and guide others: their second name is a title that resembles a proper name. Examples include Gautama Buddha (Enlightened One), Jesus Christ (Messiah), and Muhammad *Rasul Allah* (Messenger of God). The title can precede the proper name as in Christ Jesus. Christology is the academic study of Jesus of Nazareth—his status and role in relationship to the one and only God of Israel. Christians debate the problem of Jesus’ true nature as a philosophical (metaphysical) question, similar to perennial conundrums about the nature of mind, matter, spirit, time, space, and free will. Christology is a branch of the analytical philosophy of Christianity. The New Testament is written in Greek, the language of Greek philosophy. Answers to Christological puzzles, however, unlike those given for the other philosophical problems, have serious religious consequences. It is an urgent, rather than merely academic, concern. The Qur’an claims to retrieve the truth about Jesus عليه السلام by adjusting and correcting and sometimes rejecting his followers’ views of his origins, personal identity and self-image, true spiritual nature, and the earthly or temporal mission that encompassed his words and works; that is, his teachings and miracles. The Qur’an’s verdict is this: the prophet Jesus preached the Torah (juridical monotheism) to his people, the Children of Israel, and they rejected him. The Islamic scripture effectively demythologized Jesus some 1300 years before modern German theologians such as Rudolf Bultmann (d. 1976) and others who sought and found the historical Jesus as he appears in objective biblical scholarship. In contrast with the nativity narratives found in the Greek New Testament, the Qur’anic Jesus’s first spoken words were, presumably in Aramaic, “I am indeed God’s servant. He gave me the Book and made me a prophet” (Qur’an 19:30). It is as though the newborn could hardly wait to speak the truth about himself—to refute the Christian ‘mythology’ that would eventually be built around his nature and mission. For Christians, this modest (low) Christology fails to do justice to Jesus, the Christ, who inspires their faithful devotion and worship. The same *surah* (Maryam) announces that “no one comes to the Merciful One (*al-Rahman*) except as a servant” (Qur’an 19:30). God permits no son (or sons) or daughters to become heirs who claim a share in His Sovereignty. The Qur’an teaches that core Christian dogmas about Jesus’ identity and nature compromise God’s Transcendence and Unity (Qur’an 5:17). The Islamic scripture does not deify any prophet, not even Muhammad ﷺ. The Qur’an never exalts anyone, human or angel, to the status of the One and Only God, Who is Unique, Indivisible, and without rival. Its view of Jesus عليه السلام is modest in comparison with the New Testament’s appraisal which the Qur’an dismisses as zealous excess. Philosophers of mind debate identity at all levels—primarily personal identity of the private self, the center of stable and self-aware personhood and hence adult moral liability. Once we know a person’s basic identity, we can debate social or political identity in respect of perceived color, creed, community, country, class and culture, listed in order of most innate and intrinsic dimensions. Who then was Jesus عليه السلام, the historical character? Can we study his life and work as we study the life of a general such as Julius Caesar? To follow someone as a leader, we must know their identity and something of their character and message, even class affiliation, in order to assess whether they are worthy of our allegiance. --- ## III. Jesus Christ عليه السلام in Islam Jesus was “God’s word conveyed to Mary and a spirit from him” (Qur’an 4:171) but he remained only the son of Mary (Qur’an 5:110), not of God. The Qur’an understands literally the notion of a son and therefore rejects a consort for God (Qur’an 6:101; 72:3) who has no son, only honored servants (Qur’an 21:26). There are no saviors, only prophets who warn. Nor are there any intercessors—unless God wills otherwise. He alone has the power to forgive sins and to answer His creatures’ prayers for help and guidance. In the Qur’an, ‘Isa ibn Maryam is the only prophet whose maternity is part of his routine identification. The Arabian Prophet is called by his fuller name of ‘Muhammad ibn Abdullah’ only in the *hadith* and other Arabic literature, to highlight his lineage. Jesus عليه السلام is an Anglicized form of the Greek *Yesous*; it transliterates the Hebrew *Yeshu‘a*, rendered ‘Joshua’ in English. The Hebrew original contains the idea of being a savior. ‘Isa has no meaning in Arabic or in Hebrew and its use might startle Christians since they expect *Yeshu‘a* or *Yesu‘a* to be the relevant Arabic transliteration. God made Jesus and his mother عليهما السلام (jointly) a sign (Qur’an 23:50)—from (or of) God. ‘Isa ibn Maryam is a sign (*ayah*) for humanity, a mercy (*rahmah*) from God, his miraculous birth “a matter foreordained” (Qur’an 19:21). Muslims proclaim Jesus as a sign of God (*ayatu Allah*) for all humanity (Qur’an 19:21) but not a (or the) son of God. The Qur’an also calls Muhammad ﷺ a *rahmah* to all the worlds (21:107) and eulogizes the Word of God as a mercy and healing for believers (17:82; 41:44). The Greek *Christos* (anointed one) is a translation of the Hebrew *meshiakh*, meaning someone selected for a sacred role or special honor. It can refer to any chosen or regal personage. *Al-Masih* is probably an Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew. But what does *al-Masih* mean or intend in the Qur’an? The Arabic verb *ma/sa/ha*, like its virtually identical Hebrew cognate, means to rub lightly with water or oil; formal washings before Muslim ritual prayers require this light touch or anointment with water (Qur’an 5:6). The Qur’an’s description of Jesus عليه السلام is made definite: his messianic title is attached to his factual (biological) maternity: *al-Masih* ‘Isa ibn Maryam (3:45). In Judaism, ‘the Christ’ functions as an indefinite description since the identity of the true claimant must be distinguished from false pretenders. The referent of the phrase remains disputed: Jews are still waiting for the messiah. In first-century Palestine, the messiah’s lineage and identity were topics of fierce sectarian dispute. The self-segregated Qumran community expected two messiahs, one royal (of Davidic descent) and one priestly. In prophecy, an indefinite description is made partly definite; a proper name may or may not supplement the title. Thus, “His name is Ahmad” (Qur’an 61:6) can function as an attributive adjectival appellation or merely a proper (nominal or content-less) name while “His name is John” (*Yahya*; Qur’an 19:7) simply introduces a proper name. The Qur’an denies the crucifixion (4:157), a fact that further defines the Messiah. God would not permit such a one to die a shameful death. In later Muslim piety, Jesus عليه السلام, as the seal of the saints (friends of God) was considered too important a figure for God to allow his martyrdom by sinners, although prophets had been killed by their communities before (Qur’an 2:61; 4:155). The Qur’an implies a substitute (or surrogate or illusory) crucifixion: perhaps a loving disciple took Jesus’ place much as Ali رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه, destined to be the fourth caliph, was willing to die to save the Prophet’s life during an assassination attempt in Mecca. Jesus عليه السلام was ‘translated,’ a technical Christian term for describing ascent into heaven, without the normal precondition of bodily death. Allah exalted Jesus to himself. The Qur’an’s denial of Jesus’ crucifixion obviates the need for his resurrection but the Islamic scripture attests to Jesus’ ascension, understood as his miraculous entry into heaven through God’s direct intervention (see Qur’an 3:55; 4:157-8; 5:116-117). Only Luke mentions the Ascension of the risen Christ (24:50-51) after his resurrection and adds in Acts (1:1-3) that this event took place forty days after his resurrection. (Mark 16:19 mentions it too but this passage is absent from the most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses.) --- ## IV. The New Testament Jesus عليه السلام in the Light of the Qur’an The New Testament writers considered Jesus عليه السلام to be the messianic descendant of King David عليه السلام. For Christians, Jesus’ humiliating death was simply a fulfillment of divine prophecy: he was innocent of the accusations made against him by the establishment. While claiming that Muhammad’s advent was promised in antecedent scripture, the Qur’an never calls Jesus the promised messiah. This may be because the Qur’an recognizes at best only the Torah (Pentateuch of Moses) as scripture. For Jews, the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, what Christians effectively dismiss as the ‘Old’ Testament, has three levels of holiness. After the Torah, the prophetic oracles quoting direct divine speech form the second holiest portion, the *Nebi’im* (Prophets) division. The messianic prophecies are concentrated here but, as in the third portion, the *Ketub’im* (Writings), much of this prophetic material is humanly composed and has been partly corrupted in transmission and through unauthorized scribal amplification. The four canonical gospels, the Synoptic trio, and John, give us an idea of why Jesus عليه السلام himself eventually became an object of worship even though he, according to the Qur’an’s unified and homogeneous account of his life, invited his people to God as the sole object of deserved worship. The author of Mark, the earliest gospel, portrays Jesus عليه السلام as God’s loyal servant, a status attested miraculously. ‘The Son of God’ (Mark 15:39) need not have been intended to refer to Jesus’ alleged divinity but rather to his close spiritual relationship with God. Jesus is one of the prophets and Peter adds that he is the Christ (Mark 8:28-29). For Christians, being Christ lifts Jesus beyond the status of prophet. Once all God’s messengers have been rejected by their sinful communities, the climax is not yet another prophet, no matter how great, but rather the novel initiatives of the divine son and the divine Incarnation, ‘God with us,’ who brings in person rather than sends through his deputies. It is a love that suffers unjustly but willingly to redeem the unjust. Matthew’s gospel links Abraham to Jesus, via David عليهم السلام, in a genealogy (1:1-6). This first evangelist, the so-called teacher whose gospel opens the New Testament canon, implies a paternal genealogy when he concludes by mentioning Joseph but does not call him Jesus’ father but rather “the husband of Mary” (1:16). Jesus as the son of Joseph is here understood metaphorically, not literally. In Christian creeds, however, Jesus as the son of God is taken literally, not metaphorically—although admittedly not physically. For Muslims, Adam and Jesus عليهما السلام resemble each other in terms of creation (Qur’an 3:59). Both are without human antecedents: no paternity (Jesus) and neither maternity nor paternity (Adam). Consistently for a virgin birth, the Qur’an, unlike the New Testament, does not mention Jesus’ paternal genealogy (or any full siblings) but affirms a delimited maternal genealogy by regularly calling him ‘Isa ibn Maryam. In the New Testament, Jesus عليه السلام is called the son of Mary only in Mark 6:3. His father’s profession (see Matt. 13:55) is mentioned by his opponents determined to cut him down to size and put him in his place. Muslims are not of course in the same camp as these enemies of Christ who were motivated by malice and hostility. Rather, Muslims want to rescue the true Jesus from the clutches of false doctrine about his nature. Some Christians see the Qur’an as degrading Jesus, especially in the hypothetical divine threat to annihilate the Christ, his mother, and all creation altogether (Qur’an 5:17). The Qur’an’s chief concern, however, is the relentless defense of God’s utter uniqueness and total monopoly on the sovereignty of His Kingdom. Matthew’s Jesus عليه السلام was a new lawgiver—and one greater than Moses عليه السلام. The Qur’an, however, presents Jesus simply as a law-giver who brings the Gospel (*al-Injil*) to confirm the Torah (*al-Taurah*). The Qur’an reveals that the Gospel vouchsafed to Jesus was a relaxed version of the Torah (Qur’an 3:50). Some laws imposed on the Children of Israel seemed prejudicially rigorous but, the Qur’an explains, these laws were intended to be conspicuously rigorous—as a just punishment for their specific iniquities and persistent delinquencies (Qur’an 6:146). However, the Qur’an does not suggest that the Gospel was a law-free version of the Torah or in some way legally or morally superior to it. The Qur’an concurs with the sum verdict of Matthew’s gospel: Jesus عليه السلام was caused to ‘fail’ in his overall mission to the Children of Israel owing to the latter’s rejection of him. He sensed their disbelief but was cheered up by a small group of believers among them (Qur’an 3:52). Luke’s gospel portrays Jesus عليه السلام as an itinerant teacher of Torah and wisdom, a rejected Jewish prophet with nowhere to lay his head, an image popular, incidentally, with itinerant Sufi mystics. Jesus is awarded many Jewish titles that are acceptable to Muslims. The Qur’an rejects any relationship to God that would move someone beyond that of an honored servant (see Qur’an 43:59), no matter how close a spiritual relationship is otherwise claimed for him. Luke sees Christ primarily as a servant. This is implied by his citation from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (Chapter 53), the locus of the servant traditions inherited by Christianity from its Jewish origins. According to John, the fourth evangelist, the spiritual intimacy and unanimity of will which Jesus عليه السلام enjoyed with his *Abba* (heavenly Father) scandalized his Pharisee critics. The Jesus of the Qur’an enjoys a close relationship with God, despite not addressing him as Father. So long as the believer does not obliterate his or her identity but remains distinct from God, Islam salutes the closeness of such mystical piety. The Qur’an speaks of the signs of God in nature and human nature (3:190; 30:20-25). John’s gospel, too, sees the actions of Jesus عليه السلام, the merciful healer, as signs of his divinely supported mission. He is sent by God the Father. “An apostle is not greater,” declares Jesus, “than the One who sent him” (John 13:16). This provides a sound biblical basis for the confident Qur’anic claim that Jesus was essentially no more than a messenger of God. --- ## V. Comparing competing scopes of mission Jesus, the Good Shepherd, dismisses as robbers and usurpers the shepherds who came before him (John 10:8). Muslims would be shocked to read that a prophet of God rejected previous prophets but Jesus عليه السلام was probably attacking only his usual target, the Pharisees, as hypocritical leaders of their flock. Almost all Biblical scholars agree that for some three decades after Jesus’ demise, Christianity remained a Jewish sect. Christians were tolerated within the synagogue. This would have been impossible if Jesus’ followers had openly proclaimed his divinity. To which people(s) was Jesus عليه السلام sent? Matthew’s gospel opens with nativity themes: the visit of the (non-Jewish) Magi (2:1-12) from the East followed by a reference to the Galilee of the Gentiles where a light has now shined (4:15-16). The adult Jesus’ encounter with a Gentile woman (15:21-28) occasions his explicit disavowal of Gentiles: he says that he has been sent only to save the lost sheep of the House of Israel (15:24). Table fellowship with Gentiles was forbidden to Jews since Jews observed strict dietary restrictions. Indeed all contact with Gentiles was seen as polluting. The great evangelical commission to convert the whole world (Matt. 28:16-20) contains the teaching only of the post-resurrection Jesus who suddenly preaches the urgent need to reach Jews and Gentiles alike. As many commentators have noted, this part of Matthew is an afterthought, a postscript to the teachings of the very Jewish earthly Jesus عليه السلام whose contacts with Gentiles were random. He explicitly stated his virtual indifference to Gentile salvation although Christians have subsequently read a coded reference to the conversion of all Gentiles, including Muslims, often in stray comments such as his claim that he has sheep in other folds or when he catches abundant fish to feed the disciples after his resurrection. Matthew has Jesus predict that Israel will reject him and adds that the fruits of God’s reign will be inherited by a new people (21:42-43), namely, Matthew’s Christian community. The Qur’an affirms the tension between Jesus and his community. A group of Jews believes while another group disbelieves; God empowers the believers (Qur’an 3:52-3; 61:14). Muslims see Muhammad’s community as the true inheritors of Jesus عليه السلام and indeed of the House of Abraham عليه السلام. The Qur’an affirms that Jesus عليه السلام was sent solely to the Children of Israel (3:49). The Prophet’s traditions confirm that only the Prophet Muhammad’s mission was intended to be universal. Despite being a sign to the world, Jesus was sent as a prophetic leader only to his own people. Several parables told by the New Testament Jesus imply that he was the last prophet (for example, Mark 12:1-12). Muslims claim this terminal honor for Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets ﷺ(Qur’an 33:40). --- ## VI. Competing views about the end of history Many devout Christians believe that Jesus عليه السلام will return to judge the world (Rom. 2:16; 2 Cor. 5:10)—to mark the total triumph of his redemptive mission (1 Cor. 4:5; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 4:13-17). Righteous and wicked alike will be resurrected but only the former shall receive deliverance from their sins and then be glorified. As for the wicked, after the reunion of their souls with their bodies, they shall suffer eternal death. The debate about Jesus عليه السلام in the last days plays into the current confused and hostile political eschatology which openly informed American foreign policy under George W. Bush. General Jesus would lead the Battle of Armageddon. A small but powerful clique of neo-cons and others have continued to form the far right Christian Zionist component of the American political and public classes under subsequent presidents. Many Republicans support the Christian Zionist movement but mainly out of deference to the Israel lobby rather than religious fervor. Many Christians have, from the mid-seventh century of the Christian era onward, interpreted the rise of Islam as biblical prophecy relating to the two sons of Abraham, the delinquent children of Ishmael versus the rightful heirs of Isaac. They have seen this clash as being especially vital for the end-times. The creation of the state of Israel and the destruction of the Ottoman caliphate jointly meant that Muslims would become the great enemies of the Jewish people. Christian Zionists, a small but effective lobby, especially in America, claim that Christians must support Israel and oppose Islam since God will defend Israel and bless only those nations that support her. Jesus shall return and lead all nations only after this final deliverance of the remnant of Israel that did not believe during his first coming but will do so after his second. Jesus’ place in the climax of sacred history is alluded to in some enigmatic Qur’anic verses (Qur’an 4:159; 43:61). Muslims do not see Jesus, in his first coming, as the last and apocalyptic prophet. Why? He did not come to announce the imminent termination of history but rather to predict the coming of Muhammad ﷺ, the last prophet. Once Jesus عليه السلام sensed that his mission would end in worldly defeat, he prophesied the advent of Ahmad (Qur’an 61:6), “the more or most praised one,” a comparative (also superlative) form of the adjective *muhammad*. It is used here as a proper name. The Prophet ﷺ said: “The nearest prophet to me is Jesus.” He meant in time rather than in ministry. According to some authentic *hadith* and other post-Qur’anic sources, Jesus عليه السلام shall return as a leader of an elite entourage of believers. He will fight his opponents and, after some decades of just and peaceful rule, he will terminate secular history and eventually inaugurate the final judgment. According to some Islamic end-times prophecies, when Jesus returns, he will fight the Antichrist, abolish the poll-tax levied on protected Jews and Christians, break the cross that assigned divinity to him, kill a pig as a sign of return to the law that he supposedly abrogated, prohibit alcohol, and follow Muhammad ﷺ as his imam. Jesus will die—successfully this time. An empty grave is reserved for him, next to the Prophet’s tomb in Medina. --- ## VII. Deadlock about Divinity In the Qur’an and the Prophet’s canonical sayings, *al-Masih* is the Lord’s anointed, an accolade conferred uniquely on Jesus عليه السلام. Islam pays special tribute to Jesus but not in a way that would satisfy the highly ambitious credal and ecclesial requirements of orthodox Christology. For Christians, the Muslim Jesus is a dull, predictable figure, a mere prophet, of whom there are legion in the Bible and the Qur’an. He would resemble the harmless figure of the cultural Jesus whose message can entertain kids at Christmas and Easter. This may sound like a caricature or parody of the Qur’anic Jesus but the Christian point is that only the adult version is the real Jesus, the incarnate God who suffered on a cross to secure redemption for sinful Adam and all his descendants. The Islamic Jesus appears as the real Jesus but minus the distinctive and unsettling aspects of his life, nature, and mission. For Muslims, the Christian Jesus is a blasphemer, as he was for Jews too. And the case against the Christian view of Jesus is closed—and closed by God in his final book. Some committed Christians may feel depressed, even utterly desolated, as they read the Qur’anic verdict about Jesus عليه السلام. For others, their Christian identity is so vital and dynamic that they feel the urgent need to consider seriously and conscientiously the challenge of Islam. Some of those who are sincere in their search eventually convert to Islam. As the Qur’an warns Muslims, the People of the Book will never be happy with you unless you believe what they believe (Qur’an 2:120; 5:51). Equally, Christians may feel that Muslims will never be satisfied with Christians—until every Christian knee bows towards Mecca. Muslims can, at best, know about Jesus عليه السلام, love and honor him, and follow his example because he was a devout servant of God. Christians claim to encounter Jesus, experience his saving grace, know his will and follow him, love and worship him as their personal savior. Locating him in a book is seen as attenuating his person and distorting his message of universal salvation. The Qur’an commands all monotheists to acknowledge only one Lord (Qur’an 3:64). When Christians worship Jesus Christ as their Lord, Muslims see this as dishonoring Allah, if unintentionally. The Qur’an’s call for locating common ground can succeed only if all contending parties see the true Jesus عليه السلام as a miraculously created being, appointed a prophet and messiah, the seal of the prophets of Israel, and essentially no more. Otherwise, the Christological deadlock shall remain permanent. For Muslims, the Jesus of Christian faith will remain a divisive figure whose mission cannot provide a basis for genuinely harmonious coexistence among the adherents of the Semitic trio of revealed faiths. The Qur’an envisages these three groups disputing in front of their Lord on the day of resurrection (Qur’an 5:48). --- ## VIII. Breaking the Deadlock: Jesus’ own Christology Muslims are religiously obliged to demonstrate that Jesus himself preached only a pure monotheism. Only then can we prove that the Muslim Jesus عليه السلام was the true leader of the Jesus movement. No Muslim can take as a leader someone who rejects or compromises strict Abrahamic monotheism. This is an essential qualification for anyone who claims to be a leader or exemplar for Muslims. Throughout the Second Temple period of Jewish history, no (orthodox) Jew thought that the messiah was anything but human. If Jesus عليه السلام entertained the prevalent Jewish view, he would have seen his role as that of a revolutionary, a zealous prophet and a human messiah who would deliver the Jews from the political bondage of Gentile nations. Christian tradition has bestowed countless honorific titles on Jesus عليه السلام who, as Christ, enjoys the role of messiah, naturally, but also prophet, priest, and king. According to Christian doctrine, during Christ’s divinely willed but humanly accepted humiliation on earth, he was a mere servant under the law, voluntarily divested of his regal divine majesty; in his later exaltation as Lord, after the resurrection from the dead, he rose above the law. Leaving aside the Muslim caveat that Allah would never humiliate his messenger, did Jesus proclaim himself the Son of God and/or God? The Hebrew Bible proclaims that God cannot be a man (Num. 23:19, Hos. 11:9). The Oneness of God is affirmed repeatedly (Isa. 45:21-22, Jonah 3:5-10). Jews thought of God as One, without a consort or son in any physical sense. The Bible gives divine sonship to others besides Jesus عليه السلام. Yahweh describes Israel (Jacob) عليه السلام as “my son, my firstborn” (Exod. 4:22). Solomon عليه السلام is God’s son (2 Sam. 7:13-14) while Luke (3:38) calls Adam عليه السلام “the son of God.” Angels are called sons of God (Job 1:6, 38:7) while all Israelites are said to be children of God (Deut. 14:1). In the Christian Bible, the descriptions of Jesus range from a mere man (Acts 2:22, 17:31, John 8.40, Tim. 2:5) to “Son of God,” and the eternal heavenly Son who is equal to God the Father (John 5:18-24). Typically, however, Jesus of Nazareth is “a man accredited by God to you (Jews) by miracles, wonders, and signs” (Acts 2:22), simply a servant of God (e.g., Matt. 12:18). Is there any Christian scriptural text to support Jesus’ divinity? John 1:1 states that Jesus was God’s word made manifest, a view partly confirmed by the Qur’an: angels give Mary “the good news of a word from God” (Qur’an 3:35). The opening verse of John can be read as supporting Jesus’ divinity, however, only if one already holds that view on other grounds. Otherwise, Jesus عليه السلام and God were not one in nature or identity but rather only in purpose—and as much can be said of any prophet’s relationship to God. Jesus عليه السلام joined his disciples in the worship of God the Father (John 4:23, 16:23), exalted Him (John 5:19, 30) and prayed to Him all night (Luke 6:12; Heb. 5:7). In his distress, Jesus appealed to God (Matt. 27:46) and added that he was ascending to his Father in heaven (John 20:17, Rev. 3:12). Perhaps, however, unlike other Jews, Jesus instructed his followers to pray, in a more intimate way, to “Our Father who is in heaven” (Luke 11:2). Christians claim that, by virtue of his conduct, Jesus implicitly claimed divinity. But he also explicitly disavowed it by his words and obliquely denied that he was God (see Matt. 19:17, Luke 18:19). When some of the children of Israel accused Jesus of blasphemy, he defended the notion of “sons of God”—but only metaphorically (John 10:33-34). Moreover, in John 10:34-36, Jesus defends his use of “son of God” to mean merely “servant of God.” In defending himself against the charge of blasphemy, he appeals to Hebrew scripture where Moses is called a god (John 10:33-36). Any prophet or saint can be idealized and revered as a pious human being without being deified. A spirit from God can be found in any true believer (Qur’an 58:22). Adam and his descendants are creatures with a divine spark or spirit in them but are not themselves divine or immortal. In the Beatitudes—maxims that open with ‘blessed be … the meek, the poor” and so on—Jesus عليه السلام called peacemakers the “sons of God,” synonymous with “servants of God.” A man who served God faithfully became close and dear to Him just as any son may be loved by his father for the same reason. Indeed, Paul calls all Christians sons of God (Gal. 4:1-7). The more Jewish Jesus becomes, the more he resembles the Islamic Jesus عليه السلام. Objective historical and critical scholarship on Jesus for the past 100 years confirms the truth of the Qur’anic portrait as both converge on a Jewish Jesus. Islam is not annexing or colonizing the Christian Jesus, merely rescuing the historical character from the clutches of later church conjecture and dogma. Christians are called to change and meet Muslims on Muslim ground since the entire Qur’an is unchanged and unchangeable. By contrast, both testaments of the Bible are widely acknowledged by Jewish and Christian scholars themselves to be mainly edicts that evolved over centuries, under human if inspired redaction, the texts being, in the case of the New Testament, in demotic Greek while reporting the classical Aramaic speech of Jesus. --- ## IX. Jesus’ ethical teachings and leadership Muslims think that Christians worship Jesus but ignore his teachings as a divinely inspired but human leader of his people. Muslims follow their Prophet’s teachings but do not worship him. Christians retort that Jesus’ ethics and his divinity are inseparable. His transient earthly life was a revelation of the eternal moral life of God. Fortunately, for both Christian and Muslim interfaith campaigners, Jesus عليه السلام affirmed the continuing validity of “the law and the prophets” (Matt. 5:17-20), referring respectively to the Torah and the oracles of the Hebrew prophets. In Christian understanding, the good news (gospel) is the new Torah—an oral revelation of Jesus’ direct teaching to his chosen community of disciples. It is not *al-Injil*, presumably a book revealed in Aramaic analogous to the Qur’an in Arabic. Christians see themselves as disciples of a leader who proclaimed an ethics of principled love (*agape*). Muslims typically see themselves as disciples of a prophet who preached a legislative ethics centered on social justice and duly tempered by mercy. These are not mutually exclusive alternatives. The Qur’an upholds both ideals. Thus, for example, it suffices to treat one’s enemies justly and charitably. There is no need to love even one’s personal enemies, let alone ideological ones. And no one does so in practice. Jesus عليه السلام disowned the bond of blood in favor of the fellowship of faith (Mark 3:31-35; cf. Qur’an 9:23), perhaps as a reaction against the contemporaneous Jewish tendency to blindly place family first. The Prophet of Islam ﷺ similarly placed the bond of faith above tribal affiliation while remaining solicitous about the welfare of his family, all believers, and especially his companions. As a caring pastor and shepherd, Jesus عليه السلام regulated the conduct of his flock of disciples and companions. “Disciples” require legal “discipline” while companions share table fellowship with the leader-master. Jesus had friends, disciples, secret disciples, companions and students, male and female. The Qur’an claims that Jesus’ original disciples (*al-hawariyyun*) were inspired by God (Qur’an 5:111) to become his helpers in the cause of God (*al-Ansar*; Qur’an 3:52). No one can be a disciple of Jesus today for that generation has passed away. Jesus’ disciples are to imitate him but only in certain particulars: clearly they cannot literally pick up the cross and be crucified! But they can imitate the moral aspects of his life, follow his morally excellent example—by imitating his compassionate dealings with the stranger and alien, by refusing to bear false witness against the neighbor and the adherents of rival faiths. Many Christian polemicists continue to slander the Prophet of Islam; their conduct is traitorous to the cause of Christ. Countless Christian missions of healing and mercy, of free medical services and teaching, throughout the globe, have been inspired by Jesus’ commandments of compassion. He singled out the marginalized for special regard. Allah placed mercy in the hearts of those who followed Jesus عليه السلام (Qur’an 57:27). A similar quality is found in the Prophet ﷺ and in all practicing Muslims (Qur’an 9:128; 48:29). For both Christians and Muslims, to follow the example of Jesus is to adopt his style of leadership as humble service to people. Jesus عليه السلام is God’s servant in both the Qur’an and the New Testament. But as an itinerant healer, he is also the people’s servant. He rejects the idea of the Gentile ideals of honor and status which amount to dominating and degrading people (Mark 10:35-45). He serves his disciples and even washes their feet as he counsels them to love one another just as he loved them. Such acts of virtuous personal service and their associated political and personal humility are also found in Islamic teachings. Some interfaith Christian organizations want to know how Jesus عليه السلام himself would treat Muslims. They believe that as a merciful healer, pastor, leader, and guide, his moral passion for social justice would shine for all to see. He would uphold the Torah’s regard for the alien in one’s midst—though Muslims will not appear alien to Jesus on his return. One wonders, however, what he would make of some American Republicans and British conservatives who invoke his name loudly while acting counter to his teachings. --- ## X. Conclusions: Tasks for the Future Muslims are disciples of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ since they are members of his *umma* and will be judged as such on the Day of Reckoning. Jesus عليه السلام had a unique vocation to Jews as a prophet of ethnic scope but one who predicted the advent of the last and universal messenger. Muslims are therefore not part of Jesus’ *umma* but may follow his moral example. In fact, Abraham عليه السلام is the only prophet, along with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, whose conduct is cited as an excellent exemplar for Muslims (Qur’an 60:4,6; 33:21). Nonetheless, Muslims must believe in all the prophets عليهم السلام. We make no distinction between the prophets in terms of their mission as divinely commissioned messengers (Qur’an 2:136; 285). God preferred or elevated some prophets above others but their ranking is not given in the Qur’an. Those who received scripture, to whom God spoke directly or befriended, are naturally ranked higher. Qur’an 2:253 singles out Jesus عليه السلام for an eminently favorable position among the messengers. Some authentic *hadith* affirm that Muhammad ﷺ was unquestionably the greatest messenger. “Follow the messengers—those who ask you for no payment and are, moreover, themselves guided (to Islam)” (Qur’an 36:20-21). This refers to three prophets specified in context but the advice is generally applicable as the Qur’an proclaims in its concluding homily after relating the story of Joseph عليه السلام (Qur’an 12:111). Is there anything special about, or exclusive to, Jesus عليه السلام? The Christian Jesus rightly condemned the merely external and ritualistic observance of the law. His teachings confirm the role of mercy and sincerity of interior motivation, both useful correctives to the excessive Pharisaic legalism of his day and indeed of ours. Can Muslims find anything unique in his guidance and example? Or do they find all they need in Muhammad ﷺ? The Sufis followed Jesus as an ascetic prophet who renounced this lower world of power and lust. His breath heals; he is the spirit of Allah. In Persian mystical poetry, Jesus is often portrayed as a king who volunteered to become a slave, a motif found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. In Rumi, the cross figures prominently; divine love is the joy that wounds. These claims move well beyond the sober Qur’anic account of Jesus عليه السلام. The Arabian Prophet was an ascetic who lived in voluntary holy poverty even after he became the uncrowned emperor of Arabia. There is extra reinforcement in Jesus’ moral example but all his moral qualities are found abundantly in the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the prophet who Jesus عليه السلام endorsed as his successor if not superior, just as John (*Yahya*)  عليه السلام endorsed Jesus as the one whose sandals he was unfit to untie. Jesus predicted the coming of Muhammad ﷺ under the name of Ahmad. Strenuous Christian missionary effort among Muslims is totally misguided in claiming there is a hunger for Jesus’s message when, in fact, such missions have remained, until recently, an abject failure, a waste of time and spiritual resources. Their current success is for dubious reasons which may be explored on another occasion. In modern post-Christian cultures, which form the majority of western societies, Jesus عليه السلام is typically the emblem of all that is good and right, a cultural receptacle for investing in and reflecting the best of the west. There is little regard for his historical message and actual teaching. He becomes the leader of every movement, whether conservative or progressive, which can vaguely invoke his insignia. In this setting, Muslim *da‘wah* work must encourage scrupulously fair readings of the scriptures of rival but related faiths. And, simultaneously, Muslims should write comparative biographies of Jesus and of Muhammad—to compare and contrast their styles of leadership. This will show the common and shared demands of monotheistic discipleship and refute the false claim of those zealous Christians, especially on the far right, who shout loudly that their leader was an absolute pacifist while Islam’s Prophet was a war-monger. Jesus عليه السلام evicted the money-changers from the Temple just as the Prophet ﷺ cleansed the pagan environment of the Holy Mosque in Mecca. Economics and Mammon supplied the background to both acts of zeal on behalf of God. Sincere Jews, Christians, and Muslims can certainly secure a consensus of humane values that will enable them to live well together in the open societies of the modern world. ## Summary Muslims occupy a distinctive position with respect to the prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, for belief in him is not a matter of choice but an obligation of faith. While Christians may show little concern when told that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible are also honored in Islam, they respond with far greater sensitivity upon learning that Jesus, whom they hold to be their savior, is a revered prophet in the Qur'an. Some who embrace Islam describe having preserved the finest moral qualities associated with Jesus—peace, grace, love, and self-denial—while completing their faith through the example of the last of God's messengers, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Yet the person of Jesus remains both divisive and decisive in the relations between the Abrahamic communities, and one must ask whether Muslims may be sincere followers of Jesus without becoming Christians. The Muslim claim, grounded in the Qur'an and the authentic sayings of the Prophet, is that Islam alone holds the fully correct understanding of Jesus's origins, identity, nature, and mission—a claim advanced not for the sake of polemical victory but out of sincere zeal for the truth. The Qur'an presents Jesus as a prophet-teacher, honored among the messengers "of firm resolve" (Qur'an 46:35), alongside Abraham and Moses, peace be upon them. It seeks to retrieve the truth about him by correcting and, where necessary, rejecting the views his followers later developed. His first spoken words in the Qur'an declare his true station: "I am indeed God's servant. He gave me the Book and made me a prophet" (Qur'an 19:30). The same chapter affirms that "no one comes to the Merciful One except as a servant" (Qur'an 19:93), for Allah permits none to share in His sovereignty. The Qur'an teaches that the central Christian doctrines concerning Jesus compromise the transcendence and unity of God (Qur'an 5:17), and it exalts no created being—neither prophet nor angel, not even Muhammad himself—to divine status. Jesus is described as "God's word conveyed to Mary and a spirit from Him" (Qur'an 4:171), yet he remains only the son of Mary (Qur'an 5:110), not the son of God, for Allah has no consort and no son, only honored servants (Qur'an 21:26; 6:101; 72:3). He and his mother were made a sign for humanity (Qur'an 23:50), his miraculous birth "a matter foreordained" (Qur'an 19:21). His creation resembles that of Adam, both being without human antecedents (Qur'an 3:59). The Qur'an denies the crucifixion (Qur'an 4:157), implying a substitute in his place, and affirms instead his ascension through God's direct intervention (Qur'an 3:55; 4:157–158; 5:116–117), obviating any need for resurrection. It should be noted that even within the Christian scriptures the reference to the ascension in Mark 16:19 is absent from the most reliable early manuscripts. Reading the New Testament in the light of the Qur'an, one observes that its portrait of Jesus need not, in itself, require his divinity. The earliest Gospel, Mark, portrays him as God's loyal servant, and the title "Son of God" (Mark 15:39) may signify a close spiritual relationship rather than divine nature. Matthew presents Jesus as a lawgiver, though the Qur'an describes him more modestly as one who brought the Gospel to confirm the Torah and to relax certain of its rigors that had been imposed upon the Children of Israel as a just recompense for their transgressions (Qur'an 3:50; 6:146). The Qur'an does not present the Gospel as law-free or as superior to the Torah. Both scriptures agree that Jesus's mission met with the rejection of his people, though a small group believed and were strengthened by God (Qur'an 3:52). John's Gospel itself records Jesus declaring that "an apostle is not greater than the One who sent him" (John 13:16), a statement consonant with the Qur'anic affirmation that he was essentially a messenger of God. Concerning the scope of his mission, the Qur'an affirms that Jesus was sent solely to the Children of Israel (Qur'an 3:49), and the Prophet's traditions confirm that only Muhammad's mission was universal. Matthew's Gospel records Jesus stating that he was sent "only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Matthew 15:24), while the great commission to all nations (Matthew 28:16–20) belongs, as many commentators note, only to the post-resurrection narrative. Muslims hold that the community of Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets (Qur'an 33:40), are the true inheritors of Jesus and of the House of Abraham. Regarding the end of history, some enigmatic verses allude to Jesus's role therein (Qur'an 4:159; 43:61), and certain authentic hadith describe his return to lead the believers, break the cross, and follow Muhammad as his imam before dying and being buried beside the Prophet in Medina. In his first coming, Jesus prophesied the advent of Ahmad (Qur'an 61:6), and the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "The nearest prophet to me is Jesus," meaning in time rather than in ministry. These end-times narratives stand distinct from the politically charged Christian Zionist eschatology examined here, which reads the rise of Islam as a hostile fulfillment of biblical prophecy. A dogmatic deadlock persists over the question of divinity. For Christians, the Muslim Jesus appears as a mere prophet stripped of what they consider his essential character; for Muslims, the Christian Jesus is a blasphemer, and the case is settled by God in His final revelation. The Qur'an warns that the People of the Book will not be content until one follows their creed (Qur'an 2:120), and it commands all monotheists to acknowledge one Lord alone (Qur'an 3:64). To break this deadlock, Muslims are obliged to demonstrate that Jesus himself preached pure monotheism, for no one who compromises Abrahamic monotheism can serve as a leader for Muslims. The evidence assembled indicates that no orthodox Jew of the Second Temple period held the messiah to be anything but human, and the Hebrew Bible affirms that God cannot be a man (Numbers 23:19; Hosea 11:9), while divine sonship is elsewhere ascribed metaphorically to Israel, Solomon, Adam, and the angels. Jesus himself, defending against the charge of blasphemy, appealed to scripture where others are called "gods" (John 10:33–36), and he worshipped, prayed to, and exalted God the Father (John 4:23; Luke 6:12; Matthew 27:46). The opening of John's Gospel supports his divinity only for one who already holds that belief; otherwise Jesus and God are one in purpose, as any prophet is united with God. Thus the more Jewish Jesus is understood to be, the more he resembles the Islamic Jesus, and modern critical scholarship converges upon this Jewish figure. Islam does not colonize the Christian Jesus but rescues the historical prophet from later dogma, for the Qur'an is unchanged while the biblical texts are widely acknowledged to have evolved through human redaction. On the plane of ethics, common ground may be found even where doctrine remains at an impasse. Jesus affirmed the continuing validity of "the law and the prophets" (Matthew 5:17–20). Christians see themselves as disciples of a leader who proclaimed an ethics of love, while Muslims follow a prophet who preached justice tempered by mercy; the Qur'an upholds both, though it requires only that enemies be treated with justice and charity. Jesus placed the bond of faith above the bond of blood (Mark 3:31–35; cf. Qur'an 9:23), as did the Prophet Muhammad. His original disciples, the hawariyyun, were inspired by God to become helpers in His cause (Qur'an 5:111; 3:52). Allah placed mercy in the hearts of those who followed Jesus (Qur'an 57:27), a quality likewise found in the Prophet and the believers (Qur'an 9:128; 48:29). Following Jesus means adopting his humble leadership as service to others, for he is God's servant in both scriptures. In conclusion, Muslims are disciples of Muhammad, peace be upon him, and members of his umma, not of the umma of Jesus, whose vocation was to the Children of Israel and who foretold the last universal messenger. Only Abraham and Muhammad are cited in the Qur'an as excellent exemplars for the believers (Qur'an 60:4, 6; 33:21). Yet Muslims must believe in all the prophets and make no distinction among them in their mission (Qur'an 2:136, 285), even as God preferred some above others without disclosing their full ranking, singling out Jesus for an eminent place (Qur'an 2:253), while authentic hadith affirm Muhammad as the greatest of the messengers. The command "Follow the messengers—those who ask you for no payment and are themselves guided" (Qur'an 36:20–21; cf. 12:111) applies generally. Jesus rightly condemned hollow ritualism and emphasized mercy and sincerity of motive, yet all his moral excellences are found abundantly in Muhammad, whom Jesus himself endorsed under the name Ahmad, just as John, peace be upon him, endorsed Jesus. Muslims may therefore, as an option, follow the moral example of Jesus Christ, one of God's senior prophets, a teacher "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The tasks that remain are for Muslims to encourage fair readings of the scriptures of related faiths and to write comparative biographies of Jesus and Muhammad, that a consensus of humane values might allow the believing communities to live well together in the modern world. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/jesus-a-foundation-for-dialogue-between-muslims-and-christians # Jesus: A Foundation for Dialogue Between Muslims and Christians **Author:** Anonymous Guest Contributor **Topics:** Faith, Prophets **Tags:** Jesus in Islam, Paper, Publication **Published:** December 24, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* --- ## Abstract Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the central focus of Christianity, the largest religious group in the world. Jesus عليه السلام (upon him be peace) is also considered a prophet in Islam and one of the great messengers of Allah. Common ground between Muslims and Christians can be built upon shared themes in the theological, moral, and narrative elements of Jesus’ life. This article outlines these significant elements: love for God and neighbor; the roles of Zechariah, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary عليهم السلام; the unique designation of Messiah; the final moments of Jesus’ life; and his return before the end of time. The aim is to give Muslims a knowledge base from which to dialogue effectively with Christians. At the same time, this article highlights important areas of disagreement between Islam and Christianity regarding doctrines of salvation and Jesus’ divinity. --- ## Introduction Jesus Christ, the Messiah and son of Mary, is a highly revered figure in Islam. He is a great prophet and messenger of Allah, one of the five major prophets (*ulul’ al-’azm*) including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad, peace be upon them all. Allah encouraged Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the Qur’an to take inspiration from the stories of these prophets as he suffered persecution for his faith, “Be patient like those of resolve among the messengers.”[^1] Jesus عليه السلام, specifically, is mentioned by name twenty-five times in the Qur’an, within long passages detailing his story, his teachings, his miracles, and their enduring theological and moral lessons for us. Not unlike the current experience of many Muslims around the world, Jesus عليه السلام came into the world at a time of great turbulence, religious corruption, and violence. The Romans were occupying the capital of Jerusalem and the area surrounding its Temple, the teachers of the religious law were influenced by power and politics, and the Zealots were waging a bloody campaign of insurrection against the foreign invaders. In this time of crisis, many Jews hoped that the foretold Messiah would be sent to liberate them from oppression and restore the earthly kingdom of David  عليه السلام. But when the Messiah was revealed to the world, he did not come with a military mission. Jesus began to preach the oneness of the God of Abraham عليه السلام, fulfillment of the law, compassion for friend and enemy alike, and to look for the kingdom of heaven inside themselves: > *Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.’*[^2] The restoration of the true faith would not be achieved by the fire and fury of swords, armies, and chariots. Instead, the kingdom of heaven was accessible to every human being; it was already here, right now, inside your soul just waiting to be awakened for discussion. The story of Jesus عليه السلام within his social context has much to teach Muslims in a similar situation, as every prophet tended to emphasize what people needed to hear most in their moment. Moses عليه السلام carried out his mission in a time of great lawlessness after the Exodus, as the Israelites had only recently escaped the rule of Pharaoh, so the revelations of the Torah focused on delivering the law (outward teachings) even though it still contained the spirit (inward teachings). When Jesus عليه السلام came, the custodians of the law were fraudulent and unethical, cheating honest pilgrims in the very courtyard of the Temple; though they were masters of the outward law, they were flagrant violators of its spirit.[^3] Thus, the Gospel of Jesus focused more on inward spirituality and ethics, which should complement and fulfill the outward law. If Muslims become too harsh, extreme, and hard-hearted in their adherence to the outward law, they should be reminded of the law’s inner spirit, just as Jesus عليه السلام taught to his people. There are several elements of the life and teachings of Jesus عليه السلام in Islam that form a basis for mutual respect with Christians (and all human beings, for that matter): his message of love for God and love for our neighbors, his bearing of the Gospel, his blessed mother عليها السلام and the miraculous virgin birth, his unique designation as the Messiah, his penetrating wisdom, his signs and wonders, his ascension to heaven, and his eventual return to restore the true religion once again. At the same time, there are substantial differences between Islam and traditional Christian theology. Common ground helps us set the tone for a fruitful discussion on the meaning of Jesus عليه السلام to us, yet conflicting truth claims about salvation will always exist between Muslims and Christians until the Day that Allah judges between us. These truth claims need to be addressed, not sidestepped, but only in a respectful dialogue that honors how much we already have in common. --- ## Common Ground: Love God, Love Your Neighbor When discussing Islam with people of other religions or ideologies, it is best to establish a common set of facts, principles, and values—what social psychologists call a “shared reality”—that can form the basis of a dialogue.[^4] An aggressive, proselytizing approach, which focuses on differences to the exclusion of commonalities, might win over some converts but will more likely alienate the majority, if not provoke outright hostility. In regards to Judaism and Christianity, the unmistakable message in the Qur’an is that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was sent to confirm the messages of previous prophets, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus, peace be upon them all, as well as previous scriptures such as the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel in their original, unchanged form. Allah ﷻ said: > *Allah, there is no God but Him, the Living, the Sustainer. He has revealed the Book to you in truth, confirming what was before it, and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.*[^5] And Allah ﷻ said: > *Have faith in what I have revealed, confirming that which is already with you, and be not the first to deny it.*[^6] As a general rule, what Prophet Muhammad ﷺ preached is simply a renewal of the religion preached by the previous prophets and expressed in their extant scriptures, a final correction of the misinterpretations and interpolations that crept into the prophetic traditions over the ages. Islam, a theological concept that means submission and surrender to the will of God, is the fundamental religious idea of all the prophets and thus all prophets can be considered *Muslims* in this sense. Jews, Christians, and adherents of other scriptural religions are addressed as “people of the Book,” acknowledging their faith in the previous prophets before Muhammad ﷺ. Islam is certainly not a perennialist philosophy that denies any meaningful differences between religions with regard to salvation. Rather there are some important differences between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, but at the same time there is agreement on some important spiritual fundamentals. The common spiritual fundamentals between the Abrahamic faiths must be the starting point in any interfaith dialogue. In fact, the Qur’an commands Muslims and the people of the Book to come to an agreement, in principle, on faith in the One True God, the Creator of the universe and all humanity. Allah ﷻ said: > *Say, ‘O People of the Book, come to a common word between us and you, that we will worship none but Allah and not associate anything with Him, nor take one another as lords instead of Allah.’ If they turn away, then say, ‘Bear witness that we are Muslims (surrendering to the will of Allah).’*[^7] Monotheism, or faith in the One God, is the basis of harmony between Muslims, Jews, and Christians, as well as other people. Genuine monotheism necessarily includes a component of charity towards others, good will, and concern for their well-being, as will be discussed below. The religion of the prophets thus contains a vertical dimension (between an individual and God) and a horizontal dimension (between individuals themselves). We could also say the prophetic religion requires fulfilling the rights of God and the rights of people. Appreciating these facts, which are shared by the Abrahamic faiths, will lead to more harmonious societies. Jesus Christ عليه السلام expressed these fundamentals in an incredible story that concisely summarizes the message of the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel. Jesus عليه السلام was preaching and teaching in the temple and the high priests, feeling their authority was threatened, dispatched their agents to trip him up with difficult questions (a type of pre-modern ‘gotcha journalism,’ so to speak). According to the Gospel of Mark: > *One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all’? Jesus answered, ‘The first is: Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’* > > *Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that He is One, and besides Him there is no other; and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.*[^8] The core of the prophetic teaching is this: love God and love good for your neighbor as you would for yourself. Jesus’ answer was so wise and powerful that the high priests knew they could not entrap him into making blasphemous or dubious statements. The first commandment was found in the Old Testament, also known as the *Shema Yisrael*[^9] of the Torah, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”[^10] And the second commandment is again from the Torah, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”[^11] Jesus عليه السلام, like Muhammad ﷺ, was only confirming the teachings of the prophets before him. On the basis of these common beliefs, principles, and values, a group of 138 Muslim scholars and intellectuals, including many senior imams and muftis, issued an open letter in October 2007 to the leaders of every denomination of Christianity in the world, with specific reference to Pope Benedict XVI. In this letter, they acknowledged the real differences between Islam and other religions, but affirmed that love for God and love for neighbor are the twin pillars of mutual dialogue and cooperation: > *Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians. The basis for this peace already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbor.*[^12] They added further: > *Whilst Islam and Christianity are obviously different religions—and whilst there is no minimizing some of their formal differences—it is clear that the Two Greatest Commandments are an area of common ground and a link between the Qur’an, the Torah, and the New Testament. What prefaces the Two Commandments in the Torah and the New Testament, and what they arise out of, are the Unity of God—that there is only One God… Thus the Unity of God, love of Him, and love of the neighbor form a common ground upon which Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are founded.*[^13] Indeed, Allah commands the Prophet ﷺ in the Qur’an to declare openly his faith in all of the previous prophets, including Jesus عليه السلام. Allah ﷻ said: > *Say, ‘We have faith in Allah, what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes (of Israel), and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims (in surrender) to Him.’*[^14] In Islam, we do not have the option of making a distinction between prophets, choosing to believe in some and not others. Rather, we are obliged to believe in all of the prophets specifically named in the Qur’an, as well to hold a general belief in all prophets of the past, who certainly existed but were not named in the text. An important point to mention here is that some prophets were blessed with signs, miracles, and accomplishments that were not given to others, as Allah said, “Among those Messengers, some We favored over others.”[^15] We believe Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was honored with the final, unchangeable revelation of the Qur’an. However, even if we believe our Prophet ﷺ is the best prophet, this does not imply that we should ever put down previous prophets like Moses and Jesus عليهما السلام. The Prophet ﷺ said in general, “Do not say the prophets are better than one another.”[^16] On one occasion, a Jewish man and a Muslim man got into a fight in which they invoked their prophets over one another. When news of this reached the Prophet ﷺ, he said, “Do not say I am better than Moses. Verily, people will swoon on the Day of Resurrection and I will be the first to awaken and, behold, Moses will be holding the side of the Throne.”[^17] The Prophet ﷺ refused to put himself ahead of Moses عليه السلام, citing the fact that Moses would be holding the Throne of Allah on Judgment Day, an honor he would not have. On another occasion, a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and he called him, saying, “O best of creation!” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “That is Abraham, upon him be peace.”[^18] Out of humility, our Prophet ﷺ refused to be addressed as the ‘best of creation,’ instead granting that honor to his forefather Abraham عليه السلام (and perhaps to forestall this issue causing discord between Jews, Christians, and Muslims). Having established a general respect for the monotheistic prophets, it naturally follows that those who have faith in the True God must treat others the way they would like to be treated. Allah not only commands us to behave well with others, but it is also part of our God-given conscience to feel empathy for others. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you has faith until he loves for people what he loves for himself, and until he loves a person for no reason other than Allah.”[^19] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let him treat people the way he would love to be treated.”[^20] And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺsaid, “Love for people what you love for yourself and you will be a believer; behave well with whoever would be your neighbor and you will be a Muslim.”[^21] In Christian tradition, this teaching is known as the ‘golden rule,’ while in philosophy it is known as the ‘ethics of reciprocity.’ This teaching is deeply embedded in Islamic texts, in the Qur’an and Sunnah, and across multiple genres of supplemental religious literature.[^22] The ethics of reciprocity was likewise understood by the early Muslims the way Jesus عليه السلام understood it, as a fundamental principle shared by all the prophets. The early Muslim scholar Tawus ibn Kaysan (d. 106 H) said to his companion, “Would you like me to summarize in this sitting all of the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Quran?” He said yes, so Tawus replied, “Fear Allah Almighty more than anything else, hope in Allah more intensely than you fear Him, and love for people what you love for yourself.”[^23] It is no surprise, then, that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ closely identified with Jesus عليه السلام and considered him his brother. The Prophet ﷺ said, “I am the nearest of the people to Jesus the son of Mary in this life and in the Hereafter.” It was said, “How is that, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “The Prophets are brothers from one father with different mothers. They have one religion and there was no other prophet between us.”[^24] Hence, when we examine the teachings of Jesus عليه السلام and Muhammad ﷺ together—notwithstanding the usual controversies over the Trinity, salvation, etc.—we find many parallels between them. For instance, one of the most famous sections of the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus عليه السلام delivers some of his more important wisdom-sayings, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”[^25] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said likewise, in a tradition given great importance in some Islamic curricula, “Be merciful to those on the earth, and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.”[^26] Jesus said again, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.”[^27] And again the Prophet ﷺ said, “Forgive others and Allah will forgive you.”[^28] Parallel sayings are not at all uncommon, and in fact should be anticipated if we really believe the prophets were being taught by the same Source. Jesus عليه السلام once told his disciples: > *Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’* > > *Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’*[^29] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told his companions a similar story but in Arabic words they could understand: > *Verily, Allah Almighty will say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘O son of Adam, I was sick but you did not visit Me.’ He will say, ‘My Lord, how can I visit you when you are the Lord of the worlds?’ Allah will say, ‘Did you not know that my servant was sick and you did not visit him, and had you visited him you would have found Me with him? O son of Adam, I asked you for food but you did not feed Me.’ He will say, ‘My Lord, how can I feed you when you are the Lord of the worlds?’ Allah will say, ‘Did you not know that my servant asked you for food but you did not feed him, and had you fed him you would have found Me with him? O son of Adam, I asked you for drink but you did not provide for Me.’ He will say, ‘My Lord, how can I give you drink when you are the Lord of the worlds?’ Allah will say, ‘My servant asked you for a drink but you did not provide for him, and had you given it to him you would have found Me with him.’*[^30] The lesson here is that we find the blessings and mercy of Allah in serving others, regardless of their status in society. This is a message that all believers in God can get behind. But some Christians who discover these parallel sayings claim that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (and we seek refuge in Allah from such a claim) had ‘plagiarized’ and ‘stolen’ these sayings from the New Testament. Such an accusation is spurious because Muhammad ﷺ did not plagiarize Jesus عليه السلام no more than Jesus plagiarized Moses عليه السلام when he cited the Torah on several occasions. If the teachings of Muhammad and Jesus are compatible, it is because they were both inspired by the same One Source. The earliest Christians to make contact with Muslims noticed these parallel teachings and, for this reason, agreed to protect the Muslims from persecution. Before the migration to Medina, the Prophet ﷺ told some of the most vulnerable Muslims to seek asylum in Abyssinia, because it was ruled by a Christian king (known as Al-Najashi or ‘the Negus’) who was known for his justice. These Muslims made the difficult journey there, only to be pursued by agents of the Meccan oligarchy. They agitated the king against the Muslims, accusing them of saying blasphemous things about Jesus عليه السلام, hoping that the king would hand them over. Ja’far ibn Abi Talib رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه responded eloquently, as recorded by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241H): > *Ja’far said, ‘O king! We were a people in the depths of ignorance. We adored idols, we ate dead bodies, we lived in immorality, we cut off our families, we were evil to our neighbors, and the strong among us consumed the weak. We were like this until Allah raised a Messenger from among us. We recognized his lineage, his truthfulness, his trustworthiness, and his temperance. He called us to Allah Almighty, that we worship Him exclusively and renounce what we used to worship besides Him of stone statues and idols. He commanded us to be honest in speech, to fulfill the trust, to maintain family ties, to be good to the neighbor, and to refrain from adultery and bloodshed. He prohibited us from vulgarity, telling lies, consuming the wealth of the orphan, and slandering chaste women. He commanded us to worship Allah alone and not associate anything with Him (in worship). He commanded us to pray, to give charity, and to fast. He enumerated the matters of Islam, so we believed in him and had faith in him. We followed him in what he brought, so we worshipped Allah alone and did not associate anything with Him. We forbid what was forbidden for us and we permit what was permitted for us. Our people rose in enmity against us, tortured us and persecuted us to turn us back from our religion to the worship of idols among the servants of Allah…’* > > *The Negus said to them, ‘Do you have anything with you from Allah?’ Ja’far said yes. The Negus said, ‘Then recite it to us.’ Ja’far recited the opening verses of Surat Maryam. The Negus began to weep until his beard was soaked, as well as his bishops wept until they soaked their pages, when they heard what was recited to them. Then the Negus said, ‘Verily, this chapter and what has come from Moses have emerged from the same light. You are released. By Allah, I will never surrender them.’*[^31] The parallel sayings in the Torah, the Gospel, the Qur’an and the Sunnah are meant to reinforce a singular theological and moral message, founded upon the love of God and love for one’s neighbor. This alone is enough to establish a just peace between Christians and Muslims, as it was for the early Muslims and the Abyssinian Christians. Muslims need not throw out the previous scriptures either, even though the Qur’an and Sunnah have superseded them and have corrected what had been lost or altered.[^32] The Prophet ﷺ gave Muslims explicit permission to share stories and wisdom-sayings from the previous scriptures, “Narrate from the children of Israel, for there is no harm.”[^33] However, scholars like Al-Shafi’i cautioned that this broad permission was restricted to narrating only what one was certain did not contain a false teaching.[^34] In other words, Muslims are allowed to cite the Bible as long as it does not contradict anything confirmed by clear texts in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Some scholars discouraged any reference to the previous scriptures or apocryphal Israelite sources, while others were vigorous in their defense of using them.[^35] Nonetheless, the early Muslims were eager to circulate sayings they had obtained from Jewish and Christian sources, often espousing themes common to Abrahamic faiths. These reports were especially plentiful in the early literary genre of piety, asceticism, and righteousness (*al-zuhd*). Malik ibn Dinar used to say, “It is written in the Torah: As you deal with others, so are you dealt with. As you reap, so shall you sow.”[^36] Many wisdom-sayings of this nature were attributed to prophets like Moses, David, and, of course, Jesus, peace be upon them. The early Muslims collected sayings attributed to Jesus عليه السلام in relation to eschatology (end-times prophecies), wisdom-sayings that echoed the Gospel, sometimes as evidence against heretical Muslim sects.[^37] To illustrate, the historian Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 571H) recorded that Jesus عليه السلام said: > *Blessed is he whose speech is the remembrance of Allah, whose silence is reflection, and whose observation is a lesson, who controls his tongue, whose house is sufficient, who weeps for his sins, and from whose evil the people are safe. O son of Adam, be disinterested in what people own and they will love you, be content with what Allah has allotted for you and you will be the wealthiest of people, love for people what you love for yourself and you will be a believer, do not harm your neighbor and you will be a Muslim, and do not laugh too much as it will deaden the heart.*[^38] Israelite traditions about Jesus عليه السلام also played a role in the critical interpretation (*al-tafsir*) of the Qur’an, using them to enrich the genre and sometimes add details to stories where the Qur’an was silent. The classical exegete Ibn Kathir (d. 774H/1373CE), for example, utilizes a saying ascribed to Jesus عليه السلام to explain the meaning of the Qur’anic word ‘good-doer’ (*muhsin*), “Verily, excellence (*al-ihsan*) is that you are good to those who are evil to you, not that you are good only to those who are good to you.”[^39] Al-Suyuti (d. 911H/1505CE) also makes use of several wisdom-sayings attributed to Jesus in his commentary.[^40] The role of Israelite traditions in Qur’anic commentary is contentious among Muslim scholars, which will be important to note later when Muslim narratives about Jesus عليه السلام are analyzed. To recap, Muslims have much common ground in the figure of Jesus عليه السلام for a productive and fruitful dialogue with Christians, hopefully resulting in mutual respect, social harmony, and cooperation on global challenges relevant to humanity at large. The two fundamental principles at the base of this common ground are love for God and love for one’s neighbor. Expression of these principles should precede any discussion or debate between Christians and Muslims on the theological, metaphysical, and philosophical issues in which they differ. --- ## Zechariah, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Birth The Gospels begin with the story of Zechariah, John the Baptist, and Mary عليهم السلام and her miraculous virgin birth; the Qur’anic narrative also mentions these important figures. In fact, the Qur’an accords a special status to Mary عليها السلام (in Arabic, *Maryam*) with an entire chapter, which was named after her, revolving around her story. This chapter is the one that Ja’far رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه recited to the Negus and which moved him and his bishops to tears: > *A mention of the mercy of your Lord to His servant Zechariah, as he called upon his Lord in private, saying, ‘My Lord, my bones have weakened and my hair has turned gray, and I have never been disappointed in Your supplication, my Lord. Verily, I fear successors after me and my wife has become barren, so grant me an heir from Yourself, who will inherit me and the house of Jacob, and make him pleasing to my Lord.’* > > *It was said, ‘O Zechariah, we give you glad tidings of a son whose name is John. We have not given anyone before him this name.’ Zechariah said, ‘My Lord, how will I have a son and my wife has become barren and I have become very old?’ It was said, ‘Thus said your Lord. It is easy for Him, as He had created you before when you were not yet a thing.’ Zechariah said, My Lord, make a sign for me.’ He said, ‘Your sign is that you will not speak to people for three nights, although in good health.’* > > *So he came out to his people from the chamber and inspired them to glorify Allah morning and evening. It was said, ‘O John, hold fast to the Book with strength,’ and We gave him wise judgment even as a child, and tenderness from Us and purity, he was ever righteous and dutiful to his parents, and he was not an obstinate tyrant. Peace be upon him the day he was born, the day he dies, and the day he is brought back to life.*[^41] This passage more or less reaffirms the narrative in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. Zechariah عليه السلام (in Arabic, *Zakariyyah*), who was heir to the priesthood of Aaron عليه السلام (in Arabic, *Harun*), was afraid that those who came after him would violate the sanctities of the religion and its Temple. He invoked Allah to grant him an heir, despite his and his wife’s old age, and he was answered with the miraculous birth of John. This was not quite like the virgin birth, but it was a miracle nonetheless. As in the Gospel, the Qur’an presents John عليه السلام as a forerunner and precursor to the coming of Jesus عليه السلام. The Gospel of Mark connects the appearance of John with a prediction from the prophet Isaiah, “A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”[^42] The voice in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord (which as Muslims we understand as *the message* Jesus delivered) was fulfilled by the sudden emergence of John عليه السلام from obscurity: > *John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.*[^43] John عليه السلام made baptism by water a central ritual in his prophetic career, a physical cleansing that signaled a believer’s repentance and hope for the forgiveness of their sins. It is somewhat analogous to the Islamic practice of ablution (*al-wudu’*) before the ritual prayer. Allah ﷻ said: > *O you who have faith, when you stand for prayer, then wash your faces and your arms to the elbows, and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. If you are in a state of ritual impurity, then purify yourselves*.[^44] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *When a Muslim or a believer washes his face in ablution, then every sin that he committed with his eyes will be washed away with the last drop of water. When he washes his hands, then every sin that he committed with his hands will be washed away with the last drop of water. When he washes his feet, then every sin that he committed with his feet will be washed away with the last drop of water, until he emerges purified from sin.*[^45] Ablution, like John’s baptismal, is an outward ritual of purification that should coincide with an inward purification of the heart from spiritual diseases or sins, such as malice, arrogance, greed, and envy. Along with recounting the stories of Zechariah and John عليهما السلام, the Qur’an also tells us about the birth of Mary عليها السلام. Like John’s birth, Mary’s birth was an answer to prayer. Allah ﷻ said: > *Verily, Allah chose Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ‘Imran over the worlds, descendants of one another, and Allah is Hearing and Knowing. As the wife of ‘Imran said, ‘My Lord, I have pledged to Your service what is in my womb, so accept it from me. Verily, You are the Hearing, the Knowing.’ When she delivered her, she said, ‘Verily, I have given birth to a female.’ And Allah knows best what she had birthed, for the male is not like the female. She said, ‘Verily, I will name her Mary and I seek refuge in You on behalf of her and her children from the accursed Satan.’*[^46] Though Mary’s birth was not miraculous as compared to those of John or Jesus عليهما السلام, it was special in that her mother’s prayer of protection from Satan was uniquely answered. The Prophet ﷺ said, “No person is born but that he is pricked by Satan and he cries from the touch of Satan, except for Mary and her son.” Abu Hurayrah added, “Recite the verse if you wish: I seek refuge in You on behalf of her and her children from the accursed Satan” (3:36).[^47] It can be understood from this tradition that Mary and Jesus were uniquely protected from Satan, although some scholars believe this is a characteristic of all the prophets. Al-Nawawi (d. 676 H) comments on this tradition, “This is an obvious virtue. The literal meaning of the tradition is that this is specific to Jesus and his mother, but Al-Qadi ‘Iyad (d. 554 H) preferred the opinion that it was shared between the prophets.”[^48] It may be that this honor is unique to Mary and Jesus, but scholars wanted to be clear that this does not imply that other prophets were misled by Satan. Now we come to the miraculous virgin birth, the creation of Jesus عليه السلام in the womb of his mother without a father. Allah ﷻ said: > *Mention in the Book, Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. She veiled herself in seclusion from them. Then We sent to her Our Angel in the form of a well-proportioned man. She said, ‘Verily, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you fear Allah!’ He said, ‘I am only the messenger of your Lord to deliver news of a pure son.’ She said, ‘How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?’ He said, ‘Thus it is so, your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. It is a matter already decreed.’*[^49] Mary عليها السلام herself was the recipient of miracles to aid her during her suffering: > *The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, ‘Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten!’ Then he (the angel) called from below her, ‘Do not be sad, for your Lord has provided a stream beneath you. Shake the trunk of the palm tree towards you and ripe dates will fall upon you. Eat, drink, and be comforted.’*[^50] People would inevitably wonder why Mary عليها السلام would suddenly appear with a baby in her arms. They would obviously suspect her of having committed adultery, something especially scandalous given her place in the family of priesthood. But indeed it was the baby Jesus عليه السلام who spoke from the cradle in defense of his mother’s chastity: > *Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, ‘O Mary, you have done something unheard of! O sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother unchaste!’ Thus she pointed to him, and they said, ‘How can we speak to a babe in the cradle?’ Jesus said, ‘Verily, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined prayer and charity upon me for as long as I live, and to be dutiful to my mother and He has not made me an obstinate tyrant. Peace is upon me the day I was born, the day I will die, and the day I am raised to life.’*[^51] The onlookers could no longer think of Mary عليها السلام as an adulteress, for they saw the miracle of Jesus عليه السلام speaking from the cradle on behalf of his mother. Some critics of Islam have pointed to this passage as an alleged historical error since Mary was not literally the sister of Aaron. From the context, however, the onlookers referred to her as ‘sister of Aaron’ in reference to her family’s status in the priesthood, since she was basically a priestess being accused of adultery. This textual criticism was actually leveled against Islam in the time of the Prophet ﷺ and he answered it. Al-Mughirah ibn Shu’bah reported: > *When I came to Najran, the Christian monks asked me, ‘You recite the verse: O sister of Aaron (19:28), whereas Moses was born long before Jesus by many years.’ When I came back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I asked him about it and he said, ‘Verily, they would name people with the names of prophets and righteous people before them.’*[^52] Ali ibn Abi Talhah and Al-Suddi said, “It was said to her, ‘O sister of Aaron,’ meaning the brother of Moses because she was from his lineage. As it is said to one from the tribe of Al-Tamim, ‘O brother of Tamim!’ and to one from the tribe of Al-Mudari, ‘O brother of Mudar!’[^53] One needs to be aware of how the Arabs, and ancient people in general, used expressions in their language to understand what they meant. This criticism, then, is simply a misinterpretation of the verse. Due to Mary’s incredible story, her righteous behavior and chastity, the angel who spoke to her, the miracles she experienced, and the great prophet she gave birth to without a father, she is highly revered in Islam as one of the best women who ever lived. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The best of women was Mary, daughter of ‘Imran.”[^54] Moreover, she is an example for believers everywhere on account of her faith and devotion. Allah ﷻ said: > *Allah strikes an example for those who have faith… Mary, daughter of ‘Imran, who preserved her chastity. Thus, We blew into (her garment) from Our Spirit. She believed in the words of her Lord and His Books, and she was devoutly obedient*.[^55] As a matter of fact, some scholars went so far as to declare Mary عليها السلام to be a prophet in her own right. Ibn Hajar writes: > *It has been related from Al-Ash’ari that those among women who achieved prophethood are six: Eve, Sarah, the mother of Moses, Hagar, Asiyah (the wife of Pharaoh), and Mary. The criterion of prophethood for him is that whomever an angel came to from Allah with a judgment related to a command, a prohibition, or a sign of what is to come, then they are considered to be a prophet.*[^56] If we define a prophet as someone to whom an angel spoke righteously or experienced miracles, then Mary عليها السلام was definitely among this category of honored servants of Allah. Some scholars of the classical tradition, such as Al-Razi, however, disputed this interpretation since they defined prophethood differently than Abu Hasan al-Ash’ari and others.[^57] In sum, the figures of Zechariah, John, and Mary in Islam, peace be upon them, are highly revered examples of faith and virtue. Muslims are obligated to believe in the stories as they are recounted in the Qur’an, which include the miraculous births of John and Jesus. Mary, in particular, is the paragon of a female believer, a perfect role model for women of faith as well as men. --- ## Jesus the Christ, the Word, the Spirit Jesus عليه السلام has important titles in Islam stated directly in the Qur’an and Sunnah, which every Muslim must believe in without doubt. Allah ﷻ said: > *As the angels said, ‘O Mary, Allah gives you glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those near (to Allah).’*[^58] And Allah ﷻ said: > *And she who guarded her chastity, so We blew into (her garment) from Our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds.*[^59] The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever testifies that there is no God but Allah alone without any partners, and that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger, and that Jesus is the servant of Allah, son of his maidservant, His word which He bestowed upon Mary and a spirit from Him, and that Paradise is the truth and Hellfire is the truth, then Allah will admit him into any of the eight gates of Paradise he wishes.*[^60] In these texts, there are three main titles ascribed to Jesus عليه السلام: the Messiah (or Christ), the Spirit, and the Word. Each of these titles has a specific meaning in Islam which differs from its interpretation by Christians. The most important title for Jesus عليه السلام, which distinguished him from all other prophets, is his designation as the Messiah (*al-Masih*). The English word ‘Messiah’ derives from the Hebrew title *Mashiyach* and its Arabic equivalent comes from the root *ma-sa-ha*, meaning “to wipe.” It is also the equivalent of the Greek word *Christós*, from which is derived the English word ‘Christ,’ meaning “the anointed one,” with ‘anoint’ simply being another word for wiping or rubbing with oil. This was an act done to confer kingship upon someone, such as when David عليه السلام was anointed king of Israel, as recorded in the book of Samuel, “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”[^61] Jesus عليه السلام was considered by the disciples to be the rightful heir to the kingdom of David عليه السلام as spoken of in Old Testament prophecies. The Gospel of Matthew begins with the first lines of an account of the “genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”[^62] Classical Muslim exegetes have described some complementary interpretations of the title Messiah. According to Al-Tabari (d. 310H), the word ‘Messiah’ means “he is wiped” because “Allah wiped him and purified him of sins.” Sa’id said, “Indeed, he is named the Messiah because he has been wiped with blessings.”[^63] And Ibn Kathir offers another interpretation, “It is said that if he wiped anyone who was afflicted by ailments, they would be cured by the permission of Allah.”[^64] Thus, the early Muslims believed Jesus Christ عليه السلام to be sinless, blessed, a healer, and a worker of miracles. Some of them also understood Messiah to mean he was heir to the kingdom and prophetic lineage of David عليه السلام. Kalbi said, “The Messiah is the king, dignified in status in the world and in his position in the Hereafter.”[^65] All of these interpretations, while apparently diverging, are in reality different layers of meanings for the title Messiah. Another important title is the designation of Jesus عليه السلام as ‘a word’ from Allah. Qatadah interpreted the verse that Jesus is “a word from Him” to mean that he was created without a father by the word of Allah, “Be.” As Allah said, “Verily, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created him from dust and then He said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was.”[^66] Al-Tabari added, “Allah Almighty named him as His word because he came from His word.”[^67] And Al-Harawi said, “He is named as a word because it was from the word that he came, as it is said from the rain is mercy.”[^68] Jesus as the word, then, is a reference to the miraculous virgin birth. It could also be said that the word of Allah was delivered to us through him. The third title given to Jesus عليه السلام is that he is the spirit from Allah. Like the word used in reference to the virgin birth, the spirit is likened to the creation of Adam from nothing. Allah ‘blew’ His spirit into Jesus, just as He did for Adam. Allah ﷻ said: > *Thus when I have formed (Adam) and blew into him from My Spirit, then fall down in prostration to him.*[^69] To say that Jesus عليه السلام is the ‘spirit of God’ is a compound noun of *possession*, not of *attribution*. That is, Jesus was a spirit created by Allah and is under the ownership of Allah, not that Jesus shares in the essence of Allah. The phrase does not indicate that Jesus عليه السلام shares in the divinity of Allah. --- ## The Prophet of Miracles, the Holy Spirit Jesus عليه السلام was given unique signs and miracles to prove to the Israelites that he was truly a messenger from Allah. He performed these miracles by means of the Holy Spirit (*Ruh al-Qudus*), which Muslims understand to be a title for the Angel Gabriel عليه السلام or a general term for the power of Allah working through him. Unlike Christianity, Muslims do not believe that the Holy Spirit is itself part of Allah or shares anything in the divine essence. It is not a separate god to be worshiped or prayed to, but is a power under the control of Allah. Allah ﷻ said: > *We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear evidence and supported him with the Holy Spirit.*[^70] Qatadah, Al-Sudi, Al-Rabia’, and many others explained that the Holy Spirit in this verse refers to “the Angel Gabriel.”[^71] But Ibn Abbas explained the Holy Spirit to be “the name of that by which Jesus would bring life to the dead.”[^72] We can reconcile these two interpretations if we understand that it was through the Angel Gabriel that Jesus عليه السلام was given power from Allah to resurrect the dead. As such, Muslims do not believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead in the Trinity. Rather, the Holy Spirit was the means by which Allah granted Jesus عليه السلام various miracles. From his miraculous birth, speaking in the cradle, raising the dead to life, and ascending to the heavens, Jesus’ entire career was full of signs and wonders meant to strengthen people’s faith in the One True God and His prophets. Allah ﷻ said: > *Mary said, “My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?” The angel said, “Such is Allah, for He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, 'Be,' and it is. He will teach him writing, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel, a messenger to the Children of Israel, saying, 'Verily, I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I create for you the form of a bird from clay, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with permission of Allah. I cure the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead, with permission of Allah. I tell you what you eat and what you store in your houses. Verily, in that is a sign for you, if you are believers.’”*[^73] And Allah ﷻ said: > *As Allah will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My favor upon you and your mother when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit and you spoke to the people in the cradle and in maturity, when I taught you writing, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel, when you created the form of a bird from clay with My permission, then you breathed into it and it became a bird with My permission. You healed the blind and the leper with My permission, and when you brought forth the dead with My permission, and when I held back the Children of Israel from you as you came to them with clear evidence, yet those who disbelieved among them said, ‘This is clearly nothing but magic!’”*[^74] Miracles function to inspire faith in the believers, in addition to the prophetic teachings themselves. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus عليه السلام said, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”[^75] One of the most famous miracles in the New Testament is the resurrection of Lazarus. He had fallen ill and it was hoped that Jesus عليه السلام would be able to heal him, but he did not arrive until Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus went to the tomb, praised God, and “cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’ Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”[^76] Another famous miracle retold in the Qur’an is Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes. Allah ﷻ said: > *As the disciples said, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, is your Lord able to send down a table of food for us from the heavens?’ Jesus said, ‘Fear Allah, if you are believers.’ They said, ‘We want to eat from it and put our hearts at rest and know that you have spoken the truth, that we will witness to it.’ Jesus, son of Mary, said, ‘O Allah, our Lord, send down upon us a table of food from the heavens, to be a festival for the first and the last of us, a sign from You. Provide for us, as You are the Best of Providers.*’[^77] It is said that what was sent down was some portions of barley bread and fish. Wahb ibn Munabbih was asked, “Was that enough to suffice them?” Wahb said, “It was not, but Allah multiplied them with blessings. Some people ate and then left. Other people came, ate, and then left, until everyone had eaten and there was still some left over.”[^78] The Gospel of Matthew records the incident as such, “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, (Jesus) looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.”[^79] > *Allah said, ‘Verily, I will send it down to you, but whoever disbelieves among you afterwards I will indeed punish him the likes of which I have not punished anyone in the worlds.’*[^80] The reason that they would be severely punished is “because they would have witnessed a brilliant sign and then disbelieved obstinately and wrongly, thus they would have deserved a painful punishment and a severe chastisement.”[^81] Miracles can be a double-edged sword; they are a blessing for those who see them and believe in them, but a curse for those who see them and still reject faith. The Quraysh had once asked the Prophet ﷺ to perform a miracle and he refused out of mercy for them. The Angel Gabriel came to him and told him that he could turn the Mount Safa into gold for them, but if they rejected faith afterward they would be severely punished; otherwise, the door of repentance and mercy would remain open. So the Prophet ﷺ replied, “Rather, the door of repentance and mercy.”[^82] He knew that they did not really have faith, so to show them a miracle they were not ready for would be to condemn them. At other times, the Prophet ﷺ performed miracles in front of his companions, as recorded by Anas رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه: > *I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the afternoon prayer and the people were asking for water to perform ablution but they could not find it. Some water was brought to the Messenger of Allah and he placed his hand in the vessel and ordered people to perform ablution. I saw water sprouting from his fingers and the people performed ablution until even the last person could do it.*[^83] Whether or not a prophet should perform a miracle depends on the audience. A group of people might have strong unbelief and doubt in their hearts, which means they would neither believe in nor benefit from a miracle. In that case, it is best for them not to see it. It may be for this reason that Jesus عليه السلام reportedly did not perform miracles after people rejected him in his hometown: > *Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.*[^84] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself wanted to show his people spectacular signs like the ones that were given to the prophets before him, but it was Allah’s Wisdom not to grant him such signs. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *I asked my Lord a question I wish I had not asked. I said, ‘O Lord, there were messengers before me, among them those for whom you subordinated the wind and among them those who resurrected the dead.’ Allah said, ‘Did I not find you as an orphan and give you refuge? Did I not find you lost and guide you?[^85] Have I not opened your heart and lifted your burdens?’[^86] I said, ‘Of course, O Lord.’*[^87] Some Christians might wonder why we should follow Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when other prophets were given different miracles. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ wanted miracles like the other prophets, but Allah responded with verses from the Qur’an. Allah reminded him that not only was he blessed with divine guidance but also that he was given the greatest miracle of all, the Qur’an. Even so, the Prophet ﷺ did perform a number of miracles for his companions, such as multiplying water sources and accurately foretelling future events.[^88] Unlike the miracles of other prophets, which are restricted to specific times, places, and people, the Qur’an is a living linguistic miracle, a masterpiece that can be experienced by anyone who reads it and ponders over it. Ibn Kathir writes: > *The miracles of every prophet in his time were appropriate to the people in that time. It is mentioned that Moses, upon him be peace, had miracles appropriate to his time, as they had been skilled in occult magical arts. So he was sent with signs that dazzled the sights and humbled the necks...* > > *Likewise, Jesus, son of Mary was sent in a time of many wise doctors, so he was sent with miracles they could not perform or understand how to do. That a doctor cures the unseeing suffering from blindness, and the leper and the outcast, and whoever was chronically ill; how can anyone of the creation make the dead rise from their graves? This was known to everyone as a miracle indicating the truthfulness of the one who did it and the power with which he was sent.* > > *Likewise, Muhammad ﷺ was sent in a time of eloquence and rhetoric, so Allah revealed to him the Mighty Qur’an, which contains no falsehood within it, a revelation from the Wise, the Praiseworthy*.[^89] Therefore, it is part of Allah’s Wisdom to provide different prophets with different miracles. As mentioned earlier, that one prophet is given an apparently greater miracle than another does not imply that we should get into arguments over which prophet is superior. Rather, we should respect all of them equally. --- ## Jesus عليه السلام, the Son of God? The most important point of disagreement between Islam and Christianity is over the alleged divinity of Jesus عليه السلام and its relationship to one’s salvation. It can be difficult to discuss the nature of Christ with Christians, which is why it is so essential to establish the common ground mentioned earlier. For most Christians today, believing in the divinity of Jesus—that he was literally God in person—is a core tenet of their creed. They believe it is necessary to believe that Jesus was God in order to be saved. Muslims, however, believe that Jesus عليه السلام was a great prophet and messenger of Allah, but he was still a created human being and not an object of worship himself. The Islamic understanding of monotheism (*al-tawhid*) is based upon the Unity of God in three respects: unity of Attributes (no one is like God), unity of Lordship (no one creates from nothing but God), and unity of Divinity (no one deserves to be worshiped but God).[^90] Allah, or God, is the One and Only Creator, perfect in Wisdom, Knowledge, and Power, completely unique in Names and Attributes. All created beings are under Allah and dependent upon Him, including the prophets and saints, so no created being is worthy of worship. Islamic monotheism is concisely expressed in a short chapter of four verses, which the Prophet ﷺ said is equivalent to one-third of the Qur’an: > *Say, ‘He is Allah, the One, Allah the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is He begotten, nor is there anyone equal to Him.’*[^91] Allah is *Al-Ahad*, meaning one and unique without the possibility of a second. He is *Al-Samad*, the one to whom everyone turns for help. He does not give birth to other gods and He was not born from a god, but rather has always existed eternally without beginning or end. Nothing in the world or existence can compare to Him, “There is nothing like Him, for He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”[^92] Even words we use to describe Allah like “Hearing” and “Seeing” or even “Him” are due to the conventions of language; His Hearing is perfect in every way, while everything else has limited hearing. The Qur’an tells us that Jesus عليه السلام never ascribed divinity to himself nor commanded others to worship him, but rather he preached the worship of One God like all the prophets before him, “Jesus said, ‘Verily, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him; that is the straight path.’”[^93] It is not true in Islam to say that Jesus is the son of God, in the literal sense of that phrase. After revealing the story of Mary and Jesus, Allah said, “That is Jesus, the son of Mary, a word of truth which they doubt. It is not for Allah to take a son, glory to Him! When He decrees a manner, He only says to it, ‘Be’ and it is.”[^94] Again, that is a hard thing to tell Christians who are so invested in Trinitarian theology, but it is the truth as we understand it. The phrase ‘son of God’ certainly was important to the early Christians, appearing several times in the New Testament in different contexts. But what does this term mean? Does it mean Jesus عليه السلام was *literally* the son of God? Or was it an honorific title for a righteous servant of God? To infer what the phrase meant to the earliest believers in Christ, we need to examine how it is used in the Old Testament, or Torah. In the book of Exodus, the Israelites are referred to as God’s children, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son.’’[^95] And again in the book of Hosea, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”[^96] It is used in the book of Job to refer to the angels, “One day the heavenly beings (Heb. “sons of God”) came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.”[^97] And in the Wisdom of Solomon, the Greek term *pais* (which means son or servant) is used to refer to righteous people, “He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.”[^98] The Greek word *pais* is particularly insightful in this instance since it indicates that ‘son of God’ could be understood as a synonym for ‘servant of God.’ The term ‘son of God’ was also not specific to Old Testament prophecies foretelling the coming of the Messiah. It simply had no connotation of divinity at all. According to the *Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion*, it was: > *...a term occasionally found in Jewish literature, biblical and post-biblical, but nowhere implying physical descent of a human from the Godhead… The application of the term to Jesus by the early Christian church was probably a combination of the metaphorical use of the term in Jewish apocryphal literature with the more material conception of the divine man (theios anēr) common in surrounding cultures of the day*.[^99] As such, the disciples and the earliest believers in Christ, who were essentially practicing Jews who accepted the promised Messiah, would not have understood the term ‘son of God’ to imply actual divinity. It is likely that the meaning of the term shifted as Christianity came under the influence of polytheistic non-Jewish religions and cultures. In most of the orthodox Gospel accounts, Jesus عليه السلام prefers not to refer to himself as ‘son of God’ but rather as ‘son of man,’ which literally means son of Adam. As put by Geoffrey Parrinder: > *In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), Jesus never speaks of himself as Son of God, and rarely, if ever, as Son. Cullmann speaks of Jesus’ ‘reserve’ in using this title, and points out that his primary designation for himself was not ‘Son of God’ but ‘Son of Man.’ ‘Son of God’ was said about Jesus by others, demoniacs, disciples, the high priest, and the crowds at the cross. But Jesus himself clearly wished to avoid the misunderstandings that might be attached to this title, ideas that expressed wrong notions of the Messiah.*[^100] Evidently, Jesus عليه السلام was more concerned about emphasizing his humanity, as the original term ‘son of God’ is easily misunderstood, especially when translated into Greek. Even in the Gospel of John, which uses the ‘son of God’ language the most, it is stated that “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”[^101] That is, those who form a personal relationship with God through His messenger Jesus Christ are ‘sons of God’ in the sense of being righteous servants of God, a fellowship based upon faith and not familial lineage. What is more, Christians were never historically unanimous on the alleged divinity of Christ. Arius of Alexandria is perhaps the most famous ‘heretical’ Christian priest who proposed that Jesus عليه السلام was in fact created by God. The theological schism set off a struggle for power in the Roman Empire and Arianism nearly won control, but eventually, the Trinitarian theology of the Nicene Creed prevailed.[^102] Thereafter, a majority of Christians held that belief in the divinity of Jesus, as expressed in the complex language of Trinitarianism, was *required* for salvation. It is a tenuous position, from Christian sources alone, to claim such a requirement when the Messiah himself declared the greatest commandments to be love of God and love of the neighbor, without any mention of the Trinity. Another major point of disagreement is the way some Christians understand the doctrine of *sola fide* (Latin for “faith alone”): that works are not essential to faith. A literal understanding of “faith alone” can mislead people into believing that their righteous or sinful actions are not important to their salvation. It is true that works, or good deeds, do not *by themselves* lead to salvation. The Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you will enter Paradise by his good deeds alone, nor would you be rescued from the Hellfire, not even myself, but for the mercy of Allah.”[^103] However, good deeds are a necessary component of true faith. We can never *earn* our way into Paradise because our good deeds can never be good enough to deserve Paradise. We must have faith as well and rely upon the mercy of Allah. Faith must necessarily result in works; love of God must necessarily result in love for the neighbor. This truth was expressed eloquently in the Epistle of James: > *What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.*[^104] It was because the teachings of Christ were obscured by later generations of Christians, whether intentionally or not, that Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ to renew the true religion and to preserve it for the rest of time in the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Qur’an respects the faith of the “people of the Book,” but at the same time warns them about their errors in religion. Allah ﷻ said: > *O people of Book, do not exaggerate in your religion, nor say anything about Allah but the truth. Verily, the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, His word bestowed upon Mary, and a spirit from Him. Have faith in Allah and His messengers and do not say, ‘Three.’ Desist, for it will be better for you. Verily, Allah is only one God. He is Exalted above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth, and sufficient is Allah as a Trustee. The Messiah would never disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels brought near.*[^105] On the Day of Judgment, Jesus عليه السلام will disavow the worship of those who claimed that he was God. Allah ﷻ said: > *As Allah will say, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as gods besides Allah?’ He will say, ‘Glory be to You! It was not for me to say what I have no right to say. If I had said so, You would know it. You know what is within me and I do not know what is within You. Verily, You alone know the Unseen. I said nothing but what You commanded me, to worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. I was a witness for as long as I was with them, but when You took me it was You who watched over them. You are a witness over all things. If You punish them, then they are Your servants. And if You forgive them, then You are the Almighty, the Wise.’*[^106] To be sure, in this passage Jesus عليه السلام leaves open the possibility that those who wrongly but mistakenly deified him might be forgiven for their sins. Allah forgives people for their honest mistakes. But if we are granted knowledge and insight of how the religion was really meant to be, will we still have an excuse if we turn our backs to it? Exaggeration in religion is not restricted to Christians. Muslims have obviously experienced their own manifestations of extremism, sectarianism, and unauthorized changes to the true religion. The Prophet ﷺ warned Muslims of this by citing Christians as an example, “Do not exaggerate my praises as the Christians have done with the son of Mary. Verily, I am only a servant, so refer to me as the servant of Allah and His messenger.”[^107] For this reason, Muslims should not make religious pictures, statues, or icons of prophets, angels, saints, or any other created being, because iconography can eventually lead to idolatry. --- ## The Crucifixion and Resurrection The Passion narrative (Latin *passionem* for “suffering, enduring”) is the central climax of the orthodox Gospels, recounting the final moments of Jesus عليه السلام on earth which include his arrest, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection. It is said that the incident was the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant: > *He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away.*[^108] The resurrection is the signature miracle of the story in the Christian tradition; not only did Jesus bring others back to life, he himself was also resurrected from the dead. The narrative is woven together with Christian doctrines and interpretations into what amounts to a core tenet of their view of salvation and the claimed divinity of Jesus عليه السلام. What does the Qur’an say about the Passion of Christ? And to what extent can it be reconciled with the Gospel narrative? The answer to this question revolves around the critical interpretation of a phrase from a single verse. Allah ﷻ said: > *And for their saying, ‘Verily, we killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but rather it was made to appear to them (wa ma qataluhu wa ma salabuhu wa lakin shubbiha lahum). Verily, those who disagree over it are in doubt regarding it. They have no knowledge of it but are only following assumptions. They did not kill him, with certainty. Allah raised him up unto Himself, for Allah is ever Mighty, Wise*.[^109] This passage comes in the context of refuting those who were in stubborn disobedience to Allah, who supported killing the prophets, slandered the virgin Mary عليها السلام, and boasted of killing, crucifying, and defeating the Messiah. Allah responds to them by saying, “They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but rather it was made to appear to them.” This last phrase *wa lakin shubbiha la hum* is the source of diverging interpretations of Jesus’ final moments. If Jesus عليه السلام was not killed or crucified, what was made to appear to them instead? There are no authentic reports from the Prophet ﷺ that explain the meaning of this verse, as noted by Abu Hayyan, “The narrators disagree on the modality of the killing and crucifixion. Nothing of that is confirmed by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except what is indicated by the Qur’an.”[^110] The interpretations of the verse proposed by many of the righteous predecessors and later scholars were taken from Christian sources (or *Isra’iliyyat* traditions), which the Prophet ﷺ allowed them to do, as mentioned earlier. This has resulted in a wide range of possible interpretive options, some of which conform to the Gospel narratives and others that contradict them outright. The opinion adopted by most Qur’an commentators is that Jesus عليه السلام was substituted by someone else; that is, his enemies killed and crucified another person, thinking it was Jesus. The details of these interpretations, such as who exactly was crucified and under what circumstances, are varied and sometimes conflicting. Abu Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 375 H) narrates a common view that Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed Jesus عليه السلام, was crucified in his place: > *The Jewish leader ordered a man to enter the house, it was said to Judas (or it is said, Tatianos). Then Gabriel, upon him be peace, came and raised Jesus, upon him be peace, up to the heavens. When the man entered the house, they did not find him. Allah cast the likeness of Jesus over him, and when he exited they thought he was Jesus, so they killed and crucified him.*[^111] In this interpretation, it was the man who sold Jesus عليه السلام to his enemies who was crucified in his place. Not only did Allah save His messenger from torture and a painful death, but the traitor himself had to endure what he had wished upon another. Al-Tha’labi records a similar version in which it was the Roman soldier named Tatianos who was actually crucified and killed.[^112] Either way, the oppressors were punished and not the innocent messenger of Allah. In another interpretation, it was one of the disciples who offered to be crucified in Jesus’ place. A report from Wahb ibn Munabbih expresses this view: > *Jesus came with seventy disciples with him to a house and they were surrounded. When they had entered, Allah cast the image of Jesus over all of them. They said to them, ‘You have bewitched us! Present Jesus to us, or else we will kill you all!’ Jesus said to his companions, ‘Who among you will purchase Paradise with his life today?’ A man among them said, ‘I will.’ He went out to them and said, ‘I am Jesus,’ and Allah had cast the image of Jesus over him. They took him, killed him, and crucified him.*[^113] In this reading, it was one of the disciples who heroically stepped forward to save his beloved prophet from a gruesome death and humiliation. This mirrors the willingness of Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه to put himself in harm’s way to protect Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by sleeping in his bed on the night the Quraysh intended to assassinate him.[^114] The true disciples of the prophets love their prophet so much that they would readily sacrifice themselves for them. Some modern authors, such as Rashid Rida, try to substantiate the claim that Judas was crucified by citing the apocryphal and allegedly suppressed *Gospel of Barnabas*, which suggests that the traitor was crucified.[^115] The *Gospel of Barnabas*, however, is widely regarded as a blatant forgery written in the Middle Ages.[^116] Other writers have attempted to refute Christian theology by proposing a swoon-theory, that Jesus عليه السلام was placed upon, but did not actually die on, the cross and therefore the Resurrection did not happen; if there is no Resurrection, there can be no Christianity.[^117] Although these sources and arguments are atypical and unprecedented, they have enjoyed some popularity because of their polemical utility against Christian missionaries. Alternatively, Al-Maturidi (d. 333 H) proposes that no one was substituted for Jesus عليه السلام and the claim of his killing and crucifixion was simply a lie spread by his enemies: > *It is possible that the likeness made to appear was the report that he was killed, rather than his image cast upon another who was really killed. That is mentioned in some of the stories, that when they sought him in that house they did not find him and none of them were absent. They said, ‘We killed him,’ because they said he entered the house and they entered after him and did not find him. That was to inform them of the great signs of his Messengership. They did not like to say that, so they falsely said ‘We killed him.’ That is what was made to appear to them. And Allah knows best.*[^118] In this view, Jesus عليه السلام was raised up and saved before his enemies had the chance to kill him. They understood that his ascension was a miracle proving that he was really a prophet but they did not want people to know what they had seen. Thus, they simply made up the story that they had killed and crucified Jesus. In yet another view, Abu Hayyan prefers the opinion that an angel miraculously intervened to save Jesus عليه السلام and they crucified a mirage in his place, thinking it was him: > *It is said that his appearance was not cast over anyone. Indeed, the meaning of ‘But it was made to appear to them,’ is that the angel of illusion obscured it to them so as to remain in place of one from their number who was missing. They rushed to crucify that one and the people threw off their suspicion of it. He said, ‘This is Jesus.’ It is befitting for this opinion to be believed regarding His saying, ‘But it was made to appear to them.’ As for the opinion that his likeness was cast over a person, it is not authentically reported from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ such that it can be relied upon. The differences regarding upon whom his image was cast are great.*[^119] Al-Zuhayli, on the other hand, advocates for adherence to the plain wording of the verse (he was *not* killed or crucified) with only minimal extraneous details from *Isra’iliyyat* traditions, “There is no purview to confirm other narrations whose authenticity has not been established. Rather, what they contain of many incompatibilities and contradiction demonstrates doubt in them.”[^120] In any case, the most common interpretation came to be that it was indeed a disciple of Jesus who was crucified in his place, as expressed by Al-Suyuti, “The person killed and crucified was one of Jesus’ companions whom Allah had cast his image over and they thought it was him.”[^121] For many Muslims, any version of the substitution-theory is a satisfactory explanation of the verse. But as we have seen, some Muslim scholars have argued that it is problematic, that the substitution-theory originated in heterodox Christian writings which may not have a basis in fact. The story has long been used by Christians to attack Islam for denying the historical crucifixion and the orthodox Gospel narratives, along with their own doctrines of salvation attached to them. Indeed, one of the earliest major proponents of the substitution-theory was John of Damascus, who used the story to accuse Islam of advocating a variation of the ‘heretical’ Christian doctrine of Docetism.[^122] From a purely grammatical perspective, the verse does not necessitate a substitution. The implied pronoun in the verb *shubbiha* (“was made to appear”) could mean either ‘him’ or ‘it.’ Proponents of the substitution-theory have held that it refers to ‘him,’ the person who was allegedly crucified instead of Jesus عليه السلام, but according to Al-Zamakhshari (d. 538 H): > *If you ask what is the verb ‘appeared’ attributed to? Then if you attribute it to the Messiah, the Messiah would be a likeness but he was not a likeness. If you attribute it to the one killed, then the one killed is not mentioned. I say: It is attributed to the genitive case and it is like your saying ‘they were made to believe it.’*[^123] Although Al-Zamakhshari notes that the pronoun could mean ‘him,’ it would be unusual since that person is not mentioned anywhere in the Qur’anic text. It would be odd for the text to refer to an unidentified person with a pronoun alone, which means it is more likely that the verb means “it (the matter) was made to appear to them.” Al-Baydawi, who accepts a substitution-theory, nevertheless agrees with Al-Zamakhshari that the pronoun may refer to the matter in general and not a specific person.[^124] That said, the substitution-theory is not a mandatory interpretation of the verse in question, since there is nothing authentically related from the Prophet ﷺ to corroborate it. There are other plausible ways, though not necessarily popular, to interpret the verse in a manner that retains key elements of the Gospel narratives. Al-Tabari notes that “another opinion has been narrated by Wahb ibn Munabbih.” This version is much closer to the Gospel narratives; in particular, that Jesus عليه السلام was ready and willing to accept his own death: > *When Allah informed Jesus the son of Mary that he would soon be departing this world, he was disheartened by death and sorely grieved. So he called the disciples for a meal which he had prepared for them. Jesus said, ‘Come to me tonight, for I have a favor to ask of you.’ When they had come together at night, Jesus served them himself. When they had finished eating, Jesus washed their hands and helped them perform their ablutions with his own hands, and he wiped their hands and garments. The disciples regarded this as beneath the master’s dignity and they disapproved, but Jesus said, ‘Anyone who opposes me in what I do tonight is not from me and I am not from him.’* > > *So they agreed and Jesus said, ‘As for what I have done for you this night, serving you at a table and washing your hands with my own hands, let that be an example to you. You regard me as the best of you, so let not one among you regard himself as better than the others. Let each one of you offer his life for the others just as I have laid down my life for you. The favor for which I have called you is that you pray earnestly that Allah will extend my term.’ When they stood up for prayer, wishing to prolong their earnest supplications, they were overcome by sleep and they were unable to pray. Jesus said, ‘Glory be to Allah! Can you not be patient with me one night and support me?’ They said, ‘We do not know what overcame us. We would stay up in the night for long prayers but tonight we cannot help but sleep. Whatever supplication we wish to make, we are prevented from saying it.’ Then Jesus said, ‘The shepherd will be taken away and the sheep will be scattered.’ And Jesus continued to lament his end. He said, ‘In truth, I say to you, one of you will deny me three times before the rooster crows, and another will sell me for a few pieces of silver and consume my price.’ After this, they went out, each his own way, and they left him. The Jews then came seeking him and they seized Simon, saying, ‘He is one of his companions!’ but he denied it, saying, ‘I am not his companion!’ Others also seized him and he again denied. Then he heard the crowing of a rooster, and he wept bitterly. The next morning one of the disciples went to the Jews and he said, ‘What will you give me if I lead you to the Christ?’ They gave him thirty pieces, which he took and led them to Jesus. Before that it had been made to appear to them. Thus, they seized him, fettered him,  and tied him with a rope and they dragged him, saying, ‘You raised the dead and cast out Satan and healed those who were possessed! Can you not save yourself from this rope?’ They spat on him and placed thorns upon his head until they brought him to the piece of wood upon which they wished to crucify him, but Allah raised him up to Himself and they crucified what was made to appear for them. He remained for seven hours and his mother and the woman whom Jesus cured from madness came to weep in the place of the crucifixion. Jesus came to them and said, ‘For whom do you weep?’ They said, ‘For you!’ Jesus said, ‘Verily, Allah has raised me unto Himself and nothing befell me except goodness, for this is something which was made to appear to them. Go now and tell the disciples to meet me at such-and-such place.’ There were eleven who met him and the disciple who sold him and led the Jews to him was missing. Jesus asked his companions about him and they said, ‘He regretted what he did, so he hanged himself.’ Jesus said, ‘Had he repented, Allah would surely have turned toward him.’*[^125] It is unclear from the text of this report exactly who or what was crucified instead of Jesus عليه السلام. It does not explicitly mention a companion coming forward to volunteer, nor was it Judas who committed suicide after the crucifixion took place, and neither did Jesus ask anyone to suffer in his place. Yet he accepted his impending death and was willing to sacrifice himself to save his disciples. Al-Tabari combines this longer report with the shorter report from Wahb cited earlier, and he concludes that it was a companion who took his place. He also makes an important point about the disciples: > *The matter of Jesus was hidden from them, he was raised up, and the one killed was changed into his image after his companions fled. They had heard Jesus in the night announce his death and lament because he had thought his death had been revealed. They related what occurred to them as the truth, yet the matter with Allah in reality was different from what they related, so those who related it among the disciples do not deserve to be accused of lying, as what they related appeared outwardly as the truth.*[^126] In Al-Tabari’s interpretation, Jesus عليه السلام had come to accept that his death was inevitable, an incident known as the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but he was miraculously saved from it before he could be put on the cross. The disciples thought that Jesus really had been crucified, yet Al-Tabari absolves them from any blame for believing and sharing what they saw. In this telling, some elements of the Gospel narrative are kept consistent with the Qur’an, but the actual historical event is considered to be something Allah had obscured, only to be revealed later. The incident of the Agony has important moral implications that should not be forgotten. The archetype of self-sacrifice and peaceful martyrdom exists in Islam as well. The son of Adam said to his brother before he was murdered, “If you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise my hand to kill you. Verily, I fear Allah, the Lord of the worlds.”[^127] Likewise, it is said that Jesus عليه السلام prohibited his disciples from defending him against his enemies, saying to them, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”[^128] Self-defense is certainly an inherent legal and human right, but sometimes circumstances call for sacrificing oneself for the greater good. Like Jesus عليه السلام in the Gospel narrative, the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه also willingly allowed himself to be killed to save his companions. Al-Hajjaj once gave a sermon, saying, “Verily, the example of Uthman to Allah is like the example of Jesus son of Mary.”[^129] How was the death of Uthman رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه similar to that of Jesus عليه السلام? Abu Hurayrah tells us that when Uthman رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه was being threatened by his political enemies, he came ready to fight in defense of his Caliph. Uthman told him to stand down, fearing it would cause more unnecessary bloodshed: > *I entered the house of Uthman on the day he was under siege and I said, “O leader of the believers, I have come to give support or fight.” Uthman said, “O Abu Hurayrah, would it please you to ‘kill the people altogether’ (5:32) including me?” I said no. Uthman said, “By Allah, if you have killed one man, then it is as if you have killed all the people.” So I returned and I did not fight.*[^130] They broke into the house of Uthman رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه and killed him right there, but an all-out fight was avoided and Abu Hurayrah رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه was spared. Abu Salih said, “When Abu Hurayrah was told about what happened to Uthman, he wept profusely. It is as if I can still hear him wailing.”[^131] Abu Hurayrah رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه was the most prolific narrator of prophetic sayings (*hadith*). Because of Uthman’s sacrifice, he went on to live and continue narrating statements from the Prophet ﷺ that we read and benefit from today. From this perspective, the cross of the Gospel narrative, then, was not intended to be a symbol of Jesus’ divinity, but is instead an expression of the archetype of selfless martyrdom that believers must aspire to, as Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”[^132] So we need to ask ourselves, would we be willing to be crucified or killed for the sake of our faith, like the companion Khubayb ibn ‘Adi رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه who chose to be crucified by the Meccans while defending the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? Like Uthman رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه, would we readily lay down our lives for the greater good and to protect our loved ones? Another interpretation, which is not popular with classical scholars, is that the statement in the verse “they did not kill him, nor crucify him” is not a literal *historical* statement, but rather an esoteric *theological* statement. Ibn Kathir notes that some Christians interpret “it was made to appear to them” to mean that “the Messiah came to Mary while she was sitting and weeping at the cross. He saw her in the place where his body (*jasad*) was nailed and he told her that his spirit (*ruh*) had been raised while his body was crucified.”[^133] Ibn Kathir vehemently denounces this interpretation probably because it came directly from Christians who claimed that Jesus عليه السلام was divine. Al-Baydawi likewise records, and also rejects, the interpretation that “his humanity (*nasut*) was crucified but his divinity (*lahut*) was raised.”[^134] This latter wording, which implies the divinity of Jesus, is unacceptable to Muslims, of course. But if merely the body of Jesus was crucified (or appeared to be crucified) while his soul was raised up and protected, that in itself does not mean he was God in the flesh. It means he was not truly crucified or killed by the power of men, rather only in a purely superficial sense that it appeared so outwardly. According to one report from Wahb, “Allah caused him to die for three days, then resurrected him, and then ascended him.”[^135] His enemies did not kill or crucify him because it was Allah who caused his apparent bodily death; it was part of the divine plan so that the signature miracle of the Resurrection would be fulfilled. Understood in this way, it may be possible to fully reconcile the Qur’an, the Gospel narratives, the signature miracle of the Resurrection, and the historical record without claiming divinity for Jesus or setting one source against another.[^136] Finally, there is a significant moral teaching embedded in the crucifixion narrative that readily transfers to Islam. Jesus عليه السلام is said to have refused to condemn the people who were torturing him in ignorance, but rather he asked Allah to forgive them, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”[^137] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was inspired by this example and he often told his companions about it. According to Abdullah ibn Mas’ud رضي الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽ عنه, “I remember seeing the Messenger of Allah ﷺ tell the story of a prophet who was beaten by his people and he wiped the blood from his face, saying, ‘My Lord, forgive my people for they do not know.’”[^138] Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ himself put this example of Jesus عليه السلام into practice. Imam Muslim records this story in his chapter on the battle of Uhud because the Prophet ﷺ made the same supplication for his people when they were trying to kill him. As said by Abu Hatim, “The Prophet said this supplication during the battle of Uhud when they slashed his face.”[^139] Even if the crucifixion story is rejected, Muslims can and should still accept this moral example of mercy towards their enemies. In summary, most Muslim scholars accept a variant of the substitution-theory, that someone other than Jesus عليه السلام was crucified in his place. Many Muslims will find this explanation satisfactory and have no need to investigate further. However, there are other plausible interpretations of the verse that more closely coincide with the Gospel narratives, the historical crucifixion, and the Qur’an. All of the diverging interpretations of verse 4:157 are simply opinions derived from extracanonical sources, as there is nothing authentic from the Prophet ﷺ to substantiate any of them. It is not necessary, as a matter of creed, for a Muslim to accept one of these opinions over the other, although most Muslims will find it safest to follow the majority interpretation. Rather, it is only required for Muslims to believe in Jesus عليه السلام as the Messiah, carrier of the Gospel, born of the virgin Mary عليها السلام, the word and the spirit from Allah, a human prophet and a great messenger of Allah, and that the Qur’anic statement “they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him” is the truth. --- ## Ascension to Heaven and Second Coming Regardless of how the final moments of Jesus عليه السلام are interpreted, Muslims generally agree that he left this world alive in a miracle called the Ascension. Allah raised him to heaven where he now remains, alive and well, until he will descend near the end of time in the Second Coming. He will return to defeat the False Messiah (*al-Masih al-Dajjal*) and renew the truth faith, after which he will die a natural death. Allah ﷻ said: > *As Allah said, ‘O Jesus, I will take you and raise you unto Myself, purify you from those who disbelieve, and make those who follow you greater than those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me will you return, and I will judge between you over your differences.’*[^140] The righteous predecessors disagreed over the meaning of the phrase “I will take you” in this verse because the verb *tawaffa* is also a euphemism for death (like saying someone ‘passed away’). One group of scholars said that Jesus عليه السلام was raised up in his sleep, such as Al-Rabia’, “It means taking during sleep. Allah raised him while he was sleeping.” Another group said “take” means to “receive,” so Allah took him up alive. Al-Tabari explains, “It means I will receive you from the earth unto My hosts, and take you to a place with Me without death.”[^141] A third group said that the word “take” here really is a euphemism for death. Ibn Abbas reportedly explained “I will take you” as “I will cause you to die,” as well as another report from Wahb, “Allah made Jesus the son of Mary pass away for three hours of the day until He raised him up to Himself.”[^142] This interpretation seems to implicitly accept that the miracle of the Resurrection occurred since it is agreed upon that Jesus عليه السلام ascended to heaven alive. However, it could be said that he died a natural death, not by crucifixion, and was brought back to life and raised to heaven. In any case, Al-Tabari prefers the interpretation that Jesus was “received” by Allah alive, without dying, because of “the unanimous reports from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that Jesus the son of Mary will descend and kill the False Messiah… then he will die and the Muslims will pray over him and bury him.”[^143] Whether Jesus عليه السلام was raised in his sleep, or he was raised up alive, or he died and was resurrected, it is agreed upon that he is now alive in heaven and waiting to return. The Prophet ﷺ describes the event as follows: > *By Allah, the son of Mary will descend as a just ruler. He will abolish the cross, kill the swine, and annul the tribute, but he will leave the she-camel such that no one collects from it. He will cause rancor, hatred, and envy to disappear, and he will call people to give their wealth in charity but no one will need it*.[^144] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ told us that Jesus عليه السلام will defer to the Muslim prayer leader at the time, as an indication that he will come to fulfill the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah: > *Jesus the son of Mary, upon him be peace, will descend and the leader will invite him to lead the prayer but he will say, ‘No, some of you are leaders over others and this is an honor for this nation.’*[^145] The second coming of Jesus عليه السلام will be characterized by the return of justice to the world after a period of great injustice and oppression at the hands of the False Messiah and his allies. He will be preceded by a righteous Muslim leader, sometimes referred to as *Al-Mahdi* (“the guided one”), much in the same way he was first preceded by John the Baptist. Jesus will renew the true religion once again, before the end of time and the Day of Judgment arrive, the true kingdom of God will be re-established on earth. Jesus عليه السلام will abolish the cross (literally ‘break’ the cross) because now that he has returned, he has the right to correct all of the false beliefs spread in his name. Even some Christians themselves believe crucifixes with the image of a man on them are prohibited as ‘graven images’ according to the Torah, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”[^146] That said, it is not the right of Muslims to break the cross, but only Jesus after he returns, since the practice of Christianity is protected by Islamic law. Additionally, Jesus’ message of love for the neighbor will prevail until rancor, hatred, and envy disappear between people. Jesus عليه السلام will also abolish any tribute because, since all people are witness to him as a living miracle, they will have no choice but to believe in him. As mentioned earlier, when people are given unmistakable signs from Allah, they are required to believe in them. The Second Coming is part of the branch of Islamic theology known as *eschatology*. It is easy for people to be misled on these issues if they do not know why they were revealed in the first place, or how they can be understood consistently with the rest of the religion’s teachings. Only Allah knows exactly how and when these signs will appear, as “Allah alone has knowledge of the Hour.”[^147] Some people try to construct a precise timeline from the plethora of reports on this topic, many of which are of dubious authenticity or open to diverging interpretations; they might even imagine they can or should do some things to speed up the end of the world. Such efforts are futile and fruitless, as the specifics of the Unseen are known only to Allah. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ stated his reasoning for informing us about signs of the end-times: > *Hasten to perform good deeds before seven events: Are you waiting for poverty that makes you forgetful? Or wealth that burdens you? Or a debilitating disease or senility? Or an unexpected death or the False Messiah? Or is it evil in the unseen you are waiting for? Or the Hour itself? The Hour will be bitter and terrible.*[^148] Belief in the Second Coming and other signs before the Last Day does not mean we should just wait for Jesus عليه السلام or the next great Caliph to come solve our problems. Rather, we should “hasten to perform good deeds” when we are alive, healthy, and able because times of peace, stability, and safety will not last forever and we should not take them for granted. As stated by Al-’Ala’i, “The purpose of these reports is to encourage initiative in performing good deeds before our end and to make the most of our time before disaster strikes.”[^149] --- ## Conclusion It may be that no religious figure in history has been honored and revered by so many human beings as Jesus Christ عليه السلام. The theological, moral, and narrative elements of his life serve as an important basis for dialogue between Muslims and Christians, particularly his teaching to love God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. After all, if all Muslims and Christians truly and sincerely loved good for their neighbors as Allah has commanded through His messengers, the world would be a better place for everyone. That said, there are real religious differences between Muslims and Christians that cannot be ignored or downplayed. At the heart of the disagreement is what Allah requires from us to achieve salvation in the next life. These disagreements, nevertheless, do not preclude Muslims and Christians from living together in peace and cooperating on mutually beneficial activities for the betterment of humankind. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Aḥqāf 46:35. [^2]: Luke 17:20-21; Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, *The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocrypha* (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 1863. [^3]: Matthew 23:1-36. [^4]: Gerald Echterhoff, "Shared-Reality Theory." In *Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology*: Volume 2, 180-199. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012. [http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446249222.n35](http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446249222.n35) [^5]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:2-3; all translations of the Qur’an and Arabic texts are by the author. [^6]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:41. [^7]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:64. [^8]: Mark 12:28-34; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1815. [^9]: Muslim readers might be interested to note that the Semitic cognate of "hear" *shema* in Hebrew is *samia’* in Arabic שְׁמַע = اسمع because the *s* in Arabic maps to the *sh* in Hebrew; e.g., *salaam \= shalom*. [^10]: Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 262. [^11]: Leviticus 19:18; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 171. [^12]: Miroslav Volf, Muhammad Ghazi, and Melissa Yarrington, *A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor* (Michigan: William B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010), 28. [^13]: Volf et al,, *A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbo*r, 45-46. [^14]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:136. [^15]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:253. [^16]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:1845 #2374, *kitab al-Fada’il bab min fada’il Musa sall Allahu alayhi wa salam.* [^17]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 8:108 #6517, *kitab al-Riqaq bab nafkh al-sur.* [^18]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1839 #2369, *kitab al-Fada’il bab min fada’il Ibrahim al-Khalil sall Allahu alayhi wa salam.* [^19]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 21:353 #13874; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al. in their commentary. [^20]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1472 #1844, *kitab al-Imarah bab al-amr bi al-wafa’ bi bay’ah al-khulafa’.* [^21]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī), 2:1414 #4229, *kitab al-Zuhd bab al-wara’ wa al-taqwa*; declared authentic *(ṣaḥīḥ)* by Al-Albānī in the commentary. [^22]: Justin Parrott, “The Golden Rule in Islam: Ethics of Reciprocity in Islamic Traditions,” MRes diss., University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2018. [https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/43458/2/The%20Golden%20Rule%20in%20Islam\_FINAL.pdf](https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/43458/2/The%2520Golden%2520Rule%2520in%2520Islam_FINAL.pdf) [^23]: Abū Nuʻaym, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’ wa Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣfiyā*’ (Miṣr: Maṭba’at al-Sa’ādah, 1974), 3:10. [^24]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1837 #2365, *kitab al-Fada’il bab fada’il ‘Isa alayhi salam.* [^25]: Matthew 5:7; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1753. [^26]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 3:388 #1924, *abawab al-Birr wal Sillah bab ma ja’a fi rahmah al-Muslimin*; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^27]: Matthew 6:14; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1755. [^28]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Al-Musnad* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1995), 6:113 #6541; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Ahmad Shakir in the commentary. [^29]: Matthew 25:34-40; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1784-1785. [^30]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1990 #2569, *kitab al-Birr wal Sillah wal Adab bab fadl ‘iyadah al-marid.* [^31]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 37:172-173 #22498; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al. in their commentary. [^32]: Justin Parrott, “Abrogated Rulings in the Qur’an: Discerning their Divine Wisdom,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*, November 15, 2018. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/justin-parrott/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/justin-parrott/abrogated-rulings-in-the-quran-discerning-their-divine-wisdom/) [^33]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:170 #3461, *kitab Ahadith al-Anbiya’ bab ma dhukira ‘an Bani Isra’il.* [^34]: Ibn Ḥajar al-’Asqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ al-Bukhārī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1959), 6:499. [^35]: Walid Saleh, *In Defense of the Bible: A Critical Edition and an Introduction to Al-Biqāʻī's Bible Treatise* (Leiden: Brill, 2008) 1-2. [^36]: Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, *Al-Zuhd* (al-Riyāḍ: Dār Aṭlas, 2000), 1:67 #76. [^37]: Tarif Khalidi, *The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature* (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), 32. [^38]: Ibn ’Asākir, *Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 47:439. [^39]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 6:266 verse 29:69. [^40]: Shabir Ally, *The Culmination of Tradition-Based Tafsir the Qur'an Exegesis "al-Durr Al-Manthur" of Al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505)*. (Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, 2013), 180-224. [https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/35061/1/Ally\_Shabir\_201211\_PhD\_thesis.pdf.pdf](https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/35061/1/Ally_Shabir_201211_PhD_thesis.pdf.pdf) [^41]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Maryam 19:1-15. [^42]: Isaiah 40:3; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1019-1020. [^43]: Mark 1:4-5; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1792-1793. [^44]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:6. [^45]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:215 #244, *kitab al-Taharah bab khuruj al-khataya min al-ma’ al-wudu’.* [^46]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:33-36. [^47]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:164 #3431, *bab qawl Allah ta’ala wadhkur fil Kitabi Maryam.* [^48]: al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 15:120 #2366. [^49]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Maryam 19:16-21. [^50]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Maryam 19:23-26. [^51]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Maryam 19:27-33 [^52]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1685 #2135, *kitab al-Adab bab al-nahi ‘an al-takanni bi Abi al-Qasim.* [^53]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm*, 5:201 verse 19:28. [^54]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:164 #3432, *bab wa idh qalat al-mala’ikah ya Maryam.* [^55]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Taḥrīm 66:12. [^56]: Ibn Ḥajar al-’Asqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ al-Bukhārī*, 6:447. [^57]: Hosn Abboud and Angelika Neuwirth, *Mary in the Qurʼan: A Literary Reading* (London: Routledge, 2014), 157. [^58]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:45. [^59]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Anbiyā’ 21:91. [^60]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:165 #3435, *bab qawlihi ya Ahl al-Kitab la taghlu fi dinikum.* [^61]: 1 Samuel 16:13; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 424. [^62]: Matthew 1:1; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1748. [^63]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 6:414 verse 3:45. [^64]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm*, 2:36 verse 3:45. [^65]: Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī, *Tafsīr al-Samarqandī, al-Musammá, Baḥr al-‘Ulūm* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1993), 1:213 verse 3:45. [^66]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:59. [^67]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 6:411 verse 3:45. [^68]: al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1972), 1:227. [^69]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Ḥijr 15:29. [^70]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:87. [^71]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 2:320 verse 2:87. [^72]: Ibid., 2:321. [^73]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:47-49. [^74]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:110. [^75]: Luke 7:22; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1842. [^76]: John 11:43-45; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1902. [^77]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:112-114. [^78]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 11:227 verse 5:114. [^79]: Matthew 14:19-20; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1768. [^80]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:115. [^81]: ’Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Sa’dī, *Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī Tafsīr Kalām al-Mannān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 1:249 verse 5:115. [^82]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 4:59-60 #2165; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al. in their commentary. [^83]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1783 #2279, *kitab al-Fada’il bab mu’jizat al-Nabi sall Allahu alayhi wa salam.* [^84]: Mark 6:4-6; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1802. [^85]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Ḍuḥá 93:6-7. [^86]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Sharḥ 94:1-2. [^87]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *Al-Muʻjam al-Awsaṭ* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1995), 4:75 #3651; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Albānī in *Silsilat Al-Aḥādīth Al-Ṣaḥīḥah* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif, 1996), 6:86 #2538. [^88]: Mohammad Elshinawy, “The Prophecies of the Prophet ﷺ: Proofs of Prophethood Series,” *Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research*. April 9 2018. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/mohammad-elshinawy/the-prophecies-of-the-prophet-%EF%B7%BA-proofs-of-prophethood-series/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/mohammad-elshinawy/the-prophecies-of-the-prophet-%25EF%25B7%25BA-proofs-of-prophethood-series/) [^89]: Ibn Kathīr, *Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā’* (al-Qāhirah: Maṭba’at Dār al-Ta’līf, 1968), 2:430. [^90]: Al-Ṭaḥāwī and ’Alī ibn ’Alī Ibn Abī al-’Izz, *Sharḥ al-‘Aqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyah* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1997), 1:24. [^91]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ 112:1-4. [^92]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Shūrá 42:11. [^93]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:51. [^94]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Maryam 19:34-35. [^95]: Exodus 4:22; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 88. [^96]: Hosea 11:1; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1271. [^97]: Job 1:6; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 727. [^98]: Wisdom of Solomon 2:12-13; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bibl*e, 1428. [^99]: "Son of God." In *The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion*, edited by Berlin, Adele, and Maxine Grossman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199730049.001.0001/acref-9780199730049-e-3011](http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199730049.001.0001/acref-9780199730049-e-3011) [^100]: Edward G. Parrinder, *Jesus in the Qurʼan* (London: Oneworld, 2013), 128. [^101]: John 1:12-13; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1882. [^102]: “Arianism,” *Encyclopaedia Britannica*. Accessed November 28, 2018. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism) [^103]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2171 #2817, *kitab siffat al-Jannah wal Nar bab lan yudkhilu ahad al-Jannah bi ‘amalihi.* [^104]: James 2:14-18; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 2122. [^105]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:171-172. [^106]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:116-118. [^107]: al-Buhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 4:167 #3445, *bab qawl Allah ta’ala wadhkur fil Kitabi Maryam*. [^108]: Isaiah 53:7-8; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1039. [^109]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:157-158. [^110]: Abū Ḥayyān, *Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīt fī a-Tafsīr* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1992), 4:125 verse 4:157. [^111]: Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī, *Tafsīr al-Samarqandī*, 1:354 verse 4:157. [^112]: al-Thaʻlabī, *Al-Kashf wal-Bayān ʻan Tafsīr al-Qurʼān* (Bayrut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 2002), 3:410 verse 4:157. [^113]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 9:368 verse 4:157. [^114]: Ibn Hishām, *Al-Sīrah al-Nabawīyah* (\[al-Qāhirah\]: Maktabat wa Maṭbaʻat Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1955), 1:482. [^115]: Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā, *Tafsīr al-Manār* (al-Qāhirah: al-Hayʼah al-Miṣrīyah al-’Āmmah lil-Kitāb, 1990), 6:17 verse 4:157. [^116]: J.N.J. Kritzinger, "A critical study of the Gospel of Barnabas," *Religion in Southern Africa* 1, no. 1 (1980): 49-65. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/24763798](http://www.jstor.org/stable/24763798) [^117]: See for example Ahmed Deedat, *Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction*? (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House, 1997). [^118]: al-Māturīdī, *Ta’wīlāt Ahl al-Sunnah: Tafsīr al-Māturīdī* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 2005), 3:410-411 verse 4:157. [^119]: Abū Ḥayyān, *Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīt fī a-Tafsīr*, 4:126 verse 4:157. [^120]: Wahbah al-Zuḥaylī, *Al-Tafsīr al-Munīr* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr al-Mu’āṣir, 1997), 6:21 verse 4:157. [^121]: al-Suyūṭī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī, *Tafsīr al-Jalālayn* (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2001), 1:131 verse 4:157. [^122]: Todd Lawson, *The Crucifixion and the Qur'an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought* (New York: Oneworld Publications, 2014), 7-8. [^123]: al-Zamakhsharī, *Al-Kashshāf ʻan Ḥaqāʼiq Ghawāmiḍ al-Tanzīl* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kitāb al-’Arabī, 1986), 1:587 verse 4:157. [^124]: al-Baydạ̄wī, *Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Ta’wīl al-Ma’rūf bi Tafsīr al-Baydạ̄wī* (Bayrūt: Dār Ihỵāʼ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1998), 2:108 verse 4:157), 2:108 verse 4:157. [^125]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 9:368-369 verse 4:157. [^126]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 9:375 verse 4:157. [^127]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:28. [^128]: Matthew 26:52; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1786. [^129]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 4:209 #4641, *kitab al-Sunnah bab fi al-Khulafa’*. [^130]: Sa’īd ibn Manṣūr, *Sunan Sa’īd ibn Manṣūr* (al-Hind: al-Dār al-Salafīyah, 1982), 2:386 #2937; declared “authentic” (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Ahmad Shakir in *‘Umdat Al-Tafsīr ’an Ibn Kathīr* (Miṣr: Dār al-Wafā’, 2005), 1:666 verse 5:32. [^131]: Ibn Saʻd, *Al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrá* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1990), 3:59. [^132]: Luke 14:27; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1858. [^133]: Ibn Kathīr, *Al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah* (al-Qāhirah: Dār Hajr, 1997), 2:514. [^134]: al-Baydạ̄wī, *Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Ta’wīl al-Ma’rūf bi Tafsīr al-Baydạ̄wī*, 2:108 verse 4:157. [^135]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm*, 2:39 verse 3:55. [^136]: Mahmoud M. Ayoub, "Towards an Islamic Christology, II: the Death of Jesus, Reality or Delusion." *The Muslim World*. 70.2 (1980): 91-121, 117. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1980.tb03405.x](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1980.tb03405.x) [^137]: Luke 23:34; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 1874-1875. [^138]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1417 #1792, *kitab al-Jihad wal Siyar bab ghazwah Uhud.* [^139]: Ibn Ḥibbān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān* (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993), 3:254 #973, *bab al-ad’iyyah ma yajib al-mar’a al-dua’ ‘ala a’daihi.* [^140]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:55. [^141]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 6:455-6 verse 3:55. [^142]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 6:457 verse 3:55. [^143]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*, 6:458 verse 3:55. [^144]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:136 #155, *kitab al-Iman bab nuzul ‘Isa ibn Maryam.* [^145]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:137 #156, *kitab al-Iman bab nuzul ‘Isa ibn Maryam.* [^146]: Exodus 20:4; Coogan et al., *The New Oxford Annotated Bible*, 110. [^147]: The Qur'ān, Sūrat Luqmān 31:34. [^148]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:128 #2306; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^149]: al-Munāwī, *Fayḍ al-Qadīr: Sharḥ al-Jāmiʻ al-Ṣaghīr*(Miṣr \[Cairo\]: al-Maktabah al-Tijārīyah al-Kubrá, 1938), 3:195. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Jesus, the Messiah and son of Mary, upon him be peace, holds an exalted station in Islam as a great prophet and one of the five messengers of firm resolve (ulul-'azm), alongside Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad ﷺ. Allah encouraged His Prophet ﷺ to draw strength from these stories, saying, "Be patient like those of resolve among the messengers." Jesus is named twenty-five times in the Qur'an, and he came into a world of turbulence, occupation, and religious corruption. While many Jews hoped the Messiah would arrive as a military liberator, he instead preached the oneness of God, the fulfillment of the law, and compassion, teaching that "the kingdom of God is within you." Just as the Torah of Moses emphasized the outward law during a time of lawlessness, the Gospel of Jesus emphasized inward spirituality and ethics, for the custodians of the law in his day had mastered its letter while flagrantly violating its spirit. In this lies a lesson: should Muslims grow harsh and hard-hearted in their adherence to the outward law, they should be reminded of its inner spirit, as Jesus taught. The proper foundation for dialogue with Christians is common ground rather than an aggressive, proselytizing approach that fixates only on differences. The Qur'an affirms that Muhammad ﷺ was sent confirming the earlier prophets and scriptures in their original form: "He has revealed the Book to you in truth, confirming what was before it, and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel." All prophets called to submission (islam), and the Qur'an commands, "O People of the Book, come to a common word between us and you, that we will worship none but Allah." Yet this is not perennialism that erases meaningful differences regarding salvation; rather, it acknowledges genuine agreement on fundamentals alongside genuine divergence. The prophetic religion carries a vertical dimension (the rights of God) and a horizontal one (the rights of people). Jesus expressed both when a scribe asked him the greatest commandment, and he answered by joining the Shema of the Torah—loving God with all one's heart—with the command to "love your neighbor as yourself," saying "there is no commandment greater than these." On this basis, 138 Muslim scholars issued an open letter in October 2007 to Christian leaders, affirming that "love of the One God, and love of the neighbor" form the shared foundation of both faiths. Belief in all the prophets without distinction is obligatory, as Allah says, "We make no distinction between any of them." Though some prophets were favored over others, and though Muhammad ﷺ received the final revelation, this never permits denigrating earlier prophets. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Do not say the prophets are better than one another," and "Do not say I am better than Moses," and when addressed as "best of creation," he directed the honor to Abraham. This respect flows into the ethics of reciprocity: "None of you has faith until he loves for people what he loves for himself." This principle, which the early scholar Tawus ibn Kaysan identified as a summary of all the scriptures, mirrors what Jesus taught. Indeed the Prophet ﷺ said, "I am the nearest of the people to Jesus the son of Mary," for "the Prophets are brothers." Their parallel sayings on mercy and forgiveness—and their parallel stories about serving God through serving the sick, hungry, and imprisoned—arise not from plagiarism, as some Christians allege, but from a single divine Source. It was these very parallels that moved the Negus of Abyssinia to tears upon hearing Ja'far recite Surah Maryam, declaring that it and the message of Moses "emerged from the same light." Muslims may narrate from the earlier scriptures, as the Prophet ﷺ permitted, "Narrate from the children of Israel, for there is no harm," though Al-Shafi'i restricted this to what is not known to be false, and scholars disagreed over the use of such Israelite traditions—a disagreement significant for later discussions. Concerning the figures surrounding Jesus, the Qur'an honors Zechariah, whose son John was granted despite his wife's barrenness, and John, who like the Gospel account preceded Jesus and practiced a baptism of repentance somewhat analogous to Islamic ablution. Mary, upon her be peace, receives an entire chapter. Her birth answered her mother's prayer of protection, and the Prophet ﷺ said that Satan pricks every newborn "except for Mary and her son," though Al-Nawawi noted that Al-Qadi 'Iyad preferred this protection to be shared among all prophets. The Qur'an affirms the virgin birth and the infant Jesus speaking from the cradle in defense of his mother. To the criticism that calling Mary "sister of Aaron" is a historical error, the Prophet ﷺ answered that people were named after earlier prophets and righteous ones. Mary is among the best of women, and some scholars such as Al-Ash'ari counted her a prophetess, while Al-Razi disputed this on differing definitions of prophethood. Jesus bears three Qur'anic titles distinct in meaning from Christian usage: the Messiah, the Word, and the Spirit. Classical exegetes explained "Messiah" variously as one wiped clean of sin, wiped with blessing, a healer, or heir to David's kingdom. "Word" refers to his creation by the divine command "Be," as with Adam. "Spirit" is a possessive, not attributive, construction—Jesus is a spirit created and owned by Allah, not sharing in His essence. His miracles—healing the blind and leper, raising the dead, forming birds from clay—were performed "by permission of Allah" through the Holy Spirit, which Muslims understand as the Angel Gabriel or Allah's power working through him, not a divine person. Ibn Kathir explained that each prophet's miracles suited his age; Jesus was sent among skilled physicians, and Muhammad ﷺ among masters of eloquence, receiving the Qur'an as his living miracle. The gravest disagreement concerns Jesus' alleged divinity. Islamic monotheism holds Allah unique in Attributes, Lordship, and Divinity: "He neither begets nor is He begotten." Jesus said, "Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him." The term "son of God," as the Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion notes, never implied physical descent in Jewish usage; Jesus preferred "son of man," and the divinity doctrine likely arose under later non-Jewish influence, as the Arian controversy shows was never unanimous. The Qur'an warns, "Do not say 'Three.'" Regarding the crucifixion, Allah says, "They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but rather it was made to appear to them." As Abu Hayyan noted, nothing authentic from the Prophet ﷺ explains this verse; the interpretations—substitution of another, Al-Maturidi's view of a fabricated lie, or readings preserving elements of the Gospel narrative—derive from Israelite sources. Most scholars accept a form of substitution, but this is not a matter of creed. It is agreed that Jesus was raised alive to heaven and will return before the end to break the cross, establish justice, and defer to the Muslim prayer leader, then die and be buried. As the Prophet ﷺ urged, we should "hasten to perform good deeds" rather than await the Hour, whose knowledge belongs to Allah alone. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-islam-spread-throughout-the-world # How Islam Spread Throughout the World **Author:** Hassam Munir **Topics:** History, Spread of Islam **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 14, 2018 **Updated:** June 5, 2026 ## Abstract Historians have widely discredited the narrative that the prevalence of Islam in the world today can be explained as a result of forced conversions. Without denying that there may have been *some* exceptional cases of forced conversion―in blatant violation of clear Islamic directives―this article describes some of the prominent factors in the Islamization of different regions of the world in history, including *daʿwah*, trade, intermarriage, migration, influencers, Islam’s emphasis on justice and unity, and the universality of Islam. The examples used in this article are not exhaustive, but they help us develop an appreciation of the complex nature of the spread of Islam, a process which certainly cannot be oversimplified into a slogan such as “Islam was spread by the sword.” --- ## Introduction In 1993, the historian Richard Eaton claimed that “Islam was history’s first truly global civilization.”[^1] While the present status of the Muslim *ummah* (community) as a functional “civilization” is up for discussion, the scope referenced by Eaton is more accurate today than ever: Islam today is undeniably a global *dīn* (way of life), professed by an estimated 1.8 billion people as of 2015.[^2] For some, the prevalence of one of the world’s youngest religions can only be explained by the “fact” that historically, Islam “spread by the sword”―that is, through systematic forced conversion. As discussed in the [first article](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/hassam-munir/did-islam-spread-by-the-sword-a-critical-look-at-forced-conversions/) in this series, this is a very shallow assertion. However, the previous analysis does raise another important question: if Islam was not spread by the sword, what are the factors that have led to its prevalence across the world today? The current article discusses these factors and their role in Islam’s historical trajectory in different regions of the world. This analysis is organized in the following way. The first section covers five prominent factors that explain *how* non-Muslims were exposed to the message of Islam: *daʿwah*, trade, intermarriage, migration, and influencers. The second section covers three prominent factors that primarily explain *why* non-Muslims embraced this message after they were exposed to it: Islam’s emphasis on justice and unity, and the universality of Islam. It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list―in fact, every individual convert had his or her own particular experiences that led them to embrace the faith. However, to discuss each case would be redundant, even if it were possible. It is therefore necessary to generalize the discussion on the spread of Islam for the sake of a meaningful analysis, but not in such a way as to lose sight of the reality: there have been virtually countless different means used to deliver the message of Islam, and countless different reasons for accepting it. --- ## I: The spread of the message ### Daʿwah *Daʿwah*, or the act of inviting others to engage with the message of Islam, follows naturally from the Muslim’s obligatory concern for humanity’s success and salvation. “Invite (*udʿū*) all to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice” (16:125) is a clear Qurʾānic directive to Muslims.[^3] Allāh also informs Prophet Muhammad ﷺ of his mission in the Qurʾān (33:45-6): “O Prophet! We have sent you as a witness, and a deliverer of good news, and a warner, and a caller (*dāʿī*) to \[the Way of\] Allāh by His command, and a beacon of light.” After the Prophet ﷺ, every member of the Muslim *ummah* shares in the responsibility of *daʿwah* to the extent they are able. An early *dāʿī* was Muʿādh ibn Jabal, sent by the Prophet ﷺ to give *daʿwah* in Yemen and Hadramawt. The importance of this task is indicated in a letter sent by the Prophet to his contacts in Yemen after dispatching Muʿādh, in which he said, “I have sent you my best man.”[^4] According to the historian Ibn Ishāq, the Prophet ﷺalso instructed Muʿādh on the manner of *daʿwah* before he left, including the following: “Be tolerant, not harsh; spread the word, and do not alienate them.”[^5] Bukhārī and Muslim also recorded a version of this narration.[^6] Muʿādh was constantly on the move throughout the region, not settling in one place for too long, so as to maximize the reach of his *daʿwah*.[^7] It is noteworthy that this same region soon became the point of departure for traveling scholars and merchants who introduced Islam to many parts of the world, such as Madagascar, parts of Southeast Asia (as discussed below), and elsewhere.[^8] As one scholar has noted, “there exists archeological evidence pointing to a Yemeni mosque—what exactly that means is open to debate—in Quangzhou from the eleventh century, and to a tombstone from Mogadishu dated 1358.”[^9] The role of the *daʿwah* efforts of Sufi Muslims in the spread of Islam is widely recognized. An archeological study of the oldest surviving Islamic monuments in present-day western Kazakhstan concluded that these were “built under the influence of the Sufi strand of Islam, which retained its influence in the Kazakh steppes until the early fifteenth century,”[^10] indicating that Sufism played an important role in the initial spread of Islam in this region. This reinforces earlier suggestions of the influence of traveling Sufis such as Abū’l-Hasan al-Kalamātī and Abū’l-Hasan al-Usbānīkathī (both fl. 10th century) in the spread of Islam in Central Asia, particularly during the period of Sāmānid rule (819-999).[^11] Similarly, Sufism played a leading role in the Islamization of Kashmir, a disputed territory in the foothills of the Himalayas with a population that is currently upwards of 95% Muslim.[^12] It is difficult to pinpoint the beginning of the Islamization of Kashmir, but there are records of a Syrian Muslim military general arriving there, possibly as a prisoner of war, as early as 711.[^13] There are also records of Kashmir’s Hindu kings requesting Islamic scholars to be sent to their courts, ordering the Qur’an to be translated into the Kashmiri language, and employing Muslims in their court administration and army.[^14] However, the more precisely traceable history of Islam in Kashmir dates to 1323, when the Buddhist ruler of Kashmir, Lha (also known as Rinchen), “subjected himself to the teachings of the religion of Mustafa \[i.e., the Prophet ﷺ\], and the right principles of the truthful path of Murtaza \[i.e., ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib\], and embraced the Islamic religion with sincerity and conviction.”[^15] Lha (after conversion, Mālik Sadr al-Dīn) was an “inquisitive and alert” young man, “fond of the company of learned men,” and he had been inspired during a meeting with a traveling Sufi scholar known as Bulbul Shah (d. 1327), reportedly because he found that Islam was “simple, free from useless ceremonies, caste, and priesthood.”[^16] Mālik died shortly after his conversion, but not before he helped Bulbul Shah establish a *khanqah* (a Sufi school) and a *langar khāna* (community kitchen) that fed the poor of all backgrounds twice a day. Many Kashmiris converted at the hands of Bulbul Shah.[^17] One of his students, Ahmad, later became the chief Islamic scholar of Kashmir under Shah Mīr, Mālik’s former chief minister and also a Muslim, who came to power in 1339.[^18] Thus began the Shah Mīrī (or Swati) dynasty; his descendants ruled Kashmir for the next two centuries. It was during this time that another Sufi scholar, Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī al-Hamdānī (d. 1385), came to the region to teach Islam, ushering in the second wave of *da‘wah* to Islam in Kashmir. In addition to Kashmir, the widely-traveling Hamdānī is known for his *da‘wah* in parts of Syria, Iraq, Khawarzm, Central Asia, India, and possibly even Sarandīp (Sri Lanka).[^19] A prominent example of Sufi *daʿwah* is that of the Ba ʿAlawi *tarīqah* (order) started by Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Faqīh al-Muqaddam (d. 1255) of Hadramawt in Yemen; hence the Ba ʿAlawis are also referred to as Hadramīs. Due in large part to a shift in trade routes due to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 (discussed in detail below), starting in the 14th century, members of the Ba ʿAlawi *tarīqah* increasingly traveled to the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago via India for trade, migration, and *daʿwah*.[^20] As Ulrike Freitag has noted in her study of Islam in this region, “the emergence of Sufism, and from the twelfth century onwards the Sufi orders, offered religious practices which were attractive to non-Muslims as well. Charismatic Sufis who knew how to read and write, who practiced medicine \[...\] drew Muslims and non-Muslims alike into their circles.”[^21] Other reasons for why the Sufi *daʿwah* of the Ba ʿAlawi was so effective in this region―given that some 250 million Muslims live in Southeast Asia today―are outlined elsewhere in this article, though more research on their impact is needed. As Syed Farid Alatas has noted, discussion of their *daʿwah* has been “conspicuously absent in the literature on the history of Islam in Southeast Asia.”[^22] Some indicators of the effectiveness of *daʿwah* in the spread of Islam are seen in the frantic measures taken by some authorities to try to prevent Muslims from carrying out *daʿwah* work. The enslaved Muslims brought by early Spanish colonizers to the “New World,” for example, often escaped and ran away, finding refuge in Native American settlements.[^23] The Spanish authorities feared both the spread of Islam in their colonies and the prospect of joint African–Native American rebellions.[^24] The depth of their anxiety was reflected in the severity of punishments; one runaway slave who was plausibly Muslim was recaptured and boiled to death in Costa Rica in 1540, and two Muslims were condemned (one to death, one to life in prison) in 1560 for “having practiced and spread Islam in Cuzco, Peru.”[^25] On five different occasions in the 16th century, Spanish authorities passed legislation in efforts to limit the influx of Muslim slaves into the colonies; they were described as an “inconvenience,” at least partially due to their *daʿwah* activity.[^26] Following in this tradition, Muslims have given *daʿwah* in different ways virtually everywhere they have gone, and it is therefore not far-fetched to claim that *daʿwah* has been the most important factor in the spread of Islam. Every example of conversion to Islam that is described in this article involves *daʿwah* in some form. ### Trade The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself was a merchant at one stage of his life, and trade has historically been instrumental in the spread of his message. The lands that came under Muslim rule after the early conquests included some of the most important trade routes (e.g., large parts of the Silk Road), commercial centers (e.g., Damascus), and ports (e.g., Aden) of the pre-modern world. The Muslims also inherited the ever-lucrative spice trade flowing across the Indian Ocean. As Muslim merchants traveled, they inevitably―and, it may be assumed, often very deliberately―exposed non-Muslims to their beliefs, values, and way of life. The early emergence of Muslim communities on the Malabar Coast in southwestern India is a fitting example of the role of trade in the spread of Islam. The pre-Islamic Arabs and Persians frequently visited the ports of the Malabar Coast to trade with merchants coming from further east. These connections were so strong that there is a mosque, called Cheraman Jāmiʿ Masjid, that is widely believed to have been originally built by Muslim traders in 630―during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.[^27] The narrative of the origins of this mosque is unverifiable, but it does indicate the possibility of a very early Muslim presence on the Malabar Coast. The Muslim traders who settled in Malabar and intermixed with the local population came to form the Māppila Muslim community that is prevalent in the region today.[^28] By the 10th century, according to the ʿAbbāsid historian al-Masʿūdī, a settlement called Saymur (south of present-day Mumbai) was home to about 10,000 Muslims.[^29] Many of these are likely to have been indigenous converts, the “great majority” of them embracing Islam to escape their status as downtrodden, low-caste Hindus.[^30] Looking further east, it is arguably no coincidence that China’s oldest and largest mosque―the Great Mosque of Xi’an, thought to have been built in 742 CE―stands in the city (then known as Chang’an) that marked the easternmost point of the Silk Road.[^31] In addition to Chang’an, early Persian and Arab Muslim merchants also traveled by sea to Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Kaifeng; the ʿAbbāsid ruler al-Mansūr (d. 775) boasted that there were no obstacles for trade between his new capital, Baghdad, and these commercial centers.[^32] An estimated 120,000 “non-Chinese,” including Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, were killed in Guangzhou in 877 during a rebellion, providing us with a sense of how many Muslims (most of them merchants) traveled to and settled in Guangzhou alone.[^33] Trade took Muslims as far as “al-Shīla” (Korea), where many of them had settled by the late 800s.[^34] In the case of Southeast Asia, there is evidence dating as far back as the 7th century that Arab traders were active in the region, especially in Sumatra (Indonesia).[^35] A shipwreck found off the coast of Java and dated to the year 960 included a stone mold to make medallions that read “*al-mulk lillāhi al-wāhid al-qahhār*” (“All Sovereignty is Allāh’s, the One and Only, the Dominator”).[^36] By the 10th century, communities of Muslim traders had started to settle in Southeast Asia, the most prominent of them in Champa (Vietnam), from which the present-day Cham Muslims of Cambodia and Vietnam originate.[^37] By the 11th century, they were active in present-day Brunei and the Philippines.[^38] A key turning point in the Islamization of Southeast Asia was the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258. Given the damage done to infrastructure and the breakdown of authority in Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the Tigris-Euphrates river system could no longer serve as the primary trade route for the spice trade from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean, including rising European markets. The Red Sea route rose to prominence, including the ports of Alexandria, Cairo, Jeddah, Aden (from where Hadramī *dāʿīs* often embarked, headed east), Cambay (Gujarat and Mumbai), Calicut, and Pisai (Malacca and Aceh).[^39] Freitag has noted that “the presence of high status and economically successful \[Muslim\] merchants seems in itself to have provided an example which seemed well worth emulating. Conversion to the faith of the economic elite held advantages such as the promise of becoming part of an international commercial network.”[^40] By the 14th century, the spread of Islam across Southeast Asia was well underway, peaking with the prosperity of the Sultanate of Malacca (1403-1511); notably, the rulers of Cambay and Aceh were also Muslim by the early 15th century.[^41] According to the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires, who visited Malacca in 1507, it was the most important city in the world, and whoever controlled it “shall have his hands on the throat of Venice”―a reference to Europe’s reliance on the spice trade that flowed through the city.[^42] The spread of Islam in Eastern Europe offers another example of the central role of trade in this process. In the late 1930s, an Arabic silver coin dating from the time of the Umayyad ruler Marwān II (r. 744-50) was found in the village of Potoci in Herzegovina.[^43] In nearby Hungary, Muslims had served as minters and money-changers for the court, had been heavily involved in the customs system, and had controlled the production and sale of salt, all before the Golden Bull of 1222 declared that no Muslim or Jew could serve in the administration.[^44] Much earlier, King Ladislas I (r. 1077-95) had referred to certain merchants in Hungary, called “Ishmaelites” who had nominally converted to Christianity but continued to profess and practice Islam.[^45] And in 2013, excavations at a cemetery in Orosháza revealed that the bodies had been buried with their heads facing south (i.e., in the direction of the Kaʿbah, as per Islamic practice). The village also showed an unusual “lack of pig bones” and the presence of measuring devices, strongly suggesting that its inhabitants were Muslim merchants.[^46] Another case of trade serving as the avenue for the spread of Islam is that of East, Central, and West Africa. Due to their proximity, Arabia and East Africa had a long pre-Islamic history of close political and trade relations. Soon after the advent of Islam, merchants took the lead in introducing the faith to this region. The East Africans developed and maintained close ties with Muslim outposts in the Indian Ocean, especially the ports of Yemen, the Persian Gulf, and India; this brought with it so much cultural exchange that Ibn Battūtah, traveling in the 1300s, noticed that the same food he had enjoyed in Mogadishu (Somalia), Mombasa (Kenya) and Kilwa (Tanzania) was offered to him in Sarandīp (Sri Lanka).[^47] The merchants’ “delivery” of Islam was bolstered by a steady stream of refugees coming from Arabia in the 7th-10th centuries, many of them fleeing civil wars or natural disasters. One of them, ʿAlī ibn al-Hasan Shirāzī, later established the Kilwa Sultanate, which at its peak covered the entire Swahili Coast.[^48] Despite all of this trade and settlement, it was not until the 13th century that the Islamization of East Africa started to accelerate.[^49] The *baqt* in Sudan played a key role in the spread of Islam in East-Central Africa. In 652, having completed the conquest of Egypt, Muslim forces moved south and met Nubian forces at Dongola (Sudan). Rather than press for a fight, the two sides agreed to a *baqt*, or peace agreement, which was remarkably honored for six centuries.[^50] The *baqt* enabled Muslim scholars and traders to travel freely in the region, thereby introducing Islam to the Nubians. During the early 9th century, large deposits of gold and emeralds were discovered in the desert south of Aswan.[^51] This prompted Egypt’s Arab Bedouin tribes, many of whom had firmly embraced Islam by this point, to migrate into this region, and, over time, to penetrate deep into present-day Sudan and settle down. It is clear that the spread of Islam in this region took centuries, and Islam could be said to have supplanted Christianity in the area of Nubia only by the 14th century at the earliest.[^52] In the Central-West African region, too, Islam was introduced by Muslim merchants from North Africa. It is no coincidence that some of the first towns to develop a significant Muslim population in this region were Awdaghust (Mauritania) and Tadmekka (Mali), two of the southern termini of the famous Trans-Saharan trade route.[^53] The geographer Ibn Hawqal (d. c. 988) recorded that Kumbi Saleh, the capital of the Ghana Empire, had a neighborhood of Muslim merchants. Around the years 1009 and 1040, respectively, the kings of Takrur (Senegal) and Gao (Mali) had embraced Islam. By 1085, Islam was spreading quickly in Kanem (Chad-Nigeria).[^54] These developments, virtually all initiated by Muslim merchants, paved the way for powerful Afro-Muslim empires such as that of Mansa Musa, which in turn facilitated the further spread of Islam in the region, as described above. And, as was the case in many places, Islamization here was a very long process and was still observably underway when the German explorer Heinrich Barth traveled through the region in the 1850s.[^55] ### Migration Migration, both forced (e.g., as slaves or refugees) and voluntary (e.g., economic migration), has played an important role in the spread of Islam, especially since the 15th century. However, there are earlier examples; in fact, the earliest presence of Muslims outside of Arabia was that of a group of Muslims who sought refuge in Abyssinia during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and at his instruction.[^56] It should be noted that though Muslims who have been forced to migrate have given *daʿwah*—an example of this was given in the section on *daʿwah* above, and another example is that effective *daʿwah* of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Tālib to the Abyssinian ruler, the Negus—the argument here is that their mere presence in the regions to which they were relocated can be seen as a form of the spread of Islam. In other words, as Sylviane Diouf and others have argued, wherever these Muslims went they commonly brought with them their embodied knowledge of Islam. Forced migration brought the first Muslims to the “New World” by way of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, laying the foundations for an early Muslim presence in the Americas. It has proven difficult to reliably estimate how many slaves of African origin were Muslim, but they must have numbered at least in the hundreds of thousands.[^57] The United States makes for a useful case study, and it may have held a higher proportion of Muslim slaves than any other region in the Americas. 24% of the African slaves brought to the Thirteen Colonies or, later, the United States were from Senegambia, which makes it likely that they were Muslims.[^58] The city of St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest continuously-occupied European city in the mainland United States, and was originally built largely by African Muslim slave laborers.[^59] Gradually, the descendants of these forced migrants became distanced from Islam, but they held on to enough awareness of their heritage so as to establish pseudo-Islamic communities in the early 20th century, such as the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) and the Nation of Islam (NOI), and to eventually return to mainstream Islam *en masse* starting in the late 1970s. Today, Muslims of African descent make up around 25% of the U.S. Muslim population.[^60] A less known case of forced migration of Muslims occurred by way of the Indian Ocean slave trade organized by the Dutch East India Company (DEIC). The first known Muslims in present-day South Africa, the Amboyan Mardyckers from Southeast Asia, had arrived in 1658 not as slaves but as political prisoners or mercenaries for the DEIC.[^61] However, the DEIC soon began to transport slaves to Cape Town, obtaining them from the Muslim-majority regions of East Africa, South Asia (especially the Arakan-Bengal coast), and the Southeast Asian islands by raiding the coasts.[^62] By 1731, 42% of the population of Cape Town were slaves;[^63] it is noteworthy that a significant portion of these may have been Rohingya Muslims. Educated Muslims from Southeast Asia―especially Shaykh Yūsuf al-Maqassarī (d. 1699) and Tuan Guru (d. 1807), both of them exiled political prisoners[^64]―established the roots of Islam in South Africa. Shaykh Yūsuf’s farm at Zandvliet became a sanctuary for fugitive slaves from Cape Town. Tuan Guru established Cape Town’s first *madrasah* (Islamic seminary) in 1793, and the city’s first mosque was opened in 1798.[^65] By 1850, about 40% of Cape Town’s population was Muslim, and by 1891 their number had risen to over 11,000, in part due to the arrival of indentured laborers from South Asia starting in the 1860s.[^66] Examples of voluntary (or economic) migration are more numerous, especially because this has been the driving force behind the spread of Islam to virtually every country in the world―even those as remote as Fiji[^67]―since the 19th century. One example is that of the famous Afghan (and Baluchi) cameleers who “helped to pioneer Australia,” particular the vast Outback, where they did everything from exploring and conducting rescue missions to laying railway and telegraph lines.[^68] In the process, they married European or Aborigine women and established their own settlements, which were generally built around a small, makeshift mosque. Another example is that of Canada, where Lebanese Muslim immigrants began to arrive in the late 19th century, often hoping to take part in the Klondike Gold Rush or the lucrative fur trade; some of them, such as Ali Abouchadi, became very successful entrepreneurs and laid the foundations for Canada’s present-day Muslim community.[^69] ### Intermarriage Intermarriage between Muslims and non-Muslims has been historically important for the spread of Islam in many contexts. This is an area of research that only recently has begun to receive attention, as most converts to Islam via this process were women and, as Maya Shatzmiller noted in 1996, “not only was woman’s voice on the subject \[of conversions\] absent, but the sources devised a historiographical debate from which the feminine perspective was omitted all together.”[^70] More than two decades after this observation, there is a significant body of research that has explored the nexus of intermarriage and conversion in Islamic history, but much more work needs to be done in this field. Conversion through intermarriage was important to establishing the early Muslim community Spain. In around 785, Pope Hadrian in Rome wrote a letter expressing his concern that some Catholics in Hispania seemed only too willing to marry into Arab Muslim families, and Christian-Muslim unions were condemned at a council in Cordoba in 836.[^71] One prominent case was that of Sarah, daughter of Alamund of the Visigothic royal family. She was married twice to prominent Muslims, and in later centuries her descendants formed some of the leading Muslim families of Seville, including the Banū Hajjāj and Banū Maslamah.[^72] One of her descendants was the famous scholar of history, *fiqh* (jurisprudence) and *hadīth* (Prophetic narrations), Ibn al-Quṭiya (d. 971), who prominently mentioned the role of his great-grandmother in his discussion on the early history of Islam in al-Andalus.[^73] A similar case is that of the daughter of the Visigothic nobleman Theodomir (d. 743), who married one ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Khaṭṭāb. The descendants of this couple came to be known as the Banū Khaṭṭāb and formed an influential family of Islamic scholars that lasted until the end of Islamic rule in Murcia in the 13th century.[^74] The early modern Ottoman Empire also offers many examples of intermarriage involving conversion. A case in point is that of Beatrice Michiel of Venice who, in 1591, “opted for conversion without coercion or compulsion” and changed her name to Fatima Hatun.[^75] Having been raised a Christian and married twice, she escaped her difficult second marriage by fleeing to Constantinople, where she converted to Islam and married one ʿAlī Agha. Her son from her first marriage, Giacomo, followed his mother into Islam nearly a decade later.[^76] A similar case was that of the wife, unnamed in the sources, of Ferenc Csiszar, a man from 16th-century Várad (present-day Oradea, Romania). She reportedly went to Buda (Budapest) to marry a “Turk,” which in all likelihood involved a conversion to Islam despite this not being a condition for the marriage.[^77] This trend was noted by the Jesuits involved in missionary work in Ottoman-ruled Hungary. It was also common enough for King Matthias Hunyadi (r. 1458-90) to feel compelled to write to the Pope requesting that the Christian men—and in some cases, women—whose spouse had left to convert to Islam should be allowed to remarry rather than hope for their spouse’s eventual return or worse yet, go searching for their spouse in Ottoman territory and potentially convert to Islam themselves in the process.[^78] In British-ruled India, several *dalit* women (i.e., those from the downtrodden Hindu caste of “untouchables”) converted to Islam as part of intermarriage with Muslims. There are at least nine reported cases between 1924 and 1946, though four of these occurred between March and May in 1926 alone.[^79] Considering that these were only the cases that were registered by the colonial police force in the province of Uttar Pradesh (UP) because they sparked significant unrest, the actual rate of conversion may have been much higher. It has been noted that although there were active *daʿwah* efforts among the *dalits* of UP, “in many cases of individual conversion, particularly by lower castes, the reason \[for intermarriage\] was neither proselytism nor doctrinal conviction, but romance,” though romantic motivations were “possibly aided by greater mobility.”[^80] Intermarriage has continued to play an important role in conversion to Islam in more recent times. One case is that of immigrant Muslims marrying Latina women in the United States in the mid-20th century. A 1947 study of Palestinian immigrants in Chicago revealed that one man had married a Mexican-American woman and had children with her.[^81] Similarly, and from around the same time, there are records of Yemeni Muslim men in southern California marrying Mexican-Americans and South Asian Muslims in Harlem marrying Puerto Rican-Americans.[^82] By the early 1990s, there were an estimated 100 Latino converts to Islam in southern California alone, mostly women who had married Muslims since the mid-1970s.[^83] A noticeable trend in their conversions was that “the conversion of one woman would lead to a string of conversions within her family.”[^84] After having converted, these Latina Muslims led the effort to perform *daʿwah* in Latino communities in the U.S. Another recent case is that of Chinese and Filipina women in Hong Kong converting to Islam through their marriages to South Asian Muslims. Muslims from British-ruled India first arrived in Hong Kong in significant numbers in the early 20th century as employees of the British administration. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during the Second World War, many disadvantaged Chinese women married these Muslims.[^85] Beginning in the early 1990s, Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong, mostly devout Catholics aged 21-35, increasingly began to convert to Islam and to marry Pakistani Muslims. In the Wan Chai district alone, there were 100 Filipino converts between 1993 and 1996, making up for about 70% of all converts to Islam, and this trend continued strongly into the early years of the 21st century.[^86] ### Influencers The conversion of social, political, and/or personal influencers to Islam has historically played an important role in drawing their followers, admirers, subjects, and/or acquaintances closer to the message of Islam. In the life of the Prophet ﷺ, a prominent example of an influencer was Saʾd ibn Muʿādh. Saʾd was a chieftain of one of the clans of the Banu Aws tribe of Yathrib. The Prophet had sent Musʿab ibn ʿUmayr to teach the converts in the city and to invite others to Islam, but Saʾd strongly disapproved of this and confronted Musʿab. After a conversation, Saʾd embraced Islam, and then convened his clan and asked them how they felt about him. They replied that he was their chief, excellent in judgment, and committed to their best interests. He then informed them that he had embraced Islam, and by nightfall his entire clan had followed him.[^87] The Prophet ﷺ also sent letters to rulers in the vicinity of Arabia, implicitly acknowledging their role as social influencers and inviting them—and, through them, their followers—to Islam. These included the rulers of Abyssinia, Byzantium, and Persia, and the governors of Ghassān (an Arab Christian client state of Byzantium), Yamāmah (an Arab kingdom in present-day central Saudi Arabia), and Alexandria.[^88] Part of the wisdom behind the Prophet’s decision to send these letters is revealed in the fact that in many parts of the world, the conversion of an influential political leader to Islam was an important milestone in the spread of Islam in that region.  The case of the Umayyad leader ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (r. 685-705) is illustrative, especially because it implicitly reveals that this process (i.e., conversion by influence) played a role even in the Islamization, even of regions that had been conquered by Muslim forces. (Shām was the first region outside of Arabia to fully come under Muslim rule).[^89] However, as Thomas Carlson has argued, the Islamization of Syria was “a multi-faceted social and cultural process” that could not be considered complete even in 1516, when the Ottomans conquered the region―nearly a thousand years after it fell under Muslim rule.[^90] Many factors played a role in the Islamization of Shām. One of them was Shām’s centrality to the early Muslim empire, as the Umayyad dynasty (r. 661-750) chose Damascus as its capital. The Umayyads sought religious legitimacy as a means to justifying their rule, and Syria was the first region in which efforts toward that end took shape.[^91] ʿAbd al-Malik publicized Islam in Shām as a matter of policy: he made Arabic the official language of the empire’s administration, minted distinctly Islamic coins for the first time, had milestones featuring the *basmalah* set up to help travelers find directions and had the iconic Dome of the Rock constructed in Jerusalem.[^92] By institutionalizing Islam in Shām, ʿAbd al-Malik and other influencers in the region after him―including leaders such as the famous Salāh ad-Dīn (Saladin, d. 1193) and prominent Islamic scholars such as Ibn ʿAsākir, al-Nawawī, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Kathīr, and al-Dhahabī (all fl. c. 13th century)―inevitably enabled non-Muslims to engage closely with Islamic beliefs, practices, and worldviews. From there, many non-Muslims chose to embrace the faith, some rejected it, and others may have even borrowed from it. A social influencer involved in the spread of Islam in parts of Southeast Asia was the famous Chinese Muslim admiral Cheng Ho (d. 1433). Between 1405 and 1433, Ho led seven maritime expeditions for the Ming dynasty, which took him to the major ports of the Indian Ocean and as far away as Mombasa (Kenya). Curiously, many of Ho’s crew were Hui Muslims like himself, and some performed *hajj* during the voyages.[^93] Ho, his Muslim shipmates and the Chinese Muslim envoys who followed them to Java and other parts of Southeast Asia all helped Islam spread in this region, primarily by establishing mosques.[^94] Their pioneering efforts can be appreciated through the fact that, today, there are over 105 million Javanese Muslims, making them the fourth-largest ethnic group among Muslims (behind only Arabs, Bengalis, and Punjabis).[^95] To this day, many mosques in the region are named after the mariner, such as the Cheng Ho Mosque in Palembang, Indonesia. A more recent example of a social influencer’s role in the spread of Islam is that of Warith Deen Muhammad, the Supreme Minister (1975-6) of the pseudo-Islamic, US-based movement known as Nation of Islam (NOI). Having embraced Sunni Islam privately, he gradually reformed the NOI to conform to the orthodox Islamic tradition and called on his followers to do the same.[^96] In what may be considered the largest mass conversion to Islam in US history, an estimated 70,000 NOI members followed W. D. Muhammad into the fold of orthodox Islam.[^97] It is important to note that influencers were not always in privileged positions within society; “grassroots Islamization” led by personal influencers also occurred. This was the case, for example, in the Lindi and Mtwara regions of southeastern Tanzania in the early 20th century. In the late 1800s, most people in the region were not Muslim, but today Muslims form a large majority of the population. Many conversions took place between 1910 and 1950 through a process in which ordinary villagers served as “crucial mediators.”[^98] Muslim traders and Sufi scholars had long been present on the Tanzanian stretch of the Swahili Coast, but they had not been able to deliver the message of Islam in the rural areas that were further inland. At the same time as the peak of an anti-colonial struggle (culminating in the Maji Maji war of 1905-7), “ordinary villagers who had spent some time on the coast began to work as Qur’an teachers, while local networks of lineage elders endorsed the construction of mosques.”[^99] German officials described these men as *schamba-waalimu* (“field-teachers”). They were “otherwise undistinguished villagers, respected for their learning and commitment, but neither particularly wealthy nor of high ritual or social status,” but they are remembered for taking the initiative to “fetch” Islam from the coast and spread it across the region.[^100] Another case of conversion via influencers who were not in particularly privileged positions in society occurred in the early centuries of Islamic history in the form of the *mawālī* system of patronage. The Arabic word *mawla* may be used to refer to a “client” in a patron-client relationship. During the early period of Muslim rule in what is today known as the Middle East, non-Muslims would commonly become “clients,” or *mawālī*, of the emerging Arab Muslim elite as a way to protect and pursue their own interests. As Patricia Crone has noted, this did not necessarily require the client’s conversion to Islam.[^101] However, the opportunity to engage with their Muslim patrons is likely to have influenced many clients to convert. Soon, many of the *mawālī* had *mawālī* of their own, thus creating a “snowball effect” of conversions to Islam through personal networks of influence, especially in the first four centuries of Islamic history.[^102] Lastly, on the topic of the spread of Islam via influencers, it is important to briefly revisit the pioneering thesis of Richard Bulliet in this field of research. Through a quantitative analysis of the names listed in biographical dictionaries from the early centuries of Islamic history, Bulliet showed that Islam spread very slowly as evidenced by the slow rate of the change, for example, from names that were identifiably Christian to those that were clearly Muslim.[^103] Looking primarily at the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, Bulliet also showed that the regional “conversion curves” of this period are ‘S’-shaped, accelerating as more and more of the population converted before leveling off, thus implying that people primarily chose to convert due to their personal interactions with Muslims. Bulliet helpfully compared the spread of Islam to the model of diffusion for a new technology or technique, a process which generally also follows an ‘S’ curve: “a few innovators would first adopt the new technique, then it would catch on with a bandwagon effect causing the steep rise in the middle of the curve, and finally there would be a steadily diminishing number of new adopters as the potential market for the new technique became saturated.”[^104] Thus, Bulliet posited that the more Muslims a non-Muslim was surrounded by and personally interacting with, the more likely they were to convert to Islam, until most non-Muslims in the region had converted. --- ## II: The acceptance of the message The preceding discussion focused on *how* the message of Islam spread. The question of *why* it was accepted by individuals is more difficult to explore, simply because we are unable to determine their exact motivations. Some converts, such as Malcolm X, wrote about their journey to Islam, thus giving us a glimpse into the reasons behind their decision. However, for the overwhelming majority of cases in Islamic history, we can only speculate broadly on three of the motivations that were arguably most prominent. These motivations have already been discussed in relation to the examples offered above, but are elaborated on in this section. ### The Islamic emphasis on justice The historian Bahjat ʿAbd al-Latif has pointed out that, “\[f\]rom its very inception, the message of Islam showed great concern for the poor and the disadvantaged who often comprise the majority of the population, and it aimed to liberate them and raise their standing. This was perhaps one of the strongest incentives for accepting the call to Islam…”[^105] Richard Eaton has described this as the “religion of social liberation” thesis.[^106] This thesis is rooted in the Islamic emphasis on the pursuit of justice, in contrast to other faith traditions which allowed for (if not encouraged) passivity and promised only otherworldly salvation. Discussing the origins of Islam and the very reason for Prophet Muhammad’s personal retreats to the Cave of Ḥirāʾ leading up to the first revelation, Ahmed Afzaal has argued that “\[s\]ooner or later, the crisis of meaning caused by a sensitive person's encounter with the brutal fact of injustice has to be addressed in the realm of social and material reality. While one’s *ideal interest* lies in developing an appropriate theodicy and a hope for salvation in the hereafter, the problem of injustice can only be adequately addressed by pursuing the fulfillment of the *material interest* of the weak, poor, and the marginalized.”[^107] Thus it has been widely noted that many of the earliest *ṣaḥābah* (companions) of the Prophet ﷺ were those who were disadvantaged in Makkan society.[^108] It should be noted that the cases in this category, which may readily appear to be mere “conversions of convenience,” were not necessarily devoid of conviction on part of the converts. Many disadvantaged converts, such as the companions Yāsir al-ʿAnsī and Sumayyah bint Khayyat, did not convert to Islam merely because it promised to change their material reality; if that had been the case, they likely would have relapsed under the severe torture which led to their martyrdom.[^109] Rather, it is plausible to assume that they had conviction in the truth of the Islamic worldview, the appeal of which included—but was not limited to—its emphasis on social and economic justice. Of course, this is not a denial that some conversions probably *were* nominal, but a reminder that convenience should not simply be presumed to have been the primary motivation. One common example of the appeal of Islam’s “social liberation” is the spread of Islam in South Asia. Hinduism’s caste system, one of the most enduring forms of social stratification in history, relegates the lower castes such as *shudras* (laborers) or *dalits* (“untouchables”) to a severely disadvantaged position, with little to no hope of upward social mobility. Thus, early Muslims in South Asia “endeavoured to carry Islam to numerous Indian castes that were despised, rejected and discriminated against. These castes accepted Islam once they became aware that it was based upon justice, equality and solidarity among human beings.”[^110] British officials observed this process underway as late as the early 1900s, and Indian historians such as Niharranjan Ray have also attested to it.[^111] In the context of the early modern Ottoman Empire, many Christian women chose to convert to Islam because it offered them a more favorable situation. Lady Elizabeth Craven (d. 1828) of England remarked that “the Turks in their conduct towards our sex are an example to all other nations.”[^112] Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire—who were considered legal subjects at puberty—had access to many legal privileges, including the right to own and control property without male interference and the right to register their complaints in court.[^113] Non-Muslim Ottoman women could also access these Islamic courts for judgment and often did, preferring them over their own Christian or Jewish community courts. They were particularly interested in the relative freedom that Muslim women enjoyed to obtain a divorce to escape an unfulfilling marriage.[^114] Many of them went a step further and converted to Islam. Another example is found in the context of the Second World War. In the months following the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, many Jews tried to escape persecution by converting to Islam. Between April and October, at least 20% of Sarajevo’s Jews embraced Islam or Catholicism.[^115] The Ustaša regime (the Nazi’s local Croatian fascist ally) was so alarmed by this that they quickly banned conversions. Nevertheless, Fehim Spaho, the Grand Mufti of Yugoslavia, urged Ustaša officials to protect the Jewish converts to Islam and instructed the *ʿulamā* (scholars) to offer them shelter, and many were saved from the Holocaust in this way.[^116] Even today, this trend can be seen in the rates of conversion to Islam in prisons, particularly in the United States, which has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Up to 40,000 prisoners convert to Islam in the US annually, making up about 80% of all religious conversions in the prison system.[^117] Prisoners convert for a variety of reasons, including protection (especially from the prisons’ gang and/or drug cultures), as a form of repentance and spiritual renewal, or because of the emphasis on social justice that they see as central to the Islamic tradition.[^118] This last aspect is not an overstatement; Muslims have been at the forefront of the movement for all prisoners’ rights in the U.S. since the 1960s, and even today they are “arguably the most proactive litigants” in the prison system.[^119] ### The Islamic emphasis on unity The Islamic emphasis on unity has kept Muslims connected to the religious, demographic, and sociocultural “heartland” of the *ummah* irrespective of their “distance”―both physical and metaphorical―from it. Practicing the obligatory pillars of Islam helped keep individual Muslims and the small, emergent Muslim communities in far-off regions united: *salah* (daily prayer, preferably in congregation) helped the Muslims unify locally, and *hajj* (pilgrimage to Makkah at least once in one’s lifetime, if physically and financially capable) helped them identify as integral members of a global *ummah*. It is no surprise, for example, that after becoming the first known Japanese convert to Islam on November 1, 1909, Omar Yamaoka was disembarking in Jeddah by December 10, on his way to perform the *hajj*.[^120] Immediately afterward, Yamaoka’s next initiative was to have a mosque built in Japan, a physical unifying space for Japanese Muslims; the Tokyo Mosque opened in 1938.[^121] By then many other Japanese had embraced Islam and there was a trend of trying to perform the *hajj* soon after conversion; eight Japanese Muslims attempted to perform the *hajj* between 1934 and 1938, five of whom sailed for Makkah at least twice.[^122] Two descriptions of the sense of unity and affirmation that converts find as they perform the *hajj* were written in the past century by Muhammad Asad and Malcolm X. Asad, best known for his English translation and commentary of the Qurʾān, embraced Islam in 1926 and performed the *hajj* soon afterward. Describing the Black Stone in the Kaʿbah, he said, “The Prophet was well aware that all the later generations of the faithful would always follow his example: and when he kissed the stone he knew that on it the lips of future pilgrims would forever meet the memory of his lips in the symbolic embrace he thus offered, beyond time and beyond death, to his entire community.”[^123] And heading to Mount ʿArafāt, he felt as if “the wind shouts a wild paean of joy into my ears: ‘Never again, never again, never again will you be a stranger!’”[^124] Malcolm X converted to orthodox Islam due to his experience of the *hajj* in 1964. He himself commented on the effect: “Islam’s conversions around the world could double and triple if the colorfulness and the true spiritualness of the Hajj pilgrimage were properly advertised and communicated to the outside world.”[^125] The *hajj* can thus be said to have cemented the conversions of Yamaoka, Asad, Malcolm X, and countless others. The *hajj* also served as a sort of international forum and marketplace. In pre-modern times, the journey for *hajj* often took months, if not years, and many Muslims deliberately prolonged the journey by stopping in major cities and centers of trade and studying with scholars along the way, and by staying for extended periods of time in Makkah and Madinah to exchange news, knowledge, and ideas, and to trade in goods and services. This exchange not only provided a sustained integration into the *ummah* for recent converts but also opened up windows of opportunity that could lead to even more conversions. A case in point is the famous *hajj* of Mansa Musa of Mali in 1324-5. He is said to have led a large caravan and carried so much gold, which he distributed in charity and gifts along the way, that it caused hyperinflation and derailed the economies of Cairo, Madinah, and Makkah for years. He became so famous for freely distributing his wealth that he inspired curiosity about his distant kingdom and thus initiated a steady stream of Muslim traders, travelers, and scholars to Mali.[^126] On his way back, he brought back many Islamic texts as well as several scholars, including the Andalusī poet and writer Abū Ishāq Ibrahīm al-Sāhilī, who settled in Timbuktu and was tasked with leading the construction of the city’s famous Djinguereber Mosque.[^127] He thus played an influential role in Timbuktu’s emergence as the preeminent Islamic city in West Africa, from where Islam gradually spread to the rest of the region. Of course, this sense of unity extended beyond the experience of *hajj* as well. For example, in 1894 the Ottoman sultan chose to send a British convert to Islam, Abdullah Quilliam of Liverpool (also known for starting Britain’s first mosque), as his representative to the opening ceremony of the Shitta-Bey Mosque, the first major mosque in Lagos in present-day Nigeria.[^128] He was warmly received by Muslims across West Africa, and at least one person from the region, John Thomas Brimah, later embraced Islam after reading Quilliam’s *The Faith of Islam*.[^129] In the words of the *Sierra Leone Weekly News*, “The existence of Islam in Liverpool \[…\] seems to have inspired West African Mohammedans \[sic\] with new life.”[^130] ### The universality of Islam Dr. Umar Abd-Allah said it most eloquently: “In history, Islam showed itself to be culturally friendly and, in that regard, has been likened to a crystal clear river. Its waters (Islam) are pure, sweet, and life-giving but―having no color of their own―reflect the bedrock (indigenous culture) over which they flow. In China, Islam looked Chinese; in Mali, it looked African. Sustained cultural relevance to distinct peoples, diverse places, and different times underlay Islam’s long success as a global civilization.”[^131] This reflects an established principle of *fiqh* (Islamic jurisprudence), articulated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taymiyyah, and others, that all customs (*ʿurf*) are permissible by default except what is proven to be forbidden.[^132] Richard Eaton has observed about Islamization in Bengal, particularly, that “what made Islam in Bengal not only historically successful but a continuing vital social reality has been its capacity to adapt to the land and the culture of its people, even while transforming both.”[^133] The same can be said about many of the regions to which Islam spread. The spread of Islam has been a historic success in large part due to the fact that it generally occurred in ways that were not overtly disruptive of local cultures and lifestyles. This is a very important point in today’s sociopolitical climate, as much Islamophobic and anti-refugee rhetoric, particularly in Europe, is based on the ostensible threat of Islam to Europe’s Judeo-Christian heritage and culture.[^134] Historically, however, early Muslim communities generally adhered to a distinctive subculture, adopting everything they deemed acceptable in the dominant (or hegemonic)[^135] culture and refraining from what they felt clearly conflicted with their faith. The Muslims certainly *exposed* the non-Muslims around them to Islamic traditions and values in culturally sensitive ways but did not *impose* these upon anyone (though there were rare exceptions to this, as discussed [previously](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/hassam-munir/did-islam-spread-by-the-sword-a-critical-look-at-forced-conversions/&sa=D&ust=1544806498446000)). An example of this is the role of literature, an important component of culture, in the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia―in particular, the corpus of the *Book of One Thousand Questions*. This is purported to be a collection of 1,000 questions thatʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, a Jewish rabbi in Madinah, had put to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ before he decided to embrace Islam. Originally compiled in Arabic, it was translated into Malay and Javanese.[^136] The Javanese translations, in particular, were adapted to be relatable to Southeast Asians, both Muslims and non-Muslims, and were used to demonstrate the discursive and intellectual power of Islam and, in turn, to provide non-Muslims with a culturally-grounded text that addressed their questions about the *dīn*.[^137] Another illustrative case is that of the different “bodies of practice” of Islam found on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, which has a population of only about 260,000 people, 97% of them identifying as Muslims. Scholars have noted that the people of Mayotte “have long considered themselves Muslim, and their allegiance to Islam is salient in ritual and cosmology.”[^138] However, though the *fundis* (teachers) commonly defer to the authority of the Qurʾān and Sunnah (the Prophetic example), the relative isolation of the island has allowed for peculiar local traditions to develop which interpret the scriptural texts in different ways. These range from a “religious dance” known as *daira* to a strict prohibition on the *fundis* from indulging in politics.[^139] Perhaps the most remarkable example of the universality of Islam is its ability to absorb even the Mongols after they caused unprecedented destruction in large parts of the Muslim domain. As Ishayahu Landa has noted, “\[t\]his issue is of special importance, as it provides a relatively rare case in Islamic history in which the rulers adopted their subjects’ religion and not vice versa.”[^140] Of the four khanates which were carved out of Genghis Khan’s vast empire, the Mongol leadership of three of them embraced Islam within a century of his death. The details of this process make for too deep a discussion to be dealt with here, but what is important to note is that the Mongol converts were able to fully enter the fold of the Muslim community while holding on to many of their cultural beliefs and practices. A case in point is El-Qutlugh Khatun, a Mongol princess who performed the *hajj* in 1323, soon after conversion.[^141] She was described by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalānī as “a good Muslim who often gave good advice to the Muslims” and it was noted that she gave large amounts of *sadaqah* (charity) while on her journey, including 30,000 dinars in Makkah and Madinah alone.[^142] At the same time, she was “sharp-minded and courageous/skilled in horsemanship,” rode a horse (rather than a camel, as was the norm), and personally led traditional Mongol ring hunts in the Arabian desert to feed the pilgrims she was traveling with.[^143] --- ## Conclusion As mentioned in the introduction to this article, the examples presented above are not exhaustive, nor has their relation to the spread of Islam been discussed as thoroughly as it could have been. However, they collectively serve the purpose of this article: to illustrate that Islam could—and historically *did*—spread by means other than “the sword” (i.e., forced conversion). The examples demonstrate the role of *daʿwah*, trade, intermarriage, migration, influencers in the communication of the message of Islam, the role of Islam’s characteristic emphasis on justice and unity, and the universality of Islam in the widespread acceptance of this message. It is hoped that the many historical “moments” which make up the larger “story” of the spread of Islam will inspire readers to explore particular moments in more detail through their own research. This is essential for developing our appreciation of the complexity of the spread of Islam, which is one of the most transformative processes in human history—comparable in scale and intricacy to Christianization or secularization—and which certainly cannot be oversimplified in a slogan such as “Islam was spread by the sword.” It is also hoped that the discussion in this article can inspire and inform *daʿwah* efforts in the present. Lady Evelyn Cobbold (d. 1963), a Scottish noblewoman who declared “I am a Moslem” during a private audience with the Pope,[^144] recorded the following in her diary: “The more I read and the more I studied, the more convinced I became that Islam was the most practical religion, and the one most calculated to solve the world's many perplexing problems, and to bring humanity peace and happiness.”[^145] The discussion in this article has focused primarily on some of the more prominent structural factors that have contributed to the spread of Islam, such as trade and migration. However, it is important to note that in recent years there has been a “cultural turn” in the historiography of conversion to Islam.[^146] Memoirs, diaries and other first-hand accounts of converts, in which *they* describe their journeys to Islam, are increasingly becoming available. These, along with a growing body of psychological research on why many people convert to Islam today, offer two important areas of further research on the subject of conversion to Islam in history. *I am grateful to Justin Parrott, Dr. Samuel Ross, and Dr. Nameera Akhtar for their insightful feedback and suggestions.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Richard M. Eaton, “Islamic history as global history,” in Michael Adas, ed., *Islamic and European Expansion: The Forging of a Global Order* (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 12. [^2]: Michael Lipka, “Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U.S. and around the world,” *Pew Research Center*, 9 August 2017, [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/). [^3]: All quotations from the Qurʾān in this article are taken from Mustafa Khattab, *The Clear Quran: A Thematic English Translation of the Message of the Final Revelation* (Lombard, IL: Book of Signs Foundation, 2016). [^4]: Abd al Wahid Dhanun Taha, “The Historical Process of the Spread of Islam,” in *The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture, Volume Three: The Spread of Islam throughout the World*, eds. Idris El Hareir and El Hadji Ravane M’Baye (Paris: UNESCO, 2011), 134. [^5]: Abū Muhammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, *As-Sīra an-Nabawiyya*, Vol. II, ed. Mustafa as-Saqqa et al. (Cairo: Matbaʿat Mustafā al-Bābī al-Halabī, 1936), 590. [^6]: They narrate that Abu Burda reported: “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sent Mu’adh and himself to Yemen and he said, ‘Make things easy and do not make things difficult. Give glad tidings and do not repel people. Cooperate with each other and do not become divided.’” (*Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* 2873, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* 1733; see Abu Amina Elias, “[Hadith on Da’wah: Give glad tidings, make it easy, and remain united](https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2013/12/11/hadith-on-dawah-give-glad-tidings-make-it-easy-and-remain-united/),”). [^7]: Taha, “The Historical Process of the Spread of Islam,” 134. [^8]: S. von Sicard, “Malagasy Islam: Tracing the History and Cultural Influences of Islam in Madagascar,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 31, no. 1 (2011): 102; Vincent J.H. Houben, “Southeast Asia and Islam,” *The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science* 588 (2003): 153. [^9]: Ulrike Freitag, “Reflections on the Longevity of the Hadhrami Diaspora in the Indian Ocean,” in *The Hadhrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintainance or Assimilation?*, eds. Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 22. [^10]: Rakhym Beknazarov, “Analysing the Spread of Islam in Western Kazakhstan through Architectural Monuments,” *Anthropology of the Middle East* 3, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 35. [^11]: D.G. Tor, “The Islamization of Central Asia during the Sāmānid era and the reshaping of the Muslim world,” *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 72, no. 2 (2009): 288-9. [^12]: Rekha Chowdhary, *Jammu and Kashmir: Politics of Identity and Separatism* (New York: Routledge, 2014), 162; Muslims are reported to make up 97.16% of Indian-held Kashmir’s population, according to this source; Pakistan-held Kashmir is estimated to be 99% Muslim. [^13]: Sayyed M. F. Bukhari, *Kashmir Main Islam: Manzar Aur Pasmanzar* \[Islam in Kashmir: Historical Context\], (Srinagar: Maktaba ʿIlm-o-Adab, 1998), 18. [^14]: Yoginder Sikand, “Hazrat Bulbul Shah: The First Known Muslim Missionary in Kashmir,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 20, no. 4 (2000): 363. [^15]: *Baharistān-i-Shahī* \[The Royal Garden\] (Calcutta: Firma KLM), 22; this is a Persian chronicle written by an anonymous author, published c. 1614, and translated into English in Kashinath Pundit, *Baharistan-i-Shahi: A Chronicle of Mediaeval Kashmi*r (Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2013). [^16]: Mohibbul Hasan, *Kashmir under the Sultans* (Srinagar: Ali Mohammad and Sons, 1974), 39. [^17]: Sikand, “Hazrat Bulbul Shah,” 366. [^18]: Ibid., 367. [^19]: Jamal J. Elias, “A second ʿAlī: the making of Sayyid ʿAlī Hamadānī in popular imagination,” *Muslim World* 90, no. 3-4 (Fall 2000): 397. [^20]: Frode Jacobsen, *Hadrami Arabs in Present-day Indonesia* (New York: Routledge, 2009), 11. [^21]: Freitag, “Reflections on the Longevity of the Hadhrami Diaspora in the Indian Ocean,” 24. [^22]: Syed Farid Alatas, “The Tariqat Al-‘Alawiyya and the Emergence of the Shi‘i School in Indonesia and Malaysia,” paper presented at the conference ‘The Northwestern Indian Ocean as Cultural Corridor,’ Department of Social Anthropology, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 17–19 January 1997, p. 8. [^23]: Samory Rashid, “The Islamic Origins of Spanish Florida’s Ft. Musa,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 21, no. 2 (2001): 211. [^24]: Sylviane A. Diouf, *Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas* (15th Anniversary Edition) (New York: New York University Press, 2013), 212. [^25]: Ibid., 213. [^26]: Ibid., 212. [^27]: Mehrdad Shokoohy, “Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma’bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India,” *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society* 1, no. 1 (1991): 36. [^28]: A. D. W. Forbes, “Malabar,” in *Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition*, Edited by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs. [^29]: Abū’l-Hasan al-Mas‘ūdī, *Murūj al-Dhahab* \[Meadows of Gold\], 2 Vols. (Cairo, 1948), Vol. I, 170. [^30]: Stephen F. Dale, “Trade, Conversion and the Growth of the Islamic Community of Kerala, South India,” *Studia Islamica*, no. 71 (1990): 162. [^31]: Zvi Ben Dor Benite, “Follow the white camel: Islam in China to 1800,” in David Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds.), *The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 3: The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries* (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 413. [^32]: Hyunhee Park, *Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern Asia* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 32. [^33]: Ibid., 70. [^34]: Ibid., 62. [^35]: Geoff Wade, “An Early Age of Commerce in Southeast Asia, 900-1300 CE,” *Journal of Southeast Asian Studies* 40, no. 2 (2009): 231. [^36]: Michael Flecker, “A ninth century AD Arab or Indian shipwreck in Indonesia: First evidence for direct trade with China,” *World Archaeology* 32, no. 3 (2001): 335-54. [^37]: S. Setudeh-Nejad, “The Cham Muslims of Southeast Asia: A Historical Note,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 22, no. 2 (2002): 452. [^38]: Geoff Wade, “Early Muslim expansion in South-East Asia, eighth to fifteenth centuries,” in *The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 3: The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries*, eds. David Morgan and Anthony Reid (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 402. [^39]: Engseng Ho, *The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean* (Los Angeles: University of California Press), 48. [^40]: Freitag, “Reflections on the Longevity of the Hadhrami Diaspora in the Indian Ocean,” 24. [^41]: Ibid. [^42]: Armando Cortesão, *The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires*, 1512-1515 (Laurier Books Ltd., 1990), lxxv. [^43]: M. Hadzijahic and N. Šukric, *Islam I Muslimani u Bosni I Hercegovini* \[Islam and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina\] (Sarajevo: Starješinstvo Islamske Zajednice, 1977), 21. [^44]: Smail Balic, “Islam in Eastern and South-East Europe,” in Idris El Hareir and El Hadji Ravane M’Baye (eds.), *The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture, Volume Three: The Spread of Islam Throughout the World* (Paris: UNESCO, 2011), 788. [^45]: Katarína Štulrajterová, “Convivenza, Convenienza and Conversion: Islam in Medieval Hungary (1000-1400 CE),” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 24, no. 2 (2013): 182-3. [^46]: Nora Berend, “A Note on the End of Islam in Medieval Hungary: Old Mistakes and Some New Results,” *Journal of Islamic Studies* 25, no. 2 (2014): 206. [^47]: Waines, *The Odyssey of Ibn Battuta*, 85-90. [^48]: H. Neville Chittick, “The East Coast, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean,” in Roland Oliver (ed.), *The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 3: From c. 1050 to c. 1600* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 201-4. [^49]: Hamad S. Ndee, “Islam and Islamic Culture: Earliest Foreign Influences on Physical Activity in Pre-Colonial East Africa,” *The International Journal of the History of Sport* 27, no. 5 (2010): 804. [^50]: Martin Meredith, *The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor* (London, UK: Simon & Schuster, 2014), 70-79. [^51]: Michael Brett, “Egypt”, in Chase F. Robinson (ed.), *The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries* (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 557. [^52]: Ibid. [^53]: Eric Ross, “A Historical Geography of the Trans-Saharan Trade,” in Graziano Krätli and Ghislaine Lydon (eds.), *The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa* (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 15. [^54]: Ibid., 16. [^55]: For an account of Barth’s travels, see Steve Kemper, *A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa* (W.W. Norton & Company, 2012). [^56]: Lings, *Muhammad*, 81. [^57]: Diouf, *Servants of Allah*, 70. [^58]: Ibid. [^59]: Samory Rashid, “The Islamic Origins of Spanish Florida’s Ft. Musa,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 21, no. 2 (2001): 209. [^60]: Dalia Mogahed and Youssef Chouhoud, *American Muslim Poll 2017: Muslims at The Crossroads* (Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 2017); retrieved from [https://www.ispu.org/american-muslim-poll-2017-key-findings/](https://www.ispu.org/american-muslim-poll-2017-key-findings/). [^61]: Ira M. Lapidus, *A History of Islamic Societies* (2nd ed.) (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 760. [^62]: Markus Vink, ““The World’s Oldest Trade”: Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century,” *Journal of World History* 14, no. 2 (2003): 139. [^63]: Ibid., 148. [^64]: Gerrie Lubbe, “Tuan Guru: Prince, Prisoner, Pioneer,” *Religion in South Africa* 7, no. 1 (1986): 25. [^65]: Roman Loimeier, “Africa south of the Sahara to the First World War,” in Francis Robinson (ed.), *The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 5: The Islamic World in the Age of Western Dominance* (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 293. [^66]: Ibid. [^67]: Jan Ali, “Islam and Muslims in Fiji,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 24, no. 1 (2004): 141. [^68]: Anwarul Q. Rathur, “Muslim Encounter Down Under: Islam in Western Australia,” *Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs Journal* 1, no. 1 (1979): 103. [^69]: Hassam Munir, “Meet Ali Abouchadi, the trailblazing Canadian Muslim,” *iHistory*, retrieved from [http://www.ihistory.co/ali-ahmed-abouchadi/](http://www.ihistory.co/ali-ahmed-abouchadi/); see also, Peter Baker, *Memoirs of an Arctic Arab: A Free Trader in the Canadian North, The Years 1907-1927* (Yellowknife Publishing Company, 1976). [^70]: Maya Shatzmiller, “Marriage, Family, and the Faith: Women’s Conversion to Islam,” *Journal of Family History* 21, no. 3 (July 1996): 235. [^71]: Eduardo Manzano Moreno, “The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa,” in Chase F. Robinson (ed.), *The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries* (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 587. [^72]: See, for details, Simon Barton, “Marriage across frontiers: sexual mixing, power and identity in medieval Iberia,” *Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies* 3, no. 1 (2011): 1-25. [^73]: David James, *Early Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn al-Quṭiya* (New York: Routledge, 2009), 50-51. [^74]: Moreno, “The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa,” 586-7. [^75]: Eric Dursteler, “Fatima Hatun née Beatrice Michiel: Renegade Women in the Early Modern Mediterranean,” *The Medieval History Journal* 12, no. 2 (2009): 375. [^76]: Ibid., 372. [^77]: Gabriella Erdélyi, “Turning Turk as a Rational Decision in the Hungarian-Ottoman Frontier Zone,” *The Hungarian Historical Review* 4, no. 2 (2015): 333. [^78]: Ibid., 323. [^79]: Charu Gupta, “Intimate Desires: Dalit Women and Religious Conversions in Colonial India,” *The Journal for Asian Studies* 73, no. 3 (August 2014): 678. [^80]: Ibid. [^81]: Lawrence Oschinsky, “Islam in Chicago: Being a Study of the Acculturation of a Muslim Palestinian Community in that City,” MA thesis (University of Chicago, 1947), 35. [^82]: Jonathan Friedlander, “The Yemenis of Delano: A Profile of a Rural Islamic Community,” in *Muslim Communities in North America*, eds. Y.Y. Haddad and J. I. Smith (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 441. [^83]: Patrick D. Bowen, “U.S. Latina/o Muslims Since 1920: From ‘Moors’ to ‘Latino Muslims,’” *Journal of Religious History* 37, no. 2 (June 2013): 181. [^84]: Ibid. [^85]: Anita M. Weiss, “South Asian Muslims in Hong Kong: creation of ‘local boy’ identity,”  *Modern Asian Studies*, 25, no. 3 (1991): 432. [^86]: Sithi Hawwa, “From Cross to Crescent: religious conversion of Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong,” *Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations* 11, no. 3 (2000):  353. [^87]: Martin Lings, *Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1991), 109-10. [^88]: Zafar Bangash, *Power Manifestations of the Sīrah: Examining the Letters and Treaties of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)* (Richmond Hill: Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, 2011), 225-6. [^89]: Hugh Kennedy, *The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In* (Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2007), 93. [^90]: Thomas A. Carlson, “The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 600-1500,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society* 135, no. 4 (2015): 791. [^91]: David Cook, “The Beginnings of Islam in Syria during the Umayyad Period,” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2002, p. 280. [^92]: Chase F. Robinson, *ʿAbd al-Malik* (London: Oneworld Publications, 2012), ch. 6. [^93]: Tan Ta Sen, *Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia* (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009), 171. [^94]: For a detailed discussion about these contributions, see Kong Yuanzhi, “On the Relationship between Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia,” *Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia* 10 (2008), [https://kyotoreview.org/issue-10/on-the-relationship-between-cheng-ho-and-islam-in-southeast-asia/](https://kyotoreview.org/issue-10/on-the-relationship-between-cheng-ho-and-islam-in-southeast-asia/). [^95]: This is based on the CIA Factbook’s estimate for 2014. [^96]: Dawn-Marie Gibson, *A History of the Nation of Islam: Race, Islam and the Quest for Freedom* (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2012), 77. [^97]: Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, *A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 288. [^98]: Felicitas Becker, “Commoners in the process of Islamization: reassessing their role in the light of evidence from southeastern Tanzania,” *Journal of World History 3* (2008): 236. [^99]: Ibid., 239. [^100]: Ibid. [^101]: Patricia Crone, *Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 237 n. 358. [^102]: John Nawas, “A Client’s Client: The Process of Islamization in Early and Classical Islam,” *Journal of Abbasid Studies 1* (2014): 144. [^103]: Alwyn Harrison, “Behind the Curve: Bulliet and Conversion to Islam in al-Andalus Revisited,” *Al-Masāq* 24, no. 1 (2012): 39. [^104]: Richard W. Bulliet, *Conversion to Islam In the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History* (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), 28. [^105]: Bahjat Kamil Abd al-Latif, “The Prophet Muhammad and the Universal Message of Islam,” in Idris El Hareir and El Hadji Ravane M’Baye (eds.), *The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture, Volume Three: The Spread of Islam Throughout the World* (Paris: UNESCO, 2011), 39. [^106]: Richard M. Eaton, *The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 127. [^107]: Ahmed Afzaal, “The Origin of Islam as a Social Movement,” *Islamic Studies* 42, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 225. [^108]: See, for example, Fred M. Donner, *Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam* (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010), 41. [^109]: Ismā‘īl ibn Kathīr, Trevor Le Gassick (trans.), and Ahmed Fareed (ed.), *The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, Volume I: Al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya* (Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 1998), 358. [^110]: Abdallah Salem al-Zelitny, “Islam in Afghanistan,” in Idris El Hareir and El Hadji Ravane M’Baye (eds.), *The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture, Volume Three: The Spread of Islam throughout the World* (Paris: UNESCO, 2011), 595-6. [^111]: Peter Hardy, “Modern European and Muslim Explanations of Conversion to Islam in South Asia: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature,” *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,* no. 2 (1977): 188; Niharranjan Ray, “Medieval Bengali Culture,” *Visva Bharati Quarterly* 11, no. 2 (1945): 49. [^112]: Guity Nashat, “Women in the Middle East, 8,000 BCE to 1700 CE,” in Teresa A. Meade and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (eds.), *A Companion to Gender History* (Oxford: Wiley, 2004), 245-6. [^113]: Dursteler, “Fatima Hatun,” 363. [^114]: Ibid. [^115]: David Motadel, *Islam and Nazi Germany’s War* (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014), 213. [^116]: Ibid. [^117]: Mark S. Hamm, “Prisoner Radicalization and Sacred Terrorism: A Life Course Perspective,” in Richard Rosenfeld, Kenna Quinet, and Crystal Garcia (eds.), *Contemporary Issues in Criminology Theory and Research: The Role of Social Institutions* (Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012), 174. [^118]: SpearIt, *American Prisons: A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion to Islam* (Sarasota: First Edition Design Publishing, 2017), 13. [^119]: SpearIt, “Muslim Radicalization in Prison: Responding with Sound Penal Policy or the Sound of Alarm?” *Gonzaga Law Review* 49, no. 1 (2014): 37. [^120]: Selçuk Esenbel, “Fukushima Yasumasa and Utsunomiya Tarō on the Edge of the Silk Road: Pan-Asian Visions and the Network of Military Intelligence from the Ottoman and Qajar Realms into Central Asia,” in Selçuk Esenbel (ed.), *Japan on the Silk Road: Encounters and Perspectives of Politics and Culture in Eurasia* (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 103. [^121]: Mikiya Koyagi, “The Hajj by Japanese Muslims in the Interwar Period: Japan’s Pan-Asianism and Economic Interests in the Islamic World,” *Journal of World History* 24, no. 4 (2013): 859. [^122]: Ibid., 850. [^123]: Ismāʿīl Nawwāb, “A Matter of Love: Muhammad Asad and Islam,” *Islamic Studies* 39, no. 2 (2000): 230. [^124]: Ibid., 171. [^125]: Malcolm X, *The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley* (New York: Ballantine Books, 1973), 396. [^126]: One person who was drawn to Mali based on reports he had heard was the famous traveler Ibn Battūtah, who visited in 1352; see David Waines, *The Odyssey of Ibn Battuta: Uncommon Tales of a Medieval Adventurer* (London: I.B. Taurus, 2010), 172. [^127]: John Hunwick, *Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Saʿdī’s Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān Down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents* (Leiden: Brill, 2003), lvi. [^128]: Brent Singleton, “That Ye May Know Each Other”: Late Victorian Interactions between British and West African Muslims,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 29, no. 3 (2009): 374. [^129]: Ibid., 376. [^130]: “Sierra Leone Mohammedan in Liverpool,” *Sierra Leone Weekly News*, February 3, 1894, p. 5. [^131]: Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, “Islam and the Cultural Imperative,” Nawawi Foundation, 2004, p. 1, retrieved via the University of Alberta from [http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist347/additional%20rdgs/article%20culture%20imperative.pdf](http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist347/additional%20rdgs/article%20culture%20imperative.pdf). [^132]: Taqī al-Dīn ibn Taymīyah, in Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Qāsim (ed.), *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà*, v. 29 (Madīnah: Majmaʻ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʻat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 16-17. [^133]: Richard M. Eaton, *The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 315. [^134]: See, for example, Gabriele Marranci, “Multiculturalism, Islam and the Clash of Civilizations Theory: Rethinking Islamophobia,” *Culture and Religion* 5, no. 1 (2004). [^135]: For a discussion on the merits and shortcomings of Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony, see T. J. Jackson Lears, “The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities,” *The American Historical Review* 90, no. 3 (1985): 567-593. [^136]: Ronit Ricci, “Translating Conversion in South and Southeast Asia: The Islamic *Book of One Thousand Questions* in Javanese, Tamil and Malay,” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2006, p. 3. [^137]: Ronit Ricci, “Conversion to Islam on Java and the *Book of One Thousand Questions*,” *Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde* 146, no. 1 (2009): 28-9. [^138]: Becker, “Commoners in the process of Islamization,” 233. [^139]: Michael Lambek, “Certain Knowledge, Contestable Authority: Power and Practice on the Islamic Periphery,” *American Ethnologist* 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 34. [^140]: Ishayahu Landa, “New Light on Early Mongol Islamisation: The Case of Arghun Aqa’s Family,” *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society* 28, no. 1 (2018): 77. [^141]: Yoni Brack, “A Mongol Princess Making Hajj: The Biography of El Qutlugh Daughter of Abagha Ilkhan (r. 1265-82),” *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society* 21, no. 3 (2011): 333. [^142]: Ibid., 358-9. [^143]: Ibid., 334. [^144]: The exact date of Cobbold’s conversation of the Pope is not recorded, though it must have occurred before the publication of her book, *Pilgrimage to Mecca*,  in 1934, since she mentioned it therein. [^145]: Marcia Hermansen, “Roads to Mecca: Conversion Narratives of European and Euro-American Muslims,” *The Muslim World* 89, no. 1 (January 1999): 60. [^146]: Thomas A. Carlson, “When did the Middle East become Muslim? Trends in the study of Islam's “age of conversions,” *History Compass* 16 (2018): 4-5. ## Summary The historical evidence gathered by scholars firmly rejects the notion that Islam's global prevalence—professed by an estimated 1.8 billion people as of 2015—can be attributed to forced conversion or that "Islam was spread by the sword." While it cannot be denied that rare, exceptional cases of forced conversion may have occurred, such acts stood in blatant violation of clear Islamic directives. The truer picture is one of remarkable complexity, in which many intertwined factors carried the message of Islam across the world and drew countless people, each with their own reasons, into the faith. As the historian Richard Eaton observed, "Islam was history's first truly global civilization," and understanding how this came to be requires looking beyond simplistic slogans. Foremost among the means by which the message reached non-Muslims was daʿwah, the act of inviting others to Islam, which flows naturally from the believer's concern for the salvation of humanity. Allah commands, "Invite all to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice" (Qur'an 16:125), and describes the Prophet ﷺ as "a caller to [the Way of] Allah by His command, and a beacon of light" (Qur'an 33:45-46). An early example is Muʿādh ibn Jabal, whom the Prophet ﷺ sent to Yemen, praising him as "my best man" and instructing him, according to Ibn Ishaq, "Be tolerant, not harsh; spread the word, and do not alienate them"—a narration also recorded by Bukhari and Muslim. Sufi Muslims played a widely recognized role in this work, as seen in the Islamization of Central Asia, Kashmir—where the Buddhist ruler Rinchen embraced Islam in 1323 at the hands of the traveling scholar Bulbul Shah—and Southeast Asia through the Baʿ Alawi order of Hadramawt. The severity of measures taken by Spanish colonial authorities against Muslim slaves, including boiling one runaway to death in Costa Rica in 1540, testifies indirectly to how effective such daʿwah efforts were. Trade served as another powerful avenue, fitting given that the Prophet ﷺ himself was once a merchant. Muslim traders exposed distant peoples to their beliefs along the Silk Road, across the Indian Ocean, and through the spice trade. Early Muslim communities emerged on the Malabar Coast of India—home to the Cheraman Jamiʿ Masjid, believed built by traders in 630—and in China, where the Great Mosque of Xi'an stands at the easternmost point of the Silk Road. The Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 shifted trade routes to the Red Sea, greatly accelerating the Islamization of Southeast Asia, which today holds some 250 million Muslims. As Ulrike Freitag noted, conversion to the faith of prosperous merchants "held advantages such as the promise of becoming part of an international commercial network." Trade likewise carried Islam into Eastern Europe, and into East, Central, and West Africa, where the baqt peace agreement in Sudan, honored for six centuries, allowed Muslims to travel freely and gradually introduce the faith. Migration, both forced and voluntary, further spread Islam. The earliest Muslim presence outside Arabia was the group who sought refuge in Abyssinia at the Prophet's ﷺ instruction, where Jaʿfar ibn Abi Talib gave effective daʿwah to the Negus. The Transatlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades brought Muslims to the Americas and to South Africa—where exiled scholars such as Shaykh Yusuf al-Maqassari and Tuan Guru, who founded Cape Town's first madrasah in 1793, established the roots of the faith. Voluntary migration since the nineteenth century, as with Afghan cameleers in Australia and Lebanese immigrants in Canada, spread Islam to nearly every corner of the globe. Intermarriage also drew many into the faith, though this area, largely concerning women converts, has only recently received scholarly attention. It shaped the early Muslim community in Spain—the descendants of Sarah of the Visigothic royal family formed leading Muslim families of Seville, producing the scholar Ibn al-Qutiya (d. 971)—and it appears in Ottoman, Indian, and modern contexts alike, where the conversion of one woman would often lead to a chain of conversions within her family. The conversion of influencers likewise drew their followers closer to Islam. When the chieftain Saʿd ibn Muʿadh embraced Islam, his entire clan followed by nightfall. The Prophet ﷺ sent letters to rulers of neighboring lands, acknowledging their sway over their people. Later figures such as ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan institutionalized Islam in Sham, the Chinese admiral Cheng Ho spread it through Southeast Asia, and in modern times Warith Deen Muhammad led an estimated 70,000 followers from the Nation of Islam into orthodox Islam. Yet influencers were not always privileged; humble "field-teachers" spread Islam in rural Tanzania, and the mawali system of patronage created a "snowball effect" of conversions. Richard Bulliet's quantitative study showed that conversion followed a slow, S-shaped curve, implying that people converted chiefly through personal interaction with Muslims. As for why people accepted the message, three prominent motivations stand out. First, Islam's emphasis on justice appealed powerfully to the disadvantaged, for from its inception it showed great concern for the poor and marginalized—many of the earliest Companions were themselves oppressed in Makkan society. Yet such conversions were not merely for convenience; martyrs like Yasir and Sumayyah bint Khayyat endured torture unto death, showing genuine conviction. This appeal drew lower-caste Hindus in South Asia, Christian women in the Ottoman Empire seeking legal protection, Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Yugoslavia, and prisoners in America today. Second, Islam's emphasis on unity, embodied in salah and hajj, bound distant converts to the global ummah. Converts such as Muhammad Asad and Malcolm X described the profound affirmation they found in pilgrimage—Malcolm X remarking that conversions "could double and triple" were the hajj's spirit properly communicated—while the famous hajj of Mansa Musa in 1324-1325 opened Mali to scholars and traders. Third, the universality of Islam allowed it to adapt to diverse cultures without erasing them; as Dr. Umar Abd-Allah observed, "In China, Islam looked Chinese; in Mali, it looked African," reflecting the juristic principle affirmed by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyyah that all customs are permissible by default unless proven forbidden. This adaptability is seen in Southeast Asian literature, the local practices of Mayotte, and even the absorption of the Mongols, whose princess El-Qutlugh Khatun was praised by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani as "a good Muslim who often gave good advice to the Muslims." These examples, though not exhaustive, collectively demonstrate that Islam could and did spread by means other than the sword. Its expansion ranks among the most transformative processes in human history—comparable in scale to Christianization or secularization—and it cannot be reduced to a slogan. The complexity of conversion, and the growing availability of converts' own testimonies alongside psychological research, remain rich fields for further study. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Didn’t Islam spread by the sword? Historians have widely discredited this claim. The idea that Islam’s global reach can be explained by forced conversions collapses under the weight of the historical evidence. Islam reached places like Indonesia, Korea, West Africa, and Australia through Muslim merchants, traveling scholars, Sufi teachers, and migrant communities—long before any Muslim military force ever set foot there. A shipwreck found off the coast of Java, dated to 960 CE, contained a stone mold inscribed with the phrase “All Sovereignty is Allah’s”—evidence of Muslim traders centuries before any conquest of the region. The Prophet ﷺ himself instructed his emissary Muʿadh ibn Jabal before sending him to Yemen: “Be tolerant, not harsh; spread the word, and do not alienate them.” ### How did Islam actually reach places like Indonesia, West Africa, or China? The short answer is: trade routes, Sufi teachers, traveling scholars, and ordinary Muslims living their faith openly. Muslim merchants were among the first carriers of Islam across the Indian Ocean. China’s oldest surviving mosque stands in Xi’an, the easternmost point of the Silk Road. On the Swahili Coast of East Africa, Arab and Persian traders established communities centuries before the formal Islamization of the region took hold. In West Africa, two of the first towns to develop significant Muslim populations—Awdaghust in present-day Mauritania and Tadmekka in Mali—were both southern terminals of the trans-Saharan trade route. In Southeast Asia, Sufi scholars who practiced medicine and could read and write drew Muslims and non-Muslims alike into their circles, not because they demanded an audience, but because they were genuinely useful to the communities around them. Wherever Muslim merchants and scholars settled, they brought their beliefs, values, and way of life with them. *Daʿwa* was woven into that presence—sometimes deliberately, sometimes simply by example. ### Why did so many people actually choose to become Muslim throughout history? The reasons varied by person and place, but several motivations emerge repeatedly. First, Islam’s emphasis on justice resonated deeply with the poor and marginalized. In South Asia, where Hinduism’s caste system condemned millions to social immobility, early Muslims carried the message to communities that were despised and rejected—and those communities embraced Islam once they became aware that it was rooted in justice, equality, and solidarity among human beings. In the Ottoman Empire, non-Muslim women sometimes preferred Islamic courts over their own community courts because of the legal rights Muslim women held, including property ownership and the right to seek divorce. Malcolm X embraced orthodox Islam in part because of what he witnessed at hajj: people of every background, equal before Allah. He wrote afterward that Islam’s conversions around the world could multiply if the true spirit of hajj were properly communicated to the outside world. ### How does Islam feel “local” in so many different cultures—Chinese, African, Malay, European? Islam has been described as being like a crystal clear river: its waters are pure and life-giving, but having no color of their own, they reflect the bedrock—the indigenous culture—over which they flow. In China, Islam looked Chinese; in Mali, it looked African. This reflects an established principle of Islamic jurisprudence: All customs are permissible by default unless clearly forbidden. Early Muslim communities typically adopted what they found acceptable in the local culture and refrained from what conflicted with their faith. They exposed the people around them to Islamic values in culturally sensitive ways—they did not impose them. In Southeast Asia, for example, *The Book of One Thousand Questions*—originally compiled in Arabic—was translated into Malay and Javanese and adapted to address the specific questions of local non-Muslims. Islam came to them in their own language and within their own frame of reference. ### Was it only scholars and rulers who spread Islam, or did regular people play a role too? Ordinary Muslims were often the most consequential carriers of Islam. In southeastern Tanzania in the early twentieth century, it was not visiting scholars or political leaders who drove the rapid Islamization of the region—it was what German colonial officials called *schamba-waalimu*, or “field teachers.” These were ordinary villagers who had spent time on the coast, learned the Qur’an, and then returned to their communities to teach. They were neither particularly wealthy nor of high social status, yet they are remembered for taking the initiative to bring Islam from the coast to the interior. A similar dynamic played out in the early centuries of Islamic history through the *mawali* system, in which non-Muslims became clients of Muslim patrons. As they engaged closely with their patrons, many converted—and then drew others into the faith through their own personal networks, creating what one historian described as a snowball effect. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-divine-wisdom-in-allowing-evil-to-exist-perspectives-from-ibn-al-qayyim # The Divine Wisdom in Allowing Evil to Exist: Perspectives from Ibn Al-Qayyim **Author:** Tallal Zeni **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Atheism, Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Paper, Publication **Published:** December 6, 2018 **Updated:** August 27, 2024 ## Introduction In times of despair, we may start to question why God would allow the Coronavirus and other viruses to spread. While we can consider [how the Sahaba responded to a plague](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/the-plague-that-killed-sahaba-and-the-coronavirus/) for guidance, it may also help to understand the Divine wisdom in allowing evil to exist in the first place. *For more on the existence of evil, read* [*Why Do People Suffer? God’s Existence & the Problem of Evil*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil) For a contemporary and detailed theodicy see the newly published book by Tallal M. Zeni, [*Revival of Piety Through an Islamic Theodicy*](https://www.amazon.com/Revival-Piety-Through-Islamic-Theodicy-ebook/dp/B085W4VCC2/). --- ## Abstract The existence of evil in this world has long provided a dilemma for theologians, whether Muslim or not. This article will discuss the theodicy put forth by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. It is based on the Qur’ān, Sunnah, and knowledge of the Predecessors and represents one of the most elaborate and comprehensive theodicies in the Islamic tradition. --- ## Who was Ibn al-Qayyim? Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr b. Ayyūb b. Saʿd al-Zurʿī al-Dimashqī, better known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, was born outside of Damascus, Syria in 691 H/1292 CE.[^1] Ibn al-Qayyim was one of the most important scholars of the late-Ḥanbalī school, along with figures like Ibn al-Jawzī and Ibn Taymiyya. Ibn al-Qayyim’s name is inevitably attached to that of his famous teacher Taqī al-Dīn b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm b. Taymiyya (1263-1328 CE). Although Ibn al-Qayyim had other teachers—such as Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Hindī and ʿImād al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Wāṣiṭī—he dedicated himself almost exclusively to Ibn Taymiyya, after meeting him at the age of twenty-one until the latter’s death. It was only after Ibn Taymiyya’s passing that Ibn al-Qayyim became a prolific author on a multitude of subjects. Ibn al-Qayyim’s writings[^2] spanned more than twenty years. His foremost goal was to explain and establish the primacy of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, that God’s Will is concordant with His Wisdom, and the congruity of reason and revelation. Moreover, he sought to repudiate those groups that denied God’s Wisdom. Ibn al-Qayyim was also committed to refuting what he considered to be extremes in Sufi mysticism, such as monism (*waḥdat al-wujūd*), antinomianism (*suqūṭ al-taklīf*), as well as the notion that mystical unveiling (*kashf*) could result in knowledge that rivals revelation.[^3] ### The theodicy of Ibn al-Qayyim Ibn al-Qayyim’s theodicy was advanced, in large part, in his two books: *Cure for Those Ailed by Questions Concerning Divine Decree, Predestination, Wisdom and Causality (Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl fī masāʾil al-qaḍāʾ wa’l-qadar wa’l-ḥikma wa’l-taʿlīl)* and *Key to the Blissful Abode: Proclamation of the Sovereignty of Knowledge and Will (Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda wa-manshūr wilāyat al-ʿilm wa’l-irāda)*.[^4] The relevant sections of these two works have been translated in *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*.[^5] Ibn al-Qayyim begins by listing twenty-six wisdoms behind God’s creating humanity and making them reside on earth. Ibn al-Qayyim treats the lapse of Adam and Eve not as a catastrophe but rather argues that there are many wise purposes associated with humankind being sent down to this earth. Ibn al-Qayyim also maintains that humanity was given in exchange something better than the Garden: God’s covenant, guidance,[^6] and religious knowledge. He then rejects any attribution of evilness to the Holy Lord, whether in regards to His Names (*asmāʾ*), Attributes (*ṣifāt*) or Actions (*afʿāl*). Ibn al-Qayyim differentiates between God’s acts (*afʿālihi*) and what He enacts (*mafʿūlātihi*) or ontologically wills: “God’s actions themselves (Glory be to Him) are not divided \[into beloved or not\] since all of His actions are beloved and pleasing to Him. Therefore, one must differentiate between His actions and what He enacts. His actions are all pure good, just, advantageous and wise—there is no evil within them from any aspect whatsoever. As for what He enacts, it is subject to division \[into good or not\].”[^7] Ibn al-Qayyim thus affirms God’s Holiness, Omniscience, Omnipotence, Praiseworthiness, Beneficence, and Justice. He maintains that one of the greatest reasons for the Almighty Lord creating both good and evil in this world is to manifest His Names, Attributes, and Actions in a manner concordant with His Wisdom: “If the effects of His Names and Attributes cannot become manifest, except by \[creating\] opposing \[entities\], then His wisdom deems it to be inevitable that He bring them into existence. Had they not been created, then His Attributes would not have become manifest, and this is implausible.”[^8] Of note, Ibn al-Qayyim mentions in *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*: “Due to \[God’s\] love of His Names and Attributes, He commanded His servants to carry out the consequences and requisites \[of that love\]. Thus, He commanded them to be just, benevolent, pious, to pardon \[others\], magnanimous, patient, forgiving, merciful, truthful, knowledgeable, thankful, forbearing, perseverant, and to stand firm. And since God (Glorious is He) loves His Names and Attributes, the most beloved of His creatures to Him is the one who is characterized by those characteristics, which He loves.”[^9] Next, Ibn al-Qayyim moves on to affirm that what exists is either itself purely good, or preponderantly good, or indirectly leads to greater good: “God (Glory be to Him) has left out some things, which may have resulted in wise purposes had He created them, either because of the absence of His love for their existence, or because their existence would have prevented the existence of something more beloved to Him or led to its lapse. In these cases, His wisdom in not creating those entities preponderates over His wisdom in creating them... Consequently, God’s creating and commanding are based upon attaining what is purely advantageous or what is preponderantly so, and allowing the lesser \[good\] to lapse; hence preventing what is purely harmful or what is preponderantly so.”[^10] Ibn al-Qayyim, like Ibn Taymiyya, states: “God does create things that He hates, but He does this only for the sake of a wise purpose that He loves… Ibn Taymiyya \[and Ibn al-Qayyim thus\] subordinate God’s Will to God’s love.”[^11] Thus one may think of God’s Will following what He loves, whereby His Will is concordant with His Wisdom. Ibn al-Qayyim goes on to state that evil can be considered as (1) privation—principally ignorance and injustice, (2) anything disassociated from the Holy Lord,[^12] (3) the perpetration of what the Holy Lord has prohibited, or (4) the abandonment of what He has commanded.[^13] Ibn al-Qayyim then begins to reconcile the existence of evil by stating: “Although the existence \[of a particular good\] may be better than its non-existence, its existence \[in all situations\] may result in forgoing (*fawāt*) something that is more beloved to God. Likewise, although the non-existence of something evil may be preferable to its existence \[in one aspect\] it may be that its existence is a means or a cause that leads \[indirectly\] to something more beloved to Him.”[^14] Within his theodicy, Ibn al-Qayyim also includes many of God’s Wisdoms in permitting the existence of Satan, who is the “basis and root \[element\] of all \[wickedness\]”[^15] in Chapter Seven. For instance, he writes: “The creation of Iblīs and his army has \[indirectly\] led to the establishment of \[waging battle and striving in His path\] and their consequences,”[^16] and “Had those who were faithful and righteous been the overwhelming majority, then the possibility of waging battle \[in His path\]—which is one of the most eminent types of worship—would have eluded us.”[^17] Thus, Ibn al-Qayyim begins to provide a justification for gratuitous evils. Ibn al-Qayyim also emphasizes in his *Madārij al-sālikīn*: “Whoever worships God by striving against His enemy has attained a great share of \[the characteristic of\] being truly faithful. The greater the servant’s love and loyal support for his Lord, as well as his enmity towards His enemy, the greater his participation in striving...This form of servitude \[to God\] is only realized by a few. Whoever has tasted its sweetness will lament the time he spent beforehand \[in heedlessness of it\].”[^18] He also states in *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*: “Complete servitude cannot occur except through true love. True love itself cannot be manifested unless the lover sacrifices all that he \[or she\] possesses of wealth, ruling position, or power for the sake of the Beloved and to gain proximity to Him. And the highest degree of love is manifested by sacrificing one’s life for His sake.”[^19] Ibn al-Qayyim adds that those who follow the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ “carry out \[the Prophet’s message\] by \[spreading\] knowledge, \[performing good\] actions, guiding and advising people, being patient, and striving \[for His sake\]. These are the truly faithful ones (*ṣiddīqūn*)—they are the best of the Prophet’s followers and their leader and imam is Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may God be pleased with him).”[^20] Ibn al-Qayyim also repeats the following *ḥadīth* in *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda* to illustrate that point: “This knowledge \[inherited from the Prophet\] will be conveyed by the successors \[of this Community\] who are upright and trustworthy (*ʿudūl*). They will repudiate the distortions of the extremists (*taḥrīf al-ghālīn*), those who attempt to break up \[the religion\] by negating \[its precepts\] (*intiḥāl al-mubṭilīn*), and the misinterpretations of those who are ignorant (*taʾwīl al-jāhilīn*).”[^21] --- ## Suffering as a bridge to greater good The existence of suffering or evil, according to Ibn al-Qayyim, may also indirectly result in the reformation of society or prepare it for some subsequent good. Thus, the existence of evil may indirectly lead to types of greater goods in response to those evils, and these types, which are beloved to God, would not have otherwise been possible. Ibn al-Qayyim also emphasizes that the higher levels of Paradise can only be reached by “traversing a bridge of hardships and tribulations.”[^22] Finally, whilst the Holy Lord is angry with Satan, the devils and the disbelievers, Ibn al-Qayyim maintains that God’s pleasure with His prophets and saints is comparatively greater.[^23] Ibn al-Qayyim also discusses thirty wise purposes and secrets associated with allowing believers to incur sins. These include: leading to the believer (1) repenting, which is pleasing to God; (2) recognizing his need for God’s protection and help; (3) supplicating; (4) becoming more humble; (5) avoiding arrogance and pride; (6) discounting his own good deeds; (7) carrying more good deeds in order to make amends for his sins and to become closer to the Holy Lord after feeling distant due to his sin; (8) being kind and gentle with others when they make mistakes due to recognition that he has sinned and erred himself; (9) focusing on improving himself thus making him avoid blaming or criticizing others; (10) recognizing that salvation from the Hellfire will only occur if God forgives and has mercy on him; (11) allowing him to allot the occurrence of any hardship as a recompense for his own sins and errors; and (12) appreciating God’s blessing upon him to a greater degree since he recognizes himself to be inadequate, among others listed by Ibn al-Qayyim.[^24] The existence of free will and hardships may enable believers to worship the Holy Lord by their free choice, truly love Him, and carry out His commandments in a wide variety of manners for His sake. The believers will then be returned to Paradise in a more perfect state and will be rewarded accordingly, having performed the necessary good deeds and crossed the bridge of trials and tribulations. By experiencing the hardships of this world first, they will appreciate the eternal bliss of Paradise to a far greater degree.[^25] Finally, Ibn al-Qayyim emphasizes that “We should recognize that everything that He has commanded \[and created\] encompasses far-reaching wisdoms. As for the detailed secrets of these wise purposes, they are not attainable for all of humanity. Rather, God provides insight to those whom He wishes of His creation to what He wills.”[^26] ### Ibn Al-Qayyim considers this to be the best possible world from only some aspects Eric Ormsby investigated Ghazālī’s dictum that this is the best possible world. Ghazālī specifically said: “There is not in possibility anything whatever more excellent, more perfect, and more complete than \[this world\]. For if there were and He had withheld it, having power to create it but not deigning to do so, this would be miserliness contrary to the divine generosity and injustice contrary to the divine justice. But if He were not able, it would be incapability contrary to divinity.”[^27] Ormsby then went on to discuss the various positions held by some subsequent scholars of Islam.[^28] In the pro-camp, Ormsby lists Ibn ʿArabī[^29] (d. 638 H/1240 CE), Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756 H/1355 CE), Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 H/1505 CE) and Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī (d. 1205 H/1791 CE), among others. Suyūṭī wrote *Tashyīd al-arkān fī laysa fi’l-imkān abdaʿ mimmā kān* in support of Ghazālī’s dictum.[^30] Prominent scholars in the contra-camp include Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī (d. 543 H/1148 CE), Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 H/1200 CE) and Ibrāhīm b. ʿUmar Burhān al-Dīn al-Biqāʿī (d. 885 H/1480 CE). Ormsby did mention Ibn al-Qayyim’s name within the list of disputants; however, his position on the dictum was not elaborated upon.[^31] To be sure, Ibn al-Qayyim does not comment directly on it; nonetheless, we may infer his stance from a few passages. First, Ibn al-Qayyim never disagrees with Ghazālī in name, but rather only references Ghazālī when he agrees with him. This is the likely reason that Ibn al-Qayyim, unlike Ibn Taymiyya, did not directly comment on Ghazālī’s dictum. Ibn al-Qayyim uses the word ‘dazzling/wonderful’ (*badīʿa*) fifteen times in *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom* only in reference to God’s Wisdom (*ḥikmatuhu al-badīʿa*).[^32] He never utilizes the word *badīʿa* to describe this world. Third, Ibn al-Qayyim argues that God’s Wisdom—which is an Attribute of His for He is the Most Wise—as well as His Actions are dazzling, whereas that which He enacts, i.e., this world and what it contains, may be divided into aspects that are wonderful or not: “God (Glory be to Him) created three abodes: one that is purely dedicated to bliss, pleasure, delight, and joy; one that is purely dedicated to pain, suffering, calamities, and evils; and one that is mixed having both good and evil, bliss and wretchedness, pleasure and pain.”[^33] Fourth, Ibn al-Qayyim mentions (while repudiating the Muʿtazilī claim that God is obligated to act in a manner that is beneficial and most advantageous (*al-ṣalāḥ wa’l-aṣlaḥ*)) that, in fact, higher degrees of benefit or advantage can always be postulated.[^34] For instance, with regard to Paradise, God’s “Wisdom dictated that He would create and structure Paradise with progressively higher levels, some on top of others, and that He would populate Adam and his offspring \[who are believers\] within it according to their deeds.”[^35] God (Glorious is He) therefore could have created an even better Paradise—having all believers occupy an equivalent superior rank whereby they could enjoy the same bliss—but even in that case, the level of bliss within that rank could be extended to a higher degree. Therefore, characterizing this world or even Paradise as being the ‘best’ is only congruent in some aspects—neither can be generally deemed as such. Ibn al-Qayyim thus maintains that God (Exalted is He) has, in reality, structured both this world and Paradise in accordance with His Divine Wisdom. In summary, characterizing existence, i.e., what God has enacted or willed, as being wonderful is ambiguous, for there is much suffering, evil, and disbelief in this world. Ibn al-Qayyim avoids all that by maintaining that it is God’s Wisdom that is dazzling/wonderful. It seems that the best way to reconcile Ghazālī’s dictum and Ibn al-Qayyim’s position is to state, “What is good in this world is more wonderful than if good existed alone, and God has many dazzling wisdoms in mixing good and evil herein.” --- ## Ibn al-Qayyim’s exposition of the duration of Hellfire Ibn al-Qayyim also discusses at length whether the punishment of Hellfire will eventually end for the disbelievers. Ibn al-Qayyim (as well as Ibn Taymiyya) maintained that many of the Predecessors held that opinion. This represents Ibn al-Qayyim’s opinion in *Shifā’ al-ʿalīl*. That said, by the time Ibn al-Qayyim writes *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala* he puts forth universal salvation. The essence of Ibn al-Qayyim’s argument is that: (1) God’s mercy encompasses everything; and (2) since all of humanity possesses an innately good disposition, after the disbelievers are punished in Hellfire—no matter how long—only their innate disposition will remain, and hence they will be ultimately saved. Ibn al-Qayyim ultimately abandoned a position of universal salvation, most likely due to Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī writing his letter *al-Iʿtibār bi-baqāʾ al-janna wa’l-nār*.[^36] In *Zād al-maʿād*, considered to be Ibn al-Qayyim’s last work,[^37] he states: “Since those who worship others \[besides God\] have a nature and essence which is wicked, they will never be purified through \[the punishment of\] Hellfire… For this reason, God (Exalted is He) has prohibited those who have worshipped others from entering Paradise.”[^38] This, however, does not indicate that Ibn al-Qayyim abandoned his position that the punishment of the disbelievers will end. The punishment of a disbeliever in Hellfire may end in light of God’s mercy, some interpretations of verse 107 of Sūrat Hūd,[^39] as well as other arguments, and God knows best. --- ## Conclusion In conclusion, Ibn al-Qayyim’s theodicy addresses many aspects by which the existence of evil (even gratuitous types) can be reconciled with God’s wise purposes in the creation of this world. Although further work needs to be done, Ibn al-Qayyim provides a theodicy useful to Muslims today since it is rigorously based on revelation and congruent with reason, as well as one, in the estimation of this writer, that is of the most comprehensive of those proposed by Muslim theologians to date. --- ## Notes [^1]: For biographical details, see Tallal Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Knowledge* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2016), pp. ix-xvi. [^2]: Bakr Abū Zayd calculates Ibn al-Qayyim’s works to be ninety-eight, of which thirty are extant. See Bakr Abū Zayd, *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: ḥayātuhu āthāruhu mawāriduhu* (Riyadh: Dār al-ʿĀṣima, 1995), pp. 200–309. [^3]: Ibn al-Qayyim refutes these three extremes in depth in his magnum opus, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, as well as *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*. [^4]: *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda* is considered to be a middle work, while *Shifā al-ʿalīl* is a late one, according to the division of Ibn al-Qayyim’s oeuvre into early, middle and late by Holtzman. See Livnat Holtzman, ‘Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah,’ in Joseph E. Lowery and Devin Stewart (eds), *Essays in Arabic Literary Biography II: 1350–1850* (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2009), pp. 202–203. [^5]: Tallal Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2017), pp. 3-18. [^6]: Ibn al-Qayyim states: “Although God made Adam descend from the Garden, and subjected him and his offspring to many types of trials and tribulations, He gave them something greater than that which He denied them—this being His covenant that He promised them. He informed them that whoever holds on to \[that covenant\] will attain His pleasure and be honored in \[Paradise\]. God (Exalted is He) stated after removing \[Adam\] from it: *We said: Go down, all of you, from hence; but verily there cometh unto you from Me a guidance; and whoso followeth My guidance, there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.* Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda wa manshūr wilāyat al-ʿilm wa’l-irāda*, (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawā’id, 2015), pp. 87-88. [^7]: Ibid., p. 103. [^8]: Ibid. [^9]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn wa bāb al-saʿādatayn*, ed. Muḥammad Ajmal al-Iṣlāḥī, (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawā’id, 2008), pp. 274-275. [^10]: Ibid., p. 98. [^11]: Jon Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya’s *Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism*, (Leiden: Brill, 2007), p. 73. See also Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, Chapter Ten. [^12]: See Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, pp. 24-27. [^13]: Ibid., p. 98. [^14]: Ibid., p. 23. [^15]: Ibid., p. 114. [^16]: Ibid., p. 132. [^17]: Ibid., p. 193. [^18]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1996), vol. I, p. 241. [^19]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*, p. 254. [^20]: Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Knowledge*, p. 73. [^21]: Bayhaqī (*Sunan*) 20,911; Ibn ʿAdī, vol. I, p. 211; Haythamī 601; al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (*Sharaf*), pp. 47-52; Tammām 899; al-Muttaqī al-Hindī 28,918; *Bidāya*, vol. X, p. 337. It is ‘authentic’ according to Albānī (*Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ* 248). [^22]: Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, p. 261. [^23]: Ibid., p. 137. [^24]: See Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, Chapter Fifteen, pp. 239-257 for all thirty wisdoms that Ibn al-Qayyim lists. [^25]: See Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, pp. 3 and 18. [^26]: Ibid., p. 263. [^27]: Eric Ormsby, *Theodicy in Islamic Thought: The Dispute over al-Ghazālī’s “Best of All Possible Worlds”* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 39. For the Arabic, see *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 2010), vol. IV, pp. 319–320. This dictum is within Book 35, which is titled ‘His Oneness and Reliance upon Him’ (*al-tawḥīd wa’l-tawakkul*). [^28]: Ibid., pp. 92–134. [^29]: Ibn ʿArabī’s thoughts were pervaded by monism. It is for this reason that Ibn ʿArabī states: “there cannot be a world more wonderful than the present world (*laysa fi’l-imkān abdaʿ min hādha al-ʿālam*), for it is in the image of the Merciful…We are His external form, while His Ipseity is the spirit which governs the form.” See Binyamin Abrahamov, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s *Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam: An Annotated Translation of ‘The Bezels of Wisdom,’* (London and New York: Routledge, 2015), p. 133. Thus although Ibn ʿArabī’s conclusion is the same, it is based on completely different reasoning than Ghazālī. [^30]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Tashyīd al-arkān fī laysa fi’l-imkān abdaʿ mimmā kān*. This is included as an appendix in *Iḥyāʾ*, vol. V, pp. 369–394. [^31]: Ormsby, *Theodicy in Islamic Thought*, p. 109. [^32]: For instance, he affirms “the complete nature of His dazzling wisdom and overwhelming omnipotence” and that the creation of “opposites is in order to manifest His dazzling wisdom, vanquishing power, accomplished will, and perfect and complete sovereignty.” See Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, pp. 97 and 101, respectively. [^33]: Ibid., p. 145. [^34]: See Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda*, (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlim al-Fawāʾid, 2015), pp. 991–999. [^35]: Zeni (tr.), *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*, p. 15. [^36]: For Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī’s arguments, see his *al-Iʿtibār bi-baqāʾ al-jannawa’l-nār* in *al-Durra al-maḍiyya fī’l-radd ʿalā Ibn Taymiyya* (Damascus: Maṭbaʿat al-Taraqqī, 1928). Also see Jon Hoover, ‘Against Islamic Universalism,’ in Birgit Krawietz and Georges Tamer (eds), *Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya* (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 397–399. [^37]: *Zād al-maʿād* was written after both *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl* and *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala*, and was likely his last work; see Holtzman, ‘Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah,’ p. 217. [^38]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-maʿād fī hadī khayr al-ʿibād* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1994), vol. I, p. 68. [^39]: Q.XI.107: *Abiding there so long as the heavens and the earth endure save for that which thy Lord willeth. Thy Lord is doer of what He will.* ## Summary Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (691 H/1292 CE–751 H), the eminent scholar of the late-Ḥanbalī school and devoted student of Ibn Taymiyya, formulated one of the most elaborate and comprehensive theodicies within the Islamic tradition. Grounded in the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, and the understanding of the Predecessors, his treatment addresses the perennial dilemma of reconciling the existence of evil with the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. His theodicy was advanced principally in two of his works, *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl* and *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda*, whose relevant portions have been rendered into English under the title *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Divine Wisdom and the Problem of Evil*. Throughout his scholarly career, Ibn al-Qayyim sought to establish the primacy of revelation, to demonstrate that God's Will is concordant with His Wisdom, and to affirm the harmony of reason and revelation, while refuting those who denied God's Wisdom and rejecting certain excesses he perceived within Sufi mysticism, such as monism (waḥdat al-wujūd) and antinomianism (suqūṭ al-taklīf). Ibn al-Qayyim begins by enumerating twenty-six wisdoms behind God's creation of humanity and their settlement upon the earth. He does not regard the descent of Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ as a calamity but rather as bearing many wise purposes, holding that humankind was granted something superior to the Garden itself, namely God's covenant, guidance, and religious knowledge. He then firmly rejects any attribution of evil to God, whether in His Names (asmāʾ), His Attributes (ṣifāt), or His Actions (afʿāl). Central to his argument is a careful distinction between God's actions (afʿālihi) and what He enacts (mafʿūlātihi). In his own words, "God's actions themselves (Glory be to Him) are not divided [into beloved or not] since all of His actions are beloved and pleasing to Him... His actions are all pure good, just, advantageous and wise—there is no evil within them from any aspect whatsoever. As for what He enacts, it is subject to division [into good or not]." By this distinction he affirms God's Holiness, Omniscience, Omnipotence, Praiseworthiness, Beneficence, and Justice. A foremost reason for God's creation of both good and evil, according to Ibn al-Qayyim, is the manifestation of His Names, Attributes, and Actions in a manner concordant with His Wisdom. He explains that if the effects of His Names and Attributes cannot become manifest except through the existence of opposing entities, then His wisdom renders their creation inevitable, for otherwise His Attributes would not become manifest, which is implausible. Related to this, he notes in *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn* that out of His love for His Names and Attributes, God commanded His servants to embody their requisites—to be just, benevolent, pious, forgiving, merciful, truthful, and patient—so that the most beloved of His creatures to Him is the one characterized by the qualities He loves. Ibn al-Qayyim maintains that whatever exists is either purely good, preponderantly good, or a means leading indirectly to a greater good. God, he explains, refrains from creating certain things when their existence would prevent something more beloved to Him, His creating and commanding being based upon attaining what is purely or preponderantly advantageous while allowing the lesser good to lapse. Following Ibn Taymiyya, he affirms that "God does create things that He hates, but He does this only for the sake of a wise purpose that He loves," thereby subordinating God's Will to God's love, such that His Will remains concordant with His Wisdom. He further categorizes evil as privation—chiefly ignorance and injustice—as anything disassociated from God, as the perpetration of what God has prohibited, or as the abandonment of what He has commanded. He reconciles evil's existence by observing that although a particular good's existence may be preferable in itself, in some situations it may forgo something more beloved to God, while an evil's existence may indirectly serve as a cause leading to what is more beloved to Him. Within his theodicy Ibn al-Qayyim treats the many wisdoms in God's permitting the existence of Satan, whom he describes as the root of all wickedness. The creation of Iblīs and his army, he argues, has indirectly led to the establishment of striving in God's path, one of the most eminent forms of worship, which would have eluded humanity had the faithful been the overwhelming majority. In *Madārij al-sālikīn* he emphasizes that whoever worships God by striving against His enemy attains a great share of true faith, and in *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn* that complete servitude is realized only through true love, whose highest degree is manifested by sacrificing one's life for God's sake. Those who convey the Prophet's message ﷺ through knowledge, action, guidance, patience, and striving are the truly faithful (ṣiddīqūn), whose imam is Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may God be pleased with him). He cites in *Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda* the ḥadīth that this inherited knowledge will be carried by the upright and trustworthy successors of the Community, who will repudiate the distortions of the extremists, the negations of the corrupters, and the misinterpretations of the ignorant. Suffering and evil, Ibn al-Qayyim holds, may indirectly bring about the reformation of society or prepare it for subsequent good, giving rise to greater goods beloved to God that would otherwise have been impossible. He affirms that the higher levels of Paradise are reached only by traversing a bridge of hardships and tribulations, and that God's pleasure with His prophets and saints is greater than His anger toward Satan and the disbelievers. He details thirty wise purposes in allowing believers to fall into sin, among them that sin leads to repentance, recognition of one's need for God, supplication, humility, the avoidance of arrogance, gentleness toward others who err, and greater appreciation of God's blessings. Free will and hardship enable believers to worship God by choice and to love Him truly, so that they return to Paradise in a more perfect state, appreciating its bliss the more for having endured the trials of this world. Yet he cautions that the detailed secrets of these wisdoms are not attainable by all of humanity, for God grants such insight only to whom He wills. Regarding al-Ghazālī's dictum that this is the best of all possible worlds, Ibn al-Qayyim does not comment directly, though his stance may be inferred. He reserves the term "dazzling" (badīʿa) for God's Wisdom alone, never for this world, and holds that while God's Actions and Wisdom are wonderful, what He enacts—this world—is divided into good and evil, God having created three abodes: one of pure bliss, one of pure suffering, and one mixed. Refuting the Muʿtazilī claim that God is obligated to act most advantageously (al-ṣalāḥ wa'l-aṣlaḥ), he notes that a higher degree of benefit can always be postulated, even regarding Paradise. Thus this world can be deemed best only in some aspects. On the duration of Hellfire, Ibn al-Qayyim held in *Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl* that many Predecessors believed the punishment of the disbelievers would end, and in *al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala* he advanced universal salvation, grounded in God's all-encompassing mercy and humanity's innately good disposition. He later abandoned universal salvation, likely due to al-Subkī's refutation, stating in *Zād al-maʿād* that idolaters will never be purified through Hellfire; this, however, does not indicate he abandoned the view that their punishment may end, in light of God's mercy and certain interpretations of verse 107 of Sūrat Hūd, and God knows best. In sum, Ibn al-Qayyim's theodicy reconciles the existence of evil, even its gratuitous forms, with God's wise purposes, offering a framework rigorously rooted in revelation and congruent with reason. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/can-we-trust-hadith-literature-understanding-the-process-of-transmission-and-preservation # Can We Trust Hadith Literature? Understanding the Processes of Transmission and Preservation **Author:** Mufti Muntasir Zaman **Topics:** Faith, Hadith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 30, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract How has Islamic civilization maintained the rich literary heritage of *Ḥadīth* developed by early Muslim scholars? What guarantee is there that the collections of *ḥadīths* in our possession have reached us accurately and that they were compiled by their purported authors? Far from being exhaustive, this paper addresses these questions. It begins by examining the procedures scholars instituted to ensure accurate transmission of *Ḥadīth* books. It then describes the practice of oral/aural transmission (*samāʿ*) and public reading sessions and their influence in preserving the *Ḥadīth* literature. Thereafter, it builds on three arguments that Ibn al-Wazīr al-Yamānī (d. 840 AH) delineated in response to those who doubt the authorship of the major *Ḥadīth* collections. Before concluding, it sheds light on the usage of *wijādah* in transmission and practice. *Marks of ink on one’s mouth and clothes are emblems of honor.*[^1] \-  Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī (d. 96 AH) --- ## Procedures for preservation The attention and care scholars gave to the vast literature of *Ḥadīth* to ensure that the efforts of their predecessors were not in vain is truly awe-inspiring. They were methodical in their treatment of the *Ḥadīth* literature. They laid out guidelines on issues like book authorization, auditions, and the handling of manuscripts and registers. Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ’s (d. 544 AH) *al-Ilmāʿ ilā Maʿrifat Uṣūl al-Riwāyah wa Taqyīd al-Samāʿ* is among the most prominent titles on the subject.[^2] Despite being an oft-cited authority on the subject, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ was by no means the first to address this topic. In fact, he drew extensively from earlier works like al-Rāmahurmuzī’s (d. 360 AH) *al-Muḥaddith al-Fāṣil* and *al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī’s al-Kifāyah fī ʿIlm al-Riwāyah* and *al-Jāmiʿ li Akhlāq al-Rāwī wa Ādāb al-Sāmiʿ*. At times, scribes devised creative techniques to prevent confusion when reading their manuscripts. For instance, Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 160 AH) narrated the *ḥadīth* of Abū al-Ḥawrāʾ to a student who wrote the *ḥadīth* and further added the word “*ḥūr ʿīn*” (wide-eyed damsel) as a note beneath the name Abū al-Ḥawrāʾ. The reason for this peculiar note was the presence of a narrator by the name of Abū al-Jawzāʾ in the same generation as Abū al-Ḥawrāʾ. To avoid confusing the two similarly named yet distinct narrators, the student diligently wrote *ḥūr* as a note to remind him of al-Hawrāʾ, which is the singular form of *ḥūr*.[^3] Muslims rightfully pride themselves on the countless volumes *Ḥadīth* scholars produced in order to detail the lives of the narrators whose names fill the chains of transmissions of *ḥadīths*. But they did not stop there. They also wrote biographical dictionaries on the lives of the narrators who transmitted the collections that contained these *ḥadīths*. A researcher can easily access the biographical details of the narrators that Abū Dāwūd (d. 275 AH), for instance, cites in his *Sunan* when transmitting a *ḥadīth*. They can also find the biographical details of those who transmitted the *Sunan* from Abū Dāwūd and of those who in turn transmitted it from them, et cetera,[^4] in works written for this purpose like Abū Bakr Ibn Nuqṭah’s (d. 629 AH) *al-Taqyīd li Maʿrifat Ruwāt al-Sunan wa al-Masānīd*.[^5] As such, the major *Ḥadīth* collections were transmitted by people whose lives are well documented.[^6] The tradition of oral/aural transmission (*samāʿ*) ensured the preservation of the literature. *Ḥadīth* scholars disseminated their works by teaching them to students, who in turn taught them to their students, ensuring scholarly supervision of *Ḥadīth* books as they were being transmitted.[^7] Prior to the canonization of the *Ḥadīth* corpus,[^8] transmitting a book for which one did not have oral/aural transmission was an offense not taken lightly in *Ḥadīth* circles.[^9] Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī (d. 507 AH) impugned Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Kāmikhī because he transmitted the *Musnad* of Imām al-Shāfiʿī from a non-*samāʿ* copy.[^10] Abū Bakr al-Qaṭīʿī’s (d. 368 AH) copy of a book was destroyed in a flood, so he rewrote it from another copy. Despite having heard the original from a teacher, he was criticized for transmitting the second copy because it lacked oral transmission.[^11] Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405 AH) announced that he was in possession of a copy of al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl’s *Gharīb al-Ḥadīth* but dutifully added that it lacked oral transmission.[^12] Failure to understand this culture of transmission led Alphonse Mingana (d. 1937 CE) to erroneously criticize the authorship of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. Based on a manuscript—perhaps the earliest extant[^13]—via the recension of Abū Zayd al-Marwazī (d. 371 AH) from al-Firabrī (d. 320 AH), the prime transmitter from al-Bukhārī, Mingana argues that since the chains of transmission include the name of al-Bukhārī,[^14] the *Ṣaḥīḥ* could not have been authored by him, but rather by a later source like al-Firabrī or al-Marwazī.[^15] Apart from the fact that this objection indicates a lack of awareness regarding the methodology of transmitting *Ḥadīth* books, it is problematic on several grounds. To mention one, in addition to al-Firabrī, there are multiple recensions of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* including that of Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil (d. 295 AH) and Ḥammād ibn Shākir (d. 311 AH);[^16] likewise, besides al-Marwazī, there are other routes from al-Firabrī, such as Abū Isḥāq al-Mustamlī (d. 376 AH) and Abū al-Haytham al-Kushmīhanī (d. 389 AH). Based on the chains found in the aforementioned manuscript, if it is argued that al-Firabrī or al-Marwazī authored the *Ṣaḥīḥ*, how does one account for parallel chains through the other recensions/routes from al-Bukhārī that mention the same *ḥadīths*?[^17] Public reading sessions of *Ḥadīth* books also helped to ensure their textual integrity. Apart from the cross-analysis of the auditioned books, details about the participants in these reading sessions were methodically documented. Based on information detailed in manuscript notes and reading certificates, a recent study restructured a micro-history of the reading sessions of Ibn ʿAsākir’s (d. 571 AH) mammoth *Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq* in Damascus, determining thereby “the background of individual participants in terms of cultural milieu, social position, and status.”[^18] Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī’s multi-volume compendium, *al-Sunan al-Kubrā*, is another prime example.[^19] Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) dictated the entire book to a congregation of scholars in 757 sessions. The following are some of the points that were noted after he dictated the 8th volume: the number of sessions held; personal details of the attendees (e.g., names, lineages, and honorifics); the state of the attendees (e.g., who spoke during the dictation); the date of completion; the venue; and the name of the registrar.[^20] Considering the minutiae noted about the attendees, one gets a sense of how scrupulous *Ḥadīth* scholars were in their analyses of the books they were dictating. The fact that *Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq* and *al-Sunan al-Kubrā* are not from the six canonical books is significant as it demonstrates the care given to more important, and less voluminous, collections. The unparalleled audition of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* in Damascus around the year 666 AH headed by the celebrated *Ḥadīth* scholar, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Yūnīnī (d. 701 AH), and the renowned linguist, Ibn Mālik (d. 672 AH), in a gathering of scholars who utilized critically acclaimed manuscripts and recensions of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* for cross-referencing is a case in point.[^21] ʿAbd Allah ibn Sālim al-Baṣrī (d. 1134 AH) is on record for his meticulous treatment of the six canonical books and *Musnad Aḥmad*, spending twenty years in refining and cross-referencing his personal copy of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* with other manuscripts.[^22] --- ## Ibn al-Wazīr’s rejoinder Ibn al-Wazīr al-Yamānī (d. 840 AH) responds to a skeptic by discussing at length why it is unreasonable to doubt the authorship of the major books of *Ḥadīth*. It is beyond the scope of this paper to present his entire thesis, but we will build on three of his main arguments here. First, doubting the ascription of the major *Ḥadīth* compilations to their respective authors if carried to its logical conclusion will lead to doubting the ascription of transmitted books in all other fields.[^23] It becomes nearly impossible for people to function effectively if they maintain such a profound level of skepticism of written sources. Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660 AH) makes a similar argument and then states, “Whoever assumes that all these people erred in that \[i.e., in transmitting these books\] has in fact himself erred. Were it not for the permissibility of relying on these books, countless benefits in medicine, grammar, and language would be obstructed.”[^24] It is disingenuous to accept the authorship of books on history and language, for example, and not the *Ḥadīth* literature when Islamic civilization has given unprecedented care to maintain the latter.[^25] Second, the fact that these books were compiled by their respective authors is definitively known (*maʿlūm bi al-ḍarūrah*) to the point that there is no reason to doubt their ascription.[^26] Two centuries earlier, Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) had already noted that the major *Ḥadīth* books had circulated too widely to have been tampered with or to have had text interpolated in them,[^27] let alone have their authorship doubted.[^28] A brief description of the *Muwaṭṭaʾ*’s immediate transmission may help to understand this better. Muḥammad al-Zurqānī (d. 1122 AH) writes that the following number of narrators, distributed geographically, had transmitted the *Muwaṭṭaʾ* directly from Imām Mālik: seventeen from Madīnah, two from Makkah, ten from Egypt, twenty-seven from Iraq, thirteen from Andalusia, two from Kairouan, two from Tunis, and seven from the Levant.[^29] More than their numbers, the staggering geographical diversity of the narrators demonstrates the point being made here. Taking *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* as a case study, the appended diagrams illustrate how widely it has been transmitted.[^30] Finally, the fact that countless manuscripts of these *Ḥadīth* collections in various parts of the Muslim world concur on the presence of their *ḥadīths*,[^31] and that multiple commentaries,[^32] secondary sources, and supplementary works throughout history all converge on referencing these *ḥadīths* to their respective compilations establishes confidence in the credibility of their authorship.[^33] Moreover, there are numerous cases of inter-textual and contemporaneous citations of early compilations. In *al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr*, al-Bukhārī refers to his *Ṣaḥīḥ*;[^34] in his *Sunan*, al-Tirmidhī also refers to the *Ṣaḥīḥ*.[^35] According to Ockham’s Razor, when provided with two competing explanations, a person should opt for the simpler one. Given the preponderance of the evidence, it is more reasonable, and a simpler proposition, to accept the ascription of the major *Ḥadīth* collections to their purported authors than to believe in a widespread collusion of false attribution. ### The usage of non-samāʿ copies It may be useful to shed light on the concept of *wijādah*, that is, to find and then transmit *ḥadīths* from a collection for which one does not have authorization.[^36] When studying the debate on the usage of *wijādah* as a mode of transmission,[^37] one needs to bear in mind the bifurcation of the history of *Ḥadīth* studies into the era before the crystallization of *ḥadīths* in books and the era after it. [^38] By the early 5th century, it was untenable for a person to exclusively transmit a narration not recorded in any earlier *Ḥadīth* work.[^39] Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (d. 458 AH) writes that during his time if someone were to present a *ḥadīth* that was not already recorded, it would be rejected.[^40] After this point, the primary function of chains of transmission and authorizations was to uphold the revered tradition of *isnād*, which “is a unique source of ennoblement,” and attain blessings by remaining connected to the Prophet ﷺ, because the main corpus of *ḥadīths* was already stabilized.[^41] This explains why over time scholars became relatively lenient regarding the stringent conditions that early scholars placed on the oral/aural transmission of *Ḥadīth* collections. Although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date when this shift took place, an incident involving Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī (d. 576 AH) and ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdīsī (d. 600 AH) hints at this transition. [^42] Following the transition to transcription and *ḥadīth* composition, scholars turned their focus to verifying the authenticity of collections and authorial ascriptions.[^43] The process of evaluating manuscripts involves much more than just relying on their chains of transmission or dating their parchment; rather, Miklos Muranyi explains, it is judged by “holistic study of structure, technique, and scribal notes in addition to comparative analysis of cross-references and collated texts.”[^44] In the 8th century, Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) raised the question of a person who transmits a *Ḥadīth* collection like *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* from his teacher and then finds a copy of that collection, which was not cross-referenced with the teacher’s copy nor does he find an attestation of his audition on it, but he believes it to be an authentic copy—can he transmit from it? Although the majority of early *Ḥadīth* scholars prohibited such a practice, Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī (d. 131 AH) and Muḥammad al-Bursānī (d. 203 AH) held that there was dispensation for him to transmit from it.[^45] Ibn Kathīr adds that he inclines towards this position.[^46] He was not alone in his inclination. Al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) and Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795 AH) state that later scholars maintained much dispensation in this regard.[^47] Accordingly, grafting early disapproval of transmitting non-source copies onto the later (post-canonization) period is anachronistic and decidedly misleading. Apart from transmission, Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ explains that it is permissible to practice what one reliably finds in *Ḥadīth* books through *wijādah*.[^48] Based on scholarly acceptance of a letter the Prophet ﷺ had sent with ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm to the people of Yemen on almsgiving and indemnities, one can make a case for consensus on this issue.[^49] ʿUmar ibn Khaṭṭāb abandoned his own view on indemnities based on ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm’s letter that was found in the possession of his family.[^50] This was also the case with other Companions and Successors.[^51] As Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) explains, scholars from all regions have unanimously relied upon the letter of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm.[^52] The relevance of this discussion cannot be overstated because, as Dr. Ṣubḥī al-Ṣāliḥ points out, after the advent of the printing press, usage of *Ḥadīth* books normatively occurs via *wijādah*.[^53] Early scholars were cautious about the usage of non-*samāʿ* copies out of fear of interpolation;[^54] printing has largely assuaged this concern.[^55] On this note, Shaykh Ḥatīm al-ʿAwnī aptly observes, “It is ironic that critics would object to the validity of *Ḥadīth* books that are found through *wijādah* when the very books they cite concerning *wijādah* are themselves found through *wijadah*.”[^56] That being said, the practice of oral/aural transmission of *Ḥadīth* books, particularly the six canonical works, has continued unabated in various institutions and seminars throughout the world until the present day. ∞ Far from ignoring the literary heritage of their predecessors, *Ḥadīth* scholars expended considerable energy in maintaining its integrity. From the tradition of oral/aural transmission, to careful handling of manuscripts, to meticulous dictation sessions, the Islamic civilization’s unparalleled precision vis-à-vis the *Ḥadīth* literature develops confidence in its authorship within the hearts of its readers. Unwarranted skepticism of such a robust system can lead a person to doubt all transmitted knowledge. More leaps of faith are taken in doubting the ascription of *Ḥadīth* books that were transmitted from their authors by a multitude of narrators hailing from diverse regional backgrounds and were cited by a dizzying array of sources over a millennium than in accepting them. --- ## Appendix: Transmission of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī A central goal of this paper is to establish that the major books of *Ḥadīth* have been transmitted so widely that it is unreasonable to doubt their authorship. Here we will take *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* as a case study to better understand this phenomenon. In his doctoral thesis,[^57] Dr. Jumuʿah ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm studies in detail the various routes and recensions of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. Adapted from his study, the following diagrams demonstrate how widely the *Ṣaḥīḥ* has been transmitted. To be sure, these diagrams are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the actual transmission of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. I have chosen to outline only the chains of the Mamluk era *Ḥadīth* master, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH).[^58] While mapping out his genealogy of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*, he leaves out some recensions and routes. For instance, he transmits the *Ṣaḥīḥ* via multiple routes that culminate at four students of al-Bukhārī, viz. Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firabrī (d. 320 AH), Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil (d. 295 AH), Ḥammād ibn Shākir (d. 311 AH), and Abū Ṭalḥah Manṣūr al-Bazdawī (d. 329 AH), but he does not include the transmission of Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad al-Nasafī.[^59] Furthermore, he identifies nine routes from al-Firabrī, excluding thereby the transmissions of Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Firabrī, Aḥmad al-Firabrī (d. 371 AH), Abū Ḥāmid al-Nuʿaymī (d. 386 AH), Abū Bakr al-Ishtīkhanī (d. 388 AH), et al.[^60] From the wide array of routes that Ibn Ḥajar maps out, I selected only two routes for the purpose of brevity. Hence, from a pool of twelve transmitters in the third stratum of transmission, I settled on the transmissions of Abū Dharr al-Harawī (d. 434 AH) and Karīmah al-Marwaziyyah (d. 463 AH). Figure 1 details the routes from the third stratum via al-Firabrī from al-Bukhārī. Figures 2 and 3 continue further by tracing the transmissions of Abū Dharr and Karīmah al-Marwaziyyah until Ibn Ḥajar. Figure 4 traces the transmission of three non-Firabrī recensions from al-Bukhārī. The biographical information of the transmitters cited in the diagrams is easily accessible. To avoid enlarging the diagrams, their entire names were not included.  ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Figure2_Hadith-Literature.jpg) **Figure 1** ![Figure 2_Hadith Literature](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/image2.jpg) **Figure 2** **![Figure1_Hadith Literature](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Figure1_Hadith-Literature.jpg)** **Figure 3** ![Figure3_Hadith Literature](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Figure3_Hadith-Literature.jpg) **Figure 4** --- ## Notes [^1]: ʿIyāḍ, *al-Ilmāʿ*, p. 173; al-Zarkashī, *al-Nukat*, vol. 3, p. 589. [^2]: See Ṣaqar, “Introduction,” in *al-Ilmāʿ*, p. 22. In chapters 24-26 of his *Muqaddimah*, Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ expands on the subject, and those who wrote glosses on his book further built upon his observations. See Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Maʿrifat Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth*, pp. 128-236. [^3]: See ʿIyāḍ, *al-Ilmāʿ*, p. 155. Al-Ḥasan al-Saghānī (d. 650 AH), who wrote one of the most reliable manuscripts of *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, is noted for his unique style of writing. For instance, beneath the letter *sīn*, he would write a letter *sīn* in a smaller font to avoid confusing it with the letter *shīn*. On al-Ṣaghānī’s style of writing, see Khān, “Introduction,” in *al-Murtajal*, p. 11; Abū Ghuddah, Annotations on *Taṣḥīḥ al-Kutub*, p. 28. [^4]: Many narrators transmitted the *Sunan* from Abū Dāwūd. The most prominent among them was Abū ʿAlī al-Luʾluʾī (d. 333 AH), who heard the *Sunan* from its author numerous times, including the year of the author’s demise. From al-Luʾluʾī, Abū ʿUmar al-Hāshimī (d. 414 AH) narrates the *Sunan*, from whom al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 AH), Abū ʿAlī al-Tustarī (d. 479 AH), and Abū Manṣūr ibn Shakrūyah (d. 482 AH) narrate it. See al-Sakhāwī, *Badhl al-Majhūd*, pp. 61-66. [^5]: Ibn Nuqṭah writes that it is nearly impossible for anyone to encompass all the transmitters of *Ḥadīth* books, so he only mentioned the most prominent among them. Ibn Nuqṭah, *al-Taqyīd*, vol. 1, p. 130. Taqī al-Dīn al-Fāsī (d. 832 AH) wrote a supplementary work on Ibn Nuqṭah’s book. [^6]: Other resources for the biographies of literature-transmitters include the *athbāt*, *fahārīs*, and *maʿājim* catalogs, which ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī (d. 1962) describes in the following words, “*mashyakhah* is a catalog wherein a *Ḥadīth* scholar gathers the names of his teachers and his narrations from them. People later began referring to it as *muʿjam* when they would gather the names of the teachers separately in alphabetical order; thus, the usage of *muʿjams* gained currency alongside *mashyakhas*. The Andalusians use the term *barnāmaj*.” See al-Kattānī, *Fahras al-Fahāris*, vol. 1, p. 67; cf. ʿAwwāmah, *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 2, pp. 420-21, 564; cf. vol. 4, p. 267 \[for the vowelization of these terms, see ibid.\]. [^7]: Brown, *The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, p. 62. [^8]: As will be demonstrated shortly, the shift in scholarly attitude towards the usage of non-*samāʿ* copies was gradual and did not take effect immediately after the period of canonization. [^9]: This was carried out mainly through one of three modes: (1) hearing a narrator read/recite *ḥadīths* aloud; (2) reading a text aloud to a teacher; or (3) being present while a text was read aloud. See Davidson, *Carrying on the Tradition*, p. 80. [^10]: Ibn Nuqṭah, *Ikmāl al-Ikmāl*, vol. 3, p. 283; cf. al-Dhahabī, *al-Mughnī fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ*, vol. 2, p. 500. [^11]: Al-Baghdādī, *Tārīkh Baghdād*, vol. 5, p. 116; Brown, *Hadith*, p. 43; idem, *The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, p. 62. [^12]: Al-Ḥākim, *Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth*, p. 88. On the importance *Ḥadīth* scholars gave to oral/aural transmission, see Abū Ghuddah, *Ṣafḥah Mushriqah*, pp. 99-102, 144-49; ʿAwwāmah, *Maʿālim Irshādiyyah*, p. 188 ff. [^13]: Only 52 folios of this manuscript are available, comprising the chapters of *Zakāh*, *Ṣawm*, and *Ḥajj*, in the Mingana Collection at the Cadbury Research Library. Based on the style of its script and its authorization notes (*samāʿāt*), the manuscript can be dated either to the lifetime of al-Marwazī or the transmitter from him. See al-Sallūm, “Introduction,” in al-*Mukhtaṣar al-Naṣīḥ*, pp. 76-77; cf. Blecher, *Said the Prophet of God*, pp. 5-6. [^14]: For instance, the chain of transmission for the first *ḥadīth* in the chapter of *Zakāh* is, “*Akhbaranā Abū Zayd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad qāl ḥaddathanā Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf qāl akhbaranā al-Bukhārī qāl ḥaddathanā Abū ʿĀṣim al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad ʿan Zakariyyā ibn Isḥāq ʿan Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṣayfī ʿan Abī Maʿbad ʿan Ibn ʿAbbās anna al-Nabī ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam baʿatha Muʿādh…*” [^15]: Mingana, An Important Ms. of Bukhārī’s *Ṣaḥīḥ*, in *The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland*, no. 2 (1936), p. 289. [^16]: Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil’s recension is preserved in Abū Sulaymān al-Khattābī’s (d. 388 AH) *Aʿlām al-Ḥadīth*, one of the earliest commentaries on *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, as the author himself explains in the introduction. While commentating, however, al-Khaṭṭābī generally does not cite the *ḥadīths* in their entirety. See Muḥammad Āl Saʿūd, “Introduction,” in *Aʿlām al-Ḥadīth*, vol. 1, p. 76. For a handful of narrations of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* via the recension of Ibrāhim ibn Maʿqil and Ḥammād ibn Shākir found in secondary sources, see Jumuʿah, *Riwāyāt al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ wa Nusakhuhū*, pp. 145-56, 164-69. The claim that Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil’s recension lacks 300 *hadīths* that are found in al-Firabrī’s recension is an exaggeration. Dr. Shifāʾ al-Faqīh estimates that the number is 46 *ḥadīths*. See Shifāʾ, *Riwāyāt al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ li al-Imām al-Bukhārī*, pp. 62-65; al-Sallūm, “Introduction,” in ʿ*Adad Jamīʿ Ḥadīth al-Jamīʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, pp. 16-17; Mutawalli, *Ziyādāt*, p. 26. [^17]: Al-Sallūm, *Risālah fī Radd Shubah Minjānā*, pp. 9-10. The cited reference is an appraisal of Mingana’s criticisms in *An Important Manuscript of the Traditions of al-Bukhārī*; cf. Brown, *The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, pp. 384-386. [^18]: Konrad Hirschler, *The Written Word in the Medieval Period*, p. 32 ff. [^19]: From the 5th century AH, details of auditions were systematically documented. In addition to the names of the attendees, the date and venue of the audition and the state and sitting arrangements of the audience were noted. See Davidson, *Carrying on the Tradition*, p. 87. [^20]: A total of ninety sessions were held for the 8th volume (i.e., sessions no. 527-617), it was completed on 15/16, Jumādā al-Ūlā, 634 AH, the venue was Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Ashrafiyyah in Damascus, and the registrar was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī al-Dimashqī. See the addendum to the 8th volume of *al-Sunan al-Kubrā* \[Hyderabad Deccan edition\], pp. 346-50; cf. Abū Ghuddah, *Ṣafḥah Mushriqah*, p. 103. [^21]: See al-Qasṭallānī, *Irshād al-Sārī*, vol. 1, p. 40; cf. Zuhayr Nāṣir, “Introduction,” in *al-Jāmiʿ al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, pp. 36-39. Ibn Mālik’s *Shawāhid al-Tawḍīḥ wa al-Taṣḥīḥ li Mushkilāt al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, a grammatical exegesis of difficult passages in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, was an outcome of this reading session. For a study of al-Yūnīnī’s manuscript of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*, see Jumuʿah, *Riwāyāt*, p. 663 ff. [^22]: See al-Kattānī, *Fahras al-Fahāris*, vol. 1, p. 198; ʿAwwāmah, “Introduction,” in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, pp. 99-103. [^23]: Ibn al-Wazīr, *al-ʿAwāṣim wa al-Qawāṣim*, vol. 1, pp. 302-4. Also see Motzki, The Question of the Authenticity of Muslim Traditions Reconsidered: A Review Article, in *Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins*, pp. 242-44. [^24]: See al-Burzulī, *Jāmiʿ Masāʾil al-Ahkām*, vol. 1, p. 79. [^25]: Al-Zarkashī explains that scholars were more meticulous in their treatment of *Ḥadīth* manuscripts than any other genre, including books of Islamic law. See al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 1, p. 572. [^26]: Ibn al-Wazīr, *al-ʿAwāṣim wa al-Qawāṣim*, vol. 1, p. 306. [^27]: Ibn al-Wazīr explains that a sign that the major *Ḥadīth* books have not had texts interpolated is the absence of politically or theologically motivated forgeries in an authentic compilation like *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* that would have granted them the status of authenticity. See Ibn al-Wazīr, *al-ʿAwāṣim wa al-Qawāṣim*, p. 306. In a similar vein, the fact the *Ḥadīth* compilers cited defective chains is an indication that they did not fabricate the reports they transmitted. In the case of the *Muwaṭṭaʾ*, for instance, Harald Motzki explains, if Mālik was fabricating Prophetic *ḥadīths* to support his positions, why would he then quote the opinions of al-Zuhrī and not project them also as Prophetic reports? Furthermore, if Mālik—as well as the other compilers—forged the *ḥadīths* in the *Muwaṭṭaʾ*, why would he cite broken chains of transmission for certain *ḥadīths* and not embellish them as continuous chains? This demonstrates that they were reliably transmitting what they heard from their informants. See Motzki, *The Jurisprudence of Ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī: A Source-critical Study*, pp. 21-22. For an answer to a potential objection to this line of reasoning, see al-Aʿẓamī, *Studies in Early Ḥadīth Literature*, pp. 219-22. [^28]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Maʿrifah Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth*, p. 17. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s concerns regarding the grading of *ḥadīths* that were not graded by earlier scholars due to the unsatisfactory state of the transmitters are to be understood in reference to rare *Ḥadīth* collections (*ajzāʾ*) that were not adequately transmitted, not the major books of *Ḥadīth*. For more on this, see ʿAwwāmah, Annotations on *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 2, p. 539 ff. [^29]: Al-Zurqānī, *Sharḥ al-Muwaṭṭaʾ*, pp. 5-6; Ḥamdān, *al-Muwaṭṭaʾāt*, pp. 77-84. For a more exhaustive list of transmitters, see al-Aʿẓamī, “Introduction,” in *al-Muwaṭṭaʾ*, ‏pp. 188-250. [^30]: Al-Dhahabī does not accept the authenticity of al-Firabrī’s statement, “90,000 people heard the *Ṣaḥīḥ* of *Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl*, and no one besides me remains who transmits it from him.” See al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, vol. 15, p. 12. Shaykh ʿAwwāmah explains that his critique is unwarranted. See ʿAwwāmah, Annotation on *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 2, pp. 365-66. Ṣāliḥ Fatḥī writes that the words al-Dhahabī used here are “*wa lam yaṣiḥḥ* (it is inaccurate),” which is not a criticism of the chain of transmission for the statement; rather, he disagrees that Firabrī was the last to transmit the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. See Ṣāliḥ Fatḥī, Nuskhat Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī al-Aṣliyyah wa Ashhar Riwāyātihī, *Majallat al-Turāth al-Nabawī*, vol. 1, no. 3 (2018), p. 77. [^31]: The Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt catalog of *Ḥadīth* manuscripts lists 2327 manuscripts of the *Ṣaḥīḥ* that were written in various periods of history and are located in libraries throughout the world. See *al-Fahras al-Shāmil li al-Turāth al-ʿArabī al-Islāmī al-Makhṭūṭ*, pp. 484-565. [^32]: Muḥammad ʿĪṣām al-Ḥusaynī provides the biographies of nearly 400 scholars who wrote commentaries, glosses, or related works on the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. See al-Ḥusaynī, *Itḥāf al-Qārī bi Maʿrifat Juhūd wa Aʿmāl al-ʿUlamāʾ ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, p. 6. [^33]: See Ibn al-Wazīr, *al-ʿAwāṣim wa al-Qawāṣim*, vol. 1, pp. 306-7. The author’s summary of these arguments can be found in *al-Rawḍ al-Bāsim*, p. 19 ff. [^34]: Under the entry of ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Bakr, he alludes to the incident of the migration when ʿAbd Allah would visit the Prophet and Abū Bakr in the cave of Thawr. He then writes that he explained this in “*al-Musnad*.” Bearing in mind that *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* bears *al-Musnad* in its title and that the incident in reference is cited in the *Ṣaḥīḥ* (no. 3905/5807), here al-Bukhārī is referring to his *Ṣaḥīḥ*. There is a possibility that he is referring to his other book entitled al-*Musnad al-Kabīr*. See al-Bukhārī, *al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr*, vol. 5, p. 2, no. 3. He also makes references to his other works. See al-Bukhārī, *al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr*, vol. 7, p. 87, no. 387/vol. 2, p. 60, no. 1683; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shāyiʿ, *al-Aḥādīth allatī Qāl fīhā al-Imām al-Bukhārī lā Yutābaʿ ʿalayhi fi al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr*, pp. 21-22. [^35]: Al-Tirmidhī mentions in reference to a particular chain of transmission that “He \[al-Bukhārī\] included it in his *Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ*” which is the earliest contemporaneous mention of al-Bukhārī’s *Ṣaḥīḥ*. See al-Tirmidhī, *al-Sunan*, vol. 1, p. 70, no. 17; Brown, *The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, p. 96. [^36]: See al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 4, p. 338. [^37]: On the scholarly debate surrounding the usage of *wijādah*, see al-Baghdādī, *al-Kifāyah*, pp. 352-54; al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 4, p. 344. [^38]: Shaykh Ḥamzah al-Malibārī distinguishes between what he terms “the phase of transmission” and “the post-transmission phase.” The phase of transmission began in the era of the Companions and ended roughly at the end of the 5th century (with al-Bayhaqī \[d. 458 AH\]), after which the post-transmission phase commenced. He states the early scholars (*mutaqaddimūn*) are the *Ḥadīth* experts of the first phase, particularly the skilled among them, and the latter-day scholars (*mutaʾakhkhirūn*) are those from the second phase. The most salient feature of the first phase is that *ḥadīths* were transmitted therein via direct chains of transmission whereas in the subsequent phase reliance was predominantly on earlier written works. See al-Malibārī, *Naẓarāt Jadīdah fī ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth*, pp. 13-16; idem, *al-Muwāzanah bayn al-Mutaqaddimīn wa al-Mutaʾakhkhirīn*, pp. 57-62. [^39]: It is difficult to pinpoint an exact date for this phenomenon; consequently, opinions vary in this regard. Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-Murābiṭ (d. 752 AH) states, “\[Prophetic\] Reports have already been compiled, and narrator-criticism no longer serves its purpose. In fact, it ceased at the close of the 4th century.” See al-Sakhāwī, *Fatḥ al-Mughīth*, vol. 4, p. 445. Shaykh Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī opines that all *ḥadīths* were recorded arguably by the close of the 3rd century, and unquestionably by the 4th century. See al-ʿAwnī, *al-Manhaj al-Muqtaraḥ*, pp. 52, 61. [^40]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Manāqib al-Shāfiʿī*, vol. 2, p. 321; Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Maʿrifat Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth*, p. 121. For similar remarks, see Ibn al-Jawzī, *al-Mawḍūʿāt*, vol. 1, p. 99; al-Zaylaʿī, *Naṣb al-Rāyah*, vol. 1, p. 335 \[summary of Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī’s treatise\]; al-Rāzī, *al-Maḥsūl*, vol. 4, p. 299. [^41]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Manāqib al-Shāfiʿī*, vol. 2, p. 321; Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Maʿrifat Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth*, p. 17; Davidson, *Carrying on the Tradition*, pp. 28-33. [^42]: Ibn Nuqṭah, *al-Taqyīd*, vol. 1, p. 328; Davidson, *Carrying on the Tradition*, pp. 92-94. [^43]: Al-Suyūṭī, *Tadrīb al-Rāwī*, vol. 2, pp. 561-63/vol. 4, p. 338. [^44]: Abd-Allah, *Mālik and Medina*, p. 56. [^45]: Al-Baghdādī, *al-Kifāyah*, p. 257. [^46]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bāʿith al-Ḥathīth*, p. 140. [^47]: Al-Dhahabī, *Mizān al-Iʿtidāl*, vol. 3, p. 467; idem, *Siyar*, vol. 16, p. 389; Ibn Rajab, *Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah*, vol. 3, p. 320; Davidson, *Carrying on the Tradition*, p. 95. [^48]: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, *Maʿrifat Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth*, p. 180. [^49]: Ibn al-Wazīr, *al-ʿAwāṣim wa al-Qawāṣim*, vol. 1, pp. 332-35; al-ʿAwnī, *al-Mursal al-Khafī*, pp. 880-81. Shaykh Ḥātim further explains there is no reason to distinguish between transmission and practice. See op. cit., p. 882. [^50]: Al-Ṣanʿānī, *al-Muṣannaf*, no. 17698. [^51]: Al-Fasawī, *al-Maʿrifah wa al-Tārīkh*, vol. 2, p. 217. [^52]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr writes, “The consensus of scholars from all regions upon the dictates of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm’s *ḥadīth* is a clear proof of its authenticity.” See Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār*, vol. 8, p. 37. [^53]: Ṣubḥī, *ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth wa Muṣṭalaḥuh*, pp. 102; cf. Kamali, *A Text Book of Ḥadīth Studies*, p. 21. [^54]: Al-Dhahabī writes, “The criticism of some scholars that these \[the *ḥadīths* of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb—his father—his grandfather\] are in the form of *ṣaḥifah*, whose transmission is via non-oral *wijādah*, is from the perspective that interpolations can creep into *ṣaḥīfahs*, particularly in that era because there were no vowel marks or diacritics as opposed to studying directly from teachers.” See al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, vol. 5, p. 174. [^55]: Ṣubḥī, *ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth wa Muṣṭalaḥuh*, p. 103. On the process of verifying and preparing a manuscript for print, see ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn’s *Taḥqīq al-Nuṣūṣ wa Nashruhā*. [^56]: Personal communication, March 11, 2018. [^57]: Published as “*Riwāyāt al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ wa Nusakhuhu: Dirāsah Naẓariyyah Taṭbīqiyyah*.” [^58]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, vol. 1, pp. 5-7; idem, *Taghlīq al-Taʿlīq*, vol. 5, pp. 444-46; idem, *al-Muʿjam al-Mufahras*, pp. 25-27. [^59]: Muḥammad ibn Ṭahir al-Maqdisī (d. 507 AH) mentions the name of Ṭāhir al-Nasafī among the direct transmitters of the *Ṣaḥīḥ*. See Ibn Nuqṭah, *al-Taqyīd*, p. 31. Ibn Ḥajar explains that the recension of Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Mahāmilī (d. 320 AH) from al-Bukhārī is an error. See Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, vol. 1, p. 5; idem, *Lisān al-Mīzān*, vol. 5, p. 667. Aḥmad Fāris al-Sallūm mentions the names of two more transmitters, Ḥashid ibn Ismāʿīl and Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Jurjānī. See al-Sallūm, “Introduction,” in *al-Mukhtaṣar al-Naṣīḥ*, pp. 42-45. He bases the inclusion of Ḥāshid on a statement of Ibn Ḥajar (*Fatḥ al-Bārī*, vol. 10, p. 234), but in a subsequent article, he retracted this claim. See al-Salūm, *Risālah fī Radd Shubah Minjānā*, p. 5. The inclusion of Abū al-Ḥasan al-Jurjānī also seems to be an error. Al-Sallūm cites Ibn Nuqṭah’s *al-Taqyīd* as a reference, but the passage in question states that al-Jurjānī was a transmitter from al-Firabrī, not a direct transmitter from al-Bukhārī. Ibn Nuqṭah writes, “In his book, Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir states, ‘A group of people narrated *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* from al-Firabrī. Among them were Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥamawī, Abū Isḥāq al-Mustamlī, Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rumayḥ, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Jurjānī, and Abū al-Haytham Muḥammad ibn al-Makkī al-Kushmīhanī.’” See Ibn Nuqṭah, *al-Taqyīd*, p. 11. Given that al-Jurjānī passed away in the year 366 AH, it is far-fetched that he transmitted directly from al-Bukhārī. See al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, vol. 16, p. 247. [^60]: Jumuʿah, *Riwāyāt*, pp. 203-205. ## Summary How Islamic Civilization Preserved the Ḥadīth Literature Among the great favors that Allah bestowed upon this ummah is the preservation of the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ, and the scholars of Ḥadīth undertook this task with a care and precision that stirs awe in the heart of the observer. They did not content themselves with merely collecting the narrations of their predecessors, but rather instituted meticulous procedures to guarantee that these books reached later generations intact. They established guidelines concerning the authorization of books (ijāzah), the auditioning of texts, and the handling of manuscripts and registers. Among the most celebrated works composed on this science is al-Ilmāʿ ilā Maʿrifat Uṣūl al-Riwāyah wa Taqyīd al-Samāʿ of Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544 AH), though he was not the first to write on the subject; indeed, he drew upon earlier authorities such as al-Rāmahurmuzī (d. 360 AH) in his al-Muḥaddith al-Fāṣil and al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī in his al-Kifāyah and al-Jāmiʿ li Akhlāq al-Rāwī. So scrupulous were the scribes that they devised ingenious devices to prevent confusion, as when a student of Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 160 AH) wrote the word ḥūr beneath the name Abū al-Ḥawrāʾ to distinguish him from the similarly named Abū al-Jawzāʾ. The scholars did not halt at documenting the lives of the narrators found within the chains of individual ḥadīths, but they went further and composed biographical dictionaries dedicated to those who transmitted the collections themselves. Thus a researcher may readily uncover the biographies of those who narrated the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd (d. 275 AH) from him, and those who narrated it from them, generation upon generation, in works composed precisely for this purpose, such as al-Taqyīd li Maʿrifat Ruwāt al-Sunan wa al-Masānīd of Ibn Nuqṭah (d. 629 AH). In this way, the major collections were transmitted by men whose lives are thoroughly recorded, and the words of Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī (d. 96 AH) ring true, that "marks of ink upon one's mouth and clothes are emblems of honor." Central to this preservation was the tradition of oral and aural transmission (samāʿ). The scholars disseminated their works by teaching them to their students, who taught them in turn, ensuring an unbroken scholarly supervision over the books as they passed through the ages. Prior to the canonization of the corpus, transmitting a book for which one lacked samāʿ was regarded as a grave offense. Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī (d. 507 AH) censured Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Kāmikhī for transmitting the Musnad of Imām al-Shāfiʿī from a copy lacking samāʿ. Likewise, when Abū Bakr al-Qaṭīʿī's (d. 368 AH) copy of a book was destroyed in a flood and he rewrote it from another, he was criticized for transmitting the replacement despite having heard the original, since the second copy lacked oral transmission. And al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405 AH) honestly disclosed that his copy of al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl's Gharīb al-Ḥadīth lacked samāʿ. It was a failure to grasp this culture of transmission that led Alphonse Mingana (d. 1937 CE) into error concerning the authorship of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Relying upon an early manuscript through the recension of Abū Zayd al-Marwazī (d. 371 AH) from al-Firabrī (d. 320 AH), the chief transmitter from al-Bukhārī, Mingana argued that since al-Bukhārī's name appears within the chains, the Ṣaḥīḥ must have been authored by a later figure such as al-Firabrī or al-Marwazī. Yet beyond betraying an ignorance of the methodology of transmitting Ḥadīth books, this objection collapses upon examination. For there exist multiple recensions of the Ṣaḥīḥ besides that of al-Firabrī, such as those of Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil (d. 295 AH) and Ḥammād ibn Shākir (d. 311 AH), and multiple routes from al-Firabrī besides al-Marwazī, such as Abū Isḥāq al-Mustamlī (d. 376 AH) and Abū al-Haytham al-Kushmīhanī (d. 389 AH). If al-Firabrī or al-Marwazī were the true author, how then does one explain the parallel chains through these other recensions that convey the very same ḥadīths? Public reading sessions likewise safeguarded the textual integrity of these works, for the details of their participants were carefully recorded in manuscript notes and reading certificates. A recent study reconstructed a micro-history of the reading sessions of Ibn ʿAsākir's (d. 571 AH) vast Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq, discerning the cultural milieu, social position, and status of individual participants. Similarly, Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643 AH) dictated the whole of al-Bayhaqī's al-Sunan al-Kubrā in 757 sessions, and after the eighth volume the registrars noted the number of sessions, the names, lineages, and honorifics of the attendees, their conduct during the dictation, the date of completion, the venue, and the name of the registrar. That such painstaking care was given to Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq and al-Sunan al-Kubrā, which are not among the six canonical books, indicates all the more the attention lavished upon the more important and less voluminous collections, as witnessed in the celebrated audition of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī in Damascus around 666 AH under Sharaf al-Dīn al-Yūnīnī (d. 701 AH) and the linguist Ibn Mālik (d. 672 AH), and in the twenty years ʿAbd Allah ibn Sālim al-Baṣrī (d. 1134 AH) devoted to refining his copy of the Ṣaḥīḥ against other manuscripts. Ibn al-Wazīr al-Yamānī (d. 840 AH) offered a threefold rejoinder to those who doubt the authorship of the major collections. First, such doubt, carried to its logical end, would compel one to doubt the ascription of transmitted books in every field, rendering it nearly impossible for people to function. Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660 AH) argued similarly, saying, "Whoever assumes that all these people erred in that has in fact himself erred. Were it not for the permissibility of relying on these books, countless benefits in medicine, grammar, and language would be obstructed." It is inconsistent to accept the authorship of works of history and language while rejecting the Ḥadīth literature, which received unparalleled care. Second, the authorship of these books is known by necessity (maʿlūm bi al-ḍarūrah), leaving no reason for doubt; already Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ noted that the major collections had circulated too widely to be tampered with or interpolated. Al-Zurqānī (d. 1122 AH) records that the Muwaṭṭaʾ was transmitted directly from Imām Mālik by narrators of staggering geographical diversity—seventeen from Madīnah, two from Makkah, ten from Egypt, twenty-seven from Iraq, thirteen from Andalusia, two from Kairouan, two from Tunis, and seven from the Levant. Third, the concurrence of countless manuscripts across the Muslim world, together with the convergence of commentaries and secondary works in referencing these ḥadīths to their compilations, establishes confidence in their authorship, as does the contemporaneous inter-textual citation whereby al-Bukhārī refers to his Ṣaḥīḥ in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr and al-Tirmidhī refers to it in his Sunan. Invoking Ockham's Razor, it is the simpler and more reasonable proposition to accept the ascription of these collections than to posit a widespread collusion of false attribution. It is also fitting to clarify the concept of wijādah, namely finding and transmitting ḥadīths from a collection for which one lacks authorization. The history of Ḥadīth studies must be divided into the era before the crystallization of ḥadīths into books and the era after it. By the early fifth century it was untenable to transmit exclusively a narration recorded in no earlier work, and Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (d. 458 AH) noted that in his time such an unrecorded ḥadīth would be rejected. Thereafter the isnād served chiefly to uphold the ennobling tradition of connection to the Prophet ﷺ, for the corpus was already stabilized, which explains why later scholars relaxed the stringent conditions of the earlier generation. Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) raised the case of one who, having heard a collection from his teacher, later finds an uncollated copy bearing no attestation of his audition, yet believes it authentic. Though the majority of early scholars forbade transmitting from it, Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī (d. 131 AH) and Muḥammad al-Bursānī (d. 203 AH) permitted a dispensation, and Ibn Kathīr inclined toward this, as did al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) and Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795 AH), who noted the leniency of later scholars. To impose the early disapproval upon the later period is thus anachronistic and misleading. As for acting upon what one reliably finds through wijādah, Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ deemed it permissible, and a case for consensus may be built upon the scholarly acceptance of the Prophet's ﷺ letter sent with ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm to the people of Yemen concerning almsgiving and indemnities. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb abandoned his own view on indemnities on the strength of that letter found in the family's possession, as did other Companions and Successors, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) affirmed that scholars of all regions have unanimously relied upon it. This matter carries great weight, for as Dr. Ṣubḥī al-Ṣāliḥ observed, since the advent of the printing press the usage of Ḥadīth books normatively occurs through wijādah. The early scholars' caution stemmed from fear of interpolation, a concern that printing has largely dispelled. Shaykh Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī fittingly remarked upon the irony that critics object to Ḥadīth books found through wijādah while the very books they cite regarding wijādah are themselves found through wijādah. Even so, the living tradition of oral and aural transmission of the Ḥadīth books, especially the six canonical works, continues unabated in institutions and seminars throughout the world to this day. In sum, far from neglecting the heritage of their predecessors, the scholars of Ḥadīth exhausted themselves in preserving its integrity through the tradition of samāʿ, the careful handling of manuscripts, and meticulous dictation sessions. This unparalleled precision instills in the reader confidence in the authorship of these works, and unwarranted skepticism toward so robust a system would ultimately lead one to doubt all transmitted knowledge. Indeed, greater leaps of faith are required to doubt the ascription of books transmitted by a multitude of narrators from diverse regions and cited across a thousand years of literature than are required to accept them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/an-islamic-theory-of-spiritual-personality-four-pathways-to-allah # An Islamic Theory of Spiritual Personality: Four Pathways to Allah **Authors:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 18, 2018 **Updated:** October 6, 2025 ## Abstract Feeling out of place within the Muslim community is a common and often distressing experience. Many individuals feel out of sync with those around them, exhibiting different tendencies and approaches to faith. This sense of disconnection can be isolating and troubling, especially since belonging to a faith community plays a significant role in shaping one’s conviction and commitment to belief. This paper introduces the concept of spiritual personality—a person’s natural disposition that shapes which aspects of Islamic practice, belief, and virtue resonate most deeply with them. By increasing awareness of this diversity, we aim to encourage a more inclusive Muslim community that embraces a range of interests, talents, and temperaments. Drawing on the Qur’an and Islamic tradition, we examine the role of personality in shaping religious expression and propose a preliminary model outlining four distinct spiritual personality orientations. --- ## What is personality? It is difficult to imagine an aspect of our lives that is not shaped by personality. It features prominently in all of our interactions, our choices of friends, the careers we choose and our ability to succeed in them, the types of decisions we make, our personal interests and ambitions, and even the way we acquire and process information about the external world.[^1] Being alive is a complex and dynamic process that requires continuous effort for self-preservation. The world presents us with opportunity as well as danger, and we are constantly confronted with dilemmas in life, requiring us to respond in ways that either achieve benefit or, at the very least, avert harm. In response to such complexity, we develop various strategies to overcome the challenges of life. These strategies ultimately influence our thought processes, emotional experiences, and behaviors, resulting in a set of dispositions and tendencies that characterize our style of interacting with ourselves, the world, and others. In short, our *personalities*. “Personality” is a construct used to account for the variance among people in their behavior, affect, and cognition.[^2] Essentially, it is a construct used to understand why people feel, behave, and think about the world differently. The academic field of *personality psychology* has “never been in better health than at the present time,” with integration of data from neuroscience and genetics, and a variety of tools to measure major traits like extraversion versus introversion.[^3] Perhaps the most famous personality test is the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI), which is based on the conceptual theory of archetypes developed by Carl Jung. The personality theory most commonly used in psychology research is the Big Five model which examines openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (a helpful way to recall them is through the acronym OCEAN). In 2018, a landmark study found empirical evidence for this theory by analyzing data from the Big Five model.[^4] The researchers discovered four meaningful patterns of distribution across the five personality trait dimensions. Sound knowledge of one’s personality is indispensable. It has been said, “A genius in the wrong position could look like a fool.”[^5] There is scarcely a job interview that does not require one to know their strengths and weaknesses. One of the fascinating aspects of the Prophet Muhammad’s leadership is that he always selected people for opportunities that were most suited to their natural talents and skills. Some personalities have the strength to endure the grimmest challenges, some have the creativity to find novel solutions, some have the tenderness to console someone in distress, and so on. These differences we observe are not random variations but result from our innate personalities. Our personality represents our preferred way of  engaging with the world. Frustration and anxiety often manifest when a person acts contrary to their preferred methods. This is commonly seen, for instance, when a person’s job does not align with their personality strengths, resulting in job dissatisfaction.[^6] People who are high in creativity, for example, often feel shackled in jobs that are highly structured, repetitive, and resistant to change. Conversely, someone who is high in conscientiousness may thrive in such an orderly environment. *Find your spiritual personality by taking our quiz [here](https://myspiritualpersonality.yaqeeninstitute.org/)* --- ## Personality in the Qur’an and Sunnah The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described personality differences as being rooted in the creation process of Adam, > Indeed, Allah Most High created Adam from a handful that He took from the earth. So the children of Adam come in accordance with the earth, some of them come red, white, or black, and \[whatever is\] between that; lenient, hard-headed, filthy, and pure.[^7] This hadith is profoundly comprehensive, referencing the fundamental components of the human being. It informs us of the interesting connection between the qualities of the earth and the qualities of the human being. The first category of attributes mentioned deals with the physical body, specifically skin color. The second category of attributes deals with personality, with particular focus on the dimension of agreeableness. The final category, according to the hadith commentator Mulla ʿAli al-Qari (d. 1014 AH), speaks to the *akhlaq* (character) of the human being in reference to spiritual purity and impurity.[^8] Together, the hadith references body, mind, and spirit. The Qur’an also alludes to personality in a few places. For instance, the Qur’an states, “Everyone behaves according to their nature (*shākil*), and your Lord knows who is the most guided” (Qur’an 17:84). Imam al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH) mentions in his commentary that the early scholar Mujahid said that *shākil* means a person’s nature (*ṭabīʿa*). He also quotes al-Farāʾ who said it refers to a person’s way of being that he has been born upon.[^9] In a very intriguing narration about the human soul, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, > “The souls are like troops collected together; those that are familiar incline to each other, and those that are dissimilar are repelled.”[^10] Badr al-Din al-ʿAyni (d. 855 AH) mentions that this analogy means that human beings are of one creation but are of different categories based on their traits (*ṣifāt*), just like an army is made up of different divisions, battalions, and squads that have their own distinguishing features.[^11] Thus, there seems to be a subtle reference here to the diversity of human personality. Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalani (d. 852 AH) describes a variety of views in the Islamic tradition regarding the meaning of souls inclining towards each other.[^12] For instance, al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH) explains that souls differ by various features and those that share similar features are naturally drawn towards other members of the same category. Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi (d. 388 AH) notes that this could be due to the souls having met prior to life in this world, or it could be that their similar natures draw them together. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) derives very valuable social advice from this narration, “One of the benefits of this narration is that if an individual finds something in his heart against a good and righteous person, he should search for the cause of it,[^13] seeking to cease the ill-feeling.”[^14] On the other hand, it is also possible to harbor ill-feelings not because of any fault of the other person, but simply because of differences in personality. Recognizing and being aware of these differences can help purify our hearts from ill feelings toward others. The Prophet Muhammad’s companions paid attention to personality similarities and differences in their observations. One of the most explicit narrations comes from the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, ʿAisha, who made the following comments about the similarity between the Prophet ﷺ and his daughter Fatima. > I have not seen anyone resemble the Messenger of Allah in disposition (*samtan*), characteristics (*dallan*) and mode of conduct (*hadyan*), in their standing and sitting, than Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When Fatima would enter upon the Prophet ﷺ, he used to stand up for her, kiss her and seat her in his place; and when the Prophet ﷺ used to visit her, she would stand up for him, kiss him, and seat him in her place.[^15] Similarly, when describing whom he thought most closely resembled the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Hudhayfa used the same descriptors regarding personality. Hudhayfa said, “I have never seen anyone more similar to the Messenger of Allah in characteristics (*dallan*), disposition (*samtan*), and mode of conduct (*hadyan*) than Ibn Ummi ʿAbd (i.e., ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud).”[^16] These three terms are all considered to be similar in meaning and emphasize personality traits in interacting with people as well as some moral and spiritual traits, such as reverence (*khushuʿ*) and humility (*tawāḍuʿ*).[^17] The distinction between such categories of traits is examined in the subsequent section. --- ## Personality versus moral character As described earlier, personality refers to our preferred behaviours and attitudes for interacting with the world. The key word to highlight is preference, rather than responsibility. In other words, our personality tendencies are generally value-neutral or amoral, just like our preferences for food, scenery, art, and recreation. Furthermore, personalities are generally fixed, difficult to change and as mentioned earlier, attempting to act contrary to them results in negative mental health outcomes. Personality traits might include being pragmatic, ambitious, assertive, submissive, open, cautious, introverted, or extroverted. Contrary to personality, which is generally stable and value-neutral, character (*akhlaq*) is value-laden and can be changed. Our character refers to moral traits— qualities such as humility, sincerity, patience, gratitude or arrogance, hypocrisy, impulsivity, and ingratitude. Developing positive character traits is a task that we have been given by Allah and one for which we will be compensated according to our effort. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “I was sent to perfect good character (*akhlaq*).”[^18] It is known that Allah does not give an individual a responsibility that they cannot fulfill, as explained in the Qur’an, “Allah does not place a burden on anyone more than they can bear” (Qur’an 2:285). Thus, our character—unlike our fundamental personality traits—can be changed according to whether we actively seek to develop it or choose to neglect it. Having said that, a person’s personality can render certain *akhlaq* qualities easier or harder to attain. For instance, a person who is low in neuroticism (a personality trait characterized by a tendency to experience negative emotions like anxiety, worry, and moodiness) may find it easier to be optimistic (an *akhlaq* trait) compared to someone higher in neuroticism, who may be prone to pessimism.[^19] Furthermore, someone who is more introverted may find introspection (*murāqaba*) easier while an extroverted person may find it easier to strengthen relationships with family (*ṣilat al-raḥim)* or host guests with grace (*takrīm al-ḍuyūf*). The distinction and connection between personality and character is described in the story of Ashajj, of the tribe of ʿAbd Qays. When a delegation from his tribe traveled to Medina, they raced to greet the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as soon as they arrived. However, Ashajj stayed behind, knelt his camel, and changed into a fresh pair of garments before going to meet the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said to Ashajj, “You have two characteristics that Allah loves: forbearance (*ḥilm*) and deliberation (*anāh*).” Ashajj asked, “Have I acquired them or was I born with them?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Rather it is something you were born with.” Ashajj then said, “Praise be to Allah who created me with those very qualities which He loves.”[^20] The narration describes forbearance and deliberation, roughly correlating to the Big Five traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness, as being created as part of his innate personality. These personality traits facilitated the virtues he was able to demonstrate when greeting the Prophet ﷺ. These included not causing any harm or inconvenience to others or the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by not participating in the initial race towards him. It also included taking the time to show extra care and respect to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by changing his garments and meeting him in a calm manner. --- ## Personality psychology in the Islamic tradition The Qur’anic terminology for the components of the psyche of the human being includes *nafs* (self), *hawa* (desires), *ʿaql* (intellect), *ruh* (soul), *qalb* (heart), *lubb* (mind), *baṣīra*  (insight), and *shakal* (predisposition). In a previous article, we constructed a model of the human psyche from an Islamic perspective, utilizing many of these terms.[^21] Although there is no specific term used in the Qur’an to describe the psychological construct of “personality,” the concept, as demonstrated in the previous section, exists in both the Qur’an and Sunnah. The first appearance of personality discussions in early Islam comes from the Muslim philosophers who were greatly influenced by Hellenistic philosophy.[^22] Therefore, the terms that were used to discuss personality were mere translations of the terms used by the Greeks. Ishaq ibn Hunayn translated Aristotle’s treatise “On the Soul” into Arabic (known as *Kitāb al-nafs)*. Al-Fārabī (d. 339 AH) wrote a commentary on this work and Ibn Rushd (d. 595 AH) later summarized it. *Nafs* (self), *dimāgh* (mindset), *shakhṣiyya* (personality), and *ṭabīʿat nafs al-insānī* (nature of the Human Self) are all terms that have been used by Muslim scholars to talk about human personality.[^23] One example of a classical scholar who discussed concepts in psychology by utilizing Greek terms is Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 AH), who described disease as manifesting spiritually, psychologically, and physically. > Lust is a spiritual illness (*nafsāni*). But when the disease increases in strength it starts to manifest in the body. It can become a mental illness (*dimāghi*) such as melancholia. And it is said regarding this that the disease of obsessions (*waswāsi*) is similar to melancholia. Lastly, it can be a physical illness of the body manifesting as fatigue, weakness, and symptoms like that.[^24] This quotation shows that Ibn Taymiyya saw parallels between Islamic conceptions of psychology and Greek views, as demonstrated by the connection between melancholia and the disease of *waswās*.[^25] Muslim scholars routinely engaged with contemporary sciences of psychology, medicine, and natural philosophy, critically analyzing opinions in the Hellenistic traditions. Similarly, in our times, Muslim scholars must engage with the modern body of empirical research in the field of psychology to advance the study of spiritual psychology upon the edifices constructed by our predecessors. Personality theory is an academic field within psychology that focuses more on description rather than prescription. This means that they are focused on attempting to construct an objective view of how the mind works without subsequently explaining how it is relevant to the flourishing and growth of the human being. Some thinkers attempt to take these models and derive psychotherapeutic methods and approaches to attain meaning and/or happiness. In contrast, the Islamic paradigm is considerably more focused on prescription, rather than description. The Qur’an presents a system of guidance that is meant to transform an individual through their relationship with Allah. *“This is the book, in which there is no doubt, guidance for those conscious of God”* (Qur’an 2:2). Thus, the Islamic tradition is concerned with how our personalities can be utilized to strengthen this relationship and ultimately grow as individuals. If it does describe the structure of the human psyche, it is more interested in describing spiritual elements and functions of our personality. The purpose of knowledge is to act, and the purpose of knowing the self is to act in its best interests. --- ## Spiritual tendencies In a fascinating passage, Ibn Taymiyya answers the question of whether one should focus on strengthening one’s faith (*iman*) by first starting with abstinence (*zuhd*), knowledge (ʿ*ilm*), or acts of worship (ʿ*ibada*). He replies: > People differ in this regard. From amongst people, some find knowledge easier than *zuhd*, some find *zuhd* easier than ʿ*ilm*, and some find ʿ*ibada* easier than both of them. What is prescribed (*mashrūʿ*) is that everyone acts according to what they are capable of goodness, based on the verse: “Have *taqwa* of Allah as much as you are able” (Qur’an 64:16). So when the branches of faith become crowded, a person proceeds with what is most pleasing to God by acting according to what he is most capable.[^26] Ibn Taymiyya goes on to explain that what becomes the most virtuous action for a person is whatever comes more readily to him and provides the greatest benefit to his faith, even if that action might not be intrinsically better than other actions. For instance, a person who finds voluntary prayers at night onerous might benefit far more from engaging in more recitation and contemplation of the Qur’an or more *dhikr* (remembrance), and these actions may be considered more virtuous for this individual. As a consequence, no one can belittle the good deeds of others, since only Allah knows which of them are most valuable and most virtuous for each person. Moreover, Ibn al-Qayyim discussed the concept of spiritual stations (*maqāmāt*) in his work *Madārij al-sālikīn* and notes that while these are frequently presented in a chronological sequence by many authors, one person may pursue the stations of love, contentment, and tranquility at the beginning of one’s spiritual journey while for someone else, those stations may only be fully actualized at the end of the spiritual journey.[^27] Indeed, even the structure of the cosmos bears witness to the plurality of spiritual personalities. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ informed us, “Paradise has eight gates, and one of them is called Al-Rayyān, through which none will enter but those who observe fasting.”[^28] Each gate relates to a different virtue, and whoever increases in the deeds of a certain gate becomes from the people called to enter it.[^29] Thus, different people may have propensities for different types of virtue and will, therefore, enter Paradise from different routes. Humanity is diverse. We see this all around us in the varying pursuits individuals find spiritually rewarding. Some are more involved in community activism, others in studying the Qur’an, and others in giving *sadaqa*. Many diverse individual paths to God are encompassed by the Straight Path of the Islamic religion. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) writes: > The path to Allah is one path, inclusive of all that which pleases Allah, and what pleases Him is numerous and diversified according to times, places, people, and situations. All of these are divinely pleasing paths, which God made numerous out of His mercy and wisdom for the differences of people in their dispositions (*istiʿdadāt*) and their hearts (*qulūb*). And had God made them all one category despite the differences in people’s minds (*adhhān*), intellects (*ʿuqūl*), and strengths and weaknesses of their dispositions, none would traverse the path to Him except \[a few individuals,\] one by one.[^30] Ibn al-Qayyim then describes how this may manifest differently depending on one’s spiritual personality. He says, “There are people whose chief action and path through which they worship Allah is the path of knowledge and learning.” Such people may spend all their time in this pursuit, exhausting all of their resources and time in the thirst for knowledge of God. On the other hand, there are those “whose chief action is *dhikr*” and “whenever they find themselves lacking in it, they feel cheated and in loss.” Still others may strive towards God with voluntary prayers, others with alleviating the afflictions and calamities that beset people, others with enjoining good and forbidding wrong, others with fasting or reading Qur’an. Some focus on spiritual introspection (*murāqaba*), examining their internal thoughts (*khawāṭir*), and preserving their time from being wasted. And some are able to combine multiple categories.[^31] Imam Malik was once asked why he was busy in circles of knowledge and not other aspects of Islam. He replied by explaining the diversity of spiritual personalities, “Certainly, Allah has divided good actions like he has divided His providence (*rizq*). It may be that prayer has been facilitated for a person, but fasting hasn’t. Another person may have a tendency for charity but not fasting… And I am happy with what Allah has facilitated for me \[the pursuit of knowledge\]. I don’t think what I am focused on is lower than what you are focused on. Rather, I hope that we are both upon goodness and righteousness.”[^32] From the foregoing discussion, we see that people naturally differ in what their spirituality drives them towards, and what activities in the faith they find themselves most passionate about—some towards the social aspects of faith (e.g., feeding the hungry, sheltering the oppressed, etc.), and others towards the solitary and reflective practices (e.g., recitation, contemplation, etc.).[^33] It also influences how they experience spirituality and to which reminders their faith is most responsive. Two people may listen to the same reminder or *khutba* and find different aspects of it more compelling—for one person it may have been a new insight about a verse, for the other it may have been a practical story about helping others. Such differences are captured in the conceptualization of spirituality types, traits, or tendencies that coalesce to form one’s unique spiritual personality. For this reason, it is important for Islamic speakers and educators to diversify their messages to cater to different members of their audience. This is in line with the style of the Qur’an, > And We have certainly diversified in this Qur’an for mankind from every kind of example. But, mankind has above all else always been argumentative. (Qur’an, 18:54) > > And thus we have sent an Arabic Qur’an down and diversified the warnings in it so that they may become conscious \[of God\] or it would inspire remembrance. (Qur’an, 20:113) Spiritual personality refers to how an individual manifests their spirituality. Just as our personalities result in different approaches to relationships and work, our spiritual personalities result in a variety of approaches to spiritual practices, religious beliefs, and identity. For example, there may be some that find the sense of belongingness and community (*ummah*) cultivated through communal prayers (*salah*) and Islamic conferences especially invigorating while others prefer acts of service, such as volunteering at the local food bank. The greatest example of the concept of spiritual personality is seen in the generation of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The companions were not homogenous in the way they served Islam. There were those who were focused on knowledge, such as Abu Hurayra, Asmaʾ bint Yazid, Muʿadh ibn Jabal, ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud, ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas, and Asmaʾ bint ʿUmays. Then there were those who were known for their bravery and courage, such as Khalid ibn al-Walid, Nusayba bint Kaʿb, Abu ʿUbayda ibn al-Jarrāḥ, and al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwam. There were those known for their intense devotion in praying and fasting, such as Hafsa bint ʿUmar and ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs, who also combined the virtue of narrating hadith. Hassan ibn Thabit, on the other hand, was artistic and used his poetry to defend the honor of Islam. ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan was particularly known for his modesty and shyness, and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq was known for his loyalty to, and companionship (*ṣuḥba*) with, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. All of these companions and many more served Islam based on what was facilitated for them from their spiritual personality. --- ## Categorizing spiritual tendencies When considering spiritual tendencies, the most pressing questions that often arise relate to what types of personalities are associated with the different aspects of Islam. What makes a person focus more on knowledge over prayer or charity and activism over knowledge? If we know our personality type, will we be able to enhance our understanding of ourselves, our spiritual strengths, and our spiritual weaknesses? To answer these questions, let us first examine the psycho-spiritual foundations of the human being. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that all human activity goes back to two fundamental processes: the capacity to know and the capacity to act.[^34] The results of these processes are ʿ*ilm* (knowledge) and *ʿamal* (behavior) respectively, two terms that are at the epicenter of the entire Qur’anic and Prophetic discourse on virtue. At any moment in time, we are either acquiring knowledge to build and enhance our understanding of the world or we are interacting with the world to change or maintain the order of things. This is what makes us human. Therefore, any variation in spiritual personality should ultimately be a consequence of variation in approaches to knowledge and action. Indeed, Ibn al-Qayyim describes a categorization of thinking based on these very attributes: > Thinking (*fikr*) is of two types: a type of thinking that pertains to knowledge (*ʿilm*) and recognition (*maʿrifa*), and a type of thinking that pertains to pursuit (*ṭalab*) and will (*irāda*). So that which relates to knowledge and recognition is thinking which discerns truth and falsehood and matters affirmed and negated, while the latter relates to the thinking which distinguishes that which is beneficial and that which is harmful.[^35] How one thinks and approaches knowledge varies between people, and similarly how a person thinks about that which they pursue (goals, motivation, behavior) also varies between people. A close examination of Islamic theology and scripture integrated with psychoanalysis yields two approaches for knowledge and two approaches for behavior, elaborated in the following sections. --- ## Knowledge type: Experience vs. judgment The Islamic tradition heavily emphasizes the value of acquiring knowledge. The Qur’an praises the people of knowledge by bearing witness on their behalf to the truth and mentioning them alongside the angels (Qur’an 3:18). The Qur’an encourages the use of the mind in over 750 places, demonstrating the importance of knowledge in the life of a Muslim.[^36] The Qur’an describes the locus of true knowledge as the signs of God (*ayat*). It is through discovering and interpreting these signs, that we grow in our knowledge of God, drawing closer to Him. One’s learning can be inclined more towards experiences (*aḥwāl*) or judgments (*aḥkām*).[^37] Just as everyone uses both their hands, but some people are right-hand dominant and others left-handed, there is a natural tendency towards one or the other approach to knowledge. ### The experience approach The Qur’an and Sunnah contain many evidences that describe the experiential dimension of knowledge acquisition. In several passages, the Qur’an describes the importance of journeying through the earth, whether to witness the outcome of perished nations or to witness how creation begins (29:20), or journeying in order to obtain beneficial knowledge using one’s heart and hearing (22:46). The Prophet ﷺ also referenced the experiential form of knowledge when he said, “Consult your heart; righteousness is that which grants ease to the soul and makes the heart tranquil. Wrongdoing is that which troubles the soul and causes uneasiness in the chest, even if people have repeatedly given their legal opinion \[in its favor\].”[^38] Another term used to describe this form of experiential learning is *dhawq* (lit. tasting), which the Prophet ﷺ also used with reference to faith.[^39] Through developing one’s spiritual insight (*baṣīra*) into experiences, one may attain realizations “that cannot be acquired or studied.”[^40] Conceptually, the experiential tendency appears connected to the Big Five personality trait of Openness, or the Jungian function of “intuition.” Openness consists of different domains. These include active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity.[^41] For a Muslim, this refers to a person’s creativity, insight, and visionary thinking. People who are more focused on experiential knowledge may find themselves seeking “spiritual experiences” in the world. They search for what can heighten their perception and experience of Allah’s names and attributes, the justice of His commandments, and the realities of the next life. For instance, Ḥātim al-Aṣamm described his strategy of attaining *khushuʿ* in prayer: > I stand to pray, imagining that the Kaʿbah is in front of my eyes, Paradise to my right, Hellfire to my left, and the Angel of Death behind me. I imagine that it is the last *salah* I am about to perform, stand up in hope (in Allah, His Paradise, and reward) and fear (of Allah’s torment in the Hellfire) and recite the *takbir* with concentration.[^42] Regarding Islamic knowledge, they are interested in learning about spiritual concepts, philosophy, and theology, and less interested in learning the minutiae of technical details of Islamic rulings. They possess a strong capacity for abstraction, which enables them to understand difficult philosophical and theological ideas.[^43] ### The judgment approach On the other hand, there is the judgment-oriented approach towards knowledge, focused on acquiring knowledge of rulings, of drawing value-laden judgments about matters that will guide practical decision-making in the performance of good deeds. The Qur’an contains many passages that emphasize reliance on authority, obedience, and objectivity (e.g., 4:59); there is an emphasis on enjoining the good and forbidding the evil (3:104), and racing to do more good deeds (3:133). Equipped with a very clear structural view of right and wrong, people with the judgment orientation are well-suited to make major changes in society. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized the numerical magnitude of reward associated with different deeds.[^44] Judgment-oriented people are also heavily motivated by a sense of duty and justice, perceiving the complex interconnections of roles, rights, and responsibilities that govern human relationships. The judgment approach to knowledge appears to overlap with some areas of conscientiousness from the Big Five personality trait model and the process of judgment described by Jung. Conscientiousness comprises six dimensions, including industriousness, orderliness, self-control, responsibility, traditionalism, and virtue.[^45] There is a focus on knowing how to act correctly on even the seemingly most minuscule of matters. Their strong sense of judgment colors everything they learn, endowing them with a very strong sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. Regarding Islamic knowledge, they are interested in tangible subjects and approaches to learning. In terms of subjects, they tend to be interested in what is directly relevant in their lives and what can be tangibly implemented—often keen to learn about the practical aspects of Islam, even if they may be dry and technical. Some may even be fascinated by detailed issues of Islamic law regarding worship, social dealings, or business transactions. Some may be motivated by their strong sense of duty to engage in political or community activism and learn about what can be done practically to help those in need. ### The Interplay of experience and judgment The distinction between experience- and judgment-based learning is also manifested in the juxtaposition by many scholars of the terms *maʿrifa* (recognition) and *ʿilm* (knowledge). The Prophet ﷺ described experiential learning with the verbal form of *maʿrifa* when he said, “Recognize Allah in times of prosperity and He will recognize you in times of adversity.”[^46] On the other hand, he also described the knowledge attained through study and analysis: “Verily, knowledge (*ʿilm*) is only through study.”[^47] For greater clarity, if we combine these terms with the aforementioned terms, we can designate the first spiritual tendency as *maʿrifa al-aḥwāl* (recognition of experiences) and the second tendency as *ʿilm al-aḥkām* (knowledge of judgments). Interestingly, these two tendencies have also been described in other spiritual traditions, including Christianity. > In the last century only, two approaches are characteristic: the deductive one, strongly theologically oriented, and the inductive one, starting from lived experience.[^48] In the Myers-Briggs personality theory, Isabella Myers quite aptly describes the difference between perception and judgment in a way that also captures the difference between experiential and judgment approaches to knowledge in our spiritual personality classification: > The judging types believe that life should be willed and decided, while the perceptive types regard life as something to be experienced and understood. Thus judging types like to settle things, or at least to have things settled, whereas perceptive types prefer to keep their plans and opinions as open as possible so that no valuable experience or enlightenment will be missed.[^49] Ibn al-Qayyim explains that *maʿrifa* is to *ʿilm* as the soul is to the body.[^50] Islam is characterized by both substance and spirit. The substance represents the guidelines, boundaries, rules, and doctrines, while the spirit represents the internal connection  to Allah and spiritual states that are felt deep within one’s being. Both are necessary and vital, and faith cannot exist without either element. One’s natural tendency toward one side can be cultivated to attain great spiritual gifts, but if the other aspect is neglected it can result in fatal weakness and spiritual failure. --- ## Weaknesses Both tendencies have vulnerabilities that arise when each tendency is taken to its extreme. For instance, a person who goes to extremes when searching for spiritual experiences may fall into innovation by prioritizing experience over knowledge. Their aim becomes achieving a “spiritual high” rather than a meaningful relationship with Allah; this may be seen in the Qur’anic criticism of monasticism (Qur’an 57:27), which was invented to seek more intense religious experiences. An extreme focus on seeking experience could also result in a person neglecting their responsibilities. If not properly regulated, it may also make individuals prone to sins relating to pleasure-seeking or addiction. The trait of openness has been correlated with having a higher sexual drive[^51] and an increased likelihood of trying recreational drugs.[^52] Thus, religious individuals may find themselves engaged in such actions and subsequently feel a strong sense of shame. If caught in an addictive cycle, they may find it very hard to break free. One of the clearest examples of this phenomenon is the hadith that describes a man being brought repeatedly to be punished for drinking alcohol despite having love for Allah and His Messenger.[^53] When the Prophet ﷺ found that anyone was excessive in pursuing the experiential dimension of religion, he balanced that tendency in them by reminding them of the judgment dimension that comprises rights and responsibilities.[^54] Similarly, the judgment approach to knowledge also has its extremes. If taken to an extreme, this focus can cause a person to lose the spirit of Islam and fixate exclusively on rules and regulations. This can result in harsh, rigid, and incorrect manifestations of the religion that are often responsible for turning many people away, rather than softening their hearts. The Prophet ﷺ warned of this tendency, “Verily the religion is ease, and no one made it difficult except that it overwhelmed him, so be steadfast and moderate.”[^55] Moreover, since the judgment tendency entails searching for clarity and closure on issues, such individuals may be prone to overestimating the amount of knowledge and certainty they possess. This can lead to a dogmatic approach to the religion that can manifest as sectarianism (*ḥizbiyya*) and divisiveness within the community. It can also lead to an ends-justify-the-means mentality, side-stepping ethics and focusing on objective end-points. In modern times, this mentality is most obviously seen in extremist interpretations of Islam that justify violence, cruelty, and torture for their misguided utopian ends. Their neglect of the spiritual and ethical dimensions of the faith renders them capable of committing acts of atrocity without conscience. It is no surprise that the trait of conscientiousness, which we identified as being connected with judgment, is also correlated with right-wing authoritarianism.[^56] --- ## Behavior type: Action vs. restraint Approaches to behavior can also be categorized based on active pursuits of goodness versus restraint from wrongdoing. When we examine the following description of believers in the Qur’an, we can appreciate this distinction: > Certainly the believers have succeeded. Those who are humbly submissive in their prayer. Those who turn away from ill speech. Those who observe charity. Those who protect their chastity. (Qur’an 23:1–5) This verse describes four qualities. Two of them refer to actively pursuing goodness (prayer and charity) and the other two refer to refraining from wrongdoing (ill speech and chastity). This distinction is obvious in many places in the Qur’an, which sometimes focuses on descriptions of restraint (*ijtināb*) and avoidance (Qur’an 53:31–32), other times focuses on performance of good deeds (Qur’an 2:2–3), and sometimes combines both together (Qur’an 2:275). Conceptually, we see this distinction manifest in Islamic law as well in the categorization of commandments and prohibitions in religious rulings (*aḥkām sharʿiyya*).[^57] This distinction between pursuing good and refraining from evil has been used by Ibn al-Qayyim to describe two broad categories of spiritual personality. He explains that there are two manifestations of *sabr* (typically translated as “patience”): (1) the will-power necessary to act forthrightly in the world; and (2) the will-power necessary to abstain from evil and vice.[^58] For some people, the first type of *sabr* is dominant and so they excel in performing good deeds, but due to the weakness of the second type, they are prone to falling into sin. > And some people’s *sabr* for good deeds that bring benefit is stronger than their *sabr* against what brings harm. So they will have the *sabr* necessary to do the most difficult and challenging of tasks, but will not have any *sabr* that averts them from their desires.[^59] He gives the following example: > Many people have the *sabr* to pray the night prayer in the heat and in the cold, as well as \[to endure\] the difficulty accompanying fasting. But they can’t seem to control themselves in something as simple as averting their gaze.[^60] He also gives the counter-example of a person whose second type of *sabr* is stronger than their first. > There are many people who have the *sabr* to control their gaze, but they don’t have the *sabr* necessary to preach goodness and discourage vice.[^61] These archetypes described by Ibn al-Qayyim are still relevant in the contemporary period. The vulnerability of the action-focused personality he described can be seen, for instance, in the wave of pornography addiction amongst practicing Muslims who pray five times a day, go to the mosque regularly, and even offer voluntary fasts.[^62] The weakness he mentions of the restraint-focused personality is also witnessed in our times. It is not uncommon to find Muslims who will not eat pork or non-*zabiha* meat nor consume alcohol, yet they may not pray or fast regularly. People who are action-focused approach Islam by trying to do as much as they can. They may be known for their unbridled enthusiasm and contagious passion. They are always willing to lend a helping hand or take advantage of an opportunity to do good. In contrast to the action-focused types, people who are restraint-focused are more concerned with the prohibitions and ensuring they are not transgressing the boundaries. One may understand this duality with reference to the Qur’anic emphasis on two qualities: *birr* and *taqwa* (Qur’an 5:2) which respectively signify performing virtue and refraining from vice.[^63] Those who are action-focused embody the pursuit of *birr* (righteousness) by working to build their faith and make the world a better place, seeking to accumulate as many of the diverse categories of virtue described in the Qur’an (2:177) as possible. Those inclined to restraint focus more on magnifying *taqwa*, ensuring that their path in life is in line with Islamic guidelines. Ubayy ibn Kaʿb explained to ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab that *taqwa* is like cautiously walking on a thorny path to ensure that you do not get pricked.[^64] Both *taqwa* and *birr* are required of every believer, and every believer must cultivate both, but depending on one’s spiritual personality, one may have a natural strength in one domain and have to exert greater effort to make up for weaknesses in the other. Different groups may emphasize different spiritual emotions more strongly than others. Ibn al-Qayyim described those focused on performing acts of virtue as being dominated by hope, reflecting on God’s rewards and promises, while those focused on avoiding sin are dominated by fear, reflecting on His warnings and punishment.[^65] The former sees the world as an abundance of opportunities for good deeds while the latter sees the world as an arena of dangerous temptations and tribulations to be carefully navigated. An example of the latter would be the statement of Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, “The people used to ask the Prophet about good, but I used to ask about evil for fear that it might overtake me.”[^66] People feel most spiritually invigorated when they can see the tangible fruits of their labor in the real world, whether the establishment of something good or the removal of evil. From a psychological standpoint, the action-focused approach to behavior seems to be connected with some aspects of extraversion and the restraint-focus seems to be connected with some aspects of introversion. Jung conceptualized extraversion and introversion as attitudes towards the object (i.e., an external reality). Fundamentally, the introvert has a negative relation to the object while the extrovert has a positive relation to the object.[^67] > There is a whole class of men, who at the moment of reaction to a given situation, at first draw back a little as if with an unvoiced “No,” and only after that are able to react; and there is another class who, in the same situation, come forward with an immediate reaction, apparently confident that their behavior is obviously right… As we know, the former class corresponds to the introverted and the second to the extraverted attitude.[^68] The extravert is someone who is always ready to act and react to the world around them while the introvert is cautious and initially restrains themselves from acting. In our model, it seems that extraversion and introversion relate to the action-focused and restraint-focused spiritual tendencies, respectively. One other psychological trait that seems to correlate with the behavior dimension of spiritual personality is neuroticism on the Big Five Personality Model. Neuroticism refers to an emotional reactivity to life events. This emotional reactivity is generally negative in nature, such as fear, anxiety, and worry.[^69] This seems to play a role in the restraint-focused approach to behavior, as a strong fear-response to potential harm can form the basis for a cautious approach to life. The focus on restraining from sin can be manifested on a personal or public level. For these people, they may wish to see vice, evil, and corruption eliminated from the public arena. They may be strong advocates for social justice and speak out for the oppressed. They may be vocal critics of what they see as harmful trends in the community. They have a strong focus on *nahi al-munkar* (forbidding evil) on a communal level. For others, they direct this restraint inward and use it to refrain from personal transgressions. People with this quality are seen as wise individuals who are cautious and prudent. They are reluctant to take any action that would pose a risk to their well-being in this life or the next. ### Weaknesses Both action and restraint relate to willpower, which has been described in psychology as a finite resource. As Kelly McGonigal explains, self-control and willpower are like muscles that can be worked to a point of mental exhaustion, causing us to fall prey to our weaknesses.[^70] Someone overly focused on performing good deeds may burn out and lack the strength to resist temptation.[^71] Thus, they can fall into sin and possibly addiction.[^72] Part of the issue could be due to an overemphasis on hope over fear. Their focus on hope may make them complacently commit sins, often thinking they will have the opportunity to make up for these sins later with good deeds and repentance. As mentioned, people who are action-focused share traits with extraversion. A weakness of extraverts is that they may become heavily dependent on their surroundings. For extraverts, the environment acts as a magnet that draws mental energy toward it.[^73] If this is taken to an extreme, they have the potential to lose themselves in their environment, causing them to be easily influenced by others, lacking the strength to maintain their personal values and beliefs. This can result in weak faith that is easily given up at the first strike of adversity. > And of the people is he who worships Allah on an edge. If he is touched by good, he is reassured by it; but if he is struck by trial, he turns on his face \[to the other direction\]. He has lost \[this\] world and the Hereafter. That is what is the manifest loss. (Qur’an 22:11) > > And when We let the people taste mercy, they rejoice therein, but if evil afflicts them for what their hands have put forth, immediately they despair. (Qur’an 30:36) When a person goes to extremes in restraining evil, it can also have disastrous consequences. If their experience of fear dominates both love and hope, it becomes the primary motivator and can result in a strict, harsh, and potentially violent approach to establishing justice on earth. Another way extremism in this quality can manifest is in an adversarial relationship with the Muslim community. As a person recognizes the injustice that will inevitably exist within their own communities, they can isolate themselves and start to direct their rhetoric toward the community. Criticism, feedback, and progress are vital for the growth of any community, but often these types in the extreme setting become provocative, divisive, and hostile. This results in greater confusion, polarization, and stagnation within the community, rather than improvement. On a personal level, extremism in restraint can result in great personal anxiety, becoming prone to feeling paralyzing shame.[^74] One’s disgust for evil is directed toward the evil perpetrated by their own self. This can result in self-deprecation, self-loathing, and obsessions regarding one’s inadequate practice of Islam. Such people’s feelings of hope are underdeveloped, rendering them unable to experience positive thoughts about Allah that could inspire them to action and reform. One issue that emerges from this trait’s potential association with neuroticism is fear that leads to cowardice. If a strong fear response is not channeled in the right direction, then a person may experience strong obsessions and anxieties about the future. The Qur’an mentions this as one of the tactics of Shaytan: “That is only Satan who frightens \[you\] of his supporters. So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are \[indeed\] believers” (Qur’an 3:175). Being in a state of intense fear strips a person’s sense of hope in the future and negatively affects their faith. They may find it difficult to cope with hardships and be prone to blaming God for the suffering of themselves or those close to them. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us to seek protection from Allah from the effects of anxiety and cowardliness: > O Allah! I seek refuge with You from anxiety and grief, from incapacity and laziness, from cowardice and miserliness, from being heavily in debt and from being overpowered by \[other\] men.[^75] Since this trait seems to be correlated with aspects of introversion, it may share some of its weaknesses. For introverted individuals, the subject acts as a magnet that absorbs the environment.[^76] They attempt to exert full control of the environment to ensure that their individuality is not compromised. Such an approach to the world can lead to a tyrannical relationship with those around an introverted person. They may manipulate the environment for their self-serving needs. Having identified the core elements of spiritual personality based on two approaches to knowledge (experience versus judgment) and two approaches to behavior (action versus restraint), we will now go on to discuss how these categories interact to yield four distinct spiritual personality types. --- ## A typology of spiritual personality A human being goes forth into the world acquiring knowledge through experience and through rational judgments. This knowledge forms a representation of the world that provides the individual with an understanding of how to behave. The individual constantly makes decisions on whether they should initiate an action or exercise restraint when encountering daily situations. In constructing a complete typology of spiritual personality, we should first note the relative merits of the two main contemporary frameworks of personality: the trait approach and the type approach.[^77] According to the trait approach, personality traits refer to a spectrum with a normal distribution.[^78] This means that for any given trait, the majority of people are in the middle of the spectrum—exhibiting a balanced or moderate expression of the trait—with a minority being at the extremes. On the other hand, the type model assumes that there is a bimodal distribution. This means that the majority of people congregate at the extremes, with a minority in the middle. Thus, the type model is only concerned with direction on the spectrum rather than with placement. In other words, in the type model, what matters is *which side* of the trait spectrum you fall on, not *how far* you are from the center. In context, this means that in the trait model, people fall along a continuous spectrum, and your exact placement (e.g., slightly extroverted vs. extremely extroverted) is important. Whereas in the type model, people are categorized into distinct types, so it only matters whether you’re on the left or right side of the midpoint—not how far. For example, let’s say the trait is introversion–extraversion: - Trait model: Someone scoring 60% extraversion is seen as meaningfully different from someone at 90%. Placement matters. - Type model: Both might be lumped into the “Extravert” type, so the model isn’t concerned with how extraverted they are—just that they are on that side of the line. The trait model provides useful statistical models,[^79] but the type model provides a better conceptual model to understand people. The type model allows the formation of distinct personality types that incorporate an archetypal pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior. People are categorized into distinct types and learn about the archetypal form of their personality traits. The trait model cannot be organized into distinct types but provides an exact placement on the spectrum. Therefore, the trait model provides a higher resolution representation of an individual’s personality, containing more information.[^80] The 16-personalities website[^81] incorporates both the trait and type model into their theory. This allows people to see their personality traits on each spectrum and to learn about the archetypal pattern of personality most closely associated with their results. No model can capture the full complexity of each individual person. Personality types are like maps. Although they do not capture the full reality of the actual landscape, they provide a useful representation that can provide guidance for a person. Type models generally provide an integrative approach to personality, recognizing certain patterns that come together in people and result in personality descriptions that are intuitively recognized. With this in mind, we propose an initial spiritual personality typology of 4 archetypal patterns. Within each spiritual personality dimension, a person may preferentially utilize one over the other. For instance, regarding acquiring knowledge they may utilize their experience more than relying on judgment. Regarding behavior, some may prefer to exercise caution rather than initiate an action. The more a person uses one over the other, the more developed that function becomes in fortifying the individual’s faith. Everyone has a choice on how to process the world (Knowledge Type) and how to act on it (Behavior Type). The combination of their preferences in each domain yields the following four spiritual personality types: Hand of Power, Voice of Justice, Heart of Inspiration, and Eye of Vigilance. The category names have been constructed according to what best captures the essential theme of the spiritual personality type being described. It’s important to note that these different categories of spiritual personality describe *dominant tendencies*; they do not confine a person’s spiritual expression. Thus, it would be wrong to presume that someone who exhibits the Hand of Power orientation is unconcerned with justice, or that the Heart of Inspiration does not see negative consequences. These spiritual personalities only describe what is the foremost tendency or greatest focus of one’s passions. They may translate into a proclivity for different concrete actions, but righteousness includes all these actions and there is no reason why a person of one category can’t excel in virtues typically dominant in other categories. ### Hand of Power When a person combines *Judgment* with *Action*, their spiritual passion for positive action merges with judgment to produce a practical, solution-focused approach to doing good in the world, attempting to maximize benefit for those around them. ʿAli ibn Abi Talib is a clear example of this category, known for his incredible passion in serving the truth and performing unmatched feats of virtue (such as risking his life during an assassination attempt on the Prophet ﷺ, performing the *hijra* on foot, his bravery during the Battle of al-Khandaq and his heroism during Khaybar, etc). When the *fitna* (tribulation) occurred after the death of ʿUthman, the approach of ʿAli was to act pragmatically to take the reins of leadership to bring stability and unity to the *ummah.* According to ʿAli, “Opportunity passes as quickly as clouds, so make use of opportunities for good.”[^82] Zaynab bint Khuzayma, also known as the “Mother of the Needy” (*Umm al-Masākīn*), is another example of this category because of her immense generosity, constantly donating money to the poor. It is said she was even known by this title during pre-Islamic times, indicating a life-long commitment to helping others. Despite the death of her husband, ʿUbayda ibn al-Harith, on the battlefield during Badr, she bravely continued to tend to the wounded and injured. She later married the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and became one of the “Mothers of the Believers.” She represents a legacy of selflessly striving to do as much good as possible.[^83] ### Voice of Justice When *Judgment* merges with *Restraint*, this results in judgment concerning evils. This personality type is powerfully motivated to eradicate injustice, immorality, and falsehood. This is the personality that best typifies the Prophetic saying, “The most virtuous struggle is a true word spoken in the face of a tyrant.”[^84] ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab is the obvious example of this category. His relentless commitment to eradicating evil and opposing injustice has been noted by all who have studied his life. He announced his Islam openly in front of the Quraysh chieftains, condemned transgressions, and denounced those who perpetrated them in the strongest of terms. His justice was manifested in his swift retribution when he punished the son of a governor who abused a Christian peasant in Egypt, asking his father, “When did you enslave people when their mothers bore them free?”[^85] As harsh as he was on those who did wrong, he was always harsher on himself,[^86] and this in turn led him to soften on others.[^87] There is no clearer female example of this category than that of ʿAisha bint Abi Bakr.[^88] She quickly mobilized others to seek justice after the murder of ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan. When a beggar came to her home while she was fasting, she selflessly gave away the only food in her house.[^89] She would not hesitate to correct the mistakes of others when they misnarrated sayings of the Prophet.[^90] She was never idle if someone was saying or doing something wrong, but would always swiftly speak out to stand for truth and justice. Given her passion for defending the rights of others, it is no surprise that Allah defended her when she was wronged; indeed Allah honored her with the revelation of verses clearing her of slander (Qur’an 24:11–20). ʿAisha said, “Whoever is pleased to surpass the one who is persistent and striving \[in worship\], let him restrain himself from sins; for you will never meet Allah with anything better for you than a scarcity of sins.”[^91] ### Heart of Inspiration A person who approaches knowledge with *Experience* combined with the behavior of *Action* possesses incredible vision, seeing the path that humanity must collectively tread in the pursuit of virtue and a better future. These are the visionaries the *ummah* needs as its guides and sources of continued wisdom, compassion, and support.[^92] The prime example of this category is Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. Without hesitation, he was the first man to accept Islam, immediately seeing it for the truth that it was. One of the most remarkable aspects of who he was is the role he played in bringing so many of the other leading companions to embrace the faith and the intense amount of striving for good he exemplified.[^93] His experiential insight revealed to him meanings that were not readily apparent to others; when the Prophet ﷺ announced that a slave was given a choice between this world and that which is with Allah and had chosen the latter, only Abu Bakr understood that the Prophet was announcing that he would soon pass away. Abu Bakr was a pillar of support for Muslims in the most calamitous moment the *ummah* experienced: the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He offered powerful words that showed his insight, “Whoever worshipped Muhammad, let him know that Muhammad has died. And whoever worshipped Allah, then verily Allah is Ever Living, and shall never die.”[^94] The very first person to embrace Islam, Khadija bint Khuwaylid, is a shining example of this category. A brilliant businesswoman, her keen planning and positive action undoubtedly played a role in the success of her trading caravan. Her wisdom and astute appreciation of others’ abilities led her to recognize the purity of the Prophet’s character and to first hire him and subsequently marry him. The loving support she gave to the Prophet Muhammad played a pivotal role in the history of Islam. The Prophet said, “She believed in me when the people disbelieved in me, she declared me truthful when the people belied me, and she supported me with her wealth when the people deprived me.”[^95] ### Eye of Vigilance This spirituality type unites the vision and foresight of *Experiential* knowledge with the caution of *Restraint*, resulting in unparalleled awareness of the dangers and threats to true faith and worrisome trends in society. There is a focus on heeding warnings, escaping evil, and reflecting on the end-times and the afterlife.[^96] The example of ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan shines clearly in this category. He was not the most outspoken companion, but rather was a tremendously reflective soul, contemplating the afterlife and punishment in the grave. It is narrated that when he stood over a grave, he would weep until his beard became wet.[^97] He worried about the negative consequences of seemingly mundane actions.[^98] His concern for preventing Muslims from differing about the Qur’anic text led to his commissioning of Zayd ibn Thabit to compile the *mushaf*.[^99] He paid tremendous attention to the prophecies of the end-times and, when the rebels surrounded his home, he warned them of the internecine violence it would lead to, forbidding anyone to shed blood in his defense. In one of his famous sermons, ʿUthman said, “O people, fear Allah, for fear of Allah is a great treasure. The smartest of people is the one who checks himself and strives for that which comes after death, and gains from the light of Allah light to illuminate his grave.”[^100] Umm Salama also perfectly represents this category. She was deeply contemplative and paid attention to matters of the afterlife, to tribulations, and potential harms. Saʿīd ibn al-Muṣayyib and others would sit to learn from her about the end times.[^101] She endured many calamities in her life, but her faith in Allah never wavered—when she sought to migrate to Medina, she was separated from her family. When the Prophet ﷺ proposed to her, she warned him of possible downsides, but he kindly told her he was not dissuaded.[^102] She wisely advised the Prophet how to ensure his companions followed his lead when the pilgrimage was canceled. Umm Salama was asked what supplication she heard the Prophet make most frequently and she replied, “O Changer of Hearts, make my heart firm upon your religion.”[^103] The aforementioned categories are summarized in **Table 1** and the entire typology has been diagrammatically summarized in **Figure 1**. ![](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_2118-1024x587.jpeg) **Figure 1. Spiritual personality typology.** Every person’s spirituality consists of knowledge (*ʿilm*) and deeds (*ʿaml*). Their primary approach to knowledge may either be through experience of states or practical knowledge of rulings that aid in judging right from wrong. Their primary approach to deeds may either be focused on performing acts of virtue (*birr*) or restraining from evil (*taqwa*). Depending on the approach to knowledge and to deeds, a person acquires one of four possible combinations, each representing a distinct spiritual personality type: Hand of Power, Voice of Justice, Heart of Inspiration, or Eye of Vigilance. ![Table 1. Spiritual personality types. Four fundamental spiritual personality types are conceptualized here by juxtaposing their approach to knowledge (experience versus judgment) and approach to action (action versus restraint)](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image2-1024x809.png) **Table 1. Spiritual personality types.** Four fundamental spiritual personality types are conceptualized here by juxtaposing their approach to knowledge (experience versus judgment) and approach to action (action versus restraint). There are some important potential sources of misunderstanding that it is necessary to clarify with respect to spiritual personality. First, there is a difference between religiosity and spiritual personality. Just as different colors may be indistinguishable in the dark, one’s spiritual personality type may remain latent in the absence of strong religious practice. The more one increases in religiosity, the more they may discover elements of their spiritual personality of which they were previously unaware. Secondly, one may ask whether it is possible for there to be more spiritual personality types. Given that this model is constructed upon two psychologically evident and Islamically manifest conceptual spectrums (experience vs. judgment and action vs. restraint), both of which are subsumed within the basic spiritual instincts in Islamic thought (knowledge and deeds), this categorization forms what should be seen as the conceptually fundamental framework. Moreover, its conceptual correlation with the psychological traits of the Big Five lends this classification an empirical basis for being considered fundamental. That being said, it is possible for each of these four types to have many subcategories and further differentiation and variation. Finally, it may be asked whether one can change their spiritual personality. Whilst not impossible, acquiring virtues from other categories may often require expending great effort and/or undergoing unique life experiences that would change the course of your disposition. One would surmise, however, that the only human being who maximized and perfected the virtue of every single category, mastering them all with equal brilliance, was the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who transcends any categorization. --- ## Conclusion It is especially important in our times to recognize the diversity that Allah has created in our spiritual personalities, and to appreciate how these manifest in our different approaches to the practice of Islam. We live in a world where many young Muslims are unable to experience a strong sense of belonging with the Muslim community because they find it so foreign to their natural orientation. When a person enters the community they may find themselves shamed for not being involved enough in a political movement or not learning enough about abstract theological issues. They may be shown a picture of a practicing Muslim that is focused on cultural dress codes and accessories. This can alienate our youth, who find it impossible to express themselves and their own passions without fear of being judged negatively. Instead, we should recognize that practicing Islam beyond the obligations can be as diverse as life itself. These personalities should be utilized where they are best suited, allowing individual talents to flourish as they channel their passions for the sake of the Muslim community. Reflecting on the tendencies of each spiritual personality type proposed can provide a Muslim with greater self-knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. It can also build tolerance and acceptance of different approaches to Islamic practice. Everyone has a role to play based on their spiritual personality. > Say: Everyone will act according to their nature, and your Lord knows best who is rightly guided. (Qur’an 17:84) --- ## Notes [^1]: Susan Cain, *Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking* (Crown Publishing Group, 2012), 2–3. [^2]: David C. Funder, *The Personality Puzzle: Seventh International Student Edition* (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015), 5. [^3]: Phillip J. Corr and Gerald Matthews, *The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology* (Cambridge University Press, 2009), xxii. [^4]: Martin Gerlach, Beatrice Farb, William Revelle, and Luis A. Nunes Amaral,  “A Robust Data-Driven Approach Identifies Four Personality Types Across Four Large Data Sets,” *Nature Human Behaviour* 2, 2018: 735–742. [^5]: Idowu Koyenikan, *Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability* (Grandeur Touch, L.L.C., 2016). [^6]: K. M. Nicodemus, “Personality Type and Job Satisfaction,” in *Physicians’ Pathways to Non-Traditional Careers and Leadership Opportunities,* ed. R. D. Urman and J. M. Ehrenfeld (Springer, 2012), 11–17. [^7]: *Jāmi’ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 2955, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (authentic) according to al-Tirmidhī. [^8]: Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī, *Mirqāt al-mafātīḥ sharḥ Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ* (Dar al-Fikr, 2002), 1:176. [^9]: Al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān*, verse 17:84, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo%3D0%26tTafsirNo%3D5%26tSoraNo%3D17%26tAyahNo%3D84%26tDisplay%3Dyes%26UserProfile%3D0%26LanguageId%3D1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881012146&usg=AOvVaw3O2CRAKAxpak_AE9LKybvI). [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3336, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/60/11&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881012360&usg=AOvVaw3_6ZLyvv9bARwBwpKcXIyj). [^11]: Al-ʿAynī, ʿ*Umdat al-qārī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 2001), 15:297. [^12]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (al-Maktabah al-Salafiyya, n.d.), 6:369–370. The subsequent statements by al-Qurṭubī and al-Khaṭṭābī are cited by Ibn Ḥajar. [^13]: This statement also points to the value of identifying and altering harmful core beliefs, which is the basis of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). [^14]: Al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 6:369–370. [^15]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 5217, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud/43/445&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881013407&usg=AOvVaw2SwKqmVBa6tNMvc-KAC-Ma), graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by al-Albānī. For an interesting derivation of thirty-three lessons from this hadith, see: Kehlan al-Jubury, “The Prophet and His Daughter,” *Prophetic Guidance,* June 15, 2013, [http://propheticguidance.co.uk/the-prophet-and-his-daughter/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://propheticguidance.co.uk/the-prophet-and-his-daughter/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881013946&usg=AOvVaw3t34-wRHbtBqdi9M0Vks4A)*.* [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6097, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/78/124&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881014221&usg=AOvVaw1nWKlsJ1LkJBpZrzxHVV5m). [^17]: See al-Shaʿrāwī’s comments as cited in ʿUmar Aḥmad Zakarīyyā, *Ḥayāt al-nabī fī baytihī* (Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1971), 237. [^18]: *Muwaṭṭāʾ Mālik*, bk. 47, no. 1643, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/516220&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881014767&usg=AOvVaw15LAXu3Vtb4YCSDT-DXIyk). It was graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr. [^19]: The precise personality traits associated with optimism are explored more fully in J. Patrick Sharpe, Nicholas R. Martin, and Kelly A. Roth, “Optimism and the Big Five Factors of Personality: Beyond Neuroticism and Extraversion,” *Personality and Individual Differences* 51, no. 8 (2011): 946–951. [^20]: Part of the incident was reported in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 17c. The rest of the incident was reported by *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (no. 4187, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1343260&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881016290&usg=AOvVaw2uKWNpuqpFAnLXiFGKENSJ)) and *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* (no. 5225, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud/43/453&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881016546&usg=AOvVaw07QpMbhdJIJJfdEKg1KkyV)), and al-Albānī graded it as *ḥasan* (fairly authentic). [^21]: Zohair Abdul-Rahman, “The Power of Motivation,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, February 26, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-power-of-motivation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-power-of-motivation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881017035&usg=AOvVaw1hFP0GYV01PK-XIS2zpPCQ). [^22]: Nizar Muhammad Sa’id Al-Ani, *al-Shakhsiya al-insaniyya fī al-fikr al-Islamī*, 2nd ed. (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2005). [^23]: Al-Ani, *al-Shakhsiya al-insaniyya*. [^24]: Umar Ahmad al-Rawi, *Ṭibb al-qulūb* (DKI, 2003), 83. [^25]: The interested reader can refer to a prior article published by Yaqeen on the topic of *waswās*: Najwa Awad, “Clinicians, Imams, and the Whisperings of Satan,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, July 19, 2017, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/clinicians-imams-and-the-whisperings-of-satan](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/clinicians-imams-and-the-whisperings-of-satan&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881018001&usg=AOvVaw2uODjjFpGANbTkKE1EyLGP). [^26]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwa* (Medina: Mujammāʿ al-Malik Fahd, 2004), 7:651–652. [^27]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn fī manāzil al-sāʾirīn* (Riyadh: Dār ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm; Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2019), 1:211. Cf. Ovamir Anjum, introduction to Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, *Ranks of the Divine Seekers: A Parallel English-Arabic Text*, vol. 1, trans. Ovamir Anjum (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 66. [^28]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 3257, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/59/67&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881018806&usg=AOvVaw1mirP5N75zCTHVGPr2Ft5z). [^29]: See the discussion of Imam al-Ubbī (d. 827 AH) in his supercommentary on *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *Ikmāl ikmāl al-muʿlim sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Maṭbaʿ al-Saʿādah, 1328 AH), 1:119. Aside from the gate of fasting, however, there is no scriptural proof for which deeds correspond to which gates. [^30]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn wa bāb al-saʿādatayn* (Dar ʿAlam al-Fawāʾid, 2008), 385. [^31]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*, 386–388. [^32]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalā*, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://library.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?indexstartno%3D0%26hflag%3D1%26pid%3D619259%26bk_no%3D1701%26startno%3D30&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881019807&usg=AOvVaw2ysZdJIVESid3L-MHvBx-D). [^33]: Of course, it goes without saying that these differences are with respect to voluntary actions, while obligatory actions are required of everyone. Jamaal Zarabozo writes, “This reality is all by the mercy of Allah. Beyond the obligatory deeds, people are free to pursue those good voluntary deeds that they are most attracted to. There are so many areas of voluntary deeds that it seems inconceivable that a person could not find some voluntary deed or deeds that he would like to perform in order to get closer to Allah. Allah’s path to paradise is wide enough to accommodate all of those different leanings. However, this is all dependent on the individual first fulfilling, in general, the obligatory deeds. If the person does not do that, then he may not be on the straight path at all.” Jamaal Zarabozo, *Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi* (Al-Basheer, 1999), 2:1154. [^34]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*, 403. [^35]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:224. He also further classifies a subtype of the second category, which is thinking about how best to achieve benefit or avoid harm, or the means to the goal, and then mentions that “these are the six categories of thinking, for which there is no seventh.” [^36]: ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Rābah, *Makānat al-ʿulūm al-ṭabʿiyya fī al-tarbiya al-Islāmiyya* (PhD diss., Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurā, 1998), 267. [^37]: The term *aḥkām* is not used here in its narrow jurisprudential usage to refer to legal rulings but rather linguistically to describe knowledge-related judgments. Being oriented towards *aḥkām* entails a pragmatic approach and focuses on structure, decisions, good versus bad, true versus false, etc. [^38]: *Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi*, no. 27, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sunnah.com/nawawi40/27&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881022111&usg=AOvVaw1OIkVOS46f_39G-2kBe1qN). Found in *Sunan al-Dārimī* (no. 2533), and graded *ḥasan* (fairly authentic) according to Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī. The Prophet ﷺ gave this advice to Wābisa ibn Maʿbad and very similar advice to Nawwās ibn Samʿān (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 2553a). Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 974 AH) makes the interesting observation that this advice applies to those persons similar to Wābisa who possess that faculty of inner perception (*idrāk*), while others may need more explicit religious rulings of commands and prohibitions, and thus the Prophet addressed everyone with the advice most suited to them. See al-Haytamī, *Fatḥ al-mubīn* (Dār al-Minhāj, 2008), 465. Judgment-oriented people may need objective definitive rules to avoid succumbing to personal bias (*hawāʾ*) and desires (*shahawāt*). [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no. 34, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/1/58&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881023189&usg=AOvVaw2UodNqR9hKjG3keYc0rslv). Ibn al-Qayyim cites this hadith and explains that a certain measure of *dhawq* is necessary for all people, without which they may succumb to doubts in their faith. See Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 3:485–486. [^40]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:198. [^41]: Coralie Buxant, Vassilis Saroglou, and Marie Tesser, “Free-Lance Spiritual Seekers: Self-Growth or Compensatory Motives?” *Mental Health, Religion & Culture* 13, no. 2 (2010): 209–222. [^42]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Damascus: Dār al-Fayḥāʾ, 2020), 1:462–463. [^43]: It might strike some as paradoxical for experience-oriented individuals to have an aptitude for highly theoretical subjects. However, it is their intuitive capacity that enables them to transform the seemingly theoretical into a strong lived experience. People with this approach to knowledge are also not content with merely learning what is; they want to know why it is. They have a strong need for true understanding and a recognition of the wisdom in the rulings and rituals of Islam. This goes back to their desire for experience. Without understanding the wisdom, it is hard to experience what is intended by those religious practices. [^44]: *Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi*, no. 37, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/nawawi40/37&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881024867&usg=AOvVaw24i1CdTgsQ3uF_E_lU2f4N); *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6491; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* 131a, which describes the multiplication of rewards in general. [^45]: Brent W. Roberts, Oleksandr S. Chernyshenko, Stephen Stark, and Lewis R. Goldberg, “The Structure of Conscientiousness: An Empirical Investigation Based on Seven Major Personality Questionnaires,” *Personnel Psychology* 58, no. 1 (2005): 103–139. [^46]: *Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi,* no. 19, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/nawawi40/19&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881025551&usg=AOvVaw3iYxvnYv1TM9DB3TbSQRFY). *Musnad Imām Aḥmad*, no. 2803, graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by al-Arnāʿūṭ. [^47]: Al-Albānī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr,* no. 2328, graded *ḥasan* (fairly authentic) by al-Albānī. [^48]: Kees Waaijman, “What Is Spirituality?,” *Acta Theologica* 27, no. 2 (2007): 1–18. [^49]: Isabel Briggs Myers and Peter B. Myers, *Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type* (Nicholas Brealey, 2010), 69. [^50]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij al-sālikīn*, 1:197–198. [^51]: Robert R. McCrae, “Openness to Experience: Expanding the Boundaries of Factor V,” *European Journal of Personality* 8, no. 4 (1994): 251–272. [^52]: Antonio Terracciano, Corinna E. Löckenhoff, Rosa M. Crum, O. Joseph Bienvenu, and Paul T. Costa,  “Five-Factor Model Personality Profiles of Drug Users,” *BMC Psychiatry* 8, no. 1 (2008): 22. [^53]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6780, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/86/9&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881027158&usg=AOvVaw3yT_zjkRU8rTAuWPk6cC-M). This story demonstrates how this companion had a strong experiential commitment to Islam through the love in his heart that he felt for Allah and His Messenger. The repeated commission of this sin was not interpreted as evidence of a lack of faith. Rather, it was clear that this particular individual had an addiction alongside his strong love for Islam. [^54]: Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “O ʿAbdullah! Have I been informed that you fast all day and stand in prayer all night?” I said, “Yes, O Allah's Messenger ﷺ!” He said, “Do not do that! Observe the fasts sometimes and also leave them \[the fasts\] at other times; stand up for the prayer at night and also sleep at night. Your body has a right over you, your eyes have a right over you, and your wife has a right over you.” *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 5199, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/67/133&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881028105&usg=AOvVaw3quRaP6gfWqZtQC4G6uImy). [^55]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 39, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/2/32&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881028282&usg=AOvVaw05hrl2_NdITSTXDQwfNtY6). [^56]: Chris G. Sibley and John Duckitt, “Personality and Prejudice: A Meta-Analysis and Theoretical Review,” *Personality and Social Psychology Review* 12, no. 3 (2008): 248–279. [^57]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī, *Sharḥ al-waraqāt fī uṣūl al-fiqh* (Mecca: Dār Ṭaybah al-Khaḍrāʾ li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ, 1446/2024), 46–48. There is also a historical discussion amongst the classical scholars on whether it is worse to do something prohibited or to abandon something obligatory. The former was stated explicitly by Imām Aḥmad (d. 240 AH), as noted by Ibn Rajab in *Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm*, and is the position of the majority as noted by Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī in *Fatḥ al-mubīn*. Meanwhile, the latter is the opinion of Imām Sahl al-Tustarī (d. 284 AH) and advocated by Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim in *al-Fawāʾid*. The reality is that both sides have strong arguments and evidence in their favor and are easily reconciled with reference to the concept of spiritual personality such that it may depend on the person in question and their individual weaknesses. [^58]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat al-ṣābirīn* (Dar ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 2008), 26. [^59]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat al-ṣābirīn*, 26. [^60]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat al-ṣābirīn*, 26. [^61]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *ʿUddat al-Ṣābirīn,* 27. [^62]: Abu Reem, “Pornography Addiction Among Muslims (Stories & Tips),” Muslim Matters, August 19, 2007, [https://muslimmatters.org/2007/08/19/pornogrpahy-addiction-among-muslims-stories-tips/](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://muslimmatters.org/2007/08/19/pornogrpahy-addiction-among-muslims-stories-tips/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881030409&usg=AOvVaw3fDIxnpmgUY-U5hQsBBtQ8) [^63]: Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, *Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm wa-l-ḥikam*, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom%3D135%26idto%3D136%26bk_no%3D81%26ID%3D29&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881030680&usg=AOvVaw2kT0oMdSFoItkSuWOKRhlP). Arabic: *wa-qad yakūnu urīda bi-l-birri fiʿl al-wājibāt wa-bi-l-taqwā ijtināb al-muḥarramāt*. [^64]: Ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿadhīm* (Dar at-Taybah, 1999), 1:164. [^65]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ṭarīq al-hijratayn*, 373–374. It should be clear that this is not a negative experience of fearing a vengeful and merciless deity. Rather, gathering all of the fears a person may have about the world and recognizing that only Allah is capable of benefit or harm naturally dissipates their fear of this world. Fear of Allah alone becomes a source of immense courage, as a person recognizes that nothing in this world can harm them without the permission of Allah. [^66]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* no. 3606, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/61/113&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881031658&usg=AOvVaw3xYTDojt0fFEGa8vhD8rt_). Perhaps it was this unique spiritual personality of Hudhayfa that earned him the position of the keeper of the Prophet’s secrets, which meant that the Prophet ﷺ confided in him the names of the hypocrites. [^67]: Carl Jung, *Psychological Types* (Routledge, 2017), 307. [^68]: Carl Jung, *Modern Man in Search of a Soul* (Routledge, 2001), 87. [^69]: Veena Kumari, Dominic H. Ffytche, Mrigendra Das, Glenn D. Wilson, Sangeeta Goswami, and Tonmoy Sharma,“Neuroticism and Brain Responses to Anticipatory Fear,” *Behavioral Neuroscience* 121, no. 4 (2007): 643–652. [^70]: Kelly McGonigal, *Maximum Willpower* (Pan Macmillan, 2012), 52. [^71]: This phenomenon has been described in a previous article: Zohair Abdul-Rahman, “Power of Motivation,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Studies, February 26, 2018, [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-power-of-motivation](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-power-of-motivation&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881033061&usg=AOvVaw1rhavqDz4DCHJGH4IkEsQB). [^72]: There is an established concept in psychology referred to as “moral self-licensing,” whereby a person’s past good deeds make them feel entitled to indulge in desires or make excuses for unethical behavior. For instance, see Anna C. Merritt, Daniel A. Effron, and Benoît Monin, “Moral Self-Licensing: When Being Good Frees Us to Be Bad,” *Social and Personality Psychology Compass* 4, no. 5 (2010): 344–357. This effect has also been examined in the context of failure to succeed in dieting: Sosja Prinsen, Catharine Evers, and Denise De Ridder, “Oops I Did It Again: Examining Self-Licensing Effects in a Subsequent Self-Regulation Dilemma,” *Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being* 8 (2016): 104–126. [^73]: Jung, *Psychological Types*, 4. [^74]: It is important to distinguish between healthy shame (*hayaʾ*) (i.e., “I did something wrong”) that helps one to avoid bad, and toxic shame (i.e., “I am a bad person”) where one views oneself with contempt and unworthy of any good, falling into despair (*al-ya’s*), effectively denying the power of God’s mercy to reach oneself. [^75]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, no. 6369, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sunnah.com/bukhari/80/66&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881034724&usg=AOvVaw2iHPHI2yvq9bUWxweo4hUd). [^76]: Jung, *Psychological Types*, 4. [^77]: There are also specialties that focus on the genetic and biological basis for personality, but this is largely separate from the type vs. trait discussion, which is mainly a statistical issue. [^78]: Tammy L. Bess and Robert J. Harvey, “Bimodal Score Distributions and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Fact or Artifact?” *Journal of Personality Assessment* 78, no. 1 (2002): 176–186. [^79]: Bess and Harvey, “Bimodal Score Distributions.” [^80]: David J. Pittenger, “The Limitations of Extracting Typologies from Trait Measures of Personality,” *Personality and Individual Differences* 37, no. 4 (2004): 779–787. [^81]: 16 Personalities, “Core Theory: Our Framework,” [https://www.16personalities.com/articles/our-theory](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.16personalities.com/articles/our-theory&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881036034&usg=AOvVaw3T8o2ks3YRvHTLmRu8cTnz). [^82]: Ibn Mufliḥ, *Ādāb al-sharʿiyya* (Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1999), 1:378. Arabic: *al-furus tamurru mithla al-saḥāb*. [^83]: For details on her life, refer to al-Sayyid al-Jumaylī, *Nisāʾ al-nabī ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-ālihi wa-sallam* (Beirut: Dār wa-Maktabat al-Hilāl, 1416 AH), 79–82. [^84]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 4344, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/abudawud/39/54&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881036431&usg=AOvVaw0Q5tFrtNmIhFu6YnDuCM9B).This was graded *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic) by al-Albānī. [^85]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, *Futūḥ Miṣr* (Cairo: Maktabah al-Thaqafah al-Diniyah, 2010), 1:195. [^86]: Such as ʿUmar’s asking Hudhayfa whether he was mentioned amongst the *munāfiqīn* due to his great fear of being insincere in his faith. Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Maṭālib al-ʿaliya*, 14:702, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://library.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?bk_no%3D325%26pid%3D154481%26hid%3D3743&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881015589&usg=AOvVaw08BToBIkRB4O-FEjFddvQz). [^87]: See, for instance, ʿUmar pardoning a man who was drinking (*Mustadrak al-Ḥākim*, no. 8198, available [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2013/01/29/umar-catch-drinking-party-spy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881015891&usg=AOvVaw2sX-JojodcPeZZbiEcPu42)). [^88]: For biographical details, see al-Jumaylī, *Nisāʾ al-nabī*, 43–67. [^89]: *Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik*, book 58, no. 5. [^90]: See for instance Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī, *al-Ijāba li-irād mā istadrakathu ʿĀʾisha ʿalā al-ṣaḥāba* (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānajī, 2001). [^91]: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak al-Marwazī, *al-Zuhd wa-l-raqāʾiq*, ed. Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿẓamī (Mālīkāʾūn: Majlis Iḥyāʾ al-Maʿārif, n.d.), 22. [^92]: The Qur’an actually mentions this combination in 38:45 and mentions Prophet Ibrahim as an example. His strong vision (*baṣīra*) and powerful pursuit of good (*ayd*) play out multiple times in his life. It is what gave him the resolve to withstand the persecution of his people and trust that his family would grow and prosper in the barren valley of Mecca. We also find a strong drive for action as he built the Kaʿbah with his hands, and he physically broke the idols as part of his preaching. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ likened Abu Bakr to Ibrahim and ʿIsa, while he likened ʿUmar to Nuh and Musa as reported in *Musnad Aḥmad*. [^93]: The Messenger ﷺ asked, “Who is fasting today?” Abu Bakr (rA) replied, “Me.” The Messenger ﷺ asked, “Who has followed a funeral procession today?” Abu Bakr replied, “Me.” The Messenger ﷺ asked, “Who has fed a poor person today?” Abu Bakr replied, “Me.” The Messenger ﷺ asked, “Who has visited a sick person today?” Abu Bakr replied, “Me.” The Messenger ﷺ then said, “Any person that has done these four things in one day will enter Paradise.” *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no.1028b, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/44/13&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881038074&usg=AOvVaw1yGPad-uZAfDQ1X2uu6FQD). [^94]: Al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunnah*, 5:323. [^95]: *Musnad Aḥmad*, no. 24343. [^96]: A famous example of the contrast between the Hand of Power and the Eye of Vigilance is that of ʿAbdullah ibn al-Mubarak (d. 181 AH), the warrior-scholar defending the frontiers of Muslim lands against the Romans, versus Fudayl ibn Iyad (d. 187 AH), the pious ascetic and bandit-turned-worshipper who was constantly worshipping in the Holy sanctuary of Mecca; the former wrote a well-known poem in this regard. [^97]: *Sunan Ibn Mājah,* no. 4267, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1293700&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881038878&usg=AOvVaw05GmZn8cfAaHlwOtrNKxjB). [^98]: It was narrated from Ḥumayd ibn Nuʿaym who reported that ʿUmar and ʿUthman were invited to a meal, and when they set out, ʿUthman said to ʿUmar: “We have come to a meal where I wish we had not come.” ʿUmar asked: “Why?” ʿUthman said: “I am afraid it was prepared in order to show off (*miyāhā*).” Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *al-Zuhd*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Salām Shāhīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1999), 104, no. 669. [^99]: For a detailed discussion, see Muhammad M. al-Azami, *The History of the Qur’anic Text: From Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments* (UK Islamic Academy, 2003), 88. [^100]: *Saheeh al-tawtheeq fi seerah wa hayat dhi'n-noorayn*, 107, as cited in Ali Muhammad As-Sallabi, *The Biography of ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan* (Darussalam, 2007), 132. [^101]: See for instance, al-Dhahabī, *Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ* (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), 4:218. [^102]: *Sunan al-Nasāʾī*, no. 3254, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/nasai:3254&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881041463&usg=AOvVaw2DZaBrpX-P4pRb4J2cLvsy). [^103]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī*, no. 3522, accessed [online](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3522&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1758729881041819&usg=AOvVaw07zwAtWeV1Z9dXU6fyuEEL). Al-Albānī graded this hadith as *ṣaḥīḥ* (rigorously authentic). ## Summary Feeling estranged from the Muslim community is a common and painful experience. Many believers sense that they are out of step with those around them, drawn to different aspects of the faith and expressing their devotion in ways that seem unlike their peers. Because belonging to a community of faith greatly strengthens one's conviction and commitment, this sense of disconnection can be isolating. To address this, the concept of *spiritual personality* is introduced: a person's natural disposition that shapes which aspects of Islamic practice, belief, and virtue resonate most deeply with them. The aim is to encourage a more inclusive community that welcomes a range of temperaments, talents, and interests, drawing throughout on the Qur'an and the Islamic tradition. Personality, in the language of psychology, is a construct that accounts for why people differ in behaviour, emotion, and thought. It shapes nearly every facet of life. This diversity, however, is not foreign to our tradition. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ rooted personality differences in the very creation of Adam, saying that "Allah Most High created Adam from a handful that He took from the earth. So the children of Adam come in accordance with the earth, some of them come red, white, or black, and [whatever is] between that; lenient, hard-headed, filthy, and pure." Mulla ʿAli al-Qari (d. 1014 AH) explained that this final category refers to the *akhlaq* of a person in reference to spiritual purity and impurity, so that the hadith gathers together body, mind, and spirit. The Qur'an likewise alludes to this in the verse, "Everyone behaves according to their nature (shākil), and your Lord knows who is the most guided" (Qur'an 17:84), which Imam al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH) reports Mujahid to have interpreted as a person's innate nature (ṭabīʿa). The Prophet ﷺ further said, "The souls are like troops collected together; those that are familiar incline to each other, and those that are dissimilar are repelled," which Badr al-Din al-ʿAyni (d. 855 AH) understood as a reference to human beings differing in their traits. From this narration Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) derived the wise counsel that if one finds ill-feeling in his heart toward a righteous person, he should seek out its cause and remove it, while recognising that such ill-feeling may arise merely from differences in disposition. The Companions themselves observed these matters closely, as when ʿAisha and Hudhayfa each described those who most resembled the Prophet ﷺ in disposition (samtan), characteristics (dallan), and mode of conduct (hadyan). A crucial distinction must be drawn between personality and moral character. Personality refers to our preferred, largely fixed, and value-neutral ways of engaging with the world, and acting against them can produce distress. Character (*akhlaq*), by contrast, is value-laden and changeable, comprising traits such as humility, sincerity, and patience, or their opposites. Developing good character is a duty for which we are rewarded, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "I was sent to perfect good character." Since "Allah does not place a burden on anyone more than they can bear" (Qur'an 2:285), our character can indeed be reformed, though our personality may make certain virtues easier or harder to attain. This connection appears in the story of Ashajj of ʿAbd Qays, whom the Prophet ﷺ told, "You have two characteristics that Allah loves: forbearance (ḥilm) and deliberation (anāh)," clarifying when asked that these were qualities he was born with. Thus innate disposition facilitated the virtue he displayed. The Islamic tradition possesses a rich vocabulary for the components of the psyche, and although no single term corresponds precisely to "personality," the concept is firmly present. Early Muslim philosophers such as al-Fārabī (d. 339 AH) and Ibn Rushd (d. 595 AH) engaged translations of Greek works on the soul, and Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 AH) drew parallels between Islamic and Hellenistic psychology, noting how the disease of *waswās* resembles what the Greeks called melancholia. Yet where modern personality theory is chiefly descriptive, the Islamic paradigm is prescriptive, concerned with how our dispositions may be harnessed to strengthen our relationship with Allah, for "This is the book, in which there is no doubt, guidance for those conscious of God" (Qur'an 2:2). That believers naturally incline toward different acts of devotion is well established in our tradition. Ibn Taymiyya, asked whether one should strengthen faith through knowledge, abstinence, or worship, answered that people differ, and that each should act according to what he is most capable of, citing "Have taqwa of Allah as much as you are able" (Qur'an 64:16); the most virtuous action for a person is whatever comes most readily to him and most benefits his faith, so none may belittle another's deeds. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) similarly noted in *Madārij al-sālikīn* that the spiritual stations are not traversed in a single fixed order by all. He wrote that "the path to Allah is one path," yet made diverse by His mercy according to people's differing dispositions (istiʿdadāt), some worshipping chiefly through knowledge, others through *dhikr*, prayer, charity, or introspection. Imam Malik expressed the same when asked why he devoted himself to knowledge rather than other acts, replying that Allah has apportioned good deeds as He has apportioned provision. That Paradise has eight gates, including Al-Rayyān for those who fast, likewise testifies to the plurality of routes to God. The generation of the Companions embodies this most fully, with some known for knowledge, others for courage, devotion, poetry, modesty, or loyal companionship. Building upon Ibn al-Qayyim's insight that all human activity returns to two faculties, knowing and acting, yielding *ʿilm* and *ʿamal*, a preliminary typology of four spiritual personalities is proposed. Knowledge may incline toward *experience* (aḥwāl), connected to spiritual insight (baṣīra) and *dhawq*, or toward *judgment* (aḥkām), focused on rulings and practical decision-making; the Prophet ﷺ pointed to the former when he said, "Consult your heart," and to the latter's disciplined path elsewhere. Behaviour, in turn, may incline toward *action* in pursuing good (birr) or *restraint* from evil (taqwa), a duality Ibn al-Qayyim located in two forms of *sabr*. Each tendency carries characteristic strengths and, at its extreme, distinct weaknesses, whether innovation and heedlessness or rigidity and harshness, against which the Prophet ﷺ warned that "the religion is ease." Combining these dimensions yields four types: the *Hand of Power* (judgment with action), exemplified by ʿAli ibn Abi Talib and Zaynab bint Khuzayma; the *Voice of Justice* (judgment with restraint), exemplified by ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab and ʿAisha; the *Heart of Inspiration* (experience with action), exemplified by Abu Bakr and Khadija; and the *Eye of Vigilance* (experience with restraint), exemplified by ʿUthman and Umm Salama. These describe dominant tendencies, not rigid confines, and none is superior, for righteousness embraces all. Only the Prophet ﷺ perfected every category and transcends all classification. Recognising this God-given diversity can deepen self-knowledge, foster tolerance, and prevent the alienation of those whose natural orientation differs from the prevailing expression of communal piety, for "Everyone will act according to their nature, and your Lord knows best who is rightly guided" (Qur'an 17:84). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-age-of-aisha-ra-rejecting-historical-revisionism-and-modernist-presumptions # The Age of Aisha (ra): Rejecting Historical Revisionism and Modernist Presumptions **Author:** Anonymous Guest Contributor **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** More Than Just a Number: Perspectives on the Age of Aisha (RA), Paper, Publication **Published:** October 4, 2018 **Updated:** August 8, 2025 ## Abstract There are a myriad of criticisms against Islam propagated by non-Muslims in today’s age. One of these criticisms accuses the Prophet ﷺ of marrying a child because of the *ḥadīth* mentioned in *Bukhārī* and *Muslim* where ʿĀʾisha mentions she married the Prophet at the age of six and consummated the marriage at the age of nine. This paper focuses on two questions. First, are the claims that she was actually in her teens when she married accurate and are they strong enough to make us discard ʿĀʾisha’s *ḥadīth*? Second, why did this become an issue in modern times when it was not an issue at the time the marriage took place? In conclusion, the claim that she was a teen when she married is more of a reaction to our own insecurities than an unbiased approach to finding the truth. --- ## Introduction Al-Bukhārī reports that Hishām \[ibn ʿUrwa\] narrates from his father that ʿĀʾisha, may God be pleased with her, \[said\]: “The Prophet ﷺ married her when she was six years old and he consummated the marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years.”[^1] Muslim reports that al-ʿAmash narrates from Ibrahīm who narrates from al-ʾAswad that ʿĀʾisha said: “The Messenger of God ﷺ married her when she was six years old and consummated the marriage when she was nine \[years old\], and he passed away when she was eighteen \[years old\].” [^2] The two *ḥadīths* above state that ʿĀʾisha[^3] was six when she married and nine when the marriage was consummated. These narrations come from the two most authentic books in the Islamic tradition following the Qurʿān, *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī* and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (*Ṣaḥīḥayn*), not to mention that they each place ʿĀʾisha as the narrator. In addition, numerous other authentic *ḥadīths* outside the *Ṣaḥīḥayn* support these two ages.[^4] Thus, it would be reasonable even for one with primitive knowledge of Islam and the *ḥadīth* sciences to accept this *ḥadīth* as authentic and as a part of Islamic history. To further corroborate, there was not a single prominent medieval Islamic scholar who took issue with her age; on the contrary, some of them went as far to state that there was a consensus. Ibn Hazm[^5] says: “The age of ʿĀʾisha is recorded in the texts without a difference of opinion.”[^6] Ibn Kathīr[^7] says: “This is a matter in which there is no difference of opinion amongst people.”[^8] Ibn Abd al-Barr[^9] says: “I do not know of anyone differing on this.”[^10] Thus, it can be concluded that the ages of six and nine constitute the default understanding and any evidence that contradicts this will have to be equally or more authentic. The marriage proposal from the Prophet ﷺ to ʿĀʾisha occurred after Khadīja, the first wife of the Prophet, passed away. Khawla bint Ḥakīm came and asked if the Prophet was interested in remarrying. After he said yes, she gave him two options: Sawda bint Zamʿa and ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr, who were both Muslims at the time. She then went to Abū Bakr’s house asking for ʿĀʾisha’s hand in marriage on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ. However, Abū Bakr was concerned for two reasons. First, the Prophet had previously referred to him as his brother and he was therefore concerned whether the marriage would be permissible. She returned to the Prophet ﷺ and he told her to inform Abū Bakr that they were only brothers in Islam, making the marriage permissible. Second, ʿĀʾisha was already engaged to Mutʿim ibn ʿAdiyy, who was not Muslim. Thus, Abū Bakr went to ʿAdiyy’s house and found that the family feared that ʿĀʾisha would convert their son to Islam and therefore ended the engagement. As a result, the Prophet ﷺ married ʿĀʾisha.[^11] Some have claimed that she was in her teens when she married and when the marriage was consummated. My hope is to analyze each claim to see if it holds up against the previous evidences mentioned. In order to fully understand these claims, a list of relevant dates is provided below.[^12] 609 CE - Fāṭima’s birth 610 CE - Beginning of  revelation 614/615 CE - ʿĀʾisha’s birth 617 CE - Sūra al-Qamar is revealed 620/621 CE - ʿĀʾisha is married 622 CE - *Hijra* (Migration to Medina) 1 AH/2 AH; 623/624 CE - Marriage is consummated 2 AH; 624 CE - Battle of Badr 3 AH; 625 CE - Battle of ʾUḥud 73 AH; 692 CE - ʾAsmāʾ passes away --- ## Claims that ʿĀʾisha was married in her teens There are five main claims relevant to the contention that ʿĀʾisha married the Prophet in her teens and consummated the marriage in her late teens: 1. Hishām ibn ʿUrwa was the only one to narrate the *ḥadīth*,[^13] and he narrated it when he was in Iraq, a time when he was accused of having a bad memory. 2. Asmaʾ, the older sister of ʿĀʾisha, was ten years older than ʿĀʾisha. Since Asmaʾ passed away in 73 AH/692 CE at the age of 100, this places ʿĀʾisha at eighteen years old when the marriage was consummated. 3. Fāṭima was born at the time the Kaʿba was rebuilt, when the Prophet ﷺ was thirty-five years old, and she was five years older than ʿĀʾisha, making Āʾisha around twelve years old when she married the Prophet. 4. ʿĀʾisha participated in the Battle of ʾUḥud. Ibn ʿUmar narrates that the Prophet did not permit him to participate in Uḥud because he was fourteen, but when he was fifteen the Prophet gave him permission to fight in the battle of the Trench (*Khandaq*). Thus, ʿĀʾisha must have been at least fifteen at the time of ʾUḥud, meaning she consummated the marriage at thirteen or fourteen years old. 5. ʿĀʾisha narrated in Bukhārī: “This revelation \[in Sūra al-Qamar\]: ‘Nay, but the Hour is their appointed time (for their full recompense), and the Hour will be more grievous and most bitter’[^14] was revealed to Muḥammad in Makkah while I was a playful *jāriya*.”[^15] ### Hishām ibn ʿUrwa Hishām ibn ʿUrwa is the narrator most commonly mentioned in the *ḥadīth* placing her at six and nine. Some argue that Hishām was the only one to narrate this, weakening the strength of the *ḥadīth* since if this was common knowledge, then many more narrators would have mentioned the age of ʿĀʾisha. However, this is a fallacy since there are other narrators who narrate this such as al-Aswad ibn Yazīd,[^16] Abī Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān,[^17] and others.[^18] The second claim against Hishām, who spent most of his life in Medina before moving to Iraq, was that his memory weakened and he began to mix up narrations while in Iraq as Abū al-Hasan ibn al-Qaṭṭān mentions. Some use this as evidence to discard the *ḥadīth* found in *Bukhārī* and *Muslim*, giving more legitimacy to other evidences. However, Imām al-Dhahabī vehemently denies this saying: “\[Hishām\] is considered as an absolute authority. There is nothing to the claim that al-Qaṭṭān makes. He was a preserver \[of *ḥadīth*\]. It is possible that his \[memory\] changed as he aged, and that his mental sharpness decreased. Of course, he is not in his elder age as he was in his youth, and no one is infallible from forgetfulness. However, this change is not considered to be harmful nor to have led to mixing narrations. \[Hishām\] never mixed narrations. This *ḥadīth* is taken as proof in the *Muwaṭṭa*, the *Ṣaḥīḥayn*, and the *Sunan*. So this statement by al-Qaṭṭān is to be rejected. \[Hishām\] was an imam from amongst the giants who was free from mistake.”[^19] Thus, it becomes clear that Hishām ibn ʿUrwa is a reliable narrator who *Bukhārī* trusted enough to put in his *Ṣaḥīḥ* and can be still referred to as a strong piece of evidence. ### Asmaʾ, the elder sister of ʿĀʾisha, was ten years older than ʿĀʾisha ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād states that Asmaʾ was ten years older than ʿĀʾisha. In addition, it has been confirmed that she passed away in the year 73 AH/ 692 CE at the age of one hundred.[^20] If this was the case, that would make her twenty-seven years old at the time of *hijra*, meaning ʿĀʾisha would have been seventeen at the time of *hijra*. We know that ʿĀʾisha was married two or three years before *hijra*, thus placing her at fourteen or fifteen years old at the time of marriage and seventeen or eighteen when the marriage was consummated. The math in this scenario provides a strong argument that ʿĀʾisha was in her late teens when the marriage was consummated. However, a number of scholars consider ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād to be a weak narrator. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said: “None of the *ḥadīth* scholars took him as an authority.” ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Maymūnī said: “I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about  Ibn Abī al-Zinād. He said: ‘He is considered to be weak in *ḥadīth*.’” Al-Nasāʾī also considered him weak and not to be taken as an authority. Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim said: “He is not from amongst those who preserve *ḥadīth*.” Abū Ḥātim said: “We write down his *ḥadīth*, but do not take them as an authority.”[^21] Many other scholars considered him to be weak as well. Some use Ibn Kathīr as evidence to support this claim as he too mentions that Asmaʾ was ten years older than ʿĀʾisha.[^22] However, there seems to be some confusion as he also states there was no difference of opinion concerning the fact ʿĀʾisha married at the age of six.[^23] In this case, it seems Ibn Kathīr was unaware of the implications of Asmaʾ being ten years older coupled with the fact that he provides no chain (*sanad*) to substantiate the claim that she was ten years older. It is clear then that this narration cannot be accepted because its narrator is considered to be weak and the explicit age of six in *Bukhārī* is given precedence over the implicit age of fourteen or fifteen based on the difference in age between Asmaʾ and ʿĀʾisha. ### Fāṭima’s age in comparison toʿĀʾisha The claim here is that Fāṭima, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ, was born when he was 35 years old. If Fāṭima was five years older than ʿĀʾisha, as reported, that would mean Āʾisha was born when the Prophet was 40 years old. In other words, she was born during the year of prophethood, 610 CE. Since we know she married in 620/621 CE, that would place her at the age of ten or eleven when she married the Prophet ﷺ. The issue stems from two separate narrations from Ibn Ḥajar’s *al-Iṣāba fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥāba*.[^24] The first narration is on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir that al-Abbās said: “Fāṭima was born the year the Kaʿba was rebuilt when the Prophet was 35 years old.” The second narration is on the authority ofʿUbayd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn Jaʿfar al-Hāshimī who said that: “Fāṭima was born when the Prophet was 41 years old, and she was born a year or so before prophethood. She is also older than ʿĀʾisha by five years.”[^25] It seems that there was a confusion (*iḍṭirāb*) between the two narrations. The second narration where Fāṭima is listed to be five years older is with the condition that Fāṭima was born when the Prophet ﷺ was 41. The confusion arises when Fāṭima’s seniority is detached from the second narration and inserted within the first one, changing the age of the Prophet ﷺ from 41 to 35, thus causing issues with ʿĀʾisha’s age and birth. For this reason, the argument does not stand. ### ʿĀʾisha’s participation in the Battle of ʾUḥud Anas said: “On the day of \[the battle of\] Uḥud when \[some\] people retreated and left the Prophet, I saw ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr and Umm Sulaym, with their robes tucked up so that the bangles around their ankles were visible hurrying with their water skins. Then they would pour the water in the mouths of the people, and return to fill the water skins again and came back again to pour water in the mouths of the people.”[^26] Ibn ʿUmar said: “The Messenger of God inspected me on the battlefield on the Day of ʾUḥud, and I was fourteen years old. He did not allow me \[to take part in the fight.\] He inspected me on the Day of Khandaq, and I was fifteen years old, and he permitted me \[to fight\].”[^27] Ibn ʿUmar did not receive permission to participate in the Battle of Uḥud because he was fourteen years old. When the Battle of the Trench occurred, the Prophet ﷺ reevaluated him and permitted him to fight because he had reached the minimum age of fifteen. The claim is that if Ibn ʿUmar was not allowed to participate in the Battle of Uḥud at the age of fourteen andʿĀʾisha was seen participating in the battle, that must mean she was at least fifteen years old at the Battle of Uḥud. Since the Battle of Uḥud occurred one to two years after consummation, she must have consummated the marriage at the age of thirteen or fourteen. This type of analogy (*qiyās*) is a deficient one (*qiyās maʿa al-fāriq*). The purpose of an analogy in Islamic jurisprudence is to transfer a ruling over from one event to another which has no direct clear ruling within a text (*naṣṣ*). In order for this to occur, they must share the same reasoning (*ʿilla*). When the Prophet ﷺ prohibited Ibn ʿUmar from going to battle the first time, the reasoning was that he was not old enough to participate as a combatant. The following year the Prophet ﷺ gave him permission because he had reached the minimum age of a combatant. In the case of ʿĀʾisha, the *hadith* clearly demonstrates that she was acting as a nurse, not as a combatant; thus, the age restriction that was placed on Ibn ʿUmar does not apply to ʿĀʾisha since they do not have the same reasoning (*ʿilla*), and the conclusion that she was at least fifteen cannot be made. ### ʿĀʾisha and Sūra al-Qamar ʿĀʾisha narrated in Bukhārī: “This revelation \[in Sūra al-Qamar\]: ‘Nay, but the Hour is their appointed time (for their full recompense), and the Hour will be more grievous and most bitter’[^28] was revealed to Muḥammad in Makkah while I was a playful *jāriya*.”[^29] There are a few points to take into consideration: whether Sūra al-Qamar is in its entirety a Makkan Sūra, the date when Sūra al-Qamar was revealed, and what the implications of ʿĀʾisha calling herself a *jāriya* are. Some claim that the verse mentioned in the *ḥadīth* of Sūra al-Qamar is Medinan, revealed in 4 AH, 5 AH, 6 AH, 7 AH, 9 AH, or 10 AH, thus pushing the age of ʿĀʾisha to be older. However,Ibn Ḥajar and Ibn ʿĀshūr deny these claims. More specifically, Ibn Ḥajar states thatʿĀʾisha was born eight years before ˆ and was three years old when this verse was revealed, which would place its date of revelation at 617 CE.[^30] The most indirect method of arriving at the conclusion that she was older involves understanding what ʿĀʾisha meant by *jāriya*. There is no specific age for a *jāriya* as the term is generally understood to refer to a youthful (*fatiyya*) girl.[^32] Thus, the best way to understand the word is to see how ʿĀʾisha used it in other statements. ʿĀʾisha said: “If a girl (*jāriya*) were to reach puberty at the age of nine, then she is a woman.”[^33] We learn two things from this statement. First, it was not uncommon for girls to reach puberty at the age of nine. Second, the maximum age of a *jāriya* would be eight if puberty was reached at nine according to ʿĀʾisha. The question is, what is the minimum age of a *jāriya*? Al-Mālikī clarifies Ibn Ḥajar’s statement saying: “Ibn Ḥajar mentions that ʿĀʾisha, may God be pleased with her, was born eight years before *hijra*. She would be three years old at the splitting of the moon, and it is permissible to call a three-year-old a *jāriya*.”[^34] From these statements we can estimate that the age of a *jāriya* can range from three to eight years old. According to the *ḥadīth* mentioned above, the latest date we can attribute to the revelation of Sūra al-Qamar is 10 AH and the minimum age of a *jāriya* is three years old. This would place ʿĀʾisha at three years of age when she got married in 10 AH. The earliest date we can attribute to Sūra al-Qamar is 4 AH and the maximum age of a *jāriya* is eight years. This would place ʿĀʾisha at fourteen years of age when she married the Prophet ﷺ. Based on all the evidence from Sūra al-Qamar and the *ḥadīth* mentioned above the age when ʿĀʾisha married the Prophet ranges from three to fourteen. The question remains: which age do we pick from this range? Due to the ambiguous nature of these dates and ages, Muḥammad al-Ghufaylī concludes: “It is not correct to weaken an established narration that is agreed upon because of what historians mention, especially when there is a difference of opinion concerning when Sūra al-Qamar was revealed.”[^35] In conclusion, the ages of six and nine fall within this range and the established narration in *Bukhārī* and *Muslim* is confirmed. Speculation about her being older based upon ambiguity cannot take precedence over an established narration that explicitly mentions the specific ages of six and nine. --- ## Today’s society The question remains: why is her age a topic of debate amongst modern scholars when for centuries scholars did not give the historiography of these *ḥadīths*, outside of their authenticity, any importance? At a certain point in history, a feeling of revulsion and apprehension developed for child marriages. During this shift, modern and secular scholars began to view *ḥadīth* and other historical Islamic events through this lens of revulsion, especially the age of ʿĀʾisha.[^36] This lens colonizing the past leads to one of two conclusions: either the Prophet’s historiography was, as what some like Simon Ockley described, of perfidious character, or the historical recordings found in the *ḥadīth* books were erroneous because they do not fit with our current worldview. Those espousing the latter contend that the Prophet ﷺ was still respected and incapable of committing sins, but they resort to the historical nature of *ḥadīth* to support their claim. While some from amongst the Sunni tradition have pushed for a culture of sacralizing *Bukhārī* and *Muslim*, others have created a culture of degrading *ḥadīth* solely as historical facts. Both have consequences. The former equates the narrations to the Qur’an and the latter attempts to use other historical data to dispute even authentic narrations. However, the balanced and mainstream approach as Ignaz Goldziher said: “was not a claim of infallibility, but rather the community’s demand that these two works be recognized as legally compelling indicators of ‘religious praxis’ on the basis of the community’s consensus on their authenticity.”[^37] In other words, when certain *ḥadīth* do not fit our modern worldview, do we first question the authenticity of the *ḥadīth* or our worldview? The danger in continuously questioning *ḥadīth* at every juncture of our own desires and limits, despite their historical authenticity, is that it eventually leads to the systematic approach of rejecting *ḥadīth* entirely. If subjective matters are able to deny *ḥadīth*, then *ḥadīth* lose their standing in society and become but a tool to legitimize our desires, not a tool to help guide communities. This is why the scholars discuss the difference between explicit (*qat’ī*) and implicit (*ẓannī*) narrations. An implicit *ḥadīth*, such as those *ḥadīths* that help calculate ʿĀʾisha’s age through other evidences, is not taken over an explicit *ḥadīth* that clearly and specifically details her age, as clearly explained in the claims above.[^38] Once this is realized, then we can begin to question our worldview. Were child marriages during the time of the Prophet ﷺ something common? Were they looked down upon by society? --- ## Child Marriage: Is there such a thing? Those who dispute the age of ʿĀʾisha at the time of her marriage have a difficult time comprehending that women during the time of the Prophet ﷺ reached puberty so young. Marrying a girl of that age would be considered a crime now, so how could one fathom them reaching puberty? Concerning child marriage, there are a few issues that need to be discussed. The first question is whether women in the Arabian Peninsula reached puberty at the age of nine. As mentioned earlier, ʿĀʾisha said: “If a girl (*jāriya*) were to reach puberty at the age of nine, then she is a woman.”[^39] In addition, Imām Shāfiʿī[^40] said: “I saw many women in Yemen at the age of nine reaching the age of puberty.”[^41] He also said: “I saw in Ṣan‘ā’ a grandmother who was a girl the age of twenty-one years. Her daughter reached puberty at the age of nine and gave birth at the age of ten. The daughter of that girl also reached puberty at the age of nine and gave birth at the age of ten.” [^42] Al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣaliḥ said: “I met with a slave girl that belonged to us who became a grandmother at the age of twenty-one.” [^43] It becomes clear that there are many instances of girls reaching puberty at the age of nine, with some even giving birth at the age of ten in the Arabian Peninsula. The second question is, how do we define what a child is? Neil Postman, a former professor at New York University, wrote the book *The Disappearance of Childhood*. In it, he argues that childhood was one of the great inventions of the Renaissance, just like any other social structure. Its development was closely correlated with the written tradition and the development of primary schools as opposed to the oral tradition in the Middle Ages. He states: > *In an oral world there is not much of a concept of an adult and, therefore, even less of a child. And that is why, in all the sources, one finds that in the Middle Ages childhood ended at age seven. Why seven? Because that is the age at which children have command over speech. They can say and understand what adults can say and understand. They are able to know all the secrets of the tongue, which are the only secrets they need to know. And this helps us to explain why the Catholic Church designated age seven as the age at which one was assumed to know the difference between right and wrong, the age of reason. It also helps us to explain why, until the seventeenth century, the words used to denote young males could refer to men of thirty, forty, or fifty, for there was no word—in French, German, or English—for a young male between the ages of seven and sixteen. The word child expressed kinship, not an age. But most of all, the oralism of the Middle Ages helps us to explain why there were no primary schools. For where biology determines communication competence, there is no need for such schools…The medieval way of learning is the way of the oralist; it occurs essentially through apprenticeship and service—what we would call “on-the-job training.” Such schools as existed were characterized by a “lack of gradation in the curricula according to the difficulty of the subject matter, the simultaneity with which subjects were taught, the mixing of the ages, and the liberty of the pupils.” If a medieval child got to school, he would have begun as late as age ten, probably later. He would have lived on his own in lodgings in the town, far from his family. It would have been common for him to find in his class adults of all ages, and he would not have perceived himself as different from them. He certainly would not have found any correspondence between the ages of students and what they studied.*[^44] The Islamic tradition is known for its attention to detail in oral transmissions, the ability to memorize thousands of lines of poetry and Qurʾān, and the mentorship each student of knowledge received from a long chain of scholars. This oral tradition emphasizing memorization could have advanced the age when a child would have command over speech and reason.  In addition, the household jobs of women at the time exposed them to the life of adults more than those around their age. Thus, age was not a measure of one’s ability or status within society, but to establish lineage. In other words, it is impossible for someone younger than oneself to be one’s parent. Beyond this, age provided no concrete difference between one’s physical or mental capabilities. Thus, when scrutinizing the *ḥadīth* where Khawla offers both Sawda and ʿĀʾisha in marriage, the response of the Prophet ﷺ was identical for both, even though Khawla clearly differentiated the age to the Prophet. That is because society saw them no different, and that is why the Classical Medieval Islamic scholars made no mention of the age of ʿĀʾisha in marriage. It was only after the development of childhood did we attempt to impose that social structure onto a society that did not recognize it. In addition, if a claim is made that the Middle Ages were a time of moral corruption and their distorted perception is what led them to child marriages then we need look no further than the past century in the United States of America. In 1930, thousands of boys and girls married before the age of fourteen. It was reported that 1,311 girls in the East South Central area of the country married below the age of fourteen.[^45] These evidences do not suggest that we as a society should promote child marriages and ignore current social norms. However, they do suggest that we are not at liberty to question the authenticity of every religious text that does not fit our current worldview. --- ## Conclusions In conclusion, the assumption that the *ḥadīth* of ʿĀʾisha’s age can be disputed based on the indecency of child marriage is invalid because the concept of childhood did not exist during their time, the age of puberty for some girls was the age of nine, and their culture was simply different. The claims that she was in her teens when she got married do not provide enough strong evidence to discard two explicit *ḥadīth* in *Bukhārī* and *Muslim*, but rather represent attempts to legitimize our own insecurities. --- ## Notes [^1]: Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, *Nikāḥ*, viii. 52 no. 5133. [^2]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, *Nikāḥ*, ii. 1038 no. 1422. [^3]: ʿĀʾisha Bint Abī Bakr, the third and favorite wife of the Prophet, was born in Mecca about 614 CE. Her mother, Umm Rūmān, came from the tribe of Qināna. Muḥammad gave ʿĀʾis̲h̲a the *kunya* Umm ʿAbd Allāh, after the name of her nephew ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. See W. Montgomery Watt, *Encyclopedia of Islam Edition 2nd edition*: 12 vols. ed. by P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs et al. (Leiden: Brill, 1960-2005), art. ‘ʿĀʾisha Bint Abī Bakr.’ \[*EI2*\] [^4]: Abū Dawūd, *Sunan*, *Adab*, iv. 284 no. 4933; Ibn Mājah, *Sunan*, *Nikāḥ*, iii. 75 no. 1876; Nasāʾī, *Sunan*, *Nikāḥ*, vi. 82 no. 3255. [^5]: Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Saʿīd , born at Cordova in 384/994, died at Manta Līs̲h̲am in 456/1064, was an Andalusian poet, historian, jurist, philosopher and theologian, one of the greatest thinkers of Arabo-Muslim civilization, who codified the Ẓāhirī doctrine and applied its method to all the Qurʾānic sciences. See R. Arnaldez, *EI2* art. ‘Ibn Ḥazm.’ [^6]: Ibn Ḥazm, *Ḥujjat-l-Widāʿ*, 435. [^7]: ʿImād al-Dīn Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar b. Kat̲h̲īr, born in Boṣrā circa 700/1300 and died in Damascus in S̲h̲aʿbān 774/February 1373, was one of the best-known historians and traditionalists of Syria under the Baḥrī Mamlūk dynasty. Educated at Damascus, where he went to live with his elder brother in 706/1306, after the death of their father, he had as his main teacher, in *fiqh*, the S̲h̲āfiʿī Burhān al-Dīn al-Fazārī (in 729), but next fell strongly, and very early, under the influence of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) and his school. See H. Laoust, *EI2*, art. ‘Ibn Kat̲h̲īr. [^8]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Sīrat al-Nabawiyya*, ii. 141. [^9]: al-Namarī (al-Numayrī), appellative of a family of Cordovan scholars, the principal representative of which is Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf b. ʿAbd Allāh, born in 368/978. He studied in his native city under masters of repute, engaged in correspondence with scholars of the East and traveled all over Spain “in search of knowledge,” but never went to the East. Considered the best traditionalist of his time, he was equally distinguished in *fiqh* and in the science of genealogy. After displaying Ẓāhirī tendencies at first, in which he resembled his friend Ibn Ḥazm, he later followed the Malikī doctrine. See Ch. Pellat, *EI2*, art. ‘Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr.’ [^10]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istīʿāb*, iv. 1881. [^11]: See Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad*. [^12]: Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣāba.; Bacharach, *Middle East Handbook*, 54; Mohiuddin, *Revelation*; Ghufaylī, *al-Sanā al-Wahhāj*; Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya; Ibn Ḥajar*, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, viii., 304; Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*; Ibn ʿĀshūr, *al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr*, xvii., 168; Nawawī, *Tahdhīb al-Asmaʾ wa-l-Lughāt*; Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition. [^13]: Al-Bukhārī reports that Hishām \[ibn ʿUrwa\] narrates from his father that ʿĀʾisha, may God be pleased with her, \[said\]: “The Prophet ﷺ married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years.” Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ, Nikāḥ*, viii. 52 no. 5133. [^14]: *al-Qamar*, 54:46. [^15]: Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, *Tafsīr al-Qur‘ān*, vii. 367 no. 4876. [^16]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, *Nikāḥ*, ii. 1039 no. 1422. [^17]: Nasāʾī, *Sunan*, *Nikāḥ*, vi. 131 no. 3379. [^18]: Ghufaylī, *al-Sanā al-Wahhāj*, 130. [^19]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, Hisham ibn ʿUrwa. [^20]: Al-Dhahabī, *Siyar*, Asmaʾ bint Abī Bakr. [^21]: Ghufaylī, *al-Sanā al-Wahhāj*, 188-189. [^22]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya*, viii., 91. [^23]: Ibn Kathīr, *al-Bidāya*, iii., 131. [^24]: Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1448). *al-Iṣāba fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥāba*, ed. ʿĀdil ʾAḥmad ʿabd al-Mawjūd and ʿAlā Muḥammad Muʿawwaḍ, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1415/\[1994\]). [^25]: Ibn Ḥajar. *al-Iṣāba*, viii. 263. [^26]: Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ, Jihād wa Siyar*, v. 83 no. 2880. [^27]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ, Bayan Sinn al-Bulūgh*, iii. 1490 no. 1868. [^28]: *al-Qamar*, 54:46. [^29]: Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ*, *Tafsīr al-Qur‘ān*, vii. 367 no. 4876. [^30]: Ghufaylī, *al-Sanā al-Wahhāj*, 227-229. [^31]: *Tāj al-’Arūs* , xxxvii., 347; *Lisān al-’Arab* , xiv., 143. [\[32\]](#ftnt_ref32) Tirmidhī, *Sunan*, ii., 409. [^33]: Ghufaylī, *al-Sanā al-Wahhāj*, 228. [^34]: Ibid. [^35]: Brown, *The Canonization of Al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, 11. Jonathan Brown hints that it began with Simon Ockley (d. 1720), a Cambridge scholar, who says: > *Ayesha was but seven years old, and therefore this marriage was not consummated till two years after, when she was nine years old, at which age, we are told, women in that country are ripe for marriage. An Arabian author cited by Maracci, says that Abubeker was very averse to the \[sic\] giving him his daughter so young, but that Mohammed pretended a divine command for it; whereupon he sent her to him with a basket of dates, and when the girl was alone with him, he stretched out his blessed hand (these are the author's words) \[sic\], and rudely took hold of her clothes, upon which she looked fiercely at him, and said: “People call you the faithful man, but your behaviour to me shows you are a perfidious one.”*  Jonathan Brown responds after providing evidences: > *Marracci is chiefly interested in depicting Muhammad as a lecher and a hypocrite, who gropes women who are not his wives and uses his claims of prophecy for carnal ends. His exaggeration of Abu Bakr’s hesitance merely provides dramatic effect, suggesting that he also wanted to keep his daughter out of lecherous hands. Ockley adopts this and adds his own layer of interpretation. Perhaps because he is skeptical about the claims that women mature so early in warmer climes, Abu Bakr’s original response turns into him being ‘very averse’ to marrying his daughter off at such a young age.* Brown posits that Ockley superimposes his worldview and prejudices upon early Arabian culture. According to Ockley, Abū Bakr’s hesitance in response to the Prophet’s request via Khawla was not because of a previous request by Mutʿim ibn ʿAdiyy or because of brotherhood, but rather because of the shame attributed to child marriages in the 18th century. [^36]: Brown, *The Canonization of Al-Bukhārī and Muslim*, 11. [^37]: Zuhaylī, *al-Wajīz*, 21. [^38]: Tirmidhī, *Sunan*, ii., 409. [^39]: al-Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Idrīs b. al-ʿAbbās b. ʿUt̲h̲mān b. S̲h̲āfiʿ b. al-Sāʾib b. ʿUbayd b. ʿAbd Yazīd b. Hās̲h̲im b. al-Muṭṭalib b. ʿAbd Manāf b. Ḳuṣayy al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī, the eponym, rather than the founder, of the Shāfiʿī school (*madhhab*). See E. Chaumont, *EI2,* art. ‘al- Shāfiʿī’. [^40]: Dhahabī, *Siyar*, x., 91. [^41]: Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-Kubrā*, ii., 1513. [^42]: Ibid. [^43]: Postman, *The Disappearance of Childhood*, 18-21. [^44]: Syrett, *American Child Bride*, 219. ## Summary The question of ʿĀʾisha's age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet ﷺ has become a point of contention in the modern era, though it was never treated as problematic by earlier generations. The foundation of the matter rests upon two authentic narrations, one recorded by al-Bukhārī and the other by Muslim, both transmitted from ʿĀʾisha herself, in which she states that the Prophet ﷺ married her when she was six years old and consummated the marriage when she was nine. These reports come from the two most reliable collections of ḥadīth after the Qurʾān, and numerous other authentic narrations outside the Ṣaḥīḥayn corroborate these ages. Indeed, the classical scholars affirmed this without dispute. Ibn Ḥazm stated, "The age of ʿĀʾisha is recorded in the texts without a difference of opinion," Ibn Kathīr said, "This is a matter in which there is no difference of opinion amongst people," and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr remarked, "I do not know of anyone differing on this." For this reason, the ages of six and nine constitute the default understanding, and any contrary evidence must be equally or more authentic to displace it. The circumstances of the marriage are known: after the death of Khadīja, Khawla bint Ḥakīm approached the Prophet ﷺ about remarrying and offered him the choice of Sawda bint Zamʿa or ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr. When the proposal reached Abū Bakr, he raised two concerns—first, that the Prophet ﷺ had called him a brother, which the Prophet clarified referred to brotherhood in Islam, and second, that ʿĀʾisha had a prior engagement to Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdiyy, which was dissolved when that non-Muslim family feared she would bring their son to Islam. The marriage then proceeded. Five principal claims have been advanced to argue that ʿĀʾisha was in her teens, and each has been examined and found wanting. The first claim holds that Hishām ibn ʿUrwa alone narrated the ḥadīth and that his memory weakened after he moved to Iraq, as Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Qaṭṭān alleged. Yet this is a fallacy, for others such as al-Aswad ibn Yazīd and Abū Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān also narrated it. Furthermore, Imām al-Dhahabī firmly rejected the charge against Hishām's memory, declaring him "an absolute authority" and "a preserver of ḥadīth" who "never mixed narrations," dismissing al-Qaṭṭān's claim outright and affirming that Hishām's reports are relied upon in the Muwaṭṭaʾ, the Ṣaḥīḥayn, and the Sunan. The second claim rests on the report of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād that Asmāʾ was ten years older than ʿĀʾisha and died in 73 AH at the age of one hundred, which would place ʿĀʾisha in her late teens at consummation. Though the arithmetic appears strong, its narrator is graded weak by many authorities: Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said none of the ḥadīth scholars took him as an authority, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal considered him weak, al-Nasāʾī likewise, and Abū Ḥātim said his ḥadīth are written but not relied upon. Although Ibn Kathīr also mentions this ten-year difference, he provides no chain to substantiate it and elsewhere affirms there was no dispute over the age of six—an apparent inconsistency. Thus the explicit age in al-Bukhārī takes precedence over this implicit calculation resting upon a weak narrator. The third claim concerns Fāṭima's age. If she was born when the Prophet ﷺ was thirty-five and was five years older than ʿĀʾisha, then ʿĀʾisha would have been around ten or eleven at marriage—but this only complicates matters. Ibn Ḥajar's al-Iṣāba records two separate narrations: one from Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir that Fāṭima was born when the Prophet was thirty-five, and another from ʿUbayd Allāh al-Hāshimī that she was born when he was forty-one and was five years older than ʿĀʾisha. The confusion (iḍṭirāb) arises when Fāṭima's five-year seniority is detached from the second narration and wrongly attached to the first, so the argument does not stand. The fourth claim draws an analogy from the Battle of Uḥud. Since Ibn ʿUmar reported that the Prophet ﷺ refused him participation at Uḥud when he was fourteen but permitted him at Khandaq when he was fifteen, some argue that ʿĀʾisha, seen participating at Uḥud, must have been at least fifteen. But this is a defective analogy (qiyās maʿa al-fāriq), for the two cases lack a shared cause (ʿilla). Ibn ʿUmar was assessed as a combatant, whereas the narration of Anas shows ʿĀʾisha serving as a nurse, carrying water skins to the wounded—so the age restriction for combatants does not apply to her. The fifth claim rests upon ʿĀʾisha's statement in al-Bukhārī that a verse of Sūrat al-Qamar was revealed while she was "a playful jāriya." Some assert the verse is Medinan, revealed as late as 4 to 10 AH, which would make her older, but Ibn Ḥajar and Ibn ʿĀshūr reject this; Ibn Ḥajar holds she was born eight years before hijra and was three when it was revealed, placing it in 617 CE. The term jāriya denotes a youthful girl without a fixed age. From ʿĀʾisha's own statement, "If a girl were to reach puberty at the age of nine, then she is a woman," the maximum age of a jāriya would be eight, and al-Mālikī, clarifying Ibn Ḥajar, affirms it is permissible to call a three-year-old a jāriya. The resulting range spans three to fourteen years. As Muḥammad al-Ghufaylī concluded, "It is not correct to weaken an established narration that is agreed upon because of what historians mention, especially when there is a difference of opinion concerning when Sūra al-Qamar was revealed." Since the ages of six and nine fall within this range, the established narration stands. Beyond refuting these claims, a deeper question is posed: why did this become an issue only in modern times? At a certain point in history a feeling of revulsion toward child marriage developed, and modern and secular scholars began viewing ḥadīth through this lens. This colonizing of the past yields one of two conclusions—either the Prophet's character is impugned, as Simon Ockley suggested, or the historical records of the ḥadīth are deemed erroneous for not fitting the modern worldview. Against both the culture of sacralizing al-Bukhārī and Muslim as equal to the Qurʾān and the culture of degrading ḥadīth to mere disputable history, the balanced position is upheld. As Ignaz Goldziher noted, the community's demand was "not a claim of infallibility, but rather... that these two works be recognized as legally compelling indicators of religious praxis on the basis of the community's consensus on their authenticity." The danger of continually questioning authentic ḥadīth whenever they conflict with our desires is the eventual systematic rejection of ḥadīth altogether. This is why scholars distinguish between explicit (qaṭʿī) and implicit (ẓannī) narrations: an implicit calculation of ʿĀʾisha's age cannot override an explicit ḥadīth that specifies it. The concept of childhood itself must then be examined. That girls in the Arabian Peninsula reached puberty at nine is supported by ʿĀʾisha's statement above, by Imām al-Shāfiʿī, who said, "I saw many women in Yemen at the age of nine reaching puberty," and who observed a grandmother in Ṣanʿāʾ at the age of twenty-one, as well as by al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ, who met a slave girl who became a grandmother at twenty-one. As for defining childhood, Neil Postman in The Disappearance of Childhood argues that childhood was an invention of the Renaissance, tied to the written tradition and primary schools, whereas in the oral world of the Middle Ages childhood ended at seven and no word existed for a young male between seven and sixteen. Given the Islamic tradition's emphasis on oral memorization, and the exposure of young women to adult household life, age was not a measure of ability or status but a means of establishing lineage. This is why the Prophet ﷺ responded identically to the offers of Sawda and ʿĀʾisha despite the age difference Khawla mentioned, and why the classical scholars made no issue of ʿĀʾisha's age. It was only after childhood was invented that this social structure was imposed backward. It is further noted that even in the United States in 1930, thousands married below fourteen, including 1,311 girls below that age in one region. In conclusion, the assumption that ʿĀʾisha's ḥadīth may be disputed on grounds of the indecency of child marriage is invalid, for the concept of childhood did not exist in their time, the age of puberty for some girls was nine, and their culture was simply different. The claims that she was in her teens do not present evidence strong enough to discard two explicit narrations in al-Bukhārī and Muslim, but rather represent attempts to legitimize our own insecurities. This is not a call to promote child marriage or ignore present social norms, but a reminder that we are not at liberty to question the authenticity of every religious text that does not conform to our contemporary worldview. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/aisha-ra-the-case-for-an-older-age-in-sunni-hadith-scholarship # Aisha (ra): The Case for an Older Age in Sunni Hadith Scholarship **Author:** Arnold Yasin Mol **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** More Than Just a Number: Perspectives on the Age of Aisha (RA), Paper, Publication **Published:** October 3, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract A famous *ḥadīth* states that ʿĀisha was 9 years old when her marriage with the Prophet ﷺ was consummated. However, in the science of *ḥadīth* verification (*muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth*), there are several conditions for the veracity of a *ḥadīth*, the last two of which are the absence of *ʿilal* (hidden defects) and *shudhudh* (discrepancy). Criticism of the ʿĀisha-age *ḥadīth* has been mounted on this basis by the traditionalist Syrian scholar of *ḥadīth*, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Idlibī. He determines the content of the ʿĀisha-age *ḥadīth* to be discrepant (*shādhdh*) and defective (*maʿlūl*) on the basis of numerous evidences which collectively suggest that ʿĀisha was born four years prior to the start of the Prophetic mission, betrothed to the Prophet ﷺ in the tenth year of prophethood at age fourteen, and married to him one year after the migration at the age of almost 18. Discrepancy is established by many arguments including that it contradicts other *aḥadīth* even in *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī*, for instance, where ʿĀisha explains that by the time she attained the age of awareness, her parents were already following Islam—which logically necessitates that she was born prior to their conversion. In addition to demonstrating discrepancy with *ḥadīth* sources, he draws upon many biographical sources including Ibn Saʿd, Ibn Isḥāq, Al-Ṭabarī, Ibn ʿAsākir, Abū Nuʿaym, Ibn al-Athīr, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and others. The collective weight of these evidences is what he mobilizes to assert that the ʿĀisha-age *ḥadīth* can be attributed to a mistaken statement in the transmitted report (*at-tawahhum qawl al-murawī*). --- ## Introduction Non-Muslim criticism of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ generally focuses on one or more of these aspects of his life: \*          he ordered and participated in wars against the religious Other; \*          he was both a religious and political ruler and applied harsh penal law; \*          he married a minor.[^1] These criticisms are used to portray Islam as a backward and violent religion but also to portray contemporary Muslims as naïve, backwards (‘medieval’) and suspect for adhering to the teachings of such a man.[^2] Much has been written on Muḥammad's teachings on war and political rule, in which many researchers have pointed out their ethical framework and overlapping elements with modern international law.[^3] So, although the first two critiques can be answered in a satisfactory manner without regressing into false apologetics, the third is more difficult to address. And this has to do both with unambiguous nature of the sources describing this aspect of the Prophet’s life, and their credibility: Muḥammad's marriage contract to ʿĀisha bint Abī Bakr (d. 58 AH/678 CE) when she was six years old, and her joining his household and the consummation of the marriage when she was nine. The Qur'an itself does not specify a lower age limit for marriage but rather mental and physical criteria,[^4] and is therefore a difficult arbiter to use in discussions on maturity. There are also some traditions discussing underage marriage among the companions of Muḥammad, which indicate the possibility of its accepted practice. When we look at prophetic traditions there are several *ḥadīth* reports (which I label the ʿĀisha-age traditions) which go back to ʿĀisha with almost the same wording: تزوجني رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم لست سنين وبنى بي وأنا بنت تسع سنين >  *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ married me when I was six years old and consummated the marriage with me when I was nine years old.* [^5] Therefore, the historical truth of her being a minor at the time of the marriage is rarely challenged and has generated several apologetic responses[^6] which can be categorized as voluntarism, contextualism/universalism, or modern projectionism-revisionism. ### Voluntarism What the Qurʾān says, and the Prophet ﷺ says or does (his *Sunnah*) is always exemplary and can not be deemed sinful or unethical, even if we experience it as such, as God’s command and will are not bound by human concepts of right or wrong. This position is called theological voluntarism or divine command theory.[^7] Contracting marriages of minors is therefore approved by God and by His law, but the majority of voluntarist adherents do state that consummation of the marriage is only lawful after attaining puberty as it otherwise causes harm.[^8] This approach in principle rejects the idea that the Qurʾān or Prophetic *Sunnah* are confined to specific historical-cultural contexts, but does take into account several ethical-hermeneutical norms in interpreting the Qurʾān and *Sunnah* such as the objectives of the law (*maqāṣid al-sharīʿa*).[^9] ### Contextualism/Universalism Marrying minors was normal in 7th-century Arabia, the context of the Prophet ﷺ. It was therefore not viewed as unethical. Ideas of puberty, maturity, and family law are influenced by culture and are therefore not universal. Many proponents of this approach point out that ʿĀisha's age was never an issue before the 20th-century, as prior to this time pre-or early pubescent marriages were common in most societies around the world.[^10] This approach separates certain elements of the *Sunnah* (and also certain Qurʾānic commands) into either being historical-cultural or ahistorical-universal, implying different ethical norms and applicability. Classically, there have always been elements of the Qurʾān and *Sunnah* that were determined, by the majority of scholars, to be historically and culturally confined. These elements were viewed as either being abrogated or specific to the Prophet ﷺ and/or his Companions as the well-being (*maṣlaḥa*) pursued by the divine commands is determined both by contextual and universal factors, and was replaced by new commands, or non-transferable and therefore specific, when new contexts and situations arose. This, seemingly, was also the reason why the Ḥanafī and Mālikī jurists did not include the ʿĀisha-age traditions in their discussions of minor marriage.[^11] Both the historical and ahistorical elements of the Qurʾān and *Sunnah* were deemed to be in line with universal ethical norms, as God only commands the good.[^12] These scholars also applied ethical-hermeneutical norms in interpreting the Qurʾān and *Sunnah*, but also viewed these universal norms as discernable apart from revelation.[^13] Several modern scholars, on the other hand, define this historical-ahistorical dichotomy based on modern, mainly Western, ethical norms, and viewing the classical-Islamic ethical norms mainly as ‘outdated.’[^14] Classically, the contents of the ʿĀisha-age-traditions were viewed as specific to the Prophet ﷺ and, at the same time, not seen as conflicting with universal ethical norms. This was because the consummation of the marriage apparently took place only when ʿĀisha was physically ready, thereby not causing harm to her, which was the main ethical criterion in classical thought. But according to several modern scholars, this consummation, even if it was physically possible without harm, is not acceptable by modern notions of maturity. They therefore view it through the lens of cultural relativism or evolutionary ethics. What is specific to the Prophet ﷺ and his times is also ethically contextual or outdated and has no universal import. ### Modern Projectionism-Revisionism This approach is similar to the voluntarist position but with the major difference that it takes modern, mainly Western, ethics as the universal norms that are projected (truthfully or falsely) on the Prophet ﷺ and the Qur'an. It therefore reinterprets classical interpretations deemed problematic,[^15] and rejects historical sources as unauthentic when they contradict modern norms. The modern projectionist approach accepts and applies hermeneutical elements of contextualism/universalism, using modern ethics as its default position,[^16] but in general rejects the concept that revelation can become outdated.[^17] Thus sources and interpretations presenting underage marriage as acceptable are rejected as they are seen as misogynistic, patriarchal, and abusive. As Kecia Ali remarks: > *Muslim discussions of the Prophet’s personal conduct in general, and his marriage to Aishah in particular, provide a lens through which to view changed attitudes toward sex and marriage, and unresolved concerns about the appropriateness of applying medieval standards in modern life. There are dangers in both historical anachronism and unchecked moral relativism, and in analyzing Muslim reflections on Muhammad’s marriage to Aishah, several questions emerge about both the accuracy and relevance of historical information.* [^18] Apologetic discussions about the age of ʿĀisha first occurred in Arabic in response to early 20th century Orientalist discourse,[^19] and, in the last two decades, mainly occurred in English.[^20] The majority of these were written by Muslims who, in general, had no special training in classical Islamic sciences or modern academic Islamic studies,[^21] and who applied similar arguments whereby it has become difficult to trace who copied from whom.[^22] The two oldest apologetics in English are by Maulana Muhammad Ali (d. 1951) published in 1948,[^23] and by T.O. Shanavas in 1999, who both made use of Arabic sources[^24] and laid the ground for later articles.[^25] Ali used source comparison to point out textual contradictions in the ʿĀisha-age traditions (*matn* criticism), to which Shanavas added criticism on the chain of transmission (*isnād* criticism). The source comparison uses sources mostly from general history works without *isnād* or lesser *ḥadīth* collections to discredit the contents of *aḥadīth* belonging to the most authentic collections (*ṣaḥīḥ*), and therefore only raises doubt about their content (*matn*). To question a narrator, on the other hand, attacks the *ṣaḥīḥ* status of the *isnād*, and every tradition sharing a similar *isnād*.[^26] The arguments found in these articles can be summarized as follows: A.        Was ʿĀisha born before or after Muḥammad started his prophetic mission? B.         Can her age before and around her betrothal and marriage to Muḥammad be determined by events she remembered or how she is described by others? C.         Can her age be determined by comparing it to the ages of her siblings? D.        Did the Arabs use a different understanding of numbers in relation to age—e.g., counting not from birth but from her first menstruation—or was there a misunderstanding between the pre-Islamic and *Hijra* calendar? E.         Do the differences between historical sources and the ʿĀisha-age traditions themselves discredit the textual reliability of the latter? F.         Are the narrators of these traditions reliable? One contemporary article we will discuss here is by a Syrian *ḥadīth* scholar, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ibn Aḥmad al-Idlibī (b. 1948),[^27] who applies both a universalist and modernist form of apologetics and uses all of the above arguments except D. His essay deserves analysis because al-Idlibī is better grounded in the *ḥadīth* sciences than the other apologetic writers, and can therefore be taken more seriously. One of his first publications consisted of detailed research into how textual (*matn*) criticism of prophetic *ḥadīth* has been part of Islam since its beginnings.[^28] In it, he shows why traditions are determined by contents, and not just by *isnād*. Although scholars of *fiqh* have always applied textual criticism, over the centuries the authenticity level of the *isnād* became more and more decisive in accepting a tradition and increased reluctance to reject it.[^29] Al-Idlibī, on the other hand, points out that to declare an *isnād* authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*), it needs to satisfy five conditions, while there are numerous reasons for a text (*matn*) to contain a mistake (*asbāb al-wahm kathīra*). Only a tradition that is deemed both *ṣaḥīḥ* in *isnād* and in *matn* has overcome doubt about its authenticity (*ghalab ʿalā al-ẓann*). But even then, if it is not multiple-transmitted (*lā yatawātar*), it can not attain the certainty (*maquṭūʿa*) of a multiple-transmitted tradition (*mutawātir*).[^30] When a tradition has an authentic *isnād* but also deviant contents (*isnād ṣaḥīḥ wa matnahu shādhdh*), it should be classified as weak and deficient (*ḍaʿīf*) and can be rejected.[^31] Al-Idlibī therefore applies an *usūlī* methodology in judging and classifying traditions.[^32] Jonathan Brown calls this approach ‘Late Sunni Traditionalism,’ which is a revival of the *Ahl al-Rā’y* juristic methodology whereby “jurists, not hadith scholars, \[have\] the ultimate authority in determining the authenticity and implication of a hadith,” making jurists “responsible for content criticism.”[^33] Al-Idlibī was clearly influenced by, or follows a similar vision as, the late ’Aẓharī scholar Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1996) who saw a *ḥadīth* only as truly *ṣaḥīḥ* if it did not contain a hidden flaw (*ʿillā*) or contradict more reliable evidence.[^34] It is this methodology which we find in his discussion on the ʿĀisha-age traditions. In his essay, al-Idlibī points out that because the ʿĀisha-age traditions are of *ṣaḥīḥ* status, there is no avoiding studying them. If we keep his *usūlī* methodology in mind, it means that the *ṣaḥīḥ* status of the *isnād* demands that the *matn* must also be checked for an error (*wahm*), so that its probability status (*ẓann*) can be determined. Secondly, he says he came across articles on this subject by some scholars, and he wanted to write about it to “\[gather\] some of the scholarly arguments while ignoring the points of weakness.” By this he means that he wants to point out to people that they remain indifferent to possible weaknesses in historical sources that need to be further scrutinized. So, his stated objective is not to simply discredit the ʿĀisha-age traditions because he rejects the possibility of the Prophet marrying an underaged girl, but to use them as an example of how people easily overlook mistakes in generally accepted sources. Just as his book on *matn* criticism tries to prove the classical practice of such criticism, and thus its authenticity as an Islamic methodology, his essay tries to show the necessity and usefulness of such criticism. In his analysis he tries to determine ʿĀisha's age by determining the following: 1\.          The age difference between ʿĀisha and her older sister Asmā. 2\.          The possibility of her experiencing and narrating events at a certain age. 3\.          The words used to describe her at the time when Surat al-Qamar, the 54th chapter of the Qur’an, was revealed. 4\.          When she converted to Islam. 5\.          When her parents married and whether she was born during the pre-Islamic period. 6\.          The way she was proposed as a possible spouse for the Prophet ﷺ. He does this by using both graded and ungraded narrations (with and without *isnād*), therefore gathering as much evidence to prove there is a conflict between the gathered evidences and the original narration under question. Part of his argument is also based on the idea that it is unreasonable that she was four or younger at the time of certain events (2) and when she was proposed to the Prophet (6), which uses assumptions about a child's capability and the way seventh-century Arabian culture discussed possible spouses. It therefore is not simply an argument based on clear textual and linguistic comparison, but also involves the idea of what is historically probable and logically reasonable. All this taken together is enough proof for al-Idlibī to declare the ʿĀisha-age traditions as containing error (*wahm*), and thus being defective (*ma‘lūl*). Since the writing of my original research paper on al-Idlibī’s essay, it has undergone several updates over the years, a sign that it is part of a dynamic conversation between al-Idlibī and others. The original essay which was posted online on February 27th, 2013 included six arguments, and al-Idlibī later updated it to include an additional seventh argument on October 10, 2014.[^35] By April 7th, 2015, al-Idlibī had appended three further arguments to reach a total of ten.[^36] The four additional arguments include: 7\. ʿĀisha’s description of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Anas ibn Mālik as young boys (*ghulāmayn ṣaghīrayn*), thus implying her seniority relative to them. 8\. A narration wherein she refers to Fāṭimah as “O my daughter,” which would only be appropriate if she was older or at least close in age. 9\. The story of how she was first proposed for marriage to Jubayr ibn Muṭ’im before the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ; given Abū Bakr’s staunch commitment to Islam, it is unlikely he would have proposed his daughter to an idolater, unless it was prior to the advent of Islam. 10\. The narration in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* about ʿĀisha’s participation as a nurse during the battle of Uhud, with wording that highlights strenuous activity that seems highly implausible for an eleven-year-old girl but plausible for a girl of nineteen years. Al-Idlibī notes that while each individual narration from the biographical sources could be critiqued, it is on the basis of the collective weight of all these evidences and ten arguments that the historically accurate opinion must be that she was older. He also explains at length that this argumentation pertains solely to a matter of historical accuracy, as he does not feel there is anything to exonerate the Prophet from even if marriage did occur at the younger age conventionally stated. --- ## Translation of al-Idlibī's essay[^37] **The Age of ʿĀisha on the Day of the Marriage Contract and Consummation of the Marriage.** In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Ever Merciful. Praise be to Allah, a praise that is abundant, pure, and blessed, as is beloved and pleasing to our Lord. Praise be to Allah, the One by whose blessing all good is perfected. O my Lord, perfect us in virtue and bless us with a righteous ending with your favor, blessing, and generosity. O Most Honorable of all those who are honorable! A *ḥadīth* has been transmitted about the Prophet, salutations of God upon him and peace,[^38] that he contracted marriage with (*ʿaqada*)[^39] honorable ʿĀisha, God's pleasure upon her,[^40] when she was six years old and he consummated the marriage with her when she was nine years old. Is this *ḥadīth* authentic in its transmission chain (*isnād*) and textual contents (*matn*)? We must research this. I came across a researcher’s article on this subject which weakened this *ḥadīth* because of its transmission chain and textual contents. I found it possible to benefit from it by gathering some of the scholarly arguments while ignoring the points of weakness in order to arrive at a result established by numerous evidences leading to the correct understanding. Due to the importance of presenting the correct understanding of this issue from the prophetic biography and tradition, this research will be supported by evidence for the birthdate of ʿĀisha, her age at the time of the marriage contract with the Messenger ﷺ, and her age at the time of the consummation of the marriage. There are two opinions regarding these details. The dominant opinion is that he ﷺ contracted the marriage with her when she was six and consummated the marriage with her when she was nine. This is taken from the established statement of ʿĀisha narrated in *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* and other books. This opinion necessitates that she was born four years after the advent of the prophetic mission.[^41] Abū Nuʿaym says in *Maʿrifat aṣ-Ṣahābah*, “ʿĀisha was six years old on that day \[of the marriage contract\].” Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr says in *al-Istīʿāba*, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the marriage \[contract\] with her in Makkah before the migration when she was six, though some say she was seven. He ﷺ consummated the marriage with her in Madīnah when she was nine and I don’t know of anyone who has disagreed with this. He ﷺ passed away when she was eighteen years old.” Ibn Hajar says in *Fatḥ al-Barī*, “She was born in Islam approximately eight years before the migration and the Prophet ﷺ passed away when she was approximately eighteen years old.” This is all based on the narration of ʿĀisha. The second opinion is that he ﷺ contracted the marriage with her when she was fourteen years old. And he consummated the marriage with her when she was seventeen years old and almost eighteen. This necessitates that she was born four years before the advent of the prophetic mission. The statements of Ibn Isḥāq and aṭ-Ṭabarī allude to this. These statements will be mentioned in the fourth and fifth paragraphs of evidences for the second opinion. ### The evidences for the first opinion Al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and others narrate through the chain of Hishām bin ʿUrwah from his father from ʿĀisha that the Prophet ﷺ contracted the marriage with her when she was six years old and consummated the marriage with her when she was nine years old. Muslim also narrates it through the chain of Maʿmar from az-Zuhrī from ʿUrwah from ʿĀisha. Ahmad bin Ḥanbal and Muslim also narrate it through the chain of al-Aswad bin Yazīd an-Nakha’ī from ʿĀisha. There are other chains transmitted from ʿĀisha. The word *tazawwajahā* \[in the *ḥadīth*\] can mean contracting the marriage. That is the intended meaning here. The transmission chain of the *ḥadīth* is authentic. Anyone who thinks that Ḥishām bin ‘Urwah is alone in its transmission and made a mistake is incorrect.[^42] Ibn Abī Shaybah narrates through the chain of al-Aswad from ʿĀisha that the Prophet ﷺ married her \[consummated the marriage\] when she was nine years old and he ﷺ died when she was 18 years old. Abū ‘Awānah narrates in his *al-Mustakhraj* through the chain of ʿUrwah from ʿĀisha that the Prophet ﷺ contracted the marriage with her when she was six or seven years old, consummated the marriage when she was nine years old, and died when she was eighteen years old. There are additional evidences in a *ḥadīth* of Ibn Masʿūd that could support the *ḥadīth* of ʿĀisha. However, the *ḥadīth* is weak. At-Tirmidhī narrates in *al-ʿIlal al-Kabīr* from Yahyā bin Aktham from Yahyā bin Ādam from Isrā’īl bin Yūnus from his grandfather Isḥāq from Abū ʿUbaydah from his father ʿAbdullah bin Masʿūd that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ contracted the marriage with ʿĀisha when she was six years old, consummated the marriage when she was nine years old, and died when she was eighteen years old. Al-ʿUqaylī narrates the same text in *aḍ-Ḍuʿafā al-Kabīr* from Muhammad bin Mūsā al-Balkhī from Mālik bin Sulaymān al-Harawī from Isrā’īl from the same chain as above. Aṭ-Ṭabarānī also narrates it in *al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr* from Muhammad bin Mūsā from Ḥammād al-Barbarī from ʿAbd al-Aḥmān bin Ṣāliḥ al-Azdī from Yaḥyā bin Ādam from Sharīk from Abū Isḥāq from Abū ʿUbaydah from Ibn Masʿūd. The route of Isrāīl from Abū Isḥāq was considered to have a defect by Imam al-Bukhārī, as is mentioned in at-Tirmidhī’s *al-ʿIlal al-Kabīr*. Also, al-’Uqaylī states in *aḍ-Ḍuʿafā al-Kabīr* that there is a gap in the chain. Because the *ḥadīth* narrated from Ibn Masʿūd has a weak chain of transmission, it is not suitable as support for ʿĀisha’s *ḥadīth*. ### The evidences for the second opinion **\[Argument based on comparison with the age of Asmā’\]** 1 – ʿĀisha is ten years younger than her sister Asmā. Asmā was born 27 years before the migration (i.e., 14 years before the prophetic mission). Therefore, ʿĀisha was born four years before the prophetic mission. Ibn ʿAsākir narrates in *Tārīkh Dimashq* through his route to Ibn Abī az-Zinād that he said, “Asmā was ten years older than ʿĀisha.”[^43] Abū Nuʿaym says in *Maʿrifat aṣ-Ṣahābah* under the biography of Asmā’, “She was born 27 years before the \[start of the\] calendar (i.e., before migration). She passed away in the year 73 AH in Makkah a few days after the murder of her son, ʿAbdullah bin az-Zubayr. She was 100 years old \[at the time of her death\].”[^44] Another piece of evidence that supports this narration regarding the birth year of Asmā is another narration of Abū Nuʿaym from Asmā in which she said, “I saw Zayd bin ʿAmr bin Nufayl leaning on the wall of the Ka’bah saying, ‘O people of Quraysh! There is no one amongst you on the religion of Abrahām other than me.’”[^45] Zayd passed away while the Quraysh were building the Ka’bah before revelation came down to the Messenger ﷺ, as was narrated by Ibn Saʿd in his *aṭ-Ṭabaqāt*[^46] through Saʿīd bin al-Musayyab (i.e., eighteen years before migration). Therefore, she was nine years old when she heard that, which is logical since someone under nine years of age would not usually precisely remember such a statement. Ibn al-Athīr says in *Usd al-Ghābah*, “Abū Nuʿaym said, ‘She was born twenty-seven years before the \[start of the\] calendar.’”[^47] Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said in *al-Istīʿāba*, “Asmā passed away in Makkah in the month of Jumādā al-ʿŪlā in the year 73 AH. She died having reached the age of 100.”[^48] **\[Argument based on revelation of Sūrah al-Qamar\]** 2 – Al-Bukhārī narrates from ʿĀisha that she said, “The verse, {But the Hour is their appointment \[for due punishment\], and the Hour is more disastrous and more bitter}[^49] was revealed to Muhammad ﷺ while I was young girl (*jāriyah*) playing. And Sūrat al-Baqarah and an-Nisā were only revealed while I was with him.” Al-Qurṭubī says in his *tafsīr*, “Ibn ʿAbbās said, ‘There were seven years between the revelation of this *āyah* and \[the battle of\] Badr.’[^50] If this is the case, then that means it was revealed five years before the migration and eight years after the prophetic mission.” Ibn Sīdah and Ibn Manẓūr say in *al-Muḥkam*[^51] and *Lisān al-ʿArab*,[^52] “The word *jāriyah* means a young girl (*fatiyyah*).” The word *fatiyyah* means an adolescent girl (*shābbah*). It seems as though they would use the word *jāriyah* for a girl at the beginning of her adolescence because she is still running here and there \[playing\].[^53] So how old was ʿĀisha during the revelation of the verse, {But the Hour is their appointment \[for due punishment\], and the Hour is more disastrous and more bitter},[^54] which was revealed eight years after the prophetic mission? Based on the first opinion, she would have been four years old. However, a four-year-old is not generally called a *jāriyah* (except in the context of contrasting a male and female). Therefore, it is apparent that the first opinion is a mistake. But based on the second opinion, she would have been twelve years old when the *āyah* was revealed, which fits with the meaning of *jāriyah* in Arabic. **\[Argument based on ʿĀisha’s recollection of her parents\]** 3 – Al-Bukhāri narrates from ʿĀisha that she said, “I do not have any recollection of my parents except that they were following the religion of Islam. Not a day would pass except that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would come to us, morning and evening. But when the Muslims were persecuted, Abū Bakr began migrating towards Ḥabashah[^55] until he reached *bark al-ghimād* and met Ibn Daghinah…\[till the end of the narration\].” This narration supports the argument in two ways: The first way is that, before the age of four, a child cannot usually comprehend the fact that his or her parents are practicing a religion contrary to the religion of the majority of those around them. And if ʿĀisha was born four years after the prophetic mission and \[we assume\] her first awareness of her surroundings was in the eighth year of the prophetic mission then her statement “I was not aware of my parents except that they were practicing the religion” would have no benefit since it is was already well known that Abū Bakr was one of the earliest converts to Islam and \[his wife\] Umm Rūmān accepted Islam early on in Makkah as stated by Ibn Saʿd. However, if she was born four years before the prophetic mission, and \[we assume\] her first awareness of her surroundings was in the first year of the prophetic mission, then her statement would have benefit. \[It would mean\] that when she first became aware of her surroundings, she saw both of her parents practicing Islam, not just her father. This is a proof that she was born approximately four years before the prophetic mission. This is also proven by the other supporting evidences. The second way is that her statement “But when the Muslims were persecuted, Abū Bakr began migrating towards Ḥabashah” is connected to her awareness of her parents and their practice of the religion. This subtly alludes to the fact that she was aware at the time of that incident. The *Sahabah* only migrated from Makkah to Ḥabashah around the middle of the 5th year after the prophetic mission. And their second migration was around the end of the 5th year or beginning of the 6th. If ʿĀisha was born four years after the prophetic mission, then it wouldn’t have been possible for her to comprehend what happened in the beginning of the sixth year after the prophetic mission. However, if she was born four years before the prophetic mission then that means she could have comprehended the incident completely. **\[Argument based on ʿĀisha’s conversion to Islam\]** 4 – Muhammad bin Isḥāq says in *as-Sīrah an-Nabawiyyah* under the section on the names of the early converts to Islam, “Then people from the Arab tribes accepted Islam. Amongst them were Saʿīd bin Zayd bin ʿAmr bin Nufayl, his wife Fāṭimah bint al-Khaṭṭāb, Asmā bint Abī Bakr, and ʿĀisha bint Abī Bakr while she was a minor… Then Allah commanded his Messenger ﷺ to proclaim what he brought, announce his command to people, and call to Allah. Perhaps he had kept it hidden until he was commanded to reveal it. He waited years after the prophetic mission, then Allah said, {Then declare what you are commanded and turn away from the polytheists}.”[^56] Ibn Kathīr paraphrases this text saying, “Ibn Isḥāq said, ‘Then Allah commanded his Messenger ﷺ three years after the prophetic mission to proclaim what he was commanded and to be patient with the harm of the polytheists.’”[^57] Ibn Isḥāq’s statement means that ʿĀisha was from amongst those who accepted Islam during the initial period of secret calling to Islam and that she was a minor. If that period lasted three years then perhaps ʿĀisha attended some of those gatherings near the end. But this would not hold up based on the opinion that she was born four years after the prophetic mission as she would not have been born yet. However, based on the second opinion, she would have been six or seven years old at the time. And perhaps Ibn Isḥāq mentioned her amongst the early Muslims despite her young age because of the status of her father Abū Bakr and to connect her to her sister Asmā who was ten years older than her. **\[Argument based on ʿĀisha’s birth during the Pre-Islamic period\]** 5 – Aṭ-Ṭabarī says in his *Tārīkh*, “Abū Bakr married Qutaylah bint ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā and she gave birth to ʿAbdullah and Asmā. He also married Umm Rūmān bint ʿĀmir before Islam (*fī al-jāhiliyyah*) and she gave birth to ʿAbdurraḥmān and ʿĀisha. All four of his children were born from these two wives before Islam (*fī al-jāhiliyyah*).”[^58] Ibn Isḥāq’s words “before Islam” (*fī al-jāhiliyyah*) specify a time and are connected to “they were born” because it cannot be connected to \[anything else\]. This is a clear and explicit historical report stating that ʿĀisha was born before the prophetic mission. Someone may object, saying that the meaning could be, “All four children were born from these two wives that he married before Islam” and that there is no indication of the time Abū Bakr’s children were born. The response is that this repeated emphasis is not proper since he explicitly stated for each wife that he married her before Islam. There is no benefit in mentioning again that he married them before Islam. This proves that this meaning is very unlikely and should not be considered. **\[Argument based on the marriage proposal of ʿĀisha\]** 6 – Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, aṭ-Ṭabarānī, and al-Ḥākim narrate in *al-Āhād Wal Mathānī*, *al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr*, and *al-Mustadrak* respectively from ʿĀisha that Khawlah bint Ḥakīm, the wife of ʿUthmān bin Maẓʿūn, said to the Messenger ﷺ while in Makkah, “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! Won’t you get married?” He ﷺ said, “To whom?” She said, “If you want then to a woman not previously married and if you want then to a woman previously married.” He ﷺ said, “Who is the woman not previously married?” She said, “\[She is\] the daughter of the most beloved of Allah’s creation to you, ʿĀisha bint Abī Bakr.” He ﷺ said, “Who is the woman previously married?” She said, “\[She is\] Sawdah bint Zamʿah.” He ﷺ said, “Go and mention me to both of them.” This was after the death of Khadījah, as is made clear by other narrations.[^59] The context points to the fact that Khawlah wanted to propose on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ after the death of Khadījah since he was now without a wife. It is far-fetched in this scenario that she would propose on his behalf to someone who was six years old \[since that would not provide him any of the emotional support he had lost with the death of Khadījah\]. However, if she was fourteen years old, then this is reasonable (*maʿqūl*).[^60] There is no doubt that together these proofs for the opinion that the Prophet ﷺ contracted marriage with ʿĀisha when she was fourteen years old and consummated the marriage when she was almost eighteen years old give a strong indication that this is the correct opinion. As for what has been established from ʿĀisha stating that the Messenger ﷺ consummated the marriage with her when she was nine years old, it must be a mistake. She died at the age of 75 according to this preferred opinion. So perhaps she experienced some forgetfulness regarding the issue and made a mistake (*wahm*)[^61] in narrating it \[which is not unlikely when recalling events that occurred prior to the establishment of a calendar\]. It appears that we must consider this narration from ʿĀisha to be a mistake (*tawahhīm al-qawl al-murawī*) due to the many evidences presented against it. --- ## Summary of the research The preferred opinion based on numerous evidences is that ʿĀisha was born four years before the prophetic mission. And that the Messenger ﷺ contracted marriage with her in the tenth year of the prophetic mission when she was fourteen years old and three years before the migration. And he ﷺ consummated the marriage with her near the end of the first year after the migration when she was almost eighteen years old. The *ḥadīth* that established the age of ʿĀisha to be six years when the marriage was contracted and nine years when the marriage was consummated has an authentic chain of transmission. However, it contradicts established historical proofs and is, therefore, a discrepant (*shādh*) report and \[should be\] interpreted as a mistake. Scholars have mentioned that when a *ḥadīth*’s text (*matn*) contradicts something more reliable from established history then it is rejected because that indicates a flaw due to a mistake by one of the narrators. And Allah knows best. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. *\[The following are the additional arguments from the updated essay.\]* **\[Argument from ʿĀisha implying her seniority to two other companions\]** 7 – At-Taḥāwī narrates in *Aḥkām al-Qurʾān* from ʿĀlī bin ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān from al-Minjāb bin al-Ḥārith at-Tamīmī. He also narrates from Fahd bin Sulaymān from Muḥammad bin Saʿīd al-Iṣbahāni. \[al-Minjāb bin al-Ḥārith at-Tamīmī and Saʿīd al-Iṣbahāni\] both narrate from ʿĀlī bin Mus-hir from Hishām bin ʿUrwah from his father from ʿĀisha that she said, “What do Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Anas bin Mālik know about the *ḥadīth* of the Messenger ﷺ? They were just young boys.” Aṭ-Ṭabarī narrates the same *ḥadīth* in *al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr* from Muḥammad bin ʿAbdillah al-Ḥaḍramī from al-Minjāb bin al-Ḥārith from ʿĀlī bin Mus-hir from Hishām bin ʿUrwah from ʿĀisha. (Muḥammad bin ʿAbdillah al-Ḥaḍramī, \[nicknamed\] Muṭayyan, is from Kufa. He is a trustworthy and reliable narrator (*thiqah ḥāfidh*). He died 297 AH and lived for 95 years.) This narration has a gap between Hishām bin ʿUrwah and ʿĀisha. Ibn ʿAsākir narrates the same *ḥadīth* from Abī al-Ḥasan ʿAlī bin al-Ḥasan al-Mawāzīnī from Abī al-Ḥusayn bin Abī Naṣr from Abī Bakr Yūsuf bin al-Qāsim from Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Sākin from ʿAlī bin al-Haytham from al-Mu’allā bin Manṣūr from ʿĀlī bin Mus-hir from Hishām bin ʿUrwah from his father from ʿĀisha. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr quotes the same narration in *Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm* while omitting his chain (*ʿallaqahu*) from ʿĀlī bin Mus-hir connecting all the way to ʿĀisha. Therefore, it is likely that this is an established statement from ʿĀisha. If that is the case, then it is important to know the birthdates of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Anas bin Mālik. Both of them were born approximately ten years before the migration. ʿĀisha, according to the dominant opinion, was a year younger than these companions. But if she was younger than them, it wouldn’t make sense for her to say, “They were just young boys.” However, according to the second opinion, she was seven years older than them. They were each eleven years old and she was eighteen years old when the marriage was consummated about a year after the migration. Therefore, she was more aware of the events and it would be logical for her to call them young boys. All praise is for Allah for his granting of success. **\[Argument from ʿĀisha implying her seniority to Fāṭimah\]** 8 – Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, ad-Dūlābī, aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, aṭ-Ṭabarānī, and al-Bayhaqī narrate in *al-Āhād Wa al-Mathānī*, *adh-Dharī’ah aṭ-Ṭāhirah*, *Mushkil al-Āthār*, *al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr*, and *Dalāil an-Nubuwwah* respectively from the route of Muhammad bin ʿAbdillah bin ʿAmr bin ʿUthmān that his mother Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥusayn narrated to him that ʿĀisha, the wife of the Prophet, used to say, “Certainly the Messenger ﷺ said to Fāṭimah while on his deathbed, ‘O my daughter, come lean close to me.’ She leaned close to him and he ﷺ spoke to her privately for some time. Then she stood up and was crying. Then he ﷺ said to her, ‘O my daughter, come close to me.’ She came close to him and he ﷺ spoke to her privately for some time. Then she stood up and was smiling. ʿĀisha said to her, ‘O daughter (*bunayyah*) what did your father whisper to you?’ After he ﷺ passed away, Fāṭimah said, ‘Now \[I will tell you what he said\]. First he told me that Jibrīl would review the Qurʾān with him once a year but reviewed it with him twice this year. That is why I cried. Then he told me that I would be the first of his family to join him and said, ‘You are the leader (*sayyidah*) of the women of Paradise \[as well as\] the chaste Maryam bint ʿImrān.’ That is why I smiled.’” The chain of transmission for this narration is weak. The narration supports the argument because ʿĀisha calls Fāṭimah, “O daughter!” Fātimah, according to the most common opinion, was born five years before prophethood. Others say she was born a little bit before or after the prophetic mission. If ʿĀisha was born four years after the prophetic mission, then that means that Fāṭimah was nine—or at least four—years older than her! It is far-fetched that a young woman would say something like “O daughter!” to someone who is older than her, even if she was her stepmother. But if ʿĀisha was born four years before prophethood then this means Fāṭimah was either a year or several months older than ʿĀisha based on the most common opinion \[for Fāṭimah’s age\]. Such a small difference in age would not prevent a younger stepmother from saying “O daughter!” to someone older than her under her care. There is clear supplemental evidence in this narration that ʿĀisha was born four years before the prophetic mission, not four years after the prophetic mission. Even though this narration has a weak chain, it is acceptable to use it as supplemental evidence since the criterion for supplemental evidence is more relaxed. **\[Argument based on the unlikelihood of Abū Bakr accepting a proposal for his daughter to an idolater\]** 9 – Ibn Ābī ʿĀsim (in *al-Āhād Wa al-Mathānī*), Ibn Raḥwayh, Ibn Ḥanbal, aṭ-Ṭabarī (in *at-Tārīkh*), aṭ-Ṭabarānī (in *al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr*), al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī narrate through the route of Muḥammad bin ʿAmr from Yahyā bin ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān bin Ḥāṭib from ʿĀisha that she said, “When Khadījah passed away, Khawlah bint Ḥakīm, the wife of ʿUthmān bin Maẓʿūn, said, ‘O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! Won’t you get married?’ He ﷺ said, ‘To whom?’ She said, ‘If you want then to a woman not previously married and if you want then to a woman previously married.’ He ﷺ said, ‘Who is the woman not previously married?’ She said, ‘\[She is\] the daughter of the most beloved of Allah’s creation to you, ʿĀisha bint Abī Bakr.’ He ﷺ said, ‘Who is the woman previously married?’ She said, ‘\[She is\] Sawdah bint Zamʿah.’” In this *ḥadīth*, Khawlah later says to Abū Bakr, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has sent me to propose to ʿĀisha on his behalf.” He said to her, “Wait,” and left. Umm Rūmān, the mother of ʿĀisha, said to her, “Certainly al-Muṭ'im bin ʿAdī already proposed to her on behalf of his son and I swear by Allah, Abū Bakr has never broken a promise.” Abū Bakr then went to al-Muṭ'im bin ‘Adī and his wife, Umm al-Fatā. She said to Abū Bakr, “O Ibn Abī Qaḥāfah! If our son marries into your family, you may make him leave his religion and enter into yours!” Abū Bakr then said to al-Muṭ'im bin ʿAdī, “Do you feel the same way?” He said, “That is what she says.” Then Abū Bakr left and Allah had removed the burden of his previous commitment. Some researchers believe that ʿĀisha was engaged to Jubayr bin al-Muṭ'im bin ʿAdī before she was engaged to the Prophet ﷺ and that this is a supplemental evidence for the claim that she was a lot older than six when she was engaged to the Prophet ﷺ. I believe that this idea is not nuanced because ʿĀisha was not engaged to Jubayr bin al-Muṭ'im. Rather, al-Muṭ'im bin ʿAdī had simply suggested that they get engaged \[at a later time\] and asked Abū Bakr to promise to agree. This \[kind of promise\] often occurred even between two children that were only a year or two old. I heard a brother a few years ago making this argument and claiming that ʿĀisha was engaged to Jubayr bin al-Muṭ'im. However, I did not add it to the original arguments because I didn’t find it convincing. Then I later realized how the narration supports the claim that ʿĀisha was born before the prophetic mission. The context of the story points to the fact that al-Muṭ'im bin ʿĀdī and his wife were both holding firm to polytheism and hated the idea of accepting Islam, just like they hated for their son to convert to Islam after marrying ʿĀisha. We also know that Abū Bakr was very keen on calling people to Islam. Therefore it is extremely far-fetched that al-Muṭ'im bin ʿĀdī would mention this proposal and Abū Bakr would agree if ʿĀisha was born four years after the prophetic mission. The only explanation is that al-Muṭ'im bin ʿĀdī mentioned ʿĀisha being engaged to his son and took a promise from Abū Bakr before the prophetic mission. This means that ʿĀisha was born before the prophetic mission, not after it. **\[Argument based on ʿĀisha’s participation in Uḥud as a nurse\]** 10 – Al-Bukhāri narrates that Anas said, “On the day of \[the battle of\] Uḥud, I saw ʿĀisha bint Abī Bakr and Umm Sulaym with their robes tucked up such that I could see their anklets. They were running with waterskins on their backs and then pouring them into people’s mouths. Then they would refill them and pour them into people’s mouths.” Al-Bukhāri also says, “Other narrators say ‘they were transporting water skins.’” That is the wording used in *Saḥiḥ Muslim*. Ibn Hajar says that wording is also used in the *Mustakhraj* of al-Ismāʿīlī. According to the most common opinion, ʿĀisha was eleven years old at the time of Uḥud. According to the second opinion, she was nineteen years old. Al-Khaṭṭābī says in his book *Āʿlām al-Ḥadīth*, “The word *tanquzāni* \[in the *ḥadīth*\] means to jump around. But I believe \[what is intended is\] *tazfirāni* which means to carry heavy waterskins. The word *zifr* is used to refer to a waterskin.” I believe that the wording *tanquzāni al-qirab* does not make sense here. Al-Khaṭṭābī was correct when he explained *zafr* to mean carrying heavy waterskins. The book *Lisān al-ʿArab* by Ibn Manẓūr indicates that the root of the word supports this meaning. If this is the case, then the story doesn’t make sense based on the common opinion \[of ʿĀisha’s age\]. An eleven-year-old girl would usually not be able to carry such heavy water skins and pour them into the mouths of the wounded, then refill them, and go back again. However, a nineteen-year-old girl would be able to do that, and that shows that the second opinion is better. Each of these previously mentioned evidences may not be individually strong enough to show a mistake (*wahm*) in the narration that claims the age of ʿĀisha to be six when the marriage was contracted and nine when the marriage was consummated. And they may not be individually strong enough to give preference to the second opinion which claims the age of ʿĀisha to be fourteen when the marriage was contracted and seventeen when the marriage was consummated. However, the collective weight of all ten evidences makes a strong argument for the second opinion. #### A response to a discussion that has circulated regarding this issue The Holy Qurʾān has explicitly mentioned the waiting period (*ʿiddah*) of \[divorced\] women who have never menstruated. Allah says, {And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women—if you doubt, then their period is three months, and \[also for\] those who have not menstruated}.[^62] The Qurʾānic text means that their marriage contract was completed before they became adults (*qabl al-bulūgh*) through menstruation. This meaning is clear and there is no doubt in it. There is also no doubt that it is allowed. However, it is not considered to be for everyone. The question that may come up now is, “Is there a fault and disgrace in the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ to ʿĀisha at a young age such that we want to exonerate him of this by preferring the second opinion?” I argue that there is no fault or disgrace in the Prophet ﷺ marrying ʿĀisha before adulthood if that is proven to have happened. If that is proven to be the case, then it is mandatory to completely submit and firmly believe that it was done for some reason, whether or not we understand that reason. Whoever assumes that the purpose of establishing this historical point is to argue something that contradicts the meaning of the Qurʾān has certainly missed the point. This is not the purpose of researching the age of ʿĀisha when she married. Rather, it pertains solely to matters of historical accuracy that may be correct or incorrect. There is an enormous difference between the permissibility of something occurring and establishing that something actually occurred. It is not befitting that the reason for researching this historical point be the fact that modern society no longer embraces such an age difference between husband and wife. Because whatever sayings and actions have been established from the Messenger ﷺ should be the basis by which we evaluate thoughts and opinions, not vice versa. Allah says in the Qurʾān, {But no, by your Lord, they will not \[truly\] believe until they make you, \[O Muhammad\], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in \[full, willing\] submission}.[^63] The historical reports indicating that the age of ʿĀisha was several years older than nine at the time of the consummation of the marriage are numerous. They are supplemental evidences that cannot be considered stand-alone evidences. However, the evidences collectively form a clear and strong proof that cannot be ignored. Similarly, we cannot prefer what has been established from ʿĀisha over all of those evidences because when numerous evidences reach that level, they are stronger than the saying of one companion \[of the Prophet ﷺ\] who is not beyond confusion, error, or forgetfulness. While it is not possible that ʿĀisha would be negligent of such an important and special event in her life, it is not far-fetched that she could have experienced some forgetfulness due to her old age. The books of *ḥadīth* are more authentic than the books of history. They are also more reliant on authentic chains of narrators and stronger in terms of knowing which narrations are confined to one narrator and which have multiple chains. This is something that is agreed upon. The issue here is not to compare the books of *ḥadīth* to the books of history. Rather it is to compare one specific *ḥadīth* established in the books of *ḥadīth* through one companion to ten evidences from the books of *ḥadīth* and the books of history. I have come to the conclusion that we must prefer the numerous evidences over the narration established from one companion in the books of *ḥadīth*. Praise be to Allah, the One by Whose blessing all good is perfected. --- ## Notes [^1]: This is a different, but overlapping list of liberal concerns with modern Sharīʿa governance in Muslim majority countries: (i) Supremacy of *sharīʿa*, (ii) Legal status of women, (iii) Cruel corporal punishments, (iv) Violations of human rights. See: Jan Michiel Otto, Sharia Incorporated: *A Comparative Overview Of The Legal Systems Of Twelve Muslim Countries In Past And Present* (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), 29. [^2]: These two issues are frequent in both liberal public discourse and Islamophobic discourse. One of the better known Islamophobic lobbyists, Robert Spencer, also uses these two main subjects as proof that Islam is the opposite of liberal modernity: [http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/11/finding-out-the-truth-about-muhammad](http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/11/finding-out-the-truth-about-muhammad). For a discussion of the term Islamophobia, see: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/defining-islamophobia&sa=D&ust=1538748966893000)[http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/defining-islamophobia](http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/defining-islamophobia). [^3]: On war, see for example: Ahmed al-Dawoody's *The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001). On politics and law, see for example: Mashood A. Baderin, *International Law And Islamic Law* (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2008). M. H. Kamali, *Citizenship And Accountability Of Government: An Islamic Perspective* (United Kingdom: The Islamic Texts Society, 2011). Ahmed Akgündüz, *Islamic Public Law (Documents On Practice From The Ottoman Archives)*(Istanbul: IUR Press, 2011). Ahmad S. Moussalli, *The Islamic Quest For Democracy, Pluralism, And Human Rights* (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003). [^4]: Verse 4:6 says marriageable age (*balaghū al-nikāḥ*) is determined by mental maturity (*rushd*) and verse 6:152 adds bodily maturity (*shudd*), most *fiqh* scholars accept these criteria as referring to a recommended age of 15 or 18 years, and some mention that founding imams as Imam Malik and Imam Abū Hanifa mentioned the ages of 21 and 25. See: Mullājiyūn al-Ḥanafī, *Tafsīrāt al-Aḥmadiyya fī Bayān al-Ayāt al-Sharʿiyyah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmiyyah, 2010), 211-212. al-Māturīdī, *Tā’wīlāt Ahl al-Sunna* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmiyyah, 2005), 4:316. Qāḍī Ibn al-ʿArabī, *Aḥkām al-Qur’ān* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘ilmiyyah, 1996), 1:418. Although their preferred ages are very similar to ours today, the majority didn't see these as minimal ages and thus didn't forbid child marriage as they viewed that arranged underage marriages could serve the well-being of the child (*maṣlaḥa al-walad*) as long as compatibility (*kafa’*) between the two prospective spouses was upheld. But their emphasis on both preferred ages and the match serving wellbeing does show an awareness of the possible problems surrounding underage marriage. Scholars also used verse 65:4 to scriptualize underage marriage whereby “divorced non-menstruating women” (*lam yaḥiḍna*) was understood as referring to women being too old (*kabīr*) or too young (*ṣaghīr*) for it. See Mullājiyūn, ibid, 700; al-Zuḥaylī, ibid, 7:184. Classically the scholars distinguished between contracting the marriage and consummating it; they focused on the former while the latter was mostly linked to when the female was deemed physically mature enough for it. al-Zuḥaylī emphasizes that there are no texts that forbid setting a legal minimum age for contracting the marriage; it is rather the opposite, the Qur'an links marriage to mental and physical maturity and the majority of scholars preferred a marriageable age of 15+, compatibility, and the attainment of well-being (*maslaḥa*), which in contemporary society incorporates an educational system which prefers a minimum age of 18 years. If anyone younger wants to marry, a judge can review the request as judges have inherited the guardianship of the fathers in this age. See Al-Zuḥaylī, ibid, 7:188-189. [^5]: These can be found in the *ḥadīth* collections of al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Aḥmad, and al-Nisā’ī. See: Muḥammad al-Shawkānī, *Nayl al-Awṭār* (Egypt: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1993), 6:224-225. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1379 AH), 7:224-225. [^6]: Apologetics concern theological responses to criticism from within or outside the faith tradition. [^7]: Also known as ethical or moral subjectivism, on this see: Mark C. Murphy, *God And Moral Law: On The Theistic Explanation Of Morality* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 100–132; Philip L. Quinn, *Divine Commands And Moral Requirements* (Oxford: Clarendon, 2003), 66–88; Mariam al-Attar, *Islamic Ethics: Divine Command Theory In Arabo-Islamic Thought* (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), 75. [^8]: For an overview of pre-modern opinions among the Sunni schools, see: Wahba al-Zuḥaylī, *al-Fiqh al-islāmiyyu wa adillatuhu* (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2008), 7:62-65, 183-189. For examples of different voluntaristic discussions, see: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://islamqa.info/en/178318&sa=D&ust=1538748966900000)[http://islamqa.info/en/178318](http://islamqa.info/en/178318); [http://www.askimam.org/public/question\_detail/21031](http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/21031) . [^9]: Anver Emon labels this semi-moral realism *soft natural law*. See: Anver Emon, *Islamic Natural Law Theories* (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2010), 123–183; Al-Attar, ibid, 135–140; Mariam al-Attar, “Meta-Ethics: A Quest For An Epistemological Basis Of Morality In Classical Islamic Thought,” *Journal Of Islamic Ethics* 1, no. 1-2 (2017), 39–47; Ibn Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī, *Al-Muwāfaqāt fī uṣūl al-sharīʿa* (Mansoura: Dār al-Ghadd al-Jadīd, 2011), 1:63–65; Aḥmad al-Raysūnī, *Imam Al-Shatibi's Theory Of The Higher Objectives And Intents Of Islamic Law* (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2005), 232–250. [^10]: See an interesting discussion on this by Jonathan Brown: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.lamppostproductions.com/dr-johnathon-brown-on-the-age-of-aisha/&sa=D&ust=1538748966903000)[http://www.lamppostproductions.com/dr-johnathon-brown-on-the-age-of-aisha/](http://www.lamppostproductions.com/dr-johnathon-brown-on-the-age-of-aisha/), and: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://muslimmatters.org/2010/10/13/understanding-the-problematic-age-of-aisha/&sa=D&ust=1538748966903000)[http://muslimmatters.org/2010/10/13/understanding-the-problematic-age-of-aisha/](http://muslimmatters.org/2010/10/13/understanding-the-problematic-age-of-aisha/). [^11]: See Carolyn Baugh, “An Exploration of the Juristic Consensus (*ijmā‘*) on Compulsion in the Marriages of Minors,” *Comparative Islamic Studies* I, no. 1 (1999), 33-93. [^12]: That is, ethical objectivism, also known as natural law theory or moral realism; on this, see: Murphy, ibid, 69–99; Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves, *Natural Law: An Introduction To Legal Philosophy*, (UK: Hutchinson & Co, 1972), 37–50; Emon, ibid, 7–11; Al-Attar, ibid, 12. [^13]: Anver Emon labels this type of ethical objectivism *hard natural law*. Cf. Emon, ibid, 45–89; A. Kevin Reinhart, *Before Revelation: The Boundaries Of Muslim Moral Thought* (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), 43–56, 79–86; Wahba al-Zuḥaylī, *Uṣūl al-fiqh al-islāmī* (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2013), 1:123–124, 127–134; Jasser Auda, *Maqasid al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach* (2008, IIIT). [^14]: Nasr Abū Zayd (d. 2010) and Abdullah Saeed’s works are modern examples of such a dichotomy between historical-cultural and ahistorical-universal elements of the Qurʾān and *Sunnah*. See: Nasr Abū Zayd, *Mafhum al-Naṣṣ: dirasah fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān* (1994, al-Markaz al-Thaqafī al-‘Arabī). Abdullah Saeed, *Interpreting the Qur’an: Towards a Contemporary Approach* (2005, Routledge). [^15]: Edip Yuksel's *Qurʾān: A Reformist Translation* (Brainbow Press, 2007) is a radical example of this as he has a Qurʾānist-structuralist approach to the text, whereby traditional interpretations are generally deemed to be false and barbaric. See especially his introduction where he provides a long list of classical interpretations which he views as problematic. [^16]: In general, modern human rights discourse is embraced, especially when it comes to human equality which revolves around gender equality and inclusivist or universalist approaches to non-Muslims, but on LGBT-identities a mostly conservative stance is taken. [^17]: The majority of Islamic modernist-reformist thought falls under this category and have a Soft or Hard Natural Law approach. To understand how this relates to interpretation and acceptance or rejection of sources, see: Arnold Yasin Mol, “The denial of supernatural sorcery in classical and modern Sunni *tafsīr* of Sūrah al-Falaq (113:4): A reflection on underlying constructions,” *al-Bayan Journal of Qurʾān and Hadith Studies* 11, no. 1 (June 2013), 15-32. For similar typological modernistic approaches, see: J. M. S. Baljon, *Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation* (1880-1960) (Leiden: Brill, 1968). Daniel W. Brown, *Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought* (Cambridge: 1999, Cambridge University Press). Taji-Farouki and Cornell, *Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qurʾān* (United Kingdom: Oxford University Press in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2004). [^18]: Kecia Ali, *Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence* (Oxford: Oneworld, 2006), 136-137. [^19]: See a discussion on this in Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy* (London: Oneworld, 2014), 145-148. Early 20th century Orientalist writing caused some discussions on this among higher classes and some intellectuals in Egypt, but it is the post-1990 era when this discussion seemed to have returned in Arabic, in far more Arab countries among the larger population, and by scholars trained in Islamic sciences. [^20]: For example: [](https://fountainmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1026:At-What-Age-Did-Aisha-Marry-the-Prophet&catid=70&Itemid=131)[https://fountainmagazine.com/index.php?option=com\_content&view=article&id=1026:At-What-Age-Did-Aisha-Marry-the-Prophet&catid=70&Itemid=131](https://fountainmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1026:At-What-Age-Did-Aisha-Marry-the-Prophet&catid=70&Itemid=131); [](#)http://www.hasaan.com/2012/04/hazrat-aishas-real-age-at-marriage-time.html; [](#)[http://www.dawn.com/news/696084/of-aishas-age-at-marriage](http://www.dawn.com/news/696084/of-aishas-age-at-marriage); [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/17/muhammad-aisha-truth&sa=D&ust=1538748966911000)[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/17/muhammad-aisha-truth](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/17/muhammad-aisha-truth); [http://www.discoveringislam.org/aisha\_age.htm](http://www.discoveringislam.org/aisha_age.htm). [^21]: Kecia Ali, ibid, 138-143. [^22]: Ibid, 144. [^23]: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.muslim.org/islam/aisha-age.htm&sa=D&ust=1538748966912000)[http://www.muslim.org/islam/aisha-age.htm](http://www.muslim.org/islam/aisha-age.htm). [^24]: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ilaam.net/articles/ayesha.html&sa=D&ust=1538748966913000)[http://www.ilaam.net/articles/ayesha.html](http://www.ilaam.net/articles/ayesha.html). [^25]: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.islamawareness.net/FAQ/what_was_ayesha.html&sa=D&ust=1538748966914000)[http://www.islamawareness.net/FAQ/what\_was\_ayesha.html](http://www.islamawareness.net/FAQ/what_was_ayesha.html) and [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Polemics/aishah.html&sa=D&ust=1538748966915000)[http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Polemics/aishah.html](http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Polemics/aishah.html). [^26]: Kecia Ali, ibid, 139-140. This argument has been refuted as insufficient as there are other traditions mentioning the same age for ʿĀisha in which Hishām ibn ʿUrwah was not part of the *isnād*; see: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/21031&sa=D&ust=1538748966916000)[http://www.askimam.org/public/question\_detail/21031](http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/21031). Also al-Idlibī's analysis states that this idea is incorrect; see the translation below. [^27]: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ibn Aḥmad al-Idlibī was born in 1948 in the Syrian city of Idlib. He is Shāfiʿī in lineage and obtained a PhD in Islamic sciences with a specialty in *ḥadīth* from the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Ḥassīniyah in Morocco in 1980. He has taught *ḥadīth* sciences at several Arab universities, including the Kulliyah al-Darāssāt al-islāmiyah wa al-ʿArabiyah in Abū Dhabi and the Kulliyat al-Sharīʿah in the United Arab Emirates. His websites are:www.salahsafa.blogspot.com and [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://idlbi.net&sa=D&ust=1538748966917000)[http://idlbi.net](http://idlbi.net). [^28]: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Idlibī, *Minhaj Naqd al-Matn ʿinda ʿulamā’ al-Ḥadīth al-Nabuwī* (Beirut: Dār al-Afaq al-Jadīdah, 1983). [^29]: Wael B. Hallaq, "The Authenticity of Prophetic Ḥadîth: A Pseudo-Problem," *Studia Islamica*, No. 89 (1999), 75-90. [^30]: A *mutawātir* is a *ḥadīth* or saying (*khabar*) which is transmitted in every stage of the *sanad* by multiple transmitters (general agreed upon requirement is 10 transmitters), whereby it can rationally be concluded that these transmitters could not have agreed upon a fabrication (*ikhtilāq*). A *mutawātir ḥadīth* provides necessary knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-Ḍarūriyya*). Any *ṣaḥīḥ* tradition that doesn't conform to these criteria, but has an authentic *isnād*, is of the status of *Aḥād* (singular transmission), only provides conditional knowledge (*al-ʿilm al-mutawaqqif*), which needs further investigation. Maḥmūd al-Ṭaḥḥān, *Taysīr Muṣṭalaḥ al-Ḥadīth* (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Maʿārif li-Nushr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 1425 AH), 23-25, 27. [^31]: al-Idlibī, ibid, 33. [^32]: For the difference between *usūlī* and *’athārī* methodology, see: Hallaq, ibid, 79-85. For a classical *’usūlī* exposition, see: Abū Ishāq al-Shāṭibī, *al-Muwāfiqāt fī uṣūl al-Sharī‘ah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, n.d.), 4:3-21. [^33]: Jonathan A. C. Brown, *Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World* (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009), 262. [^34]: Brown, ibid, 263. See the first two chapters in al-Ghazālī's *The Sunna of the Prophet between the People of the Fiqh and the People of the Ḥadīth (al-Sunnah al-Nubuwiyyah bayna Ahl al-Fiqh wa Ahl al-Ḥadīth)* (translated by Aisha Bewley, Istanbul: Dar al-Taqwa, 2009). [^35]: [http://salahsafa.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post\_27.html](http://salahsafa.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post_27.html) [^36]: Refer to the online article al-Idlibī, *ʿUmr al-Sayyidat ʿĀisha Yawm al-ʿAqd wa Yawm al-Zawaj*, at: http://idlbi.net/marriageage/. [^37]: Original translation of the 2013 essay by the author with subsequent revisions and additional translation of the updated essay by Yaqeen Institute. I want to thank the team of Yaqeen Institute for their help in editing and updating this research paper. Al-Idlibī refers to several sources without precise references (i.e., he doesn't use footnotes in this essay), so I have tried to trace the majority of citations, especially the ones from lesser known or accessible works, and added them in the footnotes. I have also added dates of death of the mentioned historians to indicate the period they were working in (which was mostly centuries after the compilers of *ḥadīth*), and point out when a source has an ungraded *isnād* or lacks it. [^38]: Translation of *ṣallā Allah ʿalayhi wa salam*; in the rest of the translation abbreviated as ﷺ. [^39]: The contracting of a marriage refers to the agreement between the guardians and/or prospective spouses on the wish to get married and on the amount of dowry. The root word *ʿaqada* literally means making a knot (thus the English expression on marriage as ‘tying the knot’ comes very close) and is used for contracts, agreements, etc. It can be used to refer to the contracting of the marriage and the existing marriage itself as a form of contract. In classical *Sharīʿa* constructs, betrothal (*khiṭbah*), contracting the marriage (*ʿaqd*) and consummating it are separate acts whereby the first is an unofficial agreement between parties, the second an official agreement between parties with dowry; the third generally occurs when the female is deemed physically ready. See: Al-Zuḥaylī, ibid, 7:23-26, 43-65. Brown, *Misquoting Muhammad*, 143. [^40]: Translation of *raḍī Allah ʿanhā*; in the rest of the translation this is left out. [^41]: Throughout most of the essay, al-Idlibī uses only *al-Baʿath*, the mission, to refer to the advent of the prophetic mission. It is generally accepted that the Prophet ﷺ received his first revelation in 610 CE, thirteen years before the *hijra*. [^42]: Here al-Idlibī dismisses the attempts by some apologists to try to find a weakness in the chains of transmission of the ʿĀisha-age traditions to discredit them. [^43]: Abū al-Qāsim b. al-ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH), *Tārīkh madinat Dimashq* (Dār al-Fikr al-Ṭabā‘h wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawziya, 1995), 69:8. The *isnād* is not graded, thus its authenticity compared to the ʿĀisha-age traditions is unknown. [^44]: Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī (d. 430 AH), *Maʿrifat aṣ-Ṣaḥābah* (Riyadh: Dār al-Waṭan li-lNushr, 1998), 6:3253. See also Ibn al-ʿAsākir, ibid, 69:9. Again the *isnād* is not graded, thus its authenticity compared to the ʿĀisha-age traditions is unknown. [^45]: Al-Iṣbahānī, ibid, tradition 2843, 3:1134. Ungraded *isnād*. [^46]: Ibn Saʿd (d. 230 AH), *Al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmiyyah, 1990), 3:291. Ungraded *isnād*. [^47]: ʿIzz al-Dīn b. al-Athīr (d. 630 AH), *Usd al-Ghābah fī Maʿrifat aṣ-Ṣaḥābah* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmiyyah, 1994), tradition 6705, 7:7. Ungraded *isnād*. [^48]: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH), *al-Istīʿāba fī Maʿrifah al-Ṣaḥābah* (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1992), tradition 6705, 7:7. Ungraded *isnād*. See also in al-ʿAsākir, ibid, 69:8. [^49]: Qur’ān 54:46. *Sahih International* translation. [^50]: Shams al-Dīn al-Qurṭubī, *Jāmaʿa al-Aḥkām al-Qur’ān* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyah, 1964), 17:146. Ungraded *isnād*. The battle of Badr occurred in 2 AH (624 CE). [^51]: Bin Sīdah al-Mursī, *al-Muḥkam wa al-Muḥīṭ al-‘Aẓam* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘ilmiyyah, 2000), 7:625-626 (under the heading *al-Shīn wa al-Bā’,* the root of *al-Jāriyah* is *jarā*). [^52]: Ibn Manẓūr al-’Anṣārī, *Lisān al-‘Arab* (Beirut: Dār Ṣādr, 1414 AH), 7:81. [^53]: The Arabic word for running is *tajrī* which comes from the same root letters as *jāriyah*. [^54]: Qur’ān 54:46. [^55]: Arabic name of Ethiopia. [^56]: Qur’ān 15:94. *Sahih International* Translation. [^57]: Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī (d. 774 AH), *al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyah (min al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah li-ibn Kathīr)* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah li-l-Ṭabā‘h wa al-Nushr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 1976), 1:454. Ungraded *isnād*. [^58]: Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr* (Cairo: Maktabah ibn Taymiyah, 1994), 23:23. Nu‘īm bin al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, *al-Mustadrak ‘alā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘ilmiyah, 1999), tradition 2704, 2:181. *Isnād* graded *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^59]: Al-Ṭabarānī, ibid, 23:23. Al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī, ibid, tradition 2704, 2:181. *Isnād* graded *ṣaḥīḥ*. [^60]: What his criteria were for reasonableness, or rational acceptability, in this matter is unstated and has no precedence among classical commentaries on this tradition. [^61]: *Wahm* is a technical indication within the classical *ḥadīth* sciences: “When an error (*wahm*) is discovered through external indications (*al-qarā’īn*) and the gathered paths \[of transmission\], then it is defective (*muʿallal*),” al-ʿAsqalānī, *Nukhbat al-Fikar fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athār* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1997), 8. [^62]: Qur’ān 65:4. *Sahih International* translation. [^63]: Qur’ān 4:65. *Sahih International* translation. ## Summary The Question of ʿĀisha's Age at the Time of Her Marriage: A Study of al-Idlibī's Argument A well-known report transmitted through the chain of Hishām ibn ʿUrwah from his father from ʿĀisha, and recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, and elsewhere, states that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ contracted his marriage with ʿĀisha bint Abī Bakr when she was six years old and consummated it when she was nine. This report, alongside its variants transmitted through az-Zuhrī from ʿUrwah and through al-Aswad ibn Yazīd, has long been treated as the dominant position, from which it follows that ʿĀisha was born about four years after the beginning of the prophetic mission. This narration has become a point of criticism raised against the Prophet ﷺ, and several types of responses have arisen among Muslims: the voluntarist position, which holds that whatever God and His Prophet ﷺ command cannot be deemed unethical, though most who hold it maintain that consummation is only lawful after puberty lest harm result; the contextualist or universalist position, which observes that early marriage was ordinary in seventh-century Arabia and was accepted classically as specific to the Prophet ﷺ while causing no harm since consummation occurred only when ʿĀisha was physically mature; and the modern revisionist position, which measures the reports against modern Western ethical norms and rejects sources that conflict with them. It is worth noting that the Ḥanafī and Mālikī jurists did not include these age-narrations in their discussions of minor marriage. Among the traditionalist scholars who have examined this matter with grounding in the ḥadīth sciences is the Syrian scholar Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ibn Aḥmad al-Idlibī (b. 1948). His significance lies in his methodology, which affirms that a report must satisfy conditions of authenticity not only in its chain (isnād) but in its text (matn) as well. He holds that while an authentic isnād must meet five conditions, the causes of error in a text are many (asbāb al-wahm kathīra), and that a report whose isnād is sound but whose text is anomalous (isnād ṣaḥīḥ wa matnahu shādhdh) is to be classified as weak (ḍaʿīf) and may be rejected. This is an uṣūlī approach, described by Jonathan Brown as "Late Sunni Traditionalism," resembling the vision of Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1996), who regarded a ḥadīth as truly ṣaḥīḥ only if it contained no hidden defect (ʿilla) and did not contradict more reliable evidence. Al-Idlibī states that his purpose is not to reject the reports out of a prior conviction that such a marriage could not have occurred, but rather to demonstrate the necessity of subjecting even accepted sources to scrutiny of their content, gathering the scholarly arguments while setting aside the weak ones. Applying this method, al-Idlibī defends the view that ʿĀisha was born about four years before the prophetic mission, that the marriage was contracted in the tenth year of prophethood when she was about fourteen, and that it was consummated near the end of the first year after the migration when she was almost eighteen. He notes that the statements of Ibn Isḥāq and aṭ-Ṭabarī allude to this. His argument rests upon the collective weight of numerous evidences rather than upon any single decisive proof. He first cites the age difference with her sister Asmāʾ. Ibn ʿAsākir in Tārīkh Dimashq relates that Asmāʾ was ten years older than ʿĀisha, and Abū Nuʿaym in Maʿrifat aṣ-Ṣaḥāba records that Asmāʾ was born twenty-seven years before the migration and died at the age of one hundred in the year 73 AH, which is corroborated by Ibn al-Athīr in Usd al-Ghāba and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Istīʿāb. Second, he cites the report in al-Bukhārī in which ʿĀisha says that Sūrat al-Qamar was revealed while she was a young girl (jāriya) playing; noting that al-Qurṭubī, citing Ibn ʿAbbās, places this revelation about eight years after the mission, and that the lexicographers Ibn Sīdah and Ibn Manẓūr define jāriya as an adolescent girl, he argues that this description fits a girl of about twelve rather than four. Third, he cites ʿĀisha's own statement in al-Bukhārī that she never knew her parents except as followers of Islam, arguing that this only carries meaning if she was born before the mission and became aware of her surroundings when both parents already practiced the faith. Fourth, he adduces Ibn Isḥāq's mention in the Sīra of ʿĀisha as among the early converts while still a minor, during the period of secret preaching, which Ibn Kathīr places at three years. Fifth, he cites aṭ-Ṭabarī's Tārīkh, which states that Abū Bakr's four children, including ʿĀisha, were all born before Islam (fī al-jāhiliyya), an explicit historical statement he takes as clear proof of her pre-mission birth. Sixth, he cites the report from Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, aṭ-Ṭabarānī, and al-Ḥākim concerning Khawla bint Ḥakīm's proposal after Khadīja's death, arguing it is unreasonable (ghayr maʿqūl) that she would propose a six-year-old to provide the companionship the Prophet ﷺ had lost, whereas a girl of fourteen is reasonable. In later revisions of his essay he added four further arguments: ʿĀisha's remark, related by aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī and others, that Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Anas ibn Mālik were "just young boys," implying her seniority; her addressing Fāṭima as "O daughter," though he acknowledges this narration has a weak chain and uses it only as supplementary evidence; the account of the earlier proposal involving al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī's family, which he argues points to a pre-mission engagement since Abū Bakr would not have consented to a pledge with idolaters after Islam; and the report in al-Bukhārī of ʿĀisha carrying heavy waterskins at Uḥud, which, following al-Khaṭṭābī's reading in Aʿlām al-Ḥadīth, he considers implausible for an eleven-year-old but fitting for one of nineteen. Regarding the well-established narration of ʿĀisha herself, al-Idlibī concedes that its chain is authentic, but holds that it contradicts these established historical proofs and is therefore anomalous (shādhdh) and to be interpreted as an error (wahm), perhaps arising from forgetfulness in her old age, for she died at about seventy-five. He invokes the principle that scholars mentioned: when a text contradicts something more reliable, it is rejected on account of a narrator's mistake. He also notes that the ḥadīth attributed to Ibn Masʿūd, which would otherwise support the report, has a weak chain, its route through Isrāʾīl from Abū Isḥāq having been considered defective by al-Bukhārī as reported in at-Tirmidhī's al-ʿIlal al-Kabīr, and al-ʿUqaylī noting a gap in the chain. Finally, al-Idlibī is careful to leave open the underlying legal and ethical question rather than resolve it. He affirms that the Qurʾān itself mentions the waiting period of women who have not yet menstruated in the verse {and those who have not menstruated} (al-Ṭalāq 65:4), which he takes to establish the permissibility of a marriage contract before puberty, and he insists there is no fault or disgrace in such a marriage had it occurred, for a believer must submit to what is established from the Messenger ﷺ, citing {But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you judge…} (al-Nisāʾ 4:65). His concern, he stresses, is solely one of historical accuracy, not exoneration, and he warns against making modern sensibilities the standard by which the Prophet ﷺ is judged, since his words and deeds are themselves the criterion. His conclusion is that the matter turns not on comparing the books of ḥadīth to the books of history, but on weighing a single narration from one Companion, who is not beyond error or forgetfulness, against ten collective evidences drawn from both bodies of literature—and that the weight of the many outweighs the one. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-did-prophet-muhammad-marry-aisha-dismantling-the-controversy-of-aishas-age # Why Did Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Marry Aisha? Dismantling the Controversy of Aisha's Age **Author:** Nuriddeen Knight **Topics:** Family & Community, History, Life of the Prophet (seerah), Marriage **Tags:** More Than Just a Number: Perspectives on the Age of Aisha (RA), Paper, Publication **Published:** October 3, 2018 **Updated:** April 24, 2025 ## The controversy surrounding Aisha's age at marriage Why would the Prophet ﷺ marry a child? That is the question many want answered, but before we begin to address it, we have to admit it is more than a mere question; rather, it is an accusation and judgment of character. Underneath the question lies the notion that we should be troubled by the age of ‘Aisha at marriage, that whatever her age was, it is concerning, and—worse than that—however great the Prophet ﷺ was, the age at which ‘Aisha was married to him is problematic. I released my book, *40 Hadith of ‘Aisha*, in May, 2018. It’s a collection of 40 *hadith* in English narrated by ‘Aisha, the wife of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. In that book, I thought it important to give readers an introduction to Lady ‘Aisha, her life with the Messenger of God ﷺ, and her scholarship. But what I did not think was important to include in that brief biography were details of the current-day controversy surrounding her age at marriage. This was a discussion I’d heard many times and I had no wish to engage in it in my book. Not because the discussion isn’t important—it is—but because in a brief introduction to ‘Aisha, May God be pleased with her, it didn’t seem that it should be prioritized. The most important fact of ‘Aisha’s life is not that she married young. Her level of scholarship, her love for the Messenger ﷺ, and her love for the religion of Islam are the most important aspects of her life. What pains me most about the conversation around ‘Aisha’s age is not that it exists but that it is given so much weight, time, and attention. To focus on her age at marriage is to dim the light of her great contributions, contributions that made the transmission of this beautiful *deen* possible. While our Mother, Lady ‘Aisha, may have been as young as 9 years old when she married the Messenger of God ﷺ, the controversy surrounding her age is a manufactured one. During the lifetime of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, his enemies would search for any way possible to harm and defame him. They called him crazy, spread false rumors about his wife committing adultery, and tried to kill him on multiple occasions. They took advantage of any opportunity to physically harm him or expose a potential flaw. So one would have to ask: if the age of ‘Aisha was truly controversial, why didn’t his contemporary enemies use it against him? The controversy over the age of ‘Aisha is, in fact, a quite recent phenomenon. It is quite simply an attempt to defame the Prophet ﷺ—as those of old attempted to do—by questioning his judgment and ethics in marrying ‘Aisha at as young as 9. But this attempt at defamation, like all others, falls flat. --- ## What is a child? Understanding our notions of childhood I was blessed to study traditional Islam on weekends, during school breaks, and for about two years after finishing my Master’s degree. Academically, however, I studied psychology with a focus on child and family. For this reason, I will utilize this section of my essay to discuss ‘Aisha’s age through a psycho-social lens. My Master’s thesis consisted of an analysis of the construct of childhood, the parent-child relationship, and the way in which our concept of childhood has changed over time. My primary conclusion was that childhood is a construct largely created by society. To understand the way in which childhood is a creation of society, we would do well to first reflect on the ways in which adulthood is a creation. At what age does one become an adult? 18? 21? 30? At one age you can vote, at another you can join the army, at another, you can legally get married. And these ages vary from state to state. They vary from culture to culture. And they vary by time period. Beyond deciding the demarcation between childhood and adulthood, we also make decisions about what are appropriate behaviors for an adult to engage in and what are appropriate for a child to engage in. The difference between children and adults from a psycho-social point of view is not merely in physicality or mental alertness—even adults vary in these ways—rather, it is through differential treatment and expectations. Children, in our context—at least in the not-so-distant past—were a group of people in society who were shielded from the adult world. It was considered more indecent to curse in front of a child than in front of an adult; speaking about sex before a child was deemed particularly disgraceful. The very essence of the concept of childhood involves protection or shielding. Children are deemed innocent and protecting their innocence is one of the primary jobs of adult society. Children are not innocent simply because they are smaller than adults, they are innocent because their knowledge is limited and adults need to protect them from the adult world.[^1] The information contained in written language is only accessible to those who can read that language. Therefore, compulsory education not only creates but extends childhood. In many developing nations, the key to ending ‘child-marriage’ is education. The more schools are built, the more school attendance is normalized, and fewer adult expectations will be placed on children.[^2] This isn’t only true of marriage but for adult responsibility in general; child labor is no longer a part of the fabric of American society because our expectations for childhood changed—as our society became more literate, we decided that a child’s time should be spent in school instead of working.[^3] Though childhood is partly biological—no one would argue as to whether a 2-year-old is a child or not—societal expectations also affect how long childhood lasts. Around the world people who modern civilization deems children are not considered in this way by their own societies. “Children” work, get married, and have children just like their adult counterparts. Postman argues in his book, *The Disappearance of Childhood*, that the concept of childhood is largely a byproduct of the way in which information is disseminated throughout a society. To elucidate this idea, he points to the illiterate European middle ages in which the concept of childhood was largely absent, “That is why there had been no need for the idea of childhood, for everyone shared the same information environment and therefore lived in the same social and intellectual world.”[^4] --- ## What is the appropriate age to get married? For the age of ‘Aisha at marriage to be controversial, there must be an uncontroversial appropriate age of marriage in our society. For us to judge whether or not someone’s age at marriage is controversial we must have a clear moral framework by which to judge, but we don’t. In the United States, the legal age for marriage without parental consent or judicial permission is 18 in all states. But the age at which one can marry with parental consent is as young as 14 in Alaska. Other states—like California, Colorado, and Idaho—have no age limit at all; as long as the couple receives the consent of parents or a judge, they could theoretically marry at any age.[^5] Of course, culture plays a role in when people get married outside of legality. But even within a given culture,  people disagree on what is the best age to get married. Some argue marriage is best when one is mature and has already accomplished a significant portion of their career and education goals. Others argue it’s better to marry young and support the spouse’s growth. The actual age at which people marry also varies from state to state. In my hometown, the city of New York, people marry for the first time on average at around 29 for women and 30 for men; in Alaska, the average age at first marriage is 25 for women and 28 for men. There’s also a difference in age at first marriage for the current generation vs. our grandparents’ generation. In 1960, 60% of adults were married by the ages of 20-24; only 14% of adults of the same age range are married today. By the age of 35-39, 93% of all adults were married in 1960 in 2010 77% of adults in that age range are married—16% less than our grandparents.[^6] Since age at first marriage and age at first sexual experience do not coincide in our society, it is also valuable to look at the average age of first sexual experience. The age at first sexual experience is often a few years prior to the age at first marriage. In a study of 72,137 students, ages 17 and younger, about 50% of students reported not yet having sex, a little over 25% reported having their first sexual experience between 13-15 years old and a little over 10% reported having their first sexual experience between 11-13.[^7] What is considered the appropriate age for marriage (and first sexual experience) varies greatly in our society. The legal age of marriage, the average age of first marriage, and the age of first sexual experience all vary between the age of 11-early 30s. When it comes to the age one should or can get married or engage in sexual intercourse we (in Western society) don’t have a clear moral foundation to judge by. And we don’t have one clear opinion on the matter nor even one clear law legislating the age of marriage. Our opinions and laws vary from state to state, and time to time. This being the case, how can we possibly judge the age of ‘Aisha at marriage as good, morally sound, acceptable or not? And how can we as Muslims allow a society with such varied opinions on this matter judge our Prophet’s marriage when they can barely judge for themselves? It’s also worth noting that while the Prophet’s marriage comes under scrutiny by Western critics, he could legally have married Lady ‘Aisha—having the full support of her family—right here in America (recall that in many states there is no age limit for marriage; only parental and/or judicial support is needed). --- ## Was Aisha mature enough to get married? Understanding social norms of the time It’s important to mention that scholars have various opinions on the age of ‘Aisha. *‘*Aisha herself says in a *hadith* that she was 6 when she got married and 9 when she moved into the home of the Prophet ﷺ. We also know through *hadith* that when she moved into the house of the Prophet ﷺ, she was past the age of puberty. While we trust ‘Aisha’s word on many matters, her self-reported age comes into question for several reasons. One of those reasons is the fact that at this time, as in several cultures, many did not calculate their age or know their exact birthday. Other issues that make scholars question *‘*Aisha’s self-reported age are beyond the scope of this paper. But, because of that information, [some scholars calculate](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/aisha-ra-the-case-for-an-older-age-in-sunni-hadith-scholarship) that she was closer to 15 or even 19. But maybe the most interesting fact to note is that before ‘Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, married the Messenger of God ﷺ, she was already engaged: > *‘Aisha had already… been promised to Mutim’s son, and her father had to negotiate with Mutim in order to break the engagement. ‘Aisha then officially became Muhammad’s second wife, though the union would not be consummated for several years*.[^8] This allows us to make one, or possibly two, conclusions. The first is that when ‘Aisha married the Prophet ﷺ, she was mature enough to marry in general. The second is that the age at which ‘Aisha married the Prophet ﷺ was considered culturally appropriate. If the Prophet ﷺ had not married ‘Aisha, she would have been married to someone else within a similar time frame. There are two other ways in which we come to understand that ‘Aisha’s age at marriage was not unusual—if not universally, at least at that time in that culture. And this comes by way of two women: Khawla and Zaynab. We know ‘Aisha was seen by the Prophet ﷺ  in a dream as his future wife: > *I was shown you in a dream for three nights. I dreamt that an angel carried you on a piece of silk and said: Here is your wife, and when I removed \[the cloth\] from your face, I saw you. I said: If this is from Allah He will carry it out.* In a similar narration, she says the angel Jibril (Gabriel), came to the Prophet ﷺ with her image on a green silk cloth and said: > *This is your wife in this world, and in the Hereafter*.[^9] But there was also a worldly dimension to their union. The Prophet ﷺ  suffered a great deal from the loss of his wife Khadija, may Allah be pleased with her. Khawlah, a companion of the Prophet ﷺ and an early Muslim saw the effect of this painful loss on the Prophet ﷺ and grew concerned about the depth of his despair. Knowing how immense the loss of Khadija was to his life, she wanted him to remarry to fill the void of her passing. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ allowed Khawlah to act on his behalf and approach the women she thought would be suitable for him—Sawdah and *‘*Aisha. While it’s not the point of this essay, it’s also valuable to note that polygamy—which is controversial in contemporary Western society—was clearly a part of the social norms at the time: > *She went first to Sawdah who accepted the news with joy, then to her father who also responded positively and went to his daughter to confirm her acceptance, “It is a noble match. Do you want me to marry you to him?” He stated and she agreed. They married and she moved into the Prophet’s household immediately.* > > *Sawdah was a middle-aged woman and a widow with children. She was also an early convert to Islam who had made the first migration with her husband to Ethiopia. Having had children of her own and previously married she easily filled the mothering void in the Prophet’s household, assisting him in raising his four daughters. Sawdah was described as a tall and large black-skinned woman, with a jolly, kindly disposition…Khawlah then went to the family of ‘Aisha to make the same proposal.*[^10] Clearly, Khawlah thought the match was appropriate and the Prophet ﷺ also showed no concern about her age. But his lack of concern about her age is not because he simply “didn’t care what people thought” nor because he felt he was so powerful that he could marry anyone without exception. The Prophet ﷺ was not concerned about her age because it was not a concerning factor in their time. The case of the Prophet’s marriage to Zaynab, may Allah be pleased with her, clearly shows that there were some kinds of marriage that were deemed unacceptable at the time. His marriage to ‘Aisha was not controversial; his marriage to Zaynab was. In the culture of the time, when a man adopted a son he was given the rights of, and treated like, a son. God’s Messenger ﷺ had an adopted son named Zayd who he raised and married to a woman named Zaynab. For numerous reasons—class issues, among others—the marriage didn’t work out and they divorced. God then commanded His Messenger to marry Zaynab; this made the Prophet incredibly uneasy because he considered Zayd to be his son. But God wanted to forever remove this cultural norm from society. While Allah, Glory be to Him, praises the care of orphans, the rulings surrounding blood relations and all other kinds of relationships must be clearly differentiated. Once the Prophet ﷺ married Zaynab, the defamation of his character began anew—how could the Prophet marry his son’s wife?, his enemies lamented. Yet no one had much to say when he married ‘Aisha—why not? It seems clear, that while marrying the ex-wife of your adopted son was controversial at the time, marrying ‘Aisha—whatever her exact age was—was not.[^11] --- ## Is there a universally accepted age of marriage? It may seem that I’m making a morally relative proposition concerning the age of marriage, but that is not the case. What is an adult? What is a child? As we’ve already discussed, history and culture deeply shape our views of both. But when we look beyond arbitrary numbers attempting to dictate the exact age of childhood and the exact age of adulthood, we see that there has in fact been—at least historically—an accepted developmental transition between childhood and adulthood. In most societies and in most time periods, childhood ended, and adulthood began, at puberty. Puberty, whether it begins at the age of 9 or 15, is a marker of (young) adulthood. Even in America, we distinguish between children and “pre-teens/teenagers,” which often coincides with puberty. Puberty is the best universal marker of adulthood because it considers what all humans share, our biology. Puberty takes place when our bodies can begin to reproduce children, a heavy responsibility. The body’s capacity to have children holds immense significance for all human beings, and that reality is the universal marker of a distinct transition away from childhood and into adulthood. “While a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that teen pregnancy rates are on the decline in 15-17-year-olds, there are still 1,700 births a week.”[^12] The most common solution given to this “problem” is to put young girls on birth control pills. In other societies—with essentially the same motivation (avoiding the “shame” on the girl and/or her family of out-of-wedlock children)—parents marry their daughters young. In one society, puberty is the time to talk about marriage; in another, it’s a time to talk about birth control, but both societies recognize the immense significance of puberty as a turning point in a girl’s life. The universally [acceptable](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/understanding-aishas-age-an-interdisciplinary-approach) [age of marriage](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/understanding-aishas-age-an-interdisciplinary-approach) is ‘post-pubescent.’ For one society, that may be 13, for another, it may be 25, but the commonality and near-universality is nevertheless a ‘post-pubescent’ age. And whatever the exact age of ‘Aisha, the age at which her marriage was consummated was after the age of puberty. We must also consider that the cultural and legal age of marriage is affected by the value a culture places on reproduction. While ‘Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, never bore any children of the Messenger of God, younger women, in general, have a better chance of having many children whereas older women are at increased risk of infertility. Women are born with all their eggs and lose them over time until they hit menopause, whereas men continue to produce new sperm even at advanced ages. The younger a woman gets married, the more likely she is to have several children. This is not much of an issue in a society that doesn’t see value in having large families. A significant percentage of Americans believe having two children is ideal. “In 1976, 36% of women in their early 40s had given birth to four or more children, while just 22% gave birth to two children, according to a new Pew Research Center report. But according to 2014 data, it’s more common nowadays for women of the same age to have two children: 35% gave birth to two children, while just 12% had four or more.”[^13] With this being this case, we may find no cultural imperative to marry young, but that is not universal. Many traditional cultures see immense value in having many children and this serves as yet another reason they take no issue with women marrying young. --- ## Youthful marriages and domestic violence One of the fears surrounding [child marriage](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-age-of-aisha-ra-rejecting-historical-revisionism-and-modernist-presumptions) is that the wife in that situation will be abused and mistreated by her husband because of her immaturity. There was the case of Nujood back in 2008, a young woman given in marriage to a horribly abusive man: > *Nujood was married off to Faez Ali Thamer, a courier in his 30s, …her father, Ali Mohammed Ahdal… was… broke with 16 hungry children at home… one of Nujood’s sisters had… been raped and another was kidnapped… Faez promised the family not to touch Nujood until she reached puberty. But the promise was quickly broken as Nujood spent each night struggling, and failing, to escape his predatory advances... He gave her three dresses, two hairbrushes, perfume and two hijabs as wedding gifts, and also a US $20 wedding ring… Faez took back the wedding ring immediately after the wedding party and sold it to buy himself new clothes. She was also constantly abused by her in-laws, who told him to hit her even harder every time he beat her…*[^14] In response to the fervor by many Muslims to end ‘child marriages’ because of this case with Nujood and many others, I wrote back in 2016 on my Facebook page: > *So we are left as believers with a serious issue. We cannot despise “child marriages” because, by many accounts, ‘Aisha was a child when she married the prophet, peace to him. So what are we to make of cases like Nujood’s? I see Nujood as a brave hero and I greatly admire her but I don’t hate her parents for marrying her off nor do I see the primary issue in her case that she was young. If we changed Nujood’s age to 18 at the time of marriage is it of any better quality? Is she any happier? And would she not simply be 18 and divorced? If you put the same story forth and change the age to any number at all it is still a terrifying story that any woman would be horrified to be in. This man was a liar, an abuser and an oppressor.*[^15] In our time, child marriages often occur in societies in which domestic violence, misogyny, and poverty are also common and thus women are suffering no matter their age at marriage. It is possible that it’s best for a place like Yemen to raise their age of marriage to 18 after seeing the abuse suffered by young women in their society, but that doesn’t make so-called child-marriage, when that child is post-pubescent, evil in itself. And if we’re worried about domestic violence we can rest assured that the Prophet ﷺ never raised a hand to ‘Aisha and hated domestic violence in general, saying, “How does anyone of you beat his wife as he beats the stallion camel and then embrace her in the night?”[^16] --- ## More than just the youngest wife of Muhammad ﷺ: The Legacy of Aisha bint Abu Bakr What was the age of ‘Aisha at marriage? Simply put, old enough. Marrying near the onset of puberty is not possible or preferable for most of us in our Western cultural context, and that’s ok. We are not obliged to marry young or to get our daughters married young. We can hold our own cultural and individual opinions about the age one ought to get married, but we must stop pretending that this is a moral position—it’s one based on circumstances. The goal of my paper is not to support or encourage marrying young, nor to say that we in the West are wrong for doing what we deem necessary to protect the most vulnerable. But, if our opinions vary within the same time and culture, is it fair that we pass judgment on a 1400-year-old society with their own set of norms and expectations? Portraying ‘Aisha (ra) as a child is meant to portray the Prophet ﷺ in a certain light. A light that attempts to fit ‘Aisha (ra) into a larger narrative of Muslim women as “meek, submissive, and oppressed,” and Muslim men as “oppressive, abusive, and unjust.” A narrative that is both malicious and dishonest. The controversy around her age prevents us from discussing her legacy and contribution to Islam, her life and marriage to the Prophet ﷺ, her knowledge, and her wisdom. ‘Aisha is so much more than the “child-bride” the enemies of our beloved Prophet, peace be upon him, attempt to paint her as. She was a saint, a sage, and a scholar—can we please make that legacy the bulk of our discourse around this amazing woman? --- ## Notes [^1]: Overexposed, Under-connected by Nuriddeen Knight (Unpublished). [^2]: *The Disappearance of Childhood* by Neil Postman (1994). [^3]: Educating Girls, Ending Child Marriage, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2017/08/22/educating-girls-ending-child-marriage&sa=D&ust=1538664583186000)[http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2017/08/22/educating-girls-ending-child-marriage](http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2017/08/22/educating-girls-ending-child-marriage) [^4]: Postman, p. 36. [^5]: Average Age of Marriage By State, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailydot.com/irl/average-age-marriage-by-state/&sa=D&ust=1538664583187000)[https://www.dailydot.com/irl/average-age-marriage-by-state/](https://www.dailydot.com/irl/average-age-marriage-by-state/) [^6]: Barely Half of US Adults Are Married: A Record Low, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/12/14/barely-half-of-u-s-adults-are-married-a-record-low/%23age-at-first-marriage&sa=D&ust=1538664583188000)[http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/12/14/barely-half-of-u-s-adults-are-married-a-record-low/#age-at-first-marriage](http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/12/14/barely-half-of-u-s-adults-are-married-a-record-low/%23age-at-first-marriage) [^7]: Age of Sexual Debut Among US Adolescents, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3064497/&sa=D&ust=1538664583189000)[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3064497/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3064497/) [^8]: *In the Footsteps of the Prophet* by Tariq Ramadan (2007). [^9]: Bukhari 3606. [^10]: *40 Hadith of Our Mother ‘Aisha* by Nuriddeen Knight (2018). [^11]: Detailed discussion about the verse “But you did hide in yourself (i.e., what Allaah has already made known to you that He will give her to you in marriage) that which Allaah will make manifest” \[al-Ahzaab 33:37\], [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://islamqa.info/en/96464&sa=D&ust=1538664583190000)[https://islamqa.info/en/96464](https://islamqa.info/en/96464) [^12]: [http://www.healthywomen.org/content/article/top-3-birth-control-options-your-teenage-daughter](http://www.healthywomen.org/content/article/top-3-birth-control-options-your-teenage-daughter) [^13]: Americans’ Ideal Family Size is Smaller Than it Used to be, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/08/ideal-size-of-the-american-family/&sa=D&ust=1538664583191000)[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/08/ideal-size-of-the-american-family/](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/08/ideal-size-of-the-american-family/) [^14]: Divorced At Ten Years Old, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aquila-style.com/focus-points/mightymuslimah/against-all-odds/1266/&sa=D&ust=1538664583192000)[https://www.aquila-style.com/focus-points/mightymuslimah/against-all-odds/1266/](https://www.aquila-style.com/focus-points/mightymuslimah/against-all-odds/1266/) [^15]: Poverty Not Abandonment, Abuse Not Age,  [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/notes/nuriddeen-knight/poverty-not-abandonment-abuse-not-age/1472597646385389/&sa=D&ust=1538664583193000)[https://www.facebook.com/notes/nuriddeen-knight/poverty-not-abandonment-abuse-not-age/1472597646385389/](https://www.facebook.com/notes/nuriddeen-knight/poverty-not-abandonment-abuse-not-age/1472597646385389/) [^16]: [https://sunnah.com/urn/56720](https://sunnah.com/urn/56720) ## Summary The question of the age of our Mother ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) at the time of her marriage to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is often posed not as a sincere inquiry but as a veiled accusation. Beneath the surface of the question lies a judgment: that whatever her age may have been, it ought to trouble us, and that it constitutes a blemish upon the character of the Prophet ﷺ. Yet reflection reveals that this controversy is a manufactured one, of quite recent origin. During the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, his enemies seized upon every conceivable means to defame him—calling him mad, slandering his wife with the accusation of adultery, and attempting to kill him on numerous occasions. Had his marriage to ʿĀʾishah been in any way objectionable in their eyes, they would surely have exploited it. Their silence on this matter is itself a powerful testimony that it was not considered scandalous in that society. Before addressing the age itself, it is worthwhile to reflect upon what we even mean by "childhood." Childhood, much like adulthood, is largely a social construct. The age at which one is deemed an adult—whether for voting, military service, or marriage—varies from place to place and from era to era, and this variation demonstrates that no fixed number is inherent to human nature. In our modern context, particularly in the recent past, children were understood as a group shielded from the adult world, their innocence protected because their knowledge was limited. As Neil Postman argues in *The Disappearance of Childhood*, this notion of childhood is largely a byproduct of how information is disseminated in a society. He observes that in the illiterate European Middle Ages the concept was largely absent, for "everyone shared the same information environment and therefore lived in the same social and intellectual world." Compulsory education and literacy thus not only create childhood but extend it, which is why in many developing nations the key to ending early marriage is understood to be education rather than mere law. For the marriage of ʿĀʾishah to be deemed controversial, there would need to exist an agreed-upon, uncontroversial age of marriage in our own society—yet no such consensus exists. In the United States, while marriage without parental consent is set at eighteen, marriage with parental or judicial consent may occur as young as fourteen in Alaska, and states such as California, Colorado, and Idaho set no minimum age at all. Even within a single culture, people disagree over the ideal time to marry: some favouring maturity and the completion of one's education and career, others favouring youth and mutual growth. The average age of first marriage differs by state and generation; in 1960, sixty percent of adults were married by ages twenty to twenty-four, whereas today only fourteen percent are. The age of first sexual experience, too, often precedes marriage by several years, with studies showing many young people reporting such experiences between eleven and fifteen. Given such wide variation in law, custom, and practice, we possess no clear and fixed moral framework by which to condemn the age of ʿĀʾishah. And it bears noting that the Prophet ﷺ could, with the full support of her family, have lawfully married her in many parts of America today. The scholars themselves differ regarding her exact age. ʿĀʾishah herself relates that she was six when the marriage contract was made and nine when she entered the Prophet's household, and it is established through *ḥadīth* that she had by then passed the age of puberty. Yet because in that era, as in many cultures, people did not always calculate or record their exact ages, some scholars have concluded that she may have been closer to fifteen or even nineteen. A most telling fact is that, prior to her betrothal to the Prophet ﷺ, ʿĀʾishah had already been promised in marriage to the son of Muṭʿim, and her father Abū Bakr had to negotiate the ending of that engagement. This indicates both that she was of an age deemed suitable for marriage in general, and that such an age was regarded as culturally appropriate—for had the Prophet ﷺ not married her, she would have been married to another within a similar span of time. Two women further illuminate the norms of the time. It was Khawlah, a companion of the Prophet ﷺ, who, seeing his grief at the loss of Khadījah (may Allah be pleased with her), proposed on his behalf to both Sawdah and ʿĀʾishah. She judged the match appropriate, and neither the Prophet ﷺ nor ʿĀʾishah's family raised any objection concerning her age—not out of indifference, but because it was simply not a matter of concern in their era. Alongside this worldly dimension there was a divine one, for the Prophet ﷺ related: "I was shown you in a dream for three nights. I dreamt that an angel carried you on a piece of silk and said: Here is your wife," and in another narration Jibrīl brought her image upon green silk saying, "This is your wife in this world, and in the Hereafter." The marriage to Zaynab (may Allah be pleased with her), by contrast, *was* controversial in that society, for she had been the wife of Zayd, the Prophet's adopted son. God commanded that marriage precisely to abolish the custom of treating adopted sons as blood sons, and it was this union—not the marriage to ʿĀʾishah—that drew the renewed defamation of his enemies. The contrast makes plain what that society did and did not consider objectionable. Beyond the arbitrary numbers of differing cultures, there has historically been a recognised developmental transition between childhood and adulthood: puberty. Because it rests upon the biology all humans share—the body's capacity to bear children—puberty stands as the nearest thing to a universal marker of the passage into adulthood. Different societies respond to it differently; where one culture responds to the onset of puberty by discussing marriage, another responds by discussing birth control, yet both recognise its immense significance in a young woman's life. The universally acceptable age of marriage may therefore be described as "post-pubescent," and whatever ʿĀʾishah's exact age, her marriage was consummated after puberty. The value a culture places upon reproduction also shapes its norms, for younger women are more likely to bear many children—a matter of great importance to traditional societies that prize large families, though of little concern where two children are deemed ideal. A common fear surrounding early marriage is that of abuse, as in the harrowing case of Nujood in 2008, who was given to a lying, abusive oppressor. Yet the true evil in such cases lies not in age but in cruelty and injustice; were the same story told of an eighteen-year-old, it would remain equally terrifying. Early marriage today often occurs amid poverty, misogyny, and domestic violence, so that women suffer regardless of age. It may indeed be wise for a place like Yemen to raise its age of marriage in response to such abuse, yet this does not render post-pubescent marriage evil in itself. And as for the fear of mistreatment, we may rest assured that the Prophet ﷺ never once raised his hand against ʿĀʾishah and detested domestic violence, saying: "How does anyone of you beat his wife as he beats the stallion camel and then embrace her in the night?" In sum, the age of ʿĀʾishah at marriage was, quite simply, old enough. None of this is to encourage marrying young in our own context, nor to fault Western societies for taking measures to protect the vulnerable; we may hold our own opinions on the ideal age of marriage, provided we cease pretending these opinions are moral absolutes rather than circumstantial judgments. If our own views vary so greatly within a single time and place, it is hardly just to pass sentence upon a society of fourteen centuries ago with its own norms and expectations. To portray ʿĀʾishah as a mere "child-bride" is to force her into a false and malicious narrative that casts Muslim women as oppressed and Muslim men as unjust. Above all, this fixation dims the light of her true legacy—her scholarship, her wisdom, her love for the Messenger ﷺ and for the religion of Islam. She was a saint, a sage, and a scholar, and it is this legacy that most deserves to be the substance of our discourse concerning this remarkable woman. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/understanding-aishas-age-an-interdisciplinary-approach # Understanding Aisha’s Age: An Interdisciplinary Approach **Authors:** Asadullah Ali Al-Andalusi, Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** History, Life of the Prophet (seerah) **Tags:** More Than Just a Number: Perspectives on the Age of Aisha (RA), Paper, Publication **Published:** October 2, 2018 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 *This publication was supervised by Jonathan A. C. Brown.* --- ## Abstract In recent years, few criticisms of Islam have taken the spotlight as much as condemnations of the Prophet’s marriage to Aisha. Muslims are accused of following the example of a man who had inappropriate relations with a 9-year-old girl. As a result, this has led many to doubt their faith and the moral compass it provides. However, this criticism is based on fallacious reasoning. When reviewing the available evidence, we not only find that early marriage was normal in many early societies, it also made moral sense given their circumstances. Throughout human history, populations had to adapt to their physical and social environments while optimizing their ethical judgments accordingly—much as we do today. This paper elucidates the flawed nature of accusations of the Prophet’s alleged immorality as well as how Islam teaches us to adapt the message of the Qur’an to changing circumstances. --- ## Introduction In 2014 the Pew Research Center estimated that roughly 57,800 minors (i.e., individuals under 18) were legally married in the United States. Of those marriages, 55% were between an underage girl and an adult man.[^1] And while these numbers vary across the nation, in some states the rates are much higher. This includes California, which has recently been entangled in a legal drama over whether an age limit for marriage with parental consent should be established. Influential organizations like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have been hostile to any proposed changes by legislatures and have thus far been successful in removing any amendments that would place restrictions on juveniles being able to marry with parental agreement. In other words, California currently considers child marriage permissible as long as the child’s parents agree.[^2] Likewise, France is currently debating whether or not it should establish an age of consent. The country has had no set legal age up to this point, which has led to a significant number of acquittals for men accused of raping a minor (as young as and even younger than the age of 11).[^3] These cases are odd given the United States’ and France’s apparent support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its subsequent agreements, including the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registrations of Marriage (1964), which stipulates that: > *Parties to the present Convention shall take legislative action to specify a minimum age for marriage. No marriage shall be legally entered into by any person under this age, except where a competent authority has granted a dispensation as to age, for serious reasons, in the interest of the intending spouses.*[^4] This is especially disconcerting, considering the ways in which children are exploited and abused by these practices in the contemporary period. Young girls are the most vulnerable to the consequences of early marriage, which not only limits their social, educational, and economic opportunities but exposes them to health risks due to early pregnancy along with psychological and emotional trauma.[^5] How can a society opposed to the exploitation of children allow such practices to exist? And what sort of message is being conveyed through the legal support of such a practice? In an age of the ever-growing phenomenon of child sex trafficking and pornography on the internet, this is especially concerning. For example, just this year, German law enforcement uncovered an online child pornography ring with a membership of nearly 90,000 users. Only a handful of them have actually been arrested.[^6] Given this reality, it is unsurprising that the well-being and protection of children continues to be one of our greatest concerns, as well as a very sensitive topic. However, while concerns and sensitivities are undoubtedly warranted, they can sometimes lead us to make rash judgments about past communities—judgments outside the realm of established scientific fact and reason. This is no better exemplified than in what might be considered the most popular criticism of Islam today: the marriage of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Aisha. --- ## A Narrow View of Time It’s impossible these days to look for information on Islam without being bombarded by warnings about the “dangers” of the religion. Whether the topic is about how Islam supposedly promotes terrorism or  how a minority population seeks world domination by deceiving people through halal meat and curry, faux experts from around the world spare no effort in demonizing a faith spanning 14 centuries and around 1.6 billion followers. However, the easiest way to do this is by appealing to the protective instincts of parents everywhere through presenting Islamic sources detailing the age of the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ youngest wife on the day of their marriage: > *Narrated by Aisha: The Prophet ﷺ married me when I was six years old and consummated our marriage when I was nine years old. Then I remained with him for nine years (i.e., until his death).*[^7] This narration has triggered both indignation and doubt about the moral integrity of the Islamic faith. How could an adult man—declared a moral exemplar among his followers—marry a child? Such questions have resulted in people either dismissing Islamic primary sources as inauthentic or condemning Islamic morals altogether as barbaric. Some Muslims have become so traumatized by the moral implications of these traditions that they’ve argued that the *hadiths* about Aisha’s age are spurious and have offered in their stead convoluted rationalizations that she was far older when she married (i.e., 18 years of age).[^8] While such reactions seem valid in the context of our 21st-century, Western experiences, they make little sense when discussing the circumstances of people who lived more than a millennium ago. It is far easier to condemn 7th-century desert nomads as “barbarians” than for us to comprehend that our moral judgments are as much a function of our environment as the judgments of our ancestors. Realizing this means recognizing how often we succumb to a fallacious form of reasoning known as *presentism*—an anachronistic misinterpretation of history based on present-day circumstances that did not exist in the past.[^9] This is a very common mistake made by historians and laypersons alike. However, complex issues almost never come with such easy answers, no matter how high our expectations may be. More often than not, historical realities take time and effort to understand. This is especially the case when we allow for false ideas to become popular sentiment, forcing us to wade through pre-existing biases. This struggle has come to be referred as Brandolini’s Law, named after Alberto Brandolini, an Italian computer programmer who invented the now famous maxim: “The amount of energy needed to refute \[nonsense\] is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.”[^10] That said, moral judgments can still be made about past people and events. Murder is still murder, theft is still theft, and rape is still rape, no matter the time or place. But how we judge situations of murder, theft, and rape depends on the contexts in which they were committed. For instance, it’s one thing to read about how a historical figure killed another person, but it’s another to know that they did so due to dire need or just cause (e.g., self-defense, war, corporal punishment, etc.). And determining those contexts isn’t always easy, especially when they are so dissimilar to our own. In other words, when studying history, things aren’t always as they appear. Likewise, when we examine the scientific evidence regarding human development, maturity, and marriage in the past, what we find is a context that not only dispels the moral outrage regarding the marriage between the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Aisha, but also allows us to appreciate our ancestors for their struggles; for without them we would not be having this discussion today. --- ## Aisha’s Lived Experience The story of human development has gone through many phases. Empires have risen and fallen, plagues have burned through entire populations, droughts have starved generations, and natural disasters have buried the most advanced metropolises—a testimony to the fragility of human civilization. Yet, despite all of these trials and tribulations, we are still here, struggling and adapting to the ever-changing conditions of our existence. How we were able to get to this point is a long and complex tale spanning millennia, but one of many reasons may be related to the flexibility of our reproductive capabilities. The ways in which our ancestors have defined childhood, maturity, and marriage have been diverse and quite different from contemporary Western definitions. Those who hold to the notion that we are morally superior to our ancestors attribute this dissimilarity to historical societies’ ignorance about physical and psychosocial maturity or nefarious intentions to abuse and take advantage of children. However, it is an extraordinary and unsubstantiated accusation that most of our ancestors were unaware of how to care for their own children, were not concerned about their children’s well-being, had ill intentions, or suffered from a worldwide mental disorder (i.e., pedophilia)—this accusation is easily contradicted by scientific and historical evidence. While it may seem impossible to us that a nine-year-old could be capable of anything other than going to school and engaging in play, this is only because we mistakenly assume that children’s circumstances and capabilities have remained static throughout history. For example, today we expect our children to go through several years of primary and secondary education, and at least four years of university to provide them with economic and social opportunities. And this is a perfectly rational expectation, given an average global life expectancy of over 70 years[^11] along with the increasing complexities of the global world. However, no such conditions existed 1400 years ago. While people in the past sometimes did reach older ages, this was not the norm. Case in point, the average life expectancy for a working-class Roman citizen in late antiquity was roughly around 35 to 40 years—if they lived past infancy.[^12] Skeletal remains reveal that prior to death, most laborers suffered from chronic arthritis, fractures, displacements, and even bone cancer. This was due to their very poor diets—primarily stale bread, rotted grains, and little protein—and harsh working conditions.[^13] And if they didn’t die from their work, they still had to contend with war, disease, and famine. The female half of society didn’t have it any easier. The average life expectancy of women was between 34.5-37.5 years if they managed to live past infancy.[^14] Due to high rates of infant mortality, women had to endure 5 to 7 full-term pregnancies just to keep the population stable.[^15] Couple this with high maternal mortality during childbirth—due to iron deficiency resulting from a combination of continuous pregnancies and poor diet—and you have an extremely fragile situation. Given these high mortality rates, it made sense to begin procreating as early as possible.[^16] In more affluent families, marrying young also guaranteed the maintenance and acquisition of wealth, securing the future of the family inheritance through a kind of business merger.[^17] Likewise, political elites took advantage of early marriage to establish alliances between opponents; an expedient alternative to war. This is why the average age of marriage for young girls in ancient Rome was around 14/15, with the legal minimum being 12.[^18] Even so, the Romans didn’t consider the age of marriage synonymous with the age of consent for sexual relations, which could be as young as seven.[^19] Thus, working-class children who were fortunate enough to survive infancy had only a little over two decades left to establish the next generation, with nearly half of them losing a parent by the age of 15.[^20] This was especially the case for young girls, who at the onset of puberty were expected to transition from childhood directly into adulthood. In other words, there were no family vacations, no recesses, no girl scouts, no school field trips, no sweet sixteen, no prom, no graduation, no air-conditioned movie theatres, no gluten-free meals at overstocked supermarkets, no advanced healthcare facilities, no vaccines, no running water, and subsequently far fewer guarantees that one would survive to see the next morning. And if this was the situation for common people in the most advanced civilization at the time, what more could we possibly expect from desert-dwelling Arabs? Although there is little to no data on Arab marriage practices in late antiquity, given a lack of written records,[^21] we do have sufficient documentation of other Semitic cultures during this time. For example, historian Amram Tropper notes the realities of Jewish youth—especially females—in late antiquity: > *Most men would have married sufficiently late that we would no longer consider them to have been children, yet many women (particularly in Babylonia) married so young that today we would consider them to have been girls, not women. The goal of maximizing fertility in particular must have lowered the age at first marriage and the price of this goal is the early, we might say premature, end of girlhood. For many girls, adolescence was not a time for fun, education, experimentation or professional training, rather it was a time when one was already expected to assume the full responsibilities of a mature woman, as wife and mother.*[^22] The rationale behind maximizing fertility was really something no one could argue against considering the likelihood of young women not living long enough to see their first child reach maturity. When looking into history, we tend to forget many of these notable challenges of our ancestors’ lives and take our own advantages for granted. If you knew that you probably wouldn’t live beyond your 30s, most of your children would die in infancy, and the only education you would receive would be for one of a handful of jobs consisting of hard labor, wouldn’t your plans for life change dramatically? Of course they would. Not only that, but such circumstances would also force you to make moral decisions that you thought you would never need to make; decisions that, in hindsight, were necessary and morally appropriate. This is precisely why bioarchaeologists like Mary Lewis have warned against anachronistic thinking when discussing the subject of childhood and maturity in the past: > *No matter what period we are examining, childhood is more than a biological age, but a series of social and cultural events and experiences that make up a child’s life...The time at which these transitions take place varies from one culture to another, and has a bearing on the level of interaction children have with their environment, their exposure to disease and trauma, and their contribution to the economic status of their family and society. The Western view of childhood, where children do not commit violence and are asexual, has been challenged by studies of children that show them learning to use weapons or being depicted in sexual poses...What is clear is that we cannot simply transpose our view of childhood directly onto the past.*[^23] Because presentism is such a pervasive fallacy, even scientists themselves have been prone to the error, often mistaking biological age with psychosocial fitness. In this respect, bioarchaeologists Sian Halcrow and Nancy Tayles have elucidated some of the obstacles facing research on human development in the past. In their investigations, they found that contemporary Western anachronisms often obstruct more objective analyses of the data: > *Much of the tension in the investigation of age in the past arises from the assumption that we can link “biological” to “social” age…distinctions between the categories, particularly “child” cf. “adult,” are the product of the current limitations of osteological methods for age estimation in adults, and that using biological developmental standards for ageing results in the construction of artificial divisions of social and mental development between these categories…Also, in contrast to modern Western society where social age is closely linked to chronological age, in many “traditional” societies, stages of maturation are acknowledged in defining age...These stages take into account not only the chronological age but also the skills, personality and capacities of the individual.*[^24] Perhaps the most relevant example of how presentism negatively affects our understanding of the past can be seen in contemporary moral judgments regarding the Prophet’s youngest wife Aisha (ra). The idea that her marriage was contracted at the age of six and ultimately consummated by nine is seen as an affront by most people. However, when considering the aforementioned evidences, it shouldn’t be so difficult to understand why this practice was perfectly acceptable at the time. Aisha (ra) was merely following in the footsteps of so many girls before her who had reached puberty and were ready to start their adult lives. She herself states that she had reached maturity prior to her marriage: > *Narrated Aisha (ra): I had seen my parents following Islam since I attained the age of reason \[i.e., puberty\]. Not a day passed, but the Prophet ﷺ visited us, both in the mornings and evenings.*[^25] What this *hadith* states is clear if one is aware of the context surrounding it. Aisha (ra) was born in 614 CE and was the daughter of the Prophet’s closest companion, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq—a wealthy merchant who was among the first Muslims and who would eventually become the first caliph. Thus, she lived a rather privileged life in comparison to other children around her. However, in 622 CE, after suffering years of religious persecution at the hands of the pagans in Mecca, she and her family decided to migrate to a safe haven in the neighboring city of Medina. Upon their arrival, Aisha’s (ra) parents set up a temporary residence where she eventually came down with a fever (possibly due to being weakened by the long and arduous journey prior).[^26] It was around this same time that the Prophet ﷺ was visiting them “both in the mornings and evenings,” and when she began to notice her parent’s outward expression of faith. Shortly thereafter, Aisha (ra) would consummate her marriage with the Prophet ﷺ and move into his household, completing the marriage contract as a full-fledged woman.[^27] The fact that she was nine years of age when she reached puberty should not be surprising, especially given recent studies that have found that the onset of puberty has fluctuated dramatically throughout history. Case in point, while it would have been normal for a young girl to start puberty at around 14 years of age during the Western Industrial Revolution (18th–19th C.), in the 21st century some girls start puberty as early as six.[^28] The reasons for these fluctuations are still largely undetermined, although they have been connected to variances in genetics, nutrition, stress, and even the over-sexualization of Western societies.[^29] However, one may rightfully retort that just because a young girl has begun the process of physically maturing, this does not necessitate that she therefore possesses an adult mentality; to suggest otherwise would be considered absurd by contemporary standards. And that’s a very appropriate conclusion to come to considering that, even by today’s standards, we don’t necessarily regard legally acknowledged adults as independent and functioning members of society; they still need time to learn and experience the world before being considered cognitively and emotionally mature. There’s a reason that 18-year-olds still largely rely on their parents for economic support, despite the law defining them as ‘mature.’ That said, our ancestors faced very different circumstances to which they had to adapt—circumstances that determined their physical and psychosocial fitness. In this regard, endocrinologists Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson have emphatically stated that the mismatch between biological and psychosocial maturation is a relatively recent phenomenon: > *For the first time in our evolutionary history, biological puberty in females significantly precedes, rather than being matched to, the age of successful functioning as an adult. This mismatch between the age of biological and psychosocial maturation constitutes a fundamental issue for modern society. Our social structures have been developed in the expectation of longer childhood, prolonged education and training, and later reproductive competence. This emerging mismatch creates fundamental pressures on contemporary adolescents and on how they live in society.*[^30] So, while it is certainly true that the onset of puberty does not make someone an adult today, this same judgment does not apply to people of the past. By indulging in presentism, we disregard the facts of how our ancestors were forced to live just to survive. Furthermore, we open ourselves to intellectual embarrassment by misinterpreting history. The most obvious manifestation of this fallacy can be seen when examining contemporary interpretations of some notable *hadiths* on the life of Aisha (ra). For example, many anti-Islam websites love to quote the following narration when arguing that Aisha (ra) was not mature enough to be married: > *Narrated Aisha (ra): I used to play with dolls in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ, and my girlfriends also used to play with me. When Allah's Apostle ﷺ used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet ﷺ would call them to join and play with me. \[The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for Aisha (ra) at that time, as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty\].*[^31] Many people assume that since Aisha (ra) was playing with dolls, she must have still been a child at the time of this narration. Prior to addressing the implication that playing with dolls equates to lacking maturity, what is immediately noticeable about this *hadith* is the statement in brackets (i.e., “…a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty”). However, there is a glaring problem with the way this *hadith* is presented. For those thinking this a clear affirmation that she was a child, the fact of the matter is that the last statement is nowhere to be found in the *hadith* itself; rather, it is an addition from a *hadith* commentary called *Fath al-Bari fi Sharh Sahih Bukhari*, authored by the famous *hadith* scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1449 CE). This is important to note because it’s not made apparent in the *hadith* itself. The fact that some translators of the *hadith* have decided to include this is also telling. For what reason did they put this commentary in the *hadith*? And why would Ibn Hajar claim that Aisha (ra) hadn’t reached puberty? In order to answer these questions, we need only refer to Al-Asqalani himself: > *I \[Ibn Hajar\] say: To say with certainty, \[that she was not yet at the age of puberty\] is questionable, though it might possibly be so. This, because A’isha (ra) was a 14-year-old girl at the time of the Battle of Khaybar—either exactly 14 years old, or having just passed her 14th year, or approaching it. As for her age at the time of the Battle of Tabook, she had by then definitely reached the age of puberty. Therefore, the strongest view is that of those who said: “It was in Khaybar” \[i.e., when she was not yet at the age of puberty\], and made reconciliation \[between the apparent contradictory rulings of the permissibility of dolls in particular and the prohibition of images in general\]...*[^32] This explanation by Ibn Hajar reveals a number of important points which run contrary to the initial impressions of the *hadith*. The first and most obvious issue with Ibn Hajar’s commentary is that he admits that Aisha (ra) was at least 14 years of age at the time this narration takes place, putting her well above the average age of the onset of puberty in the Near East during late antiquity (and even by today’s standards). This is most likely why Ibn Hajar felt his own conclusion was questionable. Despite his own doubts, however, he suggests she must have not reached puberty due to reasons completely unrelated to her actual biological or psychosocial maturity: it helped him to reconcile an apparent contradiction in her behavior with the legal prohibition of adults playing with dolls. However, what makes Ibn Hajar’s opinion even more tenuous is that his view was countered by other master scholars of *hadith* and Islamic jurisprudence, such as Imam al-Bayhaqi (d. 1066), who claimed that the prohibition was only declared after the events narrated in the *hadith* in question.[^33] That aside, it was not uncommon for young women in the past to own and even play with dolls, as these objects would be among the very few possessions they had prior to marriage. Commenting on the interpretation of toys and similar objects from past societies and cultures, anthropologist Laurie Wilkie notes: > *Highly valued toys and childhood objects can be curated well into adulthood and passed on to subsequent generations of children; therefore, artefacts found in the archaeological record may not adequately reflect the full range of material culture used and cherished by the users.*[^34] However, many of these realities escape the mindset affected by presentism, placing one in the position of making inappropriate moral judgments about our ancestors and their lived experiences. The fact that just a cursory analysis of the aforementioned narration so easily exposes the erroneous assumptions about Aisha’s (ra) lack of maturity should be evidence enough of the fallaciousness of this form of reasoning. That said, even if one were to admit to the complexities of childhood and development over time, these realities appear to allude to moral relativism—the idea that moral principles are only valid given their specific time, place, or culture. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. --- ## An Exemplar in a Changing World Not only has our perspective on history been skewed by the fallacy of presentism, but so has our understanding of morality. Today, many people seem to think that morality is absolute and that this implies that the circumstances in which moral decisions are made have remained static. However, this is false. But to claim the opposite extreme—that morality is relative—is also false. As in all complex problems, black-and-white conclusions tend to miss the mark. The reality is that one can validly hold unchanging moral principles while still believing in historically contingent moral dilemmas. In other words, there can be, and are, correct and incorrect choices for every conceivable moral issue, regardless of varying circumstances. For example, when considering an immoral act like murder, or taking the life of a person unjustly, what constitutes murder depends entirely on the circumstances in which the killing took place. Was the person killed accidentally? Was it an act of self-defense? Or was it because of malicious intent? These are general questions that can be answered and judged in the same manner, regardless of time or place. However, the details are what make things interesting. Now, let’s take a similar murder trial, but from 1984—prior to the development of DNA profiling. In this instance, would it be morally unjustified for you or anyone else to declare the accused ‘guilty’ without the use of forensic evidence? Would it be reasonable to condemn the jurors, despite them not having access to such technology? According to those enchanted by presentism, every murder trial prior to 1984 must be immoral, despite people doing their best to safeguard society and implement justice with the options they had available. A perhaps more relevant example can be found in contemporary age-of-consent laws across the world. Anyone younger than a legally stipulated minimum age is generally regarded as too incompetent or too vulnerable to consent to sexual or emotional relationships. Subsequently, adults who engage in sexual relations with minors are declared to be pedophiles or child molesters. However, if we recall the aforementioned evidences showcasing the vast differences in development and maturity over time, it would be utterly illogical to apply the parameters of legal consent today to past societies. Not only were our ancestors more prepared to consent to such relationships at younger ages, but their circumstances limited who they could conceivably consent to; lower lifespans and harsher environments didn’t give people many options—once one reached puberty, it was time to be an adult. In other words, our ancestors’ views on what constituted maturity were not tied to chronological age, but to other signs of development and competence. To make this point more persuasive, we need only attempt another thought experiment. Let us imagine that we have a time machine (as in the film *Back to the Future*). With an understanding of morality firmly rooted in presentism, you assume that all you need to do is apply contemporary laws to the past so as to solve all our ancestors’ problems and improve the future. With this righteous intention in mind, you get into your DeLorean and go back 1400 years to the Arabian Peninsula. After you arrive, you manage to convince the natives of your moral superiority as they marvel at your powers to traverse time and space. As a result, these simple desert dwellers make you their leader and adopt your laws, patiently waiting until the age of 18 to be considered adults (to work, use transport, marry, raise a family, go to war, and take on other major responsibilities). All starts off well in your newly formed utopia of heightened moral consciousness. However, as the years go by, you notice that your newly enlightened population has begun to dwindle at an extremely fast pace. Puzzled by this, you investigate. What you find is startling: not only has the average age at death remained intact but so have all the other trappings of late antiquity. Contrary to the native’s former laws and customs—when puberty was the mark of adulthood—you now have middle-aged “children” doing nothing but consuming the hard-earned resources of their elders and giving nothing back to society. Not only that, but you’ve forced these youth into a situation where they now only have an average of 17 years remaining to get married and raise families—most inevitably dying before their own children have reached legal majority. This subsequently leads to a disproportionate ratio of minors to adults, leaving future generations in the hands of individuals legally incapable of performing basic societal tasks. In summary, the ultimate outcome of your social experiment would be a civilization paralyzed by its own laws and a population bound to become extinct through natural causes or a hostile takeover from neighboring tribes who had the sense to conscript their male members at earlier ages. You may realize at this point that the judicial and cultural structures of the past weren’t necessarily the problem, but rather the conditions in which those customs manifested themselves. However, it’s too late—your claim to moral superiority has destroyed a once-flourishing society and the entire course of history has been altered as a result. Future generations have ceased to exist and you may have now even put your own existence in jeopardy. Thankfully, you’re still alive and this is just a hypothetical scenario born from awesome 1980s pop science fiction. But it helps to illustrate that historical laws and customs were not always necessarily on the wrong side of the moral spectrum. What we need to understand is that many moral choices and customs of the past were merely a function of the circumstances people faced. Therefore, it is not fair to consider ourselves morally superior to our ancestors when we aren’t forced to make the decisions they had to make. Likewise, it wouldn’t be fair if our descendants judged us in the same light without regard for our own circumstances. In summary, presentism ultimately negates the past and undermines any and all reasonable moral judgments. However, Islam neither negates the past nor undermines moral judgment, because intrinsic to the faith are concepts which manage to simultaneously support absolute moral principles and historically contingent circumstances. The first and most important of these is the idea that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is a perfect moral exemplar (*uswatun hasana*) for all times, places, and cultures. In other words, every statement or action the Prophet ﷺ ever performed is considered to have been the most appropriate response to the dilemmas he faced during his time and a standard from which we can learn and which we can apply to analogous situations in the future. This theological view not only implies that no one could have behaved better nor ever will, but also that there is an absolute moral standard that can be understood and followed, regardless of historically contingent circumstances. This is no less exemplified in Islamic jurisprudence itself (*fiqh*); a sophisticated legal tradition with a flexible methodology that adapts to changing circumstances. --- ## Divine Law, Marriage, and Maturity During the reign of the second caliph of Islam, Umar al-Khattab (ra), the punishment for theft was suspended in response to a catastrophic famine that claimed many lives. Realizing that his subjects were starving and needed to steal food in order to survive, Umar (ra) prohibited the punishment for the sake of the survival of his people—an exemplary act of justice.[^35] However, his decision was not arbitrary and came from principles inherent in Islamic law itself: *istihsan* (juristic preference) and *maslahah mursalah* (public interests).[^36] While not all potential moral dilemmas are addressed in Islamic primary sources (the Qur’an and Sunnah), these principles are alluded to and allow for a considerable amount of independent reasoning when a moral issue is ambiguous (*mujmal*) or can only be ascertained within specific contexts.[^37] Although conventional wisdom assumes a Divine Law must be archaic and incapable of adapting to changing circumstances, Islam promotes a very different perspective: if certain moral dilemmas are contingent on historical circumstance, then the Creator of all existence would naturally formulate a moral code suitable to that reality. To suggest otherwise would be to limit God to one particular time, place, and culture—something clearly uncharacteristic of an Omniscient, Omnipotent, Transcendent Being. Thus, a concise definition of how Islam views law is ‘a system with unchanging moral principles, but flexible application.’ To see how this is possible, we need only examine how Muslim jurists derived rulings pertaining to marriage from the Qur’an and Sunnah, particularly the Prophet’s ﷺ relationship with Aisha (ra). Starting with the primary source of Islamic jurisprudence, the Qur’an clearly sets a standard age for marriage, which excludes anyone outside of those parameters: > *Test orphans until they reach marriageable age; then, if you find they have sound judgment, hand over their property to them. Do not consume it hastily before they come of age: if the guardian is well off he should abstain from the orphan’s property, and if he is poor he should use only what is fair. When you give them their property, call witnesses in; but God takes full account of everything you do.* (Al-Qur’an, 4:6) In other words, the Qur’an sets an age limit for marriage. But what exactly is that limit? The text remains ambiguous with regard to a specific number, but Muslim scholars, particularly in the field of Qur’anic exegesis (*tafsir*), already understood what was implied. For example, when we examine the commentary of the 14th-century Syrian exegete and jurist Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), we find that he elaborated on the consensus surrounding the nature of ‘marriageable age’ as not referring to a specific number, but a physical development—the age of puberty.[^38] That said, there are still more nuances at play here with regard to marriage and maturity. Firstly, Islamic jurists identified two types of marriage: a contractual marriage and a consummated marriage. The former could be legally entered at any point in a person’s life and later be revoked through their own volition, regardless of whether they had obtained legal maturity or not.[^39] However, such a marriage prohibited any intimate contact between the betrothed and would be comparable today to an engagement.[^40] The latter form of marriage (or ‘full marriage’), however, required both parties to be physically capable of sexual relations given the logical implication that such a union would lead to this outcome. *balaghat*). Although these two notions may appear similar and redundant in light of the former being marked by the onset of puberty (i.e., menarche or pubertal hair growth), jurists generally viewed physical signs of adulthood as just that—signs; not *de facto* evidence of reproductive functionality. In other words, while legal majority often coincided with the permissibility to engage in sexual relations, it was not always or necessarily the case. Even feminist critics of Islamic Law, such as Professor Judith Tucker, have recognized this nuance: > *A marriage could be contracted before either party was ready for sexual intercourse, but a marriage could not be consummated until both bride and groom were physically mature. Such maturity was not equated with puberty (the marker of legal majority), but rather could be reached before its onset. For a girl, readiness for sexual intercourse was signaled in large part by her appearance, by whether or not she had become an "object of desire," "fleshy" (samrna), or "buxom" (dakhmap), physical attributes that signified that she could now "endure intercourse.” Until such time, the marriage, although legally contracted, clearly lacked an essential element.*[^41] When determining the physical maturity of an individual, jurists often relied on physical features, the most common being if the person in question actually looked like an adult. Many jurists even went so far as to declare an average age by which such physical maturity should be reached (i.e., 15-17). In other words, what determined maturity depended entirely on a society’s normative judgments of sexual attractiveness and functionality.[^42] However, such nuance has been lost on Islamophobes, who in their utter desperation to impugn Islam and its followers, interpret certain passages of the Qur’an as condoning pedophilia or child abuse. For example, many critics often reference the following verse to bolster their accusations: > *If you are in doubt, the period of waiting will be three months for those women who have ceased menstruation and for those who have not \[yet\] menstruated; the waiting period of those who are pregnant will be until they deliver their burden: God makes things easy for those who are mindful of Him.* (Al-Qur’an, 65:4) Critics infer from the above that there being a waiting period for girls who “have not yet menstruated” indicates that it is permissible to engage in sexual relations with prepubescent girls.[^43] However, this is an invalid conclusion because it neglects the different types of marriages and maturities in Islamic law. Case in point, the fact that a girl had not yet reached menarche was only evidence that she had yet to manifest the usual signs pertaining to legal majority—not that she was physically immature. A girl could technically still be considered mature based on other physical features, such as her biological age. With regard to this particular possibility, the leading Central Asian 12th-century jurist, Ali ibn Abu Bakr al- Marghinani (d. 1197), provided this legal context behind the above verse: > *And similarly those who have attained puberty (balaghat) by age, but have not menstruated, based on the end of the verse \[“And those who have not menstruated” (65:4)\], meaning those who have reached puberty by age, but not by menstruation; \[those who have attained puberty\] by reaching the age of 15 years according to the opinion of both (Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Shaybani) or 17 years according to the opinion of Abu Hanifah and Malik, but have not yet menstruated; when they divorce they observe a waiting period based on months as well.*[^44] It should be clear at this point that had Islam allowed for the sexual exploitation of children, many of these nuances would not exist. Case in point, the Qur’an would have never provided clarifications on the types of women who have waiting periods or even mention a ‘marriageable age’ to begin with if it allowed for any woman, regardless of maturity, to engage in sexual relations. And had jurists permitted such acts they too would never have bothered to distinguish between girls who were physically mature and those who were not. More importantly, however, had the Prophet ﷺ himself been perceived as promoting the exploitation of children, then said scholars would have simply considered the age of nine to be the only condition necessary for a young girl to be considered mature. However, the age of nine has never been mentioned as one of the conditions by which to judge maturity in the Islamic tradition. Rather, jurists derived a completely different understanding from the relationship between the Prophet ﷺ and Aisha (ra): that he had entered a contracted marriage with her when she was six years of age, and then consummated the marriage after she had reached maturity three years later. Simple logical deduction led scholars to conclude that if Islam allowed for the abuse of children, then the Prophet ﷺ would not have needed to wait three full years before finalizing his marriage—but he *did* wait. He waited because he knew that to do otherwise would have caused harm to his wife, and one of the principle objectives (*maqasid*) of Islamic law is “the prohibition of subjecting oneself to harm (*darar*) or causing harm to others (*dirar*).”[^45] A cursory review of Islamic history shows that this principle has generally been applied when deciding a number of complex legal issues, especially with regard to marriage. One case during the era of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (1250–1517 CE) is particularly noteworthy. In the year 1470 CE, a woman petitioned the grand *qadi* (judge) of Cairo to have her 12-year-old niece married off due to financial difficulties, as the young girl had no means of support after her parents had abandoned her three years prior. The grand *qadi* then delegated the case to his deputy, Ibn al-Ṣayrafī, who narrated the incident in his journal. After assessing the situation, al-Ṣayrafī had the girl married off to a soldier’s servant, hoping that it would resolve her precarious circumstances. However, given that she had not yet reached puberty, he made sure to include a clause in the contract prohibiting her husband from consummating the marriage until she had adequately matured. Unfortunately, her husband violated the agreement and the couple was subsequently divorced. The girl’s aunt then complained to the chief *dawadar* (an assistant to the sultan), Yashbak min Mahdī. Al-Ṣayrafī was eventually called forth by min Mahdi to explain why he had allowed such a young girl to be married. His answer was simple and to the point: “Because the Prophet ﷺ married Aisha (ra) when she was nine years old.” However, the *dawadar* was not satisfied with his response and a few days later ordered the ex-husband to be flogged 100 times and publicly humiliated as “an example to anyone who deflowers young girls.” Interestingly, al-Ṣayrafī agreed to the punishment on account of the husband’s disregard for the boundaries set in the contract.[^46] What this incident showcases is that not only were the *qadis* concerned with the well-being of immature girls but so too were higher government officials; both attempted to minimize any potential harm and punished those who inflicted harm on minors. Therefore, examining such examples (in conjunction with traditional Islamic teachings) offers a sharp contrast to the narrative that Islam supports the exploitation of children. --- ## Conclusion Due to the complex conditions of the contemporary period, young people not only have the option of waiting before engaging in intimate relationships, but should do so for the sake of minimizing any potential harm to their lives. When examining the marriage between the Prophet ﷺ and Aisha (ra), we not only find an example of this nuance being put into practice, but can also glean some of the Divine Wisdom for humanity—a moral code that anticipates the fluctuations of human development over time. By extension, it should be undeniable now that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was perfectly within his moral rights to marry and love Aisha (ra). Unfortunately, some Muslims have become ignorant of their own tradition and have succumbed to interpreting Islamic Law in an uncompromising ahistorical fashion, much the same as critics of Islam. Likewise, Western nations have not helped to set the standard by focusing entirely on superficial age limits as determinants of maturity—all the while considering it socially acceptable for their own minors to engage in sexual relations as long as they are within the same age range. It’s difficult to take the Western ethos seriously when there is a significant demarcation between what constitutes maturity and the permissibility to have sex. You cannot, on the one hand, condemn the practice of child marriage, but at the same time think your own children are physically and emotionally mature enough to have intimate relationships. It simply doesn’t make any sense. A minor who decides to have sex is still a minor who decides to have sex, regardless if they choose an age-similar partner or not. Western culture sends mixed messages when it tells minors that they have the right to intimacy with those they are attracted to only as long as they refrain from potential partners legally recognized as adults. To think that such an arbitrary distinction would matter to a teenager with raging hormones—or be considered detrimental—is an absurdity, because a minor would face the same consequences with their peers as they would with adults (e.g., pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence, exploitation, etc.). In other words, this is simply an inconsistent standard to follow. Thus, the anachronistic outrage towards the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ and Aisha (ra) appears nothing more than a vacuous display of virtue signaling born from an ignorance of science, history, morality, and Islam alike. *Much gratitude to Sh. Omar Suleiman and Prof. Jonathan Brown for their guidance on this important topic. Also thanks to Justin Parrott and Dr. Nazir Khan for their feedback and assistance in research, and Dr. Nameera Akhtar for editing this paper. May Allah bless them and all the other members of Yaqeen for making this project possible.* --- ## Notes [^1]: David Mcclendon and Aleksandra Sandstrom, “Child marriage is rare in the U.S., though this varies by state,” *Pew Research Center*, November 1, 2016, [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/01/child-marriage-is-rare-in-the-u-s-though-this-varies-by-state/](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/01/child-marriage-is-rare-in-the-u-s-though-this-varies-by-state/) [^2]: Jill Tucker, “Effort to bar child marriage in California runs into opposition,” *San Francisco Chronicle*, July 7, 2017, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Effort-to-bar-juvenile-marriages-in-California-11268497.php&sa=D&ust=1538494218380000)[https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Effort-to-bar-juvenile-marriages-in-California-11268497.php](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Effort-to-bar-juvenile-marriages-in-California-11268497.php) [^3]: Marie Doezema, “France, Where Age of Consent Is Up for Debate,” *The Atlantic*, March 10, 2018, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/frances-existential-crisis-over-sexual-harassment-laws/550700/&sa=D&ust=1538494218380000)[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/frances-existential-crisis-over-sexual-harassment-laws/550700/](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/frances-existential-crisis-over-sexual-harassment-laws/550700/) [^4]: “Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages,” *United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner*, Accessed November 15, 2017, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/MinimumAgeForMarriage.aspx&sa=D&ust=1538494218379000)[http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/MinimumAgeForMarriage.aspx](https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/MinimumAgeForMarriage.aspx) [^5]: “Child marriage is a violation of human rights, but is all too common,” *UNICEF Data*, March 2018, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/%23&sa=D&ust=1538494218382000)[https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/#](https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/#) [^6]: “German police uncover Darknet child pornography website with 90,000 users,” Independent, July 6, 2017, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-child-pornography-website-90000-users-darknet-frankfurt-a7827146.html&sa=D&ust=1538494218381000)[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-child-pornography-website-90000-users-darknet-frankfurt-a7827146.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-child-pornography-website-90000-users-darknet-frankfurt-a7827146.html) [^7]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, Book 67, #69. [^8]: This position is relatively new and has only been proposed in the past few decades. It is a rather tenuous position to take, one which primarily relies on speculations about the age of Aisha according to obscure historical accounts and other *hadiths*. [^9]: David H. Fischer, *Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought* (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1970), pp. 135-140. [^10]: Alberto Brandolini, Twitter Post, Jan 10, 2013, 11:29 pm, [https://twitter.com/ziobrando/status/289635060758507521](https://twitter.com/ziobrando/status/289635060758507521) [^11]: Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, “World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables. Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP.241.,” *United Nations*, 2015, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf&sa=D&ust=1538494218383000)[https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key\_findings\_wpp\_2015.pdf](https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf) [^12]: Even when we take into account the high rates of infant mortality in ancient Rome, we still find that most adults did not live very long. Unfortunately, studies which purport that the average life expectancy of ancient people’s is similar to ours today often neglect to mention archeological evidence of a high proportion of Roman citizens’ gravestones and burial sites showing many died from disease, famine, war, labor, and natural disasters—circumstances which the contemporary world is far more prepared to handle. Likewise, to point to written records of famous historical figures living well into their 70s and beyond does nothing to support this point. It’s certainly the case that some people lived just as long as most people do today, but they were the exception and not representative of the broader population. Therefore, to suggest that ancient people had similar life expectancies to our own is simply wrong. [^13]: Patrick Browne, “Why the average ancient Roman worker was dead by 30,” *The Local*, May 27, 2016, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thelocal.it/20160527/groundbreaking-study-reveals-brutal-realities-of-life-in-ancient-rome&sa=D&ust=1538494218385000)[https://www.thelocal.it/20160527/groundbreaking-study-reveals-brutal-realities-of-life-in-ancient-rome](https://www.thelocal.it/20160527/groundbreaking-study-reveals-brutal-realities-of-life-in-ancient-rome) For full study: Andrea Piccioli et. al., Bones: Orthopaedic Pathologies in Roman Imperial Age (New York: Springer, 2015). [^14]: Kyle Harper, “Marriage and Family” in *The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity*, Ed. Scott Fitzgerald Johnson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015),  p. 685. [^15]: Nathan Pilkington, “Growing Up Roman: Infant Mortality and Reproductive Development,” *Journal of Interdisciplinary History* 44:1 (2013), p. 6. [^16]: Daniel Nettle, "Flexibility in reproductive timing in human females: Integrating ultimate and proximate explanations," *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*, 366:1563 (2011), pp. 357-58. [^17]: Lisa A. Alberici and Mary Harlow, “Age and Innocence: Female Transitions to Adulthood in Late Antiquity,” *Hesperia Supplements*, 41 (2007), p. 195. [^18]: M.K. Hopkins, “The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage,” *Population Studies*, 18:3 (1965),  p. 313. [^19]: Vern L. Bullough,  “Age of Consent,” *Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality*, 16:2-3 (2005), pp. 29-30. [^20]: John T. Fitzgerald, “Orphans In Mediterranean Antiquity and Early Christianity,” *Acta Theologica*, Suppl. 23 (2016), p. 33. [^21]: Prior to the advent of Islam, Arab culture was based primarily on the oral transmission of information. It wasn’t until the early Islamic conquests and the resulting subsuming of external societies (e.g., Persian and Roman) that Muslims adopted writing as a standard medium of communication. [^22]: Amram Tropper, “Children and Childhood in Light of the Demographics of the Jewish Family in Late Antiquity,” *Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period*, 37:3 (2006), p. 332. [^23]: Mary Lewis, *The Bioarchaeology of Children: Perspectives from Biological and Forensic Anthropology* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 4. [^24]: Siân Halcrow and Nancy Tayles, “The Bioarchaeological Investigation of Childhood and Social Age: Problems and Prospects,” *Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory*, 15:2 (2008), p. 203. [^25]: *Sahih al-Bukhari*, Book 8, #465. [^26]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 3894 and *Sahih Muslim* 1422a. [^27]: The fact that she reached puberty by age nine is further confirmed in other *hadith*, such as in *Sunan Abi Dawud* 4933. [^28]: Jessa Gamble, “Puberty: Early Starters,” *Nature: The International Journal of Science*, October 04, 2017, [https://www.nature.com/articles/550S10a](https://www.nature.com/articles/550S10a) [^29]: Sandra K. Cesario and Lisa A. Hughes, “Precocious Puberty: A Comprehensive Review of Literature,” *Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing* 36:3 (2007), pp. 263-274. [^30]: Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson, “Evolution, Development and Timing of Puberty,” *Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism*, 17:1 (2006), p. 10. [^31]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 6130 with commentary from *Fath al-Bari*, Vol. 13, p. 143. [^32]: Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, *Fath al-Bari*, vol.13 (n.d.), p. 143. [^33]: “The prohibition of pictorial and figural representations is confirmed from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from many sources. It is likely that what is accepted in the narration of Abu Salamah from Aisha (ra) preceded the expedition of Khaybar and that was before the forbiddance of images and representations, then their forbiddance was after that.” – Ahmad Ibn Husayn Bayhaqi,  *Al-Sunan Al-Kubra*, V. 10, Ed. Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qadr Ata (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, 2003), p. 371. [^34]: Laurie Wilkie, "Not Merely Child's Play: Creating a Historical Archaeology of Children and Childhood," in *Children and Material Culture*, Ed. Joanna Sofaer Derevenski (New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 102. [^35]: Azhar Wan Ahmad, *Public Interests (Al-Masalih al-Mursalah) in Islamic Jurisprudence: An Analysis of the Concept in the Shafi’i School* (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2003), pp. 27-28. [^36]: Ibid, pp. 5-6. [^37]: Mohammad Kamali, *Principles of Islamic jurisprudence* (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Texts Society, 1991), p. 45. [^38]: Ibn Kathir, *Tafsir al-Qur’an al-Azim* — commenting on Al-Qur’an 4:6. [^39]: “The jurists who insist on guardianship in marriage seem to consider it to be a duty rather than a right of the guardian, or at least a synthesis of both. While the guardian has the right to conclude a marriage on his ward’s behalf and to give consent or object to her unwise choice, it is his duty to exercise this right in her best interests and he is enjoined to take her wishes into consideration.”– Quoted in Mahdi Zahraa, “The Legal capacity of women in Islamic law,” *Arab Law Quarterly*, 11:3 (1996),  p. 260. [^40]: Lynn Welchman, *Beyond the Code: Muslim Family Law and the Shari‘ Judiciary in the Palestinian West Bank* (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000), pp. 108-109. [^41]: Judith Tucker, “Muftis and Matrimony: Islamic Law and Gender in Ottoman Syria and Palestine,” *Islamic Law and Society*, 1:3 (1994),  p. 271. [^42]: The idea that the majority of our ancestors suffered from a mental disorder that made them attracted to children is a ludicrous notion unsubstantiated by any academic research. [^43]: This inference is made in conjunction with verse 33:49 in the Qur’an which stipulates that an unconsummated marriage does not require a waiting period in the case of divorce. [^44]: Imam ibn al-Humam, *Fath al-Qadir*, Vol. 4 (n.d.),  p. 280. [^45]: Al-Shatibi, *Muwafaqat*, vol. 3/3, pp. 14-15. [^46]: Yossef Rapoport, “Royal Justice and Religious Law: Siyasah and Shari’ah under the Mamluks,” *Mamluk Studies Review*, 16 (2012),  pp. 89–92. ## Summary The marriage of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) has become, in recent years, one of the most frequently raised objections against Islam. Critics allege that Muslims follow the example of a man who had inappropriate relations with a nine-year-old girl, and this accusation has caused some believers to doubt their faith and its moral foundations. Yet upon careful examination, this criticism rests upon flawed reasoning. Early marriage was a normal practice in many ancient societies, and it made moral sense given the circumstances those peoples faced. Throughout history, populations have adapted their ethical judgments to their physical and social environments, precisely as we do in our own age. It is worth first observing a striking inconsistency in the modern condemnation of early marriage. In 2014, the Pew Research Center estimated that roughly 57,800 minors were legally married in the United States, of which 55% were between an underage girl and an adult man. California currently permits marriage of minors with parental consent, and organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have resisted attempts to place age restrictions. France has debated whether to establish an age of consent, having previously had none, which led to numerous acquittals for men accused of raping minors as young as eleven or younger. These realities sit uneasily alongside these nations' stated support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1964 Convention on Consent to Marriage, which requires that parties specify a minimum age for marriage. The exploitation of children—through early marriage, trafficking, and online abuse, such as the German child pornography ring uncovered with nearly 90,000 members—remains a grave and legitimate concern. However, such legitimate sensitivities can lead us to rash judgments about past communities. The most popular criticism of Islam today rests upon the narration in which Aisha said, "The Prophet ﷺ married me when I was six years old and consummated our marriage when I was nine years old. Then I remained with him for nine years." This report has provoked indignation and doubt, causing some to dismiss Islamic sources as inauthentic and others to condemn Islamic morals as barbaric. Some Muslims, distressed by the implications, have argued that these narrations are spurious and offered convoluted claims that she was actually eighteen. Yet such reactions, while intelligible from a modern Western vantage point, make little sense when applied to a people who lived over a millennium ago. To condemn seventh-century desert Arabs as "barbarians" is easier than recognizing that our own moral judgments are shaped by our environment just as theirs were. This is the fallacy of *presentism*—an anachronistic misinterpretation of history based on present-day circumstances that did not exist in the past. As Alberto Brandolini's maxim observes, refuting nonsense requires far more energy than producing it. This does not entail that no moral judgments may be made about the past. Murder remains murder, theft remains theft, and rape remains rape in every time and place. But how we judge such acts depends upon their contexts. When we examine the scientific evidence regarding human development, maturity, and marriage, we find a context that dispels the outrage and allows us to appreciate the struggles of our ancestors. The manner in which past societies defined childhood, maturity, and marriage differed considerably from contemporary Western definitions. To accuse most of our forebears of ignorance about child welfare, ill intent, or a worldwide affliction of pedophilia is an extraordinary and unsubstantiated claim contradicted by scientific and historical evidence. Consider that today we expect children to undergo many years of education, a rational expectation given a global life expectancy exceeding seventy years. No such conditions existed fourteen centuries ago. The average life expectancy for a working-class Roman in late antiquity was around 35 to 40 years, if one survived infancy, and labourers suffered from chronic disease due to poor diets and harsh conditions. Women fared no better, with life expectancy between 34.5 and 37.5 years, enduring five to seven full-term pregnancies merely to keep the population stable, amid high maternal mortality. Given these realities, it made sense to begin procreating early. The average age of marriage for girls in ancient Rome was around fourteen or fifteen, with the legal minimum at twelve, though the Romans permitted sexual relations even younger. As the historian Amram Tropper notes regarding Jewish youth in late antiquity, many girls married so young that we would today consider them children rather than women, since the goal of maximizing fertility lowered the age of marriage and brought an early end to girlhood. The bioarchaeologist Mary Lewis likewise warns that "we cannot simply transpose our view of childhood directly onto the past," and Sian Halcrow and Nancy Tayles observe that in many traditional societies age was defined by skills, capacities, and stages of maturation rather than mere chronological number. Regarding Aisha herself, she stated, "I had seen my parents following Islam since I attained the age of reason [puberty]," indicating she had reached maturity before her marriage. Born in 614 CE, daughter of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, she migrated with her family to Medina in 622 CE, and consummated her marriage after reaching maturity. That she reached puberty at nine need not surprise us, since the onset of puberty has fluctuated dramatically throughout history—girls in the Industrial Revolution often began at fourteen, while some today begin as early as six. Nonetheless, physical maturity does not by itself confer an adult mentality, and as endocrinologists Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson observe, the mismatch between biological and psychosocial maturation is a recent phenomenon; for the first time in history, biological puberty significantly precedes successful adult functioning. A telling example of presentism appears in the frequently cited narration in which Aisha said she played with dolls in the Prophet's ﷺ presence. Critics assume this proves she was a child, and some translations even insert the phrase "not yet reached the age of puberty." Yet this addition is not in the hadith itself; it derives from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's (d. 1449) commentary *Fath al-Bari*. Ibn Hajar himself admitted his conclusion was "questionable," noting that Aisha was at least fourteen at the time of Khaybar, and he inclined to his view only to reconcile the permissibility of dolls with the general prohibition of images. Moreover, Imam al-Bayhaqi (d. 1066) held that the prohibition came only after these events. As the anthropologist Laurie Wilkie notes, valued childhood objects were often kept into adulthood. Islam neither negates the past nor undermines moral judgment, for it upholds both absolute moral principles and historically contingent circumstances. Central to this is the belief that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is a perfect moral exemplar (*uswatun hasana*) for all times and places, whose every action was the most appropriate response to his circumstances. Islamic jurisprudence itself embodies a flexible methodology. During the caliphate of Umar al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the punishment for theft was suspended during a severe famine, drawing upon the principles of *istihsan* (juristic preference) and *maslahah mursalah* (public interest). Divine Law is therefore best understood as "a system with unchanging moral principles, but flexible application." The Qur'an sets a marriageable age: "Test orphans until they reach marriageable age; then, if you find they have sound judgment, hand over their property to them" (Al-Qur'an, 4:6). Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) explained that "marriageable age" refers not to a fixed number but to puberty. Jurists distinguished between a contractual marriage, which could be entered at any age but permitted no intimacy, and a consummated marriage, which required physical readiness. They also distinguished age of majority from physical maturity (*balaghat*). Professor Judith Tucker, herself a feminist critic, acknowledges that "a marriage could be contracted before either party was ready for sexual intercourse, but a marriage could not be consummated until both bride and groom were physically mature." Regarding the verse concerning "those who have not [yet] menstruated" (Al-Qur'an, 65:4), al-Marghinani (d. 1197) explained this refers to those who attained puberty by age—fifteen according to Abu Yusuf and al-Shaybani, or seventeen according to Abu Hanifah and Malik—yet had not menstruated. Notably, the age of nine was never established as a condition of maturity; rather, jurists deduced that since the Prophet ﷺ waited three years before consummating his marriage, he did so to avoid harm, in keeping with the objective (*maqsad*) of Islamic law prohibiting harm (*darar*) to oneself or others. A case from Mamluk Egypt in 1470 CE illustrates this concern. The deputy judge Ibn al-Ṣayrafī married off a twelve-year-old orphan girl to a servant, inserting a clause forbidding consummation until she matured. When the husband violated it, the couple was divorced, and though al-Ṣayrafī cited the Prophet's ﷺ marriage to Aisha at nine, the official Yashbak min Mahdī ordered the husband flogged one hundred times as an example against those who "deflower young girls"—a punishment al-Ṣayrafī accepted given the husband's breach of contract. This demonstrates that both judges and officials sought to minimize harm to minors. In our own age, the complexity of modern life means young people should wait before intimate relationships to minimize harm, and the Prophet's ﷺ conduct with Aisha exemplifies this very nuance, revealing a moral code that anticipates the fluctuations of human development. The Prophet ﷺ was thus entirely within his moral rights. Some Muslims, ignorant of their tradition, interpret Islamic Law in an uncompromising ahistorical fashion, no better than its critics. Meanwhile, Western nations send mixed messages by condemning child marriage while permitting minors to engage in sexual relations with age-similar partners—an inconsistent standard, since a minor faces the same consequences regardless of a partner's age. The anachronistic outrage against this marriage thus amounts to little more than virtue signaling born of ignorance of science, history, morality, and Islam alike. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/when-the-earth-speaks-against-us-environmental-ethics-in-islam # When the Earth Speaks Against Us: Environmental Ethics in Islam **Author:** Afsan Redwan **Topics:** Environment, Nature & Science **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 20, 2018 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 ## Abstract As countries around the globe frantically search for a solution to the current environmental crisis, solutions deep-rooted in the Islamic tradition are rarely offered. Islam has at its core multiple environmental principles that many Muslims and the public in general are unaware of. This paper demonstrates that there exists a narrative within the Islamic tradition that can be extrapolated to form principles that can be implemented by Muslims in the West. This is proven using authentic sources from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The reader is provided a brief look at ethics in Islam, environmental ethics in Western theory, environmental ethics from an Islamic perspective, and five principles with examples of how to apply them in the Western context. --- ## Introduction Throughout human history, the question of “how we should live” has been a recurring and polemical theme. From the choices made on the global stage to the sofas in our living rooms, ethics permeates our lives. These choices we make stem from our core principles. Personal principles are what drive our understanding of good and bad. Traer describes empathy as a crucial aspect of moral behavior.[^1] Almost all humans respond to the feelings of others. By aligning ourselves with different groups we create an identity and then use this as a basis for moral sentiment. Once we have discovered what this sentiment is, we naturally formulate principles that support our thought. Infusing both sentiment and principles in the solvent of the mind therefore gives us our conscience and our ethical views. Ethics, as the term stipulates, and as evidenced by the plethora of literature produced in its own discipline, covers a broad range of subjects. However, the sub-category of environmental ethics which consists of our moral relationship to the environment as well as its own value and moral status[^2] has gained particular attention over the past few years. I intend by this paper to encourage readers to link the rich history of the Islamic tradition with the field of environmental ethics. My motivation comes from a recent survey I carried out in which more than 80% of respondents believed that environmental ethics is not being communicated to the British Muslim public adequately. Consequently, more than 85% of the Muslims surveyed were willing to learn more about environmental ethics and how they could apply it within their lives. As indicated previously, ethics apply to both global and personal issues. However, the current paper is concerned only with how Muslims can apply environmental ethics within a Western context. I believe that Islam contains the necessary tools to establish such a coherent viewpoint. This viewpoint I hope to explain by describing five basic principles and how to implement them. The outline hence will be as follows: a brief introduction into ethics in Islam, environmental ethics with accompanying survey data, Western theories of environmental ethics, Islamic perspectives on environmental ethics and a framework for applying Islamic principles in the Western context. --- ## Ethics in Islam ### Conceptualization Ethics in Islam is incredibly broad and extensive in covering multiple facets. Some of these facets include the relationship between humans and Allah, humans and each other, humans and the universe, and humans with their inner self.[^3] One word that has specifically become synonymous with the word ethics in Islam is the Arabic word *akhlaq* (sing. *khuluq*). The singular form appears in the Qur'an two times, once in Surah Al-Shu’ara (verse 137) and once in Surah Al-Qalam (verse 4). Muslim theologians and writers such as Ghazali (d. 1111), Al Razi (d. 1209) and Al-Tusi (d. 1274) have always understood this to mean the science of the human soul (*ilm ul akhlaq*)[^4] which defines both its attributes and mechanisms of controlling it. Interestingly, Mohid Omar[^5] highlights when discussing Islamic ethics that earlier scholars such as Farabi (d. 950) linked together the notion of “fair deeds to virtue” and “wicked deeds” to vices. This emphasizes that our ethics are in fact entwined with our actions, making it even more important that we understand what our ethics are. If we are unable to identify our approach, not just to the environment but to all aspects of life, then how are we to navigate contemporary and future challenges? Al Ghazali’s theory of ethics alludes to what Traer mentioned earlier, in that there is a distinction between what is right and wrong. Al Ghazali believed, much like the earlier theologians, that good souls would produce righteous actions and evil souls would produce evil actions. He emphasizes that by studying *akhlaq* we can engage in righteous actions that are sincere to Allah, our family members, and society as a whole. This is important to our discussion as we can observe that there are links among ethics, actions, and our surroundings. Although this is one opinion, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) suggested that “ethics is  much more practical and consists of what should be done and what should not.”[^6] It appears Ibn Taymiyyah was concerned with the boundaries of *halal* (lawful) and *haram* (unlawful), associating the implication of actions directly with Islamic law. Thus, he focused more on a legalistic aspect that was limited to physical application, as opposed to Al Ghazali’s inclusion of strands that lay beyond lawful and unlawful. While these two perspectives are slightly different, they each agree in principle that ethics are central to a Muslim’s relationship with their religion, whether this concerns how we interact with others, or how we use actions to navigate between the *halal* and *haram*. ### Sources for an Islamic ethics Having recognized the importance of ethics in Islam, a look at the sources used to derive our ethics is also needed. Highlighting these sources allows us to examine the depths of Islamic ethics and ascertain its foundations. We can then extrapolate from those foundations basic principles in ethical areas such as our interaction with the environment. Two primary sources are mainly drawn upon throughout the multiple disciplines in Islam: the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Prophetic tradition). The Qur’an, as the word of Allah, holds an enormous amount of authority and the Prophetic tradition is an embodiment of that authority. The Qur'an includes numerous ethical issues, including the nature of good and bad, divine justice and power, freedom and responsibility. In Surah Al Imran verse 104, the use of the terms *al-khayr* (goodness) and *al-ma’ruf* (approved) denote the moral spirit in calling towards good and enjoining what is right. In Surah Al-Nahl, verse 90, we are reminded that Allah commands us to be *al-adl* (just) and have *al-ihsan* (good conduct), while also forbidding immorality, bad conduct, and oppression. Finally, the fact that humans have moral responsibility is seen in the Qur’an’s use of the word *yus’alu*[^7] which translates as liable to questioning. Knowing that we will be questioned in the afterlife tells us that we are responsible for our actions as well as our immediate surroundings. The second main source we draw upon is the Sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said,“I have been sent only for the purpose of perfecting good morals.”[^8]This *hadith* (prophetic narration) emphasizes the value and place of ethics in a conscientious society. From this *hadith*, we can also infer that human beings have a sense of morality intrinsically embedded within them. By observing and following the Prophet’s example, we can perfect this basic sense of morality. The *hadith*  “Nothing is heavier on the scale than having good character”[^9] illustrates the impact of upholding good character in the afterlife. Consequently, a relationship is created between our actions in this worldly life and the weighing of deeds in the next. Creating this relationship allows us to bridge both worlds and increase the value of our ethical decisions. If we understand that our actions have consequences in the Hereafter, we have to reevaluate our actions in a new paradigm, one that relies on our interaction with the world around us. Good character extends to not only our interactions with other humans but also our interactions with the world around us. The result of ethics being central to the message of the Prophet ﷺ leads us to consider an ethical basis for nearly every discipline. This was understood very early on in the Islamic tradition, where scholars such as Abu Yusuf (d. 799) and Abu Ubayd (d. 834) wrote treatises on justice in economics.[^10] Further treatises were developed in the 9th century; for example, the Muslim physician Ishaq bin Ali Rahawi wrote about medical ethics. He called physicians the “guardians of the soul,”[^11] demonstrating that this concept of ethics had started to enter an Islamic literary discourse in the field of medicine. Also, *hadith* compilers contributed greatly to this field in dedicating works that were strictly to do with ethics such as Al-Bukhari’s (d. 870) *Adab al-Mufrad* (*Conduct for Living*), Al-Bayhaqi’s (d. 1066) *Kitab al-Adab* (*Book of Conduct*) and At-Tabarani’s (d. 982) *Makaarim al-Akhlaq* (*Noble Behaviors*). As exemplified by these writings, discourses that defined ethical standpoints in numerous subjects were accepted and, in the case of *hadith* compilations, even seen as essential. This first section has established that ethics in Islam existed as a concept from the Prophet’s time and was developed further by later scholars. By illustrating that there is a basis for a broad application of ethics in both the Qur’an and Sunnah that has also been supplemented by works of classical scholars, we can develop a framework in which we can create principle standpoints for ethics in other disciplines. The next section discusses why there is a need to consider environmental ethics, in particular. ### Understanding Environmental Ethics Environmental ethics as a sub-discipline came to prominence in the 1970s, due to the emergence of two monumental works in this field: Rachel Carson’s *Silent Spring* (1962)[^12] and Paul Ehrlich’s *The Population Bomb* (1968).[^13] *Silent Spring* brought attention to the dangers of chemical pesticides to public health and wildlife. *The Population Bomb*, as its name suggests, discussed the negative impact on resources due to an ever-increasing human population. Moreover, the concerns of environmental ethics also include a decrease in plant life, biodiversity, wildlife, ecosystems, and climate change, to name a few.[^14] These concerns have almost become a part of modern-day public consciousness. Environmental ethics as a discipline is based around two main questions: as humans do we have a duty towards the environment and if so, then what measures should we include?[^15] These two questions underpin our moral and ethical relationship with the environment. In answering them, we can then confidently establish what our obligations are to the world around us, if any. Some of the challenging questions that result include: Should we cut down forests for the sake of human consumption? Should we knowingly cause the extinction of other species? How should humans use and conserve the outer space environment to secure and expand life? Can planetary boundaries create a new relationship between humans and the Earth? Although the conceptualization of environmental ethics came to prominence almost 40 years ago, the need to engage with this notion has never been more pressing as technology and science have both developed and continue to develop at an unprecedented rate, particularly in recent years.[^16] It is justified, therefore, to argue that the challenges we face today are much greater than they were in the 60s and 70s. The means by which we approach this is incredibly important, as we may consider the Earth too large to be affected meaningfully by human choice. Yet, now we find ourselves in an entirely new Anthropocene epoch, one which is defined by human influence on the Earth; the proposed date of the beginning of this epoch is 1964, indicating just how recent it is.[^17] Additionally, record-breaking global temperatures have risen consecutively in 2014, 2015 and 2016.[^18] This trend continues with a whole array of other undesirable records being broken, including two-thirds of the Great barrier reef being damaged,[^19] ocean acidification rising,[^20] increases in global flooding,[^21] and the continual consumption of more than the production of the Earth’s resources.[^22] We can conclude then, based solely on the empirical scientific data, that there are a plethora of reasons to focus on environmental ethics. In short, the scientific data provide us with a reality that we must engage. ### Data from Survey In order to ascertain to what extent English-speaking UK Muslims are familiar with environmental ethics, I conducted an online survey (the link to which can be found [here](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://goo.gl/forms/oG7SVLxiVqcQz08C3&sa=D&ust=1537464253099000)). This survey was conducted with an online tool within the UK, consisted of a series of multiple choice questions responded to by 53 Muslim individuals. The breakdown of the ages was as follows, 12-17 (9.4%), 18-24 (26.4%), 25-34 (35.8%), 35-44 (22.6%), 45-54 (3.8%), and 55-64 (1.9%). More than 60% of the respondents claimed that the impact we are having on the planet is a negative one when asked, “Is this impact good, bad, or in between?” The awareness of human impact could be in part, due to the amount of media attention that is given to the environment in the West and how it forms a fundamental part of the school curriculum in the UK. This exposure causes general concerns about the environment to reach the public. However, when asked whether they believe this is being conveyed to the Muslim public adequately enough, 85% of the responses were “no,” while more than 75% viewed it as a duty on Muslim leaders to inform them about environmental ethics. Finally, 88% expressed the desire to learn more about environmental ethics. Analyzing these data gives us an intriguing insight into how British Muslims perceive the notion of environmental ethics. We observe that over 75% regarded environmental ethics as important, demonstrating that there is a concern for how we treat the environment. In summary, there are overwhelming numbers in favor of being more informed about environmental ethics, considering the current presentation of environmental ethics to be inadequate to the Muslim public and the view that it as a duty on Muslim leaders to inform the public about environmental ethics. These findings showcase that overall many Muslims are not confident in these issues. They also suggest that Muslims expect their leaders to talk about environmental ethics with them. Another concern is that Muslims feel that this information is not being adequately relayed to them, questioning whether the modality in which it is being communicated is appropriate. Furthermore, Muslims graded their knowledge of environmental ethics very negatively, with almost 77% saying they had either basic or a fair amount of knowledge on the subject, indicating that this sample does not have a great deal of confidence in their knowledge regarding these issues. Using these two perspectives—the substantial scientific data and perceptions of Muslims—we can conclude that more education is needed about environmental ethics. A colossal amount of empirical data indicates patterns that would directly affect the Earth’s environment and have further damaging effects on systems within the environment, while the social data point to a population that knows there is a concern but does not know how to respond to it. Muslims have indicated that, even though their knowledge is fairly basic, they are willing to learn and perhaps implement changes that could make a real difference. Combining these two sources of data suggests that a discussion on environmental ethics is necessary and that Muslims already believe there is a relationship between the environment and Islam. This relationship will be expanded on later, however, as an analysis of current Western theories in relation to environmental ethics is first needed. --- ## Environmental Ethics: Western Theories In brief, theories of environmental ethics consist of three primary viewpoints: anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism. Anthropocentric ethics has been promoted in a variety of writings from Blackstone,[^23] O’Neill,[^24] and Gewirth;[^25]although they vary slightly, the underlying theme in each is similar. This theme is that humans are obliged to preserve the environment to advance human well-being and prosperity. They cite multiple instances in which humans are at risk: for example, pollution affects health standards, decrease in resources lowers our quality of living, loss of biodiversity results in fewer medicinal opportunities, and deforestation leads to a void in our access to natural and serene beauty. Under these circumstances, the question of whether we have an obligation to future generations arises, which some regard to be the epitome of anthropocentrism. Discourses that discuss this notion have varied considerably and contain proponents both for and against. Arguments that support this obligation normally state that the effects of climate change, resource depletion, and other factors will have a detrimental impact on future generations. Gewirth[^26] argues that any policy or action we take will have a greater impact on future generations; therefore, the present human community has a moral responsibility to ensure we do not hinder the prosperity of future generations. Golding,[^27] however, argued against this view by proposing that our responsibility is only to our current moral community as future generations cannot reciprocate any of the actions we take to benefit them; thus, they remain outside of our sphere of moral responsibility. Golding’s point can be contested by Kavka[^28] who mentioned that to carry out the requests of those who have died, for example in a will, is not considered outside our moral responsibility even though there is no direct reciprocal benefit. As evidenced by these divergent views, there are huge differences in both thought and in the application of this model of environmental ethics. The main question that this seems to revolve around is: what are our obligations to future generations? Within this question arises an additional difficulty in ascertaining exactly who the future generations are and what they encompass. Brian Barry states that technology could develop to an extent that the preservation of a particular species is not needed.[^29] What would be the need for a diversity of plants if we are able to grow and produce the substances we need ourselves? This has led to an obligation in providing at least “basic” needs that Barry outlines such as food and water.[^30] Supplementary to this, we could ask what are the competing interests of the contemporary generation and future generations. How do we measure the needs of both and decide? As mentioned earlier, we are currently using more resources than the Earth produces and therefore not meeting the needs of the current generation. If current needs are not being met, then how can we even begin to think about meeting the needs of those in the future? The second viewpoint is biocentrism, the idea that our moral community should include animals as well as humans. Two prominent academics have proposed this view but differ in their justifications. Peter Singer suggests that our moral community should include any being that is sentient; i.e., able to feel pleasure or pain,[^31] while Tom Regan extends moral standing to those that can believe, desire, perceive, emote, and engage in action.[^32] These two ideas differ slightly yet both link to this central thought of consciousness which can be attributed back to Traer’s concept of ethics, suggesting that empathy plays a central role in how Western theories attribute moral standing to animals. The point at which the difference is made most apparent is that Singer’s moral standing is essentially interest-derived meaning if one can experience pleasure or pain, while Regan promotes the idea that all life has inherent value. Bio-centrists have expanded on these thoughts to prioritize certain environmental or even animal obligations. In total opposition to anthropocentrism, biocentrism posits that there is much more to evaluate than simply human interest. For example, if clearing a forest would benefit humans across generations, then anthropocentrists wouldn’t contest that. On the other hand, bio-centrist thought would argue that the welfare of the animals in that forest would need to be contemplated before any action. If it is concluded that there indeed exists a possibility of harm, then that action would become improper. Biocentrism has been challenged on two main fronts. Firstly, its classification that “being alive” is a condition for possessing moral standing has been contested. Warren has declared that, because a plant doesn’t have the ability to determine its own good, it does not possess moral standing.[^33] Essentially, a plant does not care whether it lives or dies; hence, there should be no onus on humans to be concerned for its life. Secondly, the promotion of individualistic entities is in direct opposition to the idea of interdependence. Our reliance on this interdependent “equilibrium”[^34] is necessary for each individual organism to flourish. Biocentrism fails to address these two important issues. The third prominent environmental theory is known as ecocentrism. Ecocentrism was initiated by one main ethicist, Aldo Leopold. Leopold was the first to coin the term “land ethic,” explaining that the idea of the land being a mere resource or object for human use was gravely mistaken.[^35] Instead, he viewed the land as a “fountain of energy, flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals.”[^36] This energy therefore, would be affected by the relationship of each component within this community. In a later work, he concluded his theory by stating, “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”[^37] Leopold has been widely criticized for promoting an ethic with no real substantive obligation on humanity. His concept can be viewed as just a description of how we should perceive the environment, but not as a proposal for how we treat it. These criticisms have been challenged by several academics, two prominent ones being J. Baird Callicott and Lawrence E. Johnson. Callicott suggests that Leopold’s theory does not assign a specific characteristic for justifying our approach to the environment.[^38] The outcome is then freeing oneself from attributing only consciousness or biological good as the basis for acting ethically, broadening our moral application to how we “feel” about the environment. “Feeling” is considered much more dynamic and moves beyond the previous arbitrary concepts of self-interest and individualism.[^39] Although this idea gives us some link between theory and application, using “feelings” as a basis for moral obligation can be problematic. This could be as simple as one individual claiming to feel nothing for the environment; if such is the case, then how would moral obligations be pertinent? Lawrence Johnson has suggested a slightly different view in ascribing moral obligation beyond simplistic characteristics. He proposes the notion that interests extend beyond the capability of having a conscious experience and by default apply to non-conscious entities.[^40] Johnson uses the case of a child who, though needing oxygen, possesses no understanding of what oxygen is, yet is entitled to it.[^41] Using this analogy, he confers moral standing on both species and ecosystems and claims that each have an interest that must be considered. Ecocentrism has also been evaluated by academics such as Tom Regan, who sees it as an extremely negative concept. He labels it “environmental fascism”[^42] because placing humans within a larger more important biotic community raises the possibility of human interests being unprioritized over the larger community. Proponents of ecocentrism believe that human beings shouldn’t be prioritized and in certain cases may even be liable to removal by other humans. This is best exemplified in a scenario in which a population of rabbits may be depleted to secure the growth and prosperity of a plant species. In retrospect, particular areas might instead register humans as the greatest threat to the community, if this is the case, then should humans be removed for the “greater good?” Further questions are then raised as to how to navigate between competing interests; e.g., why should rabbits be sacrificed when humans aren’t and if human interests are above all others, then isn’t this just anthropocentrism? --- ## Environmental Ethics: Islamic theory As elucidated from each of the previous Western theories, critiques remain and still need to be addressed. Islam can offer an alternative unique perspective on environmental ethics that is deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition. Environmental ethics have been, and are, represented primarily in both the Qur’an and the Sunnah as well as being commented on in the scholarly tradition. These themes will now be explored to establish Islamic environmental principles. ### Islam and nature Islam’s view on nature is rooted in multiple theocentric positions, best demonstrated by the Qur'anic verse, “There is no God but He, the Creator of all things” (Qur'an 6:102), stipulating that there is a link between creation and the Creator. This link is further clarified when Allah says, “There are certainly signs in the Earth for people with certainty and in yourselves. Do you not then see?” (Qur'an 51:20-21). Verses 50:6, 21:30, 13:12, and 6:73 only add to this theme by asking the reader to reflect and ponder over Allah’s creations. Without attributing divinity to the creation, instead we begin to see the categorization of all creation as a medium through which we can reach Allah. This has serious consequences for actions we take that might not just harm these signs, but might remove them too. An outcome of removing and destroying these signs could also limit and restrict the avenues we have to access the “signs” that Allah has left for us. The link between the Creator and creation highlights a relationship that transcends the physical world. A term that has been repeated throughout the past two centuries by scholars such as Said Nursi[^43] and Taha Al Awani[^44] is the “book of the universe.” This book reflects that all created things have an intrinsic value, due to their connection to the Creator and that this collective value is worth more than an individual’s value. Özdemir expands on this concept by adding that “the Muslim lives in a world that is alive, meaningful, purposeful and more importantly, Muslim like himself, even prostrating itself before God.”[^45] Understanding that the creation contains both a spiritual and physical aspect necessitates that we recognize our relationship with the non-human world. I have divided this world into three categories: natural resources, water, and the living creation. ### Natural resources Bagader et al. state that the objectives of natural resources in Islam are contemplation, worship, sustainable use, enjoyment, appreciation of beauty, biological needs, and ecological needs.[^46] Interestingly, they go on to clarify that we are obligated to preserve those resources, both quantitatively in terms of numbers and qualitatively, meaning with their ideal features; there also exists a responsibility to avoid infringing on the rights of other people. The Qur’anic verse “And you devour the inheritance (of others) with devouring greed” (Qur’an 89:19) clearly prohibits the abuse, misuse, and exploitation of natural resources. Although the Qur’an does prohibit these practices and values preservation, it also promotes ideas based on cultivation, sustainability, and construction. The Qur'an remarks, “It is He Who has produced you from the Earth and settled you therein” (Qur’an 71:17-18), which promotes the concept of creating and sustaining the land for use. The words of Ali Ibn Abi Talib (Fourth Khalifa) in response to a man who had reclaimed some deserted land, support the previous verse: “Partake of it gladly, so long as you are a benefactor, not a despoiler, a cultivator, not a destroyer.”[^47] One final aspect that Islam promotes in this section is for man to abstain from committing corruption on the Earth. The word *fasad* (corruption) appears within the Qur’an and is used, for example, in 7:56, “Do not cause corruption on the earth, after it has been set in order, but call on Him with fear and longing (in your hearts): for the Mercy of God is (always) near to those who do good,” reinforcing the concept of not causing disruption to the balance of the world. The mention of “keeping a balance” is absolutely crucial to the core message of Islam, and is particularly emphasized in the following verse: > *The All-Merciful has taught the Qur’an. He created man and He taught him the explanation. The sun and the moon to a reckoning, and the stars and trees bow themselves; and heaven—He raised it up and set the balance. Transgress not in the balance, and weigh with justice, and skimp not in the balance. And Earth—He set it down for all beings, therein fruits and palm trees with sheaths, and grain in the blade, and fragrant herbs. Which of your Lord’s bounties will you deny?* (Qur’an 55: 1–12) The verse supports a platform for the Earth to revolve and sustain itself, the various pieces all in harmony. It is this harmony, this balance, that we are warned not to break and stretches not only to Earth but also to the universe. ### Water The mention of water appears throughout the Qur’an and is viewed as a vital part of Allah’s creation. The Qur’an mentions, “We made from water every living thing” (Qur’an 21:30) and this sentiment is repeated in 24:45 and 25:54. Water is also emphasized as an important aspect of existence and we are told to ponder upon its use: > *Have you seen the water which you drink? Was it you who sent it down from the rain cloud, or did We send it? Were it Our will, We could have made it bitter; why then do you not give thanks?* (Qur’an 56: 68–70) These verses asking us to ponder are continued in other verses where Allah asks us to appreciate the function and role of water to every living thing (Qur’an 56:68-70, 67:30). Water also plays a significant role in Islamic jurisprudence; Kamali concludes that damage done specifically to water is taken by some scholars to be forbidden.[^48] Kamali emphasizes water’s crucial role in sustaining multiple life forms, which therefore necessitates an obligation to protect that which preserves life. Hence, if destroying water would cause harm to life itself, it would then enact the principle of whatever leads to a prohibited act is prohibited. Moreover, statements from the Prophet ﷺ such as, “There shall be no harm, nor reciprocating of harm,”[^49] are used by Bāqādir to support the belief that precautionary measures should be taken in protecting water.[^50] This responsibility is perhaps more clear in the following Qur'anic verse where Allah says, “And tell them the water shall be shared between them” (Qur'an 54:28). According to Ibn Kathir, this verse is in reference to sharing water between the people of Thamud and a she-camel and emphasizes the duty to share resources and provisions.[^51] This verse highlights the principle that sharing the sustenance of the Earth is a right for all creation and warns about the perils of abusing that right. The *hadith* “Muslims are to share in these three things: water, pasture, and fire”[^52] further reflects the Qur’anic statement, as this duty extends to not only water but other forms of natural resources. Additionally the Prophet ﷺ emphasized in the *hadith*, “Even if you take ablutions in a flowing river, do not waste water,”[^53] indicating that there is an obligation on us to evaluate how we use water. Because he ordered us not to waste water, we need to be aware of the consequences of our actions for the natural environment. ### Animals/Plants The final category concerns our attitude towards animals and plants. Animals feature prominently throughout the Qur’an, with some chapters even being named after them such as Al Baqarah (Qur’an 2 “The Cow”), An Nahl (Qur’an 16, “The Bee”) and Al Ankabut (Qur’an 29, “The Spider”). According to the previous categorization, animals and plants form part of the creation of Allah. Subsequently, they are then also a subgroup of his signs left for humankind to ponder and reflect on. This amounts to animals and plants possessing a value in that they are said to worship and glorify Allah, as well as be an integral part of His creation. However there is a limit to this in that Islam recognizes that animals and plants have been placed here for the service of humanity, most clearly mentioned in the verse, “Do you not see that Allah has subjected to your use all things in the heaven and the Earth, and has made bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, seen and unseen?” (Qur’an 31:20). Islam therefore asserts a balance between rights that are to be given to animals and plants and the interests of humans. The Prophet ﷺ expounded upon this understanding in multiple incidents; e.g., he made clear to his Companions, “Allah punished a woman because she imprisoned a cat until it died of hunger. She neither fed it nor let it obtain its own food.”[^54] He also made it explicit when a Companion asked him, “Is there a reward for doing good with these animals?” He responded, “There is a reward in doing good to every living thing.”[^55] Specifically regarding plants, the Prophet ﷺ explained, “If any Muslim plants a tree or sows a field and a human, bird, or animal eats from it, it shall be reckoned as charity from him.”[^56] Perhaps the most prominent *hadith* reflecting the importance of this relationship is the one that encourages the planting of a tree even if the world were ending, “If the day of resurrection comes upon anyone of you while he has a seedling in hand, let him plant it.”[^57] A summary of our responsibilities towards animals was eloquently presented by Izz ud-Deen Abdi Salaam (d. 1262) where he stated: > *The rights of creatures and animals over humanity are the following: that he provides for them as they require, even if they have aged or sickened such that no benefit comes from them; that he not burden them beyond what they can bear; that he not put them together with another creature that could injure it, whether of their own kind or other species, whether by breaking their bones or butting or wounding them; that he slaughters them with gentleness and he does not flay their skins or break their bones until their bodies have become cold and passed away; that he not slaughter their young within their sight but rather he does so in solitude; that he makes their resting and watering places comfortable; that he puts the males and females together during their mating seasons; that he does not discard what he has hunted; and that he does not shoot them with anything that breaks their bones or harms them by any means that would render their meat forbidden to eat.*[^58] The evidence provided is incredibly supportive of the notion that there is a basis for environmental ethics in Islam. The Qur’anic verses make clear that we are to live in tandem with the creation around us and use it as an opportunity to access the signs of Allah, and the Prophetic character exemplifies the concern and need to engage with nature on both a personal and local level. From these narrations, we see the abundance of reward that can be gained from looking after the creation of Allah. This adds in a transdimensional element to our ethics in that we will be accountable for our actions and how we impact the world around us. When compared with Western theories, we realize that Islam also does, in fact, promote and develop further reasons why we should evaluate our relationship with the environment. While containing a uniqueness in why it advocates for the protection, cultivation, and proliferation of our ecological systems, at the same time, it provides a solution to the various issues of previous theories, such as establishing the boundaries and limits of human interest, including the community instead of individualistic preferences, providing a direct link between humanity and creation in the form of our worship of Allah, not just based on “feelings” but a relationship that transcends the physical world, and emphasizing maintaining the “balance” of the Earth. I posit that rather than being an “adaptive” alternative to Western theories, the model Islam presents is in fact unique and deserving of its own authoritative space. Although proposed as a response to Western theory, the foundations of an Islamic environmental philosophy as I have demonstrated are based purely on the Islamic tradition. I would like to suggest that the following principles are independent of Western thought and constitute but one perspective from the Islamic tradition. I recommend that, as Muslims extracting from the authentic sources, we take into consideration the following five principles when advocating for an Islamic environmental ethics in the West: Community, Stewardship, Trustee, Moderation, and Sustainability. I will explain these principles in brief with some examples of how they can be applied in the Western world. To be clear, these applications are only suggestions for how to actualize the principles. Many other methods could also be undertaken to fulfill each principle. --- ## Principles ### Community The principle of community was made clear before in that there exists between us and the rest of creation a permanent link. This enduring link is that all of creation is from the Creator; this link, as mentioned, will transcend this world and be present in the next. This implies that the creation is entirely interconnected by virtue of being created by the same Creator and interdependent, relying on each other for both prosperity and goodness. We rely on the rest of creation as a means of sustenance and as a reflection of Allah’s signs. Creation also participates in the worship and praise of Allah which strengthens the relationship we have with our Creator. These factors and the welfare of all created beings are deeply affected by how we interact with them. If we are directly contributing to removing the praise, signs, and responsibility Allah has bestowed us, then why would we not expect there to be a detrimental effect on our own connection and relationship with Allah? Accepting this principle places us in an exclusive role as humans where we are compelled to do right by the entire community of Allah’s creation. #### Application One major threat to this “community” of creation is human-induced deforestation. Deforestation is the conversion of forest to permanent non-forest land. This has harmful effects on the ecosystem, causing an enormous loss in biodiversity and increasing the greenhouse effect. Mining, urbanization, logging, expansion of farmland, and a whole range of human actions are having a dramatic effect on forests.[^59] While the image of trees being removed may be our conceptualization of deforestation, the effects are far-reaching. Forests consist of entire ecosystems, habitats, and real cornerstones in the formation of different parts of the world; they also function as a living and breathing environment that praises Allah. A realistic solution that we can implement as Muslims is to maintain and manage our own “forest gardens.” This would aid in providing a space for the creation to live and prosper, whether in our own personal gardens or via a community initiative. Also, this can help in raising awareness as our local neighbors or visitors would be intrigued as to why we have started or created this initiative. ### Stewardship The second principle this naturally turns into is our role as stewards on the Earth. Allah mentions in two verses, “And lo! Your Sustainer said to the angels: Behold, I am about to establish upon Earth a *khalifa* (Qur’an 2:30) and “It is He Who appointed you *khalifas* on this Earth” (Qur'an 6:167). These two verses indicate the responsibility we have been given in acting as “*khalifas*.” *Khalifa* can be translated as vicegerent and is derived from a root word meaning “successor.”[^60] This term appears in the Qur’an in both the singular and plural forms, demonstrating that it refers to both a personal and global level, and is related to our role of keeping balance on the Earth. #### Application One way in which we can apply this in a Western context is the building of roof gardens in conjunction with local Islamic institutes. Roof gardens add an enormous benefit to the wider ecological sphere; much of the West is urbanized and roof gardens have proven to be particularly beneficial in such environments.[^61] This strategy is relatively inexpensive and can be maintained by the local community so it fosters a relationship between us and the environment. Using local Islamic institutes as a base for this enterprise provides a new and dynamic relationship between the members of the institute and the institute itself. It could also be utilized to teach young children the importance of the environment and life skills in maintaining and growing the beauty in the world. ### Trustee Thirdly, the principle of being a trustee creates a situation where it is incumbent on us to educate others in regards to the environment and what we can do to help. This is best proven using two *hadiths*, the first of which is, “The world is sweet and green and verily Allah has installed you as a *khalifa* in it in order to see how you act,” [^62] and the second “Each of you is a shepherd and will be answerable for those under his care.”[^63] These *hadiths* indicate a duty to not only act and look after the environment but to instill this view in others around us. Trust also appears within the Qur’anic verse, “Verily, We did offer the *amana* to the heavens and the Earth and the mountains but they refused to bear it. Yet man took it for verily, he has always been prone to tyranny and foolishness” (Qur’an 33:72); *amana* here can be translated as being entrusted. This trust encompasses how we interact with the universe, Earth, and our own immediate surroundings. #### Application To apply this principle, we could dedicate days to teaching and promoting our values regarding the environment. The current means by which environmental ethics is being communicated, in my personal view, isn’t nearly sufficient. Promoting our values and increasing awareness will connect us to other organizations that have the same concerns we have. This opens new opportunities for collaborating with non-Muslim organizations, holding joint workshop events, and networking with those who have similar views. Local institutes such as zoos are willing to engage in conservation projects as well as hold workshops for the public. Taking part in these initiatives generates a new perception and adds the unique perspective of the Islamic tradition. ### Moderation The principle of moderation is best exemplified in the Qur’anic and Prophetic examples of maintaining balance. Highlighted in numerous verses, we are reminded constantly of the perils and dangers of upsetting the balance. Upsetting the balance in our time is an ever-increasing reality as the world changes and we are subjected to the consequences of a changing climate. This compels us as individuals to re-examine how we waste resources. The *hadiths* indicate that even when faced with an abundance of a particular resource, such as a river, we should still take care in how we use it, ensuring that we are conscious about our usage and its impact on the surrounding environment. #### Application A concept that has been underestimated in its positive impact on the environment is recycling. There are huge benefits to recycling including economically, spatially, reduced health risks and greenhouse gas reduction, to name a few. Recycling not only involves the re-use of plastics and household items but also community-based management, which has proven to be a key mechanism in diverting the number of recyclable items to landfill.[^64] Recycling also has the capacity to be a real creative force in Arts and STEM projects. This can be as simple as using recycled material for household items like scoopers, watering cans, snack storage, and brooms. Art projects can be organized to engage the youth in using only recycled materials for a specific objective. By implementing these various recycling methods, we can have a real impact on how the environment is treated and ensure that we are abiding by the principle of moderation. ### Sustainability The final principle that I would like to suggest is sustainability: the verses from the Qur’an that support maintenance of the Earth also advocate for the sustainability of the Earth. As mentioned earlier, there are *ahadith* that specifically encourage water sustainability and forestry sustainability. We can extend these principles and begin to implement sustainable plans that relate to other areas of the environment. The Prophetic example encourages us to cultivate the land, placing a responsibility on us to not just preserve what we have, but to also facilitate its growth. This is the basis we can use to promote the concept of sustainability and utilize its multiple benefits such as reducing energy usage, improved efficiency, and growth opportunities through innovative thinking. #### Application Sustainability can be used across a range of channels including after-school projects in local Islamic institutes, community-devised projects, funding start-ups, and competitions encouraging the submission of sustainable schemes. One such recent example is the Cambridge Mosque project, which is Europe’s first eco-friendly mosque.[^65] It is estimated to have an almost 0% carbon output, making it an incredible feat of sustainable planning and a real embodiment of Islamic environmental ethics. Other projects that promote sustainability include organizing community litter removal, promoting local farmer markets by holding food and drinks festivals, and contributing to efficient water usage. One final suggestion is offering ecological alternatives to debt, meaning that someone who is indebted may be given the opportunity to instead grow particular aspects of the environment or preserve a particular species in place of paying back a loan. --- ## Conclusion Ethics has been a fundamental aspect of Islam from the time of the Prophet ﷺ until now. It is unquestionable that the Prophet ﷺ embodied values that he believed were vital parts of a Muslim’s life. These ethics don’t just encompass simple principles that we state; they are a direct manifestation of our state of being. Muslim theologians had always understood that these ethics govern how we live our lives and what we define as acceptable or not. They believed that a science existed wherein one could derive methods that would alleviate the troubles of the soul. These troubles were associated directly with an absence of ethical thought and practice. It is this that we are trying to revive by promoting environmental ethics. As demonstrated, Muslims have a deep connection to the natural world that transcends space and time. Far-reaching consequences await us in the afterlife if we ignore our duty and responsibility in this world. Allah has decreed for the creation to be a manifestation of His signs and we too are included within that. How troubling would it be if we were to knowingly accelerate and remove these signs that Allah has bestowed upon us? What would we think and ponder upon if all that’s left is our own destruction? The answer cannot be found in current Western thought, as proponents of each theory are in constant disagreement with each other, with some even labeling others as fascist. There exists currently no universal agreement on how the West should view and apply environmental ethics. Islam, on the other hand, has a uniting factor between the Qur’an and the Sunnah that possesses unique principles grounded in the tradition. These principles promote a worldview that can be presented by Muslims, adding real substance to the current conversation displaying that Islam is dynamic enough to act as a vehicle for real change. I have no doubt that this narrative would be welcomed and supported by environmental groups and non-Muslim organizations. It is time that Muslims really put forward their own perspective and become central forces within this field. The above Qur’anic verses, *hadiths*, scholarly opinion, and principles have indisputably established an Islamic viewpoint on environmental ethics. Although each principle may be critiqued and found wanting, I do believe they will play an essential role in at least bringing the conversation to the forefront. Muslims need to How we respond to local and global environmental challenges as a community is critical. When we enter the court of The Almighty and are called to trial, witnesses will be brought forth, I wonder whether the Earth will act as a witness for us or against us? --- ## Notes [^1]: Traer, Robert. *Doing Environmental Ethics*. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013. p. 8. [^2]: Brennan, A. (2002). Environmental ethics. In E.N. Zalta (Ed), *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*. [^3]: Quasem, Muhammad Abul. *The Ethics of Al-Ghazali: A Composite Ethics in Islam*. National University of Malaysia: Selangor, 1983. p. 22. [^4]: Omar, Mohd Nasir. *Christian & Muslim Ethics: A Study of How to Attain Happiness as Reflected in the Works on Tahdhib Al-akhlaq by Yahya Ibn Adi* (d. 974) *and Miskawayh*. (d. 1030). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka, 2003, p. 4. [^5]: Ibid., p. 3. [^6]: Hovannisian, Richard G. *Ethics in Islam*. Malibu, CA: Undena, 1985, p. 11. [^7]: Fakhry, Majid. *Ethical Theories in Islam*. Leiden: Brill, 1994, p. 18. [^8]: Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad. *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal* (Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 14:513 #8952; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā'ūṭ in the comments. [^9]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* Vol. 4, Book of Righteousness And Maintaining Good Relations With Relatives, *Hadith* 2002. [^10]: Fakhry, Majid. *Ethical Theories in Islam*. Leiden: Brill, 1994, p. 11. [^11]: Zunic, Lejla, Emina Karcic, and Izet Masic. "Medical Ethics in the Medieval Islamic Sciences." *Journal of Research in Pharmacy Practice*, no. 3 (2014): 75-76. doi:10.4103/2279-042x.141072. [^12]: Carson, Rachel. *Silent Spring*. London: Penguin Books, in Association with Hamish Hamilton, 2015. (Original 1962, Camberwell Victoria). [^13]: Ehrlich, Paul R. *The Population Bomb*. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer, 1968. [^14]: Attfield, Robin. *Environmental Ethics: An Overview for the Twenty-first Century.* Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014. [^15]: Rolston, Holmes. "Rights And Responsibilities On The Home Planet." *Yale Journal of International Law 18*, no. 1 (1993): 263. [^16]: Kwazo, H.A., M.U. Muhammad, G.M Tafida, and S. Mohammed. "Environmental Impact of Technologies."*Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies*, 2014. doi:10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n7p83. [^17]: Lewis, Simon L., and Mark A. Maslin. "Defining the Anthropocene." *Nature* 519, no. 7542 (2015): 171-80. doi:10.1038/nature14258. [^18]: King, Andrew D. "Attributing Changing Rates of Temperature Record Breaking to Anthropogenic Influences." *Earth's Future* 5, no. 11 (2017): 1156-168. doi:10.1002/2017ef000611. [^19]: Wolff, Nicholas. "Dynamic Vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef: Impacts of Local versus Global Stressors." *Global Change Biology* 24, no. 5 (2018): 1978-991. doi:10.14264/uql.2017.355. [^20]: Kapsenberg, Lydia, Samir Alliouane, Frédéric Gazeau, Laure Mousseau, and Jean-Pierre Gattuso. "Coastal Ocean Acidification and Increasing Total Alkalinity in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea." *Ocean Science* 13, no. 3 (2017): 411-26. doi:10.5194/os-13-411-2017. [^21]: Najibi, Nasser, and Naresh Devineni. "Recent Trends in the Frequency and Duration of Global Floods." *Earth System Dynamics* 9, no. 2 (2018): 757-83. doi:10.5194/esd-9-757-2018. [^22]: Posthuma, Leo, Anders Bjørn, Michiel C. Zijp, Morten Birkved, Miriam L. Diamond, Michael Z. Hauschild, Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Christian Mulder, and Dik Van De Meent. "Beyond Safe Operating Space: Finding Chemical Footprinting Feasible." *Environmental Science & Technology* 48, no. 11 (2014): 6057-059. doi:10.1021/es501961k. [^23]: Blackstone, William T. *Philosophy & Environmental Crisis*:. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974. [^24]: O'Neill, Onora. "Environmental Values, Anthropocentrism and Speciesism." *Environmental Values* 6, no. 2 (1997): 127-42. doi:10.3197/096327197776679121. [^25]: Boylan, Michael. *Environmental Ethics*. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2014, 207-11. [^26]: Ibid., p. 207. [^27]: Golding, Martin. "Content of Justice-based Obligations towards Future Generations in the Context of Climate Change." *Moinst* 56, no. 1 (1972): 85-99. doi:10.5840/monist197256118. [^28]: Barry, Brian, and Richard I. Sikora. *Obligations to Future Generations*. Knapwell: White Horse Press, 1996, 186-203. [^29]: Dobson, Andrew. *Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice.* Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011, p. 93. [^30]: Ibid., p. 95. [^31]: Singer, Peter. 1974. All animals are equal. *Philosophical Exchange* 1. Reprinted in LaFollette, Hugh (ed.). 2007. *Ethics in Practice: Third Edition.* Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 171-180. [^32]: Regan, Tom. *The Case for Animal Rights*. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. [^33]: Warren, Mary Anne. *Moral Status: Obligations to Persons and Other Living Things*. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009, p. 48. [^34]: Taylor, Paul W. *Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics*. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2011. [^35]: Leopold, Aldo, and Charles Walsh. Schwartz. *A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There.* London: Oxford University Press, 1968. [^36]: Ibid., p. 218. [^37]: Ibid., p. 225. [^38]: Zimmerman, Michael E. *Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology*. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. pp.101-13. [^39]: Ibid., p.101. [^40]: Johnson, Lawrence E. *A Morally Deep World: An Essay on Moral Significance and Environmental Ethics*. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010, p. 141. [^41]: Ibid., p. 142. [^42]: Regan, Tom. *The Case for Animal Rights*. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, p. 362. [^43]: Yucel, Salih. (2011). *Said Nursi’s Approach to the Ziauddin Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Environment: A Spiritual View on the Book of Relations*, edited by Ehsan Masood. London: Pluto Universe. "January 01, 2014. [^44]: Jabir, Al Alwani Taha. *Issues in Contemporary Islamic Thought*. United States: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2005,  pp. 4-5. [^45]: Özdemir, İbrahim. "Toward an Understanding of Environmental Ethics from a Qur’anic Perspective" in Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust, R. C. Foltz, et al. (Eds.), Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 1-37. [^46]: Bagader, Abubakar A., Abdullatif Tawfik. Sabbagh, Mohamad As-Sayyid Al-Glayand, and Mawil Yousuf Izzi-Deen Samarrai. *Environmental Protection in Islam.* Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1994, p. 8. [^47]: Ibid. [^48]: Kamali, Hashim. "Environmental Care in Islam: A Qur'anic Perspective." *Islam and Civilizational Renewal* 3, no. 2 (2012): 267. [http://www.iais.org.my/icr/index.php/icr/article/view/66/62](http://www.iais.org.my/icr/index.php/icr/article/view/66/62). [^49]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* Vol. 3, Book of Chapters on Rulings, *Hadith* 2340. [^50]: Bāqādir, Abū Bakr Aḥmad. *Basic Paper on the Islamic Principles for the Conservation of the Natural Environment / Etude De Base Sur Les Principes Islamiques Relatifs À La Conservation De Le̕nvironnement Naturel / by Abou Bakr Ahmed Ba Kader*. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), 1983. [^51]: Al-Mubarakpuri, Shaykh Safiur-Rahman. *Tafsir Ibn Kathir* (10 Volumes; Abridged). S.l., 2000. (See Surah Qamar, verse 28). [^52]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* Vol. 3, Book of Chapters on Pawning, *Hadith* 2473. [^53]: Ibid., Chapter No. 2, The Chapters of Purification and its Sunnah, *Hadith* 425. [^54]: *Sahih Muslim* Vol. 2, Book of Zakat, *Hadith* 2242. [^55]: *Sahih Bukhārī* Vol. 3, Book 43, *Hadith* 646. [^56]: Ibid., Vol. 3, Book 39, *Hadith* 513. [^57]: *Musnad Ahmad*, *Hadith* 12491. [^58]: *Qawāʻid al-Aḥkām fī Iṣlāḥ al-Anām* 1/167. [^59]: Chakravarty, S., Ghosh, S. K., Suresh, C. P., Dey, A. N., and Gopal Shukla. "Deforestation: Causes, Effects and Control Strategies." *Global Perspectives on Sustainable Forest Management*, 2012. doi:10.5772/33342. [^60]: Munn, Ted. *Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change*. Chichester: Wiley, 2002; Khalid, F. Islam, Ecology and the World Science, Values and the Environment in Islam and Order. Islam and the Environment, pp. 332-39. [^61]: Oberndorfer, Erica, Jeremy Lundholm, Brad Bass, Reid R. Coffman, Hitesh Doshi, Nigel Dunnett, Stuart Gaffin, Manfred Köhler, Karen K. Y. Liu, and Bradley Rowe. “Green Roofs as Urban Ecosystems: Ecological Structures, Functions, and Services.” *BioScience* 57, no. 10 (2007): 823-33. doi:10.1641/b571005. [^62]: *Sahih Muslim* Vol. 6, Book of Heart-Melting Traditions, *Hadith* 6606. [^63]: Ibid., Vol. 4, Book of Government, *Hadith* 4496. [^64]: Chai Charoen Wattana, Amornchai, and Chanathip Pharino. "Co-Benefits of Household Waste Recycling for Local Community’s Sustainable Waste Management in Thailand." *Sustainability* 7, no. 6 (2015): p. 7417. doi:10.3390/su7067417. [^65]: Gaia. "Cambridge to Build Europe's First Eco-Mosque." Sustainability. Accessed June 25, 2018.[http://environment-ecology.com/ecological-design/252-cambridge-to-build-europes-first-eco-mosque.html](http://environment-ecology.com/ecological-design/252-cambridge-to-build-europes-first-eco-mosque.html). ## Summary Ethics occupies a central place in Islam, encompassing the relationship between a person and Allah, between people themselves, between humanity and the universe, and between a person and their inner self. The Arabic word most closely associated with ethics is *akhlaq* (singular *khuluq*), which appears in the Qur'an in Surah Al-Shu'ara (26:137) and Surah Al-Qalam (68:4). Scholars such as Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Al-Razi (d. 1209), and Al-Tusi (d. 1274) understood this as the science of the human soul (*ilm ul-akhlaq*), concerning both its attributes and the means of controlling it. Farabi (d. 950), as noted by Mohid Omar, linked fair deeds to virtue and wicked deeds to vice, showing that ethics is entwined with our actions. Al-Ghazali held that good souls produce righteous actions while evil souls produce evil ones, and that studying *akhlaq* enables sincere righteous action towards Allah, family, and society. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) offered a somewhat different emphasis, describing ethics as more practical, consisting of what should and should not be done, focusing on the boundaries of *halal* and *haram*. Though these views differ, both agree that ethics is central to a Muslim's relationship with the religion. The sources from which Islamic ethics are derived are principally the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The Qur'an addresses the nature of good and bad, divine justice, freedom, and responsibility. In Surah Al-Imran, the terms *al-khayr* (goodness) and *al-ma'ruf* (approved) express the moral spirit of calling towards good (3:104), while Surah Al-Nahl commands *al-adl* (justice) and *al-ihsan* (good conduct) and forbids immorality and oppression (16:90). The Qur'an's use of the word *yus'alu*—liable to questioning—affirms that humans bear moral responsibility for their actions and surroundings. From the Sunnah, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, "I have been sent only for the purpose of perfecting good morals," and, "Nothing is heavier on the scale than having good character," linking our worldly conduct to the weighing of deeds in the Hereafter. This ethical foundation gave rise to early treatises across disciplines: Abu Yusuf (d. 799) and Abu Ubayd (d. 834) wrote on justice in economics, the physician Ishaq bin Ali Rahawi wrote on medical ethics, calling physicians "guardians of the soul," and hadith compilers such as Al-Bukhari (d. 870) in his *Adab al-Mufrad*, Al-Bayhaqi (d. 1066) in *Kitab al-Adab*, and At-Tabarani (d. 982) in *Makaarim al-Akhlaq* dedicated works to conduct. Environmental ethics, concerning our moral relationship to the environment and its own value, emerged as a distinct discipline in the 1970s following Rachel Carson's *Silent Spring* (1962) and Paul Ehrlich's *The Population Bomb* (1968). It rests on two questions: whether humans have a duty towards the environment, and if so, what measures follow. The urgency has grown, given that we now live in a proposed new Anthropocene epoch beginning around 1964, with record global temperatures in 2014, 2015, and 2016, damage to two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef, rising ocean acidification, and the consumption of more than the Earth produces. A survey of 53 English-speaking UK Muslims found that over 60% viewed human impact on the planet as negative, 85% felt environmental ethics is not adequately conveyed to the Muslim public, over 75% considered it a duty of Muslim leaders to inform them, and 88% wished to learn more—yet nearly 77% rated their own knowledge as only basic or fair. Western environmental theory offers three main viewpoints, each with unresolved difficulties. Anthropocentrism, advanced by writers such as Blackstone, O'Neill, and Gewirth, holds that we preserve the environment for human well-being; here Gewirth argues for moral responsibility to future generations, while Golding argues that future generations lie outside our moral community since they cannot reciprocate, a point contested by Kavka. Biocentrism extends moral standing to animals, with Peter Singer basing it on sentience and Tom Regan on inherent value, though Warren objects that plants, lacking the ability to determine their own good, possess no moral standing. Ecocentrism, initiated by Aldo Leopold with his "land ethic," views the land as "a fountain of energy" and holds that "a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community." It has been defended by J. Baird Callicott and Lawrence E. Johnson but criticized by Regan as "environmental fascism" for potentially subordinating human interests to the larger community. Against these contested theories, Islam offers a distinct perspective rooted in its own sources. Its view of nature is theocentric: "There is no God but He, the Creator of all things" (6:102), and creation serves as signs pointing to the Creator—"There are certainly signs in the Earth for people with certainty and in yourselves. Do you not then see?" (51:20–21). Scholars such as Said Nursi and Taha Al-Awani spoke of the "book of the universe," and Özdemir notes that the Muslim lives in a world that is alive and purposeful, prostrating before God. Regarding natural resources, Bagader and others outline objectives of contemplation, worship, and sustainable use, while the Qur'an condemns devouring greed (89:19) and corruption (*fasad*) upon the earth (7:56), and emphasizes maintaining balance (55:1–12). Ali Ibn Abi Talib urged a man who reclaimed deserted land to be "a benefactor, not a despoiler, a cultivator, not a destroyer." Water is honoured as the source of every living thing (21:30), to be shared (54:28, per Ibn Kathir on Thamud) and not wasted, as the Prophet ﷺ taught: "Even if you take ablutions in a flowing river, do not waste water." Kamali notes that some scholars regard damage to water as forbidden under the principle that whatever leads to a prohibited act is prohibited, and Bāqādir cites the hadith "There shall be no harm, nor reciprocating of harm." Concerning animals and plants, though subjected to human use (31:20), they retain value, and the Prophet ﷺ warned of the woman punished for starving a cat, affirmed "There is a reward in doing good to every living thing," and encouraged planting even at the world's end. Izz ud-Deen Abdi Salaam (d. 1262) detailed the rights of animals over humanity. From this tradition, five principles are proposed for Muslims in the West—each acknowledged as open to critique. **Community** reflects the interconnected link between all creation and its Creator, applied through maintaining forest gardens. **Stewardship** rests on humanity's role as *khalifa* (2:30, 6:167), applied through roof gardens with Islamic institutes. **Trustee** draws on the *amana* (33:72) and hadiths of accountability, applied through education and collaboration. **Moderation** reflects balance, applied through recycling. **Sustainability** builds on the encouragement to cultivate the land, applied through projects such as the Cambridge eco-mosque. These applications are offered as suggestions, not the only possible methods, and the principles are presented as one perspective grounded independently in the Islamic tradition rather than as an adaptation of Western thought. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/be-brothers-case-studies-of-muslim-receptions-of-refugees-in-history # “Be Brothers”—Case Studies of Muslim Receptions of Refugees in History **Author:** Abdul Rahman Latif **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 13, 2018 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Abstract In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, Muslims provided protection to asylum-seekers and the *Ansar* of Medina treated the *Muhajirs*, who were essentially refugees, like brothers. During the Crusades, Muslim governments and individuals provided aid and refuge for those fleeing the invaders. After the fall of Al-Andalus, the Ottomans took in Jews and Muslims who had been persecuted in the Reconquista and Inquisition. And in World War II, the Muslims of Albania saved Jews fleeing the fascists. Muslims throughout history have helped refugees. In this paper, I look in depth at these various cases that encourage embracing those facing oppression and keeping borders open to refugees. This history is especially important today when Muslims make up the majority both of the world’s refugees and of the populations of the countries taking most of them in. --- ## Introduction At the beginning of a day’s recitation of Qur’an, we recite a formula, the *ista’aadha, “A’udhu billahi min ash Shaytanir Rajim*,” “I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.” The same turn of phrase “*A’udhu billah*” (I seek refuge in Allah), is used again and again in the Qur’an and traditions of the Prophet (peace be on him).[^1] We are told to seek refuge in God from oppressors, from the evil in our own selves, from the evil of created things, from miserliness, cowardice, and fear. Before reciting our most sacred text, and repeatedly in prayers, we are reminded of our condition as humans—as created beings in peril, who need the protection and preservation of God the Most High. We are all refugees in relation to God. And as the first tradition taught in *hadith* classes for centuries goes, “Show mercy to those on Earth and He who is in the heavens will show mercy to you.”[^2] It follows that providing refuge to those on Earth allows one to attain the refuge of God. As Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah writes, “The recompense for deeds is like for like.”[^3] As of 2016, at least 65.6 million people were in need of refuge on Earth.[^4] People like Um Nawwaf, whose daughter ran to find shelter from bombshells.[^5] A rock hit her head and she began to experience seizures. Um Nawwaf took her children to Jordan where her 13-year-old son ended up having to leave school and work to support the family. Rehana Begum’s life was turned upside down one afternoon when the Myanmar military burned houses in her village and started shooting.[^6]  Her brother was killed, but her husband made it out alive, albeit wounded. They walked for four days until they managed to borrow a boat and narrowly escape gunfire on the way to Bangladesh. Of those 65.6 million, 40.3 million were internally displaced—they had to leave their homes but remained within their country.[^7] 22.5 million were classified as refugees because they fled their country due to war, persecution, or other devastating conditions. And the remaining 2.8 million have sought asylum. These numbers are records in human history. The world has never seen so many people forced to move against their will. The majority of the world’s refugees are most likely Muslim, and Muslim countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan have taken in the majority of the world’s refugees.[^8] In this article, I explore cases of how Muslim societies have historically treated refugees. I find these cases are evidence enough that Muslims should never draw borders between themselves and the oppressed, and that they are motivation for Muslims and those of other faiths to help provide refuge to others. In this work, I will be using the word refugee to refer to anyone who has been forcibly displaced. --- ## In Theory and Earliest Practice Arafat Shoukri, in his book *Refugee Status in Islam*, has examined concepts similar to that of the refugee in Islamic scholarship and during the Prophet’s life.[^9] He explores the concept of *jiwar*, providing protection and, on occasion, asylum to one who seeks it for whatever reason. This practice existed in the pre- Islamic period wherein *jiwar* would defend people against the ravages of blood feuds. Muslims kept up the practice of both providing and receiving *jiwar*; the Prophet ﷺ’s daughter Zainab gave *jiwar* to her war-captive husband and he himself gave it to a man who betrayed him.[^10] Abu Bakr (RA) received *jiwar* when he was facing persecution in Makkah. Among pre-Islamic Arabs, when a person provided *jiwar*, his tribe would have to respect and enforce it. The Prophet ﷺ overcame tribal boundaries and announced that when one Muslim provided *jiwar*, all other Muslims would have to uphold it.[^11] An arguable conclusion from his pronouncement is that if any Muslim takes in refugees, Muslims in general would have to ensure those refugees’ protection. Allah says, “And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah. Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know” (Qur’an 9: 6). The word used, *istajar*, means to seek *jiwar*. Even under threat of conflict, Muslims were obligated by God to provide *jiwar* to those seeking it. Shoukri notes that commentators disagreed about how long *jiwar* was to be given according to the verse but the fact remains that it was to be given.[^12] He highlights the idea of *aman*, safe-keeping, embedded in the verse, and also discusses the *dhimmi* category, a protected subject-status, as ways to accommodate non-Muslim refugees in historical Islamic state structures. In light of this, in theory, the Islamic tradition is quite favorable to taking in and protecting refugees. In practice, the earliest Muslims both helped refugees and were themselves refugees. Conditions in Mecca were difficult—Bilal (RA) had been tortured by being dragged on the hot sand, and persecution was rampant. As the poet Warsan Shire would say, home was the mouth of a shark.[^13] A group of Muslims migrated to Abyssinia so they could practice their religion freely and later nearly the whole community made the *hijrah* to Medina. The Medinans agreed to accept the Prophet ﷺ and his community, and most of them became Muslim themselves. Muslims took in [Muslim refugees](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/omar-suleiman/hadith-31-islamic-ethics-regarding-asylum-refugees-and-migration/). There was nothing shameful or weak in the Muslims leaving Mecca. And there was beauty and an example for all humankind in their reception in Medina. Ibn Hisham writes in his *Seerah* that Ibn Ishaq, the first biographer of the Prophet ﷺ wrote, “The Prophet established mutual brotherhood between the companions from the *Muhajireen* (the Migrants) and the *Ansar* (the Helpers, the Medinan locals). According to what has reached me, and I seek refuge from attributing to him words he did not say, he said, ‘Be brothers in Allah, pair by pair.’”[^14] The companions then proceeded to pair up and the *Ansar* treated their *Muhajir* counterparts like actual family. As Allah says in the Qur’an: > *And \[also for\] those who were settled in Medina and \[adopted\] the faith before them. They love those who emigrated to them and find not any want in their breasts of what the emigrants were given but give \[them\] preference over themselves, even though they are in privation. And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul - it is those who will be the successful.* (Qur’an 59:9) The Prophet ﷺ exhorted his followers to take care of the most vulnerable and himself provided protection for someone who had acted against the Muslim community. In Prophetic times, refugees were welcomed with open arms and became integral parts of society; together, in fact, the locals and the refugees of Medina changed the world, and with the will of Allah are responsible for Islam’s continued presence. --- ## When the Crusaders Took Jerusalem In his chronicle, *The Complete History*, the 13th-century historian Ibn Athir writes about the fall of Jerusalem and the fate of survivors: > *They departed at night for Ascalon where they remained… In Ramadan men came to Baghdad from Syria seeking assistance, accompanied by the Qadi Abu Sa’d al-Harawi. They recounted in the court a narrative which brought tears to the eye and pained the heart. They demonstrated in the mosque on Friday and cried out for help, weeping and reducing others to tears. A tale was told of the killing of men, the enslavement of women and children and the plundering of property that had fallen upon the Muslims in that revered august place...The rulers were divided… and so the Franks conquered the land.*[^15] The lack of military support for the victims of the First Crusade is a historical blight on the collective conscience of the *ummah*, but Muslims did work to help refugees, just as they eventually helped reclaim their lands. The Qadi Abu Sa’d al-Harawi, though not a refugee himself, took it upon himself to find them support. He went so far as to challenge the caliph’s court himself.[^16] As Ibn Athir suggests and Hadia Dajani-Shakeel notes, refugees in the immediate aftermath of the First Crusade came to Ascalon and Tyre.[^17] Both cities fell to the Crusaders in the mid-12th century at which point refugees migrated to the environs of Damascus and deeper into Egypt. Despite the Fatimid government’s chaotic state, they offered aid to the refugees in Ascalon. The Palestinian refugees participated in society and were socially mobile without restriction; al-Qadi al-Fadl al-Asqalani became a minister under the Fatimids and eventually the Grand Vizier under the Ayyubids. Refugees and their descendants became noted scholars, including the grammarian al-Maqdisi (d. 1186) and the expert on Qur’anic recitations Ibn Ali al-Kinani al-Maqdisi (d. 1238). They also aided in the defense of Egypt against the Crusaders. Many refugees after the fall of Tyre resettled in the Salihiyya neighborhood of Damascus.[^18] The neighborhood was established by the Palestinian Qudama family. They had initially left the Crusader yoke for fear that they would not be able to practice their religion properly. Their scholarly family settled by the Salih Mosque in Damascus but quickly entered into competition with local *ulema*. The ruler of the city, Nur ad-Din Zangi, ruled in favor of the Qudama family against the local *ulema* when the local *ulema* wanted them gone, and gave them the endowment of the *masjid*. They eventually moved further away but named their new neighborhood after the *masjid* where they first settled. In his memoir, the 12th-century nonagenarian Usamah ibn Munqidh explains that when his home city of Shaizar was taken over by the crusaders, he was welcomed in Damascus.[^19] Due to political ploys many years later, he had to leave, but the man who sponsored him in the city remarked on the great friendship between them—one a refugee formerly in a position of authority, the other a powerful local. He said to Usamah: > *By Allah, if one half of the people were on my side, I would risk hurling them against the other half; even if a third were on my side, I would risk hurling them against the other two-thirds rather than risk parting with thee! But as it is, all the people have coalesced against me, and I have become powerless. But wherever thou mayest be, the friendship between us shall ever remain at its best.*[^20] In the aftermath of the First and Second Crusades, Muslims helped Muslim refugees and likely Nestorian Christians and Jews as well, since they too faced oppression at the hands of the crusaders. Individuals advocated on their behalf even when governments didn’t provide military support, as in the case of al-Harawi, locals provided sponsorships, and governments like that of Nur ad-Din Zangi did eventually provide humanitarian aid and justice, across ethnic and sectarian divides. In the following decades, refugees contributed significantly to the intellectual and political life of their new homes. --- ## In the Face of the Reconquista In his 1523 CE chronicle, the Rabbi Elia Capsali writes that in the aftermath of the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain: > *(the Lord) let us find mercy with Sultan Bayezid, the king of Turkey—so that he received the Jews with friendship and issued ‘a proclamation throughout his realm by word of mouth and in writing as follows’ (Ezra 1:1): ‘Whosoever wishes to dwell in My kingdom and My realm may gladly come and shall not delay.’*[^21] Whether or not Sultan Bayezid II actually directly invited the Jewish refugees to Spain as Capsali says, and whether or not he actually said, “Ferdinand,” the king of Spain, “is said to be a well-advised advised prince, but he impoverishes his kingdom and enriches mine,” the Ottomans welcomed Jewish refugees with open arms.[^22] Jews were resettled primarily in port cities and especially in Salonika. The refugees quickly came to outnumber the native Jews in these population centers. They joined local synagogues and faced taxes from the older Jewish communities (in Salonika for example) but soon established their own spaces.[^23] They improved the Ottomans’ participation in international trade, developed financial services, contributed to medical and other technical knowledge, and were active in the textile industry.[^24] Under the *dhimmi* system, their synagogues were protected, they exhibited a degree of self-governance and autonomy, and the Sultan himself intervened against anti-semitic blood libel made by locals. While the Ottomans did not militarily intervene to help the Andalusian Muslims as they requested, they were likewise welcomed into Ottoman lands in the decades after the fall of Granada.[^25] They arrived alongside the Jews to Salonika according to Kiel.[^26] Temimi brings attention to an Ottoman imperial edict sent to Tunis in 1613 which reads, “We have permitted them to settle near to Adana, Azir, Sis, Tarsus, and Kars,” all areas in the southeastern part of modern Turkey.[^27] Harvey notes that in Ottoman Tunisia, refugees participated extensively in the textile trade and agricultural developments, and were welcomed with tax breaks and the hospitality of earlier Morisco migrants.[^28] While locals did sometimes grow resentful of their treatment, and they faced occasional exploitation, they mostly remained, received statements of support from the Ottoman government, and assimilated into the local populace; Zbiss, a common Tunisian surname today, is, in fact, the Spanish Lopez. The Ottoman Empire had an increasingly high degree of centralization and bureaucratization, both features of modern states. It was nevertheless more open to migration across its fluid borders and in this case dutifully worked to welcome the marginalized, both Muslim and non-Muslim. When locals were unwelcoming, the government stood up for the refugees who in turn improved conditions in the empire and attained their own success. --- ## World War II Albania In his book, *Besa: Muslims who Saved Jews in World War II*, the photographer Norman H. Gershman documents the heroism and hospitality of Albanians towards Jews threatened by fascist persecution. He finds their actions rooted in Besa, an Albanian concept of honor and morality tied deeply to Islamic notions of compassion and mercy.[^29] Lime Balla, one of the subjects of his photography, says: > *In 1943, at the time of Ramadan, seventeen people came to our village of Shengjergji from Tirana. They were all escaping from the Germans… My family took in three brothers by the name of Lazar. We were poor—we didn’t even have a dining table—but we never allowed them to pay for the food and shelter. I went in to the forest to chop wood and haul water. We grew vegetables in our garden so we all had plenty to eat. The Jews were sheltered in our village for fifteen months. We dressed them all as farmers, like us. Even the local police knew that the villagers were sheltering Jews. I remember they spoke many different languages… All of our villagers were Muslims. We were sheltering God’s children under our Besa.*[^30] The story is not unique. Elsewhere in the work, Baba Haxhi Reshat Bardhi, a leader of the Bektashi order cites a secret edict given by Prime Minister Farsheri, a Bektashi Muslim, during the war: “All Jewish children will sleep with your children, all will eat the same food, all will live as one family.”[^31] Leka I, the son of King Zog of Albania, Europe’s only Muslim king, says that his father issued 400 passports to Jews in Vienna. Elida Bicaku’s village sheltered Jews for 2.5 years. Edip Pilku’s mother faced down the Gestapo on behalf of the Jews she was housing and more. These stories demonstrate an openness, a sense that being Muslim means taking others in and caring for them, seeing the presence of God in all of humanity. Their actions follow in the tradition of the *Muhajireen* and *Ansar* pairing off, treating one another like family. In the 1930 Albanian census, 204 Jews were counted.[^32] By the end of the war in 1945, 1,800 lived in Albania, including refugees from Vienna, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. Hundreds, if not thousands, more used it as a transit point to escape the Nazis. Over the course of the war, the Albanian government repeatedly refused to give Germans lists of the Jews in the country and resisted Italian orders to repatriate Jews to homelands where they would be slaughtered. As Harvey Sarner writes in the title of his 1997 book, “one hundred percent of Jews in Albania \[were\] rescued from \[the\] Holocaust.”[^33],[^34] In the age of the nation-state, the Albanians used their borders to protect refugees rather than keep them out. They defended refugees of a different faith, who typically spoke languages different from their own, even in the face of international pressure. Both the government and the locals served the refugees, with principles, not realpolitik, guiding their actions. --- ## Conclusion The cases surveyed here show Muslims embracing refugees, making borders fluid, and not letting ethnic or faith differences preclude a welcome. In the majority of these cases, the potential economic contribution of refugees was not a critical consideration in settling them, but refugees clearly benefited all of these societies. The actions of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions more than 1,400 years ago were echoed in the actions of Albanians in just the past century. Millions of Syrian, Somali, Rohingya, Palestinian and other refugees are struggling to survive in Turkey, Lebanon, Bangladesh, the United States and elsewhere. Muslims can and should go above and beyond in helping all who flee their home as the Prophet ﷺ and these various predecessors once did. We have done so before and we must do so again. *Thanks to Justin Parrott and Hassam Munir for their feedback and recommendations and Nameera Akhtar for her edits.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 7:200, 23:97; *Sahih al-Bukhari* 6371; *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* 3604; *Sunan Abi Dawud* 1552. [^2]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* 4941. [^3]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. *Iʻlām al-Muwaqqiʻīn ’an Rabb al-’ Ālamīn*. Edited by Muḥammad ‘Abd al-Salām Ibrāhīm. (Bayrut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʻIlmiyah, 1991), 1:150. [^4]: UNHCR, *Global Trends-Forced Displacement in 2016*, (UNHCR: Geneva, Switzerland, 2016), 2. [^5]: "3 Real Stories from Refugees." World Economic Forum. Accessed July 30, 2018.[https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/3-real-stories-from-refugees/](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/3-real-stories-from-refugees/). [^6]: Arnold, Katie. "Tales of Horror from Myanmar: "They Burned My Daughter Alive." CNN. Accessed July 30, 2018. [http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/09/world/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-stories/](http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/09/world/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-stories/). [^7]: "What Is a Refugee? Definition and Meaning | USA for UNHCR." Refugee Crisis in Yemen: Aid, Statistics and News | USA for UNHCR. Accessed June 26, 2018. [https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/](https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/). [^8]: UNHCR, *Global Trends*, 14-15. [^9]: Shoukri, Arafat Madi, *Refugee Status in Islam: Concepts of Protection in Islamic Tradition and International Law*, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 3-6, 31, 43. [^10]: *Sunan Abī Dāwūd* 4358. [^11]: *Sunan an-Nasa'i* 4735; *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* 1579. [^12]: See Shoukri, *Refugee Status*, 45-66. [^13]: Shire, Warsan. "Home." PoemHunter.com. March 02, 2016. Accessed July 30, 2018.[https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/home-433/comments](https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/home-433/comments)/. [^14]: Translated by Abd al-Salam M. Harun. Ibn Hishām, ʻAbd al-Malik, 'Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, and Inas Amin Farid. *Sirat Ibn Hisham: Biography of the Prophet*, (Cairo: al-Falah Foundation, 2000), 112. [^15]: Translated by Ibn al-Athīr, ʻIzz al-Dīn, and D. S. Richards. *The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from al-Kāmil fīʼl-taʼrīkh*. 2010, year 492. [^16]: Maalouf, Amin., and Rothschild, Jon, *The Crusades through Arab Eyes*. 1st American ed.,(New York: Schocken Books, 1985), 11-13. [^17]: Ibid., year 492.  “William of Tyre indicates that the Egyptian government used to pay a stipend to every individual in the city (Ascalon).” Dajani‐Shakeel, Hadia. "Displacement of the Palestinians During the Crusades \*." *Muslim World* 68, no. 3 (1978):158-161, 167-168, 172-174. [^18]: Miura, Tōru, *Dynamism in the Urban Society of Damascus: The Ṣāliḥiyya Quarter from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Centuries*. Islamic Area Studies (Brill); v. 2. (Boston: Leiden: Brill, 2015), 55-58. [^19]: Translated by Philip K. Hitti in Usāmah ibn Munqidh, and Philip Khuri Hitti. *An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh*; Translated from the Original Manuscript by Philip K. Hitti,(New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 26-28. [^20]: Ibid., 28. [^21]: Translated by Martin Jacobs. Jacobs, Martin, "Exposed to All the Currents of the Mediterranean--A Sixteenth-Century Venetian Rabbi on Muslim History." Association for Jewish Studies. *AJS Review* 29, no. 1 (2005): 45. [^22]: Ibid, 45; Meddeb, Meddeb, Abdelwahab, Todd, Jane Marie, Smith, Michael B., and Stora, Benjamin, *A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the Origins to the Present Day*, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 178-185. [^23]: Shaw, Stanford J., *The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic*, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991), 52. [^24]: Meddeb et. al., *A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations*, 187. [^25]: Finkel, Caroline, *Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923*, (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 216-217. [^26]: Kiel, W., "Notes on the History of Some Turkish Monuments in Thessaloniki and Their Founders (with 8 Plates)," *Balkan Studies* 11, no. 1 (1970): 142. [^27]: Quoted in Harvey, L. P., *Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614*, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 358. [^28]: Ibid., 357-361. [^29]: Bailey, Louis, Bethan Harries, Saima Latif, and Humaira Saeed. "Besa: Muslims Saved Jews in World War II." *Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World 2*, no. 2 (2011): 86. [^30]: Gershman, Norman H., *Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II*. 1st ed.,(Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2008), 2. [^31]: Ibid., 4-10. [^32]: Straub, David. “Jews in Albania,” in *Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture*, Edited by Ehrlich, and Ehrlich, (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2009), 943-944. [^33]: Sarner, Harvey. *Rescue in Albania: One Hundred Percent of Jews in Albania Rescued from the Holocaust*. 1st ed. Cathedral City, Calif.: Brunswick Press, 1997. [^34]: Muslims protected Jews against the Nazis elsewhere as well. In Paris, Imam Benghabrit “provided refuge and certificates of Muslim identity to a small number of Jews to allow them to evade arrest and deportation.”Sciolino, Elaine. "How a Paris Mosque Sheltered Jews in the Holocaust." *The New York Times*. October 03, 2011. Accessed August 01, 2018. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/movies/how-a-paris-mosque-sheltered-jews-in-the-holocaust.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/movies/how-a-paris-mosque-sheltered-jews-in-the-holocaust.html). ## Summary Throughout the history of Islam, the Muslim community has stood as a refuge for those fleeing oppression, opening its doors and its hearts to the displaced. This truth is rooted in the very language of our faith. When a believer begins reciting the Qur’an, he utters the *isti‘ādha*: "A‘ūdhu billāhi min ash-Shayṭān ir-rajīm" — "I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed." This same phrase, "A‘ūdhu billāh," recurs again and again in the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet ﷺ, teaching us to seek refuge in Allah from oppressors, from the evil within ourselves, from created things, and from miserliness, cowardice, and fear. In this sense, all human beings are refugees before their Lord, created beings in peril who depend upon the protection of the Most High. It follows naturally that whoever grants refuge to those on earth may attain the refuge of Allah. As the first hadith taught in scholarly circles for centuries declares, "Show mercy to those on earth and He who is in the heavens will show mercy to you." And as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah wrote, "The recompense for deeds is like for like." The scale of human displacement in our time is unprecedented: as of 2016, at least 65.6 million people were in need of refuge, of whom 40.3 million were internally displaced, 22.5 million were classified as refugees, and 2.8 million had sought asylum. Behind these figures are real lives, such as Um Nawwaf, whose daughter suffered a head injury from a rock while fleeing bombshells and began experiencing seizures, prompting the family to flee to Jordan where her thirteen-year-old son left school to work. There is Rehana Begum, whose village in Myanmar was burned by the military; her brother was killed and her wounded husband barely escaped as they walked four days and rowed a borrowed boat under gunfire to Bangladesh. Notably, the majority of the world's refugees are likely Muslim, and it is Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan that have taken in the greatest numbers. In both theory and earliest practice, the Islamic tradition proves remarkably favorable toward sheltering the displaced. As Arafat Shoukri examines in his work *Refugee Status in Islam*, the concept of *jiwār* — granting protection and, at times, asylum to one who seeks it — existed even in the pre-Islamic period, where it defended people against blood feuds. The Muslims continued this practice: the Prophet's ﷺ daughter Zaynab granted *jiwār* to her war-captive husband, the Prophet ﷺ himself granted it to a man who had betrayed him, and Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) received *jiwār* when persecuted in Makkah. Whereas among the pre-Islamic Arabs a tribe was bound to enforce the *jiwār* granted by one of its members, the Prophet ﷺ transcended tribal boundaries by declaring that when a single Muslim grants *jiwār*, all Muslims must uphold it. An arguable conclusion drawn from this is that if any Muslim takes in refugees, Muslims in general must ensure their protection. Allah says: "And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah. Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know" (Qur'an 9:6). The word *istajār* here means to seek *jiwār*, and thus even under threat of conflict, Muslims were obligated by Allah to provide protection to the one seeking it. Shoukri notes that commentators disagreed over how long *jiwār* was to be granted according to this verse, yet all agreed that it was to be granted. He also draws attention to the related concept of *amān* (safe-keeping) embedded in the verse and to the *dhimmī* category, a protected subject-status, as means of accommodating non-Muslim refugees within historical Islamic state structures. The earliest Muslims were themselves both givers and recipients of refuge. Conditions in Makkah were severe — Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) was tortured by being dragged across the hot sand — so a group of Muslims migrated to Abyssinia to practice their faith freely, and later nearly the whole community undertook the *hijrah* to Madīnah. Ibn Hishām records in his *Sīrah* from Ibn Isḥāq, the first biographer of the Prophet ﷺ, that "the Prophet established mutual brotherhood between the companions from the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār... he said, 'Be brothers in Allah, pair by pair.'" The Anṣār then treated their Muhājir counterparts as true family, a virtue immortalized in the words of Allah: "And [also for] those who were settled in Madīnah and adopted the faith before them. They love those who emigrated to them and find not any want in their breasts of what the emigrants were given but give them preference over themselves, even though they are in privation" (Qur'an 59:9). This spirit endured through later eras. During the Crusades, though the rulers of the *ummah* failed to provide military support — a historical blight described by the thirteenth-century historian Ibn al-Athīr in *The Complete History*, who recounts how the Qāḍī Abū Sa‘d al-Harawī brought weeping survivors of fallen Jerusalem before the caliph's court in Baghdad — Muslims still labored to aid the displaced. Refugees fleeing to Ascalon and Tyre, as noted by Hadia Dajani-Shakeel, migrated onward to Damascus and Egypt, where even the chaotic Fāṭimid government offered them aid and where they rose without restriction: al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil al-Asqalānī became Grand Vizier under the Ayyūbids, and refugee descendants became noted scholars such as the grammarian al-Maqdisī (d. 1186) and the expert in Qur'anic recitations Ibn ‘Alī al-Kinānī al-Maqdisī (d. 1238). In Damascus, the Palestinian Qudāma family established the Ṣāliḥiyya neighborhood, and the ruler Nūr ad-Dīn Zangī ruled in their favor against the local *‘ulamā’*. Usāmah ibn Munqidh recorded in his memoir the deep friendship he found in Damascus after his home city of Shaizar fell. After the fall of al-Andalus, the Ottomans welcomed both Jews and Muslims fleeing the Reconquista and Inquisition. The Rabbi Elia Capsali wrote in 1523 that Sultan Bāyezīd II received the Jews with friendship, and — whether or not the reported proclamations are precisely accurate — the refugees settled especially in Salonika, prospered in trade, finance, medicine, and textiles, and were protected under the *dhimmī* system, with the Sultan himself intervening against anti-Semitic blood libel. Andalusian Muslims were likewise welcomed, as attested by an Ottoman edict of 1613 cited by Temimi permitting settlement near Adana, Sīs, Tarsus, and elsewhere, and, as Harvey notes, in Ottoman Tunisia they received tax breaks and assimilated so thoroughly that the common surname Zbīss is in fact the Spanish "Lopez." In the darkness of World War II, the Muslims of Albania rescued Jews from fascist persecution, an act rooted in *Besa*, the Albanian code of honor tied deeply to Islamic compassion. As documented by Norman Gershman in *Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II*, Lime Balla recounted sheltering three brothers of the Lazar family for fifteen months during Ramadan of 1943, saying, "We were sheltering God's children under our Besa." Baba Haxhi Reshat Bardhi cited a secret wartime edict from Prime Minister Frashëri: "All Jewish children will sleep with your children... all will live as one family." Whereas 204 Jews were counted in the 1930 census, 1,800 lived in Albania by 1945, and as Harvey Sarner's title declares, "one hundred percent of Jews in Albania [were] rescued from the Holocaust." The Albanian government repeatedly refused German demands for lists of Jews and resisted Italian orders of repatriation, guided by principle rather than *realpolitik*. These cases together show Muslims embracing refugees, treating borders as fluid, and refusing to let differences of ethnicity or faith prevent a welcome. In most instances the economic contribution of refugees was not the deciding factor in receiving them, yet refugees clearly benefited every society that took them in. The actions of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions more than 1,400 years ago were echoed by the Albanians within the past century. Today millions of Syrian, Somali, Rohingya, Palestinian, and other refugees struggle to survive in Turkey, Lebanon, Bangladesh, the United States, and elsewhere. Muslims can and should go above and beyond in aiding all who flee their homes, as the Prophet ﷺ and these predecessors once did — for we have done so before, and we must do so again. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/human-origins-part-2-evolution-and-the-failures-of-naturalism # Human Origins - Part 2: Evolution and the Failures of Naturalism **Author:** Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Evolution, Nature & Science **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 31, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 **Update (Sept. 3, 2021): The original publication has been split into two parts. You can find the first part,** Human Origins - Part 1: Theological Conclusions and Empirical Limitations **[here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/human-origins-part-1-theological-conclusions-and-empirical-limitations).** --- ## Abstract The concept of human evolution and whether it is compatible or irreconcilable with religious doctrine has been frequently debated, but all too often the popular discourse fails to provide a sound academic study of the philosophy of science and matters of theology and scriptural exegesis. This article explores how the explanatory scope of Islamic theology far exceeds that of philosophical naturalism in accounting for the empirically evident distinctions of humankind and its origins. --- ## Introduction Human beings share many resemblances with other species on this planet; “There is no animal that walks upon the earth nor a bird that flies with its two wings except that they form communities like you” (Qur’an 6:38). Yet there are also tremendous differences which afford human beings the unique capacity for civilization; “surely We have honored the children of Adam” (Qur’an 17:70). Any rational account of human origins must be able to satisfactorily explain not just the similarities but also the differences. While an ample amount has been written with respect to religious views on evolution, what is missing is a critical evaluation of the failures of philosophical naturalism in accounting for human origins. In a preceding article, it was demonstrated that a sound understanding of Islamic theology and the philosophy of science removes any presumption of a conflict between empirical knowledge and theological conclusions. However, the mere absence of a contradiction is not the same as showing the conclusions of science and faith to be harmonious. The present article takes the discussion further to demonstrate that empirical knowledge about uniquely human capacities can only be properly rationalized according to a metaphysical foundation that grants human uniqueness, something that philosophical naturalism fails to do. Philosophical naturalism entails a rejection of anything beyond the realm of physical experimentation and observation, and consequently the human being is examined as a biological organism entirely reducible to Earthly physicochemical processes, fundamentally no different from other animal species. On the other hand, the philosophical outlook that emerges from a theology of Divine revelation and special creation necessarily accords humanity a unique position. The competition between these viewpoints can be seen historically in the wake of the European enlightenment: > The contemporary tendency to deny that the human mind differs categorically from the minds of other animals is not without precedent: it is arguably a legacy of British Empiricism. Thus, although Locke defines Reason as “that Faculty whereby Man is supposed to be distinguished from beasts,” he also says of beasts that “if they have any Ideas at all, and are not bare Machins (as some would have them) we cannot deny them to have some Reason.”[^1] In a similar vein, Hume remarks that “no truth appears to me more evident, than that beasts are endow’d with thought and reason as well as men.”[^2] We differ from brutes, according to these philosophers, not in the fundamental nature of our mental states, but merely in the complexity of the contents our minds can entertain and the sophistication of the operations we can perform on such contents. > > There is another tradition in modern philosophy, however, which adheres more closely to the Aristotelian position described above. The great figure in this tradition is Kant, who follows Aristotle in holding that, although brutes are capable of sensation and appetite, they are not capable of thought and judgment.[^3] The significance of these two competing philosophical stances extends beyond mere intellectual curiosity or edification. It actually has the potential to sway the course of scientific investigation. That may seem surprising to readers accustomed to view science as a neutral enterprise entirely independent of philosophy, however where we as scientists search for answers is heavily influenced by the connections we already presume to be of significance. A tremendous amount of research concentrates on understanding human psychology, including conditions like depression and anxiety, through animal models using mice, rats, and monkeys, for instance, justified in part because of expected similarities with humans on the basis of biological evolution.[^4] And undoubtedly, without such animal trials a tremendous amount of valuable and beneficial scientific investigation could not take place. At the same time, it is undoubtedly also the case that no matter how many studies are conducted on zebrafish, there will remain many, many important unanswered questions about autism or schizophrenia in humans.[^5] For this reason, researchers are right to point out that failure to consider the disparities between humans and other species can pose a significant obstacle to research and lead to models with little predictive value for translation to humans.[^6] Discussions over the topic of evolution and Islam tend to place all the scrutiny on religious interpretations, attempting to delineate the maximum limit to which interpretations of scripture can be taken to accommodate the conclusions of biological evolution. While there is merit to improving our understanding of what theology does and does not entail, this approach is unbalanced because it neglects to analyze the coherence and integrity of the philosophical underpinnings of evolutionist arguments about human origins. The available empirical knowledge is entirely assumed to be on the side of evolutionists, while the religious believer’s rationality stands on trial and under cross-examination. The fact of the matter however is that the advances of scientific research have turned the tables. As scientists, the more we learn about the distinctive features of human nature, the more we recognize a massive gulf that separates humanity from the rest of biological species on this planet. Failure to acknowledge the differences not only leads to an impoverished understanding of human origins but also has the potential to constrain and mislead scientific research. When carefully considered, the available empirical data requires a more robust ontological narrative of human origins than that offered by naturalism. --- ## The great divergence—understanding the fundamentals of human nature > *The world of academe is currently in the grip of a strange and worrying epidemic of biologism, which has also captured the popular imagination. Scientists, philosophers, and quite a few toilers in the humanities believe—and would have the rest of us believe—that nothing fundamental separates humanity from animality.*[^7] By virtue of its nature, evolutionary biology adopts a comparative approach which focuses on biological similarities between species.[^8] But this approach on its own is incomplete; an equally important empirical project is to understand what makes human beings unique and to account for the vast gulf that separates humans from the other species with whom they share the planet. Human beings are the only creatures to have developed full-blown civilization, government, law, education, culture, language, philosophy, art, entertainment, science, and so forth. And these achievements arise from some uniquely human capacities related to our consciousness (including meta-cognition and sustained self-awareness), language, moral values, and other qualities that have characterized humankind even in hunter-gatherer societies long before the modern era. All correlates with animal species in this regard have been found to be so rudimentary and primitive, so categorically inferior, as to preclude any reasonable comparison with human abilities. As British author John Hands notes: > *The claim that a single chimpanzee using a stone to crack open a nut is the same kind of thing as a large international team of scientists cooperating to invent and construct the Large Hadron Collider in order to discover how fundamental particles interact is, I suggest, somewhat less than valid.*[^9] Denying this empirically obvious difference impedes scientific progress and yet has unfortunately become commonplace among even the most well-intentioned writers, including “a large majority of primatologists, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists.”[^10] As neurologist and philosopher Raymond Tallis writes: > *Some writers, as we have seen, try to bridge the gap between us and apes by arguing that it is not as big as it looks and that it is ultimately not real. Others, however, are aware that the gap is a yawning gulf and seek an explanation that is proportionate to the scale of what has to be explained.*[^11] This denial of the obvious is part of what Tallis critiques as the over-extension or ‘inflammation’ of Darwinian thought in accounting for humanity, for which he coins the term ‘Darwinitis.’ The attempt to reduce everything to biological processes, to claim that human beings are nothing more than bags of chemical reactions, the amalgamation of blind physical forces (which Richard Dawkins dubbed ‘the blind watchmaker’), leaves unanswered many of the fundamental facts about the human condition, and how we have come to be sentient beings able to rise above such physical processes to contemplate the reality of our condition, and the intricacies of those very laws of physics.[^12] > *Darwinism, therefore, leaves something unaccounted for: the emergence of people like you and me who are indubitably sighted watchmakers.* > > ...*something rather important about us is left unexplained by evolutionary theory. We are not mindless and yet seem to do things according to purposes that we entertain in a universe that brought us into being by mindless processes that are entirely without purpose. To deny this is not to subscribe to Darwinism but to embrace Darwinitis.*[^13] Why are humans special? Why is there such a massive gulf between humans and non-human primates? From an evolutionary perspective, the question entails accounting for why the ecological niches or the magnitude of selection pressures were so divergent between the species, and tremendously more significant in advancing the capacities of humankind. This has been the subject of considerable debate among evolutionists and opinions on the matter remain largely conjectural. Any potential empirical answer to this question (identifying a possible discrepancy in the evolutionary opportunities or environments of humans versus non-human primates) will always seem inadequate without an accompanying ontological foundation to justify the presence of said radical discrepancy in the first place. The Qur’an mentions, “Verily, We have created the human being in the best of molds” (95:4). Ibn Atiyyah (d. 541 H) notes that this verse is inclusive of several unique characteristics ranging from physical form (*surah*), senses (*hawas*), and having one’s intellect (ʿ*aql*) and perception (*idrak*) adorned with discernment (*tamyiz*).[^14] What follows is an examination of the unique dimensions of human nature, and an exploration of the scriptural and scientific discussions that pertain to them. ### First: Language The gift of language is one of the most fascinating features of the human species. In the Qur’an, it is mentioned immediately after the creation of the human being, as a Divinely endowed faculty: “The Most-Merciful; He taught the Qur’an, created the human being, and taught him language (*bayan*)” (55:1-4). By stringing together a few sounds or written symbols, a human being can produce an infinite range of meanings. Despite being a massively complex system of meaning with hundreds of grammatical rules, human toddlers are able to acquire such knowledge naturally with astoundingly minimal instruction—an observation which led to the description of an innate faculty called the ‘language acquisition device’ (one of Noam Chomsky’s pioneering conceptual innovations in the field of linguistics).[^15] Many of these rules are actually quite complex and difficult to ascertain even with considerable study, and yet native speakers can identify them instinctively.[^16] The human mind’s preparedness to learn language in distinction to all other animals is now commonly acknowledged, but was articulated in the classical work of Ibn al-Qayyim who argued that God is the One “who prepared the mind of the human by making it amenable to learning language in contrast to all other animals (*man hayya’ dhihnahu li qubul hadha ta’lim duna sa’iri’l-hayawanat*).”[^17] Many people make the error of considering language to be a system of communication that is simply a few orders of magnitude superior to animal communication. However, the communicative aspect of language is peripheral to its primary function as a system of thought, serving to analyze and clarify concepts, construct ideas, explicate and pose questions, and elaborate meaning.[^18] Linguistic conceptions are intrinsic to our mental activity, and our internal train of thought cannot dispense with words (e.g., try to think a thought without any words). The Qur’an identifies this as the fundamental character of language and also distinguishes between the language faculty itself and individual languages.[^19] The Qur’an uses the word *bayan* (which means clarification of meaning) for the human language faculty (55:5), *lisan* (which means tongue) for various human languages (30:22),[^20] and *mantiq* (which means utterances) for animal communication (27:16).[^21] How vastly different are animal screeches, roars, croaks and grunts, from the human language faculty which permits conceptualization of the laws of physics, or philosophizing about the nature of our existence? As American linguist and philosopher Ray Jackendoff notes, animal communication is at best analogous to human gestures and body language, as animals “*typically have at most a few dozen distinct calls, and they are used only to communicate immediate issues such as food, danger, threat, or reconciliation*.”[^22] Even attempts at teaching human language to primates through intensive instruction and training have demonstrated only a modest ability to acquire limited communicative expression, the extent of which is surpassed by a three-year old child.[^23] Animal species naturally cannot go beyond a limited predefined set of available messages, while humans can express complex messages that have never been previously expressed in human history.[^24] The language faculty is thought to have emerged in evolutionary history between 70, 000 to 100, 000 years ago, but identifying a mechanism has been a tremendous stumbling block. One approach has been to reduce language to just one fundamental capacity, namely that of recursion (basically words referring back to other words), in order to explain how it could have suddenly emerged through a single genetic alteration in an individual.[^25] Biological anthropologist Terrence Deacon has argued that this appeal to such a solitary “lucky genetic accident” is tantamount to an argument for miracles.[^26] Moreover, it has been argued that this neglects other relevant unique human linguistic capacities (such as phonology, morphology, or the massive lexicon humans acquire)[^27] and that some form of incremental process must have taken place—although this of course reduces language to its communicative functions while its central function of elaborating thought becomes a mere incidental bonus. Ongoing empirical investigation and debate on this subject is healthy and necessary while also acknowledging that part of this question will forever lie beyond our epistemic horizons, since the object of study is the emergence of a capacity which existed in the minds of humans hundreds of thousands of years ago and has left little in the way of tangible artifact or fossil.[^28] The fact that we humans have come to possess this extraordinary gift of language, this incredible capacity for limitless expression and understanding, cries out for explanation. Language is an articulation of meaning, and meaning is immaterial and metaphysical, reaching beyond the confines of our physical realm to latch on to universal truths and conceptualize reality. Why on earth would a biological organism have the capacity to conceptualize cosmic truths? Islamic theology uniquely provides the ontological grounding and metaphysical context within which to situate this capacity. In the first story mentioned in the Qur’an, the angels ask God why place human beings on earth when they will inevitably spread bloodshed and corruption while the angels glorify God. Human beings would not be directly in God’s presence like the angels, and hence subject to an epistemic distance between them and God (they do not witness God directly), and prone to worldly temptations. The response later in the passage is seen when God favors Adam over the angels with an extraordinary gift: “And He taught Adam the names of all things” (Qur’an 2:31). Exegetes have pondered this phrase and interpreted it in various ways, but one understanding that encompasses the others has been connecting this with humankind’s unique capacity for language,[^29] furnishing a capacity for conceptualization and abstraction that stretches the epistemic horizons of the most knowledgeable human beings beyond even those of the angels.[^30] Thus, despite being on Earth, human beings are able to understand and appreciate the Divine names and attributes—that God is Merciful and loves those who show mercy, they understand the abstract concepts of good and bad, truth and falsehood, and so on.[^31] This all emerges from the natural capacity for conceptualization rooted in the primordial nature of human beings.[^32] Language is thus not some unintended “lucky accident,” but a critical part of the spiritual apparatus that defines human purpose in life. ### Second: Consciousness One of the most obvious ways in which human beings transcend animal capacities is with regards to their mental activities and the content of their thoughts. Ibn al-Qayyim points out that while animals have basic discernment (*tamyiz*) and perception (*idrak*), they are devoid of the uniquely human features of mind (*dhihn*) and intellect (*ʿaql*).[^33] Unlike the rudimentary awareness of elephants and dolphins recognizing themselves in the mirror, humans have a self-awareness that is *sustained* and *productive*, driving the course of their mental activity and the content of their internal train of thoughts.[^34] We have the capacity for metacognition, that is, thinking about thinking, contemplating the content of our own thoughts. And we can direct our contemplative activity to external reality to comprehend the intricacies of the universe we inhabit. As cosmologist Paul Davies notes, “Other animals observe the same natural phenomena as we do, but alone among the creatures on this planet, *Homo sapiens* can also *explain* them.”[^35] Why should the laws of nature have bequeathed humans with minds that are capable of comprehending those very laws? In a universe comprised of nothing more than collections of particles, why would one expect the emergence of conscious minds capable of pondering their own existence? As often asked, how can something as immaterial as the mind emerge from something as mindless as matter? Naturalism fails to provide a sufficient account in this regard and a more solid ontological foundation is needed.[^36] Another problem consciousness poses for naturalism is the breakdown of its normal causal explanatory apparatus. How do we account for the fact that one thought caused the next thought in my 'train of thought' while simultaneously acknowledging that it was one electrochemical impulse which caused the next electrochemical impulse? This leads to a problem of overdeterminism and causal exclusion.[^37] Humans are fundamentally spiritual beings who possess bodies that constantly change; our cells get replaced, we can transplant our organs, our bodies decompose when we die and are re-created when we are resurrected. But our soul remains the same.[^38] The Qur’an  (17:85) states of the soul, “And they ask you concerning the soul (*ruh*). Say, ‘The soul is from the affairs of my Lord, and you have been given but little knowledge of it.’” The soul is a metaphysical reality that is incorporated in the body, and many of the discussions in Islamic theology on the subject have interesting implications for questions on the nature of consciousness.[^39] In a sense, there is a first-order basic sentience that pervades all existence, which is that of *tasbīh* (glorifying God): “And there is nothing in existence except that it glorifies Him in praise, but you cannot comprehend its manner of glorifying (*tasbīh*) Him” (Qur’an 17:44).[^40] Meanwhile, the second-order consciousness associated with moral accountability and moral choice is something that the Qur’an states was entrusted specifically to human beings: “We presented the Trust (*amanah*) to the Heavens, the Earth, the Mountains, but they refused to bear it, being afraid thereof, but man assumed it. Verily, he has proven unjust and ignorant” (Qur’an 33:72).[^41] Shah Waliullah al-Dehlawi (d. 1176 H) distinguishes between vital life forces common to all living organisms (e.g., *al-ruh al-hawa’i*) and the conscious soul which makes an individual who he or she is (*al-nafs al-natiqa*).[^42] Spirituality raises the human being to elevated states of consciousness, until one “becomes witness to other realities and matters of which one was not conscious before.”[^43] Consciousness is a very difficult subject to pin down. On the one hand, there is the empirical *objective consciousness* which pertains to how the mind responds to stimuli, what information is available to the mind, what occupies the mind’s attention, one’s level of wakefulness, and so on. These are observable to the outsider and can be studied and analyzed by empirical scientific means. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘third-person’ perspective. On the other hand, there is the subjective experience that accompanies thoughts, sensations and feelings, the internal experience of what it is like to see the color red or feel surprise, and so on. This first-person perspective, often termed *phenomenal consciousness*, is beyond our empirical lens.[^44] How and why we have this rich inner experience is the question that philosopher David Chalmers famously described as the ‘hard problem of consciousness.’[^45] There is still perhaps an even deeper abstraction than this, which one could term the *metaphenomenal consciousness*: setting aside the content of sensations, emotions, and thoughts that are projected in the mind, what is the nature of the projection itself?[^46] Consciousness itself is an internal arena which the human being chooses to populate with all manner of thoughts, ideas, beliefs, judgments, emotions, questions, and so forth. This arena can be spiritually purified or polluted: “Successful is one who purifies the soul; ruined is one who pollutes it” (Qur’an 91: 9-10). As Ibn al-Qayyim explains in his work *Wabil al-Sayyib*, it is through the path of spiritual purification that the soul becomes the receptacle for Divine Light (Qur’an 24: 35), thereby altering the nature of its perceptions and elevating the very nature of its consciousness.[^47] From the perspective of evolutionary biology, the presence or absence of an organism’s phenomenal consciousness, or its nature, cannot be determined by an external observer, and thus, it does not lend itself to empirical investigation. It remains a metaphysical question, and it is entirely plausible that the emergence of humankind was associated with a particular distinctive phenomenal consciousness. ### Other differences It is beyond the scope of this paper to elaborate on the other fundamental qualities of humankind that are exclusive to this species. Many more have been hypothesized in the works of Islamic theology,[^48] and their metaphysical implications are worth exploring further (for instance, moral choice, emotional intelligence, the ability to wonder and contemplate, and so forth). Given that the philosophy of science demands parsimony in our explanations, there is a tendency to extrapolate all data from animals and apply them to humans, presuming that all creatures belong to the same historical narrative. But this provides very poor accounts of matters like language, moral reasoning, metacognition and so forth. The empirically evident massive divergence between humankind and other species warrants an explanation that stands on firmer ontological footing than that afforded by naturalistic explanation alone. The idea that humans are special in some non-trivial way has no place within the paradigm of naturalism which countenances only blind physical processes without purpose or intention which somehow seems to result in creatures with tremendous purpose and intention.[^49] --- ## Beyond polemics: Evolutionary science vs. Evolutionist dogma Evolutionary science is an area of tremendous advancement and achievement. Evolutionist dogma, unfortunately, is not. What is the distinction? Evolutionary science includes research and investigation into genetic mechanisms of speciation and population diversity, which have led to exciting developments in biology and ecology. Evolutionist dogma, on the other hand, refers to the zeal to transform evolution into an anti-religious ideology that obviates the need for theistic and metaphysical accounts of beauty, unity, utility, complexity, and humanity. This overly enthusiastic zeal has propelled some evolutionists to present biological evolution as a grand unifying theory in biology, which has the explanatory scope to solve all our problematic causal connections with a simple story tied to reproductive fitness. This thinking however, is unfortunately pseudo-science and its harmful repercussions on empirical investigation are manifold. First, evolutionary science is robbed of its contextual value and denied its unsolved complexities. Biological evolution is not a catch-all theory that has answered everything. In fact, it is not even a single theory. It is a field of ongoing scientific research that encompasses numerous competing theories and contains many critical questions that remain unsolved. Like all fields of investigation, it has several limitations and debates. Secondly, many anti-religious arguments are introduced by evolutionists that are not ‘scientific’ by any means but rather stand on dubious reasoning. These include arguments claiming ‘bad design’ of a particular anatomical structure (such as the retina or the recurrent laryngeal nerve) predicated on unsubstantiated presuppositions about what structural arrangement would be optimal, a present lack of knowledge,[^50] and a hasty dismissal of the potential for further empirical research to identify physiological benefits[^51] or relevant developmental constraints,[^52] as it readily has in the aforementioned cases. Third, we have the overzealous construction of often mutually conflicting evolutionary “just-so” stories about how a particular trait emerged or was selected for which are often based on conceptual misunderstandings regarding the different categories of explanation, mechanism, constraints, and causation.[^53] There is a critical need to solve problematic conceptions of mechanisms, such as conflicting notions of exaptations versus adaptations,[^54] problems with the dominance of methodological adaptationism,[^55] and unscientific explanatory adaptationism.[^56] These paradigms have resulted in the proliferation of “just-so” story-telling, picking a trait, and speculating a creative linkage between its function and survival or reproductive fitness. The problem with so many highly contrived and conjectural explanations is precisely that alternative stories are drawn up so easily, which illustrates that they fail to meet the criterion of *invariance*—a key component of a good scientific explanation. If too many elements in the story can be modified and altered without any impact on its relationship to the data, it fails as a scientific explanation.[^57] Fourthly, the naturalistic presumptions end up dominating the interpretation of empirical data in order to construct a story about human origins that conforms to preconceived notions about progress from ancient primitive species, for instance. The interpretations of what hominin species were like historically becomes incredibly fluid and speculative. This has been witnessed in research concerning ‘neanderthals’: > During the past decades, our image of Homo neanderthalensis has changed dramatically. Initially, Neanderthals were seen as primitive brutes. Increasingly, however, Neanderthals are regarded as basically human. New discoveries and technologies have led to an avalanche of data, and as a result of that it becomes increasingly difcult to pinpoint what the diference between modern humans and Neanderthals really is. \[...\] Recent genetic evidence and archaeological data show that Neanderthals and their modern humans contemporaries were very similar in biological and cultural capacities (Roebroeks and Soressi 2016), and the predominant opinion now appears to be that, yes, Neanderthals were people like us, ‘our equal in humanity’ (Papagianni and Morse 2015: p. 13).[^58] Importantly, competing philosophical attitudes lead to diametrically opposed interpretations of the empirical data. > By way of illustration consider the positions of Zilhão and Wynn et al. The two parties disagree about the cognitive differences between modern humans and Neanderthals: whereas Wynn and colleagues claim that differences in the cognitive abilities of modern humans and Neanderthals were visible to natural selection, Zilhão believes that the two species were indistinguishable. It could be the case that, as Zilhão believes, such a difference of opinion has its roots in a difference of opinion about human progress; it could be that, as Zilhão writes, there exists “a persistent, if subconscious influence in academia of Victorian-age ideas of evolution-as-progress and ancient-as-primitive” (p. 52). On Zilhão’s account, claims that Neanderthals are not quite like us betray an outdated form of hierarchical thinking. On Wynn et al.’s account, claims that Neandertals were indistinguishable are rooted in extreme anti-science versions of contemporary social justice theory. However, whether an archaeologist’s scientific views reflect his or her socio-political views or latent psychological motivations remains to be seen.”[^59] Evidently, if researchers are not cognizant of such biases, their conclusions will become equally suspect. --- ## Conclusion Human beings, endowed with the faculties of reason and sensory perception, are able to accumulate a great amount of knowledge through observation and examination of the natural world. Indeed, the Qur’an draws attention to this, stating, “And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and intellect that perhaps you would be grateful” (Qur’an 16:78). The human faculties of reason (*ʿaql*) and perception (*hiss*) are tremendously powerful, and the Qur’an emphasizes the need for intellectual investigation no less than 750 times.[^60] The natural sciences are based upon this very synthesis of reason and perception into a comprehensive methodology of empirical investigation. “For every true science must have supporting proofs (*barahīn*) that are ultimately rooted in either sense perception (*hiss*) or the dictates of reason (*daroorat al-ʿaql*),” the famous Muslim theologian Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 H) noted.[^61] Far from seeing religion and science as opposing forces, Muslim scholarship testifies to the perfect harmony between empirical knowledge and scriptural knowledge. It has long been falsely presumed that empirical science is the mode of knowledge that belongs to the naturalists. However, in this article we witness how empirical knowledge of human nature reinforces a perspective in consonance with theology and antithetical to the presumptions of naturalism. The distinctions of humankind warrant a solid ontological foundation that philosophical naturalism fails to provide. An integrative approach to studying both scriptural and scientific signs (*ayat*) furnishes precisely such a foundation and yields a deeper appreciation of who we are and to Whom we shall return. > *“And above all with knowledge is One More Knowledgeable.”* (Qur’an 12:76). > > *And Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Essay concerning Human Understanding, IV, XVII, 1 (1975, p. 668) and II, XI, 11 (1975, p. 160), as cited in Boyle, Matthew Brendan (2006) *Kant and the Significance of Self-Consciousness*. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished), 3. [^2]: Treatise of Human Nature, I, III, XVI (1978, p. 176), as cited in Boyle, 4. [^3]: Boyle, 3-4. [^4]: Capitanio, J. (2017, January). Animal studies in psychology. Psychology Student Network. http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2017/01/animal-studies [^5]: Kalueff AV, Stewart AM, Gerlai R. Zebrafish as an emerging model for studying complex brain disorders. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2014 Feb;35(2):63-75; Meshalkina DA, N Kizlyk M, V Kysil E, Collier AD, Echevarria DJ, Abreu MS, Barcellos LJG, Song C, Warnick JE, Kyzar EJ, Kalueff AV. Zebrafish models of autism spectrum disorder. Exp Neurol. 2018 Jan;299(Pt A):207-216. [^6]: Bolker JA. Animal Models in Translational Research: Rosetta Stone or Stumbling Block? Bioessays. 2017 Dec;39(12). doi: 10.1002/bies.201700089. Epub 2017 Oct 20. PMID: 29052843. [^7]: Tallis, Raymond. Rethinking Thinking. *The Wall Street Journal*. Nov 12, 2011. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204618704576642991109496396](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204618704576642991109496396&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694578077000&usg=AOvVaw22kaVsI8oZQn9jbo2nXqc6) [^8]: Even manifest differences must be originally rooted in similarities undergoing incremental variation, as in transformational homology. Rieppel, O. (1994). Homology, topology, and typology: The history of modern debates, in Hall, B.K. (ed.) *Homology: The Hierarchical Basis of Comparative Biology*, (San Diego: Academic Press), p. 88. It has been argued that the Modern Synthesis (MS) Theory, the orthodox paradigm in evolutionary biology, is insufficient in accounting for evolutionary novelties. Refer to Pigliucci, Massimo (2008). What, if anything, is an evolutionary novelty? *Philosophy of Science* 75 (5):887-898. Pigliucci writes: [^9]: Hands, John. *Cosmosapiens: Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe*. (Overlook Books, 2016). pp. 536-537. [^10]: Ibid., p. 532. [^11]: Tallis, Raymond. *Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity*. (Acumen Publishing 2012), p. 214. It should be noted that Tallis prefaces his discussions with numerous disclaimers that he affirms the biological evolution of human beings and is an atheist humanist—the fact that he feels the need to even spell this out demonstrates the unfortunate extent to which the subject has become politicized in the public discourse such that to even raise intelligent questions about the assumptions of the mainstream scientific community is deemed academic heresy. [^12]: Another aspect of the problem [^13]: Tallis, Raymond. *Aping Mankind,*  pp. 212-213. [^14]: See *Tafsir ibn Atiyyah* (Qatar: Ministry of Awqaf 2007), vol. 8, p. 647. [^15]: Chomsky, N. *Aspects of the Theory of Syntax* (MIT Press 1965), p. 47. Like all pioneering observations, this raised criticisms from opponents and responses from proponents. See Legate, Julie & Yang, Charles (2002). Empirical re-assessment of stimulus poverty arguments. *The Linguistic Review*, *18*, 151–162. [^16]: For instance, consider the following sentence (a Chomskyan adaptation): ‘The man who is leading the prayer is knowledgeable.’ If one were to convert this into a question, one is required to transpose the second instance of the word ‘is’ to the front of the sentence and not the first: ‘Is the man who leading the prayer is knowledgeable?’ versus ‘Is the man who is leading the prayer knowledgeable?’ People can instinctively identify the incorrect speech without any knowledge of the underlying structural syntactic determinants, and children readily identify such structure-dependence when they learn language. For more discussion on this subject, and examples of scalar implications and polarity in everyday language use, the interested reader may refer to Chierchia, Gennaro. *Logic in grammar: Polarity, free choice, and intervention* (OUP Oxford, 2013). [^17]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Miftah Dar al-Sa’adah*, (Mecca: Dar ʿAlam al-Fawa’id 2010) vol. 2, p. 792. [^18]: Asoulin, Eran. (2016). Language as an instrument of thought. *Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics*, *1*(1), 1-23. [^19]: Linguistic theorists often capitalize ‘Language’ to distinguish the faculty that all humans possess from the non-capitalized ‘language’ which refers to things like Arabic, English, French, Urdu, Turkish, etc. [^20]: There is an ongoing debate amongst linguists about whether all modern languages go back to a single ancestral language (linguistic monogenesis) or several languages (polygenesis), a question which has been said to be “difficult if not impossible to determine using the evidence of the present.” See Schreyer, Christine (2002) "A Proto-Human Language: Fact or Fiction," *Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology*: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 9. From the perspective of Muslim scholars, debates over the origin of human languages (*asl al-lughah*) have also been diverse: the linguist Ibn Faris (d. 395 H) was of the view that they were all given by God, while Ibn Jinni (d. 330 H) believed they were invented by humans. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) held that languages were part given and part developed. [^21]: The Qur’an never uses *bayan* to describe communication in non-human creations. One may wonder about what we may learn about language capacity from the example of Prophet Sulaiman's knowledge of animal speech, most notably the ant and the hoopoe in Surah al-Naml. However, Al-Qurtubi comments in his exegesis of 27:16, “People are in agreement that Sulaiman understood the speech of that which did not speak (*kalam man laa yatakallam*), and speech was created even in plants, so that a plant would say ‘I am such-and-such tree, with this comparative benefit and harm.’ So what then do you suppose about animals?” Similarly, on the Day of Judgment, God will make a person’s skin speak just as “He makes everything speak” (41:21). Therefore, one must avoid taking these as normative biological descriptions about animal cognitive capacity, but rather instances wherein God elevates the generic primordial sentience found in any creation to the level of meaningful communication that might be apprehended, as in the case of a talking wolf (*Sahih Bukhari*), a crying tree trunk (*Sahih Ibn Hibban*), and even the entirety of the heavens and earth (41:11). [^22]: Jackendoff, R.. How Did Language Begin? Linguistic Society of North America. [https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/how-did-language-begin](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/how-did-language-begin&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694578078000&usg=AOvVaw2-Lp41Aa6ItZ39o16lyrUM) [^23]: Limber, J. (1977). Language in child and chimp? *American Psychologist,* *32*, 280-295. [^24]: Even after intensive instruction, the bonobo Kanzi failed to show comprehension of the hierarchical structures in language, outperformed by a human toddler between 18 to 24 months of age. See Truswell, R. (2017). Dendrophobia in Bonobo Comprehension of Spoken English. *Mind Lang*, *32*, 395-415. [^25]: Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? *Science*, *298*, 1569-1579. [^26]: Terrence Deacon. Language and complexity: Evolution inside out. 37th International Systemic Functional Congress. Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Webcast Aug 25, 2010. Accessed on YouTube [(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT-zZ0PMqgI#t=17m30s](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DOT-zZ0PMqgI%23t%3D17m30s&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694578080000&usg=AOvVaw3GW2QjWv6gEnapE6HUh7Aa)). He goes on to note, “The intelligent design people ought to love this stuff because we had this extravagant mutation 60 thousand years ago according to Richard Klein and suddenly we’re human! This is exactly the kind of miracle story that we don’t want, I think, in biological theory.” [^27]: Pinker S., & Jackendoff,  R. (2005). The faculty of language: what’s special about it? *Cognition*,  *95*, 201–236. See also the response of Fitch W. T., Hauser, M. D., & Chomsky, N. (2005). The evolution of the language faculty: clarifications and implications. *Cognition*, *97*, 179–210. [^28]: Dunbar R. I. M. “Why only humans have language,” in *The Prehistory of Language* eds. Botha R., Knight C. (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009) p. 14. [^29]: Ibn Taymiyyah mentions it as proof of God teaching humans language (*bayan*). *Majmu’ al-Fatawa* (al-Mansura: Dar al-Wafa' lil-Taba'a wal-Nashr, 1998), vol. 9, p. 36. [^30]: See the discussion in Abu Su’ûd, Muhammad ibn Muhammad. *Irshad ʿAql Salim ila Mazaya al-Kitab al-Karim*. (Riyadh 1974). Vol. 1, pp. 144-147. Learning “the names of all things” goes beyond simply acquiring vocabulary, for many reasons. First, where is the unique virtue in teaching Adam something that the angels could just as easily have learned? And how would that address the angel’s question about the human potential for bloodshed? Evidently, it relates to a unique capacity for conceptualization, for discerning the meanings of the unknown based upon what is known, which ties into humankind’s spiritual journey. [^31]: In this connection, consider also the *hadith* which mentions that the angels report to God about witnessing His human servants glorifying Him, seeking Paradise, and seeking refuge from Hellfire despite this being unseen to them, whereupon God announces His forgiveness for them (*Sahih al-Bukhari* 6408). Language allows human beings to understand realities they have not witnessed, thus providing them the means of traversing the epistemic distance between them and God. [^32]: Language is intimately connected with the Islamic concept of the *fitrah* as discussed in Khan, N. Fitrah - The Primordial Nature of Man. (1/1/15). [http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://spiritualperception.org/fitrah-the-primordial-nature-of-man/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694578084000&usg=AOvVaw2T6Mr692hWhUXFKhxf6zzR) [^33]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Miftah Dar al-Sa’adah*, (Mecca: Dar ʿAlam al-Fawa’id 2010), vol. 2, p. 666. [^34]: Cf. Tallis, Raymond. *Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity*, pp. 217, 230. [^35]: Davies, Paul. *The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life?*, (NY: First Mariner Books 2008) p. 5. [^36]: Nagel, Thomas. *Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False*, p. 35. [^37]: See Kim, Jaegwon. *Mind in a Physical World*. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998, p. 38. [^38]: Badr al-Din al-ʿAyni (d. 855 H) writes, “The human soul is that which each individual refers to with the pronoun, ‘I’.” Umdat al-Qari, (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah 2001), vol. 2, p. 303. [^39]: Brown, Jihad. The Problem of Reductionism in the Philosophy of Mind and its Implications for Theism and the Principle of Soul: Framing the issue for further Islamic inquiry. Tabah paper series. no. 7 (2013). [http://www.newdualism.org/papers/J.Brown/Brown-Reductionism-Tabah-2013.pdf](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.newdualism.org/papers/J.Brown/Brown-Reductionism-Tabah-2013.pdf&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694578084000&usg=AOvVaw3yEen2TVvtZozdJlehnPbU) [^40]: There are many similar passages, such as the verse which mentions the devout voluntary obedience of the Heavens and the Earth to God (41:11). [^41]: The Trust (*Amanah*) refers broadly to moral accountability, to follow the commandments of God by one’s volition. Qur’anic exegesis mentions that inanimate entities (*jamadat*) were given understanding (*fahm*) and discernment (*tamyīz*) to make a choice regarding carrying the trust (*khuyirat fi’l-haml*); see Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi, *Bahr al-Muhit*, (Beirut: Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi, nd)  vol. 7, p. 253. [^42]: Hermansen, Marcia. *The Conclusive Argument from God: Shah Wali Allah of Delhi's Hujjat Allah Al-Baligha*. (Islamic Research Institute, 2003), p. 54. [^43]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Tarīq al-Hijratayn wa bab al-sa’adatayn*. (Cairo: Dar al-Salafiya 1394 H). vol. 1, p. 15. Alternatively, the absence of any spiritual inclination can cause one to be lost in the senseless pursuit of materialistic distractions and heedlessness (*ghaflah*), debasing oneself to the level of creatures who possess minds but do not benefit from them (Qur’an 25:44,47:12). [^44]: Some classic examples have been used to illustrate phenomenal consciousness and how it is independent of physical perception, including the case of philosophical zombies, inverted color vision, Mary the color-deprived scientist, among others. Refer to Tye, M. Philosophical Problems of Consciousness. In *The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness*. eds M. Velmans and S. Schneider. (Wiley-Blackwell 2007), 23-35. [^45]: Chalmers, D. J. *The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996). [^46]: This analogy can be helpful: “This aspect of consciousness can be likened to the light from a film projector. The projector shines light onto a screen, modifying the light so as to produce one of an infinity of possible images. These images are like the perceptions, sensations, dreams, memories, thoughts, and feelings that we experience—the forms arising in consciousness. The light itself, without which no images would be possible, corresponds to this ability of consciousness to take on form. We know all the images on a movie screen are composed of light, but we are not usually aware of the light itself; our attention is caught up in the images that appear and the stories they tell. In much the same way, we know we are conscious, but we are usually aware only of the many different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings that appear in the mind. We are seldom aware of consciousness itself.” Peter Russell. The Primacy of Consciousness. [https://www.peterrussell.com/SP/PrimConsc.php](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.peterrussell.com/SP/PrimConsc.php&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694578083000&usg=AOvVaw2lmv-RK14wr6-KWFjKZJGe) [^47]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Wabil al-Sayyib min al-Kalim al-Tayyib*. (Makkah: Dar 'Alam al-Fawa'id), p. 119. [^48]: For instance, when discussing verse 17:70 “Verily We Have honored the children of Adam,” Ibn al-Qayyim presents a long list of such unique distinctions of humankind which includes cognitive, aesthetic, and moral features. *Miftah Dar al-Sa’adah*, (Mecca: Dar ʿAlam al-Fawa’id 2010), vol. 2, p. 748. [^49]: Midgley, Mary. (2011). Why The Idea Of Purpose Won't Go Away. *Philosophy*, *86*, 545-561. [^50]: Ironically, the anti-religionists claiming ‘bad design’ are guilty of precisely the same fallacy they call the “God-of-the-gaps” fallacy wherein a claim is staked on a present gap in knowledge, dismissing the possibility for empirical research to close the gap. [^51]: For instance, the physiologically obtuse presumption that the retina is backwards, because the photoreceptors are situated behind axons, has been shown erroneous by the functional benefits conferred by this optical arrangement which permit spectral waveguiding and situating photoreceptors closest to the highly vascularized choroid. See Labin, A. M., & Ribak, E. N.. (2014). "Color sorting by retinal waveguides," *Opt. Express,* *22*, 32208-32213; and   Nickla, D. L., & Wallman, J. (2010). The multifunctional choroid. *Prog. Retin. Eye Res*., *29* (2), 144-168. [^52]: For instance, the argument about the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) fallaciously looks only at the adult organism to presume that a shorter course is optimal. However, this ‘bad design’ argument entirely neglects the embryological sequence of events, and what is most efficient based on the process by which the anatomical structures in a creature are assembled during embryogenesis and organogenesis. Thus, ontogeny may provide a more relevant explanation than phylogeny. Moreover, the course of the RLN is not incidental; rather, there exist sensory and autonomic fibers to the cardiac plexus and connections with sympathetic cardiac nerves, which have recently been better characterized as a result of fetal cadaveric research: B De Gama et al. (2014).The recurrent laryngeal cardiac nerve in fetuses. *International Journal of Morphology*, *32* (2), 415-419. [^53]: Take for instance the causal confusions and conflation of categories of explanation for why humans have acquired big brains: instrumental hypothesis (we became smarter so we could eat better), Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis (we became smarter so we could steal better), cultural intelligence hypothesis (we became smarter so we could learn better), Vygotskian intelligence hypothesis (we became smarter so we could cooperate better), Scheherazade hypothesis (we became smarter so we could mate better), social brain hypothesis (we became smarter so we could have more friends), etc. See Dunbar RIM, Shultz S. (2017). Why are there so many explanations for primate brain evolution? *Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B,* 372: 20160244. [^54]: Lloyd, E. A. & Gould, S. J.  (2017). Exaptation revisited: Changes imposed by evolutionary psychologists and behavioral biologists. *Biological Theory*, *12*, 50-65. [^55]: Lloyd, E. A. (2015). Adaptationism and the logic of research questions: How to think clearly about evolutionary causes. *Biological Theory*, *10* (4), 343-362. [^56]: Boucher, S. C. (2015). Functionalism and structuralism as philosophical stances: van Fraassen meets the philosophy of biology. *Biology & Philosophy*, *30*(3), 383-403. [^57]: See James Woodward, *Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) and discussion in Humphreys, P.  (2006). Invariance, Explanation, and Understanding. *Metascience, 15* (1), 39-66. [^58]: Peeters S, Zwart H. Neanderthals as familiar strangers and the human spark: How the 'golden years' of Neanderthal research reopen the question of human uniqueness. Hist Philos Life Sci. 2020 Jul 21;42(3):33. [^59]: Vaesen K, Dusseldorp GL, Brandt MJ. Author Correction: An emerging consensus in palaeoanthropology: demography was the main factor responsible for the disappearance of Neanderthals. Sci Rep. 2021 Apr 13;11(1):8450. [^60]: Abdul-Latif ibn Abdul-Aziz al-Rabah. *Makanat al-ʿUlum al-Tabi’iyyah fi’l-tarbiyyah Islamiyyah*. Doctoral dissertation. p. 267. [^61]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Miftah Dar al-Sa’adah*, (Mecca: Dar ʿAlam al-Fawa’id 2010) vol. 3, p. 1190. He makes this comment in the course of addressing why astrology cannot be considered a true science due to its lack of substantiating logical and empirical evidence. Similarly, in his discussion on embryology, Ibn al-Qayyim considers anatomic dissection (*tashrīh*) and empirical research to be sound and impenetrable evidences (*Tuhfat al-Mawdud fi Ahkam al-Mawlud*. Mecca: Dar Alam al-Fawa’id, p. 376). ## Summary Human beings share undeniable similarities with the other creatures of the earth, for Allah says, "There is no animal that walks upon the earth nor a bird that flies with its two wings except that they form communities like you" (Qur'an 6:38). Yet alongside these resemblances there exist profound distinctions that grant humanity a unique station, as Allah declares, "surely We have honored the children of Adam" (Qur'an 17:70). Any sound account of human origins must explain not merely the similarities but also these differences. While much has been written concerning religious attitudes toward evolution, what is often absent is a critical evaluation of the failures of philosophical naturalism in accounting for the origins of humankind. A prior discussion established that a correct understanding of Islamic theology and the philosophy of science dissolves any presumed conflict between empirical knowledge and theological conclusions. Yet the mere absence of contradiction is not the same as demonstrating harmony. The present concern goes further, arguing that empirical knowledge of uniquely human capacities can only be properly explained upon a metaphysical foundation that grants human uniqueness—something philosophical naturalism cannot provide. Naturalism rejects anything beyond physical observation and experimentation, and therefore reduces the human being to a biological organism no different in kind from other animals. In contrast, a worldview grounded in Divine revelation and special creation necessarily accords humanity a distinctive position. This tension has historical roots: the tradition of British Empiricism, in figures such as Locke and Hume, denied any categorical difference between the human mind and the minds of beasts, holding that we differ from brutes only in complexity, not in the fundamental nature of our mental states. Another tradition, represented most notably by Kant and following Aristotle, held that although animals possess sensation and appetite, they are incapable of thought and judgment. This philosophical divergence is not merely academic; it can shape the direction of scientific inquiry. Much research into human psychology—including conditions such as depression, anxiety, autism, and schizophrenia—relies upon animal models justified by presumed evolutionary similarity. Such trials yield genuine benefit, yet no number of studies upon zebrafish or mice will resolve the many unanswered questions particular to human beings. Researchers themselves warn that ignoring the disparities between humans and other species can obstruct research and produce models of little predictive value. The customary debate over evolution and Islam places all scrutiny upon religious interpretation, asking how far scripture may be stretched to accommodate biological evolution, while assuming that the empirical evidence stands entirely on the side of the evolutionist. This is imbalanced, for the advances of scientific research have in fact turned the tables: the more we learn of the distinctive features of human nature, the wider the gulf appears between humanity and every other species. Human beings alone have produced civilization, government, law, education, language, philosophy, art, and science, and these arise from uniquely human capacities of consciousness, language, and moral value that have marked humankind even in the earliest hunter-gatherer societies. All animal correlates remain so rudimentary as to preclude reasonable comparison. As John Hands observes, to claim that a chimpanzee cracking a nut with a stone is the same kind of thing as an international team constructing the Large Hadron Collider is "somewhat less than valid." Raymond Tallis critiques the excessive extension of Darwinian thinking—which he terms "Darwinitis"—noting that while some seek to minimize the gap between humans and apes, this denial leaves unexplained the emergence of purposeful, self-aware beings in a universe brought about, on the naturalist account, by mindless and purposeless processes. From the evolutionary vantage, explaining this divergence requires accounting for why selective pressures differed so radically between humans and other primates, a matter that remains largely conjectural. Any empirical answer will seem inadequate without an ontological foundation to justify the discrepancy. Allah says, "Verily, We have created the human being in the best of molds" (Qur'an 95:4), and Ibn Atiyyah (d. 541 H) noted that this verse encompasses several unique traits: physical form (surah), the senses (hawas), and the adornment of intellect (ʿaql) and perception (idrak) with discernment (tamyiz). The first distinctive faculty is language. Allah mentions it immediately after the creation of the human being: "The Most-Merciful; He taught the Qur'an, created the human being, and taught him language (bayan)" (Qur'an 55:1–4). By combining a few sounds or symbols, a human may produce an infinite range of meaning, and toddlers acquire this vastly complex system with minimal instruction—an observation underlying Chomsky's notion of a "language acquisition device." Ibn al-Qayyim expressed this preparedness long before, stating that Allah "prepared the mind of the human by making it amenable to learning language in contrast to all other animals." Language is not merely superior animal communication but primarily a system of thought. The Qur'an distinguishes the faculty of clarification (bayan, 55:4), individual tongues (lisan, 30:22), and mere animal utterances (mantiq, 27:16). Ray Jackendoff notes that animal calls number at most a few dozen and address only immediate concerns, and even intensively trained primates are surpassed by a three-year-old child. Efforts to reduce language to a single capacity such as recursion, emerging through one lucky genetic accident, were likened by Terrence Deacon to an argument for miracles, and such accounts neglect language's central function of elaborating thought. Islamic theology situates this gift within its proper context: when the angels questioned the placing of humanity upon the earth, Allah favored Adam with an extraordinary gift, "And He taught Adam the names of all things" (Qur'an 2:31)—understood as the capacity for conceptualization that allows human beings, despite their epistemic distance from Allah, to grasp the Divine names and abstract truths of good and evil. The second faculty is consciousness. Ibn al-Qayyim observed that while animals possess discernment (tamyiz) and perception (idrak), they lack the human features of mind (dhihn) and intellect (ʿaql). Human self-awareness is sustained and productive, encompassing metacognition—thinking about thinking. As Paul Davies notes, other animals observe natural phenomena, but Homo sapiens alone can explain them. Naturalism cannot account for how immaterial mind arises from mindless matter, nor resolve the problem of causal exclusion between thoughts and electrochemical impulses. The human being is fundamentally spiritual, the body ever-changing while the soul endures. Allah says, "And they ask you concerning the soul (ruh). Say, 'The soul is from the affairs of my Lord, and you have been given but little knowledge of it'" (Qur'an 17:85). A first-order sentience pervades all creation in its glorification of Allah: "And there is nothing in existence except that it glorifies Him in praise, but you cannot comprehend its manner of glorifying Him" (Qur'an 17:44). Yet the second-order consciousness bearing moral accountability was entrusted to humanity alone: "We presented the Trust (amanah) to the Heavens, the Earth, the Mountains, but they refused to bear it... but man assumed it" (Qur'an 33:72). Shah Waliullah al-Dehlawi (d. 1176 H) distinguished the vital life forces common to all organisms from the rational conscious soul (al-nafs al-natiqa). Philosophers distinguish objective consciousness, open to empirical study, from phenomenal consciousness—the "hard problem" named by David Chalmers—and beyond even this lies what may be called metaphenomenal consciousness, the very arena of the soul, which may be purified or polluted: "Successful is one who purifies the soul; ruined is one who pollutes it" (Qur'an 91:9–10). Ibn al-Qayyim explains in his Wabil al-Sayyib that through purification the soul becomes a receptacle for Divine Light (Qur'an 24:35). Other exclusive human qualities—moral choice, emotional intelligence, and the capacity to wonder—are hypothesized in works of Islamic theology and merit further exploration. The evident divergence between humankind and other species warrants a firmer ontological footing than naturalism, which admits only blind, purposeless processes, can supply. A distinction must be drawn between evolutionary science and evolutionist dogma. The former encompasses legitimate research into genetic mechanisms of speciation and diversity; the latter is the zeal to transform evolution into an anti-religious ideology dispensing with metaphysical accounts of beauty, complexity, and humanity, which amounts to pseudo-science. This dogma robs evolutionary science of its unsolved complexities, introduces unscientific "bad design" arguments resting on unsubstantiated presuppositions, generates conflicting "just-so" stories that fail the criterion of invariance, and permits naturalistic presumptions to dominate the interpretation of data. This is seen in shifting portrayals of Neanderthals, once viewed as primitive brutes and now widely regarded as "our equal in humanity," where scholars such as Zilhão and Wynn et al. reach opposed interpretations of the same data along philosophical and even socio-political lines. The human faculties of reason (ʿaql) and perception (hiss) are immensely powerful, and Allah says, "And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and intellect that perhaps you would be grateful" (Qur'an 16:78). The Qur'an calls for intellectual investigation no fewer than 750 times, and Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 H) affirmed that every true science must rest upon proofs (barahin) rooted in either sense perception (hiss) or the dictates of reason (daroorat al-ʿaql). Far from being opponents, empirical and scriptural knowledge stand in perfect harmony, and empirical knowledge of human nature in fact reinforces a theological perspective and opposes the presumptions of naturalism. The distinctions of humankind demand an ontological foundation that only an integrative reading of the signs (ayat) of scripture and creation can supply. "And above all with knowledge is One More Knowledgeable" (Qur'an 12:76). And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/human-origins-part-1-theological-conclusions-and-empirical-limitations # Human Origins - Part 1: Theological Conclusions and Empirical Limitations **Authors:** Dr. Nazir Khan, Dr. Yasir Qadhi **Topics:** Evolution, Nature & Science **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 31, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 **Update (Sept. 3, 2021): The original publication has been split into two parts. You can find the second part,** Human Origins - Part 2: Evolution and the Failures of Naturalism **[here](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/human-origins-part-2-evolution-and-the-failures-of-naturalism/).** --- ## Abstract The concept of human evolution and whether it is compatible or irreconcilable with religious doctrine has been frequently debated, but all too often the popular discourse fails to provide a sound academic study of the philosophy of science and matters of theology and scriptural exegesis. This article reviews the scriptural account of human origins (including the merits and failures of various hermeneutical approaches) before delving into the philosophy of science (including the realism versus constructive empiricism debate). --- ## Introduction The logical coherence of the Islamic paradigm has always been one of its characteristic appeals and the impetus for Muslim scholars to develop the natural sciences without any consternation about compromising the integrity of their faith. Unlike the history of Christianity, Muslim history knows of no examples like Copernicus,[^1] Galileo,[^2] or Giordano Bruno[^3]—no Muslim scientist was ever burnt at the stake, and no science book ever banned. In the modern era, however, discussions over the question of human evolution have resulted in much confusion amongst the masses. A consensus amongst modern scientists has emphatically stated that humans share a common ancestry with other primates, and have emerged as the result of a gradual evolution of biological organisms on this planet over the course of millions of years. Meanwhile, Islamic scripture and Muslim theologians have held a consensus on humankind’s descent from Adam and Eve, who had no parents. How does one reconcile the position of Islamic theology with modern-day science without compromising the assertion that Islam is a faith of reasoned belief? One group has attempted to jettison all traditional theological commitments in favor of a wholesale embrace of the conclusions of evolutionists. Through radical hermeneutical gymnastics, they have claimed to unearth specific Qur’anic passages that allegedly discuss natural selection, abiogenesis, and other similar concepts. Not only does this compromise the truth-value of a scripture such that it becomes infinitely malleable to mean whatever one desires, but it is also worth noting that history has not looked kindly upon such attempts in the past. The philosopher Ibn Sina (d. 428 H) attempted to read into the Qur’an the then-current cosmological theories about the ten celestial spheres and the cosmological layout of the universe—ideas that are dismissed by every educated person today. Yet, the plain-sense reading of the Qur’an has stood the test of time and has always emerged unscathed. On the other extreme are those Muslim creationists who reject all evolutionary science as falsehood, attempting to dispute every piece of data in genetics, population dynamics, and paleontology. This position is not only unreasonable in that it requires Muslims to believe that the entire scientific community is participating in a massive conspiracy, but it is also theologically unrequired since there is nothing in Islamic scripture to necessitate such a stance. Moreover, it burdens the average lay Muslim with abstruse matters of empirical research, telling him or her that the only way to be a committed Muslim is by undertaking the task of challenging an entire community of scientific experts on the very subject matter of their expertise. It also places many Muslim scientists in a position of supposed tension between their religious beliefs and their scientific research. These opposing extremes are reminiscent of a passage from Ibn al-Qayyim where he describes two different groups. First, he describes the errors of the philosophers in rejecting religious tenets based upon fallacious arguments. Then he says: > “The second group confronted the first group by rejecting everything they said, rejecting things that were true alongside things that were false, and they supposed that the necessary consequence of believing in the Messengers was to reject what the first group knew by logical necessity (*ʿaql daruri*) as well as their premises based on sensory perception (*hiss*). And to falsify these ideas they presented arguments that can never substitute for truth. > > And woe to them, if only they had not combined this tremendous blunder with attributing that to the Messengers as well. But instead, they supposed that the messengers came with what they said. So the heretical philosophers assumed the worst of the Messengers and assumed themselves to be more learned and more knowledgeable than them, while those who thought better of the Messengers said, “They were not unaware of what we say but they spoke to these people with what their minds could fathom of common speech to benefit the lay masses, but as for the true realities they concealed them from them.” > > And what led \[the second group\] to this was rejecting the portion of truth with the \[first group\], and feeling proud to challenge them on things that are known by necessity, like the roundness of the orbits or the Earth, or that the light of the moon is reflected from the Sun, or that a lunar eclipse occurs because of the Earth’s position between the moon and the sun casting the moon in its shadow.”[^4] What has been sorely needed, and thus far missing, is a critical evaluation and academic engagement that attempts to integrate scripture and science. Such an approach would entail acknowledging the credibility of the scientific research, while criticizing pseudoscientific excesses in the public domain. It would also entail a deeper reflection on the precise theological conclusions that can be derived from Islamic scripture on humanity’s origins and status vis-a-vis other creatures. By recognizing the priority of revelation in affirming matters of the unseen, while also affirming the epistemic value of empirical research in ascertaining knowledge of the natural world, the two sources of knowledge can be integrated without conflict. Indeed, both forms of knowledge constitute religious knowledge; the Qur’an refers to both natural and scriptural knowledge as *ayat* (signs).[^5] Scripture provides the ontological foundations and metaphysical backdrop within which to situate and frame empirical inquiries of the natural world. It is possible to arrive at a portrait of humanity that draws upon both scriptural and scientific sources; such a portrait would entail distinguishing those key elements that are non-negotiable fundamentals of creed that are beyond the empirical lens from other aspects within the natural realm upon which scripture does not comment and leaves open to further empirical exploration. In the process of this discussion, we may come across beliefs amongst lay Muslims that are not scripturally well-founded, as well as popular claims about evolution that may amount to nothing more than pseudoscience or untestable speculation. --- ## Islamic scripture is unequivocal on the creation of humankind from Adam and Eve In the opening passage of Surah al-Nisa, God describes all humanity as descendants of Adam and Eve: “O Humankind, be mindful of your Lord, Who created you from a single person, and made from him his mate, and from the both of them He created many men and women” (Qur’an 4:1). The verse is patently explicit: all of mankind, without exception, originates from one couple. The evidences from the Qur’an and *Sunnah* on humanity being descended from these two parents are too numerous to recount in the span of this article. Suffice to say that the entirety of the Muslim *ummah* in every generation since the beginning of Islam has understood that humankind is descended from Adam and Eve, who were created directly by God. Moreover, Allah describes the creation of Adam in such intricate detail and with an abundance of physical descriptions that it becomes impossible to remain faithful to the text of the Qur’an and simultaneously dismiss the entire narrative as figurative or metaphorical. We are told in the Qur’an that our origin is from dust (18:37), from water (21:30), from earth (53:32); that Adam was made from clay (7:12), from sticky clay (37:11), from a hardened clay (55:14), which finally became a darkened, hardened clay that resounds (15:28). A passage in Surah al-Sajdah distinguishes between Adam’s origin and the subsequent descent of humankind: “He began the creation of man from clay, and then made his offspring through an extract of a contemptible fluid” (32:7-8). This is particularly explicit in that it claims that the first man was created from clay (*ṭīn*), and *then* his offspring emerged through ordinary procreation. Moreover, the Qur’an tells us that Allah created Adam with His Two Hands and breathed His *Rūḥ* into Adam—and this is why Adam was unique.[^6] The *hadith* literature is even more explicit—in the *Ṣaḥīḥ*s and other authentic works, we are told that Allah took a handful of soil from the earth and He fashioned the shape of Adam and allowed the lifeless body to remain for a period of time. Before the soul was breathed into Adam’s body, Shaytan went around this lifeless form, noting it to be hollow and boasting of his presumed superiority over Adam.[^7] We are told that the *rūḥ* (soul) was blown into the lifeless body of Adam and as it reached his nose he sneezed and praised Allah.[^8] We are told that there was a time when Adam was “between the spirit and the clay.”[^9] The second human being was Eve (*Hawwa’* in Arabic), who the Qur’an states was made from Adam.[^10] Clearly, in light of such an explicit and vivid narrative, claims that human beings have descended from other species besides Adam are not theologically tenable. Some may attempt to confine the meanings of the texts as tightly as possible and discard any textual inferences (*dalalat al-nass*) in an effort to squeeze in human evolution from creatures alongside Adam. However, as the subsequent discussion shall illustrate, a sound approach would entail according both scriptural theology and philosophy of science their appropriate epistemic weight, using both scriptural and scientific knowledge to arrive at a deeper understanding. The discourse on reconciling reason and revelation is not new but rather the subject of voluminous writings in Islamic history. Essentially, three different approaches have arisen in Muslim history corresponding to three famous historical figures: Ibn Sina (d. 428 H), Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (d. 505 H),  and Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H). Ibn Sina represents the tradition of the *falasifah* and he viewed philosophical reasoning—as represented by the Neoplatonic and Aristotelian traditions—as the supreme discourse in ascertaining the truths of reality. In his work *Kitab al-Shifa’*, he describes the role of prophets as essential for social order.[^11] The role of the Prophet is to communicate philosophical truths about the Divine in the language of symbols that will be comprehensible to the masses (*bal yajib an yu’arrifuhum jalalat Allahi wa ʿadhamatihi bi-rumuz wa amthilah*).[^12] For Ibn Sina and the *falasifah*, when scripture describes physical resurrection, Paradise, or Hell, these are symbolic descriptions for common people to imagine (*takhyīl*) realities beyond their comprehension; Ibn Sina affirms only a spiritual resurrection signifying either permanent mental pleasure or misery in the soul.[^13] Religious texts that conflict with philosophical truth are to be interpreted as allegorical, symbolic, and ultimately fictitious tales aimed at keeping the commoners in check (*muqayadīn*).[^14] There are no hermeneutic limits to this approach; one could extend this method to argue that prayer, fasting, and even the concept of God are mere symbols. Indeed, in Europe, the naturalist philosopher Benedict de Spinoza reduced ‘God’ to a productive force in nature and dismissed most of religion arguing, “For many things are narrated in Scripture as real, and were believed to be real, which are in fact symbolic and imaginary.”[^15] The Hanbalite theologian Al-Safârîni (d. 1188 H) explicitly criticized this method of dealing with the texts: “They say that what the Prophet mentioned on the subject of faith and the afterlife is only a symbolic representation of the truths (*takhyīl lil-haqa’iq*) to benefit the masses, not to actually clarify reality nor guide creation to elaborate truths. And there is no disbelief greater than this disbelief.”[^16] The preceding approach was categorically rejected by mainstream Muslim scholarship, and many of its most vociferous opponents belonged to the tradition of *kalam*, which sought a synthesis of Hellenistic philosophy with scriptural interpretation. In this tradition, Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali argued that since reason is the basis for affirming the truth of revelation (as logic alone distinguishes between a true prophet and a false one), reason cannot be discarded when it appears to conflict with revelation. In his work, *Qanun al-Ta’wīl* (the law of re-interpretation), he argues that the moderate position is to accept both reason and revelation as important foundations (*asl muhimm*), and in cases of apparent conflict (such as *hadith* describing ‘actions being weighed’ or ‘death being slaughtered’ on the Day of Judgment) there is no recourse except to metaphorical interpretation (*fa idhan la budda min al-ta’wīl*).[^17] The default presumption with regards to scripture is to affirm that it describes things as they actually are (*wujud dhati*).[^18] It is only when this level of interpretation conflicts with a logical deductive argument that one resorts to metaphorical interpretation (*ta’wīl*), which *Ahlul-Kalam* primarily applied to texts pertaining to the attributes of God.[^19] While a particular word or phrase in a text could be taken as metaphor, none of the schools of *kalam* considered the accounts of the hereafter or prophets to be wholly allegorical. In contradistinction to the methods of *ta’wīl* and *takhyīl*, Ibn Taymiyyah argues for the primacy of revelation and presents a law which is the inverse of that provided by the *kalam* theologians: when reason and revelation contradict, giving priority to reason would logically entail that it not be given priority.[^20] If logic establishes the veracity of the scripture, then the only logical conclusion is to accept what the scripture states unconditionally and without challenging it on the basis of fallible and fundamentally limited human reasoning. The truth of revelation does require external verification but is actually recognized through its concordance with the primordial nature of all human beings (*fitrah*) rather than through convoluted philosophical arguments. Moreover, Ibn Taymiyyah rejects the oft-mentioned bipartite division of knowledge into religious (*samʿiyyat*) and rational (*ʿaqliyyat*), arguing that reason is intrinsic to religion.[^21] He explains that what is relevant is the definitive (*qatʿi*) nature of a proof, regardless of whether it is scriptural or rational. When it comes to instances of textual evidence which are explicit and unequivocal, there can be no recourse to re-interpretation. However, if revelation provides us with a lone text that is ambiguous or subject to interpretation, and has several plausible readings while reason is conclusive on a matter, then we have no qualms adopting the linguistically plausible reading of the text that is concordant with the dictates of reason and modern science. This is not a case of figurative interpretation, but rather selecting one of a variety of established lexical meanings of a word based on definitive proofs.[^22] For instance, Allah says He created the heavens and earth in *sittati* *ayyām* (e.g., Qur’an 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, etc.) which is often translated as ‘six days.’ The Arabic word *yawm* could mean a day, as many scholars understood; however other Qur’anic passages (e.g., 22:47) and classical lexicons indicate that *yawm* can apply to any period of time.[^23] Hence, to understand this verse as implying that Allah created the heavens and earth in six stages, rather than six 24-hour periods, is completely in harmony with the Qur’an. How do these three approaches pertain to the topic of evolution? In the case of the story of human origins, we have such an explicit narrative, one that is deeply rooted in countless passages throughout the entire Qur’an and numerous Prophetic statements, that there is no choice other than to accept that this is what Allah intended for us to believe.[^24] The sheer quantity and diversity of nouns, adjectives, and verbs used simply makes any linguistic re-interpretation (or *taʾwīl*) implausible. Meanwhile, attempts to describe the entire account as symbolic or allegorical (*takhyīl*) may be tempting for some contemporary Muslim scientists, but it leads to logically incoherent theological ramifications and contradicts the Qur’an’s own emphasis that these accounts are literally true narratives (3:62).[^25]  Developing an epistemologically sound foundation upon which both scriptural and scientific truths work in concert is a far more fruitful endeavor. --- ## The Domino effect: Empirically impervious and theologically sound In light of the preceding discussion outlining the explicit scriptural descriptions of humanity’s origins, how can this assertion be reconciled with scientific knowledge? In order to address this question, it is not sufficient to simply rehearse the assertions on both sides; rather, we need to be cognizant about what scripture does *not* say and what science does *not* exclude. Setting aside debates about their rational plausibility or probability, there is nothing in Islamic scripture that explicitly negates the concepts of abiogenesis, genetic mutation and diversification, natural selection, the existence of hominid species, or a common ancestor for all biological life on earth, excluding only the descendants of Adam. Moreover, one can certainly imagine a scenario wherein hominid species were gradually evolving on earth, and right at the point when evolutionists would predict the emergence of modern humans, God miraculously inserted the children of Adam. Let us suppose that these ‘Adamic species’ are biologically, anatomically, physiologically, and genetically indistinguishable from the would-be species one would have predicted to have emerged based on the preceding population of species in evolutionary history. They appear to occupy the exact same position on the phylogenetic tree. The occurrence of such a scenario is theologically plausible and would be impossible to disprove empirically since it is a metaphysical assertion. This is not to affirm that such a scenario *did* take place; indeed, there are ongoing arguments that may continue to be entertained about the logical integrity, numerical probability, and empirical substantiation of many of the aforementioned evolutionary concepts.[^26] But it simply represents one of a number of possibilities, and a clear reason why there should be no consternation amongst Muslims on this subject, as the theological conclusions stand independent of the empirical data. This example can be understood with analogy to a set of dominoes, representing the sequence of events in evolutionary history. Just as one domino topples the next, one species gives rise to a new species, as selection pressures continue to diversify populations and favor advantageous genes. The dominoes branch out, forming divergent branches of a phylogenetic tree.[^27] However, the final domino of one branch, representing humans, is not toppled by the preceding domino but instead is placed down in a manner indistinguishable from if it had been knocked down. An onlooker arriving at the scene and surveying the evidence would surely conclude that this domino was affected by the exact same process that caused all the others to topple. An opponent of religion might object that it is deceptive for God to create human beings to resemble other biological organisms in a manner compatible with evolution. But this is a bizarre objection for an anti-religionist, since it represents a weak theological objection (regarding what God would or would not do) rather than a scientific objection. Moreover, from a theological standpoint, there is nothing deceptive whatsoever about God informing us through scripture of our heavenly origin while reminding us biologically of our terrestrial sojourn.[^28] Moreover, patterns abound in the creation of God, whether the Fibonacci sequence in the petals of a flower or in human anatomy, or the golden ratio, or the presence of symmetry, tessellations, fractals, and so on. If the creation of God routinely demonstrates recurring patterns, then biological resemblance is an expected feature of human beings. Just as theological conclusions do not arbitrate the validity of pieces of empirical evidence, biology has no means to arbitrate theological conclusions about what God would or would not do. --- ## Misrepresenting the philosophy of science How does science work, what can it tell us, and what can’t it tell us? The philosophical dimension of scientific investigation is often neglected but is critically important to understand the role science plays, how it develops, and how to draw cogent conclusions from empirical data. The philosopher and evolutionist Daniel Dennett has written: > *Scientists sometimes deceive themselves into thinking that philosophical ideas are only, at best, decorations or parasitic commentaries on the hard, objective triumphs of science, and that they themselves are immune to the confusions that philosophers devote their lives to dissolving. But there is no such thing as philosophy-free science, there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.*[^29] Since the collapse of logical positivism in the twentieth century, two broad schools have emerged within the academic discipline known as the ‘philosophy of science.’ The school of scientific realism sees science as an enterprise involved in deriving literally true descriptions about what reality is and what we should believe.[^30] On the other hand, the school of scientific anti-realism maintains that the point of a scientific theory is to fit existing data and observations. Physicist Stephen Hawking firmly promoted an anti-realist viewpoint in a series of debates with Roger Penrose when he stated: > *I don’t demand that a theory correspond to reality because I don’t know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper. All I’m concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of measurements. Quantum theory does this very successfully.*[^31] One of the most influential opponents of scientific realism has been philosopher Bas van Fraassen who has championed an anti-realist view called ‘constructive empiricism.’ Essentially, instead of science telling us what is true or false about the real world, it makes no such metaphysical pretension but rather has a more modest objective: to arrive at theories that are ‘empirically adequate’; i.e., theories that fit with our observations.[^32] Thus, we construct models and representations of the phenomena around us. When it comes to things that are directly *observable*, then empirical adequacy becomes the same as truth.[^33] As for matters that are *unobservable*, then we rely on interpretations, inferences, models, extrapolations, and postulations that aim only to be empirically adequate.[^34] Attempting to retreat from many of the unwarranted metaphysical excesses of scientific realism, there emerged a diverse set of offshoots of scientific realism including empiric structural realism (both direct and indirect), ontic structural realism, semi-realism, etc.[^35] However a key theme acknowledged by almost all groups is that what we can affirm as *truth* when it comes to the unobservable is considerably limited. No human being can go back in time and determine precisely what happened at the time of Adam and Eve, and thus it constitutes something empirically unobservable, a matter of the unseen (*ghayb*). Allah reminds us in Surah al-Kahf: “I did not call them to witness the creation of the Heavens and earth, or even their own creation” (18:51). In constructing theories about what took place at an unseen time hundreds of thousands of years ago, we can only make inferences based on interpretations of the data that have survived until today. We cannot design an experiment that could reach back thousands of years and directly determine what took place. --- ## Conclusion Islamic theology is explicit on the origin of human beings from Adam and Eve, with such diverse unequivocal textual evidences that countenance no figurative re-interpretation. It is a mistake for Muslims to presume theology and ontology must play second fiddle to empirical science, or to retreat to a safe space leaving only science to comment on important matters of human origins. It is also a mistake for Muslims to make the blanket statement, “Islam does not accept evolution.” Quite the contrary, the empirical data and fundamental principles of biological evolution are not excluded by Islamic theology, provided that we acknowledge that the mechanisms of evolution occur solely by the Divine Will, as a basic invocation teaches us, “There is no change, or even power to change, except with Allah.” Evolutionary science is *not* bad science, nor is it a Western hegemonic anti-religious conspiracy that seeks to transform Muslims into godless heathens. Instead, evolutionary science is an active area of ongoing research that fits the criterion of proper science, but it also has the limitations that any scientific theory has. By properly understanding both Islamic theology and the philosophy of science, Muslims can better understand how the purported threat of science to religion entirely dissolves under careful scrutiny. --- ## Notes [^1]: Nicolaus Copernicus (d. 1543 CE) was an astronomer whose view that the Earth orbits the sun (heliocentrism) was condemned by the Church. [^2]: Galileo Galilei (d. 1642 CE) was the Italian astronomer who was tried in the inquisition for his championing of the Copernican theory of heliocentrism. Deemed guilty of heresy, he was sentenced to house arrest. [^3]: Giordano Bruno (d. 1600 CE) was an Italian scientist who viewed that the universe was infinite and believed in a plurality of worlds. His cosmological views were amongst the charges against him in the inquisition, and he was ultimately burned alive at the stake. [^4]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Miftah*, pp. 1417-1418 [^5]: See Ibn al-Qayyim’s discussion in *Miftah Dar al-Sa’adah*, vol. 1, p. 533 where he discusses these two categories of signs along with the Qur’anic examples. This work will be cited frequently in the course of this article as many of the reflections and insights of the author on scripture and nature are pertinent to the subject matter of this paper. [^6]: There is a narration which states, “Allah created four things with His Hands: the *’Arsh* (throne), the *Qalam* (pen which records fate), Adam, and Paradise. Then He said to all other creation: ‘Be,’ and it became.” (*Mustadrak al-Hakim* 2/349). Al-Dhahabi agreed with al-Hakim’s authentication of this tradition. [^7]: *Sahih Muslim*, 2611. In other narrations, Iblis prods Adam’s lifeless form, taunting him and threatening him, “If I gain authority over you, I will destroy you. And if you gain authority over me, I shall defy you.” See *Tarikh al-Tabari* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiya 1987), vol. 1, p. 64. [^8]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, 3367. [^9]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, 3698. [^10]: This is the dominant reading of Qur’an 4:1. Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi mentions another interpretation, in which the verse is taken to mean “and created from it (i.e., the same clay) his spouse.” Cf. *Al-Bahr al-Muhit* (Beirut: Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi, nd) vol. 3 , pp. 154-155. [^11]: Ibn Sina, *Kitab al-shifa', Al-ilahiyyat*. Edited by Ibrahim Madkour, George Anawati, and Said Zayed. Cairo: al-Hay'a al-misriyya al-'amma lil-kitab, 1975. p. 441. Ibn Sina explains that since human beings cannot survive individually but rather are dependent on one another, they must be able to cooperate and construct communities; this requires law and justice. But given the fact that justice and morality are relativistic and subject to different opinions, there needs to be someone with the authority to legislate principles that will be obeyed and thus, the need for a Prophet. Ibn Sina prefigures the perspective of French Sociologist Emile Durkheim (d. 1917 CE) who saw religion as the fundamental social institution for the function of a moral community. [^12]: *Ibid*. p. 443. See also the discussion in Dimitri Gutas, *Avicenna and the Aristotelian tradition: Introduction to reading Avicenna's philosophical works*, Brill (2014). p. 345. The Muslim jurist and staunch Aristotelian philosopher, Ibn Rushd, attempted to exculpate the *falasifah* and argued that both the discourse of scientific demonstration and religious description are true and applicable in different domains. See Taylor, Richard. Averroes on the Sharîʿah of the Philosophers. In *The Judeo-Christian-Islamic Heritage: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives* (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2012), pp. 283-304. [^13]: Ibn Sina, *Risalah al-Adhawiyyah fi Amr al-Ma‘ad*. (Cairo: Matba’at al-I’timad 1949). [^14]: Ibn Sina, *Risalah fi sirr al-qadar*, in *Majmu’ al-Rasa’il al-Shaykh al-Ra’is* (Hyderabad: Dairatul-Maarif Osmania 1935), p. 4. [^15]: Benedict de Spinoza, *The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza*, translated from the Latin, with an Introduction by R.H.M. Elwes. Revised edition (London: George Bell and Sons, 1891). Vol 1. p. 93. Spinoza was directly influenced by the *falsafah* tradition through Elijah Delmedigo, a Jewish Averroist. See “Spinoza on Philosophy and Religion: The Averroistic Sources,” *The Rationalists: Between Tradition and Innovation*, eds. Carlos Fraenkel, Dario Perinetti and Justin Smith, The New Synthese Historical Library of Springer Academic Publishers, 2010, pp. 58-81. [^16]: Al-Safarini. *Lawami’ al-Anwar al-Bahiyyah*. (Maktabah al-Islamiya Dar Al-Khani 1991), p. 116. [^17]: Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid. *Qanun al-Ta’wīl*. ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Azhariyyah li-turāth, 2006), pp. 7-11. Al-Ghazali cautions that one should not affirm one possible metaphorical interpretation over another. This is because once we depart from the apparent meanings of the texts, there is no means by which to know precisely which meaning is intended by God, unless one is able to enumerate every possible interpretation and falsify all of them except for one, which he deems unlikely. [^18]: Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid. *Faysal al-Tafriqah baynal Islam wa al-Zandaqah*. (Damascus 1993), pp. 28-33. [^19]: Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid. *Ihya ʿUlum al-Din – Kitab Qawa’id al-Aqa’id*. (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm 2005), p. 122. [^20]: For a more detailed study of Ibn Taymiyyah’s views refer to Yasir Kazi, Reconciling Reason and Revelation in the Writings of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), An Analytical Study of Ibn Taymiyya's *Darʾ al‐Taʿārụd*, PhD Dissertation, Yale University 2013. [^21]: Ibn Taymiyyah. *Dar Ta’arud al-ʿAql wal-Naql*. (Riyadh: Al-Imam University 1991), vol. 1, p. 198. [^22]: Ibn Taymiyyah explains that acceptable re-interpretation (*ta’wil maqbul*) is nothing other than clarifying and explaining the intended meaning of a statement (*tafsir wa bayan al-murad*) based on clear evidences. Ibn Taymiyyah, *Dar Ta’arud al-ʿAql wal-Naql*, vol. 1, p. 201. [^23]: Al-Rāghib al-Isbahānī, *Mufradat Alfadh al-Qur’an*. ed. Safwan ʿAdnan Dawudui. (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1992), p. 894. [^24]: It is worth also commenting briefly on the spurious claim that historical Muslim figures adopted belief in biological evolution. Figures like Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Miskawayh mention a sequence of plants, animals, then human beings, however this is not in the context of origins. Rather, they were referring to the ancient Greek concept of *scala naturae*, or ‘The Great Chain of Being,’ in which every object in existence is placed on a linear scale, beginning with minerals, and ending with God Himself. The purpose of this ‘Great Chain’ was to give legal and moral weight to those higher up in this scale, and there is no suggestion of a progression from one state to another. This error of reading biological evolution into the writings of these authors has been pointed out by many specialists, including T. J. de Boer over a hundred years ago; see T. J. de Boer. *The History of Philosophy in Islam*. Translated by E. R. Jonas, B.D. (London : Luzac & Co., 1903), p. 91. [^25]: From a linguistic perspective, it is necessary to understand *qasas* as historically true accounts. Adnan Zarzour. ʿUlum al-Qur’an. (Maktabah al-Islami 1981), p. 362. [^26]: Philosopher Thomas Nagel is one who appears to find this line of argument convincing. He writes, “It is *prima facie* highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection \[…\] given what is known about the chemical basis of biology and genetics, what is the likelihood that self-reproducing life forms should have come into existence spontaneously on the early earth, solely through the operation of the laws of physics and chemistry? \[…\] In the available geological time since the  first life forms appeared on earth, what is the likelihood that, as a result of physical accident, a sequence of viable genetic mutations should have occurred that was sufficient to permit natural selection to produce the organisms that actually exist? \[...\] I realize that such doubts will strike many people as outrageous, but that is because almost everyone in our secular culture has been browbeaten into regarding the reductive research program as sacrosanct, on the ground that anything else would not be science.” (*Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False,* pp. 6-7). [^27]: It is useful to remember that biological evolution does not describe things progressing in a linear sequence, but rather through various branches in the phylogenetic tree. While the domino example may overemphasize the sequential nature of evolution, one must remember that evolution is not a linear stepwise progression from one species to the next but involves processes of genetic diversification and genetic drift that take place in populations. [^28]: Indeed, it is fascinating to note that Islamic theology has already deconstructed this objection—it was none other than Iblis (Satan) who fallaciously accused God of deceiving him into thinking that Adam was inferior to him, due to the latter’s biology and humble origins (he couldn’t fathom how a creation from dust would be preferred over himself—a being created of smokeless fire). See Qur’an 7:16 and 15:39. [^29]: Dennett, Daniel. *Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life,* 1995, p. 21. Dennett himself, however, has been taken to task for his own unexamined baggage concerning rejection of religion and support for scientism, in Leon Wieseltier’s review, "The God Genome." *New York Times*, 02/19/06. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/books/review/the-god-genome.html](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/books/review/the-god-genome.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1630694570673000&usg=AOvVaw1-dKuPm75vUtlwyqQ_ZIXl) [^30]: Bas van Fraassen. *The Scientific Image*. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980) p. 8. [^31]: Hawking, S., & Penrose, R. (1996). The Debate. In Hawking S. & Penrose R. (Authors), *The Nature of Space and Time* (pp. 121-138). Princeton University Press. See also Adrian Bardon’s *A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time*, pp. 75-76 for other quotations. [^32]: While scientists often use the term ‘data’ casually, the term can refer to a diverse array of matters including computer simulations, mathematical models, conceptual analysis, qualitative field observations, chemical analysis, and so on, all of which are epistemically distinct. Just as Ibn Taymiyyah unpackaged the notion of ‘intellect’ (*ʿaql*) to scrutinize its contents (including personal opinions, syllogisms, rhetoric, etc.) the same must be done with the term ‘data.’ [^33]: Bas van Fraassen. *The Scientific Image*. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980) p. 72. [^34]: For an excellent discussion of the issue of observability drawing on Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology, providing a refutation of the most common objections to this paradigm from scientific realism, refer to Wiltsche, H. A.  (2012). What is wrong with Husserl's scientific anti-realism? *Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy*, *55*(2), 105-130. For an example of the application of van Fraassen’s views in the realm of evolutionary biology, refer to Sandy Boucher’s discussion on functionalism versus structuralism as opposing epistemic stances adopted by evolutionists: Boucher, S. C. (2015). Functionalism and structuralism as philosophical stances: van Fraassen meets the philosophy of biology. *Biology & Philosophy*, *30*(3), 383-403. [^35]: For an overview, see Frigg, R., & Votsis, I. (2011). Everything you always wanted to know about structural realism but were afraid to ask. *European Journal for Philosophy of Science*, *1*(2), 227-276. ## Summary # Human Origins and the Question of Evolution The Islamic intellectual tradition has long prided itself on the logical coherence of its worldview, and it is this very coherence that historically emboldened Muslim scholars to pursue the natural sciences without fear of undermining their faith. Unlike the fraught history of Christianity in Europe—which witnessed the persecution of figures such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Giordano Bruno—Muslim civilization records no scientist burned at the stake nor any scientific book banned. In our own era, however, the question of human evolution has bred confusion among the masses. Modern scientists have reached a firm consensus that human beings share a common ancestry with other primates and emerged through the gradual evolution of biological organisms over millions of years, while Islamic scripture and the theologians of the *ummah* have maintained a corresponding consensus that humankind descends from Adam and Eve, who had no parents. The challenge, then, is to reconcile these positions without surrendering the claim that Islam is a faith grounded in reasoned belief. Two extremes have arisen in response to this challenge, and both must be rejected. The first consists of those who abandon traditional theological commitments and, through what may fairly be called hermeneutical gymnastics, claim to discover natural selection and abiogenesis hidden within Qur'anic verses. This renders scripture infinitely malleable to mean whatever one desires, and history has not been kind to such efforts: the philosopher Ibn Sīnā (d. 428 H) attempted to read the cosmological theory of the ten celestial spheres into the Qur'an, ideas now dismissed by every educated person, whereas the plain-sense reading of the Qur'an has stood the test of time and emerged unscathed. The second extreme consists of Muslim creationists who reject all evolutionary science as falsehood. This position is unreasonable, for it requires belief that the entire scientific community is engaged in a vast conspiracy; it is theologically unnecessary, for nothing in scripture demands it; and it unfairly burdens the lay Muslim and places Muslim scientists in a false tension between faith and research. Both extremes recall a passage from Ibn al-Qayyim, who described one group of philosophers who rejected religious tenets through fallacious arguments, and a second group who confronted them by rejecting truth alongside falsehood—supposing that faith in the Messengers required denying matters known by logical necessity (*ʿaql ḍarūrī*) and sensory perception (*ḥiss*), such as the roundness of the orbits, the sphericity of the Earth, or the cause of a lunar eclipse. Islamic scripture is unequivocal regarding the origin of humankind. In the opening of *Sūrah al-Nisāʾ*, Allah declares, "O Humankind, be mindful of your Lord, Who created you from a single person, and made from him his mate, and from the both of them He created many men and women" (Qur'an 4:1). The verse is patently explicit that all mankind, without exception, originates from one couple. The evidences of Qur'an and *Sunnah* on this matter are too numerous to recount, and the entire *ummah* in every generation has understood that humankind descends from Adam and Eve, created directly by Allah. The Qur'an describes Adam's creation with such intricate physical detail that dismissing the narrative as mere figure or metaphor is impossible: we are told our origin is from dust (18:37), from water (21:30), from earth (53:32); that Adam was made from clay (7:12), from sticky clay (37:11), from a hardened clay (55:14), and finally from a darkened, hardened clay that resounds (15:28). *Sūrah al-Sajdah* distinguishes Adam's origin from his descendants: "He began the creation of man from clay, and then made his offspring through an extract of a contemptible fluid" (32:7–8)—the first man from clay (*ṭīn*), and thereafter his offspring through ordinary procreation. Allah further created Adam with His Two Hands and breathed His *Rūḥ* into him. The *ḥadīth* literature, as found in the *Ṣaḥīḥs* and other authentic works, is more explicit still, relating that Allah took a handful of soil, fashioned the shape of Adam, and left it for a time; that Shayṭān circled the hollow form, boasting of his presumed superiority; that when the *rūḥ* reached Adam's nose he sneezed and praised Allah; and that there was a time when Adam was "between the spirit and the clay." Eve (Ḥawwāʾ) was the second human being, made from Adam. In light of so vivid a narrative, the claim that human beings descend from species other than Adam is not theologically tenable. To navigate this, three historical approaches to reason and revelation may be distinguished. Ibn Sīnā (d. 428 H), representing the *falāsifah*, held philosophical reasoning as supreme; in his *Kitāb al-Shifāʾ* he cast the Prophet's role as communicating philosophical truths to the masses through symbols (*rumūz*), affirming only a spiritual resurrection and treating scriptural accounts that conflict with philosophy as allegorical fictions to restrain the commoners (*takhyīl*). This method has no hermeneutic limits and finds a parallel in Spinoza, who reduced God to a productive force in nature. The Ḥanbalī theologian al-Safārīnī (d. 1188 H) condemned this outright, saying there is "no disbelief greater than this disbelief." Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 H), of the *kalām* tradition, argued in his *Qānūn al-Taʾwīl* that reason and revelation are both important foundations (*aṣl muhimm*); the default is that scripture describes things as they actually are (*wujūd dhātī*), and only when this conflicts with a conclusive rational proof does one resort to metaphorical interpretation (*taʾwīl*)—a tool the *kalām* schools applied chiefly to the divine attributes, never treating the accounts of the hereafter or the prophets as wholly allegorical. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) inverted the *kalām* law: if reason establishes the truth of revelation, then to prioritize reason over revelation would logically undermine reason itself. He recognized revelation's concordance with the *fiṭrah*, rejected the rigid division of knowledge into scriptural (*samʿiyyāt*) and rational (*ʿaqliyyāt*), and held that what matters is whether a proof is definitive (*qaṭʿī*). Where a text is explicit, no reinterpretation is permissible; but where a lone text is genuinely ambiguous and reason is conclusive, one may adopt a linguistically plausible reading—not figurative interpretation, but selection among established lexical meanings. Thus *sittati ayyām* (7:54, 10:3, 11:7) may denote six stages rather than six 24-hour days, since *yawm* can signify any period of time (cf. 22:47). Applied to human origins, the narrative is so explicit and so pervasive across the Qur'an and Prophetic statements that *taʾwīl* is implausible and *takhyīl* leads to incoherence, contradicting the Qur'an's insistence that these are literally true narratives (3:62). Yet what scripture does *not* say must also be observed. Nothing in Islamic scripture explicitly negates abiogenesis, genetic mutation, natural selection, hominid species, or a common ancestor for biological life—excepting only the descendants of Adam. One may envision a "domino" scenario in which hominids gradually evolved, and precisely where evolutionists would expect modern humans to appear, Allah placed the children of Adam—biologically and genetically indistinguishable from the predicted species, occupying the same position on the phylogenetic tree. Such a scenario is theologically plausible and empirically undisprovable, being a metaphysical assertion; it is offered not as a claim of what *did* occur, but as one possibility demonstrating why Muslims need feel no consternation. The objection that this would make God deceptive is a weak *theological* objection, not a scientific one, and Allah's creation abounds in recurring patterns—the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio, symmetry, fractals—so biological resemblance is expected. Finally, the philosophy of science itself is often misrepresented. As Daniel Dennett observed, there is no philosophy-free science, only science whose philosophical baggage is unexamined. Since the collapse of logical positivism, scientific realism (which takes theories as literally true descriptions of reality) contends with anti-realism, of which Bas van Fraassen's constructive empiricism holds that science aims only at "empirical adequacy"—fitting observations. Stephen Hawking himself embraced this modesty, disavowing any demand that theory correspond to reality. Crucially, what may be affirmed as true regarding the *unobservable* is severely limited. The events at the time of Adam are unobservable, a matter of the unseen (*ghayb*); Allah says, "I did not call them to witness the creation of the Heavens and earth, or even their own creation" (18:51). No experiment can reach back to determine what took place. It is therefore a mistake to subordinate theology to empirical science, and equally a mistake to declare flatly that "Islam does not accept evolution." The data and principles of biological evolution are not excluded by Islamic theology, provided one affirms that its mechanisms occur solely by the Divine Will—"There is no change, nor power to change, except with Allah." Evolutionary science is neither bad science nor an anti-religious conspiracy, but active research bearing the ordinary limitations of any scientific theory. Understanding both Islamic theology and the philosophy of science properly, the supposed threat of science to religion dissolves under careful scrutiny. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/facts-vs-interpretations-understanding-islam-evolution # Facts vs. Interpretations: Understanding Islam & Evolution **Author:** Dr. Yamina Bouguenaya **Topics:** Evolution, Nature & Science **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 31, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract The purpose of this essay is to offer an Islamic perspective on the theory of evolution. As we discuss this particular theory, we also aim to highlight broader issues related to Islam and science. Indeed, we shall note important principles regarding Qur'anic interpretation, emphasize the need for replacing blind faith with grounded faith, and encourage discernment so as to differentiate between facts and interpretations of the facts such as the materialist/naturalist philosophy that often underlies scientific interpretations. In a sense, the theory of evolution is just a stepping stone for us to invite Muslims (and those who are open to the belief perspective) to reflect more deeply about the purpose of life, the universe, and the meaning of God’s guidance and its relevance to our life. The Qur’an does not predetermine the conclusions of scientific study but rather calls for honest and earnest analysis of the data, rather than dogmatic speculation. To the extent that such factual analysis is found in “evolutionary science” it can have no censure from a Qur’anic perspective. On the other hand, *insofar as the theory of evolution insists on baseless, dogmatic claims such as life being the result of unpurposeful factors and things acting simply out of selfish impulses, it will clash with the Quranic perspective*. Of course, such baseless and dogmatic claims about the emergence of life by blind physical processes and randomness remain empirically unsubstantiated and incoherent, despite their popular acceptance and politicized promotion. --- ## Key Principles In order to analyze the theory of evolution from an Islamic perspective, let’s first lay down some essential principles that are important to establish a sound foundation. Otherwise, a problematic theoretical framework will inevitably distort even the best data. ### Faith is not Blind Contrary to some popular opinion, genuine faith in God cannot be blind. Rather, according to the Qur'an, genuine faith requires testimony (*shahada*) that is based on clear evidence that satisfies both the heart and the mind.[^1] ### Interpreting the Qur'an In order to interpret the Qur'an, we need first to define it. To simply say, “I believe it’s God’s word” is not sufficient in defining the Qur'an or interpreting it. As the Qur'anic exegete and theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960) emphasizes, defining the Qur'an is essential in interpreting it. When we are conscious of Who is speaking, for what purpose, and to whom, we can interpret the text much more accurately and insightfully.[^2] The purpose of the Qur'an is not to give us technical information about the world, because God has given us senses and intellect for us to gather technical information. A good reading of the Qur’an is only possible by reading its parts in view of its overarching purpose of guiding us. Within this purpose, we can further specify the purposes of the Qur'an. Indeed, a number of classical scholars of Islam have talked about *purposes* of the Qur'an (*maqasid al-Qur'an*). While slightly different specific lists have been constructed, in general, it has been agreed upon that the Qur’an is about faith in one God and the establishment of human life in connection to and in response to this God, Who is known through His different attributes, such as mercy, power, and wisdom. Said Nursi, an important Qur'anic exegete whose works we have benefited substantially from, emphasizes that the Qur’an’s very purpose is to guide us in answering core human questions about the meaning of existence and to solve the “riddle” of the universe. More specifically, the purpose of the Qur’an is to establish four major points: (1) *tawḥid*, or the oneness of God—that is, the Oneness of the Source of all the power, beauty, and perfection reflected in the world—and *‘ubudiyya*, the worshipful response to the One; (2) prophethood (*al-risālah*); (3) resurrection (*hashr*); and (4) justice (*‘adāla*). Thus, we need to bear in mind the fundamental features of the Qur’an in order to interpret it coherently. The Qur'an is a discourse from the Eternal One addressed to human beings and it reveals the meaning and purpose of our human existence within this cosmos. The Qur'an provides the keys to understanding reality, without which even the best minds and hearts could not comprehend. Without Divine guidance, human beings are like the blind men touching an elephant[^3]—we can sense some things but we cannot understand the reality of existence. With the Qur'an, human beings can understand the reality of existence. The Qur'an coheres with reality in such an amazing way that it shows that only the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth could have sent this book. None of these above statements regarding the Qur'an are to be accepted on blind faith. Rather, they are all to be confirmed by reason, heart, and experience. Witnessing the Qur'an’s truthfulness is like trying out a key. Without the right key, we cannot open a locked door. And, with the right key (i.e., with the message of the Qur'an), we open the door (i.e., discover the truth of universe) *and* thereby confirm that indeed the key is the right one. Now, if it ever seems that the Qur'an clashes with logic or facts, there are only two possibilities: (1) either what we thought was logical and factual is not really so; or (2) we are not interpreting the Qur'an correctly. According to a classical Qur'anic interpretation principle, “If the Qur'an and reason seem to contradict, one needs to reinterpret the Qur'an on the basis of reason. But the reason with which we interpret the Qur'an must be a *sound* reason.”[^4] This principle has direct implications for the relation between the Qur'an and modern science. There can be no contradiction between a scientific fact and the Qur'an, as long as we are aware of the purposes of the Qur'an as well as the ambiguities of scientific discourse. ### What is ‘Science’? Many people think that science is all about facts ‘out there.’ In reality, science is a practice that involves a great deal of interpretation in addition to observation. Even at the heart of the “hardest” sciences, like physics, scientists are always postulating models and interpretive frameworks to represent and make use of the facts that they observe and measure. To give a simple example, the theory that masses pull each other is a way of *representing* the fact that things move toward each other. In the case of the earth, this representation helps us talk about the way things fall down to earth. “It is gravity pulling things down,” we say. Now, as long as this representation enables us to measure and predict things (like how quickly and with what speed things will fall down to the ground), this is a useful model. One should, however, not confuse the model with a truth-statement. The “law of gravity” is a concept that physicists coined so as to represent the empirical results in formulas. There is actually no observed entity called “the law of gravity” that exists independently of the falling objects and makes them fall. Indeed, the very concept of “laws of nature” is itself grounded in metaphysical principles (e.g., the uniformity of nature) that are implicit presuppositions of science. And even though these metaphysical presuppositions influence the practice of science and interpretation of data profoundly, they are seldom critically assessed because they remain hidden or ignored. Scientists may be reluctant and unwilling to face these metaphysical assumptions or to question them because they often believe and maintain that scientific knowledge has no room for metaphysics. In other words, metaphysical assumptions often go undetected even though they lie at the core of science. In short, scientific knowledge includes metaphysical principles about the world that are untestable and independent of scientific evidence; and  although many scientists may view metaphysics as a threat to scientific rigor, science does accept (albeit implicitly) such principles without evidence, despite claims to the contrary.[^5] If even the simplest non-controversial theory like the law of gravity in physics involves interpretation, then you can guess how theories in biology involve even more interpretation. In biology, we are not talking only about masses and motion as in physics, but also about life and life forms. Life is exceedingly more complex than particles and masses as it involves incredible diversity, change, history, motivations, instincts, and so on. Moreover, when we talk about the history of life on earth, the *overwhelming* majority of events that have taken place in history are inaccessible to us.  Furthermore, we have no way of repeating them in the lab. We should take note that this fact alone makes the subject of the history of life very different than physics or chemistry, where we can, for instance, currently observe the falling of objects in the lab or re-run a chemical experiment. It is important to distinguish between a scientist’s personal views and their scientific findings. Just because someone is an expert in a particular technical issue does not mean that they are an expert in understanding its nature, let alone reality as a whole.[^6] (For instance, physicists can talk about time or energy in technical terms, but that does not mean they understand their reality, let alone the meaning of existence.) --- ## The Qur'an Invites Us to Observe and Reflect As we noted in the beginning, the aim of the Qur'an is to disclose to us the meaning of existence. The Qur'an repeatedly refers to the universe, including human nature, so as to show us how it points to God, the Creator that necessarily transcends His creation. The God of the Qur'an is an Ever-Present Being, Who continuously creates and sustains. The universe is like a dynamic book, constantly revealing the qualities of its Creator and Sustainer; i.e., God. These revealed qualities are called *al-asma al-husna* in the Qur'an, commonly translated as “beautiful names.” Hence, God is described as infinitely knowing, powerful, merciful, wise, beautiful, and so on. The universe, including all forms of life, point to infinite knowledge, power, compassion, wisdom, and beauty, and thereby indicate the beautiful names of God. The Qur'an teaches us *how* to read this dynamic book, and *how* to observe, witness, and confirm that everything in existence reveals the attributes of its Creator.[^7] It constantly calls us to observe the world and gives us cues on how to reflect. It teaches us how to see that the universe has a wise, powerful, caring Creator, and that things do not happen on their own or randomly. Rather, whoever makes one thing must be the Maker of all. The Qur'an calls us to reflect on a tiny fly, for instance (Qur’an 22:73). We realize that the fly cannot be the result of random insentient processes, lacking creative power and comprehensive knowledge. For a fly comes into being in perfect harmony within itself and with the rest of the universe. A fly breathes, eats, and flies within the context of all the physical and chemical events in the world that follow orderly patterns (or “laws” as we call them in science), from the oxygen cycle to sunshine, to the growth of plants, to an incredible genetic replication pattern that is shared by other living beings. Whoever planned and gave existence and life to one fly must be aware of all the rest of the world wherein the fly exists. He must have the capacity to bring forth a living fly from all over this cosmic web. Indeed, whoever makes one fly must be the maker of all life on the planet, and the planet within its bigger cosmic system.[^8] It is of course not possible to explain here in detail the Qur'anic guidance pertaining to this reasoning. Here, we just offer a glimpse so as to highlight the need for reflecting on nature and taking the Qur'anic cues seriously.[^9] --- ## The Qur'an Calls Us to Reflect on the Here and Now To reiterate, the Qur'an calls us to observe more attentively and reflect carefully to recognize the truth of existence. Another important aspect of the Qur'anic call is that it repeatedly invites us to reflect about things happening before our very eyes. In other words, from a Qur'anic perspective, we are not called to simply believe in a Creator who made things in the beginning, set the stage, and left things to somehow unfold on their own. Rather, we are called to believe in the Creator and Sustainer of all things at all times, including *here and now*. The Qur'an calls us to look at things happening before our eyes *right now*: life flourishing in gardens, babies being formed in the wombs, ships sailing in the sea, and so on. The Qur'an calls us to reflect on how all of these events that we witness require immense knowledge, power, and care to take place. They cannot be created by ignorant, unconscious and emotionless, i.e., purposeless, (or in Qur'anic vocabulary, “blind” and “deaf,” as in Qur’an 7:195) natural causes. The finite world in its order and diversity points to the enduring qualities of the Infinite One, God, *here and now*.  Therefore, in order to believe in God in the Qur'anic sense, we do not have to go back to the beginning of first life on earth. Instead, take any life budding and continuing before your eyes *now* and reflect carefully with the cues provided by the Qur'an. If we pay careful attention and reflect, we can witness the reality: this living being is a testimony to the existence of The Wise, Powerful, Knowing, and Caring Creator. Such accessibility and reasonability of the Qur'anic discourse means that it is not dependent on speculations and theories about what might have happened millions of years ago in order to recognize the truth (to be sure, scientific study can be useful in understanding and appreciating the Creator, if honestly and insightfully developed). Similarly, the Qur'an can have no clash with genuine empirical data and reasonable interpretations of it. To reiterate, insofar as science works with data and honest and earnest analysis, rather than speculations, the Qur'an gives it ample freedom to discover, postulate, test, and calculate. It does not predetermine scientific study’s results as it is neither threatened by it nor dependent on it. The theory of evolution is no exception. Insofar as it is based on an honest and open-minded inquiry, it can have no censure from a Qur'anic perspective. However, if it insists on unjustifiable and unfounded claims such as life being the result of random (i.e., unpurposeful and haphazard) factors and all life acting simply out of selfish impulses, it will clash. Of course, such claims that clash with the Qur'an are neither neutral nor scientific, even if they are stated in the name of science. It is essential that we distinguish between science and materialistic interpretations dressed up as science. Having set up this framework, let us now turn to the theory of evolution. --- ## The Theory of Evolution and the Qur'an In order to understand how the Qur'an relates to the theory of evolution, we need to understand the theory a bit more clearly. First, let’s dispel a popular myth: *The theory of evolution is not ‘just a theory,’ it is a proven fact. It is like the theory of gravity in physics.* This is simply inaccurate. The theory of evolution is far from being established as a fact or even a theory. How so? Let’s explain. To start with, let’s note that the theory of evolution has some factual basis. The theory of evolution makes use of factual evidence such as: ✓             Species that are now extinct existed a long time ago; e.g.,  dinosaurs. ✓             The age of the Earth spans billions of years. ✓             In addition to incredible diversity in life forms, there is also incredible similarity across species. ✓             Occasionally mistakes in the genetic ‘copying’ process happen. Most of these mistakes are corrected by the review units in the cell, which detect and excise the mistaken parts and replace them with correct ones. The genetic mistakes that escape this review process and remain are called mutations (these mutations are usually either silent, that is they make no difference to the life of the organism, or they are harmful). These are observations that can be taken as facts (at least as far as we can know at this point in time). However, the theory of evolution, like all theories, involves not only facts but also interpretations of those facts. Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that the theory of evolution is a fact beyond reasonable doubt. For instance, the following are questionable interpretations involved in the theory: o Similarity across species must be due to *all* life forms evolving from *one* thing. \[Note the vastness of this claim, not surprisingly there is no scientific observation that can prove such a major speculation.\] o Over millions of years, a consistent progress of creatures from one cell to multi-cells, from bacteria to human beings must have happened. \[Again, there is no observation that can prove this claim.\] o All species must have emerged through chance and without any purposeful cause. Mistakes in genetic code (i.e., mutations) and environmental factors, such as heat or pressure, created various species. The organisms with mutations that happen to fit the environment best survive:  “the survival of the fittest.” \[This is the weakest part of the theory as will be discussed in the next section. Moreover, the fossil record and other facts challenge such a claim, as will be noted in the final section.\] o Life is based on selfish struggle. There is constant struggle between life forms and within each species. Even a parent’s care for its infant comes from its selfish urge to ensure the survival of its own DNA.[^10] None of the above claims can be deduced or inferred from observed facts. They are all interpretations and conjecture open to various degrees of questioning and disagreement. Moreover, there are a lot of facts that challenge such interpretations contained in the theory of evolution, some of which we mention in the last part of this essay. For now, we shall turn to the weakest aspect of the theory of evolution that also happens to lie at its core. ### The Weakest Point of the Theory of Evolution The most foundational claim of the theory of evolution is also the weakest. This is the claim that the emergence of species on earth happened without any purposeful cause. Simply put, the theory claims that if you combine a messy cosmic soup of chemicals with changing climate conditions, and wait for a very long time, you can eventually have amazingly purposefully constituted species, each well-adjusted to its environment! To put it mildly, this claim contradicts both reason and empirical data.[^11] This insistence on randomness/purposelessness has been a key element of the theory from the very beginning. When the theory of evolution was first postulated, there was no reference to genetic mutations as genes were not well-known. These days, however, it is claimed that genetic mutations are the key factor in the emergence and sustaining of all life forms. That is, the theory assumes that somehow there was a first cell with its DNA (!) and then claims that random (i.e., unintentional, purposeless) mistakes in its genetic code and environmental conditions (such as selective pressures) are responsible for highly organized and coordinated life processes of all cells, organisms, and species. This is not a reasonable claim at all. How can lack of purpose and blind chance be responsible for highly organized, and meaningfully complex structured life forms that exist in harmonious interconnection with the rest of the universe? Such a claim is far from being scientific and it is unacceptable on empirical, logical, and mathematical grounds. Indeed, the more one learns about the biological constitution of living beings, the more it becomes clear that it is illogical to conclude that all these purposefully working structures are the result of pure luck and blind chance. Just for a second think of blood vessels, nerves, the digestive system, and the urinary tract in a human being. Alternatively, you can take a seemingly “simpler” being’s organs like an insect’s eye, a bee’s tongue, or a virus’s smart apparatus to take over a human cell. In each of these cases, and wherever one looks, one sees that incredible wisdom, planning, power, and knowledge are involved in the way things come into being and live. It is not only that we see things arranged purposefully, but also that they are in great dynamic cooperation and harmony with the rest of the body and with other species. Such adjustment is only possible with comprehensive knowledge and power. It cannot be the result of ignorant beings acting cluelessly, even if we were to grant that a cell or a living being somehow carries a strong wish to survive (of course, we do not need to grant that, because the presence of such a helpful desire itself cannot be explained by blind chance, either).[^12] In addition to random mutations, “environment” is invoked as an explanation. And yet environmental conditions do not have purpose or knowledge. How can they then be responsible for a bee’s wing, the sonic radar of a bat, the liver of a human being, and so on? Setting aside innumerable major examples, let us take a small simple example; let us look into a case that involves a slight environmental change and a slight change in an organism. Our blood cells increase in number when we go up in altitude. At higher altitude, there is less oxygen and therefore we need more air carried by our blood cells. The increase in red blood cells is thus a purposeful and caring act, requiring knowledge. Moreover, whoever/whatever knows our need, is also aware of the constitution of air and how to make use of it. Who is responsible for this caring, purposeful and knowing act? Do blood cells know our need? Do they know the changing climate conditions and how to adjust to those changes so as to fulfill our needs? Is it our brain that knows and plans? Can they really know and care about our well-being? Is it at all possible that this act of increase in blood cells, which requires comprehensive knowledge, care, skill, and power would just develop like that, randomly? And then randomly be transcribed into our genetic makeup? How can this adjustment between environment and our cells be ascribed to random mutations or the environment? \[In this example, of course, we are not even asking how the blood cells and vessels (and related organs like the heart and brain) are formed and made to function as a result of chance!\] If even such a tiny change cannot be accounted for by the theory, how can major organs and structures can be explained? --- ## Why is it that proponents of the Theory do not see its contradictions? When we notice the deeply unreasonable core of the theory, some may be shocked and ask: Does the theory *really* claim that things happen without any purposeful cause? This is an easy answer: yes, it does and we encourage the reader to verify it for themselves. A second question is: given that chance is at the heart of the theory, why is it that so many scientists take the theory of evolution seriously and even defend it? The answer lies in intentionality. Their intention is not just to neutrally observe nature and try to make sense of it. Their purpose is also to find an alternative to religion, something other than a purposeful being who transcends nature.[^13] If the intention was purely to find the best explanation for the data we have, the theory of evolution would not have survived. But the intention is different. The intention is to find an explanation with *the condition of not allowing any reference to any intelligent, purposeful being that is beyond nature*. Once such an assumption is made, the theory of evolution becomes “the best” option. It is like deciding to explain a great meal on the dinner table without any reference to a cook. With such pre-judgment, something that is otherwise unreasonable starts to appear as the only option. Then, for instance, the wind that blows in from the window may become “the best explanation.” One can start speculating: “Perhaps the wind mixed the ingredients in precise measures somehow, opened the oven, and set it to the right temperature, etc. We just do not know how exactly and we are still working on the details...” Similarly, once the option of a being with infinite knowledge, wisdom, power, is rejected from the beginning, the theory of evolution is perceived as “the only scientific/logical/reasonable” view. Such speculation is considered reasonable simply because of this intention to negate the option of a transcendent being.[^14] Yet, if science is about being open-minded, why would we assume from the beginning that even when things very clearly look like they are purposefully made, we have to ignore this actuality and resist it at all cost? All prejudices and fears might have some benefit or personal reason behind it, but that does not mean such prejudice is thereby justified.[^15] Adding scientific jargon does not make unjustified views reasonable. So, our advice to readers is to be critical and think for yourselves and do not be discouraged or intimidated by the scientific jargon. You need not be a biologist to question its weakest claim of chance at its heart. --- ## A Note on Methodological Naturalism The prejudice of modern science against any being beyond nature is admitted by philosophers of science. The technical name given to this presumption is “methodological naturalism.” This attitude may have some practical benefits in some contexts; for instance, it can encourage us to look into natural order more closely instead of resorting to a ‘God of the gaps’ view. Indeed, it may be acceptable to limit the scientific method to natural causes to start with. However, the problem with modern science is that it excludes the non-natural/metaphysical indiscriminately especially as it pertains to the results: what happens when natural causes indicate something beyond the physical realm? Insistence on avoiding any reference to a purposeful being beyond nature in modern science leads to distortion of data. The theory of evolution is a perfect example of such distortion. As a philosopher of science summarizes it, “If there is a choice between naturalism and truth, \[such a view\] forces science to choose the former. Once science is limited to certain kinds of entities, it cannot follow the data wherever it leads. *Science is instead forced to beat the data until it gives a naturalistic confession*.”[^16] Thus, science ends up missing important cues to ‘transcendental’ dimensions of nature. Even if science is restricted to the study of natural causes, it needs to remain open to the possibility that the outcome may point beyond. After all, if there is a Creator, how can He have no bearing on His creation (i.e., the natural world and its ‘laws’)? How is it justified to ban God (i.e., the Creator) from the world? How is that ‘objective’? Let’s also keep in mind that when a scientist sets up an experiment, she’s actually seeking answers to particular questions and she carries out her measurements accordingly. This does not mean that those questions and answers capture all of ‘reality,’ since what is known about the world depends on the scientist’s paradigm; i.e., what she perceives and what she *chooses to look for*, which determines the particular way the experiment is executed. That’s why new scientific theories do not emerge only as a product of the accumulation of facts and data, but also as a product of new ways of seeing and perceiving the world, as science theorist Thomas Kuhn famously noted.[^17] --- ## A Note on Politics Philosophers of science note that a scientific theory can be developed, changed, and eventually can even be abandoned. This should also apply to the theory of evolution. But for the reasons mentioned above, unfortunately, in reality, there is a lot of politics involved in questioning the theory of evolution. Indeed, a lot of political maneuvering happens in publicly defining, explaining, and scientifically questioning the theory.[^18] Alternative theories to evolution are strongly censured in Western academia. If you are critical of the theory, it is practically impossible for you to be published in academic journals, regardless of how strong your empirical data are or how probable your alternative hypothesis is.[^19] This is an indication that this theory is beyond the realm of the ‘scientific.’ The theory of evolution is a dogma as it is considered incontestable and it is held up for ideological reasons.[^20] Some scientists, such as those in the Intelligent Design Movement in the US, have tried to break through such censure; however, they seem to have some way to go.[^21] --- ## Conclusion The key logical problem for the theory of evolution is the claim of randomness and purposelessness: the claim that things have evolved from an ancient cosmic soup by chance, and random factors such as mutation and climate conditions. In addition, unearthing billions of years of earth history is extremely complicated. It is also destined to remain a tentative and incomplete task, given the immense amount of lost empirical data and immense time span we are looking at. For the purposes of faith, one can defer empirical conclusions to scientists to the extent that they *carefully* collect and *honestly* interpret the data to the best of their ability. The Qur'an gives ample space for genuine scientific inquiry, as its purpose is not to teach us technical information but rather to give essential cues in understanding the world and our lives. It invites us to pay attention to the purpose and purposefulness of life. With that guidance, which is to be followed not blindly but with sound reasoning and reflection on what we observe and experience in the world, we should be critical of all kinds of dogmatic subjective interpretations present in modern scientific discourse. Just because something is found in a scientific textbook does not mean it is necessarily scientific. Muslims should be willing to take the lead in such questioning and rethinking of the theory. Finally, the challenge for believers today is not about the theory of evolution; rather, it is about developing a science that is honest, open, enriching, and beneficial. We need a science that allows us to discover and celebrate the wisdom, diversity, creativity, and beauty that is constantly being reflected in creation. We thus need a *paradigm shift* in our approach to understanding life, the world, and our place in it.[^22] We would like to end our essay on this note, by adding a section to give a taste of what such a shift might look like. --- ## Appendix: Reflections from a biologist trained in Qur'anic approach by Dr. Ilhan Akan *In closing, we would like to share some reflections on biological facts from a Qur'anic perspective. Dr. Ilhan Akan is a biologist with a PhD in molecular biology whose approach to his scientific work has been transformed through Qur'anic study.*[^23] *We include his brief reflection simply as an example of how a biologist can question baseless claims of the theory of evolution. More importantly, we would like to give a taste of how, inspired by a profound Qur'anic understanding, we can start reading the book of the universe, seeing how it points to The Creator. By including this section, we want to show that it is possible to interpret differently (and much more reasonably) the data that are being misinterpreted or ignored in the current “mainstream” perspective of evolutionary biology. What follows are Dr. Akan’s reflections.* A theory in biology and a theory in physics are different things and clearly evolutionary theory does not have the same status as a physical theorem. The theory of evolution still warrants considerable study; nothing is proven or disproven. A major problem is that there is no opposing view allowed in biological science these days in Western academia. You can’t publish anything against evolution. It will be rejected from any scientific journal. That is why it looks like every published scientific study supports evolution. There is a need for a paradigm shift in biology. In the meantime, there are a couple of example observations that I would like to share as a biologist that make me question the theory of evolution. ### 1\.     Survival of the fittest According to the “survival of the fittest” concept, which is an essential aspect of the theory of evolution, there should be an incredible abundance of fossils of unsuccessful mutated organisms. Yet, we have not found them! Strangely, all the fossils we find are those of successful organisms. This casts doubt on the theory. Interestingly, what is thought to be an arms race between species can be easily seen as every living organism helping each other, or that they are all designed to be dependent on each other. The results of population genetic studies confirm the fact that each species is dependent on others. In other words, you cannot have an ecosystem that consists of just one type of organism. Plants need animals, animals need other animals, animals need plants, they all need bacteria and fungi, etc. However, the evolutionists claim that the dependencies in an ecosystem are due to evolutionary constrictions. The nature of these constrictions, the origins of these limitations, and why evolution could not overcome them is never questioned. If one were to study the details of a so-called “ecosystem,” they would find that the ecosystem is composed of the sum of organisms in it. Who arranges these forces? If every organism in the ecosystem is a part of the ecosystem, what is the driving force behind this successful system? In order to explain these powerful facts, an evolutionist often refers to the ecosystem: “everything in a biological system acts within the boundaries of the ecosystem.” The big question here is why this harmony takes place: how can these simple organisms know what to do and what not to do? The theory of evolution’s ecosystem argument assumes that there would be random mutations in each organism, and some will be more adapted to the environment. That presumably accounts for the diversity of organisms. However, according to evolutionary time, this probability is impossible. By referring to any event with “it took millions of years to do this,” an evolutionist expects us to believe (!) that all the unsuccessful organisms were eliminated over millions of years. Even billions of years are not enough to explain the diversity in life forms. For instance, there’s no explanation for the increase in the number of species during the “Precambrian explosion.” This is where a paradigm shift can be applied. One can look at all these events, and easily conclude that there must be an all-Knowing, all-Wise Creator and Sustainer controlling every aspect of life. This belief would not stop someone from studying life and nature; on the contrary, it will make one want to study more and more the details of all the intricate relationships between organisms. It only makes sense if one believes all the changes surrounding life are governed by The One who creates and sustains all. The so-called “evolutionary process” is, in fact, a process that is under a Wise, Knowing and Powerful Controller. For such a Creator, changing one thing to another is simply transforming particles from one shape to another. That is also why living organisms have similarities. We all have DNA, we all have cells, we all need oxygen, water etc because we are all made by the same Creator and we all bear His signature. ### 2\. Why does my heart beat? Ironic “Trade-Offs” and “Rules” of Evolution According to the theory, evolution “necessitates” that higher more complex organisms develop mechanisms that are advantageous for them to survive. Let’s take the heart for an example. Heart cells require no outside intervention to work; they just do! The heart can also just stop suddenly. If evolution were to drive things to improve, we should have acquired voluntary control over autonomic processes such as the heart beating rate, but we have not. To this fact, an evolutionist will say “Evolution does not let us mess with heart rate,” or “Evolution comes with a trade-off.” Is this statement really scientific? What is meant by evolution here? An evolutionist often talks about evolution as if it is a conscious being who has power and wisdom, and yet the theory, in fact, rejects such a being. Such contradicting and ironic statements are not uncommon in proponents of evolutionary discourse. ### 3. Who is digesting my food? Challenge of Self-Sacrifice and Interdependence We start chewing our food and we have no control over the rest of its digestion. Our digestive system looks like its acting on its own and produces acid that results in the death of thousands of cells lining the digestive tract. Who is responsible for this almost sacrificial action that helps the human body? If every living being works for itself, why would these cells kill themselves to enable energy production for the body? This fact could only make sense if the cells in the digestive tract work under the command of a being who makes them and who employs them to act wisely and for the sake of human needs. In contrast, if evolution were the mechanism to survive, as the evolutionist view claims, why are so many cells dying while you are trying to gain energy from nutrients? Why does any cell in a multicellular organism operate for the benefit of the organism as a whole and not just itself? The theory of evolution clearly fails to account for the purposeful acts that yield benefit for “the greater good.” Let’s continue with the example of digestion. No animal with a digestive tract (i.e., with intestines) can survive without the bacteria in their gut. This currently is known as the microbiome. For example, if you lose the bacteria due to a disease or antibiotics, you will have diarrhea that could be deadly if you don’t replace the intestinal bacteria with new ones. Gut flora are even needed for development. It is puzzling that we are dependent on organisms that are far behind us in evolution. Why are we dependent on these organisms? One specific example that comes to my mind about the shortcomings of the theory is the case of Vitamin B12, which is made by bacteria in our intestine. B12 deficiency affects the brain and nervous system. Evolutionarily, this cooperation would be simply called “symbiotic life” and glossed over. However, if you think about it from an evolutionary perspective, it does not make sense for a multicellular organism like us to be dependent on bacteria to make such an important molecule. ### 4. Viruses: A Major Problem for Evolution Viruses are also a big problem for evolution. If they are an ancient life form, why are they dependent on their hosts like humans? Moreover, why have we not generated virus-resistance during the course of our evolution and the tremendous selection pressures in favor of it? Evolutionists often respond, “Evolution is not perfect, you gain something but you need to give something else away.” This explanation is another inconsistency in the theory, how can an organism know what it will need in the future and prepare for it by making a deal like this? ### 5. Mothers Challenge the Theory There is no way to explain a mother animal’s caring for its babies from the perspective of evolutionary theory. The evolutionist claims that animals watch their babies for the survival of their species. This is a strange explanation, to put it mildly. Why would a mother animal sacrifice itself for some young and vulnerable animal? If the evolutionary view is true, then a mother should not sacrifice itself for its babies, as it can always have another baby. As you see, the theory of evolution fails to explain the very compassionate acts we see before our eyes. ### 6. Beautiful leaves: Shapes and Beauty as a Problem for Evolution In the springtime, we see all kinds of trees have all kinds of leaves. If the purpose of the evolution of leaves is just to perform photosynthesis, why are there so many different shapes? The theory of evolution thus fails to make sense of diversity with its simplistic understanding of functionality. As far as I can see, the theory of evolution fails to explain the beauty in creation. I would interpret the diversity in the world and its beauty as clear signs of the One behind the scenes, speaking to us through His Artwork, disclosing His beauty, art, and love. ### 7. Apples: Another Example of Interdependence and Cooperation in Nature Sparing you all the specific details that I work on in my lab, I can tell you that from the data I have encountered in my years of scientific study, I personally conclude that nothing in the universe is random. How can I accept a chance-based theory of evolution when I see the opposite all the time? To give another example, as we all know, an apple tree gives apples, and there are seeds in it. First of all, the tree has to know when to start flowering, meaning it has to know spring time, summer time and fall or winter. In addition, it means that the tree knows that insects, such as bees, would come to drink the nectar from its flowers, so its pollen could be fertilized. The apple tree has to decide to make nectar. Following that, the apple tree should know that it needs animals like birds to distribute its seeds. It should cover the seeds with a tasty apple to attract animals like birds. To make all this happen, the apple tree has to know what to get from the soil, send it to its leaves and make sugar in those leaves and then send it to apple fruit. This is no small feat, and it requires comprehensive knowledge and impressive wisdom; it can’t be the result of random processes. Just a simple look at an apple tree shows how impossible the randomness claim of evolution truly is. It makes much more sense to attribute the apple tree, soil, water, sun, birds etc. to One Creator Who makes them all, knows them all, and so employs them for each other’s benefit. By these shared roles, the sun is under the apple tree’s service, the soil is helping the apple tree, the apple tree is serving birds, and birds are distributing its seeds, etc. ### 8. DNA One big argument that was used by evolutionists was that most of our DNA is junk and just piles of ancient viral DNA. However, today we are learning that most of that region contains molecules that control gene expression or participate in architectural functions of the chromosome.[^24] In fact, the regulation of gene expression is so intricately regulated that it is becoming more and more impossible to believe in the randomness of this whole system. DNA serves as a template for RNA, which then is used to generate proteins. The RNA and proteins go back and regulate DNA. There are layers and layers of controls and regulations. All these new findings opened new areas of research, such as epigenetics, microRNAs, insulators in the genome, etc. Contrary to arguments, the more we learn about biology the more it is impossible to deny a purposeful and knowing Creator. ### 9. We are Destined to Die In fact, our own DNA stands against evolution. The terminal portions of chromosomes are called telomeres. These are repeated sequences of DNA. These repeats are longest when we are born and shorten after each cell division. For example, we start with 100 telomere repeats and as we get older the number repeats drop to 60, 50, 40 and eventually goes to zero as we age. In other words, we are aging as soon as we are born. Preventing telomere shortening is the hallmark of cancer cells. So, it is clear that we are destined to die. However, if evolution is the way to get better why should our DNA have a program that schedules us to die? If DNA evolved for better survival, why aren't we like plants that can live hundreds of years and why are we aging? To me, this fact only makes sense if we reject randomness, and confirm the Qur'anic view that we are created by One Creator who designed us in a way that entails we don’t stay in this world forever. ### 10. Y Chromosome The Y chromosome is present only in males. Humans have 46 chromosomes, and 2 of them are sex chromosomes. If the duplicate is both X (XX), then it is a girl, if it is XY, then it is a boy. There is an event called crossing over in paired chromosomes. Through this process, some of our features become like our mothers, and others resemble our fathers. For example, in our case, if the girl has 2 X chromosomes, one comes from her mother and one comes from her father. These two X chromosomes will exchange some pieces from each other. At the end, the X chromosome is a mixture of chromosomal material from her mother and father.  However, the Y chromosome does not have a pair, so its composition does not change. In fact, it is used to trace the biological trees of human populations. The analysis of Y chromosome suggests that all humankind came from a single man. The current belief is that all humans came from a single human ancestor male who migrated from Africa. (I have even heard in a meeting an evolutionary biologist speculate that it is most likely that one man traveled around the world and had kids with different women around the world!) Isn’t it much easier to accept that all humankind came from Adam? Why is it so hard to believe that a Creator Who creates and sustains everything we see also created Adam? --- ## In Sum: As far as I see, as a scientist trained in modern biology, the theory of evolution itself stipulates randomness, wherein no purposeful agent is accepted. God is involved in every moment of our lives. He creates, sustains, and changes all beings at all times. One can’t say “I accept evolution, but there is God involved at some steps.” Since the theory of evolution insists on no Divine or purposeful involvement, trying to insert God into the theory is meaningless. If one claims to be a believer in God and evolution, they only allowed God to create at the beginning of the creation (~five billion years ago), and believe that purposeless “evolutionary forces” drive life as we know it. Such arguments misunderstand the theory of evolution and misrepresent the reasonableness of the Qur'anic view. One can easily conclude that life is so much more complicated and cannot be reduced to random and purposeless “evolutionary forces.” The Qur'an claims that nothing can happen without the will of God. The more one learns about life, the easier it is to confirm *La ilaha illallah: There is no deity except God.* --- ## Notes [^1]: There are many Qur'anic passages that call for reflecting on the universe. For a more detailed discussion of the Qur'anic approach to evidence as well as Qur'anic interpretation discussed in this section, see Yamina Bouguenaya, *Living with Genuine Tawhid: Witnessing the Signs of God through Qur'anic Guidance*, Receiving Nur Publications, 2017. Throughout this article, we gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to Said Nursi’s works, Risale-i Nur \[Epistles of Light\]. Its major volumes have been translated by Sukran Vahide into English and are also available in electronic format at [www.saidnur.com/english](http://www.saidnur.com/english). See also the forthcoming *Living the Qur'an: Selections on Tawhid from Said Nursi’s Epistles of Light* (Gorgias Press, 2019). [^2]: For instance, if it is my boss who tells me ‘you are fired,’ it will have a grave consequence, whereas if it is my friend, it might be just a tease. Even in the context of such a simple human utterance, the meaning of the sentence changes depending on by whom and for what purpose it is being said. In understanding the Qur'an, we need even more awareness of its purposes. [^3]: In the famous parable, a group of blind men encountering an elephant come to different conclusions about the animal, the one touching its trunk presumes it to be a snake, the one touching its ear presumes it to be a fan, the one touching its leg presumes it be a tree trunk, and so on. Originating from India, this parable was cited by Muslim scholars like Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in *Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-din* and Jalal al-Din al-Rumi in his *Mathnavi*. [^4]: For a detailed discussion of principles of Qur'anic interpretation, see: Yamina Bouguenaya and Isra Yazicioglu, “Said Nursi’s Qur’anic Hermeneutics, ”in *The Companion to Said Nursi Studies*, ed. by Ian Markham & Z. Sayilgan, Pickwick Publications, 2017, 51-66. [^5]: Whether implicitly or explicitly, metaphysics is and has been part of science and it can and does contribute to the advancement of science. For instance, in the case of Muslim scientists, science historian Rom Landau wrote: “The Muslims who believed that God reveals Himself in this world at every moment of existence and that this world is constantly created by Him, regarded the universe not as finite, not as being, but as becoming. In Mathematics, it was al-Biruni, the great eleventh-century mathematician, who finally expressed that conviction by elevating numbers to the status of elements of function. Function, however, implies movement, dynamism… Al Biruni, by treating numbers as elements of function, divorced them from their static and purely spatial character, and linked them to time…The change from the Greek conception of a static universe to a new dynamic one was initiated by al Khwarizmi (780-850), the creator of modern algebra, the first mathematician to make algebra an exact science.” Rom Landau, *Arab Contribution to Civilization* (California: American Academy of Asian Studies, 1958), 31. [^6]: Yazicioglu, “Perhaps their Harmony is not that Simple: Said Nursi on the Qur’an and Modern Science,” Theology and Science, (2013), 11:4, \[339–355\], 346. See also Yamina Bouguenaya, “The Hermeneutical Dimension of Science,” in The Muslim World, Vol. LXXXIX, No. 3-4, July-October 1999.  For a helpful and accessible overview of Islam and science, see Yamina Bouguenaya, “Islamic Philosophy of Science,” accessible at [https://www.receivingnur.org/islamic-philosophy-of-science.html](https://www.receivingnur.org/islamic-philosophy-of-science.html) [^7]: See, for instance, Qur'an, 2:264, 7:107–8, 13:3, 16:65ff., 21:22; 22:73; 29:42; 30:20ff.; 31:28; 56:57-70. Indeed, the Qur'an calls us to question our mistaken interpretations of reality. We often think that things happen on their own. Or we think insentient and lifeless things, such as water, produce intricate life in a plant, simply due to its proximity to it. The Qur'an encourages us to question these, by making us ask: “Can this thing be really the maker of life? Can this ignorant substance, water, really be source of intricate design and beauty and benefit in this plant? Does it have the qualities of knowledge, creativity, wisdom, power, to be its creator?” [^8]: For a more detailed Qur'anic reflection on nature through this verse on the fly, see Receiving Nur animation: “The Miracle of the Fly & How It Glorifies its Maker” [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dw0xrevmZUN0&sa=D&ust=1535727112655000)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0xrevmZUN0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0xrevmZUN0) [^9]: For further details, we recommend Said Nursi’s works, such as 22nd Word, 33rd Word in Words and 23rd Flash, in Flashes, tr. by Sukran Vahide. Also relevant is Nursi, *The Supreme Sign: The Observations of a Traveller Questioning the Universe*, tr. by Hamid Algar. [^10]: Such a claim ignores the *fact* of immense cooperation and harmony within nature. Also, attributing “selfishness” and “concern for survival” to a chemical structure like the DNA is not a factual statement, nor does it not become scientific simply because it is claimed by a biologist such as Richard Dawkins. [^11]: For a brief but strong refutation of the view of chance explained in accessible language, see Said Nursi’s “Treatise on Nature,” (*Flashes*, 23rd Flash, 232-254, tr. by Sukran Vahide); see esp. pp. 235-236. [^12]: For instance, let us just reflect on one event: the union of an egg and a sperm. Sperm released from the father race toward the egg in the mother. Once a sperm enters the egg, the egg membrane becomes impermeable to further sperm. This set of facts alone indicates comprehensive knowledge and purpose at work. Someone/something clearly knows 1) the way each sperm and egg is formed: that each contains half of a set of DNA; 2) that only one sperm should unite with an egg in order to constitute a full set of DNA; 3) that the sperm should be equipped to travel to the egg; 4) once one sperm enters the egg, no other sperm should enter it so that there is no excess DNA, and so on. How reasonable is it to presume that the sperm or egg know all this? Is it at all possible that somehow through mistakes in the genetic code, a sperm is equipped to go toward the egg and egg closes its membrane purposely and wisely? Just this one event shows how things are interrelated and harmonized with each other. The events are so interconnected that it is impossible to claim that some random events or things could work together to produce this outcome. Furthermore, there are countless other interrelated events happening within the womb, and in the human body, let alone in all other species, all of which indicate immense comprehensive knowledge and purposefulness that rejects the possibility of things complementing each other by chance. [^13]: To be sure, such intention applies to only some of the scientists, especially to those who are leading in defending the theory. Other scientists follow their lead without questioning, and their inability to see the contradiction stems from having *no* intention to judge the theory on its merits. [^14]: Nursi offers  simple metaphors to clarify how one’s intentionality can make the impossible look possible. See the moon example noted in *Words*, 144. [^15]: For instance, one motivation may be to feel good about rejecting religion. Another motivation may be to make up for excesses committed by some religious people, like the medieval Catholic Church censoring Galileo (though we should also keep in mind that the clash between religion and science even in the Western context has been exaggerated for Christianity has supported scientific study more often than it challenged it). The political benefits of the theory in the colonial period was also a reason; the European colonialists invoked the theory of evolution to wipe out native populations, such as in Australia, claiming that the people they killed had not yet evolved to become fully human. [^16]: Jeffrey Koperski, *The Physics of Theism: God, Physics and the Philosophy of Science* (Blackwell, 2015), 212, (italics added.) [^17]: In other words, the questions we ask shape the answers we find. To give a simplified example, say a person, a few centuries ago, was presented with a laptop and asked to investigate it; how would he have proceeded? How revealing would his questions be, if he had no idea what a computer was and no clue about the purpose for which it had been assembled? Unless he were given some hints, could he ask meaningful questions to discover the reality of the object before him? How far could his experiments take him? For instance, through experiments, he could show that the laptop works quite well as a tray. Could he then say that he knows the truth about this object? The situation of this man claiming to understand the laptop is like the situation of a scientist who assumes naturalism (i.e., that nothing beyond nature is real) and believes that he is in no need of any cues beyond to understand nature. How do they know they are not missing crucial aspects of the object of inquiry? What if there are 'things' that they’re totally unaware of and they don’t even know that they don’t know? [^18]: For instance, because this claim of chance is so unreasonable, in popular definitions and school textbooks the term “random” or “chance” is often evaded in explaining the theory of evolution. They even introduced a new term, “non-random,” in a desperate attempt to discourage critical thinking of the theory. Richard Dawkins, for instance, vehemently claims that “natural selection” is a “non-random” process and claims the theory does not reduce all life to random chance. What do they mean by “non-random”? Does “non-random” mean “purposeful”? No, not at all. Does it mean a consistent phenomenon that is observed regularly? No, not at all. But by throwing in this term “non-random,” they blur the vision of the common person who can otherwise see that the emperor has no clothes.  And, even if we were to grant Dawkins’ claim that “natural selection” (which is also a vague term) is “non-random,” he can only invoke it as merely a subtractive phenomenon, eliminating organisms of lesser reproductive fitness; it cannot generate organs or organisms. The generative mechanism invoked in the theory of evolution is that of random mutations. As Lenski and Mittler admit, “A fundamental tenet of evolutionary biology is that mutations are random events” (Lenski RE, Mittler JE. 1993. The directed mutation controversy and neo-Darwinism. Science 259: 188–94). Moreover, the notion of abiogenesis which asserts the emergence of complex cellular life from random interactions of atoms and molecules in a primordial soup also entails reducing all life ultimately to chance. [^19]: For instance, Harvard faculty Douglas Dewar, the author of *TTransformistIllusion*, and molecular biologist Michael Behe, the author of Darwin’s *Black Box*. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “On Biological Origins,” in *Islam, Science, Muslims, and Technology* ed. by Muzaffar Iqbal, Dost Publications, 2009, (147–172); pp. 155-156. Nasr also discusses other scientific dissents in Europe as well as logical and mathematical problems with the theory (pp. 147-160). [^20]: See Nasr, 159-160. Similarly, Philip E. Johnson, a professor of law who wrote *Darwin on Trial*, explains how the theory of evolution functions as a foundational story for naturalistic ideology that rejects God. See “Introduction,” in  his *Reason in the Balance: The Case against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education*, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 1995), 7-17. Johnson also offers a noteworthy discussion of the dissonance between scientific evidence and the presentation of the theory to the public in an interview entitled “Philip E. Johnson on Darwinism”, accessible at: <[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww6T8xjp9Vo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww6T8xjp9Vo)\> [^21]: See their work at their website <[http://www.intelligentdesign.org](http://www.intelligentdesign.org)\> [^22]: Yamina Bouguenaya “Islamization of Knowledge: A Paradigm Shift,” in *Muslim Education Quarterly*, 12 (4), pp. 4-29. According to Nursi, the universe reflects glimpses of various divine laws, such as “ the law of mercy, law of wisdom, law of justice, law of beauty (*kanun al-rahma, kanun al-karam, kanun al- ‘adl, kanun al- jamal*)” and so on. If we could have such a paradigm shift, science could become a venue for discovering such laws that point us to the One indicated by the beautiful names. (See Nursi, *Words*, “30th Word, 2nd Aim on ‘Transformation of Particles,’ 3rd Point, ” tr. by S. Vahide, pp. 578-582) [^23]: He gratefully acknowledges the perspective he gained through Qur'anic study through Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s exegesis, the Risale-i Nur, which he studied with Dr. Ali Mermer, a scholar of Islam and university chaplain in New York. Dr. Mermer is also the founder of *Islam from Within* YouTube channel and one of the main contributors of www.Ha-mim.org with many essays, discussions, and audio recordings. [^24]: Research continues to identify and hypothesize new roles for what was formerly considered “junk.” For instance, see: Jagannathan M, Yamashita YM. Function of junk: pericentromeric satellite DNA in chromosome maintenance. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. 2018:034504. Also see Erika Check Hayden “Human genome at ten: Life is complicated,” *Nature* 464, 664-667 (2010). ## Summary An Islamic Perspective on the Theory of Evolution The question of how a Muslim should regard the theory of evolution cannot be answered soundly until certain foundational principles are established, for a flawed framework distorts even the finest data. The first of these principles is that genuine faith in God is not blind. The Qur'an calls for a testimony (shahada) rooted in clear evidence that satisfies both the heart and the mind, and thus belief in God is meant to be confirmed by reason and reflection rather than accepted uncritically. A second principle concerns how the Qur'an itself is to be understood. As the exegete and theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960) stressed, one must first define the Qur'an in order to interpret it, remaining conscious of Who is speaking, for what purpose, and to whom. The Qur'an was not sent to convey technical information about the physical world, for God endowed us with senses and intellect to gather such knowledge ourselves. Rather, its purpose is guidance. The classical scholars discussed the purposes of the Qur'an (maqasid al-Qur'an), and though their lists varied, they broadly agreed that the Qur'an concerns faith in the one God and the ordering of human life in response to Him, known through His attributes such as mercy, power, and wisdom. Following Nursi, this purpose may be specified as four central aims: the oneness of God (tawḥid) and the worshipful response to Him (‘ubudiyya); prophethood (al-risālah); resurrection (hashr); and justice (‘adāla). The Qur'an is thus a discourse from the Eternal One to human beings, disclosing the meaning of our existence and providing the keys without which even the finest minds cannot grasp reality—like blind men touching an elephant, we may sense parts but cannot comprehend the whole without divine guidance. From these foundations follows an important principle for the relation between revelation and reason. According to a classical rule of interpretation, if the Qur'an and reason appear to contradict, one must reinterpret the Qur'an in light of reason—yet only in light of a sound reason. Applied to modern science, this means there can be no genuine contradiction between an established scientific fact and the Qur'an, provided one is mindful both of the Qur'an's purposes and of the ambiguities inherent in scientific discourse. When apparent conflict arises, either what we took to be logical and factual is not truly so, or we have misinterpreted the Qur'an. This makes it essential to understand what science actually is. Science is not merely a collection of facts "out there"; it is a practice involving a great deal of interpretation alongside observation. Even in the "hardest" sciences, scientists postulate models and frameworks to represent what they observe. The "law of gravity," for instance, is a concept coined to represent in formulas the fact that objects move toward one another; there is no independently observed entity called "the law of gravity" that makes objects fall. Indeed, the very notion of "laws of nature" rests on metaphysical presuppositions, such as the uniformity of nature, which are untestable and accepted without evidence, even though many scientists regard metaphysics as foreign to their work. If even the simple law of gravity involves interpretation, then theories in biology—concerning life with all its diversity, history, and instinct—involve far more. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of events in the history of life are inaccessible to us and cannot be repeated in a laboratory, which sets the study of life's history apart from physics or chemistry. One must also distinguish a scientist's personal views from their technical findings, since expertise in a narrow matter does not confer understanding of its ultimate nature or of reality as a whole. The Qur'an, for its part, repeatedly invites us to observe and reflect upon the universe, which is like a dynamic book continuously revealing the qualities of its Creator—the beautiful names (al-asma al-husna) of the One who is infinitely knowing, powerful, merciful, wise, and beautiful. The Qur'an teaches us how to read this book and to recognize that things do not come about on their own or by chance, for whoever makes one thing must be the Maker of all. It calls us to reflect upon a tiny fly (Qur'an 22:73), which cannot be the product of random, insentient processes lacking creative power and comprehensive knowledge, for it exists in perfect harmony within itself and with the whole cosmic order. Crucially, the Qur'an directs our attention to what unfolds here and now—life flourishing in gardens, infants forming in wombs, ships sailing the sea—so that we recognize the Creator and Sustainer of all things at every moment. Such events cannot proceed from "blind" and "deaf" natural causes (Qur'an 7:195). This means that recognizing the truth of God's existence does not depend upon speculation about what occurred millions of years ago; any budding life before our eyes suffices as testimony to a Wise, Powerful, Knowing, and Caring Creator. Because the Qur'an neither predetermines nor fears the results of scientific study, it grants ample freedom to inquiry that honestly analyzes data. The theory of evolution is no exception: insofar as it rests on honest, open-minded investigation, it draws no censure from a Qur'anic standpoint. The theory does possess a factual basis—that extinct species such as dinosaurs once existed, that the Earth spans billions of years, that life shows both immense diversity and striking similarity, and that occasional uncorrected genetic copying errors, called mutations, occur (usually silent or harmful). Yet the theory also involves questionable interpretations that cannot be deduced from these facts: that all life forms descend from a single origin, that a consistent progression from one cell to human beings occurred, that species emerged purely by chance through mutation and environmental pressure ("survival of the fittest"), and that life is fundamentally selfish struggle. It is therefore inaccurate to call the theory a proven fact comparable to the law of gravity. The weakest point of the theory—and also its most foundational claim—is the insistence that species arose without any purposeful cause, as though a cosmic soup of chemicals combined with shifting conditions could, given enough time, yield purposefully constituted, well-adjusted living beings. This contradicts reason and empirical evidence alike. The more one learns of the intricate constitution of living things—blood vessels, nerves, an insect's eye, a bee's tongue—the clearer it becomes that such coordinated structures, existing in dynamic cooperation with the whole, cannot arise from blind chance. Even a slight adjustment, such as the increase of red blood cells at high altitude to compensate for scarce oxygen, is a purposeful, knowing, and caring act that neither the cells nor the environment could originate on their own. If such a minor change defies explanation by randomness, major organs and systems defy it all the more. Why, then, do proponents overlook these contradictions? The answer lies in intention: the aim is to explain nature without permitting reference to any intelligent, purposeful being beyond it. This presupposition—known technically as methodological naturalism—may hold some practical value, yet when applied indiscriminately to results, it distorts the data. As one philosopher of science observed, when forced to choose between naturalism and truth, such a stance chooses naturalism and "beat[s] the data until it gives a naturalistic confession." As Thomas Kuhn noted, new theories arise not merely from accumulating facts but from new ways of perceiving the world. Compounding this, a great deal of politics surrounds the theory: alternatives are heavily censured in Western academia and cannot readily be published regardless of their evidential strength, which itself indicates that the theory functions as a dogma held for ideological reasons. Some, such as the Intelligent Design movement, have sought to challenge this, though with limited success. In sum, the central logical difficulty of the theory is its claim of randomness and purposelessness, while the reconstruction of billions of years of Earth's history must remain tentative given the vast lost data. For the purposes of faith, empirical conclusions may be left to scientists insofar as they gather and interpret data honestly, for the Qur'an does not aim to teach technical information but to furnish the essential cues for understanding life and our place within it. Believers ought therefore to be critical of dogmatic interpretations dressed as science, since not everything found in a scientific textbook is genuinely scientific. The true challenge is not the theory of evolution itself but the development of an honest, open, and beneficial science that discovers and celebrates the wisdom and beauty reflected throughout creation—a paradigm shift in how we understand the world. By way of illustration, the molecular biologist Dr. Ilhan Akan offers reflections questioning the theory from within his field. He notes that a biological theory does not share the status of a physical theorem, and that "survival of the fittest" should have left an abundance of fossils of unsuccessful mutated organisms, yet only successful forms are found. Ecosystems reveal mutual dependence rather than mere struggle, which the theory glosses over as "evolutionary constrictions" without explaining their origin. He points to the involuntary beating of the heart, the self-sacrificing death of digestive-tract cells, our dependence on gut bacteria for vitamins such as B12, the puzzle of viruses, a mother's care for her young, the diversity and beauty of leaves, and the interdependence embodied in an apple tree—all of which resist a chance-based account. He observes further that regions of DNA once dismissed as "junk" prove intricately regulatory, that telomere shortening ordains our aging and death (unfitting for a theory of ever-improving survival), and that Y-chromosome analysis suggests all humankind descends from a single man—more readily accepted as descent from Adam. He concludes that since the theory insists on no divine or purposeful involvement, inserting God into it is incoherent; rather, the more one learns of life's complexity, the easier it becomes to affirm La ilaha illallah—there is no deity except God. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/living-abrahams-legacy-relevance-of-rites-and-rituals-in-the-modern-age # Living Abraham's Legacy of Hajj: Relevance of Rites and Rituals in the Modern Age **Authors:** Sh. Ibrahim Hindy, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Dhul Hijjah, Dhul Hijjah 2024, Paper, Publication **Published:** August 13, 2018 **Updated:** June 24, 2025 ## Introduction Images of the yearly *Hajj* (annual pilgrimage to Makkah) continue to capture the attention of the world. As people witness the synchronization of actions and purpose of millions of pilgrims, they experience amazement and wonderment. People often ask, “[Why is the *Hajj* important](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/omar-suleiman/the-power-of-the-hajj-a-sacred-bond-through-a-sacred-pilgrimage/)?” or “What is the purpose of pilgrimage rituals in this day and age?” In this paper, we discuss the power of rituals in general and focus on the various benefits and significance of the *Hajj* rituals in particular. In the course of this discussion, we embark on a whirlwind tour of relevant material from anthropology, psychology, theology, jurisprudence, exegesis, philosophy, and—most importantly—[Islamic spirituality](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/zohair/souls-assorted-an-islamic-theory-of-spiritual-personality/). --- ## Why are Rituals Important? In the modern world, religious rituals are seen only as vestiges of the Dark Ages which society has outgrown in light of modern industrialization. For many, material profit is the paramount virtue, and the only worthy goal of human behavior. Such a narrative portrays ritual practices as irrational behaviors that do not provide tangible value, and whose goals can be better achieved through economic and technological advancement. According to Catherine Bell, “The popular contention that ritual and religion decline in proportion to modernization has been something of a sociological truism since the mid-19th century.”[^1] This conventional wisdom sets the idea of ritual in direct opposition to reason itself. As Schilbrack described, “while primitive minds need ritual to calm their fears and make ‘sense’ of what was not really understood, with the maturation of reason and the development of modern science we have naturally dropped those practices.”[^2] As rituals did not relate to matters that could be examined within the realm of the physical world, they were seen as unbefitting any rational educated person. Ritual was also perceived as irrational due to its disinterest in material goods. The very notion of expending resources such as money, time, and energy without receiving material return was seen as a mindless and backward practice.[^3] However, academics have come to recognize this as a simple-minded caricature of the value and relevance of rituals. Since the mid-twentieth century, this “secularization thesis” has been rejected by a growing number of sociologists who point to the fundamental function of ritual in all aspects of human life. Rituals are increasingly seen as inherent to human behavior, changing in their details yet constantly present in the human experience. > *...all societies are equally ritualized; they merely practice different rituals. If most people in industrialized societies no longer go to church regularly or practice elaborate rituals of initiation, this does not mean that ritual has declined. All that has happened is that new types of ritual—political, sporting, musical, medical, academic and so on—have taken the place of the traditional ones.*[^4] Indeed, rituals are embedded in every society and manifest not only in religious practices but within social, political, and even mundane daily activities. Consider one of the most ubiquitous rituals—the handshake. What does it represent? An ancient custom that perhaps originated as an act to demonstrate the absence of concealed weapons, this gesture has come to symbolize a mutual acknowledgment of courtesy, welcome, respect, dignity, trust, non-confrontation, and peace. These cognitive and emotional states are collectively bound up in a single human gesture. We can find rituals almost anywhere we look: rallies, marches, festivities, celebrations, coronations, inaugurations, etc. In civic life, ritual ceremonies continue to be performed for marriages and funerals, the abandonment of which would seem to deprecate the significance of these life events entirely. Whether it be by exchanging gifts, expressing compliments or condolences, entertaining guests, visiting relatives, working only on weekdays, or singing nursery rhymes to children, we see how rituals continue to play a prominent role within nearly all human activity. The reason rituals matter, and why they remain central to human activity, is because they transcend verbal communication. They allow humans to express shared sentiments of meaning and value. They provide a language that is incredibly versatile, which allows mutual recognition of the significance of a particular event, entity, or relationship. As Bell notes, “rather than ritual as the vehicle for the *expression* of authority, practice theorists tend to explore how ritual is a vehicle for the *construction* of relationships of authority and submission.”[^5] Schilbrack, building off the work of Pierre Bourdieu, likens rituals to social “calls to order” which “awaken deeply buried corporeal dispositions.”[^6] Rituals are thus likened to acts of protests, wherein the ritual itself, through the process of gathering and chanting, can rekindle or regenerate feelings and emotions within the participants. For this reason, rituals will always remain a significant part of our collective lives. The ability to construct purpose and meaning, to change or touch deep emotions, is a power that cannot be replaced within the human experience. --- ## Rituals and Their Spiritual Meaning Rituals that pertain to spirituality demonstrate the greatest potency in constructing meaning and awakening deep emotional states in those who participate. Through the use of ritual, we attempt to articulate the ineffable. Rituals allow us to condense vast arrays of meaning, spectrums of emotion, notions of virtue, all into the span of often momentary gestures. That which challenges the boundaries of our human experience and transcends the limitations of our verbal communication is accessed and expressed via spiritual practice and religious ritual. Returning to the modern description of rituals as irrational, we now recognize that this short-sighted perception stems, predominantly, from an inability to see beyond the physical movements and motor behavior involved in a ritual, while remaining oblivious to the metaphysical significance of the acts being performed. The Qur’an addresses this head-on when discussing the ritual sacrifice of an animal: “Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you” (Qur’an 22:37). The physical action is but the external shell of what is a spiritual exercise aimed at achieving nearness to God through the symbolic language of sacrifice: giving up what is dear to oneself (wealth/property/time/effort) to [express one’s love for the Divine and one’s submission to His will](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-spiritual-psychology-of-worship). The outward actions are actually symbols for what is on the inside. In fact, Allah describes rituals as symbols of our spirituality in the Qur’an: “And whoever honors the symbols of Allah—indeed, it is from the piety of hearts” (Qur’an 22:32). Conversely, the exact same physical action could be performed, but when unaccompanied by the required spiritual state, motivation and intention, it may fail to achieve the status of accepted worship (*Qabool*). Consider these two statements of the [Prophet Muhammad ﷺ](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/mohammad-elshinawy/the-accomplishments-of-the-prophet-%ef%b7%ba-the-proofs-of-prophethood-series/): “Whoever does not abandon false speech and bad behavior, God has no need of their abandonment of food and drink (in fasting),”[^7] and “It may be that someone fasts the entire day and gains nothing from it but hunger, and it may be that someone stands the night in prayer and gains nothing from it but lack of sleep.”[^8] A key feature of rituals seems to be their recurring nature. But repetition does not diminish significance or meaningfulness. How many times does one say to their spouse, “I love you”? In spite of repetition, these words never lose their meaning or strength, rather they intensify. Thus it is with our expressions of love for God, our prayers, our supplications, our statements of “All praise belongs to Allah,” and “Glory be to Allah,” and so forth. These actions, when performed with mindfulness and reflection, strengthen our spirituality and allow us to ascend to higher levels of love and conviction. Though they are *supra-rational*, ritual practices are prescribed with explicitly rational ends in mind—the spiritual elevation and felicity of humankind in this life and the next. On the other hand, Muslims are forbidden from rituals that are *anti-rational/irrational*; i.e., rituals that do not make sense in either the natural or spiritual realm. Nonsensical rituals appeal to superstitious notions about how the natural world operates. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told his companions that eclipses are not a consequence of the birth or death of any individual. Spiritually irrational rituals make claims about what the Divine has ordained that are unsubstantiated by scriptural evidence (see for instance verses 6:138 and 5:103, which describe rituals of the pagan Arabs related to designating certain animals to be prohibited for use because of superstitious customs; God concludes the latter verse stating “most of them do not use their reason,” thereby establishing that ritual practices should not be anti-rational). --- ## Purpose of Islamic Rituals Islamic rituals, or *‘Ibadat*, remain a subject of great interest amongst Muslim theologians and jurists. However, most Islamic scholarship is concerned with the functionality of Islamic rituals rather than their ultimate purpose. Jurists focus on the categorization of rituals as well as the legality of form, while theologians are concerned primarily with their connection to theological principles. This does not mean that the underlying purpose of ‘*Ibadat* is unimportant or unaddressed, but rather that it seems to be a muted conversation, likely due to the lack of controversy around it. Recognizing the relative scarcity of writing on this topic, some of the works in the field of *tazkiyya al-nafs* (purification of the soul) have endeavored to highlight the underlying ethos of what [Islamic worship](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him) is all about. Indeed, the purpose that drives Islamic rituals is important as we reflect over the specific rituals of the *Hajj* and particularly as we consider the emotions the *Hajj* experience seeks to awaken within the believer. *‘Ibadat* is derived from the word *‘abd*, meaning servant or slave. According to *Lisan al-’Arab*, *‘abd* is rooted in the meaning of humility or subservience and this is likened to the ancient Arabic phrase of *al-tareeq al-ma’bad*, or the path which is an ‘abd, denoting a path that is well-traveled and flattened due to excessive passage upon it.[^9] It is through these meanings that Muslim scholars understood the concepts of ‘*Ubudiya* (servitude) and *‘Ibadat* (rituals), all derived from the same root word (*‘abd*). After all, God could have used different terminology to describe religiosity and devotion yet specifically chose to define the relationship between God and believer through derivatives of the word *‘abd*. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) comments on this by explaining that, > *Ritualized devotion (‘Ibadah) is the convention of fulfillment of one’s love of the Divine, paired with the fulfillment of one’s humility towards the Divine. The ‘abd is then the humbled lover (of God).*[^10] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 H) expounded on this definition stating that, > *Ritualized devotion (‘Ibadah) is the highest station of love. It is a popular saying that: ‘Love has enslaved him (‘abdahu) as though he is property’ and this is the true love of the Divine.*[^11] In both definitions, we can see clearly how Islamic scholars tied the idea of rituals to the realization of human emotions. In this sense, the form of a ritual is not fully meaningful without it awakening the necessary emotions (namely love of, and humility before, God). In fact, as Abu Hilal Al-Askari (d. 395 H) noted, “there are no rituals (*‘Ibadah*) except through knowing the Divine,”[^12] meaning rituals lack spirit or substance without an emotional connection and an imagination of the Divine. Thus every Islamic ritual (*‘Ibadah*), be it prayer, fasting, charity or Hajj, seeks to create and awaken deep emotions within the practitioner. It is important to also remember that even when our worship may fall short of experiencing that heartful presence (*Hudur al-Qalb*), it still retains merit with God because we are doing our best to strive to reach that level. Islamic rituals are also symbolic in nature. When Muslim jurists differed over a particular form or physical pose in the *Salah* (daily prayer) ritual, in the absence of explicit scripture, they would typically rely on whichever pose was seen as denoting greater humility towards the Divine. This is because Muslim scholars understood that every ritual has symbolic meanings underlying each act. In effect, our *Salah* is the language of the body just as our *Tasbeeh* (declaring the glory of God) is the language of our tongue. When we fall prostrate in *Sujud* we are verbalizing with our bodies the affirmation of His Divine Lordship and Oneness, just as we verbalize it on our tongues with the *Shahadah* (testimony of faith). --- ## Rituals of Hajj: Abraham’s Legacy In the Qur’an, Abraham (peace be upon him) is repeatedly referenced as the central figure in the *Hajj* story. Abraham is described as being guided to the place of the House (i.e., the Ka’bah) in Makkah (Qur’an 22:26), and as the builder of the Ka’bah along with his son Ishmael, the patriarch of the Makkan Arabs (Qur’an 21:27). In the *hadith* literature, the rituals of *Hajj* are explicitly referred to as “a legacy from the legacies of Abraham (*irth Ibrahim*).”[^13] Understanding the [life of Abraham](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/infographics/echoes-of-abraham-scenes-from-his-life-infographic) plays a powerful role in understanding the rituals of *Hajj*. Through these rituals, pilgrims are able to connect themselves to a shared history and to the legacy of Abraham and his family. For this reason, even the pre-Islamic Arabs practiced the *Hajj*, despite departing from Abraham’s monotheism. The *Hajj* connected them to their forefathers (Abraham and Ishmael) even as they embraced polytheism which contradicted the basis of Abraham’s message. Yet this represents one of the greater overarching goals of the *Hajj* rituals: *the ability to connect to a shared history, narrative, and community*. Through the motions and rites of *Hajj* the believer takes a step back from their specific moment in time and appreciates the larger tradition that binds them to billions of people throughout history. Part of the unique story of *Hajj* presented in the Qur’an is that Abraham was the first man tasked to proclaim the duty of *Hajj* to others (Qur’an 22:27). Yet, Abraham is also largely presented in the Qur’an as a man with nearly no followers besides his own immediate family. The Qur’an refers to Abraham as a “nation unto himself,” referencing his isolation (Qur’an 16:120). Yet the Abrahamic call for *Hajj* is somehow answered generations afterwards, with millions of people from every corner of the world striving to follow his footsteps. It represents a message of hope, optimism, and trust in God and reveals how the most unlikely outcomes can be achieved with God’s Will. The *Hajj* also represents the ability to connect to a larger nation and community. That millions of people, male and female, past and present, from different races, ethnicities, and ages can synchronize rites and rituals, driven by common purpose, provides the pilgrim with a powerful experience of shared brotherhood and kinship that cannot be experienced otherwise. Perhaps most noteworthy in this regard is the testimony of Malcolm X, who was widely known for his anti-White rhetoric (due to his experiences in racially segregated America), yet renounced most of that rhetoric after experiencing the *Hajj*. He commonly spoke of being changed by Makkah and described the transformative nature of the *Hajj* through his letter from the pilgrimage: > *There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white....* > > *During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)—while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of the blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white' Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana. We are truly all the same—brothers.*[^14] This beautifully illustrates how the *Hajj* rituals tap into deep human emotions and provide the opportunity to transform behavior towards the positive. They connect us to a purpose larger than ourselves, to a community larger than our own, and to a legacy and history of greatness: the legacy of Abraham. --- ## The Symbolism Of The Hajj Rituals As we have previously discussed, Islamic rituals are not aimless in purpose but rather seek to evoke emotions in the hearts of believers. The [rites and rituals of](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/hajj-abrahams-legacy-infographic/) *Hajj* are no exception. In fact, the Qur’an specifies the goal of ‘inclining hearts’ (i.e., emotions and passions) through the mechanism of *Hajj*. This is mentioned in the prayer of Abraham, which is then fulfilled by God through the commandment of *Hajj*: *Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.* (Qur’an 14:37) This is referred to once again when the Qur’an references the rites of slaughter: “Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you” (Qur’an 22:37). Thus, by examining each rite and ritual of *Hajj* we are able to uncover the spiritual meanings intended by each practice. We begin to understand how each ritual embodies meanings that transcend the capacities of verbal expression and that connect the participant to a richness of spirituality, tradition, and community. ### The Symbolism of Tawaf *Tawaf* (lit. circling) is the ritual of circling the Ka’bah (House of God) seven times during the *Hajj* (pilgrimage) or Umrah (lesser pilgrimage). The *Tawaf* is the ritual most associated with the Hajj, providing the iconic image of millions of people circling the Ka’bah in Makkah. The Ka’bah is said to be the first house built on earth to worship God, the very first sanctuary devoted solely to glorify our Creator.[^15] The Qur’an refers to the Ka’bah as a “*Mathabah* (lit. place of retreat or resort) for mankind” and as “the House” (i.e., the House of God) (Qur’an 2:125). In this sense, being in the presence of the Ka’bah provides its own spiritual benefit, allowing believers to recharge and rekindle their sense of faith and connection to God. Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 505 H) writes: > *As for Tawaf around God’s House, then know that it is a form of prayer, so fill your heart with the same reverence, fear, hope and love that we have described in the book of prayer. And recognize that in your Tawaf, you are emulating the honorable angels encircling the Divine throne, making Tawaf around it. And do not presume that the point is merely the Tawaf of your physical body, but rather what is intended is the Tawaf of your heart with the remembrance of the Lord of the House, until your thoughts in life start and finish with His remembrance, just as the Tawaf of the House is the beginning and the ending of Hajj. Recognize that the sacred Tawaf is the the Tawaf of the heart with the presence of God’s Lordship, and the Tawaf around God’s House is merely the symbolic representation in the physical world of that spiritual process in the unseen realm. This is similar to how the body is the representation in the physical world of the qalb (spiritual heart) which exists in the unseen world.*[^16] While many non-Muslims have the misconceptions that Muslims worship the Ka’bah, it is important to remember that there is nothing inherently sacred about its bricks, mortar, or cloth. In reality, what is important is what the Ka’bah represents—the *qiblah* or direction Muslims face in their prayers to God. Muslims used to pray towards Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem during the first phase of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s preaching. When the *qiblah* was changed from Masjid al-Aqsa to the Ka’bah, God revealed an important reminder in the Qur’an that physical directions and physical structures are not intrinsically sacred. Rather, their sanctity comes from God assigning significance to them and imbuing them with meaning: > *Righteousness is not about turning your faces toward the east or the west, but rather true righteousness is about one’s faith in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets. And it’s about giving one’s wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask for help, and for freeing slaves; it’s about establishing prayer and giving zakat in charity and being those who fulfill their promise when they promise and who are patient in poverty and hardship and times of peril. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.* (Qur’an 2:177) Similarly, kissing the Black Stone during *Tawaf* is a symbolic act of penitence and [repentance](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-as-a-way-of-life-islam-spirituality-practice/).[^17] It is related that Umar ibn al-Khattab kissed the stone and said, “By Allah, I know that you are nothing but a stone and if I had not seen Allah's Messenger ﷺ kissing you, I would not have kissed you.”[^18] The act of *Tawaf* reminds believers that God should be at the center of our lives, just as the Ka’bah remains the center of the ritual. It is an act of submission and subservience that recognizes that though believers have willingly placed God at the central point of their devotion, our entire existence revolves around God, whether we recognize it or not. ### The Symbolism of Sa’i Sa’i (lit. seeking, searching) is the ritual of walking between the two hills (*Al-Safa and Al-Marwa*). This ritual commemorates the story of Hajar and her son Ishmael. The two were left in a barren desert by Abraham, under the instruction of God. Hajar reportedly called out to Abraham, questioning him on why he was abandoning her and their infant son in an empty desert. Abraham would not respond until she asked him, “Has God ordered you to do this?” He replied affirmatively and she replied with full conviction in God, “In that case, He will not abandon us.” [^19] Hajar returned to her infant son and, as the baby cried from hunger, she began running between *Al-Safa* and *Al-Marwa*, searching for anything or anyone who might be able to help them. Hajar ran between the two mountains seven times in desperation. She then witnessed the Archangel Gabriel at the feet of her baby, who struck his heel into the ground, causing a spring of water to gush forth that later became known as *Zamzam*.[^20] Later, people from the tribe of Jurhum came and settled in the area, respectfully taking permission from Hajar to make use of the water of *Zamzam*, and in this manner, the city of Makkah came into existence. Here is where the *Hajj* ritual of *Sa’i* was born and Hajar’s story is pivotal in understanding the narrative of *Hajj*. Her story is one of utmost devotion, conviction, certitude, and trust in God above all else. That a mother would be willing to accept the fate of being abandoned in a barren desert with her breastfeeding child, because she was certain it was the desire of God, displays the greatest example of trusting in God. Her running between the mountains, as emulated by pilgrims to this day, reminds us of the desperation and need we all have for the aid of God. As an unnamed Muslim scholar said: “Know that the one who is stranded at sea, clinging to a board, and tossed and turned by its waves, is not in any greater need of God than you.” It revives the metaphysical awareness that, without the constant support of God, we would be worse off than stranded at sea or in the middle of a barren desert. Hajar’s example is also cherished for her unbridled optimism and hope in God and in His promise. As the pilgrims run between the mountains, they recognize Hajar’s unwavering optimism despite the arduous struggle she was enduring. It reminds believers that no matter the magnitude of hardship they face, they should continue to be hopeful in striving and seeking a solution. Hajar knew that God’s sustenance would come to those who seek it and struggle for it. There is something most fascinating about the *Sa’i* ritual and what it represents. In a way, this is the ritual at the root of Islam’s ancestry, representing the very origin story of Makkah itself. All the other rituals commemorate events that occurred after Hajar’s *Sa’i* in the desert. What is truly remarkable about this ritual is the person we emulate. Through it we commemorate the faith in God held by Hajar—a woman, originally a slave girl from Egypt, possessing no status, fame, or wealth. And yet, her devotion to God was so beloved to Him that He established it as an eternal ritual to be followed by people all over the world. *A righteous woman*, in whose footsteps millions of men are commanded to walk. As the *hadith* states, “That was your mother, O children of the Heavenly water.”[^21] The *Sa’i* represents a rich tradition. It is truly remarkable that for thousands of years, men and women have emulated the steps of a woman of common birth whose status was elevated by her emotional connection to, and physical sacrifice for, the Divine. Moreover, just as all the rituals of *Hajj* have a connection with the events in the afterlife, the ritual of *Sa’i* has also been linked to our state on the Day of Judgment. Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali explains that this ritual of going between Safa and Marwa has been connected to the scales of good deeds and bad deeds on the Day of Judgment.[^22] Every human being’s life contains a mixture of good and bad, moments of virtue and success alongside moments of sin and failure. Similarly, racing between these two mountains signifies our journey between these two opposites and our hope that our good predominates over our bad in our scales on the Day of Judgment. ### The Symbolism of ‘Arafah *‘Arafah* is the name of a mountain range, along with the surrounding plains, just east of Makkah.[^23] *Yawm ‘Arafah* (the day of *‘Arafah*) is the 9th day of Dhul Hijjah in the Islamic calendar. On *Yawm ‘Arafah* pilgrims all gather on Mount *‘Arafah* and the surrounding plains and spend the day, until sunset, beseeching God for forgiveness. The *Hajj* rites and rituals typically have windows of time during which they must be completed. The gathering at *‘Arafah*, on the day of *‘Arafah*, is the one ritual which gathers all pilgrims in the same exact place and at the same exact time, performing the same rites. In fact, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said “[*Hajj* is *‘Arafah*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/episode-9-the-wonders-of-arafah-virtues-of-dhul-hijjah),”[^24] meaning it is the ritual that is paramount in the *Hajj* experience. *Yawm ‘Arafah* holds considerable significance in the Islamic tradition. First, it is the day on which God revealed verse 5:3 which proclaims the perfection of the Islamic tradition and the finality of religious laws that would be revealed to mankind. Second, it is known as the day of the covenant. This refers to a prior existence or consciousness during which God took an oath from every soul. This incident is referenced in the Qur’an: > *And \[mention\] when your Lord took from the children of Adam—from their loins—their descendants and made them testify of themselves, \[saying to them\], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified.” \[This\]—lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were of this unaware.”* (Qur’an 7:172) Finally, it is a day marked by forgiveness and God’s pleasure. In one tradition, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said: “There is no day on which God frees more servants from the fire than the day of *‘Arafah*.”[^25] In another tradition, he said: “God boasts to the angels about the people of *‘Arafah*, (saying): ‘Look at My Servants, they have come to Me in the morning in a desolate state, with dusty hair, having crossed every deep valley. I call you to witness that I have forgiven them.’”[^26] The magnitude of God’s forgiveness on this day of intense prayer and immense repentance is so great that many of the scholars and ascetics used to say, “Of the greatest of sins is for one to attend *‘Arafah* and then think that Allah has not forgiven him.”[^27] The attitude of the believer is one of hope, optimism, and positive thoughts about God, knowing that God’s Mercy encompasses all. Just as *‘Arafah* is known as the day of the covenant, in reference to a day preceding the birth of mankind in our current existence, *‘Arafah* also ignites the imagination of the believer towards the afterlife and the day of resurrection. The day of resurrection has a number of epithets in the Qur’an, including the day of accounting (*yawm al-Hisab*),[^28] the day of disaster (*yawmun ‘Aqeem*),[^29] the day of distress (*yawm al-Hasrah*).[^30] But many of the names of the Final Daybear a striking similarity to the day of *‘Arafah*. These include the Day of Standing (*yawm al-Qiyamah*),[^31] the day of being brought out (*yawm al-Khurooj*),[^32] and the day of meeting (*yawm al-Talaaq*).[^33] When the pilgrim witnesses so many people gathered in one place, at one time, desperately pining for the grace of God, it inevitably evokes images of the day of resurrection. The clothing of *Hajj* is also marked by simple white sheets, analogous to the shrouds used to wrap the dead. All of these elements combine to make  the day of ‘Arafah a compelling reminder of our mortality and our eventual resurrection. It reminds the pilgrim of their eventual standing before God, answering for their deeds. ### The Symbolism of Muzdalifah After spending the day praying and making du’a at *‘Arafah*, the next step in *Hajj* is leaving ‘*Arafah* after sunset and spending the night at a location called *Muzdalifah*, an empty area on the outskirts of Makkah. The word linguistically comes from the root *zulfa* which implies to draw closer or to gather, and this is where pilgrims gather outside of Makkah.[^34] At this location, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ combined his sunset (*maghrib*) and night (*‘isha*) prayers,[^35] and then departed at dawn the next day to return to *Mina*. During the night, pilgrims sleep under the open sky, disconnected from the distractions and comforts of worldly life, lying in the open upon the rocks. The stay in *Muzdalifah* is something ordained in the Qur’an itself: > *When you depart from 'Arafah, remember Allah at al-Mash'ar al-Haram (the sacred site). And remember Him, as He has guided you, for indeed, you were before that among those astray.* (Qur’an 2:198) The sacred site referred to in this verse is none other than *Muzdalifah*. In this verse, the believers are instructed to remember God and worship Him according to the precise manner in which He has guided us, not according to the manner in which He was worshipped during the days of misguidance prior to Islam. Indeed, the pagan idolaters in the pre-Islamic era included *‘Arafah* and *Muzdalifah* in their rituals, but the Islamic tradition requires believers to depart *‘Arafah* after sunset and *Muzdalifah* before the sun has risen completely, in contrast to how the idolaters left the former before sunset and the latter after sunrise. One may wonder, what is the significance of such seemingly trivial changes? Sometimes the differences between two choices in life may seem subtle, but the consequences may be drastic. Developing the discipline and conscientious habits to adhere as closely and rigorously to what is right even in difficult circumstances is an essential pillar of success in life. The core of the Islamic faith is the element of submission to the path of God, and if one cuts corners and is lax in following instructions at the most micro level, this may portend spiritual failure at the macro level. In every industry, one of the most important skills is the ability to follow instructions exactly and precisely. In the field of medicine, for instance, the slightest error in medication dosing or administration can spell death for a patient.[^36] Through devoutly following the instructions of God, one expresses the utmost love and reverence for one’s Creator. Another symbolism of *Muzdalifah* involves sleeping in the open rocky plains as a metaphor for the life of the grave. Human life is as short as the opportunity to beseech God’s Mercy on *‘Arafah*, after which we spend a temporary period of time in the barren earth before being resurrected and returning to our Lord. This again returns to the broader theme of the rituals of *Hajj* representing stages in [the afterlife](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/faith/afterlife), reminding us of the inevitable journey back to Allah. ### The Symbolism of Udhiya The *Udhiya* refers to the [ritual sacrifice](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/episode-7-the-sacrifice-virtues-of-dhul-hijjah) of an animal that is performed during the *Hajj* season on or after the day of *Eid al-Adha* (the festival of the sacrifice).[^37] This is one of two annual celebrations for Muslims around the world.[^38] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instructed that the animal being sacrificed must be slaughtered in a humane manner, minimizing any pain and avoiding even making the animal feel anxious.[^39] The sacrifice is an act of gratitude and devotion to God, and an act of generosity towards others as the meat of the animal is distributed to the poor and needy. Thus, we find the humanitarian spirit of Islam emphasized on the day of *Eid al-Adha*. As Muslims celebrate this day with their families, they share their blessings with others, as God states in the Qur’an that the *Hajj* rituals were prescribed “so they may experience several forms of benefit, and exalt God’s name during the appointed days over the cattle which God has provided for them. So eat of them and feed the destitute and poor.”[^40] The emphasis on the humanitarian benefit is repeated only a few verses later, “When the animals have been sacrificed, then eat from them and feed the needy and the beggar. Thus have We subjected them to you that you may be grateful.”[^41] In the spirit of serving all humanity, the meat is donated to the poor, regardless of religious background.[^42] The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught, “Donate in charity to people of all faiths.”[^43] The origin of this ritual is one of the most famous stories about Abraham, the story about being commanded by God to sacrifice his son.[^44] It is a story that lies at the heart of each of the religious traditions that look to Abraham as their spiritual forefather. But it is also a story that has been subjected to much polemical abuse. New Atheist pundits like Christopher Hitchens famously attacked this story as the prime example of what is wrong with religion. What kind of God would command a father to kill his own son? What kind of father would agree to perform such an act? And what kind of religion would venerate a man who agreed to kill his own son because he believed God instructed it? Reflecting on these objections is imperative: to ensure that we have correctly understood the story ourselves and are able to properly represent its lessons to others, and also to see why these objections misrepresent the story. To be sure, what was asked of Abraham was a tremendous test of devotion. When Abraham migrated for the sake of God, abandoning his home, his belongings, having nothing but his faith in God, he prayed, “My Lord, grant me a child from the righteous,” to which God states, “So We gave him the glad tidings of a gentle son.”[^45] We can only imagine the immense love Abraham had for Ishmael, which continued to grow day by day, as Ishmael grew into a little boy, till he reached the age when he could walk behind his father. And that’s precisely when the most difficult commandment came —the request to sacrifice that which was most beloved to him. When we examine the matter closely, we find that there are several key features of the Islamic narrative of Abraham’s sacrifice that demonstrate why misgivings about the ethical import of the story are misplaced. A central tenet of Islamic theology explains why there is no tension in this story between doing what is good for creation (ethics) and doing what God wills (religion): at the basis of Islamic theology is the notion that Allah is the Most Merciful, and that Allah would never ordain suffering or harm for any human being, “Verily, God does not will oppression for any of His creation.”[^46] The profound reality that critics of this story cannot fathom is Abraham’s certitude that, no matter how intensely and immensely he loved Ishmael, God’s love for Ishmael was infinitely greater. Indeed, as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described, God loves humanity more than a mother loves her own child.[^47] Abraham knew that following the commandments of Allah would never lead to harm, and somehow, in the end, the results would be good even if he did not understand how. This is the epistemic aspect that critics neglect; the fact that Abraham—as a prophet—possessed certain knowledge of what God was commanding[^48] and certain knowledge that God’s Will is moral and good, explains why he knew that following God’s instruction would not result in an evil outcome.[^49] This is not some random individual claiming to have been spoken to by God—this is Abraham who emerged unscathed from the blazing pit of fire into which his people threw him,[^50] Abraham who witnessed with his own eyes the physical miracle of resurrection,[^51] and witnessed the secrets of the heavens and the earth in order to be amongst those with unparalleled certitude.[^52] Secondly, a unique feature of the Qur’anic narrative is that Abraham actually approaches his son and speaks to him about the matter: “O my dear son, verily I have seen in my vision that I am to sacrifice you, what is your perspective on this matter?” Ishmael replies to him, “O my father, do as you have been commanded, you will find me—God willing—to be amongst the patient.”[^53] Ishmael enters into the matter willingly and devoutly, rather than being led to the sacrifice oblivious to Abraham’s intentions. There is no concealment or coercion in the Islamic narrative. This story is about the beauty of father and son both dutifully trusting in God’s will, as the Qur’an states, “And then when they had both surrendered to God and he laid \[Ishmael\] in prostration, We called out, ‘O Abraham, you have fulfilled the vision, thus do we reward the doers of good.’”[^54] Examining how classical scholars understood the story reveals how fundamentally misguided the reading of critics is. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 H) made the following comments about why God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Ishmael: > *The benefit in commanding His friend Abraham to sacrifice his son was not so that the sacrifice would occur, but rather so that both the father and the son would submit firmly and completely to His commandment. Once that benefit occurred, the \[actual carrying out of the\] killing became harmful for them both. Therefore, God abrogated it \[and commanded Abraham to sacrifice a lamb instead\]. This is the true and curative answer in this matter.*[^55] The Danish existentialist philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard (d. 1855 CE), was fascinated by the apparent dilemma between faith and morality in the story of Abraham. Kierkegaard felt that this story epitomized the true meaning of faith, and he felt that many Christians had failed to appreciate the profundity of it. He dedicated his philosophical work *Fear and Trembling* to the story of Abraham's sacrifice, focusing psychologically on the anxiety that Abraham must have felt while going through this experience with his beloved son. Although it represents a complex work with many interpretations, a central theme that emerges from his work is the idea that Abraham at no point was committed to doing something unethical, such as murder. Rather, Abraham knew that even though what was being asked *seemed* immoral, since God would never order something that was truly immoral, he was required to trust that the ultimate result would be something morally good. Thus, Abraham took a leap of faith (which Kierkegaard termed a “teleological suspension of the ethical”) in trusting that God would spare his son.[^56] In this manner, Kierkegaard distinguishes between a kind of blind obedience that would entail being comfortable performing an unethical deed, versus the true faith which entails maintaining one’s ethical concerns but trusting that ultimately good will come about in following what is known with certainty to be from God. The famous Qur’anic exegete, Imam al-Shawkani (d. 1250 H) makes an interesting comment in this regard. He states, > *When Abraham positioned Ishmael for the sacrifice, a call from the direction of the Mountain informed him, “O Abraham, you have fulfilled the vision,” thus making his fulfillment based solely on his firm resolve (to perform the deed) despite not actually performing the sacrifice. That’s because he went as far as he could, and what was intended was just for both of them (Abraham and Ishmael) to surrender and submit to God (not the specific act of ritual slaughter), which they successfully performed.*[^57] In sum, according to this narrative, Abraham’s response was not, “I’m okay with killing my child because God said so,” as the New Atheist caricature suggests, but rather it was, “God is asking me to do something tremendously difficult, but I trust in God knowing that if I follow this path, God will be there for Ishmael and me, and God will protect us from harm. God will accept our devotion and trust in Him and lead us to something better.” This form of trust is in some sense analogous to the well-known “trust fall” exercise where someone allows himself or herself to fall backwards, trusting the other participant to catch them. Such a person knows that falling is bad and does not desire to hit the ground and injure themselves, but rather they demonstrate their total trust that the other participant will rescue them from harm before they make impact with the ground. Therefore, viewed in its proper light, this story represents a most brilliant and powerful testament to true spirituality and devotion. Though God does not ask us to sacrifice our children, life will bring many difficult challenges where it takes a lot to stand up for what is right, to be willing to endure suffering to bring about positive change. We may lose our wealth, our family, or even more. True faith does *not* mean discarding one’s moral values or ethics in favor of a mindless commitment to arbitrary instructions. Rather true faith means being prepared to depart with whatever our hearts may hold dear, to sacrifice that which is most precious to us, when we know we can seize an opportunity to do what is right for the sake of God and to serve His creation. Because, in the end, we know that God will be with those who strive to do good in His path.[^58] ### The Symbolism of Jamarat *Jamarat* (lit. pl. the place of pebbles) refers to three specific places in Mina, near Makkah. Pilgrims visit the Jamarat during the *Hajj* and pelt the three *Jamarat* pillars with pebbles. According to one narration, this ritual is said to commemorate the actions of Abraham while he was en route to sacrifice his son Ishmael, to fulfill the instruction of God. After Abraham was convinced that slaughtering Ishmael was the will of God, on his way to his son he was confronted three times by the devil who attempted to dissuade him. And each time Abraham responded by pelting him with stones.[^59] Despite the misconception on the part of some pilgrims that they are physically pelting Satan when they throw stones at the *Jamarat*, this is actually a *symbolic* exercise that commemorates the actions of Abraham. This exercise reminds the pilgrim to be conscious of both the internal and external evils in the world that seek to tempt us away from God and away from righteousness. And it reminds us that faith and sincerity will always be accosted and confronted by external forces, and therefore the believer should be prepared to struggle when seeking to attain the pleasure of God. --- ## Conclusion As humans, we strive to grow morally and spiritually, and reach our full potential while struggling against the arduous trials and tribulations that befall us. Through the symbolic language of rituals, we discover a layer of meaning in our lives that speaks to our core sense of self: who we are, where we have come from, and for what purpose we exist. The greatest journey is the spiritual journey towards God, to achieve knowledge of Our Creator and experience Him in our lives, and the physical journey of the *Hajj* encapsulates many powerful rituals that awaken us to our relationship with the Divine and with one another. --- ## Notes [^1]: Bell, C. M. (1997). *Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions*. Oxford University Press, 252. [^2]: Kevin Edward Schilbrack, *Thinking through rituals: Philosophical perspectives* (New York: Routledge, 2004), 72. [^3]: Bell, C. M. (1997). *Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions*. 198, 254. [^4]: Peter Burke and Roy Porter, *The social history of language* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 223. [^5]: Bell, C. M. (1997). *Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions*, 82. [^6]: Kevin Edward Schilbrack, *Thinking through rituals: Philosophical perspectives* (New York: Routledge, 2004), 48. [^7]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 1804. [^8]: *Sunan ibn Majah*, 1680. [^9]: Ibn Manzur (d. 711 H). *Lisan al-Arab*. (Beirut: Dar Sader 1955). vol. 3, p. 274. [^10]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Jami’ Al-Rasa’il* (Maktabat Al-Turath Al-Islami), 284:2. [^11]: Ibn Al-Qayyim, *Madarij Al-Salikeen*, (Ihya Al-Turath Al-Arabi), 3:28. [^12]: Abu Hilal Al-’Askari, *Al-Farooq Fi Al-Lugha*, (Dar Al-’Ilm), 215. [^13]: *Sunan An-Nasa’i*, *Hadith* #3014. [^14]: Malcolm X's (Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) *Letter from Mecca*, accessed August 17, 2017, [http://islam.uga.edu/malcomx.html](http://islam.uga.edu/malcomx.html). [^15]: The Qur’an mentions that the foundations of the Ka’bah were raised by Abraham and Ishmael (Qur’an 2:127); however, scholars have differed over whether this was the very first time it was constructed. A narration from Ibn Abbas states that the foundations were already present before. Moreover, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stated that the time between the construction of the Ka’bah and Bayt al-Maqdis was 40 years (*Sahih Bukhari* 3186), which doesn’t correspond to the time between Abraham and Solomon (i.e., thousands of years), and on the basis of this point, Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H) suggested that both were actually originally constructed by Prophet Adam, 40 years apart. Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani (d. 852 H) cites and supports this conclusion and lists a number of evidences and arguments that indicate that the Ka’bah was first built by Prophet Adam himself. He cites a report from Qatadah ibn Di’amah (d. 117 H) that states, “Allah founded the Ka’bah with Adam when he descended. Adam missed the voices of the angels and their *tasbeeh*. So Allah said, ‘O Adam I have designated a House around which humanity will make *tawaf* just as *tawaf* is performed around my Throne, so journey to it.’” (See Ibn Hajar, *Fath al-Bari*, Cairo: Dar al-Rayan l’il-Turath, 1987. vol. 6, pp. 467-471). [^16]: Al-Ghazali, *Ihya Ulum al-Deen*, (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm 2005), p. 318. [^17]: The Black Stone marks the eastern corner of the Ka’ba, and is said to be a stone from Paradise sent down to Earth and blackened with the sins of mankind (*Sunan al-Tirmidhi*, 877). There is also a weak narration attributed to Ibn Abbas that states, “The Black Stone is (a symbol of) God’s right Hand on Earth, so whoever greets it and kisses it, it is as if they have greeted God and kissed His Hand” (Ibn Adi, *al-Kamil* 1/336). Ibn Qutaybah al-Daynuri (d. 276 H) states, “This is just an analogy, the basis of which is that when one greets a king, one kisses his hand, so it is as if the Black Stone has the station of the right hand of The King” (Ibn Qutaybah, *Ta’wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith*, Cairo: Dar Ibn Affan, p. 406). He also mentions a report from Aisha (ra) that when God took the primordial covenant from humanity, He placed it in the Black Stone (*ja’ala dhalika fi’l-hajar al-aswad*). Thus, the symbolic significance may also extended to humanity renewing their covenant with God when kissing the Black Stone. [^18]: *Sahih Muslim*, 1270. [^19]: *Sahih Al-Bukhari*, 3364. [^20]: Ibid. [^21]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 3179. This expression highlights Hajar’s importance to the ummah (followers) of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and it has diverse interpretations. One possibility is that it indicates that this *ummah* was born at that moment of God’s answering Hajar with the spring of *Zamzam*. [^22]: Al-Ghazali, *Ihya Ulum al-Deen*, p. 319. [^23]: The name *‘arafah* comes from the linguistic root word “to recognize” and a plethora of conjectural suggestions have been made as to why this name originally was chosen. Some suggestions include that it was here that Abraham recognized the rituals of Hajj after being taught by Angel Jibreel, or it was here that Adam was reunited on Earth with Hawwa, and so on. See *Tafsir al-Baghawi* (verse 2:198). [^24]: *Abu Dawud*, 1949. [^25]: *Sahih Muslim*, 1348. [^26]: Al-Dhahabi, *Mizan Al-I’tidal*, 4:381. [^27]: Al-Ghazali, *Ihya Ulum al-Deen*, p. 319. [^28]: Qur'an, 38:16. [^29]: Qur'an, 22:55. [^30]: Qur'an, 19:39. [^31]: Qur'an, 2:85. [^32]: Qur'an, 50:42. [^33]: Qur'an, 40:15 [^34]: Ibn Mandhur, *Lisan al-’Arab*, (Dar Sader 2003), vol. 7, p. 49 ([online](http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom%3D3549%26idto%3D3549%26bk_no%3D122%26ID%3D3555)). An example of a similar linguistic usage in the Qur’an is 26:64. [^35]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 1674. [^36]: For instance, an error confusing intravenous vincristine and intrathecal methotrexate resulted in the deaths of patients with leukemia. Dyer Clare. Doctors suspended after injecting wrong drug into spine *BMJ* 2001; 322 :257. [^37]: There is a classical difference of opinion over whether it is an obligation (Hanafi school of law) or an emphasized recommendation (Shafi’i, Maliki, Hanbali schools), and also a difference of opinion over whether it is prescribed for everyone (Shafi’i), only for non-travelers (Hanafi), or only for non-pilgrims (Maliki), along with other positions in between. [^38]: The other being *Eid al-Fitr* (festival of ending fasting) which follows the month of Ramadan. [^39]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “When you slaughter, you should use a good method, for one of you should sharpen his knife, and give the animal as little pain as possible” (*Sahih Muslim* 1955). [^40]: Qur'an, 22:28. [^41]: Qur'an, 22:36. [^42]: Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi (d. 620 H), *al-Mughni* (Riyadh: Dar Alam al-Kutub 1999) vol. 13, p. 381. [^43]: *Musannaf ibn Abi Shaybah*, 10494. [^44]: In the Islamic tradition, the son is identified as Ishmael according to the predominant opinion amongst scholars based on indications in the Qur’an, as articulated by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) in *Majmu al-Fatawa* (Dar al-Wafa’ 2001, vol. 4, p. 204). Meanwhile, exegetes like Ibn Jareer al-Tabari (d. 320 H) and al-Qurtubi (d. 671 H) supported the viewpoint that it was Isaac (see their respective commentaries on 37:101-2). [^45]: Qur'an, 37:100-101. [^46]: Qur'an, 3:108. [^47]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 5999. [^48]: It has been stated in *Tafsir al-Qurtubi* (37:102) that he witnessed these visions for three consecutive nights, and in Islamic theology the visions of prophets constitute revelation, as related in Sahih Bukhari (refer to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, *Fath al-Bari* 6581). [^49]: Most of the objections have the underlying epistemological presumption that the one making the claim about what God has commanded him to do is probably deluded or insane, because *in reality* there is no God telling him to do this or that. However, if it is established with absolute certainty that God has in fact commanded a deed to be performed, a deed which seems to conflict with our ethical sensibilities, what then is the correct course of action? On Ash’arite theology, by Divine command theory, the ethical is defined as whatever God has ordained so this becomes the ethical course of action, while on Hanbalite-Salafist, Maturidite and Mu’tazilite theology, fundamental ethical realities are rationally discernible, so God’s commandments always correspond with what sound reasoning identifies as truly ethical. If something seems otherwise, it’s because we haven’t studied it sufficiently. The Qur'an states that when people attempt to justify immoral actions by stating God commands it, the correct response is to state, “Verily, God does not command evil” (Qur'an 7:28). [^50]: Qur'an 21:69. [^51]: Qur'an 2:260. [^52]: Qur'an 6:75. [^53]: Qur'an, 37:102. The Qur'anic exegete, Mahmud al-Alusi (d. 1270 H) notes that this demonstrates the humility of Ishmael in not boldly asserting that he was personally patient, but rather saying that he would be amongst those who are patient if God wills. [^54]: Qur'an 37:103-105. [^55]: Tallal M. Zeni, *Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya on Knowledge: from Key to the Blissful Abode* (Miftah Dar al-Sa’ada), p. Xxii. Cited as Miftah, p. 392. [^56]: Alastair Hannay. *Homing in on Fear and Trembling*. In: Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: A Critical Guide. (Cambridge University Press 2015) edited by Daniel Conway. p. 13. [^57]: Al-Shawkani, *Fath al-Qadir*, (Beirut: Dar al-Marefah 2007) p. 1246. There is a classical theological debate between the Mu’tazilah and the Ashaa’irah on this issue which Al-Razi (d. 606 H) recounts (*Mafatih al-Ghayb* 37:102). The Mu’tazilah hold that Abraham was only commanded by God to perform the steps leading to the sacrifice, not the sacrifice itself, and thus he fulfilled the vision despite never sacrificing Ishmael. Meanwhile the Ashaa’irah contend that the actual sacrifice itself was what he was commanded to perform. [^58]: There is one other element of the New Atheist critique of the story that is logically fallacious—when one is committed to the idea that humans are mere biological animals without special status or sanctity, why is human sacrifice morally objectionable but animal sacrifice is not? If human life is categorically no different from an animal life, what gives humans the right to take the life of an animal for consumption? For Muslims, this right comes only from Divine permission (with the condition that the animal is not killed for sport but that we consume the meat and slaughter the animal in a humane manner), and thus Divine blessing is sought before slaughtering any animal in order for it to be *halal* (permissible). [^59]: *Musnad Ahmad*, 2791. This *hadith* was authenticated by Ahmad Shakir while Nasir al-Din al-Albani declared it weak. Some scholars adopting al-Albani’s view have also opined that since there is no conclusively authentic source to link the practice to Abraham’s pelting the devil, the *Jamarat* bear no relation to this event. However, they fail to provide an alternative for the origin of the ritual of pelting the *Jamarat*. ## Summary Rituals occupy a central and irreplaceable place in human life, and the modern assumption that they are merely relics of a bygone age of superstition has been shown to be a shallow caricature. The so-called "secularization thesis," which held—as Catherine Bell observed—that "ritual and religion decline in proportion to modernization," has been steadily rejected by scholars who recognize that ritual is woven into the very fabric of human existence. As Schilbrack noted, the older assumption imagined that "primitive minds need ritual to calm their fears," yet the reality is that all societies remain equally ritualized; they simply exchange one set of rituals for another—political, sporting, academic, and social. Even so ordinary a gesture as the handshake carries within it a wealth of meaning: courtesy, trust, dignity, and peace. What makes rituals endure is precisely that they transcend verbal communication, allowing human beings to express shared sentiments of meaning and value that words alone cannot contain. Building upon Bourdieu, Schilbrack likens rituals to "calls to order" that "awaken deeply buried corporeal dispositions," rekindling emotion within those who partake. Spiritual rituals are the most potent of all in constructing meaning and stirring the depths of the heart, for through them we attempt to articulate what lies beyond the reach of speech. The modern dismissal of ritual as irrational arises from an inability to look past the outward physical movements to the metaphysical reality they embody. Allah addresses this directly regarding the sacrifice: "Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you" (Qur'an 22:37). The outward act is but a shell for an inward reality, and Allah names rituals as symbols of the heart's devotion: "And whoever honors the symbols of Allah—indeed, it is from the piety of hearts" (Qur'an 22:32). The very same physical act, if stripped of the proper intention and spiritual state, may fail to attain acceptance (qabul), as the Prophet ﷺ warned: "Whoever does not abandon false speech and bad behavior, God has no need of their abandonment of food and drink," and, "It may be that someone fasts the entire day and gains nothing from it but hunger." Repetition, far from diminishing meaning, intensifies it, just as the repeated expression of love between spouses grows stronger with time. Yet a distinction must be drawn: Islamic rituals are supra-rational, prescribed for the rational end of spiritual felicity, but they are never anti-rational. The Prophet ﷺ corrected the superstition that eclipses accompany human births or deaths, and Allah condemned the baseless ritual customs of the pagan Arabs concerning certain animals, concluding that "most of them do not use their reason" (Qur'an 5:103; see also 6:138). The purpose underlying Islamic worship (ʿibādāt) has received comparatively muted attention among jurists and theologians, who have tended to focus upon the form and legal categorization of rituals rather than their ultimate aim, though writers on tazkiyat al-nafs have sought to recover this underlying ethos. The word ʿibādāt derives from ʿabd, meaning servant, and according to Lisān al-ʿArab is rooted in humility and subservience, as in the phrase al-ṭarīq al-maʿbad, a path made smooth by frequent treading. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) explained that "ritualized devotion is the convention of fulfillment of one's love of the Divine, paired with the fulfillment of one's humility towards the Divine," so that the ʿabd is "the humbled lover" of God. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 H) added that devotion "is the highest station of love." Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī (d. 395 H) affirmed that "there are no rituals except through knowing the Divine," meaning that ritual is empty without an emotional connection to God. Every act of worship thus seeks to awaken love of, and humility before, Allah—though even when the heart's presence (ḥuḍūr al-qalb) falls short, the striving retains merit. This symbolic quality also guided jurists, who, in the absence of explicit scripture concerning a posture in the prayer, inclined toward whatever expressed greater humility, for the body speaks its devotion just as the tongue affirms it in the Shahādah. The rituals of Hajj are the legacy of Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), described in the hadith literature as "a legacy from the legacies of Abraham." The Qur'an presents him as guided to the House (Qur'an 22:26), as its builder alongside Ishmael (Qur'an 21:27), and as the first commanded to proclaim the Hajj (Qur'an 22:27), even though he is depicted as "a nation unto himself" (Qur'an 16:120) with scarcely any followers. That his call was answered by millions across the ages reveals a message of hope and trust in God's will. So powerful is this bond of shared history that even the pre-Islamic Arabs preserved the Hajj despite abandoning his monotheism. The transformative unity of this gathering is captured in the testimony of Malcolm X, who, after witnessing pilgrims "of all colors" sharing one plate and one prayer, renounced his earlier rhetoric and declared, "We are truly all the same—brothers." The tawāf, circling the Kaʿbah seven times, places God at the center of one's existence. Imam al-Ghazālī (d. 505 H) taught that it is "a form of prayer" emulating the angels who encircle the Divine throne, and warned that "the point is not merely the tawāf of your physical body, but rather... the tawāf of your heart with the remembrance of the Lord of the House." The Kaʿbah possesses no intrinsic sanctity in its bricks and cloth; its honor derives from Allah's assignment of meaning, as affirmed when the qiblah was changed and Allah revealed that righteousness lies not in facing east or west but in faith and good works (Qur'an 2:177). So too ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb kissed the Black Stone, saying, "I know that you are nothing but a stone... had I not seen Allah's Messenger ﷺ kissing you, I would not have kissed you." The saʿī between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa commemorates Hājar, who, upon learning that Ibrāhīm's abandonment of her was by God's command, declared with conviction, "In that case, He will not abandon us." Her desperate search, rewarded by the spring of Zamzam struck forth by Gabriel, teaches the believer's utter need of God and unbroken optimism in His promise. Remarkably, millions of men and women follow the footsteps of a woman of common birth, once a slave, whose devotion Allah immortalized—"That was your mother, O children of the Heavenly water." Al-Ghazālī further linked this running to the weighing of deeds on the Day of Judgment. The standing at ʿArafah, of which the Prophet ﷺ said "Hajj is ʿArafah," gathers all pilgrims in one place and time. Upon this day was revealed the perfection of the religion (Qur'an 5:3); it recalls the primordial covenant when Allah asked the souls, "Am I not your Lord?" and they answered, "Yes, we have testified" (Qur'an 7:172); and it is a day of unmatched forgiveness, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "There is no day on which God frees more servants from the fire than the day of ʿArafah," and that Allah boasts of the pilgrims to the angels, saying, "I have forgiven them." The white garments, resembling burial shrouds, and the vast gathering evoke the Day of Resurrection itself. From there the pilgrims proceed to Muzdalifah, ordained in the Qur'an (2:198), where the manner of departure deliberately contrasts with pagan practice, teaching precise submission to God's instruction. The udḥiya sacrifice on ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā expresses gratitude and generosity, its meat given "to the destitute and poor" (Qur'an 22:28, 36), even to people of all faiths. Its origin, Ibrāhīm's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael, is not the blind obedience that critics allege; as Ibn al-Qayyim explained, the aim was the submission of both father and son, not the killing, which is why it was abrogated. Ibrāhīm consulted his son, who answered, "O my father, do as you have been commanded" (Qur'an 37:102), trusting, in the certainty of a prophet, that Allah "does not will oppression for any of His creation." Finally, the jamarāt, where pebbles are cast, symbolically commemorates Ibrāhīm's rejection of Satan's temptation, reminding the believer that sincerity is ever confronted by evils within and without, and that the journey toward God demands unceasing struggle. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does Yaqeen's 'Living Abraham's Legacy' paper argue about Islamic rituals? Authors Sh. Ibrahim Hindy and Dr. Nazir Khan argue that Islamic rituals — particularly Hajj — are not relics of pre-modern thought but a coherent spiritual technology that connects believers to the legacy of Prophet Ibrahim (as) and reorients the heart toward Allah. Responding to the modern 'secularization thesis,' the paper shows that all societies practice rituals; Islam's rituals are distinguished by embodying loving submission (*'ubūdiyyah*) — a fusion, in Ibn Taymiyyah's words, of 'fulfillment of one's love paired with fulfillment of one's humility.' ### Why is Hajj called the legacy of Prophet Ibrahim (as)? The Qur'an identifies Prophet Ibrahim (as) as the first proclaimer of the Hajj duty: 'And proclaim to the people the pilgrimage' (Qur'an 22:27), and the Prophet ﷺ called Hajj 'a legacy from the legacies of Abraham.' Each Hajj rite re-enacts an episode from the lives of Ibrahim, Hajar, and Ismāʿīl (as): the *saʿī* between Ṣafā and Marwah recalls Hajar's desperate trust in Allah, the standing at 'Arafah commemorates the primordial covenant, the stoning of the Jamarāt mirrors Ibrahim's rejection of Shayṭān, and the *udhiya* re-enacts his willingness to surrender what he loved most. ### Are Hajj rituals symbolic gestures or required physical actions? They are both, and the paper argues neither dimension can be removed without distorting the worship. The physical form of each rite is binding, but spiritual meaning is what makes it accepted: 'Their meat will not reach Allah, nor their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you' (Qur'an 22:37). Drawing on Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Ghazali, the paper concludes that form without intent is empty motion, and intent without form is incomplete worship — Hajj demands both. ### What is the significance of the Day of 'Arafah according to this paper? The paper describes 'Arafah as 'paramount' in Hajj, citing the Prophet's ﷺ statement, 'Hajj is 'Arafah' (*Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, no. 1949). It is the day on which Allah grants more forgiveness than any other (*Sahih Muslim*, no. 1348), and Islamic theology links it to the primordial covenant in which all human souls testified to Allah's lordship (Qur'an 7:172) — making the standing at 'Arafah a return to one's original witness of Allah. ### How does the paper interpret Prophet Ibrahim's (as) sacrifice of his son? Citing Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 H), the paper explains that Allah's command was a test of pure devotion, not a moral instruction to harm — Allah ransomed Ismāʿīl (as) with a great sacrifice precisely because Ibrahim's intention had already been accepted. The *udhiya* every Muslim performs on Eid al-Adha re-enacts that moment of total surrender, transforming a private moment of prophetic devotion into an annual communal act of worship. ### How does Hajj transform the believer according to the paper? The paper describes Hajj as a structured exercise in stripping away ego: pilgrims dress identically in *iḥrām*, walk the same path, supplicate with the same words, and stand together at 'Arafah regardless of race, wealth, or status. Malcolm X's letter from Hajj is cited as a modern testimony of this transformation, where pilgrims experienced 'a spirit of unity' across racial and national lines — illustrating how ritual creates a community that argument alone cannot. ### Are religious rituals still relevant in the modern age? Yes. Rituals remain deeply relevant because they shape a person in ways that belief does not. They form identity, build community, and train the heart through embodied, repeated practice. Modern secular life still runs on rituals: graduations, national anthems, courtroom procedures, sporting traditions. What distinguishes religious rituals is that they are *intentionally* designed to awaken the believer’s love of God and humility before Him through embodied, repeated practice. The Qur’an is explicit that ritual is a physical act with deeper metaphysical significance: “Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you” (Qur’an 22:37). In every age, human beings still need embodied ways to remember who they are, where they come from, and Whom they serve. ### What is the connection between the Hajj rituals and the Prophet Abraham? The rituals of Hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca) reenact the story of the Prophet Abraham, his wife Hajar, and their son Ishmael—so that every pilgrim physically steps inside a four-thousand-year legacy of trust in God. Islamic tradition treats the *saʿi* (the walking between the hills of Safa and Marwa) as a direct inheritance from Hajar, whose effort and trust in God is memorialized in this ritual, and Hajj as the pilgrimage Abraham himself was commanded to call humanity to. Abraham built the Kaaba with Ishmael and was commanded by God to summon people to it: “And proclaim to the people the Hajj; they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every distant pass” (Qur’an 22:27). The *tawaf*, the *saʿi*, the sacrifice on Eid al-Adha, and the pelting of the *jamarat* all trace back to specific moments in Abraham’s family’s life. Walking those same paths today places the pilgrim inside a continuous, multigenerational community of submission to one God. ### What is the spiritual meaning of tawaf around the Kaaba? *Tawaf*—circling the Kaaba (the cube-shaped sanctuary in Mecca) seven times—is a physical expression of placing God at the center of one’s life. The Kaaba itself is not divine; it is made of stones and fabric. Its sanctity comes from God designating it as the direction Muslims face in prayer and the focal point of Hajj. Classical commentary on *tawaf* describes it as the body imitating what the heart already does in remembrance of God, and as a reflection of the angels who circle the Divine Throne in unceasing worship. The Qur’an ties outward symbols back to inward reverence: “And whoever honors the symbols of Allah—indeed, it is from the piety of hearts” (Qur’an 22:32). Kissing or pointing toward the Hajar al-Aswad (the Black Stone) carries the same logic. The stone is not worshipped; the gesture is one of penitence and reverence, performed because the Prophet ﷺ performed it. *Tawaf*, then, reminds us to place God at the center, and that every other concern is arranged around Him. ### Why do Muslims walk between Safa and Marwa during Hajj? The *saʿi* (the walking and running between the hills of Safa and Marwa) follows the path of Hajar, the mother of the Prophet Ishmael, who searched the empty valley of Mecca for water for her infant son and was answered by God with the well of Zamzam—water that still flows today. Every pilgrim retraces the same back-and-forth she walked between those two hills. The Qur’an honors the place itself: “Indeed, Safa and Marwa are among the symbols of Allah” (Qur’an 2:158). For more than a millennium, Muslims of every background have walked in the footsteps of a woman who held no worldly status. She had been left in a barren place with an infant and a small bag of provisions, and she did not despair. Her trust in God in that moment of total vulnerability was met with mercy, and her example was preserved as one of the central rites of Islam. Status before God, in the logic of *saʿi*, is built on faith and trust under hardship, not on gender or social rank. ### What does the udhiya (sacrifice) on Eid al-Adha actually represent? The *udhiya* (the ritual sacrifice of an animal on Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice) commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s willingness to give up what was most beloved to him—his son Ishmael—in obedience to God. When Abraham and Ishmael both submitted, God ransomed Ishmael with a great sacrifice (Qur’an 37:107). The act of slaughter was never the goal; the surrender of the heart was. The Qur’an states this with unusual directness: “Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you” (Qur’an 22:37). Classical commentary on this verse explains that what God sought from Abraham’s trial was *istislam*: the firm and complete submission of both father and son, and not the death of Ishmael. The *udhiya* reenacts that surrender every year. In practice, the meat of the *udhiya* is shared with family, neighbors, and the poor, including non-Muslims, reflecting the humanitarian instinct Islam attaches to every act of worship: trust in God, then care for creation. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-as-a-way-of-life-islam-spirituality-practice # Repentance as a Way of Life: Islam, Spirituality, & Practice **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** August 6, 2018 **Updated:** August 27, 2024 ## Abstract While the general notion of repentance may be familiar to most, the Islamic concept of repentance is far less familiar and is often the subject of misconceptions and doubt. Repentance plays a central role in Islam and is comprehensive in nature. Deeply rooted within the belief system, it manifests in multiple dimensions—as the core of Islamic theology (*aqeedah*), as a subject of jurisprudence or rulings (*fiqh*), and ultimately in practice as an act of worship (*‘ibadah*). Equally important are the spiritual and self-purification (*tazkiyah*) aspects of repentance which reside in the heart. This paper specifically addresses *how* to repent, with a focus on two key dimensions of repentance (*tawba*)—the spiritual and the practical. It describes the necessary steps to tawba, its many benefits, and a number of commonly faced obstacles. The paper discusses the symbiotic relationship between the spiritual and practical components.  It further emphasizes the holistic nature and distinct features of *tawba* as a source of optimism for every sinner and believer alike, and as a way of life, necessary for success in this world and in the Hereafter. --- ## Introduction In order to appreciate the central role of *tawba* (repentance in Islam) and its powerful impact on society as a whole, we need look no further than the methodology and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who personified Islam to a level of excellence we strive to emulate. Chosen by Allah, he ﷺ was guided to meticulously convey to us the final Revelation which commands, “*…And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.*”[^1] In my previous paper on this topic, I presented core beliefs and distinct features of repentance from a creedal (*aqeedah*) perspective.[^2] This paper served as an introduction to the topic of *tawba* with a discussion of its origin with the advent of man, the nature of human fallibility, accountability before Allah, and the obligation upon humans to repent to Him. It highlighted the pivotal role of *tawba* in one’s moral growth, redemption, and salvation, and the immense mercy of Allah toward His servants. It was in essence a response to the question “*Why* repent?” Given the centrality of *tawba* in one’s life, it naturally follows that we also address *how* to repent. This paper focuses on two key aspects in the implementation of *tawba*, both of which must be present and working in tandem with one another. The first consists of the inner spiritual dimension of *tawba* which is sought and nurtured within the believer’s heart, and second consists of the subsequent outward actions that must accompany that spiritual state. The balance and symbiotic relationship between these two components beautifully illustrate the holistic nature of *tawba* and the  numerous benefits we derive from it as a prescription for living a purposeful, productive, and content life, both in this world and the eternal one to come. --- ## Tawba is initiated within the heart What was it about the *tawba* of the man who the Prophet ﷺ informed us had murdered ninety-nine people (and eventually one more) that enabled him to obtain forgiveness?[^3] No doubt it was the manner in which it was sought. The answer may at first seem apparent in his having traveled in search of pious company on his quest for personal reform—but even more importantly, it lies in his having reached within his heart the spiritual stations of sincerity, remorse, and a firm resolve to repent. In Islam, the heart plays a crucial role far beyond its physiological function; the sacred text refers to it as the very control center of the human psyche and behavior. Hence, the heart is the gauge of one’s spiritual well-being from which one can ascertain and treat moral deficiencies or spiritual diseases pertaining to one’s true motives, desires, and doubts. These include a number of negative emotions such as arrogance and anger which, when left unchecked, have the capacity to adversely influence one’s actions. The Prophet ﷺ described the profound effects of sinning and repentance on the heart thus: > *Verily, when the slave (of Allah) commits a sin, a black spot appears on his heart. When he refrains from it, seeks forgiveness and repents, his heart is polished clean. But if he returns, it increases until it covers his entire heart. And that is the ‘Ran’ \[rust\] which Allah mentioned: ‘Nay, but on their hearts is the Ran \[rust\] which they used to earn.’”*[^4] The corroded heart is further described in the Qur’an as the heart of one who is spiritually blind and this heart eventually may become lifeless with no hope of return to Allah. This deterioration is diagnosed as a spiritually “diseased” heart—its disease stemming from insincerity, arrogance, and hypocrisy among other human vices that lead one to sin, eventually becoming a slippery slope  toward disbelief and damnation of the one who does not repent. Renowned scholar Ibn Al-Qayyim (d. 1350 CE) recounts the many dangers of sinning. Among them is that the sinner becomes distanced from Allah, his heart then experiencing anxiety and sorrow, until eventually his sins lead him deeper into spiritual demise. Sinning can become the basis of losing one’s honor, wealth, and blessings. Not countering the dire effects of sin with *tawba* consequently leads the sinner to waste time. In doing so, denial of God and truth eventually takes root and leads to one being deprived of the very knowledge and consciousness needed to successfully return to Allah.[^5] Ibn Al-Qayyim’s assessment resonates to this day in the increasing secular discourse expressing doubts about God and religion. > *And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient*.[^6] > > *In their hearts is disease, so Allah has increased their disease; and for them is a painful punishment because they \[habitually\] used to lie*.[^7] --- ## The fire of regret *Tawba* begins with regret over one’s behavior as taught by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ who said: “*Regret is repentance*.”[^8] This narration is one of numerous examples one can take from the Qur’an and Sunnah to understand the core requirements of *tawba*. Thus, the first step scholars have outlined in the process of polishing the heart is remorse. It can be described as a feeling of guilt and deep regret one experiences while acknowledging one’s sin. It is noteworthy that remorse is not a requirement for repentance in all belief systems. Some, even to this day, maintain a focus on public confession and cathartic rituals of penitence, at times extreme and demeaning, to absolve the sinner and serve as a deterrent to future sin—with little to no regard to sincerity. Such beliefs rely at least in part on a fear of humiliation and misfortune as the driving factor.[^9] In contrast, Islam places unparalleled emphasis on one’s direct connection to Allah. The believer is acutely aware of Allah’s presence in his life and strives to please Him with a sense of devotion and accountability. Hence, remorse becomes the spiritual and moral catalyst for one to sincerely repent to Allah and then to actively strive to reform and attain His forgiveness and pleasure. Furthermore, genuine remorse can only be brought about in one who is both self-aware and mindful of Allah. These are two key attributes of spirituality that are not apparent as outward traits or actions—rather they direct one to seek the path of self-purification (a polished heart) and actions consistent with sincere *tawba*. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE) added a prerequisite to remorse—that of faith and certainty (*yaqeen*) when he said, “…knowledge is prerequisite and is the starting point of these blessings. By this knowledge I mean faith and certitude. To have faith is to accept as true that sins are a deadly poison. Certitude consists of the assurance of the acceptance of this truth, the removal of all doubt about it and finally its mastery over the heart, so that whenever the illumination of this faith shines upon the heart it produces the fire of regret.”[^10] He elaborates that only then is one able to develop a natural aversion to one’s sins, much like the person who consumed what he assumed to be uncontaminated honey not realizing that it contained poison until it made him ill. Al-Ghazali considers this to be the level of sincere repentance—one that only a few attain and are able to maintain without returning to and persisting in sin.[^11] > *But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from \[unlawful\] inclination, then indeed, Paradise will be \[his\] refuge.*[^12] Ironically, the modern world is witnessing the rapid growth of industries advocating the need for purity and enhanced quality in all things consumed, even the air we breathe, as part of the push toward healthy living and the preservation of natural resources. This is evident in the $16 billion spent last year by Americans alone on bottled water,[^13] in the growing global demand for organic non-GMO food products, and the rise of “go green” campaigns. While there is an undeniable need to safeguard our physical well-being and environment, Islam additionally mandates that we apply the same zeal to counter the harm of spiritual pollutants often hidden from view. Arguably, the call to secularism in our times aims to distance us from God, further enabling spiritual diseases to take root and flourish. These diseases are so dangerous that they can easily overcome the spiritually weakened heart. Left untreated, one is no better off than a newly painted facade concealing a cracked foundation. These diseases in turn contribute further to the faith crisis, immorality, and injustice that are prevalent today. As Al-Ghazali so aptly put it, “Sins are to faith what toxic foods are to the body.”[^14] Furthermore, a distinction must be made between the increasingly popular trend of spirituality grounded in non-religious concepts and the traditional understanding of spirituality associated with God and religion. A recent study in *The Journal of Nervous Disease* found a third greater risk of depression in people who considered themselves more spiritual than religious. The author attributed his findings to these participants’ focus on “self-directed internal searches for meaning” which he labeled a “lonely search” that results in dissatisfaction and an increased risk of depression.[^15] These results further support the need for the perfect divinely decreed holistic approach of *tawba* that embodies interdependence between spirituality and practice. In this approach, the believer is in a constant state of self-exertion to diagnose and eradicate spiritual diseases in order to realize the pure and balanced life Islam prescribes. The Quranic verse, “He has succeeded who purifies it \[his soul\]”[^16] is understood by scholars to mean purification from disbelief and sin, and rectification through righteous deeds.[^17] *Tawba* is the means to achieving purification or spiritual wellness, which then guides one to sound actions; each dependent on and enabling the betterment of the other such that the outcome is the overall well-being and moral consciousness of both individual and society. > *…and as a king would not accept a dirty garment as his attire, so God does not admit a darkened heart into His proximity. And, just as the use of a garment for vile labor will soil it, and certainly, to clean it one needs to wash it with soap and warm water, so exposure of the heart to the desires fouls it, and to clean, purge and purify it, one needs to wash it in the flow of tears and the burning of regret. Every clean and pure heart is well received, just as every clean garment is. The purification and cleansing, however, are up to you.*[^18] --- ## “Deeds are considered by their intentions…” One of the inner dimensions of *tawba* and, for that matter, any conscious and deliberate action, is the intention (*niyyah*) behind it. As the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, *“The deeds are considered by the intentions, and a person will get the reward according to his intention.”*[^19] In order to attain forgiveness from Allah, one must approach *tawba* with sincerity. Ibn Al-Qayyim described sincerity in *tawba* as having three elements—sincerity in terms of including *all* of one’s sins in one’s repentance, sincerity within the heart of the one repenting, and sincerity toward Allah to Whom alone one must repent. Sincerity requires being free of ulterior motives such as the preservation of one’s social standing, family, or wealth.[^20] Repentance can only be actualized once the feeling of remorse is followed by the intention to seek forgiveness, to desist from the sin and make amends, with the resolve to refrain from sinning in the future. These were the very steps taken by the murderer who redeemed himself. It was the awakened sincerity within him that led him to embark on a journey he was physically unable to complete, a journey that still secured his forgiveness. It is this inner struggle and endurance in upholding one’s commitment that we understand to be our test. Whenever one sins one is to return to Allah, who forgives human weaknesses, setbacks, and even falling into sin again—as long as one’s *tawba* is sincere. Furthermore, it is undoubtedly from the sheer Mercy of Allah and His Love for His servants that *tawba* is so beloved to Him. This is beautifully illustrated in the words of the Prophet ﷺ *“If you were to commit sin until your sins reach the heaven, then you were to repent, your repentance would be accepted.”*[^21] > *O you who have believed, repent to Allah with sincere repentance. Perhaps your Lord will remove from you your misdeeds and admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow \[on\] the Day when Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believed with him. Their light will proceed before them and on their right; they will say, “Our Lord, perfect for us our light and forgive us. Indeed, You are over all things Competent.”*[^22] --- ## The Prescription Allah chose as Prophets the most noble among mankind to deliver His message to guide their respective nations. As the final messenger, the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ teachings, his impeccable character, and his mannerisms serve as the exemplary model for all of humanity in all aspects of life.[^23] This is understood from his explicit and authoritative instruction regarding obligatory (*wajib*) acts of worship to the detailed recording of the most mundane acts such as eating and sleeping—many of which fall into either recommended and rewarded (*mustahabb*) acts, or simply permissible (*mubah*) actions left to one’s personal preference. Allah repeatedly reassured the Prophet ﷺ of his noble status and the promise of Paradise, yet he ﷺ not only taught us how to seek forgiveness (*istighfar*) from Allah, but he ﷺ made doing so an essential component of his own daily life, leaving us with the most efficacious prescription to follow. > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Turn you people in repentance to Allah and beg pardon of Him. I turn to Him in repentance a hundred times a day.”*[^24] Why would one who is guaranteed Paradise seek forgiveness? First and foremost, to express gratitude and humility. Thus was the demeanor of the Prophet ﷺ and he taught us how to inculcate and express the same characteristics.[^25] Gratitude for one’s blessings, for the gifts of faith and guidance, is demonstrated, though impossible for us to perfectly express, through verbal acknowledgment and obedience to Allah in acts of worship and good deeds—*tawba* being one of the most significant acts of worship. Furthermore, though we emulate him, none of us can attain the lofty status of the Prophet ﷺ; we will inevitably falter, sin, and need to repent. An immediate benefit of adopting this prophetic daily practice is that it necessitates frequent istighfar on the part of the believer, and with it, the remembrance of Allah (*dhikr*). Both of these keep one in a constant state of *tawba* and fuel the spiritual conditioning of one’s heart, thereby safeguarding it from further sin, doubt, and despair. This is other side of the equation—that the practical aspect of *tawba* enhances its spiritual aspect. Thus, one who is mindful of Allah, sincerely acknowledging fallibility, and actively seeking forgiveness attains not only forgiveness but also the spiritual fortitude to do good and to achieve the higher ranks of those with whom Allah is pleased. > *And when those come to you who believe in Our verses, say, “Peace be upon you. Your Lord has decreed upon Himself mercy: that any of you who does wrong out of ignorance and then repents after that and corrects himself—indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful.”*[^26] The Prophetic method of seeking forgiveness goes beyond the recommended daily litanies[^27] in other forms of ritual worship which incorporate supplications (*du’a*) for forgiveness, such as formal prayer (*salah*),[^28] fasting, as well as the pilgrimages of *Hajj* and ‘*Umrah*. Additionally, one attains forgiveness simply through the sincere performance of these acts of worship as indicated by the Prophetic traditions which explicitly declare them to serve as expiation for sins.[^29] This is illustrated for example in the hadith describing ritual ablution (*wudu’*) in which sins are forgiven with every drop of water falling from each limb as it is washed.[^30] This also holds true for the performance of various types of good deeds.[^31] For example, forgiveness accompanies the giving of charity,[^32] whether it be monetary, the warmth of a smile or a handshake,[^33] or a visit to the sick—an act so pleasing to Allah that one is accompanied by seventy thousand angels invoking Allah’s forgiveness on one’s behalf.[^34] Illness and hardship result in expiation of sins.[^35] Invoking blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ is also a means to forgiveness, among its many other virtues.[^36] Gatherings of *dhikr* and awaiting *salah* in the mosque invoke supplications of forgiveness for the believer from the angels present in these places.[^37] More avenues are open to forgiveness from Allah through serving one’s mother and forgiving one another.[^38] > *A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: “O Messenger of Allah! I have been afflicted by a tremendous sin. Is there any repentance for me?” He said: “Do you have a mother?” The man said: “No.” He said: “Do you have any maternal aunts?” The man said: “Yes.” He said: “Then be dutiful to them.”*[^39] Furthermore, the Qur’an and *Sunnah* assign specific compensation (*kaffara*) as exoneration for a select group of sins which violate the rights of Allah and/or people. For example, deliberately breaking an obligatory fast and accidental killing (i.e., manslaughter) fall into the category of sins that require *kaffara*. Compensation is of three types and typically calls for either freeing a slave, feeding the needy, or fasting for a specified number of days as legislated specifically for each sin. Also noteworthy is that any instance in which the legal code (*hadd*) is exercised necessitates the individual be absolved of the sin thereafter.[^40] This illustrates another important aspect of *tawba* in that Islam places emphasis on the separation between the sin itself, as a violation, from any ill-judgment and invalidation of the sinner whose sincerity, spiritual journey, and repentance can be known in reality only to Allah. This safeguards one from doubts about Allah’s capacity and willingness to forgive, and from the extremes of despair and self-condemnation—it also prevents injustice toward others. It is one’s humility before Allah alone that is paramount in the successful moral transformation of individual and society—and it is Allah alone who chooses to forgive whom He wills.[^41] > *On the authority of Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ related: A man said: By Allah, Allah will not forgive so-and-so. At this, Allah the Almighty said: Who is he who swears by Me that I will not forgive so-and-so? Verily I have forgiven so-and-so and have nullified your \[own good\] deeds*.[^42] --- ## Reparation Reparation is a practical aspect of *tawba* that applies in cases where a sin was committed that violated another’s rights—and in those instances where it is actually possible and advisable to make amends. To elaborate, one is to directly compensate the wronged party, or to provide compensation to the victim’s family members, or to simply supplicate for that person (in the case where the one who was wronged is either no longer living or reachable). Scholars have differed as to whether it is obligatory to make amends in the case of backbiting; some have considered it obligatory to do so for *tawba* to be valid. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE) held the opinion that this could cause further damage between the sinner and the one he wronged if the victim was unaware of what had been falsely stated about him. In such a situation, *tawba* would include rectifying the matter with speaking words to the opposite effect to the same people in whose company the backbiting took place originally.[^43] If the violation involves theft of wealth or property, it is to be returned—and if no longer possible, that amount must be given in charity.[^44] The establishment of justice becomes the basis and motivation for one to make amends whenever possible. Making amends serves to safeguard one from the ultimate transfer of good deeds from one’s scale of deeds to that of one’s victim in the Court of Allah where retribution and justice will prevail. Al-Ghazali held the opinion that it is injustice among people that will be the most common reason for being condemned to the Hellfire.[^45] This serves as consolation to those who were wronged in this world and did not receive reparations. It is also a source of tremendous fear in the heart of every believer who sincerely yearns for Allah’s forgiveness and thereby strives to rectify their situation before it is too late. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever has wronged his brother, should ask for his pardon (before his death), as (in the Hereafter) there will be neither a dinar nor a dirham. (He should secure pardon in this life) before some of his good deeds are taken and paid to his brother, or, if he has done no good deeds, some of the bad deeds of his brother are taken to be loaded on him (in the Hereafter).*[^46] Reparation when it comes to sins involving disobedience and deficiency in regard to obligatory acts involves making up for what has been missed of those acts (e.g., missed fasts) and with increased supererogatory or recommended acts of worship to accompany one’s *tawba*.[^47] Al-Ghazali also mentions a number of sins for which the antidote is to treat them with the effective opposite in good deeds to counter and replace the evil of those sins. For example, if one is in the habit of listening to sinful speech, this act should be replaced with that which is rewarded in its place such as listening to something beneficial like the recitation of the Qur’an.[^48] --- ## Obstacles to repentance One may question why so many choose not to seek forgiveness from Allah given the ease and obvious benefits of doing so. The story of the creation of Adam—and of Satan’s promise to mislead him and obstruct him from the path to righteousness as part of God’s test—provides answers to this question. In essence, there are multiple obstacles, some quite subtle, that come between sinners and repentance. Ibn Taymiyyah has outlined a number of obstacles (explored below) that play a significant role in preventing the sinner from the act of repentance.[^49] ### Disregard for one’s sins Belittling one’s sins leads one to think they need not repent at all; it also contributes to persisting in those sins. When sinners view their sins as trivial, they do not experience true remorse and lack even the slightest motivation to engage in *tawba*. This is all too prevalent in today’s culture where people openly brag about their sins on social media. Ibn Taymiyyah exposes the underlying cause of this disregard for one’s sins as heedlessness of Allah, of His Divine Power, and of His authority to punish. In essence such a sinner lacks faith (*imaan*) and God-consciousness (*taqwa*) to the extent that not making *tawba* becomes the basis for his eventually forgetting to. The Companion Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) succinctly summarized this as follows: “You indulge in (bad) actions which are more insignificant to you than a hair while we considered them at the time of Messenger of Allah ﷺ to be great destroying sins.”[^50] Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger ﷺ as saying: > *All the people of my Ummah would get pardon for their sins except those who publicize them. And (it means) that a servant should do a deed during the night and tell the people in the morning that he has done so and so, whereas Allah has concealed it. And he does a deed during the day and when it is night he tells the people, whereas Allah has concealed it.*[^51] Al-Ghazali notes that pride and pleasure in minor sins drive people to engage in major sins; thus, major sins are almost always preceded by minor sins.[^52] Furthermore, one is encouraged to keep concealed those sins which Allah has not exposed out of His Mercy and Forbearance—particularly when it comes to encouraging and misleading others toward the same sins. Not only does this safeguard the sinner from disgrace and despair, giving him the opportunity to repent; but it also serves to protect others from the harm that comes with publicizing and normalizing one’s sins. As Ibn ‘Abbas so profoundly stated, “Woe to the scholar from his followers; he slips but goes right yet people carry the error far away.”[^53] > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever sets a good precedent in Islam, he will have the reward for that, and the reward of those who acted in accordance with it, without that detracting from their reward in the slightest. And whoever sets an evil precedent in Islam, he will have a burden of sin for that, and the burden of those who acted in accordance with it, without that detracting from their burden in the slightest.”'*[^54] ### False hope in time One of Satan’s tactics is to convince the sinner to put off repenting until he eventually dies a sinner. Ibn Al-Qayyim discussed the crucial role of time in the life of the believer and the sense of urgency one must feel in making *tawba*. He divided time into three periods— past, present, and future. Corresponding to each are specific spiritual and practical aspects of *tawba*: one is to amend what has already passed by seeking forgiveness and abandoning the sin; to safeguard the present with active and conscious servitude to Allah; and to apply restraint and resolution to avoid returning to and persisting in that sin in the future.[^55] In essence, if one is not actively engaged in moving forward with worship, good deeds, and *tawba* at any given moment in time, one will inevitably regress and fall into heedlessness and sin.[^56] This is understood from the Quranic verse, “To whoever wills among you to proceed or stay behind.”[^57] Inaction—whether it stems from apathy or doubt, or from wasting time, or from the assumption that time is on one’s side—is sadly common today but clearly not an option for the believer. Yet again, we see the immense mercy Allah has placed in *tawba* in that one not only amends but actually restores and regains the past as seen in Allah’s saying, “Except for those who repent, believe, and do righteous work. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.”[^58] Ibn Al-Qayyim viewed the present as the one demanding the greatest effort of the three saying, “And in both of these \[the past and the future\] there is no hardship or tiredness for the limbs, however the concern is for your life—and that is the time (at present) which is between two times. If you waste it, you will have wasted your happiness and your \[means of\] safety. And if you safeguard it, along with correcting the \[other\] two times—that which is before it and that which comes after it—with what has been mentioned, you will be saved and you will succeed with ease, pleasure, and bliss.”[^59] Thus, he highlighted the imperative to consciously take charge of every hour, referring to this as gathering provision for either Paradise or the Hellfire. >  *“Hasten to forgiveness from your Lord…”*[^60] ### Assuming that one has attained Allah’s Mercy Sometimes a sinner counts on the mercy of Allah to be forgiven regardless of the magnitude of his sins without having repented. Allah’s mercy *is* all-encompassing, and includes sinners, as He chooses to forgive and overlook beyond all expectations. However, for a believer, humility requires living a balance between hope of attaining that mercy and fear of Allah’s displeasure and punishment; this hope and fear motivate the believer to adhere to the commands of Allah. The Qur’anic verse, “And they who give what they give while their hearts are fearful because they will be returning to their Lord” exemplifies this balance in the heart of the believer in extending his hand in charity to please Allah—yet remaining fearful of accountability before Allah and humble regarding its acceptance.[^61] Ibn Al-Qayyim demonstrates the misguidance in the sinner’s line of thinking by pointing to Satan’s being cursed forever over a simple command to prostrate and Adam’s being expelled from the Garden over a mere morsel of food. While they may appear to be small acts of disobedience, both carried enormous consequences, exemplifying the potential for destruction each and every sin carries.[^62] > *And he does not fear the consequence thereof.*[^63] ### Heedlessness One who is not engaged in the frequent remembrance of Allah will lack the spiritual awareness, conditioning, and fortitude required to abstain from following their desires. This is especially problematic today given the countless distractions that accompany an abundance of leisure time, prosperity, and secularism. Without *taqwa*, such an individual will likely follow his own desires and fall into sin. This obstacle illustrates the negative impact of a spiritually devoid heart on one’s actions. *Tawba* is the means of reviving one’s heart and realigning one’s moral compass and trajectory toward forgiveness and reform. It is for this reason that Allah repeatedly calls our attention to His powerful and at times catastrophic signs, be it natural disasters, calamities, or war; He is, in essence, calling people to wake up from heedlessness and return to Him with *tawba*.[^64] >  *And remind, for indeed, the reminder benefits the believers.*[^65] ### Despair One of the most destructive obstacles to *tawba* is despair. The sinner who believes his sins are excessive and that Allah will no longer forgive them gives up all hope and does not repent at all. This may stem from a feeling of excessive guilt and hopelessness. Where one would ideally experience remorse, a natural and proactive type of guilt which motivates one to repent and seek closeness to Allah, guilt in this case reaches a dangerous level, becoming a barrier to *tawba*, further distancing one from Allah. Negative sentiment about God and religion seen in the  question, “What’s the point of repenting anyway?” is not a modern phenomenon. Rather, it has always been a common strategy of Satan used to distance the servant from his Master—in the same way Satan himself once despaired instead of seeking forgiveness from Allah. Islam teaches us the importance of a healthy balance and outlook toward oneself and others, and to stay clear of either extreme—that of complacency or arrogance on the one hand and outright despair on the other. The Prophet Noah (*Nuh*) preached to his people, a corrupt nation he by and large could not convince, for nine hundred and fifty years, urging them to seek forgiveness.[^66] In a powerful statement, the Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you should long for death, for if he is a good man, he may increase his good deeds, and if he is an evil-doer, he may stop the evil deeds and repent.”[^67] The overwhelming positivity and hope in this is often unfairly and inaccurately masked by the false perception, lack of awareness, and misinformation that Islam preaches a rigid, oppressive, and guilt-inducing way of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather the default in Islam is optimism, hope, and a good standing with Allah such that if and when the believer falters, *tawba* instantly becomes a means back to it. > *Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves \[by sinning\], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”*[^68] ### Reliance on one’s good deeds This is the case of the one who thinks his good deeds far outweigh his sins and mistakenly believes that he is guaranteed forgiveness—so he does not repent. The believer should never take forgiveness for granted, given the very real possibility of falling short even in regard to the best of his deeds. Hence, one is instructed to seek forgiveness after every obligatory prayer to acknowledge one’s shortcomings.[^69] We see humility in the example of the noble Prophet Abraham (*Ibrahim*) who, upon completing the monumental task of building the Ka’bah with his son, Ishmael (*Isma’il*) made the following supplication in which he sought forgiveness: > …Our Lord, accept \[this\] from us. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing. Our Lord! and make us Muslims \[in submission\] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation \[in submission\] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.[^70] Related to this obstacle is the practice of taking evidence of worldly success as a sign of Allah’s pleasure and favor. The Qur’an and *Sunnah* give us ample proof of cases in which this is true and instances when it is not. For example, the great companions, Uthman ibn Affan and Abdul Rahman ibn Awf were among those promised Paradise and were well-known for their wealth and immense generosity in serving the needs of the *ummah*. However, this becomes a dangerous line of thinking when assumed about oneself. It is equally important to take note of those who were endowed with the best of this world yet still earned the wrath of Allah—The Pharaoh (*Fir’aun*) is a clear example, going so far as to assign himself divine authority and to declare himself to be the Master (*Rabb*) in his arrogance and pride.[^71] In fact, it is greed and love for this world, and the illusion of its grandeur, though temporary, that is one of the primary diseases that leads one to sin and opens the way to injustice. What begins with injustice toward oneself opens the door to injustice against others, and can eventually manifest in corrupt leadership, and in turn a morally bankrupt society subjected to injustice and oppression. > *Anas bin Malik narrated that Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, "If Adam's son had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys, for nothing fills his mouth except dust. And Allah forgives him who repents to Him.”*[^72] The enormous regret of people will be seen on the Day of Reckoning: “The hypocrites will call to the believers, ‘Were we not with you?’ They will say, ‘Yes, but you afflicted yourselves and awaited \[misfortune for us\] and doubted, and wishful thinking deluded you until there came the command of Allah. And the Deceiver \[Satan\] deceived you concerning Allah.’”[^73] --- ## The fruits of tawba Ibn Al-Qayyim derived a number of benefits the believer realizes in this world as a result of abandoning sin—these benefits serve as tremendous motivation to do so immediately. Among them is that *tawba* becomes a means of protecting one’s honor and wealth. When one leaves sinning, one’s heart, body, and soul are all strengthened and contentment overtakes sadness and grief. The path to righteousness is made easier for the believer, he is drawn closer to Allah, and his supplications and those of others for him are readily answered as he gains the love and respect of the people around him. Despite these worldly gains, he becomes eager to meet Allah and desires the reward that awaits him, no longer fearing death. The greatest of benefits no doubt will be realized in the Hereafter when the believer will taste the sweetness of his faith and experience everlasting joy far greater than any pleasure derived from sinning.[^74] The journey described here once again reinforces the interdependence of the spiritual and practical components of *tawba*. Perhaps one of the most reassuring *hadith* in regard to the benefits of *tawba* is the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, *“The one who repents from sin is like one who did not sin.”*[^75] Scholars further discussed whether the spiritual station of the one who has repented is likened to that of the one who didn’t commit that sin at all, or whether it is possible for the repentant sinner’s station to be even higher. While some say it would be at the same level in light of the *hadith* above, Ibn Taymiyyah made the distinction that while for some this may indeed be the case, for others it is possible to attain an even higher station with Allah. This is because the sinner emerges from sinning and *tawba* more conscientious than before. He cites the example of the Prophet David (*Dawud*) who sought forgiveness from Allah and gained a higher rank.[^76] The same can be noted of Adam and Moses (*Musa*) among others—each of whom gained the favor of Allah and the noble status of prophethood after *tawba*. > *…Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send \[rain from\] the sky upon you in \[continuing\] showers and give you increase in wealth and children and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers.*[^77] Ibn Al-Qayyim articulated some of the most subtle and beautiful spiritual benefits of *tawba*: the knowledge and insights one develops with regard to the Names and Attributes of Allah. The sinner’s journey through the steps of *tawba* is interlaced with the recognition of Allah’s Might (*Al-Azeez*) and the Perfection of His Decree (*Al-Qadir*) when one acknowledges one’s imperfections and the need for Allah to safeguard one from failure. The believer appreciates that Allah has concealed his sins from being exposed, even though He is the All-Seeing (*Al-Baseer*). It is His Forbearance (*Al-Haleem*) which has delayed punishment, giving the believer time to repent. He feels gratitude for the blessings of Divine Generosity, Mercy (*Al-Rahman, Al-Raheem*) and the Oft-Forgiving (*Al-Ghaffar*) nature of Allah, as the Effacer of sins (*Al-Afu’*) and the One who repeatedly turns to His servants in forgiveness (*At-Tawwab*). One is led through *tawba* through the states of humility, surrender, need, and submission, giving the believer a heightened appreciation for Allah as the All-Seeing (*Al-Baseer*), All-Hearing (*Al-Sami’*), and The Sustainer (*Al-Razzaq*).[^78] --- ## Resolve – the heart holds the way forward Let’s consider again the man who had murdered ninety-nine people; his persistence in wanting to repent despite having repeated such a grave sin points to the powerful role of resolve as the final step in a complete and successful *tawba*. Al-Ghazali describes the process as involving an unrelenting battle between one’s desires and one’s intellect. When the former are strengthened, one is susceptible to sin, and when the latter prevails, one will repent and reform.[^79] Ibn Al-Qayyim described this very process when he said, “It is but \[firm\] resolution and a strong and firm intention \[which allows your\] body, heart and your inner-self to rest. So whatever has passed you by, you amend by repentance and you correct what has yet to come with restraint, resolution \[of one's will\] and (firm) intention.”[^80] Allah’s command, “*…And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed*” was revealed well after the establishment of Islam, and first and foremost to the best generation of Muslims who had proven their sincerity through hardship and sacrifice—among them those blessed with the promise of Paradise. These were the Companions who lived around the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, learning from him and striving to emulate him to better themselves in servitude to Allah. Their example leaves no doubt that *tawba* should constitute a way of life for every believer and is required for ultimate success in this world and in the Hereafter.[^81] Taking from the example of the noble Prophets, the elite group of Companions, and so many among our pious predecessors, resolve is a consistent component in the life of the believer—one that is born in the spiritual realm. However, for it to take effect as the means to the renewal of *tawba*, it must turn into practice—that of continually seeking knowledge to build certainty in one’s faith and practice, of choosing righteous company, of frequenting the times and places of *dhikr*, and of reminding oneself of the pain of regret as fuel to stay the course of the righteous and be counted in the ranks of those oft-returning to Allah. > *And Paradise will be brought near to the righteous, not far,* > > *\[It will be said\], “This is what you were promised—for every returner \[to Allah\] and keeper \[of His covenant\]* > > *Who feared the Most Merciful unseen and came with a heart returning \[in repentance\].* > > *Enter it in peace. This is the Day of Eternity.”* > > *They will have whatever they wish therein, and with Us is more.*[^82] --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an, 24:31, *Sahih International* [^2]: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework) [^3]: *Sahih Muslim* 2766 a, In-book reference: Book 50, *Hadith* 54, USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 37, Hadith 6662, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/50&sa=D&ust=1533580091729000)[https://sunnah.com/muslim/50](https://sunnah.com/muslim/50) [^4]: Jami’ At-Tirmidhi, Grade: *Hasan*, English reference: Vol. 5, Book 44, Hadith 3334, Arabic reference: Book 47, Hadith 3654, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/680450&sa=D&ust=1533580091730000)[https://sunnah.com/urn/680450](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/680450&sa=D&ust=1533580091730000) [^5]: Al-Qayyim, Ibn. *Al-Fawaid: A Collection of Wise Sayings*. Al-Mansura, Egypt: Umm Al-Qura, 2004. 158-160, 235 [^6]: Qur’an, 59:19, *Sahih International* [^7]: Qur’an, 2:10, *Sahih International*, also see 2:6-9 [^8]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, Grade: *Hasan*, English reference: Vol. 5, Book 37, Hadith 4252, Arabic reference: Book 37, Hadith 4393, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1293550&sa=D&ust=1533580091731000)[https://sunnah.com/urn/1293550](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1293550&sa=D&ust=1533580091731000) [^9]: [http://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/repentance](http://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/repentance) [^10]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 31 [^11]: Ibid. 86 [^12]: Qur’an, 79:40-41, *Sahih International* [^13]: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bottledwater.org/bottled-water-nations-healthiest-packaged-beverage-officially-americas-favorite&sa=D&ust=1533580091733000)[http://www.bottledwater.org/bottled-water-nations-healthiest-packaged-beverage-officially-americas-favorite](http://www.bottledwater.org/bottled-water-nations-healthiest-packaged-beverage-officially-americas-favorite) [^14]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 41 [^15]: Vittengl, J. R. (2018). A lonely search?: Risk for depression when spirituality exceeds religiosity. *The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease*, 206, 386-389. [^16]: Qur’an, 91:9, *Sahih International* [^17]: Taymiyyah, Ibn. *Obstacles That Prevent One from Making Repentance*. Taken from the Book, At-Tawbah. SalafiManhaj, 2005. [](https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf)[https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf](https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf) [^18]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 50 [^19]: *Al-Bukhari* and *Muslim*, Book 1, Hadith 1, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/1&sa=D&ust=1533580091735000)[https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/1](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/1) [^20]: Farid, Ahmad. *The Purification of the Soul According to the Earliest Sources*. London: Al-Firdous, 1996. 157-8 [^21]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, Grade: *Hasan*, Vol. 5, Book 37, Hadith 4248, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1293510&sa=D&ust=1533580091737000)[https://sunnah.com/urn/1293510](https://sunnah.com/urn/1293510) [^22]: Qur’an, 66:8, *Sahih International* [^23]: “There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern \[example\] for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and \[who\] remembers Allah often.” \[Quran, 33:21\] [^24]: *Sahih Muslim*, Arabic/English book reference: Book 1, *Hadith* 14, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/14&sa=D&ust=1533580091738000)[https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/14](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/14) [^25]: The Prophet ﷺ stood (in prayer at night) until his feet swelled up, and it was said to him: Allah has forgiven your past and future sins. He said: "Should I not be a thankful slave?”, *Sunan an-Nasa'i*, Grade: *Sahih*, 1644, In-book reference: Book 20, *Hadith* 47, English translation: Vol. 2, Book 20, *Hadith* 1645 [^26]: Qur’an, 6:54 [^27]: *Fortress of the Muslim*, *Invocations from the Quran and the Sunnah* by Darussalam Publications is a recommended source of authentic supplications, many of which include istighfar, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://islamawareness.net/Dua/Fortress/&sa=D&ust=1533580091739000)[https://islamawareness.net/Dua/Fortress/](https://islamawareness.net/Dua/Fortress) [^28]: Includes the daily five obligatory prayers, the Friday prayer, and all recommended prayers, especially the night prayer and even two units of prayer legislated in the Sunnah solely for the purpose of *tawba*. [^29]: Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: The five \[daily\] prayers and one Friday prayer to \[the next\] Friday prayer are expiations \[for the sins committed in the intervals\] between them. *Sahih Muslim* 233b, In-book reference: Book 2, *Hadith* 18, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/2/18&sa=D&ust=1533580091740000)[https://sunnah.com/muslim/2/18](https://sunnah.com/muslim/2/18) [^30]: Allah's Messenger ﷺ said: “When a bondsman—a Muslim or a believer—washes his face \[in course of ablution\], every sin he contemplated with his eyes will be washed away from his face along with water, or with the last drop of water; when he washes his hands, every sin they wrought will be effaced from his hands with the water, or with the last drop of water; and when he washes his feet, every sin towards which his feet have walked will be washed away with the water or with the last drop of water with the result that he comes out pure from all sins.” *Sahih Muslim* 244, In-book reference: Book 2, *Hadith* 44, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/2/44&sa=D&ust=1533580091741000)[https://sunnah.com/muslim/2/44](https://sunnah.com/muslim/2/44) [^31]: And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember. \[Qur’an, 11:114\] [^32]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “*…sadaqah* (charity) extinguishes sins just as water extinguishes fire.” *Jami’ At-Tirmidhi* 614, Grade: *Hasan*, In-book reference: Book 6, *Hadith* 71, English translation: Vol. 2, Book 1, *Hadith* 614, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/6/71&sa=D&ust=1533580091742000)[https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/6/71](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/6/71&sa=D&ust=1533580091742000) [^33]: Hudhaifa ibn Al-Yaman reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, when the believer meets another believer and greets him with peace and shakes his hand, the sins of both will shed like the shedding of the leaves of a tree.” *al-Muʻjam al-Awsaṭ* 253, Grade: *Sahih* (al-Albani), [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/08/28/hadith-on-greetings-shaking-hands-will-shed-the-sins-of-the-muslims/&sa=D&ust=1533580091743000)[https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/08/28/hadith-on-greetings-shaking-hands-will-shed-the-sins-of-the-muslims/](https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/08/28/hadith-on-greetings-shaking-hands-will-shed-the-sins-of-the-muslims/) [^34]: 'Ali bin Abi Talib (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying, “When a Muslim visits a sick Muslim at dawn, seventy thousand angels keep on praying for him till dusk. If he visits him in the evening, seventy thousand angels keep on praying for him till the morning; and he will have \[his share of\] reaped fruits in *Jannah*.” *At-Tirmidh*i, Grade: *Hasan*, Book 7, Hadith 6, Arabic/English book reference: Book 7, *Hadith* 899, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/7/6&sa=D&ust=1533580091743000)[https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/7/6](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/7/6) [^35]: Abu Sa'id and Abu Huraira reported that they heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ say: “Never is a believer is stricken with discomfort, hardship or illness, grief, or even with mental worry that his sins are not expiated for him.” *Sahih Muslim* 2573, In-book reference: Book 45, *Hadith* 66, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/45/66&sa=D&ust=1533580091744000)[https://sunnah.com/muslim/45/66](https://sunnah.com/muslim/45/66) [^36]: It was narrated that Ubayy ibn Ka‘b (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I send a great deal of blessings upon you; how much of my du‘aa’ should be sending blessings upon you?’ He said: ‘Whatever you wish.’ I said: ‘One quarter?’ He said: ‘Whatever you wish, and if you do more, that will be better for you.’ I said: ‘One half?’ He said: ‘Whatever you wish and if you do more, that will be better for you.’ I said: ‘Two thirds?’ He said: ‘Whatever you wish and if you do more, that will be better for you.’ I said: ‘I will make all of my *du‘aa’* for you.’ He said: ‘Then your concerns will be taken care of and your sins will be forgiven.’” *At-Tirmidhi* 2457, Grade: *Sahih Hasan*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://islamqa.info/en/128455&sa=D&ust=1533580091745000)[https://islamqa.info/en/128455](https://islamqa.info/en/128455) [^37]: It was narrated that Abu Huraira said: The Messenger of Allah said: “When one of you enters the mosque, he is in a state of prayer, so long as the prayer keeps him there, and the angels will send prayer upon anyone of you so long as he remains in the place where he prayed, saying: ‘O Allah, forgive him; O Allah, have mercy on him; O Allah, accept his repentance,’ so long as he does not commit *Hadath* nor disturb anyone.” *Sunan Ibn Majah* 799, Grade: *Sahih*, Book 4, *Hadith* 65: Vol. 1, Book 4, *Hadith* 799, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/4/65&sa=D&ust=1533580091746000)[https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/4/65](https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/4/65) [^38]: Umar was heard to say, “Anyone who does not show mercy will not be shown mercy. Anyone who does not forgive will not be forgiven. Anyone who does not turn in repentance will not be turned to nor will he be protected or guarded.” *Al-Adab Al-Mufra*d 372, Grade: Hasan (*Al-Albani*) In-book reference: Book 20, *Hadith* 1, English translation: Book 20, *Hadith* 372, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/adab/20/1&sa=D&ust=1533580091746000)[https://sunnah.com/adab/20/1](https://sunnah.com/adab/20/1) [^39]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* 1904, In-book reference: Book 27, *Hadith* 9, English translation: Vol. 1, Book 1, *Hadith* 1904, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/27/9&sa=D&ust=1533580091747000)[https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/27/9](https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/27/9) [^40]: Philips, Abu Ameena Bilal. *Salvation through Repentance: An Islamic View*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House. 53-64 [^41]: …And if not for the favor of Allah upon you and His mercy, not one of you would have been pure, ever, but Allah purifies whom He wills, and Allah is Hearing and Knowing. \[Qur’an, 24:21\] [^42]: *40 Hadith Qudsi* 31, *Muslim*, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/qudsi40/31&sa=D&ust=1533580091748000)[https://sunnah.com/qudsi40/31](https://sunnah.com/qudsi40/31) [^43]: Farid, Ahmad. *The Purification of the Soul According to the Earliest Sources*. London: Al-Firdous, 1996. 153-154 [^44]: Ibid 154. [^45]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 78 [^46]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 6534, In-book reference: Book 81, *Hadith* 123, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/123&sa=D&ust=1533580091749000)[https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/123](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/123) [^47]: It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The first thing for which a person will be brought to account will be his *Salah*. If it is complete \[all well and good\], otherwise Allah will say: ‘Look and see if My slave did any voluntary prayer.’ If he is found to have done voluntary prayers, his obligatory prayers will be completed therewith.” *Sunan an-Nasa'i* 467, Grade: *Sahih*, In-book reference: Book 5, *Hadith* 20, English translation: Vol. 1, Book 5, *Hadith* 468, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/nasai/5/20&sa=D&ust=1533580091750000)[https://sunnah.com/nasai/5/20](https://sunnah.com/nasai/5/20) [^48]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 88 [^49]: Taymiyyah, Ibn. *Obstacles That Prevent One from Making Repentance* - Taken from the book, *At-Tawbah*. SalafiManhaj, 2005. [](https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf)[https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf](https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf). 9-19 [^50]: *Al-Bukhari*: Book 1, *Hadith* 63, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/63&sa=D&ust=1533580091752000)[https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/63](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/63) [^51]: *Sahih Muslim* 2990, In-book reference: Book 55, *Hadith* 68, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/68&sa=D&ust=1533580091753000)[https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/68](https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/68) [^52]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 82-83 [^53]: Ibid. 84 [^54]: *Sunan an-Nasa'i* 2554, Grade: *Sahih*, English translation: Vol. 3, Book 23, *Hadith* 2555, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1077320&sa=D&ust=1533580091754000)[https://sunnah.com/urn/1077320](https://sunnah.com/urn/1077320) [^55]: “And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves \[by transgression\], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins - and who can forgive sins except Allah? - and \[who\] do not persist in what they have done while they know.” \[Qur’an, 3:135\] [^56]: Al-Qayyim, Ibn. The Path to Guidance. [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide%23page/n0/mode/2up&sa=D&ust=1533580091754000)[https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide#page/n0/mode/2up](https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide%23page/n0/mode/2up). 72-78 [^57]: Qur’an, 74:37, *Sahih International* [^58]: Qur’an, 25:70, *Sahih International* [^59]: Al-Qayyim, Ibn. *The Path to Guidance*. [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide%23page/n0/mode/2up&sa=D&ust=1533580091756000)[https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide#page/n0/mode/2up](https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide%23page/n0/mode/2up).  74 [^60]: Qur’an, 3:133, *Sahih International* [^61]: Qur’an, 23:60, *Sahih International* [^62]: Taymiyyah, Ibn. *Obstacles That Prevent One from Making Repentance - Taken from the Book, At-Tawbah.* SalafiManhaj, 2005. [](https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf)[https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf](https://ebooks.worldofislam.info/ebooks/Repentence/Obstacles4Repentance.pdf). 14-15 [^63]: Qur’an, 91:15, *Sahih International* [^64]: And We send not the signs except as a warning. \[Qur’an, 17:59\] [^65]: Qur’an, 51:55, *Sahih International* [^66]: “…Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send \[rain from\] the sky upon you in \[continuing\] showers and give you increase in wealth and children and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers.” \[Qur’an, 71:10-12\] [^67]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 7235, In-book reference: Book 94, *Hadith* 10, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/94/10&sa=D&ust=1533580091758000)[https://sunnah.com/bukhari/94/10](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/94/10) Also, Ibn \`Umar narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Indeed Allah accepts the repentance of a slave as long as (his soul does not reach his throat).” *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* 3537, Grade: *Hasan*, In-book reference: Book 48, *Hadith* 168, English translation: Vol. 6, Book 45, *Hadith* 3537, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/168&sa=D&ust=1533580091759000)[https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/168](https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/168) [^68]: Qur’an, 39:53, *Sahih International* [^69]: Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished his *Salat* (prayer), he would beg forgiveness three times \[by saying, *'Astaghfirullah' Muslim*, Book 20, *Hadith* 8, Arabic/English book reference: Book 20, *Hadith* 1876, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/20&sa=D&ust=1533580091760000)[https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/20](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/20) [^70]: Qur’an, 2:127-128 [^71]: Qur’an, 79:17-25 [^72]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 6439 In-book reference: Book 81, *Hadith* 28, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/28&sa=D&ust=1533580091761000)[https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/28](https://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/28) [^73]: Qur’an, 57:14, *Sahih International* [^74]: Al-Qayyim, Ibn. *Al-Fawaid: A Collection of Wise Sayings*. Al-Mansura, Egypt: Umm Al-Qura, 2004. 254-255 [^75]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* 4250, Grade: *Hasan*, English reference: Vol. 5, Book 37, *Hadith* 4250, Arabic reference: Book 37, *Hadith* 4391, [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sunnah.com/urn/1293530&sa=D&ust=1533580091763000)[https://sunnah.com/urn/1293530](https://sunnah.com/urn/1293530) [^76]: Farid, Ahmad. *The Purification of the Soul: According to the earliest sources*. London: Al-Firdous, 1996. 156 [^77]: Qur’an, 71:10-12 [^78]: Farid, Ahmad. *The Purification of the Soul According to the Earliest Sources*. London: Al-Firdous, 1996. 160-162 [^79]: Stern, M.S. *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1990. 42-43 [^80]: Al-Qayyim, Ibn. *The Path to Guidance*. [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide%23page/n0/mode/2up&sa=D&ust=1533580091765000)[https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide#page/n0/mode/2up](https://archive.org/stream/BooksOfIbnQayyimAl-jawziyyah/guide%23page/n0/mode/2up). 73 [^81]: Farid, Ahmad. *The Purification of the Soul According to the Earliest Sources*. London: Al-Firdous, 1996. 151 [^82]: Qur’an, 50:31-35 ## Summary Repentance holds a station of great magnitude in the religion of Allah, for it is by returning to Him that the servant attains success in this life and salvation in the Hereafter. Allah the Exalted commands, "And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed." Understanding the nature of tawba, however, is not merely a matter of knowing why one must repent—which concerns matters of creed, human fallibility, and accountability before Allah—but also of knowing how one is to repent. This latter question rests upon two dimensions that must operate together: the inner spiritual dimension nurtured within the heart, and the outward actions that must accompany that spiritual state. The harmony between these two components illustrates the comprehensive nature of tawba and the manifold benefits derived from it. Tawba begins within the heart. The lesson of the man who killed ninety-nine persons, and then one more, as related in the authentic tradition, lies not merely in his traveling in search of pious company, but in his having reached within his heart the stations of sincerity, remorse, and firm resolve. In Islam the heart is far more than a physical organ; it is the control center of human behavior and the gauge of one's spiritual condition. The Prophet ﷺ described the effect of sin upon it, saying that when the servant commits a sin, a black spot appears upon his heart, and if he refrains, seeks forgiveness, and repents, his heart is polished clean; but if he returns to sin, it increases until it covers his entire heart, and this is the "rust" (ran) mentioned by Allah in His saying, "Nay, but on their hearts is the ran which they used to earn." The Qur'an describes such a corroded heart as spiritually diseased, saying, "In their hearts is disease, so Allah has increased their disease." Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350 CE) enumerated the dangers of sin: distance from Allah, anxiety and sorrow, loss of honor, wealth, and blessing, the wasting of time, and eventually deprivation of the very knowledge and consciousness needed to return to Allah. The first step in polishing the heart is remorse, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Regret is repentance." This is a feeling of guilt and deep regret accompanying the acknowledgment of one's sin. Islam's emphasis here differs from belief systems that focus upon public confession and demeaning rituals of penitence driven by fear of humiliation, for the believer instead is acutely aware of Allah's presence and strives to please Him out of devotion and accountability. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE) added that faith and certainty (yaqeen) are prerequisites to remorse, stating that knowledge is the starting point, whereby one accepts as true that sins are a deadly poison, and that when the illumination of this faith shines upon the heart it produces "the fire of regret." He likened this to a man who consumed what he assumed to be pure honey, only to discover it was poisoned once it made him ill. Allah says, "But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from unlawful inclination, then indeed, Paradise will be his refuge." The Qur'anic verse, "He has succeeded who purifies it," is understood by the scholars to mean purification from disbelief and sin and rectification through righteous deeds, and tawba is the means to this purification. Among the inner dimensions of tawba is the intention (niyyah), for the Prophet ﷺ said, "The deeds are considered by the intentions, and a person will get the reward according to his intention." Ibn al-Qayyim described sincerity in tawba as consisting of three elements: sincerity in including all of one's sins, sincerity within the heart of the one repenting, and sincerity toward Allah alone. Repentance is actualized when remorse is followed by the intention to seek forgiveness, to desist from the sin, to make amends, and to resolve not to return to it. From the mercy of Allah, He forgives human weakness and setbacks so long as the tawba is sincere, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "If you were to commit sin until your sins reach the heaven, then you were to repent, your repentance would be accepted." Allah commands, "O you who have believed, repent to Allah with sincere repentance." As for the practical prescription, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, though guaranteed Paradise, made seeking forgiveness (istighfar) an essential part of his daily life, saying, "Turn you people in repentance to Allah and beg pardon of Him. I turn to Him in repentance a hundred times a day." He did so out of gratitude and humility, and in doing so taught that frequent istighfar and the remembrance of Allah (dhikr) keep the servant in a constant state of tawba, fortifying the heart against sin, doubt, and despair. This is the reciprocal relationship: the practical aspect enhances the spiritual. Forgiveness is attained through the sincere performance of acts of worship, as with ablution (wudu') in which sins fall away with the dripping water, and through good deeds such as charity, a smile, or visiting the sick—for one who visits the sick is accompanied by seventy thousand angels invoking Allah's forgiveness. The Qur'an and Sunnah also assign specific expiation (kaffara) for certain sins, such as deliberately breaking an obligatory fast or accidental killing, typically requiring freeing a slave, feeding the needy, or fasting. Islam distinguishes between the sin itself and the sinner, whose true state is known only to Allah, guarding against both despair and presumption over Allah's forgiveness. Thus the Prophet ﷺ related that a man swore that Allah would not forgive a certain person, and Allah said, "Who is he who swears by Me that I will not forgive so-and-so? Verily I have forgiven so-and-so and have nullified your own deeds." Where a sin violates the rights of another, reparation becomes part of tawba by compensating the wronged party, their family, or by supplicating for them if they cannot be reached. The scholars differed regarding backbiting: some held it obligatory to make amends, while Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE) held that if the victim was unaware, informing him could cause further harm, and so one should instead speak well of him before those who heard the slander. Stolen wealth must be returned, or given in charity if that is no longer possible. Al-Ghazali held that injustice among people will be the most common cause of entering the Hellfire, and the Prophet ﷺ warned that one who wronged his brother should seek his pardon before death, for in the Hereafter there is neither dinar nor dirham, but rather an exchange of good and bad deeds. Reparation for deficiency in obligatory worship involves making up what was missed and increasing supererogatory acts, and Al-Ghazali advised treating sins with their opposites in good deeds. Several obstacles prevent people from repenting, as outlined by Ibn Taymiyyah. The first is belittling one's sins, which removes remorse and motivation; the Companion Anas noted that people came to regard as trivial what the Companions considered destroying sins, and the Prophet ﷺ said that all his Ummah would be pardoned except those who publicize their sins. A second obstacle is false hope in time, whereby Satan urges delay; Ibn al-Qayyim divided time into past, present, and future, holding the present to demand the greatest effort. Allah says, "Hasten to forgiveness from your Lord," and He promises to replace the evil deeds of the repentant with good. A third obstacle is presuming upon Allah's mercy without repenting, whereas the believer lives balanced between hope and fear, as Allah describes those "who give what they give while their hearts are fearful." Ibn al-Qayyim illustrated the danger by noting that Satan was cursed over a single command to prostrate, and Adam expelled over a morsel of food. A fourth is heedlessness, remedied by dhikr and taqwa. A fifth, and among the most destructive, is despair—the very error of Satan himself, who despaired rather than seeking forgiveness. Against this Allah declares, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins." A final obstacle is reliance upon one's good deeds; even the Prophet Abraham, after building the Ka'bah, prayed, "Our Lord, accept this from us... and accept our repentance." Worldly success is likewise no proof of Allah's pleasure, for Pharaoh was granted abundance yet claimed divinity, while the Prophet ﷺ said that if the son of Adam had a valley of gold he would desire two, yet "Allah forgives him who repents to Him." The fruits of tawba, as Ibn al-Qayyim derived, include protection of honor and wealth, strengthening of heart, body, and soul, contentment, ease upon the path of righteousness, nearness to Allah, answered supplications, and the love of the people—culminating in everlasting joy in the Hereafter. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The one who repents from sin is like one who did not sin." The scholars differed as to whether the repentant attains the same station as one who never sinned or a higher one; Ibn Taymiyyah held that for some it may indeed be higher, since the sinner emerges more conscientious, citing the Prophet David, and likewise Adam and Moses, who attained the favor of Allah after tawba. Ibn al-Qayyim further noted the subtle spiritual benefit of coming to know Allah's Names and Attributes—His Might, His Forbearance in delaying punishment, His concealment of sins though He is the All-Seeing, and His being the Oft-Forgiving and the One who repeatedly turns in mercy. The final step is firm resolve, for the man who killed a hundred persisted in his desire to repent despite his grave sin. Al-Ghazali described an unrelenting battle between desire and intellect, and Ibn al-Qayyim stated that resolution allows body, heart, and soul to rest, amending the past by repentance and correcting the future by restraint. The command, "And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed," was revealed to the best generation, the Companions, who had already proven their sincerity—leaving no doubt that tawba is to be a way of life for every believer. Allah promises Paradise near to the righteous, saying, "This is what you were promised—for every returner to Allah and keeper of His covenant, who feared the Most Merciful unseen and came with a heart returning in repentance." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-guiding-principles-of-faith-sincerity-honesty-and-good-will-in-islam # The Guiding Principles of Faith: Sincerity, Honesty, and Good Will in Islam **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 19, 2018 **Updated:** September 30, 2025 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* In Islam, we must always practice our faith with sincerity (*al-ikhlas*), honesty (*al-sidq*), and goodwill (*al-nasihah*). Each of these virtues includes a vertical dimension (in relation to Allah) and a horizontal dimension (in relation to other people); they tell us how to behave with Allah and how to behave with others. Virtues in Islam such as these act as guiding principles in all of our affairs, from our mundane daily interactions to the conduct of nations and everything in between. They are meant to be in the front of our minds at all times, to be considered in all of our decisions. In this article, we will explicate the meaning of these virtues according to the Qur'an and *Sunnah*, with an aim to uncover their relevance for us in this life and in the Hereafter. --- ## Sincerity The first deed a Muslim must do to make good his or her Islam is to purify his or her intention (*al-niyah*) in worship and religious deeds. We should act sincerely for the sake of Allah and dedicate our deeds to no other, whether by way of idolatry (*al-shirk*), hypocrisy (*al-nifaq*), or ostentation (*al-riya’*). The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Verily, deeds are only by intentions. Verily, every person will have only what they intended. Whoever emigrated to get something in the world or to marry a woman, then his emigration is for whatever he emigrated for.*[^1] The early jurists and scholars such as Al-Shafiʻi, Aḥmad Ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, Al-Daraqutni, and Al-Tirmidhi agreed that this *hadith* encompasses one-third of Islam. Al-Bukhari chose to lead his collection of authentic traditions with it.[^2] Al-Shafiʻi also said that this *hadith* encompasses seventy topics of jurisprudence (*al-fiqh*), by which he meant a great many topics, and Ibn Mahdi encouraged authors to include it at the beginning of any work to advise their students to continually correct and renew their intentions.[^3] Right intention, which is sincerity, is the foundation of everything else we do in Islam. Every act of worship, charity, or any good deed will be judged by the intention behind it. Allah knows the true and secret inner-motives of all deeds that we do, and these motives will be made known on the Day of Resurrection. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Verily, the people will be raised for judgment only according to their intentions.*[^4] We must actively cultivate the virtue of sincerity in our worship and deeds, as it is the first blessed step on the straight path towards eternal life in the Hereafter. Abu Sulayman, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Blessed is he who takes a single step desiring nothing but Allah Almighty.”[^5] In truth, Allah has commanded us to make our worship sincere for his sake alone. Sincerity is the obligatory prerequisite for the acceptance of any righteous deed, not merely an encouraged virtue. Allah said: > *It is We who sent down the Scripture to you \[Prophet\] with the Truth, so worship Allah with your total devotion: true devotion is due to Allah alone.*[^6] And Allah said: > *\[Yet\] those who were given the Scripture became divided only after they were sent \[such\] clear evidence, though all they are ordered to do is worship Allah alone, sincerely devoting their religion to Him as people of true faith, keep up the prayer, and pay the prescribed alms, for that is the true religion.*[^7] All of the prophets, peace and blessings be upon them, were sincere to Allah when they delivered the divine revelations to their peoples. They are the exemplars of the highest standards of inward and outward righteousness that we must strive to emulate. Allah said: > *Remember Our servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all men of strength and vision. We caused them to be devoted to Us through their sincere remembrance of the Final Home: with Us they will be among the elect, the truly good.*[^8] And Allah said: > *Say, ‘My Lord commands righteousness. Direct your worship straight to Him wherever you pray; call on Him; devote your religion entirely to Him. Just as He first created you, so you will come back \[to life\] again.’*[^9] And Allah said: > *Say, ‘I have been commanded to serve Allah, dedicating my worship entirely to Him.’*[^10] And Allah said: > *So call upon Allah and dedicate your religion to Him alone, however hateful this may be to the disbelievers.*[^11] And Allah said: > *He is the Living One and there is no God but Him, so call on Him, and dedicate your religion entirely to Him. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.*[^12] Hypocrisy, by contrast, is to perform acts of worship and good deeds for some ulterior or worldly motive. The vice of hypocrisy is one of the terrible sins of the heart that leads to Hellfire. The only way to repent from hypocrisy is to renew sincerity in the innermost depths of our hearts. Allah said: > *The hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell, and you will find no one to help them. Not so those who repent, mend their ways, hold fast to Allah, and devote their religion entirely to Him: these will be joined with the believers, and Allah will give the believers a mighty reward.*[^13] Acts of worship and good deeds done in idolatry or hypocrisy, to show off for people, or to gain some worldly advantage, will be worthless on the Day of Resurrection. These fruitless deeds will be scattered like dust, leaving nothing behind but sins to be judged and punished. Allah said: > *And We shall turn to the deeds they have done and scatter them like dust.*[^14] Deeds might be good outwardly, but they will amount to nothing without corresponding inward righteousness. Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, once said, “O Messenger of Allah, in the time of ignorance the son of Jud’an would maintain family ties and feed the poor. Will it benefit him?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “It will not benefit him. Verily, he never said even for one day: My Lord, forgive my sins on the Day of Judgment.”[^15] And the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah does not accept any good deeds unless they are done sincerely and in pursuit of his countenance.”[^16] Provoking idolatry, hypocrisy, and ostentation are the main lines of attack that Satan uses against human beings. In fact, every person will fall into these sins unless they consciously renew the sincerity of their intentions. Allah said: > *Iblis \[Satan\] then said to Allah, ‘Because You have put me in the wrong, I will lure mankind on earth and put them in the wrong, all except Your devoted servants.*[^17] In other words, no one is safe from Satan unless their intentions are sincere. Al-Ghazali comments on this verse, “Hence, the servant is not freed from Satan except by sincerity.”[^18] Moreover, sincerity is the essential quality that guards our hearts and protects us from the delusions of malice or the treachery of evil spiritual forces. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *There are three traits by which the heart of a Muslim will not be deceived (or consumed by hatred): sincere deeds for Allah, offering goodwill to the leaders of the Muslims, and keeping to their community.*[^19] The phrase “by which the heart of a Muslim will not be deceived” means that his or her heart will not be penetrated by malice (*al-hiqd*) or treachery (*al-khiyanah*).[^20] Thus, one is in danger of falling into such destructive vices and traps without the protection offered by the virtues of sincerity to Allah and goodwill to people. A sincere Muslim is not full of hatred and malice towards humanity; any expressions of ill will towards others is a warning sign of deficient faith. Ultimately, the virtue of sincerity is the key to Paradise and salvation from the Hellfire. On one occasion, a man accused another Muslim of hypocrisy in the presence of the Prophet, and the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do you not agree that he says there is no God but Allah in pursuit thereby of the countenance of Allah?” The man said, “Of course.” The Prophet said, “Verily, a servant is not brought to the Day of Resurrection saying so but that Allah will forbid him from entering the Hellfire.”[^21] Yet it is not simply the outward words of faith that make the difference between eternal salvation and damnation; the difference is the purity of heart within the person who says them, for even hypocrites use righteous words. As Ibn Mu’adh, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Sincerity distinguishes good deeds from sins just as milk is distinguished from filth and blood.”[^22] Sincerity may even save a person from making serious errors in faith and creed, so long as those errors are *honest mistakes*. For example, a man from the previous nations once had himself cremated because he feared Allah would resurrect him to punish him for his sins. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *A man had indulged himself in sin, so when death approached he enjoined his sons, saying: When I die you should burn me, pulverize me, and scatter me to the winds over the sea. By Allah, if Allah is capable he will punish me in such a way as he has not punished anyone else. So they did that to him and when he stood before his Lord, Allah said to him: What compelled you to do what you did? The man said: Fear and awe of you, O Lord. Thus, Allah forgave him due to that.*[^23] Even though it is, in reality, an act of unbelief to imagine Allah is incapable of resurrecting the dead, the sincerity in the man’s righteous fear was far more important. Ibn al-Qayyim comments on this *hadith*, saying, “Despite this \[error in creed\], Allah forgave him and had mercy upon him due to his ignorance. He had acted according to the knowledge that reached him, and he did not renounce the power of Allah out of repeated stubbornness or denial.”[^24] Sincerity must be the overriding virtue and Allah forgives the honest mistakes of his servants, as every deed is judged first by its intention. Even so, the believers must also do their best due diligence to act right in every situation. Allah judges the whole of the human being, their inward states as well as their outward actions. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather he looks at your hearts and actions.”[^25] As a result, we must complement our sincerity with the good conduct that should necessarily follow it. Only by sincerity in worship and charitable deeds, fulfilling both the rights of Allah and the rights of people—especially the weakest and most vulnerable groups of people—will we be granted the support of Allah in our religion and our societies. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah only supports this nation due to their weak, their supplications, their prayers, and their sincerity.”[^26] If we are performing religious devotions by day and transgressing the rights of others by night, then our worship is not truly sincere. Sincere prayers must result in good deeds towards others, or at least a restraint on our evil impulses. Allah said: > *Keep up the prayer: prayer restrains outrageous and unacceptable behavior. Remembering Allah is greater: Allah knows everything you are doing*.[^27] Likewise, a man once came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, “A person prays in the night, but he steals in the morning.” The Prophet said, “Verily, what you say \[about the prayer\] should stop him.”[^28] Such transgressions against the rights of people—all while regular outward devotions to Allah are performed—reflect a lack of sincerity and a weakness of true faith. Muslims who fail to actualize sincerity in their deeds towards others will be, in reality, completely bankrupt on the Day of Resurrection. The Prophet ﷺ once said to his companions, “Do you know who is bankrupt?” They said, “The one without money or goods is bankrupt.” The Prophet said: > *Verily, the bankrupt of my nation are those who come on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting, and charity, but also with insults, slander, consuming wealth, shedding blood, and beating others. The oppressed will each be given from his good deeds. If his good deeds run out before justice is fulfilled, then their sins will be cast upon him and he will be thrown into the Hellfire.*[^29] Such people are truly bankrupt because their good deeds, even if they were done for the sake of Allah, were otherwise canceled out by their sins against others. As the Prophet ﷺ said: > *A person might fast and he gets nothing from his fast but hunger. A person might pray at night but he gets nothing from his prayer but sleeplessness.*[^30] For this reason, the scholars said these two conditions are required for the acceptance of any good deed: sincerity and conformity to the prophetic way (*Sunnah*). Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Allah purifies good deeds and makes them correct. Indeed, if deeds are sincere and incorrect, they will not be accepted. If deeds are correct and insincere, they will not be accepted. Rather, they are only accepted if they are both sincere and correct. Sincere means they are done for Allah alone and correct means they are done according to the *Sunnah*.” Then Fudayl recited the verse, “Anyone who fears to meet his Lord should do good deeds and give no one a share in the worship due to his Lord.”[^31] The heart and the mind should work together, with sincerity to Allah guiding the use of reason. Al-Junayd, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Verily, Allah has servants who use their minds. When they reason, they act. When they act, they are sincere. Sincerity calls them to all of the gates of righteousness.”[^32] Reason is certainly important but, like other virtues, it is empty without sincerity. The importance of inward and outward righteousness is perhaps most apparent when the need arises to defend the community in military action (*al-jihād*). Any military actions that Muslims undertake must fulfill the conditions of just war laid down by the Prophet, his companions, and the scholars, including having the right intention and restricting the use of force only to what is necessary for defense. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Expeditions are of two kinds. As for one who seeks the countenance of Allah, obeys the leader, spends in charity from his precious possessions, shows leniency to his colleagues, and avoids corruption, then the entirety of his sleep and vigilance are rewarded. As for one who fights out of pride, showing off, and seeking a reputation, who disobeys the leader and commits corruption in the land, then he will return with nothing of importance.*[^33] If Muslims fight out of zealotry, pride, anger, to gain spoils, or if they transgress the strict laws of war, then they will have no reward in the Hereafter for their efforts. A man once came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, a man intends to fight for the sake of Allah and he is seeking worldly gains.” The Prophet said, “There is no reward for him.” The people found that very difficult and they said, “Return to the Messenger of Allah, for perhaps he did not understand you.” The man returned and he said, “O Messenger of Allah, a man intends to fight for the sake of Allah and he is seeking worldly gains.” The Prophet said, “There is no reward for him.” The man returned a third time and the Prophet said, “There is no reward for him.”[^34] In this regard, it is not permissible for Muslims to have their intentions divided in the conduct of deeds that should only be done for the sake of Allah. Having a split intention in worship or charitable deeds is, in fact, a form of sharing partners (*al-ishrak*) with Allah.[^35] The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Allah Almighty said: Verily, I have no need of any partners. Whoever performs a deed in which he associates another besides me, I will abandon him and his partner.*[^36] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *When Allah gathers the people on the Day of Resurrection, a day of which there is no doubt, an announcement will be made: To those who shared with anyone in deeds done for Allah, then let him seek his reward from those besides Allah. Verily, Allah is free of any partners.*[^37] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *O people! Make your deeds sincere for Allah Almighty. Verily, Allah does not accept any deed unless it is done sincerely for him. Do not say: This is for the sake of Allah and this is for the sake of my relatives. Verily, it was done for your relatives and none of it was for Allah. And do not say: This is for the sake of Allah and for your sake. Verily, it was done for their sake and none of it was for Allah.*[^38] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *Give glad tidings to this nation of honor, victory, and stability. Yet, whoever does a deed of the Hereafter for the sake of the world, then he will have no portion of it in the Hereafter.*[^39] And Abū al-‘Aliyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “The companions of Muhammad ﷺ said to me: Do not do a good deed for anyone besides Allah, for Allah will leave you in the charge of the one for whom you did it.”[^40] This prohibited split intention is only when it involves doing an act of worship for something else besides Allah. It is permissible, for example, to conduct worldly business during the Hajj pilgrimage season, as this kind of split intention does not involve dedicating an act of worship or a good deed to anyone else. If a deed is done for the sake of a false God, that is the greater idolatry (*al-shirk al-akbar*) which removes a Muslim from the fold of Islam entirely. However, if a good deed is done to show off for people, what is known as ostentation, then this is the lesser idolatry (*al-shirk al-asghar*); a tremendous sin, to be sure, but one that does not expel Muslims from Islam altogether. In order for a believer to be purely sincere, he or she must avoid both the greater and lesser forms of idolatry. Sa’id ibn Jubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Sincerity is to not associate partners with Allah in one’s religion and to not display ostentation in good deeds to anyone.”[^41] In a way, the lesser idolatry of ostentation is even more dangerous than the greater idolatry, due to the fact that it can involve such a subtle defect in our intentions. The Prophet ﷺ once said to the companions, “Verily, my greater fear for you is the lesser idolatry.” They said, “What is the lesser idolatry, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet said: > *It is ostentation (or “showing off”). Allah Almighty will say to them on the Day of Resurrection, when people are being recompensed for their deeds: Go to those for whom you made a show in the world and look, do you find any reward with them?*[^42] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said to his companion, “O Abu Bakr, there is idolatry among you more hidden than the crawling of an ant.” Abu Bakr said, “Is there idolatry other than to make another Allah alongside Allah?” The Prophet said: > *By The One in Whose Hand is my soul, there is idolatry more hidden than the crawling of an ant. Shall I not tell you something to say to rid you of it, both minor and major? Say: O Allah, I seek refuge in you that I associate partners with you while I know, and I seek your forgiveness for what I do not know.*[^43] This is a humbling supplication that we should repeat often, as in it we acknowledge the potential for subtle defects in our intentions. To be clear, the trial of ostentation is even more dangerous than the great tribulations near the end of time. The Prophet ﷺ once came to the companions while they were discussing the False Messiah (*al-Masih al-Dajjal*). The Prophet said, “Shall I not tell you about my greater fear for you than the False Messiah?” They said, “Of course!” The Prophet said, “It is hidden idolatry, that a man stands for prayer and beautifies his prayer when he sees another man looking at him.”[^44] We ought to strive to help those around us who are enduring the suffering of trials, no doubt. But as far as our own souls are concerned, our more immediate worry should be the trials within our own hearts. Every day we must work to perform our daily prayers with reverence (*al-khushu’*) and to avoid praying and behaving with the manners of a hypocrite. Allah said: > *So woe to those who pray but are heedless of their prayer; those who are all show and forbid common kindnesses.*[^45] And Allah said: > *The hypocrites try to deceive Allah, but it is He who causes them to be deceived. When they stand up to pray, they do so sluggishly, showing off in front of people, and remember Allah only a little.*[^46] When we pray and fast, our concern should not be whether others view us as pious or not. Beautifying the prayer or displaying the discomfort of fasting for the sake of people is simply another act of lesser idolatry. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever prays to be seen has associated partners with Allah. Whoever fasts to be seen has associated partners with Allah.”[^47] Avoiding ostentation applies not only to acts of worship, but also to any act of religious devotion such as seeking Islamic knowledge. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever seeks knowledge that should be sought for the sake of Allah Almighty, but only to gain some worldly benefit, then he will never smell the fragrance of Paradise on the Day of Resurrection*.[^48] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever seeks knowledge in order to impress the scholars, or to argue with the foolish, or to attract the attention of people, then Allah will admit him into Hellfire.*[^49] Indeed, one of the pitfalls of the students of sacred knowledge is to become embroiled in controversies and debates to the point that they forget why they are studying Islam in the first place. It is very easy for a student to become distracted by the pomp and show of scholarship and academia. In the end, it takes a constant and relentless internal struggle against our caprice and base desires to achieve true sincerity and purity of heart, what scholars such as Ibn Rajab refer to as the greater *jihad* (*al-jihad al-akbar*) or *jihad* of the heart (*jihad al-qalb*).[^50] Ma’ruf al-Karkhi, may Allah have mercy on him, would strike himself and say, “O my soul! Be sincere and purify yourself!”[^51] This is a spiritual struggle and a *jihad* that we cannot afford to lose, lest we lose our opportunity for salvation. Many hypocrites who were considered by people to be righteous Muslims in the world—either as brave warriors, scholars, or pious worshippers—will be exposed on the Day of Resurrection for the fraudulent motives of their diseased hearts. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Verily, the first people to be judged on the Day of Resurrection will be a man who was martyred. He will be brought, the blessings of Allah will be made known, and he will acknowledge them. Allah will say: What did you do about them? The man will say: I fought in your cause until I was martyred. Allah will say: You have lied, for you fought only that it would be said you were brave, and thus it was said. Then, Allah will order him to be dragged upon his face until he is cast into Hellfire. Another man studied religious knowledge, taught others, and recited the Qur'ān. He will be brought, the blessings of Allah will be made known and he will acknowledge them. Allah will say: What did you do about them? The man will say: I learned religious knowledge, taught others, and I recited the Qur'ān for your sake. Allah will say: You have lied, for you studied only that it would be said you are a scholar and you recited the Qur'ān only that it would be said you are a reciter, and thus it was said. Then, Allah will order him to be dragged upon his face until he is cast into Hellfire. Another man was given an abundance of blessings from Allah and every kind of wealth. He will be brought, the blessings of Allah will be made known and he will acknowledge them. Allah will say: What did you do about them? The man will say: I did not leave any good cause beloved to you but that I spent on it for your sake. Allah will say: You have lied, for you spent only that it would be said you are generous, and thus it was said. Then, Allah will order him to be dragged upon his face until he is cast into Hellfire.*[^52] As sincerity towards Allah is the starting point in the fulfillment of all religious duties—inward and outward, for Allah and for fellow creatures—it cannot be forced upon anyone in any way. Sincerity must come organically from within the heart of a person, either by self-discovery or persuasion. Compulsion in religion has no place in Islam at all. Allah said: > *There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error, so whoever rejects false gods and believes in Allah has grasped the firmest handhold, one that will never break. Allah is All-Hearing and All-Knowing.*[^53] And Allah said: > *Say, ‘Now the truth has come from your Lord: let those who wish to believe in it do so, and let those who wish to reject it do so.’*[^54] And Allah said: > *So \[Prophet\] warn them: your only task is to give warning, you are not there to control them.*[^55] Sa’īd ibn Zayd commented on this verse, saying, “You are not an authority over them to coerce them into faith.”[^56] In other words, the Prophet ﷺ was not given a mandate to force people to embrace Islam. In several verses, Allah reminds the believers time and again that the only duty of the prophets was to deliver the message. Allah said: > *Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys Allah. If some pay no heed, We have not sent you to be their keeper.*[^57] And Allah said: > *If you say this is a lie, \[be warned that\] other communities before you said the same. The messenger's only duty is to give clear warning.*[^58] And Allah said: > *Are the messengers obliged to do anything other than deliver \[their message\] clearly?*[^59] And Allah said: > *Say, ‘Obey Allah; obey the Messenger. If you turn away, \[know that\] he is responsible for the duty placed upon him, and you are responsible for the duty placed upon you. If you obey him, you will be rightly guided, but the Messenger's duty is only to deliver the message clearly.’*[^60] And Allah said: > *Obey Allah, obey the Messenger, and always be on your guard: if you pay no heed, bear in mind that the sole duty of Our Messenger is to deliver the message clearly.*[^61] And Allah said: > *They said, ‘Our Lord knows that we have been sent to you. Our duty is only to deliver the message to you.’*[^62] If Allah wanted to compel everyone to follow one religion, he could have created people without free will or he could have mandated his prophets to force people into compliance. Allah did neither of those things because His will is to test the sincerity of people’s faith in this world. Allah said: > *Had your Lord willed, all the people on earth would have believed. So can you \[Prophet\] compel people to believe?*[^63] And Allah said: > *We have assigned a law and a path to each of you. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to Allah and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about.*[^64] Religious difference is natural and inevitable; Allah allows it as it is his will to test the sincerity of people. Rather than provoking conflict from such differences, Allah tells us to “race to do good,” as if to compete in charitable works. Even when the Prophet ﷺ had to fight others to defend his community and their right to practice Islam, he never compelled anyone to enter Islam—not once, not ever. The prophetic method of spreading Islam is by persuasion, not by persecution. Ibn al-Qayyim writes: > *\[The Prophet\] never forced the religion upon anyone, but rather he only fought those who waged war against him and fought him first. As for those who made peace with him or conducted a truce, then he never fought them and he never compelled them to enter his religion, as his Lord the Almighty had commanded him: There is no compulsion in religion, for right guidance is distinct from error.*[^65] In sum, Allah wants people’s hearts; he does not want servants forced into hypocritical and empty worship. As Al-Susi, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Allah only desires sincerity in the deeds of his creatures.”[^66] --- ## Honesty Related to sincerity is the virtue of honesty and truthfulness. Like sincerity, honesty has implications both in relation to Allah and in relation to our behavior towards others. Allah said: > *You who believe, be mindful of Allah: stand with those who are true.*[^67] All of the prophets, peace and blessings be upon them, were truthful and honest people whom Allah praised for their honesty. Allah said: > *Mention too, in the Qur'an, the story of Abraham. He was a man of truth, a prophet.*[^68] And Allah said: > *Mention too, in the Qur'an, the story of Ishmael. He was true to his promise, a messenger and a prophet.*[^69] And Allah said: > *Mention too, in the Qur'an, the story of Idris. He was a man of truth, a prophet.*[^70] Honesty is, first and foremost, with respect to Allah, and it is synonymous with sincerity as we have mentioned. Whoever achieves pure honesty with Allah will be admitted to Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *No one testifies that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah—honestly from the heart (sidq min qalbih)—but that Allah will forbid him from entering Hellfire.*[^71] Like sincerity, however, honesty with Allah must correlate with honesty towards others. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “The best deeds are to fulfill the obligations of Allah, to be mindful of the prohibitions of Allah, and to have an honest intention before Allah Almighty.”[^72] In this saying, Umar mentions obligations and prohibitions, which includes duties towards other people, alongside an honest intention with Allah. Both sets of duties—to Allah and to people—are not mutually exclusive; they must be done sincerely altogether. As Abu Bakr al-Warraq said, “Preserve honesty in what is between you and Allah Almighty, and kindness in what is between you and the creation.”[^73] Telling the truth or telling lies are habits that are learned and, if necessary, must be unlearned. We should practice telling the truth so often that it becomes our second nature, that we always tell the truth without any effort, for this is the mark of a pure heart that will be admitted into Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *You must be truthful. Verily, truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man continues to be truthful and encourages honesty until he is recorded with Allah as truthful. And beware of falsehood. Verily, falsehood leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to the Hellfire. A man continues tell lies and encourages falsehood until he is recorded with Allah as a liar.*[^74] Dishonesty in words, by contrast, was one of the sins that the Prophet detested most. Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said, “There was no behavior more hateful to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ than dishonesty. A man would tell a lie when speaking in the presence of the Prophet and he would not be satisfied until he knew that he had repented.”[^75] The Prophet made sure everyone who lied in public had repented, as the sin of false witness is indeed tremendous. Thus, we ought to strive towards comprehensive honesty in all aspects of our lives—inwardly and outwardly. According to Al-Ghazali, the virtue of honesty includes truthfulness in one’s words, deeds, and intentions.[^76] The crux of the matter is that our outward actions must coincide with our inward state; the good words we say and the good deeds we do should be authentic expressions of the goodness in our hearts and in our character. Mutarrif, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Verily, when the inward state of the servant matches his public behavior, Allah says: This is my true servant.”[^77] And Abu Ya’qub al-Nahrajuri, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Honesty is to be consistent with the truth in private and public. The reality of honesty is to speak the truth in matters of grave importance.”[^78] The heart and tongue are intimately connected; honest words come forth from a pure heart. It was once said to the Prophet “Which of the people is best?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Everyone who is pure of heart and truthful in speech.” They said, “Truthful in speech we know, but what is a pure heart?” The Prophet said, “It is a heart that fears Allah and is clean. There is no sin in it and neither aggression, malice, or envy.”[^79] In a variant of this tradition, the companions said, “And who shows a sign \[of a pure heart\]?” The Prophet said, “A believer with good character.”[^80] As with sincerity, an honest heart is one that is not deluded and misled by hatred and malice; it is the container of righteous character from which good deeds and goodwill emerge. To purify the heart, then, is to develop a habit of telling the truth and being honest with all those around us, to our family, our friends, our colleagues, and our neighbors. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *The faith of a servant is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart is not upright until his tongue is upright. A man will not enter Paradise if his neighbor is not secure from his evil.*[^81] When we are honest with Allah and with others, we will find that all of our affairs will come together and any problems we have will work themselves out. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab wrote to Abu Musa, may Allah be pleased with them both, saying, “Whoever purifies his intention, then Allah will take care of his affairs between people. And whoever embellishes for people what Allah knows is not in his heart, then Allah Almighty will disgrace him.”[^82] On the contrary, dishonesty in heart and mind produces the uneasiness of cognitive dissonance, which can lead rather quickly to public exposure and humiliation. How can we assess our level of honesty? Al-Thaʻlabi narrates a wise proverb, “A man does not reach the peak of righteousness (*al-taqwa*) until it is such that, were he to place what is in his heart on a plate and go around the market with it, he would not be ashamed of anything on it.”[^83] If you carry nothing in your heart that would shame you if made public, then you have achieved the summit of spiritual excellence. Most of us—not least this author!—are nowhere near such a pure state. The vice of hypocrisy, like idolatry, is divided into two levels: greater and lesser hypocrisy. The greater hypocrisy (*al-nifaq al-akbar*) is one who pretends to have faith while concealing unbelief in his heart. Such an act is merely a form of unbelief. On the other hand, the lesser hypocrisy (*al-nifaq al-asghar*) is to have any amount of dishonesty in our deeds. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *There are four signs that make someone a pure hypocrite and whoever has them has a characteristic of hypocrisy until he abandons it: when he speaks he lies, when he makes a covenant he is treacherous, when he makes a promise he breaks it, and when he argues he is wicked.*[^84] It is possible for us to have elements of faith and hypocrisy in our hearts at the same time, as hypocrisy exists along a spectrum, as a matter of degree, rather than a discrete category. Again, it takes a constant struggle to maintain the virtue of honesty in everything that we do. As Sufyan al-Thawri, may Allah have mercy on him, said: > *You must be honest in all things. Beware of lying and treachery and sitting with those who commit them, for it will all be a burden of sin. Beware, my brother, of ostentation in words and deeds, as it is a form of idolatry. Beware of vanity, for good deeds within which is vanity will not be exalted.*[^85] Perhaps the most important social aspect of honesty is to be faithful to all of our contracts (*al-‘uqud*), promises (*al-wu’ud*), covenants (*al-‘uhud*), and trusts (*al-amanah*). Allah said: > *You who believe, fulfil your obligations.*[^86] The word “obligations” in this verse refers to all types of covenants, those between Allah and those between people. As believers, we ought to be trustworthy enough to fulfill our word when we give it. The sign of a true believer is to emulate the honesty of Prophet Muhammad, who himself was known by his people even before Islam as “the Trustworthy” (*al-Amin*). The Prophet ﷺ said: > *The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe, and the believer is the one people trust with their lives and wealth.*[^87] Similarly, an inability or unwillingness to follow up on our trusts is a sign of weak faith or, worse, no true faith at all. The faith of a Muslim believer is only as good as his or her word and promise. The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no faith for one who cannot be trusted. There is no religion for one who cannot uphold a covenant.”[^88] Citizenship is a modern form of public trust. As Muslims, we should be productive citizens of whatever country in which we live. The Prophet ﷺ instructed his companion Fudayk, saying, “O Fudayk, establish prayer, avoid sins, and live in the land with your people wherever you wish.”[^89] As long as we can practice our religion and avoid sins, we may live anywhere in the world. Yet wherever we are, we must leave its land and its people better than how we found it. We should contribute to the collective betterment of humanity, to both Muslims and non-Muslims, as honest and trustworthy neighbors. The honesty of citizens is, in reality, what protects society from the tyranny of oppressive governments. Honesty in this context is a form of bravery, to speak the truth in the face of danger. When those in power commit great wrongs, we are called to speak out against it with honesty, courage, and compassion. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Let not fear of the people prevent one of you from saying the truth if he knows it.”[^90] Honesty in such a case is also *jihad* in the way of Allah. Indeed, it is among the best and greatest deeds of jihad. A man asked Prophet, “What is the best *jihad*?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “A word of truth in front of a tyrannical ruler.”[^91] As Muslims, we should expect others to be honest and forthright with us when something we do is wrong. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Aziz, may Allah have mercy on him, would say, “May Allah have mercy on a man who shows me my faults.”[^92] The truth is often a bitter, but necessary, medicine. No citizen should be prevented from appropriately expressing their honest feelings about our collective social problems. Their honesty just might be, in fact, our remedy. --- ## Goodwill Sincerity and honesty are related to another essential virtue in Islam: goodwill. We should have good intentions towards everyone and everything, to Allah and to all of his creatures. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Religion is goodwill.” It was said, “To whom?” The Prophet said, “To Allah, his book, his messenger, the leaders of the Muslims and their common people.”[^93] Put differently, the essence of Islam itself is goodwill in all things. Abu Dawud considered this *hadith* to be one of four around which jurisprudence (*al-fiqh*) revolved. Several other scholars considered it of great importance, some referring to it as one-fourth of Islam.[^94] The word “goodwill” has a very wide meaning, but it can be concisely defined as a good intention towards another. Ibn Daqiq writes, “Goodwill is a comprehensive word meaning completely good intent for one counseled to obtain prosperity… There is no word in Arabic more comprehensive for goodness in this life and in the Hereafter than it.”[^95] Cultivating goodwill in our hearts towards all creatures is among the best acts of worship. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah Almighty said: The most beloved act with which my servant worships me is goodwill for my sake.”[^96] And Ibn al-Mubarak, may Allah have mercy on him, was asked, “Which deed is best?” He said, “Goodwill for the sake of Allah.”[^97] Goodwill in these traditions, as in others, is with respect to Allah and people in general. Goodwill with respect to Allah is to have sincerity (*al-ikhlas*) in all of one’s affairs, as previously discussed.[^98] That is, to worship Allah free from any idolatry, ostentation, compulsion, or other ulterior motives. Goodwill with respect to people is to offer sound and helpful advice, but its essence, according to Ibn Daqiq, is “to love for them what one loves for himself of goodness and to dislike for them what one dislikes for himself of offenses.”[^99] This is none other than *the golden rule*, to treat others the way we want to be treated. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *None of you has faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbor what he loves for himself.*[^100] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever would love to be saved from Hellfire and admitted into Paradise, then let him meet his end with faith in Allah and the Last Day, and let him treat people the way he would love to be treated*.[^101] As in other religions, the golden rule, i.e., treat others the way you want to be treated, is an all-embracing principle of good conduct in Islam. Al-Nawawi comments on this *hadith*, saying, “This is among the comprehensive sayings of the Prophet ﷺ, his marvelous wisdom, and an important rule. It deserves to be given close attention: that the human being must not treat people except in a way he would love to be treated by them.”[^102] Adherence to the golden rule is not simply something to be encouraged in Islam. As these traditions suggest, this principle is integral to faith in Islam and salvation in the Hereafter. Consequently, it was included in the pledge that the companions gave to the Prophet himself. Jarir ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “I pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to establish prayer, to give charity, and to have goodwill towards every Muslim.”[^103] Al-Ghazali explains that the companions considered the golden rule to be embedded in their pledge to Allah, the Prophet, and Islam: > *They understood it is part of goodwill (al-nush) that one should not be pleased for his brother to have except what pleases himself. They did not believe it was \[merely\] virtuous and an increase in \[spiritual\] ranks. Rather, they believed it was a condition of Islam within their pledge to him*.[^104] Al-Subki notes that the principle of good conduct in traditions like these is inclusive of non-Muslims, even if the text refers only to Muslims. Traditions that contain the words “Muslim” or “brother” are often meant to convey a situation Muslims would normally find themselves in—interacting with other Muslims—and are not meant to be restricted only to Muslims because “the generality of it is established by other evidence.”[^105] In other words, we should apply the golden rule with everyone, both Muslims and non-Muslims, friends and enemies. In this respect, Al-Nawawi referred to humanity as a “universal brotherhood” (*‘umum al-ikhwah*) deserving of altruistic “religious love” (*al-mahabbat al-diniyyah*).[^106] The universality of goodwill in Islam is demonstrated in the stories of the prophets, peace and blessings be upon them. They approached their peoples in a spirit of brotherhood and goodwill, even though at the time they were idolaters and unbelievers. The Prophet Noah ﷺ said: > *I am delivering my Lord's messages to you and giving you sincere advice. I know things from Allah that you do not.*[^107] And the Prophet Hud ﷺ said: > *I am delivering my Lord's messages to you. I am your sincere and honest adviser.*[^108] And the *Prophet Salih* ﷺ *said*: > *My people, I delivered my Lord's messages to you and gave you sincere advice, but you did not like those who gave sincere advice.*[^109] On the basis of goodwill, and the golden rule it implies, scholars derive the equality (*al-musawah*) of believers and, to be more precise, the virtue of giving preference (*al-tafdil*) to others.[^110] Since the principle of goodwill extends to all of humanity, there is precedent in Islam for agreement with non-Muslims on a common understanding of human rights and political reconciliation. There is still much work to be done to achieve and restore justice, human rights, and political reconciliation among the nations of the world. Nevertheless, we should approach people in general with a spirit of goodwill similar to the prophets. Bad will or malevolence (*al-ghish*) is yet another characteristic of hypocrisy that we must avoid. Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Verily, the believers are people with goodwill between themselves, even if they reside far away from each other. The hypocrites are people with malevolence between themselves.”[^111] People with such malevolence often approach others with “two faces” (*wajhayn*), saying one thing while concealing another in their heart. They may even intentionally give bad advice, like a swindler or a con man. This vice is a type of dishonesty only exhibited by the worst of humanity. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, among the worst of people is one with two faces, he who comes with one face to these and another to those.”[^112] And Bilal ibn Sa’d, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Do not be one with two faces and two tongues, making a show for people to praise you while your heart is wicked.”[^113] The greatest Muslims never behaved with such a malevolent spirit. Neither did they achieve anything from ostentatious displays of piety. Rather, they were great because of their sincerity, honesty, and goodwill. As Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Those who achieved \[greatness\] never did so, in our view, with an abundance of fasts, nor prayers. Indeed, they only achieved it, in our view, with the spirit of generosity, purity of heart, and sincerity to the community.”[^114] --- ## Conclusion Sincerity, honesty, and goodwill are essential virtues in Islamic teachings. They must guide our behavior at every level: with Allah, with people, and within our own selves. Our most important goal is to facilitate and encourage sincerity to Allah, by persuasion and good example; faith displayed out of compulsion or in a state of hypocrisy has no value. Honest citizens contribute to the health of our societies by performing their duties and courageously speaking the truth on social problems; honesty is always valuable, even if it is mistaken. Goodwill embodies the ethics of reciprocity and equal treatment, setting a precedent for political reconciliation among the nations of the world; on this basis, we can pursue an understanding of human rights and dignity across religions and cultures. But most importantly, these virtues are obligations that we must fulfill—inwardly and outwardly—if we are to be granted salvation and admittance into Paradise. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* *An earlier edition of this paper was produced with support from Templeton Religion Trust.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl al-Bukhārī. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 1:6 #1. [^2]: Ibn Ḥajar. *Fatḥ al-Bārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1959), 1:11. [^3]: Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī. *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1972), 13:53 #1907. [^4]: Ibn Mājah. *Sunan Ibn Mājah*. (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī), 2:1414 #4229; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr*, (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1969), 1:468 #2379. [^5]: Aḥmad ibn ’Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Qudāmah. *Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Qāṣidīn*. (Dimashq: Maktabat Dār al-Bayān, 1978), 1:365. [^6]: Sūrat al-Zumar 39:2-3; Abdel Haleem, M. A. *The Qur’an: English translation and parallel Arabic text*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 459. [^7]: Sūrat al-Bayyinah 98:4-5; Abdel Haleem, 599. [^8]: Sūrat Ṣad 38:45-47; Abdel Haleem, 457. [^9]: Sūrat al-A’rāf 7:29; Abdel Haleem, 154. [^10]: Sūrat al-Zumar 39:11; Abdel Haleem, 461. [^11]: Sūrat Ghāfir 40:14; Abdel Haleem, 469. [^12]: Sūrat Ghāfir 40:65; Abdel Haleem, 475. [^13]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:145-146; Abdel Haleem, 102. [^14]: Sūrat al-Furqān 25:23; Abdel Haleem, 363. [^15]: Muslim Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 1:196 #214. [^16]: Aḥmad ibn Shuʻayb al-Nasā'ī. *Sunan al-Nasā'ī*. (Ḥalab: Maktab al-Maṭbūʻāt al-Islāmīyah, 1986), 6:25 #3140; declared good (jayyid) by Ibn Ḥajar in *Fatḥ al-Bārī* 6:28. [^17]: Sūrat al-Ḥijr 15:39-40; Abdel Haleem, 265. [^18]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī. *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 4:378. [^19]: Muḥammad ibn ʻĪsá al-Tirmidhī. *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:331 #2658; declared authentic (ṣaḥīḥ) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 2:1145 #6766. [^20]: ‘Alī ibn Sulṭān Muḥammad al-Qārī. *Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 2002), 1:306 #228. [^21]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:18 #6938. [^22]: Abū Ḥayyān Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf. *al-Baḥr al-Muḥīt*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1992), 1:658, verse 2:139. [^23]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2110 #2756. [^24]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. *Madārij al-Sālikīn*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 1:348. [^25]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1986 #2564. [^26]: Al-Nasā'ī, *Sunan al-Nasā'ī*, 6:45 #3178; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 1:470 #2388. [^27]: Sūrat al-‘Ankabūt 29:45; Abdel Haleem, 402. [^28]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 15:483 #9778; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [^29]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:1997 #2581. [^30]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 1:539 #1690; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 1:656 #3488. [^31]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. *Iʻlām Al-Muwaqqiʻīn*. (Bayrut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʻIlmiyah, 1991), 2:124; Sūrat al-Kahf 18:110, Abdel Haleem, 305. [^32]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:379. [^33]: Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʻath al-Sijistānī. *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*. (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980), 3:13 #2515; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 2:768 #4174. [^34]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 13:277 #7900; declared fair due to external evidence (*ḥasan li ghayri*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [^35]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:379. [^36]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2289 #2985. [^37]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:165 #3154; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 1:145 #482. [^38]: ‘Alī ibn ’Umar al-Dāraquṭnī. *Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī*. (Bayrūt: Muʼassasat al-Risālah, 2004), 1:77 #133; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-Ṣaḥīḥah* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif, 1996), 6:624 #2764. [^39]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 35:147 #21223; declared strong (*qawī*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [^40]: Ibn al-Sarī. *Kitāb al-Zuhd*. (Kuwait: Dār al-Khulafā’ lil-Kitāb al-Islāmī, 1985), 2:435. [^41]: Abū Ḥayyān, *al-Baḥr al-Muḥīt*, 1:658, verse 2:139. [^42]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 39:.39 #23630; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 1:323 #1555. [^43]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl al-Bukhārī. *al-Adab al-Mufrad*. (al-Rīyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 1998), 1:377 #716; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in his commentary. [^44]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1406 #4204; declared fair (ḥasan) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 1:509 #2607. [^45]: Sūrat al-Mā’ūn 107:4-7; Abdel Haleem, 603. [^46]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:142; Abdel Haleem, 142. [^47]: Abū Bakr Aḥmad al-Bazzār. *al-Baḥr al-Zakhkhār al-Maʻrūf bi-Musnad al-Bazzār*. (al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah: Maktabat al-ʻUlūm wal-Ḥikam, 2009), 8:407 #3482; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Ibn Kathīr in *Jāmi’ al-Masānīd wal-Sunan* (Bayrūt: Dār Khiḍr, 1998), 4:211-212 #5151. [^48]: Abū Dāwūd, *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 3:323 #3664; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 2:1060 #6159. [^49]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:329 #2654; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* 2:1091 #6383. [^50]: Ibn Rajab. *Jāmi’ al-‘Ulūm wal-Ḥikam*. (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 1:489 #19. [^51]: Ibn Qudāmah, *Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Qāṣidīn*, 1:365. [^52]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1513 #1905. [^53]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:256; Abdel Haleem, 43. [^54]: Sūrat al-Kahf 18:29; Abdel Haleem, 298. [^55]: Sūrat al-Ghāshiyah 88:21-22; Abdel Haleem, 593. [^56]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmi’ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl āy al-Qur’ān*, (al-Rabāṭ: Dār Hajr lil-Ṭibāʻah wal-Nashr, 2001), 24:341. [^57]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:80; Abdel Haleem, 92. [^58]: Sūrat al-‘Ankabūt 29:18; Abdel Haleem, 399. [^59]: Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:35; Abdel Haleem, 272. [^60]: Sūrat al-Nūr 24:54; Abdel Haleem, 358. [^61]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:92; Abdel Haleem, 124. [^62]: Sūrat Yā Sīn 36:16-17; Abdel Haleem, 442. [^63]: Sūrat Yūnus 10:99; Abdel Haleem, 221. [^64]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:48; Abdel Haleem, 117. [^65]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. *Hidāyat al‐Ḥayārá*. (Dimashq: Dār al-Qalam, 1996), 1:237. [^66]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:379. [^67]: Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:119; Abdel Haleem, 207. [^68]: Sūrat Maryam 19:41; Abdel Haleem, 309. [^69]: Sūrat Maryam 19:54; Abdel Haleem, 310. [^70]: Sūrat Maryam 19:56; Abdel Haleem, 310. [^71]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:37 #128. [^72]: Ibn Rajab, *Jāmi’ al-‘Ulūm wal-Ḥikam*, 2:336 #38. [^73]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:387. [^74]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2103 #2607. [^75]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:416 #1973; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in his commentary. [^76]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:387-388. [^77]: Ibn al-Sarī, *Kitāb al-Zuhd*, 1:300 #530. [^78]: Shams al-Dīn Abū ’Abd Allāh al-Dhahabī. *Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā’*. (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006), 11:465. [^79]: Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2:1409 #4216; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 3:99 #2889. [^80]: Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī. *Shu’ab al-Īmān*. (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 6:449 #4462. [^81]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 20:343 #13048; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb* 2:680 #2554. [^82]: Abū Nuʻaym Aḥmad ibn ’Abd Allāh al-Iṣbahānī. *Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’ wa Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣfiyā’*. (Miṣr: Maṭba’at al-Sa’ādah, 1974), 1:50. [^83]: Al-Thaʻlabī. *Al-Kashf wal-Bayān ʻan Tafsīr al-Qur'ān*. (Bayrut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 2002), 1:144. [^84]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:78 #58. [^85]: Abū Nuʻaym, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’*, 7:82. [^86]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:1; Abdel Haleem, 107. [^87]: Al-Nasā'ī, *Sunan al-Nasā'ī*, 8:104 #4995; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan al-Nasāʼī* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma’ārif, 1998), 3:342 #5010. [^88]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 19:376 #12383; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Arnāʼūṭ et al in their commentary. [^89]: Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān. *Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān*. (Bayrūt: Muʼassasat al-Risālah, 1988), 11:202 #4861; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Ibn ’Abd al-Barr in *al-Istidhkār* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 2000), 7:277. [^90]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 17:490 #11402; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [^91]: Ibn Ḥanbal, *Musnad Ahmad*, 31:126 #18830; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Al-Arnā’ūṭ et al in their commentary. [^92]: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Kalābādhī. *Baḥr al-Fawāʼid al-Mashhūr bi-Maʻānī al-Akhbār*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1999), 1:129. [^93]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:74 #55. [^94]: Ibn Rajab, *Jāmi’ al-‘Ulūm wal-Ḥikam*, 1:215-216 #7. [^95]: Muḥammad ibn ’Alī ibn Daqīq. *Sharḥ al-Arbaʻīn al-Nawawīyah*. (Bayrūt: Muʼassasat al-Rayyān, 2003), 1:50 #7. [^96]: Ibn Hanbal, *Musnad Aḥmad*, 36:529 #22191; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Suyūṭī in *al-Tanwīr Sharḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr* (al-Riyāḍ: Muḥammad Isḥāq Muḥammad Ibrāhīm, 2011), 8:10 #6021. [^97]: Ibn Abī Dunyā. *Kitāb al-Amr bil-Maʻrūf*. (al-Madīnah: Maktabat al-Ghurabā’ al-Atharīyah, 1997), 1:107 #71. [^98]: Al-Ṣanʻānī, *al-Tanwīr Sharḥ al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr*, 8:10 #6021. [^99]: Ibn Daqīq, *Sharḥ al-Arbaʻīn al-Nawawīyah*, 1:52 #7. [^100]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:67 #45. [^101]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1472 #1844. [^102]: Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 12:233. [^103]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 1:21 #57. [^104]: Al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 2:76. [^105]: Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī.  *Al-Majmū’ Sharḥ al-Muhadhab*. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār al-Fikr), 12:117. [^106]: Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Kitāb al-Arba’īn al-Nawawīyah wa Sharḥuh*. (\[Cairo\]: Dār Ḥarā’ lil-Kitāb, 1987), 38. [^107]: Sūrat al-A’rāf 7:62; Abdel Haleem, 159. [^108]: Sūrat al-A’rāf 7:68; Abdel Haleem, 68. [^109]: Sūrat al-A’rāf 7:79; Abdel Haleem, 161. [^110]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 1:58. [^111]: ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ‘Asākir. *Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 23:465. [^112]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:71 #7179. [^113]: Ibn Abī Dunyā. *al-Ikhlāṣ wal-Nīyah*. (Dimashq: Dār al-Bashā’ir, 1992), 1:55 #28. [^114]: Abū Nuʻaym, *Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’*, 8:103. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. The practice of Islam rests upon three interrelated virtues—sincerity (al-ikhlas), honesty (al-sidq), and goodwill (al-nasihah)—each of which carries a vertical dimension toward Allah and a horizontal dimension toward His creation. These are not merely admirable traits but guiding principles meant to be present in every affair, from daily interactions to the conduct of nations, and their bearing extends to both this life and the Hereafter. Sincerity is the foundation of all religious deeds, for the first duty of a Muslim is to purify the intention (al-niyah), acting for Allah alone and free of idolatry (al-shirk), hypocrisy (al-nifaq), and ostentation (al-riya'). The Prophet ﷺ said, "Verily, deeds are only by intentions." Early authorities such as Al-Shafiʻi, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, Al-Daraqutni, and Al-Tirmidhi held this hadith to encompass one-third of Islam, and Al-Bukhari placed it at the head of his collection; Al-Shafiʻi said it encompasses seventy topics of jurisprudence, while Ibn Mahdi urged authors to open their works with it so students would continually renew their intentions. Sincerity is not merely encouraged but obligatory for the acceptance of any deed, as Allah commands, "so worship Allah with your total devotion: true devotion is due to Allah alone," and describes true religion as worshipping Allah "sincerely devoting their religion to Him." The prophets—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob among them—are held up as exemplars of this devotion. Hypocrisy, by contrast, is worship performed for a worldly motive, and it is a grave sin of the heart leading to Hellfire, from which the only repentance is renewed sincerity, for "the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell." Deeds tainted by idolatry or showing off will be "scattered like dust." Aisha related that Ibn Jud'an's charity and kinship would not benefit him because "he never said even for one day: My Lord, forgive my sins," and the Prophet ﷺ affirmed that Allah accepts only what is done sincerely seeking His countenance. Satan's chief assault upon humanity is through these vices, and no one is safe except the sincere, as Iblis himself excepted "Your devoted servants"; Al-Ghazali comments, "the servant is not freed from Satan except by sincerity." Sincerity also guards the heart from malice and treachery, for the Prophet ﷺ named "sincere deeds for Allah, offering goodwill to the leaders of the Muslims, and keeping to their community" as traits by which a Muslim's heart is not deceived. Sincerity is the key to Paradise, for the Prophet ﷺ said that one who declares there is no God but Allah "in pursuit thereby of the countenance of Allah" will be forbidden the Fire. Yet it is the purity of heart, not merely the words, that matters, for Ibn Mu'adh said, "Sincerity distinguishes good deeds from sins just as milk is distinguished from filth and blood." Sincerity may even excuse honest errors in creed, as in the hadith of the man who ordered his body cremated out of fear of Allah and was forgiven; Ibn al-Qayyim explains he "did not renounce the power of Allah out of repeated stubbornness or denial." Still, sincerity must be joined to good conduct, for Allah "looks at your hearts and actions," and Allah supports this nation through "their weak, their supplications, their prayers, and their sincerity." Worship must restrain wrongdoing, as Allah says, "prayer restrains outrageous and unacceptable behavior," and the Prophet ﷺ said of one who prays yet steals, "what you say should stop him." Those who arrive with prayers and fasting but also with injustices toward others are "the bankrupt of my nation," while some gain from their fasting only hunger and from their prayer only sleeplessness. Fudayl ibn 'Iyad set two conditions for acceptance: that a deed be sincere—done for Allah alone—and correct—done according to the Sunnah. Al-Junayd noted that sincerity flows from reason rightly used, yet reason without sincerity is empty. This principle governs even warfare (al-jihad), which must meet the conditions of just war, including right intention and restraint. The Prophet ﷺ distinguished the one who fights seeking Allah's countenance from the one who fights "out of pride, showing off, and seeking a reputation," who "will return with nothing." When asked thrice about one fighting for Allah while seeking worldly gain, the Prophet ﷺ each time replied, "There is no reward for him." Dividing one's intention in worship is a form of associating partners with Allah, for in a sacred narration Allah declares He abandons whoever associates another with Him, and the Prophet ﷺ warned against saying a deed is "for the sake of Allah and for your sake." The greater idolatry expels one from Islam, while ostentation is the lesser idolatry (al-shirk al-asghar)—a tremendous sin that does not expel one from the faith, yet is more dangerous for its subtlety. The Prophet ﷺ feared it more than the False Messiah, describing it as a man who "beautifies his prayer when he sees another man looking at him," and taught Abu Bakr a supplication against idolatry "more hidden than the crawling of an ant." This danger extends to seeking sacred knowledge, for one who seeks it for worldly gain "will never smell the fragrance of Paradise." The struggle for sincerity is what Ibn Rajab called the greater jihad, the jihad of the heart; Ma'ruf al-Karkhi would strike himself saying, "O my soul! Be sincere and purify yourself!" On the Day of Resurrection, the first to be judged—a martyr, a scholar-reciter, and a generous man—will be cast into the Fire because they acted to be praised rather than for Allah. Because sincerity must arise organically from the heart, it can never be compelled, for "there is no compulsion in religion," and "let those who wish to believe in it do so, and let those who wish to reject it do so." The Prophet's ﷺ sole duty was to deliver the message clearly, as repeated across many verses, and Sa'id ibn Zayd explained, "You are not an authority over them to coerce them into faith." Allah could have made all people one community but willed instead to test them, commanding, "so race to do good." Ibn al-Qayyim affirms the Prophet ﷺ "never forced the religion upon anyone," fighting only those who fought him first. As Al-Susi said, "Allah only desires sincerity in the deeds of his creatures." Honesty (al-sidq) is closely tied to sincerity and likewise faces both Allah and creation, for Allah commands, "stand with those who are true," and praised prophets such as Abraham, Ishmael, and Idris as men of truth. Whoever testifies to faith "honestly from the heart" is forbidden the Fire. 'Umar and Abu Bakr al-Warraq both linked honest intention toward Allah with kindness toward creation. Truthfulness is a learned habit that "leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise," while falsehood "leads to the Hellfire." Aisha reported nothing was more hateful to the Prophet ﷺ than dishonesty. According to Al-Ghazali, honesty encompasses word, deed, and intention, requiring that the inward match the outward, as Mutarrif and Abu Ya'qub al-Nahrajuri affirmed. The best of people is one "pure of heart and truthful in speech," a heart free of sin, malice, and envy. Hypocrisy, too, is of two levels: the greater (concealing unbelief), which is itself disbelief, and the lesser, marked by the four signs—lying, treachery, breaking promises, and wickedness in dispute—which exist along a spectrum. Sufyan al-Thawri warned against lying, ostentation, and vanity alike. Honesty demands fidelity to contracts, promises, covenants, and trusts, for Allah commands, "fulfil your obligations." The believer is one whom people trust with their lives and wealth, emulating the Prophet, known as al-Amin; "there is no faith for one who cannot be trusted." Muslims may live wherever they can practice their faith, as the Prophet ﷺ told Fudayk, and should better the land and its people. Honesty also demands courage before power, for "a word of truth in front of a tyrannical ruler" is the best jihad, and 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-Aziz welcomed those who showed him his faults. Goodwill (al-nasihah) completes these virtues, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Religion is goodwill," owed "to Allah, his book, his messenger, the leaders of the Muslims and their common people." Abu Dawud counted this among four hadiths around which jurisprudence revolves. Ibn Daqiq described goodwill as the most comprehensive word for goodness, and Allah called it, in a sacred narration, the most beloved act of worship. Goodwill toward Allah is sincerity itself; toward people it is loving for them what one loves for oneself—the golden rule—for "none of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself," and one should "treat people the way he would love to be treated." Al-Nawawi called this a comprehensive rule deserving close attention. The companions embedded it in their pledge, as Jarir related and Al-Ghazali explained, regarding it as a condition of Islam. Al-Subki noted this ethic extends to non-Muslims, its generality established by other evidence, and Al-Nawawi spoke of a "universal brotherhood." The prophets Noah, Hud, and Salih all approached their peoples as sincere advisers. From goodwill scholars derive the equality of believers and the virtue of preferring others, providing precedent for common understanding on human dignity. Malevolence (al-ghish) and being two-faced are marks of hypocrisy, for the Prophet ﷺ named the two-faced among the worst of people. As Fudayl ibn 'Iyad observed, the great never attained greatness through abundant fasting or prayer, but through "generosity, purity of heart, and sincerity to the community." In sum, sincerity, honesty, and goodwill must govern our conduct toward Allah, toward people, and within ourselves. Faith produced by compulsion or hypocrisy has no value; honesty, even when mistaken, remains valuable; and goodwill embodies reciprocity and equal treatment. Above all, these are obligations—inward and outward—upon whose fulfillment salvation and admittance into Paradise depend. Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. ## Key Takeaways 1. Sincerity, honesty, and good will are virtues in Islam that act as guiding principles in all of our affairs—from our mundane daily interactions to the conduct of nations and everything in between. 2. Each of these virtues includes a vertical dimension (in relation to Allah) and a horizontal dimension (in relation to other people); they tell us how to behave with Allah and how to behave with others. 3. Sincerity (*al-ikhlas*, meaning pure intention) is the foundation of all acts in Islam; every deed is judged by its intention, and Allah looks at the heart and actions, not outward appearance or wealth. 4. Honesty  (*al-sidq*, meaning truthfulness) guides us to act justly, avoid deceit, and fulfill our promises in all matters. 5. Goodwill (*al-nasihah*, meaning sincere advice and care) requires us to seek the well-being of others, especially the vulnerable, and to complement our faith with good conduct in society and worship. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/are-muslims-intolerant-is-that-even-the-right-question # Are Muslims Intolerant? Is that Even the Right Question? **Author:** Dr. Youssef Chouhoud **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 12, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction This article is based on the publication, "[What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis/)". --- ## Key Findings - *[American Muslim](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/omar-suleiman/i-am-not-your-american-muslim/) intolerance is not broadly and invariably applied, but is rather targeted at White supremacists.* - *This intolerance is largely driven by fear for one’s personal safety, contrary to the more socially rooted threat that exclusively drives intolerance in the general public.* - *It is, in large part, the neglect of this added psychological strain on American Muslims that facilitates the view that their intolerance is “deep-rooted” rather than (as with any other group) a product of social context.* One cornerstone of anti-Muslim rhetoric is the claim that Islam fosters an abiding intolerance among its followers. This assertion is not exclusive to the likes of Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and other archetypical Islamophobes writing in dark corners of the Internet. Indeed, prominent (if controversial) commentators and academics also advance the idea that Muslims are inherently intolerant.[^1] At times, even well-regarded authors who generally steer clear of such provocative declarations nonetheless see fit to contend that “\[t\]he modalities of Muslim intolerance inhabit theological, cultural, and ideological discourses whose roots penetrate deeply into the pre-modern Islamic past.”[^2] This impression of Muslims’ “deep-rooted” nature is similarly reflected in cross-national public opinion polling. For instance, fewer than half of those surveyed in America and several Western European countries associate Muslims with being tolerant.[^3] Such sentiments are not benign. In The Netherlands, France, and neighboring states, these views led to deep debate over the detriments of multiculturalism, likely setting the stage for the subsequent implementation of discriminatory policies.[^4] Similarly, in the US, the meteoric rise of anti-Sharia legislation across the country underscores how unchecked othering can have tangible policy implications.[^5] Given how much this presumed link between Islam and intolerance impacts social and political affairs in the West, it is well worth systematically scrutinizing (rather than simply assuming). Before examining intolerance among American Muslims, however, it is worth first asking: What exactly do we mean by “tolerance”? In its common usage, tolerance generally connotes an acceptance of different ideas and groups. This conception—what we might call social tolerance—is at the heart of claims that the United States is a more tolerant nation than it once was, say, fifty years ago. Yet, although a society is bound to function better when there is less strife among its populace, a democracy need not require its constituents to “get along with” one another. What such a government does need, at a minimum, is a citizenry willing to “put up with” one another. This political tolerance drives the ethos of minority rights and freedom of speech that buttresses any liberal democratic order. Implicitly, too, it is this variant of tolerance that is implicated when Muslims’ place in the West is questioned. That is, what publics and politicians are effectively skeptical of is Muslims’ ability to accept the rights of individuals that challenge their beliefs. The recently fielded Muslim American Attitudes Survey, which recorded the opinions of over 625 Muslim respondents from across the US on a range of social, political, and religious issues, allows us to examine the dynamics of political tolerance in this community.[^6] Commissioned by the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, this first of its kind survey features, among other rare components,[^7] a dedicated tolerance battery. To measure respondents’ level of tolerance, we first asked them to identify a group in society that they disliked the most, and subsequently prompted them to choose their next least-liked group from the remaining options. The (randomly ordered) choices were: - White supremacists (e.g., KKK) - Muslims w/ extreme religious views - Black Lives Matter activists - [Homosexual rights](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/lgbtq-and-islam-revisited-the-days-of-the-donald/) activists - Those opposed to all religions - Militant anti-fascists (e.g., Antifa) - Christian fundamentalists - The Tea Party Once respondents made their selections, they were presented with a series of questions asking the extent to which they would be willing to limit the civil liberties of one of their chosen groups and the degree to which they felt this group threatened their personal safety.[^8] ![Chart: American Muslim Political Tolerance](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Fig1-1024x766.jpg) ***Figure 1*** displays American Muslim political tolerance conditioned on which group they chose and whether they were asked to consider their first or second least-liked group. As we would expect, tolerance is significantly lower among those who were asked about their least-liked group compared to those asked about another group they strongly dislike. Splitting the sample by the subject of respondents’ intolerance reveals another substantial divide: White supremacists are significantly less likely to elicit a tolerant response when compared to all other groups. Even though the menu of options contained highly salient and, by the respondents’ own admission, strongly disliked groups, there was something qualitatively different about White supremacists. ***Figure 2*** points to a likely rationale for this divergence. Comparing levels of threat perception across groups and choice assignments, a similar pattern emerges with respondents fearing for their safety far more when White supremacists are invoked. ![Chart: American Muslim Personal Threat Perception](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Fig2-1024x766.jpg) ***Figure 2*** points to a likely rationale for this divergence. Comparing levels of threat perception across groups and choice assignments, a similar pattern emerges with respondents fearing for their safety far more when White supremacists are invoked. What then, are we to make of **American Muslim intolerance**? Though preliminary, these data nonetheless seem to undermine the “are Muslims intolerant?” line of questioning altogether. Based on the above analysis, it appears far more appropriate to ask “when are Muslims intolerant?” That is, intolerance among Muslims does not manifest as an innate trait, invariably operative when a disliked group is invoked. Instead, this disposition is more akin to a latent attitude that can get activated under the right conditions—which is to say that Muslims function psychologically in the same way as everyone else. Where they (and, arguably, other targeted minority groups) do differ is in the particular considerations that determine their tolerance judgments. Broadly speaking, Muslims are particularly driven to intolerance when faced with the prospect of interacting with groups that pose a distinct threat to their personal safety. Such a dynamic is fairly intuitive, given the stubbornly high rate of hate crimes against Muslims over the past decade,[^9] which has dramatically increased since the start of the most recent presidential campaign,[^10] yet it is also fairly atypical. That is, studies of tolerance among the general public often find that threats to one’s “way of life” often drive up intolerance, but consideration of personal safety factors little. Why, after all, would a member of the majority White, majority Christian public fear for their personal safety from a member of the Ku Klux Klan or a Neo-Nazi (two perennial “least-liked” groups in academic studies of tolerance)? In part, then, the belief that Muslims are particularly intolerant relies on a faulty expectation that this targeted minority group assesses the costs associated with being tolerant in the same way as any other member of the broader society. Thus, when a notable share of American Muslims inevitably fall short of this unreasonable standard—one that is divorced from their lived experience—skeptical observers often explain this deficiency with reference to some embedded disposition in the community. This tendency to discount external circumstances in lieu of a presumably more fundamental attribute speaks to how uncharitable assessments of minority behavior can be, especially when compared to the usually more generous appraisals that socially privileged groups often receive. Ultimately, the findings presented here further underscore the need to jettison such blanket, unsubstantiated claims about Muslims’ (and numerous other minority communities’) “nature” and instead focus on the social contexts that shape their attitudes and actions. --- ## Notes [^1]: See, e.g., Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz, *Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015); Samuel P. Huntington, *The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order* (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996). [^2]: Vincent J. Cornell, “Theologies of Difference and Ideologies of Intolerance in Islam,” in *Religious Tolerance in World Religions*, ed. Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton (West Conshohocken, Pa: Templeton Press, 2008), 278. [^3]: Pew Research Center, “Europe’s Muslims More Moderate: The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other” (Washington, D.C: Pew Global, June 2006), 15. [^4]: See, e.g., Bruce Bawer, “Tolerant Dutch Wrestle With Tolerating Intolerance,” *The New York Times*, November 14, 2004, sec. Week In Review, [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/weekinreview/tolerant-dutch-wrestle-with- tolerating-intolerance.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/weekinreview/tolerant-dutch-wrestle-with-tolerating-intolerance.html); Frida Ghitis, “The Dutch, Too Tolerant for Their Own Good?,” October 30, 2005, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102802437.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102802437.html); Mayanthi L. Fernando, *The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism* (Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books, 2014). [^5]: Hatewatch, “Anti-Sharia Law Bills in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 8, 2017, [https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/08/anti-sharia-law-bills-united-states](https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/02/05/anti-sharia-law-bills-united-states). [^6]: For the full sampling methodology, see Youssef Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt? A Quantitative Analysis” (Dallas, TX: Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 2018). [^7]: The centerpiece of the survey is a multi-item scale of doubt in the American Muslim community and a set of related corollary measures. [^8]: Each of the questions presented respondents with a 7-point scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” The tolerance battery asked whether respondents would support: 1) banning their chosen group from running for office; 2) putting their chosen group under government surveillance; 3) allowing their chosen group to hold a rally in their city (reverse coded); and 4) banning a member from their chosen group to speak at a local college. The responses to these questions were then aggregated to form a scale ranging from 0-1 where “0” represents the lowest level of tolerance and “1” the highest. To gauge threat, the prompt read: “\[CHOSEN GROUP\] pose a threat to my own and/or my family's personal safety.” [^9]: Jeff Spross, “Hate Crimes Against Muslims Remain Near Decade High,” December 10, 2012, [http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/12/10/1312341/hate-crimes-against-muslims-remain-near-decade-high/.](https://thinkprogress.org/hate-crimes-against-muslims-remain-near-decade-high-77842ae7136e/) [^10]: Janice Williams, “Hate Crimes against Muslims Are on the Rise in the U.S.,” Newsweek, July 17, 2017, [http://www.newsweek.com/hate-crime-america-muslims-trump-638000](https://www.newsweek.com/hate-crime-america-muslims-trump-638000). ## Summary The claim that Islam breeds an inherent and unyielding intolerance in its adherents is a cornerstone of much anti-Muslim rhetoric. This charge is not confined to the well-known polemicists such as Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, who traffic in overt hostility toward Muslims. It also finds expression among prominent commentators and academics, and even among otherwise measured authors who assert that the modes of Muslim intolerance are woven into theological, cultural, and ideological discourses whose roots reach deep into the pre-modern Islamic past. This impression is mirrored in cross-national polling, where fewer than half of those surveyed in America and several Western European countries regard Muslims as tolerant. Such perceptions are not without consequence: in the Netherlands, France, and neighboring states they fueled debates over the perils of multiculturalism and helped pave the way for discriminatory policies, while in the United States the rapid spread of anti-Sharia legislation reveals how unchecked othering can translate into tangible harm. Given how heavily this presumed link between Islam and intolerance weighs upon social and political life in the West, it deserves to be scrutinized rather than merely assumed. A necessary first step is to clarify what is meant by tolerance. In its ordinary sense, tolerance suggests an acceptance of differing ideas and groups—what may be termed social tolerance, the sense in which one might say a society has grown more accepting than it was decades ago. Yet a democracy does not strictly require that its members embrace one another; at minimum it requires that they be willing to endure one another. This political tolerance underpins the commitment to minority rights and freedom of speech that sustains any liberal democratic order. It is precisely this kind of tolerance that is implicitly questioned when the place of Muslims in the West is doubted, for the underlying skepticism concerns whether Muslims will accept the rights of those who challenge their convictions. To examine this matter, the Muslim American Attitudes Survey—commissioned by the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research—recorded the views of more than 625 Muslim respondents across the United States on a range of social, political, and religious questions. Among its rare features was a dedicated tolerance battery. Respondents were first asked to name the group in society they disliked most, and then to select their next least-liked group from the remaining options. The randomly ordered choices were White supremacists (such as the KKK), Muslims with extreme religious views, Black Lives Matter activists, homosexual rights activists, those opposed to all religion, militant anti-fascists such as Antifa, Christian fundamentalists, and the Tea Party. Having chosen, respondents were then asked how far they would go in limiting the civil liberties of one of these groups and how threatening they felt the group to be to their personal safety. The findings, illustrated across the survey, reveal two significant patterns. As expected, tolerance was markedly lower among those asked about their single least-liked group than among those asked about another strongly disliked group. More striking, however, was that White supremacists were far less likely to elicit a tolerant response than any other group. Even though the list contained groups the respondents themselves strongly disliked, there was something qualitatively distinct in their reaction to White supremacists. The likely reason emerges from the measures of perceived threat: respondents feared for their own safety far more when White supremacists were invoked than when any other group was named. What, then, is to be made of American Muslim intolerance? Though preliminary, these findings undermine the very framing of the question “are Muslims intolerant?” It appears far more fitting to ask “when are Muslims intolerant?” Intolerance among Muslims does not surface as an innate trait, invariably triggered whenever a disliked group is mentioned. Rather, it resembles a latent attitude activated under particular conditions—which is to say that Muslims function psychologically in the same manner as everyone else. Where they, and arguably other targeted minorities, differ is in the specific considerations that shape their judgments of tolerance. More precisely, Muslims are drawn toward intolerance chiefly when confronting groups that pose a distinct threat to their personal safety. This is an intuitive response given the persistently high rate of hate crimes against Muslims over the past decade, which rose sharply from the beginning of the most recent presidential campaign. Yet it is also atypical. Studies of tolerance in the general public tend to find that intolerance is driven by threats to one's "way of life," while personal safety plays little role—for why would a member of the majority White, majority Christian public fear for his physical safety from a member of the Ku Klux Klan or a Neo-Nazi, both of which are perennial "least-liked" groups in academic studies of tolerance? In part, then, the belief that Muslims are peculiarly intolerant rests upon the faulty expectation that this targeted minority weighs the costs of tolerance in the same way as any other member of the broader society. When a notable share of American Muslims inevitably falls short of this unreasonable standard—one detached from their lived experience—skeptical observers explain the shortfall by appealing to some embedded disposition within the community. This inclination to dismiss external circumstances in favor of a supposedly more fundamental trait reveals how uncharitable assessments of minority behavior can be, especially when set against the more generous appraisals granted to socially privileged groups. The findings ultimately underscore the need to abandon such sweeping and unsubstantiated claims about the "nature" of Muslims and other minority communities, and to attend instead to the social contexts that shape their attitudes and actions. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-do-people-suffer-gods-existence-the-problem-of-evil # Why Do People Suffer? God's Existence & the Problem of Evil **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Atheism, Paper, Publication **Published:** July 2, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy *This essay argues that the existence of evil offers neither a logical nor probable case against God’s existence and that Islam offers a comprehensive theodicy: that is, a systematic solution to the problem of evil. This paper is essentially a summary and translation of Dr. Sami Ameri’s phenomenal research on the subject.*[^1] --- ## The Immovable Boulder Evil’s centrality in atheist discourse is no secret. George Bΰchner, a German atheist and poet, calls the problem of evil the “immovable boulder of atheism.”[^2] During a 2013 debate entitled “The Origin of Life: Evolution or Design,” atheist Michael Ruse stated clearly that the sole reason behind his refusal to believe in God was the problem of evil. In his famous work, *There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind*, former atheist Antony Flew asserts that, particularly in the western world, the problem of evil represents the most commonly cited argument for atheism.[^3] This is not only true in intellectual spheres. In a contemporary study, Americans were asked, “If you could ask God only one question, and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?” The most common question was, “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”[^4] There have been two major schools among theists when it comes to the problem of evil. The first camp—which, according to Timothy J. Keller (a Christian), most Christian philosophers belong to—argues that the existence of evil does not disprove God’s existence. In other words, they correctly point out the logical problem with arguing that the existence of evil is proof for atheism.[^5] The second camp is that of the theodicists; those who go beyond and also try to understand God’s Wisdom in allowing evil to exist. This essay presents the comprehensive theodicy of Sunni Islam, one that stems purely from our preserved sacred texts (the Qur’an and authentic Sunnah), as it is the distortion of previous scriptures that hinders many theologians from offering a coherent theodicy. Even within Islam, as William Montgomery Watt points out, it was only revisionist sects like the Mutazilites—who attempted to bridge between the Qur’an and Greek Philosophy with a hybrid theology—who found themselves grappling with the problem of evil in their literature; Sunni writings rarely did.[^6] The Sunni mind, which embraced revelation fully, had no difficulty seeing Divine Wisdom as weaving the threads of pain and suffering into a brilliant story; a story that harmonizes mercy and justice; a story that derives happy endings from pain; a story that sees that “immovable boulder” as a building block for one’s spiritual ascent. --- ## What Makes Evil a Problem? Evil in the world has always been a problem, but it has only in the past few centuries translated into a revolt against God and religion. Why is that? What is different now? ### Life Being Seen as Purposeless The gradual reorientation of the Western mindset from the “purpose of life” to the “quality of life” was a byproduct of 18th\-century Europe’s Enlightenment Period. This radical shift of focus, wherein peoples’ means of living displaced the pursuit of transcendent purpose, is what eventually made life’s frustrations increasingly unbearable. When the totality of existence is reduced to this life alone, and life is no longer seen as a means to a greater goal, it can be expected that ensuring immediate pleasure and avoiding pain would become the sole objectives—and unattainable objectives, for sure. In the words of C.S. Lewis, > *For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic \[of olden times\] and applied science \[of modern times\] alike, the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.*[^7] It is, therefore, no wonder that Western communities in particular, despite their many luxuries and comforts, have had the greatest difficulty grappling with the problem of evil. As Victor Frankl put it, “More people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”[^8] Meaninglessness is what renders life a prison in which occupants frantically scramble between the walls of life and death, panicking from every sting. In a life without meaning, every pinch is an unexplainable—and unavoidable—random event that can only be classified in terms of energy and matter, and only represents chaos, commotion, and a tragedy. ### An Era of Intensified Sensitivity It is natural and understandable that the problem of evil would be amplified in any age among those who are particularly sensitive: people whose empathic hearts ache from a child’s tear, an elder’s weakness, and a victim’s scream of pain. However, consider how the average person in modern times enjoys unprecedented luxuries allowed by technological developments. Consider also how medical advancements have resulted in the prevention of many diseases, pain management, and access for the disabled. While these developments have benefited human life immensely, they have also heightened our sensitivities and weakened our tolerance of pain and suffering. This is why most phenomena cited by atheists to depict the viciousness of evil are humanitarian crises which occur in medically and technologically less advanced nations, nations whose people still suffer from diseases and famines that have almost been eradicated in the West. ### The Rise of the Ego After the French Revolution, not only did the Age of Empires meet its demise, but centralized nations followed suit, and then even tribal affiliations and family bonds were sacrificed at the altar of the individual. Once the dust cleared from this global deconstruction of relationships, all that remained standing was the human ego, now more monstrous than ever, for this demolition of society allowed even newer forms of individualism to reign supreme. Naturally, when people stop seeing themselves as part of a greater collective and begin seeing their own interests as paramount, the suffering and strife of others do not lead to empathy or solidarity. In a climate that begins with “me” and ends with “me,” evil is no longer a mere problem, but leads to a slow suicide in a deaf, uncaring world. ### The Delusion of the Modern Man The discoveries and breakthroughs of the modern era have deluded people into assuming they can fully understand everything in the universe, determine with absolute certainty what does and does not exist, and subsequently not hesitate to deny there is any wisdom to many of the phenomena around them. In *A Secular Age*, Charles Taylor aptly describes how western society’s attitude towards the universe has taken an anthropocentric turn in modern times.[^9] In other words, the secular person now perceives himself as Master of the Universe, concluding that whatever his eye cannot see does not exist and that whatever his mind cannot recognize as wise must be foolish. --- ## Challenging the Question It is unfortunate to see many theists feeling cornered into the proverbial hot seat when it comes to the problem of evil, allowing the atheist to assume the role of the interrogator in the conversation. First and foremost, the link between “the existence of evil” and “the existence of God” must never remain unchallenged. These are two separate issues that should not be conflated. Many people assume that since evil exists, God must either be unknowing, uncaring, or incapable of removing it. Because God is understood to be Omniscient, All-Merciful, and Omnipotent, the assumption is that the existence of evil implies that God must not exist. However, even Richard Dawkins himself, the iconic father of New Atheism, states that simply imagining that God is cruel is one logically plausible solution to that standoff. He writes, “But, for a more sophisticated believer in some kind of supernatural intelligence, it is childishly easy to overcome the problem of evil. Simply postulate a nasty god—such as the one who stalks every page of the Old Testament.”[^10] Certainly, monotheists would reject this option for good reason, but this does not change the fact that this Dawkinsian hypothetical debunks the overused false logic described above. Ultimately, the problem of evil is a problem for atheists. For believers in God, the existence of evil does not pose a problem, nor does it make them despair. Atheists who question why evil exists also reveal numerous fault lines in their worldview. First, asking “why” implies that one assumes there should be an explanation, revealing the subconscious belief of all people that our lives have meaning. Otherwise, we would all just surrender to a nihilism that is indifferent to good and evil. Second, asking why evil exists reveals that we see ourselves as moral creatures, but this immaterial quality of morality has no place in atheists’ view that only what is tangible is real. Third, asking why evil exists reveals that one perceives evil as an abnormality and good as the prevalent norm. Therefore, before asking “Why is there evil?,” fair and rational people should ask questions like “Why does good matter?,” “What is good?,” and “Why is there so much good?" Questioning the existence of good is the far worthier question, for only after identifying the dominant principle can the exceptions to that principle be understood. People would forever see the extraordinary laws of physics, chemistry, and biology as incoherent if they were to begin studying these sciences with the rare exceptions that deviate from these laws. Likewise, atheists can never overcome the “boulder of evil” until they find the humility to concede that evil is the exception in a world of innumerable phenomena that are good, orderly, and beautiful. Consider the periods of sickness versus health over the average lifetime, or those impaired versus functional across the human race, or the moments when arteries flow versus clog throughout our lives, or the decades of prosperity versus ruin for the average civilization, or the centuries of dormancy versus eruption of volcanoes, or the millennia of non-collision between planets. Where does all this prevalent good come from? Energy and matter swimming in a world of chaos and coincidence could never produce a world where the default is good. Ironically, scientific empiricism attests to this: the second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy (degree of disorder or randomness) in an isolated system with no external influence will always increase and that this process is irreversible. In other words, organized things will always break down and dissipate unless something from the outside pulls them together. As such, blind thermodynamic forces could never have produced anything good on their own, nor made good as widespread as it is, without the Creator organizing these seemingly random, chaotic phenomena into the marvelous things we experience like beauty, wisdom, joy, and love. Only after establishing that the norm is good can we hope to grasp the exception of evil. No intelligent person should deny the brilliance of a spectacularly engineered palace containing thousands of stunning rooms designed to tantalize the senses because a few rooms seem unpleasant. It would be ludicrous to claim that this wondrous palace is the product of rocks, steel, wood, and wires randomly smashing together simply because we cannot see the wisdom in the arrangement of those few rooms. In such a case, prudence would necessitate suspending judgment. Perhaps the person living there enjoys it this way, or perhaps it was there to remind him of his humble beginnings, enabling him to never take his blessings for granted. Looking at our own anatomy and not just hypothetical palaces, evolutionists once claimed that our bodies had 180 vestigial organs—parts that had become functionless over the course of human evolution. Little did they know, this was a premature judgment due to inadequate research into their functions. Ultimately,  this number continued to dwindle over the past century, to the point that some anatomists now believe that the function of every last organ has been identified.[^11] These “vestigial organs” actually point us to another problem with the question of why evil exists. We assume that we understand all that exists in and around us, while epistemologists agree that people’s perceptions and even imaginations are in fact extremely limited. In *The Inductive Problem of Evil*, William Alston explains how humans are firmly shackled by their lack of data, the crippling complexity of many phenomena, the obscurity of what is metaphysically possible or necessary, their ignorance of the full range of possibilities and values, and their biased judgments as subjective creatures.[^12] In modern times, our unprecedented know-how should lead us to greater humility than ever before. Now more than ever, we can observe just how massively complex nature can be. A prime example is the famous *butterfly effect* in Chaos Theory; namely that “the fluttering of a butterfly’s wing in Rio de Janeiro, amplified by atmospheric currents, could cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later.”[^13] It reminds us how the most unexpected factors, over extensive spans of time, still have a connection that is very real. The above is one of countless examples that can be used to explain that evil is not always the product of some simple linear progression, nor even the natural laws that only the most highly trained scientists understand. Many times, it can be due to an astronomically complex interaction of factors that we cannot truly comprehend. Theists, therefore, have every right to challenge claims like: *a deer’s suffering a slow and painful death because of a forest fire is nothing but a pointless evil that can never carry any wisdom or greater good*. Although there may be various wisdoms behind such scenarios (explored below), it is clear that some evils are clearly set in motion by human actions and we may never attain a full understanding of the causal chain. --- ## The Wisdom Behind Evil The Qur’an and Sunnah do not simply claim that the existence of evil can be rationally reconciled with the existence of an All-Knowing, All-Powerful, Most-Compassionate God. They also affirm that there is discernible wisdom behind what may appear to be evil, and hence Sunni theodicy involves **“reason guided by revelation.”** However, while there exists profound wisdom behind every “evil” in the universe, we as finite beings can only understand these wisdoms on a general level. We should also understand that a Wise God would not reveal to us every wisdom in order to guarantee that the test called life does, in fact, serve as such. These specifics should therefore not be written off as irrational, but rather suprarational (beyond our understanding), but this should not deter us from trying to appreciate why God allows them to exist. In simplest terms, 1. God is the Most Wise; 2. God’s Wisdom necessitates wisdom behind everything that exists; 3. God’s Wisdom necessitates that some evils exist for profound reasons; 4. God’s Wisdom necessitates that, for life to qualify as a trial, the reason for every evil cannot be immediately disclosed to those under examination; and 5. God’s Wisdom necessitates disclosing some of the main reasons behind evil to help brace people as they navigate the hardships of life. Before diving into these main wisdoms, it must be said that one of the most foundational concepts in Sunni theodicy is that **pure evil does not exist**. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), perhaps the greatest Sunni theologian to write on theodicy, says, > *Evil, as an independent phenomenon whereby no dimension of good is involved, has no existence in this world. There is nothing in our existence that can be called pure evil, because every evil in this world is good from one angle or another. For instance, sickness harms the body from one angle, while from other angles tests patience, evokes resilience, and may even strengthen immunity. Most disliked things are usually this way; never void of some benefit or another for the human being.*[^14] This golden principle stands true both for naturally occurring evils and for evils committed by willful agents (humans/jinn). God allows them to exist because the good of their existence outweighs the good of their inexistence. For naturally occurring evils, consider how volcanoes are not pure evil, because they rejuvenate the ecosystem which makes life on earth possible to begin with. “Without volcanic eruptions and all they release, farming communities would not be able to grow food, certain building materials would not be available, and our atmosphere would not have its oxygen-rich environment.”[^15] For evils committed by willful agents, consider how even Satan’s existence is not pure evil, firstly because he was not “created to misguide people” but rather he arrogantly rebelled by using the will he was given. Furthermore, Satan gives God’s devotees a target to push back against evil, encourages them to seek refuge with God from his snares, including pride and conceit, and so much more. For this reason, the Qur’an and Sunnah usually attribute evil to the creation or their actions, because from God’s full perspective, this “evil” which He caused to exist is predominantly good in actuality. For instance, the Qur’an states, “**Say, ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak, from the evil of that which He created’”** \[113:1-2\]. Elsewhere the Qur’an refers to God intending punishment in the passive tense, respectfully omitting the “doer,” while God intending guidance is expressly stated; **“And we do not know whether evil is intended for those on earth or whether their Lord intends for them a right course”** \[72:10\]. Elsewhere, Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) is found attributing creation, guidance, nourishment, and healing to God, while attributing sickness to himself: **“He is the One Who created me, and He alone guides me. He is the One Who provides me with food and drink. And He alone heals me when I am sick”** \[26:78-80\]. Leaving no room for ambiguity, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ; peace be upon him) would echo this required etiquette in a supplication, **“And all good rests in Your hands, and evil is not attributable to You.”**[^16] Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) gives many examples of how this nuanced distinction involves more than mere semantics. He explains that although evil—as we perceive it—can be found in God’s creation, there is nothing that necessitates that God have the same properties as His creation. For instance, God creating a human’s complexion or a flower’s scent does not translate into Him having that complexion or emitting that fragrance. Likewise, God creating people with unpleasant qualities, whether physical or behavioral, does not translate into this ugliness being a quality of God.[^17] Ibn al-Qayyim adds, “When the slave commits an ugly prohibited act, what he did is certainly evil and sinful, and the Lord is the One who enabled him to be the ‘doer’ of that \[deed\]. This enablement from God is justice, mercy, and correctness, for Him making someone capable of acting \[freely\] is good, while its manifestation \[in this case\] was evil and ugly. By enabling, God has placed things where they belong, for that \[granting free will\] contains profound wisdom for which He should be praised. Therefore, this is actually good and wise and beneficial, even if what the slave does is a flaw, a defect, and evil.”[^18] In other words, God created beings with a degree of free will which they sometimes use to act in evil ways. In these cases, God is not the direct cause of evil, but rather the original cause of this instrument which was used for evil, and the One who permits its existence for the greater good. With this fundamental rule of Sunni theodicy in mind, let us now explore some of these dimensions of “greater good” and “Divine Wisdom” behind the evil, pain, and suffering that exist in the world we call home. ### A Reflection of God’s Greatness ### Transcendent is He who created all things in pairs—be it what the earth produces and from themselves and from that which they do not know.\[36:36\] Creating opposites such as good and evil is from the perfection of God’s Wisdom, and making them observable to us is from His Graciousness. Creating the night and day, the sweet and the sour, the hot and the cold, pain and pleasure, death and life, sickness and health, also reflect His Greatness and Perfection. Though the attributes of God are inherently perfect, not seeing them manifest in our world would render us less capable of recognizing God’s Greatness. Were it not for the creation, recognizing God’s quality of being a Creator would be more difficult. Were it not for God creating people who exhibit evil, recognizing God’s qualities of Forbearance and Pardon, and even His qualities of Justice and Dominance, would be that much harder to recognize. If a king were to limit himself to just one of the many actions he is capable of performing, this king would either be unaware of his own abilities, or unaware of the great benefit these actions would entail for others. As for the One with perfect Knowledge and perfect Ability, He does not restrict Himself to a single action or type of action, for that would be a flaw in His Sovereignty. It is from God’s perfect ability that He both gives and withholds, rewards and punishes, uplifts and debases, honors and humiliates, empowers and vanquishes, accelerates and delays, benefits and harms. At the same time, it is due to His Wisdom that, because humans are not identical, they are not treated identically, for that would be contrary to His perfect Justice. The Qur’an is filled with censure of those who equate between very different things (like God and man) and those who discriminate between equivalent things (like skin colors), so how could God condemn something as a flaw and then be described with it Himself? Allah says, **“Or do those who commit evil deeds simply think that We will make them equal—in their life and after their death—to those who believe and do good? How wrong is their judgment”** \[45:21\]. Therefore, if God’s beautiful Names and Attributes must be made manifest, and that is only possible with the existence of opposites and counterparts, wisdom demands that these opposites must exist. If they are absent, then God’s Attributes would not exist, which is inconceivable.[^19] The Qur’an and Sunnah often remind us that God’s unparalleled Love and Compassion for people are as great as He is. In many cases, it is none other than the phenomenon of evil which sets the stage for the manifestation of those Divine Attributes. Thus, all the following “wisdoms” are not isolated explanations, but rather are dimensions of how God’s Love, Compassion, and Good Will for His servants lies at the core of every prick and every thorn. ### Making Life Meaningful ### Blessed is the One in Whose Hands rests all authority. And He is Most Capable of everything. He is the One Who created life and death in order to test which of you is best in deeds. And He is the Almighty, All-Forgiving. \[67:1-2\] Tests by nature necessitate a person grappling with challenges and overcoming obstacles before being crowned successful. Should anything other than that be expected of our test called life? The benefit of understanding why we exist is enormous because faulty expectations are perhaps the single greatest cause of life’s frustrations. When people reduce their expectation of God to “unconditional love,” and then expect God to treat them as if they were His pets, they will forever be disappointed with a world that was never meant to be a hedonistic paradise, and will always consider anything that opposes their desires as evil. But when this erroneous perception is avoided, people can recalibrate their perspectives and become resolute for the uphill climb of their brief lifetimes. God says, **“Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as a trial, then to Us you will all be returned”** \[21:35\]. Al-Alūsi explains, “We test you with that which is disliked and liked, will you be patient and grateful, or will you disbelieve and ignore?”[^20] Elsewhere in the Qur’an, God says, **“Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe’ and they will not be tried? But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars”** \[29:2-3\]. These verses are particularly valuable in the theodicy discussion, for they help us realize that being subjected to good and evil are not just a test of conduct but also a test of faith—a litmus test for doubts, not just desires. Through these tests, a person’s loyalty to his/her convictions is revealed, especially when they find themselves unable to identify the wisdom of an event in the universe. Especially when being tested with evil, when the hammers of hardship come crashing down, a person’s mind and heart incline towards the worthiest questions about the realities of this world, its Maker, and their purpose in it. Put differently, it would be nonsensical to enter the examination room of life with all the answers in hand, and it is life’s challenges that drive us to fervently search for those answers. Once we do, we not only find the One with the answers but find out that He Himself is the answer. Perhaps this is why the above verses begin a chapter of the Qur’an that ends with, **“And those who strive for Us We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good”** \[29:69\]. It should be noted that, from the Islamic perspective, this test of striving involves retaining or returning to purity, not overcoming “ inherent evils.” God created man with moral uprightness; **“We have certainly created man in the best of stature”** \[95:4\]. Then, God endowed us with the ability to discern good from evil \[91:8\] and sent us forth in this life for our mind, heart, and limbs to undergo examination \[76:2\]. If we avoid corrupt indoctrination and misguided inclinations, we will remain upright in all our affairs. God also endowed every person with a *fiṭra* (spiritual disposition) that resists the evil influences that seek to ravage the beauty of his original nature. Therefore, upright humans and their pure *fiṭra* are what define humanity in essence. As for those elements that incline us to evil, these are what make life an examination, but they only have an effect when we let the voice of the God-centric *fiṭra* weaken, and when its Divine flame is left unfueled. Since life was intended as a test, this test would be meaningless without us possessing a degree of free will. Otherwise, how can our enactment of good be commendable or evil be reprehensible if we are like feathers in the wind, with no agency whatsoever? Alvin Plantinga, in *The Nature of Necessity*, makes the point that moral good requires the possibility of moral evil: “The fact that these free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God's omnipotence nor against his goodness; for he could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by excising the possibility of moral good."[^21] Evaluating people’s commitment to moral good is the purpose of life and the reason why evil must exist. Humility with God and deferring to God’s wisdom constitute the highest form of moral good. Resigning oneself to the fact that one can only see pixels while God sees the entire picture is a huge test of intellectual humility. Accepting that you are like the ant on the carpet who sees the masterpiece it walks on as a chaotic jungle calls for the greatest dose of humility. Beholding the grandeur of God, admitting to oneself that you are unlike God, and expecting to have “blind spots” that render some evils mysterious, is the most basic test of faith in the unseen. As God says, **“And there are some people who worship Allah on the verge of faith: if they are blessed with something good, they are content with it; but if they are afflicted with a trial, they relapse into disbelief, losing this world and the Hereafter. That is truly the clearest loss”** \[22:11\]. Similarly, when the angels asked God about creating humans who would commit evil acts, they were completely satisfied with the answer that God knows what they do not. With humility and complete faith in God’s Wisdom, they accepted His superior Knowledge: **“And \[mention, O Muhammad\], when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.’ They said, ‘Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?’ Allah said, ‘Indeed, I know that which you do not know’”** \[2:30\]. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201) says, “The mind has come to recognize the Creator’s Wisdom, and that it has no flaw or defect. This recognition obligates it to forgo \[objecting to\] whatever of this \[wisdom\] is hidden from it. Whenever a specific matter is unclear to it, it would hence be incorrect to then determine that the principle itself is invalid.”[^22] For instance, what possible wisdom could there be in damaging a boat and subjecting its crew to drowning? What possible wisdom could there be in a young innocent child being killed? In the story of Prophet Moses and al-Khidr \[18:60-82\], those apparently pointless evils were unveiled to show us the subtle strands of hidden detail in the Divine tapestry. This story demonstrates that we quite often cannot comprehend the ultimate wisdom behind apparent evils. Little did Moses (peace be upon him) realize that damaging that boat prevented it from being forcefully taken by a pirate-king and that killing that sinless child was out of ultimate mercy for both him and his parents, sparing them all a greater evil had he grown to maturity among them. Finally, the test of life would also be meaningless if this world’s natural laws were not in place since it is our recognition of coherent patterns—such as cause and effect—that compels us to engage our realities. If wolves were blind to lambs, and angels airlifted deer from forest-fires, and viruses magically slid off our bodies, and pepper spray suddenly appeared on the eyes of every rapist, and paralysis happened to every shooter’s trigger finger, and food emerged in the belly of every starving child, this “perfect world” would actually be quite flawed, for it would have no standing laws or causation patterns, and because its “malfunction” would constantly require God’s interference. In reality, though, these laws set this world as it was meant to be, and are there in order for life to serve as a stage for the test of life. Events have to exist that call for confidently appealing to God in supplication, courageously rescuing those in danger, and selflessly serving those in need. It is true that the laws God created to make life possible, stable, and enjoyable, are the same laws that sometimes make life painful and uncomfortable. The melting of glaciers does irrigate the land and quench the thirst of people and animals but may also result in destructive floods. Lightning provides plants with nitric oxide but may sometimes fatally strike down a human being. However, in all these cases, God created a natural law that offers a far greater good for the world than the occasional evil it causes. That greater good includes, but is not limited to, the ability to engage a comprehendible reality (natural laws) and the evaluation of how our will is used in light of that reality. ### Harvesting in the Hereafter ### And this worldly life is not but diversion and amusement. And indeed, the home of the Hereafter—that is the \[eternal\] life, if only they knew. \[29:64\] When sizing up our transient lives in this world, measuring them against the life of the hereafter, the problem of evil and suffering disintegrates. What are 70 years of supposed misery measured against, not 70 trillion, but endless years of unimaginable bliss? Conversely, reducing our existence to this life alone is what negatively amplifies our perception of life’s “unfair” moments. A Muslim sees the hereafter as an inevitable reality, one that dwarfs our existence in this life to almost nothing, as the Prophet ﷺ said, **“If Allah had considered the worldly life as worth the wing of a mosquito, an unbeliever would not be allowed to take a sip of water from it.”**[^23] Ali b. Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) further depicted this moment of arrival in the hereafter, and how it will make this entire lifetime seem almost like a dream, saying, “People are deeply asleep. Once they die, they awaken.”[^24] It is common to find atheists aggregating the incidents of evil in the world, piling them together to evoke the emotions of their audience, attempting to persuade people to anger against God. By appealing to emotion, they seek to highlight these pains and sufferings as if they were not exceptions but the rule. However, even if these manipulative tactics went unnoticed, a Muslim’s evidence-based convictions in a hereafter would still suffice to counteract them. For instance, the Prophet ﷺ said in a profound tradition, **“The most devastated person in this world—from the people of Paradise—will be brought forward on the Day of Resurrection and dipped a single dip in Paradise. Then it will be said, ‘O son of Adam, have you seen any hardship? Did you experience any distress?’ He will say, ‘No, by Allah, my Lord! I did not experience any distress; I did not see a single hardship.’”**[^25] This person will not be lying but will forget all prior difficulties with that single dip in ecstasy. In a flash, this person who was disadvantaged, pitied, and “wronged” in the world will become the object of intense admiration for billions of previously “privileged” onlookers; the Prophet ﷺ said, **“On the Day of Resurrection, when people who had suffered affliction are given their reward, those who were spared will wish their skins had been cut to pieces with blades when they were in the world.”**[^26] Human suffering, misfortunes faced by the innocent, and the claim that “life is unfair” are all legitimate grievances—but only if belief in the hereafter is denied. The ugliest atrocities like those committed by Hitler and Stalin, or those perpetrated against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the saddest crises like those of starving children collectively amount to near nothing when compared to everlasting life. The Prophet ﷺ would invoke God for that piercing insight, praying in many gatherings to be granted **“certainty through which You would ease for us the calamities of this world.”**[^27] For one who understands the eternal nature of the hereafter, being asked to “explain a child raped then killed” does not rattle them because they compare the ordeal of a moment with unending delight that enhances with time and never fades. In reality, it is atheism that has to grapple with the problem of evil, not those who see this life with all its hardships as a shadow-world next to the enjoyment of the next life. The believer whose mind is illuminated by revelation understands that just as the dead earth is brought to life each spring, and just as we were unliving and came to life before birth, our death will not be our end but rather just the beginning—transitioning to a new life where every annoyance and pain will be forgotten. It is interesting how some people mock the pursuit of Paradise, but at the same time embrace painstaking years of study in order to earn a degree, to put some food on the table and a roof over their heads. To secure a home with limited walls (no matter how spacious), and some food for energy (no matter how delicious), we all consider it fair to invest and toil for years, yet some find it unfair to work for an unending unimaginable bliss. In reality though, no matter what ambitions are actualized here, what pleasures were secured, and what “evils” were avoided, one has not really come away with anything but a drop from an ocean. The Prophet ﷺ said, **“The example of this worldly life in comparison to the Hereafter is nothing but the example of one of you dipping his finger in the sea; let him see what he brings forth.”**[^28] Therefore, although a mindful Muslim sees the problem of evil as making this life more meaningful, and hence remains immune to nihilism and apathy, he or she simultaneously sees the problems of life as seeds to cultivate their true life in the hereafter. **“So be patient with gracious patience. Indeed, they see it \[as\] distant. But We see it \[as\] near”** \[70:5-7\]. ### God Loves to Forgive People ### And ask forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is Merciful and Affectionate. \[11:90\] Far from being distant or indifferent, Allah (God) as described by authentic revelation loves to give and forgive, even those who continue to get and forget. He tells us in the Qur’an how He loves to purify His servants \[2:222\], and His Prophet ﷺ informed us that God is more Merciful with people than any mother is with her newborn,[^29] and that He is more delighted with a servant’s repentance than someone lost in the desert finding another chance at life after being certain that his demise was imminent.[^30] How can God’s reaction to those who defied Him be unfathomable joy at their redemption? Simply put, that is His unique Sublime Nature. For this reason, He infuses every last sinner with hope by declaring, **“Say \[O Prophet\], 'O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s Mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He Who is the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful’”** \[39:53\]. But for this forgiveness to take place, there must exist sins and sinners. If Allah wished for humanity to be sinless angels, that would not have been difficult for Him, but who then would these beautiful Divine traits envelop? Who would God redeem, and who would be mended after breakage by the Most Merciful? The Prophet ﷺ alluded to this very point when he said, **“Were you not to sin, Allah would do away with you and bring about a people who sin and seek forgiveness and are forgiven.”**[^31] “Evils” also serve as a cleansing mechanism for overlooked wrong, and what some scholars call the (relatively) minor sins. The Prophet ﷺ said, **“Trials will continue to befall the believing man and woman, with regard to themselves, their children, and their wealth, until they meet Allah with no sin on them.”**[^32] Another narration elaborates, **“No fatigue, nor disease, nor anxiety, nor sadness, nor pain, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that.”**[^33] The Prophet ﷺ similarly stated that it was from God’s mercy to the believers in particular that they will confront many devastating times: **“This nation of mine is a nation \[that enjoys distinct\] mercy; it has no torment in the hereafter but rather its torment is only in this world: tribulations, earthquakes, killing, and afflictions.”**[^34] In his book *Ḥādī al-Arwāḥ*, Ibn al-Qayyim explains the therapeutic function of pain in this world and the next, saying: > *The wisdom of Allah necessitated that He appoint an appropriate remedy for every disease, and remedying the misguided requires the most difficult remedies. A compassionate doctor may cauterize the sick person, searing him with fire over and over again, in order to remove the foul elements that sabotaged his natural state of health. And if he believes that amputating the limb is better for the sick person, he severs it, causing the most severe pain. This is the fate which Allah destined for eliminating extraneous elements which undermine good health against a person’s will, so what about when the person willfully chooses to admit toxic elements into his pure soul? When an intelligent person reflects on the laws of Allah (the Blessed and Exalted), His destined decree in this world, and His reward and punishment in the hereafter, he finds them perfectly suitable, appropriate, and interconnected. This is because it is all sourced in perfect knowledge, impeccable wisdom, and overarching mercy. And indeed, He—the Glorified—is the True Supreme King, and His Kingship is one of mercy, graciousness, and justice.*[^35] Some may argue that a doctor would readily remove the painful element of treatment if he could, so why does God not purify souls without pain? What Ibn al-Qayyim suggests here is that it is the pain itself that serves to purify the wicked soul. The major sins require a conscious repentance to guarantee forgiveness according to most Sunni scholars, but even then we find that “evil” is what generates in people that alertness and desire for repentance and reform. Without repentance, indulgence in sin continues to desensitize its doer and blind them from seeing anything but their next moment of prohibited pleasure. Just before they finish spiritually strangling themselves with these sins, and just before their faith bleeds its last drops, God rescues them from accelerating any further down that slippery slope to their doom. This rescue comes in the form of a Divine reprimand and sometimes arrives just before their lives expire in heedlessness, by afflicting them or those near them. Allah says, **“And we will surely let them taste the nearer punishment short of the greater punishment that perhaps they will repent”** \[32:21\]. On the individual level, consider a person dying a slow and painful death from a terminal illness; most would judge this at face value as utterly tragic. However, hidden in the crevices could be God’s greatest gift to that person: the gift of desperation. The medicines failing his body, and the loved ones streaming tears at his bedside, finally might bring forth a humility and brokenness in his spirit that qualifies him for salvation. As the Prophet ﷺ said, **“No one will enter Paradise in whose heart is a speck’s weight of arrogance.”**[^36] In the concluding moments of his stay on earth, God insisted that he discover what he would never have voluntarily looked for without this illness. It is widely quoted that the legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali (may Allah bestow mercy on him), would say regarding his struggles with his final illness, “God gave me Parkinson’s syndrome to show me I’m not ‘The Greatest,’ He is.” He understood that he might have remained oblivious if God had not purified him of his years of haughtiness through this disease. To Ali, tasting powerlessness was more priceless than his boxing legacy, his monetary gains, and his struggle against unjust warfare—for he understood that all this would soon crumble along with his bones at life’s end. As for Parkinson’s, he saw it as the ultimate blessing in disguise, that might just grant him God’s Love and Company forever. In that vein do we understand the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, **“When Allah loves a people He tries them.”**[^37] Lastly, sacrificing a part to preserve the whole—when necessary—is something all prudent people find to be reasonable. The Qur’an tells us that God at times does this as well: **“So the people that committed wrong were eliminated. And praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds”** \[6:45\]. The reason for celebrating God’s praises here is evident; by eradicating humanity’s most wicked sectors (those who openly rebelled against His prophets and messengers), their cancer does not spread to infect the rest of humanity, and consequently bar them from the mercy and forgiveness He loves to extend. ### Evil Brings Good to Life ### Had Allah not repelled a group of people by the might of another, corruption would have dominated the earth, but Allah is Gracious to all. \[2:251\] Good and evil are two sides of the same coin, an inseparable cosmic pair that need each other to exist. Valor cannot exist without peril, forgiveness cannot exist without offense, and perseverance cannot exist without obstacle. The delight of satiety is only known to those bitten by hunger, and feeling quenched is only savored by those who experience thirst. There must be some manifestations of evil in order to attain the virtue of conquering them. As Hubert S. Box writes in *The Problem of Evi*l, “Only with the possibility of failure do we deserve the reward for triumph.”[^38] Hence, there must be some imperfection to humans, and to their world, to serve as a spark for the flames of good we are meant to kindle around us. God deemed that there must be sickness, so that we would pursue and enjoy health, and that there must be failure, so that we would be interested in accomplishment. We will savor nothing of our lives on this earth unless we also taste its bitterness on our tongues, and feel its regrets streaming down our cheeks. Explaining how pain is the container in which pleasure is delivered, Ibn al-Qayyim says, > *His Wisdom (the Glorified) determined that happiness, pleasure, and comfort are not reached except by the bridge of difficulty and fatigue, and that they are not accessed except through the gates of hardship, patience, and enduring difficulties. For that reason, He surrounded Paradise with hardships and Hellfire with temptations. For that reason, He expelled His chosen one, Adam ﷺ, from Paradise despite having created it for him; His wisdom necessitated that he not enter it permanently except after difficulty and hardship. Therefore, He did not remove him from it, except to readmit him to it a more perfect admission. Only God knows the disparity between the first entrance and the second. What great disparity exists between the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ entering Mecca under the protection of al-Muṭ‘im b. ‘Adi and his entering it on the Day of Conquest. What great disparity exists between the pleasure and comfort of the believers in Paradise after enduring what preceded it, and their pleasure had they been created inside it. What great disparity exists between the joy of someone He relieved after affliction, and enriched after poverty, and guided after being astray, and collected his heart after its dispersal, and the joy of someone who did not taste those bitter pains. His Divine wisdom predetermined that hardships are the cause of pleasure and goodness, as the Most High said, **‘Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you. But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not’** \[2:216\].*[^39] A world without evil is like a world without good; neither possesses any meaning which a person would strive to actualize. Hence, when atheists demand a world without evil, they are simultaneously asking for a sterile world void of all good. Expounding on the notion of “no pain, no gain,” Al-Jāhiẓ (d. 868) writes, > *If evil were absolute, the creation would be destroyed, and if pure good existed, then the trial of life would end and thinking would cease. With the cessation of thinking would be the absence of wisdom, and once choices vanish, then discernment will also vanish and the scholar will become incapable of verifying, deliberating, and learning. No knowledge would exist at that point, nor would investigating remain possible, nor would harm be repelled, nor would benefit be secured, nor would patience through difficulty and thanks through blessings exist, nor disparity in eloquence, nor competition in ranks. The joy of triumph and glory of conquering would be lost, and no righteous person on earth would find the gratification of being righteous, nor would any wrong person find the humiliation of being wrong, nor would anyone with conviction taste the coolness of certainty, nor would anyone in doubt be plagued with distress and haunted by the unknown. People would no longer hope nor be consumed by ambitions, their souls would be stripped of all purpose, their minds of all their fruits, and all things would lose their value and due right.*[^40] ### The Gift of Gratitude ### And remember when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more. But if you are ungrateful, surely My punishment is severe.’ \[14:7\] God preferring some over others has many profound benefits, and evoking feelings of gratitude is certainly at the forefront of those benefits. The worth of this feeling is many times underestimated, while in reality, it serves as the only escape from the endless frustrating chase of materialism that negatively impacts both our physical and mental health. As the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, **“Riches do not lie not in many possessions. In reality, true riches involve being content at heart.”**[^41] An even greater merit of gratitude is that it earns someone the pleasure of God, and not just momentary (or even a lifetime of) happiness. Since God showers us with an endless downpour of favors, devoting every wakeful moment to thanking Him is only fair, and that is why living an attempt at thanks (Islam) is the dearest thing to Him which He rewards eternally. However, noticing the value of gratitude and embodying it are two very different missions. As for the latter, few things can ever be as effective as experiencing hurt or deprivation in your own life, or the lives of those around you. Any honest person would attest to that, and this attestation is the answer to those who argue: why couldn’t God just create illusory evil instead of actual suffering? Life being a simulated but unreal drama will not actualize its objective, because although a picture may be worth a thousand words, an authentic experience is worth a thousand images. Therefore, the very real disparities between those ultra-rich and those dirt-poor, those with large families and dejected orphans, those fully mobile and those perpetually bedridden, are but avenues through which the gift of gratitude is thrown right into our laps. The Prophet ﷺ said, **“When one of you looks at those preferred above him in \[this\] worldly life, let him \[quickly\] look at those beneath him, for that is more helpful for you to not belittle God’s favor on you.”**[^42] Every single person can draw inspiration from this prophetic tradition, because, just as we may all notice people who are superior to us in certain blessings, we will always find those more disadvantaged than ourselves in one way or another. For those who see this world on a superficial level, these disadvantages are unwise and objectionable, while those who have more confidence in God’s discretion than their own see it as a treasure beyond measure. In fact, even the people facing adversity and deprivation have at some level a greater reason to be grateful than those spared these trials in life, because their test was simply to endure their ordeal, and that is far less difficult than the often failed test of appreciating one’s blessings. ### Awareness of the Insignificance of This World ### O believers! What is the matter with you that, when you are asked to march forth in the cause of Allah, you cling firmly to the earth? Do you prefer the life of this world over the Hereafter? The enjoyment of this worldly life is insignificant compared to that of the Hereafter. \[9:38\] Sudden deaths, horrific acts of violence, and natural disasters are but three of many ways God alerts people to the insignificance of this world. These tragic events remind us that life—no matter how long—is a journey that must conclude. In a blink and without warning, the blades of time sever hopes, dreams, and joys. These “evils” remind us that everyone on earth perishes, quickly replaced by others as if one had never set foot on its soil. God says, **“Know that this worldly life is no more than play, amusement, luxury, mutual boasting, and competition in wealth and children. This is like rain that causes plants to grow, to the delight of the planters. But later the plants dry up and you see them wither, then they are reduced to chaff. And in the Hereafter, there will be either severe punishment or forgiveness and pleasure of Allah, whereas the life of this world is no more than the delusion of enjoyment”** \[57:20\]. This verse beautifully illustrates how farmers toil only to see it all crumble at season’s end. This analogy portrays how all this seriousness we see in the world around us today will—in an instant—be like aimless play and futile competition, except for those who invested it for yields in the afterlife. We human beings quickly forget things for various reasons. One reason we “forget” is convenience; whenever impatience tempts us with instant gratification, this requires chasing from consciousness an awareness of outcomes. For this reason, God will sometimes interrupt the sweetness of life before we let our guard down, cling to its luxury, and forget our purpose. Lest we become deceived that we have been created for this vanishing comfort, God awakens us with “evils” and brings us back to alertness. As C.S. Lewis put it, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[^43] Similarly, Ibn al-Qayyim said, “It was from His Mercy (the Mighty and Majestic) that He blemished their worldly life for them and made it imperfect. This was so they would not feel comfortable in it nor feel secure regarding it, and so they would aspire for the endless enjoyment in His abode and in His company. So in reality, He deprived them so that He would give them, and He tried them so that He would relieve them, and He put them to death so that He would give them \[everlasting\] life.”[^44] God knows well the human tendency to slip into heedlessness and inactivity, and thus He sometimes jolts us out of our stupor. God knows that hardly anything can awaken vigor like tribulation, so He periodically invigorates our lives with some turbulence. Once awakened and revitalized, human beings realize the reality of their existence, and feel propelled with newfound urgency towards living for things greater than themselves. Hence, it is with these “evils” that the seeds of human excellence are planted, and people not only discover their potential and self-actualize, but move on to the profound station of self-transcendence: living with God, by God, and for God in this world and the next. ### Producing Human Excellence ### If We had willed, We would have elevated him with Our signs, but he clung to this life following his evil desires. His example is that of a dog: if you chase it away, it pants, and if you leave it alone, it still pants. \[7:176\] In the depths of human beings are wonderful characteristics that not only enhance our quality of life in this world but remind us of our profound status in it. However, these moral virtues are frequently shackled by the chains of comfort and complacency and only manifest during disasters and danger. During crises and earthquakes, the values of courage, generosity, fraternity, and altruism appear. People enslaved to their luxuries know nothing about their own humanness but its outermost shell, and are hindered from discovering their potential for anything beyond consumption. Trials like being an orphan, or homeless, or sleeping hungry have unearthed talents and heroics in so many admirable personalities around us. These trials carved in them the virtues of tenacity and perseverance, which in turn earned them access to the making of history. Think of the sharpest minds and greatest discoveries that only came to fruition through the expenditure of blood, sweat, and tears. Even in our personal lives, every disadvantage and failure breathes new life into our eroding resolve, allowing for its rebirth after the labor pains of the trial subside. Once this newborn arrives, it causes us to realize that our real problem was not huge dark clouds that haunted us, but our heavy eyelids that kept us from seeing the sun’s radiant rays. In his book, *An Irenaean Theodicy*, renowned philosopher John Hick describes how “soul-making” is the outcome of “encountering evil” in the world, explaining how a world without temptation or choices can never be an atmosphere in which human excellence thrives. How is someone imprisoned for 10 years praiseworthy for not using narcotics when he had no access to them during that span? How can a person be celebrated for avoiding deviance when deviance does not exist in the first place? In reality, life in the Divine plan is an uphill climb for the human being, whereby he or she ascends to greatness by traversing the thorny path and struggling against human weakness.[^45] Regarding the pinnacle of this uphill climb, God says, **“Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds, they are the best of creation”** \[98:6\]. Some companions of the Prophet ﷺ, like Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), commented on this verse saying, “Even better than the angels,” and for an obvious reason; those inclined to sin but who patiently adhere to the straight path outperform the sinless angels who do not have the agency to depart from that path. Hence, once they are cleansed of their sins, and only their hard-earned good deeds remain, the angels will flock around their blissful palaces in admiration, as God says, **“And the angels will enter upon them from every gate, \[saying\], ‘Peace be upon you for what you patiently endured. And excellent is the final home’”** \[13:23-24\]. --- ## Conclusion ### But if the Truth had followed their inclinations, the heavens and the earth and whoever is in them would have been ruined. \[23:71\] When considering “the problem of evil” as presented by atheists, one realizes that the demands of atheists are actually quite simple. First, they seek a populist god that serves the masses; a god that is undecided since the masses constantly fluctuate in their determinations of what is desirable and undesirable; a god that has no autonomy whatsoever except the capacity to fulfill wishes and serve the masters He created. In that sense, atheists reject believing in God unless He stops being God, and accepts not equality with man but subservience to man. Second, atheists seek a human being that lacks the faculty of being human: agency—one that cannot do right because they cannot do wrong; a human being that functions like the clock’s gears and robot’s arms; a human being that is reduced to a doll whose human emotions are as mechanically simulated as traffic lights. In the atheist’s “ideal world,” there is no joy since there is no sadness, nor is their success since there is no failure. People would know beforehand the outcome of their actions, leaving no sweetness to triumph since there was never any possibility of defeat. No person would be deprived of anything, and so nobody would ever anticipate the future with excitement again. No person would be disadvantaged in any way, which means everyone would be molded identically, with no differences among them in their health, wealth, beauty, reputation, and intelligence. Interestingly, people living in the greatest luxury today, with the smallest margin of difficulty in their lives, are those who usually find life meaningless and resort to suicide. Similarly, elders who stop working at retirement and collect their pensions often find life utterly tasteless, once working hard to accomplish things and being driven by insecurity are a thing of the past. Hence, the “ideal world void of all evil” which the atheist demands is a world that is silent, dead, and empty; a world that is more tragic than all of this world’s suffering; a world we praise God for only allowing in the atheist’s imagination. A Muslim, on the other hand, reflects on the universe to find that all of it points to God’s Greatness and Wisdom while being cognizant that a finite creature like the human being can never fully comprehend the Greatness of God nor His Wisdom. Extending that to the “problem of evil,” a Muslim’s general confidence and trust in God’s Wisdom is sufficient, even if he or she does not know the details of how this wisdom plays out in this life or the Hereafter. Just as a Muslim does not deny God’s attributes due to not completely grasping their details, a Muslim consistently treats God’s Wisdom in the same way. A Muslim does not deny God’s Wisdom precisely because they have the humility to accept that they cannot fully comprehend God’s decrees. To demonstrate, let us imagine a Muslim standing over a sick person who is moaning in anguish. The suffering of any creature is undesirable, of course, but we say this might be an expiation for his sins, or a test of his patience, or a punishment for his crimes, or God seeking to immobilize him for a period of time so that he does not commit another act that will spoil his faith, or perhaps God is strengthening his resolve in preparation for greater opportunities that await him, or… the possibilities are endless. Though we may not be able to identify which specific wisdoms lie behind any given illness, we remain certain that there are unseen wisdoms behind every trial. A Muslim’s certainty in this, and solid evidence-based conviction in a God that is Most Wise, informs their theodicy and yields the following conclusion, > *This universe with all its evils, of varying types and degrees, is precisely what a believer expects of a God that is All-Powerful, All-Knowing, and Most Merciful; a God who created the human being as described by the Qur’an, for the wisdoms mentioned in the Qur’an, and the outcomes portrayed in the Qur’an. For that reason, a Muslim does not find himself in a theological dilemma or a hopeless void when confronting the problem of evil. Instead, he finds optimism in life, and sees it as a brief opportunity-filled phase of his greater existence.*[^46] --- ## Notes [^1]: Sami Ameri, *Mushkilat ash-Sharri wa Wujūdillāh* (London: Takween Studies and Research, 2016). [^2]: Randy Alcorn, *If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil* (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Multnomah Books, 2009), p. 11. [^3]: Antony Flew, *There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind* (New York: HarperOne, 2007), p. 13. [^4]: Lee Strobel, *The Case for Faith* (Michigan: Zondervan, 2000, EPub Format). [^5]: Timothy J. Keller, *Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering* (New York: Dutton, 2013), p. 95. [^6]: W. Montgomery Watt, “Suffering in Sunnite Islam,” in *Studia Islamica*, 50 (1979), pp. 5-6. [^7]: C.S. Lewis, *The Abolition of Man* (Harpercollins e-Books, 2014), p. 77. [^8]: Victor Frankl, *The Unheard Cry for Meaning* (New York: Simon Schuster, 1978), pp. 20-21. [^9]: Charles Taylor, *A Secular Age* (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2007), p. 373. [^10]: Richard Dawkins, *The God Delusion* (London: Bantam Press, 2006), p. 108. [^11]: Thomas F. Heinze, *The Vanishing Proofs of Evolution* (Ontario, California: Chick Publications, 2005), p. 41. [^12]: William Alston, “The Inductive Problem of Evil,” in *Philosophical Perspectives 5* (1991), pp. 59-60. [^13]: Laura Nader, *Naked Science: Anthropological Inquiry Into Boundaries* (1996), p. 209. [^14]: See: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifā’ al-‘Alīl fī Masā’il al-Qaḍā’i wal-Qadari wal-Ḥikmati wat-Ta‘līl* (Cairo: Dar at-Turath, 1978), pp. 380-413. [^15]: [https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-some-benefits-volcanic-eruptions?qt-news\_science\_products=0#qt-news\_science\_products](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-some-benefits-volcanic-eruptions?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products) [^16]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (1781); *Kitāb Ṣalāt al-Musāfirīn; Bāb ad-Du‘ā’ fī Ṣalāt al-Layli wa Qiyāmih*. [^17]: See: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmū‘ al-Fatāwā* (5/123). [^18]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifā’ al-‘Alīl fī Masā’il al-Qaḍā’i wal-Qadari wal-Ḥikmati wat-Ta‘līl* (p. 361). [^19]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifā’ al-‘Alīl fī Masā’il al-Qaḍā’i wal-Qadari wal-Ḥikmati wat-Ta‘līl* (pp. 439-440). [^20]: Al-Alūsi, *Rūḥ al-Ma‘āni fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-Aẓīm was-Sab‘ al-Mathāni* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ at-Turāth), 17/47. [^21]: Alvin Plantinga, *The Nature of Necessity* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), p. 167. [^22]: Ibn al-Jawzi, *Talbīs Iblīs* (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1985), p. 85. [^23]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2320). [^24]: Mentioned by Imam Suyuti (ra) in his book *ad-Durar al-Manthura* (427). [^25]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2807). [^26]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2402) and authenticated in *as-Silsila as-Ṣaḥīḥa* (2206). [^27]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (3502) and authenticated by *al-Albāni*. [^28]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2858). [^29]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (5653) and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (6912). [^30]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6309) and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2747). [^31]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2749). [^32]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2399) and authenticated in *as-Silsila as-Ṣaḥīḥa* (2280). [^33]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (5641, 5642). [^34]: Collected in *Sunan Abū Dāwūd* (4278) and authenticated in *as-Silsila as-Ṣaḥīḥa* (959). [^35]: See: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ḥādi al-Arwāḥ,* pp. 756-761. [^36]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (91). [^37]: Collected in *Sunan at-Tirmidhi* (2396) and authenticated in *as-Silsila as-Ṣaḥīḥa* (146) and *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi*‘ (7460). [^38]: Hubert S. Box, *The Problem of Evil* (London: The Faith Press, 1934), p. 56. [^39]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Shifā’ al-‘Alīl fī Masā’il al-Qaḍā’i wal-Qadari wal-Ḥikmati wat-Ta‘līl* (pp. 448-449). [^40]: Al-Jāḥiẓ, *al-Ḥayawān* (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1424H), 1/134-135 (with adaptation). [^41]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6081) and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (1051). [^42]: Collected in *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6125) and *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2963). [^43]: C.S. Lewis, *Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics* (San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 2002), p. 406. [^44]: See: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ighāthat al-Lahfān Min Maṣāyid ash-Shayṭān* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma‘ārif): 2/175. [^45]: See: John Hick, “An Irenaean Theodicy” in *Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy*, ed. Stephen T. Davis (Edinburgh: John Knox Press, 1981), p. 46. [^46]: Sami Ameri, *Mushkilat ash-Sharri wa Wujūdillāh*, pp. 219-220 with adaptation. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. The existence of evil, though long lamented by mankind, poses neither a logical nor a probable case against the existence of God, and Islam offers a complete and systematic response to what philosophers term the "problem of evil." This dilemma has become the foremost weapon in the arsenal of disbelief, so much so that the German poet Georg Büchner named it "the immovable boulder of atheism." The atheist Michael Ruse, in a 2013 debate, admitted that this very problem was his sole reason for rejecting God, and the former atheist Antony Flew observed in *There is a God* that it is the most commonly cited argument for atheism in the Western world. When Americans were asked what single question they would pose to God, the most frequent was, "Why is there pain and suffering in the world?" Among those who affirm God, two responses have emerged: one camp, to which Timothy Keller notes most Christian philosophers belong, argues merely that evil does not disprove God; the second, the theodicists, seeks further to grasp the wisdom behind God's permitting of evil. Sunni Islam, drawing purely upon the preserved Qur'an and authentic Sunnah, offers such a comprehensive theodicy. As William Montgomery Watt notes, it was chiefly revisionist sects such as the Mu'tazila—who sought to marry the Qur'an with Greek philosophy—who found themselves entangled in this difficulty, while the Sunni mind, embracing revelation fully, saw divine wisdom weaving pain and suffering into a story that harmonizes mercy and justice. Why has evil, an ancient reality, only in recent centuries provoked open revolt against religion? Several shifts explain this. The Enlightenment of eighteenth-century Europe reoriented mankind from the "purpose of life" toward the "quality of life," so that when existence is reduced to this world alone, avoiding pain becomes an unattainable obsession. C.S. Lewis observed that where the ancients sought to conform the soul to reality through virtue, the modern seeks to subdue reality to his wishes, and Victor Frankl remarked that many today possess the means to live but no meaning for which to live. Medical and technological advances, while a mercy, have heightened human sensitivity and weakened tolerance of suffering, which is why atheists so often cite crises from less-developed nations. Furthermore, after the French Revolution the collapse of empires, nations, tribes, and even family bonds left only the swollen human ego, so that the suffering of others no longer evokes solidarity. Finally, as Charles Taylor describes in *A Secular Age*, modern man has taken an anthropocentric turn, imagining that whatever his eye cannot see does not exist and whatever his mind cannot deem wise must be foolish. The believer should not accept the interrogator's seat, for the link between "the existence of evil" and "the non-existence of God" must itself be challenged. Even Richard Dawkins concedes that one may simply "postulate a nasty god" to dissolve the dilemma; while monotheists rightly reject this, his admission exposes the flawed logic that evil disproves God. Indeed, the very act of asking "why" betrays a subconscious belief that life has meaning, that we are moral creatures possessing an immaterial quality that atheism cannot account for, and that evil is an aberration against a norm of good. The far worthier question is: why is there so much good? Consider the lifetimes of health against sickness, the ages of prosperity against ruin, the millennia of planets not colliding. The second law of thermodynamics teaches that disorder always increases in an isolated system, so blind matter could never have produced such prevailing good without a Creator organizing it. No wise man denies the brilliance of a palace of a thousand rooms because a few seem unpleasant; prudence demands suspending judgment. As William Alston explains in *The Inductive Problem of Evil*, human perception is shackled by limited data and ignorance of what is metaphysically possible, and the "butterfly effect" of Chaos Theory shows how immensely complex the chains of causation truly are. The evolutionists who once claimed the body held 180 vestigial organs saw that number dwindle to near nothing—a lesson in premature judgment. The Qur'an and Sunnah affirm not merely that evil is compatible with an All-Wise God, but that discernible wisdom lies behind it, so that Sunni theodicy is "reason guided by revelation." Yet we grasp these wisdoms only in general terms, for a Wise God would not disclose every purpose lest life cease to be a genuine trial; the specifics are not irrational but suprarational. A foundational principle here is that pure evil does not exist. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) explains that nothing in existence is evil from every angle—sickness harms the body yet tests patience and strengthens immunity. This holds for natural evils, as volcanoes rejuvenate the ecosystem, and for the deeds of willful agents, as even Satan was not created to misguide but rebelled through his own will. Thus revelation attributes evil to creation: "I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak, from the evil of that which He created" [113:1-2]; the jinn say, "we do not know whether evil is intended" [72:10] in the passive voice; Abraham attributes his sickness to himself while ascribing healing to God [26:78-80]; and the Prophet ﷺ said, "evil is not attributable to You." Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) clarifies that God creating an ugly thing no more makes Him ugly than His creating a scent makes Him fragrant, and Ibn al-Qayyim adds that God's enabling of a free agent is itself justice and wisdom, even when the servant's deed is evil. Among the wisdoms of evil is that it reflects God's Greatness, for "Transcendent is He who created all things in pairs" [36:36]; without evil, His Names of Forbearance, Pardon, Justice, and Dominance would remain unmanifest, and it would be a flaw in His Sovereignty to be confined to a single act. Another wisdom is rendering life meaningful, for God "created life and death in order to test which of you is best in deeds" [67:1-2] and tests us "with evil and with good" [21:35], testing both conduct and faith [29:2-3]. Alvin Plantinga argues in *The Nature of Necessity* that moral good requires the possibility of moral evil. The story of Moses and al-Khidr [18:60-82] shows that apparent evils—the damaged boat, the slain child—concealed hidden mercy, and Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201) counsels that recognizing the Creator's overall wisdom obliges us not to reject the principle when a detail escapes us, just as the angels submitted to "Indeed, I know that which you do not know" [2:30]. A third wisdom is the harvest of the Hereafter, before which seventy years of misery vanish; the Prophet ﷺ said the most devastated man of Paradise, dipped once therein, will forget all hardship, and that this world compared to the next is but a finger dipped in the sea. A fourth is that God loves to forgive, and forgiveness requires sinners; the Prophet ﷺ said were we not to sin, God would replace us with a people who sin and repent. Trials expiate sins, as "no fatigue, nor disease... befalls a Muslim... but that Allah expiates some of his sins," and Ibn al-Qayyim likens pain to a compassionate physician's cautery. Further wisdoms include that evil brings good to life, for valor cannot exist without peril, as Hubert Box and al-Jahiz (d. 868) both expound; that hardship births the gift of gratitude, for the Prophet ﷺ bade us look to those beneath us; that calamity awakens us to this world's insignificance [57:20], for as Lewis said, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world; and that evil produces human excellence, as John Hick's notion of "soul-making" and the verse "they are the best of creation" [98:6] affirm, such that the believer surpasses even the sinless angels. In the end, the atheist demands a populist god subservient to man, and a human stripped of the agency that makes him human—a world silent, dead, and empty, more tragic than all present suffering, and one we praise God for permitting only in imagination. The Muslim, by contrast, trusts in God's wisdom even without knowing its particulars, just as he affirms God's attributes without grasping their full detail. Standing over a moaning invalid, he knows the affliction may be expiation, or a test, or a restraint from greater sin, or a preparation for what awaits—the possibilities are endless, yet the certainty of hidden wisdom remains. Such a universe, with all its evils, is precisely what the believer expects from a God who is All-Powerful, All-Knowing, and Most Merciful, and who created man for the wisdoms and outcomes described in His Book. For this reason the Muslim faces no theological void, but finds in life an optimism and a brief, opportunity-filled phase of his greater existence, for "if the Truth had followed their inclinations, the heavens and the earth... would have been ruined" [23:71]. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-islamic-analytic-theology # What is Islamic Analytic Theology? **Author:** Dr. Edward Omar Moad **Topics:** Epistemology, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** June 25, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract The aim of this paper is to share some thoughts and broad proposals on the prospect and definition of a contemporary Islamic Analytic Theology, the role it might play in today’s world, and some of the tasks it should undertake. First, I will propose a definition of the field, in terms of its object, purpose, and methodological framework. I clarify what precisely would make such a pursuit ‘Islamic,’ and how it differs from what is commonly called Islamic Studies. Second, I make three proposals regarding the epistemic parameters of such a discipline. Third, I discuss how modern conditions require it to play a role differing somewhat from that historically played by the discipline of *Ilm al-Kalam*. Finally, I review some unique tasks that a contemporary Islamic Analytic Theology should undertake. --- ## Introduction Islamic philosophy and theology seem to have been largely relegated in our time to exercises in intellectual history. Yet Islamic belief and practice have not. Is there no role for living, contemporary work in these fields? Much of what is being done today in Christian theology, which is not of a purely historical nature, has gone under the name ‘analytic theology,’ as represented by well-known figures like Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, and Robert Adams, among others.[^1] This invites reflection on the prospect of a contemporary Islamic Analytic Theology (hereafter, IAT). The aim of this paper is simply to share some thoughts and broad proposals on what this could look like, the role it might play in today’s world, and some of the tasks it should undertake. First, I propose a definition of IAT in terms of its object, purpose, and methodological framework. I argue that, in terms of its object and immediate purpose, IAT would not differ from analytic theology in general. Its object is God and His relation to creation, inasmuch as this is comprehensible within the parameters of analysis. IAT’s direct purpose, then, will be to comprehend God and His relation to creation insofar as that is possible within those parameters. This makes IAT distinct from what we call ‘Islamic studies.’ What makes IAT uniquely ‘Islamic,’ then, is its methodological framework. That is, that it is done ‘Islamically.’ But what exactly does that mean? I will argue for a conception of an ‘Islamic’ method as any method that is logically compatible with one premise and one overarching aim, to which the direct purpose of IAT is subordinated as a means to an end. The overarching aim is to receive God’s pleasure and reward in the Hereafter, and the premise is that Islam is a universal message to humanity from God, providing guidance for the fulfillment of that aim. Secondly, I advance three proposals regarding the epistemic parameters of IAT. The first is that IAT can and must be genuinely inquisitive as well as defensive of the pillars of Islamic theological belief. The second is that the epistemic parameters of analysis, under the methodological framework of IAT, do not extend to the basis of religious faith—faith is not analytically ‘falsifiable.’ The third is that the epistemic parameters of IAT do not extend beyond what the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ knew and disclosed. Third, I discuss some unique challenges raised by conditions of modern life, which call for a change in the way we perceive the role of IAT, different from the role historically understood for *Ilm al-Kalam*, of which I understand IAT to be a contemporary continuation. Namely, a contemporary IAT would address the needs of a wider range of the modern Muslim public than was the case in the classical period. I close by describing some obligatory tasks for a contemporary IAT in that regard. --- ## On what Islamic Analytic Theology (IAT) is, what makes it ‘Islamic,’ and why it is not the same as Islamic Studies I take the proper object of IAT, like that of analytic theology in general, to be God and His relationship to Creation, inasmuch as this is comprehensible within the parameters of analysis. Its corresponding purpose, then, is to comprehend God and His relationship to Creation, as far as is possible within those parameters. Islam itself, then, is not directly the object of IAT, as it presumably is of the field that today we call ‘Islamic studies.’ IAT and Islamic Studies are therefore distinct fields. Then what makes IAT ‘Islamic’? The suggestion I will make here is that this is a methodological matter: IAT pursues its object ‘Islamically.’ But what does this mean? In today’s academic environment, to say that Islam itself is the object of Islamic Studies invites the question: what is Islam? How this question is answered fundamentally determines the nature of the field, in terms of its object, purpose, and method, such that different possible answers on offer actually define completely different fields of study. For example, research in Islamic Studies might proceed on the basis of the premise that Islam is merely a historical cultural development, and not also a universal message to humanity revealed by a transcendent Creator. On the basis of such a premise, certain Islamic methods of, and purposes for, studying Islam would be effectively excluded in favor of the hegemony of secular presuppositions. We could then say that such research is methodologically un-Islamic. For methodology must always be suited to one’s object and purpose. The Islamic purpose for studying Islam is to learn what God’s message is, so as to please Him and enter Paradise. If Islam is not a universal message from God to humanity on how to do that, then that purpose, along with any methodological elements suited to that purpose, will be excluded. But does this mean that methodologically Islamic research should, likewise, exclude what some might call ‘un-Islamic’ methods? This depends on how we determine what methods are ‘un-Islamic.’ We should take care here, because from the premise that Islam is merely a historical cultural development, it follows that whether something is ‘Islamic’ is essentially a matter of its historical or cultural origin. And this goes both ways. The notion, that whether something is Islamic is essentially a matter of its historical or cultural origin, entails that Islam itself is merely a historical cultural development. So to exclude ‘non-Islamic’ elements from our methodology, and then to identify them by their historical origins, is decisively to adopt a secular (albeit ethnocentric), and not an Islamic methodological position, no matter how ‘fundamentalist’ it may appear on the surface. I suggest here that an un-Islamic methodology is one that is incompatible with the Islamic purpose for studying Islam; that is, of understanding God’s message so as to please Him and enter Paradise. Compatibility with this purpose entails acceptance of the premise, and related ontology, without which the purpose has no sense; that is, that Islam is a universal message to humanity revealed by God through the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. If use of a method entails the denial of that purpose, and/or the ontological commitments that it presupposes, then that method is un-Islamic. Say, for example, that one proposes in the field of Islamic Studies to analyze the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the historical milieu of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. One may even propose a Marxist analytic framework to examine those conditions through the prism of class structure and conflict. It is logically possible to do so with the aim of gaining a better, more contextual understanding of the revelation itself, and by extension of how better to realize its imperatives in our own historical conditions. But if we were to deploy such a method with the aim of exhaustively explaining Islamic revelation, implying thereby that the revelation is merely an effect or function of historical material conditions (as an ideological Marxist would have it), then this would logically preclude the ontology within which the Islamic purpose for studying it makes any rational sense. The provisional adoption of an ontological framework, for methodological purposes, is one thing. The adoption of a methodology for the purpose, or with the effect of imposing the hegemony of a specific ontology is another. The difference here turns on precisely what purposes one thinks can be achieved by means of the method. Just as Islamic Studies can be methodologically Islamic or un-Islamic, so can analytic theology. The purpose of analytic theology, as proposed above, is to understand God and His relation to creation inasmuch as this is possible within the parameters of analysis. Analytic theology is Islamic: 1. Where its purpose is subordinated, as a means, to the higher purpose of becoming, by means of the acquired understanding, someone who receives God’s pleasure and Paradise; 2. Where it is pursued under the premise that Islam is a universal message to humanity, revealed by God through the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ; and 3. Where the methodology it deploys is compatible with 1) and 2). In either case, research in the field of Islamic Studies might well take the historical or contemporary tradition of Islamic theology as its object, but whether it proceeds by an Islamic or un-Islamic methodology, it would not fall within the field of IAT, as conceived here; that is, analytic theology pursued under an Islamic methodological paradigm. By this means I want to make a distinction between IAT and Islamic Studies, analogous to that between philosophy and history of philosophy, where the former is a live project distinct, though by no means independent of, or isolated from, its history. --- ## Three proposals regarding the epistemic parameters of IAT In relation to this history, we might ask, would contemporary IAT be strictly a defense of religious doctrine, or also an inquisitive, philosophical enterprise? This question is raised by the reasonable notion that it would be a contemporary exercise in *‘ilm al-kalam*, along with the fact that the latter has usually been defined as a strictly defensive exercise. This reflects the distinction between the ‘old theological approach’ and the ‘new theological approach’ discussed by Ibn Khaldun, who credits (or blames) Al-Ghazali for initiating the latter.[^2] Herein lies a possible objection to my construal of the purpose of IAT. If IAT is a contemporary continuation of the *kalam*, then its purpose cannot be the genuinely inquisitive, philosophical aim of comprehending God and His relation to Creation, inasmuch as that is possible through analysis. The first proposal I will suggest here is in answer to this question. IAT is indeed contemporary *kalam*, but nevertheless, it cannot avoid being an exercise in genuine inquiry, for the same reasons that classical *kalam* could not remain purely defensive. That is, that in order to meet the intellectual challenges to Islamic belief, posed by the prospect of its carrying rationally absurd ramifications, it was necessary to articulate newly discovered philosophical insights that are not explicitly given in the revealed sources. To take just one well-known example, the prospect was raised that the doctrine of the world’s creation in time entails the absurd consequence that an infinite period of ‘time before time’ preceded creation, during which God ‘waited around’ for no reason. Since it was impossible to deny that this notion is absurd, it had to be denied that the doctrine of creation in time entails that absurdity. This led to the position that time was created with the world, before which there was no time.[^3] Now this obviously constitutes a new theory of a sort which is not explicitly part of the basic orthodoxy on creation that a purely defensive discipline would be expected to defend. The position, of course, was not original to Islamic theology—we find versions of it in Augustine (354-430), Boethius (480-524), and Philoponus (490-570).[^4] But again, we do not determine its status as ‘Islamic’ by means of historical origin, but by its compatibility with, and facilitation of, coherent Islamic belief. As in Christianity, so in Islam, genuinely philosophical inquiries about the nature of time, eternity, motion, and causation were found to be unavoidable in the effort to defend the coherence of religious belief against intellectual challenges. Therefore, it was—and is—not really possible to circumscribe a ‘purely’ negative, defensive role for either IAT or *kalam*, which is not *ipso facto* also the positive and inquisitive role of expanding our understanding of the basic theological pillars by following out their logical consequences in the face of intellectual challenges. The aim of comprehending, as far as is analytically possible, and that of defending religious doctrine about God and His relation to Creation, are not actually distinct purposes but are unified, ultimately, in the effort to understand revealed knowledge as fully as possible. So we should not think that the defensive and inquisitive are mutually exclusive postures that essentially separate a ‘purely’ theological from a ‘purely’ philosophical or scientific pursuit. Every systematic scientific inquiry operates within some paradigm, in relation to which it normally takes a conservative approach in the face of anomalies—explaining the anomaly away whenever possible, rather than discarding or fundamentally altering the paradigm.[^5] In that sense, every science is both defensive and inquisitive. It may be argued that the case of theology is distinct in that the religious nature of the paradigm renders it absolutely unfalsifiable, in the sense understood by Karl Popper as distinctive of science.[^6] Properly understood, this is true in a very limited sense. And this is the subject of my second proposal. The limited sense in which we can concede that the theological paradigm is unfalsifiable is as follows. Our religion is understood as originating from a transcendent source, and this source is experienced as a Divine Person. This has the consequence that the religious paradigm is not thoroughly analytic in nature. At its root, it is spiritual and personal. This, I think, is at least partially what motivates the traditional wariness about *kalam*. The analytic should not have hegemony over religious life. Relating to God through the prism of analytic theology alone is like getting to know your prospective spouse by examining his or her DNA (except of course, that God doesn’t have DNA). The ideal Muslim life is more like a conversation with God. We ask of God through prayer, He expresses Himself through revelation, and we have to listen and understand as well as we can. The falsifiability or modifiability of our understanding of God, then, is one thing; and the falsification of our very relation to God, and/or His very existence is quite another. It would not be surprising for a believer’s faith in this to remain resilient through relatively fundamental modifications in the analytic framework by which he or she intellectually organizes his understanding of this relationship. The very nature of what could falsify a proposition of analytic theology is of a wholly different order from that of the very basis of faith, where the latter is an inner spiritual connection to God Himself, while the former is merely the intellectual architecture of one’s understanding of that connection. The two should not be conflated. The consequence of this, methodologically, is that the epistemic parameters of analysis do not extend to the bases of faith: God’s revelation and the subjective process of *hidayah* through which He renders one responsive to that message. What then, are the parameters of theological analysis in Islam? This is really a question of the methodology of IAT, and as such the qualification ‘Islamic’ does pertain because some (not all) of the answers as to what does and does not fall within the parameters of analysis have been drawn historically from Islamic revealed sources. For example, it is understood that God’s Essence is not comprehensible by the human intellect. The vital connection between IAT and Islamic Studies proper lies here. While the Islamic revealed sources and the historical tradition of interpreting them is the proper object of Islamic Studies and not of IAT, it is an indispensable resource for IAT. My third proposal is that the epistemic parameters of IAT do not extend beyond what the Prophet ﷺ knew and transmitted. The Prophet shared all that was revealed to him, and he understood all that was implicit in what was revealed to him, including all possible valid interpretations and applications of that knowledge, under any possible circumstances. So an expansion of one's understanding of what was revealed, or a change in one’s understanding of revelation, concomitant with changing circumstances (e.g., when advances in natural science illuminate a Qur’anic passage in a way that is new to us), does not necessarily amount to an invalid theological innovation. However, this does not imply that any and every change is valid. There is still a logical difference between what really is an implication of the *Sunnah* as understood or applied in the circumstances of a particular form of life, and what is not such an implication (though it may appear to be). This is a logical distinction. The epistemological question of how to draw the distinction in any specific case, though crucial, is another issue. To conflate the two, so as to render a positive argument for relativism, is illegitimate. Thus, when we reach the limits of our knowledge of some issue, we say “*Allahu Alim*.” We do not indulge in jumping to the conclusion that objective knowledge is in principle impossible because ‘there is no truth,’ simply because we haven’t gotten to the bottom of it; or even if—as well may be the case—*we* cannot get to the bottom of it, from any absolutely non-perspectival vantage point. This observation, that our understanding of any issue is inevitably affected by some perspectival vantage point, whether determined by social, historical, or other conditions, has often been misused as a positive justification for any position which diverts from what is often construed as an oppressive ‘mainstream’ or ‘orthodoxy.’ But this is to overlook the fact that sometimes the important question is just what is the most appropriate understanding for one to have, given one’s particular vantage point, and not how to understand things from God’s ‘perspective,’ so to speak. The proper aim of pursuing knowledge is not to become God, but to become close to God by surrendering to God as a servant, in the conditions of life in which one finds oneself. Our predecessors in Islam found their way, from within their own conditions, by tapping the spring of Prophetic knowledge. If, with God’s grace, we find our way from within our own conditions, however different they may be, it will be by tapping the same source. If it seems that our historical and social conditions demand some radical break from the way things were understood by our predecessors, it just might be that we don’t understand our own conditions well enough. He who knows himself knows his Lord. This pertains to the conditions that change as well as those that do not. Here, again, the line between the purely ‘theological’ and ‘philosophical’ blurs, as it must. --- ## Modern conditions and the role of contemporary IAT What, then are the unique features of the modern condition that might demand a change in the role and shape of IAT, from that of the *kalam* of the past? Consider the structural changes in society brought on by modern education and communication technology—what we might call the growth of an intellectual middle class. In the past, *kalam* and other forms of scientific discourse were largely limited to a scholarly elite. Ghazali, for instance, discouraged the general public from being exposed to *kalam*; but Ibn Rushd charged him with violating an even stricter standard of discursive segregation by deploying imaginative mediums that made intellectual topics more accessible to the less qualified.[^7] The Islamic tradition faces a real question, here, as regards its stance toward modernity parallel to the question it faces over the issue of participatory politics. Is education of universal value, across all sections of society? Or is it to be restricted to only a select few, in order to avoid troubling the masses with unnecessary questions that might upset religious and social order? We might hanker for the days when everyone ‘knew their place,’ but modern conditions are not feudal. It is not possible to limit the kind of education and access to information that creates a need for *kalam* to the elite. The old notion of insulating the general public from such discourse is an unrealistic anachronism. Members of the general public in Muslim society are facing challenges that in earlier times might have been limited to scholars: apparent tensions between natural science and religious belief, epistemological and ethical challenges posed by moral and religious diversity, and the demands and dilemmas of modern participatory politics and public debate. For the most part, it seems, traditional circles of Islamic scholarship have tried to maintain the feudal exclusionary policy on discourse, expecting the general public to continue in a state of blissful *taqlid*. This has been most vividly apparent, in its political dimension, in some of the responses to the ‘Arab Spring’ movements. The problem is that the modern public is not so provincial, even in the Muslim world. They demand an account of things, proofs, explanations, and the right to ask questions. Questions are forced on them, in fact. And in the vacuum left by traditional expectations on the general public to leave what supposedly does not concern them, fundamentalist movements have provided their own proofs and explanations. Between them and their secular modernist twins, they have persuaded large swaths of Muslim society that they have a monopoly on reason and evidence, and that the Islamic tradition is mere superstition, with no rational basis in either science or religion. The problem is that the fundamentalist logic is weak and impoverished. It eventually leads full circle to secularism in the metaphysical sense. But for the modern Muslim of the intellectual middle class, some reason is better than none, and the reason and logic of Islamic tradition have been locked away in Ibn Rushd’s ivory tower. So what is happening? The tension of trying to maintain the feudal social and discursive structure in the political realm, under modern conditions of education and communication, has turned the old traditional monarchy system into a crushing military dictatorship locked in a death match against radical ideologues. In the moral and religious realm, the link has been broken between piety and ethics, creating two separate spheres—one in which there is outward religiosity without moral conscience, and another in which there is, frankly, neither religiosity nor ethics because the only norm is conformity either to consumer culture or to the edicts of states whose legitimacy is rapidly disintegrating. In the case of the sciences, the public has been forced into a false dilemma between a ‘scientific’ or Islamic religious worldview, not only by an unchallenged ‘scientism’ that makes claims beyond its epistemological sphere, but by the absence of an Islamic intellectual approach to the problem that is both accessible to the general public and solid and sophisticated enough to meet the challenge holistically. The result of this is a spreading fundamentalism that insists on imposing its own truncated ‘proofs’ on areas of *fiqh* and politics, and yet opposes any rigorous application of reason to philosophical issues underlying the relation between natural science and theology. This produces a pretense that we can greedily consume the technological products of modern science, and aspire to harness modern technology for Muslim empowerment, without actually engaging the worldview that gave birth to it. For the modern Muslim, knowledge and reality are effectively in the hands of materialists, while Islam is simply culture and convention. And this situation is not incompatible with, but rather conducive to, the fiercest and most divisive forms of fundamentalist sectarianism. To be specific, fundamentalism, as I understand it, is born in the face of the apparent impossibility of giving a reasoned account of religious belief, which in turn, motivates the abdication of intellectual responsibility. It emerges when one feels forced to choose between losing his God, or losing his mind, and one opts for losing his mind in an attempt to escape the abyss of moral confusion and atheist despair posed by the prospect of losing God. The hegemony of the modern fact-value distinction, among other things, has been instrumental in producing this dilemma. The only antidote for this condition is to provide the resources for a religious intellectual responsibility that will empower the Muslim intellectual middle class to make a reasoned account of its religious life. This is precisely the role of *kalam* for the modern Muslim world: to make these resources accessible, not only to the elite but to the general public. The *mutakallim* of the future, the contemporary Muslim analytic theologian, should play the role of public intellectual. We need to engage our spiritual and intellectual tradition on the range of issues facing the Muslim intellectual middle class, and not just wish them away in favor of an idyllic medieval fantasy. In order to do this, we will not only need to thoroughly work out these issues, morally and philosophically at the scholarly level. We will also need to find multiple ways to make this work beneficial and accessible to the public. This requires productive partnerships with artists and media professionals to find effective methods of doing exactly what the likes of Ghazali, Rumi, and many others once did by communicating sound, abstract ideas in imaginative forms, ultimately producing a contemporary Muslim culture that is rich and enriching, both spiritually and intellectually. --- ## Some obligatory tasks for a contemporary Islamic analytic theology I conclude this essay by briefly discussing three questions of methodology and epistemology that are raised by the prospect of a contemporary IAT. The first question, which touches on the nature of a contemporary IAT in relation to the classical tradition, is of the epistemological role of the moral and/or the moral dimension of the epistemological. This is a challenge posed to modern thought by the classical tradition, whether considered in its *kalam*, *falsafa*, or *tasawwuf* manifestations. All three understood there to be a relation between the moral and spiritual condition and the epistemic condition. Whether this cognitive dimension of the ‘heart’ was conceived as a faculty beyond reason, or simply the absence of an obstruction to the clarity of reason, the effect is the same, viewed from the perspective of the modern academic paradigm. Real philosophical insight and awareness was a fruit of spiritual and religious practice, not as merely something to be realized in cocktail party conversation, or simply in pursuit of academic prestige. The moral life was considered part of philosophical methodology. In this respect, also, the continuity or discontinuity between IAT and the classical tradition will be affected by how IAT conceives and carries itself in the contemporary academic environment in which it will inevitably operate. A second question we face is whether the epistemic parameters of sound analysis are limited to objects of possible experience. If we hope for any productive and coherent engagement with the challenges of modern, post-Kantian philosophical thought and culture, we will have to deal with this question carefully and lay our cards on the table here. How we do so will distinguish (at least) two fundamentally different paradigms, and discussions carried on between scholars working across these paradigms, without having first raised this question and acknowledged this difference, will invariably lead to confusion. Among other things, the answer to this question will determine the degree, and kind, of continuity there might be between contemporary IAT and the classical tradition. In classical discussions, a similar question would have been posed by asking whether the scope of pure reason extends beyond that of the senses and imagination. For the *falasifa*, the answer was a resounding yes. The aim of philosophical education was to raise the level of cognition, for those who are so capable, above that of the imagination to that of the purely intelligible. As for those who, like the modern empiricists, denied this possibility in principle, the reply was that their denial simply reflected the limits of their cognitive capacity. While my own philosophical sympathies lie on the side of the classical tradition here, I don’t think the modern challenge to this can be simply brushed aside. The question constitutes an important challenge for a systematic contemporary IAT. Among other things, it will determine our approach to the obligatory problem of the relation between theology and the natural sciences and the proper role of the latter in the former. For if the epistemic parameters of sound analysis do not extend beyond the objects of possible experience, then it seems there is no way around the hegemony of the methods and findings of a certain conception of the natural sciences (and theoretical physics, in particular) over what is and is not permissible for analytic theology. This brings us to a third question related to the connection, again, between IAT and ‘Islamic studies’ in the contemporary context, with regard to the role of the social sciences. Some of the discourse I find here seems dedicated to defending a dogma that rejects in principle the possibility of any unified paradigm of thought understood by the label ‘Islam.’ It has seemed to some, among this strain of social scientist, that they can still refer coherently to the object of their study (whatever it turns out to be on this dogma) and evade standard accusations of ‘essentialism,’ by coining plural forms of controversial terms (e.g., ‘Islams’). Obviously the notion of an ‘Islamic analytic theology’ will meet objections from this corner. Shall we then speak only of ‘Islamic analytic theologies’? The answer is no. And the reason is that again, the object of IAT is not identical to that of Islamic Studies. But this raises another epistemological challenge posed to any contemporary IAT. Just as the assertion that the parameters of theological analysis do not extend beyond possible experience lends itself to the hegemony of the natural sciences, this challenge lends itself to the hegemony of the social sciences. But this both entails and follows from a position on the nature of the object of theology. The methods of a discipline have to be suited to the object. If the methods of the social sciences are taken as hegemonic in the context of theology, the implication is that God is a social phenomenon and a social construct. The argument for such hegemony will no doubt be made, on the basis of the observation that theology, like any discipline, is an inescapably social activity. But even if we concede, for the sake of argument, that it follows from this that any possible ideas about God are social constructs, it does not follow from this that God *is* a social construct. It would follow, however, that the idea *of* God *as* a social construct, is itself a social construct, and that the circulation of such ideas among Muslims is a social phenomenon. The constructivists may reject any denial that this social phenomenon also be called ‘Islam,’ but that social phenomenon would necessarily be quite distinct from another social phenomenon consisting of a shared belief in, or idea of, God as more than merely a social construct. And, this latter social phenomenon will most typically be characterized by a strong denial that the former is, properly speaking, ‘Islamic.’ So the hegemony of the methods of the social sciences in theology will certainly entail a very different ‘Islam’ and a different IAT—one of which the object is not God and His relation to creation, but some category of social phenomena consisting of social constructs, whether discursive or practical, referred to in these terms. So, the idea of an IAT, as defined at the beginning of this essay, precludes the methodological hegemony of the social sciences, along with both the epistemological and ontological hegemony of history. But this is not to say that the social sciences have no role to play. Indeed, they may have a crucial role. IAT cannot proceed without a close study of various historical ideas, and expressions of ideas, about its proper object. We can acknowledge that these ideas about God are unavoidably influenced by social conditions, without making the false inference that God Himself is a social construct. A keen awareness of the historical social conditions and dimensions of that vital material is, therefore, as crucial for understanding it, as that of our own conditions is for understanding ourselves. For the same reason, an astronomer must have a keen awareness of the material contingencies of her telescope, and of how these can affect her view of the stars. As historical conditions have changed, Muslims have always faced new and unique intellectual challenges, and have risen to meet them by harnessing the resources of the Qur’an, *Sunnah*, and our intellectual tradition in appropriately original ways. This requires a collaborative process of discussion and self-correction, seeking to maintain the right connection to our prophetic sources while applying them to navigate the new and changing realities with which Allah, in His wisdom, continually confronts us. What I have tried to offer here is a humble contribution to this discussion, focused on preserving the intellectual agency of the Muslim mind, through clarity over the nature, purpose, methods, and parameters of our mutual project, along with its responsiveness to our contemporary context. Needless to say, everything here is not only open to but also crucially in need of sincere critical examination, to which I therefore eagerly invite the reader. We are on this quest together. And Allah knows best. --- ## Notes [^1]: See Swinburne, Richard. *The Coherence of Theism 2nd ed.* (2016: OUP, Oxford); Plantinga, Alvin. *Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism*. (2011: OUP, Oxford); Adams, Robert. *Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics*. (2002: OUP, Oxford). [^2]: *The Muqaddimah*, Franz Rosenthal, trans. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1967. p. 363. [^3]: Moad, Edward. “Al-Ghazali’s Position on the ‘Second Proof’ of the ‘Philosophers’ for the Eternity of the World, in the First Discussion of the Incoherence of the Philosophers,” *Sophia*, 2015. [^4]: Boethius. *The Consolation of Philosophy*, P.G. Walsh, trans. Oxford University Press, 1999; Augustine. *Confessions*, Henry Chadwick, trans. Oxford University Press, 1998; Philoponus, John. *Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World*. Christian Wildberg, trans. Bloomsbury, London – New York, 2014. [^5]: Kuhn, Thomas S.  *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions*.  University of Chicago Press, 1962. [^6]: Popper, Karl. *Logik der Forschung*. Verlag von Julius Springer, Vienna. 1992. [^7]: See Ghazali, Abu Hamid. *Al Iqtisad fi Al I'tiqad* (Moderation in Belief), Aladdin M. Yaqub, trans. University of Chicago Press, 2013; and Ibn Rushd. *Fasl al Maqal* (Decisive Treatise), Charles Butterworth, trans. Brigham Young University Press, Provo, Utah, 2008. ## Summary Islamic philosophy and theology in our age have too often been reduced to mere exercises in intellectual history, as though living inquiry into the nature of God and His relation to creation had ceased. Yet the belief and practice of Muslims remain very much alive. Observing that much of contemporary Christian theology that is not purely historical proceeds under the name "analytic theology," associated with figures such as Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, and Robert Adams, one may reasonably ask whether a contemporary Islamic Analytic Theology (IAT) is possible, what shape it might take, what role it might serve, and what tasks fall to it. The proper object of such a discipline, like analytic theology in general, is God and His relation to creation, insofar as this is comprehensible within the parameters of analysis; its purpose is to comprehend this as far as analysis permits. Islam itself is not the direct object of IAT, which is what distinguishes it from the field known today as Islamic Studies. What then renders it "Islamic" is a matter of method: that its object is pursued Islamically. Now, in the modern academy, treating Islam as merely a historical and cultural development, rather than a universal message revealed by a transcendent Creator, excludes at the outset those purposes and methods proper to Islam and imposes secular presuppositions. A methodology is Islamic when it is compatible with the premise that Islam is a universal message to humanity revealed by God through the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and subordinated to the overarching aim of attaining God's pleasure and Paradise in the Hereafter. It is worth stressing a subtle point here: to identify what is "un-Islamic" simply by tracing its historical or cultural origin is itself to adopt a secular, indeed ethnocentric, position, however fundamentalist it may appear on the surface. Rather, an un-Islamic method is one whose use entails the denial of the Islamic purpose in studying Islam or of the ontological commitments that purpose presupposes. Thus one may provisionally employ, say, a Marxist analysis of the socio-economic conditions of the Prophet's ﷺ milieu in order better to understand the revelation and its imperatives; but to deploy such analysis so as to explain the revelation away as merely a function of material conditions is to preclude the very ontology within which studying Islam makes sense. The difference lies in what purposes one believes the method can serve. Concerning the epistemic parameters of this discipline, three proposals may be advanced. The first is that IAT, though a contemporary continuation of *'ilm al-kalam*, cannot remain purely defensive but must also be genuinely inquisitive, for the same reason that classical kalam could not. Ibn Khaldun distinguished an "old theological approach" from a "new" one, crediting (or blaming) al-Ghazali for the latter. Yet defending Islamic belief against the charge of absurd consequences required articulating philosophical insights not explicitly given in the revealed sources. Consider the objection that creation in time entails an infinite "time before time" in which God waited for no reason; the response that time itself was created with the world—a position also found in Augustine, Boethius, and Philoponus, though its Islamic status rests not on its origin but on its compatibility with coherent belief—constitutes new theorizing. Genuine inquiry into time, eternity, motion, and causation thus proves unavoidable, so that comprehending and defending are not two purposes but one unified effort to understand revealed knowledge as fully as possible. The second proposal concerns falsifiability. The theological paradigm is unfalsifiable only in a limited sense: because our religion originates from a transcendent source experienced as a Divine Person, its root is spiritual and personal rather than merely analytic. This is partly what motivated the traditional wariness toward kalam, for the analytic must not hold hegemony over religious life. Relating to God through analytic theology alone resembles knowing a spouse by examining their DNA; the ideal Muslim life is rather a conversation with God, in which we ask through prayer and He discloses Himself through revelation. Hence the falsifiability or modifiability of our *understanding* of God is entirely distinct from any falsification of our relation to Him or His existence. A believer's faith may remain resilient through even fundamental revisions in the intellectual architecture by which he organizes that understanding. The methodological consequence is that the parameters of analysis do not extend to the bases of faith: God's revelation and the subjective process of *hidayah* by which He renders one responsive to it. The third proposal is that the epistemic parameters of IAT do not extend beyond what the Prophet ﷺ knew and transmitted. He conveyed all that was revealed to him and grasped all that was implicit within it, including every valid interpretation and application under any circumstance. Therefore an expanded or altered understanding of revelation—as when advances in natural science illuminate a Qur'anic passage anew—does not necessarily amount to invalid innovation. Yet not every change is valid, for there remains a genuine logical distinction between what truly is an implication of the Sunnah and what merely appears so. When we reach the limits of our knowledge we say *Allahu a'lam*; we do not leap to the relativist conclusion that there is no truth simply because we cannot reach it from some non-perspectival vantage. The proper aim of seeking knowledge is not to become God but to draw near to Him as a servant within one's own conditions—for, as it is said, he who knows himself knows his Lord. Our predecessors found their way by tapping the spring of Prophetic knowledge, and if we find ours amid different conditions, it will be from that same source. Modern conditions call for a role differing from that of classical kalam. The growth of an intellectual middle class through modern education and communication has dissolved the old elite confinement of such discourse. Al-Ghazali discouraged exposing the general public to kalam, while Ibn Rushd charged him with violating an even stricter standard by using imaginative means to make intellectual matters accessible. But the feudal policy of insulating the masses is now an unrealistic anachronism. Ordinary Muslims now face tensions between science and belief, the challenges of moral and religious diversity, and the dilemmas of participatory politics—challenges once reserved for scholars. In the vacuum left by traditional expectations of *taqlid*, fundamentalist and secular-modernist movements have persuaded many that reason and evidence belong to them alone and that the Islamic tradition is mere superstition. Fundamentalism, as understood here, is born when one feels forced to choose between losing God or losing his mind, and chooses the latter to escape atheist despair—a dilemma partly produced by the modern fact-value distinction. The antidote is to furnish resources for religious intellectual responsibility, making the reasoned account of Islamic life accessible not only to the elite but to the general public. The future *mutakallim* must serve as a public intellectual, working these issues out rigorously while, in partnership with artists and media professionals, communicating sound abstract ideas in imaginative forms, as al-Ghazali and Rumi once did. Several open questions remain for such a discipline. First, the classical tradition—in kalam, falsafa, and tasawwuf alike—held that the moral and spiritual condition bears upon the epistemic condition, treating the moral life as part of philosophical method; how IAT relates to this will shape its continuity with that heritage. Second, whether sound analysis is limited to objects of possible experience: the falasifa answered that pure reason extends beyond sense and imagination, replying to those who denied this that their denial merely reflected their own cognitive limits. This question, which cannot be brushed aside, will determine whether the natural sciences hold hegemony over what analytic theology may affirm. Third, the role of the social sciences: some social scientists reject any unified paradigm called "Islam," even coining plurals such as "Islams." IAT need not follow suit, since its object is not identical to that of Islamic Studies. Even conceding that ideas about God are socially conditioned, it does not follow that God is a social construct—only that the *idea* of Him as such is itself a construct. To grant the social sciences hegemony in theology would imply that God is a social phenomenon, yielding an entirely different "Islam." Thus IAT precludes the methodological hegemony of the social sciences and the hegemony of history, while still granting them a crucial subordinate role, much as an astronomer must understand the contingencies of her telescope to view the stars rightly. As conditions have always changed, Muslims have risen to new intellectual challenges by harnessing the resources of the Qur'an, Sunnah, and the intellectual tradition in original yet faithful ways, through a collaborative process of discussion and self-correction that preserves the connection to Prophetic sources. What has been offered here is a humble contribution toward preserving the intellectual agency of the Muslim mind, itself open to and in need of sincere critical examination. We are on this quest together, and Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-laylatul-qadr-the-significance-virtues-of-the-most-important-night-of-the-year # Why Laylatul Qadr? The Significance & Virtues of the Most Important Night of the Year **Authors:** Dr. Nazir Khan, Sh. Ibrahim Hindy, Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Laylatul Qadr, Paper, Publication, Ramadan, Ramadan Papers for Mobile App, Ramadan Publication **Published:** June 4, 2018 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 ## Introduction Islam makes certain times and places especially sacred. While a believer can certainly engage in worship such as remembering or glorifying God at any time (“standing, sitting or lying on their sides”[^1]), some periods of time have special and unique blessings associated with them. Similarly, while the entirety of the Earth has been made a place of worship and prostration, there are some locations (such as the three Mosques) that are uniquely blessed. This creates within the psychology of the believer a yearning to seek out these unique opportunities in order to come closer to Allah. That yearning brings about several positive spiritual emotions: awe, reverence, wonder, anticipation, eagerness, excitement, hope, and longing, all of which are encompassed in the term *shawq*.[^2] As we live today in an era of digital distractions and materialistic heedlessness, often acts of worship are squeezed into brief moments in our daily routine, which does not furnish one with a complete transformative spiritual experience. Serious worship requires not just taking a brief moment to pray, but allowing our prayers to define our direction in life. Thus, Islam offers opportunities for intense spiritual experiences, experiences that involve setting aside the *dunya* (worldly life) and its distractions. Of the greatest of such opportunities are the blessed nights of Ramadan. The [Prophet Muhammad ﷺ](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/proofs-of-prophethood/) said, “Whoever spends the nights of Ramadan in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward, he will be forgiven his previous sins.”[^3] The foremost of these opportunities are the last ten nights of Ramadan. As the Prophet’s wife \`A’isha narrates, “When the last ten nights began Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) kept awake at night (for prayer and devotion), wakened his family, and prepared himself to observe *salah* (with more vigor).”[^4] It is no coincidence that *i\`tikaf* (seclusion in the *masjid*) is also recommended in [Ramadan](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/omar-suleiman/why-80-of-american-muslims-fast-during-ramadan-its-not-about-the-food/). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ used to practice *i\`tikaf* for the entirety of the last ten days of Ramadan.[^5] --- ## What is Laylatul Qadr? By far however, there is no day or night that has been emphasized more than the night known as *laylat al-qadr* (the Night of Decree). The Qur’an’s 97th chapter is dedicated entirely to this night: > *Indeed, We revealed \[the Qur'an\] during the Night of Decree. And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter. Peace it is until the emergence of dawn. (97:1-5)* The companion Anas ibn Malik reported: “Ramadan approached, so the Messenger of God said: ‘This month has come to you, and in it there is a night that is better than a thousand months. Whoever is deprived of it is deprived of all goodness, and no one is deprived of its goodness except one who is truly deprived.’”[^6] The precise night on which [*Laylatul-Qadr*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/yaqeen-institute/laylatul-qadr-infographic-video/) occurs has not been mentioned. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Search for *Laylatul-Qadr* in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan.”[^7] There is a tremendous wisdom behind not knowing exactly when it occurs, which scholars have pointed out. As Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi (d. 620 H) writes: > *God has concealed this night from the ummah so that they may strive in seeking it and performing worship throughout the month in the hopes of catching it. Similarly, He concealed the hour of special acceptance on Friday so that one would increase in their supplications throughout the day, and He concealed His Greatest Name (ism al-a’dham) amongst His Divine Names and His Pleasure with acts of obedience so that people would strive for them. And He concealed an individual’s lifespan and the Hour \[of the Day of Judgment\] so that humanity would continuously strive in good deeds, being heedful of them.*[^8] --- ## The theological significance of Laylatul-Qadr Islamic scholars differ regarding the meaning behind the name of ‘*Laylatul-Qadr*’, as the word ‘*Qadr*’ can hold a variety of meanings, and each has its own theological significance. ### The meaning of "Qadr" Some scholars defined ‘*Qadr*’ in the context of this holy night as ‘destiny/decree’ (qadar). To them, this meant that this was the night in which the destiny of each person was decided. It would be this night in which a person’s sustenance, lifespan, and other critical matters would be sealed for the coming year. In support of this, ‘Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “It is written in *Umm al-Kitab* (the Heavenly copy of the Qur’an) during *Laylatul-Qadr* what shall come to pass in the following year of good and evil, sustenance, and lifespan. Even the pilgrimage of the pilgrim (shall be decided); it will be said ‘so-and-so will perform pilgrimage’ (on this night).”[^9] Al-Hasan Al-Basri (d. 110 H), Mujahid (d. 104 H) and Qatadah (d. 117 H)—three renowned early Muslim scholars—shared this view and were reported to have said that “all the affairs of lifespan, deeds, creation, and provision are decreed on *Laylatul-Qadr* in the month of Ramadan and will come to pass in the coming year.”[^10] Imam Al-Nawawi concluded his discussion on *Laylatul-Qadr* by saying: “It was named *Laylatul-Qadr*, meaning: the night of judgment and discernment (in the affairs of men). This meaning is what is true and popular.”[^11] Other scholars defined the meaning of ‘*Qadr*’ as ‘power,’ indicating the greatness of the honor and might of the night.[^12] Similar to this view is the interpretation of ‘*Qadr’* as ‘power’ in that the righteous deeds performed during this night are far more powerful than they would be on any other night. Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: “A person would attain the reward of the night, even if he has no knowledge of it. This is because the Prophet said ‘whoever stands (in prayer) during *Laylatul-Qadr*, with faith and hope, will be forgiven,’ and the Prophet did not make knowledge of the night a condition of their forgiveness. And had knowledge of the night become a necessary factor, the Prophet would have made this clear.”[^13] In this view, since knowledge of the night is not a prerequisite to prospering from the night, then it is not required for the worshipper to understand concepts of destiny or decree in order to achieve the [rewards of worshipping](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-people-to-worship-him) on this night. All they need to do is perform acts of worship on that night. Another meaning of ‘*Qadr*’ in the context of *Laylatul-Qadr*, involves the meaning of ‘restriction.’ This is understood to indicate that the earth becomes restricted as angels descend to the earth on the holy night, occupying the earth. This descent of the angels is referenced in the Qur’an, and since angels are typically associated with concepts such as light, guidance, and blessings, it is a symbol of how majestic *Laylatul-Qadr* is.[^14] Furthermore, since angels occupy the highest heavens, they are described in the Qur’an as ‘close to God’; yet on *Laylatul-Qadr* they are ‘seeking permission’ from God to descend to earth in recognition of the divine blessings that God places on earth during this night.[^15] In one narration, the Prophet ﷺ stated: “Truly the angels on this night are as numerous as the pebbles upon the earth.”[^16] *Laylatul-Qadr* has also been described as a gift for the Prophet Muhammad’s community (*ummah*). In the *Muwatta* of Imam Malik, there is a *hadith* that states: “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was shown the lifespans of the people (who had gone) before him, or what Allah willed of that, and it was as if the lives of the people of his community had become too short for them to be able to do as many good actions as others before them had been able to do with their long lives, so Allah gave him *Laylat al- Qadr*, which is better than a thousand months.”[^17] In addition to the aforementioned significance related to Divine decree and providing the Prophet’s ummah with a unique opportunity for worship, there is also a special connection that *Laylatul-Qadr* has with the Qur’an. In Surah al-Qadr (97:1) and Surah al-Dukhan (44:3), it is mentioned that the Qur’an was revealed on this night. Ibn Abbas has explained this by mentioning on *Laylatul-Qadr* that the Qur’an was revealed in its entirety from the highest heaven to the lowest heaven, and placed in a special chamber called *Bayt al-\`Izzah* (the House of Honor). From there, it was revealed gradually over the course of twenty three years to the Prophet Muhammad.[^18] This was in order to emphasize the lofty status of the revelation and to announce to the inhabitants of the Heavens that this was the final revelation.[^19] It is also mentioned by other scholars, such as Imam al-Sha’bi (d. 105 H), that the revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad began in the month of Ramadan on *Laylatul-Qadr* when Jibreel first descended to visit the Prophet Muhammad.[^20] --- ## Why is the Night of Decree the best night to worship in What is the connection between *Laylatul-Qadr* being the night of decree, and also being the most virtuous night to pray on? Why is the night when angels descend with the decree also the best night to worship in? *tafsir*) of the opening passage of Surah ad-Dukhan: > *Hā, Meem. By the clear Book, verily, We revealed \[the Qur’an\] during a blessed night. Indeed, We have always forewarned humankind. On that night, every wise decree (amr hakeem) is specified, by Our command. Surely, We have always been sending \[messengers\] as a mercy from your Lord, indeed He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.* (44:1-6) This passage reiterates the significance of *Laylatul-Qadr* as the night during which the fates, destinies, and decrees are sent down for the forthcoming year. The famous Qur’anic commentator, Abu’l-Thana’ al-Alusi (d. 1270 H/1854 CE), notes in his *tafsir* that when God says, “On that night, every *hakeem* decree is specified,” one of the meanings of *hakeem is mukham* (decisive) which entails that “this decree cannot be changed after it descends, in contrast to before that.”[^21] *Laylatul-Qadr* provides the perfect opportunity to pray for the realization of their best dreams, and the prevention of their worst nightmares. This is the night when that yearly decree is finalized. In a sense, this is that night when one’s fate is ‘downloaded’ from the heavens. Just as a person awaiting the decree of a judge in the courtroom prays most intensely at the moment when that decree is about to be decided, likewise  *Laylatul-Qadr* may signal that final opportunity to change one's fate (*taqdeer*). After that, a person's *taqdeer* in the record of the angels is only changed if it was written from before that it would be changed. The *hadith* scholar, Ibn Hajar al-\`Asqalani (d. 854 H) notes the difference between the contingent decree (*al-Qada’ al-Mu’allaq*) which God has given the angels and the irrevocable decree (*al-Qada’ al-Mubram*) which is with God.[^22] The recording of one’s fate which the angels possess can be subject to change, as the Qur’an states “God erases and confirms what He wills” (13:39) and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Nothing averts fate except supplication (*la yaruddu al-qadar illa al-du’a*).”[^23]  However, one’s record with God in the Preserved Tablet (*al-Lawh al-Mahfudh*) is immutable. Thus, a person praying on *Laylatul-Qadr* may result in their records with the angels being altered, before those records seal one’s fate for the coming year. Du'a on this night has the greatest power to change decree, hence the night is both the Night of Power and the Night of Decree. There is also a special link between this night and seeking forgiveness from God. A’isha asked the Prophet, “O Messenger of Allah! If I knew which night is  *Laylatul-Qadr*, what should I say during it?”  And he instructed her to say: اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عُفُوٌّ كَرِيمٌ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي O Allah! You are Most Forgiving, and you love to forgive. So forgive me.[^24] The Prophet ﷺ instructed us to call out to Allah using the Divine name *al-Afuww* (The Most Forgiving) on this night, and this has a special connection with Qadar. The linguistic meaning of this Divine Name is explained by noting that the root of *‘afuw* (forgiveness) linguistically connotes erasure (*al-mahuw*) and effacement (*al-tams*).[^25] Thus, our prayers to Allah on this night are explicitly connected to a plea for Him to erase the consequences of our misdeeds. The Qur’an states that Allah's *'afuw* protects calamity from being decreed for us as a result of our sins: > *And whatever strikes you of calamity (museebah), it is because of what your hands have earned, although He pardons (ya’fuw) a great deal.* (42:30) So the decrees on *Laylatul-Qadr* may be descending with calamities that are consequences of our sins, and on this night we have an exclusive opportunity to invoke the forgiveness of *al-Afuww* to erase those sins as well as the resultant decree, and remove them from our fates for the upcoming year. --- ## Seeking the rewards of Laylatul Qadr As *Laylatul-Qadr* is certainly the most blessed night of the year, a person who misses it has certainly missed a tremendous amount of good.[^26] Many scholars mentioned that what’s to be avoided beyond sin is wasting time on that precious night, unnecessary socializing with people, arguing, shopping, etc. One should keep in mind that the night technically starts at *Maghrib* (sunset), and be heedful of how time is spent from that point onwards. If a believing person is keen to obey his Lord and increase the good deeds in his record, he should strive to spend this night in worship and obedience. If this is facilitated for him, all of his previous sins will be forgiven. Suratul-Alaq, which was revealed on this blessed night, begins with the command to read the Qur’an, and ends with the command to prostrate and draw close to your Lord. In that is a Divine prescription for how the night is to be spent. Ash-Shafi’i (d. 204 H) said that some of the pious predecessors preferred to spend this night in prayer, some in Quran, some in *dua*, and all are rewarded by Allah.[^27] This also shows the importance of intention in that even if you don’t catch the night for some reason out of your control, you will still be fully rewarded for  it. While it is best to perform full *i’itkaf* (i.e., seclude yourself in the masjid for the entirety of the 10 days), there are many important things one can do even if one is unable to engage in *i’tikaf*. Merely praying *Isha* and *Fajr* in congregation on that night is enough to fill its scales. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever attends *Isha* prayer in congregation, then he has the reward as if he had stood half of the night. And whoever prays *Isha* and *Fajr* in congregation, then he has the reward as if he had spend the entire night standing in prayer.”[^28] Moreover, Imam Malik (d. 179 H) narrated that he had heard that Said ibn al-Musayyab (d. 94 H) used to say, “Whoever is present at *Isha* on *Laylatul-Qadr* has taken his portion from it.”[^29] If one is able to do more than that, the next step involves performing extra voluntary prayers during the night. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Whoever stands in prayer during *Laylatul-Qadr* with faith and hope in the reward of Allah, all of his previous sins will be forgiven.”[^30] Finally, as mentioned earlier, the supplication the Prophet ﷺ advised his wife A’isha to make on that blessed night is a prayer for an all-encompassing forgiveness that involves invoking Allah’s love for forgiveness.[^31] Here lies a benefit to the believer in discovering their own love to forgive as they invoke Allah’s love of forgiveness. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stated to his companions: “I came to inform you of the (specific) night of *Laylatul Qadr* but found so-and-so arguing and (in the process of mediating) had the knowledge of the night lifted from me.”[^32] Since the Prophet’s knowledge of the specific night of *Laylatul-Qadr* was taken from him due to internal fighting between two individuals, this serves as a reminder that the grudges between mankind veils them from attaining the pardon and forgiveness of the night. For just as the Prophet was veiled from knowing the night due to the grudges between others, it is by offering forgiveness to others, and overlooking each other’s faults, that we discover the forgiveness of Allah during *Laylatul-Qadr*. And in the equation of success found in the limited efforts of that one night, is the embedded infinite mercy found in the eternal pathway to salvation. The same God who commands you to seek His pardon willingly offers it to you for an effort that can be performed even by the youngest and weakest amongst us. The same God who created you with limited years to do good, gives you days and nights that are equivalent to lifetimes of worship. And the same angel, Jibreel, that He sent to honor the Prophet ﷺ that night is sent to the earth that same night annually to honor his nation. --- ## Notes [^1]: Qur’an 3:191. [^2]: The Prophet used to supplicate, “O Allah, I ask you for the sweetness of seeing Your Face, and the eagerness (shawq) of meeting you” (*Sunan an-Nasa'i* 1305). Ibn al-Qayyim describes shawq as “the journey of the heart in seeking its beloved” (*Tareeq al-Hijratayn*, Dar \`Alam al-Fawa’id, vol. 1,  p. 723). [^3]: *Sunan an-Nasa’i* 2192. [^4]: *Sahih Muslim* 1174. [^5]: *Sahih Muslim* 1171. [^6]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, 1644. [^7]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 2017. [^8]: Ibn Qudamah,*al-Mughni* (Dar \`Alam al-Kutub), vol. 4, p. 453. [^9]: *Tafsir al-Baghawi* 7/227-228. [^10]: Al-Bayhaqi, *Kitab Fada’il Al-Awqat*, 213. [^11]: *Al-Majmoo’ Sharh Al-Muhadhab*, 6/447. [^12]: *Tafsir Al-Baghawi*, 8/48. [^13]: *Sharh Al-Mumta’*, 6/494. [^14]: Quran, 97:4. [^15]: Quran, 4:174. [^16]: *Musnad Ahmad*, 10734. [^17]: *Muwatta Malik*, 19:706. On the basis of this narration, some scholars, like Ibn \`Abdul-Barr and al-Nawawi, asserted that the virtuous reward of this night was exclusive to Prophet Muhammad’s *ummah*, although other scholars like Ibn Kathir and Ibn Hajar al-\`Asqalani did not consider it exclusive (see Al-Zarqani, Muhammad Abdul-Baqi. *Sharh al-Zarqani \`ala Muwatta Malik*, 2003, p.326). [^18]: Mustadrak al-Hakim 3781, *Sunan al-Nasa’i* 11625, Sunan al-Bayhaqi 8521. Ibn Taymiyyah explains that this revelation from a written form (in *Lawh al-Mahfudh*) to a written form (in *Bayt al-\`Izzah*) does not negate the Angel Jibreel hearing the Qur’an directly from Allah and bringing it to the Prophet (*Majmu al-Fatawa* 12/126-7). Thus we have the oral revelation of the Qur’an, and the written revelation of the Qur’an. [^19]: Badr al-Deen al-Zarkashi, *Burhan fi Ulum al-Qur’an*, vol .1, p. 230. [^20]: Manna’ al-Qattan, *Mabahith fi \`Ulum al-Qur’an*, p. 97\. He explains that both of these opinions are in fact correct and compatible. [^21]: Al-Alusi, Abu’l-Thana’. *Ruh al-Ma’ani* (tafsir of verse 44:4). [^22]: Al-'Asqalani, al-Hafiz b. Hajar. *Fath al-Bari li sharh sahih al-Bukhari*. (Cairo: Dar al-Rayyan li al-Turath, 1986)  vol. 10, p. 430. [^23]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, 1:95. [^24]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, 3513. [^25]: *Lisan al-\`Arab*, 4/3019. [^26]: The majority of scholars are of the opinion that *Laylatul-Qadr* may occur on any of the odd nights in the last ten nights of Ramadan, thus demonstrating the importance of practicing a consistent amount of worship for all of these nights. Ibn Taymiyyah made the interesting point that the “odd nights” could be counted from the beginning or the end of the month (e.g., the 28th night could be considered the third last night of a 30 day Ramadan and hence also odd), and therefore one should endeavor to strive in all ten nights (*Majmu’ al-Fatawa* 25/284-285). [^27]: This is especially important to note for women who are on their period and unable to perform *Qiyam* since the rewards of the night are still fully available to them. [^28]: *Jami’ Tirmidhi*, 221. Similarly in Sahih Muslim, 656a. [^29]: *Muwatta Malik,* Book 19, Hadith 707. [^30]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 1901. [^31]: *Jami’ al-Tirmidhi*, 3513. Discussed earlier in the article, p. 9. [^32]: *Sahih Bukhari*, 49. ## Summary **The Night of Decree: Its Meaning, Significance, and Blessings** Allah, in His wisdom, has honored certain times and places above others. Though a believer may worship Him at every moment, remembering Him "standing, sitting, or lying on their sides," some periods carry unique blessings; and though the whole earth has been made a place of prostration, some locations, such as the three sacred Mosques, are singled out for special virtue. This distinction awakens within the heart of the believer a yearning to seek out these sacred opportunities in order to draw near to Allah, a yearning encompassed in the word *shawq*, which unites awe, reverence, wonder, anticipation, hope, and longing. In our age of digital distraction and worldly heedlessness, worship is often reduced to fleeting moments squeezed into a busy day, insufficient for the transformative spiritual experience that serious devotion requires. Islam therefore offers occasions of intense worship in which one sets aside the *dunya* and its distractions. Among the greatest of these are the blessed nights of Ramadan, concerning which the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever spends the nights of Ramadan in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward, he will be forgiven his previous sins." The foremost among them are the last ten nights, as `A'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated: "When the last ten nights began, Allah's Messenger ﷺ kept awake at night, wakened his family, and prepared himself to observe salah with more vigor." It is fitting, then, that *i`tikaf*, seclusion in the masjid, is also recommended during these ten days, which the Prophet ﷺ observed for their entirety. No night, however, has been emphasized more than *Laylatul-Qadr*, the Night of Decree, to which the Qur'an devotes its entire 97th chapter: "Indeed, We revealed [the Qur'an] during the Night of Decree… The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter. Peace it is until the emergence of dawn" (97:1-5). Anas ibn Malik reported that the Prophet ﷺ said of Ramadan, "In it there is a night that is better than a thousand months. Whoever is deprived of it is deprived of all goodness, and no one is deprived of its goodness except one who is truly deprived." The precise night was not disclosed; rather, the Prophet ﷺ instructed, "Search for Laylatul-Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan." Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi (d. 620 H) noted the wisdom in this concealment: that the ummah might strive throughout the month in hope of attaining it, just as Allah concealed the hour of acceptance on Friday, His Greatest Name among His Names, and the appointed times of death and the Hour, so that people would persist in good deeds. Scholars have differed over the meaning of the word *Qadr*, each interpretation carrying its own theological weight. Some understood it as *destiny* or *decree*, meaning the night on which each person's sustenance, lifespan, and affairs are sealed for the coming year. Ibn `Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that it is written in *Umm al-Kitab* during this night what shall come to pass of good and evil, sustenance, and lifespan, even down to who shall perform the pilgrimage. Al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110 H), Mujahid (d. 104 H), and Qatadah (d. 117 H) held this view, and Imam al-Nawawi concluded that it was named *Laylatul-Qadr* meaning the night of judgment and discernment, calling this "true and popular." Others understood *Qadr* as *power*, indicating the greatness and might of the night, or the multiplied power of righteous deeds performed within it. Ibn `Uthaymeen observed that one attains the reward of the night even without knowing which night it is, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever stands in prayer during Laylatul-Qadr with faith and hope will be forgiven," without making knowledge of the night a condition. A third meaning is *restriction*, indicating that the earth becomes crowded as angels descend, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Truly the angels on this night are as numerous as the pebbles upon the earth." These angels, though described in the Qur'an as close to Allah in the highest heavens, seek His permission to descend in recognition of the blessings He places upon the earth. Laylatul-Qadr is also a gift to this ummah. In the *Muwatta* of Imam Malik it is related that the Prophet ﷺ was shown the long lifespans of earlier nations, and, seeing how short his own community's lives were by comparison, Allah granted him this night that is better than a thousand months. The night also bears a special connection to the Qur'an, for both Surah al-Qadr (97:1) and Surah al-Dukhan (44:3) mention its revelation therein. Ibn `Abbas explained that the Qur'an descended in its entirety from the highest heaven to the lowest, to a chamber called *Bayt al-`Izzah*, and was then revealed gradually over twenty-three years. Al-Sha`bi (d. 105 H) held that the revelation to the Prophet ﷺ began in Ramadan on this night when Jibreel first descended to him. As to why the Night of Decree is also the best night for worship, an answer may be found in the opening of Surah al-Dukhan: "On that night, every wise decree (*amr hakeem*) is specified" (44:1-6). Al-Alusi (d. 1270 H) noted that among the meanings of *hakeem* is *decisive*, indicating that the decree cannot be changed after it descends. Reflecting on the joys and calamities the coming year may hold, the believer realizes this is the ideal moment to plead for the best and against the worst; as one awaiting a judge's verdict prays most intensely, so too may this night be one's final opportunity to alter one's *taqdeer*. Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani (d. 854 H) distinguished between the contingent decree (*al-Qada' al-Mu`allaq*) held by the angels, which may change, and the irrevocable decree (*al-Qada' al-Mubram*) with Allah in the Preserved Tablet, which is immutable. The Qur'an affirms, "God erases and confirms what He wills" (13:39), and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Nothing averts fate except supplication." Thus supplication on this night has the greatest power to alter what the angels record. There is likewise a special link between this night and forgiveness. When `A'isha asked what she should say, the Prophet ﷺ taught her: "O Allah! You are Most Forgiving, and You love to forgive, so forgive me." The Divine Name *al-`Afuww* connotes erasure and effacement, and its invocation is a plea that Allah erase our sins and their consequences, for He says, "Whatever strikes you of calamity is because of what your hands have earned, although He pardons a great deal" (42:30). One who misses this night has lost immense good, so time should not be squandered in idle socializing, arguing, or shopping, being mindful that the night begins at Maghrib. Whoever is granted its worship will have his previous sins forgiven. Surah al-`Alaq, revealed on this night, opens with the command to read and closes with the command to prostrate and draw near, a Divine prescription for how the night should be spent. Al-Shafi`i (d. 204 H) noted that some of the pious predecessors preferred prayer, others Qur'an, others *du`a*, and all are rewarded, showing the weight of intention. Even praying `Isha and Fajr in congregation suffices, for the Prophet ﷺ said whoever does so has the reward of standing the entire night; and Sa`id ibn al-Musayyab (d. 94 H), as narrated by Imam Malik (d. 179 H), said whoever attends `Isha on this night has taken his portion. Finally, the Prophet ﷺ once came to inform his companions of the exact night but found two men arguing, and the knowledge was lifted from him, a reminder that grudges veil us from the night's pardon, and that by forgiving others we discover the forgiveness of Allah. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Laylatul Qadr and why does it matter so much? Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Decree) is described in the Qur'an as "better than a thousand months," meaning worship on this single night outweighs worship spread over more than eighty years. It is the most emphasized night of the year, falling within the last ten nights of Ramadan. Allah granted this night as a gift to the umma of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ so that even a single sincere encounter with it can elevate a believer beyond what a lifetime might normally allow. The companion Anas ibn Malik reported that the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever is deprived of its goodness is truly deprived. ### Why did Allah hide the exact date of Laylatul Qadr? The Prophet ﷺ instructed us to search for Laylatul Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan without specifying one fixed date. This concealment is a mercy, not a hardship. Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi noted that Allah concealed this night so the umma would strive throughout the month, just as He concealed the special hour on Friday to increase supplication (*duʿaʾ*) throughout the day. Not knowing the exact night fuels sustained worship across the last ten nights, deepens longing (*shawq*), and keeps repentance and hope alive beyond a single burst of emotion. ### If everything is already decreed, what is the point of making duʿaʾ on Laylatul Qadr? Laylatul Qadr is the night when the yearly decree is delivered to the angels. Scholars distinguish between what is recorded with the angels and what is with Allah in the Preserved Tablet (*al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūdh*): Allah's knowledge and final decree do not change, while what the angels are given involves a contingent decree (*al-Qaḍaʾ al-Muʿallaq*) that can unfold in ways shaped by our choices, prayers, and repentance. The Prophet ﷺ said that nothing averts fate except supplication. On these nights, a believer's plea for protection, forgiveness, and guidance may be the very means by which what is written changes in the angels' record before it is sealed for the coming year. ### What should I focus on saying and asking for on Laylatul Qadr? When ʿAʾisha asked the Prophet ﷺ what to say if she recognized Laylatul Qadr, he taught: *Allahumma innaka ʿafuwwun karim tuhibbu al-ʿafwa faʿfu ʿanni* — "O Allah, You are Most Forgiving and Generous. You love to forgive, so forgive me." The Prophet ﷺ singled out the name *al-ʿAfuww*, which carries the sense of erasing and wiping away. On this night, we ask Allah not only to forgive sin but to erase its traces from what may be decreed for the coming year. The Prophet ﷺ also said that his knowledge of the specific night was lifted from him because of an argument between two people, reminding us that grudges can veil us from the pardon of the night. ### What if I feel like I missed Laylatul Qadr or did not do enough? You do not have to know the exact night to receive its reward. The Prophet ﷺ tied forgiveness to standing on Laylatul Qadr with faith and hope in reward, without making certainty about the date a condition. Ibn ʿUthaymin noted that had knowledge of the night been necessary, the Prophet ﷺ would have made it clear. Intention also carries weight — if someone sincerely wanted to worship but was prevented by illness or genuine constraints, Allah's generosity is greater than their limitations. Merely praying Isha and Fajr in congregation on that night counts as standing the entire night in prayer, according to the Prophet ﷺ. ### What does the name "Laylatul Qadr" actually mean? The word *qadr* carries three layers of meaning. One is decree: this is the night when the matters of the coming year are delivered to the angels. Imam al-Nawawi considered this the most widely accepted interpretation. A second meaning is power and greatness, pointing to the immense rank of the night and the extraordinary weight of worship performed in it. A third meaning is restriction, in the sense that the earth becomes constricted by the vast descent of angels — the Prophet ﷺ said the angels on this night are as numerous as the pebbles upon the earth. Each layer reinforces the others: the decree is immense, the night is powerful, and the heavens draw near to the earth. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/did-islam-spread-by-the-sword-a-critical-look-at-forced-conversions # Did Islam Spread by the Sword? A Critical Look at Forced Conversions **Author:** Hassam Munir **Topics:** History, Spread of Islam **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** May 12, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract The question of forced conversions to Islam in history is a cornerstone of the centuries-old “spread-by-the-sword” narrative that has been (and continues to be) used to demonize Islam and Muslims. However, many leading present-day historians have challenged this narrative. They recognize that there have been cases of forced conversion, but also that these were rare, exceptional, occurred in particular contexts, and in violation of the Qur’anic prohibition of this practice. This article provides a cursory perusal of some of the arguments that have been used to discredit this narrative and examines three cases of forced conversion to Islam in history: the spread of Islam in South Asia, the Ottomans’ *devshirme* system, and Imam Yahya’s “Orphans’ Decree” in Yemen. --- ## Introduction Historians describe Islam as one of the youngest of the world’s major religions, having emerged only in the early 7th century CE. Within a century of [Prophet Muhammad ﷺ](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/mohammad-elshinawy/the-prophecies-of-the-prophet-%ef%b7%ba-proofs-of-prophethood-series/) passing away, the early Muslims established an empire stretching from modern-day Spain in the west to India in the east. Many of the peoples who were conquered in this process eventually embraced Islam, laying the foundations for today’s global Muslim community, which is widely regarded as the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing religious group.[^1] The tremendous numerical success of what European Christendom regarded as a ‘wicked religion’ has confounded observers for centuries. The only conceivable answer, in the minds of many, was (and is) that Islam must have initially spread through its inherent “bestial cruelty,” as Peter the Venerable put it in the 12th century.[^2] From this perspective, the present-day size and growth of the Muslim community is a product of episodes of history during which Islam was “spread by the sword.” A key “fact” of this spread-by-the-sword narrative is the notion of forced conversions of non-Muslims to Islam. This is part of a constellation of questionable “facts” that have been repurposed many times in history. Peter the Venerable, though he was generally an advocate for the academic study of Islam (for the purpose of refutation), penned his scathing words in the context of the Crusades. In later centuries, European colonizers (such as the British in India) attempted to convince their non-Muslim subjects of their own benevolence by comparing it to the cruelty―real or imagined―of earlier Muslim conquerors.[^3] Today, the Islamophobia industry’s association of Islam and Muslims with barbarity and terrorism can be neatly justified by presenting this as the latest episode of Islam being spread “by the sword.”[^4] Of course, this narrative is not entirely unfounded. There have been certain instances in history of Muslims disregarding Islamic teachings and behaving cruelly toward non-Muslims, including cases of forced conversion, just as members of other groups have committed acts of evil (e.g., the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition) that have contravened the principles of their own religion. Unscrupulous individuals and groups will seek to politically instrumentalize whatever ideology or faith they can, and every such event should be duly investigated and condemned. But to look at a cherry-picked selection of incidents and leap to the broad-sweeping, reductionist conclusion that Islam was “spread by the sword”―without analyzing the many variables shaping the course of events in each particular case―is a flagrant act of intellectual dishonesty and an obstacle to understanding and reconciliation. This article briefly outlines some of the arguments that historians have used to challenge the spread-by-the-sword narrative and, in particular, the question of forced conversions to Islam in history. --- ## The Positions of Historians The notion of Islam being “spread by the sword” can be traced to the Crusades and remained a cornerstone of European Christians’ anti-Islam polemics for centuries. It was picked up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Orientalist scholars such as Sir William Muir,[^5] many of whom―as British colonial officials and/or active Christian missionaries―were in a position to benefit from the vilification of Islam to non-Muslim audiences (i.e., “*divide et impera*”). The Orientalists crystallized and legitimized pre-existing traditional oral history―or mythistory, to use William McNeill’s term[^6]―and in doing so “translated \[historical memory\] from myths to facts with a rational scientific attitude.”[^7] However, even in the ranks of the Orientalists there were those, such as Sir Thomas Arnold and De Lacy O’Leary, who chopped away at the narrative of forced conversions to Islam. O’Leary wrote in 1923 that “the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.”[^8] The renowned historian Marshall Hodgson, in his pioneering work *The Venture of Islam*, articulated essentially the same position.[^9] More recently, Ira Lapidus wrote in *A History of Islamic Societies* that “European scholars believed that conversions to Islam were made at the point of the sword and that conquered peoples were given the choice of conversion or death. It is now apparent that conversion by force, while not unknown in Muslim countries, was, in fact, rare. Muslim conquerors ordinarily wished to dominate rather than convert, and most conversions to Islam were voluntary.”[^10] In addition to the historians cited throughout this article, Jamal Malik, Jonathan Berkey, and Kevin Barrett are some of the many other historians who have challenged and discredited the “spread-by-the-sword” narrative.[^11] --- ## “There is No Compulsion in Religion” That forced conversions to Islam have been rare and exceptional in history is no surprise to those familiar with the Qur’ānic principle: “Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood” (2:256).[^12] The renowned classical *mufassir* (commentator) of the Qur’ān, Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr (d. 1373), said that this passage means, “Do not force anyone to become Muslim, for Islam is plain and clear, and its proofs and evidence are plain and clear. Therefore, there is no need to force anyone to embrace Islam.”[^13] Muslims have a collective responsibility to share the message of Islam, but the normative way to do this has been clearly described in the Qur’ān: “Invite all to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice, and only debate with them in the best manner” (16:125). Even in cases of Islamically-sanctioned war, Muslim armies were supposed to offer non-Muslims the choice of “conversion to Islam; payment of *jizya* and acceptance of *dhimmi* status; or trying the fortunes of war. If the adversaries chose the last of these three and then lost, they faced expropriation, slavery, or even death. Even then, however, they must not be converted forcibly.”[^14] The second option has been derogatorily termed “dhimmitude” by Bat Ye’or.[^15] Ye’or and others have argued that the requirement of paying the jizya and holding dhimmi status was a form of “compulsion in religion.” Ye’or’s position has been challenged by eminent historians, including Bernard Lewis―who cannot be credibly accused of apologetic revisionism, given that his own views in other contexts are far from “Muslim-friendly”―and Chase Robinson.[^16] The *dhimma* system was “in conformity with the usual custom of all mediaeval societies where non-dominant religious communities were concerned” and, for comparison, “there is no doubt that the history of the *dhimma* compares favorably with the treatment of non-Christians in Europe during most of the premodern era.”[^17] Though there are certainly examples of abuse of this system―such as by the Fātimid “mad caliph” al-Hākim (r. 996-1021)[^18]―these are rare and “often occurred on the outer fringes of the Islamic world, especially in the presence of an urgent menace coming from outside.”[^19] --- ## Early Islamic History The famous treaty between Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and the second Muslim caliph, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb (d. 644), gives us an example of a *dhimma* agreement in which forced conversion was explicitly forbidden: > *This is the assurance of safety \[amān\] which the servant of God, ʿUmar, the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of Jerusalem. He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves, for their property, their churches, their crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the rituals which belong to their religion. Their churches will not be inhabited by the Muslims and will not be destroyed. Neither they, nor the land on which they stand, nor their cross, not their property will be damaged. They will not be forcibly converted…*[^20] ‘Umar is generally regarded as having been one of the most stringent Muslim leaders, and Jerusalem was a very important city for Muslims. It could be expected, then, that if the early Muslims were so keen to forcibly convert non-Muslims to Islam, ‘Umar certainly would not have made an exception for Jerusalem. Similar examples are scattered throughout Islamic history, such as the agreement (in 713) between ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Mūsa and Theodemir that “they \[i.e., Theodemir’s followers in Spain\] will not be coerced in matters of religion, their churches will not be burned, nor will their sacred objects be taken from them…”[^21] It was in part due to such protections that “for at least two centuries the majority of the inhabitants of the Islamic empire were non-Muslims.”[^22] Furthermore, according to Hugh Kennedy, forced conversion to Islam was “almost impossible” following the early Muslim conquests, as Muslims were a small minority in newly-conquered areas―perhaps about 10% of the population in Egypt and 20% in Iraq. “In these circumstances, forcing unwilling people to convert was out of the question.”[^23] In the regions conquered by Muslims by 732 (i.e., in the first century after Prophet Muhammad ﷺ), Islam did not become a majority religion until 850-1050. Nearly all of Iran, for example, had been conquered by 705; however, empirical research by Richard Bulliet has shown that it was only in the mid-9th century that the Muslim population of Iran reached 50%, and it took nearly another century for that figure to hit 75%.[^24] As some historians have pointed out, “if forced conversion to Islam had been the impetus behind the conquests, they were a miserable failure.”[^25] It has even been argued that, far from forcing non-Muslims to convert to Islam, many Muslim rulers actually preferred to rule over non-Muslims and collect the *jizya* from them. One reason for this was that the *zakāt* (charity that is obligatory upon Muslims) collections were often redistributed locally in the provinces and could only be used in certain ways, but the *jizya* was sent to the central treasury in the capital, was paid in cash, and could be used at a ruler’s discretion.[^26] One relevant case led to the Umayyad general Jarrāh ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Hakami (d. 730) being removed from his post by the caliph, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Azīz. Al-Hakami had been ruling in Khurasan, and he actually prevented his subjects from embracing Islam and continued to demand the *jizya* even from those who converted to Islam. “Indeed, you only embraced Islam to avoid paying it,” he said to them. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Azīz removed him from his post, saying, “Allāh only sent Muhammad ﷺ as a preacher and not as a tax collector.”[^27] Conversion could be effectively discouraged for other reasons and in other ways. An example is that of Haydar ibn Kāwūs (d. 841), a general of the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Muʿtasim and ruler of a small principality in Central Asia called Ushrusana. Though he was a Muslim, he had made an agreement with his non-Muslim subjects to not permit *daʿwah* within Ushrusana and he kept his word, punishing two Muslims for preaching in his jurisdiction. He then faced trial for doing this in Muʿtasim’s court.[^28] There were certainly cases of forced conversion to Islam in the course of history, but these were often far more complex and nuanced than the reductionist and willfully misleading “spread-by-the-sword” narrative makes it seem. Let’s briefly take a look at some examples, keeping in mind that there are many other examples that ought to be duly investigated and, if necessary and if possible, should cause the Muslim community to take reasonable corrective action. --- ## Case Study: South Asia Perhaps the most widely-circulated examples of forced conversion to Islam in history come from South Asia. The American historian Will Durant asserted in 1935 that “the Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history,” explaining that “millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period” (i.e., 800-1700 CE).[^29] (Interestingly, Durant also stated that “most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.”)[^30] This position was popularized by British Orientalist “administrator-historians” (e.g., Henry Elliot) in India in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and has been borrowed and further developed by nationalist or even Hindutva-sympathetic historians such as R.C. Majumdar and Koenraad Elst, respectively.[^31] The problematic predispositions of Henry Elliot, Koenraad Elst, and other historians following this line of thought have been addressed by others in their field.[^32] However, the more significant shortcoming of this position, as Peter Hardy has noted, is that “force” and “conversion” are never precisely defined, leaving one to assume that an entire society may completely change its religious identity “simply because it has a sword at its neck.”[^33] Along similar lines, Rowena Robinson has argued that “the argument that Islam in India spread everywhere by ‘force’ or the ‘sword’ is almost too hackneyed, apart from being in most cases plainly untrue, to be dwelt upon.”[^34] Furthermore, Yohanan Friedmann has pointed out that the phrases found in Persian historical sources that Elliot and his followers have used as evidence for their position are ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. “They submitted to Islam,” for example, could refer to Islam the religion, the Muslim state, or the “army of Islam,” and a contextual reading usually supports one of the latter two interpretations.[^35] Hence, a phrase intended to mean that a group submitted to a Muslim *army* under duress could easily―and perhaps deliberately―be misinterpreted as meaning that the group was forced or pressured to submit to the *religion* of Islam. Richard Eaton points out that if the spread-by-the-sword position were accurate, “one would expect that those areas exposed most intensively and over the longest period to rule by Muslim dynasties―that is, those that were most fully exposed to the ‘sword’―would today contain the greatest number of Muslims.” However, according to the earliest reliable census, the population of Muslims was significantly higher in Punjab and Bengal (70-90%), both historically on the fringes of Indo-Muslim rule, than it was in the Gangetic Plain (10-15%), the heartland of Muslim rule.[^36] Rowena Robinson points out that Eaton has also convincingly argued that “Islam spread among Bengali cultivators during a period when the \[Muslim\] rulers were actually opposed to conversion.”[^37] --- ## Case Study: The Ottoman Empire’s Devshirme System The Ottomans’ *devshirme* system is another example of forced conversion to Islam. In this system, young Christian boys were systematically taken from their families, converted to Islam, and trained to serve in the empire’s bureaucracy or in the sultan’s personal military force, the Janissaries. However, this same system often “provided [religious minorities](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/tesneem-alkiek/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule-3/) with unfettered access to the highest government positions.”[^38] An example is that of Sokullu Mehmet Pasha (d. 1579), a Slav from Bosnia who rose through the bureaucracy to become the empire’s grand vizier, a position from which he was able to support Bosnia’s Christian community, though he himself remained Muslim.[^39] Thus, the same *devshirme* system that forcibly converted some non-Muslims to Islam could at times also play a role in preserving non-Muslim communities and protecting them from mass forced conversion. This may, in part, explain why conversion to Islam proceeded so slowly in some parts of the Ottoman Empire. The region that makes up modern-day Albania, for example, was gradually conquered by the Ottomans over the course of the 15th century, but conversion to Islam only really took off nearly 200 years later.[^40] --- ## Case Study: The “Orphans’ Decree” in Yemen Another case of forced conversion in Islamic history is that of the Orphans’ Decree issued by Imam Yahya al-Mutawakkil (d. 1948) in the early 20th century. After the First World War, the crumbling Ottoman Empire recognized Yahya as its successor in Yemen. Yahya then laid claim to “Greater Yemen,” parts of which were ruled by the British or Yahya’s political rivals. As a leader of the Zaydī community, Yahya also re-introduced Zaydī law, part of which contained the “Orphans’ Decree” requiring his government to forcibly convert orphaned Jewish children to Islam.[^41] However, a closer look at the case of the Orphans’ Decree reveals that though Imam Yahya himself introduced the decree, he turned a blind eye to the smuggling of Jewish orphans out of Yemen to avoid conversion, and on some occasions even facilitated this process.[^42] The Jews who fled from Yemen exaggerated the number of children forced to convert in an attempt to earn sympathy for the cause of helping more Jewish children escape.[^43] However, the guardians of many Jewish children helped them to escape *to* Imam Yahya’s jurisdiction rather than *from* it, and they found refuge with the very regime that was ostensibly bent on forcing them to convert to Islam.[^44] Imam Yahya, for his part, implemented the decree selectively, and in doing so he revealed his reason for introducing it in the first place: it had little to do with a desire to forcibly convert his Jewish subjects to Islam, and more to do with asserting his authority in an unstable political environment in post-WWI Yemen.[^45] Though a reductionist narrative of the Orphans’ Decree may immediately present it as a case of Islam being “spread by the sword” among Yemen’s Jews, it is noteworthy that Jewish sources describe Imam Yahya in very favorable terms.[^46] At the same time, “Yemeni Jewish writings discuss the forced conversion of Jewish orphans explicitly but are reluctant to mention voluntary conversions.”[^47] --- ## Conclusion The preceding case studies present examples of forced conversion to Islam in history―in the case of South Asia, there are sufficient grounds to believe that *some* forced conversions likely occurred. Any of these could easily be used to justify the 800-year-old narrative that Islam was spread by the sword. And yet, even a cursory investigation of each case reveals thought-provoking details that cannot be used to justify any of these cases, but can—and should—remind us that historical events are rarely as simple as we too easily believe. Even most advocates of this narrative must certainly be aware that reality is more complicated than that. In fact, Peter the Venerable himself, even as he was citing the Muslims’ “bestial cruelty” as the only possible cause for the spread of Islam, had privately asked a colleague to write a refutation of Islamic teachings “to consider and provide for weak members of the Church, who are commonly led astray or even unthinkingly won over by trivial arguments.”[^48] Clearly, Peter had evidence that at least some non-Muslims were responding favorably to Islamic preaching. In this article, I have deliberately made minimal use of examples of the *peaceful* spread of Islam in many―and, at least at some point in history, in all―regions of the world. Southeast Asia and West Africa, for example, are two of the regions with the largest Muslim populations in the world today, but neither has ever been significantly subjected to “the sword” by Muslims.[^49] I have done this because the purpose of this article is not to gloss over or cover up the fact that there have likely been *actual* cases of forced conversion to Islam in history. These may have been rare, exceptional, and in contradiction to clear Qur’ānic directives, as has been discussed above, but this certainly does not mean that they did not occur or that we can afford to turn a blind eye to them. In fact, the underlying message of the discussion is precisely the opposite. We need to *stop* glossing over history by subscribing to shallow (and often demonizing) narratives such as “Islam was spread by the sword” or, for that matter, that classical Muslim societies were utopic or that the sword *never* played a role in the spread of Islam.[^50] All of these are myths, with the truth to be found somewhere in the messy gray area between them―a gray area that conscientious and truth-seeking people must roll up their sleeves to diligently explore. --- ## Notes [^1]: Conrad Hackett and Michael Lipka, “Why Muslims are the world’s fastest growing religious group,” 6 April 2017, [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-group/](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-group/&sa=D&ust=1525711940706000). [^2]: Karen Armstrong, “We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices against Islam,” *The Guardian*, 18 September 2006, [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/18/religion.catholicism](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/18/religion.catholicism&sa=D&ust=1525711940694000). [^3]: Barbara Metcalf, “Too Little and Too Much: Reflections on Muslims in the History of India,” *The Journal of Asian Studies* 54, no. 4 (1995): 953-54. [^4]: See, for example, Robert Spencer, *The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)* (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2005), 107-17. [^5]: William Muir, *The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall* (London, 1898; reprint Beirut: Khayats, 1963), 45 [^6]: William H. McNeill, “Mythistory, or Truth, Myth, History and Historians”, *The American Historical Review* 91, no. 1 (1986): 8. [^7]: Amalendu Misra, *Identity and Religion: Foundations of Anti-Islamism in India* (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2004), 223. [^8]: De Lacy O’Leary, *Islam at the Cross Roads* (New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1923), 8. [^9]: Marshall G. Hodgson, *The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam* (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974), 199. [^10]: Ira M. Lapidus, *A History of Islamic Societies* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 271. [^11]: Jamal Malik, *Islam in South Asia: A Short History* (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 183;  Jonathan Berkey, *The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800* (New York: Cambridge University Press), 162; Kevin Barrett, “Is Islam Reasonable?,” in *Reasonable Perspectives on Religion*, ed. Richard Curtis (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2010), 204. [^12]: All quotations from the Qur’an in this article are taken from Mustafa Khattab, *The Clear Quran: A Thematic English Translation of the Message of the Final Revelation* (Lombard, IL: Book of Signs Foundation, 2016). [^13]: Ismā‘īl ibn Kathīr, *Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr* (Vol. 2) (New York: Darussalam Publishers, 2003), 30. [^14]: Michael Bonner, *Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), 90. [^15]: Bat Ye’or, *Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide*, tr. Miriam Kochan and David Littman (Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002), 50. [^16]: Bernard Lewis, “The New Anti-Semitism”, *The American Scholar* 75, no. 1 (2006), [https://theamericanscholar.org/the-new-anti-semitism](https://theamericanscholar.org/the-new-anti-semitism); Chase F. Robinson, “Review of “The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam, from Jihad to Dhimmitude: Seventh-Twentieth Centuries by Bat Ye'or, Miriam Kochan, David Littman””, *Middle East Studies Association Bulletin* 31, no. 1 (1997): 98. [^17]: Bonner, *Jihad in Islamic History*, 91. [^18]: Milka Levy-Rubin, “New Evidence Relating to the Process of Islamization in Palestine in the Early Muslim Period: The Case of Samaria,” *Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient* 43, no. 3 (2000): 263. [^19]: Bonner, *Jihad in Islamic History*, 91. [^20]: Hugh Kennedy, *The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In* (Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press, 2007), 91. [^21]: Ibid, 315. [^22]: William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, *A History of the Modern Middle East* (4th ed.) (Westview Press, 2009), 14. [^23]: Hugh Kennedy, “Was Islam Spread by the Sword?: The Early Muslim Conquests Revisited,” The Yale Conference on Religion and Violence (Yale University, New Haven, CT, February 16, 2008). [^24]: Richard W. Bulliet, “Conversion to Islam and the Emergence of a Muslim Society in Iran”, in *Conversion to Islam*, ed. Nehemia Levtzion (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1979), 36. [^25]: Richard C. Martin, “Conversion to Islam by Invitation,” in *Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism*, eds. John Witte Jr. and Richard C. Martin, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008), 103. [^26]: Kennedy, “Was Islam Spread by the Sword?” [^27]: Ismā‘īl ibn Kathīr, *Al-Bidāyah Wa’l-Nihāyah*, ed. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin Turkī (Al-Qāhirah (Cairo): Dār Hajr, 1997), 12:667. [^28]: Kennedy, “Was Islam Spread by the Sword?” [^29]: Will Durant, *The Story of Civilisation: Our Oriental Heritage* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935), 459. [^30]: Ibid, 12. [^31]: Sudeshna Guha, “Negotiating Evidence: History, Archeology, and the Indus Civilisation”, *Modern Asian Studies* 39, no. 2 (2005): 403. [^32]: See, for example, Derryl N. MacLean, *Religion and Society in Arab Sind* (Leiden: Brill, 1989), 25-27. [^33]: Peter Hardy, “Modern European and Muslim Explanations of Conversion to Islam in South Asia: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature”, *The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2* (1977): 185; the quotation at the end of this sentence is from the discussion about Hardy’s position in Richard M. Eaton, *The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier*, 1204-1760 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 114. [^34]: Rowena Robinson, “Modes of Conversion to Islam”, in *Religious Conversion in India: Modes, Motivations, and Meanings*, eds. Rowena Robinson and Sathianathan Clarke (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003), 23. [^35]: Yohanan Friedmann, “A Contribution to the Early History of Islam in India,” in *Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet*, ed. Myrian Rosen-Ayalon (Jerusalem: Institute of Asian and African Studies, 1977), 322. [^36]: Eaton, *The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier*, 115. [^37]: Robinson, “Modes of Conversion to Islam”, 26. [^38]: Ibrahim Kalin, “Islam and Peace: A Survey of the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition”, *Islamic Studies* 44, no. 3 (2005): 347. [^39]: Ibid, 348. [^40]: Krstic, Tijana. *Contested Conversions to Islam: Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire* (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011), 21. [^41]: Ari Ariel, “A Reconsideration of Imam Yahya's Attitude Toward Forced Conversion of Jewish Orphans in Yemen,” *Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies* 29, no. 1 (2010), 97. [^42]: Ibid, 103. [^43]: Ibid, 99. [^44]: Ibid, 103. [^45]: Ibid, 111. [^46]: Ibid. [^47]: Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, “Muslim Society as an Alternative: Jews Converting to Islam,” *Jewish Social Studies* 41, no. 1 (2007): 90. [^48]: A.J. Forey, Western Converts to Islam (Later Eleventh to Later Fifteenth Centuries), *Traditio* 68 (2013): 154. [^49]: See, for example, Lamin Sanneh, *Beyond Jihad: The Pacifist Tradition in West African Islam* (New York, Oxford University Press, 2016), including a discussion of an established case of forced conversion to Islam in Ghana which most likely never even happened (p. 284). [^50]: Hugh Kennedy (“Was Islam Spread by the Sword?”), for example, offers a simple but much more useful starting point to our investigation: “Islam was not spread by the sword but without the sword it would not have spread.” ## Summary The claim that Islam was "spread by the sword" is among the oldest and most persistent charges levelled against the religion and its adherents, tracing back to the era of the Crusades and echoing down the centuries into the polemics of Orientalists, the propaganda of colonial administrators, and the rhetoric of the present-day Islamophobia industry. Central to this narrative is the notion that non-Muslims throughout history were forcibly converted to Islam. Yet many leading historians of the modern era have subjected this claim to careful scrutiny and found it wanting. They acknowledge that instances of forced conversion did indeed occur, but insist that these were rare, exceptional, bound to particular circumstances, and—crucially—in direct violation of the teachings of Islam itself. It is worth recalling that the polemic did not arise from disinterested inquiry. When Peter the Venerable in the twelfth century attributed the spread of Islam to its supposed "bestial cruelty," he wrote amid the fervour of the Crusades. Later, European colonizers such as the British in India found it useful to contrast their own alleged benevolence with the imagined cruelty of earlier Muslim conquerors, following the maxim of "divide and rule." Orientalist scholars like Sir William Muir, many of whom served as colonial officials or Christian missionaries, lent an air of scholarly legitimacy to what had previously been mere oral tradition—what William McNeill aptly termed "mythistory." Yet even among the Orientalists there were dissenting voices. De Lacy O'Leary wrote in 1923 that "the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated." Marshall Hodgson, in his celebrated work *The Venture of Islam*, held a similar view, and Ira Lapidus later affirmed in *A History of Islamic Societies* that "conversion by force, while not unknown in Muslim countries, was, in fact, rare," and that "most conversions to Islam were voluntary." Scholars such as Jamal Malik, Jonathan Berkey, and Kevin Barrett have likewise challenged the narrative. That forced conversion should be rare is no surprise to anyone acquainted with the plain teaching of the Qur'ān, for Allah declares: "Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood" (2:256). The renowned classical commentator Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) explained this verse to mean: "Do not force anyone to become Muslim, for Islam is plain and clear, and its proofs and evidence are plain and clear. Therefore, there is no need to force anyone to embrace Islam." The obligation upon Muslims is to convey the message, but the manner prescribed is that of invitation and reasoned discourse, as Allah commands: "Invite all to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice, and only debate with them in the best manner" (16:125). Even in cases of legitimate warfare, adversaries were offered conversion, or the payment of the *jizya* along with the protected status of *dhimmī*, or else the trial of battle; yet even in the latter case, the defeated "must not be converted forcibly." Some critics, notably Bat Ye'or, have argued that the requirement of paying the *jizya* and holding *dhimmī* status was itself a form of religious compulsion—a condition she disparagingly termed "dhimmitude." This view, however, has been contested by eminent historians such as Bernard Lewis, who cannot be accused of pro-Muslim sympathies, and Chase Robinson. They observe that the *dhimma* system accorded with the customs of all medieval societies in their treatment of non-dominant religious communities, and that "there is no doubt that the history of the *dhimma* compares favorably with the treatment of non-Christians in Europe during most of the premodern era." Abuses did occur—such as those under the Fātimid caliph al-Hākim (r. 996–1021)—but these were rare and often arose on the frontiers of the Islamic world in response to external threats. The historical record offers concrete illustrations of the prohibition of forced conversion. The famous covenant granted by the second caliph, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 644), to the people of Jerusalem through their patriarch Sophronius assured them safety for their persons, property, churches, and crosses, and stated explicitly: "They will not be forcibly converted." Given that ʿUmar was among the most stringent of Muslim leaders and that Jerusalem held great importance for the Muslims, this stands as telling evidence. A similar agreement was struck in 713 between ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Mūsā and Theodemir in Spain, stipulating that the latter's followers "will not be coerced in matters of religion." Such protections help explain why, for at least two centuries, the majority of the inhabitants of the Islamic empire remained non-Muslim. Hugh Kennedy notes that forced conversion was in fact "almost impossible" following the conquests, since Muslims constituted a small minority—perhaps ten percent in Egypt and twenty percent in Iraq. Empirical research by Richard Bulliet demonstrates that in Iran, conquered largely by 705, the Muslim population reached fifty percent only in the mid-ninth century. As some historians have wryly observed, "if forced conversion to Islam had been the impetus behind the conquests, they were a miserable failure." Indeed, some rulers actively discouraged conversion, since the *jizya*, paid in cash to the central treasury and usable at the ruler's discretion, was fiscally preferable to *zakāt*. The Umayyad governor Jarrāḥ ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Ḥakamī (d. 730) even continued to demand the *jizya* from converts in Khurasan, prompting the caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz to remove him with the words: "Allāh only sent Muhammad ﷺ as a preacher and not as a tax collector." Likewise, Ḥaydar ibn Kāwūs (d. 841) upheld his pledge to permit no *daʿwah* in Ushrusana and was tried at the ʿAbbāsid court for punishing two Muslims who preached there. Three cases invite closer examination. Regarding South Asia, Will Durant's assertion that "millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword" was popularized by British administrator-historians like Henry Elliot and later by nationalist and Hindutva-sympathetic writers. Yet Peter Hardy notes that "force" and "conversion" were never defined; Rowena Robinson calls the argument "in most cases plainly untrue"; and Yohanan Friedmann shows that the Persian phrase "they submitted to Islam" more plausibly denotes submission to a Muslim army or state than to the religion. Richard Eaton observes that the regions longest under Muslim rule, such as the Gangetic Plain, had the fewest Muslims (10–15%), while frontier regions like Punjab and Bengal had the most (70–90%)—and that in Bengal Islam spread while rulers actually opposed conversion. As for the Ottoman *devshirme* system, though it forcibly took and converted Christian boys, it also granted minorities access to the highest offices, as with the Bosnian Sokullu Mehmet Pasha (d. 1579), and conversion in regions like Albania proceeded very slowly. Finally, Imam Yahya al-Mutawakkil's (d. 1948) "Orphans' Decree" in Yemen, which required the forced conversion of orphaned Jewish children, was applied selectively; Yahya often facilitated the smuggling of such children to safety, Jewish sources describe him favourably, and his motive appears to have been the assertion of political authority rather than religious zeal. In sum, there are sufficient grounds to believe that some forced conversions genuinely occurred, particularly in South Asia. These may have been rare, exceptional, and contrary to clear Qur'ānic directives, yet this does not mean they did not happen, nor that they may be ignored. The purpose here is neither to whitewash history nor to portray classical Muslim societies as utopias, but to reject shallow and demonizing myths in favour of the honest, complex truth that lies in the messy gray area between the extremes—a truth that conscientious and sincere seekers must diligently explore. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does the Qur'an permit forcing people to convert to Islam? The Qur'an explicitly prohibits compulsion in faith: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood.' (Qur'an 2:256) Ibn Kathīr, one of the most authoritative classical exegetes, interpreted this verse unambiguously: 'Do not force anyone to become Muslim, for Islam is plain and clear.' The Qur'an equally instructs the Prophet ﷺ that his method was persuasion: 'Invite all to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice.' (Qur'an 16:125) Forced conversion was therefore a violation of Qur'anic principle, not an extension of it. ### Did Muslim rulers historically force non-Muslims to convert? Forced conversions occurred in Islamic history but were rare exceptions that violated established Islamic legal norms rather than expressions of systematic policy. The historian Ira Lapidus concluded: 'Conversion by force, while not unknown in Muslim countries, was, in fact, rare. Muslim conquerors ordinarily wished to dominate rather than convert.' Caliph ʿUmar's treaty with Jerusalem's patriarch explicitly prohibited forced conversions. Muslim rulers often preferred maintaining non-Muslim populations precisely because the *jizyah* they paid provided direct treasury revenue—giving rulers a financial incentive against conversion campaigns. ### What does the demographic evidence say about how Islam spread? The demographic record contradicts the forced-conversion narrative. If conversion had been coerced systematically, regions under the longest and most intensive Muslim governance should show the highest Muslim populations—yet they do not. Iran took more than 150 years after conquest to reach a 50% Muslim population. Bengal and Punjab, governed less intensively, became 70 to 90% Muslim, while the heavily administered Gangetic Plain remained 10 to 15% Muslim. Southeast Asia and West Africa, where Islam spread to its largest concentrations today, were never subjected to military conquest at all—Islam reached them through trade networks and traveling scholars. ### What options were actually given to conquered peoples under early Muslim rule? The standard framework offered non-Muslims three paths: voluntary conversion to Islam, acceptance of *dhimmī* status with payment of *jizyah* and retention of full religious autonomy, or military resistance. The *dhimmī* arrangement was the dominant outcome in the early centuries of Islamic expansion—non-Muslims comprised the majority of the population within the Islamic empire for more than two centuries after the initial conquests. The existence of large, thriving Jewish and Christian communities throughout the classical Islamic world is itself the most direct historical evidence against a policy of forced conversion. ### Why do historians reject the claim that Islam spread by the sword? Scholars including Marshall Hodgson, Richard Bulliet, and Ira Lapidus have systematically dismantled the forced-conversion narrative through demographic analysis, primary-source examination, and comparative imperial history. Colonial-era historians like Henry Elliot shaped this narrative by selectively reading ambiguous Persian sources where phrases meaning "submitted to Islam" referred to political submission to the Muslim state rather than individual religious conversion. Contemporary scholarship recognizes that the primary vehicles of Islamic expansion were trade, Sufi missionaries, scholarly networks, and the appeal of Islamic teachings—not military coercion. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/shame-morality-and-emotions-understanding-the-prophetic-model-of-intelligence # Shame, Morality, and Emotions: Understanding the Prophetic Model of Intelligence **Author:** Mikaeel Ahmed Smith **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** May 1, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract The Prophetic model of intellect or *ʿaql* is a combination of divinely inspired moral intelligence and emotional intelligence. A complete moral education strives to perfect one’s moral identity by focusing on five areas: (1) moral compass development; (2) moral sensitivity calibration; (3) moral commitment; (4) moral assertiveness; and (5) a moral problem-solving capacity. These five areas collectively formulate a complete moral intelligence. Moral shame, due to its intrinsic connection to identity, is seen as a positive behavior modifier in spite of the criticism surrounding it. This paper defends the centrality of shame and explains why mature, justified shame is a positive emotion for both individuals and communities. Lastly, this paper highlights the negative consequences of individual and societal ambivalence for one’s moral identity. --- ## Introduction إنِّي كَأَنِّي أَرَى مَنْ لَا حَيَاءَ لَهُ ... وَلَا أَمَانَةَ وَسْطَ الْقَوْمِ عُرْيَانَا In France, just days before I wrote this article, an Algerian woman was denied French citizenship because of her moral identity. She refused to shake hands with a strange man because of her religious identity. For this she was denied the “privilege” of a French identity. Why is it that a country that bears the flag of liberal values and enlightenment feels the need to regulate moral judgments and values? Without a shadow of doubt, the increasingly “progressive” and ultra-pluralistic broader societal shifts have thrown a deadly left hook at the Prophetic ideal of moral intelligence and our religious identity and our knees have begun to buckle. But we need not lean against the ropes. Over the last few years, I have become increasingly interested in studying the major trends and societal shifts in thought regarding ethics and morality which have occurred over the last two centuries. My intention is perhaps best articulated by an Arab poet who said, عرفت الشر لا للشر.... ولكن لتوقيه *I study evil not for evil itself but rather to protect myself from it.* It is with the intent to protect myself and others from the intellectual and cultural trends within our society which uproot the foundations of faith that I present the following discussion on a very fundamental aspect of our religious identity and the threats posed against it. We mustn’t throw in the towel, so to speak, due to the aggressive nature of these attacks but rather we should put up our guard, study closely the style of our opponents and, with precision, strike accordingly. Our offense will be our best defense as explained in *The Art of War*. Looking at the Prophetic mission of Muhammad ﷺ and all of the other prophets of Allah as well, we see that one of the functions—and perhaps the primary function—that they served was building within their respective communities both individual and collective moral intelligence. --- ## Moral Education and Moral Identity The time period before the coming of any prophet or the span of time between two prophets is often referred to the age of ignorance because of the absence of divine moral intelligence. The current confusion that exists within the hearts and minds of many Muslims around the world is, in my estimation, due to insufficient moral education. Broadly speaking, when we speak about the Prophetic model of *ʿaql*, or intelligence, we are speaking about a divinely inspired moral and emotional intelligence. Moral education aimed at increasing the moral fortitude of Muslims should be built around what I will call the framework of Moral Intelligence. This framework consists of five areas critical to moral education: (1) moral compass; (2) moral sensitivity; (3) moral assertiveness; (4) moral commitment; and (5) a moral problem-solving capacity. Each of these areas are vital to our individual and collective moral and religious identity. If we survey the prophetic narrations[^1] which speak about the end of times we see that the primary element that will be taken away from Muslims—and people of religion in general—will be the right to their own moral identities. Moral sensitivity is *ʿaql*’s version of a lane departure warning. I recently rented a Toyota Camry and was completely caught off guard as the car automatically realigned my steering wheel when I began to drive outside of my lane. I remember that when this feature first began to appear in cars, the car would simply notify the driver through a sound that they were moving out of their lane. Now we have reached the point where not only will basic sedans automatically adjust your steering wheel, but higher-class cars can drive you all the way to work or school without you having to do anything at all. Moral sensitivity can be equated to that annoying beeping sound that tells that you are doing something wrong. What we should also understand is that these warning notifications and steering wheel correction systems can only work if the computer assumes an ideal driving style. The correction system works because it assumes that driving within one lane is the ideal and drifting from lane to lane is wrong and potentially harmful. In fact, even our ability to manually drive to and from work is based on a collective agreement with, and commitment to, a set of shared principles like stopping at red lights, turning right on red, and other commonly understood laws of the road. When a person switches lanes without using their signal, we become upset because they have breached the shared principles; thus, we honk our horn. I think we can all agree that all systems function smoothly due to each member of the system sharing the same assumptions. This is why we honk and feel frustrated when those rules are broken. Moral sensitivity is directly related to the moral idioms available to a person. The list of terms associated with moral approval include: forthright, unassuming, generous, faithful, honorable, considerate, trustworthy, modest, courageous, honest, pure, conscientious. The list of terms connoting moral condemnation include: corrupt, cruel, treacherous, envious, petty, hypocritical, selfish, greedy, cowardly, obsequious. These are provided by language, tradition, and culture. A sound moral education involves teaching people which moral idiom to apply to which situation. When a person can apply these idioms to the situations they encounter and even to themselves, their moral education is complete. When a person learns the meanings of these words (i.e., the moral idioms) and then learns the actions to which they are attributed, they develop a moral identity, or in other words a moral ideal, which they themselves may or may not reach but nonetheless remains the ideal. --- ## Ambivalence and Moral Identity Zygmunt Bauman in *Modernity and Ambivalence* explains the crux of moral ignorance: a state of cultural ambivalence. Simply put, he explains that ambivalence is a language disorder in which we fail to name things. It is “the possibility of assigning an object or an event to more than one category.”[^2] Think of a small child to whom you are teaching basic words. “This is big” or “This is small” teaches the child a word that can be used in the future to classify or segregate or differentiate between various things. Likewise, the statement “This is an animal” provides the mind of the child with a mental box within which other animals can be placed. Bauman explains that we naturally and rightfully feel a sense of anxiety when confronted by ambivalence. In my estimation, this is because humans have a divinely gifted capacity to know the world around them and learn more from that world. In the beginning of the Qur’an we are told about the creation of Adam and the initial education which he received. The Qur’an tells us that he was taught the “names of everything”[^3] which clearly tells us that he was given the basic ability to categorize the world and subsequently learn from that world. Perhaps this verse is indicating that mankind’s ability to know what things are, name them, and thereby classify them constitutes the hallmark of human intellectual ability and the role of the ʿaql. The problem with modernity, as explained by Bauman, is that we have shifted into a state of collective ambivalence. Words like *generous, faithful, honorable, considerate, trustworthy, modest, courageous, honest,* and *pure* fail to classify actions and therefore chaos or as he puts it, “the other of order” ensues. To a child, words have meanings but for the enlightened postmodern mind words mean nothing. --- ## Moral Identity and Shame: Two Sides of the Same Coin Once a moral ideal has been formed within the ʿ*aql* of a person, any subsequent failure to meet that ideal should naturally produce a sense of shame or *ḥaiyā* within. A mature and justified shame plays an important positive role for the person who experiences it and holds a central position in the moral sphere of the individual and the broader society. In one narration, the Prophet ﷺ defined shame as the single most identifying characteristic of Islam. مَالِكٌ، عَنْ سَلَمَةَ بْنِ صَفْوَانَ بْنِ سَلَمَةَ الزُّرَقِيِّ، عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ طَلْحَةَ بْنِ رُكَانَةَ يَرْفَعُهُ إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم: لِكُلِّ دِينٍ خُلُقٌ. وَخُلُقُ الْإِسْلاَمِ الْحَيَاءُ[^4] The Prophet ﷺ said, “Every religion has a distinguishing characteristic and for Islam that characteristic is shame.” Another narration attributed to the Prophet Suleiman (peace and blessing be upon him) defines shame as “the string of the necklace of faith,” suggesting that an individual’s loss of shame destroys his or her religious identity.[^5] Shame’s central role in the moral intelligence sphere is proven in that it is directly connected to identity. The feeling of shame begins when one feels that they have failed to meet their own ideal. It forces a person to reexamine their moral identity and reconsider their closeness to that moral ideal and it informs them about weakness in their moral character. The powerful corrective nature of shame over behavior has even led some academics to suggest that modern American law should use shame instead of imprisonment.[^6] Islam, being a religion that is concerned with creating a culture of God-consciousness, takes shame as the defining characteristic of Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ informed us, “If you have no shame, you will do whatever you like.” The problem with shame according to Williams is that it is a very social emotion which means is is far too dependent on one's environment.[^7] Shame by definition makes a person simply a victim of the norms of the environment within which they live. Doesn’t this negate the potential benefit of shame? Shame’s dependence on the communal gaze has led many people to feel that because it is too dependent on the society to be given primacy in an individual’s moral sphere. People often feel ashamed for things which they should not feel ashamed about but only because of the general collective moral standards of the society in which they live. Minorities, women, the disabled, and menial workers may feel an unwarranted sense of shame which is clearly the result of the ethos of the culture within which they live. In other words, shame is far too heteronomous to be a good indicator of one’s moral character. The proponents of this argument hold that true morality must be more autonomous, coming from within a person. Before I deconstruct this view, it should be noted that the Islamic definition of shame within the prophetic moral intelligence is complex and consists of three levels. Imam al-Māwardī explains in his book *Adab al-dīn wa al-dunyā* that there are three levels of shame that can be found with a person. The first is shame before Allah. This is supported by a narration in which the Prophet ﷺ encouraged his companions to “be shameful before Allah as His Majesty deserves!” The companions, not quite understanding what he meant, enquired for further explanation. The Prophet ﷺ explained, “that you protect your mind and what it contains, that you protect your belly (conscious consumption), that you leave behind overindulgence in the world, and that you remember death.”[^8] The second level of shame is social shame or *shame before the people* as al-Māwardī describes it, and the third level is an internal shame of one’s own self. The first and third levels of shame from one perspective can be seen as completely indifferent to the environment and therefore are not necessarily social emotions. This position has been explained and defended very well by Cheshire Calhoun and Jennifer C. Manion[^9] in their respective defenses of the positive value of moral shame. Calhoun explains that mature or justified moral shame would only be sensed when one is criticized by people whose opinions we respect and value.[^10] Only those people have the power to shame us simply because we agree to the same moral standard which we ourselves have autonomously chosen. The power we give to others to shame us is simply a reflection of our own standards which we share with others. Likewise, we can minimize the moral perspective of some people to the point where we aren’t affected at all by their criticism; this is a sign of moral maturity. I caution Muslims against taking this perspective on shame and morality in general because the moral code in reality is not autonomous. It is imposed on us by Allah Himself. The autonomy simply lies in your choice to follow or not follow. But the fact of the matter is that you really don’t have a choice regarding what the moral standards are. However, Calhoun’s breakdown of mature moral standards plays a critical role within Islamic moral education in that we are instructed to develop a thick skin for unwarranted critique.[^11] The third level of shame from the Islamic position involves a completely personalized shame. Moral education will create what is called in Qur'anic terminologies *Nafs al-lawwāmah*, or a self-criticizing soul. The Muslim who has been morally educated and whose moral compass has been calibrated will develop this type of *nafs* and she will feel ashamed regarding transgressions even when completely alone. This feeling is not dependent on the views of others because she operates as what Calhoun and others call a “lone moral pioneer.” The *moral pioneer* archetype was introduced as a solution to the aforementioned problem regarding shame’s seemingly natural dependency upon others for its functionality. The moral pioneer is a person who has reached a level of morality that surpasses the morality of her society. The conundrum that she finds herself in is that if she treats her people according to their level of morality she would ideally speaking feel a sense of shame within herself because she is not upholding her standard of justice. Nonetheless she would be free from any blame from the external environment. On the other hand, were she to deal with the people according to her enlightened understanding of morality, she would be at peace with herself for upholding her ideals, but she would be morally critiqued by the broader community. What is the solution? If we look at all of the Prophets of Allah, we can easily conclude that the movements they inspired were clearly meant to cause moral revolutions within societies. The divinely inspired changes that they brought sought to recalibrate the collective moral compass. North became south and south became north. When approached by his uncle who pleaded with him to refrain from disrupting the social norms and peace of the city, the Prophet Muḥammad simply replied that he was not able to stop. Muḥammad ﷺ was a moral pioneer. He was the lone custodian for a new standard of appropriateness, a standard of morality that far exceeded the existing standards in his society. Many saw him as the epitome of evil, corrupting the youth of his time. With that said, we see that he nonetheless dealt with the people according to the new standard which he was given. His ultimate shame was a shame before Allah first and then before himself. It was not based on the people’s gaze, for the most part. On the contrary, shame before the people was what he tolerated in order to fulfill the command of Allah. I say “for the most part” because a very interesting account, which is related to us through many different narrators, tells us not about the sensitivity of the Prophet himself but rather his reaction to being in the presence of someone who also had a very intense sense of shame. ʿĀyesha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ tells us, “The Prophet ﷺ was once in my house laying down, resting with his thighs or shins exposed. While he was in that position, Abū Bakr came to the door and asked permission to enter. The Prophet, still laying in the same position, granted him permission and they began to converse. A short while later ʿUmar bin al-Khattāb arrived at the door and also sought permission to enter. He, too, was given permission and the Prophet did not change his position as they began to converse. Finally, ʿUthmān sought permission to enter. Whereupon the Prophet immediately sat up, straightened out his clothes, and then allowed ʿUthmān to enter and join in the conversation. After they all left, ʿĀyesha asked the Prophet why he didn’t fix his clothes and change his position when the other companions entered but did so when ʿUthmān entered. The Prophet replied, “Should I not be shy before a person before whom even the angels are shy?” This narration regarding the relative nature of the Prophet’s shame and its relation to his environment brings us to the second level of shame—social shame. The collective ethos and the extreme social disapprobation within the Muslim community can, for some, feel suffocating. Like my friend who turns off the lane departure notification feature on his car because of how intrusive it can become. Similarly, some people feel that the moral sensitivity and the strong moral disapprobation within the Muslim community has little to no positive moral influence. But the positive function of social shame which is felt when moral ideals are not met does not diminish the moral relevance of shame. Shame naturally forces one to question two very important factors: 1) why we feel shame;  and 2) who we value enough to give the ability to shame us. For a moment, I would like to look back at the roads we drive on every day because there seems to be a divergence between how we view practical morality and how we view practical social constructs such as the laws that dictate our behavior on the road.  The most intrusive shaming mechanism we use daily is the car horn. When we see or encounter a breach in road etiquette (i.e., a shared standard of conduct) our first means to modify behavior is the car horn. The horn serves as a strong corrective tool because it brings attention to the misconduct of a driver, whoever they may be, and points out their failure to uphold agreed-upon driving norms. A single collective moral identity is difficult to achieve within a broad nation-state and has forced religious Muslims to adopt two different standards in public, one Islamic and one pluralistic. The problem with this approach is that shame reflects your personal identity, it reflects your ideal moral self. And our identity should remain constant. The public pluralistic worldview devalues shame and celebrates the individual. In other words, protecting and preserving each driver’s choice to drive upon the road as they see fit is the ultimate good. Shame is seen as stunting growth and as a tool of old days used to control the masses and dull individual potential. Today you must be your own judge, jury, and it seems even executioner if need be. The problem that ensues when shame is devalued and demonized is that collective identity and trust are completely lost. As predicted in perhaps the most oft-quoted narration regarding shame, in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “If you have no shame you will do whatever you like.” The truth that lies in this narration is why the very concept of moral shame is attacked so fervently. The enlightened revisionist realizes all too well the moral power of shame. This is why they feel they must free humanity from the leash preventing them from exploring their true potential. If we allow moral sensitivity to revolve solely around identity and give the power to shame only to those with whom we share common ideals, then I only foresee the further fractionation of the community. This fractionation is seen in the development of religious “safe spaces,” where people can come as they are and be safe from the annoying simplistic rants of people who hold the entirety of the *ummah* to a single moral identity. These places are designed to serve those whose identity is felt to be too nuanced for the general community and those who feel they aren’t understood by the general community. But these safe spaces will eventually reach an interesting crossroads where they too will form a common identity between members and they too will intentionally or unintentionally agree upon tolerable and intolerable actions which naturally results in moral identity-related shame—the very thing from which they themselves were fleeing. The individual members of these safe spaces will begin to look at themselves as an extension of the group and they too will have shame before other members with whom they share a common identity. By now it should be clear that we cannot remove shame without removing identity. The difficulty that Muslims in America face is the dual standard of shame which they must learn to navigate—meaning that they will constantly shift between two different moral identities. Moral immaturity, or a lack of moral education, allows a person to easily fall victim to unjustified and unwarranted shame. Moral education within our communities should work to re-center our values and teach community members what criticism to give weight to and how to maintain the moral ideal without completely pushing people away. But most importantly, it should also strive to maintain a collective ideal of morality because this ideal formulates our collective moral identity. And we should differentiate between those who are simply failing to meet the ideal because of human error from those who are actually purposefully attempting to change that identity. The Islamic tri-level construct of shame is beautifully encapsulated in a saying which was is related by Imam al-Māwardī, وَقَالَ بَعْضُ السَّلَفِ لِابْنِهِ: إِذَا دَعَتْكَ نَفْسُكَ إِلَى كَبِيرَةٍ، فَارْمِ بِبَصَرِكَ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ، وَاسْتَحِ مِمَّنْ فِيهَا، فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلْ فَارْمِ بِبَصَرِكَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ وَاسْتَحِ مِمَّنْ فِيهَا، فَإِنْ كُنْتَ لَا مِمَّنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ تَخَافُ، وَلَا مِمَّنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ تَسْتَحِي، فَاعْدُدْ نَفْسَكَ فِي عِدَادِ الْبَهَائِمِ One of our pious predecessors said to his son, ‘When your passions call you to a major sin, then cast your gaze upon the heavens and feel shame before those in the heavens witnessing you. And if that does not create a feeling of shame within you, then cast your gaze to those around you on this earth and feel shame before those witnessing you on the earth. If you don’t feel any shame at these two levels, then consider yourself to be from amongst the beasts.’ So how do we create a community that doesn’t suffocate people who transgress or slip away from the ideal? This article is only one section of my forthcoming book on the intelligence of the Prophet ﷺ. It is my understanding that the emotion intelligence framework which I discuss at length is the means by which we transfer this moral ideal to others. By studying that side of the prophetic model of intelligence or *ʿaql* one learns how moral intelligence is successfully transferred across cultures and across generations. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Muṣanaf Ibn Abī al-Shaybah*, 37277  **يَقُولُ: لَا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يَتَسَافَدَ النَّاسُ فِي الطُّرُقِ تَسَافُدَ الْحَمِيرِ** [^2]: Bauman; *Morality and Ambivalence*, 1991. [^3]: Qur'an 2:31. [^4]: *Muwaṭṭa*, 3358, 687 [^5]: Al-Māwardī, *adab al-dīn wa al-dunyā* [^6]: Dan M. Kahan, “What Do Alternative Sanctions Mean?” *The University of Chicago Law Review*, 63 (1996), 591-653. [^7]: Williams, *Shame and Necessity*, p. 100. [^8]: Al-Māwardī, *adab al-dīn wa al-dunyā* p. 396. [^9]: Manion. J., The Moral Relevance of Shame. *The American Philosophical Quarterly*: v. 39 (2002), pp. 73-90. [^10]: Calhoun C., An Apology for Moral Shame. *The Journal of Political Philosophical*: v. 12 (2004), pp. 127-146. [^11]: Quran 5:54  “And they do not fear the blame of the critic.” ## Summary The Prophetic conception of intellect, or ʿaql, is best understood as a divinely inspired union of moral and emotional intelligence. Upon this foundation rests a complete moral education, one that seeks to perfect a person's moral identity through five interrelated areas: the development of a moral compass, the calibration of moral sensitivity, the cultivation of moral commitment, the nurturing of moral assertiveness, and the strengthening of a moral problem-solving capacity. Together these constitute what may be termed a complete moral intelligence. Indeed, when the prophetic mission of Muhammad ﷺ and of all the prophets before him is examined, it becomes clear that one of their central functions—perhaps the primary one—was to build within their communities both individual and collective moral intelligence. This is why the eras preceding a prophet, or falling between two prophets, are described as ages of ignorance: they were marked by the absence of divinely inspired moral intelligence. Much of the confusion afflicting the hearts and minds of Muslims today may be traced to an insufficiency in this moral education. A central pillar of this framework is moral sensitivity, which functions much like the "lane departure warning" of a vehicle—an internal signal that alerts a person when they have strayed from the ideal path. Such a system, however, can only operate if it assumes a fixed ideal, just as the rules of the road function only because every driver shares a common commitment to agreed-upon principles. Moral sensitivity, in turn, is inseparable from the moral vocabulary available to a person: terms of approval such as generous, faithful, honorable, trustworthy, modest, courageous, honest, and pure, and terms of condemnation such as corrupt, cruel, treacherous, hypocritical, and cowardly. A sound moral education teaches a person which idiom applies to which situation, and when one is able to apply these terms to circumstances and to oneself, a moral identity—a moral ideal—has been formed within the ʿaql, whether or not one always attains it. The gravest threat to this moral clarity is the condition Zygmunt Bauman describes in Modernity and Ambivalence as a kind of "language disorder," in which we fail to name things and in which a single object or event may be assigned to more than one category. Bauman observes that human beings feel a natural anxiety when confronted by such ambivalence. This resonates with the Qur'anic account of the creation of Adam, who was taught "the names of everything"—an indication that the ability to know, name, and classify the world is the hallmark of human intellect and the very work of the ʿaql. The crisis of modernity, then, is a descent into collective ambivalence, in which words like honorable, faithful, and pure cease to classify actions, so that chaos—what Bauman calls "the other of order"—ensues, and words that mean everything to a child come to mean nothing to the postmodern mind. Once a moral ideal is formed within the ʿaql, any failure to meet it should naturally produce shame, or ḥayāʾ, and mature and justified shame occupies a central and positive place in the moral life of both the individual and the community. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, "Every religion has a distinguishing characteristic, and for Islam that characteristic is shame," a narration transmitted through Mālik from Salamah ibn Ṣafwān from Zayd ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Rukānah. A saying attributed to the Prophet Sulaymān (peace be upon him) likewise calls shame "the string of the necklace of faith," implying that its loss unravels one's religious identity. Because shame arises when a person perceives that they have failed to meet their own ideal, it compels self-examination and reveals weakness in one's moral character. So powerful is its corrective force that some academics have proposed replacing imprisonment with shame in American law. The Prophet ﷺ also warned, "If you have no shame, you will do whatever you like." A serious objection to shame, articulated by Williams, is that it is an intensely social emotion, dependent on one's environment, making a person a victim of the norms surrounding them—so that minorities, women, the disabled, and menial workers may feel an unwarranted shame imposed by their culture. On this view, shame is too heteronomous to serve as a reliable measure of character, and true morality must be autonomous. In addressing this, Imam al-Māwardī, in Adab al-dīn wa al-dunyā, describes three levels of shame. The first is shame before Allah, supported by the narration in which the Prophet ﷺ urged his companions to be shameful before Allah as He deserves, explaining this as protecting the mind, guarding the belly, abandoning overindulgence, and remembering death. The second is social shame, shame before people, and the third is an internal shame before oneself. The first and third levels are not necessarily bound to the environment. Drawing on Cheshire Calhoun and Jennifer C. Manion, mature moral shame is felt only when one is criticized by those whose judgment one genuinely respects—a reflection of standards one has freely embraced. Yet Muslims are cautioned against adopting this framework wholesale, for the moral code is not truly autonomous; it is imposed by Allah Himself, and the only autonomy that remains is the choice to obey or not. Still, this insight rightly teaches believers to develop a thick skin toward unwarranted criticism. The third level, personalized shame, corresponds to what the Qur'an calls the nafs al-lawwāmah, the self-reproaching soul, which feels shame even in solitude. Such a person becomes a "lone moral pioneer," one whose morality surpasses that of the surrounding society. This archetype resolves the dilemma of shame's apparent dependence on others, for the prophets themselves were moral pioneers who recalibrated the collective compass so that "north became south and south became north." When his uncle pleaded with him to cease disrupting the social order, the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ replied that he could not stop; his shame was before Allah and before himself, while shame before people was merely what he endured to fulfill Allah's command. Yet his ḥayāʾ retained a relational dimension, as ʿĀʾishah relates: when ʿUthmān sought entry while the Prophet ﷺ reclined with his shins exposed, he sat up and adjusted his clothing, saying, "Should I not be shy before a person before whom even the angels are shy?" Social shame, though it may feel suffocating—like a friend who disables the lane departure alert—does not thereby lose its moral value, for it forces us to ask why we feel shame and whom we permit to shame us. The car horn, our most intrusive everyday corrective, illustrates how shared standards are enforced. The difficulty is that Muslims in America are pressed into a dual standard, shifting between an Islamic and a pluralistic identity, though shame reflects one's constant moral self. A pluralistic worldview devalues shame and exalts the individual, and its removal dissolves collective identity and trust—precisely as the Prophet ﷺ foretold: "If you have no shame you will do whatever you like." Even the "safe spaces" formed to escape communal shame will, in time, generate their own shared identities and their own shame. Shame cannot be removed without removing identity itself. Moral education must therefore re-center values, teach which criticism to weigh, preserve the collective ideal, and distinguish those who fail through human error from those who deliberately seek to alter that identity. Al-Māwardī captures this beautifully in the counsel of a pious predecessor to his son: when tempted by a great sin, look to the heavens and feel shame before those within them; if that fails, look to the earth and feel shame before its inhabitants; and if neither moves you, count yourself among the beasts. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-islam-a-conquest-ideology-on-jihad-war-peace # Is Islam a Conquest Ideology? On Jihad, War, & Peace **Author:** Surkheel Sharif **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 16, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Does the construct of *jihad* equate to ‘perpetual war’ in Islam's grand political scheme? And was the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ mostly about blood and gore and body counts? These are the core issues addressed here. Muslim scholars have long identified two types of *jihad* (lit. “striving” in God’s cause): an outer form of *jihad* and an inner one. The outer usually refers to state-sanctioned military force (i.e., armed combat), which is waged to defend both religion and realm, to fight preemptively, or to guard the vulnerable against unjustified aggression. As for the inner *jihad* (*jihad al-nafs*), it refers to the struggle to oppose one's ego (*nafs*) and false desires until they are in submission to God. What follows is a perusal through both types of *jihad*—as per Islam's source texts and the words of classical and contemporary Muslim jurists. In Part I, I begin with a brief discussion about the inner *jihad*. Part II consists of a frank discussion on *jihad* as armed combat; it also answers the question: Is Islam a conquest ideology more than an actual religion? Part III, a conclusion, raises a few contemporary questions. --- ## I. THE INNER JIHAD In regards to the overall schema of *jihad*, al-Raghib al-Asbahani, a notable scholar of the fifth Islamic century, wrote: “*Jihad* is of three types: striving against the apparent enemy, against the devil, and against the ego (*nafs*). All three types are included in the words of God, exalted is He: And strive hard in God's path with all the striving that is due to Him” \[Qur’an 22:78\].[^1] A few centuries on, and a similar abstract was offered by Ibn al-Qayyim: “*Jihad* is of four types: *jihad* against the ego, against the devil, against the disbelievers, and against the hypocrites.”[^2] *Jihad* against the apparent enemy—which is to say, *jihad* against hostile, belligerent disbelievers—finds its equivalence in another Qur’anic term: qital (“fighting” or “armed combat”). It is in this sense that the Qur’an charges: “Fight for the sake of God those who fight against you, but do not transgress. God does not love the aggressors” \[2:190\]. The rules of *jihad* as military warfare are stipulated in the manuals of Islamic law (*fiqh*) as well as the *fatwas* of recognized and qualified bodies of contemporary jurists. Many verses in the Qur’an extol the virtues of seeking to purify the soul. One group of verses states: “By the soul and He Who formed it, then inspired it with its depravity and  piety. He is indeed successful who purifies it, and he is indeed ruined who corrupts it” \[Qur’an 91:7-10\]. Another offers these tidings: “But those who feared the standing before their Lord and curbed their soul’s passions, the Garden is their abode” \[Qur’an 79:40-41\]. Also in this context are these words of the Prophet ﷺ: “The fighter in God's path is one who strives against his lower soul/ego in obedience to God (*al-mujahid man jahada nafsahu fi ta‘ati’lLah*).”[^3] Thus, this inward *jihad* refers to the personal struggle against one's ego so as to overcome temptations, false desires, and spiritual vices, as well as to internalize acts of worship like prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, *dhikr*, and almsgiving. This inner *jihad*, or spiritual striving, is referred to as *mujahadah*. Now for the tricky part. One lionized *hadith* states that the Prophet ﷺ, having returned from a military campaign with his companions, said: “You have returned from the lesser *jihad* to the greater *jihad*.” When asked what the greater jihad was, he replied: “A person's *jihad* against his desires.”[^4] However, according to classical *hadith* masters and specialists, this *hadith* is weak (*da‘if*); which is to say, such words cannot authentically or reliably be ascribed to the Prophet ﷺ. Or, to put it another way, the likelihood of the Prophet not having said these words is far greater than the likelihood of him having uttered them. Al-Bayhaqi says after citing it: “This is a chain containing weakness.”[^5] Al-‘Iraqi relays the same ruling in his *hadith* verification of the Ihya.[^6] Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani states: “It is related via ‘Isa b. Ibrahim, from Yahya b. Ya‘la, from Layth b. Abi Sulaym, all three are weak narrators. Al-Nasa'i recorded it in al-Kuna as the statement of Ibrahim b. Abi ‘Abla, a famous successor (*tabi‘i*) of Syria.”[^7] Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali declares the *hadith* to be weak, but relates it as the saying of the above Ibrahim b. Abi ‘Abla.[^8] In more recent times, al-Albani made a thorough analysis of the *hadith*'s various chains, declaring the *hadith* to be unreliable (*munkar*).[^9] As for ‘Ali al-Qari and al-Suyuti, they both recorded the *hadith* in their respective dictionaries of weak and fabricated *hadiths*.[^10] The above analysis concerns the chain (*isnad*) of the *hadith*. As for its meaning, many scholars point out how the meaning is sound in terms of the inner *jihad*, *jihad al-nafs*, having primacy over the outer *jihad*. The *hadith* may also be read in a way that gives it a completely false meaning, which is the one I'll tackle first. If one takes the *hadith* to mean that the outer "lesser" *jihad* is inconsequential or of little worth, or that the inner "greater" jihad replaces it or is an alternative to it, this is utterly false and at odds with the Qur'an itself. From such a perspective, Ibn Taymiyyah said about this *hadith*: “It has no basis, and none of those who are an authority (*ahl al-ma‘rifah*) in the words and deeds of the Prophet ﷺ have reported it. *Jihad* against the disbelievers is one of the greatest of deeds; in fact, it is the best of the optional deeds a person could perform. God, exalted is He, says: ‘Not equal are those of the believers who sit \[at home\], other than those who have a disabling hurt, with those who strive in the cause of God with their wealth and their lives. God has conferred on those who strive with their wealth and their lives a rank above the ones who sit \[at home\]. To both has God promised goodness, but God has preferred those who strive over those who do not with an immense reward’”\[Qur’an 4:95\].[^11] There is also the *hadith*: “A man asked: ‘O Messenger of God, guide me to a deed equivalent to jihad.’ He replied: ‘You do not have the ability.’ He went on to say: ‘Do you have the ability, from the time the person leaves for *jihad* \[until he returns\], to go into the mosque and pray without stopping and fast without a break?’ The man said: ‘Who has the ability to do this?’”[^12] The *hadith* undoubtedly has a sound meaning, in that the inner and outer *jihad* are both great and of tremendous merit, but the inner *jihad* has primacy over the outer; and so is “greater.” A number of scholarly statements testify to this fact, including Ibn al-Qayyim who, avoiding the terms “lesser” and “greater,” noted about the verse “As for those who strive in Us, We will guide them to our paths” \[Qur’an 29:69\]: “The most obligatory *jihad* (*afrad al-jihad*) is *jihad* against one's ego (*nafs*), desires (*hawa*), the devil (*shaytan*), and worldliness (*dunya*). One who wages *jihad* against these four in obedience to God, will be guided by God to the paths of His good pleasure which, \[in turn\], shall lead to His Paradise. One who neglects *jihad* shall be veiled from guidance to the degree he forsakes it.”[^13] Explaining why *jihad al-nafs* has such a rank and distinction, Imam Ibn Taymiyyah stated: “*Jihad* against the ego and desires is the basis for *jihad* against the disbelievers and hypocrites. Indeed, one cannot do *jihad* against them unless he first wages *jihad* against his ego and desires; then he goes out and fights them.”[^14] Tragically, this simple truism seems to have been lost on many of those who have spent the better part of their years waging war against the preeminence of *jihad al-nafs*! Al-Munawi adds another dimension as to why the inward *jihad* is greater, or more obligatory, than the outward one. He says: “It is the greatest form of *jihad*; for fighting the disbelievers is a collective duty (*fard kifayah*), while *jihad* against one's own ego is a personal obligation (*fard ‘ayn*), at all times, on all who are legally responsible: Truly the devil is an enemy to you, therefore treat him as an enemy \[Qur’an 35:6\]. So fight in the path of God. You are not responsible except for your own soul \[Qur’an 4:84\].”[^15] Those who've dealt with the issue of the greater and lesser *jihad* have usually been of two camps. There are those who have sought to sweep the tradition and prophetic history of military *jihad* under the carpet, in favor of a purely spiritual reading of “striving” in God's cause. Such apologetics are usually proffered by those who feel the need to gratify modernist (or now liberal) notions of religion and non-violence; those, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have either colonized minds, staggering ignorance, or lack all academic honesty and integrity. In contrast, there are those, again Muslim and non-Muslim, who insist upon surface readings of the Qur’anic verses relating to *jihad*, devoid of the juristic nuances found in fiqh manuals and contemporary Muslim juristic thought. Unlike the watered-down readings of the first group, these individuals  seek to make Islam synonymous with violence, war, and terror, and to perpetuate animosity between peoples so as to serve their political agendas. Both these misreadings, liberal and extremist, must be categorically rejected and repudiated. The above verses, *hadiths*, and scholarly quotes should have helped lay to rest any opposition to the primacy of *jihad al-nafs*. For although the commonly cited *hadith* about it isn't authentic, other evidences testify to its centrality in a believer's overall worship of God. Thus the affair is as Ibn al-Jawzi decisively proclaimed: “I reflected over *jihad* against the ego *(jihad al-nafs*) and realized it to be the greater *jihad*.”[^16] --- ## II. THE OUTER JIHAD The outer *jihad* connotes a wide range of meanings embracing: (i) the tongue, (ii) the hand and (iii) the sword. It can refer to the act of enjoining others to good and forbidding them from evil, as in the *hadith*: “So whoever strives against them with his hand is a believer; whoever strives against them with his tongue is a believer; whoever strives against them with his heart is a believer. Beyond this, there is not even a grain of faith.”[^17] It includes speaking truth to power: “The greatest *jihad* is to speak a word of truth in front of a tyrannical ruler.”[^18] Striving in dutiful service of our parents is also a form of *jihad*, as in the Prophet’s reply ﷺ to a young man who desired to participate in armed combat, and whose parents were still alive: “Strive in their service—*fa fihima fa jahid*.”[^19] Then there is that all-important mode of *jihad*: *da‘wah*—inviting others to Islam by conveying its teachings: “Strive against them with it \[the Qur’an\], with the utmost striving” \[Qur’an 25:52\]. And of course there is fighting in war. In brief: not all *jihad* is fighting, but nor is all fighting *jihad.* Without doubt, *jihad* in the sense of *qital* (“fighting,” “war”) is enjoined on the faithful at numerous places in the Qur'an and is seen as a highly meritorious form of duty and sacrifice in Islam. Let us refer back to al-Raghib’s schematic of *jihad*: “*Jihad* is of three types: *jihad* against the apparent enemy, against the devil, and against the ego (nafs). All three types are included in Allah's words, exalted is He: And wage *jihad* in Allah’s path with all the striving that is due to Him \[Qur’an 22:78\]. And wage *jihad* with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah \[Qur’an 9:41\] ... *Jihad* is to be waged with the hand and the tongue, as he \[the Prophet\] ﷺ said: ‘Wage *jihad* against the unbelievers with your hands and your tongues.’”[^20]'[^21] That said, the idea of *jihad* being a ‘holy war’ is alien to the Islamic vocabulary. When rendered into Arabic, the term reads al-harb al-muqaddas, which doesn't exist in any form in any Islamic teachings. War in Islam may be sanctioned or unsanctioned, but never holy. Islam’s overall take on warfare can best be seen in these words of our Prophet ﷺ: “Never wish to meet your enemy, but ask Allah for safety. If you do meet them, be firm and know that Paradise lies beneath the shades of swords.”[^22] That is to say, pursue the path of peace and reconciliation; if such a path be denied by hostile intentions, then be prepared to act differently. The next *hadith* might also be used as a support: “After me there will be conflicts and affairs. If you are able, resolve them peacefully.”[^23] Also revealing are these words expressed by the Prophet ﷺ: “The most detested of names to Allah are War (*harb*) and Bitterness (*murrah*).”[^24] Given the above, and given also the numerous peace accords and ententes the Prophet ﷺ initiated so as to halt or mitigate the woes of war, let alone how he forgave and pardoned mortal enemies wherever he could, it's simply fictitious, mischievous, or fallacious to describe the Prophet as a ‘warmonger.’ A reluctant warrior, and a leader who took to combat to safeguard his nation from extinction or subjugation, are far truer descriptions of him ﷺ. In classical Islam, warfare is regulated by an all-important *shari‘ah* dictum that says about *jihad*: *wujubuhu wujubu’l-wasa’il la al-maqasid*—”Its necessity is the necessity of means, not of ends.”[^25] That is, *jihad* of the military kind is not the goal; it's a means to a goal, that goal being the free and unhindered invitation to Islam and the summons to worship God alone. Islam treats war, given the harm, destruction, and loss of life that takes place, as a necessary ‘evil’ of sorts: “For had it not been for God's checking some men by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques wherein God's name is often mentioned, would have been destroyed” \[Qur’an 22:40\]. Two or three centuries after Islam's birth, its jurists would define *jihad* in terms of armed combat against disbelievers who did not have a peace treaty, for advancing the religion. Al-Kasani said *jihad* involves: “Expending one's utmost abilities and strength to fight in Allah's way, with one's person, property, tongue, or other than this.”[^26] And al-Qastalani defined it as: “Fighting the disbelievers, so as to support Islam and make the word of God supreme.”[^27] This martial *jihad* has rules and codes of conduct too. Among them are that the head of state carefully evaluate the potential pros and cons of war, ensure non-combatants \[civilians\] are not killed or willfully targeted, abide by any peace treaty or international agreement it has signed, and keep in mind receptivity to the call of Islam. The classical Islamic doctrine which forbids killing civilians in a military *jihad* takes its cue from the Prophet’s saying ﷺ: “March forth in the name of God, trusting in God and adhering to the religion of God. Do not kill elderly men, infants, young children nor women.”[^28] And Ibn ‘Umar narrates that the Prophet ﷺ “forbade the killing of women and children.”[^29] After quoting the last *hadith*, al-Nawawi stated: “Scholars agree upon acting by this *hadith* and forbid the killing of women and children, provided that they do not engage in combat. If they do, the great majority of scholars (*jamahir al-‘ulema*) hold that they can be fought.”[^30] And al-Buhuti reminds us: “Declaring *jihad* or not is entrusted to the head of state and his decision, for he best knows the conditions of the Muslims and of the enemy.”[^31] This brings us to another vital aspect about *jihad* in Islam: who may be fought? Are Muslims required to wage *jihad* against disbelievers due to their disbelief (*kufr*)? Imam Ibn Taymiyyah takes up the issue, stating: “The disbelievers, they are only to be fought on condition of them waging war first—as is the view of the majority of scholars, and as is proven by the Book and the *Sunnah*.”[^32] Which is to say, Islam permits fighting disbelievers, not because of their disbelief, but only if they initiate war against Muslim societies, or manifest belligerence towards them. The Qur'an \[2:190\] says: “Fight for God's sake those that fight against you, but do not transgress the limits.” Along similar lines, Ibn al-Qayyim, another medieval jurist, held that: “Fighting is only a duty in response to being fought against, not in response to disbelief. This is why women, children, the elderly and infirm, the blind, and monks who stay out of the fighting are not fought. Instead, we only fight those who wage war against us.”[^33] Ibn al-Qayyim also said about the Prophet ﷺ: “Never did he force the religion upon anyone, and he only fought those who waged war against him and fought him. As for those who entered into a peace treaty with him, or concluded a truce, he never fought them, nor ever coerced them to enter his religion, abiding by his Lord's order: There is no compulsion in religion. True guidance has become distinct from error \[Qur’an 2:256\] ... It will be clear to whoever ponders the life of the Prophet ﷺ, that he never coerced anyone to enter his religion and that he only fought those who fought against him first. As for those who ratified a peace treaty with him, he never fought them, provided they kept to their covenant and did not violate its terms.”[^34] Such was the majority juristic view, that *jihad* is waged in response to hostility, not religious affiliation, and eventually prevailed within Sunni Islam. Thus, the Prophet's defensive battles, like Badr, Uhud, Ahzab, and Hunayn, occurred in circumstances in which the enemy launched an offensive against the Muslims who then had to defend religion and realm. In other battles like Khaybar, Mu‘tah, or Tabuk, where the Muslim state was aware of the enemy’s impending aggression, there was a need to strike preemptively as a form of defense. In light of the above, how do we explain *jihad talab*—”offensive” war? Classical law manuals almost invariably include the likes of the following statement in their martial codes: “*Jihad* in Allah's path \[is to be waged\] every year.”[^35] Also: “It is a communal duty once each year.”[^36] So how does this square with what's previously been stated? Well, *jihad* doctrines were based on defense, not only in terms of actual hostilities launched against Muslims, but also preemptively in cases of likely aggression. This doctrine was devised at a time when the Islamic state was surrounded by other states with whom there was no peace treaty, or who were openly belligerent. In such a dog-eat-dog world, one either attacked first, or else was attacked. Such was the state of affairs throughout the pre-modern world. The twentieth century, however, changed all that. The U.N. Peace Charter effectively made peace the default between nation states—at least in theory. As such, Muslim juristic voices began to reflect this new reality: “It is essential to note that the world today is united under a single organization where each member \[state\] adheres to its terms and conditions. The Islamic ruling in this case is that it is obliged to fulfill all agreements and treaties that the Islamic lands commit themselves to, as is stipulated by the law of fulfilling treaties endorsed by the Qur’an. Based on this, those non-Muslim countries that are members of this world organization are not deemed as the Abode of War (*dar al-harb*). Instead, they should be seen as Abodes of Truce (*dar al-‘ahd*).”[^37] It is worth stating that Islamic jurisprudence isn't only shaped by ideals, but also by realities. That is to say, if non-aggression or peace between countries is only honored in the breach, rather than the actual observance, there is no reason why Muslim juristic voices should not reflect the reality on the ground. Most qualified jurists and recognized *fatwa* committees of our age hold—and their word in *shari‘ah* affairs is authoritative and represents orthodoxy—that a state of war shall not exist between Muslims and others unless hostility against a Muslim land is initiated or barriers to *da‘wah* erected. Al-Khallaf wrote: “The legislated *jihad* is there to carry the Islamic call and to defend the Muslims against any belligerency. Whoever does not respond to the call, nor resists its taking place, nor initiates hostilities against Muslim polities, then it is not permissible to fight them. A state of security cannot be altered for that of fear ... A state of war will not exist between the Muslims and others except in cases where hostility towards Muslims is initiated, or barriers to *da‘wah* are erected, or harm is perpetrated towards the callers or the call.”[^38] Inarguably, in an age of the Internet and social media, as well as global movement or displacement, it’s nearly impossible for countries to erect barriers to prevent *da‘wah* to Islam. Being a double-edged sword, it is precisely the same social media that also allow the alarming growth of Islamophobia and anti-Islam sentiments to gain wider and wider societal traction. As for when the Muslim army is in the thick of a religiously-sanctioned war, this is where the following passages of the Qur'an (and their like) come into play: “Slay them wherever you find them; drive them out of the places from which they drove you” \[Qur’an 2:190-91\]. Also: “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them \[captive\] and besiege them, and lie in ambush for them everywhere” \[Qur’an 9:5\]. And then, of course, there is this: “But if they incline towards peace, incline to it too” \[Qur’an 8:61\]. Observing peace accords with non-Muslim polities again demonstrates Islam's willingness to live peacefully with its neighbors, regardless of their religion. When Muslims are instructed to fight treaty-breakers, it is the breaking of a treaty that invites conflict, not the fact that the treaty-breakers are disbelievers: “Will you not fight a people who have broken their pacts and desired to drive out the Messenger and attacked you first?” \[Qur’an 9:13\]. If any Muslim state contracts a truce with a non-Muslim one, other Muslim states aren't bound by this peace treaty. For each Muslim country has its own peace accords and foreign policies that are specific to itself. The cue for this is taken from the Treaty of Hudaybiyah in which the persecuted Makkan Muslim fugitives, like Abu Busayr, Abu Jandal and their men, weren't covered by the treaty ratified by the Prophet ﷺ with the Makkans. Nor was their guerrilla warfare against the non-Muslim Makkans, nor their raids against their caravans, seen as breaches of the Prophet's truce ﷺ: for they were essentially a self-governing state not bound by the political jurisdiction of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn al-Qayyim stated: “The peace treaty between the Prophet ﷺ and the \[Makkan\] idolaters wasn't a treaty that included Abu Busayr or his followers.”[^39] In other words, each Muslim state is required to honor its own international accords, and not aid or support other Muslim states against those with whom they have a pact of non-aggression. Such is the weight that the Qur'an places on covenants of security and peace accords and truces; as Allah says: “But if they seek help from you in the affair of religion then it is your duty to help them, except against a people between whom and you there exists a treaty” \[Qur’an 8:72\]. Ibn Taymiyyah once wrote: “The Prophet ﷺ was the most perfect in terms of this bravery—which is appropriate for commanders in war. He did not kill anyone \[in war\] save Ubayy b. Khalaf, killing him on the day of Uhud. He didn't kill anyone else before or after this.”[^40] Of the twenty-seven battles (*ghazwat*, sing. *ghazwah*) that took place in his life, the Prophet ﷺ participated in nine.[^41] The total number of deaths on both sides was one thousand and eighteen persons. Of those, seven-hundred and fifty-nine were enemy deaths; two-hundred and fifty-nine were Muslims. In fact, the number of enemy fatalities drops to three-hundred and fifty-nine when limited to those killed on the actual battlefield.[^42] Such were the pious restraints that infused the spirit of *jihad* of the Prophet ﷺ. What's remarkable, Gai Eaton wrote, isn't just the rapid pace with which Islam spread across the then known world, but “the fact that no rivers flowed with blood, no fields were enriched with the corpses of the vanquished … they were on a leash. There were no massacres, no rapes, no cities burned. These men feared God to a degree scarcely imaginable in our time and were in awe of His all-seeing presence, aware of it in the wind and the trees, behind every rock and in every valley... \[T\]here had never been a conquest like this.”[^43] The historical record belies the bloodthirsty image that ISIS-like extremists, on the one hand, and Islamophobes on the other, continue to portray of Islam and the Prophet ﷺ. Speaking of death tolls in war, Dr. Naveed Sheikh's essay, Body Count, is something of an eye-opener. It's a statistical study which attempts to put numbers on the human death toll of religious and political violence during the last two thousand years, and relates these to religio-cultural civilizations. These civilizations, as well as their locales, are: Antitheist (former Communist bloc); Buddhist (East Asia, parts of South Asia); Christian (Europe, the Americas, few parts of Africa); Indic (India, Nepal, Mauritius); Islamic (Middle East, parts of Asia, parts of Africa); Primal-Indigenous (parts of Africa, the Americas before colonialism); and Sinic (China, some neighboring states). Key findings showed that the Christian world was responsible for the highest death count in this historical period (responsible for 31% of all deaths: 178,000,000), followed by the Antitheist (22%: 125,000,000), then the Sinic world (19%: 108,000,000), then Primal-Indigenous (8%: 46,000,000), after which came the Islamic world (5%: 31,000,000), and lastly the Indic (less than 0.5%: 2,000,000 fatalities). In contrast to the Islamic world, Buddhist civilization has experienced exceptionally good press in the West. Yet the Buddhist contribution to world fatalities is three times higher than the Islamic; the Christian world's being six times higher, while the Antitheist four times. Yet despite only the Indic civilization having a lower death toll, the Muslim world tends to always be on the receiving end of media charges and stereotypes of violence, murder, and intolerance.[^44] Lastly, let's touch on the following: a believer’s love for martyrdom. In one *hadith*, we see the Prophet ﷺ relish the following: “By Him in whose hand is my life. I would love to be killed in Allah's way and then be brought back to life; then be killed and be brought back to life; then be killed and be brought back to life; then be killed.”[^45] The Prophet ﷺ cherished martyrdom, not because of the love of blood and gore, nor for the glory of war itself, nor for the clanging of steel or the thrill of the fight. He loved it because it represented the highest service to, and the ultimate sacrifice for, God. To surrender to Allah one's actual life, for a cause Allah loves and honors, is the greatest possible expression of loving Allah. It's no wonder, then, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever dies without participating in a battle, or even desiring to do so, dies upon a branch of hypocrisy.”[^46] Believers, though, whilst they long to meet a martyr's death, strive to live a righteous life. For how can one truly desire to die for God, if one does not sincerely try to live for God? --- ## III. CONCLUSION For much of the twentieth century the *‘ulema* examined and reexamined the contents of the Sacred Law, so as to accord Muslims some principled accommodation with the emerging global consensus. Islam's legal tools were, as it happens, well-equipped for the task. The juristic practices of *tahqiq al-manat* (identifying the context for laws in order to ascertain their current form and application) and *maslahah mursalah* (taking account of public interest and utility) moved the jurists of the great centers of Muslim scholarship in the direction of acclimatization, adjustment, and adaptation. And while it is not Islam's calling to conform to the age—Islam is, after all, the great global dissent—it can and must furnish Muslims with the spiritual and social technologies required to live in the age and navigate its eclectic mix of challenges. More than that, religion must offer believers insights on how best to heal modernity's discontents and disillusionments too. Those doctors of Islamic law who are also blessed with being spiritually rooted in the realities of *ihsan* teach us that God’s law exists to instantiate mercy not severity, ease not hardship, good news (*tabshir*) not alienation (*tanfir*). They insist that today's times call for *tashil*—facilitation; but not *tasahul*—slackness and over-leniency. And that far from capitulating to the secular monoculture, as the short-sighted or *fiqh*\-less zealots imagine, this path maintains a wise, far-sighted openness to gentleness, which long predated the advent of the modern world. Even in the fourteenth century Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah pointed to this salient fact: “The *shari‘ah* is based and built upon wisdom and \[achieving\] public welfare, in both this life and the next. It is justice in its entirety, mercy in its entirety, welfare in its entirety, and wisdom in its entirety. Any issue that departs from justice to injustice, mercy to its opposite, public welfare to corruption, or wisdom to folly cannot be part of the *shari‘ah*, even if it is claimed to be so due to some interpretation.”[^47] The above discussion about war and peace is the outcome of how most contemporary Muslim jurists have engaged the new global paradigms. As individual Muslims, we are each part of a larger transnational *ummah*. We each also belong to individual nations which are all committed to the global principle of non-aggression. This arrangement is certainly not perfect. But on the whole it has been instrumental in maintaining a fragile global peace—notwithstanding a few illegal occupations, continued conflicts, and even some modern genocides. At the turn of the second millennium, Gai Eaton wrote that the West still sees Islam as a religion of war, bent on conquest. “They have inherited the fear,” he insists, “which obsessed their ancestors when Muslim civilization was dominant and Christendom trembled before the ‘heathen’ threat.”[^48] He says that even Westerners who've turned their back on Christianity still share these fears and prejudices today. As for Muslims, he feels, historically they've seen Christianity, and now the secular West, as inherently hostile. Indeed, even today, many Muslims are convinced (and there is much rhyme and reason behind their convictions) that the ‘Christian’ West will carpet bomb them or shred them with missiles if they step out of line. “They react either with impotent fury or with a degree of subservience, but always with a deep sense of injustice.”[^49] He concluded with this sober resolve: “There is, then, no end to this argument, so let me leave it where it is and consider what Islam actually teaches about peace and war.”[^50] And that, more or less, is what I've tried to do here. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Mufradat Alfaz al-Qur'an* (Beirut & Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 2002), 208; under the entry, j-h-d. [^2]: *Zad al-Ma‘ad* (Berut: Mu'assasah al-Risalah, 1998), 3:9. [^3]: Al-Tirmidhi, no.1671, where he graded the *hadith hasan sahih*. However, he narrates it without the final phrase, ‘in obedience to God.’ This additional phrase is found in Ibn Hibban, no.4707, and is sahih. Cf. al-Albani, *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1985), 2:81; no.549. [^4]: Al-Bayhaqi, *Kitab al-Zuhd al-Kabir* (Beirut: Dar al-Janan and Mu'assasah al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyyah, 1987), no.373; *al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad* (Egypt: Matba‘ah al-Sa‘adah, 1929), 13:494, with the wording: ‘*Jihad* of the heart.’ [^5]: *Kitab al-Zuhd al-Kabir*, p.165; no.373. [^6]: *Al-Mughni 'an Haml al-Asfar* (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Tabariyyah, 1995), 2:709; no.2584. [^7]: Al-‘Asqalani, *Takhrij al-Kashshaf* (Beirut: Dar al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1997), 4:114; no.33. [^8]: *Jami‘ al-‘Ulum wa'l-Hikam* (Beirut: Mu'assasah al-Risalah, 1998), 1:489. [^9]: Al-Albani, *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da‘ifah wa’l-Mawdu‘ah* (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Ma‘arif, 1996), 5:478-81, no.2460. [^10]: Al-Qari, *al-Asrar al-Marfu‘ah* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1986), no.211; al-Suyuti, *al-Durar al-Muntathirah* (Riyadh: University of Riyadh, 1983), no.245. [^11]: *Majmu‘ Fatawa* (Riyadh: Dar ‘Alam al-Kutub, 1991), 11:197-8. Stating that the *hadith* “has no basis (*la asl lahu*)” conventionally means the *hadith* is chainless which, in this case, is incorrect. For the *hadith* does indeed have a chain, albeit a flawed one. Declaring that no *hadith* authorities have recorded it is another erroneous claim. For al-Bayhaqi and al-Khatib both relate it in their respective works. [^12]: *Al-Bukhari*, no.2785. Something similar is related in Muslim, no.1876. [^13]: *Al-Fawa'id* (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Rushd, 2001), 177. [^14]: Cited by Ibn al-Qayyim in Rawdat *al-Muhibbin* (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1996), 475-6, where he begins by insisting: “Even if *jihad* against one's desires was not greater than *jihad* against the disbelievers, it is certainly not lesser than it. A man once asked al-Hasan al-Basri, may God have mercy on him: ‘O Abu Sa‘id! What is the best *jihad*?’ He said: ‘Your *jihad* against your desires.’ I once heard our Shaykh remark …” He then goes on to cite the words of Ibn Taymiyyah above. [^15]: *Fayd al-Qadir* (Beirut: Dar al-Ma‘rifah, n.d.), 4:511. [^16]: *Sayd al-Khatir* (Egypt: Dar al-Yaqin, 1998), 122. [^17]: *Muslim*, no.50. [^18]: Abu Dawud, *Sunan*, no.4344; al-Tirmidhi, Sunan, no.2175, saying: “A *hasan hadith*.” [^19]: *Al-Bukhari*, no.3004. [^20]: Abu Dawud, no.2504. Its chain is *sahih*, as per al-Nawawi, *Riyadh al-Salihin* (Riyadh: Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 2000), no.1357, but with the wording “…with your wealth, lives, and tongues.’ [^21]: Al-Raghib al-Asbahani, *Mufradat Alfaz al-Qur’an* (Beirut: Dar al-Qalam, 2002), 208; under the entry, *j-h-d*. [^22]: *Al-Bukhari*, no.3024; Muslim, no.172. [^23]: Ahmad, *Musnad*, no.695. Its chain was graded *sahih* by Ahmad Shakir, *al-Musnad al-Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal* (Egypt: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1954), 2:84-5, despite the presence of two questionable narrators in the chain: Faysal b. Sulayman and Iyas b. ‘Amr. [^24]: Abu Dawud, no.4950. The *hadith*, with its various chains, strengthen each other to yield a final grading of sahih. Consult: al-Albani, *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah* (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Ma‘arif, 1987), no.1040. [^25]: Ibn Hajr al-Haytami citing al-Zarkashi, *Tuhfat al-Muhtaj bi Sharh al-Minhaj* (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1972), 9:211. [^26]: Al-Kasani, *Bada'i‘ al-Sana'i‘* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1986), 7:97. [^27]: *Irshad al-Sari* (Egypt: Bulaq, 1887), 5:31. [^28]: Abu Dawud, no.2614. The chain contains Khalid b. al-Fizr, who has been criticized. Hence the *hadith* was declared weak (*da‘if*) in al-Albani, Da‘if al-Jami‘ al-Saghir (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1990), no.1346. The ruling of not targeting civilians or other non-combatants, however, is well established in other *hadiths* and juristic consensus. [^29]: *Al-Bukhari*, no.3015; Muslim, no.1744. [^30]: *Sharh Sahih Muslim* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1995), 12:43. [^31]: *Kashshaf al-Qina‘* (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Nasr al-Hadithah, n.d.), 3:41. I've discussed the difference between acts of terror and a bona fide *jihad* in: *Terrorism is to Jihad as Adultery is to Marriage*, at: [https://thehumblei.com/2013/05/23/terrorism-is-to-jihad-as-adultery-is-to-marriage/](https://thehumblei.com/2013/05/23/terrorism-is-to-jihad-as-adultery-is-to-marriage/) [^32]: *Kitab al-Nabuwwat* (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1985), 140. [^33]: *Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimmah* (Dammam: Ramadi li’l-Nashr, 1997), 1:110. [^34]: *Hidayat al-Hiyara* (Makkah: Dar ‘Alam al-Fawa’id, 2008), 29-30. [^35]: Al-Dardir, *Aqrab al-Masalik* (Nigeria: Maktabah Ayyub, 2000), 54. [^36]: Al-Ghazali, *Al-Wajiz* (Beirut: Sharikah Dar al-Arqam b. Abi'l-Arqam, 1997), 2:188. [^37]: Abu Zahrah, *al-‘Alaqat al-Duwaliyyah fi’l-Islam* (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-‘Arabi, 1995), 77. Also see: al-Jasim, *Kashf al-Shubuhat fi Masa’il al-‘Ahd wa’l-Jihad* (Kuwait: Jam‘iyyat Ihya al-Turath al-Islami, 2004), 49. [^38]: Al-Khallaf, *al-Siyasat al-Shar‘iyyah* (Cairo: Matba‘ah al-Salafiyyah, 1931), 75. [^39]: *Zad al-Ma‘ad* (Beirut: Mu'assasah al-Risalah, 1998), 3:274-5. [^40]: *Minhaj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah* (Riyadh: Jami‘ah al-Imam Muhammad bin Sa‘ud, 1986), 8:78. [^41]: Cf. al-Azmi, *al-Lu'lu al-Maknun fi Sirat al-Nabi al-Ma'mun* (Riyadh: Dar al-Sumay‘i, 2013), 4:374. Ibn Sayyid al-Nas stated, *Nur al-‘Uyun* (Beirut: Dar al-Minhaj, 2010), 40-1: “His ﷺ battles in this period numbered twenty-five; some say twenty-seven, of which he fought in seven.” [^42]: Muhammad Sulayman Mansurpuri, *Rahmatan li'l-‘Alamin* (Riyadh: Dar al-Salam, 1997), 468. The casualties and death tolls for each side, and each battle, is tabulated on pp.433-56. In the original Urdu edition, cf. *Rahmatan li'l-‘Alamin* (Pakistan: Markaz al-Haramayn al-Islami, 2007), 2:462-80. [^43]: *Islam and the Destiny of Man* (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1997), 30. [^44]: Sheikh, 'Body Count: A Comparative Quantitative Study of Mass Killings in History', in Muhammad, Kalin & Kamali (eds.), *War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad* (Cambridge: MABDA & The Islamic Texts Society, 2013), 165-214. [^45]: *Al-Bukhari*, no.2797; Muslim, no.1497. [^46]: *Muslim*, no.1910. [^47]: *I‘lam al-Muwaqqi‘in* (Riyadh: Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 2002), 4:337. [^48]: *Remembering God: Reflections on Islam* (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), 101. [^49]: Ibid., 102. [^50]: Ibid., 102. ## Summary In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. It is important at the outset to establish that the noble scholars of Islam have long recognized that jihad, whose literal meaning is "striving" in the cause of God, is not a single reality but embraces several types. Al-Raghib al-Asbahani, a notable scholar of the fifth Islamic century, declared that "jihad is of three types: striving against the apparent enemy, against the devil, and against the ego (nafs)," and he held all three to be gathered in the words of God, exalted is He: *"And strive hard in God's path with all the striving that is due to Him"* (Qur'an 22:78). Ibn al-Qayyim likewise enumerated four categories: jihad against the ego, against the devil, against the disbelievers, and against the hypocrites. Thus the outer jihad, which usually refers to state-sanctioned military force waged in defence of religion and realm, is only one branch, while the inner jihad against the soul stands as another. Concerning this inner striving, known as *mujahadah* or *jihad al-nafs*, the Qur'an is rich with encouragement toward the purification of the soul. God says: *"By the soul and He Who formed it, then inspired it with its depravity and piety. He is indeed successful who purifies it, and he is indeed ruined who corrupts it"* (Qur'an 91:7–10), and He gives glad tidings that *"those who feared the standing before their Lord and curbed their soul's passions, the Garden is their abode"* (Qur'an 79:40–41). The Prophet ﷺ himself defined the true fighter in this light, saying, *"The fighter in God's path is one who strives against his lower soul in obedience to God."* This inward striving, then, is the effort to overcome temptations, false desires, and spiritual vices, and to internalize the acts of worship such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, remembrance of God, and almsgiving. A famous narration circulates in this regard, in which the Prophet ﷺ is said to have told his companions upon returning from a military campaign, *"You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad,"* explaining the greater to be *"a person's jihad against his desires."* Yet honesty compels acknowledging that the hadith masters and specialists ruled this report to be weak (*da'if*). Al-Bayhaqi remarked after citing it, "This is a chain containing weakness," and al-'Iraqi relayed the same verdict in his verification of the *Ihya*. Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani noted that it is transmitted through 'Isa b. Ibrahim, from Yahya b. Ya'la, from Layth b. Abi Sulaym, "all three are weak narrators," and that al-Nasa'i recorded it merely as the statement of the successor Ibrahim b. Abi 'Abla of Syria. Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali likewise declared it weak while attributing it to that same successor, al-Albani in more recent times ruled it unreliable (*munkar*) after examining its various chains, and both 'Ali al-Qari and al-Suyuti recorded it among the weak and fabricated reports. Nevertheless, the weakness of that single chain must not be confused with a rejection of the meaning it carries, for the meaning itself is sound and supported by other evidences, provided it is understood correctly. If one takes it to mean that the outer jihad is worthless, or that the inner replaces it, this is utterly false and at variance with the Qur'an. Ibn Taymiyyah said of the report that "it has no basis, and none of those who are an authority in the words and deeds of the Prophet ﷺ have reported it," reminding us that jihad against the disbelievers is among the greatest of deeds, as God distinguished the strivers over those who sit at home *"a rank above"* them with *"an immense reward"* (Qur'an 4:95), and as the Prophet ﷺ, when asked to name a deed equal to jihad, described an unbroken regimen of prayer and fasting beyond human capacity. Yet the primacy of the inner jihad, understood as its being "greater" in obligation while both remain immensely meritorious, is affirmed by the scholars. Ibn al-Qayyim, commenting on *"As for those who strive in Us, We will guide them to our paths"* (Qur'an 29:69), held that "the most obligatory jihad is jihad against one's ego, desires, the devil, and worldliness." Ibn Taymiyyah explained its precedence by noting that "jihad against the ego and desires is the basis for jihad against the disbelievers and hypocrites," since one cannot fight the enemy without first subduing the self. Al-Munawi added that fighting the disbelievers is a communal duty (*fard kifayah*) while striving against one's own ego is a personal obligation (*fard 'ayn*) at all times, citing *"Truly the devil is an enemy to you, therefore treat him as an enemy"* (Qur'an 35:6). It is fitting, then, that two extremes be rejected: those who erase the tradition of military jihad to please modernist sensibilities, and those who reduce Islam to violence by clinging to surface readings stripped of juristic nuance. Ibn al-Jawzi's reflection settles the matter: "I reflected over jihad against the ego and realized it to be the greater jihad." Turning to the outer jihad, it too carries a wide range of meanings embracing the tongue, the hand, and the sword. It includes enjoining good and forbidding evil, as in the hadith describing striving "with his hand," "with his tongue," and "with his heart", speaking truth to power, for "the greatest jihad is to speak a word of truth in front of a tyrannical ruler", and even dutiful service to parents, as the Prophet ﷺ told a young man whose parents were living, *"Strive in their service."* It includes calling others to Islam through the Qur'an: *"Strive against them with it, with the utmost striving"* (Qur'an 25:52). Hence not all jihad is fighting, nor is all fighting jihad. Where jihad does mean armed combat (*qital*), it is enjoined and highly meritorious, yet the notion of "holy war" (*al-harb al-muqaddas*) is alien to Islam; war may be sanctioned or unsanctioned, but never holy. The Prophetic disposition toward war was one of reluctance and restraint. He ﷺ said, *"Never wish to meet your enemy, but ask Allah for safety,"* and *"After me there will be conflicts... If you are able, resolve them peacefully,"* and he informed that *"the most detested of names to Allah are War and Bitterness."* The juristic maxim regarding military jihad is that "its necessity is the necessity of means, not of ends", it is a means toward the free invitation to worship God alone. God mentions that were it not for His checking some by means of others, *"monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques"* would be destroyed (Qur'an 22:40). Al-Kasani and al-Qastalani defined it as striving and fighting to support Islam and make the word of God supreme, and the codes of conduct forbid targeting non-combatants, following the Prophet's command ﷺ, *"Do not kill elderly men, infants, young children nor women,"* upon which al-Nawawi reported scholarly agreement, with the majority permitting fighting only those women and children who themselves engage in combat. Al-Buhuti reminds that declaring jihad is entrusted to the head of state. As to who may be fought, Ibn Taymiyyah held that the disbelievers "are only to be fought on condition of them waging war first," which is the view of the majority, grounded in *"Fight for God's sake those that fight against you, but do not transgress the limits"* (Qur'an 2:190). Ibn al-Qayyim affirmed that "fighting is only a duty in response to being fought against, not in response to disbelief," which is why the non-combatants are spared, and that the Prophet ﷺ never forced anyone into the religion, honouring *"There is no compulsion in religion"* (Qur'an 2:256). Thus his defensive engagements such as Badr, Uhud, Ahzab, and Hunayn arose from enemy aggression, while Khaybar, Mu'tah, and Tabuk were pre-emptive responses to impending hostility. The classical mention of annual offensive jihad is understood against a pre-modern world lacking treaties, whereas contemporary jurists, in light of the modern arrangement of nations bound by treaties, have held such states to be Abodes of Truce (*dar al-'ahd*) rather than the Abode of War, since Islam commands the fulfilment of covenants. Al-Khallaf affirmed that "a state of war will not exist between the Muslims and others except in cases where hostility towards Muslims is initiated, or barriers to da'wah are erected." Even amid sanctioned war the door to peace remains open, for God says, *"But if they incline towards peace, incline to it too"* (Qur'an 8:61), and treaty-breaking, not disbelief, is what invites conflict: *"Will you not fight a people who have broken their pacts?"* (Qur'an 9:13). Each Muslim state honours its own accords and is not bound by another's, as shown when Abu Busayr and Abu Jandal were not covered by the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, and God commands aiding fellow believers "except against a people between whom and you there exists a treaty" (Qur'an 8:72). The restraint of the Prophet ﷺ is striking: Ibn Taymiyyah noted he killed only Ubayy b. Khalaf at Uhud, and of the twenty-seven expeditions he participated in nine, with total deaths on both sides reaching one thousand and eighteen. Gai Eaton marvelled that in Islam's spread "no rivers flowed with blood... there had never been a conquest like this." Dr. Naveed Sheikh's statistical study *Body Count* found the Islamic world responsible for only 5% of religio-political deaths over two millennia, far below the Christian, Antitheist, Sinic, and even Buddhist civilizations. Finally, the Prophet's love of martyrdom, expressed in his wish to be killed in God's way and brought back to be killed again, and his warning that whoever dies without desiring battle "dies upon a branch of hypocrisy," reflected not a love of blood but the highest expression of loving and serving God, even as believers strive to live righteously for Him. In conclusion, throughout the twentieth century the scholars re-examined the Sacred Law to reach a principled accommodation with the emerging global order, employing the juristic tools of *tahqiq al-manat* (ascertaining the context of laws) and *maslahah mursalah* (public interest) toward wise adaptation, without conforming Islam to the age, for Islam remains "the great global dissent." Those jurists rooted in *ihsan* teach that the Law exists for mercy not severity, ease not hardship, and glad tidings not alienation, calling for facilitation (*tashil*) without slackness (*tasahul*). Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah captured this when he wrote that "the shari'ah is based and built upon wisdom and public welfare... justice in its entirety, mercy in its entirety," and that whatever departs from justice, mercy, welfare, and wisdom cannot belong to it. As members of a transnational *ummah* living within nations committed to non-aggression, Muslims uphold a fragile peace despite ongoing occupations, conflicts, and genocides. Gai Eaton observed that the West still inherits an ancient fear of Islam while Muslims sense a deep injustice, and rather than prolong that argument, the aim here has simply been to consider what Islam actually teaches about peace and war. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tying-your-camel-an-islamic-perspective-on-methodological-naturalism # Tying Your Camel: An Islamic Perspective on Methodological Naturalism **Author:** Dr. Edward Omar Moad **Topics:** Epistemology, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 28, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract In this paper, I intend to contribute to the Islamic analytic theological engagement with modern science, focusing on the problem of scientific methodology. In the first part, I lay out what I take to be some basic commitments involved in the ideal Muslim relation to God and creation, which pertain to the conception and practice of science. Second, I critique Nidhal Guessoum’s procedure of defining methodological naturalism, understood as the distinguishing feature of modern science, on the basis of an unexamined distinction between the ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural.’ Third, I suggest that an alternative—exemplified by a proposal from Scott Tanona, of defining the ‘natural,’ in this context, in methodological terms—is preferable, both in terms of clarity and in maintaining the distinction between methodological and ontological naturalism. --- ## Trusting in God and tying your camel We all know the tradition of the Prophet ﷺ about trusting in Allah and tying your camel.[^1] I want to take this as my starting point because it so eloquently represents the ideal Muslim relationship between God and creation. In order to explicate some of the philosophical implications latent in this ideal attitude, it is useful to reconsider a challenge that has been perennially raised against it. Let us imagine that someone puts her trust in God and ties her camel, and then returns to find her camel still in place. The skeptical challenger might say the following: Either God kept the camel in place or the rope did. If the rope kept the camel in place, then God did not, and so trust in Him was misplaced. If God kept the camel in place, then the rope did not, and so there was no sense in tying it. So either there was no sense in tying your camel, or your trust in God was misplaced. We, of course, are committed to the position both that there is sense in tying your camel, and that trust in God is well placed. So our response must be that the challenge rests on a false dilemma. But it is one thing to assert this, and another to show it. Showing it also involves a process of self-clarification. Where does the challenger’s argument fail? First, we most certainly must maintain that God kept the camel in place. But secondly, we must also maintain that there is rational sense in tying it. More specifically, there is rational sense in tying it, as opposed to other possible courses of action. The Prophet ﷺ did not say, “Trust in God and cross your fingers,” or “Trust in God and eat your vegetables,” for example. This is because there is a meaningful sense in which tying your camel keeps it in place, whereas crossing your fingers or eating your vegetables does not. Therefore, we cannot concede that, since God keeps the camel in place, the rope does not; and then try to make sense of tying the camel in some other way. We are, in some sense, committed to the position that tying the camel makes sense because, all things being equal, it does keep the camel in place. Moreover, the fact that tying your camel keeps it in place is not something known through revelation. The purpose of this *hadeeth* is not to inform us of the general effectiveness of tying camels. We already know that empirically. The *hadeeth* enjoins us to rely on our empirical knowledge of the natural world in our dealings with it, and informs us that this is not contrary to, but indeed connected to, trust in God. So taking seriously this maxim to ‘trust in God and tie your camel,’ means acknowledging that tying your camel is effective in keeping it in place, and that this can be known through means that are natural, by which we mean independent of revelation (though not, of course independent of God). It means, trust in the Creator and take recourse to creation in the way which you have natural reason to believe will be effective in accomplishing your goal. Thus, it asserts a proper scope for what may be called a kind of ‘methodological naturalism.’ The question is, what is its scope and what, precisely, makes it ‘naturalistic’? [^2] But we must, of course, oppose the challenger’s predictable assertion that, in case the camel does stray, trust in God was misplaced. This is simply because the purpose of trusting in God is not, in fact, to keep the camel in place. Therefore, whether the camel stays or strays is not an appropriate test of the proposition that trust in God is well placed. Trusting in God has an altogether different purpose from tying the camel, independent of whether the camel stays or strays. And so we are also happy to concede that the proposition, that trust in God is well placed, is not falsifiable and therefore, unscientific. By contrast, the proposition that (all things being equal) tying your camel will keep it in place, is falsifiable, and therefore an appropriate subject for scientific experimentation. The rope can be tested, but not God. Finally, our challenger will likely raise this question. Given our assertion that, if God does not keep the camel in place then the rope will not; and that it will stray if God makes it stray, with or without the rope, then how do we claim that tying it will keep it in place, such that there is any rational sense in doing so? We have effectively claimed that God’s willing it is both necessary and sufficient for the camel staying in place. What, then, is left for the rope to contribute to the situation? This is not, of course, a new question. In asserting that there is a rational sense in tying the camel, we are committed to treating the rope as ‘secondary cause’ in the classical sense in which this is distinguished from the ‘primary cause,’ which in every case is God. This distinction has been made for a long time, and is sufficient, perhaps, for maintaining our theological position. But assuming that we want to ‘tie our camels,’ so to speak, as systematically and scientifically as possible, there is good reason to examine carefully what it is to be a secondary cause; not only to clarify the distinction between secondary and primary causation, but to distinguish between secondary causation and other, non-causal creaturely relations. In the 17th discussion in the *Incoherence of the Philosophers*, Al-Ghazali famously argued that ‘existence with’ a thing does not constitute ‘existence by’ it, thus distinguishing primary causation, as ‘existence by,’ from secondary causation, as ‘existence with,’ relegating the former to God alone, and creation to the latter.[^3] So far so good, for the theological position, taken by itself. But doing science effectively—‘tying your camel’ intelligently—requires recognizing that every ‘existence with’ is not equal in this respect. Mere correlation is not causation, neither in the primary nor the secondary sense. Perhaps all secondary causation is ultimately some form of correlation, but science cannot get very far on the notion that all correlation is causation. A viable Islamic philosophy of science calls for not only a distinction between primary and secondary causation, but for an analysis of secondary causation that clarifies the difference between secondary causation and non-causal forms of correlation (assuming for the moment that secondary causation is some form of correlation).[^4] So far, two tasks have been proposed. One is defining the precise meaning and scope of methodological naturalism. The other is giving a scientifically workable analysis of secondary causation. And of course, we would like to do both in a manner compatible with Islamic theological commitments. The two topics are closely related, but in what follows I will limit my focus to the first. --- ## Modern science and the ‘nature’ of methodological naturalism With regard to the question of methodological naturalism, I would like to start with some critical comments on the paper Nidhal Guessoum wrote for Kalam Research and Media, “Kalam’s Necessary Engagement with Modern Science.” Guessoum views methodological naturalism as the fundamental characteristic of modern science. Methodological naturalism, he writes, “insists that science only admit explanations of natural phenomena that rely solely on natural causes and leave out entirely any appeal to supernatural agents, be they spirits, angels, demons, or indeed God.”[^5] Guessoum takes care to distinguish methodological naturalism from what he calls philosophical naturalism—what I will call here ontological naturalism—which is the substantive denial of the existence of any supernatural entities, including God. Methodological naturalism, by contrast, is only a provisional, hypothetical assumption of ontological naturalism, for the purpose of scientific research. In spite of this, he proceeds to raise some problems between Islamic religious belief and modern science, which could only emerge by way of equivocating on this distinction. One such problem, according to Guessoum, is “how to reconcile a naturalistic study and explanation of the world/nature and the belief in a present/personal God.  Does He act in the world, and if so does this conflict with modern science; or does He not act (at least not physically) in the world?”[^6] Guessoum writes that he personally advocates the ‘spiritual action only’ position (whatever that means). But so long as modern science really does only commit us to a provisional assumption of ontological naturalism for limited methodological purposes, and not to a substantive metaphysical position, then this problem should not arise. It can only arise when we adopt the position that the methods of natural science are appropriate to determine whether or not (and how) God acts in the world, and that constitutes a substantive metaphysical position. It is an attempt to tie down God, and the world as a whole, with a rope that is only suitable for camels. This raises the question, precisely what we are assuming, when we provisionally assume ontological naturalism, and for what purpose? So far, the answer to the first question is just that we are assuming the nonexistence of the supernatural. So what, precisely, is the difference between that and the natural? Guessoum says nothing other than to mention “spirits, angels, demons, or God.” But what do these things have in common? Could we throw in Santa Claus, elves, Bigfoot, and phlogiston? The point is that no principled distinction seems to be operating here, and without that, it remains unclear what methodological naturalism is. And if that is taken as the defining feature of modern science, it remains impossible to enter any real engagement with it. We can only either blindly submit or blindly resist its epistemic hegemony. So let us engage. If methodological naturalism is the provisional assumption of an ontology, then we should presumably draw the distinction between natural and supernatural in ontological terms. From a classical Muslim theological perspective, for instance, one might identify the natural with the creation, and the supernatural as the Creator. A more philosophically informed classical view might be that the natural is spatio-temporally bound and subject to change, while the supernatural is not. These two positions may or may not be equivalent, depending on one’s metaphysical commitments. Neither, however, clarifies what Guessoum has in mind, because demons, spirits, and angels are all created, and at least ‘demons’ (or *jinn*) are spatio-temporally bound—assuming that we are taking Islamic ontology seriously in our engagement with modern science. In the absence of any clear distinction between the natural and the supernatural, Guessoum’s definition of methodological naturalism is much less informative than his explanation of why it became a pillar of modern science. That is, he writes, because “the assumption of supernatural factors as explanations was quickly identified as a ‘science stopper,’ an end to the explanatory process and thus a non-productive (or even counter-productive) approach to progress (progress in finding further truths about nature and devising useful applications).”[^7] Shall we, then, not just define a ‘natural explanation’ as one that does contribute to finding further truths about nature and devising useful applications? That is, the distinction between natural and supernatural will not be ontological at all, but one defined by the requirements entailed in a specific objective, characterized, perhaps, as that of explaining what we do not understand in terms of that which we do, and can at least possibly manipulate, rather than explaining it in terms of something which we do not understand and therefore cannot manipulate. As Guessoum puts it, “if a doctor explains some mental disorder as the work of demons, s/he will not be able to understand the deeper brain processes at work, nor will any medication be found...”[^8] But if we draw the distinction in this way, then Guessoum’s definition of methodological naturalism has it backwards. Whereas Guessoum bases his characterization of the modern scientific method on a fixed (but undefined) distinction between the ‘natural’ and the ‘supernatural,’ the present suggestion is that, in this context, ‘natural’ is defined by the requirements entailed by the specific aims of the modern scientific method. Thus, we need not assert that methodological naturalism is the provisional assumption that only a certain kind of thing exists, only to find ourselves unable to say what kind of thing that is. Instead, we can say it is the provisional assumption that all that exists meets the requirements entailed by the objectives of modern science. Consequently, this distinction between the ‘natural’ and the ‘supernatural’ is highly contingent. It will depend on the requirements of our objective, which depend, in turn, on the nature of the objective itself. --- ## Conceiving the ‘natural’ in methodological terms Imagine that *jinn* (or ‘demons’, as Guessoum calls them) are like germs. They are out there causing illness, but we have so far been unable to detect or observe them under controlled conditions. In this case, consideration of *jinn* as the cause of mental illness is not conducive to devising treatments (though it may be conducive to using treatments that we could not devise ourselves but have been informed of by other means). So it is a ‘supernatural’ explanation, in that respect. But if, in the future, we develop the means of discovering and studying them systematically, and find that some mental illness is demon possession, is there any remaining principled reason to call this a ‘supernatural’ explanation? It would be no more ‘supernatural’ than explaining a crime scene as the result of human agency. Elsewhere in his paper, Guessoum asks us to consider seriously the prospect of hitherto undiscovered non-human intelligent life, presumably of the extra-terrestrial sort. Would an explanation of disappearances as alien abductions, then, be less supernatural than that of mental illness as demonic possession? Imagine then, that we scientifically discover that extra-terrestrial demons exist and have been causing mental illness by abducting people and possessing them. (As an aside: if they landed in a spaceship and introduced themselves, would they then count as having been ‘scientifically’ discovered?) At any rate, space-demons would be far less useful than germs, as an explanatory factor, in relation to the objective of curing illness, since they presumably would have a complex psychology, and as such their behavior would be at least as difficult to predict and manipulate as that of a human being. This, of course, is the reason questions have been raised as to whether the social sciences and economics can ever attain the status of the ‘hard sciences.’ But clearly, it is a mistake to judge the explanatory factors operative in these sciences by the same standards that we judge those of physics or biology, because the objectives of these sciences are quite different. As such, the kinds of phenomena that are epistemologically useful as explanatory factors are different in each field. Therefore, what is admissible as ‘natural’—in this sense of methodologically correct—will differ from discipline to discipline. The alternative would be, for example, to classify the social sciences as given over to ‘supernatural’ explanations and therefore ‘pre-modern,’ which is implausible. On the other hand, it might be suggested that we define what counts as ‘natural’ specifically in terms of what meets the epistemological requirements entailed by the objectives of physics, biology, and the like. Then we would have reasonable grounds for not classifying the human and social sciences as ‘natural sciences’, in virtue of not operating under a naturalistic methodology so defined. But that would not also be grounds for labeling them as ‘supernatural.’ It would just mean that the ‘natural’ is not to be understood simply in a binary opposition to ‘supernatural.’ Not all that is not natural is *ipso facto* ‘supernatural.’ This would include human behavior and culture, as well as any hypothetical space-demon behavior and culture. It would also mean that identifying methodological naturalism as the essential characteristic of modern science would effectively exclude the social sciences from modernity. Furthermore, the objectives within a given scientific discipline itself are not constant, but have undergone, and most likely will continue to undergo, historical development. If then, our conception of methodological naturalism, understood as the defining feature of modern science, is fixed to a specific set of epistemological requirements, then we will either have to deny the possibility of any further development in the objectives of our sciences as they currently are, or to acknowledge the possibility that science itself might outgrow ‘methodological naturalism,’ and therefore, modernity. But at bottom, one might insist, certain fundamental objectives are universal. And this is correct. The objective of science is to ascertain the truth, and that of technology is to achieve our goals. The necessary relation between the two is clear. But these are universal to both the ‘modern’ and ‘pre-modern.’ Methodological correctness as a norm, in the most abstract sense, is not then sufficient to distinguish the modern. That would have to be based on the specific nature, of the objectives understood as ‘modern,’ and of our ideas about the correct methods of achieving them. But are these not subject to critique and development? So long as we are defining methodological naturalism as a provisional acceptance of only ‘natural’ explanations, for certain methodological purposes, then the clearest way forward is to define ‘natural,’ in this context, as just the sort of explanatory factor that lends itself to those purposes. And yet, a degree of specificity in our conception of those purposes and the epistemological desiderata they entail is necessary if anything interesting and useful is to be inferred with respect to methodology. And yet again, it should be a conception that is stable and universal enough to render a general methodological prescription applicable to the range of scientific disciplines, and open to critical development with regard to their most basic objectives and presuppositions. To that end, let us return to the basic ontology of Creator and creation, and the heuristic of tying the camel, as representative of our epistemic and practical relation to creation as such. In this case, our purpose is to understand creation in terms of itself, insofar as that is possible. From here, we recall the important point, which emerged in the classical encounter between Islamic *kalam* and *falsafa*, that if creation were not sufficiently ordered, it would be naturally unintelligible, and thus impossible to understand on its own terms, and to accomplish our goals therein. If there is simply no telling what God will bring about if I do or do not tie my camel, then action in the world is futile. The problem of induction may show us that we can never know how orderly things really are. If so, then it is a problem precisely because if nature is not orderly enough knowledge of nature is impossible. That is, knowledge about the world cannot be rationally pursued except under the assumption that things are sufficiently ordered. And this will be true irrespective of how our scientific objectives and basic suppositions might develop over time. Are there other specifications we can make? Scott Tanona has recently proposed an interesting formulation of the natural, in terms of the epistemological desiderata of intersubjectivity and predictability. “A phenomenon is natural if it involves regularities between intersubjectively definable aspects of the world,” he writes, “where those regularities constrain the possible values of those intersubjective aspects to allow for predictions about them, including, if applicable, under interventions.”[^9] An ‘intersubjectively definable aspect’ is simply any aspect that we describe and measure in a way that is accessible to more than one subject (or observer). The supernatural, on the other hand, is “beyond any such intersubjective predictability,” such that it “is not merely contrary to currently-understood physical theory, but is beyond our ability to incorporate into any future theory of empirically testable physical regularity or law.”[^10] Tanona agrees with Guessoum that methodological naturalism does not entail ontological naturalism. In fact, he makes it explicit that his own motivation is to defend the distinction from charges of unsustainability. He couches this distinction in terms of ‘internal’ and ‘external’ naturalism, where the former is the application of naturalism within the domain of science alone, while the latter refers to its universal application. > *Internal methodological naturalism is based on the minimum requirement of any scientific account that it make specified contact with intersubjective data, and that with that contact it makes specified, predictive claims about other intersubjective data. It says neither that such accounts will be successful (never mind everywhere) nor that they must be exclusive.*[^11] This formulation of methodological naturalism, in other words, does not amount to the positive position that everything in the natural world is explicable in terms that lend themselves, in principle, to intersubjective predictability. It is simply the practice of limiting one’s considerations to factors that do so lend themselves, for the specific purpose of bringing as much of nature that does, in principle, to do so in actuality. This is perfectly consistent with the awareness that there are some things that, either contingently or in principle, do not so lend themselves. It is also perfectly consistent with the awareness that nothing of the order that has hitherto been discovered can eliminate the real possibility that in the next moment, it will be radically altered. So as the Prophet ﷺ advised, if you are planting a tree and the Day of Judgment arrives, then continue planting.[^12] --- ## Notes [^1]: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2517 [^2]: See Popper, Karl. *Logik der Forschung*. Verlag von Julius Springer, Vienna. 1992. [^3]: Ghazali, Abu Hamid.  *Incoherence of the Philosophers*. Michael Marmara, trans. Brigham Young University Press, 1997. [^4]: For more on this subject, see Moad, Edward. “Occasionalism and Contemporary Theories of Causation,” forthcoming. [^5]: Guessoum, Nidhal, “Kalam’s Necessary Engagement with Modern Science,”  Kalam Research and Media Monograph Series, No. 6. 2011, pp. 4. [^6]: Guessoum 5 [^7]: Ibid [^8]: Ibid [^9]: Tanona, Scott, “The Pursuit of the Natural,” Philosophical Studies, Vol. 148, No. 1 (March 2010), pp. 82 [^10]: Ibid. [^11]: Ibid. 83 [^12]: Musnad Aḥmad 12491 ## Summary Trusting in Allah while taking the means He has provided is beautifully captured in the well-known counsel of the Prophet ﷺ, who instructed a man to "tie your camel and trust in Allah." This tradition serves as an ideal expression of the relationship between the Creator and His creation. A skeptic might pose a dilemma: if Allah keeps the camel in place, then the rope is superfluous; but if the rope keeps it in place, then trust in Allah was misplaced. This reasoning rests upon a false dilemma. The believer must affirm both that Allah keeps the camel in place and that there is genuine rational sense in tying it. The Prophet ﷺ did not say "trust in Allah and cross your fingers," precisely because tying the camel—unlike crossing one's fingers—is genuinely effective in keeping it secured, all things being equal. Significantly, that tying one's camel keeps it in place is not something learned through revelation. This is knowledge already possessed through empirical experience of the created world. The purpose of the tradition is therefore not to inform us of the effectiveness of ropes, but to enjoin reliance upon our empirical knowledge of creation in our dealings with it, while affirming that such reliance is not opposed to trust in Allah, but rather connected to it. Taking this maxim seriously means acknowledging that the effectiveness of tying can be known through natural means—by which is meant means independent of revelation, though never independent of Allah Himself. In this way, the tradition affirms a proper scope for what may be termed "methodological naturalism," and the pressing question becomes: what is its scope, and what precisely renders it "naturalistic"? Two further postulates, axiomatic to the Muslim viewpoint, clarify the boundaries of this methodological naturalism. First, if Allah does not keep the camel in place, the rope will not; and second, if Allah does keep it in place, it will remain so with or without the rope. Reflection reveals that, for the believer, the proposition that Allah keeps the camel in place is unfalsifiable. Should the camel stray, the believer affirms that Allah made it stray. No possible outcome could count against the proposition that whatever occurs is Allah's will. This proposition is therefore not "scientific" in the sense in which falsifiability is taken as a necessary condition for being scientific—a point which may be readily conceded. Yet the skeptic's claim that a straying camel proves trust in Allah was misplaced must be firmly rejected, for the purpose of trusting in Allah is not, in fact, to keep the camel in place. Whether the camel stays or strays is thus no fitting test of the soundness of trust in Him. By contrast, the proposition that tying the camel keeps it in place is falsifiable, and therefore a proper subject for experimentation. The rope can be tested, but not Allah. There remains the question of what the rope contributes if Allah's will is both necessary and sufficient for the camel's staying. Here recourse is made to the classical distinction between the "primary cause," which in every case is Allah, and the "secondary cause," which is creation. Al-Ghazali, in the seventeenth discussion of his *Incoherence of the Philosophers*, famously argued that "existence with" a thing does not constitute "existence by" it, thereby reserving primary causation—as "existence by"—to Allah alone, and consigning creation to secondary causation as "existence with." This distinction suffices for the theological position taken by itself. Yet doing science effectively requires recognizing that not every "existence with" is equal, for mere correlation is not causation. A viable Islamic philosophy of science therefore requires not only the distinction between primary and secondary causation, but also an analysis distinguishing secondary causation from non-causal forms of correlation. Of these two tasks, the focus here remains upon defining methodological naturalism. Turning to Nidhal Guessoum's paper, "Kalam's Necessary Engagement with Modern Science," Guessoum regards methodological naturalism as the fundamental characteristic of modern science, defining it as the insistence that science admit only explanations relying solely on natural causes, leaving out any appeal to supernatural agents—"be they spirits, angels, demons, or indeed God." He carefully distinguishes this from philosophical naturalism, which is the outright denial of any supernatural existence including Allah. Methodological naturalism, he maintains, is only a provisional, hypothetical assumption for the purpose of research. Yet despite this care, Guessoum raises problems—such as how to reconcile a naturalistic study of the world with belief in a present and personal God who acts within it—that can only arise by equivocating upon his own distinction. If modern science truly commits us only to a provisional assumption for limited purposes, such a problem should not arise. It emerges only when one wrongly adopts the position that the methods of natural science are fit to determine whether and how Allah acts in the world. This is to tie down Allah, and creation as a whole, with a rope suited only for camels. A deeper difficulty lies in Guessoum's undefined distinction between the "natural" and the "supernatural." He names "spirits, angels, demons, or God," yet offers no principled account of what these share, such that one might wonder whether Santa Claus, elves, and phlogiston belong among them. From a classical Muslim perspective, one might identify the natural with creation and the supernatural with the Creator; or, more philosophically, the natural as that which is bound by space and time and subject to change, and the supernatural as that which is not. Yet neither clarifies Guessoum's intent, for angels, spirits, and jinn are all created, and the jinn at least are bound by space and time—provided we take Islamic ontology seriously in engaging modern science. Guessoum's more illuminating point is his explanation of why methodological naturalism became a pillar of modern science: appeal to supernatural factors was identified as a "science stopper," halting the explanatory process. This suggests that "natural" should be defined not ontologically but by whether an explanation contributes to discovering further truths and devising useful applications. Guessoum's own example illustrates this: a physician who explains mental disorder as the work of demons will grasp neither the underlying brain processes nor discover any medication. But if this is so, Guessoum's definition proceeds backwards, for the "natural" would be defined by the requirements of the scientific method's aims, rendering the natural–supernatural distinction highly contingent upon those aims. Consider the jinn—Guessoum's "demons"—as being like germs: causing illness yet undetectable under controlled conditions. On this account, appeal to them is "supernatural" only insofar as it fails to yield treatments we might devise ourselves, though it may yet permit treatments we learn of by other means. But were we one day able to study them systematically and confirm that some illness is indeed possession, no principled reason would remain to call this "supernatural"—it would be no more so than explaining a crime scene by human agency. Since the objectives of the social sciences differ from those of physics and biology, what counts as "natural"—in the sense of methodologically correct—will differ from discipline to discipline. To hold otherwise would absurdly consign the social sciences to "supernatural," and thus "pre-modern," explanation. Moreover, since the objectives within any discipline develop historically, fixing methodological naturalism to a specific set of requirements would force us either to deny future development or to admit that science might one day outgrow "methodological naturalism" altogether. Certain fundamental objectives are indeed universal—science seeks truth, technology seeks the achievement of our goals—but these belong to the "pre-modern" no less than the "modern," and therefore cannot alone distinguish the modern. The clearest path forward is to define "natural," in this context, as that sort of explanatory factor which lends itself to the purposes of science, while insisting upon enough specificity and stability that a general methodological prescription remains applicable across disciplines and open to development. Returning to the ontology of Creator and creation, and the heuristic of tying the camel, the purpose is to understand creation in terms of itself insofar as possible. Here emerges an important point from the classical encounter between kalam and falsafa: were creation not sufficiently ordered, it would be naturally unintelligible, and action within it futile—for if there were no telling what Allah will bring about whether or not one ties the camel, action would be pointless. The problem of induction shows that we can never know how orderly things truly are; yet knowledge of the world cannot be rationally pursued except under the assumption that things are sufficiently ordered, and this holds however our scientific aims may develop. Scott Tanona has proposed defining the natural in terms of intersubjectivity and predictability: "A phenomenon is natural if it involves regularities between intersubjectively definable aspects of the world," where those regularities constrain possible values so as to allow predictions, including under interventions. An intersubjectively definable aspect is simply one described and measured accessibly to more than one observer. The supernatural, by contrast, is "beyond any such intersubjective predictability"—not merely contrary to current theory but beyond incorporation into any future testable law. Tanona, like Guessoum, affirms that methodological naturalism does not entail ontological naturalism, and indeed seeks to defend this distinction from charges of unsustainability, framing it as "internal" versus "external" naturalism—the former applying naturalism within science alone, the latter universally. Internal methodological naturalism requires only that a scientific account make specified contact with intersubjective data and thereby make predictive claims about further such data; it neither promises success everywhere nor claims exclusivity. This formulation is preferable, both for its clarity and for maintaining the distinction between methodological and ontological naturalism. It is perfectly consistent with the awareness that some things, whether contingently or in principle, do not lend themselves to such predictability, and that nothing hitherto discovered can eliminate the real possibility that in the next moment the established order might be radically altered—for as the Prophet ﷺ advised, if the Day of Judgment arrives while you are planting a tree, then continue planting. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tolerance-minorities-and-ideological-perspectives # Tolerance, Minorities, and Ideological Perspectives **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 19, 2018 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 The following publication is a continuation of '[Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule)'. --- ## Abstract Muslims and Muslim rulers are often accused of being intolerant of, and oppressive to, religious minorities. Using the Ottoman *millet* system as a case study, the first part of this paper demonstrates that, historically, religious tolerance was a hallmark of Muslim societies. This tolerance was embodied in a group-rights model that preferred the rights of the community as a whole over the individual, a stark contrast from the individual liberty that is common in contemporary Western societies. The group-rights model, albeit unfamiliar to most of us today, was arguably a more effective system of pluralism. The second part of the paper discusses the external factors that indicate that preferring the community over the individual is not a guarantor of true tolerance. By engaging these concerns, one can recognize how negative perceptions of Muslim treatment of religious minorities have been shaped largely through Western ideologies. --- ## Introduction In 1609, King Philip III of the Spanish Kingdom publicly declared in regard to all the remaining Muslims who were secretly practicing their religion:[^1] "All the Moriscos of this kingdom, men and women, with their children, within three days of the publication of this decree in the places where they live and have their houses, must leave...\[If they do not\] then any person can, without incurring any penalty, arrest them and seize their goods, turning them over to the officials in the nearest place, and if they resist, they may kill them."[^2] This decree was immediately spread throughout the kingdom to ensure the final and complete expulsion of the Moriscos (Moors), the Spanish Muslims who were forced to convert to Christianity during the Spanish Reconquista of 1492 under King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella. Over a century later, the Spanish Kingdom was facing severe losses against Dutch rebels. Out of fear that many of the Christian "converts" were still practicing Islam in private and might also rebel against the Spanish authority, King Philip III diverted his people’s attention away from the political and economic crises by directing distrust toward this internal enemy, and caused the forced emigration of close to over three hundred thousand Moriscos.[^3] This large-scale persecution was not unique to Spain. In 12th century France, the Catholic Church initiated inquisitions to protect itself and its kingdoms from growing heretical sects and other religious minorities. What became a systematic form of oppressing individuals who dissented from the core ideologies of the Catholic Church eventually reached Spain several centuries later. It was during the Spanish Inquisition that both Jews and Muslims, who had managed to remain in the region after forced mass conversion or expulsion, became objects of severe regulation. This intense suppression even led prominent Christian leaders to speak out against the intolerance, despite the zealous and popular support for expulsion by the majority of the population.[^4] The Archbishop of Seville in 1610, for example, called on the king to be compassionate toward the innocent and revise his decree. The archbishop's calls, however, were futile, and the Jews and Muslims who had lived for seven centuries in Spain were left with no alternative but to leave their homeland. Oddly enough, these profound historical events are rarely recognized, let alone discussed, perhaps because they highlight Christian intolerance of other religions. They are also not unique; Jews and Christian minority sects have often been persecuted at the hands of  dominant Christian rulers. The point in mentioning the Spanish Reconquista is not to use the incident as a blanket indictment of Christian intolerance; rather, it is an opportunity to reflect on the fact that it is Muslims and Muslim rulers that are more often than not the archetypal object of academic and popular discussions of intolerant and oppressive regimes, while a blind eye is turned to documented oppressions by other dominant religious kingdoms.[^5] This rewriting of history is not unintentional. In this paper, I address two key questions: 1) Was the Islamic system that regulated religious minorities indeed oppressive in its historical context; and 2) If not, what ideological framework(s) have led to the belief that Islamic regimes are particularly intolerant of minorities? By engaging these queries, we can develop a deeper understanding of how negative perceptions of Muslim treatment of religious minorities have been shaped largely through Western ideologies. --- ## Case Study: The Ottoman Millet System In the previous essay on [Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/tesneem-alkiek/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule/), we discussed the foundations of minority treatment in Muslim lands. Once lands were conquered by Muslims, non-Muslims in the region were either contracted with mutual terms through a *ṣulḥ* agreement, or granted the opportunity of becoming *dhimmīs*, protected religious minorities. Becoming a *dhimmī* guaranteed one safety, exemption from military service, and the freedom to continue practicing one’s religion in return for the *jizyah*, or poll-tax, and loyalty to the state. Later, under Ottoman rule, an official *millet* system was established. The term *millet* was used to refer to communities of religious minorities, and eventually led to the standardized arrangement of a formal relationship between minority groups and the state.[^6] In other words, the Ottoman Empire developed a system in which *millets* had specific rights and responsibilities to state authorities in order to help define and ensure their legal autonomy. This system, which was refined over the course of Ottoman rule and eventually overturned in favor of a citizenship paradigm, is a prime example of a method that, while successful during its time (as will be demonstrated), ultimately succumbed to European imperialist pressures and demands to conform to modern forms of secularism and liberalism. The *millet* system initially developed as a means by which the Ottoman administration could properly organize the various religious and ethnic groups under its rule.[^7] Incorporating these groups into the larger Ottoman economic and political system allowed for the preservation of the various cultural and religious identities these communities claimed.[^8] Thus, although the *millet* system required administrative and social reforms for each minority group, it overlooked ethnic and religious differences in order to maintain the Empire's unity and productivity.[^9] It was no secret that Muslims still held the highest status under Ottoman rule, but in contrast to former Christian empires, the Ottomans never attempted to erase religious or ethnic identities through mass forced conversions, for example, in favor of sameness.[^10] One of the most widely acknowledged aspects of the *millet* system was the appointment of official heads or patriarchs for each religious community.[^11] Every patriarch was appointed by his own community in order to ensure his authority vis-a-vis their respect and obedience; if he ever overstepped his boundaries, only they had the right to replace him. The head also had the dual responsibility of reporting to his Ottoman supervisor, usually the chief *qāḍī* or judge, and to his congregation. Members of his community, in turn, were required to bring all of their complaints to him in order to create an efficient process of filing and resolving claims. If there were members who could not afford to pay the *jizyah*, for instance, the patriarch would be responsible for granting financial aid and submitting the tax collectively on behalf of his entire community.[^12] --- ## A Model for Tolerance Despite the rights the *millet* system ensured, modern theorists have deemed this model deficient. In the late 20th century, political and moral philosopher John Rawls described the concept of religious tolerance in light of the liberal tradition as the individual choice to practice one’s religion freely or to change it as one saw fit.[^13] This freedom of conscience, or individual liberty, is considered to be the height of both tolerance and human rights. Will Kymlicka, another political philosopher, however, challenged this view that has been taken for granted in most Western democracies. Unlike the Rawlsian model which places the individual at the core of the argument, Kymlicka proposed a group-rights model, in which groups rather than individuals serve as self-governing units that are granted collective rights and responsibilities. His argument essentially boils down to the fact that group-rights models, like the *millet* system, were effective methods of granting religious liberties to communities as a whole, even though they may have restricted individuals' opportunities to change or dissent from their original religion. In the Ottoman embodiment of the group-rights model, the *millets*—primarily the Greek and Armenian Orthodox communities and the Jews—enjoyed self-government and legal autonomy.[^14] That said, in relation to the dominant religion of Islam, *millets* were limited in their public expressions of religion. Hence, under some circumstances, minorities were required to dress distinctly from the Muslims and could not proselytize. Nevertheless, the *millet* model allowed for religious coexistence and did not persecute those who obeyed their respective patriarchs as well as the laws of the land. This model is thus quite in contrast to liberal expectations espoused by Rawls, Locke, and others through its deep commitment to conservative and theocratic values, thereby uniting "church and state."[^15] Through this system, the Ottoman Empire ruled vast territories, diverse in ethnicity and religion, for almost half a millennium, while avoiding religious wars and large-scale persecution, allowing Kymlicka to reason that the *millet* model "is arguably the more natural form of religious tolerance."[^16] The Rawlsian model, on the other hand, goes so far as to contend that individual liberty is the *only* way of ensuring tolerant and pluralistic societies, assuming that former methods (i.e., group-rights) could never guarantee this vision. Yet, as Kymlicka notes, religious toleration was indeed in effect prior to England's Toleration Act or any universal declaration.[^17] While the *millet* system did not address Rawls’ individual liberty question, it was a model far ahead of any paradigm Europe had even considered. In fact, it was not until the signing of the Peace of Westphalia treaties in 1648 that Europe was able to end a century’s-long religious battle over whether it was possible for subjects to hold a religious belief distinct from the ruler’s faith.[^18] Hence, as Kymlicka points out, there were methods designed to establish tolerant and pluralistic societies prior to those of liberal democracies.[^19] That said, with any group-rights model comes a concern for limited individual freedom in regard to one’s religious commitments.[^20] In other words, challenging one's religious affiliation was virtually unheard of in the *millet* model; one was expected to follow the tradition one inherited and to fulfill the responsibilities set by the patriarch. Hence, proselytization and apostasy were, under certain conditions, criminal offenses.[^21] Adherents to liberal ideology, for this reason, may argue that this model curtails individual autonomy and consequently denies one the opportunity to think critically of their religion in their pursuit of the truth. This is presumably harmful for society since it removes rational thinking and choice, preventing individuals from pursuing their own interests for the sake of the larger society.[^22] The problem with this line of thinking is that it assumes that every individual can properly assess what is good and is constantly seeking the benefit of their society.[^23] The group-rights model, on the other hand, presumes that the most powerful identity one holds is their religious affiliation. Since it was the absolute crux of holding society together, members of the community were expected to do everything they could to ensure the protection of that identity even if it overrode their own personal interests. Hence, there was no concern about the prohibition of proselytizing and apostasy since these were acts that would not merely harm the individual him or herself, but their community as a whole. So what does this all mean for us? Well, for one, it allows us to recognize that the *millet* system created a template that recognized collective liberties and formed tolerant societies, despite our assumption today that tolerance is impossible without individual autonomy.[^24] From a bigger picture standpoint, however, creating tolerance *between* groups was see as more important than promoting individual liberties *within* a group. Thus group-rights models form a social plurality that ensures the protection of each community at large. Recognizing this alternative form of creating a tolerant society does not, of course, require us to insist that it is the *only* form. In fact, we can acknowledge the success of this system while still advocating for the liberal model of individual autonomy, as Kymlicka himself has done. The point is to be careful and not simply denounce historical Islamic communal and religious organization as intolerant or oppressive. The *millet* standard was not only successful in preventing religious wars, but it also granted collective liberties (e.g., their own courts, the right to practice their religion without interference, etc.) to each religious minority community. --- ## From Group-Rights to Liberalism: The Tanzimat Reforms As early as the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire began to face direct threats to their power by multiple military losses to European forces in addition to countless internal political conflicts.[^25] Efforts under various sultans were carried out in order to reform the Ottoman administrative and military systems to protect the empire from defeat, with the assumption that their consistent failures were merely a result of not fully embodying the traditional Ottoman system. And so the Ottoman military remained stagnant in implementing reforms that could have combatted some of the newer and more effective methods of the European armed forces. Moreover, later, during the 18th century, Ottomans faced several devastating defeats at the hands of Russia. To make matters worse, notions of nationalism emerged and spread like wildfire throughout the Empire. Now the ruling body faced a number of nationalist uprisings by ethnic groups who sought to separate themselves from the Turks. Along with these separatist movements came the loss of land and mass murder amidst the fight for new identities and nation-states. Finally, as a result of increased globalization and trade, European presence and influence dramatically rose throughout Ottoman lands, causing both increased financial dependence on external powers as well as foreign influences on Ottoman practices. Some European states, for example, sought out Christian grievances, only to politically and economically interfere by allowing them to evade Ottoman laws and their duties as citizens.[^26] As European power increased, certain non-Muslim individuals sought protection from nations like Russia and France, thereby transforming their relationship with the Ottoman Empire to one of resident alien.[^27] Simultaneously taking advantage of their own government and that of foreign powers merely added to the political tensions that were soon to boil over. In light of these challenges, Ottoman leaders initiated a series of reforms that focused on both "centralization" of the military and administration, as well as  "Westernization" of the existing models. These reforms culminated in what is known as the *Tanzimat* (lit. "organizing") period during the mid-nineteenth century. One of the biggest amendments relevant to our discussion was the abolition of the *millet* system in favor of modern conceptions of citizenship. In 1839, the Imperial Edict of Gülhane acknowledged equal rights for both Muslims and non-Muslims before the law. Later in 1856, another imperial edict called for socio-economic reform by uniting the various educational systems formerly separated by religion. Finally, political rights were granted to all citizens in 1876, transforming the Empire into a "constitutional monarchy."[^28] The *Tanzimat* Period was a significant chapter in history: this was the moment the Ottoman Empire appeared to officially recognize the superiority of the West and its Enlightenment ideas. Only by adopting the great values espoused in the liberal and secular systems could this long-standing empire continue to progress as a nation. Or so it was assumed. Not surprisingly, the cookie-cutter European paradigm for the world did not fit so neatly on an empire founded on disparate values. The Ottoman state adopted reforms of citizenship not because they suddenly woke up one day and believed that their centuries-long effective *millet* system was now deeply flawed, thanks to Western ideals shedding light on the situation. In fact, the Europeans themselves, like the Ottomans who followed suit, were not actually concerned with establishing tolerance; rather, they were determined to institute state sovereignty and to direct their subjects’ loyalty to the nation-state.[^29] Ottomans, moreover, were troubled by the increasing loss of territory through provincial rebellions, which demanded the empire unify its fragmented polity.[^30] Along with a unified polity came the aim of fostering brotherhood among all Ottomans, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.[^31] Yet, as a result of this foreign strategy that demanded a melting pot over a pluralistic society, many of the Ottoman territories found it difficult to adjust to entirely different social, political, and economic standards overnight. In Syria in particular, where Muslim and Christian communities had co-existed for generations, tensions dramatically increased, and relations between Muslims and Christians as well as between Christians and Jews became severely polarized. Cevdet Paşa, an Ottoman statesman, described the reactions of the religious communities as follows:[^32] > *...As for the non-Muslims, this day, when they left the status of raya \[i.e. minorities\] and gained equality with the ruling millet, was a day of rejoicing. But the patriarchs and other spiritual chiefs were displeased, because their appointments were incorporated in the ferman \[royal decree\].* What was ultimately at stake throughout this transitional process was the unrecognized growing tension between establishing a legal and secular notion of statehood versus maintaining a national identity based on religion.[^33] Hence, as the nation-state developed, two systems—the political and religious—that were formerly (for the most part) independent, now had to consolidate and act as expressions of one another. --- ## Liberalism’s Vanity So if the group-rights model was a plausible and arguably more natural form of tolerance, why has Islamic history been tainted by accusations of brutality toward religious minorities?[^34] This question opens the door to a much larger concern: what lens are we using to evaluate Muslims’ treatment of religious minorities in the first place? Western democracies are defined by secular and liberal models. Political theorist Wendy Brown has extensively discussed the pitfalls of examining the concept of tolerance through these paradigms. The premise of liberal secularism, for example, is undergirded by a privatization and individualization of religion; any culture or society that promotes a public space for religion is therefore by definition considered intolerant.[^35] Liberalism, in other words, is the antonym of culture, because it is culture that calls for public religious expression and strips individuals of their liberties. Hence, liberalism masquerades as the culture-less doctrine that focuses on persons and ensures individual freedom.[^36] This is a myth, Brown claims, because liberalism, like every culture and ideology it criticizes, succumbs to both cultural and political influence.[^37] Yet, at the end of the day, since liberalism places itself above other doctrines and practices, it considers all other doctrines as intolerant or uncivilized.[^38] Accordingly, what complies with liberal standards is "mainstream" or "American" even though these concepts are steeped in Protestant dogmas. It is this form of tolerance, then, that has been upheld as the token of Western civilization and modernity, thereby granting the West both validity and authority in acting as agents in international affairs.[^39] As indirect recipients of this ideological disciplining, we have been led to believe that this form of tolerance is the only one that is legitimate; hence, we naturally consider all else, like the group-rights model, illegitimate. Saba Mahmood elaborates on these theories by calling out two contradictory aspects of the nation-state, which claims to be free of cultural and religious associations. For one, the modern state is heavily involved in religious regulation.[^40] Despite its claims to be irreligious, its inherent faith doctrines (read often in the West as Protestant norms) dictate which aspects of religion can and cannot be tolerated in the public sphere (e.g., polygamy versus same-sex marriage).[^41] Naturally, as a result of this subjective management, a second paradox arises: religious differences are intensified. These inconsistencies attest to liberalism's underlying goal of promoting sameness, or treating every individual equally under the law, while the ideology does not even hold itself to that standard.[^42] Tolerance, on the other hand, accepts and values difference; it does not attempt to insist that all religions are the same and therefore we should treat each other under the same metric that may not apply to everyone. Rather, it affirms these differences in theology and culture, and instead of labeling said differences as morally offensive or uncivilized, tolerance promotes and acknowledges a diverse system.[^43] --- ## Conclusion In my A.P. History class in high school, we made t-shirts to remember the year with “P.O.V.” printed in large letters on the back. These initials stood for “point of view.” If there was one thing we had taken away from that year-long intensive, it was that our conceptualization of history was entirely determined by our points of view. We were always taught to approach a text by asking: Who authored this book? In what time period were they writing? What social or political circumstances may have introduced biases into their description of history? It’s these same questions that I continue to ask myself when I approach critical moments that have shaped the past and present. Hence, when we consider concerns over “Islamic” approaches to tolerance and the minority question, we need to recognize the political and social ideologies that have contributed to our thought processes. We need to challenge the notion that liberty and tolerance can universally be defined as only one form throughout time and space. Just as importantly, we need to recognize the double standards our societies adopt: we cannot point an accusing finger to the past while turning a blind eye to the inequities faced by America’s non-citizens today. Islamic history is not free of fault; yet before engaging in discussions on the supposed intolerance of Islam, let us not forget the fact that it took the “enlightened” West almost a millennium before beginning to even consider the tolerance Muslim Empires had instituted centuries before. --- ## Notes [^1]: *Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History*, ed. Jon Cowans (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 145. [^2]: Ibid., 146. [^3]: Ibid., 145. [^4]: Ibid., 149. [^5]: This is not to imply that non-religious rule is free of fault. Because the focus is on medieval or classical histories, secularist rule is not considered in the current discussion. [^6]: Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, “Introduction” in *Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire*, eds. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, vol. I (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982), 12-13. [^7]: Kemal Karpat, “*Millets* and Nationality: The Roots of the Incongruity of Nation and State in the Post-Ottoman Era” in *Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire*, eds. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, vol. I (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982), 141. [^8]: Ibid., 142. [^9]: Ibid., 143. [^10]: Saba Mahmood, *Religious Difference in a Secular Age* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), 35. [^11]: Amnon Cohen, “On the Realities of the *Millet* System: Jerusalem in the Sixteenth Century” in *Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire*, eds. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, vol. II (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982), 12. [^12]: Ibid., 13. [^13]: Will Kymlicka, “Two Models of Pluralism and Tolerance,” in *Toleration: An Elusive Virtue*, ed. David Heyd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 82. [^14]: Ibid., 83. [^15]: Ibid., 84. [^16]: Ibid., 85. [^17]: Ibid., 86. [^18]: Mahmood, 33. [^19]: Kymlicka, 87. [^20]: Ibid. [^21]: This was true in the Muslim community as well. [^22]: Ibid., 88. [^23]: Ibid., 89. [^24]: Ibid., 93. [^25]: Stanford J. Shaw and Gökhan Çetinsaya, "Ottoman Empire" in *The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World*. [^26]: Mahmood, 40. [^27]: Braude and Lewis, 32-3. [^28]: Shaw and Çetinsaya, "Ottoman Empire.” [^29]: Mahmood, 25. [^30]: Mahmood, 39. [^31]: Moshe Maʿoz, “Communal Conflicts in Ottoman Syria during the Reform Era: The Role of Political and Economic Factors” in *Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire*, eds. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, vol. II (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982), 91. [^32]: As cited in Braude and Lewis, 30. [^33]: Karpat, 144. [^34]: Look no further than Robert Spencer’s *The Myth of Islamic Tolerance* (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2005). [^35]: Wendy Brown, *Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 21. [^36]: Ibid., 21-2. [^37]: Ibid., 23. [^38]: Ibid., 7. [^39]: Ibid., 37. [^40]: Mahmood, 2. [^41]: Ibid., 2, 4. “Conventionally, tolerance is adduced for beliefs or practices that may be morally, socially, or ideologically offensive but are not in direct conflict with the law...Laws of course may be changed in the name of greater tolerance, as in the repeal of antimiscegenation or antisodomy laws, or in the name of less tolerance, as in laws banning same-sex marriage or restricting abortion. But in each case, the negotiation is between what is deemed a private or individual choice appropriately beyond the reach of law (hence tolerable) and what is deemed a matter of the public interest (hence not a matter of tolerance)” Mahmood, 12. [^42]: Brown, 36. [^43]: Brown, 12, 36; Mahmood, 36. ## Summary Muslims and Muslim rulers are frequently charged with intolerance and oppression toward religious minorities, yet a careful examination of history reveals a very different reality. To understand this, one must first look at how dominant religious powers other than the Muslims treated those under their authority. In 1609, King Philip III of Spain issued a decree expelling all remaining Moriscos—the Spanish Muslims who had been forcibly converted to Christianity during the Reconquista of 1492 under King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella. The decree warned that any who remained could be arrested, stripped of their goods, or even killed. Facing military losses against Dutch rebels and fearful that these converts still secretly practiced Islam, Philip III redirected his people's attention toward this "internal enemy," forcing nearly three hundred thousand Moriscos into exile. This persecution was not unique to Spain. In twelfth-century France, the Catholic Church launched inquisitions against heretical sects and religious minorities, a systematic form of oppression that eventually reached Spain centuries later. During the Spanish Inquisition, both Jews and Muslims who remained after forced conversion or expulsion became objects of severe regulation. So intense was this suppression that even prominent Christian leaders spoke against it: the Archbishop of Seville in 1610 called upon the king to show compassion to the innocent and revise his decree, though his pleas were ignored, and communities that had lived in Spain for seven centuries were left with no choice but to depart. Such documented histories are rarely discussed, perhaps because they expose Christian intolerance, while Muslims and Muslim rulers are made the archetypal example of oppressive regimes. This is not accidental, and it invites two central questions: whether the Islamic system governing religious minorities was truly oppressive in its historical context, and, if not, what ideological frameworks have produced the belief that Islamic regimes are especially intolerant. The foundations of minority treatment in Muslim lands were established early: upon conquest, non-Muslims were either bound by a mutual *ṣulḥ* agreement or granted the status of *dhimmīs*, protected minorities. Becoming a *dhimmī* guaranteed safety, exemption from military service, and freedom to practice one's religion in exchange for the *jizyah* (poll-tax) and loyalty to the state. Under Ottoman rule, this developed into the formal *millet* system, which organized religious and ethnic communities and defined their legal autonomy. Though the system preserved the Empire's unity and productivity, and though Muslims held the highest status, the Ottomans—in stark contrast to former Christian empires—never sought to erase religious or ethnic identities through mass forced conversions. A defining feature was the appointment of a patriarch for each community, chosen by his own people to ensure his authority rested on their respect and obedience. He answered both to his Ottoman supervisor, usually the chief *qāḍī*, and to his congregation, resolving their complaints and, for instance, granting financial aid to those unable to pay the *jizyah* while submitting the tax collectively. Modern theorists have judged this model deficient. The political philosopher John Rawls, drawing on the liberal tradition, described religious tolerance as the individual's freedom to practice or change his religion at will—a freedom of conscience held to be the pinnacle of human rights. Yet Will Kymlicka challenged this assumption, proposing instead a group-rights model in which communities, rather than individuals, serve as self-governing units granted collective rights and responsibilities. On this view, the *millet* system effectively secured religious liberties for whole communities, even while restricting an individual's ability to change or dissent from his inherited faith. The Greek and Armenian Orthodox communities and the Jews enjoyed self-government and legal autonomy, though they faced limits on public religious expression, such as distinctive dress and a prohibition on proselytizing. Through this system, deeply committed to conservative and theocratic values and uniting "church and state," the Ottoman Empire ruled diverse territories for nearly half a millennium while avoiding religious wars and large-scale persecution—leading Kymlicka to conclude that the *millet* model "is arguably the more natural form of religious tolerance." Notably, such toleration existed before England's Toleration Act, and it was only with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 that Europe ended a century-long struggle over whether subjects could hold a faith different from their ruler's. Every group-rights model raises the concern of limited individual freedom, for challenging one's religious affiliation was virtually unheard of; proselytization and apostasy were, under certain conditions, criminal offenses. Liberal thinkers argue this curtails autonomy and the freedom to think critically about one's faith. But this reasoning assumes that every individual can properly assess what is good and always seeks his society's benefit. The group-rights model instead presumes that religious affiliation is the most powerful identity a person holds and the very crux of holding society together, so that protecting it justly overrides personal interest—rendering the prohibition of proselytizing and apostasy sensible, since these acts harm not merely the individual but the whole community. Recognizing this does not require insisting it is the only valid form of tolerance; one may acknowledge its success while still advocating individual autonomy, as Kymlicka himself does. The point is caution: we should not carelessly denounce historical Islamic communal organization as intolerant, for the *millet* standard both prevented religious wars and granted genuine collective liberties, including separate courts and unhindered religious practice. From the seventeenth century onward, the Ottomans faced military defeats, internal conflict, and later devastating losses to Russia. Nationalist movements spread, provoking separatist uprisings and the loss of land, while rising European influence brought financial dependence and foreign interference—European states cultivated Christian grievances to help minorities evade Ottoman law, some non-Muslims even seeking foreign protection and becoming, in effect, resident aliens. In response came the *Tanzimat* ("organizing") reforms of the mid-nineteenth century, which centralized and "Westernized" the state. The *millet* system was abolished in favor of modern citizenship: the Imperial Edict of Gülhane in 1839 declared Muslims and non-Muslims equal before the law, the 1856 edict united the separate educational systems, and by 1876 political rights transformed the Empire into a constitutional monarchy. Yet these reforms were adopted not from a genuine conviction that the centuries-old *millet* system had failed, but to secure state sovereignty and channel loyalty toward the nation-state. The Europeans themselves, it should be noted, were likewise not truly concerned with tolerance. The demand for a melting pot over a pluralistic society bred new tensions; in Syria, where Muslims and Christians had long coexisted, relations became severely polarized. The Ottoman statesman Cevdet Paşa observed that while non-Muslims rejoiced at gaining equality, "the patriarchs and other spiritual chiefs were displeased, because their appointments were incorporated in the ferman." At stake was the unrecognized tension between a secular notion of statehood and a national identity grounded in religion. Why, then, has Islamic history been stained with accusations of brutality if the group-rights model was arguably a more natural form of tolerance? The answer lies in the lens through which such history is judged. Western democracies are defined by secular and liberal models, and, as the theorist Wendy Brown has argued, liberal secularism rests upon the privatization of religion, so that any society permitting a public religious space is automatically deemed intolerant. Liberalism thus masquerades as a culture-less doctrine devoted to individual freedom—yet this, Brown contends, is a myth, for liberalism is as subject to cultural and political influence as any ideology it criticizes. By placing itself above all others, it brands every other doctrine as intolerant or uncivilized, elevating its own norms—steeped in Protestant assumptions—as the standard of civilization and modernity, thereby granting the West authority in international affairs. Saba Mahmood extends this by exposing two contradictions of the supposedly neutral nation-state: it is in fact heavily involved in regulating religion, its underlying Protestant norms deciding which practices may be tolerated (polygamy versus same-sex marriage), and this subjective management only intensifies religious difference. Such inconsistencies reveal liberalism's aim of enforcing sameness, whereas true tolerance accepts and values difference rather than insisting all religions be measured by a single metric. History is always understood through a point of view, shaped by the author's time, circumstances, and biases. When we consider "Islamic" approaches to tolerance and the minority question, we must recognize the political and social ideologies shaping our judgments and challenge the notion that liberty and tolerance have only one valid form across all time and place. We must also confront our own double standards, unable to accuse the past while ignoring the inequities faced by non-citizens today. Islamic history is not without fault; yet before charging Islam with intolerance, one should remember that it took the "enlightened" West nearly a millennium to begin considering the very tolerance that Muslim empires had instituted centuries before. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-fate-of-non-muslims-perspectives-on-salvation-outside-of-islam # The Fate of Non-Muslims: Perspectives on Salvation Outside of Islam **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 7, 2018 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Abstract What is the fate of non-Muslims after death? This essay lays out three different answers that Muslims have proposed regarding non-Muslims who have had the message of Islam reliably presented to them (since those who have not are not considered responsible) : 1) the view that Islam is the only true religion and those who reject it cannot attain salvation except if God wills it; 2) moral theism, which holds that salvation awaits all those who believe in God and do good deeds; and 3) Perennialism, the belief that all religions revealed by God are valid paths to truth and salvation. This essay presents the main evidence mustered by each approach as well as the principal criticisms leveled against each of them. It concludes by suggesting that anxiety over the fate of Muslims and non-Muslims after death is best assuaged by trusting in God’s total justice and immense mercy. --- ## Do All Good People Go to Heaven? When my father died almost two years ago, my young son, who was then just barely old enough to have formed memories of ‘Sidu Jonathan,’ asked where he had gone. All I could think to say was that his grandfather had gone to *al-Akhira*, the Hereafter. What is *al-Akhira*? It’s a wonderful place, I answered, in another world. My father was Christian. He rarely talked about religion, but he went to church weekly. And he was a good man. What was my father’s fate when his soul exited his body? The truth is I don’t know. So why did I tell my son he had gone to Heaven? What else could I say? The influential French sociologist Emile Durkheim (d. 1917) developed a theory that religion and society were effectively one and the same. Communal identity and group solidarity weren’t just affected by religion or aspects of it, they were its very heart and purpose. Religions functioned to unite and bind together community, dividing ‘us’ and ‘them’ with the language of the sacred and profane, heaven and hell. A century ago, a Czech ethnographer named Alois Musil (d. 1944) travelled around what is today northern Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria, documenting the life and cultures of the Bedouins he encountered. He observed that the Rwala Bedouins believed that the Afterlife was divided into Paradise, which was a place “below ground” with plentiful rain, where all the Rwala went and dwelled prosperously; and Hell, which was, not coincidentally, a place above ground, scorched by the sun, where all the non-Rwala ended up. (FYI: The Rwala did not even identify with Islam, noted Musil. They dismissed it as a “weak” religion that could not alleviate the suffering of the settled townsfolk who followed it).[^1] We might find the Rwala conviction laughable. After all, religions are about beliefs, faith, morals, etc. But even adherents of the world’s great faiths all too easily lapse into communitarianism à la Durkheim. In 2015 a hysterically funny Egyptian YouTube faux-talk show, ‘What’s Behind the Crutains (sic) (*Mā warā’ al-Kawālīs*),’ skewered such thinking in Egyptian society. After over a dozen young men died in a nightclub fire, the host of the show had a mock interview with the bar’s ‘owner.’ Describing the victims, the faux-owner rasped, “These youths were martyrs, who will enter Heaven.” Asked by the host how he’d concluded this, he replied, “Aren't they Egyptians? When Egyptians die, don’t we call them martyrs? So why not these guys?!” If Rwala beliefs seem laughable, this satire points out the kitschy nationalism behind the common claim that all those who die for the home/father/mother-land are martyrs. But many Americans are not far off. A 2005 survey of American teens found that, across faiths, young Americans tended to share a common understanding of religion. The authors dubbed it Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and its main features are: - A God exists who created the world and watches over human life - God wants people to be good, kind, and fair to each other, as taught by most world religions - The main goal of life is to be happy - There is no need for God to be particularly involved in one’s life, except when He is needed to resolve a problem - Good people go to heaven when they die.[^2] Of course, we can easily substitute ‘good people’ with ‘people we like’ or ‘people close to us’; in short, people in our community. Believing that only followers of one’s own religion go to heaven, the authors noted, was suspect among American youth.[^3] Now, I do not share Durkheim’s view, nor do I believe that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is the best way to approach religion. Religion is not just about being a ‘good person,’ in large part because it’s immensely difficult to know what that is supposed to mean—so difficult, in fact, that God has sent revelation to aid us in doing so. Nor is religion just about ‘our group’ being the good guys and going to heaven, while the bad guys go to hell. If by religion one means the belief that an eternal and all-powerful entity and order lies behind our created world, both beyond it and yet also closer to us than our jugular vein (Qur'an 50:16), allowing us to fulfill our purpose and find peace in recognizing and obeying it, then, no, religion is not just about society. Society is just an aspect of the created world and an element of human life. And if it seems hard to think of anything meaning more than community—or to strip it to its barest and most visceral—than the bond between parent and child, then that’s just because the life of our world is but an alluring veil over this ultimate Reality, nothing more than “play, vanity, an ornament, boasting amongst yourselves and rivalry for gain in money and kin” (Qur'an 57:20). Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is, first and foremost, pragmatic. Religion is fine, the youth said, as long as it helps *you* and gives *you* meaning. Otherwise, who are we to judge?[^4] But this is not the position of the great world religions. They are not self-help programs. They are (or at least claim to be) the only correct windows onto ultimate truth. As the great historian Marshall Hodgson wrote, they demand “exclusive historical commitment.”[^5] My loving someone or thinking they’re a good person is meaningless as regards their standing before God and their salvation. So the question is there, and the pain is real: my heart longs for those I love, those I know to be good, to be guaranteed supreme peace in eternity. But is that what my religion says will happen? How do we reconcile our feeling that it’s wrong for good people not to attain salvation after death simply because they follow the wrong religion with the claim of many religions that only their followers will attain salvation? How should Muslims resolve this conundrum? --- ## Those Ignorant of Islam Before we can answer this, three important points need to be made. First, regardless of what it means for one’s fate in the Afterlife, the division of Muslim and non-Muslim has concrete meaning for the daily life of Muslims. Quite apart from one’s eternal fate, being a Muslim entails certain duties, relationships, rights, and obligations in *this* world. And, however merciful God might be, in this world we operate on people’s external professions of faith. For earthly purposes, in the Islamic tradition people who profess Islam are called Muslims, and those who do not profess Islam are called unbelievers (*kuffār*). This distinction has no *necessary* link to one’s actual faith or fate in the Afterlife. And disapproval of people’s outward professions of faith need not in any way condemn or even negatively color our interactions with them. As the Qur'an says, “God does not prohibit you from being good and dealing justly with those who have not fought you in your religion or driven you from your homes” (Qur'an 60:8). Moreover, the Prophet ﷺexplained that one’s neighbor has rights whether they are Muslim or not. He said: > *The rights of a neighbor are that, if he falls sick you visit him, if he dies you follow his funeral procession, if he asks you for a loan you lend to him, if he is in need you assist him, if good befalls him you congratulate him, if misfortune befalls him you console him, that you not build your house up above his, blocking out the breeze, and that you not afflict him with the aroma of your cooking pot without offering him some.*[^6] Here it is useful to recall the distinction that Muslim scholars have made between internal ‘Foundational Faith (*īmān fiṭrī*)’ and ‘Legal Faith (*īmān sharʿī*).’[^7] The first is the true, actual nature of a person’s faith, known to them and God alone. The second is their faith-as-community-identification. So a random Muslim (let’s call him Ahmad al-Doe) is assumed to be Muslim for purposes of law: Ahmad al-Doe has the rights and responsibilities of a Muslim. Ahmad al-Doe will be buried in a Muslim graveyard, etc. Whether or not this legal status reflects Ahmad’s true, internal faith is a separate matter that we cannot know. He might well be an atheist in reality. Muslims are instructed by the Prophet ﷺ to accept outward professions of faith and not to seek to plumb the inner recesses of others’ hearts. When a man in Medina asked the Prophet’s permission to kill some of the *Munafiqun*, those Hypocrites in Medina who professed Islam outwardly but whom the Qur'an exposed as deceitful unbelievers (Qur'an 4:60-63, 140-46), the Prophet ﷺ prohibited him. It was a person’s external profession of faith and outward performance of the prayer, regardless of how insincere they might be, that qualified that person as a Muslim.[^8] Conversely, a person whose legal identity is Christian is classified as an unbeliever in Islamic law; they are not buried in a Muslim cemetery, etc. But they might be a true monotheist and moral exemplar who just never heard the message of Islam and someone who God will reward with a place in the Garden. This distinction between Internal Faith and Legal Faith arises in an interesting *fatwa* given by the great Tunisian scholar Muhammad Tahir Ibn ʿAshur (d. 1973). Asked if a Muslim man can marry a Christian woman even if that woman is, in actuality, an atheist, Ibn ʿAshur replied that as long as the woman doesn’t explicitly say she’s an atheist, she’s assumed to belong to the religious community she grew up in.[^9] A second important point is that Heaven (generally referred to as the Garden in the Qur'an) and Hell (generally referred to as the Fire) are not two simple categories, like First Class and economy. As the Qur'an alludes to in its reference to various levels of Heaven and Hell, punishment and reward differ according to a person’s faith and deeds. As the great scholar al-Ghazali (d. 1111) describes, “The levels of people vary in the degrees of pain and pleasure in innumerable ways.” There are, in effect, as many different levels of Heaven and Hell as there are people, since each person will be judged with absolute and exact justice.[^10] Finally, the third and perhaps most important point is a basic principle of Islamic theology: people are not accountable for things outside their control. In this case, what that means is that the question ‘Are religions other than Islam valid?’ simply doesn’t apply to people who never hear about Islam. One school of Islamic theology, the Maturidi school, holds that even if a person lived on a desert island with no access to any religious instruction they are still expected to arrive at a belief in the Creator by use of reason alone. But this person would not be faulted for not following *Islam* as we know it since they had never been informed of it. The other schools of theology in Islam go even further: God will [not punish people](http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php) for not believing in Him or for not following His chosen religion if they had no reliable access to the revelation of a prophet. How exactly God would evaluate the fate of such people in the Afterlife is disagreed on, with some questionable *hadiths* describing how these people will be asked to vault over fires on the Day of Judgment, and other scholars simply saying that God will judge them in just and fair terms unknown to us.[^11] People who’ve had no true access to God’s religion are known as the *Ahl al-Fatra*, roughly translatable as ‘People of Times of Weakened Prophecy.’ They are those people who live in a time and place that the message of God’s prophets has not *reliably*[^12] reached. The notion of the *Ahl al-Fatra* is based on the wording of Qur'an 5:19 and the principle laid out in Qur'an 17:15, namely that, “No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another, and We would not punish \[a people\] until We had sent a messenger.” That those who died in a time of weakened prophecy will be judged independently on the Day of Judgment is also affirmed in a *hadith* referring to the *Ahl al-Fatra*, which is found in the Sahih of Ibn Hibban (d. 965) and other less rigorous collections (al-Suyuti considered its various narrations to be *hasan* and al-Albani ranked it as *sahih*).[^13] There are several questions around the issue of the *Ahl al-Fatra*. If people have had no exposure to a revealed message at all, then clearly they can’t be held accountable for not heeding it. But what about people who hear about a prophet’s message but don’t have reliable information about it or only come across misrepresentations? This is highly pertinent when we think about the *Ahl al-Fatra* since the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Some Native Americans in the first decades of US history might have heard British colonists talking about some foreign religion called Islam, but what they heard was probably not very accurate or positive. Would this count as them having heard the message of Islam to the extent that God would hold them accountable for not heeding it? Al-Ghazali and other Muslim scholars stated that, in order to be held accountable, one has to hear about Islam by reliable means and in a reasonably accurate way.[^14] So what about some American living in rural Nebraska who only hears the word Islam mentioned in the context of terrorism, the oppression of women, and images of graphic violence? Can we really say that this person should be expected to seek out more reliable information on Islam, let alone embrace the religion? The famous Salafi scholar of Yemen, Muqbil al-Wadi’i (d. 2001), concluded that the answer was no, and that the people of the US and Europe were a modern *Ahl al-Fatra*.[^15] A more dramatic position was taken by the influential early twentieth-century scholar Rashid Rida (d. 1935). He argued that people cannot be considered to have heard the message of Islam unless they heard it in an attractive and compelling way, an idea seconded more recently by Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Such people will be judged by God based on the standards of what they knew to be true and good.[^16] --- ## Three Approaches So now we’ve dealt with those who either never hear about Islam or know of it only as a religion of terror and violence. **But what about non-Muslims who are informed reliably and accurately about Islam’s teachings and yet do not convert? What is their fate in the Afterlife?** As far as I understand, three answers have been offered in the Islamic tradition. I describe them here, along with their main scriptural support and the questions they raise. Please note: at this point I’m not advocating any one of them. I am merely presenting them and trying to lay out arguments for and against them. Attention: to anyone accusing me of advocating one of these positions, read the previous two sentences. In the section that follows two issues will reappear. First, what is the status of someone who rejects Islam even after learning accurately about its message? If that person follows another religion, can it be considered a valid path to salvation? Second, even if other paths are not ‘true’ religions in comparison to Islam, would their followers still have any chance of eventually achieving salvation (perhaps after some period of punishment)? ### 1\. Islam is the Only Path This school of thought is exclusive. It holds that only by embracing the message of the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, only by adopting the religion we know of as Islam, can one attain salvation in the Hereafter. One must fulfill the three parts of faith (*īmān*): affirmation in one’s heart, bearing testimony with one’s tongue (or, if unable, with a gesture), and undertaking actions to realize one’s declaration. Otherwise, one is condemned. We see evidence for this in Qur'anic verses like: - “Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and he shall be in the Hereafter among the lost.” (3:85) - “Truly religion in the sight of God is Islam.” (3:19) - “But whoever opposes the Messenger, after guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a way other than that of the believers, We shall leave him on \[the path\] he has taken, and We shall cause him to burn in Hell—what an evil journey’s end! (4:115, see also 48:13). This has been the position of  almost all Muslim scholars across the board for fourteen hundred years, and it is the position of all traditional schools of Islamic theology without exception.[^17] Embracing Islam is the only path to salvation and the only attainment of truth. ### 2\. Belief in God and Doing Good Deeds One might call this the moral theism school of thought. It holds that anyone who believes in God and does good deeds can attain salvation. Its main evidence in the Qur’an are the verses: - “Indeed, those who believe, and the Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, those who believe in God and the Last Day and work righteousness, they shall have their reward with their Lord; no fear need they have, neither shall they grieve.” (2:62) - Coming in between verses criticizing Christians and Jews for making claims of salvific exclusivity, God declares, “Nay, but whoever submits (*aslama*) themselves totally to God and does good, they will have their reward with their Lord, no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve.” (2:112) There are also *hadiths*, such as: - “Whoever says ‘There is no god but God’ enters the Garden.”[^18] This is not a position easily located in the pre-modern Islamic tradition. Explicit advocates of this school of thought seem to have emerged only in the twentieth century, especially amongst Islamic Modernists. It has been tenuously (almost certainly incorrectly) attributed to Rashid Rida (d. 1935).[^19] The influential Pakistani modernist scholar Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988) clearly advanced this position. He argued that verses like Qur'an 2:62 are obvious expressions of the Qur'an’s anti-exclusionary ethos and concluded that the verses’ meaning was obvious: “that those—from any section of humankind—who believe in God and the Last Day and do good deeds are saved.” This was, for Rahman, an inevitable result of God’s boundless mercy.[^20] The most articulate defense of the moral theism position comes from the South African liberation theologian Farid Esack, who builds on Rahman’s argument and offers responses to its critics.[^21] Beyond the Qur'anic verses cited above, the Islamic argument for the moral theism school would go like this: God states in the Qur'an that every community has been sent a messenger (some 124,00 in all, according to a *hadith* in the *Musnad* of Ibn Hanbal).[^22] The core of God’s message is always the same, though the details might differ (“And we did not send any messenger before you except that We reveal to him ‘There is no deity other than God, so worship him (you plural),’” Qur’an 21:25). So an advocate of this school might argue that the world prior to the coming of Muhammad ﷺ was replete with people sincerely following the inherited teachings of those prophets, regardless of how badly those teachings might have been corrupted (such as the Christian belief that Jesus was God incarnate on earth). Followers who inherited those teachings could and did nonetheless excel in piety and devotion to God, as the Qur’an describes: > *And among the People of the Book is an upright community who recite God’s signs in the watches of the night while they prostrate. They believe in God and the Last Day, enjoin right and forbid wrong, and hasten unto good deeds. And they are among the righteous. Whatsoever good they do, they will not be denied it.* (Qur’an 3:113-115) This would seem to be a strong endorsement of the legitimacy of the religions of the People of the Book at least as they were practiced by some of their better adherents. This approach to moral theism has sometimes been termed covenant pluralism, which argues that the numerous covenants that God made with earlier communities through prophets like Moses and Jesus retain some degree of salvific validity even after the revelation of the Qur’an (we’ll discuss problems with this below). Another version of the moral theism argument generalizes ‘Islam’ itself. Its proponents argue that the above Qur'anic verses stressing that only ‘Islam’ will be accepted as a valid religion must be read in English not as Islam with a capital *I*, meaning the formal religious tradition, but rather as the Arabic *islam*, with a lower-case *i*, or the generic act of submission to God (Arabic does not have the capital/lower case distinction). By this reading, being a *muslim* and following *islam* is open to anyone who obeys God and seeks to be righteous. So any of those who believe in God and submit to His worship and do good deeds will attain salvation at some point. There are two serious flaws in the moral theism argument. First, some of the verses providing key proof for the exclusivist school seem to be statements made specifically to condemn Christians and Jews for refusing to embrace Muhammad ﷺ’s message. Verses like “Truly religion in the sight of God is Islam,” are immediately followed by criticisms of the People of the Book, upbraiding them for not heeding God’s final revelation (3:20-22). One could argue that these criticisms are only directed at certain deviant People of the Book (*farīq minhum*, mentioned in the next verse 3:23); i.e., the bad ones. But, as we’ll see below, the verses praising those pious folk among the People of the Book are conditioned on them then accepting the guidance God has sent with Muhammad ﷺ. It’s therefore hard then to read ‘*islam*’ in those verses as generic submission to God instead of a proper noun for a specific religion distinct from Christianity and Judaism. Second, ecumenical expressions in the Qur’an face the obstacle of the book’s revelation over the twenty-two years of the Prophet ﷺ’s career. Many verses referring to the People of the Book might well be overtures to Arabian Christians and Jews who were being presented with Muhammad ﷺ’s message for the first time. The Qur'an thus would offer confirmation of the revealed truth lying at the core of their religions, and even praising the pious and goodly among them, while also calling them to heed the Messenger whose revelation replaced theirs. If those Christians and Jews chose to ignore Muhammad ﷺ’s call to follow God’s final revelation, then they would be guilty of denying the truth regardless of how valid their belief and practice was prior to that. Muslim scholars over the centuries have understood verses such as ‘no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve’ either as referring only to those People of the Book who had also affirmed belief in Muhammad ﷺ’s message, or as being abrogated (*mansūkh*) by verses revealed later that stress Islam’s exclusive claim to truth and salvation.[^23] If they are abrogated, then verses such as “among the People of the Book is an upright community…They believe in God and the Last Day, they enjoin right and forbid wrong and hasten to goodly deeds…Whatsoever good they do, they will not be denied it” (3:113-115) should not be read as endorsements of prior religions or affirmations of their validity in the eyes of God even after the revelation of Muhammad ﷺ. Rather, they should be read as overtures to the People of the Book, but overtures that ceased to be valid for those Jews, Christians, etc. who learned about the Prophet’s message but chose to reject it. Farid Esack offers a response to this criticism, arguing that classical Muslim scholars suffered from a closed-mindedness regarding the Qur’an’s powerful ethos of religious recognition and proposing that the people that the Qur’an refers to as ‘those who believe’ are believers in all times and places regardless if they have heard of Islam or not.[^24] For this response to be valid, we would have to assume that this powerful ethos of religious recognition outweighed the severity of the People of the Book in question denying Muhammad ﷺ’s prophetic claims—denials made to the Prophet’s face. Other evidence against the moral theism school are numerous *hadiths* specifically describing how non-Muslim communities like Jews and Christians will be denied entrance into Heaven on the Day of Judgment. The most reliable *hadiths* (in the *Sahihayn*) describe a process by which those who worshipped false deities are condemned to Hellfire, with only those “who worship God, whether righteous or iniquitous” remaining to be judged. This group includes the Muslims and the People of the Book.[^25] The Christians and Jews will then be asked about their beliefs. They will be condemned for their false ones, such as the belief that Jesus is the son of God. The Muslims will follow the Prophet ﷺ across a great Bridge leading to the Gardens of Paradise, and he will also use his right of intercession (*shafāʿa*) to rescue sinners from among his community from punishment. As the Muslims cross the Bridge, some will pass safely, some will suffer torment on the Bridge because of their sins, and some will fall into Hellfire. An advocate of the moral theism school could respond that it is clearly established in the Sunna that even many sinful Muslims will suffer punishment in the Afterlife before earning their admission into some level of the Garden. A *hadith* in the *Sahihayn* states that God will order “‘Whoever had a mustard seed’s weight of faith in his heart, remove him \[from the Fire\],’ and they will be removed, having been burned and returning like coals. Then they will be thrown into the River of Life, and they will grow like a seed grows in the soil carried (*ḥamīl*) by floods.”[^26] So being destined for punishment in Hellfire is not necessarily an *eternal* sentence. The great scholar Ibn Hajar (d. 1449) described how a report in *Sahih al-Bukhari* about the Prophet ﷺ’s unbelieving uncle Abu Talib shows that even an unbeliever (*kāfir*) can have their punishment in the Hereafter reduced thanks to good deeds they had performed in life.[^27] Another argument that could be invoked by the moral theism school of thought is that the punishment in Hellfire is not eternal for anyone, and that Hellfire will eventually be extinguished and those suffering in it freed. This is due to the fact that, according to a sound *hadith*, God decreed before the creation of the universe that “My mercy overwhelms my anger.”[^28] This point was advanced by the famous scholars Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1351) (who may have been more agnostic on the point), and they used as their main evidence opinions to that fact from the Companions Umar and Ibn Masʿud (ra). God’s mercy, they proposed, was simply too overwhelming for any human to assert with confidence that He would damn people to eternal suffering.[^29] Later Sunni scholars were highly skeptical that Hellfire itself would one day be extinguished, responding that Companions like Umar had not meant that all those punished in Hellfire would be released but only those who upheld monotheism (*muwaḥḥidūn*).[^30] Some modern Muslim scholars, however, have revived the notion of ‘the extinction of the Fire,’ including the influential Rashid Rida.[^31] At any rate, the moral theism school would not apply to religions that do not call for the worship of the one God or to avowed atheists (though some, going back to seventeenth-century English Deists, have argued that humans are incapable of not believing in God; claiming to be an atheist really only means a rejection of one’s surrounding religious tradition).[^32] ### 3\. All True Paths Lead to the One An even broader approach to the questions of salvation and truth is sometimes known as the Perennialist school (so named because it holds that all celestial religions, those originally based on revelation from God, share a certain transcendental unity and truth even if their followers have corrupted them over time). It argues that, since God is the only and manifest Truth and Reality, and since all of His creation reflects His majesty and ultimately His unity, then, as the Qur'an states, “Unto Him belongs sovereignty over the heavens and the earth, and unto God are all matters returned” (57:5). This position emphasizes that the Qur’an refutes the claims of Jews and Christians that they alone are the beloved of God, asserting instead that “unto God is the journey’s end” (5:18). This approach acknowledges that the Qur’an and Sunna offer unmistakable criticisms of earlier religious communities and how they had perverted God’s true message. But some Perennialists would argue that these criticisms were directed only at the mainstreams of Christianity or Judaism, not at those Christians or Jews who continued to follow the original, celestially pure forms of those traditions. But so manifest is God’s total truth and reality that, like the sun, even what has been shrouded in shadow still catches some of its light. Although no pre-modern Muslim scholar that I know of seems to have explicitly taken this Perennialist position, advocates of Perennialism in the last century have argued that it is embedded in the complex writings of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240).[^33] The chief Qur’anic evidence for this school of thought are many of the same verses invoked by moral theism, and the main criticisms it faces are the same as well. First, the Qur’an seems to state clearly that the only religion acceptable to God is Islam, and this is the context in which this ‘Islam’ is contrasted with the religions of the People of the Book. Second, the remaining truth and salvific potential found in religions inherited from earlier prophets all cease to be valid if the followers of those faiths, having learned of the revelation of Muhammad ﷺ, choose to reject it. Ibn Arabi himself explains that these earlier prophets, had they lived during the time of Muhammad ﷺ, would have followed him, just as their laws and rituals would have followed those of Islam.[^34] There is a possible response to all this. Here I want to be clear that I am offering my own *hypothetical* speculation on this—I am not directly quoting any adherents in particular of the Perennialist school. The response is that the Qur'anic verses stressing the salvific exclusivity of Islam as well as any *hadiths* seconding them are all addressed to the masses. The verses asserting God’s total, all-encompassing and permeating Reality, as well as the verses explaining how those who ‘believe in God and do good deeds’ will be rewarded for their faith, are aspects of a higher truth comprehensible only to a spiritual and philosophical elite. If this were the case, it would be similar to Ibn Sina’s (d. 1037) argument that the Qur’an’s many references to bodily resurrection and the carnal pleasures of the Afterlife are only figurative images intended to attract the masses towards God’s message. In truth, Ibn Sina argued, the Afterlife was an abode of spiritual resurrection and punishment/reward. The main criticism—and it is a big criticism—of this potential explanation would be the same one directed at Ibn Sina by al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, and many others: it would mean that God was, in effect, lying in His revelation (or, to be more charitable, God was concealing the true breadth and depth of the Truth and all its aspects). It would mean that Qur’anic verses and reliable *hadiths* stressing Islam’s salvific exclusivity were just not true. It would also raise the question of how, if God was lying at points in His revelation, we would know whether or not we should believe other parts. Presuming we were this intended elite audience, what basis would we have for taking some parts at face value and others as fodder for the masses? How would we have realized that God had coded His revelations so that some evident meanings were actually false and the true meaning of others was clear only to us elect? We could only have known this via some access to ultimate truth outside of the revealed scriptures, in which case the real source of truth in our world would not be revealed scripture at all; it would be whatever instruction or wisdom that elect had received that enabled them to decode the true meaning of God’s revealed books. Would this truth have been known through reason alone (philosophy), or through direct experience with God (mysticism)? This notion of a perennial truth underlying all of God’s revelations throughout history, resident in the minds of philosophers and mystics wherever they might be and whatever the external features of their faith traditions, has been attractive to some in the Islamic and Western traditions. It imbues the ‘Illuminationist’ school of Sufis such as al-Suhrawardi (d. 1191) and of Western thinkers like Pico della Mirandola (d. 1494). If we adopted the ‘all paths lead to God’ worldview, it could lead in one of two directions. The first would be to conclude that, while all paths lead to God, some paths are shorter and more direct than others. Moreover, if one blended this approach with covenant pluralism, then only by following one of the established routes to ultimate divine truth could one efficiently reach it. One could not just be a ‘spiritual’ person; one would have to follow devoutly one of the revealed religions. The problem with this direction is that its validity cannot be proven by reference to the scriptural evidence of a religious tradition, since those scriptures (mostly) require adherence to the religion they preach in order to attain salvation, Hodgson’s “exclusive historical commitment.”[^35] This direction is certainly not provable using only the evidence provided in the Qur'an, since the Qur'an’s clear statements against it can only be disarmed if they are decoded by our spiritual elite. But it’s the validity of this spiritual elite and their claim to that status that we’re trying to prove! The second direction would be to conclude that, since ‘all paths lead to God,’ we can do whatever we want and believe whatever we want, since all truth is one and God is the final destination (though a scholar like Ibn Arabi would still insist that those who truly denied God would remain veiled from Him to a certain extent). On this premise, we could either embrace some sort of cosmic-hippydom, much skewered in Hollywood depictions of shallow yogis, soaking up and regurgitating whatever spiritual pablum we wanted. Or we could assume a state of elite salon transcendence, paying public lip service to the ritual and dogmatic commitments of whatever religion we claimed to follow while maintaining a private realization that these were mere superficialities, like Cicero (d. 43 BCE) or Edward Gibbon (d. 1794).[^36] The problem with the cosmic-hippydom course of action is that it would publicly undermine our initial premise: that God had revealed books like the Qur'an for the masses. Our cosmic hippydom would undermine the discipline that a scripture like the Qur’an instills in the masses with its declarations that only by following Islam’s system of belief and worship could one attain salvation. The problem with the elite salon transcendence course of action is that, like the first direction above, it assumes a source of truth and evidence for that truth outside of scripture. --- ## How I Deal with this Question The question of whether or not there lies salvation outside of Islam—or of any exclusive religion—is too daunting for any particular conclusions to be drawn (at least by me). We can discuss this issue in the abstract, but when it comes to specific individuals the tradition of Muslim scholars has been to withhold judgment. As one scholarly saying goes: > *No, do not rule that anyone will go to the Garden,* > > *Nor to the Fire, if you seek \[to follow\] the Sunna.*[^37] We can pass judgment on the correctness or falsity of religions, but we do not know the fate of the individual people who follow those religions. This principle can be found early on in Islamic history in a statement by the Companion Ibn Abbas (ra): “It is not fitting for anyone to pass judgment on \[how\] God \[rules\] on His creation, nor to assign them to the Garden or the Fire (*lā yanbaghī li-aḥad an yaḥkuma ʿalā Allāh fī khalqihi wa lā yunazzilahum jannatan wa lā nāran*).”[^38] This withholding judgment is called for by God’s immense mercy and compassion for His creation, something affirmed at the beginning of every chapter (but one) of the Qur’an. The Prophet ﷺ can only put forth parables to communicate the vastness of this mercy and compassion. In one *hadith*, the Prophet ﷺ speaks of a woman who had lost her child and was going around holding and breastfeeding any child she could. He asked his followers, “Do you think that this woman could throw her child into the Fire?” Of course not, they replied. The Prophet ﷺ responded, “God is more compassionate towards His slaves than she is to her child.”[^39] Because of the enormity of God’s mercy, and because the scope of His cosmic justice so far exceeds our ken, the result is that we cannot know who will enter Heaven and who will not. Muhammad ﷺ once told a parable of two Jews in ancient times, one of whom was pious and admirable and the other of whom was an open sinner. The righteous man would tell his friend to amend his ways, to which the sinful man would reply, “Leave me be, me and my Lord.” Finally, the pious man told his friend, “God will never forgive you or allow you to enter the Garden of Heaven.” When both their souls were taken upon death God said to the pious man, “Did you know Me or control My power?” God bestowed His ultimate clemency and Paradise upon the iniquitous man and condemned the otherwise pious man to Hell for the sin of arrogance.[^40] The moral of this parable is clear: we cannot know how God will judge any mortal, and it is sheer hubris to delimit His mercy. If one follows the scholarly tradition of Islam, transmitted and elaborated from the time of the Prophet ﷺ until today, then it is clear which of the above three positions is correct: Islam is the only valid religion in the eyes of God. Of course, those vast swaths of humanity who preceded the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in human history will be judged according to the extent to which their faith and conduct met the standards set by the prophets and messengers sent to them. And, of course, those people who lived in times or places which revelation did not reliably reach, or those who have lived after the time of Muhammad ﷺ but who have not received a reliable and accurate understanding of Islam will not be held accountable for not embracing that religion. They will be judged justly on the Day of Judgment by God on terms fair and known to Him. This leaves the question of how we should understand the fate of people who have insisted on retaining their religious beliefs and practices despite their having understood fully the true teachings of Islam. Here one massive question looms: does one believe that accepting the specific religious message of Muhammad ﷺ, as it has been preserved and transmitted down to our times, is so important that rejecting it means suffering eternally in Hellfire, whether that punishment is physical or a spiritual alienation from God? Put more simply, is believing in Islam so important that you’re willing to declare that non-Muslims have no hope for peace in the Afterlife? For those who live in majority-Muslim societies, this question does not present itself daily except to those who choose to ponder it. But it is a regular one to Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim societies, where loved ones and friends know about their religion but choose not to embrace it. It is the tremendous injustice that may well loom in this claim that so troubled Lord Cherbury (d. 1648) in his influential deist treatise *De Veritate* (1624). He wrote, about condemning non-Christians to perdition, that truth must be more expansive than what the Church claimed for those who followed Christ alone. If one could not earn God’s grace from worship and penitence in whatever guise or specific religious garb it might appear, “then God had created and condemned certain men, in fact the larger part of the human race, not only without their desire but without their knowledge.”[^41] Similarly, in his essay on the Prophet ﷺ as a ‘great man’ in human history, the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle (d. 1881) insisted that his audience take the Qur'an and Muhammad’s claim to prophecy seriously, saying that it was simply inappropriate to dismiss, “this which so many creatures of the Almighty have lived by and died by…”[^42] The most compelling argument for a more expansive salvific vision in Islam hinges on the Self-proclaimed nature of God Himself. Not only does the Prophet ﷺ report that God’s mercy supersedes His anger, but God also instructs the Prophet to tell his followers that, “Your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself.”[^43] God declared in the Qur’an, “My punishment, I strike with it those whom I wish. And my mercy encompasses all things.”[^44] The Qur’an instructs the Prophet ﷺ to, ‘Say: O my servants who have trespassed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of God, for indeed God forgives all sins, indeed He is most forgiving and merciful.”[^45] Thus God can forgive even the worst of sinners. “O child of Adam,” the Prophet ﷺ reports from God in another *hadith* in the *Sunan* of al-Tirmidhi, “even if your sins reached as high as the ladders of the sky, and then you asked My forgiveness, I would forgive you.”[^46] Certainly, the Qur'an warns that God does not forgive the sin of *shirk* (4:48). But as Ibn Taymiyya and others have pointed out, this statement must be qualified to a certain extent because God also gives the good tidings, “Do not despair of the mercy of God, for indeed God forgives *all* sins, indeed He is most forgiving and merciful” (emphasis mine, Qur'an 39:53). This must at the very least mean that God forgives those who commit *shirk* but then repent.[^47] The British Muslim scholar T. J. Winter has suggested another brilliant approach. Reconciling the scriptural evidence for Islam’s salvific exclusivity with the compelling need to believe that God’s mercy will bring peace to righteous non-Muslims should not be done by trying to wiggle out of that scriptural evidence. The answer lies in embracing it fully. Winter points out that the key may lie in the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s promised intercession on the Day of Judgment, intercession that Winter argues may well be effectively inexhaustible and available to all mankind. As the Prophet ﷺ says in a *hadith* in *Sahih al-Bukhari*, “I was given intercession. And \[while\] a prophet \[before\] was sent specifically to his own people, I have been sent to the people overall.”[^48] In another *hadith* he states, “Indeed I hope to intercede on the Day of Resurrection like the number of trees and clay.”[^49] Finally, the Prophet ﷺ states that, “My intercession is for those who testify that there is no god but God, sincerely, their heart true to their tongue and their tongue true to their heart.”[^50] Winter also cites the famous Indian-Yemeni scholar al-Zabidi (d. 1791) that “it is possible” that some of the Prophet ﷺ’s intercession will be for all religious communities.[^51] But how do we reconcile the tremendous emphasis on God’s mercy with the evidence that the Qur'an and Sunna provide for salvation coming through Islam alone? How do we reconcile, on one hand, the repeated declaration that it is only belief in the one God and doing good deeds that can secure someone peace in the eternity after death, with, on the other hand, how clearly we see the moral virtue and excellence in many non-Muslims we interact with every day? In my opinion, one can only reconcile this through a complete trust in God’s justice. As the Qur'an says on three occasions, “God does not wrong any of the slaves (i.e., human beings)” (3:182, 8:51, 22:10). The Prophet ﷺ explains that, when fates are apportioned in the Afterlife, “God does not wrong anyone of His creation.”[^52] Commenting on this *hadith*, al-Nawawi (d. 1277) adds, “Injustice is impossible for God’s truth.”[^53] With this firmly in mind, we can say with confidence and inner ease that, while we do not know the fate awaiting any one person after death, no one will be wronged before the “Best of judges” (95:8). **Recommended Reading: [Salvific Exclusivity by Dr. Yasir Qadhi](https://muslimmatters.org/2014/04/11/salvific-exclusivity-i-shaykh-yasir-qadhi/)** --- ## Notes [^1]: Alois Musil, *The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins* (New York: American Geographical Society, 1928), 479, 674-75. [^2]: Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, *South Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 162-63; Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option (New York: Sentinel, 2017), 10. [^3]: Smith and Denton, *Soul Searching*, 170. [^4]: Smith and Denton, *Soul Searching*, 163. [^5]: Marshall Hodgson, *The Venture of Islam* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 1:29. [^6]: This *hadith* is considered weak by many scholars, but Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī states that it has a basis (aṣl) from the Prophet ﷺ. See Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī, *Itḥāf al-sāda al-muttaqīn bi-sharḥ Iḥyā’ ʿulūm al-dīn*, 10 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Tārīkh al-ʿArabī, 1994), 6:308–309. [^7]: Ḥamd al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan* (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya, 1981), 4:325. [^8]: *Muwaṭṭa’* of Mālik: *kitāb qaṣr al-ṣalāt fī al-safar, bāb jāmiʿ al-ṣalāt*. [^9]: Muḥammad Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr, *Fatāwā al-shaykh al-imām Muḥammad Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr*, ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Bū Zughayba (Dubai: Markaz Jumʿat al-Mājid li’l-Thaqāfa wa’l-Turāth, 2004), 366. [^10]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *The Incoherence of the Philosophers*, trans. Michael Marmura (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1997), 212; *idem, Iḥyā’ ʿulūm al-dīn*, ed. Muḥammad Wahbī Sulaymān and Usāma ʿAmmūra (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2006), 4:2476-77. [^11]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ḥāwī li’l-fatāw*ī, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 2:404; Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, #1434, #2468. One narration reads ‘*arbaʿa yawm al-qiyāma yudlawn bi-ḥujja rajul aṣamm lā yasmaʿu wa rajul aḥmaq wa rajul harim wa man māta fī al-fatra*…and that even if they entered the Fire it would be cool and tranquil for them. This is found in the *Ṣaḥīḥ* of Ibn Ḥibbān, the *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal (Maymaniyya printing), 4:24 and other collections. A second version explains that their fate will depend on whether God had ordained salvation (*saʿāda*) or perdition (*shaqāwa*) for them. Another version, found in the *Musnad* of Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī (*yu’tā bi-arbaʿa yawm al-qiyāma…; or arbaʿa yaḥtajjūn yawm al-qiyāma*…) is cited as proof for the existence of the *Ahl al-Fatra* category by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī; al-Ashʿarī, *al-Ibāna ʿan uṣūl al-diyāna*, ed. Fawqiyya Ḥusayn Maḥmūd (Cairo: Dār al-Anṣār, 1977), 33. This latter version of the *hadith* contains a section describing how the *Ahl al-Fatra* will be judged by God by being asked to jump through a fire. This element caused some controversy and disagreement. The famous Andalusian judge and *hadith* scholar Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 1070) rejected this version completely. He argues that, though this narration has sound (*ṣaḥīḥ*) *isnāds*, it is not widely transmitted enough or free enough of flaws in transmission (*ʿilal*) to establish the “major principle” it claims. And it is contradicted by other principles that are too well known. First of all, the Afterlife is not “a site for acts/deeds, it is a site of reward/punishment. So how could God order a person who never heard a messenger to do an act to prove belief?” For Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, how the *Ahl al-Fatra* are dealt with is a matter of God’s divine decree and power (*qadar*) that we should not get into; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Amīn Qalʿajī (Beirut: Dār Qutayba, 1993), 8:404; idem, *al-Tamhīd li-mā fī al-Muwaṭṭa’ min al-maʿānī wa’l-asānīd*, ed. Muṣṭafā Aḥmad al-ʿAlawī and Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Kabīr al-Bakrī, 2nd ed., 26 vols. (Rabat: Wizārat ʿUmūm al-Awqāf wa’l-Shu’ūn al-Islāmiyya, 1982-), 18:130. [^12]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s* Fayṣal al-Tafriqa, trans. Sherman A. Jackson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 126. One of the requirements for a person to be held accountable (*mukallaf*) before God for the sacred law and the message of prophets is that the message have reached them (*bulūgh al-daʿwā*). According to the contemporary Ashʿarī theologian Saʿīd Fūda, this requires massive parallel transmission (*tawātur*) or something similar to it. See Saʿīd Fūda, “Sharḥ Jawharat al-Tawḥīd, part 5,” available at [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiYmS\_egwkE](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DJiYmS_egwkE&sa=D&ust=1520436187707000&usg=AFQjCNHDicGbYTrWT_fprSXHtJ0Qt1tsLg). [^13]: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ḥāwī li’l-fatāwī*, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 2:404; al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa*, #1434, #2468. [^14]: Al-Ghazālī, *On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam*, 126. [^15]: Muqbil bin Hādī al-Wādiʿī, *Majmūʿ fatāwā al-Wādiʿī*, ed. Ṣādiq Muḥammad al-Bayḍānī (\[No place, no publisher\], 2005), 414. [^16]: Mohammad Hassan Khalil, *Islam and the Fate of Others* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 132. [^17]: See, for example, Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 15 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 1987), 2:59. [^18]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī: kitāb al-īmān, bāb mā jā’a fī-man yamūtu wa huwa yashhadu an lā ilāh illā Allāh*.. The more complete version of this *hadith* is, “Whoever has testified that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God, God has made the Fire prohibited for him”; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-īmān, bāb man laqiya Allāh bi’l-īmān wa huwa ghayr shākk fīhi dakhala al-janna wa ḥaruma ʿalayhi al-nār*. Al-Albānī considers this narration to be ḥasan; al-Albānī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, revised ed. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 2000), 3:51-52. [^19]: Khalil, *Islam and the Fate of Others*, 112-123. [^20]: Fazlur Rahman, *The Major Themes of the Qur’an*, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1994), 166. [^21]: Farid Esack, *Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism* (Oxford: Oneworld, 1997), 160-5. [^22]: *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal (Maymaniyya printing), 5:265-66. [^23]: See al-Qurṭubī, *al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān*, ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Ḥifnāwī and Maḥmūd Ḥāmid ʿUthmān, 20 vols in 10. (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1994), 1:394 (on Qur'an 2:62). [^24]: Esack, Qur’an, *Liberation and Pluralism*, 160-165. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-riqāq, bāb al-ṣirāṭ jisr Jahannam; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-īmān, bāb maʿrifat ṭarīq al-ru’ya*. [^26]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-riqāq, bāb ṣifat al-janna wa’l-nār; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-īmān, bāb ithbāt al-shifāʿa wa ikhrāj al-muwaḥḥidīn min al-nār*. [^27]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Bin Bāz and Muḥammad Fu’ād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 16 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1997), 11:525-7. In the *hadith*, the Prophet ﷺ says, regarding his uncle Abū Ṭālib, who died refusing to accept Islam despite knowing its teachings intimately, “Perhaps my intercession will benefit him on the Day of Resurrection,” and that he would receive a lighter punishment; *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-riqāq, bāb ṣifat al-janna wa’l-nār; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-īmān, bāb shifāʿat al-nabī (s) li-Abī Ṭālib*…. [^28]: *raḥmatī taghlibu ghaḍabī; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-tawhīd, bāb qawlihi taʿālā wa yuḥadhdhirukum Allāhu nafsahu*. [^29]: Jon Hoover, “Islamic Universalism: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Salafī Deliberation on the Duration of Hell-Fire,” *Muslim World* 99 (2009): 180-201. [^30]: Ibn al-Amīr al-Ṣanʿānī, *Rafʿ al-astār li-ibṭāl adillat al-qā’ilīn bi-fanā’ al-nār*, ed. Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1984), 65, 75. [^31]: Khalil, *Islam and the Fate of Others*, 126-30. [^32]: Peter Gay, ed., *Deism: An Anthology* (Princeton: D. van Nostrand Co., 1968), 35. [^33]: One can find a good expression of this ethos in Chapter 2 of Reza Shah-Kazemi’s *The Other in the Light of the One: The Universality of the Qur’ān and Interfaith Dialogue* (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2006). [^34]: Khalil, *Islam and the Fate of Others*, 58. [^35]: Hodgson, *The Venture of Islam*, 1:29. [^36]: Cicero, *De Natura Deorum*, I:60–62, 71–73; Edward Gibbon, *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*, 3 vols. (New York: Modern Library, n.d.), 1:27. [^37]: *Wa lā taḥkumanna ʿalā aḥadin bi’l-janna, wa lā bi’l-nār idhā aradta al-sunna.* [^38]: Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, *Tafsīr* (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1985), 8:34 (on Qur'an 6:129). [^39]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-adab, bāb raḥmat al-walad wa taqbīluhu wa muʿānaqatuhu; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-tawba, bāb fī siʿat raḥmat Allāh taʿālā wa annahā sabaqat ghaḍabahu.* [^40]: *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-ādāb, bāb al-nahy ʿan al-baghy*; Muḥyī al-Sunna al-Ḥusayn al-Baghawī, *Sharḥ al-sunna*, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnā’ūṭ (Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1983), 14:385. [^41]: Gay, *Deism*, 37-38. [^42]: Thomas Carlyle, “Hero as Prophet: Mahomet: Islam,” in *Carlyle’s Lectures on Heroes* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1920), 40. [^43]: *kataba rabbukum ʿalā nafsihi al-raḥma*; Qur'an 6:54. [^44]: *ʿadhābī uṣību bihi man ashā’u wa raḥmatī wasiʿat kulla shay’in*; Qur'an 7:156. [^45]: *qul yā ʿibādī alladhīna asrafū ʿalā anfusihim lā taqnaṭū min raḥmat Allāh, inna Allāh yaghfiru al-dhunūb jamīʿan innahu huwa al-ghafūr al-raḥīm*; Qur'an 39:53. [^46]: *Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī: kitāb al-daʿawāt, ḥadith*. [^47]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿat al-fatāwā*, ed. Sayyid Ḥusayn al-ʿAffānī and Khayrī Saʿīd, 35 vols. (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tawfīqiyya, n.d.), 11:104; al-Albānī, *Fatāwā al-Shaykh al-Albānī*, ed. ʿUkāsha ʿAbd al-Mannān al-Ṭayyibī (Cairo: Maktabat al-Turāth al-Islāmī, 1994), 350. [^48]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-tayammum*, bāb 2. [^49]: *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, 5:347. [^50]: *Musnad* of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, 2:518. [^51]: Tim Winter, “Realism and the Real: Islamic Theology and the Problem of Alternative Expressions of God,” in *Between Heaven and Hell: Islam, Salvation and the Fate of Others*, ed. Mohammad Hassan Khalil (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 136-8; al-Zabīdī, *Itḥāf al-sāda al-muttaqīn*, 10:494-5. [^52]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-janna wa ṣifat naʿīmihā wa ahlihā, bāb al-nār yadkhuluhā al-jabbārūn….* [^53]: Al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 17/18:191. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr writes, “But the one who names Himself the Forgiving, the most Merciful, the Benevolent, the Wise (*al-ghafūr al-rahīm al-ra’ūf al-ḥakīm*) is too great for His attributes to be anything but truth – there is no god but He, He is not asked what He does, rather they are asked.”; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, *al-Istidhkār*, 8:402-3. ## Summary Do all good people attain salvation in the Hereafter? This question, which touches the heart as much as the mind, presses upon Muslims especially when they contemplate the deaths of righteous non-Muslim loved ones. Before addressing the fate of non-Muslims who received Islam reliably, three preliminary points must be understood. The first is that the distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim carries concrete meaning in this world irrespective of one's ultimate fate. We operate upon people's outward professions of faith, calling those who profess Islam "Muslims" and those who do not "unbelievers" (kuffār), yet this legal label has no necessary link to a person's true faith or destiny with God. Disapproval of another's creed does not lift the duties we owe them. As God says, "God does not prohibit you from being good and dealing justly with those who have not fought you in your religion or driven you from your homes" (Qur'an 60:8). The Prophet ﷺ likewise affirmed the rights of a neighbor whether Muslim or not, saying that one should visit him when sick, follow his funeral, lend to him, assist him in need, console him in misfortune, and not harm him with the smoke of one's cooking without sharing. Here it is useful to recall the distinction the scholars drew between "Foundational Faith" (īmān fiṭrī), which is a person's true inner faith known only to himself and God, and "Legal Faith" (īmān sharʿī), which is his faith as a matter of communal identity and law. A man assumed Muslim is treated as Muslim in law and buried among Muslims, though his inner reality is unknown to us and may even be disbelief. The Prophet ﷺ instructed us to accept outward professions and not to probe the hearts of others; when a man sought permission to kill some of the Hypocrites (Munāfiqūn) of Medina, whom the Qur'an exposed as insincere (Qur'an 4:60–63, 140–46), the Prophet ﷺ forbade him, for their outward profession and prayer sufficed to render them Muslim in law. Conversely, one classified as Christian in law is an unbeliever legally, yet may in truth be a sincere monotheist whom God rewards. This distinction appears in a fatwa of the Tunisian scholar Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1973), who ruled that a woman is assumed to belong to the community she was raised in unless she openly declares atheism. The second point is that Paradise (the Garden) and Hell (the Fire) are not two flat categories but contain innumerable levels, as the Qur'an indicates. Al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) observed that "the levels of people vary in the degrees of pain and pleasure in innumerable ways," for each soul is judged with exact justice. The third and most important point is that a person is not accountable for what lies outside his control. The question of whether other religions are valid simply does not apply to one who never heard of Islam. The Māturīdī school holds that even one raised in isolation is expected to reason his way to the Creator, yet he would not be faulted for failing to follow Islam of which he never learned. The other schools hold that God will not punish one who lacked reliable access to a prophet's revelation, resting upon the words, "No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another, and We would not punish [a people] until We had sent a messenger" (Qur'an 17:15) and the wording of Qur'an 5:19. Such people are called Ahl al-Fatra, "People of Times of Weakened Prophecy," and a hadith concerning them appears in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 965); al-Suyūṭī graded its narrations ḥasan and al-Albānī ranked it ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Ghazālī held that accountability requires hearing of Islam by reliable means and in a reasonably accurate manner. On this basis the Yemeni Salafī scholar Muqbil al-Wādiʿī (d. 2001) judged the people of America and Europe a modern Ahl al-Fatra, while Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935), followed later by Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, held that one is not accountable unless the message reached him in an attractive and compelling manner. Regarding those who did receive Islam reliably yet did not embrace it, three answers have been offered in the tradition, presented here without endorsement of any but the first. The first is that Islam is the only path to salvation, requiring affirmation in the heart, testimony with the tongue, and action. Its proof rests in verses such as, "Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him" (Qur'an 3:85), "Truly religion in the sight of God is Islam" (Qur'an 3:19), and Qur'an 4:115. This has been the position of nearly all scholars for fourteen centuries and of every traditional school of theology without exception. The second is moral theism, holding that anyone who believes in God and does good deeds attains salvation. Its advocates cite Qur'an 2:62 and 2:112 and the hadith, "Whoever says 'There is no god but God' enters the Garden." This view is not readily found before the modern age; it was clearly advanced by Fazlur Raḥmān (d. 1988) and defended most fully by Farīd Esack, and has been tenuously and likely incorrectly attributed to Rashīd Riḍā. Some read "islam" in the exclusivist verses as generic submission rather than the named religion. Yet this faces two serious objections. Verses like Qur'an 3:19 are followed immediately by rebukes of the People of the Book for rejecting the final revelation (3:20–22), making it difficult to read islam there as mere generic submission. Furthermore, verses praising the pious among the People of the Book, such as Qur'an 3:113–115, may be overtures conditioned upon their heeding Muhammad ﷺ, and many scholars read the assurance "no fear need they have" as applying only to those who believed in him or as abrogated (mansūkh) by later verses. Against moral theism stand the ṣaḥīḥ hadiths in the Ṣaḥīḥayn describing the Jews and Christians being condemned for false beliefs on the Day of Judgment. Yet its defenders reply that Hellfire may not be eternal, since sinful Muslims are removed after having "a mustard seed's weight of faith," and Ibn Ḥajar (d. 1449) noted that even the unbeliever Abū Ṭālib had his punishment lightened. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1351) advanced the view, citing ʿUmar and Ibn Masʿūd, that the Fire may one day be extinguished, resting upon the hadith, "My mercy overwhelms my anger," though later Sunnis largely rejected this. The third is Perennialism, holding that all celestially revealed religions share a transcendent truth. No pre-modern scholar is known to have held it explicitly, though its modern advocates trace it to Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240)—yet Ibn ʿArabī himself said the earlier prophets, had they lived in Muhammad's ﷺ time, would have followed him. It faces the same objections as moral theism. A speculative defense holds that the exclusivist texts address the masses while the universalist truths are for a spiritual elite, resembling Ibn Sīnā's (d. 1037) figurative reading of bodily resurrection. But this draws the same criticism al-Ghazālī and Ibn Taymiyya directed at Ibn Sīnā: it implies that God concealed truth or spoke falsely in His revelation, and it requires a source of truth outside scripture, undermining its own premise. As for how one deals with this, the tradition has been to withhold judgment on individuals. The saying goes, "Do not rule that anyone will go to the Garden, nor to the Fire, if you seek the Sunna," and Ibn ʿAbbās said it is not fitting for anyone to consign God's creation to Paradise or the Fire. This restraint flows from God's immense mercy, affirmed at the opening of nearly every chapter. The Prophet ﷺ likened God's mercy to a mother unable to cast her child into fire, saying God is more merciful to His servants than she. He also related the parable of two men, one pious and one sinful, where the pious man declared God would never forgive his companion, and God consigned the presumptuous pious man to the Fire and forgave the sinner. Following the tradition, it is clear that Islam is the only valid religion in God's sight; those before Muhammad ﷺ and those never reliably reached by his message will be judged justly on terms known to God. The most compelling argument for an expansive hope rests upon God's own nature: "Your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself," "My mercy encompasses all things" (Qur'an 7:156), and "do not despair of the mercy of God, for indeed God forgives all sins" (Qur'an 39:53), which Ibn Taymiyya noted qualifies even the warning against shirk (Qur'an 4:48) for those who repent. T. J. Winter has suggested that the answer lies not in evading the texts but in embracing the Prophet's ﷺ intercession, which he argues may be inexhaustible and available to all mankind, citing the hadith, "I have been sent to the people overall," and al-Zabīdī (d. 1791) that it is possible some intercession will reach all communities—though the Prophet ﷺ also said his intercession is for those who testify to God sincerely. Ultimately, these tensions are reconciled only through complete trust in God's justice, for "God does not wrong any of the slaves" (Qur'an 3:182, 8:51, 22:10), and as al-Nawawī (d. 1277) said, "Injustice is impossible for God." We do not know the fate of any single soul, yet we rest assured that none will be wronged before the "Best of judges" (Qur'an 95:8). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-power-of-motivation # The Power of Motivation **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** February 26, 2018 **Updated:** August 27, 2024 ## Abstract Motivation is at the root of our conscious thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It provides the basis for experiences of happiness and joy as well as anxiety and sorrow. It strongly affects our judgments and beliefs about the world. The Qur’an describes the internal components of the self that provide the foundation for our motivational states. Continuing with the larger project of formulating an  understanding of human psychology from an Islamic perspective, this article aims to shed light on the concept of motivation. The paper is divided into three sections, (1) Fundamentals of Motivation; (2) The Motivational State; and (3) Motivational Fuel. The first section discusses the phenomena of pain and pleasure in the context of motivation. The next section describes the components that determine our motivation including a discussion on the Qur’anic terms: [*nafs ammara bis-soo*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/devil-in-the-details-an-analysis-of-the-dark-side-of-the-self/) (self that inclines toward evil) and the *nafs mutma’inn* (self that inclines towards a higher existence). The final section considers the concepts of *sabr* (will-power) and *shahwa* (desires) as the competing driving forces of motivation. It also provides practical guidelines for increasing our *sabr* and decreasing our *shahwa*. --- ## Introduction This series of articles aims to construct foundational models that integrate Islamic spirituality with theories of the mind and behavior. The goal is to inspire the reader to reconnect with their spirit in a way that is meaningful and augmented with a deeper understanding. In the [previous article](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/the-lost-art-of-contemplation-spiritual-psychology-series/), we examined the fundamental aspects of thought, the process of thinking itself, and a proposed system of beneficial contemplation (*tafakkur*). The current article focuses on human motivation, which is a determinant of thought and behavior. In utilizing the *Marātib al-Qaṣd* (degrees of intention) system, as outlined in Figure 1, we have already covered *al-hājis* (fleeting thought), *al-khāṭir* (sustained thought) and *ḥadīth an-nafs* (deliberate thought) in the prior article. The current article focuses on *al-hamm* (motivation). Motivation is at the root of our conscious thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The motivational state is a necessary psychological structure that is projected onto the world by the mind. It orients us toward what our hearts yearn for. It provides the basis for experiences of happiness and joy as well as anxiety and sorrow. It strongly affects our judgments and beliefs about the world. In the previous article, we spoke about the various agents that can introduce thoughts into our minds. Understanding the motivational state at a deeper level will enable us to take better control of our thinking, our emotions, our behavior, and, ultimately, our lives. This paper is divided into three sections, (1) Fundamentals of Motivation; (2) The Motivational State; and (3) Motivational Fuel. The first section discusses the fundamental concepts that underlie Human motivation—pain and pleasure. The subsequent section discusses the structure and function of motivational states that are formed in the heart. It describes how our emotions, thoughts, and experiences of pleasure and pain integrate into a motivational state that forms the basis for our aims and aspirations in life. The final section considers the driving forces of motivation and provides practical guidelines for harnessing the power of motivation toward our goals. --- ## Section I: Fundamentals of Motivation ### Pleasure and Pain The most fundamental of experiences to human beings are pain and pleasure. Our minds and bodies orient toward what will bring us pleasure and away from what will bring us pain. The idea that human beings *ought* to live their life in a way that maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain is known as hedonism. There are different schools of hedonism that have postulated various definitions of the ultimate pleasure that is to be sought. There are many philosophies, such as the Epicurean school of hedonism that have a more sober approach to pleasure. The Epicureans recognize that true pleasure lies in living a life of virtue, rather than indulgence of carnal desires.[^1] In this way, there is overlap with Islamic notions of pleasure. The point of departure between the Islamic viewpoint and all schools of hedonism is in the marking of pleasure as an end versus pleasure as a means. Islamically, experiencing pleasure and averting pain are signs that we are headed in the right direction in life, but do not constitute the direction itself. The utility of a sign on a journey is to guide the traveller to continue his or her pursuit of the ultimate destination, rather than signal its end. Hedonism, on the contrary, posits that pleasure is the ultimate *telos* (purpose) of human life. One way to understand the distinction is in reference to psychological hedonism and ethical hedonism. Psychological hedonism is the notion that pleasure and pain are the fundamental drivers of human behavior.[^2] Ethical hedonism is the idea that the ultimate *telos* is to act in a way that maximizes pleasure and minimizes harm.[^3] The former is a description and the latter is a prescription. The Islamic tradition seems to take a middle approach, recognizing ethical dimensions of pain and pleasure as means toward Truth and virtue, rather than being Truth and virtue themselves. ### Experiential Dimensions of Pleasure and Pain Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) provides a categorization scheme of pleasure in its relation to human experience. We will broadly refer to this as experiential pleasure. He describes three different types of experiential pleasure, 1) Sensory pleasures (*ladhha juthmāniya*), 2) Imaginative Fanciful pleasures (*ladhha khayāliyyah wahmiyya*); and 3) Intellectual and Spiritual pleasures (*ladhha ‘aqliyya rūḥāniyya*).[^4],[^5] Ibn al-Qayyim doesn’t explicitly mention pain, but each category necessarily includes pain as an experience at the other end of the spectrum. He mentions in another work, “Out of the wisdom of Allah, He has made pleasure give rise to pain, and pain give rise to pleasure.”[^6] Sensory pleasures and pain are those associated with eating, drinking and procreating. These are pleasures and pains that humans share with animals. Imaginative pleasures are described as emerging when a person achieves power, authority, or leadership.[^7] Conversely, imaginative pain is associated with being dominated, controlled, and oppressed. This can be understood based on the modern conception of social dominance hierarchies.[^8] Dominance hierarchies are arranged according to what human beings or societies value. For instance, monetary value produces its own dominance hierarchy in each society that results in pleasure as a person climbs to a higher position by amassing wealth. Influence, leadership, power, awards, fame, and beauty all represent different dominance hierarchies that people often seek to climb to experience their associated pleasures. Intellectual and spiritual pleasures are associated with knowledge (*ilm*), spiritual awareness (*ma’rifa*) and developing virtues such as nobility, generosity, chastity, bravery, and forbearance.[^9] Ibn al-Qayyim explains that when pleasure is associated with knowledge of Allah and love for Him, then a person has entered a garden of paradise in this world. > *There is nothing more pleasurable, pure and blessed to the heart and soul than love for Allah, turning to Him, connecting to Him, experiencing tranquility in His presence and longing to gaze upon Him.*[^10] Allah describes this pleasure in the Qur'an, > *Those who have believed and whose hearts become serene through the remembrance of Allah. Certainly, through the remembrance of Allah, hearts become tranquil.*[^11] Conversely, those who live a spiritually destructive or nihilistic life are described as experiencing immense existential pain, > *Whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a miserable life.*[^12] And, > *And whoever betrays their relationship with Allah, it is as though he has fallen from the sky and was either snatched by birds or thrown to a distant place by a strong wind*.[^13] ### Eschatological Functions of Pleasure and Pain Pleasure and pain have a very complex relationship with regard to Islamic Eschatology. In this world, good deeds bring about pleasure but can also result in pain. Similarly, sin brings about pain but can also lead to pleasure. However, in the next life, there is only pleasure for goodness and only pain for evil. #### Pleasure in the Next Life 1) Eternal Pleasure Pleasure is seen as the fundamental reward associated with virtuous living in the next life. The greatest reward promised for faithful believers in the next world is the opportunity to gaze upon Allah Himself. This reward is described as a pleasure in a famous Prophetic supplication, “O Allah, I ask you for the pleasure of gazing upon Your face.”[^14] #### Pain in the Next Life 1) Deserved Pain Pain in the next life is seen as the fundamental punishment associated with an evil lifestyle in this life. The punishment and pain in the hellfire is a recompense for the pain people caused to others and their own selves in this world. > *Indeed, those who disbelieve in Our verses, We will drive them into a Fire. Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted in Might and Wise.* 2) Therapeutic Pain Another function of pain in the next life is healing. According to Islamic Eschatology, some people will be purified through the experiences in the hellfire and thereafter placed into paradise.[^15] #### Pleasure in this World 1) Rewarding Pleasure *Pleasure is also seen as a reward for doing good in this world. Therefore, the worthy pleasures a person experiences in this world should be seen as Mercy from Allah due to the commitment shown by the individual to His cause.* Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer, We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward \[in the Hereafter\] according to the best of what they used to do.[^16] The Prophet ﷺ also said when asked, “What is your opinion of the one who does a good deed and he is praised for it?” “It is early glad-tidings.”[^17] 2) Deceptive pleasure Shameful pleasures are seen as punishments that delude a person to continue in their sinful lifestyle. The Qur'an mentions, > *So leave them in their confusion for a time. Or do they think that we extend for them wealth and children seeking goodness for them? On the contrary, they don’t have the right perception.*[^18] #### Pain in this World 1) Punitive Pain Pain can be a punishment in this world for sin and oppression. As quoted earlier, the Qur'an mentions, > *Whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a miserable life.*[^19] > > *And We had gripped them with suffering \[as a warning\], but they did not yield to their Lord, nor did they humbly supplicate, \[and will continue thus\]. Until when We have opened before them a door of severe punishment, immediately they will be therein in despair.*[^20] 2) Merciful Pain Pain can also function as a reminder to change a person’s lifestyle. Often, a person continues living a sinful life until they are struck by a calamity. It is through this experience that they orient their life towards Allah as a means of coping with the pain. > *And We sent to no city a prophet \[who was denied\] except that We seized its people with poverty and hardship that they might humble themselves \[to Allah \].*[^21] 3) Forbearing Pain Pain is also experienced as a test, > *And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient.*[^22] 4) Redemptive Pain Pain can also result in the forgiveness of sins, > *The Prophet ﷺ  said, “There is nothing (in the form of trouble) that comes to a believer even if it is the pricking of a thorn that there is decreed for him by Allah good or his sins are obliterated.”*[^23] 5) Growth Pains Lastly, pain can be a necessary consequence of doing the right thing and is subsequently rewarded with pleasure in this world and the next. > *That is because they are not afflicted by thirst or fatigue or hunger in the cause of Allah, nor do they tread on any ground that enrages the rejectors of truth, nor do they inflict upon an enemy any infliction but that is registered for them as a righteous deed. Indeed, Allah does not allow to be lost the reward of the doers of good.*[^24] ### Epistemic Functions of Pleasure and Pain Seeking out pleasure and minimizing pain is not necessarily hedonistic and can be a useful epistemic tool to search for worthwhile pursuits in life. Ibn al-Qayyim describes the intuitive epistemological potential of pain and pleasure in relation to knowing what is beneficial and harmful for an individual, “Benefit is associated with pleasure and harm is associated with pain.”[^25] Thus, pleasure, from this perspective, is conceptualized as an indication of benefit being obtained. Conversely, pain is conceptualized as harm being incurred. Ibn al-Qayyim quotes Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) in explaining the theological significance of the epistemic functions of pleasure and pain, “Experiencing what is compatible (*mulā’im*) with one’s self produces pleasure and experiencing what is incompatible (*munāfi*) with one’s self produces pain.”[^26] Taken together, we can understand epistemic pleasure as experiencing something externally (in the environment) or internally (in the mind and body) that we are *meant* to experience. What is *meant* to happen is what *should* happen. This is a value judgment that can only be made in Truth by Allah. Things are only meant to happen if Allah is the One who intends its occurrence. > *Allah intends to make clear to you and guide you to the ways of those before you (i.e. the Truth) and to grant you redemption (for your sins). And Allah is Knowing and Wise.*[^27] Anything that Allah wants for you to experience is, by definition, the Truth. Therefore, the pleasurable experience of ‘compatibility’ can be conceptualized as a phenomenological[^28] experience of Truth. Whatever we are “meant” to experience or whatever is compatible for us is an indication that it what was intended by Allah for us to experience.[^29] Conversely, the experience of epistemic pain is an indication of harm, which is incompatible with us and thus a phenomenological experience of Falsehood. To summarize, the epistemic functions of pleasure and pain refer to their potential to inform us of Truth. This is because Allah made a reliable association between pleasure and benefit and pain and harm. Benefit and harm can be understood as what is compatible and incompatible for the human being to have experienced. Compatibility and incompatibility can be understood as Truth and Falsehood from a phenomenological perspective. Furthermore, Ibn Taymiyyah explains how benefit and Truth relate to each other on an ontological level. He describes *naf‘* (benefit) and *ḥaqq* (Truth) as *asmā’ mutakāfi’ah*.[^30] This is a term used by Ibn Taymiyyah to describe the relationship of words to a meaning. For him, *asmā’ mutakāfi’ah* are not *asmā’ mutarādifa* (pure synonyms that indicate the same meaning) or *asmā’ mutabāyinah* (words that describe distinct qualities) but rather are words that indicate complementary qualities of one essence.[^31] He explains that *al-mashrū‘* (Divine legislation), *al-nāfi‘* (source of benefit), *al-sālih* (that which is virtuous), *al-‘adl* (justice), *al-ḥaqq* (Truth) and *al-ḥasan* (goodness) are *asmā’ mutakāfi’ah*.[^32] Thus to Ibn Taymiyyah these meanings all represent different qualities of one inseparable essence—Allah’s Will that we are meant to accept and actualize in this world. When we act in accordance with this, we experience pleasure. Although it is not mentioned explicitly, we can infer through *mafhūm al-mukhālafah* (inverse inference) that the opposite applies. That which opposes Allah’s Will is *ḍarr* (harm), *fisq* (vice), *ẓulm* (oppression), *bāṭil* (falsehood) and *qabīḥ* (evil). When we act in accordance with these concepts, we experience pain. ### The Moral Dimension of Pleasure and Pain It is important to note that the risk of falling into hedonism is great if pleasure-seeking is conceived as a sufficient tool in signifying truth, value or benefit. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that any pleasure that leads to human flourishing (*kamāl*) can be conceptualized as worthy pleasures (*ladhha maḥmūda*).[^33] He acknowledges that many are misguided with their feelings and follow pleasures that result in damage and ruin one’s life. He labels this as shameful pleasure (*ladhha madhmūma*).[^34] We can intuitively recognize that some experiences of pleasure seem to be shameful or at least non-virtuous based on the latter categorization scheme. For instance, Ibn al-Qayyim points out that sensory pleasures on their own do not bring about true human flourishing (*kamāl*).[^35] If that were the case, he argues, the people living the most fulfilled and truthful lives would be the ones who ate, drank, and engaged in intercourse the most.[^36] Naturally, people would tend to see this lifestyle as devoid of purpose and shallow. Furthermore, the cognitive pleasures associated with dominance are readily seen as destructive. It should be pointed out, that both pleasures are meant to be experienced in a way that does not result in damage to one’s soul or body. Sensory pleasures have been directly commanded to be fulfilled by Allah, but not in excess so as to result in damage, “Eat and drink but not in excess, Certainly Allah does not love the extravagant”.[^37] Similarly, competition regarding social dominance hierarchies breeds jealousy and results in vice rather than virtue. However, we are meant to compete with one another in spirituality and virtue, in a manner that is mutually encouraging and uplifting, “And for that (paradise) let the competitors compete.”[^38] Ibn al-Qayyim differentiates between the worthiness and the shamefulness of a pleasure in consequentialist terms. Immediate pleasure that eventually leads to greater pain in this life or the next is shameful.[^39] Furthermore, Ibn al-Qayyim asserts, > *Any pleasure that leads to pain or averts a pleasure worthier than it cannot really be called pleasure, even if the nafs (self) mistakes it for pleasure. Can you really say there was pleasure in a poisoned meal that may have initially felt good, but led to immense pain shortly thereafter?*[^40] Thus, forbidden pleasures or engaging in permissible pleasures in excess will eventually lead to pain and therefore cannot be termed pleasure. ### Regulating Pleasure and Pain In differentiating worthy and shameful pleasures, Ibn al-Qayyim explains the indispensable use of the intellect, “The intellect (*‘aql*) is uniquely able to project multiple pathways into the future based on the actionable options at hand.”[^41] The intellect is the faculty that allows us to project future consequences of actions and inform us whether a given action is worth pursuing or whether it will end in pain. The other important aid consist of the forbidden boundaries set by Allah in Divine revelation. This is why the Qur'an is described as being the *furqaan* (distinguisher between good and evil).[^42] The last ingredient is *ṣabr* (self-control; self-regulation), which refers to the energy required to change a behavior despite immediate pleasure gains based on knowledge from the intellect, revelation, or both. Conversely, a person’s *hawā* (desires), *shahwa* (passions) and *shayṭān* (satanic whispers) encourage immediate pleasure despite its pathway to pain, rendering the pursuit shameful.[^43] To summarize, pleasure, intelligence, revealed knowledge, and self-regulation all work together to orient the human being in the direction of obtaining benefit that is virtuous (generally known through revelation) and enduring (generally known through the intellect). The Qur'an pairs these two attributes in multiple places. For instance, > *Wealth and children are from the allurement of this world, but the enduring (bāqiyāt) and virtuous (saliḥāt) are better according to your Lord and the better (path) to aspire toward*.[^44] Pleasure is not evil, but rather a mercy from Allah and a means by which we have the motivation to seek out the Divine in this world. Ibn al-Qayyim argues that human beings are naturally predisposed to seek out what brings them pleasure and that *tawḥīd* is necessary to experience the true and ultimate pleasure of a meaningful life.[^45] The association between benefit, truth, and pleasure described earlier is realized as long-term sustained pleasure. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that this only occurs when a person engages in pleasurable activities that are meaningful, resulting in closeness to Allah.[^46] Meaning as a prerequisite to experiencing pleasure is an intriguing concept that is increasingly being recognized in the field of mental health. There is a correlation between suicide rates and experiencing a lack of meaning.[^47] Suicide is very strongly correlated with a phenomenon known as anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure.[^48] Thus, a person who sees their life as meaningless is unable to experience the pleasures of this world and is left with just the pain. This drives them to want to end their suffering by ending their life. --- ## Section II: The Motivational State The concept of meaning being necessary for pleasure can be understood more clearly by exploring the neuroscience and psychology of human motivation. The brain’s experience of pleasure involves the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is associated with reward and motivational states.[^49],[^50] For dopamine to be released, it is necessary for a person to have a motivational state in their mind directed toward a specific goal. As we will learn in this section, without a goal or purpose, there is no dopaminergic response and thus no pleasure associated with any pursuit in life. This is what is meant by meaning being necessary for pleasure. ### Cognitive Components of Motivation Modern psychology has conceptualized the motivational state as being comprised of many components that drive human behavior along its trajectory to eventually meet its goal. The cognitive components of motivation are “conceptualizations relevant to the movement from point a, the undesired beginning-state, to point b, the desired end state.”[^51] The end-state can be understood as a person’s meaning or purpose. Ibn al-Qayyim describes a similar conceptualization of the motivational state as he describes the fundamental cognitive structures that underlie behavior, “There are 4 factors: (1) Matters that are loved (intrinsically valued), (2) Matters that are (intrinsically) despised, (3) Taking a path towards what is loved (intrinsically valued), (4) Taking a path that will prevent what is (intrinsically) despised.”[^52] Ibn al-Qayyim also elucidates the former quote regarding cognitive components of motivation by explaining what the necessary conceptualizations are to construct this map. “It is known that every living thing other than Allah, including angels, human beings, demons and animals are in a constitutive state of dependency and need for achieving benefit and repelling harm. This cannot be accomplished unless a person is able to conceptualize the source of benefit and harm. Benefit is associated with pleasure and harm is associated with pain.”[^53] Thus, a person requires a clear conceptualization of what will bring benefit and harm for them to construct an end goal while simultaneously building pathways that will bring them towards it. To summarize, pleasure can only be achieved in relation to a motivational state. The motivational state is comprised of an end objective that is loved, implying that it brings benefit. Ibn al-Qayyim explains this as a natural disposition, “Things that are loved and sought after are that which bring benefit and the experience of pleasure.”[^54] Thus a person must have a belief system that informs them about the sources of benefit and harm. From this conceptualization, a person can construct motivational states toward attaining benefit and avoiding harm. This is the source of meaning and purpose in a person’s life. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that the ability to independently cause benefit and harm is a defining feature of divinity as is mentioned many times in the Qur'an, > *Say: Do you worship besides Allah that which has no capacity to harm or benefit you? And Allah is the All-Hearing and the All-Knowing.*[^55] > > *And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor brings them benefit.*[^56] > > *He calls upon other than Allah, what will not bring him harm or benefit, that is extreme misguidance*.[^57] So a person orients themselves toward the ultimate source of benefit and harm, and that is their god, an ultimate source of meaning. This process of constructing the motivational state with end-goals that require a belief system which informs sources of benefit is as necessary to the human mind as being conscious when in a state of wakefulness. Thus it applies to everyone, including atheists. Without a conception of what will bring benefit, and a value for it, a person would not be able to act at all in the world. Every action involves an implicit belief that this behavior is worth pursuing. Ibn al-Qayyim explains the concept of value hierarchy regarding motivational states to provide deeper clarity. In a person’s life, every action they take is necessarily directed toward some objective.[^58] Nobody can move without a purpose or aim. Ibn al-Qayyim categorizes these goals into *murād li-nafsih* (intrinsic) or *murād li-ghayrih* (extrinsic).[^59] Extrinsic goals are those that are sought after because they will bring about another desired goal.[^60] For instance, an extrinsic goal for most people is consuming food. It is done for goals of preserving life, increasing energy, or averting hunger. Intrinsic goals are sought after for themselves. An intrinsic goal is the ultimate Truth that organizes all extrinsic goals. It represents the purpose of your life. It unifies all a person’s aims to provide clarity, meaning, and purpose to all a person’s pursuits. This unification of life’s pursuits under one ultimate purpose is the essence of *tawḥīd* (Unification of the Divine). > *Say: My prayers, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah, the Master of all the realms.*[^61] The intrinsic goal reigns supreme in an individual’s value hierarchy. It is sought after for no reason other than itself. In other words, functionally it is a person’s primary motivation for all their deeds, the centerpiece of their psychological universe, the very god that a person worships in this world, even if they do not affirm a transcendent God. As Allah mentions in the Qur'an, “Have you not seen the one who takes his desires as his God?”[^62] Extrinsic goals necessitate an intrinsic goal by virtue of the problem of infinite regress (I am doing action A because of X, which is done because of Y, which is done because of Z etc.) and circularity (I do action X because of Y, which I do because of X). Furthermore, if there is no intrinsic goal then extrinsic goals are rendered meaningless, since there is nothing intrinsically valued. It is necessary that there is a foundation to everyone’s value hierarchy, and that foundation functionally operates as their deity. It is what is loved, valued and perceived as the source of ultimate benefit. A person without a clear conception of God is doomed to wander the world pursuing meaningless extrinsic pursuits, being pulled in every direction. The Qur'an captures this reality, “Verily your pursuits are dispersed.”[^63] Based on this model, we can understand the psychological implausibility of *shirk* (associating partners with God). *Shirk* is conceptualized as having multiple intrinsic goals according to this framework. Having multiple intrinsic goals that sit at the top of the value hierarchy renders the entire value system as structurally unsound. The utility of an organized value system is based on its ability to enable an individual to prioritize their actions in the world. There is no way for a person to discriminate between intrinsic goals, since they have equal value. In other words, there is a psychological necessity for *tawḥīd* (unification) of the intrinsic goal. The Qur'an explains this complex perspective of *tawḥīd* and *shirk* through a profound parable, > *Allah presents an example: a slave owned by quarreling partners and another belonging exclusively to one man—are they equal in comparison? Praise be to Allah! But most of them do not know.*[^64] Thus, pleasure can only be achieved if a person has meaning in their life. Meaning has to do with relating one’s existence with a higher purpose or goal. Pleasure is achieved as a person progresses toward this goal. Without a purpose, a person will be unable to experience pleasure, since there is necessarily no progress toward anything. Furthermore, temporary pleasure can be experienced by simple extrinsic goals or false intrinsic goals. The extrinsic goals will eventually lose meaning and a person will feel a deep existential void in their life, characterized by anhedonia, all due to the absence of an intrinsic goal. If a person has false gods that they have propped up as intrinsic goals, either in the form of idols, or social dominance, they will soon reveal their falsehood. This is because intrinsic goals are conceptualized based on their ability to bring benefit to a person. For example, as a person works towards serving his own desires and acquiring dominance, they will recognize how empty and meaningless that goal really was when it no longer brings them pleasure. ### The Emotional Component of Motivation Another important component of the motivational state in addition to cognitions consists of emotions. Emotions possess an evaluative function that is based on an internal conscious or unconscious assessment of our current progress in our journey towards an end-goal.[^65] Negative emotions are experienced when we encounter obstacles in our journey that hinder our progress towards the end-state. When this occurs, a person feels pain related to anxiety, frustration, and anger.[^66] This is intuitively felt by most people when they experience failure in striving toward an objective. Ibn al-Qayyim explains the emotional component of motivation by describing the pain associated with not being able to achieve what the heart desires, > *Whoever is constantly engaged in lustful gazes will be persistently affected by frustration and regret. The most harmful thing for the heart are the images it is exposed to by the eyes. The heart craves what the eye sees and develops a strong desire to (sexually) interact with it (through perception of touch, voice and fragrance). This desire to move beyond mere visual stimulus perturbs the heart deeply until it loses all senses of self-restraint, determined to reach it. This gap between what the heart craves and what it possesses is what results in pain.*[^67] ### Spiritual Foundations of Motivation From a neuropsychological perspective, there is constantly an interchange between our cognitive systems (*‘aql*) and the (shameful) pleasure system of our brain (*hawā*) that combine to determine the motivational states we experience in life. Ibn al-Qayyim captured this tension by describing the struggle between the *nafs ammāra bis-sū*’ (nature within our soul that inclines to evil) and the *nafs muṭma’inn* (the nature within our soul that inclines towards a higher existence) in vivid detail.[^68] We mentioned this struggle in the previous article when explaining the battle between *shayṭān* and the individual. This conflict is actualized in the heart as the *nafs muṭma’inn* against the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’*. When we integrate this struggle with the previous discussion on motivation, we can understand this phenomenon as the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* attempting to construct motivational frames towards immoral and destructive ends that are immediately pleasurable. Conversely, the *nafs muṭma’inn* works to reorient the individual toward a virtuous end and constructs the appropriate motivational map. The process by which the *nafs muṭma’inn* deconstructs and reorients motivational states augmented by the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* requires a sound *‘aql* (intellect) and a special type of energy referred to as *ṣabr* (self-control or patience)[^69]. Modern psychology refers to this construct as self-regulation, the mind’s ability to regulate one’s behavior by offsetting immediate pleasure for long-term benefit and acting in accordance with one’s values. When a motivational state is activated towards an end that our intellect deems to be harmful, hopeless, or idle, then the *nafs muṭma’inn* utilizes its self-regulatory capacity (*ṣabr*) to restrain from the compulsion elicited by the motivational state. The *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* also works to deconstruct and divert motivational states formed by the *nafs muṭma’inn* toward its own ends. This process is subtle and often occurs unbeknownst to the individual. A person can think they are on a path toward being charitable, but they are actually on a path towards ostentation. The actions in both situations appear the same outwardly, but the motivational state is different. Ibn al-Qayyim describes more than 35 dual-pairs where the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* subtly diverts the aims of the *nafs muṭma’inn* to an aim that is different internally, but almost identical outwardly. For instance, the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* obscures the distinctions between nobility and arrogance, generosity and extravagance, discipline and rigidity, and optimism and wishful thinking.[^70] ### Motivation and Doubt The control of the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* over the heart is not exclusive to misbehavior, but is also relevant to the phenomenon of doubt. The human being has been created with an in-built motivational trajectory toward a meaningful understanding of the world. Learning knowledge carries the responsibility of acting in accordance with it. It can be said that knowledge and action are two sides of the same coin. Thus, it follows that the two overarching problems that affect the heart of a person stem from problems of knowledge (doubts/*shubhuhāt*) and problems of action (desires/*shahawāt*). These both represent the two primary ways that a motivational state formulated by the *nafs muṭma’inn* is distorted toward the aims set by the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’.* The acquisition of knowledge is an action that is necessarily nested in a motivational state with ignorance as the starting point and knowing as the end-point. This motivational state is constructed by the nafs muṭma’inn to achieve enlightenment through acquiring knowledge and protecting one’s self from the ignorance that results in false beliefs and misbehavior. The *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* diverts the motivational state from *‘ilm* (knowledge) to *ẓann* (conjecture). This is because knowledge of *ḥaqq* (truth) and the spiritual and moral responsibility that accompanies it require a person to act contrary to their dark urges. *Ẓann* (conjecture) is not accompanied by any responsibility and allows a person to indulge without feeling remorse. Furthermore, *ẓann* pathologically interacts with existing *‘ilm* in the heart resulting in shakk (doubt). Thus, *ẓann*, which is achieved when the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* uses the *‘aql*, deconstructs existing knowledge, rendering it doubtful. This concept is captured in the following passage of the Qur'an, > *And when it was said, “Indeed, the promise of Allah is **Truth** (Ḥaqq) and the Hour \[is coming\]—no doubt about it,” you said, “We **know** (‘ilm) not what is the Hour. We assume only **conjecture** (ẓann), and we are not convinced (yaqeen).”*[^71] In this example, knowledge of the accountability of mankind is being highlighted as *ḥaqq*. Recognizing it as such is paramount in achieving felicity in the next stage of our being. However, having knowledge of this truth comes with the immense responsibility of ensuring every choice, micro or macro, is morally, intellectually and spiritually optimal. > *And the record \[of deeds\] will be placed \[open\], and you will see the criminals fearful of what is within it, and they will say, "Oh, woe to us! What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?" And they will find what they did present \[before them\]. And your Lord does injustice to no one.*[^72] This knowledge disrupts the plans constructed by the *nafs ammāra bis-sū*’, delivering a lethal blow. The response from the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* is to counteract this knowledge with *ẓann* that downgrades knowledge of the hereafter to something that is uncertain and doubtful. For instance, a person may conveniently assume that reality is exclusively derived through the physical senses. This results in the conclusion that reality is limited to this world. > *And they say, "There is not but our worldly life; we die and live, and nothing destroys us except time." And they have of that no **knowledge** (‘ilm); they are only **assuming** (ẓann).*[^73] This *ẓann* cannot be proven rationally, empirically or intuitively. It is merely an unproven assumption that is held with greater conviction than a system of beliefs that render entire reality as meaningful.[^74] Nevertheless, this *ẓann* is used to escape the responsibility associated with Truth, enabling a shamefully hedonistic pursuit of life. Interestingly, when Allah quotes the skeptics in saying “we are not convinced,” the Arabic word used is *mustayqineen*. This implies the process of searching or seeking certainty. This is a crucial epistemic aim for those who are searching for the Truth of this world. Those who do not make certainty a priority may escape the responsibility that accompanies conviction, but they will sustain the excruciating existential pain of nihilism. > *And whoever turns away from My remembrance—indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind."*[^75] --- ## Section III: Motivational Fuel We have discussed the fundamentals, structure, and function of the motivational state. The final piece to the motivational puzzle regards the energy associated with the motivational state. This energy can be positive (*ṣabr*) or negative (*shahwa*) depending on the aim of the motivational state. The *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* is fueled by *shahw*a and the *nafs muṭma’inn* is fueled by *ṣabr*. Thus, it follows that strengthening *ṣabr* and weakening *shahwa* is an essential approach to achieving one’s true goals and aspirations. ### Ṣabr & Self-Regulation The concept of self-regulation in modern psychology is roughly equivalent to the concept of *ṣabr* in Islam.[^76] Self-regulation is defined as the energy that enables a person to act in harmony with their values and projected long-term benefits despite the energy required and forgoing of short term pleasure.[^77] Ibn al-Qayyim defines *ṣabr* as the strength and energy required to act in ways to bring benefit and to restrain from that which brings harm.[^78] He goes deeper than modern research regarding the nature of this energy. He describes an initiatory and inhibitory strength as two fundamental components of *ṣabr*.[^79] The initiatory strength is the element of ṣabr that enables the initiation of action to achieve a long-term benefit or to act in accordance with one’s values. This dimension of *ṣabr* is utilized when a person acts to fulfill responsibilities and obligations, despite obvious costs of energy, pain, and difficulty. The inhibitory strength focuses on the energy that is required for restraint or abstinence. This dimension of *ṣabr* is most relevant to this article, as it has to do with refraining or abstaining from a particular action, despite the appeal of short-term pleasure or the short-term pain associated with abstinence. The advantage of this conceptualization is that it is more precise and can explain the variability of ṣabr between individuals more accurately. Ibn al-Qayyim notes that the differences between people regarding *ṣabr* are based on variability in these two dimensions.[^80] He explains that a person may be high in initiatory strength, but low in inhibitory control compared to someone who is low in initiatory strength but high in inhibitory control.[^81] The variation regards the quality of *ṣabr*, rather than purely quantity. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that this is why you may find a person who struggles with staying away from the forbidden, but does not find any difficulty fulfilling their obligations such as prayers, fasting, or even charitable deeds such as reading scripture or praying the long night prayers.[^82] Such a person has a strong initiatory component of their *ṣabr*, but a weak inhibitory component. This describes the common archetype of a practicing Muslim who fulfills his obligations but struggles with lust-related addiction. In fact, Ibn al-Qayyim himself uses the example of a person who finds it difficult to refrain from lustful gazes but has no difficulty praying the night prayer in the heat of summer and the cold of winter.[^83] Conversely, he describes the person who has the ability to resist the temptation of lustful gazes but cannot fulfill his obligations.[^84] This may be why you find Muslims who do not meet obligations of prayer or fasting, but strictly avoid unlawful meat, illicit relationships, and intoxicants. ### Strengthening Ṣabr & Self-Regulation There is a lot of modern research that has studied how to develop skills of self-regulation, which can be useful in this regard. Self-regulation is described as a limited resource that diminishes each time it is used. Thus, it is possible for a person to become completely depleted of his or her self-regulatory energy. When this happens, a person often succumbs to temptations and experiences a rebound effect.[^85] This refers to when a person uses up their entire self-regulatory capacity to avoid a certain behavior or to do a certain action. Subsequently, they ‘rebound’ once their energy is depleted and end up engaging in the behavior they were trying to avoid or they become unable to engage in the action they were intending. The rebound effect is often seen in unreasonable diets. A person uses up all their self-regulatory resources to abstain from consuming all sorts of foods. After the resource is depleted, they engage in binge-eating. In the context of lust-related behaviors, a person may deplete their resources in trying to refrain from engaging in forbidden gazing and subsequently ‘rebound’ and engage in those activities. It is also possible that a person engages in other actions that require self-regulatory strength, and the depletion of the resource crosses over to the domain of lust and a person does not find the ability to disengage. For instance, a person may have spent the entire day engaged in long and intense studying or working, followed by a large quantity of worship in the form of recitation or prayer. Close to the end of the day, the person then goes to the gym for a workout. This person has engaged in activities that required large resources of self-regulatory energy. Thus, when he or she returns home and the temptation of lustful images crosses his or her mind, they are left without any energy to resist. Although we mentioned that Ibn al-Qayyim saw initiatory and inhibitory strengths as separate domains of *ṣabr*, it seems that depletion of energy in one may at times transfer over to the other. The first practical suggestion from the idea of self-regulatory depletion is to ensure that an adequate amount persists throughout the day. This can be done by ensuring a person does not engage in sudden and extreme bursts of activity that require willpower. This idea is captured in a statement of the Prophet ﷺ, “This way of life is easy, no one overburdens himself in it except that it will overcome him…”[^86] It can also be maintained by engaging in activities that replenish this resource. Generally, rest and positive emotion replenish self-regulatory resources.[^87] Thus, sleeping or positive emotion-inducing activities such as socializing, art, sports, and hobbies may aid in the refueling of will power. The literature also describes certain personalities or characteristics that are more prone to self-regulatory depletion than others. For example, people who had high self-esteem and were defensive (high in self-presentation bias) experienced greater depletion of self-regulation.[^88] Self-presentation bias refers to a person altering their behaviors to ensure they look better in front of other people. This is interesting because the construct of defensive high self-esteem can be understood as a type of arrogance, since it describes people who think too highly of themselves. Thus, developing humility may help slow down the depletion of self-regulation. It should also be noted that when a person is depleted of self-regulatory energy, it is still possible to engage in, or refrain from, activities that require energy through using extrinsic incentives to drive motivation. Studies have found that participants who depleted their self-regulation but were given incentives such as cash, were able to still engage in activities requiring self-regulation.[^89] An important element of self-regulation or *ṣabr* that we have not touched on, is its ability to grow in strength in accordance with the frequency with which it is used. From this perspective, it is analogous to a muscle that weakens initially through prolonged use, but after recovery becomes stronger.[^90] From this notion, another practical suggestion for those interested in increasing their self-regulation is to use it more often. However, just like excessive exercise can be a hindrance to muscle growth, so can excessive self-regulation. As mentioned earlier, it is important that significant use occurs while not being completely depleted. Ibn al-Qayyim has a chapter dedicated to the issue of enhancing a person’s ṣabr. He explains that all interventions for matters of the heart or the body can be reduced to cognitive (*‘ilm*) or behavioral (*‘amal*).[^91] In terms of the cognitive interventions for *ṣabr*, he explains this has to do with having a better understanding of one’s obligations, responsibilities, and values. A person should learn what leads to benefit and fulfillment, and what leads to pain and suffering.[^92] In other words, *ṣabr* is not useful unless a person is utilizing it for the appropriate objectives. The second step in this cognitive intervention is to assign high value and significance to those objectives, ultimately fueling strong determination and motivation.[^93] He explains that when a person has attached such high significance and aspires towards the values he has learned, then acting in accordance with them will result in tremendous pleasure that overshadows any pain incurred.[^94] In terms of behavioral interventions, he conceptualizes *ṣabr* as a tag-team wrestling match with the *‘aql and dīn* (conscience) against the desires and the *nafs* (*ammāra bis-sū’*).[^95] From this conceptual framework, he deduces that strengthening one’s ṣabr results from either strengthening oneself, or weakening one’s opponent.[^96] He gives 5 interventions that can significantly weaken one’s desires, resulting in relatively stronger *ṣabr*. The first intervention involves an evaluation of one’s desires and pleasures, both lawful and unlawful. Following this evaluation, the individual should strive to decrease fulfillment of these wants and needs, even if they are permissible. This is the rationale behind fasting, and was a specific prescription of the Prophet ﷺ for youth struggling with sexual desire without a permissible outlet: > *O young men, whoever among you can afford to get married, let him do so, and whoever cannot afford it, let him fast, for that will be a shield for him.*[^97] The second intervention is to lower one’s gaze and the third intervention is to entertain the soul with permissible pleasures.[^98] When a person fulfills a desire through permissible means, then it weakens the strength of the craving. Ibn al-Qayyim mentions that every desire has a permissible means of fulfillment as described earlier. The fourth intervention is to consider the negative consequences of fulfilling these passions and the fifth intervention is to think of the disgust associated with  the action.[^99] As Ibn al-Qayyim explains, “It will be hard for a person to drink from a pond full of flies and dogs.”[^100] Ibn al-Qayyim says that the first three interventions can be seen as cutting off provisions from a dangerous beast, hiding provisions from the beast, and giving food according to its natural need, respectively.[^101] Thus a person’s desires can be symbolized as a beast living inside of them. If it receives too much provision, in the form of forbidden behaviors, it is strengthened and can destroy the body. Limiting its intake and only giving it enough to co-exist with you, results in taming of the beast. Regarding strengthening a person’s motivation for goodness, Ibn al-Qayyim gives 20 suggestions,[^102] 1. Beholding the glory of Allah in the heart and His greatness. The thought of disobeying Him should result in shame and embarrassment. 2. Beholding the love of Allah in the heart, so you avoid disobeying Him out of love for Him. 3. Witnessing the blessings of Allah and His favors toward you. 4. Recognizing the Anger and Avenging of Allah. 5. Recognizing the loss incurred by engaging in disobedience. Your sustenance and worldly possessions are decreased, as are your faith and certainty. 6. Experiencing the pleasure that comes with conquering the *nafs ammāra bis-sū’* and pelting Shaytān. 7. Understanding that Allah has promised to replace what has been given up for His sake for something better. 8. Experiencing the special Divine presence that is accompanied by His Mercy and Love. 9. Recognizing that time waits for no one and that it passes swiftly. 10.  The inevitable outcome of disobedience is hardship and pain. 11.  Struggle against one’s desires, when they emerge. 12.  Reject the first thought that will eventually lead to a temptation for evil. 13.  Strive to cut off the means to fulfilling your desire. This principle is found in the story of Yusuf where he rushed to leave the room where the sin could only take place. 14.  Contemplate the signs of Allah in nature and in His book. 15.  Contemplate the temporality of this life and its essence. This life is merely a test and its forbidden pleasures are a delusion. 16.  Recognize that your heart is between the fingers of the Most Merciful, so rely on Him and ask Him for help. 17.  Appreciate that there are only two trajectories you can be on in life. The first is to the highest companionship (*rafīq al-a‘lā*), Allah, and the second is to the lowest of the low (*asfala sāfilīn*). 18.  Avoid environments where Allah’s Mercy does not descend. How can one thrive in such an environment? Plants and trees don’t grow except in places where rain descend. 19.  Recognize that Allah created you for life, not death, for honor, not humiliation, for security, not fear, and for wealth, not poverty. 20.  Do not be deluded by your knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge comes with responsibility to strive and struggle for its actualization into reality. These suggestions given by Ibn al-Qayyim are meant to increase motivational fuel through cognitive shifts and behavioral changes. To conclude, we have attempted to condense and express these points in a format that we hope will inspire the hearts and result in stronger motivation. It is written as a letter from your *nafs muṭma’inn*, > *Dear beloved slave of the King of kings,* > > *What ails you that you contemplate transgression against the One Who Created you?* > > *Has your heart forgotten its Master? His Greatness and His Glory? That He Knows of your innermost secrets. Sees your every action and Hears your every word?* > > *Surely, wealth and faith are victims of your transgression. Do you desire to erect barriers between yourself and His blessings?* > > *O impoverished supplicant, would you use His countless blessings against yourself in disobedience to Him, or would you use them for yourself in gratefulness to Him?* > > *Think of the blessed bargain, O meandering traveller! That you leave sin and He, the Most Generous, has guaranteed to replace it with that which is better!* > > *Reflect! What compels your Master to offer you such? Nothing in existence can compel The Compeller. Yet, He loves you, and He wants happiness for you.* > > *O despondent soul, you must believe that He loves you! He created you for wealth, not poverty, for life, not death, for honor, not humiliation, and for peace, not fear. What will make you realize that it is sin that brings you nearer to the latter in every respect?* > > O slave, will you not respond to the Most Loving with your love? For if you love, you would diligently evade all which would distance you from the object of your love. And surely to Allah, the Everlasting, alone belongs the highest example. > > *So be cautious, and let not linger any corrupt thoughts or wayward feelings lest they turn into destructive fantasies and elaborate plans.* > > *And remember, dear slave, that the strength to overcome your desires, your determination and your will, are between the Fingers of the Most Merciful. Will you not ask Him for relief? O slave, ask and persevere, and know that the One who responds will surely respond.*[^103] --- ## Notes [^1]: Rosenbaum, S. E. (1990). Epicurus on pleasure and the complete life. *Hellenistic Ethics*, 73(1), 21-41. [^2]: Woolf, R. (2004). What kind of hedonist was Epicurus? *A Journal for Ancient Philosophy*, 49(4), 303-322. [^3]: Ibid [^4]: *Rawḍat al-Muḥibbīn*, p. 245 [^5]: Ibn al-Qayyim also comments on an ontological discussion surrounding the existence of pleasure. Is pleasure merely the absence of pain or an independent existent? Some have argued that the pleasure associated with eating and drinking is due to the dissipation of hunger and thirst. This is the famous position held by Epicurus, although his name is not invoked in Ibn al-Qayyim’s discussion. Ibn al-Qayyim’s position is that pleasure is an independent existent that necessarily protects against pain. Thus, it is associated with pain in its opposing nature, but is not ontologically independent from it. [^6]: Ibn Qayyim. *Shifā’ al-‘Alīl*. Cairo: Dar at-Turaat; p. 526. [^7]: *Rawḍat al-Muḥibbīn*, p. 245 [^8]: Hirsh, J.B., Walberg, M. D., & Peterson, J. B. (2013). Spiritual Liberals and Religious Conservatives. *Social Psychological and Personality Science*, 4(1), 14-20. [^9]: *Rawḍat al-Muḥibbīn*, p. 246 [^10]: Ibid, pp. 246-247 [^11]: Qur'an, 13:28 [^12]: Qur'an, 20:124 [^13]: Qur'an, 22:31 [^14]: *Sunan an-Nasā’i*, Accessed on [https://sunnah.com/nasai/13/127](https://sunnah.com/nasai/13/127) \[August 28, 2017\] [^15]: The interested reader can refer to this Yaqeen article for a more detailed discussion: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire) [^16]: Qur'an, 16:97 [^17]: *Sahih Muslim*, Accessed on [https://sunnah.com/muslim/45/216](https://sunnah.com/muslim/45/216) \[August 28, 2017\] [^18]: Qur'an, 23:54-56 [^19]: Qur'an, 20:124 [^20]: Qur'an, 23:76-77 [^21]: Qur'an, 7:94 [^22]: Qur'an, 2:155 [^23]: *Sahih Muslim*, Accessed on [https://www.sunnah.com/muslim/45/65](https://www.sunnah.com/muslim/45/65) \[September 4, 2017\] [^24]: Qur'an, 9:120 [^25]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Ighāthat ul-Lahfān*. Jeddah: Dār Alam al-Fawā’id; p. 39. [^26]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Rawḍat al-Muḥibbīn*. Jeddah: Dar Alam al-Fawa’id; 2010. p. 233. [^27]: Qur’an, 4:26 [^28]: Phenomenology refers to the study of the conscious experience of a phenomenon rather than its specific nature of being. In this context, Truth can be studied as a separate concept, but phenomenology here refers to how a person subjectively experiences Truth in their lives in terms of thoughts, emotions, feelings, and behaviors. [^29]: Generally, the Will of Allah is categorized into Executive and Legislative. Executive Will encompasses everything that actually occurs and Legislative Will consists of things that Allah Wants to come into being (such as beauty, goodness, repentance etc.), but gives the human being the choice to follow. The intention of Allah in this paragraph refers to the Legislative Will. For a more detailed discussion please refer to [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/post/predestination-vs-free-will-in-islam-understanding-allahs-qadr/#ftnt8](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/predestination-vs-free-will-in-islam-understanding-allahs-qadr) [^30]: Ibn Taymiyya. *Qā’idatun Fī al-Maḥabba*. Cairo: Dar at-Turāth; p. 17. [^31]: Ibid [^32]: Ibid [^33]: Ibid, p. 235 [^34]: Ibid [^35]: Ibid, p. 245 [^36]: Ibid [^37]: Qur'an, 7:31 [^38]: Qur'an, 83:26 [^39]: *Rawḍat al-Muḥibbīn*, p. 235 [^40]: Ibid, p. 240 [^41]: Ibid, p. 164 [^42]: Qur'an, 3:4 [^43]: These concepts will be dealt with in greater depth in Section III (Motivational Fuel). [^44]: Qur'an, 18:46 [^45]: *Igāthat al-Lahfān*, p. 39 [^46]: Ibid, p. 236 [^47]: Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2013). Residents of poor nations have a greater sense of meaning in life than residents of wealthy nations. *Psychological Science*, 25, 422-430. [^48]: Addington, D. E., & Addington, J. M. (1992). Attempted suicide and depression in schizophrenia. *Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica*, 85(4), 288-291. [^49]: Hilton Jr,  D. L. (2013). Pornography addiction – a supranormal stimulus considered in the context of neuroplasticity. *Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology*. 3:1, 207s7, DOI: 10.3402/snp.v3i0.20767 [^50]: Kleitz-Nelson, H. K., Dominguez, J. M., & Ball, G. F.(2010). Dopamine release in the medial preoptic area is related to hormonal action and sexual motivation. *Behavioral Neuroscience, 124(6)*, 773-779. [^51]: Peterson, J. B. (2008). *The meaning of meaning*. 2nd ed. Vancouver: Routledge.  pp. 11-32. [^52]: *Ighāthat al-Lahfān*, p. 39 [^53]: Ibid [^54]: Ibid, p. 439 [^55]: Qur'an, 5:76 [^56]: Qur'an, 10:18 [^57]: Qur'an, 22:12 [^58]: *Ighāthat al-Lahfān*, p. 67 [^59]: Ibid, p. 68 [^60]: Ibid [^61]: Qur'an, 6:162 [^62]: Qur'an, 25:43 [^63]: Qur'an, 92:4 [^64]: Qur'an, 39:29 [^65]: Peterson, J. B. (2008). *The meaning of meaning*. 2nd ed. Vancouver: Routledge.  pp. 11-32. [^66]: Ibid [^67]: *Rawḍat al-Muḥibbīn*, p. 153 [^68]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Kitāb ar-Rūḥ*. 5th edition. Cairo: Al-Maktabah at-Tawfīqiyyah; 2012,  p. 328. [^69]: The concepts of ṣabr and self-regulation are discussed in more detail later in this article. [^70]: *Kitāb ar-Rūḥ*, p. 369 [^71]: Qur'an, 45:32 [^72]: Qur'an, 18:49 [^73]: Qur'an, 45:32 [^74]: The interested reader should refer to: [http://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless/](http://spiritualperception.org/the-real-battle-meaningful-vs-meaningless) [^75]: Qur'an, 45:32 [^76]: We will be using the terms sabr and self-regulation interchangeably. Generally, we will use self-regulation when speaking about the psychological perspective and *sabr* when speaking about Ibn al-Qayyim’s or the Islamic perspective. [^77]: Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Self-regulation, ego depletion and motivation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 115-128. [^78]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *‘Uddat aṣ-Ṣābirīn*. Damam: Dar Ibn al-Jawzi; 2012. p. 41. [^79]: Ibid, p. 40 [^80]: Ibid, p. 41 [^81]: Ibid [^82]: Ibid [^83]: Ibid [^84]: Ibid [^85]: Muraven, M., Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F.(1998). Self-control as a limited resource: Regulatory depletion patterns. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, 74(3), 774-789. [^86]: *Sahih Bukhari*, #39 [^87]: Tice, D. M., Baumeister, R. F., Shmueli, D., & Muraven, M. (2007). Restoring the self: Positive affect helps improve self-regulation following ego depletion. *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(3)*, 379-384. [^88]: Lambird, K. F.,  & Mann, T. (2006).  When do ego threats lead to self-regulation failure? Negative consequences of defensive high self-esteem. *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin*, *32*, 1177–1187. [^89]: Baumeister, R. F.,  & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Self-regulation, ego depletion and motivation. *Social and Personality Psychology Compass*, 1, 115-128. [^90]: Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle? *Psychological Bulletin*, 126(2), 247-259. [^91]: *‘Uddat aṣ-Ṣābirīn*, p. 89 [^92]: Ibid [^93]: Ibid [^94]: Ibid [^95]: Ibid [^96]: Ibid, p. 90 [^97]: *Sahih Bukhari*, #5066 [^98]: *‘Uddat aṣ-Ṣābirīn*, p. 90 [^99]: Ibid, pp. 91-92 [^100]: Ibid, p. 92 [^101]: Ibid, p. 91 [^102]: Ibid, pp. 93-101 [^103]: The author wishes to acknowledge C. Zarak Aslam’s significant contribution in producing this abridged letter. ## Summary Motivation, understood as the root of our conscious thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, is a subject that can be illuminated through careful attention to the internal components of the self as described in the Qur'an. Continuing a larger effort to formulate an understanding of human psychology from an Islamic perspective, and building upon a prior treatment of the Marātib al-Qaṣd (degrees of intention)—having previously covered al-hājis (fleeting thought), al-khāṭir (sustained thought), and ḥadīth an-nafs (deliberate thought)—the present focus rests upon al-hamm (motivation). Understanding the motivational state more deeply enables a person to take better control of their thinking, emotions, behavior, and ultimately their life. The most fundamental of human experiences are pain and pleasure, and our minds and bodies naturally orient toward what brings pleasure and away from what brings pain. The philosophy known as hedonism holds that human beings ought to live so as to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, and even the sober-minded Epicurean school, which recognized that true pleasure lies in a life of virtue rather than indulgence, overlaps somewhat with Islamic notions of pleasure. The point of departure between the Islamic view and all schools of hedonism lies in whether pleasure is treated as an end or as a means. Islamically, experiencing pleasure and averting pain are signs that one is heading in the right direction, much as a signpost guides a traveller onward rather than marking the destination itself, whereas hedonism posits pleasure as the ultimate telos of life. A useful distinction is drawn between psychological hedonism (a description of pain and pleasure as drivers of behavior) and ethical hedonism (a prescription to maximize pleasure), with the Islamic tradition taking a middle approach that recognizes the ethical dimensions of pain and pleasure as means toward Truth and virtue rather than as Truth and virtue themselves. Drawing on Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), pleasure is categorized experientially into three types: sensory pleasures (ladhha juthmāniya), imaginative or fanciful pleasures (ladhha khayāliyyah wahmiyya), and intellectual and spiritual pleasures (ladhha ‘aqliyya rūḥāniyya), with pain understood as the opposite pole of each. Ibn al-Qayyim states that by the wisdom of Allah, "He has made pleasure give rise to pain, and pain give rise to pleasure." Sensory pleasures, shared with animals, concern eating, drinking, and procreation; imaginative pleasures arise from power, authority, and leadership—understandable through modern notions of social dominance hierarchies—while their corresponding pain arises from being dominated and oppressed; and intellectual and spiritual pleasures are tied to knowledge (‘ilm), spiritual awareness (ma‘rifa), and virtues such as nobility, generosity, and forbearance. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that when pleasure is joined to knowledge and love of Allah, a person has entered a garden of paradise in this world, for there is nothing more pleasurable to the heart than love for Allah and tranquility in His presence. This accords with the words of Allah, "Those who have believed and whose hearts become serene through the remembrance of Allah. Certainly, through the remembrance of Allah, hearts become tranquil," while those who turn away are warned, "Whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a miserable life," and are likened to one who "has fallen from the sky." Regarding the hereafter, pleasure is the fundamental reward of virtuous living, the greatest being the opportunity to gaze upon Allah, as sought in the supplication, "O Allah, I ask you for the pleasure of gazing upon Your face." Pain in the next life functions as deserved punishment, as in the verse concerning the roasting and replacing of skins, and also as therapeutic purification, whereby some are cleansed through the Fire before entering Paradise. In this world, pleasure may be a reward for good, as Allah promises a good life to the righteous believer, and as the Prophet ﷺ described praise for a good deed as "early glad-tidings"; yet pleasure may also be deceptive, deluding the sinner, as indicated by the verse questioning whether extended wealth and children signify goodness. Pain in this world likewise carries several functions: punitive pain for sin, merciful pain that reminds a person to turn back—Allah having seized nations "with poverty and hardship that they might humble themselves"—forbearing pain as a test with glad tidings for the patient, redemptive pain that expiates sins (the Prophet ﷺ noting that even the pricking of a thorn obliterates sins), and growth pains that are necessary consequences of righteous striving and are recorded as righteous deeds. Pleasure and pain also serve an epistemic function. Ibn al-Qayyim holds that "benefit is associated with pleasure and harm is associated with pain," and cites Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) that experiencing what is compatible (mulā’im) produces pleasure while what is incompatible (munāfi) produces pain. Since what is truly meant to happen is what Allah intends, pleasurable compatibility can be conceived as a phenomenological experience of Truth, and painful incompatibility as an experience of Falsehood. Ibn Taymiyyah further describes benefit (naf‘) and Truth (ḥaqq)—along with the legislated, the virtuous, justice, and goodness—as asmā’ mutakāfi’ah, complementary qualities of one inseparable essence: Allah's Will that we are meant to actualize. Nevertheless, the risk of hedonism is great if pleasure-seeking is taken as a sufficient guide to truth. Ibn al-Qayyim distinguishes worthy pleasures (ladhha maḥmūda) that lead to human flourishing (kamāl) from shameful pleasures (ladhha madhmūma), noting that sensory pleasure alone does not bring flourishing—otherwise the most fulfilled people would be those who eat, drink, and copulate most. He judges the matter consequentially: any pleasure leading to greater pain, like a poisoned meal that felt good, cannot truly be called pleasure. Regulating pleasure and pain requires the intellect (‘aql), which projects future consequences; revealed knowledge, the Qur'an being the furqān (distinguisher); and ṣabr (self-control), the energy to change behavior despite immediate gains, set against hawā, shahwa, and shayṭān. The Qur'an pairs the enduring (bāqiyāt) and virtuous (saliḥāt) as better than the allurements of wealth and children. Pleasure, then, is not evil but a mercy and a motivation to seek the Divine, realized as sustained pleasure only when activity is meaningful and brings closeness to Allah—an insight resonant with modern findings linking absence of meaning to anhedonia and suicide. Neuroscientifically, dopamine release requires a goal-directed motivational state, which is why meaning is necessary for pleasure. Ibn al-Qayyim frames motivation around what is loved, what is despised, and the paths toward and away from each, all resting on a conception of benefit and harm. Every action implies a belief that it is worth pursuing, and goals are either extrinsic (murād li-ghayrih) or intrinsic (murād li-nafsih). The intrinsic goal, sought for itself, functions as one's deity and unifies all pursuits—the essence of tawḥīd, as in "My prayers, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah." The problem of infinite regress shows that an intrinsic foundation is necessary, and its absence leaves a person scattered, as in "Verily your pursuits are dispersed." Shirk—multiple intrinsic goals—renders the value system structurally unsound, illustrated by the parable of the slave owned by quarreling partners versus one owner. Emotions form a further component, evaluating progress toward the goal; obstacles produce pain, as Ibn al-Qayyim describes concerning the gap between what the heart craves and what it possesses. Spiritually, motivation reflects the struggle between the nafs ammāra bis-sū’, fueled by shahwa and constructing motivational frames toward destructive but immediately pleasurable ends, and the nafs muṭma’inn, fueled by ṣabr and reorienting toward virtue. The nafs ammāra bis-sū’ subtly diverts intentions—Ibn al-Qayyim listing over thirty-five pairs such as nobility and arrogance—and also breeds doubt, diverting the pursuit of ‘ilm toward ẓann (conjecture), which carries no responsibility and corrodes knowledge into shakk. This is captured in the verse where deniers said, "We assume only conjecture (ẓann), and we are not convinced," the word mustayqinīn implying a failure to seek certainty, leaving them the existential pain warned of in "he will have a depressed life." Strengthening ṣabr and weakening shahwa is therefore essential. Ibn al-Qayyim defines ṣabr as comprising initiatory strength (to undertake good) and inhibitory strength (to abstain from harm), explaining that people vary in these dimensions—some pray the night prayer easily yet struggle with lustful gazes, others avoid the unlawful yet neglect obligations. Modern research treats self-regulation as a depletable resource prone to a rebound effect, replenished by rest and positive emotion, weakened by defensive high self-esteem (a form of arrogance to be countered by humility), aided by extrinsic incentives, and strengthened like a muscle through moderate use—consonant with the Prophet's ﷺ words, "This way of life is easy, no one overburdens himself in it except that it will overcome him." Ibn al-Qayyim's cognitive interventions involve learning one's values and assigning them high significance; his behavioral interventions weaken desire through reducing indulgence (fasting, per the ﷺ counsel to unmarried youth), lowering the gaze, satisfying desire lawfully, contemplating harmful consequences, and evoking disgust—likening desire to a beast to be tamed. He further offers twenty means of strengthening motivation toward goodness, including beholding Allah's glory and love, recalling His blessings and His anger, trusting His promise to replace what is abandoned with better, contemplating His signs, and recognizing that the heart lies between the Fingers of the Most Merciful, closing with an exhortatory letter from one's own nafs muṭma’inn calling the soul back to its Loving Master. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-causes-muslims-to-doubt-islam-a-quantitative-analysis # "What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis" **Author:** Dr. Youssef Chouhoud **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 13, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction What motivates religious doubt among American Muslims? Answers to this vital question often rest on isolated anecdotes and intuition. At a time when the US population as a whole is becoming less and less religious, however, the need for a more systematic assessment of doubt in the American Muslim community is especially pressing. To address this demand, we sampled over 600 Muslims across America and recorded their opinions on a number of social, political, and religious issues. Drawing on data from the inaugural Muslim American Attitudes Survey, this study offers the first quantitative insights on religious doubt among American Muslims and complements the qualitative findings reported in “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam.”[^1] The following analysis is designed to both guide further research on this topic and provide a useable reference for imams and other counselors. First, it presents a descriptive breakdown of the extent to which various issues cause Muslims to doubt their faith. These summary statistics provide a means to compare the impressions of community leaders in “Modern Pathways” with American Muslims’ actual attitudes and experiences. Second, examining the determinants of religious doubt, this study highlights a number of positive and negative correlates, commenting on the (at times, surprising) associations the analysis reveals. The study concludes with an assessment of the broader project’s main contributions thus far and a look ahead to the research avenues that remain. --- ## The Roads to and from Doubt ### Methodology Although this study breaks new empirical ground, the data collection expressly built on prior work when possible. Appendix A at the end of this report outlines the sampling technique in detail, however the sources of our questionnaire are worth highlighting at the outset. Specifically, the conceptualization and categorization of doubt aligns with this project’s initial study. As in “Modern Pathways,” here we are concerned with the type of religious doubt that potentially undermines one’s faith and could even lead one to abandon Islam altogether. To that end, the prompt that introduced the items comprising our doubt scale read as follows: > *Sometimes, certain experiences or teachings lead people to deeply question their faith. To what extent have the following issues EVER caused you to seriously doubt your religious beliefs?* The doubt scale’s organizing framework similarly drew upon the findings from our previous study. In particular, this earlier work highlighted three core umbrella categories of doubt. The first, ***Moral and Social Concerns***, reflects the potential anxieties that arise when an individual must reconcile their understanding of Islam with society’s (at times, far more malleable) ethical norms. It is worth underscoring that, contrary to anti-Muslim assertions that have gained prominence in the past decade (particularly since the start of the last presidential cycle), the overwhelming majority of Islamic doctrine and practice is wholly compatible with living as an American citizen. Yet, as with any comprehensive doctrine, there will be certain issues where mainstream interpretations of Muslim beliefs and practices are at odds with dominant cultural understandings in America. For American Muslims, these tensions and conflicts can become an impetus for doubt. The second category, ***Philosophical and Scientific Concerns***, comprises critiques aimed at the presumed “irrationality” of religion, generally, and Islam, in particular. Doubts that travel along this pathway tend to cluster around three nodes: 1) the Evolution vs. Creation debate, 2) the general perception that scientific knowledge conflicts with fundamental religious beliefs, and 3) the inability to “prove” certain tenets of faith or resolve seeming contradictions, such as why an all-Good God would allow evil in the world. A final set of doubts, those stemming from ***Personal Trauma***, rounds out the three general categories that emerged from in-depth interviews with Muslim institutional leaders across the country. This third source encompasses trauma brought on through 1) intimate events/interactions, whether acute (such as with the death of a loved one) or prolonged (such as with recurring physical or emotional abuse), and 2) communal interactions, wherein an individual feels discriminated against or otherwise unwelcome in dedicated Muslim spaces. Utilizing this framework, we populated the doubt battery with items that other scholars have validated in previous studies. The collaborative and individual work of two sociologists, Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsberger, was especially influential. In particular, a number of scales used in this study were adapted from the duo’s seminal, and entirely relevant, work, *Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith & Others Abandon Religion*.[^2] Extracting (with occasional necessary amendment) the most applicable items from Altemeyer and Hunsberger’s questionnaire and organizing the items according to our framework for Muslim doubt, we obtained the following battery of potential sources of doubt: ***MORAL AND SOCIAL CONCERNS*** - Teachings about the role of women - The hypocrisy of religious people; that is, the nonreligious behavior of supposedly religious individuals - The bad things that people do in the name of religion - The intolerance that some religious people show toward other faiths - The way that religious people sometimes insist that there is only one "right" way to practice faith - The intolerance that some religious people show toward certain other people (e.g., homosexuals) ***PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC CONCERNS*** - The debate over Evolution (through natural selection) vs. Creation (through God) - Uncertainty over the existence of God - The problem of evil and unfair suffering in the world - Feeling that certain religious beliefs or practices do not  make sense ***PERSONAL TRAUMA*** - Finding that being religious does not make one happy - Not feeling welcomed in your faith community - The death of a loved one For each item, the response choices were “Not at all,” “A little,” “A moderate amount,” “Quite a bit,” or “A great deal.” Although the Muslim doubt scale largely aligns with our framework in “Modern Pathways,” there is one notable discrepancy: the items meant to gauge personal trauma do not ask directly about emotional or physical abuse. This was not an oversight, but rather a conscious decision. This determination was, first and foremost, taken with the concern of our respondents in mind, as such questions should not be broached absent a careful strategy to gauge the relevant attitudes and experiences while causing the least amount of harm. Such an approach requires a dedicated study on the topic, rather than one that measures a broad range of attitudes. Secondarily, including questions of this sort could be detrimental to the survey’s validity and reliability, as it could cause some respondents to simply drop out once they see these items, or otherwise alter the mindset of those respondents who choose to remain in the survey. For these reasons, we opted not to inquire about prolonged traumatic events in this survey. ### The Sources of Doubt Figure 1 presents the proportions for each of the items in the doubt scale, ordered from those issues that most caused respondents to deeply doubt their religious beliefs to those that did so the least. The first notable feature of this graph is that the top four issues all come from the **Moral and Social Concerns** family of doubts. Moreover, with the partial (though, debatable) exception of the top issue (“The way that \[some\] insist there is only one 'right' way to practice faith”), all four refer to particular behaviors rather than tenets of belief. The upshot is that the primary driver of doubt appears to be the actions of *Muslims* rather than the doctrines of *Islam*. This interpretation is further reinforced when turning to the bottom of the chart where each of the four items that least trigger doubt are directly related to doctrinal belief or the interpretation of personal life events in light of doctrinal belief. ![Figure 1: Actions of Muslims](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Figure1.jpg) To gain even more insight into the dynamics of Muslim doubt, we probed our respondents to consider the extent to which the issues that led them to question their religious teachings in the past are still a concern. Specifically, each respondent who noted that an item in the initial battery had caused them to seriously doubt their beliefs at least “A little” in the past, was asked about those same items again with the following prompt: > *And of those issues that have troubled you in the past, how much do they CURRENTLY still cause you to doubt your religious beliefs?* Figure 2 presents the proportions for each of the items in the follow-up battery of doubt questions. Overall, our sample’s current level of doubt is significantly lower than in the past—a mean decrease of 23% on the overall doubt scale. Indeed, fully 17% of those who reported that at least one issue led them to doubt “A little” in the past now report that none of the items in our follow-up battery currently cause them to question their religious beliefs. ![Figure 2: Terrorism and Suffering](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Figure2.jpg) In terms of the sources of doubt, the top of the chart is once again dominated by moral and social concerns. The top two considerations driving current levels of doubt in our survey are “The bad things that people do in the name of religion” and “The problem of evil and unfair suffering in the world,” which indicates that negative headlines about terrorism and general hardship at home and abroad are taking their toll on the American Muslim psyche. The bottom of the chart remained largely unchanged from the pattern in Figure 1. ### Responses to Doubt Beyond cataloging the reported sources of doubt, we also wanted to examine how American Muslims respond when their faith is challenged. To answer this question, we gauged the likelihood of a respondent taking a particular action on a 4-point scale from “Not at all likely” to “Very likely” using the following prompt and survey battery:[^3] > *Thinking back on the instances when you DEEPLY questioned aspects of your religion or were troubled by certain beliefs or practices, how likely were you to do the following:* - Read your Holy Book or other religious materials - Talk with friends or relatives who belong to YOUR religion - Pray for enlightenment and guidance - Talk with a religious authority (such as a priest, minister, imam or rabbi) - Turn to websites or modern books authored by those of the SAME faith as you - Seek out people from OTHER religions to see if what they believed made more sense - Decide to seek the truth, even if it meant leaving your religion - Purposefully turn to sources that went against your religious beliefs - Talk with friends who had no religious beliefs about why they did not believe Figure 3 displays the proportions for the Responses to Doubt scale. The responses divide neatly along two dimensions: 1) belief-confirming consultations (BCC) that indicate an individual’s desire to seek guidance from sources that accord with their existing religious beliefs, and 2) belief-threatening consultations (BTC), which challenge one’s established religious worldview.[^4] The respondents in our sample clearly preferred the BCC route when doubts arose. In particular, solitary engagement, either through prayer or turning to Islam’s primary sources, was the likeliest path our respondents took when faced with deep concerns about their faith. ![Figure 3: Muslim Responses to Doubt](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Figure3.jpg) Notably for our purposes, a clear majority reported being at least somewhat likely to talk to an imam, which gives us further confidence that the institutional leaders’ experiences in “Modern Pathways” align well (if perhaps not perfectly) with the broader American Muslim reality. Moreover, the tendency to turn to sources that reinforce faith, coupled with the overall lower levels of current doubt when compared to doubt at any time in the past, indicates that crises of faith are not irreversible and that interventions (whether personal or interpersonal) can effectively address certain apprehensions. At the other end of the graph, although the tallies are significantly lower, there are nonetheless sizeable portions of the sample that explore doubts via a more contentious pathway. No fewer than a quarter of our respondents were at least somewhat likely to react to their doubt by seeking sources of guidance outside of Islam or otherwise resolving not to be bound to the goal of maintaining their faith. This is not to say, however, that a relinquishing of Islam is the endpoint of all who travel down this road. Indeed, some who make this journey may ultimately renew or even strengthen their belief. Such was the case, for example, with Yaqeen’s own Sheikh Omar Suleiman who, in a recent interview, related how he himself chose a more skeptical response to doubt in his youth and eventually ended up more certain in his faith as a result.[^5] --- ## The Correlates of Doubt ### Methodology In addition to descriptive data, we can further probe doubt in the American Muslim community through multivariate analysis. This statistical technique allows us to isolate the effect of key variables while holding other potentially influential factors constant. The reader should be careful, however, not to infer causality from the findings highlighted below. Since our data do not allow us to establish the presence of one variable prior to another, we cannot claim that our analyses reveal causal relationships. For example, if we find that lower religiosity (however defined) is associated with higher levels of doubt, our data cannot say whether the former is the cause or the effect of the latter, or whether some third factor influences both. The outcome variable in each of the statistical models is the respondent’s total level of doubt over time. This construct is captured by adding each respondent’s answers to the questions in the main doubt scale, where “Not at all” is coded as a “0” and “A great deal” is coded as a “4.” For ease of interpretation, this sum is then rescaled from 0-1, where “0” and “1” represent the lowest and highest possible levels of total reported doubt, respectively. The x-axis in each of the remaining figures thus represents an increase or decrease on this scale. The same rescaling was carried out for each of the explanatory variables in the model. This means that the results reported in the graphs correspond to the difference in the doubt scale when comparing the highest value of the independent variable to its lowest value. So, for example, if the effect of Age in a model is negative and statistically significant, that means that the oldest respondents in the sample, on average, report lower levels of doubt than the youngest respondents. We tested three sets of potential correlates. First, a standard demographic model analyzed the impact of Age, Sex, Education, Convert status, and race/ethnicity (*African-American, Asian*, and *Arab*, all in reference to *White* respondents). Each of these items were subsequently included as controls in the remaining models. The second substantive set of variables gauged various aspects of religiosity: *Mosque Attendance, Frequency of Prayer, Quran Literalism*, and *Importance of Religion in the Respondent’s Life*. A final suite of indices measured social and religious attitudes and experiences. *Dogmatism* gauges the extent to which one sees the world in nuanced versus black and white terms. *Quest* is an additive scale that taps the degree to which respondents perceive religion to be an unsettled search for truth as opposed to a fairly static set of beliefs. *Religious Education* tallies the respondents’ experience with various modes of religious learning as a youth. *Religious Emphasis* is an additive index that gauges the extent to which various aspects of religious life were stressed during the respondent’s youth. Finally, *Religious Conservatism* assesses the respondent’s attitudes toward the allowance or prohibition of several contentious issues in Islam, with a higher score indicating a tendency toward more prohibitive judgments. The full wording for each of these scales, as well as the religiosity items and demographic measures, is available in Appendix B. ### Results The results of the statistical analyses offer a mix of anticipated and surprising findings, both in terms of the items that registered as significant and those that did not. Figure 4 models the demographic correlates of doubt. Neither age nor education significantly impact religious doubt, which was a bit unexpected. More curious, however, is the differential effect of race: African-American, Asian, and Arab respondents all reported experiencing significantly lower levels of doubt than White respondents (the reference group). Any explanation of this finding would be speculative at this point, although the results are notably in line with extant research on religious conviction in the general public based on race/ethnicity.[^6] ![Figure 4: Doubt by Demographic](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Figure4.jpg) Figure 5 displays the effect of the various measures of religiosity. Of the variables in this set, only the importance of religion in the respondent’s life registers as statistically significant. Its effect is also quite substantial, as those for whom religion is very important are far lower in measured doubt than those who say religion is not at all important, with the difference being more than 25% of the total scale, on average. Of the remaining variables, the lack of a significant effect for *Quran Literalism* is quite surprising as this measure is typically associated with more entrenched beliefs. ![Figure 5: Doubt and Religious Practice](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Figure5.jpg) The results in Figure 6 further evidence that conservative attitudes and experiences do not move the needle on doubt (at least, not in the expected direction). The result that stands out in terms of sheer magnitude is the impact of *Quest*. Fully 40% of the total doubt scale, on average, separates respondents who most view religion as a search for truth from those who least express this perspective. Perhaps the most remarkable finding across all the models, however, is that *Dogmatism* was positively associated with doubt. In effect, this means that those who are more close-minded tend to report a higher level of religious doubt. This result holds even when controlling for religiosity (see the fully specified model, Figure A, in the Appendix). ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Figure6.jpg) Similarly, growing up in an environment where religion was emphasized, rather than staving off doubt, seems to enhance it. In the full model (see Appendix C), this positive association crosses into statistical significance. This finding indicates that religious doubt may, in part, be a reaction to a strict upbringing (or at least one perceived to be so). Continuing the trend, the effect of *Religious Conservatism* is similarly insignificant. Thus, those who have a hardline view on certain Muslim beliefs and practices are just as likely to express religious doubt as their more liberal counterparts. This result thus once again underscores that we should be cautious about simply assuming that certain types of individuals are more prone to have a crisis of faith. --- ## Conclusion What causes one person to doubt their faith and another to believe? Ultimately, from a theological perspective, the answer to this question rests in Divine decree. Through systematic analysis, however, we can better understand the observable attitudes and behaviors that tend to go hand in hand with religious doubt. The first stage of this project mapping American Muslim doubt highlighted three nodes around which doubts generally cluster: Moral and Social Concerns, Philosophical and Scientific Concerns, and Personal Trauma. These insights were subsequently used to inform a battery of questions in the 2017 Muslim American Attitudes Survey and provide large-n empirical data on the sources and correlates of doubt among American Muslims. The preceding analysis featured three key sets of findings. First, the primary drivers of overall doubt appear to be the actions of Muslims, such as intolerance toward other faiths, rather than specific beliefs, such as the existence of God. Focusing in on the current sources of doubt among our sample, this trend largely maintains, but is likely a bit more informed by the negative socio-political events of recent years as “The bad things that people do in the name of religion” clearly tops the list. Second, the responses to doubt among our sample plainly evidence a tendency to turn to sources that would confirm one’s prior beliefs, such as the Quran or consultation with an imam, rather than threaten one’s faith, such as turning to sources that are expressly against Islam. Third, the analysis highlighted a number of notable correlates of doubt, while also revealing some surprisingly inconsequential factors. Demographically, neither age, education, sex, nor convert status affected doubt, although Whites were curiously significantly higher on the doubt scale when compared to all other racial/ethnic groups. Remarkably, none of the typical measures of religiosity had a significant effect on reported levels of doubt, although the more respondents felt that religion was important in their life, the lower they tended to be on the doubt scale. By far the strongest correlate of doubt was the extent to which one regarded religion as an open-ended quest for truth, rather than a predefined set of beliefs. This result is not surprising when considering that the top reported sources of overall doubt underscored a keen aversion to dogmatism and hypocrisy. These findings, alongside those from our qualitative study with community leaders, provide a fuller, empirical understanding of American Muslim doubt. As always, however, fruitful avenues remain for future research. One clear route would be to survey those individuals who have left Islam. It remains unclear whether the respondents in our sample, who self-identify as Muslim, are systematically different in their views on doubt than those who no longer count themselves as adherents of Islam. Understanding if and when the opinions of these two groups diverge would give us greater insight into what transforms doubt to disbelief. A second useful extension of this project would be to incorporate experimental methods to establish a more causal mapping of American Muslim doubt. The application of this methodology will require an innovative design and will naturally bump up against logistical limitations. One possible way to bridge this causal gap would be to test whether increasing the salience of certain issues has a measurable effect on one’s certainty in Islam. Does, for example, informing respondents about an incident of spiritual abuse, intolerance, or hypocrisy affect their propensity to express doubt and, if so, is this effect constant across different demographics and levels of religiosity? Much work remains to be done in this domain. In the meantime, the analysis presented here and in “Modern Pathways” offers community leaders, students, and educators rare, empirically-based insights into the issues affecting American Muslim faith. --- ## Appendix A – Sampling Methodology The online sample for this study was obtained through Qualtrics, a survey research firm. Respondents from numerous survey panels were invited to participate in the study if they had previously indicated that they were Muslim. The invitation itself was generic and made no mention of the specific topic. Incentives for participation are most often in the form of “points” that can be redeemed for gift cards, miles for airline loyalty programs, etc. This double opt-in process took place between August 25th and October 16th, yielding a total of 630 respondents. For both the descriptive and inferential analyses, the final sample is weighted to the Pew (2017) data on American Muslims’ age, education, and sex. --- ## Appendix B – Key Variable Measures **Sex:** What is your sex? - Male - Female **Age:** Respondents were asked to input their age in years and were subsequently coded according to the following categories: - 18-29 - 30-39 - 40-54 - 55+ **Education:** What is the highest level of education you have completed or the highest degree you have received? - Less than high school degree - High school graduate (diploma or equivalent, including GED) - Some college but no degree - Associate's degree (2-year) - Bachelor's degree (4-year) - Post-graduate degree (Master's, PhD, MD, JD, etc.) **Race/Ethnicity:** Which of the following categories best represents your racial/ethnic background (choose all that apply): - White - Black/African-American - Hispanic/Latino - American Indian or Alaska Native - Asian - Middle Eastern/North African/Arab - Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander - Other (please specify) **Convert:** Thinking about your childhood, would you say that you were raised to be… (anything other than “Muslim” was coded as “Convert”) - Non-convert - Convert **Mosque Attendance:** Aside from weddings or funerals, how often do you go to a mosque? - Almost never - A few times a year - Once or twice a month - Once a week - More than once a week **Frequency of Prayer:** In general, how often do you pray salah or namaz (formal prayer)? - Almost never - Only during Eid - Once or twice a month - Once or twice a week - Daily **Quran Literalism:** Which of the following statements comes closest to your personal beliefs about the Quran? - The Quran is the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word - The Quran is the actual word of God, but has some content that is merely symbolic - The Quran is an ancient book of history and moral guidance authored by men **Importance of Religion in Respondent’s Life:** How important is religion in your life? - Not at all important - Not too important - Somewhat important - Very important **Quest** (5-point; Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree) - My life experiences have led me to rethink my religious convictions - For me, doubting is an important part of what it means to be religious - Questions are far more central to my religious experience than are answers - As I grow and change, I expect my religious beliefs will similarly shift - There are many religious issues on which my views are still changing ***Religious Emphasis*** (4-point; Not at all, A little, A moderate amount, A great deal) - Emphasize attending religious services - Encourage you to read scripture and other religious material - Teach you to fear God's punishment if you sin - Discuss moral "dos" and "don'ts" in religious terms - Observe religious holidays - Teach you that your religion's rules are not to be questioned **Dogmatism** (5-point; Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree) - There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are for the truth and those who are against it. - To compromise with our political opponents is dangerous because it usually leads to the betrayal of our own side. - A group that tolerates too many differences of opinion among its own members cannot exist for long. *Religious Education* (1-point for each checked item) - Regular formal lessons outside of normal school hours (e.g., "Sunday school") - Occasional informal lessons (e.g., Bible/Torah/Quran study) - Regular formal lessons as a student in a private religious school Religious Conservatism (4-point; Absolutely allowed, Allowed for the most part (with exceptions), Prohibited for the most part (with exceptions), Absolutely prohibited) - Homosexual relations - Taking out a loan that requires the payment of interest - Celebrating the holidays of other faith groups - Marrying someone of another faith - Women going out in public with their hair uncovered - Women leading a gathering of both men and women in communal prayer (salah) - An abortion when the mother's health is NOT at risk --- ## Appendix C – Additional Models ![Figure A: Correlates of Doubt](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FigureA.jpg) --- ## Notes [^1]: Youssef Chouhoud, “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam” (Dallas, TX: Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 2016). [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/) [^2]: Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsberger, *Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith and Others Abandon Religion* (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1997). [^3]: The items were adapted from Altemeyer and Hunsberger. [^4]: For elaboration on these two approaches to religious doubt, see Bruce Hunsberger, Michael Pratt, and S. Mark Pancer, “A Longitudinal Study of Religious Doubts in High School and beyond: Relationships, Stability, and Searching for Answers,” *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* 41, no. 2 (2002): 255–66. [^5]: [http://themadmamluks.com/truth-and-justice-activism-omar-suleiman/](http://themadmamluks.com/truth-and-justice-activism-omar-suleiman/) [^6]: Pew’s breakdown of their 2015 Religious Landscape Study by race/ethnicity evidences a number of areas where White respondents are less likely to report adhering to fundamental religious practices or believe in core religious tenets than their Black, Latino, and Asian counterparts. See [http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/racial-and-ethnic-composition/](http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/racial-and-ethnic-composition/) ## Summary A crisis of faith and the whispers of doubt are matters that have long concerned those who care for the well-being of the believers, and a systematic study of over six hundred Muslims across America, drawing upon the inaugural Muslim American Attitudes Survey, sought to bring empirical clarity to a question too often answered by anecdote and intuition alone: what leads a Muslim to seriously question his or her faith? At a time when the broader American population grows increasingly detached from religion, the investigators judged that a careful accounting of doubt within the Muslim community was pressing. Their aim was twofold: to describe the extent to which various matters cause Muslims to doubt, and to examine which factors are associated with such doubt, so that imams and counselors might have a reliable reference in place of guesswork. The study built upon an earlier qualitative work titled "Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam," which had gathered the reflections of Muslim institutional leaders and identified three broad categories into which doubts tend to fall. The first, termed Moral and Social Concerns, arises when a person struggles to reconcile his understanding of the religion with the shifting ethical norms of surrounding society; the researchers were careful to note that the overwhelming majority of Islamic doctrine and practice is wholly compatible with life as an American citizen, and that tension arises only on particular matters where mainstream interpretations clash with dominant cultural understandings. The second category, Philosophical and Scientific Concerns, gathers critiques of religion's supposed irrationality, clustering around the debate over evolution and creation, the perception that science conflicts with belief, and the difficulty of proving certain tenets or resolving apparent contradictions such as why an all-Good God permits evil. The third category, Personal Trauma, encompasses both intimate suffering, such as the death of a loved one, and communal wounds, such as feeling unwelcome in Muslim spaces. To measure these matters, the researchers drew upon items validated in prior scholarship, particularly the work of the sociologists Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsberger in their study Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith and Others Abandon Religion. Respondents were asked to what extent various issues had ever caused them to seriously doubt their beliefs. It should be noted that the researchers deliberately chose not to ask directly about emotional or physical abuse, both out of care for the respondents, since such questions require a dedicated and careful study of their own, and out of concern for the survey's reliability, lest such items cause participants to withdraw or alter their frame of mind. The findings regarding the sources of doubt were striking in their consistency. The four issues that most caused respondents to doubt all belonged to the family of Moral and Social Concerns, and with a single arguable exception, all referred to the behavior of people rather than the tenets of the religion itself. The clearest conclusion, in the researchers' words, was that the primary driver of doubt appears to be the actions of Muslims rather than the doctrines of Islam. This was reinforced by the fact that the four issues that least triggered doubt were all directly related to doctrinal belief. When respondents were asked how much these matters still trouble them at present, current doubt was significantly lower than past doubt, with an average decrease of some twenty-three percent, and fully seventeen percent of those who had doubted in the past reported no current doubt at all. Among present concerns, "the bad things that people do in the name of religion" and "the problem of evil and unfair suffering in the world" stood at the top, suggesting that headlines of terrorism and hardship weigh upon the Muslim conscience. Concerning how Muslims respond when their faith is challenged, the study divided reactions into what it called belief-confirming consultations and belief-threatening consultations. The respondents plainly preferred the former, and the likeliest responses were solitary acts of prayer for guidance and turning to the primary sources of the religion. This inclination recalls the divine promise, "Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest" (Qur'an 13:28), though the study itself does not cite it. A clear majority also reported being at least somewhat likely to speak with an imam, which lent confidence that the experiences of the community leaders in the earlier study aligned with the broader reality. The researchers observed that the tendency to seek reinforcing sources, together with the decline in doubt over time, indicates that crises of faith are not irreversible and that interventions may effectively address certain apprehensions. At the same time, they acknowledged that no fewer than a quarter of respondents were at least somewhat likely to explore doubt through more contentious paths, though they cautioned that abandoning the religion is not the inevitable end of this road; they cited the example of Shaykh Omar Suleiman, who related in an interview that his own skeptical response to doubt in youth eventually left him more certain in his faith. The study then examined the correlates of doubt through multivariate analysis, warning explicitly that the data cannot establish causation, only association. Several findings ran contrary to expectation. Among demographic factors, neither age, education, sex, nor convert status significantly affected doubt, yet White respondents reported significantly higher levels of doubt than African-American, Asian, and Arab respondents; the researchers declined to offer any firm explanation, calling such an attempt speculative, though they noted the result accorded with existing research on religious conviction by race. Among measures of religiosity, only the importance of religion in one's life proved significant, with those who held religion to be very important scoring far lower in doubt, a difference exceeding a quarter of the total scale. Notably, Quran literalism showed no significant effect, which surprised the researchers. Perhaps the most remarkable findings concerned attitudes and upbringing. The strongest correlate of doubt by far was the tendency to regard religion as an open-ended quest for truth rather than a settled body of belief, separating the highest and lowest respondents by some forty percent of the scale. Even more striking, dogmatism, the disposition to see the world in stark black-and-white terms, was positively associated with doubt, meaning the more closed-minded tended to report greater doubt, a result that held even when religiosity was controlled. Likewise, growing up in an environment where religion was heavily emphasized appeared to enhance rather than prevent doubt, suggesting that doubt may in part be a reaction to a strict upbringing. Religious conservatism showed no significant effect, so that those holding hardline views on contested matters were no more or less prone to doubt than others. The researchers thus urged caution against assuming that particular types of persons are especially susceptible to a crisis of faith. In their conclusion, the researchers affirmed that, from a theological perspective, the ultimate answer to why one person doubts and another believes rests in Divine decree, while systematic study can illuminate the observable patterns that accompany doubt. They identified open questions they deliberately left unresolved, chief among them whether those who have left Islam differ systematically from the self-identifying Muslims in their sample, and they proposed future work, including surveying former Muslims and employing experimental methods to move toward a more causal understanding. They offered no sweeping prescriptions beyond the modest claim that their findings, alongside the earlier qualitative study, furnish community leaders, students, and educators with rare, empirically grounded insight into the matters affecting American Muslim faith. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework # Repentance, Redemption, & Salvation: An Islamic Framework **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** February 5, 2018 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction *“Every son of Adam commits sin, and the best of those who commit sin are those who repent.*”[^1] While seemingly counterintuitive, this profound statement from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is a cornerstone in the understanding of repentance (*tawba*) within the framework of Islamic theology. Much can be gleaned from these few words; perhaps the most striking question is how one in a continual state of sin and repentance can at the very same time be regarded as the best of humanity? This question is even more significant given the darkness and negativity often associated with sin within our collective imagination, an association that is likely the result of a fusion of religious doctrine and encounters with culture, folklore, mythology, and literature such as *Dante’s Inferno*. Haunting special effects depicting scenes of the journey to the underworld, often used to characterize man’s fall from grace into an abyss, distant from redemption, further contribute to this view. Yet, one of the defining characteristics of tawba is that it in fact enables one to attain a more righteous outcome and noble standing with God. > *Indeed, Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves.* \[Qur’an 2:222\] *Tawba* plays an essential role in shaping a believer’s outlook on life, making it a means of fortifying one’s faith, such that without it, one is susceptible to doubt and despair. This paper discusses the Islamic discourse on repentance and highlights the critical role it plays in the life of a believer. The core beliefs in regard to *tawba* from Islam’s primary sources, the Qur’an and the *Sunnah*, are described along with its distinct features, particularly in light of more common interpretations of the word “repentance.” This word is typically used to identify the process of remorse and subsequent seeking of redemption for one’s sins in the sight of God—and  is often associated with the Judeo-Christian traditions which share some common beliefs with Islam but fundamentally differ with respect to others.[^2] *Tawba* is both an outward (comprising specific actions) as well as an inward (hidden from public view) endeavor the believer undertakes. A follow-up paper to this theological study of *tawba* will address its practical applications, introduce its vast spiritual dimensions which involve examination of one’s inner condition, the obstacles to *tawba* one may encounter, and the stages of the spiritual journey undertaken to gain closeness to Allah as taught and implemented by the Prophet ﷺ. It is ultimately one’s self-awareness and conviction in *tawba* which naturally guide one’s approach to life and provide the moral compass by which to live. This conviction also provides the motivation necessary to drive one toward *tawba* while safeguarding one from sin, disillusionment, and despair—thus making it a crucial component of faith and an act of worship to appreciate and inculcate for one’s well-being and salvation. > *But indeed, I am the Perpetual Forgiver of whoever repents and believes and does righteousness and then continues in guidance.* \[Qur’an 20:82\] --- ## The Afterlife, Repentance, and Redemption Belief in life after death, in accountability for one’s actions in this life, and in the subsequent need for repentance varies the world over. While the focus of this study is *tawba*, it is important to briefly mention a few prevalent beliefs in order to have reference points from which to compare, contrast, and develop a better understanding of the Islamic perspective and draw from its many benefits. Humanity for the most part intuitively holds to belief in God with projections of growing numbers of adherents globally for all the world’s major religious groups.[^3] However, it must also be noted that an increasing segment of the world’s population subscribes to a spectrum of secular liberal ideologies that are either characterized by doubts and misconceptions about God and religion, or that deny the existence of God altogether. This, in turn, leads to the denial of the existence of, and the motivation to work toward, an afterlife in which to reap the rewards of life’s work—placing all emphasis instead on life in this world. In this view, notions of morality and justice sit squarely in the hands of humans, whose reasoning and capability is presumed sufficient for managing their affairs for the relatively short time they have on earth.[^4] With no sense of accountability to God, the need for repentance is also dissolved—and with it a core element that, from the Islamic perspective, serves to facilitate moral development. As 'A'isha once reported, “I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, the son of Jud'an established ties of relationship, \[and\] fed the poor. Would that be of any avail to him?’ He said, ‘It would be of no avail to him as he did not ever say: O my Lord, pardon my sins on the Day of Resurrection.’”[^5] *Tawba* involves a recognition of one’s own fallibility in one’s moral choices and of one’s potential for evil, and an acknowledgment that these need amending. Furthermore, the very essence of Islam involves total submission to one’s Creator and Master, God Almighty, so it should come as no surprise that the Qur’an clearly distinguishes between the consequences of heedlessness and denial (of those who understand its message) and the reward He promises to those who choose belief and righteousness: > *\[They are\] those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work.* \[Qur’an 18:104\] > > *Whoever disbelieves—upon him is \[the consequence of\] his disbelief. And whoever does righteousness—they are for themselves preparing—that He may reward those who have believed and done righteous deeds out of His bounty. Indeed, He does not like the disbelievers.* \[Qur’an 30:44-45\] As for those who believe in supreme divine authority, we can broadly categorize them into two groups— Eastern faiths and Abrahamic faiths. Eastern faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism[^6] focus on refining the inner self, and generally subscribe to divine incarnation, reincarnation, and *karma* as the means to salvation. Thus, salvation is achieved through one’s deeds in that human beings face accountability for the good and evil they carried out in this world through cycles of rebirth; this approach leaves no room for the role of God and His forgiveness in regard to man’s final destiny. Reincarnation is described as a cyclical course of life and death along which the individual’s soul journeys through life into death. With each cycle of rebirth, it returns once again to this world in a different body representative of its new status in a hierarchical system. Thus, a soul may be returned to this world ranging anywhere from the lowest ranking caste as a consequence of one’s evil deeds, to that of those humans considered to have the most noble and high status (the priestly and warrior classes) for having lived a life of good. All of this is based on one’s conduct in the previous life with the goal of ultimately attaining the state of *nirvana*, at which point one has reached the highest spiritual elevation and “release from earthly existence as well as from pain, desire, and sorrow”[^7]—that of becoming one with the divine Absolute/Supreme Essence in eternity—a lofty goal only a select few are believed to attain, and also one that serves as inspiration for a number of mystic traditions. A common thread among these religious traditions involves seeking seclusion and to great extent, denial of oneself and of the world in order to realize and nurture one’s spirituality—an approach which could potentially bring the world to a complete halt had its practice been the only path to salvation. In contrast, Islam prescribes the perfect balance of striving to benefit oneself and others. One is to take from the tangible good of this world provided by God, stay engaged and contribute to society, and endure the challenges that accompany the temptations and harm that may come from doing so, all the while striving for moral growth and spiritual gains through *tawba* to attain His pleasure in both this world and the Hereafter.[^8] Islam is pure in its monotheism, rejecting any and all forms of polytheism, assignment of partners to God, and anthropomorphism. It is made abundantly clear that all humans are created equal in the sight of Allah, regardless of race or worldly status, that they are the most noble of His creation, and that they have been given life for the sole purpose of worshipping Him alone. Ultimately we will all return to Him to be judged and subsequently rewarded or punished in the eternal Hereafter. > *\[For such is the state of the disbelievers\], until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back that I might do righteousness in that which I left behind." No! It is only a word he is saying; and behind them is a barrier until the Day they are resurrected.* \[Qur’an 23:99-100\] The other grouping is that of the Abrahamic faiths. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all trace their roots back to the prophet Abraham and all claim belief in, and worship of, the same God. Yet each also holds that it alone provides the sole  path to salvation (*salvific exclusivity*).[^9] However, each has its own theological understandings, teachings, and practices with respect to human fallibility, need for repentance and forgiveness from God, and life in the Hereafter. It is important to acknowledge the existence of countless denominations and sects within the orthodox and reform movements of each of these major world religions that differ significantly, with some even rejecting particular theological concepts that others hold to be fundamental. The continued existence of such concepts, as well as specific references to them in the Qur’an and Sunnah, necessitate their being discussed with regard to their relevance to the concept of *tawba*. *And We have revealed to you, \[O Muhammad\], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it. So judge between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth. To each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation \[united in religion\], but \[He intended\] to test you in what He has given you; so race to \[all that is\] good. To Allah is your return all together, and He will \[then\] inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.* \[Qur’an 5:48\] --- ## What is tawba? Derived from a verb in the Arabic language which literally means “to return,”[^10] the word *tawba* in the Islamic context refers to the act of abandoning something prohibited (*haram*) by Allah (and therefore deemed sinful) for that which is in accordance with the commands of Allah.[^11] Halal is a significantly broader category comprising everything within the realm of permissibility as well as those acts which carry specific reward from Allah; these include most everyday matters as well as legislated acts of worship dedicated only to Allah. *Tawba* is thus in essence a “return” to Allah with a humble admission of one’s fallibility in which the servant expresses remorse while seeking forgiveness (*istighfar*) and redemption from the Master for having erred or fallen into sin. Included within the concept of *tawba* is the intention of restrain, reform, and moral self-improvement going forward. *Tawba* is defined early on in the second chapter of the Qur’an in the story of the prophet Adam, his wife, *Hawwa* (Eve), and *Iblis* (Satan). The creation story is documented in all three scriptures: the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an. The Qur’an mentions it in several chapters; this story is woven throughout as a frequent reminder to us of our origin, our relationship with Allah, our fallibility, the purpose of life on earth, and our final return to Allah for judgment: > *And We said, "O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise and eat therefrom in \[ease and\] abundance from wherever you will. But do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers." But Satan caused them to slip out of it and removed them from that \[condition\] in which they had been. And We said, "Go down, \[all of you\], as enemies to one another, and you will have upon the earth a place of settlement and provision for a time." Then Adam received from his Lord \[some\] words, and He accepted his repentance. Indeed, it is He Who is the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful. We said, "Go down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance—there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.”* \[Qur’an 2:35-38\] The creation story provides the foundation for human existence and understanding of life itself, containing within it the methodology with which to approach *tawba*, and a description of both its practical and spiritual dimensions. It eloquently illustrates the human’s relationship with Allah—first and foremost establishing that Allah created Adam as the first human[^12] and subsequently from his progeny all of mankind, with the sole purpose of worshipping and obeying Him. Adam was given knowledge[^13] and instruction—to live with his spouse in Paradise and to benefit from its plentiful provision as they wished, with the exception of a single tree He forbade them both from approaching. Allah, from His divine providence, bestowed on Adam intellect and the capacity for free will, giving him the ability to do both good and evil as a means of testing him. What ensued in the Garden serves as a paramount lesson for all time. Adam and Hawwa were both tempted into disobedience by *Iblis*, causing them to be removed from Paradise. Yet, as a phenomenal gesture of mercy and generosity, Allah taught Adam the very words of *tawba* with which he and his progeny are to seek forgiveness from Him. Hence, Allah made *tawba* the means of forgiveness and redemption in the struggle on earth between good and evil, and the means through which one gains both His pleasure in this world and eternal salvation upon final return to Him on the Day of Resurrection. Furthermore, the story of Adam and *Iblis* serves as the framework for the greatest challenge we will face on earth: an unrelenting battle from the cradle to the grave against a deceitful enemy who will often pose as our confidante, just as he did in *Jannah*, in order to mislead us into disobedience.[^14] Among *Iblis*’s many tactics is that he skillfully instills in us his own attributes of despair and arrogance (the first expression of racism involved *Iblis* thinking himself superior to Adam) to impede man from making *tawba*. He does so by convincing us to despair of our worthiness in the sight of Allah in approaching Him directly. Those who despair in this way often seek forgiveness through the help of a pious intermediary whom they view as being closer to Allah and thereby fall into *shirk*[^15] (assigning partners to God). He may even convince us to give up and not turn back to Allah at all. Likewise, *Iblis* will strategically appeal to our egos, causing us to become heedless. He may convince us that we do not need to make *tawba* as our worldly achievements indicate our honorable status with Allah, or that Allah’s mercy alone guarantees us salvation—all prevalent misconceptions to this day. This is our struggle on earth. To be human is to be flawed and to sin—as only Allah is Perfect; thus, falling into sin and making *tawba* are perpetual states for the believer. The creation story teaches us that human fallibility is part of the deliberate and perfect divine plan such that, just as we are naturally inclined to worship Allah and seek guidance, we are also inclined to sin. Hence, *tawba* is the greatest of blessings and of the most beautiful acts of worship taught to us, one through which we fulfill our purpose, develop humility, and strengthen our connection with Allah, while increasing our love for Him through reflection and hope for His Mercy, Forgiveness, and Generosity.[^16] > *The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Were you not to commit sins, Allah would create people who would commit sins and ask for forgiveness and He would forgive them."*[^17] Humans began their existence in *Jannah* and we are commanded to spend our lives striving to return to it, using divine guidance as a moral compass and *tawba* as provision for the journey back to our eternal home. Hence, it is not surprising that we are instinctively drawn to the comforts and beauty of this world, and find familiarity and motivation in the numerous references and descriptions within the sacred texts of what awaits us in *Jannah*. The Prophet ﷺ described *Jannah* as *“Bricks of silver and bricks of gold. Its mortar is musk of a strong fragrance, and its pebbles are pearls and rubies, and its earth is saffron. Whoever enters it shall live and shall not suffer, and shall feel joy and shall not die, nor shall their clothes wear out, nor shall their youth come to an end.”*[^18] --- ## Sole authority It logically follows that the sole authority to forgive belongs to Allah[^19]—therefore, repentance can only be made to Him. Islam forbids any form of intermediary to whom sins are to be confessed or through whom forgiveness can be sought. Here, Islam distinguishes itself from other doctrines in and safeguards the believer from calling upon intermediaries such as idols representing God, or any prophet of God. All of the noble prophets were appointed by Him from among the best of humanity, yet were mortal and sent as role models to mankind with the divine message to worship Him alone (*tawhid*) as was the case with both Jesus and Muhammad.[^20] Another category of intermediaries are the pious people of the past who have been raised to sainthood by their followers. They are often invoked and their graves have become sanctified as places of worship because they are believed to either have earned the status and power to intercede with God, or to themselves possess divine attributes. Sadly, such views have become widespread across religious lines, including some sects identifying with Islam. Also included are the clergy to whom confessions[^21] are made with the promise of being forgiven by God, as well as any aggrandizement of another or oneself with respect to authority over anyone’s final destiny. All of these, as well as the doctrine of the Trinity[^22] in its deification of Jesus as the means to atonement and salvation for the sins of man, as introduced to Christian theology by the apostle Paul, are defined as forms of *shirk* in Islam. > *You have not besides Him any protector or any intercessor; so will you not be reminded?* \[Qur’an 32:4\] No doubt, Islam came to rectify a group of people already immersed in *shirk*, making it forbidden and hated in the sight of Allah as the worst of sins—one requiring *tawba* in this life.[^23] Even more notably, from the perspective of *tawba*, this also firmly establishes the overarching mercy of Allah toward His servants in that there is no sin, regardless of its magnitude or proportion, including *shirk*, except that there exists a path of return for the one who is sincere in *tawba*. As Allah Himself has said, “*…O My servants who have transgressed against themselves \[by sinning\], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.*" \[Qur’an 39:53\][^24] Another central principle in Islam is that all matters legislated by Allah (*Shariah*) inherently carry good for the preservation and well-being of humanity and protection against harm. As Ibn Al-Qayyim (d. 1347 CE) summarized, “The Islamic law is all about wisdom and achieving people’s welfare in this life and the afterlife. It is all about justice, mercy, wisdom, and good. Thus, any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with mischief, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does not belong to the Islamic law, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretation.”[^25] Even a cursory examination of the prohibition of *shirk* unearths a wealth of benefits —the most obvious of them with regard to *tawba* is the direct connection it establishes between us and God. Rationally, it makes perfect sense to directly approach the One Who has fashioned us, the One Who always answers those who call on Him, and the only Lawmaker and Judge who knows our true intentions and has ultimate power and authority over us to forgive us. *Tawba* involves being proactive and involves going straight to the Source of forgiveness, and ensures protection from those who are not only incapable and unsanctioned to speak on behalf of Allah, but also from the potential harm associated with opportunists looking to take advantage of the vulnerable. At the very least, such people may be harsh and lack compassion for those grappling with the inner struggles associated with immorality and sin. Simply put, no one can surpass the mercy of Allah.[^26] Undoubtedly, Allah’s immediate response to Adam, his being forgiven and then honored as a noble prophet with the promise of returning to Paradise becomes a source of relief and encouragement to every sinner and invokes gratitude to the One who showers His countless blessings on all of humanity and responds to those who call on Him. Thus the psychological, spiritual, and moral impact of *tawba* on a person, who may otherwise stray into further disobedience and heedlessness or fall into despair, cannot be ignored. Rather, it becomes a spring of tremendous benefit, enabling one to cultivate and strengthen a relationship of trust and love with the Creator as one experiences spiritual growth and builds the resolve needed for one’s moral development. Above all, *tawba* brings about hope and motivation—two of the most prized and sought-after traits in this world, and the fuel needed to successfully attain the next. > *And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves \[by transgression\], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins—and who can forgive sins except Allah?—and \[who\] do not persist in what they have done while they know.* \[Qur’an 3:135\] --- ## Sinless at birth The Qur’an and the *Sunnah* clearly deny the idea that humans shoulder the sin of Adam or that Eve was the temptress and therefore women for all time to come must bear the consequence of her actions (as posited by some early theologians).[^27] The belief that all humans inherit the sin of Adam and Eve arose from the doctrine of Original Sin[^28] advanced by Augustine of Hippo (334-430 CE).[^29] He theorized that all humans are born sinful and must accordingly seek salvation through sacramental channels such as penance and baptism to absolve them of sin. This doctrine was opposed by some Christian scholars and was later revised by the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the fate of those who die in infancy, and is no longer held to universally; some still conduct infant baptism and others limit it to adults entering the faith.[^30] Islam stands in stark contrast when it comes to Original Sin as well as to other doctrines with similar claims. One such claim is that of the belief in *karma*, the result of which a person born into a lower caste or below the system entirely such as the Dalits (*Untouchables*) are virtually exiled as the lowest of society. Historically, their station was on the sole basis of their birth into the ancient Hindu hierarchy which once considered them punished and unworthy with no scope for redemption in this life for the misdeeds of a past life. This has since turned into the practice of subjecting them to severe social and economic injustice to this day, despite the reform movements within the religion in addition to the global outcry for civil rights—classifying it nothing short of an oppressive apartheid.[^31] That is not to say that the rest of humanity hasn’t been plagued by its own forms of religious and social classism which are unfortunately rampant in the divisiveness, racism, and injustice visible in most if not all societies throughout history. It would be remiss to not point out that even the Muslim world has regrettably strayed from its own teachings in this regard and has not been spared from such ignorance and tyranny. The Qur’an states that Adam and *Hawwa* were both tempted into disobedience of Allah, both sought forgiveness, and were both subsequently forgiven before being sent to earth. > *So he \[Iblis\] made them fall, through deception. And when they tasted of the tree, their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten together over themselves from the leaves of Paradise. And their Lord called to them, "Did I not forbid you both from that tree and tell you that Satan is to you a clear enemy?" They said, "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers."* \[Qur’an 7:22-23\] Furthermore, the Qur’an establishes individual responsibility for one’s actions. The consequences of one’s actions, whether salvation or damnation, cannot be shouldered by anyone else, regardless of who they are. Sin cannot be inherited or passed on to another; nor can anyone intercede for another without the permission of Allah—yet another reminder of Allah’s supreme mercy and justice. The great theologian and jurist, Al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE), who wrote extensively on the topic of repentance, dedicating an entire book to it in his monumental work, *The Revival of Religious Sciences*, describes the nature of the covenant between human and God as being an individual one between the servant and his Master, while also pointing out that society as a whole has a collective responsibility to safeguard itself from injustice and transgression. “The community is not the source of salvation but rather it is, by divine will and command, an area of responsibility in which man can either pursue obedience or disobedience.”[^32] This is apparent in the communal responsibility to seek knowledge, enjoin good, and forbid evil as taught by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ who said, “Whoever among you sees an evil action, and he is able to change it with his hand, then change it with his hand (by taking action); if he cannot (do so) with his hand, then with his tongue (by speaking out); and if he cannot, then with his heart (by hating it and feeling that it is wrong), and that is the weakest of faith.”[^33] It is also understood from this that one’s actions may have positive or negative effects on others such that both the individual as well as the one inspired to do good will have their own share of reward for doing so and likewise the one inspired to do evil as a result will have his/her own share of sin. > *O mankind, fear your Lord and fear a Day when no father will avail his son, nor will a son avail his father at all. Indeed, the promise of Allah is truth, so let not the worldly life delude you and be not deceived about Allah by the Deceiver \[Satan\]*.[^34]\[Qur’an 31:33\] The Prophet ﷺ further explained that all of humanity is in actuality born innocent. He said, "Every child is born with a true faith of Islam (\[*fitrah* or intuition\] to worship none but Allah Alone) and his parents convert him to Judaism or Christianity or Magianism, as an animal delivers a perfect baby animal. Do you find it mutilated?"[^35] This means that humans are born with the capability of recognizing Allah and are naturally inclined to worship Him. However, they are influenced by their surroundings and life experiences. Every human has been given sufficient intellect, capability, and the will to direct themself—yet, one may be overcome by these influences, causing the *fitrah* to become buried. Such influences can eventually succeed in drawing one away from Islam, even if temporarily, until one is able to return to the *fitrah* and seek the path of truth and guidance to Allah. Many have done so, and continue to do so upon the realization that a crucial element of one’s existence is missing and must be pursued in order to experience a life of purpose and fulfillment. Allah’s mercy, justice, and wisdom decree that He only holds individuals responsible to the extent of their limited capability, and only once they have received knowledge of Islam.[^36] In the past, this was done through His sending prophets and books to specific nations to guide them, and from the advent of Islam and the final Prophet, Muhammad ﷺ, it remains in the final revelation to all of humanity, the Qur’an and *Sunnah*. > *Whoever does righteousness—it is for his \[own\] soul; and whoever does evil \[does so\] against it. And your Lord is not ever unjust to \[His\] servants.* \[Qur’an 41:46\] --- ## Understanding the nature of forgiveness One of the most remarkable attributes of sincere *tawba* is its wiping out of all the sins which preceded it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The one who repents from sin is like one who did not sin”[^37]—about which Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE) said, “The one who repents from sin is like one who did not sin, and if the sin is removed, then the punishment and consequences are also removed”.[^38] Hence, *tawba* offers a tremendous opportunity for anyone seeking a way out from false beliefs and a lifestyle they have come to realize is not the true path to Allah. ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas said, “When Allah put Islam in my heart, I came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: “Give me your right hand so that I may swear allegiance to you.” He held out his hand and I withdrew my hand. He said, “What is the matter, O ‘Amr?” I said, “I want to stipulate a condition.” He said, “What do you want to stipulate?” I said, “That I will be forgiven.” He said, “Do you not know that Islam destroys that which came before it?”[^39] In stating this, the Prophet ﷺ was reassuring ‘Amr—who had been among the more prominent of the Quraysh in his opposition to Islam and was from the later companions to accept it—that by abandoning disbelief and sin for Islam—essentially, *tawba*—all his previous sins had been forgiven and it was as if he were returned to his pure state on the day he had been born. The Qur’an itself is a call to all of humanity to this very return to Allah—an indication of the universality of Islam which promises salvation to anyone who sincerely enters its doors. > *Say to those who have disbelieved \[that\] if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven for them…* \[Qur’an 8:38\] But what of the sins of the believer—does every sin necessitate *tawba*? Can some sins put one out of the fold of Islam? These among other fundamental questions became the subject of discussion in the quest of early theologians to better understand and define Islamic theology. The need to do so arose with the spread of Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula during its formative stage, encountering growth and with it the infusion of external political and philosophical ideologies. It is important to note the dangers of ignorance and extremism which can mislead one to misconstrue the true essence of *tawba* and forgiveness. One example is seen in the belief held by the early Kharijite movement which “argued that sins themselves were a form of *kufr* (disbelief in God). They argued that if you commit a sin, you are in effect a disbeliever in God and thus could be fought and killed, even if you were a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ or a caliph...”[^40] While the movement itself was short-lived, this kind of extreme thought is still evident in the atrocities being carried out in our times, largely against Muslims—a result of similar distortions of Islam by modern-day politically driven groups responsible for widespread devastation and the rise of Islamophobia. Not surprising were the counter movements which also formed in those early days, such as those postulating that human behavior is solely the result of divine decree (*qadr*). This belief left no room for free will and responsibility for one’s own actions;[^41] the problematic nature of this view is obvious in light of the true teachings of Islam. Both extremes illustrate the crucial role of the correct understanding of *tawba* and the role it plays in one’s faith, outlook, and subsequent actions. The renowned scholar Al-Tahawi (d. 933 CE) summarized in his highly acclaimed work, *Al-'Aqidah*, the authentic Islamic position by consensus (*Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah*) in regard to sin and redemption. It holds that God has commanded man to obey Him and forbids him from disobedience; but that no one is to be excommunicated on the basis of that disobedience or sin as long as one is not claiming it lawful—though sinning may have harmful effects on one’s faith. The believers live in hope of Allah’s forgiveness without assumption of its certainty, and they pray for the sinful among them, having concern for their salvation without despairing in regard to it. All humans will be resurrected after death and brought to judgment before Allah. Their deeds will be presented to them and they will be recompensed for their actions with reward or punishment in the Hereafter. Even those followers of the Prophet ﷺ under the heaviest burden of sin for which they have not repented will eventually, by Allah’s mercy, justice, and special permission for the pious to intercede on their behalf, enter Paradise, though they may face punishment in the hellfire initially for a period of time in accordance with His will and divine wisdom.[^42] --- ## Not all sins are alike Scholars, from the time of the Companions, have extrapolated from the primary sources and attempted to categorize the nature of sin as being either *major* or *minor*; differing in their compilations as to exactly which sins belonged in each category. It is generally accepted that sins for which Allah has designated a specific punishment to be carried out in this world and sins that carry the threat of punishment in the hereafter are considered major sins for which making *tawba* is obligatory; for example, the unjust taking of life and *shirk*.[^43] This doesn’t mean that one can afford to become negligent with regard to what may be perceived as a minor sin. The believer was cautioned against doing so by the Prophet ﷺ when he said, “Beware of minor sins like a people who descend into the bottom of a valley, so one comes with a stick and another with a stick until they have fire to cook their bread. Verily, when a person is held accountable for these minor sins they will destroy him”[^44] giving a visual sense of small sins piling up on one another until they accumulate to the level of a major sin depicted by the raging fire. When asked about the number of major sins, the companion and great scholar Ibn Abbas said, “They are closer to seven hundred than only seven, but no sin is an enormity if forgiveness is sought and no sin is minor if it is stubbornly repeated.”[^45] Ibn Taymiyyah took this a step further, pointing out that *tawba* is not only to be made for having committed evil; rather one should additionally repent for falling short in performing good deeds. He stated that repentance is obligatory on every responsible human for the abandonment of obligatory deeds and for committing that which is forbidden. However, he added that repentance is highly recommended for one who has not refrained from acts which are discouraged, though permissible to the extent they are not sinful (*makruh*), and for not having performed recommended acts (*mandub*) which, though not obligatory, are pleasing to Allah and rewarded. He goes on to say that the people who make both of these kinds of *tawba* are among the closest to Allah.[^46] It is no doubt from the immense mercy of Allah that minor sins are forgiven readily with virtually every good deed and act of worship. Examples of this include: in being charitable and kind; between every two consecutive obligatory prayers and from one Friday prayer to the next; in the obligatory fasting of Ramadan as well as the recommended fasts, particularly the days of Arafah and Ashura; and with every remembrance of Allah in general as will be further elaborated in the discussion of the practical aspects of *tawba*. In this is demonstrated two of Allah’s most generous attributes, that He is *Al-Ghafoor*,[^47] the One Who is Exceedingly Forgiving and Who conceals our sins, protecting us from being exposed, and He is *Al-‘Afu*,[^48] the One who consistently overlooks and effaces sins, blotting them out of one’s record of deeds as if they never occurred—leaving no trace of ill-effect in their wake. Imam Al-Ghazali shares a beautiful reflection, suggesting that perhaps the exact number of major sins is designed to remain unknown so as to keep the servant more vigilant in avoiding them—just as was the case in His keeping the Night of Power in Ramadan hidden in order for the servant to strive that much more to observe it.[^49] > *And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember.* \[Qur’an 11:114\] --- ## Most certainly, My Mercy prevails over My Wrath[^50] Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of researching the topic of *tawba* is the overwhelming realization and reinforcement of the mercy of Allah over His creation—albeit a glimpse of it, given that He has reserved ninety-nine parts of its one hundred for the Day of Reckoning.[^51] What began with Allah “turning” toward Adam in mercy that allowed Adam to seek forgiveness indicates His wish for us to successfully pass through life’s tests. The goal is to return to Him with a book of deeds which, as a consequence of His divine mercy, will weigh heavy on the scale in our favor if we have been sincere in belief and effort to worship Allah—despite falling short innumerable times along the way. Allah is in reality the One who perpetually turns toward His servants—He is *Al-Tawwab*: *“Then He turned to them so they could repent. Indeed, Allah is the Accepting of repentance \[Al-Tawwab\], the Merciful.”* \[Qur’an 9:118\] One of the most fundamental statements of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ confirms this when he said, “Deeds are considered by the intentions, and a person will get the reward according to his intention.”[^52] From this comes the understanding that no good intention will go unrewarded even when one is unable to follow through with action, nor will one be unjustly punished for what one does unintentionally. It is important, however, that one be conscientious to not allow evil intent to take root by steering clear of evil thoughts, and thereby the accountability one may have to face should they turn into the resolve to act upon them, and lead one to committing evil. When the companions, fearing the consequences of involuntary evil thoughts and the whispers of Satan in passing thoughts, asked the Prophet ﷺ about them, he responded saying, “Allah, may He be Glorified and Exalted, will forgive my *ummah* for whatever crosses their minds so long as they do not act upon it or speak of it.”[^53] > *And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than \[his\] jugular vein* \[Qur’an 50:16\] > > *Allah decreed good deeds and bad deeds, then He explained that whoever thinks of doing a good deed then does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed. If he thinks of doing a good deed and then does it, Allah \[may He be glorified and exalted\] will write it down between ten and seven hundred-fold, or many more. If he thinks of doing a bad deed then he does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed, and if he thinks of it then does it, Allah will write it down as one bad deed.*[^54] Can one ever know or even imagine anyone else capable of such generosity and mercy? Yet, Our Creator and Master not only continues to bless humanity with His Mercy, but He is actually appreciative and most pleased with our repentance, making *tawba* the path to fortifying our faith, seeking His pleasure and ultimately the means to sustained contentment, reward, and eternal salvation. For all the times one feels regret or questions whether it is too late or whether one is even capable of change—know that this is a call to action and that the door to repentance is wide open as long as one is alive.[^55] Repentance is not only the basis for redemption, but it is in fact to be conscientiously and strategically used to better the future, to gain the pleasure of Allah and an even higher and more noble standing before Him—amazingly so for having sinned, sought forgiveness, and reformed. Ibn Taymiyyah sums it up beautifully in saying, “The servant is always between a blessing that requires his thanks and a sin that requires the seeking of forgiveness. Both of these circumstances, by necessity, are always with the servant. He is constantly moving among the blessings and bounties of Allah and he is always sinful and in need of repentance and asking for forgiveness. For that reason, the chief of all humans and the leader of the pious, Muhammad ﷺ, would seek forgiveness in all situations.”[^56] > *O Allah! Make us among the repentant, and make us among those who purify themselves.*[^57] --- ## Notes [^1]: *Sunan Ibn Majah*, Vol. 5, Book 37, *Hadith* 4251 [^2]: "Repentance." Encyclopedia of Religion. Encyclopedia.com. (November 2, 2017). [http://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/repentance](http://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/repentance) [^3]: Wormald, Benjamin. "The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050." Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. April 02, 2015. Accessed November 06, 2017. [http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/](http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/). [^4]: "The World's Newest Major Religion: No Religion." National Geographic. April 22, 2016. Accessed November 06, 2017. [https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422-atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion/](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422-atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion/). [^5]: *Sahih Muslim* 214 In-book reference: Book 1, *Hadith* 426 USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 1, *Hadith* 416 [^6]: Muhiyaddin, Mohammed Ali. A comparative study of the religions of today. New York: Vantage Press, 1985. [https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/documents/1329911133books/13487787.pdf](https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/documents/1329911133books/13487787.pdf) pp. 23-24 [^7]: Ibid pp. 26-27, p. 102 [^8]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “The believer who mixes with the people and endures their harm has a greater reward than one who does not mix with the people nor endures their harm.” *Musnad Ahmad* 22588 [^9]: "Salvific Exclusivity – Shaykh Yasir Qadhi." MuslimMatters.org - Discourses in the Intellectual Traditions, Political Situation, and Social Ethics of Muslim Life. Accessed November 06, 2017. [https://muslimmatters.org/2014/04/11/salvific-exclusivity-i-shaykh-yasir-qadhi/](https://muslimmatters.org/2014/04/11/salvific-exclusivity-i-shaykh-yasir-qadhi/). [^10]: Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward William Lane. [http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/](http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/) p. 321 [^11]: Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. *Salvation through repentance (An Islamic view)*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House. p. 1 [^12]: Who perfected everything which He created and began the creation of man from clay. \[Qur’an 32:7\] [^13]: And He taught Adam the names - all of them. \[Qur’an 2:31\] [^14]: \[Qur’an 7:11-18\] [^15]: Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. *Salvation through repentance (An Islamic view)*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House. pp. 13-14 [^16]: Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. *Salvation through repentance (An Islamic view)*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House. pp. 3-4 [^17]: *Sahih Muslim, Riyad as-Salihin*, Book 1, Hadith 423 [^18]: *Jami’ at-Tirmidhi*, English reference: Vol. 4, Book 12, *Hadith* 2526 Arabic reference: Book 38, Hadith 2717 [^19]: This is in reference to ultimate forgiveness in the Hereafter. Forgiveness at a human level between people for injustice toward one another will be discussed under the practical aspects of *tawba* concerning sins pertaining to the rights of man. [^20]: When Allah revealed the Verse: "Warn your nearest kinsmen," Allah's Messenger ﷺ got up and said, "O people of Quraish (or said similar words)! Buy (i.e., save) yourselves (from the Hellfire) as I cannot save you from Allah's Punishment; O Bani \`Abd Manaf! I cannot save you from Allah's Punishment, O Safiya, the Aunt of Allah's Messenger ﷺ! I cannot save you from Allah's Punishment; O Fatima bint Muhammad! Ask me anything from my wealth, but I cannot save you from Allah's Punishment." *Sahih al-Bukhari* 2753, In-book reference: Book 55, *Hadith* 16, USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 4, Book 51, *Hadith* 16 [^21]: Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. *Salvation through repentance (An Islamic view)*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House. pp. 15-19 [^22]: Muhiyaddin, Mohammed Ali. A comparative study of the religions of today. New York: Vantage Press, 1985. [https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/documents/1329911133books/13487787.pdf](https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/documents/1329911133books/13487787.pdf) pp. 49-50 [^23]: Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray. \[Qur’an 4:116\] [^24]: “Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn \`Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said that some of the people of Shirk killed many people and committed *Zina* (illegal sexual acts) to a great extent; they came to Muhammad and said, ‘What you are saying and calling us to is good; if only you could tell us that there is an expiation for what we have done.'” Then this verse was revealed. *Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir*. The Call to repent before the Punishment comes. [http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com\_content&task=view&id=1972&Itemid=95](http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D1972%26Itemid%3D95) [^25]: [http://www.jasserauda.net/new/pdf/maqasid\_guide-Feb\_2008.pdf](http://www.jasserauda.net/new/pdf/maqasid_guide-Feb_2008.pdf) p. 6, p. 24 [^26]: The Prophet ﷺ said, "Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately, and receive good news because one's good deeds will not make him enter Paradise." They asked, "Even you, O Allah's Messenger ﷺ?" He said, "Even I, unless and until Allah bestows His Pardon and Mercy on me." *Sahih al-Bukhari*: 6467, In-book reference: Book 81, *Hadith* 56, USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 8, Book 76, *Hadith* 474 [^27]: "Original sin." Original sin - New World Encyclopedia. [http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Original\_sin](http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Original_sin) [^28]: “The Christian belief is that Jesus (peace be on him) died on the cross to save his devotees and to blot out the "original sin" committed by Adam (peace be on him) and that sheer faith in Jesus as the son of God (peace he on him) acting as and on behalf of God through the holy bond of the Trinity alone would free them from all sins.” Muhiyaddin, Mohammed Ali. *A comparative study of the religions of today.* New York: Vantage Press, 1985. [https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/documents/1329911133books/13487787.pdf](https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/documents/1329911133books/13487787.pdf)  p. 51 [^29]: Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. *Salvation through repentance (An Islamic view)*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Pub. House. pp. 16-17 [^30]: Catechism of the Catholic Church - IntraText. [http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/\_\_P1C.HTM](http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM) [^31]: "How Can I Help." Dalits and Untouchability. [https://www.dalitsolidarity.org/dalits-and-untoucchability.html](https://www.dalitsolidarity.org/dalits-and-untoucchability.html) [^32]: Stern, M. S.  *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1990. p. 22 [^33]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* English reference: Vol. 1, Book 5, *Hadith* 1275 Arabic reference: Book 5, *Hadith* 1334 Also, “And let there be \[arising\] from you a nation inviting to \[all that is\] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful.” \[Qur’an 3:104\] [^34]: “‘Nor let the chief deceiver deceive you about Allah’ refers to the Shaytan. This was the view of Ibn \`Abbas, Mujahid, Ad-Dahhak and Qatadah. The Shaytan makes promises to them and arouses in them false desires, but there is no substance to them, as Allah says: He makes promises to them, and arouses in them false desires; and Shaytan's promises are nothing but deceptions. \[4:120\]” *Tafsir Ibn Kathir* - English \[31. Luqman - Verse: 33\]. [http://www.recitequran.com/en/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/31:33](http://www.recitequran.com/en/tafsir/en.ibn-kathir/31:33) [^35]: *Sahih al-Bukhari* 1385, In-book reference: Book 23, *Hadith* 138 USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 2, Book 23, *Hadith* 467 [^36]: The Prophet ﷺ said: "The pen has been lifted from three: From the sleeper until he wakes up, from the minor until he grows up, and from the insane until he comes back to his senses or recovers." *Sunan an-Nasa'i* 3432 and in another narration: “Verily, Allah has pardoned my nation for their mistakes, their forgetfulness, and what they are coerced into doing.” *Sunan Ibn Majah* 2043 [^37]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* (4250) [^38]: *Sharh al-‘Umdah* (4/39) [^39]: *Sahih Muslim* (121) [^40]: Alkhateeb, Firas. "Who Were the Kharijis?" Lost Islamic History. October 30, 2017. http://lostislamichistory.com/who-were-the-kharijis/ [^41]: Stern, M. S.  *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1990. p. 38 [^42]: "Al-Aqīdah of Imām Al-Ṭaḥāwī in English and Arabic." Faith in Allah الإيمان بالله. May 22, 2016. Accessed November 06, 2017. https://abuaminaelias.com/aqeedah-of-imam-tahawi/. [^43]: Stern, M. S.  *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1990. pp. 56-65 [^44]: *Musnad Ahmad* 22302 [^45]: *Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī* 9207 [^46]: *Risaalah fi al-Taubah*, Zarabozo, Jamaal Al-Din M. *Purification of the soul: Concept, process, and means.* Denver, CO: Al-Basheer Publications & Translations, 2002.  p. 382 [^47]: *Arabic-English Lexicon* by Edward William Lane. [http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/](http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/) p. 2274 [^48]: *Arabic-English Lexicon* by Edward William Lane. [http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/](http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/) p. 2094 [^49]: Stern, M. S.  *Al-Ghazzali on Repentance*. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1990. p. 59 [^50]: *Al-Bukhari and Muslim*, *Riyad as-Salihin*, Book 1, *Hadith* 419 [^51]: *Sahih Muslim* 2753 [^52]: *Al-Bukhari and Muslim*, *Riyad as-Salihin*, Book 1, Hadith 1 [^53]: *Al-Bukhari* 5269 [^54]: *Al-Bukhari* 6491 [^55]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah accepts the repentance of His slave so long as the death rattle has not yet reached his throat.” *Sunan Ibn Majah*, English reference: Vol. 5, Book 37, *Hadith* 4253. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever repents before the sun rises from the west, then Allah will forgive him.” *Sahih Muslim* 2703 [^56]: *Majmoo*, Vol. 10, p. 88; Zarabozo, Jamaal Al-Din M. *Purification of the soul: Concept, process, and means.* Denver, CO: Al-Basheer Publications & Translations, 2002. pp. 386 - 387 [^57]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* 55 ## Summary Every son of Adam is a sinner, and the best of sinners are those who turn back to their Lord in repentance. This truth, taught by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, forms the foundation of the Islamic understanding of *tawba*. It may appear strange that a person who is continually falling into sin and returning to Allah could be counted among the best of humanity, yet this is precisely what the Prophet ﷺ affirmed. The negative associations that often surround sin—drawn from culture, folklore, and literature such as Dante's *Inferno*—portray it as a fall into darkness far removed from redemption. Islam, however, teaches that *tawba* elevates the servant to a more righteous outcome and a noble standing with his Lord, for Allah says, "Indeed, Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves" (Qur'an 2:222). *Tawba* strengthens faith and protects the believer from doubt and despair, and Allah affirms, "But indeed, I am the Perpetual Forgiver of whoever repents and believes and does righteousness and then continues in guidance" (Qur'an 20:82). To appreciate the distinctiveness of the Islamic view, it helps to contrast it with other beliefs concerning the afterlife and repentance. Those who deny God altogether place all emphasis on this world, dissolving accountability and thereby the very need for repentance—a need which, in the Islamic view, facilitates moral development. 'A'isha reported that she asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about Ibn Jud'an, who maintained family ties and fed the poor, and he replied that it would avail him nothing since he never said, "O my Lord, pardon my sins on the Day of Resurrection." The Qur'an distinguishes between those whose worldly effort is wasted while they think themselves virtuous (Qur'an 18:104) and those who believe and act righteously (Qur'an 30:44-45). Eastern faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism tie salvation to reincarnation and *karma*, leaving no room for God's forgiveness in a person's final destiny, and they often emphasize seclusion and self-denial. Islam, by contrast, prescribes balance: taking from the lawful good of this world, remaining engaged in society, and enduring its trials while striving for moral and spiritual growth through *tawba*. The Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—trace their roots to Ibrahim and worship the same God, yet differ in their teachings on human fallibility, repentance, and the Hereafter. Allah commands the Prophet ﷺ to judge by what has been revealed and reminds him that each community was given a law and a method as a test (Qur'an 5:48). The word *tawba* derives from an Arabic verb meaning "to return." In the Islamic context it means abandoning what Allah has forbidden for what He commands—a humble return to Allah in which the servant admits his fallibility, expresses remorse, seeks forgiveness (*istighfar*), and intends reform and moral self-improvement. This concept is established early in the Qur'an through the story of Adam, Hawwa, and Iblis (Qur'an 2:35-38). Allah placed Adam and his wife in Paradise, permitted them its provision, and forbade a single tree. When Iblis tempted them into disobedience, Allah, in His mercy, taught Adam the very words of *tawba*, making repentance the means of forgiveness and redemption in the struggle between good and evil. The story also frames the lifelong battle against a deceitful enemy who instills despair and arrogance to obstruct repentance—pushing some toward *shirk* by seeking pious intermediaries, and others toward heedlessness through pride in worldly success or false assurance in mercy alone. To be human is to be flawed and to sin, for only Allah is perfect; thus falling into sin and returning through *tawba* are perpetual states for the believer. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Were you not to commit sins, Allah would create people who would commit sins and ask for forgiveness and He would forgive them." Humanity began in Paradise and is commanded to strive to return to it, and the Prophet ﷺ described its bricks of silver and gold, its mortar of musk, and its everlasting joy. The authority to forgive belongs to Allah alone, so repentance is directed only to Him. Islam forbids any intermediary—idols, prophets, sainted figures whose graves are venerated, or clergy who hear confessions—regarding all such practices as forms of *shirk*, including the deification of Jesus in the doctrine of the Trinity as introduced by Paul. Allah says, "You have not besides Him any protector or any intercessor; so will you not be reminded?" (Qur'an 32:4). Though *shirk* is the worst of sins, no sin, however great, is beyond the path of return for the sincere, for Allah says, "Do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins" (Qur'an 39:53). Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1347 CE) affirmed that the Shariah is entirely wisdom, justice, and mercy. Going directly to the Source of forgiveness protects the vulnerable from opportunists and ensures no one surpasses the mercy of Allah. Adam's immediate forgiveness and honoring as a prophet is a source of hope for every sinner, and Allah asks, "who can forgive sins except Allah?" (Qur'an 3:135). The Qur'an and Sunnah deny that humans bear the sin of Adam, rejecting the doctrine of Original Sin advanced by Augustine of Hippo (334-430 CE), which was later disputed and revised. Both Adam and Hawwa sinned, both sought forgiveness, and both were forgiven before descending to earth (Qur'an 7:22-23). Islam establishes individual responsibility; no one bears another's burden, and none may intercede without Allah's permission (Qur'an 31:33). Al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE) described the covenant as individual, while the community bears collective responsibility to enjoin good and forbid evil, as the Prophet ﷺ taught concerning changing evil by hand, tongue, or heart, "and that is the weakest of faith." The Prophet ﷺ further said, "Every child is born upon the *fitrah*," his parents making him a Jew, Christian, or Magian. Allah holds people accountable only within their capacity and after knowledge reaches them, for "your Lord is not ever unjust to His servants" (Qur'an 41:46). Sincere *tawba* erases preceding sins. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The one who repents from sin is like one who did not sin," which Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE) explained removes both punishment and consequence, and the Prophet ﷺ told 'Amr ibn al-'Aas that "Islam destroys that which came before it." Early theological questions—whether every sin requires *tawba* and whether sin expels one from Islam—produced the Kharijite extreme that sin was *kufr*, and the opposite extreme denying free will through *qadr*. Al-Tahawi (d. 933 CE) summarized the position of Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah: the sinner is not excommunicated unless he deems the sin lawful; believers live in hope without assuming certainty of forgiveness. Scholars from the Companions distinguished major from minor sins, differing in their lists. Major sins, such as unjust killing and *shirk*, require obligatory *tawba*, yet the Prophet ﷺ warned against trivializing minor sins that accumulate like sticks kindling a destructive fire. Ibn Abbas said the major sins are "closer to seven hundred than seven," adding that no sin persists as minor if repeated, nor remains major if forgiveness is sought. Ibn Taymiyyah noted that *tawba* is due even for neglecting recommended deeds. Minor sins are wiped away by good deeds, for "good deeds do away with misdeeds" (Qur'an 11:114). Above all, Allah's mercy prevails over His wrath; He is *Al-Tawwab* who perpetually turns to His servants (Qur'an 9:118), rewarding intentions, forgiving passing whispers not acted upon, and recording a good intention as a full good deed. As Ibn Taymiyyah beautifully observed, the servant is always between blessing requiring thanks and sin requiring forgiveness, which is why the Prophet ﷺ sought forgiveness in all situations. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-does-god-ask-for-worship # Why Does God Ask for Worship? **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 26, 2017 **Updated:** March 12, 2026 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy* *This question has been a recurrent criticism among antagonists of religion. It has even stirred doubts in many theists who have been worn down by its relentless repetition, or who have simply lost hope in ever having it answered to their satisfaction. This paper is based on a book (with the same title) by Dr. Sami Ameri*[^1] *that provides a compelling critique of this question as well as a variety of responses to it.* The arguments of atheists have been so loud and ubiquitous that they may appear to be many and profound. However, upon closer examination, one soon realizes that they are, in fact, few in number and largely recycled. They usually involve unsubstantiated assumptions about realities beyond our finite realm, such as the eternality of matter or God’s qualities and actions. Of course, the latter are more complicated than the former because they involve the non-tangible world, to which we have no direct access. One common question posed by atheists pertains to the wisdom behind God asking His creation to worship Him. Usually, it is phrased something like this: *Why does God ask us to worship Him, when He has no need for our worship? How does God benefit from our prayers, supplications, and fasting?* Some may first ask: *What is the wisdom for which God created us?* But the moment they are told that it is for worship, they immediately object: *But what does He gain from us worshipping Him?* By that, we are brought back to the original question. This paper begins by offering three reasons why this question—“Why does God ask for worship?”—is inherently problematic. It then addresses the more pertinent question,  “Why do we need to worship God?” --- ## Deconstructing the Question Understanding the question correctly is necessary because many atheistic arguments are phrased to conceal their inherent fallacies. Attending to the wording of the question itself reveals its presuppositions. It is important to establish the internal inconsistency of the question before gathering arguments to debunk it. An internal inconsistency exists when the premises that the questioner takes for granted are actually not as “common sense” as they claim. ### 1. Our Limitations in Comprehending the Divine The Prophet ﷺ said, *“His (God’s) veil is light. Were He to remove it, the glory of His Face would incinerate everything that His Eyesight reaches (i.e., all that exists beside God).”*[^2] Passing a verdict on something requires first comprehending it. Since human beings are finite creatures, they are incapable of fully comprehending the reality of an eternal God and grasping His Perfection. After all, they do not have direct access to God, nor the visual or mental capacity to handle such access were it granted, nor do they have access to anything comparable that would allow their imaginations to construct a mental image. Hence, the necessary antecedent for critiquing God—comprehending God—does not exist. The Most High said, *“There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing”* \[ash-Shūrā 42:11\]. Elsewhere, Allah reiterates, *“Allah knows what is \[presently\] before them and what will be after them, but they do not encompass Him in knowledge”* \[ṬāHā 20:110\]. For this reason, we say that it is beyond the human mind to describe God on its own, independently, without revelation. Humans can and should think deeply about the signs of God, inferring from them *some* undeniable truths about the Creator and His attributes. However, this must be done with an awareness that veils have been lowered between their minds and the full essence of God’s nature. Intelligence here involves realizing the limits of one’s intelligence. For instance, examining the magnitude and magnificent design of our universe allows us to infer the Greatness and Graciousness of the One Who brought it into existence. Thus, God says, *“Those who remember Allah while standing or sitting or \[lying\] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, \[saying\], ‘Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You \[above such a thing\]’”* \[Al-‘Imrān 3:191\]. However, our minds are limited in what they can decipher from these signs, and we must therefore refrain from trying to completely comprehend what is locked behind an impregnable door. These human limitations are also why the Qur'an kept the discussion on God—though quite elaborate—limited to certain divine traits, due to the mind’s limited ability to grasp the Divine. Given these limitations, it is inappropriate for a human being to casually question God’s Wisdom in asking to be worshipped. ### 2. Presuming the Humanness of God is a Flawed Premise Where does this question regarding the Creator’s “need” for worship come from? Why does the issue of how worship “benefits” Him represent a central theme of those asking this question? These questions stem from the human tendency for anthropomorphism (likening non-humans to humans). This is a well-known historical phenomenon found across civilizations, one which idol-worshippers embraced wholeheartedly. Those who presume that God asks due to some need or deficiency have retained the ancient pagan mindset, wherein their mythological gods resemble mortals who ask due to dependency, who deprive them out of jealousy, and who ignite wars between them in order to secure dominance over the cosmos. The celebrated Greek philosopher, Xenophanes (d. 475 BC) commented on how the people of his time anthropomorphized their gods, saying, “The Abyssinians (Ethiopians) see their god as flat-nosed, while the Thracians give him red hair and blue eyes… What is even stranger is that these gods partake in the most heinous acts that are contrary to upright character, such as killing, stealing, and looting, just as their worshippers do… And if cows and horses and lions had hands, and were capable of drawing, the horses would draw gods in horse form, and the cows would in cow form.”[^3] One major problem with anthropomorphism is the assumption that God is analogous to the human being in every respect, with no dissimilarity whatsoever. Such an overextended analogy may unfold in the following fashion: people’s actions and requests are generated by need, therefore all actions and requests result from need, including the actions and requests of God. Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328) says, “For this reason, the way of the Qur'an—which is also the way of the great Imams and earliest Muslims—is to refrain from using *qiyās shūmūl* (categorical syllogism), which assumes identical subparts, and *qiyās tamthīl* (deductive analogy), with regards to the Divine. Instead of these, they use *qiyās awlā* (a *fortiori* analogy)—for belonging to Allah is the loftiest description.”[^4] In other words, the Qur'an and earliest Muslims rejected anthropomorphic interpretations of God as such interpretations involve humans as the prism through which to understand the qualities of God. Instead, they understood the qualities of God through greater analogy, meaning that if human beings possess a praiseworthy trait that God also possesses, then a greater form of it is understood about God, one more befitting of His Uniqueness and Perfection. To illustrate, humans possess the praiseworthy trait of “life,” and God also possesses life, so the life of God must be understood as different and greater (e.g., His life has no beginning and no end). Likewise, humans possess the praiseworthy trait of “knowledge,” and God also possesses knowledge, though the knowledge of God is complete. So, whenever God and human share a trait, that does not necessitate identicality, but only a similarity in the names used to describe that trait. Just as the leg of a race is not the leg of a dog and the eye of a storm is not the eye of a human, the traits of humans are only poor facsimiles of the greater and more perfect traits of God. Thus, those who think that God asks for worship in order to fulfill a need or to compensate for some deficiency are essentially anthropomorphizing the Divine. Such people imagine that all requests are generated by the desire to fill a void because their lifetime of experience with humans suggests that this is why people request things. However, extending that motive to God when we do not fully comprehend His Nature is clearly fallacious, especially when what we do understand of His Nature—through reason and revelation—indicates that He does not have any needs. ### 3. Not Every Request is Prompted by the Requester’s Need Even among humans, not all requests communicate need. Consider a physician who asks a patient to open his mouth in order to administer medicine. This physician would love for the patient to obey this request, not for personal benefit, but because obeying will result in benefit for the patient. Similarly, Allah's love for worship points to the benefits that worship entails for humans. Consider a wealthy person who asks a beggar to extend his hand and loves that he complies so that he may hand him money. These examples are better analogies for God’s desire to be worshipped; His loving to be worshipped and obeyed does not necessitate His need for it, nor is any request—even among people—always associated with a desire for more of something. Indeed, some requests may be pure acts of graciousness on the part of the requester who wishes for others to actualize their interests and attain their goals. Other requests serve the purpose of teaching and modeling. These and many other examples demonstrate that merely requesting something does not indicate a need for that thing; requests are used for a variety of communicative intentions, many of which do not involve any need on the part of the requester. As for Allah, the most perfect essence and traits belong to Him. He is not increased by people’s worship in the least; rather, opportunities to worship and do good are ultimately offerings from God (the Glorified) to humans—considering He gifted them the ability to do good in the first place. The Most High said, *“And to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth, and to Him is \[due\] worship constantly. Then is it other than Allah that you fear? And whatever you have of favor it is from Allah”* \[an-Naḥl 16:52-53\]. --- ## Addressing the Question Having demonstrated the erroneous premises behind the question at hand, we now proceed to demonstrate *why* worshipping God is necessary and beneficial. ### 1\. Only God is Worthy of ‘Ibāda Since many people think of “worship” as consisting of mechanical rituals performed by the limbs, we must first pinpoint the emotion lying at the core of the Qur'anic term *‘ibāda* (usually translated as worship or devotion). The erudite linguist ar-Rāghib al-Aṣfahāni (d. 1108) explains that *‘ibāda* denotes the epitome of humility and brokenness.[^5] Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), an expert theologian, explains that *ta‘abbud* (commitment to *‘ibāda*) is the highest level of love, wherein a person is rendered powerless before their beloved.[^6] Elsewhere, Ibn al-Qayyim elucidates: “Complete *‘ubūdiyya* (servitude) is a byproduct of complete love, and complete love is a byproduct of the beloved’s perceived perfection. As for Allah (the Glorified), He possesses such absolute perfection that even imagining Him flawed is impossible. And whoever is like that, their hearts would not consider anything dearer to them than Him, so long as their natures and minds remain sound. And if this \[love\] is the dearest thing to them, then loving Him will absolutely necessitate serving Him, obeying Him, pursuing His pleasure, and exhausting every effort to worship Him and seek nearness to Him. This stimulus is the strongest and best driving force behind *‘ubudiyya*. Even if this \[feeling\] was not accompanied by commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments, one would still expend \[their\] capacity and dedicate \[their\] heart to the One truly worthy of *‘ibāda*.”[^7] Therefore, *‘ibāda* involves a state that is manifested in the surrender of the heart and the limbs. It stands on two pillars: absolute love and absolute humility. These emanate from understanding the perfection of God’s qualities and recognizing God’s favors (generating love), as well as recognizing one’s own flaws compared to His flawlessness (generating humility). One can say that *‘ibāda* is the phenomenon necessitated by observing the dual nature of existence: Creator and creation, Giver and given, Blesser and blessed. *‘Ibāda* is not a burdensome task, nor mere labor that results in wages, but rather a gracious gift attained through spiritual insight and sincere effort. The more a person becomes acquainted with the greatness of God and His innumerable dispensations, the more he or she comes to terms with the necessity of *‘ibāda*. *‘Ibāda* represents a declaration of love for God, for “worshipping” God without loving Him first is not *‘ibāda*, and the more one ascends the staircase of love, the more comfortable they become in the gardens of servitude. In the opening chapter of the Qur'an (*al-Fātiḥa*), it is meaningful that God placed the phrase “*Only You do we worship*” after the verses praising and extolling Him. This sequence captures how servitude is an offshoot of recognition, and hence a Muslim is moved to worship God both internally and externally. The external motivation is the revealed command of God which obligates people to perform ritual worship, while the internal motivation results from an appreciation of God’s Perfection and one’s own imperfection and appreciation of His benevolence. Thus, you find the Messenger of God ﷺ (the best of humanity) standing in the night prayer (the best of times for ritual devotion) to say in his prostration (the best state for declaring surrender and obedience), “*I cannot praise You enough; You are as You have praised Yourself.*”[^8] Even the angels who fill every inch of the skies and earth in prostration and surrender will say on the Day of Resurrection, “*Glorified are You; We have not worshipped You as You deserve to be worshipped.*”[^9] These noble beings created from light who devote themselves to God without interruption, in perpetual obedience, know that His Majesty (Glory be to Him) could never be adequately recognized by created beings. Allah was worthy of *‘ibāda* before He created, and even if He had not created at all, His sublime nature itself entitles Him to be the direction of our heart’s devotion. Even if we had not received anything from Him, He would still deserve this, so how about when a torrential downpour of blessings comes to us from Him each moment of our lives? Venerating Him is necessary because this entire world and the next belong to Him, and because He will judge in perfect justice on the Last Day, and reward the righteous beyond measure. Allah says, “*\[All\] praise is \[due\] to Allah, to Whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, and to Him belongs \[all\] praise in the Hereafter. And He is the Wise, the Acquainted*” \[Saba’ 34:1\]. Venerating God is also necessary since every atom in this stunning universe points to Him. “*It is Allah who has created seven heavens and of the earth the like of them. \[His\] command descends among them so you may know that Allah is over all things competent and that Allah has encompassed all things in knowledge*” \[aṭ-Ṭalāq 65:12\]. In our everyday lives, we feel compelled to acknowledge people’s exceptional achievements and moral excellence. How then can we not acknowledge the unparalleled actions of the Creator and His endowing people with a *fiṭra* (pure nature) from which everything admirable about them radiates? People who claim that they alone deserve credit for their accomplishments are seen by us as conceited ingrates. Should this sentiment not multiply beyond measure regarding those who refuse to thank God—He who drenches them in blessings they recognize and blessings they are unaware of, and makes available to them innumerable means of comfort and enjoyment? ### 2\. God is Exceedingly Benevolent Allah loves that His servants devote their lives to Him in worship and obedience because this worship is of benefit to *them*. And as the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah is more delighted with a servant’s repentance than someone lost in the desert finding another chance at life after being certain that his demise was imminent.[^10] But if there is no harm nor benefit to Him, then what makes God request this of us? God Himself directly answers this question by saying, “*What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe? And ever is Allah Appreciative and Knowing*” \[an-Nisā’ 4:147\]. It is because Allah is *ash-Shakūr*, the Most Appreciative, who gives without measure and appreciates the smallest effort. It is because Allah is *ar-Rahmān*, the Infinitely Merciful, who is more compassionate to, and protective of, His servants than any mother is with her newborn baby. It is because Allah is *al-Karīm*, the Most Generous, who loves giving and forgiving even those who spend a lifetime getting and forgetting. He loves to see His servants prosper, and hence He loves to see them worship Him in order to achieve that prosperity. The following subsections explain how worship can result in human flourishing in a number of ways. #### ‘Ibāda is Required for Inner Peace and Self-Actualization *‘Ibāda* allows people the inner peace and delight of directly engaging with the Magnificent, the Most Near. This devotional engagement gives the spirit proximity to Him and a serenity and fulfillment that nothing else can provide. This proximity is either attained through conscious recollection (*dhikr*: remembrance of God) or the physical actions this mindfulness prompts (obedience to God). Therefore, worshipping God involves a return to one’s self through spirituality, and provides clarity which makes life meaningful and provides an escape from existential anxiety. Within every person is a restless craving for spiritual fulfillment. Without it, the soul faces severe thirst followed by tormenting hallucinations of one mirage after another, each giving it momentary hope of an oasis before yet another letdown. This is the tragedy of the human experience whenever it seeks inner peace from the outer world or when it seeks to self-actualize through materialism. The reality is that we are spiritual beings living in physical bodies, not physical beings with a spiritual component, nor beings that are equally physical and spiritual. God invites people to worship and obey Him to discover and address our dual nature adequately. Just as our bodies need nutrition to thrive, our spirits have an even greater need for *‘ibāda* in order to survive and flourish. Whenever this *‘ibāda* is absent, a person is not just unfulfilled, they are essentially not truly living. The Prophet ﷺ said, “*The difference between the one who remembers his Lord (God) and the one who does not remember his Lord is the difference between the living and the dead.*”[^11] It is no wonder that modern societies are facing frightening increases in suicide rates, with multitudes who consider their lives not worth living. Indeed, Gallup polls have consistently demonstrated that countries with lower religiosity have higher suicide rates[^12] and studies have confirmed that “religion plays a protective role against suicide in a majority of settings where suicide research is conducted.”[^13] Without authentic worship of God, people are plagued by emotional and behavioral ills that suffocate them and those around them. Allah (the Most High) says, “*And whoever turns away from My remembrance indeed, he will have a suffocating life*” \[ṬāHā 20:124\]. Just as oxygen is necessary for the body to breathe, loving God and remembering Him is necessary for the spirit to breathe. Those who comprehend this and connect with their Creator in worship ascend a unique spiritual mountain where the air is particularly invigorating, where tragedy does not lead to despair, where social relationships are not paralyzing, and where temptations cannot compromise one’s moral fortitude. Worship in Islam, therefore, represents the definitive roadmap for actualizing human excellence, beginning internally in the form of spirituality and extending externally in the form of exceptional character. Without worship, humans are destined for psychospiritual ills and behavioral dysfunctions. For this reason, and contrary to how most people perceive ritual worship, the Qur'an indicates that among the profound functions of the daily prayers is to deter evil and indecency \[29:45\]—just as the ritual fast cultivates integrity \[2:183\], and just as giving charity serves to purify one from greed and unethical earnings \[9:103\]. Ibn Rajab (d. 1393), a great Hanbalite theologian, said, “There is no well-being for the hearts until there settles in them the recognition of God and His Greatness, love of Him, fear of Him, awe of Him, hope in Him, reliance upon Him, until they become filled with all of that. This is the reality of monotheism and the actual meaning of *lâ elâha illâ Allâh* (none worthy of worship except God). There is no soundness for the hearts until the god they adore, intimately know, love, and fear is Allah alone without any partner… As the Most High said, ‘*Had there been within the heavens and earth gods besides Allah, they would have both been ruined*’ \[al-Anbiyā’ 21:22\]. This indicates that there is no welfare in neither the upper nor lower worlds until the actions of their inhabitants are entirely for Allah.  Given that the activity of the body follows the activity and will of the heart, only when the heart’s activity and will is for Allah alone can it become sound, and consequently the activity of all the limbs will become sound as well. But when the heart’s activity and will are for other than Allah (the Most High), then it has become corrupt, and the limbs will also become corrupt in proportion to the corruptness of the heart’s activity.”[^14] #### ‘Ibāda is Liberating Human beings are specifically designed to invest their lives in serving a purpose. Being purposeful is an inescapable facet of our functionality as it is hardwired in our *fiṭra*—call it our metaphysical DNA. However, the purpose that we serve can be God, or it can be our carnal desires, egos, or social pressures. Serving the True God protects us from psychospiritual mayhem—from being torn apart by trying to simultaneously serve countless contending forces in our lives. Allah (the Most High), says, “*Allah presents an example: a slave owned by quarreling partners and another belonging exclusively to one man—are they equal in comparison? Praise be to Allah! But most of them do not know.*” \[az-Zumar 39:29\]. It is from that perspective that worship of, and servitude to, God liberate humanity from being subjugated and shackled by inferior pursuits. When people devote their lives to their Creator, they feel empowered by worshipping the only One Who deserves worship. Surrendering one’s heart and limbs to the True God represents the pinnacle of honor while surrendering to the merciless and powerless creation is demeaning. Embracing a lifestyle of being captivated by God is, therefore, the truest form of liberation, for it ultimately serves a person’s greatest needs and interests; allowing oneself to become the captive of anything else is voluntarily condemning oneself to slave-dungeons. On this point, the Prophet ﷺ said, “*Wretched is the slave of gold, silver, fine clothes, and garments. If he is given, he is pleased, but if he is not given, he is displeased.*”[^15] This is why, upon encountering prison, and before eventually dying therein, Ibn Taymiya said, “The real prisoner is the one whose heart is locked away from its Lord, the Most High, and the real captive is the one held captive by his desires.”[^16] Among the socially privileged around us, it is not difficult to observe how much more miserable the prisoners of riches and celebrity are compared to those of a relatively more minimalist lifestyle. Studies show that hedonistic populations who [perceive life as carrying little meaning save carnal pursuits](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being)—despite access to them—are the most likely to end their own lives. This class suffers from a uniquely pitiful dilemma: although they have access to everything money can buy, they find themselves neither happy with their riches nor capable of relinquishing them. Why is that? Simply put, it is because they believe their happiness is *dependent* on these material goods. As for the devotees of God, they only serve the God of Might; they enjoy the pleasures of the material world within bounds but are not enslaved by them. #### ‘Ibāda Provides the Foundation of Principled Morality Humans need to remember that they were created to serve a very particular aim, and were deliberately placed on earth by God. Without this correct perception, moral debates rage on without any consensus on key issues. In terms of moral motivation, so many people behave morally to look good in the eyes of others, or for the feel-good endorphin response, and may cease behaving morally if these motivators are not present. But when one sees oneself as a subject of God (*‘abd*/servant), and recognizes that moral rules come from Him and that the only perception that matters is His, then one’s moral behavior will be principled and consistent. Lacking this perception can lead to conflicted feelings that are largely alien to practicing Muslims, for their self-image as an *‘abd* in God’s kingdom remains vivid by virtue of their regular *‘ibāda*. In the various domains of his life, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ displayed a consistent awareness of his reality as an ‘*abd* before God. For instance, he ﷺ would say each morning and evening, “*O Allah, You are my Lord, none has the right to be worshipped except You; You created me and I am Your servant, and I abide by Your covenant and promise as best I can; I take refuge in You from the evil which I have committed. I acknowledge Your favor upon me and I acknowledge my sin, so forgive me, for certainly none can forgive sin except You.*”[^17] A person’s moral compass informs their values and responsibilities, and *‘ibāda* represents the ontological grounding of these values through a relationship with the Divine. A person traverses the struggles of life by coming closer to God through embodying qualities that reflect His Names and Attributes such as Compassion, Kindness, Love, and Generosity. That is why whenever individuals perform an act of virtue, such as helping the needy or defending the vulnerable, without intending by this act closeness to the Creator, they ignore the very basis of these virtues. Furthermore, there is a strong moral responsibility owed to the One who granted life and showered humanity with blessings worth incalculable fortunes. Instead of acknowledging this fundamental moral duty, such individuals enjoy the fruits of this world without raising their palms in grateful supplication, attempting to live virtuously while ignoring their moral responsibility toward God. This is similar to strolling into a mansion belonging to a person of great wealth and power—though belonging to Allah alone is the loftiest description—and lounging on his extravagant chair and sleeping on his expensive bed (without dirtying either). Once the mansion owner returns and becomes appalled by this man’s trespassing and his use of these luxuries without permission, he is told by the intruder, “I did not ruin anything. I even kept it clean!” He neither acknowledged the affluent man’s virtue nor his authority over his grand mansion. This is precisely the attitude of those who perform acts of virtue in this world without acknowledging the foundation of these virtues or the authority of its Owner. *‘Ibāda* also qualifies moral actors for reward in the sight of God. The basic tools required to be good are one’s existence, goodwill, and the various faculties (limbs, wealth, etc.) needed to enact good. Since all these are endowed by God, refusal to recognize God by worshipping Him is, in essence, a plagiarized goodness. Neither God nor people see plagiarized works, no matter how impressive, as rewardable. But when *‘ibāda* exists, rewards for the past and the reinforcements for the future can be requested. The Prophet ﷺ said, *“The nearest a servant is to God is when he/she is in prostration, so make much supplication \[then\]*.”[^18] Prostrating one’s face on the ground is an act of *‘ibāda* and a manifestation of the utmost humility to God, which is why making requests of God then has the greatest potential. Those too proud to engage in *‘ibāda* are in essence declining God’s invitation, and thus Allah says, “*And your Lord says, ‘Call upon Me; I will respond to you.’ Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell \[rendered\] contemptible*” \[Ghāfir 40:60\]. #### ‘Ibāda Refreshes Faith Ritual *ibāda* in Islam ties the heart to its Lord around the clock. The Qur'an calls for remembering God prior to sunrise and sunset, and to devoting a portion of the night to intimate night dialogue with Him. It calls the Muslim to remember God through the five daily prayers, through *wuḍu’* (ritual washing) and invocations preceding those prayers, through a month of annual fasting, through a periodic read-through of the entire Qur'an, etc. This splendid cycle keeps hearts in tune with the reality of creation, constantly pondering over their fundamental relationship with the Creator. The heart (*qalb*) is inherently unstable (*mutaqallib*), prone to forgetting and being dragged into a heedless and agitated state; *‘ibāda* serves to keep the heart polished and illuminated. When one awakens from the heedlessness of sleep, one remembers God; praying *fajr* (the dawn prayer) fortifies the spiritual psyche in preparation for a new day. Uttering the remembrance of God when leaving the house immunizes one against the difficulties of dealing with the material world. Praying *ḍuḥa* (the forenoon prayer) recharges the torch lit by the previous prayer that may have begun to weaken. Midday, as the spirit’s preoccupations with worldly engagement have almost consumed it, praying *dhuhr* (the noon prayer) returns it to its original shine. Just when heedlessness begins to hover anew, praying *aṣr* (the afternoon prayer) stirs in the heart its earlier craving for its Lord. At sundown, a person finds refuge in praying *maghrib* (the sunset prayer), which calms his exhausted and anxious spirit. Before settling back into sleep, the Muslim offers *ishā’* (the night prayer), closing the day with consistency. This is how minimal *‘ibāda* evokes reflection and refreshes one’s faith, rinsing away any stains and keeping the heart alive and invigorated. Without it, people might never escape the devastating feelings of loneliness and estrangement they feel even when surrounded by family and admirers. *‘Ibāda* reserves a person’s autonomy and the right to be more than a mere gear in the merciless grind of life, and the ability to secure renewed life from the King of the Cosmos. #### ‘Ibāda Harmonizes Humans with the Universe The entire universe lies prostrate in the sense that it surrenders to God’s will at all times. Allah says, “*And to Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and earth. All are to Him devoutly obedient*” \[ar-Rūm 30:26\]. God (the Exalted and Majestic) informs us further that this obedient universe was created to serve the human being. Therefore, all that exists around us has been subdued for the human being, not because humanity is entitled to any of it, but so that they can actualize *ibāda*, completing the universal alignment that spans the tiniest atom to the widest galaxy. Allah says, “*So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. \[Adhere to\] the fiṭra of Allah upon which He has created \[all\] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know*” \[ar-Rūm 30:30\]. A person’s voluntary conformity with God’s Will mirrors the universe’s involuntary conformity with God’s Will, and this harmony benefits humanity with its synergy and stability in ways that the earliest generations of Muslims portrayed best. ### 3. God Loves to Hear and Converse with His Servants Worship is seen by some skeptics of religion as a one-sided conversation. The Quran, however, informs us that the essence of ritual worship is intimate dialogue between servants and their Lord, and that the Lord of Might responds to these acts of seeking nearness to Him by extending mercy and affection. The Prophet ﷺ described this two-way relationship by explaining that God replies to each verse of *Sūrat al-Fātiḥa*[^19] multiple times in each of the five daily prayers. Every time a Muslim prays with an alert heart, he/she finds God listening intently and responding with gifts that only the never-depleting treasures of the Most Generous can afford. Outside of prayer, a Muslim remains invited to connect with God and experience His Nearness at every moment, for the Most Compassionate has said, “*I am as My servant expects Me \[to be\]and I am with him as he remembers Me. If he remembers Me in private, then I will remember him in private. If he mentions Me in a gathering, then I will mention him in a greater gathering. When he draws near to Me by the span of his hand, I draw near him by the length of a cubit. When he draws near Me by the length of a cubit, I draw near him by the length of a fathom. When he comes to Me walking, I will go to him running.*”[^20] These and similar texts underscore that this is no cold belligerent god who relishes cruel domination, nor even a god who reciprocates endearment. Rather, He is the Supreme Creator—without needs—who simply loves connecting with His servants more than they love connecting with Him, and seeks nearness to them more than they seek nearness to Him, and rushes to them faster than they rush to Him. ### 4. ‘Ibāda is the Perfect Exam Question Allah (the Glorified and Exalted) said, “*And if your Lord had willed, He could have made mankind one community \[upon faith\]; but they will not cease to differ— except those whom your Lord has granted mercy, and for that He created them*” \[Hūd 11:118-119\]. God Almighty created the human being for devotion to Him, sending down scriptures and dispatching messengers for that objective. However, He also created them with different leanings, as well as a considerable degree of free rein by which the righteous ascend and the wicked plummet. Within this autonomy granted by God, one group engages in *‘ibāda*, leading to their salvation, and another group rejects *‘ibāda*, leading to their doom. As az-Zamakhshari (d. 1143) said, Allah has enabled people “to have a choice, which is the fundamental basis \[necessary\] for accountability. For that reason, He said, ‘*They will not cease to differ—except those whom your Lord has granted mercy*,’ meaning except those whom Allah has graced and guided, and so they agreed upon the true religion and did not differ regarding it. \[Allah then said\] ‘*and for that He created them*’... so that He may reward the choosers of truth for their good choice, and punish the choosers of falsehood for their evil choice.”[^21] However, it is clear in the Qur'an that God desires mercy for His creation, not punishment. Allah says, “*As for Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance*” \[Fuṣṣilat 41:17\]. Reflecting upon the many and varied means of attaining forgiveness in Islam, it is clear that God wishes to give bounties to His servants for the slightest reason, and accepts nearly any excuse to forgive them. The Prophet ﷺ informs us that saying “*subḥānAllāhi wa biḥamdih*” a hundred times forgives one’s sins even if they are as numerous as the ocean’s foam,[^22] and that saying “*subḥānAllāh*” a hundred times earns one a thousand good deeds.[^23] How then can anyone have a negative opinion of God? Realizing that every moment of *‘ibāda*, even a momentary reflection or forgotten whisper, will be rewarded perpetually in Paradise is a striking reminder of God’s ultimate Benevolence and Grace. *‘Ibāda* is the gauge by which people’s virtue is tested. Testing requires a degree of challenge to filter those being evaluated, and ‘*ibāda* often requires resisting the inborn fondness for relaxation and ease. Thus, Allah says, “*Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them—so worship Him and be steadfast in His worship. Do you know of any \[thing\] similar to Him?*” \[Maryam 19:65\]. It should be noted here that what appears to involve avoiding “adversity” is actually misleading. With continuous effort expended in worship, Ibn al-Qayyim says, “...the door of sweetness of worship is opened for him such that he nearly cannot get enough of it; he finds in it much greater pleasure and comfort than he had found in the pleasures of distraction, play, and fulfillment of desires.”[^24] Because God wishes for humanity an easier climb, and sweeter returns, He asked them to worship Him. There is no method of assessment that can ever compare with *‘ibāda*. First of all, *‘ibāda* carries within it an intrinsic reward system: recognition of God leads to adoration, which leads to willing servitude, which then increases recognition and adoration, leading to even more acts of servitude, creating a positive feedback loop that results in greater and greater spiritual advancement. Second, the rational appeal of *‘ibāda* lies in its intrinsic meaning. Had the test of life been to carry an enormous boulder from the lowest point in a valley to the apex of a mountain, and then return it there whenever it tumbled downwards, human beings would naturally rebel against such a pointless and painful mission. The difficulties involved in *‘ibāda* are actually blessings in disguise, subtle in their sweetness. The *‘ibāda* of Islam is unique in that it grants worshippers bursts of divine mercy, is intrinsically valuable, and fuels productivity by combining a firm footing on the earth with a firm gaze towards the heavens and the life to come. --- ## Conclusion Coming full circle, let us reiterate what is mentioned throughout the Qur'an: that the sublime nature of God negates the possibility of Him ever acting without purpose. God, the Glorified and Majestic, knowing that suspicions may sometimes creep into the minds of His creation concerning the apparent lack of wisdom in certain events, says, “*We did not create the heavens and earth and what is between them in play. We did not create them except in truth, but most of them do not know*” \[ad-Dukhān 44:38-39\]. Allah also says, “*Did you think that We created you without purpose and that to Us you would not be returned? So exalted is Allah, the Sovereign, the Truth; there is no deity except Him, Lord of the Noble Throne*” \[al-Mu’minūn 23:115-116\]. The Greatness of the Creator is indicated by the greatness of His creation; indeed, creation’s impeccable design points to a Creator Who is purposeful and unique in wisdom—not one who acts in ways devoid of wisdom or benefit. The Qur'an also asserts, in no uncertain terms, that God has no need for worship. Allah says, “*And whoever is guided is only guided for \[the benefit of\] himself*” \[an-Naml 27:92\]. The verse most frequently cited in this regard is Allah’s statement, “*I did not create the jinn or human except to worship Me \[alone\]*” \[adh-Dhāriyāt 51:56\]. It is important to note that the very next verses explicitly negate God’s need for this worship: “*I do not want from them any provision, nor do I want them to feed Me. Indeed, it is Allah who is the \[continual\] Provider, the firm Possessor of Strength*” \[adh-Dhāriyāt 51:56-58\]. Dozens of passages in the Qur'an highlight that God (the Glorified and Exalted) does not gain anything through being worshipped, but rather He is the Gracious Giver to doers of good and evil-doers alike. Other verses establish that the disbelievers’ rejection of Him does not harm Him in the least, just as the faith of the believers does not benefit Him in any way. The Most High said, “*Moses said, ‘If you should disbelieve, you and whoever is on the earth entirely—indeed, Allah is free of need and praiseworthy*’” \[Ibrāhīm 14:8\]. Without affording sufficient thought to the nature of the Almighty Creator, and without access to His revealed words, a person misperceives the Divine as a needy or narcissistic manifestation of ancient mythology—the gods of pathetic mortal yearnings for self-fulfillment. Insisting that the Divine is egotistically driven to demand devotional service is neither common sense nor sound logic. Rather, it results from a faulty image of God—a god who asks out of need, or who asks pointlessly without need. As for the Muslim, he or she is blessed to understand that God loves to be worshipped and obeyed by His creation, not because of a need for validation or servitude, but because He loves to see the benefit we achieve from it. And all praise is due to Allah, the compassionate Lord of all the worlds. --- ## Notes [^1]: Sami Ameri, Ph.D., is a professor of Islamic Studies, a prolific author on Islam and philosophy, and a co-founder of the Academic Research of Comparative Religion Initiative. [^2]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (179); Muslim, Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955) 1/161 [^3]: H. Diels and W. Kranz, eds., *Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker*, Berlin: 1903, (pp. 15-16) [^4]: Ibn Taymiya, *Dar’ Ta‘āruḍ al-‘Aql wan-Naql*, Dar al-Kunūz al-Adabiyya (Riyadh, KSA: 1391H), (4/35) *Qiyās shūmūl* is categorical reasoning; using a rule to draw a conclusion about a particular item that fits in the larger category. *Qiyās tamthīl* is a simple analogy; comparing one item to a similar item. *Qiyās awlā* is stronger analogy; using a property of a particular item to draw a conclusion about that which is greater or logically more necessary. [^5]: ar-Rāghib al-Aṣfahāni, *Mufradāt Alfādh al-Qurān*. (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 2009), p. 542 [^6]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. *Madārij as-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Īyāka Na‘budu Wa Īyāka Nasta‘īn*. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 3/28 [^7]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad. *Miftāḥ Dār al-Sa‘ādah Wa Manshūr Wilāyat Al-‘Ilm Wal-Idārah*. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah, 2002), 2/88-89 [^8]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (486), 1/352 [^9]: Collected by aṭ-Ṭabarāni in *al-Awsaṭ* (4/44), al-Marwazi in *Ta‘dhīm Qadr aṣ-Ṣalāt* (1/267), Ibn Kathir in *at-Tafsīr* (8/297), and authenticated by al-Albani in *as-Silsila aṣ-Ṣaḥiḥa* (941) [^10]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6309), *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2747); al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 8/68; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4/2104 [^11]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6407), 8/86; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (779), 1/539 [^12]: Brett Pelham and Zsolt Nyiri, "In More Religious Countries, Lower Suicide Rates," Gallup News, July 3, 2008: [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://news.gallup.com/poll/108625/more-religious-countries-lower-suicide-rates.aspx&sa=D&ust=1514288838474000&usg=AFQjCNFlZmpKV7XJS_NfBXhFrQnFnmKfsg)[http://news.gallup.com/poll/108625/more-religious-countries-lower-suicide-rates.aspx](https://news.gallup.com/poll/108625/more-religious-countries-lower-suicide-rates.aspx) [^13]: Wu A., Wang J.Y., Jia C.X. Religion and Completed Suicide: a Meta-Analysis. *PLoS One*. 2015 Jun 25;10(6):e0131715.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26110867 [^14]: Ibn Rajab, *Jāmi’ Al-‘Ulūm Wal-Ḥikam*, (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 1/211-212. [^15]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6435), 8/92. [^16]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *al-Wābil aṣ-Ṣayyib min al-Kalim aṭ-Ṭayyib*, (Damascus: Dār al-Bayān, 1973), p. 69. [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6306), 8/67 [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (482), 1/350 [^19]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (395), 1/296. [^20]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (7405), 9/121; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2675), 4/2061 [^21]: az-Zamakshari, *al-Kashf ‘an Ḥaqā’iq at-Tanzīl wa ‘Uyūn al-Aqāwīl fī Wujūh at-Ta’wīl*, Dār al-Ma‘rifa, Beirut: 2009, p. 502. [^22]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (6405), 8/86 [^23]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (2698), 4/2703 [^24]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. *Madārij as-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Īyāka Na‘budu Wa Īyāka Nasta‘īn*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 3/352. ## Summary # Why Does God Ask Us to Worship Him? In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. A recurring objection raised by critics of religion asks why God, who is in need of nothing, would command His creation to worship Him, and what benefit He could possibly derive from our prayers, supplications, and fasting. Though the arguments of atheists on this matter appear numerous and profound, on closer examination they prove few in number and largely recycled, resting upon unsubstantiated assumptions about realities beyond our finite grasp. Before answering the more meaningful question of why *we* need to worship God, it is essential to first expose the flawed premises hidden within the question itself, for many such objections are worded in ways that conceal their inherent contradictions. The first flaw lies in the limits of the human mind in comprehending the Divine. To pass judgment on something requires first understanding it, yet human beings, being finite, cannot fully comprehend an eternal God or grasp His perfection. We possess neither direct access to Him nor the capacity to handle such access were it granted. The Prophet ﷺ said, "His veil is light. Were He to remove it, the glory of His Face would incinerate everything that His Eyesight reaches." Allah says, "There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing" (ash-Shūrā 42:11), and "they do not encompass Him in knowledge" (ṬāHā 20:110). We may reflect upon the signs of God and infer from them undeniable truths about His greatness—as in His words, "Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly" (Āl ʿImrān 3:191)—but we must recognize that veils have been lowered between our minds and the fullness of His essence. Genuine intelligence here includes realizing the limits of one's own intelligence. It is therefore inappropriate for a finite creature to casually interrogate the wisdom behind God's call to worship. The second flaw is the presumption of the humanness of God. The very notion that God "needs" worship or "benefits" from it springs from the human tendency toward anthropomorphism—likening God to man. This mindset was embraced wholeheartedly by idol-worshippers across history, whose mythological deities resembled mortals in their dependency, jealousy, and struggles for dominance. The Greek philosopher Xenophanes (d. 475 BC) observed that the Ethiopians pictured their god as flat-nosed while the Thracians gave him red hair and blue eyes, remarking that if horses could draw, they would depict gods in horse form. The error of anthropomorphism is to assume God resembles man in every respect—reasoning that since human actions and requests arise from need, God's must too. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) explained that the way of the Qur'an, the great Imams, and the earliest Muslims was to refrain from *qiyās shumūl* (categorical syllogism) and *qiyās tamthīl* (deductive analogy) concerning the Divine, employing instead *qiyās awlā* (a fortiori analogy)—for the loftiest description belongs to Allah. When God and man share a praiseworthy trait such as life or knowledge, this indicates only similarity in name, not identity; God's life has no beginning or end, and His knowledge is complete. To imagine God requesting worship to fill a void is thus to project human motives upon Him, a fallacy contradicted by what reason and revelation reveal of His freedom from all need. The third flaw is the assumption that every request stems from the requester's need. Even among humans this is untrue. A physician asks a patient to open his mouth, desiring compliance not for his own benefit but for the patient's healing; a wealthy man asks a beggar to extend his hand so that he may give him charity. Such requests are acts of graciousness, or serve to teach and guide. Likewise, Allah's love of being worshipped points not to His need but to the benefit worship brings us, for He gifted us the very ability to do good in the first place. He says, "And whatever you have of favor—it is from Allah" (an-Naḥl 16:52-53). Having dismantled these premises, we turn to why worship is truly necessary and beneficial. First, only God is worthy of *ʿibāda*. The linguist ar-Rāghib al-Aṣfahāni (d. 1108) explained that *ʿibāda* denotes the epitome of humility and brokenness, while Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) taught that *taʿabbud* is the highest degree of love, in which one is rendered powerless before the Beloved. He wrote that complete servitude is the fruit of complete love, which itself flows from perceiving the Beloved's perfection—and since Allah possesses absolute perfection, sound hearts can find nothing dearer than Him. Thus *ʿibāda* rests upon two pillars: absolute love and absolute humility, born of recognizing His perfection and our own deficiency. It is not a burdensome wage-labor but a gracious gift. Meaningfully, in al-Fātiḥa the words "Only You do we worship" follow the verses of praise, showing that servitude flows from recognition. The Prophet ﷺ, in his prostration, would say, "I cannot praise You enough; You are as You have praised Yourself," and the angels will confess on the Day of Resurrection, "Glorified are You; We have not worshipped You as You deserve." God was worthy of worship before He created anything, and all the more so given the ceaseless downpour of His blessings. Second, God is exceedingly benevolent. He loves His servants' worship because it benefits them—indeed, the Prophet ﷺ said Allah rejoices at a servant's repentance more than a man who regains his lost mount in the desert. God Himself answers the objection: "What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe?" (an-Nisāʾ 4:147). He is *ash-Shakūr*, *ar-Raḥmān*, and *al-Karīm*. This benevolence unfolds in several ways. *ʿIbāda* is required for inner peace and self-actualization, for we are spiritual beings in physical bodies whose souls hunger for God as bodies hunger for food; the Prophet ﷺ compared the one who remembers his Lord to the living and the one who does not to the dead, and Allah warned that whoever turns from His remembrance will have "a suffocating life" (ṬāHā 20:124). Gallup polls and studies cited indicate that lower religiosity correlates with higher suicide rates, religion playing a protective role in most settings studied. The Qur'an notes that prayer deters indecency (29:45), fasting cultivates integrity (2:183), and charity purifies (9:103). Ibn Rajab (d. 1393) affirmed that hearts find no well-being until filled with the recognition, love, and fear of Allah alone. Furthermore, *ʿibāda* is liberating, freeing man from enslavement to desires and the creation—as illustrated by the parable of the slave with quarreling masters versus one devoted to a single master (az-Zumar 39:29). The Prophet ﷺ said, "Wretched is the slave of gold and silver," and Ibn Taymiyya declared from prison that the true captive is one whose heart is held captive by his desires. *ʿIbāda* also grounds principled morality, for one who sees himself as God's servant behaves consistently rather than for social approval; the Prophet ﷺ affirmed his own servitude daily in Sayyid al-Istighfār. It refreshes faith through the rhythm of the five prayers that keep the ever-turning heart (*qalb*) polished, and it harmonizes man with a universe already devoutly obedient to God (ar-Rūm 30:26, 30). Third, God loves to hear and converse with His servants. Worship is not a one-sided monologue: the Prophet ﷺ related that God responds to each verse of al-Fātiḥa in prayer, and in the divine saying, "I am as My servant expects Me... When he comes to Me walking, I go to him running." Fourth, *ʿibāda* is the perfect exam question. Allah created mankind with free choice, the basis of accountability, that the righteous might ascend and the wicked fall (Hūd 11:118-119). Az-Zamakhshari (d. 1143) explained this enables reward and punishment according to one's choice. Yet God desires mercy, not punishment—"As for Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness" (Fuṣṣilat 41:17)—accepting the slightest deed for immense reward, as saying "subḥānAllāhi wa biḥamdih" a hundred times erases sins like ocean foam. Ibn al-Qayyim noted that the sweetness of worship, once tasted, surpasses every worldly pleasure. In sum, the Qur'an affirms that God's sublime nature forbids any purposeless act—"We did not create the heavens and earth... in play" (ad-Dukhān 44:38-39)—while equally affirming His freedom from all need: "I did not create the jinn or human except to worship Me... I do not want from them any provision" (adh-Dhāriyāt 51:56-58), and "If you should disbelieve... indeed, Allah is free of need" (Ibrāhīm 14:8). To imagine God as needy or self-serving is neither common sense nor sound logic, but a residue of ancient mythology. The Muslim, by contrast, understands that God loves to be worshipped not from need, but from His love of the good we ourselves attain thereby. And all praise is due to Allah, the compassionate Lord of all the worlds. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/immortality-on-earth-transhumanism-through-islamic-lenses # Immortality on Earth? Transhumanism through Islamic Lenses **Author:** Tamim Mobayed **Topics:** Nature & Science, Technology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** December 11, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction In 1965, an American scientist by the name of Gordon Moore made a relatively specific prediction about the number of transistors within a dense integrated circuit that would go on to become an accurate projection of technological change as a whole. Moore predicted that the number of transistors within such circuits would double approximately every year.[^1] This prediction of exponential growth turned out to be descriptive of much more than mere transistor populations within circuits. Scientific discovery, and consequent developments in technology, are now widely accepted as growing exponentially, exhibiting acceleration. This growth has brought with it a pushing of boundaries at an unprecedented speed. Writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke (d. 2008) famously commented that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”[^2] Indeed, we appear to be on the verge of witnessing nanotechnological interventions that would have mere decades ago been the stuff of science fiction. Transhumanism is a term coined by British biologist Julian Huxley (d. 1975),[^3] brother of renowned novelist and philosopher Aldous Huxley (d. 1963), that now refers to the process of improving the quality and length of human life by way of biotechnological interventions, including but not limited to, nanotechnology, cybernetics, pharmacological and gene therapies. While transhumanists herald this as the beginning of perhaps the greatest chapter in human history, those opposed to transhumanism are warning that all that proverbially glitters is not necessarily gold. Some scholars, both Islamic and non-Islamic, have suggested that the propagation of transhumanism presents one of the greatest challenges to humanity brought about by modernity. To use human discovery to alter humankind, at as fundamental a level as proposed by transhumanism, provokes numerous profound questions related to theology, philosophy, biology, psychology, and of course, ethics. What is interesting, and might be seen as setting the tone for this discussion, is one of the key points taken from the story of Adam in the Quran. He is misled by the devil, in part by the promise that eating from the forbidden tree will grant him immortality (Quran 7:20); immortality is very much a part of the transhumanist agenda. This paper attempts to grapple with some of the most significant issues raised by transhumanism that will need to be addressed by Muslims. The main question is: what are the challenges inherent in attempting to reconcile Islam with transhumanism? --- ## Introduction to Transhumanism ### A Brief History of Transhumanism Swedish Philosopher Nick Bostrom provides a thorough history of transhumanist thought in his paper, “A History of Transhumanist Thought.”[^4] The following section summarizes and discusses some of the key historical figures to whom he, and other scholars, have attributed the origins and development of transhumanist thought. The Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh, often cited as being the first surviving work of literature, contains within it what might be called the first written account of an individual seeking out a transhumanist intervention: the protagonist King of Uruk sets out on a quest for immortality.[^5] The quest for immortality is often cited as being one of the end goals of transhumanism.[^6] Of course, this king was seeking a magical intervention, rather than one rooted in science and reason, the latter of which is key to the transhumanist movement. However, some would argue that instrumental reasoning, as employed by transhumanists, is not an all-encompassing form of reason,[^7] as will be elaborated below. Within Greek mythology we also find potential precursors to transhumanism. As well as Prometheus, who angered the gods by stealing fire from them, and delivering it to humans, thus improving the human condition, we also find the character of Daedalus.[^8] Daedalus, the father of Icarus, tasked himself with finding ways to improve human capabilities but without magic, instead opting for engineering-based solutions. The famous demise of Icarus has served as a warning for millennia regarding the tendency of humans to become overly ambitious in this regard. While the roots of transhumanist thinking might be found in humanity’s earliest texts, it is the age of the European Enlightenment that is often credited as ushering in the beginning of transhumanist philosophy.[^9] Europe’s Enlightenment brought with it a number of intellectual upheavals that changed the course of human history. The impact of the Enlightenment on three branches of knowledge in particular—science, politics and philosophy—led to a revolution in the way in which knowledge was approached and utilised.[^10] The rise of secularism, at the expense of the power of the European Church, led to a fundamental difference in how morality was determined and enforced. The replacement of the geocentric theory of our solar system by the heliocentric theory, symbolises just how monumental the intellectual shifts that occurred within Europe during this time were; the very universe and the way in which it was being perceived changed massively.[^11] The scientific revolution of that time brought with it a hope, certainly amongst many of the elite classes of society, that a better world could be built on the back of science and reason. One of the era’s heavyweights, the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (d. 1626), described a utopian island in his novel, *New Atlantis*, “where the suffering of humanity has been removed through the development, and indeed perfection, of scientific knowledge and its technical application.”[^12] This reflected the optimism felt by many at the time regarding science and its potential to elevate the human condition. The sheer optimism of this position is perhaps better understood when one is reminded that this was before the advent of monstrosities such as the nuclear bomb and other destructive inventions such as germ warfare, and the less dramatic, albeit just as toxic, discovery of carcinogenic substances. The reality that science and its applications can prove to be devastating serves as a sobering grounding of optimism regarding its potentialities. This conflict of potentiality is reflected in the division amongst scientists and philosophers regarding transhumanism and other cutting-edge applications. In defence of the optimism, it is important to note that it was not exactly technology and science that buoyed these intellectuals, rather, it was the idea of man being governed by knowledge, be it the “pure reason” of the  rationalists, or the science of the empiricists.[^13] Shedding the religious dogmatism that had bogged Europe down in war, repression, and a neglect of material science, the Enlightenment was a time of intellectual hope. Political philosophers of this era, such as Benjamin Franklin (d. 1790) and William Godwin (d. 1836), believed that inequality and injustice, as well as disease (and perhaps one day, death) could be eradicated through scientific advances.[^14] Science was thus seen as an extension of reason, one of its most prominent schools of thought and application. With the seismic publication of Charles Darwin’s (d. 1882) *Origin of Species* in 1859, more than ever transhumanism seemed like a goal within reach. According to the theory, current humans represent merely one stage in an evolutionary process. Therefore, who is to say that we have reached the end of this process? To those who accept Darwin’s theory, the idea that we will no longer evolve seems less credible or likely than the idea that we will continue evolving. In 1923, British scientist J. B. S. Haldane (d. 1964) published the essay *Daedalus; or, Science and the Future*, which presented an optimistic view of the benefits that would come along with mastery of science in general, and genetics in particular.[^15] Significantly, Haldane suggested that many new scientific developments are initially seen as blasphemous, and even abominations, initially rejected by the mainstream of people due to the sheer differences they offer being deemed unnatural. Haldane seems to have anticipated some of the significant issues that would arise within this discussion; and discussion certainly did arise as his essay became a best-seller.[^16] Other writers also weighed in, offering less optimistic predictions in the case of Bertrand Russell’s (d. 1970) *Icarus: The Future of Science*[^17] and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.[^18] The latter laid out a dark vision of a dystopian future in which free will, human drive, and freedom are severely stunted by biotechnology, oppressive psychological practices, as well as sexual and narcotic indulgences. While George Orwell’s (d. 1950) *1984*[^19] did not explicitly describe biotechnology as a tool of oppression, it made a frightening case about the potential for science and technology to be misused to enslave “the masses.” It was Huxley’s biologist brother, Julian Huxley, who would go on to coin the term transhumanism in 1927, writing in his text *Religion Without Revelation*: > *The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way—but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.*[^20] The last century has witnessed the exponential development of science and technology, in line with Moore’s law. Transhumanism as an applied science has begun on a small scale, within the likes of pharmacology, while more fundamental changes to our being remain on hold due to legislative reasons. Transhumanism is already amongst us, with the theory being argued for within academic circles, while the practice is already present within the pharmacological world, by way of “designer drugs.” It looks like this might be just the beginning of a new wave of transhumanist practice; we are all likely to be affected by it, in one way or another. ### Introduction to Transhumanist theory Bostrom remains one of the most vocal proponents of transhumanism amongst philosophers. He argues for the position that transhumanism can lead to an improvement to our species, allowing us to evolve into transhumans and eventually post-humans. The benefits of transhumanism include, “radical extension of human health-span, eradication of disease, elimination of unnecessary suffering, and augmentation of human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities.”[^21] According to Bostrom, transhumanists will utilize “medicine…economic, social, institutional designs, cultural development, and psychological skills and techniques.”[^22] Viewing nature as “a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning”[^23] that humanity must improve upon highlights just how radically different the worldview of transhumanists is from the Islamic view, with God saying, “We have indeed created humankind in the best of molds” (Quran 95:4). While it would be incorrect to interpret this verse as pitting Islam against the advancement of the human race, it is certainly an indication of how different the two worldviews are in terms of how they view creation and the status of the human. Within the Quran are verses highlighting that God has eased certain aspects of our lives by allowing us to cultivate nature: “And the grazing livestock He has created for you; in them is warmth and \[numerous\] benefits, and from them you eat…And they carry your loads to a land you could not have reached except with difficulty to yourselves. Indeed, your Lord is Kind and Merciful.” (Quran 16:5;7). Improving lives by way of cultivating and gaining a limited mastery over nature, is not fundamentally at odds with the Islamic worldview. However, there is quite some distance between controlling livestock and altering the fundamental building blocks of human beings themselves. ### Human Limitations Transhumanists see the human body and mind as limiting our full capabilities. Accordingly, they propose a range of areas that could benefit from transhumanist practice in terms of expanding what is possible for humans. Bostrom proposes that our possible modes of being are limited by our human perspective: “We humans may lack the capacity to form a realistic intuitive understanding of what it would be like to be a radically enhanced human.”[^24] He argues that on one level we seem to have accepted constraints without questioning their necessity. Furthermore, transhumanists like Bostrom propose that while we might have some idea of what transhumanism will look like, we are incredibly naïve in trying to assess what posthumanism might look like, with posthumanism being the frontier beyond transhumanism. Transhumanism is often crudely reduced to the idea of living forever. While concern with increasing lifespan is a central focus for many transhumanists, Bostrom elaborates on this goal as being more than merely a desire to live longer. He argues that longer lives would include higher levels of maturation and growth, leading to a more enriched society. The examples he uses to illustrate this are Beethoven and Goethe, considered two of Western Europe’s greatest gifts to the world in cultural terms: what might their insights have been, and how might their work have looked, if they were with us today, having lived for hundreds of years. Beyond lifespan concerns, transhumanists put a strong emphasis on improving human intellectual capacities. Bostrom believes that effective transhumanism can lead to improvement in all of our cognitive faculties, including memory, attention, and problem solving skills. Interestingly, he also thinks we might be able to think more effectively in both philosophical and scientific terms. He writes that, “It is possible that failure of philosophical research to arrive at solid, generally accepted answers to many of the traditional big philosophical questions could be due to the fact that we are not smart enough to be successful in this kind of enquiry.”[^25] He also mentions the Platonic cave,[^26] and how it suggests that we might be limited by our current cognitive capacities. Evoking images of comic book superheroes, Bostrom also believes in the potential for transhumanism to lead to increased sensory capabilities. Perhaps we might adopt some of the sensory gifts of animals, such as magnetic orientation, sharper eyesight, a more effective sense of smell, or sensors for electricity and vibration; he also mentions the possibility of increasing levels of sexual sensitivity and responsiveness. Bostrom also argues for the psychological potentialities of transhumanism, talking in terms of evoking “lasting joy” and increasing well-being, writing that we are at the mercy of our genetic disposition when it comes to these things. Furthermore, Bostrom believes that transhumanism may allow us to determine our own willpower and character, so that tasks such as quitting smoking will be easier, and we can more readily shape our character so that it is “in accordance with our ideals.”[^27] ### Applied Transhumanism The scientific processes that can be applied towards transhumanist practice, such as nanotechnology, cybernetics, pharmacology, and gene therapy are all already being developed and applied, albeit not always in the service of transhumanist goals. Nanotechnology, a term used to describe technologies developed at an atomic, molecular, or macromolecular level (1 to 100 nm range) is already being used within areas such as bioengineering, biophysics, and biochemistry.[^28] When utilised in the service of transhumanism, nanotechnology offers much to the field, from microscopic implants that monitor our bodily functions, to minuscule diagnostic tools that enter the body and are used to more effectively diagnose illness. Cybernetics is a term that is used to describe the study of human control functions, paying particular attention to the ways in which artificial systems can be used to improve, or even replace, them. Accordingly, cybernetics focused on bridging the gaps between human biological processes with technological tools. British engineer Kevin Warwick has famously tested various cybernetic tools on himself, implanting computer interfaces under his skin so as to allow himself to control electrical devices remotely. Pharmacological approaches to transhumanism are already common, perhaps due to the softening of attitudes towards psychoactive medication, which have long been used to treat psychological illness. Pharmacological transhumanism involves improving an aspect of our cognitive functioning using a pharmacological substance. Crucially, this involves improving something that is not diagnostically ill. A prime example of this is the use of Modafinil, a so-called “smart drug” whose use is on the rise in many countries.[^29] It is said to promote wakefulness, memory, and clarity of thought, making it particularly popular amongst students faced with multiple exams and assignments. Gene therapy involves the process of replacing faulty or ailing genes with healthier ones. Transhumanism would see these processes go beyond treating faulty genes, but also used to “improve” a healthy set of genes, allowing for the selection of desired characteristics. The term “designer babies” has now entered the public consciousness, reflecting the propagation of this once distant idea. While regulations are still in place restricting gene therapies to nonhumans, the last two decades have seen them used to “improve” certain species of plant. Applied to humans, this could hypothetically result in the development of offspring who can jump higher, remember better, grow taller, and so on. These developments are at different stages, but they are all relatively early in their life cycles. The pace at which technology moves forward predicts more widespread use in the near future. As we have seen with other scientific advances, we may be less than a year away from any one of these practices becoming not only widespread, but the norm. Addressing this issue is critical for the Muslim world. Failing to meet the demand for answers, or to provide answers in a timely manner, risks driving a further wedge between scholars and laypeople. ### The Transhumanist Religious Order While all transhumanists are not atheists (as evidenced by the existence of the Christian Transhumanist Association), the majority appear to be so, with one survey reporting that over 75% of transhumanists identify as such.[^30] Referring back to the Enlightenment, we can see within it both the roots of contemporary transhumanist movements, as well as arguably the proliferation of atheism, and certainly the proliferation of secularism. However, a closer examination of the themes contained within this branch of science, as well as the language that is employed, suggests that a case could be made that transhumanism is in fact similar to a religious movement. Academic Steven Goldberg (d. 2010) is one of several scholars who has argued that the transhumanist movement might well be seen as religious. Examining the issue from the perspective of the constitution of the United State’s prohibition on requiring students in a public school to take a course on a particular religion, Goldberg asks, “Does transhumanism…address fundamental and ultimate questions?” and, “Is transhumanism comprehensive?,” and suggests that the answer to both of those questions is affirmative. While he goes on to say that it is not associated with formal rituals or structure, there seems to be enough evidence to put forward a case that transhumanism is akin to a religion, concluding that it would be dishonest to claim that “the teachings of transhumanism are merely like the curriculum of a chemistry course or a survey course on Western philosophy.”[^31] With this point, Goldberg highlighted the idea that whereas science might be deemed a neutral branch of knowledge, transhumanism contains within it a vision for how human beings should be that is more akin to a religion than a branch of science. Beth Singler, of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, is another academic who has written on the similarities between religious and transhumanist worldviews, noting some of the commonalities as the presence of, “a god-like being of infinite knowledge…an escape of the flesh and this limited world (uploading our minds); a moment of transfiguration or ‘end of days’…prophets (even if they work for Google),” concluding that, “Consciously or unconsciously, religious ideas are at work in the narratives of those discussing, planning, and hoping for a future shaped by AI.”[^32]Another similarity that can be mentioned is the goal of transhumanism, as well as many religions and certainly the Abrahamic ones, of reaching a utopia, with the former trying to bring this about on earth, while the latter aiming for it in the next life. Where these ideas gain particular relevance is in highlighting the reality that transhumanism is not—as it is billed by many of its adherents—a movement away from religious thinking. Viewing it as an alternative religious worldview allows us to compare it to other worldviews. The remainder of this paper compares the transhumanist and Islamic worldviews. --- ## Islamic Analysis of Transhumanism Despite what some, particularly the New Atheists, might argue, Islam is by no means a religion that is opposed to science.[^33] Setting aside Islam’s intellectual history, which boasts many great pioneers of science, as well as contemporary examples of Muslim scientists, one can find directly in the Quran commandments to seek knowledge: “Are those who have knowledge and those who have no knowledge alike? Only those of understanding are mindful” (Quran 39:9). However, the Muslim scientists’ profession is seen as an extension of her or his beliefs, and as such, will be governed by certain principles. God-consciousness should envelop them, a *taqwa* that will have them asking fundamental questions about what they are doing, what they hope to achieve, what the impacts of their research might be, and whether or not it will ultimately benefit their fellow human beings. While both the Islamic and secular scientist will point to their ethical values, these values can diverge and even contradict each other; perhaps this is unsurprising given that Muslims derive their ethical values from revelation. However, it is not simply on ethics that the two worldviews differ. The Muslim worldview is drawn from revelation which contains a narrative that describes the purpose of life, and also elaborates on the meaning behind human limitations. As transhumanists do not use the Quran as a reference point, it is only natural that they would view the world in a significantly different manner. It is therefore unsurprising to find that the Muslim differing in several key aspects from the secular scientist when it comes to transhumanism. Transhumanism represents humanity’s most elaborate attempt to create a new reality for our being; it is befitting that such a monumental change would in certain areas sit at odds with those who believe in a heedful Creator. ### Do Not Transgress The Balance One of the most pertinent Quranic verses relevant to this discussion is found in Surah Al-Rahman, “And the heaven He raised and imposed the balance. That you not transgress within the balance. And establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance” (Quran 55:7-9). While these verses have traditionally been understood to be in reference to the balance of justice (Al-Jalalayn, Ibn Kathir, Maududi), some contemporary authors have extended their application to a balance within nature and its laws.[^34]\-[^35] Of course, the two meanings are not mutually exclusive, and might even be seen as complementary. This verse is particularly relevant to transhumanism when it comes to genetic interventions, as through such interventions we may irreparably undo a delicate balance that exists within nature. We cannot simply dismiss this line of argument as bioconservative fearmongering as the effects of imbalance created by humans are all around us, from global warming, to extinction of animal species at an unprecedented rate, to diminishing natural resources. While much attention goes to fossil fuels, we are now hearing more and more about the impending scarcity of even more crucial resources such as water, and perhaps not too long from now, clean air. Many of these developing crises were at some level initiated by scientific investigations for which scientists had not adequately considered all the consequences. These investigations moved forward before the complete picture could be understood, and by the time the dangers were discovered, much damage had already been done. “And when they are told, ‘Do not spread corruption on earth,’ they answer, ‘We are but improving things!’ Oh, verily, it is they who are spreading corruption but they perceive it not.” (Quran 2:12-13). Playing with human genes is an enormous step into something that might not be fully understood. Errors at this level could lead to catastrophic fallout. Perhaps what is most interesting in these verses is the commandment to “not make deficient the balance.” This verse suggests that human beings will reach a stage where they can upset the balance; we certainly seem to be in the midst of that stage. Reflecting further upon the idea of transgressing the balance, two main themes can be identified as relevant. One of these relates to the ill effects of transgressing the balance. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) used as foods are now becoming more common. GMO processes are based on some of the same principles of transhumanist thought, such as the need to improve creation by way of genetic intervention. While this topic is much too broad and deep to be covered within the bounds of this paper, the point that can be made is that the jury is still out on whether GMO foods are harmless[^36] or toxic. Studies have linked GMOs to a range of ailments, including blood toxins,[^37] gluten disorders,[^38] breast cancer,[^39] and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children.[^40] It would be premature to delve into genetically modifying humans, when we have yet to get a grasp on the effects of genetically modified plants and animals. On this level, the warning found in the Quran could be seen as stemming from a sense of protecting our world and ourselves. It could further be argued that these Quranic verses go beyond a warning of the harms that might come from transgressing the balance; these verses could also be seen as a call to intellectual responsibility and humility. The entire philosophy of transhumanism is predicated on the aspiration for superhuman prowess, deifying the human race, and attaining ascendancy. It involves a worship of our future selves. Additionally, there is an underlying irrational assumption that a limited biological organism can achieve limitless conquest in comprehending matters of the universe and subjecting them to our will. Humanity can reach the heights of being able to transgress the balance, while simultaneously possessing the free will to be able to choose to do so. European fiction is littered with characters who transgressed this balance, from Victor Frankenstein and his ill-thought-out scientific endeavors, to Icarus and his unquenchable drive for more. In the Quranic story of Pharaoh and Haman, we see a similar drive to attain supremacy and engage in self-aggrandizement and self-deification: > *Pharaoh said: “O Chiefs! No God do I know for you but myself: therefore, O Haman! Light me a (kiln to bake bricks) out of clay, and build me a lofty palace, that I may mount up to the God of Moses: but as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!”* (Quran 28:38) The story of the Prophet Moses and Pharaoh is one of the most frequently recurring stories in the Quran. The Pharaoh can be seen as representing an archetype of the worst type of ruler, using his power to inflict misery on his people, discriminatory, delusional, power-hungry, and narcissistic. The Quranic Pharaoh had indeed transgressed many boundaries; therefore, Moses was commanded to, “Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed” (Quran 20:24). This particular transgression seems to have been born from his delusional desire to conquer the Divine; Pharaoh said, "I am your Lord, Most High" (Quran 79:24) perhaps due in part to a narcissistic drive. In this account we are given insight in the heart and mind of this despotic ruler. Pharaoh attempted to use the crafts of his age to gain power over what lay before him, and the ancient Egyptians were master builders. We see here a false belief that by way of his craft, Pharaoh believed he could conquer the Heavens, and assume divinity himself. The fate of Pharaoh within the Islamic narrative is well known, and continues to serve as a stark warning to those who pursue the delusion of self-deification. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared—on the lips of his famous protagonist Zarathustra—that human beings should embrace their own self-sufficiency as an *Ubermensch* (super-man), declaring the death of God.[^41] But does a declaration of independence from God empower the human being or shackle him to his own delusional pursuit for greatness and conquest? Human beings come together on a basis of mutual cooperation and filling each other's needs, thus establishing norms for social conduct. Perhaps the most dangerous men in human history have been those who thought they needed no one.[^42] The Qur’anic story of Pharaoh provides a key reminder of this lesson. Another verse from the Quran serves as an even more direct warning against the potential dangers of transhumanism, with Iblis saying:  “I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires; I will order them to slit the ears of cattle, and to deface the (fair) nature created by Allah…” And the verse continues: “...Whoever, forsaking Allah, takes Satan for a friend, hath of a surety suffered a loss that is manifest.” (Quran 4:119) Here we are warned against defacing the nature of creation. There is a discussion to be had here: does transhumanism represent a defacing or a correction of creation? Amongst Islamic scholarship, the use of corrective procedures and prosthetics that are used to correct a defect are generally encouraged, given the narration of a companion who the Prophet ﷺ instructed to obtain a nose made out of gold after his nose was cut off in battle.[^43] Contemporary scholars have ruled positively on the permissibility of having corrective laser eye surgery.[^44] The key difference between corrective and transhumanist procedures may lie in their objectives; where surgical procedures attempt to correct something that has gone wrong (due to the presence of a biological abnormality, injury, defect, or illness), the transhumanist goal is to improve what is seen as a “half-baked” creation by way of giving us more than we as humans are born with, be it a longer life, more sensory perceptions, and so on. Their starting point is that even a healthy human being is trapped within the bounds of what they have been given, with transhumanist practice offering to give them more. Going back to the example of GMOs, one can easily see where this can lead to harm rather than improvement. ### Scientific Intervention vs. Jihad of the Self Key to the transhumanist worldview is the process of improving humankind by way of scientific intervention, be it increasing memory through psychoactive substances or editing genes in order to eradicate an unwanted facet of a person’s physical or psychological makeup. German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has raised several critiques of such interventions. He objects to instrumentalizing human beings, and takes issue with imposing a subjective opinion on how humans “should be” and the resultant violation of autonomy. He has also opined that if one attempts to improve or increase one aspect of a human being, it is natural that another will suffer.[^45] Certainly, Habermas’ ideas about violation of autonomy and instrumentalizing human beings would readily find a home within Islamic thought. Islam places a strong emphasis on autonomy: “And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another…he who groweth (in goodness), groweth only for himself…” (Quran 35:18). The Quran goes further, “O mankind, fear your Lord and fear a Day when no father will avail his son, nor will a son avail his father at all…” (Quran 31:33). Muslims are taught to be responsible for their own actions, and to hold themselves to account, for they will alone be answerable to the Almighty for what they have done. This area of inquiry highlights that transhumanist interventions may work against free will. Free will is a responsibility that opens the door to individuals choosing to engage in behavior that is harmful to themselves, those around them, and society as a whole. Islam is certainly not against eradicating undesirable thoughts and behaviors; engaging in the struggle to do this is one of the core aspects of being a Muslim. But it calls people to do this by way of a struggle against oneself (*jihad*). Having the potential to do evil is part and parcel of having a truly free will. This is not viewed as a flaw in our designs, as the transhumanist posits; rather, Islam views this as being an integral part of the Divine design. The recognition of our human deficiencies may in fact be hard-wired to our motivational drives as human beings—we act because we have needs to fulfill, hopes, goals, and aspirations. Imagine a utopian world where human beings were so technologically sufficient that they didn’t need to move or exert any effort at all, their brains electrochemically stimulated to be in a constant state of endorphin-induced pleasure, their bodies technologically equipped to require no conscious intake of food or output of waste. In such a state they would find their lives entirely bereft of value or purpose—why exist at all with no ultimate goal or quest, no obstacles to overcome, no aspirations to achieve? Is that really a desirable endpoint for human existence? Nietzsche’s Last Men, devoid of challenge, robbed of aspiration, contented in their small world, “ineradicable as the flea,” believe themselves to have found happiness.[^46] Leon Kass’s words are even more scathing, “in his moment of triumph, Promethean man will become a contented cow.”[^47] Coming from the psychological perspective, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi popularised the notion of “flow”; his thesis centres on the idea that humans are at their happiest when they are immersed in a challenge which is within their level of efficacy.[^48] Without challenge, this would never be possible. More anecdotally, it is common to hear an individual describing the sheer feeling of pleasure and worth that is derived from overcoming an obstacle. The Islamic position could be described as seeing the human being as being born into a good state (“We have certainly created man in the best of stature” Quran 95:4), who is then challenged with the realities of the world and the human condition; it is this struggle that causes some of humanity to “fall” (“Then we return him to the lowest of the low” Quran 95:5). It is adhering to God’s guidance, as laid out in revelation, that allows humans to succeed: “Except for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for they will have a reward uninterrupted” (Quran 95:6); “He has succeeded who purifies it, and he has failed who instills it \[with corruption\]” (Quran 91:9-10). This places the Islamic worldview in conflict with that of the transhumanist school in regards to what constitutes human nature. Man’s nature and creation is not “half-baked” as Bostrom writes; rather, humanity is created from a divine source with divine purpose. The task then falls to each human being to struggle and preserve their goodness, by way of inner struggle (*al-jihad al-nafs*), rather than biotechnological intervention. This struggle is rooted in humanity’s unique position of possessing free will, as opposed to other forms of creation who operate within a more limited scope of what we might define as choice. Muslims see this bestowing of free will as being one of the divine secrets. God responded to the angels, when they asked him why He would create a species who can fall to corruption, “Indeed, I know that which you do not know” (Quran 2:30). On reading the transhumanist goal of eradicating humanity’s ills, such as rape, lying and cheating, by way of biotechnological or genetic intervention, one must ask how this can be done while preserving free will. It is difficult to reflect on this and not find oneself thinking of Huxley’s dystopia. ### Eradicating Inequality Bostrom argues that transhumanism can be utilised to eradicate inequality, listing equal access to transhumanist technology as being one of the significant goals of the movement. The latter concern for transhumanists is born from the conception that many have about the inevitable inequality associated with new technologies. One cannot separate a science from the context within which it is being developed. The biases that are inherent to the wider governing worldview of a society are likely to be replicated and imprinted upon the knowledge and practice that is developed within it. In his writings on Islam and nanotechnology, Musa Furber describes unequal access to nanotechnology between nations as leading to a “nano divide.”[^49] Furber also mentions concerns regarding the directions that such research takes. This point is particularly pertinent as we are already witnessing the effects of biases that occur in the direction which research goes within the medical community; tropical diseases that affect more than 1 billion people are understudied due to the fact that the majority of sufferers are impoverished. This makes the disease relatively non-lucrative for pharmaceutical companies, as well as less pressing, due to the psychological distance between those who make key decisions within the field and those who are suffering the effects of the ailment.[^50] Aldous Huxley once wrote, “Science in itself is morally neutral; it becomes good or evil according as it is applied.”[^51] It seems likely that any inequalities present within our societies today would naturally be extended to any new scientific or technological developments. The  prediction that transhumanist  developments will help to eradicate inequality seems deeply mistaken. Observing what is currently going on within transhumanist practice reveals a clear pattern of it being the playground of the rich. Leading figures such as Elon Musk are often millionaires if not billionaires, with Musk commanding a fortune of 15.6 billion U.S. dollars, while the laymen and women engaging in the likes of cryogenic freezing have to part with a sizeable $20,000, making such technologies unavailable to  the majority of the world’s inhabitants. Far from being an eradicator of inequality, it seems likely that transhumanism will involve the rich developing tools for the rich, leading to even higher levels of inequality within society. Keeping wealth within certain circles, and not distributing it amongst wider society, is advised against in the Quran; Muslims are instructed to distribute wealth to those in need, “...so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you…”(Quran 59:7). ### Prolonging Life and Enriching It Many transhumanists include amongst their goals the pursuit of immortality. While attaining eternal life is a goal shared by most religious faithful, including Muslims, trying to achieve it in this world (*dunya*) is foreign to the Muslim mind. The Islamic narrative is clear: this life is but one part of the journey of the human and success does not involve prolonging it, rather, it is found in emerging from it, by way of death, having lived a life of goodness and repentance. The Prophet ﷺ told his companions: > *Be in the world as if you were a stranger or a traveler along the path. If you survive till late afternoon, do not expect \[to be alive in\] the morning. If you survive till morning, do not expect \[to be alive in\] the late afternoon. Take from your health before your sickness and your life before your death*.[^52] Prophetic sayings such as this paint a picture in which the world of this life is not meant to be perfect, nor is it something Muslims should cling to. It is only by taking the concept of the afterlife out of the equation, as many transhumanists have, that the pursuit of longer (and perhaps everlasting) life seems worthwhile. However, Islam should not be seen as a body-denying religion. Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad highlights this point in the context of transhumanism; while elements of Christianity, and some of the core ideas behind Buddhism, center around the denial of the body, Islam gives the body its due, and its owner has a responsibility over it.[^53] It must be cleaned at least a few times per day, and nourished with food that is not only *halal* (permissible) but *tayyib* (good and pure) too; it should be kept well-groomed, perfumed, clothed with clean clothes. Even after death, when the soul has departed, the body is washed, clothed, and prayed over. Islamic opposition to transhumanist thinking does not stem from a denial of the body, or this life as a whole. Muslims believe that Islam treads a fine balance between the extremes of body denial and the quest for bodily immortality. While transhumanists claim to be on the path towards enriching lives, the Islamic position might deem their focus to be hollow; focusing on prolonging life rather than giving it meaning, focusing on crudely improving the mind’s faculties rather than organically purifying it, and focusing on giving us more avenues of sensory perception, rather than better utilizing the senses that we have already been given. Dr. Nazir Khan makes a strong case for the existence of a form of transcending human limitations already present within the Islamic tradition. While one would not employ the term transhumanism due to the philosophical and ideological baggage of that term, there exists an idea within Islam regarding the improvement of one’s sensory perceptions, as well as one’s heart and mind, not altogether different to the transhumanist goal of improving these faculties. Khan writes that the enemy of improved sensory faculties is being in a state of heedlessness (*ghafla*). He quotes the great Islamic scholar, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), “If heedlessness dominates most of someone’s time, the tarnish on his heart grows in proportion. And if the heart is tarnished, it ceases to reflect things as they are…and if the tarnish builds up, blackens and envelops the heart completely, the heart’s reflective quality and perception will be totally lost…” This connection between one’s heart and the rest of one’s body is ever-present within the Islamic worldview, but seems to be completely ignored by secular approaches. Khan uses the famous hadith, when the Prophet ﷺ quoted the Almighty, to further back up this line of thought; “My servant continues to draw closer to Me with voluntary acts of worship until he becomes beloved to Me. And when I love him, I become the hearing with which he hears, and the seeing with which he sees” (Nawawi 38). He also quotes Imam al-Shawkani (d. 1250 H) who wrote, “God supports a servant’s faculties with His Divine Light such that the paths of guidance become intuitively obvious and the allure of worldly seductions vanishes.” Here we see what might be called Islamic transhumanism, characterized by the link between one’s devotion to the Almighty and how well one can perceive the world around them.[^54] While it proposes that an individual’s faculties can improve, it is a different form of improvement than that proposed by secular transhumanism, and the difference reflects the difference between the two worldviews. The Islamic endgame is a better hereafter and a more spiritually and morally enlightened human, and so improvements to the self brought about by “Islamic transhumanism” lead to an ease in performing good, by being better placed to perceive the world as it is. The atheistic endgame is a maximization of this life, in terms of length and merriment, and so this brand of transhumanism aims to increase human experience in this world. --- ## Discussion and Conclusion Both Islamic and secular transhumanists see the human being as a flawed creature. Muslims are taught in the Quran that there is a Divine reason for this. While humankind is seen as being created by God in an excellent mold, it is the nature of humans to engage in negative thoughts and actions. Transhumanists also point to the state of humanity as evidence of its need for interventions. While they agree on this point, there are significant differences in the ways in which they feel this should be addressed. Central to the Islamic view is the idea of struggling against one’s lower self, to overcome maladaptive impulses, so as to do justice to one’s higher self, and more crucially, to live in a way that is true to the path that has been ordained by the Creator. The transhumanist idea of fundamentally changing our creation so as to remove the possibility of committing errors does not readily find a home within Islamic thinking. The responsibility for improving one’s conduct is placed squarely on the individual; it is each individual who will ultimately be responsible for their own actions. In relation to this, one of the key questions that as yet remains unanswered by transhumanists is how they will strive for the elimination of wrongdoing without compromising free will. Free will and individual autonomy are key to the Islamic narrative. The fact that human beings commit errors is not seen as the result of a “half-baked” creation, as some transhumanists believe; rather, this is the fault of the individual, and to a lesser extent, can be the fault of the societies hosting the individual. It is not only Muslims who raise concerns regarding the violation of free will that is likely to ensue with transhumanism, as evidenced by the writings of scholars such as Habermas. Is it possible to formulate an “Islamic transhumanism”? It would be short-sighted to reject this possibility. Islamic scholars need to grapple with questions around the permissibility of intervening at a genetic level to incline an individual to act in a “better” way; if transhumanists were to offer the possibility of modifying a human’s genes so that they would be less likely to lie, would that be forbidden? Less controversially, certain transhumanist practices might find a home within Islamic biomedical sciences. Taking the example of improving memory: such an intervention might be deemed favorable so long as it brought about no harm. Philosophers such as Leon Kass have posited that improving faculty x will likely lead to a decline in faculty y,[^55] highlighting how even this relatively benign example needs much more deliberation. The example nonetheless serves to highlight that not all transhumanist practices touch on controversial issues such as free will and irreversible genetic alteration. Rephrasing the previous question a little, and asking, “Is there an Islamic transhumanism?,” one might argue that something similar already exists.  However, this is a transhumanism that is distinct from that of the contemporary secular branch of transhumanism. While the modern movement towards transhumanism aims to improve sensory perception by way of scientific intervention, Islamic transhumanism calls on believers to improve and purify their perceptions by way of God-consciousness, brought about increasing in remembrance of God. It might be argued that a Muslim’s transhumanist goals are directly tied to their devotion to God, rather than mastery of secular science. This difference embodies the fundamental difference between an Islamic transhumanism and secular transhumanism. --- ## Notes [^1]: Franklin, D. (2017). *Vanishing Point: The rise of the invisible computer.* The Guardian. Retrieved from: [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/26/vanishing-point-rise-invisible-computer](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/26/vanishing-point-rise-invisible-computer) [^2]: Clarke, A. C. (1961). *Profiles of the Future: An inquiry into the limits of the possible.* Gateway Publishing. Huntingdon. [^3]: Huxley, J. (1957). *New Bottles for New Wine.*  London. Chatto and Windus. [^4]: Bostrom, N. (2005). A History of Transhumanist Thought. *Journal of Evolution and Technology, 14* (1), 1-25. [^5]: Sandars, N. K. (1972). trans. *The Epic of Gilgamesh*. London. Penguin. [^6]: Bostrom, N. (2005). [^7]: Noeri, G., Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (2002). *Dialectic of Enlightenment.* Stanford University Press. California. [^8]: Bostrom, N. (2005). [^9]: Edgar, A. (2009). The hermeneutic challenge of genetic engineering: Habermas and the transhumanists. *Medical Health Care Philosophy, 12*(2), 157-67. [^10]: Bristow, W. (2010). The Enlightenment. *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.* Retrieved from: [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/) [^11]: Ibid. [^12]: Bacon, F. (1624). *The New Atlantis.* Original publisher not known. Since printed by Watchmaker Publishing. Oregon. [^13]: Markie, P. (2017) Rationalism vs. Empiricism, *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy* Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Retrieved from: [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/rationalism-empiricism/](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/rationalism-empiricism/). [^14]: Hughes, J., J. (2012. The Politics of Transhumanism. Zygon, 47 (4), 757-776. [^15]: Haldane, J., B., S. (1923). *Daedalus; or, Science and the Future.* A paper read to the Heretics, Cambridge, on February 4th, 1923. [^16]: Bostrom, N. (2005). [^17]: Russell, B. (1924). *Icarus*; or *The future of science*. London. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. ltd. [^18]: Huxley, A. (1932). *Brave New World.* Harper Brothers. New York. [^19]: Orwell, G. (1949). *Nineteen eighty-four, a novel.* New York. Harcourt. [^20]: Huxley, J. (1927). *Religion without revelation*. London. E. Benn. [^21]: Bostrom, N. Transhumanist Values. In *Ethical Issues for the 21st Century,* ed. Frederick Adams (2003). Philosophical Documentation Center Press., p. 4 [^22]: Ibid, p. 3 [^23]: Ibid, p. 3 [^24]: Ibid, p. 4 [^25]: Ibid, p. 7 [^26]: [https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf](https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf) [^27]: Ibid, p. 8 [^28]: Musa, F. (2008). Ethical Dimensions of Nanotechnology. *Tabah Foundation*, 6, 1-18. [^29]: Cox, D. (2013). *Is modafinil safe in the long run?*. The Guardian. Retrieved from: [https://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2013/may/31/is-modafinil-safe-in-long-term](https://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2013/may/31/is-modafinil-safe-in-long-term) [^30]: Hughes, J. J (2007). *The Compatibility of Religious and Transhumanist Views of Metaphysics, Suffering, Virtue and Transcendence in an Enhanced Future.* Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. [^31]: Goldberg, S. (2009). *Does the wall still stand? The implications for transhumanism for the separation of church and state.* Georgetown University Law Center. [^32]: Singler, B. (2017). Why is the language of transhumanists and religion so similar?. Retrieved from: [https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-language-of-transhumanists-and-religion-so-similar](https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-language-of-transhumanists-and-religion-so-similar) [^33]: Ali, A. (2017). The Structure of Scientific Productivity in Islamic Civilisation: Orientalists’ Fables. *Yaqeen Institute.* Retrieved from: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/asadullah/scientism/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/asadullah/scientism/) [^34]: Masud, I. (2015). Tafsir Surah al Rahman: The Ecosystem of Space, The Earth and Why Mankind Is Imbalanced. Sunnah Muakada. Retrieved from: [https://sunnahmuakada.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/tafsir-surah-al-rahman-the-ecosystem-of-space-the-earth-and-why-mankind-is-imbalanced/](https://sunnahmuakada.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/tafsir-surah-al-rahman-the-ecosystem-of-space-the-earth-and-why-mankind-is-imbalanced/) [^35]: Meah, J. (2016). What Islamic Ethics Have to Say in Relation to the Environment? Seekers Hub. Retrieved from: [http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2016/11/30/islamic-ethics-say-relation-environment/](http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2016/11/30/islamic-ethics-say-relation-environment/) [^36]: Entine, J. (2013). 2000+ Reasons Why GMOs Are Safe to Eat And Environmentally Sustainable. Forbes. Retrieved from: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/10/14/2000-reasons-why-gmos-are-safe-to-eat-and-environmentally-sustainable/amp/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/10/14/2000-reasons-why-gmos-are-safe-to-eat-and-environmentally-sustainable/amp/) [^37]: Aris, A. & Leblanc. (2011). Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. *Reproductive Technology, 31*, 1-6. [^38]: Smith, J., M. (2013). Can Genetically Engineered Foods Explain the Exploding Gluten Sensitivity? Institute of Responsible Technology. [^39]: Thongprakaisang, S., Thiantanawat, A., Rangkadilok, N., Suriyo, T., & Satayavivad, J. (2013). Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via estrogen receptors. *Food and Chemical Toxicology, 59,* 129-136. [^40]: De Araujo, J. S.A., Delgado, I. F., & Paumgartten, F. J. R. (2016). Glyphosate and adverse pregnancy outcomes: A systematic review of observational studies. *BMC Public Health, 16*, 472-484. [^41]: Adrian Del Caro. *Grounding the Nietzsche Rhetoric of Earth.* (De Gruyter 2004). p. 349. [^42]: Consider for instance the review of the atrocities of anti-theistic communist regimes of Soviet Russia, Maoist China, and Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. A review of some of the relevant historical details can be found in  Khan N. ‘Forever on Trial - Islam and the charge of Violence.’ Yaqeen Institute 2016. [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/forever-on-trial-islam-and-the-charge-of-violence/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/forever-on-trial-islam-and-the-charge-of-violence/) [^43]: Jami al-Tirmidhi 1770. [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/24/54](https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/24/54) [^44]: [http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=119765](http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page%3Dshowfatwa%26Option%3DFatwaId%26Id%3D119765) [^45]: Habermas, J. (2003). *The Future of Human Nature.* Cambridge. Polity Press. [^46]: Nietzsche, F., & Kaufman, W. (1995). *Thus spoke Zarathustra: A book for all and none.* New York. Modern Library. pp. 21 [^47]: Kass, L. (2002). *Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity.* San Francisco. Encounter Books. [^48]: Csikszentmihalyi, M.  (1990). *Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.* New York: Harper & Row. [^49]: Furber, M. (2008). Ethical dimensions of nanotechnology. *Tabah Foundation*, 6, 1-18. [^50]: World Health Organization (WHO). (2017). Neglected Tropical Diseases. Retrieved from: [http://www.who.int/neglected\_diseases/diseases/en/](http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/en/) [^51]: Huxley, A. (1974). *Texts and Pretexts (the collected works of Aldous Huxley)*. London. Chatto & Windus [^52]: Bukhari – 170. [^53]: Murad, A. H. (2010). Our Role – Exclusive. Retrieved from [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_bJGDbGcPm4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D_bJGDbGcPm4) [^54]: Khan, N. M. (2015). Dhikr – Awakening from Illusion. *Spiritual Perception: Academic Answers to Spiritual Questions.* Retrieved from: [http://spiritualperception.org/dhikr-awakening-from-illusion/](http://spiritualperception.org/dhikr-awakening-from-illusion/) [^55]: Kass, L. (2003). Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls. *The New Atlantis,* 1, 9-28. ## Summary # Transhumanism and the Islamic Worldview: A Scholarly Reflection In the year 1965, the American scientist Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors within a dense integrated circuit would double at regular intervals, a projection that has since come to describe the exponential acceleration of scientific discovery and technological change as a whole. This rapid advancement has pushed boundaries at unprecedented speed, such that the writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke (d. 2008) once remarked that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It is against this backdrop that transhumanism—a term coined by the British biologist Julian Huxley (d. 1975) in 1927—has emerged, referring to the improvement of the quality and length of human life through biotechnological interventions such as nanotechnology, cybernetics, pharmacology, and gene therapy. Some scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, regard transhumanism as among the greatest challenges brought about by modernity, for it seeks to alter humankind at its most fundamental level, raising profound questions of theology, philosophy, ethics, and more. What sets the tone for this inquiry is a striking parallel drawn from the story of Adam, who was misled by the devil in part through the promise that eating from the forbidden tree would grant him immortality: "Your Lord did not forbid you this tree except that you become angels or become of the immortals" (cf. Quran 7:20). Immortality is, indeed, very much a part of the transhumanist agenda, and the central question posed here concerns the challenges inherent in attempting to reconcile Islam with transhumanism. The roots of transhumanist aspiration reach far back into human history. As the philosopher Nick Bostrom recounts in "A History of Transhumanist Thought," the Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh preserves perhaps the earliest written account of a man seeking immortality, though by magical rather than scientific means. Greek mythology likewise offers precursors, from Prometheus who stole fire for humanity, to Daedalus who sought to improve human capabilities through engineering, whose son Icarus perished from overambition. Yet it was the European Enlightenment, with its revolutions in science, politics, and philosophy—and the rise of secularism at the expense of the Church—that is often credited with birthing transhumanist philosophy proper. Sir Francis Bacon (d. 1626) imagined in his *New Atlantis* a utopian island where human suffering had been removed through the perfection of scientific knowledge. Such optimism, however, must be tempered by the sobering reality that science has also produced the nuclear bomb, germ warfare, and carcinogenic substances. Following the publication of Charles Darwin's (d. 1882) *Origin of Species* in 1859, and J. B. S. Haldane's (d. 1964) essay *Daedalus; or, Science and the Future* in 1923, transhumanist goals appeared increasingly attainable, though writers such as Bertrand Russell (d. 1970), Aldous Huxley (d. 1963), and George Orwell (d. 1950) offered darker, dystopian warnings. Bostrom, one of the movement's foremost proponents, argues that transhumanism can radically extend human health, eradicate disease, eliminate suffering, and augment intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities, viewing nature as "a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning" that humanity must improve. This worldview stands in stark contrast to the Islamic conviction that "We have indeed created humankind in the best of molds" (Quran 95:4). It would be incorrect to interpret this verse as opposing the advancement of humanity, for the Quran itself notes that Allah has eased human life by permitting the cultivation of nature: "And the grazing livestock He has created for you; in them is warmth and numerous benefits… And they carry your loads to a land you could not have reached except with difficulty" (Quran 16:5–7). Yet there is considerable distance between cultivating livestock and altering the very building blocks of human beings. The applied sciences of transhumanism—nanotechnology, cybernetics (as tested by the engineer Kevin Warwick upon himself), pharmacology (such as the "smart drug" Modafinil), and gene therapy producing so-called "designer babies"—are all in relatively early stages, yet demand timely answers from Muslim scholars lest a wedge be driven between them and the laity. Though many transhumanists identify as atheists, with one survey reporting over seventy-five percent doing so, a case can be made that transhumanism itself resembles a religion. The academic Steven Goldberg (d. 2010) argued that it addresses fundamental and ultimate questions and is comprehensive, concluding it dishonest to treat its teachings as mere neutral science. Beth Singler of the Faraday Institute noted parallels including "a god-like being of infinite knowledge," an escape from the flesh through mind-uploading, an "end of days," and even prophets—concluding that "religious ideas are at work in the narratives of those discussing… a future shaped by AI." Both transhumanism and the Abrahamic faiths pursue a utopia, though the former seeks it upon the earth and the latter in the next life. Islam is by no means opposed to science; indeed, the Quran commands the pursuit of knowledge: "Are those who have knowledge and those who have no knowledge alike?" (Quran 39:9). Yet the Muslim scientist's work is governed by *taqwa* (God-consciousness) and derives its ethics from revelation, which sets it apart from the secular scientist. A most pertinent verse is found in Surah al-Rahman: "And the heaven He raised and imposed the balance. That you not transgress within the balance… and do not make deficient the balance" (Quran 55:7–9). While the classical exegetes al-Jalalayn, Ibn Kathir, and Mawdudi understood this as the balance of justice, some contemporary authors have extended it to the balance within nature itself, the two meanings being complementary. The visible consequences of human imbalance—global warming, species extinction, diminishing resources—illustrate this, as does the Quranic warning: "And when they are told, 'Do not spread corruption on earth,' they answer, 'We are but improving things!' Verily, it is they who are spreading corruption but they perceive it not" (Quran 2:11–12). Studies linking genetically modified organisms to various ailments show that the matter of even modifying plants and animals remains unsettled, let alone humans. Beyond warning of harm, these verses call to intellectual humility. Transhumanism's aspiration for superhuman prowess recalls the delusion of Pharaoh, who declared, "O Chiefs! No God do I know for you but myself" (Quran 28:38) and "I am your Lord, Most High" (Quran 79:24), whom Moses was commanded to confront: "Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed" (Quran 20:24). A more direct warning is found in the words of Iblis: "I will order them… to deface the fair nature created by Allah… Whoever, forsaking Allah, takes Satan for a friend, hath of a surety suffered a loss that is manifest" (Quran 4:119). Here arises a distinction: corrective procedures are generally encouraged, as when the Prophet ﷺ instructed a companion whose nose was severed in battle to obtain a nose of gold, and contemporary scholars have permitted corrective laser eye surgery. Transhumanist procedures, however, seek not to correct a defect but to augment a healthy creation deemed "half-baked." The philosopher Jürgen Habermas objects to instrumentalizing human beings and violating their autonomy, concerns that resonate with Islamic teaching, for "no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another" (Quran 35:18) and "no father will avail his son" (Quran 31:33). Islam does not oppose eradicating undesirable behavior, but calls to it through *jihad al-nafs*, the struggle against oneself, for the capacity to choose evil is integral to the divine design of free will—not a flaw. The transhumanist dream of a frictionless existence would leave life bereft of purpose; as Leon Kass warned, "in his moment of triumph, Promethean man will become a contented cow," an echo of Nietzsche's Last Men, while Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's notion of "flow" affirms that humans flourish through challenge. Man is created "in the best of stature" (Quran 95:4), yet returned "to the lowest of the low" (Quran 95:5) save "those who believe and do righteous deeds" (Quran 95:6); "he has succeeded who purifies it, and he has failed who instills it with corruption" (Quran 91:9–10). When the angels questioned the creation of a being capable of corruption, Allah replied, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know" (Quran 2:30). The claim that transhumanism will eradicate inequality appears deeply mistaken. Musa Furber warns of a "nano divide" between nations, and as Aldous Huxley observed, "Science in itself is morally neutral; it becomes good or evil according as it is applied." Present practice reveals transhumanism to be the playground of the wealthy, with figures such as Elon Musk commanding vast fortunes while cryogenic freezing demands sums beyond the reach of most. This concentration of wealth contradicts the Quranic instruction that wealth "not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you" (Quran 59:7). Regarding immortality, while eternal life is a goal shared by the faithful, seeking it in this world (*dunya*) is foreign to the Muslim mind, for success lies in departing this life through death having lived righteously. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Be in the world as if you were a stranger or a traveler… Take from your health before your sickness and your life before your death." Yet Islam is not body-denying; as Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad notes, it grants the body its due, requiring it to be cleansed, nourished with what is *halal* and *tayyib*, and honored even after death. Dr. Nazir Khan identifies within the tradition a form of transcending human limitations, wherein the enemy of improved perception is heedlessness (*ghafla*). He cites Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) on the tarnishing of the heart, the sacred hadith that "when I love him, I become the hearing with which he hears, and the seeing with which he sees" (Nawawi 38), and Imam al-Shawkani (d. 1250 H) on the divine light supporting the servant's faculties. This "Islamic transhumanism" improves perception through God-consciousness, aiming at a better hereafter and a morally enlightened soul, rather than the secular maximization of worldly experience. In conclusion, both Islamic and secular thinkers regard the human as flawed, yet they diverge sharply in remedy. Central to Islam is the struggle against the lower self, with responsibility placed squarely upon the individual, who alone will answer for his deeds. A key question transhumanists have not answered is how wrongdoing might be eliminated without compromising free will, a concern raised even by non-Muslims such as Habermas. It would be short-sighted to reject outright the possibility of an "Islamic transhumanism," for scholars must grapple with novel questions—such as whether genetic intervention to incline a person toward truthfulness would be forbidden, or whether benign enhancements like improved memory might be permitted so long as they cause no harm, though Kass's warning that improving one faculty may diminish another calls for deliberation. If such a transhumanism exists, it is one distinct from the secular movement: where the latter improves perception through scientific mastery, the former calls the believer to purify his perceptions through devotion to God and the remembrance of Him—and therein lies the fundamental difference between the two. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-be-a-mindful-muslim-an-exercise-in-islamic-meditation # How to be a Mindful Muslim: An Exercise in Islamic Meditation **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Faith in the Time of COVID-19, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** November 21, 2017 **Updated:** August 8, 2025 ## Introduction How can we have more control over our thoughts in this time of information overload and anxiety? Exercising mindfulness, or *muraqabah,* can help discipline our minds in order to handle the current situation and focus on our connection with Allah. *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* Modern life involves a daily bustle of noise, distraction, and information overload. Our senses are constantly stimulated from every direction to the point that a simple moment of quiet stillness seems impossible for some of us. This continuous agitation hinders us from getting the most out of each moment, subtracting from the quality of our prayers and our ability to remember Allah. We all know that we need more presence in prayer, more control over our wandering minds and desires. But what exactly can we do to achieve this? How can we become more mindful in all aspects of our lives, spiritual and temporal? That is where the practice of *exercising mindfulness,* in the Islamic context of *muraqabah*, can help train our minds to become more disciplined and can thereby enhance our regular worship and daily activities. This article examines the virtues of *mindfulness* and *silence* in the Islamic tradition. It properly conceptualizes meditation in Islam and presents a practical exercise for daily mindfulness that can help us cultivate *muraqabah* with Allah and our inner self. --- ## The Virtue of Mindfulness Mindfulness linguistically is defined as “the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something,” and more specifically, “A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”[^1] In the context of modern psychology, mindfulness is “a tool we can use to examine conceptual frameworks.”[^2] By watching closely how we think and feel, we gain the ability to alter our conceptual frameworks, or thought patterns, for our own benefit. When we are in a state of unmindfulness, we react to thoughts and emotions in knee-jerk fashion and let them lead us wherever they wish. By contrast, cultivating a state of mindfulness gives us the ability to follow or not follow our thoughts as we choose. Put differently, mindfulness is a form of *metacognition* (“awareness of one’s awareness”), a self-awareness of what is really going on inside one’s mind and heart. It is a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of psychologists and health professionals, resulting in hundreds of scientific papers, studies, and books on mindfulness every year. Cultivating mindfulness, even in a non-religious or neutral context, has been demonstrated to provide measurable health and wellness benefits. According to the American Psychological Association, numerous peer-reviewed studies show that mindfulness practices (such as relaxation or meditation) help to reduce stress, boost memory, enhance focus and concentration, decrease emotional reactivity, and improve personal relationships. Mindfulness practices also promote empathy and compassion and are effectively used in clinical cognitive therapy.[^3] The burgeoning field of mindfulness, in science and spiritual practice, is an exciting development that deserves critical investigation. In the Islamic context, mindfulness is the virtue of *muraqabah,* a word which is derived from the root meaning “to watch, observe, regard attentively.”[^4] Already we can see the close etymological and linguistic proximity between “mindfulness” and *muraqabah*. As a technical spiritual term, it is defined as “the constant knowledge of the servant and conviction in the supervision of the Truth, glory be to Him, over one’s outward and inward states.”[^5] That is, a Muslim in a state of *muraqabah* is in continuous full knowledge that Allah is Aware of him or her, inwardly and outwardly. It is a complete state of vigilant self-awareness in one’s relationship with Allah in heart, mind, and body. The basis of *muraqabah* is our knowledge that Allah is always watching us at all times and, as a consequence, we develop greater attention and care for our own actions, thoughts, feelings, and inner states of being. As Allah said, “Remember that God knows what is in your souls, so be mindful of Him.”[^6] Ibn Al-Qayyim and Al-Ghazali both have chapters in their books about the merits and realities of *muraqabah*.[^7] And it is not simply a recommended character trait, but rather it is the realization of *the supreme character trait*, spiritual excellence (*al-ihsan*). As the Prophet ﷺ defined in the famous *hadith* of Gabriel, spiritual excellence “is to worship Allah as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He certainly sees you.”[^8] In other words, spiritual excellence is to be completely aware and mindful of Allah at all times—the very peak of faith. According to Sheikh Al-Tuwayjiri, > *Spiritual excellence is the essence of faith, its spirit, and its perfection by perfecting presence (al-hudur) with Allah Almighty, and mindfulness of Him (muraqabatihi), encompassing fear of Him, love of Him, knowledge of Him, turning to Him, and sincerity to Him*.[^9] The fruit of *muraqabah*, aside from the reward of eternal Paradise in the Hereafter, is a state of tranquil calm leading to contentment in this life, “The means leading to stillness *(al-sakinah*) are produced by the servant’s acquisition of *muraqabah* for his Lord, glorious and exalted is He, to the point that it is as if he can see Him.” All positive spiritual and mental states derive from it, “for *muraqabah* is the foundation of all the deeds of the heart.”[^10] *Muraqabah* is actually the fulfillment of worshiping Allah according to a proper understanding of the beautiful names that convey His perfect knowledge. Ibn Al-Qayyim concludes his chapter on *muraqabah*, writing, > *Muraqabah is to be devoted to the names of the Watcher (Al-Raqib), the Guardian (Al-Hafith), the Knowing (Al-‘Alim), the Hearing (Al-Sami’), the Seeing (Al-Basir). Thus, whoever understands these names and is devoted to fulfilling them will acquire muraqabah.*[^11] *Muraqabah* necessarily includes mindfulness of one’s own intentions, thoughts, emotions, and other inner states. Al-Murta’ish said, “*Muraqabah* is observation of one’s innermost being (*al-sirr*), to be aware of the hidden with every moment and utterance.”[^12] In every word we speak and in every thought that we choose to pursue, we should be aware of our thought patterns and emotional states in order to react to our inner experiences in the best manner. As put by Ibn al-Qayyim, maintenance of inward *muraqabah* is “by guarding thoughts, intentions, and inward movements… This is the reality of the pure heart (*al-qalb al-salim*), by which no one is saved but by coming to Allah with it. This itself is the reality of the inner refinement (*tajrid*) of the righteous, the devoted, and the God-conscious. Every inner refinement besides this is deficient.”[^13] To summarize, according to Sheikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, *muraqabah* is realized in four aspects: 1.           Knowledge of Allah Almighty. 2.           Knowledge of the enemy of Allah, Iblis (Satan). 3.           Knowledge of your soul’s capacity to suggest evil. 4.           Knowledge of deeds to be done for the sake of Allah.[^14] It is this third aspect—awareness of one’s own heart and mind—that exercising mindfulness within an Islamic framework can help us achieve, “To know which things characterize (the self), what it wants, what it calls to, and what it commands.”[^15] This type of exercise is a method of training the mind to identify the way thoughts and feelings behave inside us, with the aim of exerting more control over them and thereby enriching our mental and spiritual well-being. Non-religious or neutral mindfulness practices advocated by therapeutic psychologists focus on this third aspect, without grounding it in a theological worldview, to give it a wider appeal to the diversity of their patient populations and to pluralistic society at large. Sometimes these are practices that originated in Buddhist or Hindu traditions but have been secularized from their religious ontological premises. This non-religious approach, by itself, still produces health and wellness benefits in people’s lives. It will sharpen the mind, no doubt, but the mind is a tool that can be used for good and evil. Neutral mindfulness practices can be potentially utilized for evil by people ungrounded in an ethical worldview. Mental clarity gained from mindfulness may be used by a predator aiming to deceive or harm others. Of course, such would be an abuse of mindfulness; all the more reason to approach the topic critically according to Islam’s guidance. For Muslims, mindfulness of the inner life is simply one aspect—albeit a critical and often neglected one—within the greater framework of *muraqabah*. Altogether, Islamic mindfulness involves a comprehensive awareness of the basics of Islamic creed, law, ethics, and of one’s own subtle psychological make-up. To begin putting these insights into practice, we still need to know why it is so important to learn to enjoy *simply being present in silence*, without distraction or noise from the world, our own words, or our inner monologues. --- ## The Virtue of Silence and Seclusion The famous proverb says, “Silence is golden.”[^16] The righteous predecessors understood that silence (*al-samt*) was the preferred default state of being, according to the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak goodness or remain silent.”[^17] Whatever words come out of our mouth should be true and beneficial; otherwise we should remain quiet. If we have nothing good to say, we should not say anything at all. Certainly, there are times when we definitely should speak up, to support a good cause or to oppose an evil deed. The Prophet ﷺ said, “May Allah have mercy on a person who spoke rightly and was rewarded, or who was quiet and remained safe.”[^18] Speech that is neutral, neither benefitting nor harming, is still permissible, but for spiritual and moral reasons it is better to become accustomed to silence. Silence has an important effect on our hearts and character, because a habit of bad or frivolous speech results in an impure heart. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The faith of a servant is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart is not upright until his tongue is upright.”[^19] The heart and tongue are inextricably linked, so to guard our speech is to also guard our hearts. Towards this end, learning to not just tolerate, but enjoy, silence is an aspect of positive character development. The Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Dharr (ra), “You must have good character and observe long periods of silence (*tuli al-samt*). By the one in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, no one can behave with deeds more beloved to Allah than these two.”[^20] Silence is also a means to help us defeat the devil and his satanic whisperings which come in the form of evil thoughts. The Prophet ﷺ said, “You must observe long periods of silence, for it will drive away Satan and help you in the matter of your religion.”[^21] And Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri (ra) said, “You must be silent except in the truth, for by it you will defeat Satan.”[^22] Moreover, silent reflection is the sign of a wise person, with the Prophet ﷺ as the leading example. Simak said to Jabir ibn Samrah (ra), “Have you sat with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” Jabir said, “Yes, he would observe silence for long periods of time and laugh little.”[^23] Abu al-Darda’ (ra) said, “Silence is a form of wisdom, yet few people practice it.” Wahb ibn Munabbih said, “The doctors agreed that the head of medicine is diet, and the wise ones agreed that the head of wisdom is silence.”[^24] Silence of this nature is a skill to be acquired, as Abu al-Dhayyal said, “Learn to be silent.”[^25] Developing a talent and love for silence is likewise an integral part of enhancing our prayers and acts of worship. Sufyan al-Thawri said, “It is said that observing long periods of silence is the key to worship.”[^26] Our practice of silent mindfulness will necessarily lead to the enhancement of our prayers and other acts of worship. Silence is related to *muraqabah* in that observing silence in seclusion for a regular period of time cultivates *presence*, the mind’s quiet awareness of here and now. Abu Bakr al-Farisi was asked about the silence of one’s innermost being (*samt al-sirr*) and he said, “It is to abandon preoccupation with the past and the future.”[^27] When in silent reflection or mindfulness exercise, we have time to simply *be present in the moment* without worrying about what is past or future or elsewhere in creation. It is an opportunity to nourish presence before Allah (*al-hudur*), the same type of presence that we are required to have in ritual prayer. Certainly there is an appropriate time to think about the past or the future—to learn from our mistakes, to plan action, to live daily life, to reflect on our fate. The point of learning to be present in silence is to limit our thoughts on the past or future only to what is necessary and beneficial. Seclusion for worship is the close companion of silence; they go hand-in-hand. Those who make a regular habit of quietly worshiping and remembering Allah alone are among the most rewarded in the Hereafter. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Those in seclusion (*al-mufarridun*) have raced ahead.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, who are those in seclusion?” The Prophet said, “They are men and women who remember Allah often.”[^28] Al-Munawi explains this *hadith*, saying, “Those in seclusion are those who seek solitude and they withdraw from people to be alone and free to worship, as if one sets himself apart to be devoted to Allah.”[^29] Seclusion, properly practiced, is ultimately a cure for bad feelings in the heart, as Ibn al-Qayyim said, “In the heart are disorders that cannot be remedied but by responding to Allah, in it is a desolate feeling that cannot be removed but by intimacy with Him in solitude (*khalwah*).”[^30] Imagine for a moment how much better our life situation would be if we could sit silently alone in our room, *content with simply being in front of Allah*. No need for smartphones, or games, or television, or electronics, or addictions, or distractions. Would you be calmer, happier, and more satisfied? Blaise Pascal, the French theologian and scientist, remarked, > *I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. A man who has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with pleasure at home, would not leave it to go to sea or to besiege a town*.[^31] Indeed, were every person disciplined enough to enjoy the inner life without an incessant desire for external stimulation, the world would be a much better place for us all. Therefore, how can we learn to enjoy silence and thereby increase our mindfulness of Allah and our own inner states of being? Islam has a profound, and perhaps forgotten, tradition of meditation designed to help us do so. --- ## Meditation in Islam Meditation is defined as “continued or extended thought, reflection… devout religious contemplation or spiritual introspection,” being derived from the Latin *meditatio* (“thinking over”).[^32] As a general term, meditation linguistically refers to any and all deliberate and directed mental activities. In therapeutic or spiritual practice, different kinds of meditation have been scientifically proven to achieve mindfulness and its associated wellness in everyday life. According to the *Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology*, “Meditation, regardless of the particular form, is engaged to lead to post-meditative mindfulness.”[^33] Meditation can be done in many ways and for many purposes. For some, it is simply a means of calming relaxation and stress relief, a way of slowing down their thoughts. Others meditate by intensely contemplating an idea or focusing their attention on God or something else. Some Muslims are understandably hesitant or skeptical about the word “meditation,” because there are so many different types of meditation, some of which are specifically associated with religious beliefs and practices that contradict Islam. The fact of the matter, however, is that our righteous predecessors practiced several forms of meditation, in the purely linguistic sense of the word, and through these meditations they achieved advanced spiritual states and enhanced their acts of worship, prayer, and remembrance. The key to reviving their practices is to examine closely how they conceptualized meditation and to emulate their practices within the framework of Islamic creed, worship, ethics, and etiquette. We can even incorporate modern insights from psychology and mindfulness practitioners as long as we remain grounded in Islamic tradition, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it then he has a right to it.”[^34] Ritual prayer (*salah*) in modern times has been enhanced and aided by audio equipment, while in the classical period the science of architecture was utilized to enhance and aid the acoustics of reciting the Qur'an. None of these are blameworthy religious innovations (*bid’ah*) because they do nothing to alter Islamic creed, worship, or ethics. In a similar manner, modern insights into mindfulness, and specifically mindfulness exercises, can be helpful tools to enhance prayer and spirituality. Ibn Al-Qayyim has provided one of the best and most concise explanations of the many meanings of “meditation” in Islam. He states that an integral part of our preparation for the Hereafter is by “reflecting (*tafakkur*), remembering (*tadhakkur*), examining (*nathr*), meditating (*ta’amul*), contemplating (*i’tibar*), deliberating (*tadabbur*), and pondering (*istibsar*).” Each of these words represents different shades of mental activity that can be considered forms of meditation. There is considerable overlap in meaning among all of them, but there are subtle differences as well. Ibn Al-Qayyim continues: > *It is called ‘reflection’ because in that is the utilization of thought and its procurement during it. It is called ‘remembrance’ because it is the fetching of knowledge which must be considered after being distracted or absent from it… It is called ‘meditation’ because it is repeatedly examining again and again until it becomes evident and uncovered in one’s heart. It is called ‘contemplation’—taking lessons—because one takes a lesson from it to apply elsewhere… It is called ‘deliberation’ because it is examining the conclusion of matters, their endings and consequences, and deliberating on them*.[^35] All of these types of Islamic meditation involve some form of remembering or awareness of Allah, the purpose of which is to purify the heart of evil feelings and the mind from evil thoughts. Every human soul is like a mirror that is polished by mindfulness or tarnished by unmindfulness. Al-Ghazali writes: > *The heart is in the position of a mirror that is surrounded by influential matters and these traits proceed to the heart. As for praiseworthy traits that we have mentioned, they will polish the mirror of the heart and increase it in brilliance, light, and radiance until the clarity of truth shines from within it and the reality of the matter sought in religion is unveiled.*[^36] By cultivating the remembrance and *muraqabah* of Allah through various mental exercises and activities, we effectively “polish” our hearts and unveil the virtuous nature of the soul (*al-nafs al-rabbaniyyah*), which is the pure spiritual state that Allah has created us to dwell in.[^37] Abu al-Darda (ra) said, “Verily, everything has a polish and the polish of the heart is the remembrance of Allah Almighty.”[^38] And Ibn al-Qayyim writes, > *The heart is tarnished by two matters: unmindfulness (al-ghaflah) and sin. And it is polished by two matters: seeking forgiveness and the remembrance of Allah*.[^39] For example, reflecting upon the blessings of Allah is an excellent act of worship and mental activity (meditation) that produces gratitude in the heart and expels ingratitude from it. Umar ibn Abdul Aziz said, “Speaking in remembrance of Allah Almighty is good, and thinking about the blessings of Allah is the best act of worship.”[^40] Remembering Allah with outward words is a virtue, to be sure, but thinking of our blessings is even better because it necessarily occurs inwardly; we are not always fully mindful of the audible words we speak, even when they are good words. In addition, thinking about the Hereafter in a balanced and informed manner ought to lead to positive psychological outcomes, contentment with one’s place in the world and rejection of materialism. Abu Sulaiman said, > *Thought upon the world is a veil over the Hereafter and a punishment for people. Thought upon the Hereafter produces wisdom and life in the heart. Whoever looks to the world as his protector will come to accept its delusions.*[^41] On the other hand, thinking about the world and its displeasures more often than is necessary will lead to unhappiness and an impure heart. A person cannot think about Allah and the world at the same time; it is one or the other. Too much unnecessary thought upon the world weakens our overall mindfulness, particularly by diminishing the hope in Allah that encourages us to do good deeds and the fear of Allah that compels us to avoid sins. Al-Nasrabadhi said, “Hope motivates you to acts of obedience and fear distances you from acts of disobedience, and *muraqabah* leads to pathways of truth.”[^42] Accordingly, we should make a quiet time for reflection upon Allah and the Hereafter every day, as a means of increasing our mindfulness of His presence, gratitude for His many favors, and to prepare for the life to come. Reading the Qur'an itself, which has been named “the Remembrance” (*Al-Dhikr*), is one of the most powerful and rewarding forms of meditation, as Allah said, “This is a blessed Scripture, which We have sent down to you, so that people may think about its messages and those with understanding take heed.”[^43] Al-Ghazali recommends for us to engage in four distinct daily spiritual practices *(al-watha’if al-arba’ah*): supplication (*dua*’), remembrance (*dhikr*), recitation of the Qur'an (*qira’at*), and contemplation (*fikr*).[^44] The variety of these acts of worship will prevent a worshiper from becoming too bored with a single act, while also nourishing the heart and mind in different and complementary ways. Just as a balanced diet relies on different food groups for nutrition, a balanced spiritual life depends upon different acts of worship and meditations for complete sustenance. One of the spiritual practices described by Al-Ghazali is quite similar to modern mindfulness practices but within an Islamic theological worldview. For him, it was simply another form of *dhikr*. The worshiper should sit in seclusion, empty their heart of all concerns, and “not scatter his thoughts with the recitation of the Qur'an, nor pondering over its explanation, nor with books of *hadith*, nor anything else; rather, he strives to let no thought enter his mind besides Allah the Exalted.” The worshiper does so to instill “presence of the heart” until “his heart is diligent in remembrance.” Consequently, Al-Ghazali continues: > *If his intentions are true, his concerns are in order, and his diligence is improved, then he will not gravitate to his base desires and will not be preoccupied with idle thoughts related to the world. The reality of the Truth will shine in his heart*.[^45] Each form of Islamic meditation has its place and function, and often they overlap and blend together. For the purposes of attaining mindful self-awareness, as discussed, we are interested in the act of inward *ta’amul*, to continuously examine and observe our inner life in silent seclusion until the realities of our mental and emotional states (“conceptual frameworks”) become clear to us. This is a specific technique for cultivating awareness of our inner states, to notice our thoughts bubbling to the surface at their very inception rather than being taken away on a train of thought before we even know what happened. To become more mindful of what is happening within us, we need to understand how our thoughts progress through stages into actions. According to Al-Suyuti, the first stage of a thought is *al-hajis*, a sudden and fleeting thought that comes and goes before one can consider it. We may not even notice it was there at all. The second stage is *al-khatir*, a thought that we give attention and consideration. At this stage we have a choice to continue down this train of thought or to ignore it. The third stage is *hadith al-nafs*, our inner dialogue or “talking of the self” as we pursue the thought and seriously consider acting upon it. The final stages are *al-ham* and *al-‘azm*, the decision and determination to put the thought into action.[^46] Of course, when thoughts are good, we can and should pursue them. The trouble comes from bad thoughts. How do we learn to ignore them, especially when they feel at times so powerful and overwhelming? Mindfulness exercise in this context is not about suppressing thoughts, but rather simply becoming aware of them and learning to let them pass. As we become more cognizant of our thoughts, we begin to perceive a distance between ourselves and our thoughts. We disassociate and disidentify ourselves from our thoughts; our involuntary thoughts are just “happenings” (*hadath*) and do not necessarily reflect who we are. Initial thoughts (*al-hajis*) can originate involuntarily from the self, as Allah said, “We created man—We know what his soul whispers to him.”[^47] Thoughts also originate from an external source, the whisperings (*al-waswasah*) of a devil or an angel. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Verily, Satan has influence with the son of Adam and the angel has influence. As for the influence of Satan, he promises evil and denies the truth. As for the influence of the angel, he promises goodness and affirms the truth. Whoever finds this goodness, let him know that it is from Allah and let him praise Allah. Whoever finds something else, let him seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan*.[^48] Then the Prophet ﷺ recited the verse, “Satan threatens you with the prospect of poverty and commands you to do foul deeds; God promises you His forgiveness and abundance.”[^49] No matter where thoughts originate, involuntarily from the subconscious self or externally from angelic or satanic suggestions, mindfulness teaches us to better perceive the zone between us and thoughts as they happen and before they progress into voluntary, conscious thoughts. We are not bad people for having bad thoughts; we all have bad thoughts no matter how righteous we are. It is harmful and counterproductive to burden ourselves with guilt because we experience bad thoughts. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, Allah has pardoned my nation for their bad thoughts within themselves as long as they do not speak of them or act upon them.”[^50] We are only held accountable for our thoughts if we consciously choose to act upon them. By training ourselves to become more aware of thoughts, this gives us some space between ourselves and our thoughts so that we have time to react properly, to ignore what is bad and to pursue what is good. Consider bad thoughts from Satan or your ego as if they were a dog who is ultimately under the control of Allah. Ibn Taymiyyah said, “If the shepherd’s dog troubles you, do not busy yourself warring and defending against it. You must appeal to the shepherd to direct the dog away from you.”[^51] Do not try to combat evil thoughts by engaging them or trying to suppress them. Instead, turn your attention back to mindfulness and remembrance, as Allah said, “If Satan should prompt you to do something, seek refuge with God.”[^52] This is why exerting great effort to suppress a bad thought—and thereby giving it more attention than it deserves—often ends up backfiring and making things worse. We end up talking to ourselves about the evil thought (“I’m so bad for thinking that!” “I shouldn’t think like that!”) which then feeds right back into it and gives it oxygen to keep it alive. For another point of view, consider your mind as if it were a still pond and your thoughts are ripples and waves in this pond. We cultivate mindfulness by becoming aware of the ripples and learning to ignore them or engage them at will. A bad thought is like a ripple in a pond. If you touch it, or engage it, it only makes the waves stronger. You cannot beat back the waves with a club; you must learn to let them float away. Through silent mindfulness exercise, we let the waves and ripples simply dissipate. Notice them, acknowledge them, and let them pass on their own as you direct yourself back towards *muraqabah* with Allah. This is the practice of mindfulness exercise, in a nutshell. Mindfulness exercise is not about experiencing spiritual ecstasy, even though sometimes the practice leads to pleasurable feelings. Many people attempt to meditate or engage in mindfulness practices only because they want to feel a spiritual high, but the feeling is not the point. It is about practice—training (*riyadah*)—in the same way we exercise our bodies; sometimes exercise feels good, an added bonus for sure, but the main purpose is to accumulate health and strength. Similarly, mindfulness exercise is a means of accumulating mental strength and, in conjunction with an Islamic framework, spiritual strength. Mindfulness exercise is not about supplanting our regular primary acts of worship either. Among other benefits, it functions as a type of preparation for the main acts of worship, similar to how some Muslims prepare for Ramadan by eating less on non-fasting days.[^53] Think of mindfulness exercise like basketball practice and ritual prayer (*salah*) like the basketball game; we strengthen our *muraqabah* through exercise and practice so that when we put *muraqabah* into action, in *salah*, we are in top mental and spiritual shape. The *salah* is the performance, the mindfulness exercise is the rehearsal. In the following section, we present an easy way to practice daily mindfulness exercise in an Islamic context. To be sure, there is no specific prescribed method of mindfulness exercise in Islam like there is for the daily ritual prayers. This exercise is a voluntary activity that complements the obligatory acts of worship, although it incorporates acts of worship including remembrances (*dhikr*) and supplications (*dua*’). Regular practitioners will find that they can build upon their exercise, to adapt and customize it to their particular preferences, in the same way individuals can use common fitness principles to design their own personal routine in the gym. Every human soul and situation is different—there is no one-size-fits-all way to engage in mindfulness exercise—so each person has to discover what works best for them. ### Mindfulness Exercise in Islam To begin, choose a time of the day when you can be in a quiet place alone. Some Muslims prefer the time before the dawn prayer (*fajr*) or another prayer, before or after work, at lunch break, or even before bed. A quick exercise right before prayer is particularly beneficial as mental preparation for prayer. It is good to pick a regular time for daily exercise, but it can be done at any time of the day to suit your schedule. It can also be done for as long as you want, an hour or even five minutes a day. Beginners who want to advance their practice should commit to at least five minutes every day, to solidify it as a long-term habit, and gradually increase it over time as they see fit. As you begin to see the cumulative positive effects of the practice, and learn to enjoy silence and stillness and simply being present, you may eventually want to do the exercise for longer. Next, choose a posture that you find comfortable. You can sit up in a chair, on a comfy cushion, or even laying on your side or back in bed, as Allah praises those “who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down.”[^54] The aim is to find a posture that is relaxing and comfortable, but not so relaxing that you will fall asleep. As a side note, meditative remembrance of Allah in another context—when laying down for sleep—can help ease us into sleep. Ibn Al-Qayyim writes, “The Prophet ﷺ would sleep when it was warranted, upon his right side and remembering Allah until sleep overtook his eyes.”[^55] Now, begin by focusing awareness on your natural breathing. Progressively relax the muscle tension throughout your body: your arms, your legs, your core, your jaw. You can close your eyes or simply lower them. As you start with relaxed breathing, feel for a sense of your state of heart and mind in this moment. What are you feeling? What are you thinking? Is your mind racing or calm? Try to settle your mind by bringing awareness to your natural, relaxed breathing, simply feeling the life and energy Allah gave you throughout your body. Feel a deep sense of gratitude to Allah for your breath, your living and being in this moment. As you settle into stillness within your inner space, begin to perceive the feeling of *muraqabah* with Allah. Know and *feel* that He is watching you, “He is with you wherever you are.”[^56] He knows everything going on inside you right now and at all times. Focus on the feeling of *muraqabah* in this state of inner silence (*samt al-sirr*). Try to stop talking to yourself (*hadith al-nafs*) or pursuing trains of thought. Silence your inner dialogue as much as you can and simply focus on being present with Allah in the moment. When your mind starts to wander off—and it surely will—you want to bring your awareness back to the center of your being, and to your presence in this moment before Allah, by quietly reciting remembrances of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ would use supplications to bring him back into a state of *muraqabah* if he had become distracted. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, at times there is fog over my heart, so I seek the forgiveness of Allah one hundred times in a day.”[^57] Al-Nawawi explains this *hadith*, saying, “It is said that it means he had periods of inattention and unawareness of the remembrance of Allah, which was his normal state of affairs. When he had a period of inattention, he would consider that a sin and seek forgiveness for it.”[^58] Even the Prophet ﷺ would sometimes experience  short periods of forgetfulness, so he would seek the forgiveness of Allah (he would say “*astaghfirullah*”) as a way to bring himself back into the state of *muraqabah*. If that was his condition, then how much more can we expect our own minds to wander? In this exercise, the supplication or remembrance acts as an “anchor” for your *muraqabah*. An anchor is a phrase that you say inwardly when your mind wanders, which helps bring your mind back to the center of being and awareness. It is not necessarily an object of intensely focused concentration, repeated over and over again. Rather, it is a calming phrase that your mind will come to associate with the state of *muraqabah*, both inside and outside of the exercise. It is best to pick an anchor from one of the numerous authentic supplications in the *Sunnah*, “Two words are beloved to the Most Merciful, light on the tongue but heavy on the scale: Glory and praise to Allah (*subhan Allahi wa bi hamdih*), and glory to Allah Almighty (*subhan Allahi al-‘Athim*).”[^59] And again, “The best remembrance is to declare there is no God but Allah (*la ilhaha illa Allah*), and the best supplication is to declare all praise is due to Allah (*al-hamdulillah*).”[^60] Seeking the forgiveness of Allah (*al-istighfar*) was one of the Prophet’s ﷺ anchors, so nothing could be better. Your anchor could also be just one of the beautiful names of Allah that elicit remembrance and awareness in your heart, or you could use all of the above in combination. As you are present in this moment before Allah, the mind will wander off again and again into unmindfulness and distraction due to emerging thoughts. That is okay, there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, it is completely normal. But every time you use your anchor (remembrance or supplication) to come back into a state of *muraqabah,* it is like doing a mental push-up or a sit-up. Through continued practice you will strengthen your  mental and spiritual muscles. Do not blame or censure yourself when your mind wanders off, just bring it gently back to silent awareness with your anchor. This is the act of *ta’amul*, repeatedly bringing yourself back into the state of *muraqabah*, with Allah and with your inner self, until it becomes a natural and comfortable habit to be in this state. Sometimes our minds race and race during the exercise, wandering off again and again until we feel that we have not achieved anything from our exercise. That would be a mistaken notion. The best mindfulness exercise session is the one you completed, period. No matter how long your mind spent in unmindfulness, every time you brought it back to *muraqabah* it became stronger and stronger. And every time you mentioned the name of Allah inside you or silently nurtured gratitude for His giving you life and energy and breath, it was written down by angels in the record of your good deeds and it polished away some of the rusted spots over your heart. --- ## Fruits of Mindfulness Exercise If you make this simple practice a regular habit, you will see positive results that accumulate over time. You will notice that having presence in prayer becomes easier and more natural than before. You will be able to better relieve stress and attain calming relaxation, better focus your attention when needed, have an easier time dealing with life’s difficult moments, and experience more compassion with others. Your anchor (remembrance or supplication) in the exercise can be used at any time to bring you back into a state of *muraqabah*, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Of course, while the practice of mindfulness exercise will become pleasurable, we should never emphasize it to the neglect of other excellent acts of worship like voluntary prayers, fasting, or reciting the Qur'an. One of the most important results of the practice will be in the way we gain a measure of control over our thoughts and emotions. As we have been noticing thoughts appear at their inception during our exercise, at other times we will more easily notice bad thoughts as they emerge. This gives us a space of time to react to them before we start following a bad train of thought and acting on it without even realizing what happened. We can now view bad thoughts as ripples in a pond, bound to dissipate as long as we are aware of them when they bubble up from the subconscious mind (or from Satan) and let them pass without engaging them or talking to ourselves about them. When we have good thoughts, we will be quicker to notice them and therefore nurture them as we wish. We do not want to disassociate ourselves from thoughts altogether, as is taught by some mindfulness practitioners, but rather only to better direct thoughts as we choose. A similar mechanism applies to feelings and emotions as well. As we become accustomed to noticing subtle internal changes, we become more aware of the distance between a feeling and a reaction to it. For example, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not get angry.”[^61] But we all inevitably feel angry and have angry thoughts at some point. As Ibn Hajar explains, scholars have said the meaning of the *hadith* is “to avoid the causes of anger and do not expose yourself to what incites it… do not act upon what anger commands you.”[^62] As we become more aware of our feelings, we become more aware of our negative triggers in order to avoid them, as well as putting a buffer zone between us and our feelings that gives us time to react in the right manner, such as remembering to seek refuge in Allah when angry instead of reflexively shouting at others or doing something rash that we will regret later. Furthermore, we will inevitably experience desires and urges to commit sins. This is part of the trials of life. When we cultivate *muraqabah*, we can be aware of such desires as they begin to germinate. We can acknowledge them without guilt; they are natural and unavoidable. Having bad desires does not make us bad people. But the more mindful we become of our inner states, the better we will become at disassociating ourselves from our lower desires and instead acting upon our virtuous, higher desires. The habit of referring back to our anchor (remembrance or supplication) gives us just enough breathing room to confidently say “no” to the self’s or the devil’s evil suggestions. --- ## Conclusion Mindfulness in Islam (*al-muraqabah*) is a conscious state of comprehensive awareness of Allah and our inner states in relation to Him. In its complete form, it is the highest spiritual state attainable—the perfect realization of excellence in faith (*al-ihsan*). Modern science has demonstrated the efficacy of mindfulness exercises in procuring a number of health and wellness benefits, even in a non-religious context. These insights can be critically synthesized with Islam’s traditional concepts of meditation to produce practical contemporary techniques that cultivate Islamic mindfulness, enhance worship, and enrich our quality of life. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: “Mindfulness,” Oxford English Dictionary: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mindfulness. [^2]: Smalley, Susan L, and Diana Winston. *Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness*. (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Lifelong, 2010), 10. [^3]: “What are the benefits of mindfulness,” American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/ce-corner.aspx. [^4]: Wehr, Hans, and J M. Cowan. *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic: (Arabic-English)*. (Ithaca, N.Y: Spoken Language Services, 1994), 408. [^5]: al-Tuwayjirī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. *Mawsū’at Fiqh Al-Qulūb*. (’Ammān: Bayt al-Afkār al-Dawlīyah, 2006), 2:1997. [^6]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:235; Abdel Haleem, M. A. *The Qur’an: English translation and parallel Arabic text*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 39. [^7]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. *Madārij Al-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Īyāka Na’budu Wa Īyāka Nasta’īn*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 2:64-66; Ghazzālī, Abū Ḥāmid. *Iḥyā’ ’Ulūm Al-Dīn*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1980), 4:397-398. [^8]: al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), 1:19 #50. [^9]: al-Tuwayjirī, *Mawsū’at Fiqh Al-Qulūb*, 1:785. [^10]: Ibid, 2:1329. [^11]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij Al-Sālikīn*, 2:66. [^12]: al-Qushayrī, ’Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin. *Al-Risālah Al-Qushayrīyah*. (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Maʻārif, 1995), 1:331. [^13]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Madārij Al-Sālikīn*, 2:68. [^14]: al-Jīlānī, ’Abd al-Qādir. *Al-Ghanīyah Li-Ṭālibī Ṭarīq Al-Ḥaqq*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1997), 2:309-310. [^15]: Ibid., 2:213. [^16]: Carlyle, Thomas. *Sartor Resartus*. (London: Electric Book Co, 2001), 262. [^17]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:100 #6475. [^18]: al-Bayhaqī, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn. *Shu’ab Al-Īmān*. (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 7:17 #4585; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Jāmi’ Al-Ṣaghīr Wa Ziyādatih*i (\[Dimashq\]: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 1:657 #3492. [^19]: Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad. *Musnad Al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*. (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001), 20:343 #13048; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Targhīb Wal-Tarhīb* (al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 2:680 #2554. [^20]: al-Ṭabarānī, Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad. *Al-Muʻjam Al-Awsaṭ*. (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1995), 7:140 #7103; declared good (*jayyid*) by Al-Mundhiri in *Al-Targhīb Wal-Tarhīb* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 1996), 3:274 #4022. [^21]: al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab Al-Īmān*, 7:21 #4592; declared good (*jayyid*) by Al-‘Ajlūnī in *Kashf Al-Khafā’ Wa Muzīl Al-Ilbās* (al-Qāhirah: Maktabat al-Qudsī, 1932), 2:258 #25251. [^22]: Ibn Abī Dunyā, ’Abd Allāh ibn Muḥammad. *Kitāb Al-Ṣamt Wa Ādāb Al-Lisān*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī, 1990), 1:85 #91. [^23]: Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad. *Musnad Al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 34:405 #20809; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Ibn Taymiyyah in *Al-Jawāb Al-Ṣaḥīḥ Li-Man Baddala Dīn Al-Masīḥ* (al-Riyāḍ: Dār al-’Āṣimah, 1999), 5:474. [^24]: Ibn Abī Dunyā, *Kitāb Al-Ṣamt Wa Ādāb Al-Lisā*n, 1:278 #619. [^25]: Ibn ’Abd al-Barr, Yūsuf ibn ’Abd Allāh. *Jāmi’ Bayān Al-’Ilm Wa-Faḍlih*. (al-Dammām: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1994), 1:552 #920. [^26]: Ibn Abī Dunyā, *Kitāb Al-Ṣamt Wa Ādāb Al-Lisān*, 1:222 #433. [^27]: *Al-Risālah Al-Qushayrīyah*, 1:247. [^28]: Muslim, Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), 4:2062 #2676. [^29]: al-Munāwī, ’Abd al-Ra’ūf ibn Tāj, and Jalāl al-Dīn Suyūṭī. *Fayḍ Al-Qadīr, Sharḥ Al-Jāmiʻ Al-Ṣaghīr*. (Miṣr \[Cairo\]: al-Maktabah al-Tijārīyah al-Kubrá, 1938), 4:92 #4651. [^30]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. *Madārij Al-Sālikīn Bayna Manāzil Īyāka Na’budu Wa Īyāka Nasta’īn*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻArabī, 1996), 3:156. [^31]: Pascal, Blaise. *Pensees*. (South Bend: Infomotions, Inc, 2000), 27 #139. [^32]: “Meditation,” Dictionary.com: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/meditation. [^33]: Langer, Ellen. "Mindfulness." *The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology*, edited by Shane J. Lopez, Wiley, 1st edition, 2009. [^34]: al-Tirmidhī, Muḥammad ibn ʻĪsá. *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:348 #2687; declared to have supporting evidence (*shawāhid*) by Ibn Al-Qayyim in *Miftāḥ Dār Al-Sa’ādah Wa Manshūr Wilāyat Al-’Ilm Wal-Idārah* (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-’Ilmīyah, 2002), 1:75. [^35]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Miftāḥ Dār Al-Sa’āda*h, 1:182. [^36]: al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ’Ulūm Al-Dīn*, 3:12 [^37]: Ibid. 3:11. [^38]: al-Bayhaqī, *Shu’ab Al-Īmān*, 2:63 #520. [^39]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad. *Al-Wābil Al-Ṣayyib Min Al-Kalim Al-Ṭayyi*b. (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1999), 1:40. [^40]: Ibn Kathīr, Ismā’īl ibn ’Umar. *Tafsīr Al-Qurān Al-‘Aẓīm*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 2:162 verse 3:190. [^41]: Abū Nuʻaym, Aḥmad ibn ’Abd Allāh al-Iṣbahānī. *Ḥilyat Al-Awliyā’ Wa Ṭabaqāt Al-Aṣfiyā’*. (Miṣr: Maṭba’at al-Sa’ādah, 1974), 9:278. [^42]: al-Qushayrī, *Al-Risālah Al-Qushayrīyah*, 1:331. [^43]: Sūrat Ṣād 38:29; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 456. [^44]: al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ’Ulūm Al-Dīn*, 1:337. [^45]: Ibid., 3:19. [^46]: al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn. *Al-Ashbah Wal-Naza’ir Fi Qawa’id Wa Furu’ Fiqh Al-Shafi’iyah*. (Bayrūt: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyah, 1990), 1:33. [^47]: Sūrat Qāf 50:16; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 520. [^48]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:69 #2988; declared authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by Aḥmad Shākir in ’*Umdat Al-Tafsīr ’an Ibn Kathīr* (Miṣr: Dār al-Wafā’, 2005), 1:325 verse 2:268. [^49]: Surat al-Baqarah 2:268; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 46. [^50]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:116 #127. [^51]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad. *Asrār Al-Ṣalāh Wal-Farq Wal-Muwāzanah Bayna Dhawq Al-Ṣalāh Wal-Samā’*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2003), 76. [^52]: Sūrat al-‘A’rāf 7:200; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 177. [^53]: “Ramadan Prep Guide for Busy People | Part 1: Training Season,” MuslimMatters.org: [http://muslimmatters.org/2015/05/18/ramadan-prep-guide-for-the-busy-professional-part-1-training-season/](http://muslimmatters.org/2015/05/18/ramadan-prep-guide-for-the-busy-professional-part-1-training-season/). [^54]: Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān 3:191; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 76. [^55]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad. *Al-Ṭibb Al-Nabawī*. (Bayrūt: Dār wa Maktabat al-Hilāl, 1986), 1:179. [^56]: Sūrat al-Ḥadīd 57:4; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 539. [^57]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 4:2075 #2702. [^58]: al-Nawawī, Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf. *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1972), 17:23 #2702. [^59]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 9:162 #7563. [^60]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:325 #3383; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^61]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 8:28 #6116. [^62]: Ibn Ḥajar al-’Asqalānī, Aḥmad ibn ’Alī. *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1959), 10:520. ## Summary **Cultivating Muraqabah: Mindfulness in the Islamic Tradition** In an age marked by ceaseless noise, distraction, and the overwhelming flood of information, the believer often finds it difficult to attain even a moment of quiet stillness. This constant agitation diminishes the quality of our prayers and weakens our remembrance of Allah. The remedy lies in reviving a neglected treasure of our tradition: the virtue of *muraqabah*, an Islamic conception of mindfulness by which the servant trains the heart and mind to remain conscious of Allah in every state. Mindfulness, in its general sense, refers to a state of being consciously aware of the present moment—a form of *metacognition*, or "awareness of one's awareness." In its Islamic dimension, this is *muraqabah*, a term derived from the root meaning "to watch, observe, or regard attentively." It has been defined as "the constant knowledge of the servant and conviction in the supervision of the Truth, glory be to Him, over one's outward and inward states." In other words, the one in a state of *muraqabah* lives with continuous certainty that Allah is aware of him inwardly and outwardly. This rests upon the words of Allah, "Remember that God knows what is in your souls, so be mindful of Him." Both Ibn al-Qayyim and al-Ghazali devoted chapters to its merits, and it is not merely a recommended trait but the very realization of spiritual excellence (*al-ihsan*), as the Prophet ﷺ defined in the hadith of Gabriel: excellence "is to worship Allah as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He certainly sees you." Sheikh al-Tuwayjiri described this excellence as "the essence of faith, its spirit, and its perfection by perfecting presence with Allah Almighty, and mindfulness of Him." Its fruit is a tranquil calm and contentment, for as it is said, stillness (*al-sakinah*) is produced when the servant acquires *muraqabah* until it is as if he sees his Lord. Ibn al-Qayyim held that *muraqabah* is the foundation of all the deeds of the heart, realized through devotion to Allah's names: the Watcher (*al-Raqib*), the Guardian (*al-Hafiz*), the Knowing (*al-'Alim*), the Hearing (*al-Sami'*), and the Seeing (*al-Basir*). Al-Murta'ish added that *muraqabah* is "observation of one's innermost being," awareness of the hidden with every moment and utterance, which Ibn al-Qayyim linked to the pure heart (*al-qalb al-salim*). Sheikh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani summarized it in four aspects: knowledge of Allah, knowledge of His enemy Iblis, knowledge of the soul's capacity to suggest evil, and knowledge of the deeds to be done for Allah's sake. It is worth noting that this Islamic framework differs from the neutral or secularized mindfulness advocated by therapeutic psychologists, some of which originated in Buddhist or Hindu traditions but has been stripped of its religious premises. While such practices yield measurable benefits—reducing stress, improving focus, and enhancing relationships according to peer-reviewed studies cited by the American Psychological Association—the mind is a tool that may be used for good or evil, and clarity of mind ungrounded in an ethical worldview may even be abused by a predator. For the Muslim, mindfulness of the inner life is only one component within the greater whole of *muraqabah*, which encompasses awareness of creed, law, ethics, and one's own psychological make-up. Closely tied to this is the virtue of silence (*al-samt*), which the righteous predecessors understood as the preferred default state. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak goodness or remain silent," and, "May Allah have mercy on a person who spoke rightly and was rewarded, or who was quiet and remained safe." Guarding the tongue guards the heart, for he ﷺ said, "The faith of a servant is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart is not upright until his tongue is upright." He advised Abu Dharr to observe long periods of silence, saying no deeds are more beloved to Allah than good character and silence, and that silence "will drive away Satan and help you in the matter of your religion." Abu al-Darda' called silence "a form of wisdom, yet few people practice it," and Sufyan al-Thawri noted that "observing long periods of silence is the key to worship." Silence cultivates *presence*, for Abu Bakr al-Farisi described the silence of the innermost being as "abandoning preoccupation with the past and the future"—allowing the servant to nourish presence before Allah (*al-hudur*), the very presence required in prayer. Seclusion accompanies silence, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "Those in seclusion (*al-mufarridun*) have raced ahead," explaining that they are the men and women who remember Allah often. Ibn al-Qayyim observed that the heart's desolation is removed only through intimacy with Allah in solitude (*khalwah*). Meditation, in the purely linguistic sense of directed mental reflection, was practiced by the righteous predecessors, and reviving their methods within the bounds of Islamic creed and etiquette is legitimate, especially as the Prophet ﷺ said, "Wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it then he has a right to it." Ibn al-Qayyim enumerated its many forms: reflecting (*tafakkur*), remembering (*tadhakkur*), examining (*nazar*), meditating (*ta'ammul*), contemplating (*i'tibar*), deliberating (*tadabbur*), and pondering (*istibsar*). All aim to purify the heart, for al-Ghazali likened the heart to a mirror polished by praiseworthy traits until "the clarity of truth shines from within it." Abu al-Darda' said, "the polish of the heart is the remembrance of Allah," and Ibn al-Qayyim noted the heart is tarnished by heedlessness and sin, and polished by seeking forgiveness and remembrance. Reflection upon Allah's blessings, upon the Hereafter, and recitation of the Qur'an—named *al-Dhikr*, "the Remembrance"—are among the highest of these acts, as Allah said the Scripture was sent down "so that people may think about its messages." Al-Ghazali recommended four daily spiritual practices: supplication, remembrance, recitation, and contemplation; and he described a practice resembling modern mindfulness, in which the worshiper empties the heart of all concerns and strives to let no thought enter besides Allah, so that "the reality of the Truth will shine in his heart." Central to this discipline is understanding the stages of thought. According to al-Suyuti, a thought begins as *al-hajis*, a fleeting notion; then *al-khatir*, one given consideration; then *hadith al-nafs*, the inner dialogue; and finally *al-hamm* and *al-'azm*, resolve and determination. Thoughts arise from the self, for Allah said, "We created man—We know what his soul whispers to him," and from external whisperings, as the Prophet ﷺ described the influence of both Satan and the angel upon the son of Adam, reciting, "Satan threatens you with the prospect of poverty… God promises you His forgiveness." We are not blameworthy for such thoughts, for he ﷺ said, "Allah has pardoned my nation for their bad thoughts within themselves as long as they do not speak of them or act upon them." Ibn Taymiyyah advised against battling evil thoughts directly, comparing them to the shepherd's dog, saying one should appeal to the shepherd rather than war with the dog—and Allah instructs, "If Satan should prompt you to do something, seek refuge with God." Bad thoughts are like ripples in a pond, best allowed to dissipate rather than struck at. The practical exercise involves choosing a quiet time and comfortable posture—for Allah praises those "who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down"—then focusing on the breath in gratitude, settling into stillness, and perceiving *muraqabah* with Allah who "is with you wherever you are." When the mind wanders, one gently returns using an "anchor," a remembrance drawn from the Sunnah, such as *subhan Allahi wa bi hamdih*, *la ilaha illa Allah*, or *al-istighfar*—the Prophet's own anchor, for he ﷺ said, "at times there is fog over my heart, so I seek the forgiveness of Allah one hundred times in a day," which al-Nawawi explained as returning from moments of inattention. This is *ta'ammul*, likened to spiritual push-ups, and its purpose is training (*riyadah*), not spiritual ecstasy. It is a rehearsal that prepares one for the performance of *salah*, never a substitute for obligatory worship. Its fruits are gradual: greater presence in prayer, relief from stress, and increased control over thoughts and emotions. Regarding anger, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Do not get angry," which Ibn Hajar explained as avoiding its causes and not acting upon what it commands. So too with sinful urges, mindfulness grants the servant a buffer to disassociate from lower desires and to say "no" to the whisperings of the self and Satan. In sum, *muraqabah* is a comprehensive awareness of Allah and one's inner states in relation to Him, the highest realization of *al-ihsan*, and its established benefits may be critically synthesized with Islam's tradition of meditation to enrich both worship and life. And Allah knows best. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/pulling-the-plug-the-islamic-perspectives-on-end-of-life-care # Pulling the Plug: The Islamic Perspectives on End-of-Life Care **Author:** Maryam Sultan **Topics:** Health, Nature & Science **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** November 13, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Abstract Cultural competency and patient-centered care is best achieved when a physician has some understanding of a patient’s beliefs and practices. The paucity of English-language literature on Islam’s perspective on end-of-life care and life-sustaining measures in terminal illness makes caring for dying Muslim patients in the United States of America difficult. Decisions made by scholars of Islamic legislative assemblies, in consultation with medical professionals, are used for treating disease and employing life-sustaining measures in terminally ill patients. These rulings are based largely on an Islamic legal maxim that obligates the avoidance of harm. The following discussion will present information to enhance the experience of the Muslim patient receiving treatment and the healthcare professionals providing care by facilitating an understanding of Islam’s teachings on medical treatment and end-of-life care. --- ## Background ### Cultural Competency The issue of cultural competency, now an integral part of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation of medical schools and training programs, is a topic of growing importance in medicine. In fact, the ACGME has published *Roadmap for Hospitals*, which contains chapters on Treatment and End-of-Life Care. The importance of accommodating a patient’s cultural, religious, or spiritual beliefs and practices is discussed as a critically important skill for physicians to obtain during training.[^1] It is especially on the topic of death and dying that an ability to facilitate communication with patients and family members, as well as an understanding of their perspectives, is integral in the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care. In discussing goals of care, physicians’ understanding of patients’ and families’ values is essential for the delivery of culturally-appropriate guidance. Little literature exists in the English language on the Islamic perspective on medical treatment and end-of-life care. With the growing population of Muslims in the United States, the relevance of these topics in medical practice has naturally increased. As a religion that permeates nearly every aspect of its followers’ lives, Islam’s perspective on various medical issues is useful knowledge for the physician in his/her quest to deliver patient-centered care and recommendations. ### Life, Death, and Illness in an Islamic Spiritual Framework Patients’ spirituality typically correlates positively with coping during serious illness. A 2017 study showed that spiritual well-being and a sense of “meaning in life” were associated with lower self-reported levels of depression and anxiety and higher self-perceived levels of function among palliative patients at the end of life.[^2] The purpose of life from an Islamic standpoint is made clear within the Qur’anic verse that declares, “And We did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship \[God\],”[^3] indicating that the goal of a human life is the worship of God alone. Death is considered a cessation of the life of the current world and a transition to the afterlife. The life of the grave is noted as a state of transition until Judgment Day, on which humans are recompensed for their worldly deeds. Illness, viewed from a spiritual perspective, is an opportunity to gain closeness to God and divine reward for patiently enduring hardship. However, as will be noted below, seeking treatment for illness is praiseworthy within an Islamic mindset and it is encouraged to combat morbidity and mortality. ### Islamic Law and Medicine #### Sources of Islamic Law & Types of Derived Rulings Medical decisions based on Islamic law are derived from two types of sources: those on which there is unanimous agreement amongst scholars regarding their use in the derivation of law and those about which there is general agreement by the majority. Both types of sources are used in decisions regarding end-of-life care. The sources on which there is unanimous agreement are the *Qur’an*, defined as God’s word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in Arabic over the course of his prophethood; and the *Sunnah*, all that was narrated from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ including his sayings, actions, and tacit approvals. The sources on which there is general agreement are the *Ijmaa’*—the unanimous agreement of Muslim jurists of any period following the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ on a topic—and analogical reasoning, in which the Islamic ruling of an original case is applied to a new case on which Islamic law is silent because of an effective cause common to both. Sources upon which there is general disagreement among the scholars regarding their applicability in the derivation of Islamic rulings include: the individual statement of a Muslim who interacted with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the customs of a people at a given time, a scholar’s personal juristic preference, the consideration of public welfare that aligns with the objectives of Islamic law, the presumption of continuity of a rational proof that was established in the past, blocking of the means to an expected evil end that is likely to materialize if the means towards it is not obstructed, and laws revealed prior to the advent of Islam. Islamic beliefs surrounding end-of-life care are based on all of these sources, with much use of analogical reasoning, as today’s healthcare technology was not available at the time of the compilation of the Qur’an and Sunnah. However, references to life, disease, and death are present in the texts and are used as guides when considering present-day issues. Physicians are recruited to explain in detail the medical issue at hand and to discuss the ramifications of potential decisions with judicial experts. In discussions with the medical professional, scholars seek to make the determination that most closely adheres to the spirit of Islamic law. Decisions made using these sources then classify actions as either obligatory, prohibited, recommended, disliked, or permissible (neutral). #### The Objectives of Islamic Law The basis of *Shari’ah* (Islamic law) is in the upholding of five definitive goals: religion, life, lineage, intellect, and property, with precedence given to the preservation of life and religion over the other three.[^4] On this basis, a number of exceptions have been made in order to facilitate the preservation of life. One such exception is the acceptability of physical touch between genders for the assessment and treatment of disease, when the norm is that touch between men and women who are not related is impermissible. One of Islam’s legal maxims—which are useful in depicting a general picture of the nature and objectives of Islamic law—is: “harm is to be eliminated.” This maxim is used frequently in medical decision-making[^5] Variants of this maxim exist. These include “a greater harm is eliminated by means of a lesser harm,” and “a specific harm is tolerated in order to prevent a more general one.” Due to these variants, it is necessary to evaluate the outcome sought from a medical treatment, the likelihood of its achievement, and the risks of the treatment itself, when determining the ruling on any given medical intervention. #### Medical Treatment in Islam The virtue of treating disease is clearly mentioned in classical Islamic texts. An incident is related in which: > *A bedouin asked the Prophet Muhammad: ‘Should we not treat sickness?’ He replied: ‘Treat sickness, for God has not created any disease except that He has also created its cure, except for one disease.’ Those around the Prophet asked, ‘O Messenger of God, what is \[that one disease\]?’ He said: ‘Aging.’* [^6] Furthermore, a verse in the *Qur’an* states: “If any saves a life—it is as if he saved the lives of all mankind.” [^7] Based on these and additional proofs, Muslim jurists have classified the seeking of medical treatment into different categories based upon the nature of the illness as well as the anticipated effectiveness of the treatment, as will be discussed below. #### Life-Sustaining Measures While the proofs surrounding general medical treatment are rather clear, rulings pertaining to life-sustaining measures in patient care are not as apparent in Islamic law sources. Hence, the use of analogy is weighed upon heavily when making decisions in this domain. As such, a thorough understanding of such measures, which include artificial hydration and nutrition, is necessary for making a determination on these topics. While artificial nutrition and hydration have clear benefits for certain patient populations, the use of this treatment is not clearly indicated for patients who are in the final stages of their illnesses. The majority of terminally ill patients do not suffer from hunger or thirst.[^8] It is expected that, due to limited brain functioning, patients who are in a persistent vegetative state or comatose do not experience  hunger or thirst, in contrast to those who are minimally-conscious and do suffer from pain, hunger and thirst.[^9] Furthermore, artificial nutrition and hydration carry the risk of complications such as aspiration pneumonia and hypervolemia, while not improving the patient’s mental status.[^10] Therefore, the rulings associated with withholding and withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration in both terminally- and non terminally-ill patients will be explored below. --- ## Current State ### Sources Various modern Islamic legislative bodies have amassed proofs from the *Qur’an* and *Sunnah*, and have used analogical reasoning to formulate rulings on issues related to medicine. These groups include the Islamic Fiqh (Legislative) Assembly of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Islamic Fiqh (Legislative) Assembly of the Muslim World League. Both of these councils are made up of senior scholars who meet periodically to come to conclusions on issues currently facing Muslims worldwide. As mentioned, members of the councils seek input from medical professionals on medical topics. --- ## Findings ### Medical Treatment The default Islamic ruling on seeking medical treatment is that it is permissible, as per the proofs outlined above from the *Qur’an* and *Sunnah*. Furthermore, seeking medical treatment for disease is conducive to the preservation of life, which is one of the main objectives of Islamic law. However, the circumstances of illness, which vary by patient, necessitate particular rulings.[^11] As per the Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the OIC, the cases in which seeking medical treatment is obligatory include: - cases in which refraining from medical treatment will lead to significant harm to the patient and/or one of his/her organs, as determined by the physician in consultation with the patient. In the case of an emergency situation that meets this criterion, the consent of the patient or his/her proxy is not needed for treatment. Consent is necessary in non-emergent cases;  - cases in which refraining from medical treatment will lead to long-term handicap;  - cases in which the patient’s disease may be transmitted to others and result in significant harm to them and/or to society, as determined by the physician. It is recommended to seek medical treatment if refraining from it will lead to weakening of the body, even without the outcomes mentioned above. It is permissible to seek medical treatment, but not viewed as better than refraining, if none of the above conditions are met. It is disliked to seek medical treatment if the mode of treatment may cause complications that are deemed more harmful than the illness itself, as determined by the physician in consultation with the patient with the patient’s best interests taken into account. [^12] ### Life-Sustaining Measures #### Artificial Nutrition & Hydration The initiation of artificial nutrition and/or hydration is viewed as a form of medical treatment by Muslim jurists, as they are medical procedures done with the hope of extending life and preserving bodily strength. The physician must weigh the risks and benefits of these interventions in each particular patient—does the net gain from artificial feeding in a patient with little hope of regaining function outweigh the potential losses from its possible complications? For instance, in the case of enteral feeding, delivery of nutrients by way of the GI tract has been shown to maintain physical and immune-mediated barriers and decrease a patient’s risk of sepsis.[^13] However, it may also expose a patient to new metabolic, mechanical, and infectious complications.[^14] In such a situation, the patient’s personal goals from treatment and prognosis must be considered. Enterally feeding a patient with a good prognosis, but who cannot take in food by mouth, is permissible and at times recommended or obligatory in order to avoid the harm of starvation, which may be more likely and detrimental than the potential complications of tube feeding. Alternatively, in a patient with a grim prognosis and/or an incurable disease, the decision for enteral feeding depends on the patient’s goals. However, the benefits of artificial nutrition in end-of-life care rarely raise its initiation to the status of recommended or obligatory. It is permissible and at times disliked to initiate tube feeding in such patients, as the potential harms of the intervention often outweigh the possible benefits. #### Withholding vs. Withdrawing Life-sustaining measures, such as artificial nutrition and hydration, are considered differently once they have been initiated. Continuing with the example of tube feeding, a difference in opinion exists on whether delivery of nutrients via enteral access constitutes treatment or simple feeding of the patient. The distribution of nutrients through a tube that is already in place is not perceived as an invasive procedure, as the route has already been made and is considered an alternative to the mouth. Hence, continuing to deliver nutrients enterally is perceived as simply feeding the patient by some experts. However, the fact remains that the contents of enteral nutrition are not ordinary food, but are rather fashioned in a laboratory and optimized on a per-patient basis. This causes some scholars to equate the persistence of enteral nutrition with medical treatment. When it is considered treatment, it is permissible to withdraw artificial nutrition from a patient with little hope of recovery or who is in the terminal stage of his/her disease. However, when it is considered simply feeding, it is prohibited to withdraw enteral nutrition, as this is viewed as starving the patient. Hence, withdrawing an intervention is more problematic than the decision to initiate it, which highlights the importance of discussions with the patient and/or proxy/surrogate regarding prognosis before performing such procedures. #### Palliative Care Regardless of the incurable or debilitating nature of a disease, it is never Islamically appropriate to take one’s own life or to take a patient’s life in hopes of saving him/her from suffering. This stems largely from the fact that preservation of life is one of the primary goals of Islamic law and that Muslims believe in a fixed life term that is pre-ordained by God. As humans, including physicians, do not know with certainty the natural progression of any given patient’s disease, it is impossible to Islamically justify assisted suicide as a method of easing his/her suffering. Rather, we are encouraged to search for treatment, as in the aforementioned statement of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: “Treat sickness, for God has not created any disease except that He has also created its cure.” Suicide is prohibited in the Qur’anic verse: “And do not kill yourselves \[or one another\]. Indeed, God is to you ever Merciful.”[^15] Palliative care offers an alternative to suicide or euthanasia in the face of a disease with a grim prognosis, painful course, and intolerable medication side effects. It involves methods to minimize discomfort without artificially prolonging or truncating the course of an illness. Interventions to tackle pain, respiratory distress, and depression are integral to proper management of illness at the end of life. #### Disorders of Consciousness (DOC) Acute, traumatic medical events in previously healthy individuals are frequently encountered in medicine. In a state between brain death and normal life, the difficult decision of how to proceed in a patient’s care must be made. This decision is largely placed on the patient’s proxy or surrogate in consultation with the treating physician. The question arises of whether there is, from an Islamic law standpoint, a choice to withdraw life-sustaining interventions that would allow a patient to go on living indefinitely, but in a state in stark contrast to his/her normal life. The qualities that define a normal human life have been put forth by scholars and may be used to guide this decision. Jurists define life as the combination of input and output—input may be quantified as a patient’s awareness of his/her self/environment and reception of ideas. Output is a person’s own will, which may be manifested by purposeful action or communication. If both of these components are not present, then the person is not considered to be living a normal human life. There is no division in classical Islam of life into normal human and vegetative/artificial. Hence, a life devoid of either input or output is equated by Muslim jurists to the life of an embryo before it has been given its soul.[^16] Rulings of killing do not apply to such a state because it is not a normal human life to begin with. Disorders of consciousness are separated into three levels: coma, vegetative state (VS), and minimally conscious state (MCS). Patients in coma and VS have no measureable awareness of self/environment and no purposeful behavior. The differentiation between the two lies in the presence of sleep/wake cycles in VS and their absence in coma. Coma generally lasts 2-4 weeks and progresses to recovery, transitions to VS, or death. VS is deemed “persistent” when it lasts for 1 month or longer. VS is deemed “permanent” when it extends past 3 months after a nontraumatic brain injury and for 12 months after a traumatic brain injury. MCS is characterized by evidence of self and/or environmental awareness as well as reproducible purposeful behaviors. It is important to note that patterns of emergence from disorders of consciousness vary widely across patients and that prognosis is very difficult to characterize in the acute phase of an injury.[^17] Coma and VS show little evidence of normal, sustainable human life as they are devoid of input and output. Hence, if a patient’s coma or VS is deemed irreversible (such as a permanent VS), based on the judgment of three specialty-trained physicians, it is considered permissible by most jurists to withdraw this patient’s life-sustaining measures. An MCS is considered a normal, sustainable human life, and this condition is treated as a general medical illness when considering withdrawing life-sustaining measures. An MCS in itself is not considered a condition with a grim prognosis. However, medical conditions that a patient may have in association with the MCS (e.g., a severe antibiotic-resistant infection) may lower the patient’s potential for overall recovery and make life-sustaining measures futile. Again, this must be concluded by three qualified physicians, at which point life-sustaining measures may be withdrawn. In cases in which withdrawal of life-sustaining measures is permissible, it is not obligatory to do so. The decision to continue or withdraw life-sustaining measures in these cases should be based on the surrogate/proxy’s perception of the patient’s wishes. It is critical in DOC that the physician properly educates the patient’s surrogate or proxy on the likelihood of emergence and subsequent prognosis based on the available evidence. #### Brain Death A question that frequently arises in discussions around medical interventions in the context of Islamic jurisprudence is the validity of brain death as a declaration of death. The American Academy of Neurology guidelines for brain death determination include two separate neurologic exams performed by trained physicians in the absence of reversible causes of cognitive depression (e.g., hypotension, hypothermia, electrolyte abnormalities, intoxicants). The evaluation necessitates an absolute lack of responsiveness, including to painful stimuli, an absence of brainstem reflexes, and an absence of respiratory drive.[^18] Ancillary tests, including an electroencephalogram (EEG), cerebral angiography, transcranial doppler ultrasonography, and cerebral scintigraphy may be used to confirm brain death. In its statement regarding the permissibility of withdrawing life-sustaining measures in a person deemed brain-dead, the Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Muslim World League decided in 1987: > *It is permissible to turn off the life support systems of a patient whose brain has ‎completely stopped functioning on condition that a committee of three ‎specialized ‎expert doctors decides that the cessation is final and irrecoverable. ‎Such permissibility is valid even if the heart and respiratory systems are still ‎functioning mechanically due to the life support systems. ‎However, the legal ‎judgment of death is not declared until it is assured that the heart and ‎respirations have fully stopped after turning off all the life support systems.‎*[^19] This declaration does not equate brain death with death, but rather states that death can only be declared upon the cessation of vasomotor and respiratory functions, regardless of whether those are being artificially sustained. Furthermore, it raises a stipulation that is generally not ascertained during the routine brain death evaluation: that a brain\-dead patient’s *whole* brain has stopped functioning. The standard brain death exam that physicians perform typically evaluates specifically for brain stem function, which is considered representative of the viability of the rest of the brain. The special testing mentioned above, such as EEG to ascertain the presence of meaningful brain function and vascular studies of the brain to evaluate for adequate blood flow that is compatible with life, would provide more information on the condition of the whole brain than the brain death exam alone, and may be requested by the Muslim patient’s family. #### Advanced Directive An advance directive is drafted while a person is of sound mind and states his/her wishes about health care should he/she be afflicted with a critical illness or incapacity. As long as it conforms to the guidelines detailed above, it is recommended for a Muslim to have an advance directive, as it typically eases decision\-making for the patient’s family during a time of difficulty. One component of advance directives is the “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) order, which communicates whether the patient wishes to have cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed in the event that his/her heart stops beating. CPR is considered a form of medical treatment. A patient whose body has weakened at baseline and whose illness has a grim prognosis likely does not require resuscitation in the event of cessation of vasomotor function, from an Islamic perspective. In such a situation, the potential harms and limited benefits of CPR may downgrade its initiation to “disliked.” Similar to the initiation of artificial nutrition and hydration, the potential benefits of resuscitation are minimal in this scenario. A 2009 study showed that only 18% of adults aged 65 and older survived to hospital discharge following in-hospital CPR.[^20] A 2012 study found that only 2-5% of adults who underwent CPR in the field had good functional outcomes—defined as no, minimal, or moderate neurological disability—one month after the event.[^21] Hence, CPR is associated with its own morbidity and its outcomes vary as a function of the patient’s previous condition. CPR for a young, previously healthy patient is generally encouraged due to its higher likelihood for positive outcomes. --- ## Concluding Remarks Life-sustaining measures are often explored from a spiritual or religious perspective by patients and their families. An understanding of the factors influencing a patient’s or proxy’s decision can help the physician in his/her role as a guide in such a situation. Guided by the goal of limiting harm in Islamic jurisprudence, the decision to initiate life-sustaining measures varies from obligatory to disliked depending on the specific situation of each patient, while the decision to withdraw such interventions is often more difficult to justify Islamically. In contrast to a terminally ill patient with a grim prognosis, a patient with an altered level of consciousness (characterized by lack of awareness of self/environment and no purposeful movements/communication), who may survive indefinitely with artificial interventions, may be withdrawn from such interventions once the patient’s condition is deemed irreversible, per the proxy’s informed and patient-centered decision. Brain death is not equated to death by one group of jurists, but the declaration of brain death indicates that life-sustaining measures may be withdrawn, allowing the patient’s heart and lung functions to cease on their own. Palliative care interventions are important options for Muslim patients at the terminal state of illness, as euthanasia is prohibited in Islam. The physician’s role in explaining the patient’s prognosis and the benefits and harms of specific interventions is critical in allowing the patient, proxy, or surrogate to make the most appropriate decision of care in accordance with their Islamic beliefs and the patient’s previously established wishes. --- ## Notes [^1]: The Joint Commission. *Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals*. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: The Joint Commission, 2010. [http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/aroadmapforhospitalsfinalversion727.pdf](http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/aroadmapforhospitalsfinalversion727.pdf) [^2]: Bernard M, Strasser F, Gamondi C, Braunschweig G, Forster M, Kaspers-Elekes K, Veri SW, Borasio GD, the SMILE consortium team, Relationship between spirituality, meaning in life, psychological distress, wish for hastened death, and their influence on quality of life in palliative care patients. *Journal of Pain and Symptom Management* (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2017.07.019. [^3]: *The Quran*. Oxford World’s Classics Ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2004: 51:56. http://islam24hours.yolasite.com/resources/Quran-Abdel-Haleem-Translation.pdf.  Accessed: November 22, 2013. [^4]: Kamali MH. *Maqasid al-Shariah Made Simple*. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies; 2008:3-7. [^5]: Kamali MH. *Qawa’id al-Fiqh: The Legal Maxims of Islamic Law*. High Wycombe, England: The Association of Muslim Lawyers; 2006:3-4. [^6]: Tirmidhi MI. *Sunan Al-Tirmidhī*. \[English Translation\]. Houston, TX: Dar-us-salam; 2007: 4/383, no. 1961, 1965. [^7]: *The Quran*. Oxford World’s Classics Ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2004: 5:32:p.71. http://islam24hours.yolasite.com/resources/Quran-Abdel-Haleem- Translation.pdf.  Accessed: November 22, 2013. [^8]: McCann RM, Hall, J, Groth-Juncker, A. Comfort care for terminally ill patients: the appropriate use of nutrition and hydration. *JAMA*. 1994;272:1263–1266. doi:10.1001/jama.1994.03520160047041. [^9]: A.S.P.E.N Ethics Position Paper Task Force, Barrocas A, Geppert C, Durfee SM, Maillet JO, Monturo C, Mueller C, Stratton K, Valentine C, American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Ethics Position Paper. *Nutr Clin Pract*. 2010;25:672–679. doi: 10.1177/0884533610385429. [^10]: Brody H, Hermer LD, Scott LD, Grumbles LL, Kutac JE, McCammon SD. Artificial Nutrition        and Hydration: The Evolution of Ethics, Evidence, and Policy. *J Gen Intern Med* 2011;         26(9):1053-8.doi: 10.1007/s11606-011-1659-z. [^11]: Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)‎. Decision Number:‎ 67(7/5)‎. Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: May 9th\-14th, 1992. [^12]: Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Muslim World League.  Decision Number: 10(2).  Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Oct 17th\-21st, 1987. [^13]: Kudsk, KA. Importance of enteral feeding in maintaining gut integrity. *Tech in Enteral Access*. 2001;3(1): 2-8.               http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096288301800188. Accessed:  December 9, 2013. [^14]: Beyer PL. Complications of Enteral Nutrition. In: Matarese, L, Gottschlich M eds. *Contemporary Nutrition Support Practice: A Clinical Guide*. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders;   2003:215-226. [^15]: *The Quran*. Oxford World’s Classics Ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2004: 4:29:p.71. http://islam24hours.yolasite.com/resources/Quran-Abdel-Haleem- Translation.pdf. Accessed: August 28, 2017. [^16]: Al-Haj, Hatem. *The Impact of Medical Advancements on Religious Edicts and Judgeship*. \[dissertation, Arabic\]. Tripoli, Lebanon: al-Jinan University; 2008. p.103. [^17]: Cuccurullo, SJ. *Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Board Review, 2nd Edition*. Edison, NJ: Demos Medical Publishing; 2010. 55-56. [^18]: American Academy of Neurology Guidelines for Brain Death Determination. University of Miami Health System: Miller School of Medicine. Available: [http://surgery.med.miami.edu/laora/clinical-operations/brain-death-diagnosis](http://surgery.med.miami.edu/laora/clinical-operations/brain-death-diagnosis). Accessed August 22, 2017. [^19]: Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Muslim World League.  Decision Number: 10/2.  Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Oct 17th\-21st, 1987. [^20]: Hagihara, et al. Prehospital Epinephrine Use and Survival Among Patients With Out-of Hospital Cardiac Arrest. *JAMA*. 2012;307(11):1161-1168. [^21]: Ehlenbach, et al. Epidemiologic Study of In-Hospital Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the Elderly. *N Engl J Med* 2009;361:22-31. ## Summary Caring for dying Muslim patients in the United States presents a challenge for physicians, in large part because of the scarcity of English-language literature explaining Islam's teachings on medical treatment and end-of-life care. Since cultural competency has become an integral component of medical training—recognized by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which has published a *Roadmap for Hospitals* addressing treatment and end-of-life care—understanding a patient's religious beliefs and practices is essential for delivering patient-centered care. With the growing population of Muslims in the United States, this knowledge has become increasingly relevant, particularly around the sensitive matters of death and dying, where communication with patients and families requires an appreciation of their values. Within the Islamic spiritual framework, the purpose of human life is worship of God alone, as expressed in the Qur'anic verse, "And We did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship [God]." Death is understood not as an ending but as a transition from the present world to the afterlife, with the grave being a state of waiting until the Day of Judgment, when people are recompensed for their deeds. Illness, viewed spiritually, is an opportunity to draw closer to God and to earn reward through patient endurance of hardship. Studies indicate that spiritual well-being correlates with better coping during serious illness; a 2017 study found that a sense of "meaning in life" was associated with lower depression and anxiety and higher self-perceived function among palliative patients. At the same time, seeking treatment for illness is praiseworthy and encouraged. Medical rulings in Islam are derived from established sources of Islamic law. The sources unanimously agreed upon are the Qur'an—God's word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in Arabic—and the Sunnah, comprising his sayings, actions, and tacit approvals. Sources generally agreed upon include *ijmaa'* (the consensus of Muslim jurists after the Prophet's ﷺ death) and analogical reasoning, in which the ruling of an original case is applied to a new case sharing a common effective cause. Other sources remain contested among scholars, such as the statement of a single companion, established custom, juristic preference, consideration of public welfare, presumption of continuity, blocking the means to evil, and pre-Islamic revealed laws. Because modern medical technology did not exist when the Qur'an and Sunnah were compiled, analogical reasoning is relied upon heavily in this domain, with physicians recruited to explain medical matters so that scholars may reach determinations adhering to the spirit of Islamic law. Rulings classify actions as obligatory, prohibited, recommended, disliked, or permissible (neutral). The foundation of the Shari'ah rests upon preserving five aims: religion, life, lineage, intellect, and property—with precedence given to life and religion. On this basis, exceptions are made to preserve life, such as permitting physical touch between unrelated men and women for the assessment and treatment of disease, though such touch is normally impermissible. A key legal maxim frequently applied in medical decisions is "harm is to be eliminated," along with its variants: "a greater harm is eliminated by means of a lesser harm," and "a specific harm is tolerated in order to prevent a more general one." These variants require evaluating the sought outcome of a treatment, its likelihood of success, and its risks. The virtue of treating disease is affirmed in the reported incident in which a bedouin asked the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, "Should we not treat sickness?" and he replied, "Treat sickness, for God has not created any disease except that He has also created its cure, except for one disease"—identifying that disease as aging. Likewise, the Qur'an states, "If any saves a life—it is as if he saved the lives of all mankind." Building on such proofs, the Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has ruled that seeking treatment is obligatory when refraining would cause significant harm to the patient or an organ, would lead to long-term handicap, or would allow transmission of disease harmful to others or society. It is recommended if refraining would weaken the body, permissible (though not superior to refraining) if none of these conditions apply, and disliked if the treatment may cause complications more harmful than the illness itself. Regarding life-sustaining measures, the sources are less explicit, so analogy is weighed heavily. The initiation of artificial nutrition and hydration is regarded as medical treatment, requiring the physician to weigh risks and benefits for each patient. For a patient with a good prognosis who cannot eat by mouth, enteral feeding is permissible and at times recommended or obligatory to avoid starvation. For a patient with a grim prognosis or incurable disease, the decision depends on the patient's goals, and it is permissible—and at times disliked—to initiate feeding, since the potential harms often outweigh the benefits. A difference of opinion exists regarding withdrawal: some experts view continued enteral nutrition as simple feeding (making withdrawal prohibited, as it amounts to starving the patient), while other scholars equate it with medical treatment (making withdrawal permissible for a patient with little hope of recovery or in the terminal stage). Thus withdrawal is more difficult to justify than initiation. Taking one's own life or a patient's life to relieve suffering is never permissible, since preservation of life is a primary aim of the Shari'ah and Muslims believe in a fixed, pre-ordained life term. Suicide is prohibited by the Qur'anic verse, "And do not kill yourselves [or one another]. Indeed, God is to you ever Merciful." Palliative care offers an alternative to euthanasia by minimizing discomfort without artificially prolonging or truncating an illness. On disorders of consciousness, jurists define life as the combination of input (awareness of self and environment) and output (will manifested through purposeful action or communication). A life lacking both is likened to that of an embryo before ensoulment, so rulings of killing do not apply. Coma and vegetative state lack both input and output; if deemed irreversible by three specialty-trained physicians, most jurists permit withdrawal of life-sustaining measures. A minimally conscious state is considered a normal human life and treated as a general medical illness. Concerning brain death, the Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Muslim World League ruled in 1987 that life support may be turned off when three expert doctors determine cessation of brain function is final, but death is not legally declared until heart and respiration fully stop—thus not equating brain death with death itself, and requiring that the *whole* brain has ceased functioning. Finally, an advance directive is recommended for a Muslim so long as it conforms to these guidelines. CPR is considered medical treatment; for a patient with a weakened baseline and grim prognosis its initiation may be "disliked," while for a young, previously healthy patient it is generally encouraged given better outcomes. The physician's role in explaining prognosis and the benefits and harms of interventions remains critical in enabling patients and their proxies to decide in accordance with Islamic beliefs and the patient's established wishes. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/honored-since-adam-islam-and-the-value-of-human-freedom # Honored Since Adam: Islam and the Value of Human Freedom **Author:** Dr. Edward Omar Moad **Topics:** Epistemology, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 23, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction One recent Ramadan, I spent more time than I should have reading the news and keeping up with the general mayhem of the Middle East. At one point, thousands of Yezidis had fled to a mountain and were under siege by Daesh.[^1] According to the story, the American military heroically came to their rescue.[^2] Then the story changed: there were far fewer on the mountain than previously believed, and most did not want to leave. I still don’t know what really happened. Is there any way to know? What good would knowing do?[^3] Apparently (again, according to the story), local Iraqis call the Yezidi ‘devil worshippers.’ Someone told me they revere Iblis for having refused to bow to Adam when Allah commanded the angels to do so. The rationale, apparently, is that Iblis was a true monotheist who would bow to nobody but Allah. I know not whether this is really what Yezidis believe. It seems not, according to this source.[^4] What is more interesting to me (and more productive to reflect on) is not whether Yezidis believe this (or what they believe), but the idea itself: that Iblis’ refusal to bow to Adam expresses not his rebellion against God, but the purity of his faith. The orthodox Muslim response to this (as I understand it) would be that it disregards the content of God’s command. Submission to God is not simply the refusal to submit to anything other than Him. Submission is a positive act of obedience, and therefore requires a specific command—a ‘do this’, such that submission is made real when ‘this’ is done. Walk around the Kaaba seven times, run seven times between the two hills, throw stones at the pillars…bow to Adam. In this case—the first case of rebellion against God—the command was to bow to Adam. It sounds like a clever idea, that disobedience here is actually a purer form of submission—the kind of reasoning the devil might give. But when God questions him, he cannot hide his real motive: “I am better than him” (Qur'an 38:76). Thus, any pretense Iblis may have had of submitting to nothing other than God is exposed. There is something here that he places before Allah. Here is the real meaning of Iblis’ rebellion, and also, ultimately, of the notion that arrogance and irreverence toward the rest of creation, and humanity, in particular, is somehow an expression of *tawhid*, or the purity of one’s faith in God’s unity and uniqueness. In light of this, it is ironic that the likes of Daesh are accusing others of devil worship. But God commanded the angels to bow to Adam, the first human and, therefore, the father of humanity. So let’s put aside the sources of confusion. God did not command the angels to worship other than Him when he commanded the angels to bow to Adam. On the contrary, in bowing to Adam at God’s command, they performed an act of worship—not to Adam, but to none other than God. And this act of worship to none other than God was an act expressing reverence toward Adam, to whom God decreed that reverence should be expressed, through an act as humble as bowing. Those, then, who would charge the angels with idolatry, for obeying God’s command to bow to Adam, may as well make the same charge against those who obey God’s command to love the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Thus, we need not debate what the Yezidis believe or what other people believe. Instead, let us concentrate on what God commands. Specifically, if the angels are commanded to express reverence to Adam, then what are the implications for us? Is Adam not even more deserving of our reverence? Of course, we revere Adam as a prophet. But it is important to remember that the first prophet was also the first human. Humanity and prophethood share the same root. This leads me to conclude that God’s decree of reverence for Adam is at the same time a decree of reverence for humanity. Is this a hasty conclusion? The stature and status of the average human, like you and I, is not equivalent to that of Adam. He was a prophet and we are not. He was the father of humanity, and we are just his children. By some reports, he was sixty feet tall, and we are six if we’re lucky. But still, he is the root of humanity and we are its branches. His blood runs in our veins. And, like all prophets, he is an exemplar for humanity—a God-given model of humanity at its most perfect. And “Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it is capable of” (Qur’an 2:286). So a prophet actually embodies nothing more than the fully realized potential of any human being—what we would be if we were all that we could be. But, of course, we are not all that we could be. “Verily, we created humanity in the best mold. Then we reduced him to the lowest of the low” (Qur’an 95:4-5). And yet, we could be. “Except those who believe and do righteous deeds. They will have a reward without end (Qur’an 95:6).” So the command to bow to Adam is also a command to revere the potential inherent in every human being. Reverence for the Divine is therefore impossible without reverence for the human. Likewise, true reverence for the human is impossible without reverence for the Divine. In relation to this position, two opposite extremes can be conceived. One is that reverence for God requires the rejection of reverence for the human. The other is that reverence for the human requires the rejection of reverence for God. The first extreme has appeared, historically, in the guise of various so-called ‘fundamentalisms’—both religious and secular. It seems to be the implicit rationale that motivates *takfiri* extremism. The second extreme is the primary premise of the secular ‘humanism’ that claims reverence for humanity as its rationale for atheism and the elimination of all forms of religion. Each of these extremes has its epistemological dimension. The claim that true reverence for humanity requires rejecting the Divine is co-entailed by belief in the self-sufficiency of the human intellect, such that trusting in God in matters beyond one’s own understanding is a degrading humiliation unfit for the human being. On the other hand, those who claim that true reverence for the Divine requires rejecting the human, are fond of emphasizing the fallibility of the human intellect and then claiming to have achieved a kind of infallibility by circumventing the intellect altogether and relying exclusively and directly on revelation. The latter—the so-called ‘fundamentalists’—are correct in pointing out that the intellect is *fallible*. But they slander it by depicting it as essentially *despicable*, and they lie when they claim not to make use of it in understanding their religion. For guidance from revelation is not possible without understanding the revelation, and understanding the revelation is not possible without the intellect. So the fallibility of the intellect necessarily leads to fallibility in our understanding of revelation, and that is simply the human condition. Since nobody can claim to avoid this, epistemic humility is a moral necessity. But since this is either very difficult or very frightening for some people, they resort to claiming the ability to bypass the human intellect and its fallibility. In doing so, they prove that the intellect is fallible and *can* be despicable, but not that it need be. The procedure for many Muslim so-called ‘fundamentalists’ involves acknowledging that the Qur’an must be understood, but then claiming that we can insulate our understanding of it from the fallibility of the intellect by relying on the Sunnah, as if the Sunnah itself does not require understanding. How is it that a verse from the Qur’an cannot be understood without a *hadeeth* from the Prophet ﷺ or one of the *salaf* to explain it, but the *hadeeth* which is supposed to explain the verse can be understood just fine all on its own? Of course, everything requires understanding, and hence depends on the human intellect, with all its fallibility. *Hadeeth* have to be authenticated, their contexts understood, etc. This systematic intellectual undertaking requires methodological principles that require a basis in reason as much as they do revelation. There is just no way around it. But the easiest way to make the point is to ask, why was Islam not revealed to stones instead of human beings? It is not just because stones cannot fire Kalashnikovs because apparently they can. No. What makes humans different from stones are the heart and the intellect. God’s message is addressed to the heart through the intellect, with all its fallibility, and potential despicability. The fundamentalists’ flight from the intellect, their pretense of not depending on it in their understanding of religion, is just the epistemological dimension of their flight from humanity itself—their notion that reverence for God requires contempt for the human, along with creation in general. Essentially, the ‘fundamentalist’ claims to transcend his own humanity, to understand God’s message without the aid of his own fallible intellect, and so basically to speak directly and infallibly with God’s voice. Of course, he will not explicitly say so, because in any case, he will deny that it is he who is speaking. So the incredible arrogance of his stance is cloaked in a kind of false humility. These are not his thoughts. Oh no, he has no thoughts of his own. He is only ‘delivering the message.’ Indeed, the intellect is fallible and *can* be despicable. But as we mentioned, this contempt for the intellect represents only the epistemological dimension of a general contempt for the human in the name of God. Some of its other manifestations are more evident in the Muslim world today. There is a race to degrade and destroy the human, and not just between *takfiri* militant groups executing human beings on video and destroying human heritage. What can we say about regimes that oppress and kill their own human subjects *en masse*, and the supposedly moderate ‘traditional’ scholars who are silent when these human beings are disposed of, but then raise a cry when *takfiri* militants raze a tomb? And we have been told that a single human being is more sacred than the Kaaba (Sunan Ibn Majah 3932). It is clear that disregard for the sanctity of the human being among Muslims today is not limited to just one faction in the petty competition for political power through religious authority. All this might lead one to believe that the secular ‘humanists’ at the other extreme are correct and that reverence for the human does require denial of the Divine. But what they overlook is that even if the intellect were infallible, and humans *were* thoroughly rational, we would find no grounds for reverence for humanity on the basis of reason alone. The angels could not find it when God told them He would place a *khalifa* in the earth. “They said: ‘Will you place therein those who will make mischief and shed blood—while we glorify You with praises and thanks and sanctify You?’” (Qur'an 2:30). God is perfect, and the angels obey Him perfectly. What could possibly be added to that by bringing about a creature that can disobey? Why would God create such a creature, and furthermore command the angels to bow to it? “He said: ‘I know that which you do not know.’” (Qur'an 2:30). If the angels don’t know, then we will not pretend to. In the view of the angels, with the extent of their knowledge, the creation of the human being could serve no aim other than to bring about corruption and destruction. Given what we have seen and are seeing wrought by our own bloody hands today, if the redeeming purpose God has in all this is beyond even their comprehension, then what real hope could someone possibly find in the human race, without trusting, blindly as it were, in something beyond one’s ability to understand? Surely, from the perspective of reason alone, the human race is a plague waiting for a cure. But Allah says, “I know what you do not know.” The secular, self-styled ‘humanist,’ however, says, ‘Nobody knows what I (we…?) don’t know.’ And yet, he doesn’t know why it would not be better for the human race to never have existed at all. He is increasingly convinced that it would have. The only premises that he will allow as rationally defensible lead eventually and inevitably to the conclusion that human life is without any particular value that outweighs the suffering it brings, and that it would be, by any objective measure, better if human beings just stopped reproducing altogether. This, statistically, is one of the rare instances of a philosophical moral proposition that actually has a measurable effect on the real behavior of people in secularized societies. So much, then, for secular ‘humanism.’ Reverence for the Divine—belief in God and trust that He has a plan for humanity beyond our comprehension—is the only thing that makes any real and honest reverence for humanity possible. Regarding human destiny, what can be arrived at through reason alone is, I think, succinctly expressed in Qur’anic verses like the one just mentioned: “Verily we created humanity in the best of molds, and then reduce him to the lowest of the low” (Qur'an 95:4-5), and also, “By time, verily man is in loss” (Qur'an 103:1-2). These express a perennial realization, shared by reflective people throughout history, and captured, for example, in the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. But that which is arrived at only through faith in God, and openness to His message, is expressed in those verses that, in each case, directly follow: “except those who believe and act righteously…”. Here, God shows us that the path to His promise—the mystery of which is known only to Him, and which alone justifies the creation of Adam, God’s command for the angels to bow, and the reverence for humanity that this entails—is the only genuinely grounded humanism possible. God said that He created humanity and *jinn* for no purpose other than to worship Him—*iman* and *amal salih*. The *hadeeth* tell us that the value of our deeds—the condition of their righteousness—rests on the intentions behind them. And thus, “There is no compulsion in religion. Verily the right has been distinguished from the wrong” (Qur'an 2:256). Purity of intention requires that the act be a real choice, free from all forms of compulsion—physical or psychological. A creature that obeys God willingly must of necessity be one with the capacity and opportunity to willingly disobey. Any attempt to negate that capacity, then, amounts to an attempt to obstruct the human being from the purpose of his or her creation. Freedom, in the proper sense, is, therefore, a necessary condition of any human moral value. Simply put, people cannot be forced to be good, or manipulated into being good, or brainwashed into being good. Of course, they can be forced, manipulated, brainwashed, or otherwise coerced into doing that which *would* have real moral value *if* they were to do so freely. But doing so under coercion would be morally worthless. This is the premise of what can fairly be called the liberalism of Islam. I use the term ‘liberalism’ here insofar as it has been used to refer to a similar insight expressed by some modern European thinkers, notably Kant (d. 1804). However, we must differ with him, along with many strains of modern thought on this question, by also asserting that freedom alone is not a sufficient condition for any human moral value. What do we mean by this? First, we agree that no deed of any moral value can be done that is not done by autonomous, voluntary choice. Second, it follows from this that any act done with the intention of unjustly violating the autonomy of another is wrong. We differ, however, with the notion that this exhausts the morally significant considerations. An act can be freely done, not violate anyone else’s freedom, and still be either morally worthless or wrong. This is what I mean by saying that, while freedom is a necessary condition for any human moral value, it is not a sufficient condition for any human moral value. Another way to put this is that, while the value of one’s action depends on its being done freely, the value of one’s freedom depends on what one does with it. Respect for human autonomy, then, does not follow from freedom being an unconditional value, because it is not an unconditional value. It follows, rather, from freedom being unconditionally necessary for the human act to have any value at all. In asserting this, I am resisting the common trend in the west to reduce all morality to the principle of autonomy, to enshrine freedom as the only objective moral value, and to relegate all other moral considerations as merely subjective individual preferences, or culturally relative ‘fetishes.’ This is crucial to distinguish the true Islamic liberalism from the dominant strands of Western liberalism which, I argue, are ultimately empty, incoherent, and therefore impossible to realize in practice. Therefore, when I speak of Islamic liberalism, I mean nothing like what is currently being marketed as ‘liberal Islam.’ For the fact of having the capacity to choose can only be objectively valuable and meaningful if it is the case that some concrete choices are objectively better than others. If all concrete choices are taken as morally equivalent by any objective standard—that is, if the value of any concrete choice is merely a subjective matter—then there is no objective value in being able to choose. In wrongly enshrining autonomy as the only objective moral value, western liberalism has declared us free, while rendering that freedom, along with our lives, ultimately meaningless. But to be fair, the sort of liberalism I am opposing here does not directly consider all concrete choices as morally equivalent. What it does claim is that the only objective measure of the moral value of a concrete choice lies with the question of whether the choice violates the principle of autonomy. Simply put, the only thing that makes any action objectively wrong is that it would unjustly restrict another’s freedom to act; and the only objective measure of its goodness is the degree to which it expands the freedom to act, without, of course, unjustly restricting it. This entails that the only objective standard by which to distinguish a just restriction of freedom from an unjust restriction lies, again, in whether the restriction in question involves an act that would itself unjustly restrict the freedom of others. In other words, the only justification for limiting anyone’s rights is to protect the rights of others. We can already see how this will lead to circularity, without providing any real definition as to what rights are universal. This, essentially, is why this form of liberalism turns out to be theoretically incoherent and practically impossible. There are various answers to this problem on offer, and in all fairness, one would have to treat each in detail in order to argue that the problem is insoluble. But that would be a lengthy discussion outside the scope of what I can do here. Let me, then, simply articulate the following position, in laying out an initial defense and clarification of what I take to be ‘Islamic liberalism.’ The only way to sufficiently and coherently define the just limits of individual freedom, is by reference to a substantive objective conception of the good, which is not reducible to the value of freedom alone, and the validity of which is not contingent on mere subjective preference. In other words, John Stuart Mill (d. 1873) was mistaken to claim that the only measure of the value of anything is whether someone desires it. And Immanuel Kant (d. 1804) was over-reaching when he claimed that his categorical imperative was alone sufficient to resolve all real moral questions. This is just an introduction to what I see as the crucial project of defining and defending the nature of an “Islamic liberalism” against the misguided, incoherent, and eventually imperialistic and destructive versions of liberalism that currently dominate western culture. Of course, this project requires a more detailed demonstration of the fallacies of these false liberalisms than I have had occasion to present here. More importantly, the practical, ethical, and political implications of Islamic liberalism need to be drawn out more fully. This means that a comprehensive and clear set of principles for distinguishing just from unjust restrictions of freedom needs to be drawn on the basis of a substantive Islamic conception of the good. In addition, there are various concepts of freedom, autonomy, and agency that need to be distinguished and clarified in terms of their relation to contingent material conditions of life, and their particular moral salience with regard to first-order moral judgments. This work will be crucial, not only for defending the integrity of Islam from destructive, incoherent notions of liberty but most importantly for clarifying and defending the rightful value of human freedom under an Islamic liberalism, to a Muslim world which, sadly but undeniably, seems gravely and dangerously oblivious to it. --- ## Notes [^1]: [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/iraq-yazidis-islamic-state-sinjar-2014856612595603.html](http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/iraq-yazidis-islamic-state-sinjar-2014856612595603.html) [^2]: [http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/11/world/meast/iraq-rescue-mission/index.html](http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/11/world/meast/iraq-rescue-mission/index.html) [^3]: [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/iraq-yazidis-living-fear-mount-sinjar-160726063155982.html](http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/iraq-yazidis-living-fear-mount-sinjar-160726063155982.html) [^4]: [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/iraq-yazidis-caught-crossfire-201462412464507378.html](http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/iraq-yazidis-caught-crossfire-201462412464507378.html) ## Summary **On the Reverence Due to the Human Being and the Meaning of an Islamic Liberalism** Amidst the turmoil of the Middle East, one hears strange reports, such as the claim that certain groups revere Iblīs for having refused to prostrate to Ādam when Allah commanded the angels to do so. The reasoning attributed to this view is that Iblīs was, supposedly, a pure monotheist who would bow to none but Allah. Yet rather than dwell upon what any particular community actually believes, it is more fruitful to examine the idea itself: that refusing to bow to Ādam expresses purity of faith rather than rebellion against God. The orthodox response is that such reasoning disregards the content of God's command. Submission to God is not merely the refusal to submit to anything else; it is a positive act of obedience requiring a specific command—a "do this"—so that submission becomes real when the deed is performed, whether it be circling the Kaʿbah seven times, running between the two hills, throwing stones at the pillars, or bowing to Ādam. In this first instance of rebellion, the command was to prostrate to Ādam. It may sound clever to claim that disobedience here is a purer form of submission—indeed, the very kind of reasoning the devil himself might offer—but when God questioned him, Iblīs could not conceal his true motive: "I am better than him" (Qur'an 38:76). Thus any pretense of submitting to nothing but God was exposed, for there was something he placed before Allah. Herein lies the real meaning of Iblīs' rebellion, and also the exposure of the notion that arrogance and contempt toward creation, and toward humanity in particular, could somehow express *tawḥīd*. It is therefore deeply ironic that groups such as Daesh accuse others of devil worship. When we set aside these sources of confusion, the matter becomes clear: God did not command the angels to worship other than Him when He ordered them to bow to Ādam. On the contrary, in prostrating at God's command they performed an act of worship directed to none but God, while that very act expressed reverence toward Ādam, to whom God decreed reverence should be shown through an act as humble as bowing. Those who would charge the angels with idolatry for obeying this command may as well level the same charge against those who obey God's command to love the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. We need not, then, debate what others believe; let us instead concentrate upon what God commands. If the angels were commanded to revere Ādam, what follows for us? We revere Ādam as a prophet, but it is worth remembering that the first prophet was also the first human being; humanity and prophethood share the same root. This leads to the conclusion that God's decree of reverence for Ādam is at once a decree of reverence for humanity. This is not a hasty conclusion, though the stature of an ordinary person is not equal to that of Ādam, who was a prophet and the father of mankind, reported to have been sixty cubits tall. Still, he is the root and we the branches; his blood runs in our veins, and like all prophets he is an exemplar—a God-given model of humanity at its most perfect. For "Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it is capable of" (Qur'an 2:286), so a prophet embodies nothing more than the fully realized potential of any human being. Yet we are not all that we could be: "Verily, We created humanity in the best mold. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low" (Qur'an 95:4–5), followed by the promise, "Except those who believe and do righteous deeds. They will have a reward without end" (Qur'an 95:6). Thus the command to bow to Ādam is also a command to revere the potential inherent in every human being. From this it follows that reverence for the Divine is impossible without reverence for the human, and true reverence for the human is impossible without reverence for the Divine. Two opposite extremes deviate from this position. The first holds that reverence for God requires rejecting reverence for the human—the implicit rationale of various "fundamentalisms" and of *takfīrī* extremism. The second holds that reverence for the human requires rejecting God—the premise of secular "humanism" that uses reverence for humanity to justify atheism and the elimination of religion. Each has an epistemological dimension. The humanist trusts in the self-sufficiency of the human intellect and regards reliance upon God in matters beyond understanding as a degrading humiliation. The so-called fundamentalist, by contrast, emphasizes the fallibility of the intellect and then claims to achieve infallibility by bypassing it and relying directly upon revelation. The fundamentalists are correct that the intellect is fallible, but they slander it by depicting it as essentially despicable, and they deceive when they claim not to employ it in understanding their religion. For guidance from revelation is impossible without understanding revelation, and understanding is impossible without the intellect. The fallibility of the intellect therefore necessarily entails fallibility in our understanding of revelation—this is simply the human condition—and since none can escape it, epistemic humility is a moral necessity. Many claim to insulate their understanding of the Qur'an by relying on the Sunnah, as if the Sunnah itself required no understanding. But how can a verse not be understood without a *ḥadīth* to explain it, while the *ḥadīth* is understood on its own? Everything requires understanding, and *ḥadīth* themselves must be authenticated and their contexts grasped—a systematic undertaking that rests upon reason as much as revelation. The simplest way to make the point is to ask why Islam was not revealed to stones instead of human beings; what distinguishes the human from the stone is the heart and the intellect, and God's message is addressed to the heart through the intellect. The fundamentalist's flight from the intellect is thus the epistemological dimension of his flight from humanity itself, cloaked in a false humility while masking incredible arrogance, since he effectively claims to speak with God's voice while denying that he speaks at all. This contempt for the human in the name of God appears in other forms as well. There is a race to degrade and destroy the human—not only among *takfīrī* militants who execute human beings on video and destroy heritage, but also among regimes that oppress and kill their subjects *en masse*, and among "traditional" scholars who fall silent over slain human beings yet cry out when a tomb is razed. We have been told that a single human being is more sacred than the Kaʿbah (Sunan Ibn Mājah 3932). Disregard for the sanctity of the human being is therefore not confined to a single faction. Yet this does not vindicate the secular humanist, for even were the intellect infallible and humans thoroughly rational, reason alone would furnish no grounds for reverence toward humanity. The angels themselves could not find it when God announced He would place a *khalīfah* upon the earth: "They said: 'Will You place therein those who will make mischief and shed blood—while we glorify You with praises and thanks and sanctify You?'" (Qur'an 2:30). God's reply was: "I know that which you do not know" (Qur'an 2:30). If the angels, with their knowledge, saw only corruption and bloodshed in the creation of man, then given what our own bloody hands have wrought, what hope could anyone find in the human race except by trusting in something beyond comprehension? The secular humanist, however, insists that no one knows what he does not know, yet cannot explain why it would not have been better for humanity never to exist—a conclusion toward which his premises inevitably drive him, and one that measurably affects behavior in secularized societies. Reverence for the Divine, and trust that God has a plan beyond our comprehension, is therefore the only thing that makes honest reverence for humanity possible. What reason alone can reach is expressed in verses such as "Verily We created humanity in the best of molds, and then reduced him to the lowest of the low" (Qur'an 95:4–5) and "By time, verily man is in loss" (Qur'an 103:1–2)—a perennial realization shared by reflective people, captured, for example, in the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. What only faith can reach is expressed in the exception that follows each: "except those who believe and act righteously." God created humanity and *jinn* for no purpose but to worship Him through *īmān* and *ʿamal ṣāliḥ*, and the *ḥadīth* teach that the value of deeds rests upon intention. Thus "There is no compulsion in religion. Verily the right has been distinguished from the wrong" (Qur'an 2:256). Purity of intention requires that an act be a free choice, unmarred by compulsion; a creature that obeys willingly must be capable of disobeying willingly, and to negate that capacity is to obstruct the human being from the purpose of his creation. Freedom, properly understood, is therefore a necessary condition of any human moral value—people cannot be forced, manipulated, or brainwashed into being good, for such acts under coercion are morally worthless. This is the premise of what may fairly be called the liberalism of Islam, a term used insofar as it names an insight expressed by thinkers such as Kant (d. 1804). Yet we must differ with him and with much modern thought by insisting that freedom alone is not a *sufficient* condition of moral value. No deed of value can be done except by voluntary choice, and any act intended to violate another's autonomy is wrong; but an act may be freely done, violate no one's freedom, and still be worthless or wrong. While the value of one's action depends on its being free, the value of one's freedom depends on what one does with it. Respect for autonomy follows not from freedom being an unconditional value—for it is not—but from freedom being unconditionally necessary for any human act to have value at all. This resists the Western trend of reducing all morality to autonomy, enshrining freedom as the sole objective value and relegating all else to subjective preference. Such dominant Western liberalism is ultimately empty, incoherent, and impossible to realize, and true Islamic liberalism is nothing like what is marketed as "liberal Islam." For the capacity to choose is objectively valuable only if some concrete choices are objectively better than others; if all choices are morally equivalent, there is no objective value in choosing. To be fair, this liberalism does not directly equate all choices, but holds that the only objective measure of a choice's value is whether it violates the principle of autonomy—the only wrong being the unjust restriction of another's freedom, the only justification for limiting rights being to protect the rights of others. This reasoning collapses into circularity, never defining which rights are universal, which is why it proves theoretically incoherent and practically impossible. The only coherent way to define the just limits of freedom is by reference to a substantive, objective conception of the good, not reducible to freedom alone nor contingent upon subjective preference. John Stuart Mill (d. 1873) erred in claiming that the only measure of anything's value is whether someone desires it, and Kant (d. 1804) over-reached in claiming his categorical imperative alone could resolve all moral questions. This remains only an introduction to the crucial project of defining and defending an "Islamic liberalism" against the incoherent and eventually destructive liberalisms dominating Western culture—a project requiring a fuller demonstration of their fallacies, a clearer articulation of the ethical and political implications, and a comprehensive set of principles, grounded in a substantive Islamic conception of the good, for distinguishing just from unjust restrictions of freedom. Such work is needed not only to defend Islam from destructive notions of liberty but, more importantly, to clarify the rightful value of human freedom to a Muslim world that seems gravely and dangerously oblivious to it. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/war-islam-and-the-sanctity-of-life-non-aggression-in-the-islamic-code-of-combat # War, Islam, and the Sanctity of Life: Non-Aggression in the Islamic Code of Combat **Author:** Hassan Shibly **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 3, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction The protection of life, as we know, is a fundamental value and objective in Islam. Peace should be the normal state of affairs between people, regardless of differences in religion, philosophy, or anything else. Peace, however, is won at the cost of repelling unjust aggression against innocent people. To this end, Islam and its scholarly tradition have laid down rules regarding warfare, both what justifies a declaration of war (*jus ad bellum*) and how a just war should be conducted after its declaration (*jus in bello*). The Islamic just war tradition, in fact, precedes and foreshadows a number of agreed-upon principles in modern just war theory. This article focuses on the second part of Islam’s just war theory: the specific rulings that prohibit the excessive use of force. These rules safeguard the lives and properties of civilians and the environment, mandate that prisoners of war be treated humanely, and forbid any military tactics involving the use of torture or terrorism. --- ## The Principle of Non-Aggression A central principle that runs all throughout Islamic teachings on warfare is that of *non-aggression*: one must never initiate aggression and should only respond to it proportionately. The basis of this principle is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, “Do not cause harm nor return harm.”[^1] This statement became one of the essential “five maxims” that govern all actions in Islamic law.[^2] Every action that causes harm to another person or animal is forbidden by default, unless it is taken to secure a greater benefit or repel a greater harm according to the subsidiary principle, “Greater harm is removed by lesser harm.”[^3] It is forbidden in Islam to remove a lesser harm with a greater harm. War is one of the greatest of human activities that cause harm to people, animals, and the environment. Hence, it should not be undertaken except to repel an even greater harm as God said, “Persecution is worse than killing.”[^4] The persecution condemned by this verse refers to the Quraish who violently suppressed the practice of Islam, preventing people from performing pilgrimage at the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and driving Muslims out of their homes for no reason other than their beliefs. War, which involves killing, is certainly an evil, but the evil of this religious persecution was greater. Persecution at that time involved the violent curtailment of freedom to practice faith and systematic violent oppression of the poor and weak. Islamic just war was instituted to ensure Muslims would not have to endure the same suffering as that of their predecessors. Sometimes the historical prescriptions of Muslim scholars are interpreted in ways that appear to violate the principle of non-aggression. For example, some jurists developed a concept of “offensive jihad” *(jihad al-talab*) which involves attacking the enemy in their own lands. It is analogous to the Western concept of preemptive war, taking initiative against a credible threat. In the pre-modern world of expanding dynastic empires, such “offensive” activities were deemed necessary for purposes of self-defense. As the Arabs would say, “When the Romans are not campaigned against, they campaign (against you).”[^5] It is only in this sense that the verse, “Fight in God’s cause against those who fight you,”[^6] was claimed by some jurists to be “abrogated” by the “verse of the sword.” As explained by the exegete Al-Badawi, the latter verses authorized war against “those who fight you *or from whom that is expected.*”[^7] The principle of non-aggression itself was not abrogated or canceled, but rather Muslims were commanded to take the initiative against actual threats to their safety, namely the Roman and Persian empires, instead of waiting to be attacked in their own lands. For this reason, jurists like Ibn Taymiyyah asserted that the Quran and the majority of scholars only authorize warfare against others on the condition that they wage or threaten war first.[^8] He exempted all categories of people from aggression except for the “people of combat and obstruction,” that is, those who attack Muslims or who violently prevent them from practicing their religion. Non-combatants such as women, children, monks, elders, the blind, and others may not be attacked unless they join the war effort.[^9] The Prophet ﷺ’s principle of non-aggression not only prevents unjust wars from starting, it also prevents injustice from occurring once war has already been declared. We now turn our attention to how Islam established rules, based upon non-aggression, to minimize the harms of warfare as much as possible. --- ## Justice in War (Jus in Bello) Just as “persecution is worse than killing” is the key verse describing what authorizes a just war (*jus ad bellum*), the following verse highlights the Islamic criteria for justice in war, or how war is properly fought within its rules of engagement: > *Fight in God's cause against those who fight you, but do not overstep the limits: God does not love those who overstep the limits.[^10]*[^10] This was the first verse in the Quran commanding Muslims to fight. Prior to this verse and others giving Muslims permission to fight, the Quran “advised Muslims to be patient against pains inflicted on them by disbelievers, even to ignore and forgive when they can.”[^11] However, when it became necessary for Muslims to fight back against aggression, lest they be killed, this verse was revealed commanding the Muslims to go to war. From this verse, many critical Islamic rules of engagement are derived. The first and most important principle is this: *Fighting is limited to those individuals who fight you, to combatants alone.* The verse says explicitly “Fight against those who fight you,” and therefore civilians may not be targeted. As Michael Walzer, a preeminent scholar of modern just war theory, argues, the killing of combatants can only occur when a war has been legally declared.[^12] Islam complements this argument. Muslim jurists have derived from the above verse that it is impermissible to kill those not engaged in the actual fighting, especially women, children, the elderly, priests, monks, the handicapped, and even laborers or farmers who work for the enemy but are not directly involved in the fighting.[^13] This is highlighted by the statement of Abu Bakr, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s closest companion, and second-in-command, when he instructed his army as recorded in the earliest manual of Islamic law: > *You will find a people who claim to have totally given themselves to God. Leave them to what they claim to have given themselves… Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place. Do not slaughter sheep or camels except for food. Do not burn bees and do not scatter them. Do not steal from the spoils, and do not be cowardly.*[^14] The Prophet ﷺ himself set this precedent in a number of his actions and directives. On one occasion, after a woman was found to have been killed in the battle, the Prophet ﷺ “condemned” the killing of women and children.[^15] In another narration, the Prophet ﷺ explained his condemnation by saying, “She was not fighting,” demonstrating non-combatant immunity, and he further commanded his companions not to kill workers.[^16] The message of non-aggression was even written on the Prophet ﷺ’s sword as a reminder to all, “Verily, the worst of people in insolence are those who strike at whoever did not strike them, a man who kills those who did not fight him.”[^17] There are many narrations and traditions like these that emphasize protecting the lives of civilians and noncombatants. In light of this principle, an additional rule of engagement must be emphasized: *Transgressing the limits is prohibited.* On the battlefield, the old, the weak, women, children, monks, laborers, and other civilians cannot be targeted unless they forfeit that immunity by fighting themselves. Even then, force is authorized only in proportion to the threat, so killing them should be avoided if at all possible. Two more rules outlaw cruelty against combatants and destruction of property: 1) *Mutilation and torture are prohibited*; and 2) *Destruction of crops, trees, livestock or civilian infrastructure is not permissible except in certain limited circumstances* (explored later on). These very principles were affirmed by Article 3 of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, issued and adopted at the Nineteenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Cairo in 1990, which was based on traditional *Sharia* (or principles of Islamic Law): > *a) In the event of the use of force and in case of armed conflict, it is not permissible to kill non-belligerents such as old men, women and children. The wounded and the sick shall have the right to medical treatment; and prisoners of war shall have the right to be fed, sheltered, and clothed. It is prohibited to mutilate dead bodies. It is a duty to exchange prisoners of war and to arrange visits or reunions of the families separated by the circumstances of war.* > > *b) It is prohibited to fell trees, to damage crops or livestock, and to destroy the enemy’s civilian buildings and installations by shelling, blasting or any other means.*[^18] Thus, the Quran and Sunnah clearly provide stringent protections for noncombatants during warfare. Civilians may in no way be intentionally targeted. The Quran emphasizes this rule by saying, “Do not transgress, for God does not love transgressors.” In other words, fighting is limited to combatants—those who are engaged in fighting—and killing anyone besides them is a prohibited transgression hated by God according to Islamic Law. Unsurprisingly, these rules are consistent with Walzer’s modern theory. The Quran is very clear about the gravity of taking innocent life: > *On account of \[his deed\], We decreed to the Children of Israel that if anyone kills a person—unless in retribution for murder or spreading corruption in the land—it is as if he kills all mankind, while if any saves a life it is as if he saves the lives of all mankind.*[^19] Here, the Quran makes a prohibition and an order simultaneously. It declares that taking an innocent human life is tantamount to mass murder, for approving one murder is to morally approve of every murder. At the same time, the verse makes it permissible for the state to use the death penalty under the strictest of conditions (discussion of which is beyond the scope of this article). Nonetheless, the enormity of killing a single person should give every believer pause if its legality is disputable, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “The most restrained of the people regarding killing are the people of faith.”[^20] The Quran is also deliberately worded towards protecting all life, including the lives of non-Muslims. It does not say, “If anyone kills a Muslim, it would be as if he killed all mankind.” Rather, the word used in Arabic is *nafs*, meaning “a soul” or “a life,” regardless of faith or ethnicity or any other identity trait. The murder of any life is tantamount to mass murder and a crime against humanity (in the literal sense); it is absolutely prohibited in the strongest terms. However, the Quran clearly makes it permissible to kill combatants during warfare. According to just war theory, as outlined by Walzer, enemy combatants may legitimately be killed at any point, even when they are unarmed, as long as they are not wounded or captured.[^21] He makes a detailed case that it is legally and morally justified to kill enemy soldiers at any point during warfare and that even when not actively engaged in fighting at the time, designated soldiers do not regain their right to life. In the same vein, the Quran too considers the killing of enemy soldiers during a war to be legitimate, which is the context of the verse, “Kill them wherever you encounter them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, for persecution is more serious than killing.”[^22] This verse was revealed after the signing of the Hudaybiyyah treaty when Muslims were about to embark on a pilgrimage to Mecca. They did not know how to react if they were met with aggression. Were they allowed to fight back against those who attacked them? Were they allowed to take back land and property wrongfully taken from them by force? This verse answered those questions. Namely, that it is permissible to attack and kill the combatants with whom you are at war and also to reclaim wrongfully taken land and property using proportional force. It would be entirely misleading to cite the clause “Kill them wherever you find them” without reference to the surrounding verses or the historical and legal context. Often some non-Muslims and even Muslims misquote this verse to justify their own agendas as if the Quran was inciting wanton violence. However, this verse is very clear when interpreted within its proper context. It defines important limits in warfare. It does not permit the unrestrained killing of people “wherever you find them.” The Quran ends this verse by saying “this is what such disbelievers deserve,” referring to the idolaters who attacked the Muslims in Mecca. It should be noted that this clause does not make it permissible to kill non-Muslims simply because of their non-belief in Islam, as the previous verse only permitted attacking those who attacked first. Noncombatant men, women, children, elderly and so on were never targeted by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s army. In fact, Mecca was eventually liberated from the oppressive Quraish aristocracy and not a single drop of blood was shed, despite the fact that many of the idolaters who had persecuted Muslims for years were now vulnerable. They were all pardoned except for a few of the worst war criminals.[^23] Finally, the relevant passage ends with the following mitigating qualifications: > *But if they stop, then God is most forgiving and merciful. Fight them until there is no more persecution, and worship is devoted to God. If they cease hostilities, there can be no \[further\] hostility, except towards aggressors. A sacred month for a sacred month: violation of sanctity \[calls for\] fair retribution. So if anyone commits aggression against you, attack him as he attacked you, but be mindful of God, and know that He is with those who are mindful of Him.*[^24] A concise picture of just war theory comes into focus. The passage reiterates the reason for fighting: to bring an end to aggression and oppression. That “worship is devoted to God” means that God’s law of justice is upheld and the natural rights of all are protected. It does not require people to actually embrace Islam individually, but only that they uphold social justice consistent with Islamic and humanitarian values. Moreover, if enemies desist in their fighting, such as when a soldier surrenders or a state calls for a peace treaty, then their peace offering should be accepted without any retribution (except for individuals guilty of war crimes). As the Quran states elsewhere, “But if they incline towards peace, you \[Prophet\] must also incline towards it, and put your trust in God.”[^25] Even individual combatants must be granted asylum if they request it, “If any of the idolaters should seek your protection \[Prophet\], grant it to him so that he may hear the word of God, then take him to a place safe for him, for they are people with no knowledge \[of it\].”[^26] The Quran emphasizes that peace should be made with the enemy, regardless of their faith or race or any other characteristic of their identity. Peace is always preferred as long as the enemy inclines towards it and quits its aggression. At that point, there is no authorization for hostility except against those who continue their aggression or who have committed war crimes. Furthermore, if an enemy combatant seeks refuge, Muslims are ordered to grant him it. That being said, we can affirm the following rules of engagement: - *War is allowed only to end aggression or persecution.* - *Peace offerings should be accepted on their face.* - *Enemy soldiers who surrender should not be harmed.* Now that the basic foundation of just war has been established, we will move on to discuss its details. --- ## Prisoners of War (POWs) As proven earlier, enemies who surrender or stop fighting must be given safety. The Quran declares that giving charity to prisoners of war is on par with feeding the poor and needy, saying of the believers, “They give food to the poor, the orphan, and the captive, though they love it themselves.”[^27] According to the earliest exegete Al-Ṭabari, the “captive” in this verse is “the combatant from the land of war who has been taken by force in victory… Thus, God praised these righteous people for their feeding of these \[prisoners\], seeking closeness to God and His pleasure by that, and their mercy for them.”[^28] In other words, the early believers gave up their own food, which they desired, to the same prisoners who had previously been attacking them. Islam prescribed an ingenious solution to the dilemma of what to do with prisoners of war. This dilemma has troubled states since the dawn of time and continues to cause moral predicaments in the modern world, as seen in the military prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Walzer addresses this issue, writing: > *A soldier who surrenders enters into an agreement with his captors: he will stop fighting if they will accord him what the legal handbooks call “benevolent quarantine”… Prisoners of war have the right to try to escape—they cannot be punished for the attempt—but if they kill a guard in order to escape, the killing is not an act of war; it is murder. For they committed themselves to stop fighting, gave up their right to kill, when they surrendered.[^29]*[^29] While this sounds ideal, it is vague and rarely put into true practice today. What exactly constitutes “benevolent quarantine”? How long should prisoners be imprisoned? How can they attain their freedom? Throughout history there have been a few standard options regarding the treatment of prisoners of war: ### Execute Them Plain and simple, and perhaps the quickest and easiest solution for captors. This, of course, is morally reprehensible except as a legal punishment for bona fide war criminals. Execution as a general prescription is against both Islamic and modern just war principles. ### Imprison Them This action is compatible with Islam and just war theory on the condition that prisoners are not mistreated. The disadvantage of this system, even when instituted appropriately, is that it hurts both the captives and captors. For the captives, it forces them to be locked up indefinitely, where they can neither benefit themselves nor society. For their captors, it imposes hardship on their society as they must pay for the prisoner’s shelter, food, medical treatment, and guards, among other things. Logistically, without the resources to construct mass systems of incarceration with appropriately staffed and furnished buildings, this would have been impossible to implement in the aftermath of a large battle. In historical practice, it has been rare that prisoners were held in ideal conditions. They were often subject to inhumane treatment with no clear end in sight but escape or execution. ### Release Them This is the most generous solution, but it is entirely impractical and can even be dangerous. If your enemies know that they will merely be released whenever they are captured, they know that they can later regroup and attack you again. Since none of these solutions are morally or practically viable as a general rule, Islam took an existing practice and humanized, transformed, and reformed it: the system of *ruq*, or bondage, sometimes incorrectly equated with chattel slavery. Each prisoner was assigned to one household of the Muslim community. That household was responsible for providing the bondsman with adequate shelter and the same quality of food and clothing shared by all members of the family. The bondsman, in turn, would assist the family with routine chores and labor. This relationship would continue until the bondsman was ransomed by his own community, he was freed by his caretaker, or he bought his own freedom. In this way, the prisoner made use of his time and benefited himself and society without being mistreated or being a burden on society. In addition, the requirement for monetary payment to be freed served as a deterrent to enemies. The Islamic system certainly qualifies as “benevolent quarantine” in modern just war theory. The prisoner is protected from abuse and given the same quality treatment and living standards as the household master he is assigned to live with. The prisoner is also is able to pay back this good treatment with his labor, so as not to disadvantage the community. In order to ensure the objectives of this system, the Prophet ﷺ imposed several rules and restrictions on bondage. The caretaker could not change the name of his bondsman and thereby do violence to his family lineage. The bondsman needed to be given the opportunity to work towards purchasing their own freedom, as the Quran states, “If any of your bondsmen wish to pay for their freedom, make a contract with them accordingly.”[^30] The bondsman had to be treated as an equal, his natural rights respected, and not be burdened with too much work. One of the companions, Abu Dharr, was seen wearing the same clothing as his bondsman. When he was asked why, he said that the Prophet ﷺ once censured him for abusing his bondsman, saying: > *They are your brothers and sisters. God has placed them in your hands. Whoever has his brother under him should feed him with the same food he eats, clothe him with the same clothes he wears, and not burden him beyond his ability. If you burden him, then help him.*[^31] Freeing bondsmen is also greatly rewarded by God and is even required for the expiation of many sins. The Quran describes the path to salvation as “to free a bondsman.”[^32] The Prophet ﷺ encouraged freeing captives in general, whenever possible, saying, “Feed the hungry, visit the sick, and set the captives free.”[^33] He also made it a rule that simply slapping a bondsman or servant in a humiliating way necessitated their freedom, “Whoever strikes his bondsman without limit or slaps him, then the expiation for the sin is to emancipate him.”[^34] As can be seen from the above restrictions, the system of bondage in Islam was designed to integrate prisoners of war as productive members of society. Sometimes bondsmen would convert to Islam when receiving such graceful treatment. The sign of Islam’s truth is the fact that so many of its former enemies, like Umar ibn Al-Khattab and Abu Sufyan, eventually came to accept it willingly. The bondage system was so successful in many cases that entire classes of bondsmen or their children achieved high social status and even became rulers in the Muslim world, such as the Mamluks (“those who were owned”) in the Ottoman Empire. This system, unfortunately, has been unfairly characterized as equivalent to how Native Americans and Africans were treated by their European and American slave masters. These slaves were usually given no or little rights, mistreated, ruthlessly beaten, and sometimes killed. But the similarity between “slavery” in Islam and the European/American slavery system is only in the name people have given to it.[^35] Bondsmen under Islamic law were under control for completely different reasons, as prisoners of war rather than because of their race. Prisoners in Islam were treated far better and given the opportunity for upward social mobility. Furthermore, as mentioned, Islam encouraged and facilitated the freeing of bondsmen. The Islamic system, in fact, can be a fair and benevolent alternative to the treatment of prisoners in modern times. It could be argued that the Western standard for how prisoners of war are treated—as seen at Guantanamo Bay and other “black sites”—is in reality much less humane than the traditional Islamic system. --- ## Double Effect In war, sometimes military actions must be taken that will invariably take civilian lives and destroy property. Can such actions be considered just? The doctrine of “double effect” takes into consideration that any military action might have two elements, a positive effect and a negative effect, with the positive effect being what is intended. A negative effect can be justified as the lesser of two evils. Walzer asserts that this doctrine is the basis for accepting a reasonable degree of collateral damage: > *\[I\]t is permissible to perform an act likely to have evil consequences (like the killing of noncombatants) provided the following four conditions hold: 1) The act is good in itself or at least indifferent, which means, for our purposes that it is a legitimate act of war. 2) The direct effect is morally acceptable—the destruction of military supplies, for example, or the killing of enemy soldiers. 3) The intention of the actor is good, that is, he aims only at the acceptable effect; the evil effect is not one of his ends, nor is it a means to his ends. 4) The good effect is sufficiently good to compensate for allowing the evil effect; it must be justifiable under Sidgwick’s proportionality rule.*[^36] In other words, Walzer argues that it is just and acceptable to take military actions that may have harmful unintended consequences, like the deaths of civilians, as long as the initial act is legitimate and the positive outcome (repelling a threat) is the primary motive. The evil consequence must not be the purpose and aim of the action and, importantly, the evil effects must be sufficiently outweighed by the positive outcome(s) of the action. This understanding is consistent with Islamic law principles that allow a greater harm to be removed by a lesser harm, to attempt to calculate as much as possible the net benefit and harm of an action. As a rule, it was clear that the Prophet ﷺ absolutely forbade the intentional targeting and killing of civilians in all circumstances, particularly women and children. Even so, due to the generally accepted principle of military necessity and choosing the lesser of two evils, as limited by the four conditions of double effect, the Prophet ﷺ conceded to the permissibility of taking military action when it might result in harm to civilians, but only if such actions were necessary and unavoidable. The condition remained that civilians could not be targeted purposefully, but legitimate military actions realistically expected to result in collateral damage need not be prohibited altogether. Of course, this does not justify direct attacks against civilians or any action that is likely to cause disproportionate harm. This understanding was expressed by Imam Muslim in a chapter of his entitled, “Permissibility of killing women and children in night raids if it is not deliberate.” He cites an incident in which the Prophet ﷺ conducted a night raid against the enemy and some women and children were found later to have been killed accidentally. The Prophet ﷺ was asked about them and he said, “They are from them.”[^37] It was considered the fault of the enemy for putting their civilians in proximity to a legitimate military target. This incident established the principle of military necessity in Islam, as limited by the conditions of double effect. Though the killing of noncombatants is terribly reprehensible, it may at times be unavoidable while taking action to push back against the enemy’s aggression. If the prohibition of killing civilians was absolute in each and every circumstance, even when unavoidable and unintended, it would essentially allow the enemy to use human shields to advance their campaign. No reasonable military leader would accept such a disadvantage. To be clear, this concession may not be stretched to the point of directly targeting civilians or causing disproportionate destruction. Islam and just war theory do not allow the concept of the “greater good” to be manipulated for demonstrably evil results. Under the same principle of military necessity and double effect, Islam generally prohibits the destruction of enemy fields, farms, and infrastructure, as mentioned by the command of Abu Bakr cited previously. However, this rule too is subject to the principle of double effect. The Quran permitted the burning of enemy trees if necessary, yet at the same time did not obligate or recommend such tactics, “Whatever you may have done to \[their\] palm trees—cutting them down or leaving them standing on their roots—was done by God's leave, so that He might disgrace those who defied Him.”[^38] This verse revealed regarding a specific Jewish tribe in Medina, Banu Nadir, who had betrayed the Muslims in violation of the Medina Charter by aiding the Quraysh’s war efforts. It was not an attack on them simply because they were Jewish. During the attack, it was suggested that their palm trees, which offered Banu Nadir protection and resources to continue fighting, should be burnt down. The Muslims disagreed over whether this action should be taken, but the verse validated an attack on their palm trees. It was an action that was normally prohibited, but which became lawful due to necessity. As a result of this verse, the Muslim scholar Shaykh Ibn Humam rules that attacking enemy plant life and infrastructure is legitimate during war “only if the enemy cannot be vanquished or overpowered without resorting to the above measures.”[^39] Once again, a normally prohibited action is only allowed as a concession to military necessity. The concession is not something good in itself, rather it is only made permissible when the only alternative is worse. The unlawful expansion of such concessions, to the point of intentionally causing wanton death and destruction, is the essence of terrorism to which we now turn our attention. --- ## Terrorism Terrorism has been defined as the “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.”[^40] Any form of terrorism, or violation of non-aggression principles, is an entirely illegitimate war crime in both Islamic law and modern just war theory, for all of the reasons we have outlined up to this point.  Sometimes, regrettably, the Quran is translated in a manner that seems to encourage terror, such as the verse: “Prepare whatever forces you \[believers\] can muster, including warhorses, to frighten off God's enemies and yours, and warn others unknown to you but known to God.”[^41] The context is evident that the purpose is not to frighten whole societies or intimidate people towards some self-serving political goal, but instead to deter potential threats. The “fear” or “terror” is not generated from an actual attack, especially not an attack on civilians or their property. The purpose is *deterrence, not terror*. Moreover, immediately following this verse is the command to accept peace, as previously cited, which lets us know that such deterrence only applies to enemy aggressors. Deterrence is another legitimate action in just war theory. According to political scientists Frank Zagare and D. Marc Kilgour, successful deterrence to avoid war requires not only capability but also credibility within “the norm of reciprocity.”[^42] When a state has both the capability and credibility to carry out a threat or respond to an attack, war is less likely to break out. A state that attacks another state should expect a counter-attack. During the Cold War, it was the doctrine of mutually-assured destruction or “the balance of power,” rooted in reciprocal deterrence, that prevented the Soviet Union and the United States from unleashing a global nuclear holocaust. In order to preserve the peace, the Quran advocates for building up military preparation as a deterrent against possible threats. This is the context in which “terror” is used in the Quran, even though the term used could be translated differently to avoid this undue connotation. The Quran in no way justifies the intentional killing of innocent civilians, or “terrorism” as understood today. Even Bernard Lewis, a scholar known to be highly critical of Muslims, admits as much, “At no point do the basic texts of Islam enjoin terrorism and murder.”[^43] As the serious academic study of terrorism has shown, the alleged relationship between Islam and terrorism is spurious at best and dangerous at worst. Political scientist Robert Pape studied suicide terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists (or deviants, a more accurate description) and found that Islam itself was not the motivation: > *The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions… Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective.*[^44] Pape also warns about the dangers of policies that assume Islam to be the root cause of terrorism, “…the presumed connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism is misleading and may be encouraging domestic and foreign policies likely to worsen America’s situation and to harm many Muslims needlessly.”[^45] Muslims and non-Muslims are both being hurt by an erroneous political discourse that blames Islam, and nothing else, for terrorism. Joseph Schwartz, another political scientist, writes that even the horrendous attacks of 9/11 had little to do with the Islamic faith and everything to do with resistance to American foreign policy in the Middle East (expressed using illegitimate means): > *But such movements are not simply the creation of warped, irrational minds. Terrorist rage, no matter how ineffective, often arises from totally comprehensible political grievances. To treat Al-Qaeda as an irrationalist cult of slaughter is to ignore the potential rational logic behind its attack on the World Trade Center, a logic that the United States played into by subsequently attacking Afghanistan.*[^46] Many real political grievances can motivate terrorists: U.S. support for Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine, the U.S. invasion and destruction of Iraq, the sanctions preceding the Iraq war that killed as many as half a million people, the ongoing U.S. support for repressive governments, and so on. While none of these grievances justify terrorism in any way, they nonetheless provide the oxygen that is fueling attacks against the U.S. and its allies. Explaining to these terrorists that Islam condemns their methods is ineffective because Islam is not their motivation, despite what their propaganda says. While Muslim scholars can continue to make the obvious case against terrorism in the name of Islam, a three-pronged approach to challenging terrorism is needed: a sustained effort to advocate for humanitarian policy reforms in the Muslim world; challenging failed and unjust U.S policies and actions that create fertile grounds for terrorist recruitment; alongside a continued delegitimization campaign against the warped criminal enterprises that recruit vulnerable individuals to engage in indiscriminate violence for the advancement of said enterprises in the name various causes they hijack. --- ## Conclusion The texts of the Quran and Sunnah make clear that waging war is only permissible as a response to aggression and persecution, to prevent a greater evil. Islam adheres to the non-aggression principle, that no person or animal should be harmed unless such harm is necessary to secure a greater benefit or to prevent a greater harm. On this basis, the Quran mandates military intervention to assist the oppressed, preemptively if required. Islam strictly prohibits the intentional targeting and killing of any civilians or noncombatants or destroying their property, unless a careful military calculus determines that the risk of collateral damage is morally acceptable. Prisoners of war are to be treated humanely, integrated into the wider society, and given realistic avenues to secure their freedom through a reasonable expectation of labor. Deterrence against the enemy, by telegraphing a credible response capability to unprovoked hostility, is encouraged as a means of keeping the peace. Terrorism, by contrast, is a reprehensible tactic that is a violation of both fundamental Islamic teachings and modern just war theory. --- ## Notes [^1]: Ibn Mājah. *Sunan Ibn Mājah*. (Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1975) 2:784 #2340. [^2]: Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn. A*l-Ashbah Wal-Naza’ir Fi Qawa’id Wa Furu’ Fiqh Al-Shafi’iyah*. (Bayrūt: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyah, 1990) 1:7-8. [^3]: Ḥaydar, ’Alī‎. *Durar Al-Ḥukkām Sharḥ Majallat Al-Aḥkām*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Jīl, 1991) 1:40. [^4]: Surat al-Baqarah 2:217; Abdel Haleem, M. A. *The Qur’an : English Translation with Parallel Arabic Text*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) 35. [^5]: Al-Dhahabī. *Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā’*. (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2006) 14:85. [^6]: Surat al-Baqarah 2:190; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 30. [^7]: Al-Baydạ̄wī. *Anwār Al-Tanzīl Wa Asrār Al-Ta’wīl*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ihỵāʼ al-Turāth al-’Arabī, 1998) 1:270. [^8]: Ibn Taymīyah. *Kitāb Al-Nubūwāt*. (al-Riyāḍ: Aḍwāʼ al-Salaf, 2000) 1:570. [^9]: Ibn Taymīyah. *Majmū’ Al-Fatāwà*. (al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah: Majmaʻ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʻat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995) 28:354. [^10]: Surat al-Baqarah 2:190; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 30. [^11]: Muḥammad, Shafī’ and Muḥammad T. ‘Us̲mānī. *Maʻariful-Quran*. (Karachi: Maktaba-e-Darul-Uloom, 1996) 1:482. [^12]: Walzer, Michael. *Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations*. (New York: BasicBooks, 2006) 38. [^13]: Shafī’ and ‘Us̲mānī, *Maʻariful-Quran*, 1:483. [^14]: Mālik ibn Anas, and Abū Muṣ’ab Al-Zuhri. *Muwaṭṭa’ Al-Imām Mālik*. (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1993) 1:357 #918. [^15]: Al-Bukhārī. *Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002) 4:61 #3014. [^16]: Abū Dāwūd. *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*. (Ṣaydā, Lubnān: al-Maktabah al-Aṣrīyah, 1980) 3:53 #2669. [^17]: Al-Bayhaqī. *Al-Sunan Al-Kubrá*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2003) 8:49 #15896. [^18]: “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,” University of Minnesota Human Rights Library; hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/cairodeclaration.html [^19]: Surat al-Ma’idah 5:32; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 114. [^20]: Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad. *Musnad Al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal*. (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2001) 6:274 #3728. [^21]: Walzer, *Just and Unjust Wars*, 138, 142. [^22]: Surat al-Baqarah 2:191; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 30. [^23]: Ramadan, Tariq. *In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) 178. [^24]: Surat al-Baqarah 2:192-194; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 30. [^25]: Surat al-Anfal 8:61; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 185. [^26]: Surat al-Tawbah 9:6; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 188. [^27]: Surat al-Insan 76:8; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 580. [^28]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ Al-Bayān 'an Ta'wīl Al-Qur’ān*. (Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000) 24:97. [^29]: Walzer, *Just and Unjust Wars*, 46. [^30]: Surat al-Nur 24:33; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 355. [^31]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī*, 1:15 #30. [^32]: Surat al-Balad 90:13; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 595. [^33]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī*, 7:67 5373. [^34]: Muslim. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955) 3:1278 #1657. [^35]: See [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery/) [^36]: Walzer, *Just and Unjust Wars*, 153. [^37]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 3:1364 #1745. [^38]: Surat al-Hashr 59:5; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 547. [^39]: Shafī’ and ‘Us̲mānī, *Maʻariful-Quran*, 8:339. [^40]: Oxford English Dictionary online; en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/terrorism. [^41]: Surat al-Anfal 8:60; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 185. [^42]: Zagare, Frank C., and D. M. Kilgour. *Perfect Deterrence*. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000) 296. [^43]: Lewis, Bernard. *The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror*. (New York: Modern Library, 2003) 39. [^44]: Pape, Robert. *Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism*. (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006) 4. [^45]: Ibid. 3. [^46]: Schwartz, Joseph M. "Misreading Islamist Terrorism: the “War against Terrorism” and Just-War Theory." *Metaphilosophy*. 35.3 (2004): 273-302, 284. ## Summary The protection of human life stands among the foremost objectives of the Sacred Law, and peace, rather than war, is the natural condition intended between people regardless of their differences in religion or belief. Yet peace is preserved only by repelling unjust aggression against the innocent. For this reason, the scholarly tradition of Islam laid down rules governing both the justification for war (jus ad bellum) and the manner in which a justified war must be conducted (jus in bello). The concern here is chiefly with this second dimension: the rulings that forbid the excessive use of force, safeguard the lives and property of civilians, protect the environment, mandate the humane treatment of prisoners, and prohibit torture and terrorism. In these matters, the Islamic tradition anticipated many principles later affirmed in modern just war theory. At the heart of Islamic teaching on warfare lies the principle of non-aggression: one must never initiate aggression and may only respond to it in proportion. This rests upon the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, "Do not cause harm nor return harm," which became one of the five foundational maxims of Islamic law. By default, every action that harms another person or animal is forbidden, unless undertaken to secure a greater benefit or repel a greater harm, in accordance with the subsidiary principle that "greater harm is removed by lesser harm," while it is forbidden to remove a lesser harm by a greater one. Since war is among the gravest of harms inflicted upon people, animals, and the land, it may not be undertaken except to repel a still greater harm. Thus Allah said, "Persecution is worse than killing," referring to the Quraysh who violently suppressed the practice of Islam, barred people from the Sacred Mosque, and drove Muslims from their homes on account of their faith. War is indeed an evil, but the evil of such persecution was greater. Some historical prescriptions of the jurists have been read as though they contradict this principle. For instance, certain jurists developed the notion of "offensive jihad" (jihad al-talab), the taking of initiative against a credible threat, comparable to what modern theorists call preemptive war. In the age of expanding empires this was regarded as a form of self-defense, captured in the Arab saying, "When the Romans are not campaigned against, they campaign against you." It is only in this restricted sense that some claimed the verse "Fight in God's cause against those who fight you" was "abrogated" by the so-called verse of the sword. As the exegete al-Baydawi explained, the latter authorized fighting "those who fight you or from whom that is expected." The principle of non-aggression itself was never cancelled; rather, Muslims were directed to act against actual threats—the Roman and Persian empires—rather than await attack in their own lands. Ibn Taymiyyah accordingly held that the Qur'an and the majority of scholars permit fighting only against those who wage or threaten war first, exempting all except the "people of combat and obstruction." Non-combatants such as women, children, monks, the elderly, and the blind may not be attacked unless they join the fighting. The verse "Fight in God's cause against those who fight you, but do not overstep the limits: God does not love those who overstep the limits" was the first commanding Muslims to fight, after they had earlier been advised to endure patiently and to forgive. From it the jurists derived that fighting is limited to combatants alone, and that civilians—women, children, the elderly, priests, monks, the handicapped, and even labourers and farmers not engaged in the fighting—may not be targeted. This was affirmed in the instruction of Abu Bakr to his army, recorded in the earliest manual of Islamic law: "Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place." The Prophet ﷺ likewise condemned the killing of a woman found slain in battle, saying, "She was not fighting," and forbade the killing of labourers. Upon his sword was written, "Verily, the worst of people in insolence are those who strike at whoever did not strike them." From these principles derive further rulings: that transgressing the limits is forbidden, that mutilation and torture are prohibited, and that the destruction of crops, trees, livestock, and civilian infrastructure is impermissible save in limited circumstances. These same protections were later restated in Article 3 of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights of 1990, which drew upon the Sharia. The gravity of unlawful killing is expressed in the words of Allah: "If anyone kills a person—unless in retribution for murder or spreading corruption in the land—it is as if he kills all mankind." The verse deliberately uses the word nafs, "a soul," embracing every life regardless of faith or ethnicity, so that the murder of any innocent person is likened to the murder of all humanity. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The most restrained of the people regarding killing are the people of faith." Yet the killing of enemy combatants during war is permitted, as in the verse "Kill them wherever you encounter them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, for persecution is more serious than killing." This was revealed concerning the pilgrimage after Hudaybiyyah, addressing whether Muslims might fight back and reclaim what had been wrongfully taken. To cite the clause "Kill them wherever you find them" apart from its context is entirely misleading, for the passage defines limits rather than licensing indiscriminate slaughter. Indeed, when Mecca was finally taken, its people were pardoned and scarcely any blood was shed, though the former persecutors lay vulnerable. The same passage ends with mercy: "But if they stop, then God is most forgiving and merciful… If they cease hostilities, there can be no further hostility, except towards aggressors." Elsewhere Allah commands, "But if they incline towards peace, you must also incline towards it," and even orders that a combatant seeking protection be granted asylum: "If any of the idolaters should seek your protection, grant it to him so that he may hear the word of God." Thus war is permitted only to end aggression, peace offerings are to be accepted, and those who surrender must not be harmed. Concerning prisoners of war, the Qur'an praises those who "give food to the poor, the orphan, and the captive, though they love it themselves." Al-Tabari explained that the captive here is the enemy combatant taken by force, whom the righteous fed out of mercy and seeking nearness to Allah. Since execution, indefinite imprisonment, and simple release each carry grave moral or practical defects, Islam reformed the existing practice of bondage (riqq), which is not to be equated with chattel slavery. Each captive was placed within a household that clothed and fed him as its own members, while he assisted with labour until ransomed or freed. The Prophet ﷺ commanded that a bondsman be fed and clothed as his caretaker, saying, "They are your brothers and sisters," and the Qur'an directed masters to grant contracts of freedom: "If any of your bondsmen wish to pay for their freedom, make a contract with them." Freeing captives was among the greatest of deeds and an expiation for sin, for the path to salvation is "to free a bondsman," and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Feed the hungry, visit the sick, and set the captives free." Regarding actions that unavoidably harm civilians, the doctrine of double effect holds that an act with both a good and an evil consequence may be permissible when the act itself is legitimate, the harmful effect is neither intended nor a means to the end, and the good sufficiently outweighs the harm. This accords with the Islamic principle of removing a greater harm by a lesser one. Though the Prophet ﷺ absolutely forbade the intentional killing of civilians, Imam Muslim recorded under the heading "Permissibility of killing women and children in night raids if it is not deliberate" that when asked about children slain unintentionally in a raid, he said, "They are from them." Likewise the burning of the palm trees of Banu Nadir—who had betrayed the Medina Charter—was validated by the verse, "Whatever you may have done to their palm trees… was done by God's leave." Ibn al-Humam accordingly ruled that such measures are lawful only when the enemy cannot otherwise be overcome. None of this permits directly targeting civilians or causing disproportionate destruction. Terrorism—the unlawful use of violence against civilians for political aims—is an illegitimate war crime in both Islamic law and modern just war theory. Verses that speak of striking fear, such as "Prepare whatever forces you can muster… to frighten off God's enemies," concern deterrence of aggressors, not the terrorising of societies, and are immediately followed by the command to incline toward peace. Even Bernard Lewis conceded, "At no point do the basic texts of Islam enjoin terrorism and murder." Robert Pape's research found "little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism," identifying instead secular strategic goals, while Joseph Schwartz argued that even the attacks of 9/11 arose from political grievances rather than faith. Since Islam is not the true motivation of such violence, a threefold response is needed: advocating humanitarian reform in the Muslim world, challenging unjust policies that fuel recruitment, and delegitimising the criminal enterprises that exploit vulnerable people in the name of hijacked causes. In sum, war is permissible only in response to aggression and persecution, to prevent a greater evil, in keeping with the principle of non-aggression. The intentional killing of civilians and destruction of their property is forbidden save where a careful moral calculus deems collateral risk acceptable; prisoners are to be treated humanely and given avenues to freedom; deterrence is encouraged to preserve peace; and terrorism stands condemned as a violation of both the teachings of Islam and modern just war theory. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-lost-art-of-contemplation # The Lost Art of Contemplation **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Mental Health, Paper, Publication, Self-Improvement **Published:** September 20, 2017 **Updated:** August 27, 2024 ## Introduction Modern psychology involves the study of human cognition, affect, and behavior. These three phenomena represent fundamental components of the human experience. They are also deeply connected to the Islamic message of self-purification (*tazkiyyat an-nafs or tasawwuf*). This process is described as the pinnacle of success in the Quran: “Certainly, the one who purifies \[one’s soul\] has succeeded”;[^1] and, “The one who purifies it has certainly succeeded.”[^2] Islam represents a system meant to transform an individual’s cognitions, emotions, and behaviors that will ultimately lead them to a meaningful and fulfilling life. Thus, classical scholars who dedicated significant portions of their scholarship to the topic of self-purification consequently developed profound theories of human psychology. In a previous article exploring Islamic Spirituality and Mental Well-Being,[^3] we concluded that there was a need to construct models of human psychology based on the terminology found in the Quran, building from the Islamic tradition. Such an endeavor will be clinically relevant, providing practitioners with appropriate spiritual paradigms for Muslim clients experiencing mental illness. Furthermore, developing an Islamic framework of psychology will showcase the breadth and depth that exists in the Islamic tradition regarding human psychology and spirituality, enabling others to appreciate their profundity and the value they bring to humanity in the 21st century. This article attempts to build an Islamic model of spiritual psychology that encompasses human cognition, metacognition, consciousness, motivation, emotion, and behavior with an emphasis on practical implications for psycho-spiritual growth and building conviction. Due to the risk of reading modern psychological discourse into the Islamic tradition, we will use Quranic vocabulary and terminology found in the classical sources as the starting point for our discussion. Subsequently, we will compare and contrast with modern insights, either integrating or differentiating to produce a clearer understanding for the 21st-century reader. The article is organized according to the *Maraatib al-Qasd* (degrees of motivation) model often mentioned in the Islamic tradition.[^4] This model provides a holistic framework for human behavior that starts with thoughts, proceeds to motivation, and ends with action. The 5-step sequence is described below: 1. *Al-Haajis*: A fleeting thought that is quick to enter into consciousness and quick to exit; 2. *Al-Khaatir*: A thought that enters into the mind and an individual chooses to think about; 3. *Hadith an-Nafs*: An internal conversation, where a thought is deliberated over in depth; 4. *Al-Hamm*: A motivation to act, where a thought process has impacted a person’s motivation or emotional state; and 5. *Al-’Azm*: A firm resolve to execute an action. While a person may still hesitate over a *hamm*, once they reach the point of *‘azm* it has become a firm decision with no going back.[^5] The current article focuses on the first three stages. It examines the emergence of conscious thought and the various types of deliberation referenced in the Quran. Section 1 focuses on the significance of thoughts; Section 2 explores the fundamentals of thought; Section 3 describes the concepts of metacognition and contemplation; and Section 4 showcases a practical contemplative practice for moral and spiritual growth developed by the famous polymath Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH). --- ## Section 1: Significance of Thoughts Our thoughts are the deepest interface we have with the dimension of the spirit. This is because our thoughts exist beyond the physical world. Although we can observe when a person is engaged in thought, we can never physically observe the actual content of the thought. Other than Allah, no one can know our thoughts as we experience them. Thoughts, in their essence, carry meaning and content. Thus, although electroencephalography (EEG) can measure the neuronal activity associated with thinking, we will never be able to observe its essential content. From this perspective, thinking is a metaphysical process that carries us beyond the confines of the material world. Thoughts themselves are otherworldly in the sense that their content is not made up of particles or atoms. It is no wonder that the Quran heavily emphasizes the spiritual action of engaging in thought. In over 750 places, the Quran directs the human being to think, ponder, reflect, listen, and observe.[^6] The common element among all these processes is the conscious thought that is produced in the mind. It is a tragedy that most have lost touch with the rich experience that exists in the mind. Despite the progress in knowledge and technology witnessed in the 21st century, the world has reacted to it counterproductively, and the mind has gone from center to backstage. ### Age of Distraction In the modern age of rapidly advancing technology, considerable time is invested in learning how to utilize the latest digital systems to boost productivity in all dimensions of our lives. In our careers, employers place high value on technological proficiency. Those who fail to keep up with the constant onslaught of digital tidal waves become uncompetitive in the ever-shrinking job market that is shifting towards integrating new systems to increase workplace efficiency. Our social lives have also been transformed with innovations in social media and networking tools that have removed nearly all barriers to communicating with friends and family. Our minds are constantly distracted with all the new devices that we own as we struggle to keep up with the seemingly never-ending series of updates and changes. Alex Pang, the author of The *distraction addiction*, describes our online lives as actual jobs: “If maintaining your online life feels like a job, maybe that’s because it is.”[^7] He explains that the average American spends 60 hours a month online. Those hours add up to 3 months of full-time work per year. In this “online career,” we spend 20 days on social networking websites, 38 days on blogs, YouTube and news websites, and 32 days purely on email. When looking at the usage of devices in just one day, we find that the average American sends and receives 110 messages, checks their phone 34 times, visits Facebook on 5 separate occasions, and spends 30 minutes total liking posts.[^8] Constant engagement with technology, screens, and devices not only paradoxically hinders our productivity in reaching our goals, but also has significant effects on the mind. Clark and Chalmers, philosophers of consciousness, advanced a theory of the extended mind in 1998 that has become better understood in light of recent inventions.[^9] The theory states that human beings often utilize devices in the external environment for cognitive processes that would normally occur intra-mentally. The clearest example of this is memory. In the past, notebooks were used and in our times, it has become applications on our phones, laptops, tablets, and computers that allow us to offload even more of our memory than in the past due to the ease of accessibility and efficiency of storage in new technology. The classic example is the shift in memorizing phone numbers. KasperSky Lab conducted a survey in Europe and found that 60% of adults were able to recall the phone number of the home they lived in when they were 10 years old, but could not recall the current phone numbers of their children or office. One third of the participants were unable to recall the number of their partners.[^10] We used to register important phone numbers in the memory system of our mind, but have now outsourced this process extra-mentally. Mind extension is not limited to memory, but also includes executive functions such as planning. Google automatically sends you a message with suggested times to leave home to catch a flight. There are even applications that cross-reference your pre-selected food preferences with restaurant menus to suggest the most appropriate food selections. Due to this unprecedented level of outsourcing of the mind, we have lost the hidden treasure that lies within its use. Being preoccupied with gadgets, screens, and devices has distracted us from the powerful creativity, insight, and self-awareness that our minds were designed for. Modern science has recognized the utility and potential that lies in the depths of our minds and souls. In particular, there have been many studies conducted on the meditation practices of far Eastern traditions. These practices have  been found to have profound positive effects on emotional, psychological, and physical disorders including depression, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, and cardiovascular disease such as hypertension.[^11] At a more fundamental level, thoughts have been demonstrated scientifically to have profound effects on our biological functioning. A common phenomenon known as the ‘placebo effect,’ a therapeutic benefit that is achieved solely through a person’s belief that they will heal, is a profound example of thoughts impacting our health.[^12] The findings regarding the placebo effect suggest that it is ubiquitous and can be effective against various pathophysiological and psychopathological states. Conversely, it is well established that stress, which is partly based on the cognitive framing of our life circumstances, has significant negative effects on a wide variety of biological systems including hormone regulation, cardiovascular disease, and immune system functioning. --- ## Section 2: Fundamentals of Thought ### Khawaatir The thoughts that flood our minds during our waking moments are collectively termed *khawaatir* by Ibn al-Qayyim (subsuming the categories of *haajis* and *hadith al-nafs* defined earlier).[^13] Dr. Maalik el-Badri, a contemporary Muslim psychologist, defines *khawaatir* as “internal dialogue” or “concealed speech” that may occur fleetingly.[^14] These are the thoughts in the constant running dialogue that represents the lens of our lived reality. *Khawaatir* seem to be analogous in this respect to the “automatic thoughts” described by Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy.[^15] Automatic thoughts refer to mental activity that emerges without conscious effort in response to a stimulus. One component that seems to be associated with the content of our *khawaatir* is our innate personality.[^16] *Khawaatir* from an Islamic perspective can be conceptualized as the amalgamation of competing forces from our unconscious. These forces exist internally as a part of us or externally as separate agents (Divine, angelic, or satanic). ### The Unconscious The topic of the unconscious is very complex and has been approached through both cognitive and psychodynamic perspectives in the field of psychology. Freud was one of the first Western intellectuals to discuss the influence of the unconscious (or subconscious) on conscious thoughts, motivations, desires, and dreams. It is interesting to note that some of Freud’s ideas regarding defense mechanisms of the unconscious were predated significantly by Muslim theologians. For instance, Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH) described repression of forbidden sexual impulses towards family members as resulting in a variety of conscious behaviors.[^17] Although Freud’s understanding of the unconscious focused primarily on aggression and sexuality, his protégé Carl Jung espoused his own theory of the unconscious that incorporated complex religious belief systems into what he termed the “collective unconscious.” Both psychologists attempted to discover the common unconscious psychological architecture present in every human being. This dimension of the human mind is not a material entity, rendering its study beyond the empirical limitations of  the scientific method. Hence, it has not been given much attention beyond these two figures in the western world. Recently, however, cognitive and social psychologists have explored the role of unconscious bias in determining attitudes, beliefs, and prejudices. The focus has shifted from describing the structural components of the unconscious, to describing its functional implications. As mentioned, the unconscious is the dimension of the human being that is fundamentally part of the realm of the *ghayb* (unseen). Thus, it behooves any Muslim seeking to achieve a better understanding of the mind to explore the perspective of revelation. At least one prophetic narration affirms the notion that an unconscious part of the mind can influence our conscious thoughts and drives, > *Abu Huraira reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Certainly, Allah has overlooked for my ummah what arises (haddathat) in his mind (nafs) as long as he does not act it out or vocalize it.”*[^18] Accountability exclusively applies to phenomena that are within the boundary of our conscious choices. The Quran informs us, >  *God does not place a burden on a person that he is not capable of fulfilling.*[^19] Thus, we are not held accountable for any mental phenomena that are outside the reach of our will. This *hadith* implies that there is an underlying unconscious structure that determines certain conscious thoughts outside of our will. We will explore the unconscious structure implied in the *hadith* and shed light on its various components. --- ## Components of the Unconscious ### Waswaas One of the most significant influences on our consciousness is termed *waswaas* (whispering).[^20] The Islamic tradition speaks about this phenomenon in context of (1) satanic whispering, (2) self-whispering, and (3) angelic whispering. #### Satanic Whispering Satanic whispering is further divided into evil suggestions from the unseen and the seen realm. Both of these categories of satanic whispering are referenced in the last chapter of the Quran, > *Say: I seek refuge in the Master of Humanity, the King of Humanity, the God of Humanity from the evil whispering of the one who retreats. He who whispers into the chests of Humanity from among the Jinn (hidden creatures) and Humanity*.[^21] It is clear that Jinni *waswaas* would be considered in the domain of the unconscious, but what is human *waswaas* and how is it considered unconscious? Human *waswaas* encompasses any communication from human beings that can be extended beyond direct conversations to include books, media, and images. Although the initial suggestion by other human beings is in the domain of consciousness, it later becomes unconscious when it is incorporated into our memory systems. These suggestions can stir emotions and desires within us at any moment in which we encounter anything relevant in our life. Ibn al-Qayyim writes, “Next, thinking will be transferred to or stored in the memory and the memory will transform it into a volition and a motive which will be acted out in real life as an action.”[^22] Thus, external agents can determine the makeup of our unconscious that will inevitably affect our conscious thoughts. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) provides a vivid conceptualization of how these external agents gain access to our unconscious, > *Iblis enters into the human being according to the space that is available for him. The space is increased based on the level of heedlessness, ignorance, or lack of knowledge. Realize that the heart is like a fortress with walls. In these walls are gates. Through these gates is the potential for the fortress to be breached. The intellect dwells inside this fortress and the angels encircle it. To the side of this fortress is the place for the desires. The devils gain access to this area without any difficulty. Thus begins the war between the fortress and those outside. Shaytaan constantly searches for an opening into the fortress where a person’s guard is let down so he can breach the wall.[^23]* The domain of *waswaas* in the unconscious can be tempered through conscious interventions. It is possible that through breaking free of distractions and attaining knowledge and consciousness of God a person can transform the entire dynamic of the unconscious. This struggle between the individual and Satan is a key dimension of the unconscious and the conscious that Ibn al-Qayyim also speaks about. He explains that every day the self enters the battlefield, > *He puts on his army gear and takes his weapons as he enters into the battlefield. His desires and passions against his intellect (‘aql) and guidance (huda). The only way to victory is through the help of Allah.*[^24] Shaytaan uses the individual’s own passions and desires as weapons against the person. If he is overcome, then > *his intellect is with shaytaan like a prisoner in the hand of the enemy…the very thing that Allah has honored and elevated his status with comes in the possession of his enemy and is used to destroy him.*[^25] #### Whispers of the Nafs (Self) The waswaas that emerges from the nafs is referenced in the Quran, > *And We have certainly created man and know what his nafs whispers to him…*[^26] The content of the whispers of the *nafs* is determined by interactions between a person’s desires, guidance, and character. The unrestricted human desire seeks that which brings it pleasure. Ibn al-Qayyim categorized pleasure into three types corresponding to three general desires. The first type of pleasure includes those rooted in attaining necessities for survival and propagation such as eating, drinking, and procreation. The second type of pleasure concerns climbing the dominance hierarchy to attain authority and leadership. The final category of pleasure is experienced through awareness of God and developing virtue.[^27] None of the categories represent purely sinful desires. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) describes the basis of pleasure, “Experiencing what is compatible with one’s self is the means of pleasure.”[^28] Thus, our desire for pleasure is positive from this perspective. However, the Quran describes following desires as a negative quality that hinders growth of the individual: > *They are the ones who Allah has placed a seal over their hearts and they follow their desires.*[^29] > > *They only follow conjecture and what the self desires even though guidance has come to them from their Lord.*[^30] Ibn al-Qayyim distinguishes blameworthy pleasures from praiseworthy pleasures by focusing on their ultimate outcomes. He explains that pleasure that eventually leads to pain is blameworthy.[^31] Thus, overindulging in desires or oppressing others to achieve pleasure will eventually lead to pain in this life and in the next. The true pursuit of eternal pleasure can only be found in a meaningful and fulfilling relationship with the Divine. The *nafs* can motivate towards good or evil depending on its integration with the positive elements of human nature such as *aql* (intellect) and *huda* (guidance) or negative elements such as *hawaa* (desires) and *waswaas* (evil whispers). The Quran categorizes the levels of nufoos into three: Level 1: *Nafs Ammara bis-Soo’* “Certainly the *nafs* commands towards evil except for those whom Allah has shown Mercy.”[^32] Level 2: *Nafs Lawwama* “I swear by the *nafs* that feels guilty.”[^33] Level 3: *Nafs Mutma’inna* “O tranquil *nafs*, return to your Lord well-pleased and pleasing to Him.”[^34] The thoughts that emerge from the *nafs* are in accordance with where it falls in the spectrum. Those *nufoos* that are underdeveloped are susceptible to influences from evil *waswaas* and more likely to overindulge in natural desires. The *nufoos* that are developed will use revelation and their intellect to curb their desires and overcome satanic whispers. Part 2 of this article will, God Willing, provide a more detailed exposition on the *nafs* and its role in constructing our motivations, emotions, and thoughts. #### Whispers from Angels Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “There is none among you except that he has one partner from the jinn and another from the angels.”[^35] The angelic whispers are inclinations toward goodness that are inspired into the hearts of mankind as described in another narration, > *Abdullah reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Satan has a portion over the son of Adam and the angel has a share over him. The devil directs man to commit evil actions and deny the truth and the angel encourages man to do good actions and believe in the truth.”[^36]* #### Ilhaam (Inspiration) and Firaasa (Intuition) *Ilham* refers to direct inspiration from God. A famous example of this phenomenon is found in the story of Moses and his mother, > *And we inspired to the mother of Moses, ‘Suckle him; but when you fear for him, cast him into the river and do not fear and do not grieve. Indeed, We will return him to you and will make him one of the messengers.’*[^37] Inspiration is often experienced as intuition and is referred to as f*iraasa*. The Prophet ﷺ described *firaasa* as a light from God, “Beware the *firaasa* (spiritual intuition) of the believer, for he sees with the light of Allah.”[^38] The concept of *firaasa* is also alluded to in the Quran, “Certainly in that (story of Lot) are signs for the *mutawassimeen* (those who discern).”[^39] Ibn Abbas and other commentators of the Quran noted that *mutawassimeen* here refers to the *mutafarriseen*, those who possess *firaasa*.[^40] Ibn al-Qayyim illuminates the link between *firaasa* and the story of Lot by explaining, “…When a person observes the outcomes of previous transgressing nations, then he is granted *firaasa*…”[^41] Ibn al-Qayyim defines *firaasa* as “light that Allah throws into the heart of a believer that allows him to distinguish between truth and falsehood.”[^42] He also quotes other scholars that describe the dimension of *firaasa* that relates to attaining knowledge of unseen realities.[^43] He further explains that phenomenologically *firaasa* is experienced as a belief, thought, or idea that emerges into one’s consciousness that obliterates anything that opposes it. One way to distinguish *firaasa* from other thoughts is that “*firaasa* is the first thought that emerges without any oppositional thoughts that co-occur alongside. If oppositional thoughts co-occur then this is regarded as a normal thought.”[^44] *Firaasa* can include predictions of the future as well as judgments regarding people that aren’t empirically verifiable or readily observable. The latter concept is elucidated in a story regarding Junayd al-Baghdadi: > *Once Junayd was delivering a public lecture and a young Christian boy disguised as a Muslim came to ask a question. He said, “O Shaykh, what is the meaning of the saying of the prophet, ‘Beware of the intuition of the believer, for he sees with the light of Allah.’”[^45] Junayd was silent and then raised his head to him and said, ‘Become Muslim, the time of your Islam has come.’ The young boy immediately became Muslim.[^46]* Ibn al-Qayyim also describes types of *firaasa* that are not related to faith and are accessible to all human beings based on other important characteristics. For example, he explains that doctors of medicine possess a type of *firaasa* based on their knowledge and experience.[^47] There are also people who are not Muslims who are able to interpret dreams based on their capacity for interpreting symbols.[^48] He also explains that scientific theory can be useful in deriving accurate predictions. He explains this as “natural intuition” (*al-firaasa al-khalqiyya*h) based on the connection between natural events.[^49] Ibn al-Qayyim notes that these types of intuitions do not aid a person in understanding deeper truths that will bring them benefit in both worlds.[^50] This knowledge of deeper truths requires the special *firaasa* that is a gift from Allah, stemming from His light. Imam al-Ghazali (d. 505 AH) conceptualized *firaasa* as stemming from a “window” in the heart that opens to the world of the unseen. The other windows represent our normal physical senses. When a person focuses on his soul rather than the physical world, different impressions from the unseen world are perceived. He explains that this is the reason most visions that are truthful occur in the dream state, when the body is cut off from the sensory world, > *In the state of sleep, when the avenues of the senses are closed, this window is opened and man receives impressions from the unseen world and sometimes foreshadowings of the future. His heart is then like a mirror which reflects what is pictured in the Tablet of Fate. But, even in sleep, thoughts of worldly things dull this mirror so that the impressions it receives are not clear.*[^51] We see similar imagery discussed by Ibn al-Qayyim regarding the heart being like glass and a mirror. Imam al-Ghazali explains that in the conscious state, a person can still perceive through the unseen window in accordance with the purity of their heart, “The more a man purifies himself from fleshly lusts and concentrates his mind on Allah, the more conscious will he be of such intuitions. Those who are not conscious of them have no right to deny their reality.”[^52] Thus, we can understand *firaasa* as light coming from Allah that encapsulates meanings of hidden realities. This light interacts with the pure heart of a believer and projects an accurate image to its consciousness. The quality of this light is much greater than any other thought, idea, or knowledge that the individual possesses since it comes straight from Allah. Thus, it outshines any other thought related to it and remains fixed in the heart. ### Summary We have discussed the structural components of the unconscious that influence the conscious outpouring of thoughts that occur at every moment in our minds. Our conscious thoughts are continuously being altered and formulated based on complex interactions between components of the unconscious. It is important to note that we are not advocating an entirely deterministic view of the thoughts that emerge involuntarily from the unconscious. A person can intentionally counteract  unconscious influences. For instance, personality transformation can help change our *khawaatir* by elevating our *nafs* closer to the *nafs mutma’inn*. Seeking refuge in Allah and strengthening the fortresses of our heart can aid us in our battle against satanic whispers. Having friends that inspire us with their words and behavior fill our memory with positive ideas that become readily available for extraction when confronted with a difficult situation. Developing our character and intellect can aid us in appropriately integrating the desires of the self. Personal hygiene[^53] and being in angelic environments can increase the positive forces that come from the angels. Lastly, the processes involved in  purification of the soul will bring about greater *firaasa*. --- ## Section 3: Process of Thinking In terms of the process of thinking, the Quran utilizes a diverse set of terms that share the general meaning of contemplation but individually contain subtle differences regarding the intricacies of thinking. Some exegetes of the Quran have described 30 different terms that are used such as thinking (*tafakkur*), reflecting (*tadabbur*), and remembering (*tadhakkur*) that are essential processes required to effectively extract meaning from the signs of Allah in the Quran and the natural world.[^54] This section of the article touches upon a concept known as metacognition—or “thinking about thinking”—that has become popular in recent years.[^55] The process of thinking about thoughts is a higher-order form of thinking that determines how we interpret the world around us. The cognitive strategy we choose to undertake in a given situation involves a metacognitive choice that will dictate the quality and quantity of knowledge we can abstract from it.[^56] These units of knowledge can then proceed to form conceptual frameworks through which future information is understood. Thus, the Quran provides us with the metacognitive guidance necessary to abstract meaning and truth from the world, providing us with conceptual frameworks that enable us to see the world as it really is. ### Components of Contemplation Ibn al-Qayyim includes a fascinating discussion on the different types of thinking in his book *Miftaah Dar as-Sa’adah*. He provides an explanation of the terms used in the Quran to denote contemplation. This section will focus on his discussion of *tafakkur* (thinking), *tadhakkur* (remembering), *i’tibaar* (realizing), and *tadabbur* (deliberating). The first two processes describe ways in which initial thoughts can emerge through deliberate choice (rather than automatically through the unconscious); the latter two describe how initial thoughts (whether automatic or deliberate) can lead to new insights and knowledge. #### Tafakkur  “***Tafakkur***: To bring something to one’s cognitive space.”[^57] This is the main form of thinking the Quran references. *Fikr* is the most general of these terms and encompasses the process of bringing a thought to conscious awareness. *Tafakkur* is distinct from *khawaatir* in that it is a more deliberate process by which an individual chooses to direct and focus their thoughts. In this circumstance, the initial thought brought to consciousness is derived either from the environment or through an innate creative process that is independent of our environments. Hence, *khawaatir* involves a predominantly passive process while *tafakkur* is an active process. #### Tadhakkur “*Tadhakkur*: Bringing awareness of knowledge that requires attention after a person has been distracted from it or it is unseen to him: ‘Certainly those who are righteous, when a party of shaytaan touches them, they immediately remember (*tadkhakkar*), then they gain insight’ (Surah A’raaf: 201).”[^58] When a person has been affected by the whispers of Satan or by their carnal passions, they are in dire need of this method of thinking. *Tadhakkar* involves the ability to draw on knowledge that a person has previously acquired as a means of defending against the delusions of Satan and curbing their desires. When a person is overcome with jealousy stemming from ingratitude, materialism, and contempt for others, he must bring to mind knowledge of *al-Qadar* (Divine Decree). By remembering that Allah distributes His bounties to whom He wills, one understands  that being jealous of others involves challenging the validity of Allah’s Decree. Through reflection of this sort one gains insight into the diseases plaguing one’s heart as well as appreciation for one’s own blessings. When a person has been overcome by addictive urges stemming from a mind incapable of postponing gratification and a heart that craves pleasure, he must remember the One who he is disobeying, His power, His Might, His grandeur. In *‘Iddat as-Sabireen*, Ibn al-Qayyim advises the one overcome with passion to bring 20 different thoughts to conscious awareness. For the sake of brevity, we will mention just three of them.[^59] 1\. Remember Allah’s countless blessings upon you and that your disobedience will erect a barrier between you and them. 2\. Remember that through your fulfilling of desires and attainment of temporary pleasure you will lose out on goodness both in this world and in the next.  Faith, providence, and wealth all decrease as a consequence. 3\. Remember that Allah has promised to replace what you leave for His sake with something much better. It is worth the struggle. When a person draws these forgotten treasures from beneath the sands of his heart, he can repurchase his soul after almost selling it for a miserable price. Remembering these pearls of wisdom allows a person to break free from the delusions of Satan and see the world as it is, a journey towards Allah. He sees whatever hinders this path as challenges, and whatever facilitates the path as gifts. #### Tafakkur and Tadhakkur *Tafakkur* and *tadhakkur* together create a system that works to enrich the human mind with knowledge. *Tadhakkur* is the process by which the heart constantly re-evaluates knowledge it has learned in light of new experiences, in order to gain deeper insight and firm grounding (*fahm*). A person who knows that “Allah reigns Supreme over his matter” (Surah Yusuf: 21), realizes—no matter how alone he feels in this crowded world, or how conquered he feels by the negativity and pessimism of those surrounding him—that Allah’s Decree prevails over all. A person who brings this thought to conscious awareness as he goes through struggle or difficulty, and when he achieves relief and success, will gain a deeper insight into Allah’s role in his life. Thus, successive trials become easier, as his heart finds rest in remembering Allah. If a person does not engage in *tadhakkur* of what he has learned about Allah whenever he encounters a new situation, he will eventually lose this knowledge and it will no longer impact his heart. The knowledge will “rust” in the heart, making it inaccessible at the times it is needed the most: “Rather their hearts have rusted because of what they earned.”[^60] Through sincere advice, motivational reminders, and inspirational encounters with the signs of Allah, this rust is shaved off allowing the previously acquired knowledge to float freely in our consciousness. Ibn Qayyim mentions, “(*Tadhakkur* is done) so the heart does not lose the effect of its knowledge, and so it does not disappear.”[^61] The function of *tafakkur* is described as “increasing one’s knowledge and allowing the heart to attain what it previously did not have.”[^62] Together, Ibn al-Qayyim explains, “*Tafakkur* builds the heart and *tadhakkur* preserves it. *Tafakkur* and *tadhakkur* are the seeds of knowledge. The rains come and nourish them (*tafakkur*) and remembering (*tadhakkur*) is its vaccination.”[^63] #### I’tibaar “*I’tibaar*: It is linguistically derived from *‘uboor*, which means crossing. This is because a person goes from an original thought to a new realization (*ma’rifah*) through this type of thinking. This is the goal of *i’tibaar*. It is a constructive process whereby existing thoughts are synthesized to produce more profound and sophisticated realizations. ‘Certainly in their stories is a profound realization (*‘ibrah*) for the people of sound intellect.’ (Surah Yusuf: 111) ‘Certainly in that is a profound realization (*‘ibrah*) for the one who is in Awe.’ (Surah Nazi’aat: 26) ‘Certainly in that is a profound realization (*‘ibrah*) for the people of insight.’ (Surah Ali-Imran: 13; Surah Noor: 44).”[^64] This is a secondary process that is enacted upon  pre-existing thoughts in the mind. In the Quran, this process is linked with pondering over stories. The process by which the mind extracts profound lessons from a story is known as *i’tibaar*. Moving from a raw story to a profound realization through the bridge of *i’tibaar* involves the process of abstraction. This allows one to achieve a meta-lesson from the narrative that can be applied to one’s own life, despite obvious differences with the original story. For example, when we read about the story of Maryam and Zakariyya being able to bear children despite them believing it was not possible, we learn to conquer our own self-limiting beliefs and realize our full potential through the power of Allah. When we read about the dark story of the fall of Shaytaan, we gain insight into the satanic thoughts or diseases that may plague our own hearts and minds. When we read about the story of redemption of our father Adam, we are given hope for a better future and inspiration to change for the better. #### Tadabbur “*Tadabbur*: It is called this because it is focused on the *adbaar* (the end) of a matter. It is the logical consequence of a starting thought. This is used in reference to speech: ‘Do they not consider the consequences of the speech (the Quran)?’(Surah Mu’minoon: 68) ‘Do they not ponder (*yatadabaroon*) the Quran?’ (Surah Nisaa: 82).”[^65] *Tadabbur* is to follow a thought to either its logical end or starting foundation. On a practical level, *tadabbu*r of the Quran is the process by which a reader looks at a verse and determines the implications of its meanings for their life. When we truly consider the statement “My Mercy encompasses everything” (Surah A’raaf: 156) with *tadabbur* while going through a difficulty, then we necessarily come to the conclusion that the pain, suffering, and difficulty I am going through is enveloped in Allah’s Divine Mercy. As Ibn al-Qayyim explains elsewhere, “Out of the wisdom of Allah, He has made pleasure give rise to pain, and pain give rise to pleasure.”[^66] Thus, the pain one is experiencing due to the loss of a loved one, a broken heart, financial restraints, social isolation or depression is all enveloped in the Divine Plan of Mercy and Wisdom. This is a firm belief of the believer as he sails through the strong winds of life, never losing hope. He has pondered over the verses of the Quran that speak of the bounties, blessings, and love of Allah for His slaves and has come to no other conclusion than, “So verily with hardship, comes ease. Verily with hardship, comes ease”[^67] (Surah Inshirah: 5-6). ### Thoughts to Behavior Human beings are capable of impeding or acting contrary to impulses or thoughts that arise in their minds. Furthermore, they are able to engage in metacognition to change or incorporate thoughts into networks of knowledge. The process by which a conscious thought becomes knowledge and then behavior is outlined by Ibn al-Qayyim who states that there are five cognitive-behavioral stations that are causally linked, “And so there are five states: *fikr* (thought), which gives rise to ‘ilm (knowledge), which gives rise to a *haal* (paradigm or conceptual architecture) that stimulates the heart, which gives rise to an *iraada* (motivational drive), which gives rise to an ‘*aml* (action).”[^68] ### Expanding Ibn al-Qayyim’s Model #### Fikr, Ilm, and Haal The first step is (1) *fikr*, which involves bringing awareness of new information or thoughts to one’s mind. As a person recalls the new information to guide his or her decisions, he engages in *tadhakkur* and it becomes (2) *ilm*. If the information does not aid a person on their spiritual, intellectual, and moral journey, it has not reached the level of knowledge and stays at (1) *fikr*. Thus, knowledge is defined by its ability to bring benefit to a person’s life. As bits of knowledge develop from the things we think about, they become arrangements of knowledge. The patterns of these arrangements of knowledge are determined by our logic and reasoning along with our character. For example, words in a sentence are strung together based on the rules of grammar to produce a meaningful statement. However, the choice of content stems from our character and values. If a person values truth, the content of his speech will always be truthful. If a person is selfish, then the sentences he constructs will be used to manipulate others. In this analogy, the words represent knowledge, grammar represents rationality, and the sentence itself represents the specific arrangement of knowledge. Thus, pieces of knowledge are connected in arrangements based on rationality, just as words are connected in arrangements based on grammar. The end-products are knowledge structures. These represent anchors, axioms, starting points, and foundations through which we interpret subsequent information about ourselves and our environment. This information is transformed into knowledge and added to existing knowledge structures to build new foundations or to build and enrich existing ones. Following our analogy with language, the sentences that represent our knowledge structures are further combined to produce paragraphs. These paragraphs are combined to produce passages, which are subsequently combined to produce a complete book. The entire arrangement that emerges from our set of knowledge structures is the (3) *haal* (conceptual architecture). #### The Heart as a Lens The conceptual architecture of the mind is the lens of the heart through which the environment is processed. This lens is referenced in the Quran, “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass is as if it were a pearly star and it is lit from the oil of a blessed olive tree…”[^69] As Ibn al-Qayyim explains, the glass represents the heart, and the lamp represents the light of faith that illuminates the soul.[^70] One of the reasons why glass is used as a symbol of the heart is because of its clarity. Ibn al-Qayyim says, “By its clarity, (the believer) sees truth and direction.”[^71] When the physical light of this world reflects off the *ayaat* (signs) in creation and is perceived by the heart, the light refracts and produces an image. The clarity and depth of the image is based on the complexity of the conceptual architecture. More complex architectures are derived from richer and wider knowledge structures combined with intelligence and good character. The image represents meaning that is abstracted from the signs of Allah. #### Three Orders of Meaning This meaning can be classified into three levels. The first order of meaning emerges from the empirical features of the signs. It requires the sensory system of the mind to be able to perceive. The meanings associated with it are in the domain of *khabar* (description). For instance, a particular rock formation can be explained scientifically by merely describing its appearance, shape, color, and composition. This is meaning that has emerged from the sign in the form of *khabar*. This can be regarded as (1) *fikr*. The second order of meaning arises from rational deliberation upon the sign and is known as (2) *ilm*. Cognitive processes are required to abstract meaning in relation to the etiology or purpose (*hikmah*) of a particular natural phenomenon embedded in a wider context. Continuing from the previous example, explaining the geological processes that led to the rock formation along with its current role in the ecosystem of a particular geographical  area would all qualify as second-order meanings. Second-order meanings have resulted in great technological advancement throughout history, especially in recent centuries. The third and final order of meaning arises from a myriad of cognitive processes along with psycho-spiritual states described in the Quran. Distraction and vice hinder a person’s ability to recognize this level of meaning. The Quran consistently explains the signs of Allah as being perceptible only by people with faith, conviction, knowledge, and intellect through the actions of contemplation, remembrance, deliberation, listening, and seeing. The fundamental cognitive process that occurs at this level is known as *Qiyaas bil-Awlaa* (High-order Analogy). This is referenced in the Quran, “And to Allah belongs the highest analogy.”[^72] Thus, relying on purely literal and syllogistic thinking will blind a person from this order of meaning. *Qiyaas bil-Awlaa* involves abstracting values (moral, intellectual, and spiritual) from the natural world and appropriately recognizing their ontological and epistemological dependence on the Divine (*ma’rifah*). The values that are abstracted are Divine Names and Attributes manifested in a limited form in this reality. The beauty, majesty, and awe that arise from gazing upon the rock formation, along with the recognition of the metaphysical basis for these values in the Divine constitute the essence of this highest order of meaning. #### Processing Third-Order Meanings The processing of all meanings primarily occurs through the (3) *haal* of heart as described earlier. Specifically, third-order meanings require a more complex conceptual architecture that remains untarnished. Some lenses have become tarnished, rendering them blind to this layer of meaning. Ibn al-Qayyim says, “And if tarnish builds up, blackens, and envelops the heart completely, the heart’s reflective quality and perception will be totally lost, so that it will neither accept what is true nor reject what is false.”[^73] The Quran often describes the psycho-spiritual state of people who are unable to perceive the light that emerges from the signs of Allah. In fact, this reality is first expressed as early as the third page of the Quran, “Certainly, those who reject faith, they are indifferent to your warnings and will never believe. Allah has sealed their hearts and ears and veiled their sight. For them is a painful punishment.”[^74] #### The Haal inspires Iraadah When the conceptual architecture is formed from our knowledge, reasoning, and good character, it stimulates the heart, resulting in the phenomenological experience of spiritual stations. The meanings perceived in the signs of Allah stir the heart toward *tawakkul* (reliance on Allah), *sabr* (perseverance and patience,) *shukr* (gratitude), *khawf* (fear), *mahabba* (love) and *rajaa’* (hope). These spiritual stations are experienced as a person sees the Names and Attributes of Allah through His signs. From this stage, our (4) *iraada* (ambitions, will, choices, and decisions) emerge. From one’s will and ambitions come (5) behavior and action. #### Summary Ibn al-Qayyim concludes from his theory of the connection between thought and behavior, *Fikr is the beginning and the key to all that is good. And this (framework) should make clear the significance and value of tafakkur and that it is the most virtuous and beneficial action the heart can engage in until it was even said, ‘Engaging in tafakkur for one hour is better than one year’s worth of worship.’ Fikr is what takes a person from the death and slumber of distraction to being awake and alive. From what he hates to what he loves, from worldly dependency to worldly independence, from the prison of this world to the freedom of the next, from the constraints of ignorance to the expansion of knowledge, from the disease of desire to the cure of turning to Allah, from blindness, deafness, and dumbness to the blessings of sight, hearing, and the profound understanding of Allah, from the disease of doubts to the relief of certainty.*[^75] Then what is the state of a person who does not engage in *tafakkur*? Ibn al-Qayyim makes a beautiful analogy of the heart as a piece of land. It can either grow from the seeds of your thoughts, or your greatest enemy can seize the land and sow whatever he wishes: > *Shaytaan encounters the land of the heart as empty and barren, so he plants seeds that will lead to satanic thoughts giving rise to passions, forbidden urges and desires. This will then lead to (forbidden and destructive) actions. But if the land of the heart is busy with good and beneficial thoughts regarding one’s purpose in life, thinking about accountability and the next life, its eternal delights and painful punishments, then there will be no room for one’s desires.*[^76] --- ## Section 4: A System of Islamic Contemplation The preceding sections focused on the desired process of thinking. This concluding section will focus on the desired content of thinking. Ibn al-Qayyim mentions the four general categories of thoughts that should be actively cultivated:[^77] 1. Our most beloved purpose; 2. The path that leads to fulfilling this purpose; 3. Harm that leads to punishment; and 4. The paths that lead to this harm There is no such thing as a neutral thought. Life is conceptualized as a path towards a particular destination. If at any point in time a person does not move towards their destination during the journey, they are considered having “lost time.” Thus, mankind is always in a state of loss unless they are actively pursuing their end-goal. This is illustrated beautifully in the Quran, “By time. Verily mankind is in a state of loss, unless they believe, do good deeds, call each other to truth, and call each other to patience.” (Surah Asr: 1-3) Therefore, if one’s thoughts do not fit into any of the four categories described above, they are considered vain thoughts.[^78] These thoughts feed the evil that exists within the human being. They drive a person towards failure. The key to success in this world and the next is to ensure one’s consciousness is filled with positive thoughts that will ultimately result in positive behaviors. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that any time a person is in a motivational state toward a particular destination, person, or objective it necessarily implies they love what they are oriented towards.[^79] Motivation is sustained in accordance with the strength of love for the end-goal. This love is strengthened through the four categories of thought. The first category of positive thoughts is thinking about a person’s most important or most beloved objective. Ibn Qayyim divides these thoughts into two categories: (1) pondering its intrinsic beauty; and (2) pondering the benefit received from it.[^80] The ultimate Beloved of a human being is Allah, The Transcendent, The Source of Peace, The Truth. Thinking about His beautiful qualities engenders love that sustains and strengthens the motivational state. Pondering His Beauty, Perfection, Tranquility, Peace, Love, Compassion and Goodness through the ayaat he has spread throughout earth will build the foundation of love. Then, you should remember that Allah is the One Who created you, your body, your soul, your very essence and granted you the gift of life itself. His Love and Care has been sent down through the love and care of your parents. Allah is the One Who pulled you out of the hardships in your life, and helped you accomplish your goals. And most importantly, Allah is the One Who pulled you out of the darkness of this world into His light. The human being then transitions from thoughts about their ultimate purpose to thoughts of how to fulfill that purpose. If a person is constantly thinking about Allah, they will yearn to seek a relationship with Him. The thoughts will then focus on what factors facilitate or hinder one’s spiritual ascent towards Allah. Since human behavior is fundamentally determined by motivational states, contemplating the consequences of the enablers and hinderers of this purpose is paramount. This is where Ibn al-Qayyim derived the other three categories of thoughts. He also adds subcategories to be more specific. The system is as follows:[^81] 1. Thinking about our most beloved purpose                a. Thinking about His Beauty and Attributes                b. Thinking about His Actions, Kindness, and Providence that indicate His Beneficence 2. The path that leads to fulfilling this purpose                a. Thinking about qualities that are loved by The Beloved. A person performs a character review and ponders,                               i. Is this quality loved by Allah or not?                               ii. Do I have this quality?                               iii. If I don’t, how do I obtain it? If I do, how do I preserve it? 3. Thinking about our most despised ends[^82]                a. Thinking about their ugliness                b. Thinking about the pain and harm that would result from the despised ends 4. The paths that lead to our most despised ends and result in punishment                a. Thinking about qualities that are despised by The Beloved. A person performs a character review and ponders,                               i. Is this quality hated by Allah or not?                ii.                               iii. If I don’t, how do I preserve that and make sure I am free from it? If I do, how do I remove this quality? When putting them all together, Ibn al-Qayyim explains that the first category increases a person’s love for Allah, and the remaining categories make the individual more beloved to Allah. He also reduces them to the following three points:[^83] 1. Knowledge of Allah’s *Tawheed* (Divine Unity) and Attributes 2. Path towards Allah 3. Paths away from Allah This thought process is embodied in Surah Fatiha itself. The first four verses speak to Allah’s Names and Attributes and worshipping Him alone. The fifth  and sixth verses speak about the pathway to Allah and the seventh verse speaks about the pathways away from Allah. --- ## Conclusion It is paramount in this age of distraction that we turn our focus inwards to discover the secrets of the mind. The experiences of thinking and consciousness are deeply spiritual and can unlock many hidden treasures inside of us. They represent one of the greatest miracles of this universe. They are the basis for our aims and ambitions in life. They are the building blocks of the emotions we experience. Through contemplation, remembrance, and reflection we can build vast and magnificent structures in our hearts from the material of knowledge and understanding. In this way, our conceptual architecture is similar to architectural landscapes constructed in the physical world. The buildings and paths enable the inhabitants of a city to traverse the physical world of matter. Similarly our conceptual architecture enables us to traverse the metaphysical world of meaning. Knowledge structures are the buildings and the processes of thinking (*tafakkur, tadhakkur, i’tibaar* and *tadhakkur*) are the pathways that connect them together. Collectively, they can produce a shining civilization within our hearts that enriches our experience in this world. The Islamic tradition has much to offer the field of human psychology. This article has focused on cognitions and metacognitions, exploring their building blocks, processes, and aims. The [subsequent article](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/zohair/the-power-of-motivation-the-spiritual-psychology-series/) will focus on motivation, behavior and personality transformation, completing our introductory study of Islamic Spiritual Psychology. --- ## Notes [^1]: Quran, 87:14 [^2]: Quran, 91:9 [^3]: [https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being/](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being) [^4]: The degrees of motivation are typically described with reference to the following line of poetry: مراتب القصد خمس هاجس ذكروا فخاطر فحديث النفس فاستمعا يليه هم فعزم كلها رفعت سوى الأخير ففيه الأخذ قد وقعا This line is cited by the famous Qur’anic commentator Al-Alusi (d. 1270 H) in *Ruh al-Ma’ani* (Beirut: Dar Ihya Turath al-Arabi 1985) vol. 3, p. 64 (explanation of 2:284). It is also cited by Siddeeq Hasan Khan (d. 1307 H), in *Fath al-Bayan fi Maqasid al-Qur'an* and Anwar Shah Kashmiri (d. 1353 H) in Fayd al-Bari. [^5]: See also Zarabozo J. *Commentary on the 40 hadith of Imam Nawawi* (2 vol. set). Denver: Al-Basheer; 2009. p. 1109 [^6]: Berisha, E. (2017). The Qur’anic semio-ethics of nature. *Islam and Civilisational Renewal*, 8, 47-65. [^7]: Pang, A. (2013). *The distraction addiction*. New York: Brown and Company. p. 5 [^8]: Ibid [^9]: Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. *Analys*is, *5*8(1), 7-19. [^10]: Digital Amnesia in Practice. [http://amnesia.kaspersky.com/](http://amnesia.kaspersky.com/) [^11]: Chiesa, A., & Serretti, A. (2010). A systematic review of neurobiological and clinical features of mindfulness meditations. *Psychological Medicine, 40*(8), 1239-1252. [^12]: Moerman, D. E., & Jonas, W. B. (2002). Deconstructing the placebo effect and finding the meaning response. *Annals of Internal Medicine, 136*(6), 471-476. [^13]: Al-Badri M. (2000). *Contemplation: An Islamic psychospiritual study*. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought, p. 22. [^14]: Ibid [^15]: Ibid [^16]: Lightsey, O.R., Gharghani, G. G., Katz, A. M., McKinney, V. A., & Rarey, E. B. (2013). Positive automatic cognitions mediate the relationship between personality and trait positive affect. *Journal of Happiness Studies, 14*(1), 115-134. [^17]: Abu Layla M. (1990). *In pursuit of virtue: The moral theology and psychology of Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi*. London: TaHa Publishers,  p. 158. [^18]: al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, 2002), v. 7 p. 46 # 5269. [^19]: Quran, 2:286 [^20]: Al-Badri, M., p. 23 [^21]: Quran, 114:1-6 [^22]: Al-Badri M, 23 p. translation of Ibn al-Qayyim. *Al-Fawa’id*. Bayrūt: Dār al-Nafā’is; 1981. p. 173 [^23]: Ibn al-Jawzi. *Talbis Iblis*. Bayrūt: Dār al-Qalam; 1982. p. 38 [^24]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *‘Iddat as-Sabireen*. Damām: Dār Ibn al-Jawzi; 2012. p. 48 [^25]: Ibid, p. 51 [^26]: Quran, 50:16 [^27]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Rawdat ul Muhibbeen*. Jeddah: Dār Alam al-Fawa’id; 2010, pp. 245-246 [^28]: Ibid, p. 233 [^29]: Quran, 47:16 [^30]: Quran, 53:23 [^31]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Rawdat ul Muhibeen*, p. 235 [^32]: Quran, 12:53 [^33]: Quran, 75:2 [^34]: Quran, 89:27-28 [^35]: Muslim, Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyāʼ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah, 1955), v. 4 p. 2168 #2814 [^36]: al-Tirmidhī, Muḥammad ibn ʻĪsá. *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), v. 5 p. 69 #2988 [^37]: Quran, 28: 7 [^38]: al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, v. 5 p. 194 #3127 [^39]: Quran, 15:75 [^40]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Kitab ar-Ruh*. 5th edition. Cairo: Al-Maktabatu at-Tawfeeqiyya; 2012. [^41]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Madarij as-Salikeen*. Al-Mansoorah: Maktabatu Fayyadh; 2013. [^42]: Ibid, p. 826 [^43]: Ibid [^44]: Ibid, p. 827 [^45]: Many scholars of hadith have pointed out weakness in this narration chain of transmission, such as at-Tabarani (*Al-Mu’jam al-Awsat*, vol. 8, p. 23), Al-Aqeeli (*Ad-Du’afaa al-Kabeer*, vol. 4, p. 129) and Ibn al-Jawzi (*Mawdu’aat ibn al-Jawzi*, vol. 3, p. 389). [^46]: Ibn al-Qayyim, Madarij as-Salikeen, p. 827 [^47]: Ibid, p. 828 [^48]: Ibid [^49]: Ibid, p. 829 [^50]: Ibid, p. 828 [^51]: Al-Ghazali. *The alchemy of happiness* \[internet\]: Orange Sky Publishing; p. 26. Available from [http://mehmetgok.com/orangesky](http://mehmetgok.com/orangesky) [^52]: Ibid [^53]: This refers to the well-known prophetic narration regarding angels being annoyed by similar odors as human beings are annoyed by. [^54]: Kamali, M. H. (2006). Reading the signs: A Quranic perspective on thinking. *Islam & Science*, 4(2), 141-164. [^55]: Veenman M. V. J., van Hout-Wolters, B., & Afflerbach, P. (2006). Metacognition and learning: Conceptual and methodological considerations. *Metacognition and Learning, 1*, 3-14. [^56]: Ibid [^57]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Miftaah Dar as-Sa’dah*. Jeddah: Dār Alam al-Fawa’id; 2011. [^58]: Ibid [^59]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Iddat as-Sabireen*, p. 93 [^60]: Quran, 83:14 [^61]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftaah Daar as-Sa’adah*, p. 525 [^62]: Ibid, p. 525 [^63]: Ibid [^64]: Ibid, pp. 524-525 [^65]: Ibid, p. 525 [^66]: Ibn Qayyim. *Shifaa ul-‘ileel*. Cairo: Dar at-Turaat; p. 526. [^67]: Quran, 94:5-6 [^68]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftaah Daar as-Sa’adah*, p. 525 [^69]: Quran, 24:35 [^70]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya on the Invocation of God = Al- Wābil Al-Ṣayyib Min Al-Kalim Al-Ṭayyib*. (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Soc, 2007), p. 64. [^71]: Ibid [^72]: Quran, 16:60 [^73]: Ibid, p. 47 [^74]: Quran, 2:6-7 [^75]: Ibid, p. 526-527 [^76]: Ibid, p. 527 [^77]: Ibid, p. 528 [^78]: Ibid [^79]: Ibid, p. 529 [^80]: Ibid [^81]: Ibid, p. 530 [^82]: We have slightly modified this category from the original to produce a more coherent system. The original is “Thinking about harm and punishment” without any sub-categories. [^83]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Miftaah Daar Sa’aadah*, p. 531. ## Summary The study of human cognition, emotion, and behavior lies at the very heart of what it means to be human, and these dimensions are inseparable from the Islamic pursuit of self-purification, known as *tazkiyat an-nafs*. Allah declares this purification to be the pinnacle of success, saying, "Certainly, the one who purifies [one's soul] has succeeded" (Ash-Shams). For this reason, the classical scholars who devoted themselves to the science of purifying the soul developed rich and profound understandings of human psychology. The aim here is to construct an Islamic model of spiritual psychology grounded in the vocabulary of the Qur'an and the classical Islamic sources, rather than reading modern psychological frameworks back into the tradition. Only after establishing this foundation are modern insights compared, integrated, or differentiated. This model follows the framework of *Maraatib al-Qasd* (the degrees of motivation), which traces the progression of human behavior through five stages: *al-Haajis* (a fleeting thought), *al-Khaatir* (a thought one chooses to entertain), *Hadith an-Nafs* (an inner deliberation), *al-Hamm* (a motivation to act), and *al-'Azm* (a firm and irreversible resolve). The present treatment addresses only the first three stages, concerning the emergence and deliberation of conscious thought. Thoughts are the deepest point of contact between a person and the realm of the spirit, for although one may observe that another is thinking, none but Allah can perceive the actual content of a thought as it is experienced. In this sense, thought is a metaphysical reality that transcends the material world. It is no surprise, then, that the Qur'an directs the human being to think, ponder, reflect, listen, and observe in over seven hundred and fifty places. Yet in our present era, the mind has been displaced from its central role. Drawing on Alex Pang, author of *The Distraction Addiction*, who observes that "if maintaining your online life feels like a job, maybe that's because it is," the sheer volume of time consumed by digital devices is striking, amounting to roughly three months of full-time work each year for the average American. The theory of the "extended mind" advanced by the philosophers Clark and Chalmers in 1998 is invoked to explain how people now outsource cognitive functions such as memory and planning to external devices. This is illustrated by a Kaspersky Lab survey in Europe which found that sixty percent of adults could recall their childhood home phone number yet could not recall the current numbers of their own children. Through such distraction, humanity has lost touch with the creativity, insight, and self-awareness the mind was designed for. Modern science, meanwhile, affirms the power of thought upon the body, as seen in the well-documented "placebo effect" and, conversely, in the harmful bodily consequences of stress. The thoughts that flood the waking mind are collectively termed *khawaatir* by Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), encompassing both the *haajis* and the *hadith an-nafs*. The contemporary Muslim psychologist Dr. Maalik el-Badri defines *khawaatir* as "internal dialogue" or "concealed speech," a notion that resembles the "automatic thoughts" described by Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy. These *khawaatir* arise from competing forces within the unconscious, some internal to the person and others external, whether Divine, angelic, or satanic. It is noted that certain ideas later associated with Freud were anticipated by Muslim theologians, for Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH) described the repression of forbidden impulses long before him. That an unconscious dimension influences conscious thought is affirmed by revelation, for the Prophet ﷺ said, as reported by Abu Hurayrah, "Certainly, Allah has overlooked for my *ummah* what arises in his mind as long as he does not act it out or vocalize it." Since accountability applies only to what falls within our conscious choice, and since Allah "does not place a burden on a person that he is not capable of fulfilling," we are not held responsible for involuntary mental phenomena. Among the most significant influences upon consciousness is *waswaas* (whispering), which the tradition divides into satanic, self-generated, and angelic. Satanic whispering issues from both the seen and unseen realms, as in the final chapter of the Qur'an, which seeks refuge from "the one who whispers into the chests of Humanity from among the Jinn and Humanity." Human *waswaas* enters the unconscious once it is absorbed into memory. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that thinking "will be transferred to or stored in the memory and the memory will transform it into a volition and a motive which will be acted out in real life as an action." Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) likened the heart to a fortress with gates through which Iblis seeks entry wherever heedlessness leaves an opening, while Ibn al-Qayyim depicted the self as entering daily onto a battlefield where victory comes only through the help of Allah. The whispering of the *nafs* is affirmed in the verse, "And We have certainly created man and know what his *nafs* whispers to him." Ibn al-Qayyim classified pleasure into three types, and Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) noted that "experiencing what is compatible with one's self is the means of pleasure," yet the Qur'an condemns those who "follow their desires." Ibn al-Qayyim distinguished blameworthy pleasure by its ultimate outcome in pain. The *nafs* itself passes through three stations named in the Qur'an: the *nafs ammaara bis-soo'* that commands evil, the *nafs lawwaama* that feels guilt, and the *nafs mutma'inna* that attains tranquility. Angelic whispering, by contrast, inclines a person toward good, for the Prophet ﷺ affirmed that each person has a companion from the jinn and one from the angels. Beyond this lies *ilhaam*, direct inspiration such as that given to the mother of Moses, and *firaasa*, which the Prophet ﷺ described saying, "Beware the *firaasa* of the believer, for he sees with the light of Allah." Ibn al-Qayyim defined it as "light that Allah throws into the heart," recognizable as the first thought arising without opposition, while Imam al-Ghazali (d. 505 AH) likened it to a window in the heart opening onto the unseen, clearest in sleep. Importantly, this is not a wholly deterministic view, for a person may counteract these unconscious influences through purification, seeking refuge in Allah, righteous companionship, and cultivating character. Regarding the process of thinking, the Qur'an employs a diverse vocabulary that some exegetes count at thirty terms. Ibn al-Qayyim examines four in his *Miftaah Dar as-Sa'adah*: *tafakkur*, the active bringing of a thought to awareness; *tadhakkur*, the recalling of previously acquired knowledge to defend against Satan and curb desire; *i'tibaar*, the crossing over from a story to a deeper realization through abstraction; and *tadabbur*, the following of a thought to its logical end or foundation, especially concerning the Qur'an. He explains that "*tafakkur* builds the heart and *tadhakkur* preserves it." Neglecting *tadhakkur* causes knowledge to "rust," as Allah says, "Rather their hearts have rusted because of what they earned." Ibn al-Qayyim outlines five causally linked stations: *fikr* (thought) gives rise to *'ilm* (knowledge), which produces a *haal* (conceptual architecture), which stirs an *iraada* (motivation), which yields *'amal* (action). The *haal* functions as the lens of the heart, likened to the glass in the verse of Light, through which meaning is perceived at three orders, the highest requiring *Qiyaas bil-Awlaa* and an untarnished heart, for a sealed heart "will neither accept what is true nor reject what is false." The *haal* stirs the heart toward stations such as *tawakkul*, *sabr*, *shukr*, *khawf*, *mahabba*, and *rajaa'*. Concerning the desired content of thought, Ibn al-Qayyim identifies four categories to cultivate: our most beloved purpose, the path to it, our most despised end, and the paths leading to it. There is no neutral thought, for as Surah al-'Asr declares, "Verily mankind is in a state of loss" save those engaged in faith and righteousness. Motivation flows from love, and love for Allah, the ultimate Beloved, is strengthened by pondering His Beauty and His favors. Ibn al-Qayyim reduces this to knowledge of Allah's *Tawhid*, the path toward Him, and the paths away from Him, a structure embodied in Surah al-Fatiha itself. He warns that the heart is like land: if left barren, Satan will sow it with corrupt desires. In an age of distraction, turning inward through contemplation, remembrance, and reflection builds a shining civilization within the heart, and it remains for a subsequent study to address motivation, behavior, and personality transformation. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-islam-a-death-cult-martyrdom-and-the-american-muslim-imagination # Is Islam a Death Cult? Martyrdom and the American-Muslim Imagination **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** September 12, 2017 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy* The topic of martyrdom in general, and certainly in Islam, is very sensitive. One can never be too clear about things these days, so before delving into the topic I want to state clearly my own position: I categorically and unconditionally condemn the killing of noncombatants by anyone, whether state or non-state actors, uniformed military or insurgents. I take the position of Imam Malik and al-Awza’i, that one is not permitted to kill civilians even if it seems necessary to achieve some valid military objective. It is *never* acceptable. I think it is vital for us as American Muslims to demonstrate our concern for all human beings, not just Americans and not just Muslims. We have to speak and rise up anytime that any of God’s creation is attacked, regardless of whether the victims are Muslims or not. Having gotten that out of the way, I want to start by talking about a film. It is a movie shot in Chicago (where I attended graduate school) and tells the story of a man who seeks out his own death. In the film, *Stranger than Fiction* (2006), the hero, played by Will Ferrell, discovers that a local author is actually dictating the story of his life—the book this author is writing is literally governing his existence. He confronts the author and (spoiler!) asks her for the ending that she has written, only to find out that she has him die in the very near future pushing a child out of the way of a bus. Instead of fleeing from this fate, the hero embraces it. He goes to his end willingly, explaining to the author that he can imagine no better, more poetic, death. Let us keep this image in mind; let it set the tone. Writing this essay was an attempt to answer a question that has tasked my mind and conscience for many years now, certainly since the horrible events of September 11th, that day which, in my life at least, separates the carefree Golden Age of optimistic youth from the exhausted and somber alloy of the present. Put simply: no Muslim can deny that our God praises martyrs. The Quran makes this abundantly clear. Those Muslims who die “fighting in the path of God” reside in the highest levels of Paradise. They are not truly even dead. Rather, they are instant immortals, as the Quran says, “alive, sustained with their Lord” (Quran 3:169). Martyrs’ bodies are not even washed for burial in Islam, and they bypass the trials and tribulations of the grave. It is as if they do not have to wait for Judgment Day to reap their rewards. Certainly, death in battle is not the only way to achieve martyrdom in Islam. Those who die unjustly or whose lives are truncated by some act of God are martyrs as well. Someone who is killed for their money (like a friend of mine at the University of Chicago, Ahmadou Cisse, *rahimahu Allah*, who was murdered one night in Hyde Park), someone who drowns, someone who dies building a mosque or in a structural collapse, a woman who dies in childbirth, the victims of a plague, someone who is killed defending their family, someone who is killed for speaking truth to an unjust ruler, who dies in prison or who stands alone for truth in corrupted times; even (according to one *hadith*) someone who falls in love and represses their desire with fatal consequences—all these are martyrs.[^1] One weak *hadith,* by the way, puts honest merchants at almost the same level of martyrs… I guess showing how rare honest merchants are (?).[^2] But in the Quran and *hadith*, martyrs are first and foremost those who have died in *jihad*, “fighting in the path of God,” those who have perished violently in battle. So here’s the rub. We are Muslims whose holy book praises those martyred in battle, yet today whenever we hear of Muslims claiming to be martyrs it is a news report of someone blowing up innocent civilians in a market place. How can we reconcile this awful conflict? How should we understand martyrdom? This is the quandary (well, one of many) that faces Muslims today. Discussions of martyrdom in Islam inevitably turn on the issue of suicide attacks and what “Islam says about them.” As I always tell my students any time they raise a question about what Islam or Islamic law says about anything, there is almost always more than one answer. Purposefully seeking one’s own death in battle and the permissibility of killing civilians are no exceptions. We must note, of course, that no classical Muslim scholar allowed the blatant, unmitigated killing of civilians. Here the Islamic legal tradition would disagree with the 1945 Allied firebombing of the cities of Dresden and Tokyo, which killed around 35,000 and 100,000 civilians respectively and had no tactical military aim (in Germany, US government estimates were that 24% of the bombs fell on residential and commercial areas, and 19% of casualties were children under 16… in Japan it was much, much worse).[^3] Just like the policies of the American government, disagreements among Muslim scholars do predictably arise when one asks whether one can kill non-combatants if they are mixed in with the enemy army and even if one can kill Muslims who are being used by the enemy as human shields. Some Sunni Muslim scholars have held that the death of innocent civilians might be inevitable if they're mixed in with the enemy—but otherwise intentionally targeting civilians is totally prohibited. This is equivalent to the US government’s policy of avoiding “collateral damage” to the extent possible and falls along the same lines as the [doctrine of double effect](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-effect/) in Western theory on just war. Some Muslim scholars have proven even more cautious. The eighth-century scholars Malik and al-Awza’i, for example, declared that killing women and children is never permissible. On the issue of whether or not a Muslim can purposefully kill himself in order to kill the enemy, the general opinion of classical Muslim scholars is no. This would be prohibited due to the impermissibility of suicide in Islam. Like American soldiers who are awarded the Medal of Honor, a Muslim is allowed to heroically engage in an action that will almost certainly result in his death. But this is not the same as killing oneself in the act of killing the enemy—it is not suicide *per se* since the agent of killing (the killer) is not the same person as the person killed. I do not want to focus on what Islamic law says about suicide attacks because I do not think this is truly a legal issue in the eyes of the American public. It is not about what we allow or prohibit, but about how we respond emotionally to suffering and injustice. It is about emotion and perception, not rules and law. Think of the brilliant *[Onion](https://www.theonion.com/we-must-retaliate-with-blind-rage-vs-we-must-retaliate-1819594273)* Point/Counterpoint article in that publication’s eminently tasteful response to 9/11. The two positions being argued in the piece were, on the one hand, “We Must Retaliate With Blind Rage,” *versus*, on the other, “We Must Retaliate With Measured, Focused Rage.” A brief sample: > *After pummeling the holy living hell out of those f-----s with bombs, we should send in ground troops, armed to the teeth, to sweep through and exterminate anyone still alive who might have been involved. America's soldiers must be under orders to pump round after round into their bodies, pausing only to replace their clips. **Vs**. While leveling Afghanistan, Iraq, the Sudan, and Libya with bombs might seem like a justifiable move… Have we made sure we have the support of other key powers in the region, so that further problems don't develop after we bomb them back into the Stone Age?* How perfectly this satire (if in fact it’s satire) encapsulates the primordial, hyperbolic desire for revenge that understandably flooded America after 9/11. No matter which side you took in this debate, the urge was the same—*all of them, them, they all must die*. Now let’s shift our gaze for a moment away from ‘kill ‘em all’ to an image of a little old Afghan woman, kindly helping her granddaughter put on her first pair of shoes. Could we in any way call for them to be massacred in a fit of revenge? Truly the question of ‘To kill or not to kill’ is often more emotive than principled. An Arab man might call for Israel to be pushed into the sea, but could he raise the same cry if he saw an old Israeli mother, sobbing, waiting anxiously for news of her missing son? This, then, is what I want to focus on: emotion, not law. The importance of visceral, emotive perception is obvious when suicide attacks are discussed in America. What is a suicide attack, after all? More to the point, what is it about suicide attacks that horrifies us? I would think that what would truly make our blood boil is the fact that these attacks generally target and brutally end the lives of innocent civilians. This seems fairly obvious. But if this were the case, if that were indeed what lies at the heart of suicide attacks and our outrage towards them, then this essay would end right now. I’ve already made it clear that killing civilians is unacceptable to Muslim scholars and that any equivocation on the issue is an unfortunate reality shared by both Islamic law and the policies of the US military. (Remember, a [2007 poll](http://www.gallup.com/poll/28678/framing-war-terror.aspx) found that 6% of Americans felt that “attacks in which civilians are targets are ‘completely justified.’” Only 4% of Saudis and 2% of Iranians did. A [2017 poll](http://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/findings-from-pew-research-centers-2017-survey-of-us-muslims/) found that, when asked whether “targeting and killing civilians can be justified to further a political, social or religious cause,” 84% of U.S. Muslims said such tactics are never (76%) or rarely (8%) justified. In comparison, in a survey of the U.S. public as a whole, only 59% said it’s *never* justifiable.) But clearly suicide attacks hold some special horror for us. The type of attack has its own name (with the equally terrifying ‘suicide bombing’ as a subset) after all, for a reason. There is something about its suicidal dimension—the decision of the attacker to take his/her own life in this violent act—that truly grips us. This is clear from a bizarre debate that appeared in America over the term ‘suicide bombing.’ In 2003 Condoleezza Rice and others made a short-lived effort to replace the term with ‘homicide bombing,’ as if they were afraid that people had gotten the impression that this was a reflexive act impacting only the actor. This was not a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire in protest, Rice was trying to say. This was an act of mass murder. The awkwardness of this term ‘homicide bombing’ (akin perhaps to “violent baseball bat beating”) only revealed our elliptical fascination with the suicidal component of suicide attacks. Let us then assume that it is the suicidal dimension of that act that truly turns the screw in our collective conscience… that there is something that we either cannot understand or hope not to be able to understand about someone choosing to die in an act of killing others. Scholars have suggested multiple motivations for suicide attacks: an escape from political oppression, a collective death wish, an act of social sacrifice, or a political/military strategy. These may all be correct, but I want to look beyond these diagnoses at something both more general and more ancient. I’ll pause here to lay two images before you. First, a [climactic scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdhuAYlHVO0) from the very popular 1996 film *Independence Day* (there was recently some sort of sequel… that will have to wait for airplane viewing). As the massive and invulnerable alien battle cruiser is about to destroy one of humanity’s last bases, Randy Quaid, previously an impoverished alcoholic with some knowledge of flying, aims the nose of his FA-18 Hornet into the one exposed part of the alien ship and detonates his plane, killing himself and destroying the enemy. His children watch the attack on a screen from the base below. The commander turns to the children and says, “Your father did a very brave thing; you should be proud of him.” “I am,” says the child. We, the audience, concur. Indeed, what a worthy act, what a noble way to die. Second, a story from my own life. Once when I was in the Western Desert of Egypt, far into the desert near the Libyan border with the Awlad Ali Bedouins, attending a wedding, I met a man named Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr came to the tent we were staying in on a camel. He dismounted, looming and powerful, and started to give me an unsolicited lesson about proper religion. At one point in his lecture, he looked at me and pointed to his head. “I want a bullet, right here, in *jihad*,” he said. I can say in all honesty that in all my years of traveling I have never been as frightened as I was at that moment, and never have I felt farther away from home. Since then, I’ve often thought about how I felt when Abu Bakr said that. Why was I so afraid? Was it the prejudice of expectation—because he was Arab, Muslim, because *jihad* must mean killing people who looked like me, my family? Why was I so afraid of what he was saying and yet so moved by Randy Quaid’s heroic death in *Independence Day*? Were their two wishes really that different? They both wanted to give their lives for a cause they felt was noble. The only difference, it seemed, was whether they were on ‘our’ side of the fight or not. I was walking in the streets of Cairo a few months later when the manifest commonality of their desire dawned upon me: there is no culture in this world, I thought, that does not value dying well, dying a noble death. The Greek scholar Herodotus (d. *circa* 420 BCE) tells of a meeting between Croesus, the powerful king of Lydia, and the Athenian lawmaker Solon. Croesus asks Solon who the happiest, most fortunate man he had ever met was, expecting of course that Solon would name the wealthy king himself. Instead Solon replies that the most blessed and fortunate man he had ever come across was a simple Athenian named Tellus. This Tellus had lived a full life in a prosperous city, had had children who lived to adulthood, had been blessed with grandchildren, and finally “had a glorious death” in battle, fighting for Athens. We can see a similar theme in a Herodotus redux, the wildly profitable film *300*. In it, one of the heroic Spartan warriors (played by Michael Fassbender), facing almost certain annihilation at the spears of a monstrous enemy horde, explains that he hopes for “[a beautiful death](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeFiwYQtGp0),” namely a glorious death in an epic battle against a worthy foe. What is it that makes these deaths so beautiful, so felicitous? Well, Solon tells Croesus that Tellus’ death in battle was made glorious because it was celebrated and remembered by the people of Athens. Herodotus tells us that he has learned the names of every one of the 300 Spartans who fought at Thermopylae, and how pleased that brave Spartan would be if he knew that fully two and a half millennia later Americans were watching his “beautiful death” played out on screen. Put simply, in the classical world a beautiful death, a glorious death, was one that was remembered and celebrated. It is a death that allows you to cheat mortality, to live on in human memory, and gain a species of immortality. This is what the Greeks called *kleos,* or glory and renown. It is the same perpetuating elixir of memory that the Pre-Islamic Arabs called *hasab* or *ma’āthīr*, those heroic deeds sung of in epics. It is what the ghost of Agamemnon envies the ghost of Achilles for in the underworld, how “even in death your name will never die… Great glory is yours Achilles, for all time, in the eyes of all mankind.”[^4] It is such glory that comforts men sorely aware of their mortality. Pindar (d. *circa* 440 BCE) writes, “Don’t be deceived by cunning thrift: glory follows a man, glory alone, when he is dead, reveals his manner of life to the lords of song and story.”[^5]  In that great classic of our Western tradition, the *Aeneid* of Virgil (d. 19 BCE), the hero Aeneas visits Carthage on his wanderings towards Rome from his ruined, native land of Troy. Later, when Aeneas and his Trojans are battling the natives of Italy to found the high walls of Rome, two Trojan warriors, Nisus and Euryalus, undertake a suicidal mission to gain great glory. As Euryalus is cut down by a swath of foes, his friend Nisus charges forward into the enemy ranks, Virgil tells us, “launching himself straight at the foe, through many wounds hastening a heroic death.” Virgil, the narrator, himself breaks his narrative silence and speaks to the two fallen heroes: > *Fortunate both! If in the least my songs avail, no future day will ever take you out of the record of remembering time, while children of Aeneas make their home around the Capitoline rock, and still the Roman Father governs all*.[^6] Looking to our Norse heritage here in America (much revived of late with neo-pagan blockbusters like the *Thor* films), we find the same idea. The old Anglo-Saxons spoke of *dōm*, the glory that a warrior must attain to gain immortal remembrance. Beowulf says to his friends and followers as he volunteers to go and kill the creature Grendel’s mother, “Each of us must live to see the end of his life in this world. Let him who may labor for glory before his death.” While Beowulf battles his demonic enemy, the narrator tells us, “Thus a man must do when he is bent on winning lasting praise. He will not give his life a moment’s thought.”[^7]Seeking a beautiful death, then, is a deeply selfish act. For glory is the mercenary key to immortality in this earthly world, and a heroic death in battle is its speediest path. As the wise woman Diotima explains in Plato’s *Symposium*, “Do you think that Achilles would have died for Patroclus… if \[he\] hadn’t expected the memory of their virtue—which we still hold in honor—to be immortal?”[^8] In Islam, martyrdom is also an act dyed with self-interest. The famous martyrs of Muslim history did not sacrifice themselves only for their community, for their families, or for their cause. Like the quest for immortal glory, Muslims seek martyrdom to cheat death. In the Quran, martyrdom is described in the language of commerce. “Behold,” God tells us in the Quran, > *God has bought of the believers their lives and their possessions, promising them paradise, they fight in the path of God, slay and are slain. A promise which in truth He has willed upon Himself in the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran*… (Quran 9:111) Although the first martyr in Islam was a woman—Sumayya, tortured to death for her faith—famous martyrs from the Prophet ﷺ’s time exemplify this self-centered desire for immediate paradise, instant immortality. During the Battle of Badr, Umayr and ‘Awf stand with the Prophet ﷺ ready for battle. ‘Umayr cries, “Wonder of wonders, is there nothing between me and my entering Paradise but that these men should slay me?!” ‘Awf asks the Prophet, “O Messenger of God, what is it that makes the Lord most high laugh with joy at His slave?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “When he plunges without armor into the midst of the foe.” Both ‘Umayr and ‘Awf, ‘Awf without any armor, threw themselves at the enemy and fought until killed. When the Prophet ﷺ was threatened by a troop of cavalry during the near defeat of Uhud, he asked those around him, “Who will stand up to these foes?” A man named Wahb stood forth, and the Prophet ﷺ told him, “Rejoice, for Paradise is yours!” Wahb plunged into the enemy ranks and, astoundingly, fought his way all the way through their body. He then turned around and entered the enemy ranks again, fighting until slain.[^9] ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/fullsizeoutput_1be1-225x300.jpeg)In its self-centeredness, the Muslim desire for a beautiful death is similar to the thirst for glory in Greco-Roman, Norse, or modern Western culture.[^10] But there is one hugely important difference. A Muslim martyr seeks the recognition and validation not of a bard, historian, or filmmaker, but of God Most High. The value of death in the path of God is not contingent upon human recognition. The great Japanese epic *The Treasury of the Loyal Retainers* (better known as the 47 *Ronin*, also a 2013 film, in which 47 samurai conspire to avenge their slain master, then all commit ritual suicide) makes this clear. The first line of the story tells us, “The sweetest food, if left untasted, remains unknown, its savor wasted.”[^11] As the famous *Jahili* poet Tarafa b. al-‘Abd [sang](http://www.adab.com/modules.php?name%3DSh3er%26doWhat%3Dshqas%26qid%3D13176) against those who told him to be moral and honorable: > *I see that the graves of the thrifty man and the spendthrift wastrel look the same.*[^12] The Japanese play and the pre-Islamic poet lay the danger out plainly: without human remembrance, glory has no resonance. It does not, as Maximus (Russell Crowe) [says](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDpTc32sV1Y) in *Gladiator*, “echo in eternity.” While Virgil has to assure the two Trojan heroes, Nisus and Euryalus, that he will not let their glorious deaths be forgotten, Muslims need no bard’s promise, no artist’s awl. For, as the Quran tells us, God does not wrong any of His slaves. He lets no good deed go unrewarded. “And whoever has done a kernel’s weight of good, will see it” on Judgment Day. A Muslim who dies for God’s cause will win immortality even if he falls in an unknown land, in the dark of night, unsung and rejected of man. The Lord Most High will note his deed. And God’s creation itself will sing his praise, as the Prophet ﷺ tells us of the ants in the dust and the whales in the ocean [singing prayers](http://library.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?bk_no%3D696%26hid%3D142%26pid%3D348965) for those who teach goodliness in this world. Martyrs will enter paradise and their greeting will be ‘Peace,’ all sins are pardoned, all is forgiven. Let us return to the real quandary we have to face, however, that knot that we’ve yet to untangle. Certainly, to seek death in order to cheat it is not foreign at all in the [Western tradition](http://www.metrolyrics.com/poor-jerusalem-lyrics-jesus-christ-superstar.html). Muslims, too, seek immortality through a beautiful death. But what is this “path of God” that the Quran speaks of, that cause for which a Muslim dies in order to become a martyr? In a *hadith* narrated by Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari (*Sahih al-Bukhari, Sunan al-Tirmidhi*) a man asks the Prophet ﷺ, “A man might fight for protection, or fight out of courage, or fight for reputation and praise, which one of these is ‘in the path of God’?” The Prophet ﷺ replies, “Whoever fights so that God’s word might be supreme, that is in ‘the path of God.’”[^13] *So that God’s word might be supreme*… what does that mean, what is this word that martyrs are supposed to elevate? In Islam, God’s word is the Quran and the guidance it brings. God tells us in the Quran that He made His word become flesh in the form of Jesus and his message. God’s word is His everlasting promise of salvation to His humble servants: > *Nay, indeed those close to God, no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve—those who believe and were fearful of God. Theirs is glad tidings in this world and the next. There is no changing God’s word, that is the greatest of attainments.* (Quran 10:62-64). God’s word is the constant message of all the prophets, all the greats from the pantheon of God’s messengers: Abraham, Moses, Noah, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be on all of them). Making God’s unchanging word supreme is to hold their banner high, to lift up the oppressed, to call out for justice, to raise the poor from the depths of indigence and to make the will of the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful God, paramount. We know that God’s word is the light of knowledge that has always illuminated the encompassing darkness, but when we Muslims today look around us we find God’s word used to extinguish. That same phrase, “fighting to make God’s word supreme,” is the same *hadith* cited eerily in a voice-over commentary in a video of a suicide bomb attack on a Baghdad hotel; a voice preaches that the holy warriors are fighting “*li-takun kalimat Allah hiya al-ʿulyā*, that God’s word might be supreme.” Even in the 1970s, Muhammad Abd al-Salam Farag of the Jama’at Jihad said that the purpose of his Muslim martyrs was to die fighting “so that God’s word might be supreme.” When we Muslims try to explain to others that *jihad* is to struggle in God’s path, to elevate His word, we are told: what use is this amorphous and volatile notion of “elevating God’s word” if it can be used to cause such mayhem and shed so much innocent blood? Muslims are told that they should dispense entirely with this notion of martyrdom in God’s path, since it just seems to lead to the murder of both Muslim and non-Muslim civilians. My response to this is simple: you could be right, dying to elevate God’s word might be too often misused by Muslims to be useful. It might be obsolete. But, if it is obsolete, then so too are the notions of dying for glory, for *kleos*, for *dom*, for honor, for greatness, for duty. These are all words that have helped launch wars far bloodier, and massacres far more deracinating than even the horror we have seen in Iraq or Syria. How many men died as German tanks rolled through Europe for the ‘glory’ of the Third Reich? How many people died in Nazi gas chambers because of the word ‘duty’? Consider the words of the samurai who led the famous 47 Ronin in their heroic act to avenge their lord, that “noble purpose,” the narrator of the story tells us, “which will give \[them\] a name for loyalty and rectitude to resound through all the ages.” Listen to the words of one of these samurai: > *I am not unaware that \[my actions\] will bring extinction to my household and despair to my wife, but as a samurai I owe the service of my sword to the god of war.*[^14] How many a family has been shattered by glory, by honor? How many a parent has seen their child butchered, and how many a child has grown up an orphan? And yet the words ‘honor,’ ‘glory,’ and ‘greatness’ still move our hearts to nobility and the hopes of ‘a beautiful death.’ We do not hold these concepts accountable for any misdeeds done in their name. Perhaps it is because they are so deeply etched in the long stone of our history in the West. They are the ancient ore for which our forefathers mined in search of immortal memory, and the currency for which our still pagan hearts ceaselessly yearn today.[^15] Who would question the value of glory, of a beautiful death? Not Virgil, not Homer, not Herodotus, not Beowulf… not the greats, and not those millions who still read their words today. Let us Muslims, then, make dying to elevate God’s word, *li-takun kalimat Allah hiya al-‘ulya*, as noble in the eyes of those around us. There were stories that, when the Virginia Tech killer went on his rampage ten years ago, a Muslim student died trying to stop the madman and save his classmates. I have no idea if this report is true, but let’s suppose it was, and that every American heard it. What a revolution that would start in the public mind and its perceptions of Muslim martyrs and *jihad*. What if Muslims were known as a people who unhesitatingly sacrifice their lives to save others, to alleviate pain, to end injustice through peaceful means—perhaps the only viable means in our day and age? What if we could make these acts the means of ‘making God’s word supreme’? The English word ‘martyr’ comes from the Greek word “to bear witness.” This is the exact same meaning as the Arabic word, *shahīd*, that the Quran uses for those who die in God’s cause. To give one’s life for the principles of one’s belief—as the Jews who rose up against Roman occupation did at Masada, as Christian saints like Polycarp did in the face of crushing persecution, as Martin Luther King did, not fifty years ago—is the ultimate testimony that one can give for one’s faith. What if Muslims restored this idea of ‘bearing witness’ to the word martyrdom? What if we thought of martyrdom as bearing witness by being willing to die in the name of that God Who tells us that saving one life is like saving all of humanity, that standing up to injustice is the highest act of faith, that feeding the stranger and the orphan, and sheltering the wayfarer are the solemn duties of every individual? The Quran (41:33) tells us, “What better word is there than calling out to God, doing a good deed and saying, Indeed I am one of those who submits to God.” As Will Ferrell’s character understood, dying pushing a child out of the way of a bus is as poetic a deed as any, a beautiful death, for a Muslim, for an American, and there is nothing frightening or foreign about that. --- ## Notes [^1]: See Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, *Abwāb al-saʿāda fī asbāb al-shahād*a; Abū Bakr al-Ājurrī, *Ṣifat al-ghurabā’ min al-mu’minīn* (Kuwait: Dār al-Khulafā’, 1983), 20, 66–68. [^2]: The *hadith* is *al-tājir al-amīn al-ṣadūq al-muslim maʿa al-shuhadā’ yawm al-qiyāma*.  See *Sunan Ibn Mājah: kitāb al-tijārāt, bāb al-ḥathth ʿalā al-makāsib*. For a study of this *hadith*, see http://www.ahlalhadeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=372062. [^3]: See Eric Langenbacher, “The Allies in World War II: The Anglo-American Bombardment of German Cities,” in *Genocide, War Crimes and the West*, ed. Adam Jones (London: Zed Books, 2004), 118-119. [^4]: *Odyssey*, book 24:90-110 (see Fagles translation, p. 471). [^5]: Pindar, *Victory Odes*, trans. Frank Nisetich (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 159. [^6]: Virgil, *Aeneid*, 9.446 (Robert Fagles translation). [^7]: *Beowulf*, line 1388. [^8]: *Plato’s Symposium*, 208c-e. [^9]: Ibn Isḥāq, *The Life of Muhammad*, trans. A. Guillaume (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), 300. [^10]: I think of the hit British play, later a 2011 film, *Warhorse*, in which the [theme song](https://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/warhorse/onlyremembered.htm) goes: > Faded away like the stars in the morning, > > Losing their light in the glorious sun – > > Thus would we pass from this earth and its toiling, > > Only remembered for what we have done. [^11]: Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku and Namiki Senryu, *Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers)*, trans. Donald Keene (Columbia University Press, 1971), 29. [^12]: *arā* qabr *naḥḥāmin bakhīlin* bi*\-mālihi…* ka*\-*qabr ghawiyyin *fī’l-baṭālati mufsidī*. [^13]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-ʿilm, bāb man sa’ala wa huwa qā’im ʿāliman jālisan*. [^14]: *Chushingura*, 44. [^15]: Of course, the World War I poet Wilfred Owen, himself killed just days before the war ended, [mocked](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est) the Roman poet Horace’s line that “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. The question that presses upon the conscience of the Muslim today is how to reconcile our sacred sources, which unmistakably honor those slain in the path of Allah, with the grim reality that when we hear of a supposed "martyr" in the news, it is often a report of someone detonating himself among innocents in a marketplace. There can be no denial that our Lord praises the martyrs. The Qur'an declares that those who die fighting in His path are not truly dead but "alive, sustained with their Lord" (Qur'an 3:169). Their bodies are not washed for burial, and they bypass the trials of the grave, as if they need not await the Day of Judgment to receive their reward. Yet martyrdom in Islam is not confined to death in battle. One killed unjustly, one who drowns, one who dies building a mosque, a woman who dies in childbirth, the victim of plague, one killed defending his family, and one who speaks truth to a tyrant and dies for it—all these are counted among the martyrs. There is even a hadith, though it is weak, that places the honest merchant near the rank of the martyr. But in the Qur'an and hadith, the martyr is first and foremost the one who perishes violently in jihad, "fighting in the path of God." Before proceeding, one must state plainly and without condition that the killing of noncombatants is condemned, whether committed by states or individuals, by uniformed armies or insurgents. The position adopted here is that of the eighth-century scholars Imam Malik and al-Awza'i, who held that the killing of women and children is never permissible, even in pursuit of some seemingly valid military objective. It must be stressed that no classical Muslim scholar permitted the blatant, unmitigated killing of civilians. Disagreements did arise, however, over whether noncombatants may be killed when mixed among an enemy army, or when used as human shields. Some Sunni scholars held that the death of innocents might be unavoidable when they are intermingled with the enemy, yet maintained that deliberately targeting them is entirely forbidden—a position resembling the doctrine of double effect in Western just-war theory. As for whether a Muslim may take his own life in order to kill the enemy, the general opinion of the classical scholars was that this is prohibited, owing to the impermissibility of suicide in Islam. A Muslim may heroically undertake an act that will almost certainly bring about his death, just as a soldier may charge into near-certain destruction; but this differs from suicide, for the one who kills is not himself the one killed. It should be recognized, however, that the true anguish surrounding suicide attacks in the public mind is not a matter of law but of emotion and perception—a visceral horror at one who chooses to die in the very act of killing others. Here it must be observed that the yearning for a noble death is not peculiar to Muslims, nor to any single people. There is no culture on earth that does not exalt dying well. The Greeks called it kleos—glory and renown that cheats mortality through remembrance. Herodotus tells how Solon named the fortunate Tellus of Athens blessed for his "glorious death" in battle. Pindar sang that "glory alone, when he is dead, reveals a man's manner of life," and Virgil promised the fallen Trojans Nisus and Euryalus that no future day would erase them from "the record of remembering time." The old Anglo-Saxons spoke of dōm, and Beowulf urged, "Let him who may labor for glory before his death." In all of these, the beautiful death is a deeply self-interested act, for glory is the mercenary key to immortality in this world. The Muslim, too, seeks martyrdom out of a kind of self-interest—not merely for community, family, or cause, but to cheat death itself. The Qur'an frames this in the language of commerce: "God has bought of the believers their lives and their possessions, promising them paradise" (Qur'an 9:111). Though the first martyr in Islam was a woman, Sumayya, tortured to death for her faith, the Companions at Badr embodied this longing for immediate paradise. 'Umayr exclaimed, "Wonder of wonders, is there nothing between me and my entering Paradise but that these men should slay me?!" and 'Awf, asking the Prophet ﷺ what makes the Lord laugh with joy at His servant, was told, "When he plunges without armor into the midst of the foe." Both threw themselves upon the enemy until slain. At Uhud, when the Prophet ﷺ asked who would stand against a troop of cavalry, Wahb came forward and was told, "Rejoice, for Paradise is yours!" Yet there is one decisive difference between the Muslim martyr and the seeker of worldly glory. The pagan hero depends upon the bard, the historian, or the poet to secure his immortality; without human remembrance, his glory has no resonance. The pre-Islamic poet Tarafa b. al-'Abd lamented that "the graves of the thrifty man and the spendthrift wastrel look the same." But the Muslim requires no such promise, for his reward rests not upon human recognition but upon Allah Most High, who wrongs none of His servants and lets no good deed go unrewarded: "Whoever has done a kernel's weight of good, will see it." Even the ants in the dust and the whales in the sea, as the Prophet ﷺ told us, pray for the one who teaches goodness in this world. The knot that remains is the meaning of that "path of God" for which the martyr dies. In the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sunan al-Tirmidhi, a man asked the Prophet ﷺ which fighting is truly in the path of God—that done for protection, courage, or reputation. He ﷺ answered, "Whoever fights so that God's word might be supreme, that is in the path of God." God's word is the Qur'an and its guidance, the constant message of all the prophets—Abraham, Moses, Noah, Jesus, and Muhammad, peace be upon them all. To make it supreme is to lift up the oppressed, to call for justice, and to raise the poor from indigence, for as the Qur'an says, "no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve" (Qur'an 10:62-64). The tragedy is that this very phrase, li-takun kalimat Allah hiya al-'ulya, has been misappropriated—recited in a video over a suicide bombing in Baghdad, and invoked by Muhammad 'Abd al-Salam Farag of Jama'at Jihad. Some therefore urge Muslims to abandon the notion of martyrdom altogether. The answer offered here is direct: if dying to elevate God's word is too often abused to be useful, then so too are glory, honor, duty, and greatness—words that launched wars far bloodier and massacres far more devastating. How many perished for the "glory" of the Third Reich, or in gas chambers built upon the word "duty"? Yet no one holds these pagan ideals accountable for the crimes committed in their name. Let Muslims, then, restore martyrdom to its true meaning. The English word "martyr" and the Arabic shahīd both mean "to bear witness." To bear witness is to be willing to die for the God who teaches that saving one life is as saving all humanity, that standing against injustice is the highest faith, and that feeding the orphan and sheltering the wayfarer are solemn duties. The Qur'an asks, "What better word is there than calling out to God, doing a good deed and saying, Indeed I am one of those who submits to God" (Qur'an 41:33). To die pushing a child from the path of a bus is as poetic and beautiful a death as any—for a Muslim, and there is nothing frightening or foreign in that. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/does-islam-need-saving-an-analysis-of-human-rights # Does Islam Need Saving? An Analysis of Human Rights **Author:** Nour Soubani **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** August 21, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction It is a common argument, made both implicitly and explicitly in Islamophobic rhetoric, that Islam, on the whole, is antithetical to modern secular notions of human rights. Whether it is through the lens of the [rights of women in Islam](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/women-in-islamic-law-examining-five-prevalent-myths) and the oppression of women in the Muslim world, or through cited components of the shari’a regarding issues such as adultery and [apostasy](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam), critics of Islam contend that the religion is inherently opposed to the sanctity of the individual, and the protection of his or her basic human rights. Even before the 9/11 era began, human rights violations of Muslims consistently made the headlines: death threats against authors like Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, stonings of criminals in the Muslim world, imprisonment of rape victims in Pakistan, sexual assaults on domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, and restrictions on freedom of speech and expression in the Arab world. All of these and more became part of a narrative in which Islam perpetuated a disregard for human life, rights, and freedoms. On the other hand, when placed in opposition to Islam, human rights as we know them today, both the idea and the body of international law, are understood to be agreed upon by the rest of the world in their principle and implementation. The conflict between Islam and human rights raises questions for Muslims and non-Muslims alike about the religion and, more specifically, about its compatibility with modern secular rights of the individual—questions that are closely tied to Islam’s relationship to modernity as a whole. In our current political moment, it is critical to discuss the role of modern secular human rights more broadly and transnationally, especially as it seems their position is becoming more and more precarious with the rise of neo-fascist and authoritarian rule. This is true not just under authoritarian rule in parts of the Muslim world, but also in the United States and Europe—historically assumed to be proud leaders and bearers of the banner of human rights globally. To understand the challenges to the true protection of human life and freedom is to envision a way forward based on equality and respect. For this reason, the primary aim of this paper is to critique the binary described above—that between Islam and our modern day understanding of “human rights.” This critique challenges the mainstream discourse, explores how and why we have arrived at this false dichotomy, and what have been the consequences. It requires a critical study of the history of the modern secular human rights scheme itself, its origins, and its political usage across time and location. The fact that the promotion of human rights has been intertwined with the ongoing process of colonialism is important to understanding the discussion on the relationship between Islam and human rights. As Khaled Abou El Fadl writes, > *...Political realities—such as colonialism, the persistence of highly invasive and domineering despotic governments, the widespread perception, and reality, of Western hypocrisy in the human rights field, and the emergence and spread of supremacist movements of moral exceptionalism in modern Islam—have contributed to modes of interpretation and practice that are not consistent with a commitment to human rights...Colonialism, and its accompanying institution of Orientalism, had not only played a pivotal role in undermining the traditional institutions of Muslim learning and jurisprudence, but it had also posed a serious challenge to traditional Muslim epistemologies of knowledge and sense of moral values. Although international human rights law was enshrined in various treaties during a period in which most Muslim countries had gained political independence, the experiences of colonialism and post-colonialism influenced the Muslim intellectual response in several important respects. Muslims did not first encounter Western conceptions of human rights in the form of the UDHR of 1948, or in the form of negotiated international conventions. Rather, they encountered such conceptions as part of the “White Man’s Burden” or the “civilizing mission” of the colonial era, and as part of the European natural law tradition which was frequently exploited to justify imperialistic policies in the Muslim world.*[^1] The political dimensions of human rights, which will be the focus of this paper, can be understood as the backdrop to the evolution of human rights discourse in Islam and the Muslim world, as well as to human rights discourse on Islam and the Muslim world. In Islamic thought, there has been a politicized view of human rights that has resulted in a discourse that is focused on compatibility and incompatibility. In other words, much of the discussion on human rights in Islam has become either apologetic—harmonizing Islam with modern secular human rights—or resistant—arguing that Islam inherently goes above and beyond Western human rights.[^2] Finally, this paper provides an introductory overview of the rights tradition in Islam, in an attempt to clarify Islam’s stance—through the Quran, Sunnah, and legal tradition—on human rights. --- ## The Problem with the History of Contemporary Human Rights When we think of human rights today an immediate and relatable association is the international commitment to them in the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR, established in 1948, set as its primary goal the advancement and protection of the basic rights of the individual.[^3] The United Nations itself had been founded just three years earlier in 1945, alongside increasing pressure to include in its Charter an international bill of rights. The global post-war, post-Holocaust context meant that world leaders, especially in the United States and Europe, were concerned with creating an international world order that would place limits on the state’s power over people, and that would ensure freedoms, respect, and dignity for all people after the horrors of the Nazi regime.[^4] But the idea of the rights-bearing individual did not, in fact, begin with the UDHR or the United Nations. In other words, the concept of human rights, of the sanctity of life, and the protection of human dignity and freedom, has roots much more vast and widespread than is commonly known or acknowledged. In order to truly understand the complexities of the debate on human rights and Islam, and more generally the critiques of contemporary human rights, we must investigate the roots of the history of the idea. When we do so, we will find these roots are expansive and intersecting and shed light on some of the current issues we face with regards to this topic. Firstly, there is a distinction to be made between the concept of human rights, and the body of international human rights law. The idea of human rights comes from an amalgam of religious ideas, natural law, Roman law, Enlightenment values; all of these have influenced our current system of international human rights laws. The early understandings of human rights in the Western world did have strong religious underpinnings. As Thomas Jefferson declared in 1779, > *We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.*[^5] Shortly thereafter, Alexander Hamilton wrote, > *The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for amongst old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature by the hand of divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured.*[^6] But international human rights law itself, as Paul Sieghart wrote, has gone beyond the ideas from which it originated: > *...\[It is\] a superior international standard, established by common consent, which caused a disappearance of the need for standards founded on systems of divine law or natural law...To judge whether a natural law is good or bad, just or unjust, recourse is no longer necessary to the Creator or to Nature or to* belief *in either of them*.[^7] The period that is most often associated with the development of human rights is the Enlightenment, which began in the 17th century and lasted until the 19th century. Also known as the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment marked the end of the Middle Ages in Europe through the proliferation of scientific innovation, trade, global expansion, the emergence of a middle class, and the disintegration of feudalism. Another major feature of this period is what is now characterized as the beginning of secular, rational thought. While Europe was afflicted by the wars between Catholics and Protestants, a new class of secular thinkers, including notable figures such as Rene Descartes, Emmerich de Vattel, Samuel Pufendorf, and Hugo Grotius began to conceive of the notion of the secular individual, with freedoms and liberties transcending his or her religion. In 1625, Grotius wrote the *Rights of War and Peace*, in which he delineated that > *natural law derived from God and nature universally endowed all human beings with certain natural rights of protection and just and equal treatment irrespective of any religious or civil status.*[^8] A few years later in 1628, the English Parliament subsequently passed the Petition of Right, a constitutional document that laid out rights of the subject that the Crown could not transgress. In England during these years, tensions were high between Parliament and the King, because of Parliament’s refusal to fund the war effort, and King Charles’ subsequent seizing of funds and arbitrary imprisonment of those who did not comply with his decrees. It was in this context that, in the latter part of the 17th century, the English disseminated the law of habeas corpus, giving prisoners the right to be brought forth before a court of law. All of these developments and others constituted deliberate challenges to the absolute monarchy of the Crown; these challenges culminated in the establishment of the English Bill of Rights in 1689, which included the inalienable rights of representative government, free elections, freedom of speech, religious toleration, trial by jury, and prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. In the 18th century, revolutionary causes in England, America, and France used this rapidly strengthening discourse of human rights to challenge the state’s authority—whether monarchical or colonial—and to call for independence. “Dignity, liberty, equality, and fraternity,” the famous French revolutionary claim, became a common mantra for various Western struggles of independence.[^9] Ironically, while the French Revolution produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen—a charter thought to be one of the founding documents of human rights—it was at the same time at least partly characterized by the Reign of Terror, a period of extreme violence in which the Revolutionary government brutally punished anyone suspected of not supporting the revolutionary cause. During this time, symbolized by the infamous guillotine, at least 300,000 people were arrested, 17,000 were executed, and 10,000 died in prison awaiting trial.[^10] There is, however, more to the history of human rights than its origins in the European Enlightenment: > *The first steps in this direction began with the earliest thoughts and beliefs about the value of human life, what it means to be truly human, and whether people bear any responsibility for the well-being of others. Given these kind of profound, universal, and enduring issues, it is not surprising that some of the first significant philosophies concerning human rights would come from religious tradition. Virtually all of the world’s greatest religions, despite their many differences, stress the worth and dignity of human life, the common kinship of humankind, and the responsibility that believers have to show compassion, to treat others as they would like to be treated, and to care for those who suffer. These early forms of religious belief may not have created legal or personal rights, but they established traditions and manifested principles that would inform later rights developments.*[^11] The role of non-Christian religions is often erased from the history of human rights, and the movement for human rights has sometimes been presented as a sort of civilizing mission to people of various religions and cultures around the world who must be introduced to the concept. In fact, in contemporary human rights discourse, religion is often designated as an enemy of human rights, as the cause of wars and human rights violations, as a green light for absolute authoritarianism, and as an obstacle to individual freedom.[^12] As a result, the narrative of rights is largely centered on a Euro-Christian framework when in reality there exist other languages of rights. For example, in Asian cultures (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Confucian), the building blocks of a just and free society are not the rights of individuals, but the obligations individuals have to the society they belong to.[^13] Although we will explore the tradition of human rights in Islam in depth later in this paper, it is useful here to also turn to examples of other religious and spiritual traditions and briefly summarize their discourses of human rights. This overview can widen the scope of the history of human rights and point to not only the presence of some overarching values in different faith traditions, but also to the breadth of debate within these traditions themselves over what human rights are and how they should be implemented. In his article, “A Jewish Perspective on Human Rights,” Elliot Dorff makes a bold statement: > *One of Judaism’s fundamental theoretical convictions is that God both created the world and owns it. This immediately establishes a ground for moral claims completely different than secular alternatives. The whole drama of life, from the point of view of Judaism, is not played out on the stage of individuals with inherent inalienable rights, it is rather played on the stage of positive and negative duties to God.*[^14] Dorff goes on to explain that, while Judaism gives immense value to each individual as a unique creation, rights and responsibilities are based on a covenant between human beings and God. To give another example, in Buddhism there is extensive debate on whether modern human rights are compatible with the Buddhist tradition or not. Much of pre-modern Buddhist ideas were modeled after the early community of Buddhist monks, one of whose main characteristics was freedom from ego. This, in turn, became the basis for a Buddhist human rights discourse whose foundation was not rights at all, but rather duties. In other words, the Buddhist principles dictate duties of individuals towards other members of their society, duties which ultimately define the rights of others. For example, as James Fredericks writes, > *the \[Buddhist\] precepts establish the duty of a husband to support his wife, without stating explicitly that the wife has a right to be supported. However…the husband’s duty establishes the wife’s right.*[^15] --- ## Cultural Relativism and Universalism Stemming from and closely related to the question of where the idea of human rights comes from—a question whose answer, as has been demonstrated by this short history of human rights, is neither succinct nor singular, and requires an acknowledgment of many secular and faith-based traditions in the West and the East—is the question of who defines what these human rights are. This critique is best illustrated by the debate between what are called the universalist and cultural relativist arguments on human rights. Jack Donnelly, in his seminal article, “Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights,” describes a spectrum on which these two can be understood. They are defined most clearly at the extremes: on one end of the spectrum, radical cultural relativism is a way of thinking about human rights that prioritizes the legitimacy of cultural norms and beliefs as the only source of authority on defining rights and their limits. Radical universalism, on the other hand, contends that culture is extraneous to the question of rights afforded to people simply by virtue of their being human and that universal notions of morality are what lend validity to the definition of these rights.[^16] One obvious problem here concerns authority over morality—who decides what is best for a group of people and how they should live their lives? As Donnelly writes, > *Radical universalism requires a rigid hierarchical ordering of multiple moral communities to which individuals and groups belong. The radical universalist must give absolute priority to the demands of the cosmopolitan moral community over all other lower communities. This denial of national and subnational ethical autonomy is dubious at best.*[^17] In this way, a radical universalist framework of human rights rejects the agency of communities—national, religious, and cultural—to determine and follow their own conceptions of morality, of what it means to be human, and how humans should be treated. Of course, this is deeply problematic because these existential questions constitute the backbone and purpose of many communities and traditions, including Islam. What is more, this affects the process of human rights promotion and interventions, because both of these are necessarily based on a power dynamic whereby one group of people decides for another the best way to live their lives. On the other hand, it is important to think about and critique the limitations of a cultural relativist argument as well, especially with regards to abuses of human rights. The danger here is that violations of the rights and freedoms of people can be justified by cultural or religious arguments. Donnelly argues, > *For example, chattel slavery and caste systems, which implicitly deny the existence of a morally significant common humanity, are almost universally condemned, even in the most rigid class societies. Likewise, basic moral distinctions between insiders and outsiders have been seriously eroded by individual mobility and by an at least aspirational commitment to the idea of a universal moral community. Relativism rests on the notions of moral autonomy and communal self-determination. To rely on internal judgments entirely would be to abrogate one’s moral responsibility as a member of the cosmopolitan moral community.*[^18] We can take here as a relevant case study the debate over Muslim women and their various forms of covering to shed light on two important aspects of this discussion: first, the tension between relativism and universalism when evaluating human rights, and second, the way these tensions play out in specific political, cultural, and historical complexities in the case of Islam and the Muslim world today. Especially in the years immediately following the attacks of 9/11, with the advent of the Bush administration’s War on Terror and US military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rights of Muslim women were a hot topic in US media, political, activist, feminist, and academic discourses. The war effort became in the eyes of many Americans tied to the liberation of Muslim women who were being oppressed in various ways—one of which was the forced covering of their hair and their bodies. This rhetoric fit neatly as a part of the larger case against Islam being employed by the administration, which can best and most concisely be conveyed by George W. Bush’s post 9/11 speech in which he said about Muslims worldwide: “They hate us for our freedoms.”[^19] The lack of freedoms and basic human rights afforded to Muslim women by a patriarchal and oppressive Islamic regime was just one example, albeit an exceptionally effective one, that justified support for US military force in Muslim lands, and fueled the feeling that this war was, in fact, a liberating and civilizing mission. On this topic, Lila Abu-Lughod wrote in 2007 the important article, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” In it, she analyzes the intersection of the Western liberal feminist movement for women’s rights and the War on Terror and its early 2000s rhetoric, specifically as it was employed by Western women leaders. She writes, > *Laura Bush’s radio address on November 17…collapsed important distinctions that should have been maintained. There was a constant slippage between the Taliban and the terrorists so that they became almost one word—a kind of hyphenated monster identity: The Taliban-and-the-terrorists. Then there was the blurring of the very separate causes in Afghanistan of women’s continuing malnutrition, poverty, and ill health, and their more recent exclusion under the Taliban from employment, schooling, and the joys of wearing nail polish. On the other hand, her speech reinforced chasmic divides, primarily between ‘the civilized people throughout the world’ whose hearts break for the women and children of Afghanistan and the Taliban-and-the-terrorists, the cultural monsters who want to, as she put it, ‘impose their world on the rest of us.’ Most revealingly, the speech enlisted women to justify American bombing and intervention in Afghanistan and to make a case for the War on Terrorism of which it was allegedly a part. As Laura Bush said, ‘Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of punishment…*[^20] But Abu-Lughod’s critique goes beyond the way that Muslim women are used as a tool in the binary between “us” and “them,” the “West” and the “other.” She also rightly identifies the problem of culture in the human rights agenda: > *The question is why knowing the ‘culture’ of the region, and particularly, its religious beliefs and treatment of women, was more urgent than exploring the history of the development of repressive regimes in the region and the US role in this history. Such cultural framing prevents the serious exploration of roots and nature of human suffering in this part of the world.*[^21] In other words, whereas the debate between cultural relativist and universalist arguments about human rights define culture—including religion—as a set of rigid, unchanging, and deterministic value systems and beliefs, Abu-Lughod draws attention to the global interconnectedness between cultures, and the role history and politics have had in shaping them and their shortcomings in the area of human rights. Finally, Abu-Lughod’s other primary argument is about the acceptance of difference—in this case, when it comes to Islam and Muslim women—and what it means for the endgame of the human rights agenda. She writes, > *Can we only free Afghan women to be like us or might we have to recognize that even after ‘liberation’ from the Taliban they might want different things than we might want for them? Again, when I talk about accepting difference, I am not implying that we should resign ourselves to being cultural relativists who respect whatever goes on elsewhere as ‘just their culture.’ I have already discussed the dangers of cultural expectations; their cultures are just as much a part of history and an interconnected world as ours are. We may want justice for women, but can we accept that there might be different ideas about justice that different women might want or choose, different features from what we envision as best? We must consider that they might be called to personhood in a different language*.[^22] --- ## Violence and oppression in the name of human rights To what extent is the discourse of ‘human rights’ selectively applied by forces in power? To what extent is the banner of human rights raised to justify campaigns that brutalize the “other” in order to secure and maintain the political interests of the elite? A critique of the contemporary human rights agenda that is certainly relevant to Islam and the Muslim world is related to the notion of security, especially in the last two decades. The attacks of 9/11 triggered a forceful agenda surrounding international security, led by the US and which included an increase in American military interventions abroad and a tightening of national security measures domestically. The subject of security raises a controversial debate over the tension between security and the protection of rights, whether political, social, civil, or otherwise, both at home and abroad. The effects of the newly emboldened security paradigm put in place in the early 2000s are still apparent, both domestically and internationally, and are closely related to the issues of Islamophobia that fuel the “clash of civilizations”[^23] rhetoric related to Islam and human rights. Above all, the debates on security raise the questions of whose human rights are included in, or worth, international indignation and protection, and for what purposes is the sacrifice of these rights deemed justifiable. ### The justification of torture The past US Presidential election campaign saw a contentious debate on the use of torture, with then Republican candidate Donald Trump advocating for the use of torture all the way through to his victory, declaring in his first presidential interview, “\[Torture\] absolutely works…we have to fight fire with fire”[^24] and promoting a re-opening of CIA black site prisons, secret facilities around the world that were used to detain suspects in George W. Bush’s War on Terror—much to the displeasure of not only Democrats and human rights activists, but even many in his own party. On one side of the debate, torture is a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ Article 5, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”[^25] The argument for torture, then, is rooted primarily in its characterization as a necessary evil used for the security and protection of the country, its citizens, and its interests. Rhetoric aside, in reality we need to look no further than the incidents at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay to know that torture is a tactic alive and well. Nonetheless, the debate on torture is illustrative of the dynamic between human rights and security, and the tendency of the latter to trump—for lack of a better word—the former. Alan Dershowitz, a legal scholar at Harvard University until his retirement, argued for a prioritizing of security in his article, “Tortured Reasoning,” published in 2004. Claiming that he was against torture “as a normative matter,” Dershowitz argued that it is sometimes necessary in the case of a “ticking bomb terrorist case.”[^26] The ticking time bomb symbol has become prevalent in discussions on torture and terrorism, even disseminated in popular culture on television and in movies—the pressure of time, the threat of a terrorist attack, and the certain guilt of the suspect combined create circumstances in which torture is seen as a necessary and justifiable tool.[^27] ### The erosion of civil liberties Another example of the rights of certain groups being undercut in the name of security that is perhaps closer to home, is the recent civil rights struggles of certain minorities in the United States, namely immigrants and Muslim Americans. The Patriot Act, passed after September 11, was intended to combat terrorism, and raised many questions and concerns about violations of the rights of Americans, including their right to privacy. David Cole wrote in his critical piece on the Patriot Act in 2003, “Let’s Fight Terrorism, Not the Constitution,” > *…The USA Patriot Act…violates core constitutional principles, rendering immigrants deportable for their political associations, excludable for pure speech, and detainable on the attorney general’s say-so. And by reserving its harshest measures for immigrants—in the immediately foreseeable future, Arab and Muslim immigrants—it sacrifices commitments to equality by trading a minority group’s liberty for the majority’s security.*[^28] Since then concern for the civil liberties of Arabs and Muslims in America has only increased, as measures to counter violent extremism domestically have expanded to use strategies like undercover surveillance and entrapment in Muslim American communities.[^29] These contemporary and domestic examples of the inconsistencies of human rights are not unrelated to the historically rooted problem of the West and those it conceives of as “others”—whether within the borders of the nation-state or beyond. Chandra Muzaffar writes, > *But what is sad is that while Europe built the edifice of the individual within its own borders, it destroyed the human person on other shores. As human rights expanded among white people, European empires inflicted horrendous human wrongs upon the colored inhabitants of the planet. The elimination of the native populations of the Americas and Australasia and the enslavement of millions of Africans during the European slave trade were two of the greatest human rights tragedies of the colonial epoch…. Though formal colonial rule has ended, Western domination and control continues to impact upon the human rights of the vast majority of the people of the non-Western world in ways which are more subtle and sophisticated but no less destructive and devastating.*[^30] With regards to Islam, from the beginnings of colonialism, the relationship between colonizing powers and the Muslim world included a discourse on human rights that was unequal in its power distribution. In his book *Islam in Liberalism*, Joseph Massad extends this point to make the argument that Islam became the necessary “other” Western colonial powers needed to define themselves and justify their imperial expansion. He quotes Paul Kahn, who describes an American attitude of exceptionalism regarding liberal principles including human rights: > *Our contemporary missionaries preach democracy, free markets, and the rule of law—all institutions founded on our belief in the equality and liberty of every person. This dogged commitment to a universal community is a part of our Christian and Enlightenment traditions. We experience this simultaneously as a kind of open-ended love and as a faith in the capacity of each individual to enter into a rational debate that will result in mutual agreement. No one, we believe, is beyond conversion to our values. When we dream of a global world order, we project our own values onto it. We do not imagine that the global community of the future will be led by an Islamic cleric.*[^31] This serves as an introduction to the problem of human rights and Islam in a transnational and colonial sense—a problem that we continue to see play out in Western foreign policy and military engagement in the Muslim world. Historically, the argument used in the mainstream discourse for the spread and protection of liberal values—including human rights—for all people has been instrumental in justifying wars, occupation, torture, against groups of those people. --- ## Human Rights in Islam Finally, we turn to a description of what the Islamic position on rights actually is. Although the question of compatibility requires a proper critique—why do we perceive such an incompatibility between Islam and human rights and what are the inconsistencies in our understanding of human rights in the first place?—it is at the same time important to note Islam’s care and concern for the dignity and freedoms of the individual and for a just and tolerant society. Today, some of the biggest controversies over Islam and human rights come from questions that have been written about in depth by scholars at the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, especially concerning [apostasy](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/apostasy/), [the rights of women](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/tesneem-alkiek/islam-and-violence-against-women/), and the [rights of people of other faiths.](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/tesneem-alkiek/religious-minorities/) In this section, I will not cover the details of these debates; rather, I will address the broader themes that influence how we can think about human rights in Islam. This section is by no means a comprehensive exposition of an Islamic human rights theory, but instead, its purpose is to simply show that Islam and the concept of human rights are not at odds. In his article, “The Dilemma of Islamic Rights Schemes,” Ebrahim Moosa argues that a moral approach towards humankind is, in fact, the foundation of the Islamic calling: > *From its very inception in the seventh century Arabia, the message of Islam demonstrated a preoccupation with the social, moral, and spiritual condition of human beings. The deity proclaimed by the Prophet Muhammad to the world was both the ‘Lord of the Worlds’ and ‘Lord of the People.’ The subject of the prophet’s revelation, the Quran, was not exclusively a self-revelation of God to humanity, but an instant where humanity became the very leitmotif of revelation.*[^32] He goes on to give the example of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s methods of governance in Medina, citing the Compact of Medina as an agreement between the various faith communities in the city, by the standards of which all signatories agreed to certain rights and responsibilities. The Prophet ﷺ’s example extended to the coming generations of Muslims and Muslim expansion, who protected the rights of their subjects regardless of faith.[^33] Khaled Abou El Fadl characterizes this as the core value of justice in Islam. In that sense, the role of the state, he argues, is to uphold justice in society by protecting its subjects. Abou El Fadl quotes Ibn al Qayyim, who states: > *God sent His message and His books to lead people with justice…Therefore, if a just leadership is established, through any means, then therein is the Way of God…In fact, the purpose of God’s Way is the establishment of righteousness and justice…so any road that establishes what is right and just is the road \[Muslims\] should follow.*[^34] At an early point in Islamic jurisprudence, Muslim scholars and jurists identified three categories of rights: the rights of God, the rights of persons, and dual rights. Moosa describes the rights of God as: > *those rights and duties that have a revealed imperative and a religious rationale. They can be both mandatory obligations of a devotional kind such as ritual obligations or they could involve acts that benefit the entire community.*[^35] He includes in this category acts such as observing the five pillars of Islam and providing services that result in the protection of the community from harm and the promotion of good in society. The next category, and perhaps the one most relevant to the topic at hand, is that of the rights of persons. These rights deal with “individual and social interests,” and address the worldly concerns and affairs of people, including secular and civil issues like the right to health, to family, to safety, and to property. Finally, the category of dual rights is the site of overlap between the the rights of God and the rights of people.[^36] In the broadest sense, there clearly exists in Islam the concept of the human being as an autonomous entity. First and foremost, Allah (swt) says in the Quran, “We have indeed honored the Children of Adam”;[^37] that is, God has given dignity to human beings. This dignity is irrespective of religion, race, gender, socioeconomic status—in short, it is inalienable and universal. One story that demonstrates this inherent respect for the God-given dignity of the human being occurred during the time of the caliphate of Umar (ra). The son of Amr ibn Al ‘As, one of the governors of the caliphate, harshly berated a Coptic man during a game of sports and did not face any consequence. Umar (ra) wrote to Amr ibn al ‘As and asked him, “Since when have you enslaved a people, O Amr, when their mothers have given birth to them in freedom?” In some narrations, Umar (ra) authorized the Copt to retaliate in kind to Amr ibn al ‘As himself, rather than to his son.[^38] The lessons that can be drawn from this incident are multiple: first, there is a clear acknowledgment of the freedom of the individual, regardless of his or her transgressions, which are in this story irrelevant. The conditions for his freedom were simply that he was born a free man, and this in itself afforded him the right to be treated with respect and dignity. What is more, once these rights were transgressed upon, the figure of authority was held accountable, pointing to the limitations on Muslim ruling powers when it came to the rights of individuals. As in other faith traditions, the sanctity of life is a vital principle in Islam. At multiple points in the Quran, Allah (swt) prohibits the taking of life: > *For this reason, We prescribed for the Children of Israel that whoever slays a soul—unless it be for another soul or working corruption upon the earth—it is as though he slew mankind altogether, and whosoever saves the life of one, it is as though he saved the life of mankind altogether. Our messengers have certainly come unto them with clear proofs. Yet even after that, many of them are prodigal on the earth.*  (The Quran, 5:32)[^39] > > *And slay not the soul that God has made inviolable, save by right. And whosoever is slain unjustly, We have appointed authority unto his heir. Then let him not be excessive in slaying. Verily, he shall be helped.* (The Quran, 17:33)[^40] > > *Say, Come, I will recite that which your Lord has forbidden you: that you ascribe nothing as partner unto Him, and that you be virtuous toward parents, and that you slay not your children for fear of poverty—We will provide for you and for them—and approach not indecencies, whether outward or inward, and slay not the soul that God has made inviolable, save by right. This He has enjoined upon you, that haply you may understand.* (The Quran, 6:151)[^41] Allah (swt) commands not only that each person has the right to life, but also to its enjoyment: > *O Children of Adam! Put on your adornment at every place of worship, and eat and drink, but be not prodigal. Truly He loves not the prodigal. Say, Who has forbidden the adornment of God, which He has brought forth for his servants, and the good things among His provision? Say, These are for those who believe, in the life of this world, and on the Day of Resurrection they are for them alone. Thus do We expound the signs for a people who know. Say, My Lord has only forbidden indecencies—both outward and inward—and sin, and tyranny without right, and that you should ascribe partners unto God, for which He has sent down no authority, and that you should say of God that which you know not.* (The Quran, 7:31-33)[^42] Beyond the broader values of the sanctity of life and respect for human dignity, Islam does clearly decree more specific basic and inalienable rights for all people. Both through the example of the Prophet ﷺ and from directives given in the Quran, Islamic tradition values equality for people in terms of their civil, social, and political well-being. On the right to shelter and food, it is narrated by Uthman (ra) that the Prophet ﷺ said: > *There is no right for the son of Adam in other than these things: A house which he lives in, a garment which covers his nakedness, and a piece of bread, and water.*[^43] What is more, however, is that Islamic tradition goes beyond advocating for equal access to life and sustenance; it places responsibility on people to ensure these rights for others: > *And in whose wealth is acknowledged due for the beggar and the deprived.* (The Quran 70:24-25)[^44] Among the other rights afforded to individuals simply by virtue of their being human are the right to freedom of belief, the right to knowledge, and the right to differ. **On freedom of belief:** *There is no coercion in religion. Sound judgment has become clear from error.* (The Quran 2:256)[^45] **On the right to knowledge:** *Whosoever is rightly guided is only rightly guided for the sake of his own soul, and whosoever is astray is only astray to its detriment. None shall bear the burden of another. And never do We punish till We have sent a messenger.* (The Quran 17:15).[^46] **On the right to differ:** *And We have sent down unto thee the Book in truth, confirming the Book that came before it, and as a protector over it. So judge between them in accordance with what God has sent down, and follow not their caprices away from the truth that has come unto thee. For each among you We have appointed a law and a way. And had God willed, He would have made you one community, but He willed otherwise, that He might try you in that which He has given you. So vie with one another in good deeds. Unto God shall be your return all together, and He will inform you of that wherein you differ.* (The Quran 5:48)[^47] --- ## Conclusion In 1990, a set of Muslim states came together to ratify the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. The states had previously criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 for not taking into account cultural and religious frameworks of human rights in non-western contexts. As a result, these states wrote a Declaration that largely reinforced the universalist assertions made in the UDHR itself, but used the language of Islam to convey and justify its tenets.This example raises the question: is there, or does there need to be, a separate Islamic framework of human rights? And is it necessarily different from, or at odds with, the modern secular framework of human rights? Clearly, the signatories of the Cairo Declaration felt the need to assert an Islamic version of, or at least affirm an Islamic compatibility with, the set of human rights deemed to be morally acceptable and protectable by the United Nations. In reality, the question of whether Islam and modern human rights are compatible is important because, in order to address it, we must look at the roles of not just religion, but of history, of power, and of morality itself. This intersection sheds light on the problems with our current understanding of human rights and how they are protected. As this paper has shown, modern human rights are rife with contradictions, contradictions that are very acutely connected with the manipulation of Islam for political ends. On the one hand, Islamic texts and history show a deep concern for the sanctity and enjoyment of life, and for individual freedoms in every sense: from respect for the individual on an interpersonal level to the protection of the individual from corrupted authority, religious or otherwise. On the other, Islam is at the center of many agendas concerning resources, military expansion, security, and culture, and this fact has been instrumental in creating a problem of Islam and human rights that has little to do with the religion itself. --- ## Notes [^1]: Abou El Fadl, Khaled. “The Human Rights Commitment in Islam,” in In Joseph Runzo, Nancy M. Martin and Arvind Sharma (Eds)., *Human Rights and Responsibilities in the World Religions* (pp. 1-25). Oneworld. 2003. [^2]: Ibid. [^3]: Fagan, Andrew. “Human Rights.” *Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy*. [^4]: Forsythe, David. Introduction. *Encyclopedia of Human Rights*. Volume 1. Oxford University Press. 2009. [^5]: Runzo, Joseph. “Secular Rights and Religious Responsibilities.” In Joseph Runzo, Nancy M. Martin and Arvind Sharma (Eds)., *Human Rights and Responsibilities in the World Religions* (pp. 1-25). Oneworld. 2003. [^6]: Ibid. [^7]: Paul Sieghart, *The International Law of Human Rights 15* (Clarendon Press, 1995). [^8]: Forsythe, David. [^9]: Ishay, Micheline R. *The Human Rights Reader*. Second Edition. Routledge. 2007. “Introduction.” [^10]: “Reign of Terror.” *Encyclopaedia Britannica*. [^11]: Ishay, Micheline, R. [^12]: Bloom, Irene, J. Paul Martin, and Wayne L. Proudfoot. *Religious Diversity and Human Rights*. Columbia University Press, 1996. Introduction. [^13]: Ibid. [^14]: Ibid. pp. 210-230. [^15]: Ibid. pp. 248-267. [^16]: Donnelly, Jack. “Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights.” *Human Rights Quarterly*. Vol. 6, No. 4 (Nov. 1984), pp. 400-419. [^17]: Ibid. [^18]: Ibid. [^19]: “Text: President Bush Addresses the Nation.” September 20, 2001. *The Washington Post Online*. [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html&sa=D&ust=1503883895549000&usg=AFQjCNE78m3qon6Q6LkGCxpjIgB6Z1h13Q)[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress\_092001.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html). [^20]: Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women Need Saving: Anthropological Reflections On Cultural Relativism and its Others.” *American Anthropologist*. Vol. 104, No. 3. September 2002. [^21]: Ibid. [^22]: Ibid. [^23]: Huntington, Samuel. “The Clash of Civilizations?” *Foreign Affairs*. Vol. 72, No. 3. (Summer, 1993). Published by Council on Foreign Relations. [^24]: Withnall, Adam. “Donald Trump says torture ‘absolutely works’ in first major interview as President.” *The Independent*. [^25]: UDHR. Article 5. [^26]: Dershowitz, Alan. “Tortured Reasoning.” See *The Human Rights Reader* edited by Micheline R. Ishay. [^27]: Alsultany, Evelyn. *The Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation After 9/11*. New York University Press. 2012. [^28]: Cole, David. “Let’s Fight Terrorism, Not the Constitution” in *Rights vs. Public Safety After 9/11: America in the Age of Terrorism* (A. Etzioni and J. Marsh, eds., 2003). [^29]: Simon, Caroline. “The FBI is manufacturing terrorism cases on a greater scale than ever before.” *Business Insider*. June 9, 2016. And Lichtblau, Michael. “FBI Steps up Use of Stings in ISIS Cases.” *The New York Times*. June 7, 2016. [^30]: Muzaffar, Chandra. “On Western Imperialism and Human Rights” See “From Human Rights to Human Dignity.” 1999. [^31]: Massad, Joseph. *Islam in Liberalism*. 2015. The University of Chicago Press. [^32]: Moosa, Ebrahim. “The Dilemma of Islamic Rights Schemes.” *Journal of Law and Religion*. Vol. 15, (2001), pp. 185-215. [^33]: Ibid. [^34]: Abou El Fadl, Khaled. “The Human Rights Commitment in Islam.” in In Joseph Runzo, Nancy M. Martin and Arvind Sharma (Eds)., *Human Rights and Responsibilities in the World Religions* (p 1-25). Oneworld. 2003. [^35]: Moosa, Ebrahim. “The Dilemma of Islamic Rights Schemes.” *Journal of Law and Religion*. Vol. 15, (2001), pp 185-215. [^36]: Ibid. [^37]: The Quran (17:70). [^38]: Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam, *Futuh Misr wal-Maghrib* 225-226. (Abd al Mun’im Amir ed., Cairo: Isa Babi al-Halabi 1961). [^39]: Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. (2015) *The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary*. HarperOne. [^40]: Ibid. [^41]: Ibid. [^42]: Ibid. [^43]: *Sunan al-Tirmidh*ī 2341 [^44]: Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. (2015) *The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentar*y. HarperOne. [^45]: Ibid. [^46]: Ibid. [^47]: Ibid. ## Summary # Islam and Human Rights: Untangling a False Dichotomy A widespread claim, voiced in both subtle and open ways within Islamophobic rhetoric, holds that Islam stands opposed to modern secular notions of human rights. Critics point to the treatment of women in the Muslim world, or to elements of the sharia concerning matters such as adultery and apostasy, to argue that the faith is inherently hostile to the sanctity and freedom of the individual. Even before the events of September 11, headlines told of death threats against authors, stonings, the imprisonment of rape victims, the abuse of domestic workers, and restrictions on free expression—all woven into a narrative in which Islam is cast as indifferent to human life and dignity. Against Islam, modern human rights are presented as a body of principles and international law upon which the rest of the world supposedly agrees. Yet this framing deserves careful examination, for the aim here is precisely to critique this binary between Islam and the contemporary understanding of human rights, to ask how this false dichotomy arose, and to consider its consequences—particularly at a time when the protection of human rights grows more precarious under the rise of authoritarian rule, not only in parts of the Muslim world but in the very Western nations that have claimed to champion them. To understand this matter honestly, one must reckon with the entanglement of human rights with the history of colonialism. Khaled Abou El Fadl observes that political realities—colonialism, despotic governments, the reality and perception of Western hypocrisy, and the rise of supremacist movements within modern Islam—have shaped modes of practice inconsistent with a genuine commitment to human rights. He notes that Muslims did not first encounter Western conceptions of rights through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, but rather as part of the "White Man's Burden" and the "civilizing mission" of the colonial era, and through a European natural law tradition frequently exploited to justify imperial policies. This colonial backdrop gave rise to a politicized discourse fixated on compatibility and incompatibility—one strand apologetic, seeking to harmonize Islam with secular human rights, and another resistant, insisting that Islam surpasses them. The common association of human rights with the UDHR of 1948 and the United Nations, founded in 1945, obscures deeper and more widespread roots. A distinction must be drawn between the concept of human rights and the body of international human rights law. The idea itself draws upon religious thought, natural law, Roman law, and Enlightenment values. Its early Western articulations bore strong religious underpinnings: Thomas Jefferson in 1779 declared that all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," and Alexander Hamilton wrote that the sacred rights of mankind are "written, as with a sunbeam...by the hand of divinity itself." Yet as Paul Sieghart notes, international human rights law came to present itself as a superior standard established by common consent, removing the need to appeal to the Creator or to Nature at all. The Enlightenment period is most often credited with the development of these rights, through figures such as Grotius, who in his *Rights of War and Peace* (1625) held that natural law universally endowed all human beings with rights irrespective of religious or civil status. This period saw the English Petition of Right (1628), the law of habeas corpus, and the English Bill of Rights (1689). It is worth recalling, however, that the French Revolution, which produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, was at the same time marked by the Reign of Terror, in which at least 300,000 were arrested, 17,000 executed, and 10,000 died in prison. The role of non-Christian traditions is too often erased from this history, and the movement for human rights has at times been presented as a civilizing mission bringing an unfamiliar concept to the peoples of the world. In truth, virtually all of the world's great religions stress the worth of human life, the kinship of humankind, and the duty to show compassion. Other languages of rights exist: in many Asian traditions the foundation of a just society lies not in individual rights but in the obligations one owes to society. Elliot Dorff explains that in Judaism, life's drama is played out not on a stage of individuals with inalienable rights but through positive and negative duties to God. Likewise, as James Fredericks notes, Buddhist thought frames matters in terms of duties—the husband's duty to support his wife establishing the wife's corresponding right. Closely tied to the question of where rights come from is the question of who defines them—the debate between universalism and cultural relativism described by Jack Donnelly. Radical universalism, he cautions, "requires a rigid hierarchical ordering of multiple moral communities," denying national and subnational ethical autonomy in a manner "dubious at best," and thereby rejecting the agency of religious and cultural communities—including Islam—to determine their own conceptions of morality. Yet cultural relativism carries its own dangers, for abuses may be justified in the name of culture or religion; Donnelly notes that chattel slavery and caste systems are near-universally condemned even in rigidly hierarchical societies. The debate over Muslim women's covering illustrates these tensions, especially after September 11, when the "War on Terror" was tied to the liberation of Muslim women. Lila Abu-Lughod critiques how Laura Bush's radio address of November 2001 collapsed important distinctions and enlisted women to justify American bombing. She asks why knowing the "culture" of the region was deemed more urgent than examining the history of repressive regimes and the American role within it, and she urges acceptance that Muslim women "might be called to personhood in a different language"—while cautioning that this is not a resignation to relativism. The discourse of human rights is also selectively wielded to serve the interests of the powerful. The security agenda following September 11 brought military intervention abroad and the erosion of liberties at home. Torture, prohibited by Article 5 of the UDHR, was defended by Alan Dershowitz through the "ticking bomb" scenario, while Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay showed its living reality. The Patriot Act, as David Cole argued, rendered immigrants deportable for their associations and traded a minority's liberty for the majority's security, falling hardest upon Arabs and Muslims. Chandra Muzaffar observes the bitter irony that while Europe built the edifice of the individual within its own borders, it "destroyed the human person on other shores." Joseph Massad, drawing on Paul Kahn, argues that Islam became the necessary "other" against which Western powers defined themselves and justified expansion. Turning to Islam itself, Ebrahim Moosa argues that from its inception the message of Islam was preoccupied with the moral and spiritual condition of humanity, the deity proclaimed by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ being both "Lord of the Worlds" and "Lord of the People." He cites the Compact of Medina as an agreement securing rights among the city's faith communities. Abou El Fadl frames justice as Islam's core value, quoting Ibn al-Qayyim that "any road that establishes what is right and just is the road [Muslims] should follow." Muslim jurists early identified three categories: the rights of God, the rights of persons, and dual rights. Allah honors humankind universally—"We have indeed honored the Children of Adam"—a dignity affirmed when Umar (ra) rebuked Amr ibn al-'As over the beating of a Copt: "Since when have you enslaved a people, O Amr, when their mothers have given birth to them in freedom?" The Qur'an affirms the sanctity of life (5:32; 17:33; 6:151) and its enjoyment (7:31–33), the right to shelter and sustenance—as narrated from Uthman (ra)—the duty toward the deprived (70:24–25), freedom of belief (2:256), the right to knowledge (17:15), and the right to differ (5:48). The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990) shows Muslim states affirming rights in Islamic language after criticizing the UDHR for neglecting non-Western frameworks. The question of compatibility requires examining religion, history, power, and morality together. Islamic texts and history reflect a deep concern for the sanctity and enjoyment of life and for individual freedom—yet Islam has been placed at the center of agendas of resources, expansion, and security, creating a problem of "Islam and human rights" that has little to do with the religion itself. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/predestination-vs-free-will-in-islam-understanding-allahs-qadr # Predestination vs. Free Will in Islam: Understanding Allah's Qadr **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Divine Decree, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 31, 2017 **Updated:** September 8, 2026 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* Divine providence—the idea that everything has already been decreed by the Creator from eternity—has troubled theologians and philosophers for centuries. How can we reconcile the two apparently contradictory facts that Allah has absolute power and sovereignty over all creation, and that at the same time we are responsible for our actions? Are we forced to do what we do, or are our choices meaningful? The question of divine providence, also known as divine decree or predestination, led to one of the earliest sectarian schisms in the Muslim community, between the Qadarites, who believed in absolute human free will (Allah has no control over us), and the Jabarites, who believed in absolute determinism and fatalism (we have no control over our actions). Each of these groups developed an extreme and misguided theology. If Allah has no control, then why call upon Allah in prayer? And if we have no control over our actions and fate, why do any good deeds at all? Not only was this question a sharp controversy in early Islamic history, it has been an important issue throughout history for both religious and secular reasons. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote seriously on the topic over two thousand years ago because of its implications for understanding order in the universe, the origin of life, human freedom, and happiness.[^1] Today, under the heading of *determinism*, it is the subject of complex academic debate,  in scientific disciplines such as mathematics, physics, biology, psychology, and the social sciences.[^2] Clearly, our understanding of destiny plays a decisive role in both our view of the world and, perhaps more importantly, our behavior in it. The myriad of philosophical conundrums that arise from this issue have led many, including Muslims, to experience doubt in their faith. How then does Islam solve this dilemma? The Qur’an and Sunnah take a middle path between the two historical extremes, upholding both Allah’s sovereignty and humankind’s responsibility. From a purely rational standpoint, these two aspects seem mutually exclusive; in other words, that they cannot both be true. However, we have to remember that Allah exists outside of time and space, beyond the cosmic veil in the Unseen. By contrast, human beings can only conceive of realities within the framework of time and space. Divine providence is a reality that exists beyond time and space, which means we are simply incapable of conceiving it with our limited rational faculties. For this reason, Allah communicated the reality of providence using the tools of language—in particular, literary imagery (*al-taṣwīr al-fannī*)—which in the Qur’anic sciences involves “expressing a mental meaning by use of sensory and visualized pictures.”[^3] These images are the Pen, the Preserved Tablet, and the angelic records of deeds. They articulate the nature of providence, that Allah has complete control over what is decreed from pre-eternity and what is later expunged. These images are not fictional nor merely metaphorical. On the contrary, they constitute profound truths in the universe and are realities in themselves. While all things have already been decreed from eternity, Allah has the power to change destiny based upon the choices we make. We are, indeed, morally responsible for our actions and our free will entails a measure of control to determine our ultimate fate, limited under Allah’s sovereignty. --- ## The nature of divine providence The term for divine providence in Islam is *al-qaḍāʾ wa al-qadar*, literally “the decree and the measure.” It is a compound of two terms, signifying the dual aspects of providence. Ibn Ḥajar writes, “The scholars said the divine decree (*qaḍāʾ*) consists of the entire and complete judgment forever, and the divine apportionment (*qadar*) consists of the particulars of the judgment and its details.”[^4] Although scholars sometimes define the terms differently, the definition offered here is based upon two sets of texts in the Qur’an and Sunnah: texts that speak of the decree in absolute and unchanging terms, and texts that speak of modifications to the decree as it is brought into being. These two sets of texts seem contradictory on their face, yet they are two aspects of the same reality whose apparent contradiction is only the result of the human mind’s limited frame of reference. Rather, each set of texts is reconciled towards the united purpose of guiding us to right behavior with respect to Allah and to our fellow human beings. The idea of the unchanging decree is embodied in the literary image of the Preserved Tablet (*al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ*), which contains everything that will come to be, including the divine scriptures. Allah said: > This is truly a glorious Qur’an \[written\] on a Preserved Tablet.[^5] The term conveys the absolute reality of divine providence through a mental representation of something with which we are already familiar, although the Preserved Tablet is unlike any tablet we know. The implication of the Preserved Tablet is that Allah knows all things before they come into existence. Allah said: > Are you \[Prophet\] not aware that God knows all that is in the heavens and earth? All this is written in a Record; this is easy for God.[^6] Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ said: > Verily, Allah Almighty created His creation in darkness and He cast over them His light. Whoever is touched by that light is guided, and whoever misses it is astray. Thus, I say the pens have been dried upon the knowledge of Allah.[^7] Not only does Allah know what will be, He has full control and power over what He allows to come into existence. He can allow or block anything from ever occurring. Allah said: > It is He who has control over the heavens and earth and has no offspring—no one shares control with Him—and who created all things and made them to an exact measure.[^8] Moreover, the provision, life span, deeds, and ultimate fate in the Hereafter of every human being are written by the angels as soon as the soul is blown into the fetus. Our destiny was decreed for us even before we were born. The Prophet ﷺ said: > The creation of each one of you is in his mother’s womb for forty days or nights, then as a clot for a similar period, then as a piece of flesh for a similar period, then the angel is sent to it to announce four decrees. He writes his provision, his life span, his deeds, and whether he is blessed or damned. Then, he breathes the soul into it. Verily, one of you acts with the deeds of the people of Paradise until he is not but an arm’s length away from it, yet the decree overtakes him, he acts with the deeds of the people of Hellfire and thus enters Hellfire. And one of you acts with the deeds of the people of Hellfire until he is not but an arm’s length away from it, yet the decree overtakes him, he acts with the deeds of the people of Paradise and thus enters it.[^9] We are set upon a path, with our fate ahead of us, as soon as we enter this world. Yet our will and our actions are meaningful because, by Allah’s will, they are the causes of changing course. Since Allah is in control of destiny, the only way to secure a good fate is to appeal to Allah through worship, prayer, and good deeds. We have no control by ourselves. In this sense, the “pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.” The Prophet ﷺ said: > Be mindful of Allah and He will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him before you. If you ask, ask from Allah. If you seek help, seek help from Allah. Know that if the nations gather together to benefit you, they will not benefit you unless Allah has decreed it for you. And if the nations gather together to harm you, they will not harm you unless Allah has decreed it for you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.[^10] Notice that in this hadith, the Prophet ﷺ informed us, through his companion Ibn ʿAbbās (rA), that the decree has already been passed. The pages have dried. Even so, the Prophet ﷺ prescribed action: to be mindful of Allah and to seek help from Allah. The important point here is that everything happens by Allah’s will, despite Allah not being pleased with everything that is allowed to happen. There are two ways in which “the will of Allah” is understood: the universal will and the legislative will. The universal will encompasses everything that is allowed to be, both good and evil. Meanwhile, the legislative will consists of the good deeds that Allah wants from us. Ibn Abū al-ʿIzz, the commentator on the early and agreed upon creed of al-Ṭaḥāwī, writes: > The researchers among the Sunni Orthodoxy (*Ahl al-Sunnah*) say that ‘will’ in the book of Allah is two types: a will that is preordained, universal, and creative, and a will that is religious, commanding, and legislating. Thus, the legislative will includes what Allah loves and is pleased with, and the universal will is what is willed, including all things that occur.[^11] The confusion that led to sectarianism in early Islamic history was due to the Qadarites’ (proponents of free will) and Jabarites’ (proponents of pure determinism) failure to understand this point. Ibn Abū al-ʿIzz continues: > The origin of the error is from equating between the will of desire and the will of enacting, and between love and pleasure. Thus, the Jabarites and the Qadarites equate them both, then they disagree. The Jabarites said all of existence is by decree and measure, so it is loved and pleasing to Allah. The Qadarites said sinful disobedience is not beloved and pleasing to Allah, so it cannot be ordained and decreed by Him; it is outside of His will and creation. Yet the distinction between what is willed and what is loved has been made in the Book, the Sunnah, and sound instinct.[^12] In summary, the Jabarites said that Allah decrees good and evil and therefore loves them both, while the Qadarites said that evil is not by the decree of Allah—which means it is created by some other power. Whereas the Jabarites denied the moral responsibility of humankind, the Qadarites denied the full power of the Creator. **The truth is that our actions make a meaningful difference and can change the course of the decree.** By bringing our will to coincide with the legislative will of the Creator—surrendering our will to Allah—our fate will change for the better. Allah said: > There is a time decreed for everything. God erases or confirms whatever He wills, and the source of Scripture is with Him.[^13] The “source of Scripture” is literally the “Mother of the Book” (*umm al-kitāb*). It is the Preserved Tablet in which the unchanging decree from eternity is written. But the books of individuals, our deeds, and fate as recorded by the angels can change according to our actions. Ibn ʿAbbās explained the verse, saying, “There are two books: a book in which is erased whatever Allah wills, and with Him is the mother of the book.”[^14] In fact, every single day, the angels record everything, and destinies are fulfilled or changed. Allah said: > Everyone in heaven and earth entreats Him; every day He attends to some task.[^15] Abū al-Dardāʾ (rA) asked the Prophet ﷺ about this verse and he said: > Among His affairs are forgiving sins, relieving hardship, raising a people, and debasing others.[^16] Mujāhid (rA) also explained this verse, saying, “Among His affairs are giving to those who ask, freeing those who suffer, answering those who pray, and healing the sick.” And he also said, “Relieving hardships, answering needs, and forgiving sins.”[^17] This apparent change in destiny is not a result of our own power and ability, and it is not outside the knowledge of Allah. Rather, it is only when we submit ourselves to the will of Allah that our fate can change for the better. Ibn Hajar, the commentator on the authentic collection *Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, writes: > What proceeds from the knowledge of Allah does not change and is not replaced. That which is allowed to change and be replaced is what appears to people of the deeds of the doer… Thus it falls under wiping away and affirming, such as the increase and decrease in lifespan. As for the knowledge of Allah, it is not wiped away or affirmed, as all knowledge is with Allah.[^18] The catalyst for a change in fate depends upon actions: intentions, prayers, supplications, and good deeds. It is not the power of our actions in themselves that makes the change, but rather is a reward that Allah bestows upon us for surrendering to His will. In this manner, humankind is held accountable for their deeds. --- ## Human free will, action, and responsibility The Qur’an and Sunnah are clear in expressing the moral responsibility of humankind. Allah said: > Each soul is responsible for its own actions; no soul will bear the burden of another. You will all return to your Lord in the end, and He will tell you the truth about your differences.[^19] This is the whole purpose of life; the great test culminating at the Day of Judgment would not make sense unless the judgment was just and meaningful. Hence, Allah delegated will to humankind to be used in the service of good. Our will is “free will” in the sense that we are not forced to do what we do. We are rewarded or punished in the Hereafter based upon what we did with our God-given will. Allah said: > This is a message for all people; for those who wish to take the straight path. But you will only wish to do so by the will of God, the Lord of all people.[^20] The Almighty further stated: > This is a reminder. Let whoever wishes, take the way to his Lord. But you will only wish to do so if God wills—God is all knowing, all wise.[^21] Ibn Taymiyya, the Hanbalī jurist and theologian, writes: > Among what was agreed upon by the predecessors of this nation and its leaders regarding their faith in the divine decree and providence, is that Allah created all things, that what He wills comes to be and what He does not will cannot come to be, that Allah misguides whomever He wills and guides whomever He wills, and that the servants have will and ability, acting upon their ability and their will according to what Allah has enabled for them. Indeed, the servants do not will unless Allah wills.[^22] Thus, it is what we decide to do with our God-given will that determines the fate that Allah assigns to us. The essence of the matter is that good deeds lead to a good ending, and evil deeds lead to an evil ending. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Good works protect from evil fates. Charity in secret extinguishes the wrath of the Lord, maintaining family ties increases lifespan, and every good deed is charity. The people of good in the world are the people of good in the Hereafter, and the people of evil in the world are the people of evil in the Hereafter. And the first to enter Paradise are the people of good.[^23] Ibn ʿAbbās (rA) said: > Verily, good deeds bring brightness upon the face, a light in the heart, an expanse of provision, strength in the body, and love in the hearts of the creation. And evil deeds bring blackness upon the face, darkness in the grave and in the heart, weakness in the body, a restriction of provision, and hatred in the hearts of the creation.[^24] In particular, the righteous act of maintaining family ties is a means by which Allah increases the amount of provision and the length of lifespan in one’s record. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Whoever is pleased to have his provision expanded and his lifespan extended, then let him keep good relations with his family.[^25] Among the most important deeds that make a difference are prayer and supplication. In fact, nothing repels the evil of divine providence like supplication. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Nothing repels the divine decree but supplication, and nothing increases lifespan but righteousness.[^26] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > There is no Muslim on the earth who calls upon Allah in supplication but that Allah will grant it to him or divert some evil away from him, so long as he does not ask for something sinful or to cut off family ties.[^27] The Prophet ﷺ himself would supplicate to Allah for protection from an evil fate, recognizing that it is Allah alone who holds the power to decree: > O Allah, guide me among those You have guided, secure me among those You have secured, protect me among those You have protected, bless me in what You have given me, and save me from the evil You have decreed. Verily, You alone decree and none can issue decree over You. Verily, he cannot be humiliated whoever is protected by You. Blessed are You, our Lord, the Almighty.[^28] Abu Huraira (rA) reported, > The Prophet ﷺ would seek refuge in Allah from the evil of the divine decree, from falling into misery, from his enemies rejoicing at his misfortune, and from a difficult trial.[^29] Similarly, it was reported that the companions and righteous predecessors would ask Allah explicitly to change their fate from an evil one to a good one. Abū ʿUthmān al-Hindī witnessed ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) weeping while performing circumambulation (*ṭawāf*) around the House, saying: > O Allah, if You have written me among the blessed, then affirm it therein. And if You have written me among the sinful and the damned, then wipe it away and affirm me among the blessed. Verily, You wipe away and affirm whatever You will, and with You is the mother of the book.[^30] And Ibn Masʿūd (rA) said: > O Allah, if You have written me among the damned, then wipe it away from me and affirm me among the blessed.[^31] And Shaqīq ibn Salama (rha) said: > O Allah, if You have written us among the damned, then wipe it away and record us among the blessed. And if You have written us among the blessed, then affirm it for us. Verily, You wipe away or affirm whatever You will, and with You is the mother of the book.[^32] Our predecessors understood that whatever came to be—positive or negative—was from the decree of Allah. Once, ʿUmar (rA) departed for Syria and when he arrived, they found that a plague had broken out, so he announced that they would return to Medina. Abū ʿUbayda questioned him, saying, “Do you flee from the decree of Allah?” To which ʿUmar replied: > Would that another had said so, O Abū ʿUbayda! Yes, we are fleeing from the decree of Allah to the decree of Allah. Do you not see that if you had camels descending in a valley with two fields, one of them fertile and the other barren, you would graze in the fertile field by the decree of Allah or you would graze in the barren field by the decree of Allah?[^33] Umar understood that whatever happened as a result of his actions was from the decree of Allah, so he should act accordingly and consider the causes of events. In this case, he avoided the plague as he understood it to be a cause of harm. People often mistakenly assume that trusting in Allah’s decree means we should not act, like a person who drives without a seat belt, thinking it has no effect on what Allah chooses to ordain. But ʿUmar’s example shows us that real trust in Allah means one should act upon the pattern of causes we observe in daily life. Ibn Ḥajar comments on the statement of ʿUmar: > If he does so, then it was from the decree of Allah, and avoiding what harms him has been commanded. Allah ordains its occurrence while he flees from it. If he did it or left it, it would be from the decree of Allah. Hence, there are two perspectives: the perspective of reliance upon Allah and the perspective of holding to causes.[^34] This is the true way to rely upon Allah (*tawakkul*): with the awareness that Allah has decreed goodness for those who work for good. In other words, we have faith that if we work for our provision, then Allah will provide it. The Prophet ﷺ said on the authority of ʿUmar (rA): > If you were to rely upon Allah with reliance due to Him, then He would provide for you just as He provides for the birds. They go out in the morning with empty stomachs and return full.[^35] And ʿUmar said: > Let not one of you refrain from working for his provision, supplicating to Allah to provide while he knows that the sky does not rain gold and silver.[^36] This is the correct understanding of divine providence. We understand that the world is full of causes and effects, so we pursue the causes of a good fate, while we acknowledge that it is not the causes in themselves that we rely upon. The Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no contagion,” which recognizes that all diseases are only allowed to happen by the will of Allah. However, he ﷺ also said, “Do not mix those who are sick with those who are healthy,” thereby acknowledging the role of worldly causes in the treatment of illness.[^37] With this understanding, it is only Allah upon whom we depend to bring about these good causes. Every action we intend in the future should be qualified as only occurring under the will of Allah, because we know that nothing can happen by our will and ability alone. Allah said: > Do not say of anything, “I will do that tomorrow,” without adding, “God willing.”[^38] The key point to remember is that actions and causes, without the will of Allah to back them up, are essentially nothing, yet they are still necessary for bringing about a good fate. Action is always prescribed for the believers in relation to the decree, both before it comes to be and after it is fulfilled. Ibn Taymiyya writes: > The servant has two states of being in relation to what is decreed: a state before the decree and a state after the decree. It is a duty upon him before the decree to seek refuge in Allah, to depend upon Him, and to call upon Him. If the result of the decree is not from his actions, then he must be patient over it and satisfied with it. If it was the result of his actions and it is a blessing, he praises Allah for that. If it was the result of sin, then he seeks forgiveness from Him for that.[^39] Before the decree takes place, we should seek refuge in Allah, pray and supplicate to Him, rely upon Him, and put in the work necessary to achieve a good outcome. After the decree is fulfilled, we have to accept it and move on. If it was a calamity unrelated to our actions, such as a natural disaster, then we accept it as part of the trials of life and continue to persevere in our faith. If it was a blessing, we praise Allah and continue to be grateful. If it was the result of our good deeds, we praise Allah for facilitating our good deeds. If it was the result of our sins, we seek forgiveness from Allah and do what needs to be done to make amends. The end result is that at every point in time, believers respond to the decree with action. Accepting a calamity that has been decreed by Allah is one of the most difficult tests we face in life. In fact, the root *fa-ta-na* for “trial” (*fitna*) carries the meaning of “He put it into the fire, namely gold and silver, in order to separate, or distinguish, the bad from the good.”[^40] Allah puts us through trials because they are means by which we grow morally and spiritually. Indeed, some of the worst trials bring out the best in people. Therefore, once a calamity occurs, we should accept it and carry forward. We should not dwell on the past by repeating the events in our minds over and over in despair. The Prophet ﷺ said: > If something befalls you, then do not say, “If only I had done something else.” Rather say, “Allah has decreed what He wills.” Verily, the phrase “if only” opens the way for the work of Satan.[^41] Accepting the decree—in this case, a calamity—is a way of instilling within us contentment and peace of mind, as we have faith that there is divine wisdom behind every event we may not fully understand. Saying “if only” is the means for Satan to corrupt this peace of mind. Al-Nawawī comments on this hadith, saying, “It opens the way for the work of Satan,” meaning it casts into the heart opposition to the divine decree and Satan tempts him with it.[^42] As it is said, we should not relitigate the past. Accepting the decree after the fact, though, does not imply not learning from our mistakes and negative experiences. The Prophet ﷺ also said, “The believer is not stung twice from the same hole.”[^43] That is, we should not commit the same mistake twice, nor should we allow a negative experience to repeat itself if we can prevent it. Ultimately, we have a choice to make in this life: we can choose to worship the Creator and do good deeds, or we can choose to ignore the signs of His power in creation. Regardless, the outcome will last for eternity. The Prophet ﷺ said: > None will enter Paradise but that he will be shown the place he would have occupied in Hellfire if he had done evil, so that he may be more thankful. None will enter Hellfire but that he will be shown the place he would have occupied in Paradise if he had done good, so that it may cause him sorrow.[^44] Each one of us has a place in Paradise and a place in Hellfire. Wherever we end up, we will be shown *what could have been* if we had taken a different path, to either reward us with gratitude or to punish us with regret. Imagine, for a moment, that you jumped out of a plane with a parachute. You have two inescapable destinies ahead of you. You will pull the parachute and live, or you will fail to do so and die. *Both of these possibilities have been decreed for you*. There is no third option. There is no getting back to the safety of the plane. It is up to you to make the choice and fulfill the destiny you desire. In a similar way, we are bound for Paradise or Hellfire. We cannot escape the decree from eternity; there is no way to change what has already been set in motion since the beginning of time. Yet, the path leading to eternal happiness in Paradise has been laid before us. It is the choice we make with our free will that makes the difference. It is our decision alone whether or not we will take the first step of the journey. --- ## The mystery of divine decree Why does the divine decree seem to conflict with human free will? This apparent contradiction is based on our inability to conceive of an atemporal and alinear reality, let alone the essence of Allah Almighty’s actions and decrees from beyond the confines of time and space. Because the human mind cannot escape the categories of past, present, and future, we find it counterintuitive that our future actions have already been determined in the past. But for Allah there is no past, present, or future as He alone regulates time. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let not one of you curse time, for Allah Himself is time,”[^45] meaning Allah is the Creator of time. Allah does not decide a matter that lies in the future and waits for it to unfold; He simply decrees the reality according to His will, “When He decrees something, He says only, ‘Be,’ and it is!”[^46] In the end, divine providence is an enigma due to our limited ability to conceive of realities beyond time and space, and beyond physical causes and effects. It is both a mystery in its essence, given the apparent contradiction between free will and providence, and in its details, as we often cannot directly discern the hidden wisdom behind the catastrophes and evil that Allah allows to happen. As a result, the scholars emphasized that providence is a secret of Allah and that delving too deeply into it philosophically will lead to misguidance. The creed of al-Ṭaḥāwī states: > The principle of providence is the secret of Allah Almighty in His creation that has not been given to an angel near Him, nor to a prophet or messenger. Exaggeration (*ta’ammuq*) and debate regarding it leads to failure, progressive denial, and a degree of transgression. Take every precaution against that kind of debate, thinking, and insinuation.[^47] *Ta’ammuq* here means to be absorbed and immersed in the philosophical controversies surrounding providence. It was such exaggeration that led to the original splitting of the Qadarites and Jabarites from the main community of Muslims. To this day there are philosophers, theologians, and scientists that take the idea too far in one direction or another, away from the middle path of Islam. Consequently, the Prophet ﷺ prohibited his companions from arguing about providence. On one occasion when they were arguing about the issue the Prophet ﷺ was angered and said: > With this did I command you? With this was I sent to you? Verily, the people before you were destroyed when they argued over this matter. I am determined for you not to argue over it.[^48] The Prophet ﷺ also told us to be very careful and disciplined in the way we discuss destiny, saying, “If providence is mentioned, then be restrained.”[^49] As such, the principle according to the great Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal is to accept providence as it comes, believing in “its good and its evil, affirming the narrations regarding it and having faith in them without asking why or how.”[^50] This is the principle of *bilā kayf* (without asking how) and it is the same principle that guides our interpretation of Allah’s divine names and attributes. Another expression of this principle is *tawqīf*, literally to “stop” at the text. Ibn Ḥajar quotes Al-Samʿānī as saying: > The way of knowledge in this topic (of providence) is to suspend judgment (*tawqīf*) on the Book and the Sunnah without resorting to pure analogy or reason. Whoever turns away from stopping (at the texts) will be misled and will stray into a sea of confusion. He will not achieve what heals the mind, nor what satisfies the heart, for providence is a secret among the secrets of Allah Almighty.[^51] Because Allah is beyond the scope of our comprehension, it is futile to interpret “the Throne” or “the Hand of Allah” or “the All-Seeing” by comparing them to our mundane realities. Although the words are familiar to us and the general meaning is plain, their deeper realities are inconceivable. In the same way, we understand the simple reality of providence through the literary images of the Pen, the Preserved Tablet, and the records of deeds. Any investigation beyond this is impossible and will lead us astray. Rational analysis and philosophical deliberation have their place, to be sure, but certain divine realities are outside the limits of the human mind. Far from being blind uncritical faith, understanding this requires a principled recognition of our limited abilities before the truths in the Unseen, and that what lies beyond our senses is an expansive unknowable reality. --- ## Conclusion Divine providence is one of the six articles of faith in Islam, yet it was one of the first concepts to be disputed, leading to sectarianism in the early generations. The apparent conflict is between the sovereignty of Allah and the responsibility of humankind. Unable to reconcile these two realities, the Qadarites and the Jabarites both emphasized one side at the expense of the other, resulting in an incomplete theology. The Qur’an and Sunnah follow a middle path between the two extremes. Allah is sovereign over the universe, knows all things before they happen, and decrees them into existence with limitless power. At the same time, Allah delegated will to human beings to test their deeds, culminating in the Day of Judgment. The reality of providence is conveyed to us through the literary images of the Pen, the Preserved Tablet, and the records of deeds. Allah decreed all things on the Preserved Tablet, which in an absolute sense does not change. However, the fulfillment of those decrees can change based upon the actions we take. If Allah decreed an evil fate for us, He may change it if we sincerely supplicate to him or perform a good deed for His sake. Our God-given will, subordinate to the will of Allah, directs the destiny Allah creates for us. All people ultimately have two possible destinations decreed in the afterlife, Paradise or Hellfire, and only one of them will be fulfilled. These literary images are the best and easiest way to understand what is an otherwise complicated philosophical controversy. In light of this, the scholars told us to suspend judgment at the texts and to avoid the hazards of debating this topic. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: John Dudley, *Aristotle’s Concept of Chance: Accidents, Cause, Necessity, and Determinism* (Albany: SUNY Press, 2012), 2. [^2]: Harald Atmanspacher and Robert Bishop, *Between Chance and Choice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Determinism* (Thorverton: Imprint Academic, 2002), 1–3. [^3]: Muṣṭafā Dīb al-Baughā and Muḥyyī al-Dīn Mistū, *al-Wāḍiḥ fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān* (Damascus: Dār al-Kalim al-Ṭayyib, 1998), 1:170. [^4]: Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-sharḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1959), 11:477. [^5]: Qur’an 85:21–22; M. A. Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an: English Translation and Parallel Arabic Text* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 591. [^6]: Qur’an 22:70. [^7]: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī* (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:323, no. 642; deemed authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) by al-Albānī in *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥa* (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1996), 3:64, no. 1076. [^8]: Qur’an 25:2. [^9]: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī* (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjā, 2002), 9:135, no. 7454; Muslim Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabīyya, 1955), 4:2036, no. 2643. [^10]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:248, no. 2516; deemed authentic by al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^11]: ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, *Sharḥ al-ʿaqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyya* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 1997), 1:79. [^12]: Al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Sharḥ al-ʿaqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyya*, 1:324. [^13]: Qur’an 13:39. [^14]: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan Taʾwīl al-Qur’ān* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 2000), 16:480, no. 13:39. [^15]: Qur’an 55:29. [^16]: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd Ibn Mājah, *Sunan Ibn Mājah* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1975), 1:73, no. 202; deemed fair (*ḥasan*) by al-Albānī in the commentary.[\[a\]](#cmnt1)[\[b\]](#cmnt2) [^17]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʿ al-bayān*, 23:39, no. 55:29. [^18]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:488. [^19]: Qur’an 6:164. [^20]: Qur’an 81:29. [^21]: Qur’an 76:29–30. [^22]: Taqī al-Dīn ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā* (Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʿat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 8:459. [^23]: Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Muʿjam al-awsaṭ* (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1995), 6:163, no. 6086; deemed authentic by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīh al-jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr* (Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 2:708, no. 3796. [^24]: Muḥammad Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyya, *al-Jawāb al-kāfī li-man saʾala ʿan al-dawāʾ al-shāfī* (Morocco: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1997), 1:54. [^25]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīh al-Bukhārī*, 8:5, no. 5985. [^26]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:16, no. 2139; deemed fair by al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^27]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5:485, no. 3573; deemed authentic by al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^28]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 1:587, no. 464; deemed fair by al-Tirmidhī in the commentary. [^29]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīh Muslim*, 4:2080, no. 2707. [^30]: Al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-bayān*, 16:482, no. 13:39. [^31]: Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Mu’jam al-kabīr* (Cairo, Riyadh: Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, Dār al-Ṣumayʿī, 1983), 9:171, no. 8847. [^32]: Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣbahānī, *Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ* (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, 1974), 4:103. [^33]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīh al-Bukhārī*, 7:130, no. 5729. [^34]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 10:185. [^35]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:151, no. 2344; deemed authentic by al-Tirmidhī in his commentary. [^36]: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, *Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1980), 2:62. [^37]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīh Muslim*, 4:1743, no. 2221. [^38]: Qur’an 18:23–24. [^39]: Ibn Taymiyya, *Majmūʿ al-fatāwā*, 8:76. [^40]: Edward W. Lane, *Arabic-English Lexicon* (Cambridge UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1984), 2334. [^41]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīh Muslim*, 4:2052, no. 2664. [^42]: Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, *Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1972), 16:216, no. 2664. [^43]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīh al-Bukhārī*, 8:31, no. 6133. [^44]: Al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīh al-Bukhārī*, 8:117, no. 6569. [^45]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīh Muslim*, 4:1763, no. 2247. [^46]: Qur’an 2:117. [^47]: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭaḥāwī, *Matn al-Ṭaḥāwīyya* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1993), 1:49–50. [^48]: Al-Tirmidhī, *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:11, no. 2133; deemed fair due to external evidence (*ḥasan li-ghayrih*) by al-Albānī in *Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1985), 1:36, no. 99. [^49]: Al-Ṭabarānī, *al-Mu’jam al-kabīr*, 10:198, no. 10448; deemed authentic by al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīh al-jāmiʿ* 1:155, no. 545. [^50]: Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Lālakāʾī, *Sharḥ uṣūl itiqād ahl al-sunnah wa al-jamāʾah* (Riyadh: Dār Ṭībah, 2003), 1:175, no. 317. [^51]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Fatḥ al-Bārī*, 11:477. ## Summary # Divine Providence in Islam: A Middle Path Between Two Extremes All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger ﷺ. Among the most difficult questions that have occupied the minds of theologians and philosophers across the ages is that of divine providence—the belief that everything has already been decreed by the Creator from eternity. The heart of the difficulty lies in reconciling two truths that appear, to the limited human mind, to contradict one another: that Allah possesses absolute power and sovereignty over all creation, and that we ourselves remain responsible for our deeds. If we are compelled in all that we do, then what meaning remains in our choices? And if Allah has no control, then why turn to Him in prayer at all? This question was no mere abstraction. It provoked one of the earliest schisms within the Muslim community, dividing the Qadarites—who claimed absolute human free will and denied Allah's control over us—from the Jabarites, who held to pure determinism and fatalism, denying that we have any control over our actions. Each faction fell into an extreme and misguided theology. The dilemma extends beyond Islam as well; the philosopher Aristotle wrote on it more than two thousand years ago, and today it persists under the heading of determinism across disciplines such as mathematics, physics, biology, and psychology. The many philosophical puzzles it generates have caused doubt in the faith of many, including Muslims. The resolution offered by the Qur'an and Sunnah is a middle path that upholds both Allah's sovereignty and humankind's responsibility. Though these appear mutually exclusive to pure reason, we must remember that Allah exists outside of time and space, while human beings can only conceive of realities within that framework. Because divine providence is a reality beyond time and space, our limited rational faculties simply cannot grasp it. For this reason, Allah communicated its reality through literary imagery (al-taṣwīr al-fannī)—the expression of a mental meaning through sensory and visualized pictures. The images of the Pen, the Preserved Tablet, and the angelic records of deeds are not fictional nor merely metaphorical; they are profound truths and realities in themselves. The term for divine providence is al-qaḍāʾ wa al-qadar, "the decree and the measure." Ibn Ḥajar records that the scholars held the decree (qaḍāʾ) to be the entire and complete judgment forever, while the apportionment (qadar) consists of the particulars and details of that judgment. This definition rests upon two sets of texts: those speaking of the decree in absolute, unchanging terms, and those speaking of modifications to it as it is brought into being. Their apparent contradiction is only a consequence of the human mind's limited frame of reference. The unchanging decree is embodied in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ), of which Allah said, "This is truly a glorious Qur'an [written] on a Preserved Tablet." Allah's complete knowledge is affirmed: "Are you not aware that God knows all that is in the heavens and earth? All this is written in a Record; this is easy for God." The Prophet ﷺ likewise said, "the pens have been dried upon the knowledge of Allah." And His full control is affirmed: "who created all things and made them to an exact measure." The Prophet ﷺ informed us that as the soul is breathed into the fetus, an angel writes four decrees—one's provision, life span, deeds, and whether one is blessed or damned—and that a person may act with the deeds of Paradise until an arm's length away, yet the decree overtakes him. In the hadith reported through Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet ﷺ affirmed that "the pens have been lifted and the pages have dried," while in the very same breath prescribing action: to be mindful of Allah, to ask from Him, and to seek help from Him alone. A crucial distinction here concerns the will of Allah. Ibn Abū al-ʿIzz, commentator on the creed of al-Ṭaḥāwī, explained that the researchers among Ahl al-Sunnah held will to be of two kinds: the preordained, universal, and creative will, which encompasses all that occurs; and the religious, commanding, and legislative will, which comprises what Allah loves and is pleased with. The origin of error, he said, lay in equating the will of desire with the will of enacting, and love with pleasure. The Jabarites claimed all existence is decreed and therefore beloved to Allah; the Qadarites claimed disobedience is not beloved, and therefore not decreed at all—thus the former denied human responsibility, and the latter denied the Creator's full power. The truth is that our actions can change the course of the decree. Allah said, "God erases or confirms whatever He wills, and the source of Scripture is with Him." The "source of Scripture" is the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb), the Preserved Tablet, which does not change; but the records of individual deeds and fates may change. Ibn ʿAbbās explained there are two books: one in which whatever Allah wills is erased, and the Mother of the Book with Him. Concerning "every day He attends to some task," the Prophet ﷺ said this includes forgiving sins, relieving hardship, raising some and debasing others; and Mujāhid mentioned answering prayers and healing the sick. Yet Ibn Ḥajar clarified that what proceeds from Allah's knowledge never changes; only what appears to people of a doer's deeds changes—such as the increase and decrease in lifespan—for all knowledge remains with Allah. The change is not from our own power, but a reward Allah bestows for surrendering to His will. The moral responsibility of humankind is clear: "Each soul is responsible for its own actions; no soul will bear the burden of another." Allah delegated will to humankind, saying, "Let whoever wishes, take the way to his Lord. But you will only wish to do so if God wills." Ibn Taymiyya affirmed the agreed position of the predecessors: that Allah created all things, that the servants have will and ability, yet "the servants do not will unless Allah wills." Good deeds lead to a good ending. The Prophet ﷺ said good works protect from evil fates, that charity in secret extinguishes the Lord's wrath, and that maintaining family ties increases lifespan. He ﷺ said, "Nothing repels the divine decree but supplication, and nothing increases lifespan but righteousness," and that no Muslim supplicates but that Allah grants it or diverts some evil, so long as he asks nothing sinful. The Prophet ﷺ himself sought refuge from the evil of the decree, and ʿUmar, Ibn Masʿūd, and Shaqīq ibn Salama were reported to have begged Allah to wipe them from the damned and affirm them among the blessed. The example of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him), who withdrew from a plague-stricken land saying he fled "from the decree of Allah to the decree of Allah," teaches that true reliance means acting upon observed causes. Ibn Ḥajar noted two perspectives here: reliance upon Allah, and holding to causes. The Prophet ﷺ said that if we relied upon Allah as He deserves, He would provide for us as He provides for the birds; and ʿUmar warned that the sky does not rain gold and silver. Though the Prophet ﷺ said, "There is no contagion," he also commanded, "Do not mix those who are sick with those who are healthy," affirming worldly causes while placing all reliance upon Allah. Hence we are told not to say we will do a thing tomorrow save under Allah's will. Ibn Taymiyya described two states before and after the decree: before it, we seek refuge, rely, and supplicate; after it, we are patient over calamity, praise Him for blessing, and seek forgiveness for sin. The Prophet ﷺ warned against saying "if only," for it opens the way to Satan—al-Nawawī explaining that it casts opposition to the decree into the heart—yet he ﷺ also said, "The believer is not stung twice from the same hole." Ultimately, the Prophet ﷺ taught that everyone entering Paradise is shown his place in the Fire had he done evil, and everyone entering the Fire his place in Paradise had he done good. Why the decree seems to conflict with free will rests upon our inability to conceive of a reality beyond time and space; for Allah there is no past, present, or future, as the Prophet ﷺ said, "Allah Himself is time," meaning He is its Creator, and "When He decrees something, He says only, 'Be,' and it is!" For this reason the scholars deemed providence a secret of Allah. The creed of al-Ṭaḥāwī states it was given to no angel, prophet, or messenger, and that excessive delving (taʿammuq) leads to ruin. The Prophet ﷺ, angered when his companions disputed it, said the nations before them were destroyed by such argument, and commanded restraint whenever providence is mentioned. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal held that we accept its good and evil without asking why or how—the principle of bilā kayf and tawqīf, stopping at the texts, as al-Samʿānī affirmed. Just as we do not compare the Throne or the Hand of Allah to mundane realities, so we grasp providence only through its images and go no further. This is not blind faith, but a principled recognition of our limits before the vast unknowable realities of the Unseen. And success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. ## Key Takeaways 1. The tension between Allah’s total sovereignty and human responsibility contributed to an early theological dispute, with the Qadarites emphasizing human freedom to an extreme, and the Jabarites emphasizing divine determination to the point of denying meaningful human choice. Each view compromised an essential principle: the first denying the Creator’s power and the second denying meaningful human responsibility. The Qur’an and Sunna instead hold both truths together along a middle path. 2. That middle path rests on a distinction between two aspects of the decree. What Allah eternally knows and records on the Preserved Tablet does not change, while what is recorded and brought about in an individual’s life may change through causes Allah has Himself decreed. This is why the same sources that say the pens have dried also prescribe supplication, charity, and maintaining family ties, since these are the very means by which Allah, out of reward for one’s turning to Him, brings a better outcome into being. 3. Right belief in the decree therefore issues in action rather than passivity. ʿUmar’s withdrawal from a plague, fleeing from Allah’s decree to Allah’s decree, models a reliance that still pursues worldly causes, and the believer is taught to seek refuge before an outcome and to accept it with patience or gratitude afterward. Beyond this, the deeper reality of providence is left as a secret of Allah: the Prophet ﷺ forbade contentious argument over it, while scholars warned against excessive philosophical speculation beyond what revelation allows us to know. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does Islam teach predestination or free will? Islam affirms both Allah’s complete decree and meaningful human choice, while rejecting both absolute human autonomy and the idea that people are simply compelled. Early in Islamic history, one group claimed people have absolute free will and that Allah has no control over what they do, while another claimed the opposite, that people are entirely compelled and have no real choice at all. Mainstream Islamic teaching rejected both. It affirms that Allah has complete knowledge, power, and sovereignty over everything that happens, and that at the same time, human beings have free will and capacity to choose for which they are responsible. These two truths seem to contradict each other only because our minds are bound by time and space, while Allah exists beyond both. We are not forced to act as we do, yet nothing occurs outside Allah’s will. The Arabic term for this is *al-qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar*, often translated as divine decree and destiny, and belief in it is one of the six articles of faith in Islam. The key point is that our choices are real and meaningful, even though they always operate within the greater will of Allah. ### If everything is already decreed, why should I pray or do good deeds? This was one of the first questions debated in Islamic history, but Islamic teaching gives clear practical guidance on how believers should respond to it. Your prayers and deeds are not pointless. They are among the very means by which your destiny unfolds. Allah has tied outcomes to actions, so the good you do, the prayers you make, and the help you seek from Him are real causes of the good that comes to you. The Prophet ﷺ taught that nothing repels a bad fate like supplication, and that a person should be mindful of Allah, ask from Allah, and seek help from Allah, even while affirming that everything happens by Allah’s decree. Acting and relying on Allah are not opposites. A useful way to picture it is that Allah has decreed certain outcomes to come about through certain actions, so choosing those actions is part of reaching those outcomes. Doing good is also how a person is rewarded, since the whole purpose of this life is a test of what we choose to do with the will Allah gave us. Sitting back and doing nothing was never what belief in destiny meant. ### Can supplication (duʿāʾ) change your destiny? Supplication can be a means by which Allah changes what unfolds for a person, without changing His eternal knowledge or decree.  This can be explained through a distinction between the unchanging decree preserved with Allah and records concerning an individual’s life in which Allah may erase or confirm what He wills. There is the absolute, complete decree in what is called the Preserved Tablet, known fully to Allah, which does not change. Then there are the records of an individual’s life, provision, and outcomes, which can change according to the person’s actions. The Prophet ﷺ said that nothing repels the decree except supplication, and that maintaining family ties can extend a person’s lifespan. Sincere prayer, good deeds, and turning to Allah really can alter the course of what happens to you. This change is not something you achieve by your own power, and it is never outside Allah’s knowledge, since Allah already knows what a person will ask and what He will grant in response. The change is better understood as a reward Allah gives for turning to Him. None of this contradicts His complete knowledge, because what is fixed in the Preserved Tablet includes both the supplication and its effect. Turning to Allah in need is therefore always worthwhile. ### If my fate is already written, how can I be held responsible for my actions? This is a common and understandable question. The decree being written does not mean you are forced. Allah’s prior knowledge and decree do not mean that you are compelled against your will; the Qur’an affirms both that human beings choose and that their will remains within Allah’s greater will. You still make real decisions with the will and ability that Allah has given you, and you are accountable for choosing between good or evil. That choice is genuine, so you are justly accountable for it. The Qur’an states plainly that each soul is responsible for its own deeds and that no one carries the burden of another. The entire purpose of this life is a test, and a test would be meaningless if people were simply forced into their actions and then judged for them. Allah gave human beings this capacity for choice as part of the test of this life, so their decisions carry real moral responsibility. Your fate being known to Allah and your responsibility for your own actions are therefore not in conflict. What you do with your God-given will is exactly what you are answerable for. ### Does believing in Allah’s decree mean I shouldn’t try to change my situation? No, and this is a common misunderstanding. Trusting in Allah’s decree does not mean being passive. It means taking action while depending on Allah for the outcome. A well-known example is the second caliph Umar, who turned back from entering a land struck by plague. When someone asked whether he was fleeing from the decree of Allah, he replied that he was fleeing from the decree of Allah to the decree of Allah, since avoiding harm is itself part of acting wisely within His decree. The Prophet ﷺ taught that if people relied on Allah as they should, He would provide for them as He provides for the birds, which still go out each morning to search for food. True reliance is to pursue the normal means, such as working for a living, seeking medical treatment, or avoiding danger, while knowing that results come only by Allah’s will. Thinking that faith in destiny means neglecting precautions, like refusing to take obvious safety measures, is a misreading. Islam calls for effort and trust together, not one without the other. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/clinicians-imams-and-the-whisperings-of-satan # Clinicians, Imams, and the Whisperings of Satan **Author:** Najwa Awad **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 19, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction *Waswâs al-qahri*, which means ‘overwhelming whisperings’ in Arabic, is a complex mental health disorder found in Muslim populations. *Waswâs al-qahri* is a presentation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that is not included in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM)[^1] or International Classification of Diseases (ICD) for several reasons including lack of research, diagnosis overlap and insufficient recognition of spiritually-based diseases by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Muslims who suffer from  *waswâs al-qahri* unwillingly take everyday acts of worship, like washing for prayer (*wudu*), or prayer itself, to extreme lengths. Obsessions are rooted in fear that their acts of worship are inadequate and that the acts must be repeated until perfect. Perpetuated by irrational fears and catastrophic thinking, these acts of worship become a source of anguish instead of spiritual nourishment. Obsessive-compulsive disorders related to religiosity are known in clinical literature as *scrupulosity*, are found in all religions,[^2] and are especially difficult to treat because of the religious appearance of the symptoms. *Waswasah* is not a Muslim disease—it is a religious presentation of OCD in Muslims. For Muslims, Islamic community leaders have been the primary treatment providers for this condition, although they do not have the clinical training nor the time to effectively address the needs of these individuals. General clinicians unfamiliar with *waswasah* also have difficulty providing treatment, or may cause the client more harm than good if they do not understand the religious nature of the obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. As a result, those who suffer from *waswasah* are unsure where to get help, and when they do seek assistance these individuals often do not receive the specialized treatment they need. The purpose of this publication is to contribute to the growing field of Islamic psychology by providing mental health clinicians and imams with the foundational knowledge and tools necessary to help clients with this condition, which, I will argue, needs to be treated differently from other forms of OCD. In this publication, I will define what the disease is, discuss clinical treatment options and make recommendations for treatment providers. --- ## Definitions, Context, and Categorization *Waswasah* consists of intrusive thoughts that cause cognitive dissonance (mental distress due to contradictory beliefs, values, or thoughts), and poses a risk to a person’s spiritual and psychological homeostasis. In western psychology, there are different theories on the origins of intrusive thoughts, but most point to organic sources, indicating that these thoughts come from the brain or body (dysfunctional brain chemistry, imbalanced gut flora, etc.) of the sufferer. From an Islamic perspective, *waswasah* can come from either the *nafs*, which in English translates as the inner self or soul, or can come from external forces like Satan.[^3] *Nafs* is often used interchangeably with the term *ruh* but there is scholarly debate about whether the terms are the same; generally, *nafs* is the soul discussed in the context of the body whereas the *ruh* refers to the soul outside the context of the body.[^4] When *waswasah* comes from the *nafs*, the intrusive thoughts are from the soul and come from the wishes and desires of the self.[^5] Since the *nafs* is part of the body, biological and hereditary forces can affect the inclinations and predispositions of an individual’s *nafs*. From the Islamic perspective, it is believed that thoughts can also come from Satan. These intrusive thoughts are similar to those typically dealt with in the field of psychology in that the thoughts take place inside the person’s head; however, the origin is antagonistic and from an external source. A person experiencing *waswasah* does not hear Satan’s voice in their mind, but experiences thoughts that are very distressing to him or herself. Someone who is not familiar with the idea of intrusive thoughts coming from an external source may be initially confused by this concept. An easy way to visualize how this specific type of *waswasah* is conceptualized is to think about a person with a moral dilemma with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other with both telling him or her what to do. In this example, the conflicted person is being fed good thoughts by the angel and evil thoughts by the devil. There is an underlying assumption that the person is not actually hearing these beings; rather, that the thoughts are within the person, although they are triggered by external forces. From an Islamic perspective, good thoughts are believed to come from an angel, as well as from the *fitra* (intrinsic goodness of the soul), and the idea of Satan whispering to the individual is considered to be within the Islamic framework of belief. *Waswasah* from an external source is when Satan whispers to a person to do something that is not in his or her best interest, or instills doubt within a person who is striving to do something beneficial.  *Watch OCD and Satan's Whispers, with Sr. Najwa Awad*\[embed\]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpnE1\_Gzks\[/embed\] --- ## Historical Context The concept of Satan misleading humans originates from the story of creation in the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the book of Genesis, the Serpent (Satan) told Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:1-3, The New King James Version) whereas in the Quranic version, Satan whispered to Adam to approach the forbidden tree. In Arabic, the Quran specifically uses the word *waswasah*: > *Then Shaytaan (Satan) whispered to him, saying: ‘O Adam! Shall I lead you to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that will never waste away.’* (The Quran, 20:120)[^6] According to the Quranic version of events (4:118-122), when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by listening to Satan, they were sent from Heaven to Earth. God eventually forgave them, but they had to continue living on Earth where Satan would try to mislead mankind until the Day of Judgment through his whispering. Those who are successful in not listening to Satan will be able to return to Heaven by God’s Mercy. Within the Islamic tradition, *waswasah* is considered a natural human phenomenon everyone experiences, to some degree, at some point in their life. Common examples of everyday *waswasah* can include jealousy (intrusive thoughts about something a person wants but can’t have), lust (having intrusive thoughts about desiring someone that a person can’t be with), doubts about major life decisions and conflicting thoughts about doing the right or wrong thing. International studies estimate that about 94% of the human population worldwide experience intrusive thoughts.[^7] --- ## Categorization Since mild and occasional intrusive thoughts are part of the normal human experience, general *waswasah* must be differentiated from the type of *waswasah* that is regarded as mental illness. *Waswasah* that is excessive or overwhelming beyond the average human experience is called *waswâs al-qahri* (plural). A person who experiences *waswâs al-qahri* doesn’t necessarily have a mental illness, but may, if he or she meets the criteria established by the DSM-V. *Waswâs al-qahri* reaches the diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) when it meets the following criteria outlined by the DSM-V:[^8] > *A.    Presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both:* > > *Obsessions are defined by (1) and (2):* > > *1\. Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or impulses that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and unwanted, and that in most individuals cause marked anxiety or distress.* > > *2\. The individual attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, urges, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action (i.e., by performing a compulsion).* > > *Compulsions are defined by (1) and (2):* > > *1\. Repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.* > > *2\. The behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing anxiety or distress, or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed to neutralize or prevent, or are clearly excessive.* > >  *Note: Young children may not be able to articulate the aims of these behaviors or mental acts.* > > *B. The obsessions or compulsions are time-consuming (e.g., take more than 1 hour per day) or cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.* > > *C. The obsessive-compulsive symptoms are not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or another medical condition.* > > *D. The disturbance is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder…* Subtypes of OCD have been explored and categorized differently by different clinicians, but at the present time there is general consensus that there are four subtypes: contamination/decontamination, checking, obsessions without overt compulsive rituals, and hoarding.[^9] *Waswâs al-qahri*’s clinical presentation is unique in that the individual can fall into one or more of the OCD subtypes at the same time depending on his or her symptoms. The author believes that *waswâs al-qahri* better meets the criteria for a condition called *scrupulosity*, which is well documented in the clinical literature, but not found in the DSM-V. Scrupulosity, which affects people of all faiths,[^10] is currently regarded as a presentation of OCD (though not an official subtype), and occurs when a worshipper is preoccupied with religious matters beyond what is considered within normal limits, the preoccupation is distressing, and the preoccupation negatively impacts the daily functioning of the person.[^11] Some clinicians advocate that scrupulosity should be a separate disorder from OCD in the DSM-V, based on findings that those with scrupulosity have poorer insight than other OCD presentations, that there are weak correlations between scrupulosity and OCD measures, and that there is significant overlap between obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and scrupulosity.[^12] The author believes that *waswâs al-qahri*, like scrupulosity, also differs from regular OCD because it requires not only a clinician who is familiar with the nature of the disease and its treatment, but also the collaboration of an imam or a person with religious knowledge pertaining to the Islamic rulings on belief and worship. The DSM-V and mental health community have clearly established the clinical diagnostic criteria for OCD, whereas Islamic scholars have not clearly defined official diagnostic criteria for *waswâs al-qahri*. This is because Islamic scholars are experts in Islamic jurisprudence, law, etc., but not experts in psychiatry. At the present time, there is no formal way to diagnose a person with *waswâs al-qahri*. Generally, a person suffering from the disease will either self-diagnose or an imam will tell the person they appear to have the condition in a consultation. This informal diagnosing generally happens when a person is (i) distressed or shows impairment due to irrational fears about aspects of the religion; (ii) for a significant period of time and; (iii) behaves in maladaptive ways (excessively repeating acts of worship, checking, ruminating, etc.). *Waswâs al-qahri* can be comorbid with other mental health issues such as depression, panic attacks or personality disorders, and due to no formally established diagnostic criteria for the disease, it is important for mental health professionals to not attribute symptoms from other disorders to *waswâs al-qahri*. *Waswâs al-qahri* is a type of OCD and does not involve additional symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, panic attacks, or depression. It is essential for therapists to not rely solely on a client’s self-assessment and to do a thorough evaluation to determine if the client is experiencing *waswâs al-qahri*, another disorder, or both. For example, if a client seeks treatment for alleged *waswasah*, but reports that they visually see a devil whispering to them, a thorough assessment should be made for the spectrum of psychotic disorders, as this would warrant a different course of treatment. --- ## Types of Severe Waswasah *Waswâs al-qahri*, like obsessive-compulsive disorder, can manifest itself in many different ways, as no two clients will ever experience the exact same obsessions and/or compulsions. One of the goals of this publication is to address three common types of *waswâs al-qahri* the author has seen in clinical settings: *ibadah* (worship), *taharah* (purification), and *aqeedah* (belief). Although *taharah* (purification) is a form of *ibadah* (worship), it’s important to explore both in detail, as they can manifest themselves differently in *waswasah* presentation. Each type of category of *waswâs al-qahri* will follow with a fictional case example for demonstration. It may be useful to point out here that severe *waswasah* almost never has sudden onset; the growth in the severity of *waswasah* is gradual and increases over time if not addressed. *Waswasah* often begins in the form of a person being more careful and deliberate with acts of worship and progresses until the acts of worship that the individual ordinarily finds comforting or fulfilling become major hardships. ### Ibadah The word *ibadah* in Arabic refers to acts of worship. Most of the time *waswasah* related to *ibadah* regards compulsory acts of worship (like prayer, fasting, giving charity, etc.) because they are fundamentals of the religion. This is important to understand because a lot of the anguish that sufferers experience is due to feeling that they are doing compulsory acts of worship incorrectly, which in their mind could mean that they are not fulfilling the tenets of their religion, thus making them liable to God’s punishment. Clients who suffer from *waswâs al-qahri* in *ibadah* feel that their acts of worship are never good enough and they constantly seek perfection. Any detail about their act of worship that might be imperfect will lead to irrational fear and catastrophizing that they have inadvertently apostatized from the religion and/or might go to Hell. Case example: Lana is a practicing *Muslimah*. Over the past couple of months, she has been more stressed about work and her family life than usual. Lana has noticed that she has been forgetful and confused during prayers and this has led her to repeat her prayers to make sure she is doing them correctly. Sometimes Lana is unsure of how many units she did and other times she worries that she might have pronounced words incorrectly, invalidating her prayer. This didn’t bother Lana much in the beginning because she figured that increased spirituality was always a good thing, however, in the last several weeks Lana can’t stop thinking about her prayers being incorrect. These thoughts have become a major distraction during the day and she now struggles to find time to complete her regular day-to-day routines. Prayer used to take up half an hour of her day, but now is taking two hours. Prayer is no longer enjoyable, but Lana doesn’t know how to stop obsessing about it. ### Taharah *Taharah* in Arabic means purity, of which there are three different types: physical, ritual, and spiritual.[^13] *Taharah* comes up most commonly in everyday life in relation to prayer. In order to pray Muslims need to be clean of impure things (like urine, feces, etc.) and to be in a state of *wudu* (ablution). To make wudu one needs to wash the face, arms, wipe over the head, and wash the feet (or wipe over socks). *Wudu* does not need to be performed before every formal prayer as long as the prior *wudu* was not invalidated by using the bathroom, flatulence, etc. Many people who suffer from *waswâs al-qahri* regarding *taharah* either have irrational fear of contamination from unclean things and/or have irrational fear that their *wudu* is not correct or somehow was invalidated. Under normal circumstances, one must be clean of impure substances and have proper *wudu* in order for prayer to be valid; for the average person, this is not something that takes up much time and is not distressing. An average Muslim might take 3-4 minutes to perform *wudu* whereas a Muslim with *waswâs al-qahri* can take 20 minutes or sometimes an hour. Like the person who has *waswâs al-qahri* in *ibadah*, these clients also think that if they are contaminated or didn’t make *wudu* correctly, something catastrophic will happen (like they will go to hell for invalid prayers). Case example: Adam was diagnosed with OCD as a young child. When his parents were getting a divorce he became overly preoccupied with cleanliness and making sure things were not filthy. Adam went to therapy and his OCD subsided. When Adam went to college he met Muslim friends and converted to Islam. The process of becoming Muslim was not stressful for him, but his family members were sometimes critical of his decision. Family conflict reminded Adam of difficult feelings experienced during childhood and he began to experience anxiety again. Adam began to develop an extreme fear of having to use the restroom in general, and especially before prayer. Adam could not use the toilet without cleaning it first due to fear of contamination that something filthy would get on his body and invalidate his prayer. He then became preoccupied for long periods of time that his clothes were touching the toilet and getting contaminated as well. Adam would spend 45 minutes from when he entered the bathroom until he was ready for prayer because he couldn’t stop compulsively checking and cleaning his clothes. Since Adam prayed five times a day every day his intense anxiety was spread throughout the day, and getting ready for prayer took over his day-to-day life. ### Aqeedah In the Islamic tradition, *aqeedah* means belief with conviction in the religion or creed. Although there are differing opinions within Islam about some details of religion, there are tenets of faith on which there is unanimous consensus. Some of these pillars of faith include belief in God (Allah), belief in angels, the Day of Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Those who suffer *waswâs al-qahri* in *aqeedah* have intrusive thoughts and doubts about a particular aspect of *aqeedah*. Clients with *waswâs al-qahri* about *aqeedah* believe and love their faith wholeheartedly, but have intrusive thoughts that tenets of the religion are wrong. This phenomenon does not stem from a person secretly not believing in their religion and not recognizing it yet (denial). An analogous example for *waswâs al-qahri* regarding *aqeedah* is postpartum OCD in which new mothers have intrusive thoughts about harming their child. The vast majority of mothers—if not all—love their children and do not want to harm them.[^14] Mothers with postpartum OCD don’t clandestinely have desires to hurt their children, and in fact, it is love for their children that causes distress when the intrusive thoughts cannot be controlled. The same applies to *waswâs al-qahri i*n *aqeedah* in that the person’s devotion to God is part of what causes the distress when experiencing intrusive negative thoughts about religion. Case example: Sara grew up in a Muslim family and had practiced Islam all her life. Last year she watched a movie about sexual abuse and for the first time realized she was molested as a child. As expected, Sara started to experience many strong emotions such as anger, grief, and sadness. About 6 months ago, Sara began to have intrusive negative thoughts about Allah wanting this abuse to happen to her. Rationally she knew her malicious thoughts about Allah were not true, but the thoughts would not go away. This caused Sara to feel that she was not a good Muslim or perhaps these uncontrollable thoughts took her out of the fold of Islam. Sara was consumed by these thoughts and it began to affect her productivity at work. Throughout the day Sara would feel compelled to say the *shahada* (declaration of faith in Islam: There is no God but Allah and Muhammad ﷺ is His messenger) because she feared she was no longer Muslim. In the beginning she would say this a few times a day and eventually it reached almost 100 times a day. If Sara was in a work meeting and had intrusive thoughts she would feel compelled to leave the meeting to say the *shahada* and come back. The few times Sara could not excuse herself from work duties to say *shahada* she would feel distressed to the point she would feel light-headed. --- ## Treatment *Waswâs al-qahri* is unique from other manifestations of OCD because it requires both a clinician who is an expert in the condition, and the partnership of an imam or a person with specific knowledge pertaining to Islamic rulings of belief, worship, and *waswâs*. It can be a challenging endeavor for a clinician to provide therapy to a person with *waswâs al-qahri*, especially if they are unfamiliar with the terms, concepts, and rulings to which the client is referring. An imam or person of Islamic knowledge has the expertise and authority to give religious instruction and rulings about questions related to *waswâs al-*qahri that is outside the realm of expertise for most therapists. Just as therapists often defer to psychiatrists for feedback and consultation regarding medical issues, a therapist will likely need to defer to and coordinate with a person of Islamic knowledge regarding *waswasah*. Often times the person with *waswâs al-qahri* already has an imam they have been working with, so the therapist will just need to sign a release of information to work in conjunction with them. The reason imams cannot treat *waswâs al-qahri* alone is because they do not have the time or clinical skill to treat someone with a medical condition like OCD. The Islamic approach to *waswâs al-qahri* is that the client must ignore their intrusive thoughts and resist urges to complete compulsive acts (such as repeating prayers over and over). There are some Islamic interventions, which will be elaborated on further in this publication, but that is the extent of Islamic treatment for those who have *waswasah*. It is the clinician’s job and area of expertise to help execute what seems like a simple plan, but is in fact a long and difficult process. The brunt of the work in curing *waswâs al-qahri* will come from the long-term process of helping the client cope with the anxiety from their obsessions and teaching them how to not give into their compulsions. *Watch the animation "Are the Whispers of Satan a type of OCD?"*\[embed\]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ucp1uHA66s&t=10s\[/embed\] --- ## The Clinician’s Role: Different Types of Therapy ### Cognitive Therapy Research indicates that cognitive therapy is effective in clinically treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.[^15] Cognitive therapy is where cognitive-behavioral therapy stems from and includes many subtypes of therapies, some of which will be addressed later in this publication. Understanding fundamental concepts from which cognitive therapy was derived is important in understanding both clinical and Islamic interventions. On the most basic level, cognitive theory asserts that the way individuals perceive and interpret the world around them influences how they feel and act.[^16] In day-to-day life, individuals are constantly and rapidly interpreting stimuli in their environment into conscious and unconscious thoughts. Many of these thoughts are ‘automatic thoughts’ in which the accuracy is assumed to be correct, but not always. Over time, thoughts are interpreted and categorized into categories of information, called ‘schemas,’ based on relationships between the thoughts. Negative automatic thoughts can lead to dysfunctional schemas or ‘cognitive distortions,’ which may lead to maladaptive feelings and/or behaviors. There are different cognitive theories as to how clients with OCD develop and maintain their OCD. One theory by Foa and Kozak (1985) proposes that OCD comes from many erroneous cognitions such as clients assigning high levels of danger to relatively safe situations, exaggerating the probability of bad things happening and concluding that objects or events need evidence of safety (versus the healthy cognition that objects or events are assumed safe unless there is evidence otherwise).[^17] Another cognitive theory of how OCD is formed is by Salkovski (1985), which holds that those with OCD hold five faulty cognitive distortions: > *(1) thinking about an action is the same as doing it; (2) failing to prevent harm is morally equivalent to causing harm; (3) responsibility for harm is not diminished by extenuating circumstances; (4) failing to ritualize in response to a thought about harm is the same as an intention to harm; and (5) one should exercise control over one’s thoughts.*[^18] To address OCD from a cognitive perspective, clinicians need to examine core beliefs, challenge faulty assumptions, and modify cognitive distortions that are leading to the obsessions and compulsions. Over time, as cognitive distortions are gently challenged and replaced by more healthy cognitive schemas, the OCD symptoms should diminish. Imams can play an integral role in helping the therapist address cognitive distortions related to religion as there are *fiqh* (jurisprudence) principles in Islam that directly address the above cognitive distortions. The following *hadith* (scholarly documented, authentic Prophetic narration) for example, helps counteract a few of the distortions from Salkovski’s (1985) theory on the origin on OCD: > *The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has forgiven for my ummah (followers) that which is whispered to them and which crosses their minds, so long as they do not act upon it or speak of it.”* \[Narrated by al-Bukhari, 6664; Muslim, 127\][^19] When an imam explains the meaning and implications of this *hadith* it becomes evident that cognitive distortions 1 and 5, from Salkovski’s theory, are not Islamically sound. Clarifying these principles from an Islamic perspective will bolster the therapist’s cognitive work with the client. ### Exposure Response Prevention Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a type of cognitive-behavior therapy, has been proven to be quite effective in dealing with OCD.[^20] The goal of ERP is for clients to confront identified fears and cease the compulsion or escape response by delaying gratification or ideally forgoing gratification altogether. By disrupting the conditioned response (of the obsession and compulsion) the client becomes habituated to the previously feared stimulus and eventually the obsession and the strong urge to act on the obsession goes away. ERP is compatible with the Islamic approach in treating *waswâs al-qahri*; In fact, one can argue that the Islamic advice to ignore the obsession and resist the compulsion is the layperson’s form of ERP. Although the Islamic approach to *waswâs al-qahri* and ERP are compatible, clinicians will have to be mindful that there may be some restrictions in the implementation of the therapy. For example, a client who has irrational fear of getting something *najis* (impure) on their body cannot purposely put impure things on their body during prayer or ignore something they know with complete certainty is impure, as this would invalidate the prayer. Clients however, can ignore doubts about something being impure on the clothes. For example, if a client has an obsession with cleanliness and the compulsion is to check their clothes repeatedly for the possibility of impure things, an exercise the therapist can ask the client to do is perform *wudu* in a public bathroom (which by most standards are not ideally clean) and not check his or her clothes for contaminants afterward. This is permissible because the general Islamic ruling is that all things that are pure remain pure until there is certainty that they are impure; doubts about something being impure cannot make the object impure. ### Acceptance Commitment Therapy Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a type of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, has also been found effective in alleviating symptoms of OCD.[^21] The goal of ACT is to increase mindfulness of thoughts and accept them as they are instead of trying to change them. ACT sees negative and inappropriate thoughts as part of the normal human process. By accepting thoughts as thoughts, and not repressing them, the idea is that the thoughts will eventually stop as a by-product, not direct goal, of this therapy.[^22] ACT does not promote the violent, blasphemous or dangerous thoughts a person with OCD has, but helps clients accept the thoughts without judgment and without mental or physical duress. A person with OCD becomes tense when experiencing intrusive thoughts and tries to mentally or physically neutralize them, whereas ACT facilitates the thoughts passing through without holding on to them or repressing them. This therapy can be effective in helping clients with OCD learn to decrease their specific and generalized anxieties, but can be very tricky to implement without a therapist who is culturally-spiritually competent. A Muslim client who is encouraged to blindly accept blasphemous thoughts will not likely come back to treatment; instead, a therapist needs to be skillful and mindful in explaining to the client that he or she is not accepting the actual blasphemous thought, but accepting that he or she is having the thought itself. The culturally-spiritually competent therapist can provide the proper psychoeducation and support on how the client can have inappropriate thoughts, without believing them, and not be distressed by them at the same time. ### Additional Therapies and Techniques Clinicians may find it helpful to the client to provide family therapy in addition to individual therapy. It is typical for family tension to build up between clients and their family members since *waswâs al-qahri* impairs daily functioning, social life, and relationships. Family members can experience a lot of difficult emotions about their family member suffering from *waswâs al-qahri* including sadness, anger, and frustration.  It is not uncommon for family members to call the client selfish, self-absorbed, fanatical, or even extreme. These accusations are hurtful because the individual suffering from such an affliction feels that their behavior is not something they can control. In family therapy, clinicians can help provide psychoeducation to families about the nature of the disease. Clinicians can also teach family members to express difficult feelings in healthy ways and be more supportive of the client. Lastly, clinicians can offer individual therapy (or make referrals to other providers) to other family members, who may be having trouble coping with the client’s behavior at home. When a client is tolerating the urge to give into their *waswasah*, it’s important to teach them that their stress and anxiety will initially go up when fighting the disease before they eventually go down. Clinicians can help clients tolerate their elevated levels of anxiety with a solid coping skills plan. The coping skills should be generated by the client as they will know best what activities can distract them and calm them down. Clinicians should consider typical coping skills like guided imagery, connecting with nature, physical activities, etc. as they would for most clients, but also consider spiritual coping skills if clients express interest in them. --- ## Collaboration with Imams The imam’s role in treatment will be important in helping the client cope with anxiety related to religious questions, rulings, and concerns. As a religious authority, the client will be more likely to comply with therapy knowing that an imam supports it, especially in communities where there is still a lot of stigma and/or myths associated with treatment (e.g., that western psychology is contradictory to Islam, or that therapy is only for people who have weak or no faith). In addition to answering religious questions, imams can also be very useful in assisting the therapist to provide cognitive restructuring from a spiritual perspective. While answering religious questions will be of great benefit to the client, it will be just as important that the imam teach underlying concepts that will help the client figure out answers to their own questions independently. For example, if a client continuously calls an imam asking for answers related to fear of losing *wudu* in prayer, it will be more useful for the imam to teach the Islamic concept that ‘doubt can not negate certainty,’ than to continue to address independent, but similar questions that all have the same answer. This will help prevent the client from building a sense of dependency on the imam, as seeking constant and unnecessary assurance can become part of the compulsion process.[^23] For religious questions and concerns, the therapist and imam should encourage the client to keep a journal and write down religious questions organized by date. The client then can have a weekly appointment time (whether in therapy or with the imam) to go over their concerns. This approach is beneficial because it forces the client to delay gratification of the urge to repeat, which is an essential component in treating OCD. The journal also helps maintain a positive relationship between the client and imam. Due to irrational fears the client may have about being neglectful of their religious duties, some clients may call the imam incessantly during the day and at night. This can be disruptive for the imam who has many other obligations and will likely just eventually ignore calls (causing more panic for the client). With this journal arrangement, the client will understand that no calls will be answered except during the designated phone consultation time, which may cause stress in the short term, but should increase treatment efficacy in the long-term. --- ## Islamic Interventions Therapists who want to specialize in the treatment of *waswâs al-qahri* from a holistic perspective, for clients who desire that option, must be familiar with Islamic techniques prescribed in the Quran and Hadith. Therapists do not need to have in-depth knowledge of the techniques, but enough information to understand where their clients are coming from if they use the techniques or if the imam prescribes them. Having an understanding of these techniques increases cultural-spiritual sensitivity and competency, and will likely increase a stronger therapeutic bond between the therapist and client. Since those with scrupulosity by default obsess and compulsively act on religious fixations, it’s imperative for the therapist to know what is general Islamic practice and what is not. It is important that religious interventions are not used excessively to the point that they become a part of the disorder. Islamic interventions should be used as prescribed and should bring a sense of benefit and comfort to the person. When the individual with *waswâs al-qahri* begins to use them excessively or feels a sense of impending doom if he or she does not use the techniques, then the therapist or imam needs to point this out to the individual and modify the coping skills plan. Below is a condensed list of Islamic techniques or practices that can be used to help reduce *waswâs al-qahri*. A brief explanation of each technique will be followed by the text in the Quran or Hadith from which the technique was derived. ### Seeking Refuge in Allah Seeking refuge in Allah is a commonly used technique by Muslims to help protect themselves from Satan. When Muslims seek refuge in Allah they are essentially calling out to Him to protect themselves from Satan’s influence and mischief. A person with *waswâs al-qahri* may use this technique for protection from Satan giving them intrusive thoughts. Since there is direct evidence of this technique being recommended to cope with *waswasah*, it is a commonly prescribed practice by imams in formal prayer and throughout the day. > *And if an evil whisper from Shaitan (Satan) tries to turn you away, then seek refuge in Allah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.* (The Quran, 41:36)[^24] > > A*nd say: “My Lord! I seek refuge with You from the whisperings (suggestions) of the Shayatin (devils). And I seek refuge with You, My Lord! lest they may attend (or come near) me.* (The Quran, 23:97-98)[^25] > > *Abul-‘Ula reported: ‘Uthman bin Abul-‘As came and said to the Prophet: “O Messenger of Allah, Satan is spoiling my prayers and confusing my reciting of the Quran.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “That is a satan called Khinzab, so if you think that (he is around) say: ‘I seek refuge with Allah from you.’ Then blow breath with light spit on your left three times.” Uthman said: “I did that and Allah took him away from me.”*[^26] ### Ruqya *Ruqya* is a practice in which Muslims read Quran, the names of Allah or a prayer over themselves by putting their hand on the area that is causing them distress and reciting over it. This technique can be recommended by imams for medical ailments as well as psychological ailments. Since an individual with anxiety might feel tension in their head or chest, they can place their hand and perform *ruqya* over that area. Uthman bin Abu Al-‘As Ath-Thaqafi narrated that he complained to the Prophet ﷺ of a disease in his body since embracing Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Put your hand in the place of pain and say: ‘With the Name of Allah,’ thrice, and say seven times: ‘I seek refuge with the Power and Majesty of Allah against what I suffer.’”[^27] ### Dhikr *Dhikr*, which means remembrance, is a useful tool prescribed for all Muslims, but can specifically be used by those experiencing anxiety to alleviate feelings of distress. The purpose of *dhikr* is to mindfully reflect on Allah, His Attributes, and blessings in attempts to obtain a closer relationship with Him. By feeling closer to Allah the Muslim reaps the psychological benefit of feeling protected by the Highest Power that has the ability to change all things including one’s self, circumstances, and well-being. Research indicates that those who have a secure attachment to God have lower levels of depression and psychological distress, whereas those with an insecure attachment have higher levels of neuroticism.[^28] *Dhikr* not only helps build a more secure attachment but can help alter cognitive distortions for clients with *waswâs al-qahri* who use Allah’s Wrath, Hell, and punishment as means to justify their obsessions and compulsions. Using *dhikr* to focus on Allah’s Mercy and love for His worshippers, likely with the help of an imam, can create a healthier bond with Allah and alter unhealthy cognitions. > *…Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.* (The Quran, 13:28)[^29] > > *Abu Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Allah says: ‘I am as My slave thinks of me, and I am with him if he remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than that. And if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.’”*[^30] ### Duaa *Duaa*, or supplication, is a prescribed tool for all Muslims; however, there are [specific *duaas*](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/duas-for-relief-and-protection) Prophet Muhammad ﷺ recommended for when a person feels anxious. *Duaa* can be said during the Muslim’s five daily prayers and informally, at any time, when feeling distress. Someone with *waswâs al-qahri* can create their own *duaa* to ask for relief of general anxiety, the alleviation of specific obsessions, or help in not giving into compulsions; or can use the following specific *duaas* recommended by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for anxiety: > *O Allah, I am Your servant, son of Your servant, son of Your maidservant, my forelock is in Your hand, Your command over me is forever executed and Your decree over me is just. I ask You by every name belonging to You which You named Yourself with, or revealed in Your Book, or You taught to any of Your creation, or You have preserved in the knowledge of the unseen with You, that You make the Qur’aan the life of my heart and the light of my breast, and a departure from my sorrow and release for my anxiety.*[^31] > > *O Allah, I take refuge in You from anxiety and sorrow, weakness and laziness, miserliness and cowardice, the burden of debts and from being overpowered by men.*[^32] ### Black Cumin Black Cumin (commonly called Black Seed), or *Nigella sativa*, is highly praised amongst Muslims and is used to help treat an array of medical issues. Modern day research indicates that Black Cumin, in fact, has pharmacological healing properties and helps treat anxiety and depression, as well as many other medical conditions.[^33] While more research needs to be conducted on how and to what extent Black Cumin affects different levels of severity of OCD, it can be a useful supplement to therapy and pharmacological drugs. > *Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah’s Apostle ﷺ saying, “There is healing in black cumin for all diseases except death.”*[^34] --- ## Clinical Analysis and Recommendations ERP is the most highly recommended therapy for treating OCD, due to proven efficacy; however, ERP has some significant drawbacks. ERP is a highly detailed methodological approach in which few therapists are trained. The therapy is very intense and requires a large time commitment from both the client and therapist. Research indicates that the dropout rates (25%) and refusal rates (additional 5-22%) for ERP are high.[^35] Based on these factors, ERP referrals should be made for clients who have access (and the time and financial means) to undergo this type of therapy from a trained professional. The average client who will not have access to this particular type of therapy should be referred to a therapist who is knowledgeable in cognitive therapy and/or ACT. The author strongly emphasizes that therapist and imam competency are very important to the success and well-being of the client who is seeking treatment for *waswâs al-qahri*. This unique professional collaboration with dual knowledge in psychology and Islam is the primary differentiating factor between treatment for *waswâs al-qahri* and other types of OCD. A therapist who is not culturally-spiritually competent and the imam who doesn’t have an understanding and appreciation of psychology can be very detrimental to a client by relaying false information that can either turn the client away from treatment or be accepted by the client with negative consequences. One example of this is the therapist who might not explain ERP and ACT with cultural-spiritual sensitivity, leading the client to believe that he or she must accept blasphemous beliefs to get better, and ultimately causing the client to drop out of treatment unnecessarily. Another example is an imam who tells the client that their *waswâs al-qahri* is blameworthy and comes from their lack of religious devotion, leading the client to feel much worse about themselves. Due to the complexity of *waswâs al-qahri* it is understandable that there will not be many experts available to treat this specific condition; however, those clinical and religious providers who want to help should know the basics and be comfortable seeking more knowledge when their understanding is limited. Psychoeducation by the therapist will be an integral component of treatment. For mental health professionals, it will be important to explain to clients that OCD is long-term disease even when treatment is ‘successful.’ Many clients come into treatment expecting rapid results and that they will be completely cured of all type of OCD thinking, which is unrealistic. Research indicates that treatment can help significantly reduce symptoms, but that for many people residual signs of OCD may linger.[^36] To help address this issue clinicians need to assess OCD symptoms before and after treatment to help clients see their progress. Clinicians and imams should also recommend occasional visits after symptoms decrease, rather than terminating treatment, as periodically checking in with a therapist can help maintain long-term progress. Lastly, therapists need to work with clients on relapse prevention plans so that when clients begin to resort to previous behaviors they know exactly how to address them and when to come back to treatment. Psychoeducation by the imam will also be important for treatment since the Muslim community has a significant amount of stigma regarding seeking mental health treatment.[^37] It is important that the imam emphasize the importance of therapy (and medication management when necessary) in addition to Islamic interventions when symptoms are persistent and cause high amounts of distress. The author has observed that, in Muslim communities, seeking medical treatment for physical ailments, such as cancer or diabetes, in addition to Islamic interventions (like prayer) is seen as more acceptable than when a person has a mental health impairment; seeking medical treatment for physical ailments is not associated with a lack of faith, whereas seeking medical treatment for mental health is. Explaining that seeking medical treatment is a complement to Islamic interventions will likely increase client confidence in therapy and help prevent premature therapy dropout. --- ## Research At the present time, there is little research and clinical literature defining *waswâs al-qahri*, assessment of prevalence, and little to no evidence-based treatment for the condition. If one types *waswasah* into a regular search engine, hundreds of *fatwas* and informal articles will come up on the subject, but no research appears in medical journals written by clinicians in the field of psychology. The large number of informal articles and inquiries indicates that the problem of *waswâs al-qahri* is significant and that the prevalence is likely not proportionate to the amount of attention currently given to this disorder. *Waswâs al-qahri* is not a new disorder, but due to the absence of quantitative and qualitative research, as well any professional publications, it truly is a new disorder in the contemporary psychological literature. There needs to be quantitative research to determine the prevalence of *waswâs al-qahri* in different countries, risk factors, general demographics, and duration of illness. There also need to be trials completed to see the efficacy of different types of treatment, including management by medication. Research development on *waswasah* will help solidify whether *waswâs al-qahri* should be classified as a type of OCD (as it is at the present time) and what interventions are best to treat it. Clinicians who have clients with *waswâs al-qahri* can help contribute to this understudied field by documenting and publishing case studies. Writing qualitative summaries of experiences with these clients, especially those with positive outcomes, will help establish more therapeutic and religiously-sensitive interventions. Collaborating with other clinicians on a local or national level in the form of conferences or peer supervision can also generate more discussion, spread awareness of the disease, and build a stronger network of specialized clinicians. --- ## Summary *Waswâs al-qahri* is a complex disorder in which Muslims develop unwanted obsessions and compulsions related to religious beliefs or acts of worship that are excessive, dysfunctional, and distressful. *Waswâs al-qahri* is currently regarded as a type of OCD, but is unique from other types of OCD in that it needs more specialized treatments/interventions. The goal of this publication is to contribute to the growing field of Islamic psychology by defining what *waswasah* is, what the different types of *waswâs al-qahri* are, and how clinicians and imams can best treat the condition when it reaches levels of psychological impairment. Ideally, treatment for *waswâs al-qahri* will require a culturally competent clinician, collaboration with an imam, and effective cognitive behavioral therapy. More research is needed to better understand this condition and to identify what clinical and Islamic treatments yield the most effective results. --- ## Notes [^1]: A manual published by the American Psychiatric Association that identifies and categorizes mental illness. This is the standard book that all American psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health therapists use to assess and diagnose their clients for potential mental illness. [^2]: Pollard, A .(2010). Scrupulosity. Retrieved from https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/IOCDF-Scrupulosity-Fact-Sheet.pdf [^3]: Utz, A. (2011). *Psychology from the Islamic Perspective*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Publishing House. [^4]: Ibn Kathir, H. (2003). Tafsir Ibn Kathir (2nd ed.). Riyadh: Durussalm. [^5]: Utz, *Psychology from the Islamic Perspective*. [^6]: Al-Hilali, M. & Khan, M. (1999). *Translation of the Meanings of The Noble Quran in the English Language* (reprinted ed.). Madinah, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an. [^7]: Radomsky, A., Alcolado, G., Abramowitz, J., Alonso, P., Belloch, A., Bouvard, M., Clark, D., Coles, M., Doron, G., Fernandez-Alvarez, H., Garcia-Soriano, G., Ghisi, M., Gomez, B., Inozu, M., Moulding, R., Shams, G., Sica, C., Simos, G., & Wong, W. (2014). Part 1. You can run but you can’t hide: Intrusive thoughts on 6 continents. *Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders*, *3*, 269-279. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2009.10.002 [^8]: American Psychiatric Association. (2013). *Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders* (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, pp. 129-130. [^9]: Sookman, D., Abramowitz, J., Calamari, J., Wilhelm, S. & McKay, D. (2004). Subtypes of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Implications for Specialized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, *Behavior Therapy,* *36*(4): 393-400. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222412431\_Subtypes\_of\_obsessiveCompulsive\_disorder\_Implications\_for\_specialized\_cognitive\_behavior\_therapy [^10]: Pollard, A .(2010). Scrupulosity. Retrieved from https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/IOCDF-Scrupulosity-Fact-Sheet.pdf [^11]: Abramowitz, J., Jacoby R. (2014). Scrupulosity: A cognitive-behavioral analysis and implications for treatment. *Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders*, *3*, 140-149. Retrieved from: http://jonabram.web.unc.edu/files/2014/05/Scrupulosity-model-2014.pdf [^12]: Ibid. [^13]: Al-Haj, H. 2016, October, 18. Email. [^14]: Abramowitz, J. (2009). *Postpartum and perinatal OCD*. International OCD Foundation. Retrieved June 28, 2016 from https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Postpartum-OCD-Fact-Sheet.pdf [^15]: Foa, E., Yadin, E. & Lichner, T. (2012). *Exposure and Response (Ritual) Prevention for Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder* (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [^16]: Knapp, P. & Beck, A. (2008). *Cognitive therapy: Foundations, conceptual models, applications and research*. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbp/v30s2/en\_a02v30s2.pdf [^17]: Foa, et al. (2012). [^18]: Foa, et al. (2012). [^19]: Abdul-Rahman, M. (2004). *Islam: Questions and Answers - Jurisprudence and Islamic Rulings: Transactions, Part 5*. London, United Kingdom: MSA Publication Limited. [^20]: Koran, L., Hanna, G., Hollander, E., Nestadt, G., & Simpson, H. (2007). Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. *The American Journal of Psychiatry*, *164* (7), 5-53. [^21]: Twohig, M. P., Hayes S. C., Plumb J. C., Pruitt L. D., Collins A. B., Hazlett-Stevens, H., & Woidneck, M. R. (2010). A randomized clinical trial of acceptance and commitment therapy vs progressive relaxation training for obsessive-compulsive disorder. *Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology*, *78*(5), 705-16. [^22]: Harris, R. (2006). Embracing your demons: An overview of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. *Psychotherapy in Australia*, *12* (4), 2-8. Retrieved from http://www.livskompass.se/wpcontent/uploads/2012/11/Russ\_Harr\_A\_Non-technical\_Overview\_of\_ACT.2006.pdf [^23]: Foa, et al.. (2012). [^24]: Al-Hilali, M. & Khan, M. (1999). *Translation of the Meanings of The Noble Quran in the English Language* (reprinted edition). Madinah, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an. [^25]: Ibid. [^26]: Al- Mundhiri, A. (2000). *The Translation of the Meanings of Summarized Sahih Muslim Arabic-English, Volume 2*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, p. 767. [^27]: Ibid. [^28]: Ellison, C., Bradshaw, M., Flannelly, K. & Galek, K. (2014). Prayer, Attachment to God, and Symptoms of Anxiety-Related Disorders among U.S. Adults. *Sociology of Religion*, *75* (2), 208-233. Retrieved from http://www.baylorisr.org/wp-content/uploads/Sociology-of-Religion-2014-Ellison-208-33.pdf [^29]: Al-Hilali, M. & Khan, M. (1999). *Translation of the Meanings of The Noble Quran in the English Language* (reprinted edition). Madinah, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an. [^30]: Al- Mundhiri, A. (2000). *The Translation of the Meanings of Summarized Sahih Muslim Arabic-English, Volume 2.* Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, p. 997. [^31]: Al-Qahtaani, S. (1996). *Fortification of the Muslim through remembrance and supplication from the* Qur’aan *and the Sunnah*. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Safir Press, p. 156-157. [^32]: Ibid, p. 165. [^33]: Beheshti F., Khazaei M. & Hosseini M. (2016).Neuropharmacological effects of Nigella sativa. *Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine*, *6* (1), 124-141. [^34]: Khan, M. (1995). *The Translation of the Meanings of Sahih Al- Bukhari,* Volume VII. Medina: Dar AHYA Us-Sunnah, p. 399. [^35]: Twohig, et al. (2010). [^36]: Foa, et al. (2012). [^37]: Amri, S. & Bemak, F. (2013). Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors of Muslim Immigrants in the United States: Overcoming Social Stigma and Cultural Mistrust, *Journal of Muslim Mental Health*, *12* (1). Retrieved from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/mental-health-help-seeking-behaviors-of-muslim-immigrants.pdf?c=jmmh;idno=10381607.0007.104 ## Summary Waswâs al-qahri, meaning "overwhelming whisperings," is a distinct presentation of obsessive-compulsive disorder found among Muslims that has yet to be formally recognized in the DSM-V or ICD, owing to insufficient research, overlapping diagnoses, and the limited acknowledgment of spiritually-based conditions by the American Psychiatric Association. Those afflicted take ordinary acts of worship—such as ablution (wudu) or prayer—to extreme lengths, driven by the fear that their worship is inadequate and must be endlessly repeated until deemed perfect. What ought to be a source of spiritual nourishment thus becomes a wellspring of anguish. It is essential to affirm from the outset that waswasah is not a "Muslim disease," but rather a religious presentation of OCD within Muslims, paralleling what clinical literature calls scrupulosity, a condition observed across all faiths and notoriously difficult to treat because its symptoms wear the garb of piety. Within the Islamic tradition, waswasah is understood as a natural human experience that everyone encounters to some degree. Its origins are twofold: it may arise from the nafs—the soul considered in the context of the body, subject to biological and hereditary inclinations—or it may proceed from an external, antagonistic source, namely Satan. The one experiencing this does not hear Satan's voice audibly, but rather encounters distressing thoughts triggered from without, much as one might imagine an angel and a devil each urging a person toward good or evil. This understanding is rooted in the story of creation, wherein Allah relates: "Then Shaytaan whispered to him, saying: 'O Adam! Shall I lead you to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that will never waste away'" (Qur'an 20:120). After Adam and his wife were sent to earth (Qur'an 4:118-122), Satan's whispering became an ongoing trial for mankind until the Day of Judgment. It is worth noting that international studies estimate roughly ninety-four percent of humanity experiences intrusive thoughts at some point. Because mild and occasional whisperings are part of the ordinary human condition, they must be distinguished from waswâs al-qahri, the excessive and overwhelming variety that may rise to the level of a diagnosable disorder when it satisfies the DSM-V criteria for OCD—namely, the presence of distressing obsessions and compulsions that consume more than an hour daily or cause significant impairment, and which cannot be attributed to substances, other medical conditions, or another mental disorder. While clinicians generally recognize four subtypes of OCD—contamination, checking, obsessions without overt rituals, and hoarding—waswâs al-qahri is distinctive in that a sufferer may fall into several of these at once. The author holds that waswâs al-qahri more closely resembles scrupulosity, which, though documented clinically, is absent from the DSM-V; some clinicians argue scrupulosity merits separate classification given its poorer insight and weak correlation with standard OCD measures. Crucially, Islamic scholars have not established formal diagnostic criteria for waswâs al-qahri, for their expertise lies in jurisprudence rather than psychiatry, and so diagnosis remains informal, arising either through self-assessment or an imam's consultation. Care must be taken not to conflate it with other conditions such as depression, panic, or psychosis; a client who claims to visually see a devil, for instance, warrants assessment for psychotic disorders rather than waswasah. Three common manifestations are addressed: ibadah (worship), taharah (purification), and aqeedah (belief). In matters of worship, the afflicted fear that compulsory acts like prayer are never performed well enough, catastrophizing that imperfection may render them apostates deserving of Hell. In matters of purification, sufferers may endure irrational fears of impurity or invalidated ablution, spending twenty minutes or an hour where an average Muslim requires but three or four. In matters of creed, they experience intrusive doubts about tenets of faith they wholeheartedly love—a phenomenon likened to postpartum OCD, wherein a mother's very love for her child is what makes intrusive thoughts of harm so distressing. In each case, the author observes that severe waswasah rarely appears suddenly but grows gradually over time if left unaddressed. Regarding treatment, waswâs al-qahri is unique in requiring both a clinician expert in the condition and the collaboration of an imam or person of religious knowledge, for imams alone possess neither the time nor the clinical skill to treat a medical condition. The Islamic counsel is essentially to ignore the intrusive thought and resist the compulsion—which the author describes as a layperson's form of the clinical approach. Several therapies are discussed. Cognitive therapy addresses the faulty assumptions underlying OCD; here the imam plays an integral role, for Islamic jurisprudence directly counters certain cognitive distortions. As the Prophet ﷺ said: "Allah has forgiven for my ummah that which is whispered to them and which crosses their minds, so long as they do not act upon it or speak of it" (al-Bukhari 6664; Muslim 127). Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), proven effective, is compatible with the Islamic approach, though bounded by rulings—a client may ignore mere doubts about impurity since the established principle is that what is pure remains pure until impurity is certain, yet may not deliberately introduce what is known with certainty to be impure. Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps clients accept the presence of a thought without endorsing it, though it must be applied with cultural-spiritual competence lest a Muslim client mistakenly believe he is being asked to accept blasphemy. Family therapy and client-generated coping skills, including spiritual ones, are also recommended. Collaboration with imams remains vital, for a client is more likely to comply knowing a religious authority endorses treatment, especially amid community stigma. Yet the imam should teach underlying principles—such as "doubt cannot negate certainty"—rather than merely answering repeated questions, lest the client develop dependency that itself becomes a compulsion; keeping a dated journal for weekly review is advised to enforce the delay of gratification essential to treating OCD. Several Islamic interventions are noted, always with the caution that they not themselves become part of the disorder: seeking refuge in Allah, grounded in "And if an evil whisper from Shaitan tries to turn you away, then seek refuge in Allah" (Qur'an 41:36) and in the report of 'Uthman bin Abul-'As concerning the satan called Khinzab; ruqya; dhikr, supported by "in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest" (Qur'an 13:28) and the hadith "I am as My slave thinks of Me"; specific supplications for anxiety taught by the Prophet ﷺ; and black cumin, of which he ﷺ said, "There is healing in black cumin for all diseases except death." By way of analysis, the author notes that ERP, though most effective, suffers high dropout and refusal rates and demands trained specialists, so ordinary clients may be better served by cognitive therapy or ACT. The competency of both therapist and imam is stressed as the decisive difference between treating waswâs al-qahri and ordinary OCD, since incompetence on either side may drive a client from treatment or inflict harm. Psychoeducation is emphasized: clients must understand OCD is a long-term condition with possibly lingering residual symptoms, and Muslim communities must be helped to see that medical treatment complements rather than contradicts Islamic remedies, just as one seeks treatment for physical ailments alongside prayer. Finally, the author underscores the near-total absence of formal research on this condition despite its evident prevalence, calling for quantitative and qualitative studies, treatment trials, and the publication of case studies to build a network of specialized providers and to determine conclusively how best to understand and treat this affliction. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-infinitely-merciful-and-the-question-of-hellfire # The Infinitely Merciful and the Question of Hellfire **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 10, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction *Is Allah really more merciful with us than even our own mothers? How can that be possible when He created Hellfire and will cast some people into it?* The study [Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/), published by the Yaqeen Institute, determined that many young Muslims find it difficult to reconcile the idea of a Merciful God with the existence of hellfire. Similarly, the claim of the “New Atheists” that the very concept of tortuous damnation found within Islam and Christianity grates against our sense of justice. As a result, many Muslims today need to understand this concept in order to restore their faith and conviction in the Almighty. In this particular paper, we will not delve into the impossibility of sizing up an infinite and unseen God through the limited lens of finite human perception, nor the many writings of Muslim and Christian theologians across the centuries about reconciling God’s mercy with His punishment. This case study will focus on one famous tradition of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ regarding God's mercy and the hellfire and will refute the claim that this tradition is counterintuitive. ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that a captive woman was once \[frantically\] searching until she suddenly found a small boy among the captives. She pulled him to her stomach and breastfed him, at which point the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to us, “Do you think this woman would throw her child into a fire?” We said, “No, O Messenger of Allah, not while she is capable of not throwing him.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah is certainly more merciful with His servants than this woman is with her child.”[^1] Allah (the Majestic) describes Himself repeatedly in the Qur'an as *Arḥam ar-Rāḥimeen* (literally: the most merciful of those who show mercy),[^2] and says that His mercy encompasses all things.[^3] His Prophet ﷺ described Him as more merciful with His servants than a mother is with her child, and more merciful with His servant than the servant is with himself. There is no clearer, more recurring, fact in the Qur'an or *Sunnah*, after that of Allah being unique in His Oneness, than that He possesses unimaginable mercy and compassion. How then can this be reconciled with the fact that God would punish some people with Hellfire? --- ## Allah must be more merciful than all since He is the One who endowed His creation with the aptitude for mercy in the first place No mercy can outdo the mercy of Allah, since every mercy is but a manifestation of His mercy. For this reason, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 H, may Allah bestow mercy on him) said, “Allah is more merciful with His servants than the most merciful mother is with her child, for the One who made her merciful is more merciful than her.”[^4] The Prophet ﷺ alluded to this phenomenon when asked why he was weeping for a dying infant, by saying, “These \[tears\] are a mercy that Allah places in the hearts of whomever He wishes.”[^5] In another *hadith*, the Prophet ﷺ elaborated, > *Belonging to Allah are one hundred \[portions of\] mercy, of which He sent down a single mercy \[and divided it\] among the jinn, humans, animals, and insects. Because of it, they are compassionate with one another; and because of it, they are merciful with one another; and because of it, a beast is compassionate with her child - to the point that a horse lifts its hoof in fear of hurting its newborn...*[^6] How then can anyone exceed Allah in mercy, when they are all void of any mercy except that which He infused into their hearts? --- ## A mother’s mercy is but a fraction of Allah’s universal mercy which every human being enjoys in this life In this world, He shows immeasurable mercy universally to all people, regardless of whether they believe, disbelieve, obey, or defy Him. This universal mercy includes giving them life, supplying them with a lifetime of food, drink, cures, protection, and so much more. Every breath of oxygen, ray of sunshine, drop of rain, moment of motherly love, act of kindness, averted tragedy, is one of the observable manifestations of this mercy. As for the vast majority of His mercy, it goes unnoticed – either because it is unseen, or subtle, or lost in the abyss of human forgetfulness. In another wording of the earlier *hadith*, the Prophet ﷺ said, > *On the day when Allah created mercy, He created mercy to be one hundred \[portions\]. He retained with Him ninety-nine \[portions of\] mercy, and divided amidst His entire creation a single mercy. If the disbeliever were to realize all the mercy that is with Allah, he would never despair of \[entering\] Paradise. And if the believer were to realize all the punishment that is with Allah, he would never feel secure from Hellfire.*[^7] Therefore, although people receive varying degrees of God’s mercy in their respective lives, they will all receive more mercy from Allah in this life than from anyone else – mothers included. So if Allah showed nobody mercy in the afterlife, He has already been more merciful and compassionate to humanity than their own mothers. --- ## Allah has reserved an even greater mercy for the believers in the afterlife In the hereafter, His mercy will be even greater, ninety-nine times greater, and witnessing its magnitude will be mind-boggling. As ‘Abdullāh b. Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “People will continue receiving mercy on the Day of Resurrection, to the point that \[even\] the heart of Iblees (Satan) will quiver \[in hope\], due to what he sees of Allah’s mercy and the intercession of the intercessors.”[^8] However, this special mercy will be reserved for the believers. For every believer on that day, being subject to Allah’s mercy – and nobody else’s – will be their aspiration. As Ḥammād b. Salama (may Allah bestow mercy on him) said, “I swear by Allah, were I given the choice between Allah conducting my reckoning or my parents conducting my reckoning, I would choose the reckoning of Allah – for Allah is more merciful with me than my parents.”[^9] Therefore, Allah being more merciful with His servants than a mother with her child applies to the hereafter as well, where “His servants” is understood to imply His believing servants. In fact, some narrations of this *hadith* state, “Likewise, Allah would never throw His beloved into the Fire.”[^10] Obviously, such language can only apply to those who aren’t rebellious rejecters of God.[^11] --- ## Though the mercy of Allah is without limits, Allah is not limited by His mercy The assumption that Allah *must* extend unconditional mercy to the disbeliever is problematic because it poses a stalemate between Allah’s mercy and His justice. In other words, if Allah dismisses all eligibility requirements for His mercy, that “benevolence” would necessitate that He be unjust. Thus, Allah (the Majestic) repeats throughout the Qur'an: “Or do those who commit evils think We will make them like those who have believed and done righteous deeds – \[make them\] equal in their life and their death? Evil is that which they judge.”[^12] “Or should We treat those who believe and do righteous deeds like corrupters in the land? Or should We treat those who fear Allah like the wicked?”[^13] “Then will We treat those who submit (the Muslims) like the criminals? What is \[the matter\] with you? How do you judge?”[^14] The perfect names and attributes of Allah are harmonious; they exist in unison without trumping one another. For this reason, the vastness of Allah’s mercy is often coupled with a reference to His divine justice. In the Qur'an, for instance, the Most High says, “My mercy encompasses all things – so I will decree it \[especially\] for those who fear Me.”[^15] Ibn Abi Jamra (d. 599 H, may Allah bestow mercy on him) explains, “It is universal in terms of adequacy (i.e., can accommodate everyone), but specific in terms of who it is decreed for.” Elsewhere, Allah says, “Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to the doers of good.”[^16] In the *Sunnah*, for instance, the Prophet ﷺ said, “And \[know that\] Allah only shows mercy to the merciful among His slaves.”[^17] Hence, from the perfection of Allah’s justice and wisdom is that He differentiates between His allies and His enemies; those who obeyed Him and those who disobeyed Him; those who devoted their lives to Him and those who devoted their lives to opposing Him. If among human beings, treating an honest citizen and brazen vigilante equally is considered foolish and unjust, “then what is your assumption of the Lord of the worlds?”[^18] Notice that the Prophet’s Companions said about that impassioned mother, “No, O Messenger of Allah, not while she is capable of not throwing him.” Similarly, Allah would never throw His creation into the Hellfire, unless His justice necessitated that there be no other fate. --- ## Allah's sending His messengers and scriptures to mankind and inspiring people to recognize and embody guidance is the greatest mercy of all Allah's revealing the Qur'an and making one a believer in it is a far greater mercy than anything that anyone could ever receive. As Allah (the Exalted) says, “Say, ‘In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy – in that let them rejoice; it is better than all they accumulate.”[^19] Ibn ‘Abbās (may Allah be pleased with him) and others explained that the bounty of Allah referred to here is the Qur'an, and His mercy is Islam; these are far greater than all else combined. It’s the life money cannot buy, the clarity that no genius can discover, the system that never disappoints, the comfort that even mothers cannot provide, the strength that vanquishes every distress and anxiety, and the inner peace that no tragedy can undermine. And in the afterlife, it’s this very same mercy that will qualify someone to enter Paradise, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “No one’s deeds will admit him into Paradise.” They said, “Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “No, not even I, unless Allah envelops me in His bounty and mercy.”[^20] Only by the mercy and bounty of Allah are people actually moved to perform good deeds in this life, and only by His mercy and grace are these humble and flawed good deeds adequate to admit one to a priceless Paradise forever. Put differently, Allah sent His Prophet ﷺ as a mercy to the worlds, then conferred another mercy by guiding the sincere to embrace His Prophet’s path, then conferred the greatest mercy by accepting that imperfect attempt in exchange for an unimaginable eternal reward. In this vein, the Prophet ﷺ also said, “If Allah were to punish the inhabitants of His heavens and His earth, He would do so without being unjust in doing so. And if He were to have mercy on them, His mercy would be better for them than their own deeds.”[^21] Those who reject this opportunity and rebel against it have refused Allah’s mercy, which He loves to impart, disqualified themselves from it, and opted by their actions for His justice instead. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no one who loves to excuse \[people\] more than Allah. For that reason, He sent down the Scripture and dispatched the messengers.”[^22] Despite that, some people will still insist – with their free will – to behave in ways that cause them to experience the punishment they denied and used to mock without end. For that reason, the Prophet ﷺ said, “…That is your example and mine; I am there to hold you back from the Fire and save you from it, but you are slipping from my hands and plunging into it despite my efforts.”[^23] In his book, *Kashf al-Mushkil* (Resolving the Problematic), Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H, may Allah bestow mercy on him) said, > *It was from His universal mercy to send the messengers and grant respite to the sinners. But when the disbeliever rejects Him, he exits to the station of stubborn rebellion, and thereby is no longer eligible for mercy. As for His special mercy, this is for His believing slaves; He is delicate with them in hardships and ease, beyond the delicate care of a mother with her child.”*[^24] These words of Ibn al-Jawzi make another important distinction that helps elucidate this issue further; namely that only those who stubbornly reject God’s message are ineligible for His mercy in the hereafter. As for those who God knows did not receive the message, or could not understand it due to a sensory or circumstantial impediment, they will certainly be given an equal opportunity at salvation and mercy. The Prophet ﷺ said, > *There are four \[who will protest to Allah\] on the Day of Resurrection: the deaf man who could not hear anything, the insane man, the decrepit old man, and the man who died in the interval \[between Jesus and Muhammad\]. As for the deaf man, he will say, ‘O Lord, Islam came but I could not hear anything!’ As for the insane man, he will say, ‘O Lord, Islam came while the children were pelting me with dung!’ As for the decrepit old man, he will say, ‘O Lord, Islam came but I could not understand anything.’ As for the one who died in the interval, he will say, ‘O Lord, no messenger of Yours came to me.’ Their promises to obey Him will then be taken, and then word will be sent to them to enter the Fire. By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, if they enter it, it will be cool and safe for them \[and they will be entered into Paradise\].*[^25] In another narration, “And whoever does not enter it will be dragged to it.”[^26] --- ## Punishment in the Hellfire contains multiple layers of mercy Through punishing some people with the fire of Hell, God purifies them of their spiritual corruption, manifests for them the pricelessness of salvation, and avenges those they had persecuted. Hence, Allah grants several dimensions of mercy by the very act of punishment in the hereafter itself. Let us briefly elucidate each of these three dimensions, to better grasp just how such mercy is actualized. Firstly, the Hellfire serves – at least for believers – a therapeutic role: to transform wicked souls into pure ones so that they can enter Paradise. Would a mother refuse surgery or amputation for her child after all else has failed? Would she deem such drastic measures as contrary to compassion? Likewise, many *hadiths* of the Prophet ﷺ indicate that “Everyone who does not associate partners with God will \[eventually\] enter Paradise, even if they commit adultery and theft.”[^27] In another *hadith*, “When Allah intends mercy on whomever He wishes of those in Hell, He will order the angels to take out of Hell those who worshipped none but Him alone. The angels will take them out, recognizing them from the traces of prostrations, for Allah has forbidden the fire to eat away those traces.”[^28] Ibn al-Qayyim explains in *Ḥādi al-Arwāḥ*, > *The Hellfire was created to frighten the believers and to purify the sinners and criminals. It serves as a means of purification from the filth which the soul contracted in this world. Had it purified itself here through genuine repentance, good deeds which erase \[sins\], and calamities which atone \[for sins\], it would not have needed to be purified there…* > > *Allah, the Exalted, has no desire to punish His slaves without reason, as the Most High said, ‘What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe? And ever is Allah Appreciative and Knowing.’[^29] However, the wretched continued to alter their natural state and displace it from \[the purity\] it was created upon to its opposite, until the corruption became firmly rooted. So they were in need of removing this, and required another change and purification which transfers them back to health – since neither the recited and created signs of God, nor the pleasing and painful decrees He destined, reformed them in this world. It was for that reason that He provided them with more signs, experiences, and punishments that were superior to those in this worldly life – in order to uproot that evil and impurity which only fire can eliminate. And once the cause and reason for punishment vanishes, so does the punishment, and the reason for mercy then remains without opposition…*[^30] In other words, some people attain spiritual purity in this worldly life by following the signs and guidance of God, whereas those who do not are purified in the next life by having their corruption eradicated by the fire of Hell. Once their evil has vanished, the punishment no longer persists. Ibn al-Qayyim then continues to add an interesting rational inference, saying, > *The wisdom of Allah necessitated that He appoint an appropriate remedy for every disease, and remedying the misguided requires the most difficult remedies \[to endure\]. A compassionate doctor may cauterize the sick person, searing him with fire over and over again, in order to remove from him the foul elements that sabotaged his natural state of health. And if \[this doctor\] sees that amputating the limb is better for the sick person, he severs it, causing him by that the most severe pain. This is the fate which Allah destined for eliminating extraneous elements which undermine good health against a person’s will, so what about when the person willfully chooses to admit toxic elements upon his pure soul? When the intelligent person reflects on the laws of Allah (the Blessed and Exalted), His destined decree in this world, and His reward and punishment in the hereafter, he finds them perfectly suitable, appropriate, and interconnected. This is because it is all sourced in perfect knowledge, impeccable wisdom, and showering mercy. And indeed, He – the Glorified – is the True Supreme King, and His kingship is one of mercy, graciousness, and justice.*[^31] In other words, God’s infinite wisdom deemed that the hereafter be an extension of this worldly life and reflective of it. So just as rigorous methods of treatment are resorted to for remedy here, likewise will be the function of the Hellfire there. Neither, when warranted and appropriately administered, is contrary to mercy in the least. Some may argue that a doctor would readily remove the painful element of treatment if he could, so why does God not purify souls without the pain? What Ibn al-Qayyim suggests is that it is the pain itself and the receipt of just requital that serves to purify the wicked soul. Secondly, albeit a more subtle dimension of mercy, punishing some people in the Hellfire causes the residents of Paradise to be overwhelmed with gratitude when witnessing what their fate would have been without God’s guidance and grace. Allah (the Most High) says, > *And they will approach one another, inquiring of each other. A speaker among them will say, ‘Indeed, I had a companion \[on earth\] who would say, ‘Are you indeed of those who believe that when we have died and become dust and bones, we will indeed be recompensed?’’ He will say, ‘Would you \[care to\] look?’ And he will look and see him in the midst of the Hellfire. He will say, ‘By Allah, you almost ruined me. If not for the favor of my Lord, I would have been of those brought in \[to Hell\]. Then, are we not to die, except for our first death, and we will not be punished?’ Indeed, this is the great attainment. For the like of this, let the workers \[on earth\] work.*[^32] Such people will melt in Paradise out of their love for God, realizing what He saved them from, and knowing that this bliss is eternal and worth far more any work they did to receive it. Thirdly, punishing people with Hellfire serves as a mercy for those who will be consoled by seeing their oppressors receive divine retribution in it. Just as Allah reminded the Israelites of His favor in drowning Pharaoh “while you watched,”[^33]He will also allow windows to the Hellfire which grant solace to those who were abused, allowing some to observe how Allah avenges them against those who pillaged their wealth, killed their children, assassinated their character, and the like. Perhaps these three reasons, and many more, explain why the mention of the Hellfire arises in the most pointed discussions on mercy in the Qur'an. For instance, *Surat ar-Raḥmān* is an illustration of God’s mercy from beginning to end, and yet it does not omit a short description of the Hellfire before a much lengthier description of the perpetual ecstasy of Paradise. This teaches us a necessary fundamental truth about the divine reality: God’s mercy is operative in all His actions and decisions, and detectable everywhere for those who reflect. --- ## Conclusion Consider the human being: dependent on Allah in every way imaginable. Consider how the blood pumped by each of your heartbeats is entirely dependent on Him; every blood cell has a fatal potential that only His mercy prevents. Consider the water He orders the clouds to release; every drop not choking or poisoning you is a separate mercy from Him. Consider a lifetime of smiles, restful sleeps, and close calls – all by His mercy. Consider how He draws nearer to His creation by all these bursts of His mercy and then waits on them for ages while having no need for them; simply because He is the Profoundly Loving (*al-Wadūd*). Consider how He provided one scripture after another, refusing to withhold mercy from the latter generations each time their predecessors betrayed the covenants and trusts. Consider how He accepts someone who rejects His greatest mercy, the Revelation, for an entire lifetime, and may have even persecuted people for believing in it, after a single tear of apology on their deathbed. Consider how He cannot be harmed, nor fears anyone’s retaliation, and yet He defers punishment, permitting millions of chances to forget His servants’ insolence and repeated treachery. As the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah has written a statement, prior to creating the creation, and it is written there with Him atop the throne: Certainly, My mercy supersedes My anger.”[^34] Consider how He obligated Himself with being unparalleled in His mercy, simply because He loves mercy and is the Infinitely Merciful (*ar-Raḥmān*). Finally, consider how anyone sentenced to the Hellfire by a God of this nature must have certainly doomed themselves. “Indeed, Allah does not wrong people at all, but it is the people who are wronging themselves.”[^35] A Muslim needs to get settled on this principle which their faith and clarity requires, enhancing it to where it can instantly dismiss any notion that challenges it. In an era of unhinged criticism of religion and God, being anchored in certainty that Allah is more merciful with you, and with anyone whose fate you wonder about, than a mother is with her child, is not a given. It is generated by routine visits to His final revelation for contemplation and nourishing your spiritual perceptions through ritual devotion. We ask Allah to spare us from His justice, which we certainly deserve, due to our hope in His vast mercy, and our hope of being enveloped in it by His loving grace. *Âmeen*. *Note: Other dimensions of the “Hellfire Question” will be featured in future papers in shâ’ Allāh (God willing), such as the issue of infinite punishment for finite crimes, and whether the Hellfire is actually everlasting or not.* ## Summary In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. A pressing question troubles the hearts of many young Muslims today: how can Allah be truly merciful—more merciful even than a mother to her child—while He created Hellfire and casts some people into it? As documented in the Yaqeen Institute's study *Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam*, many find it difficult to reconcile a Merciful God with the reality of eternal punishment, a difficulty echoed by the "New Atheists" who claim that damnation offends our sense of justice. The purpose here is narrow and focused: not to argue the impossibility of comprehending an infinite God through finite human perception, nor to survey the many theological writings across the centuries, but to examine one particular tradition of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ concerning mercy and Hellfire, and to refute the claim that it is counterintuitive. The tradition in question, narrated by ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him), tells of a captive woman who, upon finding her lost child among the captives, pulled him to her stomach and breastfed him. The Prophet ﷺ then asked, "Do you think this woman would throw her child into a fire?" The Companions replied, "No, O Messenger of Allah, not while she is capable of not throwing him." He ﷺ said, "Allah is certainly more merciful with His servants than this woman is with her child" (collected by al-Bukhāri and Muslim). This accords with Allah's repeated description of Himself as *Arḥam ar-Rāḥimeen*, the most merciful of those who show mercy (Sūrat al-A‘rāf 7:151; Sūrat Yūsuf 12:64, 12:93; Sūrat al-Anbiyā’ 21:83), and His words that His mercy encompasses all things (Sūrat al-A‘rāf 7:156). After the fact of His Oneness, no truth recurs in the Qur'an and Sunnah more than that of His boundless mercy. The first response is that Allah must exceed all others in mercy because He is the very One who placed the capacity for mercy in His creation. As Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 H) said, "Allah is more merciful with His servants than the most merciful mother is with her child, for the One who made her merciful is more merciful than her" (*Majmū‘ al-Fatāwā* 16/448). The Prophet ﷺ pointed to this when, weeping over a dying infant, he explained, "These [tears] are a mercy that Allah places in the hearts of whomever He wishes" (al-Bukhāri and Muslim). He ﷺ further taught that Allah possesses one hundred portions of mercy, of which He sent down a single portion to be shared among jinn, humans, animals, and insects—so much so that "a horse lifts its hoof in fear of hurting its newborn" (Muslim, Ibn Mājah, and Ahmad). How, then, could any created being surpass Allah in mercy when their every mercy is merely a fraction of what He infused into them? The second response is that a mother's mercy is but a portion of the universal mercy Allah extends to all people in this life—believer and disbeliever, obedient and defiant alike. Every breath, ray of sunlight, drop of rain, and moment of love is a manifestation of it, while the vast majority of His mercy goes unnoticed. In another wording of the hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah retained ninety-nine portions of mercy and divided one among creation, adding, "If the disbeliever were to realize all the mercy that is with Allah, he would never despair of [entering] Paradise. And if the believer were to realize all the punishment that is with Allah, he would never feel secure from Hellfire" (al-Bukhāri and Muslim). Thus, even if Allah showed no mercy in the afterlife, He has already shown humanity more mercy in this life than their own mothers. The third response is that Allah has reserved a far greater mercy—ninety-nine times greater—for the believers in the Hereafter. ‘Abdullāh b. Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said that on the Day of Resurrection people will continue receiving mercy "to the point that [even] the heart of Iblees will quiver [in hope]" (*at-Tadhkira* 1/797, al-Qurtubi). Ḥammād b. Salama said, "Were I given the choice between Allah conducting my reckoning or my parents conducting my reckoning, I would choose the reckoning of Allah—for Allah is more merciful with me than my parents" (*Siyar A‘lām an-Nubalā’* 7/445). Some narrations state, "Likewise, Allah would never throw *His beloved* into the Fire" (al-Hākim, graded authentic by al-Albāni in *Sahīh al-Jāmi‘* 7095)—language that can apply only to His believing servants, not to stubborn rejecters. Yet though His mercy is without limit, Allah is not limited by His mercy. To demand that He extend unconditional mercy to the defiant disbeliever would set His mercy against His justice, requiring Him to be unjust. Hence Allah asks throughout the Qur'an whether He should treat the believers like corrupters, or the God-fearing like the wicked (Sūrat al-Jāthiya 45:21; Sūrat Ṣād 38:28; Sūrat al-Qalam 68:35-36). His perfect names exist in harmony without one overriding another, which is why His mercy is often paired with a mention of His justice: "My mercy encompasses all things—so I will decree it [especially] for those who fear Me" (Sūrat al-A‘rāf 7:156). Ibn Abi Jamra (d. 599 H) explained that this mercy "is universal in terms of adequacy, but specific in terms of who it is decreed for." The Prophet ﷺ likewise said, "Allah only shows mercy to the merciful among His slaves" (al-Bukhāri and Muslim). Just as the mother in the hadith would only cast her child away if forced, so too Allah casts none into Fire "unless His justice necessitated that there be no other fate." The greatest mercy of all is Allah's sending of messengers and scriptures and inspiring hearts to embrace guidance, for He says, "Say: In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy—in that let them rejoice; it is better than all they accumulate" (Sūrat Yūnus 10:58). Ibn ‘Abbās explained that the "bounty" here is the Qur'an and the "mercy" is Islam. Even entry into Paradise is by His mercy, not deeds, for the Prophet ﷺ said, "No one's deeds will admit him into Paradise," and when asked if this included himself, he replied, "No, not even I, unless Allah envelops me in His bounty and mercy" (al-Bukhāri and Muslim). Those who reject this mercy and rebel have, by their own free will, disqualified themselves and chosen His justice instead. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H) wrote in *Kashf al-Mushkil*: "It was from His universal mercy to send the messengers and grant respite to the sinners. But when the disbeliever rejects Him, he exits to the station of stubborn rebellion, and thereby is no longer eligible for mercy. As for His special mercy, this is for His believing slaves." Crucially, only those who *stubbornly* reject the message are excluded; those who never received it or could not understand it—the deaf, the insane, the senile, and the one who died between prophets—will be given an equal opportunity at salvation, being commanded to enter a Fire made cool and safe for them (collected by Ahmad; see Ibn al-Qayyim's *Ahkām Ahl adh-Dhimma* 2/1139). Even the punishment of Hellfire itself contains layers of mercy. First, for believing sinners it serves a purifying, therapeutic role—like a mother permitting surgery for her ailing child—removing the spiritual corruption that repentance and trials did not cleanse in this life. Ibn al-Qayyim explained in *Ḥādi al-Arwāḥ* that "the Hellfire was created to frighten the believers and to purify the sinners," and that once "the cause and reason for punishment vanishes, so does the punishment," citing "What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe?" (Sūrat an-Nisā’ 4:147). The Prophet ﷺ taught that those who worshipped Allah alone will be brought out of the Fire, recognized by the traces of prostration Allah forbade the Fire to consume (al-Bukhāri and Muslim). Second, the punishment of the wicked causes the people of Paradise to overflow with gratitude when they behold the fate they were spared (Sūrat aṣ-Ṣāffāt 37:50-61). Third, it consoles the oppressed who witness retribution against their oppressors, just as Allah drowned Pharaoh "while you watched" (Sūrat al-Baqara 2:50). Perhaps this is why even Sūrat ar-Raḥmān, an ode to mercy, mentions the Fire briefly before dwelling at length on Paradise—teaching that God's mercy is operative in all His decisions. In conclusion, let the human being reflect on his utter dependence on Allah: every heartbeat, every drop of rain that does not choke him, every restful sleep is a distinct mercy. He grants respite to the insolent though He fears no retaliation, and accepts a single tear of repentance after a lifetime of rejection, for He wrote atop His throne, "Certainly, My mercy supersedes My anger" (al-Bukhāri). Anyone sentenced to the Fire by such a God has surely doomed himself, for "Indeed, Allah does not wrong people at all, but it is the people who are wronging themselves" (Sūrat Yūnus 10:44). A Muslim must become firmly settled upon this principle—that Allah is more merciful with him, and with anyone whose fate he wonders about, than a mother with her child—a certainty nourished by returning often to His revelation and devotion. We ask Allah to spare us from His justice, which we deserve, through our hope in His vast mercy. Âmeen. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam # The Issue of Apostasy in Islam **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Jurisprudence (fiqh), Sharia **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** July 5, 2017 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Introduction *The Shari’ah consists of some laws that remain the same regardless of changing circumstances and others that change with them. Most of the Shari’ah is up to individual Muslims to follow in their own lives. Some are for judges to implement in courts. Finally, the third set of laws is for the ruler or political authority to implement based on the best interests of society. The Shari’ah ruling on Muslims who decide to leave Islam belongs to this third group. Implemented in the past to protect the integrity of the Muslim community, today this important goal can best be reached by Muslim governments using their right to set punishments for apostasy aside.* One of the most common accusations leveled against Islam involves the freedom of religion. The problem, according to critics: Islam doesn’t have any. This criticism might strike some as odd since it has been well established that both the religion of Islam and Islamic civilization have shown a level of [religious tolerance](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/tesneem-alkiek/religious-minorities/) that would [make modern Americans blush](http://almadinainstitute.org/blog/incest-widow-burning-how-much-can-muslims-stomach/). So what are these critics talking about? What they are referring to is not the issue of tolerating those who follow other religions. They are talking about the traditional Islamic punishment for Muslims who leave their own religion. Known as *ridda* or *irtidād* in Arabic, this is usually translated as *apostasy* in English (the generic act of renouncing or leaving one’s religion). Like the issues of stoning and hand chopping, apostasy in Islam can only be understood if one is willing to look beyond provocative headlines and delve into the nature of how jurisprudence developed in the pre-modern world and in Islam in particular. As with these harsh punishments (see Yaqeen’s publication on the *Hudud* punishments [here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/stoning-and-hand-cutting-understanding-the-hudud-and-the-shariah-in-islam/)), modern confusion over apostasy in Islam has less to do with some basic flaw in Islam’s scriptures and more to do with a major development in human history, namely the greatly diminished role of religion in the law and governance of modern societies. Though we’ll refer to *ridda* as apostasy for the sake of convenience, as in so many cases, the heart of the matter lies in the simple act of translation. In the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the early Muslim community, the Arabic noun *ridda* and the verb for engaging in it were understood not as meaning a personal choice of changing one’s religion but as the *public act of political secession from the Muslim community*. Interestingly, this dimension of apostasy as *betraying and opposing* one’s community, missing in the [normal usage](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apostasy) of the English word ‘apostasy,’ is actually recovered in sociological studies of apostasy. Many studies looking at those who leave religious groups as well as communities defined by secular ideologies show that what distinguishes apostates from those who simply leave is that apostates become active opponents of their previous identity, more renegades than mere dissenters.[^1] Along the same lines, the problem with *ridda* in Islam was not that a person was exercising their freedom of conscience and choosing to no longer follow the religion. The problem was when such a decision became a public act with political implications. --- ## Religion in the Pre-Modern World As far back as the first complex societies in Mesopotamia, human society saw religion as essential. It secured the relationship of individuals and communities to some reality above and beyond the superficial world around them. It also transcended the personal and communal. Whether the rule of Pharaoh in ancient Egypt, Confucius’s ‘order under heaven’ or the divine right of European monarchs, religion underpinned the political and social order within human communities and the states they established. Roman emperors required all inhabitants of their empire to offer token sacrifices for the emperor’s divine guidance not because they were oppressive or intolerant; people could worship whatever gods they wanted. But they had to help maintain the *pax deorum* (the peace of the gods), the intermingled divine and earthly order that brought peace and prosperity to all. The Old Testament law of the Children of Israel reflected this overlap of religious affiliation and affirmation of a tribal and even state identity; those Jews who forsook the God of Israel to take up the worship of other deities were condemned to stoning (Deuteronomy 13:8-9; 17:2-7). The Muslims who built up Islamic civilization inherited and affirmed this ancient assumed role of religion. Muslim political theorists wrote that a widely-adhered-to religion and a stable state were the two most important pillars of worldly prosperity.[^2] “Religion and earthly sovereignty were twins,” went a common refrain.[^3] In Islamic civilization, the order of the world under heaven was simple. Muslims believed that God had revealed His final message to mankind. Unlike previous prophets, this last prophet had been sent to all communities, and his message rectified the errors that had crept into the revealed teachings brought by earlier prophets. What was best for human beings was clear: the worship of the one God and following the religion of Muhammad ﷺ, which would promote “felicity in both abodes (*al-saʿāda fī al-dārayn*), ”both this world and the next. But the Qur’an and the Prophet ﷺ also gave people the right to reject this path and continue practicing their religion under Muslim rule. As Muslim scholars and rulers understood it, their mission was clear: extend the rule of Islam and God’s law as far as possible not so that everyone could be forcibly converted to Islam (this hardly ever occurred) but so “the word of God would be supreme” (a famous *Hadith*)[^4] and so that as many people as possible could live within God’s final order under heaven. The order of this world was clear to the scholarly and political elite who shaped and ruled it. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Islam is exalted. It is not exalted over.”[^5] Non-Muslims, who were for many centuries and in some cases permanently the majority in Islamic civilization, could continue to live by their own religions and religious laws.[^6] Anyone who wanted could convert to Islam and join the ruling class of Muslims. (This raises interesting questions about which system is more discriminatory, one in which a religious group rules but is totally open to entrants, or one in which only the citizens of a nation state enjoy full (or any) rights there, and where acquiring citizenship is mostly difficult or impossible). But encouraging, publicizing, or even allowing, movement in the opposite direction, downward out of the ruling class, was a different matter. In the logic of this order, questioning Islam’s primacy was to undermine the societal order itself. As a result, all pre-modern Muslim schools of law considered apostasy to be a serious crime. The majority of Muslim scholars considered it among the *[Hudud](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/stoning-and-hand-cutting-understanding-the-hudud-and-the-shariah-in-islam/)* crimes (leading voices in the Hanafi school of law were exceptions to this), albeit with some important distinctions.[^7] That apostasy was understood primarily as a threat to an overarching political order and not as a crime in and of itself is clear from how Muslim jurists described it. Apostasy differed from other serious crimes, such as fornication and murder, because on its own it did not transgress the rights of others. As a result, unlike other crimes, if someone who had left Islam decided to recant, the crime of apostasy vanished and no punishment followed. For a crime like murder, on the other hand, even if the perpetrator deeply regretted his act, the harm had been done and the victim and their family had a right to justice. Leaving Islam and embracing unbelief are great offenses, said the famous Hanafi jurist al-Sarakhsī (d. circa 1096 CE). “But they are between the human being (lit. the slave) and his Lord,” he added. Their punishment lies in the Hereafter. “What punishments there are here in this world \[for apostasy\],” he continued, “are policies set down for the common good of human beings (*siyāsāt mashrūʿa li-maṣāliḥ taʿūdu ilā al-ʿibād*).” Someone who repeatedly and insistently proclaimed their apostasy from Islam was akin to a violent criminal threatening public safety, al-Sarakhsī explained. The common good that apostasy threatened was the *Shari’ah* itself and the rights that it pledged to protect for *all* its subjects, Muslim or not: rights to physical integrity, property, religion, reason, family, and honor (*ʿirḍ*).[^8] The word that al-Sarakhsī used to indicate ‘policy,’ *siyāsa*, is crucial for understanding the functioning of Islamic law in general and issues like apostasy in particular. *Siyāsa* can be translated as politics, governance, administrative law, and even criminal law. Its functions varied, but what unified them is that, while most of Islamic law was applied by independent Muslim judges (in fact, it was [jealously guarded](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/stoning-and-hand-cutting-understanding-the-hudud-and-the-shariah-in-islam/%23_edn56) by them in part out of fear of political abuse), *siyāsa* fell under the purview of the ruler/political authority.[^9] *Siyāsa* included areas that clearly belonged to an executive political authority, such as foreign policy, military organization, dealing with non-Muslim minorities in a Muslim state, and mundane administrative laws (think: traffic laws). Other issues, like taxation, would come under *siyāsa*, provided the ruler didn’t exceed certain limits. Finally, there were areas of [criminal law](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/stoning-and-hand-cutting-understanding-the-hudud-and-the-shariah-in-islam/%23_ednref3) like violent theft or premeditated murder that Muslim jurists understood to be left to the ruler for final decision. According to al-Sarakhsī and many other Muslim legal theorists, this is where the topic of apostasy belonged. *Siyāsa* was still very much part of the *Shari’ah*, but it was applied by the temporal ruler, not the Muslim scholars/judges (though, on issues like criminal law, Muslim scholars formulated much of the law that the political authorities applied and they were almost always present in the criminal courts). So when a judge in mid-tenth-century Egypt ruled that an apostate should be executed, he had to ask the caliph’s permission to have the execution carried out. A few years earlier, when the governor of Egypt had been presented with a Muslim who had converted to Christianity, the judgment could only occur with a judge’s consultation.[^10] In all aspects of *siyāsa*, Muslim scholars affirmed the basic principle that the ruler’s policies “regarding \[his\] subjects are conditioned on \[pursuing\] the common good.”[^11] As we’ll see, apostasy differed from other *Hudud* crimes and crimes like murder in at least one important way. Once someone was found guilty of general *Hudud* crimes, the ruling authority *had to* carry out the punishment (based on the Prophet’s statement that he would even punish his own daughter if she were guilty).[^12] If a murder occurred, the ruling authority could not refuse to punish the guilty party if the victim’s relatives wanted that, since this was their right.[^13] Our discussion here will show that dealing with apostasy, by contrast, fell wholly within the ruling authority’s discretion. --- ## The New Role for Religion in the Modern & Global West Following Martin Luther’s challenge to papal authority (five hundred years ago this year), Western Europe was plunged into over a century of horrendous religious warfare. This finally came to an end when the battling monarchs agreed that the ruler of each state would choose which sect of Christianity it would follow. So exhausting had been the bloodshed and destruction wrought by religious demands violently put forth to the public that a gradual move began towards making religion a private matter. The Dutch Republic was in the lead. In the late sixteenth century it decided that, though its different component states each had official churches, dissenting individuals could not be discriminated against or persecuted for their beliefs. These developments took place alongside a growing sense amongst Protestant theologians (e.g., the American Puritan Roger Williams \[d. 1683\] and the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke \[d. 1704\]) that coercing individuals into religious conformity, whether by a government or by fellow citizens, was both hateful to God and philosophically nonsensical. How could you ‘force’ someone to believe something?, Locke wondered. Despite fits, starts, and efforts by some to retrench the public authority of religion and its links to government, by the mid 1800s many of the nations of Western Europe had dramatically restricted the extent to which their laws and political systems drew lines or granted rights according to religion. The First Amendment to the US Constitution committed the federal government (and eventually state governments too) to neither favoring any one religion nor restricting religious exercise, though such a line has always been difficult to walk. This separation of church and state found its most extreme form in France’s system of *laïcité* (über secularism), which was formalized in 1905 and promised not only to end religious discrimination in the public sphere but also to drive religion out of it entirely. Of course separating religion and government or just ensuring that government is neutral in matters of religion are both tall orders. Laws and policies grow out of and reflect the cultures that create them, and cultures are deeply influenced by religion. As Matthew Hale (d. 1676) wrote, “Christianity is part of the laws of England.” Even when governments were limited in their ability to formally allow religion to shape laws and policies, religion’s role was still evident. A man who had publicly uttered anti-Christian statements in New York in 1818 was not convicted of blasphemy, since such a crime could not be enforced in a state that upheld religious freedom. But he was convicted of offending public sensibilities.[^14] Even today, laws in Western Europe that ban Muslim women wearing face veils in public, ‘burkini’ bathing suits on the beach, or headscarves in schools all because they violate ‘[public order](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13038095)’ can be seen as vestiges of how tradition influences even secular states to discriminate on religious grounds. There is nothing inherently dangerous about the headscarf or face veil. Millions of Muslim women in dozens of countries wear them every day, and neither they nor their governments feel any threat to their public order. Moreover, even in Western countries some nuns cover their hair and dress modestly—even on the beach (as was [publicized by private citizens](http://globalnews.ca/news/2903036/people-share-photos-of-nuns-on-the-beach-in-response-to-burkini-ban-in-france/) irked by the hypocrisy of the 2016 French burkini ban). And then there are secular face coverings such as balaclavas in cold weather. As one scholar of French law has observed, in the ongoing French drama over headscarves and burkinis, ‘public order’ has mutated from a reasonable desire to protect peace, health, and public safety to a tool “used to justify and legitimate restrictions to freedom of religion.”[^15] As religion waned as a formal force in the official life of Western Europe and its colonial offspring, the nation-state took its place. By the mid 1800s, the primary form of identity being advocated for Western Europeans was no longer Christianity or even an allegiance to a locality or regional culture. It was as the citizen of a nation, whose borders were as least aspirationally coterminous with a homogenous national people (France was where French people lived), a national language (local dialects and non-French languages had to go), and—shudder—a national destiny. All citizens of these nation-states were notionally equal, as it was national identity and not any other category that granted legal and political meaning. Even Europe’s Jews, long an internal ‘other’ deprived of basic rights, were ‘emancipated’ and granted full citizenship at least formally in the mid to late 1800s. That women were denied meaningful legal rights, such as married women owning property, or the right to political participation until the late 1800s and even until the mid 1900s ([Swiss women](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/country-that-didnt-let-women-vote-till-1971/) received the right to vote in federal elections only in 1971), was seen as only natural. It was not seen as contradictory to the new order of the nation-state. What this meant was that religion was an increasingly—even exclusively—private matter. Either there was supposed to be no place for it in the public square (à la France), or it should not be controlled or supported by the public organs of the state (USA). Either way, religion was supposed to have no bearing on one’s public rights. In fact, allowing religious identity to affect how the state viewed the rights of its citizens became anathema to a national identity that supposedly had the ultimate claim on how citizens understood their duties and their place in the world. The rest of the world soon followed Western Europe’s lead, beginning with Egypt in the mid-nineteenth century, and followed by the other nation-states that the Great Powers carved out of multinational states like the Ottoman Empire or tethered together in new ‘nations’ like India (Churchill [famously said](http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21716642-it-more-integrated-european-union-less-unified-united-states-india) India was only a geographical term). This new world of nation-states, in which religion either had no role (theoretically) outside of private life, or was visibly subordinated to a national identity, was the complete inverse from the pre-modern ‘order under heaven’ of Islamic civilization and Christendom alike. --- ## The Punishment for Apostasy in the Islamic Juristic Tradition In the public and cosmic order of the ‘Abode of Islam,’ that grand fabric of diverse kingdoms and peoples bound together by a belief in Islam’s legal order and in belonging to the community (*umma*) of Muhammad ﷺ, it’s not surprising that the official punishment for apostasy was severe. In part this was because, as we have made clear [elsewhere](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/jonathan-brown/stoning-and-hand-cutting-understanding-the-hudud-and-the-shariah-in-islam/), pre-modern legal systems relied on severe punishments to make up in deterrence effect what was lacking in effective policing and law enforcement. But mainly what shaped the Muslim juristic tradition’s position on apostasy from Islam was how it understood order and identity. This influenced the rules on apostasy more than any clear prescription in the Qur’an or the Prophet ﷺ’s teachings. In all the classical schools of Sunni and Shiite Islam, the punishment for a Muslim apostate (*murtadd*) was death. The jurists also agreed that only the ruler could order this punishment carried out and that vigilantism would be punished (just as only a court or qualified judge can declare someone an unbeliever). The ruling on apostasy was based primarily on three *Hadiths* in *Sahih al-Bukhari*. First, the Companion Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever changes their religion, kill them.”[^16] Second, Muʿādh bin Jabal told another Companion, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, that executing the apostate was the ruling of God and His Messenger.[^17] And third, the Prophet ﷺ said that a Muslim could only be executed for the crimes of murder, adultery, or apostasy.[^18] These reports provide excellent examples of how *Hadiths* must be read in light of external evidence. First, the command of the Prophet ﷺ to ‘kill anyone who changes their religion’ cannot be taken on its face, since it’s obvious that people changing their religion *to* Islam was not a crime. It was laudable. And changing religions from Christianity to Buddhism, for example, was of no consequence. So the *Hadith* must be understood as warning only those who *leave* Islam.[^19] Similarly, it was not a crime to outwardly renounce Islam out of fear for one’s safety as long as one still believed in one’s heart, as is clearly stated in the Qur’an [(16:106)](http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter%3D16%26verse%3D106). Finally, apostasy is only considered if the person doing it is of sound mind, an adult, and, for the Hanafi school of law and several opinions in the other schools, sober.[^20] Such qualifications might seem obvious, but once it’s clear that statements like the above *Hadiths* should not be taken categorically or according to their evident meaning, a host of interpretive possibilities are opened up. For example, Muslim scholars agreed that authorities should only concern themselves with *external* expressions of apostasy, not people’s private religious practice. This was clear from the overall *Shari’ah* principle that the law does not seek to know what is in people’s hearts. The Prophet ﷺ had warned Usāma bin Zayd that he could not know if someone’s conversion was sincere unless he could “open up his heart.”[^21] The Prophet ﷺ himself is reported to have said, “I have not been commanded to search in the hearts of men or to open them up.”[^22] Imam al-Shāfiʿī (d. 820) noted that the Prophet ﷺ dealt with people according to their external professions of faith even when he *knew* they were apostates or unbelievers in their hearts. Even when God had given the Prophet ﷺ direct knowledge of someone’s hidden apostasy, that person’s external adherence to Islam made their life and property inviolable.[^23] This principle became enshrined in the scholarly maxim that, “The rulings of the Shari’ah concern the evident and outward, and God concerns Himself with what is in the heart (*innamā al-aḥkām bi’l-ẓāhir wa Allāh yatawallā al-sarā’ir*).”[^24] Purposefully overlooking the condition of individuals’ private faith fit under the larger *Shari’ah* principle of respecting privacy, avoiding *tajassus* (seeking out offenses done in private that don’t infringe on others’ rights), and providing *satr* (finding excuses for, or turning a blind eye to, private misconduct as long as it doesn’t violate the rights of others). These concepts were rooted in the Qur’an, which forbids *tajassus* [(Qur’an 49:12),](http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter%3D49%26verse%3D12) and the *Sunnah*, where the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly ignores a man trying to confess to having violated one of the *Hudud*.[^25] “If you seek out a people’s secret or shameful areas,” the Prophet ﷺ warns, “You’ll ruin them.”[^26] None of this meant that Islam did not value sincerity or people’s outward conduct stemming from their inner faith. But from the perspective of the law, it was only outward performances of faith that could be measured. Anything else is impossible to assess with any certainty. Muslim scholars have disagreed on two other details of apostasy. The Hanafi school differs with the other schools of law in holding that women apostates are not killed but only imprisoned. They base this on a *Hadith* considered reliable by Hanafis in which the Prophet ﷺ banned killing women who left Islam. The majority of Muslim scholars, however, consider this *Hadith* to be unreliable and instead follow the principle that men and women are treated equally in *Hudud* punishments.[^27] Second, scholars disagreed on whether a Muslim who had renounced their religion should be given a chance to repent. Three Sunni schools of law required giving them a chance, and the Hanafis considered it recommended.[^28] The vast majority of Muslim scholars held that this opportunity to recant should be given, based on a set of *Hadiths* in which the Prophet ﷺ mentioned giving apostates a chance to change their minds, as well as on the precedent of the caliph Umar. Most legal scholars gave a period of three days or three chances, and Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 855) and Abu Ḥanīfa (d. 767) gave opinions that the accused person should be given a month to repent. The famous scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064) reports one opinion that the apostate should be asked if they want to recant until… forever (*yustatābu abadan wa lā yuqtalu*), on the basis of a statement by Umar and a ruling by the early jurist al-Nakhaʿī (d. 717; though al-Nakhaʿī probably meant that a repeat apostate should be given a chance to repent every time).[^29] --- ## Apostasy and the Practice of the Early Muslim Community The way that the early Muslim community seems to have understood apostasy differs strikingly from the decisive rulings of the later schools of law. This is most clear in the rulings of the Prophet ﷺ himself. There is no reliable evidence that the Prophet ﷺ ever executed anyone for apostasy, as was observed by the famous scholar of Cordoba, Ibn al-Ṭallāʿ (d. 1103).[^30] When one of the Companions, ʿUbaydallāh bin Jaḥsh left Islam and became Christian while the Muslims were seeking refuge in Ethiopia, the Prophet ﷺ did not order him punished.[^31] The Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya, which the Prophet ﷺ concluded with the Quraysh, stated that if anyone decided to leave the Muslim community in Medina no harm would befall them. There was no mention of a punishment for apostasy. In fact, when a man who had come to the Prophet ﷺ just the day before to pledge his loyalty to Islam wanted to be released from his oath, the Prophet ﷺ let him go.[^32] Imam al-Shāfiʿī himself notes how, during the Prophet ﷺ’s time in Medina, “Some people believed and then apostatized. Then they again took on the outer trappings of faith. But the Messenger of God did not kill them.”[^33] This is equally clear in the conduct of the early caliphs. When six men from the Bakr bin Wā’il tribe apostatized during a campaign in southern Iran, the leaders of the army had them killed. When the caliph Umar was informed of this, he upbraided the commanders. Had he been making the decision, the caliph explained, he would have offered the men “a way back in from the door they took out,” or he would have put them in prison.[^34] When the pious Umayyad caliph ʿUmar bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 720) was told that a group of recent converts to Islam in northern Iraq had apostatized, he allowed them to revert to their previous status as a protected non-Muslim minority.[^35] Even the worst examples of patience and tolerance in the early Islamic period, the Kharijite extremists, seem to have been at least partially misunderstood by later scholars on the apostasy issue. Their policy of killing any other Muslims whom they saw as having committed grave sins is usually explained by them having concluded that these people were apostates (their supposed reasoning: if sinners really believed in God, would they commit sins?). But according to an early Kharijite source, the Kharijites seem to have done so more because they viewed their opponents as having egregiously defied God’s law than because they were seen as apostates pure and simple.[^36] After the Muslim armies conquered the city of [Bukhara](http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bukhara-ii) in 673-4 CE, its inhabitants kept converting to Islam and then returning to their previous faith of Zoroastrianism as soon as the Arab armies left town. The army had to keep returning to reestablish discipline. At no point was anyone killed for this.[^37] Of course, some people were executed for apostasy in the early Islamic period. Yet, in instances where details are provided, what stands out is their public nature. The apostasy occurs not in private but comes with a very public announcement by the person in question. This is exemplified in the famous story of the caliph Ali (ra) reportedly executing a man named al-Mustawrad al-ʿIjlī for converting to Christianity. Although reports of this event overall are unreliable according to most Muslim scholars, what seems to have condemned al-Mustawrad was not converting but rather rubbing this in Ali’s face publicly.[^38] A recent study of books in which Arab Christians detailed the heroic exploits of Christian saints under Muslim rule bolsters the impression that apostasy was punished only when it was perceived as a threat to public order. These Christian ‘lives of saints’ works tell of a number of Muslims who embraced Christianity in the early Islamic period. According to these stories, each apostate/saint made a public confession of his new faith, and each was subsequently executed. The one story in which the apostate was not executed, a case in tenth-century Egypt, was a man who was told by the monks he joined that he had to repudiate Islam publicly. He did not, however, and he was never executed (despite his own father writing to the caliph asking to have his son put to death). In fact, the man lived out his life as a monk, establishing a monastery and even writing Christian criticisms of Islam that survive until today.[^39] How Muslim states dealt with apostasy throughout the pre-modern era shows a similar concern with apostasy only when it became a public matter. A renowned Arab poet, Abū al-ʿAlā’ al-Maʿarrī (d. 1058), was openly skeptical about prophecy and formal religions, mocking the Hajj and writing, ‘There are two types of people in the world: people with brains and no religion, or people with religion and no brains.’ Al-Maʿarrī died of natural causes, as did numerous other famous ‘free thinkers’ in the medieval Islamic world.[^40] Similar findings come in a recent study of sixty cases in which people were executed for apostasy or other types of heresy during the Mamluk period (1260-1517). Those who were executed for declaring their apostasy were mainly Christians who had converted to Islam and then made a public show of renouncing it, as in the case of two Coptic Christians in 1383 and a whole group in 1379. In the latter case, they were given numerous chances to recant their apostasy before being punished.[^41] Later, in the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim who had converted to Christianity and become a monk was brought to court to repent before a judge. When the judge offered the man coffee (presumably Turkish), he threw it in the judge’s face and began cursing Islam. The judge decided the man was insane. Only after he publicly insulted Islam three more times was the man executed. --- ## Reconsidering Apostasy in the Modern Period The tremendous changes in how the role of religion is viewed in societies strongly influenced by nationalism and Western secularism have led some Muslim scholars to investigate the *Shari’ah* heritage on apostasy. The notion that the crime of apostasy in Islam was more a matter of protecting a state and social order than of policing individual beliefs was articulated in the late nineteenth century by Syed Ameer Ali (d. 1928) and Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935).[^42]  Later scholars such as the Indian A.A.A. Fyzee (d. 1981), the Egyptians Maḥmūd Shaltūt (Shaykh al-Azhar, d. 1964) and Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, and the late Iraqi-American scholar Ṭāhā Jābir al-ʿAlwānī (d. 2016), have reconsidered how apostasy should be viewed in contexts in which religious identity is not a state matter.[^43] They have concluded that what was criminal about apostasy was its public dimension and the threat it posed to a public order built on confessional identity. It is this public element, they argue, not the question of a person’s private decision to follow their conscience in changing their religion, that Islamic law should focus on. Far from being hidden or unrealized in Islamic legal history, it was precisely this aspect of apostasy-as-public-threat that explained why Muslim jurists and states had so little interest in people’s private religious choices. It also explains why centuries of Muslim jurists all affirmed a ruling that seems to clash so clearly with the Qur’an’s repeated statements on the freedom of religious choice. The Qur’an warns those who abandon Islam after embracing it that their good deeds will mean nothing in this life or the next (Qur’an 2:217). It mentions no worldly punishment. Even “those who believe, then disbelieve and then (again) believe, then disbelieve, and then increase in disbelief” are not given any earthly punishment by the Qur’an. Instead, God warns only that He “will never pardon them, nor will He guide them unto a way” (Qur’an 4:137). The Qur’anic verse that strikes the most stridently dissonant note with the death penalty for apostasy is the declaration that, “There is no compulsion in religion. Wisdom has been clearly distinguished from falsehood” (Qur’an 2:256). The choice by Muslim jurists of where to place the topic of apostasy in books of law further reveals that what concerned them was the public nature of apostasy and how they saw it affecting the political order. A foundational textbook in the Shafi’i school of law (the *Muhadhdhab* of Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, d. 1083) listed *ridda* not under criminal punishments (*Hudud*) but under the chapter on dealing with rebellion (*al-Bughāt*). Famous jurists of the Hanafi school including al-Sarakhsī, Ibn Humām (d. 1457) and Ibn al-Sāʿātī (d. 1295) dealt with apostasy in the chapter on interstate politics (*kitāb al-siyar*), not alongside criminal punishments. Ibn Humām [spells this out clearly](https://archive.org/stream/FathAlqadeer/BSQ0008_06%23page/n67/mode/2up) when he explains, “It is necessary to punish apostasy with death in order to avert the evil of war, not as punishment for the act of unbelief, because the greatest punishment for that is with God.” Shaltūt and the other scholars found strong confirmation for their thesis in the very same *Hadiths* that had long been used as evidence for punishing apostasy with death. What the Prophet ﷺ considered punishable by death was not the personal decision to cease believing in and practicing Islam but rather the betrayal of the Muslim community by joining the ranks of its enemies. One of the main pieces of evidence for the death penalty for apostasy is the *Hadith* narrated by Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet ﷺ ordered “Whoever changes their religion, kill them.” This *Hadith* is invoked by Ibn ʿAbbās in the context of a group of Muslims who had rejected Islam and then began preaching and even setting down in writing “heretical” ideas (these apostates are described as *zanādiqa*, or heretics), seeking to challenge the caliph Ali.[^44] The Arabic word used to describe what they had done, *irtaddū*, was understood in the early Islamic period to be a public act of political secession from or rebellion against the Muslim community. Hence the famous two years of the Ridda Wars fought during the caliphate of Abū Bakr (632-34 CE), the very name of which shows the conflation of *ridda* as apostasy with *ridda* as rebellion and secession from the Muslim polity (in *Hadiths* the word was used with both meanings).[^45] The second main piece of *Hadith* evidence for the apostasy ruling leaves a similar impression. When the Prophet ﷺ says that a Muslim cannot be killed except as punishment for murder, adultery or leaving Islam, he qualifies the apostate here as one who “leaves his religion and *forsakes the community* (*al-tārik li-dīnihi al-mufāriq li’l-jamāʿa*).”[^46] Or, in another version, one who “makes war on God and His Messenger.”[^47] The only *Hadith* evidence that does not include a specific political dimension for the crime of apostasy is the discussion between the Companions Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī and Muʿādh bin Jabal over a Jewish man who had converted to Islam and then left it. But this is only because the report has no real contextual information at all. Moreover, there is evidence that the caliph Umar was later informed about Abū Mūsā’s and Muʿādh’s decision and expressed his displeasure. “Could you not have imprisoned him for three days, fed him each day a loaf of bread, and asked him to repent?,” asked Umar. “He might have repented and returned to the command of God.”[^48] Looking at this evidence, Shaltūt explained that Islam does not punish disbelief (*kufr*) with death. What is punishable by death, he concluded, is “fighting the Muslims, attacking them and trying to split them away from their religion.”[^49] Scholars like Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī have therefore compared the punishment for apostasy to the modern crime of treason.[^50] Al-Qaraḍāwī explains that there is no punishment for an individual’s decision to stop believing in Islam, since the Qur’an makes clear that “there is no compulsion in religion” (Qur’an 2:256). Only those who combine their leaving Islam with a public attempt to undermine the stability of the Muslim community can be punished for *ridda*. Al-Qaraḍāwī introduces the distinction between ‘transgressive apostasy (*al-ridda al-mutaʿaddiyya*)’ and ‘non-transgressive apostasy (*al-ridda al-qāṣira*).’ The former, in which a Muslim renounces their faith in a way that actively encourages others to do so or that undermines stability, is subject to the apostasy punishment. One who simply leaves Islam or embraces another religion privately is left alone.[^51] --- ## How Should Muslims Think about Apostasy Today? In an important sense, the question of how Muslims should tackle the issue of apostasy shows how much ‘Muslim’ issues are really global, human issues. Over half a century ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, ... either alone or in community with others and in public or private…” ([Article 18](http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/)). Yet Article 29 of the same declaration mandates that the human rights it sets forth can be restricted for purposes of “meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.” Religious freedom is incredibly important, but it can be restricted. How does one know when this would be allowed, and how will differences in culture, political systems, and religious tradition affect this decision? What is surprising is that from a broad, theoretical perspective, the pre-modern Islamic tradition and the modern human rights vision are structurally similar; they both view the preservation of public order and morality as a just basis for *some* restriction on religious liberty. In the case of the *Shari’ah*, both public order and morality are themselves clearly derived from religious (specifically Islamic) sources. But because public order and morality in the West were historically contoured by Christianity, and because that influence continues to a certain extent to this day, this means that in many Western countries justifications for restricting religious liberties are often biased. They draw on notions of public order and morality that are shaped by Western Christian mores. We can see this in the U.S. in cases such as the right of Mormons, Muslims, and others to practice polygamy. The 1890 U.S. Supreme Court case Davis v. Beason introduced the principle (surprising today) that someone could face legal consequences for their religious *beliefs* even if they never acted on them. The Court rejected the notion that Mormons should be protected from legal discrimination because they believed in polygamy even if they didn’t practice it. Justice Field [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/133/333/case.html&sa=D&ust=1582063010391000)[wrote](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/133/333/case.html), “Bigamy and polygamy are crimes by the laws of the United States… and by the laws of all civilized and Christian countries, and to call their advocacy a tenet of religion is to offend the common sense of mankind.” Polygamy was so culturally abhorrent in the US that even *believing* in it was effectively punishable. In U.S. history, such restrictions on fundamental rights found their place under what has been known as ‘police powers,’ or the rights of states to protect public order, safety and—yes—even morality. Much like the New York case referenced above, this meant that [U.S. courts](http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article%3D1505%26context%3Dfacpub) have “upheld the power of states to prohibit gambling, the consumption of alcohol, prostitution, doing business on the Sabbath, and other types of activities that did not violate the rights of others.”[^52] In Europe this can be seen in the extent to which the European Court of Human Rights grants states a ‘margin of appreciation,’ or the right of a state to restrict human rights on the grounds of particular national concerns or local context.[^53] Of course, there is a big difference between restrictions on rights such as assembly or marriage, on the one hand, and sentencing someone to death for apostasy on the other. But the rulings of the Prophet, of the caliphs Umar and Umar bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and the way that apostasy was conceptualized, certainly in the Hanafi school, show that the penalty for apostasy was not automatic. What the punishment should be and whether or not it should be applied was fundamentally a policy decision, and as such, it fell to the discretion of the ruler after weighing the best interests of all involved. What are the best policies today, and what are the best interests of Muslims? For Muslims living in states whose laws provide protection for freedom of religion, this issue is simple. It is thanks to such legal protections that Muslims have come to reside in these countries and to enjoy the protection of their laws. It would be totally unacceptable to violate the pact, implicit or explicit, made by our residence in these states by working to undermine the freedom of religion of other citizens. As for Muslim-majority countries, are there grounds for legislating some legal restriction on converting out of Islam or punishing someone who does so? From the perspective of human rights law, almost certainly not, considering how essential that body of law views the right to choose one’s religion. It’s important to remember, however, that this perspective on human rights is very much tied to the Western Enlightenment experience and its decision to relegate religion to the private sphere and to remove the state from the business of religious control. But what about countries that have not made the Western move to separate religion and state? Countries like Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, for example, declare themselves constitutionally Islamic states. And what about states that view religious belief, practice or expression as closely tied to concerns of public order, such as [Russia](http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21721395-russian-orthodox-church-does-not-competition-russia-bans-jehovahs-witnesses-just)? (One reviewer [wrote](http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21571111-new-look-religion-post-1991-russia-question-faith) that the country’s rulers “see faith not as a personal matter but as a public phenomenon, vital to national identity and security. Citizens, they believe, need protecting from the vagaries of individual choice”). To further muddy the waters, what if we consider a case of apostasy that is not simply a person making a private religious choice but rather engaging in a very public declaration of why they had chosen to do so? Here the issue becomes more complicated. If the apostate publicly argues for leaving Islam or denigrates it, then the question grows from the realm of freedom of religion to that of the freedom of speech as well. Taking the European Court of Human Rights as an indicator, there has been a [greater margin of appreciation](http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Hate_speech_ENG.pdf) granted to states to restrict the freedom of speech than the freedom of religion. We should also remember that the separation of church and state, and the stripping of religion from core notions of order and security are not biological stages in human evolution that affect all societies equally. The resurgence of Orthodox traditionalism in Russia, a triumphant China’s [hostility to ‘universal values’](http://www.economist.com/node/17150224), and decades of the ubiquitous ‘Islam vs. the West’ tension demonstrate that this evolution reflects a particular Western Enlightenment experience. It’s not universal. Neither is it consistent. As recently as 2015, the U.K. government was [mulling laws](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11897355/Laws-against-extremism-risk-criminalising-us-all.html) punishing religious extremism, by which it meant “the vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.” So could a Muslim country pass laws restricting conduct that it viewed as opposing its ‘fundamental values’? If the U.K. government views Muslims publicly calling on people not to vote as something worthy of legal sanction, what about a citizen in a Muslim country calling on others not to pray or not to honor the Prophet ﷺ? What if a citizen actively touting their apostasy from Islam and calling others to join them were seen as an ‘extremist’ act comparable to those worrying the British government? If all states can pass laws to protect the fundamental values of their societies, could a Muslim state pass a law against apostasy to do so? Malaysia provides an interesting case of a country that has tried to embody Islamic concerns over apostasy in a modern legal framework. The country’s official religion is Islam, but its constitution guarantees that other religions may be practiced “in peace and harmony” (about 40% of Malaysians are not Muslim). Though they are controversial in a country in which race, religion and politics are all tensely interlinked, some of Malaysia’s states have enacted their own approaches to dealing with apostasy. In the Malaysian state of Malacca, apostasy earns one up to [180 days of detention](http://www.esyariah.gov.my/portal/page/portal/Portal%252520E-Syariah%252520BI/Portal%252520E-Syariah%252520Carian%252520Bahan%252520Rujukan/Portal%252520E-Syariah%252520Undang-Undang/Portal%252520E-Syariah%252520Undang2%252520Melaka) for rehabilitation. The Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan has taken another approach: those who want to leave Islam apply for permission. After they have been interviewed to determine their seriousness, and counseled to try to convince them otherwise, they are allowed to apostatize (between 1998-2013, 17% of applications were accepted).[^54] --- ## The Consequences of Apostasy Law What global policies should Muslims advocate today? Debates over freedom of religion are so contentious because different sides proceed from very different premises. The liberal ideal, so influential in the West, is that it’s wrong for governments to interfere in the question of what people believe for two reasons. First, because Europe’s bloody history shows that this all too often leads to tremendous violence. Second, because religious belief is seen as something that cannot really be forced on the private interior of a person’s heart, and God doesn’t want faith if it’s coerced anyway. It must be freely and sincerely offered. The Islamic perspective differs because it views religious identification as both a public category and an internal belief. Certainly, the faith and intentions by which God judges us are housed in our hearts. They cannot be coerced and are meaningless if not sincere, hence the Prophet ﷺ’s declaration that, “Deeds are judged but by intentions.” But an appropriate social and political environment is essential in order for people to live lives oriented towards God, good deeds, and justice and away from unbelief and sin. And this social and political environment is fashioned by people’s outward conduct. So encouraging public displays of individuals’ private, internal upheavals of conscience or loss of faith doesn't promote sincere faith within a community. It risks tearing the threads of that community apart. The themes of human rights and civil liberties are compelling to many around the world. But they are not necessarily compelling to those who do not share some of their premises or who disagree on how they should be implemented. Even if everyone in the world agreed that the freedom of religion was a basic right, there would be (and there is) significant disagreement over how that right should be balanced against concerns of public order and morality. Moreover, many outside the West dismiss demands for respecting human rights as proxies for Westernization and Western imperial ambition. It’s no coincidence that this is inevitably the opinion of those Muslims who uphold the death penalty for apostasy in Islam. For all these reasons, arguments framed in human rights discourse are unlikely to move the very Muslims whose opinions they are trying to change. It may be more useful to argue based on premises accepted by all involved. The horrific violence unleashed by ISIS against any who oppose it is repugnant in and of itself from the perspective of Islamic law and human rights law alike. But, beyond this, the consequences for the very priorities that Islam seeks to protect have also proven dire. The harsh punishments enacted by ISIS on those it [declares apostates](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2015/05/07/experts-weigh-in-part-4-how-does-isis-approach-islamic-scripture/) has engendered disgust globally among non-Muslims and [Muslims](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/17/in-nations-with-significant-muslim-populations-much-disdain-for-isis/) alike. Anecdotally, I have heard of many Muslims, both in Muslim-majority countries and in the West, who have experienced crises of faith or even lost it entirely due to the violence done in the name of Islam. Things like ISIS’s execution of apostates often top the list of what has led to these crises. In the *Shari’ah*, the aim of punishing apostasy from Islam is to protect the communal faith and social order of a Muslim state. If punishing apostasy severely is driving Muslims away from their religion, then this policy is undermining its own purpose. It’s not clear what ‘order under heaven’ maintaining harsh punishments for apostasy would be upholding in our troubled world. --- ## Notes [^1]: See Simon Cottee, *The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam* (London: Hurst, 2015), 13-16. [^2]: Abū al-Ḥasan al-Māwardī, *Adab al-dunyā wa’l-dīn*, ed. Muḥammad Ḥasan Sulaymān (Cairo: Dār al-Fārūq, 2008), 183-4. [^3]: The *ʿAhd Ardishīr* was produced in the late Sassanid period; Beate Dignas and Engelbert Winter, *Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 211. See also Iḥsān ʿAbbās, ed., *ʿAhd Ardishīr* (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1967), 30. [^4]: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: *kitāb al-ʿilm, bāb man sa’ala wa huwa qā’im ʿāliman jālisan*; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: *kitāb al-imāra, bāb man qātala li-takūna kalimat Allāh hiya al-ʿulyā’*... [^5]: This *Hadith* does not appear in any of the main *Hadith* collections, but it has been considered weak by some scholars like Ibn Ḥajar and [](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-50904.html&sa=D&ust=1582063010397000)[ḥasan](http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-50904.html) [or](http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-50904.html) [ṣaḥīḥ](http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-50904.html) by others. See ʿAbd Ra’ūf al-Munāwī, *Fayḍ al-qadīr sharḥ al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaghir*, ed. Ḥamdī al-Damardāsh Muḥammad, 13 vols. (Mecca: Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, 1998), 5:2547. [^6]: For example, even 230 years after the Islamic conquests, only 50% of Iraq was Muslim and only 40% of Iran; Richard Bulliet, “Conversion to Islam and the Emergence of a Muslim Society in Iran,” in Nehemia Levtzion, ed., *Conversion to Islam* (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979), 31; idem, *Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), 85. [^7]: See Wahba al-Zuḥaylī, *Mawsūʿat al-fiqh al-islāmī*, 14 vols. (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2010), 5:714-15. [^8]: Shams al-Dīn al-Sarakhsī, *al-Mabsūṭ*, 30 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, n.d.), 10:110. I’m indebted to Ramon Harvey for this insight. See [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ramonharvey.com/category/islamic-jurisprudence/&sa=D&ust=1582063010399000)[https://ramonharvey.com/category/islamic-jurisprudence/](https://ramonharvey.com/category/islamic-jurisprudence/) [^9]: One fascinating case occurred in Egypt in the mid 700s CE. A group from the tribe of Banū ʿAbd Kulūl protested before the judge Ibrāhīm al-Ruʿaynī (d. 771) that a man had married one of their women, but that they, as her kinsmen (*awliyā*’), objected. They wanted the judge to annul the marriage. The judge responded that he would not prohibit what God had allowed and that, if the woman’s guardian (*walī*) had approved, then the marriage stood. The men appealed the case to the governor, who ordered the judge to annul the marriage. He refused. See Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Kindī, *Kitāb al-Wulāt wa kitāb al-quḍāt*, ed. Rhuvon Guest (Beirut: al-Ābā, 1908 and Leiden: Brill, 1912), 367. [^10]: Ibn Ḥajar, *Rafʿ al-iṣr ʿan quḍāt miṣr*, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1988), 275-76, 283. [^11]: *Al-taṣarruf ʿalā al-raʿiyya manūṭ bi’l-maṣlaḥa*; ʿAbd al-Karīm Zaydān, al-*Wajīz fī sharḥ al-qawāʿid al-fiqhiyya* (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 2001), 120-23. [^12]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-ḥudūd, bāb karāhiyat al-shafāʿa fī al-ḥadd idha rufiʿa ilā al-sulṭān*. [^13]: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī, *al-Mīzān al-kubrā* (Cairo: Maktabat Zahrān \[no date\]. Reprint of 1862 Cairo edn. from Maktabat al-Kastiliyya), 2:159. [^14]: Sarah Barringer Gordon, “Religion in United States Law,” in *Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History*, ed. Stanley Katz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 5:115. [^15]: Rim-Sarah Alouane, “Freedom of Religion and the Transformation of Public Order in France,” *The Review of Faith & International Affairs* 13, no. 1 (2015): 32. [^16]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-jihād wa’l-siyar, bāb lā yuʿadhdhabu bi-ʿadhāb Allāh.* [^17]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb istitābat al-murtaddīn wa’l-muʿānidīn wa qitālihim, bāb ḥukm al-murtadd wa’l-murtadda*. [^18]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*: *kitāb al-diyāt, bāb qawl Allāh taʿālā inna al-nafs bi’l-nafs…*; *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*:*kitāb al-qasāma wa’l-muḥāribīn…, bāb mā yubāḥu bihi dam al-muslim.* [^19]: *Muwaṭṭa’: kitāb al-aqḍiya, bāb al-qaḍā’ fī-man irtadda ʿan al-islām.* [^20]: Al-Zuḥaylī, *Mawsūʿat al-fiqh al-islāmī*, 6:174-182. [^21]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*: *kitāb al-īmān, bāb taḥrīm qatl al-kāfir baʿd an qāla lā ilāh illā Allāh*. [^22]: Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, *al-Sunan al-kubrā*, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, 11 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1999), 8:341. [^23]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Sunan*, 8:343. [^24]: Al-Shāfiʿī states that punishment for apostasy can only operate on the basis of outward expression, instructing us, “Know that \[the judge’s\] ruling is based on external reality (*al-ẓāhir*), and he is not making licit what God has prohibited. But God rules on what is internal (*al-bāṭin*), because God most high is master of what is internal”; al-Shāfiʿī, *Kitāb al-Umm*, ed. Rifʿāt Fawzī ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (Mansoura: Dār al-Wafā’, 2001), 7:416. [^25]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-muḥāribīn min ahl al-kufr wa’l-ridda, bāb idhā aqarra bi’l-ḥadd wa lam yubayyin hal li’l-imām an yastura ʿalayhi; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-tawba, bāb qawluhu taʿālā inna al-ḥasanāt tudhhibna al-sayyi’āt.* [^26]: Sunan of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-adab*, *bāb fī al-nahy ʿan al-tajassus*. [^27]: For a discussion of these *Hadiths*, see Ibn Ḥajar, *al-Dirāya fī takhrīj aḥādīth al-Hidāya*, ed. ʿAbdallāh Hāshim al-Yamānī (Beirut: n.d.), 2:136-8; idem, *Lisān al-mīzān*, 6 vols. (Hyderabad: Dā’irat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1330/\[1912\]), 3:323. [^28]: *Al-Mawsūʿa al-fiqhiyya* (Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1983), 3:175. [^29]: Ibn Ḥazm, *al-Muḥallā* (Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda, n.d.), 11:191; al-Bayhaqī, *Sunan*, 8:343. [^30]: Muḥammad bin Faraj al-Qurṭubī Ibn al-Ṭallāʿ, *Aqḍiyat Rasūl Allāh* (often known as *al-Aḥkām*), ed. Fāris Fatḥī Ibrāhīm (Cairo: Dār Ibn al-Haytham, 2006), 24. [^31]: This report appears in the *Sīra* of Ibn Isḥāq, the *Tārīkh* of al-Ṭabarī and the *Mustadrak* of al-Ḥākim. For a useful breakdown of this material, see [http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5614](http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t%3D5614) [^32]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī:* *kitāb al-aḥkām, bāb man nakatha bayʿatan*. [^33]: Al-Bayhaqī, *Maʿrifat al-sunan wa’l-āthār*, ed. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Amīn Qalʿajī (Cairo and Aleppo: Dār al-Waʿī, 1991), 12: 250. [^34]: This report is found in *Sunan* of Saʿīd bin al-Manṣūr, ed. Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿẓamī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.), vol. 3, pt 2 pp. 226-7. It is also found in the *Sunan* of al-Bayhaqī, 8:337-41. Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī argues that Umar did not approve of the execution not because he did not consider death the appropriate punishment for apostasy but because such punishments should not be carried out in an army on campaign (due to the necessity of war, *ḍarūrat al-ḥarb*); Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, *al-Ḥurriyya al-dīniyya wa’l-taʿaddudiyya* (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 2007), 46. [^35]: Abd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, *al-Muṣannaf*, ed. Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿẓamī, 11 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1403/1983), 10:171. [^36]: Patricia Crone and Fritz Zimmermann, *The Epistle of Sālim ibn Dhakwān* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 90, 93-4. [^37]: Abū Bakr Muḥammad bin Jaʿfar al-Narshakhī, *Tārīkh Bukhārā*, ed. Amīn ʿAbd al-Majīd Badawī (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1960), 73. [^38]: This report appears in the Muṣannaf of ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, and al-Albānī declared it weak. See Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, *Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ḍaʿīfa wa’l-mawḍūʿa*, 13 n. 1 (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 2004), 13:1:942-3 . [^39]: Christian Sahner, “Swimming against the Current: Muslim Conversion to Christianity in the Early Islamic Period,” *Journal of the American Oriental Society* 136, no. 2 (2016): 280-2. [^40]: P. Smoor, “al-Maʿarrī,” in *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 2nd ed., P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, eds. Consulted online on 29 April 2017. [http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.georgetown.edu/10.1163/1573-3912\_islam\_COM\_0599](http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.georgetown.edu/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0599); First published online: 2012. In one poem, al-Maʿarrī wrote: > I marvel at Chosroes and his followers Who wash their faces with cows’ urine; And the Jews who speak of a God, Who loves the splatter of blood and the smell of burnt offerings; And at the Christians’ belief in a God who is humiliated, persecuted cruelly, but does not retaliate; And at a people who journey from the ends of the earth, To cast pebbles and kiss the Stone (i.e., the black stone in the Kaaba). How startling are their beliefs! Are all men, then, unable to see the truth? See Majid Fakhry, *A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism* (Oxford: Oneworld, 1997), 36. [^41]: Amalia Levanoni, “*Takfīr* in Egypt and Syria during the Mamlūk Period,” in *Accusations of Unbelief in Islam*, ed. Camilla Adang, Hassan Ansari, Maribel Fierro and Sabine Schmidtke (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 156, 163-65, 170. [^42]: Syed Ameer Ali, *Mahommedan Law*, 4th ed. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1917), 2:32. [^43]: See Asaf A.A. Fyzee, Outlines of Muhammadan Law, 4th ed. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 98; Taha Jabir Alalwani, *Apostasy in Islam* (Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2011), 25-41; Maḥmūd Shaltūt, *al-Islām ʿaqīda wa sharīʿa*, 18th ed.  (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 2001), 281; Rashīd Riḍā, al-Manār 10, n. 4 (1907): 298; 23, n. 3 (1922): 187-89; Muʿtazz al-Khaṭīb, al-Ḥurriyya fī al-fikr al-ʿarabī al-muʿāṣir (Doha: Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, 2015). [^44]: *Musnad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Maymaniyya print, 1:282); *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb istitābat al-murtaddīn wa’l-muʿānidīn wa qitālihim, bāb ḥukm al-murtadd wa’l-murtadda.* [^45]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb aḥādīth al-anbiyā’, bāb wa’adhkur fī kitāb Maryam…*; and the *Musnad* of Ibn Ḥanbal, 2:528 for examples of this. [^46]: *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-diyāt, bāb qawl Allāh taʿālā inna al-nafs bi’l-nafs…; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: kitāb al-qasāma wa’l-muḥāribīn…, bāb mā yubāḥu bihi dam al-muslim*. [^47]: In the case of this second narration, found in *Sahih al-Bukhari*, it is the Successor Abū Qilāba stating that the Prophet ﷺ did not kill anyone except for these three reasons, in effect interpreting ‘forsaking the community’ as ‘making war on God and His Messenger.’ See *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: kitāb al-tafsīr, bāb sūrat al-mā’ida – innamā jazā’ alladhīna yuḥāribūna Allāh…; kitāb al-diyāt, bāb al-qasāma; Sunan of Abū Dāwūd: kitāb al-ḥudūd, bāb al-ḥukm fī-man irtadda*. Al-Tirmidhī has one version that just has the wording *al-tārik li-dīnihi*, but that is just his own summary of the Hadith at the end of a discussion. The main narrations of this *Hadith* in the *Ṣaḥīḥayn* and other books all have the wording *al-tārik li-dīnihi al-mufāriq li/il-jamāʿa or al-mufāriq li-dīnihi al-tārik al-jamāʿa*. Some narrations of this *Hadith* that are both less reliable and less common instead contain the wording “for unbelief after Islam” and “for apostasy after Islam.” The narrations with these wordings are found in the *Sunan* of Abū Dāwūd: *kitāb al-diyāt, bāb al-imām ya’muru bi’l-ʿafw fī al-dam; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī: kitāb al-fitan, bāb mā jā’a lā yaḥillu dam imri’ illā bi-iḥdā thalāth*. [^48]: *Muwaṭṭa’: kitāb al-aqḍiya, kitāb al-qaḍā’ fī-man irtadda ʿan al-Islām.* [^49]: Maḥmūd Shaltūt, *al-Islām ʿaqīda wa sharīʿa* (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq), 281. [^50]: See al-Qaraḍāwī, *al-Ḥurriyya al-dīniyya*, 36-37, 46-53. [^51]: Al-Qaraḍāwī, ibid. [^52]: Randy E. Barnett, “The Proper Scope of the Police Power,” 79 *Notre Dame Law Revue* 485 (2004). [^53]: See [http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS\_Freedom\_religion\_ENG.pdf](http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Freedom_religion_ENG.pdf), in particular the cases Larissis and Others v. Greece 1998 and Kosteski v. “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” 2006. For even more visible applications of the margin of appreciation, see the issue of hate speech at [http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS\_Hate\_speech\_ENG.pdf](http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Hate_speech_ENG.pdf). For more on the margin of appreciation, see [this resource from the Council of Europe](https://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/lisbonnetwork/themis/echr/paper2_en.asp), especially on how the European Court of Human Rights decided that measures taken by the governments of Turkey and Switzerland to restrict the wearing of headscarves were legitimate because they fell under “*protecting the rights and freedoms of others*, and in the case of Sahin, *maintaining public order.*” The report states, “In both cases, the Court applied a broad margin of appreciation because there was little or no consensus within the community as to whether to wear a veil was included in the protection afforded by Article 9. Applying the proportionality test on different factors, the Court reached the same conclusion: the lack of a core European consensus on how to treat the wearing of religious symbols justifies the actions of the State authorities, they being granted with a wide margin of appreciation.” In the U.S., freedom of religion cases have shown that what matters is not whether a specific practice is recognized as part of a religion by some religious authority but whether the person in question feels it is religiously compelling. [^54]: Mohd. Al Adib Samuri and Muzammil Quraishi, “Negotiating Apostasy: Applying to ‘Leave Islam’ in Malaysia,” *Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations* 25, n. 4 (2014): 513-14. ## Summary The Sharīʿah is composed of rulings, some of which remain fixed regardless of changing circumstances while others shift according to them. Most of its laws are left to individual Muslims to observe in their private lives, a second portion is entrusted to judges to apply in courts, and a third category belongs to the ruler or political authority to implement in accordance with the welfare of society. The ruling concerning a Muslim who abandons Islam belongs to this third category. Though implemented in earlier times to safeguard the integrity of the Muslim community, that very goal may today be best achieved by Muslim governments choosing to set aside their prerogative to punish apostasy. A frequent charge leveled against Islam is that it denies freedom of religion. Yet this criticism does not concern the tolerance shown toward followers of other faiths, in which Islamic civilization was historically generous, but rather the traditional punishment for Muslims who leave their own religion, known in Arabic as ridda or irtidād. The crux of the matter lies in translation. In the era of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the early community, ridda was understood not as a private change of conviction but as a public act of political secession from the Muslim community, an act of betrayal and open opposition. Interestingly, sociological studies of those who leave religious or ideological groups confirm this distinction, noting that apostates differ from those who merely depart in that they become active opponents of their former identity. The difficulty with ridda, then, was never that a person exercised freedom of conscience, but that such a decision became a public act carrying political consequences. In the pre-modern world, religion was regarded as the foundation of both cosmic and political order. Muslim political theorists held that a widely-adhered-to religion and a stable state were the two great pillars of worldly prosperity, expressed in the refrain that "religion and earthly sovereignty were twins." Islamic civilization inherited this assumption. Muslims believed God had revealed His final message through a prophet sent to all peoples, and while the Qurʾān and the Prophet ﷺ granted non-Muslims the right to remain upon their own religions under Muslim rule, the mission of scholars and rulers was to extend God's law so that, in the words of a famous hadith, "the word of God would be supreme." As the Prophet ﷺ said, "Islam is exalted. It is not exalted over." Non-Muslims lived by their own laws, and any who wished could enter the ruling community of Muslims, but movement in the opposite direction touched upon the order of society itself. For this reason, all pre-modern schools of law treated apostasy as a grave crime, the majority counting it among the ḥudūd, though leading voices in the Ḥanafī school were an exception. That apostasy was understood as a threat to political order rather than a crime in itself is clear from the jurists' own reasoning. Unlike murder or fornication, apostasy on its own transgressed no one's rights, so if the apostate recanted, the crime vanished and no punishment followed. The Ḥanafī jurist al-Sarakhsī (d. c. 1096) declared that leaving Islam was a great offense, "but they are between the human being and his Lord," its true punishment lying in the Hereafter. Whatever worldly penalties exist, he explained, "are policies set down for the common good of human beings (siyāsāt mashrūʿa)." The term siyāsa is essential here, for it denotes the domain of the ruler's discretion rather than the independent judges, and it is within this domain that al-Sarakhsī and many others placed apostasy. Thus, when a judge in tenth-century Egypt ruled that an apostate be executed, he required the caliph's permission to carry it out. And whereas the ḥudūd, once established, had to be enforced, and the punishment for murder could not be waived if the victim's family demanded it, dealing with apostasy fell wholly within the ruling authority's discretion, conditioned always on pursuing the common good. Within the classical schools of both Sunni and Shīʿī Islam, the punishment for an apostate was death, ordered only by the ruler, with vigilantism itself punishable. This rested chiefly upon three hadiths in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: the report of Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever changes their religion, kill them"; the statement of Muʿādh ibn Jabal to Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī that executing the apostate was the ruling of God and His Messenger; and the Prophet's ﷺ statement that a Muslim may be executed only for murder, adultery, or apostasy. Yet these reports must be read alongside external evidence. The command cannot be taken at face value, for converting to Islam is praiseworthy, and moving between two non-Muslim faiths carries no consequence, so it must refer only to leaving Islam. Moreover, one who outwardly renounces Islam under duress while believing in his heart commits no crime, as the Qurʾān states (16:106). Scholars agreed that only outward expressions of apostasy concerned the authorities, for the Prophet ﷺ warned Usāma ibn Zayd that he could not know a heart unless he "opened it up," and said, "I have not been commanded to search in the hearts of men." This became the maxim that "the rulings of the Sharīʿah concern the outward, and God concerns Himself with what is in the heart," rooted in the Qurʾānic prohibition of tajassus (49:12) and the Prophet's ﷺ turning away from those who sought to confess. The Ḥanafīs, upon a hadith they deemed reliable, held that women apostates are imprisoned rather than killed, while the majority rejected that hadith as unreliable. Scholars also differed over offering the apostate a chance to repent: three Sunni schools required it and the Ḥanafīs recommended it, most granting three days, while Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 767) and Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 855) mentioned a month, and Ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064) reported an opinion that repentance be sought indefinitely. The practice of the earliest community differs strikingly from these later rulings. Ibn al-Ṭallāʿ (d. 1103) observed that there is no reliable evidence the Prophet ﷺ ever executed anyone for apostasy. When ʿUbaydallāh ibn Jaḥsh became Christian in Ethiopia, he was not punished; the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya stipulated no penalty for those who left; and the Prophet ﷺ released a man from his oath of allegiance. Imam al-Shāfiʿī (d. 820) noted that people in Medina apostatized and returned without being killed. When six men of Bakr ibn Wāʾil apostatized and were executed, the caliph ʿUmar rebuked the commanders, saying he would have imprisoned them or offered them "a way back in from the door they took out." ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 720) permitted apostates in Iraq to revert to their prior protected status. Where executions did occur, their public character stands out, as in the disputed report of ʿAlī executing al-Mustawrad al-ʿIjlī, whose offense was flaunting his conversion publicly. Christian hagiographies, the poet al-Maʿarrī (d. 1058) who died naturally despite his skepticism, and studies of the Mamlūk and Ottoman periods all confirm that punishment followed only when apostasy became a defiant public spectacle. Modern scholars have revisited this heritage. Syed Ameer Ali (d. 1928), Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935), and later Maḥmūd Shaltūt (d. 1964), Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, and Ṭāhā Jābir al-ʿAlwānī (d. 2016) concluded that what was criminal in apostasy was its public dimension and threat to a confessional order, not the private choice of conscience. This explains why the ruling seems to clash with the Qurʾān's insistence on freedom of belief, for it warns apostates only of loss in the Hereafter (2:217; 4:137) and declares, "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256). Tellingly, al-Shīrāzī (d. 1083) placed ridda under rebellion rather than the ḥudūd, and Ḥanafī jurists like al-Sarakhsī, Ibn al-Sāʿātī (d. 1295), and Ibn Humām (d. 1457) treated it under interstate politics; Ibn Humām stated plainly that apostasy is punished "to avert the evil of war, not as punishment for the act of unbelief." The evidentiary hadiths themselves qualify the apostate as "the one who forsakes the community" or "makes war on God and His Messenger," and ʿUmar's displeasure at Abū Mūsā's case reinforces this. Shaltūt therefore held that Islam does not punish disbelief with death but rather fighting and splitting the Muslims, and al-Qaraḍāwī distinguished "transgressive apostasy," which undermines the community, from "non-transgressive apostasy," which is left alone. For Muslims in states protecting religious freedom, the matter is straightforward, since it would betray the pact of their residence to undermine others' liberties. In Muslim-majority lands, the question is more complex, for the Western separation of religion and state reflects a particular Enlightenment experience rather than a universal stage, and even Western legal systems restrict rights on grounds of "public order" and morality, historically shaped by Christianity. Yet the discretionary nature of the ruling, evident in the conduct of the Prophet ﷺ and the two ʿUmars, means the penalty was never automatic but a policy decision weighing the interests of all. Ultimately, since the aim of punishing apostasy is to protect communal faith and social order, if harsh punishment, as witnessed in the atrocities of ISIS, drives Muslims away from their religion and causes crises of faith, then such a policy undermines its own purpose, and it is unclear what "order under heaven" it would then be preserving. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does the Qur’an say apostates should be killed? This is one of the most striking features of this entire discussion: The Qur’an does not prescribe any worldly punishment for apostasy. When the Qur’an addresses those who turn away from Islam, it warns of consequences in the next life. It describes people who believe, then disbelieve, then believe again, then disbelieve further—and assigns no earthly penalty at any point (4:137). The verse that sits most uncomfortably alongside any death penalty for apostasy is the Qur’an’s own declaration: “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Classical scholars were aware of this tension. Their response was to locate the *ridda* ruling not under crimes of belief but under political governance (*siyasa*)—the ruler’s discretionary authority to protect public order. ### How did the Prophet ﷺ and the early Muslim community actually handle apostasy? The practice of the Prophet ﷺ and the early caliphs paints a picture of consistent restraint. When one of the companions, ʿUbaydullah ibn Jahsh, left Islam and became Christian while the Muslims were seeking refuge in Ethiopia, the Prophet ﷺ issued no punishment. The Treaty of Hudaybiyya, concluded with the Quraysh, contained no mention of any penalty for apostasy. When a man who had just pledged his oath of loyalty to Islam wanted to be released from it, the Prophet ﷺ let him go. Imam al-Shafiʿi noted that during the Prophet’s time in Medina, some people believed, then apostatized, then took on the outer trappings of faith again—and the Prophet ﷺ did not act against them. The caliph Umar similarly expressed his disapproval when soldiers executed apostates during a campaign, saying he would have offered them a way back or imprisoned them. When instances of execution for apostasy do appear in the historical record, the details consistently reveal a public, political dimension—not a private change of heart. ### Why did classical Muslim scholars treat apostasy as a capital offense? To understand this, you have to understand how all premodern societies—not just Muslim ones—viewed the relationship between religion and political order. Religion was not a private matter. It was what held the entire social and political fabric together. The Old Testament prescribed stoning for those who forsook the God of Israel. Roman emperors required token sacrifices to maintain the *pax deorum* (the peace of the gods). In all these systems, publicly abandoning the foundational religion was not merely a personal choice—it was closer to what we would today call treason. Muslim jurists placed the *ridda* (apostasy) ruling not under criminal punishments alongside murder or theft, but under chapters on rebellion and interstate politics. The ruling was about the public political threat that apostasy posed to a social order built on confessional identity, not the internal state of a person’s heart. This is why if someone recanted, the crime vanished entirely. A crime like murder carries no such option, because actual harm was done. Apostasy, understood as a political act, could be undone by a political act: returning to the community. ### Is there a difference between quietly leaving Islam and publicly denouncing it? Yes, and this distinction was embedded in the classical tradition from the beginning. Muslim scholars were unanimous that the law could only concern itself with external expressions of apostasy, never with what was in someone’s heart. The Prophet ﷺ warned Usama ibn Zayd that he could not know if someone’s conversion was sincere “unless he could open up his heart.” The Sharia principle that emerged was explicit: Rulings concern the evident and outward; God concerns Himself with what is hidden. Historically, this distinction held in practice. A renowned medieval Arab poet, Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri, openly mocked formal religion and questioned prophecy, and died of natural causes. What the tradition consistently punished was not private loss of faith but public acts that threatened the stability of the Muslim community. Someone who simply stopped practicing or privately embraced another conviction occupies a fundamentally different category than someone who actively campaigned to undermine the community from within. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-structure-of-scientific-productivity-in-islamic-civilization-orientalists-fables # The Structure of Scientific Productivity in Islamic Civilization: Orientalists’ Fables **Author:** Asadullah Ali Al-Andalusi **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** May 1, 2017 **Updated:** June 5, 2026 ## Abstract *The popular analysis (promulgated by Orientalists) on the rise and decline of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization dichotomizes the events of Islamic history as a conflict between religion and reason. This analysis has since come to be coined the ‘Classical Narrative,’ and suggests that the scientific successes of Muslims throughout history were based solely on foreign influences, whereas Islamic values and ideas were responsible for their decline. However, recent studies have shown this narrative to be invalid due to its inconsistent rendering of the historical data. On the contrary, a more coherent understanding of the data shows that scientific productivity among Muslims was both actively and passively bolstered by Islamic values through the rejection of Aristotelian natural philosophy. Despite these developments, the reasons behind the decline have yet to be fully ascertained. As such, this paper offers a summary and critique of the Classical Narrative, as well as revisionary constructs towards understanding the influences behind the rise and decline of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization.* --- ## Introduction Three months after the tragic events of September 11 th , 2001, the renowned Pakistani nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy penned an article for the Washington Post titled “How Islam Lost Its Way: Yesterday’s Achievements Were Golden,” attempting to explain the reasons behind the attacks on 9/11 as well as the downtrodden state of the Muslim world in the contemporary period. Throughout the article, he mentions the ‘Golden Age’ of Islamic civilization: a time when rationality and science triumphed over religious conservatism. He concludes his analysis by blaming religious orthodoxy for the end of this glorious era – more specifically, placing the burden on the 11 th – 12 th centuries C.E. theologian Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1111): > *But in the 12th century, Muslim orthodoxy reawakened, spearheaded by the Arab cleric Imam Al-Ghazālī. Al-Ghazālī championed revelation over reason, predestination over free will. He damned mathematics as being against Islam, an intoxicant of the mind that weakened faith…Caught in the viselike grip of orthodoxy, Islam choked. No longer would Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars gather and work together in the royal courts. It was the end of tolerance, intellect and science in the Muslim world*.**[^1]** Aside from the rather curious claim that Al-Ghazālī was an Arab (he was Persian), Hoodbhoy doesn’t explain how one man was capable of destroying an entire civilization – much less how said man’s supposed aversion to free will and mathematics had anything do with 9/11 – but it’s clear that he believes this illustrious scholar responsible for embedding a debilitating and everlasting irrationality into the Muslim world which has resulted in extremism, terrorism, political turmoil, and a lack of Nobel Prizes. Over a decade later, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the American astrophysicist and popular science educator, Neil deGrasse Tyson, would repeat this same tragic story about Islamic civilization’s once enlightened past and its downfall by this Muslim version of Voldemort, who single-handedly vanquished rationality through his apparent disregard for the utility of mathematics and denial of the necessary relationship between cause and effect.[^2] But is it really the case that all of the problems facing the contemporary Muslim world are the result of some anti-rationalist and anti-scientific spirit emanating from the ideas of one man? And how is it that two scientists, from opposite sides of the world and cultures, are not only in agreement regarding the rise and decline of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization, but can air their opinions in such a way as to be taken as authorities on the matter? Because their opinions certainly have nothing to do with their credentials as historians of science. Rather, their opinions seem to reflect a popular and long-entrenched view that has remained unchallenged – at least until very recently. For the past few decades, a number of historians of science have put this narrative under the microscope, scrutinizing its foundational assumptions and its incoherent rendering of the historical data: a projection inspired by the Occident’s own ideological history (i.e., the Enlightenment vs. the Church).[^3] That said, how did the rise of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization occur? What were its major influences? And was the subsequent decline a result of an overt religious conservatism? In order to answer these questions, we will need to analyze the historical data and the popular conceptions of those data, while surveying the most recent alternative theories. Prior to this, however, we should begin by defining many of the terms essential to this discourse so as to acquire a better grasp of this topic. --- ## Defining Terms The initial question that should be asked regarding the discourse behind ‘the rise and decline of scientific productivity in the Islamic civilization’ is how it should be conducted; meaning, what are the primary terms and concepts that need to be ascertained prior to examining the issue at hand? This same question applies to any and all intellectual inquiry, whether it regards science, theology, philosophy, law, or history. Thus, the first term that needs to be defined is ‘science’ itself. However, despite what one might presume, this is not an easy feat given that the term can encompass a variety of different meanings depending on the contexts in which it is used. As a case in point, the philosopher of science, Osman Bakar states: > **Science is not an entity that is obvious to everyone…To begin with, there are disagreements on terminological usage itself, whether the domain of knowledge to which the term ‘science’ is applied is to be confined to the natural sciences, or to be extended to cover the humanities and social sciences as well. Some people use the word in both senses*.***[^4]** Broadly speaking then, ‘science’ may simply be defined as a “body of knowledge.” In this respect, another philosopher of science, Alparslan Açikgenç suggests that anything worthy of being properly deemed a ‘science’ must have four essential characteristics, the first of which is that it must have a ‘subject matter’ or an “object of study” that “excludes all unrelated subjects of inquiry.”[^5] Following this, it needs to have a ‘method’ or “the manner in which a scientific investigation is carried out.”[^6] Afterwards, it must have a ‘theory’ or “a formulation given as a provisional solution to a certain problem.”[^7] And finally, it must have a ‘tradition’ or the function of acquiring new information which can be named and organized, leading to the formation of a scholarly community.[^8] However, although this definition may be useful in a broader analysis, contemporary discussions revolving around the historical phenomena of the rise and decline of science within any given civilization often stress a more specific understanding of ‘science’ as “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.”[^9] and its practical applicability (i.e., technology). That said, it is also relevant to note that embedded into this specification is the popular conception that science is somehow a value-neutral and objective enterprise, totally removed from the subjectivity of scientists themselves. However, this is mistaken and will be expressly challenged throughout this discussion. As the philosopher of science and polymath Ziauddin Sardar notes: > *It can be argued that the ideological and political factors are external to science. That within science, the scientific method ensures neutrality and objectivity by following a strict logic – observation, experimentation, deduction and value-free conclusion. But scientists do not make observations in isolation. All observations take place within a well-defined theory. The observations, and the data collection that goes with them, are designed either to refute a theory or provide support for it. And theories themselves are not plucked out of the air. Theories exist within paradigms – that is, a set of beliefs and dogmas.*[^10] The implications of such a view may seem counterintuitive; contrary to being “objective,” facts are entirely dependent on the theories scientists construct in order to coherently comprehend their experiences of the external world.  Indeed, the concept of ‘paradigm’ has become integral to understanding the nature of science today within academic circles and provides a foundation from which to ascertain the motivations, scope, and research interests of a scientific community. In explaining the reasoning behind the concept, the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn (d. 1996) – who coined the term in his magnum opus, *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions*[\[11\]](#ftnt_ref11) – explains that while human experiences are indeed universal, our understanding of those experiences varies in accordance with our background beliefs: > **If two people stand at the same place and gaze in the same direction, we must…conclude that they receive closely similar stimuli. (If both could put their eyes at the same place, the stimuli would be identical.) But people do not see stimuli; our knowledge of them is highly theoretical and abstract. Instead they have sensations, and we are under no compulsion to suppose that the sensations of our two viewers are the same. (Sceptics might remember that color blindness was nowhere noticed until John Dalton's description of it in 1794.*)*[^12] Thus, far from being neutral, the practice and application of any given science is entirely dependent on the axiological and metaphysical motivations of scientists themselves.[^13] For instance, the essence of scientific productivity within a secular society may differ tremendously in its goals and output from a more religiously inclined one, because the principal values and beliefs of the scientists within each civilization will most certainly differ. While the former may focus on problems and goals related exclusively to the preservation and functioning of a non-religious state and its people, the latter will be motivated by an entirely different set of beliefs and circumstances. In other words, culture, or “the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society,”[^14] determine what constitutes ‘science,’ including the theories formed to interpret empirical data (i.e., ‘facts’).[^15] As such, what we understand as the dominant scientific tradition today is really ‘Western science,’ whereas this research paper discusses the rise and decline of Islamic civilizations’ perception of science (i.e., ‘Islamic science’), as one which takes place within the context of an Islamic cultural framework, projecting the values and beliefs of Muslim scientists at work.[^16] But does our understanding of science also affect our analysis of a civilization’s scientific history? Certainly. For instance, if we were to adopt the aforementioned ‘neutral view,’ the claim that science “rose” and “declined” within Islamic civilization would really be nothing more than an anachronistic and projected interpretation of our own experiences with science today. The result of such a view would bring us to the absurd conclusion that science is either non-existent in the contemporary Muslim world or is on the brink of extinction. Far from this being the case, science is alive and well among Muslims – from iPhones to the latest in medical technology – but is simply no longer being pioneered from the Islamic perspective. As such, the ‘value-laden’ conception is far more in line with historical and contemporary realities. This is why some historians of science, such as George Saliba, define ‘decline’ within the scope of a civilization’s *scientific activity* as “an age in which a civilization begins to be a consumer of scientific ideas rather than a producer of them.”[^17] Despite the logic, the conception of science as neutral is still the most popular among laypeople. As such, it may be helpful to reframe certain historical categories to more properly reflect the cultural elements essential to their interpretation. Therefore, I propose that the categories of ‘rise’ and ‘decline’ be reconceptualized as the ‘Age of Productivity’ and the ‘Age of Dependency’ respectively. Neither of these labels imply a neutral perspective of science independent from their cultural influences nor do they place us in the conundrum of having to explain how science somehow “declined” in Islamic civilization despite contemporary Muslims possessing as many products of scientific activity as their Western counterparts. Rather, they more accurately represent the current status of Islamic science as a once productive enterprise now eclipsed and reliant on foreign elements. That said, for the sake of conciseness, the terms ‘rise’ and ‘decline’ will still be referenced throughout, but should be viewed as interchangeable with these proposed revised constructs. Finally, it is necessary to know those terms representing the primary *influences* behind the rise and decline of any given scientific tradition. These influences are important in that they help us to not only comprehend the reasons behind the rise and decline of Islamic science, but also provide us the means to measure *when* they occurred. As such, the historian of science, Toby Huff divides these influences into two categories: ‘internal influences’ and ‘external influences.’ The former represents the “methods, theories, paradigms, and instrumentation of science,” and the latter represents the “cultural and institutional structures that give scientific inquiry a secure place in the intellectual life of a society and civilisation.”[^18] In other words, internal influences are simply a particular civilization’s abstract perceptions and practice of science, whereas external influences constitute more material factors which facilitate the manifestation and application of those perceptions (e.g., government funded research facilities, libraries, universities, etc.). That said, I would also add to Huff’s definition of ‘external influences’ things like war, economic boom and recession, natural disasters, plagues, etc., given that these phenomena also play a major role in determining whether or not a society will be focused on nurturing their scientific tradition and to what ends. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Age_of_Dependency_v_Productivity.jpg) *Figure 1* *The ‘rise’ and ‘decline’ of a scientific tradition re-conceptualized.* Following the above discussion, a cursory analysis of the history behind the Age of Productivity in Islamic civilization will be given. While it is not within the scope of this paper to elucidate a full picture of the various opinions regarding this point in history, a summary of the popular narrative – and the problems associated with it – shall be given so as to provide a backdrop for explaining the major influences behind the historical development of Islamic science. --- ## The ‘Classical Narrative’ and Scholarly Dissent During the advent of Islām in the 7 th century C.E. Arabian Peninsula, the power of the Byzantine and Sassanid (Persian) Empires was beginning to wane in the wake of internal flaws in administration, military expansionism, economies, and never-ending conflicts with one another. Muslims at that time took advantage of these weaknesses and conquered both empires within a matter of a few decades. With the balance of power having shifted, the new Islamic polity was allowed to allocate its resources and time towards creating a world that would suit its own interests. As Dimitri Gutas notes: > *The historical significance of the Arab conquests can hardly be overestimated. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent were reunited with Persia and India politically, administratively, and most important, economically, for the first time since Alexander the Great...The great economic and cultural divide that separated the civilized world for a thousand years prior to the rise of Islam, the frontier between the East and the West formed by the two great rivers that created antagonistic powers on either side, ceased to exist. This allowed for the free flow of raw materials and manufactured goods, agricultural products and luxury items, people and services, techniques and skills, and ideas, methods, and modes of thought.*[^20] Despite this, Muslims would eventually be unable to sustain their dominance and begin to resort to dependency on foreign ideas and inventions in order to compete with their neighbors. As a result, the balance of power would again shift and Muslims would no longer possess the autonomy and dominance they once had. This is no better evidenced than in the status of Islamic civilization in the contemporary period, which struggles to survive in the face of disunity and the onslaught of Western militarization and its monopolization of the global economy and technology. However, when discussing the rise of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization, historians have often projected a narrative that downplays the internal influence of Islamic values, while exaggerating these external influences of geopolitics as the primary motivating factors. On the other hand, these same researchers are not hesitant to credit the former when explaining its decline. This Orientalist inspired version of events,[^21] otherwise referred to as the ‘Classical Narrative,’ has unfortunately been the popular framework of analysis for centuries within Western civilization, and now among Muslims as well, resulting in decades of unchallenged biases and suppressed evidence. That said, there have been attempts in recent years to provide alternative accounts. For instance, the historian of science George Saliba has made great strides in deconstructing this theory and its biases, summarizing its major assumptions in his monumental work, *Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance*: > *The narrative seems to start with the assumption that Islamic civilization was a desert civilization, far removed from urban life, that had little chance to develop on its own any science that could be of interest to other cultures. This civilization began to develop scientific thought only when it came into contact with other more ancient civilizations, which are assumed to have been more advanced…These surrounding civilizations are usually endowed with considerable antiquity, with high degrees of scientific production (at least at some time in their history), and with a degree of intellectual vitality that could not have existed in the Islamic desert civilization. This same narrative never fails to recount an enterprise that was indeed carried out during Islamic times: the active appropriation of the sciences of those civilizations through the wilful process of translation. And this translation movement is said to have encompassed nearly all the scientific and philosophical texts that those ancient civilizations had ever produced.* > > *….* > > *In this context, very few authors would go beyond the characterization of this Islamic golden age as anything more than a re-enactment of the glories of Ancient Greece…Some would at times venture to say that Islamic scientific production did indeed add to the accumulated body of Greek science a few features, but this addition is usually not depicted as anything the Greeks could not have done on their own had they been given enough time.* > > *….* > > **The classical narrative, however persists in imagining that the Islamic science that was spurred by these extensive translations was short-lived as an enterprise because it soon came into conflict with the more traditional forces within Islamic society, usually designated as religious orthodoxies of one type or another. The anti-scientific attacks that those very orthodoxies generated are supposed to have culminated in the famous work of the eleventh-twelfth-century theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī.** [^22] Saliba goes on to reject this narrative as a Western projection of its own history with the Church (i.e., a war between rationalism and religious dogma and institutions),[^23] the first indication of which was the double standard of assigning zero credit to Islamic values for the rise of science in the Muslim world, while proposing them as the main culprit in its demise. The Islamic scholar Muzaffar Iqbal notes that this projection can be traced back to the Orientalist Ignáz Goldziher (d. 1921) and his paper, “The Attitude of Orthodox Islam towards the Ancient Sciences,” in which he suggests that the decline ultimately occurred due to religious scholars’ negative attitudes towards the so-called ‘foreign sciences’ of the Greeks and Persians, due to their seemingly antithetical teachings to Islamic doctrine.[^24] His ‘conflict thesis’ would eventually gain momentum, seeping into the works of many popular historians from the 20th century to the contemporary period. For instance, Huff evinces this attitude when he writes: > **If in the long run scientific thought and intellectual creativity in general are to keep themselves alive and advance into new domains of conquest and creativity, multiple spheres of freedom – what we may call neutral zones – must exist within which large groups of people can pursue genius free from the censure of political and religious authorities. In addition, certain metaphysical and philosophical assumptions must accompany this freedom. Insofar as science is concerned, individuals must be conceived to be endowed with reason, the world must be thought to be a rational and consistent whole, and various levels of universal representation, participation, and discourse must be available. It is precisely here that one finds the great weaknesses of Arabic-Islamic civilization as an incubator of modern science.**[^25] Huff reflects an overt bias against the theological thought and institutions of Islamic civilization, going so far as to use the phrase “Arabic sciences” so as to focus on the linguistic/ethnic characteristics of the translation movement over any perceived influences of religion. According to this view, the only positive contribution by Muslims during this period was the unification of society through a shared language and the appropriation of Greek philosophy – the hard-earned efforts of which would later be paradoxically dismantled by an anti-scientific spirit inherent to Islām itself. However, this raises the question as to how such a movement would have been possible if anti-scientific sentiments existed prior to and during its initiation. In other words, if ‘foreign sciences’ were already unwelcome due to their contrary nature to Islamic doctrine, then it is difficult to ascertain how they were tolerated to begin with and over such a long period of time. Despite the impact and popularity of the conflict thesis, numerous anomalies have been found in Goldziher’s research, with some historians even suggesting that his hypothesis could only be formed through deliberately mining decontextualized quotations from Islamic scholarly texts.[^26] As a result, Sonja Brentjes,[^27] Dimitri Guntas,[^28] Ahmad Dallal,[^29] and the aforementioned George Saliba have attempted to offer more nuanced and evidence-based perspectives regarding the history of Islamic science – the last of whom I believe has provided the most salient deconstruction, positing that the rise of science was less an accidental appropriation of Greek thought and more the result of the pragmatic concerns of the early Muslim community itself. Saliba begins his critique of the Classical Narrative by first addressing when the rise actually began, as opposed to simply assuming that it was spurred by the sudden genesis of translation during the reign of the Abbāsid caliph, Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-M’amūn ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd (d. 833) between 813-833 C.E. According to legend, Al-M’amūn’s desire to translate Greek works originated from a mystical experience in which he met Aristotle in a dream, who informed him that he should begin acquiring knowledge of science.[^30] Despite this account being largely unconfirmed – and most likely a myth formed as a post-hoc explanation – this has not deterred supporters of the Classical Narrative from including it as evidence of how scientific productivity miraculously arose within Islamic civilization. Acknowledging the tenuous nature of this origin story, Saliba discovers the period of the rise to be much earlier, ironically through examining the source behind the ‘dream account’ itself – the 10th century C.E. Persian Muslim historian Muḥammad ibn Abī Ya’qūb Isḥāq al-Nadīm (d. 940), who wrote an intellectual history of Islamic civilization in 987/988 CE called *Kitab al-Fihrist (Book of the Index)*.[^31] Therein, he not only finds the story of Al-M’amūn’s dream, but various other apocrypha. Shifting through the numerous accounts, Saliba concludes that Al-Nadīm was simply recording popular stories of his time and did not intend for all of them to be used as a means to derive an authentic historical narrative.[^32] Upon further scrutiny, the Orientalists’ use of Al-M’amūn’s dream appears to be quite disingenuous, as Al-Nadīm himself only saw it as having an impact on the *spread* of scientific knowledge, not as its source. This is especially evidenced by the fact that he titles this particular account, *“Mention of the Reason Why Books on Philosophy and Other Ancient Sciences Became Plentiful…”* and considers the story to be only “one of the reasons” behind even this phenomenon.[^33] Similarly, Al-Nadīm contradicts the Classical Narrative by asserting that the Byzantines considered their own ancient works impermissible to learn, as they were *“opposed to the prophetic \[Christian\] doctrine,”* and retained this sentiment up until the rise of the Islamic Empire.[^34] In other words, Muslims did not desire to translate these texts based on their sudden encounter with Byzantine culture, rather they were already scientifically inclined to a degree prior. How else could they have known about the Greek texts and sought them out had they not already been aware of their value? As Dallal states: > **This translation movement provided the knowledge base of the emergent sciences. But while this explains part of the picture, and admittedly one of its most important parts, it does not provide a full explanation of the beginnings. To start with, what are the socio-political conditions and the cultural aptitudes that triggered interests in the translation and science in the first place? Second, what were the cultural conditions and the cultural aptitudes that enabled a significant community of interest to know how to translate complex scientific texts, to develop the technical terminology needed for the transfer of scientific knowledge between two languages, to understand scientific texts once they were translated, and to constructively engage the knowledge derived from them? Seen in this light, translation is not a mechanical process but part of a complex historical process that is not reducible to the transfer of external knowledge; rather, it involves forces intrinsic to the receiving culture – most important, the epistemological conditions internal to Islamic culture at the time of the translations*.*[^35] However, it is unsurprising that scholars supportive of the Classical Narrative would be selective in their reading of these accounts – preferring to mold them in accordance with their preconceived biases rather than attempt a critical examination. As noted previously by Saliba, the projection of the Western experience with religious dogma and institutions has largely served as the backdrop through which other historical events and cultures have been interpreted. As a consequence, Orientalists have actively searched out only those pieces of evidence which appear to conform to this understanding. In line with this, the account of Al-M’amūn’s dream also serves as a convenient means through which to tie in additional historical data which bolsters the Classical Narrative – as it was during his reign (813-833 C.E.) that one of the greatest theological controversies within Islamic civilization occurred: the rise of the *Mu’tazilah*. According to the Muslim philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the *Mu’tazilah* were a group of theologians who “dominated the theological scene in Iraq for more than a century and developed an imposing theological edifice based on emphasis on the use of reason in matters pertaining to religion and the importance of human free will.”[^36] Their ‘rational approach’ towards basic doctrines of the faith led them to espouse views considered heretical, such as the complete obscurement of Allāh to a mere abstract concept completely incomprehensible to the human intellect. This was opposed to the more orthodox view that while the Divine Essence cannot be comprehended *in total*, His Attributes – as mentioned in the Islamic source texts – had a reality that was at least relatively comprehensible to the lay Muslim. However, the *Mu’tazilah* acquired their infamy from a far more controversial view: that the Qur’ān was created and not the eternal Word of Allāh.[^37] But why was such a theological controversy so important to Orientalists? Because it was Al-Ma’mūn, so convinced of the veracity of Mu‘tazilism during his reign, who sanctioned the imposition of its doctrines on the wider Muslim community – even going so far as to implement it as a litmus test for judging the authenticity of an individual’s faith.[^38] Thus, those looking for an obvious example of the “war” between rationalism and religion can trace a convenient linearity between Al-Ma’mūn’s dream account, the establishment of the *Mu’tazilah*, and the subsequent rise of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization. However, aside from the obvious misinterpretation of Al-Nadīm’s records, this sentiment relies on the short-lived influence (34 years) of a group counteracted and eventually overthrown by the more religiously conservative elements of society through the ascension of Caliph Abu’ Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi’llāh al-Mutawakkil (d. 861).[^39] In other words, it is doubtful that the so-called ‘rationalists’ – governing for such a meager span of time – could be precursors to the subsequent seven centuries of Muslim scientific progress and ingenuity, which fell under the control of their theological and intellectual opponents. Alternatively then, Saliba finds a more plausible account whereby al-Nadīm recalls a story regarding how the second Ummayyad caliph, Khālid ibn Yazīd ibn Mu’āwiya (d. 704) had ordered some philosophers to translate Greek works on alchemy into Arabic for an unknown purpose. He seemingly connects this event to the later translation of government records (*dīwāns*) during the reign of the fifth Umayyad caliph, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (d. 705), who ruled from 685 – 705 C.E., along with his governor in Iraq, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf (d. 714): > ***K****halid ibn Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah was called the “Wise Man of the Family of Marwan.” He was inherently virtuous, with an interest in and fondness for the sciences. As the Art \[alchemy\] attracted his attention, he ordered a group of Greek philosophers who were living in a city in Egypt to come to him. Because he was concerned with literary Arabic, he commanded them to translate the books about the Art from the Greek and Coptic languages into Arabic. This was the first translation in Islam from one language into another.* *….* > > *Then, at the time of al-Hajjaj \[Ibn Yusuf\] the registers, which were in Persian, were translated into Arabic.* > > *….* > > *The records in Damascus were in Greek…The records were translated during the time of Hishām ‘Abd al-Malik…It has \[also\] been said that the records were translated during the time of ‘Abd al-Malik \[ibn Marwan\].*[^40] The first part of the story is not precisely explained by Al-Nadīm, other than the mention of Khālid’s “love of science.” This short tale – for which there is little explanation beyond what is mentioned above – is considered by him to be the very first attempt at translation. However, when we examine additional sources of this story, they indicate that Khālid had a part in motivating ‘Abd al-Malik to translate these works based on the latter’s desire to mint coinage exclusive to the Islamic polity. Prior to this, Muslims had depended on Byzantine and Persian currencies. This indicates that the primary motivation behind the desire to translate and learn works on alchemy was simply a matter of the newly formed Islamic empire aspiring to become independent of its neighbors and self-sustaining.[^41] Likewise, government records were similarly translated for pragmatic goals, given that they constituted the foundation of the state’s operational fortitude. As for the reasons why these records were originally recorded in Persian and Greek? This had to do with the simple fact that the Persians and Byzantines were renowned at that time for their aptitude at “handling arithmetical operations carried over fractions and the like,” a necessary talent in order to produce such a record to begin with.[^42] As such, ‘Abd al-Malik felt the need to ‘Arabize’ the *dīwāns* so as to provide better access to these records among his officials, as well as produce greater efficiency in the management of the state and the flow of wealth therein. As a result, these practical concerns for transparency and the efficient management of the state’s coffers led to unintended – albeit fruitful – consequences. Since the recording of the *dīwāns* not only required skills in arithmetic, but also of astronomy (for being able to know the times for tax collection), geometry (for land surveying), and the knowledge of weights and measures (for commerce), this led to a desire to translate scientific works related to these tasks, as well as the subsequent education of native Arab speakers who wanted to qualify for government positions.[^43] In other words, a civil office within the newly formed Islamic empire became the springboard by which other scientific texts were sought out, translated, and learned. This domino effect would eventually facilitate practicalities related to religious practice (*ībadah*) as well. For example, astronomy was also necessary for calculating the specific times for obligatory acts of worship such as prayer (*ṣalāt*), the month of fasting (*Ramaḍān*), and holidays (*‘Īd*), thereby effectively organising and administrating the most essential activities of the Muslim community. --- ## Islām as Values – Science as a Tool Summarizing the above discussion, the translation movement did not occur suddenly with the Abbāsids, but was set in motion during the Umayyad dynasty; for practical reasons related to the Islamic polity at that time. In other words, the *internal influence* of Islamic values was the principal motivating factor behind the initial acquisition and utilization of science. Although never explicitly propagated in the Qur’ān or sayings and actions of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ , a form of scientific intellectualism was already being cultivated among Muslims during the classical period, guided by the desire to implement their values based in the Islamic tradition itself. For example, the Qur’ān provides a clear practical motivation for scientific study: *He has subjected all that is in the heavens and the earth for your benefit, as a gift from Him. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect.* (Al-Qur’ān, 45:13) Furthermore, the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ encouraged seeking knowledge to the same effect, focusing principally on its utility: *"A servant of Allāh will remain standing on the Day of Judgment until he is questioned about his (time on earth) and…about his knowledge and how he utilized it…"* (Al-Tirmidhī, #148) "*Knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure out of which nothing is spent in the cause of Allāh."* (Al-Tirmidhī, #108) *“Allāh, His angels and all those in Heavens and on Earth, even ants in their hills and fish in the water, call down blessings on those who instruct others in beneficial knowledge."* (Al-Tirmidhī, #422) These *aḥadīth* enjoin Muslims to acquire knowledge that is “beneficial” and to “utilize it,” implying that its value is beyond mere acquisition. As a case in point, many people know the difference between what is considered morally virtuous and morally abhorrent, but this knowledge has zero value if it isn’t utilized to encourage virtue and refrain from vice. Likewise, knowing how to perform open heart surgery has absolutely no benefit unless one is willing to actually perform it or teach it to others. As such, according to Islām, just knowing something is not enough for it to be considered “beneficial.” Sardar notes that it was this pragmatic view of knowledge – and of science and technology more specifically – that the early Muslims practiced and implemented: > *The classical scholars of Islam were concerned that in the pursuit of knowledge the needs of the community should not be lost sight of, that ilm should not create undesirable social effects, that it should not tend to such a level of abstraction that it leads to the estrangement of man from his world and his fellow men, or to confusion rather \[than\] enlightenment. In this framework science is guided towards a middle path. While it should be socially relevant, the idea of a purely utilitarian science is rejected. Moreover, there is no such thing as science for science’s sake; yet the pursuit of pure knowledge for the perfection of man is encouraged. Science, far from being enjoyed as an end in itself, must be instrumental to the attainment of a higher goal.*[^44] This perception would eventually result in the establishment of a scientific tradition quintessentially Islamic (i.e., motivated by the awareness and practice of Islamic values). But in what way was this new science different from any other? In this regard, the historian of science Jamil Regep – commenting on the practice of astronomy during the medieval period – notes the following two approaches generally adopted by Muslim scientists up until this time: > *Broadly speaking, one can identify two distinct ways in which religious influence manifested itself in medieval Islamic astronomy. First, there was the attempt to give religious value to astronomy…The second general way in which religious influence shows up is in the attempt to make astronomy as metaphysically neutral as possible, in order to ensure that it did not directly challenge Islamic doctrine.*[^45] The first way mentioned is what might be considered an ‘active’ approach towards the study of the natural world, in that Muslim scientists attempted to directly associate their values with a particular scientific practice. One such example was ʿAlāʾ al Dīn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Shatir (d. 1375), a simple *muwaqqit* (timekeeper) in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Despite having no other career than to simply make sure that everyone knew the correct times for obligatory prayers, this did not stop him from having greater ambitions surrounding his own task. During his off time – which he most likely had plenty of – Al-Shatir constructed more accurate instruments (e.g., sundials) and performed theoretical studies on celestial motion so as to better perform his duties. Consequently, due to his supplementary activities, Al-Shatir was able to formulate a model for the upper planets that was conspicuously also used by Copernicus in his development of the heliocentric theory nearly two centuries later. This has led researchers to speculate that the former may have played a role in the latter’s thinking.[^46] The other way in which Muslim scientists approached their subjects might be seen as more ‘passive’; rather than associate their values directly with their research and observations, they would often evade any questions or ideas seen as contrary to those values. This is not surprising as the very perception of science as a tool supported by, and in support of, those values would be undermined if any enquiry collided with the fundamental tenets of Islām. Even so, the practice of such passivity appears to contradict earlier claims that Islām encouraged the acquisition of knowledge. However, this sentiment is misplaced in that it reflects the outmoded view of science as a “neutral” enterprise – for the types of knowledge acquired are determined by a culture’s values to begin with. As such, these self-imposed limits are not necessarily detrimental. As a case in point, Muslim scientists eventually were able to develop the field of astronomy in new, more progressive directions through abandoning the old paradigm of their predecessors (i.e., Aristotelian natural philosophy) which supported many concepts that ran contrary to Islamic doctrine, such as astrology. Saliba summarizes this scientific revolution in the following way: > **As for the intersection between religion and astronomy, and through it the intersection between science and religion…the new astronomy of hay’a was developed in tandem with the religious requirements of early Islam. In a sense this new astronomy could be defined as religiously guided away from astrology. With the pressure from the anti-astrological quarter, usually religious in nature or allied with religious forces, astronomy had to re-orient itself to become more of a discipline that aimed at a phenomenological description of the behavior of the physical world, and steer away from investigating the influences its spheres exert on the sublunary region as astrology would require.**[^47] One notable example of a successful manifestation of this passive approach may be found in ‘Ala al-Dīn ‘Alī bin Muḥammad al-Qūshjī (d. 1474), the 15th century C.E. astronomer who grew up in the courts of Samarkand – one of the scientific centers of the world at that time – and eventually assumed a chair in teaching astronomy and mathematics at the Aya Sofia *madrassa* in Istanbul during the latter years of his life.[^48] Commenting on the theological opposition to astronomy during this period, Ragep notes Al-Qūshjī’s attempts at appeasing the theologians while simultaneously defending his scientific practice: > *Qūshjī is clearly sensitive to the Ash’arite \[theologians’\] position on causality, and he makes the interesting observation that part of their objection to it, at least as regards astronomy, has to do with the astrological contention of a causal link between the positions of the orbs and terrestrial events (especially “unusual circumstances”). To get around such objections, Qūshjī insists that astronomy does not need philosophy, since one could build the entire edifice of orbs necessary for the astronomical enterprise using only geometry, reasonable supposition, appropriate judgments, and provisional hypotheses. These premises allow astronomers \[in the words of Qūshjī\]: “to conceive {takhayyalū} from among the possible approaches the one by which the circumstances of the planets and their manifold irregularities may be put in order in such a way as to facilitate their determination of the positions and conjunctions of these planets for any time they might wish and so as to conform with perception {ḥiss} and sight {‘iyān}.* > > .... > > *What makes Qūshjī’s position especially fascinating are some of the repercussions it had for his astronomical work. Since he claims to be no longer tied to the principles of Aristotelian physics, he feels free to explore other possibilities, including the Earth’s rotation.*[^49][^49] As a result of Al-Qūshjī abandoning the ‘old order’ of Aristotelianism for the sake of his own values, he was not only able to challenge the conventional astronomy of his time through better substantiated astronomical models, but was also led to argue that the Earth’s rotation was a possibility, thereby paving the way towards the construction of the heliocentric paradigm by Copernicus less than a century later.[^50] In other words, those boundaries imposed on the Muslim mindset, when inquiring into the workings of the natural world, also served as liberating alternatives to outmoded paradigms and helped to advance the sciences in significant and revolutionary ways. However, simply knowing why Muslims approached the sciences the way they did doesn’t exactly inform us as to how these alternatives were constructed – it’s only one part of the equation. Knowing the form is significantly different from knowing its substance. As such, we also need to know what were the specific values that defined the essence of the Islamic scientific enterprise and what motivated Muslim scientists to explore the natural world in the ways they did. In this regard, many contemporary scholars have attempted to offer specific criteria for what constitutes ‘Islamic scientific values.’ As a case in point, Sardar mentions that in 1981 a seminar was held in Stockholm, Sweden where Muslim scientists from around the world attempted to construct a list of those very values. What was agreed upon at that conference consisted of a total of ten concepts.[^51] The first four are considered self-contained and foundational to the rest: 1. ***Tawḥīd* (Divine Unity):** *“Say, ‘He is Allāh the One, Allāh the Eternal. He begot no one nor was He begotten. No one is comparable to Him.’”* (Al-Qur’ān, 112: 1-4) The concept of Allāh’s Oneness, or unity, is central to Islamic doctrine; even an entire *surah* in the Qur’ān is dedicated to its explication. As such, Muslims are obligated to not only believe in this tenet – and all of Allāh’s specific Attributes – but also to *not* believe in anything that would contradict it in the slightest. The implication of this is that Islām reigns supreme in all matters concerning one’s understanding of reality, along with their perception of science. That said, this concept also motivates one to infer unity in all other aspects of reality, such as with humanity (i.e., anti-racism, anti-xenophobia, etc.) and the connection between knowledge and values. 2. ***Khilāfah* (Trusteeship):** *“\[Prophet\], when your Lord told the angels, ‘I am putting a successor on earth,’ they said, ‘How can You put someone there who will cause damage and bloodshed, when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?’ but He said, ‘I know things you do not.’”* (Al-Qur’ān, 2:30) *“‘David, We have given you mastery over the land. Judge fairly between people. Do not follow your desires, lest they divert you from Allāh’s path: those who wander from His path will have a painful torment because they ignore the Day of Reckoning.’”* (Al-Qur’ān, 38:26) The concept of human trusteeship on earth is important in that it dictates the way in which humanity should understand their place in existence: as a responsibility and duty towards the rest of creation entrusted to them by their Creator. Because Allāh has put humans on Earth for this task, we must take this status seriously. The implications of this concept manifest themselves in humanity’s concern for the environment, their impact on the planet’s health, animals, and other human beings, as well as the ends science and technology should be used for. 3. ***Ībadah* (Worship):** *“I created jinn and mankind only to worship Me.”* (Al-Qur’ān, 51:56) Following the concept of trusteeship, Muslims have also been informed by the Creator that their purpose in life is to worship Him. In line with this, the obligation to nurture and preserve the earth, and all living and nonliving things, is explicitly seen as an act of worship itself. Thus, understanding the natural world and applying that knowledge in an ethical manner, whether it be through biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, medicine, etc. are all acts that fulfill a Muslim’s purpose in life in accordance with Islām. 4. **‘*Ilm* (Knowledge):** *“Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men possessed of minds who remember Allāh, standing and sitting and on their side, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth…”* (Al-Qur’ān, 3:190-191). As mentioned earlier, the acquisition of beneficial knowledge is one of Islamic teachings’ most prominent traits. Muslims are constantly asked through the Qur’ān to “reflect” on the signs of creation and to use their reasoning towards ascertaining the wonders of the world and the wisdom behind their existence. Although considered equally important, the subsequent six values depend on the four aforementioned and function as three contrasting pairs: 5-6. ***Ḥalāl* (Permissible) v. *Ḥarām* (Impermissible):** *“You who believe, intoxicants and gambling, idolatrous practices, and \[divining with\] arrows are repugnant acts – Satan’s doing – shun them so that you may prosper.”* (Al-Qur’ān, 5:90) What Islām considers ‘praiseworthy’ and ‘blameworthy’ are essential to how Muslim scientists approach their fields. For example, Muslims are obligated to develop medicines that do not involve intoxicants nor certain animals determined as ‘unclean’ (e.g., pigs). As a result, physicians coming from the Islamic tradition will more likely search for alternative ingredients that may have more beneficial effects on their patients. Furthermore, impractical and unsubstantiated practices involving divination (e.g., astrology) are prohibited, allowing for Muslims to concentrate on more realistic and effective means of experimentation and its subsequent applications. 7-8. **‘*Adl* (Justice) v. *Ẓulm* (Tyranny):** *“You who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to Allāh, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives. Whether the person is rich or poor, Allāh can best take care of both. Refrain from following your own desire, so that you can act justly – if you distort or neglect justice, Allāh is fully aware of what you do.”* (Al-Qur’ān, 4:135) The establishment of justice against tyranny is another essential aspect of a Muslim scientist’s worldview and leads to the development of only beneficial and non-harmful scientific practices. For example, any approach to the natural world that leads to injustices against people or the environment must be immediately shunned; and any science performed for strictly personal benefit at the expense of others is also prohibited. 9-10. ***Istislah/Maslahah* (Public Interest) v. *‘Isrāf/Tabdhīr* (Waste)[^52]:** *Give relatives their due, and the needy, and travelers — but do not squander your wealth wastefully: those who squander are the brothers of Satan, and Satan is most ungrateful to his Lord – but if, while seeking some bounty that you expect from your Lord, you turn them down, then at least speak some word of comfort to them.* (Al-Qur’ān, 17: 26-28) This last pair of concepts continues to establish a humanitarian and environmentalist ethic in Muslim scientists by limiting their goals to the betterment of humanity and restricting them from excesses that would cause unnecessary harm. For example, the production of a particular energy or fuel, food source, or construction material, should be for the sake of facilitating human survival and welfare, but should not be overproduced to the extent that they create unnecessary pollutants that eventually damage the very people they were made to benefit nor the environment from which they were cultivated. Although this list may not be considered exhaustive by some, it has been one of the only attempts at constructing a list of definitive Islamic scientific values. These constructs also help to exemplify the essence of the Islamic scientific enterprise, reflecting the historical realities of the early Muslim community and its approach towards the natural world. In many ways then, Muslim scientists’ attempts at understanding reality and benefiting from it were the manifestation of strictly following their own ethos. So while Islam itself is not explicit in constructing a particular understanding of science, it may certainly be credited as the central paradigm which motivated Muslims to form the scientific practices and theories that they did – both actively and passively– and facilitated genuine scientific discoveries outside of Greek thought, which had been dominant for many centuries prior. How Muslim scientists practiced their fields and perceived the world through their own values is not a novel phenomenon in the history of science, nor is it anomalous to how contemporary science is practiced today. On the contrary, many influential thinkers have subscribed to this perception. One such philosopher, by the name of John Dewey (d. 1952), even coined the term ‘Instrumentalism’ to describe this historically normative scientific praxis: > *The office of physical science is to discover those properties and relations of things in virtue of which they are capable of being used as instrumentalities; physical science makes claim to disclose not the inner nature of things but only those connections of things with one another that determine outcomes and hence can be used as means.*[^53] Dewey was among the forerunners who challenged the notion of scientific realism, or the idea that theories and their subaltern facts correspond entirely to reality.[^54] As an anti-realist, he believed that science was not an approximate measure of truth, but was goal-oriented and limited by the intentions and desires of scientists themselves. No one can possibly have a full account of the physical world because no one has a full account of the data, nor can they perceive beyond the cultural contexts by which they meaningfully define and organize their experiences. Thus, the construction of theories is an entirely subjective enterprise where ‘truth’ is not defined in an absolute sense, but in accordance with *what works towards an aspired end*; the best theories are those which produce the best results. Dewey’s views would go on to inspire other philosophers of science, including Willard Quine (d. 2000) and the aforementioned Thomas Kuhn, forming the philosophical tradition known today as ‘Pragmatism.’ And despite this understanding of science being considered relatively new – as it was in response to a set of problems emanating from the 20 th century C.E. – philosophers drawing from this tradition have promoted their ideas as the most coherent and workable understanding of the normative historical scientific praxis. Unfortunately, the view of science as being “neutral” and “objective” is still the dominant paradigm among the lay community. This raises the question as to why and how such an alien relationship exists between these two groups (an analysis that is beyond the scope of this paper). That aside, the Pragmatists’ conception appears to more accurately represent the historical realities of early Muslim scientific practice, if only because the Classical Narrative – which is based on scientific realism – is so obviously wrong in its central assumption that Islamic values were irrelevant or averse to scientific productivity. Thus, it would be appropriate to summarize Islamic science as an enterprise which adopts an instrumentalist approach with regard to Islamic values. In the same way, we may define contemporary science as one which adopts a form of secular instrumentalism, given that the Western ethos is the dominant and most influential in the contemporary period. However, now knowing the internal influences in the rise of scientific productivity, how did this correlate with those influences *external to* Islamic civilization? Working in symbiosis with Islamic values, the environment Muslims lived in at the time also played a major factor. In other words, the desire to efficiently function as a community through the unification of language and administrative protocols was also motivated by the need to survive and compete with other hostile empires (i.e., the Byzantine and Sassanid) which surrounded the Islamic polity. Thus, the acquisition of the sciences and their subsequent translation were spurred not only by the shared values of the Muslim community, but by the conditions that provoked those values to be expressed and protected. --- ## Al-Ghazālī: Villain or Scapegoat? Given the Classical Narrative’s inability to adequately represent the historical data on the rise of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization, it is also likely inadequate in representing its decline. In other words, to suggest that the values which spurred scientific inquiry and ingenuity were simultaneously responsible for their stagnation is nothing less than an archetypal example of incoherency. However, as simple as it may be to dismiss the Classical Narrative on the basis of logic alone, I still find it necessary to address some of its finer points regarding the decline, if only for the sake of accentuating the efficacy of an alternative theory. It is generally agreed upon that the inauguration of the Age of Dependency began roughly around the 16th century C.E. as scientific productivity in the Muslim world noticeably started to wane. The initial phases of the decline coincided with an increased reliance on the scientific institutions, technologies, and theories emanating from Europe. Gradually, this dependency became an enduring feature of Islamic civilization, culminating in its utter intellectual subservience to foreign powers by the 19th and 20th centuries C.E. – a reality most apparent to Muslims today.[^55] How this all occurred is still undetermined by historians of science, largely due to an only very recent skepticism towards the definitive conclusions offered by the Classical Narrative. This scrutiny has not been without its merits, the most prominent example of such being towards the Orientalists' portrayal of the aforementioned Al-Ghazālī, as the archetypical antagonist in the historical drama between ‘rationality’ and ‘religion.’ Though it has not been made clear to why this eminent scholar is always singled out as the primary culprit, promoters of the Classical Narrative suggests it has something to do with his now (in)famous refutation of Aristotelian philosophy titled *Tahāfut al-Falāsifa* (*The Incoherence of the Philosophers*). As the story goes, Muslims were scientifically productive due to having adopted the rational framework of Greek philosophical thought (read ‘Western’), and then suddenly one scholar came along, expressed his ideas, and that was the end of reasonable thinking as we know it. Aside from the curious circumstance of a supremely rational society succumbing to one man’s supposed irrationality, there are a number of issues with this perspective; the first being Al-Ghazālī’s openly stated intentions behind his treatise. In the very introduction of the *Tahāfut*, Al-Ghazālī makes a detailed list of the views he wishes to refute, while going out of his way to clarify those ideas he has no problem with . In particular, he mentions astronomy and mathematics as examples of the latter, even going so far as to denounce anyone who tries to argue against them: > *Another example \[of what I agree with\] is their statement: "The solar eclipse means the presence of the lunar orb between the observer and the sun. This occurs when the sun and the moon are both at the two nodes at one degree." This topic is also one into the refutation of which we shall not plunge, since this serves no purpose. Whoever thinks that to engage in a disputation for refuting such a theory is a religious duty harms religion and weakens it. For these matters rest on demonstrations—geometrical and arithmetical—that leave no room for doubt. Thus, when one who studies these demonstrations and ascertains their proofs, deriving thereby information about the time of the two eclipses \[and\] their extent and duration, is told that this is contrary to religion, \[such an individual\] will not suspect this \[science, but\] only religion. The harm inflicted on religion by those who defend it in a way not proper to it is greater than \[the harm caused by\] those who attack it in the way proper to it. As it has been said: "A rational foe is better than an ignorant friend."*[^56] So, if Al-Ghazālī was not opposed to our conventional understanding of science, then *what* was he arguing against and *how* was he responsible for bringing about the Age of Dependency? To answer the first question, Al-Ghazālī makes it very clear that his criticisms of the philosophers are in regards to nothing more than their abstract non-empirically verifiable beliefs that run contrary to Islām: > *When I perceived this vein of folly throbbing within these dimwits, I took it upon myself to write this book in refutation of the ancient philosophers, to show the incoherence of their belief and the contradiction of their word in matters relating to metaphysics; to uncover the dangers of their doctrine and its shortcomings, which in truth ascertainable are objects of laughter for the rational and a lesson for the intelligent—I mean the kinds of diverse beliefs and opinions they particularly hold that set them aside from the populace and the common run of men. \[I will do this\] relating at the same time their doctrine as it actually is, so as to make it clear to those who embrace unbelief through imitation that all significant thinkers, past and present, agree in believing in God and the last day; that their differences reduce to matters of detail extraneous to those two pivotal points (for the sake of which the prophets, supported by miracles, have been sent); that no one has denied these two \[beliefs\] other than a remnant of perverse minds who hold lopsided opinions, who are neither noticed nor taken into account in the deliberations of the speculative thinkers, \[but who are instead\] counted only among the company of evil devils and in the throng of the dim-witted and inexperienced. \[I will do this\] so that whoever believes that adorning oneself with imitated unbelief shows good judgment and induces awareness of one's quick wit and intelligence would desist from his extravagance, as it will become verified for him that those prominent and leading philosophers he emulates are innocent of the imputation that they deny the religious laws; that \[on the contrary\] they believe in God and His messengers; but that they have fallen into confusion in certain details beyond these principles, erring in this, straying from the correct path, and leading others astray. We will reveal the kinds of imaginings and vanities in which they have been deceived, showing all this to be unproductive extravagance. God, may He be exalted, is the patron of success in the endeavor to show what we intend to verify.*[^57][^57] This statement alone should already attract suspicion towards the Classical Narrative’s accusations against Al-Ghazālī. Regarding the second question then, it is claimed by critics that his metaphysical views were what ultimately altered Muslims’ perceptions of rationality and science for the worse. More specifically, their ire is often focused on three positions he adopted in opposition to the Aristotelian philosophers at the time. Those positions are as follows: 1) There is no necessary connection between causes and their effects; 2) The study of mathematics can be detrimental to one’s beliefs; and 3) Knowledge should only be acquired and practiced if it possesses utility (i.e., instrumentalism). 1. **Al-Ghazālī and Causality** In order to examine Al-Ghazālī’s views on cause and effect, we should begin by peering through the eyes of his critics – one such being the aforementioned advocate of the Classical Narrative, Pervez Hoodbhoy. In his book, *Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality*, Hoodbhoy attempts to explain the decline by simply echoing the Classical Narrative in full form; his entire argument rests on vilifying Islamic religious orthodoxy (the established scholarly tradition) by targeting Al-Ghazālī as its apparent archetype. In a chapter solely dedicated to the scholar, Hoodbhoy begins by both summarizing and chastising Al-Ghazālī’s views on causality: > *Fire causes burning, lightning causes thunder, winds cause waves, and gravity causes bodies to fall. Such connections between an effect and its cause form the cornerstone of scientific thinking, both modern and classical. But this notion of causality is one which is specifically rejected by Asharite doctrine, and the most articulate and effective opponent of physical causality was AI-Ghazzali. According to AI-Ghazzali, it is futile to believe that the world runs according to physical laws. God destroys, and then recreates, the world after every instant of time. Hence there cannot be continuity between one moment and the next, and one cannot suppose that a given action will definitely lead to a particular consequence. Conversely, it is false to assign a physical cause to any occurrence. In AI-Ghazzali's theology, God is directly the cause of all physical events and phenomena, and constantly intervenes in the world.*[^58] Hoodbhoy subsequently concludes that the acceptance of Al-Ghazālī’s perspective leads to a “fatalistic attitude” that denies the possibility of making predictions and demotivates people to enquire into the workings of the natural world.[^59] However, while it is certainly the case that Al-Ghazālī believed the connection between causes and their effects was not a necessary or permanent feature of such relationships – as all things were ultimately determined by Allāh – the notion that such a belief leads to intellectual lethargy is a questionable one. Hoodbhoy’s conclusion are especially dubious when one notices his failure to address Al-Ghazālī’s response to his objections. In other words, Al-Ghazālī had already played his own devil’s advocate and anticipated this criticism well in advance in the *Tahāfut*: > *\[To this\] it may be said \[by our detractors\]: This leads to the commission of repugnant contradictions. For if one denies that the effects follow necessarily from their causes and relates them to the will of their Creator, the will having no specific designated course but \[a course that\] can vary and change in kind, then let each of us allow the possibility of there being in front of him ferocious beasts, raging fires, high mountains, or enemies ready with their weapons \[to kill him\], but \[also the possibility\] that he does not see them because God does not create for him \[vision of them\]. And if someone leaves a book in the house, let him allow as possible its change on his returning home into a beardless slave boy—intelligent, busy with his tasks—or into an animal; or if he leaves a boy in his house, let him allow the possibility of his changing into a dog; or \[again\] if he leaves ashes, \[let him allow\] the possibility of its change into musk; and let him allow the possibility of stone changing into gold and gold into stone…Indeed, if \[such a person\] looks at a human being he has seen only now and is asked whether such a human is a creature that was born, let him hesitate and let him say that it is not impossible that some fruit in the marketplace has changed into a human—namely, this human—for God has power over every possible thing, and this thing is possible; hence, one must hesitate in \[this matter\]. This is a mode wide open in scope for \[numerous\] illustrations, but this much is sufficient.* > > *\[Our\] answer \[to this\] is to say: If it is established that the possible is such that there cannot be created for man knowledge of its nonbeing, these impossibilities would necessarily follow. We are not, however, rendered skeptical by the illustrations you have given because God created for us the knowledge that He did not enact these possibilities. We did not claim that these things are necessary. On the contrary, they are possibilities that may or may not occur. But the continuous habit of their occurrence repeatedly, one time after another, fixes unshakably in our minds the belief in their occurrence according to past habit.* > > *….* > > *If, then, God disrupts the habitual \[course of nature\] by making \[the miracle\] occur at the time in which disruptions of habitual \[events\] take place, these cognitions \[of the nonoccurrence of such unusual possibilities\] slip away from \[people's\] hearts, and \[God\] does not create them. There is, therefore, nothing to prevent a thing being possible, within the capabilities of God, \[but\] that by His prior knowledge He knew that He would not do it at certain times, despite its possibility, and that He creates for us the knowledge that He will not create it at that time. Hence, in \[all\] this talk \[of theirs\], there is nothing but sheer vilification.*[^60] Al-Ghazālī’s rendition of his critics’ ridicule includes a number of absurdities that could be derived from misunderstanding his position: from dramatic changes in perception to fruit spontaneously morphing into a human being. Apparently, given that such possibilities are endless, this makes it infeasible to expect any sort of consistency from the observable world. However, Al-Ghazālī answers his fictional opponents by emphasizing the fact that possibilities are not actualities; just because something *could be* does not necessitate that *it will be*. He bolsters his point by stating that there is a habitual nature to things that Allāh has created, allowing for the uninhibited acquisition of knowledge and any potential anomalies that may or may not take place. In other words, regardless if one thinks there is no necessary link between causes and their effects, their perception of those habitual relationships will still remain the same. He goes even further to appeal to Allāh’s Omniscience, suggesting that His Foreknowledge limits the occurrence of every possibility, preventing mankind from anticipating and subsequently being paralyzed by them. But even if one doesn’t find Al-Ghazālī’s reasoning valid, it takes little common sense effort to demonstrate that this accusation against him is incorrect. We need only recall the number of known possibilities that could happen to us in any given day; from the moment we wake up to the moment we sleep, the various ways in which we could be harmed or killed are immeasurable. Whether it be choking on your food, tripping and breaking your neck, experiencing a heart attack, being struck by a moving vehicle, being struck by lightning, being mauled by a wild or domestic animal, having a heavy object fall on you, drowning, dehydration, poisoning, contracting a fatal disease, being murdered, etc.  – and the various ways all of these can manifest – the majority of people still manage to live their lives without much reservation, despite knowing all of these things could happen to them at any given moment. Thus, the claim that such a perspective nurtures a “fatalistic attitude” is completely unwarranted, because human beings are just too stubborn to care otherwise. Perhaps had Hoodbhoy and his cohorts taken the time to read the *Tahāfut* beyond a cursory level confirmation bias,[^61] and used a bit of common sense, Al-Ghazālī’s fictional opponents may have likewise remained in the realm of possibility. Even more incriminating evidence against advocates of the Classical Narrative is their hypocrisy with regards to Ghazalian causality. While repudiating him for being “irrational,” they simultaneously lionize their own intellectual figures who held quite similar views. For example, Hoodbhoy lauds the French philosopher Renè Descartes (d. 1650) as being the “most important” thinker behind modern science; for whom we apparently still owe a great deal in terms of our understanding of science today.[^62] What’s ironic about this is that while Descartes believed there was a necessary connection between causes and their effects, he did not believe that such a relationship existed between *perception and knowledge* – arguably a far more essential component to the flourishing of science. In order to showcase Descartes’ position on this epistemic relationship, we need only look at a few passages from his seminal work *Meditationes de Prima Philosophia* (*Meditations on First Philosophy*) where he argues that the indefeasibility of one’s observations and abstract deductions can only be established by first believing in God: > *The fact that an atheist can be ‘clearly aware that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles’ is something I do not dispute. But I maintain that this awareness of his is not true knowledge, since no act of awareness that can be rendered doubtful seems fit to be called knowledge. Now since we are supposed that this individual is an atheist, he cannot be certain that he is not being deceived on matters which seem to him to be very evident…And although this doubt may not occur to him, it can still crop up if someone else raises the point or if he looks into the matter himself. So he will never be free of doubt until he acknowledges that God exists.*[^63] Here, Descartes is quite clear in saying that atheists are incapable of acquiring “real knowledge” because they don’t believe in God. Although he provides many reasons for this conclusion, we need only focus on how it reveals a profound irony emanating from Hoodbhoy’s nomination of the philosopher as a central figure behind modern science; the idea that atheists are scientifically impotent doesn’t quite coincide with a narrative that suggests the inherent rationality of anti-religious thinking. More importantly however, even if one were to accept Descartes’ reasoning as valid, his epistemology suffers from a glaring incoherency that actually makes knowledge virtually unobtainable. This is most evident in his chapter titled the “Fourth Meditation,” where he suggests that only after having ‘clearly and distinctly’ ascertained God’s existence can other knowledge be possible: > *During the past few days I have accustomed myself to leading my mind away from the sense; and I have taken careful note of the fact that there is very little about corporeal things that is truly perceived, whereas much more is known about the human mind, and still more about God. The result is that I now have no difficulty in turning my mind away from imaginable things and towards things which are objects of the intellect alone and are totally separate from matter…And when I consider the fact that I have doubts, or that I am a thing that is incomplete and dependent, then there arises in me a clear and distinct idea of a being who is independent and complete, that is, an idea of God. And from the mere fact that there is such an idea within me, or that I who possess this idea exist, I clearly infer that God also exists, and that every single moment of my entire existence depends on him. So clear is this conclusion that I am confident that the human intellect cannot know anything that is more evident or more certain. And now, from this contemplation of the true God, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and the sciences lie hidden, I think I can see a way forward to the knowledge of other things.*[^64] A careful examination of this passage showcases a very obvious logical inconsistency that renders Descartes’ entire argumentation suspect: If one requires a belief in God in order to *have* certainty, how is it possible to believe in God *with* certainty? This conundrum, now referred to as the “Cartesian Circle,” did not escape Descartes and he did attempt to treat the problem. Despite this, however, his critics did not find his solutions convincing and his epistemology would eventually be eclipsed by more tenable explanations. All this considered, it seems remarkably nonsensical for Hoodbhoy to accuse Al-Ghazālī of promoting “fatalism” when he simultaneously champions a thinker who argued himself into intellectual paralysis. In other words, if the latter can so credulously be regarded as an exemplar of modern scientific thinking, then it is quite ludicrous to see the former as its opposite. 2. **Al-Ghazālī and Mathematics** After a questionable exposé of Ghazalian causality, Hoodbhoy quickly shifts focus away from the *Tahāfut* and goes on to examine the medieval scholar’s views on mathematics, drawing from his biography, *Al-Munqidh min al-Dalāl (Deliverance from Error)*. Hoodbhoy more or less begins and ends his analysis by merely quoting a passage from Al-Ghazālī and then adding some brief commentary: > *\[Al-Ghazālī states:\] “There are two drawbacks which arise from mathematics. The first is that every student of mathematics admires its precision and the clarity of its demonstrations. This leads him to believe in the philosophers and to think that all their sciences resemble this one in clarity and demonstrative power. Further, he has already heard the accounts on everybody's lips of their unbelief, their denial of God's attributes, and their contempt for revealed truth; he becomes an unbeliever merely by accepting them as authorities.”* > > *The argument here is clearly that mathematics is potentially, but not necessarily, dangerous. The danger exists because those who study the subject may become inebriated with the power and beauty of precise reasoning, and so forsake belief in revelation.*[^66] Despite what may appear to be an unambiguous dismissal of the study of mathematics -- due to its imbuing its wielders with the “power and beauty of precise reasoning” -- and subsequent rejection of religious beliefs, Al-Ghazālī clearly has been misrepresented. My contention is not about a simple difference of interpretation, rather it is in contrast to a case of selective attention. Whether due to the fact that he derived the quote solely from a secondary source,[^67] or because he didn’t feel the need to present the entire context of the passage in question, Hoodbhoy is clearly being disingenuous. Aside from Al-Ghazālī’s aforementioned approval of mathematics in the *Tahāfut*, his opposition to its study here refers specifically to a phenomenon during his time where the philosophers insisted that the value of *pure mathematics* rested exclusively in the appraisal of specific metaphysical doctrines.[^68] These included the doctrine of “the world’s pre-eternity,” the doctrine of “the world’s post-eternity,” the doctrine “that heaven is an animal that moves through volition,” and the doctrine “that annihilation is impossible for the human soul,” among many others.[^69] Moreover, mathematics was also being used as a means to justify the philosophers’ subaltern sciences, like astral determinations (i.e., astrology), talismans, and even magic.[^70] In other words, although mathematics was important for learning about the natural world, it was predominantly being utilized for the sake of anything but. As such, Al-Ghazālī warned of studying the discipline since it was not yet fully demarcated from the philosophers’ superstitions. In fact, his concerns are mentioned in the passage immediately following Hoodbhoy’s reference: > *\[…he becomes an unbeliever merely by accepting them as authorities\], asserting: “If religion were true, this would not have been unknown to these philosophers, given their precision in this science of mathematics.” Thus, when he learns through hearsay of their unbelief and rejection of religion, he concludes that it is right to reject and disavow religion. How many a man have I seen who strayed from the path of truth on this pretext and for no other reason! One may say to such a man: “A person skilled in one field is not necessarily skilled in every field…On the contrary, in each field there are men who have reached in it a certain degree of skill and preeminence, although they may be quite stupid and ignorant about other things. What the ancients had to say about mathematical topics was apodeictic, whereas their views on metaphysical questions were conjectural. But this is known only to an experienced man who has made a thorough study of the matter.” When such an argument is urged against one who has become an unbeliever out of mere conformism, he finds it unacceptable. Rather, caprice’s sway, vain passion, and love of appearing to be clever prompt him to persist in his high opinion of the philosophers with regard to all their sciences. This, then, is a very serious evil, and because of it one should warn off anyone who would embark upon the study of those mathematical sciences. For even though they do not pertain to the domain of religion, yet, since they are among the primary elements of the philosophers’ sciences, the student of mathematics will be insidiously affected by the sinister mischief of the philosophers. Rare, therefore, are those who study mathematics without losing their religion and throwing off the restraint of* piety.[^71] Surprisingly, Hoodbhoy doesn’t bother to mention the other half of Al-Ghazālī’s statement and infers an entirely different conclusion from what the scholar was actually conveying. However, even more contrary to Hoodbhoy’s accusations is yet another statement by Al-Ghazālī, in which he explains a *second* reason that studying mathematics may prove to be problematic: > *The second evil likely to follow from the study of the mathematical sciences derives from the case of an ignorant friend of Islam who supposes that our religion must be championed by the rejection of every science ascribed to the philosophers. So he rejects all their sciences, claiming that they display ignorance and folly in them all. He even denies their statements about eclipses of the sun and the moon and asserts that their views are contrary to the revealed Law. When such an assertion reaches the ears of someone who knows those things through apodeictic demonstration, he does not doubt the validity of his proof, but rather believes that Islam is built on ignorance and the denial of apodeictic demonstration. So he becomes all the more enamored of philosophy and envenomed against Islam. Great indeed is the crime against religion committed by anyone who supposes that Islam is to be championed by the denial of these mathematical sciences.*[^72] In summary, Al-Ghazālī also went on to critique the other extreme of those who reject mathematics altogether.  As such, when we go beyond a cursory reading of the texts, we find that his concern for studying mathematics rested not in its inherent opposition to religion or science, but in the philosopher’s monopolization of it solely for the sake of their unsubstantiated metaphysical views. Thus, contrary to Hoodbhoy’s assertions, Al-Ghazālī was not against the study of mathematics *per se*; rather, he attempted to facilitate it by pointing out its licentious misuse by his intellectual opponents. 3. **Al-Ghazālī and Instrumentalism** Hoodbhoy finalizes his critique of religious orthodoxy by suggesting that the overt instrumentalism practiced by the early Muslims was another factor which led to the decline of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization: > *A second factor which discouraged learning for learning's sake was the increasingly utilitarian character of post Golden Age Islamic society. Utilitarianism - the notion that the only desirable things are those which are useful - was not an obsession of Islamic society in the early days of its intellectual development.*[^73] Here, Hoodbhoy indirectly continues his assault on Al-Ghazālī for his opposition to the Aristotelian philosophers, seemingly unaware that the latter conflated scientific disciplines with their metaphysical doctrines. Despite having already shown that instrumentalism was the driving force behind the rise of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization, this accusation makes little sense. As such, we should examine the basis on which Hoodbhoy is uncritically drawing this conclusion. One of the first critics of the Classical Narrative was the historian of science Abdelhamid Ibrahim Sabra (d. 2013), who saw the conflict thesis as inadequate and alternatively posited that, “the decline of science occurred, not in the context of opposition (as is usually thought) but in the context of acceptance and assimilation.”[^74] Despite Sabra offering a different perspective on the subject, his hypothesis is more a modification of the Classical Narrative, rather than a genuine critique. For instance, while he views the decline of scientific productivity in the Muslim world as not being the fault of religion *opposing* science, he believes it occurred due to science playing a subservient role (i.e., instrumentalism). Given that Sabra’s hypothesis still borrows extensively from the Classical Narrative’s version of events, it’s not surprising that his analysis also projects a negative view of religious influence on scientific inquiry. More specifically, he does not resist the temptation to impugn the same historical figures as his predecessors. For example, in his article, “The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam,” Sabra writes: > *In a chapter of his Muqaddima devoted to a lengthy refutation of philosophy the fourteenth century historian Ibn Khaldūn wrote that, “The problems of physics \[he was referring to Aristotelian natural philosophy\] are of no importance for us in our religious affairs or our livelihoods. Therefore, we must leave them alone.” He was echoing a sentiment already expressed by Ghazālī three hundred years earlier…There is only one principle that should be consulted whenever one has to decide whether or not a certain branch of learning is worthy of pursuit: it is the all-important consideration that “this world is a sowing ground for the next”; and Ghazālī quotes in this connection the Prophetic Tradition: “May God protect us from useless knowledge.” The final result of all this is an instrumentalist and religiously oriented view of all secular and permitted knowledge…\[which would\] put a curb on theoretical inquiry.*[^75] Yet again we find Al-Ghazālī shouldering the burden for the decline, only this time his influence has been reinterpreted as having limited science to a religious function rather than opposing it altogether. To support his position, Sabra makes a tenuous connection between the views of the late 15th century C.E. historian Abū Zayd 'Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khaldūn al-Ḥaḍramī (d. 1406) and Al-Ghazālī, supplemented by a single *ḥadīth*. Despite Sabra considering this “strongly suggested observation,”[^76] such scant evidence surely cannot constitute enough historical data to propound a theory on the decline of a scientific tradition.[^77] This is further bolstered by the realization that Al-Ghazālī’s rejection of ‘useless sciences’ cannot possibly be seen as the least bit unwarranted, especially if we recall the fact that Aristotelian physics (i.e., ‘natural philosophy’) incorporated many erroneous concepts such as astrology, a stationary Earth, and an incorrect view of celestial motion.[^78] To Al-Ghazālī, subjects such as astronomy were not similar methodologically to natural philosophy; the former was defined by its devotion to observation and the precise use of mathematics – much like contemporary physics – whereas the latter was based almost entirely on speculative reasoning. Despite the philosophers’ conflations, a lesser form of demarcation did actually exist between the two prior to the advent of Islamic science, and only became more pronounced as Muslims critically examined the Greek texts for useful material. As Regep notes: > *Islamic scientists inherited an astronomy from the ancients that already had been differentiated to a lesser or greater degree from natural philosophy. Islamic astronomers, though, carried this process much farther along, and it does not seem unreasonable to see this, at least in part, as a response to religious objections directed at Hellenistic physics and metaphysics, on the one hand, and to religious neutrality towards mathematics, on the other.*[^79] As such, it should not be an affront to historians that Al-Ghazālī would want to seek more practical alternatives. Seemingly unbeknownst to Sabra, Ibn Khaldūn likewise made this distinction. Only a few paragraphs prior to where the former quotes him, he explains that the “problems” he was referring to revolved around the philosophers’ assumptions regarding the unequivocal relationship between Aristotelian abstract universals and sense perception: > *The arguments concerning the corporeal existentia constitute what they \[the philosophers\] call the science of physics. The insufficiency lies in the fact that conformity between the results of thinking - which, as they assume, are produced by rational norms and reasoning - and the outside world, is not unequivocal. All the judgments of the mind are general ones, whereas the existentia of the outside world are individual in their substances. Perhaps, there is something in those substances that prevents conformity between the universal (judgments) of the mind and the individual (substances) of the outside world. At any rate, however, whatever (conformity) is attested by sensual perception has its proof in the fact that it is observable. (It does not have its proof) in (logical) arguments. Where, then, is the unequivocal character they find in (their arguments)?*[^80] In no way then was Ibn Khaldūn a representative of anti-scientific sentiments either. That said, perhaps the greatest evidence against Sabra’s – and subsequently Hoodbhoy’s – assertions are the numerous scientific advancements that occurred five centuries post Al-Ghazālī. Although these discoveries are at the individual level and don’t appear to be brought about by any institutionalized initiatives, they still reflect a scientific mentality prevalent within society and one which had no real restrictions. Such examples include the accomplishments of scholars like ‘Ala' al-Dīn Abu al-Hasan ‘Alī ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qarshi Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288), who discovered the pulmonary circulation of blood, Kamal al-Dīn al-Farisī (d. 1319), who discovered how the colors of a rainbow are formed,[^81] Mulla Fatḥallāh al-Shirwānī (d. 1450) and Shams al-Dīn al-Khafirī (d. 1550), who both authored astronomical commentaries critical of the Ptolemaic system, and many more.[^82] In other words, the post-Ghazālī age was ripe with scientific discoveries and treatises that most certainly influenced European scientists and paved the way towards the Western scientific revolution. Summarizing all the above discussions, not only is it evident that the Classical Narrative fails to adequately represent the events and influences leading up to the Age of Productivity, but also misrepresents the events and influences which led to its decline. The arch villain chosen to exemplify a religious orthodoxy antagonistic to science is not only innocent of the crimes he is accused of, but has proven to be only a scapegoat for Orientalists’ fables. --- ## Towards a New Understanding The analysis I have conducted thus far on the rise and decline of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization has not merely been for the sake of critique, but towards establishing a new understanding of the subject entirely. What has been determined, up until this point, is that the Classical Narrative can no longer be considered a valid and coherent means by which to understand the scientific history of Islamic civilization – the thesis that religion conflicted with or subjugated science to inoperability is simply untenable. Rather, what we find is that an overt instrumentalism, spearheaded by religious orthodoxy, actually nurtured scientific ingenuity through the rejection of the outmoded paradigm of Aristotelian philosophy. The question remains then: What went wrong? Islamic science flourished well into the 16th century C.E., only then to decline to a point where Muslims began to depend solely on European ideas and inventions. Somehow and somewhere before the end of this period, events transpired within Islamic civilization that took it on a self-destructive trajectory; events which would see the abandonment of its scientific values altogether. As Açikgenç states: > *… a scientific tradition is continuous, as such, it cannot be interrupted. For, if there is an interruption, it may not continue creatively as it is the case with Islamic scientific tradition today. Discontinuity will necessarily turn the members of that tradition to another civilization where they can find a continuous tradition.*[^83] In line with the previous discussions, Al-Ghazālī and his intellectual progeny were certainly not to blame for undermining science; they simply believed that rational knowledge should produce effective results and not remain in the realm of the abstract.[^84] Thus, contrary to the Classical Narrative, scientific ingenuity is not limited by mere opposition towards certain forms of speculative reasoning – as to afford every theoretical whim the same value would be unrealistic and impractical. Rather, the limitation in question would need to be far more constraining, imprisoning theoretical inquiry not by means of utilitarian subservience, but some form of impervious absolutism. Had the early Muslims’ instrumentalism been prone to the latter, the result would have been the total abandonment of scientific research, given the superfluous nature of inquiring further into *already resolved issues*. On the contrary, we find instrumentalist-minded scientists struggling to make their research relevant by formulating more pragmatic models – such as in the case of Al-Qūshjī and others – making it possible for alternative solutions to be found later. Therefore, recalling Dewey, we may be able to find clues towards revealing the culprit: > *The history of the development of the physical sciences is the story of the enlarging possession by mankind of more efficacious instrumentalities for dealing with the conditions of life and action. But when one neglects the connection of these scientific objects with the affairs of primary experience, the result is a picture of a world of things indifferent to human interests because it is wholly apart from experience. It is more than merely isolated, for it is set in opposition. Hence when it is viewed as fixed and final in itself it is a source of oppression to the heart and paralysis to imagination.* > > …. > > *Since the seventeenth century this conception of experience as the equivalent of subjective private consciousness set over against nature, which consists wholly of physical objects, has wrought havoc in philosophy.*[^85] What is fascinating about this passage is that it seems to admit of an ideology that intimately connects an ailing Islamic civilization to its now dominant Western counterpart; what the latter was only beginning to experience by the 17 th century C.E., was what may have very well determined the destiny of the former by the same period. It is from this passage that I began my journey into discovering how the decline of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization occurred, and it is where, I believe, the answer is to be found. *In the next paper, we will examine the actual influences behind the Age of Dependency and how Muslims may be able to revive the Age of Productivity.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Pervez Hoodbhoy, “How Islam Lost Its Way: Yesterday’s Achievements Were Golden,” *The Washington Post*, December 30, 2001, accessed October 21, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2001/12/30/how-islam-lost-its-way-yesterdays-achievements-were-golden/d325ce2a-146f-4791-b5e7-8e662d991cbb/?utm\_term=.08b85096dca1 [^2]: Stephen Shankland, “Neil DeGrasse Tyson: US need not lose its edge in science,” *CNET*, June 20, 2014, accessed October 21, 2016, http://www.cnet.com/news/neil-degrasse-tyson-the-us-doesnt-have-to-lose-its-edge-in-science/ [^3]: This is the formal term used to refer to ‘the West’ (i.e., Europe, the Americas, and their subsequent colonies, territories, etc.). [^4]: Osman Bakar, preface to *Tawhid and Science*, 2nd ed. (Shah Alam: Arah Publications, 2008), xxx-xxxi. [^5]: Alparslan Açikgenç, *Islamic Scientific Tradition in History* (Kuala Lumpur: IKIM, 2014), 12. [^6]: Ibid, 13. [^7]: Ibid, 45. [^8]: Ibid, 15. [^9]: “Science,” Oxford Dictionaries, accessed December 6, 2016, http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/science [^10]: Ziauddin Sardar, *How Do We Know? Reading Ziauddin Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Relations* (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 170. [^11]: As the reader may easily ascertain, Kuhn’s work was the primary influence behind this paper’s title. [^12]: Thomas Kuhn, *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions*, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 192. [^13]: Axiology is the philosophical study of values. Values are generally considered the cherished beliefs of a people that guide them in all their affairs (i.e., morals and ethics). [^14]: “Culture,” Oxford Dictionaries, accessed December 6, 2016, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/culture [^15]: For a thorough understanding of science in this respect, please refer to Thomas Kuhn’s work *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions*. [^16]: Alparslan Açikgenç, *Islamic Scientific Tradition in History* (Kuala Lumpur: IKIM, 2012), 27. [^17]: George Saliba, *Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance* (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2007), 248. [^18]: Toby Huff, *The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West*, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 19. [^19]: David Deming, *Science and Technology in World History*, *Volume 2: Early Christianity, the Rise of Islam and the Middle Ages* (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010), 81-82. [^20]: Dimitri Gutas, *Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society* (2nd-4th/5th-10th c.) (New York: Routledge, 1998), 11. [^21]: An Orientalist is broadly defined as “someone who studies the Orient \[i.e., the East\].” However, it is specifically being used here to refer to those who do so through the lens of a Western bias, viewing other cultures and religions as static, underdeveloped, and inferior. [^22]: Saliba, *Islamic Science and European Renaissance*, 1-2. [^23]: Ibid, 234. [^24]: Muzaffar Iqbal, The Making of Islamic Science (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2009), 73. [^25]: Huff, *Rise of Early Modern Science*, 219. [^26]: Sonja Brentjes, “Reviews: Oversimplifying the Islamic Scientific Tradition”, *Metascience* 13 (2004): 83-86, accessed October 17, 2016, doi: 10.1023/B:MESC.0000023270.62689.51 [^27]: See, Sonja Brentjes, “On the Location of the Ancient or ‘Rational’ Sciences in Muslim Educational Landscapes (AH 500 – 1100),” *Bulletin of the Royal Institute of Inter-Faith Studies* 4 (2002): 47-71. [^28]: See, Gutas, *Greek Thought, Arabic Culture*. [^29]: See, Ahmad Dallal, *Islam, Science, and the Challenge of Histor*y (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010). [^30]: Saliba, *Islamic Science and European Renaissance*, 13. [^31]: Ibid, 28. [^32]: Ibid, 40. [^33]: Muhammad al-Nadīm, *The Fihrist of Al-Nadīm: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, V.2*, trans. Bayard Dodge (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 583. [^34]: Ibid, 579 - 581. [^35]: Dallal, *Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History*, 10-11. [^36]: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Philosophy from its Origin to its Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy (New York: State University of New York Press, 2006), 121. [^37]: Ibid, 122. [^38]: Ibid, 124. [^39]: Saliba, *Islamic Science and European Renaissance*, 13-14. [^40]: Al-Nadīm, *Fihrist*, 581-583. [^41]: Saliba, *Islamic Science and European Renaissance*, 50-51. [^42]: Ibid, 53. [^43]: Ibid, 54-55. [^44]: Sardar, *How Do You Know?*, 137. [^45]: F. Jamil Ragep and Alī al-Qūshjī. “Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science,” *Osiris* V. 16, *Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions* (2001), 50. [^46]: Saliba, *Islamic Science and European Renaissance*, 189-190. [^47]: Ibid, 186. [^48]: Ragep, “Freeing Astronomy”, 61. [^49]: Ibid, 61-63. [^50]: In fact, it has been argued that Qushjī may have been directly responsible for the later findings of Copernicus. For more on this see, F. Jamil Ragep, “‘Alī Qushjī and Regiomontanus: Eccentric Transformations and Copernican Revolutions,” *Journal for the History of Astronomy* 36/4 (2005): 359-371. [^51]: Sardar, *How Do You Know?*, 184. [^52]: Sardar mistranslated the word for ‘waste’ here as ‘dhiya’. Thus, I have changed it to reflect the correct terminology. [^53]: John Dewey, preface to Experience and Nature (London: George Allen & Unwin, LTD., 1929), v. [^54]: Michael Liston, “Scientific Realism and Antirealism”, *Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, accessed January 12, 2017, http://www.iep.utm.edu/sci-real/ [^55]: Saliba, Islamic Science and the European Renaissance, 247. [^56]: Muhammad al-Ghazālī, second introduction to The Incoherence of the Philosophers, trans. Michael E. Marmura (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2000), 5-6. [^57]: Ibid, religious preface, 3. [^58]: Pervez Hoodbhoy, *Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality* (London: Zed Books Ltd., 1991), 105. [^59]: Ibid, 120-121. [^60]: Ibid, 169-171. [^61]: “The tendency to look for evidence in favor of one's controversial hypothesis and not to look for disconfirming evidence, or to pay insufficient attention to it.” –  Bradley Dowden, “Fallacies,” *Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, accessed February 21, 2017, http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/#ConfirmationBias [^62]: Hoodbhoy, *Islam and Science*, 11. [^63]: René Descartes, *Meditations on First Philosophy with Selections from the Objections and Replies*, ed. John Cottingham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 103. [^64]: Ibid, 37. [^65]: Descartes’ attempt to reconcile his circular reasoning simply amounted to demarcating between *immediate* knowledge and *recollected* knowledge: *Lastly, as to the fact that I was not guilty of circularity when I said that the only reason we have for being sure that we clearly and distinctly perceive is true is the fact that God exists, but that we are sure that God exists only because we perceive this clearly: I have already given an adequate explanation of this point in my reply to the Second Objections, where I made a distinction between what we in fact perceive clearly and what we remember having perceived clearly on a previous occasion. To begin with, we are sure that God exists because we attend to the arguments which prove this; but subsequently it is enough for us to remember that we perceived something clearly in order for us to be certain that it is true. This would not be sufficient if we did not know that God exists and is not a deceiver*. – Ibid, 106. In summary, ascertaining the existence of God can be made certain within the moment, but the memory of coming to that conclusion can only be made certain by believing in God. However, the solution is superficial in that it presumes that one’s memory is already reliable enough to recall having ascertained God’s existence with certainty prior to believing in Him. [^66]: Hoodbhoy, *Islam and Science*, 105-106. [^67]: Hoodbhoy quotes from W. Montgomery Watt, *The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazzali* (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953), 33. [^68]: Al-Ghazālī, *Incoherence*, 8-9. [^69]: Ibid, 10-11. [^70]: Ibid, 162. [^71]: Al-Ghazālī, *Deliverance from Error (al-Munqidh min al-Dalāl)*, trans. Richard J. Mccarthy, S.J. (Boston: Twayne, 1980), 8-9. Accessed February 14, 2017, https://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cvsp/Documents/reading\_selections/CVSP%20202/Al-ghazali.pdf [^72]: Ibid, 9. [^73]: Hoodbhoy, *Islam and Science*, 121. [^74]: Abdelhamid Ibrahim Sabra, “The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Statement”, *History of Science* 25 (1987), 240. [^75]: Ibid, 239-240. [^76]: Ibid, 239. [^77]: Perhaps this should not be surprising given that Sabra did not intend for his thesis to be seen as comprehensive or for Al-Ghazālī to shoulder complete responsibility for the decline. He further claims that it was only “meant as a relevant and possibly illuminating observation that might help in future research by directing our attention in a certain direction rather than others” – Ibid, 240-241. [^78]: Ragep, “Freeing Astronomy,” 59-60. [^79]: Ibid, 60. [^80]: Ibn Khaldūn, *The Muqaddimah V.3*, trans. Franz Rosenthal (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967), 251. [^81]: Saliba, *Islamic Science and European Renaissance*, 239. [^82]: Ibid, 240. [^83]: Açikgenç, *Islamic Scientific Tradition in History*, 28. [^84]: For a more thorough discussion on what Al-Ghazālī considers ‘useful’ and ‘blameworthy,’ refer to Che Zarrina Sa'ari, “Classification of Sciences: A Comparative Study of liJyii' culum aI-din and al-Risiilah al-laduniyyah”, *Intellectual Discourse* 7(1) (Gombak: IIUM Press, 1999), 53-77. [^85]: Dewey, *Experience and Nature*, 11. ## Summary **The Rise and Decline of Scientific Productivity in Islamic Civilisation: A Reassessment of the "Classical Narrative"** For a long time, a widely circulated account has claimed that the flourishing of science among Muslims was borrowed entirely from foreign peoples, chiefly the Greeks, while its eventual decline was caused by Islam itself. This account, termed the "Classical Narrative," frames Islamic history as a struggle between reason and religion, mirroring the Occident's own experience of conflict between the Enlightenment and the Church. Voices such as the physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy and the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson have popularised this story, singling out the theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) as the man who supposedly extinguished rational inquiry by championing revelation over reason and disparaging mathematics. Yet upon careful examination this narrative collapses, for it is inconsistent in crediting geopolitics alone for the rise of science while blaming Islamic values alone for its fall. A more coherent reading of the historical evidence shows that scientific productivity among Muslims was in truth nurtured, both actively and passively, by Islamic values themselves. Before addressing history, it is worth noting that "science" is not a simple, self-evident term. As the philosopher of science Osman Bakar observed, there is even disagreement over whether the term applies only to the natural sciences or extends to the humanities. Alparslan Açikgenç held that any true science must possess a subject matter, a method, a theory, and a tradition. The popular notion that science is "neutral" and wholly "objective" is, however, mistaken. Ziauddin Sardar noted that observations never occur in isolation but within theories, and theories exist within paradigms — sets of beliefs and assumptions. Thomas Kuhn (d. 1996) illustrated that two people receiving the same visual stimuli may nonetheless perceive differently according to their background beliefs, reminding us that colour blindness went unnoticed until Dalton described it in 1794. From this it follows that the practice of science is shaped by the values and beliefs of those who pursue it, so that a religiously grounded civilisation will pursue science differently from a secular one. For this reason it is more accurate to speak of the "Age of Productivity" and the "Age of Dependency" rather than a neutral "rise" and "decline"; as George Saliba noted, decline is best understood as the stage at which a civilisation becomes a consumer rather than a producer of scientific ideas. Concerning the rise itself, the Classical Narrative assumes that Islamic civilisation was a barren desert culture that only awoke to science upon translating the works of more ancient peoples, and that this awakening was soon crushed by religious orthodoxy culminating in al-Ghazālī. Saliba traced this projection back to the Orientalist Ignáz Goldziher (d. 1921) and his "conflict thesis," which later thinkers such as Toby Huff adopted, even preferring the phrase "Arabic sciences" so as to strip the movement of any religious character. Yet if hostility to the "foreign sciences" truly existed from the start, one cannot explain how their translation was tolerated over so long a period. Saliba demonstrated that the famous story of the caliph al-Ma'mūn (d. 833) dreaming of Aristotle — reported by Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 940) in his *Kitāb al-Fihrist* — was recorded by its own narrator merely as one reason for the spread, not the origin, of the sciences. Indeed Ibn al-Nadīm reported that the Byzantines themselves had forbidden their ancient works as "opposed to the prophetic doctrine." The genuine beginnings lay earlier, in the Umayyad period, when Khālid ibn Yazīd (d. 704) commissioned translations of Greek and Coptic works, and 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān (d. 705), aided by al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf (d. 714), had the government registers translated into Arabic. As Ahmad Dallal argued, translation was never a mechanical transfer but depended on epistemological conditions already internal to Islamic culture. These practical concerns — minting independent coinage, managing the state's records, calculating prayer times, the fast of Ramaḍān, and the days of 'Īd — spurred the acquisition of arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry. The driving force, then, was the internal influence of Islamic values. Although neither the Qur'ān nor the Sunnah lays down a specific science, both encourage beneficial knowledge and its application. Allah says, "He has subjected all that is in the heavens and the earth for your benefit… There truly are signs in this for those who reflect" (al-Qur'ān 45:13). The Prophet ﷺ likewise stressed the utility of knowledge, saying that a servant will be questioned "about his knowledge and how he utilised it," that unused knowledge is like a hoarded treasure never spent, and that all creation — "even ants in their hills and fish in the water" — sends blessings upon those who teach beneficial knowledge (all reported in al-Tirmidhī). As Sardar explained, the early scholars pursued a middle path in which science was neither purely utilitarian nor sought for its own sake, but instrumental to a higher goal. Jamil Ragep identified two ways religious influence appeared in Islamic astronomy: an active approach that gave religious value to the science, and a passive approach that kept it metaphysically neutral so as not to challenge doctrine. The timekeeper Ibn al-Shāṭir (d. 1375) of the Umayyad Mosque exemplified the first, developing planetary models later echoed by Copernicus. The astronomer 'Alī al-Qūshjī (d. 1474) exemplified the second, insisting that astronomy needed only geometry and reasonable supposition rather than Aristotelian physics, which freed him even to entertain the Earth's rotation. Thus the very rejection of Aristotelian natural philosophy — which carried astrology and other doctrines contrary to Islam — proved liberating rather than stifling. A 1981 seminar in Stockholm articulated ten Islamic scientific values, the four foundational ones being tawḥīd (as in Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, 112:1–4), khilāfah (as in 2:30 and 38:26), 'ibādah (as in 51:56), and 'ilm (as in 3:190–191), followed by three contrasting pairs: the ḥalāl and ḥarām (5:90), justice and tyranny (4:135), and public interest against waste (17:26–28). This instrumentalist orientation finds a philosophical parallel in John Dewey (d. 1952), who coined the term "Instrumentalism" and, as an anti-realist, held that science is goal-oriented and shaped by the intentions of its practitioners — a view later developed within Pragmatism by Willard Quine and Kuhn. As for the decline, held to have begun around the sixteenth century, it is incoherent to claim that the very values which produced science also destroyed it. Al-Ghazālī has been unjustly cast as the villain on account of his *Tahāfut al-Falāsifa*. Yet in that work's very introduction he explicitly declared no quarrel with astronomy or mathematics, even warning that whoever fights such demonstrable sciences in the name of religion "harms religion and weakens it," for "a rational foe is better than an ignorant friend." His refutation concerned only the philosophers' unverifiable metaphysical claims. Regarding causality, Hoodbhoy alleged that al-Ghazālī's denial of a necessary link between cause and effect breeds fatalism; but al-Ghazālī had already answered this objection, explaining that possibilities are not actualities, that Allah has established a habitual course in creation, and that His foreknowledge prevents such fear from paralysing mankind. Ironically, Hoodbhoy exalts Descartes (d. 1650), whose *Meditations* held that an atheist cannot possess true knowledge and whose reasoning fell into the "Cartesian Circle." Concerning mathematics, al-Ghazālī's caution in *al-Munqidh min al-Dalāl* — omitted in part by Hoodbhoy — was against the philosophers monopolising it for their metaphysical and even astrological ends, and he equally condemned the "ignorant friend of Islam" who rejects mathematics wholesale. Regarding instrumentalism, A. I. Sabra (d. 2013) shifted the blame from opposition to "assimilation," yet still faulted al-Ghazālī on the strength of a single ḥadīth and a strained link to Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), who in fact distinguished observation-based astronomy from speculative natural philosophy. That numerous discoveries followed — Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288) on pulmonary circulation, al-Fārisī (d. 1319) on the rainbow, and the critical astronomical commentaries of al-Shirwānī (d. 1450) and al-Khafrī (d. 1550) — refutes the claim of a science strangled by al-Ghazālī. The true cause of the decline remains unresolved. Açikgenç noted that a scientific tradition, once interrupted, cannot continue creatively, turning its people toward another civilisation. Drawing again upon Dewey, who warned that setting scientific objects in opposition to experience becomes "a source of oppression to the heart and paralysis to imagination," a possible thread emerges linking the ailing state of Islamic civilisation to an ideology the West was only beginning to encounter in the seventeenth century — a question deliberately left open for further study. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is it true that Islam had a “Golden Age” of science but then religion killed it off? This is one of the most widely repeated claims about Islamic history, and it does not hold up under serious historical scrutiny. The framework behind it—what historians call the “Classical Narrative”—was built by Orientalist scholars who projected Europe’s own conflict between the Church and the Enlightenment onto Islamic civilization. The central assumption is that Muslim scientists succeeded despite their religion and declined because of it. Recent scholarship has found this framework built on selectively mined evidence and a fundamental double standard: giving Islamic values no credit for the rise while assigning them full blame for the decline. The actual record shows that Muslim scientific productivity continued robustly for centuries after the supposed turning point. Major discoveries in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics were still being made well into the sixteenth century. The reasons behind the eventual shift remain incompletely understood, but blaming religious orthodoxy does not match the evidence. ### How did the Muslim world become such a center of knowledge and discovery? The popular version of the story credits the Abbasid caliph al-Maʾmun with sparking a translation movement after reportedly dreaming of Aristotle. Even the tenth-century historian al-Nadim, from whom this account comes, only considered it “one of the reasons” behind the spread of scientific knowledge, not its origin. The historical record points earlier, to the Umayyad dynasty, when the practical demands of building a new civilization drove Muslims to seek out and develop knowledge. The need to mint distinctly Islamic currency, manage state financial records previously kept in Persian and Greek, and administer an expanding empire created demand for arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry. From those practical necessities grew a broader culture of inquiry, shaped by Islamic values that framed the study of the natural world as both useful and spiritually meaningful. Astronomy, for instance, became directly relevant to worship—calculating prayer times, the start of Ramadan, and the direction of the *qibla* all required it. Muslims did not passively receive knowledge from elsewhere; they pursued it because their faith and their circumstances demanded it. ### Is there actually something in the Qur’an and Sunnah that drives Muslims toward studying the natural world? Yes, and it goes well beyond general encouragement. The Qur’an states: “He has subjected all that is in the heavens and the earth for your benefit, as a gift from Him. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect” (45:13). The Prophet ﷺ connected the value of knowledge to its use: “A servant of Allah will remain standing on the Day of Judgment until he is questioned about his knowledge and how he utilized it” (*al-Tirmidhi*). This emphasis on beneficial knowledge meant that science was not merely permitted but purposeful. Muslim scholars have identified foundational Islamic scientific values, beginning with *tawhid* (Divine Unity), which motivates the seeker to find coherence in all of creation, and *khilafa* (trusteeship), which frames the study of the natural world as a responsibility, not just an intellectual hobby. Science conducted within this framework was understood as an act of *ʿibada* (worship). ### Did Muslim religious scholars hold back intellectual progress? This is one of the most persistent myths about Islamic civilization, and the figure most often blamed is the medieval theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Yet in the very introduction of his most controversial treatise, *Tahafut al-falasifa*, al-Ghazali explicitly defended astronomy and mathematics and condemned anyone who tried to argue against them on religious grounds. He warned that the harm inflicted on religion by those who defend it improperly is greater than the harm caused by those who attack it. His actual concern was with philosophers who used the prestige of mathematical precision to smuggle in unsubstantiated metaphysical claims, including astrology and the doctrine that the world had no beginning. He was not opposing inquiry into the natural world; he was insisting that speculative doctrine not be confused with rigorous observation. Major scientific work continued for centuries after al-Ghazali,including Ibn al-Nafis’s account of pulmonary blood circulation and the mathematical innovations of Ibn al-Shatir and al-Qushji which appear to have reached, or at least closely anticipated, elements of Copernican astronomy. The idea that one theologian dismantled an entire civilization’s intellectual culture does not hold. ### Did the Muslim world stop producing original knowledge? Historians have not yet fully determined why scientific productivity in Islamic civilization declined. What it rejects is the simplistic claim that the decline happened because of al-Ghazali, religious orthodoxy, or Islam’s supposed hostility to reason.Muslim thinkers continued producing original work in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics for centuries after the period when the decline is often said to have begun.The transition appears to have been gradual, tied to disruptions in the external conditions that had sustained institutions of learning: economic upheaval, military pressures, the collapse of patronage structures, and the fragmentation of the Islamic polity, all of which likely led to Muslims increasingly becoming consumers of scientific ideas, institutions, technologies, and frameworks developed elsewhere rather than originators of their own What is certain is that a tradition of inquiry, once interrupted, does not simply resume on its own or without effort. The shift is better understood not as the disappearance of knowledge from Muslim lands but the interruption of a once-productive and richly developed scientific traditon—one that became latent rather than extinct. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/playing-the-taqiyya-card-evading-intelligent-debate-by-calling-all-muslims-liars # Playing the Taqiyya Card: Evading Intelligent Debate by Calling all Muslims Liars **Authors:** Dr. Omar Suleiman, Dr. Nazir Khan **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 28, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Trust is a basic element for human beings to live together amicably in a multicultural society. It is unsurprising then that propaganda that has driven societies towards genocide often focuses on depicting a minority group as inherently dishonest and dangerous. For instance, preceding the Rwandan genocide, the Hutus were told by political figures that the Tutsi were a people full of hatred, dangerous, and dishonest.[^1] Nazi propaganda prior to the Holocaust focused on repeating old stereotypes of Jews as dishonest and untrustworthy in their dealings.[^2] As Dr. Wibke Timmermann astutely observes: > *Hate speech regularly, if not inevitably, precedes and accompanies ethnic conflicts, and particularly genocidal violence. Without such incitement to hatred and the exacerbation of xenophobic, anti-Semitic, or racist tendencies, no genocide would be possible and persecutory campaigns would rarely meet with a sympathetic response in the general public.*[^3] The contemporary Islamophobia industry has deployed the exact same stereotypes in its characterization of the Islamic faith community and 1.6 billion Muslims. To this end, words like “Shariah” and “Jihad” have been exploited by Islamophobes who affirm the perverted meanings assigned to these terms by terrorists. Meanwhile, mainstream Muslims believe that *Jihad* refers to a struggle undertaken for the sake of God to protect the lives and rights of others, and that Shariah refers to a divinely ordained system that enjoins treating all human beings in the best manner. Islamophobes, when faced with this discrepancy between what they want the words to mean and what mainstream Muslims believe they actually mean, resort to a profoundly unsophisticated tactic – they simply declare all Muslims to be compulsive liars. Of course, that alone would be too obviously a fallacious maneuver, so in order to cloak this move with some degree of credibility, Islamophobes claim that there is a doctrine in Islam that teaches Muslims that they must lie to non-Muslims. This doctrine is called *taqiyya*. The presence of an Arabic word is guaranteed to dupe people and send chills down the spines of well-meaning but woefully misinformed patriotic Americans wary of those turban-wearing bearded foreigners, right? What could possibly go wrong? --- ## The Real Meaning of “Taqiyya” The origin of this conjured term however is a ruling that permits a believer to conceal his or her faith when under the threat of persecution or attack from forces hostile to Islam (Qur’an 16:106, 3:28). The word literally connotes being ‘fearful’ (Lane’s Lexicon, p. 310),[^4] and in fact conveys a commonsense notion present amongst all cultures and faiths – in a context in which  someone is trying to kill you or others because of your beliefs, it is appropriate to hide those beliefs.  Another famous example is Corrie Ten Boom lying to Nazis that she was hiding Jews in her attic – no one with a moral conscience would fault her for lying to save lives from murderous criminals. Given that the word *“taqiyya”* has only been used in Islam to refer to Muslims saving themselves from mortal danger by concealing their faith,[^5] that should readily dismantle the Islamophobic claim that Muslims are generally taught to lie to non-Muslims. However, when confronted with the fact that their use of the term *“taqiyya”* is a grotesque misrepresentation, Islamophobes run to another concept in an attempt to buttress their caricature of Muslims as dishonest criminals. They cite a saying of the Prophet that “Warfare is deceit (Ar. *khida’ah*).”  But here again they find no support as this reference to military strategy involving tricks has been echoed by practically every civilization in human history. It is most famous on the lips of Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu who stated in *The Art of War,* “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”  Once again, we find that behind the seemingly scary use of Arabic jargon, there are nothing more than run-of-the mill commonsense notions that every civilization has expressed. Moreover, by unanimous consensus, Muslim scholars have explicitly pointed out that tricking the enemy on the battlefield (*khida’ah*) is very different from treachery (*khiyanah*) or breaking a covenant, the latter being universally prohibited. --- ## The lie that Islam condones lying What Islamophobes who peddle the myth of *taqiyya* choose to ignore is that while Islam permits believers to conceal their faith in the face of persecution, nowhere does Islam grant Muslims general permission to lie with the intention of deception. In fact, Islam strongly condemns dishonesty as a trait that is antithetical to true faith in God, and a sign of hypocrisy. Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet, said: “There was no behavior more hateful to the Messenger of Allah than dishonesty. A man would lie when narrating something in the presence of the Prophet and he would not be satisfied until he knew that he had repented.” Moreover, Muslims must be entirely honest and truthful when conveying the teachings of Islam; the Qur’an states that one of the greatest evils is for a person to lie about the teachings of Islam, inventing a lie against God (Quran 39:32). --- ## Manufacturing hate against Muslims in America Muslims have lived in the United States since its beginnings. We have established mosques, schools, and institutions that have served the greater community. We are socially, culturally, economically, and politically a well integrated community by all measures, a community of proud Americans and proud Muslims who do not see the slightest conflict between those identities. In the over 200 years that this community has existed, never has there been an instance of the Muslim community trying to overthrow the system. Not once has there been a mosque or an Imam implementing an alternative set of laws. Not once has there been an instance of Muslims promoting unconstitutional activities that would infringe on the rights of our non-Muslim friends and neighbors. In the current heightened climate of Islamophobia, a Texas state Representative sent one of us (and other Muslim leaders) a loyalty test earlier this year to affirm our American values.[^6] Instead of reaching out to us in the spirit of friendship and understanding, he decided to put us through a litmus test that was grounded in intimidation and suspicion. With over half a million Muslims in Texas, surely he could’ve reached out to one of his Muslim constituents or visited a local mosque. Instead, he chose to negate decades of interfaith dialogue, multifaith cooperation, and civic engagement here in Texas. These loyalty tests are not new in America and they essentially imply a second class citizenship on the part of those who receive them. We reject that status and characterization. And just like the “Anti-Shariah” bills that have passed in so many states, these political maneuvers score cheap points with the fearful masses while having no effect on actual regulation. *You can’t trust them. Some of them may be good, but too many of them have a secret agenda.* This is the type of racism that festered at both government and community levels before, during, and after Executive Order 9066 which sentenced almost 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps. In one of the most shameful episodes in American history, a dangerous trend of anti-Asian attitudes prevailed that obscured facts about the Japanese-American community and allowed them to be brazenly exploited. This same chronicle has now found a home in anti-Muslim bigotry. The narrative is that the Muslim community is a discrete, unified group, irrespective of nationality, age, or religiosity, all programmed to launch “*civilization Jihad,”* and incapable of an honest mainstream expression of its faith that poses no threat to its neighbors. Islamophobes begin by defining and imposing their definitions of Islamic terms (such as *Shariah* and *Jihad*) in ways that fit the above narrative, and then demand that Muslims reject the terms and texts as they have portrayed them, or risk being deemed extremists for clarifying their meanings. This puts Muslims in an impossible catch-22: Either reject the terms, texts, and tenets of their faith to avoid persecution, or offer the mainstream Muslim interpretation of these “problematic texts” and be accused of *taqiyya*. --- ## Conclusion The tactic of dismissing everything that Muslims say or do that doesn’t fit the Islamophobic narrative as "lying" has been remarkably efficient. This is the classic "poisoning of the well" fallacy; if you can't beat the opposition with logic, then destroy their credibility prior to them offering arguments and you'll never have to debate them. Islamophobes complain that the word "Islamophobia" is a buzzword to shut down criticism of Islam, arguing that they just want to have a critical discussion on the subject. However, they use the term *taqiyya* in the very same fashion to deny mainstream Muslims the right to express their own narrative which represents the vast majority of Muslims worldwide. Think about how impossible a situation this becomes: it may start with the falsehood that Muslims don’t condemn terrorism, then when proof is put forth that they actually do (see muslimscondemn.com), they’re told that they’re lying and concealing their true intentions. So beyond the lie that all Muslims lie, is the reality that Islamophobes actually aren’t concerned about any truths concerning the Muslim community or Islam in the first place. --- ## Notes [^1]: Mafeza, Faustin. (2016). Preventing genocide by fighting against hate speech. *International Journal of Advanced Research*, *4*(3), 117-132. [^2]: *Jews in Nazi Berlin: From Kristallnacht to Liberation*. edited by Beate Meyer, Hermann Simon, Chana Schütz. p. 28. [^3]: Timmermann, Wibke (2008). Counteracting hate speech as a way of preventing genocidal violence. *Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal*, *3*(3), Article 8. Available at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol3/iss3/8 [^4]: Lane, Edward W., and Stanley Lane-Poole. *Arabic-English Lexicon*. New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co, 1955. p. 310. Accessed online at http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/ [^5]: Tafsir al-Qurtubi (4/57): “And Taqiyya is not permissible except with fear of death or loss of limb or tremendous suffering.” [^6]: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/01/26/letter-from-state-representative-angers-n-texas-muslim-leaders ## Summary The trust that binds people together in a diverse society is among the greatest of blessings, for Allah created humankind as nations and tribes that they may know one another, not despise one another (cf. Qur'an 49:13). History bears witness that whenever a people set out to destroy another, they first sought to strip them of this trust by painting them as liars and dangers to society. This pattern preceded the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, when Hutu leaders spread the claim that the Tutsi were a hateful and dishonest people, and it preceded the Holocaust, when Nazi propaganda revived old slanders of Jews as untrustworthy. As Dr. Wibke Timmermann observed, hate speech "regularly, if not inevitably, precedes and accompanies ethnic conflicts," and without such incitement genocide would find no sympathetic audience among the general public. In our own age, the same weapon has been turned against the community of Islam and against some 1.6 billion Muslims. Terms such as *Shariah* and *Jihad* have been seized upon by those hostile to the faith, who choose to affirm the corrupted meanings assigned to these words by terrorists rather than the meaning held by the mainstream of the believers. For the Muslim community understands *Jihad* to be a striving undertaken for the sake of God to protect the lives and rights of others, and understands *Shariah* to be a divinely ordained way that enjoins the treatment of all human beings in the best of manners. When confronted with this gap between what they wish these words to mean and what Muslims themselves affirm, the peddlers of Islamophobia resort to a crude device: they declare all Muslims to be habitual liars, and to lend this charge a veneer of credibility they invoke an Arabic word, *taqiyya*, claiming it is a doctrine commanding Muslims to deceive non-Muslims. Yet the true origin of this term is a ruling permitting a believer to conceal his or her faith when threatened with persecution or attack by forces hostile to Islam, as indicated in the Qur'an (16:106 and 3:28). The word itself carries the sense of being "fearful," as recorded in Lane's Lexicon (p. 310), and it expresses a matter of common sense recognized by every people and every faith: that when one's life or the lives of others are threatened on account of belief, it is right to conceal that belief. A well-known parallel is that of Corrie Ten Boom, who lied to the Nazis about the Jews she was sheltering, and no person of moral conscience would fault her for lying to save lives from murderous criminals. Since *taqiyya* has only ever been used in Islam to refer to Muslims preserving themselves from mortal danger by concealing their faith, this alone should dismantle the false claim that Muslims are generally taught to lie to others. When this misrepresentation is exposed, its promoters retreat to another concept, citing the saying of the Prophet ﷺ that "Warfare is deceit" (Ar. *khida'ah*). But here too they find no support, for this reference to stratagem in war has been echoed by nearly every civilization known to history. It is most famously associated with the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, who wrote in *The Art of War*, "All warfare is based on deception... when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." Behind the frightening use of foreign terminology, then, lies nothing more than an ordinary notion shared by all peoples. Moreover, by the unanimous consensus of the Muslim scholars, deceiving the enemy on the field of battle (*khida'ah*) is clearly distinguished from treachery (*khiyanah*) or the breaking of a covenant, the latter being universally forbidden. What the promoters of the *taqiyya* myth deliberately ignore is that, while Islam permits the concealment of faith in the face of persecution, it nowhere grants Muslims a general license to lie with the intent to deceive. On the contrary, Islam condemns dishonesty in the strongest terms as a trait opposed to true faith and a mark of hypocrisy. Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, reported: "There was no behavior more hateful to the Messenger of Allah than dishonesty. A man would lie when narrating something in the presence of the Prophet, and he would not be satisfied until he knew that he had repented." Furthermore, Muslims are bound to be wholly truthful in conveying the teachings of their religion, for the Qur'an declares that among the gravest of evils is for a person to invent a lie against God (cf. Qur'an 39:32). As for the Muslims of the United States, they have been present since the earliest days of the nation, establishing mosques, schools, and institutions that have served the wider community. They are, by every measure, well integrated socially, culturally, economically, and politically. In over two hundred years, there has never been a single instance of this community attempting to overthrow the system, nor of a mosque or an Imam implementing an alternative body of law, nor of Muslims promoting activity that would infringe upon the rights of their non-Muslim neighbors. Yet in the present climate of heightened hostility, a Texas state Representative sent one of the authors, along with other Muslim leaders, a loyalty test demanding that they affirm American values. Rather than approaching in the spirit of friendship, he chose a course grounded in suspicion and intimidation, disregarding decades of interfaith dialogue and civic engagement, though he might easily have reached out to any of the more than half a million Muslims in Texas. Such loyalty tests are not new in America; they imply a second-class citizenship, a status the authors reject. Like the anti-Shariah bills passed in many states, these maneuvers win cheap approval from a fearful public while achieving nothing in actual regulation. The refrain "You can't trust them—some may be good, but too many have a secret agenda" is the very racism that flourished before, during, and after Executive Order 9066, which condemned nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps in one of the most shameful episodes of American history. The same script has now found a home in anti-Muslim bigotry. Its narrative casts the Muslim community as a single unified body, regardless of nationality, age, or religiosity, all programmed to wage "civilization Jihad" and incapable of any honest, mainstream expression of faith. Its proponents first impose their own definitions upon Islamic terms such as *Shariah* and *Jihad*, then demand that Muslims either reject those terms as caricatured or, upon clarifying their true meaning, be accused of *taqiyya*. This traps the believer in an impossible bind: renounce the tenets of the faith to escape persecution, or explain them honestly and be branded a liar. This tactic of dismissing all that Muslims say as falsehood is a classic instance of "poisoning the well": rather than defeating an opponent through reason, one destroys their credibility before they may speak. Those who complain that "Islamophobia" is merely a word used to silence criticism themselves wield *taqiyya* in precisely the same manner, denying mainstream Muslims the right to voice the understanding held by the overwhelming majority of believers worldwide. The pattern is plain: first comes the falsehood that Muslims do not condemn terrorism; when proof is presented that they do, they are told they are lying and concealing their intentions. Beyond the lie that all Muslims lie lies a deeper reality—that its promoters were never concerned with any truth about the Muslim community or Islam in the first place. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-hope-in-faith-an-optimistic-outlook-during-hardship # Finding Hope in Faith: An Optimistic Outlook During Hardship **Author:** Roohi Tahir **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** April 11, 2017 **Updated:** October 13, 2026 *In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy* Given the climate of pessimism and fear that reverberates in modern media and politics, it should come as no surprise that a global study conducted in 2016 by Max Roser, of the University of Oxford and founder of Our World in Data, shows that “pessimism is widespread across the world, particularly in highly developed nations. Merely 6 percent of Americans think the world is improving. Similarly dismal numbers were reported across Europe and in Australia.”[^1] Lily Rothman, history and archives editor for TIME, among other authors on the subject, is of the opinion that these negative attitudes are due to the “proliferation of a politics of fear” that is widely exploited today by the media, politicians, and technology.[^2] But is the picture really that bleak? Even amidst such widespread negativity, there are those voices we all naturally gravitate toward and secretly wish to adopt as our own—those of the optimists who see the proverbial glass as half full. Numerous studies have been, and continue to be, conducted by experts in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and religion in an effort to understand the nature of optimism, its sources and its effects on health, happiness and success in life. Professor and co-director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion at Notre Dame, Samuel Newlands stated, > *If you had the ability to choose a single psychological trait that you could improve in yourself, I might recommend optimism because it is correlated with so many other good measures…Optimists tend to have longevity, be very healthy, have great life satisfaction and be successful. And this is holding fixed for economic, religious and socio-status measures.[^3]* Newlands suggests that optimism can be chosen and learned. He’s not alone. Psychologist Dr. Betty Phillips says, > *Many people think that ‘the grass is greener’ for happy people. Research, however, shows that happy and unhappy people generally have the same number of adverse events in their lives. The difference is in their interpretation of unfortunate life events. Optimistic people are willing and able to make positive life action plans to counteract negative events in their lives, while pessimists are more likely to do nothing, then find themselves sinking into negativism, lethargy, perhaps even depression.*[*\[*4\]](#ftnt4) While this gives us valuable insight into human psychology and provides us with useful tools, there is a more fundamental question to ask—the answer to which provides the very foundation and basis for our outlook and behavior as Muslims. What does my faith have to say about optimism? The irony is that much of the fear and pessimism propagated today is at the expense of Islam. Every erroneous and malicious broad-stroked accusation against Islam, attempting to make it the root cause of conflict, evil and violence the world over, thereby rationalizing horrendous policy and governance, only further feeds into the rhetoric of fear with extremism on one side and Islamophobia on the other.[^5] And this is not new—history repeats itself. A brief glimpse into the biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ tells the account of a noble man’s struggle to establish justice and peace through worship of the One God against the incessant waves of ignorance, bigotry, persecution, boycott and warfare he and his followers endured. In the end, however, he succeeded in winning hearts and minds, and his mission was ultimately successful because of the message with which he was sent and the optimism it instilled in him and all those who were influenced by him. Indeed it is Islam itself that necessitates and fuels enduring optimism! Narrated by Ibn Jaz: “I have not seen anyone who smiled more than the Messenger of Allah.”[^6] We all crave quick and easy solutions and that “go-to” that will lift the weight off our hearts and minds, bringing us relief and joy when we find ourselves facing personal challenges, life’s stresses and even overwhelming fear we may wrestle with from time to time. What follows is the tried and true prescription for one to develop and inculcate lasting optimism, directly from its source—the Qur’an and the Sunnah. --- ## Back to basics Islam is anchored in mercy, hope, and peace. It is through conversation with our Creator, in prayer and in reflecting on His words, that we find our place of comfort—as long as we remain conscientious in safeguarding these acts of worship from becoming mere empty rituals. It was the practice of the Prophet ﷺ that, whenever he felt troubled, he instinctively sought relief and refuge in Allah through prayer. He is reported to have said, “O Bilal, call iqamah for prayer: give us comfort by it.”[^7] Allah tells us the Qur’an is His paramount gift to mankind, one that in and of itself is worth rejoicing over. It is the place of refuge to return to daily for powerful and meaningful counsel from Allah. It brings with it mercy, guidance, relief and comfort for our hearts from doubt, confusion and worry—all of which are in reality the gift of pure and lasting optimism, a gift that ensures a good life while promising us an eternity that surpasses any and all expectations of this world. The vast and frequent descriptions of Paradise in the Qur’an and numerous verses of hope that leave no room for despair are in fact distinguishing and critical factors in Islamic doctrine that further establish one’s purpose, direction and motivation to worship Allah, seek His pleasure and attain good. > *O mankind, there has to come to you instruction from your Lord and healing for what is in the breast\[s\] and guidance and mercy for the believers. Say, “In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy – in that let them rejoice; it is better than what they accumulate.”[^8]* It is interesting to note that within the same passage Allah goes on to say that despite all that He continues to bless humanity with, most people remain ungrateful.[^9] In this statement, we find one of the key qualities of the believer and the optimist. The one who acknowledges his/her blessings is likely to be appreciative of them and to feel contentment, in turn manifesting gratitude toward Allah in worship and obedience while the one who does not see any good in what he/she has been blessed with will naturally see the world as a place of difficulty and distress, and will fail to recognize the source to turn to. A similarity can be drawn here to the optimist’s seeing the glass as being half full while knowing and feeling confident that it will continue to be filled, while the pessimist sees the glass as half empty with no hope of it ever being filled. And although these verses, at the time of revelation, were addressed to the idol worshippers of Makkah,[^10] they remain as relevant today in that the vast majority of humanity still remains in pursuit of numerous idols, misguided in placing faith, reliance, and even fear in others; from the people around them to numerous manmade ideologies and material things instead of in Allah Who is the ultimate source of all bounty. The concept of relying wholeheartedly on Allah to hear one’s pleas for help and to believe with certainty that He will respond to them favorably is further established in the following verse in which Allah emphasizes His all-encompassing knowledge of even the most subtle of our affairs. Not even the smallest amount of effort will ever go unnoticed or unrewarded—in fact, it will be recorded; providing a level of satisfaction and comfort even in those moments when the fruit of one’s labor is not immediately apparent. > *And, \[O Muhammad\], you are not \[engaged\] in any matter or recite any of the Qur’an and you \[people\] do not do any deed except that We are witness over you when you are involved in it. And not absent from your Lord is any \[part\] of an atom’s weight within the earth or within the heaven or \[anything\] smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear register.[^11]* Allah concludes with affirmation that people who have chosen belief and righteousness (those who have *taqwa* are conscious of Allah and safeguard themselves against His displeasure in all matters) are so close to Him that they are referred to as *awliya* or close friends and allies of Allah. To them He has promised ultimate relief from fear and grief (two powerful emotions which impede and can destroy optimism), no matter how loud and threatening the voices of harm, dissension, and fear may appear in the moment. In reality, nothing has the power to overcome the optimism of those who recognize Allah as the only One capable of changing outcomes. > *Unquestionably, \[for\] the allies of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. Those who believed and were fearing Allah. For them are good tidings \[good news\] in the worldly life and in the Hereafter. No change is there in the words of Allah; that is what is the great attainment.  And let not their speech grieve you. Indeed, honor \[due to power\] belongs to Allah entirely. He is the Hearing, the Knowing.*[\[12\]](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/overcoming-pessimism-with-faith/?preview_id=1017&preview_nonce=fd13d6ab80&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=7295#ftnt12) --- ## Productive fear —The only thing to fear is not fear itself No doubt fear is a natural human emotion in situations, both real and perceived, that are potentially dangerous and a cause of pain. Reflect for a moment on the fears you may have lingering in the back of your mind and perhaps kept unspoken to this day. It is likely you are not alone and that we all share in these emotions as they are most often linked to and threaten our aspirations of a good life, particularly the preservation of life itself, our health, mental and social wellbeing, and success.[^13] Islam redirects this fear into something far more productive—for a Muslim, it means channeling one’s fear entirely toward Allah with whom lies the ultimate power and capacity to effect outcomes. In this, one is not denying fear—rather experiencing fear and turning to Allah becomes an effective tool to overcome any challenge and unburden oneself by seeking the help of Allah, and more importantly, to get closer to Him through sincere worship and sole reliance on Him. So where does this self-consuming kind of fear come from? It is mankind’s greatest enemy, Shaytan, who is in constant battle with all of humanity, strategically planting destructive thoughts in each of us to stop us in our tracks and derail our efforts to focus on obedience to Allah and seeking His pleasure. The Prophet ﷺ warned us to be acutely aware of Shaytan’s subtle presence when he said: “Shaytan flows in the son of Adam like blood flows.”[^14] Furthermore, the Qur’an sheds light on the psychology of Shaytan in order to both warn us and equip us with the knowledge and tools needed to overcome him. It is through seeking refuge in Allah, showing firm resolve in our thoughts and actions so as to not allow an opening to the door of doubt, while also seeking the company of those who can be consulted for positive and constructive reminders, that we will be successful. Like the optimist who seeks the company and counsel of positive thinkers, while avoiding the company and influence of cynics, we too must be careful of the company we keep. > *Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.*[^15] It is also important to recognize that many of our fears are directly linked to our love of this world (*dunya*). We were warned of this when the Prophet ﷺ said: > *The people will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their dish. Someone asked: Will that be because of our small numbers at that time? He replied: No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like that carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the breasts of your enemy and cast wahn into your hearts. Someone asked: What is wahn, Messenger of Allahﷺ: He replied: Love of the world and dislike of death.*[^16] This narration points to the underlying correlation between becoming excessive in one’s love of the world and spiritual weakness. One who becomes imbalanced in striving excessively for this material life (*dunya*) above and beyond striving for the everlasting unseen life to come (*akhirah*) becomes vulnerable to falling into despair and fear, and even worse, doubting faith itself, in the face of difficulty and extreme suffering. In contrast, one who is empowered by a heart that is strong in its connection to Allah can continue to fuel faith and optimism in the face of challenge. Spiritual diseases take root within the heart due to diminishing faith and obedience to Allah. The Prophet ﷺ spoke of this condition when he said: > *Call upon Allah while being certain of being answered, and know that Allah does not respond to a supplication from the heart of one heedless and occupied by play.*[^17] Lessons in spiritual fortitude are taught repeatedly and emphatically through the accounts of the noble prophets whose lives have been documented and preserved in the Qur’an as a means of guidance, motivation and optimism while warning against heedlessness. Each prophet was human, yet sent by Allah to fulfill the lofty task of calling people to His worship alone. Each was faced with seemingly insurmountable trials that would normally lead to tremendous fear and uncertainty. But Allah trained them to rely on Him solely, at times taking away the only sources of worldly comfort and support known to them while instructing them to remain steadfast in calling on Him. He strengthened each with spiritual fortitude and conviction; making them capable of maintaining focus on the mission (the end goal) for which each was sent. They were thereby able to continue to strive, full of hope and certainty in Allah, overcoming fear and becoming exemplary role models for their spiritual strength and leadership, and bringing about tremendous reform and benefit to society at large through the message of guidance. Ultimately these accomplishments were only realized with divine help from Allah. These prophets were never left alone to themselves or abandoned—and neither are we as long as we too call on Him. Ibrahim (as) left his family behind to travel great distances in the path of Allah. One cannot fathom the enormity of the trials he endured for which Allah blessed him with a legacy of prophets from his future generations; and also for which he attained the distinguished status and title of being known as an intimate friend (*khalil*) of Allah.[^18] Yusuf (as), having been abandoned by his own brothers, found himself far away from home in Egypt as a young boy, emerged years later as a noble prophet and leader among the people. He endured a lengthy separation from his beloved father followed by years of unjust imprisonment, yet he never wavered in his faith and hope in Allah.[^19] The Prophet ﷺ, who grew up as an orphan, was rejected and forced out of his home by his own people and tested with the loss of his loved ones—his beloved wife of 25 years, Khadija, and his ardent supporter and uncle, Abu Talib, both were taken from him at the most difficult time of his mission in Makkah. He also had to endure the eventual loss of all but one of his children as well as a number of his closest companions. His faith and optimism were the driving factors that kept him even-tempered and productive in his efforts and led to the establishment of the model community that would become the beacon of guidance for future generations. The *seerah* is, in fact, replete with examples of optimism shown by the Prophet ﷺ consistently throughout his life: his contentment and grateful demeanor, the manner in which he made *dua’*, the way he dealt with people, always assuming the best of them and ever hopeful for them—even those staunchly opposed to him, and in his positive outlook toward the future despite much hardship. There are far too many to list for the purpose of this article, so I will briefly mention a couple of instances that stand out. Of the most difficult of days for the Prophet ﷺ was when he suffered extremely harsh treatment at the hands of the people of Taif who quite literally hurled stones at him, driving him out of town in a hostile show of rejection. When given the choice by Allah to destroy them, he wanted them spared out of hope that Allah would guide their descendants.  Indeed, the people of Taif eventually embraced Islam some years later, during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ.[^20] During his migration from Makkah to Madinah with his close companion Abu Bakr (r) at his side, they both took refuge in a cave to escape those intent on capturing and killing him. It was during those moments of intense fear and concern on the part of Abu Bakr (r) for the life of the Prophet ﷺ that he ﷺcomforted his companion with the words, “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us.”[^21] Some of the most comforting and optimistic verses of the Qur’an were revealed as reassurance during the early days of prophethood: > *By the morning brightness* > > *And \[by\] the night when it covers with darkness,* > > *Your Lord has not taken leave of you \[O Muhammad\] nor has He detested \[you\].* > > *And the Hereafter is better for you than the first \[life\].* > > *And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied.* > > *Did He not find you an orphan and give \[you\] refuge?* > > *And He found you lost and guided \[you\],* > > *And He found you poor and made \[you\] self-sufficient.* > > *So as for the orphan, do not oppress \[him\].* > > *And as for the petitioner, do not repel \[him\].* > > *But as for the favor of your Lord, report \[it\].[^22]*  > > *For indeed, with hardship \[will be\] ease.* > > *Indeed, with hardship \[will be\] ease.* > > *So when you have finished \[your duties\], then stand up \[for worship\].* > > *And to your Lord direct \[your\] longing.*[^23] --- ## Mercy like no other A core belief in Islam is that every experience in life occurs ultimately in accordance with the will of Allah and contains inherent good that will far outweigh the evil that seems more apparent at the time. This is due to Allah’s boundless mercy to all of His creation and especially due to His attribute of being the Most Merciful (*Ar-Raheem*) to those who have faith in Him: > *It is He who confers blessing upon you, and His angels \[ask Him to do so\] that He may bring you out from darkness into the light. And ever is He, to the believers, Merciful.*[^24] When faced with situations that appear harmful or when in fear, one finds comfort in reminding oneself of this divine mercy and that there will be benefit and ease in staying the course. It can be likened to the hesitation one feels in anticipation of the bitterness of the pill while realizing the medication it is about to deliver contains relief and cure. Furthermore, it is from Allah’s divine wisdom to give us a taste of harm in order that we are able to recognize good when we experience it, that we may in turn show appreciation for it, and strive harder for it that much more. Surah Yasin tells the story of the believer who tried to convince his townspeople to accept the call of the messengers sent by Allah to guide them. When the town rejected the man, choosing to defend their idolatry and threaten his life, he spoke these words: “Should I take other than Him \[false\] deities \[while\], if the Most Merciful \[*Ar-Rahman*\] intends for me some adversity, their intercession will not avail me at all, nor can they save me?”[^25] Referring to Allah by His mercy in the same sentence that suggests being afflicted with harm at first glance may seem contradictory, but Allah Himself explains this concept further. His mercy becomes apparent in knowing there is much wisdom and good behind His placing us in adversity. Firstly, calamity is often a wake-up call to turn back to Allah, particularly for those who have distanced themselves from Him. It illustrates His love for His slaves in wanting good for them—in wanting to purify them of their sins and bring them back to the path of guidance.[^26] > *Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by \[reason of\] what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of \[the consequence of\] what they have done that perhaps they will return \[to righteousness\].*[^27] Secondly, the patience and faith shown at such times are means of reward, a rising in rank and closeness to Allah. > *And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.” Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the \[rightly\] guided.*[^28] No doubt Allah loves His prophets, the noblest of people to walk the face of this earth—yet they were made to endure the most severe tests, showing us that adversity is also a sign of Allah’s immense love for His slaves. Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri narrated: > *I entered upon the Prophet ﷺ when he was suffering from a fever. I placed my hand on him and felt heat with my hand from above the blanket. I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, how hard it is for you!’ He said: ‘We (Prophets) are like that. The trial is multiplied for us and so is the reward.’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, which people are most severely tested?’ He said: ‘The Prophets.’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, then who?’ He said: ‘Then the righteous, some of whom were tested with poverty until they could not find anything except a cloak to put around themselves. One of them will rejoice at calamity as one of you would rejoice at ease.*[^29] A third reason can be seen in examples of what on the surface appeared to be evil occurrences, but behind which lay the divine wisdom of averting greater harm. The story of Musa (as) in Surah Kahf contains vivid depictions of the reaction and subsequent questions that arose from Musa (as) as he witnessed what appeared to him to be a blatant crime when the boat of a poor community was deliberately broken—the divine wisdom behind which was to save it from being seized by their unjust ruler. Likewise, he witnessed the murder of a young boy only to find out later that Allah did not want the boy’s righteous parents to suffer the hardship of a corrupt and disbelieving son had he lived; but rather Allah wished to replace the boy with a righteous child instead. Musa (as) then witnessed the rebuilding of a collapsing wall in a village he came to, whose people had refused him hospitality. As it turned out, the broken wall would have exposed the wealth hidden beneath it which had been left by a pious father for his orphan children to inherit; so Allah willed that it be kept safe until they were able to retrieve it.[^30] Trials are also a sign of the magnitude of divine mercy in that Allah chooses not to wipe us out altogether when He could easily do so—indeed trials do come from Him and only He can remove them. Through hardship He gives people opportunity after opportunity to stop, reflect, and then to return to Him. An article published by Public Radio International (PRI) in 2016 looked at the increased rate of conversion to Islam in the United States following the attacks of 9/11, despite the onslaught of negative media coverage and the rise of Islamophobia and hate crimes committed against Muslims. It is this negative attention and hostile climate in the wake of tragedy that became the catalyst for so many to explore Islam only to discover its true essence which encompasses faith and justice with an optimistic outlook. > *According to Asma Afsaruddin, professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington, there has been heightened interest in Islam in the last 15 years precisely because of the publicity surrounding it. ‘Despite Islamophobia, thoughtful Americans who are curious about the real nature of Islam might go out of their way to discover the teachings of the religion from reliable sources,’ she says.*[^31] Allah reveals the innate nature of humanity’s need for Him in speaking of those, even farthest away from belief, who will call on Him out of desperation when they find themselves in dire straits.[^32] Regardless of one’s level of piety, the believer is always striving to be closer to Allah and to reflect on his/her responses to the ups and downs of life, choosing to use them wisely to atone for sins, correct one’s trajectory and to seek Allah’s help and good from every situation. This is a far more productive and practical approach that brings optimism even to the darkest of circumstances, believing wholeheartedly that, “Allah does not charge a soul except \[with that within\] its capacity.”[^33] The Prophet ﷺ described this optimism when he said: > *Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.*[^34] Hasn’t Allah taken care of you all this time? You are still here—no matter how many bumps and scrapes you experienced along the way. Yet in our lowest moments it is easy to forget all that Allah has already blessed us with, and all that He continues to bless us with to the point that we take blessings for granted. This is that lens of pessimism which can only see the glass as half empty. It is important to remember the pull of Shaytan behind it; always ready and eager to suggest negative thoughts. He plants seeds of comparison in the mind, beckoning you to look toward those who appear to have material abundance where you might lack it, conjuring up an image and false expectations of a “perfect” life you deserve; eventually trying to lead you to despair in the mercy of Allah as he so infamously did himself. In reality it is our faith, “There is none worthy of worship other than Allah” (*la ilaaha illa Allah*) that quite literally trumps everything else in this and every universe! How perfect does your life suddenly become when you think of those who appear to have been given far less than you; those who may be missing a critical function in their physical or mental capacity? How perfect does your life appear when you travel abroad to far less developed environments where basic necessities such as clean water cannot be taken for granted? How perfect and blessed is your life when you witness misguidance, injustice, hatred and bigotry around you knowing you have the gift of true guidance and lasting optimism? It is none other than the One who gives life who defines the “good life” as: > *Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer – We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward \[in the Hereafter\] according to the best of what they used to do*.[^35] The Messenger of Allah ﷺ summarized the true objective of ensuring the best outcome in this life and the next when he said: > *Whoever’s greatest concern is this world, Allah will scatter his affairs and place poverty between his eyes, and nothing of this world will come to him except what was already written for him. But, whoever has the next world as his intention, Allah will gather his affairs and place his richness in his heart and the world will come to him submissively*.[^36] Ibn Qayyim eloquently sums up this concept of Allah’s mercy and love for His slave in the statement, > *Had Allah lifted the veil off the reality of His delicate dealings, \[unnoticed\] kindness, and how He plans for him in ways he realizes and ways he doesn’t realize – his heart would melt out of love for Allah and longing for Him, and would fall in gratitude to Him. However, the heart has been veiled from witnessing this due to its attachment to the world of lusts and its focus on material factors. By that, it has been barred from its complete bliss, and \[even\] that is preordained by the Mighty, the All-Knowing.*[^37] --- ## No Room for Despair – The Way Forward Believing the Qur’an provides the best instruction and counsel, it is important to look at what is prescribed to be the best course of action when the situation one is faced with appears to have no apparent way out—when there is simply no visible light at the end of the tunnel. Such was the case when the tables suddenly turned at Uhud with an unexpected onslaught from the Makkans at the eleventh hour when they charged at the Prophet ﷺ and his companions, causing numerous casualties and chaos among the Muslims to the extent that many thought the Prophet ﷺ had been killed, while others began to flee in sheer panic and confusion. Yet a handful of men remained around the Prophet ﷺ, responding to his call, despite the imminent threat and fear. It is about those companions that Allah said: > *Those to whom hypocrites said, “Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them.” But it \[merely\] increased them in faith, and they said, “Sufficient for us is Allah, and \[He is\] the best Disposer of affairs.” So they returned with favor from Allah and bounty, no harm having touched them. And they pursued the pleasure of Allah, and Allah is the possessor of great bounty. That is only Satan who frightens \[you\] of his supporters. So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are \[indeed\] believers.*[^38] These verses instill the importance of keeping one’s resolve at the very moment it would be toughest to do so. Though one’s circumstances may at times change for what appears to be the worse, possibly requiring deliberate and even immediate response, the heart must remain resolute! Those who stood firm that day with the Prophet ﷺ and chose not to despair of the situation before them gained Allah’s pleasure, were increased in faith as a result and came out of it better than they could have imagined. In an unexpected turn of events, the enemy forces chose to retreat—Allah’s divine will and wisdom had decreed the best outcome. While the heart is to remain firm, one must continue to strive both spiritually and practically to move forward in life. This is beautifully depicted in the *hadith* of the Prophet ﷺ in which he likened life to a journey in which this world is but a brief stop for the traveler when he said, “What have I to do with the world? I am like a rider who had sat under a tree for its shade, then went away and left it.”[^39] A powerful image comes alive in visualizing life as a journey. It diminishes the value and thereby attention on this world, and keeps one focused instead on the road ahead to the final destination—and along this road, will, at times, be obstacles. Imagine what would happen if one was to stop moving while trying to cross a river; one would eventually either drown in its depths or be pulled by the strong current in choosing not to at the very least attempt to swim. Similarly, Shaytan’s purpose is to distract us, to stall us and eventually to drown us. As Musa (as) and his followers were making their escape from the Pharaoh’s army, they found themselves at the shoreline with the army in intense pursuit at the rear. The reaction of the people shows a collective gasp of fright and resignation in a moment of weakness seeing the deep water before their eyes, but Musa (as) responded with the necessary resolve and conviction leaving no room for despair– Allah opened the way forward in the most remarkable and unimaginable way. > *And when the two groups saw one another, the companions of Moses said, “Indeed, we are to be overtaken!” \[Moses\] said, “No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me.” Then We inspired to Moses, “Strike with your staff the sea,” and it parted, and each portion was like a great towering mountain.*[^40] It is human to want the easy way out in any situation; but Allah knows what we are capable of handling—and He may at times decree a more arduous path for us than we would want out of His infinite mercy and wisdom for our own benefit. Clearly our Ummah is currently facing a crisis on many fronts—we are witnessing rampant oppression, injustice and loss of life, leaving many feeling helpless, hopeless, and even questioning the very existence of God in a time of desperate need. The way forward starts with the very same faith, fortitude and optimism Allah guided His messengers and in turn all of us to; we must expect only the best from Him in return. And this is not wishful thinking—Ibn Qayyim defines the distinction between optimism and wishful thinking as: > *The difference between it \[hope\] and merely wishful thinking is that mere wishful thinking involves laziness wherein the person neither exerts himself, nor strives \[to achieve what he wishes for\].  Hope, however, entails striving, exertion and beautiful reliance.  The first is like the one who wishes that the earth would plant and sow its own seeds for him. The second is like the one who \[actually\] tills the soil, plants the seed and then hopes that crops will grow. This is why the Gnostics (‘arifun) are agreed that hope is not correct, except if accompanied by action.*[^41] --- ## Stay Focused – The Daily Dose Every prayer, be it the obligatory (*salah*) or remembrance of Allah as taught by the Prophet ﷺ, consistency in one’s daily routine in the form of supplication, recitation of the Qur’an, and other acts of worship is designed to bring your attention back to the journey and the way forward. All of these provide you with the road map as well as the ability to detach yourself often, even if momentarily, from the distractions of this world toward the true source of all help, relief, resolve and optimism: Allah! > *And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, or \[lying\] on your sides…*[^42] Such a bond with Allah enables one to hand over every affair to the Master while staying active and engaged on the course ahead with complete reliance (*tawwakul*) on Allah to direct the best outcome. This is described in a *hadith* of the Prophet ﷺ in which he said: > *Know that if the entire creation were to gather together to do something to benefit you – you would never get any benefit except that Allah had written (it) for you. And if they were to gather to do something to harm you – you would never be harmed except that Allah had written (it) for you. The pens are lifted and the pages are dried.*[^43] Frequent remembrance of Allah also brings about another key component of optimism discussed earlier—gratitude. Not only is gratitude a rewarded act of worship; but going back to the glass being half full, gratitude naturally fuels a sense of inner peace, contentment and a positive outlook on the future. Allah commands us: > *So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.[^44]…And \[remember\] when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you \[in favor\]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.'*[^45] Finally, the significance of supplication (*du’a*) cannot be emphasized enough as the primary means of attaining closeness to Allah by exhibiting hope in His mercy, forgiveness and generosity. *Du’a* is the very essence of worship which demonstrates that only Allah is worthy of worship and it can be understood as the most powerful tool at our disposal with which to seek protection from harm and to secure good in this world and the next. The Prophet ﷺ instructed us to ask from Allah with the certainty of being answered[^46] and that, > *The supplication of every one of you will be granted if he does not get impatient and say (for example): ‘I supplicated my Rabb \[Lord\] but my prayer has not been granted’.*[^47]  One finds optimism and comfort in knowing that Allah will respond: > *Is He \[not best\] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil and makes you inheritors of the earth? Is there a deity with Allah? Little do you remember*.[^48] When we study the life of the Prophet ﷺ as the living example of how to understand and respond to Allah’s revelation, his optimism is seamless and apparent as part of his nature and outlook, and clearly understood to be abundantly supplied by his faith in Allah and reliance on Him for guidance, mercy and all the good of this world and the hereafter. Progress is not measured by the wins of this world alone; rather it is weighted heavily in sound intentions and the sincere effort one makes to seek the pleasure of Allah—hand in hand with gratitude and optimism that can only come from true faith and conviction. As we struggle to find our way forward in turbulent times, we hold the belief in a brighter future for humanity. We continue to make every effort within our means to practically live and share this message of guidance, justice and peace Allah has blessed us with—not only is this the basis for optimism to take root within each of us; but, as the Prophet ﷺ exemplified, it is this optimism that will become apparent and thus the means to win the hearts and minds of others we encounter along the way. As Jabir b. ‘Abdullah reported: > *I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say three days before his death: None of you should die but hoping only good from Allah, the Exalted and Glorious.*[^49] --- ## Notes [^1]: Berezow, Alex. “Only 6% of Americans Think the World is Getting Better.” American Council on Science and Health. July 3, 2016. Accessed February 15, 2017. http://acsh.org/news/2016/07/03/only-6-of-americans-think-world-is-getting-better [^2]: Rothman, Lily. “Why Americans Are More Afraid Than They Used to Be.” Time. January 6, 2016. Accessed February 15, 2017. [http://time.com/4158007/american-fear-history/](http://time.com/4158007/american-fear-history/) [^3]: Gates, Carrie. “Notre Dame and Cornell awarded $3.8 million to study hope and optimism.” Notre Dame News//University of Notre Dame. April 23, 2014. Accessed February 15, 2017. http://news.nd.edu/news/notre-dame-and-cornell-awarded-3-8-million-to-study-hope-and-optimism/ [^4]: Phillips, Betty W. “Optimism and Happiness.” Betty W. Phillips, Ph.D., Psychology. February 5, 2017. Accessed February 15, 2017. [http://www.bettyphillipspsychology.com/id15.html](http://www.bettyphillipspsychology.com/id15.html) [^5]: Mary Bowerman. “Survey reveals what Americans fear the most.” USA Today. October 12, 2016. Accessed February 15, 2017. [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/10/12/survey-top-10-things-americans-fear-most/91934874/](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/10/12/survey-top-10-things-americans-fear-most/91934874/) [^6]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* – Chapters on Virtues English reference: Vol. 1, Book 46, Hadith 3641 Arabic reference: Book 49, Hadith 4002 [https://sunnah.com/urn/635120](https://sunnah.com/urn/635120) [^7]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* – Book of General Behavior (*Kitab Al-Adab*) Hadith 4985. In-book reference: Book 43, Hadith 213 English translation: Book 42, Hadith 4967 [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/43/213](https://sunnah.com/abudawud/43/213) [^8]: 10:57-58 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/10](http://legacy.quran.com/10) [^9]: 10:59-60 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/10](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://legacy.quran.com/10&sa=D&ust=1501994473598000&usg=AFQjCNH25EockDIfQMVgxFVM6PFqS0byxw) [^10]: *Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir* – None can make Anything Lawful or Unlawful except Allah or Those Whom Allah has allowed to do so. [http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com\_content&task=view&id=2613&Itemid=65](http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D2613%26Itemid%3D65) [^11]: 10:61 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/10](http://legacy.quran.com/10) [^12]: 10:62-65 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/10](http://legacy.quran.com/10) [^13]: Albrecht, Karl, Ph.D. “The (Only) 5 Fears We All Share.” *Psychology Today*. March 22, 2012. Accessed February 15, 2017. [https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainsnacks/201203/the-only-5-fears-we-all-share](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainsnacks/201203/the-only-5-fears-we-all-share) [^14]: *Al-Adab Al-Mufrad* – English reference: Book 55, Hadith 1288 Arabic reference: Book 1, Hadith 1288 [https://sunnah.com/urn/2212440](https://sunnah.com/urn/2212440) [^15]: 2:268 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/2](http://legacy.quran.com/2) [^16]: *Sunan Abi Dawud* – Book of Battles Hadith 4297 In-book reference : Book 39, Hadith 7 English translation: Book 38, Hadith 4284 [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/39/7](https://sunnah.com/abudawud/39/7) [^17]: *Jami\` at-Tirmidhi* – Chapters on Supplication Hadith 3479 In-book reference: Book 48, Hadith 110 English translation : Vol. 6, Book 45, Hadith 3479 [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/110](https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48/110) [^18]: 4:125 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/4](http://legacy.quran.com/4) [^19]: “…Indeed, no one despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people.” 12:87 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/12](http://legacy.quran.com/12) [^20]: Mubārakpūrī, Ṣafī Al-Raḥmān. *The sealed nectar = Ar-Raheequl-Makhtum: biography of the noble prophe*t. Riyadh: Darussalam, 2002. Pgs. 163-165 and 522-524 [^21]: 9:40 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/9](http://legacy.quran.com/9) [^22]: 93:1-11 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/9](http://legacy.quran.com/93) [^23]: 94:5-8 *Sahih Internationa*l [http://legacy.quran.com/94](http://legacy.quran.com/94) [^24]: 33:43 *Sahih Internationa*l [http://legacy.quran.com/33](http://legacy.quran.com/33) [^25]: 36:23 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/36](http://legacy.quran.com/36) [^26]: Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. *Tafseer Soorah Yaa Seen – A commentary on the 36th Chapter of the Qur'an*. Islamic Online University. Pg. 55 [^27]: 30:41 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/30](http://legacy.quran.com/30) [^28]: 2:155-157 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/2](http://legacy.quran.com/2) - English translation: Vol. 5, Book 36, Hadith 4024 [https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/36/99](https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/36/99) [^29]: *Sunan Ibn Majah* – Book of Tribulations Hadith 4024 In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 99 [^30]: 18:65-82 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/18](http://legacy.quran.com/18) [^31]: Habib, Samra. “Islamophobia is on the rise in the US. But so is Islam.” Public Radio International. September 9, 2016. Accessed February 15, 2017. [https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-09/muslims-america-are-keeping-and-growing-faith-even-though-haters-tell-them-not](https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-09/muslims-america-are-keeping-and-growing-faith-even-though-haters-tell-them-not). [^32]: And when waves come over them like canopies, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, there are \[some\] of them who are moderate \[in faith\]. And none rejects Our signs except everyone treacherous and ungrateful. (31:32) *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/31](http://legacy.quran.com/31) [^33]: 2:286 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/2](http://legacy.quran.com/2) [^34]: *Sahih Muslim – The Book of Zuhd and Softening of Hearts* Hadith 2999 In-book reference: Book 55, Hadith 82 USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 42, Hadith 7138 [https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/82](https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/82) [^35]: 16:97 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/16](http://legacy.quran.com/16) - Arabic reference: Book 37, Hadith 2653 [^36]: *Jami’ At-Tirmidh*i Chapters on the description of the Day of Judgment, *Ar-Riqaq and Al-Wara’* Vol. 4, Book 11, Hadith 2465 [https://sunnah.com/urn/677710](https://sunnah.com/urn/677710) [^37]: Al-Jawziyyah, Ibn Al Qayyim. *Tareeq al-Hijratayn*. Pg.180. [^38]: 3:173-175 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/3](http://legacy.quran.com/3) [^39]: At-Tirmidhi – *Riyadh as-Saliheen – The Book of Miscellany* Book 1, Hadith 486 [https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/486](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/486) [^40]: 26:61-63 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/26](http://legacy.quran.com/26) [^41]: *Madarij al-Salikeen*, 2/27-28 – The Exquisite Pearl Al-Sa’di, ‘Abd Al-Rahman. London, UK: The Jawziyyah Press, 2002. Pg. 8 [^42]: 4:103 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/4](http://legacy.quran.com/4) [^43]: *Jami’ at-Tirmidhi* – Chapters on the description of the Day of Judgment, *ar-Riqaq and al-Wara*’- English reference: Vol. 4, Book 11, Hadith 2516 Arabic reference: Book 37, Hadith 2706 [https://sunnah.com/urn/678220](https://sunnah.com/urn/678220) [^44]: 2:152 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/2](http://legacy.quran.com/2) [^45]: 14:7 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/14](http://legacy.quran.com/14) [^46]: *Jami’ at-Tirmidhi* – Chapters on Supplication Hadith 3479 In-book reference: Book 48, Hadith 110 English translation : Vol. 6, Book 45, Hadith 3479 [https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48](https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/48) [^47]: *Riyadh as-Salihin* – The Book of *Du’a* Book 17, Hadith 35 Arabic/English book reference : Book 17, Hadith 1499 [https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/17/35](https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/17/35) [^48]: 27:62 *Sahih International* [http://legacy.quran.com/27](http://legacy.quran.com/27) [^49]: *Sahih Muslim* – The Book of Paradise, its Description, its Bounties and its Inhabitants  Hadith 2877In-book reference: Book 53, Hadith 100 USC-MSA web (English) reference : Book 40, Hadith 6877 https://sunnah.com/muslim/53/100 ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. In an age saturated with fear and pessimism spread through media and politics, a striking reality emerges: a 2016 study by Max Roser of Our World in Data found that pessimism dominates highly developed nations, with only six percent of Americans believing the world is improving, and similarly bleak figures reported across Europe and Australia. As Lily Rothman of TIME observed, such negativity is largely fueled by a “politics of fear” exploited by media, politicians, and technology. Yet the deeper question for a believer is not merely how psychology understands optimism, but rather what our faith itself teaches concerning it—for it is Islam that both necessitates and fuels enduring optimism. The irony is that much of the fear circulating today is spread at the very expense of Islam, feeding extremism on one side and Islamophobia on the other. The life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ demonstrates this truth vividly. His was the struggle of a noble man establishing justice and peace through worship of the One God, enduring ignorance, persecution, boycott, and warfare, yet ultimately succeeding because of the message he carried and the optimism it instilled within him. Indeed, Ibn Jaz narrated, “I have not seen anyone who smiled more than the Messenger of Allah.” This optimism is not a technique borrowed from psychology, though experts such as Samuel Newlands and Dr. Betty Phillips note that optimists interpret hardship differently and act to counter adversity rather than sinking into despair. Rather, the tried and tested prescription for lasting optimism flows directly from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Islam is anchored in mercy, hope, and peace. It was the Prophet’s practice, whenever troubled, to seek refuge in prayer, saying, “O Bilal, call iqamah for prayer: give us comfort by it.” The Qur’an itself is Allah’s paramount gift, a place of daily refuge that brings healing and relief. Allah says, “O mankind, there has to come to you instruction from your Lord and healing for what is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers. Say, ‘In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy—in that let them rejoice; it is better than what they accumulate.’” Within the same passage, Allah notes that most people remain ungrateful, revealing a key quality of the believer: gratitude produces contentment, while ingratitude turns the world into a place of distress. Though these verses were originally addressed to the idol-worshippers of Makkah, they remain relevant, for humanity still pursues countless idols in place of Allah, the true source of all bounty. Allah’s all-encompassing knowledge is a further comfort, for “not absent from your Lord is any part of an atom’s weight,” and no effort goes unrewarded. Those who possess taqwa are named the awliya of Allah, of whom He promises, “Unquestionably, for the allies of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.” Fear, though a natural human emotion, is redirected in Islam toward Allah alone, who holds the ultimate power over outcomes. Self-consuming fear, however, originates from Shaytan, of whom the Prophet ﷺ warned, “Shaytan flows in the son of Adam like blood flows.” Allah exposes his tactics: “Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty.” Many fears stem from excessive love of the world (dunya). The Prophet ﷺ foretold that the ummah would be overwhelmed not by small numbers but by wahn, which he explained as “love of the world and dislike of death.” Spiritual weakness thus takes root as faith diminishes, and the Prophet ﷺ taught, “Call upon Allah while being certain of being answered, and know that Allah does not respond to a supplication from the heart of one heedless and occupied by play.” The accounts of the prophets in the Qur’an teach spiritual fortitude. Ibrahim (as) left his family in the path of Allah and was honored as khalil Allah. Yusuf (as), abandoned by his brothers and unjustly imprisoned, never wavered in hope. The Prophet ﷺ, an orphan who lost his beloved Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, endured the loss of his children and companions, yet remained steadfast. The seerah is replete with such optimism. When the people of Taif stoned him and he was offered their destruction, he wished them spared in hope that their descendants would believe—which indeed occurred. In the cave during the hijrah, he comforted Abu Bakr with the words, “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us.” The early revelation reassured him: “By the morning brightness… Your Lord has not taken leave of you, nor has He detested you… For indeed, with hardship will be ease. Indeed, with hardship will be ease.” A core belief is that every experience unfolds by Allah’s will and contains inherent good, flowing from His mercy, for He is Ar-Raheem. Adversity may be a wake-up call to return to Him, as Allah says, “Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea… that perhaps they will return.” It may also be a means of reward and elevation, for “We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger… but give good tidings to the patient.” The prophets endured the severest trials, as the Prophet ﷺ affirmed when Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri found him feverish: “We Prophets are like that. The trial is multiplied for us and so is the reward,” adding that the most severely tested are the prophets, then the righteous. The story of Musa (as) and al-Khidr in Surah al-Kahf reveals hidden divine wisdom behind seemingly evil events—the damaged boat, the slain boy, and the rebuilt wall. Public Radio International reported increased conversions to Islam after 9/11, and Professor Asma Afsaruddin noted that publicity, despite Islamophobia, drove thoughtful Americans to discover Islam’s teachings from reliable sources. The believer therefore leaves no room for despair. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Strange are the ways of a believer, for there is good in every affair of his.” Allah defines the good life: “Whoever does righteousness… while he is a believer—We will surely cause him to live a good life.” Ibn al-Qayyim wrote that were Allah to lift the veil upon His hidden kindness, the heart would melt in love and gratitude. At Uhud, when believers were told, “Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them,” it only increased them in faith, and they said, “Sufficient for us is Allah,” returning with His favor. Ibn al-Qayyim distinguished hope from wishful thinking, for hope entails striving and reliance, like the one who tills and plants and then hopes for crops. When Musa’s people feared being overtaken, he declared, “No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me,” and the sea parted. The daily dose of optimism lies in prayer, dhikr, gratitude, and du’a. Allah commands, “So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me,” promising, “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you.” The Prophet ﷺ taught complete tawakkul: “If the entire creation were to gather to benefit you, you would gain nothing except what Allah had written.” Du’a is the essence of worship, and the believer must ask with certainty, avoiding impatience. Allah asks, “Is He not best who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him?” Progress is measured not by worldly wins but by sincere intention and effort seeking Allah’s pleasure, coupled with gratitude and optimism born of true faith. As Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah reported, three days before his death the Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you should die but hoping only good from Allah, the Exalted and Glorious.” --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/is-islam-antisemitic-analyzing-the-hadith-about-jews-the-dajjal-and-the-end-of-times-prophecy # Is Islam Antisemitic? Analyzing the Hadith About Jews, the Dajjal and the End of Times Prophecy **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 28, 2017 **Updated:** July 30, 2024 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy* --- ## How an end times prophecy was manipulated by anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hatemongers[^1] A Jordanian cleric visiting Canada recently misleadingly cited a [*hadith* without context or explanation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/authenticating-hadith-and-the-history-of-hadith-criticism), which rightly triggered condemnations from the Muslim community as well as numerous headlines around the world. A *hadith* is an oral report transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and can be incredibly complex as one needs to evaluate all the relevant transmitted narrations concerning any statement recorded in a given *hadith* in order to arrive at an appropriate conclusion regarding what it is actually about.[^2] In this case, a single phrase was cited, one describing rocks and trees calling out to Muslims, “There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” This is not the first time that this particular text has been used to foment anti-Semitic sentiment within the Muslim community. Muslim leaders and scholars must forcefully denounce such rhetoric and clarify Islam’s unequivocal condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, discrimination, and xenophobia. Of course [Islamophobes](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/what-is-islamophobia-the-politics-of-anti-muslim-racism) pounced on the opportunity to trigger alarm bells and generate a new wave of propaganda accusing Muslims of genocidal ambitions towards Jews, and to claim that Islam is inherently anti-Semitic and a threat to Western civilization. --- ## A misquoted hadith about Jews: What it really means ### An end of times prophecy about a supernatural apocalyptic battle between good and evil When we look up different narrations of the *hadith* in question, we find out that the phrase being quoted is actually part of a larger narrative in the genre of eschatology (the part of theology dealing with the end times and the Day of Judgment), describing the return of Jesus and the apocalyptic battle between Jesus and the *Dajjal* (Antichrist).[^3] In this battle that will take place between the armies of Jesus and the *Dajjal*, several miracles are said to occur including that the *Dajjal* will melt when Jesus sees him, and that inanimate rocks and trees will speak and identify soldiers of the *Dajjal* (Sunan Ibn Majah 4077). This is a story about a battle between two groups of soldiers involved in war, one side of which is clearly unjust; it does not refer to innocent civilians. Moreover,  it’s not actually against a battle against a particular ethno-religious group. As a matter of fact, Muslims believe that all righteous Christians, Jews, and Muslims will be following Jesus after he returns (Qur’an 4:159) united under one creed of monotheism and belief in all of God’s messengers (which is the creed of Islam). Meanwhile, misguided Christians, Jews, and Muslims will be following the *Dajjal*. Indeed, other *hadith* demonstrate that many of the *Dajjal*’s forces will actually be deviant Muslims and fake Muslims (*Sunan Ibn Majah* 179, Sahih Bukhari 1881).[^4] The entire world at that point would be divided into the forces of good versus evil, truth versus falsehood, and *iman* versus *kufr* (i.e. true faith and deeds versus rejection of truth). ### All sincere followers of the Prophets are good guys in the Muslim apocalypse The *hadith* describing the soldiers of *Dajjal* who happen to be Jewish are in fact referring to a specific cult of 70,000 that takes *Dajjal* to be their messiah and follows him in his tyrannical actions (*Sahih Muslim* 2944). *Hadith* commentary states that those who will become Dajjal’s followers do not represent the global population of Jews but a tiny fraction (*Fayd al-Bari*, Anwar Shah Kashmiri, 4/197). In fact, most Jews will be righteous folk amongst the forces of good uniting with virtuous Christians and Muslims, embracing the message of all the Prophets, and fighting against the *Dajja*l.[^5] After all, the *Dajjal* will be a murderous dictator who claims to be God, an anathema to all who consider themselves followers of the Abrahamic tradition as well as to all people of conscience. Muslims do not believe that rocks and trees will be pointing out random innocent bystanders, but rather soldiers of the *Dajjal*—combatants who are themselves involved in killing innocent people. It is about one of these specific combatants in the Antichrist’s army that rocks and trees will say he is, “hiding behind me, come and slay him!” The religious identity of the *Dajjal*’s soldiers includes evildoers from all backgrounds (including misguided Muslims). Other variants of the *hadith* state that the rocks and trees will simply say, “Here is a rejector of truth[^6] hiding behind me!” (*Musnad Ahmad* 3546) or “Here is a follower of *Dajjal*!” (*al-Buhur al-Zakhirah* 1/493)[^7] and do not focus on the religious identity. Therefore, this *hadith* describes a future battle between warriors and can only occur after the return of Jesus; in no way can it be interpreted as a prescription to go out and harm civilians or peaceful members of any faith community, as Islamophobes contend. The Qur’an explicitly condemns violence against civilians and noncombatants, stating “Whoever kills a soul, it is as if he has slain all humanity,” (5:32) and, “So if they withdraw and do not fight you, and offer you peace, then God gives you no way against them,” (4:90). War is only permitted [in defense against aggression or to aid the oppressed](https://www.yaqeeninstitute.org/publications/jihad-as-defense-just-war-theory-in-the-quran-and-sunnah/), as in the case of Jesus fighting against the *Dajjal*’s forces. --- ## The question of Anti-Semitism and the Armageddon All three Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) have well-established traditions about [a prophesied Messiah who will engage in a battle](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/finding-and-following-jesus-the-muslim-claim-to-the-messiah) against the forces of evil in the end times, whether it be the return of Christ who will battle all the nations of the earth, or the coming of the Masiach ben Yossef who will destroy the Edomites and enemies of Israel.[^8] All three groups have had to explicate these esoteric eschatological passages in order to steer clear of antagonism towards other communities. In 2012, A DNC County Chairman resigned after he said, “The Christians just want us to be there so we can be slaughtered and converted and bring on the second coming of Jesus Christ.”[^9] The Bible describes the Armageddon in painful terms regarding the enemies of Christ/Israel (See: Zechariah 14:12).[^10] It’s necessary for people of all faiths to not allow their texts about the end times to be hijacked in a way that validates hateful speech or actions in the present. All Abrahamic faiths have eschatological [teachings that are esoteric and require careful critical interpretation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-qurans-engagement-with-christian-and-jewish-literature). The mainstream leaders of all faith communities have consistently emphasized tolerance and respect for others. --- ## Islam denounces all forms of anti-Semitism and racism The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught his companions to [respect people of all faith backgrounds and to care for everyone](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-to-overcome-racism-lessons-from-west-african-scholars-tafsir-of-surat-al-hujurat). He said, “Donate in charity to people of all faiths” (*Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah* 3/177)[^11] and he personally used to donate money regularly to sponsor a Jewish family in his community.[^12] When the Prophet ﷺ saw the funeral procession of a Jew passing by, he stood up out of respect for human life and death. When some companions pointed out that the deceased was not Muslim, he responded to them stating, “Is it not a human soul?” (*Sahih Bukhari* 1250). The lesson here is to respect all human life which is also part of revering God who created them. When an innocent Jewish man was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, eleven verses of the Qur’an were revealed exonerating him![^13] Some Jews converted to Islam and yet others, like the Rabbi Mukhayriq, continued to practice Judaism and still remained on good terms with the Prophet ﷺ (*Seerah Ibn Hisham* 1/518). Even when the Prophet ﷺ passed away, he had his armor mortgaged to a Jewish person (*Sahih Bukhari* 2759), a narration that shows he maintained good relations with Jews until his death. As the Qur’an says, “God does not forbid you to deal kindly and generously[^14] with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes: God loves the just,” (60:8). According to Al-Tabari, one of the earliest commentators, this verse encourages good relations with “all the sects, creeds, and religions,” (*Tafsir al-Tabari* 60:8). These Qur’anic teachings have inspired Muslims throughout the ages. During World War II, the Grand Mosque in Paris [rescued](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/movies/how-a-paris-mosque-sheltered-jews-in-the-holocaust.html&sa=D&ust=1544154767743000) Jews fleeing the Nazis and provided them with a safe haven and means of escape. This is the legacy that Muslims must recall and revive. In addition to respecting other faiths, Islam prohibits harming others and places great emphasis on Muslims maintaining positive relationships with those outside the faith. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ issued a stark warning about harming others, “Whoever slays a non-Muslim at peace with us will never smell the fragrance of paradise, although its fragrance can be found a distance of forty years of travel,” (*Sahih Bukhari* 6516). On the Day of Judgment, the Prophet himself ﷺ will argue on behalf of persecuted non-Muslims and against the Muslims who persecuted them: “If anyone wrongs a non-Muslim at peace with us, violates his rights, burdens him with more work than he is able to do, or takes something from him without his consent, then I will be his prosecutor on the Day of Resurrection.” (*Sunan Abi Dawud* 3052). This stunning indictment should make any Muslim think twice before hurting anyone. --- ## Notes [^1]: This paper was originally written for *The Huffington Post*, contextualizing this topic for the broader non-Muslim community; by necessity it simplifies some concepts in Islamic theological discourse for the general audience. [^2]: Consequently, this paper conducts a broad survey of the relevant transmitted narrations which have been cited and relied upon in Islamic eschatological literature in order to arrive at a more complete picture of the narrative in question, forgoing questions about the epistemic value of *da’if* (weak) narrations in eschatology and promotion of virtue. [^3]: *Fath al-Bari* by Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani, *Sharh Sahih Muslim* by al-Nawawi, *Umdatul-Qari* by Badr al-Deen al-’Ayni [^4]: T​his narration states that he will emerge from the deviant group known as the Khawarij (*Sunan Ibn Majah* 179), and according to commentaries on Ibn Majah, he will emerge at the head of a great army (“*jaysh ‘adheem*”) of Khawarij (*Shuruh Sunan Ibn Majah*, edited by Raed Sabri Ibn Abi Ulfah). The other narration ​(​*Sahih Bukhari* 1881) states that he will be joined by the inhabitants of Makkah and Madinah who are munafiqeen—those who outwardly claim to be Muslim but whose insincerity in faith will be evident once they join forces with the *Dajjal*. [^5]: Fayd al-Bari explains, “This is only about the Jews whom Jesus is fighting against, namely those in the armies of *Dajjal*, not all Jews around the world.” In fact, if *Dajjal* is followed by a cult of seventy thousand wearing green shawls and crowns—as the *hadith* states—this number amounts to less than 0.5% of the global population, a tiny fraction. There is no scriptural evidence to suggest that the number is larger than this. As an aside, though not a *hadith* nor theologically reliable narration of any sort, there is an interesting comment recorded in *Kitab al-Fitan* by Nu’aym ibn Hammad (d.228H), the teacher of Imam al-Bukhari (d. 256H), which states that after al-Mahdi (another Islamic eschatological figure) recovers the Ark of the Covenant, most Jews will join the Muslims except for a few. And in the Rabbinical literature, the staff of Aaron—one of the items in the Ark of the Covenant—will be recovered by the Messiah, as a token of his authority (*Midrash Yelamdenu*). [^6]: Rejection of truth (*kufr*) can happen by both statements or actions, viz. in this case following or obeying the *Dajjal*. [^7]: This is a famous work of Islamic eschatology by the Hanbali scholar al-Saffarini (d.1188H), cited here to instantiate the classical eschatological tradition’s reliance on such narrations to elaborate the prophecies concerning *Dajjal*. Moreover, these prophecies were never discussed in jurisprudential works pertaining to Muslim’s normative conduct with members of other faith communities. [^8]: “Appendix II – Mashiach in Jewish Law by Rabbi Dr. J. Immanuel Schochet, from his book *Mashiach— the Messianic Era in Jewish Law* on Chabad.org. Dr. Schochet writes, “Interestingly enough, according to Pirkei deR. Eliezer ch. 28 (in non-censored versions), the Ishmaelites (Arabs) will be the final kingdom to be defeated by Mashiach.” http://www.chabad.org/library/moshiach/article\_cdo/aid/101747/jewish/Appendix-II.htm#footnote6a101747 [^9]: http://americanvision.org/6370/christians-just-want-jews-slaughtered-and-converted/ [^10]: http://biblehub.com/zechariah/14-12.htm [^11]: *Musannaf ibn Abi Shaybah*, and Silsilah al-Saheehah vol 6, p. 628. Arabic: (تصدقوا على أهل الأديان كلها) [^12]: *Kitab al-Amwal*, Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam d224H, pp. 727-728, Dar alShuruq 1989​. Arabic: (عن سعيد بن المسيب أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم تصدق على أهل بيت من اليهود بصدقة ، فهي تجري عليهم ​). [^13]: Several works of exegesis record that verses 4:105-115 were revealed in reference to an incident were a *munafiq* named Tu’mah ibn Ubayriq stole some wealth and blamed it on a Jewish man named Zayd ibn Sameen. Tu’mah’s clan attempted to defend him and demand the Prophet punish the innocent Jewish man, whereupon these verses were revealed in condemnation of their actions and in defense of the innocence of Zayd ibn Sameen. This is related by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d.310H) in his Tafsir, and al-Suyuti (d.911H) also notes it was related in the tafsir of Abd ibn Humayd (d.219H) and Abu Bakr ibn al-Mundhir (d. 319H). See al-Tabari, Abu Ja’far, *Jami’ al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an* ed. Abdullah al-Turki, (Cairo: Dar Hajar 2001) vol. 7, p.462-3. [^14]: The verb *tuqsitu ilayhim* is often translated as “be fair (or justly) to them.” That is a possible linguistic meaning. However, it more likely means in this context, as Al-Qurtubi said, “give them a payment (*qistan*) from your wealth for the purpose of good relations.” He further explains, “It does not mean ‘justice’ here, because justice is required for those who fight and those who do not fight, as said by Ibn al-’Arabi” (Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qur'an, 18:59 verse 60:8). ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy. A recent incident, in which a Jordanian cleric visiting Canada cited a hadith without its context or explanation, rightly triggered widespread condemnation from the Muslim community and generated headlines around the world. The phrase in question describes rocks and trees calling out to the Muslims, "There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." It must first be understood that a hadith is an oral report transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and evaluating its meaning is a complex matter requiring one to weigh all the relevant narrations concerning a given statement before arriving at a sound conclusion. Isolating a single phrase, as was done here, distorts its meaning. This was not the first occasion on which this text has been misused to stir anti-Semitic sentiment among Muslims, and Islamophobes seized upon the moment to advance the claim that Islam is inherently anti-Semitic and a threat to Western civilization. Muslim scholars and leaders bear the responsibility of forcefully denouncing such rhetoric and clarifying Islam's unequivocal rejection of anti-Semitism, racism, discrimination, and xenophobia. Examining the various narrations of this hadith reveals that the quoted phrase belongs to a larger eschatological narrative concerning the return of Jesus and the apocalyptic battle between him and the Dajjal (the Antichrist). In this confrontation between the armies of Jesus and the Dajjal, several miracles are said to take place, including the melting of the Dajjal at the gaze of Jesus, and inanimate rocks and trees speaking to identify the soldiers of the Dajjal (Sunan Ibn Majah 4077). This is thus a description of a battle between two armies at war, one of which is clearly unjust; it does not concern innocent civilians. Nor is it a battle against a particular ethno-religious community. Muslims hold that all righteous Christians, Jews, and Muslims will follow Jesus after his return (Qur'an 4:159), united upon monotheism and belief in all of God's messengers, while the misguided among Christians, Jews, and Muslims will follow the Dajjal. Indeed, other narrations show that many of the Dajjal's forces will be deviant and false Muslims (Sunan Ibn Majah 179, Sahih Bukhari 1881). The world at that time will be divided into the forces of good and evil, truth and falsehood, faith and rejection. The narrations describing Jewish soldiers of the Dajjal refer specifically to a cult of 70,000 who take the Dajjal as their messiah and follow him in his tyranny (Sahih Muslim 2944). The hadith commentary of Anwar Shah Kashmiri in Fayd al-Bari (4/197) clarifies that these followers do not represent the global Jewish population, but only a tiny fraction of it. Most Jews, rather, will be among the righteous forces of good, uniting with virtuous Christians and Muslims and embracing the message of all the Prophets to fight the Dajjal, who will be a murderous tyrant claiming divinity — an abomination to all who follow the Abrahamic tradition and indeed to all people of conscience. The rocks and trees will not point out random innocent bystanders, but rather combatants in the Dajjal's army who are themselves engaged in killing the innocent. Other variants of the hadith confirm this focus is not upon religious identity as such: in some the rocks and trees say, "Here is a rejector of truth hiding behind me!" (Musnad Ahmad 3546), and in others, "Here is a follower of Dajjal!" (al-Buhur al-Zakhirah 1/493). This hadith, therefore, describes a future battle between warriors that can only occur after the return of Jesus, and can in no way be construed as a command to harm civilians or peaceful members of any faith community, as the Islamophobes contend. The Qur'an explicitly condemns violence against noncombatants, declaring, "Whoever kills a soul, it is as if he has slain all humanity" (5:32), and, "So if they withdraw and do not fight you, and offer you peace, then God gives you no way against them" (4:90). War is permitted only in defense against aggression or to aid the oppressed, as in the case of Jesus fighting the forces of the Dajjal. It is worth noting that all three Abrahamic faiths possess established traditions concerning a prophesied Messiah who battles the forces of evil at the end of time — whether the return of Christ who battles the nations, or the coming of the Masiach ben Yossef who destroys the enemies of Israel. Each community has had to interpret these esoteric passages so as to avoid antagonism toward others. In 2012, a DNC County Chairman resigned after remarking, "The Christians just want us to be there so we can be slaughtered and converted and bring on the second coming of Jesus Christ." The Bible itself describes Armageddon in severe terms regarding the enemies of Christ and Israel (see Zechariah 14:12). It is necessary for people of all faiths not to permit their end-times texts to be hijacked in a manner that validates present-day hatred, and mainstream religious leaders across these communities have consistently emphasized tolerance and respect. Islam, for its part, denounces all forms of anti-Semitism and racism. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught his companions to respect people of all faiths, instructing them, "Donate in charity to people of all faiths" (Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 3/177), and he personally sponsored a Jewish family in his community. When a Jewish funeral procession passed, he stood in respect, and when reminded the deceased was not Muslim, he replied, "Is it not a human soul?" (Sahih Bukhari 1250). When an innocent Jewish man was falsely accused of a crime, eleven verses of the Qur'an were revealed to exonerate him. Some Jews accepted Islam, while others, such as the Rabbi Mukhayriq, remained upon Judaism yet on good terms with the Prophet ﷺ (Seerah Ibn Hisham 1/518). At his death, the Prophet's armor was mortgaged to a Jewish man (Sahih Bukhari 2759), showing his good relations with the Jews until the end of his life. The Qur'an states, "God does not forbid you to deal kindly and generously with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes: God loves the just" (60:8), which al-Tabari, one of the earliest commentators, explains as encouraging good relations with "all the sects, creeds, and religions" (Tafsir al-Tabari 60:8). Such teachings inspired the Grand Mosque in Paris to shelter Jews fleeing the Nazis during World War II. Islam further prohibits harming others: the Prophet ﷺ warned, "Whoever slays a non-Muslim at peace with us will never smell the fragrance of paradise, although its fragrance can be found a distance of forty years of travel" (Sahih Bukhari 6516), and he declared that he himself would be the prosecutor on the Day of Resurrection against any who wrongs a non-Muslim at peace with the Muslims (Sunan Abi Dawud 3052). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/al-ghazali-and-the-golden-rule-ethics-of-reciprocity-in-the-works-of-a-muslim-sage # Al-Ghazali and the Golden Rule: Ethics of Reciprocity in the Works of a Muslim Sage **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Islamic Ethics, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 20, 2017 **Updated:** June 18, 2026 ## Note **The golden rule (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”) has become an important focal point in modern interfaith dialogue with Muslims. As an ethical concept, it can be transferred more or less intact between different religions and philosophies, with or without the authority of scripture. This article aims to assist interfaith efforts with Muslims by examining the use of the golden rule in the works of 12th century Muslim mystic, ethicist, and theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (“Al-Ghazali”). Al-Ghazali is one of the most influential and popular of the classical scholars of Islam, whose impact and appreciation is felt in the East and West, both within Islam and without. He applies the golden rule in various formulations as an axis around which great themes of religion are surrounded: God, purity of heart, justice, compassion, altruistic love, good will, human brotherhood, and neighborliness. Four texts are examined with specific attention paid to his most famous work, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*.** *This is an Accepted Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Religious & Theological Information on March 8th, 2017, available [online](http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10477845.2017.1281067).* *When citing the article, please cite the version of record at Taylor & Francis.* --- ## Background The ethics of reciprocity, popularly known as the “golden rule,” is any moral dictum that encourages us to treat others the way we want to be treated. The rule appears in a variety of forms and contexts, in different religions, philosophies, and peoples widely separated by time, place, and language, to the degree that it appears to be a nearly universal maxim among humankind.[^1] It is central to theistic religious ethics as well as secular philosophical ethics, being justified on the basis of scriptural authority or reason or both. It is expressed in both positive formulations (“Do unto others…”) and negative formulations (“Do not do unto others…”). Not surprisingly, the rule is stated or implied in Islam’s canonical texts as well as the writings of later Muslim theologians, philosophers, and mystics.[^2] Religions, and indeed worldviews more generally, invariably include some kind of component that informs believers and practitioners of what they should or should not do. For our purposes, the golden rule fits within the ethical dimension of the phenomenological study of religion.[^3] The rule often appears as a summarizing principle of good conduct, as the supreme moral principle of right action between human beings. Not always to be understood too literally, it functions more as a method of reasoning in a process of moral, emotional, and spiritual development. Yet despite the different formulations, wordings, and contexts in which the rule appears across religions and traditions, there is enough continuity in meaning and application to justify describing the ethics of reciprocity as the golden rule, even though it is not explicitly referred to as such in classical Islamic or other religious texts.[^4] Because of the near universality of the golden rule, it has come to play an important role in interfaith dialogue with Muslims. In October 2007, 138 prominent Muslim scholars and intellectuals signed an open letter entitled “A Common Word Between Us and You,” asserting that Islam and Christianity, at their core, share the twin commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor.[^5] The title of the letter was inspired by a verse from the Qur’ān, “Say, ‘People of the Book, let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all \[*kalimah sawā’*\],’”[^6] The letter drew responses and publications from hundreds of intellectuals of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish backgrounds. These initial conversations moved beyond polite religious diplomacy to encompass detailed discussions of mutual global challenges such as climate change, human rights, and economic development.[^7] Within this context, an understanding and appreciation of the work of past sages and luminaries in the world’s great religious traditions can help us find more common ground and insight for the present. One such Muslim scholar who relied heavily upon the golden rule is Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (d. 1111), hereafter referred to as Al-Ghazali, one of the most influential Muslim scholars who ever lived. He was a jurist, theologian, mystic, and ethicist best known for his confrontation with the philosophers and the publication of his spiritual masterpiece *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, the “Revival of the Religious Sciences.” Sunni historian and biographer Al-Dhahabī (d. 1348) refers to Al-Ghazali as an “ocean” of knowledge and praises him with the honorific title “proof of Islam” (*ḥujjat al-Islām*).[^8] Yet his impact extends beyond his own friendly Sunni circles. Fayḍ al-Kāshī (d. 1680), also known as al-Kāshānī, was a prolific Shi’ite theologian and philosopher who wrote a multi-volume “refinement” of the *Iḥyā’* to bring its spirituality and ethics in line with Shi’ite theology.[^9] Even many historians and scholars in the West admire Al-Ghazali’s intellectual achievements. Al-Ghazali applies the golden rule as an axis around which great themes of religion are surrounded: God, purity of heart, justice, compassion, altruistic love, goodwill, human brotherhood, and neighborliness. Many of these themes are common to theistic religions and non-theistic philosophies. By examining them in relation to Al-Ghazali’s use of the golden rule, we will find much material with which to inspire greater mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. --- ## Al-Ghazali and the Golden Rule Al-Ghazali’s ethical philosophy begins with God, a recognition of the nature of the soul, its origin, its purpose, its return after death, and its ultimate destination in either eternal happiness or damnation in the afterlife.[^10] The aim of humankind ought to be a harmonious relationship with God that leads to heavenly paradise in the hereafter; the means ought to be rigorous inward character development coupled with outward acts of pious devotion and social duty. His is a very God-centered ethics in which divine revelation takes precedence over, but does not entirely negate, independent moral reasoning.[^11] Within this framework, Al-Ghazali finds the golden rule as implicitly deduced from the very essence of God’s being. In his treatise on the attributes of God, he lists ninety-nine names of God, according to his count, along with counsel for worshippers to properly act upon the implications of God’s names. *Al-Wadūd* is the name for God in the Qur’ān that expresses God’s love, care, and mercy: “But He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Loving,” (85:14).[^12] As part of God’s nature, Al-Ghazali understands divine love to be the Creator’s desire to benefit his creation: > *Al-Wadūd—The Loving-kind—is one who wishes all creatures well and accordingly favors them and praises them. In fact, love and mercy are only intended for the benefit and advantage of those who receive mercy or are loved; they do not find their cause in the sensitiveness or natural inclination of the Loving-kind One. For another’s benefit is the heart and soul of mercy and love and that is how the case of God—may He be praised and exalted—is to be conceived: absent those features which human experience associates with mercy and love yet which do not contribute to the benefit they bring.* > > *If God wishes benefit for all of his creatures, then it logically follows that a worshiper should also wish benefit for God’s creatures in accordance with the golden rule:* > > *One is loving-kind among God’s servants who desires for God’s creatures whatever he desires for himself; and whoever prefers them to himself is even higher than that. Like one of them who said, ‘I would like to be a bridge over the fire \[of hell\] so that creatures might pass over me and not be harmed by it.’ The perfection of that virtue occurs when not even anger, hatred, and the harm he might receive can keep him from altruism and goodness.*[^13] The positive formulation of the golden rule in this passage uses broad and inclusive language; one ought to desire for creatures (*al-khalq*) what one desires for oneself. It can be inferred that the rule applies to unbelievers in the sense that a Muslim should desire their salvation. The worshipper sets him or herself equal to others as far as goodwill is concerned. Greater than this virtue, however, is the practice of altruism (*al-īthār*), a word that conveys the sense of preferring others over one’s own self (*taqdīr al-ghayr ‘alā al-nafs*).[^14] One should desire to save others from damnation in the afterlife to the point that one endures harm from others for their own benefit. Golden rule reasoning to Al-Ghazali involves imaginative role-reversal, or putting yourself another’s shoes, but he also relates the rule to one’s relationship with God; one ought to serve God in the way one wishes his own servant would serve him. In a letter to one of his young disciples, he lists four things the disciple must do; the first two relate to the golden rule: > *\[The first is\] that you make your relations with God the Exalted such that were a servant of yours to behave thus with you, you would be content with him and not weary of liking him, nor get angry. Whatever would dissatisfy you for yourself on the part of this hypothetical servant of yours, should dissatisfy you also for God the Exalted, and He is actually your Lord!* > > *\[The second is\] whenever you interact with people, deal with them as you would wish yourself to be dealt with by them, for a worshiper’s faith is incomplete until he wants for other people what he wants for himself.*[^15] In this passage, one can hear an echo of the famous declaration to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”[^16] Like Jesus of Nazareth, Al-Ghazali mentions both the vertical God-centered dimension of religion and the horizontal human-centered dimension, one after another. He also uses inclusive language here again, advising his disciple to love for “the rest of people” (*sā’ir al-nās*) what he loves for himself. As the purpose of life to Al-Ghazali is ultimate salvation with God, the appropriate means of this goal is to develop a righteous inward disposition and to purify the heart from spiritual diseases. The positive character traits (*maḥāsin al-akhlāq*) described in the Qur’ān are the criterion against which a person should measure his or her spiritual health. When it comes to the *hadīth* traditions, the first tradition to be listed by Al-Ghazali as a sign of good character is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, “The believer loves for his brother that which he loves for himself.”[^17] If the golden rule is an affirmative good character trait, then it can also be understood in relation to its opposite manifestations in the forms of destructive vices. Envy, according to Al-Ghazali, is the desire to have God’s favor taken away from those who have been blessed by worldly fortunes; in other words, a desire to see harm done and loss incurred. It is the antithesis of the golden rule. As such, the worshipper must purge his or her heart of these evil feelings: > *The envier is one who is distressed by God Almighty’s bestowal of blessings from the treasures of his omnipotence upon a servant among his servants, such as knowledge, wealth, love in the hearts of people, or any kind of fortune, to the point that he loves for them to be taken away… Rather, the worshiper will not reach the reality of faith as long as he does not love for all Muslims what he loves for himself. Rather, he should join with the Muslims for better or for worse. For the Muslims are like a single structure whose parts strengthen each other, or as a single body; if one of its limbs complains, the entire body complains.*[^18] The parable of the faith community as a single building or body conveys the golden rule in implicit but understandable terms; everyone in the community is like part of myself and should be treated like me. Two other sins of the heart, arrogance (*al-kibr*) and self-pride (*‘izzat al-nafs*), he condemned for their contradiction with the golden rule. In a particularly rhetorical passage, Al-Ghazali denounces self-pride as a major obstacle that prevents Muslims from acquiring a number of virtues: > *Indeed, \[arrogance\] becomes a veil over Paradise as it sets up a block between the servant and the character traits of the believers entirely. These character traits are the gates of Paradise, and arrogance and self-pride close all of these gates as he will not be able to love for the believers what he loves for himself while within him is something of pride. He will not be able to be humble, although it is the head character trait of the God-fearing, while within him is pride. He will not be able to leave malice while within him is pride. He will not be able to always speak the truth while within him is pride. He will not be able to leave anger while within him is pride. He will not be able to suppress his rage while within him is pride. He will not be able to leave envy while within him is pride. He will not be able to give kind advice while within him is pride. He will not be able to accept advice while within him is pride.*[^19] Purity of heart and soul is the theme in these two passages as well as the greater third and fourth books of the *Iḥyā’*, in which he details methods for overcoming destructive vices (*muhlikāt*) and procuring salvific virtues (*munjiyāt*). Al-Ghazali discusses the inward dimensions of religion and their outward manifestations in separate sections of his works, but he often intertwines and connects them as they are not mutually exclusive subjects. Purity of heart must necessarily lead to the fulfillment of religious and social duties. In several sections of the *Iḥyā’*, Al-Ghazali applies the golden rule to a number of social situations. In the quest for spiritual knowledge and truth, he finds a role model in Imām al-Shāfi’ī (d. 820). Al-Shāfi’ī is best known for founding the legal school that bears his name and to which Al-Ghazali adhered. He was also known for his penetrating and successful debates with the scholars of other schools of thought. The key to this success, recounted by Al-Ghazali, was his pure intention and goodwill towards his opponents: Al-Shāfi’ī, may God be pleased with him, said: > *I never debated anyone and loved for him to be wrong. And he said: I never spoke to anyone except that I loved for him to be guided, to be given direction, to be supported, and for the protection of God Almighty to be over him and preserve him. And I never spoke to anyone and cared whether God clarified the truth on my tongue or his tongue.*[^20] Al-Ghazali draws upon this spirit when he discusses the determents of excessive debate and intra-Muslim polemics. One of the pitfalls of the type of debating he criticized is that it causes bad will between opponents and conflicts with the golden rule: > *And among \[the evils of polemics\] is joy by what is bad for people and despair by their happiness. Those who do not love for their brother Muslim what they love for themselves are far away from the character of the believers. For all who seek to boast by the display of superiority will inevitably be pleased by what is bad for his peers and rivals, those who seek to surpass his superiority. The hatred between them is like that between co-wives.*[^21] The activity of rival scholarship, then, is spiritually deficient unless it is done with good intentions and manners. Theological engagement ought to be done with the benefit of others in mind, not merely the desire to prove one’s position correct. After making this point in the beginning of the *Iḥyā’*, Al-Ghazali invokes the golden rule several times again when discussing duties towards various members of society. When it comes to trade and business, the rule serves as a catch-all principle to cover every situation of buying and selling: > *All by which the dealer harms others is injustice. Indeed, justice is to not harm his brother Muslim and the entire standard for it is that he should not love for his brother except what he loves for himself. For if anything in his own dealings would cause hardship for himself and heaviness over his heart, then he should not deal with others the same way. Rather, he should consider his own money (dirhams) equal to the money of others.* > > *Some of them said, ‘Whoever sells his brother something for a dirham and he would not buy it himself except for five-sixths of a dirham (khamsah dawāniq), then he has departed from the good will with which he has been commanded in his dealings and he has not loved for his brother what he loved for himself.’ This is the whole of it.*[^22] On this basis, he goes on to prohibit a trader from hiding the defects in a piece of merchandise. The Prophet ﷺ’s companions took a pledge with him to show sincere good will towards every Muslim, a pledge in which was implied adherence to the golden rule with others: > *They understood it is part of sincerity (al-nuṣḥ) that one should not be pleased for his brother to have except what pleases himself. They did not believe it was \[merely\] virtuous and an increase in \[spiritual\] ranks. Rather, they believed it was a condition of Islam within their pledge to him.*[^23] The trader should be more concerned with the afterlife and less involved with the affairs of this world. Al-Ghazali advises him to have a good and pure intention, refrain from begging, restrain his greed, and “let him intend to show good will to the Muslims and that he loves for the rest of creation (*sā’ir al-khalq*) what he loves for himself. Let him intend to follow the way of justice and benevolence in his dealings as we have mentioned.”[^24] Al-Ghazali again uses broad language in this formulation of the golden rule that could include people of other faiths, as “God has commanded justice and benevolence to one and all.”[^25] Further along in the *Iḥyā’*, Al-Ghazali has a detailed discussion of the good conduct, rights, and duties related to specific social groups. The most intimate group he discusses first is those in a bond of brotherhood and friendship for the sake of God, for which he lists ten duties.[^26] Among them is the duty to cover the friend’s faults and to keep their secrets: > *Know that the faith of a person is not complete as long as he does not love for his brother what he loves for himself. The least degree of brotherhood is that he treats his brother as he would love to be treated by him. No doubt, he expects him to cover up his defects and to be silent about his faults and shortcomings. Were he to display the opposite of what he expected, his anger and rage for him would be severe. How far away from fairness he would be if he expected from him what he himself divulged and determined not to do for his sake!*[^27] Indeed, the least degree of brotherhood is to apply the golden rule in a way that makes friends equal. Part of that equality between friends is to safeguard and defend each other’s reputations within the bounds of reasonable justice; selfless and altruistic love, however, is another degree above it. Backbiting, or speaking ill about another in his or her absence, is likewise a violation of the golden rule. Al-Ghazali reports the saying of the second generation scholar Mujāhid, “Do not mention your brother in his absence except how you would love for him to mention you in your absence.”[^28] And he quotes another unnamed righteous person who said, “My brother is not mentioned to me except that I imagine myself in his place, so I say about him what I would love to be said about me.” Hence, Al-Ghazali concludes, “And this is true Islam: it is that he does not view his brother except how he views himself.”[^29] Later on in the *Iḥyā’* while discussing the spiritual cure for backbiting, he says, “If he is not pleased to be backbitten, then he should not be pleased for others what he is not pleased with himself. So these are the comprehensive treatments.”[^30] The golden rule is again an all-inclusive principle for righteous behavior, in this case as a guide for avoiding the many sins of the tongue. Supplication and prayer on a friend’s behalf is another right of brotherhood that is rooted in the golden rule: > *\[Among his rights are\] prayer for his brother in his life and after his death for everything that he loves for himself, his family, and everything related to him. Thus, you pray for him as you pray for yourself, without distinction between yourself and him. Indeed, your prayer for him is a prayer for yourself in reality.*[^31] The reason one’s prayer for another is the same as prayer for himself is entirely theological. He cites the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, “When a man prays for his brother behind his back, the angel says: And for you likewise.”[^32] In this instance, his referral to the golden rule is justified by his belief in the behavior of angels, rather than by any philosophical or rational reason. Al-Ghazali discusses the duties of friendship in another treatise entitled the *Beginning of Guidance* (*al-Bidāyah al-Hidāyah*). He concludes his list of duties by noting that they can all be summarized by the golden rule: > *On the whole, he should treat him \[his companion\] the way he would love to be treated by him. For whoever does not love for his brother what he loves for himself, then his brotherhood is hypocrisy and the ruinous consequence will be against him in the world and in the afterlife.*[^33] After brotherhood and friendship for the sake of God comes the wider circle of Muslims. In the *Iḥyā’*, Al-Ghazali enumerates twenty-seven rights and corresponding duties that Muslims have toward one another.[^34] Among the rights of a Muslim summarized at the beginning of this section are “that you love for him what you love for yourself, and you hate for him what you hate for yourself.”[^35] This rendering of the golden rule by Al-Ghazali contains both of a positive and negative formulation. In the Persian language abridgment of the *Iḥyā’*, the *Alchemy of Happiness* (*Kimiya al-Sa’dat*), Al-Ghazali also lists this as the first right of a Muslim, although he only uses the negative formulation “that one not like for another Muslim that which one does not like for himself.”[^36] A following passage in the *Iḥyā’* supports this right to golden rule treatment with a reference to the Prophet ﷺ’s parable of the community as a body, “The likeness of the believers in their love and compassion is that of a body; if a limb of it is afflicted, the entirety responds with fever and sleeplessness.”[^37] Further down the list of rights, Al-Ghazali mentions the golden rule again in the context of fairness, “And among \[these rights\] is that he has a sense of fairness to people from himself and he does not treat them except in the way he would love to be treated by them.” He justifies this right with the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, “Whoever is pleased to be delivered from Hell and admitted to Paradise, then let him meet his end while he bears witness there is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God, and let him treat people the way he would love to be treated by them.”[^38] In a later passage, he cites another golden rule *hadīth* tradition to support the right of a Muslim to sincere advice and good will (*al-naṣīḥah*) and the corresponding duty of other Muslims to endeavor for each other’s happiness.[^39] The last and largest social grouping that has rights are neighbors, including Muslims and non-Muslims. Al-Ghazali explicitly says that even “the idolater” has been given neighborly rights by the Prophet ﷺ.[^40] He conceives of these rights not only as negative rights (i.e. avoidance of harm), but as positive rights as well: > *Know that it is not only the right of the neighbor to be free from harm. Rather, harm should be endured… It is also not enough to endure harm. Rather, he must be gentle and offer charity and good conduct.*[^41] In other words, a Muslim should not merely avoid injustice; it is also an obligation to offer proactive kind treatment to neighbors. To illustrate this point, he tells a story of the famous Persian author and convert to Islam ‘Abd Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (d. 757): > *Ibn al-Muqaffa’ heard that a neighbor of his was selling his house because of a debt that burdened him. He was sitting in the shade of his house and he said, ‘I have not respected the sanctity of the shade of his house if he sells it to fulfill the debt.’ Thus, \[Ibn al-Muqaffa’\] paid the price of the house to him and told him not to sell it.* > > *And one of them complained about the abundance of rats in his house. It was said to him, ‘If only you had a cat!’ So \[Ibn al-Muqaffa’\] said, ‘I am afraid that the rats would hear the voice of the cat and flee to the house of the neighbors, for then I would have loved for them what I do not love for myself.’*[^42] Ibn al-Muqaffa’ shows an uncanny concern for the well-being of his neighbors, based upon golden rule reasoning, to the point of enduring harm at their expense. We can understand from this passage that the golden rule to Al-Ghazali applies to all neighbors regardless of their religious beliefs. Nevertheless, golden rule reasoning becomes more difficult when two or more moral agents or priorities exist in a given situation. Al-Ghazali acknowledges the realities of warfare and the imperative to resist injustice and to defend the innocent. He denies benevolence to “all those who disobey God with transgressive disobedience to others,” or, in other words, those who violate human rights as understood by him. If only one variable or agent is involved in the moral equation, the golden rule applies even to those who oppress and cause personal harm. However, if multiple variables are involved in the moral equation, Al-Ghazali defers golden rule treatment to the one whose rights have been violated: > *And to pardon one who does wrong and to be good to one who does evil is among the character traits of the truthful. Indeed, benevolence may be shown to the one who wrongs you, but as for one who harms another and disobeys God by it, then he should not be shown benevolence because benevolence to the wrongdoer is evil to the wronged. And the right of the wronged is to be considered first, and to strengthen \[the innocent’s\] heart by turning away the wrongdoer is more beloved to God than strengthening the heart of the wrongdoer. As for when you yourself are wronged, then benevolence, pardon, and excuse is within your right.*[^43] The golden rule is not necessarily negated by Al-Ghazali’s prescription to show enmity for the sake of God to an oppressor. The intention of this enmity is not the satisfaction of vengeance for vengeance’s sake. As he discusses elsewhere, one’s motivation should be entirely to approach God through obedience, “He who aims to draw near to God (Exalted is He) is ‘sincere.’”[^44] Rather, he views the situation through a hierarchy of rights; the oppressed need for their rights to be restored before clemency is shown to the oppressor. The motivation behind enmity for the sake of God must be pure towards this end. For this reason, Al-Ghazali warns his readers to critically examine their intentions whenever they think showing enmity for the sake of God is appropriate. Enmity should be out of a concern for rights, the benefit of the wronged, and the welfare of society as a whole according to what God desires. Hostility in God’s name that is motivated out of envy, pride, arrogance, or hateful malice, all of which he has condemned, is illegitimate. On the other hand, even kindness and gentleness can be blameworthy if they arise from a flawed intention and produce harmful results: > *For in gentleness and looking with the eye of mercy to the creation is a type of humility, and in harshness and turning away is a type of rebuke. The one to consult is the heart. So whatever he sees is inclined to his caprice and in accordance with his \[sinful\] nature, then the first thing is to oppose it; whether his contempt and harshness had been out of pride, vanity, enjoyment of showing superiority and taking liberty with righteousness, and whether his gentleness had been out of flattery, to persuade \[the wrongdoer’s\] heart by it to arrive at some purpose, or the fear of the effect of his disaffection and aversion on his status or wealth by a suspicion likely or unlikely. And all of that is due to the signals of Satan and is far from the deeds of the people of the Hereafter*.[^45] These passages highlight the challenge of golden rule reasoning as it relates to situations of just war and legal punishment. Yet the rule itself is not nullified by these harsh worldly realities; it simply is distributed first to those who most deserve it, either a wronged individual or society at large. Wisdom and subtle introspection are required to act within a complicated moral dilemma for which there are no easy answers. The insights of the sages are necessarily subjective and not always formulaic in juristic terms, which makes golden rule reasoning in these cases less of a philosophical science and more of a high spiritual art. --- ## Conclusion Al-Ghazali’s strident theological ethics is underpinned by the golden rule, which he often uses as a summarizing principle of moral guidance in a variety of contexts. He relates the rule to a number of other ethical themes that are prominent in both classical and modern Islamic literature, the same themes that occur in many other religious and philosophical traditions. Perhaps most important for interfaith relations with Muslims is his more or less explicit application of the golden rule to peaceful non-Muslims, notwithstanding the unfortunate circumstances of war and resistance to injustice. The implied equality in Al-Ghazali’s golden rule ethics provides a theological basis within classical Islam for a common understanding of basic modern human rights and interfaith cooperation on mutual global challenges like climate change and fair economic development. Appreciation for Al-Ghazali’s golden rule may also help non-Muslims better empathize with their fellow Muslim citizens and potentially reduce the grassroots hostility towards Islam that is the product of Internet misinformation and heated political rhetoric. --- ## Notes [^1]: Hertzler, J O. “On Golden Rules.” *The International Journal of Ethics*. 44.4 (1934): 418. [^2]: Neusner, Jacob, and Bruce Chilton (eds.). *The Golden Rule: The Ethics of Reciprocity in World Religions*. (London: Continuum, 2008), 99. [^3]: Smart, Ninian. *Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World’s Beliefs*. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 11. [^4]: Wattles, Jeffrey. *The Golden Rule*. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 5. [^5]: Volf, Miroslav, Ghazi bin Muhammad, and Melissa Yarrington (eds.). *A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor*. (Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2010), 3; see also www.acommonword.com. [^6]: Sūrat ‘Āli \`Imrān 3:64; Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. *The Qur’an: English Translation with Parallel Arabic Text*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 59. [^7]: El-Ansary, Waleed A, and David K. Linnan. *Muslim and Christian Understanding: Theory and Application of “A Common Word”*. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 7-11. [^8]: al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad A., and Shu’ayb Arnā’ūṭ, et al. *Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā’*. (Dimashq: al-Risālah al-‘ālmiyah, 2014), 19:322. [^9]: al-Kāshī, Fayḍ M. M., and ‘Alī A. Ghaffārī. *Al-Maḥajjah al-Bayḍā’ fī Tahdhīb al-Iḥyā*’. (Ṭihrān: Maktabat al-Ṣadūq, 1939). [^10]: Abul Quasem, Muhammad. *The Ethics of al-Ghazali: A Composite Ethics in Islam*. (Petaling Jaya: Quasem, 1975), 43. [^11]: Hourani, George F. *Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics*. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 166. [^12]: Sūrat al-Burūj 85:14; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 591. [^13]: al-Ghazzālī, David B. Burrell, and Nazih Daher. *The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: Al-Maqṣad al-Asnā fī S̲h̲arḥ Asmā’ Allāh al-Ḥusnā*. (Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 2011), 118-119. [^14]: Neusner, Jacob, and Bruce Chilton (eds.). *Altruism in World Religion*s. (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2005), 74. [^15]: al-Ghazzālī, and Tobias Mayer. *Letter to a Disciple: Ayyuhā’l-Walad*. (Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 2005), 56. [^16]: Luke 10:27; Coogan, Michael D, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. *The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocrypha*. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 1851. [^17]: al-Ghazzālī, and Timothy Winter. *On Disciplining the Soul = Kitāb Riyāḍat al-Nafs, & On Breaking the Two Desires = Kitāb Kasr al-S̲h̲ahwatayn: Books XXII and XXIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences = Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*. (Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 1995), 68. [^18]: al-Ghazzālī, and ‘Abd H. M. Darwīsh. *Bidāyat al-Hidāyah*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṣādir, 1998), 131. [^19]: al-Ghazzālī, and ‘Abd Q. S. ‘Aydarūs. *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*. (Jiddah: Dār al-Minhāj lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī’, 2011), 6:491-492. [^20]: Ibid., 1:99. [^21]: Ibid., 1:173. [^22]: Ibid., 3:292. [^23]: Ibid., 3:296. [^24]: Ibid., 3:323. [^25]: Ibid., 3:308. [^26]: Abul Quasem, *The Ethics of al-Ghazali*, 212. [^27]: al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dī*n, 4:88-89. [^28]: Ibid., 4:102. [^29]: Ibid., 4:103. [^30]: Ibid., 5:525. [^31]: Ibid., 4:121. [^32]: Ibid. [^33]: al-Ghazzālī. *Bidāyat al-Hidāyah*, 163. [^34]: Abul Quasem, *The Ethics of al-Ghazali*, 214. [^35]: al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:150. [^36]: al-Ghazzālī, Jay R. Crook, and Laleh Bakhtiar. *The Alchemy of Happiness (Kimiya al-Saadat)*. (Chicago, IL: Great Books of the Islamic World, 2008), 1:342. [^37]: al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:151. [^38]: Ibid., 4:163. [^39]: Ibid., 4:197. [^40]: Ibid., 4:212. [^41]: Ibid., 4:215. [^42]: Ibid., 4:215-216. [^43]: Ibid., 4:47. [^44]: al-Ghazzālī, and Anthony Shaker. *Al-Ghazali on Intention, Sincerity and Truthfulness = Kitāb al-Niyya wal’l-Ikhlāṣ wa’l Ṣidq: Book XXXVII of the Revival of the Religious Studies = Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*. (Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Texts Society, 2013), 58. [^45]: al-Ghazzālī, *Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn*, 4:56. ## Summary The ethics of reciprocity, commonly called the "golden rule," teaches that a person ought to treat others as he himself would wish to be treated. This principle appears across nearly every religion, philosophy, and people, whether expressed in a positive form ("Do unto others…") or a negative one ("Do not do unto others…"), and it is grounded sometimes in scriptural authority, sometimes in reason, and often in both. Its near-universal presence has made it a valuable meeting point in interfaith dialogue with Muslims. A notable example of this was the open letter of October 2007, titled "A Common Word Between Us and You," signed by 138 Muslim scholars, which affirmed that Islam and Christianity share at their heart the twin commands to love God and to love one's neighbor. Its very title was drawn from the Qur'anic verse, "Say, 'People of the Book, let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all [kalimah sawā']'." An examination of how one of Islam's greatest classical scholars, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (d. 1111), employed the golden rule offers rich material for such mutual understanding. Al-Ghazali holds an esteemed rank among the scholars of Islam. The Sunni historian al-Dhahabī (d. 1348) described him as an "ocean" of knowledge and honored him with the title "proof of Islam" (ḥujjat al-Islām). His influence reached beyond Sunni circles, for the Shi'ite theologian Fayḍ al-Kāshī (d. 1680) composed a multi-volume refinement of his masterwork, the Iḥyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn, to align its spirituality with Shi'ite theology. His ethical vision begins with God, with the recognition of the soul's origin, purpose, and return in the hereafter to either eternal happiness or damnation. The goal of human life, in his teaching, is a harmonious relationship with God leading to paradise, and the means to it is inward character development joined to outward acts of devotion and social duty. His is a God-centered ethics in which divine revelation takes precedence over, though it does not wholly negate, independent moral reasoning. Within this framework, Al-Ghazali derives the golden rule from the very nature of God Himself. In his treatment of the ninety-nine divine names, he reflects upon al-Wadūd, the name expressing God's love and care, drawn from the verse, "But He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Loving" (85:14). He explains that God's love is His desire to benefit His creation, seeking their advantage rather than any gain for Himself. From this he reasons that if God wishes good for all His creatures, then the worshipper too should desire benefit for God's creatures. He writes that the loving-kind servant is one "who desires for God's creatures whatever he desires for himself," and he places above this the practice of altruism (al-īthār), the preferring of others over oneself, illustrated by the one who wished to be a bridge over Hell so that others might pass safely. The inclusive language he uses—desiring good for "creatures" (al-khalq)—suggests the rule may extend even to unbelievers, in the sense that a Muslim should desire their salvation. Al-Ghazali also relates the golden rule to one's relationship with God directly. In a letter to a disciple, he counsels that a person should serve God as he would wish his own servant to serve him, and should deal with people as he would wish to be dealt with, "for a worshiper's faith is incomplete until he wants for other people what he wants for himself." He thus joins the vertical dimension of devotion to God with the horizontal dimension of dealing justly with people. Among the traditions of the Prophet ﷺ, the first he lists as a mark of good character is the saying, "The believer loves for his brother that which he loves for himself." By contrast, envy stands as the very antithesis of this rule, for it is the desire to see God's blessings stripped from those upon whom He has bestowed them. He supports the call to unity with the Prophetic parable that the believers "are like a single structure whose parts strengthen each other, or as a single body; if one of its limbs complains, the entire body complains." Likewise he condemns arrogance (al-kibr) and self-pride ('izzat al-nafs) as veils that close the gates of paradise, for the proud man cannot love for others what he loves for himself. He then applies the rule across many social settings. In the pursuit of knowledge and debate, he presents Imām al-Shāfi'ī (d. 820) as a model, recalling his words that he never debated anyone while loving for him to be wrong, but rather loved for his opponent to be guided and did not care whether the truth was made clear upon his own tongue or his rival's. From this Al-Ghazali criticizes contentious polemics, for those who rejoice at another's misfortune and grieve at his happiness are "far away from the character of the believers." In commerce, he treats the golden rule as a comprehensive standard of justice, declaring that a trader must not love for his brother except what he loves for himself, must not conceal the defects of goods, and should regard the wealth of others as equal to his own. He cites the pledge of the Companions to show sincere good will (al-nuṣḥ) to every Muslim, which they understood not as mere virtue but as a condition of Islam. Turning to relationships, Al-Ghazali lists the duties of brotherhood for the sake of God, among them covering a friend's faults and keeping his secrets, noting that "the least degree of brotherhood is that he treats his brother as he would love to be treated by him." He condemns backbiting as a breach of the rule, citing Mujāhid's counsel to mention one's brother only as one would wish to be mentioned, and concluding that "true Islam" is that a person "does not view his brother except how he views himself." He commends prayer for one's brother, supported by the Prophetic saying that when a man prays for his absent brother, the angel responds, "And for you likewise"—here grounding the rule in the conduct of angels rather than in rational argument. In the Bidāyah al-Hidāyah he summarizes all duties of companionship in the rule, warning that brotherhood without it is hypocrisy. Among the wider rights of Muslims he includes both the positive and negative forms: "that you love for him what you love for yourself, and you hate for him what you hate for yourself," supported by the Prophetic hadith joining right treatment of people with the testimony of faith. The widest circle is that of neighbors, and Al-Ghazali states explicitly that even "the idolater" has been granted neighborly rights by the Prophet ﷺ. These rights are not merely the avoidance of harm but the offering of gentleness, charity, and good conduct, even to the point of enduring harm. He illustrates this with the example of Ibn al-Muqaffa' (d. 757), who paid his neighbor's debt to spare him selling his house, and who refused to keep a cat lest the rats flee to his neighbor's home—for then he would have loved for his neighbor what he did not love for himself. This shows that the rule, in Al-Ghazali's view, applies to all neighbors regardless of religion. Yet Al-Ghazali acknowledges that the rule grows complex when several parties or competing rights are involved. He recognizes the realities of warfare and the duty to resist injustice and defend the innocent. When only oneself is wronged, pardon and benevolence remain one's own right; but when another has been wronged, benevolence to the wrongdoer becomes an evil against the wronged, and the rights of the oppressed take precedence. Even so, the rule is not nullified but rather directed first to those who most deserve it. He cautions that enmity for God's sake must spring from pure concern for rights, never from envy, pride, or malice, and warns that even kindness may be blameworthy if it flows from flawed intention. In such dilemmas he leaves the matter to sincere introspection, "the one to consult is the heart," making golden rule reasoning less a fixed science than a delicate spiritual art for which there are no easy answers. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islamic-spirituality-and-mental-well-being # Islamic Spirituality and Mental Well-Being **Author:** Dr. Zohair Abdul-Rahman **Topics:** General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health **Tags:** Mindfulness, Paper, Publication **Published:** March 13, 2017 **Updated:** September 7, 2026 ## Introduction Modern science has recently taken a keen interest in the wisdoms found in the ancient eastern traditions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Hinduism. In the relatively new field of positive psychology,[^1] many of these eastern traditions are utilized to enhance general well-being.[^2] The Buddhist practice of mindfulness meditation is a great example of a modern psychological intervention that has been taken directly from the East. A browse through the literature will reveal a plethora of studies that have studied its neurobiological effects and therapeutic benefits.[^3] The promising results found in these studies have led to the incorporation of mindfulness meditation into a wide variety of treatment protocols for both physical and mental illnesses. However, the tradition of spirituality within Islām is arguably the least examined of all the world’s major spiritual philosophies in terms of its potential effects on well-being. In the modern era, the Islāmic tradition tends to be spoken of solely in terms of dogma, emphasizing its political, ritual, and legal doctrines, while neglecting its profound spiritual and moral dimensions. Historically, however, many Muslim scholars dedicated their lives to exploring spiritual and psychological questions of human well-being and flourishing. This paper attempts to uncover some of this lost heritage to demonstrate its relevance to modern discussions in mental health. It is divided into 2 sections: (i) The Role of Spirituality in Emotional and Mental Well-Being (ii) A Psycho-spiritual Analysis of a Prophetically Prescribed Prayer for Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms. --- ## The Role of Spirituality in Emotional and Mental Well-Being Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH), the famous Andalusian scholar of Islām said, “I searched for a common goal amongst humankind, to which all would agree to strive for excellence. I have not found anything other than the vanquishing of anxiety \[*hamm*\].”[^4] The pursuit of emotional balance and the dissipation of anxiety is indeed universal and continues until today. Despite the immense scientific progress and medical advancements that have been achieved in the last few centuries, there seems to be a decline in mental health. Rates of depression have dramatically increased between 1988 to 2008 in the United States.[^5] It has been found that the use of antidepressants in the population rose 400 percent within this time frame.[^6] The rate of suicide tripled in the young (ages 15-24) between 1950 and 2000.[^7] For the middle-aged population, rates of suicide have increased 40 percent from 1999 to 2016.[^8] Perhaps surprisingly, suicide rates are much higher in wealthier nations than in poorer countries.[^9] A cross-cultural study involving 132 countries and close to 140,000 people found that, although there were higher rates of reported happiness in wealthier regions, there were much lower rates of perceived meaning in life compared to poorer countries.[^10] People in poorer countries like Niger and Togo reported some of the highest rates of meaning but also the lowest rates of happiness.[^11] This suggests that happiness does not explain the disparity in suicide rates.[^12] A key factor that could explain the variance between countries is the ability of the population to achieve meaning and purpose in life.[^13] Abstracting meaning from the world is one of the core features of spirituality.[^14] Thus, these studies point to the tremendous value spirituality brings to regulating emotional imbalance. Developing one’s spirituality is more important than financial achievements. People often believe that transient states of happiness obtained through entertainment, wealth, and possessions will enable them to escape their *hamm* (anxiety). Ibn Ḥazm comments, > *When you think very deeply about all the affairs \[of this world\], you will be at a loss. Your contemplation will inevitably lead to the understanding that everything in this worldly life is temporary. Thus, one must recognize that true purpose lies in only working for the hereafter \[which is eternal\]. This is because at the end of all your dreams and aspirations in this world is the eventuality of ḥuzn \[grief\] – Either your ambitions are taken away from you, or you are forced to give up your goals \[both pathways will lead to grief\]. There is no escape from these two ends except in striving towards God. In this case, a person achieves happiness in this life and for eternity. Their hamm is a lot less compared to the hamm of humankind. They are respected by friend and foe alike and, as for their eternity, then it is paradise.*[^15] Ibn Ḥazm points out that the temporal nature of this world will inevitably lead a person into an existential crisis. Seeking meaning is our way out of the abyss. It is a spiritual endeavor that centers around discovering what makes our lives worth living. ### Spiritual intelligence and the ability to process life events Some people tend to think about mental illness and emotional states in purely biological terms. While it is true that there are biological components to our emotions and our mind, they are not the only components. Modern psychology has recognized that a core aspect of the human mind involves spirituality. In fact, Dr. Robert Emmons, a leading researcher in the psychology of spirituality, proposed that spirituality should be thought of as a separate type of human intelligence.[^16] Spiritual intelligence is essentially the ability of a person to process the world around them and discover meaning and significance. In the Islāmic tradition, this process involves contemplating the *ayaat* (signs) of God that exist in the world and extracting knowledge to inform us on how to act, think, and feel. For example, when a person witnesses the change in trees during the season of fall, he sees it as an *ayah* from God. Perhaps it reminds them of the temporal nature of this world, inspiring them to strive for loftier aims in life. Or perhaps the different colors inspire them to recognize the beauty of the diversity of humankind. When a person with high spiritual intelligence goes through life, his mind is constantly abstracting positive meaning and significance from the events that unfold around him. This fuels positive spiritual states such as inspiration, optimism, gratitude, and perseverance. People with lower levels of spiritual intelligence will either abstract false meanings from the world around them or fail to recognize the *ayaat* of God altogether. This will fuel states such as anger, jealousy, arrogance, and conceit. The Qurān provides us with an excellent example of this reality through the story of the man with two gardens. After describing the beautiful nature of these gardens, the Qurān quotes the false notions this man abstracted from it due to his poor spiritual intelligence: > *He said, ‘I do not think this will ever end. And I do not think that the hour will be established, and even if I am returned to My Lord then I will find in with Him an even better placing.’*[^17] As the years in the garden passed, this man failed to recognize the ayaat of God manifested in the changing of seasons and the continuous cycle of death and rebirth. This should have directed him to realize the temporal nature of his own life and the fragility of what he possessed. Furthermore, the cycle of death and rebirth should have been an *ayah* of the reality of the hereafter. The righteous companion of this man who had a high level of spiritual intelligence explains what should have been abstracted from these *ayaat:* > *And why didn’t you say when you entered your garden, ‘\[This is\] What God Wills and there is no capability except through God.’*[^18] In the fields of clinical psychology and psychiatry, many practitioners are also starting to recognize the role of spirituality as an essential part of both prevention and treatment of mental illness. In a paper in the *Journal of Family Practice*, the authors conclude, “…When appropriate, spiritual issues should be addressed in patient care since they may have a positive impact on health and behaviour, and \[we\] recommend that the medical model be expanded to a biopsychosocial-spiritual one.”[^19] A systematic review of multiple studies (which represents one of the highest levels of clinical evidence)[^20] showed that increased levels of spirituality and religiosity in adolescence correlated with better mental health.[^21] As we can see, spirituality and the quest for meaning appear to be very important in providing optimal mental health care. Spiritual stations and strengths also have very strong protective and therapeutic properties. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) explains, > *The past can never be changed or corrected with sadness \[ḥuzn\], but rather with contentment \[riḍā\], gratitude \[ḥamd\], patience \[ṣabr\], a firm belief in destiny \[imān bil qadar\] and the verbal recognition that everything occurs by the Decree of God \[qaddarAllāhu wa mā shā wa fa’l\].*[^22] There is a very large body of literature in the field of positive psychology that correlates self-regulation and gratitude with lower incidence of mental illness. Self-regulation is the will power that enables people to act in accordance with their values and long term benefit despite costs to energy or short term pleasure.[^23] This construct seems to be represented in the Islāmic spiritual tradition as *ṣabr*. Ibn al-Qayyim mentions that linguistically *ṣabr* has three connotations: (1) restraining, (2) strength and (3) building.[^24] He explains that *ṣabr* is the strength of will that enables people to act in ways that bring them benefit.[^25] This concept of self-regulation is so significant that Dr. Timothy J. Strauman has proposed that clinical depression is actually a disorder of self-regulation.[^26] Regarding gratitude (*shukr*), a study correlating gratitude with many different measures of subjective well-being demonstrated an inverse relationship with several unpleasant states. It showed the strongest negative relationship with depression.[^27] Spirituality is an important component in the healing and protection of the mind. The Islāmic spiritual tradition contains a wide variety of practices and beliefs that can be analyzed for therapeutic benefit. Rather than presenting a comprehensive overview, we have elected to focus on one prescribed practice for anxiety and depressive symptoms: a specific *duaā* (prayer) designed to ward off anxiety and depression. --- ## A Psycho-spiritual Analysis of a Prophetically Prescribed Prayer for Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms The Prophet ﷺ said, w*hoever is afflicted with grief or anxiety, then he should pray with these words[\[28\]](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=766&action=edit#ftnt28)*: Prayer for Anxiety اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي عَبْدُكَ، ابْنُ عَبْدِكَ، ابْنُ أَمَتِكَ، نَاصِيَتِي بِيَدِكَ، مَاضٍ فِيَّ حُكْمُكَ، عَدْلٌ فِيَّ قَضَاؤُكَ، أَسْأَلُكَ بِكُلِّ اسْمٍ هُوَ لَكَ سَمَّيْتَ بِهِ نَفْسَكَ، أَوْ أَنْزَلْتَهُ فِي كِتَابِكَ، أَوْ عَلَّمْتَهُ أَحَدًا مِنْ خَلْقِكَ، أَوِ اسْتَأْثَرْتَ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ عِنْدَكَ، أَنْ تَجْعَلَ الْقُرْآنَ رَبِيعَ قَلْبِي، وَنُورَ صَدْرِي، وَجَلَاءَ حُزْنِي، وَذَهَابَ هَمِّي *Oh Allāh, certainly I am your slave, the son of your male slave and the son of your female slave. My forehead is in Your Hand. Your Judgment upon me is assured and Your Decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every Name that you have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught any one of Your creation or kept unto Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen that is with You, to make the Qurān the spring of my heart, and the light of my chest, the banisher of my sadness and the reliever of my distress.* *Musnad Imām Aḥmad* #3712 Before delving into the analysis of this prayer we would like to clarify the usage of key terms. When we refer to states such as anxiety and depression we are not necessarily referring to them in the clinical context of mood or anxiety disorders. Anxiety and depression are not considered to be indicative of mental illness unless certain clinical criteria are met. In fact, anxiety and depressed moods can often be useful emotional responses to difficult life circumstances. It should also be clarified we are not proposing that the psycho-spiritual therapy found in this prophetic prayer should be a replacement for modern therapy. We do not intend to minimize the biological component of treatment. This delicate balance was surprisingly understood by Islāmic scholar Ibn al-Qayyim centuries before the advent of modern psychiatry: > *The second category of diseases of the heart are based on emotional states such as anxiety, sadness, depression, and anger. This type of disease can be treated naturally by treating the cause or with medicine that goes against the cause…And this is because the heart is harmed by what harms the body and vice versa.*[^29] This disclaimer notwithstanding, it is worth noting that, given the neuroplasticity of the brain, often a profound change in thoughts, attitudes, and emotions as a result of cognitive and spiritual therapy can produce neurochemical alterations that may reduce the need for extensive pharmacologic interventions.[^30] ### Du’aā as Psychotherapy Unlike other notions of prayer that are often reduced to mere incantations or wish lists, *du’aā* is much more profound. In fact, many of the most powerful *du’aās* in the Qurān do not even contain a request to God. Instead, they are humbling expressions of truth in response to trial and tribulation. For instance, when the Prophet Ayyūb (as) was afflicted with severe disease and poverty he called out, “Indeed, adversity has touched me and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful.”[^31] In the Islāmic tradition, *du’aās* represent a medium for individuals to strive against the chaos they find in life, recognizing the truths behind it that bring order. It is a method by which believers find meaning which strengthens their underlying belief structures as a means of coping with the events unfolding in their lives. Clinical psychology recognizes the therapeutic importance of altering the belief structures of a patient experiencing mental illness. One of the most widely used methods of psychotherapy is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It is a therapy designed to encourage positive beliefs and behaviors while altering negative ones: “(it) is essentially a collaborative and individualized program that helps individuals to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and learn or relearn healthier skills and habits.”[^32] --- ## Analysis The *du’aā* can be divided into 4 components. We will explore the deep spiritual themes in each component and examine their relevance to mental well-being. ### 1 – Oh Allāh, certainly I am your slave, the son of your male slave and the son of your female slave. One of the most important factors involved overall well-being is having a strong sense of self-awareness. The *du’aā* starts with gaining true self-awareness and understanding of one’s fundamental role in the world. Human beings understand themselves in relation to other people. We are embedded in complex social networks and play different roles based on who we are interacting with. We act and think differently when we are with our parents compared to when we are with our friends. We wear different versions of “Us” according to the situation. The process by which a person shifts their personality to correctly align with the social situation at hand is referred to as self-monitoring.[^33] This begs the question, who is the real “You”? Is it the “friend You” or the “work You”? Perhaps it is the “family You”? We are reminded in this *du’aā* that the true “You” is the “Slave of God You.”  This “You” is not a separate identity, it is a personality that should influence and inform all other versions of “You.” Having said that, the shift in personality that occurs based on the social context is not necessarily a negative thing. Enacting different roles in the world generally enables us to attain what we wish to achieve. We play the employee role and can accomplish our daily tasks and get paid. We play the friend role and the positive interactions result in laughter, joy, and fun. We play the father role so we can teach our children. If you acted as an employee to your son, then it would result in a failure of parenting. If we acted as a father to our friends, then it would result in a failure of friendship. It is vital that we know what role we are meant to play for our relationships and our lives to thrive. What happens when we don’t know what role to play? That is usually what results in the onset of anxiety. When a person is anxious about the future it is because they do not know how to act in a way that fulfills their needs. All the versions of themselves fail to work. They are unsure what role to play. As mentioned, we are guided in this *du’aā* to recognize that the fundamental role that permeates all our roles is servitude to God. When we act in the world as a slave of the Most High, we gain clarity on how we are meant to respond in any life situation. When we are wronged we respond with forgiveness as slaves of the Most-Forgiving (*Al-Ghafūr*). When there is oppression we spread justice as slaves of the Most Just (*Al-Muqsiṭ*). When ignorant people are vulgar with us we respond with words of peace as slaves of the Most Merciful (*Ar-Raḥmān*). When we are unsure what the future holds we rely on the One Who controls everything as slaves of The Disposer of all affairs (*Al-Wakīl*). #### The Islāmic concept of servitude to God A person may see such ideas of servitude and submission as self-deprecating or humiliating. However, servitude and surrender to God are some of the most empowering concepts in the Islāmic tradition. They constitute the source of our true freedom in this world and our escape from its shackles. As we declare our servitude to God, we declare our independence and freedom from everything else in this world. By doing so, we recognize our independence and freedom from whatever we may be grieving over. The relationships we hold dear, the loved ones we cherish, the property we own, the career we have toiled for, the respect we have earned; all of this can be lost in an instant. The Qurān references this reality with a beautiful parable, > *Know that the life of this world is but amusement, diversion, adornment, boasting to one another and competition in increase of wealth and children. The example of this is like a rain that results in plant growth, immediately pleasing the farmers. Then it inevitably turns yellow and then becomes scattered debris…*[^34] As the Qurān mentions, everything in life that we are attached to will eventually leave us. Once they “turn yellow,” we may find ourselves frozen in time. Our conception of ourselves can be so anchored to this world that when it fades, we can lose ourselves. Our attachment to God is meant to be central and our ultimate anchor in life. When we submit and surrender to God, we become content with what we have lost and free ourselves from our own psychological slavery. Dr. Nazir Khan, a contemporary thinker on Islāmic spirituality, expounds on the various manifestations of psychological slavery in the modern age, > *Beautifying one’s appearance would seem to be a healthy expression of freedom, until of course, we witness the alarming devaluation of the self that has become rampant in the modern cosmetic culture…The striking proportion of society willing to go under the knife to change themselves may represent physical freedom to some, but it may also suggest a worrying degree of psychological enslavement.*[^35] > > *What we are supposed to want and desire is programmed and conditioned into our thoughts by a cultural and marketing tsunami that engulfs our minds right from childhood.*[^36]  > > *Psychological slavery also manifests in an obsession with entertainment, illusion and fantasy. Two decades ago, one author noted that the average American child watched more television by the age of 6, than the amount of time one speaks to one’s father in an entire lifetime.*[^37] #### Neurophysiology of Worship Interestingly, the freedom and relief that comes with surrendering one’s will to God has been found to have profound effects on our brain biology. Some preliminary work that has focused on investigating the neurophysiological effects of *ṣalah* and *dhikr*.[^38] By conducting neuroimaging of Muslims performing both actions, the researchers demonstrated that they were associated with a decrease in frontal lobe activity, as measured by cerebral blood flow. The prefrontal cortex is thought to play a role in executive functioning, which includes willpower and decision making. The authors suggested that the act of surrendering to God found in Islāmic practices may underlie the decreased frontal lobe activity found in this study. One of the most fascinating features of this investigation was the comparison of prayer performed in an automatic manner without *khushu’* (spiritual concentration) versus prayer performed in a deliberate manner with *khushu’*. The automatic manner of performing prayer had minimal effects in altering the pattern of brain activity and was comparable to daily activity. It was only when the individual performed prayer in a deliberate focused manner, internalizing the feelings of surrender and submission to God, that a profound neurophysiological change was witnessed with hypo-frontalization (decreased activity in the frontal lobes of the brain), as well as increased activity in the basal ganglia (involving the brain’s reward system) and the anterior cingulate gyrus. With respect to the latter, the researchers commented, “The anterior cingulate is involved with emotional regulation, learning, and memory, and plays a major role in lowering anxiety and irritability, and enhancing emotional and social awareness.”[^39] ![well-being-scan](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/well-being-scan-300x149.jpg) *Figure 1: Radionuclide brain imaging (using Technetium-99m exametazime) provides a precise snapshot of regional cerebral blood over five minutes of uptake during Islamic prayer (salah). On the left, the brain activity when ṣalah was performed in an automatic rote manner without* khushu*’ (spiritual focus), and on the right with* khushu*’. Activity decreases in the frontal cortex and increases in the anterior cingulate gyrus and basal ganglia. Image from Newberg et al. 2015.* The feeling of submission produced by *dhikr* and *ṣalah* is significant to our discussion on mental health because of its association with hypofrontality. The transient hypofrontality hypothesis developed by Arne Dietrich in 2006 asserts that decreased activity in the frontal regions can produce a therapeutic effect in certain mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).[^40] The prefrontal cortex is associated with attentional and emotional responses. Thus, hyperactivity in this region can be correlated with hyper awareness and hyper vigilance, leading to an increased level of anxiety. The theory asserts that decreasing activity in the prefrontal region can provide symptom relief. This same model can be used to explain depression and OCD.[^41] It is quite fascinating that this prescribed *du’aā* by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ starts with very strong themes of surrender. Badr-Ad-Deen al-‘Ayni (d. 855 AH) in his explanation of this du’aā comments on its unique emphasis on submission, > *And in this \[statement\] is the perfection of submission, humility, and gnosis through \[the expression of\] servitude to God. This is because it was not simply stated ‘I am your servant,’ but it was further emphasized through ‘son of your male servant and son of your female servant.’ This indicates a hyperbolic emphasis on submission and servitude to God. This is because the solitary servant is not the same as a servant, whose father is also a servant.*[^42] Spiritually, submission produces strong feelings of relief and reliance on God (*tawakkul*). Biologically, this correlates to a decreased blood flow in the frontal region, resulting in the suspension of one’s will to control and manipulate their environment. The neurological study on *ṣalah* also showed a correlation with increased blood flow in the caudate nucleus.[^43] This region is implicated in the reward system of the brain.[^44] This may be associated with the pleasure that is felt by believers when they submit their will to God. Thus, *ṣalah* itself can represent a strong form of therapy as indicated in the following narration about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: > *Ḥudhayfah said, “When the Prophet ﷺ would be in an overwhelming situation, he would pray ṣalah.”*[^45] *Ṣalah* is a practice that allows the human being to enter into the presence of the divine with full submission and to spiritually leave this world. The system of *ṣalah* itself includes expressions of independence from the world and surrender to God, as it is recited, “You alone we worship and from You alone we seek aid.” It includes a prayer for the light of guidance to bring a person out of the darkness, “Guide us to the straight path.” Ibn al-Qayyim in his book, *Asraar as-Ṣalah* (*The secrets of the ṣalah*) explains how the postures of the *ṣalah* are physical manifestations of its impact on our spirit. It is a system that aligns the tongue, the limbs and the spirit in perfect harmony. The bowing and prostration are physical manifestations of our spiritual submission to and reliance upon God. Our standing represents the strength that we gain from God, when we turn to Him. This harmony of the body and spirit through submission relieves the stress of the mind and allows individuals to truly recognize their purpose in life and connection with all existence. When one stands in front of one’s Lord, one can truly see oneself as interconnected with the rest of creation, all as servants of the Most Merciful. Fundamentally, the theme of submission permeates the entire belief and behavioral system of the Islāmic spiritual tradition. It is the linguistic meaning of “Islām” and the foundation of worship. This powerful concept can be both protective and therapeutic in the context of mental health. ### 2 – My forehead is in Your Hand. Your Judgment upon me is assured and Your Decree concerning me is just. In addition to continuing the theme of submission in the previous section, this part of the *du’aā* invokes the concept of Divine Destiny (*qadar*). Destiny is a powerful concept in Islām that allows a person to truly move on from the mistakes they have made and the calamities that have befallen them. This phrase of the *du’aā* reminds the individual that everything that has occurred in one’s life is by the decree of God. Necessarily, whatever God decrees is Wise, Just, and Compassionate. Al-‘Ayni explains, “Everything You judge concerning me is necessarily just, because justice is Your attribute.”[^46] One particular Prophetic narration also speaks to this reality, > *Ṣuhayb reported: The Prophet ﷺ, said, “Wondrous is the affair of the believer as there is good for him in every matter, and this is not true for anyone but the believer. If he is pleased, then he thanks Allāh and there is good for him. If he is harmed, then he shows patience and there is good for him.”*[^47] We are comforted that our pain is not in vain, and that it is all part of the plan of God in our lives. This crucial belief in Divine Decree provides us with the ability to shift our cognitions away from the agitating questions of “Why me?’ “What did I do to deserve this?” which only serve to create more distress in our lives. Instead, we recognize that the One who decrees with Wisdom and Justice has decreed it and so there is meaning and purpose in what is occurring and what has occurred. We shift our cognitions towards discovering “What can I learn from this?”, “How can I use this to grow?” The ability to find meaning in adversity is a key quality that protects against depressed mood and anxiety during intense trials. Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor of an Auschwitz concentration camp outlines the meaning-based psychotherapeutic approach that helped him and others cope with the horrors they experienced in his book, *Man’s Search for Meaning*.[^48] The realization of truth and development of virtue is the method by which a person perseveres through hardship and finds meaning in it. The Islāmic stories of resilience in the face of adversity capture this reality. When Prophet Yūnus (as) was thrown into the middle of the vast ocean in the darkness of the night, he called out, “There is nothing worthy of worship except you, Exalted are You! I have been of the oppressors.”[^49] When Prophet Ibrahīm (as) was being catapulted into the pit of fire, he called out, “God is sufficient for me and the Best Disposer of Affairs.”[^50] When Prophet Ādam (as) was expelled from paradise, he called out, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if you do not forgive us and have mercy on us, then we will be lost.”[^51] It is intriguing that in such dire circumstances, there are no requests made in any of these *du’aās*. In all of these incredible situations, the prophets were able to realize the truth in the face of calamity. From these stories, we learn about truths we are meant to recognize in our own life experiences. The realization that this life is chaotic and pointless unless one submits to the Divine as seen in the story of Yūnus (as). The realization of God’s Perfection is stirred when we are in the most intense states of vulnerability as witnessed in the tremendous courage of Ibrahīm (as). And our extreme destitution and neediness before God are realized in our worst failures as shown in the story of the fall and rise of Ādam (as). It is through these realizations and expressions of truth that we are delivered from darkness into light. ### 3 – I ask You by every Name that you have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught any one of Your creation or kept unto Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen that is with You. Charles Snyder, a leading positive psychologist in the study of hope, defines hope as “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful agency and pathways.”[^52] This definition essentially states that hope involves possessing agency and pathways. Agency refers to the belief that a person can affect the future, and pathways refer to the belief that one has the resources to obtain one’s objectives. In the previous sections of the *du’aā*, we sought strength in our agency through the Power of God. We surrendered our will and capacity to God’s Decree. In this section, we realize the pathways that are available to us to change our situation. The Names and Attributes of God represent the solutions to all of our problems. When we are overcome with grief and remorse for what we have done in the past, we recognize that God is *Al-Ghafūr* (The Eternally Forgiving). If we are on the brink of losing our home, unable to provide for our family, we call out to *Ar-Razzāq* (The Provider). When we can’t seem to put our life together after being hit with calamity after calamity, we recognize our strength lies in *Al-Qadīr* (The One with Ultimate Power). When we just feel like we are at the bottom of a pit, we never lose hope in the mercy of *Ar-Raḥmān* (The Most Merciful). Hopeful thinking has been associated with higher levels of academic success, physical and psychological health.[^53] It provides people with a powerful tool to move through life at times of adversity. One of the strongest spiritual states in the Islāmic tradition is *rajā* (hope) in God’s Mercy. It is described by Ibn al-Qayyim as one of the wings of the believers, “Fear and hope \[in God\] are like two wings of a bird that are used to fly.”[^54] Hope allows a person to transcend the current situation and live for a better future. Thus, when our backs are against the wall and we feel alone in our fight, we realize that the person who has no one else has Allāh. This part of the *du’aā* emphasizes the Names and Attributes of God that evoke powerful feelings of awe. As the various epistemic and ontological categories of Names are described, a person is guided to ponder on the majesty of God. This strong feeling of awe also plays a positive role in mental health. Dr. Jonathan Haidt investigated the significance and reality of awe and described it as involving a two-step cognitive process.[^55] The first step is experiencing vastness. Vastness is anything experienced or brought to the mind that is larger than one’s self or one’s ordinary level of experience. The second step is accommodation. When a person experiences vastness beyond what that person’s current mental structures are capable of processing, the mind accommodates. There are adjustments made to one’s mental structures that allow them to accommodate truths never known or experienced before. In times of hardship, existing knowledge structures are not sufficient. Experiencing awe allows a person to experience rebirth and enlightenment, learning new knowledge that can be used to solve the crisis at hand. This relates to our previous discussion on truths realized during hardships. As people call upon the Names and Attributes of God, pondering upon their manifestations in their lives, their chests expand through the awe they experience. This expansion provides them with insights and wisdoms that aid them on their journey away from struggle into felicity. ### 4 – To make the Qurān the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the banisher of my sadness and the reliever of my distress. As our hearts were once filled with sadness and distress, we seek to eliminate these feelings with the illumination of the Qurān. The Qurān is God’s guidance for humankind. It is through the light of this guidance that all things are made clear in our lives. > *And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things and as guidance and mercy and good tidings for the Muslims.*[^56] It is through this light that the darkness of our distress is vanquished and all that remains is the radiance of faith. > *A book which We have revealed to you so that you might bring humankind out of darkness into the light by the permission of their Lord to the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy.*[^57] A regular relationship with this book of guidance further enables our maladaptive thought patterns to transform into a cognitive worldview of optimism, hope, and meaning. There are stories in the Qurān of unimaginable tragedy and hardship that we can resonate with. There are powerful expressions of the power and mercy of God that engender strength and hope. And there are vivid descriptions of the next life that help us realize the temporal and insignificant nature of this world compared to the next. The Qurān is the rope that we can pick up after we have fallen. The positive spiritual and emotional states that were produced in the first parts of the *du’aā* are meant to be continued through a relationship with the Qurān. Feelings of surrender, reliance, and hope can become imprinted on us during difficult times through the words of the Qurān. Our belief structures are also built by the Qurānic narrative. This informs us of how to look at the world and how to act in it. It rejuvenates our hearts, inspires us with wisdom, and vanquishes our sorrow. --- ## Conclusion The Islāmic tradition sees hardship and adversity as opportunities for establishing an absolute dependency on God, submitting to Him, learning the truth, and building virtue. It is important for us to realize the profound psychological insights our tradition contains and extract this timeless guidance for all to benefit. The Islāmic literature in the field of spirituality is full of writings that focus on building an Islāmic personality. The current paper focused primarily on one *hadīth* narration. We recommend further research focus on (1) a more comprehensive study of the Qurān, *Hadīth* and *Sīrah* traditions in regards to spirituality and mental health; (2) a critical analysis of theories of mental health, human psychology, and personality provided by the classical tradition of Islām; and (3) examining links among various forms of Islāmic worship and Islāmic theology and underlying psycho-spiritual states and mental well-being. --- ## Notes [^1]: Positive Psychology represents a movement within psychology recognizing the need to move beyond abnormal psychology (mental illness). It focuses on strengths and virtues rather than disorders and pathology. It was founded by Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Christopher Peterson in the year 2000. [^2]: Snyder C., Lopez S. J., & Pedrotti, J. T. (2010). *Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths*. Sage Publications. 2nd Edition. [^3]: Chiesa, A., & Serretti, A. (2010). A systematic review of neurobiological and clinical features of mindfulness meditations. *Psychological Medicine*, *40*(8), 1239-1252. [^4]: Ibn Ḥazm. *Akhlāq* wa *as-Sīr*, p. 76. [^5]: Smith, E.E. *The power of meaning*, p. 22. [^6]: Ibid. [^7]: Ibid. [^8]: Ibid. [^9]: Ibid. [^10]: Oishi, S., & Diener E. (2013). Residents of poor nations have a greater sense of meaning in life than residents of wealthy nations. *Psychological Science*, *25*, 422-430. [^11]: Ibid. [^12]: Ibid. [^13]: Ibid. [^14]: Emmons, R.A. (2000). Is spirituality an intelligence? Motivation, cognition, and the psychology of ultimate concern. *International Journal for the Psychology of Religion*, *10*(1), 3-26. [^15]: Ibn Ḥazm. *Akhlāq* wa *as-Sīr*, p. 75. [^16]: Emmons, op cit., pp. 3-26. [^17]: Qurān, 18:35. [^18]: Ibid, 18:39. [^19]: McKee, D.D., & Chappel, J.N. (1992). Spirituality and medical practice. *Journal of Family Practice*, *35*, 201-205. [^20]: Guyatt, G. H., Mills, E. J., & Elbourne, D. (2008). In the era of systematic reviews, does the size of an individual trial still matter? *PLoS Med*, *5*(1): e4. [^21]: Wong, Y. J., Rew, L., & Slaikeu, K. D. (2006). A systematic review of recent research on adolescent religiosity/spirituality and mental health. *Issues in Mental Health Nursing*, *27*(2), 161-183. [^22]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Zād al-M’aād*, vol 2. p. 325. [^23]: Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (2007). Self-regulation, ego depletion, and motivation. *Social and Personality Psychology Compass*, *1*, 115-128. [^24]: Ibn al-Qayyim, I*ddat as-Sabireen* wa *Dakheerat ash-Shakireen*, p. 35. [^25]: Ibid, p. 49. [^26]: Strauman, T. J.  (2002). Self-regulation and depression. *Self and Identity*, *1*(2), 151-157. [^27]: Watkins, P.C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R. L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude, and relationships with subjective well-being. *Social Behavior and Personality*, *31*(5), 431-451. [^28]: *Musnad Imām Aḥmad* #3712. Shu’ayb al-Arnaūt (d. 1437 AH) declared its chain of authorities (*isnād*) to be authentic (*ṣaḥīḥ*) in his publishing (*taḥqeeq*) of the Musnad. [^29]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Ighāthat* ul*\-Laḥfaan fī Maṣāyid ash-Shayṭān*, p. 26. [^30]: Porto, P.R., Oliveira L., Mari J., Volchan E., Figueira I., Ventura P. (2009). Does cognitive behavioral therapy change the brain? A systematic review of neuroimaging in anxiety disorders. *Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience*, *21*, 114-125. [^31]: Qurān, 21:83. [^32]: [https://www.aacbt.org.au/resources/what-is-cbt/](https://www.aacbt.org.au/resources/what-is-cbt/) [^33]: Snyder, M. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, *30*, 526-537. [^34]: Qurān, 57:20 [^35]: [http://spiritualperception.org/true-freedom-1-escaping-psychological-slavery/](http://spiritualperception.org/true-freedom-1-escaping-psychological-slavery/) [^36]: Ibid. [^37]: Ibid. [^38]: Newberg, A. B., Wintering, N. A., Yaden, D. B., Waldman, M. R., Reddin, J., & Alavi, A. (2015). A case series study of the neurophysiological effects of altered states of mind during intense Islamic prayer. *Journal of Physiology – Paris*, *109*, 214-220. [^39]: Ibid. [^40]: Dietrich, A. (2006). Transient hypofrontality as a mechanism for the psychological effects of exercise. *Psychiatry Research*, *145*, 79-83. [^41]: Ibid. [^42]: Badr ad-Deen Al-‘Ayni, *Al-‘Ilm al-Hayyib fī Sharḥ al-Kalima at-Ṭayyib*, p. 343. [^43]: Newberg, et al.. (2015). [^44]: Haruno, M., Kuroda, T., Doya, K., Toyama, K., Kimura, M., Samejima, K., Imāmizu, H., Kawato, M. (2004). A neural correlate of reward-based behavioral learning in caudate nucleus: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of a stochastic decision task. *Journal of Neuroscience*, *24*, 1660-1665. [^45]: *Sunan Abī Dawūd* #1319. Ibn Ḥajr al-Asqalānī (d. 852 AH) declared its authenticity as good (*Ḥasan*) (Takhrīj Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ vol. 2, p. 77). [^46]: Badr ad-Deen Al-‘Ayni, *Al-Ilm al-Hayyib fī Sharḥ al-Kalima at-Ṭayyib*, p. 343. [^47]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim* #2999. [^48]: Frankl, V. E. (2006). *Man’s search for meaning*. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. [^49]: Qurān, 21:87. [^50]: *Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī* #4563. [^51]: Qurān, 7:23. [^52]: Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., & Sigmon, S. T. (1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, *60*, 570-585. [^53]: Eliott,  J. A. (2005). *Interdisciplinary perspectives on hope*. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers. [^54]: Ibn al-Qayyim, *Madārij as-Sālikīn*, vol. 1, p. 517. [^55]: Haidt, J., & Keltner, D. (2003). Approaching awe: A moral, spiritual and aesthetic emotion. *Cognition & Emotion*, *17*, 297-314. [^56]: Qurān, 16:89. [^57]: Ibid, 14:1. ## Summary The pursuit of tranquility and the removal of anxiety is a universal human aspiration. As Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH), the celebrated Andalusian scholar, observed after searching for a goal upon which all people would agree: he found nothing save "the vanquishing of anxiety [hamm]." Yet despite the immense scientific and medical progress of recent centuries, mental health appears to be in decline. In the United States, rates of depression rose sharply between 1988 and 2008, with antidepressant use increasing by 400 percent in that period. Suicide tripled among the young (ages 15–24) between 1950 and 2000, and rose 40 percent among the middle-aged between 1999 and 2016. Strikingly, wealthier nations report higher suicide rates than poorer ones. A cross-cultural study of 132 countries and nearly 140,000 people found that wealthier regions reported greater happiness but far less perceived meaning in life, whereas poorer countries such as Niger and Togo reported some of the highest levels of meaning alongside the lowest levels of happiness. This suggests that it is not happiness but the ability to attain meaning and purpose that best explains the disparity. The abstraction of meaning from the world is a core feature of spirituality, and this heritage within Islām—though arguably the least examined of the world's major spiritual traditions—offers profound insight into human well-being. Ibn Ḥazm noted that deep reflection upon worldly affairs inevitably reveals their temporary nature, leading a person to grief (ḥuzn), for one's ambitions are either taken away or must eventually be surrendered. He held that the only escape from this crisis lies in striving toward God, whereby a person attains happiness in this life and the next, experiences far less hamm than others, and earns Paradise for eternity. The transient states of happiness sought through wealth, possessions, and entertainment cannot deliver a person from this existential distress. Modern psychology has increasingly recognized that the mind is not purely biological. Dr. Robert Emmons proposed that spirituality constitutes a distinct form of human intelligence—the capacity to process the world and discover meaning. Within the Islāmic framework, this involves contemplating the āyāt (signs) of God to inform how one thinks, feels, and acts. A person of high spiritual intelligence extracts positive meaning from life's events, fueling inspiration, optimism, gratitude, and perseverance; one of low spiritual intelligence abstracts false meanings or fails to perceive the signs altogether, giving rise to anger, jealousy, and arrogance. The Qurʾān illustrates this through the man with two gardens who declared, "I do not think this will ever end," failing to perceive in the changing seasons the signs of life's fragility and the reality of the Hereafter, whereas his righteous companion demonstrated the correct response: "And why didn't you say when you entered your garden, '[This is] what God wills and there is no capability except through God.'" Clinicians too are beginning to recognize spirituality's role in prevention and treatment. Authors in the Journal of Family Practice concluded that spiritual issues should be addressed in patient care and that the medical model be expanded to a "biopsychosocial-spiritual" one, while a systematic review—among the highest levels of clinical evidence—found that greater spirituality and religiosity in adolescence correlated with better mental health. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) explained that the past is corrected not through sadness but through contentment (riḍā), gratitude (ḥamd), patience (ṣabr), firm belief in destiny, and verbal recognition that all occurs by God's decree. The construct of self-regulation in positive psychology corresponds to ṣabr, which Ibn al-Qayyim noted linguistically connotes restraining, strength, and building—the strength of will that enables beneficial action. Dr. Timothy Strauman has even proposed that clinical depression is fundamentally a disorder of self-regulation, while research on gratitude (shukr) shows its strongest inverse relationship with depression. From this tradition one particular Prophetic supplication for grief and anxiety merits close analysis. The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever is afflicted with grief or anxiety should pray: "O Allāh, certainly I am your slave, the son of your male slave and the son of your female slave. My forehead is in Your Hand. Your Judgment upon me is assured and Your Decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every Name that You have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught any one of Your creation, or kept unto Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen, to make the Qurʾān the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the banisher of my sadness, and the reliever of my distress." It should be clarified that the terms anxiety and depression here are not necessarily used in their clinical sense, and that this psycho-spiritual analysis is not proposed as a replacement for modern therapy. Ibn al-Qayyim himself grasped this balance centuries before modern psychiatry, noting that emotional diseases of the heart may be treated by addressing their cause or with medicine opposing it, since the heart and body affect one another. Duʿāʾ is far more than an incantation or a list of requests; indeed, many powerful supplications in the Qurʾān contain no request at all, as when Prophet Ayyūb (as), afflicted with disease and poverty, called out: "Indeed, adversity has touched me and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful." Duʿāʾ is a means of striving against life's chaos, recognizing the truths that bring order, and reinforcing belief structures as a mode of coping—a function that parallels Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which helps individuals identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and relearn healthier ones. The supplication opens by establishing servitude to God as the fundamental role permeating all others. Human beings shift between roles—friend, employee, parent—through a process termed self-monitoring, and anxiety often arises when a person no longer knows which role to play. Recognizing oneself as "the slave of God" grants clarity: one forgives as a slave of Al-Ghafūr, spreads justice as a slave of Al-Muqsiṭ, answers vulgarity with peace as a slave of Ar-Raḥmān, and relies upon Al-Wakīl when the future is uncertain. Far from being humiliating, this servitude is empowering, freeing a person from attachment to all that may vanish, as the Qurʾān likens worldly life to rain-nourished growth that "turns yellow and then becomes scattered debris." Dr. Nazir Khan observes that modern psychological slavery manifests in cosmetic obsession and preoccupation with entertainment and fantasy. Remarkably, neuroimaging of Muslims performing ṣalāh and dhikr showed decreased frontal lobe activity—but only when prayer was performed deliberately with khushūʿ, not automatically—along with increased activity in the basal ganglia and anterior cingulate gyrus, the latter involved in lowering anxiety and enhancing emotional regulation. This accords with Arne Dietrich's transient hypofrontality hypothesis, which links reduced frontal activity to relief in depression, anxiety, OCD, and PTSD. Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī (d. 855 AH) noted the supplication's emphasis on submission, explaining that naming oneself "son of your male slave and son of your female slave" is a hyperbolic affirmation of servitude. Ḥudhayfah reported that when the Prophet ﷺ faced an overwhelming situation, he would pray. The supplication then invokes Divine Destiny (qadar): "My forehead is in Your Hand... Your Decree concerning me is just." Al-ʿAynī explained that whatever God judges is necessarily just, since justice is His attribute. This belief redirects the mind from "Why me?" toward "What can I learn from this?" The Prophet ﷺ said, as narrated by Ṣuhayb: "Wondrous is the affair of the believer... if he is pleased he thanks Allāh, and if he is harmed he shows patience, and there is good for him." Like Viktor Frankl's meaning-based approach forged in Auschwitz, the prophets found meaning in trial: Yūnus (as), Ibrāhīm (as), and Ādam (as) each expressed truth without request in their darkest moments. The third portion invokes God's Names as the "pathways" of hope—defined by Charles Snyder as agency combined with pathways—so that one turns to Al-Ghafūr in remorse, Ar-Razzāq in need, and Ar-Raḥmān in despair. Ibn al-Qayyim described hope and fear as "two wings of a bird," while Jonathan Haidt's account of awe as vastness and accommodation illuminates how contemplating God's majesty expands the heart. Finally, the supplication seeks the Qurʾān as "the spring of my heart," God's guidance that brings humankind "out of darkness into the light." The Islāmic tradition thus sees hardship as an opportunity for dependence upon God, submission, the realization of truth, and the building of virtue, and further research is recommended into the Qurʾān, Ḥadīth, and Sīrah, the classical psychological heritage, and the links between Islāmic worship and mental well-being. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/exploring-the-faith-and-identity-crisis-of-american-muslim-youth # Exploring the Faith and Identity Crisis of American Muslim Youth **Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** March 3, 2017 **Updated:** June 4, 2026 ## Introduction Islam has a centuries-long tradition of inspiring its adherents to contribute to humanity based on conviction in its tenets. Previous generations of Muslims were on the forefront of contributing to medicine, philosophy, architecture, and governance among other areas. With the rise of Islamophobia, Islam has been cast as irrational, incompatible with modern civilization, and inherently violent. This has put Western Muslims in a defensive position in which they constantly have to justify their convictions and fight off the doubts and insecurities that arise in such a climate. One of the most understudied and underestimated impacts of Islamophobia is the ingestion of problematic notions about the religion by Muslims themselves, particularly those of the younger generation who are experiencing multiple attacks against their faith. This paper documents the harmful effects of Islamophobic rhetoric on the religious identity and perceptions of Muslim youth in an urban American setting. Using qualitative interviews and expert analysis, it also explores solutions for how to counter Islamophobic narratives. *Islamophobia Studies Journal*, Volume *4*, Issue 1, Spring 2017 Presented at: Fourth International Islamophobia Conference, Paris, France: Contending Epistemologies: Euro-Centrism, Knowledge Production, and Islamophobia --- ## Acknowledgments This project greatly benefited from the support and expertise of Sarah Sultan, Dalia Mogahed, and Nameera Akhtar. It was inspired by the inaugural project of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, [“Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam,” by Youssef Chouhoud](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam). --- ## Research Participants In depth interviews were conducted with 30 young American Muslims, 19 girls and 11 boys; 15 of the girls reported wearing *hijab* regularly. All participants were native-born citizens; 24 were children of immigrants, most of whom were eventually naturalized. The ages of the interviewees ranged from 16-20. All of them live in the United States. Of the 30, 21 either attended, or are currently attending, public or private schools that did not identify as Islamic schools. 26 described themselves as regular mosque-goers. --- ## Instrumentation The interviewees were asked a series of questions about whether they had experienced Islamophobia, and if they had how they were coping with it. This led to other questions about their identity struggles, their perceptions of religion, and other relevant personal, family, and community experiences. 26 of the interviews were conducted by phone, and 4 in person. --- ## Measuring The Impact of Islamophobia on Muslims Due to the fact that organized studies of Islamophobia are relatively recent for the most part, the discipline has not yielded many scales to measure its adverse impact comprehensively. This is particularly true in measuring to what extent it has impacted Muslim religious identity. A few studies have assessed fear-based Islamophobia among non-Muslim majority groups. But very few of these studies measure the psychological effects of Islamophobia on Muslim minorities. Of the first known reports on this scale is that of Kunst, Tajamal, Sam, & Ulleberg (2012) titled “Coping with Islamophobia: The effects of religious stigma on Muslim minorities’ identity formation.”[^1] The study was helpful in that it proposed a model of the key variables involved in the intersections of religious and national identities and how they might be impacted by Islamophobia. It also empirically demonstrated a connection between strong religious identities and civic engagement. Moreover, it demonstrated that religious discrimination was negatively related to national identity, and emphasized the importance of nurturing intercultural relations in the face of religious prejudice and stigma. The researchers studied the stigmatizing effects of religious meta-stereotypes, religious discrimination, and negative representations of Muslims in media. They concluded that developing a healthy national/religious identity predicted increased confidence in young Muslims, as well as increased civic contribution. This was notably re-emphasized in the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding’s 2016 study of American Muslims which noted that “frequent attendance at religious services by Muslims is linked to civic engagement. Muslims who regularly attend mosques are more likely to work with their neighbors to solve community problems, be registered to vote, and are more likely to plan to vote.”[^2] However, the items used in the Kunst et al. study to measure Islamophobia can be critiqued for neglecting important psychometric properties essential to cross-cultural comparative studies.[^3] --- ## Internalized Racism – Internalized Islamophobia Internalized racism involves ingesting, often subconsciously, acceptance of the dominant society’s stereotypes of one’s ethnic group. The harms of internalizing oppression go far beyond legitimizing discriminatory practices to neutral observers; they destroy the first line of resistance to bigotry. Colonized mindsets and internalized racism are often subconscious, their messages primarily subliminal. The most susceptible group to these subliminal messages are young children whose cognitive limitations do not allow them to consciously reflect on those negative messages. As the pioneering “black doll” study of Kenneth and Mamie Clark in 1947 demonstrated, black children were found to overwhelmingly associate beauty and positive themes with white dolls.[^4] The study was criticized for its binary categorization of race, but the main finding was replicated in subsequent studies using broadened ranges and categories to test the same hypothesis. ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/National_Identity_Religious_Identity_Diagram.jpg) Indeed, as Charles Parrish notes, junior-high students tended to use as many as 145 different terms to describe skin color; ““half-white,” “high yellow,” “chocolate,” “red bone,” “dark,” “inkspot,” and “tar baby” being among those.”[^5] The warped views of blackness fed to children at an early age result in degrees of blackness determining status, with darker complexions being deemed most repulsive. Younger children were less likely to notice such variances. This brings me to my own analysis and reasons for choosing my subset. Sana Aaser, a fellow with New Sector Alliance, recently used the doll test as inspiration for her study on internalized oppression amongst Muslim children in a study out of San Francisco State University for Noor Kids.[^6] The study used a variety of measures to capture the extent of damage that negative portrayals of Islam and Muslims have had upon American Muslim children. Her subset focused on children between the ages of 5-9, and captured the brutal honesty expected from young children.[^7] The data showed that the insecurities developed by these children led them to try to develop dual personalities that helped them blend in as efficiently as possible. They distinguished between “American” and “Muslim” in their conversations, demonstrating that they often felt like they had to choose the easier identity to fit in depending on their environment. The author concluded that 1 in 3 children did not want to tell others that they were Muslim, 1 in 2 children did not know whether they could be both Muslim and American, and 1 in 6 children would sometimes pretend not to be Muslim.[^8] --- ## Inability to Construct an Identity This study has shown that identity confusion is present in young American Muslim children; however, the confusion becomes compounded as these children progress into young adulthood. Just as with internalized racism amongst Black youth, where adolescents distinguish between levels of “blackness,” Muslim youth may make similar distinctions of “Muslimness.” The measures by which those categories arise in internalized Islamophobia are not shades of color, but often displays of religiosity. This is especially true for young Muslim women. Just as young children are less aware of variations in skin color and the levels of prejudice associated with them, Muslim children pay very little attention to the different ways religious symbols are used. As they get older, Muslim teenagers who choose to wear *hijab* find themselves in the complex world of modern Islamic fashion. Rather than view *hijab* as part of their individual and personal relationship with God, girls need to navigate the fashion trends that will label them as “religious,” “liberal,” “extreme,” or anywhere in between. Whether conservatism is judged solely based on the donning of a black abaya, rebelliousness by the amount of makeup worn, or coolness by the careful attention paid to how many hairs are left exposed, young Muslim American women become even further entrapped in the vortex of adolescent identity development. Lena, age 17, said, “Every time I put on my *hijab*, I feel like I have to wear it in a way that tells Americans I’m not some oppressed Saudi girl, tells the aunties in the *masjid* I’m still a good Muslim, while telling other Muslim girls that I’m still prettier and cooler than the rest of you.” Another participant, Fatima, age 16, who doesn’t wear *hijab* said, “I feel like I’m never Muslim enough anyway so why even bother trying fitting in with the *masjid*. But at the same time, when I have to pray around my non-Muslim friends, I find myself not wanting to because I don’t want to remind them that I’m different.” One thing that consistently stood out with all of my respondents was that their need to prove their “Americanness” was an exhausting endeavor. Because Muslims are often cast as being predominantly Arab, or at least non-white, young Muslims are viewed through a racialized lens in a way that members of other faith communities are not.[^9] In addition to routinely feeling the need to justify their practice of faith, which is often deemed insufficient in Muslim spaces, they have to consistently prove they’re not foreign. In studies of the effects of Islamophobia on British Muslims, the Runnymede Trust reported that British Muslims routinely felt that their values, loyalties, and commitments were being questioned by their colleagues and fellow students.[^10] People who felt that the British part of themselves was incompatible with their identity were more prone to anti-Western sentiment, which generally manifests in isolation, whereas those who felt compelled to abandon the Islamic part of themselves were more prone to consistent assimilation measures. In one study, Alia, a student who was harassed by a fellow student claiming she was intimidating because of her *hijab*, said, “It makes you think about integrating…you just put your boundaries up.”[^11] The pressure and aggregated fear of an Islamophobic encounter that young Muslims living in the west have is overwhelmingly high with a severe lack of outlets to cope with the harsh climate. This is particularly true for young Muslim women who wear *hijab*; 23 of the 30 participants in the current study reported having experienced at least one Islamophobic encounter in the past year. These 23 included 17 girls and only 6 boys. According to an initiative of the British government that deals with anti-Muslim incidents, 584 Islamophobic attacks took place between April 2012 and April 30, 2013.[^12] Almost 60 percent of them targeted Muslim women, of whom 80 percent were wearing *hijab*.[^13] Of the 19 girls I interviewed, 15 of them wore the *hijab*. All 15 of them said they had considered taking it off due to fear. 8 of them said they actually had taken it off in certain settings because they felt threatened. When I asked them if they started to resent the *hijab*, all of them said no but some of them reported resenting that men didn’t have to undertake a similar public exercise of faith. One of the girls said, “I think it’s unfair that they get to walk around in t-shirts and shorts and blend in. Sikh men have to go through more than Muslim men.” Another girl actually expressed anger with Muslim leadership saying, “The imams always yell at the Muslim women about their *hijabs* but never really put any pressure on the men. It’s like we have to face pressure from everybody.” This seems to be a common sentiment among young Muslim women in the West. They feel like religious leadership doesn’t empathize with them. The most striking sentence to me in these interviews was from the youngest girl, who had just turned 16, and did not wear *hijab*. She said she had thought about wearing it but was sick of being told that she was a failure for not wearing it. “It’s like you have no idea what pressure I already face for being a young brown Muslim girl; don’t tell me I’m not struggling for my faith.” This young girl, like many other young men and women, became very emotional when she felt her struggle was called into question. As one report titled, “Muslim patients and health disparities in the UK and the US,” notes: “The routine experience of overt and indirect prejudice has health effects. Workplace discrimination and “chronic daily hassles”, including insults, can increase risk of common mental disorders.”[^14] “Parental stress may therefore exacerbate the effects of similar experiences Muslim children face in the school setting, such as the increased verbal and physical harassment post‐9/11.”[^15] As the 2012 study on coping with Islamophobia stated, mental health experts stated, “many Muslims not only experience religious discrimination in their daily lives, but are fully aware of their devalued position in society.”[^16]  They found that perceived Islamophobia has a “distinct effect on Muslim minorities’ health and identification.”[^17] These encounters often go unreported, and not deemed criminal offenses. In Chris Allen’s in-depth interviews with 20 British Muslim women between the ages of 16 and 52 from various backgrounds, most of the women reported experiencing “low-level” harassment, most often in the form of verbal abuse. Women reported being taunted with comparisons to terrorists, and reported that it was their veil that seemed to spark the ire of their aggressors who shouted things like, “Take that f\*\*\*ing thing off,” and “Yuck.” One woman was called “Mrs. Osama Bin Laden” and told to “go back to Afghanistan.”[^18] Half of the women said that the attacks made them question their British identity.[^19] The racialization of the Muslim identity, coupled with the pressures mentioned above, has led young Muslims to a place of trying to hyper-counter the hampering assumptions made of them within their societies and Muslim communities. Young Muslim women, in particular, are denied the right to construct their own identities. When they are deemed simply “Pakistani Muslims” or “hijabis,” they feel compelled to construct, and frequently renegotiate, their identities in ways that allow them to appear unique, even when these choices are not in line with their value systems. The focus on identity formation in most of these studies is on national identity, not religious identity. In other words, how these young Muslims start to view their faith and religious identity is largely unstudied. It is important to take into consideration the far-reaching issues that these sentiments indicate: Muslim American youth are experiencing not only a crisis of identity formation but also an extreme lack of belonging. Baumeister and Leary (1995) assert that a sense of belonging is a fundamental human need.[^20] One of the essential components in satisfying this need is engaging in positive interactions with others within a framework of long-term stable care and concern. Without a sense of belonging, Muslim American youth lack this framework, which results in a sense of anxiety and isolation. --- ## The Role of Personal Experience in What Types of Islamophobia Are Ingested When I questioned my interviewees on how they viewed elements of their faith deemed restrictive or regressive, many hesitated to openly discuss their issues. Yet upon careful examination, many admitted that their personal concerns, primarily family, played a role in negatively shaping their perceptions of their religion and religious identity. People’s relationships with God are often very similar to their relationships with people. People can feel distant from or even traumatized in their relationships with God if they have been hurt by those closest to them. Someone with an abusive parent, or coming from a culture that appears regressive in certain areas, is likely to feel that some of the concerns raised about Islam are true. I asked all of my participants if they thought their parents were more loving than those of their non-Muslim friends. 12 of them answered yes, while 18 answered no. When I asked them if they thought Islam was a restrictive religion, 18 of them said yes with 16 of them having said that their parents weren’t as loving as those of their non-Muslim friends. Second generation young Muslims often have a hard time discerning which elements of their upbringing are rooted in culture, religion, or personal idiosyncrasies. This is also the case with community grievances. A bad experience in the mosque can serve as a reinforcement of Islamophobic messages. Young Muslim women face the greatest pressures in society, yet are the least accommodated in the mosques that are responsible for generating spiritual strength. As one of the older participants in my group, Samina, age 20, said, “I stopped coming to the *masjid* because I got sick of being treated like a second class citizen. I already feel like that outside. I’ve actually felt better about my Islam when I don’t hang out with too many Muslims. It allows me to tell myself that they don’t represent Islam. Otherwise, when I come to the *masjid* and see how girls are treated, I start believing that we really are as backwards as they say we are.” --- ## Women’s Issues Vs. Violence This brings me to one of my most important observations on how we respond to Islamophobia on the outside, vs. tackling its effects internally. From a policy and public relations perspective, the priority of Muslims has been to push back on the association of Islam with violence. Internally, however, the issue of gender injustice is a bigger priority. Many young Muslims have not capitulated to the idea that Islam is as violent as the media makes it out to be. But they do tend to associate Islam with oppression of women. Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, relays a story of an international conference speaker asking an audience of Canadian Muslim women and girls how many of them thought that Islam considers men superior to women. Almost the entire audience raised their hands. She then asked how many of them thought that in Islam men and women are equal. Only two girls raised their hands. Then she asked, “And who thinks in Islam women are superior to men?” No one raised their hand.[^21] The association of Islam with the repression of women is more believable to the general public as well. According to Gallup, “the American public is largely unconvinced most Muslims believe in gender equality—81% of respondents disagree that most Muslims around the world think both sexes should have equal rights and 16% agree.”[^22] This is of course largely augmented by degrading media portrayals of Muslim women in the United States. In a pre-9/11 survey of Muslims in the American press, 73% of the images of Muslim women depicted them in “passive” capacities.[^23] Muslim women were also six times more likely to be portrayed as victims than were Muslim men in movie scripts.[^24] --- ## Historical Events Groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, etc. tend to render problematic texts or historical events as justifications for their barbarity. Muslim youth are then exposed to these practices, with the help of sensationalizing Islamophobic media, having no background to counter uncomfortable narratives of Islamic history. Islamophobes regularly use videos from extremist groups as scare tactics to substantiate their ghastly claims about the religion. Many young Muslims are first exposed to controversial texts either packaged by extremists or Islamophobes in imagery difficult to erase even with an intellectually satisfying answer. In our first publication at Yaqeen Institute on pathways to doubt, we covered doubts stemming from historical events in Islam. The study concluded, > *...in addition to bumping up against doctrinal tenets, social norms can also render certain episodes in Islamic history problematic in the minds of American Muslims. The marriage of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to Aisha is a case in point. A favorite target of Islamophobes, this key moment in the prophetic history can provide an opening for doubt if not properly contextualized. Similarly, the issue of slavery in Islam has become a recurring topic of concern, particularly as younger American Muslims are now more sensitive to the issues of social injustice around them. As one scholar who gave an in-depth lecture on this topic put it, “The ‘Islam came to abolish slavery’ response is simply insufficient.”*[^25] ![](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Agree-Disagree_Statements_about_Muslims_Chart.jpg) I asked my 30 interviewees if they were bothered by the marriage of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to Aisha. 28 of them said they were. When I asked those 28 if they could recall the first time they were exposed to the idea that the Prophet married Ayesha at a young age, 25 of them said they heard about it through the media. I asked them how it made them feel about their religion and received varied answers. One of the interviewees, a 17-year-old boy, answered without hesitation that it made him feel like “the religion is just as flawed as every other religion. Islam isn’t as rosy as we were taught in our Quran classes.” When I asked him why he felt that way, he said he thought that the “Arabs were just as messed up as we are.” A 17-year-old girl added, “It made me uncomfortable when talking about the Rasool. It kind of made him seem more like the hardcore guys we see on TV.” This girl forthrightly admitted that her association of the Prophet (peace be upon him) with extremists was due to her own media consumption. --- ## Reinforcement of Islamophobic Messages in Islamic Spaces Of the 30 participants I interviewed, 26 described themselves as *masjid*\-goers. When asked if they felt welcomed in the *masjid*, only 3 of them said yes. All but 2 of the young Muslim girls I interviewed felt like the masjid was not welcoming to women. Both of the young girls who thought it was, were also Islamic school goers. One of the interviewees, an 18-year-old girl who goes to public school, said that she was embarrassed to bring her non-Muslim friends to the mosque because she felt like it would reinforce their stereotypes about Islam. When I asked her why she felt that way, she said “I couldn’t get over why men in the *masjid* are so cruel. It’s like they really hate women. And it’s not like they’re misunderstood. They just are really mean. I almost left Islam because of how they treated me.” When I asked her if she found that to be the case in all *masjids*, she said that going to a mosque where women were treated well actually helped her realize that not all Muslims are alike. The experience of a bad mosque reinforcing stereotypes wasn’t only described by the female participants. The young men also seemed to find issue with the treatment of women in many mosques, as well as perceived harshness. Ali, 17, said that the imam of his *masjid* always seemed angry and it bothered him. “He’s always shouting in his *khutbahs* especially when he talks about Palestine or Syria. It’s like, man, why are you always so angry?” Ali said that his sister stopped coming to the *masjid* because of something offensive his imam had said. He couldn’t recall what it was and said that he remembered thinking it wasn’t a big deal, but his sister felt like the imam was a misogynist. The 3 who said they felt welcomed in their mosques all said that they felt like their imam connected with them, and that they were proud to bring non-Muslim friends to the *masjid*. Ariana, 20, recalled how her imam gave a sermon after the San Bernardino shootings, praising Muslim women for their bravery in the face of Islamophobia. She said it made her feel appreciated and gave her the courage to combat the scrutiny she would receive for wearing *hijab*. --- ## Non-Muslim Counseling and the Mental Anguish of Young Muslims The therapeutic alliance is considered to be one of the most important aspects of successful psychotherapy and has been found to be a consistent predictor of treatment outcomes in over 30 years of research.[^26] Non-Muslim counselors may be influenced by media projections of Islam and then falsely portray those notions on vulnerable youth. The therapeutic relationship is based on a sense of trust; therefore, in sharing their vulnerabilities with a therapist who may consciously or subconsciously perceive their religious affiliation to be an issue, young Muslim Americans may be swayed to forsake the Islamic component of their identities under the guise of “liberation.” As one study noted, “If a non-Muslim female psychologist assumes that a *hijab* is oppressive against women, she may unconsciously try to steer her client away from covering, instead of understanding the significance of the *hijab* in her Muslim client’s life.”[^27] ![modern-pathways-doubt](https://cdn.yaqeeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Modern-Pathways-to-Doubt-in-Islam_Revised2-1024x953.png) [](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/omar-suleiman/internalized-islamophobia/%23ftnt31&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1631637962612000&usg=AOvVaw0vwgOAEBy42geMTfkcqfMG)Out of the 30 Muslim youth interviewed, 6 of them, all girls, had been to therapy. 4 of them went to non-Muslim therapists and all 4 of them reported feeling judged by their therapists, and swayed away from their religion. When I asked the 4 youth who went to non-Muslim therapists why they didn’t go to Muslim therapists, all of them responded that their parents did not want Muslims in the community to find out about their therapy. Sadly, 1 of the 2 girls who went to a Muslim therapist reported her confidentiality being betrayed by that therapist, thereby confirming the fears of the others who opted to go elsewhere. While part of the solution to Muslim mental health is indeed to encourage more Muslims to engage in relevant career pursuits, the reality is that the fear of stigma will likely continue to keep young Muslims away from Muslim counselors. One of the girls ironically said she found a strong identity in fighting off Islamophobic comments from her non-Muslim therapist. She said, “Every time she’d talk about my family and why I’m struggling, she would make these assumptions that if I just gave it all up I’d be fine. She kept on asking questions about my parents assuming they were barbarians. So while I was telling her “It’s not like that,” I was getting more confident in my religion.” Our report on pathways to doubt noted, > *The culture around dating and casual sexual encounters can lead some Muslims to become frustrated with Islam’s prohibition on premarital relations. Doubt, then, can come about through a desire to alleviate mental anguish: “\[Those that\] have dated \[…\]\[that\] have been sexually active \[…\] it’s not in their benefit to make Islam out to be the truth. They want it to not be the truth so they don’t feel so guilty about doing those things.*[^28] This is an important point in that many young Muslims paradoxically want to believe negative impressions about their religion so that they don’t feel guilty abandoning it. Fady, 17, actually shared that he told all his non-Muslim friends he left Islam and was celebrated for it. He went to the prom and actually made up a story about his parents threatening him which impressed his date. Yasmine, 17, shared a similar experience even though she goes to an Islamic school. She said, “We all talk about how we’re going to do things our parents wouldn’t let us when we get to college. It’s not that we don’t think Islam is true, it’s that we want to get a break sometimes and do normal teenage things.” Dalia Mogahed relayed a story of an encounter she had with a 16-year-old Muslim woman when she was a youth counselor in 2002: > *This young woman said, “To get to know someone before marriage, we have to live with them before marriage. This way, we know their real personality and we don’t get fooled. But we can’t do that as Muslims but it is better to.” It was an interesting window into her mind where she believed that our restrictions were a burden, not a protection.*[^29] --- ## Islam: Empowerment or Impediment Insecurity often begets idleness. If young people are not confident in their faith and identity, their sense of contribution is either abolished, or motivated through other frameworks. The feeling is that the pursuit of greatness comes through breaking the shackles of Islam and the Muslim identity rather than embracing it. When asked if they felt hindered by their religion and religious identity in pursuing their dreams, 16 of the youth answered yes. Many of them felt like they had to fight off both the prejudices of people who hate Islam, and the restrictions of Islam itself. Rayyan, 19, said, “It’s no secret that we have to compromise our principles to get up there.” Notably, those who were involved in charity efforts and volunteerism through Islamic organizations felt empowered by their religion and identity to do good. 9 of the youth I interviewed were involved in youth groups and regular charitable activities. All 9 of them answered in the negative when asked if they felt hindered by their religion and religious identity. Zaynab, 17, said that she wasn’t proud of her *hijab* until she wore it when she was 14 to a serve-the-homeless event. “Someone came up to me and said, “I always see your people around here passing out food.” In racism-related clinical interventions, young people are taught to seek same-race role models as a means of reframing the self-blame experience.[^30] The need for contemporary Muslim philanthropists, sports heroes, and champions of peace and justice that have excelled while staying true to their convictions and identity offers a reassuring narrative capable of modifying attributions that promote internalized Islamophobia. --- ## Discussion It is very powerful to experience validation for your struggles and experiences. And the opposite—having them invalidated or undermined—is also powerful. Muslim adolescents living as minorities have to deal with a dangerously high level of cognitive dissonance when attempting to formulate a cohesive identity. At school, they often feel as though they betray the “Islamic” part of themselves by engaging in things they know are displeasing to God. At home, they feel as though they betray the “American” part of themselves by doing things their classmates would laugh about. The more they act in opposition to their values, the deeper the struggle becomes. Constructing a strong identity based on deep conviction and confidence can lead to a healthier young Muslim individual that feels valued and responsible for contributing to society as a whole. Family and communal spaces serve as natural reinforcements or refutations of Islamophobic messaging that can devastate the core of an adolescent. Young Muslims should also be intellectually equipped with how to deal with the onslaught of doubt-inducing claims leveled against Islam routinely in this climate. Solutions for misguided counseling and the lack of competent youth directors must also be studied and implemented. --- ## Notes [^1]: Kunst, J. R., Tajamal, H., Sam, D. L., & Ulleberg, P. (2012). Coping with Islamophobia: The effects of religious stigma on Muslim minorities’ identity formation. *International Journal of Intercultural Relations*, *36*(4), 518-532. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.12.014. [^2]: Dalia Mogahed and Fouad Pervez, “American Muslim Poll: Participation, Priorities, and Facing Prejudice in the 2016 Elections,” Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, March 2016. [^3]: van De Vijver, F. J. R., & Leung, K. (1997). Equivalence and bias: A review of concepts, models, and data analytic procedures. In D. Matsumoto & F. J. R. van De Vijver (Eds.), *Cross-cultural research methods in psychology* (pp. 17-45).  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511779381.003. [^4]: Clark, K. B., & Clark, M. P. (1966). Emotional factors in racial identification and preference in Negro children. In M. M Grossack (Ed.), *Mental health and segregation* (pp. 53-63). Berlin: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-37819-9\_7. [^5]: Quoted in Pinkney, C (2012). The effects of internalized oppression on the Black community, p. 96.  doi:10.1017/cbo9780511562280.006. [^6]: Aaser, S. H. “From Islamophobia to Identity Crisis: Internalized Oppression Among American Muslim Children,” Noor Kids, 2016. [^7]: Ibid. [^8]: Ibid. [^9]: Laird, L. D. (2007). Muslim patients and health disparities in the UK and the US. *Archives of Disease in Childhood,* *92*(10), 922–926. PMC. [^10]: Howes, A. (2004). Book Review: Islamophobia: Issues, challenges and action (Runnymede Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia). *Improving Schools*, *7*(3), 301-302. doi:10.1177/1365480204049714. [^11]: Allen, C. (2014). Exploring the impact of Islamophobia on visible Muslim women victims: A British case study. *Journal of Muslims in Europe*, *3*(2), 137-159. [^12]: Copsey, Nigel, Janet Dack, Mark Littler and Matthew Feldman. “Anti-Muslim hate crime and the far right.” Middlesbrough Centre for Fascist, Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies. 2013. [^13]: Ibid. [^14]: Bhui, K., Stansfeld, S., McKenzie, K. et al. (2005). Racial/ethnic discrimination and common mental disorders among workers: Findings from the EMPIRIC Study of ethnic minority groups in the United Kingdom. *American Journal of Public Health*, *95*(3), 496–501. [^15]: Laird, L. D., Amer, M. M., Barnett, E. D., & Barnes, L. L. (2007). Muslim patients and health disparities in the UK and the US. *Archives of Disease in Childhood*, *92*(10), 922-926; also see Wessler S. L., & De Andrade, L. L. (2006). Slurs, stereotypes, and student interventions: Examining the dynamics, impact and prevention of harassment in middle and high school. *Journal of Social Issues*, *62*(3), 511–532. [^16]: Kunst, et al. (2012). [^17]: Ibid. [^18]: Allen, C. (2014). Exploring the impact of Islamophobia on visible Muslim women victims: A British case study. *Journal of Muslims in Europe*, *3*(2), 137-159. [^19]: Ibid. [^20]: Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. *Psychological Bulletin*, *117*(3), 497-529. [^21]: Dalia Mogahed. Telephone interview by author. November 27, 2016. [^22]: Religious Perceptions in America With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam. Report. The Coexist Foundation. Gallup, 2009. [^23]: Ibid. [^24]: Kamalipour, Y. R. (1995). *The U.S. media and the Middle East: Image and perception*. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. [^25]: Youssef Chouhoud. “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam.” October 20, 2016. Accessed December 01, 2016. https://www.yaqeeninstitute.org/publications/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/. [^26]: Horvath, A. O., & Bedi, R. P. (2002). The alliance. In J. C. Norcross, *Psychotherapy relationships that work: Therapist contributions and responsiveness to patients* (pp. 37-69). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [^27]: Laird, L. D. (2007). Muslim patients and health disparities in the UK and the US. *Archives of Disease in Childhood,* *92*(10), 922–926. [^28]: Youssef Chouhoud. “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam.” https://www.yaqeeninstitute.org/publications/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/. [^29]: Dalia Mogahed. Telephone interview by author. November 27, 2016. [^30]: Jackson, Y. (2006). *Encyclopedia of multicultural psychology*. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 401. ## Summary # The Harmful Effects of Islamophobic Rhetoric on Muslim Youth All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad. The condition of young Muslims in the West today deserves careful and compassionate attention, for they carry a heavy burden that is too often overlooked. While Muslims of earlier generations stood at the forefront of contributions to medicine, philosophy, architecture, and governance—driven by firm conviction in the tenets of their faith—the present climate of Islamophobia has cast Islam as irrational, incompatible with modern civilization, and inherently violent. What is examined here is one of the most understudied consequences of this hostility: not merely how non-Muslims perceive Islam, but how such rhetoric is quietly absorbed by Muslims themselves, particularly the youth. Through in-depth interviews with thirty young American Muslims aged sixteen to twenty—nineteen girls and eleven boys, most of them children of naturalized immigrants and regular mosque-goers—the ways in which hostile narratives seep into the very identity and self-perception of young believers are documented. Because the systematic study of Islamophobia is relatively recent, few reliable instruments exist to measure its psychological toll upon Muslim minorities themselves, as opposed to the fear-based attitudes of majority groups. Among the earliest efforts is the study of Kunst, Tajamal, Sam, and Ulleberg (2012), titled "Coping with Islamophobia," which demonstrated empirically that a strong religious identity is linked to greater civic engagement, that religious discrimination is negatively related to national identity, and that nurturing intercultural relations matters in the face of prejudice. This was reinforced by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding's 2016 study, which found that Muslims who regularly attend mosques are more likely to work with their neighbors, register to vote, and plan to vote. Yet the measures used by Kunst and his colleagues can be critiqued for neglecting psychometric properties essential to cross-cultural comparison. A useful lens for understanding this internal harm is drawn from the study of internalized racism—the often subconscious ingestion of the dominant society's stereotypes about one's own group. The pioneering "black doll" study of Kenneth and Mamie Clark in 1947 showed that black children overwhelmingly associated beauty and positive themes with white dolls; though criticized for its binary categorization of race, its main finding was replicated in later studies. As Charles Parrish noted, junior-high students used as many as one hundred forty-five terms to describe skin color. In parallel fashion, Sana Aaser employed the doll test as inspiration for a study of internalized oppression among Muslim children aged five to nine, conducted for Noor Kids. Her findings were sobering: one in three children did not want others to know they were Muslim, one in two did not know whether they could be both Muslim and American, and one in six would sometimes pretend not to be Muslim. These young ones had already begun crafting dual personalities to blend in. This confusion does not fade with age but compounds into adulthood. Just as Black adolescents distinguish levels of "blackness," young Muslims come to distinguish levels of "Muslimness," measured not by shades of color but by displays of religiosity. This weighs heaviest upon young women. Rather than experiencing the ḥijāb as part of a personal relationship with God, girls must navigate whether their appearance labels them "religious," "liberal," or "extreme." Lena, aged seventeen, described feeling that every time she wore her ḥijāb she had to satisfy Americans, the aunties in the masjid, and other Muslim girls all at once. Fatima, aged sixteen, who does not wear it, felt she was "never Muslim enough" yet also hid her prayer from non-Muslim friends. The need to prove one's "Americanness" was described as exhausting, for Muslims are viewed through a racialized lens in a way other faith communities are not. The Runnymede Trust reported that British Muslims routinely felt their loyalties questioned, with those who felt the British part of themselves incompatible leaning toward isolation, and others toward assimilation. The threat to young women is not merely psychological but physical. Twenty-three of the thirty participants reported at least one Islamophobic encounter in the past year—seventeen girls and only six boys. A British government initiative recorded five hundred eighty-four Islamophobic attacks between April 2012 and April 2013, of which nearly sixty percent targeted Muslim women, eighty percent of them wearing ḥijāb. Of the fifteen ḥijāb-wearing girls interviewed, all fifteen had considered removing it out of fear, and eight had done so in certain settings. None reported resenting the ḥijāb itself, but some resented that men bore no comparable public burden, and expressed anger that imams pressured women about their dress while sparing men. The youngest girl, aged sixteen, said she was tired of being told she was a failure for not wearing it, pleading that others had no idea what pressures she already faced. Such experiences carry real consequences, for as one report on Muslim patients noted, chronic prejudice and "daily hassles" can increase the risk of common mental disorders. Personal and communal experiences shape which criticisms of the faith are absorbed. When asked about elements of Islam deemed restrictive, many hesitated, yet on closer examination admitted that family difficulties colored their perceptions—for one's relationship with God often mirrors relationships with people. Of the participants, eighteen considered Islam restrictive, and sixteen of these also felt their parents were less loving than those of their non-Muslim friends. Second-generation youth struggle to discern what in their upbringing is culture, religion, or personal idiosyncrasy. A poor experience in the mosque likewise reinforces hostile messaging. Samina, aged twenty, said she stopped attending because she felt treated as a second-class citizen, and that she felt better about her Islam when away from Muslims who seemed to confirm the stereotypes leveled against them. An important observation emerges regarding priorities. While Muslim institutions publicly emphasize refuting the association of Islam with violence, internally the more pressing concern among youth is gender injustice. Many have not accepted that Islam is as violent as the media claims, but they do associate it with the oppression of women. Dalia Mogahed relayed how, when an audience of Canadian Muslim girls was asked whether Islam considers men superior to women, nearly all raised their hands; only two affirmed equality, and none affirmed women's superiority. The public shares this view, for Gallup found that eighty-one percent of Americans doubt that most Muslims believe in gender equality. This is aggravated by media portrayals, as a pre-9/11 survey found seventy-three percent of images of Muslim women depicted them passively. Historical episodes present a further avenue of doubt. Extremist groups and Islamophobes alike weaponize texts and events, and young Muslims often encounter them first through media rather than sound teaching. Twenty-eight of the thirty were troubled by the marriage of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to Aisha, and twenty-five first learned of it through the media. One seventeen-year-old boy said it made the religion seem "just as flawed as every other," while a girl admitted her discomfort arose from her own media consumption. As the Yaqeen Institute's report on pathways to doubt noted, and as one scholar who lectured on slavery observed, "The 'Islam came to abolish slavery' response is simply insufficient"—such matters require proper contextualization rather than dismissal. The mosque itself can heal or harm. Of twenty-six mosque-goers, only three felt welcomed, and all but two girls felt the masjid unwelcoming to women. One eighteen-year-old said she nearly left Islam over how men treated her, yet visiting a mosque where women were respected helped her realize not all Muslims are alike. Young men also objected to the harshness and misogyny they witnessed; Ali described an imam who always seemed angry. By contrast, the three who felt welcomed praised imams who connected with them—Ariana recalled a sermon after the San Bernardino shootings praising Muslim women's bravery, which gave her courage. Counseling poses its own danger. Since the therapeutic alliance is a consistent predictor of successful treatment, a non-Muslim counselor influenced by media stereotypes may steer a client away from her faith under the guise of "liberation." Of six girls who attended therapy, the four who saw non-Muslim therapists all felt judged and pushed from their religion, while one who saw a Muslim therapist had her confidentiality betrayed. Notably, doubt can also arise from a desire to escape guilt: some youth wish to believe negative claims so they may abandon obligations without remorse, as the pathways-to-doubt report observed regarding prohibitions on premarital relations. Finally, insecurity breeds idleness, while confidence empowers. Sixteen youth felt hindered by their faith in pursuing their dreams. Yet all nine involved in Islamic charitable work felt empowered rather than hindered; Zaynab grew proud of her ḥijāb only after wearing it while serving the homeless. As clinical interventions teach youth to seek same-race role models to counter self-blame, so contemporary Muslim role models can modify the attributions that feed internalized Islamophobia. In sum, young Muslim minorities endure a dangerously high cognitive dissonance in forming a cohesive identity—betraying the Islamic self at school and the American self at home. Family and communal spaces may reinforce or refute this harm, youth must be intellectually equipped against doubt-inducing claims, and the problems of misguided counseling and absent competent youth mentors must be studied and addressed. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why do I feel like I have to choose between being Muslim and being American? You are not imagining the pressure, and it is not a personal failure. Muslim Americans are perceived through a racialized lens in a way that members of other faith communities simply are not. Because Muslims are often cast as predominantly Arab or non-white, the question of faith becomes entangled with questions of foreignness. In addition to justifying their practice of Islam in Muslim spaces, young Muslims feel a constant need to prove they are not foreign in American ones. Research found that 1 in 2 Muslim children did not know whether they could be both Muslim and American, and 1 in 3 did not want to tell others they were Muslim. That dual burden is exhausting and can make both identities feel unstable. ### My daughter keeps adjusting how she wears her hijab depending on who she is around. Is something wrong? What she is managing is one of the most layered identity challenges a young Muslim woman in the West can face. Young hijabi women describe navigating an impossible set of simultaneous expectations: signaling to non-Muslims that they are not oppressed, signaling to the community that they are still practicing, and signaling to Muslim peers that they are still confident and cool. That is an enormous amount of social negotiation built into a single act of worship. The deeper concern is not the adjustment itself but what it signals about how she understands her hijab. When girls begin to experience it primarily as a social statement rather than a personal relationship with Allah, the weight of it becomes unbearable. Research found that all hijab-wearing young women in one study had considered removing it due to fear, and several had done so in certain settings because they felt threatened. The most protective thing a family or community can offer is acknowledgment, of the pressure she already carries and of the courage her faith already requires. ### My kid says going to the masjid actually makes them feel worse about Islam. How do I respond? The masjid is meant to be a source of spiritual strength, particularly for young people absorbing hostility everywhere else. When it becomes another space of exclusion, it does not just fail in its purpose; it actively reinforces the Islamophobic messaging young people are already fighting. One young woman in the research described stopping attendance because she already felt like a second-class citizen outside the masjid; when she saw how women were treated inside it, she began to believe that Muslims really were as backward as people claimed. The response is not to dismiss the complaint but to take it seriously and help them find a community where they are genuinely welcomed. The young people in the research who felt most grounded all described the same thing: an imam who acknowledged their specific struggles. Validation from religious leadership, directed at the actual lives young people are living, changes everything. ### What actually makes a difference for Muslim youth who are struggling with their identity? In a study conducted on American Muslim youth, young people who felt most grounded in their religion consistently possessed three things: a religious community that genuinely welcomed them, explicit validation of their specific struggles, and Muslim role models who excelled in the world while remaining true to their convictions. Young people who were regularly involved in Islamic charitable and volunteer work all said they did not feel hindered by their religion. One young woman said she had not felt proud of her hijab until she wore it while serving at a homeless outreach event, when a stranger said he always saw “her people” passing out food. That single moment reframed her entire identity. The need for contemporary Muslim figures who have contributed at the highest levels without abandoning who they are offers a counternarrative powerful enough to displace internalized shame. Research confirms that a strong religious identity predicts both greater personal confidence and greater civic engagement. Protecting that identity is not a retreat from the modern world; it is the foundation from which young Muslims begin to serve it. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-case-for-allahs-existence-in-the-quran-and-sunnah # Does God Exist? The Case for Allah’s Existence in the Quran and Sunnah **Author:** Anonymous Guest Author **Topics:** Allah, Faith **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 27, 2017 **Updated:** November 26, 2025 *In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful* Knowledge of God’s existence is often taken for granted by believers. The authentic religious experience—affirmed again and again in a Muslim’s daily life—makes faith in God feel so natural as to be assumed. But belief in God and the quest for existential truth is not an easy prospect for many people, especially in a social environment in which faith is derided as superstition, wishful thinking, or even as a dangerous fantasy. In the Islamic tradition, the case for God’s existence is solid in terms of its rational foundations as well as the purpose, meaning, comfort, and guidance that it gives to our lives. The Quran inspires conviction by appealing to the aspects of the inner life of human beings, namely, to the heart and the mind. Intuition and experience work in tandem with logic and reason to arrive at a state of certainty in faith. This understanding of conviction is reinforced by modern scientific conceptions. Cognitive scientist Justin Barrett, for example, demonstrates that belief in God—and beliefs more generally—are formed and attained in two ways: 1) non-reflective, intuitive beliefs that result from experience; and 2) reflective, conscious beliefs that result from thought.[^1] The human being naturally forms beliefs from these two sources. Similarly, the case for God’s existence in the Quran and Sunnah involves both sources of beliefs: heart-based appeals based on intuition and mind-based appeals based on rational reflection. --- ## Reasons that Appeal to the Heart, Intuition, and Experience ### Natural Instinct – Fiṭrat Allāh Human beings sense the existence of God—or what they perceive as a higher power—by pure instinct, with or without a prophetic revelation to guide them. Expressions of this *sensus divinitatis* have appeared in cultures and religions all over the world, despite them being widely separated by time, geography, and language. In Islamic spiritual terms, this is because God took a primordial covenant with every person before the world was created that they would recognize their Creator. Allah said: > *\[Prophet\], when your Lord took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ and they replied, ‘Yes, we bear witness.’ So you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We were not aware of this.’*[^2] Al-Suddī (d. 745) commented on this verse, saying, “For this reason, there is no one on the face of the earth but that he knows his Lord is Allah, and no one associates idols with Him except that he will say ‘I found my forefathers following another religion.’”[^3] The primordial covenant results in the innate impulse within people to seek out the higher power that they can sense, as they have done in some form or another throughout all of recorded history, to the point that some scientists today argue that belief in God or a higher power is hardwired into our genes.[^4] All true and revealed religion confirms and conforms to the human nature that the Creator instilled within us. The Quran refers to human religious nature as *fiṭrat Allāh*, the instinctive and inherent disposition with which God created people. Allah said: > *So \[Prophet Muhammad\] as a man of pure faith, stand firm and true in your devotion to the religion. This is the natural disposition God instilled in mankind—there is no altering God’s creation—and this is the right religion, though most people do not realize it.*[^5] All people were born to be believers in God, and the revelations of the Prophets simply awaken and reinforce the disposition that is already inside us. Even polytheists, who believe in multiple gods and deities, often believe that there is an even higher power, an even greater God over all of them. Allah said: > *If you asked them who created the heavens and earth, they are sure to say, ‘God.’ Say, ‘Praise belongs to God,’ but most of them do not understand.*[^6] And Allah said: > *If you \[Prophet Muhammad\] ask them who created them they are sure to say, ‘God,’ so why are they deluded?*[*\[*7\]](#ftnt7) Since all humans can sense a higher power, they will instinctively turn to God in times of danger. Every person, at some point in his or her life, will have an intense experience that causes a natural reaction to turn to prayer. There are many cases of people who experience a sudden brush with death that causes them to become more faithful to their religious tradition. > Allah said: > > *Whenever they go on board a ship they call on God, and dedicate their faith to Him alone, but once He has delivered them safely back to land, see how they ascribe partners to Him!*[^8] And Allah said: > *Say \[Prophet Muhammad\], ‘Who is it that saves you from the dark depths of land and sea when you humbly and secretly call to Him \[and say\], ‘If He rescues us from this, we should truly be thankful’? Say, ‘God rescues you from this and every distress; yet you still worship others besides him.’*[^9] And Allah said: > *When something bad happens to people, they cry to their Lord and turn to Him for help, but no sooner does He let them taste His blessing then—lo and behold!—some of them ascribe partners to their Lord, showing no gratitude for what We have given them.*[^10] And Allah said: > *When man suffers some affliction, he prays to his Lord and turns to Him, but once he has been granted a favor from God, he forgets the One he had been praying to and sets up rivals to God, to make others stray from His path.*[^11] Al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), in his autobiography, describes the innate religious disposition—that he himself experienced—as an urge for people to “seek knowledge of the reality of things.”[^12] He describes this spiritual longing for truth as a “thirst” (*ta’aṭṭash*) that must be quenched. It is a void and emptiness in the heart, an uneasiness with existence, which must be filled by discovering meaning and purpose to life. And while reason is an important tool to achieve faith in God, it is still merely one step along the spiritual path: “Beyond the level of reason lies another level that opens another eye by which one gains insight into the Unseen and into what will occur in the future, among other things.”[^13] Knowledge of God resides primarily in the heart and is reinforced by reason, but it is not achieved and consolidated by reason alone. There must be an authentic religious experience, the acknowledgment of greater purpose and meaning to the universe, and the taste of spiritual fruits. Hence, the early scholars of Islam defined knowledge of God not as a collection of facts and arguments, but rather as a light within the heart. Imām Mālik (d. 795) said, “Knowledge is not knowing many sayings. Verily, knowledge is only a light that Allah places in the hearts.”[^14] And Ibn Rajab (d. 1393) said, “Knowledge is not memorizing many narrations or sayings, but rather it is a light that Allah places in the heart by which a servant understands the truth and he distinguishes it from falsehood.”[^15] ### The Experience of Peace and Contentment The “light” of the knowledge of God is found in the guidance, spiritual direction, and the sense of peace that believers attain by practicing Islam. It can fill the spiritual void in all of us. The greatest proof for the existence and Lordship of Allah, then, is discovered in the visceral experiences of the heart through which the believers find comfort, inner-peace, moral education, and meaning in life—the spiritual fruits of true religion. Allah said: > *A light has now come to you from God, and a Scripture making things clear, with which God guides to the ways of peace those who follow what pleases Him, bringing them from darkness out into light, by His will, and guiding them to a straight path.*[^16] And Allah said: > *Believers, be mindful of God and have faith in His Messenger: He will give you a double share of His mercy; He will provide a light to help you walk; He will forgive you— God is most forgiving, most merciful.*[^17] And Allah said: > *Truly, it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace.*[^18] The Quran promises those who have faith that they will live a “good life” and move into an infinitely greater existence in the afterlife. The peace that believers experience in this life is only a brief taste of the peace to come in the Hereafter. Reflecting upon this fact day after day in prayer contributes to a state of calm and tranquility. Allah said: > *To whoever, male or female, does good deeds and has faith, We shall give a good life and reward them according to the best of their actions.*[^19] And Allah said: > *\[But\] you, soul at peace: return to your Lord well pleased and well pleasing; go in among My servants; and into My Garden*.[^20] This is not a promise that believers will never experience adversity. Indeed, there will come times—Allah guarantees—in which the believers will be tested for their patience and perseverance. Rather, Allah promises that believers, through their spiritual practices and moral and theological education, will achieve a stable state of contentment and satisfaction with life. Allah said: > *Your Lord is sure to give you so much that you will be well satisfied.*[^21] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *He has succeeded who embraces Islam, whose provision is sufficient, and who is content with what Allah has given him.*[^22] Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described spiritual contentment as the “sweetness of faith,” a fruit of true religion that is to be tasted and experienced. It involves authentic encounters with the Divine by which a believer becomes grounded and certain in the truth of his or her faith. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *He has tasted the sweetness of faith who is content with Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his prophet.*[^23] The contentment described in Islamic texts consists of a stability of being that protects believers from oscillating between extremes of momentary euphoria and sorrow, such that they can remain in a state of calm and tranquility regardless of what is happening in their lives. It is manifested in a detachment from worldly possessions and temporal concerns (*zuhd*), and an end to the fear of poverty. This spiritual state of being is, in fact, what the Prophet ﷺ described as true wealth. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Wealth is not in having many possessions. Rather, true wealth is the richness of the soul.*[^24] And the Prophet ﷺ said: > *Wealth is in the heart and poverty is in the heart. Whoever is wealthy in his heart will not be harmed no matter what happens in the world. Whoever is impoverished in his heart will not be satisfied no matter how much he has in the world. Verily, he will only be harmed by the greed of his own soul.*[^25] Consequently, those who achieve this state of being—along with their basic worldly needs—are truly the wealthiest people in the world. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *Whoever among you wakes up secure in his property, healthy in his body, and he has his food for the day, it is as if he were given the entire world.*[^26] When people are consumed by wealth, possessions, and worldly status, they will inevitably experience a void that leads to unhappiness no matter how much they have. The early Muslims used to say, “If the kings of the world and their sons knew what we have of blessings and happiness, they would fight us for it with their swords.”[^27] True and stable happiness is not something that we acquire “out there,” as kings and powerful leaders might imagine. The material world cannot make us happy and content for long; we have to discover the means of happiness within the heart through our relationship with the Creator. It is the free gift of Islam for all. In this state of contentment, believers are better equipped to endure the inevitable vicissitudes of life. Hypocrites, those who are insincere in their religion, by contrast, are unable to pass through adversity with the same sense of stability and calm. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *The parable of the believer is that of a crop which withstands the wind, for the believer continues to withstand the suffering of trials. The parable of the hypocrite is that of a cedar tree, for it does not budge until it is uprooted.*[^28] By tasting these spiritual fruits, the believers strengthen their conviction with every positive and meaningful experience. Knowledge of God is consolidated through these experiences much more effectively than through logical or philosophical argument. Al-Ghazālī writes: > *Hence, when you have understood the meaning of prophecy and you have abundantly examined the Quran and traditions, you will inevitably arrive at the knowledge that \[Muhammad\]—peace and blessings of God be upon him—embodied the highest levels of prophecy, and that is reinforced by experiencing his teachings in regards to worship and its effects on purifying the heart… Thus, when you experience that one thousand, two thousand, and many thousands of times over, you will necessarily attain knowledge in which there is no doubt.*[^29] One reason this is the most effective method to strengthen faith, as demonstrated by cognitive scientists, is that the intensity of religious experiences makes them unforgettable.[^30] A believer who witnesses the benefits of spiritual practice in his or her life—day after day—will attain a level of certainty and tranquility that they would never consider abandoning. ### An Abandoned Instinct Not everyone achieves an authentic religious experience or understands it in a proper theological framework. Human nature is not immune to alteration by misguided doctrines and philosophies that contradict our healthy instincts, even ideas that claim a basis in theism. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *No one is born except upon natural instinct. Then his parents turn him into a Jew or a Christian or a Magian. As an animal produces their young with perfect limbs, do you see anything defective?*[^31] In this tradition, the Prophet ﷺ tells us that everyone is born to accept the simple, natural worship of one unique, powerful, and benevolent Creator. However, for various reasons, people invent religious doctrines that anthropomorphize God (ascribe human features to Him), or ascribe divine attributes to created beings (such as deifying saints and sages), or deny the Creator altogether. When human nature and intuitive belief in one God are corrupted, either by negative experiences or the influence of others, then logical arguments may be required for a person to return back to his or her natural state. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) writes: > *The establishment and recognition of the Creator is a fundamental instinct in human nature, even though some people have done something to corrupt their nature such that they need an argument to achieve knowledge of God. This is the opinion of the majority of people, as well as the skilled debaters, that knowledge of God is sometimes achieved effortlessly and other times by argument, as was recognized by more than one of the theologians.*[^32] Our intuitive beliefs, which we gain from our natural disposition and experiences, serve to anchor and inform the beliefs that we gain through reflection and conscious, rational deliberation.[^33] In this way, reading and reflecting on the Quran builds upon intuitive experiences of the heart by appealing to the mind and the power of reason. --- ## Reasons that Appeal to the Mind, Reason, and Logic ### Cosmological Discourse The question that most human beings eventually ask themselves is about the nature of existence: Why am I here? Why is there a world and a universe? Why is there something and not nothing? The Quran addresses this question with a cosmological discourse, a reminder that it was God who created everything and caused it to be. Human beings are asked to reflect upon the nature of their existence and the universe. Is it really plausible, sensible, and intuitive that the universe appeared arbitrarily for no reason? Allah said: > *Have they not thought about their own selves? God did not create the heavens and earth and everything between them without a serious purpose and an appointed time, yet many people deny that they will meet their Lord.*[^34] Our intuition and experience tell us that effects have causes; things come to be because something made them that way. Since the universe is one giant series of causes and effects, it is reasonable to conclude that it had an original cause that set it all in motion. Allah said: > *Were they created out of nothing? Were they the creators? Did they create the heavens and the earth? No! They do not have faith.*[^35] These verses posit three possibilities: 1) the universe appeared without any agent to bring it into existence; 2) people created themselves; or by implication 3) the universe must have been created. The first two propositions are impossible. It could not be the case that the universe appeared from nothing without any reason, purpose, or force to inject it with its energy and direction. Everyday experience informs us that all things we witness in life, every effect we see, must have an explanation at some level. The second proposition, that people created themselves, can be dismissed on its face. As such, the only reasonable conclusion is that the universe was caused—it was created—it was made to exist by something greater and more powerful than itself. Ibn Ḥajar (d. 1449) explains the meaning of these verses by quoting the scholar Al-Khaṭṭābī: > *It is said the meaning \[of the verse\] is: Were they created without a creator? That is impossible, as they must have a creator. If they deny the Creator, then they must have created themselves, and that proposition is even more foolish and false, for how can something without existence create anything? If they reject these two opinions \[that they came to be without a creator or they created themselves\], then the proof is established upon them that they were in fact created.*[^36] Scholars derive from these verses and others a logical train of thought, sometimes referred to as the cosmological argument, which determines that God, as the uncaused cause or first cause, is the most reasonable answer to the existential question. İsmail Latif Hacınebioğlu summarizes the logic of the argument in the following steps: > *Everything in the universe that has a beginning must have a cause.* > *The universe began to exist.* > *Therefore the beginning of the existence of the universe must have been caused by something.* > *The only such cause must be an uncaused cause, or God.*[^37] This line of thinking is acceptable to the mind and it finds validation in human intuition and experience. It sufficiently answers the question of why anything exists in the first place. Jubair ibn Muṭ’im (d. 677) reported that he heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting these verses in the evening prayer, and he said, “My heart was about to fly!”[^38] The argument in this passage was so compelling that Jubair embraced Islam.[^39] A version of this argument was used by the great jurist and theologian Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 767) in his debate with philosophers who were skeptical about the existence of God: > *It was reported from Abū Ḥanīfah that some philosophers (ahl al-kalām) intended to discuss with him the establishment of the existence of one Creator. Abū Ḥanīfah said, ‘Tell me before we speak on this matter about a ship on the Tigris river moving by itself and filled with food, goods, and other materials, then it goes back by itself, then anchors itself, then unloads itself and continues to do all of this without anyone to manage it.’ They said, ‘This could never happen.’ Abū Ḥanīfah said, ‘If it is impossible for a ship, then how is it possible for the entire world in all of its vastness?’*[^40] Ibn Al-Qayyim (d. 1350) uses a similar example of a watermill spinning on its own, producing, harvesting, and distributing its crops without anyone to guide it: > *What do you say about a watermill revolving over a river in perfection? Its tools are perfected, its parts measured with excellence, and it is so obvious such that no observer can find fault in its parts or its form. It presides over a grand garden within which are every kind of fruit and crops, watering them as needed. Within this garden, its shrubbery is gathered and its maintenance is assured for its well-being. Its produce is excellent and guaranteed, and all of its needs are well served. Thus, nothing of it is left disordered and none of its fruit is left to rot. Then, the value of everything produced is divided according to their needs and necessities, divided by every type and distributed, and this distribution occurs in this manner at all times. Do you find this arrangement to have a creator or harvester or manager? Or, is the arraignment of that watermill and garden without an actor or maintainer or manager? What do you find that your mind tells you in that case and how could you explain it?*[^41] Common sense tells us that the ship or the watermill must have been made to move by something outside of itself. Established scientific principles agree. The great physicist Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion states: “Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it.”[^42] In other words, things in the universe do not move or change their movements unless an external force acts upon them. This is true of everything in the universe, and it is just as true for the universe itself as a whole. Those who deny the existence of the Creator attempt to challenge the a priori premise that the universe has a definite beginning. Their argument is that the universe has always existed in an endless series of causes, or an infinite regression, without the need for a first cause to set it in motion. Besides being counter-intuitive—as all things we experience in life had a beginning at some point—modern physics and cosmology now largely accept the premise of the cosmological argument as fact. The “big bang” theory postulates that the universe began from a singularity somewhere between 12 and 14 billion years ago.[^43] Even if we accept the idea of an infinite regression for the sake of argument, and despite the lack of scientific or intuitive evidence for it, that does not discount the need for a cause beyond time and space to produce and sustain it. Polymath and philosopher G.W. Leibniz (d. 1716) asserts that an infinite series must still necessarily have a sufficient reason for its existence: > *Let us suppose that a book on the elements of geometry has always existed, one copy always made from another. It is obvious that although we can explain a present copy of the book from the previous book from which it was copied, this will never lead us to a complete explanation, no matter how many books back we go, since we can always wonder why there have always been such books, why these books were written, and why they were written the way they were. What is true of these books is also true of the different states of the world, for the state which follows is, in a sense, copied from the preceding state, though in accordance with certain laws of change. And so, however far back we might go into previous states, we will never find in those states a complete explanation \[ratio\] for why, indeed, there is any world at all, and why it is the way it is… From this it follows that even if we assume the eternity of the world, we cannot escape the ultimate and extramundane reason for things, God.*[^44] In the same vein, physicist Don Page gives the example of an artist drawing a circle on a canvas; the circle has no beginning or end, yet it still required an external artist to draw it.[^45] The existence of the universe itself, regardless of its finite or infinite nature, must have had a Creator to set the chain of causes in motion. Nevertheless, the cosmological argument by itself is only one piece in a much larger discourse on the nature of existence. The Quran complements the discussion with an even greater and more compelling teleological discourse—that the world was designed. ### Teleological Discourse The very fabric of the cosmos, from the macroscopic stars to the microscopic world of microbes and everything in between, contains a set of universal, natural laws that produce order. The result of these laws is that many things in the universe exhibit identifiable purpose. Our eyes were made to see. Our ears were made to hear. Our lungs were made to breathe. Our trees were made to produce fruit and clean air. Our water was made to sustain life, and so on. With so many clear instances of purpose that we repeatedly experience in the different parts of the universe, it is only logical to conclude that the entire universe itself exists as it is for a purpose. Indeed, teleological language is unavoidable in daily life and especially in life sciences. Biologists and medical professionals speak of the “role” and “function” of various organs (who assigned its role and function?), as well as genetic “codes” and “information” (who coded it and informed it?). Charles Darwin himself, often held up as a champion of atheist philosophies, was unable to convey his scientific ideas without frequent recourse to the language of design and purpose.[^46] It is natural and intuitive for us to recognize the teleology of the universe. Accordingly, the Quran persistently draws attention to signs (*āyāt*) in nature that demonstrate the grand design and power of the Creator. We are called to engage in thoughtful reflection (*tafakkur*) upon all of these signs as a means of recognizing our purpose and attaining conviction. Allah said: > *There truly are signs in the creation of the heavens and earth, and in the alternation of the night and day, for those with understanding, who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down, who reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth: ‘Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose—You are far above that!—so protect us from the torment of the Fire.’*[^47] True faith, then, is not the result of an abandonment of reason, as some people imagine. The apparent dichotomy between religion and science is a false one.[^48] Rather, using the faculty of reason, in concert with a sound heart, is a path to God and an Islamic virtue. Abu Al-‘Alā, one of the early Muslims, used to say, “A worshipper is given nothing better after Islam than to be provided with a sound mind.”[^49] Towards this end, the Quran explicitly appeals to the reason (*al-’aql*) of its readers and particularly their ability to reflect upon the teleology of existence. Allah said: > *In the creation of the heavens and earth; in the alternation of night and day; in the ships that sail the seas with goods for people; in the water which God sends down from the sky to give life to the earth when it has been barren, scattering all kinds of creatures over it; in the changing of the winds and clouds that run their appointed courses between the sky and earth: there are signs in all these for those who use their minds.*[^50] And Allah said: > *One of His signs is that He created you from dust and—lo and behold!—you became human and scattered far and wide. Another of His signs is that He created spouses from among yourselves for you to live with in tranquility: He ordained love and kindness between you. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect. Another of His signs is the creation of the heavens and earth, and the diversity of your languages and colors. There truly are signs in this for those who know. Among His signs are your sleep, by night and by day, and your seeking His bounty. There truly are signs in this for those who can hear. Among His signs, too, are that He shows you the lightning that terrifies and inspires hope; that He sends water down from the sky to restore the earth to life after death. There truly are signs in this for those who use their reason.*[^51] And Allah said: > *There are, in the land, neighboring plots, gardens of vineyards, cornfields, palm trees in clusters or otherwise, all watered with the same water, yet We make some of them taste better than others: there truly are signs in this for people who reason.*[^52] And Allah said: > *By His command He has made the night and day, the sun, moon, and stars all of benefit to you. There truly are signs in this for those who use their reason.*[^53] There are signs of God in everything that we see at every level: the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the night and day, the mountains, the oceans, the wind, the clouds, the rain, every plant and animal, all types of fruit and food and drink, the miracles of the human genome, virtues such as love, wisdom, and beauty, and much more than can be counted. The more we examine these signs and think deeply about them, the more it will reinforce our conviction. Allah said: > *We shall show them Our signs on the far horizons and in themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses everything?*[^54] Highlighting the signs of God’s work in nature is the primary and most powerful rational method of confirming the existence of the Creator. Ibn Taymiyyah writes, “Affirming the Creator by means of signs is an obligation, as it has been revealed in the Quran and Allah has made it instinctual to his servants. Though deductive arguments may be correct, their usefulness is lacking.”[^55] More complicated philosophical arguments, while not necessarily incorrect, are not as potent since most common people are not trained in the terminologies and methods of philosophical argumentation. In the same passage, Ibn Taymiyyah goes on to criticize the arguments of Ibn Sīnā (d 1037), Al-Rāzī (d. 1210), and others who put forth purely philosophical arguments for the existence of God, which were weak or ineffective in his estimation. Along these lines, the great Imāms were often asked why they believed in the Creator in the first place, and they would respond by calling attention to the signs of God. Imām Mālik (d. 795) was asked by Caliph Hārūn Rashīd about the existence of the Creator, and Mālik told him to seek evidence in the different languages, different voices, and different melodies of creatures.[^56] Imām Al-Shāfi’ī (d. 820) was asked about the existence of the Creator and he replied, “The leaves of a berry bush all have one taste. Worms eat it and produce silk. Bees eat it and produce honey. Goats, camels, and cows eat it and deliver offspring. Deer eat it and produce musk. Yet, all of these come from one thing.”[^57] The simple miracle of the leaves of a bush, and every other miracle it produces, indicates that it was designed for this very purpose. Imām Aḥmad (d. 855) was asked about the existence of the Creator and he replied, “Consider a smooth, impenetrable fortress without any doors or exits. The outside is like white silver and the inside is like pure gold. It is built in this way and, behold! Its walls crack and out comes an animal hearing and seeing with a beautiful shape and a pleasant voice.”[^58] Aḥmad was referring to the natural wonder of a baby chick emerging from her mother’s egg. The powerful evidence contained in God’s signs requires no specialized philosophical training or knowledge to understand them and believe in them. As we have said, it is natural and intuitive to recognize them. In a well-known story, a Bedouin—a member of the nomad tribes who were usually illiterate—was once asked about the existence of the Creator and he replied, “Glory be to Allah! The camel’s droppings testify to the existence of the camel, and the footprints testify to existence of the walker. A sky that holds the stars, a land that has fairways, and a sea that has waves? Does not all of this testify to the existence of the Kind, the Knowing?”[^59] The simplicity of the teleological argument was even put into pithy poetic verse by Ibn Mu’taz (d. 908): Strange how the God is disobeyed, And strange the dispute of the disputer (*jāḥid*), In everything there is a sign, To show that He is One (*Wāḥid*).[^60] After mentioning all of these anecdotes in his exegesis, Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) further comments: > *The running rivers that travel from area to area with benefit, and what Allah has produced from the earth of various animals and plants of different tastes, scents, shapes, and colors, and the unity of the soil and water; all this demonstrates the existence of the Creator and His awesome power, His wisdom and mercy with His creation, His kindness, good treatment, and benevolence with them. There is no God besides Him. There is no Lord like Him. I depend upon Him and I turn to Him. The verses in the Quran indicating this are very plentiful.*[^61] At this point, someone might accept the idea that the universe was indeed designed, but why should it be only one Creator? Why not many different gods? The answer to this question lies in the fact that the natural laws of the universe are deliberate, consistent, and united in their purpose. Allah said: > *If there had been in the heavens or earth any gods but Him, both heavens and earth would be in ruins: God, Lord of the Throne, is far above the things they say.*[^62] All of the forces in the universe work together towards a common end: the creation of the world and the sustaining of life. We can infer that there is a single intelligent force behind all of it. There is nothing to suggest that one god created gravity, another created electromagnetism, and other gods govern every other natural force, all for a common unified purpose. We would expect the existence of many creators to result in arbitrary, or perhaps competing, natural phenomena. That explanation may have seemed plausible to ancient societies for which nature appeared to have no discernible order. ### Scientific Validation As science has advanced considerably, we now take for granted our recognition of the consistency and universality of natural laws. In fact, science could not advance at all without assuming uniform patterns within the fabric of the universe. The law of gravity applies in the same manner to any object with mass, regardless of its location on earth or in deep space. Ironically, modern science implicitly depends upon a monotheistic premise. Physicists like Paul Davies note that the natural laws of the universe require a plausible explanation. It is simply irrational—and unscientific—to assume the laws of the universe appeared as they are for no reason: > *The most refined expression of the rational intelligibility of the cosmos is found in the laws of physics, the fundamental rules on which nature runs. The laws of gravitation and electromagnetism, the laws that regulate the world within the atom, the laws of motion—all are expressed as tidy mathematical relationships. But where do these laws come from? And why do they have the form that they do? . . . Over the years I have often asked my physicist colleagues why the laws of physics are what they are. The answers vary from ‘that’s not a scientific question’ to ‘nobody knows.’ The favorite reply is, ‘There is no reason they are what they are—they just are.’ The idea that the laws exist without reason is deeply anti-rational. After all, the very essence of a scientific explanation of some phenomenon is that the world is ordered logically and that there are reasons things are as they are. If one traces these reasons all the way down to the bedrock of reality—the laws of physics—only to find that reason then deserts us, it makes a mockery of science.*[^63] Tracing the series of explanations for why things are as they are leads to the reasonable conclusion that the universe is designed for life. Scientists have referred to this as the finely-tuned universe or the anthropic principle, that the laws of nature are configured in such astonishingly precise measurements in order for the universe to exist and for life to thrive. According to physicist and philosopher Robin Collins, “If the initial explosion of the big bang had differed in strength as little as one part in 10⁶⁰, the universe would have either quickly collapsed back on itself, or expanded too rapidly for stars to form. In either case, life would be impossible.” The chance of this happening is like firing a bullet at a one-inch target twenty billion light-years away and hitting the mark.[^64] Collins elaborates on this thinking by examining six compelling cases of fine-tuning built into the fabric of the universe: 1. The cosmological constant. 2. The strong nuclear and electromagnetic forces. 3. Carbon production in stars. 4. The proton-neutron mass difference. 5. The weak nuclear force. 6. Gravity.[^65] Each of these forces and phenomena are balanced in a way that produces the wondrous universe in which we live. It is hardly rational or logical to assume—without hard evidence—that all of these natural laws, with every miracle that they produce, appeared without cause or purpose. In the scientific community, the idea of a finely-tuned universe has its critics and skeptics. Even so, the abundant evidence in nature and the plausible, rational argument for theism it produces cannot honestly be denied. Antony Flew was a long-time atheist philosopher who wrote against theism for over fifty years, but upon examining the emerging evidence of fine-tuning he later came to conclude that some intelligence beyond humanity must account for the origins of life and the complexity of the universe.[^66] Theism, he writes, cannot be dismissed as wishful thinking or superstition: > *Whatever the merits or demerits of this fine tuning argument in the context of attempts to construct a natural (as opposed to a revealed) theology, it must at once be allowed that it is reasonable for those who believe—whether rightly or wrongly—that they already have good evidencing reasons for accepting the religious teachings of any one of the three great revealed theistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—to see the fine-tuning argument as providing substantial confirmation of their own antecedent religious beliefs.*[^67] Perhaps the real superstition, then, is the ungrounded dogma that the universe is a purposeless accident. Allah said: > *They say, ‘There is only our life in this world: we die, we live, nothing but time destroys us.’ They have no knowledge of this: they only follow guesswork.*[^68] Al-Ṭabarī comments on this verse, saying, “\[The verse\] means they do not have knowledge with certainty, as they only assume so without a message coming to them from Allah, nor any demonstrable proof with them to verify it.”[^69] In other words, the anti-theists themselves have a worldview without a strong foundation in evidence and logic. Much of their momentum as a movement involves misrepresenting theistic positions (a “straw-man” fallacy), or redirecting attention towards the irrational and hypocritical behavior of some self-identified believers (a “red-herring” fallacy). In reality, it is impossible to conclusively determine or prove that God does not exist. Even Richard Dawkins, one of the most strident atheists and harshest critics of religion, admitted that he could not be sure that God—and by extension the Hereafter—does not exist.[^70] Yet the denial of theism—or at least the existence of a higher power and purpose—has always been, and will continue to be, entertained only by a minority of humanity overall, as belief in God is hardwired into our human nature and can never be erased entirely. Even if religious faith recedes for a time, it can and will always be revived again. ### God in the Unseen Lastly, a common objection to the belief in God is that God cannot be directly seen or perceived. Why should we believe in what we cannot see? The answer is that God, as the Almighty Supreme Being, unique and otherworldly, exists beyond the cosmic veil in the Unseen (*al-ghayb*). Although we cannot see God directly, we can reasonably infer His existence by the signs of His design in the world. The proposition that God cannot be seen, and therefore should not be believed in, is nothing new or original put forth by the “death of God” philosophers. It was said in the time of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as well. Allah said: > *Those who do not fear to meet Us say, ‘Why are the angels not sent down to us?’ or ‘Why can we not see our Lord?’ They are too proud of themselves and too insolent.*[^71] The argument of the Meccan idolaters was not proposed as an honest question, but rather as an excuse not to practice faith. No one can logically claim that the inability to see something confirms its non-existence. There are many things in the world we cannot see, but in which we believe, because we deduce their existence from their signs or effects. We cannot see the wind, but we see it blowing the grass and trees. We cannot see radio waves, but we can see the results of their transmission. By definition, science cannot “prove” or “disprove” the existence of God in a direct and conventional way, such as in a laboratory. Science only deals with the physical, tangible world of things that can be measured. God is beyond the physical world and beyond measurement. Those who pointed their telescopes to the heavens and disbelieved in the divine when they saw no bearded man sitting upon a cloud “have no grasp of God’s true measure.”[^72] Consider for a moment the world of microbes that live in a petri dish being studied by scientists. The organisms are so small that the scientists must use powerful instruments to observe them. Is it possible for the organisms to perceive that the scientists are there? Is it possible for the organisms to measure the scientists in any meaningful way? The sheer difference in scale precludes the ability of microbes to fully comprehend a reality that is beyond their reach. Our relation to God is similar to those organisms observed by the scientists, except that our finite existence is even feebler as compared to the infiniteness of the Supreme Being. We can become aware of God through His signs, but we can never comprehend the full measure of God. The reality of God is too vast to be seen directly or measured with instruments. If the cosmic veil had been lifted, the awesomeness that is God Almighty would eradicate us. The Prophet ﷺ said: > *His veil is light. If He were to remove the veil, the splendor of His countenance would consume His creation as far as can be seen*.[^73] Hence, God does not speak directly to human beings, but rather through revelations delivered to Prophets. Allah said: > *It is not granted to any mortal that God should speak to him except through revelation or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger to reveal by His command what He will: He is Exalted and Wise.*[^74] The words revealed to the Prophets—whether it was Abraham, Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon them all—have moved the world and continue to shape history, to provide comfort and guidance to millions of people all over the world. The guiding hand of the Almighty, though operating from the Unseen, is there for all to see. --- ## Conclusion The case for God’s existence in the Quran and Sunnah is straightforward, easy to comprehend, and supported by logic and sound reasoning. Conviction in faith is attained when the basic faculties of the heart and mind combine in reflection upon the facts of existence and the message of the Prophets. It does not require any special training or philosophy to arrive at the truth of theism; the evidence and arguments are accessible to all people regardless of their level of education. Such is a manifestation of the wisdom and mercy of the Creator, who created the world so that He would be known, as a stepping-stone towards the greater life to come in the Hereafter. The spiritual path does require, however, a sustained and patient effort to seek out the truth, to answer the most important existential questions, and to remove specious doubts. Yet the case will not be accepted by everyone. They will either reject the logic or posit their own explanations of the universe that do not include God. And there are even more obstacles that turn people away from faith, and from Islam specifically: the hypocrisy of some believers, trauma endured at their hands, or any number of other doubts.[^75] Knowledge of the Divine is a light that God places in the hearts of people, first and foremost, and no amount of argumentation can insert His light into the hearts of those who, for whatever reason, cannot see it. Our role as believers is to be the best examples of our faith that we can possibly be, to make the case for Islam with grace, compassion, and beautiful preaching, to offer good will to all and to pray for the guidance of those who need it. *Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Barrett, Justin L. *Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds*. (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2011), 11. [^2]: Sūrat al-‘Arāf 7:172; Abdel Haleem, M. A. *The Qur’an: English translation and parallel Arabic text*. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 174. [^3]: al-Ṭabarī. *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān ‘an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān*. Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 2000), 10:561, verse 7:172. [^4]: Hamer, Dean H. T*he God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes*. (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 6. [^5]: Sūrat al-Rūm 30:30; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 408. [^6]: Sūrat Luqmān 31:25; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 414. [^7]: Sūrat al-Zukhruf 43:87; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 496. [^8]: Sūrat al-‘Ankabūt 29:65; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 404. [^9]: Sūrat al-An’ām 6:63-64; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 136. [^10]: Sūrat al-Rūm 30:33-34; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an,* 409. [^11]: Sūrat al-Zumar 39:8; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 460. [^12]: al-Ghazzālī, ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm. *al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalā*l. al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadīthah, \[1972\]), 111. [^13]: al-Ghazzālī, *al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl*, 182. [^14]: ʻIyāḍ, \[al-Qāḍī\] Abū al-Faḍl. *al-Ilmāʻ ilā Maʻrifat Uṣūl*. al-Qāhirah: Dār at-Turāt̲h, \[1970\]), 217. [^15]: Ibn Rajab, and Muḥammad N. Ajmaī. *Bayān Faḍl ʻilm al-Salaf ʻalá ʻilm al-Khalaf*. (Bayrūt, Lubnān: Dār al-Bashāʼir al-Islāmīyah, 1995), 58. [^16]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:15-16; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 111. [^17]: Sūrat al-Ḥadīd 57:28; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 542. [^18]: Sūrat al-Ra’d 13:28; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 253. [^19]: Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:97; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 279. [^20]: Sūrat al-Fajr 89:27-30; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 595. [^21]: Sūrat al-Ḍuḥa 93:5; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 597. [^22]: Muslim, Ibn H. *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*. (\[Bayrūt\]: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Kutub al-‘Arabīyah, \[1955\]), 2:730 #1054. [^23]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:62 #34. [^24]: al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad I. *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt: Dār Ṭawq al-Najjāh, \[2002\]), 8:95. #6446. [^25]: al-Ṭabarānī, Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad, and Ḥamdī ʻAbd al-Majīd Salafī. *al-Mu’jam al-Kabīr*. (al-Qāhirah: Maktabat Ibn Taymīyah, 1994), 2:154 #1643; declared authentic (ṣaḥiḥ) by Al-Albānī in *Ṣaḥīh al-Jāmi’ al-Ṣaghīr wa Ziyādatihi* (\[Dimashq\]: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1969), 2:1289 #7816. [^26]: al-Tirmidhī, Ibn ʻĪsá. *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, 1998), 4:152 #2346; declared fair (*ḥasan*) by Al-Tirmidhī in his comments. [^27]: Ibn ‘Asākir. *Tārīkh Dimashq*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 6:303. [^28]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* 7:114 #5643. [^29]: al-Ghazzālī, *Al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl*, 185-186. [^30]: Barrett, Justin L. *Why Would Anyone Believe in God?* (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2004), 66. [^31]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī*, 2:94 #1358. [^32]: Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn. *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà*. (al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah: Majmaʻ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibāʻat al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1995), 16:328. [^33]: Barrett, *Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology*, 49. [^34]: Sūrat al-Rūm 30:8; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 406 [^35]: Sūrat al-Ṭūr 52:35-36; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 526. [^36]: Ibn Ḥajar. *Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ al-Bukhārī*. (Bayrūt, Lubnān: Dār al-Ma’rifah, 1959), 8:603. [^37]: Hacınebioğlu, İsamail L. *Does God Exist? : Logical Foundations of the Cosmological Argument*. (Istanbul: Insan, 2008), 188. [^38]: al-Bukhārī, *Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,* 6:140 #4854. [^39]: Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʻīl ibn ʻUmar. *Tafsīr al-Qurān al-‘Aẓīm*. (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 7:406, verse 52:35. [^40]: Ibn Abī al-‘Izz, and Aḥmad al-Ṭaḥāwī. *Sharḥ al-‘Aqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyah*. (Bayrūt: Muʼassasat al-Risālah, 1997), 1:36. [^41]: Ibn al-Qayyim. *Miftāḥ Dār al-Sa’ādah wa Manshūr Wilāyat al-‘Ilm wa al-Idārah*. (Bayrūt, Lubnān : Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2002), 1:214. [^42]: “Newton’s Laws of Motion.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Accessed 23 December 2016. www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/newton.html. [^43]: “Big Bang Cosmology.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Accessed 23 December 2016. map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb\_theory.html. [^44]: Leibniz, Gottfried W, Roger Ariew, and Daniel Garber. *Philosophical Essays*. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989), 149-150. [^45]: Overman, Dean L. *A Case for the Existence of God*. (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 40. [^46]: Hanby, Michael. *No God, No Science?: Theology, Cosmology, Biology*. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 212. [^47]: Sūrat ‘Āli ‘Imrān 3:190-191; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 76. [^48]: Sacks, Jonathan. *The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning*. (New York: Schocken Books, 2011), 1. [^49]: Ibn Abī Shaybah. *Al-Muṣannaf*. (Riyādh: Maktabat al-Rushd Nāshirūn, 2006), 5:266 #25942. [^50]: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:164; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 26. [^51]: Sūrat al-Rūm 30:20-24; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 407. [^52]: Sūrat al-R’ad 13:4; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 250. [^53]: Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:12; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 269. [^54]: Sūrat Fuṣṣilat 41:53; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 483. [^55]: Ibn Taymiyyah, *Majmū’ al-Fatāwà*, 1:48. [^56]: Ibn Kathīr. *Tafsīr al-Qurān al-‘Aẓīm*, 106. [^57]: Ibid., 106-107. [^58]: Ibid., 107. [^59]: Ibid., 106. [^60]: Ibid., 107. [^61]: Ibid., 1:107. [^62]: Sūrat al-Anbiyā’ 21:22; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 324. [^63]: Overman, *A case for the existence of God*, 42. [^64]: Murray, Michael J (ed.). *Reason for the Hope Within*. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: W.B. Eerdmans, 1999), 49. [^65]: Manson, Neil A. *God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science*. (London: Routledge, 2003), 179-190. [^66]: Wood, W J. *God*. (Durham: Acumen, 2011), 29. [^67]: Flew, Antony. *God & Philosophy*. (New York: Prometheus Books, 2005), 11. [^68]: Sūrat al-Jāthiyah 45:24; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 502. [^69]: al-Ṭabarī, *Jāmiʻ al-Bayān*, 22:80. [^70]: Bingham, John. “Richard Dawkins: I can’t be sure God does not exist.” *The Telegraph*. Accessed 23 December 2016. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9102740/Richard-Dawkins-I-cant-be-sure-God-does-not-exist.html. [^71]: Sūrat al-Furqān 25:21; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 363. [^72]: Sūrat al-Anām 6:91; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 140. [^73]: Muslim, *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, 1:161 #179. [^74]: Sūrat al-Shūrā 42:51; Abdel Haleem, *The Qur’an*, 489. [^75]: Youssef Chouhoud, “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam.” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. Accessed 23 December 2016. www.yaqeeninstitute.org/publications/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/ ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful Knowledge of God's existence is often taken for granted by the believer, for the authentic religious experience renews itself daily in a Muslim's life until faith feels natural and assumed. Yet belief in God is not always an easy matter, especially in an environment where faith is mocked as superstition or wishful thinking. In the Islamic tradition, however, the case for God's existence rests upon solid rational foundations while also giving purpose, meaning, comfort, and guidance to life. The Qur'an inspires conviction by appealing at once to the heart and the mind, so that intuition and experience labor alongside logic and reason until the servant arrives at certainty. This is affirmed even by modern findings; the cognitive scientist Justin Barrett has shown that beliefs are formed in two ways: non-reflective, intuitive beliefs arising from experience, and reflective, conscious beliefs arising from thought. The Qur'an and Sunnah likewise address both faculties—the heart through intuition, and the mind through rational reflection. The first path is that of natural instinct, the *fiṭrat Allāh*. Human beings sense the existence of a higher power by pure instinct, with or without a prophet to guide them, and expressions of this awareness have appeared across peoples separated by time and place. This is because Allah took a primordial covenant with every soul, as He said, "[Prophet], when your Lord took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, 'Am I not your Lord?' and they replied, 'Yes, we bear witness.'" Al-Suddī (d. 745) commented that, for this reason, there is no one upon the earth but that he knows his Lord is Allah, and none associates partners with Him except that he excuses himself by the religion of his forefathers. This inborn disposition Allah calls *fiṭrat Allāh*, saying, "This is the natural disposition God instilled in mankind—there is no altering God's creation—and this is the right religion, though most people do not realize it." Even the polytheists, when asked who created the heavens and the earth, "are sure to say, 'God.'" This instinct reveals itself most plainly in times of danger, when every soul turns to its Lord. Allah described those who, upon boarding a ship, "call on God, and dedicate their faith to Him alone," only to ascribe partners to Him once returned safely to land. Al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), in his autobiography, described this innate longing as a "thirst" that must be quenched, an emptiness in the heart that seeks meaning, and he taught that beyond reason lies another level "that opens another eye by which one gains insight into the Unseen." Thus knowledge of God resides primarily in the heart and is only reinforced by reason. For this the early scholars defined knowledge as a light: Imām Mālik (d. 795) said, "Knowledge is not knowing many sayings. Verily, knowledge is only a light that Allah places in the hearts," and Ibn Rajab (d. 1393) echoed that it is "a light that Allah places in the heart by which a servant understands the truth." This light is tasted in the peace and contentment that the believer finds in Islam. Allah said, "Truly, it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace," and He promised a "good life" to whoever does good deeds and has faith. This is not a promise of freedom from trial, for the believer will surely be tested, but a promise of stable contentment. The Prophet ﷺ said, "He has succeeded who embraces Islam, whose provision is sufficient, and who is content with what Allah has given him," and he described the "sweetness of faith" as belonging to the one "who is content with Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his prophet." True wealth, he taught, "is the richness of the soul," for "whoever is wealthy in his heart will not be harmed no matter what happens in the world." The early Muslims used to say, "If the kings of the world and their sons knew what we have of blessings and happiness, they would fight us for it with their swords." By contrast, the Prophet ﷺ likened the believer to a resilient crop that withstands the wind, and the hypocrite to a rigid cedar that "does not budge until it is uprooted." Al-Ghazālī observed that when a person experiences the fruits of the Prophet's teaching thousands of times over, he attains a knowledge in which there is no doubt, and cognitive scientists confirm that the very intensity of such experiences makes them unforgettable. Yet not everyone preserves this instinct, for human nature may be corrupted. The Prophet ﷺ said, "No one is born except upon natural instinct. Then his parents turn him into a Jew or a Christian or a Magian." When the *fiṭrah* is corrupted, logical argument may be needed to restore a person to it. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) explained that recognition of the Creator is a fundamental instinct, "even though some people have done something to corrupt their nature such that they need an argument to achieve knowledge of God." So reflection upon the Qur'an builds upon the intuitions of the heart by appealing to the mind. The second path, then, is that of reason. The Qur'an addresses the question of existence through a cosmological discourse. Allah said, "Have they not thought about their own selves? God did not create the heavens and earth and everything between them without a serious purpose." And He posed three possibilities: "Were they created out of nothing? Were they the creators? Did they create the heavens and the earth?" Ibn Ḥajar (d. 1449), quoting al-Khaṭṭābī, explained that a thing cannot arise without a creator, nor can it create itself, so it follows necessarily that it was created. Scholars derived from such verses the cosmological argument, summarized by İsmail Latif Hacınebioğlu: everything that begins has a cause; the universe began; therefore its beginning was caused; and the only such cause is an uncaused cause, namely God. Jubair ibn Muṭ'im (d. 677) reported that when he heard the Prophet ﷺ recite this passage, "My heart was about to fly," and he embraced Islam. Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 767) silenced skeptics by asking whether a ship could sail, load, and unload itself upon the Tigris without any manager, and if impossible for a ship, then how for the whole vast world? Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) gave the like example of a watermill tending a garden by itself. Even Newton's first law of motion, that objects do not change their state save by an external force, agrees. Against those who posit an infinite regression, Leibniz (d. 1716) argued with the example of an eternally copied book that still requires a sufficient reason beyond the world, and Don Page likened the universe to a circle that, though without beginning or end, still requires an artist to draw it. The Qur'an complements this with a teleological discourse, drawing attention to the signs (*āyāt*) of design. Allah called those with understanding to reflect upon "the creation of the heavens and earth," and He repeatedly cited the alternation of night and day, the ships, the rain, the spouses created for tranquility, and the diversity of languages and colors as "signs for those who use their reason." Reason is thus an Islamic virtue, and Abu al-'Alā said, "A worshipper is given nothing better after Islam than to be provided with a sound mind." Ibn Taymiyyah held that affirming the Creator through His signs is the strongest method, superior to the abstract arguments of Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037) and al-Rāzī (d. 1210), which he judged weak or ineffective. When the great Imāms were asked how they knew their Lord, they pointed to these signs: Mālik cited the varied languages and voices; al-Shāfi'ī cited the single leaf that yields silk, honey, milk, and musk; and Aḥmad (d. 855) cited the chick emerging from its sealed egg. A Bedouin said simply, "The camel's droppings testify to the existence of the camel... does not all of this testify to the existence of the Kind, the Knowing?" Ibn al-Mu'taz (d. 908) versified that "in everything there is a sign, to show that He is One." And Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) affirmed that the verses to this effect are exceedingly plentiful. That there is but one Creator is shown by the unity of the cosmic order, for Allah said, "If there had been in the heavens or earth any gods but Him, both heavens and earth would be in ruins." Modern science, which itself presupposes uniform laws, reinforces this. Paul Davies observed that to say the laws of physics exist without reason "is deeply anti-rational." Robin Collins detailed the fine-tuning of the universe—the cosmological constant, the nuclear and electromagnetic forces, carbon production, the proton-neutron mass difference, gravity—noting that a variance of one part in 10⁶⁰ in the big bang would have precluded life. The former atheist Antony Flew, after fifty years of opposition, concluded that an intelligence must account for the universe, granting that fine-tuning offers "substantial confirmation" to the believer. The real superstition, then, may be the dogma that the universe is a purposeless accident, of which Allah said, "They have no knowledge of this: they only follow guesswork." Al-Ṭabarī explained they possess no certain knowledge, only assumption. Even Richard Dawkins conceded he could not be sure God does not exist. Finally, to the objection that God cannot be seen, the answer is that He exists beyond the veil in the Unseen (*al-ghayb*), inferred through His signs as the wind is known by the moving trees. This excuse is old, for the arrogant said, "Why can we not see our Lord?" As microbes cannot perceive the scientist observing them, so our finite selves cannot comprehend the Infinite. The Prophet ﷺ said, "His veil is light. If He were to remove the veil, the splendor of His countenance would consume His creation as far as can be seen." Therefore Allah addresses mankind through revelation, "except through revelation or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger." In sum, the case for God's existence in the Qur'an and Sunnah is straightforward, accessible to all without special training, uniting the faculties of heart and mind in reflection—a mercy of the Creator who made the world that He might be known. Yet it will not be accepted by all, for some reject the logic, and others are turned away by doubts or by the hypocrisy and harm of some who claim faith. Knowledge of the Divine is ultimately a light Allah places in the heart, which no argument can insert where He has not willed it. The believer's role is to embody his faith beautifully, to call with grace and good counsel, and to pray for the guidance of others. Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best. ## Key Takeaways 1. Belief in Allah is both natural and rational, rooted in a harmony between the heart and the mind. The Qur’an and Sunnah guides believers to recognize the truth through a two-fold appeal: (1) to the heart, intuition, and reflection and (2) to the mind, reason, and logic. 2. The fitra is the natural disposition all humans possess toward the knowledge of Allah. This instinct becomes evident in moments of hardship or desperation, when even those who deny God, turn inward, seeking the One beyond themselves. It is the voice within that calls humanity back to its Creator, reminding every soul of its original covenant and purpose: “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified” (Q 7:172). 3. The Qur’an and Sunnah strengthen this natural recognition through reason and logic. Allah calls humanity to think about creation: “Were they created by nothing, or were they the creators \[of themselves\]? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain” (Q 52:35–36). The Qur’an invites observation: “Do they not look at the camels—how they are created? And at the sky—how it is raised?” (Q 88:17–18). The impossibility of something arising from nothing and the clear order within the universe point to a Creator who is perfect in wisdom, knowledge, and power. 4. Faith in Allah and true understanding of Him nurtures inner tranquility and fulfillment. Through remembrance (*dhikr*), the believer finds contentment and purpose—the greatest proof for the existence of God—as faith and reason align in harmony. Forgetting Allah leads to emptiness, while knowing Him revives the heart and guides it toward certainty and peace: “Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured” (Q 13:28). --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-and-the-secular-age-between-certainty-and-uncertainty # Islam and the Secular Age: Between Certainty and Uncertainty **Author:** Dr. Khalil Abdurrashid **Topics:** Contemporary Ideologies, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 20, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Introduction Modernity was birthed in violence. It produced the nation-state, nationalism and with it a myriad of other “isms” which serve as new idols or heroes competing for people’s allegiances. Liberalism, feminism, Marxism, individualism, atheism, agnosticism, extremism, communism, capitalism, socialism, fascism, totalitarianism, racism - all competing ideologies which attempt to answer the question of what does it mean to be human and accordingly how should we live. The quest for human fulfillment is expressed partly in these competing “isms” which themselves are the results of schisms that were produced when the old world, also termed the pre-modern world, was replaced with the new, modern world. In the West, the search for the answer of what it means to be human began in the mid-17th century with the re-formulation of the Greco-Christian understanding of the human being, the soul, the world, and God. George Makari articulates the context quite eloquently and is worth quoting at length: Later when ancient Greek thought merged with the Christianity of the Church Fathers, a soul-based view of human nature became one of the ruling conceptions of Western belief. In Christendom, the soul was the “knot of the universe,” the unifying link between nature, man, and God, and the single most prized human attribute. By the mid-17th century, however, these same beliefs were seen as a rich source of corruption, unceasing strife, terrorism, and cruelty of vast dimensions. For decades, Christian sects waged war with each other over competing claims regarding the soul and its salvation...While the soul and the psyche were once understood to be synonymous, some thinkers now advanced a radical idea. What if the mind was not so much spirit as it was bodily? What if thinking matter existed within human flesh. An object, this mind would still somehow house human subjectivity. Endowed by God, it still would be material, and therefore sicken and die...Once modernity gave birth to the theory of an embodied mind, the implications were grave. If it wasn’t the soul but rather a fallible mind that made men and women think, choose, and act as they did, then long-standing beliefs were erroneous. Convictions regarding truth and illusion, innocence and guilt, health and illness, the rulers and the ruled and the roles of the individual in society would need to change.[^1] The last sentence is where I want to begin because the Enlightenment’s embodied mind theory not only led to the jettisoning of the soul and the rest of the transcendent world, but also a loss of convictions about truth and everything else. A climate of doubt and uncertainty prevailed and as a result humanity entered into a new era called the Secular Age. Secularism was therefore the first product of modernity and the Enlightenment. --- ## Understanding the Secular Age If we carefully understand what the Secular Age is, then I believe we take one step closer to understanding exactly how it is that, although our Muslim predecessors before modernity possessed less knowledge about the material universe and resources than us, they had more conviction about their faith and deen, which enabled them to establish and leave a legacy of a profound civilization; and why, despite our currently having more knowledge and resources, we are plagued with less conviction about ourselves and our faith, and therefore contribute less to our communities and to civilization as a whole. Most people understand secularity to mean different things. In Europe, the word “secular” indicates state control of religion and religious institutions. In the US, however, secularity indicates merely the separation of church and state. But this does not help us in comprehending what secularity exactly is. When we state that we live in a secular age or a secular time, what does that mean? It’s helpful to consult Charles Taylor for a penetrating answer to this question. He indicates three components that comprise the secular age we live in. The first is that our public spaces have become stripped of any and all references to an ultimate or transcendent reality. This has produced devastating consequences for Muslims in particular and people of faith in general. In pre-modern societies, Muslim civilizations contained public spaces where seeking fulfillment beyond immediate human gratification was normal; where living meant being immersed in social, economic, political, and intellectual conditions that were conducive to a moral and spiritual life, and not simply theories that were subject to yearly and quarterly revisions. In those societies, people were actively and constantly engaged in the reinforcement of certainty in a moral and spiritual worldview that was externalized into various concrete manifestations such as art, architecture, clothes, motifs, literature, poetry, and even to a certain extent, music. Living with an active reference to God and the transcendent realm existed as a framework or a condition for living for which there was no real alternative. Secularity has evicted God and any reference to Him or any ultimate reality for that matter, from all public spaces. As Taylor points out, whereas the political organization of all pre-modern societies was in some way connected to, based on, guaranteed based on some faith in, or adherence to God, or some notion of ultimate reality, the modern Western state is free from this connection...Or taken from another side, as we function within various spheres of activity - economic, political, cultural, educational, professional, recreational - the norms and principles we follow, the deliberations we engage in, generally don’t refer us to God or to any religious beliefs; the considerations we act on are internal to the “rationality” of each sphere - maximum gain within the economy, the greatest benefit to the greatest number in the political arena, and so on.[^2] Spaces and even time become stripped of the sacredness that for millennia had functioned as a reminder of the life to come. Because of this, the Secular Age is one in which humanity no longer searches for fulfillment outside of this world or beyond the human condition. Humanism itself is the locus of the search for meaning and goals. All drive and pleasures are reduced to the Quranic concept of the self and its whims, the nafs and the hawa. The second component of secularity is an overall decline in belief in God and in religious practice among believers themselves. This phenomenon is a consequence of the first component. Belief itself has become subject to scrutiny in the “rational” sense and as a result it becomes juxtaposed with disbelief not only in theory but in practice. This does not mean that there were no disbelievers in pre-modern Muslim societies. It means simply that disbelief in Muslim societies in the past was not normalized at all. I am using disbelief here to indicate not diversity in faith, but the rejection of the notion of God or a transcendent, ultimate reality. Even in Western Europe, there was no conception of atheism until the 17th century. It was inconceivable in pre-modern Europe that someone would not believe in God. In the Secular Age, belief and disbelief in God not only is equally conceivable but equally acceptable. The mass acceptability in society of unbelief and of uncertainty of belief is normalized now. The Secular Age produces so many viable options for what it means to be human that Muslims themselves have accepted the multiplicity of options rather than questioning the options. Our engagement in a multiplicity of manners of thinking and being have pulled us into doubt. There are so many alternatives that certainty (yaqeen) in belief is no longer a given. We doubt certainty even exists because the majority of people are uncertain and appear perfectly happy living in conditions of doubt. Enter component three of the secular age: new conditions of belief. This final ingredient is the presence of this doubt coming home to roost. Secularity involves living under conditions where doubt is the norm, and because it is normalized it becomes acceptable and okay. As Muslims, since the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) from Mecca to Medina to just after World War I, we have always been a people who have lived in a society where belief in God was never seriously challenged. Now, there are few places on earth where that is the case. Faith in a higher power has simply become one of many possibilities. This phenomenon has been called the Nova Effect.[^3] Because the Secular Age has ushered in the equalization of the polar opposites of orthodoxy and disbelief, a multiplicity of other options have emerged to fill in the gap. I like to illustrate this with the analogy of going to the grocery store to buy cereal. In the past, there were simply two to three options of cereal. Today, in all grocery stores, there are so many options for cereal that all stores now have entire aisles for cereals. When you walk down the aisle and examine the options, the presence of literally dozens (and hundreds if you add the family sizes and small packs) of options is enough to either keep you dazed and confused for minutes on end, or to turn you off to the point where you walk away. Our predecessors would be horrified to find that the Secular Age has complicated things that used to be insignificant such as what to eat for breakfast. Insignificant matters have become so complicated that we are conditioned to reject simple submission to and acceptance of divine authority. The Nova Effect pushes us to explore new things based on the myriad of alternatives before us and thus the level of certainty behind the correctness of our choices is reduced. --- ## The Quest for Certainty in what it Means to be Human So what does all of this mean for the condition of Muslims living in a Secular Age? First, it means that we live without constant societal reminders of, or references to, God. Second, we live under social conditions where belief and unbelief are considered equal rivals, and this affects not only us, but the next generation. Third, the Nova Effect means that more and more options for alternative lifestyles that claim to provide a fulfilling life for the human being become available. The answer to what it means to be human and how to live accordingly become “all or any of the above” instead of merely “option a, b, or c.” We as Muslims live under different conditions from our predecessors. The difference between pre-modernity and modernity involves differences in not only the questions we ask but how and under what conditions they are asked. We ask moral questions just as our predecessors did, but the kinds of moral questions we ask are different because of the conditions that give rise to the questions push us to cast doubt on the answer even before that answer is produced. Yet there is a solution to this apparent malaise. The solution is to ignore the options and search for certainty itself. In the first revelation of the Quran, we are informed of the paradigmatic state of the human being as one who learns - a prerequisite to exiting doubt. The Quran says, “He taught man that which he did not know.”[^4] The Prophet peace and blessings be upon him said, “Leave that which makes you doubt, for that which does not make you doubt.”[^5] Doubt, termed shakk in Arabic, is a stage that is two steps away from certainty in Islam. When one leaves doubt, one then enters into the stage of belief (zann). This is a thorny area because belief may or may not be properly justified. As belief increases in intensity it becomes conviction (ghalabat zann). Conviction is mathematically described by some scholars as being between 75-98% sure about the validity of one’s belief. When one reaches 99%, certainty (yaqeen) is achieved. Reference to certainty appears in three different ways in the Quran. The first is certainty based upon knowledge and learning. This is termed in the Quran, ilm al-yaqeen.[^6] Learning involves accurate conceptualization of and proper judgment about a thing. In order to accomplish this, we need to ensure that we understand and define the relevant constructs properly, a feature that is normally the central facet in any course on Aristotelian logic. The ability to properly conceptualize concepts leads to our ability to precisely define terminology, and this in turn enhances our ability to speak and formulate propositions and thereby reason correctly. This is central to knowing and understanding. We live in an era now in which the Nova Effect has produced so much uncertainty and doubt to the point where many no longer understand and reason. Essentially, we have become a society that no longer “knows” anymore. The Secular Age has conditioned us to think differently. Consequently, achieving certainty becomes a tall order of business. The second form of certainty is based upon observation and is called in the Quran, ayn al-yaqeen.[^7] This level of certainty arises from a high degree of conviction that emerges from witnessing a phenomenon. The overwhelming majority of sensory input is visual. Witnessing phenomena facilitates conviction in their validity or reality. However, if the environment and phenomena that we witness on a daily basis, such as architectural structures, social media, and even art are bereft of sacred references then we reduce ourselves to a certainty in only material phenomena. Furthermore, the problem is that the understanding of reality is actually undermined because in the Secular Age we have now become so skeptical that we scrutinize even our witnessing of things to such an extent that we lose any conviction about having witnessed something in the first place. Therefore, nothing but doubt remains and reigns. This goes back to the damage done by the Secular Age in taking references to God and the transcendent realm out of public spaces. It de-facilitates certainty based upon witnessing spectacular events. The third form of certainty in Quranic terms is haqq ul-yaqeen.[^8] This refers to certainty that arises as a result of personal experience. Our experiences have drastically shifted from those of our predecessors. The Secular Age has altered our reliance on spiritual and in many cases interpersonal and natural experiences. We go to see a horror movie to get scared because we crave the artificiality of a horror film. But people who believe in possession and Jinn don’t need to watch movies about paranormal activity. We struggle and even travel to obtain the simplest experiences that were daily phenomena for our pre-modern predecessors. We are cut off and detached from spiritual experiences and have traded them for rationalized routine. What’s worse is that we have accepted this condition of affairs of depriving ourselves from experiencing what is beyond this temporal life. We are content in living life to the fullest extent materially but not experiencing its spiritual depths. The Secular Age is an age in which self-sufficient humanism, defined by frequently shifting standards, is enough. This means that there has actually been a shift in the object of experience. The Secular Age no longer wants people to engage in spiritual, transcendental, profoundly intellectual experiences. The object of experience now is the human person herself. It’s a radicalized version of individualism. Not only am I concerned with me, but only the trinity of me, myself and I alone can suffice me. It is the ultimate inversion of the Islamic eschatological system: I reward myself and I punish myself. Life is essentially about me ascending into higher degrees of pleasing myself and finding comfort in myself - nothing outside of me matters anymore. Self-sufficing humanism not only is an option in the Secular Age, but it is a widely available and arguably the dominant option. Any goal or objective beyond human flourishing becomes very difficult to conceptualize. This shifts the goal away from certainty to something entirely uncertain, for the self is prone to instability. We are now living in an age where these three forms of Quranic certainty have been eroded and this begs the following questions: How can we reclaim certainty and its forms, as articulated in the Quran, in the Secular Age? What are the possibilities and impossibilities of certain kinds of experiences in the Secular Age? --- ## Islam and the Bulwarks of Certainty Certainty is mentioned twenty-seven times in the Quran. The Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him, and by extension his followers, are urged in the Quran to “worship your Lord until what is certain (al-yaqeen) comes to you.”[^9]What is certain, in this verse, indicates two things, according to scholars of Quranic exegesis.[^10] The first indication is death.[^11] Death is the ultimate answer for what it means to be human. For no matter what we build and what we do, we must all deal with death in general and individually we will all pass away. Therefore, the initial meaning is to be consistent believers and hold on steadfast to your principles, your practices and your convictions throughout your encounters with the deaths of others and until we ourselves pass away. The second indication in the verse is certainty itself.[^12] This means that the role of constant ritual worship (ibada) in Islam on a daily basis is to facilitate and reinforce certainty in all its forms. First, we must learn how to perform ritual worship, what validates it, what invalidates it, how we may improve upon the quality of our ritual performances, and the like. We must also learn about Who it is we are worshipping and why; what exactly it is that differentiates God from the world, and what the last revelation has to say about all of this. This facilitates certainty at one level. Then we must practice what we learn and witness others practice as well. This will bring about our witnessing a level of our own conviction and that of others that will inspire us as well, thereby facilitating certainty in witnessing spectacular events. --- ## Conclusion The Secular Age has shifted the focus from the afterlife to this present life. Al-Attas analyzes this shift very nicely, as he explains, The term secular, from the Latin saeculum, conveys a meaning with a marked dual connotation of time and location; the time referring to the “now” or “present” sense of it, and the location to the “world” or “worldly” sense of it. Thus saeculum means “this age” or “the present time,” and this age or the present time refers to events in this world and it also then means “contemporary events.” Secularization is defined as the deliverance of man first from religious and then from metaphysical control over his reason and his language. Secularization encompasses not only the political and social aspects of life, but also inevitably the cultural, for it denotes the disappearance of religious determination of the symbols of cultural configuration.[^13] This last sentence is important for us to reflect on. The effect of secularism being cultural means that it affects change in values that are constructs that define good and evil; that it affects identity and symbols; and that language itself is affected as well as our understanding of gender roles and now even of gender. Yet in addition to all of these, what is most serious is that consciousness itself is affected. American Muslims have a different notion from our predecessors of what it means to be Muslim. All of this is rooted in the fact that there has been a dramatic shift causing a change in the conditions of belief. Public spaces, a decline in belief and practice, and new conditions governing belief have contributed to our inward turn to humanism in order to navigate the numerous choices that currently exist which have slowly eroded our sense of confidence in faith and religion to determine our values for us. The principles by which we determine what to believe or do must in the end, so it is often held, be principles of our own making. Once the Enlightenment has undergone the notion that they are imposed on us by a higher-being, and the Scientific Revolution shown that they cannot be read off the fabric of the world, which is now seen to be normatively mute and devoid of directives, the conclusion appears inescapable that we alone must be their sources. The authority of any principle of thought and action is an authority we bestow upon it ourselves.[^14] Because we rely on ourselves, we doubt more and certainty becomes more distant. Certainty is achieved through knowledge acquired from learning, not through sound bites, gossip, and rhetoric. Certainty is enhanced by proper religious practice, not from an idiosyncratic posture of disengaged-inclusion. Certainty reaches its zenith with truly profound, reflective, transcendental experiences, not episodic encounters with others on social media and productions of fiction. These forms of certainty and the pursuit of certainty itself must endure, until our certainty meets what is ultimately certain about our existence - its end. --- ## Notes [^1]: Makari, George, Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2015, pg. xii-xiii. [^2]: Taylor, Charles, A Secular Age, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2007, pg. 1-2. [^3]: Ibid, pg. 302. [^4]: Quran 96:5. [^5]: Nawawi, The Complete 40 Hadith, London, 1998, Hadith 11. [^6]: Quran 102:5. [^7]: Quran 102:.7 [^8]: Quran 56:95 [^9]: Quran 15:99 [^10]: See the two views in Tafsir al-Tabari and al-Bahr al-Madid (Ibn Ajiba). [^11]: Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Al-Jami al-Bayan fi Ta’weel al-Quran, Beirut, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, vol. 7, 1971, pg. 554. [^12]: Ibn Ajiba, Al-Bahr al-Madid, Beirut, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2005, vol. 3, pg. 414. [^13]: Al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, Islam and Secularism, IBFIM, Kuala Lumpur, 2014, pg.17. [^14]: Larmore, Charles, The Autonomy of Morality, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008, pg. 1 ## Summary The human quest to answer what it means to be human has, in the modern age, splintered into countless competing ideologies—liberalism, Marxism, individualism, atheism, and many others—each vying for our allegiance in the manner of idols. These "isms" are the offspring of a great rupture that occurred when the pre-modern world gave way to modernity. As George Makari explains, in the older Greco-Christian synthesis the soul was regarded as "the knot of the universe," the binding link between nature, humanity, and God. Yet by the mid-seventeenth century, thinkers began to propose that the mind was not spirit but embodied matter, and the grave implication of this "embodied mind" theory was the abandonment of the soul and the entire transcendent order. As Makari observes, once such a shift occurred, "convictions regarding truth and illusion, innocence and guilt, health and illness" all had to change. From this collapse of conviction emerged a climate of doubt, and thus was born the first fruit of modernity and the Enlightenment: secularism. To grasp what secularism truly is helps explain a puzzling reality: our predecessors before modernity possessed less material knowledge and fewer resources than we do, yet they held greater conviction in their faith and built a profound civilization, whereas we, despite our abundance of knowledge and resources, suffer from diminished conviction and contribute less to our communities. Drawing on Charles Taylor, the Secular Age may be understood through three components. The first is that public spaces have been stripped of all reference to any ultimate or transcendent reality. In pre-modern Muslim civilizations, living meant being immersed in social, economic, political, and intellectual conditions oriented toward moral and spiritual life, externalized in art, architecture, dress, poetry, and literature. Taylor notes that whereas every pre-modern polity was grounded in some notion of God or ultimate reality, the modern Western state functions by norms "internal to the 'rationality' of each sphere"—maximum gain in the economy, the greatest benefit to the greatest number in politics—without reference to God. In such an age, humanity no longer seeks fulfillment beyond this world, and all drives are reduced to what the Qur'an calls the nafs and the hawa, the self and its whims. The second component is a general decline in belief in God and in religious practice even among believers, a consequence of the first. This does not mean disbelievers did not exist among pre-modern Muslims, but that disbelief was not normalized; even in Western Europe, atheism was scarcely conceivable before the seventeenth century. In the Secular Age, belief and disbelief have become equally conceivable and equally acceptable, and the sheer multiplicity of options for what it means to be human has drawn even Muslims into doubt, so that certainty (yaqeen) in belief is no longer a given. The third component follows: new conditions of belief, in which doubt itself becomes the norm and is thereby rendered acceptable. From the Prophet's migration from Mecca to Medina until just after the First World War, Muslims lived where belief in God was never seriously challenged; now few such places remain. This proliferation of alternatives is what has been termed the Nova Effect. The condition may be likened to standing before a grocery aisle once holding two or three kinds of cereal, now crowded with dozens of choices—an overabundance that leaves one dazed or drives one away, conditioning us to reject simple submission to divine authority. What does this mean for the Muslim? We live without constant societal reminders of God, under conditions where belief and unbelief are treated as equal rivals, and amid an ever-widening array of lifestyles each promising fulfillment. We still ask moral questions as our predecessors did, but the conditions surrounding those questions push us to doubt the answer before it is even given. The remedy is to ignore the multiplicity of options and instead seek certainty itself. The very first revelation of the Qur'an presents the human being as one who learns, which is the prerequisite for departing from doubt: "He taught man that which he did not know." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Leave that which makes you doubt, for that which does not make you doubt." Doubt (shakk) stands two stages from certainty; leaving it, one enters belief (zann), which may or may not be justified, and as belief intensifies it becomes conviction (ghalabat al-zann), described by some scholars as between seventy-five and ninety-eight percent surety, until at ninety-nine percent one attains certainty (yaqeen). Certainty appears in the Qur'an in three forms. The first is 'ilm al-yaqeen, certainty grounded in knowledge and learning, which requires accurate conceptualization and sound judgment—the ability to define terms precisely and reason correctly, a central concern of Aristotelian logic. The Nova Effect has produced such doubt that many no longer genuinely "know." The second is 'ayn al-yaqeen, certainty born of witnessing, for the overwhelming majority of sensory input is visual; yet when the structures, media, and art we witness daily are emptied of sacred reference, we are reduced to certainty in material phenomena alone, and our skepticism grows so severe that we doubt even what we have seen. The third is haqq al-yaqeen, certainty arising from personal experience. Our experiences have shifted drastically: we seek artificial fright in horror films, whereas those who believe in possession and the Jinn have no such need. We have traded spiritual experience for rationalized routine, content to live fully in material terms while neglecting life's spiritual depths. The object of experience itself has changed, becoming the self in a radicalized individualism—an inversion of the Islamic eschatological order, wherein one imagines rewarding and punishing oneself, and self-sufficing humanism becomes the dominant option, making any goal beyond human flourishing difficult to conceive. Certainty is mentioned twenty-seven times in the Qur'an. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and by extension his followers, are commanded to "worship your Lord until what is certain (al-yaqeen) comes to you." According to scholars of Qur'anic exegesis, "what is certain" here indicates two things. The first is death, the ultimate answer to what it means to be human, so that the believer is to remain steadfast in principle, practice, and conviction through the deaths of others until his own passing. The second is certainty itself, meaning that daily ritual worship ('ibada) serves to facilitate and reinforce certainty in all its forms: through learning how to worship and Whom we worship, certainty of knowledge is nurtured; through practicing and witnessing the conviction of ourselves and others, certainty of witnessing is inspired. Al-Attas illuminates the underlying shift, explaining that the term secular derives from the Latin saeculum, carrying a dual connotation of time and place—"this age" and "this world"—and that secularization is "the deliverance of man first from religious and then from metaphysical control over his reason and his language," extending even to the cultural sphere as "the disappearance of religious determination of the symbols of cultural configuration." This cultural reach means that our values, identity, symbols, language, and even our understanding of gender are altered, and most gravely, consciousness itself, so that Muslims today conceive of being Muslim differently than their predecessors. As has been observed, once the Enlightenment rejected principles imposed by a higher being and the Scientific Revolution rendered the world "normatively mute," the conclusion appeared inescapable that "we alone must be their sources"—and because we thus rely upon ourselves, we doubt more and certainty recedes further. Certainty is achieved through knowledge gained by learning, not through sound bites and rhetoric; it is enhanced by proper religious practice, not by disengaged half-belonging; and it reaches its height through profound, reflective, transcendental experience, not through fleeting encounters on social media or fiction. These forms of certainty, and the pursuit of certainty itself, must endure until our certainty meets what is ultimately certain about our existence—its end. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/religious-minorities-under-muslim-rule # Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule **Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek **Topics:** History, Islamic Civilization **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 8, 2017 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 *Religious minorities are often depicted as oppressed and vulnerable victims of their Muslim rulers. This portrayal, however, is far from accurate. This brief paper seeks to reorient our understanding of the rights and responsibilities that religious minorities possessed under Muslim rule.* --- ## Introduction In January of 2016, scholars from around the world gathered in Marrakesh, Morocco to discuss a very pressing concern: the status of religious minorities in Muslim-majority lands.[^1] This issue has emerged to the forefront of international concerns thanks to the mortifying actions of ISIS, who have sought to kill, enslave, and exile others based on religious differences.[^2] Over two hundred and fifty scholars, as a result, committed to attending the conference in order to re-establish environments of religious tolerance and peace. To do so, they returned to the basis of legal and historical texts – primarily the Charter of Medina that was contracted by the Prophet ﷺ between Muslims and other religious groups after he migrated to the city of Medina. These leaders from over one hundred and twenty countries and a wide variety of backgrounds concluded their conference with an official statement known as the *Marrakesh Declaration*, which denounced all forms of bigotry and intolerance and called for a commitment to the principles of justice, freedom, and equality for all. Historical and legal texts spanning centuries have debated issues related to non-Muslim minorities. Modern scholarship has swung in both directions, with some academics such as Bat Yeʾor denouncing Islam as an oppressive religion that incites intolerance, and others such as Milka Levy-Rubin arguing that the agreements contracted by the early Muslims with minorities were far more progressive than the precedents set by their neighbors.[^3] Despite their contrasting viewpoints, these conversations are important in shaping the type of paradigm that can accommodate relations with religious minorities today. This paper is not intended to highlight all of the legalities related to religious minorities, nor does it seek to defend the actions of Muslims or non-Muslims in regard to religious minorities; rather, it seeks to provide an overview of the topic at hand through contextualization. As this paper will demonstrate, there are varying scholarly opinions in addition to political, social, and economic circumstances that affect the discourse on religious minorities, making it nearly impossible to examine all of the factors in one book, let alone a single paper. Providing context to this discussion, however, will lead to a greater understanding of the topic as a whole and hopefully will provide resources that will clarify particular questionable instances that one may come across. --- ## The Protected People To begin, we need to first grasp the basic terminology relevant to the study of religious minorities. Religious minorities are known as *dhimmīs*, short for *ahl al-dhimmah*, or people of the *dhimmah*, a term that later became synonymous with the People of the Book.[^4] The original meaning of *al-dhimmah*, however, meant protection, and it was often short for *dhimmat–Allah wa-rasūlih*, or the “protection of God and His Prophet.”[^5] In short, the concept originally had a divine connotation, or a meaning that was directly related to the power of God. However, the concept soon morphed into a technical legal term with the progression of classical scholarship, and it consequently lost its transcendent dimension.[^6] As a result, *ahl al-dhimmah*, or people of the *dhimmah*, has become a legal term and not a reference to the recipients of divine protection. It is important to discuss the etymology of the word because it demonstrates the significance of the people of the *dhimmah* who, at the very root of it all, are people who were to be protected on behalf of God and His Prophet ﷺ – an immense responsibility. This status is awarded to People of the Book (who according to many scholars includes Zoroastrians and others) who agree through contract to pay the *jizyah*, or poll-tax, in exchange for that protection.[^7] In sum, the formation of the people of the *dhimmah* was rooted in religious minorities paying a tax that exempted them from military service. Much more nuance can be embedded within all of these terms that are sometimes highly contested among scholars, but considering the limited scope of this paper, we will move forward to address the larger picture at hand. The power of the Muslim state was dependent on its ability to provide two precious resources to its people: security and justice.[^8] Christians and Jews and other minorities were not technically citizens of the Muslim state; they were considered outsiders under the protection of the state, leading to the title of *dhimmah*, or protected people.[^9] Their protection was guaranteed in a number of ways: by providing them with legal autonomy – meaning they could maintain their religious practices without interference – and protection during war. That said, there have no doubt been incidents throughout history in which that protection was threatened or revoked and the Muslim ruler engaged in persecution of religious minorities.[^10] The fact remains, however, that there was never widespread systematic persecution of Christians, for example, in the Islamic world as there was in the late Roman Empire.[^11] And the hostile circumstances that did occasionally arise, were not due to Islamic legislation *per se*, but were rather a result of an amalgam of social, political, and economic circumstances. So while Christians historically at times suffered at the hands of Muslims, it was almost never a result of their *being* Christian, or their beliefs, but a result of various factors related to the pursuit of power.[^12] --- ## Historical Foundations ### The Charter of Medina Before delving into the technicalities, it is important to begin by reflecting on some of the historical foundations relevant to the treatment of religious minorities. We begin at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, who upon his arrival in Medina, contracted a treaty with the non-Muslims that essentially established rights and responsibilities between the various Muslim groups and the Jewish tribes. Although the authenticity of this document is doubted among some academics, it is crucial to note that historians, both Muslim and non-Muslim, recognize its significance because despite there being no original document available, its conditions have been attested and adhered to by Muslims throughout history.[^13] So, for example, when Muslim scholars discuss the issue of religious minorities, this document is frequently cited and is widely held to be authentic.[^14] This treaty was discussed in the news in 2016 when the group of scholars met in Morocco to discuss the treatment of religious minorities in the Muslim world. The conclusion reached at this conference was that current Muslim leaders need to be held accountable and that the treatment of minorities today must reflect the justice and ethics designed by the Prophet ﷺ in the Charter of Medina. In any case, to sum up, this treaty serves as our starting point for interreligious relationships; in essence, it allowed Jews to continue their lives without interference while obligating them to help defend the city if necessary—an expectation of all people participating in the treaty and not particularly limited to the Jews. ### The Pact of ʿUmar The second, and ostensibly the more historically impactful document is the Pact of ʿUmar, or *al-shurūṭ al-ʿumarrīyah*, which consisted of a list of agreements between Umar b. al-Khattab (ra) during his caliphate and the people of Syria.[^15] It is to this pact that the “controversial issues” are traced back. The pact has been broken down into various sub-themes by later scholars but can essentially be summarized as promoting Christian and Jewish self-government and legal autonomy, while also requiring their support against enemies of the state when needed. The nuances of this pact are important to discuss because, as we will come to see, later Muslim scholars based a lot of their legal arguments about religious minorities on it. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (ra), the student of Ibn Taymīyah, for example, wrote what is considered to be the most comprehensive work on the regulations pertaining to religious minorities in his compendium, *Aḥkām ahl al-dhimmah*, which spans close to two thousand pages.[^16] One of the most commonly cited sources that is encountered in this massive legal text is the Pact of ʿUmar, to which Ibn al-Qayyim actually dedicates an entire portion of his compendium for analysis.[^17] He also goes as far as mentioning that the Pact is so well-known among the people that it was not necessary to cite its *isnād*, or chain of authority.[^18] Now, when you take a closer look at the details of the ordinances in the pact, you will come across what a lot of Islamophobes and Orientalists cite as evidence for Muslim intolerance of non-Muslims. Take for example the notion that Christians and Jews must dress differently from the Muslims. This example is one among many that are interpreted as “discriminatory laws” rooted in humiliating the non-Muslim, but let us take a closer look. Albrecht Noth, a scholar well known for his analysis of the Pact of ʿUmar argues that these regulations were designed for a long-term coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims, and by no means sought to persecute non-Muslims.[^19] At the same time, however, the Pact mainly dealt with what he calls the “sensitivities of Muslims” and not the victimization of religious minorities.[^20] The reality of the matter was that the Muslims were at war and then entered a new place as a minority. When the Muslim army entered a newly conquered land, in the case of [justifiable war](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/justin-parrott/jihad-as-defense-just-war-theory-in-the-quran-and-sunnah), the inhabitants of that land were presented with one of three options, according to the *hadith* of the Prophet ﷺ: respond to the call of Islam, surrender through treaty and become a *dhimmī*, or leave the land.[^21] As you can imagine, the majority of situations resulted in the people agreeing to remain as Christians, Jews, or Zoroastrians in exchange for abiding by the rules that they themselves agreed to. At the end of the day, the Muslims were initially outnumbered so they needed to take extra precautions to ensure that their authority would not be challenged. This new environment also posed a threat to the still developing Muslim identity.[^22] Hence, when examining the ordinances, it is understandable that they would favor Muslims as they now governed the land. There are a few approaches that can be taken when discussing the nature of these laws. First, we should consider a more contextual perspective on the so-called “discriminatory laws.” Take for example the *ghiyār* element, which is the term later developed to express the requirement that non-Muslims dress differently. To start, distinctive dress codes were very common in this era to demonstrate one’s social ranking, and Milka Levy-Rubin provides evidence of this being common throughout the Sasanian Empire. More interesting, however, is the origin of the dress code. A famous piece of clothing that the Christians and Jews were required to wear was the *zunnār* or belt.[^23] Historically, however, the belt was foreign to Arab Muslims, considering its Greek origin. And so presumably the Arab Muslims only encountered the belt as the Islamic Empire expanded. The belt, in essence, was an item of clothing introduced by the non-Muslims to the Muslims, so at the end of the day the Pact of ʿUmar required them to wear something they had always worn. Noth further argues that the other *ghiyār* elements also subsumed customs the non-Muslims presumably already followed. Thus, he posits that non-Muslims were not being forced to wear clothes that were discriminatory; rather, they were required to not copy the Muslims in their dress.[^24] And for the record, this was still not discriminatory, because the Prophet ﷺ himself commanded Muslims to not dress or act like the non-Muslims, so this law was in effect a two-way street.[^25] Some scholars have even contended that the point of creating these physical distinctions was simply for administrative purposes, so as to not wrongfully punish a non-Muslim for selling wine or to collect the *jizyah* tax from a Muslim because the collector was confused as to who was Muslim and who was not.[^26] The uniqueness of the Pact of ʿUmar arises from the broader expectations it expressed for a society of both Muslims and non-Muslims. The heart of the Pact consists of ordinances that promote religious legal autonomy. So what exactly does that imply? Early Islamic society was composed of multiple religious communities living together with each following its own law and religious leader. This was by no means common historically. In Hellenistic societies and under Roman rule, most emperors before Constantine persecuted Christians. There was no option of living autonomously.[^27] By allowing religious communities to adhere to separate bodies of law, boundaries were created between those communities.[^28] That also translated into the Muslim government not interfering with these systems and thus allowing them to continuously develop.[^29] There are two potential ways you can view this construction of society: you can either say to yourself, “Well that’s great, religious people can continue to follow their religions respectively,” or you can see it as creating a rigid demarcation between *dhimmīs* and Islamic society at large. For Muslims, the *sharīʿah* encompasses both creed and religious laws. So the permission for religious minorities to freely adhere to their own respective *sharīʿah* is one of the strongest expressions of tolerance found in the Pact of ʿUmar. Many Christians and Jews also affirm the positive aspects of this Pact, as discussed below. Both legal scholars and social historians have acknowledged that law in general can be used as a form of social control, so the Christian and Jewish communities at that time no doubt appreciated the power to continue administering their own religious laws.[^30] An example of lack of Muslim interference within communal spheres is demonstrated in a group of Nestorians, a Christian sect. The synod of George the First in the late 7th century allowed their church to legalize marriages in the presence of a Christian judge because, prior to that new ruling, marriages in this group of Nestorians occurred only through the civil courts.[^31] At the time, however, the Muslim rulers appointed judges on behalf of the Nestorians, but the Nestorians required that judges be chosen through the consent of the community. As a result, Imam Abu Hanīfah allowed them to appoint their own judges. This example demonstrates that not only did the Muslim authority not intervene in other religious communities, but these communities also sought to maintain their own religious autonomy. Along with religious autonomy came the option for Christians and Jews to seek legal counsel from the Muslim courts. But this was a concern for the Christian and Jewish religious elites because it threatened their judicial authority. If members of their congregations were turning away from their respective courts to seek justice from the *qāḍīs* (Muslim judges), then you can only imagine how that would strip these elites of their social and legal power. You cannot command people in your community to do things based on your religious calls and create a culture of normative behavior if they are not turning to you for religious advice. Those religious leaders who sought to preserve their authority consequently went out of their way to ensure that their communities remained loyal. Jewish women in the Umayyad period, for example, would lose their property rights if they sought a divorce in rabbinical courts, so naturally many of these women would go to Muslim courts to get a divorce in order to prevent that loss.[^32] In turn, the rabbis issued a new decree by which women could sue for divorce without losing their property rights. As a result, more Jewish women remained within their communities and continued to maintain religious autonomy. As a side note, one might notice that the regulations for minorities were based on a society that was defined by religion. People were associated with their religious communities as markers of their “national” identity. Neophyte Edelby argues “the Semites were unique among ancient peoples in that they never conceived any form of social organization other than theocracy, with God as the sole source of law.”[^33] For a long time, the only social groups in the East were groups formed by religious communities. Islam, Edelby argues in particular, views religions as nationalities because for every nation, God has sent a scripture.[^34] Either way, in the modern context, when we think about many of the laws regulating minorities, we view them as a form of religious discrimination, but the reality of the matter is that religion was the only form of distinctive identity in that era. So the regulations were not necessarily because someone was Jewish or Christian, but because, before the rise of the nation-state, religion was the distinctive marker of identity. --- ## Historical Precedence Let us return to the main discussion of contextualizing our understanding of religious minority treatment. If we trace back a little earlier before the pacts with the *ahl al-dhimmah*, or the protected people, became more formalized, the Muslims were engaging in relationships with non-Muslims. This was around the period of the *futuḥāt*, or during the Muslim expansion.[^35] Throughout this period, when a city had to surrender to the Muslim army out of weakness, they would initiate contracts and present stipulations that were all self-imposed measures on their own behalf. Albrecht Noth’s research demonstrates that a lot of those self-imposed measures parallel what later appeared in the *shurūṭ*.[^36] In other words, a lot of the supposedly discriminatory ordinances in the Pact of ʿUmar were among the stipulations non-Muslims had set for themselves upon surrender. More interesting, however, is the historical precedent set by the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, the two main powers that preceded the Islamic Empire. When tracing back to that time, it is evident that Muslim conquerors actually employed the same framework for surrender agreements as those empires.[^37] In her book *Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire*, Milka Levy-Rubin analyzes the forms of contracts created in the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires, among others, to determine whether or not the Islamic process was novel. Among her conclusions was that Muslim sources describe a method analogous to the process known from the pre-Islamic Near East: once a city surrendered, it received *amān*, or security, also referred to as *pistis* in the Roman Empire.[^38] The granting of *amān* was usually accompanied by a document listing the conditions that were agreed upon in the *ṣulḥ* or peace agreement. On a similar note, throughout the Byzantine Empire, various groups also had certain regulations imposed on them; so for instance, Jews could not testify against Christians and were banned from holding public office. In both the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires, furthermore, a public distinction was made between Christians and non-Christians, and Zoroastrians and non-Zoroastrians, respectively.[^39] So intermarriage, for example, between the two groups was highly contested or prohibited.[^40] Sasanians also implemented a tribute tax similar to the *jizyah* upon able-bodied men in exchange for military protection.[^41] The purpose of these few examples is to demonstrate that the Muslims did not introduce some foreign paradigm that enraged the non-Muslims. Yes, these regulations at times were limiting, but in the sociopolitical context of the time it was not only normative but also liberating in other ways. --- ## From Theory to Practice So what exactly happened in reality? There was a lot of legal content circulating on the place of religious minorities in Muslim societies, but at the end of the day, these laws were rarely implemented except in prominent Muslim centers or capitals, and even then incompletely and sporadically.[^42] For instance, many scholars maintained that non-Muslims could not serve in government positions. Yet, the Caliph Al-Mansur was among many caliphs who did not abide by that rule and hired non-Muslims, like a Jew named Musa, to be a revenue collector.[^43] Even so, not long after, Caliph Al-Mutawakkil reenacted the law that no non-Muslim should be in government service.[^44] The experience and knowledge of Christians and Jews who already held government positions were more useful in the service of the caliph, not to mention they did not pose a threat to his rule.[^45] Thus, Caliph Al-Mutawakkil promoted the service of non-Muslims in government despite its prohibition or discouragement by many scholars. Or take the example of a Christian vizier, in Baghdad, ʿAbdūn b. Sāʿid, who visited the *qāḍī*, Ismail b. Ishāk, who rose up to greet him.[^46] He noticed people disapproved and so when the vizier left, the *qāḍī* turned to the people and quoted the verse of the Quran: “Allah does not forbid you to have dealings with those who have not fought with you for religion’s sake, nor driven you out of your homes, from being righteous toward them and acting justly towards them; indeed Allah loves those who are just” \[60:8\]. The *qāḍī* then stated, “This man manages the business of Muslims; he is the ambassador between us and the caliphs.” So from this example, and countless others, it is apparent that the practical implementation of regulations regarding religious minorities was dependent ultimately on the whims of the ruler and those he placed in positions of power. Since the role of religious minorities in the Islamic Empire was left to the final authority of the sultan, oftentimes scholarly opinions were entirely disregarded. Under many circumstances, nevertheless, the ruler would appoint a chief judge or scholar to deal with the rights of religious minorities (among other issues). It is necessary to consider the various legal rulings on these issues because whether or not they were actually implemented, the opinion of a prominent local scholar would no doubt shape the opinions and attitude of the general public, and consequently, the overall environment that Muslims and non-Muslims shared. --- ## Classical Scholarship As mentioned earlier, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah’s text, *Aḥkām ahl al-dhimmah*, is a foundational source in regard to the rulings related to the protected people. The text is truly unparalleled, particularly as a result of the author’s process of providing proofs for his arguments. In order to arrive at his conclusions, Ibn al-Qayyim references the most popular scholarly opinions on each matter and then proceeds to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments. Essentially, reading Ibn al-Qayyim’s book, and his positions on many issues, involves also reading the opinions of Imam Mālik, Imam Aḥmed, Abu Ḥanīfah, Imam Shāfiʿī, and the like.[^47] The work was originally composed in response to a number of questions Ibn al-Qayyim was asked on various related issues such as: how the *jizyah* was assigned, its purpose, how much was charged, and for whom it was required. Besides probing into the matter of the *jizyah*, the book also addresses practical questions that result from relationships with religious minorities; e.g., is their meat permissible; are they permitted to sell wine? Considering the depth of Ibn al-Qayyim’s work, the focus here is on analyzing his opinions in the first section on the *jizyah* as a means of identifying some of his overarching views on religious minorities. Among his foremost discussions, Ibn al-Qayyim defines who falls under the category of People of the Book (i.e., potential *dhimmīs*). He contends early on that the Zoroastrians are considered among the People of the Book by way of consensus of the scholars as evinced in Prophetic narrations.[^48] Imam Abu Ḥanīfah goes as far as extending the community of *dhimmah* to include foreign pagans, allowing far more than simply Christians and Jews to be included among those who are to be protected by the Muslim state.[^49] Furthermore, the companions of al-Shāfiʿī asserted that since the *jizyah* is in exchange for military protection, it is only taxable upon male ) fighters, and thus women, children, monks, and the disabled were exempt from the tax.[^50] Hence, in certain places like Jurjān and Darband, minorities who provided military service were exempted from paying the *jizyah* altogether.[^51] In regard to the technicalities related to the *jizyah*, nuances stem from the translation and understanding of verse 29 in Surah al-Tawbah: > *Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – \[fight\] until they give the jizyah willingly \[ʿan yadin\] while they are humbled \[ṣāghirūn\].*[^52] In his analysis of this verse, Ibn al-Qayyim explores countless scholarly viewpoints that are frequently contrasted; an indication that there are multiple perspectives from which to understand these highly nuanced terms. The most often debated concepts in the verse center around what the *jizyah* is, how it is paid, and what it signifies. Among the numerous opinions, Ibn al-Qayyim highlighted the position of his shaykh, Ibn Taymīyah, who asserted that the word *jizyah* is derived from *al-jazā*ʾ, or compensation, because the *jizyah* can either be seen as a form of subjugation as a compensation for non-Muslim disbelief, or can be seen as a form of gentleness as a compensation for Muslim guardianship.[^53] This suggests that the formation of *dhimmī* communities based on compensation of the *jizyah* can be viewed from varying perspectives: if a *dhimmī* continues to defy Muslim rule, then his punishment is his payment, but if a *dhimmī* accepts the rule and pays the *jizyah*, then he will be rewarded with the protection of the Muslim Empire. In both cases, the *dhimmī* is required to pay the *jizyah*, but it is noteworthy to emphasize this alternative perspective because it indicates that the payment of the *jizyah* did not necessarily have to be something negative in the eyes of the Muslim or non-Muslim. On that account, Ibn al-Qayyim additionally posits that the notion of *ṣighār*, often translated as “humiliation,” could simply imply the obligation of the *dhimmī* to pay the *jizyah* and remain under the rule of the Muslim community.[^54] Therefore, once a *dhimmī* rebels against the rule, he threatens the notion of *ṣighār* and consequently forfeits his rights and protection. The *dhimmīs* are a community being granted protection in exchange for that loyalty, so once one of those factors is denied, the other is omitted as well. In terms of the amount of the *jizyah* to be paid, Ibn al-Qayyim refers that judgment to the scholar responsible for collecting the *jizyah* because there is no set amount declared in sources for the *sharīʿah*.[^55] He also adds that the type of payment does not need to be limited to gold or silver, but can be collected in the form of any material item (e.g., clothes or weapons), or “*whatever is easiest for them*.”[^56] I highlight these words because Ibn al-Qayyim, as was evident throughout many portions of his text, constantly reiterated the necessity of easing the circumstances of the non-Muslim community. To support this notion, Ibn al-Qayyim also provides scholarly opinions from ʿUmar (ra) and Imam Shāfiʿī, among others, who assert that the amount of the *jizyah* should depend on the economic status of the payee: the poor and rich should pay a fee relative to their means (i.e., the poor should pay less).[^57] The *jizyah* should therefore not overburden the one who cannot afford it, and the payee should also be given the option of paying through non-monetary means if that is easier for them. The *jizyah*, furthermore, is only taxable upon able-bodied men (i.e., men who can fight in battle) and not women, children, the poor, the sick, or even monks since they would not typically engage in battle. This contrasts with the *zakah* tax that Muslim men, women, *and* children are all obliged to pay, in addition to the military service Muslim men must engage in. Thus, in many ways the *jizyah* tax can be considered similar to the *zakah* tax that Muslims are required to pay. Ibn al-Qayyim further insists on this point by dedicating another section of his text to the protection of the *dhimmī*.[^58] In order to demonstrate the enormity of infringing upon their rights, he utilizes anecdotes that occasionally incorporate Prophetic *hadith* and Quranic verses. The first anecdote, for instance, narrates the story of a man named Hāshim who, after witnessing a group of people in Palestine suffering under the *jizyah*, proclaimed that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily on the Day of Judgment God will torment those who torment people in this world.”[^59] Through the citation of this narration, Ibn al-Qayyim reminds us of the humanity of the protected people, and warns against taking advantage of them by any means. In a later example, Ibn al-Qayyim cites the actions of the Caliph ʿUmar who was once approached with a lot of wealth that was collected as *jiyzah*.[^60] Based on the great amount of money that he was given, the Caliph exclaimed, “I think you have destroyed the people!” Those who collected the money responded that it was not true—they only collected the amount without interrogation, distress, or harm to the people, to which ʿUmar responded, “Praise be to God who did not place that \[responsibility\] in my hands nor under my rule.” This particular incident of the Caliph demonstrates the justice and compassion with which he acted, and strengthens Ibn al-Qayyim’s demand that *dhimmīs* be treated with generosity and mercy. On a similar note, when Muslim-ruled Syria was threatened by incoming Roman troops, the Arab general and Companion, Abu ʿUbaydah b. al-Jarrāḥ, wrote hastily to his governors to return the *jizyah* to the people with treaties in that land: > *We give you back the money that we took from you, as we have received news that a strong force is advancing against us. The agreement between us was that we should protect you, and as this is not now in our power, we return you all that we took. But if we are victorious we shall consider ourselves bound to you by the old terms of our agreement.*[^61] In response to Abu ʿUbaydah’s orders, many Christians praised their Muslim overlords and prayed for their victory over the Romans since the latter would have stolen all of their wealth.[^62] One of the most striking aspects about Ibn al-Qayyim’s compendium is that his legal rulings are far from generous; in many instances, his interpretation of the law takes the strictest approach. His constant reminders on the necessity of acting with kindness and compassion, however, counter this stringency. He ardently declares that the purpose of the *jizyah* is to strip non-Muslims of their dignity, but then shortly thereafter calls upon Muslims to treat non-Muslims in a respectful manner. The irony is very much present. In essence, Ibn al-Qayyim is putting forth a notion that while paying the *jizyah* may be theoretically demeaning, in practice, non-Muslims should always be treated with dignity. This serves as a reminder of the legitimacy and power of the Muslim community—the word of God is held high on earth. But along with this power must come the righteous treatment of all of God’s creation, and that can only be achieved through many of the characteristics Ibn al-Qayyim demands of the Muslim community: justice, mercy, and kindness. --- ## Conclusion The rights and responsibilities of religious minorities, as we have seen, are not always a simple matter. Throughout history there have been diverse scholarly opinions on the laws regarding relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims; however, the manifestations of these regulations were dependent on the judgment of the *sultan* in his respective political, economic, and social milieu. The *dhimmī* paradigm that was established at an early stage of Islamic civilization was consequently flexible in nature and has generally resulted in tolerant societies. Many scholars today, nevertheless, want to move beyond the mere concept of “tolerance” since the notion of a minority citizenship often leads to forms of discrimination.[^63] Hence, prominent scholars such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi have taken crucial steps in creating a “*fiqh* of citizenship” in Muslim-ruled nations that advocates for equal rights among Muslims and non-Muslims by adopting modern forms of citizenry. In any case, when reflecting on the *dhimmī* model that took precedence throughout Muslim societies historically, it is important to also reflect on the standard that is set in America today. We too have a system that requires taxation and submission to the state through various responsibilities. An American citizen is treated rather distinctly from a non-American citizen—we have different rights and responsibilities. As citizens, we live with a privilege that many times blinds us from recognizing our exclusive lines at airports when entering the country, or the priority we are given in applying for schools and jobs, or the ease of obtaining visas for travel. These are all forms of honor that we have been granted simply on account of our citizenship. And we too have a form of taxation upon individuals that in essence symbolizes one’s submission to the state. So before reflexively criticizing the practices of former societies, one needs to understand the historical context of those practices and reflect on current-day parallels. --- ## Notes [^1]: www.marrakeshdeclaration.org. [^2]: See for example: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/15/isis-genocide-of-religious-minorities-us-house-statement [^3]: Bat Yeʾor, *The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam* (Cranbury: Associated University Presses, 1985), 36; Milka Levy-Rubin, *Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence* (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011). [^4]: In many cases, the non-Muslims were actually the majority, but were referred to as a minority in a cultural and political sense; Uriah Furman, “Minorities in Contemporary Islamist Discourse,” *Middle Eastern Studies* 36 (2000): 2. [^5]: Levy-Rubin, 41. [^6]: Mahmoud Ayoub, “Dhimmah in Qurʾan and Hadith,” in *Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society*, ed. Robert Hoyland, 25-35 (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2004), 34-5. Originally published in *The Formation of the Classical Islamic World*, vol. 18, ed. Lawrence I. Conrad (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004). [^7]: Based on evidence from *hadith*, Ibn al-Qayyim asserts that the scholars have reached a consensus that *al-majūs*, also known as Magians or Zoroastrians, are among the People of the Book; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Ahkām ahl al-dhimmah*, ed. Yusūf al-Bakrī and Aḥmad al-ʿArārūri (Dammām: Dār Ramādī li-l-Nashr, 1418/1997), 79. [^8]: S.D. Goitein, “Minority Selfrule and Government Control” in *Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society*, ed. Robert Hoyland (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2004), 160. Originally published in *The Formation of the Classical Islamic World*, vol. 18, ed. Lawrence I. Conrad (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004). [^9]: Goitein, 163. [^10]: An infamous persecution of Christians that has been recorded was led by the Fatimid Caliph al-Ḥakīm who retracted his efforts at the end of his reign and reinstituted traditional measures of tolerance; Cl. Cahen, “Dhimma,” in *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 2nd ed., P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, eds. Consulted online on 20 October 2016. [^11]: Sidney Griffith, *The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 148. [^12]: Griffith, 148. [^13]: Anver Emon, “Reflections on the ‘Constitution of Medina’: An Essay on Methodology and Ideology in Islamic Legal History,” *UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law* 1, no. 103 (2001): 103. [^14]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 14; Levy-Rubin, 59. [^15]: A.S. Tritton, *The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects* (London: Frank Cass and Company Ltd., 1970), 8. [^16]: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, *Ahkām ahl al-dhimmah*, ed. Yusūf al-Bakrī and Aḥmad al-ʿArārūri (Dammām: Dār Ramādī li-l-Nashr, 1418/1997). [^17]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 14. [^18]: Levy-Rubin, *Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire*, 59. [^19]: Albrecht Noth, “Problems of Differentiation between Muslims and non-Muslims: Re-Reading the ‘Ordinances of ʿUmar’ (*Al-Shurūṭ al-ʿUmariyya*)” in *Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society*, ed. Robert Hoyland (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2004), 104-5. Originally published in *The Formation of the Classical Islamic World*, vol. 18, ed. Lawrence I. Conrad (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004). [^20]: Noth, 105. [^21]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 87. Another common option that existed besides war was the peace-treaty (*ṣulḥ*) contracts that did not necessitate payment of the *jizyah*. Both the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires, for example, established *ṣulḥ* agreements with the Byzantine Empire in order to maintain regional peace and promote trade. For more, see M. Khadduri, "Ṣulḥ," *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 2nd ed., P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, eds. Consulted online on 12 July 2017. [^22]: Noth, 122. [^23]: Noth, 115. [^24]: Noth, 116-7. [^25]: Noth, 119; See M.J. Kister, “‘Do Not Assimilate Yourselves…’*Lā Tashabbahū*…,” in *Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society,* ed. Robert Hoyland, 125-153, (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2004). Originally published in *The Formation of the Classical Islamic World*, vol. 18, ed. Lawrence I. Conrad (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004). [^26]: Cahen, “Dhimma.” [^27]: Michael Morony, “Religious Communities in Late Sasanian and Early Muslim Iraq” in *Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society*, ed. Robert Hoyland (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2004), 1. Originally published in *The Formation of the Classical Islamic World*, vol. 18, ed. Lawrence I. Conrad (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004). [^28]: Uriel I. Simonsohn, *A Common Justice: The Legal Alliances of Christians and Jews under Early Islam* (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 5. [^29]: Morony, 9. [^30]: Simonsohn, 10-11. [^31]: Morony, 13. [^32]: Morony, 11. [^33]: Neophyte Edelby, “The Legislative Autonomy of Christians in the Islamic World” in *Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society*, ed. Robert Hoyland (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2004), 44. Originally published in *The Formation of the Classical Islamic World*, vol. 18, ed. Lawrence I. Conrad (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004). [^34]: Edelby, 45. His opinion, however, does not detract from the possibility of other allegiances (e.g. national affiliations). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, for example, did not require people to disavow their tribes in favor of a sole religious allegiance. [^35]: Noth, “Problems of Differentiation between Muslims and Non-Muslims,” 113. [^36]: Noth, 107. [^37]: Levy-Rubin, 26. [^38]: Levy-Rubin, 36. [^39]: Levy-Rubin, 121. [^40]: Levy-Rubin, 116-7. [^41]: Morony, “Religious Communities,” 7. [^42]: Uriel I. Simonsohn, *A Common Justice*, 7; Cahen, “Dhimma.” [^43]: A.S. Tritton, *The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects*, 22. [^44]: Tritton, 23. [^45]: Levy-Rubin, 108. [^46]: Tritton, 24. [^47]: Many other scholars who focused on the rules of religious minorities are also cited. These include, but are not limited to, Qāḍī Abū Yūṣuf (d. 183 AH) in his book *Kitāb al-kharāj*, al-Khallāl (d. 311 AH) in his *Aḥkām ahl al-milal*, and al-Farrāʾ (d. 458 AH) in his *Al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭāniyyah*. [^48]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 79. [^49]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 87; Ibn al-Qayyim also states that all disbelievers should pay the *jizyah*, People of the Book or not, implying that even pagans could join the *dhimmī* community; Ibn al-Qayyim, 89. [^50]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 122. [^51]: Levy-Rubin, 49. [^52]: Qur’an 9:29; translation from *Sahih Internationa*l, obtained from www.quran.com. [^53]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 119; This is also the view of al-Qāḍī Abu Yaʿlā in his *al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭānīyah*. [^54]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 121. [^55]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 131. [^56]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 129. [^57]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 132-133. [^58]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 137. [^59]: Similar versions of the *ḥadīth* read, "Whoever harms a *dhimmī*, then I will be his adversary on the Day of Judgement \[narrated by Imam Aḥmad\]" and "Whoever harms a *dhimmī*, then he has harmed me \[the Prophet\]. And whoever harms me, has harmed God \[narrated by al-Albānī\].” [^60]: Ibn al-Qayyim, 139. [^61]: Thomas Walker Arnold, *Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith* (London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 1913), 61. [^62]: Arnold, 61. See also J. J. Saunders, *A History of Medieval Islam* (London: Routledge, 2002), 53. [^63]: David H. Warren and Christine Gilmore, “One nation under God? Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s changing Fiqh of citizenship in the light of the Islamic legal tradition,” *Contemporary Islam* 8 (2014), 218. ## Summary Religious minorities under Muslim rule are frequently portrayed as helpless victims of oppression, yet a careful examination of the historical and legal record reveals this depiction to be inaccurate. The status of such communities came to international attention in January of 2016, when over two hundred and fifty scholars from more than one hundred and twenty countries gathered in Marrakesh, Morocco, in response to the atrocities committed by ISIS against people of differing faiths. Returning to the foundational sources—chiefly the Charter of Medina contracted by the Prophet ﷺ upon his migration to Medina—these scholars issued the Marrakesh Declaration, denouncing bigotry and calling for justice, freedom, and equality. It should be understood at the outset that the purpose here is neither to catalogue every legal ruling nor to defend the conduct of Muslims or non-Muslims, but rather to provide context, for the discourse is shaped by varying scholarly opinions and by political, social, and economic circumstances too numerous to exhaust. Modern scholarship itself is divided: writers such as Bat Yeʾor have denounced Islam as inciting intolerance, while others such as Milka Levy-Rubin have argued that the agreements the early Muslims contracted with minorities were more progressive than the precedents of their neighbors. To grasp the matter, one must first understand the terminology. Religious minorities were termed *dhimmīs*, from *ahl al-dhimmah*, meaning people of the *dhimmah*. Though the word became a technical legal term, its original meaning was protection, frequently rendered as *dhimmat Allāh wa-rasūlih*, "the protection of God and His Prophet"—a phrase carrying a divine connotation and signifying an immense responsibility, even if classical scholarship later stripped it of that transcendent dimension. This status was granted to the People of the Book—which many scholars extended to include Zoroastrians and others—who agreed by contract to pay the *jizyah* in exchange for protection and exemption from military service. The strength of the Muslim state rested upon its provision of two precious resources: security and justice. Christians, Jews, and others were not technically citizens but outsiders under the protection of the state, guaranteed legal autonomy to maintain their religious practices without interference, as well as protection during war. While there were undoubtedly incidents in which protection was threatened or revoked and rulers persecuted minorities, the fact remains that there was never the widespread, systematic persecution of Christians in the Islamic world that occurred in the late Roman Empire. Where hostility did arise, it stemmed not from Islamic legislation as such but from an amalgam of social, political, and economic factors tied to the pursuit of power, rarely from the mere fact of a person's being Christian. The historical foundations begin with the Charter of Medina, a treaty establishing rights and responsibilities between the Muslim groups and the Jewish tribes. Although some academics doubt the authenticity of the document, and no original survives, both Muslim and non-Muslim historians recognize its significance, for its conditions have been attested and adhered to throughout history and are widely held authentic and frequently cited. In essence, it allowed the Jews to continue their lives without interference while obligating them—as it obligated all parties, not the Jews alone—to help defend the city if necessary. The second and ostensibly more impactful document is the Pact of ʿUmar, *al-shurūṭ al-ʿumarīyah*, a list of agreements between ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may God be pleased with him) and the people of Syria. To this pact the "controversial issues" are traced. It promoted Christian and Jewish self-government and legal autonomy while requiring their support against enemies of the state when needed. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (may God have mercy upon him), the student of Ibn Taymīyah, produced what is considered the most comprehensive work on the subject, *Aḥkām ahl al-dhimmah*, spanning close to two thousand pages, in which the Pact figures prominently; he noted it was so well-known that citing its *isnād* was unnecessary. Certain ordinances, such as the requirement that Christians and Jews dress differently, are cited by Islamophobes and Orientalists as evidence of intolerance. Yet Albrecht Noth argues these regulations were designed for long-term coexistence, not persecution, and addressed what he calls the "sensitivities of Muslims" rather than the victimization of minorities. When the Muslim army entered a newly conquered land in a case of justifiable war, the inhabitants were, according to the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, offered three options: to accept Islam, to surrender by treaty and become *dhimmīs*, or to leave. The so-called discriminatory laws warrant contextual reflection. Distinctive dress denoting social rank was common in the era, as Levy-Rubin documents throughout the Sasanian Empire. The *zunnār*, or belt, that Christians and Jews were required to wear was itself of Greek origin, foreign to the Arab Muslims, so the Pact effectively required them to wear what they had always worn. Noth argues that the other *ghiyār* elements likewise reflected customs the non-Muslims already followed, so that they were not forced into discriminatory garb but required not to imitate the Muslims—and the Prophet ﷺ himself commanded Muslims not to imitate the non-Muslims, making it a two-way street. Some scholars held the distinctions served merely administrative purposes, such as correctly assessing the *jizyah*. The heart of the Pact lay in religious legal autonomy—each community following its own law and leader—which was uncommon historically, for most Roman emperors before Constantine persecuted Christians. Since the *sharīʿah* encompasses both creed and law, permitting minorities to follow their own respective law was among the strongest expressions of tolerance. A synod of George the First in the late seventh century allowed Nestorians to legalize marriages before a Christian judge, and Imam Abu Ḥanīfah allowed them to appoint their own judges. So valued was this autonomy that Jewish religious elites, fearing loss of authority when women sought divorce in Muslim courts to protect their property rights, issued a new decree permitting women to sue for divorce without such loss. As Neophyte Edelby observed, the Semites conceived of no social organization other than theocracy, and Islam viewed religions as nationalities, since God sent a scripture to every nation; thus religion, before the nation-state, was the distinctive marker of identity. Turning to precedent, Noth's research shows many stipulations in the Pact were self-imposed measures non-Muslims set upon their own surrender during the *futuḥāt*. Levy-Rubin further demonstrates that the Muslim process paralleled the pre-Islamic Near East: upon surrender a city received *amān*, akin to the Roman *pistis*, accompanied by a document of conditions agreed in the *ṣulḥ*. The Byzantines barred Jews from testifying against Christians and from public office; both Byzantines and Sasanians distinguished publicly between communities and contested intermarriage; the Sasanians levied a tribute tax resembling the *jizyah* in exchange for protection. Thus the Muslims introduced no foreign, enraging paradigm. In practice, these laws were rarely and only sporadically implemented, chiefly in capitals. Though many scholars held that non-Muslims could not serve in government, Caliph al-Manṣūr employed a Jew named Mūsā as a revenue collector; Caliph al-Mutawakkil reenacted the prohibition yet himself promoted non-Muslim service. When the Christian vizier ʿAbdūn b. Sāʿid visited the *qāḍī* Ismāʿīl b. Isḥāq, the judge rose to greet him, and to those who disapproved recited: "Allah does not forbid you to be righteous toward those who have not fought you for religion nor driven you out, and to act justly toward them; indeed Allah loves those who are just" (60:8). Implementation thus depended on the ruler and those he empowered. Ibn al-Qayyim's *Aḥkām ahl al-dhimmah* remains foundational, weighing the opinions of Imam Mālik, Imam Aḥmad, Abu Ḥanīfah, and Imam al-Shāfiʿī. He affirmed by scholarly consensus, grounded in Prophetic narrations, that the Zoroastrians count among the People of the Book, and Abu Ḥanīfah extended the *dhimmah* even to foreign pagans. The companions of al-Shāfiʿī held that since the *jizyah* is in exchange for military protection, it falls only upon fighting men, exempting women, children, monks, and the disabled—so that in Jurjān and Darband those rendering military service paid nothing. The nuances flow from Sūrah al-Tawbah (9:29), which commands fighting the disbelievers "until they give the *jizyah* willingly [*ʿan yadin*] while they are humbled [*ṣāghirūn*]." Ibn al-Qayyim canvassed many contrasting views and highlighted his shaykh Ibn Taymīyah, who derived *jizyah* from *al-jazāʾ*, compensation—either subjugation compensating for disbelief or gentleness compensating for Muslim guardianship. He suggested *ṣighār* may mean simply the obligation to pay and remain under Muslim rule, so that only rebellion forfeits protection. As for the amount, Ibn al-Qayyim referred it to the collecting scholar, since no fixed sum is declared, and held it could be paid in any material item, "whatever is easiest for them," repeatedly urging ease upon non-Muslims. He cited ʿUmar and al-Shāfiʿī that payment should match economic means, the poor paying less, and stressed the tax fell only upon able-bodied men, unlike *zakah*, obligatory upon Muslim men, women, and children. Dedicating a section to protection, he cited the narration that "on the Day of Judgment God will torment those who torment people in this world," and recounted ʿUmar, alarmed at excessive *jizyah*, exclaiming, "I think you have destroyed the people!" before praising God that the burden was not upon his conscience. When Roman troops threatened Syria, Abu ʿUbaydah b. al-Jarrāḥ ordered the *jizyah* returned since protection could no longer be guaranteed, prompting Christians to pray for Muslim victory. Strikingly, though Ibn al-Qayyim's rulings are often the strictest and he affirmed the *jizyah*'s theoretically demeaning purpose, he ceaselessly demanded justice, mercy, and kindness—that the word of God be held high while all of God's creation is treated with dignity. In sum, the rights and responsibilities of religious minorities were never simple; scholarly opinion was diverse, and application rested with the sultan amid his particular circumstances. The *dhimmī* paradigm proved flexible and generally yielded tolerant societies, though many scholars today seek to move beyond mere tolerance, and figures such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi have advanced a "*fiqh* of citizenship" advocating equal rights through modern citizenry. Reflecting on this model, one may note that America too taxes its people and distinguishes citizen from non-citizen in rights and privileges; before criticizing former societies, one must understand their historical context and recognize present-day parallels. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does the term dhimmī mean in Islamic law? The term *dhimmī* originally carried a divine connotation, meaning "people under the protection of God and His Prophet." It referred not to a degraded legal class but to a binding obligation on the Muslim state to safeguard the lives, property, and religious autonomy of non-Muslim subjects. Over time it evolved into a technical legal designation, yet the foundational meaning embedded a moral responsibility: harming a *dhimmī* was understood to incur divine punishment on the Day of Judgment. ### What was the jizyah and was it a form of religious persecution? The *jizyah* was a poll-tax paid by non-Muslim subjects in exchange for military protection and exemption from military service obligations. Classical scholars including Ibn al-Qayyim stipulated it should never overburden those who could not afford it and could be paid in goods rather than cash. Women, children, monks, the elderly, and the disabled were uniformly exempt. When the general Abū ʿUbaydah could no longer guarantee security to the Syrian Christians he was protecting, he returned their *jizyah* in full—an act that illustrates the tax was understood as a contract of protection, not an act of humiliation. ### How did Muslim treatment of religious minorities compare to the Byzantine and Sasanian empires? Historical scholarship consistently finds that the Muslim framework was less persecutory than its predecessors. The Byzantine Empire actively persecuted Christians who deviated from imperial orthodoxy; the Sasanian Empire prohibited intermarriage across religious lines. Milka Levy-Rubin demonstrates that Muslim practices were analogous to pre-Islamic Near Eastern norms, meaning conquered populations received structured security agreements—conditions that the non-Muslim communities themselves had often set upon surrender. Crucially, there was never the kind of widespread systematic persecution of Christians under Muslim rule that characterized the late Roman Empire. ### Did non-Muslims have legal autonomy under Islamic governance? Non-Muslim communities maintained their own religious courts, legal codes, and communal leadership under the *dhimmī* framework. Jewish communities adjudicated personal-status matters according to Talmudic law; Christian communities operated under their own ecclesiastical tribunals. This degree of internal self-governance was, as the paper argues, far more progressive than the religious uniformity demanded by the Byzantine state. The Pact of ʿUmar formalized these arrangements, securing communal institutions while requiring political loyalty to the Muslim polity. ### What does the Qur'an say about treating non-Muslims justly? The Qur'an instructs believers: 'Allah does not forbid you to have dealings with those who have not fought against you for religion's sake...from being righteous toward them and acting justly towards them. Indeed, Allah loves those who are just.' (Qur'an 60:8) Classical jurists like Qāḍī Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq cited this verse directly to defend the respectful treatment of non-Muslim officials serving in Muslim-governed states. The verse formed the scriptural foundation for the principle that justice toward non-Muslims is not merely permitted but a divine obligation. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/slavery-and-islam-what-is-slavery # Slavery and Islam: What is Slavery? **Authors:** Dr. Jonathan Brown, Dr. Abdullah Hamid Ali **Topics:** History, Islam in the West **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** February 7, 2017 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Introduction Is there slavery in Islam? When people pose this question they usually assume it’s the Islam part that needs clarification. Everyone already knows what slavery is. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. The Islam part is relatively straightforward. The real problem is trying to pin down what we mean by slavery. The more we scratch the surface of that word and try to define it, the more we find that our assumptions and even our words fail us. What we think we mean by slavery means little outside our own American experience, and the moment we try to fix what slavery is as a human phenomenon we find a hall of mirrors reflecting our own assumptions back at us. We all think we know what slavery is, but would we really know slavery if we saw it? Imagine we could explore the phenomenon of slavery throughout history. Imagine that, as huge *Doctor Who* fans, we hitch a ride in the [Tardis](http://www.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/tardis), which allows us to travel across space and time. Our first stop is an exotic, desert land where slavery is common. We visit a well-off home, where we find certain people performing domestic work while an older man sits drinking tea. Everyone has the same dark skin color. Suddenly the lounging tea-drinker shouts at a young man serving him and smacks him hard with a fly swatter. We are eager to know who all these people are. Fortunately, the TARDIS translates all languages directly to your brain. We ask one of the men serving tea his name, and he says his name is Saffron and that he is “one of the delicate folk” working in the household. He has worked in this house for five years, but he tells us that, in one year’s time, he’ll have saved enough money to move on and start his own teashop. We ask about the young man getting smacked. “Oh, that poor boy… he’ll be here till the old man dies.” Back in the TARDIS, we voyage on through time and space, this time to meet the powerful prime minister of an expansive empire. The prime minister enters the throne room surrounded by dozens of armed soldiers, and we sense the trepidation in the hushed muttering of the audience around us. One voice whispers,“The minister is worth 80 million gold ducats.” “He’s married to the king’s daughter,” responds another. The minister and his bodyguards are all light-skinned and fair-haired. Many of those there to offer petitions and seek favor have a darker, olive complexion. After meeting the minister we voyage on, now to a colder land where we meet a man working in a clock factory. He hates his life, so we agree to take him with us. But the factory owner catches him leaving, and the man is thrown in prison. We voyage still onward in the TARDIS to a new land where, passing down the road, we see a crew of dark-skinned youths clearing brush in the hot sun, their legs shackled and all joined by chains. A light-skinned man watches over them with a weapon in hand. Where has the TARDIS taken us in our exploration of slavery? The first place we visited was the city of Mecca in the 1400s. The ‘soft and delicate (*raqīq*)’ man Saffron was a slave in the wealthy man’s household who had an agreement with his master to buy back his freedom on installments (*mukataba*). *Raqīq* was the standard term for slave, and epicurean names like Saffron were typical. The younger man being smacked for bad service, who was tied to the household seemingly forever, was the wealthy man’s own son. The second place we visited was the capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1579. The minister was [Sokollu Mehmet Pasha](http://www.tdvia.org/dia/ayrmetin.php?idno%3D370357), the grand vizier and de facto ruler of the empire during the time of three sultans. At the time of our visit, he had already been one of the empire’s richest and most powerful men for almost two decades.  He was also a slave of the sultan. He was born in Bosnia, as were all his guards, who were also slaves of the sultan.[^1] The land where we met the man working in a clock factory was England in 1860.  Although the worker was a free man, according to labor laws in England at the time a worker who failed to show up for work was guilty of stealing from his employer and was tried and sentenced as a criminal. Finally, the last place we visited was a land in which slavery had long been illegal: rural [Arizona in 2004](http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/10/acd.00.html), where the local sheriff was overseeing a juvenile chain gang. --- ## The Problem of Defining \\ˈslā-v(ə-)rē\\ How would we know who’s a slave and who isn’t on our voyage? Most Westerners today would probably think that the young man being smacked and the chained laborers were slaves, because we associate slavery with physical degradation, harsh labor, and violence. We would probably not assume the ‘soft and delicate’ man was a slave because he told us he would soon move to another job on his own terms, while we associate slavery with a total loss of agency, presumably for life. We would certainly not presume that the minister was a slave, since he clearly wielded immense wealth and the power over life and death throughout an empire. If we are searching for the phenomenon of slavery, what are we really looking for? Is it the label ‘slave’ that matters? Or is it the reality of the condition behind it? The soldiers and administrators of China’s Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1912) were technically slaves (*aha*) of the dynasty and proudly referred to themselves as such. The title of slave was later applied to anyone of Manchu descent in Qing China. But the word had no link to the reality of any servile condition.[^2] Up through the 1800s, the upper administration of the Ottoman Empire was in the hands of people technically classified as *kul* (privileged sultanic slaves) who had more power and esteem than their free counterparts.[^3] When we come across a word that translates as ‘slave’ in English, does that word necessarily mean what we mean by slavery? Our word ‘slave’ in English comes from the Medieval Latin word for Slavic peoples, Sclavus, since they were the population in the Balkans from which European slave traders drew their cargo up through the thirteenth century.[^4] A common English [dictionary definition](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slave) of a slave is ‘someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay.’ This notion of slavery as reducing human beings to things owned by other people has been a major theme in how the concept has been understood in the West. It was crucial to how abolitionists understood slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the movement to end slavery began. But the roots of this definition go further back to the roots of Western heritage. They lie in [Roman law](http://www.constitution.org/sps/sps02_j1-1.htm), which divided people into two categories: the free (a free person has the ‘natural right’ to ‘do as he pleases, unless prevented by the force of law’) and slaves, who exist as the property of others. But even defining slavery through concepts like ownership and exploitation leaves more questions than answers. What does ownership mean? In American law, we think of ownership as a ‘bundle of rights’: the rights to use, exclude, destroy and sell off. Sometimes an owner has some of them, often with significant restrictions, and sometimes the owner has them all. We would probably not think of children as ‘owning’ their toys since they are clearly not in control of them (ideally!). But children in America legally do ‘own’ the toys we give them. However, their ownership is not complete, since their right to use them is highly restricted by their parents. Ownership is as much about how we imagine relationships as exercising real control. As the famous social historian Orlando Patterson points out, who and what we say we own is really only a matter of our customs and manners.[^5] Modern Americans would gasp at the notion of ‘owning’ their children, but from the Roman through the medieval period in Europe parents could and did sell their children off as slaves to creditors in order to pay debts. Moreover, poor parents abandoning their children was a regular source for slave markets in Europe.[^6] Yet all these children started off as technically ‘free’ in the legal sense, not legally owned by anyone. In the US, wives and husbands have numerous claims on and powers over each other and their labor, as becomes clear during divorce.[^7] But we would never speak about marriage as a relationship of ownership. Conventions in early imperial China were different. There, husbands regularly listed their (free!) wives as property in their will, bequeathing them to some friend.[^8] Astoundingly, between 1760 and 1880—less than a century and a half ago—there were 218 cases of Englishmen holding auctions to sell off their wives, even advertising these auctions in the newspaper.[^9] What would it mean to ‘own’ a person? Does it mean to have total control over them? We have full control over our young children, but, unlike a chair or a pen, we cannot seriously physically harm them without legal consequence. In fact, this distinction between ownership and control is not very helpful for defining slavery. As with our children today, it was impermissible for Muslims to kill or seriously injure their slaves, and those who did faced legal consequences under the Shariah. In some contexts, ownership might fail completely as a concept for understanding slavery. Slavery existed in imperial China, but it was not conceptualized through ownership. Slaves were not legally ‘owned’ at all for the very technical reason that Chinese law could not categorize people as ‘things.’[^10] If we think about slavery as exploitation, does slavery mean not compensating someone for their labor? Sokollu Mehmet Pasha was a slave ‘owned’ by the Ottoman sultan, but he was also paid handsomely for his work as grand vizier. Saffron was owned by his master, but only partially, since he had already bought back a portion of his freedom through wages he earned elsewhere in his time off. He received no pay from his master, but the master paid for his food, clothes, and shelter. Incidentally, in this regard, the slave was no different from the master’s own son. Both were his dependents, relying on his support for their basic needs. We usually think of slavery as something that exists in a dichotomy with freedom. But what does freedom mean? As the legal scholar Vaughan Lowe jibes, inverting Rousseau’s famous line about man’s natural state of freedom, “Man is born in chains, but everywhere he thinks himself free.”[^11] Almost no human being is free of dependence on others and on society as a whole. Almost everyone is forced to work in order to earn wages to buy food. The son in the household we visited in Mecca was technically free but he depended on his father for all his support and had to obey him or face his anger. If he fled his home to get away from his nasty father, he’d be ostracized by all those he knew and loved. The man’s slave, meanwhile, had evenings off to earn his own money and would soon be free of his master. Who was free in this situation? At a theoretical level, how we understand freedom in the West is inherited from Classical Greece and Rome, where ‘free’ was the legal category of citizens of a democratic republic. A free person is autonomous, at liberty to do whatever he or she wants unless the law prohibits it. Everyone else is a slave. But even in Classical times, this legal definition of freedom was no more than a “rhetorical argument,” as one scholar puts it, since in reality few people in the Greek and Roman world were ‘free’ by this definition. Almost everyone was constrained by powerful social, economic, and even legal bonds.[^12] Ironically, even in theory this notion of freedom only applies in liberal democracies. In autocracies—perhaps a majority of societies in human history—almost no one is free by this definition.[^13] Nor does freedom exist on a single plane. It is often relational, expanding or contracting depending on the relationship in question. In the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world (both Europe and Islamic civilization), a slave’s intense subordination was not absolute. He or she was subordinated to his or her master, not to society as a whole. So Roman and later Byzantine masters used slaves to run their shops and to be the public faces of their businesses, negotiating and arguing with countless ‘free’ customers and contractors on a daily basis.[^14] The slave was not the lowest rung on the ladder in the streets of Rome or Constantinople/Istanbul. If their master was a powerful or wealthy person, the slave enjoyed the status of that connection in public life. The status of the slave depended on the status of his or her master. --- ## How We See Slavery – American Chattel Slavery By now you should see that any question about slavery is very complicated. One of the biggest challenges that historians and anthropologists interested in slavery face is whether there is even some single institution of slavery that exists across time and space that they can even study.[^15] It’s tempting to assume that, though the details might differ, there is something called slavery out there, popping up throughout history, and that we’d know it if we saw it. But, of course, as our hypothetical trip in the TARDIS shows, what we would recognize as slavery is determined by our own cultural memory of what the English word \\ˈslā-v(ə-)rē\\ means to us. When Americans think of slavery we think of *Twelve Years A Slave* and *Roots*. The [images](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DMaxxfd8b7sw) are seared marks in our mind: African men, women, and children being seized by ruthless slave traders, torn from their homes and each other, packed like chattel into the holds of stifling slave ships, sold like cattle at auction to white plantation owners, who worked, oppressed, and lashed them mercilessly for the rest of their lives. Slavery in our cultural memory is ‘the original sin’ of America: the reduction of a person, against their will, to the status of property, owned by another person who had absolute right over their labor and who deprived them of the natural right to freedom and family. --- ## The Spectrum of Coerced Labor Yet as we have seen, ownership, freedom, and exploitation come in shades of gray. They exist on spectrums. Historians and sociologists have attempted to delineate categories on this spectrum, in part to determine if we can really talk about slavery as something separate from other forms of forced labor or involuntary servitude. The main categories on this ‘continuum of dependency’ other than slavery are:[^16] - Serfdom: In Europe, this tradition goes back to ancient Greece. Laborers, usually peasant farmers, were free in the sense that they owned their own clothes, tools, livestock as well as the fruits of their labor. But they were bound to the land on which they lived or to their landlord wherever he might go.[^17] Serfdom in Europe developed as the status of free peasants and settled Barbarian prisoners of war in the late Roman Empire collapsed into a single class of “quasi-servitude” not too different from slavery.[^18] Serfdom disappeared in most of Western Europe in the wake of the Black Death in the 1300s, though it continued in the institution of villeinage in England until around 1600 and continued into the 1800s in mining areas of Scotland and German-speaking lands. Serfdom is most associated with Russia, where it came to replace slavery in agriculture and domestic spheres in the late 1600s and early 1700s.[^19] - Master/Servant Relationship: When serfdom disappeared from Western Europe, it was replaced by the relationship between the laborer and the landowner/employer. Unlike our modern notion of a worker’s contract, however, failing to live up to this contract was a criminal offense. Only in the British colonies in North America did a notion of free labor eventually appear in the 1700s, and this did not make its way back to Britain until 1875.[^20] - Debt servitude: This has been one of the most widespread forms of coerced labor. When a person is unable to repay a debt, he or she becomes the slave of the creditor. This was extremely common in Southeast Asia, where our Western model of slavery was extremely rare.[^21] - Bonded labor/indentured servitude: This is similar to debt servitude and has been very common in history. A person willingly enters into an agreement to exchange their labor and a loss of some freedoms for a fixed period of time in return for some service or up-front payment. This differs from debt servitude because the person willingly surrenders their labor and a degree of freedom. These categories are not fixed or hermetically sealed. They bleed into each other, making it very hard to come up with a clear line distinguishing slavery from other forms of coerced labor. Scottish mining serfs often wore collars with the names of their masters on them, for example, something we’d probably associate more with slavery.[^22] Indentured servants from Britain, who made up two-thirds of the immigrants to British North America before 1776, could be sold, worked to exhaustion and beaten for misbehavior. They could not marry and, in Virginia at least, could be mutilated if they tried to escape. In Maryland the punishment was death.[^23] Slavery in colonial America was worse, but only in that it was permanent. On the other hand, as early as the 1400s in the Ottoman Empire people captured in war were sometimes settled to work lands owned by the sultan. Although technically slaves, their condition was closer to serfdom. These slaves formed families that lasted generations and passed down the land they worked to their children. Only if a head of household died without any children would his estate revert back to the imperial treasury. Later on, as Ottoman cities industrialized, factory owners preferred using slave labor because slaves would not leave for seasonal work elsewhere. By agreeing to *mukātaba* contracts with these slaves—in which the slaves bought their own freedom by installments—these factory owners were able to maximize the slaves’ productivity.[^24] They were, in effect, more like wage laborers working for a set term in a master/servant relationship than slaves. We might think of slavery as distinguished from other types of coerced labor by the question of *choice*. Indentured servants *chose* to enter into those contracts. Slaves would never *choose* to become slaves, right? But realities are much more complicated. Outside of slavery in the Americas, ‘voluntary slavery’ was not uncommon at all.[^25] In Ming China many impoverished tenants sold themselves into slavery when they could not pay rent.[^26] In 1724, the Russian czar abolished slavery and converted all of Russia’s slaves into serfs because serfs were offering themselves as slaves to avoid paying taxes; serfs paid taxes, slaves did not.[^27] Earlier, in the fifteenth-century duchy of Muscovy, what scholars term ‘limited service contract slavery’ became common. In such a contract, a person asks someone wealthy for a loan for a year, at which point the person will pay them back and will also work for them in the meantime instead of paying interest. If the borrower cannot pay the creditor back in a year, they become their slave. Most often, they became a lifetime slave. This type of slavery replaced all other forms of slavery in Russia. And yet there was also indentured servitude at the same time, differing from slavery only in that an indentured servant could not be physically harmed by their master.[^28] Unlike bonded laborers or serfs, we might think of slaves as people with little or no legal right to protection. This has often been true. In Ming China, slaves were often referred to as “not human.” Not only could they not own property, marry or have legitimate children, but killing one of them also posed no legal problem.[^29] Among the Toraja people of Sulawesi (today in Indonesia), someone who had been convicted of a capital crime could have one of his slaves executed instead of himself.[^30] A judge in South Carolina in 1847 declared that a slave “can invoke neither *magna carta* nor common law”; for the slave the law was whatever the master said.[^31] Yet not only were legal realities often quite complicated, so were the social realities behind the laws. In Roman law, slaves were conceptualized as people with no rights. Since they were, in theory, prisoners of war who had been spared execution, they were legally dead anyway.[^32] And during the period of the Roman Republic (6th-1st centuries BCE), there was no legal restriction on a master’s treatment of his slaves. But such laws are not very helpful in distinguishing free from slave, however, since Roman heads of household at that time also enjoyed the theoretical ‘power of life and death’ over every man, woman and child in the family.[^33] As the number of slaves in the expanding Roman Empire increased, however, laws were put in place to protect them. Under the Emperor Hadrian (d. 138 CE) excessive punishment was forbidden, as was killing a slave without a legal ruling. The Emperors Antoninus Pius (d. 161 CE) and later Constantine (d. 337 CE) made it clear that if a master killed his slave in cold blood or by excessive punishment he was guilty of homicide. And in the legal code of Emperor Justinian (d. 565 CE) it was clear that the master’s rights to do violence to his slave were limited to reasonable discipline.[^34] In early America, all thirteen colonies had laws regulating race and slavery, which were occasionally updated. Although ten states in the South had slave codes making it a crime to mistreat slaves, mistreatment was understood in relation to the severity of the disobedience or infringement that the master was punishing. Amputating limbs, castration, and execution were all allowed as punishments when the alleged crime was severe. And it was almost impossible for slaves to challenge any treatment in court, since they could not even testify. Nonetheless in North Carolina and Virginia a handful of white slave-owners were executed or imprisoned for murdering or cruelly treating their slaves.[^35] --- ## Definitions that Never Seem to Work As a leading scholar of slavery, David Davis, observed, “The more we learn about slavery, the more difficulty we have defining it.”[^36] A trans-historical definition of slavery has indeed proven very hard to find. As a leading scholar on Ottoman slavery has remarked, it is difficult to treat slavery as one definable phenomenon just in the Ottoman Empire, let alone globally (though he stresses that the varieties of slavery in the Ottoman realm were different in degrees not different in kind).[^37]Nur Sobers-Khan [has observed](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ottoman-history-podcast/id513808150?mt%3D2%26i%3D378549385) about slavery in Ottoman Istanbul, that it was so diverse that it doesn’t make sense to talk about slavery as a unified phenomenon even in one city, let alone in the whole Mediterranean region.[^38] Scholars don’t even agree on where to start. Many historians, proceeding from a Marxist paradigm, have sought to explain slavery as a purely economic phenomenon. Others, especially scholars of slavery in the Islamic world, have stressed that slavery is often much more of a social phenomenon. Definitions of slavery have tended to revolve around three notions: the slave as a family-less outsider, the slave as property, and the slave as the object of violence.[^39] But for a definition to fit all the things that people today commonly associate with slavery, that definition has to be so vague that it’s almost useless. So slavery is “the forced labor of one group by another,” according to some social scientists.[^40] Others have suggested that the slave is always an outcast.[^41] According to Davis, to apply across human history, slavery can only be defined as extreme social “debasement”; whatever the hierarchy, slaves are always at the bottom.[^42] Some scholars have proposed more specific definitions for slavery as an economic, legal, and social condition. One argues that slavery is a mode of exploitation that is uniquely characterized by its means of reproducing itself, namely through political violence or captivity in war.[^43] The most influential, specific definition comes from Orlando Patterson, who defines slavery as always exhibiting three features. First, slavery involves perpetual domination ultimately enforced by violence. Second, slavery involves a state of natal alienation, “the loss of ties of birth in both ascending and descending generations” that preclude making claims of birth or passing them on to one’s children and that cuts the slave off from family and community except as allowed by the masters. They inherit no protection or privilege and can pass none on to their children. Finally, slaves are denied any honor. Slavery is thus defined as the “permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons.”[^44] But Patterson’s definition fails to apply to many instances of what we would otherwise think of as slavery. Sometimes it was the slaves who dominated free people, as in the case of the Turkish slave soldiers of the Abbasid caliphs in the ninth and early tenth centuries. Even before the Ottomans began their system of imperial slaves, Egypt and Syria were ruled by the Mamluk (literally, ‘slave’) state (c. 1260-1517). Although they were freed after they finished their military training, the Mamluk dynasty of Turkic or Caucasian warlords reproduced itself generation after generation by importing new slave soldiers into a ruling military elite that defined itself by its military slave experience.[^45] Far from being dominated by anyone, they were their own masters and dominated the whole of the state and society. Patterson argues that slave elites in Islamic civilization were still effectively powerless because their fate still hung on the whim of their masters. But the frequency with which Abbasid Turkic slaves, Egyptian Mamluks, and Ottoman Janissaries summarily executed their masters when it suited them strongly suggests otherwise. Nor have those who identify as slaves always been natally alienated. Byzantine imperial slaves could own property and bequeath it to their children.[^46] The Ottoman agricultural slaves settled on imperial lands passed their estates on to their children for generations. Unlike Roman slavery, where the status of a child’s mother determined its status, the main position in the *Shariah* was that a slave woman who gave birth to her master’s child became free when her master died, as did her child. Until then he could not sell her. Far from being natally alienated from her child, its status as the child of a freeman ensured the mother’s own freedom. Elite imperial slaves like Sokollu Mehmet Pasha were *technically* natally alienated in the sense that, according to the letter of the Shariah in Ottoman lands, their wealth reverted back to the treasury (*bayt al-mal*) upon death. But in reality, when an elite imperial slave like Sokollu died, what transpired was a form of negotiation between state officials and the heirs. Since many of these slaves had amassed—and stashed—immense wealth, it was more efficient for the state to negotiate for a portion of it in return for allowing the heirs to receive the remainder without legal problems.[^47] Here the slave’s natal alienation functioned more as an irregular estate tax than a total deprivation of their right to pass on their property to their heirs. There were also other easy means of circumventing the natal alienation of wealth. Like many wealthy citizens of the Ottoman Empire, imperial slaves could place their wealth in endowments (Ar. *waqf*, pl. *awqaaf*) and make their descendants the beneficiaries.[^48] Furthermore, the children of Ottoman imperial slaves could not pass their wealth on to their children (it reverted back to the imperial treasury upon their death), but their children retained the privileges of their fathers’ proximity to power as well as the status of their mothers. Sokollu Mehmet’s wife was the daughter of the sultan, so his sons attained high office. What is more striking is that, in many cases, Ottoman imperial slaves maintained their relationships to their original families in the Christian areas of the Balkans, using their newfound power to elevate their relatives.[^49] Sokollu Mehmet appointed his brother as Orthodox Patriarch in the Balkans, and his cousin later followed him to the office of grand vizier.[^50] Later, in the late eighteenth century, the Georgian slave elite in charge of administering the Ottoman province of Egypt maintained close relations to their families back in the Caucasus and even received visits from them.[^51] Sometimes exploiting family connections was one of the major purposes of enslavement. Though technically slaves, Christian Europeans captured by the Ottoman naval forces of Algiers in the eighteenth century were often more like hostages. They could send and receive mail from their families and, if their masters were lucky, their families paid ransoms to free them. In the meantime, they could own property, make money (those assigned to elite jobs like *cofeegi*, coffee pourer, might live better than in their home country), and mix freely.[^52] --- ## Slavery in Islam – A Political Question Before delving into how slavery existed in Islam we should note that this is not a question asked in a vacuum. It hasn’t been for well over two centuries. In conversations and debates the response, ‘Well, does that mean slavery would be ok?’ is the ultimate trump card against someone arguing for indulging different values. Slavery is the ideal example to invoke because its evil is so morally clear and so widely acknowledged. Who would defend slavery? It is the Hitler of human practices. Yet despite all its power, the word ‘slavery’ is rarely defined. In that sense, it is much like the word terrorism—its power lies in the assumptions behind its meaning and the moral condemnation it carries. But it is very poorly defined. Like the word terrorism, slavery is also a deeply, deeply *political* issue, not in the sense of politics as what we see on the nightly news, but rather in the sense that it is inherently tied to questions of power. Just as the practice of slavery is an extreme exercise of power by some human beings over others, wielding the language of slavery is a claim to *moral authority* over others. It is no surprise that advocates of ending brutal or unacceptably exploitative labor practices such as sweatshops, child sex trafficking, forced marriage, and organ trading refer to such phenomena as ‘modern day slavery.’ The reason for invoking the word ‘slavery’ instead of other definitions such as bonded labor or child labor is clear: slavery provokes an emotional reaction that spurs people into action and support for a cause. From students to rock stars, who wouldn’t support ending slavery? Though such practices are indeed reprehensible, with ‘modern day’ slavery we run across some familiar problems. If we took the definitions of slavery used by activists fighting ‘modern slavery’ (the main one is it’s slavery ‘if you can’t walk away’) and applied them to just Western history we’d find that almost no one was free by their standards.[^53] As some scholars have observed, the most prominent advocates for ending modern day slavery have not applied the label to the forced labor of criminals in the American penal system.[^54] This is no doubt a very political choice since fewer rock stars and students would be as willing to accuse the US government of engaging in ongoing slavery. So even when invoked for noble causes today, ‘slavery’ is still a deeply political word, both in the emotional reaction it triggers and in the self-censorship that people use in when and where they apply it. The political nature of slavery is particularly pronounced in the history of Islam and the West. During the eighteenth and even nineteenth centuries the fear of being captured by Muslim pirates in the Atlantic and western Mediterranean loomed large in the Western European (particularly British) imagination. And indeed thousands of British and Americans were taken as slaves in such a way. We still see the cultural imprint of this fear in movies like *Never Say Never Again* (1983), where James Bond rescues Kim Basinger from a remarkably out of place [Arab slave auction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dm1AuOoDw25g), and *Taken* (2008), where Liam Neeson finally rescues his daughter from first (Muslim) Albanian traffickers and finally from a [lascivious Arab sheik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DuQrK8AZdYg8). But, like the selective use of the term ‘modern day slavery,’ this conversation is selective in its claim to Western moral authority. During the same era that Europeans and Americans were decrying capture and enslavement by Muslim pirates, the enslavement by Europeans of Muslims from the Ottoman Empire was booming.[^55] And our Western cultural memories are even more selective.  Western theater-goers likely felt no outrage in *The Spy Who Loved Me* (1977) when Bond visits the harem of his Arab sheik friend and is offered one of the women (when in the Orient, says the sheik, “[one should delve deeply into its treasures](http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie%3Dthe-spy-who-loved-me)”). From the British tabloids to then private citizen Donald Trump, in 2015 many parroted the claim that Muslims in northern England were luring young white girls in as sex slaves. Some Muslims were doing this, but few media reports stated that the [majority](http://moderngov.rotherham.gov.uk/documents/s100912/CSE_The_Way_Forward_2015_18%2520Consultation%2520Draft.pdf) of offenders were actually white men.[^56] --- ## Conclusion: Focus on the Conditions, not the Word The word slavery has been political even when it has been invoked for the best of causes. And the political forces that have shaped how slavery is understood have often hobbled the best efforts of those fighting against the extreme exploitation of fellow human beings. Abolitionists in the nineteenth century chose to define slavery as treating human beings as property in part because, if they defined slavery as harsh deprivation or exploitation, their pro-slavery opponents would just point to the factory of conditions of industrial England and America and note that ‘free’ workers were being treated just as badly.[^57] Having emphasized that slavery consisted of humans being treated as property, abolitionists were left with no objection to continued exploitation of the same people they had just freed once it became technically illegal to own people. British abolitionists succeeded in ending slavery in the Indian Ocean in the 1830s. But then they found that laborers were still being transported to East Africa from India in the same horrid conditions as slaves and with the same high mortality rate. They were just called ‘coolies’ rather than slaves.[^58] Today, decades after the legal right to own other human beings was abolished globally, activists referred to as new abolitionists, seeking to mobilize public concern over exploitative labor, have redefined slavery as ‘not being able to walk away.’[^59] Ultimately, the word ‘slavery’ can mean so many things that it’s not very useful for accurate communication. It often ends up referring to things we don’t mean when we think of slavery, or it fails to match things we do associate with slavery. As such, the word slavery has limited use as a category or conceptual tool. It’s much more useful to talk about the extreme exploitation of human beings’ labor and the extreme deprivation of their rights. In any society, whether it has ‘slavery’ or not, we are likely to find such conditions. Instead of fixating on a word or ill-defined category, it is much more useful to focus on regulating conditions and protecting people’s rights in order to prevent extreme debasement. For more on this topic see [Slavery & Islam](https://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Islam-Jonathan-C-Brown-ebook/dp/B07JQQWV9Y/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11MZ9BGSWUSXF&dchild=1&keywords=jonathan+brown&qid=1617345490&sprefix=johnathan+brown%2Caps%2C434&sr=8-1). --- ## Notes [^1]: The Ottoman tradition of elite slavery may have been inherited from the late Roman and Byzantine Empires, where imperial slaves (often eunuchs) could rise to high positions in the military and the administration; Youval Rotman, *Byzantine Slavery and the Mediterranean World*, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 104; Cam Grey, “Slavery in the Late Roman World,” in *The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume I The Ancient Mediterranean World*, ed. Keith Bradley and Paul Cartledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 499. [^2]: Pamela Kyle Crossley, “Slavery in Early Modern China,” in T*he Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 3 AD 1420-1804*, ed. David Eltis and Stanley Engerman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 200. [^3]: Christoph K. Neumann, “Whom did Ahmet Cevdet represent?,” in *Late Ottoman Society*, ed. Elisabeth Özdalga, 117-134.  London: Routledge, 2005), 117. [^4]: David Brion Davis, *Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 17-18. [^5]: Orlando Patterson, *Slavery and Social Death* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), 22. [^6]: Grey, “Slavery in the Late Roman World,” 496; Rotman, *Byzantine Slavery*, 174-76. [^7]: Patterson, *Slavery and Social Death*, 22. [^8]: Crossley, “Slavery in Early Modern China,” 191. [^9]: Julia O’Connell Davidson, *Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 162. [^10]: Crossley, “Slavery in Early Modern China,” 187. [^11]: Vaughan Lowe, *International Law: A Very Short Introduction* (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 1. [^12]: Here quoting Youval Rotman, *Byzantine Slavery*, 19. [^13]: Rotman, *Byzantine Slavery*, 17-18. [^14]: Rotman, *Byzantine Slavery*, 97-98. [^15]: Joseph C. Miller, *The Problem of Slavery as History* (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 12. [^16]: David Eltis and Stanley Engerman, “Dependence, Servility, and Coerced Labor in Time and Space,” in *The Cambridge World History of Slavery Volume 3*, 3. [^17]: Richard Hellie, “Russian Slavery and Serfdom, 1450-1804,” in *The Cambridge World History of Slavery Vol. 3*, 276-77. [^18]: Cam Grey, “Slavery in the Late Roman World,” 484-6. [^19]: Hellie, “Russian Slavery,” 284, 292-93. [^20]: Eltis and Engerman, “Dependence, Servility, and Coerced Labor,” 7; Davidson, *Modern Slavery*, 68.  In England this issue was governed by the Statute of Artificers, which the American colonies only adopted in a limited way. [^21]: Kerry Ward, “Slavery in Southeast Asia, 1420-1804,” in *The Cambridge World History of Slavery Volume 3*, 165-66. [^22]: Eltis and Engerman, “Dependence, Servility, and Coerced Labor,” 6. [^23]: Kenneth Morgan, *Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America* (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 8-9, 20; David Galenson, “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis,” *Journal of Economic History* 44, no. 1 (1984): 4. [^24]: It was in the Ottoman state’s interest to keep this agricultural system stable; Y. Hakan Erdem, *Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and its Demise, 1800-1909* (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 12-13, 15. [^25]: Stanley Engerman, “Slavery at Different Times and Places,” *American Historical Review* 105, n. 2 (2000): 481 [^26]: Crossley, “Slavery in Early Modern China,” 189. [^27]: Hellie, “Russian Slavery,” 284, 293. [^28]: Hellie, “Russian Slavery,” 279-80.  The author notes the similarity between this Russian contract and the ancient Persian custom of *antichrisis* (as named by Greek authors). [^29]: Crossley, “Slavery in Early Modern China,” 191. [^30]: Ward, “Slavery in Southeast Asia,” 171. [^31]: Lawrence M. Friedman, *A History of American Law*, 2nd ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), 225. [^32]: W.W. Buckland, *The Roman Law of Slavery* (New York: AMS, 1969, reprint of 1908 Cambridge U. Press edition), 2-3. [^33]: Yan Thomas, “Vitae Necisque Potestas: Le Père, La Cité, La Mort,” *Publications de l’École Française de Rome* (1984*)*: 499–548. [^34]: Buckland, *The Roman Law of Slavery*, 36-8. [^35]: Kenneth Morgan, *Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America*, 35, 77; Ira Berlin, *Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America* (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1998), 116; Paul Finkelman, “Slavery: United States Law,” in *Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History*, 5:258-262; Friedman, *A History of American Law*, 225-6. [^36]: David Brion Davis, *Slavery and Human Progres*s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 8. [^37]: Ehud Toledano, *Slavery and Abolition in the Ottoman Middle East* (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998), 164-65; Toledano, *As if Silent and Absent: Bonds of Enslavement in the Islamic Middle Eas*t (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 21. [^38]: See also Nur Sobers-Khan, *Slaves without Shackles: Forced Labour and Manumission in the Galata Court Registers, 1560-1572* (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2014). [^39]: Martin Klein, “Introduction,” in *Breaking the Chains: Slavery, Bondage, and Emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia*, ed. Martin Klein (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), 4-5. [^40]: Rodney Coates, “Slavery” in *Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology*, ed. George Ritzer (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007). [^41]: A. Testart, “The Extent and Significance of Debt Slavery,” *Revue Française de Sociologie* 43 (2002): 176. [^42]: Davis, *Slavery and Human Progress*, 17-19; Brenda Stevenson, *What is Slavery?* (Malden, MA: Polity, 2015), 8. [^43]: Claude Meillassoux, *The Anthropology of Slavery* (London: Athlone, 1991). [^44]: Orlando Patterson, *Slavery and Social Death* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), 7-8, 13. [^45]: Nasser Rabbat, “The Changing Concept of the Mamlūk in the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria,” in *Slave Elites in the Middle East and Africa*, ed. Miura Toru and John Edward Philips (London: Kegal Paul, 2000), 89, 97. [^46]: Rotman, *Byzantine Slavery*, 104. [^47]: See Ali Yaycıoğlu, “Wealth, Power and Death: Capital Accumulation and Imperial Seizures in the Ottoman Empire (1453-1839)” available at http://www.econ.yale.edu/~egcenter/Yaycioglu%20-%20Wealth%20Death%20and%20Power%20-%20November%202012.pdf. [^48]: Leslie Pierce, *Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 315; Toledano, *As if Silent and Absent*, 25; Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, *A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 147-48. [^49]: Dror Ze’evi, “My Slave, My Son, My Lord: Slavery, Family and the State in the Islamic Middle East,” in *Slave Elites in the Middle East and Africa*, 75.  See also Metin Kunt’s short article, “Ethnic-Regional (Cins) Solidarity in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Establishment,” *International Journal of Middle East Studies* 5, no. 3 (1974): 233-39. [^50]: Veinstein, G., “Soḳollu Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a”, in: *Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition*, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 21 November 2016 First published online: 2012 [^51]: Daniel Crecelius and Gotcha Djaparidze, “Relations of the Georgian Mamluks of Egypt with Their Homeland in the Last Decades of the Eighteenth Century,” *Journal of the Social and Economic History of the Orient* 45, no. 3 (2002): 326. [^52]: Christine E. Sears, “‘In Algiers, the City of Bondage’: Urban Slavery in Comparative Context,” in *New Directions in Slavery Studies*, ed. Jeff Forret and Christine E. Sears (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2015), 203, 207, 211. [^53]: Julia O’Connell Davidson, *Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 3, 6, 22-23, 37-39, 69, 169. [^54]: Davidson, *Modern Slavery*, 100 [^55]: William Clarence-Smith and David Eltis, “White Servitude,” 139, 144. [^56]: thestar.co.uk/news/majority-of-rotherham-child-exploitation-suspects-are-white-claims-new-report-1-739263 [^57]: Davidson, *Modern Slavery*, 33. [^58]: Davidson, *Modern Slavery*, 32. [^59]: Kevin Bales, *Understanding Global Slavery* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 52-54. ## Summary Is there slavery in Islam? Though many assume the difficulty lies in understanding Islam, in truth the harder task is defining what we even mean by "slavery." The word, as understood in the modern West, is shaped largely by the American experience of chattel slavery, and when we examine the phenomenon across time and place, our assumptions begin to dissolve. To illustrate this, imagine traveling across history to encounter four scenes. In fifteenth-century Mecca, we find a "soft and delicate" (raqīq) man named Saffron, a slave who had contracted with his master to purchase his freedom in installments through a mukātaba arrangement; nearby a young man being struck with a fly-swatter turns out not to be a slave at all, but the master's own son, bound to the household for life. In the Ottoman capital in 1579, we meet Sokollu Mehmet Pasha, the immensely wealthy and powerful grand vizier married to the sultan's daughter—yet technically a slave of the sultan, as were his Bosnian guards. In England in 1860, we meet a free factory worker who is nonetheless imprisoned as a thief for leaving his employment, since labor law then criminalized such acts. Finally, in rural Arizona in 2004, long after slavery was abolished, we witness shackled youths on a juvenile chain gang overseen by an armed sheriff. Who among these was truly a slave? The difficulty is that our instincts mislead us. We tend to identify slavery with physical degradation, harsh labor, and total loss of freedom for life, yet the man being beaten was free and the powerful vizier was a slave. The Manchu administrators of Qing China proudly called themselves slaves (aha) while wielding great authority, and the Ottoman kul held more esteem than free men. The very word "slave" derives from Sclavus, the Medieval Latin term for the Slavic peoples drawn from the Balkans by European traders. The common Western definition—that a slave is legally owned property forced to labor without pay—descends from Roman law, which divided humanity into the free and the enslaved. Yet the concept of ownership itself proves slippery. Ownership is a "bundle of rights," and rarely complete: American children legally own their toys yet do not control them. As the social historian Orlando Patterson observes, what we claim to own is a matter of custom. In Rome and medieval Europe parents sold children into slavery for debt, though those children began life legally free; in imperial China husbands bequeathed their free wives as property; and between 1760 and 1880 there were 218 recorded cases of Englishmen auctioning their wives. Ownership cannot even be equated with total control, for parents cannot lawfully harm their children, and likewise—as the passage notes—it was impermissible under the Sharīʿah for a Muslim to kill or seriously injure his slave, with legal consequences for those who did. In imperial China, slaves were not even legally "owned," since the law could not classify persons as things. Nor does exploitation define slavery, for Sokollu Mehmet Pasha was handsomely paid, and Saffron received food, clothing, and shelter from his master just as the master's own son did—both being dependents. Freedom, too, resists definition. As the legal scholar Vaughan Lowe quipped, inverting Rousseau, "Man is born in chains, but everywhere he thinks himself free." Almost no one is free of dependence, and freedom is relational: a slave attached to a powerful master shared in that master's standing, as Roman and Byzantine slaves ran shops and dealt daily with free customers. Scholars have therefore struggled to determine whether "slavery" is even a single institution existing across history. When Americans picture slavery, they recall Twelve Years a Slave and Roots—Africans seized, packed into ships, and worked mercilessly, the "original sin" of America. Yet ownership, freedom, and exploitation exist on a spectrum, a "continuum of dependency" that includes serfdom, the master-servant relationship, debt servitude, and indentured servitude. These categories bleed into one another. Scottish mining serfs wore collars bearing their masters' names; indentured servants, who were two-thirds of immigrants to British North America before 1776, could be sold, beaten, forbidden to marry, and in Virginia mutilated or in Maryland executed for fleeing. Ottoman prisoners of war settled on imperial lands lived much like serfs, passing land to their children for generations, and later industrial slaves under mukātaba contracts resembled wage laborers. Even choice fails as a criterion, for "voluntary slavery" was common: impoverished tenants in Ming China sold themselves, and in 1724 the Russian czar converted slaves into serfs because serfs, unlike slaves, paid taxes. Legal protection likewise varied. In Ming China slaves were called "not human," and a 1847 South Carolina judge declared a slave could invoke neither Magna Carta nor common law. Yet Roman law evolved, so that under Hadrian excessive punishment was forbidden and under Antoninus Pius and Constantine killing one's slave became homicide, while Justinian's code limited a master to reasonable discipline. In America, ten Southern states criminalized mistreatment, though brutal punishments were permitted for severe disobedience, and a handful of slaveholders in North Carolina and Virginia were punished for murder. David Davis observed that "the more we learn about slavery, the more difficulty we have defining it," and Nur Sobers-Khan noted that slavery in Ottoman Istanbul was too diverse to treat as one phenomenon even within a single city. Definitions cluster around three ideas: the slave as family-less outsider, as property, and as object of violence. Orlando Patterson's influential definition holds that slavery is the "permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons." Yet this fails in many cases. The Turkic slave soldiers of the Abbasids, the Mamluks who ruled Egypt and Syria (c. 1260–1517), and the Ottoman Janissaries often dominated the free and even executed their masters. Nor were all natally alienated: Byzantine imperial slaves and Ottoman agricultural slaves bequeathed property to their children. Under the Sharīʿah, the dominant position held that a slave woman who bore her master's child (an umm walad) became free upon his death, as did her child, and she could not be sold—so far from being severed from her child, its free status secured her own freedom. Elite slaves like Sokollu circumvented natal alienation through negotiated settlements and through endowments (waqf, pl. awqāf) benefiting their descendants. Sokollu even appointed his brother as Orthodox Patriarch and saw his cousin become grand vizier, while European captives of Algiers functioned more as ransomed hostages who could own property and correspond with their families. Slavery is, moreover, a deeply political word, wielded like "terrorism" for its emotional force yet rarely defined. Activists invoke "modern-day slavery" to stir action, though their standard—"if you can't walk away"—would render almost no one in Western history free, and they conspicuously exclude forced prison labor in America. This selectivity marked Islam and the West alike: Europeans decried Muslim pirates enslaving Christians even as Europeans enslaved Ottoman Muslims, and Western cinema alternately condemned and romanticized "Oriental" slavery. Ultimately, the word "slavery" is too elastic to communicate accurately. Nineteenth-century abolitionists defined slavery as treating humans as property, but once ownership was abolished, exploitation continued under new names such as "coolies." It is therefore more useful to focus not on the word but on the conditions themselves—the extreme exploitation of labor and deprivation of rights—and to regulate and protect against such debasement wherever it appears, whether or not it bears the name "slavery." --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-muhammad-confronted-hate-and-became-the-most-influential-person-in-history # How Muhammad ﷺ Confronted Hate and Became The Most Influential Person in History **Authors:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, Dr. Omar Suleiman **Topics:** Faith, Prophets **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** January 13, 2017 **Updated:** November 11, 2025 ## Introduction *In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful* To delegitimize the Messenger ﷺ is to call into question the entire message.[^1]  During his time, the Meccans called him a poet, a magician, and a madman, among other names. Today, he is insulted with other labels. But perhaps the most invidious insult, designed to undermine the powerful establishment and spread of his message, is that he overcame his foes with terror only to rule them with cruelty. Descriptions of Muhammad ﷺ’s life, military career, and traditions form the foundation for most judgments about his mission. Islam as a whole, through these depictions, is seen as either a religion of peace or a religion of war, depending on which interpretation of the messenger and message is followed. Modern critiques of some of the Prophet ﷺ’s undertakings are meant to question the civility of Islam in the ongoing manufactured clash of civilizations that fuel both Islamophobes and extremists. Michael Bonner notes, “Many of these modern arguments over historiography, and over the rise of Islam and the origins of jihad more generally, began in the nineteenth and the earlier twentieth centuries among European academic specialists in the study of the East, often referred to as the orientalists.”[^2] He goes on to note that the motivation of these arguments cannot be disconnected from “their involvement in the colonial project.”[^3] By portraying the Prophet ﷺ himself as a barbarian, surely his followers must also be treated as an inherently violent political body that will employ any means necessary to achieve global domination. What is uncontroversial is that Muhammad ﷺ succeeded at wielding unprecedented power after decades of persecution. Michael Hart, who famously considered him the most influential man in history, wrote, > *My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.*[^4] The question of whether or not he sacrificed his principles in the pursuit of that success is one that requires an in-depth look at his consistency, or lack thereof, in varied political contexts. --- ## “His Character Was the Quran” This was the description of the Prophet ﷺ given by ‘Â’isha (ra). He practiced everything that he preached. He ﷺ was an embodiment of the message; all of the verses of grace, ethics, and beauty were embodied in his example. When Allah says, “Repel that which is evil with that which is better” \[Fussilat (41): 34\], it is in his example that we find how to rise above every form of evil one may face, particularly at the hands of those who show us hostility. The “evil” is relative—and so is the response. Therefore, each unique circumstance that the Prophet ﷺ faced required a different response. The consistency with which he adopted the noblest course in every situation is what stands out and makes him venerable. Islamophobes argue that Muhammad ﷺ was himself the author of the Quran, and hence, the Quran became less tolerant as his power grew. Muslims argue that the Prophet ﷺ was the embodiment of the Quran, which is the word of Allah, and that both [his character](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-character-of-prophet-muhammad) and the prose of the Quran were consistent in their grace. The verses of battle were revealed only post-Madinah because the battles did not take place until the Prophet ﷺ had assumed the role of a head of state. Yet, some of the most prominent verses of tolerance, such as the verse, “There is no compulsion in religion” \[al-Baqara (2): 256\], were also revealed post-Madinah. --- ## A Blessing in Disguise “If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day.”[^5] As we immerse ourselves in how the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ magnanimously treated his enemies, how graciously he responded to decades of aggression, and how he unfailingly transcended insults and injuries, we come to a number of stark realizations. Of them is how Islamophobia and its associated fear-mongering are truly blessings in disguise. The torrential downpour of allegations about Allah’s Messenger ﷺ using violence to force conversions,[^6] or being an unprincipled opportunist,[^7] are ultimately forcing us to rediscover his character anew. Any impartial reader of the Prophet ﷺ’s biography will quickly discover which “snapshots” taken from his life are dishonest in their representation, which were depictions of his normative practices, and which were exceptions to the norm. In fact, as one reads further, one realizes that even these “exceptions” were not trivial hiccups in his character, but rather another dimension of his superior persona and universal mercy that many simply fail to understand. The following pages serve to start readers on that journey, lifting them above superficial information and manipulative illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ, whom Almighty God described as “but a mercy to the worlds” \[al-Anbiyâ’ (21): 107\], and “upon an exalted \[standard\] of character” \[al-Qalam (68): 4\]. We have compiled 70 incidents in which the Prophet ﷺ rose above enmity and insult. Before addressing the three or four incidents employed by those who wish to portray him as a violent opportunist, it is crucial to shed light on the overwhelming number of incidents which precast his dealings, political or otherwise. Each incident has been paraphrased for the sake of brevity, but references to the original narrations are provided as source material for those who wish to extract further benefit from these incidents. The primary goal is to form a foundation for understanding how the Prophet ﷺ consistently showed honor and nobility when insulted and attacked. It is only with this background that incidents that appear to be exceptions to this rule can be accurately analyzed. Another goal of this collection is to inspire the followers of Muhammad ﷺ to [demonstrate mercy and benevolence in the face of insult](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/repentance-redemption-salvation-an-islamic-framework), just as their Prophet ﷺ did. Surely, all of the cruelty and bigotry hurled at the followers of Muhammad ﷺ today pales in comparison to the vicious attacks he endured. Just as it hurts us to see him insulted, it would pain him ﷺ to see us responding in ways insulting to his legacy. --- ## Tortured and Martyred in Mecca Once the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ began to preach Islam publicly, his few followers quickly found that merely professing faith meant facing ruthless torture and even execution. Men from the Meccan nobility, like Abu Bakr (ra), were beaten unconscious in the streets while slaves like Bilâl b. Rabah (ra) and Suhayb b. Sinân (ra) were shackled and left to scorch in the midday desert sun. The first martyr was Sumayya b. Khayyât (ra), who was murdered with a spear thrust through her pelvis, and her son, ‘Ammâr b. Yâsir (ra), was tortured with fire—like so many others—until he verbally feigned recanting his faith.[^8] Khabbâb b. al-Aratt (ra) was forced to lie on burning coals and smell his own flesh cooking,[^9] and some of these atrocities only escalated as this tragic decade progressed. As for the Prophet ﷺ himself, the abuse he suffered from the idolaters of Quraysh was brutal. They spared no opportunity to demonize him, divorced his daughters, and exiled and starved his entire clan for three years. As for physical assault, ‘Uqba b. Abi Mu‘ayt strangled him from behind when he prayed in public, Abu Jahl ordered camel intestines to be dumped over him while he prostrated, ‘Utayba b. Abi Lahab spat at him, and others beat him unconscious. A number of key observations can be noted from the period of persecution. Muhammad ﷺ clearly directed a policy of perseverance and non-violent response against a backdrop of repeated provocations of the Quraysh. These provocations increased in severity as the Quraysh grew frustrated at their failure to stop his preaching; he had an eager and receptive audience that grew steadily despite all efforts to instill fear in it. Abu Lahab, one of his paternal uncles, began to hurl insults at him from the moment he ﷺ started preaching to his own clan members from the mount of Safa near the Ka’ba, a place commonly used to address the people.[^10] This incident paved the way for public mocking of Muslims to become the norm, particularly when they were seen praying at the Ka’ba.[^11] > *Warn your nearest kinfolk and lower your wing tenderly over the believers who follow you. If they disobey you, say, ‘I bear no responsibility for your actions.’ Put your trust in the Almighty, the Merciful, who sees you when you stand up \[for prayer\] and sees your movements among the worshippers: He is the All Hearing, the All Knowing* \[ash-Shu‘arâ’ (26): 214-220\].[^12] A concerted effort was made by the Quraysh—who viewed the Muslims as rebellious criminals for abandoning the pagan religion of their forefathers—to prevent anyone they could from listening to Muhammad ﷺ. This was true both within and outside Mecca, as people from across the Arabian Peninsula who frequented Mecca for worship and trade began to come in contact with him and the message of Islam. Waleed b. al-Mugheera, an elite Meccan and highly influential businessman, initiated a smear campaign against Muhammad ﷺ at a council of tribal leaders. In it, he devised a plan to accuse Muhammad ﷺ of being a magician as a way to warn the public against the mesmerizing effect his words had on those who heard him recite the Quran.[^13] Historical incidents of additional propaganda efforts accusing him of being a liar, a madman, being possessed, and even of his being a poet who lured and manipulated people into following him, are also recorded in the Quran.[^14] > *The disbelievers almost strike you down with their looks when they hear the Quran. They say, ‘He must be mad!’* \[al-Qalam (68): 51\] > > *The disbelievers think it strange that a prophet of their own people has come to warn them: they say, ‘He is just a lying sorcerer.’* \[Sâd (38):4\] Pained by the visible suffering of his followers and unable to protect them from harm, Muhammad ﷺ was at the same time grieved at not being able to convince the community at large—among whom were many of his own clan members. Despite this, his strategy was a deliberate one: to continue to invite people, choosing to appeal to their sense of morality and reason over the potentially far more destructive use of force. When seen through the lens of a tribal society, any one of the provocations of Quraysh would have been sufficient cause for war between the tribes involved. Yet, we see unprecedented individual and collective self-control, conviction, and perseverance that can only be realized with great spiritual and moral foresight; this foresight was the foundation of a leadership strategy for reform that Muhammad ﷺ was carefully building at this stage in Mecca. This came at a time in which he and his followers had not been given divine permission to take up arms—even as a means of defense. As the Muslims were a minority living in a city that was largely hostile toward them, war would have destroyed the few who had joined the ranks of the Muslims, as well as any chance of establishing this fledgling community. In light of the tribal system the Quraysh were accustomed to, it was not easy to simply go to battle against the Muslims, given that Muhammad ﷺ and his followers were not from any one clan alone, and several among them were the youth of the most elite and powerful tribes—and therefore, under protection. Rather, war at this stage would have necessitated large-scale participation across many clans, even against those with whom alliances existed, and potentially, against one’s own family members. As Sallabi notes, “As the matter stood, Islam spread throughout all of the Quraysh’s clans, without any of the adverse effects that result from tribal loyalty.”[^15] Ultimately, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ fled this persecution by migrating with his Companions to Madinah, but not before leaving in the pages of history a matchless legacy of forgiveness and dignified dealings with one’s enemies. Below are but a few of these remarkable instances from humanity’s most luminous life ever: ### 1. Let the Angels Respond Despite the Quran affirming that the insults of Quraysh[^16] tightened his chest with pain, he ﷺ never stooped to reciprocating in kind. In fact, he inevitably took the higher road of not responding at all, hopeful that this would one day penetrate their harsh hearts, following Allah’s injunction to: “Repel \[evil\] by that \[deed\] which is better; and thereupon the one whom between you and him is enmity \[will become\] as though he was a devoted friend” \[Fussilat (41): 34\]. On one occasion, the Prophet ﷺ silently smiled when Abu Bakr (ra), his most noble Companion, refrained from responding to a person who was insulting him. But when Abu Bakr (ra) eventually spoke up, the Prophet ﷺ became angry and left. He ﷺ later explained, “An angel was with you, responding on your behalf. But when you said back to him some of what he said, a devil arrived, and it is not for me to sit with devils.”[^17] The Prophet ﷺ taught thereby that when a person stoops to the level of those who insult them they allow the devil to steer their course. One of the core principles of Islamic spirituality is to not allow our emotions and actions to be hijacked by the devil to the point where our decision-making is driven by other than divine instruction. The Prophet ﷺ taught various methods such as seeking refuge in Allah from the devil, changing our physical positions to less confrontational ones, performing ablution, etc to help us maintain composure when angry. In anger, we tend to respond in prideful, satanic ways that serve nothing and no one but our own egos. Righteous anger is necessary, but cannot be expressed when one is not appropriately composed. Therefore, the Prophet ﷺ overcame any attempts on the part of his enemies to provoke foulness, vulgarity, or anything not befitting his noble character. ### 2\. They are Misguided in their Insults Arwâ b. Harb (also known as Um Jameel, the wife of Abu Lahab) would follow the Prophet ﷺ around to hurt and humiliate him and used to taunt him, “Mudhammam (the dispraised) we have denied, and his religion we have loathed, and his command we have defied (مذمم أبينا، ودينه قلينا، وأمره عصينا)!” Instead of responding to her, he ﷺ would simply find solace in saying to his Companions, “Don’t you see how Allah diverts from me the curses and insults of Quraysh? They insult Mudhammam, and they curse Mudhammam, while I am Muhammad (the Praised One)!”[^18] He quickly calmed the situation and found optimism at a time where it seemed impossible to detect a silver lining. We, too, should see that the cartoons and drawings that people claim to be his likeness are in fact far removed from our beloved Prophet ﷺ. ### 3\. Praying for their Guidance and Recognizing Potential ‘Amr b. Hishâm (also known as Abu Jahl) was his staunchest enemy—the pharaoh of his nation. Despite inflicting physical and emotional wounds on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and despite breaking his Companions’ bones and later leading the first army against them, his guidance was still on the Prophet’s mind. He ﷺ used to say in Mecca, “O Allah, strengthen Islam with Abu Jahl b. Hishâm or ‘Umar b. al-Khattâb.” The following morning, ‘Umar b. al-Khattâb embraced Islam.[^19] Despite Abu Jahl being the pharaoh of the Muslims, the Prophet ﷺ had the heart to pray for him, and the judgment to see his promising leadership qualities that could potentially be used for good. ### 4\. Sparing Them Divine Punishment When Quraysh became even more vicious, the Prophet ﷺ prayed, “O Allah, send years \[of famine\] upon them like the seven years \[of famine during the time\] of Joseph.” As a result, a famine overtook them like that of Prophet Joseph’s time, destroying every kind of life and forcing people to eat hides and carcasses to the point that they hallucinated seeing smoke. Abu Sufyân came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Muhammad, you order people to obey Allah and keep good relations with their kin. The people of your tribe are dying, so please pray to Allah for them.” Ultimately, the Prophet ﷺ received verses from *Surat ad-Dukhân* (the Smoke) and he supplicated for them. A cloud quickly appeared and poured forth rain in abundance, and he supplicated for them *again* when they subsequently complained of the excessive rain. But once they were quenched and secure, they soon relapsed into rejection and rebellion.[^20] ### 5\. Showing Mercy On the Worst Day of His Life ‘Â’isha (ra) reported that she once asked the Prophet ﷺ, “Have you encountered a day harder than the Day of Uhud?” The Prophet ﷺ said, > *Your tribe has abused me much, and the worst was the day of ‘Aqaba when I presented myself to ‘Abd Yalâyl b. ‘Abd Kulâl, and he did not respond to what I sought. I departed, overwhelmed with grief, and I could not relax until I found myself at a tree where I lifted my head towards the sky to see a cloud shading me. I looked up and saw Gabriel in it. He called out to me, saying, ‘Allah has heard your people’s saying to you and how they have replied, and Allah has sent the Angel of the Mountains to you that you may order him to do whatever you wish to these people.’ The Angel of the Mountains greeted me and said, ‘O Muhammad, order what you wish, and if you like, I will let the two mountains fall upon them.’ I said, ‘No; rather, I hope that Allah will bring from their descendants people who will worship Allah alone without associating partners with Him.’*[^21] In other reports, he ﷺ spent ten days in Tâ’if after speaking to its leaders, calling its people to Islam, until mobs gathered to drive him out. They made two rows and forced him through them while they hurled obscenities and pelted stones until blood ran down his blessed legs, and Zayd b. Haritha’s head was gashed.[^22] ### 6\. More Hope in a Tribe than its own Chief When Tufayl b. Amr ad-Dawsi (ra) first visited Mecca he was fearful of being bewitched by the Prophet ﷺ and even placed cotton in his ears while circling the Ka‘ba. Nevertheless, he embraced Islam shortly thereafter. When he carried this message back to his people, however, they shunned him and adamantly refused. Abu Hurayra (ra) reports that Tufayl b. ‘Amr (ra) then traveled back to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, Daws has defied \[your call\] so invoke Allah against them.” He ﷺ said, “O Allah, guide Daws and bring them forth \[as Muslims\].”[^23] Nearly a decade later, Tufayl b. ‘Amr (ra) migrated with eighty families—now Muslims—to Madinah. ### 7\. Maintaining the Trusts of his Persecutors When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ migrated from Mecca, he had many of his persecutors’ belongings with him for safekeeping. His integrity was never compromised, even though these individuals had expelled his Companions and subjected them to persecution. ‘Â’isha (ra) said, “He ﷺ instructed ‘Ali (ra) to stay behind in Mecca, in order to return all the trusts the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had for people. There was nobody in Mecca (even his enemies!) who had valuables that he feared for except that he kept them with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, due to the honesty and trustworthiness that was known \[to all\] about him. Thus, ‘Ali (ra) stayed back for three days and three nights to deliver everything entrusted by the people to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ back to them, and then caught up with him ﷺ after completing that task.”[^24] ### 8. Integrity in Desperation Surâqa b. Mâlik (ra) was one of the bounty hunters in hot pursuit of the Prophet ﷺ during his migration to Madinah. When Surâqa tracked them down, Abu Bakr (ra) began weeping out of fear for the Prophet ﷺ, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed, “O Allah, suffice us regarding them however You wish.” The legs of Surâqa’s horse sank deep into the firm earth so far that it reached the horse’s stomach. Surâqa leapt off his mount and said, “O Muhammad, I have become certain that this is your doing, so ask Allah to rescue me from what I am in. By Allah, I will blind those \[chasing\] after you from \[knowing\] your whereabouts. And here is my quiver, take an arrow from it, and when you come across my camels and sheep in such-and-such a place, take from them whatever you like.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I have no need for them,” and supplicated until Surâqa was released and returned to his people.[^25] --- ## The Migration to Medina The Prophet ﷺ actively solicited followers from other tribes to grant him protection from his persecutors. The people of Yathrib (i.e., Madinah) responded, and they secretly met the Prophet ﷺ during the season of pilgrimage in Mecca. It was during this meeting that they took a pledge with him and suggested that they attack the unsuspecting Meccans at night. Muhammad ﷺ refused, saying it was unbefitting his message. Muhammad ﷺ’s refusal to take up arms against the ruling class in Mecca frustrated even some of his staunchest followers. Khabbâb b. al-Aratt, who was amongst those most severely tortured for accepting Islam, said, > *We complained to Allah’s Messenger of the persecution inflicted on us while he was sitting in the shade of the Ka‘ba, leaning over his cloak. We said to him, ‘Would you seek help for us? Would you pray to Allah for us?’ He said, ‘Among the nations before you a believing man would be put in a ditch that was dug for him, and a saw would be put over his head and he would be cut into two pieces; yet that torture would not make him give up his religion. His body would be combed with iron combs that would remove his flesh from the bones and nerves, yet that would not make him abandon his religion. By Allah, this religion will prevail in a way that a traveler from Sana, Yemen to Hadramaut, Yemen will fear none but Allah, and a sheep will not fear the attack of a wolf, but you people are hasty!’*[^26] It is interesting to note that Muhammad ﷺ never made guarantees to his followers of any material incentive for supporting him. He promised them only the rewards of the afterlife. The loyalty that he garnered from a few followers who experienced no worldly benefit for following him was so strong that they became known for never fleeing the battlefield.[^27] He ﷺ fled the persecution of Mecca and was invited to govern in the city of Madinah. He went from fugitive to governor practically overnight and adjusted his strategies accordingly. > *This migration (hijra) marked a turning point in Muhammad’s fortunes and a new stage in the history of the Islamic movement. Islam took on a political form with the establishment of an Islamic community-state at Madinah. The importance of the hijra is reflected in its adoption as the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Madinah, Muhammad had the opportunity to implement God’s governance and message, for he was now the prophet-head of a religiopolitical community. He did this by establishing his leadership in Madinah, subduing Mecca, and consolidating Muslim rule over the remainder of Arabia through diplomatic and military means. Muhammad had come to Madinah as the arbiter or judge for the entire community, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.*[^28] Far from enacting a policy of vengeance and intolerance, the Prophet ﷺ implemented a system of mercy that was in direct opposition to the cruelty he and his followers had been subjected to in Mecca. ### 9\. Refusal to Resort to Name Calling Abdullâh b. Ubayy (also known as Ibn Salool) was the head of the hypocrites in Madinah, and schemed non-stop to undermine the Prophet ﷺ’s authority and influence. Soon after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived, he ﷺ rode past a group including Ibn Salool and began inviting them to Islam. Ibn Salool rudely retorted, “Stay in your home. If someone would like to hear your message, they will come to you.” In another narration, “Now leave, the smell of your donkey bothers us.” The Muslims became irate upon hearing these insults, but the Prophet ﷺ forbade them from retaliating. Later, he complained to Sa‘d ibn ‘Ubâda (ra) and said, “Did you hear what Abu Hubâb said?”—calling Ibn Salool by his *kunya* (epithet of respect) even behind closed doors! Sa‘d (ra) urged the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to forgive him, explaining, “God sent you as they were finalizing the crown with jewels for him to reign as king over Madinah, but Allah destined otherwise, and thus he fumes with envy.”[^29] He ﷺ did forgive him, and continued to forgive him on numerous subsequent occasions as well. ### 10. God Loves Gentleness In Madinah, a group of people from a Jewish tribe entered upon the Prophet ﷺ and said, “*As-Sâmu ‘alayk* (Death be upon you).” He ﷺ replied, “And upon you,” but ‘Â’isha (ra) felt compelled to add, “Death be upon you, along with the curse of Allah and His wrath!” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “O ‘Â’isha, be gentle! Indeed, Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all matters. Beware of being harsh and vulgar.” She said, “Did you not hear what they said?” He replied, “Did you not hear what I replied? I have returned their statement to them, except that my invocation against them will be accepted, while theirs against me will not be accepted.”[^30] Remarkably, even being in a position of power did not tempt him to retaliate, or repeat back the same words; he did not even let his wife respond harshly to those who insulted him ﷺ. ### 11. Abuse Only Increases Him in Grace Zayd b. Su‘na (ra) was a great Jewish Rabbi of Madinah. When Allah wished to guide him, Zayd thought of testing the Prophet ﷺ by lending him eighty *mithqâl* (350 grams) of gold for a fixed period. A few days before repayment was due, Zayd grabbed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ angrily by his cloak, in front of all the senior Companions, and said, “O Muhammad, why are you not paying what is due? By Allah, I know your family well! You are all known for deferring your debts!” The Prophet ﷺ said to the infuriated ‘Umar who threatened to kill Zayd for his disrespect, “O ‘Umar, we do not need this…Go with him, pay off his loan, and give him twenty additional *sâ‘* (32 kg) of dates because you frightened him.” It was that response that convinced Zayd b. Su‘na to embrace Islam. He explained to ‘Umar, “There was not a single sign of prophethood except that I recognized it upon looking at Muhammad’s face—except for two that I had not yet seen from him: that his tolerance overcomes his anger, and that intense [abuse only increases him in forbearance](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/prophetic-ethics-a-model-for-those-seeking-god-and-eternal-life). I have now tested these, so know, O ‘Umar, that I accept Allah as \[my\] Lord, Islam as \[my\] religion, Muhammad as \[my\] Prophet, and that half my wealth—for I have much wealth—is a donation for the *ummah* of Muhammad ﷺ.”[^31] ### 12\. Quraysh’s Scout On route to Badr, the Muslims were able to apprehend Quraysh’s war-scout and bring him back to the Prophet ﷺ. When the Companions began roughing up this man as they interrogated him for vital information, the Prophet ﷺ hastened to finish his *salâh* and said, “You beat him when he is honest with you, and you leave him be when he lies to you?”[^32] Despite the fact that this person belonged to an opposing army, and that torture might reveal critical information about the enemy’s points of weakness, he ﷺ still intervened. Thus, when Imâm Mâlik (may Allah bestow mercy on him) was asked, “Can a captive be tortured if it is hoped that he can reveal the enemy’s points of vulnerability?” he said, “We have never heard of this \[in our tradition\].”[^33] ### 13\. Maintain Your Promise Prior to the Battle of Badr, Hudhayfa b. al-Yamân (ra) came to the Prophet ﷺ with an ethical dilemma. Quraysh had just freed him and his father on the condition that he would not fight Quraysh alongside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Despite the Muslim army being disadvantaged and about to face an army three times its size, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Then go \[to Madinah\]. We will keep our promise to them, and we will seek aid from Allah against them.”[^34] His prophetic morals did not allow him ﷺ, even in an extremely vulnerable position, to compromise his principles. ### 14\. I will not Mutilate Him, Lest Allah Mutilate Me Following the Battle of Badr, the Muslims found Suhayl b. Amr—a chief of Quraysh and a vocal adversary of Islam—among the prisoners of war. ‘Umar (ra) was delighted at a chance to exact revenge, and requested permission to remove Suhayl’s front teeth “so that he could never preach against the Messenger ﷺ.” However, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “I will not mutilate him, lest Allah mutilate me—even if I were a Prophet.”[^35] Over a millennium before any international conventions or charters, the Prophet of Mercy ﷺ established that prisoners of war were entitled to humane treatment. This was 1300 years before the signatories at Geneva defined humane treatment of prisoners. Compare this tradition with that of multiple methods of physical and psychological torture in prisons today. Furthermore, Muhammad ﷺ highlighted through his statement that no authority—not even a prophet—would escape accountability for torturing those under their care. ### 15\. Merciful Instincts Although ‘Umar (ra) urged him to execute the captives of Badr, and before revelation corrected the Prophet ﷺ’s decision to spare these war criminals, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was inclined to spare them—[presuming this to be the greater good](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-idea-of-justice-in-the-quran).[^36] In fact, he ﷺ would emphasize to his Companions after Badr, “Treat the captives well.”[^37] This was despite the fact that those captives had specifically intended to assassinate him and had prepared to celebrate over his corpse with wine. ### 16\. Feeding the Captives Allah says, “And they feed with their own food, despite their love \[for it\], to the needy, the orphan, and the captive” \[al-Insân (76): 8\]. Here, Allah informs Muslims that feeding prisoners is a means of nearness to Him, and that one should provide the food one loves—not food of inferior quality, or after satiating one’s own hunger first. We are told by the Prophet ﷺ that a woman who kept even a cat captive without feeding it would enter the Fire.[^38] Ibn ‘Abbâs (ra) said, “On the Day of Badr, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed us to honor the captives, and so we gave them precedence over ourselves at meal times.”[^39] Zurâra b. ‘Umar (also known as Abu ‘Azeez), a pagan brother of Mus‘ab b. ‘Umayr, who the Muslims had captured at Badr, said, “They used to single me out with the bread, while they would just eat dates, due to the entrustment of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ.”[^40] Understandably, Abu ‘Azeez did not forget this unexpected treatment, and it must have influenced his eventual decision to embrace Islam. ### 17\. Clothing the Captives In a chapter entitled “Clothing the Captives,” Imam al-Bukhâri narrates in his *Sahih* from Jâbir b. ‘Abdillâh (ra) who said, “On the Day of Badr, the captives were brought, and brought \[with them\] was al-‘Abbâs (ra) who had no garment on him. The Prophet ﷺ had them find a shirt for him, and they found that only the shirt of ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy (who was also tall) fit him, so the Prophet ﷺ clothed him with it.”[^41] Later in the Prophet ﷺ’s life, he even sent a man to Mecca to purchase a specific type of cloak for the captives from Hawâzin.[^42] ### 18\. Lenience with the Ransom The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ even took his enemy prisoners’ economic status into consideration when granting them opportunities at freedom. For wealthy prisoners like Abu Wadâ‘a and Zurâra b. ‘Umar, he took the full 4,000 dirhams while poorer prisoners paid only 40 *uqiyya* (1,600 dirhams).[^43] In fact, some were freed without any ransom at all—such as al-Muttalib b. Hantab, Abu ‘Izza (the poet), Abu al-‘Âs b. ar-Rabee‘, and Sayfi b. Abi Rifâ‘a.[^44] ### 19\. Increased Freedom Opportunities ‘Ibn ‘Abbâs (ra) said, “There were people from the captives at Badr who had no \[money\] to ransom themselves, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared their ransom to be teaching \[literacy\] to the children of the Ansâr.”[^45] Clearly those bent on vengeance or riches would never provide such a variety of avenues for criminals to return to their families and mend their deviant ways. Furthermore, the practice of freeing literate captives for teaching people how to read was unprecedented. This highlights the emphasis of the Prophet ﷺ and his message on education as a means of light and advancement. ### 20\. Introducing Prisoner Exchange For various reasons, the people of Arabia rarely engaged in prisoner exchange, but the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ made this practice common. It suffices to mention that the Muslims handed over ‘Amr b. Abi Sufyân for the release of Sa‘d b. an-Nu‘mân b. Akâl, even though the latter was not a prisoner of war, but rather just an innocent man who had been kidnapped by al-‘Abbâs while performing *‘umra* in Mecca.[^46] The Prophet ﷺ replaced the practice of mutilating captives as a deterrent to continued hostilities with the far more humane practice of prisoner exchange. ### 21\. Keeping Captive Families Together The Messenger of Allah ﷺ even cared about the emotional well-being of the captives; thus, he used to provide detailed instructions on how to treat parents and children humanely by keeping them together. Abu Ayoob (ra) reports that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “Whoever separates a mother and her child, Allah will separate him and his loved ones on the Day of Resurrection.”[^47] When Abu Usayd (‘Abdullâh b. Thâbit) al-Ansâri (ra) brought captives from Bahrain, they were lined up in ranks. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood to see them, and he found a woman crying in their midst. He said, “What makes you cry?” She said, “My son was sold in Banu ‘Abs.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Abu Usayd, “You must ride out and bring him!” Abu Usayd responded immediately by riding out to retrieve the child and reunite him with his mother.[^48] ### 22\. No Favor Forgotten Following the Battle of Badr, he ﷺ said, “Were al-Mut’am b. ‘Adi still alive, and spoke to me regarding these foul men, I would have freed them \[all\] for him!”[^49] Ibn ‘Adi was not a believer, but he had not only helped to destroy Quraysh’s pact to boycott Banu Hâshim but he had also granted the Prophet ﷺ asylum upon his return from Tâ’if. The Prophet ﷺ demonstrated loyalty and gratitude to anyone who had helped him in his time of need, regardless of whether or not they chose to accept his Prophetic mission. ### 23\. Averting War with Banu Qaynuqâ‘ Upon returning to Madinah from the Battle of Badr, the tribe of Banu Qaynuqâ‘ threatened the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, saying, “Do not be deluded by your triumph against some amateur fighters who have no experience in battle. If you were to fight against us, you would come to know that we are the true warriors, and that you have never faced anyone like us.”[^50] This was one of the final vexations after two years of publicly mocking Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and instigating hostilities between the Muslims. Some also report that a craftsman from Banu Qaynuqâ’ undressed a Muslim woman in the marketplace and was killed for it by a Muslim who heard her scream. Banu Qaynuqâ’ gathered and killed that man in retaliation. When the Prophet ﷺ eventually decided to march against them, ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy physically restrained him by grabbing onto his armor and insisting that he abort this campaign. The Prophet ﷺ became very angry and demanded that Ibn Ubayy let him go, but he would not. He kept pleading that Banu Qaynuqâ’ were his allies, and that he feared vulnerability without them. In the end, the Prophet ﷺ said, “I have released them for you,” and allowed the entire tribe to leave Madinah unharmed, and to take whatever they owned except for their weapons.[^51] ### 24\. They Just Don’t Know Any Better In the second major battle (Uhud) against the Muslims, Quraysh’s army—this time 3,000 strong against the Muslims’ 700—managed to ambush the Prophet ﷺ. His front tooth was broken, his body was battered, and blood flowed down from where his helmet had pierced his face. Somehow, after bleeding at their hands yet again, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ still had the resilience of character to say as he wiped the blood from his face, “O Allah, forgive my people, for they do not know.”[^52] In other narrations, he first said, “How can a people succeed after they have wounded their Prophet and soaked him in blood as he calls them to Allah?” Then, he ﷺ fell silent for a moment, before appealing to Allah with the prayer for forgiveness. Despite the tragic losses suffered in the Battle of Uhud, and despite experiencing and witnessing unthinkable torture of Quraysh for years, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ maintained magnanimity. His Companions came to him ﷺ and said as the dust cleared, “Curse the polytheists.” He ﷺ said, “I have not been sent as one who curses. Rather, I was sent as a mercy.”[^53] Although the Quran mentions that the wicked ones of the Israelites were cursed on the tongue of their prophets,[^54] and even though the Prophet ﷺ cursed certain actions[^55] and initially asked Allah to curse the leading persecutors,[^56] his normative mode was to seek forgiveness for those who wronged him and his followers. ### 25\. Forgiving Treason Upon returning from Uhud, there were many Companions—whose emotions were ablaze from the calamity which had just befallen them—who called for the execution of ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy b. Salool. After all, he had deserted them just before the battle, taking a third of the army back with him and saying, “He obeyed them \[who wanted to march out\] and disobeyed me \[who wanted to fight from within Madinah\]. Why should we get ourselves killed?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not have Ibn Salool executed for this crime of treason—lest rumors spread that Muhammad kills his own followers, and in hope that some of the hypocrites might turn over a new leaf.[^57] ### 26\. God Informed Him of an Assassination Attempt While sitting with Safwân b. Umayya one night at the Ka‘ba, lamenting the loss of those who had been killed or captured by the Muslims at Badr, ‘Umayr swore that had it not been for his debts and many dependents, he would have rode out to Madinah and assassinated Muhammad ﷺ. Safwân b. Umayya vowed to cover his debts and care for his family, and so ‘Umayr traveled to Madinah after sharpening and poisoning his sword. ‘Umar (ra) and the Companions were suspicious of his intentions, but the Prophet ﷺ ordered them to let him enter. When he claimed to be coming for a relative of his among the captives, the Messenger ﷺ admonished him to be honest and noted that the sword he carried told a different tale. ‘Umayr kept to his story, so the Prophet ﷺ informed him of the details of conversation he had secretly had with Safwân and then told him that Allah would prevent him from accomplishing this mission. ‘Umayr then testified that he ﷺ was the Messenger of Allah, recognizing that nobody could have brought him this news but Allah.[^58] ### 27\. Forgiving a Sorcerer Labeed b. al-A‘sam was a young man who used to serve the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and was paid by members of his tribe to employ witchcraft against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. For six months, the Prophet ﷺ was weakened and mentally fatigued by these incantations (though this only affected his worldly engagements). Once Labeed b. al- A‘sam was exposed, and permission was sought to execute him, he ﷺ said, “No. As for me, Allah has cured me. And I do not wish to stir evil among the people.”[^59] ### 28\. A Blessed Woman After the Battle of Banu al-Mustaliq, Juwayria b. al-Hârith (ra), the daughter of Banu al-Musaliq’s chief, was purchased and emancipated from Thâbit b. Qays (ra) by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Then, he ﷺ married her, and as a result the Muslims freed one hundred men from Banu al-Mustaliq—all of whom accepted Islam. The Companions said, “These are \[now\] the in-laws of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ!” Clearly, the Prophet ﷺ knew that marrying this noble woman would persuade his Companions to free her people, and Juwayria (ra) knew this as well. For that reason, ‘Â’isha (ra) used to praise her and say, “I do not know any woman who was a greater blessing for her people than her.”[^60] ### 29\. An Attempted Coup During the campaign of Banu al-Mustaliq, ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy had sworn, “If we return to Madinah, the honorable among us \[referring to himself\] will expel the humiliated \[referring to the Prophet ﷺ\].” \[al-Munâfiqoon (63): 8\] News of this reached the Prophet ﷺ, and ‘Umar (ra) said, “O Messenger of Allah, allow me to strike the neck of this hypocrite.” He ﷺ said, “Leave him; the people must not say Muhammad kills his companions.”[^61] In fact, his own son heard this insult and came forward and said, “I have heard that you wish to kill my father due to what has reached you about him \[insulting you\]. If you are going to do this, then instruct me and I will bring his head to you (for I may not bear seeing my father’s killer).” He ﷺ said, “Rather, let us be gentle with him, and give him kind companionship for as long as he remains with us.”[^62] ### 30\. “Let them Cool Off” The tribe of Banu Quraydha had reneged on its pact with the Prophet ﷺ by conspiring to bring Quraysh and Ghatafân into Madinah to annihilate every trace of the newly budding Muslim community. After the invaders laid a month-long siege to Madinah, wherein the Muslims were trapped and starving in their trenches, Allah destined that the confederates suspect one another and lose their zeal to continue the siege. Despite his fledgling community having just been on the verge of eradication, the Prophet ﷺ did not respond to this betrayal with a desire for vengeance. After the Muslim army raced up to Banu Quraydha’s dwellings, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ not only let this enemy tribe choose their own ally (Sa‘d b. Mu‘âdh) to determine their penalty, but even said to his Companions upon seeing the captives of Banu Quraydha waiting in the sun, “Do not compound for them the sun’s heat atop the heat of their armor. Give them shade and drink, so that they may cool off.”[^63] ### 31. “Ignore their Insults” Allah wished to terminate the widespread practice of adopting a child and failing to preserve their lineage. However, this institution was so ingrained in Arabia’s culture that challenging it would only be accepted from the Prophet ﷺ himself, as only he was infallible and above criticism. For this reason, Allah instructed His Prophet ﷺ to desist from calling his adopted son, Zayd b. Hâritha (formerly called Zayd b. Muhammad), by other than his true paternal name. But to unequivocally establish that an adopted child was to maintain their own lineage, Allah then ordered (also in *Surat al-Ahzâb*) him ﷺ to marry Zayd’s wife once Zayd had divorced her. Of course, the hypocrites pounced on this opportunity to accuse the Prophet ﷺ of being a licentious man who marries his daughter-in-law, and an imposter who forbade people from marrying their sons’ wives but accepted it for himself.[^64] This was no harmless insult, but yet another attempt to develop a critical mass of Madinans who would overthrow the new head of state. The Prophet ﷺ did not punish them; rather, he ignored them completely and left the matter to God, just as his Lord had instructed him. “And do not mind the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Ignore their harm and rely upon Allah. And sufficient is Allah as a Disposer of \[your\] affairs.” \[al-Ahzâb (33): 48\] This was a time when the Prophet ﷺ was well established, around four to five years after his migration, and could have easily punished those who insulted him. But the Quran instructed him to ignore them just as he did in Mecca. ### 32\. “Do you not love that Allah should forgive you?” Mistah was among those who fell into slandering ‘Â’isha (ra). Following the return from Banu al-Mustaliq, ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy began spreading rumors that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ’s wife had committed adultery. After a month-long ordeal of suspicions and tensions in the Muslim community, Allah finally revealed verses in *Surat an-Noor* exposing the ringleaders behind this lie, but not before some of the believers had begun to believe and circulate this unfounded story. Mistah (ra) was one of those genuine believers who made the mistake of repeating this accusation. Not only did the Prophet ﷺ ultimately forgive this man who had slandered his wife, but he even admonished Abu Bakr (ra)—her father—for boycotting this man, especially since he was related to Abu Bakr and used to receive charity from him. ‘Â’isha (ra) said, “Abu Bakr swore that he would never spend on Mistah again, but then Allah revealed the verse, ‘Let not those among you who are virtuous and wealthy swear not to give to their kin and those in need. Do you not love that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.’ \[an-Noor (24): 22\] On hearing that, Abu Bakr (ra) said, ‘Yes, by Allah, O our Lord! We wish that You should forgive us.’ And Abu Bakr went back to granting Mistah the stipend he used to give him before.”[^65] ### 33\. Raided in Hudaybiya Valley After the Prophet ﷺ and 1,400 of his Companions arrived donned in their austere ritual garb at the outskirts of Mecca, seeking only to perform ‘umra, news spread in Mecca that the Muslims had come to vanquish them. Anas b. Mâlik (ra) said, > *Eighty men swooped down from Mecca upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from the mountain of Tan‘eem. They were armed and seeking to attack the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions by surprise. However, he ﷺ captured them and spared their lives \[freeing them without ransom\], and about this Allah revealed, ‘And it is He who withheld their hands from you and your hands from them within \[the area of\] Mecca after He caused you to overcome them.’* \[al-Fath (48): 24\] Here, Allah establishes that He conferred two great favors upon the Muslims in this incident. The first was that they became aware of the attack before it caught them off guard, and the second was that He inspired the Prophet ﷺ to forgive and release the prisoners.[^66] ### 34\. Hosting the Insulting Ambassador ‘Urwa b. Mas‘ud (ra), while still a pagan, participated on behalf of Quraysh in what became the Treaty of Hudaybiya. Amidst the negotiations, he behaved condescendingly towards the Messenger of Allah ﷺ by reaching out to pull his beard, despite the Companions threatening him with their weapons. He also insulted the Prophet ﷺ by saying that he was no match for Quraysh, “And I do not think you will be able \[to defeat them\]. And if war does erupt, by Allah, I do not see around you except an undignified bunch that would quickly flee and desert you.” Despite such insolence, and the fact that ‘Urwa b. Mas‘ud was a chief from the tribe of Thaqeef—who had assaulted him ﷺ in Tâ’if—he honored this ambassador’s stay and hosted him for as long as he stayed.[^67] ### 35\. Eager for Peace Suhayl b. ‘Amr (ra) was sent next by Quraysh to finalize the Treaty of Hudaybiya. Even before demanding oppressive double standards in the treaty, Suhayl b. ‘Amr forcefully objected to it being documented as an agreement between Quraysh and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said, “If we believed you were the Messenger of God, we would not have fought you,” and insisted that the title “Messenger of Allah” be erased. Ali b. Abi Tâlib (ra) refused to erase it, but the Prophet ﷺ obliged, not allowing his personal pride to deter him from making peace with Quraysh as he was intent on avoiding bloodshed in the sacred sanctuary of Mecca. For that same reason, he ﷺ reluctantly accepted to send back Abu Jandal (ra), the son and escaped prisoner of Suhyal b. ‘Amr, to Mecca for the greater good. This was pure mercy and piety, not timidity, because the Prophet ﷺ had initially said to Budayl b. Warqâ’, Quraysh’s first ambassador to the Muslims at al-Hudaybiya, “We did not come to fight. We came for *‘umra*, although we know that Quraysh is worn out from warfare.”[^68] Imam az-Zuhri, a sub-narrator of this *hadith*, said, “He ﷺ did this because he declared \[upon reaching al-Hudaybiya\], ‘They will not offer me any proposition which glorifies the sanctities of Allah except that I will accept it from them.’” ### 36\. “These are your rights” When Thaqeef kidnapped two Muslims shortly before Khaybar, the Prophet ﷺ was able to capture a man from Banu ‘Uqayl, an ally of Thaqeef, in order to exchange him for the Muslim prisoners. This man kept calling out, “O Muhammad, on what basis did you apprehend me?…O Muhammad, I am a Muslim…O Muhammad, I am hungry–so give me food, and I am thirsty–so bring me drink.” Despite him repeatedly calling the head of state by his first name, and despite him pestering the Prophet ﷺ every time he left, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ answered his questions with incredible humility, and responded to his requests by saying, “These are your rights.”[^69] Thus was the ocean of his compassion, his respect for the humanity of his enemies, and how he empathized with their distress. ### 37\. The Mother of His Companion Abu Hurayra’s mother (ra) appears to have migrated to Madinah with her son without having accepted Islam, because Abu Hurayra (ra) said, “I used to invite my mother to Islam while she was still a polytheist. One day, when I invited her, she said words I could not bear to hear about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. I went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ weeping, and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I invite my mother to Islam and she \[always\] refuses me. Today, when I invited her, she said words about you that I could not bear to hear, so invoke Allah that He guide the mother of Abu Hurayra.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘O Allah, guide the mother of Abu Hurayra!’ I walked out, optimistic due to the Prophet ﷺ’s supplication. When I came \[home\] and reached the door, I found it locked. My mother heard the sound of my feet; she said, ‘Stay where you are, O Abu Hurayra,’ and I could hear water running. She bathed herself, wore her garments, and quickly donned her headgear. She then opened the door, and said following that, ‘O Abu Hurayra, I testify that none is worthy of worship except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.’ I went back to the Messenger ﷺ crying from joy. I said \[to him\], ‘O Messenger of Allah, rejoice! Allah has responded to your supplication and guided the mother of Abu Hurayra.’ He ﷺ praised Allah, exalted Him, and said good words. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, invoke Allah to make me and my mother beloved to His believing slaves, and to make them beloved to us.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘O Allah, make this small slave of Yours and his mother beloved to Your believing slaves, and make the believers beloved to them.’ Thereafter, no believer has existed that hears of me, and does not \[even\] see me, except that he loves me.”[^70] It should also be noted that the Prophet ﷺ was aware of the insults of Abu Hurayra’s mother, but did not take any action against her. Instead, he supplicated for her. This incident, due to the late arrival of Abu Hurayra (ra) in Madinah, took place in the last three years of the Prophet ﷺ’s life when he had undeniable authority over the citizens of Madinah. ### 38\. “Who Will Protect You from Me?” On their return from the Battle of Dhât ar-Riqâ‘, which occurred in the 7th *hijri* year, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companions dismounted and dispersed in a valley seeking shade from the midday sun. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ camped under a leafy tree and hung his sword on it. The army slept for a while, but then heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ calling for them. Jâbir b. ‘Abdillâh (ra) says, “We came to him, and sitting with him was a Bedouin man (al-Hâkim adds: named al-Ghawrath b. al-Hârith).” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This person drew my sword as I slept, and I awoke to find an unsheathed blade in his hand.” He said to me, ‘Are you afraid of me?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Who will protect you from me?’ I said, ‘Allah,’ thrice, and so he returned the sword to its scabbard. And thus here he is, sitting.”[^71] Jâbir (ra) added, “And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not punish him thereafter.”[^72] In another narration, the sword fell from his hand, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took it and said, “Who will protect you \[from me\]?” He said, “Be the better \[victor\].” He said, “Will you \[now\] testify that none is worthy of worship except Allah?” He said, “I will promise to never fight you, nor be with a people that fight you.” At that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ let him go, and so the man went to his people and said, “I have come to you from the best of people.”[^73] The implication is that the Prophet ﷺ forgave him and let him go without forcing him to convert. ### 39\. A Powerful Prisoner Thumâma b. Uthâl (ra) was the chief of Banu Haneefa who had assassinated a number of the Prophet ﷺ’s Companions, and had even plotted to kill the Prophet ﷺ himself. Though he ﷺ had permitted killing Thumâma in light of his murderous record, his treatment of Thumâma as a captive was a clear indication that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained hopeful that he would become Muslim and earn the forgiveness of Allah. After being caught and fastened to a column in the Prophet ﷺ’s mosque, Thumâma received the utmost kindness and hospitality from the Messenger ﷺ—to the degree that milk from the Prophet ﷺ’s personal she-camel would be carried to his place of bondage. Each day, the Prophet ﷺ would patiently ask Thumâma to consider Islam, before finally ordering his companions to release this man. But when that happened, he went to a garden of date-palm trees near the mosque, took a bath and then entered the mosque and said, “I testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, and testify that Muhammad is His Messenger! O Muhammad, I swear by Allah that there was no face on the surface of the earth more disliked by me than yours, but now your face has become the most beloved face to me. By Allah, there was no religion more disliked by me than yours, but now it is the most beloved religion to me. By Allah, there was no town more disliked by me than your town, but now it is the most beloved town to me.”[^74] ### 40\. Sparing Quraysh Again Once Thumâma embraced Islam, he journeyed back to his people, the tribe of al-Yamâma, and they soon followed him in entering the fold of Islam. Upon doing so, they boycotted Quraysh and refused to send any more grain—which Quraysh heavily depended on—their way. Such a sanction would have been highly effective in draining whatever strength Quraysh had left, but the Messenger ﷺ interceded on their behalf—despite being at war with them—because of his concern for the innocent people behind enemy lines. Responding to the Prophet ﷺ’s instructions, the tribe of al-Yamâma resumed its ordinary trade with Mecca, saving the city that had itself boycotted the Prophet ﷺ for so many years.[^75] ### 41\. “Did You Check His Heart?!” In Ramadan of the 7th *hijri* year, the Prophet ﷺ sent a battalion of his Companions to fight the People of Ghâlib, and regarding that battle Usâma b. Zayd (ra) gave the following account, “An Ansâri man and I pursued one of their men. Once we were upon him, he said, ‘*Lâ elâha illâ Allâh* (no God but Allah).’ On hearing that, the Ansâri man pulled back, but I killed him by stabbing him with my spear. When we returned \[to Madinah\], the Prophet ﷺ came to know about the incident and said, ‘O Usâma! Did you kill him after he said, ‘*Lâ elâha illâ Allâh*?’ I said, ‘But he \[only\] said this to save himself.’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘O Usâma! Did you kill him after he said ‘*Lâ elâha illâ Allâh*?’ And he ﷺ kept repeating this until I wished I had not embraced Islam before that day!”[^76] In the narration of al-A‘mash, the Prophet ﷺ rebuked Usâma by saying, “Did you check his heart?!” It made no difference that this man presumably became Muslim to save his skin. It made no difference that this was none other than Usâma b. Zayd (ra), the son of Zayd b. Hâritha (ra), and hence as dear to the Prophet ﷺ as his own grandchildren. None of that mattered because this was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—incredibly charitable in his judgment of others’ sincerity. ### 42\. The Sword of Allah This was the nickname of Khalid b. Waleed (ra), the military genius who led the charge from behind at Uhud and massacred many of the Muslims. But after four years of watching the Muslims’ resilience on the battlefield, he became increasingly convinced that unseen forces were, in fact, supporting them. In the 7th *hijri* year, the Prophet ﷺ married Maymuna b. al-Hârith (ra)—Khalid’s maternal aunt—after completing his *‘umra* in Mecca, and sent a letter to Khâlid inviting him to Islam. This could have been a trap, a ploy to assassinate Quraysh’s most accomplished general, but Khâlid dismissed that notion as he knew that Muhammad ﷺ’s honesty was virtually undisputed. When Khâlid traveled to Madinah a few months later to embrace Islam, the Prophet ﷺ received him with a “beaming smile” and said, “All praise be to Allah who guided you. I had long seen you as having a piercing intellect that made me hopeful that it would only lead you to good.” He said, “O Messenger of Allah, you saw how many battles I participated in against you, stubbornly defying the truth. Supplicate to Allah that He may forgive me for these \[crimes\].” He ﷺ replied, “O Allah, forgive Khâlid for all he did in deterring from Your path.”[^77] ### 43\. Islam Does Away with the Past ‘Amr b. al-‘Âs (ra) was another military commander who had long fought Islam, and he made the journey with Khâlid b. al-Waleed (ra) to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Madinah. Ibn Shumâsa al-Mahri reports that when he visited ‘Amr b. al-‘Âs (ra), as he was on his deathbed, ‘Amr turned his face towards the wall and wept for a long time. His son said, “O father! Did not the Messenger of Allah ﷺ give you the glad tidings of such and such…?” He turned his face \[towards them\] and said, “The best thing we can rely on is the testimony that none is worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Indeed, I have passed through three phases \[in my life\]. I \[first\] found myself loathing no one more than I loathed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and there was no desire stronger in me than that I should vanquish him and kill him. Had I died in this state, I would have definitely been one of the residents of the Fire. When Allah instilled the love of Islam in my heart, I came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘Stretch out your right hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you.’ But when he ﷺ outstretched his right hand, I withdrew my hand. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘What happened, O ‘Amr?’ I replied, ‘I wish to lay down some conditions.’ He asked, ‘What conditions do you want to put forward?’ I said, ‘That I should be granted pardon.’ He said, ‘Don’t you know that Islam wipes out everything before it, and that migration wipes out everything before it, and that Hajj wipes out everything before it?’ Thereafter, no one was dearer to me than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and none was more exalted in my eyes than him. I could not even stare at him directly out of reverence for him, and thus if I am asked to describe his features, I would not \[be able to\] describe them, for I have never eyed him fully.”[^78] ### 44\. Allah Loves those who Act Justly During the truce effected by the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya, Qutayla b. ‘Abdil‘Uzzâ visited her daughter, ‘Asmâ’ b. Abi Bakr (ra), in Madinah. Asmâ’ says, “My mother came to me, hopeful \[for financial support\] during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, so I asked the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Should I uphold ties with her?’ He said, ‘Yes.’”[^79] Though this may seem unremarkable, the Prophet ﷺ was allowing a pagan woman, from an enemy tribe, to stay in the home of two high profile men of state, for ‘Asmâ’ (ra) was the daughter of Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq (ra) and the wife of az-Zubayr b. al-‘Awwâm (ra). This may have been why she hesitated about admitting her mother into the home, lest her mother assassinate either of these personalities, or gather some sensitive information. Ibn ‘Uyayna, a sub-narrator of this hadith, said that it was regarding her that Allah revealed, “Allah does not forbid you regarding those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly” \[al-Mumtahana (60): 8\]. --- ## Marching to Mecca: A Conquest Like No Other Before diving into the Conquest of Mecca, and in order to fathom its epic nature, one must first put oneself in the Prophet ﷺ’s place. He is marching amidst 10,000 strong, heading in full force to oust the Quraysh from the sacred precincts. These were the same Quraysh who had persecuted him in every way imaginable for thirteen years in Mecca. These were the same Quraysh who had executed his Companions, caused the death of his wife Khadija, assaulted his children, expelled him from his homeland, injured him at Uhud, mobilized to annihilate his nation at al-Ahzâb, and who had signed a treaty (al-Hudaybiya) that they quickly broke. Now, after over 20 years of relentless hostilities, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ catches the Meccans off-guard, standing before him completely powerless with no possibility of  resistance. ### 45\. Abu Jahl’s Partner When the Prophet ﷺ entered upon his dying uncle, Abu Tâlib, ‘Abdullâh b. Abi Umayya was there along with Abu Jahl. Despite the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s desperate pleas to Abu Tâlib, ‘Abdullâh b. Abi Umayya shamed the Prophet’s uncle from embracing Islam before his final breath.[^80] This became known as the most difficult year in the Prophet ﷺ’s life: the Year of Grief. The grief was not due to only losing his dear uncle, his longest caregiver, and his strongest supporter; it was compounded by the knowledge that a reunion with Abu Tâlib in the afterlife was impossible. A decade later, just prior to the Muslims marching into Mecca, ‘Abdullâh b. Abi Umayya approached the Muslim camp intending to accept Islam at the hands of its Prophet. However, the Prophet ﷺ kept refusing that he enter upon him. With the help of his half-sister, Umm Salama (ra), who was the Prophet ﷺ’s wife, he continued to ask for clemency from the Prophet ﷺ, reminding him that he was family (a brother-in-law), and that he ﷺ had forgiven people who had committed greater crimes than him. The Prophet ﷺ ultimately said to him what Joseph said to his brothers who had carved similar scars in him by separating him from his father: “No blame will there be on you today” \[Yoosuf (12): 92\].[^81] ### 46\. “Whoever Enters the Home of Abu Sufyân…” Abu Sufyân b. Harb was no ordinary enemy or warmonger. He had been the staunchest enemy of the Prophet for two decades. He was also among those who convened in Dâr an-Nadwa to plan the assassination of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ before he migrated to Madinah. Since Badr he had sworn to lead the fight against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he even raided Madinah one night and killed two Ansâri men before fleeing.[^82] After leading the pagans at Uhud, he said to the Muslims, “Among the dead, you will find bodies that were mutilated. I neither ordered this, nor does it bother me!”[^83] Both this incident, and his laying siege to Madinah (seeking to murder even the women and children), were not known practices among the Arabs—which reflects his bloodlust for Muslims. Given all these details and more, how did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ treat him when the tide turned? Upon discovering that the Muslim army had just taken them by surprise, Abu Sufyân found himself paralyzed and unable to think. He knew—with absolute certainty—that he was atop the “most wanted list.” However, al-‘Abbâs (ra) interceded for him, and he embraced Islam the next day along with ‘Abdullâh b. Abi Umayya. The Prophet ﷺ forgave everything, granted him security, and even promised him that any Meccan who entered his home would be safe![^84] The fact that even this man’s feelings—a man who caused so much pain to the Prophet ﷺ—were taken into consideration indicates the extraordinary nature of his heart. ### 47\. “Today is the Day of Mercy” Abu Sufyân (ra)—now a Muslim—rides ahead to Mecca and encourages his people to surrender, reassuring them that whoever enters his house will not be harmed. The Muslims ride into Mecca, led by the Prophet ﷺ, who kept his head lowered out of humility for Allah to the point that his beard almost touched his saddle.[^85] It reached him ﷺ that some were saying, “O Abu Sufyân, today is the day of \[your people’s\] slaughter. Today, the Ka‘ba is not a sanctuary.” In response, he ﷺ announced, “Rather, this is the day in which Allah will glorify the Ka‘ba, and the day when the Ka‘ba will be garbed.”[^86] In another narration: “Today is the day of mercy. Today Allah will honor Quraysh.”[^87] After securing the city, everyone gathered before the Prophet ﷺ at the Ka‘ba, and he asked them tenderly, “O gathering of Quraysh, what do you think I will do to you?” They said, “Only good, \[O\] noble brother, son of a noble brother.” Ending the moment of suspense, he ﷺ declared, “I will only say to you what Joseph said to his brothers, ‘No blame will there be upon you today’ \[Yoosuf (12): 92\]. Go, for you are unbound.”[^88] The Prophet ﷺ rose above it all, immortalizing himself with this grace in one of the most remarkable events in human history. Even the Ansâr marveled at this profound benevolence, to the point that some said, “This man has been overcome by his hopefulness for \[returning to\] his town, and by compassion for his kin.” Abu Hurayra (ra) said, “And then revelation came, and when he ﷺ was receiving revelation, it was not hidden from us. When it came, none of us would dare raise our eyes to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until the revelation finished. When the revelation concluded, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘O gathering of Ansâr!’ They said, ‘At your service, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘You have said that this man has been overcome by his hopefulness for his town?’ They said, ‘Yes, this took place.’ He said, ‘Never! I am the slave of Allah, and I am His Messenger; I migrated to Allah and towards you. \[My\] living is with you and \[my\] dying is with you.’ They (the Ansâr) turned towards him in tears, and said, ‘By Allah, we only said what we said because of how protective we are of Allah and His Messenger.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Indeed, Allah and His Messenger believe you, and excuse you.’”[^89] What had just happened with Quraysh was beyond comprehension, even for the Ansâr’s beautiful hearts. He ﷺ understood that comprehending this action of complete forgiveness was difficult, and thus he said, “…and excuse you.” ### 48\. Access Granted ‘Uthmân b. Talha (ra) used to deny the Prophet ﷺ entrance to the Ka‘ba, as he was from Banu ‘Abd ad-Dâr—a clan of the Quraysh who took great pride in being the custodians of the key to the Ka‘ba. He would mock the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and campaign to exterminate the message of Islam. With certitude in the promise of Allah, he ﷺ would simply tell ‘Uthmân b. Talha that this key would one day be in his hands. Ibn Jurayj reports that at the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ took the key from ‘Uthmân b. Talha. He ﷺ entered the Ka‘ba, then exited while reciting, “Indeed, Allah instructs you to return the trusts to their rightful owners” \[an-Nisâ’ (4): 58\]. Despite his abusive past, the Messenger ﷺ called for ‘Uthmân b. Talha, and showed exemplary forgiveness by returning the key to him.[^90] ### 49\. A Changed Man Suhayl b. ‘Amr (ra) was now a broken elderly man with a dark history, forced by his failure at extinguishing Islam to request from his son, ‘Abdullâh—one of his many children who were now part of the triumphant Muslim army—to plead for his asylum at the Conquest of Mecca. Without hesitation, the Prophet ﷺ granted him security and went further to say that a man with such honor and intellect should not be oblivious of Islam’s merit \[for long\]. Indeed, Suhayl soon came forward and embraced Islam, and became known for his dedication to ritual worship. In fact, when news of the Prophet ﷺ dying reached Mecca, this man who had long preached against Islam declared, “O people of Quraysh! Do not be the last to enter Islam and the first to apostate! This religion will extend everywhere that the sun and moon extend to, from the place they rise to the place they set.”[^91] This is how the beautiful treatment of the Messenger ﷺ transformed people in unimaginable ways. His fine character, great tolerance, and ability to forget hard feelings, forever shames how victors before and after him enter a city, hunt down its leadership, and exact their revenge merely out of hate, the desire to subjugate, and personal vendetta. ### 50\. A Proud Heart Humbled Safwân b. Umayya (ra) was a vicious antagonist of Islam from its advent. He helped his father, Umayya b. Khalaf, torture Bilâl b. Rabâh (ra), participated in every battle between Quraysh and the Muslims, sent ‘Umayr b. Wahb to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ, and supplied Banu Bakr with the weaponry to attack Banu Khuzâ‘a (an ally of the Muslims), thereby nullifying the Treaty of Hudaybiya. Therefore, it would be correct to say that Safwân was a primary reason behind the Prophet ﷺ’s decision to march into Mecca, and thus he fled Mecca at its conquest after briefly fighting, unlike the overwhelming majority who peacefully surrendered. He felt dejected and displaced, so ‘Umayr b. Wahb—now a Muslim—asked the Prophet ﷺ to pardon Safwân’s crimes and permit his return. Not only did he ﷺ agree, but he even gave ‘Umayr his turban as a token of guarantee that he ﷺ personally promised this protection. When Safwân came forward, the Prophet ﷺ graciously gave him another four months to deliberate before accepting Islam, and showered him with heaps of gifts during this period to warm his heart towards the religion. In the end, his proud heart melted from all this generosity, he accepted Islam, and said, “By God, the Prophet ﷺ gave me gifts at a point when he was the most hated of people to me. But he kept on giving to me until he became the most beloved of people to me.”[^92] ### 51\. The One Who Mutilated His Uncle Hind b. ‘Utba was the wife of Abu Sufyân and the daughter of ‘Utba b. Rabee‘a, two nobles from Quraysh who were both staunch enemies of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Hind also boiled with venomous hate and personally campaigned against Islam and the Muslims. She was among those who essentially hired Wahshi to kill Hamza b. ‘AbdulMuttalib, the paternal uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, promising him great rewards for avenging her father who was slain at Badr. Many early chroniclers report that she had Hamza’s ears and nose cut off and used for a necklace, and some hold that she gouged out his liver and attempted to eat it. When the Prophet ﷺ located his uncle’s mutilated body after Uhud, he wept like never before and bade farewell to his beloved uncle by saying, “May Allah have mercy on you, my uncle. Indeed, you maintained the ties of kinship, and always rushed to do good.” Five years later, Hind stood at the Conquest of Mecca, protesting against Quraysh for surrendering to the Muslims. She soon realized that resisting was futile, and that the heavens really did support Muhammad ﷺ, and so she went with other women to him ﷺ and took the pledge of allegiance while veiled. When she announced her identity, the Prophet ﷺ kindly replied, “Welcome, O Hind.” Touched by the magnanimity of the Messenger ﷺ, she proclaimed, “By Allah, there was no household that I wished to destroy more than yours, but now there is no household that I wish to honor more than yours.”[^93] ### 52\. The Assassin Wahshi b. Harb was an Ethiopian slave belonging to Jubayr b. Mut‘im. Due to being an acclaimed spear-thrower, he was promised his freedom in exchange for killing Hamza b. ‘Abdil-Muttalib (ra) at Uhud. Wahshi succeeded in doing so, pleasing the vengeful from Quraysh whose relatives had been killed by Hamza at Badr and devastating the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Mas‘ud (ra) says, “Never did we see the Messenger of Allah ﷺ weep as intensely as he wept for Hamza.”[^94] At the Conquest of Mecca, Wahshi fled, knowing full well that killing a ruler’s family member warranted his death. However, the Prophet ﷺ was unlike any ruler. Wahshi said, “I heard that no matter how grave a person’s crime against him, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ always chose forgiveness.” This encouraged him to eventually return to Mecca, embrace Islam, and see firsthand how the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forgave his enemies.[^95] Wahshi could hardly believe he lived to see this day; he would always remember it and say, “Allah honored Hamza b. ‘Abdil-Muttalib and at-Tufayl b. an-Nu‘mân \[with martyrdom\] at my hand, and did not humiliate me at their hands \[by dying upon disbelief\].”[^96] ### 53\. A Promise of Security ‘Abdullâh b. Sa‘d (also known as Ibn Abi as-Sarh) was one of the very few whose blood was deemed violable at the Conquest of Mecca. This was because he was guilty of trying to forge records of the Quran (after becoming a scribe of revelation). He had fled Madinah, renouncing his Islam, and spreading rumors that “Muhammad has no idea what he is saying.” At the Conquest of Mecca, he snuck into the house of ‘Uthmân (ra) and pleaded with him to intercede on his behalf with the Prophet ﷺ. ‘Uthmân tried numerous times to evoke the Prophet ﷺ’s pity for ‘Abdullâh b. Sa‘d, or to simply do a favor to ‘Uthmân (who breastfed from this man’s mother as a child), before he ﷺ finally relented. Later, when the Prophet ﷺ asked the Companions why they did not kill this man, they suggested that he should have winked at them. He ﷺ said, “It is unbefitting for a Prophet to be someone who employs the treachery of the eye.” Thereafter, every time ‘Abdullâh b. Sa‘d saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he would run from him. ‘Uthmân went to him and said, “O Messenger of Allah, may my parents be ransomed for you. If only you would see how Ibn Abi as-Sarh runs from you whenever he catches sight of you.” The Prophet ﷺ smiled and said, “Did I not take his pledge and promise him security?” I said, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah, but he remembers the gravity of his crime in Islam.” The Prophet ﷺ responded, “Islam erases whatever is before it.” ‘Uthmân (ra) went back and informed ‘Abdullâh b. Sa‘d of this, and he would come and greet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ amidst the people after that. He excelled in his Islam and never turned back again.[^97] ### 54\. Curing the Heart of a Racist Abu Mahdhura was a young pagan who could not bear to see a black man ascend the Ka‘ba and perform the *adhân* (call to prayer) from its roof at the Conquest of Mecca. He and his friends began mocking Bilâl (ra) and imitating his *adhân* with their own voices. The Prophet ﷺ heard his exceptionally beautiful voice and called for him. Abu Mahdhura was brought, likely thinking that he would be executed for mocking Islam. But instead, the Prophet ﷺ wiped his blessed hands over the chest and head of this young man. Abu Mahdhura said, “By Allah, my heart then filled with belief and conviction that he was the Messenger of Allah.” He embraced Islam, was taught the words of the *adhân*, and became appointed the muezzin of Mecca when the Companions returned to Madinah.[^98] Some chroniclers mention that the honorary task of calling *adhân* at the Ka‘ba remained with Abu Mahdhura, and then was inherited by his descendants, for many generations after his death. ### 55\. The Touch of Compassion After the Conquest of Mecca, there were some whose hearts were not won over easily. Fadâla b. ‘Umayr was one of those seething with hatred and desperate for revenge. He vowed to kill the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, despite proclaiming to have accepted Islam. One day, as the Prophet ﷺ was circling the Ka‘ba, Fadâla tucked his sword under his clothing and followed him closely, gradually coming within attacking range, thinking to himself about the dastardly deed he was about to commit. Suddenly, the Prophet ﷺ turned around and found himself face to face with Fadâla. “What is it that you were saying to yourself?” the Prophet asked. “Nothing—I was just praising Allah,” Fadâla said. The Prophet ﷺ simply smiled and said, “Ask Allah to forgive you,” placing his hand on Fadalâ’s chest, transmitting tranquility to him. Fadâla would say, “By Allah, from the moment he ﷺ lifted his hand from my chest, there remained nothing of Allah’s creation except that he was more beloved to me than it.”[^99] This is an assassin in the most sacred place, fully under the Prophet’s control, being met with the loving supplication of the Prophet ﷺ rather than the punishment he deserved. ### 56\. His Daughter’s Persecutor Habbâr ibn Al-Aswad had inflicted the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with a very personal wound. When his daughter, Zaynab (ra), tried to migrate from Mecca to Madinah, Habbâr caught up with her and continued poking her camel with a spear until it threw her to the ground. Zaynab (ra) suffered a miscarriage from this fall, in addition to serious injuries that severely affected her health and contributed to her death several years later. It was an excruciating blow for the Prophet ﷺ to lose his first unborn grandchild and then also his dear daughter. Despite that, when Habbâr came begging for exoneration at the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet of Mercy ﷺ forgave him despite having the means and justification to exact the revenge he merited.[^100] ### 57\. The Son of Abu Lahab ‘Utba and his brother, ‘Utayba, were two sons of Abu Lahab who he had forced to divorce the Prophet ﷺ’s daughters, out of hatred for Muhammad and his new religion. At the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ asked al-‘Abbâs about ‘Utba and another brother of his, Mi‘tab. After being told they had fled Mecca, he ﷺ had al-‘Abbâs chase after them and bring them home. Al-‘Abbâs found his nephews at ‘Arafa, and brought them to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who invited them to Islam. They accepted, and ‘Utba displayed great valor by the Prophet ﷺ’s side at Hunayn and at-Tâ’if, surely feeling captivated by the grace of a man he had tried to dishonor twenty years earlier. ### 58\. The Son of Abu Jahl ‘Ikrima b. Abi Jahl (ra) was not just an enemy because his father (Abu Jahl) was the pharaoh of this nation. He was titled “the Lion of Quraysh” for his ferocity, led Quraysh’s left flank against the Muslims at Uhud, as well as an attack against the Muslims at al-Ahzâb, and was one of the few who took up arms at the Conquest of Mecca and fought the Muslims before giving up and fleeing. After a near-death experience at sea, ‘Ikrima kept the vow he made to Allah for saving him by returning to seek Muhammad ﷺ’s forgiveness. His wife, Umm Hakeem (now a Muslim), helped persuade him to keep his vow, and obtained for him a promise of security from the Prophet ﷺ. Upon reaching Mecca, news spread that “the son of the enemy of Allah” is coming, to which the Prophet ﷺ remarkably responded, “Indeed, ‘Ikrima is coming your way as a faithful migrant, so be sure not to insult his father, for insulting the dead grieves the living and does not reach the dead.” When ‘Ikrima finally arrived, the Prophet ﷺ leapt up to receive him, welcoming his former persecutor with genuine affection.[^101] ‘Ikrima subsequently became one of the most passionate defenders of Islam, until he was martyred at the Battle of Yarmook. ### 59\. A Change of Tune Ka‘b b. Zuhayr (ra) was a famous Arab poet who had written satirical verses about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. In Arabia, such poetry was not only an attack on the core of Islam, but a choice political weapon as well; poets were the propagandists in times of conflict. The Prophet ﷺ had ordered the assassination of Ka‘b, but he rushed to appeal for the Prophet’s mercy and forgiveness upon seeing Islam rise to power. He did so by composing what would become a legendary poem praising the Prophet ﷺ’s nobility, using the beautiful language and desert imagery that so moved the Arabs. Not only was the Messenger ﷺ moved by this to forgive him, but he cast upon Ka‘b’s shoulders his personal Yemeni cloak, or *burda*, by which name the historic poem became known.[^102] --- ## A Flawless Finish Following the Conquest of Mecca, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ moved to secure the Arabian Peninsula from the lawlessness of the feudal Arab tribes, and from the threat of the neighboring Byzantine empire. While doing so, he ﷺ continued his legacy of compassion and forgiveness, leaving as a legacy the best example of ethics and integrity the world has ever seen. ### 60\. A Broken Chief Mâlik b. ‘Awf (ra) was the chief of Hawâzin and, through a large coalition, had mobilized the greatest Arab army ever witnessed to eradicate the Muslims before their strength increased any further. The pagan army was 25,000 strong, and they brought out their wives, children, livestock, and wealth for incentive and morale. It was a horrific confrontation in the valley of Hunayn, and the Muslims suffered enormous losses before regrouping to save Islam from extinction. After the dust cleared, Mâlik b. ‘Awf was among those who escaped to the fortresses of Thaqeef (a coalition member) in Tâ’if, having lost everything. When he was in this broken and desperate state, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was still thinking about him. When he ﷺ was informed that he was alive, and had taken cover in the fortresses out of fear for his life, he said, “Inform Mâlik that if he comes to me as a Muslim, I will return his family and wealth to him, and will give him \[beyond that\] a hundred camels.”[^103] Is this the expected reaction of a victor to someone he had just defeated? Militaries everywhere find great satisfaction in prosecuting, punishing, and humiliating enemy leaders. To sympathize with and to shower gifts on a defeated enemy is something that most world leaders cannot even comprehend, let alone emulate. ### 61\. The Man from Yâ Seen Immediately after the siege of Tâ’if, ‘Urwa b. Mas‘ood ath-Thaqafi caught up with the Prophet ﷺ before he reached Madinah and asked if he could accept Islam. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ agreed and suggested that ‘Urwa not return to his people, saying, “I fear they will kill you \[for becoming Muslim\].” ‘Urwa did not think so, and said, “They value me like they value their eyesight, and these people do not even wake me when I am asleep \[so how could they lay a hand on me?\].” But upon returning and announcing his Islam, and then making *Adhan al-Fajr* on his roof the next morning, they killed him with arrows. In some reports, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The example of ‘Urwa among his people is like that of the man from *\[Surat\] Yâ Seen*; he called his people to Allah and they killed him as a result.”[^104] ### 62\. Hypocrites at Tabook Fifteen men who had feigned Islam attempted to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ as he rode back from Tabook. Three of them were killed, and Hudhayfa (ra) was told the names of the remaining twelve. Allah revealed verses exposing them and calling them to repentance.[^105] The Prophet ﷺ—despite knowing them by name—chose to warn them of punishment in the world and in the hereafter, saying, “In my *Ummah*, there will be twelve hypocrites and they will not be admitted to Paradise and they will not smell its scent, until the camel passes through the eye of a needle. An ulcer would be enough \[to torment them\]; a kind of flame of fire (burning) which would appear in their shoulders and protrude from their chests.”[^106] ### 63\. Ibn Salool’s Death After returning from Tabook, ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy died in the 9th *hijri* year. Despite nearly a decade of direct harm to the Messenger ﷺ and the Muslims, he ﷺ shrouded this man in his own shirt, prayed over his body, and said, “Once you are finished \[preparing the funeral\], inform me.” He ﷺ came to him after he was lowered in his grave, so he commanded them to remove him. He ﷺ placed him on his knees and blew into his face. ‘Umar (ra) says, “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood to pray over him, I jumped towards him and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, are you actually going to pray on Ibn Ubayy, after he has said such-and-such on such-and-such day?’ I kept repeating his statements to him ﷺ, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ just smiled and said, ‘Step back from me, O ‘Umar.’ When I became excessive in \[urging\] him, he said, ‘I have been given the choice, so I chose \[to ask for him to be forgiven\]. And had I known that \[asking more than\] seventy \[times\] would grant him forgiveness, I would have done more than that.’”[^107] Imam al-Khattâbi (may Allah bestow mercy on him) said, “The only reasons why the Prophet ﷺ did what he did with ‘Abdullâh b. Ubayy was \[because of\] his impeccable compassion for those who clung onto any edge of Islam, and to comfort the heart of his son, the righteous man ‘Abdullâh, and to win the hearts of his people (al-Khazraj), since he was their leader.”[^108] He also felt indebted to Ibn Salool for providing his shirt to the Prophet ﷺ’s uncle, al-‘Abbâs, after the Battle of Badr, even if it was done with the wrong intentions. ### 64\. The Man Who Had the Prophet ﷺ Stoned in Tâ’if ‘Abd Yâlayl b. ‘Amr ath-Thaqafi was among the people who inflicted the most pain ever on the Messenger ﷺ. He was the leader of Thaqeef, and the man who ordered that he ﷺ be stoned and run out of the city. For nearly a decade, Thaqeef had resisted Islam’s surfacing in Tâ’if. And, following the conquest of Mecca (8 *hijri* year), they allied with Hawâzin in the Battle of Hunayn. And when their ambassador, ‘Urwa ibn Mas‘ud (ra), accepted Islam, they killed him—another devastating blow to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. After the Byzantines fled at Tabook, Thaqeef realized that the Muslims were now the undisputed power in the Arabian Peninsula. They sent a delegation to Madinah, led by ‘Abd Yâlayl, who the Prophet ﷺ received graciously without any mention of their ugly past. He hosted them, furnished them with gifts, and even entertained their demands about accepting Islam on the condition that they be permitted to deal in *ribâ*, fornicate, drink wine, not have to pray, and not break the al-Lât idol. He ﷺ discussed these issues with them each night after *ishâ*’, in a tent he had erected for them inside the Prophet’s Mosque. Ultimately, Islam permeated their hearts, and its Prophet captivated them with his gentleness, and they became one of the greatest strongholds of Islam—even during the apostate wars when rebellions were rampant. ### 65\. A Christian Chief ‘Adi b. Hâtim at-Tâ’i felt he had every reason to despise Islam, for he was the chief of Tay’ (a competing tribe to Quraysh), as well as a Christian, and an ally to the superpower Byzantium. The father of Ka‘b b. Ashraf, a warmonger who was executed by the Prophet ﷺ for sedition, was also from Tay’. Furthermore, Tay’ was handily defeated by the Muslim army. ‘Adi (ra) said, “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sent, I hated him in a way that surpassed any hatred I have ever had for anything.”[^109] After his people were subdued, and he roamed the earth as a fugitive, he became fed up with life and headed to the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah completely unarmed and vulnerable. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ took him in, invited him to Islam, and patiently convinced him of the truth he had brought and the prophecies that would soon come to pass. And just like that, this great commander joined the Muslim ranks without hearing any mention of his past, or his war against Islam, or his hatred of its Prophet ﷺ.[^110] ### 66\. The Woman Who Poisoned Him Towards the end of his life, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was invited by a woman from Khaybar, Zaynab b. al-Harith, only so she could poison his food! She had prepared a lamb and placed additional poison in the shoulder area which the Prophet ﷺ was known to prefer. He ate from it with his Companions, until revelation informed him that it contained poison. When Zaynab was interrogated she confessed and admitted, “I wanted to kill you.” He ﷺ said, “But Allah would not enable you against me.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, should we not kill her?” He said, “No,” and forgave her. Anas (ra) says, “Due to that poison, I continued noticing a mark in \[the mouth of\] the Prophet ﷺ \[until he died\].”[^111] ### 67\. Musaylama’s Delegates The tribe of Banu Haneefa enjoyed great strength and a formidable reputation, and they initially accepted Islam like everyone else in Arabia. Upon returning home, they demanded that the Prophet ﷺ show appreciation for their commitment by allotting them leadership after his death. When he ﷺ refused, they renounced Islam and declared Musaylama al-Hanafi (also known as Musaylama the Imposter) to be their prophet. Despite the audacity of this apostasy and treason, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ maintained his principles and said to the ambassadors, “Were it not for the fact that ambassadors are not killed, I would have killed the both of you.”[^112] As for Banu Haneefa, they apprehended the Prophet ﷺ’s ambassador, Habeeb b. Zayd (ra), and cut him to pieces, limb by limb, in front of his family. --- ## Incorruptible Some Islamophobes have argued that “Muhammad’s changed behavior and teachings in Madinah are a little too convenient and self-serving for anyone with a grain of skepticism about human nature to swallow.”[^113] Although a slight improvement over others’ description of the Prophet ﷺ as an opportunist who played possum in Mecca, the view that he was later corrupted by power in Madinah is also plagued by grave fallacies. Firstly, ‘Â’isha (ra) who lived with him ﷺ behind closed doors until he breathed his last, said, “Never did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ strike anyone with his hand, neither a servant nor a woman, unless he was fighting in the cause of Allah. He never took revenge upon anyone for the wrong done to him, and would \[only\] carry out legal retributions for the sake of Allah when the injunctions of Allah were violated.”[^114] Ironically, ‘Â’isha (ra) lived forty years after the Prophet ﷺ telling the world about his unparalleled ethics, yet it is her narrations that are often twisted by Islamophobes who seek to demonize him. Secondly, desperation can often pose just as much of a challenge to one’s integrity as power, and thus we find terrorist groups usually rise out of suppressed political minorities. When people feel that their backs are against the wall and that their disadvantages are suffocating them, that is often when they resort to unethical tactics. Did the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ not witness marginalization and persecution for thirteen years in Mecca (and the first few years in Madinah)? Yet, he continued to pray for his enemies and to invite them to peace while calming his followers who saw no end in sight to the torture tactics of the Meccans. Thirdly, the political strength of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ continued to grow until his death, and we have just seen how his clemency only grew with it. Does not his mercy at the Conquest of Mecca, as just one example, cause the honest skeptic to wonder why power did not lead him to seek vengeance against those who slandered him, expelled him, killed his family and followers, and never let up for over twenty years? Would a man consumed by vengeance retain the moral sense to forbid the killing of women, children, monks, the elderly, and noncombatants? Would such a man stop, amidst a military campaign, over a slain woman’s body and declare, “She should not have been harmed”?[^115] To further highlight this last point, it helps to look at people without influence in the Prophet ﷺ’s society and times. Even the aggression of the weakest sectors in society was met with a similar degree of tolerance by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Nothing can explain why he ﷺ treated even them with such kindness and excellence, other than his sheer magnificence of character, and his passion to save as many souls as possible. ### 68. The Father of Extremism While distributing the spoils of war, Dhul Khuwaysira accused the Prophet ﷺ of dividing them unfairly. He said, “Be fair, O Muhammad! For this division \[of shares\] is not one for which Allah’s face is sought!” The face of the Prophet ﷺ reflected his anger when he heard this, but he chose to simply reply to this heinous accusation by saying, “Woe to you, who would ever be just if I am not just? May Allah bestow mercy upon Moses; he was hurt by more than this and was still patient.”[^116] In another narration, “You do not trust me, though I am the one trusted by He Who is above the heavens?” ### 69\. Help Him with His Debts Abu Hurayra (ra) reported, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ owed a camel of a particular age to a Bedouin man, who demanded it from him in an uncivil manner. This vexed the Companions, and they were about to hurt him, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘He who has a right is entitled to speak.’ Then he said to them, ‘Buy him the camel and give it to him.’ They said, ‘We cannot find a camel of that age, but found one with a better age than it.’ He said, ‘Buy that and give it to him, for the best of you are those best in paying off debt.’”[^117] ### 70\. The Bedouin Who Suffocated Him Anas (ra) said, “I was walking with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he was wearing a Najrâni cloak with a rough collar. A Bedouin man caught up with him, then violently pulled him by his cloak, causing the cloak to tear, and leaving its collar \[hanging\] on the neck of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ. I looked at the Messenger of Allah ﷺ’s neck, and the cloak’s collar had left marks from how roughly he had snatched \[it\]. Then, he said, ‘O Muhammad, order \[them\] that I be given from the wealth of Allah that you have!’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned to him, smiled, and then ordered that he be given something.”[^118] For fourteen centuries, Muslim scholars have deduced from these incidents not just the hallmarks of good character and forbearance, but understand these to be guidelines for the rulers who followed him ﷺ: that they should be tolerant with their people, endure their physical and financial harm, and overlook any disrespect in order to warm their hearts towards Islam.[^119] --- ## A Mercy Misunderstood Some people find it problematic that, at times, the Prophet ﷺ seems to have stepped outside of his tolerant and forgiving norm. Although analyzing each of these “violent incidents” would be worthwhile, it is also beyond the scope of this particular study. We have just illustrated that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was undoubtedly inclined to gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy as defaults. However, his mercy did not interfere with his obedience to God, nor the justice that God enjoins. His commitment to mercy was, above all else, a means of devotion to God, and an avenue by which he earned His mercy and pleasure. For that reason, we find the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr (ra) weeping from the fear of God: for instance, when He revealed verses after Badr criticizing their decision to “compassionately spare” the captives. Certainly, this should not be understood to mean that Allah is anti-mercy, for He is the Most Merciful. But it does mean that He is not limited by His mercy. In other words, He knows better that limitless and unconditional mercy is incompatible with other noble values such as justice, and that it does not serve the best interests of humanity. From that perspective, we can begin to understand why the Prophet ﷺ sanctioned the execution of some people, and tactically fought others, though he may have wished that this could have been avoided.[^120] Many times, we as humans—even with good intentions—fail to strike the perfect balance between competing values, and this is just one reason why Allah revealed definitive guidance to help us regulate and contextualize these values. In the Quran, Allah says, “And when the fright had left Abraham and the good tidings reached him, he began to argue with us concerning the People of Lot. Indeed, Abraham was forbearing, grieving (i.e., hurt by human suffering), and \[frequently\] returning \[to Allah\]” \[Hood (11): 74-75\]. Here, God praises Abraham (as) as being someone who grieved for human suffering, but also as someone who resigned himself to God’s decisions. This was the prophetic balance that Allah wished to inculcate in the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through these verses. He did not want His final Prophet to be as heartless as those around him, but neither did He want him ﷺ to adopt a passivity that would result in the merciless becoming brazen and taking advantage of any apparent weakness. The Prophet ﷺ’s execution of Abu ‘Izza (the Poet) after Uhud, after releasing him the previous year without ransom at Badr, is one example of that. He ﷺ may have wished to forgive him again, for he did forgive others repeatedly, but instead said, “By Allah, you will not strut in Mecca saying, ‘I deceived Muhammad twice.’”[^121] Without an external reference point to mediate these values (i.e., divine revelation), the world has disagreed on the boundaries of mercy and justice. Some gravitate to an impractical and utopian extreme, where no forcefulness whatsoever is justified, refusing the reality that some people will never be as “ethically conscious” as them and will continue transgressing against others unless they are forcefully stopped. Some gravitate to another extreme, using brutality and terror as means to their “righteous” ends. The majority orbits in the ambiguous middle, each presenting a claim about where a virtue like mercy ends and where another like justice begins. Just as a rusted coin will not be polished by a gentle scrub, some souls require a degree of “harshness” to remedy them. And just as surgical amputation is generally avoided, but is sometimes a necessary last resort to save a life, sometimes mercy is embodied in sacrificing some lives to save many more. Through this study, we hope that the framing of the Prophet ﷺ’s career as being one fueled by pride, hate, or vengeance has been debunked. As the French historian Louis Sedillot puts it, > *It is such a distortion of historical facts when some writers accuse Prophet Muhammad of cruelty…They forget that he spared no effort in eliminating the inherited desire for revenge between Arabs; despite the fact that revenge was highly esteemed in Arabia, like fencing was in Europe. They do not read the Quranic verse by which the Prophet broke the horrible habit of burying new-born girls alive. They never think of the pardon he granted to his worst enemies after the Conquest of Mecca. Neither do they consider the mercy he showed to many tribes during war. Do they not know that he never misused his power in fulfilling the desire for cruelty? If any of his Companions committed anything wrong, he would stop them and correct them. It is well known that he refused the opinion of his close Companion, Omar bin al-Khattab, on killing the prisoners of war. When the time came to punish Banu Quraydha, he left the judgment to Sa‘d bin Mu‘adh who used to be their ally and was well acquainted with rabbinic law. He also forgave Hamza’s killer and never refused any request for kindness and forgiveness.*[^122] Elsewhere, he writes about the Quran, > *It takes man out of the darkness of his weaknesses and elevates him to the light of ethical highness…Those who call Islam a barbarous religion are people who are deprived of consciousness because they close their eyes to the clear and lucid verses of the Quran and they do not study how the Quran eliminated the disgraceful acts that lasted for centuries.*[^123] With that, we hope and pray that these seventy incidents, paraphrased for the sake of conciseness, serve as a reminder of who the Prophet ﷺ really was: a man of mercy and moral greatness who sought not the praise of this world, but its betterment through his example. May God’s endless peace and blessings be upon him, his family, his companions, and those that follow in their blessed path. --- ## Notes [^1]: Honorific symbol stating: “salutations and peace be upon him.” [^2]: Michael David. Bonner, *Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice* (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 16. [^3]: Ibid. [^4]: Michael H. Hart, *The 100: A ranking of the most influential persons in history* (New York: Hart Pub. Co., 1978), 21. [^5]: [Anthon St. Maarten](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6154621.Anthon_St_Maarten), [Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/20412734) [^6]: Attributed to Manuel II Palaiologos, a 14th century Byzantine emperor, but more recently quoted by Pope Benedict XVI, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhumane, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Lecture of the Holy Father–Faith, Reason and the University Memories and Reflections, *Libreria Editrice Vaticana*, 12 September 2006. [^7]: Throughout her writings, Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that many Muslims today understand from the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that imposing their religion on others is a requirement of their faith, and the moment he ﷺ fled to Madinah and “cobbled together a militia,” his true colors surfaced. See: Islam is a Religion of Violence, *Foreign Policy*, 9 November 2015. [^8]: See: *Mustadrak al-Hâkim; Bâb at-Tafseer; Surat an-Nahl*; *Illâ Man Ukriha wa Qalbuhu Mutma’inn bil-Eemân* [^9]: See: *Sunan Ibn Mâjah* (153) and *Hilyat al-Awliyâ’* (472) [^10]: Ghazâli, *Fiqh-us-Seerah: Understanding the Life of Prophet Muhammad,* 117. [^11]: Ṣallābī, *The Noble Life of the Prophet (peace be upon him),*. 327. [^12]: Haleem, *The Qurʻan: A New Translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem,* 237. [^13]: Ghazâli, *Fiqh-us-Seerah: Understanding the Life of Prophet Muhammad,* 125. [^14]: Ibid, 121. [^15]: Ṣallâbi, *The Noble Life of the Prophet (peace be upon him)*, .181. [^16]: Quraysh would call the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ insane, a sorcerer, a soothsayer, a fraud (plagiarizer), a mere poet, barren (unmanly), cursed by the gods, and other such insults. [^17]: Collected by Ahmad (9251) and Abu Dawud (4896), and al-Arna’oot deemed it *hasan li-ghayrih* (sound in light of its corroborating chains). [^18]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (334) [^19]: Collected by at-Tirmidhi (3683) [^20]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (133, 333) [^21]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3059) and Muslim (1795) [^22]: Collected by Ibn Hishâm in *as-Seera* (2/70-72) and Ibn Sa‘d in *at-Tabaqât al-Kubrâ* (1/211-221) [^23]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (4131) [^24]: Collected by al-Bayhaqi in *as-Sunan al-Kubrâ* (12477), Ibn Katheer ibn *al-Bidâya wan-Nihâya* (3/218-219), and at-Tabari in *Târeekh al-Umam wal-Mulook* (2/372) [^25]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3419) and Muslim (2009), and this is the wording of Ahmad (17627) about which al-Arna’oot said, “Its chain is authentic according to the criteria of \[Imam\] Muslim.” [^26]: Muḥammad Ibn Ismāʻīl Bukhārī and Muhammad Muhsin Khan. *Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī: The Translation of the Meanings of Sahih Al-Bukhari: Arabic-English*. (Riyadh-Saudi Arabia: Darussalam Pub. & Distr., 1997), Hadith 3612. [^27]: Zeitlin, *The Historical Muhammad*, 317. [^28]: Esposito, John L. Islam: *The Straight Path*. Revised Third ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. pp. 8-9. [^29]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (856) and Muslim (4431) [^30]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (410, 6528) [^31]: Collected by Ibn Hibbân (288), al-Bayhaqi (11066) and al-Hâkim (6547) who said, “This *hadith* has an authentic chain, though they (al-Bukhâri and Muslim) did not collect it.” Al-Haythami said in *Majma‘ az-Zawâ’id*, “Ibn Mâjah collected a part of it, and it was narrated \[entirely\] by at-Tabarâni via narrators that are \[all\] trustworthy.” [^32]: Collected by Ibn Ibn Hishâm (1/616-617), as-Sâlihi ash-Shâmi in *Subul al-Hudâ war-Rashâd* (4/27), and as-Suhayli in *ar-Rawd al-Unf* (3/58) [^33]: See: *at-Tâj al-Ikleel* (3/353) [^34]: Collected by Muslim (1787) [^35]: Collected by al-Hâkim (3/318) and Ibn Hishâm (3/200) [^36]: Collected by Muslim (1763) [^37]: Collected by at-Tabarâni in *al-Kabeer* (977), and in *as-Saghee*r (409), and al-Haythami said in *Majma‘ az-Zawâ’id* (6/115), “Its chain is *hasan* (sound).” [^38]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3482) and Muslim (2242) [^39]: This was also stated by Sa‘eed b. Jubayr, ‘Atâ’ b. Abi Rabâh, al-Hasan al-Basri, and Qatâdah. See: *Tafseer Ibn Katheer* (4/584). [^40]: See: *as-Seera* (2/475) by Ibn Katheer and *at-Tabaqât al-Kubrâ* (2/15) by Ibn Sa‘d. [^41]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (2846) and al-Bayhaqi in *as-Sunan al-Kubrâ* (18570) [^42]: Collected by al-Bayhaqi in *Dalâ’il an-Nubuwwa* (5/264) [^43]: See: *at-Tabaqât* (4/14) by Ibn Sa‘d [^44]: See: *‘Uyoon al-Athar* (1/352) by Ibn Sayyid an-Nâs [^45]: Collected by Ahmad (2216), and al-Arna’oot said, “This chain of transmission is *hasan*.” In *Majma‘ az-Zawâ’id* (4/172), al-Haythami said, “It was collected by Ahmad from ‘Ali b. ‘Âsim who makes many mistakes, though Ahmad deemed him trustworthy.” [^46]: See: *al-Bidâya wan-Nihâya* (3/311) by Ibn Katheer [^47]: Collected by at-Tirmidhi (1566) who called it *hasan-ghareeb*, Ahmad (23546) and al-Arna’oot called it collectively *hasan* in light of its corroborating chains. It was also narrated by al-Hâkim (2334) who deemed it authentic according to the criteria of Muslim, and at-Tabarâni in *al-Kabeer* (4080), al-Bayhaqi in *al-Kubrâ* (18089), and al-Albâni deemed it authentic in *Saheeh al-Jâmi’* (6412). [^48]: Collected by al-Hâkim (6193) who said, “This *hadith* has an authentic chain, though they (al-Bukhâri and Muslim) did not collect it.” It was also collected by Sa‘eed b. Mansoor in *as-Sunan* (2654). [^49]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (2970), Abu Dawud (2689), at-Tabarâni in *al-Kabeer* (1/302), and Ibn Atheer in *Asad al-Ghâba* (1/337) [^50]: Collected by Abu Dawud (3001) [^51]: See: *as-Seera* (2/48) by Ibn Hishâm with a sound *mursal* chain [^52]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (6530) and Muslim (1792) [^53]: Collected by Muslim (2599) [^54]: “Cursed were those who disbelieved among the Children of Israel by the tongue of David and of Jesus, the son of Mary. That was because they disobeyed and \[habitually\] transgressed.” \[*al-Mâ’idah* (5): 78\] [^55]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has cursed *ribâ* (interest), its consumer, its payer, its \[contract\] documenter, its witnesses. They are all equal.” Collected by Muslim (1598) [^56]: The Prophet ﷺ invoked Allah to curse the likes of Safwân b. Umayya, Suhayl b. ‘Amr, and al-Hârith b. Hishâm, but desisted when Allah (swt)  revealed, “You do not have any decision in the matter whether He will forgive them or punish them.” \[Âl-‘Imrân (3): 128\] Collected by al-Bukhâri (4283), et al. [^57]: In *Sharh Muslim* (6/167), Imam an-Nawawi explains that the secret behind the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reciting *Surat al-Munâfiqoon* (the Hypocrites) in particular during the Friday prayer is that it prompted them to repent before their window of opportunity closes, as the hypocrites would attend this congregation more than any other. [^58]: Collected by al-Bayhaqi in *Dalâ’il an-Nubuwwa* (3/147-149), Ibn Sa‘d in *at-Tabaqât* (4/200) and al-Haythami in *Majma‘ az-Zawâ’id* (8/286) who attributed it to at-Tabarâni. The best of these chains of transmission is a sound *mursal* report traceable to ‘Urwa and another mursal report attributed to Anas (ra). Thus, researchers have extensively debated these accounts, especially the details about ‘Umayr embracing Islam after Badr. [^59]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (5765) and Muslim (2189). In *Fath al-Bâri*, Ibn Hajar explains that Labeed sought forgiveness, and pleaded that he only did this out of need for the money, and so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not want to stir hostilities between the people, or did not want to stir a rumor that Muhammad kills his followers, since Labeed was among those tribes who feigned Islam. [^60]: See: *al-Bidâya wan-Nihâya* (4/159) [^61]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3518) and Muslim (2584) [^62]: Collected by Ibn Hishâm (2/291) [^63]: See: *as-Sayr al-Kabeer* (2/591) by ash-Shaybâni [^64]: See: *Tafseer al-Qurtubi*; \[*al-Ahzâb* (33): 37\] [^65]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (60/281) [^66]: See: *Tafseer Ibn ‘Âshoor*; \[*al-Fath* (48): 24\] [^67]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (2731, 2732) and Muslim (4401-4409) [^68]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (2731, 2732) and Muslim (4401-4409) [^69]: Collected by Muslim (1641), Abu Dawud (3316), Ibn Hibbân (4859), ash-Shâfi‘i (1490), ad-Dâraqutni (37), al-Bayhaqi in *as-Sunan al-Kubrâ* (1845), and Abu Nu‘aym in *Hilyat al-Awliyâ’* (8/651) [^70]: Collected by Muslim (2491) [^71]: In *Fath al-Bâri* (7/426), Ibn Hajar said, “When the Bedouin witnessed this great firmness, and recognized that something had come between him \[and the Prophet ﷺ\], it is as if he verified his truthfulness and became certain that he would not reach him. This is why he threw down the weapon and lowered his guard.” [^72]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (2910) and Muslim (843) [^73]: Collected by al-Hâkim (4322) who graded it authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhâri and Muslim. Imam adh-Dhahabi agreed with him, and al-Albâni authenticated it in *at-Ta‘leeqât al-Hisân* (2872). [^74]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (4372) and Muslim (1764) [^75]: See: *as-Seera* (4/284-285) by Ibn Hishâm [^76]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (83/11) and Muslim (1/176-178) [^77]: Collected by al-Wâqidi (2/749) [^78]: Collected by Muslim (711) [^79]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (801) and Muslim (2194) [^80]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (1360) in *Kitâb al-Janâ’iz* [^81]: See: *al-Isâbah fee Ta‘reef as-Sahâba* (4/12) [^82]: See: *al-Bidâya wan-Nihâya* (2/540) [^83]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3817), Abu Dawud (2262), and an-Nasâ’i (8635) [^84]: Dr. Râgheb Sergani comments, “Look at this virtue, this greatness! A person cannot wrap his head around what just happened until he puts himself in this situation. Let us be honest with ourselves, and the world with itself; would anyone ever do this but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ? Are there still people claiming that Muslims do not acknowledge ‘the other,’ and do not understand coexistence? Is Islam still the religion of terror and savagery in people’s minds? Our real crisis is knowledge; once someone bypasses the superficial acquaintance with Allah’s Messenger ﷺ – he/she realizes how empty theory is in the presence of facts.” Adapted from “The Prophet’s Tolerance with His Enemies,” an article on www.islamstory.com [^85]: See: *as-Seera* (4/1072) by Ibn Hishâm [^86]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (40300 and al-Bayhaqi in a*s-Sunan al-Kubrâ* (18058) [^87]: See: *Fath al-Bâri* (8/9) [^88]: See: *as-Seera* (2/411) by Ibn Hishâm, *Zâd al-Mi‘âd* (3/356) by Ibn al-Qayyim, *ar-Rawd al-Unf* (4/170) by as-Suhayli, and *as-Seera* (3/570), and *Fath al-Bâri* (8/18) by Ibn Hajar [^89]: Collected by Muslim (4395) [^90]: See: *Tafseer at-Tabari* (8/491-492) and *Tafseer Ibn Katheer* (2/340) [^91]: See: *Asad al-Ghâba* by Ibn Atheer, *al-Isâbah* by Ibn Hajar, and *Fath al-Bâri* also by Ibn Hajar [^92]: Collected by Muslim (2313) [^93]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (6150, 6628) and Muslim (3234) [^94]: See: *as-Seera al-Halabiyya* (1/461) [^95]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3844, 4072), Ahmad (16077), and al-Bayhaqi in *Dalâ’il an-Nubuwwa* (3/241) [^96]: See: *at-Tabaqât* (3/573) by Ibn Sa‘d [^97]: Collected by Abu Dawud (4359) and Ibn Sa‘d in *at-Tabaqât* (339-448) [^98]: See: *ar-Rawd al-Unf* (7/239) [^99]: See: *ar-Rawd al-Unf* (7/114) [^100]: Collected by al-Hâkim (2812), and see: *Fath al-Bâri* (8/11) [^101]: Collected by al-Hâkim (5103) [^102]: Adapted from *Muhammad:A Very Short Introduction*, (pp. 41, 56) by Jonathan A.C. Brown, Oxford University Press, 2011. Also, see: *Seerat Ibn Hishâm* (3/502-512), *Zâd al-Mi‘âd* (3/455) by Ibn al-Qayyim, and *Majma‘ az-Zawâ’id* (3/407) by al-Haythami, who said therein about at-Tabarâni’s chain, “Its narrators until Ibn Ishaq are trustworthy.” [^103]: Collected by at-Tabari in *Târeekh al-Umam wal-Mulook* (2/174) [^104]: See: al-Wâqidi (3/960-961) [^105]: “They swear by Allah that they did not say \[anything against the Prophet\] while they had said the word of disbelief and disbelieved after their \[pretense of\] Islam and planned that which they were not to attain. And they were not resentful except \[for the fact\] that Allah and His Messenger had enriched them of His bounty. So if they repent, it is better for them; but if they turn away, Allah will punish them with a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And there will not be for them on earth any protector or helper” \[*at-Tawbah* (9) 74\]. [^106]: Collected by Muslim (2779) [^107]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (1269) and Muslim (2774) [^108]: Cited in *Fath al-Bâri* (8/336) [^109]: Narrated by Ibn Atheer in *Asad al-Ghâba* (3/504) and adh-Dhahabi in *Târeekh al-Islâm* (1/354) [^110]: Collected by Ahmad (19397) and al-Arna’oot graded this chain as sound. [^111]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (2617) and Muslim (2190); other narrations clarify that he ﷺ initially forgave her for what she did to him, but then handed her fate to the family of Bishr b. al-Barâ’ (ra) who died from her poison, which made them entitled to legal retribution. [^112]: Collected by Abu Dawud (2761) [^113]: See: *The Enigma of Islam; the Two Faces of Muhammad*, a “Renew America” article by Fred Hutchison, 30 June 2006. [^114]: Collected by Muslim (644) [^115]: Collected by Abu Dawud (2663) and Ahmad (17158) [^116]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (73/85) and Muslim (1064) [^117]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (578) and Muslim (3898) [^118]: Collected by al-Bukhâri (3149) and Muslim (1057) [^119]: See: *Fath al-Bâri* (10/506) by Ibn Hajar and *Sharh Muslim* (7/147) by an-Nawawi [^120]: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not wish to meet the enemy \[at war\], but when you meet them, stand firm.” Collected by al-Bukhâri (2863) [^121]: See: *ar-Rawd al-Unf* (6/30) [^122]: Louis Sédillot (d. 1875), *Histoire des Arabes (Brief History of the Arabs)*, pp. 63-64 – published 1854 [^123]: Ibid. ## Summary In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. The dignity of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is inseparable from the truth of his message, for to slander him is to cast doubt upon the whole of what he brought. In his own lifetime the disbelievers of Quraysh called him a poet, a magician, and a madman, and these very accusations are preserved for us in Allah's words: "The disbelievers almost strike you down with their looks when they hear the Qur'an. They say, 'He must be mad!'" [al-Qalam 68:51], and "The disbelievers think it strange that a prophet of their own people has come to warn them: they say, 'He is just a lying sorcerer'" [Sâd 38:4]. In our own age the insults have shifted, and among the most damaging is the charge that he overcame his enemies through terror and ruled them with cruelty. As Michael Bonner observed, many such arguments arose among nineteenth and twentieth century orientalists whose scholarship could not be divorced from the colonial project. What remains beyond dispute is that he ﷺ attained unmatched influence, such that Michael Hart named him the most influential man in history, "the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level." The question worth examining is whether he compromised his principles to reach that success, and the record of his life shows that he did not. 'Â'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) described him by saying "his character was the Qur'an," meaning that he embodied all that he preached. When Allah commands, "Repel that which is evil with that which is better" [Fussilat 41:34], it is in his conduct that we witness how to rise above hostility. Since evil is relative, his responses varied according to circumstance, and it is his consistency in choosing the noblest course that renders him venerable. Islamophobes claim that he authored the Qur'an, which grew less tolerant as his power increased. Yet this cannot stand, for the verses of battle were revealed only after Madinah, since war did not occur until he became a head of state, and among the clearest verses of tolerance, "There is no compulsion in religion" [al-Baqara 2:256], was likewise revealed after the migration. Allah described him as "but a mercy to the worlds" [al-Anbiyâ' 21:107] and as being "upon an exalted standard of character" [al-Qalam 68:4]. Seventy incidents in which he rose above enmity and insult have been gathered to establish the pattern of his dealings, so that the few incidents cited by his detractors may be understood against their true backdrop as exceptions that themselves reflect his mercy rather than departures from it. In Mecca the early Muslims endured brutal persecution. Sumayya bint Khayyât was the first martyr, slain by a spear thrust; her son 'Ammâr was tortured with fire; Bilâl and Suhayb were left in the scorching sun; and Khabbâb was forced onto burning coals. The Prophet ﷺ himself was strangled by 'Uqba while praying, had camel intestines dumped upon him by order of Abu Jahl, and was spat upon by 'Utayba. Yet throughout, following Allah's command in Sûrat ash-Shu'arâ' to "warn your nearest kinfolk," he directed a policy of patient, non-violent endurance, since the Muslims had not been granted permission to fight and were a vulnerable minority. As Sallabi noted, this restraint allowed Islam to spread through all the clans of Quraysh without the ruinous consequences of tribal warfare. When insulted, he did not respond in kind. He once smiled while Abu Bakr remained silent under abuse, but left when Abu Bakr replied, explaining that an angel had been answering on his behalf until the response invited a devil. When Umm Jameel taunted "Mudhammam," he found comfort in that Allah diverted the curses from him, "for I am Muhammad." He prayed for the guidance of his enemies, supplicating that Allah strengthen Islam through Abu Jahl or 'Umar, and 'Umar embraced Islam. On the day of Tâ'if, the hardest of his life, when he was pelted until blood ran down his legs, he refused the offer of the Angel of the Mountains to destroy the town, hoping instead for believers among their descendants. When his people were struck by famine at his supplication, he prayed for their relief. He kept the trusts of his very persecutors, leaving 'Ali behind to return them, and he even declined the wealth offered by Surâqa during his flight. After the hijra, when he became, as one scholar notes, "the prophet-head of a religiopolitical community" and arbiter for Muslim and non-Muslim alike, he ruled with the very mercy denied to him in Mecca. He refused to insult 'Abdullâh b. Ubayy even in private, calling him by his honorific. He rebuked 'Â'isha for answering harshly the Jews who wished death upon him, saying, "Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all matters." His forbearance guided Zayd b. Su'na, who recognized that "intense abuse only increases him in forbearance." He forbade the torture of Quraysh's scout, and Imâm Mâlik, asked whether a captive might be tortured for intelligence, replied, "We have never heard of this in our tradition." He refused to mutilate Suhayl b. 'Amr, saying, "I will not mutilate him, lest Allah mutilate me, even if I were a Prophet," and he commanded, "Treat the captives well," fulfilling Allah's words, "And they feed with their own food, despite their love for it, to the needy, the orphan, and the captive" [al-Insân 76:8]. He clothed the captives, eased their ransom, ransomed the literate through teaching, introduced prisoner exchange, and forbade separating a mother from her child. At Uhud, wounded and bleeding, he prayed, "O Allah, forgive my people, for they do not know," and told those who asked him to curse the polytheists, "I have not been sent as one who curses. Rather, I was sent as a mercy." He forgave the treason of Ibn Ubayy, lest people say "Muhammad kills his companions," and forgave the sorcerer Labeed. When Allah ordered his marriage to Zaynab and the hypocrites slandered him, He commanded, "And do not mind the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Ignore their harm" [al-Ahzâb 33:48]. When Mistah joined the slander of 'Â'isha, Allah revealed, "Do you not love that Allah should forgive you?" [an-Nûr 24:22], and Abu Bakr restored his charity. At al-Hudaybiya he accepted humbling terms for the sake of peace, honoring even the insolent envoy 'Urwa. Regarding a pagan mother, Allah revealed, "Allah does not forbid you regarding those who do not fight you… from being righteous toward them" [al-Mumtahana 60:8]. His conquest of Mecca crowned this mercy. Marching with ten thousand upon those who had persecuted him for over twenty years, he lowered his head in humility and declared, "Today is the day of mercy," proclaiming to Quraysh the words of Yûsuf: "No blame will there be upon you today" [Yûsuf 12:92]. He forgave Abu Sufyân, Hind who had mutilated Hamza, Wahshi his killer, 'Ikrima the son of Abu Jahl, Safwân, Habbâr who had caused his daughter's death, and 'Abdullâh b. Sa'd, saying, "Islam erases whatever is before it," and refusing treachery of the eye, for "it is unbefitting for a Prophet to be someone who employs the treachery of the eye." To the very end this remained his way. He offered Mâlik b. 'Awf his family, wealth, and a hundred camels. He forgave the woman who poisoned him, saying, "Allah would not enable you against me." Even the powerless who wronged him met his tolerance: he answered Dhul Khuwaysira's slander with "who would ever be just if I am not just?", recalling that Moses was hurt by worse and remained patient; and he smiled at the Bedouin who violently tore his cloak, then ordered him to be given charity. The claim that power corrupted him is refuted by 'Â'isha, who lived with him until his death and testified that he never struck anyone nor avenged himself, punishing only when Allah's limits were violated. Desperation corrupts as surely as power, yet in thirteen years of persecution he remained forbearing, and his clemency only grew with his strength. His mercy did not override justice, for Allah is Most Merciful yet not limited by mercy, and He praised Ibrâhîm as "forbearing, grieving, and frequently returning to Allah" [Hûd 11:74-75]. Thus the Prophet ﷺ executed some, as with Abu 'Izza, saying, "you will not… say, 'I deceived Muhammad twice,'" not from vengeance but from divinely guided balance. As Louis Sedillot wrote, those who accuse him of cruelty forget how he abolished revenge and the burying of daughters, pardoned his worst enemies, and never misused his power. Analysis of the exceptional incidents lies beyond this study, yet their pattern is clear: a man of mercy and moral greatness who sought the betterment of the world through his example. May Allah's endless peace and blessings be upon him, his family, his companions, and those who follow their path. ## Key Takeaways 1. The Prophet ﷺ embodied the Qur’an in his words and actions. As Aʾisha said, “His character was the Qur’an.” (*Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim*, no*.* 746). He met hostility with patience, dignity, and forgiveness, repelling evil with what is better (Q 41:34). Even when mocked or attacked, he remained steadfast in principle, reflecting prophetic mercy and moral consistency from Mecca to Madinah and beyond. 2. During the Meccan years, the Prophet ﷺ and his companions endured persecution, boycott, and exile without retaliation. When offered vengeance, the Prophet ﷺ refused and prayed for his enemies’ guidance instead. On the most difficult day of his life in Taif, after being pelted with stones, he ﷺ prayed that future generations from that city would believe. It was a gesture of mercy amid suffering and a sign of his trust in God’s plan. 3. As a leader, the Prophet ﷺ displayed justice and compassion even at the height of power. During the Conquest of Mecca, he declared, “Today is the day of mercy,” forgiving those who had persecuted him and protecting civilians from harm. His generosity transformed former enemies into loyal allies and leaders. At Hudaybiyyah, when the Quraysh imposed difficult terms, he upheld the treaty with integrity and patience, teaching that true leadership rests on trust, restraint, and unwavering principle. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/islam-is-not-the-cause-of-honor-killings-its-part-of-the-solution # Islam is not the Cause of Honor Killings. It’s Part of the Solution. **Author:** Dr. Jonathan Brown **Topics:** Islamophobia, Politics & Practical Theology **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 25, 2016 **Updated:** January 14, 2026 ## Paper This part of the history of honor killings you’re unlikely to read or hear about. In 1947 in the British colony of Nigeria, English judges had to overturn what they viewed as the backward ruling of a local Shariah court. A man had been sentenced to death for murder, but the British superior court pointed out that it had been a crime of passion. The man had killed his wife’s lover. The Shariah court had been unimpressed by this excuse, but the British court decided that the murderer did not deserve to die.[^1] Yes, you read that correctly. A Shariah court, applying Shariah law, did not buy the ‘crime of passion’ argument that has long served as a justification for honor killings. The British court did. Honor killings are never far from the headlines. The Islamophobic [Clarion Fund even released a documentary called](http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/03/27/clarion-funds-new-islamophobic-film-honor-diaries) [Honor Diaries](http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/03/27/clarion-funds-new-islamophobic-film-honor-diaries), which repeats the accusation that Islam supports honor killings and that these acts of violence are endemic to Muslim societies. But the truth of the matter is that honor killings are not caused or encouraged by Islam. Honor killing, despite the popular rhetoric around it, is not even a problem specific to Muslims.[^2] Its most concentrated and serious occurrences don’t involve Muslims at all. This ignorance about Islam’s teachings and the realities of violence against women has serious costs. First, blaming honor crimes on Islam antagonizes Muslims unnecessarily. It feeds the narrative, prevalent in many Muslim countries, that dismisses human rights as a proxy for Westernization and cultural imperialism. Second, sensationalism over Islam deflects from a reality that many men are loath to admit: that violence against women is a global problem with roots much deeper than the doctrines of one religion or the features of one culture. It needs to be addressed as such. Finally, obsessing over Islam’s alleged acceptance of honor crimes blinds Muslims and non-Muslims to the condemnation of these crimes in Muhammad ﷺ’s teachings and the Shariah. The tragedy of violence directed at women because they are [women is far too widespread](http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/06/daily-chart-12) and long-lived to be the product of any one religion or even one culture. Though it takes different shapes and appears with varied frequency from region to region, it afflicts all societies. Patriarchal societies (i.e., all societies to one degree or another) sometimes ‘justify’ some of this violence as the consequence of rage triggered in ‘crimes of passion.’ Other forms of violence against women, such as honor killings, can involve premeditation and even the coordination of several people, including women related to the victim. In those parts of the world plagued worst by violence against women, legal systems tend to offer official or unofficial leniency for the men who commit it. Honor crimes are only part of the larger phenomenon of *femicide*, or the murder of a woman for some reason associated with her gender. The women and girls who are the victims of such violence are attacked because they are perceived to have violated some profound expectation of how women are supposed to act in their society. In the Mediterranean region, especially the Middle East and North Africa, as well as South Asia, affronts are to the ‘honor’ of the woman or her family. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has conservatively [estimated that at least 5,000](https://www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html) women a year globally are victims of honor killings. In India and Pakistan, this often entails a daughter or sister being killed for falling in love with a man without parental approval and occurs amongst Hindu and Muslim populations alike. Femicide takes other forms elsewhere. A [2012 UN report](http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/A.HRC.20.16_En.pdf) details how in parts of southern Africa, South and Southeast Asia hundreds of women are killed each year after being accused of witchcraft. Their killers receive lighter sentences with alarming regularity. Despite the media attention they receive, honor killings are not the most prevalent type of femicide. The number of honor killings, whether in Muslim countries or elsewhere, pales in comparison with the most serious form of violence against women, namely dowry killings among India’s Hindu population. Dowry killings, the murder of a wife by her husband or his family, often by burning, for her failure to provide a large enough dowry payment to her husband’s family, ceasing dowry gifts or merely for falling short of expectations in her wifely duties, have occurred in shocking numbers. A [2012 UN report](http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session20/A-HRC-20-16-Add4_en.pdf) observed that 8,383 known dowry murders occurred in India in 2009, up from 4,836 in 1990. Though the Indian government outlawed dowry giving decades ago and identified dowry murders as a criminal problem, dowry giving remains an important custom and the suspicious death of wives is rarely investigated. The police often dismiss these deaths as kitchen accidents. Islamophobic organizations point out that Islam and the laws of Muslim countries excuse honor killings or treat them lightly. On the second point, they are correct. Such laws are a problem, and one that seems to have proliferated in the Middle East. In Egyptian law, a man who kills his wife and/or her lover after catching them ‘in the act’ (*in flagrante delicto*) is only punished with prison as opposed to the death penalty. Morocco, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, and Jordan’s laws extend drastically reduced penalties for the murder of any female relative (and their lover) that a man finds in such a situation (though the UAE and a 2001 update to Jordan’s laws allows the same excuse for a woman who finds her husband in bed with another woman). But none of these laws have any basis in the Shariah or Islamic teachings. In fact, they were originally imported from the West. Criminal law in the Middle East today was shaped by the Ottoman Criminal Code of 1858, which was issued as part of the failing Ottoman Empire’s efforts to imitate its European rivals. The Code was little more than a translation of the French Criminal Code of 1832, copying word for word its lax punishment for honor crimes. This is still evident today in the laws of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and to a lesser extent Morocco (never part of the Ottoman Empire), which read like literal translations from the French. The French and Ottoman law codes also served as the major inspiration for Egypt’s law as well. In Pakistan, another country regularly in the news over honor crimes, we find a similar case with British law. Despite having a legal system influenced by the Shariah, Pakistan’s criminal law remains based in the 1860 code that the British imported to rule colonial India. This law granted leniency to a husband who killed his wife due to “[grave and sudden provocation](http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1672685/).” Pakistan reformed this law in 1990, ironically, in an attempt to bring the country’s laws closer in accord with the Shariah. In particular, Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court declared that, “according to the teachings of Islam, provocation, no matter how grave and sudden it is, does not lessen the intensity of crime of murder” \[sic\]. Sadly, Pakistani courts sometimes still hand down reduced punishments for the men who commit honor killings. But the judges who do so have justified this by once again citing the “grave and sudden provocation” suffered by the murderer – the exact wording of the British law.[^3] Shariah law has a clear position on honor killing, drawing directly on rulings made by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: a husband who kills his wife and/or her lover has committed homicide like any other case, even if the husband caught the two in the act. The basis of this comes from *hadiths*, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. When he was asked what would happen if a husband found his wife with another man, the Prophet ﷺ responded that the [husband could not kill him and that no one could be punished unless the husband brought four witnesses who had seen the act.](https://sunnah.com/muslim/19)[^4] The [Quran](http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter%3D24%26verse%3D6) set down the practical procedure for husbands or wives who suspected infidelity as well as those who caught their spouse cheating but had no witnesses: the couple would appear before a judge, and the accusing spouse would swear to God five times that their accusation was true. If the accused spouse then swore five times to God that they were innocent, neither party was punished but the couple was divorced (Quran 24:6-7). Muslim scholars have been well aware of the dangers of violence against women. The famous nineteenth-century Yemeni scholar al-Shawkānī (d. 1834 CE) wrote that one of the reasons that men who murder women are liable to be executed is the phenomenon of male violence against women for supposed slights of honor. He concluded that “There is no doubt that laxity on this matter is one of the greatest means leading to women’s lives being destroyed, especially in the Bedouin regions, which are characterized by harsh-heartedness and a strong sense of honor and shame stemming from Pre-Islamic times.”[^5] The foreignness of honor killing to the Shariah is so clear that, for centuries, Muslim legal scholars have been in substantial agreement on the issue.\* In fact, when confronted with a report that the early Caliph Umar had ruled that men who killed wives they found engaged in adultery would not be punished, Muslim scholars could only conclude that he must have meant that they would not be punished by God in the Afterlife. In this life, the Shariah was clear that they were murderers.[^6] In the modern period, many of the most prominent Muslim scholars from all sects and backgrounds, such as the Sunnis Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and ʿAbdallāh al-Ghumārī (d. 1993)[^7] and the late Shiite scholar [Muḥammad Ḥusayn Faḍlāllāh (d. 2010)](http://english.bayynat.org.lb/Archive_news/01082007.htm), have declared honor killing totally impermissible in Islam, as have a group of [Canadian imams](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/02/04/honour-killing-imams-fatwa-against_n_1254697.html), the [Muslim Council of Britain](http://www.islamawareness.net/HonourKilling/honour_killings.pdf) and the prominent American imam, [Zaid Shakir](http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islam_and_honor_killings/0015416). We can continue to rehash the tired line of Islam allowing honor killing. Or we can point out that the Prophet ﷺ’s teachings and the Shariah condemn the act in no uncertain terms. Violence against women and the failure of legal systems to punish it is a serious problem in Muslim countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. Islam and the Shariah should be mobilized as arguments against this rather than as its supposed causes. The number of dowry killings amongst Hindus in India alone dwarfs honor killings globally, and the country that ranks worst in the [UN’s rankings of femicide](http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21586575-laws-punish-domestic-violence-are-too-often-honoured-breach-everyday-aggression) is the decidedly non-Shariah applying, majority Catholic El Salvador. These realities, along with the fact that the laws in Muslim countries that indulge honor killings are actually imported from Europe, should remind us of something our society conveniently overlooks: violence against women is mankind’s problem, and it’s as much a part of the past and present of the West as anywhere else. \**There is one glaring exception to the overall rejection of honor killing in the Shariah tradition. Law in the Ottoman Empire created a space for the practice on the basis of a bizarre inversion of the Prophetﷺ’s ruling on the question. In one of the hadiths, the Prophetﷺ explains that killing an adulterous spouse could only be legitimate if there were four witnesses to her adultery since this was the evidence required for normally convicting someone of adultery. Instead of understanding this as a far-fetched and nigh impossible condition (since there would have to be four, upstanding male witnesses who had all seen actual penetration occur), some Ottoman jurists used it to wedge in laxity over honor killings. Even then, however, there were limits. Ottoman law only exonerated men who had killed their wives or daughters, and it only applied to situations in which the man killed the male lover to prevent him from completing an act in progress. This would actually violate the understanding of the Prophetﷺ’s command as explained by Saʿd b. ʿUbāda, who, although he was initially against the Prophetﷺ’s ruling because of his pride and honor, then said that, if he found a man with his wife, he would “not even move him until I had brought four witnesses. And, by God, I would not bring them until that man had finished.”[^8] The unusual Ottoman permissiveness regarding honor killings would explain why the Empire adopted the French law permitting it in 1858.* --- ## Notes [^1]: Rudolph Peters, *Crime and Punishment in Classical Islamic Law* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 124. [^2]: It has been found that, in upper Egypt, Coptic families are as likely as Muslims to commit honor killing; Recep Dogan, “Is Honour Killing a ‘Muslim Phenomenon’? Textual Interpretation and Cultural Representations,” *Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs* 31, no. 3 (2011): 423-440. [^3]: Sohail Akbar Warraich, “‘Honor Killings’ and the law in Pakistan,” in ‘Honour’: *Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence against Women*, eds. Lynn Welchmann and Sara Hossain (London: Zed Books, 2005), 84-97. [^4]: The main Hadiths are those of Abū Hurayra in which Saʿd b. ʿUbāda asks the Prophet ﷺ, “What do you think if I found a man with my wife? Should I wait until I bring four witnesses? (*a-ra’ayta in wajadtu maʿa imra’atī rajulan a-umhiluhu ḥattā ātiya bi-arbaʿat shuhadā’*).” The Prophet ﷺ replies, “Yes.” See *Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim:* kitāb *al-liʿān*; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*: *kitāb al-diyāt, bāb man wajada maʿa ahlihi rajulan a-yaqtuluhu*. See also Mālik’s *Muwaṭṭā*’: *kitāb al-aqḍiya, bāb man wajada maʿa imra’atihi rajulan*; *Musnad Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal* (Maymaniyya print), 1:238-39. [^5]: Muḥammad b.ʿAlī al-Shawkānī, *Nayl al-Awṭār*, ed. ʿIzz al-Dīn Khaṭṭāb, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2001), 7:24. [^6]: Abū Sulaymā Ḥamd al-Khaṭṭābī, *Maʿālim al-sunan,* 3rd ed., 4 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya, 1981), 4:19; al-Suyūṭī, *al-Ashbāh wa’l- naẓā’ir*, ed. Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim al-Baghdādī (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1414/1993), 746. [^7]: ʿAbdallāh al-Ghumārī, *al-Ḥāwī,* ed. Ibrāhīm Aḥmad Shiḥāta (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya, 2007), 12. [^8]: *Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal*, 1:238 ## Summary Honor killings, though frequently thrust before the public as a supposed feature of Islamic teaching, are in reality a phenomenon foreign to the Shariah and to the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. A striking illustration of this comes from 1947 in colonial Nigeria, where a local Shariah court had sentenced a man to death for murdering his wife's lover. It was the British superior court, not the Shariah court, that overturned the ruling, deeming it a mere "crime of passion" unworthy of capital punishment. The Shariah court had rejected precisely the excuse that has so often been invoked to justify honor killings, while the Western court accepted it. This history overturns the assumptions promoted by Islamophobic efforts such as the Clarion Fund's documentary Honor Diaries, which insists that Islam supports honor killings and that such violence is endemic to Muslim societies. The truth is that violence against women, of which honor killing is only one part, is a global affliction far too widespread and enduring to be blamed on any single religion or culture. It touches all societies, and patriarchal cultures the world over sometimes excuse such violence as the fruit of rage in "crimes of passion," while other forms involve premeditation and even the participation of female relatives. The larger category is femicide, the killing of a woman for reasons tied to her gender, and its forms differ from region to region. In the Mediterranean, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, the perceived affront is to the honor of the woman or her family. The United Nations Population Fund conservatively estimates that at least 5,000 women a year are killed globally in honor killings, and in India and Pakistan such crimes occur among Hindus and Muslims alike, often over a daughter marrying without approval. A 2012 UN report further documents hundreds of women killed each year across parts of southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia over accusations of witchcraft, their killers receiving lighter sentences with troubling regularity. Despite the disproportionate media focus, honor killings are not the deadliest form of femicide. Dowry killings among India's Hindu population far exceed them in number. The same 2012 UN report recorded 8,383 known dowry murders in India in 2009, up from 4,836 in 1990, even though the Indian government outlawed dowry-giving decades ago. These deaths are rarely investigated, often dismissed by police as kitchen accidents. Indeed, the country ranked worst in the UN's femicide rankings is not a Muslim nation at all but the majority-Catholic, non-Shariah-applying El Salvador. Violence against women, then, is mankind's problem, as much a part of the past and present of the West as of anywhere else. Where Islamophobic organizations are correct is in noting that the laws of certain Muslim-majority countries treat honor killings leniently, and this is a genuine problem. In Egyptian law, a man who kills his wife or her lover after catching them in the act faces only prison rather than the death penalty. The laws of Morocco, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, and Jordan extend drastically reduced penalties for the killing of a female relative caught in such a situation, though the UAE and a 2001 amendment to Jordan's law extend the same excuse to a wife who finds her husband with another woman. Yet none of these laws derive from the Shariah. They were imported from the West. The criminal law of the Middle East was largely shaped by the Ottoman Criminal Code of 1858, which was little more than a translation of the French Criminal Code of 1832, copying its lax treatment of honor crimes word for word. The laws of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and to a lesser extent Morocco still read like literal translations from the French, and Egypt's law drew on the same sources. Pakistan's case is parallel: its criminal law rests on the 1860 code the British imported to colonial India, which granted leniency to a husband who killed his wife due to "grave and sudden provocation." When Pakistan reformed this law in 1990 to bring it closer to the Shariah, its Federal Shariat Court declared that "according to the teachings of Islam, provocation, no matter how grave and sudden it is, does not lessen the intensity of crime of murder." Sadly, some Pakistani judges still reduce punishments by citing the very "grave and sudden provocation" wording inherited from the British. The Shariah's position on the matter is clear and rests directly upon the rulings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: a husband who kills his wife or her lover, even if he catches them in the act, has committed homicide like any other murderer. When the Prophet ﷺ was asked what a husband should do upon finding his wife with another man, he responded that the husband could not kill him, and that no one could be punished unless the husband produced four witnesses who had seen the act. The Qur'an set down the procedure for spouses who suspected infidelity but lacked witnesses: the couple appear before a judge, the accuser swears to God five times that the accusation is true, and if the accused swears five times to their innocence, neither is punished but the couple is divorced (Qur'an 24:6-7). Muslim scholars have long been alert to the dangers of violence against women. The nineteenth-century Yemeni scholar al-Shawkānī (d. 1834 CE) held that one reason men who murder women are liable to execution is precisely this phenomenon of male violence over supposed slights of honor, warning that "there is no doubt that laxity on this matter is one of the greatest means leading to women's lives being destroyed, especially in the Bedouin regions." So foreign is honor killing to the Shariah that scholars have been in substantial agreement for centuries. When confronted with a report that the Caliph ʿUmar had ruled that a man who killed a wife caught in adultery would not be punished, scholars could only conclude that he meant such a man would escape punishment from God in the Afterlife, for in this life the Shariah plainly deemed him a murderer. In the modern era, prominent scholars across sects, including the Sunnis Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and ʿAbdallāh al-Ghumārī (d. 1993) and the late Shiite scholar Muḥammad Ḥusayn Faḍlāllāh (d. 2010), have declared honor killing totally impermissible, as have a group of Canadian imams, the Muslim Council of Britain, and the American imam Zaid Shakir. There is one glaring exception within the Shariah tradition. Ottoman law carved out space for the practice through a strange inversion of the Prophet's ﷺ ruling. The requirement of four witnesses to adultery, which was meant as a nearly impossible condition, was instead used by some Ottoman jurists to admit leniency, though even then it only exonerated men who killed a wife or daughter to prevent an act in progress. This contradicts the understanding voiced by Saʿd b. ʿUbāda, who, though initially resistant out of pride, said he would not touch such a man until he had brought four witnesses, and would not bring them "until that man had finished." This unusual Ottoman permissiveness helps explain why the Empire adopted the French law in 1858. Islam and the Shariah, rather than being the cause of these crimes, should be mobilized as arguments against them. --- URL: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam # Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam **Author:** Dr. Youssef Chouhoud **Topics:** Data, Reports **Tags:** Paper, Publication **Published:** October 24, 2016 **Updated:** July 22, 2024 ## Acknowledgments This project benefited tremendously from the time and contributions of many, first and foremost our skilled research team. We are sincerely grateful to Hena Zuberi and Tasneem Siddiqui, who together conducted and synthesized the bulk of our in-depth interviews. On the back end, we were fortunate to have Aamna Asif providing indispensable and timely research support from the earliest stages of data gathering to the final draft. There were also numerous outside reviewers whose insights and critiques made the ultimate product that much stronger, including Nancy Khalil, Jeffrey Guhin, Besheer Mohamed, and, especially, Zaid Adhami (who was exceedingly generous with his time and commentary). --- ## Introduction [Click here](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/youssef-chouhoud/sources-of-doubt-in-islam/) for enlarged infographic. This inaugural project of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research explores the dynamics of doubt in the American Muslim community. More specifically, it examines the reasons for Muslims in America losing their belief in Islam; later stages in this multi-part endeavor will expand on and test these findings. Through this systematic assessment, Yaqeen aims to ultimately arrive at a set of interventions and adjustments to concretely address the threats to faith that American Muslims regularly encounter. Whether in part or as a whole, this project—the first of its kind—will provide a valuable resource to scholars and practitioners alike. The novelty and ambition of this undertaking naturally come with myriad challenges. Anyone familiar with the increasingly varied American Muslim experience, for example, will recognize that arriving at well-grounded conclusions about this population is no easy task. This complexity, coupled with a general lack of reliable data on the community (let alone on the particular phenomena we are interested in studying), makes building a comprehensive understanding of American Muslim doubt all the more difficult. Thus, instead of offering an overly self-assured narrative (an all-too-common occurrence when Muslims are the subject of inquiry), we are forthright about our research aims, inferences, and limitations. To that end, rather than seeking to be the final word, the objective of the following report is to offer a reference point for future discussions on doubt in the American Muslim community. It is meant to provide accessible information to both experts and novices. Those deeply engaged with the topic will find the issues we discuss familiar, but will likely come across new perspectives that will enrich their understanding. For readers unacquainted with the subject matter, this report doubles as an introductory primer. In essence, then, what follows is an off-the-shelf framework for processing this dense and fragmented subject. This initial offering tackles the larger project’s motivating questions from the perspective of Muslim institutional leaders across America. In doing so, the study highlights the considerations that these imams, chaplains, and youth mentors believe are most pertinent to understanding why Muslims in America have crises of faith. As with any methodology, there are certain limitations to the information gleaned from this approach, which we discuss below. These epistemological constraints notwithstanding, the rich insights gathered from these experts will no doubt pave the way for a far more informed conversation on this pressing topic. The report is divided into four sections. The remainder of this introductory portion outlines the impetus and aims for this phase of the project and details the methodology we employed. Next, we elaborate on precisely what we mean by “doubt” and consider the extent of this phenomenon in the American Muslim community.\[1\] From there we turn to potential avenues that can lead to disbelief, organizing our respondents’ observations around three core categories: Doubts stemming from 1) moral and social concerns, 2) philosophical and scientific concerns, or 3) personal trauma. Finally, we conclude by revisiting the report’s key contributions and previewing the next phase of the project. --- ## Impetus and Aims The United States has always been an outlier among post-industrial countries in terms of religiosity. As religious attendance and profession of faith have steadily decreased across many developed societies in the decades since World War II, American levels of religious practice and belief have more closely tracked those found in the developing world. Yet, since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a stark shift in the American religious landscape. Most notable in this regard is the rapid growth of religious “nones” (i.e., the religiously unaffiliated) in recent years: expanding from 16.1% of the American populace in 2007 to 22.8% in 2014.\[2\] Buoying this trend, in part, is the markedly lower religiosity of millennials (i.e., those born between 1981 and 1996), who are consistently less observant than any other generation across multiple measures of religious belief and practice.\[3\] There are at least two reasons to believe that the effects of these coterminous trends may be especially impactful on American Muslims. First, a clear majority of Muslims in the United States are either first- or second-generation immigrants.\[4\] The typical story of immigrant assimilation in America is one in which successive generations progressively incorporate themselves into American society in part by eschewing or otherwise dampening their cultural peculiarities—such as language, dress, and, indeed, religious identity. Although there is evidence that second-generation American Muslims (many of whom came of age in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks) are in some ways more religious than their parents,\[5\] it is still too early to tell whether this general finding will hold in the long term and if it will continue on to the next generation. Second, Muslims in America are a comparatively young community. This is true in terms of institutions, with a significant majority of mosques no more than two or three decades old and only a handful of Islamic higher education options available across the country.\[6\] More to the point, however, Muslims are the youngest religious group in demographic terms.\[7\] Thus, to the extent that millennials and younger Americans are exhibiting an aversion to organized religion, Muslims are uniquely vulnerable. With this in mind, the broader project (and, to a degree, the present study) is organized around three guiding questions: - To what extent is the general trend away from organized religion in America operative in the Muslim community? - What are the most common causes spurring disbelief? - What viable remedies are available to potentially alleviate doubt at both an individual and communal level? ### Methodology To probe for answers to our guiding questions, we turned first to institutional leaders in the American Muslim community. Specifically, we spoke to imams, chaplains, and youth coordinators across the country in order to better understand their interactions with Muslims whose belief in Islam had waned or altogether worn out. The interviews, which lasted about an hour on average, took place primarily over a four-month period beginning in February 2016. In terms of our sample, the key criterion for inclusion was an affiliation with an established institution\[8\] that affords face-to-face interaction with a local population. This limitation narrowed the pool of interviewees to individuals that were: 1) tasked specifically with attending to the spiritual well-being of Muslims in America; and 2) physically accessible to a particular and consistent community. These constraints, we believe, allowed for a firm conception of who would potentially populate our sample while assuring that the report includes those best positioned to address its central concerns. Given these criteria, there are two notable sets of potential respondents excluded from the sample. First, the study excludes figures who are primarily or exclusively public speakers or academics, though they may be knowledgeable on this subject matter. Similarly excluded are individuals whose interactions are largely online or who are otherwise not based out of a regular location, although they may occasionally communicate with precisely the types of individuals who are the focus of this project. Even so, sampling even this more limited subset of the American Muslim community posed difficulties. Since there are no authoritative data on the population of interest (i.e., institutionally affiliated American Muslim leaders serving their co-religionists), the prospect of a representative sample is moot. We, therefore, turned to the best available data: Ihsan Bagby’s 2011 report on mosques in America.\[9\] Using the regional proportions in Bagby’s study as a guide, we stratified our sample geographically, while also aiming for some measure of gender and racial/ethnic diversity. The final sample included 31 respondents (27 males and 4 females), broken down geographically as follows: California (4), Texas (7), Midwest (6), New England (2), New York metro area (3), Mid-Atlantic (4), and the South (5).\[10\] Although these in-depth elite interviews offered valuable insights from individuals who have both thought deeply about the questions that animate this study and have interacted with individuals experiencing the crises of faith we wish to better understand, there remain two primary and interrelated limitations of this research design. First, the experiences of individuals who speak to religious leaders about their deep doubt may be systematically different from others who silently transition out of the faith. Ironically, this precise case was related to us by one of our respondents, a male Muslim chaplain, when discussing his own mindset prior to converting to Islam: “I would have never thought about talking to a Catholic priest when I was a Catholic in college who had doubts.” Thus, those who spoke with the leaders in our sample were likely either still somehow invested in their Muslim identity or had yet to settle on their beliefs. Conversely, those who no longer felt any attachment to Islam—whether as a belief system or identity—were less likely to turn to religious leaders for guidance and input. One mitigating factor to this limitation is that the informed assessments that emerge from our interviews are not solely gleaned from respondents' direct contact with individuals on the cusp of leaving the faith, but also from their interactions with these individuals’ family and friends. While these second-hand accounts are not sufficient to remedy all design bias, they nonetheless help fill in many of the gaps that would otherwise be present in our interviewees’ perspectives. A second potential blind spot in our coverage stems from the possibility that institutional leaders themselves may be the impetus for an individual’s crisis of faith. In extreme cases, some form of abuse may ground this negative association. Doubt may also form through alienation with the ideas and behaviors of those in authority. In either circumstance, an individual is likely to be reluctant to talk to any religious leader. Such individuals may still have some representation in our data, however, via the same indirect channel of family and friends mentioned above. Ultimately though, how well aligned elite-level perceptions are with mass-level reality is an empirical question that we will tackle in our project’s next installment, which we outline in this report’s concluding section. A final note on attribution. In order to provide our interviewees with the liberty to speak on potentially sensitive topics, nearly all the quotes throughout this report are anonymized. The reader can, therefore, assume that any quote is taken directly from one of the institutional leaders interviewed for this study. Aside from occasional and slight amendment for clarity, direct quotations are taken verbatim. Lastly, the statements we cite are rarely isolated (though are noted as such whenever they are) and, where applicable, we provide a sense of just how representative they are across our sample. --- ## The Question and the Context The notion of “doubt” can seem intuitive on its face but quickly becomes ambiguous the more deeply it is considered. Is doubt a binary condition with belief as its inverse, or are these designations merely two ends along a continuum? Is questioning the historicity of certain accounts in the Islamic tradition tantamount to doubting the central tenets that undergird the faith? These questions, while certainly worthy of careful scrutiny, are largely foreclosed in our study in lieu of a more circumscribed conception of doubt (outlined below) that lends itself to the focused analysis we seek. Additionally, to further assist the reader in getting the most utility out of our findings, this section also offers some objective and subjective considerations for the broader context surrounding this discussion. ### What do we Mean by “Doubt?” Before proceeding to our findings, it is important to first delineate the study’s core concept. By “doubt,” we do not mean a curiosity to better understand the bases of beliefs and practices that are often taken for granted. Indeed, this quest for knowledge can, on the contrary, lead to a deepening of faith, even if it is occasioned by an initial uneasiness (as many of our respondents attested). Likewise, we are not concerned with instances in which individuals seek guidance on how to better (re)connect with their faith, troubled that they are not living up to the tenets of Islam. Clearly, this kind of “doubt” concerns one’s own perceived shortcomings and does not implicate the essential truth of Islam. The kind of doubt that we prompted each of our respondents to exclusively consider during our interviews—and the kind that we reference throughout the remainder of this report—is one which brings individuals to the cusp of leaving Islam or altogether abandoning their faith. This doubt may take the form of an explicit rebuke of a particular doctrine, or it may manifest in individuals no longer seeing a need for Islam in their lives. These expressions, however, are not necessarily coupled with a desire to transition to another organized religion. In fact, in each of the interviews in which this occurrence came up, it was described as quite rare. Moreover, “leaving Islam” is not even necessarily predicated on ceasing to believe in the core tenets of the religion, but can instead be conditioned by social forces that leads one to devalue religion as a key identifier. Indeed, it is this self-identification that is at the core of this initial study, as we are here concerned with the extent to which individuals perceive themselves as marginally or no longer Muslim. To emphasize, for the purposes of this study, we do not investigate whether or not certain beliefs may lead a person to be judged as theologically no longer within the fold of Islam. This is an important issue in its own right but one that requires in-depth, comprehensive theological analysis that is beyond our present scope. ### The Context and Extent of Doubt The current environment in which American Muslims find themselves presents unique challenges to the maintenance of faith. One may rightfully ask, “Have not all Muslim communities across all places for over a millennium faced a unique set of challenges to their faith?” That may very well be the case, yet there are reasons to nevertheless regard the present American Muslim condition as exceptional. First and foremost, the presence of Muslims in such large absolute numbers but as a relatively tiny minority is fairly unprecedented (save for some present-day European settings). Thus, rather than the inertial or supportive forces that encourage a maintenance of faith in a Muslim-majority environment, American Muslims must instead fight tailwinds leading them away from Islam. This struggle, in part, includes the need to constantly and deliberately affirm one’s beliefs to an increasingly secularized (and, at times, hostile) society. Moreover, the unmatched interconnectedness of our time conditions both what we see in the world and how we interpret it. As one respondent pointed out, in the age of social media and in the midst of a culture of instant gratification, the question is less about the Truth of God and religion, but rather its relevance and usefulness: > *Do I need God?* > *What can I get from Islam that I cannot get elsewhere?* > *Can Islam provide me a happy life?* Another imam underscored in stark terms the threat to belief brought about from the daily bombardment of disturbing media reports: “There is no pride in being Muslim in the age of ISIS \[…\] There is no reason for a fifteen-year-old to want to be Muslim.” Although most of our respondents did not present the current situation in such a dire manner, they, by and large, acknowledged that being Muslim in America is far from an “easy” proposition. We should be careful, however, not to let the magnitude of a phenomenon drive us to conclusions about its frequency. That is, we may all agree that a particular issue is deeply concerning when it arises, but that does not mean that it arises often or even often enough to command our limited attention and resources. Thus, although any instance of an individual leaving Islam is troubling to those who remain in the faith, whether or not such occurrences are widespread in the American Muslim community requires deeper probing. To give us a rough idea on the frequency of these crises of faith, we asked our respondents to indicate how often they interact with individuals (or their intermediaries) expressing doubt in Islam, as well as their general sense of the problem beyond their particular experiences (i.e., based on conversations with other leaders and travel to other communities around the country). Given the limitations discussed in the previous section, the expectation may be that such personal interactions are rare. What emerged from our conversations, instead, is a fairly wide distribution of experience. At one end of the spectrum, about one-third of our respondents reported almost never or very rarely interacting with doubting individuals. At the other end, one imam bluntly stated that “Doubting faith is the norm, not the exception,” while another said it was not uncommon to have three to four such encounters in a week. The average across our sample (based on our respondents’ aggregate rough estimates and sense of regularity) was on the order of one to three interactions per month with doubting individuals. Whether or not these tallies represent an uptick from recent years is difficult to determine given the absence of a prior baseline for comparison. For what it is worth, however, many of our respondents who reported at least semi-regular encounters with individuals expressing deep doubt also attested that these incidents have increased in frequency since they first took up their role as a religious leader. An even more robust consensus formed around the perspective that across the American Muslim community (that is, beyond the respondent’s specific locality) both crises of faith and individuals leaving Islam altogether are on the rise. One respondent used particularly strong language in regards to other leaders who downplay or are otherwise unaware of the situation: > *These imams who say they’ve never had anyone come to them \[…\] if he hasn’t had someone come to him with these issues, he’s disconnected, he’s oblivious. This is part of the problem of our community.* Thus, there was a strong sense throughout our interviews that this is far more than an isolated problem. A handful of respondents even went as far as to use variants of “epidemic” to describe the current state of doubt among American Muslims. Although perception and reality are not always aligned, the frequency with which we heard this concern from those best positioned to recognize this phenomenon is certainly enough to warrant deeper investigation. Moreover, although we do not claim that the tallies provided above are statistically representative, there is a case to be made that, if anything, these figures underestimate the true scale of this phenomenon given that marginal and former Muslims are less likely to substantively interact with imams, chaplains, and community leaders and, therefore, are not fully captured in the above assessment. --- ## Pathways to a Crisis of Faith We now turn to our findings on the ways in which doubt commonly manifests among American Muslims. Naturally, the particular circumstances that lead individuals to doubt the validity of their faith are going to be just that: particular. Moreover, given the sparsity of any systematic data on this topic, a number of respondents were hesitant to even comment on which situations they consider to be “common.” Add to these challenges the racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of American Muslims, and the complexity of this topic can become overwhelming. In reflecting on these challenges, one respondent put it this way: “It’s complex. It’s not an easy thing. Our community has so many layers.” What comments like these underscore is that there is no singular cause nor archetypal experience that leads one from faith to unfaith. Although we recognize that the faith journeys of Muslims in America are each distinctive, a number of recurrent themes emerged in our interviews. To more clearly present these insights, we group the findings under three broad headings: Doubts stemming from 1) moral and social concerns, 2) philosophical and scientific concerns, or 3) personal trauma. Within each of these groupings, we elaborate on the most salient issues, highlighting representative or illuminating quotes and the occasional case study. As will become evident, rarely is an occurrence of doubt wholly contained within just one of these categories. Yet, taken together, these accounts paint a detailed, but necessarily incomplete, picture of American Muslim doubt. ### Moral and Social Concerns A natural starting point for our discussion is the role that morality and the norms of American society at large play in altering Muslims’ relationship with their faith. Like any other religion, Islam contains a set of moral and ethical prescriptions. The American cultural milieu, in its own ways, also comes with certain normative expectations and values that constitute an ethical vision. Given these two separate systems with vastly different origins and contexts of development, it is only natural that there will be areas of overlap as well as areas of tension and outright conflict. For American Muslims, these tensions and conflicts can become an impetus for doubt. This subsection expounds on these anxieties with a focus on two interrelated areas: gender roles and sexuality, and specific events in Islamic history. #### Gender roles and sexuality Gender roles in Islam are a perennial hot-button topic. There are numerous questions around which this discourse pivots: Can women lead mixed-gender *salat*? Is the *hijab* obligatory? Is there such a thing as a man or woman’s “role”? One respondent described how a mother’s preferential treatment of boys over girls became a source of doubt for her daughter: > *\[Her mother\] treated boys differently than girls...kind of like the older brother does anything he wants and the mom won’t say anything, but the sister has a lot more limitations, reprimanding, and discipline. That led her to \[question\] the overall way that women are treated in the Muslim community. Eventually, she began blaming the religion and its ‘culture of oppression.’ \[This eventually led to her\] doubting why we can’t drink or eat certain things. Now, I would characterize her as agnostic in faith.* Another respondent bemoaned how constructive conversations around women in Islam and the Muslim community are often preemptively foreclosed due to “aggressive” tactics: > *Some scholars are picking fights with feminism—trying to win an argument when they should be trying to win people over \[…\] \[These feminists\] are not trying to attack, they are merely saying ‘Hey, I don't think this is fair, give me something to allay my concerns and show me that you respect me.’* Yet, it may also be that one party does not even wish to interact with the other, as one imam noted: > *I have personally not had that many conversations with women \[about their doubts\]. The reason is simply that a lot of our sisters who are wanting to leave the faith are already so dismissive of the male clergy \[…\] and that really goes to this hardcore strand of feminism, one of the stepping stones to losing faith. There is this anti-male clergy syndrome.* As these excerpts indicate, there is an interplay of perception and reality when gender norms are at the core of one’s doubt. On the one hand, female Muslims may believe that the differentiation between men and women in mainstream understandings of Islam does not accord with their personal views on gender equality. On the other hand, they may misperceive the depth and breadth of this disconnect due to cultural accretions that, over time, become intertwined with Muslim practice. Relatedly, it may be that a negative lived experience trumps any consideration of Islam's normative prescriptions on these issues. A possibly self-perpetuating divide between male faith leaders and female lay Muslims (no doubt conditioned on the leader’s positionality) may preempt dialogue on these matters and further complicate this pathway to doubt. With all the potential moving parts in this dynamic, it is certainly worthy of deeper examination in its own right. Another related and similarly enduring topic is that of sexuality. The culture around dating and casual sexual encounters can lead some Muslims to become frustrated with Islam’s prohibition on pre-marital relations. Doubt, then, can come about through a desire to alleviate mental anguish: “\[Those who\] have dated \[…\] \[who\] have been sexually active \[…\] it’s not to their benefit to make Islam out to be the truth. They want it to not be the truth so they don’t feel so guilty about doing those things.” While contemporary American religious leaders have addressed the challenges of attraction to the opposite sex, recent shifts in public opinion and policy have forced them to tackle a topic they have been far less accustomed to dealing with: homosexuality. Certainly, the mainstream position that homosexual acts are prohibited in Islam may lead those Muslims with same-sex urges to question their place in the faith. Yet, the ways in which religious leaders address the issue of homosexuality have consequences that go beyond those directly affected. **Case Study—Moral incongruence:** One imam recounted a conversation he had over dinner with a young woman in her early thirties who considered herself Muslim but had major reservations about Islam. She could not make sense of the Islamic understanding of homosexuality and reconcile it with her innate sense of justice and morality. How could God, who is the Creator of all things, condemn people who were “born differently” either to live lives of celibacy or to leave Islam? This was her understanding of the issue, which the imam tried to clarify and correct (without success). She herself did not identify as homosexual, but the question went to the core of faith and theology for her because it implicates God’s justice. Indeed, this uneasiness with a particular construction of theodicy and divine justice informs a number of pathways to doubt. #### Historical events In addition to bumping up against doctrinal tenets, social norms can also render certain episodes in Islamic history problematic in the minds of American Muslims. The marriage of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to Aisha is a case in point. A favorite target of Islamophobes, this key moment in the prophetic history can provide an opening for doubt if not properly contextualized. Similarly, the issue of slavery in Islam has become a recurring topic of concern, particularly as younger American Muslims are now more sensitive to the issues of social injustice around them. As one scholar who gave an in-depth lecture on this topic put it, “The ‘Islam came to abolish slavery’ response is simply insufficient.” Some historical content, however, has more direct bearing on contemporary world events. While any honest assessment of the roots of terrorism acknowledges the political and social causes, the religious component is often brought to the fore whenever “Radical Islam” is the primary culprit. The heinous nature of terrorist acts supposedly carried out in the name of Islam can lead Muslims to question whether their faith is inherently intolerant, particularly when set against the backdrop of liberalism and universal rights. A “humanist critique,” as one respondent dubbed it, may emerge from this line of thought wherein an individual “associates ISIS with Islam \[and\] believes there is a problem with a religion that gives birth to such brutality.” References to certain historical events and battles in the early history of Islam figure into these associations and simple reassurances that “Islam means peace” do little to curb the resultant doubts. ### Philosophical and Scientific Concerns Critiques of Islam on a more philosophical or scientific basis also feature prominently in the discussions our respondents have with doubting Muslims. By far, the topic of evolution is most commonly brought up in these conversations and so, first, we address it in its own right. Subsequently, we highlight the perception that Islam is generally at odds with science and rationality and the attendant disillusionment this negative association creates. #### The theory of evolution Just as charges of intolerance may be leveled at those espousing conservative views on homosexuality, so too do individuals who do not subscribe to the entirety of the theory of evolution risk being labeled “unscientific,” “unenlightened,” and “irrational.” Thus, while addressing this theory's spiritual implications, religious leaders in America must also navigate the broader social stigma associated with espousing anything less than an unqualified endorsement of evolutionary theory. One respondent opined that framing this issue as a zero-sum proposal—namely, “You either believe in evolution, or you believe in Islam”—can itself prove harmful to one’s faith beyond any of the intellectual challenges that arise from evolutionary theory itself: > *There has been a disservice on both extremes. You have people coming out on the minbar saying \[believing in evolution\] is kufr—that’s just simply inaccurate. Evolution is very wide and most of it has no contradiction with any of our revealed sources. On the other hand, you have this inferiority complex \[…\] unquestioned deference to science and an eagerness to accept anything and everything from that domain.* Although no one in our sample was dismissive of the apprehension that some Muslims feel when they learn about Darwinism, respondents differed in their assessment of how difficult it is to adequately address the theological challenges this theory poses. One scholar who has thought deeply about this matter from multiple angles spoke candidly about his struggle to come up with convincing responses to the pointed inquiries he receives: > *I’m very frank in saying that the theory of evolution is one of the biggest problems we’ve ever had in our intellectual tradition…Many imams say it’s just a theory, not a fact—that’s ridiculous \[…\] That’s not to say I have a solution to Darwinism. That’s one of the things I say in lectures: I don’t know, I really don’t know \[…\] But the theory of evolution can be modified and it can be made to \[…\] fit within an Islamic worldview, and that’s the only way I can believe in it for the time being.* One leader, however, was confident that clarifying the means and limits of scientific knowledge sufficed to momentarily assuage the concerns voiced by a member of his congregation. Another imam seemed even more sanguine about the issue: “If \[someone\] has a doubt about evolution, you bring him to the *shaykh* and the *shaykh* clarifies it. Case closed.” What these varied responses point to is a lack of consensus around not just the best way to tackle this issue, but whether the leaders charged with addressing it are qualified to do so. #### Perceived irreconcilability between science and religion In line with the broader perception that religion and science are irreconcilable—a position championed by highly visible public intellectuals and “new atheists”\[11\]—a number of respondents mentioned how scientifically-based doubts tend to crop up particularly among college-aged American Muslims. One interviewee relayed an encounter he had with an individual questioning whether the Quran could be considered “scientifically inaccurate” in light of verses that seem to describe the sun as stationary. Although in this situation our interviewee felt that the questioner’s concerns were easily allayed, the following case study details a far less straightforward interaction. **Case Study—Scientific Incongruence:** One respondent related the story of a mother who feared her daughter, a college student, was on the brink of leaving Islam. When the imam sat down with the daughter one-on-one, she admitted her struggles with faith as a student of biomedicine. It was not so much that the information she was learning contradicted the Islamic sources of knowledge, but more that the way in which she was obtaining her scientific learning was in stark contrast to her religious education. The latter, more specifically, was a ritualistic and cultural amalgam that left her with a superficial understanding of the faith while her college studies in the sciences were systematic and engaging. According to the interviewee, this story is quite typical. Importantly, it highlights that rather than science simply being “more believable” than Islam, it is often the case that a scientific system of understanding can be more comprehensive and comprehensible than the disjointed and shallow conception of Islam that many American Muslims are taught. #### Philosophical concerns Beyond questions of science and religion, respondents also noted doubts arising due to more philosophical considerations. These kinds of concerns were particularly prevalent among Muslim college students who were often exposed to critiques of religion through their college classes and fellow students. We have already mentioned how the issue of theodicy—i.e., “the problem of evil,” “how can an all-good God allow suffering?” etc.—is one common pathway to doubt. Other pathways are more epistemological in nature. Not infrequently, our respondents were asked by their community members to explain how it is possible to prove with certainty that God exists and that Islam is true. When “proof” was not forthcoming, this became a source of doubt that affected all parts of the questioners’ faith. In their minds, if there is no satisfying proof that God even exists, then how can there be proof of anything else in Islam, like the personal religious obligation to pray five times a day, to abstain from alcohol, etc.? ### Personal Trauma Our final pathway to doubt, personal trauma, is perhaps the most common among the conversations our respondents reported. This frequency is owed, in part, to some manner of personal trauma at times informing or reinforcing the other sources of doubt discussed above, making it difficult to get a clear sense of which causes are primary. This is certainly not to say that the social and intellectual bases for doubt are disingenuous; rather, instances in which these critiques are raised may consciously or subconsciously mask a deeper, more intimate grievance. To be sure, there are numerous instances where personal trauma manifests in its own right. We discuss three modes below that capture much of the variation we observed in our interviews. #### Personal—Prolonged One type of trauma that leads to doubt is that which takes place over an extended period of time, often years. This can take the form of child abuse, spousal abuse, or abuse at the hands of a family friend or community leader. Given this spectrum and what we know about who is most likely to be the victim in such incidents,\[12\] it is not surprising that women are often the ones that bring such grievances to imams: > *A lot of young sisters have come to me \[…\] Almost always, there’s abuse that takes place by the father or the mother, or an abusive relationship or marriage, or they had a traumatic experience with the hijab—the hijab was forced on them. The women that come to me with faith crises, it’s almost always trauma as opposed to intellectual criticisms.* #### Personal—Acute Trauma may also be sudden, such as the death of a close family member, the diagnosis of a serious illness, or divorce. Per our interviewees, this was not a common source of doubt. Indeed, several respondents admitted that they could not recall any instances when a sudden tragedy brought someone to the point of leaving Islam. Some respondents even commented that the inverse was more likely—that such tribulation is a means by which one’s belief is strengthened. All this is not to deemphasize acute trauma as a source of doubt. Rather, as alluded to earlier, it could be that acute grief is the underlying cause of doubt, though it may not be immediately apparent, as the following case study highlights. **Case Study—Personal Trauma:** One interviewee told us a story about a student who was referred to him by a prominent imam because of a theological quandary the student could not settle on his own. He was unable to reconcile free will with divine will and concluded that due to this seeming contradiction, all religion must be “made up” and God Himself may not exist. This respondent took the time to engage the young man rationally, pointing out the flaws in his logic while sensing there was likely more to the story. The next day after their dialogue, he saw the young man at *fajr* prayer where they started up their conversation once more. This time, the tone changed. The student was less aggressive than he had been the previous day and asked more questions. Not long into this follow-up conversation, the student began weeping over the recent death of his brother in a car crash. The above case study highlights the multiple layers that can shape any individual instance of doubt. First, the apparent problem is one of the perceived theological incongruities in Islam. Beneath this surface-level discontent, however, is a traumatic life experience. If we go even deeper beyond the pain of losing a loved one, we find that the inability to process tragedy within a religious framework may be the root cause of doubt. Additionally, this incident points to the phenomenon of masking that a number of our interviewees observed. As in the above story, this can take the form of superficial grievances concealing more fundamental tribulations. It may also be the case, however, that individuals are masking their doubt altogether by opting to talk about more “acceptable” troubles. A number of our interviewees mentioned, for example, that individuals would often come to them ostensibly wanting to talk about a common issue—e.g., problems with their family, difficulty sleeping, etc.—but an experienced and empathetic assessment of their situation soon made it clear that their issues went much deeper and that they were, for one reason or another, uneasy about opening up. This point further underscores the challenge of fully identifying let alone addressing the numerous and sometimes hidden layers of doubt. #### Communal A final mode of trauma comes by way of negative interaction with members of the Muslim community. That is, individuals may either implicitly or explicitly be made to feel unwelcome at the mosque or other communal spaces and consequently associate this negative experience with a shortcoming in the faith itself. At times, the trigger can take the form of repeated and overt discrimination. **Case Study—Communal Judgment:** A young black American woman in Detroit grew up Muslim while much of her extended family, including her grandmother, remained Christian. The young woman had a decent Islamic education and upbringing, but, according to the imam, she lacked an Islamic “culture” to help solidify her Muslim identity. Also crucially lacking was a wider positive community influence. Her experiences in mosques had been consistently negative. For example, she would often feel “judged” by other mosque attendees who would criticize her dress. Having been disenchanted by these experiences, she one day accepted her grandmother’s offer to attend church with her. In church she found women with open arms, hugging her, embracing her, and inviting her over for meals while the sermon emphasized God’s love and loving each other. Not long after, she left Islam and became a Christian. **Case Study—Communal Racism:** One imam told of a convert who left Islam not after a few months or a handful of years, but after nearly two decades of being Muslim. Beyond the longer than typical time span, this case is noteworthy in that when this man left Islam, his wife and teenage children similarly followed him out of the faith. Some time after making this life-altering decision, the man in question caught up with our interviewee and revealed how persistent racism in the Muslim community eventually raised in his mind theological doubts: > *He said for the first five, ten years of Islam, \[he would think to himself\], "Yeah I know these people are racist, but Allah and His Messenger are Allah and His Messenger." Eventually, that \[certainty gave way\] to deep doubts about the faith: "Maybe the reason why Islam is unable to transform these people is because Islam isn’t transformative; therefore, if Islam is not transformative, then it is not true \[…\] then it kind of rolls downhill."* Although race and gender are oft-recurring issues when it comes to communal trauma, a broader generational divide may also contribute to these negative interactions. These dynamics, in part, inform the so-called “third space” or “unmosqued” movement. Ultimately, there are multiple and intersecting touchstones that lead to doubt through a communal pathway. --- ## Conclusion This report, the first of its kind, had a modest, yet important objective: provide a baseline assessment for understanding and examining the sources of doubt in the American Muslim community. This report establishes such a reference point by mapping the informed perceptions of Muslim institutional leaders across America. Two primary insights emerged from this examination. First, the data collected from our in-depth interviews suggest that the problem of doubt in the American Muslim community is not simply one of magnitude (that is, one in which the problem is great, but altogether infrequent). Rather, it appears that our respondents encounter doubting individuals semi-regularly, on average, with a few experiencing these interactions so frequently that they describe them as “normal.” The second chief contribution of this report is the elaboration of some of the paths that lead toward doubt. While recognizing the nuance and particularity of crises of faith on an individual level, we were able to identify a number of recurrent themes that, taken together, provide a holistic picture of doubt at the aggregate level. The three nodes from which doubt often stems—moral and social concerns, philosophical and scientific concerns, and personal trauma—are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but can often overlap or reinforce one another. With this basic framework in place, there are a number of avenues for future research. One route would be to home in on the differential sources and manifestations of doubt across particular segments of the American Muslim community. This report has already highlighted some ways in which race, gender, and age can condition which modes of doubt are most operative. Converts similarly face an array of unique challenges that at times may interact with and enhance the effects associated with these broader demographic categories. Thus, while drawing general conclusions about American Muslims is the foremost goal, we should not be content with a one-size-fits-all model of doubt within the community. A second path, and indeed the next phase of our ongoing project, will be to quantitatively test and elaborate the set of priors that we gleaned from the qualitative analysis presented herein. More specifically, we next plan to examine whether the perceptions of these Muslim leaders accord with the reality of Muslims who themselves are experiencing doubt as well as those individuals who have left Islam or consider themselves to be marginal Muslims. Will the findings on the elite level map to the mass level, or will there be discrepancies between the leaders’ rarified views and on-the-ground realities? Through a mixed-methods approach that combines large-n survey analysis and in-depth interviews, we aim to directly incorporate the attitudes and insights of doubting, marginal, and former Muslims into our still nascent, though expanding understanding of doubt in the American Muslim community. ## Summary This inaugural study of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research sets out to examine the phenomenon of doubt within the American Muslim community—specifically, the reasons that lead some Muslims in America to a crisis of faith or to leaving Islam altogether. Rather than claiming to be a final word, the authors are careful to present their work as a modest beginning: a reference point for future discussion built upon interviews with Muslim institutional leaders. They are forthright about the difficulty of studying so varied a community, noting the general scarcity of reliable data, and they deliberately avoid what they describe as the "overly self-assured narrative" that so often accompanies inquiry into Muslims. This humility in seeking knowledge accords with the disposition of the believer who does not speak without evidence, for Allah says, "And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge" (al-Isrāʾ 17:36). The authors situate their concern within a broader shift in the American religious landscape, citing Pew Research Center data showing that the religiously unaffiliated grew from 16.1% of the population in 2007 to 22.8% in 2014, with millennials being consistently less observant than earlier generations. They argue that American Muslims may be especially vulnerable to these currents for two reasons: first, a clear majority are first- or second-generation immigrants, and the typical pattern of assimilation involves dampening religious identity across generations; and second, the community is young—both in its institutions (most mosques being only two or three decades old, with only a handful of Islamic higher education options) and in its members, Muslims being the youngest religious group in America demographically. To pursue their questions, the researchers conducted roughly hour-long, in-depth interviews with 31 imams, chaplains, and youth coordinators across the country, stratifying their sample geographically according to Ihsan Bagby's 2011 mosque study. They candidly acknowledge two limitations. First, those who approach a religious leader about their doubts may differ systematically from those who quietly slip away—as one chaplain admitted of his own past as a Catholic, he "would have never thought about talking to a Catholic priest." Second, leaders themselves may sometimes be the cause of another's crisis, whether through abuse or alienation, making such individuals unlikely to speak with any leader. These are open limitations the authors do not pretend to resolve, leaving them to be tested in a later phase of the project. The study is careful to define its subject narrowly. By "doubt," the authors do not mean the sincere curiosity to understand the bases of one's beliefs—which, as several respondents attested, can actually deepen faith even when it begins in unease—nor do they mean the concern of one troubled by falling short of Islam's demands. Rather, they mean the doubt that brings a person to the cusp of leaving Islam, whether by rejecting a particular doctrine or by no longer seeing any need for the faith. They further clarify that "leaving Islam" here refers to self-identification rather than a theological verdict; they explicitly set aside the question of whether particular beliefs place one outside the fold, recognizing that this requires comprehensive theological analysis beyond their scope. Regarding the extent of the phenomenon, the authors argue that the present American Muslim condition carries distinctive pressures. Muslims in America exist in large absolute numbers yet as a small minority, and so must "fight tailwinds" rather than benefit from the supportive environment of a Muslim-majority society. One respondent captured the shift in the terms of the question itself: not "the Truth of God" but rather "Do I need God? What can I get from Islam that I cannot get elsewhere?" Another imam spoke starkly of the burden of the age: "There is no pride in being Muslim in the age of ISIS." As to frequency, the respondents' experiences varied widely—about a third reported rarely encountering doubters, while one stated flatly that "Doubting faith is the norm, not the exception." The average was roughly one to three such interactions per month. A robust consensus emerged that, across the country, crises of faith and departures from Islam are on the rise, with a handful even using the word "epidemic." The authors are measured here, noting that perception and reality do not always align and that no prior baseline exists for comparison, yet they suggest the figures may underestimate the true scale, since those who have fully departed are least likely to speak with a leader. The heart of the findings organizes the pathways to doubt under three overlapping headings. The first is moral and social concerns. Under gender roles and sexuality, respondents described how perceived unequal treatment of women—sometimes rooted in cultural accretions rather than the religion itself—can lead a young woman to blame "the religion and its 'culture of oppression.'" One respondent lamented that scholars sometimes "pick fights with feminism" when they should be winning people over, while another observed an "anti-male clergy syndrome" that forecloses dialogue. The prohibition on premarital relations, and more recently the question of homosexuality, likewise emerged as sources of doubt; one imam recounted a woman who could not reconcile the Islamic ruling with her sense of justice, her unease striking at the question of God's justice itself. Under historical events, the authors note that the Prophet's ﷺ marriage to Aisha, the question of slavery in Islam—where one scholar said the response that "Islam came to abolish slavery" is "simply insufficient"—and the association of terrorism with the faith all provide openings for doubt when left uncontextualized. The second heading is philosophical and scientific concerns. The theory of evolution was by far the most commonly raised. Respondents differed on how difficult it is to address: some framed it as easily settled by "the shaykh," while one candid scholar called it "one of the biggest problems we've ever had in our intellectual tradition," rejecting the glib dismissal that "it's just a theory" and admitting, "I don't know, I really don't know," while holding that the theory can be modified to fit within an Islamic worldview. The authors note this reveals a lack of consensus over both the best response and whether leaders are qualified to give one. More broadly, respondents observed that college-aged Muslims often absorb the notion, championed by "new atheists," that science and religion are irreconcilable. Tellingly, one case study of a biomedicine student showed the problem was not that science contradicted Islam, but that her scientific education was "systematic and engaging" while her religious formation was a "ritualistic and cultural amalgam" that left her with a shallow understanding. Purely philosophical concerns—the problem of evil and demands for certain proof of God's existence—also featured. The third and most common pathway is personal trauma. This may be prolonged, such as years of child, spousal, or communal abuse—brought most often by women, for whom, as one respondent said, "it's almost always trauma as opposed to intellectual criticisms." It may be acute, such as a death or diagnosis, though respondents found this a less common cause and sometimes the opposite, a means by which faith is strengthened. A striking case involved a student who insisted all religion was "made up," only to break down weeping the next day over his brother's death in a car crash—illustrating the phenomenon of "masking," whereby intellectual grievances conceal deeper wounds. Finally, communal trauma arises when individuals are made to feel unwelcome: a young Black woman in Detroit, "judged" for her dress, found open arms in a church and left Islam, while a convert of nearly two decades departed with his family after persistent racism led him to reason, "if Islam is not transformative, then it is not true." The authors conclude with two central insights: that doubt is encountered semi-regularly rather than rarely, and that its pathways, though overlapping and never reducible to a single cause, can be meaningfully mapped. They call for future research attentive to differences of race, gender, age, and the particular struggles of converts, and they preview the project's next phase—a mixed-methods study incorporating the voices of doubting, marginal, and former Muslims themselves, to test whether these leaders' perceptions match reality on the ground. Throughout, they resist false certainty, leaving open the questions their evidence cannot yet settle.